In television, Zahn is best known for his main cast credits as Davis McAlary in the HBO series Treme (2010–2013), Cobi in the Amazon Prime Video series Mad Dogs (2015–2016), Jude Ellis in the ABC science fiction series The Crossing (2018), and Mark Mossbacher in season 1 of the HBO anthology series The White Lotus (2021). (wikipedia)
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Gonna make this quick because I haven't disliked a Sunday puzzle (or any puzzle) this much in a long time. I was actively, repeatedly yelling at this thing throughout the solve, as I watched a weak theme somehow get weaker the deeper I got in. The fill was dull (with occasional cringe) from top to bottom. And after all that, I finished with an error, and at the most obvious, predictable place, too—and yet I still couldn't see it. My knowledge of Dune is almost nil. Never read it, never seen any of the movie versions—not Lynch's, not the more recent Chalamet/Zendaya ones directed by that French (sorry) Canadian guy ... nada. Nothing. Which means that ARRAKIS... LOL. Just a string of letters to me. You could've replaced any one of those letters with any other letter, told me it was the "real Spice planet," and I'd've believed you. So when I ended up with MADAME / ERRAKIS, that looked just fine to me. True, if I'd really carefully thought about the clue at 8A: Italian title for Puccini's "Butterfly," I would've maybe taken the "Italian" part more seriously, and realized that MADAME is not an "Italian title," but whatever: "MADAME BUTTERFLY" is definitely the name of the Puccini opera in the English-speaking world, so that's what I wrote in without blinking. But to be clear, my dumb "E"-for-"A" mistake is not why this puzzle was awful. That was just an unpleasantness "bonus." The core problem is that the theme is rudimentary—head-shakingly rudimentary—and has almost No Juice (i.e. not nearly enough humor).
Simple themes can be great if they land, but this one ... never did. It's all so forced, the phrasing on all the themers. Why FISHING and THROWING but JOCKEYS (not JOCKEYING)? and then why the weird, abrupt switch to noun phrases that begin with indefinite articles (?!) in the bottom half of the grid? A RECIPE, A RUN, A GLUTTON ... those bottom themers were especially awkward to parse. I wanted at least two of those last three to end in plurals (e.g. PUNISHMENT FOR GLUTTONS, DISASTERS FOR RECIPES ... you know, just like POSITION FOR JOCKEYS). But the real crime here is how unfunny it all is. And the cluing doesn't help at all. Not even a saucy underwear clue on the POSITION FOR JOCKEYS? I mean, come on—the concept is paper thin, you could at least try to liven it up a little. Overall, the themer cluing is not nearly outrageous or bold enough to lift this thing off the ground.
And the fill doesn't come to the rescue. At all. I mean, ARRAKIS might be the most lively thing in the grid, and as we've established, to me that just looked like someone mashed the keyboard randomly. Looking around the grid now, I see ... MONIST? ASUS? UNAandUNE? Bleeping ETERNE?! And the awful RINO again!? (it debuted just two weeks ago, and here it is again, like a cockroach or fruit fly or other unwelcome guest). "GO LOCO"? Wince. What kind of "white guy drunk on Cinco de Mayo" energy is that? (and it's a debut: shocker). And then that spelling on the CHANGO part of PRESTO-CHANGO (59D: Wand-waving words), which I know has validity but if ever a word ("word") was not meant to be spelled out, it's CHANGO, which, if there were any justice in the spelling universe, would only ever be spelled "CHANGE-O." Otherwise, it looks like it rhymes with MANGO. Which it doesn't. The closest thing to an actively good answer in this puzzle is AS YOU DO, except I hear it more often as "AS ONE DOES," so even there, I'm not entirely satisfied. The theme was conceptually empty, with middling execution, and the fill just ... fills. The NYTXW Sunday should be much much (much) better than this. I'll take an ambitious failure over whatever this is, any day.
Lastly, there's the title—what is it doing? I see that it is its own "___ FOR ___" phrase, but ... shouldn't it be "Fun for Just" or something like that. "Just for Fun" gives no indication of the theme. Like the theme itself, void of life. That could be the theme of any puzzle, or words in a child's activity book. It evokes nothing. The best reading that I can come up with is that the puzzle is "Just" (as in "merely") having some "fun" with phrases that contain "for." That must be it. Not exactly snappy. I should not have to talk my way into justifying the title. A minor, superficial concern, perhaps, but the title is not just decoration—it's supposed to give you some indication of what the theme is about. And this one didn't really seem to be trying.
Bullet points:
1A: Candy that resembles a tube of lipstick (PUSH POP) — I can visualize this, but have no real idea what it is. Turns out this candy debuted in 1986, which was a good 5-10 years after my real candy-eating prime.
2D: Troop grp. (USO) — tried both GSA and BSA before finally alighting on USO
26A: Youngest-ever World Cup winner (PELE) — doesn't the team win the "World Cup?" I know that [Youngest-ever member of a World Cup-winning team] is clunkier, but it feels more accurate.
34A: Group formed from the 2023 W.W.E.-U.F.C. merger (TKO) — so many letters I care nothing about, all to get to the crosswordese TKO, which I just inferred from the "K" in ANNIKA (which, despite caring nothing about golf, I did know).
44A: Canonized king of Norway (ST. OLAF) — that's "Saint Olaf," not some guy named STOLAF. The clue should've had an abbr. indicator, but the new editing standard appears to be there is no standard. Sometimes you get the indicator, sometimes you don't.
63A: Dutch astronomer with an eponymous ice cloud (OORT) — OORT is definitely a name I learned from crosswords, probably decades ago now. Always attached to the word "cloud."
The Oort cloud (/ɔːrt,ʊərt/), sometimes called the Öpik–Oort cloud, is theorized to be a vast cloud of icyplanetesimals surrounding the Sun at distances ranging from 2,000 to 200,000 AU (0.03 to 3.2 light-years). The concept of such a cloud was proposed in 1950 by the Dutch astronomerJan Oort, in whose honor the idea was named. Oort proposed that the bodies in this cloud replenish and keep constant the number of long-period comets entering the inner Solar System—where they are eventually consumed and destroyed during close approaches to the Sun. (wikipedia)
90A: Tusked Warcraft race (ORCS) — I only know "World of Warcraft," but apparently that MMORPG (massively multi-player online role-playing game) is set in a pre-existing Warcraft universe, about which (clearly) I know nothing. ORCS are from Tolkien. That is about the extent of my Orc knowledge.
95A: Agcy. that determined fluoride prevents tooth decay (NIH) — I reflexively wrote in ADA, because three-letter dental org. abbrevs. are usually ADA. This clue feels like a jab at a certain fluoride (and overall science) "skeptic" who is about to have a ridiculous amount of influence on U.S. public health policy.
116A: ___ Biggums, memorable character on "Chappelle's Show" (TYRONE) — "memorable character" is doing some ... work. Some masking work. Some non-specificity work. TYRONE Biggums is "memorably" a crack addict. If you're gonna use him in your puzzle, don't chicken out and hide the details:
32D: Chewy Japanese dessert (MOCHI) — a "doughlike mass" (merriam webster dot com) made from "cooked and pounded glutinous rice." They can be sweetened, colored, filled, etc.
77D: "Aladdin" character who hates crackers (IAGO) — he's a parrot, so ... hilarious incongruity, I guess.
