What might be out for a spell? / WED 10-9-24 / Soldier for hire, in brief / Dwarf planet with the largest mass / "I'm on vacation" email inits. / Counterpart of flow / Common clown name / Coat, as with flour / Big name in tourism guides / Jackson 5 song that begins "You went to school to learn, girl"

Wednesday, October 9, 2024

Constructor: Jeffrey Lease

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: LIGHTNING BOLT (37A: What's formed by connecting this puzzle's circled letters from A to F and then back to A) — four things that feature a LIGHTNING BOLT ... and then you draw a picture of a LIGHTNING BOLT, if you want (in the app, there's a little animation of the bolt being formed and flashing)


Theme answers:
  • CAMERA FLASH (18A: Photography option commonly represented by a 37-Across)
  • CHARGERS (23A: N.F.L. team whose helmet features a 37-Across)
  • GATORADE (50A: Drink with a 37-Across in its logo)
  • HARRY POTTER (56A: Character with a 37-Across on his forehead)
Word of the Day:
 "'TIS the Voice of the Lobster" (12D: "___ the Voice of the Lobster" (Lewis Carroll poem)) —
"
'Tis the Voice of the Lobster" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in Chapter 10 of his 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is recited by Alice to the Mock Turtle and the Gryphon. // "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster" is a parody of "The Sluggard", a moralistic poem by Isaac Watts which was well known in Carroll's day. "The Sluggard" depicts the unsavory lifestyle of a slothful individual as a negative example. Carroll's lobster's corresponding vice is that he is weak and cannot back up his boasts, and is consequently easy prey. This fits the pattern of the predatory parody poems in the two Alice books. [...] As published in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1867):

[After the Gryphon and the Mock Turtle have sung and danced to the Lobster Quadrille, Alice mentions the poems she has attempted to recite, and the Gryphon tells Alice to stand and recite "'Tis the voice of the sluggard", which she reluctantly does] "but her head was so full of the Lobster Quadrille, that she hardly knew what she was saying ..."

'Tis the voice of the lobster; I heard him declare,
"You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose
Trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.

[The Gryphon and the Mock Turtle interrupt with a brief exchange about what this unfamiliar version of the poem means, and then insist that Alice continue:]

I passed by his garden, and marked, with one eye,
How the owl and the oyster were sharing a pie—

[Alice's recitation is cut short by the Mock Turtle, who finds the poem "the most confusing thing I ever heard".]

• • •

Usually the themes get more interesting and complex as the week goes on, but today, after two puzzles with very clever concepts and revealers on Monday and Tuesday, we get this, which is blandly straightforward. The illustration / animation / connect-the-dots is, I guess, supposed to be some kind of bonus or value-added, but there's nothing particularly eye-popping or elegant about it, and from a solving standpoint, it does nothing. It's a cheap piece of glitz slapped on at the end to make you think something special has happened, when really all that has happened is that you've written in four things that feature LIGHTNING BOLTs, which the puzzle spells out for you, with a revealer that's merely descriptive. No wordplay, no trickery, nothing to figure out. And yes, those four theme answers do indeed feature LIGHTNING BOLTs, can't argue with that ... although I can argue with the phrase CAMERA FLASH, which felt painfully redundant. I had the FLASH part and thought "... but that's it ... the bolt represents the flash ... what is this extra stuff in front of flash?" After a couple of crosses got me the so-obvious-it's-difficult CAMERA, I thought "your clue says 'photography,' of course it's a CAMERA, yeesh." And since that was the last themer I got, that was how I ended the puzzle—at its weakest point, thematically. When I first worked out "flash," I thought the answer was going to have something to do with the DC superhero THE FLASH, whose symbol is also a LIGHTNING BOLT, I'm pretty sure (yes—see picture). Speaking of "flash," that's about how long it took me to figure out the theme:


Got CHARGERS easily and since I know very well what the CHARGERS helmet looks like, the puzzle essentially handed me the revealer right there. This left me with a "that's it?" feeling right there. The suspense, gone. All that's left is just the deflating prospect of finding other LIGHTNING BOLT things, and, of course, drawing on my puzzle like some kind of child. BRAH! Come on, BRAH! I did not hate this puzzle, but (despite the slapped-on decorative element) it felt awfully plain compared to the puzzles that preceded it this week. 


For someone who has (fairly recently) watched every Friends episode, I had an oddly awkward start today at 1D: Friend on "Friends" (MONICA) when I (mentally) wrote in PHOEBE and then tried (briefly) to convince myself that maybe RuPaul's Drag Race aired on ... PBS? (1A: "RuPaul's Drag Race" airer (MTV)). Seemed ... unlikely. I mean, maybe someday that is where it will air, but not in these times. Probably. I also tried to make the "I'm on vacation" message be BRB, which is now making me laugh—"Be right back! In just two weeks! Please hold!" But no, it's OOO ("Out of Office"), which you'd use in business settings, in texts or in business communication apps like Slack. But these opening hiccups were just that—slight delays, not real obstacles, and there's not one other part of this grid where I struggled even a little. The puzzles have been almost absurdly easy this week. 


