.png)
Hi, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of November! Hope everyone is having a good start to the holiday season. I’ve been settling back into a D.C. rhythm after a spur-of-the-moment trip to Barcelona with my sister, Shannon, a couple of weeks ago! (She was going for work and had a free hotel room for me to crash in😊) We ate lots of patatas bravas and drank some (OK, a lot of) sangria, and now I think I’m moving to Barcelona. I just need to practice my Spanish a bit. Or a lot. Sports are a bit meh right now (as my Steelers and Liverpool aren’t doing so hot), but, hey, at least Yale thumped Harvard in The Game.
Anywho, on to the puzzle…
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: DOOM SCROLLS (63A: Engages in a dispiriting online activity … or what happens in this puzzle's shaded squares?) — The shaded squares all use the letters in DOOM, and the positions of the letters “scroll” in order (with the final letter being moved to the front with each new appearance as you move down the puzzle)
Theme answers:
- VOODOO MAGIC (17A: Sorcery commonly associated with Haiti and New Orleans)
- STORM DOOR (26A: Extra barrier to protect a house from bad weather)
- TOM DOOLEY (38A: Traditional folk song that became a #1 hit for the Kingston Trio)
- ZOOM DATES (54A: Romantic options for a long-distance relationship)
Tom Dooley" (Roud 4192) is a traditional North Carolina folk song based on the 1866 murder of a woman named Laura Foster in Wilkes County, North Carolina by Tom Dula (whose name in the local dialect was pronounced "Dooley"). One of the more famous murder ballads, a popular hit version recorded in 1958 by The Kingston Trio reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart, was in the top 10 on the Billboard R&B chart, and appeared in the Cashbox Country Music Top 20… In 1866, Laura Foster was murdered. Confederate veteran Tom Dula, Foster's lover and the father of her unborn child, was convicted of her murder and hanged May 1, 1868… Thanks to the efforts of newspapers such as The New York Times and to the fact that former North Carolina governor Zebulon Vance represented Dula pro bono, Dula's murder trial and hanging were given widespread national publicity. (Wiki)
• • •
WELL, I SORTA (36D) liked this puzzle. The theme was well-executed, and it’s clever how the letters in DOOM shift as you go down the puzzle. But the theme felt like a long way to go for little payoff. There wasn’t anything particularly objectionable about it, but it took some minor sleuthing after the solve to understand the point the theme was trying to get across, and the letter combinations after the first one — MDOO, OMDO, and OOMD — just look awkward. I’m not sure VOODOO MAGIC (17A) works as an answer because it seems like it’s usually just described as VOODOO. The info I was finding had very few references to MAGIC (and didn’t combine the terms). The other theme answers seemed fine, though I didn’t know TOM DOOLEY (38A). [Side note: This song is about a Confederate soldier who was convicted of murdering a woman, and it was somehow turned into a folk legend? I went down a Wikipedia rabbit hole, and it’s a pretty weird song.] I also think the clue for STORM DOOR (26A: Extra barrier to protect a house from bad weather) is somewhat wrong because the STORM DOOR is a glass door that protects the regular wooden door from weathering; it seems like a stretch to say it’s protecting the house.
Beyond the theme, there wasn’t much that grabbed me about the puzzle. The longest downs were WELL SORTA (36D: "I mean, I guess …") and IPOD NANOS (5D: Music players discontinued in 2017), which, well, sorta, don’t inspire much excitement. TACO PIE (27D: Tex-Mex casserole with a crust) is blah. A LOT OF (58A: Many, many) doesn’t really match the clue and is an awkward-looking partial. And I can’t get behind that spelling of SLIER (9D: More cunning).
I got a bit stuck on EBSEN (24A), having never seen “The Beverly Hillbillies,” and I had no idea that the STOOGES (43D) were Iggy Pop’s backup group. It also took me way too long to realize that LORES (52A: Like early PC graphics) was indicating LO-RES (as in, low resolution). I had _ORES for quite a long time before I could convince myself to put in the L, even though that was the only letter that made sense coming down.
