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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
Corny letter-pun theme and a lot of garbage fill. Perhaps not the worst of times, but definitely not the best of times either. There was one semi-cool moment where I actually used a theme answer (SEES EYE TO EYE) to get another theme answer (ATOMIC CITY). Other than that, I didn't enjoy this one much at all. Some of the theme answers are pretty decent answers on their own. QUIET QUITTING I quite like, and SITTING PRETTY isn't bad at all. But that's all the joy the theme yields. And I've got major problems with at least two of the "Sound It Out" answer. First, if I'm taking the puzzle at its word, and the point is literally to "sound out" the letters, then what the hell is going on with the "ME" in INSTRUMENT!? In literally every other case in the whole danged puzzle, the puns work because you "sound out" the circled letters as letters. "R" = "ARE," "U" = "YOU," etc. etc. etc. But not so with that "ME." If you want to use "RUME" as your circled letters, then the answer should be "ARE YOU WITH EMMY?" It's true. Come on, you know I'm right. You may not care that the puzzle ignores its own dang rule, but you cannot deny that it does, in fact, ignore it. Precisely once. Just ... because. Also, how are those "B"s a "line?" There are four of them, but they do not form a "line" in any meaningful sense of that word. If they were consecutive, great, that's a "line." but "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" other letter "B" is not a "B" line. It's not. Again, you may not care, but it's definitely not. Any more than any number of "B"s (>1) in any answer is a "B" line. Even if this letter-pun stuff were my cup of tea, I'd still have to say the theme is poorly executed. And this letter-pun stuff is not my cup of tea. So ... bad day to "B" me, I guess.
- "ARE YOU WITH ME?" / INSTRUMENT (the letters "R" and "U" are "with" (i.e. next to) the letters "ME") (27A: The circles in 22-Across? / 22A: Triangle, for one)
- CUE TIPS / QUIET QUITTING ("Q"s are on the "tips," i.e. at the front, of their respective words) (45A: The circles in 41-Across? / 41A: Modern trend of employees doing the bare minimum)
- BEELINE / BABY BIB (there's a "line" (I guess ...?) of "B"s) (67A: The circles in 64-Across? / 54A: Highchair wear)
- TEA SETS / SITTING PRETTY (there are two "sets" of "T"s) (91A: The circles in 93-Across? / 93A: On easy street)
- SEES EYE TO EYE / ATOMIC CITY (there are "C"s running from one "I" to the other) (108A: The circles in 115-Across? / 115A: Nickname of Oak Ridge, Tenn., built in 1942 for the Manhattan Project)
Yaren (in earlier times Makwa or Moqua) is a district of the Pacific island country of Nauru [population: 803]. It is the de facto capital of Nauru and is coextensive with Yaren Constituency. Yaren is located on the southern coast of the island and is the location of Nauru's government offices. // The district was created in 1968. Its original name, Makwa (or Moqua), refers to Moqua Well, an underground lake and primary source of drinking water for the Nauruan people. // Yaren is located in the south of the island. Its area is 1.5 km2 (0.58 sq mi), and its elevation was 25 metres (82 feet) as of 2007. To the north of Yaren is Buada, to the east is Meneng, and to the west is Boe. // Yaren has a marine tropical rainforest climate (Köppen Af) with hot, humid conditions across the year. // Yaren (and sometimes Aiwo) is usually listed as the capital of Nauru. However, this is incorrect; the republic does not have cities nor an official capital. Yaren is accepted by the United Nations as the "main district". (wikipedia) (my emph.)
• • •
And the fill, oof. Here's what I said about YAREN the last time I saw it, seven+ years ago , which remains the only other time I've ever seen it in my life in any context (my feelings about the answer have not changed):
I'm still laughing at YAREN. I mean ... what? It's bad enough I have to remember NAURU, a very very very tiny country. But its so-called capital? More people live In My Neighborhood than live in YAREN. I got YAREN and gaped at it. Checked the crosses. Shrugged. Thank god for crosses. Beyond that, the fill was rough all over.And once again the fill was, in fact, rough all over. Exhibit A: RAN IT, which, astonishingly, crosses YAREN! Exhibit B: DUDED. Exhibit C: SEEDLET. And so on. The plural of "mafioso" is MAFIOSI, not MAFIOSOS (111A: Family members). See for yourself. If you're gonna go and get all Italian on us, at least finish the job, yeesh. I nearly died on the SEMANA / ANTIMONY cross, first because I misspelled SEMANA as SEMENA (making some kind of sound analogy from Fr. "semaine") (87A: Seven days in San Juan) and second because I never can really believe that ANTIMONY is an element and not, you know, a feeling (89D: Sb, on the periodic table). As in "I feel great ANTIMONY for this puzzle." RAN IT, ON IT, "SO THIS IS IT" ... Cousin ITT. Lottta "IT's in this grid. Also, lotta LOTTEs (just the one, but that's more than zero, and thus a lot more than I care to see) (old school crosswordese, though, so not a big problem). Distracting to see TEASE in a letter-pun puzzle when it has nothing to do with "T"s. Also to see Q-BERT, which has a "sounded-out" "Q" in it (97A: 1980s video game character who hops between cubes). See also "DQED" (36D: Eliminated for not following the rules, informally). Weak concept, weak execution, whaddyagonnado? (go back to watching March Madness basketball as fast as I can, actually).
