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McEvoy of cosmetics / SUN 12-29-24 / Graphics that show trends / Language from which "curry" comes / Green with bowdlerized hit "Forget You" / They might make you jump / Jamie who pitched on eight major-league teams over his 25-year career / Emmy-winning drama series set in the midwest / Bill, folk hero who is said to have ridden a tornado like a bucking bronco / Early phase of software development
Sunday, December 29, 2024
Constructor: Harry Zheng
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- [LINE] WORKER (22A: Electrician who might put in overtime after a bad storm)
- hyphenated crosses: UH-UH / NO-NO / TO-DO / OP-ED
- [LINE] CHARTS (28A: Graphics that show trends)
- hyphenated crosses: LIP-READ / AGE-OLD / GET-GO / RE-UP
- [LINE] DRIVES (59A: Hard hits off the bat)
- hyphenated crosses: TA-DA / KAL-EL / EMO-POP / TIN-POT
- [LINE] DANCES (72A: The Macarena and Cha Cha Slide, for two)
- hyphenated crosses: TV-MA / PRE-OP / CHIN-UPS / MUST-READ
- [LINE]BACKER (109A: Defensive position)
- hyphenated crosses: DO-RAG / MID-AIR / ORE-IDA / YES-MEN
Jamie Moyer (born November 18, 1962) is an American former professional baseball pitcher. Over his 25-year career in Major League Baseball (MLB), Moyer pitched for the Chicago Cubs, Texas Rangers, St. Louis Cardinals, Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, Seattle Mariners, Philadelphia Phillies, and Colorado Rockies.At the time of his final game, he was the oldest player in the major leagues and had the most wins, losses, and strikeouts of any active MLB pitcher. He was likened to Phil Niekro due to his long career and relatively old age upon retirement. On April 17, 2012, Moyer became the oldest pitcher in MLB history to win a game. On May 16, 2012, he broke his own winning-pitcher record and also set the record for the oldest MLB player to record a run batted in (RBI). He also holds the major league record for most home runs allowed with 522.
Moyer made the All-Star team in 2003, while with the Mariners. (wikipedia)
• • •
So terminological issues are distracting me today, making it hard to appreciate what the puzzle's trying to do. The puzzle needs the line to be DASHED and not DOTTED today, because the whole point of the theme (wordplay-wise) is that the word "LINE" is "DASHED," i.e. turned into dashes, so that those (en) dashes can then function as "hyphens" in the crosses. The fact that the "dash" becomes a "hyphen" in the crosses is actually really nifty. I totally missed this aspect of the theme until I started describing the theme in this write-up. I thought those Downs that ran through "LINE" were just skipping over a missing "LINE"—I didn't see that the "LINE" needed to be made of "-"s, that all the Down answers *featured* "-"s as part of their make-up. I've spent a solving lifetime studiously ignoring hyphens. I've entered OPED in the grid a million times over the years, but OP [hyphen] ED? Never, that I can recall. The fact that the puzzle got *all* the words crossing "LINE"s to be hyphenated answers—that's pretty impressive. It didn't make the solve itself very exciting, but it definitely made me respect the intricacy of the construction.
The fact that LINE was in every theme answer helped make this puzzle very easy. It also meant that the theme answer set was repetitive and somewhat bland. Further, there just wasn't a lot of other marquee fill to liven things up. Only a small handful of answers outside the theme are seven letters or longer, and most of those are pretty ordinary. Perfectly solid, but not exactly scintillating. So I wish there'd been more oomph and sparkle in the grid overall. Still, there were a couple of moments that really made me light up. The first was running into the book I Know a RHINO (102D: "I Know a ___" (rhyming children's book)). We read this to / with our daughter All The Time when she was little. It was a bedtime story that was actually fun to read. The kind you hope they'll ask for ("oh god please don't let her pick [long boring story, title redacted]!"). The illustrations are lovely and incongruous and silly in that way that little kids love. In short, good memories, especially as earlier today, that same daughter (now 24) was sending me selfies from in front of the Louvre and the Eiffel Tower (stuck in Paris on her way to Venice for work, but making the most of it). Anyway, the puzzle gave me fond memories of the girl, and I'm grateful for that. I literally exclaimed "Aw..." mid-solve.
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| [FUGE (4)] |
The other moment that made me smile was when Jamie MOYER showed up (. I thought "Oh, lots of people are not going to know him. I don't think he's been in the grid since ... since ... wait a minute ..." And sure enough, this is just the second appearance of MOYER—the first since I debuted him in one of my NYTXW puzzles back in 2012.
