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Gala throwaway / THU 11-21-24 / San Francisco organization supporting women in the arts / Classic sitcom streaming on Britbox, familiarly / On ice longer than normal, say? / Eponymous youth sports organization, the largest of its kind in the U.S. / Khan, former Pakistani prime minister / Informal green lights / N.B.A. player-turned-sports-analyst Rose / grazing (winter farm feeding strategy) / U.S. city named for a geological formation / Like some barrel-aged spirits
Thursday, November 21, 2024
Constructor: Katie Hoody
Relative difficulty: Medium (gimmick was simple, but overall cluing was tough)
Theme answers:
Wow. A puzzle for people who hate reading. And cats. I am ... neither of those people. The entire puzzle seems to exist so that the revealer can sneer at the idea of reading long books, which is to say, sneer at the idea of reading in general. You know what's TOO LONG and I wish I DIDN'T READ? That revealer. That "review" isn't "cheeky," it's idiotic. Nobody writes it out like that. It's TL;DR, and only TL;DR. Plus, are these books really so "long"? They don't strike me as iconically long. Not like War and Peace or Infinite Jest or, if you really want a doorstop, Clarissa (~950,000 words!). DAVID COPPERFIELD is just ... a novel by Dickens. I read it earlier this year. It's normal Dickens novel length—roughly the same length as [deep breath] Martin Chuzzlewit, Nicholas Nickleby, Bleak House, Little Dorritt, Dombey and Son, and Our Mutual Friend (all 340,000+ words). And while it's true that I have not read LES MISERABLES or ATLAS SHRUGGED, it ain't beause they're "TOO LONG," for god's sake. I don't demand Reverence of Literature from my crosswords, but this kind of shallow sneering nonsense can ... let's be unprofane and say "take a hike." Oh, is the book long? Is reading hard? Are you tired? Do you want a lollipop? Grow up. You don't have to read books if you don't want to, but your inability or unwillingness to read anything longer than a Tweet is a You problem. Don't blame the books. The books are exactly the length they're supposed to be. Also, if you're shouting "BAD KITTY!" at your actual kitten for any reason, let alone for the mere fact of "spilling milk," I'm taking your kitten away from you, asshole. Why are you giving the kitten milk, anyway? You clearly shouldn't own a cat. Give me the cat. You go manage your anger. Kitty and I are gonna curl up with a long book.
- DAVID COPPERFIELD (18A: 1850: 350,000+ words)
- LES MISERABLES (24A: 1862: 530,000+ words)
- ATLAS SHRUGGED (46A: 1957: 550,000+ words)
The Thénardiers, commonly known as Monsieur Thénardier (/təˈnɑːrdi.eɪ/; French pronunciation: [tenaʁdje]) and Madame Thénardier, are fictional characters, and the secondary antagonists in Victor Hugo's 1862 novel Les Misérables and in many adaptations of the novel into other media.They are unscrupulous working-class people who blame society for their sufferings. Early in the novel, they own an inn and cheat their customers. After they lose the inn in bankruptcy, they change their name to Jondrette and live by begging and petty thievery. They serve, alongside Javert, as one of the two arch-nemeses of the story's protagonist, Jean Valjean. While Javert represents the justice system that would punish Valjean, the Thénardiers represent the lawless subculture of society that would exploit him. The novel portrays them as shameless and abusive figures; some adaptations transform them into buffoonish characters, though sometimes still criminals, to provide comic relief from the generally more serious tone of the story. (wikipedia)
• • •
This puzzle is 16 wide, which may be one of the reasons it felt slow despite having a transparently easy theme. But mostly it felt slow because the cluing kept being paralyzingly vague. Occasionally there were names I just didn't know (like IMRAN) or terms I didn't know (BALE grazing?), but it was the vagueness that really slowed me down. Stuff like 37A: Tool for PATSY or 34D: Invoice unit for ITEM or 14D: Bolsters for AIDS (I had ADDS and PADS before AIDS). That PATSY / ITEM / JOISTS sections was sluggish for me, which made MISS SCARLET sluggish as well (again, a very vague clue—in "Clue" alone there are six "characters" (not counting "Mr. Boddy"), and anyway "classic whodunit" suggests book, not board game). Thank god for OAKY, which got me traction in that section, finally (33D: Like some barrel-aged spirits). I had some difficulty elsewhere as well. Getting from ["Stop with that!"] to "C'MON!" wasn't easy, especially considering that "M" was in IMRAN (a total mystery name) (42D: ___ Khan, former Pakistani prime minister). Had some trouble parsing "I MESSED UP" (35D: "That's on me"), in part because I kept wondering if the speaker was maybe offering to pay for something rather than owning up to a mistake. There's a "San Francisco organization supporting women in the arts"? Is anyone outside S.F. supposed to know this? Bizarre. And when did COALS become an acceptable plural? The gag Christmas gift is COAL. Uncountable noun. No "S." You might refer to "lumps of coal," but never COALS. Never COALS. Well, maybe if you’re getting raked over the COALS. I think the COALS have to be hot to be plural. As clued, COALS is about as absurd a plural as DADAS, which ... Oh look, they cross. Fun.
[PATSY]
- 53D: Informal green lights (AOKS) — my apologies to AOKS for leaving it out of the "absolutely terrible plurals" discussion, above
- 35A: On ice longer than normal, say? (IN OT) — So ... this clue is so weird. In sports slang, if a game is "on ice," that means it's sewn up, won, over. But if the game is IN OT (in overtime), then obviously that's not the meaning that this clue is after. If the game in question is a championship game, perhaps there is champagne "on ice" back in the locker room waiting for the outcome ... but the champagne itself wouldn't be IN OT, so that makes no sense either. The only thing that makes sense is that the game in question is a hockey game, and so the players are literally "on ice" longer than they "normally" would be (in a regulation-length game). Or else it's something to do with the Old Testament and I am way, way off base.
- 43A: Students run for it (GYM CLASS) — oof, the syntax here. Students run in GYM CLASS, yes. "For" ... you need a lawyer to make "for" OK. I thought this was some kind of CLASS office, like CLASS president or CLASS treasurer. That's probably the misunderstanding the clue was meant to provoke.
- 8D: Eponymous youth sports organization, the largest of its kind in the U.S. (POP WARNER)— formally known as "POP WARNER Little Scholars"—like Little League, but for (American) football.
- 9D: Location within an office building: Abbr. (STE) — short for "suite"
- 47D: Not a straight shot (SLICE) — this is golf. A non-straight shot is either a "hook" or a SLICE
- 41D: N.B.A. player-turned-sports-analyst Rose (JALEN) — I was at Michigan when the Fab Five became famous, so JALEN was a gimme for me, but it seems like the kind of sports name that might flummox the (sizable) non-sportsy contingent of solvers.
