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One of a trio encountered by Ricitos de Oro/ WED 12-3-25 / Drug featured in "How to Change Your Mind" / Award with a "Best Record-Breaking Performance" category
Wednesday, December 3, 2025
Constructor: Victor Barocas
Relative difficulty: Hard (14:40, but felt like longer)
THEME: YODA — Wise counselor of sci-fi who might not be great at karaoke?
Songs are re-parsed as though Yoda is saying them
Theme answers:
Word of the Day: Tamiami Trail (Home to the Tamiami Trail, for FLA) —
- [1967 hit by the Who, per 68-Across] for FOR MILES I CAN SEE
- Supposed to be "I Can See for Miles"
- [1978 song by Gloria Gaynor, per 68-Across] for SURVIVE I WILL
- Supposed to be "I Will Survive"
- [2008 hit by Katy Perry, per 68-Across] for A GIRL I KISSED
- Supposed to be "I Kissed a Girl"
- [1973 Bob Marley song covered by Eric Clapton, per 68-Across] for THE SHERIFF I SHOT
- Supposed to be "I Shot the Sheriff"
Word of the Day: Tamiami Trail (Home to the Tamiami Trail, for FLA) —
The Tamiami Trail is the southernmost 284 miles (457 km) of U.S. Highway 41 (US 41) from State Road 60 (SR 60) in Tampa to US 1 in Miami. A portion of the road is officially State Road 90 (SR 90), but not signposted as such.
• • •
This is a type of theme that not all outlets will run because it has what constructors call "nonsense in the grid." That is, A GIRL I KISSED doesn't mean anything. So you're not trying to figure out what links a couple of known phrases together, you're trying to figure out why something you should recognize is spelled in a weird way.
The puzzle worked for me because 1) I knew most of the songs (all but the first), and 2) I know how Yoda speaks. But if either of those things are not true, I think the puzzle becomes way less enjoyable. For example, at a certain point I had _ URV _ V etc for the Gloria Gaynor clue. I knew "I Will Survive" was going to come into play, I just couldn't quite figure out how. If you didn't know the song at all, there's no "Ohhhh" moment, just prolonged confusion.
I jumped down to the revealer (68-Across) a couple of times, but it took me a while to clock what was happening because I am so removed from sci-fi that I just assumed I wouldn't know what the puzzle was talking about. (Plus, I had "arose" instead of STOOD for a bit, leaving me to think that the character was spelled _ _ E _.)
The other thing that made this puzzle tough for me was the trivia. Sheesh!! SO much! Once I realize there's a lot of trivia in the grid, I start doubting myself throughout. For example, I read [Jean-Paul Sartre's "___ Chemins de la Liberté"]-- French, don't know it. Then I read [Yours, in French]-- once again, French, so I don't know it. Then I filled in "dab" for [Bit of ink]. This left me with EX _ D for [Kind of strategy] and I just figured it was some Latin term that I also didn't know! (In fact, I eventually realized I needed TAT and EXIT. So simple!)
OLEO, PEDS, PRELL, OSO, ATEN, ASA as clued (give me Asa Butterfield please!), ATRA, and BENJI were all also super tough for me. I wonder if some of you readers would consider these to be unfortunate fill that is nevertheless easy to you because you have memorized it after years of solving-- I'm not quite there yet, though, and was dancing around blank squares for ages and ages.
 |
| Respectfully, I have never seen or heard of this dog in my whole life |
Bullets:
- [Echo speaker] for ALEXA — This took me ages, I wanted something with Greek mythology
- [Cause for a miner celebration?] for LODE — This wordplay had me spiraling as I considered capitalism. Is the LODE exciting for the workers in the mine or the owners of the mine? The owner is probably not working as a miner, right? And do the workers get any type of bonus or profit sharing if they discover something good?? Hmm...
- [One of a trio encountered by Ricitos de Oro] for OSO — The answer is "bear" in Spanish, and "Ricitos de Oro" is a translation of Goldilocks. (We can break it down further-- "rizos" means "curls" and when you add a diminutive "-ito" it becomes cutesy; "oro" means "gold," which you probably know from other puzzles.) Spanish clues are usually a breeze for me, but this was totally new trivia! Gendered stuff throws me off; I'd expect Goldilocks' Spanish name to end with a feminine A, but since the word "rizo" is masculine, it ends up ending with an O.
- [Greeting among the lei community?] for ALOHA — I don't understand why this has a question mark. Is "lei community" a known phrase that is meant to misdirect?
- ["Slavonic Dances" composer] for DVORAK — I do not know this composer. I am a software engineer, and people who are concerned about how their fingers will fare after typing all day every day have proposed a different (more efficient) arrangement of letters on the keyboard. The one we all use is named for the top row, QWERTY. The proposed one is named for its inventor, who is not the composer, but has the same name: DVORAK.
P.S. I wrote a book of puzzles! It's fifty-six all-new (aka, not reprints of my Vulture puzzles) themeless 10x10 puzzles, and they're supposed to be pretty easy. It just came out yesterday, but I've been working on it since 2024. I'm so excited and proud, and if you're looking for an activity, maybe you could buy one? You can order online here, but it's also available in most Barnes&Nobles.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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142 comments:
I think 'lei community' is a play on 'lay community'.
Easy. I caught the theme at Gloria Gaynor, filled in YODA at the bottom, and it was very whooshy after that.
No costly erasures and LENS was it for WOEs. I knew all the songs, plus all the stuff that @Malaika had problems with I knew because “years of solving”.
Clever and amusing, liked it a bunch.
Really liked this puzzle a lot (a ton/ lots) and was hoping to see what our fearless leader thought of it.
Everything fell into place once realized I that I Shot The Sheriff fit in the grid but was somehow ‘wrong’.
Theme cute, fill really awful in parts. ***
Never got the theme (didn't know how Yoda speaks) but finished it with only two lookups to confirm entries. I also had to change "bolder" to BALDER at the end. Happy to finish a puzzle I didn't particularly care for.
