Monday, November 11, 2024

Trio of average guys / MON 11-11-24 / Visual accompaniment to a musical release / Disney's follow-up to "Dumbo" / Raps off the cuff / Huffer and puffer in a classic fairy tale / App also called "the Gram," informally / Store with a mazelike layout / "Momager" of the Kardashians

Constructor: Patrick Gramza and John Kugelman

Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)


THEME: TOM, DICK AND HARRY (62A: Trio of average guys, as seen at the ends of 16-, 25- and 48-Across) — last words of three theme answers are the last names of three famous guys named, Tom, Dick, and Harry, respectively:

Theme answers:
  • CARIBBEAN CRUISE (Tom Cruise) (16A: Island-hopping vacation that might start and end in Miami)
  • BIG BAD WOLF (Dick Wolf) (25A: Huffer and puffer in a classic fairy tale)
  • FREESTYLES (Harry Styles) (48A: Raps off the cuff)
Word of the Day: Dick Wolf (see 25A) —

Richard Anthony Wolf (born December 20, 1946) is an American film and television producer, best known for his Law & Order franchise. Since 1990, the franchise has included six police/courtroom dramas and four international spinoffs. He is also creator and executive producer of the Chicago franchise, which since 2012, has included four Chicago-based dramas, and the creator and executive producer of the FBI franchise, which since 2018, has also become a franchise after spinning off two additional series.

Wolf has also written four books. The first, the non-fiction volume Law & Order: Crime Scenes, is a companion to the Law & Order television series. The Intercept, The Execution, and The Ultimatum are works of fiction in a thriller series featuring an NYPD detective named Jeremy Fisk.

Wolf has won numerous awards, including an Emmy Award, being inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame, and receiving a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. (wikipedia)

• • •

About the easiest Downs-only solve I've ever experienced. It's not just that the Down clues were easy, it's that so many of them were short. There's a reason that, with any puzzle, I start in on the short stuff first. In general, the shorter the answer, the easier it is to get. That doesn't mean that short answers can't be hard, just that your odds of scoring a hit are better, especially right out of the box, with a short answer rather than a long one. Get enough short stuff in there, and now you've got traction, and the longer stuff becomes much easier to see. In a Downs-only situation, the short stuff is particularly important, since you have no recourse to the Acrosses. Short Downs are your friends, they're gonna get you access, and today, holy moses are there a lot of short Downs. Of the fifteen Down answers crossing the first (Across) theme answer, twelve (12!) of them are 3s or 4s. Not even 5s, which I also consider "short." 3s and 4s ... for 80% of the crosses. I got every one of those 3s and 4s no problem, but you don't even have to be that successful at first pass. Even if you got only half to 2/3 of those short Downs up top, there's a good chance that long theme answer is going to come into view—that is, it'll be inferrable from the six to eight short Downs that you did get. Once you infer an Across, you can then use its letters to help you get the Downs you couldn't see at first pass. And so on. Anyway, with soooooo much short stuff in the Downs, there was no resistance today. Ran right through this thing.


As for the theme, I like it, or I like the idea of it, anyway. I basically came down the west side of the grid to start, and it was fun to watch the front end of the revealer come into view, and then to have that "aha" when I got enough initial letters (five?) to throw the whole thing across the grid. Not many things start "TOMDI-," it turns out. Do young(er-than-me) people know the phrase "any Tom, Dick, or Harry?" Feels like something I learned from old songs or Warner Bros. cartoons as a kid. I don't know how widely used the term is these days as a way of talking about "any rando guy(s)." Looks like it's a song in the Broadway musical Kiss Me, Kate? Huh. I did not know that. Looks like the phrase has its origin in the 17th century, though different names were used then. Also, apparently "TOM, DICK AND HARRY" is also a mnemonic for med students:
English-speaking medical students use the phrase in memorizing the order of an artery, and a nerve, and the three tendons of the flexor retinaculum in the lower leg: the T, D, A, N and H of Tom, Dick, anHarry correspond to tibialis posteriorflexor digitorum longusposterior tibial arterytibial nerve, and flexor hallucis longus. This mnemonic is used to remember the order of the tendons from anterior to posterior at the level of the medial malleolus just posterior to the malleolus. (wikipedia)
Seems way fussier than Every Good Boy Does Fine or Roy G. Biv, but what do I know. I'm not, nor ever have claimed to be, a [squints] flexor retinaculum expert.


