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Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
- PASSING FAD (16A: Trend that's here today, gone tomorrow)
- PESSIMISTIC (23A: Seeing the glass half-empty)
- PISSED OFF (33A: Beyond irritated)
- POSSIBILITY (47A: Potential option)
- PUSSYFOOTS (56A: Tiptoes, as around a touchy subject)
Glenn Lewis Frey (/fraɪ/ FRY; November 6, 1948 – January 18, 2016) was an American musician. He was a founding member of the rock band Eagles. Frey was the co-lead singer and frontman for Eagles, roles he came to share with fellow member Don Henley, with whom he wrote most of Eagles' material. Frey played guitar and keyboards as well as singing lead vocals on songs such as "Take It Easy", "Peaceful Easy Feeling", "Tequila Sunrise", "Already Gone", "James Dean", "Lyin' Eyes", "New Kid in Town", and "Heartache Tonight".While Eagles were on hiatus from 1980 to 1994, Frey embarked on a successful solo career. He released his debut album, No Fun Aloud, in 1982 and went on to record Top 40 hits "The One You Love", "Smuggler's Blues", "Sexy Girl", "The Heat Is On", "You Belong to the City", "True Love", "Soul Searchin'" and "Livin' Right". As a member of Eagles, Frey won six Grammy Awards and five American Music Awards. Eagles were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1998, the first year they were nominated. Consolidating his solo recordings and those with the Eagles, Frey had 24 Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100. (wikipedia)
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| [PUSS 'N' BOOTS fit!] |
Weirdly, the thing that baffled me the most up in the NE was EXPECTS (12D: Anticipates). In retrospect, it makes no sense that I had trouble—the clue and answer are pretty clearly synonyms. But I had -ECTS and just couldn't make a word that I wanted. Even when I mentally inserted the "P" in there (to make HUMP in the cross), it took me a few beats for the "X" to come to me. The other tough Down for me was GAVE OUT, specifically the GAVE part (41D: Dispensed, as Halloween candy). I think of GAVE OUT as "died." Halloween candy, I hand out. Maybe pass out. Dole out? Mete out? "GAVE OUT" certainly tracks, but the only reason I eventually got it was that I needed a four-letter past tense verb that (because the fourth cross was T-RI) ended in an "E" (or an "O," but that seemed unlikely). The rest of the grid pretty much whizzed by, but the NE and SE had me sweating a little.
Bullets:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
The theme is rudimentary. I've seen a million of these. Hell, I made one once (actually, mine was more vowel sound progression (STALE, STEAL, STYLE, STOLE, STOOL), but it's in the same ballpark). I guess PISSED OFF is supposed to be the scene stealer, the marquee themer. It's too bad that the only thing that passes for contemporary or modern in this puzzle is this crudeness. I don't mind PISSED OFF in my grid, but I wish the other themers, and the grid as a whole, had a little more zip and zing about it (although, OK, I do kinda like PUSSYFOOTS). The grid on the whole isn't bad, but it is awash in repeaters: PSST EST ASAHI ANI TERI TODO ASHE IRULE ERIE SSN. I enjoyed HAS AN IN (38D: Knows somebody who might help) and HEMLINE, whereas SUPERSIZE did nothing for me, and "THIS IS FUN" was far less fun than the first thing I wanted there: "LET'S PARTY!" (15D: "Wheeeeeee!"). Overall, solid if staid work, with a bit more bite than the usual Monday, if only because of those open corners.
Bullets:
- 24D: Old LP format (MONO) — I have a lot of LPs and yet I still stared at this answer like "???" I had to fill four letters with an "old ... format?" But "LP" is the "format." So I was confused. Turned out to be about the recording (or sound) format—before the advent of stereo recording, music was recorded in MONO:
Mono (monophonic) sound is single-channel audio where all the instruments are mixed into one signal, intended to be heard as if emanating from one position.
Stereo (stereophonic) sound is achieved by using two audio channels feeding 2 separate speakers. This creates a more three-dimensional sound, and better resembles how we hear things in the world at large. (dittomusic.com)
- 49D: Kids make them for Santa (LISTS) — "COOKIES" wouldn't fit. Did you do that? Make cookies for Santa? And then leave them out and in the morning they would be gone, or there'd be a big bite out of one? Because Santa and/or your parents are real? This was definitely part of my childhood Christmas experience, but I don't remember doing the cookie thing with our kid. We probably just told her that Santa was phony and Christmas was a capitalist ruse. Whatever, she survived. In fact ...
