Boozy holiday confection / SUN 11-3-24 / Word with the wave of a wand / Tower in a port / Relatives of narwhals / Calming oil compound, for short / Popular video game franchise since 1997, for short / Actress Krishnan of South Indian cinema / Land inhabited by the Alutiiq people / Doppler effect phenomenon / Eponym of a popular root beer brand / Like Thor, shortly after arriving on Earth in 2011's "Thor"

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Constructor: Sid Sivakumar

Relative difficulty: Easy


THEME: "Can I Have a Raise?" — words meaning "money" (which appear in circled squares) hop over one shaded square each, creating a literal "raise"—or PAY BUMP, which is what the shaded squares spell out (when read from top to bottom):

Theme answers:
  • ALASKA PENINSULA ("kale" jumps the "P") (23A: Land inhabited by the Alutiiq people)
  • GODDAUGHTER ("dough" jumps the "A") (39A: Zoë Kravitz, to Marisa Tomei)
  • FREQUENCY SHIFT ("cash" jumps the "Y") (46A: Doppler effect phenomenon)
  • GUTENBERG ("tender" jumps the "B") (69A: Inventor of the printing press)
  • MOOD CONGRUENCE ("green" jumps the "U") (86A: Psychological effect whereby memories are recalled more easily when they match one's current emotional state)
  • CIVIC-MINDED ("coin" jumps the "M") (93A: Conscientious of one's community)
  • SWITCHED PARTIES ("cheddar" jumps the "P") (115A: Moved across the aisle)
Word of the Day: The Franklin Mountains (7D: Texas city at the foot of the Franklin Mountains = EL PASO) —

The Franklin Mountains of Texas (SpanishSierras de los Mansos) are a small range 23 miles (37 km) long, 3 miles (5 km) wide that extend from El Paso, Texas, north into New Mexico. The Franklins were formed due to crustal extension related to the Cenozoic Rio Grande rift. Although the present topography of the range and adjoining basins is controlled by extension during rifting in the last 10 million years, faults within the range also record deformation during the Laramide orogeny, between 85 and 45 million years ago.

The highest peak is North Franklin Peak at 7,192 feet (2,192 m). Much of the range is part of the Franklin Mountains State Park. The mountains are composed primarily of sedimentary rock with some igneous intrusions. Geologists refer to them as tilted-block fault mountains and in them can be found 1.25 billion-year-old Precambrian rocks, the oldest in Texas. (wikipedia)

• • •

It's pretty literal, this one. Consistent and well made, but also pretty dull. The gimmick is awfully simple and there's really no element of surprise here, nothing fun to discover once you grok the basic premise. Well, there's one surprise, which is MOOD CONGRUENCE, whatever the hell that is (86A: Psychological effect whereby memories are recalled more easily when they match one's current emotional state). If you need to write an entire paragraph in order to justify your clue or make it make sense, that's a good sign you should rethink the answer itself. Seriously, that clue is three times longer than every other theme clue LOL. I'm sure this so-called "Psychological effect" is a real thing to someone, somewhere, but it really looks like something an uncurated wordlist coughed up ... I'm reading the wikipedia entry for MOOD CONGRUENCE and there's nothing up front about "memories" at all, so ... no idea what this clue is doing. Some super-specialized stuff. Real outlier. The rest of the theme answers were fine as answers, but the basic concept here, however neatly executed, just didn't seem that interesting. Very one-note. I can see what's happening ... and it keeps happening. Also, I made the mistake of reading the "Puzzle Notes," which spelled out the shaded-squares portion of the gimmick. 


Would've been much more fun to discover that on my own. Also, only crosswords think "KALE" is a slang term for "money." Never seen it anywhere else. Maybe in some hardboiled crime fiction of the '20s. That's possible. But KALE makes even CHEDDAR seem modern (it isn't). I can't say the idea isn't cute. I like that the revealer is actually built into the theme answers themselves—that is, if PAY BUMP played like a regular revealer (that is, if it were its own separate answer), the puzzle wouldn't have any charm at all. If you're jumping over letters, those letters really need to do something, and today, they do. So it all makes sense. It just wasn't terribly exciting. Not bad. Just ho-hum.


