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Family elder in El Salvador / SUN 6-22-25 / Spread the word? / Febreze competitor / Rocker Ric / Dinosaur "from our imagination" / Jack on a nonfat diet / South Pole trailblazer Amundsen / Young pigs / Community at the end of the line
Sunday, June 22, 2025
Constructor: Ruth Bloomfield Margolin and Hannah Margolin
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: Bringing a Plus One — Theme answers are wedding-related things with one letter added, clued wackily
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: HADRON (1A: [Large ___ Collider (facility in Geneva, Switzerland)]) —
Bullets:
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- S(H)AVE THE DATE (23A Make a partner's beard presentable for all the photos?)
- CASH BAR(D) (25A Poet hired to write the couple's vows in flowery verse?)
- WEDDING D(U)RESS (34A Cause of many headaches while planning the big day?)
- G(R)IFT REGISTRY (54A Tool for a couple who intend to return everything and keep the money?)
- F(E)ATHER OF THE BRIDE (68A Fancy headpiece garment?)
- SOMETHING (B)OLD (86A Colorful sequined jacket that the groom chose to wear?)
- PAR(I)TY PLANNER (101A One ensuring that each family can invite the same number of guests?)
- BE(A)ST MAN (115A Animal's escort down the aisle?)
- MOTHER IN LAW(N) (117A Parent who foolishly wore stiletto heels to a garden event?)
Word of the Day: HADRON (1A: [Large ___ Collider (facility in Geneva, Switzerland)]) —
In particle physics, a hadron is a composite subatomic particle made of two or more quarks held together by the strong nuclear force. Pronounced /ˈhædrɒn/ ⓘ, the name is derived from Ancient Greek ἁδρός (hadrós) 'stout, thick'. They are analogous to molecules, which are held together by the electric force. Most of the mass of ordinary matter comes from two hadrons: the proton and the neutron, while most of the mass of the protons and neutrons is in turn due to the binding energy of their constituent quarks, due to the strong force.
• • •
Um ... hello, again. It's Rafa here blogging the Sunday puzzle. I somehow blogged the wrong puzzle last night. I'm just a silly goose like that, I guess. But hopefully it was fun to have two different write-ups? And see how the solving experience can be very alike or very different. But today you are stuck with just me. No agreeing or dissenting opinions! Just little old me on my little computer telling all of you about this puzzle.
This puzzle was ... a puzzle, for sure. We have some wedding-related puns where we add a letter to the answer. But overall the puns felt a bit forced to me. It's certainly neat that there are enough wedding-related phrases to pull this theme off, but I was hoping for some additional twist, or for the added letters to spell some meta answer that tied everything nicely. But as it was I was mostly just ... *shrug*. When I say forced, I mean things like BEAST MAN. Like, this doesn't really feel like even a semi-realistic situation at a wedding? Whereas a MOTHER-IN-LAWN felt funnier and more realistic to me. Pun puzzles in general are very hit-or-miss based on your specific type of humor, but this one didn't totally tickle my sense of whimsy.
 |
| It's a SAGO palm |
I had also never heard of SOMETHING OLD, which apparently is a rhyme for what a bride should wear to bring good luck. I think I'm excused because my wedding (though currently very far from being a thing) will not feature a bride. (Eligible gentlemen in their mid-20s to mid-30s in the Bay Area -- please inquire within if you are interested in changing this situation!) ... alright, now I've shot my shot, so let's get back into the puzzle. I don't think I have much more to say about the theme. They are puns. They are about weddings. Some people might find them funny. Oh, I didn't mention the title -- "Bringing a Plus One". It's a good title, but it doesn't quite give the puzzle enough of a raison d'être IMO. Also, why is the title for Sunday puzzles so buried in the app? (You have to click the "i" icon to see it.)