I only have two minor notes on the theme execution. Not complaints, just ... notes. Neutral comments. One is that CRUISE and WOLF are free-standing words in their respective answers, whereas STYLES is a word part (the latter half of a single word). The other is that I could not remember who Dick Wolf was. He's one of the most successful TV producers in history (the Law & Order, Chicago, and FBI franchises, among other things), and though I've heard his name before, today... that was not who I thought "Dick Wolf" was. Instead I was imagining some other Dick. Who was that guy who worked for Clinton and then wrote a thinl- ... PRIMARY COLORS! Oh my god I've been sitting here for fifteen minutes trying to remember the name of that damned book and it finally came to me, mid-sentence. OK, so who wrote Primary Colors? [googles]. Joe Klein!?!? That's not a Dick. Who am I th- DICK MORRIS! Is that somebody? [googles] Oh, right, the political consultant. Joe Klein wrote the roman à clef about about Clinton's first presidential campaign (1992), while Dick Morris was the campaign manager for Clinton's second presidential campaign (1996). My brain has fused these guys into one unholy '90s political operative: Joedick Morklein. My brain has also, mercifully, made me forget the specificities of most of '90s politics. Thank you, brain.


I don't have much to say about the fill in this one. The longer Downs tend to be the hard things to get in a Downs-only solve, but SPRINGTIME was a flat-out gimme (no crosses needed), and NUT ALLERGY was pretty easy to build from the ground up—I was able to infer the Acrosses at its back end, so -RGY led easily to NUT ALLERGY, and from there it was just a matter of figuring out TRACE (weirdly, one of the toughest Downs for me to get today), and I was done. Besides TRACE, I think ALBUM ART and DETACHES were the only Downs that forced me to stop and think a little. Not sure what I wanted for ALBUM ART. Wanted something like DITCHES (?) for DETACHES. I guess I was thinking of [Breaks off] in terms of ending a relationship (abruptly). All the other Downs seemed obvious to me. Surprised ADA got such an old-fashioned clue (64D: Nabokov novel) (superfamiliar if you've been doing xwords forever, but probably less so if you're younger). "Momager" is perhaps the worst portmanteau of all time (10D: "Momager" of the Kardashians = KRIS). Is it "mom-ager," like "teenager," or "momager," like mom + manager? Or mom + dowager?? I assume it's mom-ager, but in that case it really (really) needs the hyphen. It's an unrecognizable word blob without it. I do not like TIDE POD very much in the singular (this is how I feel about DORITO every time I see it), but it's hard to deny it's a thing. The product itself is plural, but what else are you going to call one unit of said product? 

[38A: Laundry product that was once the subject of a viral internet challenge]

Happy Monday. See you next time.


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

***

Important Note:

As of Monday, 11/4/24, the NYT Tech Guild is on strike. 


The Guild is asking that readers honor their picket line by boycotting the Times’ selection of games, including Wordle and the daily digital crossword, and to avoid other digital extensions such as the Cooking app.

Annie Shields, a campaign lead for the News Guild of New York, encouraged people to sacrifice their streaks in the wildly popular Wordle and Connections games in order to support the strike.

You can read more about the strike here (nyguild.org).

There were some anti-union talking points being credulously repeated in the comments recently, so just to be clear (per Vanity Fair): "The union said Tech Guild workers' main concerns that remain unresolved are: remote/hybrid work protections; “just cause” job protections, which “the newsroom union has had for decades”; limits on subcontracting; and pay equity/fair pay.

