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Made less effective, in gamer slang / SUN 1-5-25 / Part of a fishing line to which a hook is attached / Major K-pop septet / The Flash's civilian identity ___ Allen / Baby in a cave / Characters from Homer and Herodotus? / Protagonist of Arabian folk tales / Italian motorcycle brand / 1980s Chrysler debut / Agonizing occurrences in online games
Sunday, January 5, 2025
Constructor: Kareem Ayas
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- TURN ON A DIME
- HAIR EX[TEN]SIONS (the answer literally "turns" (down) at the "dime" (TEN))
- TAKE A PENNY, LEAVE A PENNY
- BUY GET [ONE] FREE (the phrase "buy one, get one free" has one of its "pennies" (ONEs) taken and another one ... left in place)
- NICKELBACK
- TR[EVI F]OUNTAIN (the "nickel" (FIVE) has been reversed, or turned "back")
- NO QUARTER
- PERCENT (the "quarter" (TWENTY-FIVE) has been omitted from the answer completely)
The Trevi Fountain (Italian: Fontana di Trevi) is an 18th-century fountain in the Trevi district in Rome, Italy, designed by Italian architect Nicola Salvi and completed by Giuseppe Pannini in 1762 and several others. Standing 26.3 metres (86 ft) high and 49.15 metres (161.3 ft) wide, it is the largest Baroque fountain in the city and one of the most famous fountains in the world. (wikipedia)
• • •
And this was yesterday, same time:
Those pictures are from two different days, I swear. And I'm guessing when I go downstairs this morning, I'll find much the same thing. They are beautiful creatures, but they cannot solve or type or bring me warm beverages. When it comes to blogging, I'm on my own. And look, I'm not asking for pity. The truth is, I love my life (and my cats), but the truth *also* is that writing this blog involves a lot of work. I get up and I solve and I write, hoping each day to give you all some idea of what that experience was like for me, as well as some insight into the puzzle's finer (or less fine) qualities—the intricacies of its design, the trickiness of its clues, etc. The real value of the blog, though, is that it offers a sort of commiseration. While I like to think my writing is (at its best) entertaining, I know that sometimes all people need is someone who shares their joy or feels their pain. If you hate a clue, or get stuck and struggle, or otherwise want to throw the puzzle across the room, you know I'm here for you, and that even if my experience is not identical to yours, I Understand! I understand that even though "it's just a puzzle," it's also a friend and a constant companion and a ritual and sometimes a Betrayer! I don't give you objective commentary—I give you my sincere (if occasionally hyperbolic) feelings about the puzzle, what it felt like to solve it. I can dress those feelings up in analytical clothes, sure, but still, ultimately, I'm just one human being out here feeling my puzzle feelings. And hopefully that makes you feel something too—ideally, something good, but hey I'm not picky. Whatever keeps you coming back! Hate-readers are readers too!
How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage):
Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker"):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)
• • •
[Early music videos were wild, in an extremely low-budget kind of way]
I don't like tanning beds per se (ask me about my family history of skin cancer...), but I do like TANNING BED as an answer, and I love it paired with BARES IT ALL (its symmetrical counterpart). I assume you bare it all in a tanning bed, why would you want tan lines? But tanning, like haircare products, is not something I know a ton about. I also don't like cars (as a regular pedestrian, I feel like I spend much of my day trying not to be killed by them), but I like the CAMAROS and IMPALAS up there revving their engines alongside one another. There are also these weird car echoes—the CAMAROS have a CAMEO right next to them, and the IMPALAS have their IMPALE counterpart on the other side of the grid. I also like that a "ducat" is a coin, because that means that a coin has been .... thrown in the fountain (DUCATI (45D: Italian motorcycle brand) crossing TREVI FOUNTAIN). Some days, I just enjoy watching the words bounce off one another in strange and serendipitous ways. And I'm not even drunk right now! (alcohol is out this month).