Bullets:
- 90D: Tufted parts of horses' legs (FETLOCKS) — I am no horse anatomy expert, but I like this word. Briefly got it confused with HOLLYHOCK because that's the name of Bojack Horse(!)man's half-sister on Bojack Horseman. (they both think she's his daughter for much of the series, which is why he says "daughter" in this clip)
- 31A: Digital ID? (SSN) — because it's composed of ... digits. I assume.
- 101D: People of the Mexican altiplano (OTOMI) — I've definitely seen OTOMI in the grid before (you couldn't invent a more crossword-friendly 5—alternating v-c-v-c-v, terminal "I" ... just amazing), but I have to admit I could not tell you what the "altiplano" is. So, for me, and maybe for you ...
The Central Mexican Plateau, also known as the Mexican Altiplano (Spanish: Altiplano mexicano), is a large arid-to-semiarid plateau occupying much of northern and central Mexico. Averaging 1,825 m (5,988 ft) above sea level, it extends from the United States border in the north to the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt in the south, and is bounded by the Sierra Madre Occidental and Sierra Madre Oriental to the west and east, respectively.
 |
| [there's also an antiplano in South America—the Andean Plateau—which I mistakenly posted earlier] |
- 1D: Jay Gatsby's obsession in "The Great Gatsby" (DAISY) — read this last year for the 100th anniversary. I was spared having to read it in high school, and I didn't get around to reading it until I was in my 40s. I liked it OK, but I blew through it and didn't think much about it that first time. This time, I paid more attention, and I really really loved it. Not sure it's great high school reading material, but it is a genuinely beautifully written book.
- 8D: Duo with the 1999 hit "Steal My Sunshine" (LEN) — come on. The great spy novelist LEN Deighton just died and instead of referring to him you're giving me an admittedly catchy but very old song by a band that had zero other hit songs? Bah. I'm reading Deighton for the first time right now, after seeing many people, including several friends, profess their admiration for him over the years. I've started with The Berlin Game and so far, I'm loving it. It's got sentences that stop you in your tracks they're so well written. Not many writers in any genre write sentences that can do that.
On the other hand, "Steal My Sunshine" is a pretty fun song, I have to admit...
That's all. See you next time.
P.S. fictional crossword tournament representation alert!
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ReplyDeleteVery Easy. Agree totally with all of OFL's major comments and most of his minor ones.
* * _ _ _
Overwrites:
My 1A behavior catalyst was yolo before it was a DARE, quickly fixed with DAISY at 1D.
I spelled the fertilizer and gunpowder component NITre before NITER.
WOEs:
The 1999 singing duo LEN at 8D
Nauru's capital YAREN at 30A
The OTOMI people at 101D
Interesting to have LOTTE (62A), LOTTO (100A) and MOTTO (106A) in the same puzzle.
It was fun seeing Q-BERT (97A). At one time I was so obsessed with the game that I bought a used console for my den.
[Presumptuous ones]
ReplyDeleteWHI(P)(P)ERSNA(P)(P)ERS
[The circles in the above answer?]
SPLIT PEAS
Lewis with the buggywhip!
DeleteHere’s to YAREN. It is not a city or even an official capital, as its country, Nauru, has neither, according to Wikipedia. Yaren’s population (2021) is 803, a mighty climb from its 2011 population of 747.
ReplyDeleteThat is, Yaren is a little ‘un as capitals and cities go. A speck, hardly noticed outside of itself. And yet here it is in the prestigious Times crossword, sharing the box with the likes of KATE Winslett, Lisa LOEB, and ETTA James. And not even Bad Bunny has appeared in a Times crossword.
You go YAREN! You are not only literally on the map, but tiny you out in who-knows-where, are now On The Map. Cheers to you!
Saturday's mini had Bad Bunny, so it's probably on the way to the main crossword.
DeleteKnowing that Nauru has no “capital,” I object to the clue. It could easily be clued as something like “Nauru’s administrative center.” Incorrect clues like this smack of geographical or cultural chauvinism to me. It doesn’t take much to respect how people define their own countries.
DeleteThere’s something about the cluing in these AES puzzles that doesn’t land for me. The theme is dense no doubt - but lacks any nuance. The SITTING PRETTY - TEA SETS pair stands out.
ReplyDeleteBarry Sadler
The grid is loaded with ? clues trying to be cute. Liked SO THIS IS IT, ADAMS APPLE and USURY. Agree with the big guy on FETLOCKS - cool term although the plural hurts it.