That's all for the puzzle today. Now I'm gonna move on to the first installment of the Holiday Puzzle Gift Guide. I'll do physical products today, and then e-products (like puzzle subscriptions and the like) next week or the week after. If you have any good crossword gift ideas, or if you produce any such products yourself, let me know—I'll add them to the guide next week or the week after (note: I receive no financial consideration for promoting any of the following products)
For kids, there's the Spy School series of books by Stuart Gibbs, particularly the one with puzzles by longtime NYTXW constructor Jeff Chen, entitled Entrance Exam:
A reader of mine recommended Q-Less, the Crossword Solitaire Dice Word Game (which comes in physical and app form):
Constructors Jeff Sinnock and Desirée Penner (who have constructed several NYTXW puzzles together in the past couple of years) have a new book of puzzles out called Name That Tune: A Year In Music. It features one pop music-themed crossword for each year from 1960 to 2010—each puzzle features hits from that year, and every puzzle has a bonus answer (another hit that you have to figure out by unscrambling circled letters in the grid). These play Easy but are still a lot of fun—great for the casual crossword fan in your life. Also great for brushing up on your pop culture knowledge across generations.
And lastly for today we have Adam Aaronson's 2025 Crossword Calendar, in which every monthly calendar grid is also a crossword (!). There's even a year-long meta-puzzle, where stray single letters in the calendar grids can be reassembled to spell an "apt word for the year." Adam is a talented young constructor (with many NYTXW credits to his name), and this is a really original and creative crossword concept. You like crosswords, you need a wall calendar ... bam, here you go.
More gift ideas next week (keep suggestions coming if you've got 'em). And now ... our first installment of Holiday Pet Pics! (this will be a daily feature from now until the end of the Holiday season (or until I run out of pics), so if you sent me a pic and don't see your pet right away, be patient! They're coming!
First up is Cleo. Good luck finding her
[Thanks, Nancy]
Then there's Kaylee, who ... will not be denied
[Thanks, Anne]
Here's Maverick, who is ... patient. Very on-brand for a chocolate lab :)
[Thanks, Joan]
Sweet Tommy basks in the Aspenglow ...
[Thanks, Don]
And lastly, for today, there's Scruffy. Won't someone spare a treat for Scruffy this Christmas? Support your local Scruffy. Look at this baby!
[Thanks, Donna!]
More puzzles, and more pets, tomorrow. See you later.
I couldn’t for the life of me find the G-SPOT in this grid - pleasureless. I typically don’t have a similar solving experience as Rex but today he nailed it. POKY indeed.
Everyone who complains they’ve never heard of the crossword-ubiquitous Sia (let alone the Beastie Boys folks from earlier this year) should get that music game.
Wow. I definitely didn’t expect Rex to unload with both barrels on this one. It took me forever to catch on to the “reverse the words” theme construct, but at least I had a brief light-bulb moment during the solve.
I’m a little more forgiving re the theme than OFL today, but I agree with Rex that this one was done in by the nonsense that is masquerading as fill. Rex pointed out the atrocious ARRAKIS. I would add the equally dreadful MOCHI and MES cross, along with stuff like PAEAN, OORT, POUFFE, MONISTIC, MADAMA, et c which just seems to keep popping up all over the place like a game of Whac-A-Mole.
It’s an interesting contrast today, after a stellar weekend with Robyn on Friday, a pretty clean Saturday here and a wonderfully tough but fair offering from @Lewis and Rachel over at the LAT, we’re back to the themed grids struggling to keep the fill at least recognizable.
Just started doing NYT crossword this year and have to say this is my least favorite. No fun or joy in this one for me. Agree with Rex completely about the theme. Hoping for some better puzzles next week.
I see John’s name atop a puzzle and my whole being rings with smiles, as I know it will be a feel-good experience. I know I’ll toil enough to satisfy my brain’s workout ethic, yet I won’t frustratingly keep running into walls. I know there will be wordplay in the theme, wordplay that brings a happy feeling rather than eyerolls or that requires severe untangling. I also know that the theme will make me think, “What a cool idea!”
Just a cozy comfy experience, like sitting in a plush armchair with my feet resting on a POUFFE, from which I will leave relaxed and refreshed. As I did today.
John has been Mr. Sunday of late, with seven Sundays in the last year and a half. Often his grid designs have interesting features, like those three ascending plus signs in the box today.
There were some lovely answers along the way: POKY, GRIFT, PAEAN, POUFFE, TOTTERS, AS YOU DO, and FAINT OF HEART. I also liked the trio of names where the letter “y” sounds like the letter “i”: SYDNEY, LYNDA, and FLYNT.
But mostly, I loved the JK experience, a pool of feel-good, for which I’m eminently grateful. Thank you, sir!
I liked this one just fine! Also got held up on an error, but it was PAEAN/UNA (I had PAEON/UNO). I devoured all of the Dune books in HS (even the ones written by his son), so ARRAKIS was a non-problem. This puzzle took a little while to get going for me, though - I had nothing until 23, when I wrote in COMPLIMENTS FOR FISHING before I even got to the downs :)
My profound ignorance regarding PUSHPOPS and the phrase AS YOU DO made the NW a tough place to start for me. The thematic inconsistencies that Rex notes bothered me as well. On the other hand, always happy to contemplate the Oort Cloud. There may be something orbiting our sun that’s 3.2 light years away! And that’s where comets come from!
Agreed with you on everything, including the last change from E to A. I did “try” to watch Dune because my husband loves it, and got about 15 minutes in, so I did hear the name Arrakis but didn’t ever know how to spell it. I did think the theme had cuteness potential and some of the answers did seem fun! But the fill was a sloggy slog. Nothing fun there.
After completing the puzzle, I rationalized the theme might have been “just ___ for (a) fun ___” in addition to the backwards juxtapositioning
Just compliments for fun fishing Just a loop for fun throwing Just position for fun jockeys Just disaster for a fun recipe Just one’s money for a fun run Just punishment for a fun glutton
Dune is my favorite sci-fi book period. The Lynch film has grown on me with time. The new movies are awful. And I actually owned a little stock symbol WWE which last year became symbol TKO. So I guessed I liked it better than Rex.
Never heard or MOON jelly. Surely something better could have been found there. Potential Natick there with IMED. I don't really know what Slack is, but I figure it's some social media thing.
But ANNIKA crossing TKO seems likely to be the biggest Natick spot today. ANNIKA is legitimagely famous but her heyday was twenty years ago and it's golf, which a lot of folks don't care about. And then it's sports crossing "sports", which is always a bad idea.
And clue for LETS GO is way off.
But the theme is solid and well executed, given the constraints of themer length. And I enjoyed the solve and in particular trying to come up with the themers with minimal crosses.
Had to let my streak come to an end. The chain of MADAMA/ARRAKIS/POKY/POUFFE did me in, along with the RINO/UNA cross, which I had as RItO/UtA (although, I could've sworn I put an N in there...).
Ah well, such is puzzling life.
I got the lower half Themers first, which had me filling in the "A's" after the FORs in the top Themers. That messed up some Downs for a bit. Later discovered the top three Themers we're A-less. The bottom three had the A, so there's at least a bit of consistency there.
All those FORs nicely upped the F count!
Like this puz. Thought it worthy of publication. After getting the Z and J, went looking for the Q for a Pangram, no such luck. Turns out, missing B (odd, that one), Q, V, X.
So this woman is on a safari and finds an elephant tormented by a thorn in his toe. She removes it and they become friends. They are inseparable for weeks, but sadly she flies home when it's over. Twenty years later she's at the circus with her grandson. Front row. As the elephants parade around she catches the eye of one. She stares at him and he stares back at her. Suddenly the elephant leaves the circle, runs over to her, wraps his trunk around her, picks her up, and flings her into the seats 50 yards away where she lands with a broken leg and broken ribs. It was a different elephant.
