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Relative difficulty: Easy (11:31, on paper)
THEME: Did you know?! — Phrases about trivia that are re-parsed so that they are about trivia in a different way
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: NAVAHO (Language of W.W. II "code talkers": Var) —
Hey crew, welcome to another Malaika MWednesday! This puzzle rocked!! It ticked every single one of my boxes. The theme construct was delightful and clever. The theme answers were great stand-alone phrases. The clues for the theme answers were actually cute and interesting. On top of that, we got six theme answers (really going above and beyond here, I'm happy with four and content with three!), and a couple of long non-theme entries in BABY GRAND and SABOTEURS. Honestly, what else is there to say!!!
- [Did you know?! The most common bar name in the U.K. is The Red Lion] for PUB TRIVIA
- The answer is trivia that is about pubs
- [Did you know?! The oldest known porno movie is the 1907 short film "El Satario"] for GRAPHIC DETAIL
- The answer is a detail that about content that is graphic
- [Did you know?! Engaging in leisure activities has been shown to reduce stress levels by over 30%] for FUN FACT
- The answer is a fact about fun
- [Did you know?! Before mastering fire, cave men ate uncooked meat for the firs million years of human existence] for RAW DATA
- The answer is data regarding raw food
- [Did you know?! America's first chartered money supplier opened in Philadelphia on January 7, 1782] for BANK STATEMENT
- The answer is a statement about banks
- [Did you know?! Diamonds are 58 times more resistant to pressure than rubies or sapphires] for HARD TRUTHS
- The answer is a truth about mineral hardness
Word of the Day: NAVAHO (Language of W.W. II "code talkers": Var) —
Philip Johnston, a civil engineer for the city of Los Angeles, proposed the use of the Navajo language to the United States Marine Corps at the beginning of World War II. Johnston, a World War I veteran, was raised on the Navajo reservation as the son of missionaries to the Navajo. He was able to converse in what is called "Trader's Navajo," a pidgin language. He was among a few non-Navajo who had enough exposure to it to understand some of its nuances. Many Navajo men enlisted shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor and eagerly contributed to the war effort.Because Navajo has a complex grammar, it is not mutually intelligible with even its closest relatives within the Na-Dene family to provide meaningful information. It was still an unwritten language at the time, and Johnston believed Navajo could satisfy the military requirement for an undecipherable code. Its complex syntax, phonology, and numerous dialects made it unintelligible to anyone without extensive exposure and training. One estimate indicates that fewer than 30 non-Navajo could understand the language during World War II.
• • •
I suppose we can talk about how I solved this. On paper, I jump around wayyy more than on a computer, just because of the interface. On a computer, the clue is highlighted and so my eye focuses there, and when I fill in the entry, the highlight moves down to the next sequential clue. On paper, everything is black and white and my eyes are free to wander. As a result, I was all over the place. I read all six of the theme answers and didn't really see what they were getting at, until I was able to fill in FUN FACT just from the letter pattern. Then, it all clicked, and the other entries fell right in place.
That and PUB TRIVIA were the entries that really, truly best nailed the theme, in my opinion. The clues were providing us with facts and trivia. I guess they were also truths and details. Data felt least fitting to me, and BANK STATEMENT was the odd one out because "statement" had sort of a double meaning. But that's just nitpicking, and to be clear, I didn't really care.
My final thought is from a technical perspective. When I am advising new constructors on how to arrange the black squares in a grid (which is usually the hardest part, at the beginning) my advice is to make your grid have no sections that are 5x5 white squares. That's not a Crossword Law or anything, it's just something that has made my life easier while constructing. So I'm always impressed to see easy, smooth grids like this one with 5x5 sections-- although maybe LE ROI isn't exactly smooth... but the other entries were!
Bullets:
- The Red Lion — The trivia about The Red Lion reminded me of an awesome piece from a data viz site called The Pudding which mapped all the pubs in the UK
- [Room for growth?] for WOMB — This was almost such a good clue! I read the clue and then glanced at the grid hoping it would be "nursery" but alas, it was not. I don't think a womb is a room and thus I don't think this clue really works.
- [Only acting Oscar winner in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame] for CHER — She won for Moonstruck!
