.png)
Heroine of Tennessee Williams's "Summer and Smoke" / TUE 7-15-25 / Gentlemen's club, colloquially / Competitor of Rao's / Player of the middle son on TV's "The Partridge Family" / "Designing Women" co-star of 1980s-'90s TV / Capital city on the Rideau River / Debt to equity, for example
Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Constructor: Daniel Britt
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- DELTA BURKE (18A: "Designing Women" co-star of 1980s-'90s TV)
- DANNY BONADUCE (28A: Player of the middle son on TV's "The Partridge Family")
- DREW BARRYMORE (49A: "E.T." actress)
- DAVID BOWIE (64A: Singer who starred in "Labyrinth" (1986) and "The Man Who Fell to Earth" (1976)
Dante Daniel Bonaduce (/ˈbɒnəˈduːtʃiː/; born August 13, 1959) is an American retired radio personality, actor, television personality and professional wrestler. Bonaduce is the son of veteran TV writer and producer Joseph Bonaduce (The Dick Van Dyke Show, That Girl, One Day at a Time and others).Bonaduce became famous as a child actor of the 1970s on the TV sitcom The Partridge Family. He co-starred as Danny Partridge, the wisecracking, redheaded middle son of the singing family band (headed by Shirley Jones) and he portrayed the fictional pop group's bass guitar player. Since then, Bonaduce has starred in several other TV series, including the VH1 reality show Breaking Bonaduce in 2005, has done radio shows in Los Angeles and Philadelphia and hosted a morning talk/music show at Seattle radio station KZOK-FM from 2011 to 2023.
• • •
As for NUDIE BAR ... well, it's a debut, so there's that. Congratulations? I guess I should be grateful that the far far more popular term for such an establishment wasn't in the grid (TITTY BAR googles roughly 10x better than NUDIE BAR, a term last heard (probably) in a 1992 episode of Married ... With Children). I wouldn't have minded NUDIE SUIT. Those suits are iconic and (bonus!) have nothing to do with the objectification of women. There's something about the cutesiness and datedness of "NUDIE" that rubs me the wrong way. STRIP CLUB wouldn't have been 1/10th as irksome. The only other interesting answer the grid has to offer is WIRE MESH, which is fine, but not exactly exciting (42D: Laticed metal used in construction and fencing). Otherwise, it's just ABU ALMA OVA TSAR LYRA IAGO NOGO EGAD YULES (plural!) ATAD MSN ILE DDAY KWAI ING ECOL E-I-E-I-O all the way home.
[NUDIE SUITS!]
Had real trouble getting started (unusual for a Tuesday!) because of MASS, which feels very very wrong for its clue (1A: Neighbor of Vt. and N.H.). You're using two-letter state codes in the clue for a four-letter non-code that (unlike the examples in the clue) you commonly say out loud, as its own word. I figured that at four letters, the answer would maybe be a Canadian province (?) and I wrote SASK. in there, even as I was thinking "that's ... farther west, isn't it?") (it is) (VT and NH abut QUÉBEC). Worse was the heroine of the Tennessee Williams play that I have literally never heard of (2D: Heroine of Tennessee Williams's "Summer and Smoke"). Summer and Smoke? What is that? Look, it's Tuesday, and ALMA is never gonna be great fill, no matter how you clue it, so just give me [___ mater] and leave it at that, OK? Once I got out of the NW, though, things leveled off and overall the puzzle played pretty normal (i.e. easyish) for a Tuesday. If you didn't know the actor names, then I imagine it played a little differently.
Bullets:
- 40A: Auto-___, setting for many subscription services (RENEW) — it's convenient ... until you want to unsubscribe. Then it's tyrannical. I have had to go to absurd lengths to cancel actual magazine subscriptions before. My friend Shaun was getting Martha Stewart's magazine until it went digital-only, but instead of stopping the subscription, the company switched her to a different lifestyle mag and she couldn't (easily) figure out how to unsubscribe and so now she just gets Midwest Living or some such photo-heavy sponsored-content-type thing (OK, Midwest Living was actually kinda cool; they had a whole thing on the U.P. (Upper Peninsula, MI) that made us (Great Lakes fans) want to go there immediately). I'm going to spend part of today trying to unsubscribe from at least one magazine that has been auto-RENEWing. Wish me luck!
- 60A: First basic cable show to win an Emmy for Outstanding Drama Series (MAD MEN) — I forget how old this show is now (it started 18 years ago this week). "Basic cable" does not include premium cable like HBO–otherwise the answer to this clue would've been The Sopranos (2004). MAD MEN won in '08, '09, '10 and '11.
- 8D: Capital city on the Rideau River (OTTAWA) — I had no idea. I am woefully under-Canadafied in my geographical education. I know that rideau means "curtain" in French and that's all I know about Rideau (which apparently means "a small ridge of mound of earth" in English).
