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Rocket ___, character in "Guardians of the Galaxy" / WED 4-2-25 / Beethoven's birthplace / ___ Flatow, longtime host of public radio's "Science Friday" / New Deal program in which workers planted more than 3.5 billion trees, in brief
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
Constructor: Daniel Bodily
Relative difficulty: Hard
THEME: FINISH STRONG — [Go out with a bang, or a hint to the theme answers] The final word of each two-word phrase is a synonym for strong
Theme answers:
Hello folks, and welcome to another Malaika MWednesday. I've been listening to Joan Baez all day today, and during this puzzle I was comparing her recording of "House of the Rising Sun" to Monica Barbaro's version from the recent biopic. Both excellent, in my opinion! Before I dive into the puzzle, let me remind all of you that this Friday morning I will be at Crossword Con in midtown Manhattan, and this Friday evening I will be at ACPT in Stamford! If you see me (I am very tall and will be wearing a crossword themed outfit), please say hi :)
- [Frame, apron, molding, etc.] for WINDOW TRIM
- Guys I've been doing a lot of home improvement and I'm not good but I'm slowly learning and I immediately knew "apron" was about windows and I'm really proud of myself 🥺
- [Like some photos of yesteryear] for SEPIA TONED
- [Collected hot wheels?] for CAR JACKED
- [Means of fiscal savings] for BUDGET CUT
- [What the glass slipper was on Cinderella's foot] for PERFECT FIT
- This clue felt a little wordy and strangely phrased. Maybe it could have been [Desired feature of a wedding dress] ?
- [Armchair athlete, e.g.] for SPORTS BUFF
Ice beer was developed by brewing a strong, dark lager, then freezing the beer and removing some of the ice. This concentrates the aroma and taste of the beer, and also raises the alcoholic strength of the finished beer. This produces a beer with 12 to 15 per cent alcohol. In North America, water would be added to lower the alcohol level. [wiki]
• • •
This grid was absolutely stuffed to the gills with theme answers-- six plus a revealer intersecting is something I would simply never try. I was a fan of all of them except CAR JACKED which, while technically grammatically correct, still sounded a little odd to me. Would you ever use it with that construction? "He car jacked the car".... Hmm. You would said "I got carjacked" but that doesn't match the clue's tense.
"Jacked" was probably my favorite synonym for "strong," though, and it has that nice Scrabbly J, so I can see why the constructor included it. With synonym themes like this, it can sometimes be hard to find the synonyms, but here there were even some to spare! Ripped or built could have fit in nicely here, and I wonder if the editors considered having this stretch to a Sunday-sized grid.
 |
| TRIM, TONED, JACKED, CUT, FIT, BUFF, etc |
The result of a packed grid is a pretty heavy amount of non-ideal entries like FIFE, REAIR, RDA, BONN, ENT, SRO, CCC, PAN IN (I hear "pan out," but never its opposite), ACU, and BBS. A couple of these would have been grid-killers for me, if I were making this puzzle. We also get USED POT (no one says this lol, you smoke pot) duping POTS which is the kind of thing NYT (and I!) don't really mind, but some of the commenters will surely shout out, and a plethora of proper nouns. I think I would have removed the "Guardians of the Galaxy" ref on RACCOON to make that center section with CCC / ACU a little easier.
Where this puzzle really stood out, though, was in the cluing. There were so many unique angles and tricky clues that were fun instead of just being hard. I've seen (and gotten!) feedback that reviews often forget to highlight clues in favor of describing the grid, so I'm trying to change that. We saw a couple of clues here that I think would have typically had a question mark, like [Scout camp craft] for CANOE ("craft" referring to "boat" as opposed to arts-and-crafts) or [Pans' partner] for POTS which made me think of the Greek deity. [Grounds keeper?] for BARISTA was fantastic, referring to coffee grounds.
 |
| Cheese Island, discussed at length below |
Bullets:
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
- [Join up with at church?] for WED — Good clue
- [Parmesan shelfmate] for ASIAGO — I don't know why this struck me as such odd phrasing. I think it's because "shelf" made me think of a shelf in a regular grocery store aisle, but parm would be in the refrigerator section? In my grocery store, the cheeses are in like a round sort of island that you can access on all sides. Although I guess that has shelves.... I do think they should have put "Parmiggiano" to hint at this being an Italian cheese. The longer I go on writing this explanation the more insane I sound. Moving on....
