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Train in the Washington-Baltimore area / SUN 10-13-24 / Texter's shrug / Attack, medieval-style / ___ Le Gallienne, star of 1920s Broadway / ___ Owl, one of the superheroes in "Watchmen" / Flood-prone area
Sunday, October 13, 2024
Constructor: Gary Larson and Doug Peterson
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- KNOWING THE SCORE (23A: Title for a tutorial on musical composition?)
- GOING OVER THE TOP (41A: ... a primer on playing dreidel?)
- PICKING UP STEAM (57A: ... a volume on vapor dynamics?)
- LEARNING CURVES (83A: ... a step-by-step guide for throwing breaking balls?)
- GETTING YOUR GOAT (97A: ... a handbook on raising kids?)
- TACKLING DUMMIES (120A: ... a D.I.Y. manual on other D.I.Y. manuals?)
Eva Le Gallienne (January 11, 1899 – June 3, 1991) was a British-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, in 1926 she left Broadway behind to found the Civic Repertory Theatre, where she served as director, producer, and lead actress. Noted for her boldness and idealism, she was a pioneering figure in the American theater, setting the stage for the Off-Broadway and regional theater movements that swept the country later in the 20th century.
[in title role of Peter Pan] Le Gallienne devoted herself to the art of the theater as opposed to the show business of Broadway. She felt strongly that high-quality plays should be affordable and accessible to all people who wanted to see them. She ran the Civic Repertory Theatre for seven years (1926–1934), producing 37 plays during that time with a company whose actors included Burgess Meredith, John Garfield, Norman Lloyd, J. Edward Bromberg, Paul Leyssac, Florida Friebus, David Manners, Josephine Hutchinson, Alla Nazimova, Joseph Schildkraut, and Leona Roberts. [...] Le Gallienne starred as Peter Pan in the production that opened at the Civic Rep on November 6, 1928. The flying effects were superbly designed, and for the first time Peter flew out over the heads of the audience. The critics loved "LeG," as she became known, and more than a few favored her performance over that of Maude Adams, the first to play the role on Broadway. The Civic Repertory Theatre presented Peter Pan 129 times. [...] Le Gallienne was a lesbian, and was as open about her love of women as it was possible to be in her day. Robert Schanke, who published a biography of Le Gallienne in 1992, claimed that she struggled with her sexual orientation throughout her life. But, such assertions are contradicted by Le Gallienne's own letters and diaries, in which she wrote confidently about her romantic relationships with women. (wikipedia)
• • •
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| [That does, in fact, look dumb] |
As for difficulty or sticking points today ... my printed-out / marked-up grid has almost no ink on it, which means nothing (much) happened. Nothing of note. There were no weirdnesses or slow patches or anything. I winced at the "word" ACTUATE (36A: Put into motion), but I don't have any other strong negative feelings. I don't have too many strong positive feelings either, though I do think a lot of the longer non-theme phrases are really solid. OIL CHANGE, "BELIEVE ME," INGRATES, SWAN SONG, LIMO RIDE, CUE CARDS. The puzzle's got good, if not particularly sparkly, bones. It just didn't make much of an impression on me one way or the other ... though there are a few moments that stood out. The very elaborate clue on NONE, for instance (31A: How many elements of the periodic table have the letter "J" in their names). This is the most useless trivia of all time—I love it! Why not? Make it strange! It's not like that clue slowed me down—only NONE FOUR FIVE and NINE would even fit in the space, so it's not like this clue's going to hold you up for very long ... any answer but NONE would've hardly seemed worth the clue. I guess at N-NE you could've thought, "I dunno, might be NINE," but come on: you can't name one ('cause there aren't any), and you think there might be NINE? Implausible. Calling attention to boring answers by making them super-hard: boo. Calling attention to them by making them weird as hell: hurray!
