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Wish for a romantic pairing between, in modern parlance / MON 12-30-24 / Purple yam common in Filipino cooking / Flower that reflects yellow when held under one's chin / Snakelike fish / Cry made while pointing / Waiter's imperative after bringing food
Monday, December 30, 2024
Constructor: Hannah Binney
Relative difficulty: Challenging (as a Downs-only solve)
Theme answers:
- BUTTERCUP (18A: Flower that reflects yellow when held under one's chin)
- HOURGLASS (23A: Primitive timer)
- PRO BOWL (38A: N.F.L. all-star game)
- THINK TANK (51A: Place for policy wonks)
Dioscorea alata – also called ube (/ˈuːbɛ, -beɪ/), ubi, purple yam, or greater yam, among many other names – is a species of yam (a tuber). The tubers are usually a vivid violet-purple to bright lavender in color (hence the common name), but some range in color from cream to plain white. It is sometimes confused with taro and the Okinawa sweet potato beniimo (紅芋) (Ipomoea batatas cv. Ayamurasaki), however D. alata is also grown in Okinawa. With its origins in the Asian and Oceanian tropics, D. alata has been known to humans since ancient times. // Because it has become naturalized following its origins in Asia, specifically the Philippines, through tropical South America, and the southeastern U.S., D. alata is referred to by many different names in these regions. In English alone, aside from purple yam, other common names include ten-months yam, water yam, white yam, winged yam, violet yam, Guyana arrowroot, or simply yam. (wikipedia)
• • •
The theme felt just SO-SO (side note: having both SO-SO and SO-AND-SO in the same grid feels not so good). Lots of vessels HOLD WATER. The progression here makes no logical sense to me. I guess they get ... what, bigger? ... as they go along, but CUP and GLASS are basically the same thing, and then BOWL? I guess if you're a dog, sure, water BOWL. And then TANK. I dunno. These vessels seem arbitrary. Also, these vessels hold lots of things besides water. The whole thing just didn't feel that tight. The grid as a whole, though, has a pretty springy, youthful feel, a fresh, up-to-date vibe that I kinda liked. I'm basically just proud that I nailed SHIP with no crosses, despite the fact that that bit of slang is not native to me At All (56D: Wish for a romantic pairing between, in modern parlance). I know it from my daughter and my students and, like, the air. The ambient digital world that surrounds me. I also loved MOCKTAILS and ROOTROT (I know, weird to love ROOTROT, but it's just a great-sounding term) (for context: my favorite word as a child was "mediocre"). And SO-AND-SO, despite being hard as hell to parse, is still a fun bit of euphemistic slang (43D: No-goodnik). I've got no complaints about the fill on this one. It's more challenging fare than you find in most Mondays, but it's also got more character than most Monday fill does.
There were a couple of clues, though, that just meant absolutely nothing to me. Why are you holding a BUTTERCUP (or any flower) under your chin? Like, why that location, specifically? Huge shrug there. Also, even huger shrug on the alleged expression, "All you need is love and a CAT." Uh, what? Who said that, when? It's an "old saying?" I'm old. And I have cats. Why haven't I heard it? Look, here's one of my cats now:
- 21D: Canadian province that's home to the Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site (ALBERTA) — I almost made "Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site" my Word of the Day today. I can't begin to imagine what that is. Ah, I should've guessed. Indigenous people used to kill bison by basically driving them off a cliff. So "jump" is maybe a little bit of a misnomer.
- 57D: Pepsi or Coke (COLA) — man that SODA / COLA kealoa* really hits hard when you're solving Downs-only. Luckily, the adjacent answers eventually made it clear which one was correct today.
- 6D: Creatures that are actually black with white stripes (ZEBRAS) — so ... not PANDAS, then? No, I know PANDAS aren't really striped, or striped at all, I was just kidding, of course I didn't write in PANDAS, shut up.
- 10D: Advances (INROADS) — another one that was super-tough from a Downs-only perspective. Think of all the things that "Advances" can mean, and think how many of those you'd list before you got to INROADS.
- 13D: "I understand you" ("COPY") — again, wicked with no help from crosses. "I SEE"? No, the clue's got "I" in it, so that's not right. OK, I see it ends in "Y" so ... ---Y? ---Y? "OH MY!"? Was not aware we were on walkie-talkies.
- 29D: Units of force (NEWTONS) — ah, Physics. The only thing I won a prize for in college! (bizarre fact—I had to take a science course to fulfill my Gen Ed requirements, so I went with Physics I my senior year and the homework was soooooooo much different from my regular humanities courses—a lot less reading, a lot more problem-solving—that I "procrastinated" from my "real" homework by doing my Physics homework and ended up with the highest grade in the class and they somehow gave a cash prize for that at graduation?? Did I fever-dream this? (I did not). Anyway, I managed to retain the fact that NEWTONS are a thing, though I did not remember it until I got that "W" from PRO BOWL.