Aside from MOOD CONGRUENCE, which I had to get almost entirely from crosses, there were only two thorny patches today, and "thorny" is perhaps exaggerating the amount of pain involved. The first such patch was in and around BARQ (such a horrible answer to begin with—the root beer is BARQ'S; BARQ on its own is ridiculous). I had -A-- for the [Eponym of a popular root beer brand] and wrote in DAD'S. Now, DAD'S is the full name of the root beer, not an "eponym," but, see, I just ... I ... it was wishful thinking, in that I was wishing (desperately) that 41A: Word with the wave of a wand might be TADA because, well, the first thing that occurred to me there was ABRA, and there is no more horrible piece of crossword fill than ABRA. It is not, as the clue claims, a "word." It's an incantation partial. Oof. I die a little every time I see it in a grid. And so my brain willed it away. Refused to accept it. "Maybe we can write in DAD'S and TADA and everything will be OK." Nice try, brain. DAD'S gave me --D for 30A: Member of the fam, and the only answer I could think of there was ... DAD. And DAD crossing DAD'S seemed, let's say, unlikely. So I tore it out, worked out SIB, then BARQ, then sighed the world's deepest sigh as I defeatedly wrote in ABRA. Allow me to resigh. Sigh. You know how you can tell ABRA is completely invalid? First of all, would you really spell "Abracadabra" as two words? When have you ever seen that? And second, imagine seeing CADABRA in the grid ... yeah, that's right: you can't. No such "word" as CADABRA, so no such "word" as ABRA. Case closed on this worst of all possible "words." (Note: this is the fifth ABRA of the year, more than any year since 1991; not a promising trend!)





The other (minor) trouble spot today came from Pirate's Cove (you know ... the bar on Love Boat ... where Isaac, Your Bartender works (nights) ... no Love Boat fans, eh? Philistines ...).  


Annnnyway, I expected my pirate to make one sound and she made another, and man you would not think a three-letter [Word from a pirate] could cause significant havoc, but ARR(gh)! What does the pirate say? The pirate says "ARR." That is what the pirate says. Yes, ARR is usually [Flight board abbr.] or [Sheet music abbr.], but four times in recent years it has been a "word from a pirate" (three [Pirate's exclamation] and then one [Talk Like a Pirate Day greeting] earlier this year). AYE, on the other hand, while very sailory, is not very piratey. AYE has made 155 appearances in the modern (i.e. Shortz/Fagliano) era, and only once (once!) before today has "pirate" been used in the clue (the other time being only just this year). So for decades and decades, pirates never ever said AYE in a crossword. If they said anything, they said ARR. And now all of a sudden in 2024 they're all good little obedient sailors!? Bah. Give AYE back to Popeye and the Scots and people voting in favor of things, and let pirates say weird pirate things. Things like ARR. 


Notes and explainers:
  • 23A: Land inhabited by the Alutiiq people (ALASKA PENINSULA) — minor issue, but I thought it was the ALASKAN PENINSULA, with an "N." And in some places (like the NASA website!), that is how it's spelled. But the official name of said peninsula appears not to have that extra adjectival "N" at the end of ALASKA.
  • 52A: Actress Krishnan of South Indian cinema (TRISHA) — never heard of her, but she's a huge star. They don't call you "The Queen of India" for nothing, I'm guessing. Look at all these damn awards! According to wikipedia, she works primarily in Tamil and Telugu films. 
  • 81A: Word following a comma in an alphabetized list (THE) — my brain could not process this clue at all. But yes, in an index, say, you will see book or movie titles that begin with "THE" written out this way (with the THE following a comma). Here are a couple examples from the index of a book that just happens to be sitting next to my desk—David Thomson's How to Watch a Movie:
  • 109A: Popular video game franchise since 1997, for short (GTA) — stands for Grand Theft Auto. You get to do horrible things to people, if I remember correctly (I haven't played or even thought about the game since roughly the turn of the century)
  • 18D: One willing to take the hit? (STONER) — a "hit" on a joint or pipe, for pot (marijuana) smokers. You probably knew that, but sometimes these idioms will be strange to non-native speakers, so I'm explaining, just in case. Although I'm hardly the one to be explaining this stuff, as last time I "took a hit" was ... well, before the last time I played GTA, that's for sure.
  • 19D: Like Thor, shortly after arriving on Earth in 2011's "Thor" (TASED) — about as niche a film clue as I've ever seen. Look, you know TASED evokes awful things, most notably police violence, so maybe just don't use it, rather than asking us to remember one specific scene in an old superhero movie. There are too many superhero movies for anyone to be able to keep track of this junk. There have been four Thor movies alone. 34 films in the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). 10 more in development. Make it stop. 
  • 73D: Sign of a packed house (SRO) — Sold Right Out!*
  • 88D: Sites of conch piercings (EARS) — so ... [Sites of piercings]. You didn't need "conch" there at all. So why is it there? To misdirect me? Toward the ocean? Well, that didn't work, just FYI. ("conch piercing" involves the piercing of the upper ear cartilage)
  • 94D: Cushion upon which a ball rests (INSOLE) — "ball" as in "the ball of your foot."
  • 104D: What's seemingly impossible to find when storing leftovers (LID) — I'm not a particularly well organized person and yet this is not a problem I've ever had. The lids go with the containers ... why are you separating them? 
  • 87D: Calming oil compound, for short (CBD) — short for "cannabidiol," a compound found in marijuana. This is CBD's seventh NYTXW appearance in just two years (debuted in 2022).
  • 73A: Where a ham might be on display (STAGE) — a "ham" is a bad (over-) actor.
  • 118D: Tower in a port (TUG) — this is like the old trick of using "flower" to clue a river. Not "tower" like Tower of Babel or Tower of London, but "tower" as in "thing that tows." A TUG (boat) tows. It's a tower.
I'm headed up to Rochester today to see piano prodigy Yunchan Lim play Bach's "Goldberg Variations," which makes me sound way more "cultured" than I am. But sometimes I do indeed like to leave the Love Boat and experience the broader artistic world. Also, sometimes I just need to get out of town for a day, and the kid can play, apparently, so I'm excited. 


