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Major British grocery chain / TUE 10-7-25 / Italian dessert menu staple / Brief time to savor one's glory, metaphorically / Pointed part of a pitchfork
Tuesday, October 7, 2025
Constructor: Corry Cropper
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
The ICARUS / Daedalus relationship becomes an important metaphor for her relationship with her father. There's a great (ruthless) line in there where she wonders whether Daedalus, who made the wings, was sad because his kid died, or because of the design flaw. ICARUS also makes me think of this strange painting by Peter Brueghel the Elder called Landscape with the Fall of ICARUS (c. 1560), where the mythological theme appears in only a minuscule part of the painting, which otherwise looks like an ordinary 16th c. landscape. The main subject appears to be a guy plowing his field. You have to really zoom in to see the wet ICARUS detail...
- DAY IN THE SUN (19A: Brief time to savor one's glory, metaphorically)
- INTO THIN AIR (34A: Mysterious way to vanish) [are there non-mysterious ways?]
- DOWN TO EARTH (41A: Practical and unpretentious)
- "UNDER THE SEA" (56A: Oscar-winning Disney song sung by a crab named Sebastian)
In Greek mythology, Icarus (/ˈɪkərəs/ ⓘ; Ancient Greek: Ἴκαρος, romanized: Íkaros, pronounced [ǐːkaros]) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of King Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, Minos suspected that Icarus and Daedalus had revealed the labyrinth's secrets and thus imprisoned them—either in a large tower overlooking the ocean or in the labyrinth itself, depending upon the account. Icarus and Daedalus escaped using wings Daedalus constructed from birds' molted feathers, threads from blankets, the leather straps from their sandals, and beeswax. Before escaping, Daedalus warned Icarus not to fly too low or the water would soak the feathers and not to fly too close to the sun or the heat would melt the wax. Icarus ignored Daedalus's instructions not to fly too close to the sun, causing the beeswax in his wings to melt. Icarus fell from the sky, plunged into the sea, and drowned. The myth gave rise to the idiom, "fly too close to the sun." In some versions of the tale, Daedalus and Icarus escape by ship. (wikipedia)
[Gowy, The Fall of Icarus (1635-37)]
• • •
Alison Bechdel's Fun Home opens with her recounting a time during her childhood when she would play on the floor with her father, him balancing her on his feet such that she appeared to be flying over him. She explains that in circus acrobatics, this kind of balancing act is called "Icarian games":
 |
| [he's just below the boat] |
 |
| [Computer, enhance!] |
This is all to say that I think about ICARUS ... sometimes. From time to time. I enjoy me a good piece of ICARUS-related art. But today, I didn't even know that's what I was dealing with until well after I'd finished the puzzle. ICARUS was in such a weird place in the grid that I never suspected it as a revealer. Frankly, I never saw the clue on ICARUS at all because I could tell what the answer was from crosses—the short answers (of which there are many many many in this puzzle) just filled it in for me. So I was left with a pretty tepid theme about ... the elements? The weather? And they're all prepositional phrases ... except the first, for some reason. I was like "this can't be it?" And it wasn't. ICARUS was it. I love mythology, and do not mind an ICARUS theme, theoretically, but I'm not sure this themer set really gets at the his whole ... trajectory that well. Doesn't he go into the (thin) air first, then get to the sun, then fall down (to earth, actually to sea)? You could've done this all in a more entertaining way, I think. Maybe make all the theme answers songs, and not just the last one. Make a kind of ICARUS playlist. Maybe start with "WIND BENEATH MY WINGS?" "UP WHERE WE BELONG?" "I WANT TO TAKE YOU HIGHER?" Something like that. Then there's Kool & the Gang's "TOO HOT," Alicia Keys's "FALLIN'," Bobby Darin's "SPLISH SPLASH," and then maybe "UNDER THE SEA." Clues could be something like [First track on a 61-Across playlist?] [Second song on a 61-Across playlist?] etc. I am, as they say, just spitballing here, and all my song choices are obviously hypotheticals—there are probably scores of potential song titles to choose from, and maybe you could get them to fit in a grid symmetrically. Anyway, I'm having more fun imagining this ICARUS playlist puzzle, which doesn't exist, than I did solving today's puzzle, which does. For such a seemingly bold idea, it felt a little bland.