I liked ONE GRAM (13D: Weight of every U.S. bank note), as it’s a decent bit of trivia. PGA TOUR (11D: Organizer of events for swingers?) is clever. The clue for REVIEW (1D:
"No" was a famously short one for the 1948 musical "Isn't It Romantic?") was incredible; I’ll be thinking about that for a while. The word BIZARRO (41D: ___ World, DC Comics planet of opposites) is fun. I don’t think RITA ORA (12D: "How We Do (Party)" pop singer) is a big enough name to be in a Tuesday crossword, but I thought it was clever to have ORA cross AURA (31A: Certain something). I love WILMA (29A: Flintstone with a red updo) in the puzzle. Yabba dabba doo! And OCCAM (10D: Philosopher known for his "razor") is fun.
Misc.:
- BTS!!! (41A: K-pop band that went on hiatus in 2022 when their members went into military service) You didn’t think that I’d forget about BTS, did you?! They’ve recorded some for their album coming in the spring and are rehearsing for their world tour next year!! Please prepare yourselves for the inevitable videos and tweets I will share.
- 20A: U.K. : H.M.R.C. :: U.S.A. : __ felt like a tortured way of cluing just… IRS, but, hey, now I know that HMRC stands for His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs.
- I’ve been reading my fair share of BRIT LIT (45D: Course that may cover Jane Austen and Emily Brontë, for short) this last month, as I rediscovered Agatha Christie novels. I read “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” which pioneered a concept used in mystery novels to this day, and it was phenomenal. I’ve now read (or listened to) 14 of her books in the last month.
- It’s actually my dream to get semi-famous (or be related to someone famous — come on, Shannon!) so I can go on Dancing With the Stars and learn for a few weeks how to dance (for example, how to SALSA).
- Speaking of SALSAS (53D: Engages in an energetic Latin dance), it did go nicely with TACO PIE (27D) and GUAC (68A: Burrito bar offering, informally).
- I’ve been going on more, longer hikes with my pup, Red, though it’s getting a bit cold. Red’s brother Banjo (my mom’s dog) is visiting, and he and Red are quite possibly having the time of their lives.
And that’s all from me, folks! I’ll see y’all again around Christmas.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️
- American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (Stamford, CT, Apr. 10-12, 2026) (registration opens January 8!)
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Medium for me too. No costly erasures and RAE was it for WOEs.
ReplyDeleteTOM DOOLEY should be a gimme for those of a certain age.
LO-RES did not perplex me this time.
Clever idea nicely executed with a couple of sparkly theme answers, liked it.
You're sharper than me this morning. LORES perplexed me for 3 or 4 seconds.
DeleteLORES perplexed me until Clare explained it.
DeleteYes, ninety something!
Delete
ReplyDeleteMedium for a Tuesday. No WOEs, but I overwrote every letter of Michelle YEOH's name (40D) except the Y. And I always need crosses to figure out if the 69A hun was one-t, two l's or two-T, one L.
It was fun to reminisce about things from my younger days, including Buddy EBSEN (24A, who was Davy Crockett's sidekick before he was a Beverly Hillbilly), WILMA Flintstone (29A), TOM DOOLEY (38A), Superman's BIZARRO (41D) and - although it wasn't clued that way - the Three STOOGES (43D).
Buddy Ebsen was also the first choice to play the Tin Man in the 1939 "Wizard of Oz" but he had an allergic reaction to the silver paint
Delete10:50 this morning, so I think that's medium or even medium-challenging *FOR A TUESDAY* for me. I agree--for me it was OK, not fabulous, but it worked, and felt better than actual doomscrolling! Thanks, Clare, for the review and the puppies!
ReplyDeleteFinished it after guessing at BIZARRO (I first had "Pizarro"). Didn't enjoy the puzzle because of the many abbreviations of "techie" stuff. The clue for LORES was the opposite...it should have suggested an abbreviated answer, but didn't. The theme was fine...the fill, not so fine.
ReplyDeleteAgree with you (again)!
DeleteI think PC was meant to suggest the abbreviation
DeleteI needed to check in to get the skinny on LORES
ReplyDeleteLO-RES is short for "low resolution".
DeleteGRAM is a unit of mass, not weight.
ReplyDeleteGood that someone said it.
DeleteNot the way it is used in everyday conversation and on kitchen scales.
Deleteand not if you’re buying drugs.
