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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- INFRARED CAMERA (19A: Device for capturing thermal images) (a "shot" with a camera)
- BASEMENT PARTY (24A: Where you might dance to some underground music?) (a "shot" of liquor)
- LASER TAG ARENA (41A: Venue for combatants wearing vests with sensors) (a "shot" with a laser gun)
Barbacoa, or asado en barbacoa (Spanish: [baɾβaˈkoa] ⓘ) in Mexico, refers to the local indigenous variation of the method of cooking in a pit or earth oven.[1] It generally refers to slow-cooking meats or whole sheep, whole cows, whole beef heads, or whole goats in a hole dug in the ground, and covered with agave (maguey) leaves, although the interpretation is loose, and in the present day (and in some cases) may refer to meat steamed until tender. This meat is known for its high fat content and strong flavor, often accompanied with onions and cilantro (coriander leaf). Because this method of cooking was used throughout different regions by different ethnic groups or tribes in Mexico, each had their own name for it; for the Nahuatl it was called nakakoyonki; for the Mayan it was called píib; for the Otomi it was called thumngö. (wikipedia)
• • •
The few parts that caused me to stop and think for a second ended up being some of the more entertaining parts of the solve, though maybe they're just the places I happen to remember because they slowed me down. I had NICEL- at 10D: "Bravo!" and thought "NICE ... LEGS? NICE LUNGS? What are we doing here?" Took me a bit to see that the "L" was attached to "NICE," part of the same word. NICELY! Unless there's such a thing as a LYDONE and I'm completely misreading the situation. I didn't get slowed down with BARBACOA, but I did misspell it (BARBICOA). Is there something called a "Barbicon?" Or am I thinking of the Rubicon? Barbicon sounds like a doll convention. Hang on ... oh. It seems I was thinking of BARBICAN:
A barbican (from Old French: barbacane) is a fortified outpost or fortified gateway, such as at an outer defense perimeter of a city or castle, or any tower situated over a gate or bridge which was used for defensive purposes. (wikipedia)
There's also definitely a BARBIZON beauty college. I remember seeing (or hearing) ads for them when I was a kid in the '80s. Anyway, I blame either BARBICAN or BARBIZON or, sure, why not, BARBIE, I blame BARBIE (though not ISSA Rae specifically) (48D: Rae of "Barbie") for my thinking that BARBICOA was spelled that way. The only other thing I screwed up in this puzzle was ACORN, which I did not know was a [Nut-brown hue], or any kind of hue. I had the "C" and wrote in OCHER. Or was it OCHRE? I can never keep them straight.
More:
- 51D: What "maki" means in Japanese (ROLL) — a triple "maki" puzzle (see also the clues on SUSHI and NORI) (44A: Maki or temaki and 2D: Seaweed wrap for maki). That's two more "makis" than have ever actually appeared in the NYTXW. MAKI made its sole appearance as an answer late last year ([Sushi roll wrapped in seaweed]), though it did appear once before that in a non-SUSHI context. Can you guess how it was clued? Let me stop you right now—you can't. Or you can, in which case I'm very impressed with your knowledge of the animal kingdom. MAKI is apparently a lemur. When I search "maki" it's the first thing that comes up—though admittedly, this set of definitions (which comes up at the top of the search — I use DuckDuckGo) does not inspire confidence:
 |
| [The what version of the what dictionary? And ... why is def. 3 ... the same as def 1?] |
- 35A: Valuable Minecraft blocks (ORES) — OR-S and I swear I wanted ORBS. And then ORCS. Force of habit. My brain is a very fast but not always accurate crossword answer generator, and when it glitches, it glitches pretty bad.
- 58A: "Summer of ___," Questlove documentary about the 1969 Harlem Cultural Festival (SOUL) — I love how far out of its way this clue goes to get an excellent movie into the puzzle. 10 jillion potential SOUL clues out there and this one's like, "hey, I know, how about some amazingly joyful music? You like Gladys?"
- 20D: Tinder account datum that can't be edited (AGE) — someone sounds frustrated. Someone sounds like they tried to edit their AGE in their Tinder account.