See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*I know, I know ... SRO actually stands for "Seats Ran Out"**
**I know, I know ... 

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

104 comments:

Conrad 5:39 AM  


Easy. Just a few minor overwrites, most of which were covered by OFL, plus SIs before SIB at 30A.

Didn't know TRISHA Krishnan at 52A.

My favorite example of 81A was a 1966 movie with Alan Arkin and Carl Reiner which was alphabetized as "Russians Are Coming the Russians Are Coming, The"

Anonymous 5:59 AM  

You're kidding right? Standing Room Only.

Perhaps Kale is the modern version of Cabbage? Certainly is in the foodie world ...

Anonymous 6:03 AM  

SRO = Standing Room Only

Anonymous 6:05 AM  

It’s actually Stopping Regular Operations

Lewis 6:52 AM  

Sid has the chops. He has the chops, in his themeless puzzles, to clue at the highest level, with wit and guile. Today his skill in building a themed puzzle really shines. Look at what he had to do:
• Find theme answers that would accommodate the pay bump words.
• Because of symmetry requirements, three pairs of these answers had to have an equal number of letters.
• That “bump” letter above the theme answer, greatly restricts what the vertical answer that includes it can be.
• Theme answers had to be chosen and placed in a certain order to make the gray-lettered PAY BUMP happen.

Sid made it work. On top of all this, Sid spaced nine NYT debuts answers pretty evenly around the grid, giving it pop. Terrific build.

My fill-in included a big wow moment when I simultaneously saw and grokked the theme elements. It also included getting two out-of-my-wheelhouse long answers – FREQUENCY SHIFT and MOOD CONGRUENCE – which happified my brain on several levels. And I loved seeing all the long-o enders: EL PASO, BONGO, TITO, AMMO, OSSO, ECHO, DITTO, DYNAMO, EURO, and wannabe DITTOS.

Thus, a splendid outing, as I’ve come to expect with Sunday in the box with Sid. Thank you, sir!

Burghman 7:01 AM  

Any other Friends fans out there that immediately think and write UnAgI instead of UMAMI? Every single time for me.

Anonymous 7:11 AM  

TIL PANHANDLE and PENINSULA both have nine letters. Ugh.

Storage containers in our kitchen are nested and the lids are piled next to them in the drawer. So lid hunting is a frequent activity for us. We just recently had a big chat with friends about lid matching strategies!

Benbini 7:15 AM  

Very, very easy.

SRO is definitely one that's now in my head thanks exclusively to crossword puzzles. Has such an abbreviation ever appeared on a sign, on Broadway or elsewhere?

Colin 7:21 AM  

Sid!
As someone who performed / reads ultrasounds at work, FREQUENCYSHIFT was a welcome answer. I thought Rex would have a conniption with this, if he has issues with MOODCONGRUENCE (which I've also never encountered, but could figure out). 81A was baffling, until Rex's explanation. 94D "Cushion" and 118D "Tower" clues were clever.

Looking forward to Sid's Super Mega crossword in the upcoming Puzzle Mania.

Anonymous 7:27 AM  

Agree. Standing Room Only!!!!

Eric NC 7:29 AM  

Yes, often

pabloinnh 7:32 AM  

So the usual cat alarm went off early and I looked at the clock and said well it's already 6, might as well get up, except forgot to turn the clock back, so an early solve here. I'm in favor of sticking to one setting or the other and I don't really care which.

Had the same experience with BARQ's as OFL because I started with SIS (hi @Conrad) and SARA's root beer didn't look right, because it wasn't. No real problems otherwise except the usual difficulty of reading tiny numbers. It may be time for the large print edition.

Read the shaded squares as directed and thought--hmm., not much of a secret message, but then referenced the circled letters and saw what was going on, which made things a lot better, with the exceptions of KALE and CHEDDAR,. If anyone uses these as SLANG for money I haven't met them.

Hello to TRISHA, nice to meet you, and a shout out to old friend OAST. How ya been?

Solid Sunday, SS. Not a Scintillating Sunday, but solid. Thanks for an average amount of fun.

kitshef 7:39 AM  

Felt like I was struggling all over the place today, although that was interspersed with a couple of super-easy sections, so average overall.

Theme played no part in the solve, which is not a good thing. Didn't think much of it when I did understand it.

I can't believe how many people don't know Sold Right Out. It's like you're all living in a cave, being all hermit-y. It's like not knowing OPEC (Oil Producing Economic Community).

SouthsideJohnny 7:40 AM  

I seem to recall that Rex has fun with SRO whenever it appears. I just noticed that there is no abbreviation in the clue, which is a convention that I’m sorry to see is on the wane.

