.png)
Constructor: Daniel Raymon
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (a solid 30 seconds above my Wednesday average)
THEME: Punctuation, Literally — The clues on the theme answers are simple punctuation marks, and the answers are definitions of words that are homophones of those marks.
Word of the Day: SKEG (44D - Fin beneath a surfboard) —
A skeg (or skegg or skag) is a sternward extension of the keel of boats and ships which have a rudder mounted on the centre line.[1] The term also applies to the lowest point on an outboard motor or the outdrive of an inboard/outboard.[A][B] In more recent years, the name has been used for a fin on a surfboard which improves directional stability and to a movable fin on a kayak which adjusts the boat's centre of lateral resistance (it moves the center of resistance relative to the center of effort).
• • •
Theme answers:
- PRICE ESTIMATE (20A: ") - Quote
- STRETCH OF TIME (26A: .) - Period
- MAKE A RUN FOR IT (45A: -) - Dash
- ROCK GUITARIST (56A: /) - Slash
I really enjoyed today's theme! As I'm just starting to learn how to construct puzzles, I've been playing around with a few similar concepts to this one. I think this is executed very well. The theme answers do a nice job of not being related directly to the punctuation marks used to represent them (ie - "period" could have been clued as " 'End of discussion'" or something, but they went with a second definition). I feel like "Quote" comes a little close, etymologically speaking, but it didn't bother me.
Unfortunately, the fill didn't live up to the theme for me. It's not that it's bad, it's just... there. I just solved this a few minutes ago, and I'm already struggling to remember anything outside of the themers. I liked the trivia aspect of the clue on PAAR (62A: Jack who hosted "The Morning Show" and "The Tonight Show"). And when I hit 33A (One-named singer featured on the 2013 hit "Play Hard"), my sparse knowledge of hip hop made me wonder, "Could it be NEYO? Or maybe AKON?" Turns out, the answer was "yes," since there was an identical clue at 66A. That was fun.
(I can't help but feel like David GUETTA might have added some excitement to the grid)
But nothing else did much for me. I wonder if that contributed to my perceived difficulty on this puzzle. Give me a batch of FCC, RSVP, ERS, ALEE, TNUT, SRS, TREE, and ISLA (non Bonita or Nubar category) and I guess I just tune out a bit.
Quick Hits:
Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
(16A: Dance with hand gestures that can represent ocean waves - totally not sponsored by Moana 2)
So, yeah. Despite an enjoyable, well-executed theme, I just couldn't get excited about the puzzle as a whole. Curse of a Wednesday, I suppose. A respectable effort, just not entirely on my wavelength.
- 35D: "___ California" (Grammy-winning Red Hot Chili Peppers hit) (DANI) — As an Angeleno, I feel like I'm supposed to love RHCP. I like the hits just fine, but have never been able to really get into these guys:
- 60D: Online recap letters (TLDR) — I feel like I may be rehashing something Rex has already talked about here (or maybe on BlueSky), but miss me with TL,DR. Just read the damn thing. Nothing worth reading is too long. Nothing not worth reading is short enough.
- 11D: What self-driving cars and spell check are meant to compensate for (HUMAN ERROR) — At the risk of sound like a grumpy old man, self-driving cars and AI are still human creations and therefore inherently error-prone. I love technology, but leaning into laziness and stupidity will doom us all.
 |
| Eli posted a Simpsons reference. Drink! |
- 53A: ___ dog, food specialty topped with meat sauce (CONEY) — How wide-spread is this term, nationally? I know it's mostly a Detroit thing, but we called chili dogs coneys when I was growing up in Iowa (though my Dad's family came from Michigan, so that may have played into it). Is it midwestern, generally? Am I the weird one here? Rats, now I want a hot dog.