- 56D: Competitor of Rao's (RAGU) — I had never heard of RAO (apostrophe "s") before it appeared in a puzzle one day and I said "never heard of it" and the comments exploded with "how could you not blah blah blah" and then yeah the next time I went to the grocery store there was a wall of it and we have it in our house now so sometimes your blind spots are actually right in front of your face. Weird.
Happy to be back home and back on the blog for another 2+ weeks (before I head out for my last vacation of the summer, to see my family in CA). Thanks once again to Christopher and Rafa and Mali for doing such good work while I was gone to MN to visit my daughter at her current place of employment (the Great River Shakespeare Festival in Winona, MN). I got to see an unexpectedly hilarious production of Comedy of Errors (not a play I expected much from, tbh), as well as an innovative production of Romeo & Juliet, at which I had not one but two people come up and introduce themselves and tell me how much they liked the blog (!), so that was a treat (hi Dustin, hi Melissa). More about my trip later. Or not. Who knows? See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
- Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)]
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️
- Boswords (Boston) (Sun. July 27, 2025)
- Lollapuzzoola 18 (NYC) (Sat., Aug. 9, 2025)
- Midwest Crossword Tournament (Chicago) (Sat., Oct. 4, 2025)
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Save And Share :
98 comments:
MESA is a Sonoran Desert NATICK
Very nice Tuesday puzzle with a theme that helped the solve (hurray!). Didn't know DELTABURKE or DANNYBONADUCE, but the crosses sufficed.
Somewhat surprisingly, I held my own with the PPP theme, missing only DELTABURKE. It didn’t really enhance the solve though, which was somewhat tedious. MADMEN, SERE and MEDICI were an impenetrable blockade for me, preventing entry into that SE corner - no fun when you have “either you know it or you don’t” items like MEDICI and MADMEN blocking access to the reveal.
A total cop out by the constructor (and even more so on the editor) leaving the absurd NUDIE BAR in there - it contributes nothing, and oh, by the way - nobody ever says that (seems like I have heard that phrase a time or two before when reading these comments).
This one may have had potential, but the usual cadre of unforced errors pretty much sunk it for me.
Seems an OK puzzle but won’t set the world on fire. At one time or another all the names were household items except BONADUCE that I had to get from the crosses. Good choice for word of the day to raise from obscurity. NUDIEBAR was a bit of an old-time giggle, pretty far off the radar even in the old days.
I enjoyed the revealer, it’s exactly the kind of “here’s a fun thing these theme answers have in common” I expect in a Monday or Tuesday puzzle. I knew it would be something about their initials but couldn’t figure out what.
Had TITTY BAR before NUDIE BAR, probably because I just rewatched KILL BILL when Michael Madsen died and that’s how he refers to the place where he is a bouncer. Somehow got DANNY BONADUCE even though I’ve never seen The Partridge Family, but kept spacing on DREW BARRYMORE’S name even though I could picture her and easily think of a half-dozen movies she’s been in. I’m in my fifties and only know the name DANNY BONADUCE as a punchline reference from some 80s stand-up comedy, so I’m curious as to how this puzzle plays to younger people.
Well, here's the Monday puzzle we should have gotten yesterday.
IRkS/IRES, Peel/PARE, and NewB/NOOB were the only things that put up any fight at all.
I loved the sing-song answers KABUKI, EIEIO, NOGO, BLOOPS, RUBADUB, ABU, and maybe throw in IAGO.
Was happy to have a long answer – DANNY BONADUCE – that I never heard of, to titillate my brain’s workout ethic. DANNY I could infer, but BONADUCE was all crosses.
I love the backstory of how Daniel came up with this theme, a joke nascent in his head for a quarter century turned into a crossword. And how he persisted through multiple iterations to improve it.
I liked seeing many answers that sound like other words: CIAO, SARI, KNEAD, GILD, DRE.
And of course, I loved the “Hah!” that came out of me when I uncovered IMDB.
Thus, much feel-good permeating the box today, a sweet gift. Thank you for this, Daniel, and WTG on your Times debut!
Medium. Pretty much on point for Tuesday-level difficulty.
Overwrites:
My 22A new oil was wind before it was DATA
At 38A, my blowout game was a ROut before it was a ROMP
No WOEs, but when I read the clue for 28A I thought "I'm supposed to know an actor in a show I maybe watched twice that went off the air over half a century ago?" Then with most of it in place from crosses, here comes DANNY BONADUCE, bounding out of my synapses.
I didn’t mind the puzzle at all but I always enjoy it when Rex takes great umbrage at what to me was an innocuous puzzle.
I assume you heard that Trump’s FTC just killed Biden’s Click-to-Cancel initiative that would have gone into effect last week, and would have made it much easier to cancel subscriptions, etc. We can’t possibly make things easier for regular people, can we.