Another victim of the eRRAKIS/MADAMe square. Clearly designed to trip people up, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, why not throw in a curveball, and on the other hand f that noise.
Went over this puzzle with a fine-tooth comb and could not figure out where I went wrong. Spent a lot of time on ANNIKA only to conclude that I had spelled her name correctly. Wondered at the word TOTTERS for a while but crosses meant it couldn't be TeeTERS (which made more sense IMHO). Knew PAEAN was spelled correctly because I've been there before. I watched Dune recently and loved it, and still couldn't see the mistake because the pronunciation is the same. As for the title, I originally thought this meant it was going to be a themeless puzzle but agree that the title makes little sense. Mixed bag for me. Finished in 23 minutes with the mistake. Quit at 30.
Couldn’t at all parse the theme til I came here, so the whole time I was thinking “are these just literal descriptions of what’s being described?” I agree that “Fun for Just” would have been a much more illuminating title. I ended up thinking “well I guess the constructor thinks making up weird literal descriptions of things is…fun.” Wasn’t on my wavelength, this one.
Can anyone explain the “branded item at a bank, maybe” clue with the answer PEN? Are we talking about a money bank? A river bank? Something? I’m confused.
Hi Lewis - I posted this yesterday evening but I'm posting it again in case you didn't see it re: Yours & Rachel's LAT puzzle:
Lewis, I hope you see this. Thank you for making this cold, gloomy early (& dark!) Saturday evening a pleasure for me with your (& Rachel's LAT puzzle) & putting a smile on my face :) I've always enjoyed your up-lifting, cheery posts here on Rex's Blog. And look forward to them. Now with your LAT puzzle today, I'm in awe of you!. Many thanks to you both :)
Put me in the fan camp - I thought the theme was clever and witty, with the winner, for me, being PUNISHMENT FOR A GLUTTON, with DISASTER FOR A RECIPE a close second. Hats off to the constructor for finding these phrases that work both ways! A fun one to solve.
Really hated this puzzle. I can take theme as presented, but the fill was awful. There was a French word POUFFE for a clue that doesn’t indicate frenchiness. There’s an English word, er abbreviation, GPA for a clue that as written indicates frenchiness - résumé, with the accent marks. In English we don’t use the accents. What is this dreaded LOCS hairstyle? What is MOON jelly? I no longer care about Sunday NYTX puzzles and if I finish solving them, getting them correct, or what my streak is for them. More often than not, I’m checking my squares for accuracy because of the typical inanity that has become the Sunday puzzle.
Medium but it felt tougher after the last couple of pretty easy Sundays. I struggled in the center where POUFFE and TOGO (as clued) were WOEs and LOCHTE was a spelling challenge as GO LOCO (hi @Rex) did not leap to mind.
…plus I had to do some post solve googling to figure out how IMED (my last entry was the I and I had no idea why it was correct) MOON, and LETS GO fit the clues.
You go to the bank to deposit money. They ask you to fill out a deposit slip. You can use your pen or the one at the counter that has the bank’s name emblazoned on it.
I hear that the Girl Scouts have a plan to start including marijuana in their cookie ingredients to induce the munchies, thus increasing consumption of Thin Mints. The new ones will be labeled Thin Mints with GSPOT.
In Norway, time is divided into the pre-STOLAF era and the post-STOLAF era. Similarly, for countries where Saint Ochango is revered, you'll hear references to the PRESTOCHANGO era.
There are at least three games played on a board with black and white stones: Go, Go Moku and GOLOCO.
The write up by @Rex strikes me as similar to a movie critic slamming a film because it has subtitles that he didn't bother to read. There is actually a reason that the word "Italian" appears in the clue for Ms. Butterfly. Also, why would you rag on ARRAKIS when the crosses are fair and easy? I would assume that Ryan LOCHTE, with a very uncommon last name, is less known than the Dune series. Why not label that "just a string of letters?
But my real complaint derives from this part of the write-up:
Simple themes can be great if they land, but this one ... never did. It's all so forced, the phrasing on all the themers. Why FISHING and THROWING but JOCKEYS (not JOCKEYING)? and then why the weird, abrupt switch to noun phrases that begin with indefinite articles (?!) in the bottom half of the grid? A RECIPE, A RUN, A GLUTTON ... those bottom themers were especially awkward to parse.
Well, @Rex, the reason for the "weird abrupt switch" is that people use the phrases "a glutton for punishment" and "a run for the money" and "a recipe for disaster." People do not use the phrases "a fishing for compliments" or "a throwing for a loop" or "a jockeys for position." Perhaps you wouldn't have been so jarred if the two types of theme answers were mixed together instead of separated top and bottom. But it strikes me as a very petty criticism.
I thought the puzzle was a hoot. Thanks, John Kugelman.
The theme was so-so, but the links to Rickie Lee Jones, Los Straitjackets and Miles Davis as punctuation marks to Rex’s write-up gave me a Sunday smile.
I thought the opera should be LA DAMA and LONIST seemed like someone who wanted to be lone. MADAMA seemed too much like Madam to be the answer. I know nothing about Italian.
Liked the theme answers (although I did notice the inconsistent phrasing & agree that the title gave no clue about the theme). But the fill was too full of ARCANA to make this puzzle really work.
MADAMe/eRRAKIS and ANNItA/TtO here, hard copy so I didnt know they were incorrect. I enjoyed the puzzle - I even liked the backwards theme. Took about a cup of coffee for me. Thinking of John Lennon today
You brought your A game today, egs. GS POT reminds me of an old cartoon. It's awards night and 4 girl scouts are on stage. 3 are normal 12-year olds and the fourth is bursting out of her uniform and very sexy. The announcer is saying: And once again the award for most cookies sold goes to . . .
Like many others, I liked this better than Rex. But I agree, the title wasn't so helpful, other than the word "for" -- but if somehow, just somehow, you could reverse the title words to parallel the grid itself ("Fun For Just" - nah...). Somehow, I did not get hung up on MADAMA, but it took me a while to arrive at POKY (thinking maybe... MOPY?). SW corner also held me up for a spell, since I had ADA in place of NIH for the longest time. SINES instead of SONIC for a while... And... SPOOR? I had SCENT in there for a long time, too. Learned a new word!
I finished with exactly the same error as @Ann Howell at PAEON / UNO. But it didn't really matter because I basically gave up on liking the puzzle because of all the names. The first two acrosses and the first two downs are names. Further down are three consecutive across names, not once but twice (OORT, LANA, TOGO and ERIES, LAO, POE). And John / Joel, once again why do you so often clue it as a name even if you don't need to (eg TKO, TO GO).
I had to get to A LOOP FOR THROWING before I could understand COMPLIMENTS FOR FISHING. After that, I could sometimes throw in the theme answer with just a few crosses. I didn't find all of them wacky but love PUNISHMENT FOR A GLUTTON and DISASTER FOR A RECIPE. I quit running organized races because I was tired of forking out ONE'S MONEY FOR A RUN though being invested in a race is a great motivator to go out on a training run, something I've been neglecting.
I dredged ARRAKIS out of my memory after doing the E or A? dance. But I left in UNo at 87A even though PAEoN is obviously wrong. Was I thinking of the erroneous PEoN?
Most Sundays I don't bother to comment due to lack of interest in the puzzles themselves but today's offering was a good one. Both the theme and the fill required equal amounts of work. That it triggered a hissy fit from our host was icing on the cake.
I enjoyed the theme. I didn't dance a JIG but it was better than many Sundays. My first entry was COMPLIMENTSFORFISHING. I also got yourMONEYFORARUN early except ........"your" being incorrect never occurred to me. That caused a lot of grief in the SW. And ONE(')S is wrong anyway. It's your or their or my. Fill was wonky and tedious at times. The pet pics are lovely. Talk about FUN!
