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Horatian work of ca. 18 B.C. / THU 8-14-25 / Molecule that stores energy in the body, in brief / Larrup / Result of a scandal going viral, in brief / ["Let's go with 'Nickname's the Same' for $400"] Bruce Springsteen, Lance Armstrong and Melissa McCarthy in a 2016 comedy / A winning scenario in a best-of-three game / Hasbro word game that comes with a 60-second hourglass / Pre-med track precursor, in brief
Thursday, August 14, 2025
Constructor: Gene Louise De Vera
Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
ATP at 1-Across? Why? It's terrible fill, and not just because I can never remember this "molecule" initialism, even though I've seen it at least once before. Adenosine Triphosphate. Give me the American Tennis Professionals meaning of this answer every time, or, even better, never give me this answer again, it's bad. That "P," crossing the somewhat-hard-to-parse PRDISASTER (more initials there at the front) (3D: Result of a scandal going viral, in brief), made the opening part of this solve kind of awkward. But not nearly as awkward as the clue on WHO'S THE BOSS?, which I still don't understand. Obviously, Bruce Springsteen is "The Boss," but why does the clue keep going? Lance Armstrong? Melissa McCarthy? 2016 comedy?? It's really Lance Armstrong that's throwing me here. I assume Melissa McCarthy was in some comedy I've never heard of called The Boss ... [searches] ... yep, there we go.
Bullet points:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld]
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- "WHAT IS LOVE?" (17A: ["I'll take 'Tennis' for $200, Ken"] It means nothing) ("WHAT IS LOVE" is a song by Haddaway, LOVE is of course "nothing" (zero) in tennis)
- "WHO'S THE BOSS?" (23A: ["Let's go with 'Nickname's the Same' for $400"] Bruce Springsteen, Lance Armstrong and Melissa McCarthy in a 2016 comedy) ("WHO'S THE BOSS" was a sitcom, THE BOSS is the nickname of everyone listed there)
- "WHAT'S UP?" (39A: ["Give me 'The Academy' for $600"] This was only the second animated film to be nominated for Best Picture, after "Beauty and the Beast") ("WHAT'S UP?" is just a common question, UP is a movie with a dog and a balloon and Ed Asner)
- WHO'S WHO (41A: ["How about 'Sports and Comedy' for $800]) He was on first base, per Abbott and Costello) (a WHO'S WHO is a list of important people, WHO ... is on first, per a famous Abbott and Costello routine)
- "WHAT'S THE TEA?" (53A: ["I'll try 'Painted Ladies' for $1000"] This piece by Impressionist Mary Cassatt shows two women enjoying a drink) (“WHAT’S THE TEA?” means “what news/gossip do you have to share?” and THE TEA is a painting by Cassatt (see below))
The Tea, also referred to as Five O'Clock Tea, is an oil-on-canvas painting of two women having tea by the American Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. The role of gender in the painting has been the subject of differing interpretations among art historians. Griselda Pollock describes the confined interior as an evocation of the spatial and social constraints placed on women at the time. Norma Broude asks whether the work might contain "possibilities for empowerment," showing the agency that women exercised through sociability. And John Loughery argues that the intention behind Cassatt's work might always remain a mystery. // Art historians and feminist scholars such as Broude emphasize that Cassatt's work must be viewed within the context of her time. Cassatt's work reflects the fact that she did not have the same access to the public sphere as her male counterparts. While male artists were able to explore busy streets, music halls, cafes, and travel, Cassatt's experiences were limited to the domestic sphere, therefore, also limiting her choice of subjects. (wikipedia)
• • •
Not familiar to me at all, but that's OK. Still ... what is Lance Armstrong doing in this clue??? Did people really call him The Boss???? LOL did he not know that nickname was taken. On his wikipedia page, among his listed nicknames is "Le Boss," which is funnier than "The Boss," and kind of invalidates the clue. Also, why would you want a disgraced fraud of an athlete in your puzzle? He's not TULSI Gabbard-bad (see yesterday), but still, his is not a name that's enjoyable to remember. The way that clue had to stretch into obscurity, reaching beyond Bruce into nonsense, really made things confusing for me. I do like the basic premise, even though I am not the Jeopardy! fan that so many crossword solvers are and certainly haven't watched it at all since Trebek died.
There are three little problems with the theme execution though
- All the themers are, in their surface meanings, legit questions ... except WHO'S WHO, which is not a question at all. A WHO'S WHO is a list of famous people or standouts in a particular field. It's a noun.
- The revealer is anticlimactic; you read one theme clue and you know what TV show you're dealing with
- The second part of the revealer clue reads "where one might hear the clue-and-answer pairs," and the answer to that is ON JEOPARDY!, not IN it. When talking about TV shows, you say "I saw it on..." "I heard it on..."
["I Lost On Jeopardy!"]
Further, I've never heard the question "WHAT'S THE TEA?" I know that TEA is slang for gossip, and I've heard of the related expression "spill the tea," but just ... "WHAT'S THE TEA?" I'm sure someone says it somewhere, but to my ear, it clanks. I did enjoy learning about the Mary Cassatt painting, though. It's fun that there are two dimensions to every themer: the answer as a whole (which, as a well-known thing unto itself, is unclued), and then the Jeopardy! part of the answer (LOVE, THE BOSS, UP, etc.), which is clued. Does everyone know what "WHAT IS LOVE?" is?? That seems niche to me, although if you watched SNL at a certain point in its run, you definitely heard it a lot.
