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Org. with the sculpture "Kryptos" outside its headquarters / THU 12-05-2024 / Rapper who founded Aftermath Entertainment / Flower that gets its name from the Greek word for "rainbow"
Thursday, December 5, 2024
Constructor: Garrett Chalfin
Relative difficulty: Medium (13:32) (it was easier than my time shows... I am very tired currently)
THEME: INSIDE OUT (Pixar film whose title suggests how to read five answers in this puzzle) — Theme answers look like normal words, but are clued as though the letters should be read in a different order
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: ALAMO (___ Drafthouse (movie theater chain))—
Hey pals! Taking my Malaika MWednesday a day late, because my company had a holiday party last night. I love any reason to wear a sparkly dress. Today I'm listening to a playlist I made that has a bunch of covers of songs that are very stylistically different from the original version. Let me know if any of your favorites are missing!
- [Past issues to settle] is the clue for COLD SORES because you are supposed to read the inside first (OLDS) followed by the outside (C and then ORES) giving OLD SCORES
- [Places in the pecking order] for US STATES
- STAT + US + ES = STATUSES
- [Big bash] for DISHING
- SHIN + DI + G = SHINDIG
- [Breaking down grammatically] for SPARING
- PAR + S + ING = PARSING
- Like much movie theater popcorn] for REBUTTED
- BUTTE + RE + D = BUTTERED
Word of the Day: ALAMO (___ Drafthouse (movie theater chain))—
Alamo Drafthouse is famous for enforcing a strict policy on behavior while in the theater. Children under the age of two are not allowed, except for showings on specific days designated "Alamo For All." Unaccompanied minors are not allowed in showings, except for members of the Alamo Drafthouse's Victory Vanguard rewards program, which allows 15–17 year-olds to attend showings unattended after their application to the rewards program has been submitted and reviewed. The application involves demonstrating an understanding of the theater's policies around talking, texting, arriving late, and basic tipping etiquette.The cinema also prohibits talking and texting during the film. Anyone who violates this policy is subject to warning and potential removal from the premises. Alamo made national headlines in 2011 when the rantings of one angry customer who was ejected for texting were included in its "Don't Talk or Text" PSA shown before films. "When we adopted our strict no-talking policy back in 1997, we knew we were going to alienate some of our patrons," Tim League posted on the cinema's website. "That was the plan. If you can't change your behavior and be quiet (or unilluminated) during a movie, then we don't want you at our venue." [wiki]
• • •
I like this type of theme-- I think it activates something in my Programmer Brain. It's.... for lack of a better word, nifty! It reminds me of tried-and-true concepts like Kangaroo Words or letterbanks. I think the downside is their isn't any zippy or witty wordplay. I did appreciate the revealer, which was very appropriate and gave a reason to the puzzle. Also, it reminded me of the movie Inside Out, which I really enjoyed.
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| Also I might be the only person in the world who thought Inside Out 2 was better than Inside Out |
I've posed this as a complaint before, but my Gold Star Perfect Themed Puzzle has theme answers that are interesting and fun and lively-- entries that would be welcome in a themeless puzzle. When themes have really restrictive letter-based rules like this, you end up with some pretty boring words. Two of them even ended with -ING which felt a little repetitive. I feel like the puzzle started off strong with COLD SORES and things dropped off from there.
Luckily, the constructor had some great long entries that were unrelated to the theme. KIDS TABLE, COUNT OLAF, and MICRODOSE were all welcome additions. I wish there had been some more pun clues, though. It felt like this puzzle was missing a bit of pizzazz.
Bullets:
Bullets:
- ["A Series of Unfortunate Events" villain] for COUNT OLAF — I re-read a lot of YA lit that I grew up with and ASoUE holds up really well. The allusions are so fun to "get" now that I'm not, like, six years old, and the themes are really strong. (The Hunger Games also holds up excellently.)
- [Like many romance novels] for ESCAPIST — I love to read contemporary romance! If you're looking for a recommendation, I keep a list here.
- [First (and last) two words of "Green Eggs and Ham"] for I AM — Thought this was a cute way to clue an entry I've seen a zillion times
- Huh, all Book Content in the bullet points today
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126 comments:
Possibly my favourite part of the grid was the crossing of Count Olaf with a clue namedropping 'La Forza del Destino' - the locale of a very important event in A Series of Unfortunate Events. Very fun little nod.