Although I loved my DAISY, I sought fame,
And so I left the village green
Channeled my inner Rex last night at dinner and ordered a proper cocktail - Fernet and Domaine de Canton with lime and bitters - outstanding and I got to feel like George Sanders for the night.
Skeeter and NRBQ
This was easy enough so it didn’t take too long - but not an enjoyable Sunday morning solve.
TREY
Rex is spot-on, I'm afraid. While I pretty much enjoy *any* puzzle (and appreciate the work that goes into any construction), I found the theme unimaginative and inconsistent. The title truly does not reflect the theme. Perhaps there's a certain symmetry or there are parallels that I am not fully appreciating?... LOTTE/LOTTO, DAMUP/ADAMSAPPLE, LSAT/SATS, etc.?
ReplyDeleteOur son lived in Terre Haute for a few years. There's a quote from Law & Order ("I.D.") that I love about Terre Haute, when Jack McCoy rails at Lucy Sullivan about depriving her sister of her life: "My sister's life, Mr. McCoy? My sister lived in Terre Haute, Indiana. She stapled papers in an insurance office. My sister didn't have a life."
I knew Terre Haute, Indiana from my teenage years, when I would order 12 albums for one cent total! (Plus shipping and handling, of course) but then you were obliged to purchase several more albums at a comically high cost. They were counting on teenagers to do that?
DeleteWhile I acknowledge Rex's complaints about themer consistency, they did not affect my solve enjoyment at all.
ReplyDeleteWhat did affect my enjoyment was the cluing, which was at the level you associate with an AARP 'easy' crossword. This clever theme deserved much better clues.
There is also an altiplano in Mexico - in English it’s usually called the Central Mexican Plateau and this is the one whose natives are the Otomi people. 105 across is referring to the South American altiplano though
ReplyDeleteYeah if I’d been paying better attention idve seen the word “Mexican” right there in the clue. 😭 fixed it, thanks
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteNifty puz. Basically a "Letteral" Theme, as Rex likes to call these type clues/things.
BABYBIB was a BEELINE in COVID times. Six feet apart!
I'm surprised no mention of LSAT and SATS dupe. There's also LOTTE and LOTTO. Where's the LOTTA? (Or would that be LOTSA?)
Liked the overall gist of this puz. Fill pretty good, considering the 10 Themers to work around. Circles pretty much needed today. Would be difficult to suss Theme out without them. Although, I know some will say we could've done it sans circles. Probably not me. 😁
Would a dramatic woman in Nauru's capital be a YAREN KAREN?
Would a fancy dressed cowboy be a DUDED DUDE?
Would the Tony winner Lenya after hitting the jackpot be a LOTTE LOTTO winner?
Welp, hope y'all have a great Sunday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
And what did we all shout when Ms. James entered the Blues Hall of Fame? ATTA girl, ETTA!
DeleteI didn’t want to believe SATs and LSAT could be in the same puzzle, yet there they were. Standardized testing, indeed.
DeleteWhat did they say when waiting for her to show up, " what's the ETA for Etta?"
DeleteAnd IQTESTS
DeleteSAT and LSAT are totally different things that happen to share some letters; they are not dupes. SAT is a now stand-alone word that stands for nothing but itself; LSAT is an abbreviation that stands for something.. Even when SAT was an abbreviation for something (which it hasn't been for years), the two shared only one word common: test.
DeleteWell, these letter-sound puns looked to me like they’d be easy to come up with – until I tried, and for me, at least, it was tough going.
ReplyDeleteAlex not only came up with five of them, but made them symmetrical in the grid. Thus, INSTRUMENT / ARE YOU WITH ME – 10 letters and 12 letters – is matched below by SEES EYE TO EYE / ATOMIC CITY at 12 letters and 10 letters. And so on.
So, not only are the theme answers tough to come up with, IMO, but the possibilities are greatly constricted by the demands of symmetry.
Wow and bravo to you on coming up with this theme answer set, Alex.
I especially liked the sees-eye-to-eye / ICCI conceit. My favorite clue in the box? That batty [Batteries for brains?] for IQ tests. It was also sweet seeing ATTA beneath ETTA.
All of this is to say that I was impressed and entertained by your creation, Alex – that it was time very well spent. Thank you!
It took me forever to parse SEESEYETOEYE. I just kept dumbly staring at it without SEEing it.
ReplyDeleteApart from the "Great" one, there is a 1939 novel by Ernest Vincent Wright, called "Gadsby" that does not use the letter "E" -- not even once in over 50,000 words. I guess the author was observing the EBAN.
ReplyDeleteAlternate clue for 1D: "Oopsie ________."
The 1939 edition does have some Es that slipped through.
Delete"Officers," and a few instances of "the."
Pesky ones.
DeleteSounds like an output of this French literati collective called Oulipo; this is one type of thing they would do. A text that omits one or more selected letters intentionally is called a lipogram (it's only a coincidence that "lipo" are the last four letters of "Oulipo"); it turns out that this word game goes back to ancient times.