I didn’t read the notes or bother trying to figure out the theme, which is fine by me - the only real unfortunate thing about this theme is that it forced us all to have to deal with MOOD CONGRUENCE, but I guess we all have our burdens to bear.

I had to take a leap of faith on ARRESTED for “fascinated”, but the online dictionary I checked with says it’s legit. I may have actually heard someone say taradiddle on occasion, but I didn’t know it actually meant something until today (I thought it was just a general term for nonsense, like poppycock - but apparently there is a difference).

Andy Freude 7:46 AM  

Agreed. Lids are easy to find. A lid that fits? That’s another story.

Anonymous 8:04 AM  

SRO = Standing Room Only!

Anonymous 8:10 AM  

Never seen Thor, so I had nAkED before TASED. Naked Thor arrives on Earth, plausible enough, right?

Son Volt 8:13 AM  

I typically love Sid’s work but this was a big let down. The theme felt contrived and there for no other reason than to fill space. I ended up going through the grid as a themeless and it was a chore.

MOOD

FRENCH PRESS is neat - add Peet’s and @Gill will be happy. The fill is generally fine - lots of plurals. Liked FREQUENCY SHIFT, BE AT EASE and HAT DANCE.

Not a terrible puzzle - but with higher expectations ended up being a flat Sunday morning solve.

The definitive EL PASO

Danny 8:14 AM  

I hope you enjoy the GBVs, Rex. May the tempos be sane! I’ve been working on them for a few years now. It may perhaps be my life’s work.

Willa 8:22 AM  

Can someone explain 28 across to me? MAKE "IT" / TAG?

Meredith 8:30 AM  

I looked up Trisha Krishnan, and the top news hit was a short but sweet puff piece article about how excited she was to see her name in the NYT crossword!

Pretty nuts that she can be so accomplished, as Rex pointed out, while being obscure to us over here in the West. I think it's great the puzzle opens our eyes to talents all around the world.

Anonymous 8:42 AM  

Anyone else notice EATOUT right above SCREWING?

Anonymous 8:43 AM  

It’s actually Sorry… Re’re Olosed

Mack 8:56 AM  

Oh good. Rex pointed out the massive gorillas that have been sitting in the proverbial crossword room forever: no one ever says KALE, CHEDDAR, cabbage, lettuce, gouda, endive, chard, micro greens or any other foodstuffs to refer to money. I don't know if this was started by Shortz or if he inherited it the misconception, but it really needs to end.
"Oh shoot, I need to go to the ATM -- I'm all out of kale!"

As a less major nit, ODOR is not an issue with composting. Compost doesn't smell.

Fun_CFO 9:05 AM  

Yes, and my favorite one time, was “SRO Only”.

burtonkd 9:07 AM  

I confused TARADIDDLE with paradiddle, the drumstick pattern of RLRR LRLL and was really wondering how that could fit into a 3 letter answer.

I'm sorry, but MOODCONGRUENCE is a fantastic concept! If you are sad at a funeral, you will have memories of other times being sad from a death rush into your mind. Or sports fans on a big win can recall instantly the other big wins in their lives. Or if you take a HIT, you remember well the other times...never mind.

I thought Thor was nAkED, and am still not sure that is wrong. Arnie was definitely naked through the portal in Terminator 2. Hard to keep time travel portal rules straight...

Man, can Rex pontificate!! A whole screen on ABRA not being a word, as if that is a xword rule (SRO anyone?). People certainly frequently make a break between that and cadabra when speaking. Cadabra hasn't appeared because it isn't useful, not because it isn't a word.

Solved this without the theme. KALE as the first one put me off of any thought of money. It was moderately fun to suss it out post-solve.

Enjoy the concert, Rex! jealous

Beezer 9:13 AM  

Can’t tell if you’re joking or not. I’ve always thought Standing Room Only but when I’ve been to Broadway plays I’ve never seen an area where people are allowed to stand. But hey, I’ve only been to a handful of plays on Broadway (or off-Broadway) even though I’ve stayed in NYC a number of times.

Beezer 9:16 AM  

When you catch up and touch the person who is “it” in the game of TAG, you yell “your IT”!

RooMonster 9:18 AM  

Hey All !
The "Revealer" helped me get the M, because I had wrongness in that area holding me up. Had islE for FLOE, which led to LOL for OMG, and caused me to erase the correct GRAIN I had in. Plus, who else had QEII in for WEIR?

Once I got said M, that section came together nicely. It got me ODESSA, TALC, FLOE, LENSFILTERS bam-bam-bam, then the SW corner faster than a gnat irritates.

For MOOD CONGRUENCE, went through fOOD, gOOD, wOOD (ok, didn't really think wOOD!).

Was the 15 ball juggling clue researched? Was it a Guinness Book look-up? "The most balls juggled at one time is 14."? Let me look ...
The Record is 11. But to presume that never once in the history of man, not one single person ever juggled 15 balls is a bold statement. NO ONE knows for sure. (Har, see what I did there?)