Hi Malaika! Yes this wasn't too difficult; somehow I got the theme right away at 17 across and just cruised through them. Eleven and a half minutes is not too bad for Thursday for me. Seems like a theme we've seen before several times.
A few typeovers... the "Org.with the sculpture Kryptos" just had to be NSA because, crypto, right? And for the floss, my preferred brand GLIDE before ORALB. Wait, what?... GLIDE is made by ORAL B! Who knew? Anyway that led to another typeover, where the G from GLIDE in the middle of "They've got you covered" made me confidently put in TOGAS! Okay it seemed good at the time.
A few too many nameifications... ALAMO (been there) clued by the name of a theater chain I've never heard of. NAPA (been there) clued by a comedy I've never heard of. OPERA clued by an opera I've never heard of. SIA -- whom I've heard of -- clued by a song I've never heard of because I've never listened to her; only know her from xwords. TINY clued by a basketball guy I've never heard of. An ARI I've never heard of. DR DRE clued by a company of his I've never heard of. INSIDE OUT of course clued by the name of a Pixar film instead of... you know, English words.
Oh well, we also have the classic standard ESSO predictably clued as a Canadian gas. Thanks for that!
Easy. I got the theme post-solve. The theme answers filled in pretty easily from the crosses even though they weren’t making sense given the clues.
I did not know TINY and ALAMO (as clued).
Clever but ultimately not that tricky with some fine long downs (hi @Malakia), liked it.
Can someone explain why Monday meals might lack meat?
(24A)
Liked the theme once I got down to the revealer and understood it.
Seemed overly easy for a Thursday.
Easy-Medium, ignoring the theme clues and guessing at the long acrosses. The place where that got me into (minor) trouble was 38A, where I had DISH--G and guessed DISHraG.
One other trouble spot was, ironically, the three-letter 63D, which referenced one of my favorite books to read to my kids. I remembered "I do not like that Sam-I-Am" as the first word of the body of the book, not counting the "I AM Sam" signs that the character carries. I was willing to accept that "I do" were the last words. My excuse: my kids are all grown and it's been a very long time since I read the book. In the same area, my 68 starting point was zERo before it was GERM.
My only WOE was 35A, ALAMO Drafthouse. Thanks, @Malaika, for the explanation.
@ShsronAK. Meatless Monday is a campaign to encourage people to skip a meat meal once a week
I have the same question. Friday meals might lack meat (for a Catholic), but Monday? Some different religion?
Solved it fairly quickly after getting the trick. But I was sure the beginning of Dr. Seuss' story was IDO(not like green eggs and ham) and the ending was SAMIAM. I also thought SITUATES was the anagram instead of STATUSES. Finally the music started after I changed "I do" to IAM (reluctantly).
Easy and much smoother than yesterday's. The theme puzzled me a lot more yesterday, in a way I'd expect on a Thursday. I got the theme from US STATES/STATUSES which debunked my initial theory that cars would be involved somehow (OLDS is shaded at 17A).
Google "Meatless Monday". It's a diet trend
"Meatless Mondays" is a campaign (mooovement?) to reduce meat consumption. It was started by a group of activist cows in Idaho.
I enjoyed the juxtaposition of SPUNK and SPELUNK, and agree with @Malaika--once I grokked the theme--and I needed the revealer to do so--I had an "aha!" moment and it helped me with the last few. Fun.
I love your playlist. I would add:
Time After Time - Inoj (original Cyndie Lauper)
Stand By Your Man - Candi Stanton (original Tammy Wynette)
Everybody’s Talkin’ - Weyes Blood (original Harry Nilsson)
Believe - Okay Kaya (original Cher)
Ray of Light - Madonna (original Sepheryn by Curtiss Maldoon)
Always on My Mind - Pet Shop Boys (original by Gwen McCrae)
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow - Robert Flack (original The Shirelles)
There’s so many good ones, I could go on. Cover versions are one of my favorite pet topics, here’s my playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0ZBeJlS3bB861xSeQlA9Gv?si=XXmCZN0qR6aQ9jdF9-o88Q&pi=e-w8OSnxESR6iv
All the songs are cover versions!
