.png)
Relative difficulty: Easy (possibly harder, depending on your familiarity with the movie titles)
Theme answers:
- FREDDY'S REVENGE (3D: A Nightmare on Elm Street [see grid art])
- HERE WE GO AGAIN (15D: Mamma Mia! [see grid art])
- LOST IN NEW YORK (7D: Home Alone [see grid art])
- BACK IN THE HABIT (11D: Sister Act [see grid art])
Jules Gabriel Verne (/vɜːrn/; French: [ʒyl ɡabʁijɛl vɛʁn]; 8 February 1828 – 24 March 1905) was a French novelist, poet, and playwright.His collaboration with the publisher Pierre-Jules Hetzel led to the creation of the Voyages extraordinaires, a series of bestselling adventure novels including Journey to the Center of the Earth (1864), Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas (1870), and Around the World in Eighty Days (1872). His novels are generally set in the second half of the 19th century, taking into account contemporary scientific knowledge and the technological advances of the time. [...]
Jules Verne has been the second most-translated author in the world since 1979, ranking below Agatha Christie and above William Shakespeare. He has sometimes been called the "father of science fiction", a title that has also been given to H. G. Wells and Hugo Gernsback. In the 2010s, he was the most translated French author in the world. In France, 2005 was declared "Jules Verne Year" on the occasion of the centenary of the writer's death. (wikipedia)
• • •
Speaking of elegance, you've got a movie theme, so ideally (for me) you'd ditch all other explicitly movie stuff, all the stuff that's not part of the theme. No KATNISS, no MIRREN. And you'd need a new clue for MEL (54D: Brooks of film). Of these three film answers, only KATNISS was the outright distraction (since KATNISS was not just in The Hunger Games but in the sequels as well). I'm looking for a sense of careful construction, of theme cohesion, of execution that makes the theme really pop against the background of the fill. Movie content in the fill today feels like ... leakage. I was more dismayed by ugliness like DOTER and SLEEKEN, though. And OMAHANS. That's one of those words like UTAH(A)NS that is never gonna look right to me, only ... at least UTAH(A)NS applies to a whole state full of people. OMAHANS feels like it's missing a letter of syllable. Why not OMAHANIANS? You know, like Bahamas / Bahamians. Otherwise... how do you even pronounce "OMAHANS?" "O-MAH-hans"? "O-muh-HANS?" Do you sneak a little extra syllable in there when no one's looking?: "O-muh-HA-uns?" Truly, the awkwardest demonym. OGREISH is an OK word but it looks insane written out, like an Irish name (O'GREISH!). As for LAST BUS ... I wavered on it for a bit, but now I think I like it. It's no LAST TRAIN (to Clarksville or elsewhere), but it's a real phenomenon, and the "need" in the clue really sells it (7A: Something a commuter might need to catch).
Bullets:
- 1A: Swahili for "journey" (SAFARI) — should've been a gimme, I think, but I had DAS instead of AGS at 2D: Chief prosecutors, in brief, which put a "D" in the second "SAFARI" position :( I also had TAD before SOU up there (1D: Paltry amount). SOUs are the official currency of Crossworld, as decreed by OOXTEPLERNON, the God of Bad Short Fill (hallowed be His name). I have to remember to celebrate OOXTEPLERNON Day on October 30, for that is the day (in 2009) when OOXTEPLERNON revealed himself unto us, in grid form. How to celebrate? Simple. You sacrifice an Oreo (if you sacrifice it by feeding it to a NENE, even better ... for you. Probably not for the NENE)
- 20A: Sedative in a zookeeper's dart, informally (TRANK) — wrote in the TRAN- and then waited on the cross. Thought it might be a "Q" (both TRANK and TRANQ had five NYTXW appearances in the Modern Era ... before today. Now TRANK's ahead. Stay tuned for further information on the great TRANK/Q wars as it becomes available.
- 58A: Cocktail made from gin, vermouth and Campari (NEGRONI) — mmm. It's almost NEGRONI Season. When is NEGRONI Season? No one really knows. That's the beauty of NEGRONI Season.