Yeah, I guess this one plays pretty old! I'm 63, and this was right in my wheelhouse. 9:50 for me, so that's easy for a Wednesday. I know the WHO song, and once I had "FORMILES" in the front, I could kinda see what was happening--went right down and filled in YODA and I was off. So that went by pretty quickly. BENJI is also well known to me, though it took a few crosses to bring him to mind. Thanks for the write up, Malaika, and for your constructing work! I want to try my hand at a puzzle sometime soon.... I have my themers all figured out. And may I recommend Dvorak's New World Symphony?? Terrific piece of music. Thank you, Victor, for helping me see and hear a little of YODA in my mind this morning! : )
I was puzzled at first by the "Hard," but for me too this felt like it took longer than it did. I guessed the theme almost immediately, which helped, but some of the fill left me scrambling. I feel like "PRELL" should be clued as "Shampoo you can't believe still exists."
Very easy. Solved without reading the theme clues. No overwrites or WOEs. But I'm of an age where I recognized most of the references.
I agree with you, Malaika, about "unfortunate fill that is nevertheless easy to you because you have memorized it after years of solving." There's a lot of that out there in Crossworld.
Well, Malaika, in many puzzles there are answers I don’t know — sports figures or teams, characters in video games, ad slogan words, brand names generally, currencies in countries I’ve never visited, etc. This is what crosses are for. I’m sad you haven’t heard of Dvorak though. Go listen to the New World Symphony, I think it might sound familiar.
Well, I for one don’t know how YODA speaks, nor do I know the names of any Katy Perry songs, or the composer (or the Greek alphabet for that matter).
I don’t know why Will S. got excited about this theme, I do know that it didn’t do much for me. I obviously would vote for no “nonsense in the grid” in a heartbeat, but mine isn’t the vote that counts.
I think I finished with one cheat on the DVORAK dude, which isn’t bad considering the PPP theme and the preponderance of ugly fill. Now I’m off to find more friendly confines at other outlets.
Kind of icky to think that Prell, once a market leader with Proctor and Gamble represented by the "Prell Girl," has met the fate of many of these older brands, with the name and formula sold off to some niche company - in this case, to Scott's Liquid Gold, Inc., a company known for its the manufacture and marketing of a wood restoring product. Bringing a shine to your wood furniture and your hair, it seems.
Fitting that WILLIAM is wordplay-lover Mr. Shortz's first name in both English and Yodish.
Not so much "years of solving" as "years of existing". For example, I Can See for Miles was taught in music class for me, as a example of expression in drumming.
Here's the Tuesday-level puzzle that should have run yesterday. Or better yet, never. No, that's too harsh. For what it is, this was well-executed. I've heard of all the themers, and it has some smart fill. I just don't like the theme, particularly. So ... the opposite of Rex's take.
LOL
I found this puzzle to be fun and fairly easy. Only after reading Malaika’s post did I realize the reason: I’m pretty dang old. Some puzzles skew old, others skew young, that’s probably the way it should be. Sooner or later, there’s something for everyone.
OK Malaika, I’ll reveal my geezerdom: I’m gobsmacked that anyone would know what the DVORAK keyboard is without knowing the New World Symphony. Just a reminder that we all have our strengths and weaknesses.
And congratulations on the book publication!!!
Did Will Shortz get excited by the theme? Where does it say that? I really don't know how things get decided over there, or what his precise involvement is.
Hey All !
*First, side note - Congrats Malaika on your Puzzle book! Could you e-mail me at roomonster@hotmail.com to let me know who you went through? I've been thinking of putting a puz book together myself. Rex, or any Mods, could you get this to @Malaika?*
The ole YODA-speak. Funny how fans thought this was OK, but when Jar Jar Binks speaks, people hate it! Sucks, Jar Jar Binks does. 😁
Liked the puz for the reversing YODAness. Victor found four rings that have the "I" start, safe way to play it. All well known songs, although the first one is slightly older/less common.
Fill good. Just a Z from the Pangram. Nothing too terrible at first glance. Some inspired fill in the center.
Hope y'all have a great Wednesday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Extremely easy for those of us over 60, which is occasionally nice
Wow, I had RP pegged for 4 stars; far less bothered by the fill and knew many of the answers that gave Malaika fits. A "your mileage may vary" situation.
Structurally, I liked that all four songs fit symmetrically (in pairs), all contained "I" in their titles, and the secret decoder ring answer, modest 4-letter YODA, was the last across entry. Bravo!
I wondered how BENJI would play for younger solvers. I was 7 when the original movie came out and loved it, so it was an instant get for me, but it didn’t have much long lasting impact on the culture.
I always find it amusing when they give you a clue for the Latin motto of a state. Like, "Oh sure, I have the motto of Kansas right on the tip of my tongue." The only way to get these is by the crosses.
Fun fact, QWERTY keyboards were invented so common letters were separated from each other to keep keys from jamming. The Dvorak layout is vastly superior and, because it's designed for efficiency, improved my typing speed from 90wpm to 120wpm! But I am "fluent" in both because QWERTY is the default... sigh. Also I'm pretty sure the two were related albeit distantly.
This was pretty easy for me, knew all the songs except for Katie Perry’s and YODA was a gimme. Btw, Malaika, I think original (old) YODA is just as adorable as Baby Yoda, just in a different way!
Several of the things that Malaika calls “trivia” are simply things that a lot of people know from living in this culture for awhile, like PRELL shampoo, ATRA, and BENJI the dog.
Antonin DVORAK is an extremely well-known composer. But, the proposed new keyboard arrangement called DVORAK is an interesting piece of trivia that I like knowing about. However, if the qwerty keyboard becomes a thing of the past, I’ll be toast, since my fingers know it with no thought involved. I just googled the DVORAK keyboard, it was invented in 1936 by another guy named DVORAK.
I really enjoyed the theme, though I agree on the commentary about junk fill (I’m still developing my crosswordese vocab, so some came easy and some didn’t). The first full themer I put together was FOR MILES I CAN SEE, a (variant of a) song I do not know, and I saw the YODA revealer, so I assumed that that was in fact the title and the theme involved finding songs that already had YODA-speak in the title. As such, the theme was whatevs, and I figured I’d end up being able to piece song titles together even if I didn’t know them by making them comprehensible, as I did with the first one. Nothing came to me for Gloria Gaynor, and I assumed nothing would when I got to Katy Perry, but as the crosses slowly emerged, that was where the theme came together when it turned out to be the YODA-speak inversion of the one song of hers I know. A delightful rush of “Oooooooooooh, that’s what’s going on!” and a quick trip back up to see I knew the Gaynor song as well.
