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Cousins of grommets / WED 3-4-26 / Spicy chip brand / "Star Wars" droid, informally / Saucer crew, in brief / Delicacy that's often slurped / "Slow down there, big guy" / Cassette successors
Wednesday, March 4, 2026
Constructor: Wayne Bergman
Relative difficulty: Medium
 |
| [9A: "Star Wars" droid, informally] |
Theme answers:
- MISS THE MARK (3D: Twain, ___, Hamill, Wahlberg)
- SKIP A BEAT (7D: Metro, ___, Sports, Lifestyle)
- CUT A RUG (25A: Persian, ___, Oriental, Navajo)
- TAKE THE CAKE (11D: Red velvet, ___, Black Forest, angel food)
- PULL SOME STRINGS (55A: Violin, ___, cello, ___)
To dance, especially in a vigorous manner and in one of the dance styles of the first half of the twentieth century. (wiktionary)
• • •
Well, never ugh with the theme material. There was some ugh with the fill, but not enough to spoil the solve. You do have a lot of 3s today, and there's never anything good to say about 3s. They're just ... there, at best. RAH UAE ESP AKA TEL ORE HUR. But there was nothing unusual or particularly ugly about today's 3s, and in the slightly longer stuff, only ESAI and ARTOO gave me that "ugh, you again?" And when the fill gets a little longer, things get genuinely interesting. You can take "OK, I SEE" and throw it in the ocean (same with all jury-rigged "OH-" and "OK-" and "UH-" phrases) but PAPERLESS and RECOMMITS and SAKE BAR and even TOILET LID (32D: Head covering?), I like, and "EASY TIGER" really wins the day. The fact that the constructor managed to squeeze such a great phrase into that already thematically dense upper-middle section is really impressive.
Outside of the upper-middle, things were pretty straightforward and deal-with-able. Hardest answer for me to come up with was CAR LOT, which has a clever but (for me) absolutely brutal clue (46A: Mini mart?). Mini is a make of car, which I always forget ... or fail to see when crossword clues decide to use it in a punny fashion. I had almost all the letters in place and still had no idea what the clue was going for "CARLO-, CARLO- ... CARLOS? Who is this CARLOS and why is he a "Mini mart?").
Bullets:
- 9A: "Star Wars" droid, informally (ARTOO) — hate when the name is written out phonetically like this. Always stupid-looking. Ah well. We made it well over a week without a Star Wars reference. Ten days, to be precise. That nearly equaled the longest such streak of the year (which is currently eleven—Jan. 4-Jan. 15)
- 19A: Spicy chip brand (TAKIS) — this snack (flavored rolled tortilla chips, shaped like little taquitos) has really come on strong in recent years. The first ever appearance came only in February of last year (!), despite the fact that TAKIS have been around since 2001. Today's was the fifth appearance (three in the singular, two in the plural).
- 31A: Saucer crew, in brief (ETS) — ok ETS and flying saucers aren't real, and the clue should probably indicate fictionality somehow, but I love the phrase "saucer crew" so much that I don't care. Two words that belong nowhere near each other ... near each other. Nice.
- 50A: Where you might drink from a junmai glass (SAKE BAR) — lotsa Japanese material today. SUMO wrestlers at the SAKE BAR wearing OBIS. Actually, SUMOs don't wear OBIS. Instead, the wrestlers, known as RIKISHI, wear loincloths called MAWASHI (total number of NYTXW appearances for RIKISHI and MAWASHI: zero).
- 64A: Pay for play, perhaps (TYPO) — another clever clue. Surface meaning is very convincing / misleading. But no, the answer is not (say) ANTE. You have to imagine "pay" and "play" in scare quotes, indicating you are dealing with them as words alone—their particular meaning doesn't matter, grammatically.
- 13D: Delicacy that's often slurped (OYSTER) — the only food I can think of that I want absolutely nothing to do with. "Slurping" is unpleasant generally, but somehow slurping ramen, say, seems fine, while slurping an OYSTER ... gag.
- 39D: Cousins of grommets (EYELETS) — sincere first thought: "... Wallaces?"
