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Source of distress for a bull / SUN 12-1-24 / "The Corsican Brothers" author, 1844 / Dirt-y words? / X exchanges, for short / Co-star of 1952's "Moulin Rouge," familiarly / Actress Barton of "The O.C." / Emmy winner born Alphonso D'Abruzzo / Big name in travel mugs / Either of two wise-cracking film critics in "Mystery Science Theater 3000"
Sunday, December 1, 2024
Constructor: John Lieb
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
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| [there's a little ZAMBONI icon blocking the second "I" in INDIC (121A: Like Sanskrit)] |
- ICE (54A: Decorate at a bakery)
- ICE (61A: Clinch)
- ICE (68A: Off, in mob slang)
- ICE (73A: Rapper ___ Spice)
- ICE (77A: Diamonds, informally)
The central Downs:
- IIIII (i.e. "ayes") (54D: Positive votes)
- CCCCC (i.e. "seize") (55D: "___ the day!")
- EEEEE (i.e. "ease") (56D: Comfort)
The ZAMBONI puns (i.e. the starred clues):
Word of the Day: ZAMBONI (93D) —
- SURFACE SCRATCH (23A: *Blemish on a vehicle)
- SLOW-ROLLING (35A: *Like a weakly hit ground ball)
- ADDED / LAYER (32A: *With 101-Across, extra level of intricacy)
- FROZEN ASSET (97A: *Holding that's hard to convert to cash)
- "SMOOTH OPERATOR" (115A: *1984 Sade hit)
- CLEAN SHEETS (16D: *Expectation at the start of a hotel stay)
- GLOSSES OVER (66D: *Quickly moves past in conversation)
An ice resurfacer is a vehicle or hand-pushed device for cleaning and smoothing the surface of a sheet of ice, usually in an ice rink. The first ice resurfacer was developed by American inventor and engineer Frank Zamboni in 1949 in Paramount, California. As such, an ice resurfacer is often referred to as a "Zamboni" as a genericized trademark. (wikipedia)
• • •
Those "rink" answers, particularly the Acrosses, are very easy to get, so it's likely you didn't need any particular assistance from the theme to work them out. From a pure solving standpoint, best thing about the "center ice" (which, I just realized, describes this puzzle perfectly *and* is the actual term for the central part of a hockey rink) is the clever way the Downs are worked out, the all-one-letter phonetic solutions to "AYES," "SEIZE," and "EASE." This gives the puzzle an ADDED / LAYER (!) of wordplay, on top of the general punniness of the answers to the starred clues. Overall, the puzzle reminded me a lot of the recent HOT AIR BALLOON puzzle, with its pictorial element and its punny themers. The balloon puzzle's pictorial element was more striking, but it was also more obvious—I like how this "rink" kind of snuck up on me—and the added wordplay involved in the "ICE rink" composition gave it a little extra zing.
As for the fill, my main comment is "Rizzo had a first name!? And it was BETTY!?!?!?" Admittedly, it's been many many years since I watched Grease, but I have watched it a lot, and somehow forgot the BETTY tidbit. Now that I'm typing it out, I seem to remember that ... maybe (?) there was a scene where people (the T-Birds?) teased her about her first name (for sounding too "good girl," maybe). Anyway, she is decidedly mononymous throughout the film, so I had a big blank where BETTY was supposed to go, and somehow that blankness radiated westward and made everything over there harder. That section below ADDED and above ÉTÉ was by far the hardest part for me to work out. No idea about ALDA (32D: Emmy winner born Alphonso D'Abruzzo), DOUP (33D: Arrange, as hair), or DUMAS (45A: "The Corsican Brothers" author, 1844). The BETTY-adjacent TISSUES had that "?" clue that kept it out of my reach for a bit (47D: Cold comfort?). I had MILEPOST before SIGNPOST (64A: Info provider at a crossroads), I totally forgot the Elgort guy (ANSEL) (83A: Actor Elgort of "West Side Story"), and with GOSSIP, again, the "?" clue got me (89A: Dirt-y words?), as did the fact that the answer itself wasn't a plural (the clue could've just been ["Dirt"], but they had to go and get fancy). But outside of that section, things were very easy. I misspelled Bert LAHR's name (as LEHR) and wouldn't have noticed if BASEL hadn't looked so wrong (105A: ___ metabolism => BASAL; whereas BASEL is a city in Switzerland; BASIL, of course, remains a culinary herb, which I'm unlikely to forget, as it is the only member of the BAS-L family with which I have regular contact). In that same area, I struggled (slightly) to figure out the "setting" for "Cinderella," after ROYAL PALACE and ROYAL CASTLE wouldn't fit. Once I got ROYAL BALL, it seemed obvious, but once you start looking for a physical place, it's hard to stop.
[88A: Either of two wise-cracking film critics in "Mystery Science Theater 3000"]
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| [SIGNPOST suddenly triggered a memory of this textbook/workbook that I had in elementary school (in the late '70s); haven't thought about it at all since elementary school ... until now. Crazy] |
Some notes:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
- 5A: Source of distress for a bull (DIP) — briefly worried that there was going to be some animal suffering in the puzzle, but "bull" here is just someone betting on a "bull" (i.e. rising) market. To that person, a (market) DIP would be potentially distressful.
- 1A: Smack (BUSS) — both words for “kiss”
- 13A: Actress Barton of "The O.C." (MISCHA) — kinda going back for this one. I watched the show for a bit, so I know her name, but secondary actors on bygone TV can be dicey name territory. Luckily, today, the crosses all seem fair. That's assuming you knew SCREE, or at least knew enough to infer that "S" (15D: Rocky debris).
- 28A: Things compared between Wordle solvers (STREAKS) — ew, what? People do this? I am a religious Wordle solver but I've never given one thought to my "streak," and even if I did, the idea that I'd "compare" mine with someone else's, no. Weird. Crossword streaks are far more noteworthy and substantial as puzzling accomplishments go—and I wouldn't compare them either. No one cares about your streak (but you).