- 55A: Group born between 1997 and 2012, for short (GEN Z) — our daughter, born 2000, came home for the Thanksgiving holiday last week. Over the weekend, things got festive.
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| [Merry Capitalist Ruse!] |
Speaking of festive, it's officially Holiday Season! This means two things for this blog. First, starting next week (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.
My five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. A little buggy? (3)
2. Pitcher for the reds? (6)
3. They might be down for a ski trip (6)
4. One whose hard work is showing? (7)
5. At-home distraction? (3)(6)(6)
ANT
CARAFE
PARKAS
REALTOR
HEY BATTER BATTER
I noticed the PASS-PESS-PISS-POSS-PUSS angle only after finishing the puzzle. I'd like to ask the constructor if PSST was intended as a hint. Anyway, I nice easy Monday with a lot to enjoy.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteEasy, breezy, fun Monday. I would expect no less from our ACME.
Didn’t notice the theme until I read Rex. I enjoyed the use of dromedary in the clue (instead of Camel). I suspect the latter would be a little too easy, even for a Monday.
ReplyDeleteVAX is a slangy way to say vaccination? Never heard it, except as part of "anti-vaxxer". I had JAB, but that's prob too MAGA-sounding to make it into the NYT, lol.
ReplyDeleteRemember the “hot vax summer” of 2021? Me neither.
Deletefloatingboy et al
DeleteI didn’t think of jab because that sounds British to me. Vax seemed Okay. Must be used by some people.
PISSED OFF? would Will have allowed this?
ReplyDeleteAlice Pollard
DeleteAbout the off color word. Shortz has been trending in that direction, so maybe. STARTLED me though
Talk about two early-week constructing pros – 15 of Kevin’s 19 puzzles are Mondays and Tuesdays (79%), and 75 of Andrea’s 87 puzzles also fall on those days (86%). This is their seventh collab.
ReplyDeleteNo surprise then that today’s puzzle does what Monday puzzles are supposed to do. Almost every answer in everyday language. Clues that are relatively easy, but overall not embarrassingly so. The former is difficult to accomplish because it greatly constricts answer possibilities. The latter is an art.
I like the PuzzPair© of FOOT and DEGAS, because the former is often put on the latter. I like that five-S clump in the NW, with part of it being PSST, which echoes the theme. Fun to see a number of answers that commonly go with “over” – SEES, USE, STAY, and the NE pair THE HUMP.
As an experienced solver, I expect to slap answers down in splats on Monday, but today had the extra thrill of slapping down the last three theme answers after getting the first two. Talk about “Whee!”.
So, thrill and beauty for me in the box today, an excursion through loveliness. Thank you so much for this, Andrea and Kevin!
Yay ACME! I had lots of Down-only fun though as always I had to look at some across clues at some point. Yay ACME!
ReplyDeleteWomen’s clothing has standard hemlines, but women’s bodies vary greatly in height. As a short person I always have to consider the hemline (is it worth an alteration?) irrespective of the fashion.
ReplyDeleteMaybe it is nit picky but, especially on a Monday puzzle when simplicity should lead to clarity, cluing the long since phased out super sizing as a contemporary option feels clunky and lazy in a way that, for some reason, really rankles.
ReplyDeleteYes, when RFK Jr is in charge there will be no SUPER SIZE and no VAX either.
Delete“Pissed” and “Pussy” in the same puzzle? Don’t solve without “Adult” Supervision!
ReplyDeleteAlso, McDonalds removed the term “Super Size” from its menu like 20 years ago, so that clue could have used a “, once”.
PISSED OFF ? Really ? The coarsening of American society continues. Who made this puzzle, Don Jr. ?
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteIs The Grey Lady becoming more risque under Joel? It was startling to see PISSED OFF in a puz. That seems like something verboten, or at least was. Even though it garnered two F's.
Rex's PUSS N BOOTS wouldn't even require a change of the Downs! Nice catch.
The only other nine letter PISS entry I found was PISS ABOUT. Either one, why it strikes me as icky, I'm not sure. I'm nobody's prude, but the Theme gets a Hmm from me. (Sorry @ACME, I like your puzs! And it's always nice seeing you!)