The blandness was significantly helped along by an absolute boatload for short fill. 3-4-5s as far as the eye could see. And much of that fill was of the very tired variety, stuff like STENO OTT UVEA OTOE MST MADAMA IDEE TERA ETAT ETNA ESP ORCA APSES EDAMS (plural!) ERIE TSA ASLAN NAT. A punishing onslaught. Made the solve very easy, but also very fussy and choppy and kind of dull. The theme answers themselves were solid but not terribly colorful. The long Downs were doing their best to make things interesting—they were the only parts I found at all interesting while solving—but their charms weren't enough to counterbalance the rest of the grid. I think the theme is cute, it's trying to do something interesting and original. So conceptually, I approve. The execution just felt a little tepid, a little awkward to me.
The most confused I got today was at 29A: Diaphanous (LIGHT). I thought something "diaphanous" was characterized by the interplay of light on its surface, or the way light shined through its delicate substance ... yeah, it's basically "translucent." Of fine composition. Airy. I would not have thought of it as LIGHT (adj.) meaning "not weighing much." I guess by implication diaphanous things wouldn't weigh much, but I dunno. Weird to use LIGHT as an adjective here *and* change the meaning of the "light" normally associated with "diaphanous" (which is the noun kind of light, the kind that shines through a diaphanous ... thing). So that NE corner gave me a slight amount of trouble. I also tried to make INITIATE fit at 10D: Kick off, which caused some confusion. Beyond that, the only trouble I had was with TESCO, which I want to say I've never heard of, although that probably isn't true (51D: Major British grocery chain). I haven't been in Britain in ages and have no memory of TESCO from the times when I was there, so ... huge shrug. Thankfully, I know ASLAN well (we're old friends), so that SE corner didn't end up tripping me up the way it might have.
Bullet points:
- 56A: "Bel Canto" author Patchett (ANN) — coincidentally, I'm in the middle of a new article by her in the most recent New Yorker. This would've been a gimme anyway, but I still enjoyed the coincidence. The Patchett piece is a wonderful bit of personal history, well, death (of family, friends, pets), so it's sad, sure, but really nice, worth reading ("Glowworms").
- 9D: Italian dessert menu staple (CANNOLI) — really wanted TIRAMISU, perhaps because I pretty much always really want TIRAMISU. Who would've thought soggy cookies could taste so right?
- 42D: Spirit of Mexico? (TEQUILA) — the UNIQUE / TEQUILA crossing was a real highlight of the puzzle. Nothing forced about that "Q" at all. Two great "Q"-containing words. I enjoy a UNIQUE TEQUILA, for sure.
- 24D: Pointed part of a pitchfork (TINE) — This Pitchfork review of Taylor Swift's new album is pretty pointed.
- 43D: Dish that's "slung" (HASH) — mmm, olde-tymey dinerspeak. Now you're speaking my language. And now I'm hungry, so ...
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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71 comments:
Solved it as a themeless, because I'm not up on mythology and had no clue about the travels of ICARUS. Went smoothly otherwise, even though CAPUCHINS didn't seem right either as Catholic monks or as apes.
Easy without reading the theme clues. No overwrites and only one WOE, the British grocery chain TESCO at 51D.
@Rex: Isn't it odd that neither the fisherman nor the bird on the branch seems to notice that a person with wings just splashed down right in front of them?
I never heard of CAPUCHINS - interesting clue as apparently they are in fact an order of monks as well as a type of monkeys - it seems a little strange that this is the first time I can recall seeing them in a grid.
Unfortunately, Shakespeare and Fiddler are not my strong points. Fortunately, I guessed correctly at the V in LOVE - although I have no clue what Billy S. was getting at there.
Similarly, I’ve obviously heard of the opera, but the spelling of MADAMA threw me a bit - hopefully that’s how it’s spelled in Puccini’s native tongue and I’m not going completely bonkers.
I did a search for diaphanous and one of the first definitions that popped up was LIGHT, so I’m guessing that it just caught Rex off guard, as it definitely seems legit.