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106 comments:
Medium. Nice Wednesday outing. To paraphrase OFL, "not complaining about the puzzle at all, just saying it took some thought." Which is good.
* * * * _
Overwrites:
Before reading the clue, MISS THE boat before MARK at 3D
EASY There before TIGER at 6D
My sense-making phrase was Oh I SEE before it was OK (12D)
RIllS(?) before RISES for the 17A hillocks
Again before reading the clue, RECOMMend before RECOMMITS at 35D
No WOEs, but I didn't know that NYC has a Museum of Mathematics (59D)
14:14 on the timer for me this morning.... so I think that's just on the high side of medium on Wednesday for me. Had the exact same struggle spot as @REX and some of the same experiences. I got CD right away. @REX, did you use cassettes much? Or were they on the way out when you started listening to your own music? Anyhoo... Filled in DRopLET and that led to SKIPApage and then I had to move on and do the rest of the puzzle. and come back to that, once I had CARLOT and EYELETS and that CEASE ARTSY section finally got clear. Yes, loved the theme! Welcome back, ARTOO! : ) Liked the clue on Mercury but not Venus. Nice Puzzle, Wayne, thanks!!!! : )
Hand up for LPs before CDs, for the same reason, chronological confusion. But the right answer made me remember mix tapes, which we used to make with cassettes. Even after we started burning CDs (and when was they last time I did that?), we still called them mix tapes.
Do young people now exchange playlists, or do something else to share music they love? Now that I’m retired from teaching, I’ve lost touch with the age group between my kids and my grandkids.
Cheese, Gromit!
Had droplet rather than driblet (are you kidding?)
I caught on to the theme with (MISSTHE) MARK (Twain, et al), so the puzzle was mostly smooth going. I had "droplet" instead of DRIBLET until SKIPABEAT forced the change. Average Wednesday difficulty, I thought.
Oof. That top middle section was brutal for me. DRIBLET? Really? And I couldn't think of BEAT. Finally got CEASE and ARTSY and figured it out, but I spent a long time with too much white space. This one played very hard for me, for a Wednesday. That said, I enjoyed the theme as much as @Rex, and had a lot of the same struggles. Oh I SEE before OK, but I tried EASY fella and EASY there and got TIGER only from the crosses--that's a phrase you don't hear much anymore, or at least I don't. Frustrating but ultimately fun.
CARLOT gave me a lot of trouble as well, I had CAR_OT and could not see anything other than CARROT, which had me digging for any semblance of a connection to the clue
This was a good one - in fact one of the more enjoyable puzzles of the year thus far. Rex hit most of the highlights, including the creative take on the theme.
I had a couple of speed bumps, including TAKIS, which just didn’t look right, even though I could tell they were looking for a brand name. I also had to take it on faith that DRIBLET is an actual word.
The highlight for me today was fixing my two mistakes (ESAU for ESAI, and SAKI for SAKE) and then realizing that the answer to “Head covering?“ was TOILET LID. That was a humorous AHA for me. Congrats to the constructor for a fine effort that is definitely NYT-worthy.
Is the mere existence of Mark Hamill in a puzzle a Star Wars reference? I mean, obviously, if he’s clued as “voice of the Joker in animated Batman series” then no, but he’s so associated with one role that it’s a defacto reference?
I take a little bit of an issue with the use of THE in two of the themers. MISS THE MARK implies there is only one Mark in the list. At first I thought, "OK, they're leaving out the 'Mark' in each of these names, so they're 'missing the Mark.' Cute." But then I was confused by the blank space in the list, as it seemed unnecessary. Had the same issue with TAKE THE CAKE, as I thought the clue should have been "Red velvet _____, Black Forest _____, angel food _____." (In retrospect, maybe that would have required it to be "TAKE THE CAKEs"?) Anyway, using THE for two of them definitely caused me some confusion and seems like at least a minor flaw. I'm surprised Rex wasn't bothered by it!
I think TAKI(s) has been a WoE for me every time it has appeared. Including this one.
Great puzzle. But contrary to what Rex said, it took me forever to realize that those were rugs. I kept thinking cats, gulfs, languages, tribes … but nothing worked with all three items.
