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Relative difficulty: Medium
Theme answers:
- "AS FAR AS I CAN TELL..." (17A: "Judging from the information available to me ...")
- "JUST SPITBALLING..." (23A: "These are merely my spur-of-the-moment suggestions ...")
- "FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH..." (50A: "Here's my two cents, which might not amount to much ...")
- "ONLY A THOUGHT, BUT..." (57A: "Feel free to dismiss this idea — however ...")
Edie & Thea: A Very Long Engagement is a 2009 American documentary film directed and produced by Susan Muska and Gréta Ólafsdóttir for their company Bless Bless Productions, in association with Sundance Channel. The film tells the story of the long-term lesbian relationship between Edie Windsor and Thea Spyer, including their respective childhoods, their meeting in 1963, their lives and careers in New York City, Thea's diagnosis with multiple sclerosis and Edie's care for her partner, and their wedding in Toronto, Canada, in May 2007, because gay marriage was not then legal in their home state of New York.Upon its initial release, the film was screened primarily at LGBTQ film festivals in 2009 and 2010. The Edie in the film's title was Edith Windsor, who after the death of Thea Spyer on February 5, 2009,[1] was hit with an estate tax bill of $363,053 from the IRS. Had Thea been a man, Edie would have been exempt from this tax due to the marital exception. But the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which defined marriage as limited to a man and a woman, was in effect at the time. Windsor filed suit against the federal government on November 9, 2010, which ultimately made its way to the Supreme Court of the United States as United States v. Windsor. In June 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the lower court rulings in Windsor's favor and declared that DOMA was unconstitutional. (wikipedia)
• • •
I like the revealer, though the "ROWS" part doesn't ... add much. I mean, crossword answers are, by definition / design, linear, so any answer in any grid might be considered a "ROW." There's nothing especially "ROW"-y about these answers. I suppose you can say that in a crossword grid (or spreadsheet) situation, "ROW"s go Across, whereas columns go Down, and so the Acrossness of the answers matters. But then most theme answers do run Across, so again the "ROW"-iness isn't exactly an exceptional feature of the theme. But no other revealer will do. HEDGES would be anemic. The grid-spanning nature of the theme answers does give them a certain hedgerow quality, in that they seem to divide the grid into lots. If your hedgerow really is a "privacy feature," then I guess you might run it from one end of your property to the other I don't know. I've got sugar maples. I think the theme works. Not spectacularly, but it works.
The fill seems pretty average, though at parts it ran a little tough for me, for a Tuesday. Perhaps the most un-Tuesday moment of the solve was THEA (47D: "Edie & ___: A Very Long Engagement" (2009 documentary)). I'm not sure there's any THEA answer famous enough to qualify as a Tuesday answer, but this one was a real "????" to me. The documentary is about a very important U.S. Supreme Court case, and it sounds fascinating, but yeesh, as a piece of trivia, it's pretty Friday/Saturday. This could easily have been THEO as far as I, the ignorant solver, was concerned (of course if THEA had been THEO then the couple could've legally married in the U.S. and the documentary would never have existed). THEA is one of the few answers where I think I'd prefer the good old-fashioned partial over any one person's name. You can see that the NYTXW relies a lot less heavily on the Billy Strayhorn / Duke Ellington Orchestra song than it used to...
..but I say: "Take THE A Train" is way better known than any other THEA option, and any puzzle that reminds me of Ellington can't be all bad. If you must use THEA ... then by all means, take THE A Train:
I stumbled in a few non-THEA places as well. For some reason DIET was not a word that leapt to mind at 14A: Termites, for an aardwolf, so even though I had the "D" in place, I wrote in DISH (?). I was today years old when I learned RICE BEER existed (inferable, but ???) (8D: Asahi Super Dry or Kirin Lager). I hesitated at the final letter of AREOLAS ... then defiantly wrote in the "S," daring the puzzle to do the stupid Latin plural thing to me (which thankfully it didn't) (25D: Pigmented rings). The ZEE / ZED crossing was actually a teeny bit tricky, since there's nothing in either clue to indicate "letter" (33A: 33-Down, across the Atlantic / 33D: 33-Across, across the Atlantic).
