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Video game character in a green hat / TUE 4-15-25 / Performer at ozashiki parties / Container for keys, wallet, razor, etc., in a modern portmanteau / Ingredient in some trendy gummies, for short / The so-called "Goddess of Pop" / Cleaning product with a mythical name / Warhead weapon, in brief / Like the questions asked in Guess Who? / Online marketplace with a "barter" category / Ben & Jerry's flavor honoring a jam band legend
Tuesday, April 15, 2025
Constructor: Per Bykodorov
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: UTC (31D: World clock std.) —
Really torn here. The theme, particularly the revealer, is very clever. It's a perfect grid-spanning 15 and it almost perfectly describes what's going on in those circled squares. I mean, if you typo'd "AGICR" for "CIGAR," no one would say that was "close," but for the purposes of this puzzle, it's close enough. It's a great revealer, and this anagram stuff seems like a nice, early-week thing to do with the revealer—a nice way of visually expressing the revealer. And thank god for that revealer, because it absolutely rescues what to that point had been, and what largely continued to be, an abysmal solving experience. The fill on this one was making me recoil at every turn. It felt so old-fashioned, so tin-eared, and at times just outright off-putting. No one wants to think about Bill BARR ever again, and that is a fact (37D: Former attorney general Bill). "Bill BARR? MUST I think about Bob BARR again?" Apparently I must. But he's just part of a bad-short-fill avalanche that starts in the NW and never really starts. SGTS LIRA ARI TEC (again, No One says "TEC") UTERI MENSA (ugh, again?), YESNO CRIT ICBM LING CEOS ALEPH ASEA CTRL. Worse, the puzzle debuts (debuts?!) a possible (god forbid) future bit of ugly three-letter crosswordese: UTC. I was like "oof, what is this 3-letter initialism and also why don't I know it? I must've seen it a bunch in crosswords, as it is ugly and three letters." But no. It's A Debut. So if you didn't know if (as I did not), don't feel too bad. Let's all collectively pray it goes away and never comes back. OK? Amen.
- TRAGICOMIC (16A: Like a film that's both sad and funny)
- CHERRY GARCIA (22A: Ben & Jerry's flavor honoring a jam band legend)
- MAGIC REALISM (46A: Genre for Gabriel Garcia Márquez's "One Hundred Years of Solitude")
- CRAIGSLIST (56A: Online marketplace with a "barter" category)
Word of the Day: UTC (31D: World clock std.) —
Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) is the primary time standard globally used to regulate clocks and time. It establishes a reference for the current time, forming the basis for civil time and time zones. UTC facilitates international communication, navigation, scientific research, and commerce.UTC has been widely embraced by most countries and is the effective successor to Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) in everyday usage and common applications. In specialised domains such as scientific research, navigation, and timekeeping, other standards such as UT1 and International Atomic Time (TAI) are also used alongside UTC.
UTC is based on TAI (International Atomic Time, abbreviated TAI, from its French name "temps atomique international"), which is a weighted average of hundreds of atomic clocks worldwide. UTC is within about one second of mean solar time at 0° longitude, the currently used prime meridian, and is not adjusted for daylight saving time.
The coordination of time and frequency transmissions around the world began on 1 January 1960. UTC was first officially adopted as a standard in 1963 and "UTC" became the official abbreviation of Coordinated Universal Time in 1967. The current version of UTC is defined by the International Telecommunication Union. (wikipedia)
• • •
I think MURSE was the thing that nearly made me slam my computer shut (30D: Container for keys, wallet, razor, etc., in a modern portmanteau). First of all, no. And second of all, stop. And finally, third of all, no. No One Says This. People say "TEC" way more than they say "MURSE," that's how much they say "MURSE" (they don't). This is one of those portmanteaus that the puzzle keeps trying to convince you is a thing, only it's not. If it is (it's not), it's only a thing "jocularly." No one is going to utter that term without smirking. And LOL "razor"? Dudes just carrying their razor around in their MURSEs for some reason? "Modern portmanteau" on what planet? This is not the modern world. Also, why are you calling CBD gummies "trendy" (56D: Ingredient in some trendy gummies, for short). People who take CBD gummies are not (I presume) trying to look cool or otherwise get with the times. They are "modern," in the sense that they haven't been around that long, but "trendy" is weird. Feels off, and kind of patronizing / dismissive.
Lastly, and most jarringly, the genre in question is called "magical realism." Wikipedia lists "MAGIC REALISM" as an alternative, but it also lists "marvelous realism" as an alternative, and who in the world has ever called it that, come on. As someone who has been Lit CRIT-adjacent his whole life (ugh, it hurts even to type "CRIT," I wish I could express to you how not-used "Lit CRIT" is as an expression...), the only term I've ever heard for the genre in question is "magical realism." But then you can't hide an almost-cigar in "magical realism," so here we are. In short, I loved the revealer on this one almost as much, maybe just as much, as I hated the fill. But hey, if you liked (or hated) MIRACLE-GRO, you can thank (or blame) me, as I debuted that answer in 2013. This is only its second appearance (10D: Big name in fertilizers).