Oh, also, WEDDING DURESS. Does "duress" mean "headaches"? The dictionaries I consulted define duress as "threats, violence, constraints, or other action brought to bear on someone to do something against their will or better judgment" or "forcible restraint or restriction" ... both of which are obviously *very* bad vibes when it comes to a wedding. So, that whole entry just felt ... off. Ok, I'll stop complaining about this theme. Let's go complain about something else! (Remember when I said I had nothing left to say about the theme?)
 |
| Some MELTED cheese in fondue |
The fill had its ups and downs. Some icky partials in A ROW and O WOE, and things like ORANG (nobody has ever said this) and MNO (don't feel like I need to explain why this is bad) and ONER (nobody has ever said this). I've probably already mentioned this here but I became an EELER convert after reading an article in the New Yorker last year about EELERs in Maine. So, don't come for EELER. But also some great stuff here! I enjoyed: ANGOLA, COCONUT, ABUELA, LEGALESE, ALL-SEASON, KAHLUA (a "mudslide" is a cocktail), TAX FORM, I SURE DO, SASHAY. Funny how sometimes entries that might seem "boring" like the one-word COCONUT can be evocative during a solve. Speaking of things I've read, Patrick Radden Keefe's "Rogues" has a great article about WINE FRAUD that I read a few months ago. Last year I would maybe have complained that WINE FRAUD was "not a thing" but I have been enlightened in time!
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| This is just my cat. She is perfect. Please say hi to her. |
Alright, I think that's all from me. Hope you all stay safe and happy and healthy and all the other good things. Until next time!
Bullets:
- 10D: RATED E [Like the Mario Kart games] — the new game in the franchise (Mario Kart World) just came out on the Switch 2. I haven't had a chance to play yet, but hoping to get to it eventually.
- 4D: REVEAL [Gender ___ (prebirth event)] — this cluing angle is ... a choice
- 69D: HURON [The "H" in HOMES] — You always love to see non-Erie Great Lake representation!
- 55D: TAX FORM [1099, e.g.] — I miss the days when I knew nothing about TAX FORMs. The number 1099 was just a number like any other. (Apropos of nothing, 1099 is not prime. Its prime factors are 7 and 157, which feels ... cursed somehow?!)
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93 comments:
¡Ay de mí por haber visto lo que he visto! {I kinda suspect Shakespeare sucks in Spanish.}
Adore your kitty, Rafa.
Funny puzzle. Found lots of joy and lots of challenges in filling it out. Loved it. My wedding was basically a party for my mother-in-law's friends. During the pandemic I watched Say Yes to the Dress with my niece and it was the 50 brides from 50 states version. I watched all 50 of them get married. Every one of them. All 50. I'm basically a wedding expert now.
I like writing poems so I think I will start my CASH BARD business soon. It's a good idea.
Why is the spelling of LENDL living in my head? I haven't seen a tennis match since wooden rackets vanished.
WINE FRAUD sounds like a rich white person dramedy starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey.
❤️ [Lay low?]. BEAST MAN. MOTHER-IN-LAWN.
❓ ONER. HASADIM/IRWIN cross, grr.
People: 17
Places: 4
Products: 10
Partials: 10
Foreignisms: 4
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 45 of 140 (32%)
Funnyisms: 12 😅
Tee-Hee: COCK. TEENIE-weenie. DERRIERE.
Uniclues:
1 When I ask for vegetarian options at any restaurant in New Mexico.
2 Swims a Great Lake in the nude.
3 Don't say a word to the hula dancer, grampa.
4 Monkey needing a ride into town.
5 Cannibal's plan for a British holiday.
1 I SURE DO SOMETHING BOLD
2 HANDLES HURON PLAIN
3 DENY COCONUT SPEECHES (~)
4 ORANG EXURB HITCHER
5 PLATE DIANA ALL SEASON (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: I explained the status of my income. U-TURNED HOT DATE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
OK my comment yesterday never appeared, dunno why.
Typical Sunday slog, I get the theme but it's not that rewarding. I too tried to make the added letters spell something... HDUREBIAN? Nope.