Delete@Benbini, if one is living in a constant state of normal earth gravity, as most of us are, you can use it as weight. How much do I weigh? Well, technically, 750 Newtons, I guess. But 78 kg (170 pounds) is way more user friendly.
DeleteBambini
DeleteI agree with Okanaganer
I add we are talking about a PUZZLE dealing in popular language, not a text book. Gram is valid as a weight in crosswords.
I had an unusually difficult time in the SE, especially for this early in the week. LO RES just wouldn’t come to me, and no help at all from PLEBS, YEOH, SHIVA, SEVILLE, and even BRIT LIT (which I’ve never heard as a stand alone phrase/course before).
ReplyDeleteThis one seemed to rely pretty heavily on trivia, with RITA ORA, TOM DOOLEY, the D.C. comics and a Hindu deity sprinkled throughout the grid (along with the aforementioned Ms. YEOH and PLEBS, which I’m guessing is of Latin origin, or maybe it’s “Roman” - I don’t know, I only speak English).
As someone who teaches BRIT LIT every semester, I can assure you it’s standard phrasing. But no reason non-English majors should find it familiar.
DeleteI took Brit Lit in high school and college, and it was frequently referred to as such.
DeleteBrit lit was my favorite class, followed closely by lit crit
DeleteCall me an old fashioned Englishman who survived his O’levels and A’levels in the 1970s by the skin of his teeth i’m not buying this new fangled Brit Lit. It’s Eng Lit because it’s written in English not welsh, scots, or celtic
DeleteAnonymous 5:15 pm
DeleteAs I am sure you aware, while we both speak and write English, there is a difference between the versions we use. BRITLIT is a common American English term and perfectly valid in an American crossword. I appreciate you are doing something I never do: Solve crosswords from the other side of the Atlantic
Ridiculously hard for a Tuesday. Would have been medium-hard on Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteI don't think of a TOOL BAR as a lineup of icons, but I'm willing to believe that depending on your device or OS, it might be.
On the plus side, I spelt ATTILA correctly first try!
Thank you Kitshef. Yes a tough Tuesday.
DeleteClaire, great writeup. Not a one word review! You should try Breakfast at Tiffanys with Buddy Ebsen.
ReplyDeleteClare, sorry for the name misspell.
DeleteDefinitely medium. Having worked at a record store in college the high number of music questions helped me make quick progress.
ReplyDeleteThe Stooges actually got inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a group and were named as one of the 100 greatest bands of the 20th century by Rolling Stone, so saying they were just Iggy Pop's backing band one of those iffy clues.
This bothered me so much! Iggy was a Stooge. Period.
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteNeat Theme idea. DOOM SCROLLS through the puz. Different.
Some of the fill was a bit shaky. Seemed A LOT OF partials, Abbrs., and names. But like I usually say, every puz has dreck, and you do what you can to get in real things for the answers.
OSLO seems to be The place where everything is! Or is it just prevalent in crosswords?
Got one of those frozen thaw-and-eat pies the other day. Peanut butter. It's quite yummy. Eyeing a Strawberry one next! (I know, nothing to do with the puz, but that's OK. 😁)
Welp, have a great Tuesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I was *positive* the revealer was going to be “Mood Disorder”. Missed opportunity, I think.
ReplyDeleteGood one Keith. Makes better sense.
DeleteMood Disorder is excellent
DeleteHi Clare, I thought of you when BTS showed up in the grid—and here you are guest blogging!
ReplyDeleteTOM DOOLEY is just one of many, many, A LOT OF murder ballads. They were a big deal in England and spread to America. “Frankie and Johnnie” is probably the best known, also based on a true story. Songs were the way sensationalistic news traveled back in the day before we were all DOOMSCROLLing.
VOODOO MAGIC is gratingly wrong. Took me a moment postsolve to realize that LORES is not the plural of “lore.”
Your comment, "Songs were the way sensationalistic news traveled back in the day before we were all DOOMSCROLLing" reminded me of Bertolt Brecht's "Mack the Knife," which (in the original German) recounts two murders, one rape, and multiple disappearances.
DeleteFair that you wouldn’t know STOOGES as a backing band as they weren’t. Granted the third album is a wrinkle here but The Stooges were a band Iggy Pop was in. The first two albums are by The Stooges. Bad editing leading to unnecessary pedantry. Also pluralizing the iPod nano is just awful tear it down stuff.