Since the picket line is "digital," it would appear to apply only to Games solved in the NYT digital environment—basically anything you solve on your phone or on the NYT website per se. If you get the puzzle in an actual dead-tree newspaper, or if you solve it outside the NYT's proprietary environment (via a third-party app, as I do), then technically you're not crossing the picket line by solving. You can honor the digital picket line by not using the Games app (or the Cooking app) at all until the strike is resolved. No Spelling Bee, no Connections ... none of it. My morning Wordle ritual is was very important to me, but ... I'll survive, I assume.  

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

64 comments:

  1. My five favorite original clues from last week
    (in order of appearance):

    1. Made do? (6)
    2. Word before or after head (4)
    3. Very short story? (5)(5)
    4. Producer of black-and-white footage? (5)(3)
    5. It's attached to covers and sheets (5)


    TOUPEE
    BUTT
    CRAWL SPACE
    PANDA CAM
    SPINE

    ReplyDelete

  2. Usually I solve Monday puzzles while watching professional football. But I only solved this one while watching the Jets.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:38 AM

      @Conrad. At least you weren't watching the Bears

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:56 AM

      What are you on about the Bears are goin all the way this year GO BEARS ‼️‼️🗣️🤞🐻📉

      Delete
    3. Anonymous7:12 PM

      Anonymous 10:56 AM
      I don’t watch football but my brother told me the 2024 Patriots beat the Bears! I think that was what Conrad was thinking of.

      Delete
  3. I don’t know Mr. Wolf or Mr. Styles - but the reveal was so straightforward that I just dropped it right in anyway. It would have been more interesting if I had heard of the other two besides Tom Cruise. Other than that, my only nit is having to be reminded that the Kardashians even exist (at least the clue was, fittingly, awful).

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    Replies
    1. Andy Freude7:25 AM

      I’m with @Johnny. I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing or hearing Mr. Styles, but he does have some slight name recognition in this household. Dick Wolf, however . . . A bunch of TV shows I never watched, and I’m supposed to know the name of the producer???

      Fortunately, I solved this one, like most themed puzzles, as if it were themeless. Easy peasy.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:03 AM

      Are you guys serious? Wow, average crossword-solver age is HIGH 😂 he is extremely popular right now

      Delete
  4. My wife shared this with me over the wkend. No idea who Aimee Allison is, but the subject underscores the turn. Southern delivery, music to my ears.

    Any game which includes your team, your team which bigly won y'day, is gettin' somethin' right. But in the main, innocuous game free of dross. Nothing memorable, nothing fist-shake inducing. A challenge I s'pose, for the maker on a Monday, to devise the stimulating + original and balance that with ease of the day. Fie, the constrictions.. ya?

    Notes of no consequence.. in the sprint, Rip TOM DICK AND HenRY'd. Ouf. Righted lickety. The other, fingers ready to SAY AH at 27d, seconds scuttled in the image of Rip's dentist murmuring 'open.. open.' 'WIDER'.. for legs, c'mon. Also, the serial-land ubiquity, DICK WOLF, Riprock imagines some gamers may not be familiar.

    Re y'day, what The Rex said, opening para, except that Riprock forgot to read the title, did not see a theme.. until it was unavoidable, yards from finish. In the haste, a letter fail at 122a, ADDr vs. ADDY, fast sussed on review.

    The many-day kvetch, what is this allabout. And on reflection, Rip suspects what's Rip's after is some humor, bit o' wit. Since the clevah Tues 2024-10-22, zip.

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  5. Cute early week theme - well filled. Agree with the overly easy tag - not solving in the app again yet so not sure about archived times but this must have been close to a record for me. Revealer was apt and flashy.