One quick note before I go. If you're interested in solving crosswords outside of the New York Times world, you'd be hard pressed to get much better than AVCX. They're an independent outlet offering full size, midi, cryptic, and trivia puzzles every week, and they're consistently awesome. They're currently running a membership drive, and I can't recommend them highly enough. Check them out at AVXwords.com.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
ReplyDelete@Eli, thanks for a great writeup, and let me second your comments about AVCX. Five puzzles a week, Midis MTTF, full size Wednesdays, a trivia puzzle on Saturdays and a cryptic every other Thursday. Truly a bargain.
Easy-Medium, although I solved without reading the theme clues so I wasn't confused by the punctuation marks.
Overwrites:
10D: urge before WHIM
21D: CoiLS before COCKS
41D: ULNAl before ULNAR
71A: NERTz before NERTS
WOEs:
33A: AKON
35D: DANI California
44D: SKEG
66A: NEYO
I always thought the coney dog originated on Coney Island.
ReplyDeleteDoing the XW on paper here in LA… The clue was “ ___dog (Brooklyn food speciality).” Weird, but made it a gimme!
DeleteYes, but New Yorkers don’t call them coney anything. In Detroit (and more of the Midwest) a coney place is a hotdog restaurant offering toppings.
DeleteI’m a Brooklyn guy, I grew up two stops or about a mile walk from Coney Island. Not even once, did I ever call a hot dog a “Coney,” and never heard anybody else say it either.
DeleteChili dog before CONEY dog, but CYST had to be right so I got it from the crosses--I'm from New York and figured it might be something to do with CONEY ISLA (see what I did there), but as I hadn't ever heard of a CONEY dog maybe not--now I know.
ReplyDeleteSKEG was a WOE. I'm not a surfer and have never heard or seen that word until this morning, despite having read Barbarian Days not that long ago. That jacked up the difficulty for me--like @Eli, I ended on that E. I didn't get the theme until I filled in ROCK GUITARIST, and then they all made sense, which I enjoyed. But having SK_G did nothing for me, although the cross was fair. But C'mon.
I was the other way around. ~20% faster on this than my usual Wednesdays.
ReplyDeleteOoh, two days in a row with yucky, icky themes that contribute nothing to the solving experience (and actually subtract from it, similar to the impact we had yesterday with stuff like MEAT TORNADO). I guess this one could have climbed up to mediocre if the solver realized that the hieroglyphics could be verbalized and interpreted as actual clues. Jeez, this theme is convoluted enough to qualify as a Thursday.
ReplyDeleteWithout some type of a decent theme to hold it all together, we’re back to the standard NYT grid filled with one-name singers, text-isms, multiple foreign-isms and obscure stuff like SKEG crossing a bizarrely clued ERS.
I think the sample size is now large enough that we can conclude that the editing has definitely not IMPROVED since Will started his recuperation (my own personal opinion, hopefully others will have an opinion to the contrary - yikes, I hope somebody is enjoying this stuff).
Feels like we have entered the puzzlers’ strike
DeleteFeels like we have entered the cache of puzzles from the Puzzlers strike including Friday and Sunday that’s 4/6 gross puzzles. They seem AI generated, just soulless.
DeleteAs in much of life, editors will probably show you who you are from the start. I'm not holding out hope for anything better now. I do think we were spoiled by, and took for granted, Mr. Shortz' talent.
DeleteCompletely agree. I want a crossword, not a trivia knowledge test.
DeleteHad to cheat in the SW to finish. Didn't know SKEG or CONEY, and had "ulnal" instead of ULNAR. I'll need someone to explain how a slash equates with a ROCKGUITARIST (remember, I'm old). Thanks in advance.
ReplyDeleteSlash is the pseudonym of a famed ROCK GUITARIST, best known for his years with Guns ‘N Roses.
DeleteSlash is the name of a rock guitarist mostly known by people who are now old.
DeleteSlash is the stage name of a famous rock guitarist.
DeleteAlternate clues:
ReplyDelete18A: Cash cow speaker series with a single recurring message: "Adopt my brilliant idea and the world will be perfect."
