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Relative difficulty: Medium (solved Downs-only)
Theme answers:
- CHILL PILL (17A: "Remedy" for a riled-up person)
- FROZEN ACCOUNT (24A: Penalty for bank fraud)
- COOL CAT (40A: Hip person, in old slang)
- POLAR OPPOSITE (51A: Antithesis)
Nauru, officially the Republic of Nauru, formerly known as Pleasant Island, is an island country and microstate in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies within the Micronesia subregion of Oceania, with its nearest neighbour being Banaba (part of Kiribati) about 300 kilometres (190 mi) to the east.With an area of only 21 square kilometres (8.1 sq mi), Nauru is the third-smallest country in the world, larger than only Vatican City and Monaco, making it the smallest republic and island nation, as well as the smallest member state of the Commonwealth of Nations by both area and population. Its population of about 10,800 is the world's third-smallest (not including colonies or overseas territories). Nauru is a member of the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, and the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States.
Settled by Micronesians circa 1000 BC, Nauru was annexed and claimed as a colony by the German Empire in the late 19th century. After World War I, Nauru became a League of Nations mandate administered by Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. During World War II, Nauru was occupied by Japanese troops and was bypassed by the Allied advance across the Pacific. After the war ended, the country entered into United Nations trusteeship. Nauru gained its independence in 1968. At various points since 2001, it has accepted aid from the Australian Government in exchange for hosting the Nauru Regional Processing Centre, a controversial offshore Australian immigration detention facility. As a result of heavy dependence on Australia, some sources have identified Nauru as a client state of Australia.
Nauru is a phosphate-rock island with rich deposits near the surface, which allowed easy strip mining operations for over a century. However, this has seriously harmed the country's environment, causing it to suffer from what is often referred to as the "resource curse". The phosphate was exhausted in the 1990s, and the remaining reserves are not economically viable for extraction. A trust established to manage the island's accumulated mining wealth, set up for the day the reserves would be exhausted, has diminished in value. To earn income, Nauru briefly became a tax haven and illegal money laundering centre.
As a Downs-only experience, this wasn't too tough, except in the NE, where I got an extremely small country next to an actress I have never heard of (10D: Actress Noblezada of "Hadestown" = EVA). Not used to seeing actresses I've never heard of On A Monday, but ... I guess it happens. Shrug. Bummer to get shut out by what ends up being just another piece of crosswordese, but luckily I could infer all the letters of EVA with relative ease—that first letter was a total guess, but EVA seemed much more likely than IVA (a name that lives at the front of my mind because I've read The Maltese Falcon a million times, but one that is far less common than EVA irl, and in the grid). As for NAURU ... bah. Just couldn't dredge it up very easily. Had the terminal "U" but the only thing that came to mind was MACAU, which is a special administrative region in China, not a proper country. But once I got DIG IN and SLEPT into that corner, MACAU came out, and with MAGIC ACT in place, I could see GAUGE, and somehow that "U" jogged NAURU loose in my brain. No other part of the grid gave me any real trouble. It took a lot of inferred crosses for me to see MAINFRAME, but it often takes a lot of inferred crosses to see long Downs when you're solving Downs-only. Nothing unusual there.
Bullets:
- 14A: Ingredient in some smoothie bowls (ACAI) — so glad I didn't read the Across clues, because wtaf is a "smoothie bowl"??? I know what a smoothie is and I have at least heard of an ACAI bowl, but a "smoothie bowl." LOL at the phrase "some smoothie bowls," like I've been encountering them all my life and know them by subsets. Apparently this is some social-media-driven trend—eating with a spoon what you formerly just drank with a straw? Mkay. Enjoy. I'm gonna stick with oatmeal or granola with fruit, yogurt, nuts ... unblendered, thanks. I looked up "smoothie" bowls and half the descriptions feel like they were written by A.I. Are we sure "smoothie bowls" aren't actually an A.I. hallucination. Here is a representative description. Hopefully you see what I mean.
S
moothie bowls are trendy worldwide, providing both nutrition, the possibility to enjoy them, and endless creativity.- 59A: "You should come foraging with me, because I'm a ___" (bad pun) (FUNGI) — again, thank god I wasn't reading the Across clues. "You should come foraging with me," that's your premise / come-on line? No one who talks like this is, in fact, a fun guy. Also, the pun sucks on the page because FUNGI is a plural. Only guys named Gus may use this pun. "I'm a FUNGUS!" Sure you are...