- 40D: Cry made while pointing ("LOOK!") — more Downs-only trouble. I had the "K" but I thought the first letter was "O" because I had inferred 38-Across not as PRO BOWL but as PRO BONO (argh). So instead of pointing and going "LOOK!" I was pointing and going "OH, OK!" and go ahead, try it, it doesn't make much sense. I did it just now and laughed out loud. It's like you're making fun and / or complimenting someone's outfit. "OH, OK! Wow. Yeah, I see you! That is ... something!"
- 53D: "The early bird gets the worm," for one (ADAGE) — in which I discover a new kealoa*: the ADAGE / AXIOM kealoa*. As you can see, Downs-only was a struggle for me today.
- 31D: Snakelike fish (EELS) — a disguised plural? On top of everything else, Monday? Come on, man.
On to the Holiday Pet Pics now (I opened up submissions again briefly yesterday but they're closed again now—y'all are enthusiastic about your pet pics!).
Latte is a recent adoptee spending her first Holiday season in her new home. Have you ever tried gift-wrapping a cat? It's very tricky.
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| [Thanks, John] |
Felix the Somnolent (a properly imperial title) enjoys reigning from underneath the tree, from which his ornament minions do his bidding.
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| [Thanks, Roger] |
Lola has already been in Holiday Pet Pics this year, but she's cute, she can get away with it.
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| [Thanks, Mimi] |
Bunny! Bunny is a recent rescue, and he is on a "serious weight reduction diet." Here's a picture of him *not* getting the "good treats." (He will remember this indignity for years to come)
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| [Thanks Joe (and Emily)] |
Our last two goofy furballs are Winnie and Rocky. They are brother and sister. I'm told Winnie wanted to be on the blog, but her older brother Rocky did not give a damn. "I ain't waking up to pose for no damn 'blog'! Who even reads 'blogs' anymore? You people are weird. Just take your picture and leave me alone." Winnie says he doesn't really mean it, but I think he might.
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| [Thanks, Ben] |
See you next time.
P.S. BIG IF TRUE !! —
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.
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78 comments:
Maybe Medium-Challenging, leaning towards Medium, downs-only? I had pretty much the same trouble spots as Rex except PRO BONO (NEWTONS was easy) and AXIOM.
I kept in mind that USAGE and OSAGE both work, I luckily guessed U, but I knew where I'd have to look for mistakes, just in case.
INROADS, tough. I could only think of TOGO and LOGO before NOGO.
SO-AND-SO, extra tough. I had HOLY WATER first, until I realized that HOLD WATER was the revealer. Also, for some reason I could only think of ALEC and not ALES. Similarly, PASO didn't cross my mind, only PASS and PAST. Add to that the O-N letter sequence, where U crossing CUT seemed to make way more sense than A.
Weird childhood thing. Buttercup’s supposedly reflect the sun under the chin and if they do you like butter.
My five favorite original clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. What you may have to do if someone doesn't take charge? (3)(4)
2. Forgo a ring, maybe (5)
3. Drawer with knobs? (4)(1)(6)
4. Strong draft (5)
5. They might make you jump (2)(6)
PAY CASH
KNOCK
ETCH A SKETCH
STOUT
UP ARROWS
I’m a little disappointed that smack dab in the middle of a water-holding theme, the constructor left TUB out there to dry.
Two questions for Rex and everyone: 1) Are ALES the same as "beers"? and 2) Why is a "Shirley Temple" a MOCKTAIL and not simply a "cocktail"? Otherwise, a normal Monday with a nice theme and helpful revealer.
We did the buttercup thing but with dandelions.
The legend is that if you hold a buttercup under your chin and your chin looks yellow, you like butter. Odd, I know, but we did it when I was a kid.
No alcohol in a Shirley temple. As for ale/beer, LOL, all I know is that Henry Fonda gets mad when Barbara Stanwyck conflates them in THE LADY EVE
Rex summed it up pretty well. Some bizarre stuff compared to a “usual” Monday - including the aforementioned UBE and SHIP (as clued). I might be tempted to add AGUA and ODIN to the list, although they probably have Crosswordese status by now.
I feel bad for TUB, sitting there all by itself after being shunned by the theme entries. Hopefully the CAT will keep it company.
No trouble but how is a SO-AND-SO (an unnamed or unspecified person, thing, or action) a "No -goodnik" (no-good, lowlife)? Even the pejorative sense of So-and-so doesn't fit well.
Same here. And then popped off the head.