[61D: Water brand whose name is an adjective in reverse (EVIAN)]
Other answers that stood out include TILT AT (as in windmills, as in Don Quixote, which technically isn't "medieval," though DQ is certainly imitating knights from the medieval romances he reads, so ... it works) (100D: Attack, medieval-style) and SAAG paneer (high-fived myself for remembering that one without any help from crosses) (25D: ___ paneer (Indian dish)). Earlier today, in a different puzzle, I also remembered that ALOO (on an Indian menu) meant "potato"—two for two with the Indian menu terms, despite not having had Indian cuisine in what feels like an awfully long time. NAAN (flatbread) ROTI (also flatbread) DAL (lentils) LASSI (yogurt drink) ATTA (flour)–these are your Indian food crossword staples, but occasionally you get a SAAG (spinach or other leafy green) or an ALOO (potato) or a BIRYANI (a seasoned rice dish) (three appearances, though one of those was spelled BIRIYANI, just FYI). PANEER, a type of curd cheese, has not yet appeared in the NYTXW, but now you're prepared for when it (inevitably) does.
Bullets:
- 50A: On which Maya Rudolph has played Kamala Harris, in brief (SNL) — "On which" is such a weird way to start a clue. Could you really not afford the ink (or real estate) it would take to write "Show on which..."?
- 91A: ___ Le Gallienne, star of 1920s Broadway (EVA) — the one true "WTF" of the day. But relative obscurities are highly tolerable when they don't hold me up for that long, and when they end up being as fascinating as EVA Le Gallienne (see "Word of the Day," above). She was cover-of-Time big. Fame is bizarrely fleeting, even for the very famous. A few generations, and poof. Gone. Think about this the next time you're tempted to say, to someone much younger than you, "How could you not know ___?"
- 104A: It's going around (ORBITER) — one of the few clues that took some work on my part. Nice misdirection, in that the clue looks like it wants a disease of some kind, but no, just something ... going around ... another thing (presumably a heavenly body of some sort).
- 10A: Train in the Washington-Baltimore area (MARC) — Maryland Area Rail Commuter. News to me. The only MARC I know is painter MARC Chagall and painter Franz MARC. OK, I know a few more, but I had to look them up to remember.
 |
| [Blue Horses, by Franz MARC (1911) (It's at the Walker in Minneapolis!? How exciting (to me). Definitely making a point of seeing this baby next time I'm in the Twin Cities (December!). I've been to Mpls dozens of times, how have I never been to the Walker? Crazy] |
- 1D: Texter's shrug (IDK) — after IRL yesterday and IDK today, I feel like I should hold a mini-textspeak tutorial (like the Indian food tutorial, above). Maybe soon... (these tutorials are as much for myself as they are for you, frankly)
- 59D: King maker? (SERTA) — they (presumably) make "king"-sized mattresses.
- 116D: ___ Owl, one of the superheroes in "Watchmen" (NITE) — First, love the reference to one of the greatest works of sequential art ever produced. One of my favorite books of the 20th century (that includes all books, not just comics). Second ... well, sorry (not sorry) to bring this up, but ... uh, technically ... I mean technically technically ... NITE Owl (like Batman) is not a superhero. He's just a guy. No superhuman powers. See, the whole point is that the Watchmen are just ordinary humans who are inspired (by comics) to become masked crimefighters IRL. Eventually, because of a laboratory accident, a nuclear scientist (Dr. Jon Osterman) is radically transformed into a being (later named Dr. Manhattan) who does have superpowers, but those powers are so super that they actually make him scary af—beyond human comprehension, and ultimately uncontrollable—so the whole notion of what "super" means, and how "power" is used, really gets called into question by ... OK, see, I told you it was technical. Nevermind. Sure, NITE Owl is a "superhero," whatever, man. Close enough.
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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78 comments:
Would "... a handbook on becoming the greatest" be a better clue for 97A (GETTING YOUR GOAT)?
LMTR Second week in a row LMTR. Indeed, quite a bit more. Like every NYT Sunday puzzle, it had more PPP than I would like, but not overboard, relatively speaking. Most of the remaining fill felt pretty solid to me, not a lot of crosswordese, and some of the cluing was rally cute. No naticks as far as I can see, and a well executed, fun theme. What's not to like? Well sure, Rex can always find SOMETHING, but I mean really?
The fleetingness of fame! Ditto Rex on EVA LeG, of whom I had never heard, even though early Broadway is adjacent to my academic research. And to learn that she was bigger than Maude Allen. THE Maude Allen!?! A huge star in her day.
Whenever my students chide me for not being up on Sabrina Carpenter or some other star of the moment, I rattle off some names that my students thought were super important at the beginning of my teaching years. The Spin Doctors? Hootie and the Blowfish? Blank stares.