ReplyDeleteTotally agree
DeleteAnd shouldn't it be IPODS NANO?
DeleteThis one was easy for me. Over three minutes faster than my average time. I am older and many of the clues seemed directed to my generation. The answers I had no knowledge of like the TikTok star and the UK/USA cluing were easy to get from the crosses. The theme was obviously not necessary but a bit amusing.
ReplyDeleteProps to John for coming up with this theme. It seems obvious, rearranging the letters of DOOM to get to a DOOMSCROLLS revealer. But John thought of it first, and, mind you, this catchy verb “doomscroll” has been in the language for seven years. Bravo, sir!
ReplyDeleteThen he expertly formed the grid, coming up with an answer set that fit symmetry, and filled the box with varied and unjunky answers. Fresh answers too, with 12 entries that have appeared only four times or less in the 80 years of Times puzzles.
The cluing was terrific, relatively easy but not embarrassingly so, and there were enough footholds to make things accessible to newer solvers. Making this happen takes talent and grit.
I loved being misdirected by [#2s in classrooms], where for too long I kept searching my brain for a three-letter answer meaning “pencils”.
I not only enjoyed a fun solve, but the splendid feeling that naturally arises when coursing through quality. Thank you for this, John!
The fact that all US paper currency is one gram feels like the kind of silly thing one side would get worked up about in this political climate. “Why is our American money based on globalist units of mass?? Those will all be thirty ounces starting now!”
ReplyDeleteWhat?
DeleteThanks, Clare! Ah, age and generations… I hereby order you to listen to several hours of classic Kingston Trio songs and to watch several hours of The Beverly Hillbillies. They must be on the Internets somewhere.
ReplyDeleteAnd maybe read Wuthering Nights or Pride and Prejudice for a taste of actual Brit Lit?
Delete@mmoergan. Clare's done nothing to deserve such punishment.
DeleteAgain RITA ORA she had one hit in 2011. She has never caught on in the U.S. Her music is boring. Yet her name is so crossword friendly. I cringe every time I see it. She's married to Taika Waititi and he keeps trying to make her relevant.
ReplyDeleteI so agree. I am sick of seeing her name.
DeleteMade me laugh, good take. I do love Taika though
DeleteMedium seems fair. I ambled through the puzzle at a slower than average pace, but it was straightforward and workmanlike. There wasn't much scintillating about it on my end, but neither was there anything very objectionable, i.e., no real ugliness, with the possible exception of LO RES which I still find ughly. The only thing that really piqued my interest was the TOM DOOLEY song, which is new to me.
ReplyDeleteAnd, I thought the theme was decent, the revealer apt.
Agree with Clare that the clue for PGA TOUR was nice misdirection. I kept thinking that "organizer" was going to be a person.
BIZARRO World is much more well-known to me via Seinfeld, where it is referenced often.
I don't think I've had TACO PIE, but we did fix "samosa pie" the other night, very much to our TASTES. I guess you know that a vegetable samosa is an Indian pastry filled with potato and peas and spices, and deep-fried. So the idea is similar, except it's encased in a pie crust, and baked instead of fried, and served with tamarind chutney.
Looking forward to a relaxing Thanksgiving with the family, just the four of us to fill the nest. We're scaling down the cooking activity this year, so a spiral ham instead of a turkey, and just a few side dishes, and a couple of good pies. Hope you're looking forward to yours!
If you are willing to share the recipe, I'd be interested in trying samosa pie. My email is on my blogger profile.
DeleteI had ORGY GUY mentally queued up for that answer but decided it was a step too far for the NYTX
DeleteGreat write up Clare! Didn’t know you were a Yalie, hope you were in the best residential college (ES)!
ReplyDeleteAgree that it was an easy-medium puzzle although I did have a DNF for natick at Yeoh Tom Dooley. Had an S at the end. I’ve heard Michelle’s name and know it’s been in other puzzles, I’m just not a name person.
Referring to RAM as storage is technically correct I guess, but I don't think anyone really refers to it as such. Storage tends to be used for long term storage on PCs. RAM is not that.