That to say, I found the theme to be a delight, more so because I thought I had already figured it out on a shrug-worthy level and had an extra rush when I realized there was an extra layer of obscurity going on. And really, imagining YODA singing A GIRL I KISSED at a karaoke bar is what I needed on my Wednesday morning. So yes to any complaints about fill, but I really enjoyed the theme quite a bit.
There’s a hilarious review by Anthony Lane of one of the Star Wars movies from some years ago. It contains this observation of Yoda’s speech: “Also, while we’re here, what’s with the screwy syntax? Deepest mind in the galaxy, apparently, and you still express yourself like a day-tripper with a dog-eared phrase book. ‘I hope right you are.’ Break me a fucking give.”
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2005/05/23/space-case
I loved the theme (despite never having seen "Star Wars"), but Malaika's "nonsense" comment made perfect sense; you have to know a specific piece of pop culture (though it's an extremely famous one- see first parenthetical) for any of it to make sense.
Very easy. I got essentially the same time as on the Tuesday puzzle, which I considered easy for a Tuesday. At least when compared to yesterday's disaster of a grid, today's was a masterclass in puzzle-writing.
I recognize the image and name of Yoda, though I don’t know how he speaks. But the theme answers were all easily gettable and very cute!
not a personal best time, but better than average. found this one to be quite easy. i don't really think age has anything to do with finding the puzzle easy.
Hah! I filled in CHIN for [Guarded area for many athletes], which gave me ACH! for [Forehead marker at the start of Lent], which brought a smile as I imagined seeing someone with that cry written in ashes on their forehead at the start of giving up dear things.
Charmed I was by [Words after “happily ever after”] for THE END, as it reminded me of how my heart warmed when I was a kid listening to fairy tales. Charmed I was as well by Yoda’s endearing way of speaking.
Speaking of heart-warming, ANNE PATCHETT’s books.
I, who usually have trouble guessing a puzzle’s revealer – had no trouble today. It popped right in after I filled in the first theme answer. And if you tell me it was obvious and easy LA LA LA LA LA LA LA.
I liked that Victor was just a Z short of a pangram and didn’t weaken the answer set trying to wrench that letter in. I also liked the trio of three-letter palindromes (TAT, OSO, ASA).
Much pleasure in the box, therefore, for me. Victor, your puzzle did my heart good. Thank you!
Rex, I didn't realize it would be a Malaika MWednesday and I was expecting you to bash this puzzle because of the "theme". Just first person song titles that get Yoda-speakified for whatever reason. The revealer is just YODA, nothing clever or punny.
@t. I don’t know if they still do, but at one time the standard rejection letter was referred to as a TDEME which was a shortened version of “Sorry, but this theme didn’t excite Will”. It’s described in the book by Nathan Last that Rex recommended, “Across The Universe” (note - Nathan describes Rex as “normally rancorous”, which I thought was kind of interesting). So I assumed that this one at least met his minimum threshold.
Btw - thanks to OFL for the recommendation. I’m only about one third of the way through it, but it’s an interesting read.
Hi Malaika - I admit I'm a bit jealous of you, getting to experience Dvorak's music for the first time. I find his distinctive gift for melody right up there with the greatest composers, supported by the craftsmanship of the German tradition. He was a great friend and protege of Brahms, after all. Check out his New World Symphony (No. 9), or the very tuneful No. 8. For lighter fare, sample a couple Slavonic Dances or his Humoresque, which I suspect will be familiar to you even if you don't know the name. Enjoy!!
Relatively easy for a Wednesday for this solver. The theme is nice (and as Malaika said, it's surprising, if indeed true, that this idea hasn't been done before). But there does seem to be a high Gunk factor, as the term of art goes in these here parts.
BALDER doesn't seem to me smartly clued at all, since Kirk was not bald at all as far as I remember. Of course it's literally true, but it's an unlikely comparison if one of the parties is not even a little bald.
The answer to 59A refers to the song that I hate more than any other. In particular, there is something about the opening vocals that hits my ear in a way I find practically intolerable. Gingerly I approach the 70s channel on XM Radio for this very reason -- there is no chance to avoid the awful part altogether by calmly switching the station, because there is no warning from the opening measures of the horror to come -- it just smacks me in the face right away, and I can't punch the off button fast enough in response. (It's terrible to have such twitchy nerves as I do!) And what I've learned recently about Eric Clapton the person doesn't dispose me to hate it any less.
He did do some good stuff of course, for example when he was part of DEREK and the Dominos.
Regarding the rivalry between UMich and OSU, I must have been reading something by an Ann Arbor alum, where AMID all the dunking they were explaining how OSU has also recently been "bending the knee" while UMich hasn't. Placating bullies doesn't help; it just encourages them further. Didn't you attend Schoolyard 101?
The entry that slowed me up the longest was the short OSO. I put in riO almost reflexively, not bothering to try to decipher the Spanish, and this despite warnings from the crosses.
It seems a little silly to have both LES and A TOI clued via French, when there are other ways to clue LES. It's a name, you know. You could refer to LES Paul, or his invention the Gibson LES Paul, a model of electric guitar, for example. Used by -- you guessed it -- Eric Clapton, when he was a member of Cream. And many others.
Okay, let that be all for the moment. I won't be giving much away for the SBers out there when I bid you Happy Hump Day!
Embarrassingly easy puzzle today. With rare exceptions, it feels lately like I’m doing the LA Times puzzle. Just no oomph or trickery at all.
It’s almost always astra.
Mal! Dvorak was a wonderful composer. Not up there with the three B's of Classical Music: Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart (JK) but darn close. Don't stop after The New World. The dances and his Cello Concerto are faves of mine too. But don't just go by me: In 1943, the U.S. Navy named a ship in his honor. And his wife Anna said he was a wonderful Czech mate.
I may be in a cranky mood, and tilting at windmills, but enough Star Wars. I just don’t care about it, I find it repellent in its original form for a myriad of reasons, and even more so in its current corporate hegemonic incarnation. Do we need it dominating the crossword puzzle as much as it does as well?
