Feminine side, in Jungian psychology / TUES 11-26-24 / Part of a ski that cuts into the snow / "Terrible" stage of toddlerhood / Mover's tote

Tuesday, November 26, 2024

Hello, everyone! It’s Clare, back for the last Tuesday in November. We got our first real taste of winter here in D.C. last week when it briefly snowed; it was so chilly one day that I even decided to Metro instead of bike (which takes a lot). I’ve been enjoying my sports — yay, Liverpool at the top of the table by eight points; maybe yay on my Steelers, whose quality varies week to week; almost yay to the Washington Spirit, who made it to the NWSL championship but lost to the Orlando Pride last weekend; and big yay to the Warriors, who’ve had a great start to the season!

Anywho, on to the puzzle…

Constructor:
Killian Olson

Relative difficulty: Pretty easy for a Tuesday
THEME: AUTO FILLED(58A: Completed without manual input, as an online form … or a description of this puzzle's shaded squares) — The shaded squares of each theme answer spell out a car (or “auto”) brand

Theme answers:
  • OUT OF ORDER (16A: Not currently functioning) 
  • CONCRETE SLAB (22A: Section of a sidewalk) 
  • MARATHON DANCERS (35A: Participants in an endurance competition set to music) 
  • EGG MCMUFFINS (46A: Sandwiches that kick-started the fast-food breakfast industry)
Word of the Day: EGG MCMUFFINS (46A: Sandwiches that kick-started the fast-food breakfast industry)
McMuffin is a family of breakfast sandwiches sold by the international fast food restaurant chain McDonald's. The Egg McMuffin is the signature sandwich, which was invented in 1972 by Herb Peterson to resemble eggs benedict, a traditional American breakfast dish with English muffins, ham, eggs and hollandaise sauce… One reason the sandwich was [at-first] served open-faced was that a small tub of strawberry preserves was provided, along with a knife. The sweet and savory approach did not catch on (at least in the US), although a packet of strawberry preserves will still be provided upon request. The first McDonald's corporate-authorized Egg McMuffin was served at the Belleville, New Jersey, McDonald's in 1972. (Wiki)
• • •
Congrats to the constructor on a fun debut puzzle! This one had a clever theme and some nice long answers and left me little to complain about. All in all a good Tuesday. 

The AUTO FILLED (58A) theme is inventive, and topical, too, given how pervasive AUTO FILL is these days. I’m not usually a big shaded squares person, but it didn’t bother me much in this puzzle, and the car brands were all legit. The theme answers were a nice collection. I loved seeing EGG MCMUFFINS (46A) in the puzzle. I used to have so many sausage EGG MCMUFFINS when I was younger and traveling with my parents for one of my sporting events. MARATHON DANCERS (35A) seems slightly backward to me (like it could be “dance marathoners”), but it’s still a fun concept — apparently some of the original dance marathons went on for 1,000-plus hours, which is wild. CONCRETE SLAB (22A) was the most boring of the theme answers for me. OUT OF ORDER (16A) was also straightforward but has a nice ring to it. 

Along with the theme answers, I loved the long downs. We’ve got FOOD COMA (4D: After-meal drowsiness known scientifically as postprandial somnolence), which is apparently an actually scientific thing and something we may all experience come Thanksgiving when we’re eating a lot of food. The clue for TUMBLEWEED (10D: Western roller) was just about perfect, and it’s a word I can’t say I’ve ever seen in a crossword puzzle before, which excited me. RARING TO GO (26D: Bursting with anticipation) is a fun expression, and CHISELED (28D: Like a bodybuilder's physique) is a vivid word. I keep hoping someone other than my family will tell me how CHISELED my back muscles look after all my rock climbing, but *sigh* I guess I'll just keep waiting. 