- 26D: Advances from third while the pitcher is distracted, say (STEALS HOME) — nice answer, and a debut, although there has been a STEAL HOME (2017) and a STOLE HOME (2012 ... I know because that was me)
- 2427D: What team-building activities are designed to build (TRUST) — huh. I would've said MORALE. Or ... teamwork, something like that. Do you really have to TRUST your coworkers? Does anyone ever really TRUST their coworkers? Steve from Accounting? Really? Come on.
That's it for today. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Mostly very easy, except for the SE, where I didn't know BARBACOA and took a while to get ACORN and SALSA from the clues. I don't keep up with the Kardashians, so KRIS came slowly. Like Rex, I solved it as a themeless.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteEasier than yesterday. No WOEs.
Overwrites:
pair before ACES for the Texas hold 'em hand at 18A
My 59A cone or sphere was a Shape before it was a SOLID
As usual, I misspelled BUOY (53A). You'd think I'd get it right at least half the time.
I agree this played like a themeless puzzle, and I didn’t really try to get the theme at all until I read Rex’s write-up. I first wrote in SHOTINTHEDARK without any crosses, but since I didn’t include the A, it didn’t fit and I assumed it was wrong.
ReplyDeleteI also think it’s a bit of a stretch to go from BASEMENTPARTY to shots of liquor. A group of five year olds could be having a birthday party in the basement and presumably they’re not doing shots.
A can belong to set B, while B contains more objects than just A
DeleteI am very surprised Rex passed over that one. The clue and answer are fine, but doing shots at a basement dance party? Long shot.
DeleteI never considered it a shot of booze. You would spill it all over in the dark. I immediately saw it as...you're at your first "boy/girl party" in maybe middle school. your crush is there, its dark, and you maybe go for a hand-hold/kiss? You take a shot! Then I immediately felt a little creepy.. but I do think that's it.
DeleteOk, Anon 11:06…you think like me…BUT…I still think it’s a stretch.
DeleteOk, Anon 11:06…you think like me…BUT…I still think it’s a stretch.
DeleteI thought that Tuesday’s recently have been trending more difficult - I was digging that but today we get a super easy one. Rex summarizes the highs and lows perfectly. Nothing really wrong here - just a simple theme and clean - straightforward fill.
ReplyDeleteBinky the Doormat
NICELY DONE, BARBACOA, ASTRONOMER are all solid longs. HARD ASS is fun and I liked seeing humus in the puzzle. Typical early week trivia - although I needed the crosses for KRIS - I can’t keep up on that family. GAMUT is a wonderful word.
Jack-In-The-Green
Easy but pleasant enough Tuesday morning solve.
Star of the County Down
You're better off not keeping up with that family. What a waste of cultural space.
DeleteI breezed through it but was lucky to close out the SE. I had HARD ASS and NDA which were solid, but never heard of BARBACOA, and of course I knew I would have to guess at the Japanese translation and the Kardashian.
ReplyDeleteI wanted SHAPE for the “Cone or sphere” (note, I still think SOLID is kind of an iffy answer on that one). I was just about to throw in the towel, but suddenly ACORN popped into my head, which is strange since I never considered it a color before. So I lucked out in a sense today.
I like the fact that all the SHOTs are different.
ReplyDeleteBlatant error at 21D, which should be AKER. Next, you'll be telling me that Pooh eats 'honey', rather than HUNNY.
Yes, Rex, I did know that other use of 'maki'. We have a stuffed ring-tailed lemur named Maki, which is the French name for them, and once was the genus name (since changed).
Oh, and puzzle should have run on Monday.
Disappointed isn’t the right word - we all have different tastes in music - but given his notoriety and his recent passing, I was surprised to not find this video in this blog. This song will now be in my head all day. https://youtu.be/jxXTJyghWlg?si=AaZyHsLTblg-yjk-
ReplyDeleteFunny to watch this now, Ozzy looks like innocent fun - a guy that just wants to dress up and put on a show. As a child, he was the poster child for all things demonic and evil. I suppose this video would be on his pop record-selling side of his output.