I also had DRopLET before DRIBLET. And I had ESAu in for Morales for a long time, leading to some confusion on TOILETLID, which I wasn’t getting because ESAu and a clue with the word ‘head’ in it had me sure we were talking about a toupe.
I enjoyed the puzzle, lots of good clues and answers, slightly tricky, a fun Wednesday.
Liked this one - multiple directional themers and well filled. Played a little to the harder side of the week.
My Heart SKIPS A BEAT
The effort at wordplay and misdirects was commendable - although I’ve never used the term TOILET LID the cluing worked. Liked EASY TIGER, OYSTER and SAKE BAR. CUT A RUG stood out as a themer.
Yo La Tengo
There were some odd moments - RECOMMITS is off especially when paired with REMIT in the same grid. DRIBLET sounds like it should be in an ad about enlarged prostate meds.
Wendell GEE
Enjoyable Wednesday morning solve. Hoping for some snow melt today.
@pablo from yesterday - even more serendipity- in the early 80s Prine was kind of in a downward slope in his career and was playing small clubs. We saw him in a place in NW Mass - either Barrington or Stockbridge. He was great as always and covered not Four Strong Winds but Someday Soon another classic Ian Tyson song. I miss those days.
CAKE
I, like others, had to change droplet to driblet. A pretty hard puzzle but I liked it .🎈🎈🎊🎊
Not in love with DRIBLET, as I had DROPLET and SKIPAPAGE which took some sorting out. But overall a very enjoyable solve.
Three DRIBLETs in the Shortz Era, last used twenty-five years ago, and Rex gave it a pass? I hope he's ok 😉
Hey All !
Took a minute for the silly brain to grasp why there were phrases in the place of the blanks of the clues. "That doesn't make sense!", says I. Then the lightbulb moment of "Ahhh, it's a literal meaning telling you that something's not there." What, you don't talk to yourself?
Nice left/right symmetry, although the MW and NE corners are cut off, only a one letter entry in. But, with the Theme, I'll allow it. 😁
Lots of good @Gary Uniclue lines, I'll throw one out:
Non trained pet dog named after a Zodiac sign?
ARIES AKA LEAKY
Or maybe:
Gets a 50's car with just a handshake?
PAPERLESS EDSEL.
Anyway, did like this puz. Almost the same exact time as YesterPuz. Was looking for a Revealer for a bit, nice that it didn't need one.
Welp, have a great Wednesday!
No F's - GIVES me some next time. Har
RooMonster
DarrinV
I made a lot of mistakes because of the fun cluing, but like rex I liked the puzzle experience overall. I agree that the theme was strong.
Car lot also got me. Dang.
Surprised to get this much pushback from a Wednesday, but I really enjoyed it! Cute and worth the effort.
Judges say … ✅
April Stevens sang with her brother who went by Nino Tempo and had 60s hits with Deep Purple and Whispering
I very much enjoyed the puzzle but it just goes to show that I can never QUITE seem to predict whether Rex will like it…today I was surprised at his rating. Maybe I like a puzzle with an easy theme to grok, but I thought Rex would say “too easy” and “why”. (Btw…I never think “why”, I think “why not?”)
My timer today indicates the puzzle was on the easier side of medium, but hey…I got a good night’s sleep which can do a lot. My only semi-sideeye was DRIBLET and my only real hiccup was revisiting LEAhY because I had OhISEE.
Yeah, seems like audiocasette tapes were “a thing” for a hot minute before CDs -although probably longer than that- and I’m glad I pretty much just opted to listen to the (still pretty good) car radio during that hot minute. Such a “fragile”and finicky medium…oof.
The Star Wars reference was ARTOO. I doubt Rex would’ve counted Hamill otherwise? Otherwise, Harrison Ford would be if just randomly listed…
Good one Mike; DRIBLET was our last entry. Should someone make a wellness check?
Nice!
I’m the same way with TAKIS. Maybe it’s because I pretty much stick to plain tortilla chips and trusty potato chips. We bought Doritos down in Florida (I was one of 4 people sharing a condo) and about gagged at the taste of whatever it is that coats them. I used to be “normal” and eat things like that but now I feel like I’m putting toxins in my mouth…
As is often the case when I predict a two-something and Rex awards four-something, my appreciation grew after reading the write-up.