A hundred years from now the names of our biggest contemporary performing anrtists are likely to be obscure crossword arcana at best. I wonder if Beethoven’s Third Symphony will still be a crossword regular?
LMTR?
Really, “How could you not know” Eva Le Gallienne? Loved her as Fanny Cavendish in Kaufman and Ferber’s “The Royal Family.” True fact! Delighted to learn more about her, thanks!
Would have finished in less than half my usual time but misread 34a “Spot for a stud” as “Spot for a sPud” and confidently wrote in Eye without checking crosses. Took me a few minutes to spot that error.
The made up language in this comment section is insufferable. He must mean “liked more than Rex”
I typically like both constructors - lately Stan Newman has been running a bunch of DPs grids early week and they’re usually pretty solid. I’ve become jaded with Sunday’s I think - it’s a high bar due to the size and if it doesn’t hit - the yuck gets amplified.
There’s nothing explicitly bad with this - cute theme and cleanly filled for the most part. Would have been a better suited idea early week - less is better. I liked the last two themers a best. SWAN SONG is cool.
Muswell Hillbilly
Pleasant enough - but not enough to carry a Sunday sized grid.
I’ve always liked Furtwängler’s Vienna EROICA
Fun grid - I drove all the way down the field, had the end zone in my sights, but the drive stalled out in the SW. I just couldn’t fathom “TILT AT” as “attack”, had no clue on EROICA, and was completely baffled by the misdirection with ORBITER. Not a complaint though, I’ll take circa 95% of the grid as a success.
MARC x MAC looked funny, and I got lucky with the foreign contingent as TETE is pretty familiar and the crosses on the foolish Spanish lady were gettable.
So today I learned what TILTING at windmills means, and I also learned that ALIT is apparently related to “alighted” and means something like “landed on”.
On a visit to Munich, 30 years ago, I decided to visit the Deutsches Museum, a renowned science and tech museum. There was a display of the periodic table of the chemical elements with their symbols. I noticed where iodine should have been (under Br, for bromine) there was a "J". "Well that can’t be right", said I to myself. Turns out, in German, iodine is jod, hence the J.
The memories that can be triggered by the NYTXW!
Really, really hoped Rex would have the Come Dancing video today. He didn’t, so I will.
KINKS aside, I just didn't find much to like today. The themers are all OK, but finding them was more 'okay' than 'nice one!;.
Good Sunday morning jaunt. Have to disagree with @Son --I feel like the bar is lower for Sundays, since most of us are more relaxed, less driven to seek the best, the fastest, whatever.
For me all the themers but one worked, and the fill was entertaining with a few new words learned. I don't expect any more than that.
Awful clue on 10A....
Thought this was the easiest Sunday in memory. Didn't know EVA, NITE, or SAAG--that's it, that's the list. If I could read the small numbers on my print out I could have really flown through this and probably missed half the fun, so I'm OK with that.
Buddy Teevens was the football coach at Dartmouth who pioneered the use of robotic TACKLINGDUMMIES to make the game safer. He recently died of injuries he sustained in a cycling accident, and the football stadium has been renamed in his honor. A remarkable character, and worth finding our more about.
Our last move is nearly complete as we just got all of our artwork out of storage and now have to decide where it's going on the walls, which is a long way of saying I was in a hurry this morning, so thanks for the easy puzzle GL and DP. I Got Lucky and Didn't Putter around much with this one, for which thanks, and added thanks for all the fun.
Hey All !
SAAG a new Indian dish here, but, what else could it be? The crossers worked. What's with the double-A food, India? SAAG, NAAN. Daang. 😁
Liked the concept of the puz. Was able to flow through fairly easily, which for my depleted brain cells brain is always a welcome thing.
Had the NiNE in for NONE, apparently not up on knowing all 118 Elements to know if any have a J. Har. I do know of Yttrium and Ytterbium, though. Look at me go. And the tree Yggdrasil. Look that one up. (As per my F longing in Puzzle, I'm fascinated by oddly starting words...) Speaking of which, seven have an F. Maybe next time a new Element is discovered, name it Jupitermium or something. Some of the names of the most recent Elements are kinda wacky already.