DeleteWe’re seeing the eight-hour Elevator Repair Service play of Gatsby on Friday, can’t wait. I love the book too but haven’t the slightest idea why anyone thinks it’s a good book for high schoolers to read, they don’t have anywhere near the life experience to be able to appreciate it yet imo
ReplyDeleteAgree. The same thing is true for almost everything we read in high school. “The Scarlet Letter”? “Silas Marner”? “The Mayor of Casterbridge”? All books I hated in high school and loved when I read them again later in life and had a clue.
DeleteI re-read Gatsby a few years ago and couldn’t get over how young all the characters are. They’ve barely entered adulthood and are trying to figure it all out. Once you’re older than the characters in the book, reading it is a whole different experience.
When I was in seventh grade we had to read "The House of the Seven Gables". Impossible, and I was a reader. Maybe it was chosen for the "seven" thing.
DeleteMy brain runs out of energy and enthusiasm when I keep bumping into things I have flat out never seen or heard of before (such as YAREN, SEMANA, ANTIMONY, FETLOCKS, OTOMI, LOTTE . . .). I’m all for learning new things, but I truly enjoy learning new concepts and even vocabulary, but with obscure trivia that I will have forgotten 15 minutes post solve, well I get “nonsense fatigue”.
ReplyDeleteI can’t think of a single memorable clue/answer combination, and that should not be the case for the NYT’s flagship puzzle. I guess that’s the price they pay for requiring a theme which puts so much strain on the grid that it’s almost impossible to glue it all together.
I guess the (not so high) highlight of today was having a KOALA and a LLAMA both make an appearance. Boy am I reaching here.
How disappointing. A Sunday rebus by AES.
ReplyDeleteHave a good day, everyone.
By and large, gotta agree with one sigificant exception. Disrespecting Rosa Klebb isn’t safe - she will come at you with a poisoned blade coming out of her shoe (Lotte Lenya in “From Russia With Love”) or sing along with Lois Armstrong - Mack the Knife - written by her husband!
ReplyDeleteThanks Ted, I know her as a premier cabaret singer and interpreter of her husband's works (Kurt Weill, a major composer). Didn't put it together that it was her in the James Bond flight attendant role "Peanuts, Mr. Bond?" - I remember that from a Dennis Miller routine.
DeleteMy wife suggested LOTTE and I said "no, that's a woman's name in 'Mack the Knife' ". So I violated Rule #1 of Life...She Is Always Right.
DeleteDon't understand why yaren is word of the Day. Totally obscure and probably not going to appear again anytime soon
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 8:59 AM
DeleteI think Rex chose Yaren precisely because he was annoyed it was in the puzzle. He found it so obscure. He looked it up, quoted from Wikipedia to show us how ridiculous it was.
But to me, since it was an easy puzzle otherwise, it was an unclued answer, with gettable crosses.
Rex, Why are you bothered by ANTIMONY? That’s what it’s called, lol.
ReplyDeleteI dropped that right in off the ...ny
DeleteLiked it more than @REX... Enjoyed the top and bottom themers a bunch, and seeing every other B in BABYBIB, and every other I in ... THISISIT was fun. Record Sunday time for me at 16 minutes. @REX, don't forget there's LOTTO too along with LOTTE. Anyway.... Not an unpleasant Sunday solve for me...
ReplyDeleteRe the "Gatsby in High School" discussion...
ReplyDeleteSo we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly by the soft bigotry of low expectations and the ubiquity of vapid young-adult literature.
I guess Quiet Firing is where they reduce your paycheck to the bare minimum.
ReplyDeleteMy hamstring wanted to go dancing but I RESTRAINED it.
A dame made EDAM wrong, ending her brief career in cheese making. In the same vein, an alarm to remind you to pay your bills would, I suppose, be a REMIT timer. Just don't take a LLAMA to a mall unless it's a service animal. And if you get into a fight about it, remember that it's more effective to STUN nuts than to kick ass. Is your cold producing a lot of SNOT? Tons!
Did you get a good hand from that German poker dealer? No, just a pair of NEINS.
"Hey Eliot, what's the TS stand for, Too Short?" " Or is it Tiny Scrotum?" Oh how they used to TEASETS.
This was fun to aack (tease out). When I consider @Lewis' points about difficulty of finding good specimens and then placing the double themers symmetrically, I'm inclined to be forgiving on the iffy fill. Thanks and nice job, Alex Eaton-Salners.
I enjoyed last Sunday’s puzzle and I seem to be the only one who likes today’s. All I can say is keep ‘em coming, NYTimes 🎈🎈🎊🎊
ReplyDeleteWell. This puzzle freaked me out so much due to two answers, I really can’t say much about the overall solve except the fact that for the third day in a row my timer indicated I was at or near a PB.