DeleteRandom thoughts:
ReplyDelete• Original theme, never done before. Although I like the clue once given to SHOT IN THE DARK: ["____? It’d be better to administer a vaccine with the lights on”].
• NDA made me think of its anagram AND, which made me think of yesterday’s AD-FREE puzzle.
• Fun semordnilap fact: NORI is rich in iron.
• All four theme entries are NYT answer debuts, giving this theme pop.
• Fun to see AGE / ATE / ADE / ALE in the box.
• Do crossing answers ACES and MESAS rhyme? Discuss.
• A low word count for Tuesday at 72, more typical for Friday. It allows for more longs than usual on this day, lovely downs like NICELY DONE, STEALS HOME, and BARBACOA.
Pop, originality, loveliness and more radiating from your puzzle, Spencer, making for a splendid outing. Thank you!
Ah, so I see in the grid, sometimes the ACORN does fall far from the TREE.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteThat darn Steve from accounting ...
Easy peasy puz today. I have been to a BASEMENT PARTY or two in my youth, and I can attest they are lighted. Har.
Getting all the ASSes lately. HARD ASS today. Forgot (there's a surprise) what the ASS we had the other day. I have a T-shirt with six donkeys on it, each with a different expression/dress that runs the GAMUT of ASSES, Smart ASS, Wise ASS, Lazy ASS, Kiss ASS, Dumb ASS. How about an ASS Themed puz? That would be AMUSE-ing!
Gonna give this puz a rating of NICELY DONE.
Oh, and beware of the LEGO CULTS out there!
Have a great Tuesday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
- My nut-brown hue was PECAN, easily fixed
ReplyDelete- LUKE/OWEN WILSON is my favorite KEALOA
- @Lewis, no they don’t rhyme, but in common speech MESAS would rhyme with ACES if you weren’t careful with the A in mesa, but that makes it indistinguishable from MACES. I definitely go with a distinct A in MESA singular, and believe it would continue.
My pet peeve is people not understanding what kealoa means. How is Luke/Owen a kealoa? They only share one letter, but that is not even in the same position.
DeleteMy pet peeve is people “schooling” people on kealoa when I’m pretty sure it has nothing to do with whether you’ve checked crosses or they share letters. If the clue is Mauna (blank) and there are 3 letters….it’s either kea or loa.
Delete@Beezer
DeleteThe reason @Rex coined the term KEALOA is because both words (KEA & LOA) work with the clue, both having 3 letters and ending with an A. Sedan and coupe are both cars, but lack that matching letter thing; so no KEOLOA.
Okey doke JC66. I guess I was a little too salty with my reply. Apparently I misunderstood the whole kealoa biz.
DeleteThe Barbican is also a Brutalist mixed-use development in London and stands essentially on top of the original site of the fort of Roman London. The complex mainly consists of housing, but also houses the Barbican Centre (arts venue) and the Museum of London. The Barbican can be perplexing for visitors to navigate, as many of the pedestrian paths are elevated and not intuitive.
ReplyDeleteInteresting that there were two Questlove clues and that they are almost perfectly lined up at the top and bottom. Had to double check the constructor at that point to see if he was involved
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rex, for that bit of Flight of the Conchords silliness. I needed that this morning.
ReplyDeleteFlight of the Conchords are amazingly funny, I watched their show religiously. This is one of their funniest songs. "I'm the hip hop hippopotamus my rhymes are bottomless", followed by 5 seconds of silence.
DeleteAs an old professional illustrator/cartoonist, trust me. "Acorn" is not and never has been a color.
ReplyDeleteOne hundred percent!
DeleteAgreed, it was Easy, even for a Tuesday. Not a whole lot to say. One thing I look forward to after solving is reading the blog and learning all sorts of new things (because after all I'm a NOOB about most things). In this case it was about the documentary Summer of SOUL, which looks like it would be interesting.