More:
- 15A: ___ for sore eyes (www.optometrists.com?) (SITE) — this one made me laugh, almost literally. "That is not how you sp-! ... oh, good one." Coincidentally, I have an eye exam later today (thankfully, my eyes are not sore, I'm just overdue for a check-up)
- 3D: Cleaning product with a mythical name (AJAX) — it's a scouring powder ... also a Greek warrior from the Iliad, sometimes referred to as AJAX the Great. There's also an AJAX the Lesser, which ... sucks for that man, how'd you like to go through (after)life with "the Lesser" hanging around your neck? Somehow both AJAXes ("ajaces?") are in the Iliad. It's mildly confusing.
- 5D: Performer at ozashiki parties (GEISHA) — "ozashiki" would've been my Word of the Day if not for the heretofore unknown (to me) UTC.
- Ozashiki (お座敷)
- A term for a geisha's engagements, which may take part or the whole of an evening. The term ozashiki combines the name for a banqueting room, zashiki (座敷), and the honorific prefix o- (お), changing the meaning to a term exclusively referring to the engagements a geisha takes. (wikipedia)
- 17D: The so-called "Goddess of Pop" (CHER) — love her, but never heard her called this. Heard Michael Jackson called the "King of Pop" (always an embarrassing moniker), but this "Goddess" stuff is news to me. Not disputing it. Just saying: news.
- 13A: Figure once marketed as "America's movable fighting man" (GI JOE) — and this is why you read the clues! I had the "-IJ--" in place and my very experienced solving brain went, "ah, easy: DIJON!" "A Real American Hero! Grey Poupon is there! Dijon Jooooe!!"
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98 comments:
Never heard of a MURSE, didn't know UTC, but changed "JustI" to MUSTI and heard the music. A lot of GEN-Z-era stuff here, but scattered well enough that the crosses could handle it, thankfully for an old guy.
Easy. No overwrites, no WOEs. I saw the circled backwards-CIGAR in 16A and wondered if all the circles would spell out RAGIC? Skipped over to try a few crosses in 22A and got the theme. I knew UTC (31D), but I have no idea how.
Easy - it played like a difficult Monday. I thought the theme was kind of fun. I’m really starting to hate the word genre - it seems like everything and everyone has their own now. Agree with OFL that the NYT self-inflicted wound of the day goes to MURSE - what a stupid clue/answer. I still can’t figure out if it’s an inside joke at the Times, or if they genuinely can’t help themselves. Anyway, they really outdid themselves today.
As a long-time "murse" (🙄) user I can confirm that, indeed, this is cringy. It's just my bag...
The big guy nailed it - although probably gave the theme props it didn’t earn. The segmented grid gives us so many awkward 3s and 4s - Rex highlights them and rightly so - an oddly filled puzzle.
MIRACLE Legion
The only thing less appealing than an anagram theme is an anagram theme with circles.
JERRY
I’m with Rex today, horrid puzzle. The clues were off and the fill was awful. Had “whyme” before MUSTI. If you tell your kid they have to do something they don’t want to (“Joey, take out the garbage please”), do they say, “MUSTI?”. No! They say, “Aw, Mom, why me?”
I had GMT before UTC because I never heard of UTC. And then, MAGICREALISM. No, not a thing. As Rex said. Oh yes, and MURSE, said no one ever.
This is a sweet theme. CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR has been used as a theme several times before in the major crossword outlets, but never like this. Furthermore, the theme brought three NYT answer debuts, lovely additions to the oeuvre – CHERRY GARCIA, MAGIC REALISM, and TRAGICOMIC. Spark and originality … Per-fect!
Serendipitously, many answers fell into a trio of baskets:
• Long O enders: BOHO, NARCO, YESNO, GATO, MIRACLE GRO.
• Schwa starters: AKIN, ALIKE, APPEAR, ASEA, ALARM.
• IC enders: TRAGICOMIC, MAGIC, BASIC, PHOTOGENIC
I struggle with the skill of leaving the revealer out and trying to guess it – not even reading its clue – from the theme answers. Thus, in an effort to improve, I try to do it as often as I can, even though usually falling short. But today I got it! I got it!
So, I leave this puzzle with a breath of hope, and thank you for that, Per. Thank you also for your terrific entertaining theme. And congratulations on your NYT debut puzzle!
It's a man's bag. Friends, season 5, episode 13.
Mostly easy, thanks to a lot of help from the theme. ALARM was unreasonably difficult for me to come up with.
CHERRY GARCIA is the best Ben and Jerry's flavor.