[Haddaway]
The long Downs were solid today, though that clue on TWO FOR TWO was unnecessarily confusing. Why bring "three" into it? You would not use the phrase TWO FOR TWO if you were in a best-two-out-of-three situation. TWO FOR TWO is a just a regular phrase for taking two attempts (at whatever) and being successful. In baseball, a batter might be TWO FOR TWO with two RBIs, a walk, and a stolen base, say. A basketball player might go 2-for-2 from the free throw line. The answer phrase and the clue phrase just don't go together. The fill gets ugly in places: HHS next to OOH through ORTHO (which I had as OSTEO???) under THAR under ONS crossing E!NEWS—not a very pretty stretch. ATP SHOO WHAP (!?) ODO USH ASEA AERO INST ... really rough around the edges. I liked seeing ARS POETICA in its full splendor (and not just as a sad partial clue for ARS). PR DISASTER is actually a very strong entry. And BANG-UP JOB is ... doing one (33D: Incredible work).
Bullet points:
- 48D: Larrup (WHAP) — I'll take "Words No One Uses for $6, Alex." I've seen "Larrup" before, but only (only) in crossword clues. And WHAP? That's not a word, that's a sound effect.
- 31A: Bubbles, e.g. (ORBS) — this took me an embarrassingly long time (i.e. more than one pass). Thought it might be a verb for a bit.
- 45D: Terrifying device for a field mouse (RAT TRAP) — me: "why is mouse in the clue for RAT TRAP?" Me later: "Oh, they were trying to do one of those rhyming-consecutive-clues things that so rarely work out [see 42D: Terrifying sound for a field mouse], no wonder this clue is awkward."
That's all. See you next time.
P.S. I told you yesterday (ELWES!) that I was gonna watch THE CAT’S MEOW (2001) and just so you know I’m a man of my word …
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141 comments:
Main holdup was 50D..had 'can' for the longest time. Probably influenced by yesterday's puzzle. Made the SW take longer than it should have.
Much more enjoyable than most Thursdays. Easy theme that didn't need a revealer. Only brief problem for me was the NW, where I assumed the were going for "hard (or soft) letter h beginning "Hebrew" instead of ALEPH, which I finally remembered from earlier crosswords. I also thought they were hinting at a Nascar groupie instead of TURBO.
Oops..meant SE...
Was certain my fellow New Wave aficionado Rex would post a clip of Howard Jones’ rendition of “What is Love” vs the “baby don’t hurt me” variety.
Separately - was expecting a full list of who/what/when/where/why mid-solve. The arbitrary double cluing of who and what threw me off?
Meatbag??
Going with adenosine triphosphate when the worldwide professional tennis tour (at least for men) is available is probably as good a sign as any that Shortz has lost is fastball. I hope he doesn’t hold on too long and badly tarnish his legacy. I know that there are many who get tired of seeing sports clues, but in this case the alternative was just ugly.
My last square to fill in was the cross of the Nestle bar and the Hasbro game. I led a sheltered life and never heard of either, even though it appears as though the AERO bars have been around for about 90 years now.
Some more ugly (but somewhat amusing) stuff down south with Larrup and WHAM.
I agree with Rex that the reveal was a bit cumbersome - it’s probably difficult to clue “ON JEOPARDY” a second way without referring to the TV show, but isn’t that what we have editors for ?
The revealer is unnecessary and awkwardly phrased. Otherwise I really liked the theme.
Simple but enjoyable.
Has anyone else never heard of a Nestle Aero Bar?
A most memorable moment was the face-screwing span I went through after misreading 4A’s clue as [Prominent feature of a hippocampus or crocodile].
Enjoyed the theme but the puzzle was ruined by the utterly terrible fill that turned it in to a slog. ATP, HHS, OOH, ORTHO, WHAP, OTC, ODO, USH, INST etc. MEATBAG??? C'mon!
I really liked the theme, and I enjoyed having ATP at 1A.
I just saw THE TEA in person back in March. World figure skating championships were held in Boston, and while we were there, we made time to visit the Museum of Fine Arts (among others). I would describe THE TEA as a painting that does not know what it wants to be - in places quite realistic; in others, impressionistic.
Although the puzzle continues to insist on it, I've still never heard "tea" used to mean "gossip” elsewhere.
Also, mint AEROs are delicious.
The puzzle does not insist that you've heard "tea" used to mean "gossip" elsewhere! The puzzle has no idea who you are, what you've experienced, etc.
Been around and very popular since 1935 - but mostly in the UK. Though available in the US, they are not exactly mass marketed and not something that you'll often see in the candy display at the supermarket checkout line.
How in the world does the name ENEWS (E as in Entertainment) suggest it has been a thing since before the Internet??
How did I love this? Let me count the ways:
• A dozen answers ending with the OO sound (AFEW, WHOSWHO, GREW, GNU, TABOO, SPEW, STEW, HULU, YEW, SHOO, TWOFORTWO, OOH), and notice all the variations for making that sound.
• Eight WILs (words I love) – LITHE, POSH, GNU, FJORD, GRIFT, SPEW, NINJA, WHAP. And let me repeat … WHAP!