But as Rex pointed out, tons of three-letter words (23), and DRIBLET above GEE (clued as "Wowzers!", which for me MISSED THE MARK) made for a bad taste at the end.
ARTOO and ARTSY in the same puzzle made me chuckle (knowing that the former tripped the Star Wars Reference alarm. And if I can channel (absentee, I believe) Lewis, there's also TARTAR, so three ARTs today.
I'm fine with that as long as Alec Guinness is never considered to be a Star Wars reference unless explicitly clued as such.
I had EASYFELLA for a long time, ClosE instead of CEASE, and also DropLET, so that whole section stumed me badly!
I always get confused as to whether it's Jacob or Esau who needs the toupee.
🤣
Why the hate for DRIBLET, it's a perfectly normal word. I had actually first considered DRIpLET, which probably is not a word.
But my most fun mistake was EASY rIdER, which made no sense but fit the crosses. CUT A RUG saved me there.
We're leaving today for two weeks on Captive Island, with another 9 days to drive and visit family along the route. I may or may not be able to do any solving--it would have to be online, which I don't much like. But I'll see you all the morning of No Kings Day.
I always used to root for Pa when he'd challenge Ma to a ski race. SKIPABEAT Ma I'd yell.
I got all turned around last night at Rabekas SAKEBAR.
Noah: Welp, here we are, finally on dry land with the animals happily disbursed and procreating. Why do you seem sad, Bae?
Mrs. Noah: I'll MISSTHEMARK or no ark.
You can CUTARUG but you can't CATALOG.
I'm with @Rex on this one. First-rate theme idea, executed very well. Thanks, Wayne Bergman.
FWIW, I added a comment to the thread on order of adjectives in yesterday's comments.
Really enjoyed today's puzzle! Thought it was harder than a usual Wednesday! I too was scratching my head at Carlot not making the connection with Mini cars. Misspelt Sumo; which threw off toilet lid(very creative). Also had Oh I see, before OK and droplet before driblet. My husband(Brit) is a big Wallace and Gromit fan and chuckled heartily at the clip. He says his 5 seconds of fame being mentioned here not quite his 15 minutes aka Andy Warhol, but he'll take what he can get. Will close on that silly note!
Just Mark Hamill is a stretch, but 9 across is slightly less so
Couldn’t agree more with your oyster comment!
Me too—that H in Oh I SEE stayed there way too long, and emphasizes the arbitrariness of any clue with OK, OH, UH, or UM. Glad to have Rex wishing them all thrown in the ocean.
I miss the days of mix tapes, but yes, creating a Spotify list for someone is an act of love. More possibilities, but less curated.
Took some word evolution to solve this one—went from DRopLET to DRIpLET finally to DRIBLET. At the same time, went from EASYThere to EASYTo…., to EASYTIGER. Clues to CARLOT and TOILET were fun. In fact, found the whole puzzle fun to do. I’m glad Rex liked it as well. Good vibes today!
Joining the love-fest on this puzzle, but my personal sense has it difficult for a Wednesday. Normally I associate themes that are a puzzle in and of themselves to make sense of to be a Thursday theme. Didn’t help that I kept on hitting kealoas in trouble areas (OH before OK in the phrase, REEL before REAP, SETS before SECS, PEER and PEEP before PEEK, GMC before GTO [yeah, that one’s on me, like Rex’s LPS before CDS]). But in any case, I agree with all the love on this one. Very enjoyable solve with a theme that continued to please and satisfy the whole way through.
I had --K-BAR and reflexively put in tiKiBAR. Made that little chunk a full nightmare. "Am I about to have to google on a WEDNESDAY?" I thought in horror. And then I got myself sorted. What a journey!
This writeup made me like this puzzle more than I did while solving! I can see the elegance that I didn't really notice while solving. But one thing I have just realized I hate is the word DRIBLET. It's giving me "moist" levels of ick. Just...no. Never again. And I didn't even fall for the droplet/DRIBLET trap!