I'm shocked at how many people liked this! Or thought that it was ok. So...many...names. A quick count shows that there were around 40 clues for names/foreign language vocabulary, and they often crossed each other. I would be surprised about it, but the past few weeks it's been a trivia slog. I'm starting to wonder, is NYT puzzle access really worth $40/year?
Solved very quickly in the evening and got a bemused chuckle and nod of appreciation for finding those themers, even if it is an old-style switcheroo-type theme. My one letter DNF was also MADAMe. If you'd asked me if the planet was ARRAKIS or eRRAKIS, I would have gotten it right 100 times out of 100, but didn't go back to see the stray "e". Totally on me for not picking up the "Italian" in the clue, since I know the opera well.
I am never sure if it is STOLAF or OLAV. Reading this now, I think there must be some Flavo'flav/OlafOlav wordplay theme possible...Maybe it's more one of those NPR Sunday puzzles. "Remove the 1st or 4th letter from the first name of a well-known entertainer, rearrange the following letters, and get the founding patron of a well-known country."
I liked this puzzle. Had no great humor but the long themers were each a little puzzle to figure out and parsed OK even without the exact theme being evident at the time. Am a big Dune fan so only problem was remembering there are two “Rs” in ARRAKIS.
By definition, a white noise machine produces a particular form of random audio "snow", which will not sound much like rain. Many sound machines include white, pink, and other noises as well as natural sounds such as rain, rushing water, wind, and other pleasant backgrounds to cover up the tinnitus. Inaccurate clue. Fun puzzle.
I live in San Anselmo and my NYT has covered it: Thursday, 12/5, page 1 "Insurer CEO Gunned Down"; Friday, 12/6, page 1, "Chasing Down Clues"; Saturday, 12/7, page A17, "DNA From Bottle." I don't take the Sunday Times, so don't know about today.
Very quick solve once I got the theme from COMPLIMENTS FOR FISHING. The idea works but the “A”s in the lower half are clunky. Maybe “For a Change” would’ve worked better as a title.
I didn’t know STAN or NILS but N was the only plausible letter there. I also didn’t know ANNIKA and TKO as clued but I at least know that ANNIKA is a name, and TKO made sense as an answer related to combat sports.
Crazy kealoa with [Salt, say] SEA__N (SEASON or SEAMAN). And then it crossed [Salt] TAR.
Also enjoyed MOOCOW, btw. In M&A's house's holidays news: The big olde M&A family Christmas tree is up and rotatin. Decorated with almost every ornament known to humankind. Anyhoo...
Late to the party after serving as the tenor section of our choir this morning and having a brunch with old friends this afternoon. Like some others I solved bottoms-up after the NW went nowhere, Enjoyed the themers, only vaguely remembered LOCHTE and ARRAKIS, and took forever to see POKY, which I think I have only seen as pokey. TIL what a PUSHPOP is, but I don't feel measurably smarter.
OK by me Sunday, JK. Some JunK fill kept it from being truly memorable, but thanks for a fair amount of fun.
Rough Sunday despite the POUFFE. I made it excluding MADAME, but phew, I hafta say I'm glad it's over. I was significantly past halfway before I ever got the first theme answer, and then all of them fell. The puzzle itself seemed okay, but man the wonky non-thematic cluing seemed POKY overall.
Maybe it was challenging because I did this while attending the UNM Early Music Ensemble today and no matter how much I like the music, when those Dr. Seuss-esque instruments start cranking it out, there's a clear feeling sanity is being drilled out of your skull by force.
Tee-Hee: GS POT. I Googled Girl Scout Pot thanks to @egs and feared I would need to shred my hard drive afterward, but it turns out many girl scouts are making a killing setting up tables outside of leafy dispensaries, so who's got the last tee-hee now?
Uniclues:
1 What David used to make Goliath smell better. 2 Music for sawing girls in half.
1 A LOOP FOR THROWING SOAP 2 PRESTO CHANGO SYMPHONY (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Extra torture (on those rare occasions when evil doesn't seem to be fulfilling his needs). SAD SATAN BONUS.
Usually I think of Rex as a crotchety old man but today he was spot on. Puzzle played more like a trivia game than a crossword and I figured out the theme within about 30 seconds. Lousy Sunday.
Whilst I side with the majority that found the theme more enjoyable than OFL, I think Rex's review was for the most part right on the money. For starters one of my errors was the same as his (MADAMe). There are thousands of fictional planets... how many should Times puzzlers be expected to know? Geesh. I also found the title lame and agree the "fun for just" would have been sooooo much better! My other error was the natick ANNIKA/TKO. I found ANNItA much more plausible. My sympathy to those who tripped up on IMED/MOON. Moon jelly? What??
SouthsideJohnny I can understand your annoyance with Arrakis (as a reader of the first Dune book, the old Dune movie, Dune I and the recent series on HBO I still had to think about the spelling! However in all fairness to the constructor et al PAEAN is simply not that obscure While it is a literary word it is still in use as, part of a figurative expression. That book is a paean to childhood etc. what is wrong with using words that still appear regularly in the Times? W
Todd I did sort of like the Lynch Dune. I really liked Dune (part) 1 So I disagree about that one BUT I was hugely disappointed by Dune 2. I have never had such a negative reaction to a sequel. Dune 2 made me readjust downward my evaluation of Dune 1. That long, long sequence on Gidde Prime ( spelling? and coming to a puzzle near you) was soulless and should have been much shorter. It destroyed the movie for me. I did not understand the favorable critic reaction to it.
Confidently wrote in "lOgY" where POKY should have gone and couldn't figure out my error until I came here. lOUFFE and ARRAgIS looked perfectly reasonable to me, having no idea about either (although in hindsight I should have known POUFFE). This puzzle otherwise was quick but unsatisfying.
Kitshef I made the same mistake with ANNItA because I forgot her name and I didn’t realize there was a name change at WWE although TKO probably should have been guessable. DNF I wouldn’t call it a Natick though. I have no what let’s go answer was getting at!
Anonymous 10:23 AN Resume and pouffe are BOTH English words. There are a huge amount of English words that retain the French spelling. There is no convention which says plouffe requires a reference to French in the clue. Résumé in English is often spelled that way because of the way English speakers pronounce and of course to distinguish it from the verb resume. But it is still English no need to reference French here either.
I just did a recent (2004) Boston Globe Sunday Crossword by BEQ entitled "Foreplay" It was similar to today's NYT puzzle, with these theme answers: PEANUTS FOR WORK TIME FOR PLAYS APPLES FOR BOBS HELP FOR CALL BLOOD FOR OUT OFFICE FOR RUNS COVER FOR DIVE BUSINESS FOR BAD
Digital Dan Your comment is technically oriented. In a puzzle it is what people say that counts. Also sounds can get lots of different reactions from different people. Apparently many people hear rain Nothing wrong with that answer ( though I admit it was tough for me)
I'm definitely with the Big Guy here. I actually threw the puzzle down in disgust and went out to breakfast an hour early. Of course I did return to solving in the mid-afternoon, got most of it, and was not amused. I basically give up in the NW corner. Never heard of a PUSHPOP, and never tempted to try one. I guess I have heard of TKO, but have zero interest in any kind of fake fighting.
Gotta say, I have heard of Larry FLYNT. His claim to fame, I suppose, is providing anatomical lessons for those who always wondered what those Playboy models looked like down there.