ReplyDeleteAs a mathematician, I was a little bit amused by SOLID being clued by cone or sphere. What a mathematician calls a sphere is the surface, without the interior; if you include the interior, we call that a ball. This naming applies to any number of spatial dimensions. The case of "cone" is a little bit different; sometimes it's understood as a surface (as when we refer to a light cone in relativity theory), but at other it is understood as including points enclosed within (if I had to say this precisely, I would mutter something about such cones being "convex-closed"). There may be no one else here who cares about such nuances, in which case I'm just throwing it out there, like A SHOT IN THE DARK.
Have a good one!
Being a mathematician myself, I noticed. But I didn't care. Hmm tht. Who are you IRL?
DeleteAs an old high school math teacher, I loved the precise definitions of a sphere and a cone. Sorta like a circle:: it’s just the points equidistant from a center point, not the points within it. That’s a disc.
Delete@Anon 4:10 PM. Yes, precisely. And you're right that n-dimensional balls are also called n-dimensional discs, or n-discs for short. While I'm here, I'll make a note of the fact that a circle can be referred to as a 1-dimensional sphere, or a 1-sphere for short. (It would be tiresome to have to invent a new word each time the dimension changes, so n-sphere is used as a blanket terminology that covers a bunch of separate cases like circle, sphere, and their analogues in higher dimensions.)
DeleteFun solve for a Tuesday. Agree with Rex about the best, W-ackiest theme answer being the (certainly not for five year olds) BASEMENT PARTY.
ReplyDeleteAnd thanks much for the ride in the Way Back Machine to your 2012 puzzle and guest write-up. Long before my time to this group, but I did notice several familiar names (Lewis, M&A, Anonymous). Someone named Glimmerglass reminds me of Hotel Otesaga in Cooperstown NY; we were there recently...lovely place!
I always thought Newb was the correct spelling. Noob is completely new to me.
ReplyDeleteI thought that, too!
DeleteSoon after I first found this blog as a newb/noob to crosswords, Rex actually did some legwork to tease out the differences in usage and commonality of the spelling variations. As a result, I can’t ever remember which is which. I just looked it up again to jog my memory. Apparently NOOB is both more common and is exclusively the gaming version. Like you, I had always imagined/seen it as “newb” before. Here it is if you want to see him show his work:
Deletehttps://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2024/01/trait-of-fabled-fishermans-wife-mon-1.html
That's why I dislike clues to made up words, newb/noob, ahh/ahh, argh/aargh, ....
DeleteMy friend BARB (Ms. ACOA to you) has smooth-as-silk skin and HARDASS nails. And she looks ASHOTINTHEDARK as in broad daylight.
ReplyDeleteI often try to pick fights with people who are regretting that they ever met me, but Mrs. Egs always tells me that I'm just being RUED. I always let it go pretty quickly, though. By the end of the day it's PASTASHELL.
Did you hear about the dog who couldn't decide between SNAUSAGES and veggies? He either ATE a TREAT ORATE ACORN.
I played the @Lewis game of trying to figure out what the revealer could be. Impossible! I had no shot! Fun stuff. Thanks, Spencer Leach.
No luck for me either, but attacking the riddle, even without success, is still, as you say, fun stuff.
DeleteI learned BARBACOA as the source of our word 'barbecue", and I just looked it up, and sure enough. Funny there's no mention of that in the Wikipedia article. Knowing that made the clue a little confusing though. "Slow cooked"? I guess.
ReplyDeleteBASEMENTPARTY is a real stretch, as others have noted. A BUOY in a lake is possible but not the first thing I thought of. Learned what MAKI means, found out about SABRA, and still have no interest in the Kardashians except as crossword answers. Wouldn't have thought of ACORN as a color but the clue does say "nut brown", very helpful.
NICELY DONE S L. I Should learn more about Japanese food, and this is a good start. Thanks for all the fun.