- 73A: Rapper ___ Spice (ICE) — if you've never heard of her, I'm not that surprised. She is a very recent phenomenon (rising to fame sometime in the past few years) ("she began her musical career in 2021," per wikipedia). But I'm no expert. I only know about her because they discussed her on "All Songs Considered" once, and also some local frat (I think?) has a poster of her hanging in their window downtown that I walk past all the time. It looks something like this:
- 91A: Co-star of 1952's "Moulin Rouge," familiarly (ZSA-ZSA) — I had no idea ZSA-ZSA Gabor was in ... anything. She always seemed to be famous primarily for being famous. Unlike her sister, EVA, who was on Green Acres. Anyway, my reaction to this clue was "they had a 'Moulin Rouge' in 1952?" News to me. I know ZSA-ZSA primarily from a single episode of The Love Boat. Here's a clip (in German, for added fun):
- 94A: X exchanges, for short (DMS) — X is the site formerly known as Twitter. The app has recently suffered a mass exodus of users, whereas competing app BlueSky has seen its numbers soar. I deactivated my Twitter (X) account on my birthday this year, and am now living quite happily on BlueSky. Oh, and DMS are simply "direct messages."
- 24D: What a par 5 has never been, on the P.G.A. Tour (ACED) — to "ace" a hole is to get a hole-in-one.
- 31D: Operate at a heavy loss (BLEED MONEY) — vivid. Best non-theme answer in the grid. Maybe the best answer, period. Well, except maybe "SMOOTH OPERATOR," which is hard to beat.
- 111D: Guesses of interest in the cellphone lot (ETAS) — I have to confess that I have no idea what a "cellphone lot" is. Apparently it's just a free or low-cost parking lot for people to wait in when they're picking up passengers from the airport (although maybe they have them at other public transport sites, I don't know).
It's the first day of December, which means (in my mind, at any rate) it's officially Holiday Season! This means two things for this blog. First, starting next week and for a couple Sundays 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 next Sunday and then 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.
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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97 comments:
Loved the Zamboni animation at the finish.
We learn Rizzo’s name in the backseat with Kenickie.
Frankie Fontaine as Crazy Guggenheimer: "They named their son BASAL"
Jackie Gleason as Joe the Bartender: "You mean Basil."
Fontaine: "No, BASAL. They named him after his metabolism."
Can someone explain SMACK / BUSS ?
Kiss
As a hockey fan, I loved this. And with 64A I couldn’t stop hearing (and editing) the Twilight Zone intro: “That's the signpost up ahead - your next stop [center ice].”
“Zamboni” and its generic counterpart, the “ice resurfacer,” is relatively new to the dictionary.
In 1993, the “Random House Unabridged Dictionary, Second Edition, Newly Revised and Updated” was published. My wife gave me one about 30 years ago. I then first opened it to check the spelling of “zamboni.” It was not there.
So, I wrote to the editor of the dictionary (cannot recall which editor any longer), and explained that there was no entry for the first word I had looked up in my new 2,500 page Random House Unabridged Dictionary, which was a gift from my wife. In those days, I believe I was using Prodigy.net email, but not positive. In any event, I received a reply to the effect that if one looks a gift horse in the mouth there are bound to be a few cavities, which I suppose was clever, but not very responsive.
I wrote back, asking what was the reason for the lapse, pointing out that if it was because Zamboni was a brand name, that was not an excuse, there were plenty of brand names in the dictionary. He wrote back acknowledging that there was no excuse and that it was an oversight and that the word “Zamboni” would be appearing in various editions of the Random House dictionary family going forward.
However, I was not finished. It occurred to me that if “Zamboni” was a brand name, then there must be a generic term for a “Zamboni.” I learned that this term was an “ice resurfacer.”
I again opened my new, 2,500 page unabridged dictionary and searched for the entry “ice resurfacer.” It was not there.
For the third time, I wrote to this editor at Random House. I guess was a bit impertinent, but it annoyed me that there was this “thing” deployed in skating rinks and arenas all over the world and there was no reference to it in this enormous dictionary I owned. So I scolded him on the apparent failure of his dictionary to fulfill one of its chief functions–a “taxonomy of things.”
He replied that if there was any documentation or evidence that this term “ice resurfacer” was in general use to some degree, then it could be an entry, but he did not have any such information–it was, after all, still the early days of the internet. Retrieving usage examples was, however, easy for me, I had dozens in minutes and sent some to him. I wish I could remember how I did it–probably copied and pasted texts from various sources in emails although I did have a fax machine back then.
Anyway, soon thereafter, he advised that “ice resurfacer” and related terms that I had also pointed out were missing would be included in future editions of various Random House dictionaries. In fact, a few years later, my children bought me a paperback edition and circled “Zamboni” with an arrow pointing to the notation “look what you did.”
There’s more. One day, perhaps a couple of years thereafter, I was running and listening to a local radio station. A commercial came on for some big name truck, which I believe was “Ford,” but I am not sure. The point of this commercial was that the Ford truck was powerful and reliable, just like the ice resurfacing machines manufactured for years by the Zamboni family. It was truly an odd commercial, but, I did realize what was going on.
The appearance of “Zamboni” in the dictionary likely freaked out their attorneys worried about the company losing its trademark to generic usage. So, they convinced Ford to help them out and then produced a commercial that had, as its chief purpose, the broadcasting of a rather unsubtle notice to the world that “Zamboni” is not just a word, it is a brand. Corporations protect their brands in various ways such as this and it was pretty clear to me that the commercial I was hearing was a consequence of seeing their brand name listed as a word with all the other words in the dictionary.
But, not in my 2,500 page Random House Unabridged Dictionary. I am looking at page 2,208 right now. Not there.
