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Classic Sichuan dish made with bean curd / TUE 12-3-24 / Hammer's home / Chess rating system / Fictional burrito on "Parks and Recreation" that "literally killed a guy last year" / ___ Suárez, former prime minister who lends his name to Spain's largest airport / Amount of time for Kate Hudson to "Lose a Guy," in a 2003 film / Place to store cocktail-making equipment / Venetian magistrate of old
Tuesday, December 3, 2024
Constructor: Henry Lin-David
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (*for a Tuesday*)
Theme answers:
- MOOSE TRACKS (17A: Vanilla ice cream with peanut butter cups and fudge)
- MAPO TOFU (25A: Classic Sichuan dish made with bean curd)
- MINI-TWIX (48A: Bite-size Mars candy, familiarly)
- MEAT TORNADO (56A: Fictional burrito on "Parks and Recreation" that "literally killed a guy last year")
Mapo tofu (Chinese: 麻婆豆腐; pinyin: mápó dòufu) is a popular Chinese dish from Sichuan province. It consists of tofu set in a spicy sauce, typically a thin, oily, and bright red suspension, based on douban (fermented broad bean and chili paste), and douchi (fermented black beans), along with minced meat, traditionally beef.[2] Variations exist with other ingredients such as water chestnuts, onions, other vegetables, or wood ear fungus. One account indicates that the dish existed as early as 1254, in a suburb of Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan. Other accounts indicate it originated at a Chengdu restaurant in the 1860s. (wikipedia)
• • •
Now MEAT TORNADO wasn't hard to get (crosses are fair), and it's inherently funny, even if you have never seen Parks & Rec, but the theme feels way over its skis here. Now again, as I say, "over its skis" is at least interesting, and I'll take interesting over boring any day. Certainly this is way more interesting than yesterday's ho-hummer. It's like watching that spectacular ski-jump crash at the beginning of the old Wide World of Sports broadcasts—it hurts to watch, but it's also fascinating in its chaos. Still, only one of the four themers is an actual ordinary food (the tofu), only two are things I even recognize (the tofu, the ice cream), and only two actually feature what you'd call EMPTY CALORIES (the ice cream, the candy), so ... uneven, that's what I'd call this theme. CHOPPY, maybe. Messy. Staring at the finished grid feels like I'm looking at the aftermath of a food fight. I'm not sure that's such a bad thing.
Thing don't get less chaotic in the fill, that's for sure. And here, I'm more comfortable saying things don't exactly work. I gave up hope very early on, in the upper middle of the grid, which is the toxic core from which all bad things radiate today. ANONO maybe the worst thing I've ever seen in a grid. Any grid, anywhere. It's ... a partial ... of a thing no one says? Eleven years since it showed up in a grid (third appearance overall in the Shortz/Fagliano era). Every clue for "A NO-NO" begins with that same partial quote ("That's ___"), though the parenthetical that follows is slightly different every time ("'Don't!,'" "'Don't do it!,'" "forbidden," "not allowed"). Back in '04 the parenthetical was "(cautionary Roy Orbison song)," which at least locates the phrase "That's A NO-NO" in ... something. Some actual usage. But man is that rough fill. The kind you would (and should) absolutely tear down your grid in order to avoid. And the surrounding fill doesn't help. It crosses yet another partial (ON A), and then the dubious INK UP, which is OK on its own, I guess, but by the time I got there, there was already an "UP" answer in the grid ... and I hadn't come very far. I just started the puzzle, and already, two "UP"s (SET-UP, INK UP). It's possible this minor doubling would've become a distant memory. But then. Then. Another "UP" (PONY UP). And then, as if to show me that it knew what it was doing and didn't care, the puzzle gave me a fourth (?) "UP" (DIAL-UP). Does seeming self-awareness negate the awfulness of a triple repeat? Not for me, it doesn't.
