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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
As with Monday's puzzle, which was just a list of some of the voices Mel Blanc did, the rationale here escapes me. It's one DIE ... "rolling through" the puzzle? To what end? Why? If we were really supposed to see a "rolling" DIE, then the various representations of that DIE wouldn't be positioned like this. No one DIE could ever "roll" through those six positions, unless it was rolled into some kind of box with sides that would allow it to careen around. The visual effect of "tumbling" just isn't there. But then nothing is there. You've got each side of a DIE, the "O"s are PIPs ... and that's it. That appears to be the whole of the gimmick. No particular game is being represented. Since it's just the one DIE, there is no ... outcome? At first I thought this puzzle was going to have something to do with Yahtzee!, but that would entail five dice, not six, and anyway, as you know, these aren't six dice—these are the six sides of a single DIE. Tumbling. For some reason. Pretty thin. And the one word that might've been brought in as a bonus answer (ROLLED) ... isn't (3D: Like some oats).
- there aren't any except DIE and PIP
Elizabeth MacKintosh (25 July 1896 – 13 February 1952), known by the pen name Josephine Tey, was a Scottish author. Her 1951 novel The Daughter of Time, a detective work investigating the death of the Princes in the Tower, was chosen by the Crime Writers' Association in 1990 as the greatest crime novel of all time. Her first play Richard of Bordeaux, written under another pseudonym, Gordon Daviot, starred John Gielgud in its successful West End run. [...] MacKintosh's best-known books were written under the name of Josephine Tey, which was the name of her Suffolk great-great grandmother. // In five of the mystery novels, all of which except the first she wrote under the name of Tey, the hero is Scotland Yard Inspector Alan Grant. (Grant appears in a sixth, The Franchise Affair, as a minor character.) The best known of these is The Daughter of Time, in which Grant, laid up in hospital, has friends research reference books and contemporary documents so that he can puzzle out the mystery of whether King Richard III of England murdered his nephews, the Princes in the Tower. // The Franchise Affair also has an historical context: although set in the 1940s, it is based on the 18th-century case of Elizabeth Canning. The Daughter of Time was the last of Tey's books published during her lifetime. Her last work, a further crime novel, The Singing Sands, was found in her papers and published posthumously.
• • •
From a structural POV, there are two challenges, which the constructor meets quite well. Actually, it's one challenge that has to be met two times—the triple-"O" sequence. That "6" side forces a nearly abutting pair of "OOO" phrases, the type of phrase you don't see TOO OFTEN oh hey, look at that, there it is. Still, you *don't* see it too often, and here, you've got two: TOO OFTEN and (my favorite) BOO OFF STAGE. It's very inventive, and for that reason maybe feels a little home-made, a little loose, a little improvised, drifting into EAT A SANDWICH territory a little, but I like it, perhaps because I've heard the phrase used in real life (if Eminem's "Lose Yourself" can be said to be real life).
["I've been chewed up and spit out and BOOed OFF STAGE..."]
 |
| [My dad, Lola] |
Beyond that good longer fill, this grid is somewhat overfilled with less pleasant short stuff. Old crosswordese like ALMA TEY (whom we've seen twice this week?!), and then a slew of less-than-great stuff like ELMST VPS SAN CEE APEMAN REC ONO YEP ERE LEI SRO (also twice this week!?!?) NOTIPS ORI NAV ABE TSA MSG ... any of these answers would be OK on their own, but in high dosage like this, it wears. I'm quite sure the visual gimmick of the rolling DIE put a lot of pressure on the grid—all those fixed "O"s would've made it difficult to fill the grid cleanly. And isolating those DIE shapes probably also contributed to the grid's being somewhat choppy, which in turn makes for a lot of short answers. So subpar fill is the price you pay for the gimmick. The gimmick just doesn't seem substantial enough to justify the trade-off.
Bullets:
- 1D: Change seeker (BEGGAR) — winced at this one. There's just something so condescending and dehumanizing about calling the person who "seeks change" from you a BEGGAR. I'm sure I'm more sensitive than I ought to be here, but I guess I don't mind providing counterbalance to the absolute cruelty being visited upon unhoused people in this country. While I'm being "oversensitive," please keep all HP content, including Ron Weasley and his PET RAT, out of my grid. Embarrassing that constructors / editors keep going to this poisoned well.
- 22A: Only U.S. prez born in Kentucky (ABE) — Andy Beshear was born in Louisville. I don't really have a horse in the 2028 race yet, but ... we could do worse (have done worse, are currently doing much worse).