- 47D: Suffers no damage (IS OK) — hoo boy, if any answer in this puzzle gave me trouble, it was this one. ISOK? ISOK?! Talk about four letters that do not look ... OK. ISOK??? Didn't she write Out of Afroca? You know, ISOK Dinoson!? The NYTXW once (maybe more than once) tried to convince me that I should know a Dilbert character (!?) named ASOK. ISOK makes me almost miss ASOK.
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SLEEKEN sounds like such a made up word.
ReplyDeleteAGREED!!
DeleteOr Robby Burns: Wee sleekit, cowrin, tim’rous beastie…
DeletePerfect example of the phrase @Nancy coined: MUWOC (made-up word of convenience).
Deleteshockingly, sleeken is actually in the OED !!!
DeleteBut Mr. or Mrs. Anonymous told me it's been around since the early 1600s, so I guess I'm naughty for merely saying I wasn't sure about it. Shame on me.
DeleteIf not made up it's super obscure. No to "trank" yes to tranq, without context the 1st is nonsense the 2nd is obvious. Puzzle was OK, some crappy fill, some good long answers. Rex's write-up was good, as always.
DeleteHand waaaay up for a no vote on SLEEKEN. Ridiculous.
Delete🤚🏻🖐🏼✋🏻🖐🏻✋🏻🖐🏼
DeleteYa think??
Delete
ReplyDeleteEasy, as has become typical for a Wednesday.
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
TRANq before TRANK for the 20A sedative.
Wasn't sure about the spelling at 40A. Had LOweS before LOEWS.
Not a Hunger Games enthusiast. I was proud of remembering KATNeSS befor realizing it was KATNISS.
No WOEs, but resisted (and resent) OGREISH (14A), DOTER (19A) and SLEEKEN (60A)
Finished it without a cheat, and with a lucky guess for the KATNISS/ALTA cross. Didn't have a clue about the grid art or how it related to the movie titles, but there was just enough easy fill to make it doable. Not sure about SLEEKEN.
ReplyDeleteWell, perhaps you are not sure about SLEEKEN, but quite a few English speakers have been quite sure about SLEEKEN since the early 1600s when it entered the language and was commonly used and continued to be used since since.
DeleteBruh no one says SLEEKEN you’ve never said SLEEKEN b 4 real
DeleteI kept squinting to figure out the grid art. I was looking for a face! I'm just Bad at Grid Art. Anyway I'm here at the ATL airport, in the TSA queue and this puzzle was helping pass the time, but took me awhile.
ReplyDeleteI have not spotted Donny's gestapo down here, but this whole situation is the Moron in Chief's fault and Maga's sick obsession with immigrants.
I feel like I live in a shithole country without functioning services that we should expect. What a CLUSTERF**
Yeah. Let’s all go hold a sign somewhere on Saturday.
DeleteOMG! I saw pictures of those lines. 😱 Wishing you safe travels.
DeleteYes. I imagine ICE agents are not wearing their protective vests with ICE on them while they are scabbing for the UNPAID TSA agents. Just a guess.
DeleteIRIS
DeleteSitting in a long line because Trump doesn’t care about the chaos he causes when he wants his way entitles Lisa to complain. He has intentionally degraded Federal services and of course he is a wannabe dictator abd is doing everything he can to turn us into a banana republic.
As for protests, SCOTUS has gone his way so many times the one thing that sent him running with his tail between his legs was the protests in the face of deadly violence in Minneapolis. (Also see the Civil Rights protests).
Not only does the Moron/Felon/Pedophile/Narcissist-in-Chief not care, his flock (red state voters and their elected representatives) is equally to blame. Air travel is for liberal elites (aka domestic terrorists) so f them.
DeleteDidn’t know ALTA and had TASTED as TeSTED, so ended up Naticking out with ALTe/TeSTED. Curious if anyone else had that problem, or if everyone but me knows their ski resorts?
ReplyDeleteALTA is crosswordese—I would not know it if I didn’t solve
DeleteI lad "tested" at first, too. But ALTA seemed better than "alte."
DeleteI naticked (is that a legit verb?) in exactly same fashion. So at least two of us.
DeleteSame here. So much crosswordese in this one, I guess I need to add ALTA to the list. Ski resort clues are decidedly elitist and biased against poor and middle class solvers.
Delete"Trank" feels unforgivable. Apparently, "informally" means, "misspelled" now?
ReplyDeleteI've always seen it as TRANQ.