• Five ways to pick a Jeopardy category (I’ll take…, Let’s go with…, Give me…, How about…, I’ll try...).
• Three echoes – A SWAN, A SEA, and A TOLL to echo A FEW.
• Two ugly-ish words so colorful that, IMO, they beautify our language (MEATBAG, RATTRAP).
• One masterful theme – in-the-language phrases beginning with “who” or “what” turned into Jeopardy answers. A brilliant concept, IMO, never done before.
A gift box today. Thank you so much for making this, Gene!
This wasn't a rebus puzzle. That's colored my opinion of it, because I hate rebus puzzles and therefore I generally dislike Thursdays. This was an Easier-than-average Thursday for me.
Overwrites:
agilE before LITHE at 8A
TWO FOR one before TWO FOR TWO at 10D, before reading the clue
GRaFT before GRIFT for the dirty money at 51D
WOEs:
ATP at 1A
The Cassatt painting at 53A
Mount St. ELIAS at 56D
"I am not the Jeopardy! fan that so many crossword solvers are and certainly haven't watched it at all since Trebek died."
You really should watch Ken Jennings as the host of Jeopardy.
He is actually better than Alex in that he was a contestant.
His empathy and humor for each of their "stories" is respectful.
The subtle ways he corrects wrong answers or reveals the correct ones is polite and at times humorous.
Cute theme idea (big “Jeopardy” fan here) with some good long connectors. But, as @Sutsy perfectly summarizes, the gunk in this one is way too frequent and way too obvious.
I liked NONET next to TRIO. The field mouse clues, not so much.
Regarding WHATSTHETEA…like yesterday’s RONA, until I actually hear or read it anywhere other than a NYT crossword, I will continue to assert that it exists only in Crosslandia.
Inscrutable start with ATP (hi Rex) so I went with the first gimme I saw, which turned out to be ASWAN, and proceeded from there. Had Rex's OSTEO ( hi again) and CAN before CHA and have never heard of an AERO bar, which is to say that I feel like I'm in good company this morning.
I used to hear "larup" as a kid and knew it meant striking someone so WHAP made at least some sense. Today's geography lesson is Mr. ELIAS, merci bien, I do question THAR as being in the language except in the old "I see a bar, whar, over THAR expression" from grade school.
No Thursday tricksiness which is a little disappointing but a pretty tight theme with a solid, if easy revealer. Nice to see ALEX get a shout out too
Pleasant enough, GLDV. A Good Little Diluted Version of a tough Thursday, but thanks for a fair amount of fun.
Loved 67 across - FJORD - as we were doing the puzzle cruising up a Fjord in Greenland! Cold, foggy and rainy but still spectacular.
Maybe I'm biased as a science teacher, but every single kid that passes through the most barebones life science class learns what ATP is. It's far more recognizable to me than whatever dumb sports acronym is stands for.
When I first looked at the clues and saw all the PPP I thought I was dead in the water on this. But it turned out my problems were more with the short answers, my brain insisting that “guile” was “wit” and that the opposite of “rent” was “buy”, and that “Charlies Angels” were “tecs” (because this is an NYT puzzle). Funniest was entering WHiP for WHAP and eventually winding up with IRT for “guile”—how did I wind up on a NYC subway system you may ask? A total lack of guile…Anyway, all these diversions aside, thought this was a relatively easy and enjoyable puzzle for a Thursday.
Re-read the clue. It’s the opposite of what you suggest.
“What’s the tea” is super common in gay circles (where presumably it was lifted from AAVE originally). If you watch RuPaul’s Drag Race the contestants say it popular.
It basically means “Dish!”
Hey All !
WHATS UP? WHATS THE TEA today? Are any of y'all IN JEOPARDY? Wondering if WHAT IS LOVE twixt WHOS WHO and WHOS THE BOSS is happening. Let me know.
So, THAR was the puz. It gave me a WHAP with having WHIP instead, leaving IRT as a Huh?, but for some reason, I didn't correct it. What an ASS.
I noticed many other W's in the grid, seemed a touch excessive. Neat seeing two J's close together in SW. Too bad the symmetrical 11D from 57D ALEX wasn't KENJ, to add in another host. But you needed the W for the Theme.
Always liked the word FJORD. Unsure what the HHS is. I had EPA in first. Do NINJAs exist? Or are they so stealth, that you really don't know?
OOH, SHOO the TABOO. HOOT!
No, I haven't lost my mind (yet.)
Have a great Thursday!
Speaking of Thursday, I just realized that it IS Thursday, where's the tricky puz?
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Must vehemently disagree. Alex was the GOAT. While Ken was the best player, IMO he is awful as host. Forced humor, redirects attention to himself, awkward comments, etc.
Because usually when “e” is used as a prefix these days, it means “electronic”, as in “email”.
Dish the tea?
I fear that ATP put Rex, who often seems averse to science clues in crosswords, in a pretty bad mood. (I thought it was okay, as an extra dollop of difficulty in a Thursday puzzle.) I don't know if this would brighten his mood, but here is an interpretative dance by hippies to illustrate how protein synthesis works, where ATP plays a critical role.