47A: What you say when this experimental musician is clued.
60D: Attitude responsible for the mess we are in and that TEDX will never remedy (Abbr.)
Wednesdays I solve downs only plus themers and STRETCHOFTIME was my first across. This seriously misdirected me as I concluded the theme was interpreting repeated punctuation, as in ... can represent a stretch of time. Wasn't till ROCKGUITARIST came about that I got it figured.
ReplyDeleteI think the point of TLDR is that some things are not worth reading...
ReplyDeleteAgree.
DeleteAgree. Not a “recap”. Nope.
DeleteGrew up in Pittsburgh, live in RI now and never heard of a coney dog. Assumed it had to do with Coney Island but apparently not if it’s a Detroit thing. Dropped Chili in there initially, pretty confidently.
ReplyDeleteBurghman
DeleteI have lived in RI my whole life.
In the Providence area at least we have several places that sell “New York System “ hot dogs with toppings. The odds are someone from NYC brought the idea to Providence. Ditto with Coneys. The odds are overwhelmingly that someone from NYC introduced the idea of hot dogs with toppings to the Midwest.
Coney Island to this day is known for its hotdogs
Finished with an error with SEsTET crossing TEDs. "Series" in the clue for 18A seemed to me to want a plural.
ReplyDeleteSKEG and CONEY were woes, but I'm very familiar with DANI California -- the music video for which I quite enjoy.
About
DeleteRHCP
Have heard that song countless times on the radio and Serius
but never knew its name!
You are right. That video is hysterical. Never seen it before thanks for the link
Simple and elegant theme, and what I especially like about it is that even if you crack it after uncovering your first theme answer, you still have to work to fill in the others. In some puzzles, you get the first theme answer and suddenly all the others are gimmes, making the rest of the fill-in unsatisfyingly rote.
ReplyDeleteI like WHIM crossing WHET because when I say these words aloud, I actually ever-so-slightly pronounce the H, as opposed to words like WHILE and WHIP, where I don’t. I don’t know why I pronounce that H on some but not on others, but I do know that when I pronounce the H, I somehow feel … classier.
I liked the two long downs. REAL MCCOYS because it has a great ring and I haven’t heard it in a long time. HUMAN ERROR, well, yes. It is all around us. It is a fact of life. It is inescapable, and I’ve learned to accept and love it rather than bristle at it. See: WABI SABI.
So, wow, not only a solve that satisfied my brain’s workout ethic, but thought-provoking as well. Just a lovely experience, and thank you for that, Daniel!
hmmm, I've never heard you call something "unsatisfyingly rote"...
DeleteI liked the aha moment I got from "dash" = MAKE A RUN FOR IT. Neat theme concept, though ROCK GUITARIST doesn't quite work like the other themers IMO. I can see [Quote], [Period] and [Dash] working as clues for their respective answers, but the fourth one would have to be [Slash, e. g.]. I thought the answer would end up being related to slashing prices.
ReplyDeleteNot very interesting for a Wednesday…
ReplyDeleteHad CHILI before CONEY also. I grew up and lived well into adulthood in Wisconsin, then NYC, Pennsylvania & NY state; and now Ohio. Don’t think I’ve ever heard of a CONEY dog before.
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coney_Island_hot_dog
ReplyDeleteThis was the original Nathan's! Weren't you & your Dad my neighbors on Ocean Parkway?
DeleteI have eaten lots of CONEYs, but in the wilds of far Upstate NY, and perhaps other places, they are always called "michigans", and are best served with chopped onions and mustard on top. When I'm in a place where they are available I usually order three.
ReplyDeleteCongratulating myself for knowing SKEG, but AKON and NEYO might as well be the names of aliens from Star Wars. Also, ASIANA? OK, I guess.
Minor nit for TNUT as a "woodworking fastener", but a major nit for a bowline being clued as a "feature of a knot". A bowline IS knot. I mean, really.