- 52D: Gala throwaway (CORE) — this one got me. Following [Theater throwaway] (STUB), it really got me. I assumed "Gala" was a party, and while you might throw your ticket STUB away after leaving the theater, I could not imagine what you might throw away after leaving a gala. I had COR- and still no idea because the cross was also baffling me. I was staring at B-STS for 62A: Records and ... nothing. BUSTS? Criminal "records" are made up of BUSTS? LOL, no. "Records" here are "top performances or most remarkable events," i.e. BESTS. And the [Gala throwaway] is a CORE. Because "Gala" is a variety of apple. Clearly I need coffee. So I'll stop here.
P.S: the tenth annual edition of the NYT's Puzzle Mania comes out on December 1. If you're not a dead-tree newspaper subscriber, you can now pre-order a copy of the puzzle extravaganza for yourself (for $7 + shipping). This is the holiday supplement that has tons of different puzzles in it, including (in previous years) a truly giant crossword puzzle, which you have to put on a large table or the floor to solve. Anyway, it's an event. And now you know how to get it if you want it.
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156 comments:
What about "coalS to Newcastle?
Good point, @Anon5:55 AM, plus getting raked over the COALS (64A).
Pretty easy for a Thursday, devoid of the rebus trickiness I dislike, but also pretty straightforward.
Overwrites:
13D: BArn grazing before BALE
52D: tOtE before CORE (thinking that people attending a gala get swag in tote bags, which are then discarded)
No WOEs, although I couldn't tell you what part of my brain had JALEN Rose (41D) and IMRAN Khan (42D) sequestered.
Never heard of it
Theme was OK (definitely did not take it as an insult to reading, and the revealer is fine; it’s what tl;dr stands for), but what I loved about this one was the clever clues. I counted six worthy of consideration by @Lewis:
- “Stop with that!” (BRAKE)
- “Cry over spilled milk” (BAD KITTY) - did not take umbrage over this, though I liked Rex’s riff
- “Gala throwaway” (CORE) - nice misdirect after “theater throwaway “ - I thought CORk at first.
- “Joey of children’s lit” (ROO)
- “On ice longer than normal, say” (IN OT) - definitely a hockey game
- “Students run for it” (GYM CLASS) - no objection to the “for”
And some nice long answers with I’M OPEN, QUIT STARING, I MESSED UP.
Never heard of JALEN Rose. I thought IMRAN Khan was IMRAh Khan, but the crosses fixed it. I agree with @Rex about the theme generally. And if felt like this week's Thursday puzzle ran on Wednesday and vice versa. Ah well.
I think OFL’s review was too kind. Two of my favorite books from high school which were the perfect length. I just reread Atlas Shrugged and liked it so much more as a retiree than as a student. I know many Rand haters out there but i think it is worth a read.
The NYT puzzle just keeps getting worse. Endless names. Endless obscure trivia. ABFAB?! It's a foreign sitcom from 1992. Why is it sitting atop my 2024 American crossword puzzle?
My eyes usually glaze over when Rex winds up and delivers a rant, and i invariably waste no time skipping down to the meatier stuff. Not this time. This time l looked forward ti it. This time I wanted it. This time I demanded it. This time I found myself cheering him on, wanting him to go even deeper and harder in his withering take-down of this truly offensive theme.
And adding a small point... The are lots of reason not to read "Altas Shrugged" That it is "too long" doesn't even crack the top ten reasons.
Hated this mean-spirited puzzle but loved Rex’s critique re everything, esp the insult to Dickens & the mistreatment of cats. Kitties cannot be bad. They are not morally responsible beings, they simply act out of their inherent feline nature, & are beautiful & delightful.
Re "Puzzle Mania" for those who don't have print subscription...
In the US you will pay $7.00 for the Puzzle Mania insert plus almost $6.00 for the cheapest shipping, for a total of about $13.00. It ships beginning December 9.
Or...you can pick up the December 1 Sunday print edition, which includes the Puzzle Mania, at a vendor near you (if available) for $12. That is, for a dollar less, you get the full print edition, the Puzzle Mania insert, and the insert almost two weeks earlier than you would by ordering it online.
Personally, it’s hard to get enthusiastic at the new world order over at the Times. The sample size is getting large enough that it can no longer be considered a statistical blip. Today we shoot right out of the gate with ABFAB, ABDUL and BRAVA - which is really too bad, as the grid had promise (I’m much more enamored with the theme/reveal than OFL, so that part was actually kind of fun).
AQABI and DUBAI are probably fine for a Thursday, but do we really need to stack them?
I’m sure I’m one of many who couldn’t care less that ARIEL “saved” ERIC. Unfortunately I have to deal with both of them crossing each other. While not as egregious as last weekend, this trend continues to be disturbing (and I didn’t even mention IMRAN crossing ELIAS).
Not easy to get started, it took OAKY X EKED which begat, eventually, GYMCLASS, followed the downs, and soon enough IMESSEDUP and POPWARNER, which took forever to think of, provided solid traction down the middle and the rest went relatively quickly. The full version of TLDR appeared thanks to lots of experience with Acrostics, and I find it ironic that it's never written out, TLDW.
Face palm on JALEN, as I was thinking of Rose as a first name, duh. STOPSTARING slowed down the NE as did the clue for VETTES. No idea about ITPS, BRAVA, or IMRAN but fair crosses.
I do agree with the gist of OFL's rant. OTOH I enjoyed solving this one, which had no Thursday tricksiness but required some cogitation and had some satisfying answers, so OK by me, KH. I Knew Half the trivia and thanks for all the fun.
Every time someone says "Too Long Didn't Read" I think of that great scene in Amadeus where the Emperor goes on about how there are "too many notes" in Mozart's music. My dear Rex, didn't you know there are only so many words a person can be expected to look at?
A fun puzzle with no rebuses and just enough resistance for a Thursday. I sympathize with Rex but have to admit that, as much as I enjoyed the first half of David Copperfield both times I attempted it, I never made it to the end.
COALS sounds just fine to me, and I wonder if it is a British thing? As the first comment points out, "carrying coals to Newcastle" is a common phrase - but maybe just in the UK?
JALEN Rose is probably better known to younger people as a sports analyst than as a player - a fixture on ESPN for over a decade.
I wonder what "kind" of thing Pop Warner is that it is the largest among. It's definitely not bigger than Little League, so maybe it's one of those things where you keep putting more qualifiers until you can claim superiority: "Vermont is the largest state east of the Mississippi that doesn't have an ocean border".
Hi. Just wanted to say “IMRAN” was my way to really crack open this puzzle. Who doesn’t know that Imran Khan was one of the greatest all-rounders to play the game! Cricket, that is.