A great job of making a puzzle both easy and imaginative, good fun. The SE was the only section that gave me pause. Guessed to fill in KRIS, then finally got ACORN. Like @Pabloinnh would not otherwise have thought of ACORN as a color. Also filled in SHOTINTHEDARK from a couple of crosses before I realized an A had to be added up front. And I don’t think spheres and cones are necessarily SOLIDs, but seems they can be…all part of the fun in this one.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the theme provides the occasion for a perfectly fine Tuesday puzzle that's pretty junk-free, the theme itself seems quite weak and unconvincing. First of all, BASEMENT PARTY sounds like green paint. "You are invited to my basement party on Saturday."? Er, not exactly. Then there's the whole BASEMENT PARTY "shot" thing.
ReplyDeleteMy first reaction to that themer was "Where's the shot?". But Rex explained it. Here's what's wrong with it:
1. Not every party is a drinking party.
2. "Shot" has a very specific meaning for drinkers. If you're having a gin and tonic in a tall glass...or a scotch and soda...or a glass of wine, you are not having a shot. A shot is alcohol that's served neat, in a tiny shot glass, and supposed to be consumed in one gulp. (You can look it up.)
So this theme answer doesn't work for me at all. The others are, I suppose, accurate enough. And I did like the number of long answers in both the Acrosses and Downs. So -- an OK Tuesday that didn't wow me.
Finished the puzzle in 8 minutes (there was a theme?) - no typos - & despite not knowing BARBACOA. Not complaining - but this definitely could've run on a Monday.
ReplyDeleteFrom what I remember, BASEMENT PARTIES were for "make-out sessions". Remember those?
From Lucy Dacus lyrics "getting hot and bothered in the basement of your parents house"
DeleteLikeable Tuesday downs-only with some nice longer down answers. 10D was NICELY DONE. 26D STEALS HOME was a home run. 6D ASTRONOMER was stellar. 4D LEAFLETS and 28D PASTA SHELLS occupied a lower tier but still weren’t bad. 37D BARBACOA held me up for multiple nanoseconds because I initially wanted it to be cARne something. But eventually the COA at the end prompted the real thing. 40D continued the NYTXW trend of going all HARD ASS on all things rectal. Doesn’t bother me - I use the term HARD ASS all the time - but I suspect others are starting to get bummed by it.
ReplyDelete44D. I’ve only purchased grocery store hummus a few times in my life. It’s so easy to make. A can of chick peas, a splodge of tahini, a slurp or two of olive oil (yes, these are exact amounts), a clove or two of garlic, a pinch of cumin, a squeeze of lemon, and some salt (to taste, as they say). Throw it all into a blender or food processor. I don’t know how companies like SABRA (44D) stay in business. I do let other people bake my pita for me, though.
Nits today:
When did ACORN (55A) become a colour?
When did KRIS Kardashian become crossworthy. Don’t tell me, I don’t really want to know.
And plural AHOYS.
Themers didn’t really thrill me today but the revealer was nice. Thanks, Spencer.
Like @JJK 6:06, when I got to the reveal clue, I thought, "SHOT IN THE DARK"...and came up with an extra square. Still, I figured IN THE DARK had to be right so wrote that in and waited for what would be a 5-letter replacement for SHOT. The "A" was a real "D'oh!" moment. I really liked the three different kinds of SHOTs. I had to think about the BASEMENT PARTY one, but yes, I can envision a certain demographic doing shots at a party in a dark basement. Otherwise - I liked learning BARBACOA and its cross with SALSA.
ReplyDeleteI’m glad you are forgiving (as am I almost always) with puzzles, but I still don’t “see” the BASEMENTPARTY biz. Okay…if you’re underage…my guess is the parents are out, so if shots done…why are the lights outs? Not like most of us couldn’t suss it out, but still a mystery to me. See below to @M&A…”make-out” party in jr high…yeah…lights out or minimal.
DeleteNever played or watched LASER TAG. Do you really play it in the dark? How do you tag anyone?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, a tast puzzle! Personally I prefer nigiri, but maki are fine, too. Now I have to try BARBACOA. I’ll dig the hole if you bring the cow’s head.
Yes, Laser Tag is played in the dark. That’s what gives you a fighting chance of getting out alive before you are sliced through from an enemy laser.