My biggest hang-up with the puzzle was with a few of the clues. I got stuck with 44D: Good for skating, but bad for driving because I put “ice” instead of ICY. The clue seems to be calling for a noun but then instead gives you an adjective; ICY conditions are bad for driving and good for skating, but ICY isn’t bad for driving and good for skating. I don’t think 25A: High school events with elaborate proposals really works for PROMS because the events themselves don’t have elaborate proposals; it’s in the lead-up to the prom when you get “promposals” (but that might be nitpicking). For OMIT, I didn’t love the clue 23D: Replace with an ellipsis, maybe; the wording just seemed strange. As far as I’m aware, people don’t refer to a developer as a “dev,” so the clue for APP (6A: Dev's development) seemed like a long way to go to avoid a standard clue for some crosswordese. And if you’ll let me nitpick one final time, I don’t think 1A: They're artificial at half of all NFL stadiums really works for TURFS. You might say half the stadiums have artificial turf (singular), but it seems very strange to me to say that half the TURFS are artificial or that stadiums have artificial TURFS. Just another wording thing. 

On the other hand, I absolutely loved 52A: ___-referential (like the clue for 52-Across) as SELF. Seriously, that one clue/answer made my day and put me in a great mood for the rest of the solve. That’s just so clever (or I’m easily impressed). To a lesser degree, I thought 9A: Feature of a movie, or a movie review as STAR was also great. 

Although it didn’t feel like there were that many proper nouns in the puzzle, as I tried picking them out and typing them up, I see there were a pretty normal amount — LUNA; WEBMD, EGG MCMUFFINS, ANDOR, PEELE, KROC, EDYS, AMSTEL, GUIDO, ALDO, and Formula ONE. Maybe my feeling was because they seemed so familiar or easy, and I had a hard time trying to decide what could be a word of the day. I only struggled with AMSTEL (43D: Beer brand named for a Dutch river) (not a big beer drinker), though I imagine some people may not have seen or heard of ANDOR (6D: Disney+ series that's a prequel to "Rogue One"), given that it’s more recent. 

I liked having both KROC (14D) and EGG MCMUFFINS (46A) in the puzzle to connect McDonald’s. I’ve been guilty of checking my symptoms on WEBMD (21A: Site with a Symptom Checker feature) and deciding that I definitely have a brain tumor (spoiler: I don’t). I love Key & PEELE (7D: Key's partner in sketch comedy) sketches, even if it’s been way too many years. And I’ll truly never get used to seeing the ice cream brand EDYS (56D: Brand whose logo has an apostrophe shaped like an ice cream cone) in stores, rather than the West Coast version — Dreyer’s — which also has an ice cream cone in its logo. 

The puzzle wasn’t too bogged down by crosswordese. The only bits that really annoyed me were UH UH (2D: "Not a chance!"), AS AM I (28A: "Me too!," more formally), and I’M IN (18A: "Sounds like a plan!"). Those clues could have led to so many different, uninteresting answers, which I never like. I much prefer the form “slyest” rather than SLIEST (9D: Most cunning), which looks and feels very wrong. I also will never love the form of R AND B (12: Genre for D'Angelo or Daniel Caesar) in a crossword; my brain always wants to make it something like “Rand B” instead of reading it like it’s intended, as R&B. 

But overall the puzzle was cute and straightforward with pretty clean fill and was just what I needed. Not to be too SELF-referential.

Misc.:
  • 60A: Part of a ski that cuts into the snow as EDGE obviously made me think of Mikaela Shiffrin, who just got her 99th World Cup win last weekend and will get to go for 100 at her home mountain in Killington, Vermont, this weekend. Go, Miki!! 
  • GUIDO (47D: "Cars" character with an Italian accent) is seemingly used innocuously in this puzzle and references a car (or “auto,” which is on theme) from “Cars” that’s a small blue car that just dreams of being able to run pit stops in a race some day. But the word also apparently can be used as a slur against Italian-American men. So I would’ve left this one out of the puzzle. 
  • 19A: Require one's owner to vacuum, perhaps as SHED reminds me… I’m very likely getting a puppy in just a few weeks! I’ll definitely be preparing myself for chewed up shoes and vacuuming and being tired from chasing the pup around. 
  • I’ll never pass over a chance to share this Key & PEELE (7D) skit, where Keegan-Michael Key is a substitute teacher doing roll call; or this bit from the White House Correspondents Dinner, where Key does a bit he developed on the show and acts as President Obama’s “anger translator.”
And that’s all from me! Hope everyone has a happy Thanksgiving, and I’ll see you in December. 