- 59A: Frenemy of Betty in comics (VERONICA) — never ever gonna be mad at Archie Comics content. My daughter absolutely devoured every Archie imprint for like six years of her life ... maybe more. My house and office are still full of digests and double digests, despite the fact that I have given scores of them away to my comics students. I actually find reading Archie oddly soothing, esp. the older Archies. My favorite Archie artist is Harry Lucey. Yes, I have a favorite Archie artist. Here's some crossword-related Archie content—featuring VERONICA—that my friend Doug sent me the other day:
- 43D: Actor Lamorne of Fox's "New Girl" (MORRIS) — absolutely no idea. Easy to infer from crosses, but ... nope. And because of kerning issues, I'm not even sure if it's "Lamorne" or "Lamome," hang on ... OK, it's Lamorne, with an "r" (that makes more sense), and ... weirdly, I wondered, after I got MORRIS, "wait, is this the guy who played Garrett MORRIS on Saturday Night (2024)?," which I saw for the first time earlier this month. And it is! I remember noticing that the actor who played MORRIS was also named MORRIS, and I thought "wow, is he being played by his son??" But it appears that Lamorne MORRIS and Garrett MORRIS are, in fact, unrelated.
That's all. See you next time.
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ReplyDeleteMedium Wednesday. Odd that both the long-ish answers were not theme-related.
Overwrites:
mogul before BARON at 1A
EMOpoP before EMORAP at 12A
lIe before FIB at 25A
WOEs:
Mystery author Josephine TEY at 9A
PET RAT Scabbers (or anything Harry Potter-ish) at 13D
MORRIS Lamorne at 43D
SEITAN at 50D, although I know I've seen it before I needed every cross.
There is a new game on the NYT app called Pips, I think the theme was a little cross promotion!
ReplyDeleteyup...that was my first thought
DeleteThose are dominoes, not dice
DeleteAbsolutely. And PIPS isn't my sort of game anyway :(
DeleteI saw the reveal(s) and kept wondering how/why the highlighted areas were going to represent die(s) and it turns out that the answers are they don’t and JUST BECAUSE.
ReplyDeleteThis is another example of a grid with a “theme” that’s just a sad gimmick which over-strains the fill and we basically end up with a grid full of junk.
The NYT is the only major publication that I’m aware of that publishes grids with this type of experimental (?), Avant Garde (?) (I’m trying to be generous) approach to puzzle themes. Personally, I believe that if the NYT is going to require a theme 5 days a week - they should insist on the best of the best and aspire to be the gold standard. How this kind of stuff so consistently gets published is beyond me.
I did not get this one but I deem very clever. Congratulations Victor,
DeleteNot quite as critical of this puzzle as you are here but still found this to be weirdly easy for a Wednesday. Which I don't necessarily mind! I think the first three days of the week can and should vary in difficulty. But that said it's still a strange experience to have a theme that doesn't really... Theme. Honestly I didn't even get it until solving the "6" side with the triple-O downs.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if this puzzle is some sort of promotional synergy for NYT’s new Pips game. “Domino” was in Connections today as well. They do that sort of thing
ReplyDeleteThe New York Times engaged in marketing and cross promotions? Unheard of. Outrageous! If that's the case, next thing you know it will be marketing products and taking a cut of the sale whenever you click the link and purchase an item while cleverly disguising the content as an objective product testing & review feature. NEVER would the NYTimes stoop so low. It has too much respect for its readers.
DeleteWhile I wholeheartedly agree with how you appear to feel (and I can be completely wrong about how you feel), it seems as if this is all about survival at this point.
Deletethanks for the spoiler. geez. you should play their new game CONSIDER.
Delete@ Ralph I'm assuming (hoping) you're being facetious (re: NYT having too much respect for its readers). Or maybe I'm just annoyed that they've increased their Games Subscription while giving us PIPS.
Delete@aononymous (9:09 am). Surely you can't be speaking of the New York Times survival - a company that has gained over 10 million online subscribers in the past decade, has been buying up other complementary businesses left and right, has been putting mid-city newspapers out of business with its market dominance, has added feature after feature after feature to reach and become market leader in specialized markets, and has grown into a corporate marketing behemoth over the past decade. NYTimes company is now more often the predator threatening the survival of others; and you can be confident that no one and nothing are threatening its survival.
DeleteAnonymous 2:35 PM
DeleteYour statement about the all conquering Times sounds like something coming out of the Fox propaganda machine. It certainly is a much better description of the Murdoch empire than of the Times. The Times is actually not that big or even very profitable. Big in large media organizations means multiple billions of dollars The Times is at a much lower level. The only reason the Times still exists is because the controlling family has stuck together with the help of a family only class of stock with control of the company. Most other newspaper controlling families sold out long ago (when newspapers were very valuable). and made big money.