About 30 years ago, my wife gifted me with the Random House
Oh, I know the word Zamboni well, even though I’m not an aficionado of the sport of ice and men. I only needed to hear it once in my youth and I was a fan. It’s just too much fun to say and see.
Before today, there was never a Zamboni themed crossword, and I can imagine a dry version – a tribute puzzle with the revealer of ZAMBONI and theme answers that give bits of its history and function.
But look at what John did. It’s as if he said, “How can it be done right, where future constructors don’t even consider making a new Zamboni puzzle?”
To my mind, his going from a bald vague ZAMBONI idea – “It’s a fun word, how do I turn it into a fun puzzle?” – to an actual concept – having a closed-off rink in the center, a passel of smile-producing punny Zamboni references scattered about, then rewarding the (online) solver with a scampering Zamboni doing its thing … well, that was brilliant.
Turning this into a Sunday grid took impressive talent as well – I mean, all the clever theme answers are symmetrical, for heaven’s sake, and the isolated ICE block has that sweet clue twist as well. For pop, John threw in eight debut NYT answers, including the lovely CLEAN SHEETS and the most lovely SMOOTH OPERATOR.
This was an experience as well as a fill-in-the-boxes, and you nailed it, John. Bravo and thank you!
I enjoyed the creativity of the grid set-up and the theme concept. Many of the clues seemed to try too hard (see EMPERORS, for example).
I had the usual trouble with the propers - MISCHA, TESSA, ANSEL . . . even BETTY RIZZO, lol. No idea on any of them.
There was also a lot of other stuff I’m not familiar with - BUSS, SCREE, SILAGE, INDIC . . . So a bit of an inverted solve for me today - usually I struggle with the theme, today I picked up on the theme vibes but the rest of it was a real grind.
Fun for the most part - love hockey and the ZAMBONI culture especially at small rinks across the NE so this one hit home. Overall fill kept things interesting enough to sustain the large grid.
My real name is Mr. Earl
Learned SOFT PEDAL. Liked GLOSSES OVER, CLEAN SHEETS and PREENED. Have never seen Grease or The O.C. Remember learning long ago that George was a woman - if you can get through the initial droning of Middlemarch you’ll be better for it in the end. The WHO and FEEL ME are a neat pair.
This is not my beautiful house
Enjoyable Sunday morning solve.
Crazy as a LOON
Suffered awhile through what felt like too many proper nouns, but it came together in the end quite pleasantly. Some clever patterns. Perhaps a ZAMBONI is also a FROZEN ASSET?
There was a capitalist mini-theme, rearranged below for your enjoyment :
Adam Smith
Rainmaker
Bull (market)
Ice
Bleed Money
Frozen Asset
Me too--very satisfying watching it clean up that rectangle.
A recurring peeve: It's become common in the cluing to refer to ETA as a "guess." Surely at times an ETA can be a guess when available information is not taken into account. But these clues generally qualify ETA as a "pilot's guess" or a "Guess on an airport sign" or "Google Maps Guess" or, as today (111A), "Guess of interest in the cell phone lot." But these are not guesses (the primary meaning of which is an estimate based on insufficient information - information that is available but not accounted for), but calculations using an array of pertinent facts, available information, and highly sophisticated mathematical formulas. Yes, sometimes unexpected real world factors intervene causing the initial estimate to be incorrect, but even then, these formulas self-correct almost immediately when this new information becomes apparent. To keep referring to GPS calculations as "guesses" seems sloppy to me - and not good enough for crosswords. One might as well say that the expectation that one would get clean sheets in a hotel is just a guess.
I appreciated the inclusion of “South Bend” in an ice-themed puzzle!
Will give props to connecting the theme answers to the gimmick/reveal. But it squished almost everything else into 3 and 4 word answers which left me feeling kind of meh at the end, liked seeing a not to Grease and Sade. That I know who Ice Spice is keeps me semi relevant with my kids.
Is this John's first solo puzzle in the NYT? Niiiiiiiice!
I can't recall a Sunday puzzle in the JoeFa Era with such smooth fill!
Did it on paper... as is my wont. Now I have to enter everything in the app to see the cute Zamboni. Today is my birthday: maybe I can get my wife to do the entries. (Fat chance , after 46 years; just a pipe dream...)
This was a rare enjoyable Sunday, my take dovetailing with Rex's write-up.
Natick-ed DACHA/PEALE but otherwise was a very good and fun puzzle. Perfectly Sunday-esque.
Very good puzzle, even with no animation for those of us who don't use the NYT app. Big complaint is that the rink is too wide (or not long enough, if you prefer). An NHL rink is about 2 1/2 times as long as it is wide, so 7x3 or 8x3 would be better than 5x3.
'Zamboni' is a word I learned relatively late in life. I was playing Trivial Pursuit and the question I got was "who invented the Zamboni?". I actually thought my friend was just being silly and making up a funny word. But he insisted that was the real question, so I went for something Italian-sounding: Luigi Zamboni. Correct answer is Frank Zamboni.
Brilliant! Will always be remembered in NYT lore as "The Zamboni Puzzle"!
Hope many of you are involved with John Lieb's Bosword Fall and Spring series of weekly puzzles (8 weeks or so) . I believe the championship puzzle is being contested tomorrow night on line, as it happens. For the mere mortal solvers, you can sign up for beginner, Intermediate, or advanced level clues and compete against several hundred others online at your level - weekly standings are published as well. Monday night there's online solve and commentary on puzzle Fee is affordable for us working people
For me it's been a great opportunity to get my competitive juices flowing once a week with moderately challenging no-junk puzzles.