Meatless Mondays, started about 20 years ago to encourage one dinner per week be made without meat.
From Wikipedia:
"Meatless Monday and Meat Free Monday are international campaigns that encourage people to not eat meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet."
Some folks take a day off from eating meat each week. Often Monday.
" Meatless Monday."
“Meatless Monday” is a campaign to reduce meat consumption for health reasons.
Bette Davis Eyes - the popular synth-heavy ’81 version, by Kim Carnes, is actually a cover of a more upbeat song featuring guitar and pedal-steel, by Jackie DeShannon
Great playlist! Two others that come to mind are the Dylan and Hendrix All Along the Watchtower, and the Judas Priest version of Johnny B. Goode. Also, the new Body Count Comfortably Numb.
MALAIKA!!!
I know a great cover song for you. “Ruby Baby” was originally written by Cody Brennan (and was also recorded by The Temptations), but was covered by Donald Fagen. Give them a listen!
One more song whose remake is very different from the original: Hazy Shade of Winter, original by Simon and Garfunkel, remake by The Bangles.
Had to look it up, but Meatless Monday is apparently a thing.
@SharonAK 3:50 AM - "Meatless Monday and Meat Free Monday are international campaigns that encourage people to not eat meat on Mondays to improve their health and the health of the planet. In 2003, Meatless Monday, founded by marketing professional Sid Lerner, is a non-profit initiative of The Monday Campaigns Inc." —Meatless Monday - Wikipedia. This was news to me, too.
Very easy for a Thursday.
I was fortunate enough to discern the theme right at COLD SORES as the shaded squares were a big help. I know some solvers prefer to go without the training wheels, but for me they are an indispensable solving aid.
Grasping the theme gave me ample opportunity to establish footholds and luckily today’s versions of the one-named singers, rappers, “genres” et al all seem to be familiar crosswordese by now, so I didn’t have to deal with those pestering annoyances as well. So all in all, an enjoyable Thursday (I can’t even remember the last time a made that observation, lol).
Now if we could only get the editors to give us a Robyn grid on Friday we could be looking at a special 1-2 punch to end what has been a pretty dismal stretch the last week or so.
Very easy Thursday. I would bet an experienced downs-only solver would have had a real shot at success today.
Not clear to me that Malaika fully appreciated the theme. For each entry:
The letters in grey form a word
The letters not in grey form a word
The letters as entered in the grid form a word
The letters if you take the grey letters and move the to the beginning form a word.
I had to look this up. Someone started a campaign called Meatless Mondays. Monday is washing day, according to the English band Scaffold. Maybe worth checking out the rest of the week if you want something very odd to listen to.
Easy Thursday for those of us who didn't go out last night!
On the meh side, but I liked it.
Oh, even better: Diamonds and Rust, by Joan Baez and Judas Priest.
Alamo, US States - theme answers connote violence. Secession vibes 🤔
Meatless Monday
Alamo, US States - theme answers connote violence. Secession vibes
It refers to "Meatless Mondays", a campaign to get people to eat less meat.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meatless_Monday
I love how INSIDE OUT works two ways. It can mean that the inside shaded word gets moved outside, but it can also mean that the letters (or letters) before the shaded word was moved outside from the inside.
I would love to know how Garrett found these theme answers that work in this cool way. Was it through computer coding or just a lot of brainwork? Care to chime in, Garrett?
It seems especially impressive that the theme answer letter counts had to meet the demands of symmetry, which greatly narrows the theme answer possibilities. Not to mention that the grayed words are actual in-the-language words. Wow!
Two lovely fill-in moments for me.
• When I caught onto the trick, which brought both an “Aha!” and a “Hah!”
• When I uncovered the reveal INSIDE OUT which brought an “Oh, perfect! Perfect!”
Also, lovely answers WAN, KINK, SHINDIG, OLD SCORES, SPUNK, KIDS TABLE, and SPELUNK.
Much fun in the box today for me, Garrett. Thank you so much for making this!