    AZTEC Camera

    SPRINGTIME, NUT ALLERGY, IGUANAS are all solid longs. Lots of trivia but very much current and known. My kids were older during the TIDE POD controversy so it was never a thing in our house.

    He’s a DICK

    Enjoyable Monday morning solve.

    ISAAC

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  6. Suffers from the cardinal sin on a Monday of insufficiently famous themers. Or in this case, themer, and specifically Dick Wolf. I imagine there will be a fair contingent of folks who don't know Harry Styles, either, but I think he is legitimately famous at this point (seven number one albums, two number one songs, three Grammys, plus his acting).

    My downs only fail was at TRiCE/TiC. A trice is a small amount, specifically of time, and tic as as good as tac without the clue.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:03 AM

      My head was exploding trying to figure out what TAC Had to do with Out Of Office. Thank you for your comment which finally made it click for me.

      Delete
    2. Kitshef
      41 A clue “the second O …
      Can’t be tic or toe. It was the only real trick question in the puzzle.
      In my case, I never really got the clue. Just thought TR_CE must be TRACE. Trice didn’t enter my mind.

      Delete
  7. Oh, terrific idea for a theme! So simple, yet, for me at least, when I uncovered the revealer, I laughed with surprise. That’s one of Crosslandia’s great moments.

    And what a heartwarming backstory, where Patrick, who had never made a crossword puzzle, decides at the beginning of this year that he is going to get one published in the NYT. He seeks help, and experienced constructor John kindly takes him under his wing, and before the year is out, Patrick’s wish comes through! A real-life happy ending,

    I love the theme echo in the puzzle. Here, the revealer is three first names, and when you look around the grid, first names pop out – ten of them (ARI, ANN, OPIE, EDGAR, ISAAC, TAI, ABE, ALI, ADA, and KRIS)! Plus, NAME would work as a revealer to this subtheme.

    I liked seeing EASE crossing EASEL, three answers that sound like letters said together (ARI, OPIE, ANY), and two palindromes whose first and last letters are the same (ADA, TNT).

    So, lots of feel-good in the box today. Congratulations on your debut, Patrick, and on your first non-Sunday (out of seven NYT puzzles), John, and thank you both for a splendid outing!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aren’t the first and last letters the same on all palindromes ? Maybe there is a situation that I’m not aware of ?

      Delete
  8. Anonymous7:38 AM

    Easy-Medium (downs only) for me. I didn’t start as strong as Rex, INCA and NEAR were easy but TAI is cross-referenced, and I wanted something more specific than SPRING TIME at 3D, and something related to music videos at 5D. I got SPRING TIME later with just the G from BIG BAD WOLF.

    The hardest long Down to see was DETACHES. The C gave me A_TEC and the Z got me ZANY.

    TRACE was my last answer. I remember seeing SKOSH in some puzzles I’ve done recently, so that’s the first answer that came to mind.

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  9. Hey All !
    Nice little MonPuz. Just your average guys puz. Har.

    Wouldn't have clued TIDEPOD that way, that fad is thankfully done/hopefully forgotten about. No need to bring it back into consciousness. Just clue it as Laundry Toss In?, or something. A lot of badness came from that.

    Nothing else egregious here, straightforward puz, decent cluing. In a word, MonPuz.

    Monday again, although it is Veterans Day. Thank a Veteran today, or Thanks if you are one!
    ( I was Army #humblebrag)
    Have a great day!

    Three F's
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous7:58 AM

    At least this puzzle made me think of my favorite WWII movie, The Great Escape, as the three tunnels were named Tom, Dick and Harry....

    ReplyDelete
  11. Typical downs-only for me — I got about 80% of it then had to look at some across clues. The theme was totally lost on me, even though I had TOM, DICK, AND HARRY before looking at any across clues. I know of TOM CRUISE but not the other two (though DICK WOLF sounded vaguely familiar). Now Joedick Morklein I definitely would have known. Love the song (and everything else) from KISS ME, KATE by the way.