No, Rex is right. Yes, diaphanous fabric is light, but its characteristic quality is translucency. You would never simply swap out LIGHT for “diaphanous.” Without the fabric context, the clue is clumsy.
Can’t see of paintings of Icarus without immediately thinking of Auden’s great poem about Brueghel’s painting. — “ how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster” — an apt poem for this moment (like so many of Auden’s poems).
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/159364/musee-des-beaux-arts-63a1efde036cd
Friars, not monks. A branch of the Franciscans. The distinctive pointed hoods of the Capuchin habit are known capuches (from the french capuche) meaning hood. Hence the name Capuchin. European explorers in Latin America, upon encountering monkeys whose coloring resembled that of Capuchin friars (dark brown hair covering head and body with a contrasting white face and chest) referred to them as Capuchins.
See, also, cappuccino: brown coffee with a face of white foam
"Daedalus interea Creten longumque perosus exilium, tactusque loci natalis amore, clausus erat pelago..."
Fun Fact....
Ovid's poetic version of the Daedalus/Icarus myth (from the Metamorphoses, Book VII) can be sung quite nicely and faithfully to the tune of John Philip Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever."
I know this because that's how we were taught to memorize the poem in HS sophomore year Latin II. And it is still in my head.
Cute enough - some oddball fill drags it down a little. EDAMS x APSES? @Anoa Bob should have a field day with the POCs here. Agree with Rex on the placement of ICARUS - it tends to minimize the theme rather than support it.
Circle Jerks
Too many shorts created by the grid layout. I liked the SW stack - NEW IN TOWN is solid and INSTIGATE and LAMINA are top notch. Needed all the crosses for TESCO.
Hozier
Lacked the real put away punch but a pleasant enough Tuesday morning solve.
John, My Beloved
Love is strong.
Missed opportunity to clue "Flight of Icarus" by Iron Maiden.......
Good old Mel OTT! Love it when he and Bobby ORR are in the puzzle - sports figures I actually know! Easy for me, and pretty fun, liked it more than Rex. ICARUS was a gimme, but I didn’t see his relationship to the theme until I was finished.
Slow-ups: the spelling of CAPUCHINS, and INSTIGATE, which I don’t think is an apt synonym for “kick off”. Kick off has a positive vibe, getting something good going, whereas INSTIGATE has a trouble-making, underhanded feel.
One of Crosslanidia’s golden moments is when you uncover the revealer, and what connects the theme answers suddenly not only clicks, but is amazing.
I fell into in a state of wonder for a precious moment after filling in ICARUS, seeing his story told so ingeniously. Ever so briefly the world stopped and I bathed, jaw dropped, in a euphoric wow.
When a puzzle does that, I don’t care how easy or hard it was – it was very, very well worth doing.
Then I noticed more:
• Beautiful answers – LILAC, LAMINA, ONYX.
• A theme based not just on the first or last word of its answers, but of the entire answer.
• An uber-rare-in-crosswords six-letter semordnilap (LAMINA).
• Theme echoes – ORCA and UBOAT to go with UNDER THE SEA, LAVA and ROOT going with DOWN TO EARTH, and LIGHT near DAY IN THE SUN.
DAY IN THE SUN indeed, Corry – what a splendid Times debut! I eagerly hope for more – thank you for a most memorable puzzle!
One of the things I enjoy about Jennifer Saint's retellings of tales from Greek mythology is re-learning things I suppose I once knew but had forgotten. For example, that Daedelus was also the one who built the labyrinth that contained the minotaur.
Very, very easy. Definitely belonged on a Monday, and could have used some toughing up even to run on Monday.
The Shakspur quote was a gimme for me. I once went to a party where you had to quote a piece of poetry to get in, and I chose to memorize the 116th sonnet from which the quote is taken. Also, my father wrote a short story called "The Marriage of True Minds", taken from the same sonnet.
Hey All !
I know it's tough to construct a puz, however I have a nit. I'm sure Corry tried, but the Cheater Squares in front of 25A ROOT/after 45A LAVA really need to go. They close off the NW/SE dercorners, and add two extra Blockers, which total 40 today. It would require an almost complete redo of the fill, but the grid would look more flowable. But hey, he got it published, so I'm just flapping my gums to no avail*.