All ALES are beer, but not all beers are ALES. It's all about the yeast: Ale yeast ferments the wort from top to bottom, lager yeast from bottom to top.
A couple of odd non-theme answers. I’d say a TUB (44A) is much more regularly a water holder than a BOWL. And having a stray AGUA was a bit odd.
UBE, SHIP do not belong on a Monday. Or any day. I did not solve downs only and never saw the clue or answer for UBE, but if I had I’d have been sure I had an error somewhere. I did see the clue for SHIP, and I don’t even know if we are being asked for a verb or a noun.
Many years ago, Dave Barry had a column about Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump, so I actually knew that. But I'm guessing otherwise that was Canadian-Province-wait-for-some-crosses.
Will Shortz is definitely back. There was an announcement in the Times that he returned 12/30.
I weirdly visited Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump a couple years ago, so ALBRETA was a gimmie. They had a smashed penny machine at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, but it was out of order. No smashing at Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.
It was definitely on the "relatively" difficult side _for a monday_ but overall pretty easy with crosses. I'm clearly not advanced enough yet to be doing down-only solves :)
There's an article dated 29th Dec confirming Will Shortz is back as editor and that Joel Fagliano's "run as interim head crossword editor" is over. I only started doing the NYTXW in the middle of this year so I am a bit curious if the flavour of them will noticeably change! (I've gone quite far back through the archive but looking back is different than looking forward, of course.)
Nice early week puzzle - cute theme and well filled for the most part. Revealer is a little soft but apt. Liked BUTTERCUP and HOURGLASS.
HYENA
Did notice the WS sighting - good for him. SO AND SO, ROOT ROT and ALTO SAX are wonderful non-theme longs. Will be ordering a family size load of SAMOSAS for NYE - comfort food defined.
ALBERTA Bound
Rex - Corpuz is located in the Canal Street Market which is a large open space of Korean and Filipino vendors. My wife has seen him at various markets throughout the city so could definitely have been from Union.
Enjoyable Monday morning solve.
Love the SHIP x PASO cross.
Cool to see Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump in a crossword. About 25 years ago I had to go to Calgary for work, and learned about the place. It struck me as so strange that I drove the 2 hours to see it. It was interesting, albeit kind of sad to know how the buffalo were terrorized into running off the cliff. IIRC, the place got its name when a man who was at the bottom of the cliff dispatching wounded buffalo had his head smashed in by another falling buffalo.
From Southern Living magazine: “These buttercups have simple, yellow flowers with five to 10 petals. They are especially bright and glossy. This is because the petals curve inward and are constructed in such a way that they reflect light onto the flower center, thus increasing the heat. This warms the stamens (which produce the pollen), boosts their growth, and increases the chance of fertilization. Also, this warmth attracts the pollinators. Buttercups are considered a source of food for bees and hummingbirds.
This reflection is why children like to hold a buttercup flower under their chin. If the reflection on their chins is yellow, it is supposed to mean they like butter.”
Much Crosslandia joy, with Will’s return. First and foremost, happiness over his recovery. But also, gratitude for Joel and the entire NYT team, whose talent and expertise kept the puzzle top tier, a formidable accomplishment that I will not forget.
Any puzzle starting out with STEPH Curry is going to be ok in my book, then ROOTROT!
Easy and light, as a Monday should be, with (mostly) fresh fill - not easy to pull off.Thanks, Hannah.
Regarding Monday cluing, which is supposed to be relatively easy, there’s such a fine line between “so easy as to be embarrassing”, and “easy, but you still have to think”.
I believe Hannah nailed the latter today. Clues like [Pepsi or Coke] where there are a couple of possible answers, but not a slew. Still, you can’t just slap the answer down. Clues like [Places for policy wonks], where you might need several crosses before seeing the answer.
This puzzle is well made, with not only “Oh, isn’t that interesting” clues, such as those for ZEBRA and ALBERTA, but also covering many areas – music, geography, food, sports, current parlance, flora and fauna, and others. Also, the answer set is admirably free of junk.
Not to mention a bit of serendipity fun, TENOR in the grid to complement ALTO SAX, and the lovely PuzzPair© of a backward WETS crossing WATER.
And for an experienced solver, as I am, trying to guess the reveal after uncovering the theme answers, plenty of sweet brainwork before throwing in the towel.
Quality all around, an impressive debut. Congratulations, Hannah, and thank you for this sterling Monday puzzle.
When I opened the page for Crossword and saw the name of Will Shortz as editor, that's exactly the way I reacted! "Oh, is he back?!" I exclaimed. Well, I understand, he is!
Editor’s Note: Guess who’s back, back again
Shortz is back, tell a friend.
By Everdeen Mason
Dec. 29, 2024
Image: An illustration of Will Shortz. He has grayish hair and a mustache, and is wearing a brown shirt with crossword-esque blocks on it.