ReplyDeleteExactly my thoughts
DeleteI concur with this comment. As the terms are commonly used, I have to disagree with referring to RAM as storage. Random access memory is temporary; it disappears until saved onto a storage medium such as a hard drive.
DeleteI thought this was easy. Got VOODOOMAGIC right away, and since the squares for DOOM were shaded it was pretty obvious that the other themers were going to be DOOM or an anagram.
ReplyDeleteSince I’m of a certain age, EBSEN, TOMDOOLEY, and WILMA were all gimmes.
I enjoyed your write-up as usual, Clare, and I love the picture of Red and Banjo running through the woods side by side. So sweet!
If memory serves, a favorite review of mine by Pauline Kael started off "'Tomorrow' proves that a movie doesn't have to be long to be tedious." It was a 1972 film starring Robert Duvall. I liked it.
ReplyDeleteIsn’t VOODOOMAGIC a redundant tautology? WELLSORTA maybe. Liked this puzzle for its lively references, even if I could not remember Lionel’s last name. TOMDOOLEY makes me want to dig out a Kingston Trio album and indulge…and I can still hear Fred shouting WIMA! But hand-up for not parsing lo-res correctly. Thanks Clare for fun review.
ReplyDeleteNice to get TOMDOOLEY off my TODO list from a few weeks ago and into the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteEntrap an ENRAPT parent and you've done yourself a mess of anagramin', to the point where you might be a panter.
I thought that #2 in classrooms [TAS] might be "WELLS", like on a scale where #1 is good and #3 is poor. This left me a tough choice: WELLSORTA. Fortunately WELLS didn't fit.
When Oregon was playing SC last Saturday, I heard that the hot dogs at Autzen Stadium were being served on DOOMSCROLLS. Go Ducks!
After the Theranos blood-testing scam, Wall Streets has put the brakes on initial public offerings for blood-related companies, a reaction often referenced as IPODNANOS.
I'm doing imaginary high fives with @Lewis because I guessed the revealer long before I got there. Fun puzzle. Thanks, John Ewbank. And nice write-up @Clare. I couldn't quite recall BTS (was it BLT? BMW?) until I thought, "you know, Clare's band". And it popped right into my consciousness.
I'm of the generation that knows EBSEN and DOOLEY, but I do not know the STOOGES or Addison RAE, so I had RAY (and yes, in hindsight, STOOGY doesn't seem as likely as STOOGE, but I didn't catch that), so I didn't at first get the happy music.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else have VOODOO DOLLS before VOODOO MAGIC?
Overall, a perfectly fine Tuesday puzzle; I liked the Mexican food theme and the AURA/ORA cross. Thanks, John!
I loved the theme. Got the scrambled element pretty easily, and got ZOOM DATES without any crosses, but couldn’t imagine what the revealer would be. DOOM SCROLLS nailed it, and was one of several nice longer answers. Well done!
ReplyDeleteSee, this is what's wrong with the kids these days. They don't even know who the Stooges are!
ReplyDeleteThis is a True statement - although I was chuffed to see Mr. Osterberg make an appearance.
DeleteMy favorite theater review:
ReplyDeleteThe target of the review was the 1951 Broadway play “I Am a Camera” by John Van Druten which was adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s 1939 novel “Goodbye to Berlin”. The two-word appraisal simply stated: “No Leica”.
@anonymous LoL 😂 !
DeleteThe play later adapted to the musical "Cabaret" which many leica.
Delete@MJB. I'm not a "musical" person. In the history of Musicals I can count maybe a handful that I appreciate. At the top of that list is Cabaret, Never knew the connection to "Goodbye to Berlin". Thanks for that.
DeleteI might be missing something but how does moving letters from right to left constitute scrolling? Plus, 3 of the shaded theme elements are nonsense (not words). The solve was pleasant but it only makes sense as a themeless, modifying the 63A clue. But the worst thing in the puzzle was conflating CLAWs with talons, which is what hawks actually have. It's like people who use monkey and chimpanzee interchangeably. Rant over. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
ReplyDeleteHis Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, or as I’ve known it for most of my life, Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs. I do a double-take every time I see the new name.
ReplyDeleteI do a double take every time I spot Chuck on a loonie.