- 69A: Sends an eggplant emoji, say (SEXTS) — no. stop. this is corny. I get that eggplant emoji means "dick" but I thought SEXTS were supposed to be actually sexy. Is anyone getting horny from looking at an eggplant emoji? That might make someone laugh, but I have trouble imagining it would turn anyone on. I would love to retire the word "SEXT/S" in general, as it moved from novel to overused long ago, but once OOXTEPLERNON (the god of short bad fill) gets a new and useful letter combination in his maw, it's hard to get him to let go.
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Harder than most Mondays. Never heard of a GRACENOTE, and CAGES didn't seem right. Didn't know MASA either, but trial-and-error did the trick.
ReplyDeleteI love puns, but FUNGI might be over the top (under the bottom?)
Wow Rex, picky, picky, picky. Maybe consider some sort of a CHILL PILL when it comes to the themes. This is CrossWorld after all. It’s not surprising that what you do for a living revolves around analysis of the written word and language in general.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if DEWY is a term that some people really use (other than to describe your lawn some mornings) - it looks kind of uncomfortable joining us on a Monday. And hopefully a fair number of us will recognize and welcome NAURU to our Monday soirée, lest it find itself sitting alone in a corner along with DEWY feeling out of place.
Personally, I could do without Eggplant emojis (and emoji’s in general - what a dumb concept).
Yes, people use DEWY as in dewy-eyed.
DeleteDewy skin is a very big thing right now. Instead of a matte finish, people want to look moisturized and glowing (but somehow not oily).
DeleteThere is a wonderful old Bette Davis movie called the star. In it she’s an aging actress and a new young fresh thing is taking her place. One of her lines is “just where do I get that fresh Dewey quality?”
DeleteI love smoothie bowls, they are usually thicker than smoothies almost sherbet- like
ReplyDeleteNew to me 27A, I always thought of peruse as 'light', like browse ...
ReplyDeleteApparently I have been misinterpreting that for like the last 50 years as well !
DeleteSame here! Can’t believe I thought that word meant it’s complete opposite for 40 years.
Delete@Lewis shed some additional light on the great PERUSE mystery below. We’ll have to pay more attention to context going forward.
DeleteMe three! I entered the word reluctantly. Now I need to go look it up for confirmation!
DeleteI’m with you guys on this, grew up on the “light” meaning. But my experience in crosswords is that the heavier meaning predominates. If only we had Wiliam Safire around to consult, but recently both @Rex and @Lewis have been upping their game on wordsmithing.
DeleteEasy Ed and others.
DeleteBoth meanings are correct.
Peruse is used both ways it is one of the classic words that have opposite meanings. Like sanction The last time I saw it in the Times puzzle they used the light reading sense. Actually I think that is more common.
Up early, and I should make this quick. Solving Downs Only, had some trouble in the SE (RIFF, GRACE NOTE), and I finally did cheat there, alas. I did enjoy the revealer COLD FRONT, which is perhaps the best thing in the puzzle, although I write from a place of ignorance since I, er, ignored the Across clues.
ReplyDeleteRex wondered about the origin of "stick out like a sore thumb". It all seems to be a bit speculative. But if you had a sore thumb, say for example if you whacked it hard with a hammer, then you might hold it out away from the rest of the hand, in which case it would stick out. Anyone who cursorily googles for an answer will find out that it seems to have emerged in US newspapers mid to late 19th century, but became popularized in the Perry Mason series of novels by Erle Stanley Gardner. Yada yada yada. (With Google, everyone can know the same things as anyone else, and seem as smart as anyone else, but only superficially. Lord help us with AI. It's an absolute pestilence because so much of it is unreliable [well, that's one aspect of it; there are many others], and you do realize, don't you, that the large LLMs only simulate intelligence -- fundamentally they don't understand what they are talking about. Rant over.)
It did occur to me that your thumb would be pretty sore, and a good angry red probably, if you were afflicted with gout in that joint. (The sources I saw regarding the sore thumb question don't mention gout -- I came up with that on my own.) Typically, gout presents in the big toe, but other joints can be affected. For some reason I thought gout was more a thing of the past than of today, but I could be wrong. What is known is that alcohol abuse is a major contributing factor, and boy howdy Americans consumed a great deal of alcohol in the 19th century. So perhaps sore thumbs were an unremarkable thing when the phrase appeared in newspapers back then? Who the hell knows. I don't.
And with that, I should get a start on my day. Have a good one!