Credit...Illustrated by Ben Kirchner
We celebrated Will Shortz’s 30th anniversary at The New York Times with drinks, gifts and speeches in November 2023. Less than three months later, Will, the crossword editor, was in the hospital after having two strokes back to back.
We’re so happy to announce that Will has now recovered enough to resume editing the Times Crossword, beginning with the puzzle on Dec. 30.
Will’s stroke affected the right side of his brain and mobility on the left side of his body, so he stepped back from daily editing in February to focus on his rehabilitation. In addition to completing hours of physical therapy and rehab, Will slowly returned to puzzle making and editing throughout the year. He directed the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament, returned as the creator of NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday Puzzle in April and resumed choosing puzzles for The Times in May.
Will explained in detail what happened on the day of his stroke and how his recovery went in Brain & Life magazine. While Will is still regaining his mobility, he’s back at work and again playing table tennis, his other passion.
“I’d like to thank my colleagues on the Games team — especially Joel Fagliano — for brilliantly keeping the crosswords going while I was away,” Will said.
Please congratulate Will on his return, and our puzzle editor Joel Fagliano for an incredible run as interim head crossword editor.
Hey All !
ENJOYing my CUP filled with coffee whilst solving this MonPuz, edited no less by Will Shortz. Welcome back. The news by @Nancy that WS is coming back evidently HOLD WATER. Har.
Liked this breezy little MonPuz. I remember holding BUTTERCUPs, or having friends who did, to see the yellow reflection. C'mon, Rex, you never did that?
For UBE, you'd think such an unusual word would be known to me. But you'd be wrong. I'll try to get the ole brain to remember that.
We'll, another Monday, although I'm sure a bunch of y'all who are still working, ala not retired have Wednesday off. Not me, but hey, that's life. Besides, I'm too tired to stay up till midnight anyway!
Happy Monday!
No F's (IM not OKAY with that!) 😁
RooMonster
DarrinV
Welcome back Will!! Thanks Joel!
Always heard that "you're sweet" if the flower casts a yellow mark below your chin
Agree. Tough for a Monday
I too remember running around sticking buttercups under other little kids chins to "see if they liked butter".
Sorry, a cup and a glass are two different things.
Likewise...this was very familiar to me. But, we used the ubiquitous dandelion, which fit on a first pass and thus threw me for a minute.
Got no fancy chocolates for Christmas and UBE was a complete WTF, but I don't solve downs-only so no biggie. Also, SHIP as clued was a wha? Stuff you learn.
ELLA is back with a new clue and I'm going to be humming "Four Strong Winds" all morning after filling in ALBERTA, where the weather's good in the fall. This is not a bad thing.
Saw some connections in the themers but wouldn't have come up with the revealer, and agree that TUB somehow missed the cut.
Exactly like OFL, I took physics in college to satisfy a science requirement but unlike OFL, my lack of adequate math in high school made things almost impossible. Should have gone the geology route, a course usually called "rocks for jocks".
Hard But fair for a Monday, HB. Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
found this one to be pretty easy...except for my ususal fumble fingers on the wrong keys. sigh.
Wow, I completely missed the fact that Will Shortz had edited the puzzle -- so happy for him.
I don't solve downs-only so didn't have @Rex's litany of problems. But I did make a few errors along the way. The funniest was GRab for GRIP, which gave me bRO BOWL for the NFL all-star game. I don't follow football, either our homegrown CFL or the NFL, so for just a heartbeat I considered it might be right. ("Could the Americans have a BOWL game that's of the bROs, by the bROs and for the bROs?")
I was more accepting of the theme than @Rex and thought the size progression of our water containers was plenty theme enough, especially for a Monday. Particularly ENJOYed HOURGLASS, a word I've always liked.
Musings on the two most contentious entries:
1. SHIP: Yikes, never heard this USAGE in my life. So, I guess you could say "I SHIP Sherlock Holmes and Irene Adler." (They were not romantically involved in the original stories, despite Hollywood's revisionism on the subject.)
2. UBE: Anthocyanins in fruits and vegetables give them their purple color. There"s a school of thought, so far unproven by science, that the consumption of anthocyanins in purple sweet potatoes (a different species from the UBE, but just as anthocyanin-rich) contributes to the noted longevity of the people of Okinawa, Japan.
Lazy waiter's imperative after bringing food:
DON'T CALL ME OVER HERE AGAIN UNLESS YOUR PLATE'S ON FIRE
After breezing through most of the puzzle got hung up in the SE because I blindly held onto sOdA instead of the equally “obvious” COLA. One of those easy alternatives that I just didn’t consider. I remember BUTERCUPs from childhood, but don’t see them much anymore. Thought this a fun puzzle with no real junk to complain about.
