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Relative difficulty: Very easy
Theme answers:
- MUSIC NOTES (17A: A, B and C but not X, Y and Z) ("A" "B" and "C" look like mere letters of the alphabet, but aren't)
- BLOOD TYPES (60A: A+ and B-, but not F) ("A+" and "B-" look like grades, but aren't)
- CHEMICAL SYMBOLS (40A: He and I, but not she and you) ("He" and "I" look like pronouns, but aren't)
- POSTAL CODES (11D: MA and MS, but not BA and BS) ("MA" and "MS" look like degrees, but aren't)
- GENERATIONS (25D: X, Y and Z, but not A, B and C) (A" "B" and "C" look like mere letters of the alphabet ... but aren't)
Amanda Michelle Seyfried (/ˈsaɪfrɛd/ SY-fred; born December 3, 1985) is an American actress and singer. Her accolades include a Primetime Emmy Award, a Golden Globe Award, and an Academy Award nomination. Named one of the 100 most influential people in the world by Time in 2022, her films as a leading actress have grossed over $2.4 billion worldwide.Seyfried began acting at age 15, with a recurring role as Lucy Montgomery in the CBS soap opera As the World Turns (1999–2001). She rose to prominence as Karen Smith in the teen comedy Mean Girls (2004), later transitioning into dramatic television with her role as Sarah Henrickson in HBO's Big Love (2006–2011). She achieved international fame starring as Sophie Sheridan in the musical Mamma Mia! (2008) and its sequel, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again (2018).
Seyfried's film credits include Jennifer's Body (2009), Dear John (2010), Letters to Juliet (2010), Les Misérables (2012), Lovelace (2013), First Reformed (2017), and You Should Have Left (2020). She earned widespread acclaim and nominations for the Academy Award and Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress for her portrayal of Marion Davies in David Fincher's Mank (2020). In 2022, Seyfried won a Golden Globe Award and Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance as Elizabeth Holmes in the limited series The Dropout. (wikipedia)
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• • •
And once again, the fill is straight out of a box (a box dated 1997 or thereabouts). It's like this week's puzzles are competing to see how many overfamiliar short words they can stuff into one grid. The grid lost me completely at 1-Across, with a gratuitous and completely unnecessary Harry Potter clue (if you think HP's trans-hating creator is just "protecting women" and not a ghoulish bigot, please check out the new and interesting ways she's finding to denigrate gender non-conforming people—it's like a hobby with her now). It's not like ALBUS is such great fill (esp. when crossed with UZIS, what the hell?). Here, watch me get rid of the bigot's creation *and* the people-murdering weapons in one fell swoop:
Difficult parts? There were none. I had SKIPS and ALY before SKIMS (20A: Barely scrapes the surface) and ALI (26A: Actress Wong of the Netflix series "Beef"), but ATOMIC MASS fixed that eventually. It took me a minute to figure out how PIT worked for 62D: Place to retire? (I had COT!). In order to re-tire your race car, you need to make a PIT stop. "Retire" = "Re-Tire" = "Change the tires on." That's all the trickery this puzzle has today. I supposed it's possible you don't know who AMANDA Seyfried is, but other than that, I can't see where any trouble could be coming from today.
What else?:
- 12D: Canal with a "low bridge" ("Everybody down!") (ERIE) — I have no idea what this clue is doing. I stopped reading it after "Canal" (four letters, ERIE, next!). Apparently there is a folk song about the ERIE Canal called "Low Bridge, Everybody Down." Oh, wow, this is the song about the mule named Sal! ("Fifteen Miles on the ERIE Canal"). I've heard of this (from crosswords?) but had no idea what the song was called or how the lyrics went or anything. Ha. Well, if nothing else, I learned something today.
- 69A: "We will make amends ere long; / ___ the Puck a liar call": Shak. ("ELSE") — I feel like this exact quote has been used to clue ERE as well, but a quick look at the database tells me no—lots of "Shak" in the ERE clues, but not these lines (which, of course, are from the very end of A Midsummer Night's Dream)
- 37D: Word aptly hidden in "turned yellow" (DYE) — these "hidden word" clue are annoyingly condescending to begin with, but in a puzzle that's already excessively easy, they really rankle
- 47D: Organ with a distinctive shape (KIDNEY) — me: ".... all of them?"
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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Monday-on-Wednesday easy, without reading the theme clues. No WOEs, one overwrite: my 62D place to retire was a bed before it was a PIT.