Liked the theme and thought it was well-executed. The " was hardest to see as it is partnered to indicate a quote, but the others were solid. Well done, DR. Definitely Rates at least an A-, and thanks for a fair amount of fun.
That was my first thought but I looked up bowline and it meant a particular rope on a boat (which might feature the later-shortened bowline-knot) almost five hundred years before it meant the knot.
DeleteAnd incidentally this definition is delightful: "A simple but very secure knot, used in fastening the bowline-bridles to the cringles."
DeleteI grew up in the Albany area with grandparents close to the Canadian border. I was about to make the comment about "Michigans," but you beat me to it! Great memories from my younger days.
Deletebow·line
Delete/ˈbōlən/
noun
1. a rope attached to the weather leech of a square sail and leading forward, thus helping the ship sail nearer the wind.
2. a simple knot for forming a nonslipping loop at the end of a rope.
"Coney" usage is widespread, even in Canada. The name references Coney Island, as these dogs (specifically from Nathan's) are synonymous with that place. The main difference between a Coney and a chili dog is the sauce. Coney sauce is usually thinner and can pour better. Also, "hot dog chili" often includes pureed beans to thin out the sauce. A chili dog is topped with chili (duh) and often chopped onions.
ReplyDeleteThere's a chain in Houston called James Coney Island that sells what might be the lowest common denominator of a Coney: thin meat sauce, gloopy cheese sauce, onions diced so small they're practically powder... and they're dirt cheap and completely addicting, even though you know when you're eating them that it's trash food. Just like those so-called tacos at Jack in the Box.
Damn, now I'm hungry.
Why is Ned Lamont OED?
ReplyDeleteCan someone please explain how ARTS is the partner of letters? Thanks
ReplyDeleteI have heard the expression “arts and letters” but I really don’t know the origin or the meaning of it.
DeleteArts & Letters is a traditional term for arts and literature, a recognized discipline at some educational institutions, often housed under Humanities
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arts_and_letters Incidentally this is easily searched.
DeleteMany liberal arts colleges are called (or were) "College of Arts and Letters."
DeleteToo many niche name.
ReplyDeleteI read 53A as “dog food speciality,” missing the comma. They have names for dog food?? That really held me up. Mostly enjoyed this but NEYO and AKON were just random letters to me. Sigh.
ReplyDelete: Answer — Everybody’s got a large and a small one.
ReplyDelete; Answer — Large truck exhaust pipe?
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteTook me to getting down to the "/" to finally figure out what in tarhooties the puz was talkin' 'bout. Thank goodness I'm a big Guns-N-Roses fan. Then the genuine Aha/lightbulb moment happened. Then the D'oh head slap.
Had COERCE spelled as COERsE, and PRImE instead of PRICE, which had me scratching the ole head at 21D. Had M_C_S, with COO as SO_. Erased the M, ran the alphabet to the C, and saw COCKS. Then saw it was COO, not SOO. Figured that was it, but no Happy Music.
Had SEsTET, because TEDS looked a lot better than TEDX. But managed to change that, and then the Tune of Happiness played.
So a different type Theme puz that took a bit to grok, but ultimately a fun little jaunt.
Who had CHILI first for CONEY? I've heard of CONEY Island Dogs, but not just a CONEY Dog.
Liked Eli's assessment that AI is created by HUMANs, ergo, ERROR prone. But one day, AI will become self aware, and wipe out the human race. Be warned. What, me paranoid? Nah.
PISSED OFF before, SNAFU today. In the voice of Austin Powers, "Oh, behave!"
Have a happy Wednesday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Good write up and like Anonymous above, I actually went through this faster than most Wednesdays. I can imagine it would be harder if you aren’t familiar with SLASH. I tend to know the names of guitarists but at one point I misremembered SLASH to be with Red Hot Chili Peppers (sorry Dave Navarro) instead Guns n Roses. Sweet Child o Mine may not be your cuppa, but the guitar work is impressive!