I'm not saying his name is good fill, exactly—despite his many accomplishments, Jamie MOYER is a pretty obscure name, especially to casual (or non-) baseball fans. But I took a weird baseball-fan pride in giving the old guy his due back in 2012, and I was weirdly happy to see his name again today. "Good for him!" Kinda weird to have MOYER *and* MAYER in the same grid, but ... they *are* different names, so ... judges say: no foul!
No struggles today. Only one write-over, but it was a doozy. I had the ANT- at 37A: Lion's prey and without much hesitation wrote in ... ANTEATER. Which fit! I did think "huh, never saw that on Wild Kingdom," but I also thought "sure, why not, I can see a lion eating one of those." But no, yeah, ANTELOPE, way more iconic. And I've learned (in about two minutes of cursory online searching) that ANTEATERs are not actually a part of the average lion diet.
Further notes:
- 18A: Emmy-winning drama series set in the midwest (FARGO) — still not totally on board with calling North Dakota "the midwest"—all those northern and central states just to the west of the Mississippi are "Plains States" (part of the Great Plains), and should be classified separately from the "midwest," imho—but the Census Bureau says NDAK is in the "midwest," so I guess it just is.
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| [The Census Bureau's idea of the "midwest"] |
- 47A: Language from which "curry" comes (TAMIL) — hesitated at TAM-L between "I" and "A." I blame "tamale."
- 55A: Dien Bien ___, 1954 battle site in Vietnam (PHU) — thank you, Billy Joel
- 61A: McEvoy of cosmetics (TRISH) — no idea. You wanna stump me, give me "cosmetics" names. Anything beyond ESTEE Lauder or OPI nail polish (or ULTA Beauty, or L'OREAL) and I'm done for.
- 76A: "The Simpsons" character who says "I've done everything the Bible says! Even the stuff that contradicts the other stuff!" (NED) — Flanders!
- 90A: They might make you jump (UP ARROWS) — I know I said I had no sticking points today, but I forgot about this answer, which I could Not parse for the longest time (that is, some small amount of time). I had the whole front end (UPARR-) and still: no idea. I was trying to make it be one word. Rookie mistake. UP ARROWS make you jump ... up ... one row ... in whatever text you are working on. (Sorry, I’m being told this is about video games. [Shrug].)
- 91D: ___ Bill, folk hero who is said to have ridden a tornado like a bucking bronco (PECOS) — it's weird, I know the name PECOS Bill, but I could not have told you one thing about him.
Pecos Bill (/ˈpeɪkəs/ PAY-kəs) is a fictional cowboy and folk hero in stories set during American westward expansion into the Southwest of Texas, New Mexico, Southern California, and Arizona. These narratives were invented as short stories in a book by Tex O'Reilly in the early 20th century and are an example of American "fakelore". Pecos Bill was a late addition to the larger-than-life characters, such as Paul Bunyan or John Henry. (wikipedia)
"Fakelore"! What a great term. Someone should cover Taylor Swift's Folklore in its entirety and call it Fakelore. Weird Al? No, that would probably be Folklore (Weird Al's Version). Would listen.
We're nearing the end of Holiday Pet Pics, as the "Holiday" season winds down. I know I said "no more submissions," but I might have room for a few more on New Year's Day, so if you wanna send me Fido in a Santa suit or Fluffy sleeping under the increasingly brittle Christmas tree or Dino eating a dreidel dog treat, go ahead.
This is Miss Frida Flirt Hyman-Taylor, who (in typical Schnauzer fashion) likes to celebrate the holidays by being imperious and territorial. Also cute.
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| [Thanks, Steve] |
Here we see Queso as he tries and fails to string the lights on the tree. "Why do these get so tangled?! Why don't I have opposable thumbs?!" Also pictured: Wolfy, who is absolutely no help.
%20(Robert).jpeg) |
| [Thanks, Robert] |
Penny and Merle like to solve together. Here, Penny throws down her pencil in disgust: "ASTA ... TOTO ... ODIE ... this dog bias is bull***." Merle doesn't notice or care. He's still working on 8-Down: "PURR! Is it PURR! Write in PURR! No, MEOW! MEW! No, TUNA! Write in TUNA!" Penny: "It's eight letters, dummy." Merle: "TUUUUUNA!"
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| [Thanks, Barak] |
For the first time in three years, Qwerty came out of hiding when guests came over to the house (true story). It's a Chanukah miracle!
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| [Thanks, Deborah] |
And lastly today, here's Felix and Chester, the Siberian Forest Cats, looking dubious about their Christmas gift. "Is that ... a book? That looks like a book. You ... shouldn't have. No, seriously."
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| [Thanks, Liam] |
See you next time.