There are plenty of murses in NYC & plenty of Columbia alumni who have taken Lit Crit, but none of the latter, I venture, would drop the "al" from magical realism
I sure did like this puzzle a lot more than Rex. At least he thought the theme was clever, and I agree. I dunno. When Rex “went on” about MURSE I kind of rolled my eyes. I heard the term when I was in the “office style” work force, and it is a portmanteau that has arisen during most peoples’ lifetimes, which I think qualifies as “modern.” I’ve also heard “man bag.” Nowadays people often carry little back packs, and I guess I agree that it’s a portmanteau that has outgrown its descriptive usefulness since these days men rarely wear suits or sport jackets to work and can’t possibly be expected to constantly carry big-ass cellphones AND a wallet (let alone a razor) in their pants pockets.
And yes, MAGICalREALISM is the term I’ve always heard with respect to Marquéz and others.
Kind of surprised Rex hadn’t heard of UTC since it often shows up as an option when setting up new devices. For some reason, MY car tends to somehow continue to default to UTC in spite of my best efforts to readjust it so I have had to go into my settings every time daylight savings time begins or ends to get the time setting right even though it is “newfangled” enough that it should change on its own.
OK, I had JURSE. A combination of ‘jar’ and ‘purse’. Something you leave by the front door and throw in your stuff and take it out when you leave again. That dovetails with JUSTI which arguably fits that 30A clue .
I agree with SouthsideJohnny that this played like a Monday. finished in 5:55, thanks to trying the down-first approach. :)
my only qualm was that I've always said and heard magicAL realism. [46A]
GGM's one hundred years / cien años was one of the first books I fell in love with in high school, and I loved it so much I read it in English *and* Spanish. and today was the first time I heard magic instead of magical!
[yes, i checked, wiki allows it. but that doesn't mean i have to like it.]
I love it when Uncle Rex explains why I was wrong to like a puzzle. A clever theme, I thought, and a nice Tuesday feel—like a Monday with some extra crunch. Plus, the most delicious ice cream flavor ever named after a diabetic.
When Magic Johnson sits you down for a hard talk about your aspirations to be pro basketball player when you’ve never made it off the JV bench…that’s
MAGICREALISM
As I pilot I know UTC but I don't like it. GMT got changed obviously to "decolonize" it since it it reflects the prime meridian running through Greenwich in the UK. At least Rolex still calls their dual time zone watch the GMT.
It was easy till I almost died on sax ajax.
Hey All !
Neat puz. Not as disappointed at the fill as Rex.
Rex railed on MAGIC REALISM so long, he forgot about TRAGICOMIC. It's TRAGICOMEDY, no?
Haven't read anyone yet, constructor name not familiar, debut?
Time for this LUNK to to SHOO.
Happy Tuesday.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
MURSE isn't modern unless you are stuck in 1995. It's just a handbag. We are far more accepting of not gendering accessories now.
TRAGICOMIC is the adjective, TRAGICOMEDY the noun.
This is hilarious and I love it!
Also, isn’t a NARCO a drug lord? I thought DEA agents, etc. were just narcs.
And such a loveable diabetic, made me smile to think of Jerry at least!
MAGIC REALISM really bothered me. More than MURSE because, while it’s not a thing, it’s also not butchering something that IS a thing. Any reference to Jerry Garcia no matter how roundabout makes me happy though.
It's MAGIC*AL* REALISM. But it was clear we had to get the AGICR in there, so. Otherwise, meh.
This made me laugh out loud. Nice job. And better clue than what we got!
I loved Miracle Gro!
you forgot to mention ALIKE crossing AKIN!
¿No puedes conseguir a alguien más?
My comment didn't appear yesterday, and I've narrowed it down to three possibilities: 1. Going a little too hard against cracking your knuckles. 2. A reference to Sappho and her 2600-year-old adult-themed poetry. 3. Writing "good donkey" in Russian for a Nice Moscow Mule uniclue. I was proud of that one for our Russian-language afficionados. But, I feel like the blog was saved for more effete purposes by axing these dangerous ideas.
Observe as I walk gingerly along the tightrope of good taste today.
MINI skirts: I'm for them. FRATs: I'm against them. CHERRY GARCIA: Totally for that. LABORS: I prefer to relax.
Optometrists.com is for sale. So is Optometrist.com. What the heck?
Couldn't fill this one in any faster. The @Nancy Circles™️®️©️, as she so often says, we're nearly meaningless. And as 🦖 teaches against in theme design, CHERRY and LIST played nearly meaningless roles in the theme entries.
[Dum-dum] for LUNK made me laugh out loud. MURSE made me %$#@!.
People: 8
Places: 0
Products: 8
Partials: 12 {disappointing}
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 30 of 76 (39%) {This is the third 39% gunkfest in a row! Why?}
Funnyisms: 2 😕
Uniclues:
1 House of boys noted for the use of neologisms took a vow of silence.
2 Teentsy online marketplace for short statured scam artists.
3 More than Comet pretty.
1 SLANG-FRAT MUM
2 MINI CRAIGSLIST
3 AJAX PHOTOGENIC
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Gets a bit better. SORTA BLOSSOMS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Dione Drew 7:44 AM
It is magicAL realism. I think the crossword editing team was distracted by prepping for their little convention Rex ended up winning when they were approving this week's puzzles as we've had three stinkers in a row.