The image gets funnier the more removed from the puzzle I get. “A girl kissed. Liked it I did.”
I have recordings of DVORAK’s New World Symphony so old they’re called No. 5. What is this No. 9 business?
There has to be a way to get Atra out of the grid. That razor hasn’t been a viable consumer product in 30 years, even if you still do find a wildly overpriced dusty pack of cartridges hanging on a shelf peg at the store.
I was racking my brain about Malaika‘s surprise that this had not been done before. Despite being a new solver, I thought I remembered something, but after some digging, what I was remembering was an individual clue on Saturday, October 7, 2023: [Written in it this clue is] for YODA-SPEAK. So yes, an original theme this is.
@Southside. Hey, wow, thanks, that's interesting information!
"Normally rancorous", LOL. When I double-check the meaning of "rancorous", the first thing that pops up is "characterized by bitterness or resentment". To say this is MS's normal state seems a bit, I don't know... personal. I think I might have opted for "acerbic". In his reviews. Not sure I would have added the "normally" there either. Maybe "frequently". Actually, I expect MS might be a fun hang -- normally.
Maybe you'd like the original Bob Marley version.
Talk about an ear bug. Once I figured out how to un-YODA the themers, I couldn't stop singing I LESICANSEE FORM and I FFISHOT THE SHER.
Bet I wasn't the only one who scratched their head for a nanosecond or two as to why someone would stalk out of their miserable, going-nowhere job by yelling "INUIT." Maybe the guy was working in the tribal salmon cannery and wanted to show his boss ....
Hey, yesterday was full of "Go, Eli"s and no mention of the result. I didn't watch, but I looked up the result and see that Eli was a strong second, pocketing 3000 smackers. He came up just $23,000 short of the winner. But really, "Everybody" would be the correct answer for "Who wins on Jeopardy." And also, liked this puzzle I did. Thanks, Victor Barocas.
I agree on Prell! I feel like you might as well put a squeeze bottle of Dawn dish soap in the shower. Actually Dawn might be preferable…
Solved this with no problems and found it very easy, despite the plethora of trivia and names. I seem to recall there was an unwritten rule that if a theme centers around proper names, they’ll be avoided in other areas of the grid. Didn’t seem to be the case here. Although I’m not a Star Wars fan, I do know who YODA is but until I came here, I had no idea how the character related to the theme answers. But not knowing really didn’t make much difference in figuring it out.
I don't know how Yoda speaks, really, but I caught on to the theme and this felt like a breath of fresh air after yesterday's effort. I liked the clue for Kirk-Picard, and anyone who puts Dvorak in the same puzzle as The Who, Gloria Gaynor, et al., is fine by me. Without analyzing it thoroughly, I thought it felt very junk-free. Thanks, Victor!
Anonymous 8:18 - But Rex doesn't like puns!
@JonB3. Yes, I like it much, much, much more.
I don't know what others think, but even if I stop being emotional about it for a moment, I think it probably rates among Clapton's worst. Not that his intentions were bad or anything -- I think I read somewhere that he was partly motivated by wanting more attention paid to Reggae.
Wow @tht…now I’m going to have to listen to the Clapton version to figure out what is intolerable. I will say it’s not one of my faves though.
Yes, when I read Nathan’s characterization, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and interpreted it as referring to Rex’s public, crossword-reviewing persona / style. If Rex wants to, he can skewer a theme with surgical precision.
Hand up for really enjoying this puzzle, “gunk” be damned! Similar to @Jae, I got the gimmick with SURVIVEIWILL (with crosses at S-V-V), filled in YODA at the bottom and away I whooshed. I am not good at song “titles” but I had at least heard of the Katy Perry song. An aside to this is that when first faced with The Who…all I could think of was ROCKOPERATOMMY (I know…wrong year).
Yes, the puzzle skews a bit old, and I have to admit, I needed the J from EJECTS to get BENJI. I’m gonna look that up because I suspect that/those movies were made in the era where I was NOT a little kid, and too young to have kids to take to a movie.
And…TIL about the DVORAK keyboard. Methinks it’s too late to teach this old dog new keyboard tricks so I’ll keep hobbling along on QWERTY.
It's my understanding that the QWERTY keyboard was arranged to slow the typist so the mechanical letter arms would be less likely to jam. It became the standard by default.
Ha ha, good one!
Looked for a new keyboard that had dedicated keys for @ and .com but they do not exist. A gold mine for someone out there!?
That's hilarious—thanks for posting!
That Malaika doesn't know who Dvorak is, sad I am, hmmm.
Toma este trabajo y mételo por donde quieras.
Hey @Malaika! Congrats on the book. I will buy it but if history serves as a guide I will never do the puzzles.
I enjoyed the heck out of this one. The least VILEST this week. A little bit of ridiculousness with YODA and then waiting breathlessly for crosses to see if I would know the songs titles. Thankfully I knew them all, but the suspense kept me laser focused. Funny puzzle that zipped by in no time.
This is yet another Gunkapalooza. The NYTXW editorial crew has made it clear we can and will withstand a fire hose of partials, and propers, and enough Latin and French to make an 18th century tutor swoon with ENNUI. Today there's an avalanche of products and I didn't include the song titles in the theme.
I scrolled through about a thousand images of YAKS after the solve and I think I want to pet one. Magnificent animals.
Didn't know roids are also called PEDS and so its D was my last letter over the surprising spelling of DVORAK.
Of all the vis-à-vis-ing between Kirk and Picard one could theoretically vis-à-vis, BALDER must be the funniest. Laughed right out loud at that one.
People: 7
Places: 3
Products: 14 {c'mon, really?}
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 7
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 37 of 78 (47%) {🔔 The most famous bell choir in Gunkmenistan is the Funky Gunkers and they are staffed entirely with crossword constructors who should know better.}
Funny Factor: 7 😂
Uniclues:
1 Crossword pedagogy: You see Scotland, you...
2 How romantic French dogs sign their Valentine's Day cards.
3 The loud ones requiring two Kleenexes.
1 INPUT LOCH
2 A TOI, BENJI
3 MISGUIDED ACHOO
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Muhammad's left fist. ALI MEAT TORNADO.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I never saw Star Wars, though I know who YODA is, of course. I got to The Who song, and I know mostly all of them and realized there had to be a twist somewhere. I got to the Gloria Gaynor song - and I only know ONE of hers - and figured out the switcheroo on the song titles. the rest came easily. I played alot of Dvorak on the piano as a kid, so that was a plus. Great puzzle !