ReplyDeleteWhy oh why did AES have Mike BRAUN in the puzzle? Yes. HE is “my” Governor, and TERRE Haute, Ind is where I was born. I’m happy to say I “escaped” from there at the age of two, but still ended up in a place that has BRAUN as the current governor. We had a good governor for 8 years prior to Braun, but let’s just say that BRAUN makes me look back at the long ago Pence days and think…”well, at least HE upheld the Constitution when it really mattered.” (Of course as vice prez, not governor).
Yikes. As you can see, the puzzle set me off. AES, I won’t hold it against you but WOE BRAUN in the puzzle!?
I love Yaren precisely because it’s not the de jure capital.
ReplyDeleteI play Globle Capitals every day. There are a few African cities that I can’t keep
In mind, but I finally conquree Oceania.
Re: Oceania, ads for a cruise line call it Oh-she-ahh-nah, IMO it ought to be Oh-shin-eee-ah, but noooo!!!
DeleteI had the same experience as Rex with Gatsby. The first time I read it (in college?) I thought what’s the big deal? Reading it as an adult with some more mileage I was stunned by it. I cried and cried at the final lines. Maybe it’s time for a third read.
ReplyDeleteLike youth, it’s wasted on the young!
I enjoyed the goofy themers and non-themers in this puzzle but overall didn’t find it as easy as @Rex. Outliers like YAREN and OTOMI were tough to get around, and had no experience with QBERT. I’m the literary front, as a former English lit major, I guess it’s time to read the Great G…
ReplyDeleteI didn't particularly enjoy this puzzle, but I loved seeing LEN. Why not use the band behind a classic bop instead of cluing the same guy over and over again?
ReplyDeleteI've gotten accustomed to seeing this sort of letter-and-word-play from AES in his Puns & Anagrams puzzles - not my favorite sort of clue to unravel, I'm afraid - but the closing SEES EYE TO EYE was good! I also liked ANTIMONY, a word I don't think I've ever had occasion to write before, and I realized that I hadn't known the difference between a forelock and a FETLOCK. Tidbits, but enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteYou say LOTTE, and I say LOTTO; you say LYING, and I say ILIED. SHAME on me for not speaking Spanish or science, hence my DNF with SEMENA and ENTIMONY instead of the correct SEMANA and ANTIMONY.
ReplyDeleteSaw the Elspeth episode. Nice that they based the plot on the ACPT, but have no idea why they just had an "A" division in the fictional tournament. Steve Buscemi was FANTASTIC, though!
ReplyDeleteEasy again. No real problems with this one. The only place I truly paused was OTOMI. I had Olmec at first and immediately had to backtrack.
ReplyDeleteYAREN was also a major WOE but the crosses filled it in before I noticed.
What @Rex said.
it is funny how the brain works. Somehow I knew LOTTE Lenya off the L. I went to Wikipedia to read about her - she passed away 43 years ago at the age of 83, and I have no idea how I knew her
ReplyDeleteAlice Pollard
DeleteFor me, born in early’50’s , she was a gimme. . Lotte escaped the Nazis to become famous in the US. (She apparently had a role in a Bond film someone here said) She was also married to the equally famous Kurt Weil of Mack the Knife ( and her name appeared in the Bobby Darrin version of that song). But she was famous enough that even after her death she kept being mentioned and maybe got imbedded in your brain. Just remembered Bobby Darrin’s version of Mack the Knife showed up a recent biopic of Darrin. so her name is still out there!
@Alice. Think "Mack the Knife". Written by Ms. Lenya's spouse, Kurt Weill. One of the most popular recorded versions, by Louis Armstrong, even contained the line "Look out Miss Lotte Lenya". Or how about "Alabama Song", aka "Whisky Bar", popularized by Jim Morrison and the Doors (Show me the way to the next whisky bar). And then there's my personal fave, "Pirate Jenny" (And the ship, the black freighter, turns round in the harbour, shooting guns from the bow).
DeleteWow dgd an Les…I did not know that! Thanks!
DeleteLOTTE Lenya sounded familiar to me too. Lyrics from an old song? Had to do a web search: she's mentioned in Mack the Knife (I've heard several versions, but I'm most familiar with Louis Armstrong's, as someone posted above.)
DeleteAs @Roo points out, this puzzle has SATS at 78D and LSAT at 40D. I don't mind small dupes - a couple of "up"s or "to"s - but this is bad. Also LEN.
ReplyDeleteSAT (formerly the abbreviation for the Scholastic Aptitude Test and later, the Scholastic Assessment Test) is no longer an abbreviated name; it is It is now a stand alone word that stands for nothing but itself. L,S,A.T. on the other hand, is an abbreviation, standing for the Law School Acceptance Test. Since one is now a proper name and the other is an abbreviation of a name, I'm not sure the dupe "rule" applies here - unless I am being duped on this!