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103 comments:
Actual hyphens look better and make much more sense. Up arrows make you jump in video games, not word processing.
Yeah, I had DottED LINE before DASHED at 112A and I didn't know TRISH McEvoy (61A) or I KNOW A RHINO (102D) and had forgotten about Jamie MOYER (83A), but it was still easy.
My only hang-up was at the beginning, In the NW, where I realized we had five squares for the four-letter downs and thought maybe the top row would be all rebus [blank]s. But once I encountered ---- WORKER at 22A, the theme was clear and it was smooth sailing from there on.
BTW, you didn't have to rebus [dash] in the theme squares; real hyphens worked too.
The aha when I realized that hyphens went in the squares and that they worked in both directions, well, that brought on a mighty surge of adrena----.
I agree with Conrad and Lewis: hyphens work just fine. And I agree with OFL: easy (once you get the gimmick).
All in all: total fun! 🤩
“Look better?”
Agree re the actual hyphens vs the word DASH.
I first wrote in "LINE" then used hyphens. The puzzle accepted that.
I blew through this puzzle very quickly. The fill was easy (for me) but pretty unremarkable. I figured out it was “dashed” vs. “dotted” but had no idea what the NYT crossword app was looking for to register the solve. Also, l too have never heard of a dashed line. Everything is always the dotted line. I guess it’s technically a dashed line if it’s made of dashes, but that doesn’t make it a thing… at least not a New York Times Sunday Crossword Puzzle-worthy thing. Based on recent experiences, the app has seemed a bit more forgiving and might have accepted “line” ; however, that was not the case. I finally trialed hyphens, which did the trick and took me about two minutes of fiddling around. Happy early New Year to all.
This was, to me, a wow puzzle build. Four abutting hyphenated down answers whose across answers ALL read cleanly – five times in the grid! Huh? What? That is amazing! Not only that, the six horizonal theme answers are symmetrical! And nothing feels forced!
Deep bow to you, Harry, on that.
But even more important, how was the solve? Just right for me today, as after the craziness of the holidays, I was looking for a comfort puzzle, and today, for me, it seemed like the editors were generous with footholds. In addition, once I cracked the theme, the remaining theme answers and the sections they inhabited filled in without struggle. Comfort indeed.
Furthermore, what a lovely theme, with those dashes forming LINEs one way, and acting as hyphens the other way – wordplay and word manipulation, both which I adore, all rolled into one.
Even a moment of silliness, when my brain tapped me on the shoulder and told me that MUST READ is an anagram of “e-mustard”, a non-existent concept that made me smile, and, for a moment, riff on.
Wow build, cozy solve, with a dash, as it were, of whimsy – this was one lovely outing for me, Harry. Thank you so much for making this!
Great puzzle. Thanks, Harry! Sailed through it pretty easily, which is good for Sunday--the grid is jus too big for a lot of toughness. But my one nit to pick today.... was the title. Telling us right up front that all the themers would have multiple hyphens just really ruined it for me, took away the aha moment. Makes me wish I was disciplined enough like OFL to ignore titles and suss it out on my own. So, that's my one complaint today, the title was just too plain, naked, out-there, obvious. But great puzzle, thanks!
At least the theme only rose to the level of a minor annoyance - the rest of it seemed to be all pretty much standard crosswordese, with the usual bit of trivia here and there.
A couple of sections are not very pretty to look at, although I enjoyed watching the CEELO dude dive bomb into the wasteland containing CMON, PHU, TRISH and VENTI. Thar probably wasn’t a lot of fun. Similarly, Superman next to EMO-POP (both of which I consider to be fictional constructs) earn a couple of demerits for inelegance, but the constructor had a theme to consider and had to fill up the grid, so it is what it is.
With a little bit of judicious editing, this one could be pared back and run on a Tuesday or Wednesday - which is not a complaint by any means - in fact it’s a welcome bit of fresh air.
One of the best Sunday puzzles I can remember, with a clever theme and a minimum of far-out cluing. Needed one cheat, to get the KALEL/ALOO cross.
To anyone coming here trying to figure out how to trigger the puzzle to solve: REPLACE THE WORD "LINE" WITH FOUR DASHES "----"
Totally missed the hyphen thing.
Couldn't get the happy pencil, which I thought had to do with how was I entering the dashes. Turned out I had MOSTREAD and PHO.
No comment on the egregious repetitions? Mid-air, thin air and lip-read, must-read???
Enjoyable. But I had filled in the word “line” in the acrosses instead of using hyphens and had to go back and change the boxes all to hyphens before the app would accept that I completed the puzzle.