Eli had a big lead at one point. Seemed like it was in the bag. But the woman who won was very good. Eli has nothing to be ashamed of -- he was great. And three grand is three grand. Taxable though.
INUIT made me laugh right out loud!
I can't imagine what it's like being a Jeopardy! contestant there in the studio. I remember when people were predicting that crossword genius Dan Feyer would absolutely destroy his competition, but it was not to be. There must be many factors, including top-notch brain-finger coordination and steady nerves under the hot lights, that go well outside the scope of being a trivia expert.
@RooMonster 7:45 AM
Umm, Darrin, we do not speak of Jar Jar Binks in public. Please be respectful.
Icky? Why? And Scott’s Liquid Gold is not a niche product.
It’s a fabulous myth but it’s bunk. The layout was to separate keys commonly mistaken for each other in Morse Code. Up look it you can.
This was easier for me than yesterday's puzzle. I knew all the songs, even the Katy Perry, plus I knew with no crosses that Radiohead had offered their music for what people wanted to pay. I just had to fill in 17A, scratching my head because I know all of the most popular Who songs and FORM didn't start any of them. Once I saw it should be I CAN SEE FOR MILES, the other themers were easily inserted (though I mis-started 59A with SHERIFF and had to erase to start with THE).
I did miss the YODA tie-in which is a shame because it's so cute.
Thanks, Victor Barocas, for a very nice Wednesday puzzle!
Could have been a real dud for me because I’m not much of a Star Wars fan. I may have seen one and a half or two movies, so I know who Yoda is and I know he speaks in an odd, convoluted fashion, but that’s about it. I figured out the first one because I was pretty sure of the song waited for a few crosses. Same with the other themers. The toughest one for me was A GIRL I KISSED at 44A. Like most of Ms. Perry’s music, not particularly memorable for me.
Nice to see RADIOHEAD at 35D but it’s more pop culture and, you know, there just isn’t enough of that in this puzzle.
I’m scanning the grid to see if anything pops up as wonderful but … nope. Nice try on the theme but if you know the pop references they all read the same. I’m guessing there will be many commenters who are delighted by Yodaisms. I’m not one of them. So I guess it really was a dud for me.
Except for the great clue for YODA.
Yes, I couldn’t believe PRELL would be an answer and hesitated over it. It's of the same era as Dippity Do, if anyone remembers that - an early styling gel which inspired goofy bathtub songs in my childhood.
@Malaika, here’s a five-minute sample of great music: Dvořák: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22, B. 52: IV. Larghetto
Thought the puzzle was fine. Way less junky fill than yesterday. Got the first song from crosses and the first thing I wondered was “Does it have something to do with German - nah, too much of a stretch. Yoda?” Looked at the revealer clue and sure enough. In the German language, much of the time the verb comes at the end, so Yodish (nice, @Lewis) probably doesn’t sound strange to German-speakers.
Eli did a great job on Jeopardy, was ahead much of the time and even got the right answer at the end - just didn’t wager enough. Plus, the defending contestant got both Daily Doubles. It was fun hearing Eli talk about his Covid-era barbershop “quartet.”
tht—- Millions upon millions of people prefer Clayton’s version. In fact, it’s his one and only Billboard number one song. Ands Clapton’s work with Cream is at least as good as his one album with Derek and The Dominoes. Not to mention being the guitarist on the Beatles While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
I agree completely. Star Wars should be retired for good.
Lifelong PRELL user here, it's cheap and it gets my hair clean. As I have pointed out before, though, if you use it long enough, you wind up with gray hair.
@tht. “Balder” gave me pause because William Shatner famously wore a toupee. The character wasn’t bald, but the actor was. So my brain chewed on that for a bit. “Exactly how bald was he?” That’s one of the things I love best about crosswords: that they can send me off in such delightful mental directions.
I had forgotten about PEDS mentioned it and JUST realized (D’OH) that it stands for Performance Enhancing Drugs.
I quit not inuit
47% - !! Too much that is, I think.
YODA-speak puztheme. M&A did a runtpuz based on that, once long ago. But it also had Yoda-speak in the clues, so was extra-nutty.
Anyhoo ... different, for the NYTPuz. Liked.
Just a Z short of a U-know-what, btw.
staff weeject picks: ASA & OSO & TAT. The palindrome runt trio.
fave stuff included: SEEFIT. SWIPED. SIBERIA. THEEND. MISGUIDED. ALOHA clue.
@Malaika darlin: M&A does that there VulturePuz just about every 10-square-day. Enjoyed the Christmassy one by you today -- did have to fight thru a mess of know-no names, tho.
For the fun thanx, Mr. Barocas dude. A nice job U did.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
... and now ... our test solvers will tell U this is pretty typical ...
"Typical Runt Fare" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Maybe the most gorgeous 7 minutes of music to be found on YouTube are in this performance by Frederica von Stade of the “Song to the Moon” from Dvorak’s opera, Rusalka.
https://youtu.be/UwVYFpY3VL4
Well for this seasoned (veteran? senior? experienced? anything but "old") solver this was easy and fun, although starting with a rush and then running into FORMI sent me elsewhere, which turned out to be the bottom. I should have read the whole clue and gone directly to YODA, which would have made things even easier, but not doing that made the eventual discovery more fun.
No real no-knows today, recognized LENS once I saw it and I'm sure I have seen Ms. Patchett's name before but didn't remember it.
Today's Extremely Old Friend from the Crossword Vault has to be ATEN. Where have you been all this time? Welcome back.
Congrats to you, Malaika, on your book. I get your confusion about Ricitos de oro, but of course the fact that she's a girl has nothing to do with the gender of the nouns pertaining to her, like "ricitos". Did you catch that the "z" in 'rizo" changes to a "c" in "ricitos". ? No "zi" words in Spanish. English could use some similar logical spelling rules.