Delete@BaconJeff et al, hello editors - again. The colloquialism for tranquilizer is TRANq, not TRANK.
DeleteBacon Jeff
DeleteTranq is itself a shortening of tranquilizer an “informal” term for the actual name of the drug: xylazine. So as typical with spoken language, the spelling varies . The q is rare at the end in English so people hear it and trank becomes a common variant That’s how language works. Nothing unforgivable about trank
Rex - I think it’s fair to say KATNISS could be read as a literary clue, and not a silver screen clue.
ReplyDeleteAs a character, ASOK was pretty cool. As for Dilbert... Well, it was funny once.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know any of those sequels, and didn't think two letters amounted to grid art -- plus there are not only 2 Is but also 2 Ls (one upside down), which obscured the point. I thought maybe there was some kind of cage involved--but after 15 seconds of pondering came here to find out.
This was the most unconnected grid I've ever seen, which is not a virtue. Nothing more to say.
Except that I'm trying to imagine a sequel to Mamma Mia! Does it involve the same characters, or is it just more Abba songs?
Yes, I got distracted by those two L’s as well. A sequel to Mamma Mia sounds like a horror film to me. Even Meryl Streep couldn’t save that turkey.
DeleteYep, that unconnected grid is why I’m no fan of grid art. Felt like solving one mini after another.
DeleteAnd I agree with Whatsername about the Mamma Mia sequel. A better title would be “There They Go Again—Count Me Out!”
Turkey is right. And was Pierce Brosnan horribly miscast? The actual Broadway show was infinitely better.
Delete@whatsername and Andy F…too funny AND true!
DeleteThe whole Mama Mia franchise is repulsive. it’s based on tge grotesque concept that a mother dleot with three men in such quick succession that tge father’s identity is unknown. Yuck.
Delete@Anonymous 10:11 - Precisely!
Delete@Anonymous 10:11 - I’m disgusted by people who are too careless to check their spelling, much more so than by the private activities of consenting adults. So I guess to each their own on the Yuck scale.
Delete@Jberg I walked out of “Mama Mia! At the theatre, and then at the strong request of two dear friends, both actors and one a successful actor and screenwriter, tried to stream it. Twice. No joy (on so many levels). Meryl Streep was the only reason I tried so hard to get through it.
DeleteThe sequel had Cher. That redeems it. Otherwise quite awful.
DeleteEasy puzzle, though I did not recognize the ugly black shapes as Roman numerals (I mean what are those L things?) and have not seen or been aware of any of these movies. Of the originals, the only one I saw was Mamma Mia, and it certainly wouldn’t have motivated me to sit through the sequel. As for sleeken, ew.
ReplyDeleteJust kicking myself for being unable to come up with KATNISS. Dang aging.
ReplyDeleteWhen I hit 2D I still hadn't figured out the theme (that was my first themer), but if I had I would have tried to put in 'dream warriors', and when that wouldn't fit I would have thought the theme had to be something different. It turns out 'dream warriors' is III, not II. I did immediately know all the other themers, though.
That OOXTEPLERNON puzzle was a doozy. It also had rows like:
FILCENVIG,
ANSAEEDMNOONE,
DYERSSSSERNES,
and of course, DOODOODOODOODOO.
Wow @kishef. I can’t believe you can’t remember the main character from a series of movies that were based on a series of books written at (somewhere close to) 5th grade reading level…;)
Delete@Beezer re @kitshef: 🤣
DeleteMy favorite part of today’s puzzle, was trying to figure out how the grid art related to the theme answers. I had figured out that the answers were film sequels, but couldn’t see what they had to do with those two I’s in the middle.
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing how something can be right in front of your eyes, and you just don’t see it.
Let me give you an example. I wear a lovely chain around my neck, but its clasp, which is miniscule, is a pain to undo with my stubby fingers. But I put up with it for many moons because I love the chain.
One day, as I was taking a teeshirt off, I made an incredible discovery. The chain came off with the teeshirt! That is, I never had to undo the clasp; all I ever had to do was pull the chain over my head!
Some things can be right in front of your eyes, and you just don’t see it. And today, I just didn’t see that those I’s made the Roman numeral “2”.
Learning that brought a terrific "Hah!," and my mighty efforts to crack the riddle gave my brain the work it loves.