- [Outfit that might have satin lapels, informally] for TUX — My sister and I purchased some nice outfits for a wedding, but we didn't want to wear them just once, so we threw a Fancy Clothing Party and re-wore our outfits. Three people came in tuxedos, which was awesome, and yes, all of them had purchased their tuxes for wedding. In the spirit of "getting more eyes on the outfit," it's pictured below.
P.S. If you are the type of person who listens to podcasts, I recently appeared on one and you can listen here. About half our conversation was about crosswords (starting around 10 minutes) and the other half was just chit-chat. (For what it's worth, I am not a person who listens to podcasts so I will absolutely not be offended if you do not listen.)
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- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Easy-medium. AMY was it for WOEs but spelling SABOTEUR was a challenge.
ReplyDeleteCostly erasure - viols before CELLI.
Clever and amusing and low on junk, liked it a bunch or what @Malaika said.
Jae
DeleteAbout SABOTEUR
FWIW I remember the root word
If you know the French wooden shoe sabot which shows up in crosswords , that is the origin of sabotage and saboteur. Apparently, protesting workers in early textile mills would throw their shoes into the machinery. . “Eur” is the French equivalent to our er or or.
@dgd 3:14 PM
DeleteFascinating. I love this. I wish we could find a place to throw wooden shoes into our current political climate.
No discussion or explanation of the H in Navajo? Top middle was my last solve because I couldn’t get words to fit with the J. Looked it up after and it seems to be “historical.” But I’d call it unfair.
ReplyDeleteThe clue says “var.” Thus fair.
DeleteI’m with craig, it definitely felt a little tone deaf. Call me woke (ie respectful) but just putting ‘var’ doesn’t excuse it. It would be considered heresy if the constructor had clued say byble or marga.
DeleteI missed the var. part of the clue; not sure it really is, though. "Misspelling" would be more accurate.
DeleteI don't love historical spellings in my fill, but I don't think it's especially insensitive. "Navajo" was the name given by the Spanish to the Diné people, and at one one this was commonly rendered in English as "Navaho": https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=navaho%2Cnavajo&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en&smoothing=3
DeleteThat spelling does have the virtue of being spelled how it's pronounced for English-speakers, but presumably we're more comfortable with the Spanish J these days. Either way it's an exonym, tho.
Craig P et al
DeleteAbout NAVAHO
All the languages in the Americas got along well for centuries without European writing systems. Violent and non violent contact inevitably lead to attempts by the Europeans to write down “tribal “ names but equally inevitably led to great distortions and errors. The Spanish invasion in the SW led them to the Diné which the Spanish called Navajo (the source of this error is unclear), with the j in Spanish representing their closest sound to the Diné sound they heard. In other words, Navajo is not really Navajo. When the Americans invaded, then settled ,Navaho was their attempt to spell the name assigned by the Spanish as the h made more sense in English. With that history, I really don’t think one spelling is more disrespectful than the other. But in our times Spanish spellings have come back in vogue. So Navajo wins out. I see nothing wrong with the clue, as it has var., , which Navaho clearly is.
Glad you really liked it, Malaika but I just thought it just a very serviceable Wednesday offering containing, as you pointed out, a couple of nice long downs at 3D BABYGRAND and 34D SABOTEURS. I was held up for a bit at 50D where I had toned before BUILT. Easily fixed.
ReplyDeleteA couple of questions here: Am I the only NYTXWord solver who has never seen The Sound of Music? I tried to fit AlpEs into 51D (didn’t they have to flee across some mountains, or something?) and ROLF at 24D was just a complete mystery (crosses to the rescue). And, speaking of olden times in the movies, I have never really been a fan of 52D NOIRS, (don't tell Rex) but I’ve always liked The Third Man. Maybe it’s the zither music.
Just what is a 1A COBB salad? I’m not much of a salad fan to begin with - they seem to be an excuse to serve food without much thought and minimal prep skills - but I have seen them featured on menus. Never ordered one. For me to deliberately ask for salad it must be proceeded by the word Caesar (and, yes, include the anchovies) or be followed by the word Nicoise (with tuna, please).
Never seen the sound of music? Who hurt you? :-) The hills are alive!