Notes:
  • 8D: Soldier for hire, in brief (MERC) — never saw this clue (the puzzle was so easy that some of the answers just filled themselves in from crosses), but I have a question. A pronunciation question. If MERC is short for "mercenary," which has a soft "c," then do you pronounce MERC with a soft "c" as well, so that it ends up sounding like "murse," or do you go with the hard, manly hard-"c" sound, so that it sounds like ... Merck? As in "The Merck Manual"? Or is this word only for writing, and you're not supposed to actually pronounce it? It just seems awkward any way you slice it. The Chicago Mercantile Exchange Center is known as "The MERC," and there, the pronunciation is unambiguous (because of that hard "c" in "Mercantile"). Same with MERC as an abbreviation of the bygone car brand, "Mercury." I just can't imagine calling some (theoretically) tough dude a "murse." And yet "merk" also seems wrong ... [fiddles with internet] ... OK, well, Merriam-webster dot com is telling me it's "merk." Rhymes with "Herc." Or "jerk." Not a fan of this "c" sound switch, but I (obviously) don't make the rules.
  • 63A: Drink aptly found within "social event" (ALE) — condescendingly easy, especially for a Wednesday. Adds to the "child's placemat" quality of this connect-the-dots puzzle. Also, I don't know that ALE is more "apt" to be consumed at a "social event" than any other beverage. Tea coffee wine cocktails. Maybe your breakfast beverages, your milks and your juices, are not particularly social, but most of the rest of the beverage category goes that direction. I don't think of ALE as iconically "social."
  • 30D: What might be out for a spell? (WAND) — hands down, far and away the best clue in the puzzle. A real bright light in an otherwise (ironically) unflashy puzzle. 
  • 51D: Was part of a series (ACTED) — I said I had no trouble after the small trouble in the NW, but I did have some more small trouble here. "Series" was sufficiently ambiguous that I needed several crosses to realize it was a television series.
  • 39D: Common clown name (BOBO) — I just don't believe that there are "common" clown names. If you are a named clown, then your name should be unique. I mean, how many clowns can you even name? Bozo, Krusty ... Ronald McDonald? Pagliacci? How many BOBOs are there, exactly? And how many would you need in order for the name to be clown-common? Two? 

See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

126 comments:

sharonak 6:06 AM  

I find clues like23A unpleasantly vague. How many NFL teams are there? Does only this one have a symbol on their helmets?
Quite liked a couple of long answers: 3D voted against" and 26D "pulled ahead". Surprised at myself that I did not immediately think of Harry Potter when reading the clue of 56A. But I didn't think about it at all. just realized as some o the cross filled in.

Is "brah" really word?

shaaronak 6:08 AM  

Forgot. Agree with Rex that 39D is questionable. I can't think of a clown name Bobo. Bozo yes.

Anonymous 6:09 AM  

The one thing I still can’t wrap my head around, is what does BAFEDC have to do with a lightning bolt? Why are those the circled letters? Were they just random? I’ve tried rearranging them but I don’t think any combo of them spells anything.

Conrad 6:10 AM  


Easy-Medium for me. I had a few "slight delays, not real obstacles," but they all grouped together in the East:

pEach before ZELDA for the Nintendo princess at 10D
raP before POP for the Grammy category at 28D
BOzO before BOBO for the 39D clown name
Suni(?) before SHIA at 55A. My only excuse is that I hadn't had my morning coffee yet.

No WOEs, but I did try to make a word out of the letters comprising the lightning bolt. I tried several combinations before realizing they were just ABCDEF.

Son Volt 6:10 AM  

Was this done all for the money shot? Weak - segmented grid and theme. The corners were loaded with 3s.

TONEs on Tail

A kiddie lit long and CAMERA FLASH? That’s all you can muster to support your idea? I did smile because my wife an I enjoyed some fresh, warm NAAN last night with dal last night.

On to Thursday I guess.

Commander Cody

Anonymous 6:20 AM  

The puzzle explains this. Not a mystery

Anonymous 6:22 AM  

Bimmer, not Beemer.

Anonymous 6:26 AM  

They allow you to follow the alphabetical connections. Nothing more.

SouthsideJohnny 6:45 AM  

I guess it was inevitable that they would allow technocracy to become an integral part of the solving experience. So we’re at the dawn of a promising new age in CrossWorld - and unfortunately it can go one of two ways. Think back on how wonderful and promising the internet was a couple of decades ago, and instead we got this vast wasteland overrun with social media hubs of people screaming at each other. I can envision the technocracy going the same route as many of the NYT themes - forced, contrived, gimmicky, lowest-common-denominator stuff. They just don’t seem to understand that just because you can, it doesn’t mean that you should.