Have fun on Captiva!
Oho, eso tiene sentido para mí ahora.
On the tougher side and plenty of OHOS for me. Fun puzzle to solve.
Most of the ?-mark clues don't seem to need ?-marks today as they're not trying to be funny except for [Head covering] -- now that's funny. The ?-mark clues are just Wednesday askew. When I type ?-mark, I wonder if I'm making a TYPO and I'm really saying "question mark mark." This paragraph brought to you by the committee in my head trying to beat my phone's desperate attempts to fix my punctuation. It's calling me a %@#&$ ASS under its plastic-y gaze. I'm in charge little robot dude -- sorry, not sorry.
Starting off with a hockey team, a partial, and a Star Wars colloquialism isn't going to win many fans. I like all three and I'm fine with Star Wars and LOTR and the Potterverse and Frozen and Barbie and all the cheesy poof life has to offer.
Thank you @CDilly52 and @dgd for the nice comments yesterday. Right back atcha. I think your granddaughter is right. "Grandma, you know lots of stuff and some of it is really weird." There should be a game show called, Jeopardy for the Rest of Us.
❤️ EASY TIGER. {I say that phrase all the time. I love it.}
People: 3
Places: 2
Products: 5
Partials: 11 {so close, but no cigar}
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 76 (29%)
Funny Factor: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: ASS.
Uniclues:
1 Wanting to win the quiet game amped up the child aroar.
2 Souvenir shirt from the colony dance off.
3 Cheerleader spit.
4 The night you decided to miss the rap battle and slurp oysters instead.
5 High school counselor's phrase leading her to recommend trade school.
1 TASK HYPED PEST
2 ANT CUT-A-RUG TEE
3 HER RAH DRIBLET (~)
4 SKIP A BEAT EVE
5 OK I SEE GPA OMEN (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Subject of a Bob Dylan song at an earlier age. TAMBOURINE BRAT.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
How might you have reacted had the theme contained the clue, "B.L.T., ______, PB&J, Grilled Cheese", I wonder.
Saw him very late in his career when he played at Dartmouth. This was in the stage of his performances when he did almost as much story telling as singing and it was just great. He's always on the old folkies' list of favorites as a LOT of his stuff is three chords, A unique character, fer sure.
Can't say I'm ever a fan of seeing TAKE THE CAKE or cake walk appearing in a puzzle unless it's roots in slavery are made explicit.
https://americanhistory.si.edu/explore/stories/who-takes-cake-history-cakewalk
@RooMonsterb7:57 AM
Nice work D! I skipped both of those. I tried to put a diaper on the constellation, but your dog is much more pleasant.
Yo-@Adrienne--Same here with TIKIBAR off the K. Not a SAKE fan.
Yeah, DRIBLET, which had to be right. I think I have only heard DRIB in the phrase "DRIBs and drabs", which made me wonder if there is such a thing as a "drablet". Possible, as I have never heard of a DRIBLET either.
Nice theme today. BEAT was the mystery missing item as clued and I only got it from SKIPA, so fair enough. I learned TAKI from crosswords but do I remember it? I do not. And hooray for OBIS, which is like finding a favorite song on an oldies station.
Very nice Wednesday, WB. A real Wednesday Beauty, and thanks for all the fun.
But…driblet? That’s a new one to me!
I read a list of MARKs and CAKEs with an unnamed one missing from each list. So, the THE is appropriate.
CDs definitely the successor of cassettes for portable media - Sony Walkman and similar devices, in-car stereos, etc.
Another hand up for —K-BAR to tiKiBAR. That also took a bit of unwinding.
Same, exactly on both.
Love your Game show idea. I might actually be able to compete in that one. 😄
Anon 10:17
Cake walk is a great term, no need for anyone to be offended by its origins (just as there’s no need for an apostrophe in the its in your post). If there’s anything more charming than Judy Garland and Margaret O’Brien doing the cake walk in Meet Me in St. Louis I haven’t seen it.
It’s too bad the term MIX CD didn’t catch on — I like that it’s a two-word phrase entirely composed of Roman numerals.