Speaking of the theme, my great nephew's wedding is in 4 weeks:
1) Got the SAVE THE DATE message last summer
2) I'll be skipping the GIFT REGISTRY in favor of a cheque
3) MOTHER IN LAW... met her, she's quite nice
4) FATHER OF THE BRIDE is, well, awesome... retired deep sea underwater oil rig welder!... Honest!! I wouldn't lie
The wedding is on top of a mountain overlooking two different lake filled valleys. Yikes! Kids these days.
I sort of smiled at all the theme answers but liked some better than others. Liked shave the date. Liked the sound/word play of the answer to 68A but not the clue.
117A was perfect. As I read the clue I pictured stiletto heels getting stuck in the lawn. Filled answer to 115 by crosses without noticing it but smiled big when I read over the puzzle.
I wrote (on my paper puzzle) "?Is wine fraud a thing?" From the write up I see it is.
Would have preferred no other clues with question marks.
I definitely objected to teen weeny being spelled with ie's. But googling I see that it is a brand name, so just some more PPP.
Oh yeh, 52A grift registry was cynically amusing. Do couples do that?
Someone has said"orang". Many someones. But I share your doubt re "oner"
Medium for me too. I started off whooshy but got bogged down a TAD as I descended.
Costliest erasure - hOnk before hOrn before FORE.
I’m with @Rafa on this one, theme answers were more meh (forced) than amusing.
@Rafa - nice to know WINE FRAUD is a “thing”.
Medium for a Sunday, except for the tiny Challenging section in the North. I had VICAR at 20A and that's about it. Then AVow at 7D off the V, confirmed by the w from the incorrect AwOkE at 28A, plus who for the 11D non-practicing "doctor". Ric OCASEK (9D) was a WOE and I had no idea what the puzzle was going for at 7A (A WORD ...) and 10D (RATED E) and you have a mess. A mess of my own making because I was way too confident in AVow/AwOkE.
Other notable overwrites include mnop before LGBT for the Q-queue at 41D and HAssids (even though I know better) before HASIDIM at 106A.
I’m not sure what the issue with the clue for REVEAL was, unless it’s based upon the notion that you really can’t identify a baby’s gender before it turns 4 and decides what gender it is. There must be something else at play here.
Easy over here, except for one un-fun natick . But I found the overwhelming wedding-ness of it all to be a bit grating.
There’s ha-ha happiness and there’s warm-the-heart happiness, and for me, today’s puzzle pulsed with both.
First of all, it’s wedding-centered, based on an event where the heart often swells with elation, where the eyes often fill with the best tears, where the air is filled with delight, merriment, and high spirits. Where love is palpable.
Then, it’s made by a mom and daughter. As I imagine them working side-by-side, laughing and high-fiving at coming up with finds that land, cocooning in earnest while brainstorming and chiseling their creation, well, that’s a mom-daughter relationship that touches my heart, that reminds me that so much good pervades this world.
Also, this is a puzzle whose purpose is more than just to create riddles to crack – it’s also to entertain. It wants to get us to smile and even burst out with a “Hah!” or giggle. Who doesn’t like that?
It succeeded with me, kept me in a jolly good mood throughout, punctuated by genuine laughs, while keeping my brain happy untangling clues and theme answers.
Crossword success in the highest. Started with an empty box, and exiting feeling, through and through, that life is good. Wow and thank you, Ruth and Hannah!
Gender Reveals are a new fashion. Usually a party where a cake is cut open to reveal pink or blue sponge inside. Or a balloon is popped and pink or blue confetti falls out. Some more elaborate versions have caused forest fires.
Theme is better than credited here I think: it evokes the comedy of bringing a plus one who somehow messes up a proper wedding and makes it weird. And yes, some were meh, but there were enough good ones to make this pleasant.
MOTHER IN LAWN made me LOL.
The clue on 71 annoyed me. I had “drag” which fit the clue “lackluster” and the punny cross perfectly (I had “something gold”). It took me forever to find that mistake.