DeleteThe Cobb salad memorializes the great ballplayer Ty Cobb. To a "field" of greens, shavings from leathery old baseball mitts and bats are added. It's topped with a pine tar dressing and is almost exclusively served to in-laws.
DeleteA Cobb salad is a a full meal salad served on a big platter or big fat bowl in which more is more: lettuce, blue cheese, bacon, hard boiled eggs, chicken, tomatoes, and often avocado and other veggies of choice - with a salad dressing. It is most often served with ingredients arranged side-by-side or layered - but not tossed. This is not your lazy man's salad - but a full spread of protein and veggies.
DeleteI’ve never seen it, either. It came out 60 years ago; time to move on.
DeleteSadly, standing up to Nazis is still relevant.
DeleteThe Caesar salad was invented 101 years ago and is still going strong!!!
DeleteThe Thin Man came out 91 years ago and it's not time to move on.
Delete@Liveprof. I don't know if that recipe is your original creation or if it is an old joke. But it's new to me and very funny. And it does sound kind of tasty. Yum, pine tar dressing.
DeleteSticks to your ribs. :)
DeletePUB TRIVIA really didn’t work for me, as a Brit. It isn’t a phrase that I’d ever heard before. “Pub quiz”, sure. I usually accept dealing with Americanised words and phrases as part of the puzzle (watching a bit of baseball helps), but if UK is part of the clue then it jars for the answer to not feel natural in British dialect!
ReplyDeleteWould have liked the theme to be a bit tighter in general, but the clues themselves were otherwise great fun.
Pub trivia absolutely works in the US. I was afraid it might be bar trivia which is never said here.
DeleteAnonymous 4:35 AM
DeletePub was once rarely used in the US but it is now quite common. The themer is constructed with Americans in mind as the term pub trivia is used here. So the themer works. Someone once said Americans and the English are divided by the same language.
ReplyDeleteEasy.
Overwrites, all but one were of the "pick one" type where I picked the wrong one:
At 5D, my tweets were CHeePS before they were CHIRPS
I spelled 6D as NAVAjO before it had to be NAVAHO. I agree with @Craig P. about this one.
My 62D partial laugh was tEE before it was HEE
My dead French king was LE ReI before LE ROP. I need to brush up on my French.
One WOE, AMY at 20A, but I got it from crosses before I read the clue. In fact, I didn't even notice AMY until I read @jae's post.
Easy but enjoyable, with a theme that helped the solve. The clue for NAVAHO did suggest an alternate spelling.
ReplyDeleteI agree WOMB is poorly clued; I think the intent was to use "room" to suggest adequate space for a fetus, not an actual room. But it's questionable at best.
For Les S. More: A COBB salad is like a chef salad, but with hard-boiled eggs and other goodies added. Delicious.
Maybe WOMB/TOMB better clued as the riddle "What's the room you can't enter; the room you can't leave?"
DeleteNear record time for me!
Room to grow as in space to grow. Perfectly good clueing.
DeleteHad to run the vowels at SOCHi/IDiNA, but enjoyed the theme. I like to think my geography knowledge is good, I guess Russian resort towns are a weak spot
ReplyDeleteOne could consider Sochi as current events or Olympic knowledge. I certainly hadn’t heard of it outside of the Olympics.
DeleteJust ridiculously easy for a Wednesday. I’d say embarrassingly easy but I’d hate to hurt someone’s feelings. Thank god for the archives, where I can actually find a Wednesday puzzle that puts up a modicum of resistance. This one played like a very easy Monday.
ReplyDeleteO IRINA Menzel, thy will be rone.
ReplyDelete(I was very proud of GRAPHIC RETAIL, for two sex)
Very easy Wednesday. Not so widely known, but a lot of other languages besides Navajo were used, and the practice goes back to WWI.
ReplyDeleteTwo items for CROSS EXAMINATION
ReplyDeleteWhy does something you rarely see in real life anymore - the telephone EXTension - keep showing up in crossword puzzles as if it is seen everywhere?
Why is something that is still seen on phones everywhere - TETRIS - clued as a one-time phenomenon?
Telephone extensions are as ubiquitous as they ever were.