ReplyDeleteI also had a momentary thought when I saw _____ dog, associated with food…”oh my Lord…NOOO!” Did anyone else?
Sweet Child o' Mine was the first dance at our wedding. Just me and mrsshef until the big guitar solo, when all the guests joined in. So ... very much my cuppa!
DeleteGood story!
DeleteI was positive 48 across was an underscore, so was lost there until had enough crosses, DANI, SKEG, FLA before FSU & being open to almost anything for the middle of U..AR didn't help. Also blanked on CONEY and didn't know NEYO/AKON/whatever Play Hard is so convinced myself briefly that a CONAY DOG sounded plausibly like something, maybe Australian
ReplyDeleteI got trapped with AKON/HON. Had AKUN and HUN. Not having any knowledge of hard playing 2013 hits, I relied solely on the crosses. Unfortunately, in trying to solve, the alternate spelling of hun never dawned on me.
ReplyDeleteAs far as self driving cars, their flaws will eventually be addressed by dedicating lanes for their use. All they have to do is replace pedestrian and bicycle access to the cities. If you need to go down the street, you'll just have to pay a small fee to the drone cab industry and they'll take you.
Given the amount of capital already invested in the technology, the inability to actually make it safe, and the simplicity of investing in politicians... I fear this will be the new reality within a decade.
Hey, NYT, can you possibly make the theme punctuation marks any smaller or fainter? I wasn't even sure that there was ANY mark at all at 26A -- which turned out to be a teensy tiny light gray dot which turned out to be a teensy tiny light gray PERIOD.
ReplyDeleteI knew this after I filled in STRETCH OF TIME and not a nanosecond before.
For the first half of the puzzle, I relied on word pattern recognition to fill in the themers. PRICE ESTIMATE was also a great big "Huh?" since the quote mark was pretty much invisible too. But once I saw what was going on, getting the theme answers was easier and much more satisfying. Too bad I never heard of Slash the ROCK GUITARIST, but MAKE A RUN FOR IT for the dash that also could have been a hyphen brought an "Aha". (The other themers had belated "Aha"s.)
There were also some nice long Downs in REAL MCCOYS (Oh, that's why there's a double "C" there!) and HUMAN ERROR which has a very nice clue.
My very own personal solving tip of "Go for the obvious when guessing pop song titles because pop song titles are always boringly obvious" was dashed (pun intended) by "DANI California". with DAN- in, I had no idea ("Dan's California"? "Dank California"? "Dang California"? What on earth is "DANI California"?) But otherwise no problems once I had the theme figured out. This provoked enough curiosity at the outset to make the puzzle an enjoyable solve for me.
I enjoyed this and thought the theme was clever. Seemed like I vaguely recall having done something like this once before with the punctuation marks. Anyone else? It seemed a little odd to clue the last themer with a proper name when the other three are clearly illustrations of what each mark could represent. For the same number of letters, I would have preferred MAYBE MAYBE NOT at 56A. Anyway, a satisfying solve overall.
ReplyDeleteEli, nice of you to share your insights today. I’m from the Midwest and we called them chili dogs. We also had beef burgers which were sort of the chili without the dog. I totally agree with your perspective that “leaning into laziness and stupidity will doom us all.” Sadly however, that seems to be where we’re headed.
The clue for a single quotation mark would more accurately be "Asking price" but okay for crosswords. Having the guitarist be one of the themers is inelegant. In fact, that's how I would characterize the whole puzzle.'
ReplyDeleteGrew up in southern Oklahoma near the Red River. We just called them CONEYs. Never heard the term chili dog until the song Jack & Diane came out.
ReplyDeleteTexan here. Used to visit relatives in Ada, OK. Had my first Coney Island hot dog at a drive in there and loved it. That was over 80 years ago.