Some of his points are well-taken. The clue for TWO FOR TWO would be infinitely improved merely by cluing with a best three out of five. (C'mon, NYTXW editors.) He's right that they should have left out Lance Armstrong altogether. And he's also right that IN JEOPARDY is a swing and a miss on several levels. But I don't agree that WHO'S WHO is not a question at all -- it certainly could be, for example if someone is pointing to a page in a photo album and asks, "okay, who's who here?"
I could do without a daily reminder of WHAT'S UP these days with the Department of HHS, and all the GRIFT attendant to so-and-so and his enablers. Also the obligatory ASS sighting doesn't gladden my heart. It's getting awfully stale, NYTXW.
My main point today is to commend Rex for making the exact same point I was going to, using the exact same song:
It's only ever "on Jeopardy," never "in Jeopardy." IN JEOPARDY means you are in trouble, not anything to do with the game show. And to prove it, I was going to post the same Weird Al song. Kudos to Rex: nice to know we're on the same wavelength for at least once.
After that, we start to disagree: I found the puzzle easy overall... No big sticking points and the theme clues were all very obvious. Rex's complaints about ATP are unfounded: it's a major biological component -- a biochemical giant. Complaining about it is like getting angry at DNA or NaCl.
A few days ago there was a puzzle that included a clue/answer to the effect of "out of touch" and I thought, "This describes Shortz perfectly." Today has more examples of his love unused out of date terms: TEA for gossip; tippler for alcoholic; WHAP and larrup (lol wut?).
Final complaints: A SWAN isn't punny, it's just bad.
A booster for dragsters should be nitro. TURBO could technically be correct, but more in amateur racing. The "dragsters" most people are probably familiar with -- Top Fuel or funny cars -- use superchargers and turbos are specifically not allowed (I think). So, the clue isn't wrong per se, but it isn't great.
Well said. With the utmost reverence for Mr. Trebek, I’d say Jennings has grown into the role and made it his own.
Whap (he writes, overruling spellcheck which wants to replace it? ) Why whap (no, not what, stop that) when whip is a far more common synonym for an unusual word making art IRT.
loved this ode to alex trebek! alex was a class act who can never be replaced. jennings is sloppy seconds. i found the puzzle relatively easy. not a personal best but definitely faster than average.
I feel like they were much more prominent and popular in the '90s. At least I was aware they existed and had them from time to time. Since then they seem to have become so obscure I had assumed they were discontinued.
Great Post!
Alex Trebek could be annoyingly haughty IMO, and tactless, as when he would sometimes go "oh, no" [in a tone of voice like "you should know better"] to a wrong response. I find Ken Jennings generally affable, and he's the real deal in terms of trivia knowledge -- I find him much more credible in that regard than I ever found Trebek, who I thought put on airs.
I loved seeing ATP as the first clue. An absolute gimme and confirmation that my education IS relevant.
Upon further refection, I wish to add THAR she blows, but that still doesn't make it in the language, unless you're a whaler.
Guile = Art? (x WHAP ???)
At first, I was a bit put off because I saw proper names in the theme clues and thought we were in for another trivia fest like yesterday. But quickly saw this was whole different game we were playing. Easy for a Thursday, particularly after grasping the theme, but not the least bit boring. Like a good book, it held my interest from the very beginning to the last stray empty square. Most enjoyment I’ve gotten from a puzzle in while. Maybe because I’m a big Jeopardy fan, but I loved it.
Was nobody else annoyed that the first theme answer didn’t use a contraction for “is” but the rest did?
Yep, Jennings adds a bit of humanity to the role. Alex was great but I enjoy Ken’s “regular guy” persona as opposed to the “game show host” type.
Possibly should have been clued specifically for Bender the robot from Futurama, who uses it a lot, but that's probably too obscure-specific
Turbochargers are not used in dragsters because of the lag time in spinning up. Superchargers are instantaneous in compressing the air in the intake manifold which is needed for drag racing.
Enjoyed this one, if easier than usual. Had TWOFORONE despite all reason because that fit with three for me, and the east section with the unknown to me AMOCO and the 'surely not' POSH - actually, is this a common term in the US? I always dismiss it as a Britishism and am always surprised when it appears!
A pretty fast Thursday for me, although I didn't get a foothold immediately as I didn't know ATP and don't recognize the phrase JUMP [SCARE] (or does the clue just mean JUMP is a word you might say before "a scare"? I'm confused about this). But once I caught on to the Jeopardy theme it was fun and I liked all the themers. Love Mary Cassatt and worked out the title of that painting from the crosses. Like all the good words in the puzzle, like LITHE, POSH, FJORD, COAX, GRIFT. Didn't feel like there was much junk at all. Oh—I thought the answer for "Bubbles" was BABS at first, and I thought that was so cute! Anyone else have that? I was disappointed when it turned out to be the ordinary ORBS. But a nice puzzle overall. Thank you, Gene!
There was no Thursday trick! The clues all straightforwardly tell you how to answer them. This is like a Tuesday theme. Still was about a Thursday medium, but that was disappointing.
Yes, and methinks these people who want to wait around until they spontaneously hear phrases from parts of culture they've obviously never tried to dabble in will be waiting and complaining for a long time. Tough breaks for them!