DeleteOh, this is a terrific run-with-it theme. Where the constructor finds a lovely language quirk, comes up with further examples. Today’s brings an extra layer of fun with those interesting facts in the theme clues.
ReplyDeleteNot to mention that the theme is quick to crack once the first theme answer is uncovered, and it is uber-fun to guess at the ensuing theme answers with as few crosses as possible.
Add beauty to the fun, with those two gorgeous long downs SABOTEURS and BABY GRAND. And an accidental beauteous word for me, who originally entered BURLY for [Muscular].
I, who appreciate being successfully misdirected, also liked going through rainbow-ish hues for that Crayola eight-pack, only to learn it was BLACK. And, speaking of quirks – a backward ABUT crossing ABUTS!
Absolutely a mood lifter – thank you so much for this, Dan!
[Did you know?! The first electric auger was invented the same year as the opening of the Eiffel Tower]
ReplyDelete[Did you know?! There are two main types of wrinkles – dynamic ones that appear with facial expressions, and static ones that are visible even when the face is relaxed]
DRILL BIT
LINE ITEM
I’m another one of us who has never seen The Sound of Music (yes, there are a few of us out here). I was channel surfing recently and did a drive-by of a documentary where Julie Andrews was talking about the challenge associated with twirling around on the mountain top while a helicopter was trying to film her without killing her - I believe it’s a famous scene from that movie.
ReplyDeletePretty salient observation from our guest host today regarding the dangers associated with those 5x5 sections as the SW really jumped up and bit me - I have no way of discerning IBIZA, and even though I do a ton of puzzles I just can’t remember the differences between the Spanish and French kings, queens, aunts and uncles, so LE ROI was not gonna happen without some crosses. No clue on ABBEY and it’s probably been 35-40 years since Mike TYSON was a “Kid” anything. So a big, fat DNF for me today - done in by the dreaded 5x5.
Agree, such a cute them and puzzle. TYSON is such a downer, didn’t really love seeing that name in it, but other than that, a delight. Love your cute ‘fit Malaika and I do listen to podcasts so I will check out your interview! Thanks.
ReplyDeleteCame for the write up, stayed for the thirst trap. :)
ReplyDeleteEasy puzzle. Very easy. Enjoyed it!
Thanks @Lewis! Those additional ideas are fun and it's been awhile since we've seen a few!
ReplyDeleteThought the puzzle was ridiculously easy. Was doing mostly DO, got PUBTRIVIA w/o even seeing the clue, and so on. Like someone else toned before BUILT.
I think The Sound of Music is probably fading into the past. The relevance is mostly gone (although you might say it's coming back 😔). It is 60 years old. Maybe it's a classic? But sooo much other stuff clamoring for people's attention.
I still find it hard to believe that Jonah (Who will be Twenty-five in the Year 2000) is turning 50 this year.
The relevance today is major. And yes it is a classic that you should see. So is Gone with the Wind.
DeleteI've never seen GWtW either, though I have seen short clips from both movies. Just doesn't appeal.
DeletePS I've been away in a different time zone. Noticed my comments were not appearing. See what happens today.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteNice TRIVIA synonyms puz. Literal descriptions of the "Did you know?!"s. (Although, I think the interrobang could've just been a question mark.)
Easy puz overall. I know it's the puzs that are getting easier, because the ole brain isn't that good! Har.
Liked the Theme and the puz.
Have a great Wednesday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Guess I have a lot of company this AM as I did the J in NAVAHO, VIOLS for CELLI, and never heard of AMY. You could ask me to name a WWE star for a million dollars and I still wouldn't be able to do it. SOCHI took all the crosses but it at least rings a distant bell. NOIRS looked suspicious as a plural but I guess it's OK. And I dinna know IDINA, as they say in Scotland. Otherwise pretty much a total whoosh,
ReplyDeleteThought this was an interesting theme and nicely done. Caught on instantly with PUBTRIVIA but the themers were all solid and nicely clued. Well done you, DC, Dang Cute, and thanks for all the fun.
Today's headline is a new PR in the Mini. Someday I'll get under 20 seconds (almost today) but I imagine OFL does them in 10 solving downs only.