ReplyDeleteThe easiest — and dullest — Wednesday in a very long while. Fully with OFL on this one – and on his JKR opinions, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you here Rex, I thought the theme was cute but ultimately I didn't even pay much attention to it. Aside from the fact that we got some longer answers (INSIDEJOKE, CHEMICALSYMBOLS) this played like a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteI don't expect my Monday-Wednesday puzzles to blow me away or anything but I'd at least like a little resistance when solving! Being able to finish without paying attention to the theme or even looking at all of the clues makes it feel like the construction was more of an exercise than a thoughtful labor of puzzle love. Oh well!
agreed....way too easy and dull
ReplyDelete"Canal with a "low bridge" ("Everybody down!")"
ReplyDeleteFor those who don't know the ditty:
Low bridge! Everybody down!
Low bridge! Cause we're comin' to a town!
And you'll always know your neighbor
Always know your pal
If you're ever navigating
Down the Erie canal
Well 'scuse me but I had a good time with this one. Didn't know (or remember) ALBUS so I went elsewhere and just for fun solved bottom-up. The "this but not that clues" took some figuring out and I liked seeing what they were. A new clue for EELS And an INSIDEJOKE. Pretty good.
ReplyDeleteThe fill wasn't sparkling but it did the job. No, I don't know AMANDA or ALI or PAM for that matter, but they were fairly crossed. I'm sorry if a Harry Potter reference and the dreaded UZIS spoiled this one for OFL, but I am dumbfounded that he does not know "The ERIE Canal". The holes in our respective knowledge bases are always interesting. I learned the song in grade school and could still sing you the whole thing, but I guess that's not universally true.
Thought this was fine, if a skosh easy, for a Wednesday, JG. Just Give me something I'm supposed to decipher and I'm happy, and thanks for all the fun.
Pabloinnh
DeleteMy reaction almost exactly ( Ali was in some corner of my brain. And I had AngUS at first).
I also learned the Erie Canal song in elementary school. I am sure Rex did not. But there was a puzzle where the mule’s name was the answer. I didn’t realize at the time Rex never heard of the song! Another indication that I am old.
No lo sé. Ni idea.
ReplyDeleteSuper fun trying to imagine what each thing was really going to turn out to be after first impressions. Wheelhouse puzzle for me so it was over way too soon. Had a blast.
I'm ready for more waterworks over "too easy" and "Harry Potter" and the fact there is a Generation Alpha so it's basically Generation A and heads must roll. But I think we should enjoy a more robust conversation and less hacky trope baiting with an earnest discussion about salsa topping more than just tacos. Have you tried it on ice cream? Or your boyfriend? I know what restaurant has the best salsa in the entire world.
We might also mention this is the cruciverbalist crowd and with our sense of humor, it's likely we won't get inside jokes, outside jokes, jokes in the middle, jokes about our middle, jokes 🦖 makes, nor jokes on any medium except NPR and BBC, and those aren't even funny.
I think every organ has a distinctive shape. It's why you rarely confuse a gallbladder and a baby grand piano. Well the shape, and the squishiness, and the fact that purists won't call a piano an organ due to how smart they ended up after college.
I was in late yesterday for the rare 20% gunk puzzle with all its awkwardness, so I am eager to see how this one compares since it felt so much smoother, but with way more names. I knew most of them cold so things feel less gunky when you actually know things and aren't relying on crosses.
People: 7
Places: 3
Products: 5
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 0
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 18 of 78 (23%)
Funnyisms: 0 😫
Tee-Hee: SUCK AT. By the way, I perform dreadfully most of the time in all my endeavors and still I persist. We live in times where you can SUCK AT lots and still have a dandy time.
Uniclues:
1 When you grew a beard and did a horrendous job supervising children's safety.
2 Ascender for hire went 90 in a 25.
3 Why I will always have a Bachelor's degree in literature despite reading very little.
4 How we can acquire a neon sheep, maybe.
5 Farm kids who want an education.
6 Lick a lizzie.
7 Unpublished obituary.
1 ALBUS AREA APED
2 ISUZU TAXI TORE
3 SKIMS LASTED
4 TINT EWE, SAY
5 BUS GENERATIONS
6 SUCK A TIN ONE
7 DEAD ESSAY, SHH
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Retired mass murderer who took up farming. PRAIRIE ORC.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Gary Jugert
DeleteI saw the answer suck at and I knew it would be in your tee hee listing. But these days , since the slang word is used so casually and innocently it can appear as an answer in the the Times puzzle
Apparently many people don’t know the origins of the expression.