The subscriber increase is all digital, while the dead tree edition is dropping every year. Digital subscriptions stats include millions who pay much less for say puzzles or food options And online subscribers pay significantly less than paper subscribers. Also proportionally advertising income is significantly less of total income than it used to be. So the Times needs the 15,000,009 goal of total subscribers to be a successful business. But an all consuming behemoth, not at all. (Yes it bought the Athletic and some games but in the modern business world these are small potatoes. The biggest deal was the purchase of the Boston Globe which was sold at a great loss
I have issues with the news articles and the quality of late, but I am happy it still exists.
@dgd Apparently you missed the NYTimes earnings report of August 6 - just two weeks ago. You can continue to believe the story you are telling. I prefer to believe the story the NYTimes is reporting on itself.
DeleteCaught onto the DIE/PIP trick quickly, but assumed the O's were part of a TIC/TAC/TOE game (duh!). Needed look-ups for PETRAT and SEITAN, and had "nabob" before BARON.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle seemed heavy in GEN-X and GEN-Z popular culture.
Yes! This was medium/challenging for Baby Boomers like me
DeleteGosh yes! Indigestible for this old guy
DeleteSolved as a themeless - no interest here. Overall fill was fine - liked TOO OFTEN, IM A MORON, SEITAN and especially DOG KISS.
ReplyDeleteEaster
The shaded dice were annoying. Difficulty trended early week. Love Asimov.
Caetano Veloso
Theme aside - pleasant enough Wednesday morning solve.
Ella Sings Cole
A very impressive job of construction. In addition to the two triple-Os, one of which passes through two dice, there is also SCOUTS HONOR passing through another pair of dice.
ReplyDeleteI quite liked it. DMC is a little ugly on its lonesome, but I can live with that.
I guess I'm a moron but I just don’t get this. I mean, I solved it, but if these things are dice, what about all those letters in them that aren’t Os? They’re just random, right? The gray squares don’t look anything like dice.
ReplyDeleteOK, IMAMORON too , cuz that was my big gripe with the theme. The overly complicated construction overshadowed an otherwise decent puzzle
DeleteAnother thumbs-down here. Post-solve, I can appreciate the challenge for the constructor of getting the O’s into the right places and nowhere else. But that doesn’t compensate for the ho-hum solving experience.
ReplyDeleteI’m surprised, but not shocked, to learn that Rex has a favorite Archie artist. For me, the most striking thing about Archie visually is the titular character’s hairstyle. What is that crosshatching at the temples supposed to represent? I’ve never seen anything like it in real life. But just now I’m imagining an interesting head tattoo . . .
I thought that Salome doing the polka was the height of absurdity but you surpassed that by giving her seven dirndls. Nicely done.
Delete@Andy Freude 7:25 AM
DeleteHe's also wearing an orange kilt for some reason. (With a green polkadotted bowtie?) And Jughead's crossword has trapped single cells and no rotational or mirror symmetry, so obviously an independent puzzle made by a rogue constructor. (M&A?) And Betty's straw is floating in her empty glass. Maybe she's drinking the magical invisibility potion of jealousy.
Adding to @Gary Jugert's observations on Jughead's crossword. There are multiple two-letter answers, so definitely not the NYT.
DeleteWhat a misery. As usual.
ReplyDeleteCapital-P Puzzle for me. Six no-knows. Many answers that needed crosses before confidently slapping in. Believing the puzzle had to do with tic-tac-toe after filling in the first two gray areas.
ReplyDeleteI like having hills to climb, being riddled with riddles, so this hit my happy place.
I love the visual mind that envisioned this Pips-Ahoy theme, and the skill behind pulling it off -- making a cogent puzzle out of a dense and extraordinarily constricting theme set, not to mention having no non-pip O's in the grid.
I enjoyed the Japanese sub-theme, with SEITAN (a word of Japanese origin), MISO SOUP, HAIKU, and NO TIPS (as clued). Even IMAMORON backward, though it doesn’t mean anything, has a Japanese feel.
I love the triple-O look of near-neighbors BOOOFFSTAGE and TOOOFTEN, and the PuzzPair© of LAB and DOGKISS.
Just a mass of mwah in the box for me. I’m a fan. Thank you so much for this, Victor!
And SEITAN backwards is (almost) NA[h], TIES.