Thanks John ,for the Boswords and for today's fun puzzle
DOUP went in there by default. I have heard of UPDO.....sigh
So given the title in the print version (Driving Around the Block) and the first asterisked clue (23A) having an automotive reference, I thought initially that the theme was going to be car related. That resulted in some puzzlement as the other theme answers fell. It was only when I got to the revealer at 93D that it all made sense, and then I broke into a big smile. You see, my name (really) is Jack Zamboni. And my father's name was Frank Zamboni, though not the Frank Zamboni who invented the eponymous ice resurfacer. Since I solve on paper, I didn't get to see the cool graphic at the end. But my sister solves on the app, so she will see it shortly. 🙂
Xenon is a NOBLE gas! Yes, noble gasses are generally considered "inert" in that they're less reactive than other elements, mostly... but it IS a NOBLE gas. That cross tripped me up badly as a result, had terrible trouble in the NE.
Really enjoyed the theme, helped by the fact that the animation post-solve seemed more of a bonus than the point of the puzzle, as is too often the case. The theme answers were all at least good, with SMOOTH OPERATOR my favorite.
Hey All !
Broke down and ran crying to Goog for two answers, as I was infernally stuck in a couple of spots. Looked up Clamorous, as the ole brain decided to just completely forget what that meant. Once I saw it was LOUD, did the ole D'oh head slap.
Other one was ANSEL. Forgot that kids name. I had (at least I wanted) GLIDE in for GLOSS, nicely mucking that area up. Finished with no errors once I completed those *cough*cheat*cough* areas.
Didn't have the little ZAMBONI waiting in the I of INDIC, but did get the animation at the end. The ZAMBONI pops up where the "I" is, then starts to move upward toward the center, at which at the same time the Blocker on the bottom of the center Blocker box opens up to let said ZAMBONI into it. Then it "clears the ICE", ala erases all the letters, travels back down the ZAMBONI entry, while the Blocker closes back up. Pretty neat.
Nice concept, nicely demonstrated, neat Themers associated with what the ZAMBONIs job is. Heck, it even has a headlight!
Decent fill, too, considering the Themers are pretty much everywhere. Only real problem I see is NEUE. Great grid building John! Nicely executed theme.
Happy Sunday!
Five F's (SMOOTH)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Do Up one’s hair
First encountered the ZAMBONI as a freshman in college, as mine was a big hockey school, and I've been a fan ever since. Reading OFL made me wish I solved online, as my finished paper version didn't do a thing.
More names as WOES today, principally MISCHA and ANSEL, who I know as an Adams but not as an Elgort. The DIP - bull connection escaped me entirely. Learned about the NEUE Museum in Germany. I think I've seen that in German lyrics but it always seems to be lacking a consonant somewhere.
Today's long-lost friend is ERST. Welcome back.
I thought this one was just great. Really clever concept and brilliantly executed. Best Sunday in a long time. Just Loved it, JL, and thanks for all the fun.
Now I'm going to cut out the ZAMBONI and push it around the IIIICCCCCEEEEE.
1A (BUSS) might have had a different meaning. When I saw it (although your explanation makes much more sense), I thought they were synonymous slang terms for something good, like food.
“This food smacks!”
“This food is bussin!”
As a teenager, I admit that both of these are outrageously stupid (well, mostly the latter), but that’s just what I thought of.
Happy solving for all ages!
"Aha," I fairly screamed to myself when all the "ICE"s came in. "That "machine" is, of course, an ICEBREAKER!!!!" I clapped myself on the back for my perspicacity.
By the time I'd finished the puzzle, I'd forgotten that I'd written in ZAMBONI earlier. But it wouldn't have mattered if I'd remembered: Even though ZAMBONI was in another puzzle not that long ago, I'd completely forgotten what it is.
I was quite enchanted with the five ICEs -- and how, when you're reading them going down, you end up with the AYES, SEIZE and EASE you always wanted.
I'm not on familiar enough terms with the ZAMBONI to know whether it scratches the surface or rolls slowly. But it's certainly a FROZEN ASSET and a SMOOTH OPERATOR.
All my fun in this puzzle was relegated to the last five minutes or so. I had left the center section unfilled until I'd done everything else, and the "everything else" was pretty easy -- with no "Aha Moments" at all. I'm wondering about process today -- did most other people leave the center section until the end? Anyway, I did enjoy the center rectangle.
Rex, thanks for the heads up on the animation! When I finished the puzzle the message came up to say it was solved and it completely hid the animation. I had to go back and review the puzzle to see it.
So cute! Thanks John Lieb and The New York Times digital staff.
Like @Nancy I left the center to the end—the literal ICEing on the cake! Thought this a brilliant puzzle, even without the fun animation at the end. The build-up in the surrounding words was well done and led to curiosity about the finish. Got the first ICE right away, then the last (diamonds), then suddenly it all fell into place. A long time ago and far away, I was a NY Rangers fan…
I came here to say exactly this
A friend once told me, “I was going to give you ‘The Power of Positive Thinking,’ but then I figured, what good would it do?”
Wow this was a fun Sunday and I enjoyed the fact that I could solve with no house guests left in my house! Love them all but back to my blissful rut for a few days.
Hand up for NOT knowing Rizzo’s first name, and spent a lot of time thinking “what is the name of the actress”? [Stockard Channing] An unusual name that I SHOULD remember but always come up with other “odd” first names like Strother and Parker. And no. I ended up searching after the puzzle because it never came to me.
Got stuck for quite a bit with my confident entry of nobleGAS. I’m not sure what eureka I had which finally allowed the dominoes to fall for correction to INERT, but I survived and solved with no cheats.
I will say, this was one of the cutest completion graphics so far on the NYT app!
Fantastic story
We used to love watching the Zamboni smooth out the ice when we were at the ice rink with our kids (many years ago!). Because I always solve on paper, this whole ice-blue thing escaped us, although we got the theme. The SW region killed us: We had "tern" instead of LOON, and "I didn't" instead of "IDONOT" for a spell.