I also noted Harry Potter and Rex delivered the expected rant.
As to Alpha and A. I will read the rest of the comments.
@dgd 3:58 PM
DeleteIt's kinda fun predicting if you can pre-write other people's blog post as you see certain entries. You put Potter in 1A and Rex is giving you a link. The discussion is important, but the public book burning (by bibliophiles no less) is embarrassing. You put anything an 11-year-old would laugh at and here I come. Rap? Anti-rappists followed by the OMG only bigots hate rap posts. Two baseball clues and someone will be devastated. My favorite are the defenders of women's basketball, directors from the 1950s, literature award winners that 17 people read, and the anti-everything popular crowd. I see a math or science clue and I'm almost delirious waiting for an Anonymous math or science expert to show up to say it's totally wrong. I do grow a bit weary with the "it's too easy" nonsense, but 🦖 encourages that behavior almost daily. I might SUCK AT crosswords, but I am adroit at rooting for my peeps on this comment section to write exactly what I expect them to write. On the other hand, somebody wrote below how it's always Generation Alpha, and it surprised me. To think language is always this way or that way must be a dreary approach to putting English into concrete, and to imagine in the age of abbreviating everything that a gruesome phrase like Generation Alpha is the final word on the subject is interesting to say the least.
🙌🏼🙌🏼
DeleteThis is not a defense of JKR, but if you’re going to avoid every reference to or about a person or her/his output or claim to fame you’re removing a lot of potentially great clues and answers that could spice up a puzzle. And how many people are you going to deport, or exile? This is just censorship-never a good thing.
ReplyDeleteI would also note that Rex’s alternate fill for the “egregious “ corner is loaded with the same answers he excoriates on a regular basis.
I'm struggling to think of how yet another Harry Potter-themed answer could ever "spice up" a puzzle. Snoozers. I would also note that RP said he spent all of 10 seconds rewriting that corner, in a grid not of his own choosing. I think his main message was "you can do better".
DeleteIf we are okay with the NYT Hitler ban, we have crossed into some degree of censorship. At that point the question comes down to personal preference as to how much further to go (if at all), and what sort of "baddies" we would like to see banned.
DeleteThis space is Rex's so he has the absolute right to express his preferences, and we seem to be free to agree, disagree, etc. Personally, I have a granddaughter who has wonderful trans friends and it kills me to see the trans community come under openly hateful attack by the administration, the GOP, and those who bow down to kiss their rings, like one of my alma maters, UPENN did recently. So I can do without HP references too.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Delete@Druid 7:07 AM @Anonymous 9:11 AM @Liveprof 11:53 AM
DeleteThe rewrite 🦖 did is worse than the original, but if you're clutching pearls over the HP author, I suppose it's a win. If we're canceling books that promote bigotry, there's a number one selling religious text we see in the puzzle weekly we might add to the digital bonfire. Over the years I've had five trans co-workers and one trans student and we've talked about many things making their existence on Earth needlessly difficult, and Albus Dumbledore has never once made it into the discussion.
I agree with Rex slmost 100% on this one. Really boring and easy clues (Although the Ogden Nash quote was fun). It went by about as fast as a Monday but with an almost invisible theme. Wednesdays are supposed to better than this.
ReplyDeleteRex nailed it with his write up today. I would be more tolerant of rubbish like Hogwarts trivia if they are crossed fairly, but the Mississippi River basically spans the entire U.S. - so I chose to leave that cross blank rather than run the alphabet regarding something I have NO IDEA about and no interest in.
ReplyDeleteThis might be a good “beach solve” (mindless, a little boring - but at least you can enjoy the sun and the surf) - I agree with OFL that the NYT can and should do better.
Cute theme - well filled for the most part but misplaced in the midweek slot. I try not to rush through these things but there was no pushback today. Liked GENERATIONS and INSIDE JOKE.
ReplyDeleteWaylon
The CHEM 101 cross was elegant. Scrabbly letters throughout the grid. Backed into ALBUS actually. My wife makes a pretty solid SALSA @Gary - straight out of the garden - the key is the habaneros. She’s made a sweeter mole SALSA that I’ve spooned over vanilla ice cream - it’s a stretch.
BOY
Should it have run on Monday - probably but a pleasant Wednesday morning solve nonetheless.