Ken Freeland Moon jelly as in jellyfish Someone earlier said there are a lot of them in Florida Scientists have encouraged people to drop “fish” when talking about these , man o’ war and all the other “jellies”. That is the recent trend in newspapers. So the constructor took advantage of that in the clue. (If we were to purge English of all the creature names which are scientifically incorrect, it would be a humongous task. Also mostly futile. After decades of effort to change it, Americans still say buffalo instead of the “correct” bison. That is the difference between language and science!)
I also DNF because of MADAMe and eRRAKIS. I didn't think that cross was fair, but what do I know? Loved POKY once I finally got it because it reminded me of my mom, who used that word a lot.
I liked the Dutch cheese GOUDA crossing the Dutch astronomer OORT. It reminded me of shopping for gouda one time with, as usual, my head in the clouds. (Aside: I speak Afrikaans). Someone asked if they could help me and, for the minute, I couldn't think of what to say. So I said I was looking for the go-dah with an English g but the rest in Afrikaans. The worker - to her credit - smiled and showed me where it was without further embarrassment to anyone save the cheese being added to a fondue.
I had a pretty good start on this one for a Sunday, but I didn't get the theme until I got here! That just seemed like super clunky (thing) for (thing) and I could never tell if there would be an article involved. At least it wasn't super proper name which is why I was able to get further than usual before having to rely on some research. I've got a ways to go before I can solve these without some looking things up!
On the other hand, thank you for sharing Kaylee! The reason I have given up on Christmas trees for the last couple of years!
Maybe we should call this genre of puzzle "Phrase reversals revolving around a preposition." And as long as we don't run out of prepositions, more of these lie ahead in our futures. Which is fine by me (pun intended.)
I liked this. I found it witty. The themers were well chosen. It reminds me, of course, of the Sunday puzzle that Will Nediger and I did called TURNS OF PHRASE. Our preposition was "of" and John's is "for". I wonder if any other prepositions could support an entire Sunday puzzle. Hmm.
I thought there were some extremely peculiar cluing choices, though, in the non-theme answers. Both AS YOU DO (20A) and LET'S GO (64D) made me scratch my head and say "What were you thinking?" Neither bears the slightest relationship to its clue.
But the phrases were cute. I didn't get to it until the evening -- so I'm sure no one will read this comment. Oh well.
Well I liked the theme answers, the two I got, better than Rex did., But I just was not on the puzzles wavelength. I did less than 1/3 of the puzzle. It started off badly with a candy I've never heard of; don't know why "Nothing weird about that" equals "as you do". I googled "boolean" and still have no idea why "ors" are boolean operators...... Hope Mondays is lots of fun.
I hated this puzzle. It took awhile to figure out the theme, and that helped but there was just too much esoterica outside my wheelhouse. Usually there will be one or two spots which I’m not sure of. Today’s puzzle was loaded with areas which left me clueless.
My first time learning "paean" was a hostage in Iran clever enough to pronounce it "pee on" when describing their treatment, the Iranians must have looked it up and OKed the release of the video.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
91 comments:
Really enjoyed the theme. Some of the fill was tricky but sorted it all out a little slower than normal. Overall a very nice Sunday morning solve.
I couldn’t for the life of me find the G-SPOT in this grid - pleasureless. I typically don’t have a similar solving experience as Rex but today he nailed it. POKY indeed.
For Scruffy
Everyone who complains they’ve never heard of the crossword-ubiquitous Sia (let alone the Beastie Boys folks from earlier this year) should get that music game.
For a "quick" writeup that sure was a lengthy one. I liked the puzzle a lot but that's just me.
More on Rex's side of the aisle on this one. Found the themes meh and most of the grid perfunctory. To each his own....
Wow. I definitely didn’t expect Rex to unload with both barrels on this one. It took me forever to catch on to the “reverse the words” theme construct, but at least I had a brief light-bulb moment during the solve.
I’m a little more forgiving re the theme than OFL today, but I agree with Rex that this one was done in by the nonsense that is masquerading as fill. Rex pointed out the atrocious ARRAKIS. I would add the equally dreadful MOCHI and MES cross, along with stuff like PAEAN, OORT, POUFFE, MONISTIC, MADAMA, et c which just seems to keep popping up all over the place like a game of Whac-A-Mole.
It’s an interesting contrast today, after a stellar weekend with Robyn on Friday, a pretty clean Saturday here and a wonderfully tough but fair offering from @Lewis and Rachel over at the LAT, we’re back to the themed grids struggling to keep the fill at least recognizable.
Just started doing NYT crossword this year and have to say this is my least favorite. No fun or joy in this one for me. Agree with Rex completely about the theme. Hoping for some better puzzles next week.
I see John’s name atop a puzzle and my whole being rings with smiles, as I know it will be a feel-good experience. I know I’ll toil enough to satisfy my brain’s workout ethic, yet I won’t frustratingly keep running into walls. I know there will be wordplay in the theme, wordplay that brings a happy feeling rather than eyerolls or that requires severe untangling. I also know that the theme will make me think, “What a cool idea!”
Just a cozy comfy experience, like sitting in a plush armchair with my feet resting on a POUFFE, from which I will leave relaxed and refreshed. As I did today.
John has been Mr. Sunday of late, with seven Sundays in the last year and a half. Often his grid designs have interesting features, like those three ascending plus signs in the box today.
There were some lovely answers along the way: POKY, GRIFT, PAEAN, POUFFE, TOTTERS, AS YOU DO, and FAINT OF HEART. I also liked the trio of names where the letter “y” sounds like the letter “i”: SYDNEY, LYNDA, and FLYNT.
But mostly, I loved the JK experience, a pool of feel-good, for which I’m eminently grateful. Thank you, sir!
I liked this one just fine! Also got held up on an error, but it was PAEAN/UNA (I had PAEON/UNO). I devoured all of the Dune books in HS (even the ones written by his son), so ARRAKIS was a non-problem. This puzzle took a little while to get going for me, though - I had nothing until 23, when I wrote in COMPLIMENTS FOR FISHING before I even got to the downs :)
My profound ignorance regarding PUSHPOPS and the phrase AS YOU DO made the NW a tough place to start for me. The thematic inconsistencies that Rex notes bothered me as well. On the other hand, always happy to contemplate the Oort Cloud. There may be something orbiting our sun that’s 3.2 light years away! And that’s where comets come from!
Agreed with you on everything, including the last change from E to A. I did “try” to watch Dune because my husband loves it, and got about 15 minutes in, so I did hear the name Arrakis but didn’t ever know how to spell it. I did think the theme had cuteness potential and some of the answers did seem fun! But the fill was a sloggy slog. Nothing fun there.
I also had PAEoN/UNo — but it took me foreverrrrr to detect that problem bc I was sure there was something wrong with ARRAKIS.
If the theme clues are read backward don’t these become phrases that we all know?
I liked the puzzle… and Rex’s write-up. Go figure.
After completing the puzzle, I rationalized the theme might have been “just ___ for (a) fun ___” in addition to the backwards juxtapositioning
Just compliments for fun fishing
Just a loop for fun throwing
Just position for fun jockeys
Just disaster for a fun recipe
Just one’s money for a fun run
Just punishment for a fun glutton
Dune is my favorite sci-fi book period. The Lynch film has grown on me with time. The new movies are awful. And I actually owned a little stock symbol WWE which last year became symbol TKO. So I guessed I liked it better than Rex.
Never heard or MOON jelly. Surely something better could have been found there. Potential Natick there with IMED. I don't really know what Slack is, but I figure it's some social media thing.