When was the last time you had real butter on theater popcorn?😊
Dropping in to note my favorite cover: The Twilight Singers cover of Hyperballad by Bjork. Maybe also consider the Breeders cover of Happiness is a Warm Gun.
Kitshef made a valid point, but US states is really not a word. Shame this one doesn’t work like the others.
Liked your playlist. Since you were good enough to go back in time a bit, I’m not embarrassed to show my age and add for your consideration:
“Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright”
Bob Dylan (obviously)
Joan Baez (very good)
Peter, Paul and Mary (fantastic)
Eric Clapton (amazing and ironically “went electric”)
“Train in Vain”
The Clash
Annie Lennox
“She’s Not There”
The Zombies
Santana
And, of course, you did say stylistically different
“My Way”
Frank Sinatra
Sid Vicious (NSFW)
Hey All !
Nice that the "remove the inside" Themers are actual things in their current forms, as in they aren't just gibberish pre-moving of letters.
Also, probably pointed out by now, but there are three ISts. Worse than the two INGs.
However, puz has SPELUNK, which is a fave work for me. I actually have SPELUNKed before, although it wasn't "professional", as in, me and a friend found an opening of an air vent from an old coal mine and investigated. It was kind of scary. A lot of just crawl space, with logs holding up the earth, and said logs were split in some spots, indicating that the ground had shifted over time. Mind you, this was pre-cellphone times, so if that shaft collapsed, we were done for.
Anyway, I see ASS is back, although clued in an un-ASS-ery type way. CIA and SIA.
We'll, I HOP away now.
Happy Thursday.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Sia has been clued as the singer of "Cheap Thrills" 11 times since the song went to number one.
Fun puzzle but please, columnist at the Post is very, very far from an important position. Well paid, sure but there's really no argument to be made that most of the columnists have anything to say that matters, other than to their NYC media peers.
Started in the NW, per usual, went bopping around, got down to the SE where the revealer was, the NW now made sense, and the rest was a cruise down a groomed blue trail, which I hope is open soon, as snow-making temps are here.
ALAMO as clued was new, I remembered LARA not from the book or movie but from the piano piece "LARA'S Theme", which is lovely. DRDRE is an old crossword friend, and SIA should be too, but she took crosses. Nice combination of SIA and CIA. Maybe that will help my memory. And hello COUNTOLAF. Another hole in my PPP bank, I'm afraid.
I think I've seen this kind of theme before but I still think it's ingenious. Nice work, GC. A Great Choice of themers, and thanks for all the fun.
I will be listening to your playlist all day...always on the lookout for good and reimagined covers. Another excellent one is Gin and Juice, by (originally) Snoop and (excellent cover!) the Gourds.
Is it Monday already?
I never got the theme and did not need it. The “straightforwardest” Thursday ever.
Enjoyed the trick and found it easy for a Thursday, but after finishing and hearing no happy music I had to scout around a bit to find my mistake. Turns out it was the first square: I didn’t know the British slang for raincoat, and eventually wondered if tICS was an alternative spelling of “tix” that might be checked before a show. Got there eventually, but I didn’t have the record time I had thought I might.
Malaika: Devo’s cover of Satisfaction was way more stylistically different from the original.
You should do a playlist of famous covers so similar to the original they really added nothing.
Example: REM did not write Superman. Neither did they improve on it.
I had sIDeTABLE before KIDSTABLE for far too long.
Malaika, I would add Jersey Girl by Bruce Springsteen , original by Tom Waits
According to Wikipedia, La Forza del Destino (16A) acquired a reputation for being cursed, following some unfortunate incidents. In 1960 at the Met, the noted baritone Leonard Warren collapsed and died during a performance. The "curse" reportedly kept Pavarotti from ever performing the opera, and the tenor Franco Corelli used to follow small rituals during performances to avoid bad luck.
Personally, I make sure to wear my lucky socks whenever I attend a performance.
Malaika, thank you for your romance book list! I am OBSESSED with Red, White and Royal Blue. I've probably re-listened to it a dozen times by now? (If you're an audiobook person at all, the narrator is EXCELLENT. His voices are so good I forget it's all the same person.) It's sort of my go-to comfort read. Also loved Once More With Feeling. Very excited to have some new books to check out!