TEN DAYS is a ridiculous answer (18D: Amount of time for Kate Hudson to "Lose a Guy," in a 2003 film). An arbitrary amount of time. It's like this puzzle couldn't exist at all without very narrow pop cultural references propping it up. And how big is your house that you have not just a TOOL BOX / KIT / SET but an entire TOOL ROOM (!?) (3D: Hammer's home). Our house didn't come with one of those. I actually tried TOOL BELT there. TOOL SHED is way more recognizable to me as a phrase than TOOL ROOM. Also, no idea who this ADOLFO prime minister / airport guy is (12D: ___ Suárez, former prime minister who lends his name to Spain's largest airport). Doesn't seem like early-week material. I just inferred his name from crosses. So the upper half of this grid was kind of a wreck (not to be confused with WREAK, which I definitely confuse with "wreck" all the time). And yet the grid does have some highlights. MIRAMAX sitting dead center is kind of snazzy (25D: "Pulp Fiction" studio). A BARCART is always welcome in my grid (or home, or general vicinity) (53A: Place to store cocktail-making equipment). I like the phrase PONY UP, and it's hard (for me) not to love an ELEPHANT. So basically it's "fascinating mess" as far as the eye can see today. I ... did not hate it.
Bullets:
- 32D: Actor who plays Lieutenant Sulu in the rebooted "Star Trek" films (JOHN CHO) — the portrayer of Sulu is JOHN CHO; the director of Wicked is Jon Chu. This has been your Pop Culture Name lesson for today. (The director is typically credited JON M CHU, if that helps)
- 26A: What the "Mona Lisa" is painted on (WOOD) — sincerely did not know this.
- 37D: Animal that is unable to fly with its ears, regrettably (ELEPHANT) — not a fan of this cutesy cluing. I do not regret that elephants can't fly. I think this is probably a net plus. If you've seen Wicked, you know what happens when monkeys develop the ability to fly. And they don't even weigh that much.
- 2D: Chess rating system (ELO) — if I made a puzzle with ELO in it, I would demand that the editors could not change the clue to [Chess rating system]. Why go with an awful, culturally narrow, actively unentertaining option on your ELO clue when you have the entire amazing ELO discography at your service. Imagine going [Chess rating system] when you could be serving solvers "Mr. Blue Sky" or "Xanadu" or "Do Ya" etc. etc. etc. Inconceivable.
["Accroche-toi à ton rêve!"]
A reminder: it's Holiday Season! This means two things for this blog. First, starting this weekend (Sunday, Dec. 8) and for at least one Sunday after that, I'll have a Holiday Gift Guide, featuring crossword and other puzzle-related gifts you can get for the puzzle-lover in your life (or for yourself, why not?). So if you have something puzzle-related to sell, or you have a puzzle-related gift suggestion, please pass that along to me. Second, also starting Sunday, Dec. 8, and then continuing for as long as I've got material, I'll be posting Holiday Pet Pics—send me pictures of your non-human loved ones in festive settings (dressed in a Santa hat, playing with a dreidel chew toy, whatever) (crossword content optional), and I'll post a few at the end of my write-up every day throughout the Holiday Season. For both gift suggestions and Holiday Pet Pics, you can reach me at rexparker at icloud dot com.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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70 comments:
Dumbest puzzle I’ve seen in a long time. Sheesh!
Agree with OFL's Medium-Challenging rating. There weren't a lot of overwrites or WOEs, but it still seemed pretty difficult.
Overwrites:
25D: MIRAMAr before MIRAMAX
43D: EnBALM before EMBALM
WOEs:
12D: ADOLFO Suarez
25A MAPO TOFU
32D: JOHN CHO
I took the ELEPHANT answer as an (obscure) reference to Dumbo
That’s obvious but doesn’t explain the clue. “Regrettably” to whom?
All time best onomatopoeic transliteration for dialup modem sounds..
"That's a no-no" isn't an obscure or little-used phrase to my ears. But I can appreciate that you want something a little more interesting than that for fill.
I liked the UP answers but it would have been nice if there'd been some structure as to where they turned UP. Still, I enjoyed the clue for DIAL-UP.
Did not like it. Too much stuff that is not familiar to me (and I don’t care enough to get interested in things like flying elephants, JOHN CHO, Kate Hudson, MIRAMAX, BARCART, TOOL ROOM, MEAT TORNADO, MINI-TWIX, MAPO TOFU, MOOSE TRACKS and on and on).
The big downside of requiring a theme every weekday is on display today. When the theme this dull, it’s difficult to salvage the rest of the grid. It’s been a while since I have enjoyed a Tuesday less than this one.
This was a “quick writeup”? I’d hate to see a long (slow) one. LOL
Not sure I'd refer to "How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days" has a narrow pop culture reference but agree on everything else - hated all the ups
A perfect example of insufficiently famous themers damning a puzzle.