Bullets:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Really loved the GAY / TEA / "Oh, MARY!" nexus. A dishily queer little cluster of words. My daughter did some work on the earliest, off-Broadway production of Oh, MARY! before it even opened (possibly carpentry, possibly something else having to do with production design), then was invited to work on the show once it moved to Broadway but already had other commitments. The show sounds hilarious but I've never seen it. I like that even if you've never heard of Oh, MARY!, you can infer the answer fairly easily because the clue gives you "Mrs. Lincoln."
Bullets:
- 48A: Sound from someone sitting down at the end of a long day ("AAH...") — still not sure how this differs from the sound you make at the dentist. AAH v. AHH is tricky for me. Also, I thought the "sound" here was going to be the sound of someone literally "sitting," like ... PLOP!
- 54A: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a ___" (old maxim) ("FIRE") — ugh, this is awful. It's a weak maxim to begin with, but also ... I've never, ever heard this so-called "maxim." Why in the world would you use a quotation if you don't know where it comes from? If the "maxim" is universally familiar, great, but this one is not—too long, too fussy, too banal to be truly well known. So the clue is fussy, overly long, not well known, and not interesting. Four strikes.
- 6A: One who might ask "Fair dinkum?" (AUSSIE) — got this easily enough, but still have no idea what that question is supposed to mean. Merriam Webster dot com says it's a general expression of approval. Not sure why it's appearing here in interrogative form.
- 58D: "J to ___ L-O! The Remixes" (2002 Jennifer Lopez album) ("THA") — first remix album to reach #1 on the Billboard 200 chart (I just learned). I had "THE" here for a half second before realizing "oh, no, if they're going to pop music, that's gonna be a THA"—and so it was.
That's all, see you next time.
P.S. two more days to send in your 🌲🐈Holiday Pet Pics🐕🌲 by Thursday of this week. Expecting to see a whole lotta cats in trees, just like Calypso here. Don't disappoint me!
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| [Thanks, Andrea] |
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ReplyDeleteEasy. My overwrites were mostly places where I made the wrong choice between two valid or near-valid answers.
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
prEy before DIET for the aardwolf-ant relationship at 14A
DIScUss before DISPUTE for Argue at 2D
AREOLAe before AREOLAS for the pigmented rings at 25D
DuH before D'OH at 45D
One WOE, Eddie and THEA at 47D.
My inner middle schooler chuckled at FOR WHA' TIT'S WORTH crossing AREOLAS
May I ask what a “WOE” is?
DeleteFinished it quickly, even though "spitballing" is a new word to me.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Rex wasn't critical of the redundant ZEE/ZED clue. (The letter) ZEE (33-Across) is ZED (34-Down) across the pond. As the clue is written, we get "ZED (34-Down) is ZED (34-Down) across the pond."
Its 33 across and 33 down and it is very much standard crossword fare.
DeleteThe term SPITBALLING took hold quite a few years before I retired in meetings at work. Its kind of like “brainstorming” but the idea is you throw all these “spitballs” (of ideas) against the wall and see which one sticks (to the wall). Clever, no?
DeleteClever, no; unhygienic, yes.
DeleteLast letter in today, appropriately: the Z in ZEE/ZED.
ReplyDeleteInitially had LAV and LOO; yeah, the Zee/Zed was last to fall
DeleteI was thinking that maybe the Mediterranean ("Med") is referred to as the "Mee" somewhere in Europe or Africa or Asia, but then I got to "Z".
DeleteI'm with Andy!.....had to run the alphabet to "Get it"
ReplyDeleteMe too. Didn't help that Z is last, huge Doh! after that. Come on man.