I thought the fill was pretty darn good, considering all the Theme shenanigans Sid had to go through. Not only finding phrases that had all but one letter, in a row, to spell out slang names for money, but also to get the PAY BUMP Revealer to work in between those So Sid had to find just the (basically) one phrase that would be able to work. Holy Moly. And get clean fill around everything. I'm sure @LMS would've marvelled at this construction.

Bravo, Sid, on an engaging and highly tough to construct grid/theme

Happy Sunday, y'all.

Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

RooMonster 9:18 AM  

Hey All !
The "Revealer" helped me get the M, because I had wrongness in that area holding me up. Had islE for FLOE, which led to LOL for OMG, and caused me to erase the correct GRAIN I had in. Plus, who else had QEII in for WEIR?

Once I got said M, that section came together nicely. It got me ODESSA, TALC, FLOE, LENSFILTERS bam-bam-bam, then the SW corner faster than a gnat irritates.

For MOOD CONGRUENCE, went through fOOD, gOOD, wOOD (ok, didn't really think wOOD!).

Was the 15 ball juggling clue researched? Was it a Guinness Book look-up? "The most balls juggled at one time is 14."? Let me look ...
The Record is 11. But to presume that never once in the history of man, not one single person ever juggled 15 balls is a bold statement. NO ONE knows for sure. (Har, see what I did there?)

I thought the fill was pretty darn good, considering all the Theme shenanigans Sid had to go through. Not only finding phrases that had all but one letter, in a row, to spell out slang names for money, but also to get the PAY BUMP Revealer to work in between those So Sid had to find just the (basically) one phrase that would be able to work. Holy Moly. And get clean fill around everything. I'm sure @LMS would've marvelled at this construction.

Bravo, Sid, on an engaging and highly tough to construct grid/theme

Happy Sunday, y'all.

Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Beezer 9:19 AM  

Um. It depends on how and what you compost. Composting leaves doesn’t smell. Add in some other things…well, you might get a hankering to spray some Febrese in the vicinity…

Anonymous 9:19 AM  

Me too — not a drummer but read one book as a kid that mentioned the paradiddle a few times and it stuck.

Took me ages (well, a minute) to correct my mistake with LENdTO (and work out what was going on with TAG). Otherwise smooth sailing.

Anonymous 9:20 AM  

"Tag, you're it!"

Anonymous 9:21 AM  

Maybe not if you do it right…! But that container of food scraps waiting to go out definitely smells sometimes. 😅

JT 9:21 AM  

"Tag, you're it!"

Anonymous 9:22 AM  

Seemed very easy, though my time didn’t reflect it. Probably because of needing crosses for the long mood congruency and frequency shift answers. Had SIs instead of SIB, do didn’t get the Q in place for a while in BARQ. Trisha/ars was a natick, I guess, as both were unknown for me, but very easy to guess the A.

JT 9:25 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Bryan B 9:30 AM  

Thank you for the Duke this morning!

Beezer 9:32 AM  

I agree that this was generally an “easy” Sunday, but I spent a ridiculous amount of time at the end sorting out the SHIFT with respect to Doppler, going back and forth between “spirits” as ghosts or booze…but then the Ask Me Anything (AMA) concept FINALLY popped into my sad brain and voilá…

I’m amongst the older demographic and also kind of roll my eyes on the kale, cheddar, etc. designations for money. Seems a bit strange also when mixed in with (legal) tender and cash. “Dough” seems on the way out in usage, but not as much. I tend to hear “moola” if I hear anything other than “I gotta get some CASH from the ATM.”

All in all, an enjoyable Sunday solve.

Coniuratos 9:39 AM  

Abra is absolutely a reasonable answer, but only when clued as a Pokemon.

Ken Freeland 9:59 AM  

Pretty much with Rex in this one...especially that many of the themes answers are obscure to the point of esoteric. I found the theme kinda cheesy.(as in CHEDDAR)...But having said that, the fill had a mercifully low PPP quotient (so no naticks to complain of) and came with a nice dollop of wit (loved "turning some heads?" for SCREWING , which would certainly be true, LOL. So, very solid feel and deserving of approbation. Looking forward to confirmation from Gary's gunk gauge..

Colin 10:02 AM  

BTW, as for lids: When we stack containers to store them in our kitchen drawers, the containers and lids are often separated. So yes, on occasion it takes a little time to find the correctly-fitting lid!

egsforbreakfast 10:06 AM  

I really get 104D. Just yesterday I was looking, unsuccessfully, for my baggie of pot while also putting our uneaten dinner in Tupperware. Exasperated, I screamed, "Mrs. Egs! It's seemingly impossible to find a LID while storing leftovers."

If you're turning heads while SCREWING, I say "get a room!"

Is a defunct lean-to a LENTTO?

Nice little side story in consecutive answers starting at 79A: RESENTS THE CANOE INA ODESSA MOODCONGRUENCE FLOE.