I’m in Melbourne, Australia so I really liked finding a cricket clue as a small compensation for all the rubbish baseball/basketball clues endemic to the NYT crossword. And the thousands of rubbish clues for ‘Oreo’ whatever on earth that is.🤪
Every American should know Imran Khan. If you don’t you’re not paying attention to a very dangerous part of the world.
In hockey you can be on ice too long, literally, in OT
“On ice” = hockey
In complete agreement with Rex about the theme. Length is irrelevant in these books. I started Les Miserables and finished it, regardless of its length. I started Atlas Shrugged and quit partway through because it is garbage.
I found this to be easy for a Thursday. I didn't have problems with the clues; only the proper names. POP WARNER? What on earth is that? For being "the largest of its kind" it's apparently not big enough to be brought to my attention. While I agree about the regionality of BRAVA, it's no worse than all the NY-specific trivia we are constantly subjected to.
Finally, I say "BAD KITTY" nearly every day to a very deserving feline. I have two cats: one is a wonderful little angel. The other is like Atlas Shrugged -- Garbage.
Lots of unknown names (to me). And tricky clues, which I’ll never complain about. Yeah, the idea of the theme was somewhat off-putting. Couldn’t figure out how Gone with the Wind could be a whodunit.
PS @Roo. Yeah, I saw it. Nothing new under the sun.
Two moments I loved while solving:
• Filling in ACOUSTIC and suddenly hearing the lush strums and runs of acoustic guitars in my head as if they were actually playing near me.
• BAD KITTY warmed my heart, as it thrust scenes of my cat Wiley to mind, who, when hungry or ready to rest, gets adorably naughty, knocking things off tables, scratching furniture, or standing over the keyboard when I’m at the computer.
These two things alone won me over, turned my thumbs up on this puzzle. Raising them higher was freshness in the answers, with five debuts, including the conversational I MESSED UP and QUIT STARING. In addition, there were six answers that have appeared in the Times puzzle only once, and four that have appeared but twice. Thus, filling this in was not a same-old, same-old experience.
I also liked seeing ITEM and ITEN touching corners, and my brain liked the workout it got in the clue cracking.
Thus, a most pleasing outing. That’s twice in your two Times puzzles, Katie, and makes me eager for more. Thank you!
Rex explained this.
Kind of a slog with no payoff. Too many cluing were simply vague and imprecise rather than clever. The revealer, well, didn't.
Did get ABFAB, however improbably, as I've never seen the program.
Liked ABFAB and Patsy mentions.
coals and dadas ruined this for me. there should be a crossword jail
Also figured 35A is exclusively referring to hockey
I love your point about qualifying things to the point of insignificance. I assume you know that Vermont isn't the largest state east of the Mississippi without an ocean border. Does someone know what pop warner is the largest of?
Hey All !
16 wide puz, because the Revealer was TOO LONG.
I'm sure others will note (quite surprised Rex didn't comment on it) the dupe of ROO and ROOSTERS. Now, for me, that's freakin awesome (a YAY ME type thing 😁), but since ROO of Winnie The Pooh is a kangaroo, maybe it's passable. My nickname came from ROOSTER, not kangaroo, in case you cared. Har. I'm sure @pablo will say BOOS to the ROOS.
Can't remember the word count in my book, Changing Times, but it's not quite that high! At 125 pages, it's a quick (but good!) read. Get it for Christmas at Amazon or barnesandnoble.com. Search Darrin Vail. Support your fellow blogger. 😁👍
Only 32 Blockers in an oversized grid, nice. Fill decent, considering the Themers are one row apart from each other, tough to get fill through them. Plus the two Longest Downs go through 3 of the Themers! And they're good!
BRAVA Katie on a good puz.
ABFAB is a good watch if you've never seen it before. It gets a bit tired toward the last season of the same type stuff, but definitely a funny romp.
Did I mention the two ROOs?
Happy Thursday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Three novels, all a bit on the long side, with names that can be arranged symmetrically with the revealer--that's the theme? Maybe the absurdity of pairing an expanded online initialism into a comment on serious literature (plus the Rand book) will strike some as amusing. Not me. The hardest part for me was two wrong answers--struTS before JOISTS, and aMeN before C'MON. Also not knowing what color PUCE is--I thought more pinkish.
I'd never heard of BALE grazing, but it sounds like a good idea, if a tough clue.
But -- RV LOT? Next we'll get PARKING LOT clued as 'place to leave your automobile.' And crossing INOT, yet.
Most birds are early, it's just that the ROOSTERS announce themselves more stridently.
But today I did learn about the guitalele, so that was fun.
Finished it without cheating, but it took a while. The URKEL/CORE cross was tough (I had UNKEL/CONE from the start). I also assumed that the three volumes that were TOOLONGDIDN'TREAD were somehow connected. Then I came up with ATLASSHRUGGED and the others followed. Good puzzle; not as far-fetched as many Thursdays.
". . .whose first letter comes alphabetically after T, and is not Wisconsin or West Virginia."
Great puzzle. Typical rant.
Rex, you are going to have a nervous breakdown. Between the long books tirade and the kitty thing - it's gotten me rankled and I haven't even had my coffee yet. I liked the puzzle, though I have only read David Copperfield. BUT I love LesMiz, saw it three times on stage. Twice on BWay and once in a local production. One of my favorites shows of all time. It is hard to believe that the same guy who did the music for Les Miz also scored Miss Saigon, probably my least favorite musical ever. Not an Ayn Rand fan at all. I had JOInTS before JOISTS. And I stumbled a bit with the abbreviations of both Lieutenant Colonels and Mademoiselles. And hesitated at COALS. kinda wonky there. And I agree with Rex about GYMCLASS, could have been clued much better. I enjoyed the puzzle and I am sure it will be the highlight of my day as I am having root canal this afternoon.
No Moby Dick? That was a whale of a read!
Or a fade or a draw. Take it from a slicer, who pretends it is a power fader
Well, there's Illinois, Indiana,..... Make it "in New England" and you're golden.
If only they'd clued him as "cricket great who served as Prime Minister of Pakistan and is now in prison," everybody would have got it!
Playful, clever, & fun! I’m with Lewis on this one.
As somebody who’s read all those books, (with the exception of Les Miserables) - including War and Peace and Infinite Jest (including the many, many, many footnotes therein), I feel qualified to say: Lighten up! I believe the theme answer was merely meant to amuse. Of course, that interpretation wouldn’t make for a very interesting rant!
Any puzzle that has Atlas Shrugged in it is a definite winner ! That book should be required reading for every college student ! Loved this puzzle many thanks !