But ANNIKA crossing TKO seems likely to be the biggest Natick spot today. ANNIKA is legitimagely famous but her heyday was twenty years ago and it's golf, which a lot of folks don't care about. And then it's sports crossing "sports", which is always a bad idea.
And clue for LETS GO is way off.
But the theme is solid and well executed, given the constraints of themer length. And I enjoyed the solve and in particular trying to come up with the themers with minimal crosses.
Who doesn't love fictional planet names, initials, niche trivia and Spanish crossing Japanese in crosswords?
Hey All !
Had to let my streak come to an end. The chain of MADAMA/ARRAKIS/POKY/POUFFE did me in, along with the RINO/UNA cross, which I had as RItO/UtA (although, I could've sworn I put an N in there...).
Ah well, such is puzzling life.
I got the lower half Themers first, which had me filling in the "A's" after the FORs in the top Themers. That messed up some Downs for a bit. Later discovered the top three Themers we're A-less. The bottom three had the A, so there's at least a bit of consistency there.
All those FORs nicely upped the F count!
Like this puz. Thought it worthy of publication. After getting the Z and J, went looking for the Q for a Pangram, no such luck. Turns out, missing B (odd, that one), Q, V, X.
Gotta DASH, have a great Sunday!
12 F's (SEASON High)
RooMonster
DarrinV
From yesterday: circus/elephant
So this woman is on a safari and finds an elephant tormented by a thorn in his toe. She removes it and they become friends. They are inseparable for weeks, but sadly she flies home when it's over.
Twenty years later she's at the circus with her grandson. Front row. As the elephants parade around she catches the eye of one. She stares at him and he stares back at her. Suddenly the elephant leaves the circle, runs over to her, wraps his trunk around her, picks her up, and flings her into the seats 50 yards away where she lands with a broken leg and broken ribs.
It was a different elephant.
Another victim of the eRRAKIS/MADAMe square. Clearly designed to trip people up, which I have mixed feelings about. On the one hand, why not throw in a curveball, and on the other hand f that noise.
Went over this puzzle with a fine-tooth comb and could not figure out where I went wrong. Spent a lot of time on ANNIKA only to conclude that I had spelled her name correctly. Wondered at the word TOTTERS for a while but crosses meant it couldn't be TeeTERS (which made more sense IMHO). Knew PAEAN was spelled correctly because I've been there before. I watched Dune recently and loved it, and still couldn't see the mistake because the pronunciation is the same. As for the title, I originally thought this meant it was going to be a themeless puzzle but agree that the title makes little sense. Mixed bag for me. Finished in 23 minutes with the mistake. Quit at 30.
Went with PUSH UPS instead of PUSH POP. Must've been thinking of bras. (Hi Gary)
I didn't hate this. E.g., I liked COMPLIMENTS FOR FISHING. Go figure.
When I was a child, candy lipstick was called "candy lipstick".
Couldn’t at all parse the theme til I came here, so the whole time I was thinking “are these just literal descriptions of what’s being described?” I agree that “Fun for Just” would have been a much more illuminating title. I ended up thinking “well I guess the constructor thinks making up weird literal descriptions of things is…fun.” Wasn’t on my wavelength, this one.
Can anyone explain the “branded item at a bank, maybe” clue with the answer PEN? Are we talking about a money bank? A river bank? Something? I’m confused.
Hi Lewis - I posted this yesterday evening but I'm posting it again in case you didn't see it re: Yours & Rachel's LAT puzzle:
Lewis, I hope you see this.
Thank you for making this cold, gloomy early (& dark!) Saturday evening a pleasure for me with your (& Rachel's LAT puzzle) & putting a smile on my face :)
I've always enjoyed your up-lifting, cheery posts here on Rex's Blog. And look forward to them.
Now with your LAT puzzle today, I'm in awe of you!.
Many thanks to you both :)
I did, too. The themers were fun to figure out, and I enjoyed most of the rest of the puzzle. A nice way to start off a Sunday morning!
Put me in the fan camp - I thought the theme was clever and witty, with the winner, for me, being PUNISHMENT FOR A GLUTTON, with DISASTER FOR A RECIPE a close second. Hats off to the constructor for finding these phrases that work both ways! A fun one to solve.
Really hated this puzzle. I can take theme as presented, but the fill was awful.
There was a French word POUFFE for a clue that doesn’t indicate frenchiness. There’s an English word, er abbreviation, GPA for a clue that as written indicates frenchiness - résumé, with the accent marks. In English we don’t use the accents.
What is this dreaded LOCS hairstyle? What is MOON jelly?
I no longer care about Sunday NYTX puzzles and if I finish solving them, getting them correct, or what my streak is for them. More often than not, I’m checking my squares for accuracy because of the typical inanity that has become the Sunday puzzle.
That was me, by the way. Had to reinstall Chrome last night and still recovering.
Brave of you to publicly admit being unable to find the G-spot.
Medium but it felt tougher after the last couple of pretty easy Sundays. I struggled in the center where POUFFE and TOGO (as clued) were WOEs and LOCHTE was a spelling challenge as GO LOCO (hi @Rex) did not leap to mind.
…plus I had to do some post solve googling to figure out how IMED (my last entry was the I and I had no idea why it was correct) MOON, and LETS GO fit the clues.
…I did know ARRAKIS.
Liked it more than @Rex did.
You go to the bank to deposit money. They ask you to fill out a deposit slip. You can use your pen or the one at the counter that has the bank’s name emblazoned on it.
I hear that the Girl Scouts have a plan to start including marijuana in their cookie ingredients to induce the munchies, thus increasing consumption of Thin Mints. The new ones will be labeled Thin Mints with GSPOT.
In Norway, time is divided into the pre-STOLAF era and the post-STOLAF era. Similarly, for countries where Saint Ochango is revered, you'll hear references to the PRESTOCHANGO era.
There are at least three games played on a board with black and white stones: Go, Go Moku and GOLOCO.
The write up by @Rex strikes me as similar to a movie critic slamming a film because it has subtitles that he didn't bother to read. There is actually a reason that the word "Italian" appears in the clue for Ms. Butterfly. Also, why would you rag on ARRAKIS when the crosses are fair and easy? I would assume that Ryan LOCHTE, with a very uncommon last name, is less known than the Dune series. Why not label that "just a string of letters?
But my real complaint derives from this part of the write-up:
Simple themes can be great if they land, but this one ... never did. It's all so forced, the phrasing on all the themers. Why FISHING and THROWING but JOCKEYS (not JOCKEYING)? and then why the weird, abrupt switch to noun phrases that begin with indefinite articles (?!) in the bottom half of the grid? A RECIPE, A RUN, A GLUTTON ... those bottom themers were especially awkward to parse.
Well, @Rex, the reason for the "weird abrupt switch" is that people use the phrases "a glutton for punishment" and "a run for the money" and "a recipe for disaster." People do not use the phrases "a fishing for compliments" or "a throwing for a loop" or "a jockeys for position." Perhaps you wouldn't have been so jarred if the two types of theme answers were mixed together instead of separated top and bottom. But it strikes me as a very petty criticism.
I thought the puzzle was a hoot. Thanks, John Kugelman.
The theme was so-so, but the links to Rickie Lee Jones, Los Straitjackets and Miles Davis as punctuation marks to Rex’s write-up gave me a Sunday smile.
Same!!
I thought the opera should be LA DAMA and LONIST seemed like someone who wanted to be lone. MADAMA seemed too much like Madam to be the answer. I know nothing about Italian.
Liked the theme answers (although I did notice the inconsistent phrasing & agree that the title gave no clue about the theme). But the fill was too full of ARCANA to make this puzzle really work.