Enjoyed your Wednesday offering very much, VB, the Very Best Wednesday in a while. Thanks for all the fun.
RYB57, You beat me to it re Dvorak. I’m just back from Prague and found myself hearing his melodies, and those of Smetana, in my head as I toured that gorgeous city. Malaika, please take this commenter’s advice and check it out. And congrats on your book! As for the puzzle, fun and pretty easy for me, once I got the flip/flop breakthrough. A nice Wednesday.
I read the clue for 17-A and thought "I don't have a chance, what do I know from pop tunes?" But I do know that one, so once I got the I in FORMI (ruling out formula) the inverted title emerged. As it turned out, I knew three of the 4 (not the Katy Perry one), and knew there was some sort of reversal; but YODA was my penultimate entry, and I had not guessed it.
I did like the drop-a-letter of ASTRA-ATRA; too bad it wasn't preceded by "Caesar's camps."
Three days ago my wife, who was reading a book called "Raising Hare" (which she highly recommends) pointed out to me that Bugs Bunny is really a HARE, so it was nice to see this confirmed by the puzzle.
Maybe 10 years ago we went to a performance by the Southwest Florida Symphony that included the New World Symphony. The conductor gave a pre-concert talk about it. According to him, at least, Dvorak was trying to reorient American music; the dominant composer at the time, George Chadwick, wanted to make American music just like European music; Dvorak was a Czech nationalist who incorporated Czech folk themes into his compositions, and thought Americans should do the same with our own folk traditions. the New World was his attempt to do this, written in his four years in New York. I guess it worked -- if we saw a clue like "composer Chadwick" for GEORGE, there would be howls of protest.
@Lewis 7:19 am, at first I read that as Yiddish and thought: really? Clever.
Your wife and Elner Fudd will have to duke it out. Elmer says Bugs is a wabbit.
@Gary we continue to see record level gunk categories... 14 products? Yikes!
It sure appears as though Will Shortz is a Funky Gunker fan.
I thought it was on the hard side but very amusing in the end. The one mystery at first: why was the sheriff hot?
Of course when I figured that out I was left with the oldest question: Why didn’t you shoot the deputy, Bob?
And the second oldest question: Why are there sheriffs in Jamaica, an island far from the Old West? Turns out that the Sheriff is a largely ceremonial figure in modern England, but is actually in charge of law enforcement in at least one former British colony.
I thought it was on the hard side but very amusing in the end. The one mystery at first: why was the sheriff hot?
Of course when I figured that out I was left with the oldest question: Why didn’t you shoot the deputy, Bob?
And the second oldest question: Why are there sheriffs in Jamaica, an island far from the Old West? Turns out that the Sheriff is a largely ceremonial figure in modern England, but is actually in charge of law enforcement in at least one former British colony.
Since I knew none of the songs I didn't realized they'd been
yoda-ized. I thought the constructor found songs that were worded the way Yoda talks.
Surprised at some of the short answers that Malaika found difficult. And can't see why she clumped them as trivia. Aten Prell and peds, yes, but not asa nor oleo. And atra is so common in crosswords. Benji was tough of r me I thought of it once I saw the B, but couldn't remember that much about him. Kept trying to think of a Glden retriever who was in many films.
Oh, looking bak at the puzzle and now knowing that the song titles have been twisted I understand the clue 68A (The bit about Karakoke kept me from putting in Yoda right away.)
I thought the puzzle fun
Gorgeous rendition by dear Flicka. Thank you.
I was stumped early and had to come back after a break and then I finally figured out the theme. Then it went pretty quickly. I got stuck with EVICT instead of EJECT (duh--pretty explicit clue). And I liked Radiohead, which took me awhile.
Boy, everything Malaika didn't know, I did. Usually it's the opposite. The only things I didn't know were the college football, the Google app, and OSO. A cute fun theme that went pretty fast.
So I remembered to record Jeopardy last night, but then I forgot to watch it. Thanks for spoiling it for me, y'all! grrr
@Anonymous 11:47. You don’t know @egs very well, do you? You should read his comments more often. You don’t know what you’re missing!
I'm another PRELL user since almost forever. The bottle it comes in is clear; it's the product that's green.
Loved it! Spanish Goldilocks. Heard some lovely sounds on YouTube (Federica von Stade). Learned how Yoda speaks. Remembered PRELL. Bright fill.
@Anonymous (10:50 am)
Procter and Gamble has 109,000 employees
Scott's Liquid Gold, Inc. has 79 employees
SLCI is a very small company that serves a specific and well-defined market segment with a highly specialized product - the definition of a niche company.
Why Icky? the thought of a personal care product used on one's body manufactured and marketed by the same 79 people who manufacture and market a product for cleaning and conditioning wood made of a base oil, natural oils, petroleum distillates, and other ingredients like propane and isobutane in aerosol versions. But your sense of ickiness may vary. À chacun son goût
Always liked Anthony Lane's reviews and that's a particularly good example of his wit.
Jeeper creepers, all these urban myths. The fact is that the QWERTY keyboard was invented by Qwerty U. Iop, an evil genius who, knowing he would never be loved, believed that he could at least achieve immortality by putting his name at the fingertips of typists everywhere, and in every age.
@Lewis. By "endearing" do you mean annoying?
I fear these being introduced to Dvorak for the first time will come up empty if they try to call him up on their smart speakers - since they are likely to wildly (and most understandably) mispronounce his name to the degree that the speakers will not recognize it.
@Anon 11:32. This what I get for being a late riser: you flat out beat me to the punch on that one. A toupee is not a full wig, though, so maybe he had some of his own hair.
@Jack Stefano. Could be that I'm missing some humorous reference in your comment bit I just looked up the mottos of all the states and ASTRA only appears once.
Though not much of a "Star Wars" geek, I liked the theme, but I do believe that the song titles (I'm a boomer, 70 1/2 years old, born right in the middle of the baby boom, summer 1955) leaned too much toward oldsters like me. The most recent is from 2008; I was in 7th grade when The Who's song was released, a senior in high school when Bob Marley's original of "I Shot the Sheriff" was released, and second year of grad school when "I Will Survive" was released. In other words, a kid or a very young man, and I'm old now. There have to be songs that would fit with theme (object followed by subject and verb) that are more recent than that. BTW I found this puzzle easy-medium, with one near-natick at INPUT/PEDS; that one took me a minute.