Tend to agree. Mainly, didn’t really highlight or point out the outside letters (unshaded) also form real words. Pretty impressive.
Clear and specific clues for the theme answers prior to manipulation made this both very fair and much easier than it might otherwise have been. But it still required thought -- and I love having to think.
I liked the fact that the manipulated answers turned into real entries and not gibberish. COLD SORES from OLD SCORES; US STATES from STATUSES; DISHING from SHINDIG, etc -- all very nice. My favorite clue was for SOS, though I must say that I popped it right in.
For those of you who had little to no trouble with this, I think that you are more than ready for Cryptic puzzles. The themers are all examples of Cryptic-style clues; the main difference is that here the explanation is in the revealer, and in a Cryptic, it's in the clue. Putting the instructions in each clue can make that clue cumbersome -- so you would never get such a clear, easy-to-parse clue as, say, "Breaking down grammatically". Still, you might want to try one anyway. For those of you who got the Special Puzzle Section in last Sunday's paper, there's a nifty, really tough one on p.5.
I enjoyed this -- as I enjoy most puzzles of this kind..
Malaika would have liked more sparkle, but it had enough for me. Especially given the restriction of the demanding theme. Loved the clue for KIDSTABLE.
@kitshef and @Lewis, I was happy to see you point out the intricacies of the theme construction. I was floored by the constructor's finding five entries that had to work three different ways and follow crossword symmetry.
I caught on to the theme at DISHING/SHINDIG, having previously accepted "COLD SORES" itself as fitting the clue: "cold" = "past," as in "cold cases," and "sores" as "issues"....things that made you "sore" - admittedly a stretch. Then, even though I'd seen how the theme was working, I still had trouble PARSING "STAT USES" (the different ways you can use stats?) and BUTTERED because I overlooked the shaded E and tried to make sense of "butt reed." Eventually all became clear. So, an easier Thursday that I still managed to make challenging.
One suggestion I have for Malaika's cover playlist: Kasey Chambers' cover of "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Rex posted it here a couple months ago, and I've been listening to it ever since! It's fantastic, and stunningly different from the original.
Robyn seemed to disappear from the NYTXW at about the same time I stumbled upon the then-unknown-to-me news that the Puzzle Department had initiated a new policy of offering Friday puzzles with easier clues to any solver who requested them. I immediately thought: "How will Robyn, their Friday specialist, take to having her clever and sophisticated clues dumbed down without her input, knowledge or permission?" The answer would seem to be "Not well at all!" If she's voting with her feet, I must tell you that I would have done the same thing.
Love your playlist! Elle King cracked me up. For the song ‘Hurt,’ believe it or not Nine Inch Nails is the original, and Johnny Cash the cover.
Also check out Seether’s cover of George Michael’s ‘Careless Whisper!’
If you do the Super Mega crossword from Sunday's paper, prepare to be peeved. There are SO many Plurals of Convenience, including tons of two-fers.
Speaking of Bjork, her version of It's Oh So Quiet is one of my faves.
Thanks Malaika for a nice review and giving the commentariat the GERM of a rabbit hole activity to explore for the remainder of the day. Never heard of the ALAMO Drafthouse, but it did trigger pleasant memories of enjoying Flemish film and draft beer when we visited Ghent…..an experience not duplicated at our local AMC sadly. Felt about Tuesday tough without the reveal, but as @Nancy & @Lewis note above it provided lots of fun anyway. I fear that AI will have an inordinate impact on constructing such grids in days to come, but if Garrett can use AI & databases as another tool…..hummmm
Wowzers. Amazin puztheme.
U don't see wordplay this good in a puz real often ... due to it bein real hard to come up with a good symmetric(al) set of themers.
very well done.
staff weeject pick: PAR. Of S[PAR]ING [PAR]SING themefame.
M&A latched onto the theme fairly early, after his OLDSCORES entry just didn't play nice with its crossin answers. The greyed-out LDSC squares weren't ringin any recognizable bells, neither. Altho, I did grant that any rabbit quote might end up bein kinda strange.
Lotsa good fillins, too boot: SYDNEY. COLUMNIST. SPELUNK. COUNTOLAF. ESCAPIST. Maybe even MICRODOSE.