MOOSE TRACKS is solid, and I think I have heard MINI TWIX at some point. But the other two are complete WoEs, and I’ve watched a lot of Parks and Recreation episodes … but apparently not the right one.
Also never heard of ADOLFO nor BAR CART, so a lot of non-Tuesday fare today.
Four UPs is a bug, not a feature.
So many UPs I was sure that was going to be part of the theme. Boo to that.
Mostly easy, with straightforward cluing. I first had "linus" instead of LINUX, and took a while to remember LITANY as a collection of complaints. Never heard of MAPOTOFU, but got it from the crosses.
That is one poppin’ good theme, with every theme answer and the reveal appearing in the NYT puzzle for the first time in its more than 80 years. And all those answers had verve.
That set the tone for the whole puzzle, which, to me, had a fresh feel from top to bottom.
Part of it was just from the images that came popping into my mind: baseball cap, Adrien Brody’s face, mapo tofu on a plate, pickles in a jar, choppy waters, soccer official holding up a card, an elephant flapping its ears.
But the best imagining was working to hear that dialup sound. Hah! What a ridiculously silly fantastic clue!
Then there was the amazing TIL that the Mona Lisa was painted on wood, along with brushes with beauty (WREAK, LITANY, PONY UP). Not to mention the lovely fauna (MOOSE, MAHI, ELEPHANT, and the father of a mule).
One happy ping after another, this puzzle was a mood elevator from top to bottom. All on a maiden Times puzzle, and oh yes, I’m eager to see more. Congratulations on your debut, Henry, and thank you for an exhilarating outing!
“Regrettably” to anyone, it’s clued that way to be fun and a little whimsical.
Fantastic, loopy puzzle. Loved it!
wasn't a bad Tuesday but I had meat turnado and John chu for a long time. Never a big fan of the two obscure proper nouns intersecting
Four UP's in the puzzle? You missed the fifth in the clue for 46d: pileUP!
Who left the TOOL cart in the BARroom?
A fifth UP in the clue for 46D “Pileup, as of complaints” (LITANY). The clue is also a good summary of Rex’s writeUPs at times.
Hollywood Squares question for George Gobel: Who is pregnant longer: Your girlfriend or your elephant?
Gobel: Who told you about my elephant??!!!
Loved seeing Jean-LUC Godard in the puzzle on his birthday!
I agree Lewis. An easy delightful fill
Hey All !
I love Rex's "brief" write-ups! (UP!)
Each food is supposed to be/have EMPTY CALORIES apparently. MT + non-nutritional foodstuffs. Nice that the Themers weren't just random things, like MONEY TRANSFER, or somesuch, and constructor stuck to food.
Got the obligatory ASS in today Got @Clare's BTS in. ANO NO, har.
Time to get Up and get a move on.
Happy Tuesday.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Old joke we used to pull on each other as kids--Hey, point to your head and say the abbreviation for "mountain". Ha ha ha.
Anyway, this is the first themed puzzle I can remember where three out of four themers were unfamiliar. MOOSETRACKS, sure. The others, no idea, but a MEATTORNADO sounds pretty good.
Speaking of unfamiliar, hello to JOHNCHO and ADOLFO and ADRIEN too. I owe our acquaintance to crosses, but nice to meet you .
Agree with OFL on this one being strange enough to keep my interest, and it did make me think of the crows in Dumbo singing "When I See an Elephant Fly". Yay for that.
My Take on this one--Had Lotsa Drawbacks, but wound up on the plus side, so thanks to HLD for a fair amount of fun.
This puzzle has a distinct sense of humour and voice. The clue for DIALUP made me snort laugh, the ones for TENDAYS and ELEPHANT have a fun sort of wryness, like the puzzle is making a little bit of fun of itself. And then I can hear Leslie Knope in the clue for MEATTORNADO even though I don't remember the quote, but just because the quote itself is evocative and funny.
The overall effect is a puzzle that's more than the sum of its parts. I'm impressed,
+1. Mapotofu and meattornado do not belong in a Tuesday. If the rating had been anything less I would have been peeved enuf to wreak a bar cart and hurl moose tracks @Rex
I'm glad I read tons of recipes because otherwise I'd have been in trouble with MAPO TOFU crossing ADOLFO. Sure, the bean curd in the clue is meant to help but even so...