Great write up Rex. I agree, an admirable concept that fell just short due to a lot of ugly fill.
I enjoyed the theme, theme answers and revealer. Anagrams may not be my favorite conceit for a crossword, but I’m up for a little letter-jockeying when required. And the circles? I don’t quite understand this blog’s hatred of circles and shaded squares in puzzles. To me, one has to consider the use of these devices on a case-by-case basis, and I thought today the circles were quite justified in highlighting the near-CIGARs. I admit that @Rex has a point about the fill, but on balance for me, this one fell on the right side of the pleasure/pain threshold.
MAGIC REALISM is a term that’s used quite frequently in the visual arts, too, and my impression is that it’s interchangeable with MAGICal REALISM. It’s a concept that’s sometimes hard to distinguish from Surrealism. MAGIC REALISM tends to present a naturalistic depiction of the visible world, with its strangeness often subtle, giving the viewer a creeping sense of the uncanny. Whereas Surrealism is focused on the unconscious mind, often in the form of dreams, its peculiarity more overt, and seeks to merge the rational and the illogical into some kind of super-realism, as the term would suggest. Say, Wyeth’s Christina’s World as opposed to Ernst’s The Robing of the Bride.
Hey, BTW, I’ve just discovered today is World Art Day. It’s an annual event, apparently, originated by a body I’ve never heard of called the International Association of Art, and set on April 15 because this is Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday. So, happy creativity to us all!
Liked the Classical references to AJAX and Hercules (in the LABORS clue). Thought for a brief, scrambled moment that fire stations contained a Pump. Was oddly pleased at seeing PHOTOGENIC in the grid – it’s a word I’ve always liked.
"The only thing less appealing than an anagram theme is an anagram theme with circles." --@Son Volt
You nailed it, @Son Volt. I feel the exact same way. There's really nothing more to say, is there?
UTC/Universal Time Coordinated was a gimme for someone who spent 28 years in the aviation world. And I could have sworn I’ve seen it in a Times crossword grid before. Otherwise I’m pretty much on board with RP this morning. Seemed very pedestrian, not that there’s anything wrong with that on a Tuesday, but this one pushed the limit.
Any Tuesday puzzle I can make me laugh out loud is a good Tuesday puzzle… Really liked the revealer on this… even if I head to suffer through murse
UTC shows up all the time when you try to change time zones. For example, I just checked on my PC, and every zone is listed in UTC. It's been around for decades.
Agree this puzzle keeps above water almost solely on the theme. But at then I did learn about UTC so have been at least a tad modernized. I had the same problem as most did with the missing “al”—it was like there was an itch that no amount of scratching could relieve, a frustrating void. On the other hand, as a pragmatic clue/answer, it didn’t seem to cause anyone to lose time in solving.
One of the delights of One Hundred Years of Solitude is its first sentence:
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendía was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
I should try skipping over the revealer when it's in the center of the puzzle, but I didn't; and I already had the very easy CHERRY GARCIA, so there it was. At least, there the CIGAR was--I wasn't sure what it was close to, but maybe that was an anagrinder, or whatever they call it in the cryptic world. That made the other theme answers very easy, even if I didn't know that CRAIG'S LIST had a barter section.
GI JOE and MENSA are having little runs.
I enjoyed the ALIKE/AKIN crossing. They could have shared the clue for AKIN, but it wouldn't work the other way 'round.
Do people really say NARCO? I've only ever heard NARC.
But most of my time thinking about this puzzle was about whether AJAX was really mythical. I mean, the Iliad is a work of fiction, but it's about a real war, and fictional characters are mostly not mythological; no one would call Gatsby a myth. But I looked him up, and he was descended from Zeus, so myth it is. Learn something every day.
Nice the way we get CHERRYGARCIA ice cream on top of a Gateau. Oh, it's GATO? Never mind.
If I drink enough RUMOR NOG, I can buy into the MAGICREALISM while being TRAGICallyCOMICal.
I have to admit that I had a different reaction to Bill BARR today. I found myself thinking that he was unquestionably a slime ball who was smart enough to know that he needed to stay on the good side of a powerful moron. But he knew that the Justice Department had a role to play beyond putting muscle behind the powerful moron's whims. This is a two thumbs down review of Bill Barr, but he was Bobby Kennedy-esque compared to the ignorant and evil sycophant occupying the role today.
Sorry, to get all serious again today, but I might as well get my other gripe out there. I often marvel that @Rex and all of his substitute bloggers feel like it is necessary to list most of the three-letter answers and deride them as tired crosswordese or something. I mean, we get it. There are only so many three letter combinations in use in the world, so one of them appears whenever there is an answer that is three letters long. You don't really need to point it out every single day. So today, along comes UTC, a brand spanking new one (for @Rex anyway), and what do we get? A major hissy fit concluding with "Let's all collectively pray it goes away and never comes back. OK? Amen."