Definitely put me in camp of BADKITTY more endearing than needing to call Cat Protective Services on its owner. They do funny things, sometimes destructive, sometimes annoying, and having a little convo with an admonishment is gonna happen.
If @Rex does the pet photo thing again during the holidays, I know I have some pics of ours being BADKITTY cats.
Loves me some Dickens, pretty good with Victor Hugo. OTOH I think a pretty strong TL;DR argument could be made for one of these titles, though in my case the acronym would have to be taken as "Too long; DID read." Suitable for the most succinct review of all time, variously attributed (I'm going with Ambrose Bierce), widely applicable but never more so than in the interminable, wooden and relentlessly didactic featured here: "The only problem with this book is that the covers are too far apart."
Yuck. Especially right now. Totally lost my favor with that one.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs."
[Kung Fu Monkey -- Ephemera, blog post, March 19, 2009]”
― John Rogers
Anybody else have "sparse" instead of "scarce?"
I’d say that AbFab is iconic and global enough to lead any puzzle.
We may not always agree with Rex but we are incredibly lucky to have his intense interest in crossword puzzles keeping this blog alive and fresh. Thought this puzzle had a fun idea if maybe a little corny and aimed at books some of us have actually read—or read about enough to know what was up. I took BADKITTY with a sense of humor—cluing was great. Just wish I could have remembered ABFAB the way I did the Fab Five.
This was my reaction: I ordered filet mignon medium rare and I got scrambled eggs infused with a million herbs I never heard of. The scrambled eggs were mostly left uneaten altho I was able to nibble on the less herby parts.
Where to even start. I mean ABFAB? POP WARNER? BAD KITTY (as clued) Toss in what my mind wandered to: What the hell is an 1850: 350,000+words supposed to mean!!!! Forget any ketchup. I'll try the toast...I did.
I moved on down to the middle and my filet mignon arrived with ROOSTERS. Finally! I got exactly one....My first....BOOS and RV LOTS. What else. A PATSY here, and ARIEL there; MMES didn't fool me and I even figured out GYM CLASS.
So with a chomp on my eggs, I was able to swallow TOO LONG DIDN'T READ. Oh, it's about books. So, what books and why should I care about how many pages they have or try and guess what year they came out and why is this puzzle thumbing its nose at me....
I cheated. I had most of DAVID COPPERFIELD penned in and then cheated. On to the next one....Can it be LES MISERABLES? Yes [sigh]...Next! Cheat some more on JALEN and IMRAN and hope ATLAS SHRUGGED....He did.
I was really looking for a filet on my Thursday. I got the angst, agita dyspepsia I always fear and not a single Tums to be found.
Not my cuppa today. I felt I was on another planet; a distant one that was cold and unfriendly. Gee, I can't wait for Friday.... Oh, I read ATLAS SHRUGGED because everyone I knew in San Francisco thought Ayn Rand and her "gateway drug" theory was the best thing since scrambled eggs.
Best write-up ever, thanks Rex. Kindasorta enjoyed the puzzle, but had to cheat on whomever Jalen is or was. Happily I was once in Aqaba, so easy start on top line.
Pop Warner is Little League, but for football. It's been around for almost 100 years. It's massive. If your town doesn't have a team, a town nearby does.
Clue was also a movie, which I think counts as a whodunit.
DNF for me on the AQA_A/_ALE cross. I also somehow thought SpARCE was a word for "not easy to find" for an embarrassingly long time. I had to realize pORE for "gala throwaway" didn't make any sense before seeing my mistake.
Had B____ for "San Fran organization supporting women..." and really, really wanted it to be a bay/bae pun. (BaeSF, maybe?) I figured that was why it was in the puzzle and would make it inferable. Wrong, again.
If I had thought of cricket, I would've at least had a chance at IMRAN Khan, but as it was I had to get all of the crosses. At least I knew the name IMRAN.
“There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." -John Rogers
Even worse, I had SpARCE. Sigh
I am surprised that nobody, including OFL, has commented on the geometrical inaccuracy of "Volume divided by height" as AREA. It works for certain shapes, like cylinders and cubes, but is not even close for, say, a cone. I was wracking my brain for an accurate answer, but finally gave in and attributed it to poor editing. Would Will have allowed that?
Disagree. Don't forget that there are people younger than that show are in their 30s now. 92 is getting to be a pretty dated reference.
In Canada, it comes to like $50 to order the insert cause for some reason it costs $40 to ship paper.
Good comp!
If one day you come across a puzzle that has IN SEARCH OF LOST TIME in it, know it wiill be mine.
ATLASSHRUGGED is both too long and an utterly terrible book. It’s like an 1100-page screed against being kind to people or showing any empathy whatsoever. It also features the most one-dimensional characters outside of a Jack Chick tract. In the world of Ayn Rand, you as a retiree are only entitled to what you earned in your life and no government assistance whatsoever. I think that book should be read by nobody.
Since it is the New York Times puzzle, a few homer clues are kosher.
This seems an auspicious time to let this group know that my first novel, The Fire Bell Strikes at Midnight, was published last month by Bloodhound Books. It's set in the 1980s in a small Sierra Nevada town coping with economic woes, real estate speculation, and a pending forest fire. It's not as long as David Copperfield or Les Miserables but was inspired in part by the sagas of that era. It's not overtly political but portrays struggles involving class, race, gender, the environment, and more. Most reader reviews say it is hard to put down and well-written. (Reviews are on Goodreads and Amazon.) You can get it online from all the major booksellers either as an eBook or paperback. I just turned 72 so this has been an unexpected gift late in life. You can reach me at sf27shirley@gmail.com
Read the three puzzle books
Yeah I guess but my kids born in 92 and 94 saw me cackling for years at my dvd collection and there was a movie in 2016. They know it.
For the record ABFAB is "Absolutely Fabulous (TV Series 1992–2012) The wild misadventures of Edina "Eddy" Monsoon and her best friend Patsy Stone, who live in a nearly constant haze of drugged, drunken selfishness." Which you al kept saying you had trouble remembering. I looked it up because I have never heard of it.
And I am old enough, AQABA I had no problem with because I saw Laurence of Arabia in the theater when it first came out.
In Search of Lost Newsweek was pretty good too.
I had the early U and T in place for the "take a picture" clue and filled in jUsTShootme, which I think is my new favourite wrong answer.
Also, kudos to Rex for getting meta by going off on a long rant about the TL;DR puzzle. (The paragraph breaking down IN OT was the icing on the cake.)
Easy Peasy. ABFAB crossing ABDUL got me rolling. The first two books were high school requirements, the third for college 60 years ago, but I'm still working on MOBY DICK. Agree COALS badly clued.
Rex was especially cranky this morning. I didn’t know of the SF organization for women in arts, for instance, and still grokked BRAVA quickly.