DeleteYep. This puztheme was definitely worth a shot. Pretty complete "shots" themer variety, since MIDNIGHT VAX CLINIC sure wouldn't pass muster.
ReplyDeleteWas definitely hard to grok this here puztheme, until the revealer helped m&e out.
This was a pretty ambitious puzgrid, IM&AO. Only a 72-worder -- qualified for themelessness. Lotsa neat longball answers.
staff weeject pick (of only 10 choices): ADE. Wowzers, half the weejects started with an A today.
some fave stuff included: NICELYDONE. ASTRONOMER & its stellar [only ?-marker?] clue. STEALSHOME. HARDASS.
Wasn't ever invited to a BASEMENTPARTY with shots; M&A has led such a sheltered life. Closest I ever got was shootin pool in the basement, alone with a girlfriend.
Well, shoot -- thanx for the fun, Mr. Leach dude.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
... and now, for the EXTREME-ly rare four-star runt ...
"Four Stars" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
You cracked me up on BASEMENTPARTY! Not that I really had a clue on that. Seems like in junior high there were basement parties where people “made out,” but I’m old enough that shots were not involved.
DeleteEasy-medium.
ReplyDeleteThe SW took some staring because ACORN wasn’t obviously and because BARBACOA was a major WOE for me (my bride knew it so that’s on me).
Costly erasure - sectS before CULTS
Liked it but I’m with @Rex on BASEMENT PARTY.
A SHOT IN THE DARK was a very funny Peter Selllers movie.
I used to have a basement, and it was often filled with teenagers doing their version of a party, and I’m pretty sure there were shots going on.
ReplyDeleteBarbacoa has been on Chipotle's menu for...ever? Ripped through this one without seeing half the clues. 3:10, which is a Tuesday record for me.
ReplyDeleteNot sure who you’re talking to with respect to BARBACOA, but all I see in comment is that you must eat a lot of fast food. Congrats on your record.
DeleteHad taser tag before I thought that would be one hell of a game changed to laser!
ReplyDeleteBenjamin Moore paint color #1125 is ACORN.
ReplyDeleteBTW, their 2026 color of the year is 'silhouette', which is described as 'reminiscent of tailored suiting, this elegant color weaves rich espresso hues with refined notes of charcoal'.
Interesting find - companies can be so creative with their color palate names. I'd guess it's probably important as a marketing tactic because the name is much cuter and more memorable than the number.
DeleteBenjamin Moore also has paint colors called "Old Soul", "Icebreaker" and "First Crush" but you wouldn't call these terms "colors" in any context other than a paint store. The same goes for ACORN in my book.
Just checked out Benjamin Moore 1125 ACORN and it does actually look acornish. Defensible then, at least in terms of interior house painting. But, as a studio painter, I would never, ever go into an art supply store in search of a tube of Winsor & Newton Acorn.
DeleteSilhouette, however, can only be the product of a "brain storming session" of drug-crazed designers and desperate PR mavens. "(R)efined notes of charcoal", indeed.
The colours I use are usually named for their pigments. Raw and Burnt Sienna are (or historically were) made from earth from Siena. So they are earthy. Rose Madder was from the Madder plant, as was Alizarin Crimson (from the Arabic al-isara, the pressings of fruits). Some pigments are from minerals (Cobalt Blue, Titanium White) and some are synthesized in the lab, like Pthalocyanine Blue and Green and Quinacridone Red. Note that most of these colour names have a word - Rose, Blue, White, Green, Red - that tells you, in simple terms, what kind of colour you're dealing with, unlike those ridiculous designer hues.
Asked my wife this morning if she knew what colour Pthalo Blue was and she answered, "No, but it's some sort of blue."
"Do you happen to know what colour Silhouette is?"
"Not a chance."
BARBACOA is Mexican, I see. It sounds a lot like the process used in Hawaii to make Kalua pork. We used to stay at the Kaanapali Beach Hotel in Maui. They would dig a pit every day and cook a whole pig in that way.