The Blue NILE
I thought the theme was clever and well executed. Not terribly hard but you did need a bunch of letters before you could come up with the theme answers, so it was fun seeing them emerge.
ReplyDeleteHow easy? Well, according the the NYT stats I completed this in about half my average time over the years. Factor in some allowance for improvement in my ability (maybe!) and that that was still pretty quick for me tho I’m sure if compared to Rex’s time I still SUCKAT it! Anyway, except for not knowing AMANDA and some other names that were well crossed this one kinda flowed. UZIS and ERIE just popped in based on the four letter openings and Pad turned into PIT to finish things.
ReplyDeleteSpecial place in my heart for Joseph Gangi, today’s constructor, because he made the cutest-looking puzzle I’ve ever seen, no exaggeration; I’m smiling in my heart just thinking about it. You owe yourself a look: https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2022/03/16 .
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part of today’s puzzle was the riddles – trying to guess the theme answers from their clues alone, not even looking at the crosses (the theme was clear after getting the first theme answer). I come into the box hoping to satisfy my brain’s work ethic, and this did that for me.
Oh, I liked the three palindromes (EWE, LIL, EXE) and the cross of words that sound like letters (CEE, ESSAY), but I loved the riddles.
Joseph must have seriously happy-danced when he saw that CHEMICAL SYMBOLS could be crossed in just the right places by POSTAL CODES and GENERATIONS. A just reward for those uncountable times in a constructor’s experience when things don’t turn out that way.
And Joseph, you brought my heart and brain a lovely reward today as well – thank you!
Thank you, Lewis. I came here today to learn how "cee" is an ending for Tragic. SMH! It's a little embarrassing, but there it is.
DeleteClever theme, easy puzzle. I agree with Rex and my fellow solvers.
ReplyDeleteLabour is blossoming or dancing where
ReplyDeleteThe body is not bruised to pleasure soul,
Nor beauty born out of its own despair,
Nor blear-eyed wisdom out of midnight oil.
O chestnut tree, great rooted blossomer,
Are you the leaf, the blossom or the bole?
O body swayed to music, O brightening glance,
How can we know the dancer from the dance?
Thanks “WB Yeats”
DeleteI remember reading a book with Dancer From the Dance “ in its title. I have now learned that it is a quote from Yeats.
Very fun and stimulating! Not the puzzle—the conversation I had with Mrs. Freude while sailing through this Monday-on-a-Wednesday and still shaving a couple minutes off my average time.
ReplyDeleteMost folks think of the Erie Canal song as a folk song, but it was written by Thomas Allen, a modestly successful popular songwriter of the day. It was first recorded in 1912 by Billy Murray (not that one—the one who made popular records over a century ago) and published in 1913 by F. B. Haviland, a Tin Pan Alley pop song factory. Allen specialized in songs sung in the voice of working-class people. Others are “Any Rags Today?” (about a rag picker, what today we’d call a textile recycler) and “Strawberries” (about a fruit vendor).
If a pop song sticks around in our culture long enough, we start thinking of it as a folk song.
I think it was Leadbelly said, "all songs are folk songs; I ain't never heard no horse singing." (not verbatim)
DeleteLove finding out stuff like this. Thanks.
DeleteAndy Freude
DeleteAgree with pabloinnh
Thanks for the history and Jberg the Leadbelly quote.
Hey All!
ReplyDeleteLiked it. Unsure why this rankled Rex's feathers. Pretty straightforward puz. Back to regular Blocker count of 38.
Neat crossing Themers. Nice idea for a puz. Apparently, the ole brain isn't quite yet awake, as nothing else to say is coming to mind. So, IM OFF (literally and figuratively!)
Have a great Wednesday!
No F's - SAD
RooMonster
DarrinV
You RUFFLE feathers, you RANKLE nerves
DeleteAh, maybe that's why I feel out of sorts at times? 😁
DeleteRooMonster Rankly Ruffly Guy
When I have no trouble with a Wednesday, I know it’s too easy (I’m a newish solver). The lackluster fills we’ve been having makes me wonder if some of these are using genAI to make parts of them. GenAI algorithms can easily make things, but the output would lack cohesiveness/design care because there is no “design” being done. It’s why the output often feels “soulless”. (I’m a professor who does AI + creativity/ethics research so it’s also possible I just see AI everywhere, even where it doesn’t exist 😅) But uzis, really?