So was there a second theme with UP? INK UP, PONY UP, DIAL UP, SET UP. What's up with the UPs? I see Rex had the same gripe.
But EMPTY CALORIES makes for a tricky Tuesday solve, so thanks, Henry Lin-David!
Well, this puzzle broadened my culinary knowledge, if nothing else. I had never previously heard of MAPO TOFU, MINI-TWIX, or the MEAT TORNADO. Only MOOSE TRACKS, and I had never been quite sure what its ingredients were. So there's that.
As for MAHI MAHI, that's not so much a Hawaiian fish as a Hawaiian name for a widespread fish; the name (often shortened to MAHI) has become widespread on the East Coast as a way to market the fish formerly known as "dolphin," so that customers wouldn't mistake them for the eponymous mammals.
I liked the equipment-storage mini-theme, with TOOL ROOM and BAR CART. And I looked wistfully at the suggestion that my LAWN might be "manicured." Hah!
The puzzle was pretty easy, even with the to-me unknown ADRIEN crossing the similarly unknown TEN DAYS. And I enjoyed the phonetic rendition of a modem tone. Ah, those were the days!
ELO = Electric Light Orchrstra is a better clue.
YES!!
Ha, opposite to everyone else here — MAPO TOFU is on rotation at home but had never heard of MOOSE TRACKS. I also didn’t realize Twix and Mars Bars were basically the same?
Agree on all points; whimsical & fun!
As I filled in all the UPs, I was thinking that there might be a mini theme of "UP yours". Then I got to ASS and said "Bingo!" To throw you off, we also get ANO NO (Spanish for no anus).
In school we used the theme in reverse to taunt a ditzy girl named Mary T (last name withheld to protect the innocent). We used to mock quote her saying "my initials describe my head, MT". Not proud of that story.
If someone has a TOOLROOM, as opposed to a "shop" I envision an immaculately arranged display of tools over a clean-as-a-whistle workbench, none of which show any signs of ever having been used.
Anyone remember "I want my Maypo"? Well, just add TOFU and you've got some more MT calories.
I liked this puzzle fine, and would love to try a MEATTORNADO. Thanks and congrats, Henry Lin-David.
😂
Mi vientre es un fan de las calorías vacías.
I struggled with this so much I checked three times to see if I was doing a Tuesday and not something from the archives. I finally completed it successfully, but with a Friday level time. I blame Ted Danson and his new series A Man on the Inside where he goes spying in a nursing home. In the first scene, he's completing a crossword and, in addition to everything else, I'd bet money Ted Danson is better at crosswords than me. It's like, why even try if he's going to be in the competition.
I wrote in EMPTY CALORIES with only two crosses and then fought half the stuff in the puzzle. Looking it over now, it seems perfectly fine. Maybe I'm going brain dead from all the Christmas mania already. I actually bought three light-up lawn ornament deer. A delivery driver with a headlamp was at my front door at 4:33 am. The world's all wonky.
I've never heard of a dessert called MOOSE TRACKS, probably because it seems like a good way to ruin vanilla ice cream.
I'll bet on the global scale of English writing, HUMANLY rarely precedes "possible."
Librarians don't SHUSH you anymore.
I didn't know the reference to MEAT TORNADO, but it's a funny idea. And the clues for ELEPHANT and DIALUP are hilarious.
😫 MAPOTOFU.
Propers: 6
Places: 1
Products: 10 {ehem}
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 76 (30%)
Funnyisms: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: ASS. I miss our salad days of arsery, don't you?
Uniclues:
1 On a soapbox.
2 What Adam drank on his folding chair outside the house prior to moving to the crummy part of town.
3 Muhammad's left fist.
4 Buy a clamp.
5 When you're 48 minutes into a Tuesday puzzle desperately seeking synonyms for "irk."
1 ATOP WOOD DIAS (~)
2 EDEN LAWN BEER
3 ALI MEAT TORNADO
4 ENRICH TOOL ROOM (~)
5 UNSAID PANIC
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Feminine feeling flamers. ESTROGEN PATCH DRAGONS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Brains are funny. I had no idea about the chess rating system until I got the EL; then I knew not only that it was ELO, but that it had been developed by ELO Arpad, who seems to be known for little else.