I agree with both @Rex and @Lewis. A marvelous feat of construction, but kind of ho-hum to solve. Rex got so wound up in his anti-ABRA rant that he forgot to condemn AMMO. Anyway, thanks, Sid Sivakumar.

Nancy 10:12 AM  

As always, once I realized that the tiny little circles didn't need to be changed or manipulated by me in any way, I solved this as a pleasant if less-than-exciting themeless. I then took a brief look to see if I could see what was going on without any undue effort. And, yes, with the help of the title I was the KALE and the CASH and the TENDER and all the rest of it.

Yawn.

It would have been the exact same puzzle for me without any tiny little circles and without any money appearing at all.

Am I the laziest person on the blog? The least curious? Don't answer that. But at least you can say that I'm not greedy or over-focused on money.

I did think that the "Moved across the aisle" clue was world-class.

Rob Buccino 10:15 AM  

I for one am tired of seeing the invention of the printed press attributed to Gutenberg, when solid evidence of moveable metal type and printing by Korean and Chinese artisans antedated Gutenberg by 150 years. Arguably Gutenberg's methods met with far greater distribution and success than earlier inventors, but to boldly claim him as the inventor is historically inaccurate-- and shouldn't be repeated by the Time's crossword clue editors, in my humble opinion.

jae 10:24 AM  

Easy-medium. I mostly breezed through this one except for the NE corner which was a bit tough for me. STONER was tricky, TASED was a WOE, and FEAST was not obvious.

Impressive construction, fun grid, cute theme, liked it quite a bit more than @Rex did.

Niallhost 10:44 AM  

Rex knows what SRO means. He was joking. Being playful. Not taking himself too seriously. I much prefer that to the often over-earnest tone of the write-ups. More of that, please.

Anyone else Natick on the CONGRUENCy/MAy section?

Anonymous 10:50 AM  

Yes, he's kidding. Hence the **.

Anonymous 10:51 AM  

He knows that. Hence the **.

Anonymous 10:53 AM  

Thank you for explaining the clue about "the" and commas. Now I'll be able to sleep tonight.

Gary Jugert 11:11 AM  

Estoy marcada como segura y sobreviví al ajuste del reloj.

It's raining here and I am standing at the window in utter disbelief.

Mostly harmless puzzle.

Propers: 10
Places: 4
Products: 7
Partials: 11
Foreignisms: 4
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 36 of 140 (26%)

Funnyisms: 6 😐

Tee-Hee: STONER.

Uniclues:

1 I can see Russia from my house.
2 Smart alec comments.
3 Celebrity chef Garten doesn't want to make Duck a l'Orange in a boat.
4 When you wear a cowboy hat in New York City.
5 Aroma d'City Council.

1 ALASKA PENINSULA ETHOS
2 GODDAUGHTER AMMO (~)
3 INA RESENTS THE CANOE (~)
4 ODESSA MOOD CONGRUENCE
5 CIVIC MINDED ODOR

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Frozen fish. CAVE ART SALMON.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anon 11:13 AM  

Another in a series of themers where you don't need the theme, at all, to solve and you look to see what it was when done. If you care.

CyC 11:17 AM  

Yep

Randall Schulz 11:19 AM  

The part of the auricle through which that piercing is made is called the “concha.”

Teedmn 11:30 AM  

Anyone else want MOOD CONflUENCE? That wasn’t my only struggle, with a truncated pirate's Arg for AYE, the popular SIs, and not knowing that “same as above” marks were called DITTOS x I had quoTeS in there. And for the longest time I thought the wild-water craft was a kayak and thus had no idea what currency was used at the Vatican.

Didn't have the grayed squares leading to PAY BUMP in the platform I used to solve so I didn’t get the bonus pay raise, har.

Thanks, Sid!

ChrisR 11:33 AM  

I spent at least five minutes changing MAy/MOOD CONGRUENCY into MAE/MOOD CONGRUENCE. Chasing down errors in a Sunday puzzle annoys me, but I'm glad to fill a gap in knowledge about Mae Jemison.

P.S.: Show's Really Oversold

Anonymous 11:34 AM  

SRO = Seats Ran Out

Gary Jugert 11:34 AM  

@Ken Freeland 9:59 AM
You are correct. At 26% for a Sunday, it's a nice clean puzzle, and with a mere 10 propers for a Sunday it should've felt breezy.

Gary Jugert 11:39 AM  

Sultry Religious Oenophiles

thefogman 11:44 AM  

Medium. I prefer cabbage to KALE as far as money synonyms go.

Carola 11:49 AM  

I agree with @Rex on the theme.

@Conrad, @Mack, @a few others - Thank you for the laughs re: [the] Russians, the kale to microgreens spectrum, and continuing the SRO joke.