- [Knighted, one-named rock star] for BONO — My friend recently saw Bono on the street, which led to us discussing whether I would be able to identify Bono if I saw him in the street (I would not)
- [What's the catch?] for SNAG — Good clue
- [Condé Nast women's magazine] for SELF — This is another proper noun clue that I would have rephrased to not reference a proper noun
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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117 comments:
Medium. I ignored the theme and moseyed through this one.
DEMISED not only looks strange but it was medium-contributing WOE.
I also did not know TUPAC and FIFE although they were easily inferable.
Costly erasures: REran before AIR and romanO before ASIAGO.
Fun theme, liked it, but @Malaika makes some good points about the fill.
Hi Malaika! Wow, you found this hard? Seemed to flow pretty smooth for me. Cute theme with, as you said, a lot of theme answers. My only typeover was ROMANO instead of ASIAGO for the cheese.
A bit too much unnecessary nameification of the clues for some regular English words... FIFE, APE, RACCOON, SELF.
I had a real problem with 5 down PAN IN... I don't think there is such a thing. A pan is a rotation of the camera. If I Google "camera pan in" I get a bunch of links to "pan" but none of them actually say "pan in". You can zoom in, truck in, dolly in, knock yourself out.
36 down took me back... long distance calls used to be a big thing. Our cabin was only about 10 miles from my sister's place but, you guessed it, long distance charges applied. Now I have Canada wide talk and text; many people have Canada/USA and even Mexico! One of the few things I don't miss about the old days.
Agree there were a lot of clever clues. Especially liked "Grounds Keeper"
I have never heard or read "demised" . Have to go look that up.
But don't agree that "fife" is a poor fill word. Quite like it and have not seen it used a lot.
Was amused to learn the name of "Rocket Raccoon". I"ve watched parts of one or more Guardians movies and the raccoon is my fave character Never heard his name.
Pretty much what @jae said, except on the Medium side of Easy-Medium. I didn't really get the theme while solving because I was looking for FINISH/STRONG to apply to the entirety of each theme answer instead of just the last word.
lutE before FIFE at 1A
ssn before REG at 32D
romAnO before ASIAGO at 41A
WOEs:
ICE BEER (2D) as clued
The women's magazine SELF (42D)
chuck TODD (61A)
Absolutely hated seeing TULSI Gabbard in my grid
First of many, I’m sure, to say that you can’t PAN IN. Panning is only a horizontal movement where a camera rotates on an axis. You can ZOOM, TRACK, DOLLY or PUSH in, not PAN. One of the many headaches of this puzzle.
Tough puzzle and great write up Malaika although I was rather hoping for a Rex-rant about TULSI and BUDGETCUT.
Finished it by cheating to get RACCOON. Don't get the theme, not even after reading Malaria's column. What does FINISHSTRONG have to do with a BUDGETCUT, or for that matter with WINDOWTRIM?
I enjoyed it. Kind of a neat theme and enough crunch while still having plenty of opportunities to make progress scattered around the grid. I agree with Malaika that that center area with the PPP clue for RACCOON, the new deal letter salad, ACUpressure (which is a new one to me) and DOJO was kind of a downer. DOJO is pretty much standard Crosswordese that constantly escapes me for some reason (time to dig our my old index card - the one I started with the Spanish words for king and queen - or would that be considered cheating ?).
Easy solve for me and fun clueing. Structure allowed me to readily fill in stuff I didn’t know working the crosses.
Good review. At least Thursday difficult. Loved the cluing.
As a former camera operator PAN IN drives me crazy. It's "zoom in." If you said pan in they'd kick you off set.
The second word in each theme answer can be used to describe someone who is in good physical condition. Or strong, by a stretch.
Very hard up top, easier and easier as you went down.
A warlock is just a wizard; nothing 'dark' bout it.
REAIR is, surprisingly, not a word. Not in any of the dictionaries I own; not an accepted word in Scrabble nor Words with Friends. Ditto for reaired, reairing.
Vacation catchup: Croce 998 was medium to medium-hard. Finished with an arguable DNF at the cross of 15A and 4D. But I believe my answer meets the clues just about as well as the ‘right’ answer.
No complaints about the double buff?
Agreed, PAN IN doesn’t make sense. Panning is a side-to-side motion (think “panorama”). The in-and-out motion is zooming.
Same here. And following that with BUDGET CUT added to the unpleasantness.