Btw, that clown name clue is inane, amateur stuff that never should have made it past the editorial scrutiny.

Anonymous 7:07 AM  

You could’ve just said murk instead of Merck, it’s way simpler

Anonymous 7:21 AM  

There are 32 NFL teams and yes, only the Chargers have a lightning bolt on their helmets. Not vague at all.

David Fabish 7:23 AM  

Agreed. Beemer is a BMW motorcycle (because it is like "Beezer", which was the nickname for BSR motorcycles) Bimmer is a BMW car.

kitshef 7:24 AM  

I think of MERC as short for 'mercedes', so the clue for 15A could have been used there. On the other hand, 15A itelf is incorrect; it should be BimMER.

Funny that Rex thinks this week has been too easy; for me, it has been one of the toughest weeks in memory (which is a good thing).

Long downs are pretty weak today; enough so that I'm surprised they weren't reworked.

A. Silverstone 7:30 AM  

Each of the four theme answers was easily gettable with just a few of the letters from the down answers and without ever reading the clue.

DeeJay 7:36 AM  

Favorite clown name now is Grimace. LGM!

Andy Freude 7:36 AM  

Agreed, Southside, that clown name clue is atrocious. Curious, though: can anyone here come up with a better clue for BOBO?

JJK 7:39 AM  

Not much joy here. Since all three women on friends have 6-letter names, I needed a few crosses to land on MONICA. Once I got HARRYPOTTER, a gimme, the theme was obvious. I didn’t really pay attention to the circles.

The clown name should clearly be BOzO, not BOBO, are there clowns named BOBO?

And where/what is the planet ERIS? Have I missed some new information about our solar system?

Anonymous 7:52 AM  

The only BOBO I know of is a waiter at the Italian restaurant in the movie Moonlighting,

Anonymous 8:04 AM  

Shouldn’t common clown name be BOZO?

Anonymous 8:05 AM  

For what it’s worth, our security teams in Iraq were all mercenaries, and we referred to them as merks, not merces.

Anonymous 8:05 AM  

Yes, you're a bit out of date. Eris is in the same "minor planet" class as--and the main reason for reclassifying--Pluto.

Liveprof 8:05 AM  

DerekDerek? BelinskyBelinsky?

Diane Joan 8:07 AM  

A brand of gluten free, dairy free, vegan muffins is “Bobo”. I don’t know if that’s a better clue but a family member with dietary restrictions likes them. I had “Bozo” to start and changed it with crosses but never heard of a clown with that name.

Katie Sievers 8:10 AM  

Why doesn't my app show the animation? I even UPDATED it.

Also, ditto on the Bobo BS. That is NOT a name.

Anonymous 8:16 AM  

How about we forget about the clowns and use the Bobo Ski Waten Tatten song for the clue? See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLMRKvTrYDk

Bob Mills 8:20 AM  

Easy? Only if you're into popular culture. I had to cheat in the NE and NW, because I had "bug" instead of NUT for the fanatic, and never heard of the planet ERIS. For a non-TV-watcher, this was fairly tough.

Now it's back to the weather channel, because Hurricane Milton is headed directly at us here in Sun City Center. I suspect we will have lost power before Thursday's puzzle is available here.

Gary Jugert 8:26 AM  

¡Harry Potter es numero uno!

Pretty good puzzle. Kinda weird connect the dots thing afterward. I'm hoping everyone who still does this on paper drew the lightning bolt.

Our app graphic dude must be back from vacation. As I said late Sunday, for haters, here's how to properly handle a dire smite such as silly graphics in your puzzles: With an open right palm, grab your left elbow. With an open left palm, grab your right elbow. Press downward into your chest. Exclaim with a glowering guttural growl, "Harrumph."

Except for Monday, all the puzzles lately have been pretty tough for me. Today the northwest beat me up. Yesterday AEGIS, today AEGEAN. AESOP was rough a few days ago. If AERIE is in tomorrow's puzzle, I am gonna be ready.

APLOMB is my 13th favorite word.

ALE is part of social events like bar room brawls.

During one of our early trips here, we stayed in a rental house in an area with a bunch of PEAHENS and peacocks running loose and every morning around 4 am they started their caterwaulling. It's quite a sound. When we'd walk the dog, they'd be cruising down the streets being enormous and threatening and one gave us his full-on tail display. Maybe he thought I was cute.

@Teedmn (yd): Thank god gramma said yes to grampa. 😉

Propers: 6
Places: 2
Products: 9
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 25 of 78 (32%)

Funnyisms: 1 🤨

Tee-Hee:  [Lick... or slick] EDIBLE, BRAH.

Uniclues:

1 Grapes from freezer / make me feel like a Caesar / and though I'm a geezer / I become a strip teaser.
2 What they serve at the Run Around the Block pub.
3 What happens when the author turns out to be another numbskull billionaire.
4 What you'll hear if you call them monkeys.