Some of these could have come from @egs - MOTHER IN LAWN is pretty funny. Like many other Sundays - sometimes too much is not better. This would have been better suited to an early week scale.
Dusty
The overall fill is mixed - the result of the dense theme. Things like EXURB, TWEE, REAIMS are not puzzle worthy. COCONUT is neat and I think I like WINE FRAUD?
DUANE
Enjoyable to start - tedious to finish.
The WEDDING Present
For me, this was a good old-fashioned Sunday (like from the 70s and 80s) where the theme was clear fairly early on, but you (I) had to work for each one, and they were all legitimate and enjoyable groaners. Yay, thanks! To me, too many Sundays in recent years are slogs where the theme answers are painfully obvious and provide little joy. Sure, some themers here were better than others, but collectively this was delicious.
I somehow feel relieved to know that WINE FRAUD is a real thing.
The puzzle constructors also seemed to be envisioning a brideless wedding when they suggested it was the groom who would wear “something bold.” The groom is normally exempt from the superstitious dress requirements.
Strangely enough, in these days of maximum efficiency, and except in a rare high profile cases, modern day filibusters are not made up of SPEECHES, but merely the threat of SPEECHES. That is, when there are not enough votes to close debate (60 needed), the Senate does not continue debate, but defers the matter for a later time (or to oblivion) to avoid the threatened filibuster speeches, and it moves on with other matters. The result is the modern day filibuster without speeches.
A rare double kealoa! AVER (AVOW) crossing AROSE (AWOKE) at the R(W). Cool. Of course I had the W versions nicely confirming each other for a while.
Rafa, I really enjoyed your comments this morning (nobody has ever said this) and felt I could relate more than the usual blog comments. Thanks too for just sharing a picture of your cat. I think it's whimsical.
I was single a long time, so hang in there. I ended up skipping the wedding entirely and eloped with my husband (when nobody knew we were together or out) and will be celebrating six years together this summer! It can happen!
-Mike
This one gave me quite a bit of pleasure. So my advice to those who never do Sunday puzzles is: Do today's. I'm pretty sure it won't feel long or sloggy or tedious.
I always know how much I'm enjoying a Sunday puzzle if, when I start it on Saturday, I keep going and keep going and don't want to stop. Then, of course, I have nothing left to look forward to on Sunday. I managed to stop yesterday and leave just enough for this morning to be entertained again.
It's not that the wacky phrases are especially hilarious. It's that they are crunchy, that you'll have fun figuring them out as the crosses start to come in. The surrounding fill doesn't have a lot have a lot of pointless and annoying trivia. There are a fair number of slam-dunk answers, but there are some great ones too, like 38D (I got it immediately!) and 47D (it took forever).
A very enjoyable Sunday and highly recommended.
Got it done 100%, unusually for a Sunday. Nice comfortable theme, unlike many recent Sunday offerings. FEATHEROFTHEBRIDE was the giveaway for me.
The amount of ugly fill really took away from the over all enjoyment of the solve. About 3/4s through it became more of a chore than a pleasure.
Nice write-up by our host today. As Rafa mentioned, the theme is definitely passable but has a few warts, possibly due to the necessity of filling up a Sunday-sized grid.
I’m a little rusty on my BARNEY recollection(s). I believe at one time he was supposed to be Big Bird’s imaginary friend - but there may have been some concern about “imaginary friends” v.v. potential child abuse situations - so the team at Sesame Street made him visible to everyone, much to Big Bird’s delight. Let me know if I am mis-remembering this.
Hey All !
Hate to say strange puz, but it's a strange puz. The puns are OK in their own way, I can see how they're wedding related, but it just seems to miss the mark by a degree. As if this was a close-to-this parallel universe puz, or something. I don't know what I'm trying to say. (Happens a lot!)