Did like today's puz, reminder of silly things one did in their youth. I had my share. But, I knew enough to stay away from the sun!
Ran into the same stuff Rex did, INiTIate, too short, non known TESCO, etc.
Welp, have a great Tuesday!
*Noah Vail would be a cool name to give my child!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Weird that this is the second mentikmon of Peter Brueghel the Elder I've seen this morning, and I've only been up for half an hour. I can't remember the last time I saw his name... anywhere. Probably when he was mentioned on "Jeopardy!" earlier this year.
ANYWAY, I quite enjoyed the theme and went to bed singing "Under the Sea", but I agree about the fill being too crossword-ese.
Easy, I thought. Answers went in rather quickly. Just a couple of points: (1) how do you say "butterfly" in Italian? Is it "butterfly" as a loanword from English? (Don't worry; I'll probably look this stuff up myself in a moment.) Reason I ask is that, well, maybe the title in Italian really is MADAMA Butterfly, but I've always seen MADAMe Butterfly. (But is it?) On the other hand, I know of no such dessert as CeNNOLI, so I figured it had to be an A there. I left that spot blank until the very end. (My original stumble there was "spumonI", which at least ended with the right letter.) And (2) I entirely agree with Rex on the matter of LIGHT. My peasant understanding of Greek ROOTs makes me think that a more literal rendering of "diaphanous" is "appearing through", so in other words see-through. "Light" is not a terribly good match. How about "sheer"?
And oh yeah, speaking of Italian: is there a connection between CAPUCHINS and Cappuccino? (Looking it up...) There is! Apparently the color of the beverage is being compared to the brown color of the friars' habits (their vestments, I mean), hence the name. Now, ONTO that Puccini opera... [Moments later] oh cool, "farfalla" is the Italian for butterfly. Like the pasta (actually that's spelled "farfalle", the plural form).
Slinging HASH reminds me of a monologue by Frank Costanza, on why he will never cook again, a traumatic event from the Korean War.
As I solved, I also noticed a loose connection between the themers but didn't read the clue for ICARUS until after I finished the puzzle. The delayed theme reveal gave me an actual chuckle, so my experience there differed from Rex's. My personal sense of the meaning of a diaphanous object has always focused on its translucency or light passing through it, not the fact that it weighs little or is LIGHT itself. The clue really clanged for me as I solved, but looking at some online dictionaries after the fact has me wondering if it was a shaky clue after all.
Thanks for explaining why I couldn’t parse DIAPHANOUS - one of those words I’ve always picked up in context, but am embarrassed that I don’t really know what it means after all these years.
TESCO was the only place we could afford to eat at regularly when at the Edinborough Fringe Festival. Once you know this, you hear quick references to it all the time in British TV series and movies.
Love the painting. Finding little weird things going on in 16th century paintings is endlessly fascinating and hilariously explored by Hannah Gadsby in her comedy specials.
I’m glad to see that Anonymous posted a link to the Auden poem. William Carlos Williams also wrote a poem about how the world is usually too busy with quotidian matters to notice the tragedies that are depicted in works of art.
https://poets.org/poem/landscape-fall-icarus
I knew it was ICARUS all along. A cute theme, a nice grid, but such easy cluing that my mind was never fully engaged.
Really enjoyed this one. The theme immediately made me think of the Bruegel painting and then OFL made further information superfluous, and then @Anon. 6:31 brought up the Auden poem which I had also thought of--"About suffering they were never wrong, the Old Masters...". A fiVerne poem I hadn't thought of in years. I think both the painting and the poem reinforce the correct placement of ICARUS in the puzzle,, you hardly notice him.
TIL that it's MADAMA Butterfly and what a TESCO IS. Also that TERA can describe watts.
I think "Animal with an udder" as a clue for COW should go in M&A's moo-cow easy Hall of Fame.
Very nice Tuesday indeed, CC. I think it Correctly Captured the ICARUS experience, and thanks for all the fun.