1 COLD WINE ODE (~)
2 ON TAP GATORADE
3 HARRY POTTER EBB
4 LEMUR-SNOB TONE

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: My belly's educational goal. TACO DIPLOMA.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pabloinnh 8:33 AM  

Three letters for a TV network crossing a character from a TV show I never watched made starting in the NW impossible, so I switched to PEAHEN crossing APLOMB. That's more like it. The rest went in fairly steadily and finished back in the NW where I remembered OOO from previous puzzles, filled in AEGEAN and ICED (which I hadn't looked at) and that was that.

It was probably cool to see something flashing on your screen upon completion but the paper experience was somewhat less exciting.

And BRAH? Where did that come from?

OK Wednesdecito, JL. Just Like a FLASH of LIGHTNING, here and gone. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.

Gary Jugert 8:41 AM  

@JJK 7:39 AM
Eris, Makemake, and Haumea have all been discovered in the last 20 years.

Ride the Reading 8:48 AM  

A bit slower than average time here. For 15A, left out second and third letters, since not sure which way the puzzle would go on the spelling. As others have noted, Bimmer is correct for cars.

Some errors seem silly now - had mom instead of WHO for the Doctor at 40D. That loused up that area. Blanked on MONICA for a long time.

At the intersection of clowns and Bimmers - look up BMW's "clown shoe," otherwise known as the Z3 M Coupe from about 25 years ago.

RooMonster 8:50 AM  

Hey All !
What an electric puz. Har.

Don't recognize constructors name. Debut?

Decent puz. Found on the easy side here. Nice handling of the center section with three of the five Themer letters in it. All real words, with only one initialism/abbr.

Apparently, I don't travel much, as FODORS is not on my radar.

Short and sweet for me here today. You're welcome. 😁

Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Smith 8:54 AM  

Ridiculous puzzle. Time 15 sec over Monday avg, and I've never watched Friends, know zip about football, can't stand HP, saw the graphic when it was described and put in LIGHTNINGBOLT pretty much as @Rex did. Made me think of Usain. Once in CA I was behind a car with USAINBOLT on the license plate.

Anyway, done and gone in a FLASH.

Anonymous 9:03 AM  

Yeah it’s just ABCDEF, agree it would’ve been more interesting if it spelled something lightning-related.

Anonymous 9:08 AM  

Bobo is also a term derived from “bohemian bourgeois” to describe (somewhat disparagingly) people who profess bohemian ideals while living bourgeois lifestyles. More of an adjective, but you could probably get away with bobos as a plural noun. Not sure it’s much better than the clown angle though.

Fun_CFO 9:09 AM  

Like Rex, plopped in Phoebe, then quickly realized all 3 female-lead names are six letters. Check some easy crosses and done and done. Which took me down to CHARGERS, to LIGHTNINGBOLT and theme over, and puzzle quickly to follow.

Puzzle wasn’t bad, didn’t hate, despite a few objections already noted by others, but I still feel somewhat insulted by the whole exercise (if solving digitally, I wouldn’t even call it an exercise, the app does it for you). Placing circles in 6 out of 225 squares to form an image, any image, by connecting dots is low brow stuff when letters mean nothing. Could have picked any 6 squares following the same outline. “Hmm, I wonder if out of these 225 options to place dots, can I somehow, someway place 6 of them to fashion a…..LIGHTNINGBOLT?” “Hey, look it, I can. Amazeballs.” And the instructions? “Phew! Thanks. Was at a loss”

Definite let down after Mon/Tues.

Shanda Dykman 9:12 AM  

Chris Evans calls his car a “Beemer” in “Knives Out.” That was the first time I’d heard the expression, actually. I looked for a reference and found this: The Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang: A-G. Vol. 1. Random House. pp. 126–27. ISBN 978-0-394-54427-4. Beemer n. [BMW + ''er''] a BMW automobile. Also Beamer.

Adam Smith 9:19 AM  

I heard "Beemer" all the time growing up in NY in the '80s, fwiw.

Adam Smith 9:19 AM  

As any wrestling fan knows, the most common clown name is DOINK.

Fun_CFO 9:19 AM  

lol, forgot to add, the animation in the app doesn’t even follow the instructions, goes from A to B and back to A. Too funny. Now, I love this puzzle.

Whatsername 9:35 AM  

Be safe Bob. I think the entire country is probably praying for Florida right now.

Anonymous 9:35 AM  

Nothing wrong with BOBO. I originally put BOZO, but was torn between the two and on the confirmed it on the cross. Having been around a bunch of clowns (seriously, not kidding) through the years I can attest it’s not out of line.

Anonymous 9:42 AM  

The Bobo Doll experiment is pretty famous. A Google search brings up a few more Bobo clowns. And Pagliacci means “clowns,” the character from the opera is named Canio, the role in commedia dell’arte is Pierrot (maybe also called Pagliaccio?).

Anonymous 9:43 AM  

There’s bobo chicken, but I reeeeally don’t think Johnny would appreciate that angle.