ReplyDeleteI woke up yesterday thinking it was Tuesday for some reason. So rather than solving the puzzle downs-only or some other scheme that makes the puzzle more demanding, I just solved row by row until it was filled, thinking, "Wow -- this is like a Monday!"
ReplyDeleteSo, today I had the same experience with the actual Tuesday.
Will tomorrow be a Monday, Tuesday or an actual Wednesday?
The maki/lemur thing made me recall a time when dictionaries were first coming online. Some of my students found pairs of entries: X, see Y; Y, see X.
ReplyDeleteEasy for the first 2/3. Then difficult. No idea about 48 D and 52D.
ReplyDeleteFor 41 A, kept trying to think what an epee venue would be called. Eventually crosses tied me off to laser...
Despite seeing maki on menus frequently, I cold not think what it meant, have never heard of acorn as a color, and have never head of barbados. So.. very slow getting the bottom third of the puzzle.
Did think the reveal made the theme interesting. Had similar reaction to those expressed about 24A. Clever change of meaning for "shot", but would a basement party be a place for shots?
@Anonymous 10:13 AGREED
ReplyDelete@Southside J, SOLID is absolutely the right answer- tho I struggled to remember it.
Weird that Rex didn't notice the theme... the revealer is hard to miss. It's fine but as others have mentioned, only INFRARED CAMERA is right on the phrase.
ReplyDeleteNICELY DONE took me a while to get, as there were so many other possibilities, e.g. GOOD FOR YOU, GOOD JOB MAN/BRO, etc. (I need to learn not to fill in long answers like that until I have some crosses... patience! Except for ASTRONOMER and STEALS HOME which were total gimmes.)
Nice lack of Unknown Names today, except for SABRA.
This puzzle was good but should have been a Monday - that was an editor’s decision though.
ReplyDeleteQuestion about SB : isn’t yoyo a word ?
I liked the puzzle just fine…worked it early…got busy. Sorry if I seemed “salty” in some of my replies….
ReplyDeleteI also missed the theme because this was one of the easiest puzzles I’ve ever solved. No resistance anywhere, even easier than most Mondays.
ReplyDeleteLiked the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI actually looked up basement party because it did seem like green paint to me.
But it is a thing. It arose like so many expressions, from the Black American community, apparently some thirty or so years ago. That is why the strained reaction here to the answer. Rap is involved often at these parties! As it happens, there is actually a song with that title. Shots are among the drinks that are drunk at such parties. And they are often on the dark side. A wacky stretch , which Rex liked But for me it was after the fact
I thought the theme was a little wobbly. INFRARED CAMERA hits the nail on the head. That's its purpose. That's what it's designed to do, to take pictures in DARK settings.
ReplyDeleteThe others had more of a "Say what?" effect on me. After reading the comments, I can see how they kinda, sorta work but they lack that direct connection to the reveal that the INFRARED CAMERA has.
I did notice that SHOT IN THE DARK was one letter short of its slot (hi @Carola). That could have been taken care of by the POC (plural of convenience) for SHOTS. Another letter count inflation (LCI) device was used. From LCI: "Another letter count, grid fill boosting method is adding an article in front of a noun in the grid. In standard English discourse, single, countable nouns must be preceded by definite or indefinite articles. In crossword puzzles, however, the convention has been to use just the noun alone. If a noun entry in a puzzle grid is arbitrarily preceded by an article while all other nouns in the grid stand alone then it has all the earmarks of an LCI, here an article of convenience."
I would call that an AOC but I believe that initialism is already taken.
The puzzle overall had some very nice stuff in it and I would give it a NICELY DONE! rating.
I didn't find this nearly as easy as @Rex, the SE really did me in.
ReplyDeleteBut I loved the theme, got all the themers and revealer fairly easily but again, the SE would not fall for me. Did not know BARBACOA, I'm not at all up on my Kardashians (slight point of pride) and my brain just would not click on SOLID for the Cone/sphere clue - I don't know why, it just didn't. Perfectly good clue, perfectly good answer, my brain was not in the right wave length.