Thanx for the fun theme, Mr. Chalfin dude. U clearly suffered, comin up with this primo themer list.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
p.s. yo and thanx, Malaika darlin. Stay "sparkly"!
Lots of fun with this puzzle! Malaika, a couple of my favorite covers are by Cassandra Wilson: Blue in Green (Miles Davis) from her Traveling Miles album and Harvest Moon (Neil Young) from her New Moon Daughter album
Yes! Very impressive that the letters in white also form a word. I didn't notice that part until you pointed it out!
Stumbled across the revealer before I got any of the theme answers, which instantly made the theme answers all pretty easy.
More for your playlist:
Stardust (Duke Ellington)
stardust (Willie Nelson)
Loves me Like a Rock (Paul Simon)
Loves Me Like a Rock (Wailin Jenny’s)
Time After Time (Cyndi Lauper)
Time After Time (Iron and Wine)
Angel of the Morning (Juice Newton)
Angel (Shaggy)
Crimson and Clover (Tommy James and the Shondells)
Crimson and Clover (Joan Jett and the Blackhearts)
All I Want For Christmas is You (Mariah Carey)
All I Want For Christmas is You (Ingrid Michelson and Leslie Odom, Jr)
SPELUNK ... EL SPUNK? Yeah, ... didn't think so.
Anyhoo...
"A.K.A." - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Easy and fun but still very impressive.
For playlist: We Can Work It Out —Stevie Wonder
Enjoyable solve and a fun little theme - but if I was assigning a five-star rating, I’d deduct one and a half for the number of names and trivia related clues. COUNT OLAF could’ve been a themer with the answer LOAF COUNT.
Colgamos una tira de luces navideñas azules.
The primary curb appeal to our house is a garage door so holiday decorating is gonna need to be more INSIDE than OUT. On principle I avoid all things Mariah Carey and yet the sound of her infernal Christmas song is leaking OUT from the INSIDE of the bathroom where my wife usually has NPR going.
Thank goodness the flow of this puzzle took me to the revealer quickly and then I was able to use it to help my solve. Exquisite.
Lotta gunk today but it didn't slow me down, for once.
Fun to see a gossip session as a DISHING SHINDIG.
I am pretty sure the plural of ROOF is ROOVES.
I've added SPELUNK onto my favorite word list between ERSATZ and SKOSH.
@Malaika I'm of the notion I may be too old to wear a sparkly dress so I suppose I will live vicariously through you.
Propers: 11 {grr}
Places: 3
Products: 10
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 29 of 78 (37%)
Funnyisms: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: KINK SPUNK STUDS ASS. Is Joel running slush pile again?
Uniclues:
1 Kitschy opening line for a Pirates of Penzance themed drunken California weekend for white people.
2 Swore she said it was for-here to disgruntled chef.
3 Corinthianator.
4 Holiday location for Jamaican tots who rock.
5 Jesus's mantra for the day of rest (and gaming).
6 Taking a small hit of pure crazy.
1 "AHOY NAPA OPERA"
2 REBUTTED TO GO
3 COLUMNIST BRAND
4 SKA KIDS TABLE
5 ESCAPIST I AM
6 DEIST MICRODOSE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Pallid doom lurking in today's puzzle. THE SNORTY EVIL.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A theme nitpick: SHIN, PAR, and BUTTE and (to a slightly lesser degree) STAT are solid words within the words. OLDS is a stretch, unless we are talking about the nickname of a defunct auto maker.
Those are both on Malaika’s playlist!
Alamo isn’t a theme answer, and it’s clued as a movie theater. “US States” connoting violence and suggesting secession vibes is more indicative of your mindset than the constructor’s.
I can’t tell whether Malaika is updating her playlist with some of the suggestions from the comments or if people just aren’t looking at her playlist to see if their suggestions are already there. Not all the suggestions are there, so I’m guessing it’s the latter, but that could just be editorial discretion! Either way, lots of good songs on the blog today.
True — form a “valid entry” rather than word would be more precise, if you want to get technical
Fur Elise (umlaut over the ‘u’) written by Beethoven played by Van Cliburn (many have played it!)
Covered by Jon Batiste in a recent album.