DeleteMan, I came here for the vitriol of NYT’s shameless Pips self-promotion, and I’m sadly disappointed.
ReplyDeleteI think the last thing I penciled in on my printout was the first P in PIP, and then (finally) I went back to see how they could be on a DIE, and there they were. Good for you if you saw this coming, but that happiness was not mine.
ReplyDeleteWas Ms. TEY really in another puzzle this week? Missed that. I read "The Daughter of Time" when I was doing a paper on Richard III in college. It didn't strike me as the best mystery novel of all time, I guess I should try it again.
No idea about MORRIS and the next emoji I send will be my first, and as I didn't know SEITAN I was wondering if an emoji might start with a COLOR, but I decided a COLON probably made more sense, so I was able to hum the happy music for myself when that turned out to be correct. Also I learned the name of Ron Weasley's pet rat, which I had been wondering about.
Nice enough Wednesday, VS, a Very Stunty stunt puzzle, and thanks for a fair amount of fun.
The thing starting with a colon is an emoticon, different from an emoji--I don't know how long it took me to understand that. Emoticons are images you can create with a typewriter.
DeletePablo: The bit about “The Daughter of Time” being the greatest mystery novel surprised me, as I’ve never heard of it before, much less read it. Which raises the question: What’s _your_ nominee for best mystery novel you’ve ever read? I’ve got two very different favorites: Dorothy Sayers’s “The Nine Tailors” for British puzzlemaking, and Raymond Chandler’s “The Big Sleep” for vivid characters and dialogue, even though I couldn’t follow the convoluted plot.
DeleteMy favorite mystery novels: Dorothy Sayers’s “Gaudy Night” and Josephine Tey’s “Brat Farrar.” Although I could add Sayers’s “Busman’s Honeymoon” and Tey’s “The Franchise Affair.” Or all the other Tey novels.
DeleteI would pick Sayer’s Gaudy Night as well as Busman’s Honeymoon, but I’m also a romantic. Brat Farrar and The Franchise Affair are by far the best Tey straight forward mystery novels. The Daughter of Time is in a different category altogether. It was my favorite book in high school and I must have read it over 50 times. Of course now Tey comes across as a horrific bigot…worse than Sayers in part because so many of her characters (Grant included) are so misanthropic. Wimsey, despite his high birth, is more of a humanist.
DeleteI recognize the feat of construction but it was no fun to solve. I didn’t get the theme at all until the very end. PIP and DIE were my last two entries, and I was guessing. “Oh, maybe the squares are dice and the O’s are PIPs?” Eye roll, head shake. With random letters interspersed. A real stretch for a theme.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteInteresting idea. At first, thought TICTACTOE, but got dispelled of that pretty quick. While that was in the ole brain, thought the Center Down, 33, might be Rebussed TIC, TAC, TOE.
Figured out they were dice, or as Rex correctly pointed out, six sides of one die, as also pointed out by the Across Revealer. Is it National Dice Day today? Craps Day? (That's a funny day!)
A boatload of Theme material to work around, the six Cubes of Theme, so the iffy fill gets a pass. Junk in every grid, this was handled quite well.
My beef is the Blockers. Granted, have to get full that works, but seems with a touch extra work, could've gotten rid of 4 cheater squares. There's 42 Blockers, getting rid of the 4 brings it back to normal 38. The Blocker after ORI/GEL in NW, before ANI/ONO in SE, and either side of the T Blocker bunch in NW or SE. Just sayin'.
Did like the puz. No other O's, obviously, also making it tougher to fill cleanly.
Have a great Wednesday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Me surgió algo. {tee hee?}
ReplyDeleteWell, let's focus on the positive of this gunkfest:
The phrase I'M A MORON is here, so that's fun. There's a Labrador in the puzzle and there's nothing better than that except maybe DOG KISSES, but I personally find too much tongue is rarely a good thing, don't you agree?
There's a RADICAL in here and I was reminded I was once pretty good at math and now I am not. There's the joy of spelling "spelled" "SPELT," or shall we say "wrong?" There's Elm Street's most famous citizen needing a therapist or a girlfriend. There's Veronica and if I remember right, she's cute, so maybe she could date Freddy K.
There's a ROBOT and I once loved me a good robot until recently when they became super creepy and not made out of tin. There's a patty melt and if you're pro-murder, they're a great way to spend an afternoon feeling bloated.
There's also a Harry Potter (#1!) reference in here and I hope it will lead to the same discussion we have every time there's a Harry Potter reference so I can light my digital public book burning torch and march to kill the monster.