We were required to take four years of Latin at the Jesuit high school I went to. Those of us who were good at Latin were automatically programmed into two (or three?) years of ancient Greek. We read a lot of The Odyssey in the original. Many of the passages we read began with something like "Rosy-fingered dawn crept over the horizon."
ReplyDeleteYesterday's NYT science section has a clear explanation of one of the great theorems in mathematics. The sum of the reciprocals of the triangular numbers is 2. Liebnitz came up with it.
Movies "clamoring for people's attention” is one of the worst things about the 21st century.
ReplyDeleteA wildly original theme! Every time I think it's impossible to come up with something that's never been done before, someone does. And it's so much fun! And the theme answers are so well-chosen and so delightfully clued! I was sorry when it was over -- which was much too soon.
ReplyDeleteI should admit to having a special affection for long, playful clues. Sometimes I feel the longer, the better. And I can imagine Dan -- researching and then finding his BANK STATEMENT or his GRAPHIC DETAIL -- clapping his hands and chortling to himself. I suspect this was as much fun to make as it was to solve.
Because I also found it quite easy for a Wednesday, it's a puzzle that I would give to a very smart but inexperienced solver. Even though it's a Wednesday, I think they'd be able to solve it, and if they could, it might hook them on crossword puzzles for life.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete[Did you know?! Matthew is the only one of the four books that mentions the magi.]
ReplyDeleteLABOR over WOMB is evocative of something.
As the Todd Rundgren fans ask in France, LEROI boy is that you?
Really great theme. Fun puzzle. Faster than greased lightening. Thanks, Dap Caprera.
Gospel Truth
@kitshef -- I answered your blog question to me yesterday in an email that I sent you yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI'm getting so tired of Issa. Never seen her - nor Ms. Menzel and Ms. Dumas, for that matter.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred instead to see RUE across UREA (when was the last time that appeared in the NYTXW?).
This was a fun puzzle, fun theme. Had MUD before RUT ("Don't get stuck in it!"), but only briefly. Otherwise, no real snags. I'm not sure film noirs are usually referred to as NOIRS, but I supposed they might be. All in all a nice Wednesday, if not very challenging.
ReplyDelete3-Down -- error. A BABY GRAND is not one step up from an upright; a SPINET is. Then comes a PETIT GRAND, then BABY GRAND.
ReplyDeleteI thought of that while solving, but decided it was not correct--you get better sound from an upright than from a spinet. Also, I just looked up petit grand piano, and found a page that says it's another name for baby grand. Of course, that page may be wrong, IDK.
DeleteClue does not say "one" step up, just step up. Technically correct, I think.
Delete
DeleteThe sound from an upright may be more pleasing to a lot of ears, but technically a spinet is ranked "above" the upright -- no doubt largely because the upright became associated with "lower-class" venues like beer halls and music halls, while the spinet was usually found in more bourgie settings (drawing rooms, etc.). Rankings like that often have as much to do with elitist/class-biased judgmentalism as with music itself.
Inventive! After PUB TRIVIA, I knew what to look for, and enjoyed trying to guess the rest. Most came easily, but GRAPHIC DETAIL eluded me for a long time, thanks to NAVAjO and a struggle to get anywhere in the NE corner. Favorite: HARD TRUTH.
ReplyDeleteRandom real-live coincidence, re: SABOTEURS next to ATOM - I'm in the middle of reading Skis Against the ATOM by Knut Haukelid, a member of the small team of SABOTEURS in Nazi-occupied Norway who in February 1943 knocked out the heavy water plant crucial to the Third Reich's ability to develop an ATOMic bomb. "Skis," because from the site of their parachute drop they needed to ski some 50 miles over 12 days to reach the plant, and were able to elude capture by skiing out through a forest and over terrain where German pursuit could not follow.
@GaryJugert. It is with profound sadness that I report that UNICLUING is not allowed in Spelling Bee.
ReplyDelete@egsforbreakfast 10:33 AM
DeleteFirst: Hilarious that you tried.
Second: It's like those wine-sniffers running the NYT aren't taking me seriously. 😉
I found this puzzle delightful. I had no idea there were that many words that were close enough kin to TRIVIA to make this work.