Signed, Clare Carroll, who's hoping for an EGG-cellent December for my sports teams

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

58 comments:

jae 1:28 AM  

Easy-medium. Me too for ICe before ICY and I did not know ANDOR, RANDB [as clued), and GUIDO.

A some entertaining of theme answers, a couple of nice long downs plus not much junk, liked it or what @Clare said. Nice debut!

okanaganer 2:53 AM  

Hi Clare! Loved your "I’ve been guilty of checking my symptoms on WEBMD and deciding that I definitely have a brain tumor (spoiler: I don’t)". Me too. [Downer Alert: I've known a couple of people that actually did, which is awful.]

At first I tried to do this down clues only and it didn't go well. Too many "whaa?"s for the long downs, and Unknown Names: ANDOR and PEELE side by side?? Plus a big bad guess for 10D "western roller" being CHUCKWAGON and then STAGECOACH (actual correct answer TUMBLEWEED). And little missteps like EDIT before OMIT for "Replace with an ellipsis" at 23 down. Oh well, not the constructor's fault for my rogue choice of solving method.

Hands up for SLYEST before SLIEST. And then there is this unlikely trigger for a rant: CONCRETE SLAB for "Section of a sidewalk". The sidewalk in front of my house, in a kinda desirable neighborhood of postwar homes (Penticton's "K streets") is entirely... asphalt. As far as I can tell it is the only sidewalk in town with that distinction. Even the other side of this block has lovely CONCRETE SLABS, but on my side evidently: no concrete for you!!!! And so the street trees' roots heave the asphalt, creating major tripping hazards. Plus the trees are dying, oh well.

My friend visited overnight with her young daughter; at bedtime I said "for breakfast I'm making breakfast sandwiches" which didn't impress the girl, until her mom translated it to "EGG MCMUFFINS!" which absolutely saved the day.

Anonymous 3:12 AM  

Parabéns Rex. This puzzle wasn't my favorite. Didn't like the cluing and shows America's obsession with vehicles/car companies.

Anonymous 3:13 AM  

Neat revealer. As an amateur constructor I'm also familiar with AUTOFILL in the crossword sense. That gets you laughably terrible answers a lot of the time.

It's the second time this month that RARING TO GO shows up in the grid with that extra G. It actually has more NYT appearances than G-less RARIN' TO GO but RARIN' on its own outnumbers RARING.

Bob Mills 5:35 AM  

My computer doesn't provide shaded squares, so the theme was meaningless. I wouldn't have understood it, anyway.
Easy puzzle except for the ANDOR/APP cross. I also had "ice" instead of ICY until GUTSY forced my hand.

My Name 6:20 AM  

Clare, did you OMIT the Capitals without even an ellipsis to prove your point on that clue or you just don't watch ice(y) hockey? :) Ovechkin now is unlikely to overtake Gretzky now that his leg got broken. That omission nonwithstanding, nice write-up.

SouthsideJohnny 6:47 AM  

Nice write-up by our guest host today. I’m also in the who (or what) is ANDOR club.

I haven’t been to a McDonald’s in at least a decade - but I did go for a daily stop to grab a Sausage MCMUFFIN for quite a stretch, probably a year or two. If I recall correctly, they’re actually pretty good.

Anonymous 6:55 AM  

The puzzle was indeed fun. One quibble with the review -- "devs" is a widely used shorthand for the developers of games and apps.

kitshef 7:20 AM  

I really, really wanted SLYEST. I still do.

Fun fact: the tumbleweeds so associated with the American West are not native to the US, but are Russian plants accidentally introduced here in the late 1800s.

Although "good" can be a noun, in that clue it is clearly used as a adjective. So ICY, not ice.

Anonymous 7:28 AM  

Yup, came here to say this - I work in tech and I refer to the devs all the time

Anonymous 7:28 AM  

Fun puzzle, and great write-up today, Claire! As much as I love r&b, RANDB never looks right to me in a puzzle. I had the first four letters in place and thought, “Is there a music genre called RANDo?”