Took a minute to realize the extra letter wasn't in the same place each Themer. That was nice. Plus, no circled letters to tell you exactly where they were, which in this puz, was apropos. That would've made it way to easy. Was confused for a bit by XRAYLAB, as it had a ? clue, following a Themer. I had thought that that was also a Themer, as the Top Themers were back to back. Couldn't figure out which letter to remove. Good stuff.
Had irsFORM first for TAXFORM. Never can remember if it's LATKA, LATKE, or LATKI. See also, SAGO, SEGO. Is WINE FRAUD a thing? What do you give them, Grape Juice?
Missing Scrabbly Q and Z for the Pangram. That's at least 20 points left off the board! (Scrabble jokes, who knew?)
Anyway, fun enough SunPuz, Margolin².
Geez, now a math joke. I'm on fire. Har.
Have a great Sunday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I imagine those little boys and girls will require therapy some day.
100% would watch Wine Fraud with Steve Carell and Tina Fey. Someone please make this happen!
I thought it was cute! And not that easy, which I like, I hate blowing through a Sunday at top speed. Assisting with some wedding planning right now for my niece so I’m chuckling at the clues. I think DURESS these days is sort of meant to convey emotional pain so it’s interesting that the definition is different. I appreciate knowing that but it didn’t strike me as odd. Also like knowing WINE FRAUD is actually a thing. Thanks Rafa!!
Read the Wikipedia article "Gender reveal party" - it started in 2008. It's a ridiculous trend (IMO!) ☺️
COCK, UNIT, JERKS! Man, I'll be anybody's plus one for this wedding.
Lots of first names ....DIANA, ROALD, KEANU, DUANE. And then they start combining them..... MELTED. I should have had a clue when after plunking in 1A right off the bat I HADRON.
LEOX excommunicated Martin Luther while les oxen plowed les fields.
I quite like the Crossword Solving 101 example at 7A. Now class, what goes in the white spaces? AWORD.
I love how the "Plus One's" support the theme by anagraming to BRAIN HUED. Definitely takes me back to my own wedding where a Plus One put acid in the punch.
I thought this was a very fun puzzle. You can get the theme after reading the title and getting one themer. But you still have to work for each of the others. Really nice mother-daughter project. Thanks, Ruth Bloomfield Margolin and Hannah Margolin.
I agree 100%. I loved it!
Just wanted to mention that ‘wedding duress’ can be very real. My future MIL threatened suicide if we married. Maybe that wouldn’t bode well, but the wedding went off fine (even though it was 107 degrees that day) and today is our 51 wedding anniversary.
Did anyone else notice the clue for REVEAL was green - while the other clues were blue?
I wonder how many people will fail out with HASIDeM / eRWIN ?
Same :) best part of the puzzle for me.
Correct story, wrong character. Big Bird’s imaginary friend was Snuffleupagus. Fond memories.
I had quite a few erasures today. The only ones of any interest were my SenatorS before SPEECHES as a filibuster component and mooCHERS looking for a free ride.
I'm not sure why I'm not more enchanted with this puzzle. The theme answers are all legitimate wedding phrases. Maybe they're just not wacky enough. PARITY PLANNER is a good catch and MOTHER IN LAWN is cute. CASH BARD and BEAST MAN, not so much.
The clue for 41A, LAW, was good, "What's broken for a record?". I thought first of an LP record, then a sports record.
TWEE TWERPS.
Thanks, Ruth and Hannah!
OMG! 51 years! Congrats @ MissScarlet.
Yeah, Barney was a separate show from Sesame Street. I think you are thinking of Big Bird’s friend Snufflelupagus (sp!).
Upon further contemplation, I obviously have confused Barney with Mr. Snuffleupagus. I believe I read recently that Sesame Street is struggling and may have to, or already has, moved to one of the streaming services. Some of the outtakes from Sesame Street can be pretty humorous, especially when the guest host starts arguing with Kermit about changing his lines or something and then realizes that he or she is arguing with a puppet. In any event, my apologies to Barney, America’s favorite purple bear.