I normally eschew Sunday and Monday crosswords but of course I would not let a day pass without checking in to see the holiday pets. A great lineup today, as usual. Very happy to see the old pro, Mr. Will Shortz at the helm again. It had to take a lot of “Will” power to get back on the horse after what he has been through. And that kind of dedication … well, you just don’t see it very often. Thanks also to Joel who had a tough job to do in the interim, which couldn’t have been easy either.
Glad to hear Will is back and well on the road to recovery!
Some lameish competition for @Gary Jugert:
1. The essential elements of a celebratory frat party.
2. That yowly midnight chorus emanating from the back yard.
3. Planetary conjunction.
4. Really, really bad no-goodnik.
5. Branch of Sir Isaac's family that was, shall we say, a bit...rough.
1. ALES, TUB, TOASTS
2. CAT THINK TANK
3. ORBS ON A DATE
4. ROOTROT SO-AND-SO
5. YETI NEWTONS
You always make me chuckle but “I don’t know why we are holding flowers under our chins and saying banal things about cats” makes me laugh pretty loudly even as I quote it. Thanks for being fun at insane hours of the morning.
What wonderful news. But does this mean we have to wait before we start our constructive criticism of his editing or do we have a honeymoon period? For me , just happy to have him back at the conn.
I felt very old when Rex shrugged his shoulders about this one…and then i thought “bloody hell i’m not that old and he’s not that young”. So i’m going to put it down to him being churlish today. Happy New Year everyone
POI is my auto ONO goto when there’s some island food I’ll never try reference.
Outside of that, easy Monday made more enjoyable by my initial instincts (what grads become: “unemployed” - too long - and “All you need is love and a gun” seemed like a pretty good black humor ADAGE).
A welcome back New Year’s wish for Mr. Shortz - UBE healthy in 2025!
"I SHIP for him"???? "Will you be my SHIP?"????Can someone please use SHIP, as clued, in a sentence for me? It makes no sense to me at all. Thank you.
And I thought a TOOL was someone who got used by others, not an obnoxious person. Live and learn. Also, I always thought that ODIN was a perfectly pleasant Norse god, not a god of "war and death."
I learned more today from this nicely made, junk-free puzzle than I normally expect to learn from Monday puzzles. Good job.
I got cola easily because pepsi and coke are both brown. I think if they wanted soda, the clue might say pepsi and sprite inatead.
Sitio Patrimonio de la Humanidad: Salto del Búfalo con la Cabeza Aplastada.
Geez, this is a huggably weird puzzle. I would love way more like this.
But, let's set the over/under on how long we go before the first, "I think WS has lost his edge" comment. I'll guess 21 days. And, with Joel back on slush, we should only be six weeks away from renewed arsery.
Far and away the most wonderfully bizarre thing in the puzzle is Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site. Their logo actually shows a line of buffalo (and let's agree we won't fret over them being bison) and the first buffalo is falling head-first into the abyss. One article claims the site is named for a boy whose head was smashed in when he went to watch the buffalo murder by standing underneath the cliff. Not all children are destined to be rocket scientists. They didn't have horses back when the cliff was being used so it was a whole community affair to chase them to their demise and then have lunch at the bottom. One can imagine young romances cropping up that night at the bison cook underneath the stars. And one dad no doubt over cooked the meat because he liked well-done. Side dishes were problematic owing to the lack of Tupperware. European invaders helped end the ritual by shooting all the bison and forcing everyone to learn French and become Catholic assuming they survived the parish school. Humans are delightful creatures. We should be as honest naming American monuments. Statue of Liberty would be Metal Woman Stamped with False Poetry. Mt. Rushmore would be Four Ugly White Dudes. La Brea Tar Pits would be You Probably Don't Wanna See This 'Cuz the Neighborhood is Terrible. If I lived in pre-European North America without coffee, crosswords, iPhones, and La-Z-Boys {shudder}, I'd want to be around to see mammoths. I love them. Scientists are likely to bring them back from extinction, but I will be dead by then missing both mammoth eras.
The clue for BUTTERCUP is almost as weird. Who's holding flowers under their chin? So I asked my wife and sure enough she brightened right up with a happy memory from her childhood. What other secrets is she keeping?
Pretty sure if you have a cat, you don't need love. Pretty sure if you have the Abominable Snowman, you can't get a cat.
🤣 Policy wonks.
❤️ [No-goodnik] = SOANDSO.
Propers: 5
Places: 4
Products: 3
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 18 of 78 (23%)
Funnyisms: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: [Obnoxious person] = TOOL. Hey, I resemble that remark.