Anonymous 7:39 AM  

Nice puzzle. Nice write up. Clare, a thousand hours would be about 42 days. My research yielded a record of about 41 hours. I'd be interested in any other info on this.

Anonymous 7:42 AM  

""devs" is a widely used..." Actually, dev is almost universally used anymore. Almost no one in the US says developer.

Anonymous 7:51 AM  

When someone does this idea on a Saturday, to be true to the reality of autofill, the theme answers should be some bizarre permutation of the letters in the intended answer to the clue

Anthony In TX 7:57 AM  

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Using EGG MCMUFFIN to squeeze GMC in was a stroke of crossword magic, in my opinion.
Overall, a breezy, delightful Tuesday crossword. Bravo.

Lewis 8:05 AM  

Oh, I very much liked the punny revealer and the liveliness of the theme answers. I also liked that EDGE begins on one.

But what I really really liked – loved, actually – was [Afraid not?] for GUTSY. Yes, it’s a lovely pun on a common phrase. But it also immediately reminded me of another “afraid not” pun that immediately came to mind when I saw the clue – a joke punchline, as in the following:

A piece of string walks into a bar and walks up to the counter. The bartender says, “Sorry mate, we don’t serve pieces of strong in here, get lost. Upset, the piece of string walks out the door. A sudden thought strikes him. He ties himself in a knot and messes his hair up. He walks back into the bar and approaches the counter. The bartender says, “Aren’t you that piece of string from before…?” “No,” says the piece of string. “I’m a frayed knot.”

So, this simple clue/answer of [Afraid not?] for GUTSY thrust me into a dizzying pun whirlwind – a phrase famously punned upon being used as a pun itself! – which had me wowing for a spell.

Thank you for that, Killian, congratulations on your debut, and what a great springboard for the day your puzzle was for me!

Ryan 8:05 AM  

I agree on your analysis of "good". We could substitute ICY for the clue in contexts like the following: "The road was good for skating, but bad for driving" = "The road was ICY"

Coniuratos 8:07 AM  

Yeah, "dev" is a really common shortening of "developer"; I'd figure I see it most often as "game devs".

Dr.A 8:16 AM  

Never thought of D’Angelo as R and B, more Neo Soul or Rap fusion or something more avant garde but I guess that’s a minor issue. Thanks for the write up Clare! appreciate your time to fill in. Otherwise fun and cute puzzle for me.

burtonkd 8:16 AM  

Strangely, that is the only joke I can come up with on a moment’s notice.

burtonkd 8:20 AM  

Didn’t see the theme until it was solved, but a nice one for a Tuesday nonetheless. PPP all in my wheelhouse today. I was debating whether RP had a Rexrant RARIN’ to go again, then remembered it would be a guest host today. Nice job, btw. Such an eclectic group of teams to follow, where do you find the time?
Hands up for ICe>ICY. Quick cross-check fixed quickly, also resisted RANDB, but I’ve heard that tune enough to sing along.

RooMonster 8:30 AM  

Hey All !
Nice puz. Not a KNEE slapper, but does have A HEAP of F's in South Center!

After getting OUT OF ORDER, thought for a minute we were getting an alliteration puz. But quickly dispelled on that thought.

Liked the hidden AUTOs, GMC a neat find. What was better at McDonald's was the McGriddles when they first came out. They seem to have gotten blander over the years, though. Although their Hash Brown patty thing is awesome. I wish they were like 50¢ or so, though. I call them Fried Crack. Har.

That's it for ME toDAY.

Happy Tuesday.

Six F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Bruce 8:34 AM  

Can someone please explain SHED?

Bruce 8:39 AM  

Oh. Is it just that a dog SHEDding would require an owner to vacuum? That’s weirdly clued.

Anonymous 8:42 AM  

Software developers are absolutely and frequently shortened to “devs,” which works with the clue shortening applications to apps.

Anonymous 8:56 AM  

The least desirable guest.