I thought all the long downs were quite elegant (yes, even HARDASS) and the fact that all the shots to take in each themer were different, well that made it even more eleganter :o) - that is good, clever stuff. NICELY DONE spencer!
@Rex - for the goof I went back in the archives and did your December 2012 puzzle - I loved it! I also loved the write-up by your BFFs at the time Liz and Jenny! What are those two up to these days?? Have they been back to guest host? I don't think I've seen them over the years...
ReplyDeleteBien hecha.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading comments, I'm concerned y'all didn't do basement parties right. All manner of SHOTS IN THE DARK take place. You don't need to be a youngster once the light goes down. Give one a try. Host one. Try to invite people you won't run into next week. And serve BARBACOA -- it's deliciously murderous.
The mystery of humorless puzzles continues.
There must be a tipping point when a cult becomes a religion and then another point when the religion breaks into sects. All the way through, everyone not associated with whatever it's called will call it malarkey.
I wonder who came up with the spelling for BUOY and why they were so vindictive.
I'm rarely on board with the mathematicians overly exacting criticisms of cluing, but [Cone or sphere] for SOLID is cringy at best.
People: 6
Places: 0
Products: 8
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 72 (32%)
Funny Factor: 0 😫
Tee-Hee: Head-butts HARD ASS.
Uniclues:
1 Fix the broken bones of those landing hang gliders in the forest.
2 Those passionate there is no S in the name.
3 Los Angeles football team believes in itself.
4 What happens in my La-Z-Boy
5 One who thinks the moon is made of cheese.
6 My belly.
1 TREAT TREE ACES
2 LEGO CULTS
3 RAMS' SOUL SOLID
4 EXTREME I SIT
5 ASTRONOMER NOOB
6 NICELY DONE ROLL
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What prescriptivists have a tendency to do. INVENT NOT SO FUN.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hi @Gary J. Every time the word BUOY is a crossword answer, I ask myself the same question. I’ve looked it up several times and despite its Spanish (boya/boyar if memory serves) and Dutch (another couple examples I don’t remember accurately but one might have been boeie?), apparently it became distilled in Middle English as BUOY. I think it’s a wonderful example for the scholars who are hell bent on “simplifying” English. In the “simplified” language, we’d just use “text rules” to spell, but boy o boy that wood make for some crazy looking words - and lots more confushun to!
DeleteAnother speed solve for me but today I did not make a really stupid mistake that took me an hour to find. I’m still feeling stupid about yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI might have misspelled BUOY if it hadn’t been for getting USUAL first; I was on a downs binge for most of the solve. That U always looks so odd to me.
Like OFL, I didn’t really have time to think about the theme as I was speeding along. Often the length of theme answers in early week puzzles jog my grey matter to make me be “aware” so that the theme part of said grey matter can be thinking about it in case the rest gets stuck along the way. Not so today. I was reading the reveal clue before I thought, “oh yeah, there’s a theme.” But since I experienced no resistance, I simply moved on through, finished and then looked back.
I did pause momentarily as I dropped in BASEMENT PARTY to recall one. It was 8th grade at Ralphie’s house, my first real “boy-girl” party - onky I didn’t understand it until the lights went out, the music was turned way up and Ralphie and Sheryl E and a few of the other kids started making out - or at least pretending that they were. I grumpily sat on the stairs thinking about how lame the whole thing was. The only “SHOT IN THE DARK” (and in retrospect excitement for me anyway) during that fiasco was Ralphie’s dad (an avid hunter with a massive gun collection, a very short temper and an “aggressive” parenting style) storming down the stairs fuming and yelling at us to “turn the da*n music off and the lights on or Ralphie, you’re dead!” Thankfully, Mr. M wasn’t armed. We all got out unscathed, and poor Ralphie wouldn’t tell us what happened to him. That was the day though that so much changed among my “posse.” We weren’t just a ragtag bunch of kids who grew up within three blocks of each other, knew all of each other’s secrets and were just really good friends; the hormones had started to separate and define us. I hated it.