Anonymous 9:59 AM  

"MERC" is actually an easy one for Marvel fans as Deadpool's nickname is "Merc with a mouth". And they pronounce it with a hard 'C'.

As for my solving experience, I did not remember the name of ERIS and for some reason, interpreted 12D as looking for the name of a talking lobster. I tried EROS/TOS ERAS/TAS ERUS/TUS ERAS/TAS
When I finally succeeded with ERIS/TIS I even though to myself, "what a strange name for a lobster." Then sanity kicked in as I realized my error.

Anonymous 10:03 AM  

BOBO ruined this for me. Anyone else remember the Grand Prize game? I wanted to win that Bike so badly.

Alice Pollard 10:09 AM  

ALE is found in sociALEvent

Anonymous 10:11 AM  

Brah!

andrew 10:16 AM  

the Bobo clown doll experiment

I had a Bobo doll as a tot - an indefatigable clown that would rebound to any aggression I doled out. Good times!

egsforbreakfast 10:36 AM  

My son's friend Ronald asked how he could best earn college credits in high school. I told him, "Do APRON. I suggest you take AP Math and AP English and that you do them with APLOMB. Oh... and make sure to study hard so that you do well ATTEST time."

FYI, the CHARGERS are often referred to by their fans as The Bolts.

What did Paul, George and Ringo gasp when John brought Yoko to a recording session? OHNO!

Advice from Kenny Rogers and Kim Carnes to anyone who wants an affordable car: Don't fall in love with a BEEMER.

Easy one for a Wednesday, but I enjoyed it. Thanks, Jeffrey Lease







Anonymous 10:38 AM  

I agree 23A is vague without 37A. But very much the opposite with 37A.

The Chargers logo is a lightning bolt and their nickname is The Bolts. I’m still angry with them for moving from San Diego to LA.

Anonymous 10:48 AM  

Go to settings and turn on “Show overlays.”

jberg 10:56 AM  

This got off to a slow start, for me. First of all, nobody ever says CAMERA FLASH. You may have a flash camera, but you just say "flash" or occasionally 'photo flash.' So I resisted that.

Then, logos are not my thing. My wife can identify any make of car from the little emblem on the back. Not me. And I've only read the first book of the Harry Potter series, and he doesn't have anything on his forehead in that one. And who would have guessed the beverage would be GATORADE? I was expecting Jolt Cola. NFL teams are not my thing, either. So the theme just fell flat for me. (By the time I finished solving I'd forgotten about the little circles, which seem to be spelling BACE. I guess they look like a lightning bolt, but that's not much of a feat unless there is some reason other than the graphic for where the circles are.)

FODOR'S name is Fodor, but I guess you could make a case that FODOR'S is the name of the guidebook series. Gotta admit that I'd been using Rick Steves guides for several years before I notice that they weren't Rick Steve's.

Oops, I have an online meeting. BRB in 90 minutes!

Anonymous 11:01 AM  

There's Merce Cunningham, a titan of 20th-century choreography. (mnemonic: Merce/dance)

Anonymous 11:02 AM  

I've never, in 61 years, seen or heard of Bimmer, in any context. BMWs are referred to as Beemers. Always have been, always will be.

Hack mechanic 11:05 AM  

Beezer is for BSA motorcycles (aka Best Scrap Available) Definitely Bimmer not Beemer and Merc (Mercedes) is a hard C. No man ever said "I'll bring the Murce around)!

Anonymous 11:06 AM  

The 4% of us who are atheist aren't praying about anything. Bob, you probably oughta get outta there for a few days!

Anonymous 11:09 AM  

And I’ve heard Beemer for cars since the 70s

A 11:10 AM  

Not much of a challenge but not a total pushover. Decent Wednesday fun.

Hey, @GARY J, I thought you might do something with this one: “MONICA WHO, HON?” (He said nervously.)

FOR BOBO haters: change to BOZO, ABODES to AZORES and PULLED AHEAD to PULL ‘ER AHEAD (“Take the lead, helmsman”), though there’d likely be complaints about that too. For BRAH I got nothin’.

For irony NUTs we could call them the MERCies.

Another VOTE AGAINST BEEMER. The BimMER blogs POP UP while I’m trying to solve my Saab problems. In case you didn’t know, BimMER is pronounced the same as BEEMER. Think German.

Lots of doubling up across the south with HARRYPOTTEREBB AND NAANNEEDTODEE.

I wonder if HARRY POTTER, with his WAND-GASH-PROTECT triumvirate, was the inspiration for the theme?

WET, COLD, ICED - are we talking drinks (GATORADE, ALE, WINE) or OMENS for the weather? Milton sure is worrisome - hope it doesn’t live up to the predictions and those in its path keep safe.

Carola 11:14 AM  

I'm a HARRY POTTER fan, so I took it as a tribute puzzle, with the other theme answers leading up to the main event. Nice that HARRY's WAND crosses the LIGHTNING BOLT. I also liked the Frankenstein reference through Igor.