A marvelous “I” opening experience for me, Jeff. Thank you!
You’ve made me imagine you discovering the paper clip!
DeleteLewis
DeleteI understand your reaction to the grid art. But I, like jberg just looked at it a few seconds, then on to Rex. Probably didn’t help that I never saw any of the sequels and only one original, Sister Act. Went right over my head!
Found it easy and enjoyable. How about some props for 4 long theme answers and no garbage fill! You don't see that too often. No struggle to find the theme, and not hard to suss out the answers - I'm not a pop culture guy and I had 2 of them off the bat. I think we're a little picky today..
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteAdmitting to not understanding the "grid art". Just saw two big I's in the grid, and the ole brain didn't combine them to think of II, ala sequels. Did realize that the Themers were movie subtitles, so there's that at least. Ah, think some, lose some. Har.
Initially thought the four letter words in the I spaces related to the Themers somehow. Ergo, SONS to go with 3D. But none of them made any sense.
Neat grid pattern, to get in your grid art. All corners open, with Longs abounding. SLEEKEN gets a side eye. What's next? ENSLEEK? ENSLEEKEN?
Or, Smoothing again? RESLEEKENING? Smoothly, once more? REENSLEEKENINGLY?
Randomness:
Got an O-WING and an E-WING. 😁 TRANQ is only spelt thusly. What's the K all about? I wouldn't exactly call a State Park charge a "USER" FEE. I guess you technically "use" a State Park, but it's off to the ears. ENTRY FEE, sure. Wondering if there is somewhere a LOEWS next to a LOWES. I SEE MANS and SONS, where the women at?Well, KATNISS and MIRREN are here
Time to SLEEKEN my shirts. Hope y'all have a great Wednesday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Oh, Roo. you've taken a dangerous foray into the darkest forest of humour. REENSLEEKENINGLY, indeed!
DeleteIn yesterday's puzzle, like others of you, I filled in "mudder" at first at 29D for "Race that no one can win cleanly," instead of MUDRUN. If you are wondering how my wife handled it: mudder, she wrote.
ReplyDeleteI’m not really equestrian, but I believe “mudder“ refers to a characteristic of a horse, not to a type of race.
DeleteI had mudder as well, knew about the racing meaning, but hoped the participants used that as shorthand (albeit not actually shorter).
DeleteWhen I saw the puzzle grid, I thought we were in for it. But it turned out to be quite easy. Yet, I had to come to the blog to find out what the heck was the theme.I liked the puzzle, anyhow.🎈🎈🎊🎊
ReplyDeleteThis played Challenging to me. I did not, at all, pick up on the fact that these are titles of sequels, the number IIs to their progenitors. They seemed almost like random phrases somehow associated to movies, although I do recognize the lyric HERE WE GO AGAIN. And then I kept squinting at the so-called "grid art", as if trying to divine answers from tea leaves. Yes, I saw two I's. But no comprehension. And stop saying "grid art"! The repetition is actively unhelpful, because it kept making me think I had to read more into the "art" than was actually there. You know, this being "art" and all. (Labeling it "art" over and over in this context really sounds quite pretentious. I'd RELABEL that.)
ReplyDelete(It was also no help that I have zero interest in viewing the original movies, not a one, much less their sequels. The only one I have glancing familiarity with, chance sightings on cable before my eyes quickly tire of the sight of the little snot, is Home Alone.)
I think I spent at least ninety seconds trying to find purchase anywhere. It began in the very center, between the two big Is, and you might think something thematic would be happening there. (Nope! Not in the Acrosses!) It all ended in the NE, where I really screwed myself but good because I unaccountably didn't think of AMOR for a long time. I knew "eros" was off (wait, that's Greek, isn't it, I kept querying myself, but "cupid" and "venus" were not fitting), and it stayed in for far too long. I had IN THE HABIT, but BACK IN THE HABIT didn't not sound much in the language to me. ("Back in the saddle", yes. "Back on the wagon", maybe, although that would be backing off the habit, wouldn't it?)
Some entries are truly wretched. (I almost wrote "retched" there.) SLEEKEN has got to be about the ugliest answer I've seen in a very, very long time. I AGREE with Rex on OMAHANS, and well as on OGREISH, which is faintly self-descriptive. Also, put me on Team TRANq, not TRANK. Just my personal feeling.