Never commented before, but I feel the criticism is way too harsh. Takes a lot of effort to make the theme work. Danny B. Was very much a household name for a decade, though mostly for off screen reasons. I really enjoyed thi one. Have a great day all.
I also was bugged by that start off the puzzle with a two letter abbreviations vs. four letter elision incongruity, even thought to myself 'oh, Rex isn't going to like this' ;-)
GREAT PUZZLE!
Big fan of The DBs ..enjoyed that clip better than the puzzle solving experience.
IMDB does cast a very wide net these days. I'm even listed there and I just had a brief role in a now deleted web series (although the trailer is still up).
After several days of upbeat sunny reviews, I was actually looking forward to a mini rant--welcome back Rex!
Nice puzzle with a great (meta) revealer- good one DB! Basically a Late Boomer/GenX nostalgia tour from the '70s and '80s.The hot ladies of Designing Women, the Partridge Family (with a hot mama), ET, and Major Tom! Even those of us raised with traditional tastes found Bowie intriguing.
Imagine that many agreed with RP about the auto-renew headache. I'm down to two that I can't get rid of, but the bureaucracy involved seems like something the communists had a hand in creating.There's a whole industry built up around ditching time-shares, maybe they can pivot into ending subscriptions!
Week is starting out well, let's keep it going NYT
I feel really old! Knew DELTABURK and DannyB and the other two! Well, I’m 89! Easy puzzle for me today.
After DELTABURKE and DANNYBONADUCE, two people from shows I never watched but was vaguely aware of, I saw the DB initials thing. Ms. BARRYMORE and Mr. BOWIE were at least familiar and the revealer was OK. Nice to fine out what IMDB stands for, one of those things I've seen but never bothered to find out about.
Off to a flying start, an advantage of living in NH, where MA is often referred to as MASS, and it's the only neighbor we have in common with VT except Quebec. Also knew OTTAWA right away. I guess OFL has never been skating on the Rideau Canal. Well, neither have I, but I've been there in the winter and seen it done. Lovely city.
UBERX is a TIL and no, I have never seen MADMEN but I'm sure there are plenty of folks here who will tell me that I should/have to. and thanks for your advice, but I don't think so.
Pretty sure the inspiration for this was the constructor's own initials, which is fine, it's his puzzle.. I Don't Blame you for doing this DB, but I'm sorry Daniel Boone couldn't get in somehow. Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
Hey All !
Well, Dad Blasted!
Good on Daniel Britt for stealthily getting a puz in with his initials! Was he told to Do Better?
Easy, with some nice entries, KABUKI for one. Interesting how Daniel saw IMDB, and said, "Hey, I Am DB! I need to make a puz out of that!"
NUDIE BARS are everywhere, a lot of people (mostly men, but some women, too) hang out in them. They exist, get over it. Everyone is different. Things you may think are crass, someone else likes. The nature of humanity.
Anyway, nice puz for a Tuesday. Nice get, DB!
Have a great one!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
The top half played much harder than the bottom because I didn't know the themers there. DREW BARRYMORE was easy with DR- and -ORE, and after I got the revealer DAV- had to be DAVID BOWIE.
As a non-American, I wonder if there's any difference in using an abbreviation like Vt. or N. H. instead of just state codes.
NUDIE BAR?! D made sense at 5D x 18A, but I only put it in after the revealer confirmed it. DELTA didn't feel enough like a human proper name during the solve. Only the airline came to mind.
I didn't like this at all. BTW Rao's is owned by Campbell's Soup... Really!!!
Over the years, artists DREWBARRYMORE than all of the other Bee Gees combined.
@Lewis surely will have noted ATAD crossing its mirror image.
IAN exemplar of leniency AMOK with IMDB as the revealer, although "parsing" as used in the revealer clue doesn't seem to be quite what is going on here, as you have to insert an apostrophe (IM vs. I'M) or a letter (M vs. AM). But close enough for playing horseshoes with hand grenades. Thanks, DB.
Nobody calls it a NUDIE BAR. It's TITTYBAR or STRIPJOINT.
Moving through the top of the puzzle, this seemed a little hard for a Tuesday; I didn't get "debt to equity," didn't know what a "thin auric layer" was, didn't recognize the Rideau River...but by chipping away and getting the crosses, I finished pretty easily. I'm sure some had trouble with Delta and Danny, but I remember them. Cute clue for EARS ("Notable features of elves and basset hounds") and the IMDB theme was clever.
I’m not hesitant to admit that I’m not a youngin’ so the names in this were all known and the whole thing played pretty easy, just filling in short crosswordese in-between the old folk names. But that doesn’t make up for the fact that this is not what the puzzle should be doing. Playing old fashioned, out of date, formerly popular names is just stodgy and dull. One sees a lot of similar constructors allowed to actually be sparkling interesting and fun in places like the New Yorker so it is pretty obvious it is the editing, for all, the modernizing they have done, that is is insistent on remaining stuck in the past.