What I didn't like was all the "IT"s. That's a weird thing to notice or even care about, you say? Shove IT, I say. I FELT IT. I FELT IT at FELT IT and AT IT and BARES IT ALL. I think that's all the standalone "IT"s but I can't be sure as two-letter strings are hard to find in a Sunday-sized grid and my eyes are tired. There were a few trouble spots where fill was concerned. I wrote in SNELL, but as I was writing in, I thought "is this even a word? it looks insane? am I confusing it with CREEL, which also looks weird?" But SNELL worked out, lucky me (41A: Part of a fishing line to which a hook is attached). I had less of a clue about NERFED (39A: Made less effective, in gamer slang). Needed the crosses for that one. "Gamer slang" is always gonna miss me. I was not aware that young bats were called BAT PUPs (10D: Baby in a cave). I thought maybe ... BATLET? Like OWLET? BAT PUP sounds like Batman's dog. So ... like another name for Robin, maybe. Today I learned that Shakira had a "2024 single" (!) with a parenthetical title that has "parentheses" in it! (33D: 2024 Shakira single "(___ Paréntesis)" => ENTRE). Needed most of the crosses to get that one. I was floored by SUVARI because I haven't seen or thought about that name in forever. She's got a name like an Italian motorcycle. The DUCATI SUVARI! Has she been in anything since the American Pie stuff. Hmm, she seems to work a lot, just not in anything I've seen in the past twenty years. Holy cow, this is the NYTXW debut of her name! Well, her last name, anyway. MENA has been in the puzzle ... "dime" times in the Shortz era. It also appeared four times in the pre-Shortz era, but then it was a [Manufacturing city in Ark.]. How would any non-Arkansan know that!?
Bullets:
- 43A: Characters from Homer and Herodotus? (ETAS) — "characters" here are (Greek) letters.
- 92A: European capital said to be the site of the first decorated Christmas tree (RIGA) — LOL I love rumor / hearsay clues. "Said to be" (???). This clue would've been cool in December, but feels dramatically out of season in the immediate post-Holiday period. Oh, and RIGA is the capital of Latvia, in case that was still a mystery.
- 106A: Musician once nicknamed "The Beale Street Blues Boy" (B.B. KING) — wait, is that what the "B.B." stands for!? Blues Boy? Whoa, the answer is "yes," according to American Blues Scene Dot Com:
It was as a guitarist and radio DJ that King adopted the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which shortened to “Blues Boy” and finally, B.B
Glad he dropped the B.S., that wouldn't have worked so well.
- 99D: Storing, as some ashes (URNING) — I have only one URNING desire / Throw this answer in the fire! (srsly, it's weird)
- 44A: Goes higher, at an auction (REBIDS) — I wanted this to be RAISES, but that's probably poker, right?
- 77D: Major K-pop septet (BTS) — there are seven of them? I get all my K-pop news from the crossword, and this is news to me.
- 80D: The Flash's civilian identity ___ Allen (BARRY) — I blanked on this. Which wouldn't be sooooo bad, except I start teaching a Comics course in about two weeks. Might be time to do some brushing up!
I hope you visit the blog regularly this week, as starting tomorrow, I will be announcing my Top Puzzles of 2024 for each day of the week. Tomorrow, the three best Mondays! See you then.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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83 comments:
Slightly easier than medium for me. It took more than a few nanoseconds to sort out the clues for solving the coin answers. Plus it took some staring to correctly get and parse NERFED because like @Rex for me the Shakira song was a WOE.
A fun, clever, and somewhat breezy Sunday, liked it.
HMTR.... much more! The theme felt lustreless and disjointed. In the end, it is not very interesting. And the fill - - gawdawful! Wall-to-wall PPP, so the naticks abounded, and I lost out on two of them. Fie on this puzzle, fie!
Thanks for all you do, Rex! I love to laugh at your write-ups (or cry, shaking my fist, depending on the puzzle that day). I especially enjoy and appreciate the music cues/videos.
For those who don’t get the happy music today, you need to spell out the rebus words instead of using numerals as I originally did.
I always love a reminder of my first car, a 1969 (bitchin’) Camaro, purchased in the late 1980s.