Anonymous 9:08 AM  

If it makes anyone feel better about Guido, he's a real person--Guido Quaroni. He was an animator, technical artist, voice actor as well as an inventor (US patent 8669980) at Pixar. I like seeing his name; too bad it is a slur.

EasyEd 9:47 AM  

Thought this was a fun puzzle and fun review. Was thinking before I read the review that Rex would be writing how arbitrary the choice of cars was—saying that with a friendly smile…For the record, I’m with those who didn’t know Dev and prefer sly…

Tom T 9:51 AM  

I essentially fell victim to a Star Wars kealoa on a Tuesday! I am very familiar with the first three movies in that franchise but have paid little attention to all the added ones over the years. I knew there was a place in one of the original movies called Endor (aka the moon of Endor, apparently--ah, yes, home of the Ewoks), so of course I entered eNDOR. It seems fitting that some future Disney-fied effort might return us to the home of those adorable Ewoks.
Anyway, when I didn't get the Happy Music, I assumed the error was in the last space I filled in: _ EELE. I guessed P and got the dreaded "Almost There" message. Twenty-five "run the alphabet" attempts later with no "Congratulations" led me to change eNDOR to ANDOR and finally see APP.
The nyt site considers that a streak-worthy successful solve--it did not feel like it, especially on a Tuesday.

Blex 9:58 AM  

Do hockey players coming from the locker room turn to each other and say, "Icy conditions out there, Gord."

Anonymous 10:14 AM  

I knew eNDOR, and I knew PEELE, so ePP? DNF, on a TUESDAY? AND it’s my birthday! Sheesh. Otherwise, liked the puzzle. Also, Happy Birthday, Rex!

Anonymous 10:16 AM  

To expand on one of the quibbles, I think that when people use "turf" in the context of a sports stadium, it's almost always shorthand for "artificial turf." So it's an odd phrasing, as though the other half of NFL stadiums have non-artificial turf---but of course no one calls that "turf"; it's "real grass."

egsforbreakfast 10:22 AM  

I made some chili last night, but I put in too much thickener. You couldn't even get a spoon into it. We called it Chili CONCRETESLAB.

Mother: Children, I'm going to McDonald's.
Educated Son: ASAMI
Uneducated Son: ANIMA.


Thanks for your great write-up, Clare. You don't mention a college football team you root for. May I suggest "Go, Ducks!" And thanks and congrats to Killian Olson for a fun debut.

Nancy 10:24 AM  

First of all, let me nominate TURFS as one of the worst Plurals-of-Convenience of the entire yea

Second, don't you already have enough names in this puzzle -- many of them product names -- without also cluing the versatile word ONE with the name of a product?

This felt extremely pop-culture heavy while solving -- even though when I went back and counted, it wasn't as bad as I thought. But I didn't have much fun with this puzzle at all.

A word about WEBMD. I've always asked myself who he or she actually is and why Google Search keeps foisting this particular site on me. When I want an online answer to a medical question, I always type in "Mayo Clinic" or "Cleveland Clinic" or "CDC" or "NIH". I choose my WEBMDs with the same care that I choose my real life doctors, and I strongly suggest that you all do the same.

Liveprof 10:26 AM  

OUT OF ORDER?? I'll show you out of order. You don't know what out of order is, Mr. Trask. I'd show you but I'm too old, too tired, too f*cking blind. If I were the man I was five years ago, I'd take a flame thrower to this place!

Out of order!! Who the hell do you think you're talking to? I've been around, you know. There was a time that I could see. And I have seen. Boys like these -- younger than these -- with their arms torn off, their legs blown up -- but there is nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that.

Pacino's Oscar winning scene from The Scent of a Woman. Still gets to me.

mathgent 10:28 AM  

I b

Anonymous 10:36 AM  

Live prof,
Hope you don’t mind, but I have precisely the opposite reaction to that scene in Scent of a Woman. I think it’s Pacino at his worst. Absolutely over wrought scenery chewing. Laughable in my opinion.