Finished the puzzle quickly but didn't get the completion, then spent forever searching for my error before finally giving up and revealing. They should have accepted LINE in place of the dashes, which really felt like a cheap gimmicky trick. Obviously I got the spirit of the answer. I just didn't realize the constructor literally wanted dashes in the boxes. I don't like losing my streak on a lame technicality. What a complete waste of time.
I would say the line you sign on is usually either a solid line or one made up of underscores, and occasionally made of dots, but rarely made of dashes.
I think that may be my fastest Sunday solve, although I did finish with an error when I failed to check the cross on MAYER and had MeYER. The Times site has a glitch where it shows my fastest Sunday solve time as 6:13, which is absurd.
Not to mention when solving on a phone, the pure technical annoyance of having to hit the rebus button then type in dash then hit check, 20 f'ing times.. especially when you had already gone through and did it all with dashes, but didn't get the solving text
In the NYT Games app, you have to hit the little “I” button to see the title, which I always forget to do. Today I’m glad I skipped that part. It’s more fun to suss out the gimmick as part of the solve.
On the difference between hyphens and dashes: As a former copy editor, I’m a little too conscious of what to use where. But in my book, there are three sizes of dash (in descending order): em dash, en dash, and hyphen. I.e., the hyphen is a (teeny weeny) dash. So I was happy to leave all those squares blank, then finish the puzzle by hitting the hyphen key over and over. Fun!
Hey All !
Neat idea. I just put in dashes instead of a Rebussed DASH, and all is well in Crosslandia.
Great construction. Having all the - words actually split at the dash is awesome. So we don't get AUT-UMN or somesuch. That's tough TO-DO (har). And end up with mostly clean fill around them.
I know some will complain about the dupes, RE-UP/CHIN-UPS, LIP-READ/MUST-READ, even THINAIR/MID-AIR, but that's fine. You try to make a puz like this without dupes! 😁
And speaking of dupes/repeaters, first two Downs are UH-UH and NO-NO. Cool cool.
Very nice Harry. Here's hoping you didn't tear all your hair out on this construction.
Happy Sunday All !
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I kinda got the theme, but even after I placed (vertical) dashes in the squares, was still kinda scratching my head a little. The western part of the grid held me up, specifically TAMIL, DEPP, and EMO-POP, even TIN-POT. Oh, and KAL-EL! Yeah, tough western region. I'm a little surprised Rex's write-up wasn't more acerbic. I thought UPARROWS was clued nicely. CMON was a bit tricky for me... I considered "ASAP" and "STAT" first.
And considered "ADDED" for a while before LADED (45A) but of course, couldn't get 46D to work... Santa DOA??? Well maybe, after his enormous haul a few nights ago!
With warm wishes to everyone for a healthy, peaceful, and happy 2025!
Knew there was something going on right off in the NW but not yet how, so moved down the west coast. Got the gimmick at Kal-El and inserted the hyphen and then realized the first four squares before DRIVES all needed the same hyphen for the down answers. Liked that UH-UH appeared next to NO-NO up in the NW corner.
In finishing the central west coast I encountered what appeared at 47D. Another TA-DA! Hi, @Rex. I laughed, remembering your pique at its plural, which appeared just yesterday. This one is singular, yes. It’s actually hyphenated, yes. But I’d say your sign could read, “still zero days since last ‘TADAS’.” And I hope you too laughed at its appearance again so soon.
At 102D I was happy to guess RHINO for the title of the children’s book, for its cute rhyme, and the reminder of the song about the child wanting a rhinoceros for Christmas. Wondered if the book contains something I remember from childhood when a rhyme was accidentally said: I’m a poet and didn’t know it!
Finally found the revealer at 112A and guessed scorED LINE but no crosses worked. Got GHEE and switched to etcHED. Still nope. Then hasHED. Sigh. Finally, DASHED gave me all crosses. The revealer says a DASHED LINE is something written five times in the puzzle (check), so the revealer asks us to read the hyphens as a LINE (okay, check).
Finished the puzzle, cleanly but a bit perplexedly. I guess the clue also says “indication of where to cut” because it’s what you do when you see a DASHED LINE on a bill in your mailbox.
Easy but fun. Thank you, Harry!
Me too. Didn't expect a rebus on a Sunday
Jeez, Rex is in a good mood…I thought he would slaughter this one for obvious reasons.
This puzzle was a snooze. The punctuation conceit is flawed, as explained above, and half the hyphenated words are often not hyphenated, and the fill is blah so it’s not compensating. Plus having to replace all the “line”s at the end because the nytxw app wasn’t giving me the congrats.