I could not figure out why INITIATE wouldn't fit for 10D; it took me a while to get INSTIGATE. It's a good thing I did, though, because I wouldn't have gone for SPA otherwise; what does SPA have to do with Belgium? I was sure a proper name was wanted there. That wasn't a fun misdirect. Oh well. The rest of the puzzle was easy.
Such a lovely sonnet, and well worth pondering.
Sonnet 116: Let me not to the marriage of true minds
By William Shakespeare
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments; love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove.
O no, it is an ever-fixèd mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wand'ring bark
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come.
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom:
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
Reex says Icarus stole the wings his father invented. I don't believe that's accurate. His father, Daedelus, made wigs for both of them; it was their only way to escape from Crete, where they were imprisoned in the labyrinth. What Icarus did was ignore his father's warning not to fly to close to the sun...so his wings melted.
A nice clue for IDEE might be [First down clue?]
Me: I don't like sushi with that dried seaweed wrapped around it.
Mrs. Egs: NORI
Me: Then why do we order it?
Mrs. Egs: I LOVE NORI.
In honor of my first wife who is now deceased, I'm painting my house in LATEX.
This puzzle had its ups and downs, but I liked it. Congrats and thanks, Corry Cropper.
Oh, I see that SPA is a municipality and city of Wallonia in the province of Liège, Belgium, whose name became an eponym for mineral baths with supposed curative powers. Okay. Now I think better of that clue!
See poem below—one of my favorties—which addresses that very subject.
Musée des Beaux Arts
By W. H. Auden
December 1938
About suffering they were never wrong,
The Old Masters: how well they understood
Its human position; how it takes place
While someone else is eating or opening a window or just walking dully along
How, when the aged are reverently, passionately waiting
For the miraculous birth, there always must be
Children who did not specially want it to happen, skating
On a pond at the edge of the wood:
They never forgot
That even the dreadful martyrdom must run its course
Anyhow in a corner, some untidy spot
Where the dogs go on with their doggy life and the torturer's horse
Scratches its innocent behind on a tree.
In Brueghel's Icarus, for instance: how everything turns away
Quite leisurely from the disaster; the ploughman may
Have heard the splash, the forsaken cry,
But for him it was not an important failure; the sun shone
As it had to on the white legs disappearing into the green
Water; and the expensive delicate ship that must have seen
Something amazing, a boy falling out of the sky,
Had somewhere to get to and sailed calmly on.
I kind of agree with you, but as it led me t reread a favorite Shakespeare sonnet and a masterful Auden poem, I didn't mind that. ;-)
@kitshef. What a nice idea for a party -- the poem. The ones I used to go to just required we bring beer or, worse, a casserole.
The closest I came was when my sister Bonnie threw a 70th-birthday party for my brother-in-law and asked us each to write a poem for the occasion. I still remember my limerick. (Mitch was a physicist.)
A young man in science well-versed
Won our Bonnie's heart from the first.
She married the guy
Then two children came by.
All in all, she could have done worse.
These guys are the masters of non-mysterious vanishing: https://www.facebook.com/reel/671119475585077 (or Google Siegfried and Joy if you don't want to visit Facebook).
Wowza! I thought we were only enjoying a pleasant traversal of SUN, AIR, EARTH, and SEA...until ICARUS appeared and tied not just those words but the complete phrases together. Great placement, right UNDER THE SEA. Bonus: Getting to recall Brueghel's and Auden's commentary on his fall. I thought the longer Downs were great, too: NEW IN TOWN, CAPUCHINS, EVOLUTION, INSTIGATE, TEQUILA + CANNOLI.
@Corry Cropper, I thought this theme was absolutely inspired. Congratulations on your debut!
If you've ever been to London, Tescos are everywhere. Capuchin monkeys are the species you see pretty much every time someone has a small monkey on their shoulder in a TV show or movie (Friends, Night at the Museum, etc.)
I'm overwhelmed by all the erudition here today. Shakespeare, Brueghel, Auden, Capuchins, mythology. Wonderful!