Lol Roo on the grape juice thing. Yeah…I had seen one of the Law & Order episodes several years ago…murder of someone who discovered WINEFRAUD. Apparently you disguise a bottle to look like a rich, wine snob’s dream…like “Chateau Le Stinky Fitte, 1948”. You put in a reasonable facsimile (hah…maybe a $100 version) into the bottle. I guess the real “art” to it is making the corks look old. It’s the type of high level income crime that most people (like me) think….”why would ANYONE pay thousands of $ for a bottle of wine”?
Too funny. I ALSO had the P, and had to do “check puzzle” to see my mistake. I initially had put in PINE-? thinking that MAYBE old tennis rackets were pine. Unfortunately, the FRAUD was filled in through crosses and I never re-visited the fact that pINEFRAUD made zero sense!
After putting in a few replies above I’ll just say that I am among the ones who found this to be a very enjoyable Sunday offering. Also Rafa, I think your commentary/review was very nice and pretty well-balanced given the fact it wasn’t quite your cuppa. Also…your cat DOES look perfect!
In further defense of “orang”, as a biologist I have heard many folks abbreviate orangutan this way. There’s even some etymological justification, as orangutan is from a hyphenated phrase in Malay, orang-utan. And the clue provides fair warning by abbreviating “chimp” similarly. (My only real linguistic pet peeve about this particular ape is when it’s mispronounced “orangutang!”)
Tip for a happy marriage. My wife and I decided early on that no matter how stressful our lives became -- with work, kids, etc., -- we'd go out one night a week for a romantic candlelight dinner. It's been great. She goes on Tuesdays and I go on Fridays.
yep!
Congratulations!
Theme was kinda' meh, but better than nothing... puzzle was ultimately workable, so not complaining...
I seem to have woken up on the wrong side of the grid this morning: I thought the theme was tedious - with the exception of the image of a high-heeled MOTHER IN LAWN and memories of tiptoe-ing across grassy expanses, trying to avoid sinking in. Nice clues for LAW and LEGALESE.
Hi to Rafa's tuxedo cat, who's a nearly identical twin sister to our (male) cat, J.J.
Being that the theme clues all have question marks, there really shouldn't also be non-theme clues with question marks -- pat least not Across clues, like 41A, 46A, 56A and 81A. None of these require "?" clues.
I believe Rex would have called these out.
I don't always see the title, I'm not sure if most don't have titles, or if they don't always appear when you start a puzzle. But I was really stuck until I saw the title and figured out the "extra letter" trick. There's no way I would have finished this without the title. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad feature of a crossword puzzle.
I thought for sure Rex would hate this one, with the relatively simplistic theme. But Rafa is more upbeat! Is 43D supposed to be one of the themer answers... And if so, what is the underlying phrase (WINFRAUD?)? I was also not so happy with XRAYLAB; we in the medical field really do not call where you get x-rays taken an XRAYLAB (at least, I don't).
My wife and I did this with our niece present, who is visiting from Texas. She doesn't get to help or witness this much, since her parents do not do crosswords. So, she was amused!
Enjoyed reading the Ruth-Hannah bio today. Thanks for your puzzle!
Hi Rafa,
Cute Kitty :)
I sped through this when I began, then got hungry, had breakfast, came back & my whoosh was gone. Cute puzzle but as usual I'm going back to find my typo which is a real hassle in a Sunday grid - oh well :(
RAHAL was a WOE otherwise a fun theme. Thank you, Ladies :)
The puzzle was cute but your comment made me LAUGH :)
Yes. No clue as to why. Anyone?
Where's Emily Jo Cureton when you need her: A WORD, VICAR/COCK/PJS -- I can almost picture it.
puzzle theme captured the stress and insanity of a big wedding that's the point! bridezilla in-laws from hell stilettos stuck in wet grass c'mon already methinks this blog has lost all sense of humor
The clue for 34A says ‘cause’ of headaches, so duress of any sort would certainly seem like a valid answer for that clue.