This was a fun one. Happy 2025, all!
So, sussed blunder-free again. (Monday come the errors.) But a bit of luck may've interceded - one ripe ELHI, 33d x 39a. ETAS surely right and the guessed N to express 'between,' as ENTRE can also in the French, turned out to be right. No idea about NERFED. Another potential at 52d x 61a, I can never recall, MuMiA, MOMeA, et cetera. See, hear, recognize him, but never his name in print, outside of the games - meaning, I've no inclination to ever read anything about him. OTOE, 50d, chiseled in the game. But it was a vague recognition of ELON [..campus town] vs. any other vowel in there which saved me.
And then the NNW corner hindered me for a few, SORT, AVER, OVAL were all forestalled by my entry of upBIDS at 44a - is that even a word? I don't think so. But REBIDS, SORT, AVER fell in line leaving just the rebus at 36d, and I'd a complete block, with ..mOUNTAIN, 54a, lodged in my addled brain. Idiocy compounded as I've tossed coins in the fountain - if you've been to Rome, you've visited the Vatican City and St. Peter's, you've visited the Spanish Steps and you've visited the Trevi Fountain.. never mind the Colosseum, the Forum, etc, et cetera. Check, check, check.. and yet. Fff. Well, I was a teen. Any excuse? Not really. 'Roman' is right in the clue - have either started + not finished or never watched the Hepburn/Peck, that must change.
Right, so stared at it at least a full minute and then TREVI just launched out of my face, like a supersonic missile. BOOM, it was over. And ah ha, 'five' backwards, which is how I typed it in, to complete TREVI FOUNTAIN, even though at curtains, FIVE appeared in the rebus spelled forwards, which wasn't consistent. Also, I'd 'TENsions' as the rebus at 19a initially, later changing it to just a 'T' by mistake, but the parser still accepted it. So clearly, accommodations are made, making the finish even easier - as we've known for some time concerning rebuses.
One more thing, when I shortened TENSIONS to 'T,' a suggestion box popped up next to the engaged rebus box: WHAT THE HELL ?!?! In 1000+ games played, I'VE NEVER SEEN THAT BEFORE. And it PISSED ME OFF. I DON'T WANT HELP. How do I make that go away?! Playing in a browser, as I always do, signed into the Times, obv. I've never used the Times app. The suggestions were 'Tback,' 'third,' 't/V' ?!? (So odd, I took a screenshot.) Not insightful, mercifully, just distracting. But go away.
Game was okay. Three rebuses with the three additional clues, spot on. Why do we need more than three? Answer. We don't. Better three good devices alone than three good plus a few shiatty. At first, I felt the ONE rebus was misplaced, and it's clear why there is just one ONE, but on second look, it is exactly right.
So, if I put the genius art heist Sunday as best of year, followed by a bunch of other Sundays I've already forgotten about, this one falls somewhere after those. Thus not terrible, but.. I think if I revisited this at a later date, I might like it more, and I need a think as to why I think that may be so.
Difficulty, at least a medium in spots for me. So, medium.
Thought the puzzle worked really well. It’s got to be one of my favorite Sunday puzzles for the year! I was puzzled for a bit on the clue for percent but then figured it out. Good one.
Oddly, @Rex, "a friend and a constant companion and a ritual and sometimes a Betrayer" also describes my cat.
I liked this less than OFL did. I felt there wasn't enough theme for a Sunday grid, and in each case I'd already filled in the rebus "coins" before I got to the explanation. I totally missed the absence of a Twenty Five; Zen I'm not.
Not a lot of trouble spots. I got my first coin at 14D, SCHO[ONE]RS, then I went back and picked up HAIR EX[TEN]SIONS at 19A/20d. Then the explanation clue/answers were anticlimactic.
I had a few overwrites but my favorite was upBIDS before REBIDS at 44A.
I finished the puzzle on the NYT app last night but the app said I still had work to do. I went over I again and found no obvious error so I waited for Rex this morning. Still no error, but the app said I wasn’t finished. I hit Reveal and there was no error shown. WTF?