OEUVRES is also neat to see. What a funky spelling! I think someone might've nodded off at their computer, accidentally typing that, and said, "Look at that. I think I'll make this a word!" Or is it just a shortened Hors d'oeuvres? Inquiring minds, and all that. And, how did appetizers go to bodies of work?
Anyway, liked the puz, good theme, good Blocker count, some good clues, light dreck. YESNO?
Happy Sunday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Not much INSPO behind this Sunday slog.
Ditto on @Son Volt’s “there’s nothing explicitly bad with this..” and Rex’s overall critique.
Weirdly, at some point (probably at INSPO) I sensed a lot of fill ending in “O”.
TYCO, PRONTO, HIPTO, INSPO, TONTO, YESNO, MICRO, MOO, ITO, ECHO, METRO. Don’t really know if thats unusually high, or not, but critical mass became unavoidable.
Re: fleeting fame? Play America’s pastime with 2 of your brothers and live forever in crosswords.
Not only Fame is fleeting. Ask anyone if they know the names of their great grandparents. The vast majority of us are forgotten after just a couple of generations.
Easy and cute. Definitely chuckle-worthy. Nine before none for the elements… Otherwise rather smooth sailing
Easy as 1 2 3 and my record time. No woes and only INSPO made me groan. Thanks!
fivE -> NiNE -> NONE. Apparently it’s time to refresh my periodic table knowledge.
"Is that all there is, is that all there is?" (a la Peggy Lee), I was asking myself. I get the theme, but it seemed a little... thin. Some gerunds could weren't changed a whole lot and could b actual phrases (GETTINGYOURGOAT, etc.), while others did change and were better (TACKLINGDUMMIES). Not sure what "learn curves" means (LEARNINGCURVES, I get). Oh well.
I know many are annoyed with the MARC train, but I lived in "Charm City" (Baltimore) for 7 years, and then our daughter lived there for a few years AND took the MARC to DC, so this was familiar. OTOH, EVA Le Gallienne was wholly unfamiliar. Oh well.
It surely must be within the realms of believability that a solver may not know Eva Le Gallienne. Signed, a 24-year-old solver who has heretofore been spared the viewing experience of Kaufman and Ferber’s “The Royal Family.”
Favorite moment: finally GETTING what a GOAT has to do with "kids." And I thought TACKLING DUMMIES was a great flourish to close things out. A pleasant. Sunday saunter overall - though I DNF: I changed my initial guess at MARC x RORY to MAtC (for "transit") x tORY.
We seem to see ALOU ALOT AMIDST our puzzles.
Rapper West or shortened version of fluffy precipitation? A YE/SNO question.
Where you find burning logs in your house: INGRATES.
Sooner State panache might be ENID ECLAT.
Mostly good themers. Pretty fun. Thanks, Gary Larson and Doug Peterson.
Awful according to you! As someone who’s ridden the MARC multiple times, I found it to be a pleasant surprise (and write-in). But I suppose every crossword puzzle should be hewn painstakingly close to your life experience, no?
Yeah, LEARNING CURVES and TACKLING DUMMIES don't fit with the rest of the themers....
If “inspo” is truly groan-worthy for you, perhaps a reassessment of your relation to and consumption of, broadly, the cultural output of all less-than-40-somethings is in order?
Why are we getting Hanukah clues for Days of Attonement? Also, not all Hanukah menorahs are the same shape or lit the same way - the clueing for unlit is meh.
I don't time myself. Saturday mornings - very early - I get the hard copy NY Times delivered (Sunday's inserts come with Saturdays paper). I make a pot of coffee and head to the back deck to leisurely solve. It is THE favorite part of my week, I am out there before the local landscapers start and before anyone else is awake. Sometimes the puzzle is too quick like this week's. I barely finished half a cup and it was over.... and just like that I am out of my SHANGRA-LA bubble and back to real life.
Yet another disappointing Sunday NYT crossword. Is this the best submission that landed on the editor’s desk? I highly doubt it. The theme just clunked and never got off the ground.
Last empty box entered in the O for oeuvres and figured - ok let's see how long it takes to get a complete puzzle and was pleasantly shocked to see it was all correct. Yes the puns weren't great, but enjoyed the solve and that I actually solved it.