    I wrote a longish response to yesterday’s puzzle and it kept giving me an error when I clicked on Publish. We’ll see what happens today…

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  12. Anonymous8:39 AM

    Thanks for posting the entire song from Kiss Me Kate! As soon as I saw that revealer it became an ear worm. Now I want to hear ‘Bianca’…because one of my favorite Cole Porter lyrics is ‘I would gladly give up coffee for Sanka/Even Sanka, Bianca, for you’. Cute easy puzzle but I needed actual coffee to solve it!!

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  13. Nice puzzle. Fun fact (if this is your idea of fun) One of the Tom, Dick, and Harry's in the Kiss Me Kate video you posted is a young Bob Fosse!

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  14. Well TOM and DICK for me will always be The Smothers Brothers, but I guess these guys are pretty famous too, except for DICK Wolf, and even old me has heard of HARRYSTYLES.

    For my knowledge of and interest in the Kardashians, see @Southside above.

    TIL what the inside of an IKEA store looks like. Seems like a good reason not to enter one.

    Congrats on the debut, PG. Perfectly Good Monday. Just Keep your friend handy if you want to do more. Thanks for some breezy fun,

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Pablo, I've never been in an IKEA either, but my wife has, and complains about it every time we see one from the highway. Apparently they are designed so that you have to walk past every display in the store before you can get out--I don't know what they do if you try to go backwards through the entrance, but if you want to buy anything you have to pay at the end.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous4:24 PM

      maybe our ikea [stoughton, MA] is different but, while the store is maze-ish [follow the arrows painted on the walkway] you can skip the entire upstairs showroom if you want and just go to the marketplace/furniture pickup area downstairs. and on both floors there are shortcuts between departments [that are marked as such].

      for me, walking through all the displays is one of the perks of going, though. i love most of ikea's products but i find you really have to see them in person to decide if they're right for you. i always go right when they open on a weekday, there's hardly anyone there and you could hear a pin drop inside. [just avoid late aug/early sept because of all the college kids there to outfit their dorms/first apartments.] it's so peaceful. good for daydreaming about living someplace nicer than this old place. and i definitely get my steps in, haha!

      -stephanie.

      Delete
  15. When I was a young lad, there was a short-lived revival of the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour. My mother had been a huge fan of the original, so she had us all watch it. I only remember little bits here and there, but one of them was this: One episode the guest was Harry Anderson, and during the opening bit, Dick asked Tom, “With this guest joining us, do you know who we are?”, to which Tom replied, “The Smothers Brothers and Harry Anderson.” There was some comical back and forth until they finally landed on Tom, Dick, and Harry. My mother had to explain why that was a thing, and I remembered it ever since.

    I would’ve liked this more if two of the three hadn’t both been lousy people. It’s well known why Tom Cruise is awful, between his misogyny and other problematic views, and John Oliver did a great piece on all that’s wrong with Dick Wolf’s views on policing and how his hit shows skew public perception of the police. Oh well.

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  16. Oh, now I get it! I was wondering what sort of app which gives you kindly oldish motherly advice would be nicknamed "the Gram" (as in grandmother), but it's INSTA because its full name is INSTAGRAM. For those of you who knew INSTA right off the bat, you would have had a speedier trip into the NW than I did.

    All smooth sailing from there -- with the exception of writing in LOOT instead of HAUL for "Burglar's booty."

    Two questions: What is TIDEPOD and why did it cause an Internet uproar? And how can a "light" beer dare to call itself ULTRA. Just the opposite of ULTRA, I'd think. Michelob LESSER would be more like it.

    Never heard of DICK WOLF. Neither did most of you. And that's a weakness in the puzzle, I'd venture to say. I bet the constructors spent an eon trying to come up with another DICK whose last name could be clued in 10 letters, but couldn't.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Description of Raquel Welch? REDHOTRACY (Dick Tracy). Not good, but at least most people have heard of him.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:36 PM

      If I remember correctly when Michelob Ultra came out about 25 years ago , it was originally called Michelob Ultra Light. But eventually they dropped the "light".