Understanding what one is talking about seems to me to be too demanding a standard. Who can know that anyone else understands what he or she is talking about? I think that was Turing's point, more or less.
Delete@jberg Well, there are clues, and queries that can be used to probe. In my own field (mathematics), LLMs may accurately spit back definitions, but often get things spectacularly wrong in attempting to apply them. The same thing happens with students as well, and we would not hesitate to say in that situation that the student doesn't understand what he is talking about. And I think Turing would acknowledge that without hesitation. I am referring to that sort of thing when I say that LLMs frequently and spectacularly fail even routine probes or "Turing tests", with AI as it is today -- I wasn't making any claims on how things might be in the future.
DeleteAfter last week I can vouch for the fact that AI recipes are hallucinations.
DeletePopped down Glissando from just the G on 36D, which extended my usual Monday time by a minute or two.
ReplyDeleteGlen Laker, you’re not alone. Let’s make that downward glissando a sad trombone sound—wah, wah, wah.
DeleteSmoothie bowls are a thing, Rex
ReplyDeleteBut should they be
DeleteGood laugh this morning Rex. Thanks for starting off the week with a grin.
ReplyDeleteI must try some smoothie bowls since, definitionally, I will have "the possibility to enjoy them."
ReplyDeleteHigh praise indeed.
DeleteWas anyone else bothered by including both OIL DRUM and OILER? On the other hand, I liked seeing PADS (as clued) and EDIT beside each other.
ReplyDeleteYeah, the double OIL definitely jumped out at me.
DeleteI don't think OIL DRUM was well clued, either. I'm pretty sure that oil is not shipped here from the Mideast in drums when it is so much easier to just pump it into a tanker.
DeleteAgreed. Seem like a bit of a violation of crossword "rules".
DeleteJoePop
DeleteIf there are rules against dupes elsewhere, Shortz doesn’t follow them. The only dupe prohibited is the same word in the clue and answer. Otherwise there are dupes all the time. So much that Rex only complains when they are “egregious “ his word. Personally,, dupes don’t bother me.
Surprised Rex didn’t mention the OILDRUM / OILER dupe
ReplyDeleteI was really surprised if this theme has not been done several times. But also, I'm surprised it was accepted now. I feel like 'front only' themes are now frowned upon - you need an extra twist.
ReplyDeleteI actually like this theme type, though. I wish NYT ran more of them.
Why are foragers trustworthy? They have good morels.
Good one Kitshef!
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteCOOL puz. (You knew I couldn't pass that up!)
Liked it. Simple, done with EASE. No qualms with the fill.
Not verbose this morning, so that's all you get. Har.
Have a great Monday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I liked seeing PERUSE, a word with two contrary meanings – a contronym – sharing the box with POLAR OPPOSITE.
ReplyDeletePERUSE is not alone in our magnificent quirky language. Other words of the same ilk are “garnish” (add or withhold), “sanction” (approval or penalty), and “seed” (remove or add seeds).
There was more to like in the box as well. A watery subtheme, with PIER, OAR, DEWY, a backward TIDE, and wannabe SERF. CAT crossing ACT. Long-O enders to counter the icy starters – ECHO, MEMO, ALSO, ECO, ZERO. And PADS, combined with (COOL) CAT, reminded me of TOE BEANS, a lovely answer from Hanna’s last puzzle.
FUNGI. My latest food-love discovery – mushroom jerky. It’s a thing. I found it at our farmer’s market, and it’s yummy and satisfying to the core, at least to me. Do you like savory, spicy, and GNAW-able? Mushroom jerky.
Thank you, Hannah, for all these day-lifting pings!
And the verb "to table", which here in US means put off for later, and in the UK means to address immediately!
DeleteYes, the wonderful world of contranyms! I'll add "cleave" to that (it can mean "stick/adhere [to]", and it can also mean "split away [from]").
DeleteSpeaking of POLAR OPPOSITE: what's the plural of antipode? Antipodepodes? Kidding.
I’ll chime in with “trim” which can mean remove (trim the hedges) unless (usually) you are doing it to your Christmas tree.
DeleteAnother nice feature, IMO, is the crossing 3-letter anagrams, OAR and ORA.
DeleteCleave.
DeleteYes I am confused about peruse but not as puzzled as I am about the NYC choice for Mayor.
DeleteThanks for this, Lewis. I was with Anon of 6:55 with thinking I must have been using/interpreting the word PERUSE incorrectly all these years—now I learn that I was using one of multiple contradictory definitions. Such a weird language we speak!