ReplyDeleteI suspect you might be right about the puzzle fills of late. Interesting you used the word soulless, because that’s how I occasionally think of puzzles and novels. Adequate, yes and sometimes even enjoyable, but they have no soul.
DeleteGee, I'm hoping I'm not soulless! What with concerning myself with such things as:
DeleteHow clever is the cluing?
How amusing is the cluing?
How imaginative and well-executed is the theme?
How many obscure names are there?
How much crosswordese?
How much white space and/or stacks?
After concerning myself with all that, who has time to think about how much "soul" is in the puzzle?
I do, however, sometimes see a distinctive personality shining through. Is that really the same thing?
@Nancy, you may not see this because I’m late to respond, but the very questions you’re asking is what I mean by “design with care” that gives something soul. :) A program does not “think”, it finds something that fits whatever pattern has been programmed by a programmer. If you ask for a 4 letter word with a Z in the second spot, the program just searches the dictionary to find a word that fits. There’s no concern over WHICH word. That’s what I mean by no design and soulless. :)
DeleteGreat post - dull puzzle
ReplyDeleteIt was a little on the easy side for a Wednesday but I thought it was well executed and fun. Nice work.
ReplyDeleteYes and the day of the week is not decided by the constructor
DeleteFor some reason I thought today was Thursday so I was annoyed at how the puzzle seemed like an easy themeless. Then I realized it was Wednesday and my annoyance disappeared. Sure, this was more Monday difficult than Wednesday but at this point for me M-W are roughly the same. I don’t make a hobby out of getting offended at the crossword. The theme was cute if a little weak. Maybe some sort of revealer would have pulled it together more. Still a pleasant enough few minutes on a Wednesday morning.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGeneration Alpha…
ReplyDeleteI found the puzzle easy, but the theme answers were interesting and made me curious to see what they were going to reveal. Agree with RP about the ho-hum fill and slight inconsistency in the theme clues. But neither one was enough to keep this from being an otherwise quite pleasant solve.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never read a single Harry Potter book and about all I know of the author is what I read on his blog. However, after reading the linked article RP provided, I was shocked at the level of vitriol she went out of her way to spew. Her comments go far beyond merely expressing an opinion. She could give some of the right-wing fanatics in this country a real run for their money.
Rex based af for his love for our queer community!
ReplyDeleteAlthough I knew ALBUS, thus having no problem with LSU, @SouthsideJohnny makes a good point - my alma mater, the Univ. of Minnesota, is also on the banks of the Mississippi. I wonder how many more colleges are also so placed.
ReplyDeleteI found this puzzle engaging enough for a Wednesday. It's true, the reverse clues of 17A and 25A are very nice and it would have been great if the other theme answers could have been reversed also. I think 40A is the best hidden, at least it's the only one where I didn't see it before it filled in.
I thought of the kidney right away as the distinctively shaped organ, what with there being kidney beans and kidney shaped swimming pools. I suppose somewhere out there is a heart-shaped swimming pool. Liver-shaped, probably not as likely. :-)
Thanks, Joseph Gangi.
Exactly this. Only the kidney and the heart, among organs, regularly get the "kidney-shaped" treatment. Perfectly good clue and I'm sure many of us knew the correct answer immediately.
DeleteWell, it's a crossword. Neither UM nor WASHU would fit in the space. I'm not saying there isn't another answer, but we get that all the time.
DeleteHad a hard time letting go of LAudED instead of LASTED, which held up the NE corner ever so briefly, but eventually changed it and it was over. Weird puzzle.
ReplyDeleteTodays puzzle was definitely a “1990s Monday” which for me is totally fine and fun. Love the isuzu clue, although to go with the 90s idea how great would it have been to have the clue “Joe’s last name”. Obviously Rex had a axe to grind from clue #1 so i’ll save my thoughts on that for another time and another blog page
ReplyDeleteIf you ask me, 32D [Something only some of us will get] starting with INS should have been INSURANCE, especially after the Bloviated Bastards Bill.
ReplyDeleteAISLE take a window seat every time.
What's a woman's name that strings together three short words that all begin with the same letter? Hint: the starters all AREA.
Answer: AMANDA
It used to be that a sacred oath was signed in blood. These days everyone just BLOODTYPES. Speaking of which, I'll bet that I can guess @Lewis' blood type -- B positive!
You know what they say about the kind of dude who pretends he's well enough off to take Uber but really can't? He's ALBUS and no TAXI.