Fake Rant: Why would anyone assume YODA wouldn't be great at karaoke? The lyrics appear on a screen. Is he illiterate? Unlikely, considering he was a Jedi master for over 800 years with access to the Jedi archive. Poor eyesight? Also unlikely - if they had lightsabers, I'm sure they had LASIK. Raspy voice? Imagine YODA singing "What a Wonderful World." Terrible clue. (That was kinda fun.)
Malaika has probably heard parts of the New World Symphony. There's plenty of music that most people have heard but can't name. "Night on Bald Mountain" (Modest Mussorgsky), "In the Hall of the Mountain King" (Edvard Grieg), the "Beef: It's What's for Dinner" song, etc.
Pronunciation lesson: Antonin DVORAK, duh-VOR-jock/zhock. DVORAK keyboard, duh-VOR-ock.
And congratudolences to Eli. A bit unlucky to go up against a tough opponent who got both Daily Doubles in the 2nd round. I'd say Eli has a decent shot at an invite to the 2nd Chance tourney next year. Impressive showing anyhow.
Treat yourselves to Yo Viveré by Celia Cruz. It’s a Spanish translation of I Will Survive from her album Con Alma and I’m told it was recorded after she was diagnosed with brain cancer. Correct me if you know this to be untrue. Either way she gets all of it.
WestofNatick
Totally agree with RP on this.
I type in Dvorak and played Dvorak in HS and college orchestras, so it is kind of trippy how differently their names are pronounced by most people
I’m surprised that no one has mentioned that Katy Perry’s hit was an inferior rip off of Jill Sable’s original “I Kissed a Girl,” the first openly gay song to land in the Billboard Top 20. That was 1995 -13 years before Perry’s song. The original video seems to have been scrubbed from Youtube, which is too bad, because it’s sweet and funny and even has Fabio (!) in it. Here’s Sobule singing a short version of it last winter, along with some sweet and funny commentary. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs58_mIFbBM
Malaika, when you’re done going down your Dvorak rabbit hole, take a listen to Sobule. Don’t delay because it looks like her best stuff is disappearing from youtube. She died tragically this past spring and those of us who loved her and her work are heartbroken. She called herself a two-hit wonder because of her hit songs “I Kissed a Girl” and “Supermodel,” and many will also remember her 90s songs “Too Cool to Fall in Love” and “Living Color.” Beyond that, Sobule was an activist who wrote witty and touching songs that addressed surprisingly heavy themes. I stumbled onto her through her comic/not-so-comic take on global warming - “Manhattan in January.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EifWLl3-uc
Beyond that, “A Good Life” may make you feel better about death, “Mexican Wrestler” will break your heart, “Karen by Night” shows off her storytelling chops, and “America Back” is, well, you’ll see. Enjoy!
@whatsername, Gary’s Gunk Gauge includes three categories that weren’t included in the PPP percentage that @Z used to monitor. I like looking at Gary’s gauge but I don’t necessarily think of “places” and “foreignisms” as gunk. Anyway, my guess the % would be lower otherwise under old gauge. Throwing that out there, but I’m too lazy to figure it out.
Wow @Anon 11:32…I did NOT know that and apparently Shatner has never kept it a secret…and story is that the studio bought very expensive toupees for his role as Kirk. As a practical joke he would often hide them. I think HE would get a kick out of the clue today.
@Anon 11:25AM. And so they might. Indeed, I'm not trying to convince anyone to take my own visceral reaction (first formed when I was a child) very seriously -- this is partly just me laughing at myself. Surely it's a universal experience that some people will strongly dislike some songs, and still go on to have a laugh about it. But perhaps I should have made the humorous aspect more manifest.
That Clapton is consummately skilled is indisputable. I just really dislike that particular song in particular parts, and for reasons hard for me to explain.
@Anon 11:32AM. I didn't know that! That's funny.
Straightforward and fun puzzle for me! I liked the YODA angle to the songs. Everything was gettable from the crosses, just the way it should be. Never heard of PRELL or SIXERS or TIAL for example, and guessed at FLAX. I found BALDER funny given “to boldly go”
@Anon 11:37AM. Don't worry. He was joking.
Pabloinnh 11:20 am
LOL
Gray hair
@Whatsername. Good one -- I see what you did there!
This reminds me though that often when people see the Gunk Gauge, they go, "oh, no way it's that high -- I found the puzzle smooth as silk". But since the gunk tally has to be inclusive, and one person's gunk will pass unseen as gunk to someone else, the gauge reading will often look too high. (Not saying this about you or really anyone in particular, just that I've sometimes observed this reaction from others.)
Joe pop
The fill in the blank is what made it easy for many of us. Long time solvers have seen it a lot. Always astra , at least early or midweek. If you asked by state I probably wouldn’t know. So you aren’t expected to know state mottoes.
I'll bet those Gunkmenistan bell choir Gunkers play in a fun key. While I'm here, thanks @Gary for sharing your wit every day. It helps keep me going.
Dr. Random
Another indicator of my age Malaika and your comments. For older boomers at least the first song is a gimme. Which is where I saw the reverse gimmick.
Anonymous 8:12 AM
Age not relevant in solving?Malaiki would disagree. As a Boomer her list of hard answers I found to be gimmes. So I agree with her. The first song helped me a lot and she didn’t even know it
tht
Clapton has turned out to be an English version of a MAGA in his old age. But I don’t have the visceral dislike of his version of the song as you do. I do prefer Bob Marley’s version though.
Man, almost fifty years since Star Wars came out!!?? Wow, time flies.
I've always liked The Who and am familiar with most of their songs so it took me a few minutes to see what was going on in today's puzzle.
A couple of weeks ago was an anniversary of sorts around here regarding The Who. On November 17th, 1967 they played near here at Shawnee Mission South high school, in Overland Park KS. Admission was $3 as they were the warm-up band for The Buckinghams! I was a little too young to attend but word was, that they out-did the Buckinghams!!