BobL 10:54 AM  

impressive debut!

mathgent 10:54 AM  

I suppose GUIDO is an East Coast slur. We would call our Italian friends dagos or wops out here. Not as an insult. My friends would sometimes call me spic (my heritage is Spanish) or arab (my last name sounds Middle Eastern).

Pretty sparkly for a Tuesday. Learned AUTOFILL, WEBMD, a meaning of ANIMA.

Is GMC a make? I know it's a company that manufactures a lot of them.






Liveprof 11:20 AM  

Yeah, I'm not surprised. I have a good friend who said the same thing. I guess I'm just a softie, a marshmallow.

burtonkd 11:20 AM  

To quote a recent puzzle, General Motors Corporation, ever heard of it? And as a GMC mark, there is the Yukon, Acadia, Hummer, etc.

Liveprof 11:21 AM  

Pacino himself at the end of the scene turns to Charlie and says: How's that for cornball?

Gary Jugert 11:25 AM  

Le encantó una imagen.

Hi @Clare! Happy birthday @🦖.

My niece is fluent in Spanish and her texts sometimes default to Español and today I thought "encantó" sounds more like love than "love." I loved this puzzle except I hoped the revealer would be BOX CARS.

I have PTSD from [Mover's totes].

TUMBLEWEEDS and the chaos they cause in our arroyos is a regular discussion in our homeowner's association minutes. It's less that they are [Western rollers] and more that they're [Western get stuck in everything-ers]. It's when they're NOT rolling they become sensations.

I will pile on hating TURFS, but otherwise a fun and crunchy outing.

Speaking of TERFS, in JKR's tainted classic series, I am happy LUNA ends up with Neville. I have had pets my whole life and SHED detritus is a way of life. I am glad my dating ended before Facebook was around so I don't know or care what my EXES are up to anymore. Thankfully time is erasing all memories of those days too.

😫 RAN DB.

Propers: 5
Places: 0
Products: 6
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 19 of 76 (25%)

Funnyisms: 0 😫

Tee-Hee: [Most cunning].

Uniclues:

1 Dances in the garage for home schoolers.
2 Pilfer finger frill.
3 Dare to be me.
4 What happens in trough urinals.

1 PROMETTES
2 NAIL RAIDS
3 GUTSY SELF EASE
4 PEE LEADS FLOW

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: "Hang in there baby." COACHING PINATAS.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

pabloinnh 11:27 AM  

Back after a weekend away helping my Good Old Best Friend celebrate his upcoming 80th birthday. It's been almost a fifty year separation since we moved away but we're still excited to see each other and tearful when we part. Hope y'all have friends like that.

Puzz was easy, except for not recognizing AND/OR without its slash. Nice to see Clare's enthusiasm for Mikaela Shiffrin--fun fact, she grew up and learned to ski in our former small home town here in NH. Unquestionably the GOAT.

Congrats on the debut, OK. Optimal Kind of a Tuesday, and thanks for all the fun.

Whatsername 12:05 PM  

Good advice Google searching. And I would add, don’t take any of them too seriously.

jb129 12:06 PM  

Nice write-up, Clare and Happy Thanksgiving
to you:)]
This was pretty easy although I didn't like SLIEST
(I don't think the previous Editor would've ever allowed THAT) & RARING TO GO - again??
In what - one week?
But a fun puzzle, Killian & congrats on your debut :)

jberg 12:25 PM  

I think of GMC as making trucks, not AUTOs, but I figured out the theme anyway, and got the revealer from the U. But do people really say AUTOFILLED? If I had sent something out with an error, I might say "that was autofill," but wouldn't use it as a verb, let alone in the past tense. Still, I did get it, so OK.

The puzzle is doubling down on the G in RARING.... Ah well.

As for EXES--if I have them in the plural, I don't think it would be awkward. I only have one, and yes, it would be.

And personally, I'm getting tired of being expected to notice logos, especially for ice cream brands. But I know I'm old.

Anonymous 12:37 PM  

There has to be a joke involving a rapper with an enlarged prostate.

jberg 12:47 PM  

ANDOR is from The Lord of the Rings (and ENDOR is from the Old Testament--those Star Wars folks plagiarized all over the place). But I got it from the crosses.