Re: URNING:
Let me stand next to its pyre.
Well, with the sparkling cleverness baked into the theme, and a solve – by not being a trudge – that allowed the theme to shine, this puzzle kicked up a lot of happiness.
There were enough hitches in the fill-in to satisfy my brain’s workout ethic as well. So, a superb outing for me. Layered on top of it were:
• Admiration for the grid-making skill. A clean answer set – it’s actually calming to scan the filled-in grid. Plus, the spark from 13 answers we’ve never seen before in the Times puzzle, and they’re all good!: BARES IT ALL, BAT PUP, BUY ONE GET ONE FREE, DUCATI, FAB FIVE, FELT IT, HAIR EXTENSIONS, NO QUARTER, SUVARI, TAKE A PENNY LEAVE A PENNY, TANNING BED, TREVI FOUNTAIN. Wow!
• Inspiration from Kareem’s notes. He started with a simple Thursday theme idea based on TURN ON A DIME, but scrapped that after coming across TAKE A PENNY, LEAVE A PENNY, realizing he could make something better. Then he worked and chiseled, improved and polished – went through 19 iterations of a Sunday grid – 19! – to make it just right. That’s an artist, whose motivation is beauty. That is uplifting.
So, Kareem, thank you for happifying my brain and soul this morning. I loved this!
A clever theme and I liked the execution, and the puzzle, a great deal. Sunday puzzle of the year! (so far). DUCATI and SUVARI were unknowns, but I think the crosses were fair ... maybe CAIN is the toughest.
I wonder about the cluing on TERI Garr. I can recall a lot of post-mortem appearances of Liz Taylor, Alan Rickman, Leonard Nimoy etc. etc., and the fact of their deadness was never hightlighted in the clues. Why call it out on TERI?
I always think of Wally West as The Flash, as Barry Allen died during my comic book phase. I see in Wikipedia that "Barry sacrificed his life for the universe in ...1985 ... and remained dead for over twenty years". I was well past my comic book phase by 2005, when he apparently ceased being dead.
A tale of two puzzles for me today. I struggled mightily north of the equator - I “sorta” got the theme substitution trick, noticed that HAIR EXTENSIONS pivoted south, but was totally thrown off trying to get the name of the FOUNTAIN in there.
Anyway, once I got into the southern hemisphere, everything pretty much opened up and that part of the grid seemed early to mid-week difficulty-wise. The PPP-fest in the SE (NICKELBACK, SEATAC, RIGA . . . ) was a potential trouble spot, but fortunately I knew BB KING and AL GORE, while SEATAC and RIGA are flirting with crosswordese status (and BARRY is at least a common first name).
My head-scratcher cross for today is Shakira crossing video game slang, as what I know about the two of them would collectively fill a thimble (ENTRE x NERFED).
Only complaint is that it did not accept the rebus squares with "1", "5", etc.
I love your blog! I appreciate your work.
Anyone ever ask ChatGPT to write a crossword review in the style of Rex Parker? It's rather entertaining!
Did you enter the rebus squares like Rex did?
Got everything except for 20-Down, where I had PAS-SIONS instead of TENSIONS. I knew TREVIFOUNTAIN, but it took a while to catch the e-v-i-f reversal of "five" from NICKELBACK.
Cluing SEATAC as a "Washington" airport was clever, because one thinks of D.C. before the state. I had REAGAN at first, but the word "informally" in the clue forced the change.
Very imaginative theme, but I question whether any actual cash register ever had a sign saying TAKEAPENNYLEAVEAPENNY.
Broke my Sunday PR with this one!
Hand up for upBIDS.
And I thought Rex would hate this. Three obvious theme answers (and one hidden one, sorta) in a huge grid. Never expected a Happy Rex today. Maybe the cats put him in a good mood. Not sure if this is the best or the worst puzzle of the year so far.
BTEAMS aren't the second string! They're a whole other team. Basically the junior varsity of middle school teams. Justice for BTEAMerS!!