Good theme today. I wonder how they grow CIGARs? AGRICulture? Thanks, Per Bykodorov.
Might MURSE work better for male nurse? Can we appeal to the portmanteau gods?
My daughter is an RN. One of my vivid memories from her school days was when she called me, desperate. She left her notebook at home and really needed it. Could I bring it to her in class? She gave me the room number and I raced over to the campus with the notebook. She said the door to the room was in the back, I should just come in and she'll come over to get it. I found the room, opened the door, and walked in. At that point, twenty gorgeous young women all turned around and looked at me. It felt like I stumbled into a Victoria's Secret catalog. The professor said, "May I help you?" I was trying to stammer out a reply when my daughter (who was very amused by the scene) finally got up from her seat and took the notebook from me. Good times.
That's why I always wear cargo pants.
I think the first company that tried to market handbags for men called them MURSEs, but no one ever used the word after that.
And I have to admit that I've never previously noticed whether GARCIA Marquez's realism was magic or magical. Now that it has been pointed out to me, I realize that I've always heard it that way. Reminds me of my friend Steve back in the 60s, who discovered that if, when talking about Mao, you said "great proletarian culture revolution" nobody would notice that you had left out the AL. Kind of like the first R in FEBRUARY.
Thought it was GMT.
Imbedded random anagrams with The Circles. With funny ahar revealer. I can go for that.
Early in the solvequest, due to The Circles, M&A noticed CIGAR spelt backwards in the sad and funny film themer. Then right away glanced at the mid-grid revealer, and wrote in a juicy 15-word answer, without much hesitation. Sweet, for the precious solvequest nanoseconds.
staff weeject picks: UTC & CBD. Most of the 13 weejects were well-behaved, except for these two abbreves of mystery.
Not many ?-marker clues, other than the slightly strange one for SGTS, right outta the rodeo chute at 1-Down. That clue maybe was thinkin of drill sgts., or somesuch?
Some faves: LUNK. MUSTI. PHOTOGENIC. SGTS crossin GIJOE.
Thanx for all them funny cigars, especially the one with the CBD in it, Mr. Bykodorov dude. And congratz on yer smokin debut.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... and now down to the nitty-gritty stuff ...
"Inside Info" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Easy-medium. No erasures and UTC (@hi Rex) was it for WOEs…the crosses I had in place took GMT or GST out of contention.
Cute with some fun theme answers, liked it but @Rex is right about some of the fill.
Seinfeld had an episode where Jerry had one too.
I am shocked at the number of people who didn't know UTC. It's very common when dealing with world times, especially when setting up any electronic device's time zone.
@jberg, My birthday's in February and when I was about 6, we lived a few doors down from an elderly man who was frequently outside gardening. I used to wander down and chat with him while he was working. In retrospect, I can only hope I wasn't too much of a nuisance but, to give him credit, he always seemed to enjoy my company. He told me in the strictest and most solemn of tones, that since my birthday was in February, I must throughout my life take special care to pronounce it correctly, always enunciating that first R. I was awestruck -- it seemed terribly important. And, you know something? I've always pronounced February with its two Rs, from that day to this.
I once read a novel in which one of the characters kept a notebook where she wrote the first line of every book she read. For some reason, that stuck with me and since then, I take special notice of the first sentence when I start a book. I don’t write them down, but I do keep a notebook where I occasionally write a quote that seems meaningful.
Agreed
It’s a European carry all!!
I solved as a themeless - not being fond of circles either. Cute.
@Barbara S, your reply made me smile because I too used to talk to the elderly retired neighbor as he was gardening or doing other chores, and would sometimes brazen in to his garage workshop. No pearls of wisdom that I recall, but he was very patient with my chatter and questions…until he would punt and say “I think if you go inside, Mrs. Morrison might have a cookie for you.” It was a great tag team with Mrs. Morrison giving me the cookie and saying…”now you need to go home and check with your mother whether you should eat it now.” A very kind way of getting an annoying chatterbox out of your hair.
Amen on your three letter word “gripe.”
I thought the same thing about NARCO. Maybe NARC is old and NARCO is new? If so, THAT’s a change of pace.
@Liveprof…THAT may very well be the shortest sentence in the entire book! ;)
@Barbara S, thank you for sharing that very sweet story!
Well, today I have to say I’m on the same page as Barbara S. and her first paragraph.
Super easy Tuesday. A little primer on the musical titles in case they 'pop' up in a future puzzle:
King of Pop: Michael Jackson
Queen of Pop: Madonna
Goddess of Pop: Cher
Princess of Pop: Britney Spears
Queen of Soul: Aretha Franklin
Godfather of Soul: James Brown
Queen of Rock: Tina Turner
Goddess of Rock: Stevie Nicks
The King: Elvis Presley
Have I missed anyone?