I think this was a pretty decent Monday puzzle. Our reactions would possibly be more positive if it had run then. Thank you, Joseph Gangi.
Always nice to have a little Ogden Nashery.
ReplyDeleteSince I SUCK AT Harry Potter and cars and Netflix series-es, I was not thrilled by my entry into the NW today. Even with AIM as a gimme, I had to go elsewhere and come back. I was not a happy camper.
ReplyDeleteNor did I make it easier for myself for having EAT at instead of NAG at for persistently bother. That loused up the Middle West for me for too long. Who's the godchild beginning with an "E"? I wrote in ELDER. Do I have your sympathy yet?
But I was ultimately rewarded by a very dense, very imaginative and highly original theme with extremely well chosen theme clues and theme answers. I loved, loved, loved the theme.
Bottom line: Could have been a completely wonderful puzzle without the plethora of pop culture. Those who don't mind pop culture will probably adore this puzzle. And they'll do it in half the time I did.
Another gimmick puzzle I solved as a themeless. What day is today? I thought Monday had passed? Solved so quickly that now I have to go back (once again) to search for my typo.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Joseph, for an easy Wednesday :)
I can't wait to see how Rex describes the theme. "This, not that?" "Can you spot the difference?" Neither of those quite work.
ReplyDeleteCrossworld lore failed me, when 23 A was NAG (at) instead of the perennial eAt (at). And back when I studied chemistry, in (checks notes) 1958 we learned that it was ATOMIC weight. But I just checked with my wife (she's a biochemist, not a chemist, but she knows all that stuff) and she concurs that MASS is correct. Aside from those pretty slight glitches, this one was pretty easy.
Ah, Wednesday, the day that doesn’t know what day it is.
ReplyDeleteNice theme idea with 40A CHEMICALSYMBOLS being the strongest themer because He, I, she, and you are all real words, not just letters, while 60A BLOODTYPES seemed to me to be the weakest because I wasn’t reading the signs as being positive and negative but, rather, as plus and minus. I guess that’s on me. And I would have preferred 17A to be MUSICalNOTES. Just sounds better to my ear, though I guess it’s not wrong.
A few nice clues, including for 33A EELS and 32D INSIDEJOKE but 37D DYE was just trying too hard and 62D PIT “Place to retire” wasn’t fooling anyone, was it? (You might say it was a kind of tired misdirect).
I really wish the NYTXWord would stop clueing ETTA James as a jazz singer. Yes, she won a Grammy for her tribute to Billie Holiday, but that wasn’t what she normally did. She was a fine R&B singer, blues singer, and gospel singer but clueing her as a jazz singer is like clueing Beyonce as a country singer on the basis of one (very) successful album. Look at the whole body of work.
An OK puzzle for a Monday or Tuesday solve but by Wednesday I’m looking for something with more teeth.
Was easy, but this is easily remedied by solving mostly downs-only. If you want your early-week puzzles crunchier, avoid looking at crosses until you absolutely need them. No need to be a purist. Try it! The theme was lovely, liked seeing He before I to hide the need for a capital H on the chemical symbol. And a nice double-misdirect on PIT. And A is not a generation, no one says Generation A, no one spells alpha A, have no idea where that's coming from.
ReplyDeleteThe theme was fun if you tried to get the answers with few or no crosses. I mean, you may have to get one the hard way to see what's going on, but after that, you can do it. Only, who says MUSIC NOTES? I rejected that one at first because I wanted them to be MUSICal.
ReplyDeleteNice "do you know where this river is" -- or rather, 'do you know which river is in this place?" subtheme.
I thought the same thing about MUSICNOTES.
DeleteI didn't hate it. There are no silly circles, crappy colors, or shaded squares. The theme was ok.
ReplyDeleteNot happy with A TASTE.
Yes, very easy. No WOEs and no costly erasures.
ReplyDeleteI liked the theme quite a bit more than @Rex did but he makes some valid points about the fill.
If you haven’t seen AMANDA in Big Love, it’s worth a look.
Truer words than "very easy, very dull" have never been written.
ReplyDeleteI just want to say, thank you! For the link to Springsteen's brilliant rendition of that song so many of us learned in elementary school, Erie Canal. It's from the best record The Boss ever made, IMO, The Seeger Sessions. The brilliant thing about this rendition is, it actually sounds like it could have been sung around the campfire during that exhausting trip from Buffalo to Albany, hauling heavy goods destined to be loaded on to a river boat to New York City.