Favorite cross: BEEMER x LEMUR. Learned how to spell: AEGEAN. Unfriendly starting cross: MTV X MONICA (hi, @pabloinnh). No idea: MTV, MONICA, ZELDA, BRAH.

JC66 11:16 AM  

I turn 85 today.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me!
🎁🎉🎈🎂🎊 ❤️

Nancy 11:28 AM  

How often do I need to say that I don't want to and that I WILL NOT draw any lines between the tiny little circles on a crossword grid. Not on yours -- not on anyone's. I simply won't and you can't make me. So there!

Glad to get that off my chest -- even if it is for the umpteenth time.

jae 11:31 AM  

On the easy side of medium for me. No erasures. I blanked on the first few clues in the NW (I “retired” over two decades ago so OOO was a WOE for me) so I solved from the middle out which went pretty smoothly.

Liked it but @Rex “blandly straight forward” is an apt description.

kitshef 11:37 AM  

I'm with you completely on logos. One night at pub trivia there was a handout on auto logos. I got one of ten, and among the logos I missed was Toyota, which is significant because I've been driving a Toyota (the same one) for sixteen years.

I'm against you on Harry Potter, though. Harry does have the lightning bolt scar in book one. The Dursley's tell him he got it in the car crash that killed his parents. Later, Hagrid tells him what really happened.

Karl Grouch 11:39 AM  

Let's see.

A lightning bolt forms when you connect circles that contain the letters a,b,c,d, e and f and then back.

Hmm, okay, but how those letters in particular relate to the theme?

For the benefit of the less astute solvers, i hereby give you the answer:




P.S Happy birthday JC66, respect!

A 11:40 AM  

Just investigated @Rex’s links to the Alice in Wonderland material and found something interesting that relates to both AIW and the alphabet aspect of the puzzle. György Ligeti, avant-garde Romanian composer who wrote some of the music for 2001: A Space Odyssey, set the Lobster Quadrille to music in his ‘Nonsense Madrigals.’ One of the other madrigals is The Alphabet (No.3 from 'Nonsense Madrigals'). There’s some very cool art, too.

Gary Jugert 11:52 AM  

@JC66 11:16 AM
Whoop it up!

Anonymous 12:05 PM  

Happy birthday.

Anonymous 12:06 PM  

Played like an easy Monday for me. Once the chargers were filled in, the other related clues fell into place. I am not a speed solver and solve on my phone and still finished in less than 8 minutes.

Anonymous 12:14 PM  

Happy Birthday, JC66. I turned 84 today!!

EasyEd 12:15 PM  

I agree with most of the commentary that this puzzle had aspects that went from too easy to quirky difficult. However I’d like to defend the constructor on two points: The reference to CAMERA in the answer is I think a reference to the camera app on iPhones or iPads, not to a real camera, and the flash is the symbol on the app. So maybe close to green paint but not simply redundant. Also think the constructor should get some credit for making the flash outline symbol in the puzzle readable in alphabetic order, not just random letters. That took some organizing. Just sayin’…

Anonymous 12:28 PM  

The current NYTXW "editors", i.e game salesmen, appear to look for puzzle submissions with these little circles, shaded squares and other playthings that can light up their apps and get the kids excited.

M and A 12:44 PM  

Happy B-Day, @JC66. And many more great ones.

Ah, yes ... the "electric" connect-some-circles puztheme. Wasn't anything real fresh, but it did try to be flashy.
And, there was a primo election-day sub-theme, with:
PULLEDAHEAD & VOTEAGAINST NUT.

staff weeject pick, of a mere 25 candidates: OOO. It's like they sorta reset that there entry.
Nice weeject stacks in all four corners, btw.

other faves: TOUCHE. WAND clue. Interestin DREDGE meanin.
Wanted BOZO, not BOBO. The Z is much more lightnin-bolty.
BRAH? har
Got kinda heavy-eyelidded, when I splatzed in HARRYPOTTER. M&A has fallen asleep, at every Potter flick he has attended.

Thanx, Mr. Lease dude. Easy as ABCDEF.

Masked & Anonymo5Us


**gruntz**

Anonymous 12:49 PM  

I would have loved to see Bobo clued as “Old-time wrestler Brazil”.

jb129 12:51 PM  

Happy Birthday! - Congrats!

jb129 12:54 PM  

BRAH? MERC?
Meh...
I still say it's BOZO not BOBO but then I've never been to the circus.

pabloinnh 1:00 PM  

You may say I'm a BEEMER, but I'm not the only one.

pabloinnh 1:01 PM  

Way to go! Hope you have as many as you want, and want as many as you have.