Uniclues:
1 Silly Siri sitting at your service.
2 Appreciate a yellow chin, apparently.
3 Neptune kissing Uranus.
4 Clink to the gods for allowing you to bathe in beer.
5 One swearing it's an empanada.
6 Where Newton's gravitational constant is tested by heaving objects off the counter.
7 When you don't get to eat ten.
8 Cannibal's recommendation for a hearty crock pot recipe for hand-fanciers.
9 Ingredient for a buffalo-flavored mud pie.
10 African equines say no to the ascot.
11 "No, Pepsi is not okay."
1 SMART, ZANY IMAC
2 ENJOY BUTTERCUP
3 ORBS ON A DATE
4 ALES TUBS TOAST
5 SAMOSAS TOOL
6 CAT THINK TANK
7 NINE BAGEL ILLS (~)
8 TRY GRIP STEW
9 ALBERTA SAND
10 ZEBRAS OUST TIE
11 MOCKTAILS ADAGE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The Doctor's stealth rappers. DRE RECON POETS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I enjoyed connecting hold water with the water receptacles.
I enjoyed!
As with the Yeti.. and Nessie.. many false sightings. (Or was it just one?) But today was the day of the Second Coming. Welcome back, Will Shortz. A happy, hearty, healthy new year and many beyond to you and your family.
All Mondays for me have become relatively easy, but in trying to beat a target time, turbo boosters engaged, I fell short. So from that perspective, a 'Medium.' SHIP slang, unfamiliar. And I couldn't recall UBE until by the crosses it was fully pasted in. (We've purchased them, maybe.. among several varieties of purple yams at the H Mart we occasionally shop, and 'Korean yams,' which must go by another name in Korean. So is UBE stateside labeled by another as well. We do not speak any of the applicable languages.)
Fine game, all the finer for the return.
Hi Nancy. I believe it is shorthand for “relationship”. If you are a fan of two celebs and they are dating or romantically involved, you might say something like “I love this ship!”. I wonder if Mondays will be getting a little tougher going forward, which wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing. As it is, a fair number of people who post here don’t even read the across clues.
I would have been slapping dandelion into the grid at 18A if I hadn't already had ZEBRAS in place. I don't know if BUTTERCUPs don't grow in southern Minnesota or if we were just ignorant of the origin of the practice. Which was, even to the youngsters in my neighborhood, a ridiculous thing to do because obviously the reflection on your chin was going to be yellow. And yet we continued to do it. Weird.
I liked the progression of the water-holding vessels in this puzzle and its revealer. Thanks, Hannah Binney, and congrats to Will Shortz on his return!
In online fandom circles, to ship is to fantasize about fictional characters being in a romantic relationship, even (or especially) if it's not supported by the text. "I ship Blanche and Dorothy" is a simple example. "Wrote a new story for all you Phoebe/Ross shippers" is another.
It’s always nice to see someone recover from a health issue and be able to do the activities they love. Welcome back, Will. And in other bittersweet news, RIP President Jimmy Carter. What an admirable person and what a life well-lived.
Medium. SHIP was a WOE and required some crosses but I had no erasures. I never saw CAT which was also a WOE.
Very smooth grid, solid Monday theme, liked it. A fine debut!
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #972 was a medium Croce for me. The NW was my toughest section. Good luck!
I'm not saying that @Roo runs on or anything, but when NYTXWs start including ROOTROT you gotta wonder. Also, why has no one pointed out the TROT/ROOTROT dupe?
Biden: President Zelenskyy, I'd like to give you something for Christmas, but I can't decide what.
Zelenskyy: THINKTANK.
I suppose that next they'll decide that leopards are actually black with yellow/brown splotches.
Mrs Egs doesn't like to see MENLO, YETI KNELT when I proposed.
What do you call a sculpture of sheep that are slightly raised from the background? BAAS-relief.
I'm currently shopping for a dishwasher. I can't decide between a German Bosch and a USAGE.
This was a super easy D.O. for me, but only because I guessed right everywhere that @Rex guessed wrong on inferring acrosses. Also, NEWTONS was a gimme for me, although you may not give a fig. I am sincerely thrilled that WS has made it back after such a harrowing journey, but I really appreciate Joel's tenure. Different styles, but both are superb.
I think the BUTTERCUP thing has been sufficiently explained to @Rex. So let me add that while "jump" may be "a little bit of a misnomer", it is a widely used one as there are many of them that have been identified throughout the plains of the U.S. and Canada.
Congrats on a wonderful debut, Hannah Binney.
Well done Monday theme. Each of the water holders is not one as clued, but clearly one once you see the revealer. I also remembered the buttercup under the chin from childhood. Surprised Rex couldn't imagine it, even if he'd never done it. If I'd ever learned that zebras are actually black with white stripes. I'd forgotten so that was a variation of an "Aha" moment.