Highlight of the puzzle: TAINT TINTS
Tried to start in the NW as always, and got nowhere. I blame the clue for identifying a "line man" as a LINEWORKEER and calling him an "electrician". I happen to know something about this because my father was an actual lineman and my grandfather was an electrician. They are totally different things and I have never heard anyone that was employed by the power company refer to himself as a LINEWORKER, and certainly not an electrician. I mean, really.
Disgustedly abandoning the execrable NW, I started in the SW corner, where the hyphenated words were far more apparent and the dashes = LINE gimmick appeared and the rest was relatively easy. Only absolute WOE was TRISH, but fair crosses.
Actually liked your idea and thought it worked well, HZ. Happily Zipped through this one once I caught on, and any xword that has an OTTER is a good xword. Thanks for a lot of Sunday fun.
I too had annoying technical issues with the crossword insisting on dashes/rebus instead of LINE (though I can understand why the constructor/editor would disallow the latter). MOYER/ORE-IDA/ARUBA was too much Natick, needed to Google.
Entering hyphens worked fine for me on mobile after praying I wouldn’t have to rebus “line” for every square.
From a cluing standpoint, isn’t the clue for OPED (“Opinion piece”) a giant NONO? I’ve never seen a clue essentially give you the non-abbreviated version of part of the answer.
I was so annoyed by this! It probably added 20 minutes to my solve time trying to figure out where I had something wrong.
@Conrad 6:17 – Did you try a rebus dash? Me too! But yes, the hyphens worked fine.
@Lewis 6:22 – LOL adrena----, well played!
And 4 dashes do NOT make a line
Nancy or anyone, where is Gill?
Re: DASHED LINE as an "Indication of where to cut"
Thank you! @Rex and others keep talking about dotted lines and signing on the dotted line, but this is not that type of line. Dashed lines are things we have ALL seen many times, as you say: on bills, but also on little paper-based construction projects where you might be told to cut, in pursuit of a paper airplane or something.
I thought this one was a lot of fun to solve. Granted, once you had one ---- entry, the other LINE phrases came easily, but what were the hyphenated Downs going to be? The pile-up of those answers - 20 of them! - struck me as very funny. Despite my getting LINE WORKER early on, this one kept me entertained all the way.
First drop was OP-ED, understood the inclusion even before starting as I'd read the game title. Then, aided by the predictable hyphens in the anticipated spots, filled nearly as fast as I could type, smashing previous Sunday best by a substantial margin. Only deletion that I recall, dUnS, 115a - BREEZnD righted the E and at the exceptional last, I'd to run the letters to bang in S at PECOS x SUES for the tidy finish, which vexatiously added several seconds.
Very easy. Liked it, just what a Sunday should be. Two thumbs up.
[UPDATE: Typed "-" in all the expected cells, never considered the full word 'DASH,' ironically.. as it was a superb choice, which everyone and his grandmother should repeat 20 times each day on waking in the morning.. and the game concluded with hyphen marks appearing in the cells. "mmMmm... dash dash dash dash dash.. love me some dash dash dash dash.. dash, hear me now, yes!... dash dash dash dash..."]
Also, completed the Saturday (2012-08-25), among the week's gratis trio, free of error and fluidly. Copacetic for this neophyte after reading the Med-Challenging assessment and of 7 DNFs. Am playing one game a day, the Times diurnal, plus two of the three Times weekly back-of-the-rack freebie games, which I assume are selected for particular attributes (?).
Is it okay to clue op-ed with opinion? Seems wrong.
Wanted to add a graphic/icon here of a scissors cutting along a "dotted" line. In reality, most "dotted" cut lines are made up of dashes, not dots. And very few words have dots (periods) in the middle of them.
So, I liked the puzzle's concept and found the description of its execution (hyphen vs dash, and dash vs dot) to be whole adequate.
This was a clever puzzle that was completely ruined for me (a book editor) by the fact that dashes and hyphens are not remotely the same punctuation mark. It's as egregious and inexplicable to me as making a puzzle with about exclamation points and filling it with question marks.
Used a hyphen to fill in, worked well. My prob was I had DottEDLINE way before DASHEDLINE and I said to myself "I thought SONoTA was spelled SONATA... does not look right. " And I had NAtTY and said - "that means well dressed, not repulsive... are there 2 meanings?" Dawned on me it is DASHED LINE which I really have never heard of either. other than that I liked the puzzle
The perfect trick puzzle. Nothing makes sense until you get the trick and then the scales fall from your eyes.
I was baffled and frustrated in the NW. Every Down answer I wanted wasn't the right length -- until suddenly it was! And all the hyphenated answers were precisely the original answers I wanted but couldn't make fit. That's really good cluing on trick answers -- where you want the clue at least to be fair.