That said, it's an ok clue. Objectively wrong, but (shrugs).
*furiously downloads Chat GPT
Medium for me. Oddly, in four instances I entered an incorrect answer for one clue ( 23A (Camaros), 26A (App),17D, (Get Mad) and 70D (Eons)) that ended up being the correct answer for a different clue (21A, 112D, 121A and 65 D). I've had that happen once or maybe twice in a puzzle before, but never four times.
We all appreciate your blog, Rex/Michael! We may not agree with your "bottom line," but your analysis is always worthy and thorough.
I'm also glad to see Will Shortz back - hope he is doing OK.
This was a pretty straightforward puzzle for me (and my wife... yes, I had a little help). I appreciated the theme and the fill -- OOPS! Just realized I Naticked at 18D... I knew HODSE could not possibly be correct, but 25A HYPED seemed fine, and I never went back to this to rethink. Hung up for a short time with: Arab instead of SHIA (1D), Rook instead of ROCK (90D), and Defer instead of DEFER (102D) but I did straighten these out in the end.
Random thoughts:
- Demise of the greatest achievement in acting - EGOT R.I.P.? (24A)
- During the summer, I could use some SEAT AC in my car! (87A)
- Do courteous folks in Brazil exercise RIO TACT? (114A)
LOL, YODA by Weird Al. Our son loves Weird Al, as do I, and I started singing the song to my wife:
I met him in a swamp down in Dagobah
Where it bubbles all the time like a giant carbonated soda
S O D A, soda
I saw the little runt sitting there on a log
I asked him his name and in a raspy voice he said "Yoda"
Y O D A, Yoda
Yo-yo-yo-yo Yoda...
When you want to see your mistake you should hit “check puzzle” rather than “reveal.”
Hey All !
"The FAB Backward FIVE" would be a good neme for the Queer Eye dudes.
I'm sure that EVIF will get a lot of complaints today.
Pretty good fill otherwise, having to maneuver around the Themers everywhere.
Interesting Theme. Took a minute to figure out what in tarhooties was wanted in the circles. The "penny" one is brown, the other two the typical light green that I always get. Because pennies are copper?
I'm sure this was tough to construct, thanks for making it easy to solve.
That's about all I got!
Happy Sunday!
Six F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
So cool to see that link to the early Genesis song "Fountain of Salmacis", which features guitarist Steve Hackett displaying some killer "tapping" long before Eddie Van Halen adopted the technique. On another musical note, I used to have a hard time remembering "BTS" as that frequently used puzzle response to "K-Pop" band, until I came up with the alternate initialism "Bind, Torture, Sing"
After feeling as dumb as a box of rocks working the puzzle yesterday, the puzzle today raised my spirits. I saw that there were multiple ITs in the puzzle today but really only gave the “side-eye” to URNING.
Did anyone else put in bUgATI before DUCATI? (I know…it’s actually Bugatti)
NO QUARTER will always mean the Led Zeppelin song on the B-side of Houses of the Holy!
Just one mistake. I didn’t know Mena Suvari, so I had SUVARa crossed with SALTS, which seemed like perfectly fine “bank deposits”.
The "evif" clue for the trevi fountain is brilliant. it is traditional to throw a coin into the trevi fountain - backwards over your shoulder - to ensure you'll visit Rome again.
The Trevi Fountain "evif" clue is brilliant. It's traditional to throw a coin over your shoulder, backwards, into the trevi fountain to ensure you'll visit Rome again
Given that it's the first Sunday puzzle of the year, I couldn't agree more!
Rex – My cat starting waking me up meowing for food at 4 a.m. The vet suggested buying an automatic feeder like this one, and it solved the problem. You choose the times it dispenses food as well as the serving size, and you can even record a message calling the cats. A real game changer ...
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0CXSDXQ54/
Sound of spring (BOING) comes off as egotistical to this old dope-smoker, as there is no "I" in BONG.
Mrs Egs: Darling, why the f**k are you putting our life savings into that funerary vessel?