Gary Jugert
I like your listing of ppp. But partials bother me not at all ( a semi Yoda?) Ditto “foreignisms”. except a toi. But you break it down so that’s helpful. A former commenter, Z, only calculated ppp. He said when ppp got above one third, people start to complain. So this puzzle would be borderline under his system. FWIW.
I do admit however that a toi has now become annoying crosswordese for me.
"The original video seems to have been scrubbed from Youtube" <-- Really? Why on earth? I remember that song.
There's just a little too much tee-hee in Perry's song. I've loved listening to my daughter making merciless fun of it (including voicing the imagined boyfriend who not only doesn't mind but thinks it's pretty hot).
A
About Eli on Jeopardy.
The winner was very good. But more science questions might have helped him, also (the winner said that was her weak point, though she got a science question immediately after saying that!).
I noticed that he did very well on crossword type stuff, not surprisingly.
His bad luck is really running into someone who is a potential long term winner. In a typical day, he would have won easily.
Jberg
About Dvořak. Among the “folk tunes “ he included in the symphony were sourced from the Black American community. .And deliberately. A respect quite unusual at the time from white classical composers.
One of my favorite symphonies.
duh-vor-shock is correct.
Such an interesting example of how idiosyncratic puzzle solving can be. I flew through this one with almost no hesitation, and fully expected to see “Easy” as the level. But we have a different and younger solver! Now I feel old…
The Who warming up for the Buckinghams? That’s kind of a drag…
dgd, I read in the constructor’s notes that he tried to pick a variety of different eras to hit different ages of solvers, so I suppose he succeeded!
Some days (like today) I visit this blog just to scroll straight down and check out Gary's Gunk Gauge. Thank you for confirming the nagging feeling that I got gunked hard by this puzzle
I have used the Dvorak keyboard layout for years. I used to have a lot of wrist pain from typing, but now I don't! (It's available for most operating systems now (I use it on Linux -- I had to learn to to touch type with it, since my my keyboards are all labelled for QWERTY.)
It's not proposed. It's currently available on most computer operating systems!
Oh, you know Dvorak, all right. I guarantee you know at least 3/4s of the “Peer Gynt” Suite. At this point they are part of spiritus mundi.
Wow! So many replies. Blushing. Y'all are peaches. From day to day it's fascinating, if we know the trivia we don't consider it gunk and we actually love it. When it's outside our experience, it can be exasperating. @Malaika's lived experience hasn't included BENJI and for me I wrote it straight in with happy memories. For me, a few proper nouns, a few interesting places, a couple of product placements, and a foreign word or two spice up a puzzle, but when they get to a critical mass the dark hole collapses in up on itself. On Fridays and Saturdays when there's no theme to come to terms with, the puzzle will ultimately be decided on trivia. Do you know this D-List of celebrities or not. We like to believe tough word play makes a tough puzzle, but that's rarely a speedbump after you've been solving for a long time. It's always gunk determining our success. I agree with @Z that people grumble more when it exceeds about a third of the entries. I give special recognition for those under 20% or over 40%. I think most constructors try to keep a balance. I bet they hate it when they're staring at OREO for an hour trying to make it go away and just can't find a solution. It's clear the editors will publish out of balance puzzles and this past week has been egregious. I kinda like @okanaganer's idea that some entries are so awful we should count them in more than one category. Many days I've run into abbreviations of foreign companies and wondered what category they're mostly in based on the clue. Honestly, if I were in charge, I would have a whole separate group of evil called "foreign food ingredients" and we'd have a hard limit of one per week.
No insult to Malaika intended, but I found this puzzle incredibly easy. Breezed through it with almost no resistance.
You bring me way back boys! Saw Clapton with Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker at the Cafe Au Go Go on Bleeker St. Must have been 57.. 58 years ago. Cost me my last $3.00 to get in and we had to hop the subway turnstile to get back uptown.
Nice write-up Malaika! And congratulations on the book!!
My experience was similar to @Rex - I enjoyed the theme, the fill not so much. I figured things out very early on as I knew all the songs. When I saw something funny going on with the titles, I went down to the revealer and with one cross was able to get YODA. Though I never saw one Star Wars movie and don't plan to, I do know how YODA speaks from just being alive so the rest of the themers fell fairly easily.
The fill was just not all that exciting, but that might just be me...
All in all, I had a good time with this one. Nice one, Victor!
Malaika, forget Dvorzak! Listen to the Who’s “ I Can See for Miles”. It’s the best song in the puzzle. True classical music!
And I’m an even later riser so @Anon and @Les S, you both got my comments covered! But, @JonB3, I’m in the Bob Marley cam with you!
OMG, @egs! INUIT - just so funny!
Have to be pedantic on this one and assert that it actually misses the mark on Yoda syntax--the actual order is verb-object-subject-modal, not object-subject-verb (e.g. "Use the Force, you must", not "The Force, you must use") so "Survive, I will" is the only valid one in the puzzle
I had a full wavelength visa to our constructor’s train of thought today, and absolutely blazed through this one. My daughter loved Star Wars, so I picked up the Yodaisms even though I didn’t know all of the songs.
I actually laughed at seeing PRELL. Those commercials have been around my entire life, and the product from the mid ‘40s. I vividly recall my husband telling me that his mom used PRELL and when she saw a commercial she would say “the lather is as good as they say on tv.” When we had to move her to a nursing home, she said “Don’t you forget my PRELL!” while we were packing.
I didn’t mind the gunk today, only because I was able to get the squares filled out without thinking too much about the quality of the fill. I winced at BALDER because the clue lacked any information as to the scope of difference between Picard and Kirk to which the clue wanted to draw our focus. Aldo, BALDER just sounds “off.” I likely would say that Picard (irrespective of toupees for Kirk) Picard was more bald than Kirk.
I was so sad that Eli didn’t feel confident in the Final Jeopardy topic yesterday to make a gargantuan bet because he was formidable. The final bet is what allowed the current champ to prevail. Great job though @Eli.
Quick and easy today. No stops and no really über crappy fill. Hoping for a really good Thursday workout tomorrow.
Meant to type Jill Sobule, not Sable. Damn autocorrect. Or damn my proof-reading...
As Malaika mentioned, Yoda has been around for 50 years and his idiosyncratic sentence structures have been the source of puns and memes since then. I think this theme would excite a lot of people
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