I'm with Macy on "ship" . Even after googling to see how that could possibly be the right answer, I cannot imagine how anyone would use it .
Also solved downs only. Also found it quite challenging. SOANDSO was the last to fall, as I was not familiar with that definition. Seems like Monday ought to choose the most well known definition (unnamed person?).
Cute, how the blog keeps on raining cats and dogs.
And great, to see the Shortzmeister back!
Typical MonPuz connections-style theme ... what do the rear ends of themers all hold. But ... neat, wide-open puzgrid, with a mere 30 blackout blocks.
staff weeject pick: TUB. Token extra water-holdin themer. And U-holdin, as a nifty bonus.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {Abominable snowman} = YETI.
other faves included: MOCKTAILS. BESTIE. ZEBRAS. SOANDSO & SOSO. And soo-good SAMOSAS.
Thanx, Ms. Binney darlin. M&A TOASTS to yer water-tight debut.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... thoroughly "corrected" addition ...
"Auto-Correct Strikes Again" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Dunno - maybe knowing that Will is back at the helm I whooshed through this. The only thing I never heard of was SHIP. Cute them & a fun Monday. A very. nice debut, Hannah & thank you.
And a very sincere Welcome Back to Will & thanks to JF for stepping in :)
As with the Yeti.. and Nessie.. many false sightings. (Or was it just one?) But today was the day of the Second Coming. Welcome back, Will Shortz. A happy, hearty, healthy new year and many beyond to you and your family.
All Mondays for me have become relatively easy, but in trying to beat a target time, turbo boosters engaged, I fell short. So from that perspective, a 'Medium.' SHIP slang, unfamiliar. And I couldn't recall UBE until by the crosses it was fully pasted in. (We've purchased them, maybe.. among several varieties of purple yams at the H Mart we occasionally shop, and 'Korean yams,' which must go by another name in Korean. So is UBE stateside labeled by another as well. We do not speak any of the applicable languages.)
Fine game, all the finer for the return.
By definition, a cocktail must have alcohol in it.
The cluing for HOURGLASS felt off: that's not primitive at all, glassmaking is advanced technology. "simple" would have worked, but I can't see any definition of 'primitive' that fits. Primitive implies that it's from nature, primordial, e.g., a sundial.
Will Shortz is back, and Barbara S has dropped by... a good day indeed.
Yes challenging solving down clues only, mainly due to SHIP and UBE. I had the acrosses as -LLS and -ASO so finally decided it was either SHAP or SHIP and ship it was, although I've never heard of that usage. Then I had Rex's dilemma at -SAGE and eventually chose U over O at random. Success!
ALTO SAX was a bit challenging for Monday, since there was no hint in the clue for the informality.
About 40 years ago I was driving towards Winnipeg and passed the highway sign for Head Smashed In Buffalo Jump. I thought: wow, that's the coolest name ever.
Truly wonderful news. The man is a true mensch.
Interestingly easy/medium puzzle. Solved the SE corner and worked my way Diagonally to the NW corner then did down fill ins from there.
Aloha
Had fun with this one - a little more bite and personality than most Mondays. Several instances when I really had to think and learned some new things along the way as well. UBE and SHIP were TOTALLY foreign to me. @Nancy - thank you for asking someone to use SHIP in a sentence! That's exactly what I was going to ask for here. This is a little nugget that I'm happy to have now! The cool ZEBRA fact was also very welcome.
I though of @Rex and the whole Kealoa thing with the COLA but maybe soda and USAGE but maybe osage situations. (not gonna lie, I was a tad thrilled to see that in the write-up!) I don't solve downs only so I had COLA. USAGE, however, crossed with UBE so I just got lucky on that one. Could've gone either way.
I also got a vey big Kick out of TOOL. I don't know, the word just takes on a whole new life when used in that context. It develops a whole new personality for me phonetically, not just in meaning. I mean, take this sentence, "The Phillips screwdriver, man what a nifty little tool!" Now consider THIS sentence, "That guy Phillip standing over there in the corner, man what a tool!" You tell me, which sentence is more fun?? Be honest!
I thought the theme was nice enough by Monday standards and came together just fine with the revealer. No real rough patches today though the SW got a little sticky as SOANDSO did not come quickly as clued and it took me a while to crack SCENES. But overall, no groans at all. A nice Monday and as others said, great to see Will's name up there again.
Now off to have another CUP of coffee and maybe listen to some DEAD, possibly Texas El PASO - I'm off until the 6th :o)
I also thought this was a fine Monday puzzle although I was thrown off a little because I've only heard the USAGE of "Doesn't HOLD WATER".