LenFuego 12:00 PM  

I got off to a slow start, dropping in SUCROSE for "Simple Sugar", which led to "STAY" for "Partner of go", all of which felt so so so right, as if that was exactly the trap the constructor intended for me to fall in. Surprised I am the first one to mention it. Anyway, that was the last thing I let go ... no real trouble spots other than that.

I did want an actual revealer other than the puzzle title.

Anonymous 12:02 PM  

AHHH, got it. I guess it's been a long time since I've played tag :) Thanks to all who responded!

Anonymous 12:18 PM  

This was basically themelesss. Nothing about the theme is reflected in any clues nor answers. You don’t need to see or understand anything about it to solve the puzzle. All the shading g and circles for nothing. I found it disappointing. Maybe structurally it was a feat, but no payoff for solvers. Why not make PAYBUMP the last answer or something? Very lame

Anonymous 12:19 PM  

Yep

Anonymous 12:20 PM  

Sid, since you are a budding medical doctor/scientist, I have to get pedantic here and clarify that the term “epi” is not used in common medical parlance for epidural (as the clue is implying), but rather epinephrine, which one would only inject for life saving situations. You can do better.

jb129 12:37 PM  

LOVED it - circles & all :). Thank you, Sid for a very enjoyable Sunday!

okanaganer 12:39 PM  

Yes the theme was not a terribly exciting reward considering all the hijinks involved in it. No shaded squares in Across Lite but I read the note and glanced at the NYT web page version and noticed they were the "bumps". However I finished with a very annoying error: MOOD CONGRUENCY crossing MAY. That is just plain nasty!!

There seemed to be a lot of cultural references I had no clue about: FEAST, RASTA, TRISHA, IDOLS. All from different cultures I know little about, and the names would have been annoying except as Gary Jugert notes there were not a lot of them today. I could say it's nice to learn new things, but I know darn well I won't remember them (well maybe Jah and RASTA).

Typeovers: hands up for Thor being NAKED, and for SMOKER before STONER.

Re SCREWING, my favorite head is Robertson (the square one). The screw head sticks beautifully to the screwdriver just through friction.

Sailor 12:41 PM  

A good point. I agree that it's a stubborn Western misconception. For example, the Wikipedia article on the "Printing Press" says, in the second paragraph, that "Johannes Gutenberg invented the movable-type printing press" before going on to explain that books had been printed with moveable metal type in China in 1193 and Korea in 1377.

Gutenberg's contributions were many: developing a lead alloy ideally suited for the moveable type, a hand mold for casting the type, and an oil-based ink that worked better than existing water-based inks. He refined and streamlined the process.

But one important reason that his printing press revolutionized mass communication in Europe (as it had not in China and Korea) was simply that he was working with the Latin alphabet, and needed far fewer characters than the East Asian logographic writing systems.

Sailor 1:06 PM  

I agree that the square drive screw is very easy to work with. Besides staying on the bit nicely, the recess is also very resistant to stripping. But I'm having a hard time understanding how SCREWING didn't merit a Tee-Hee from Gary. Too obvious?

Natasha 1:17 PM  

According to the Alaska edition of the Associated Press Stylebook, “Alaskan” should only be used to describe a person who is from Alaska. If using an adjective to describe anything else related to Alaska you should use “Alaska,” so that’s why it’s “Alaska Peninsula,” I suppose. As an Alaskan I got it right away!

Andy Freude 1:23 PM  

@Fun_CFO, I think I saw that sign next to an ATM machine.

Andy Freude 1:30 PM  

And a worthy life’s work it is, Danny. Me, I’ve been working through the WTC for years now. Each morning, a different prelude & fugue. Takes 48 days to make the full circle, and I’ve now done that about 48 times. Mastery is still in the far future, but it’s a fascinating ride.

Anonymous 1:43 PM  

Not everyone appreciates Silly Rex’s Oddball humor.

M and A 1:48 PM  

har...
ABRA : @RP :: PEWIT : M&A

Theme and puz was A-OK, but I always prefer more humor in my SunPuz-sized, extra-long solvequest.

fave themers: CIVICMINDED & SWITCHPARTIES. Sound like a good plan. VOTE!
fave pay bump outcome: RUMBALL.

staff weeject pick: THE. Enjoyed its clue of mystery, "of a sort". Only 36 weejects? ... UDDERly HAUNTED.

Thanx, Mr. Sivakumar dude. Hard to beat a good gray/circled squares combo.

Masked & Anonymo13Us

today's runt crossword dessert. not anything spammy, here, sweet monitor folks:
**gruntz**

Anonymous 1:50 PM  

UDDERly easy themeless. I totally ignored the silly circles and shaded square "theme", both while solving and after coming here.
Otherwise, BE AT EASE (another EAT A SANDWICH, imho) and AMA were my only gripes.

Karl Pallmeyer 2:01 PM  

As a drummer I know my paradiddles, but I’d never encountered a “taradiddle” until today. Is this a common word? Never heard it before. But, as a drummer, my vocabulary is limited.