I enjoy your write-ups, Lewis. You always point out positive things about the puzzle that I haven't noticed!
im 36 and know Danny Bonaduce from watching his reality show, “Breaking Bonaduce”, on VH1 as a teen!
There's a moment in Roger Rabbit when the evil judge coaxes Roger out of hiding by using his cane to tap out the rhythm, "Shave and a haircut ...", knowing that the rabbit can't resist adding "TWO BITS!" That's how I felt about, "Rub-a dub ...". It left me wanting to scream the missing "DUB"!
Sweet puzzle. No junk, smart cluing, neat theme.
Had clad for gild messed me up
There is! The two-letter postal codes (all caps with no periods) are really only supposed to be used when you're actually mailing something (or listing a mailing address), at least if you're following AP Style (which I do for work). The codes used in ths puzzle are the legit AP abbreviations for those states, as is "Mass.," so I had no issue with this clue.
One year, I created a massive kerfuffle at work by switching us from the postal abbreviations for states to the AP Style abbrevations for states in our Commencement program book. The saga lasted for days (no joke) and I ultimately prevailed.
Oh come on... this was fun! I was gleeful when I saw Danny Bonaduce's full name in the puzzle. Growing up in the 70s, the Partridge Family was absolutely iconic. Drew and Bowie are still iconic. Delta was easy enough to get from crosses. At first I wanted to put in Della Reese, but RUBADUB, which is SUCH a fun answer, helped me get it. I definitely remember knowing her name back then, and that enabled me to start seeing the theme.
And I love that a guy named DB saw this huge website named IMDB coming up in searches and news articles for years, and has lived with that internal joke in his head every time. And then, decades later, he managed to turn it into a crossword and get it published in the NYT so we all got to get in on his joke. That's so cool!
Mesa, AZ: half a million people, 37th largest American city
I originally had DELlAreesE , I knew it was wrong. She was in Touched By an Angel, but Delta's name didn't come to mind at first. Once I got the theme it was easy. I knew all the players. Had no idea on 20A the Japanese genre. Got it from the crosses. I don't get why Rex has a problem with the theme, "I am DB" thought it was cute. And the constructor is a DB to boot. Nice Tuesday.
Also... there's a certain hijacker named Cooper who would definitely say IMDB.
The title of this puzzle should be: "D.B. Names, Very Long Ones, Two of Which Nancy Never Heard Of."
No, no, no, no. Do not build an entire puzzle around long names that may be exceedingly obscure. Especially when they have the same initials that you do. Inside joke or ego trip? I can't really decide.
OTOH, the constructor has come up with a really apt revealer. So there's that.
I was taken aback by 5D. In my book, anyone who patronizes a NUDIE BAR is no "gentleman".
But actually, I enjoyed everything else in the puzzle -- everything that wasn't DELTA, DANNY, DREW or DAVID. There was some un-Tuesdayish crunch. It's just the names. Puzzles like this are guaranteed to become dated by six in the evening. Seven a.m. tomorrow at the very latest.
No I didn't -- lovely catch!
Medium for me until halfway down, as I didn't know DELTA BURKE or DANNY BONADUCE; then things went more quickly. Since I was familiar with only one of the five shows and movies, I missed out on the happy memories associated with favorite shows others have mentioned. I had to dig pretty deep for my smile of the day, imagining NOGO as IAGO's more cautious sibling.
*SPOILER ALERT* for yesterday's puzzle:
@Liveprof, my spouse surprised me by being able to fill almost all of the grid. Remaining for a further session today are squares in the crossing of PRETZEL BUN and TOMEI with EMO and RAZZIE, in THE RED PONY, and in STYLES. But I noticed there are a few mistakes to sort out, too.
I thought this was clever and fun, just right for a Tuesday. As I was entering the theme answers, I was wondering what on earth is going to be the thing that draws these together. IMDB never entered my mind, but it’s perfect and hilarious IMO - a haha moment if you will.
I did not even notice the constructor had the same initials until RP mentioned it. I loved your first NYT puzzle, Daniel Britt. Please don’t let it be your last.
I had Delta Reese for a while.
Was Iago a “conspirator”? To have a conspiracy, you have to have at least two people conspiring together. My recollection of that play (which I saw just a couple of months ago) is that Iago acted alone. Sure, Emilia helped by passing on Desdemona’s handkerchief to him, but she didn’t know what purpose he intended to use it for, so I don’t think that makes her a co-conspirator.
Yes, IMDB once stood for Internet Movie Database when it was first created in the early days of the internet by a bunch of film nerds as a truly cooperative venture (the wikipedia of the movie world), But that hasn't been the case since Amazon bought the site in 1998 and gradually shifted it from an amateur nerd site into a professionally managed and profit making company. And the company is, and has been for quite some time, IMDB - not Internet Movie Database, but just IMDB. It stands for nothing; it just is. And long, long ago television programs, actor and crews were added to IMDB sharing the same status as films and their personnel.