Different and fun, even a bit challenging in places. Enjoyed it. At first I thought there might be some grid art involved but no, just nice mirror symmetry.
I tried to think of other themers and came up with only one that seemed doable. Clue: “Radial, off-road, run-flat, ________?” Answer: BLOW A TIRE.
Hah, I can watch Wallace and Grommet all day. "Cheeeese!" When Grommet raises his eyebrows, he looks a lot like my brother-in-law.
I had a similar hold-up as Rex in the top central sector. The meaning of BEAT eluded me for a few SECS.
When TAKIS first arrived in the grid, I was convinced they hadn't made it to our area but a quick tour of the snack aisle proved me wrong. I still haven't tried them - I'm not a big chip person except for blue corn.
Nice Wednesday puzzle, Wayne Bergman!
Medium for me too.
NYC was it for WOEs and I had no costly erasures.
I sort of caught the theme with MISSED THE MARK but I really didn’t appreciate what was going on until after more carefully reading the clues post solve…hence medium.
Cringy - DRIBLET (my last entry)
Clever and fun liked it
Speaking of pulling some strings, the federal government held my guitar from Sweden for a week in customs (maybe they were jamming), and UPS has no customer service except their AI robot (seriously), and today finally they said I owe a 20% tariff (which I've paid). It went from Sweden to Denmark to Germany without a hiccup and the moment it arrived in the United States of America, land of the free and home of the brave, they pulled the strings. No damn Viking lutes necessary here. So next up is its journey from Kentucky to New Mexico and UPS's robot is claiming they'll do it by this afternoon. They won't. I think America isn't "great again" yet. It seems like we're a TOILET LID
Glad to see I’m not the only one who put LPS first instead of CDs
Being offended is a personal choice. Just like making yourself feel better by pointing out small errors in punctuation or grammar in online posts.
Very different puztheme idea ... LIKE. A lot.
Alternate themer choice:
{Crust, tomato paste, ___, sausage, mushrooms} = ?*
Reasonable extra themer:
{Reel, ___, hook, line, sinker} = ??*
Silly M&A themer:
{___, ___, ___, ___} = ???*
anyhoo.. staff weeject pick: ETS. They were all pretty respectable 3-balls, but went with the plural abbreve meat that's also schlocky. And as @RP mentioned, a mighty cute ETS clue.
some fave stuff: EASYTIGER. TOILETLID & clue. Flush the DRIBLETs.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Bergman dude. Primo puztheme [with a 21x51 SunPuz-worth of themer possibilities] & smoooth puzgrid. Good stuff.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s.
?* = CUT THE CHEESE. [i.e., from the pizza]
??* = SPARE THE ROD.
???* = DROP EVERYTHING! har
Just off the top of my head:
Clue: elevated, beneficial, jarhead
Answer: Slice of life
(high, good, marine )
Please God let DRIBLET never appear before my eyes again.
Ellsion (7:13) is absolutely right about "a" vs "the" for MARK and CAKE. If you use THE, it matters which MARK and which CAKE is omitted. So those 2 don't work. It was a very clever puzzle but marred by these 2 defects.
From the web:
In English there are three articles: a, an, and the. Articles are used before nouns or noun equivalents and are a type of adjective. The definite article (the) is used before a noun to indicate that the identity of the noun is known to the reader. The indefinite article (a, an) is used before a noun that is general or when its identity is not known.
@Anonymous 10:38, ah I get it, and 55 across is STRINGS because there are two missing in the clue!
Yay, 2 Days Without Circles! That's worth a star all by itself.
I did the puzzle last night, liked it, and kind of understood the theme. But for some reason, looking at it this morning I couldn't for the life of me remember what it was. Maybe I'm just too used to seeing circles and/or a revealer.
Hands up for ESAU before ESAI. And I really didn't like USAA... darned obscure organization abbrev.
Liked this one. Had some clever and smile inducing clues/answers.
Hand raised for both
Three themer gems there.
I have to admire the theme concept but I didn't enjoy the solve as much as many of you. Ingenious but, to me, somehow clunky. And then there was DRIBLET. I looked it up post=solve and, yes, it is a thing. That's unfortunate.