Wanted "Tulane", not LOYOLA. I mean, how many LOYOLAs are there, anyway? (I used to teach at one of them!) Just not very specific to New Orleans, and it seemed like a mean trick that it's that and not Tulane.
Sorry, Jeff Stillman. Really wasn't my bag.
Agreed.
Delete@tht You made my day by sharing your stream of consciousness musings on your way to the happy music. I thought my odd, often seemingly irrelevant cogitations probably should never see the actual light of day. And while Brits might use SLEEKEN l, it’s still very much not of the language in American English. I’d like to ask someone who lives there if they would ever introduce themself as an OMAHAN, and will let that be the litmus test for that one.
DeleteI did not understand the theme while solving--or after solving. I spent some time trying to wrestle some wordplay out of the two I's but gave up and came here to read about the theme. I've seen the musical Sister Act but none of the original movies or the sequels. My time was 83% of my Wednesday average, which mixes solving on paper (slower) and solving on computer (faster), so I would say medium for me.
ReplyDeletePleased to see LOYOLA, where I taught for many years.
ReplyDeleteAlternate clues
ReplyDeleteKNEELS (27D): How do you pronounce your first name, Dr. Bohr?
LOYOLA (26D): What the Shakespearean character said upon seeing his friend Yola.
SOLICIT (18A): How the Supreme Court described Trump's latest malfeasance.
OWING (30A): Screaming in pain, or how I spend my time at the dentist.
True story: I went in for a root canal and, before the doc started, his assistant placed a tissue in my hand. She said they call it the "white flag," and explained that I was to wave it if I was feeling pain so the doctor would know to stop. And I said: "Won't the shrieking tip him off?"
What Ray Davies said meeting his friend "YOLOLA"
DeleteComment deserves a 👍
DeleteYou’re on 🔥 today @Liveprof. Thanks for the laughs.
DeleteThis seemed like it was going to be difficult at first but then once I saw it was movie sequels, not so at all. I think it would have been accomplished quite nicely without the grid art which I found was a bit of a distraction. Those L’s!
ReplyDeleteSLEEKEN sounds like a major MUWOC (Made-Up Word Of Convenience per @Nancy), while DOTER and OGREISH also seemed suspect. As for the movies … I loved both Sister Acts, liked both Home Alones, never saw the slasher, and hated Mamma Mia so much that I gag at the thought of MMII. Seriously, that one barely passed the breakfast test for me.
sleeken does appear in the OED .. first used in the 1600's
DeleteProbably my least favorite type of a grid (a trivia test masquerading as a crossword puzzle). This one is a veritable hit list of things I would rather do without, starting with a PPP theme, and including such things as Roman deities, Spanish vocabulary, quasi-words like OGREISH, movie, book and author references, clues that try to be too cute (see AMNESIA), a dog from Tibet, and the name of what appears to be a ski resort.
ReplyDeleteI’ll give the constructor credit for trying to warn me by asking for something Swahili right out of the gate at 1A. I’m sure there are many people who enjoy this type of puzzle, and more power to you. I do think the Gunk Festival is gearing up to return with a vengeance though.
Just out of curiosity: do you spend much time thinking about how you'd clue entries if you were in charge? My guess is that the NYTXW editorial team tries to identify shared bases of knowledge (like movies, best-selling novels, PPP, etc.). The clues are not always the choices I'd make, and they dip into the same wells over and over (LOTR, Harry Potter), but there are tricky decisions to be made. Personally, I feel they've gone a little soft in recent years; it sounds like you feel otherwise.
Delete"Gunk" is always "gunk in the eyes of the beholder", and the Gunk Gauge is broadly inclusive because just about any item could be "gunk" to somebody out there, on account of their particular knowledge bases. Do other crosswords manage to avoid "gunk", in your opinion?
Southside Johnny
Delete1A
I had no idea before today that SAFARI meant journey. In the original language But safari is a common English word now. I thought, it’s a Wednesday must be safari. Close enough in meaning. So I don’t think it’s a foreign language test!
I thought it was one of the best clues today.