Delete@Anon. My mistake. I assumed the SAT in LSAT was the same as the Scholastic Aptitude Test. Not being American and never having encountered either of these things in real life, I just jumped to the easy conclusion. Thanks for the correction.
DeleteI still say it's a dupe!
DeleteHar
😁
Roo
Not so bad a mistake. I suspect the people who established the LSAT in 1948 deliberately figured out a way to capitalize on the familiarity and reputation of the SAT, which had been in use for about 20 years or so already and was well established, by coming up with a test name that would mimic that of the SAT. Bot over the last few decades the SAT fiddled with its own name (aptitude to assessment) in partial response to accusations of built-in cultural biases in the test. After a good deal of controversy and back-and-forth, the SAT folks just decided it would be easiest SAT just stood for nothing. But if you had raised this issue two or three decades ago, you would have had a stronger case.
DeleteJust one more reason to be glad you live in Canada - where munchkins are TimBits and the Tire store sells so much more than tires!
@RooMonster; and you would be wrong to say so
DeleteRushing to get out the door for the next step of our drive home from Captiva, so I'll just say -- DNF because I thought the actress was cATE. I get her CAIT, and KATE mixed up. And what Rex sais re: OTOMI. (pssst. --
ReplyDelete"altiplano" just means 'high plain," if that helps).
Rex, you probably know this -- but Hemingway writes in "A Moveable Feast" that he and Ezra Pound met Fitzgerals in the Parisian bar they hung out in, and thought him insufferable -- but Hemingway agreed to read his manuscript, and realized that he had to do whatever he could to help anyone who could write so beautifully.
It was Easy, I agree. Even though I left the timer running by accident while helping my daughter pack up after her Spring Break, I still clocked a decent time for a Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of Rex's criticisms, but I think I enjoyed it slightly more. Those four-word phrases (SO THIS IS IT, ARE YOU WITH ME, SEES EYE TO EYE) and the two-word phrases QUIET QUITTING, SITTING PRETTY, all very much in the language, go some distance in winning some favor with me. Two stars feels a bit parsimonious.
That song by LEN, I somewhat grudgingly admit, is indeed catchy and fun. The hook is essentially a cowbell-based ostinato they sampled from from a disco hit "More, More, More" (how do ya like it, how do ya like it), and musically there's not a whole lot more to it, but damned if it isn't memorable all the same!
TIG Notaro is great. Speaking of music from the nineties (give or take), here is Tig recounting a weird series of chance encounters she had with pop singer Taylor Dayne (anyone remember her?). Love Tig's comedic delivery and timing.
Put in vINS before ZINS. Also put in cATE before KATE, because I apparently get Winslet's name mixed up with Blanchett's.
Even though they might be nice warm resting places, I did not put in before wOMBS before TOMBS. Because I checked the cross. There's no such thing as a "wUBE PAN". :-)
Happy Spring, y'all!
What the heck is a “cue tip?”
ReplyDeleteThe tip of a pool cue (stick)
DeleteAh, that satisfying feeling that comes with cleanly finishing a Sunday puzzle... no naticks to ponder over, no second guessing... everything just clinks together. It's been quite a while, and while it's a low bar, for the NYT Sunday xword it's the gold standard now, and this puzzle definitely makes the grade. Hope to see more like it from this constructor!
ReplyDeleteAgree with Rex - easy but not fun. It felt like a real slog.
ReplyDeleteREX NAILED IT!
ReplyDeletePoorly executed. No fun. One star.
ReplyDeleteJust finished a Patrick Berry from the New Yorker. An absolute delight - clever, squeaky clean fun. Five stars.
I’ve done a fair number of AES puzzles and they range, for me, from brilliant to real sh*t. This one was above average. It had some nice stuff like SEES EYE TO EYE and SITTING PRETTY. I liked ARE YOU WITH ME and ATOMIC CITY, too. Oh, and QUIET QUITTING. I suspect I was doing a bit of that in the years before I took a buy-out and retired. So I can’t figure out why don’t find this puzzle very exciting. Maybe the clueing just needed something more. Another turn of the wrench, so to speak.
ReplyDeleteAt least it got me to get Spotify to play some LOTTE Lenya. I’ve always had a strange fascination with Kurt Weill, Bertold Brecht, Ms. Lenya and Weimar Era music.
Yeah, except for the LSAT SATS dupe, it was OK.
Seemed pretty entertainin overall, to m&e.
ReplyDeleteWas it easy-peasy, right outta the rodeo chute? Depends on how well one knows "The Great Gatsby" & what's what in Nauru, I reckon.
fave themer revealers were definitely AREYOUWITHME & SEESEYETOEYE.
staff weeject pick: ADE. Nice semi-feisty {Power suffix?} clue.
some fave stuff: SOTHISISIT. MUESLI/MISSAL. USURY. Recallin the BESTBOY film crew title [fave title: KEYGRIP]. ANTIMONY's atomic scoreboard reference.
Just a mere "J" short of a pangrammer, btw. Surely there's a good themer/revealer duo with a "J" or two in it? [Got. To. Think....]