Once I had the DASHED LINES in the NW, I scooted right and I scooted down looking for all the other long answers that would begin with the word LINE. I filled them all in, and then looked for the hyphenated DOWN words subsequently.
The puzzle had gone from very perplexing to very easy -- and I bet it did for all of you, too.
Of course I might have gotten the NW much more quickly if I'd paid attention to the title from the GET-GO. I can be so dumb. But since I don't time myself, it really didn't make any difference.
I wrote in DOTTED LINE immediately. But that's what you sign on, not what you cut along. The phrase DASHED LINE does not come trippingly to my tongue, but there's no doubt that that's what those things you're told to "cut along"* look like. Is that a term that's familiar to everyone else?
A wonderful idea, wonderfully executed. It's one of those themes I wish I'd thought of myself. A clever, enjoyable Sunday.
*Small rant: They used to make those DASHED LINES in a way that you could easily tear them off. (Does this give away my advanced age?) Now you have to get up out of your chair to go get a scissors to cut them. Can't they make anything as well or as conveniently as they used to?
Small rant over.
So I walk up to this babe in an A---- dress in a bar and say "Hey, can I buy you a drink?" She says, "Don't give me that old ---- or I'll make a bee---- for the ladies room." "Don't bother," I says. "There's a long ----." "Okay," she says, "one drink, but that's where I draw the ----. Make it a G & T with ----...er, I mean lime. Sorry I misspoke." "No problem" I assure her. "And I have to say that you should take up the hem---- on your dress and also have the whole thing ----d as it is showing your panty----s." I guess the stars just didn't a---- for us, as she had disappeared by the time I wiped her drink from my eyes. Fortunately, I wasn't wearing eye----r.
I have a tiny 6 legged friend. I was looking forward to his wedding, but instead he and his girl just took off for Vegas one night and got hitched without telling anyone. To this day I'm still wondering "Why did the ANTELOPE?"
Now I understand why when I visited India they would hand me potatoes every time I said "I need a loo."
Seems like something could have been made of (26A) UNDER being immediately below - - - -. As if to UNDERLINE the theme.
While this was super easy/fast, I enjoyed the complexity of the construction. Also, for some reason, I really liked the way the finished puzzle looked with the dashes in place. I admire Joel Fagliano's willingness to put off-beat puzzles out there. Thanks Joel, and thanks Harry Zheng.
Oof. Spent ages looking for a mistake that wasn't there. Assumed I could leave LINE in place and not have to manually replace each square with DASH. Guess not.
I wouldn’t go as far as calling them “egregious.” It’s a crossword. Nothing in crosswords is “egregious.” It’s just mildly annoying to sad old people who have nothing better to do than complain about redundancy in a puzzle game that people go out of their way to make for ungrateful people like you.
Personal best Sunday time. I entered actual hyphens to create a dashed line, like this - - - - and the puzzle accepted it just fine.
Easy. After getting nowhere in the NW I dropped down to the MidWest where EMO-POP and KAL-EL gave me the theme. From then on it was a pretty breezy solve.
Cute and fun, liked it.
I too did not know MOYER, TRISHA and RHINO.
Another singular tada, but we’re up to “Two Days Without a Tadas.”
A bad theme idea that the editor should have declared DOA.
I believe the OP originated as OPPOSITE, as in “opposite the editorial page” which is where Safire and a much younger Mo’s columns used to appear back in the old days when we could read hard copy and fight over the SPORTS PAGE. It might be interesting to see a constructor work BOX SCORE into the grid sometime - another relic of a lost era.
Nice idea for a theme. First time seeing the term DASHED LINES, as familiar as they may be.
Solving on paper, I just drew a solid LINE through the appropriate squares. Makes perfect sense that way. Also, my laptop turns multiple hyphens into a solid line after I type a few in succession, so that justifies the title as well. Let’s see how many — oh, it’s only two.
Not sure whether I should be proud or ashamed of knowing KAL-EL.
GHEE!, more than a FEW double(DASH)letter words in the grid: HOOP, HOODED, AHH, APPROVE, WHETTED, LASSOS, KETTLES, KEPP, ALOO, FRAPPE, UPARROWS, OOZE, OTTER, REELED, ATTACHED, BREEZED, FORTRESS, SNEER, ERR
Great pet pics - congratulations Qwerty! Love the name.
Birthday musician Marianne Faithfull has an alternative title for the puzzle: Broken English.
Couldn’t see my mistake in the Vietnamese battle site. I didn’t know the word but PHO fit and I know that’s a word. Problem was, down became MOST - READ, which still fit the clue about a popular book, admittedly not as well as MUST - READ.