Sorry, I don't get FEELME for 117A. It may come to me later in the day, but neither my wife nor I get this clue.
And while I knew Alan Alda was born Alphonso D'Abruzzo, only today did I see AL(phonso) D'A(bruzzo)!
Unlike Rex I would find it most interesting to know the length of crossword streaks.
I guess we don’t have any Nanci Griffith fans here:
“Well, I could use a little spin on a red brick floor
In that crazy ol' bar when Tim locks the door
Where the walls are gonna ring and the strings are gonna bend
It's a buss on the cheek from all my old lovers again“
Cleanly wrapped, but another tale of two games: the SW + W, well beyond easy, and everything else, easy. The slice of gray matter, however thin, firing to suss, e.g., FEEL ME, 117a (in fact there is no other way to convey, "Feel me ?"), LIFETIME, 84d (there is no age 0, Rip doesn't care how your municipal or fed forms might read, if one exists, it should read "birth to relevant age"), BETTY RIZZO, 48d, SPEEDO, 102a ([..lifeguard gear] ?? not the way most of us know SPEEDO, for a Sunday?), ANSEL, 83a, and NENES, 67d (both of which, for a Sunday, should have paired with revised clues for the usual references, not with a recondite actor and a non-borrowed foreign word), or even DO UP, 33d, (the D, last to drop, as I stared at the 'hair' association for many seconds trying to make sense of it).. barely flickered in any other part of the game. That is, there're no two or three clues in any other area of the game which rise to those and proximate others. Not consistent.
Also, the highlight-connected answers do not associate with the highlight, ZAMBONI, 93a, in a consistent way: while the ZAMBONI could be thought of as a SMOOTH OPERATOR and SLOW-ROLLING (and even there, noun, adjective), the perspective shifts to make the association with SURFACE SCRATCH or GLOSSES OVER. Cavil, perhaps, as the clues shift the perspective. Still, the theme answers together would have secured a level of elegance that isn't there.
Rip does not care for pixelated game art as a rule, but, in its simplicity.. this one worked. Grasped the ICE quintet straightaway, relevant clues in the entirety, clever. Rip appreciates the constructor did NOT try to simulate stands and fans with the surrounding black, ty!
Many far less appealing Sundays and a number of the more, this one falls.. somewhere just above the middle. Thumb up, almost.
Liked the postgame animated ZAMBONI run.. even having seen the embellishment before, that was a surprise.
In addition to the surfeit of PPP in this puzzle, I have two complaints:
If you must have answers in a foreign language, they should be words commonly used in that language. I live in a predominately Spanish-speaking neighborhood, and have never once heard that term used. So... NENES/ANSEL is an obvious natick.
I appreciate Rex's explanation for bull-DIP, but it still does not seem to me legitimate cluing,and more like misdirection. I've heard of a "bull market" and about being "bullish" on investment, but cannot believe either the market or the investor becomes the noun "bull."
Despite my gripes, I recognize the originality of this theme and its execution... some of the themers were such lousy puns they were amusing...
Easy. No real problems with this one other than fat fingered typos caused by hunting and pecking on my iPad (I am not a speed solver!).
I did not know MISCHA.
Breezy and fun with a great graphic, a fine finish to a holiday weekend. Liked it a bunch!
What a fun puzzle. Until I read Rex's write-up, I didn't really notice the tie-in to the starred clues and the ice rink in the room. But I didn't need that added layer - the middle ice and the zamboni put a smile on my face.
Back in my college days, I was dating a guy with season Gopher's hockey tickets and in those days, I hated the zamboni because (1) the resurfacing between periods takes so long; and (2) the zamboni gave off such awful fumes, I was semi-nauseated by it. If the game went into overtime, involving a 3rd zamboni appearance, I groaned. I haven't been to a game since I left college though I retain a certain fondness for the memories.
This puzzle ran fairly smoothly for me, especially the SE where the two gimmes, SOUTH BEND and SMOOTH OPERATOR. I used to sing SMOOTH OPERATOR in karaoke and on my first commercial flight, in my 20s, the plane had to land in SOUTH BEND before going on to Ft. Wayne, IN, so my first plane landing, woohoo!
Anyone else put in "red" as a source of distress to a bull (toro)?
Thanks, John Lieb, and thanks for all of the Boswords contests (though I couldn't do it this fall, :-(. )
PEEWEE is also a hockey/rink reference. It’s the age group in youth hockey between Squirts and Bantams.
Impressive! I'm agog at the number of apt long Zamboni-related phrases the constructor found...and fit into a grid! Very witty repurposing. Plus SOFT PEDAL, CHITCHATS, BLEED MONEY and some pleasingly tricky clues. A top-notch Sunday, I thought.
Seriously, how evil can someone be who has a pet cat. I confidently entered pet Rat, and it took me forever to find the error.
Other than that, no issues. A fun Sunday.
Many years ago, a NYTIMES themed crossword had all theme answers consisting of repeated letters. Does “Rex” or anyone remember that one? If so, is a copy available anywhere?
An example was: Clue, “Atlantic, Pacific,
Indian, e.g.” Answer: CCCCCCC (the seven seas).
Loved your story - Thanks for starting this day with a chuckle!
Saw the ice theme and entered BREAKER instead of Zamboni. That slowed me down a while, LOL.
I found this one puzzling in a good way, but I was stymied in the center until I gave in and wrote all the ICEs - then aha! The downs made sense! Had to laugh.
A cellphone lot is a free parking area at the airport, usually a few minutes drive from the arrival area, where a pickup driver can wait until the traveler calls him a few minutes before getting to the pickup area. Great idea to reduce congestion in the arrival area. Especially if more people would use it - you still see people illegally parking on the side of the highway at JFK, sometimes right next to the ‘cellphone lot ahead’ signs
Do you suppose that SILAS Marner ever ate SILAGE? Me neither.