Great question t. I do the NYT, LAT, WSJ, the New Yorker puzzles, Evan’s WaPo weekly grids, and wherever I can find Robyn pretty much every day. When you think about the generic categories of clues that I listed, it has been my experience (with a pretty significant sample size) that you may encounter one or two on average, and a sprinkling of them throughout the grid at most. Additionally, the PPP clues and answers are usually much more “mainstream” without the constant bludgeoning of the solvers with obscure and arcane trivia.
DeleteAdditionally, I rarely encounter themes in other publications that are so convoluted that I have to rely on a solver (and also a constructor) of Rex’s caliber to even figure out wtf is going on. I’m sure that there are many solvers (yourself perhaps included) that can handle the NYT’s approach without the same difficulty that I encounter, and that is fine if that is the constituency that they are trying to attract, but the pendulum does seem to be swinging the other direction at the Old Gray Lady, which I welcome.
So your solution is to... destroy the whole point of the grid art by adding the word "sequel"? You do realize that defeats the purpose, right? Also, that it wouldn't actually help people who don't know the names of the sequels?
ReplyDeletePretty clearly not what RP meant.three of the subtitles include a word implying it’s a sequel - REVENGE, AGAIN, BACK. The fourth does not. RP is saying those sequel-y words in the answers make them easier to suss out for folks unfamiliar with the movie titles.
DeleteHaving finished the puz without figuring out the theme, I'm walking the dog and the "aha" moment appeared when SEQUEL popped up in my mind with the (initially) two "I"s merging into a II. A big smile ensued. And maybe the pair of left/right blocking squares represent colons as part of the titles?
ReplyDeleteSolved as themeless. No clue what was going on. The grid art looked like I beams plus some... other... black spaces? It would have been cool to have only the II in black squares. Anyway, I just thought the themers were songs from the movies or some other trivia thing (did NOE even have music? never seen it). The Sister Act themer reminds me of my husband's old law partner: she used to be a nun but she got out of the habit (true story!).
ReplyDeleteSo much terrible fill. SOU, AGS, ESE, ANS, SST, EMI, OCD, and on and on and on. All to support a really dumb theme. And SLEEKEN is just horrific. I've never created a puzzle but I'm starting to think I should if this is the kind of amateur hour stuff that gets accepted.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the theme and figuring out the subtitles, which all kind of came back to me as I got some acrosses. I really didn't like the ugly fill: omahans, doter, ogreish, and sleeken in particular. I also don't associate the word solicit with politely asking, because solicitors that knock on the door can be annoyingly hard to get rid of.
ReplyDeleteI don’t not and will not ever understand how so many people in this comment section never see the theme.
ReplyDeleteI would like to see a venn diagram that shows the overlap between commenters who bemoan the lack of puzzle difficulty on a regular basis and commenters who weren't able to see the how the grid art related to the theme in this supercalifragilisticexpialidociously easy puzzle. I suspect that the overlap is large. Maybe minds that are drawn to puzzle solving tend to not be visually oriented. Or maybe there are just a lot of complainers.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're not working on a sequel puzzle with III, Jeff Stillman. But I did enjoy this one.
Gary's list just exploded!
Delete@egsforbreakfast 9:13 AM
DeleteOh my goodness! I have to go get a brand new computer with more megabytes just to fit you into the Hall of Fame.
Terrible puzzle! So much fill that wasn't legit or charming. Should be one or the other or both. So much short fill! Not fun.
ReplyDeleteI know it’s common, but AGS as the plural of Attorneys General always bugs me.
ReplyDeleteMe too. But there it is, and apparently will always be as long as the republic stands (which the current administration seems intent on ensuring not for long)
DeleteThe last thing I filled in was the K in ISOK and SLEEKEN and boy did that leave me on a sour note
ReplyDeleteThe only reason anyone knows that Home Alone sequel is an (in)famous cameo by a crooked NYC real estate developer....
ReplyDeleteDays without an LSD reference: 0
ReplyDeleteI love the way that this puzzle rewards figuring out the grid art and punishes not doing so. For the longest time, since I didn’t take the time to figure out the theme until I had more crosses, I couldn’t make out what was going on with those themers; and because of the shape of the grid, they were absolutely necessary for traction between different areas of the puzzle. Thus for most of my solving, I found the puzzle quite hard for a Wednesday. Then I suddenly saw LOST IN NEW YORK (the only of the titles I knew off the top of my head—I’m the exact age of that film’s target audience) and the puzzle was over almost immediately.