I liked this puzzle, pretty easy after figuring out the dash concept, but there is an error in one clue. "Home state of the senator Lisa Blunt Rochester" -- she is currently senator-elect. Won't be inaugurated until Jan. 3.
Finally -- the good news has gone out for all to see. Will Shortz is back -- starting with tomorrow's puzzle. This seems to have just been posted on the Wordplay website. O frabjous joy!!!
Delaware Represent! (Although Lisa Blunt Rochester is our senator-elect, not senator — until January, that is!)
For me this was the most enjoyable Sunday puzzle in quite a while. When I caught on to the theme trick, I tried putting in dashes/hyphens but nothing appeared. So I put in LINE and at the end it was rejected... 20 squares marked as wrong! It eventually accepted a D in every square which I guess stands for "DASH". Poor old Across Lite, really let me down this time.
WHARFS looks wrong... it should be WHARVES, right?
I got KOREAN right away from "bibimbap" only because I first saw the dish as an answer in a NYT crossword. I would still like to try it some time; sounds delicious.
Dashed this pup off pretty fast, for a SunPuz.
Dang -- oodles of puzthemers, today.
staff weeject pick: PHU. Wife, in Vietnamese, btw.
Thanx, Mr. Zheng dude.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
... and then ...
"Gift Returns" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Agree completely. I replaced one LINE with hyphens (not dashes) but couldn't be bothered entering 16 more rebuses. It should have accepted LINE.
I’ve always seen CEE-LO Green written with a hyphen, and that seemed to violate the theme when used here as CEELO. Google lists him as CeeLo, with the hyphenated spelling as an alternate, so I suppose it’s technically ok, but I would have tried to fit something else there.
Why not just come here for the solve. Agree you shouldn't lose your streak in a technicality. Each person is entitled to application of his own rules. The crossword is not played for money. Next time, just come here for the hint, just like I did.
Not much fun. The theme clues could also fit line and make much more sense .
@okanaganer 12:49 – I like the sound of WHARFS but also wondered about “wharves.” For the plural, Merriam-Webster says “wharves” first, then “also wharfs.” Hmm. What about “dwarf”? M-W says “dwarfs,” then “also dwarves.” This is why English is such fun :)
That sucked. I had a record by 10%, but I put in LINE instead of ----, and that wasn't accepted by the app.
@Aelurus: also scarf: "plural scarves, or scarfs". (Odd that for wharves M-W says "also wharfs" but for scarfs it's "or scarfs"?) Yes English is fun.
Fun fact: Very few scenes in Fargo (the movie or the TV show) actually take place in Fargo, ND. It’s largely set in Minnesota, with some trips to ND, SD, CA, NV, and an unfortunate season set in Kansas City.
On my tablet the NYT solver app required four (4) strokes to enter a dash or minus sign or whatever. Irritating.
Do the hairsplitters over dashes and hyphens still get angry over split infinitives, which was and still is an artificial construct to the ENGLISH language
By those pedants who worshipped Latin in which, of course, infinitives are unable to be split
Same! “MOST READ” list seems more common at end of year than a “MUST READ” list, and I didn’t remember PHO vs PHU.
I'll start with the positive.
I always love the Pet Parade pics & thank you, Rex for including my Cinnamon & all the other little cuties.
I usually try to say positive things about constructors & their creations. So I'll just say this-
I HATED THIS PUZZLE! I haven't not finished a puzzle - or not wanted to - in years! Forget that I don't like Rebuses or Rebi or whatever the ****. Trying to use the "hyphen" didn't work, my brain, obviously, didn't work. I hated it & didn't even care to 'try' to figure it out & keep my streak :(
I welcome Will's return, primarily thankful for his improving health, & with a 'working' mind & an open heart - if it's true (gonna check Wordplay now).
Sorry :(
I didn't see it on Wordplay - ???
I agree that the clue is most likely referring to games, but it's also true that in a word processor the UP ARROW makes your cursor "jump up" one line. As someone who processes words vastly more frequently than he plays video games, the latter was my first thought, followed by "that's kind of a weird clue," followed, eventually, by "oh, it means video games."
You come here for the reasons you want to, and I'll come here for the reasons I want to. I don't do hints. I either solve it myself or not at all.
I agree that the actual line that needs to be cut is usually comprised of dashes.
But I also agree with Rex that nobody calls it a "dashed line." I've never heard it referred to IRL as anything but a "dotted line."
Don't you remember Glen Campbell's hit song "Wichita Lineworker"? :-)
I absolutely agree that the plural of "wharf" is "wharves."
Anybody else have a problem with "OPINION" leading to the answer "OP-ED"?