I wanted to enjoy this puzzle and was doing just fine until I hit 60A when I said, hold it, ART does not equal guile. No way. I’ve spent years trying to convince people, even friends that I consider quite intelligent, that art is not a trick, art is not guile. It is, in fact, a way of challenging preconceptions, of asking people to rethink the way they see things, either visually or conceptually. Good art is not trying to fuck you over.
The conflation of art and guile just doomed this puzzle for me. Thanks Will & Co. for that, because I was kind of enjoying it for a while. I have a note here on my scratch pad about how much I liked the ASWAN wordplay (as convoluted as it was) at 15A. And, though I don’t watch it very often, I do enjoy Jeopardy when I stumble upon it. But the ART=guile thing just killed any possible love.
1000%, Mary!
Everything Anon9:02 said, but as an argument for why Trebek is better
@Rex may have thought the WHOSTHEBOSS clue was long and wrong, but my reading of it had me absolutely dumbfounded. I just shook my head upon learning from the clue that Bruce Springsteen, Lance Armstrong and Melissa McCarthy had appeared together in a 2016 comedy. I gotta see that sumbitch I said to myself.
Of course I'm the same guy who, upon arriving in Cambridge for school in 1979 and inquiring about the best way to get to Boston, had to ask WHATS THE T?
Why you never hear a swish on many urban basketball courts: NONET
While we're all fawning over Alex Trebeck, let's at least have a nod to ART Fleming, the first host INJEOPARDY history.
I thought the puzzle was fun. Only wish GRIFT had been clued in reference to the Grifter-in-Chief. Anyway, thanks, Gene Louise De Vera.
I think Jennings is great! Witty without being smug.
Así con este beso muero.
Engaging little critter kept me erasing all the way through. So many wrong first guesses. I've never watched Jeopardy, but the basic premise is weird enough to be in the winds. Who's Who gave me the most trouble because of the missing apostrophe. Like many, I'm deeply troubled by seeing things IN Jeopardy instead of ON Jeopardy. This is where my puzzling angst lives.
Um, seriously, dragsters have superchargers, not turbo chargers. I don't think our editors are spending enough time outside New York city sitting in pickup beds drinking ice tea mixed with cheap vodka out of plastic cups.
Probably not great to open a puzzle with ATP/ALEPH unless you hate solvers. SLUR takes yesterday's racist version and turns it into today's alcoholic version.
LITHE is on my favorite word list between ZHUZH and TABOO. LARRUP is new to me.
I had the mouse's terrifying sound as MEOW instead of HOOT and wow that brought everything to a grinding halt. We have mousetraps at work and they mainly trap lizards. We open the traps in the nearby landscaping and I bet they amaze the other lizards with alien abduction stories.
🤣 THAR. MEAT BAG. Gosh I love sarcastic robots.
😩 USH.
Today's gunkometer is like an anonymous cross dresser on a Friday night -- all made up.
People: 5
Places: 3
Products: 11 {sigh}
Partials: 9
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 31 of 78 (40%) {We are gunkapalooza approved!}
Funny Factor: 5 😄
Tee-Hee: In one's birthday suit. TABOO SPEW ASS. BANG UP JOB. Our 5th grade slush pile editor is hard at work.
Uniclues:
1 Single people.
2 Polluted.
3 Question for gossipy bovidae.
4 Punch a chatty one in the middle of a stream.
5 Every jazz festival in the park.
6 Spanish island for Latin literature lovers.
7 Tasks for twins.
1 WHAT IS LOVE HERD (~)
2 GREW AMOCO
3 WHAT'S THE TEA GNU? (~)
4 WHAP HULU JAW (~)
5 MEAT BAG RAT TRAP
6 ARS POETICA ISLA (~)
7 TWO FOR TWO TO-DOS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Coy koi aglug. CIA FISH GET WET.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No.
Same here plus Alec not Alex. Had to look up the Canadian mountain to get it sorted
That IS in WHAT IS LOVE is bothering me more than it probably should. I mean, all the other themers end 'S, it would have been nice if this one could have fit the pattern. Not that I have any suggestion!
Since I didn't know any of the movies involved, it took me too long to figure out that I was looking for questions, rather than titles-- but it was pretty clear Cassatt had named named a painting "WHAT'S THE TEA," so then I remembered how Jeopardy worked.
Never heard those docs called ORTHOs; always "orthopod."
WHoP before WHAP, afAR before THAR (I don't think the accent is sufficiently clued by the colloquialism of 'over yonder,' but maybe it is.)
But what's a JUMP scare?
HHS=Health and Human Services (US Department of). Probably the next to be dismantled after the Department of Education
Played more like Tuesday for me. Just a shade off my best Thursday time. Like many I had OSTEO for ORTHO. No other WOEs
Let's show some love for ATP! Without it your body would not be able to get energy fromfood without killing itself with the heat of combustion.
Innovative theme, but it doesn't quite click.
I love Cassatt paintings. I thought that she was in the second tier of Impressionist painters, but I just Googled her. She was second in the list it gave me, right after Monet.
Starting at the top ATP was a disaster. So was WHAP, AERO, USH, MEATBAG. But oddly enough I liked it (& relieved that it wasn't a rebus) especially the JEOPARDY theme which I listen to while doing other things. BTW - I totally agree the poster @ 7:50 (Moore???) about Ken Jennings. A great guy who obviously likes his 'job.'