I laughed at the oldster vibe of USED POT. And then, right next to it, DIAL ONE. Which century are we in?
Hard for a Wednesday! I agree, because the clueing was actually crunchy and fun and usually Wednesdays are a bit of a snooze.
I don’t think the final words really mean STRONG exactly. They all mean having built-up muscles, which I suppose makes a person strong, but they’re not really synonyms for STRONG.
I didn’t find the puzzle hard, it seems Wednesday-appropriate. I did like the clue for BARISTA a lot.
FINISH refers to the second word in each theme answer. STRONG refers to a built-up body
Google image search for “client camera movement guide” for the ultimate word on the subject.
I can't see why fife would be considered bad fill. Overall played a little tricky but enjoyable solve.
That was my thought about PANIN.
Read the blog writeup
Hands up for romAnO>ASIAGO
I always wonder how long it will take me to notice a guest blogger. Got no further than the straight up “HARD” rating:)
Thank you for the focus on reviewing the clues. They provide the real pleasure of a puzzle, but are not as easy to remember afterwards. Speaking of which, I just looked at the clue for CARJACKED. Nice misdirect with collecting the toy car “hot wheels” - a favorite of my childhood, and my kids:). “Hot” turned out to mean “stolen” - fantastic!
One letter happy music prevention today: TULSa>TULSI. DEMISED makes more sense than DEMaSED. Only ever heard the word in the sense of “met their demise” - I like learning that words have additional senses.
With a theme of fitness and strength,constructor’s name….
And so that weird day when I found the puzzle easy and others had the opposite reaction. It is far more frequently the opposite , ie, I find it hard and everyone else seems to think it was far too easy for (pick a day.). I enjoyed the cluing and I’m willing to bet dollars to donuts that Lewis finds a favorite clue of the week somewhere. For me it was carjacked since it was so unexpected and probably grammatically challenged. Life is good. Just listened to the Louie Armstrong song it’s a wonderful world and it has motivated me to have a ten plus day despite the cancer treatment this morning.
TULSI a proper noun, but what’s wrong with BUDGETCUT?
Hey All !
The F count! NEAT!
As you may or may not know, I'm a fan of a lot of Theme. Well, this one brings it in spades (not HEARTS.) Having six (!) Themers is tough enough to get clean fill around, but adding 2 in the Downs ramps up the difficulty level quite a bit. And, putting the Revealer on the edges of the Downs is outright insanity. If you've ever constructed a puz, you'll know. If you haven't, well, take my word for it, Daniel may be hairless now, trying to get any kind of fill to jive.
And ended up with not too shabby, not too much dreck as an average puz. Amazing. Granted, the Blockers make it seem sectioned, but nothing wrong with that in my eyes with this much Theme material.
Liked the puz itself. A STRONG FINISH, the phrases ending (FINISHing) with STRONG-isms TRIM, TONED, JACKED, CUT, FIT, BUFF. Wanted SEPIA fadED at first, but that's opposite of STRONG.
Thanks for your suffering, Daniel, to bring us a NEAT puz. I guess you'll need to wear a hat for a bit, until your hair grows back. Har
Happy Wednesday!
Seven F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Bob, you are on a roll today with your typo! (Malaria) and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of Malaika’s buddies takes that on as an affectionate nickname! But to answer your question, the “finish” of the two word themers like “trim”, “cut”, etc. indicate someone who is “strong.” Haha…as an aside, I consider myself “trim” and “fit”, but not necessarily “strong.”
PAN IN made me cringe too! Why is that? English is strange.
Romano before ASIAGO allowed "toked up" to fall right into place, which slowed me down a fair bit. (I was picturing the shelf-stable-until-opened product known in this house as "sprinkle cheese," which made the shelf bit more sensical.)
I think CARJACKED works here just fine. If someone spent the afternoon "collecting hot wheels," AKA "stealiing cars," it's fair to say they were "carjacking" a bunch of people (so in the tense of the clue, they collected/stole/carjacked).
Romano/asiago took me way longer to figure out than it should have and made that corner of the puzzle a bit of a slog. I did appreciate the barista clue, once I figured out romano was wrong.
It's the second word in each theme answer that connects. Trim, Toned, Jacked, Cut, Fit, Buff... are all synonymous with being "strong" in the gym-body sense.
Agreed. I think I HAVE heard the term in the wild, but it was used wrongly, as you say.