Can we declare AROSE/AWOKE a kea/loa? Got me too!
Per 26 down, Barney is a dinosaur! As a childless dog daddy, not certain, but isn't the purple bear Fozzie?
I don't know why I am always filled with dread when facing a wedding. Mine, 50 years + 3 weeks ago, went fairly well. And we've married off 2 of our 3 sons in the last 7 years without any major snags but still ... Weddings! Aaargh. The stress! The DURESS! And here they are in my Sunday puzzle. But, like the aforementioned celebrations, it all worked out. It was even fun. Thanks for that, Margolins.
Because I'm not a big fan of the commercial, consumerist focus of these occasions, I thought the best themer was 52A GRIFTREGISTRY. Lots of short stuff, some of it difficult but most very helpful. First Sunday in a long time that I have actually liked and I wonder if that's because it's relatable and evoked some fond memories. I don't usually fall for that trap - I'm a borderline cynic - but today it just worked.
You guys are so young... The bride (or groom, I guess) is supposed to wear " something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue..."
About gender reveal
I think that there is a Wedding industry complex that works on ways to convince people to spend more money on weddings. Looking for more opportunities they turned to births .
Amniocentesis led to couples knowing the likely sex of the baby
Some made a party about it but the party industry tried to make it an expensive event. But unfortunately or not, it is a thing now
Did the now familiar AVER/AVOW AROSE /AWOKE thing to mess up the top, but today's biggest duh! was having to get three or four themers to realize the whole thing was wedding-related. I mean, really.
Tried MNOP before LGBT, WINEFRAUD was a WOE, never spell OCASEK right, and DIANA as cilued was another unknown. Almost panicked in the SE, where I was finishing when I hit DIANA, SIRI (mysterious clue), and IRWIN (who?) all jammed together but it worked out.
Hey Rafa--I like your cat. We have a tuxedo too but of a slightly earlier vintage, as he is going on 21. Also, you may not have seen ONER, but it definitely exists in Crosslandia. See also OATER, which I just ran into somewhere.
I liked your Sunday just fine, RBM and HM. Many Really Bright Moments, but actually you Had Me at HADRON, which I was proud to remember. Thanks for all the fun.
Congrats and well done you. We've found that after 50 they just keep coming faster. Enjoy your day.
Wedding phrase: Something OLD, something new, something borrowed , something blue.
(I mentioned the something “borrowed” and loaned a white silk embroidered scarf to the bride. I never got it back! And I never asked for it. Now that the bride and groom are getting divorced , can I ask for it back?)
Well, yep -- pretty basic add-a-letter to get funny business puztheme, all right. Still ... I kinda liked it for the extra plus-one at the wedding stuff slant. sooo ... ok.
Had oodles of non-fun gettin started in the NW, tho. HADRON + ABUELA+ the first still-mysterious themer crossin DUANE was mighty rough sleddin, at our house.
staff weeject pick: MNO. And I also thought that LGBT was gonna be MNOP, at first.
Thought the LEGALESE clue was a clever bonus ?-marker. Actually, I count at least 15 ?-marker clues today. They helped with the solvequest feistiness, but also with the entertainment.
Thanx for gangin up on us, you two Margolin darlins. And congratz to the daughter of the bunch, on her half-debut.
Nice job.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
... it ain't quite WINEFRAUD, but here is a little ...
"Pyramid Scheme" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I really enjoyed it as I usually do when the constructors are women. C'mon ladies! Keep 'em coming! Two Naticks for me were HADRON/DUANE and EXURB/XRAYLAB. Having had many xrays, they have never been in a LAB.
Rafa -- Yes, i DID enjoy seeing the two writeups yesterday. It was a fun accident/mixup.
The answer in the grid, not the clue.