It’s EUROPEAN!! Officer, that man stole my….manbag, um, murse, er, carryall……He stole my PURSE
My friend calls his his murse.
Interestingly, today's Wordle answer relates to today's crossword theme. Makes you wonder what they're smoking at the NYT.
And it's been the international standard since 1963, so, yeah, kind of surprising to me, too. Also surprising that this is its NYTXW debut.
Ha! Doesn't hold a candle to Proust -- his sentences go on for weeks. I made it through much of the first volume but then fell off the truck.
I thought it was a really good Tuesday. Maybe because the bright lights of the reveal and theme phrases cast the less than sparkling fill into the shadows where I didn't notice it. But there were also smiles because "CLOSE BUT NO CIGAR" is a phrase I use a lot, CHERRY GARCIA is often in our freezer, and the literary terms made me feel at home. Witty idea and very nicely executed.
Do-over: why me? before MUST I? Astonished to learn: Most would say MAGICal REALISM.
hip satchel
Extremely easy, but otherwise I'm in strong agreement with Mr. Parker, especially when it comes to MAGICalREALISM. I wrote in MAGICAL, then realized there aren't enough squares for the genre.
Odd, after solving I look back and thought, well this onedidn'tsparkle but the theme was cute and overall seemed like pretty good fill. Now Rex tells me it was terrible. I agree with OFL that "murse" is bad and also "tec", especially as clued. It keeps appearing in puzzled, but an't remember ever seeing or hearing it in real life and especially NOT in old crime novels
( Maybe I just didn't read the right ones)
I really liked the clue for 1D "March V.I.P.s... Was going in all the wrong directions until SGTS became clear - then Smiled big.
Agree absolutely about Bill Barr. Our headlong slide into full fascism was greatly facilitated by him. Also in full agreement about "magic realism." Have never heard it referred to as such; it's ALWAYS "magical realism." Also "murse." What an ugly word. Even as I type it, it gets a red underlining, meaning that the algorithm looks askance at it. I would also include among questionable fill "GEISHA" (do we need to glorify the past sexual exploitation of girls and women in Japan?), and "DIP IN." DIP IN is what you use your toe for when testing how cold the water is before going swimming. To withdraw money from savings, etc., is to "DIP INTO." Agree overall that a cool theme (variations on "cigar" to illustrate "close but no cigar") was sabotaged by lousy and sometimes repugnant fill.
Sprinting to the tape, in my potato sack, I abbreviated the read of 30d to ['Container for keys, walletcetera..'] and clapped in pURSE, and dropped an 'a' (?!) in aTC for some inecksplicable.. (#%& ?!) when GMT wuddn't jibe, and nevah returned to check it. In fact, on the double error at curtains, I'd to donut, pedal to metal, to even reckon coordinates. Phooey.
And, I have a murse. No, not Swish focking rock, yes, Rip focking rock. Has a murse. Or whatevs yuo call it. Tassled, yeah, bud-day. Came to me in Burma, a lifetime ago, so the comfy. Massively strapped. Deploy on hikes to ferry water, Missus Rip's doodads and the such.
So, epic fail, this one.
And eleven straight years of rain, moss growing indoors, blood running uphill, 'magical realism' is how I learned it at the reading eons ago, and evah since. Whence came 'magic' ?
Long ago separated the great novels by the writing and by the storytelling ('Lonesome Dove,' say). Some command both. The metaphors, florid imagery.. transporting descriptions in 100 Years personify the finest of the first.
In contrast, I've yet to be swept into the game this year, and the dull and listless word scramble did nothing to interrupt that. The humdrum device seems employed more to burnish fashioner credentials.
Just drop the themes and go for the entertaining phrases. All cylinders.
But expectations are set to Low, so from that vantage, I wasn't disappointed.
Significantly, ice cream/cherries, oil/water. And there's no space for peanut butter either, blech. What were you people thinking. Ours is a household where ice cream and its cousins, gelato, custard, are considered with the utmost seriousness, like manna.
Show some manners. Peanut butter, or cherries, in your ice cream is unmannerly.
[Disclaimer (how to make this print smaller): Yeahh.. Missus Rip iz the bright one.. and apparently she loves the cherries in the ice cream. But that doesn't mean anything. I do not subject myself to observing it.]
I’m a big fan of murder mysteries, particularly Agatha Christie and Rex Stout, but I don’t consider myself an expert in the genre. I’m always looking to expand my knowledge and I’m always open to suggestions as to what to read next. So, can someone recommend a novel where our protagonist is called a “Tec”? Thanks in advance.
Like many here, I didn’t enjoy much more than the revealer, other than the comforting familiarity of identifying along the way some of the answers I knew would get chided on the blog. Ah yes, there will be the familiar CRIT criticism (indeed, also my field, and also can confirm no one ever says it), and the one for MURSE; I’ve been following the blog enough to remember those. And surely Bill BARR will get mentioned. Somehow the comforting familiarity makes the experience of solving a sub-par puzzle more enjoyable.