Bigger issue was yesterday’s rebuzzle landing on a Wednesday. Made me subconsciously think it was Thursday - to the point that I tried to find the NFL game on Prime last night.
What happened to the Thursday night game? When I remembered it was only Wednesday, remembered vaguely wasn’t there a Car 54 with that theme? When the Schnauzers always fought on Thursday night so Toody and Muldoon faked that it was Friday (and hilarity ensued).
So instead of watching football, watched a 60+ year old sitcom. May not know my classics but I know 60s TV!
Car 54 What Happened to Thursday? Part 2
(Sorry if this post qualifies as TL;DR)
You know what this puzzle's constructor is getting for Christmas? COALS
Some books are too long Rex. In fact all the Dickens’ works you cited suffer from that problem. Others too. But at least he’s better than Rand.
Had a tough time getting traction, even getting ABFAB. I love BRAVA the org- I used to live 2 blocks from their theater and have been to many performances and events there- but damn, they are a very local arts org and not appropriate for a national newspaper puzzle. IMO, anyone who loves reading Ayn Rand hates reading.
As a 50-year resident of San Francisco, I got BRAVA from crosses! It is a walk down memory lane. I often strolled 24th Street in the ‘80s with a friend and sometimes took in a movie at the old Rosevelt/York Theater after gorging at the Roosevelt Tamale Parlor. Glad to know it has a new life in live theater. Apparently the St. Francis Foundation is still nearby.
I wonder if this hasn't already been done; I seem to have some remembrance of things past along these lines. I'll give it a bit more thought later when, after a dull day with the prospect of a depressing morrow, I''ll sit down to enjoy a morsel of tea-soaked petites madeleines.
Ayn Rand. She put the ASS in ATLASSHRUGGED.
I've been known to say "I'm F'ed up" when I've gotten a bit too high, but what does it mean to say IMESSEDUP. Maybe it's for the next morning and means I'm Sobered Up.
Puzzled over "On ice longer than normal, say". I kept wondering how can INOT get this?
I'll defer to poker-playing @Anoa Bob on this, but if you look at the pot and someone hasn't anted, might you not say "BADKITTY"?
After reading @Rex's JEER/CHIDES, Katie Hoody must feel like "IMRAN out of town!" Don't worry, Katie. It was a clever theme and I am certain that you actually do read. Thanks for a fun one!
Once I realized that I wasn't looking for the EMANCIPATION PROCLAMATION or the GETTYSBURG ADDRESS, I was AOK. Come to think of it, those would have taken absolutely forever to proclaim and address -- wouldn't they?
No -- it's book titles! And I see the outlines of DAVID COPPERFIELD emerging. Looks like they will be very well-known books.
I see the "cheeky review" clue at 56A. And, without a single crossing letter, I know that the answer will be TOO LONG, DIDN'T READ. I chuckle. So adorable.
It certainly describes my own novel-reading pattern. Of the three theme novels, I've only read ATLAS SHRUGGED. I was pretty young when I read it; I enjoyed it; I didn't realize at the time how much of a polemic it was.
My cluing FAVES were BAD KITTY, ROOSTERS, and IN OT. But in a million years, I would not have connected QUIT STARING to the "take a picture" clue (11D). I'm trying to imagine who would say that to whom -- and under what circumstances? It sounds like a written line from a movie and not something you'd ever hear in real life.
Found this puzzle curiosity-provoking at the outset and deliciously amusing when I read the revealer. An entertaining puzzle.
Mixed feelings, but I don’t understand the hate for this one. Yes some of the fill was like pulling teeth but worth it for the clever theme and revealer combination. I am an avid reader but have never read any of those books and why? Because they’re too long.
I had some rough patches in the lower half, mostly of my own doing. PLUM for PUCE, POSTS for BESTS, NODS for AOKS, SHAMES for CHIDES, LOUIES for LT COLS, on top of which MISS SCARLET never occurred to me because I selfishly assign her identity solely to my favorite, Gone With The Wind. But once I unscrambled that and saw the revealer, it was a very sweet aha moment. Thank you Katie, for an interesting and challenging Thursday.
Demasiado largo; no lo leí.
I wonder if TL;DR on Spanish Twitter is DL;NLL? Too long, didn't read is the anthem of my life. I still look to see how long a book is before I decide to go through it. Even the books on tape. And the computer full of stuff I've written is universally not worth anyone's effort to plow through it. I should get a TL;DR tee-shirt.
As for the books, I only know DAVID COPPERFIELD as a magician, LES MISERABLE from the Broadway soundtrack, and ATLAS SHRUGGED from crossword puzzles since its author's first name is a critical dab of glue for grids everywhere.
I picked around the edges of the theme entries for the majority of the solve. I felt certain early on this was going to whoop me, clear up until I could see they were going to be ordinary book titles from bloated tomes, and poof, I wrote in all three at once. The reveal took a bit longer, and it was worth the wait.
I own a guitarlele of course (I spell it with the R) and it sounds wretched, but it's a super handy composing tool because you can sit with it and your laptop in your La-Z-Boy and take naps anytime the melody starts fighting back.
Super gunky overall,but the colloquial phrases throughout this thing are all charming. COALS is a rough ending, but if that's my big complaint, it's pretty great. [Gala throwaway] after the deke at [Theater throwaway] is fabulous.
❤️ Ka-POW! Bad Kitty! I'm Open.
Propers: 10 {boo}
Places: 4
Products: 5
Partials: 14 {ouch}
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 35 of 75 (47%) {I think this is a dubious world record today.}
Funnyisms: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: PUCE.
Uniclues:
1 Roadkill in Tallahassee that tastes just like chicken.
2 "There's no crying in dodgeball."
3 Part of an orange for a concussed pre-teen.
4 Phrase you hear prior to being beaten by a marsupial.
1 I-10 ROOSTERS
2 GYM CLASS "C'MON"
3 POP WARNER SLICE
4 "QUIT STARING ROO"
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The first draft of Dracula entitled, "I'm Gonna Bite You So Hard." BRAM RELIC.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
got pretty annoyed with PUCE, as i would not describe that color as particularly “dark,” nor “purple,” and especially not “dark purple”
Despite the many complete unknowns, the dumbass theme and some obnoxious fill, I found today Wednesday-easy. The "editor" clearly got Wednesday and Thursday mixed up, running the rebus puzzle yesterday.
I agree with Anonymous 1. AbFab is iconic, especially if you're gay (although the word "iconic" is becoming less iconic by the day, IMHO). Also, if you think 1992 is a dated reference then the NYT crossword is going to break your heart
Among other definitions of "cheeky" are "rude, impudent, or disrespectful". Doesn't that satisfy your outrage, Rex ? Or is the kitty abuse to much to bear? And your complaint that someone dares to spell out an online abbreviation ! Too funny. IMO, best Thursday in a long time.