I liked the theme but part of the struggle was the flow - it's essentially linear from NW to NE to SW to SE, not an integrated grid. Had rerun for repair, and not sure why a pawn threatens a king, any more than any other chess oiece
I liked the theme but part of the struggle was the flow - it's essentially linear from NW to NE to SW to SE, not an integrated grid. Had rerun for repair, and not sure why a pawn threatens a king, any more than any other chess oiece
Come on, this is a troll account.
La zapatilla de cristal en el pie de Cenicienta encajaba perfectamente.
Hey Malaika! You'll know Bono by seeing Gen-Xers (the three of us left who still go outside) swooning in the streets.
Perfect Wednesday puzzle. The theme is super dense and works, plenty of meaty other words, and the glue doesn't try to be anything else. Loved this puzzle. Tougher than usual.
The poor rat probably needs a lot more agency of his own to rise to the level of "participant." My dog is a participant on our daily walks because they're more of a gossip collecting sniff-ari for her and a stand-and-wait for me while she gathers the news from each bush. Every damn bush. C'mon Bailey.
Baristas are grounds-for-your-garden bagger-uppers.
❤️ [Controller controller.]
People: 10 {whoa, one too many}
Places: 1
Products: 5
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 24 of 74 (32%)
Funnyisms: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: USED POT (our second POT of the day) said no one ever except the local preacher in prelude to warning parents about premarital relations and their cause.
Uniclues:
1 George Washington crossing the Delaware. (Sit down you silly buffoon.)
2 "Board on Baby" decal.
3 Your eyeballs.
4 What the cannibal does.
5 Gandalf when he's in the process of selecting the route to Mordor. As it turns out, he should've listened to the advice on Reddit.
1 ICON CANOE APE
2 NEAT WINDOW TRIM
3 HEART'S ORACLE
4 FINISH BARISTA
5 WARLOCK BUFFOON
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Installs a firewall, or punches a tin can. BELTS MR. ROBOT.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree with Malaika that the puzzle today was “hard” for a Wednesday and the trusty NYC app crossword timer agrees because it indicated I was “slower than average” today. In fact, I was lucky I finally pulled off the aha moment with FIFE instead of pIpE, because for some reason the ISH in FINISH stymied me. I really liked the puzzle, although I agree that there may have been some proper name references that depended on your wheelhouse.
I agree with Malaika on ASIAGO. The only Parmesan cheese *on a shelf* I could think of was Kraft and I think they do have a nonrefrigerated Romano, which was my first entry. I personally haven’t seen ASIAGO on the shelf, but I quit using that Kraft stuff decades ago.
Talk about wheelhouse…like SharonAK, I’ve actually seen (and enjoyed) Guardians of the Galaxy and I always remember Rocket RACCON because of the similarity to the Beatles song and the fact that Bradley Cooper is the “voice” for him.
All in all, a n entertaining puzzle!
It refers to the 2nd part of these phrases (finish) being a synonym for strong. Cut for very defined muscles and trim for a level of fitness.
I found this one easy with clues that made me smile.
If you're strong, you might also have a cut or trim physique.
P.S. I'm pretty sure our guest blogger's name is Malaika, not Malaria.
Double Naticked on the CCC, ACU crossing RACCOON. No idea who Rocket Raccoon is. Why clue RACCOON as a proper? Seems so unnecessary.
@SouthsideJohnny 6:49 AM
What's an index card? 😉
Glad others had problems with DEMISED, which seems invented, and PANIN, which you can't do. These are in my marginal notes with an implied boo! next to them.
ICEBEER was popular around here for a while, and you can still buy it, but not many people do, because it is awful.
Nice clue on TUPAC. Another thing about rappers that has escaped my notice somehow.
Beatles fans will of course recognize the reference to Rocky RACCOON. I like "trash bandits" for RACCOONS myself.
Some clever cluing and the choppiness of the grid slowed things down a little but on the whole I liked this one a lot. Nice job, DB. Decidedly Better than lots of Wednesdays I can think of, and thanks for all the fun.
The clue for 18A annoyed me. ("Maker of the world's largest quantum computer", "IBM"). I work adjacent to that field and it's arguably wrong. Arguably being the key word because people argue endlessly about what "largest" actually means. It's also a very fast moving field, so whether it's even vaguely correct or not would depend on when exactly this puzzle was written and edited. Finally, there are gobs of other ways to clue "IBM" that don't have these problems, so why not use those instead?