DeleteFun fact: Lots of beers have rice in them. Most notably famous American beers such as Budweiser et al. The rice is used as an adjunct to the traditional barley malt, yeast and hops. They aren't considered "rice beers" in the same way, but indeed have rice as a significant ingredient
ReplyDeleteNot a big fan of this puzzle, too easy with mediocre fill and I don't care for long multi-word (6 words) answers. Saw my first craft rice beer the other day my daughter ordered it. It was clean & light but also tasty. Part of the motivation for the craft beer revolution was a protest against the macro brewers using cheaper inredients, mostly rice, in their beers. So I was surprised to see a rice beer.
DeleteThere, for a bit, I was thinking "verdant privacy features" were FIG LEAVES -- and it fit!
ReplyDeleteThat is fantastic!!!!! : )
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteNice 15 Themers. Nice handling of surrounding fill. With four 15's plus a Revealer in the center, that's a lot of trying to get real words/things in your puz. Handled quite nicely, as most Downs go through two and three Themers.
Liked it today. More puzzly than a regular TuesPuz. As in, Tuesdays seem to be the weakest puz day at the NYT, but this one holds its ground.
Have a great Tuesday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I enjoyed reading Rex today. Even though he does it pretty much daily, I am still occasionally surprised at level of analytical precision that he can bring to the dissection of the theme. I just don’t have the energy (or the intellectual curiosity, I suppose) to parse each theme clue / answer down to basically every syllable. They all sounded like common, reasonable phrases to me. OFL does provide a lot of insight into the construction process, and the associated constraints, which is interesting.
ReplyDeleteRICE BEER was definitely a head-scratcher. It gets two demerits for being kind of a niche term and for being clued with brand names. At least as egregious as the proper that Rex focused on (THEA).
I was disappointed when the crosses seemed to eliminate LAV / LOO as the “across the pond” alternative. I was hoping they wouldn’t go with ZED. I waited until I ran out of squares before entering that Z, but happy music it was - fortunately I didn’t have to live with it for long, as my solve was over, kaput, fini.
@Southside. Have to agree with your take on @Rex's "level of analytical precision". Like you, I'm less driven, but I certainly appreciate his views. Probably wouldn't be here if he didn't do that.
DeleteAs for RICE BEER, I just read that as bland beer. Note that one other commenter (Teedmn, I think) cites Budweiser as an exemplar of the category.
This is one of those days where I pity the long-time solvers who skip early week puzzles. What a gem this is on many levels.
ReplyDeleteThe empty grid itself is calming to look at, IMO, making for a subtle-yet-lovely intro to the puzzle.
The theme answers, IMO, roll easily off the tongue, and it’s amazing that Kate found four at exactly 15 letters. They also pop with freshness – as three of them are NYT debuts, and the fourth has appeared in the Times puzzle but twice before.
It’s also amazing that the grid is filled as cleanly as it is, given the sky-high 69 theme squares (Hi, @Roo!).
Talk about LANDED – that revealer HEDGEROWS! How perfect is that? Descriptive, punny, and I never saw it coming. “Oh brava!” I shouted inwardly upon filling it in.
Then there was the sweet serendipity of LANDED, as a joke, crossed by a backward HAW HAW.
I came to the box today favorably disposed, Kate, because your puzzles exude quality. Once again, you delivered. Thank you!
Liked the theme. The ZEE/ZED thing wouldn’t come, even with EE and ED in place. Weird!
ReplyDeleteAgree. I kept thinking of what is our equivalent to OED?
DeleteSurprised to see that (FAIR)DINKUM has never appeared in a NYT grid. It felt like prime themeless material. I bet that answer would trip up a lot of solvers.
ReplyDeleteI vaguely remember a puzzle where the revealer played on the word ACROSS, but that is so much more specific than ROWS, so I'm with Rex on that point. I tried to emulate @Lewis by not looking at the revealer until I had all the theme answers, but it snuck up on my, and I had too many crosses to make guessing necessary.
ReplyDeleteTIL that, being OLD, I am officially "historical." Come to think of it, my daughter gave me a subscription to something called "Storyworth" where I am supposed to write an essay about something in my life every week--so I guess that's history. I like doing it, but it's hard to find the time.