Agree. I appreciate Rex Parker every day whether I agree with him or not. And I’m a cat lover who also took BAD KITTY as harmless. I mean what does it really matter what you say to a cat? They’re gonna ignore you anyway.
Usually, having spent my first 30 years in Britain is a big solving disadvantage. Hello to random acronyms for colleges, institutions such as Coe, all of the above's athletes, and occasionally their mascots, too!
So it was nice to be able to write in IMRAN Khan, who was an all-time great cricket player before becoming PM, off no crosses. And then have that make the brutal 45A easier to parse.
On the easy side for me. No erasures but I did not know JALEN, IMRAN, BRAVA, and ARIEL & ERIC (last fill).
Smooth grid, cute idea, liked it more than @Rex did but then I didn’t take it personally.
Didn't seem much like a normal ThursPuz theme, I'd grant. No wordplay -- altho certainly mucho wordcount.
staff weeject pick [of only 6 candidates]: ROO. [yo, @Roo]. And a double servin of it, when U also add ROOSTERS.
some fave stuff: FAVES. GYMCLASS clue. QUITSTARING. MISSSSSCARLET.
Thanx, Ms. Hoody darlin.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
Too many names in yer NYTPuzs? M&A offers a possible solution, in the followin spamless puz:
**gruntz**
I’m with you. Love Atlas Shrugged and could spend days just rereading the Galt’s Gulch section.
It’s interesting that the same edition of the NYT as this puzzle there are several letters to the editor on this very topic - students unwilling to read long books
Great comment, Doc. I'll have to check out that blog. Thanks.
@Rex, I loved your write-up!
Challenging for me, at least at the start. My way in was AQABA over DUBAI and a descent along the right side of the grid to the ICIClLE level, after which the incorrect aMeN (hi, @pabloinnh) brought me to a halt. Then it was a hunt and peck mission, getting a square here and there, until DAVID COPPERFIELD materialized and disclosed the theme, making an easier way to the finish.
Puzzles that start out with PPP at 1A x !D are never among my FAVES, and here we also needed to come up with BRAVA and the beginnings of two titles. C'MON! (hi, @Southside Johnny). Lingering disgruntlement with that corner colored my view of the puzzle.
Thanks, Ed. I found myself getting really annoyed at Rex’s petulance. Your approach is far healthier and I’ll try to keep it in mind.
@ DrBB 9:44 Love your quote beginning there are two.. from John Rogers. Apt and amusing because of his misdirect. I was bridling at the first description since he had named "Lord of the Rings" first. Then came the finish "The other, of course, involves Orcs."
Well, I obsessively read "Atlas..." as a college student about a year after it came out. I was entranced, confused, and sometimes bored. Happily It did not lead to any lifetime obsessions and I'm surprised at the commenter who liked it better in older age.
I kinda liked the theme. I didn't read it as thinking those books are terribly long per se, but that they're longer than they need to be. Les Miserables has those extended sections describing things like the Parisian sewer system; Charles Dickens never used one word where ten would do the trick, and doesn't Atlas Shrugged have, like, a 90-page multi-chapter lecture from one of the main characters? Anyway, it made me chuckle.
Sigh... the names are back, with a vengeance. The unknowns for me were: BRAVA POPWARNER ERIC ARIEL JALEN ELIAS IMRAN which is more than enough. Where's Gary Jugert's Grid Gunk Gauge when I need it?
I also was hoping the SF women's arts org would be something like BAYBZ. That would have been fun! Also the winter farm feeding looked like it might be KALE grazing. Those are some pampered cattle!
I started out thinking this wasn't going to be so hard. But then it was.
I'll start with I didn't like Bad Kitty!
Didn't know JALEN, PATSY, POP WARNER - I don't know what CORE is - someone explain? So I wound up being disappointed - but at least wasn't two rebuses in a row (REBI?)
Agree with you Easy Ed - we are lucky to have Rex & this blog - Rex Rants & all. If we didn't then you'd all be complaining about THAT. "Complainers gotta complain"
Fun fact — the model for the picture of Miss Scarlet in the picture isn’t eh post was Kedakai Turner, wife of the late James Lipton.
1992 is somehow “dated” in the sea (that the NYT puzzle has always been) of pop culture that spans the breadth of the 20th century?
Les Miserables is one of my favorite books of all times and the play/musical is essentially a book review blurb because it doesn’t cover MOST of what the book does.
Yes, I did. That was the corner that stymied me, because I thought it would be TITLES I DIDN"T READ, but then GPA killed that possibility. Then I couldn't get CORE...eventually I had to cheat. Rats.
I had CORK for Gala throwaway. As in a wine bottle CORK. which left me with BKSTS. I was like “why do they have an abbreviation answer without an abbreviated clue?!?” Then duh.
Lived in SF in the 80s, LOVED Roosevelt's Tamale Parlor, even though we had 2 car stereos stolen when parked on Mission Street. Our kids went to the new incarnation recently (the old sign is still there) and liked it.
It so happens that I and almost all of my classmates read David Copperfield and Atlas Shrugged at the same time, and we all thought Atlas Shrugged was better. Rand was very good at writing a real page turner. It's true her characters were a little one-dimensional. But the same was true for Dickens. Uriah Heep and Wesley Mooch had no good bone in their bodies. Whereas David Copperfield and Dagny Taggart could do no wrong, but each had a mystery to solve about the reasons for their predicaments. And, surprisingly, we all enjoyed the rather bombastic moralism epitomized by John Galt and his famous speech, compared to the equally bombastic moralism of Dickens, who had his own political points to make.
It wasn't until I read A Tale of Two Cities that I realized what a great writer Dickens could be (It was the best of times, it was the worst of times is in everyone's memory even today). And it really wasn't until I read Rand's earlier novel that I understood why her works were generally inferior. It took her a very long time to write Atlas Shrugged, and she needed every minute of it. Whereas Dickens was expected to complete a new novel every other year, and had the talent to do so, to the acclaim of many millions of his readers all over the world. You and I may never open Martin Chuzzlewit, but our grandparents read each one with joy and admiration.
Boy howdy I don’t know if Rex was being “meta” as suggested above or whether he just got up on the wrong side of the bed! Once I got to the revealer, did I think…”well, there are a lot of books a lot longer than these”…yes. Did I think it was an insult to reading and literature…no. Then I was surprised with so many people who agreed with Rex, AND the idea it would be horrible to say “BADKITTY” other than the fact that it’s useless since cats generally have no shame.