Anoa Bob 2:21 PM  

After seeing the "When this puzzle is done..." instructions and all the circles and shaded squares, I also solved it as a themeless. Since the gimmick turned out to not be something I would do a HAT DANCE over, kind of glad I did.

Favorite entry was FREQUENCY SHIFT. This "Doppler effect phenomenon" is something we experience in everyday life. When a car, for example, drives by, it's sound will change from a higher pitch as it approaches us to a lower one as goes away from us. In Sonar we could tell what direction a submarine was moving by the kind of FREQUENCY SHIFT between our "ping" and the returning ECHO. The Doppler effect also works for light and the "red SHIFT" for distant stars is consistent with an expanding universe. How's that for being CIVIC MINDED?





Mjb 2:21 PM  

Abra alternative to cadabra: Abra Bacon (played by Julie Harris in the movie) was first Aron's girlfriend, and then falls for Cal, in John Steinbeck's East of Eden.Too obscure now, I guess, but one of my favorites in the day.

Anonymous 2:22 PM  

I have to defend the clue for BARQ. Barq is the person who invented the root beer, so 'eponym' is the proper descriptor. "Dad" didn't invent "Dad's" (well, maybe someone's dad did).

Anonymous 2:23 PM  

It took me only a few seconds with the Google machine to find out that Edward BARQ was the founder of Barq's Brothers Bottling Company, that now makes Barq's Root Beer, so yes, it is literally an eponym. The clue is correct.

Anonymous 2:51 PM  

It's funny that Rex got really upset about "mood congruence" as a dubious and unheard-of phenomenon, and yet one of Rex's more conspicuous tendencies as a solver is to complain about isolated words that force him to recall negative or unpleasant or anxiety-inducing events.

Anonymous 3:30 PM  

@Andy Freude i bet that ATM machine asked you to enter your PIN number, too :)

-stephanie.

Anonymous 3:45 PM  

@anon 7:11am re: lids - i streamlined my tupperware and stopped saving things that were a pain to store, stained, missing lids, or whatever just because they were "still good." i use these deli containers https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B081DFLV9K/ so the containers nest/stack and the lids stack right on top. plus even if you use the half or double sizes, they all use the same lid. they also stack neatly when in use.

i also have some large square dinner plate size takeout containers, which also nest/stack, lids and all, and can't be confused with the other smaller round containers.

if someone sends me home with some other plasticware, once i'm finished with the contents i either wash and return it or recycle it. no more hunting or fighting off an avalanche of plastic while doing so.

-stephanie.

Anonymous 3:56 PM  

Paradiddle is also a step in tap dancing.

Mary in NE 4:15 PM  

Yunchan Lim was in Lincoln NE Friday night, and yes, he can play. Quite a workout for the pianist. I hope you enjoy his concert.

Smith 4:18 PM  

Any puzzle with MAE Jemison gets a thumbs up from me.

Anonymous 4:33 PM  

ATM machine

Anonymous 5:11 PM  

Please explain “the” for 81 across.

Neal 6:03 PM  

If you are using EPI in a delivery room, something has gone terribly wrong. It does NOT mean epidural.

Anonymous 6:33 PM  

Tara huh??? Oh my

Anonymous 6:34 PM  

Precisely!

Adam 6:45 PM  

SRO stands for Spines Resting Obliquely… duh…

Anonymous 7:17 PM  

"Ahhh...salmon skin roll."

Anonymous 7:29 PM  

I actually had a hard time getting started. Well. Glucose went right in, but then I stumbled for a bit. th

Cales 8:15 PM  

Same!

sf27shirley 8:17 PM  

Could someone explain 59A to me? Why is Q&A format AMA?

Anonymous 8:20 PM  

That was Arnold.

Pete 9:20 PM  

Just dropped by to say that if you don't know your MAE from a MA[y], nor MOODCONGRUENCE from MOODCONGRUENC[Y], you're pretty much screwed.

I'm sure that MOODCONGRUENCE will be/has been shown to not be a 'thing' within a few years of its becoming a 'thing'. In my youth there was 'situational learning', that you recalled things better in the same state you were in as when you learned it. For myself, and thousands of like-minded youths of the time, we thought that we should take tests as stoned as we were when we studied for them. As it turns out, it doesn't work that way.

@Sf27Shirley - AMA = Ask Me Anything, a Q&A format on reddit.

@Anon 7:39 PM - An EPIdural nerve block is commonly called an EPI by birthing women, their companions, and their medical staff.

Anonymous 9:38 PM  

Thank you for this! As someone who has gotten an epidural I was confused by that clue, I never heard any of my doctors call it an “epi.”

Anonymous 10:03 PM  

Thank you—I thought I was going crazy with this clue.

Anonymous 9:49 AM  

ABRA is just wrong.

Anonymous 11:38 AM  

In medical school our anatomy lab had a body named ABRA, as in ABRA-cadaver.

What does a pirate say on his 80th birthday?
“Aye, matey.”

That’s all folks.

Anonymous 7:15 PM  

Me too. Challenging clueing!

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