So, not bad I suppose, but I also have a dozen frownie faces here and I am pretty sure the dice caused the ugly fill for no meaningful pay off. I BOO (them) OFF STAGE.
People: 9
Places: 5
Products: 10 {nope}
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 33 of 78 (42%) {Clang goes the gunkorama bell.}
Funny Factor: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: HEMP and THC ... dude.
Uniclues:
1 Songs against short unrhymed poems.
2 Lesser known neighborhood terrorizer.
3 Controversial topic among mouse, hamster, and guinea pig owners.
4 Reputation earned by experimental musician after serving tasty Asian food that made everyone sleepy.
1 HAIKU DIE TUNES
2 ELM ST. APE MAN
3 PET RAT PARITY
4 MSG PUNK ONO
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Gobble it down. ABATE JELLYBEAN.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Gary. "There's a Labrador in the puzzle and there's nothing better than that except maybe DOG KISSES, but I personally find too much tongue is rarely a good thing, don't you agree?"
DeleteI do agree. I'm a dog lover, always have been. have kept company with some fabulous ones, some good ones and ... nope, can't recall any bad ones. I lavish affection on them and they almost always return it. But when they start licking my face, I recoil. Just don't like it. I don't smack them or yell or anything like that. I just quietly tell them I'm not a big fan of slobber and that usually works. Strangely, I have one llama that, when we are standing in the pasture talking to each other, likes to reach in and chew my beard and I don't mind that near as much as dog slobber. Go figure.
@Les: First I’ve ever heard of a beard-chewing llama … but I love it! Oddly, my cat has recently started giving face kisses when we first go to bed. No idea why but I’ve had to employ the same gentle attempts to discourage her without causing any hurt feelings.
Delete@Les S. More 1:08 PM
DeleteWait... what? LLAMA?!! Crossword field trip.
If you’re an absolute literalist it’s hard to imagine any collection of squares actually rolling. This one relies on some imaginary tossing about that seems OK in the land of crossword puzzles but I guess can be off-putting if yuo are not in the mood. However, references to Archie and VERONICA, SCOUTSHONOR, and DOGKISSES (and maybe PETRAT) bring this one to life.
ReplyDeleteThe only PIPS I know sang with Gladys Knight.
ReplyDeleteSuperstars, but they didn't get far.
DeleteI got that the blocks of circled letters were dice and that the Os were pips, but the point of it escaped me.
ReplyDeleteIt felt as though the puzzle suffered to accommodate a theme that (at least to me) had zero "wow" factor. The entire SE is just a joyless slog of proper names.
ReplyDeleteThere really isn't much to the dice theme—the dice aren't tied to any game or any particular "roll"—so the theme falls flat for me. But I still found it a fun puzsle to solve. I liked "shape-shifting organism" for AMOEBA and "Went letter by letter, to Brits" for SPELT. Liked the HAIKU clue being an actual Haiku. But, yes, BEGGAR made me wince.
ReplyDeleteHow many had MOGUL before BARON, like me?
Sorry to be thick, but I don’t understand how nine squares relate to the six sides of a die. Help!
ReplyDeleteThe nine squares make up ONE side of a die. There are six dice (six groups of nine squares) in the puzzle. Each die shows one of the rolls you may get: one pip, 2 pips, 3 pips...up to 6. The letter "O's" are the pips.
DeleteIf I had woken up cranky today, I would have ranted about the shameless cross-promotion for the NYT's new Pips game. Because that's all this puzzle is.
ReplyDeleteFortunately, I woke up rested and happy, so what I choose to take from this puzzle is the wonderful memory of the NYT running Patrick Berry's amazing weeklong die/pip-based meta oh-so many years ago. That series was the catalyst for my transition from GAMES Magazine (already wounded, soon to die) to the newspaper puzzles I had ignored for over 10 years.
So, this one left me deeply satisfied, despite its flaws and the rationale for its publication this week. Thank goodness for a good night's sleep.
For anyone interested Jim Horne at XWord Info included a link today to the week of Patrick Berry puzzles Sir Hillary mentioned.
DeleteTOOOFTEN TwOOFTEN correct is good enough for a CEE.
ReplyDeleteThe clue for 1D brought to mind the old adage: Change seekers can't be choice seekers.
Nice how the COLON is at the bottom.
Wouldn't it be RADICAL if a PETRAT gave an APEMAN a DOGKISS?
Shouldn't the clue for RYE have read [Patty melt bread often used in a city with a marina]?