I tried doing down clues only, but MIRACLE GRO did me in. I had - - - - C - - G - -, with all the across answers having multiple possibilities. So I looked at several of the across clues until I got it; I have heard of it. So downs-only was close but no cigar.
The fuss today about UTC is a bit overdone; it is a standard that's been around for many decades, even it it's not a gimme. I had a shortwave radio in the 1970s, and aside from Radio Moscow and other fun stations, I loved the Time station (don't ask me why): "The time, at the tone, 17 hours, 43 minutes, Coordinated Universal Time". I guess the order of the letters is a compromise among different languages.
I'm really shocked at how unknown UTC seems to be for so many people. Maybe I just talk to more non-Americans than everyone else.
Me, too, but the NYT team does that all the time. Grrrr.
Late to the party (travel day) and I just wanted to check in about MAGICREALISM but so many people have beat me to it that I won't even mention how wrong MAGICREALISM is, but it is wrong, and should be MAGICALREALISM and not MAGICREALISM, if I make myself clear.
Somehow in my headlong rush through this one I missed filling MURSE and UTC from the clues entirely so it was a nice surprise that I had them right without even looking at the clues.
CHERRYGARCIA is my wife's absolute favorite, gimme here.
Totally agree with @Egs about three-letter fill in crosswords. I suppose there are crosswords with no three-letter words or crosswordese, and I may have even done a few but I certainly don't remember the last one.
I liked your Tuesday just fine, PB. Didn't get a Personal Best but thanks for sharing my initials, which gives me an all-important 1/2 point in the Roo race.
Thanks for all the fun.
If we are willing to deviate from the pop, rock and soul GENRES (omg, they’ve got me doing it now), we could also go with:
Chairman of the Board, Ol' Blue Eyes, The Sultan of Swoon: (Sinatra)
The Devine Miss M: (Bette)
UTC was first officially adopted as a standard in 1963 and "UTC" became the official abbreviation of Coordinated Universal Time in 1967...
I hadn’t heard UTC either but jeez, it officially replaced GMT on Jan 1, 1972! Get with the times! (If I can be forced to learn BTS and OXO and all the L’ILs, we all can learn the term that's been a standard for 50+ years. Hell, that’s almost as long as Cher’s Godessness, for goddess sake!)
Speaking of godlessness, ICBM (I C Bill Maher) met with your favorite president. So who do you despise “maher” now - Bill BARR or Bill Maher? And maybe you can add Bill BURR to the mix - have them meet at “3 Bills” (1:30 UTC using Maher-itime chronology).
Btw, the qualifier “in old crime novels” justifies use of the archaic TEC. Though firms would be justified in not hiring a designer specializing in “Archaic tech”.
If this were a less left-leaning commentariat, CIGAR would prompt me to include yet another Bill in the Oval Office. But no, I won’t be wiseKRAKEN any more today.
Clever, fun concept - smarter than the average Tuesday (says Yogi the BARR. OK, NOW I’ll quit…)
@Liveprof…a friend in one of my book clubs “went on a sabbatical” to read Proust. One Hundred Years was his favorite book. He ALSO fell off the truck! I consider myself somewhat “well-read” but I think I have a brain disorder that makes my mind wander to “what should we have for dinner” if I encounter too many “run-on” sentences!
The Boss
Anonymous 11:41
Thanks for confirming what I thought when putting in the answer murse. Rex is gonna hate it but it exists!
Yes it is in the form of an adjective but is it really a word one would ever use?
Rex, thanks for posting the link to the Tracey Thorn song. I listened to it and thought "this voice, I know it" but had to google to find out it was her. In the day I was a huge fan of her band "Everything But The Girl", such great harmonies. And now I'm listening to Tracey's album, great voice great music. And Caroline Polachek is wonderful.
I hate anagrams. But I loved this puzzle. Why? Could it be because I did it while smoking a Nicaraguan Toro with a maduro wrapper that was just lovely.
In defense of the MURSE. Yes, I technically have one. No, I don't like the term. A few years ago I was travelling in Italy and got tired of carrying my iPad in my hand and wished I hadn't brought it on the trip. It was a compromise; too big for my pocket but still preferable to doing email and puzzles on my phone. At a market in Florence I stopped to admire the many hand-made leather bags at one stall and after a pleasant conversation with the craftsman, asked him to make me a bag that would hold the iPad, a couple of notebooks, and some writing implements. I returned the next afternoon to pick up the most simple, clean, elegant shoulder bag imaginable. It's a lovely piece. When I employ it in the company of my wittily and often cruelly critical millennial sons, they never hesitate to rag on my "purse" or, worse, my MURSE. It's a thing. I own it. So preferable to cargo pants, @jberg.