"There, there, Roo, ITS OK", saying to myself. Har.
Lots of S's today. There's a group of 6 in the NW alone. Only one garners a POC, though. 26 total, although it is the Theme, so 10 are from said Theme (technically 12). Weird things one notices.
Another Monday, oy.
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
You could go with PISSARROS, as in Camille's paintings. But yeah, slim pickin's as far I can tell for PISS...
DeleteYikes! I initially parsed Pissarros as Piss-A-Roos, something an Aussie might say???
DeleteSome of us need to get our knickers untwisted.
ReplyDeletePlease be specific.
DeleteMONO and stereo sound are actually encoded differently on vinyl. That's one reason (besides marketing) old vinyl records were labeled as such.
ReplyDeleteThe grooves on a MONO-encoded record capture sound in a side-to-side motion. Stereo grooves capture sound in two dimensions: side-to-side and up-and down. So they truly are different formats.
If you had a MONO system at home, you needed to buy a MONO record. Stereo systems, though, were backwards compatible.
When I got PASSING FAD I thought we might be dealing with a football theme, but PESSIMISTIC set me straight on that. Then I spent way too much time wondering how the constructors would avoid indelicacy for the next entry, they they decided to confront the issue straight on, plastering PISSED OFF right across the center of the grid. Good choice, in retrospect. Altogether a fun puzzle, very easy, with some extreme efforts to clue AN I and THE in new ways. The former worked, the second didn't quite--in my experience, people just text ROFL, letting the 'the' go unrepresented. But that's a very minor nit.
ReplyDeleteSolving at my son's house as the whole family is off to work and school and I'm in attendance while the plumber finishes up a job and they can turn their water back on. Call of duty.
ReplyDeleteOf course this meant solving online but no snazzy graphics today. Oh well.
Easy enough, but I made the MISTAKE of MISTAKE before MISSTEP and DINO before TREX, which slowed things down. Caught on to the vowel progression early, as I have seen that one before, though not as often as OFL.
PISSEDOFF seems to have lost its profanity status as I hear it often enough over the airwaves. It does sound a little jarring, but I blame my age.
Nice to see a definition of what a GENZ is, but I'll never remember it.
A Clever Monday that Kept Coming up with surprises in the vowel changes, and thanks for all the fun, ACM and KC.
38d. Better is HAS A GUY
ReplyDeleteNo names, no trivia. I liked this very clean and smooth Monday. But, oh, how the Gray Lady has changed. Not so long ago, there would have been no POSSIBILITY that PISSED OFF would have PASSED muster in this family newspaper. A fairly dull theme idea that ended up producing some good and colorful fill.
ReplyDeleteAbout originality: Apparently the first published crossword was set out in the New York World newspaper on December 21, 1913, and the first in the New York Times was printed on February 15, 1942. Many, many offshoots have followed but the NYT has maintained something of a tradition in style and substance that has evolved very slowly under the management of some strong-willed editors. Under these circumstances, the incidences of total originality are going to be few and far between. For the most part, originality will lie in how well different themes are handled. In this case, ACME and friend have been allowed to push the limits of a certain type of language in what I see as a light and entertaining puzzle. Others may disagree...
ReplyDeleteWhat Generation comes after Z? We’ve run out of alphabet!
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:08 am
DeleteAlphas or Generation Alpha
Es divertido hacer esto.
ReplyDeleteThe family has returned to civilization, so it's me and the tumbleweeds again.
🦖 in the puzzle again! We have a TREX deck with poorly installed railings so it's really a flex trex deck and a life-threatening injury machine.
I was in the train station where the Orient Express once stopped in Istanbul and it was legit, then we boarded a Soviet-era train to Bulgaria and it was legit in a very different way.
Propers: 7
Places: 1
Products: 3
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 0
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Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 16 of 74 (26%)
Funnyisms: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: OK, you HUMPS, well, between PISSED OFF and PUSSYFOOTS, they're letting their 5th grade flag fly proudly down at the NYTXW headquarters. Here's an ADULT grammatical game to make this less juvenile. Take the word PISSED and add a different preposition like one of these:
aboard, about, above, across, after, against, along, amid, among, around, as, at, before, behind, below, beneath, beside, between, beyond, but, by, considering, despite, down, during, except, excluding, following, for, from, in, inside, into, like, near, of, on, onto, outside, over, past, regarding, since, than, though, to, toward, under, underneath, until, up, upon, versus, with, within, without.