ReplyDeleteI did try to find a Spanish nightclub island that started with L due to my BUlky before BUILT. Once the KAZOO buzzed in, that was fixed.
Nice job, Dan Caprera!
Good theme, with a very nice assortment of second words meaning "information." I thought GRAPHIC DETAIL was a bit overly broad for porn films, but I see how you could make a case for it.
ReplyDeleteOne big flaw, however. The code talkers were NAVAjO, not NAVAHO. Do a search for the latter and you get the former. I don't think it's even an acceptable variant.
"The word Navajo is an exonym: it comes from the Tewa word Navahu....The alternative spelling Navaho is considered antiquated....The Navajo refer to themselves as the Diné ('People'), with their language known (its endonym) as Diné bizaad ('People's language')[9] or Naabeehó bizaad."
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Navajo_language#Revitalization_and_current_status
The Navajo Nation uses both "Navajo" and "Diné" but I guess we'd have to ask them if they consider the antiquated spelling NAVAHO to be offensive, or merely uninformed.
One of the 20th century's great philosophers explains the "womb is room"
ReplyDeletehttps://monarch-healthcare.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/11222689_1020386411313378_1710724904390077291_n.png
Everything worked for me with this one - such a great theme and so much fun!
ReplyDeleteIt was a slow start for me, however. Nothing fell until I got to OPALS (I'm solving much earlier in the day than usual, maybe the old brain is not quite as sharp as it could be) but then the magic started.
First themer to fall was RAWDATA and then had a great time working to figure out the others, all of them gave just the right bit of resistance for a Wednesday. I smiled at every one, and "AHHHHed" at some :o)
@Lewis - loved your two brilliant themers!
@Malaika - great write up as always! I always learn something interesting about puzzle construction when you join us. Great convo on the podcast as well!
No real holdups - The SW got a little bit sticky with BUILT, ABBEY and IBIZA but all were fairly crossed and BUILT was fun to figure out.
Thank you Dan! More like this please!
Mostly what astute Malaika darlin said. Good WedPuz.
ReplyDeleteMalaika dresses up more for her bathroom appearances than M&A does. But ... I would at least wear a robe, tho, if someone was snappin pics of m&e.
staff weeject pick: HEE. LAUGHTRACK themer meat.
some fave stuff: The nutso single ?-marker clue for the WOMB Room. COBB salad -- a primo all-time M&A lunch fave [except at this one elcheapo pancake house, where they left off the avocado ... the SABOTEURS].
COPA/AMY no-knows added some nanoseconds to my solvequest, right outta the chute. SOCHI/IDINA was also a bit of a challenge. Otherwise, pretty smoooth sailin.
Thanx for the PUZPATTER, Mr. Caprera dude. Clever set of did U knows.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
... some runtpuz xword-buildin tips ensue ...
"Runty Building Blocks" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Amanecer de dedo rosado.
ReplyDeleteSure delighted HORCHATA didn't appear in this puzzle as it nearly gave Anonymous from yesterday an aneurysm. Wouldn't want to risk a public health crisis over this important topic. I wonder if it's a HARD TRUTH they only know horchata in IBIZA?
By the way, I normally read the blog comments in the evening and if you're missing it, may I recommend the late day commenters as wonderful reads. @CDilly52 crushes it almost every night and yesterday, @Hugh @Les @dgd and of course @Beezer were all counterbalancing the chaos of the disgruntled Anonomoti. Thank you late-day peeps for making "reading to the bottom" great.
As for today's puzzle, meh. Fine if you enjoy a gunk-fest. I can't tell if the theme answers are supposed to be funny. I didn't count them as they're just weird to me.
As for @Malaika MWednesday, what is she doing solving on paper like a cave woman and then showing up in a fancy dress like we're not gunna notice.
It's the ICICLES NOT hanging on that makes them fun. The poor misunderstood CARB. Mascara might also cause you to SWOON, you gorgeous creatures. A step up from an upright piano is a guitar, amirite?
If I were in charge of the NYTXW, the variant on NAVAJO would have been an automatic rejection. Ironically, you got ROLF spelled correctly.
It's CELLIOPODES.
❤️ SABOTEURS. KAZOOS.