I can't remember the last time a Sunday puzzle was rated 'hard' or 'challenging' by Mr. Parker. Lately is seems there is zero resistance...just big Monday puzzles.
Very easy.
Erasure: nAAn before SAAG but I did know SAAG
WOEs: MARC, EVA, and SKYS.
Cute, liked it.
That seems to be very important to you, as well.
Good point.
Thought this was an easy going humorous puzzle for us Sunday LOAFers. A little social satire mixed with gentle puns—so nothing edgy to raise the hackles other than the lack of something edgy. I particularly liked @eggsforbreakfast’s comment—ALOU ALOT AMIDST! Hope @Lewis will weigh in on all the “O” endings…
Flew through the bottom half of this puzzle but struggled up top because I was committed to some wrong answers. I was one of the NiNE people, because NONE never occurred to me. I had nAAn paneer, only because I knew it was an Indian food. Had novae, and then novaS for a long time on massive stars because I was pretty sure SKIED was correct but then could not figure out "Got by." Kept wanting to make "eked" work somehow with an extra letter, and then maybe thinking there was a weird word for the shooting part of the biathlon. Had wetLAND before bOgLAND before LOWLAND. DINO should have been a gimme, but didn't think of Pebbles as the owner - thought maybe she had a strange prehistoric cat of some sort. Because of all that, I could not understand what the verb was before "...THE SCORE." Setting, settling (didn't fit) - anyway the NW stumped me for a good 5 minutes until I was pretty sure IDK was correct and then ODOR worked and only then did I break through. Enjoyable Sunday. Longer than average time at 34:31
My name is Marc and I didn’t know the train name. Go figure
Fastest Sunday I’ve ever done.
The clue and the answer on the one unlit candle on the last night of Chanukah are fine. But here's the thing: the custom to light an extra candle on every succeeding night of Chanukah was introduced by the Mishnaic sage Hillel I, who had endless controversies on correct Jewish practice with his contemporary Shammai. In this case Shammai recommended starting with eight candles and then to decrease by one every night, so that by his system on the last night there would be seven unlit candle-holders.* Hillel, who lived from c. 40 BCE to 10CE, won out here, as on all his controversies with Shammai, except in six cases that follow Shammai's rulings. And it was Hillel who patiently answered a mocker (whom Shammai had sent packing) who asked Hillel to teach him the whole Torah while he was standing on one leg. Hillel told the mocker the Golden Rule, "Don't do others what you don't want them to do to you; that is the whole Torah; the rest is commentary; now go and study (the mocker reportedly became a great scholar).** Hillel also famously said: "If I am not for myself, who will be for me;? But if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"***
*Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, 21b.
**Babylonian Talmud, Tractate Shabbat, 31a.
***Mishnah, Ethics of the Fathers, 1:14
Sign me up as a not know… and I’m 65
You are incorrect about "tilt at". Tilting is a medieval sport (think jousting). Nothing to do with windmills.
It's a local-ish clue as the DC-NY corridor is well traveled by right coasters. It's no worse that PELHAM Bay as far as I'm concerned.
SKYS was the last answer I got after receiving the hateful alllllmost! notice, having put ACHe in for the third-letter down-cross. Luckily I remembered that I SKES the Limit seemed odd. MARC is hard to miss on the ACELA ride from NYC to DC, making it a kinda-sorta local-to-NYC clue. EVA and SAAG were definitely woes for me but, like you, I took it in stride. Nice puzzle.
Placaje los maniquíes.
Quick Albuquerque report (hoping to gruntle the disgruntled Anony-moti with blog seniority): There are two things in this dystopian hellscape that make it bearable here. First, chile. It's definitely great and not easily acquired elsewhere. Second, the Balloon Fiesta. Today was day nine of nine watching hundreds of balloonists doing their thing and it's unequivocally magical.
Now, onto a fun puzzle. I can't tell if the theme entries are supposed to be funny, so I am assuming they are. I don't like it when I feel personally responsible for an entry like MOCKS. Or INGRATES.
Many interior designers would probably take umbrage at being equated with decorators. It's two different jobs according to my interior designer friend.
Propers: 12
Places: 3
Products: 13
Partials: 13
Foreignisms: 4
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 45 of 140 (32%)
Funnyisms: 8 🙂
Tee-Hee: GOON. SEA MEN. KINKS.