Delete@Les, decades ago in elementary school we sang God Save the Queen at the beginning of every assembly. I guess they probably don't do that any more, but it would be so weird to sing "God save our gracious king". And all the "she" and "her"s become "he" and "him"s too? Does not sound right!
DeleteI agree that Rita Ora isn't famous enough on her own for a Tuesday crossword. BUT Ora has been clued with Rita 8 times(!) in the past 12 months, and 21 times overall. So she's crossword-famous enough for a Tuesday.
ReplyDeleteThe famous short review I remember is for "I Am a Camera." When it opened on Broadway. No Leica.
ReplyDeleteAnother famous short review: Dorothy Parker, Constant Reader, re The House at Pooh Corner: "Tonstant Weader fwoed up."
DeleteJust when I've finally learned RITAORA and NIA Vandalos from crosswords they throw a RAE person at me. I can't keep up. Saw that we were rearranging DOOM or MOOD after two themers, turned out to be DOOM, of course, but I'm not sure I SCROLLed it.
ReplyDeleteHand up for the LORES Doh! moment. Would have helped if I knew Ms. YEOH.
Re TOMDOOLEY--We have a local "coffee house" held bi-weekly in a local church which features three professional acts and a "you choose the song segment". I've performed a few of these when people want a song but don't want to sing it. The last time I did this the choices were "Home on the Range" of TOMDOOLEY. Since the emcee of this thing is a friend and plays banjo, we chose TOMDOOLEY. I was reluctant to do either as in my experience they both have been done to death, so it's interesting that there are folks who have never heard TOMDOOLEY. BTW, it turns out that the woman who wanted the songs had immigrant parents, and they were using the lyrics to learn English, Interesting choices there.
OK Tuesdecito, JE. Just Easy enough (and hard enough) to be entertaining, and thanks for a fair amount of fun.
The clue for TYING sucks
ReplyDeleteI put in ENRAPT wondering if it should have a w in it somewhere, but it worked out. Then since I still had some coffee in my cup after finishing, I picked up another puzzle that was lying around, and lo and behold there was ENRAPT again. Uncanny, I tell you.
ReplyDeleteYeah, VOODOO MAGIC is not something I've ever heard or read before, and I hope never to again (except here in the blog).
I didn't think SALSA was a verb, but OK. Only, what's so apt about the DENT in indentation?
It's not extremely apt, but it's somewhat apt in that an indentation hollows out some blank space at the beginning of the line, similar to how a dent creates a hollow in a surface.
DeleteMy favorite brief (and damning!) review was of a long-running play called "Abie's Irish Rose", and it read: "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow!"
ReplyDeletePretty shifty puztheme. Four shades of DOOM: Kinda reminds one of how long a presidential term runs for, if U R up for a LORES MOOD.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject picks, in honor of @AnoaBob's POC-watch: MCS. ORS. OTS. TAS.
Cool weeject stacks, NE & SW, btw.
some fave stuff: WELLSORTA. BIZARRO [from olde Superman comixtheme]. REVIEW clue. PGATOUR's token ?-marker clue.
Also, puzthemer-wise: TOMDOOLEY was a definite fave. M&A has that 45rpm-er.
Did y'all know: There was an answer song 45rpm for that. It was called "Tom Gets the Last Laugh". By the Balladeers. Worth listenin to. Sorta reminds m&e of "Letitia James Comey Get the Last Laugh", a hit toon hopefully comin soon to political cartoons everywhere.
Thanx for the rare doom-scrollin solvequest, Mr. Ewbank dude. Nice job.
And primo write-up, Ms. Clare darlin. 4.5 Liverpool football stars.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
... and now, for the runt division entry ...
"One Runt, Indivisible" - 8x8 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
GAGA CHILD RUMOR... with the DELI EXEC??? That may be more interesting than whatever's going on with this theme!
ReplyDeleteAlvin and the CHIPMUNKS + SILLY STRING = HELL are a couple fitting crosses we get to enjoy in the center of the puzzle too.
My emojis are on TOOn BARs, if only for a brief moment, cleared up by A LOT OF wondering what A nOT OF meant.
ReplyDeleteHappily, the Z of ZOOM DATES led to BIZARRO because I had no idea on Addison RAE. Since Tik Tok is not on my radar, the fact that she is the 5th most followed individual on it has not brought her to my attention.