MAGICREALISM. I've never called it MAGICalREALISM. Reading @Barbara S's wonderful (as usual) comments (9:20 am) where she mentions that the art style and literary style have similar names, I feel exonerated. I must have picked it up in some graduate art seminar. No one has ever corrected me when I've used the shorter version. Confession: I don't like MAGICalREALISM as a literary style.
Solved downs-only and was flummoxed immediately by the clever clue at 1D. Kept trying to get some pluralized version of St. Pat in there. Sheesh. After completing the puzzle and reviewing it, I realized that the clue for 1A probably would have stymied me, too. Good stuff.
Glad @Rex commented on TEC. He knows so much more than me about old style crime fiction and to read that he doesn’t like that clue/answer justifies my personal rage.
Murse, magic realism lit crit are in use . You can say that they are ugly or stupid but not that they don’t exist. Based on what some said murse did go beyond a brand term. Murse seems an awkward word to me but it didn’t bother me.
Quite a few boring 3 letter crosswordese answers but I thought it wasn’t that bad
In service to the theme
In case you don’t know the theme revealer origin
Carnival contest where you hit the lever with a hammer. Always liked the expression Close to hitting the bell still meant no prize, traditionally a cigar.
Another good expression in the same area, close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.
UTC??! …… what ever happened to Zulu time
@Beezer. I'm not sure I'd call that a "disorder." More likely the opposite, if there's such a thing as a brain order.
UTC is very familiar to us who listened to shortwave radio before the internet decimated it.
I read a lot of pulp fiction and I've never come across "tec." Shamus, flatfoot, dick, PI, gumshoe - yes, but tec - never.
I rarely agree wholeheartedly with @Rex. Today is an exception. Especially his full on MURSE rant had me mentally cheering. Ridiculous portmanteaus make me break out in the feeling I have when my teeth scrape across a wooden popsicle stick. Ugh!
I experienced this same feeling this morning as I wended my way home from Napa after what I call a “medical adventure” (doc appointments with “procedures” or short hospital stays for what is laughingly called “minor surgery”). As usual, I was listening to NPR (you know, more of that “illegal” media stuff) and this decade’s discussion of whether and how to make the English language easier to spell . . . or not. Those of you who follow or find this issue interesting will know that a couple US presidents and notedly Merriam Webster have led lengthy campaigns to change the way American English is spelled to make it easy.
Essentially, proponents suggest phonetic (fonetik?) spelling so that, for example, rough, though and through become ruf, tho and thru (my computer just went “spell check crazy there).
Anyway, shortly after I got home, I solved today’s puzzle with the wonderfully clever theme concept and its stellar reveal - and the dreadfully tedious (teedeeus?) fill including MURSE, and I was set for a rant myself, but I’ll spare you that rant because I feel that the phonetic spelling concept presents a more clear and present danger to our beautiful language, at least in analytical and formal writing.
I accept that a living language must evolve. Suffice it to say then, that while I willingly accept sensible alternate spellings of words the language (speaking specifically of American English here) has already adopted such as dropping the u from words like honour and colour and the a from paediatrition and Caesar, I cannot now nor will I ever accept as correct or acceptable in formal or professional writing the trend for blindly accepting what amounts to text speak. I’m finished now and likely owe many a Pucklike apology for having offended. Consider said apology offered.
Tho u and I might differ in our opinions regarding official adoption of fonetik speling, perhaps it would be sumthing helpful to some hylee placed elekted US officials, k?
Zulu is still is used in aviation.
We refer to my husband's accessory as a "man bag."
What are March VIPS - Had the answer, but don’t
Understand what it is
I'm on the same page as @Rex. Nailed it on the theme and came up a bit short on the fill, it doesn't crush me to the core as it might some, I just thought it was unexciting.
I got CHERRYGARCIA with no crosses and as soon as the (really great) revealer fell it was somewhat of a whoosh.
Did not know UTC but glad I know it now and will likely remember it for next time (you know there will be a next time) mostly do to the intense reactions it has caused.
I can't think of any cluing that was exceptionally clever or any entries that look particularly pretty in the grid (other than the revealer) but I thought the theme and it's execution made up for that, so good work Per!
Sergeants lead their men in marches.
A Narc is a DEA agent. A Narco is a drug smuggler/runner.
UTC was a gimme -- if you've ever looked at email headers close up, or any other Internet time stamps. Time of day is always specified relative to UTC; your local time is just added as a convenience in case you don't know what time zone you're in and how it relates to UTC (so you might eventually learn the relation).
Hated MURSE, liked the themers and clues. Didn't know Cherry Garcia (don't buy much ice cream in an effort to keep weight under control, and B&J's hasn't been available here as long as it has in the States) but was happy to learn of it and easy enough with two or three crosses once I had the theme in sight.
The Duke of Earl?
🤣🤣🤣
I only got the Tuesday Times puzzle today (I have not been working onit for two days, found it pretty easy. Surprised that anyone had any trouble with it. This is my first post on this blog!
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