Never heard of OH MARY, but it sounds fascinating!
The themers span the full width of their rows. Seems more row-ier than other across answers can be. I buy it.
ReplyDeleteMy partner works for Kirin and he was very upset by this puzzle because Kirin Lager is not a rice beer. It is all malt (or so I am told).
ReplyDeleteKirin Ichiban (most common stateside) is all malt but plain old Kirin Lager is rice and malt!
DeleteHave to admire Rex’s attention to detail and how he brings out different looks at a puzzle, even when you disagree with him. This time around, I kinda agree with him that the last themer would have been more in the language if it read “itsONLYATHOUGHT” as opposed to ONLYATHOUHGHTBUT. However, both convey thought and I guess the puzzles author had quite a struggle with the crosses. Felt HEDGEROWS was great as “revealer”.
ReplyDeleteI liked this for a Tuesday just fine, though I've never heard of the j-Lo remix or the phrase JUST SPITBALLING, But it was still fun, and I like having HEDGEROW and ZED cross, for the full British effect. Thanks, Kate!
ReplyDeleteI use spreadsheets often so the row/column distinction is second nature to me. ONLY A THOUGHT, BUT the fact that the themers horizontally spanned the grid quite elegantly turned them into "rows" as opposed to ordinary "acrosses."
ReplyDeleteQuick comment before a busy day. Thought the puzzle was fun and whooshy. I’m not the best at going over all puzzle answers when finished, but am I correct that there are zero individual “male” propers in puzzle? The Padres are male, and a silverback is a male gorilla, but….
ReplyDeleteI asked our neighbor if he'd take my tiny, but valuable, idol for safekeeping while we were out of town. "Sure, Egs," he says. "ENTRUST wee god."
ReplyDeleteThe PA (known as the EPA until D, E and I were officially removed from the government lexicon) is busy DLISTing everything it can by checking critters against the Extinct List. If you're not on that, you're probably ok. Which reminds me that I was once at a party where a woman introduced herself as "George Hamilton's Mother." No other name was imparted. Now that's taking your DLIST status seriously!
I guess the fact that the three letter Portuguese word for "hello" has appeared 362 times in the NYTXW answers the question AREOLAS ok? Yes, especially with a side of ASSES.
Doesn't the Australian national anthem begin "AUSSIE can you say, fair dinkum today"?
I think the fact that each themer takes up an entire row makes the revealer very good. I don't buy the statement from @Rex that " I mean, crossword answers are, by definition / design, linear, so any answer in any grid might be considered a "ROW." " That is a tortured critique. The answer "ATE" at 27A is part of a row, but you would never say it is a row. The themers, consisting of an entire row, would merit such a description. I thought this was a great puzzle. Thanks, Kate Hawkins. Put your earnings from the puzzle in a HEDGE Fund.
Above was, shockingly, by yours truly.
DeleteHad never heard of WOTD Thea, but appreciate the education; in some respects we have progressed as a society, if many elements are now under siege.
ReplyDeleteie Humanity and humanities
DeleteI thought of the theme answers as ROWs of words, (A row of words would also be a heated argument)
ReplyDeleteAfter ASF going across I wrote in ASFARASICANSEE/ oos, make that TELL, so a very fun whooshy start Most of the rest was similarly easy, except for the THEA and THA stuff. Agree with OFL about THEA Train, which is the fist alternate clue I thought of. Way better.
ReplyDeleteI'm with the ROWS works perfectly well The fact that the go entirely across makes it a ROW, IMHO. Actually saw what the revealer was going to be early on but it took all the themers to have it make complete sense, fine with me.
Gave a wry nod to WRYLY showing up so soon, and BEDAMN had a nice archaic feel.
Thought this was a great Tuesday, KH. Kudos, Huzzah, and thanks for all the fun.
"Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire" is attributed to W.B Yeats
ReplyDeleteOnce again a theme went over my head because I DIDN'T READ THE WHOLE CLUE!! When will I learn? I had enough crosses in place for 35A that HEDGE ROWS went in off the "verdant privacy" that I read and I continued on my merry solve.
ReplyDeleteI don't know why I thought ONLY i THOUGHT, BUT was a good answer for 57A except that it seems to match the hesitancy of the other theme answers. However, Edie & THEi isn't very likely, is it?
With the F in place at 54A, I considered education was lighting a Fuse, but that would constitute a big duplication of DEFUSED.
RICE BEER, Budweiser is constantly derided as a "rice beer", and indeed, the ingredients are water, barley malt, rice, yeast and hops. So the idea that a couple of Japanese beers were made from rice seemed completely reasonable to me. Sake is another fermented rice product.
Thanks, Kate Hawkins, for an imaginative Tuesday puzzle!
Liked it. Four lively themers and the clever crossing of ZEE/ZED.
ReplyDeleteGood to see all the ways THEA has been clued.
Great theme! Another day, though, when it might have been easier to solve acrosses-only, rather than my downs-only routine. Upon post-solve review all the themers and the revealer lit up and they were all rather straightforwardly clued. Working downs-only meant that I didn’t even know that 35A HEDGE ROWS was the revealer and I had to infer all the hedges from partially formed words.
ReplyDeleteBut it was fun. Much more fun than the hockey game I was trying to watch at the same time. I could be wrong, but my team seems to be in for a short season. (Still hedging/hoping here.)
Seems like, with the exception of the theme related answers, any sparkle this grid had showed up in the downs. Well, maybe not really sparkly, but longer and not as obvious as the acrosses.
Toughest parts for me were Edie and THEA - sounds like a great film about a lovely romance, but unknown to me - and J to THA L-O. When I didn’t get the congrats, it took me about 3 or 4 minutes to track down that one. Not having the across clue, THe crossing eSSES looked okay. Never trust a pop star to spell a simple word correctly.
Thanks, Kate Hawkins. Nicely done.
I know they don't care about duplicates, but AFAR / ASFARASICANSEE threw me. I (still, stupidly) reject answers at first if they duplicate previous answers. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteFOR WHAT ITS WORTH, the letter string AFAR does not occur in ASFARASICANSEE.
DeleteFlat out luved this one. Four 15-long loose-goosey themers, together with a killer revealer. And slightly feisty solvequest, for a TuesPuz. 4.5 novas.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject picks: ZEE/ZED, of course. And their hedgy clues. Also luved the 4 weeject rows [2 Across ones, 2 Down ones].
fave stuff included: GORILLA. PANDORA. PILSNER + RICEBEER. ASOFNOW mini-hedge. AREOLAS spellin challenge.
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Hawkins darlin. Superb job, no hedgin around about it.
Masked & Anonym007Us
... all that and a mini-invasion ...
"Bar Berry Yens" - 8x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I enjoyed the theme quite a bit, even though I agree with Rex’s critiques (I initially tried to fit in the I’M on JUST SPITBALLING, and that last themer remained opaque for a while). Fun, colloquial, (mostly) in-the-language phrases of uncertainty to get me through the exam week grading. Junk at a minimum, most of the names fair, spunky answers…brava!
ReplyDeleteTheme didn't work for me. I know what spitballs are but not spitballing. Also would never have known THA 58D (J Lo clue), THEA. Just okay for me.
ReplyDeleteOn the tough side for me with the bottom more challenging than the top.
ReplyDeleteI’m only vaguely familiar with music apps so PANDORA needed a lot of crosses.
Also, the last theme answer did not come easily…THEA and THA were WOEs.
Clever and amusing, liked it.