Thinking the Tasman Sea must have something to do with Tasmania, I confidently put in Hobart for 4-D. Didn't work with AHOY, but I wasn't so sure of that. But I was sure of MEATless Monday, so it had to be Sydney, which gave me COLD SORES. There was the problem -- the clue, "Past issues to settle," could be interpreted at meaning SORES--things you were sore about--that were COLD, in the sense of cold cases in detectives' files. So I figured we were going to get pioneering automakers in the shaded squares. That didn't work with US STATES, but that didn't make sense with the clue anyway. It was only when I got to SPARING, which was so close to 'parsing' that I finally figured out what was going on. One had to manipulate the answer in the grid by moving the bloc of shaded letters to the front (unlike the INSIDE OUT suggested by the revealer). OK, but awkward--and since the revealer does not land, not that enjoyable.
The cluing for HUTU was pretty insensitive, IMO, given the recent history of Rwanda (hint: they are not all Hutus), but hey, it's only a puzzle.
Is there really a movie theater chain called "Alamo Drafthouse?" Or is that another phrase I have to anagram? I've certainly never heard of it.
I tried to post some of this earlier, but it didn't seem to go through. If this gets posted twice, my apologies! Anyway, I wanted to suggest another cover to add to Malaika's playlist, one that was actually posted here by Rex a couple months ago!
Lose Yourself (Eminem)
Lose Yourself (Kasey Chambers)
Additionally, Elisapie has an album called Inuktitut where she does covers of many classic songs translated into her native Inuit language. My favorites are the first two tracks:
The Unforgiven (Metallica)
Isumagijunnaitaungituq (Elisapie)
Dreams (Fleetwood Mac)
Sinnatuumait (Elisapie)
Nickname? It was his actual name, Ransom E. Olds.
@egs from yesterday -- I was solving in the printed paper; maybe the clue was different online? If that's where you were solving.
Thanks, @kitshef! I didn't notice the words in white either!
yesterday
“You Keep Me Hanging On”: The Supremes and Vanilla Fudge
its a catholic thing.
finished it in 2 days, sent my answer in
hey maliaka, kasey chambers covers eminem's lose yourself. very different!
rex (?) had a link to it several weeks back.
And what an opera! Sublime.
A solid 2 beer puzzle so Medium
Same
I noticed that but for me it brought on more of a frowny face than an admiring smile. Yeah, there are words formed by the letters in the gray squares but they are unclued and unrelated to each other or to the theme. The same can be said of of the words formed by the letters in white squares and of the words formed by the entire set of letters. That's a lot of unfinished business, a lot of loose ends hanging out there it seems to me.
eminem's Lose Yourself covered by kasey chambers.
Thanks for the heads up. I didn't do it---phrases like "Super Mega" are off-putting to me---but now I might have to take a peek just to see the POC fest!
Angel From Montgomery(John Prine original, Bonnie Raitt cover).
Wish the Times would ban Hutu and Tutsi from its crosswords. These are artificial labels, rooted in eugenics, applied to Rwandan natives by the Belgian colonial regime. Tragically, the competition created between these two groups led to the Rwandan genocide.
"Meatless Mondays" has been going on for twenty years? I think this must be happening in a parallel universe, not the one I inhabit.
In my universe, "Meatless Friday" has been an option since, like, early in the Christian era.
To add to your playlist I'm On Fire by Whitehorse and also by Soccer Mommy
As I indicated in my reply to @kitshef 7:22, I had mixed feelings about the theme. I also noticed that all the non INSIDE OUT altered theme entries were not base words or phrases; they needed some letter count inflation (LCI) to fill their slots. The first two relied on POCs, the next two on gerunds and the final one on the past tense.
I don't mean to be too critical of this puzz. I did appreciate the positive side of the theme that so many of y'all have praised. And I especially appreciated the more open grid that resulted from the 35 black square count. Any puzzle that has quality fill like SPELUNK, CADENCE, ESCAPIST, KIDS TABLE and MICRO DOSE will always win me over.
Just thought of another for your playlist "Kyoto" by Phoebe Bridgers and covered by Bartees Strange
"Oops! I Did it Again" by Richard Thompson for your song list. A must hear.