ReplyDeleteAnd I enjoyed the puzzle a lot. Many of the long answers took me quite a long time to get, especially CHEMICAL SYMBOLS, because of course I wanted them to be some sort of elements, and was looking for something like POSTgrad decrees instead of POSTAL CODES, and frankly never thought of CEE as a tragic ending.
I enjoyed the theme itself while solving. Definitely agree with Rex and everyone else who says it was Monday-easy: new Wednesday record for me, substantially faster than my Monday average. I’d have been a little faster if it weren’t for the very corner that Rex highlights: I misspelled 1A out the gate as ALdUS, and haven’t been doing crosswords long enough for UZIES to roll trippingly off the tongue (or fingers), so I had to take a few extra seconds to sort it all out. But anyway, all that to say, thought the theme was mildly cute, and like having a new record, but Rex’s overall assessment is definitely correct.
ReplyDeleteMore of a "medium" for me, as I was slowed down in the CHEMICAL....what? AREA and couldn't see GENERA...IONS for an embarrassingly long time ("There are "general ions? ...to go with those chemical symbols?"). Also went wrong with INSIDE JObs. However, even though I grew up in rural Wisconsin, in school MUSIC class I learned all about the mule Sal and the low bridge on the ERIE Canal.
ReplyDeleteI thought the puzzle seemed Monday level but I still enjoyed having to think of the “this but not that” connections.
ReplyDeleteI dunno. I think JK Rowling says hateful things and it’s obvious she has zero “filter” with respect to her thoughts AND why the heck would anyone (other than DJT) put unfiltered thoughts into writing on X? Then I starting thinking about the dilemma of “can you separate art from the artist.” That lead me to find a list of baddies. I’ll give the copy/paste blurb but it’s easy enough to find out the inner/outer badness of each one listed:
What do L. Frank Baum, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Orson Scott Card, Roald Dahl, Neil Gaiman. H. P. Lovecraft, J .K. Rowling, and J. R. R. Tolkien have in common?
Each is a beloved author who has written foundational speculative works that continue to inspire today. In some cases, such as Baum and Rowling, these authors have been hugely important to LGBTQ+ and other readers.
And each one of them have created problematic works and or/ done some truly horrible things.
This old timer was a huge fan of Baum and his successor Ruth Plumly Thompson. But he probably had political views that would not be approved today. And he absolutely despised the people he insisted on calling Nomes. And was delighted when the wicked witch had a house fall on her.
DeleteIt amused me too that he moved to Pasadena. Did you know there’s nobody meaner than a little old lady from Pasadena?
Oh. If anyone wonders about why Rowling was considered important to LGBTQ+ readers…apparently ALBUS Dumbledore was gay. Hmmm. I think he was a beloved character…not sure.
Delete@Rex. How can you say at the top that 11D answers are postal codes looking like degrees then say in comments that they don't match or harmonize in any way". They totally did.
ReplyDeleteAnd how do you manage to find so many things to hate JK Rowling about ? And why do you persist in hating the Harry Potter books as a result. The HP books are brilliant. And they are definitely anti-bigotry as well as pro-good.
I've read all of them 4 or 5 times. ( The first is the best) But I don't think I've ever seen - in an original source rather than in this blog - any of the things you enjoy raging at Rowling for.
He meant that the clues didn’t harmonize with each other the way the ABC vs XYZ pair at 17A and 25D did, which was indeed impressive. It was a comment about theme coherence and tightness, not about the individual clues.
DeleteI agree it was pretty easy; 9 and a half minutes for me and I'm not a fast solver. But I thought the theme was just fine.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I disagree with Rex that the 11 down clue can't refer to degrees. I had GRAD DEGREES at first because I would swear I've occasionally seen both MA for Master of Art, and MS for Master of Science.
He just meant that the clue wasn’t referring to the degrees but rather the postal codes, even though everyone’s brain went to the degrees first.
Delete@Egs Thanks for the laughs, Loved the Blodtypes and Albus lines.
ReplyDeleteI was not looking for a unifying whole for the theme. To be fair to Rex, I do only the Times crossword puzzle. I can see how he would move likely get annoyed when a puzzle doesn’t go to the next level. But the theme is fine by me. I thought the He etc themer was clever.
ReplyDeleteI did note a bit of an overload on the crosswordese but this easy puzzle (some clues I didn’t have to read)was okay.