I agree with Clare that the "No" review of "Isn't It Romantic" is inspired.
Thanks, John Ewbank!
VOODOO MAGIC is ignorant fill. The phrase might be appropriate were the clue to leave out "Haiti and". The New Orleans practice might be called magic, but it bears little resemblance to Haitian Voudou (note the spelling). Voudou is a religion and has little to do with New Orleans.
ReplyDeleteAfter the first two theme answers, I asked myself, "Is there such a thing as a Circle of DOOM?" I thought DOOMSCROLLING was a great reveal. And - excellent bridging of the two words in the theme phrases. Overall, medium for me as well: tough start in the NW, couldn't come up with LORES, didn't know BIZARRO, and with regard to actress MIchelle, I've learned to tell myself, It's not YEOw! But then I still can't remember what it really is.
ReplyDeleteThanks to the commenters who've contributed more of the "No"-type reviews.
Nice write-up, Clare. I really have to try not to be intimidated with LORES when time & again it's LO-RES (gotta remember that - maybe). Didn't know IRS, BIZARRO & isn't VOODOO MAGIC redundant?
ReplyDeleteOkay Tuesday; not too many names for a nice change. The theme was a little thin but it will do.
ReplyDeleteSeveral typeovers: ANSWER before REVIEW for the musical with a question as a title, and TOSTADA before TACOPIE. I remember having a tostada (San Francisco, maybe?) and loving it.
The clue for OSLO is very apt. If you've ever been there and gone to the Munch Museum (it's pronounced "munk"), there are a LOT of different versions of The Scream!!!
I may or may not be old enough to know all the dated references in the puzzle, but my brother and I had the 45 (an ancient form of vinyl record) of the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley." We played it frequently, as the subject was quite adult and salacious for two young Catholic school kids, and nobody seemed to notice!
ReplyDeleteLike Keith above, I was predicting a revealer with MOOD, since DOOM was already in the grid (nicely hidden between two words, as Rex likes), and I had anticipated MOOD SWINGS and thought myself clever. So I was slightly disappointed not to anticipate correctly, but DOOM SCROLLS itself is a great answer—nice to see on the grid. I didn’t notice the precise scrolling of the letters when I was solving, so that’s a nice touch. But as Clare points out, that was the most interesting of the themers. Great write-up, Clare!
ReplyDeleteWith the Kudos to Yale and Yalies flying around, I suppose it DOES take a Harvard Grad to point out that GMT is no longer used, nor has it been for many years. To Harvard grads, at least, we now use UCT (universal coordinated time) or a European equivalent of the same to denote international time.
ReplyDeleteEveryone else uses UTC
DeleteYou are right!
DeleteIt's about time someone cleared that up. The constructor should be clocked for that error, or at least banned from TikTok.
DeleteI mean, GMT is still the official UK winter time measure, so it is def still used and is …just not on an international level in the same way where it has been replaced by UTC (since 1972). I would argue in Europe it is still widely used to refer to the time in UK though…I often see things written with reference to GMT at my work where we deal a lot with companies based in UK.
DeleteAlso - as GMT is the annual mean of the time each day when the Sun crosses the Prime Meridian at the Royal Observatory Greenwich, then I would also say this cluing of ”Prime Meridian hrs” is accurate
Meh puzzle for me. The one thing that stands out for me is the number of commenters who had trouble with LO-RES. I guess I had an advantage here, having worked for decades as a graphic artist/designer for a newspaper. In the early days, computerized page layout programs would slow right down if you were using hi-res images in the early stages so you would spec a LO-RES one for blocking out the design and then replace it with the hi-res version just before going to print. It was always so much fun when someone would forget to sub in the hi-res image and the paper would appear on the newsstand with some blurry piece of s**t on the front page.
ReplyDeleteHad a rough idea of the theme by 26A STORM DOOR but thought I was just dealing with some sort of sloppy anagram. Thankfully, the revealer sorta cleared that up.
68A GUAC is such an ugly word.
But the clue should have suggested a two=part answer. It didn't.