Welp. I commented HERE and several times above (Southside, Roo, Teedmn) and didn’t notice I had “flipped” into Anonymous status! 🙄
Kind of a disappointment after yesterday’s more challenging and for me really enjoyable solve. I was luckier than others yesterday because BOBSLED, (I have two wonderful old pictures of Gran and her German friends on Bobschlitten and once I had BITS, SVELTE and LEWIS, boom!), BARBIE DREAM HOSUSE (it’s what I have been calling my ADU, currently under construction in my kids’ back yard) and PISTOL PETE (he’s my era of hoops stars and was a favorite of mine in high school) were easy and gave me the foothold I needed.
In contrast, today was a little slow and honestly dry. The wedding puns were just “there” with their done a million times in different iterations drop a letter theme that played well, just kind of ho hum.
Some clever clues though. Really liked “what’s broken for a record” for LAW, “lay low” for INTER (favorite!), “where inner truth is seen clearly” for XRAY LAB. Also enjoyed a double nod to The Bard today too! Both R & J and Richard III!
I still long for a funny, clever Sunday with some challenges. Been way too long. This wasn’t a slog by any means but I didn’t need extra coffee. Give me a two pit Sunday, someone.
Well, thank you, Rafa. No one ever mentioned that you could click the “i” icon to see the Sunday theme, so I’ve been doing them blind for the past five years. You’ve changed my life!
If ever a puzzle was crying out for the extra letters to spell out something, it's this one. Otherwise, the extra letters seem kind of random.
Dying over here! Barney is a dinosaur, and Fozzie Bear is brown. Gonzo is blue-purple.
Happy anniversary!
Got a kick out of this write up. Thanks, Rafa!
Hey - just want to reiterate that Jack Sprat ate only fat (his wife could eat no lean) and Bosporus?? Not Bosphorus?
@Gordon Anderson 6:41 PM
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean.
And so between them both, you see,
They licked the platter clean.
And Wikipedia lists both spellings: The Bosporus or Bosphorus Strait.
This puzzle is a letdown because the extra letters do not spell out a snappy revealer. Some of the letters form the word bride but then the letters h, u, a, and n remain with no anagram fun to be had there.
@Egs 9:46 Your Leox, les oxen comment took far too long to get thru to me. (despite I was a French major) Then LOL. Thanks for the fun, as always.
@ Colin 12:26. I thought xraylab was very doubtful. Glad to see your comment.
*raises hand* Natick for me
To Gordon Anderson - It’s the other way around:
Jack Sprat could eat no fat,
His wife could eat no lean.
And so between them both, you see,
They licked the platter clean.
Interesting that Liveprof told an old joke. Yet I still Laighed Out Loud. In that case, probably because I didn’t expect it
The theme answers many complained were blah. But I found I needed a lot of crosses. So again I didn’t know was coming and enjoyed the solve. People didn’t like it but I even liked BEAST MAN.
One little letter and a big change.
I did struggle with certain clues, but I finished. I made an attempt in a long time to do some of the other puzzles in the dead tree edition of the magazine and got nowhere. I can spend over an hour on the dead tree edition of the Sunday crossword but get impatient with the other puzzles.
Here's an interesting New Yorker article from 2007 about an extreme case of wine fraud - someone claiming they found cases of wine meant for Thomas Jefferson !
Me, too!
I did the same using “drag”/“gold” instead of “drab”/“bold”.
Me also
Horrible puzzle. Forced. Bad fill. ONER crossing LENDL is the absolute worst. Nobody has ever heard of "ONER" which was horrendously clued. Having that cross a tennis player from 45 years ago who has an oddly spelled (can't be inferred) last name seems like a tremendously bad editing mistake. This entire puzzle felt like a chore.
It’s Hasidim
Wine fraud is a thing. People collect empty high dollar wine bottles from restaurants, wine bars, etc. and fill them with mediocre wine. Since old vintages have to be re-corked every ten years or so, the “new” cork is expected. This is only done for very pricey vintages.
Ivan Lendl is a Czech/American and that’s how his name is spelled.
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