Uniclues:
1 Broncos fan's wall display showing the final result of Superbowl 50. (By the way, we're onto Superbowl 99 or something, and yes, that plaque needs dusting.)
2 Scene in every episode of Cops at a fence with a German Shepherd.
3 Medieval health-care providers proven to be witches prepared for the pyre.
4 Crazy rich comedians at Motel 6.
5 What those who are dead experience.
6 Advertising consortium for the bacon industry celebrate tax reduction on Pig Latin.
7 Time necessary to become a grave robber.
8 Pony tail on the cow who jumped over the moon.
9 Singing voices of the frequently horizontal.
10 Take a stab at being a weirdo in New Orleans.
11 Those who can't appreciate a Christmas day hangover.
12 Liberty Mutual mascot hates eight.
13 Why you're lost.
1 KNOWING THE SCORE DECOR
2 GOON GOING OVER THE TOP
3 RNS AMIDST TINDER (~)
4 SNL CASTE LOAFS (~)
5 SERENE PICKING UP STEAM (~)
6 YAY TEAM! NO FEE OINK!
7 DIGS UP LEARNING CURVES
8 MOO ORBITOR TRESS (~)
9 TACKLING DUMMIES LILTS (~)
10 TILT AT LOWLAND KINKS (~)
11 EGGNOG AGONY INGRATES
12 EMU MOCKS OCTETS (~)
13 RARER AVENUE ASSUMED (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: One who judges the wet and topless. MERMAID REFEREE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Originally had CRETE instead of CORFU and had problems with Easy MAC/MARC - two names I couldn't get (was tempted by TAC/TARC).
I will respectfully disagree with OFL: Batman is a superhero. He is not a superhuman. Nite Owl is a slightly shakier case in that one could make a case for there being no superheroes at all in "Watchmen", but that's asking a lot from a NYTXW, so if one is being kind, he could be termed a superhero. Even within the narrative, he was using tech which was beyond the norm and there's that remarkable alley fight with Laurie against the top knots where the two of them demolish an armed gang.
Living Betimes B C Nero Often Fiddled!
Yes
After a long day yesterday, for fun I started this puzzle way after dark and when, having gotten to _ _ _ A at 8D and knowing I knew it but absolutely blanking, I tucked it away and me to sleep. This morning OSHA came easily and I finished pretty quickly. The troublesome themer for me was the last, TACKLING DUMMIES, until I realized it must be about football. Then I realized that, in a different order, they all could be the story of a certain imaginary sporting game.
Was glad to learn about EVA Le Gallienne; thanks, Rex. The New York Times obit of her long, creative, and celebrated life is a good read too.
Continuing down the Google rabbit hole, I found that Pennsylvania has the oldest theater in America, the Walnut Street, opened and in continuous operation since 1809, and the oldest drive-in, operating since 1934. There’s a retro snack bar at the drive-in, the only updating the veggie dog. Your car radio is your sound system. I’d go there. There’s a veggie dog! And I bet the fries are wonderful. Would love to see its Wicked premiere on offer November 21.
Thank you, Gary and Doug, for the puzzle fun and for more fun in rummaging around in theater history!
Don Quixote…
nice wordplay!
But it’s crossed with RORY which is crossed with ALOU. If you didn’t know any of them it makes for a very opaque section.
Yes, LMTR abbreviates "liked more than Rex," as opposed to HMTR which you can divine for yourself. Other terms used in my comment are very standard jargon here, and you might want to learn them to save time:
PPP stands for Persons, Places, Proper Nouns (with strong connotations of " pop culture">.
NATICKS are PPP (or otherwise obscure) crossings which reduce to mere guessing
OFL stands for Our Fearless Leader (a. k. a. Rex Parker).
I posted earlier (way earlier) but I don't see it so just stopped by to say that I really like this puzzle. Much more than recent Sundays - & even those this week. Hope this post appears ...