Thank you, Gene :)
@8:05am
Yes, but the puzzle is mainly solved by adults, not 9th graders taking Biology. We all may have learned about ATP, but very few retain that sort of info into adulthood. Professional tennis (even if you think it’s “dumb”) is much more popular than biology, though I’d bet both ATPs are obscure to the most Americans. That said, I was happy to see the molecule in the puzzle today, because I know it is important and I appreciated the reminder of its existence.
Alex was Alex. Ken Jennings is Ken Jennings who, BTW, I think likes his job & is doing a great one stepping into huge shoes.
Not really a Thursday-level theme/difficulty. It's crazy that there's gunky fill everywhere but also a corner with two Js where BANG UP JOB is top-tier bonus fill and the only real glue is ODO.
Very easy. Pleasantly lacking little circles and shaded squares. Rex has pointed out the unpleasantness. And where's the WHERE, WHEN and WHY?
"I'll take "Snow White" for $200, Ken." And speaking of WHO'S THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL, I'm asking myself: Is this puzzle really fair to everyone? It was exceedingly fair to me, a longtime Jeopardy buff. But am I being empathetic enough to others? I've complained strenuously in the past over "niche" crosswords based on video games and board games I've never even heard of, much less played. I thought this puzzle was delightful, but I suppose there could be people who felt shut out of the solve. People who have never watched Jeopardy. Are there any/many such?
One clue I hated and one warning I want to issue. Yes, to you, you snotty bot! Call me MEATBAG even just once and I'll knock you silly. When I'm finished with you, you'll be nothing more than a big bag of bits and bytes that, like Humpty Dumpty, can never be put back together. You won't be making up any nicknames for any humans anymore. Just saying.
I thought the theme of this puzzle was loads of fun. The fill, though, was full of partials and less than wonderful.
A curious side-note: I'd never heard of St. ELIAS, let alone his eponymous mountain, so I checked Wikipedia. He was an Egyptian, driven into exile in Jerusalem for his defense of the doctrine of the Trinity, later a bishop in Jerusalem -- at least, if I got it right from a quick reading. But if you just search for St. Elias (as opposed to the mountain), your search engine's AI summary is likely to tell you that it's an alternate name for the Prophet Elijah.
I was mildly bothered by the inconsistency, but much more bothered by the fact that the standard Jeopardy formulation doesn't use contractions. If I buzzed in I would say "who is the boss" or actually more likely "what is the boss" but not "who's the boss." So a lot of the themers felt like things that didn't actually fit the theme.
(I'll admit it's been a while since I've watched Jeopardy, so maybe this has changed)
Easy. Me too for OsteO and I did not know THE TEA and ELIAS.
Fun, liked it but I agree with @Rex on the problems with the theme answers.
Just finished watching Season 4 of the Bear on HULU. An amazing show!!
Ignoring the question mark on 1D's clue cost me some black ink today. 1A molecule, that's always RNA so RABBI next to NITRO held up the NW briefly. Collie's job? Tippler's talk? I finally crossed it all out and threw in SLUR and HERD and that did the trick.
I have to agree with Rex on most of his points for this puzzle. But it was still fun to puzzle out the theme answers.
Thanks, Gene Louise De Vera!
That’s a good one Lewis!
Well, there's The ART of The Deal, where ART=guile, I think.
I actually thought it would've been better if all of themers used the word IS because that’s how the answers are normally worded by the contestants. As a general rule, they don’t use contractions.
I forgot to say, the 57D nod to Mr. Trebek was a very nice touch.
Jberg,
A jump scare is a scene in a movie that so shocks you that you jump . Almost always a misdirect, It’s also called a cat scare, because so many movies use a cat’s screech to scare the audience who’s anticipating the killer, monster, evil.
Allien has a famous jump scare which employs a cat.
I think it’s because ENews has been a show on the E cable channel network since 1991
Loved 1A despite it being a gimmie.
Cool "Jep" puztheme, but kinda easy-ish for a ThursPuz.
Regular "Jep" watchers, here at our house. Have enjoyed all the hosts, each in their own jeppy ways. Anxiously awaitin new episodes, currently.
BTW-er: "WHAT IS LOVE" was a nice teener hit by The Playmates [1959]. M&A's got the 45 rpm-er.
staff weeject pick: ATP. Molecule abbreve meat [bag].
some fave stuff: ALEPH's ?-marker clue. ARSPOETICA. BANGUPJOB/FJORD. MEATBAG [for AI's opinion of us].
Thanx, Mr. De Vera dude. We were "all in" for all the themers ... except maybe WHATSTHETEA.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
... now, let's go with Geography for a buck and a half ...
"ESE-ers" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
@Conrad 7:44 and I are doing our part to keep the universe in balance: while he hates rebus puzzles and generally dislikes Thursdays, I love rebus puzzles and always look forward hopefully to a Thursday rebus treat. So today I felt cheated, and my appreciation of the puzzle's theme, in its clever transposing of common phrases into a JEOPARDY setting, is unfairly grudging. As for WHAT IS LOVE? In 1959 it was five feet of heaven in a ponytail.
I actually Googled Impressionist painters.