Thank you! I got the theme right away but hated the mess of clues that created it. Boring, aggravating.
A moon jelly is a jelly fish. Saw them all over the FL Keys.
MADAMe/eRRAKIS and ANNItA/TtO here, hard copy so I didnt know they were incorrect. I enjoyed the puzzle - I even liked the backwards theme. Took about a cup of coffee for me. Thinking of John Lennon today
I only see the West Coast paper edition of the NYT. It hasn't printed a word on the killing of the insurance executive. Has anyone heard why?
You brought your A game today, egs. GS POT reminds me of an old cartoon. It's awards night and 4 girl scouts are on stage. 3 are normal 12-year olds and the fourth is bursting out of her uniform and very sexy. The announcer is saying: And once again the award for most cookies sold goes to . . .
After I (finally) finished it, I saw what John was doing & it was cute, I guess. But for me, I couldn't wait for it to be over - a slog I guess :(
Like many others, I liked this better than Rex. But I agree, the title wasn't so helpful, other than the word "for" -- but if somehow, just somehow, you could reverse the title words to parallel the grid itself ("Fun For Just" - nah...).
Somehow, I did not get hung up on MADAMA, but it took me a while to arrive at POKY (thinking maybe... MOPY?).
SW corner also held me up for a spell, since I had ADA in place of NIH for the longest time.
SINES instead of SONIC for a while...
And... SPOOR? I had SCENT in there for a long time, too. Learned a new word!
Loved your LAT puzzle, Lewis!
I thought it was fun! Sorry to all the adults in the room but my favorite clue was the one for MESA.
I finished with exactly the same error as @Ann Howell at PAEON / UNO. But it didn't really matter because I basically gave up on liking the puzzle because of all the names. The first two acrosses and the first two downs are names. Further down are three consecutive across names, not once but twice (OORT, LANA, TOGO and ERIES, LAO, POE). And John / Joel, once again why do you so often clue it as a name even if you don't need to (eg TKO, TO GO).
I had to get to A LOOP FOR THROWING before I could understand COMPLIMENTS FOR FISHING. After that, I could sometimes throw in the theme answer with just a few crosses. I didn't find all of them wacky but love PUNISHMENT FOR A GLUTTON and DISASTER FOR A RECIPE. I quit running organized races because I was tired of forking out ONE'S MONEY FOR A RUN though being invested in a race is a great motivator to go out on a training run, something I've been neglecting.
I dredged ARRAKIS out of my memory after doing the E or A? dance. But I left in UNo at 87A even though PAEoN is obviously wrong. Was I thinking of the erroneous PEoN?
Thanks, John Kugelman!
Most Sundays I don't bother to comment due to lack of interest in the puzzles themselves but today's offering was a good one. Both the theme and the fill required equal amounts of work. That it triggered a hissy fit from our host was icing on the cake.
I enjoyed the theme. I didn't dance a JIG but it was better than many Sundays. My first entry was COMPLIMENTSFORFISHING. I also got yourMONEYFORARUN early except ........"your" being incorrect never occurred to me. That caused a lot of grief in the SW. And ONE(')S is wrong anyway. It's your or their or my. Fill was wonky and tedious at times. The pet pics are lovely. Talk about FUN!
I'm shocked at how many people liked this! Or thought that it was ok. So...many...names. A quick count shows that there were around 40 clues for names/foreign language vocabulary, and they often crossed each other. I would be surprised about it, but the past few weeks it's been a trivia slog. I'm starting to wonder, is NYT puzzle access really worth $40/year?
Agreed with Rex. Here's my much shorter writeup: Yeccchh.
Solved very quickly in the evening and got a bemused chuckle and nod of appreciation for finding those themers, even if it is an old-style switcheroo-type theme. My one letter DNF was also MADAMe. If you'd asked me if the planet was ARRAKIS or eRRAKIS, I would have gotten it right 100 times out of 100, but didn't go back to see the stray "e". Totally on me for not picking up the "Italian" in the clue, since I know the opera well.
I am never sure if it is STOLAF or OLAV. Reading this now, I think there must be some Flavo'flav/OlafOlav wordplay theme possible...Maybe it's more one of those NPR Sunday puzzles. "Remove the 1st or 4th letter from the first name of a well-known entertainer, rearrange the following letters, and get the founding patron of a well-known country."
In the puzzle, it actually exists
I liked this puzzle. Had no great humor but the long themers were each a little puzzle to figure out and parsed OK even without the exact theme being evident at the time. Am a big Dune fan so only problem was remembering there are two “Rs” in ARRAKIS.
By definition, a white noise machine produces a particular form of random audio "snow", which will not sound much like rain. Many sound machines include white, pink, and other noises as well as natural sounds such as rain, rushing water, wind, and other pleasant backgrounds to cover up the tinnitus. Inaccurate clue. Fun puzzle.
Good comments. IMED had me stumped.
Thanks, noni. I'd never heard of a moon jelly.
Spooonerisms for the SunPuztheme. Basic, but ok by m&e.
Tough opener, tho: no-know PUSHPOP.
staff weeject picks: UNA & UNE. [UNI, UNO, and UNU are jealous.]
some fave stuff: ARRAKIS spellin challenge [which M&A was Duned-to-fail, for a coupla tries]. GIRAFFE & its clue. SYMPHONY. Maybe even LEGOLAND.
Thanx for yer efforts, Mr. Kugelman dude. Good TIMEFORPLAY.
Masked & Anonymo10Us
I live in San Anselmo and my NYT has covered it: Thursday, 12/5, page 1 "Insurer CEO Gunned Down"; Friday, 12/6, page 1, "Chasing Down Clues"; Saturday, 12/7, page A17, "DNA From Bottle." I don't take the Sunday Times, so don't know about today.
Very quick solve once I got the theme from COMPLIMENTS FOR FISHING. The idea works but the “A”s in the lower half are clunky. Maybe “For a Change” would’ve worked better as a title.
I didn’t know STAN or NILS but N was the only plausible letter there. I also didn’t know ANNIKA and TKO as clued but I at least know that ANNIKA is a name, and TKO made sense as an answer related to combat sports.
Crazy kealoa with [Salt, say] SEA__N (SEASON or SEAMAN). And then it crossed [Salt] TAR.
Also enjoyed MOOCOW, btw.
In M&A's house's holidays news: The big olde M&A family Christmas tree is up and rotatin. Decorated with almost every ornament known to humankind.
Anyhoo...
"TOAST" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
And of course no one puts their GPA on a resume.
Late to the party after serving as the tenor section of our choir this morning and having a brunch with old friends this afternoon. Like some others I solved bottoms-up after the NW went nowhere, Enjoyed the themers, only vaguely remembered LOCHTE and ARRAKIS, and took forever to see POKY, which I think I have only seen as pokey. TIL what a PUSHPOP is, but I don't feel measurably smarter.
OK by me Sunday, JK. Some JunK fill kept it from being truly memorable, but thanks for a fair amount of fun.
Buscar elogios es una receta para el desastre.
Rough Sunday despite the POUFFE. I made it excluding MADAME, but phew, I hafta say I'm glad it's over. I was significantly past halfway before I ever got the first theme answer, and then all of them fell. The puzzle itself seemed okay, but man the wonky non-thematic cluing seemed POKY overall.
Maybe it was challenging because I did this while attending the UNM Early Music Ensemble today and no matter how much I like the music, when those Dr. Seuss-esque instruments start cranking it out, there's a clear feeling sanity is being drilled out of your skull by force.