DeleteI was recently surprised to learn I’d been using “nonplussed” incorrectly my whole life.
Delete@Anon 12:11PM. The idea that "nonplussed" means something like unperturbed has gained ground over the decades, but the French non plus (no more) may aid in recovering the original meaning. No more! I can't take any more cognitive dissonance! Thus expressing a state of bewilderment.
DeleteMy five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Amazon wrapper (3)
2. Prepared statement? (2)(5)
3. Drive around the office (4)(5)
4. Volume of tourists (6)(5)
5. Musical production that might include grunts, groans, thwops, snorts and barks (9)
BOA
I'M READY
WORK ETHIC
TRAVEL GUIDE
WHALESONG
My favorite encore clues from last week:
Delete[Plant eater] (5)(7)
[Take it back!] (4)(7)
VENUS FLYTRAP
TIME MACHINE
In the right hands, an eggplant emoji can be very effective in a sexting exchange. 😉
ReplyDeleteThis is the first paragraph of the late Bart Giamatti's "The Green Fields of the Mind" on baseball. The "chill rains" made it pop into my head today.
ReplyDeleteIt breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. You count on it, rely on it to buffer the passage of time, to keep the memory of sunshine and high skies alive, and then just when the days are all twilight, when you need it most, it stops. Today, October 2, a Sunday of rain and broken branches and leaf-clogged drains and slick streets, it stopped, and summer was gone.
One of my favorite pieces of baseball writing--see also anything by Roger Angell. Thanks for posting.
DeleteYes, Roger Angell, for sure. I heard Giamatti read his essay aloud on the radio once, so when I read it I hear his voice. Angell made it to 101, but Giamatti left us when he was only 51. A terrible loss.
DeleteFrom Dewy Dreams
ReplyDeleteFrom dewy dreams, my soul, arise,
From love's deep slumber and from death,
For lo! the trees are full of sighs
Whose leaves the morn admonisheth.
Eastward the gradual dawn prevails
Where softly-burning fires appear,
Making to tremble all those veils
Of grey and golden gossamer.
While sweetly, gently, secretly,
The flowery bells of morn are stirred
And the wise choirs of faery
Begin (innumerous!) to be heard.
Thank you for sharing this lovely poem!
DeleteWith temperatures about to plummet here (COLD FRONT indeed), this seems timely. Liked that the first words of the theme answers don’t really mean COLD in context, and had none of the problems with CHILL that @Rex mentions. Enjoyed COOL CAT sitting pretty dead center. Found ZERO crossing FROZEN happily apropos. I thought it was slick to include both OILDRUM and OILER, and the ECHO and ECO combination reverberated.
ReplyDeleteI don’t know about smoothie bowls, but I’d like to try one right now – haven’t had breakfast yet. Always fun to see contronyms like PERUSE. Who knew the KNEE was the biggest joint in the body – I would have guessed hip. Being large and complex, no wonder KNEEs have all the problems they do. On that note, liked KNEE crossing PACKS – ice PACKS, that is (hey, that’s almost another themer).
Enjoyable Monday offering, Hannah Binney – thanks!
I asked Search Assist if the KNEE joint was bigger than the hip joint and got this internally contradictory answer:
Delete"No, the knee joint is not bigger than the hip joint; the knee is the largest joint in the body, but the hip joint is also significant in size and function. The knee connects the thigh bone to the shin bone, while the hip joint connects the thigh bone to the pelvis."
Have to disagree with Rex on this one. Good Monday puzz. And I learned about contranyms!
ReplyDeleteSEXTS was 69 across. Nice.
ReplyDeleteOh, I also enjoyed [Preceder of skip and jump], which mightily misdirected me, where I was looking for a word that preceded "skip" and also preceded "jump". Mwah!
ReplyDeleteI sure do love when my food choices offer me the possibility to enjoy them...
ReplyDeleteI also often eat smoothies with a spoon because I made them too thick and didn't have room to add a bunch more liquid to get the right consistency. But I do it out of a cup, not a bowl, because I am old and almost never on trend.
The thing about the pun is it would be said the other way around, "because I'm a fun guy" not "a fungi."
ReplyDeleteBut the polka clue is what got me thinking. First of all, are polkas really "classic?" I think Chopin may have written some, which fits if you define "classic" broadly. Anyway, I didn't know Weird Al was involved with them. When I was growing up in the 1950s there was a popular polka band called "Frankie Yankovic and the Yanks," so when Weird Al came along I always wondered if they were related. Search assist says they are not, but did collaborate.