I questioned that as well but hadn’t looked it up yet, so thank you.
Harder than usual for a Wednesday. I agree the cluing was interesting. I would say the weight of the Liberty Bell is "one ton," not just "ton." And cluing buffoon as "goofball" doesn't seem quite right; to me "buffoon" suggests a certain amount of foolishness or stupidity. But I couldn't think of a better clue for perfect fit than the reference to Cinderella's slipper; I thought that was spot on! Good puzzle overall.
For the clue, "transferred at death", all I could think of was ESTATE. Someone will hopefully tell me if DEMISED is even a word. And even if it is... Your DEMISE is your death, but I don't think it means some sort of "transfer". I don't get that clue.
I managed to FINISH STRONG on this puzzle despite the ridiculously DOOK-y name RAICOAN and the most peculiar BUDGET OUT. Is that like "work out" or "figure out" -- or is it more like "peace out"?
The hardest part of the puzzle for me was writing in ROMANO for ASIAGO, meaning that nothing in the SW worked for a while. Please come with me to my supermarket and see for yourself that the parmesan is next to the ROMANO -- with no damned ASIAGO in sight.
A nice dense theme that was completely irrelevant to my solve. After the fact, I appreciated how differently from their theme-related meaning the theme words were used. But only after the fact. If it weren't for ASIAGO, I would have found this a fairly easy solve for a Wednesday. Even with RAICOAN in the grid.
Same to both. The clueing on Gabbard was clueless
Interesting and very impressive to have that many themers plus a revealer. I had a tough time getting started because of the names/trivia which seemed to be plentiful, and agree with Malaika’s overall rating. Glad to see I am not the only one who questioned PAN IN. With my very limited knowledge of such things, it just didn’t sound right. Neither did DEMISED but after looking it up, I learned it means exactly what the clue says. So there you go.
Gosh, I found today's puzzle CLUNKY.
Nancy, I took the obligatory Wills/Estates in law school and THAT had me stymied…at first I thought it had to be DEvISED (which I HAVE heard of with estate law) and wow…they mean the same. Go figure!
And seven Fs!
Thanks for the cheesy writeup, M. I had not heard the term "cheese island" before. Would love to be stranded on one with a case of Triscuits.
I've never had ICE BEER, but I assume that's what beer popsicles are made of?
You're going to hear from a lot of people today.
As a professional cinematographer, I can firmly attest to the utter falsity of “PAN IN” as a term meaning get closer or move in, physically or optically. No wiggle room. Just incorrect.
Strong stuff, Bodily-wise.
6 themers and a two-part revealer ... almost SunPuz-level theme density. Admired the ambitiousness, even tho it was basically another one of them last-words-connection theme mcguffins.
staff weeject pick: CCC. honrable mentions to BBS & CCS. M&A envisions/hallucinates a possible runtpuz theme: AAS, BBS, CCS, DDS, EES, ... etc.
some fave stuff: BARISTA clue. WARLOCK. BUFFOON. RACCOON [Guardians of Galaxy = a strong fave]. The Jaws of Themedness. Malaika darlin's sub job.
not a fave: TULSI. But, it did remind m&e, of a great & STRONG win for SUSAN [Crawford] in that there Musk-money-swamped Wisconsin Supreme Court race. Congratz.
Say ... maybe that Musk dude should definitely pursue a similar vote-buyin ponzi-scheme campaignin strategy in every major political race down the road. Definitely appear at each event and wear that cheese-hat and do the nazi salute, while jumpin up and down and throwin the moneybucks around like confetti.
Thanx for the Bodily workout, Mr. Bodily dude. Good job.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... and now, some HORSE [not SOLAR] stuff ...
"Horsing Around" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I knew this was a guest blogger as soon as I saw the HARD rating.
Tulsi Gabbard is no Hindu. She was raised in an oddball cult. That explains a lot
Really annoying when you click on 1D and a million squares turn yellow. Also Trim does not mean strong. A trim person can be strong, but you're not going to convince me that was proper usage of trim in the theme
So many commenters are down on PANIN. Maybe it should have been clued as "Husband of Anais' Ma." Also, with all these Romano's trying to horn in on ASIAGO, how about a shout out to poor, forgotten padAnO?
Glad to put 2024 in the rear view mirror. In Jul I sinned. In Aug I got caught. In SEPIATONED. But it could be worse. I could be an outsider in the British royalty. I always hated how the press wouldn't leave DIALONE.