Well to be perfectly honest, in my humble opinion, of course without offending anyone who thinks differently from my point of view, but also by looking into this matter in a different perspective and without being condemning of one's view's and by trying to make it objectified, and by considering each and every one's valid opinion, I honestly believe that I completely forgot what I was going to say. (an old "copypasta," as the kids say)
ReplyDelete4-spanner Tuesday, really nice theme/revealer. A colonnade of colloquialness (Hey, I like a little alliteration). Enjoyed the puzzle and looking forward to more pet pics + captions.
PH
DeleteVery funny comment
ROTFL or LOL take your pick.
Solving down clues only for the second day in a ROW, it went pretty smoothly although I did finish with an error at 58 down with THE crossing ESSES. Of course if I had been reading the across clues I probably would have corrected it. But at least today, unlike Monday, I got the theme pretty easily because HEDGEROWS filled itself in and fairly screamed "I'm the revealer!"
ReplyDeleteTypeovers included JAPANESE at 8 down, although that didn't really make sense (JAPANESE BEERS would have). And THEA was a complete Unknown Name.
By the way, most of us here in Canada say 33 down, although a few people say 33 across. Years ago I had to train myself not to pronounce the band's name as "Zed Zed Top", but I think almost everybody said the Datsun car as "Two Forty Zed".
Les S More
DeleteAccording to comments earlier, some Japanese beers are made only from rice. That was why specific products were mentioned.So rice beers makes sense to me. It is the main grain Japan is known for so it would make sense that a rice beer would result,
9 minutes for me which is medium-challenging for Tuesday. Enjoyed it a bunch!! The fact that they are grid-spanners makes them 100% row-y, and they are definitely hedges. I needed all the crosses to actually get the revealers. When I think of hedges I think of my experience driving around the countryside in England with those 10 foot high hedges closing in a one-lane road, with the occasional wider spot to let you pass. And then the ZEE/ZED cross was right there to send me back to England! : ) Definitely wanted meal or food before DIET. Enjoyed this puzzle! Thanks, Kate!~
ReplyDeleteIf there's a bustle in your hedgerow, don't be alarmed now
DeleteIt's just a spring clean for the May queen
Or @Rick Sacra driving off the road ;-)
JUST SPITBALLING doesn't rankle me. ONLY A THOUGHT BUT is pretty desperate, though, IMO.
ReplyDeleteThe BUT at the end of 57A corresponded nicely to the clue’s “However”, so I thought it was both clever and fair. I too did not know THEA but she emerged from the crosses. Great informative write-up, Rex! Thank you Kate for this fine Tuesday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThe late Mitch Hedberg said rice is a good food if you want to eat 1,000 of something.
ReplyDelete@ Lewis 7:4- AM Laughed out very loud at your take verdant privacy features.
ReplyDelete@Egs You kept me chuckling the whole way thru. And I agree wholeheartedly with your take on the themes taking a whole row making the realer perfect.
The holidays have hit with full force. I’ve barely had time to solve and read @Rex and the comments. By the wee hours when I have time to myself, it’s been too late to post. So, quickly, I liked the theme a lot because ot works and has a cleverly conceived and executed. Unfortunately, the non-theme fill paled in comparison.
ReplyDeleteIt’s odd how we frequently see the same answers multiple times in a fairly short number of days. We’re back to “Frozen” again.
Seeing Asahi made me think back to ny 21st birthday party at Lum’s in Champaign, IL. All those many years ago, Lum’s had a big stock (for the early ‘70s) of imported beer. No, my 21st was not the first taste of beer, it was simply my first opportunity to drink some good stuff without having to worry about being carded. Lum’s was owned by an immigrant family and they took rules seriously.
I really love good beer; always have. But my taste runs to robust lagers that have the real yeasty, bread-like flavor. My palate despises the bitterness of IPAs and wheat beer so popular these days. Anyway, my goal on my 21st was to taste as many of the imports at Lum’s as I could. We had at least a dozen good friends (several with no discernible “taste.” My then partner, eventually husband was in charge of the order in which we tasted. His years in the Air Force had allowed him to taste beer from just about everywhere. In 1970, Lum’s only had Asahi Gold. Not as awful on my palate as today’s “Super Dry,” but still quite a shock. Good memory.