First thought for 24A, penalty for bank fraud, was "presidential pardon"
ReplyDeleteThe presidential pardon isn't the penalty; it's the reward.
DeleteAnonymous 9:27 AM
DeletePresidential pardon
Good one!
I've been seeing this kind of puzzle quite a lot in the LA Times, and I like them and I liked this one, so there. Also it seems to me that CHILL is functioning as an adjective here. What kind of PILL is it? A CHILL PILL. Works for me.
ReplyDeleteVery smooth solve here, the only snag being the EVA (who?) crossing NAURU (where?) in the NE. Liked the inclusion of both RIFF and GRACENOTE as Christmas is coming which means lots of music for me. Don't know about M&A, but my moo-cow of the day has to be "Split___soup".
What could that be?
I thought this was a perfectly fine Monday, HB. Have we Had Better ones? Probably, but let's not let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Thanks for all the fun.
Some combinations in today's grid:
ReplyDeleteKNEE and PADS
RIP and MENDS
SLEPT and PRONE
ECO and ECHO
HOP and LEAP
I thought this was suitably entertaining for a Monday puzzle and themers/revealer was clever. It’s Rex’s job to point out things like “chill” being an “outlier” but I’m not sure I agree (chill air) or really care about that.
ReplyDeleteI always like puzzles where I learn something and today I learned about MASA and the fact that the maize is “nixtalized” which actually makes it healthier. I also learned that the KNEE joint is larger than the hip…due to the fact that the KNEE is a hinge joint and the hip is a ball and socket. There was a neat little illustration that pulled up that showed the actual “joint” part in red and voilá it seems very clear.
I would grant 4 stars and I think @Rex was way too rough on CHILL. I see nothing wrong with it. All of the clues for the "COLD" answers have re-purposed meanings.
ReplyDeleteOh the travails of downs-only solving! I can see you rolling your eyes. But an 8 square mile country in the middle of the Pacific right beside some actress I’ve never heard of in a show I’ve never heard of. I can hear you snickering and whispering “He should have done it the way God intended.” But I reviewed the puzzle after I miraculously completed it (actually more grunt work than miracle) and I agree, it would have been simpler if I had the across clues, but I still would have ended up with NAURU! I know the constructor needed a 5 letter word ending in U at 11D, but how about “Anjou” or “adieu” or … there must be more.
ReplyDeleteAnd EVA could have been any 3 letter actress. Ana, Ava, Ida, Ina, even good old Uta. But I guessed EVA because I thought it might give me a real word, AVAIL, at 16A. Got lucky there. Still a lot of clawing and scratching needed to finish that NE corner.
No real complaints about the rest of the grid. Seemed about normal for a Monday. I liked GRACE NOTE and the themers. But NAURU, sheesh!
Wow, a fun puzzle and one of the most educational blogs ever.
ReplyDeleteI'm actually surprised this puzzle got such a high rating. The theme was fine for a Monday - but the fill? And some of the clues? EVA who? A theater actor for a Monday? There are much more gettable Monday EVAs. Especially right next to Nauru.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Rex didn't catch the double Oil: OILDRUM & OILER.
And this might only be me but I've never heard of MASA - and crossing GRACENOTE took me a minute.
A Mai Tai is always better if you add some OILDRUM. Just a dash of Quaker State in your Bacardi. Mwah!
ReplyDelete@Rex calls the SW corner "conspicuously unimaginative " but AHA RATED IRENE SEXTS definitely get my imagination boiling.
I only read very lightly if I'm paying PERUSE. Nice how PERUSE is a Polar aPPOSITE in this context.
My family got into a weird form of POLKA involving numerology, pentacles, cauldrons and the like. Finally, I put my foot down and said "We shouldn't let POLKA haunt us." End of story.
Like this puzzle a good bit. Thanks, Hannah Binney.
I liked it. Easy except for NAURU but a fun Monday. I was surprised seeing OIL twice but no biggie.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Hannah. And thank you Rex for the heads-up on Eli on Jeopardy.
Tough for me. EVA was a WOE and while I know NAURU the clue was no help, so that was a tough corner.
ReplyDeleteAlso ASLAN, IRENE, RHEA, MASA, POLKA…might be tough for new solvers.
I disagree with @Rex on this one, the grid was very smooth with clever/fun theme answers (I have no problem with CHILL), I liked it a bunch!