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Eaton-Salners dude. Definitely a Sound constructioneerin job.
Masked & Anonymo12Us
p.s. M&A's Fightin Illini made the Sweet 16 last night. Celebratin with Champaign in Urbana, y'all.
Am I the only one who had QUETIP for CUETIP? It referenced the Qs in QUIET QUITTING after all. I thought there might be some rank QTR on the “quarter master” vein …
ReplyDeleteYou’re not alone, my friend. Fixing that was how I filled in the last square.
DeleteI liked this more than the average Sunday. 5 themers + 5 revealers kept things interesting. Impressive construction but with some compromised fill. Overall decent, thanks AES.
ReplyDeleteLOTTE World is a large theme park near LOTTE World Tower, the tallest building in Korea. Too niche to clue it that way, but that's what came to mind.
I would have preferred rocket scientist Wernher von BRAUN over Mike -- and in the crossword.
Rex may have been generous with two stars, IMO. Thought he would lambaste the Great Gatsby clue for the recent similarly-themed party thrown by the War Hero at Mar-a-Lago. Rex took the high road; sorry I mentioned it. And ending with SNOT? Ugh. Otherwise I'm in agreement with all his observations. And as often is the case for me, I found his write-up of a 2-star puzzle quite entertaining.
ReplyDeleteA bunch of near(?) dupes...
LOTTO and LOTTE
(or LOTTO and MOTTO)
SATS and LSAT
ETTA and ATTA
And the 3-1/2 ITs Rex mentioned (including ITT); guess that's no longer verboten.
I don't understand why a substantial word like EXTREMES would be clued as a fill-in-the-blank (Go to ____ ). Wondering whether the clue will make Gary's Tee Hee list.
No horse aficionado here, but loved seeing the word FETLOCKS (just don't ask me to point one? them? out.)
Well, we had 2 days without circles; I'm still hoping we don't see them too often. A mildly amusing theme, but to me Sunday is almost always a slog even when everyone else is finding it easy.
ReplyDeleteHands up for liking LEN as clued. If you're gonna be a one hit wonder, you should darn well make it as great as Steal My Sunshine.
Several Unknown Names: YAREN OTOMI LOTTE BRAUN TREY. For 33 across "Canon competitor" I couldn't find a good camera name that worked. KODAK?
The clue for ANTIMONY was no help. I do know several of those difficult ones: Hg (mercury), Pb (lead), Sn (tin), etc.
Just lucky. Penn had them tightbwhere they wanted them just as the buzzer sounded😆.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteI am very surprised that the anti dupe brigade , including Rex, didn’t notice
SETRATES. IMALLSET. TEASETS. , especially the first one which in itself is a boring answer. Personally, dupes don’t bother me in the least.
I actually liked the puzzle. Not spectacular, but decent. Lewis noted the gimmick is not as easy as it looks. Probable cause of the inconsistencies.Rex mentioned
Haha…I’m glad I’m not the only one that pays no attention to “dupes.”
DeleteI thought it was a fun solve. The gimmick was a bit corny but overall it was okay.
ReplyDelete"Digital ID?" should really have been reserved for FINGERPRINT.
ReplyDeleteI always found the "Steal My Sunshine" video kinda creepy - brother and sister a bit too close!
ReplyDeleteMy DNF was based on STAtES instead of STASES (which I'm not too sure is an okay plural). Not that I was that happy with STAtES,
ReplyDeleteAll other complaints aside, whoever is responsible for all these adjacent proper nouns is bad at their job.
ReplyDeletecan't figure out how this is considered a good puzzle either didn't read comments until about halfway through and thought is it me - guess folks use rose colored glasses to do Sundays now its been so long since a classic Sunday that was truly funny witty sardonic & wise
ReplyDeleteI'm sitting here watching Kentucky vs Iowa State, and I can't get RAN IT out of my head!
ReplyDeleteIn theater, if the script calls for a character to eat a sandwich, they'll actually eat the sandwich during the run-through. I repeat: "during the run-through". Not while they "run it".
Late to the party after having to lead a song in church and stay late for an Easter rehearsal. Song was Pete Seeger's "My Rainbow Race", which I hadn't known, about saving the environment. Still some work to do there.
ReplyDeleteSlow start as I took "catalyst" too literally and was thinking beer? wine? some four-letter drug?. Finally got to DARE and DAISY, but too many nano seconds down the drain. But I like this kind of puzzle and had a good time trying to decipher the circles, even if they were fairly easy. Happy that they were not YYMEMEMEME. (Too wise for me.)
Didn't know YAREN, of course but I think it should be famous for its insignificance. OLMEC from the O, the OTOMI are an unknown. Didn't know Ms. LOEB either, but I can spell SEMANA. First I had heard of LEN, but someone has taken their directive to steal my sunshine, it's gray and cold and rainy and miserable here. Happy spring.