Thanks for the clarification on the chargers. I did have a flicker of doubt when I entered that answer, thinking seriously? At least half the cars on the street these days have TURBO chargers but don’t have a prayer of ever being dragsters. And by the way, you must be going to some pretty fancy automotive events there with the ice tea/vodka. Around these parts, it’s strictly beer except don’t even think about having any Bud Light in your cooler.
Kids in elementary school learn about ATP - and DNA!
It’s rare that I fail a puzzle. But this was a failure for me! Didn't know ATP and Aleph. I’m planning to remember these for next time…
The definition of ARTLESS is "Without guile or deception," and this is what I thought about when I decided to accept that ART could equal GUILE.
My question too. I guessed WHAP so the answer was ART. But why?
Thanks anon 1042 for the reasonable comment. Perceptive & generous.
@jberg I asked that question also, about JUMP SCARE. I hope someone answers!
Thanks for explaining! I've never heard his term.
@jberg 10:22 AM
I think you mean ORTHOIPODIIES. That's how you spell it in Florence, Oregon.
You're in a haunted house or horror movie. You see the closet door. You know the psycho is in there. (His pathology comes from an abusive childhood, so not his fault and the therapist wasn't qualified.) You keep staring at the door and you start to think, "Maybe it's just a door." (That's where you make your first mistake.) Then BAM! Open door. Psychopath. Grabby grabby. That's the jump scare. It's why you go to haunted houses and horror movies. Well, that and all the blood, and the blondes making poor life choices.
Thanx again for the education. So glad I signed up for your course in the further exploration of what’s in front of us but we don’t see.
@Nancy 10:48 AM
The image in my head of you fighting a robot will make me happy all day.
@kitshef, I like your description of "The Tea" as "a painting that does not know what it wants to be". To me , that's its attraction. It's exploratory. I know she was a great friend of Degas but I have always viewed her work as being closer to that of Manet, whose work could also seem somewhat unsure of itself as it was trying to free itself from the restrictions of the academy.
Also, mint AEROs are atrocious.
Maybe we should ask our friend Sam Buttrey what he thinks of Ken? :)
@jberg and @JT
A JUMP scare is when you a watching a movie (horror mostly, but has been used in other genres), when the scene is panning across a room, field, road, etc., quietly nothing is happening, when suddenly, a figure or something jumps into view startling you and you almost literally jump back in your seat.
Can't think of a good example at this moment. Anyone?
RooMonster Might As Well JUMP Guy
Have to agree with both @Mack and @anonymous 9:38. A turbo charger wouldn't be much use in a dragster due to the time lag. I've driven many turbocharged vehicles in my time, including my present one, a pick up truck, believe it or not, and they're great, but they don't really contribute to a faster jump off the line.
Unless you're on land in them thar hills.
If traps were actually terrifying for rodents, they wouldn’t be good traps. They’re supposed to entice rodents, not terrify them.
ATP should be known to anyone who has ever taken high school biology. This is super basic and absolutely essential to all life.
A jump scare is a moment in a movie where something comes out of nowhere to startle you (or make you jump). Boo!
WHATSLOVEGOTTODOWITHIT almost fits a Sunday grid, but it's 22 letters long :(
Let's not forget Art Fleming, who was the original Jeopardy host from 1964-79, when it was taken off the air, When it was revived in 1984, unknown Alex Trebek was tapped to host, much to the consternation of Jeopardy loyalists, who protested and demanded the removal of the "weak" Trebek and the return or the true and authentic host, Art Fleming. Many pledged they would NEVER watch Jeopardy moderated by this imposter Trebek.
Anyone know how that went?.
Mean
Angry
Grifters
Are wrecking the joint
@Mack, they are still here in Canada, unfortunately.
So I was recently shown a composite photograph of the five people who have served as permanent host (or co-host) since Jeopardy debuted in 1964: Art Fleming, Alex Trebek, Mike Richards, Mayim Bialik and Ken Jennings.
But never having seen Jeopardy, I was at a loss put names to faces. So I asked my friend, "Who's who?" Much to my surprise and chagrin, he refused to answer me. Instead, he quite curtly informed me that I had not asked a proper question, and that, in fact, "who's who" is not a question at all, but is a noun phrase only.
I never got may answer. We have never spoken since.
Rye goes better with ice tea than does vodka and you'd better be using genuine red Solo cups.
OK, different kind of "ART". I was obviously feeling overly sensitive about my profession last night.
and THAT'S the real tea honey
true. id miss him as a great quarterback if he wasnt an antivaxer who fawns over RFK jr.
Alex fit perfectly into the persona of Jeopardy. He was a modest and classy man. I find Jennings pompous and platitudinal.
Those are bad but the one I hated most, and skipped by Rex, was ONS. Please use that in a real sentence.
Neither holds a candle to the great Art Fleming. Really Alex was great. Ken is very good, I like him more because he ended the debacle of the audition era (Ken I'll take Aaron Roger's for terrible)
Nice to see adenosine triphosphate in the puzzle. Of course I'm biased, having memorized the various metabolic pathways in med school, but although
I do follow tennis (at least the major tournaments) I've never heard of ATP in that context. What do the letters stand for?
I thought nitro initially as well and doubted turbo. Thanks for confirming my skepticism
@Tod, Mack, Les... I'm also a Canadian and Aero was verrrry popular when I was a kid and ate candy (1960s/70s). Stupidly I plunked in OREO just out of habit even though the clue says "chocolate bar".