Can't say that this puzzle was to DIE for, but I enjoyed it and respect the construction feat. Thanks, Victor Schmitt.
I'm ambivalent about this one. I didn't hate it, but I also didn't love the excessive three-letter fill.
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed that the clue for PARITY wasn't obstetrics-related, considering it crosses another clue: "Delivers, as a baby." That was a missed opportunity for a little bit of cleverness.
On the other hand -- dead horse or not --any time AMOEBA is spelled correctly is cause for celebration.
Kinda weird puztheme mcguffin, I'd grant. I mean, shoot -- the two theme revealers are weeject-lengthers PIP & DIE. They share staff weeject pick honors, of course. Poor ROLLED did not get to participate, theme-wise.
ReplyDeletefave stuff included: DOGKISS. SCOUTSHONOR. IMAMORON.
Also really like the loookk of BOOOFFSTAGE.
Thanx, Mr. Schmitt dude. Buildin this pup musta been kinda dicey. Nice theme-only O usage, btw.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
... and now, for a runty ode to AI, tech which is certainly a roll of the dice ...
"AI Generation" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
So I'm not feeling all that great this morning and this puzzle is making me feel worse. The grid is hard to read and makes me dizzy. And the pop culture would seem to be off the charts. Not at all tempting. SPLAT.
ReplyDeleteDear Nancy, I hope you get well very soon!
DeleteSince I had a tough time without the excuse of having Covid fog, I completely understand. So hoping you will get over the hump and start feeling stronger soon.
DeleteWonder what the average age of NYT puzzle solvers is. Gotta believe it’s older than GenXYZ what have you.
Delete"Easy"? This PPP slog?
ReplyDeleteDitto
DeleteNaticked out at the ISABEL/SUE/SUNOCO crossing. I thought it was spelled SoNOCO, and have never heard of the author or T-Rex, so I then had IzABEL and zoE. Impossible to spot as all are real words. Bummed out there.
ReplyDeleteI didn't like this. Except for DOG KISS & Rex's comment about (his) dogs & cats. BEGGER = CHANGE SEEKER - very off-putting. And lately I'm finding the Monday-Wednesday theme puzzles very annoying - leaving me with "WHAT?" & so I've since learned that I a prefer themeless.
ReplyDeleteAnd I won't get started with the addition of the new NYT game, PIPs. I had to cancel my NYT subscription because it became too expensive & not worth the price to read about DJT throughout. I always preferred doing the puzzle on paper but got used to digital. Now the NYT has raised the price of their Games Subscription.
It's cold & gloomy in NYC. Guess I'm not in a good mood today :(
@jb129. If I beg, I am a BEGGAR. The word is not the problem, the conditions that cause the poverty problem are. Perhaps you found the clue a bit flippant - I did, too - but it is a valid description of what is a sad situation. With respect, let's work on the real problem.
DeleteI really liked the die theme and at least it's unique and memorable. Missed a trick not having 'rolled' clued more appropriately.
ReplyDeleteShould be booed off stage. Frightful
ReplyDeleteSo that was it? PIPs on a DIE? The 5 possible rolls on a single DIE? In no particular order. Or am I missing something? How did this pass muster? You could have at least filled in the Os when the puzzle was completed to, you know, make it semi-exciting. At least there don’t seem to be any stray, non-theme Os. A lot of people will be happy about that.
ReplyDeleteIt was Tuesday easy and the theme was not necessary for the solve. Felt like I spent more time reviewing this than I actually spent solving it. Tried to figure out what those non-O letters on the faces of the DIE represented. No luck. Which means that I’m really thick tonight, or there just isn’t anything else here. Too bad.
I have to admit that finding phrases with the right number of Os in them (BOOOFFSTAGE, TOOOFTEN, SCOUTSHONOR) was pretty impressive but I don’t think I would have bothered.
Learned about SEITAN. Maybe that’s a good thing.
BTW, I did mean to type "6" possible rolls on a die. Sheesh.
DeleteMedium. I needed some post solve staring to figure out what was going on.
ReplyDeleteNo costly erasures but I did not know SEITAN, MORRIS, and PETRAT.
I spent a fair amount of time trying to make something out of the letters in the shaded squares…no dice.
I’m with @Rex on this one.
No dice. Nice.
DeleteAlll those shaded squares, all that careful placing of every O in the grid, and for what? DIE crossing PIP right in the center of the puzzle. Is that all there is? I think it needs more of a payoff. Either some hidden message spelled out by the non-O letters in the shaded squares, or else some significance to the order of the numbers. Reading left to right and top to bottom, they are 3,6,2,1,5,4, which does nothing for me-- there might be another order to try, but I don't have the motivation to go on. Maybe it's a guide to a winning lottery number? Beats me.