DeleteNaturally I had no idea what was going on -- with that " as the clue for 20-A, I thought maybe it was going to be a quotation puzzle, starting there. But no, the other theme clues were different punctuation marks. So I worked away at the fill, which was slow because the themers were so close together that I couldn't get up a head of steam.
ReplyDeleteHowever, once I had enough crosses to see PRICE ESTIMATE, it all became perfectly obvious. I had no idea a ROCK GUITARIST was called a slash, but the other two were easy to work out, and crosses gave me that last one.
Cute start, with MARCO as clued (didn't fool me for one second) crossing MAL as a type of practice. Not so fond of ARE as a partial (only last week we had THE that way) or the two one-named singers of the same song; you know them or you don't, and I didn't. And ERS? I guess you can stumble vverbally; when I stumble I tend to say "oof." Crossing it with SKEG was brutal.
For years my parents fell asleep watching Jack PAAR; I never knew he had hosted the Today Show, though.
I laughed out loud as HUMAN ERROR, as clued. Not if you have autocorrect on, in which case you have to correct the machine error. My physical therapist is named Nuala, and whenever I put an appointment with her into Google calendar it comes out as "Musk." As for self-driving cars, I think the point is a more restful trip, not error correction. Safety features on human-driven cars are another matter; we rented a car on a trip to Iceland last summer that kept trying to steer the car, so that I had to wrestle with the wheel. No thanks.
One small point -- a bowline IS a knot. That's like saying that "horse" is a feature of a mustang.
My 2024 vehicle has the self-steering feature and it can be annoying. Sometimes it shrieks at me to take the wheel when I already have it. At least there’s a button to turn it off.
Delete@jberg: I don't understand why NUALA is corrected to MUSK. Does NUALA look or sound like ELON to autocorrect? (I imagine you have no earthly idea why, either.)
DeleteBowline also refers to the rope attached to the weather leech of a square sail and leading forward, thus helping the ship sail nearer the wind.
DeleteWikipedia: "Arts and letters is a historical and traditional term for arts and literature, implying a comprehensive appreciation or study of visual arts, performing arts, and literary arts or literature. The concept is similar to the liberal arts and has been used in similar ways."
ReplyDeletewell if you have never heard of the 2013 hit Play Hard you're kinda screwed. Hated it.
ReplyDeleteNever in my life have I heard of NERTS. Have all of you?
ReplyDeleteI have, but I've only seen it spelled out as "NERTZ".I assumed that if you're changing "nuts " to "nertz", you'd probably change the s to a z as well.
DeleteMy mother (from Minnesota) used to say it. I always thought it was spelled NERTz.
DeleteDitto...
DeleteI don't know why everyone is carrying on about Michigan; the clue states clearly "(Brooklyn food specialty)". I, too, wanted the Island part, but apparently you can drop it.
ReplyDeleteObviously, I didn't know SLASH was an individual, and I guess a well-known one, so OK.
Nice write-up, Eli! Thanks for stepping in.
Different puzzle formats had different clues for 53D today. Mine (on the website) was "____ dog, food specialty topped with meat sauce".
DeleteIn southern Michigan, where I was raised, they were "Coney Islands" or just "Coneys" but in upstate NY the Detroit style is called a "Michigan".
My online b e puzzle has "___ dog, food specialty topped with meat sauce" I think it's different in print? As a Michigander I can say that coney dog sauce is traditionally made with beef heart, probably cause it's cheap.
DeleteMedium.
ReplyDeleteI did not know DANI, NED, SKEG, and NEYO, but I did know PAAR.
Cute, liked it.
CONEY dog was a new thing to me. And I live in NY
ReplyDeleteRe NERTS, I’m pretty old and NERTS was something my grandmother said. Hope that adds some perspective…Also, never heard of Slash, but remember PAAR well, so a bit of a generational spread in this puzzle…
ReplyDeleteIf you get a note wrong while wordlessly intoning a song, do you HUMANERROR?
ReplyDeleteCOCKS and ORAL? This puzzle has SASS!