Croce Solvers. - Croce’s Freestyle #1066 was a solid medium Croce for me with a fun center stack. Good luck!
Croce 1066 was unusual in that ten out of the first 15 words I filled in were wrong, but once I actually got a few correct words in it loosened up and wound up at medium-easy.
DeleteRita Ora again! And NAURU does not seem like a Monday puzzle word. Still, it's an appropriate puzzle for December 1, when we are expecting several inches of snow in the Northeast. I didn't mind it.
ReplyDeleteHardly a glacial solvequest, at our igloo -- as is a common MonPuz experience.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea for a puztheme revealer.
This crafty constructioneer has so far authored up 3 MonPuzs. All three puzthemes were first/last word driven. In one case, both first and last words had themey connections.
staff weeject picks: Kinda partial to both LAP and OAR, as they cross LEAP and ORA.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: First of all, a solid 4-moo ratin to @pabloinnh's {Split ___ soup} = PEA clue.
Howsomevers, I gotta go with, as a personal fave: {George who played Sulu on "Star Trek"} = TAKEI.
And honrable mention to: {Performance in which a lady might be sawed in half} = MAGICACT.
FUNGI sure went all out, for best dad-joke clue, btw.
Thanx for the icy-cool fun, Ms. Binney darlin. U R a FunGal.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
... and now, for a polar opposite example of moo-cow clues ...
"Without a Clue" - 8x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Eli Manning is not an ex-quarterback, he's a quarterback who is an ex-Giant
ReplyDeleteI'll tell ya what.........If your P**** looks like an eggplant, you're never getting laid. (I hope this isn't too vulgar for the forum)
ReplyDeleteI liked this one a lot - a neat and tidy theme, and with the "COLD" synonyms all having non-temperature-related meanings in the theme answers. And for me a GRACE NOTE was the parallel CHARADES and MAGIC ACT. But I do see the point that for newer solvers there are stumbling blocks - in the case of my spouse those would include NAURU, EVA, ASLAN, TAKEI, ACAI, RHEA, MASA, IRENE....
ReplyDelete@Rex's criticism of CHILL made me curious about its use as an adjective, so I checked in the OED for citations. First adjectival use related to temperature in 1540 ("chill storms"), to repressed feeling in 1633 ("my chill breast"), as a term of approval in 1983 ("a chill outfit"). The most recent citation is from 2009, so perhaps it is losing its adjectival standing. More's the pity, when you have usages like this:
"Chill Virgins redden into flame." From Samuel Garth's "The Dispensary, a Poem," 1699
I acknowledge that this is somewhat niche, but Eva Noblezada is worth knowing - she played the role of Kim in the London revival of Miss Saigon and again when it came to Broadway. She originated the role of Euridyce in Hadestown in the original London production and the Original Broadway production (and IRL married her Orpheus, which, if you know the myth of Orpheus and Euridyce, is particularly satisfying.) Also originated the role of Daisy Buchanan in the Great Gatsby. Hadestown has been a massive contemporary Broadway hit - it’s been on Broadway for six years now.
ReplyDeleteThe epitome of a 2.5-star puzzle for me. Relatively easy for a Monday (a.k.a. almost academic), a few clues I liked, an absolute nothingburger of a theme, no clues or answers that offended me. I love NAURU, and while I couldn't have necessarily told you it was the third-smallest country, I wrote it in immediately because it's five letters and smaller than PALAU.
ReplyDeleteLike Rex and Les and others I solved down clues only; unlike them I finished with a big error. GRACE NOTE is not a phrase I know, and I had ELAN for 37 down "Effortlessness", so I looked at -----NOTE and the best I could do was SATIE NOTE. I put it in and thought: surely not, and on a Monday!? But it made for mostly plausible crosses: CASES, ALP, MTAA (?), and TRAINS. Oh well, it was fun anyway.
ReplyDeleteThis is an apt puzzle for this morning as we are right now getting our very first snowfall. It's melting as it hits the road -- which is always nice -- but not the sidewalk... why? Shoveling time!
I understand the whole "chill as an adjective is correct" discussion but that didn't stop me, when post-solve I went to look at the FRONTs and when I got to CHILL, I really wanted CHILLy instead, as Rex suggests.
ReplyDeleteI was sure that 9A would be darnS. What other holes do crosswords have besides those in socks? :-)
Thanks, Hannah Binney!
Downs-only solve foiled by GRACE NOTE in the SE. Never heard of that. What is that. I’ll go google it now.
ReplyDelete