I will say that I was lucky to actually know JALEN, as he played on “my” NBA team for awhile. Still…I didn’t think this puzzle was overly filled with “propers.” Also interesting that DUBAI shows up the day after UAE.
Bottom line: I enjoyed the puzzle on this day which consisted of an annual physical at 9 and teeth cleaning…um…in a half an hour! Gotta go!
Rex, you got me laughing twice today, first with the kitty-napping and then with the OT = Old Testament. Good stuff!
BALE grazing - driving through the countryside where I grew up, you will often see a big bale of hay in the snowy cattle pen with the cattle eating off of it. I never knew it was called bale grazing but when I saw the clue, I couldn't imagine it could be anything else.
I've read all three books, the Ayn Rand tome multiple times (though always skipping the long John Galt radio speech towards the end so I didn't actually read all 550,000 words, and no, I didn't fall for the propaganda embedded in it.) "War and Peace" I've read but didn't read all of the supplementary stuff at the end so I didn't read all of that either. And no, I did not finish "Infinite Jest" though I've attempted it a couple of times. I adore a long book. I look for the fattest book on the shelf and hope it sounds interesting. I want something I can immerse myself in.
I got a smile when I saw the revealer so thanks, Katie Hoody!
D'oh! I totally MESSED UP trying to figure out how a 52D "Gala throwaway" could be a CORE. Like OFL, I was beautifully set up by its next door neighbor 51D STUB for "Theater throwaway". My chagrin is especially stinging because I've been eating Gala apples for years!
I couldn't help noticing that there are six of the super helpful two for one POCs (plural of convenience) where a Down and an Across both get a letter count grid fill boost by sharing a final S. One is where a two fer is most likely to be found, in the bottom rightmost square at the end of DADA/COAL. See also AID/VETTE, CASE/JOIST, BOO/MME, LTCOL/BEST and CHIDE/APE.
Particularly lame and ill-timed anti-literacy and anti-thinking puzzle in wake of the ignorance-driven victory of he-I-shall-not-name due to Musk/Murdoch-paid Big Lie media/social media and several NYT stories that many millennials/gen-Zers have never read an entire book all the way through, and are not ashamed of the fact. I agree with 100%; also, as a proud ailurophile, not at all pleased with any anti-cat propaganda. I have made the mistake of arguing cogently with Trumpistas in a number of media, only to have them respond in that smug/smirking white-bro way "TLDR." Obnoxious meme, obnoxioius puzzle.
Coals made me wince. CHIDES is a far cry from "dressing down".
Pretty sure the INOT clue is referring to hockey, specifically, ergo on the ice rink longer.
Try my book, Teedmn, i think you will immerse yourself. Check the comments and get it here, free for kindle subscribers, otherwise $2.99 for the eBook or $18 for paperback. https://www.amazon.com/Fire-Bell-Strikes-Midnight-historical/dp/1917449038
Like gilding the lily
For what it’s worth, I’ve heard a form of that as a response to someone who is staring rudely, along the lines of: “Why don’t you take a picture, it will last longer.“
This is standard crosswordese. It doesn’t seem as common lately, but if you’ve been doing NYT puzzles for a long time, this is a complete gimme.
3 book titles = “best”? Hyperbole. Nonsense. C’MON.
“it’s useless since cats generally have no shame.” My sentiments exactly. They’re gonna ignore you anyway, so what difference does it make? 😄
I loved Ab Fab but it wouldn't come to me because I had a "sad" kitty crying. Which is 10x better than the actual answer. Hated iten, no one would ever write those four letters when referring to I-10
Um, perhaps the constructor is lampooning the people who don't read, or who use that expression. To assume that the theme represents his true feelings is to deprive an author or creator the ability to satirize, make a parody etc. Do you think Curt Kobain wanted to be 'entertained' when he wrote 'Smells Like Teen Spirit', or was he commenting on a social phenomenon?
MME is the abbreviation for Madame, not Mademoiselle.
Horrible clueing by an author who doesn’t want anyone to solve. Some of the worst clues in some time.
@Whatsername: I get what the speaker is saying, i.e. the point that he's making -- I just can't imagine a real-life circumstance in which it would be said.
I certainly wouldn't say it to a stranger staring at me in the subway! Would you? Great way to get a knife in the ribs.
I certainly wouldn't say it to someone staring at me at a cocktail party. I might turn away and focus on someone or something else if the stare was making me uncomfortable. Or, if the starer was someone whose appearance I liked, I might respond: "Excuse me -- I'm wondering: Have we perhaps met before?"
I just think that the "take a picture...last longer" line sounds like something out of a movie script and not real life. Maybe if I'd ever heard anyone say it in real life even once...
What an idiotic, humorless screed by Rex. No sense of humor. Takes everything super-literally as he nitpicks every theme etc to death. The puzzle was supposed to be humorous and likely was not composed by a cat-hater. Lighten up. My wife also thinks Rex is a humorless killjoy. Oh, I thought one of the hallmarks about being skilled in solving was to know when to take something literally, figuratively, or in an offbeat manner. To attribute certain objectionable views to a constructor is nasty and likely wrong most of the time. Take a Xanax, Rex!
THANK YOU for explaining Gala Throwaways because I really didn't get it even after figuring it out based on the Records clue.
Well, for whatever reason, this puzzle was just impossible for me. Somehow it was way outside my wheelhouse and I just couldn’t get traction anywhere. I knew the themers had to be long books, but I couldn’t come up with enough crosses to suss them out. And the revealer, which wouldn’t have helped me anyway, was similarly opaque. Sigh. A disappointing day.
I love DAVIDCOPPERFIELD, yes long, but worth it.
Not sure Rex is the one who needs a Xanax (or is humorless)
It’s literally out of a movie script; namely, PEEWEE’S BIG ADVENTURE https://youtu.be/KbQluo1gazc
Plus, "Bad Kitty" implies trainability, by using different words as prompts. This I've never seen.
MISsscaRlEt....MIStergReEn. Am I the only one?
I liked this puzzle--25 minutes for me, so maybe just 2 or 3 minutes above average for me. GREAT puzzle--loved figuring out that the revealer was the long version of TL;DR. I had most of the long titles already--hadn't quite parsed Atlas Shrugged, but then when I reread the clue and saw it was in the 1950s instead of 1850s, got it pretty quick. Thanks, Katie! ; )
Agree, but loved the rant.
Good point!
Another prime candidate for WOAT. What.The.Actual...oh, never mind.
Sure, PeeWee said it, but he certainly wasn't the first. The phrase has been around decades before Peewee. PeeWee employed lots of trite juvenile taunts and phrases.
I agree and was going to comment the same. That was probably my favorite clue of the puzzle.
Out of curiosity, I just looked up the Pop Warner website. The nearest league is in the next state over, so apparently not really massive at all.