@jberg. Interesting that you have (Brooklyn food specialty) for CONEY. My puzzle has "_____ dog, food specialty topped with meat sauce."
If you really don't know anything about animals, you might ask "What is AFRICAN hippo?"
As a senior, I can tell you that a LEAK is not a problem only for a homeowner or government worker. I guess it all Depends on how you look at it.
I liked the aha moment of realizing what the theme was doing. Then figuring out the others. Thanks, Daniel Raymon.
I got the idea at PRICE ESTIMATE, and serendipitous crosses allowed me to get the other theme phrases pretty quickly. Like @jberg, I assumed that "slash" was a general term for a ROCK GUITARIST - I mean, if playing is "shredding"...., so thanks to those who cleared that misconception up.
ReplyDeleteDo-overs: REAL thingS; Chili dog. No idea SKEG, AKON, DANI, NED.
@Nancy, I agree about those tiny punctuation marks. I took photos with my phone and enlarged them to see what was what.
Interestingly, 53D is clued in my print edition as “______ dog (Brooklyn food specialty)”
ReplyDeleteEste rompecabezas causó un error humano.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant. I was 100% done with the puzzle and staring at those theme answers having no clue why they were right, none of them. And then blip, the light went on with "quote" and finally the others emerged from my muddy brain. Love the final OHO in this naughty little adventure, especially Slash.
I just woke up and I don't eat much meat anymore, but if somebody wanted to swing by with a CONEY DOG, it definitely would get you passed all three of my security systems.
That thing is called a SKEG? You have this wonderful sport, cool equipment, awesome work environment, and you call that a SKEG?? Sheesk. I do not like that word ONE IOTA. "Poker Downer Thingymabopper" would be better.
@Eli I photographed the RHCP at the Glen Miller ballroom (a crap hole even by 1980s standards) when they were first getting started and to this day I will never forget the way the shirtless lead singer blew up that room. I knew they'd be big. He was something to behold as a ute.
Propers: 7
Places: 0
Products: 5
Partials: 9
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 24 of 76 (32%)
Funnyisms: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: [Fluid filled sac]. SEXTET. COCKS.
Uniclues:
1 Post embarrassing recording from a hot mic.
2 Chicken volcano does its thing.
1 LEAK ORAL SNAFU
2 COCKS ERUPTS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Italian delight with red peppers in the sauce. PERT LASAGNA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I found this to be an unpleasant puzzle, with too many names and (to me) an incomprehensible theme. Had to read the write-up to have the faintest idea of how the answers related to the punctuation marks.
ReplyDeleteOne does not use REALMCCOYS in the plural. The phrase is, “the REALMCCOY”
It just all rubbed me the wrong way.
Not sensing a LOT of ARDOR for this one among the commentariat. Maybe the 40 black squares TAXED the grid too much and didn't leave enough room for quality fill. HUMAN ERROR was nice as was REAL MCCOY. Oh wait. That last one there needed some convenient help to fill its SLOT.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of convenient grid fill help, that bottom row not only has one POC (plural of convenience), it also enables five (!) others via Downs.
Anyone else think of @Gill.I when MIO filled in for 31D "Ay, Dios ___!"?
Fairly easy puztheme mcguffin to grok out. Still ... a kinda tough solvequest at our house, due to several shortie no-knows:
ReplyDeleteTEDX. DANI [debut no-know]. MIO. NED. SKEG. AKON. NEYO.
staff weeject pick: MIO. cuz it had a neat {",-!"} clue. [There was some other weird letter-stuff in the clue, but the punctuation was the hi-lites.]
favest thing: REALMCCOYS.
honrable mentions: HUMANERROR [as in TEDS instead of TEDX]. OKSURE. COERCE.
Thanx, Mr. Raymon dude. Admirably punctual.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
p.s. Nice subbin job, Eli dude.
p.p.s.s.