Anonymous 1:08 PM  

I always wait for crosses when there's a network clued via a specific show, so I started like Rex with PHOEBE coming to mind before MONICA, crossing PBS. I fixed my mistake with ICED and whooshed through the rest of the grid, only really slowing down around FODORS which I didn't know.

jberg 1:08 PM  

Tea with tapioca.

jberg 1:14 PM  

OH NO! When I looked for the circles post-solve, I didn't find all of them, so I missed that they were in alphabetical order. Much better!

jberg 1:19 PM  

Actually, my tapioca clue above would be for BOBa tea, so I have to withdraw that suggestion.

Teedmn 1:21 PM  

'round these parts, the car is a BEEMER so that causes me no irritation. BOBO, now that I can VOTE AGAINST regarding its commonality. It is BOzO or nothing.

I thought the NW was hard to get into. Never having seen an episode of either Friends or Ru Paul, and not drinking ICED coffee meant I had to wander afield to get my start.

When I finally got WAND per the clue, I enjoyed it but it sat in my grid as _AND crossing _ET for longer than I like to admit.

Thanks, Jeffrey Lease, nice Wednesday puzzle.

A 1:28 PM  

Happy Birthday @JC66! Another fellow Libra! Here’s some light-hearted music to help you celebrate. (Still using the method you told me about to share links - thanks!)

Anonymous 1:33 PM  

Merc is short for Mercury.The short hand for Mercedes comes from the second name in the name:Benz.
And Beemer is world’s more common than Bimmer though you hear it enough to make you wince.

Karl Grouch 1:34 PM  

I'm a BEEMER I'm a smoker, I'm a midnight talker

okanaganer 1:42 PM  

Andy Freude asked "can anyone here come up with a better clue for BOBO?" I heard it in my head... from a movie?... oh yeah, the waiter in Moonstruck that Cher knows by name! But @anonymous 7:52 am beat me to it.

The term BEEMER has been around forever. In a garage in Vancouver specializing in European imports, I also heard the staff use the term "Roller" for Rolls-Royces.

[Spelling Bee: yd 0; streak 20.]

Uncle Bob 2:16 PM  

Actually bobo means fool (could be clown) in Spanish, as I learned when I went to Spain and told my friends there my nickname is Bob, to which they of course added an o and laughed. We got over it.

Anonymous 2:18 PM  

BOBO the clown? Was this a misprint? Everyone knows it's BOZO. The term bozo is interchangeable with clown, to be honest. But BOBO? Not only is it not common, it's the first time I've ever heard it. Can't believe it was referred to as common. 😳 Otherwise a very nice puzzle. My only other nitpick was the term CAMERAFLASH. As a professional photographer, it's simply called FLASH. It can either be on-camera or off-camera, but it's always called FLASH.

Son Volt 2:19 PM  

Happy Birthday and many more JC66!

Anonymous 2:34 PM  

Bobo the Clown? Nah….not once have I ever. Bobo the monkey, perhaps. I just assume glitches like this are examples of a kind of generational “Mondegreen”—misheard, then repeated, until normalized. Language is fluid, so they say.

Anonymous 2:57 PM  

Bobo was what we called those inflatable clowns that you would punch and would bounce back up.

GILL I. 3:09 PM  

First and foremost HAPPY BIRTHDAY @JC66. You don't look a day over 66!!!!

Well all of the brilliant words have been used today so I have a BEEMER story. Feel free to skip over:

My very close friend of over 50 years sent me a text about 6 months ago and asked me if I'd like her 2002 BMW for $5. I thought for sure this was a spam message. I verified it was indeed her and I wrote back: ARE YOU KIDDING ME???????. This beautifully kept, purring car, with close to 200,000 miles was mine. I did wonder what mystery might befall me, though. This car belonged to Patty's husband and he took incredible care of it. He passed away about 10 years ago and Patty felt it was time to let it go. She knew I would take care of it just as her husband had.

The car had undergone about $7,000 of tune-up, brake checks etc etc just one year before I got the deed!. It had only one problem. The back window wouldn't shut and when it rained one day the leather seats got soaked. My mechanic said it would cost about $500 to fix the window. GASP...What have I got myself into!!!!. I bought a BMW window fixer upper for $50.00 and my lovely son-in-law fixed it.

The BEEMER (I use that word all the time but I did't know how to spell it) does everything but talk to me. It has the funniest little
quirks. One day at the vet's, all the windows and the roof top were opened. Yikes. I closed them up and rode my way home. When I parked the car and locked it, all the widow came down again. I put them up, locked the car and stood for about an hour to make sure they stayed up.....It never happened again. I found out the hard way that to. put gas in the car, all the door locks have to be open! Ye gads.

All of this is to say, this car with its idiosyncratic ways, is the best car I have ever driven. TO fix anything costs a lot of moolah but I don't care. It's a beautiful little dark gray coupe and I love it.

End of story. You're welcome......

GILL I. 3:11 PM  

Oh... and the puzzle....It was fine. I'm an artist (so they say) but I don't like drawing on my puzzle. If it's a picture of Bacchanalia, I will do it.