Agree that the puz was pretty easy-ish, except for Diaphanous flyin too close to the CAPUCHINS. Lost precious nanoseconds, in that NE quad-weeject-stack corridor.
fave puztreats: TEQUILA & CANNOLI.
staff weeject pick: ICE crossed by CAP.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Cropper dude. And congratz on yer fine [except maybe for that mysterious TESCO] debut.
Masked & Anonymo8Us
... now, a little somethin to sink yer teeth into ...
Stumpy Stumper: "Jaws of Themelessness #26" - 7x9 12 min. themeless runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
The problems with the fill became apparent right away. I went through the grid a lot more smoothly once I got past TEVYE and my wrong answer SLAT instead of LATH. And then SLAT showed up anyway.
Wow! An actual adult Tuesday - and a bear to solve downs-only. Great theme based on Greek mythology and some great entries, to boot. Don’t usually love cross references but the Shakespeare/ Moliere one (8D, 16A), even though I did not have the across clue, was fun. Even the LATH (5D) SLAT (62A) confusion was fun to work out
And there were words like IDEE fixe, which I originally entered as prix fixe because I’m somewhat fixated on food. And CANNELONI which I just kept hoping wouldn’t be tiramisu, cuz I hate that stuff, but it didn’t fit anyway. I don’t like desserts generally but, if I’m going to be offered one, it had better be better than tiramisu.
Perhaps too much short stuff but then there was EVOLUTION, NEW IN TOWN, INSTIGATE and CAPUCHINS. Fresh long stuff.
I know we always talk here about how Mondays and Tuesdays should be super accessible to neophytes but any noob who gutted this out and emerged victorious should be patting themselves on the back. This was a good puzzle, well constructed, and just accessible enough to be interesting and gratifying without being insultingly easy.
Well done, Corry Cropper.
I agree with @Carola on really liking this puzzle. I've always enjoyed the myth of Icarus. I didn't know about the Auden poem until the NY Times had a close read article about the poem and the painting by Breughel.
MADAMA - if I hadn't known about CANNOLI, I would have DNF'd there because I would have had MADAMe. If it's MADAMA, why isn't the title MADAMA Farfalla? I'm confused.
I always picture something light, airy, lacy, some sort of veil material, when I see the word diaphanous. In books, it's usually referring to some sort of fabric, in my experience.
I didn't notice while solving but looking at the grid post-solve, it does seem a bit choppy and yet there are a lot of long downs - NEW IN TOWN, EVOLUTION, INSTIGATE, CAPUCHINS, TEQUILA, CANNOLI, all on top of the theme. Thanks, Corry Cropper, for an interesting Tuesday solve.
Medium. Not whooshy for me.
Costly erasures - slat before LATH at 5d and mEgA before TERA.
WOE - TESCO
Spelling problems - TEYVE, MADAMA.
Cute theme, liked it, although @Rex makes some good points.
I can't see ICARUS without thinking of our now-deceased shepherd/rotweiller mix dog. We named him ICARUS when we adopted him from the street, as his left ear flopped down.
Thanks for this. Love me some Auden, so good with death.
It’s from a short story written by an American, and Puccini changed only the “Madame“ to MADAMA. The people who call her that in the story are American soldiers.
Don't know much about Icarus but I solved as an easy themeless since I got a late start today b/c of morning appointments, Congrats on your debut, Corry :)
Anonymous 6:16EST— Rex does this, as do many xword solvers, as I do in my not-best moments, waxing all doctrinaire about the fixed, impenetrable borders of definition when it’s convenient, forgetting that modern crosswords are all about idiomatic misdirection and the infinite polysemic elasticity of English.
Okay, that last point is precise but likely not easily understood—I mean that English wordplay is as expansive as we allow it to be; words would never evolve otherwise. If Rex was able to consider “airy”, he should have been able to land on LIGHT faster than he did. But that’s very hard to impossible if, like Rex, you apply a super-hard mode approach to solving puzzles on easy days.
So the fabric context is optional and you absolutely {i}would{/i} swap in DIAPHANOUS for “light” if so you chose to do—one need only click their slippers three times and dream it.
enjoyed the theme but RUNS (clued the way it was) crossing with LAMINA seemed too hard for a Tuesday
I’ve memorized that poem and when I go on long hikes recite it to myself
The Glowworms story was quite touching. Thanks for the recommendation.