What do you call an extraterrestrial who SITs for too long on an ice rink? A FROZENASSET.
I dated a guy once named PEEWEE
WHO incessantly kept trying to FEELME
YETI told him to CCCCC, but he had a disEEEEE
And his only reply was SOSUEME.
It's about time we had a good puzzle based on ice resurfacing! Thanks, John Lieb.
How curious is it that in this morning's puzzle (which I liked very much) has the obituary of the very actor who portrayed one of the characters that is the answer to 68 across, and that fact is mentioned in his obituary. And the last time the Corsican Brothers appeared in the puzzle I went out and got a copy of the book... to reread it for the first time in 40 years. Still worth it!
Ah, Rex, your youth is showing! The original Moulin Rouge is a gem, starring José Ferrer as Toulouse-Lautrec. ZsaZsa portrays Jane Avril, abs wears the amazing dress Avril actually wore in her performances. We know this from Lautrec's poster. Watch it!
I had no objection to this answer, I’ve come across the term INERT GAS many times in my life and a Google search yields many hits, most describing it as a synonym of "noble gas". That said, Xe isn’t truly inert, of course. Under the proper conditions, it can form compounds with fluorine.
I have no idea if this is the one you are thinking of, but take a look at 3/31/1974. It works the opposite: clue is CCCCCCC; answer is SEVEN SEAS.
I got the idea very quickly (ICE SPICE and the diamonds clue were gimmes), and then figured out ZAMBONI right after (although had a little internal debated about whether it ended in "e"). But then a huge grind. Just couldn't get my brain to cooperate. Lots of wrong guesses and misspelled words. Ended having know idea what the alternative to iOS could be since I think of an ANDROID as a phone and not an operating system, and it didn't help that I had iMS instead of DMS. Finally got that a sultanate was a country and not a person, so switched iMAm to OMAN, which gave me ORB and then finally broke through. Brutal, but enjoyable. 46:38, almost double usual time.
The theme was very cute but I would prefer my puzzles neat and with at least twice the resistance of today's offering. I was neither shaken nor stirred.
What a great way to finish the puzzle, realizing CCCCC = "sieze", etc! Even if Across Lite didn't have any animation. And reading the comments was fun; Laurence Desind's story about Random House, and then Jack Zamboni chipping in.
I seem to remember as a youngster, a tractor came out at the end of the period towing some sort of nasty looking contraption. The suddenly one year they had a slick looking all-in-one machine. Neato! I don't think we started calling it a Zamboni until many years later. Anyway, it was something to watch between periods.
Also when home video games started proliferating... 1980s, I guess?... the first time I played NHL Hockey and the period ended, my opponent said "I get to drive the Zamboni!" At first I thought he was kidding but he wasn't, and he did with relish.
What a great Sunday :)
And over before I knew it.
I would never have thought Rizzo's first name was Betty - but why not? And I never would have thought Alan Alda's birth name was Alphonso D'Abruzzo. You learn something new every day - just by doing xwords :)
Really liked 87A DYE.
And the ZAMBONI animation was great especially since I never heard of Zamboni.
Thanks for a really enjoyable Sunday, John :)
"Red" - I did
@ Laurence Desind: loved your story. You forgot to add to the penultimate paragraph “But it was all IN VAIN.” Zamboni has joined the ranks of xerox et al.
I remember one like that within the last ten years or so because once the gimmick was obvious it was fill-in-the-many blanks easy and my comment was ZZZZZZZZZ .
Took me too long to realize its DO UP as in put up hair.
The best part of the theme was the ICE section, even though I got the gimmick quickly. SMOOTH OPERATOR is my favorite of the ZAMBONI puns. I also like when crosswordese gets sort of flipped on its head (done here with SADE in the clue for SMOOTH OPERATOR when usually it's the other way around).
LITHGOW, ATCO, SILAGE and INDIC all made me feel like I had an error somewhere.
You've got YETI in your grid and instead of giving us a cool mythology/cryptozoology YETI fact, you go for travel mugs. That's like cluing ARGO as a cornstarch brand (*cough* 03/31/2023 *cough*).
check out" I want to drive the Zamboni" by Gear Daddies on YouTube
Am I the only one who crashed at the silage / ansel cross? I don’t recall ever seeing silage before and Ansel, well that’s just rando…
thoroughly enjoyed this one!
International Rink (used everywhere but NHL) is 60x30, 6x3 close enough to 5x3 for xwords.
Cool & different puztheme. Sorta funny, post-solvequest, to see what all the themers were actually up to. Real funny center rink, during the solvequest, too boot. Nice job.
staff weeject pick: ICE. No ... on second thought, ICE. Or maybe the best was that third ICE. Never heard of an ICE rapper, tho...
Anyhoo, honrable mention to the fifth ICE.
35 weejects, today ... 31, if U don't count the ICE clones.
A few pesky name no-knows: ADAMSMITH. MISCHA. ANSEL. BETTYRIZZO. TESSA. ICE [Spice].
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Lieb dude. Stay frosty!
Masked & Anonymo10Us
spamless [and hard] runtpuz:
**gruntz**
Thanks to whoever reminded me recently of the NYTimes games insert with the giant crossword, etc. I had to look all over my uptown neighborhood to find a Sunday print Times. (GWB bus terminal news stand had 4 copies in a single rack with the Post and something else). I remember Sunday meaning stacks of papers spilling out onto sidewalks, but I guess I’m part of the reason with my digital only subscription. The paper also seems to be the size of a Wednesday paper from the 90s. When I asked for a copy of “the Times”, one of the vendors asked, “the New York Times?”.
Alas, The Times, they are a-changin’ (hi, egs)
Laurence Desind 6:52 AM: "...I received a reply [from the editor of the dictionary] to the effect that if one looks a gift [the editor's dictionary, which I'd received from my wife] horse in the mouth there are bound to be a few cavities..."