OK puzzle here, AES. Another Easy Sunday but didn't interfere with the NCAA'S for too long, so there's that. Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
The environment?
DeleteNothing about the passion, death and resurrection?
I like Pete Seeger, but….
I will always remember the word FETLOCKS because of the wonderful Coen Brothers movie Miller’s Crossing, which features this exchange between a luckless gambler and his associate:
ReplyDelete“Horses have knees?”
“I don’t know…fetlocks”
“Well if I was a horse I’d be down on my fetlocks praying you didn’t bet on me”
Thank you.
DeleteIn my opinion, way better gangster picture than Goodfellas which came out around the same time-if fir nothing else than Albert Finney gunning down the killers who’ve cone for him, choreographed to Danny Boy.
Maybe the best 2 minutes of cinema in the 1990s.
p.p.s.s.
ReplyDeletePossible pangrammer-savin themer/revealer to splatz a "J" into the puzgrid? ...
x-Across: {Louisianna lady serenaded by Romeo?} = O???O????? and revealer: {The circles in x-Across?} = ???????
Answers:
x-Across = DELTA JULIET [with D and J circled].
revealer = RADIO DJ.
Best I could do.
M&A
I liked it. Even though I had to “reveal” some of the obscure PPP to finish (the much discussed capital, the governor, the UN ambassador ET AL). Have never (ever) heard of QUIT QUITTING but then I usually learn something when doing a crossword.
ReplyDeleteEZ PZ
ReplyDeleteOK, I almost tossed this one. If it weren’t for my granddaughter who is ridiculously invested in my “streak” I would have quit. I simply lacked extra time today to spend on this despairingly easy puzzle with a non-theme.
ReplyDeleteIt took lots of time to construct, and quite a while to think of letter-related plays on words. So good job on that. Once again, though we have a very able constructor whose work I typically enjoy phoning it in. I know Alex E-S’s work, and this isn’t it. As I mentioned yesterday in expressing my continuing concerns regarding the editorial staff’s apparent demand for diminution in the challenge level of puzzles (likely at the direction of the “big bosses”), the more this trend endures, the more I believe that constructors have been asked (told?) in advance what of difficulty is henceforth acceptable for publication. If this is true, I am not disappointed, I am bordering on disgust.
Disappointing what I assume is thousands of us who enjoy the weekly progress from easy to what used to be pretty challenging and punishing great constructors by denying them continuing opportunities to really “strut their stuff” in favor of the profits garnered by demanding and offering sophomoric puzzles to increase subscriptions exemplifies the money grab atmosphere permeating our economy. And continuing to use the “reputation” of the NYT Crossword’s place at the pinnacle of newspaper crosswords has become a lie. I think this despairingly easy solve sends a disgustingly greedy message to long-time solvers still eager for the “old” puzzle.
I am going to enjoy a beautiful NorCal sunset while I thin my lettuces, spinach and kale.
No se necesita ayuda aquí.
ReplyDeleteQuite an adventure hunting and pecking. My time says it was fast, but it felt like clawing through a thicket of weirdness and that's my kinda thing. I haven't read anybody yet, but I am confident 🦖 will have hated it because of the puns, and many others will hate the homophonic jokes, and another group will complain of unforgivable rule violations, or inaccurate cluing, but for me it was silly fun and awkwardness piled onto what-the-heck-isms and I loved it as the Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood and burbled.
I've been dealing with really long days at work and it's almost tomorrow as I finally get to this puzzle. I always feel safe for a few minutes when I finally get to the puzzle.
I actually know a guy who's been QUIETLY QUITTING for two years and I don't think his employer has noticed at all. The clue should have been the calls from "the lake."
I had the EPA handing out disposable slippers until the end.
I kinda wish ATOMIC CITY was named after the candy rather than the destruction of the planet. It would be better if Tomorrowland was more Disney and less horror movie.
❤️ DUDED. Batteries for brains. TEASE/TEASETS.
😩 CDR
People: 13
Places: 6 (including Yaren!)
Products: 7
Partials: 15
Foreignisms: 6
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 47 of 140 (34%)
Funny Factor: 6 😐
Tee-Hee: I guess AFFAIRS can be "big" parties, but it's the "little" affairs that are way more, uh, entertaining. [Touch] ABUT.
Uniclues:
1 Walking away from the pool table.
2 What's on the shelf at gramma's.
3 The only time this term applies to me is when I am visiting my dominatrix.
1 QUIET QUITTING CUE TIPS
2 TEA SETS SITTING PRETTY
3 RESTRAINED HUMAN BEING
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: O Spock / you're not schlock / you read the brain of a rock / you rawk. MIND MELDS ODE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Gary How did you know I like lists, especially in alphabetical order? I'm scared.
ReplyDelete2 more adjectives from Saturday: "demoralizing" from @A 12:43 and "despairingly" from CDilly. (Didn't want them to feel ignored.) Thanks for your daily posts.