I tried solving down clues only last night but had a bunch of blanks at the top. SPUMONI for the Italian dessert, and of course INITI_ATE for 10 down, with no idea what went before the A. So I went away for an hour, came back and sat down and forgot all about the downs only business. Those blanks sure got filled in quickly! The last letter was that S in INSTIGATE.
Oddly, I too never noticed the revealer until this morning, so I finally understand the theme!
I believe SPA is actually the name of a place in Belgium.
Sorry that COW didn’t get your moo cow easy nod.
I get ya, but I was looking for Rex to feature “Icarus:Borne on Wings of Steel” by Kansas…ah well.
You might like Madeline Miller’s book Circe…
Noah Vail…good one Roo!
Your MADAMe/CeNNOLI is exactly what happened with me (although I THINK that MADAMA has been in puzzle in past…
Also. The Korean War/bad hash monologue with Frank was one of my faves. Gotta say. Loved me some Jerry Stiller (and Ann M) once they got off “stage act.” I know. They had to pay their dues…
Our Jeopardy! hero, Paolo Pasco, has a puzzle in The New Yorker today.
Wow I can't believe TESCO is so obscure. I have not spent much time in Britian, never seen a TESCO in real life, but I tossed it in with no crosses. The cultural references are everywhere! Including whole reddit threads about interesting items people have found there.
I love the Icarus story. “Greatly he failed, but he had greatly dared.”
Did not know of the painting or poem so thanks to Rex and others for that.
And most if not all days in the Atlantic
Loved "Glowworms." And "Bel Canto."
Bob Mills
Capuchins monks but also Capuchins. Same with monkeys.
Even in formal writing. Don’t see anything wrong with Capuchins.
Side light. To go with the cannoli you can have a cappuccino, so called because the froth of the coffee reminded Italians of the color or the Capuchins’ hoods.
gregmark
About Rex.and diaphanous/LIGHT
Totally agree with your post. You explained it much better than I would. My guess Rex was just annoyed that it slowed him down so he ranted.
JJK
About kick off and instigate.
Close enough for crossword PUZZLES. With clues not definitions. Same response to Rex’s rant on diaphanous/light
To put an another way, the connotation difference you noted is a plus.
I thought the same thing!
Anonymous 9:18 AM
Spa Beligium is the origin of the English word spa.
Loved the commentary about Auden and the painting. Liked the puzzle. Don’t understand his comments about the theme. To me the order of the theme answers were fine as well as the phrasing. As with diaphanous/light he went on a rant because it took him “too long” to grasp the theme He is honest about the fact that his blog posts are very personal and quick responses to the puzzles. As a result he often gets things a bit off. I do agree that there was a bit too much “tired short fill).
Am I correct that his daughter worked on a production at the American Repertory Theater in Boston of Fun Home?
I liked the excerpt from the graphic novel he included.
The theme clicked for me only after I completed the puzzle as I was going a bit fast due to the ease of the solve. But when it did click - that was a real WOW moment. Love how the themers tell the whole story - great stuff! The Icarus myth was the first bit of Greek mythology I was exposed to, I remember my father reading it to me along with my brothers when we were very young -scary as heck for a little kid but I was enthralled. So this romp bought back some nice memories.
Like @Rex and others, I kept trying to make INITIATE fit at 10D but other than that I had no real hold ups. Did not know ASLAN or TESCO but all the crosses were fair.
Yes, there was a bunch of short fill but the theme made up for it.
What a great debut, Corry Cropper! Looking forward to more from you!
@Rex - I hope you're healing well!
My thought exactly!
gregmark - Completely agree with you—"...waxing all doctrinaire about the fixed, impenetrable borders of definition when it’s convenient, forgetting that modern crosswords are all about idiomatic misdirection and the infinite polysemic elasticity of English." I was feeling the same way but couldn't have expressed it as you did.
Beezer - That's a marvelous book. And her "Song of Achilles" is even better, I think.
The clue for LIGHT is bad. Pompous (and condescending) floffing about the flexibility of language doesn’t change that. A clue should have precision. Diaphanous is not merely LIGHT.
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