But -- why, oh why, take a nice piece of sushi-grade AHI and sear it?

Clare, thanks for your write-up! Your list of sports teams leaves me feeling dazed, but your enthusiasm is great.

M and A 1:07 PM  

Happy B-Day, @RP!
Happy T-Day, Clare darlin. Primo sub-write-uppin.

The M&A house has two of these 4 themer cars, sooo ... our garage has been auto-filled. Plus the rusted-out GMC hulk, in the front yard.
har

staff weeject pick: APP. Mainly cuz it has that weird {Dev's development} clue. Didn't really understand the clue, but got APP anyhoo. Initially thought Dev = Devil, which I guess might still APPly?

Thought GUTSY had an interestin Yoda-style {Afraid not?} clue. I see a whole runtpuz theme possibility a-bubblin up, there.
Other faves: USURP = {Entire country's T-Day reaction to waaay overeating??}. FOODCOMA [ditto]. RARINGTOGO [sorta ditto?]. SHED clue.

Thanx for the whole lot-fill of themers, Mr. Olson dude. And congratz on a very nicely-done debut.

Masked & Anonymo6Us

no spam. only a typical runtpuz turkey:
**gruntz**

kitshef 1:36 PM  

Croce freestyle 962 was easy, and seemed to be deliberately clued that way e.g. the extra information in the clues for 4D, 61A.

Anonymous 2:22 PM  

I found it tricky for a Tuesday

Anoa Bob 2:44 PM  

This one seemed a little wobbly coming out of the gate. A couple of POCs (plural of convenience) at TURFS (!) and TWOS with the is-that-a-yes-or-a-no UHUH didn't strike me as WHOOP worthy.

The POC fest continued with some two for one types where OWN/PROM, AD/EXE, ERA/RAID and FETE/EP all get a letter count grid fill boost by sharing a final S. All those Ss just take up space without adding much of interest or value to the puzzle. Sort of like cheater squares.

The POCs that stood out the most though were when two of the theme entries, MARATHON DANCER and EGG MCMUFFIN, were a letter short of their slots and needed help doing their job. Getting themers with matching letter counts for symmetrically placed pairs raises the degree of difficulty of constructing a themed puzzle. Resorting to POCs to get that done greatly reduces that degree of difficulty and as a consequence lowers the overall score of the puzzle in my book.

Anonymous 3:50 PM  

thirded for "dev/devs" being commonplace. surprised to see clare think that wasn't a real thing.

[glad we got to talk about ice over icy and slyest before sliest tho bc, yes!]

-stephanie.

Anonymous 4:11 PM  

Yes. It’s rarin’

Juanita 7:29 PM  

I'd never heard of either D'Angelo or Daniel Caesar, so I wrote in RAN DB and thought, "Oh no, not yet another genre to learn."

Anonymous 8:18 PM  

Live prof,
Thanks for your gentle and good humored response.
Disagreements between civilized folk are possible. (Though you knew that already)

Anonymous 12:20 AM  

mathgent
Always enjoy your comments. I understand what you’re saying about the old expressions. Wop and dago. But…….
Unless the Italian Americans are close friends you might be wrong.
I found over my 72 years of life that it was useless, and tiring, to complain about comments and terms directed at us. So I gave up. Doesn’t mean I am comfortable with all that.
Also old ethnic groups have really been homogenized by the passage of time. Many Americans with Italian names may have maybe one or two Italian great grandparents. so the whole issue is irrelevant to them. It is true that many others with more connections to the old country are not by these terms.
still unless you know the person well , avoid the terms
Oddly enough, I wasn’t bothered by Guido. I didn’t even think of that slur when I did the puzzle. It is (or maybe was) a fairly common name in Italy. It’s the Italian equivalent of the French Guy.
Guido was (and occasionally still is) used frequently by Italian Americans to describe a low class Italian American.” He’s a real guido ” It was more a classist than an ethnic insult. I actually have rarely heard non Italian Americans use the term.
I don’t think it makes any sense to ban the name from crosswords.
dgd

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