      Delete
  17. It's always just when I think Rex and I have absolutely nothing in common that he goes and does something charming like embedding links to videos from both Flight of the Conchords AND (!!!) Happy Mondays, two bands right smack in the middle of my pop culture wheelhouse. By the blank stares I usually get, I'm sometimes convinced I'm the only American who has ever heard of the Mondays.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Who?

      🤣🤣

      RooMonster Wise Acre Guy

      Delete
  18. The long form of the mnemonic is "Tom, Dick and very nervous Harry’’: Tib post, FDL, artery, vein, nerve, FHL. One of the thousand or so memory crutches you learn in med school and residency. Good times!

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  19. Also solved downs only and finished with TRACE, the hardest answer for me to see.

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  20. ULTRA easy, loved the reveal. I'm with those who had no idea who DICK WOLF is, but the delight of writing in the phrase BIG BAD WOLF canceled out any quibble about his fame or lack of it.

    @Lewis, thank you for pointing out the NAME shadow revealer. To your list we could also add FESS (Parker, for those of us of a certain age), though not clued that way, of course.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Kind of funny to have A TOM crossing TOMDICKANDHARRY.

    I think a drinking establishment for egotists might be an IBAR.

    I struggled a bit with 25D (Disney's follow-up to "Dumbo") as I took it to mean sequel. Maybe "Dumbo - the Elephant Strikes Back."

    WIDER and OBESE side-by-side might be a good puz-pair for @Lewis.

    To criticize a fall flower would be disASTERous.

    Agree with @Rex and others that this was a super easy DO solve. Still a bunch of fun. Thanks, Patrick Gramza and John Kugelman.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't know if U.S. Navy Aviators are egoists but there is a World Famous I BAR at the Naval Air Station North Island on Coronado Island in San Diego. Been there since 1933. About the only place where a 35A "Letter shaped girder" I BAR is found is in crossword puzzle grid construction. In the construction of buildings, bridges and such, a "Letter shaped girder" would be an I BEAM.

      Delete
  22. I hope the union wins soon! Yesterday I had to skip the weekly NY Times Flashback Quiz, which kinda soured the day for me. But fight on, folks, make 'em give you what you deserve!

    Oh yes, the puzzle. TIL that there is someone named DICK Wolf who is as famous as TOM Cruise or HARRY Styles. My wife didn't recognize the name either. Now that I've gone out on a limb, I hope I'm not shouting "Doh!" and slapping my face after I read Rex.

    other than that, I spent far too many nanoseconds trying to think of a 3-letter abbreviation for what bees do in April, plus my CPA won't even look at your return if you don't have your stuff to him by early March. I also spent too many of the same trying to remember what sort of beer Michelin might make -- I mean, I reread the clue twice to make sure I had it right; it only took on the third reading.

    5-D is a little dated, since most music these days is released directly to Spotify and the like, no art needed. But a lot of albums are still are produced, sot hat's OK. I also wondered what a non-classic fairy tale would be. And whether ARIAL is really popular, or simply common because people use it by default.

    I had the HA by the time I got to HAUL, but I'm betting some folks put in "loot" there.

    And no, I have never eaten a TIDDE POD. Now I'll go read how many of you have.

    ReplyDelete
  23. To me, the Smothers Brothers are the go-to Tom and Dick combo.

    Now Harry is immortalized by Trump’s call to action: “Get your fat ass out of the couch, Harry. You’re going to vote for Trump today, Harry!”

    ReplyDelete
  24. M and A11:12 AM

    Suitably easy MonPuz, with a nice puztheme idea.
    Only pitfall, theme-wise = DICK WOLF? DICK BADWOLF?

    staff weeject picks: It's a tai ... er ... tie, between MAI & TAI.

    fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Places to play [arcade games]} = ARCADES.
    other faves: SPRINGTIME in NEPAL and in the CARIBBEAN and in BAMA.