Egs: I'm URNING a living. And I made all of this money, as you may recall, from predicting people's fortunes back when I SEERED for a living. Now let's quit talking so you can prepare for our trip in the KCAR.
Mrs. Egs: IMPACT.
Most of the puzzle flowed like a waltz, but the SE had a different beat. Call it an ALGORE rhythm.
I always play along with those TAKEAPENNYLEAVEAPENNY signs, but my net from the transaction is always zero. Why bother?
Description of morning assembly in a nudist colony? BARESITALL.
REBIDS could be small dog tags for Confederate soldiers.
This one was super-fast for me, but I liked it lots. Kind of off beat, which is good in my book. Thanks for not stopping at 18 iterations, Kareem Ayas.
During the solve, it seemed like there were an awful lot of Bs in the grid
Clever! In fact, for me too clever, not by half but by a quarter - I couldn't make heads or tails out of PERCENT, so thank you to @Rex for explaining. I thought the backward FiVE in the Trevi Fountain was excellent. Thanks to the constructor for the witty theme!
Pretty easy for me, except for SUVARA/SALTS instead of SUVARI/SILTS. As one for whom modern music ended with the Beach Boys, and watch only sports on TV, I dread contemporary entertainment questions.
Made my first donation ever to a blog. Rex/Michael is a daily delight.
Didn’t find this as easy as many apparently did. The PPP was tough and had to Google a couple of answers. Enjoyed sussing out the theme and much appreciate @Rex’s thorough explanation. Speaking of which, I find his dedication to this blog amazing. There are not many, if any, with this longevity and attention, and over the years some amazing bloggers have visited for a time. I don’t always agree with Rex’s approach or conclusions, but his insights tend to have an edge that stimulates the old (really old) gray matter.
I didn't solve using the NYT platform. After solving randomly on Down Home (thanks, @r.alph), I went back and hit reveal puzzle on the NYTimes platform to see what I missed which is almost nothing. So much for the "warning" about the puzzle not working properly in my chosen platform.
I did get an error when I finished because I had put an E in the 54A circle to stand for EVIF but the puzzle wanted F. So one error.
I liked this puzzle. Very clever. Thanks, Kareem Ayas!
Very appropriate (?) to have a rebus today! Did not see until yesterday, but Friday's "Reader Corner" (top of page A3) was a notice that crossword submissions are now open. Including: "...What we could use more of: Thursday and Sunday puzzles that don't involve a rebus." (!?)
i thought the 'fab five' down answer worked fine. the puz accepted my rebus typed out as 'evif' and indeed when reading down you go backwards for 'five'.
Overall a very enjoyable solve today. One thing that is ugly to me is the plural “LAGS”. Lag should never be pluralized, a gamer would only ever say something like “I have a lot of lag”
Loved this puzzle except for one problem: there is no "eta" in Homer. Despite the fact th
Had Carter before AL GORE. Misread the club and had him on the brain. Had never heard of the NO QUARTER expression so had to Google after the solve. No resistance today. Got the rebus pretty quickly and was able to figure out what the theme answers required without a struggle. Thoroughly enjoyed. Average or maybe a little faster than normal. 26:20
We bought one of those, too. Terrific invention. Works well when we need to leave town for a few days as well.
I started with BidsUp.
Syndilander here, jumping up to the present to ask a curiosity question: why does the commenter called "dash riprock" remove all of his posts before we syndilanders can read them?
LAGS absolutely cannot be pluralized this way. Experiencing lag can be an occurance, but multiple instances of lag is just more lag, or lagging. Someone LAGS, but no one in the world has ever used LAGS in this way.
No one, in the realm of the English language, has said “urning” in reference to storing ashes. No one. Ever. Put this clue/answer in the ash bin of history please.
Yes, Rex. Thank you for all you do :)
I didn't find it easy like some of the others & I do agree with @Southside Johnny 7:42 am that it was "a tale of two puzzles" but Rebuses & all, I enjoyed it & I was determined to finish it.