For those who don't like seeing TULSI in the grid, remember that NEWT started it all.
I've found that there really isn't much of a market for USEDPOT. Although thinking about pot got me to wondering something. If a CARJACKing's objective is a car, shouldn't a hijacking's objective be a ......
I generally adore your write ups, Malaika (and those of your evil twin Malaria as well). But I have to disagree on your inclusion of FIFE and BONN in your list of non-ideal entries. They both seem like very well-known, not over-used answers. Are they "ideal"? Not in the sense that Plato's eidos gets translated as "ideal", but there is nothing at all wrong with them.
Wonderful construction today. Thanks, Daniel Bodily.
Wait --- isn't Malaria the name of Trump's wife?
Ditto to both. Put a cloud over the whole thing (made worse by DEMISED....)
I don't know if they have it in supermarkets where you live, but I've always liked the brand "4C" parmesan. Unlike Kraft, it's a product you can actually taste.
Well, in retrospect a well done puzzle with crafty clues. But share the confusion over the general usage of PANIN and DEMISED, and the initial inclination for romAnO over ASIAGO. Think WARLOCK’s can be good guys too, but don’t know enough of them to be sure.
I like the grid. If you start at 1-A and work the crosses, it's like floating down a wide, meandering river--or maybe like paddling upstream, given the difficulty of some of the clues. There are only two possible shortcuts, at 23-D and 33-D, and I didn't use either. And, as in many rivers, you eventually hit a SNAG.
As for 1-A, flute was too long and I couldn't visualize the painting -- I don't know if I've ever seen it -- but I was ready to go with "harp," figuring the young flautist might have an accompanist; fortunately, I checked the crosses, got FOAM PAD, and I was off and paddling.
I'm not a camera operator, but does one really PAN IN, as opposed to zooming in? I though a pan was a sideways movement of the camera, to take in a PANorama. Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.
I guess the clue for 20-A is correct, in the same way Jeanette Rankinwas the first woman in the House of Representative; but TULSI is no longer in Congress, so maybe the puzzle was submitted last year.
"Sensei" just means teacher, so cluing DOJO that way is a little odd. Even if we are speaking English, wouldn't someone who teaches Ikebana be called "sensei?"
The theme was fine. I figured out halfway through that it was last-words, but I couldn't guess the revealer, even with FINISH, until I got all the way down to it; I was expecting something about a gym, but this was better.
@Conrad--the FINISH of each theme answer is a word meaning STRONG.
I’m a professional cinematographer. “Pan in” is literally a joke in my profession about people who don’t know what they’re talking about.
I realized it wasn't Rex when I saw the emoji.
@Roo was very much on my mind as all those F's kept coming!
Whew, I was right about PAN IN. It's so embarrassing when I make an authoritative statement that turns out to be wrong.
I looked up DEMISED; according to Dictionary.com, it means a temporary transfer of property, but when a monarch demises it means what the clue says. Complicated.
I expected lots of lawyers to jump in on this, but since that's not happening, let me give you the M-W definition of DEMISE (Verb):
1
: to convey by will or lease
demise an estate
2
: to transmit by succession or inheritance
Agree with those who found it a harder than usual Wednesday, in a good way. Impressively STRONG theme concentration! After TONED and TRIM got the idea, I completed FINISH, wrote in STRONG, and appreciated the help in getting the ensuing CUT, FIT, and BUFF (I didn't know the STRONG sense of JACKED). Enjoyed BUFFOON, the blast from the past of DIAL ONE, having WARLOCK recalled to memory, and learning - I guess - DEMISED. Small moment of triumph: BARISTA with no crosses. No Romano for me - just because I think of ASIAGO as "the crossword cheese."
Not surprised at all that you did not know Rocket RACCOON - why would you? But I am suprised you did not know CCC - the Civilian Conservation Corps. Which would give you the much more reasonable BUDGET CUT.
Is it a quibble if I point out that Bono is merely an "honorary knight" because he is not a UK subject?
If you're thinking of Bud Ice then I agree. But there are ice beers that are fantastic, like Aventinus Eisbock.
Came here to say this about pan in. There is no such camera movement though people commonly mistake all camera movements for panning.
I practiced trusts and estates law for 12 years, and I never heard “demised” used in that sense. Commenters here have said they looked it up and it has that meaning, and I believe them, but any T&E lawyer I know would tell you the word is “devised”, not “demised”.