I think Rex misses the point that the theme answers are all arguably junk foods (as specified in the clue), although I would debate the ice cream. (I'm from Wisconsin, where dairy is considered to be good for you; also the state where the aforementioned ELO spent most of his career.)
I wasn't sure that a PANSY was really a violet, so I looked it up in Wikipedia. If you want your brain to split, go read the first paragaph of their article. I tried, but failed.
Rex calls that a "quick writeup today"? I call it a tome.
Now to the puzzle: I lost my original writeup and have no energy to reproduce it -- so let's just say that I hate TOFU, would never mix peanut butter with fudge, and hadn't heard of any of these MT concoctions. But I liked the wordplay of the puzzle and its relative Tuesday crunchiness. And now a word about the TOOL ROOM:
Last week we had to guess whether it was a TOOL KIT, TOOL BOX, or TOOL SET. Today the tools have their own entire ROOM. It looks like tools are taking over the entire world -- or at least the NYTXW.
Yesterday was not a good day, at our house. One of our very best friends died suddenly. And altho I tried twice to post a comment here, it never got accepted.
I guess it's like what @RP said, if U got a link at the end of yer comment, some monitors are gonna holler "spam!' and throw all yer words away. [Despite the runtpuz spam disclaimer intros that M&A has tried to use, recently.]
Nice foodie puz, today, btw. Congratz to the debut constructioneer.
Safe travels, @RP.
Rest In Peace, John.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
I appreciate a little challenge on a Tuesday… And for me, ma po tofu was the only gimme in the theme answers. Moose tracks was vaguely familiar
I’m pretty sure “empty” is meant to translate as “MT”. In the science lab world we used to label empty gas cylinders MT when we swapped them out, so no one would accidentally take an empty one. All the answers are combos of M and T words, so…
I would have had an easier time getting ELO if it referred to video game player ranking instead of chess.
Medium-tough for me too.
No costly erasures except for typos and I did not know MAPO TOFU and ADOLFO.
The theme answers were fun/interesting but I agree with @Rex about some of the fill, liked it.
Wacky? Absolutely! A little rough? Yes. But not difficult. I am a super fan of Parks and Rec and did not remember the Meat Tornado, but the crosses were eminently fair. I find Mapo Tofu, John Cho, and the clue for dial up all delightful.
I thought TOFU was the antithesis of EMPTY CALORIES. Here's a quote form Healthline.com: "Tofu is low in calories but high in protein and fat. It also contains many important vitamins and minerals, including calcium and manganese." And this from ClevelandClinic.org: "Soybeans and soy products like tofu are rich in isoflavones. These flavonoids (plant-based chemicals) help lower your blood pressure and offer other heart-protective benefits."
I've got more TOOLs than you could shake a hammer at and have known other TOOL junkies over the years but have never ever seen or even heard of a TOOL ROOM.
I gave UP on this one about two thirds of the way through. There was the TOFU snafu and so much of what I consider uninteresting trivia that I figured it wouldn't be worth the time and effort to piece it all together via crosses. In hind sight, I was right.
Laughing out loud at your “tool” remark.
Regrettable for children who love Disney characters (and adults who haven’t moved on).
Condolences. Losing a best friend can sometimes be harder than losing a family member.
Ditto.
That sound is a "handshake"
Liked the puzzle fine other than the four UP entries. Was that really necessary? But I have to admit that the clue for a DIALUP was a real hoot, and spot on. The only themer readily familiar to me was MOOSE TRACKS and as Rex said, you could put MINI in front of just about any candy bar. The other two were complete mysteries and took most every cross to get.
Typo, EdO vs. EGO at 30a. That mid-section I was endeavoring to fly through tabbed-acrosses and well after the premature curtains, it became clear how long sussing an error can take when you have no idea what the hell the error is. So many games, there's been a one-letter discrepancy, and despite overall difficulty, your ears are pricked.. to the possibility. Your Spidey Sense is on it. Your eyes are pricked. Fingers... that's right, pricked. Everything about you is pricked. 'This prick will suss it'.. and you do, lickety. And hella split.
Here, I scanned the downs first as double-check and somehow, DOdE, 24d, looked right. Even though it clearly wasn't, everyone and his grandmother know DOGE. But like that hanging chad, maybe it's amiss, but maybe it's not. So.. across check, commence. And. !@#$%!