A jump scare is usually the result of a jump cut in a horror movie. Woman opens front door turns to wave to friends driving away turns back to door, quick cut to monster face close up in doorway, she screams you jump and yelp.
This morning I got quite the surprise when I nudged the mouse to wake up the monitors and was confronted with this barely begun puzzle with the timer maxed out at 99:59. Obviously I fell asleep right after beginning it... that hasn't happened in years. I was tired; I do remember that much.
Even though I have to admit the theme is pretty good, trying to finish it just now was tedious and frustrating, maybe because of the unfamiliar morning solve. There were a lot of annoying initials and confusing typeovers. In the southwest alone I had EMU before GNU so thus MOUSE before NINJA, OREO before AERO (read the clue, dummy), and GRAFT before GRIFT which fit AT JEOPARDY which was even worse than IN.
@W. Strunk, I don't blame you. It's just as "proper" a question as a noun phrase.
Yeah, me too. I was in JAW dropping disbelief when IN JEOPARDY showed up for "...where one might hear the clue-and-answer pairs...". That seems such a serious flaw that I was surprised it passed editorial muster.
Maybe if the reveal had simply been JEORARDY then it would work for both "Risk" (rather than "At risk") and for "...where one might hear...". IN JEOPARDY for the latter sounds like a mistake someone just learning English prepositions would make (and would be quickly corrected to ON by an ESL teacher).
Hi Rex! Long time reader, first time commenter. As a Gen Z reader of your blog, I just wanted to say that the phrase “What’s the tea?” is a very common and colloquial phrase among young people these days. I’d argue it is a perfectly reasonable crossword answer for some crunch and modern slang. It’s essentially akin to “What’s the gossip?” or “What happened?”, so it didn’t really clank for me like it may have for you or others. Also, if you were wondering if anyone under the age of 25 reads your blog, you’re hopefully happy to learn that me and all of my friends read your blog every day. It really enhances our crossword solving experience, so thank you for having this blog!
@Les S. More - I often have a similar feeling viewing some of Manet's work to that of Cassatt, so I think there is something to your notion.
Yeah, we even have ART in the puzzle at 60A, but with that weak 'guile' clue instead of the not to Fleming.
Rex, thanks for the embedded SNL bit! Hilarious. Sadly, those days are gone.
Nice one. Forgot it because I think of the term as "themthar".
Thank you! Seriously, it's very much in-the-language. Good crosswords should broaden people's horizons a bit and Rex usually appreciates answers that are legit but he just hasn't heard, so I don't know what it is about WHAT'S THE TEA that precluded doing a quick Google search to learn that it's a much-used phrase
TIL about ATP and glad to learn it
Were you in a Fjord Fjesta?
I must say I do not remember learning about ATP in high school biology class. But then again, that was in 1965. [Checks Wikipedia] OK, the Nobel prizes for work related to ATP were awarded in 1957, 1978, and 1997. Maybe they didn't cover ATP in 1965, or maybe I've just forgotten.
Villager
I still think WHUP should have been the answer for "Larrup."
Easy, but fun -- although I Natick'd at 58A/59D (a television personality crossed with a brand name). Couldn't make heads nor tails of WHAT'S THE TEA, but it fit there so I kept it. Turns out it meant something after all.
I haven't seen Jeopardy since the Fleming days (hell, I've barely watched television at all since then!), but it was fun to recognize the gimmick and be able to answer the clues on a Thursday for a change.
Guile means cleverness or trickiness, which can certainly include the concept of being "artful" and creative.
Elias is the name for Elijah in German (and probably a bunch of other languages as well).
Mt. St. Elias is right on the border of Alaska and the Yukon. There is a Wrangell-St. Elias National Park in Alaska.
Villager
Something done or said "artfully" is something done or said in an imaginative, creative way. Close enough to "guile" (i.e., "cleverness") to meet the criterion.
Not so common, but certainly recognizable.
I'm still wondering how/why/when "the skinny" or "the poop" came to mean "the gossip" or "the information." I suppose "tea" makes at least as much sense.
Rex, ATP is perfectly legit and you can't live without it, so deal!!! :)
Conrad
We often have the same overwrites. 2 out of 3 GRaFT and agile.
Comments about Trebec v. Jennings
I think both are good but Alex was a more distinctive personality. In comparison, Ken seems blander. I liked the fact that Alex made sure you knew he was Canadian. He was very conscious of accuracy in pronunciation and maybe people thought that was showing off, but I liked that Ken is a very good choice as a replacement though. The best part of the replacement story is when the
original executive producer picked himself à la Dick Chaney till the scandal arose and he got kicked out. Talk about a PRDISASTER.
Discussion about drag racing.
People can be 100% correct in criticizing the technical errors in a puzzle clue and answer combo but the answer can still be fine. Saying turbo is technically correct is enough to justify the answer. Close enough for crosswords. . . I find as a retired lawyer I know too much and get in trouble with some legal related clues.
That's actually changed a bit in recent years, mostly due to the influence of superchamp Matt Amodio who answered every clue "what's..." to save himself a syllable and allow for a few more seconds of processing time. Many contestants have picked it up since then... and especially when it would make for a humorous response as in the examples given! I am pretty sure I've seen "what's Up?" in an actual episode.
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