I am sorry I already forgot who, but a commenter said there was nothing hateful about the actual Harry Potter books. (I was in a bookstore when the first book came out I was browsing around. The bookstore had a taped reading of the book on its loudspeaker system. That’s the closest I ever got to reading any of the books. I don’t remember hearing anything hateful either). I think that is an important distinction. But on the other hand, Dahl is dead while she is an active participant in a current political debate. And it seems that there is a tendency in ongoing internet debates to get more and more extreme over time. Apparently she is falling into that trap. But still, to ban even mention of her books and characters in the crosswords seems a step too far.
Well, I had to chuckle reading @Rex today demonstrating - as I described in my very late post yesterday - how quickly he is able to make a giant improvement to a lackluster cluster of truly “ho hum” answers and how the NYT editorial staff could make puzzles better if they actually edited. No more on that. I admit I did go on a bit of a rant even though I tried to set out my observations in the spirit of helpfulness, championing “teachable moments”. Thanks for the help today, Prof. Sharp.
ReplyDeleteYesterday, at least we had a well constructed, fairly clever repeat theme. It’s such a good concept, I didn’t mind at all seeing it again a few years after its initial appearance. Today though, the solve literally flew by and I honestly did not think for one second about a “theme.” Again, the “this or that” theme wasn’t a debut appearance. Sure there’s plenty of fodder to fill an early week grid with this theme. In fact it would be easy to find more interesting entries to give the puzzle some sparkle. Oh well. OFL’s opinions parallel my own.
Since I truly dislike not being able to find somewhere to drop a compliment (and appreciate our @Lewis for doing so beautifully each day), I’m going to try.
The best I can do is admit that I went to the NYT write-up to see what was said there and to check out the constructor’s own notes. I was fascinated to see first, that the comments were unusually short and second, that our constructor, Joseph Gangi thanked the editorial staff for their help. So glad they helped. And so on to discussing the construction.
I want to speak of folks not my friends and hope I do not offend our constructor by addressing him as “Mr.” Anyway, I appreciate Mr. Gangi’s awareness of some rough spots and willingness to accept help from the editors he mentions in his comments. Good job Sam and Ian. Keep making suggestions. Lots of teachable moments in your line of work, editors.
This has been a disappointing spate of puzzles stuck in the doldrums. We certainly cannot fault our constructors for their hard work paying off with acceptance and a byline. And it must be incredibly disheartening for constructors to discover comments informing them that their hard work did not receive many accolades from solvers - especially with (again as I mentioned yesterday) how much work, stress and anxiety goes with finally getting a puzzle accepted.
So, Mr. Gangi, I set a new Wednesday speed record - no stumbles, no weirdness and nothing offensive in the least. Your puzzle fit the early week bill. I even chuckled at SUCK AT. I believe I’ve seen it occasionally but I see more opportunities where that would have been a perfect answer that wasn’t there. It’s truly “of the language” these days. Might as well use it. For me the, most artfully crafted clue was the POSTAL CODES “disguised” as college degrees. That one probably caused some newer solvers some angst at falling for a misdirect and some appropriate joy at figuring out the correct answer.
I have been helping my son-in-law start to solve and for an artist, he can be pretty concrete operational. He had some trouble accepting that watching out for misdirects is a huge part of the fun of crosswords.
So, congratulations Mr. Gangi. Your puzzle has promise. Good theme idea that needed polish. Keep on constructing; I look forward to watching for the next one.
Like someone else said - I often complete a solve, and even if the theme is very basic, there is no way I could explain it to anyone else with any coherence. While I did not feel like this particular theme was basic necessarily, this was one of those times and I always appreciate @Rex's gift for spelling it all out for us. And I do think it's a gift.
ReplyDeleteI liked this one way more than he did. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out each themer - a puzzle that can keep my curiosity peaked like this is OK in my book.
My only nit is that I don't especially like the way MUSICNOTES looks or sounds, other than that all is fine by me.
I also got a *huge* kick out of the the ABC/XYZ flip (MUSICNOTES not withstanding - the elegance of the cluing made up for it)
Well, one other nit - agree that I could live happily without yet another HP clue but nothing else took away from the fun.
Thanks @Rex for the Springsteen clip - I never heard that - what a stunning rendition!
All in all, neat theme that did it's job. Thanks Joseph!
POSTAL CODES are five digit numbers, not state abbreviations.
ReplyDeleteLoved the puzzle, and yes it was easy.
ReplyDelete