That's a nice way to end the anger, own a word, and end up creating SHOWERS of PISSED fun.
With PUSSYFOOTS, I traded out FOOTS with other cat anatomy parts and found a few expressions worthy of remembering.
Uniclues:
1 Gravitational force that creates grammarians.
2 When everyone pretends to be Igor after watching Young Frankenstein.
3 Innoculation for those who are sure they know everything.
4 Swiped the grocery coupon section.
5 Diamonds and jewels from Aristotle for noted widow.
6 Common reaction among dress code enforcers when those ankles say, "come hither."
1 THE COMMA DRAW (~)
2 PASSING FAD HUMP
3 POSSIBILITY VAX
4 COPPED AD PAGES
5 ONASSIS SHOWERS
6 HEMLINE STARTLE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The Republican platform. (Kidding of course.) DO NO HARM AGENDA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Welcome back.
DeleteTucson Electric Power Company used to sponsor a beauty contest wherein a female customer was crowned MISSTEP. It was emceed by Johnny Carson's sidekick, and the advice to contestants from those in the know was don't PISSEDOFF. For some, it was viewed ASAHI point of their lives.
ReplyDeleteWe just elected the most vulgar lowlife to ever walk the face of the earth to be our president again, and people are clutching their pearls about PISSEDOFF appearing in the New York Times? I think that if Democrats need evidence of how out of touch we've become, this is a nice piece of it.
Sorry about the rant. Enjoyed the puzzle. Thanks ACME and Kevin Christian.
@egs Thanks for the reality check, not a rant! Time to fold up, and put away your fans. 🪭
Delete
ReplyDeleteEasy-medium. No WOEs, but I did start to put in sutras where DHRAMA was supposed to go. The downs I had in place stopped me but precious nanoseconds were sacrificed.
It’s been a while since I’ve seen a vowel progression theme, so this was nostalgically refreshing.
Smooth grid with a bit of sparkle or exactly what you’d expect from ACME. Liked it.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #965 was on the easy side for a Croce. The center was the toughest section for me. Good luck!
I have Croce 965 as medium, edging towards the easy side of medium. NW was definitely toughest for me, in part because for 15A I put an answer from today's NYT grid.
DeleteTime, about the same as last Mon. I've better than halved the avg from the green days, over the phone. But I'm working to (nearly) halve it again, and this one didn't get me there. Not the game, just Rip, several cylinders, misfiring. There weren't any physical overtypes that I recall, but there were plenty of mental ones. And on a Monday, if you cannot see it, fill it, see it, fill it.. bang, bang, bang.. then you're just treading water.
ReplyDeleteSome of the same rumble strips which The Rex encountered (Riprock has already read his review), such as, MONO, 24d, - finally capitulated to the cross pasting it in.
The reviews increasing suggest The Rex and Rip are on the same wavelength in the way we approach things (the tenfold-separating speed factor, aside). Anyone else? Or is this more akin to la Gioconda's eyes tracking you round the space, everyone thinx they're on him or her.. analysis is so thorough, there's something for everybody.
That said, "I think of GAVE OUT as 'died.' Halloween candy, I hand out.": nay. You're not thinking this through. Clearly in the transitive sense, not the intransitive. Must take an object, e.g., candy. Two different usages of the verb. The readier verb to describe the action than 'hand out': "Did you two misers give out any candy this year?" "Yess, biddy, we gave out a boatload."
Also, PISSED OFF's shed its 'crudeness' over time. Still cutting, yes. So in a business mtg, maybe not. But among family and friends, would anyone bat an eye, most any part of the country, doubt it. (UPDATE: having another think on it, unrefined.. but unrefined and crude needn't be the same.)
Did not see the A-E-I-O-U P_SS progression until the postmortem. Seen them, but in the expected sequence, this one a tad more elegant? Riprock, still not jaded over the maneuver. Appreciated absence of any unnecessary P_SS theme highlight.
Rip's wondered if the easy strictures of a Monday conversely make the fashioning more challenging. Constructors, thoughts? From that viewpoint, Riprock thumb up on this one. Solid.