Many thanks, Kareem, for a intriguing Sunday (for me, anyway), & one I don't think I would've finished without the return of our "fearless Editor" & the welcoming comments, as always, by OFL :)
Totally agree. Not to mention spelling BEE and BTEAM.
@RP: Primo Natick shirt.
Puztheme offered some nice, cheap thrills [25 cts. or less, each]. Oughta somehow circle all/part of the QUARTER, to be sorta consistent, tho. M&A of course votes for circlin its U.
staff weeject pick: OOO. In honor of the 3 circled coins, 2 of which are weeject words.
favest thing: The two sneaky absence-of-article clues:
* {End of fall?} = SAFETYNET.
* {Sound of spring?} = BOING.
Both use seasonal words, too boot. Me like.
Thanx for coinin a whole different puztheme, Mr. Ayas dude. M&A do like different. Shortzmeister's puzcomment indicates that U do, too.
Masked & Anonym007Us
... and comin in secondly ...
"Silver Medalists" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Anyone else bother by 110 Down. Alas, we have enough PTSD in our society. Don’t need to see it in our crossword puzzles.
Since I read your blog every day after I finish the crossword, I've found myself hitting answers and thinking "ohhh he's not going to like that one " which is exactly how I felt when I got "urning" which felt so clunky! This one was too gimmicky and name heavy for me to solve without errors, but I did get further than I usually do!
Eta represents the H sound.
Toma un centavo o deja un centavo.
Delightful romp through the Sunday acreage. Grokking the three coin execution made for good fun.
Stared at the Shakira song crossing NERFED for an AEON before dropping the N as my last square, and phew, it was right. I owe it to Shakira to get it right because her hips have never lied to me. I love her so much. During my nieces' Barbie phase, they got me a Shakira doll so I could play Barbies with them. Now they're both in their 20s, going to college, and dating gross boys. But I still have Shakira in my heart.
I probably should know the difference between a SLOOP and a SCHOONER by now.
DELAY -> DEFER -> DETER. We have lots of five letter ways beginning with D to procrastinate, don't we?
❤️ BOOERS. HI MOM. ROBOT ARM. BAT PUP.
😫 URNING. My step father is currently URNING in a cardboard box in my storage unit waiting for us to travel to Istanbul. I'm planning on URNING in a plastic bag inside a cardboard box inside a dumpster.
Propers: 15
Places: 7
Products: 13
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 44 of 140 (31%)
Funnyisms: 6 😐
Tee-Hee: BONG BOING.
Uniclues:
1 Squirmy rooibok in Reeboks reckons he's real righteous.
2 Three monkey groups reject negative opinions of the unsupportive.
3 Raises the price of poetry about factory workers losing their jobs.
1 HYPER IMPALA'S EGO TRIP (~)
2 APE TRIADS PAN BOOERS
3 REBIDS ROBOT ARM ODES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Republican bumper stickers. MALICE EASY READ.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Bruce 3:21 AM
@egsforbreakfast 10:01 AM
I think it's also by far the worst Sunday puzzle of the year. Schrödinger's puzzle.
The going was slow in the upper half until the theme revealed itself. Knowing the theme was particularly helpful in the NE corner. Doing the puzzle on paper I didn't have to put anything in those coin squares. The bottom half was much easier than the top.
I didn't get the connection between NOQUARTER and PERCENT but since it's not there it didn't matter.
Did anyone else try BATBOY for 10D (baby in a cave) or was it just me who was obsessed with national enquirer covers as a child?
This was a very interesting theme, since there are multiple revealers, and one of the theme answers doesn't actually contain the "number" at all.
Rex, BARRY Allen's name makes a cameo appearance in the pretty good Leo DiCaprio film "Catch Me If You Can" where he uses it as a pseudonym.
puzzlehoarder @ 1:45 1/4 = TWENTY-FIVE PERCENT and NO QUARTER tells you to remove TWENTY-FIVE given how the theme works (numbers interpreted as coin values).