Enjoyed the solve.
Es solo una idea, y solo estoy divagando, pero hasta donde puedo decir, es lo que vale.
ReplyDeletePerfectly lovely theme with a great reveal. Really solid puzzle. A rare no-cringe outing. Well, the fair dinkum thing is kinda dumb as they try to avoid "shrimp on the barbie," or "g'day mate."
Aww. DOH. It's not AAH and AHA. It's AHH and OHO. WAH WAH.
The Zs grossing out together is the only Funnyism in the puzzle.
Nice to see WRYLY after yesterday's SLY NOD uproar.
People: 3
Places: 0
Products: 8
Partials: 11 {Doh.}
Foreignisms: 0
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 76 (29%)
Funny Factor: 1 🤨
Tee-Hee: ASSES. AREOLAS. BEDAMN.
Uniclues:
1 Goes to the sermons.
2 Smell like a vegetarian Dutchman.
3 Bad Romance seemed about right.
4 Fishnet hosiery over the jigglers.
5 Pitches a fuss.
6 Unbanged the orangutan.
7 Give a sly nod.
8 When you see a lot of kanga but not much roo.
9 When you need a reliable mechanism to fall in love...
1 ADDS PADRE PEPS
2 EMIT TULIP DIET
3 OLD GAGA LANDED (~)
4 SWAY ASSES NETS
5 DISPUTE AS OF NOW
6 DEFUSED GORILLA
7 START AHA WRYLY
8 AUSSIE GLITCHES
9 ENTRUST PILSNER (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Blue trash panda in Jijoca de Jericoacoara. AZUL RACOON.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Gary... only 3 people? I get ADA, PANDORA, MARY, GAGA, THEA, and ELSA (of course that's counting a mythical "being" and a cartoon character). That's not too bad though.
Delete@okanaganer 7:49 PM
DeleteLet's see...
I counted ADA, GAGA and ELSA as people. Of the others, PANDORA (as clued is a streaming product), MARY and THEA (as clued) are a play and a movie respectively so also counted as products. This goes to your thought about gunk falling into multiple categories. Easily could've been just as you counted. It's a tight puzzle except for so many partials and there's just too many of those.
FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH does not belong, as what is being "mitigated" is the value of the information to the receiver, *not* it's certainty. "For what it's worth, Sacramento is the capital of California" / For what it's worth, *I* absolutely trust you!" Self-deprecation, not a "hedge."
ReplyDeleteSomehow I learned that Budweiser was a "rice beer" long ago when I was a teenager - it might have been an article in the NYT now that I think of it. And I was honored to know Thea back when I was in college so the mention of the film was a fond memory. Like others I had to "run the alphabet" to get Zee/Zed - and it took a bit because Z was the last option. but I didn't give up! Thanks Rex
ReplyDeleteStellar, stellar music choices today - THANK YOU @Rex!
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the solve today but I could not figure out the theme until I came here - and WOW! Clever, sophisticated, and WAY over my head! I'm thinking this is a Tuesday grid with a Saturday theme!
Another WOW factor was all the grid spanning revealers - that's a feat! Though I agree that ONLYATHOUGHTBUT may be a tad forced but again - ya gotta do what ya gotta do to make things work. And this was not that much of a stress in my humble.
They were all fun to work on with just a bit of resistance due to their length.
Like others the ZEE/ZED held me up for a bit and I had THE rather than THA for way too long.
Thanks Kate for the cool solve today and for a theme that impressed the heck out of me once it was handed to me here on a silver spoon :o)
My new thing is trying to guess what music videos Rex will insert into the day’s post. I had Buffalo Springfield, but I really thought Stairway to Heaven might make an appearance (if there’s a bustle in your hedgerow…)
ReplyDeletePicked a weird week to start solving downs-only on Mondays and Tuesday. Not that it’s been hard, I just miss my friendly across clues, plus I had no idea about the theme. I don’t see this catching on here.
ReplyDelete