But ranters rant.
I'm gonna hypothesize that this is regional. I've heard predominantly strip club with the occasional nudie bar.
Well, we know he's still out there and still in hiding since 1971. Perhaps his omission from this puzzle will draw him in from the cold to demand recognition.
Would have loved DANNY BOYLE in place of DEBRA BURKE. A bit more relevant given this year's release of "25 Years Later."
So, a completely PPP-based theme. Well that’s gonna play really well with this crowd, isn’t it? But maybe it’s OK because all the themers are ancient.
I solved downs-only and once I figured out DREWBARRYMORE from a handful of crossing downs the whole thing just fell into place. Even though I never watched Golden Girls or The Partridge Family, I’ve heard of DELTABURKE and DANNYBONADUCE. I’ve seen the two DAVIDBOWIE movies (both pretty good) and E.T.. Hard not to notice the DB repetition so, when I reached the bottom right corner of the grid, IMDB was obvious.
Other mouldy oldie references: The Bridge on the River KWAI, 1957, and MADMEN. Has it only been ten years since it took its final bow? Somehow seems longer. It was a great show.
Got lucky in a few places, like at 20A where I had __BUKI and asked myself, “What the hell else could it be?” But is it really a Tuesday answer? Also ALMA at 2D. Who clues ALMA with a Tennessee Williams reference this early in the week? Weird. I liked it but … weird.
OK, the creative part of this theme is noticing that IMDB can be read as "I am D.B." Then it's just a matter of finding the right actors (or movie titles, or directors, etc.) and constructing an interesting grid. The grid does have some good stuff-- I love KABUKI--but some of it has problems. The clue for DRE is too convoluted; Drs. do not generally have their own labs, they send samples out to one (or send patients to one), so it was hard to figure out what was going on there -- I thought maybe somebody who did science experiments on TV, but once I had DR_ the E was inevitable. (And I just learned for the first time that DRE and DRÉ are different people.)
but the solving experience was not so hot. I knew DAVID BOWIE from the clue, and I knew DREW BARRYMORE existed, so I could guess her from a few crosses; but I never herd of DANNY BONADUCE or the improbably named DELTA BURKE. Having all proper names for your themers doesn't strike me as a good idea.
As for those nonsense syllables, I might say them in a tub, or I could say them in a hub. I could say them in a club, for that matter. I did like having RUB A DUB next to ABU, though.
All baseball hits follow arcs, so the clue for BLOOPS was regrettable. I've fished for years, usually with flies, but if I'm using BAITS I'm going to put them on the hook, not the line. And while I've heard a lot about MAD MEN, I certainly don't know what channel it is or was on, let along whether that channel was "basic." Doesn't that depend on how your cable service packages things?
On the other hand, I was really happy to see Alec Guinness with a non-Star Wars clue, especially since I taught myself to whistle using the theme song of that movie.
I've never considered myself a gentleman, since I don't hang out in NUDIE CLUBS.
I’m with you. I liked the puzzle and the theme. I just had to double check the spelling of Danny’s last name.
Easy except for tracking down a typo.
I did not know ALMA and OTTAWA (as clued).
I’m kinda with @Rex on this one.
Me too
i personally think Rex missed the theme… it’s “IMDB” as in “I AM DB”, the website name just made it funny and cute.
Just faintly recalled the DELTABURKE name. DANNYBONADUCE was a total no-know. Other two themers were well-known to m&e.
Cool revealer with a unique constructioneer name tie-in. Different. Gotta like different.
staff weeject pick [of only 8 choices]: ING. Hardly a debut runt "word", tho. Even has the Patrick Berry Usage Immunity.
some fave stuff: NUDIEBAR. KABUKI. RUBADUB. ATAD/DATA. IMDB/NOOB [since this was a debut constructioneer].
Thanx, Mr. Britt dude. Nice debut. Lotsa other IM?? words to go, if U wanna start a series ... IMAX awaits!
Masked & Anonymo8Us
... and now for a fresh-smellin runt ...
"De Order Runt' - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Calling someone a DB is also slang for Douche Bag which added an extra layer of amusement when solving. Imagine someone proclaiming “I am douche bag!”. I’ll now always think of that when I end up on IMDB.
I thought it was cute, and the revealer made me chuckle. That’s exactly what I expect from a Tuesday puzzle.
Well, I'm not under 40 (81, actually), but I've never heard of DANNY BONADUCE or DELTA BURKE. I generally agree with Rex's evaluation (or is is EVAL) of the puzzle, but I think he's off on three points. The state abbreviations have been dealt with; but banish ALMA except for mothers? You can get enough varied clues out of the career of ALMA Mahler to last a lifetime. As for OTTAWA, I've been there many times and I've never known the name of that river either--but why do you need to? It's a river with a French name, and the answer is obviously not Paris or Brussels, so OTTAWA would be your best bet; I did have the O already, which helped.