Just to be pedantic: a devise is a testamentary gift of real property; a bequest is a testamentary gift of personal property. If I leave my mansion to you in my will, I have devised it; if I leave my van Gogh to you in my will, I have bequeathed it.
Thanks Nancy, but these days I throw (economic) caution to the wind and buy the grated cheeses in the refrigerated cheese section!
Funny, I hadn’t thought of it that way, but one of the smaller grocery stores near me has cheese “island”…perfect description!
I forgot once puzzle was finished but I thought the same thing about TULSI (not to mention the flack for including it).
Hi, professional camera guy here. As many have noted, you don't pan in. Pan is left to right. Tilt is up and down. And zoom is in and out. So this puzzle has a demonstrably incorrect answer. It can't even be philosophically correct. It's not a semantic error. It is definitively wrong. How can something so patently incorrect pass editorial review? I am going berserk.
Hard to believe ... I didn't find this HARD - like Rex's rating- at all. Kept thinking "I can't be right, it's supposed to be hard." Before I knew it, it was solved. What a nice surprise (for me), No stumbles, no typos. The only snag I had was the word SNAG (believe it or not). As for USED POT, my parents used to say "Using Pot" - I just smoked it.
BTW - please keep TULSI out of my puzzles.
But I thank you, Daniel for a nice, satisfying experience :)
I’m pretty sure you ZOOM in and out, and PAN left and right.
I hear ya! Thanks for confirming my “law school” experience with Estates and “devised”!
Film Editor here adding my voice to the chorus. Bad puzzle all around but “pan in” is unforgivable, sorry. You can zoom in with the lens or you can dolly in with the camera. Panning is strictly horizontal rotation of the camera around an axis. I’ve never in my life heard anyone misuse “pan” this way. People will sometimes say pan up or pan down again this is incorrect. Such moves are known as tilts.
Um, Egs…I believe a lawyer DID weigh in above (and now an actual estate lawyer below). And I agree that it MEANS that…but odd that no attorney has weighed in to say…”well, of course it means that!”
Quick solve with little fun and a lot of grumbling here. The theme was OK I guess but the voice wasn’t there for me and I hated a lot of the clues and fill. Generally, I marvel (and laugh) at how cranky Rex Parker is but one thing he and I seem to align on is a distaste for most themed puzzles.
It's my first day of retirement today. I have decided to print the puzzle only on Thu through Sat so I used the NYTimes platform to solve today and really didn't like the constant highlighting of the theme clues and how it kept saying See 1-down when I was looking for an actual clue.
I liked the puzzle though, after I went back to the across themers to see how FINISH STRONG worked in them.
When solving, the clue for 35D made the answer obvious, but when reading Malaika's write-up, looking at USED POT gave me a "used cars" vibe.
Thanks, Daniel Bodily!
Sorry Malaika - the credit for the comments today belong to YOU - not Rex. Great write-up & thank you :)
Oh yeah, current events....:(
Played like a Sat. NYT for me, which is to say easier than usual for a Croce, but still plenty of crunch.
Someone needs to tell Nancy that she didn’t finish the puzzle
As I read your comment, I’m enjoying my favorite snack of Triscuits topped with Pepper Jack cheese (or Monterey Jack) and zapped in the microwave for about 12 seconds. Yum.
First thing I noticed was the 42 black squares giving this grid a dark and ominous look. Then when I clicked on 1 Down, seemed like half the open squares lit up a pale yellow color and I knew this was a super theme-heavy puzzle. It was an inauspicious start for someone who, like me, values a balance between theme an quality, interesting fill. This is a prime example of what might be called themer bloat.
After getting it solved the reason for the six themers became apparent to me. The theme is the shop worn last words are a synonym for X format. And since a couple of last words weren't all that STRONG of a synonym for STRONG (TRIM and FIT), make up for that dip in quality by going big on quantity. Yeah, themer bloat.
The 42 black squares leave 183 open squares and the 70 (!) squares devoted to themers and reveals take up nigh on to 40% of those. This left an onslaught of 3 and 4 letter entries. Not much in the way of quality fill is going to happen with all that short stuff.
I did like seeing 34 Down. I used that same clue/answer combo in a puzzle a few years back (11/10/20) only in reverse order. The clue was "Barista" and the answer was GROUNDS KEEPER.