A different clue for KINK could’ve added some spice to the puzzle…
Golden - Harry Styles / Cannons
As a former newspaper columnist, I found your comment … ahem … quite accurate. A better clue might have said “self important.”
I’m pretty sure the plural of roof is roofs.
@emilyransom Strawberry Fields "And the banker never wears a mac in the pouring rain"
... and The Chromatics. Also, Cigarettes after Sex cover of Neon Moon (orig. Brooks and Dunn).
@Adrienne 9:49 AM
I've just borrowed the audio book in Libby based on your enthusiasm for the narration. It's not anything I would ever likely listen to without prompting, so here's to a new adventure.
And there is also Stardust by the original composer…Hoagy Carmichael.
J. Mascis (from Dinosaur Jr.) covering Edie Brickel and the New Bohemians “Circle”. He also covers Fall Into You, but it doesn’t really differ stylistically.
Okanaganer
Also to be fair to the puzzle, three letter one name singer. Didn’t know the song But had the s immediately tried SIA.
Along this line, didn’t remember the movie at all but wine country
4 letters, immediately guessed NAPA. And Dr. Dre well I did need the DR but the rest obviously first try crosswordese DRE
Tiny is a very common nickname for someone who is not short, so I tried TINY Afterwards I remembered Tiny Archibald
I think each one is defensible
BUT there has been a pile up namification lately so you have a very good point.
Anonymous 8:39 AM
I think the puzzle was referring to the Washington Post which has been famous for its columnists.
Tom T
Also modern slang
(the) olds for parents et. Al.
The Beat It remake is absolutely the worst…
The entire “Givin’ it Back” album by the Isley Brothers is covers… you won’t be disappointed.
@Sonnig Freitag 6:04 PM
Penny Lane.
With a little Help from my Friends - Joe Cocker
Wow, comment section playlist collaboration, isn’t this unexpected and fun? Here’s a few more from me, Malaika:
1. High and Dry, Radiohead. Cover: Jamie Cullum
2. Comfortably Numb, Pink Floyd. Cover: Scissor Sisters. [Note: ANOTHER cover was of this recommended by an anonymous commenter above, by Body Count]
3. When You Were Mine, Prince. Cover: Cyndi Lauper.
I like Inside Out 2 more than the original and have talked to several people who feel the same way. It’s the best Pixar movie in like a decade!
A few more great covers for you:
Adele’s version of Lovesong by The Cure (also covered by 311)
The Stranglers’ version of Walk On By, first recorded by Dionne Warwick
Cake’s and Chantal Savage’s interesting and very different covers of Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive, nearly 20 years later.
All Along the Watchtower by Afterhere
Black Hole Sun by Nora Jones
Avant- Gardener by Geordi
These are covers where the song is a new version
A fave for the playlist: Mad World (Tears for Fears original, Gary Jules cover)
Listen to Penney Lane. "And the banker never wears a mac in the pouring rain." A Macintosh is a raincoat, abbreviated Mac.
I hope you enjoy it, at least the voices!
Keane covered With or Without You live on BBC. Wow. k d Lang did an exceptionally mournful cover of Golden Slumbers on (of all things) the soundtrack to Happy Feet. Al Green and Lyle Lovett did an upbeat cover of Funny How Time Slips Away live on David Letterman. Wow and double Wow.
A fun review, as always, and a wonderful playlist. I love covers that re-interpret the original. A couple of possible adds: Eddie Vedder’s recent, lovely version of “Save It for Later”, and Robyn Hitchcock’s “The Ghost in You”—both add emotional depth to pop.And then there’s Tupac’s version of Bruce Cockburn’s “Changes”—a great song to begin with, but Tupac makes it timeless. And the greatest non-cover cover of all, Patti Smith’s version of “Gloria”.
Cake has a couple of brilliant covers well worth checking out: I Will Survive (mentioned above) and War Pigs (originally Black Sabbath)
Covers to check out: Start Me Up by Rolling Stones covered by The Folksmen on A Mighty Wind soundtrack (so different and good!) also
Somewhere form West Side Story covered by Tom Waits.
James Taylor and Yoyo Ma did a very nice rework of Here Comes the Sun.
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