    Thanx for gangin up and bein easy on us, Mr. Gramza & Kugelman dudes. Congratz to Patrick G. on his half-debut.

    Masked & Anonymo4Us

    no spams here -- just a nice, challengin slice of extra xwordness:
    **gruntz**

    ReplyDelete
  25. Anonymous11:13 AM

    I understand that downs only is the conventional approach. Not knowing that at the time I started doing acrosses only. Solved this one that way with ease. Why is downs only the preferred approach? Which is considered harder?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. One Monday a month I solve downs only, and one Monday a month I solve across only. Pretty comparable, I would say. Occasionally you'll get a really weird theme that makes across-only very hard, though.

      Delete
    2. @Anonymous 11:13 am & kitshef; personally, I've found "downs only" to be better most of the time because the theme answers are usually (but not always) acrosses. Guessing the themers without their clues, and then figuring out the theme just from what they have in common, is a big part of the fun. As for which is harder, I agree with what kitshef said.

      Delete
  26. From Rex's column today:

    "English-speaking medical students use the phrase (Tom, Dick and Harry) in memorizing the order of an artery, and a nerve, and the three tendons of the flexor retinaculum in the lower leg: the T, D, A, N and H of Tom, Dick, and Harry correspond to tibialis posterior, flexor digitorum longus, posterior tibial artery, tibial nerve, and flexor hallucis longus. This mnemonic is used to remember the order of the tendons from anterior to posterior at the level of the medial malleolus just posterior to the malleolus. (wikipedia)"

    Good grief! Am I glad I wasn't ever a medical student! Overjoyed, even! Bet you are too!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Easy. No WOEs and no erasures.

    Reasonably smooth grid with a clever “oh that’s what’s going on ” reveal, liked it.


    Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #959 was a medium Croce for me. The NE was toughest section. It didn’t help that I had the wrong answer for 24a for way too long. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Croce Freestyle 959 was easyish. NE corner a bit harder than the rest.

      Delete
  28. Yea, DICK was always going to be the problem. Several more recognizable, but none easy to clue in 10 letters. Van Dyke would have been great clued as one of men’s facial hairstyles (‘sup Harry). But what 3 letters could precede that?

    Anyway, cool Monday puzzle.

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  29. Middle-aged solver here (early 40s) chiming in to say that I was today years old when I learned that the familiar phrase is “Tom, Dick, and Harry” rather than “Tom, Dick, and Stanley,” which I now realize for the first time that I learned from one of the songs in Beauty and the Beast, which apparently changed the third name to rhyme with “manly.” Still an easy puzzle, but a little extra time for that blunder. Thanks Disney.

    ReplyDelete
  30. I don't know why I continue to read the news in the NYT digitally since it's not enjoyable & it delays my getting to what I do enjoy - which is the puzzle & the Blog. With that being said, this was my fastest Monday ever (just about 7 minutes).
    Thank you John & Patrick for your dual effort & congrats Patrick on your debut :)

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous12:12 PM

    Clue for Dick: Bear all star. (Butkus).

    ReplyDelete
  32. One of the advantages of not being an elite solver. I often don't know one or several entries in a puzzle I've dine. That's why I don't comment about it.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous12:43 PM

    While I’m sure no one was mislead, peanuts are not nuts, they are legumes.

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  34. 100% agree with Rex that this was probably my easiest down clues only solve ever... under 8 minutes and I am NOT a fast solver. I also agree that the short down answers are a big reason, but I would add that straightforward down clues have even more effect on the easy-ness because I quickly got all the longer answers: ALBUM ART, IGUANAS, ARCADES, NUT ALLERGY, and DETACHES. This left very few missing letters to guess the acrosses.