32 Across reminded me of "Rocky RACCOON" by The Beatles. @Nancy even makes a brief appearance in the song.
M-W notwithstanding, for a lawyer to "demise" is to rent or lease, i.e. to convey for some limited period. A demise is a lease or rental (as opposed to a sale). So "demised premises" refers to the property that is leased to a tenant. Apparently the term was originally used for posthumous grants, though that is not how it is used by anyone nowadays.
On the other hand, to "devise" is to transfer (by will) at death. That would have been the better answer. (I was mystified by WINDOWTRIV for quite a while.)
I got a good laugh at the end when I looked for the constructor’s name after getting through this theme!
Nothing like that around here that I've seen, but I'll keep an eye out--thanks.
Jae & Anonymous
Asiago & Romano
I tried ASIAGO first because the Times has been using it a lot lately and it has a lot of vowels. I didn’t even think of romAnO because it rarely appears and concerning cheese, it is actually a partial. Romano simply means of Rome. The full name of Romano cheese is Pecorino Romano. Also, one less vowel.
C'mon now, what's a breeze for someone is hard for another. I found this relatively hard too and DNF'd at the same place as Malaika.
There doesn't have to be such a thing as PAN IN any more than USED POT needs to be something that people say. Once I saw that ZOOM clearly wasn't going to fit, I tried PAN and moved on. EDPOT... uh.... not "toke" obvious (no one say that either)... oh...! ASIAGO... okay, so USEDPOT then.
It's a combo of things we do say, setting aside that "pot" hasn't been used in forever and yet, we all know what it means in context. "Used drugs" is legit. "Smoked pot" is legit. If instead the answer was WEED DID... well, that would be a very valid complaint on a Wednesday.
Comments criticizing pan in.
Sometimes it slows you down if you know “too much “ As a retired lawyer, it happens to me with legal clues and answers. The puzzle reflects what people in general say , not what experts and others who know the terminology say.
Apparently, the editors found enough use of the term to justify the answer. So it is not a mistake.
SharonAK
DEMISE
It too me a moment but
SharonAK
Hit publish by accident
DEMISE
It took a moment but the word took me back to law school 50 years ago. It is a very old word that persisted in wills throughout the 20th century and in legal discussions concerning them (the demised premises) Apparently it is still sticking around in our current century. I thought it was very obscure for a Wednesday for a non lawyer. solver.
Conrad
Without thinking, I initially put in oboE! Slowed me down around there. At first, I only got ENT in that corner.
About TULSI & BUDGET CUT
At least the puzzle reflects current reality however awful it is.
Anonymous 8:24 AM
Good luck on your treatment
I spent an hour this morning ordering a new cancer treatment pill to replace the old one to which I had an allergic reaction to. The in office treatment I have had less problems with
Mark K
About PAWN
The clue doesn’t ask for the strongest threat, just A threat. The answer is fine.
Beezer
I am lucky to live next to an Italian deli and they grate the cheese for me.
Pabloinnh
DEMISE
Is a thing
A very old legal word that survived in wills and legal discussions about them apparently to our current century. I am a retired lawyer and first encountered this word in law school in the’70’s. I was surprised to see such an obscure word on a Wednesday.
I may actually used the word on occasion. (The demised premises for example).
Oh, @Nancy. Oh, @Beezer. Just buy a small chunk of real Pamigiano Reggiano or Pecorino Romano and, using a Zyliss rotary grinder (about 25 bucks here in the expensive north), grate some fresh wonderfulness on to your pasta. So much better than that sawdust in the can or even that pre-chipped bagged stuff.
I agree. Trash bandits is great. Weird thing is that I used to have to secure my garbage cans in the city but since moving to the country I have yet to spot a raccoon. I guess they prefer living among sloppy humans to hungry coyotes.
Typical Wednesday difficulty for me today. Liked the theme and as Malaika said - there were loads of themers. Some clever cluing as well which I always look for - CANOE was my favorite today.
No real complaints, some of the shorter fill was meh as was pointed out but I let that slide as the grid was so theme heavy. Had a bit of trouble in the NW as I did not know FIFE and (should I be embarrased??) I've never heard of ICEBEER... so that took a bit of time to sort out.
It was a slow start as I had almost nothing until I was able to get PERFECTFIT with only the F from FIFA, from that point on it was a fairly smooth ride. I'll take a Wednesday like this any (Wednes) day!
I'm a day behind, but had to add to the chorus about "pan in" -- there's no such thing -- surprising editing oversight..
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