What's with all the hate for oysters? They're wonderful. And I'm not the only one who thinks so. Apparently they were once one of the most popular foods in the western world and not, as they are today, just for the well-off. They were street food sold from carts like chips or tacos are these days. They were cheap, plentiful, and nutritious. Unfortunately, due to warming ocean temperatures and wanton over-harvesting, they are now crazy expensive. That makes me sad. Also makes me think I might head off to the fishmonger's this afternoon and see what she's got in stock.
I think Esau means "hairy" in ancient Hebrew
Forgot to mention how much I liked EASY TIGER, which I often say to my grandson. And, with the exception of my troubles with the themers, I thought the clueing was really good.
By default, Alec Guinness is of course a Simpsons reference.
Lose your lunch?
I had the same thought as Anonymous--a list of MARKS and CAKES with one left out of each list. Hence THE works.
I too started with DRopLET, and then switched to DRIplet, which seemed not nearly as good as what it replaced. Only at the very end did I realize it should be DRIBLET.
For me, audiocassettes were "a thing" for a lot longer than a hot minute. I eventually had accumulated just about as many audiocassettes as CDs. And I recall how upset I was when the car I wanted to buy could play CDs but not cassettes.
Southside Johnny
FWIW
ESAI as in Morales has long been crosswordese , (although not recently) because as always convenient letters. Even though I don’t have a clue about Ozark cast , I figured he was back again and he was. I try to remember the name is Spanish not biblical.
Loved the discussion about what is a Star Wars reference.I think Hammill did the least outside of Star Wars. But somehow doesn’t seem fair to him if his name alone is a reference.
Don't understand the hatred for DRIBLET. It's related to "dribble" as in "to fall or flow in small drops". A DRIBLET would be one of those drops, truly an "Insignificant amount", as clued.
I quit eating OYSTERs a few years ago after some friends got hepatitis after "slurping" some of the raw delicacies. Too much pollution in the oceans these days and bottom filter feeders are likely to accumulate some nasty stuff.
I agree with previous comments on the misuse of THE MARK and THE CAKE. That grammatical error was highlighted by the grammatically correct A BEAT and A RUG. In all four of those themers, three elements were listed and A fourth item was omitted. Looks like the form of the idiomatic phrase trumped standard English usage.
Elision
I agree with the replies about the theme clues being okay. “ The”does not imply singular or plural. So one blank for, singular. 2 for STRINGS which I really liked. Made me say , good one!
Very enjoyable puzzle theme! Normal time for recent Wednesdays but higher enjoyment rating for sure.
@Masked and Anonymous 12:26 PM
#3 That's a Sunday theme waiting to happen.
Beezer I didn’t really like any types of chips, except for the simple ones maybe, but for me it’s the salt. Once a bag is opened or a bowl is put in front of me my addiction kicks in. and I could eat the whole thing very fast. Often the dip is irrelevant- As a result, I never bring them home Cheezits etc are in that category for me also.
The companies have scientists who work on mouth feel, flavoring and how much salt to get us to keep eating, in my case spectacularly so. The coatings are all manufactured junk so you are absolutely right to stick to potato chips But I can’t stop!
Jberg
Finally, someone else surprised by the hatred of driblet. Looked up the definition and the first site had a quote from a Times article, with that spelling. To me it’s a normal word, heard it or read it all my adult life.
What’s the difference between
A personal choice and a choice?
DRIBLET, bah!
Someone needs to explain TOILETLID to me. Head covering? Googling a diagram, the base is called a bowl not a head. Is this a plumbing term? Or am I missing a captain obvious here?
“Head” is slang for”toilet” (esp on a ship, I think)
Yes! Yes!Yes!!
In Philly, fried oysters and chicken salad was a common lunch combo for working class men.
Been a few years since I’ve been there, but a joint tgat had become hoitu toitdy (The Sansom Street Oyster House) even had that bery combo in their high falitin menu
@Anon 7:04 pm, one of the several meanings of "head" is a toilet, or specifically a ship's toilet. (eg Merriam-Webster, #12b).