The “op” in OPED does not stand for “opinion”
I stand corrected-An op-ed (short for "opposite the editorial page")
Fun fact (for me anyway) my son was in Fargo season 3 so it was fun to see that clue! Actually filmed in Alberta mostly.
@anonymous 10:57 Bravo! I often find near repetitions and similar phrases add to the enjoyment of a puzzle. Part of the word play.
Also the plural of "leaf" is "leaves", unless you are an NHL team from Toronto.
Op-ed is short for "opposite the editorial page", so having 'opinion' in the clue is fine and dandy.
Haz que "-" futuro que aparezca en tu lápida importe.
For whatever reason, I looked at the title of the puzzle prior to setting out and knew right away how it would play out. Made for easy fun.
Victimized by MUST READ vs MOST READ. Also never heard of TIN-POT. Tough way to end a fun Sunday. It happens. Still a great experience.
Propers: 15
Places: 3
Products: 7
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 38 of 136 (28%)
Funnyisms: 3 😕
Tee-Hee: NASTY
Uniclues:
1 Bad (?) advice to Indian potato salesman.
2 Essay on the clown car taking over the government in January.
3 Seoul loo.
4 Ride of the Valkyries for scrubbing surgeons.
5 Say yes to jazzy horned one.
1 LINE DANCES MOVES ALOO (~)
2 TIN-POT YES-MEN OP-ED (~)
3 KOREAN GASES FORTRESS
4 AGE-OLD PRE-OP SONATA
5 APPROVE MANCINI RHINO
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: How cerveza came in second on my favorite Spanish word list. LOCO WON BY A NOSE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Me three (as the kids used to say)
TIL Rex Parker is a psuedonym.
Thank you for including Felix and Chester. My wife is over the moon to see them online. Okay, I’m pretty happy about it, too. :-)
'DASHEDLINE' makes the entire puzzle feel contrived, like the author knew the expression was 'dotted line' but needed the dash to make the theme work. Poor construction IMO.
I was enjoying the puzzle once I grokked the theme, but naticked out on that unforgivable PPP chunk right in the middle of the puzzle. I don't patronize Starbucks, and have ner heard of TVMA, much less some cosmetics
queen. Better luck in 2025, mehopes.
I come for the smut. The real news lays hid in all you old fards minds and I hope you lay them out for me so I can go crossword to crossword, between reading other stuff, and get a glimpse of reality. Thank you either way.
Frankbirthdaycake
I looked it.
Apparently people use the term all the time I don’t but it didn’t bother me because It is a description of what we are talking about.
Anyway I looked if up and it’s a thing
Fair point and I can understand how it gets under your skin
Anonymous 10:30 AM
Lawyers ( I am a retired one) doctors engineers etc etc etc have complained about issues like this. I am sure this very issue has come up many times on this blog before It bothered Rex also.
But to me crosswords are word games not legal briefs so I learned to accept “errors”.
Here I did the puzzle with a pen. No practical distinction for me!
Finally hyphens and dashes are much more similar than ! ‘s and ?’s As many say on this blog, close enough for crosswords
Sailor
I looked up dazed line
Apparently it is now a thing
Pabloinnh
Just wondering if line worker is part of the degendering of job names movement. Like chair or chair person instead of chairman?
I totally agree that electrician was utterly wrong Rare blatant editorial fail
Just felt like another AI puzzle. Soulless. Multiple repeated words again. I have no doubt that the times is dabbling in AI generated games, but every time I do one of these, I feel gross.
My major complaint is that all of the dashed/hyphenated words have all been clued in prior crosswords without the punctuation. But now we need it, I DON'T THINK SO.
DASHED LINE does not seem to have "dictionary status." Besides that, my complaint is that once you get the gimmick, the easiness of the puzzle makes all the short fill even more annoying.
No. It's not.
Stars don't a----, they align
Rex, you didn't gripe enough. In addition to so-so and so and so there was Paso and the backwards so in samosas and the diagonal so between toasts and lol
WHETTEN LADEN over WHETTED LADED
Yes I was very annoyed it was not accepting LINE in those squares as it solved the across clues and four dashes are not equivalent to a line.
That’s easy. pho is soup.
How did no one notice that the very first clue is an Emily Dickinson poem? You know, the lady obsessed with the dash.
I believe the child wanted a hippopotamus for Christmas, not a rhinoceros.
As a sports nerd who does well with sports references and struggles with seemingly everything else in crosswords, I loved the Jamie Moyer reference. Also enjoyed watching him pitch well into his 40s with a fastball that barely exceeded 80 mph. Bravo to Harry for the obscure reference.
Not a hard puzzle, but the theme and rebus was amusing once I figured it out.
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