People: 8
Places: 3
Products: 9
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 4
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 31 of 78 (40%) {Dan! Hello, rewrite one clue and you're out of the forties.}
Funnyisms: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: HEE. Did you know?! The aforementioned El Satario is on the Wikipedia page and I might have watched it with my eyes closed?
Uniclues:
1 How to make drunks smarter.
2 Where Russian bull poo comes from.
3 Eating undercooked meat can kill you.
4 What capitalism calls a career.
5 What a colon does.
6 His highness's dumpster enclosure behind the castle in Paris.
7 Dance club erected by vegetarian entrepreneurs.
8 The story of the holy egg.
9 Swedish black and white movies where cigarette smokers lament the Pepsi can stain on the piano.
10 Those sneaking into your house to pet your cat.
1 AMPLE PUB TRIVIA (~)
2 SOCHI TORO (~)
3 RAW DATA FUN FACT (~)
4 YOUR USD LABOR (~)
5 ABUTS WOMB
6 LE ROI E-CIG AREA
7 TOFU BUILT COPA (~)
8 ABBEY OVUM OPUS (~)
9 BABY GRAND NOIRS
10 ASPCA SABOTEURS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Breakfast cereal for the newly single. UGLY CRYING OATS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks, @Gary, for the shout out. I have been posting at all hours lately because if it's going to be 90F by noon (PDT) I need to get out and get to work early to avoid heat stroke. To a small-time farmer like me everything is weather dependent. But I always come back to read the late posts and I'm thrilled to be included in such a great group.
DeleteI agree that the theme idea was clever but maybe it's execution was a case of more is not always necessarily better. PUB TRIVIA, FUN FACT and BANK STATEMENT all stick the landing but some of the others seem a bit wobbly.
ReplyDeleteGRAPHIC, for example, can be an adjective describing a porno movie but here it's being used as a noun in the reparsed version of GRAPHIC DETAIL. But a GRAPHIC isn't the same thing as a porno movie. As Malaika suggests, the clue is a DETAIL about CONTENT that is GRAPHIC.
The "...first million years of human existence" part of the clue for RAW DATA got the side eye from me. The most recent estimates are that modern humans, Homo sapiens, first appeared around 300,000 ago. And DATA suggests a set of facts or statistics rather than just the one factoid about how long cave men (and presumably cave women) ate RAW meat. That would be a DATUM, right?
And the diamond versus rubies or sapphires clue is, again as Malaika writes, a TRUTH about mineral HARDNESS.
Is that overthinking? Maybe, but I would counter that it requires a little underthinking for the theme to work seamlessly . So there.
I don't speak French, but isn't the plural of FILM NOIR actually FILMS NOIR? If so, then NOIRS isn't just a clumsy, POC, it's a W [Wrong] POC.
ReplyDeleteMetrognome
Delete“Les noirs “ in French has many meanings, depending on the context. But I would argue that is irrelevant, because we are discussing English here as the term has been imported into English. Hence terms like noir-ish.so people will say noirs.
@MetroGnome 1:18 - In French it would be FILMS NOIRS (adjective must agree with the noun in number).
DeleteARCA? 67A “x times y potentially.”
ReplyDeleteI don’t get it. Someone explain, please.
The answer is AREA
DeleteYou're right about the French (and "film noirs" would be like fingernails on a chalkboard to me). However, I think "noir" used as a noun to refer to a film noir is an obscure-ish but not unheard of borrowing into English, so NOIRS read to me as tough but fair.
ReplyDeleteA quick PSA: Robyn has a beginner level puzzle in today’s NewYorker (it would feel right at home here on a Monday). As usual, the cluing is clean and fun, but very, very easy. Would be perfect for a beginner if you know any budding cruciverbalists.
ReplyDeletethis puzzle did indeed Rock!!! wish they knew the secret for a daily puzzle this good especially Sunday
ReplyDeleteNAVAHO instead of NAVAJO feels pretty lame to me.
ReplyDeleteI was actually throw for a split second by "Amy". Mostly because very few people would actually call her by her real name instead of her ring name "Lita". The latter is world famous.
ReplyDeleteLove the Pudding shoutout!
ReplyDelete