Two head shop clues in a row - VAPE yesterday and BONG now. Much easier when I actually know what a "head shop" even is (had to look it up yesterday post-solve), also it's not crossing the mess of abbreviations that was AVGAS/NPRTOTEBAG.
Today's Spelling Bee missed a word...ANHINGA (a bird we used to see here in Florida). It's interesting that they've missed the same word before.
"Away from work" = "OOO"? Huh?!!
I understand the gimmick but it sags a little because 1/4 is a fraction, not a percent. I know, I know, 1/4 is equivalent to 25 percent. Still.........
@Metro Out Of Office
Did this after my solo (ahem) Sunday in church this AM and while getting the house ready for a late Christmas celebration, as my older son has returned from visiting the in-laws in England. Found the missing ten early, wrote in numbers after that, missed the backward FIVE entirely, but otherwise no real hangups.
ENTRE was a gimme due to the Spanish spelling of parenthesis.
My '68 CAMARO was the coolest car I ever owned or ever will own. I wanted some kind of sports car but my mom didn't think they were safe. Instead I wound up with a classic muscle car, 327 with a 4-barrel carb and a 4-speed stick. Thing could fly. Since my new wife had her own car, we sold it and kept her 404 Peugeot station wagon. Compromises like this have kept our marriage going for 54+ years.
Fun Sunday,, KA. Knew Almost everything, which is always a nice feeling. Cleverly done, and thanks for all the fun.
My home delivery of the NYT arrived yesterday and today, but minus the Sunday Magazine. I doubt I'll be able to find a copy, but I did make sure not to read today's blog just in case. Maybe someone will let me know tomorrow how many other puzzles I missed. Or, if you prefer, today by email for anyone who has my email. Also -- how good was today's puzzle -- i.e. how many wrists should I be slitting? 0? 1? 2? Thanks, everyone,
Keith
SUVARa SaLTS It was for me also. Said check this later to myself
Never did. Oh well
Anonymous 1:24 PM
About PTSD
Not in the least bothered by it being in the puzzle
It is a disease caused by trauma
PTSD is part of the human condition, and has existed since human beings existed ( there is strong evidence that many other animals suffer from it).
It is not some moral failing
It can be difficult to treat and sometimes hard to identify. That is why the more public awareness the better. PTSD in the puzzle is a positive thing.
Metronome
Out of office.
Bugatti is, o fatto, French.
for what it's worth or if it helps WSJ sat jan 4 was Wunderbar have not enjoyed a Sunday ny times in so long kinda won't look anymore!
Anonymous 3:04 pm... SB rejects a lot of perfectly good words that are not at all obscure. Yesterday, for instance: HALIDE (which according to Google ngram is used 600 times as often as accepted words like GIFTEE and YENTE).
Never been a comic book fan, however the Flash reference came to me via “Catch Me if you Can” where Frank Abagnale is kiting checks under the name BARRY Allen…enjoyed this one…much more creative than your normal pun Sunday
I want to know too. I think o
Yup! upBIDS here too. I also put in "REAGAN" for "SEATAC" initially, though I never called it that.
OMG! Seafood Mama! How to make an old Portland boy happy.
That was the band name before Big Music got ahold of them and some exec with a O.25 IQ ruined things.
As for the puzzle, the theme was over my head. Just one of those days.
My only gripe with the puzzle today was the “characters from Homer and Herodotus” clue. While the capital eta does look like the letter H, neither name would begin with an eta when written in Greek. Well maybe Herodotus, but definitely not Homer. The h sound at the start of a word in Greek is created by a rough breathing, indicated by a c-shaped accent above the starting vowel. (A backwards-c-shaped accent would mean no h sound.) It’s so rare I get to use the Ancient Greek I learned in high school, but today was my day!
Al Capp (Pogo anyone?) had an interesting penny tray turn. He was an old conservative and wrote, “Got a penny? Leave a penny. Need a penny? GET A JOB!”
SLOMike
Oops. Make that Walt Kelly!
I really thought that AMPERE was going to be crossed with AMPED which I was, in fact, amped for. Disappointed that the correct response was HYPER.
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