I think to some degree most people of a certain age , at least me, think of the partridge family actors as “household names”. Puzzle was a slog for me. Too much PPP and not enough of a meaningful revealer.
For what it’s worth … on the IMDB web site, DELTA BURKE is credited with 62 appearances, predominantly as a television actor, the most recent being 2019. DANNY BONADUCE has 61, with his latest role as voice of the lead character in an animated Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, just released in March of this year.
Some may say cartoons don’t count, but as a doting aunt with a four-year-old nephew, I can honestly say that some of those animated films are excellent and really fun to watch. Not to mention that the merchandising provides endless easy choices for gift giving where I might otherwise be scratching my head for ideas.
It's days like today, when I spend more time looking for my typo than I did solving the puzzle, that I miss my hard copy of the NYT :(
Congrats on your debut, Daniel (DB) & welcome back, Rex :)
“Do people under 40 even know who DELTA BURKE and DANNY BONADUCE are?“
no, and as such, i was doomed by having DELTA BUReE and IReS in my grid. in retrospect, Buree would be a pretty weird last name, but Delta’s a weird first name. and idk i thought it was french or something lol
Also,
Red Robin ...
Roo
Get out more, Nancy. Please. The stuff you don't know is common.
This comment was by me, Carola. I keep forgetting to check whether Blogger has made me Anonymous before I comment.
I was expecting the review to link to a clip of Chief Wiggum consulting psychic Princess Opal on a case, only to find out that "I'm afraid it's splitsville for Delta Burke and Major Dad."
I guess not everyone has had the same quotes stuck in their head for three decades, though. (I better stop remembering TV and get back to work.)
Impressive! Thanks for the report! You were right about Marisa.
I am of the age that I wrote a an actual fan letter to Danny Bonnaduce. So excited to see his name in the puzzle! I am probably the only person to say that.
I, for one, quite liked your rant. A rather civilized one, actually, and informative.
IMDB ➡️ I’m D.B. is a great find! And I wouldn’t harsh the constructor for being self-indulgent. Seems like a gift from the grid gods. If I constructed a grid with my initials, you’d be slogging through a puzzle themed around Barthes’ S/Z. When life gives you lemons…. BTW, the tag line for IMDb is “Ratings, Reviews, and Where to Watch the Best Movies & TV Shows. So Burke and Bonaduce totally work.
Now NUDIEBAR is another episode….
Summer and Smoke is the first play I ever read - I think I was 11 or 12. My older sister brought it home for an assignment for her High School English class. So I was delighted to see Alma clued this way!
I'll echo what JT said, I love that you, "accentuate the positives!" Thanks!
IMDb ➡️ I’m D.B. is a great find! I wouldn’t harsh the constructor on being self-indulgent. It’s a gift from the grid gods! When life gives you lemons… If I pulled off a puzzle with my initials, you’d be slogging through a Barthes’ S/Z-themed grid. BTW: the subtitle for IMDb is Ratings, Reviews, and Where to Watch the Best Movies & TV Shows, so Burke and Bonaduce are bona fide!
Now NUDIEBAR is another episode…
Am I the only one who entered GILT and then wondered how TATA is "the new oil"? I never heard that expression in my 50+ year career in data processing.
BLOOPS was a blooper.
Jberg, I totally missed the BAITS thing. For at least 50 years I've fished exclusively with flies. I don't think I've speared a worm onto a hook since I was 12 years old. So I think of attaching a fly to a line (actually to a tippet attached to a leader, but that's just an extension of the line, right?) but a bait to a hook. I will confess to one breach of my no bait rule: once, while fishing the Bow River in Calgary during hopper season, a friend and I wondered if, instead of using flies crafted of deer hair and feathers, we might catch more trout using real grasshoppers. So I got up early the next morning, while the dew was still heavy in the long grass and harvested a half dozen of the lethargic creatures, let them dry off a bit, and Crazy glued them to some dry fly hooks. I had a pretty decent day but my friend Doug hooked just as many big browns on traditional patterns. Didn't bother to repeat the experiment.
Speaking of the actor, the newly released documentary, "Alec Guinness: A Class Act" is excellent. I watched it on Acorn. IMDB may tell you where else you can stream it.
Did this DB fellow purposely include the annoying 1D fill? I refraing from repeating it here.
It could so easily been avoided. Just for instance, Across: MASS, ALTA, SLAT; Down: MASK, ALLA, STAB.
Wow, I just 10 minutes ago read an article in Popular Mechanics where two people are claiming he was their Dad under a new name (not a D. B.).
I'm often complaining about the names, but they weren't too bad here, of course aside from the theme which is all names that I have at least heard of. The Partridge Family was a huge part of my childhood... I bought all their albums, and even today some of their songs still sound pretty good (eg She'd Rather Have the Rain) so Danny was a gimme.