Not sure why the HYENA never seems to get any respect in NYTXW clueing. Today we get 52D "Evil hench-animal in "The Lion King" (spellcheck underlines "hench" in red). No doubt in the movie the Evil HYENA is contrasted with the Noble Lion. Zoological bigotry if you ask me. Could it be because the female HYENA is the physically larger, more dominant member of the species? Here's a 2:28 YouTube video "Why It Sucks to Be a Male Hyena".
Just want to happily welcome Will Shortz back! You were very much missed!
I’ve been working NYT crosswords since spring of 1993, nearly 32 years, starting when Eugene Maleska was still editor. He was replaced by Will sometime that fall. Of course, I and some others often grumbled about Will, too. We just didn’t realize what had until we didn’t have it anymore.
I've actually been to "Head-Smashed-In-Buffalo Jump World Heritage Site." I was driving nearby, saw it on the map and had to stop. Would recommend. It was a great museum with lots of information and artifacts of the people native to the area. The buffalo jump itself is a little unassuming, but it is easy to picture the environment hundreds of years ago.
This is pretty decent Monday puzzle - I would’ve liked more spark to the clueing but I ENJOYed some of the fill. ANJOU, HOURGLASS, SAMOSAS, MOCKTAILS, and BUTTERCUP made ALT, ORBS, EMMA and EELS easier to swallow.
No childhood memory of putting BUTTERCUPS under chins but I do remember HOLDing them up for friends to 'smel'l (BUTTERCUPS don't have much of a scent). We'd dab their noses with the yellow pollen and be highly entertained.
No objection to TROT and ROO TROT?
The notion of MOCKTAILS is pretty timely as we approach the new year and the “dry January” resolutions.
Glad to learn about UBEs and yes, those chocolates are gorgeous.
More cute CAT and dog pics - I especially ENJOYed the “gift-wrapping a cat” comment about Latte. Boy do cats know when you’re holding back the “good treats.” I just ran out of the Temptations kitten treats I’d been giving the ferals. I offered them some dehydrated raw food morsels, sure they’d turn up their CAT noses at anything healthy. Astonishingly, they gobbled them up.
Congrats to Hannah on the debut!
I second the lovely comments by @Lewis (7:42) re Will, Joel and the team! Speaking of the team, I’m enjoying the Minis more than I used to. I don’t do them very often, but they seem more ambitious recently. Keep up the good work, folks!
Today is the birthday of both Michael Nesmith (1942) and Davy Jones (1945). Here are The Monkees with Davy singing Mike’s “My Share of the Sidewalk.”
Editor’s Note: Guess who’s back, back again https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/29/crosswords/editors-note-guess-whos-back-back-again.html?smid=nytcore-android-share
My mom used to do the “you like butter” thing with the buttercup under my chin. She’s in her mid 90s now so it is an old one. Now I think it’s funny because she never gave us anything but margerine.
I think it's due to the "ism" that's now referred to as "lookism". Lions are gorgeous and majestic-looking and hyenas are ugly as sin. I'm 100% guilty of lookism and so is everyone on this blog who's been oohing and aahing over Rex's holiday dog and cat photos. If Rex were posting photos of rats and warthogs and rhinos instead of puppies and kittens, wouldn't everyone here be skimming right past?
After reading the responses to your question, I concluded that a TOOL is someone who uses SHIP to wish for a romantic pairing. ;-)
From Merriam Webster:
Shipper and the noun ship show up first, coming into use in 1996 on a Usenet fan forum about The X-Files, a popular TV show. Going through the Usenet archives for the forum gives you a sense of the evolution of the term. Early fans of a Scully-Mulder hook-up first called themselves Relationshippers, then shortened that to r'shippers, then 'shippers. They eventually dropped the apostrophe. The noun ship followed a similar trajectory: it's shortened from relationship.
The verb ship is a later creation—a verbing of the noun ship that first appeared in the early 2000s (see note). Here's a typical use of the verb from Mallory Ortberg: "How does one even begin to write about Anne and Diana? ... Megan Followes herself ships them." It also show up in the phrase "I ship it" to mark a fictional romantic pairing, as in this headline from The Mary Sue: "Things We Saw Today: Harry Potter + Bellatrix Lestrange = Best Friends... I ship it."
Though the ship words only date to the 1990s, the act of shipping predates the words by decades: one of the most famous early ships was between Kirk and Spock from the original Star Trek TV series of the 1960s.
Note: While this originally dated the verb ship to 2005, some of our enterprising readers have sifted through the Usenet archives and found evidence of ship as a verb (as in "I ship Harry and Hermione") back to the early 2000s. ...
Is this Will Shortz first day back?
I’ve actually heard this since my nieces were in high school ten /12 years ago. It’s been common for so long it’s probably “out”.
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