Thank God for Rex’s blog. Prior to finding it through crossword puzzle friends, I would mumble and grumble to myself about the dumbest clues I come across. I’m happy to have found a crossword puzzle community that I can vent to and commiserate with. Here goes for today’s puzzle:
FAIL NUMBER ONE: 46A - Mini mart. A mini mart is a small store, NOT a car lot. Wracking my brain trying to figure out what the hell this was supposed to be. Dear Will Shortz, please stop melting our brains with ninncompoop stretches of the imagination like this one.
FAIL NUMBER TWO: 7D - Metro, ____, Sports, Lifestyle. “Beat”? Really? What is this? The 1950s? “Say! Get the gal from the Food BEAT to cover the annual pumpkin carving contest! The readers will love it!”
Those clues describe SECTIONS of a newspaper. Nobody alive today refers to them as BEATS. This one really irked me. Please don’t do that.
FAIL NUMBER THREE: 29A - insignificant amount. DRIBLET???? Nobody uses this word today. Stop forcing us back into the 1950s. My brain is bleeding over this one.
Okay, rant over.
Um, the Queen is dead. It's "His Majesty"....
I found this puzzle to be really excellent for all the reasons Rex and others mention! Thanks so much!
Well, Anonymous at 8:07 pm, I thought mini mart was a clever and excellent misdirect clue. for car lot.
(Tho I did wonder if cars are ever called minis in the US. I associate them with Britain.)
I never heard driblet in the 1950's, so I found your rant way off the mark.
I agree enthusiastically with the commenters who thought this an outstanding puzzle
"Pull some strings" was my favorite.
I could not figure out what was going on with 3D but caught on withTake the cake at 11D and from then on it was fun figuring them out.
So sorry about your guitar, Gary. Hope it get to you unscathed.
This solve challenged me. I just couldn’t get tuned in to Wayne Bergman’s wavelength (maybe because it’s a Waynelength?). Anyway, my time was only a tad slower than the average Wednesday but the relief of the happy music felt like the end music after one of those behemoth Sunday all day sucker solves wherein I’m the sucker.
The theme concept was original but the execution felt forced except for MISS THE MARK and SKIP A BEAT. And maybe it’s just me because the overall tenor of today’s comments and discussion seems very positive. The two that left me scratching my head were PULL SOME STRINGS and TAKE THE CAKE. Forced keeps coming to mind.
I used to baby sit a little girl back in the early-ish ‘60s when the Play-Doh Fun Factory was just introduced. No matter how many times I showed her that she could extrude longer, more perfect shapes that wouldn’t crack apart if she would knead the clay with her hands until it was really warm and pliable, she persisted in her attempts to take the clay right out if the can and force it into the hopper and be angry and sad when her extrusions broke apart. Several of the theme elements just felt like they required more kneading before they could be extruded seamlessly into today’s grid. Despite this ridiculous simile, I liked the idea a lot, and think it has possibilities.
My favorite moment was the TOILET LID, but I the ? gave it away too easily. A great clue/answer pair like that deserves to be served up literally with the constructor’s tongue firmly in his/her cheek and us having to work harder for it.
I thought the DEEM answer was SEEM for the longest time
Hahaha drablet, I can absolutely get behind. Also, funny (to me) story. I was born about 9 months after the first Rocky movie came out. My WHOLE LIFE people would, upon learning my name, do the "yo, Adrienne" thing, and I was probably in my late teens or early 20s when I understood why. And I only caved and saw Rocky in my 30s.
Yeah, I understand what the constructor was doing. I just think that if there is a list of Marks and one is missing, the more apt phrase would be "MISSING *A* MARK" (which obviously isn't a thing). Also, considering the millions of Marks in the world, it's weird to make a list of four and say that one is missing. There are millions missing.
The grammar just doesn't seem quite tight enough to me. If the list were something like "Carrie, Harrison, Alec, ____," then MISSING THE MARK would make more sense, IMO.
@Anon 8:07PM. Well said. And welcome to the neighborhood! I have found this to be a community of knowledgeable folks with the most fascinating backgrounds, full of humor, cleverness and wise-crackery. This is my daily “coffee group.” I hope you stick around.
Ty!!
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