Propers: 22 (sheeeez)
Places: 5
Products: 7
Partials: 14
Foreignisms: 6
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 54 of 138 (39%)
Funnyisms: 9 😄
Tee-Hee: GS POT. I Googled Girl Scout Pot thanks to @egs and feared I would need to shred my hard drive afterward, but it turns out many girl scouts are making a killing setting up tables outside of leafy dispensaries, so who's got the last tee-hee now?
Uniclues:
1 What David used to make Goliath smell better.
2 Music for sawing girls in half.
1 A LOOP FOR THROWING SOAP
2 PRESTO CHANGO SYMPHONY (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Extra torture (on those rare occasions when evil doesn't seem to be fulfilling his needs). SAD SATAN BONUS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
LOL, well said!
Usually I think of Rex as a crotchety old man but today he was spot on. Puzzle played more like a trivia game than a crossword and I figured out the theme within about 30 seconds. Lousy Sunday.
Ditto!
Whilst I side with the majority that found the theme more enjoyable than OFL, I think Rex's review was for the most part right on the money. For starters one of my errors was the same as his (MADAMe). There are thousands of fictional planets... how many should Times puzzlers be expected to know? Geesh.
I also found the title lame and agree the "fun for just" would have been sooooo much better!
My other error was the natick ANNIKA/TKO. I found ANNItA much more plausible.
My sympathy to those who tripped up on IMED/MOON. Moon jelly? What??
@mjb (2:18). I couldn't find my Thursday and Friday but I did find the article on Saturday, page A17. Thanks.
SouthsideJohnny
I can understand your annoyance with Arrakis (as a reader of the first Dune book, the old Dune movie, Dune I and the recent series on HBO I still had to think about the spelling!
However in all fairness to the constructor et al
PAEAN is simply not that obscure
While it is a literary word it is still in use as, part of a figurative expression. That book is a paean to childhood etc. what is wrong with using words that still appear regularly in the Times?
W
Todd
I did sort of like the Lynch Dune.
I really liked Dune (part) 1
So I disagree about that one
BUT I was hugely disappointed by Dune 2. I have never had such a negative reaction to a sequel. Dune 2 made me readjust downward my evaluation of Dune 1. That long, long sequence on Gidde Prime ( spelling? and coming to a puzzle near you) was soulless and should have been much shorter. It destroyed the movie for me. I did not understand the favorable critic reaction to it.
Confidently wrote in "lOgY" where POKY should have gone and couldn't figure out my error until I came here. lOUFFE and ARRAgIS looked perfectly reasonable to me, having no idea about either (although in hindsight I should have known POUFFE). This puzzle otherwise was quick but unsatisfying.
Kitshef
I made the same mistake with ANNItA because I forgot her name and I didn’t realize there was a name change at WWE although TKO probably should have been guessable.
DNF I wouldn’t call it a Natick though.
I have no what let’s go answer was getting at!
Anonymous 10:23 AN
Resume and pouffe are BOTH English words.
There are a huge amount of English words that retain the French spelling. There is no convention which says plouffe requires a reference to French in the clue.
Résumé in English is often spelled that way because of the way English speakers pronounce and of course to distinguish it from the verb resume. But it is still English no need to reference French here either.
I just did a recent (2004) Boston Globe Sunday Crossword by BEQ entitled "Foreplay" It was similar to today's NYT puzzle, with these theme answers:
PEANUTS FOR WORK
TIME FOR PLAYS
APPLES FOR BOBS
HELP FOR CALL
BLOOD FOR OUT
OFFICE FOR RUNS
COVER FOR DIVE
BUSINESS FOR BAD
Digital Dan
Your comment is technically oriented. In a puzzle it is what people say that counts. Also sounds can get lots of different reactions from different people.
Apparently many people hear rain
Nothing wrong with that answer ( though I admit it was tough for me)
I'm definitely with the Big Guy here. I actually threw the puzzle down in disgust and went out to breakfast an hour early. Of course I did return to solving in the mid-afternoon, got most of it, and was not amused. I basically give up in the NW corner. Never heard of a PUSHPOP, and never tempted to try one. I guess I have heard of TKO, but have zero interest in any kind of fake fighting.
Gotta say, I have heard of Larry FLYNT. His claim to fame, I suppose, is providing anatomical lessons for those who always wondered what those Playboy models looked like down there.
Anonymous 2:24 pm
I noticed that cross at season and tar. I got to the across first and thought of sailor. I found it a bit crazy also.
Ken Freeland
Moon jelly as in jellyfish Someone earlier said there are a lot of them in Florida
Scientists have encouraged people to drop “fish” when talking about these , man o’ war and all the other “jellies”. That is the recent trend in newspapers. So the constructor took advantage of that in the clue.
(If we were to purge English of all the creature names which are scientifically incorrect, it would be a humongous task. Also mostly futile. After decades of effort to change it, Americans still say buffalo instead of the “correct” bison. That is the difference between language and science!)
I
I also DNF because of MADAMe and eRRAKIS. I didn't think that cross was fair, but what do I know? Loved POKY once I finally got it because it reminded me of my mom, who used that word a lot.
I liked the Dutch cheese GOUDA crossing the Dutch astronomer OORT. It reminded me of shopping for gouda one time with, as usual, my head in the clouds. (Aside: I speak Afrikaans). Someone asked if they could help me and, for the minute, I couldn't think of what to say. So I said I was looking for the go-dah with an English g but the rest in Afrikaans. The worker - to her credit - smiled and showed me where it was without further embarrassment to anyone save the cheese being added to a fondue.
I had a pretty good start on this one for a Sunday, but I didn't get the theme until I got here! That just seemed like super clunky (thing) for (thing) and I could never tell if there would be an article involved. At least it wasn't super proper name which is why I was able to get further than usual before having to rely on some research. I've got a ways to go before I can solve these without some looking things up!
On the other hand, thank you for sharing Kaylee! The reason I have given up on Christmas trees for the last couple of years!
Maybe we should call this genre of puzzle "Phrase reversals revolving around a preposition." And as long as we don't run out of prepositions, more of these lie ahead in our futures. Which is fine by me (pun intended.)
I liked this. I found it witty. The themers were well chosen. It reminds me, of course, of the Sunday puzzle that Will Nediger and I did called TURNS OF PHRASE. Our preposition was "of" and John's is "for". I wonder if any other prepositions could support an entire Sunday puzzle. Hmm.
I thought there were some extremely peculiar cluing choices, though, in the non-theme answers. Both AS YOU DO (20A) and LET'S GO (64D) made me scratch my head and say "What were you thinking?" Neither bears the slightest relationship to its clue.
But the phrases were cute. I didn't get to it until the evening -- so I'm sure no one will read this comment. Oh well.
Well I liked the theme answers, the two I got, better than Rex did., But I just was not on the puzzles wavelength. I did less than 1/3 of the puzzle. It started off badly with a candy I've never heard of; don't know why "Nothing weird about that" equals "as you do".
I googled "boolean" and still have no idea why "ors" are boolean operators......
Hope Mondays is lots of fun.
I hated this puzzle. It took awhile to figure out the theme, and that helped but there was just too much esoterica outside my wheelhouse. Usually there will be one or two spots which I’m not sure of. Today’s puzzle was loaded with areas which left me clueless.
Quick question- why is love all TIE?
Love all could be a zero-zero in tennis, say. Also took me a minute to figure out why
My first time learning "paean" was a hostage in Iran clever enough to pronounce it "pee on" when describing their treatment, the Iranians must have looked it up and OKed the release of the video.
53A should read "LeanS forward, holdS the reins" to confirm with "jockeyS"
Crazy, love all is not a score in tennis.
Scruffy got the zoomies when she heard it. Thznk
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