Hahaha. Srsly.. c'mon, that 'effect,' spun a wee bit, no. But it's aged well.
Laurence Desind 6:52 AM: "...but it annoyed me that there was this “thing” deployed in skating rinks and arenas all over the world and there was no reference to it in this enormous dictionary I owned."
And UNABRIDGED, no less. Hahaha. Titillating tale, well told, through to the acknowledgement by your children. Surprised that through correspondence with a single, faceless editor you were able to effect change. I would have guessed committees of people and red tape would be involved. Well done.
Two reactions: one, you sound a bit like my pop. We're in the express lane a lifetime ago and, suddenly, he exits, walking us over to customer service. "10 ITEMS OR LESS, THAT ISN'T CORRECT.." after which my dad in his easy and eloquent way distinguishes amount/degree from number to an amused manager and his embarrassed teenager. Sure enough, some time later, I walk in there... and the signs have changed, "10 ITEMS OR FEWER." Hahaha.
Secondly, that dictionary, I thought I had it. Relegated to proverbial doorstop duty (once, to elevate a monitor), found it: "Webster's Encyclopedic Unabridged Dictionary of the English Language," (c) 1989. BUT, cracked it to the edition notice page, and: "(Blahblah aforementioned title)...is based on the first edition of The Random House Dictionary of the English Language, the Unabridged Edition (c) 1983."
So, you've got the new and improved. And expanded.
This one runs 1664 pp., the dictionary plus intro (David Yerkes.. D.Phil. Oxford.. why no Binghamton? Parker, I know.. but who's this guy and what's he doing in my dictionary. does a dictionary really need an introduction ?).. proper. And then there's 400 pp. added onto the back, a manual of style, sev. short common usage translation dictionaries, a short, useless atlas, a 'chronology of major dates in history,' a selected bibliography of major reference works, a rhyming dictionary, 'The Bad Speller's Dictionary' (haha.. Riprock def. doesn't need that), a list of the presidents of the united states (WTF.. ), blah, blah and definitely more blah. It's basically the haggis of dictionaries. All the flotsam and jetsam wrapped into one. Rip should gift this fat thing to one of you people, make it your coffee table centerpiece.
Does yours have all that? I say no. Webster had to lipstick somehow.
And since you are dying to know: no, they did not remove "Zamboni" from your edition.. or "ice resurfacer."
On ferreting this thing, four things occurred to me, all at once:
1. It was given by a then gf a couple years after the copyright, so... bargain bin purchase? Did she? Hmm.
2. Why do I still have it.
3. Such an odd gift, in hindsight. Not just any dictionary, but the mother lode of dictionaries. And why a dictionary? Why did she give it to me in the first place. All we did was get on like rabbits, all. the time. (No, Missus Rip does not read this nonsense or know that it exists. Riprock is a sensitive, considerate person.)
A couple other gfs would later give me dictionaries (so I've an Italian.. and a Portuguese.. both in mint condition!) or other references, what the hell was up with that ? So, no one understanding.. (or listening to/reading the Riprock..) some things. haven't changed. But, people, the key - Riprock understands himself perfectly.
4. There's a fucking Crossword Puzzle Dictionary in that back of this thing! (Just noticed.) Beat that, Laurence Desind.
Zamboni works by the front end scraping off ice shavings, etc. then hot water being laid down to melt the existing surface before refreezing it with the new water to make a consistent layer of thick ice. The coldness comes from the refrigeration coils underneath. All the circles and other markings are vinyl templates laid several layers deep during the initial ice making process.
A fun puzzle that also put up some resistance, not just Monday easy smooth gliding.
@ega
FROZENASSET!!!! 🤣🤣
Roo
So cute! Loved this puzzle! Thank you NYT
The Rex: "I know ZSA-ZSA primarily from a single episode of The Love Boat. Here's a clip.."
Hahaha! Hilarious - one, the clip, and in German, two, that you remembered this thing.
The Rex: "I deactivated my Twitter (X) account on my birthday this year, and am now living quite happily on BlueSky."
Good man. But (*your-mother voice*), why are you still rotating the listing of your Twitter account in your blog signature block with the BlueSky? Have you deleted all Twitter content and given sole keys to, say, Missus Parker? "Easier sed than done," erstwhile "bullhorn for my side hustle," I get it. But searches matching your deep insights still direct to the old Twitter content, do they not? Hence, infinitesimally infinitesimal fractions of a cent in ad rev. for the The Demagogue Lackey One. Why do we want to do that ? We do not. Wasn't this part of the idea behind your megaphoned boycott of the Times-games clients in support of the union? Where's your grit, your sacrifice, when something of your own is on the line? (Again, deleting entirely the account and all content, not simply one-toe-still-in-the-water deactivating.)
The Rex: "That's assuming you knew SCREE.."
Yah, had to scree (thought that a verb as well for the longest, mebbe not), that is, ski down scree on the backs of ours hiking boots, strapped into a 50-lb rucksack, over a four day trek around Volcán Villarrica, Lake District, just south of Pucón, super exhilarating. Just an Aussie acquaintance and me, she was such a trooper, though she didn't groove to the screeing at all, heh. Unnerved her. The detritus, forever seared in my brain.
So much of the country, breathtaking. Did a south-to-north countrylong trek, Chiloé to San Pedro de Atacama, then a sev.-day expedition through the Salar de Uyuni (4x4). Put that region on your bucket lists, too.
Very common in the business press. Just as their are bull markets and bear markets, there are market bulls and market bears.
Miss her.
I'm aging myself here, but doesn't BERT LAHR come up a lot in the Sunday crosswords? Our leader misspelled it.