ReplyDeleteI keep reminding myself of Joaquin's dictum, that they are clues, not definitions. Otherwise I'd be wondering how you can have more than one VP in Air Force 2, whether C is still a grade if it is spelled out, whether Mixed Martial Arts are a "style," whether the news anchors in the studio are not also "LIVE," and whether the absence of a custom is itself a custom. Real customs in Japanese food service: every restaurant employee will take your order, servers kneel at your table (because traditionally you are sitting on the floor, but they will do it anyway), servers run to show respect, etc. I needed most of the crosses to see NO TIPS. (Custom in our household: we do not slap guests in the face as we welcome them in.)
Also, it's a lost cause, but it needs more than 17 syllables to be a haiku. In particular, you have to have a seasonal reference, which this illustration lacks.
OK, you can tell I'm feeling grumpy because of the eyestrain required to read the tiny numbers in the gray boxes--maybe they are more legible if one solves online, but I'm not going todo it.
Is it acceptable now to have "bats" in the clue for TSA crossing BATS at 27-D? It still grates a bit.
Question of interest, not a criticism of the puzzle. Marijuana ingredient is THC, but all the dispensaries are advertising CBD. What's up with that?
CBD is not psychoactive; it can't make you "high." It has certain medicinal properties (pain relief, relaxation, etc.). THC is the main psychoactive chemical in maijuana and can make you"high." It can induce altered perceptions, euphoria, impaired cognitive function, etc.
DeleteI thought this was fun and impressive. All six sides of the dice displayed, nice!
ReplyDelete14D, had DMz in my head for a moment, har.
I find I miss THE in the phrase BOO OFF the STAGE. 8D just seems truncated though BOO OFF STAGE is something one could say.
Victor Schmitt, nice Wednesday puzzle!
I enjoyed finding the six faces. The opposite faces of a standard die add up to seven, but that doesn't seem to be reflected in the grid.
ReplyDeleteWe seem to be wanting to out-grump Rex today.
What do you mean by opposite faces adding up to seven?
DeleteLiveprof, here's your answer.
DeleteThanks!
DeleteJust before solving, I read Robert Hubbell's daily post in which, among other things, he reports that Elise Stefanik was BOOED OFF the STAGE
ReplyDeleteDrat, I hit the publish button by accident. the point was encountering BOOED OFF ... STAGE in the wild just before finding it in this puzzle, a nice coincidence.
ReplyDeleteExcellent excuse for Linda Ronstadt's Tumbling Dice. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteDNF’d on PETRAT/NOTIPS. Had PETRAS/NOSIPS. I thought sipping might be rude, and only saw the first Harry Potter movie and never read a HP book. (See what I did there? I assumed that the abbreviation would be recognized - just like many NYT constructors assume about the pop culture knowledge of their solvers.)
ReplyDeleteImpressive construction, ho-hum solve. It would’ve helped a lot if I’d known what a PIP is in connection to this puzzle. To me - besides being what TV Archie used to call Edith - it’s a crack in the eggshell when a baby chick is getting ready to hatch. Since there were no Bunkers or baby chicks in the puzzle and the blocks with the jumbled shaded letters made no sense to me, I mostly ignored the theme. Now that it’s been explained, I see what the O’s meant … dots …1 through 6. Alrighty then.
ReplyDeleteAs well as the offensive HP clue, questionable use of "beggar" and haiku that really isn't, I will add that "moron" is also not a word that should still get used. Merriam Webster lists it as "dated, now offensive" and I agree. Along with the missed opportunity on 3d, this puzzle really needed better editing.
ReplyDeleteAh, Kate, having been married to a psychologist fro over 50 years, I have learned not to use the term "moron", but BEGGAR is a legit word, even if it hangs on to its old-timey spelling. Let's not attack the word when we could put our energy towards attacking the conditions that necessitate the practise.
DeleteAnd you're right about the haiku.
But, hypothetically, would moron be acceptable if it were the simplest and most accurate way to describe a holder of very, very high office?
DeleteBless your heart
DeleteDon’t beggar thy neighbor
DeleteReally hated the clue for HAS: “delivers, as a baby.” First, I think HAS is a lame word to have in a crossword, and secondly, there are a million other ways you should clue it. Doesn’t an OBGYN typically “deliver” a baby that the mother “has”? Maybe I’m just being picky about an unsatisfying puzzle, but that one grated.