I visited OTTAWA in 1993 as part of (ironically) my grand USA tour. It was the only major Canadian city I hadn't seen, so I just popped up from northern New York and actually quite liked it! It was probably the most bilingual city because it is right on the Quebec border; French very common in the downtown.
Yes, Southside, NUDIEBAR is absurd and nobody says that - except in crosswords, of course. I had a colleague at the newspaper where I worked - an award winning photographer - who used to do his day's assignments and then stop into a a certain place on his way home and file his best shots back to the photo desk while enjoying a cold beer. Also the show. Women in various states of undress gyrating onstage. He hardly noticed. It was like background music for him. He called it a "peeler bar". He hardly looked up from his work and he seemed comfortable there. I know this because we used to fish together and, after a week on the road deceiving high-IQ trout, I would be driving him home and he would suggest stopping for a beer at one of his fave places. He knew every peeler bar in the metro Vancouver area. He was, by the way, the guy that introduced me to the NYTXWord puzzle. RIP Bags. But NUDIEBAR, no.
ncmathsadist
The phrase “nobody calls it a……”
Is very dangerous one, especially here. We are dealing with a very large country with significant regional and class differences. One thing I learned from this blog is that there are a lot of words and expressions I never heard of that many here know. So the odds are very high that a person using that opening line is wrong
I have heard the answer in the puzzle, never use, like Kitshef.
Bill
Well Anonymous just below you disagrees.
I avoided the Partridge Family like the plague and I am in my’70’. So crosses were needed but he has remained a part of popular culture and I probably read about him somewhere. I think the others are known beyond Boomers and older GenXers.
Nancy
FWIW
Over time there were attempts to come up with euphemisms for strip clubs. Etc. “Gentlemen’s Club” was the most successful. so that it is almost never used for anything else these days, ironically enough.
C. Needham. Les S More
Completely agree about IMDB
Proper names and initialisms are gunk to be used as a last resort. Why on earth would anyone make gunk a theme?!
Yeah, there's an obvious reason why they make canceling an auto-RENEW subscription similar to solving a multi-level ESCAPE ROOM game, right? If I were having an issue unsubscribing to issues, I would go to my pay source, my credit card company, checking account or whatever, and pull the plug from that end. That should do the trick.
I never know most of the popular culture stuff in puzzles so have to depend on crosses to fill those in. I was able to do that for this puzz so nothing out of the ordinary there. I'm much better at knowing things like 4D "What NASA's Cassini probe orbited for 13 years" is SATURN and 20A KABUKI is the "Japanese theatrical genre". xwordinfo.com tells me that KABUKI has appeared 10 times over the years while the other theatrical genre NOH has appeared 81 times.
I greatly enjoyed my two years in Japan in the 80s but you couldn't pay me to sit through a KABUKI or NOH production. Not my cup of Ocha.
Omg…I am laughing at my desk remembering this! Thank you :)
Les S More
Definitely old!
I first saw Bridge on the River Kwai as a young child when my father, a WW II veteran ( although not in Burma) wanted to see the movie and took the family to a drive-in. I actually liked it and wasn’t traumatized by it. The whistled tune is imbedded in my brain. Since then historians have criticized it extensively. But it as a 1950’s Hollywood color spectacle designed to draw people away from their TV sets it works.
@Les, yes "peeler bar" is definitely what people (especially people who... let's say... may wish to patronize them) call them in BC.
In Penticton we had a rather famous one called Slack Alice's which burned down years ago. I once met someone in San Francisco who, as soon as I mentioned where I lived, said "say, is that strip club still there... something Alice's?"
My one comment today is how much I can rely on the balance between OFL and our friend @Lewis, whose upbeat and and positive takes on the day’s offering should always remind us to look look for some sweet with the bitter.
The solve left me A TAD cold, and I had to look for the theme. Spent a while trying to figure out in movies each theme name appeared. Other than Ms. BARRYMORE, I really struggled. No problem identifying the actor names, but the IMDB reveal seemed weak given that its M stands for “movies” and then it clicked. My brain suddenly heard “I am DB” and I got the self-reference from our debut constructor.
So OK, one’s first acceptance by the NYT of a puzzle indeed deserves huge kudos. Sincere Congratulations. I’m just not a huge fan of “the debut brag” here. Didn’t add anything to my enjoyment, in fact it detracted.
The effort it must have taken for Daniel Britt to use IMDB as a theme just because it works with his initials possibly hoping that it has enough “oh, that’s clever” impact to get a debut puzzle over the publication finish line IRKS me.
Rex went on a rant but I ‘m DB from multiple commenters should answer it. Nothing wrong with the theme in my opinion either. Ironically, IMBDwas a trouble spot for me because I in no way expected that answer. David Bowie was my only gimme of the themers Drew Barrymore came quickly and the other 2 a little longer. They both were in the recesses of my brain.