DeleteVery good Tuesday puzzle - not too many names, all gettable from the crosses. Some clever clues eg for PGATOUR . I too spell SLIER with a y. Nice write-up, Clare!
ReplyDeleteTIL the weight of every US bank note and it’s metric!
LORES stinks when you don’t know the city’s not spelled Saville… I even googles “loras” and got a related PC graphic result.
ReplyDeletere: RITA ORA - She will be co-hosting ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” with Ryan Seacrest from Times Square.
ReplyDeleteLORES did slow me down a bit. After I put it in from crosses, I looked at it and finally got it. If anyone was annoyed by it, it has appeared before and will appear again. I find amusing, not annoying, that I am still tricked by it!
ReplyDeleteI was also slowed down by what should have been a gimme RICHIE. Even had trouble remembering BTS for a bit!So self inflicted wounds made it a medium.
The themer shaded squares with the nonsense order of letters did look ugly. But for me, the revealer made up for it.
I thought Clare was a tad too critical.
Her reaction to TOM DOOLEY surprised me. Another entry reminding me I am old. Not criticizing but Clare clearly knows little about “traditional” folk music in that she was upset the song took a sympathetic attitude to a man who murdered his lover. As someone mentioned, old folk songs mostly take the man’s point of view and there are A LOT of songs like this. I am guessing that the killer was a Confederate vet ( in my view a traitor) helped him get a great deal sympathy among Southern white working class men who created and spread the song.
LORES did slow me down a bit. After I put it in from crosses, I looked at it and finally got it. If anyone was annoyed by it, it has appeared before and will appear again. I find amusing, not annoying, that I am still tricked by it!
ReplyDeleteI was also slowed down by what should have been a gimme RICHIE. Even had trouble remembering BTS for a bit!So self inflicted wounds made it a medium.
The themer shaded squares with the nonsense order of letters did look ugly. But for me, the revealer made up for it.
I thought Clare was a tad too critical.
Her reaction to TOM DOOLEY surprised me. Another entry reminding me I am old. Not criticizing but Clare clearly knows little about “traditional” folk music in that she was upset the song took a sympathetic attitude to a man who murdered his lover. As someone mentioned, old folk songs mostly take the man’s point of view and there are A LOT of songs like this. I am guessing that the killer was a Confederate vet ( in my view a traitor) helped him get a great deal sympathy among Southern white working class men who created and spread the song.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the write-up @Clare! I found this to be perfectly serviceable Tuesday fare. Like @Clare, there was nothing that particularly grabbed me but the theme worked and the revealer was fun. My favorite themer was ZOOMDATES, but there really wasn't a close second.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy the cool trivia - two neat little nuggets that I'm happy to walk away with today - 1D - the famously short review, along with 13D - no idea banks notes all weighed a gram - cool!
Thank you Clare as well for shedding light on LORES - this is not the first time I've stared at it in the face and needed to come here to have it explained.
Anyone start to tackle the NY Times puzzle section that came last week? I usually crack it open the day after Thanksgiving. With that - a very happy Thanksgiving to everyone here!
Tal como yo lo veo... me engañaron.
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle that raced past in a jiffy. I like the phrase DOOM SCROLLING and now that I have abandoned social media except this blog (which has a very niche doom) I am much happier not DOOMING.
I like VOODOO, but agree with the MAGIC being extra here.
Great writeup Clare.
Loved the Flintstones as a kid. I wonder how it holds up in 2025. TOM DOOLEY is a handy two-chord song for teaching how not to write a song. ZOOM DATES seems like a good way to break up ... "it's over" ... close laptop.
People: 10 {No}
Places: 4
Products: 11 {Noo}
Partials: 14 {Noooooo}
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 39 of 76 (53%) {🔔🔔 Wow, we're blowing the top of the Gunkapalooza records the last few days and this, wow, absolutely over the top for a mediocre theme. At least it was easy and basically cute.}
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: Events for swingers.
Uniclues:
1 Maintains a long distance relationship with the destroyer God... for good reason obviously.
2 One that says, "Mamma Mia is a good show."
3 One thinking maybe not everything was so simple.
1 ZOOM DATES SHIVA
2 BIZARRO REVIEW
3 WELL SORTA OCCAM
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Soccer mom logs off Facebook. ENDS IMP UPDATE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