Thanks, guys :)
Interesting to learn about EVA Le Gallienne. Just a couple days ago I followed a lead to reading about Gertrude Lawrence on Wikipedia, a similarly big star in entertainment from the last century who is now all but forgotten. She died in her 50s (and in the 50s) from cancer while starring in the original production of the King and I, opposite a much younger and then lesser known Yul Brynner. Her death was the first time lights were dimmed on Broadway to honor a loss in the theater world.
webwinger
Eva Le Gallienne--having one of those "How could you not know moments" myself. I first encountered her name when I bought her Ibsen translations (the ones everyone read back when I was a kid), later worked with someone who had studied with her and heard some of the lore second-hand. An out lesbian before "everyone" was a lesbian. A dynamo. Glad you finally met her too, Rex!
Played a tough concert last night - Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde, Bolero, and Pines of Rome. So after getting up at 6:30 to feed the feral kittens I went back to bed. Eventually got up and LOAFed off, enjoying a SERENE Sunday on the front porch with this TASTY creampuff.
Will it be ALOT or AtAd? Both - well, at least ALOT and DATA, ATAD in reverse. @Lewis would be delighted at the side-by-side 5-letter semordnilaps TUBER/REBUT and EVIAN/NAIVE, the latter EVEN referenced as such in the clue.
Speaking of absent regulars, where’s @Nancy today? She usually posts before noon.
Yeah, pretty easy except for that name/brand-name/proper noun Natick fest MARC/MAC/RORY/TYCO. Utterly stopped me cold.
Just in time for Indigenous Peoples Day we’re reminded that the Lone Ranger’s Faithful Friend bore the Spanish word for fool or idiot.Nice
Andy Freud
I have come across the name, probably in the Times Arts section. I have -definitely seen the name in this puzzle before, more than once. Surprised by Rex’s reaction.
Discussion about MARC RORY and ALOU.
MARCis a bit obscure, not as well known as BART.
But RORY is well known and ALOU is crosswordese. It has appeared a lot here over the years. It pays to remember the name!
Many solvers would know it (I didn’t say all). So I don’t think that section is unfair.
I second Easy Ed's enjoyment of Eggs' "alou alot amidst"
And thank you to whom ever alerted to me to my misunderstanding of "kids" in 97 A Before that I thought the answer referred to kids getting ones goat and it just didn't work like the rest did.
Good puzzle.
No Nancy, no M&A - possibly the same person??
Liked this puzzle.
Don’t notice most dupes and they don’t bother me at all when I do. But I am surprised no one mentioned 1D an 23 A.
I am thinking it was deliberate. Cute I thought.
I think Kitshef linked one of my favorite songs, “Come Dancing”.
I read a history of the song. Sadly, the sister in question died young.
What name? If you’re talking about EVA, she has been in the NYTXW exactly once (before today) in the Shortz Era (ie since 1994).
Yes. DQ. Pretty famously DQ. Just Google “tilt at” and see what predictive search has to say …
Can someone please tell me how I'm supposed to interpret "turns state 's evidence" because even after this solve I have no idea
Also no Okanaganer ?
I like how we got MAGNANI yesterday and EVA Le Gallienne today. Good easy solve.
Margaret is correct, tilting refers to lowering the lance during a joust, as well as a pass the jousters make. DQ made fun of this because what idiot would try with a windmill?
From wikipedia: A criminal turns state's evidence by admitting guilt and testifying as a witness for the state against their associate(s) or accomplice(s),[1] often in exchange for leniency in sentencing or immunity from prosecution
Sing:
informal
act as an informer to the police.
"as soon as he got put under pressure, he sang like a canary"
I didn't get it either and the only reason I know now is because I looked it up based on your question. A contrived clue.
“Nothing to do with windmills” is wrong on its face
Nope, the G is "greatest"! Can't be in the clue!
I’ve never heard anyone refer to their superintendent as Supe. The abbreviation is Super.
OK LEARNINGCURVE
AVA's INSPO is KNOWINGTHESCORE,
she's GOINGOVER it PRONTO,
BELIEVEME, AT NITE she's GETTING more,
she's PICKINGUPSTEAM wiith TONTO.
--- ENID STEVENS
To try to put a bow on it from syndiland, it’s DQ that is technically not medieval, BUT, tilting is. Hope the emphasis is not so much as to cause offense; just trying to make the parsing crystal clear.
That's exactly where I got hung up. Had no idea about MARC, RORY, or ALOU and could not get CUECARDS for the longest time. I started getting second thoughts after writing in TYCO, but that turned out to be correct. RORY was CORY at first.
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