Am kinda gun-shy, about postin a runtpuz crossword link down here, anymore. Even tho I've been doin it without any trouble for around ten years, some new generation of monitors now seem to holler "spam" and throw away my comments.
May try pubbin the runtpuz link as a separate "Runty Comment", or somesuch...?
Re Michigan CONEY, an alternative clue could be “Major gas supplier
ReplyDeleteThis was a hard one, as I didn't really grok the theme until the end (figured it out from Slash.)
ReplyDeleteI had assumed that coney dog was widely known - I live in the West Coast, and had coney dogs at Dairy Queen. They were on special one day a week, maybe Tuesday?
I finished, corrected my errors, and stared dumbly for a minute or so until I finally realized "Oh, quote, period, dash, slash!"
ReplyDeleteThe above mentioned errors were in the lower left, where I had no idea for ANON and NEYO, and like @mmorgan could not imagine a dog food named CONEY. Oddly, SKEG was a gimme because I've dealt with sea kayaks and windsurf boards. Just think of it as a keel; I'm not sure what the difference is.
Another typeover: SNARL before SNAFU.
My great nephew's fiance's parents (whew) visited our cabin in September, arriving in a self driving Tesla. He insists he did not even have to touch the steering wheel in the 2 and a half hour drive, even going through multiple construction zones with single lanes marked off by traffic cones, which is hugely impressive. Like many of you I had thought the self driving idea was a fantasy.
I had to get all the way down to - = dash = MAKE A RUN FOR IT before I got the theme. And even then, had to say the word Slash out loud before I got 56A, which gave me a chuckle.
ReplyDeleteThere are some really nice entries, HUMAN ERROR, CULLS, REAL MCCOYS, ONE IOTA, and then there's AKON and NEYO. ER, OK!
Thanks, Daniel Ramon, for an entertaining Wednesday puzzle.
I seem to have liked the fill better than Eli - I see I put a smile beside 6A "Jars" for "they might be jam-packed" early on. And I like 28D "real mccoy". I enjoyed the theme which I caught on to with 20 A. But not the last one, 56A because never heard of him so it did not make sense until I googled. Also like several others I had no idea of neyo , akon and skeg (I still fid it hard to believe the latter is a word.)
ReplyDelete@Egs, Again thanks for the laughs. I was slooow on the African hippo . Had read it three times to "hear" it.
Frank Burns on M*A*S*H would say NERTS on occasion.
ReplyDeleteGreat job today, Eli. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHello Eli :)
ReplyDeleteGot a late start - would've gotten a later start if a damn Robo caller hadn't woken me up.
Didn't know SKEG, NEYO, AKON & the only CONEY I know is Coney Island. (I may have been reunited with old neighbors - the original Nathans @ NathanHandwerker (family?) @ 7:56 ???
This was fun. Thank you, Daniel.
Theme was completely wasted on me. Had no idea what it was til I read it here. However, the puzzle was an easy solve for me without that information. Sticky bits were Neyo and Akon.
ReplyDeleteWhen M&A sees a "J" splatzed down in the top row of a NYTPuz like today's, I start thinkin "pangrammer!" Nope. three letters short.
ReplyDeleteAnyhoo...
Let's try this little puz rascal out on y'all:
"Cold Man Winter" - 7x7 12 min. themed:
**gruntz**
M&A
In Cincinnati, they are known as “cheese coneys” sold by local chili parlors. If you want to start an argument, just loudly state which local chain is far superior to all the others. The major and older chains were started by Greek immigrants. The basic chili dish is spaghetti, chili, and cheddar cheese, a “3-way”. You can add onion or beans for a 4-way, or both for a 5-way. Purists insist Cincinnati Chili isn’t really chili (and they are probably right!). I like it, and am making it tonight for dinner!
ReplyDeleteThere's a town on the eastern coast of England called Skegness ... the Vikings left their mark on many ocean-related bits of equipment and place names.
ReplyDelete