Also, given two review references, and namely the "Pussy Galore," emphasis on the galore, people, these comments could surely use some more pussy. So.
The Rex: If you haven't seen it a thousand times, it's a thousand and one. But you're not bored of it, you're not sick of it. Why? Because you are the Catman. (*Michael Keaton voice.. as Riggan, obv.*)
McDonald's got rid of Supersizing 20 years ago. It shouldn't be clued as if it is still happening.
ReplyDeleteWe Iowa fans don't really do the "Give me an I" chant. We DO spell I-O-W-A, but nobody has to be asked to give any letters.
ReplyDeleteCan someone please tell me why every puzzle has a blue outlined word.
ReplyDeleteThat’s just the last word Rex entered when he did the puzzle. Something to do with software.
DeleteI think that is the last entry that Rex solved or looked at before he takes a screen shot of the grid.
DeleteThank you!
DeleteI think ACME was saying ‘hi’ to OFL at 15A.
ReplyDeleteNice, simple puzzle with a bit of a STARTLE due to PISSEDOFF but I didn’t clutch my pearls and gasp, as @egs said…pretty much small potatoes these days. It did make me think of a time in the evening when I was about 5 sitting across from my teenage sister who was doing her homework (I was probably drawing or coloring) and I wanted to tell her a secret, so I leaned toward her and whispered PISS. I really meant our crossword PSST, but she quickly ran to the living room to tell my parents I’d said a bad word. I didn’t actually figure out WHAT she thought I said for about 5 years after that. Man, I was naive.
ReplyDeleteWelp, that’s my post above. Yet again Blogger flips me off…um…similar to PO’ed but with a twist.
DeleteVery easy, even for Monday.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to see PISSED OFF ... I don't think Will would have allowed it. Oh well. Hope he's improving & (maybe? hopefully?) will be back.
But back to the puzzle, thank you both :)
I tried doing it down clues only, but got impatient and looked at an across clue, 10 across. (I was jammed up by not having any idea for a college governor aside from PROCTOR which isn't even close but the R and second T worked.) It was the incredibly banal THE but it did the trick and I finished with that one cheat.
ReplyDeleteHands up for HAS A GUY before HAS AN IN and MISTAKE before MISSTEP.
Those of us who have been reading Rex for many years remember Andrea as ACME when she was a regular. She would often change her display name to use words that were answers that day
I am not a prude but I have taste. The PO entry is in poor taste and uncivil.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't aware "super size " had been phased out as I've avoided McDonalds since the first time I bought one of their burgers in about 1957. Ate one bite and threw the rest away, sure thad gone bad.
ReplyDeleteI think "Generation +letter should have been phased out after the first one. The first one seemed to mean something. The rest have made no sense and how can anyone remember them?
Wow I'm sounding negative Actually I liked the puzzle, failed to see the vowel sequence theme, but liked a lot of the answers.
And T Y Lewis for the favorite clues. Reading your lists always brings a smile or two. I think I missed the parka clue when solving, must have filled it in by crosses, but here I think it is the best of a good list.
Doing Downs Only, saw the first and last themers as P___ F___, saw the middle as P____FF, figured the theme -had- to involve that somehow ... 😏
ReplyDeleteIntercepted text: “Pa I’m heading off to p.e.; then it’s off to geometry where we are studying pi; and then geography where we are covering the rivers of Europe, including the Po; and then I’m finally going to clean out my locker — PU!”
ReplyDeleteAs a grandmother who's been doing NYT puzzles for many years I was mildly surprised to see "pissed" on the sacred page and certainly found it worth a giggle. It's simply too ordinary to fuss about!
ReplyDeleteI didn’t notice the vowel progression at all. Had to read Rex.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise quite easy. I don’t do downs only.
Tried to do this by solving Downs-only for the first time and was worried about all those long downs. Managed, slowly, to get through it but ended up getting crushed in the NE corner. I had TRUSTEE but couldn't parse HEMLINE or EXPECTS (though mad at myself for not getting that). Also, had a couple of boxes wrong at the end of THISISFUN which made that impossible for me too. Was a fun, challenging way to solve a Monday even if I had to resort to crosses to get the NE corner in the end.
ReplyDelete