    The only typeover I can remember (solved last evening) was PEEL before SHED for "Remove, as a layer".

    Is a PIPING BAG an ICER?

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  35. Also found Downs Only solve pretty easy, except that I felt that TRiCE was a perfectly good answer for Tiny amount. And it would be, if it was ... of time. 😵‍💫

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  36. @Southside Johnny -- Hah! I was so taken with how cool those three-letter palindromes looked, I didn’t even think about that - didn’t see the forest for the trees! Good catch!

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  37. Anonymous3:14 PM

    Fun puzzle, enjoyed it a lot.

    Oh, and happy veteran's day to all who served. Thank you for your service!

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  38. Ah, a producer! Of TV shows! Not something I normally notice, as seems to be true of many of you. I do know Shonda Rimes, but that's because I once heard her interviewed on NPR. But usually I just watch the show -- I often don't know who the actors are either. I do see the problem of finding a crossworthy Dick whose surname had another meaning. So I guess I'll take it. After all, he's got a footprint in front of Grauman's Chinese Theater, that must mean something!

    And he does

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  39. Let's see if this comment gets in.

    I posted two comments that didn't get in this morning -- first a spoiler alert warning everyone to "collapse" my next post if they didn't want to know today's Wordle word and then the post itself about the Wordle solution -- which can be seen on today's Connections website. That 2nd comment contained a Spoiler Alert at the top.

    When neither comment got in, I thought that Rex didn't want Wordle spoiled and that my double warning wasn't good enough. Only belatedly did I think about...the strike!!!!! Confession: I have not been thinking about it at all. OMG, Rex thinks I should be boycotting Wordle!!! Rex doesn't think anyone should be doing Wordle!!!!! And while Rex cannot control my behavior or my beliefs, he can avoid giving me a Wordle-solving platform.

    Here's what I think about the strike. I'm sure the Times tech workers are all lovely deserving people and I hope they get the settlement they want, but this is not the most important issue facing our country right now. This is not the 999th most important issue facing the country right now.

    To my way of thinking, the single-minded, sanctimonious, determined-to-influence-all-the-rest-of-us focus with which Rex is flogging this strike every single day seems even more over-the-top in the context of Trump's election. The day may come -- much sooner than later, I'm afraid -- where the NYT may be one of the strongest bulwarks still standing in the struggle against autocratic rule and we will all be working to shore it up and not tear it down. At least I hope we all will. I for one will be in the forefront of that struggle, trying to protect the Times with the same fervor that Rex is trying to undermine it.

    Interestingly enough, Rex hasn't said a word about the election. I can only question his priorities at this perilous moment in America's history.

    One of the reasons



    Because I get Home Delivery, I can do the puzzle with a clear conscience. But I'll tell you a little secret -- if I didn't get Home Delivery, I would still do the puzzle with a clear conscience.




    



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  40. Anonymous6:35 PM

    I'm a bit surprised at how many were unfamiliar with Dick Wolf. The Law & Order series and its spin-offs seem to be everywhere on the tube and on streaming services.

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  41. In non-puzzle related news, one-time poster here Noam Elkies got a lot of press recently for improving upon his previous record in the field of Elliptical Curves. For 18 years, the highest proven rank of an Elliptical Curve was 28, now it's 29.

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  42. Alice Pollard9:30 PM

    DICK WOLF? enough said

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  43. M and A9:38 PM

    @kitshef: re 12-d: see Pizza rat on wikipedia.
    M&A Help Desk

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  44. Breaking News: The NYT Guild Workers have ended their strike and returned to work without a contract. Negotiations are still in progress.
    https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/new-york-times-tech-guild-return-work-negotiations-will-go-2024-11-11/

    Cute theme today. Who doesn't love HORSES? Not difficult but enough of an effort required to make it interesting.

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  45. Momager is definitely mom-manager. I think it was probably coined around the time of those awful reality shows about child beauty pageants? But I am not interested enough to google it...

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