Trina 3:24 PM  

It’s always been “beemer”. A bit archaic now though so think.

egsforbreakfast 3:24 PM  

Maybe you should change your blog name to JC85. Happy Birthday!

John 3:35 PM  

Rex knows that. He's debating the "aptly" part of the clue.

Linda 3:41 PM  

@JC66, Happy Birthday!

JJK 4:20 PM  

Wow, I can’t believe how out of it I am in the planetary line-up! Thanks for filling me in.

Anonymous 4:29 PM  

Those who are bothered by Beamer
I assume those who make pronouncements that what the term they use is a) the only correct one & b) what is permitted in the Times puzzle are being only half serious but it still bothers me I tried Bimmer first but then I switched to Beamer, no problem.
What matters is, a lot of people say Beamer. So valid answer.
Slang and nicknames especially change very quickly in meaning. And it was inevitable what was applied to motorcycles would be applied to cars. That’s how language works.

dgd 4:40 PM  

A Jberg
Never had it but I think it’s boba tea.
I don’t know the origin but Bobo was a fairly common Italian American nickname at one time, hence the character’s name. I had a cousin with that nickname.
But if you google Bobo + clown Bobo Barnett was a famous clown for decades.

Anonymous 4:43 PM  

Katie Stevens
Google Bobo + clown

Anonymous 5:02 PM  

UGA Offensive Coordinator Mike Bobo

JC66 5:59 PM  

Thanks everyone for your kind birthday wishes. Made my day even better.

Anonymous 6:48 PM  

+1 on appreciating the flash outline in order.

Anonymous 7:19 PM  

My tuxedo black and white cat is Bobo.

Gary Jugert 7:37 PM  

@A 11:10 AM
Boy howdy I pondered before forsaking it. All I had was:

Question Hillary should never have asked Bill.
MONICA WHO, HON?

Anonymous 8:09 PM  

Read it as Bob-o…kind of like Brah

Anonymous 8:11 PM  

4%?? It has to be higher than that.

Whatsername 9:17 PM  

I’m a little late but wanted to say happy birthday JC! I hope you are living the good life and looking forward to many more.

Anonymous 9:46 PM  

Isn't BRAH in The Beatles' Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da? "Brah! How the life goes on"

Anonymous 11:11 PM  

Above above, in Stellies

Terra Schaller 11:21 PM  

Happy birthday JC. I'm traveling to Scottsdale AZ on Saturday, well see how the lightning bolt does in that area for a month

68Charger 11:24 PM  

As a KC Chiefs fan, I always liked the Chargers and I always will associate them with San Diego!
I always liked them because they were always competing against those dreaded Raiders!

Shanda Dykman 11:28 PM  

Maybe BONO and ANODES would have worked better?

kitshef 12:00 AM  

Happy Birthday, JC66. Hope you celebrate with some WINE or something ON TAP, and definitely with APLOMB.

Anonymous 1:22 AM  

Funny, my first thought for 1 across was PBS as well. Then I thought, that can’t be right. I’ve never seen the show.

Ann Howell 2:35 AM  

Yes! Missed opportunity for a repeated clue.

JC66 9:23 AM  

Thanks everyone for your kind birthday wishes yesterday . Made my day even better.

Giz 10:22 AM  

Like Rex, I found this to be a Peggy Lee puzzle. On another, minor, note - Ligeti didn't compose for the movies, but a number of movies used his music.

Hack mechanic 10:46 AM  

I use Bimmer & Beemer interchangably but to diehard aficianados & gear heads it's Bimmer

swac 7:58 AM  

A bit late to The Party here, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned the 1967 Peter Sellers movie THE BOBO, where he plays a singing bullfighter who falls for Britt Ekland. Not one of his better comedies, but certainly worthy of a crossword clue.

Burma Shave 12:54 PM  

WHO PULLEDAHEAD?

ZELDA ACTED so COLD;
“HON, U NEEDTO melt,
OH, ‘TIS NO LIGHTNINGBOLT,
‘TIS my WAND that U FELT.”

--- HARRYPOTTER

Anonymous 1:54 PM  

I'm in my 70's, and where I'm from the motorcycles were called bimmers. The first BMW car I ever saw was in the 1970's, and they were called beemers. I test drove one in 1978 when I was looking to buy a new car and boy were they small. I ended up buying a Saab, the best car I ever owned.

spacecraft 4:22 PM  

To me, a MERC is a MERCURY, the clown's name is BOzO, and the BMW is a BEaMER. That last one caused a writeover.

Otherwise, you have circles forming a...LIGHTNINGBOLT, which is the revealer. Kind of repetitious. *yawn* Par.

Wordle birdie.

Anonymous 1:07 AM  

No one, NO ONE commented on the virtuoso Richard Thompson performance??!!!

swac 7:49 AM  

Perhaps Rex's readers love for Richard Thompson has withered and died?
(I couldn't resist ... saw RT play solo in the late '80s and it's still one of the best shows I've ever seen.)

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