I learned the word Zamboni from Peanuts comics from the eighties and nineties. Snoopy (and perhaps Woodstock at times) would drive a Zamboni to resurface the ice for hockey games at the local ice rink. Not sure if Charles Schulz was a big hockey fan but Snoopy sure was! When he wasn't fighting the Red Baron in a dog fight (oh wait a minute -- %@#& I just got that! Schulz you sly dog, Snoopy is a dog and Snoopy is in a dog fight -- the fighter pilot type -- freaking genius!), but where was I? Oh yeah when he wasn't fighting the Red Baron Snoopy could be found h - e - double hockey-sticks or (frozen) high-water, out on the ice rink! Fun puzzle especially when I had that aha moment that the middle "rink" was all ICE across and the downs were phonetically grokked.
Archi Medes
(Like the Blog name)
Guess vs Estimate
Times crossword uses a lot of spoken English
In popular language guess and estimate are often conflated.
Plus the fact that as a recent article in the Times showed that real ETA’s are deliberately NOT released to the public. The actual times on the arrival boards are fake. ( so planes can be “on time” when they are not).
So ETA = guess is fine.
Also clues are not definitions. They are hints. Close enough for crosswords.
About inert vs noble gas
Sometimes it actually hurts a solver to know “too much “
The typical experienced solver would have no trouble whatsoever, not being versed in the intricacies of chemistry.
dash rip rock
FWIW
Speedo makes all kinds of swim suits, for women as well as men
The red long trunks male lifeguards usually wear are frequently Speedos.
If Speedo were selling just the skimpy ones, they would be out of business!
Ken Freeland
Nene has been in the Times puzzle frequently. In fact it appeared very recently. So it is crosswordese. There are lots of words foreign and not which are obscure otherwise but well known to experienced solvers.
I only know it, like many solvers, from the repetition. Whether that bothers a solver is a matter of taste I don’t mind most of the crosswordese, but the repetition can be boring. This one hasn’t been used to death yet.
Bulls and Bears are most definitely used in business news. A singular use of the terms are rarer but but also appear there.
In any event, crossword clues are hints not definitions. And misdirection is most definitely allowed especially in harder puzzles. Every Saturday puzzle has several I happened to like this one even though didn’t get it till I read Rex.
I thought the crosses were fair.
You don't have to reenter everything in the app to see the animation. Start with a fresh puzzle and then go to the icon next to the pencil. Choose Reveal Puzzle and you'll then see the completed puzzle and the animation.
Rex, just a little housekeeping. You cite 94A as DMS. It should be 104A.
Schulz was a big hockey fan. He grew up playing in Minnesota, built a rink in Santa Rosa, CA when he lived there and started a major seniors’ hockey tournament named after Snoopy, in which Schulz participated.
Fun puzzle. Enjoyed it all. It helps that I grew up a rink rat at the New Haven arena before Zambonis where we pushed shovels around to scrape the ice, followed by rolling barrels of hot water attached to large towels. The Zamboni was a huge and efficient improvement.
Operador suave.
I was not a SMOOTH OPERATOR on this one even though it was great fun to slog through. As always the unknown actors and writers blocked out some of the fun. Overall, a pretty funny puzzle. Those IIIs, CCCs, and EEEs are a great idea.
The Zamboni puzzle wins.
It was news at our house too that RIZZO had a first name.
Propers: 13
Places: 5
Products: 13
Partials: 10
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 46 of 140 (33%)
Funnyisms: 13 😂
Tee-Hee: SPEEDO STREAKS! [Dirt-y words].
Uniclues:
1 Fingernails on your back.
2 One sounding like James Earl Jones and looking like Carrot Top.
3 Wild horse known for saying, "I do the jokes in this stampede."
1 SERENE SURFACE SCRATCH (~)
2 SMOOTH OPERATOR IN VAIN (~)
3 STERN MUSTANG CUT UP (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: "So only losers and poor people stay at home for dinner by themselves." ATE-IN VOICEOVER.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Uh, sir, about Zsa Zsa...legendary director John Huston made a gem of a musical movie called Moulin Rouge. No small piece of trivia, there's no excuse if you love movies to not know this, or once apprised not learn more. Jose Ferrer played the part of Toulouse Lautrec. The Can-Can scene is one of cinematic history's greatest music & dance scenes, for the way Huston shot it, for the spunky music, the choreography, the art direction (primary colors!)...just go ahead and watch it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=exrcnq6Uac4
Another highly unenjoyable puzzle packed from top to bottom with NAMES NAMES NAMES. The NYT crossword puzzle is a glorified trivia night.
I know (and love) Grease as well as any adult could or should, but even this self-proclaimed Grease expert paused for a moment at Betty. It is just one moment in the movie. I was excited to see it but thought it was a seriously deep cut.
A little late to the game due to overseas travel. If I recall Grease (the movie) correctly, Kenickie and Rizzo were making out in the back seat of the pre-Greased-Lightning-montage version of Kenickie’s car, and Rizzo said “call me by my real name”, or “call me by my first name” (or some such request), whereupon Kenickie obliged and called her “Betty.” I believe the encounter led to Rizzo’s pregnancy scare. Fun puzzle.
Mack Truck was a client, learned their lawyers scotched the ad line referring to "Runs like a Mack Truck" becoming "part of the language" in defense of the "brand name".
What do think a Zamboni does? It smoothes over surface scratches, putting a new gloss over the ice. Jeesh
Zamboni brought back childhood memories growing up in Rotterdam The Netherlands. My grandmother who ran a guesthouse always had the people who operated the Zamboni at the American Holiday on ice shows stay with her. They took us children to see the show again and again from behind the scenes and when seats were open amongst the audience.
Great memories.
I think that 32 down should have been a two word answer. As in Alan Alda
Wow, that was so easy it could have waited for Monday. Big yawn, sorry I bought the paper.
I only found out about the animation feature after reading the review. The print edition of the crossword should advise solvers that the online version has an added feature. The print edition left me underwhelmed. But the cute online animation may have changed my mind about the puzzle.
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