So that was it for the excitement, other than 'MEAT TORpeDO' briefly before MEAT TORNADO, 56a, which is a much better name for a [burrito... "that literally killed a guy last year"]. "Parks and Recreation" writers, comments?
Otherwise, uhh.. I dunno. Unless there's something remarkable, these games are beginning to run together. Indistinguishable, one from the next.
The Rex: Waking the roosters, approaching two decades, to suss, then side-hustle review the suss, vast bulk of the time.. and moderate.. then off to jobby job, professorizing, and all that that entails (you're in the middle of exams now, rite?), capped today with a flight out of town. Ironman stamina.. consistent, long-haul discipline: mind-boggling.
Meanwhile, the retiree set, still in their bathrobes, are deliberating the Groce, 58 across.. into the afternoon.
Safe flight.
PS: Side note - over the suss, Riprock had one of those sensory moments which seem to vividly strike many of you people during the playing of the game (all of which elude Riprock.. unless stimulus is risible): MAPO TOFU is not "yummy," it's gloppy. Dizgustin'.
Rex's comment about the title of the movie is so silly.
As I have quoted on an old T-shirt, "You had me at MEATTORNADO." Loved it!
Surprised by how many people did not know MAPO TOFU. This is the second time in the last couple weeks that a pretty common Asian themed thing bewildered players (the other in mind being H-Mart)
Glad the “quick write-up” was as long as it was, because I enjoyed it a good bit more than I did the puzzle. By the end of reading this post, I found the absurdity almost endearing.
Medium tough as in MT?
The only MAPO I know is the commercial with the kid yelling for his favorite hot cereal
"I WANT MY MAPO"
Sorry - I meant MAYPO"
Full of non-Tuesday level clues and answers. I tried to solve down clues only but abandoned that as half the answers were blank. But I mainly want to complain about one particular answer: TOOL ROOM.
It's rare that an answer makes me yell at my computer, but that sounds absurd to me. Why keep your tools in a separate room? They can be in your WORK SHOP, hanging on the wall or whatever. If you don't have a workshop, they can be in a CLOSET or a CABINET or a DRAWER. If I google the phrase, the top hits are for a record company and a radio station. Surely this came out of a word list. Yeesh.
DIAL UP was the best answer today. Oh, I remember those sounds...
LAVED brought me back to the bad old days of puzzles. PLEASE.
Just discovered MAPOTOFU this summer, and imbibed in Chengdu, so felt like this puzzle was made for me. One of my favorite authentic Chinese dishes, btw.
I had forgotten about the MEATTORNADO, but do remember Ron Swanson asking for the entire hunk of rotating Schwarma beef; and asking for whiskey in liquid form:)
ELO has been discussed here at length recently. Same system of head to head results works for Chess, Video Games, et al. The Electric Light Orchestra has ruled xlandia for a while, nice to have the rating system visit.
M&A
I’m sorry. I’ll say a prayer for your friend. And you.
Twix made by Mars. Mars bars also made by Mars. Not the same candy.
@M and A 10:35 AM
Big hug to you and your family.
So sorry that you lost your friend. That sucks. Hang tough☀️
So sorry to hear this. It is never easy.
Stuart
I have been reading this blog for ten years or so and it has existed for much more than that. At times Rex even opens by saying I need to be short, but admits at the end it was as long as usual
Writing a lot IS his style. So I think your sarcastic comment falls flat with most regular commenters ( me included)
If you don’t like his style, why read it?, many here will say. I just figure some people like making sarcastic comments.
Andy Freude
Good catch seeing the switch of room and cart. Certainly, bar room is more in the language tool room!
Anonymous 9:58 AM
If the clue for ELO referenced the Electric Light Orchestra thousands of people doing the puzzle would have groaned: “Overused crosswordese.” “ I am sick of it “ “ Boring.” Etc = Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
I knew this answer because the reference to the chess ranking system has been used before, more than once. So it is likely to become crosswordese then fade out.
I wouldn’t criticize someone trying to vary the clues!
Gary Jugert
Liked your comment as usual.
One point. The ER staff did all that was HUMANLY possible to save the patient, without success.
It is in circumstances like that during which the expression is often used.
I actually liked that clue and answer.
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