ReplyDeleteI don’t get it - if it were one die wouldn’t it have the same pips (letters) and as it rolled you would see the different sides? This seems to be six dice, as every square is different. Pointless except for the cross promotion and Pips is annoying
ReplyDeleteI've been siting with this for a while and finally uncovered the secret message contained in the puzzle. Those others letters on the die? If you scramble them, tap your heel together three times, and play them backwards at a lower speed to a musical accompaniment by 64D, you can hear clearly spoken in the language of an isolated indigenous people of the Amazon rain forest: "Paul is dead."
ReplyDeleteI tried all that and it didn't work, just like back in the 60s.
Delete😂
DeleteIt's not often you'll see a eight-way proper name Natick, but there it lies in the southeast corner: MORRIS, ONO, IROBOT, SENECA, ISABEL, SUE, ANI, and SUNOCO. Luckily, it was all rather easily inferable/known, but wow. That has to be some kind of record...
ReplyDeleteNine if you count FDR. That was my biggest challenge in the whole grid but didn’t realize why. No wonder! Nice catch.
DeleteI actually really enjoyed the dice gimmick today. Sure, some of the fill was a little stretched/forced, but on the whole this was a fun puzzle. ANi / SEiTAN was a brutal Natick that I had to resort to trying letters in (had originally gone for ANa / SEaTAN) until I got that sweet solve music
ReplyDeleteMoron is a terrific word. Just the right amount of derision.
ReplyDeleteToday I could not follow Lewis comments on the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI do NOT see die in nine squares with occasional "o"s/pips and a lot of other letters.
Got my biggest chuckle from Penny Lane 1:02 comments. Seemed just about absurd enough for the puzzle.
I did find some enjoyable answers, but a number of names made it difficult for a Wednesday.
59 A Veronica came immediately.
Even with the explanation, I still don't see the theme. Cats, however, I see all the time. Ours may not give slobbery kisses (which is just fine with me!) but one of them runs to the door every time I come home, then brings me her favorite ball so we can play fetch together. She's a cat/dog
ReplyDeleteDogs have masters; cats have staff. Think MORRIS.
ReplyDeleteHoo boy, so many Unknown Names, so many wrong answers, and confusion. And I spent ages trying to figure out how the grey areas related to HAIKU because I thought "Illustrated here" in its clue referred to the theme.
ReplyDeleteStrange that of the last 7 puzzles, Monday was the best.
Greetings from sunny Port ISABEL, TX. Put me in the "Is that all there is?" crowd. Each shaded DIE has, in additions to the PIPs, from 3 to 8 letters and they mean nothing? I thought surely I was missing something. Came here to find out what. Maybe they spell out a HAIKU? Tell how to add THC to HEMP? Guess not. Head scratcher, that.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of ODOR (55A), I gave the stink eye to 42A APEMAN and its clue "Evolutionary 'missing link'". This plays on a long-discredited 19th century idea of an evolutionary "ladder" with some primeval ooze at the bottom and, ta-da, humans at the top. Contemporary models liken evolution to an ever-branching tree with monkeys, apes and humans all stemming from a common primate ancestor. No APEMAN. No missing link.
Am I the only one who has never heard of a pip before? Made this puzzle pretty awful for me.
ReplyDeleteYou're not the only one! I had no idea there was a name for the dots on a die (or a domino, for that matter). Couldn't make any sense out of the theme, except that the clue for 39A did suggest the grey squares represented something to do with a die.
DeleteMidnight Train to Georgia? Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me? Neither One of Us?
DeleteBackgammon
ReplyDeleteA cute puzzle, with an "aha" moment, definitely not spoiled by the nonsensical carping by Rex.
ReplyDeleteAnother Thursday on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteNearly every day is a Thursday now. Games instead of puzzles. There is a difference, but not to the NYT profit center.
ReplyDeleteRe: JK / PET RAT- I find it interesting, if only on a sociological and psychological level, that there is a subset of liberals who don’t yet realize that they have fundamentally lost their social power to set the bounds of Acceptable Public Discourse. (Outside of a dwindling set of redoubts, which they take to still represent the “mainstream”).
ReplyDeleteI know I’m way late to the game, I’m behind in my puzzle solving, but is no one going to mention the sheer mudslide of three letter words? There are over 35 three letter answers and if you count the longer answers made up of three letter words, like pet rat and ape man, the total goes to 45. Bleh.
ReplyDeleteJust came to see reaction to “BEGGAR” & wasn’t disappointed. Sorry to see that “IMAMORON” escaped unscathed
ReplyDelete