@okanaganer 12:51 PM
Yep, super gunky today.
Cork would be a good answer for that too!
I had cork for gala throw away. Took me forever to get the apple reference. Sigh.
Never heard of (British TV show) AbFab until today. Still have zero idea what the show was about. Bizarre clueing.
Absolutely agree, well said!
Also, if you're shouting "BAD KITTY!" at your actual kitten for any reason, let alone for the mere fact of "spilling milk," I'm taking your kitten away from you, asshole.
Hahahaaa..! Can be difficult to take a read when you don't know a person and all non-verbal cues are absent. Is he serious.. then what thhe ? Or facetious. Or, stay with me here, ailing from outcome syndrome, screaming at the wind.. as stand-in. And if that's the case, slide over here onto this couch, RP, Uncle Rip's got you covered. Cardigan, tweed + elbow patches, Wallabees, set.. jus' you an' me, talkin' it out. (For you libs with your heads in the sand, you may not be aware of the shitstorm about to descend on this town.. but that's another discussion.) At some point, you're gonna have to let it out, guv.
Right, if that has bubkes to do with it, then I got nothin'. But money's on the 2nd or 3rd.. or the combo.
Never mind this picture: a cat spillin milk? Tail erect, snappin.. prissy, prissy-ass nose, sniffin.. sizin.. 'hmm, milk.. shall we.. take a step closer?' paw frozen mid-step.. 'where to place it.. oo i can't makeupm'mind' the preshuss.. Pffft. and the result, spilt milk ? does not compute. Now my monster (RIP, li'l man), headlong in, foot landing in the milk dish, tail ready to power the neighborhood, head cocked ten t'six, looking up at me, awaiting my direction.. 'wanna go for a run ?' BOOOM! 0 to 90 in point-2.. that submerged paw ? rocketing the milk + dish backward into the wall.. 'milk ? what milk..' he nevah noticed any milk.. CUZ THAT'S WHAT DAWGS DO.
So, the cat image didn't werk for me. Then there's POP WARNER, BRAVA, huh? And mebbe that was it. The rest, well, I've somethin to spout on all three worx, but let's stick to the first, as I aim to stay sub the char limit.. (my prev. sequel post wasn't approved).
300+ pp. in, Trotwood's enrolled at the Doctor's, describing the visits from Mr. Dick, annd.. I put it down sev. months ago, replaced with.. everything else, and I've yet to resume. But I love Dickens (cannae stand the treacle that are the tiresome period adaptations for screen, all of them, but off the page, I lose myself.. completely transporting), and Rip was gratified to see it included - in the game and among The Rex's recent reads. Not something I discuss wiv intimates over the quizzical 'wasn't that HS required' provocation.. but The Rex is imbibing CD, fifty-somethin' ?, pee ach dee, Rip can't be that off the rails. So, Expectations just before and before that Hardy/Casterbridge. A period run.. so to say.
I have read the longg among the period works, e.g., Palliser/Quincunx (anyone?), never mind the Russians, the Americans, others, sundry genres. But Copperfield qualifies as a novel on the long side. My Penguin, nearly 1000 pp. Obv. the printing makes all the diff., it's paperback, as are, e.g., my Expectations (Bantam) and Casterbridge (Penguin) at 400+ pp. each, which feel more average in length. Word-count comparisons, definitive, but book-heft reckoning is what tracks for me.
On seeing the first highlight clue, editions of dictionaries sprang to mind, but clearly the three books worked much better - the revealer, amusing. And the lot seems to have generated much discussion.
Trenchant thumbs up, and in the spot-on call by the editor (who seems to garner no love 'round here) to swap Wednes/Thurs. A sequel (keep it lit.), welcome.
This was also my "solve" - too much out of my wheelhouse along with tricky clues that left me hanging in the wind.
Attempting a sequel post after all:
Little screams "I do not read about anything other than my games and these four walls" louder than not knowing the erstwhile, provocative head of a 240+ mil state, jailed. The protests.. never mind the cricket backstory. He even speaks English! You want to fashion a real/pseudo/hybrid hissy over book lengths, then one should equally be made regarding some reading of what's going on outside your cave. AQABA, DUBAI (yes, there are other cities outside Paris and London which should trigger some activity in your brain).. and IMRAN. C'mon, Cletus.
Also, general categorizations as to length and 'hard'-ness, as you write, have their place - Finnegans Wake is no Christmas Carol in accessibility, it's natural to compare, it's what we swingin' dicks do, all of us, men and women. Plus, anything to get people talking about books.. or was that your agenda all along?
And a minor note: 43A: Students run for it (GYM CLASS) — oof, the syntax here. Students run in GYM CLASS, yes. You're taking issue with the diction, not syntax. Right? Right.
Nice summary, same for me!
I will say Dash is a welcome addition to our diverse somewhat misanthropic but interesting group of colleagues and I’m glad for this whole blog. Very good puzzle which created so much buzz … some warranted but at least not dull. Read atlas shrugged and it’s much better than some of the commentary and I appreciate that it made me really delve deep into my beliefs and questioned things .. came out realizing it was half right and half misled but I made those decisions on my own and not with social media so for me it was a plus.
Just read The Fountainhead. Same idea, much shorter.
Agree— thought it was fun with fair clues. Except— when am I going to remember that OT almost always refers to overtime!
Gala, as in apple! 🍎 It got me too! 🤦♀️
REX EXPLAINED THIS. It’s like none of you read.
Indeed! Imran Khan an all-time famous cricketer. Waiting for IAN BOTHAM to show up next.
I’m in the SF Bay Area and had never heard of BRAVA either, but got the answer after a couple crosses, knowing that one is supposed to cheer “brava” for a woman and “bravo” for a man. (Though it’s always struck me as terribly pretentious)
Jeremy, was that pun in your last line intentional? That’s a five-minute major!
Wow. I loved this puzzle! Harder for me than most Thursdays, took a while to get going. But once Atlas Shrugged came into view, and Les Miz cleaned up 10D (where I had add-ons) the sort of whooshing occurred that I normally only read about here.
I thought the revealer was funny - yes tldr would have been better - it didn't occur to me our Literary Heritage was under attack!
TL;DR fun solve, thank you Katie!
Agreed. Am starting to hate NYTXWORD. It’s just not clever or fun
Me too! I had to look it up. Now will watch it on PBS.
Worst clue and answer? On ice longer than normal = in OT. 👎🏻
Hard disagree, this wasn't a snub of reading, , it was a cheeky nod to modern culture, sheesh!! And if you read the constructors process, the symmetry demanded of NYT xwords meant the titles you mentioned didn't work. I could tell right away this was by a woman, a reader and a well rounded person, and I really enjoyed it.
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