The puzzle was easy for me. I liked it.
River Kwai brought back a childhood memory as I told Les S More above. (My father took my family to see it at a drive-in, in the late 1950’s )
I don’t care if I (or you) know the names or not. Not the point. The point is that what can just be googled should be minimized in a X-word puzzle, imho.
Please get over this. It wasn't even clued as a name. It's getting ridiculous.
Ooh, ooh, ooh! I think I've been there. Bags and I were fishing the Kettle, north of Rock Creek, and he suggested we make a slight detour through your lovely little city on the way back to the coast because he knew a great place fir a cold beer and a little "entertainment".
Quitar la piel ... it puts the lotion in the basket. EGAD. (It's not antiquated. I use it all the time.)
Puzzle seemed fine. 🦖 seems overly fixated on the M being for movies on IMDB, but I am overly fixated on the site being too much info and not enough pictures of cats. I just searched for my own initials {IMGJ} and Gert Johnson in Norway makes music under the GJ handle. I didn't click on any of his songs because somehow I suspect I don't need them in my life. Also, there was an Inter-Ministerial Group for Justice (IMGJ) in the UK that met once in 2023, but maybe they decided there was plenty of justice. So maybe not so great IMGJers. There's slim pickin's for famous GJ people so I think the DB people are slaying.
I think you can run AMOK good and run AMOK bad. I also think those of you needing an extra DUB while rubbing in a tub are my kinda people. As for being a DORK, I've been one my whole life and I am far from socially awkward. That clue felt like the clue writer had watched too many coming of age films from the 80s.
I do remember the row over RAO, and like 🦖, I now keep some around. I like the spicy arrabbiata the best. I also like snorkeling. I do not like fishing or baiting the hook since I was seven years old and murdered a worm and then caught that one fish and my dad taught me how to murder it too.
I'm wondering if the Sonoran sere-ity is unique or similar to Albuquerquean sere-ness.
Always seems like a poor idea to build a puzzle around names. If I've learned anything from reading this blog, y'all don't know everything and everyone and we get kinda grumpy when a puzzle points it out. On the other hand, you seem suspiciously comfy with Asian cooking ingredients. This puzzle is no more "namey" than many non-name-based puzzles we endure, and there's plenty of tee-hee-ery to capture the whimsy of our slush pile editor.
People: 9
Places: 5
Products: 7
Partials: 4
Foreignisms: 4
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 29 of 78 (37%)
Funnyisms: 1 🤨
Tee-Hee: SMUT. ROMP. RUB A DUB. And on the topic of NUDIE BAR, why would we possibly care if it is an older term? This is the NYTXW and they're typically not current on anything. Some on this blog, with their well earned reputation for being less than humorous, might call it "a concrete block building where alcohol is served while patrons give tip money to those removing articles of clothing generally located in industrial zones of mid-to-large sized cities," while I like the term "Naked Wiggle Room." Whatever you call it, make sure you call me when you go because I'll have the time left over from not writing a uniclue for NUDIE BAR WOMB.
Uniclues:
1 What lines the pockets of rent-a-boat purveyors in resort villages.
2 Pay no heed to Beetlejuice.
3 A lover of YouTube outtake videos.
4 Oh no, the Russian court jester goes too far.
1 REEF WADS
2 SNUB NAMED EVIL
3 ONE FOR E-BLOOPS
4 IRKS TSAR, EGAD!
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Crossword constructor passionate about the word HAY. GRID BALE CHAMP.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Rex gives his honest take, with “bitter” and “sweet” as warranted. Lewis gives only “sweet.” I understand your point, but it’s an ungenerous, one-sided representation of what Rex actually does.
As a Tucsonan, I was incredibly excited to see Sonoran desert and heartbroken that the answer was only 4 letters and not 6
Check out the NYT puzzle from Tuesday, 10/29/19...
Anon 12:05 -- I should get out more? It sounds like the people who knew the first two DBs didn't get out at all. It sounds as though they hung around in their pajamas all day watching TV.
Watching the Partridge Family and Designing Women on television is hardly my idea of "getting out." If it's yours, you have my sympathy.
No complaints here. Much of what bothered OFL and others, I found quite charming. Kudos Daniel for creating a theme around your initials! I find no conceit in that, only creativity.
Yes there was a bunch of short fill but so what?
Of course it helped that I knew all the themers, well, DELTABURKE I needed to work on a bit, but I thought the theme itself was the upper end of good to very good for a Tuesday and the revealer was just fine.
Maybe a couple of weak spots with YULES (plural?) and 66D ING clued as Verb suffix, but a constructor's gotta do what a constructor's gotta do. I think it all worked out just fine. I think I saw this was a debut - nice work Daniel!
Theme was meh, but I was happy to see MUSK clued as a scent versus the zillionaire DORK.
Post a Comment