ReplyDeleteOf course, since I wouldn’t have been able to come up with the other three titles without crosses, I agree with Rex’s point about the value of the sequeliness of the titles. Since the outlier was the one I knew off the top of my head, I hadn’t noticed the inconsistency there.
Well Jeff. I worked your puzzle as a themeless. Unfortunately you combined two things I actively dislike…grid art and sequels. I managed at some point to figure out the fact these were sequels, but for me the grid art references were just annoying. And yes, the small Ls distracted.
ReplyDeleteThese are the type of sequels that are just a rehash of the original movie. Yuck. I can be persuaded to watch a “sequel” that involves an ongoing story, ie Godfather Part II and even (gasp) Star Wars. In my mind, all of these were examples of movies where the producers, actors, etc should’ve left well enough alone.
I’m sure you can come up with a good theme OR a great themeless puzzle, so please keep it up!
I don't watch slasher movies so I've never seen a Freddy Krueger movie, let alone a sequel. I think "Home Alone" is probably the only one of the theme movies where I saw both the original and the sequel, not that I pay any attention to subtitles.
ReplyDeleteI just kept doing across answers and let the theme answers be revealed in their own time. The huge II's were somewhat distracting, so big, so in the way.
Acronyms and initialisms take on a life of their own. I threw in bMI for 23A and didn't blink at a record company suddenly becoming a body mass index but HERb WE GO AGAIN sounded more like a Cheech and Chong sequel than "Mamma Mia!"
Thanks, Jeff Stillman!
Rex, I’m disappointed. Home Alone II has a cameo by a certain orange turd. I think this alone would cost this puzzle a star or two.
ReplyDeleteWell, enjoyed the theme and long answers, except like @Rex took a bit to get the “LOST” word because it had no sequel inference. I thought was more like the puzzle answers were a help to figuring out the grid art than vice-versa. With OGREISH and SLEEKEN on one side and OMAHANS and ALTA on the other we have a contrast between some very imaginative words and some very standard oldies. Unfortunately my memory totally failed me on ALTA so even though I dropped in KAT(l)ISS with a wild guess I kinda naticked in that section.
ReplyDeleteI'm somewhere between 50-80 years old and have never liked fun or chosen to interact with popular culture because I am better than everyone else. Therefore, not only have I never seen any of these films, I have never heard of them. In fact I have never heard of any movie whose title is not in French or Norwegian.
ReplyDeleteAlso, let me complain about some other clues that gave me trouble because if I can't get it immediately, then there is clearly a problem with the clue or answer. I like to get them all immediately and then complain the puzzle is too easy. This way I can look smarter than everyone else. If they make them too hard, or outside my comfort zone it is hard to keep up my airs.
HAR!
DeleteHAR II
DeleteNegroni season runs from June 1 and ends May 31. Never a bad time for a Negroni. (Although I did read once about a man who drank Negronis in the warmer months and Stingers in the cooler ones.)
ReplyDelete"Looking better than a body has a right to..."
ReplyDeleteCool. A 67-worder puzgrid with two black eyes. Like.
ReplyDeleteAlas, even tho I caught onto the puztheme mcguffin early on, the themers were IV no-know flick sequels, at our house.
Lost precious nanoseconds, waitin until the themers became inferable.
staff weeject pick: ESE. Had a rare-ish ?-marker clue.
fave thing: that there OGREISH OMAHANS row. Real-young M&A grew up near that place. Most Iowans did not find us orgreish, as I recall. But, I digress ...
SLEEKEN = har & [0] Days without an Ow de Speration entry. A puzword last splatzed into a NYTgrid in 1981.
LASTBUS sounds like a cool sequel for CON AIR, especially in the Trump Travel Planner era.
Thanx for the fun, Mr. Stillman dude. Y'all are II much.
Masked & AnonymoIIUs
I used to like Negronis. Damn if I’ll ever have one again after that story.
ReplyDeleteEasy-medium. I was vaguely familiar with three of the movies and I’ve seen the Mama Mia sequel so this was fairly easy.
ReplyDeleteWOE- SAFARI (as clued)
Costly erasure - daS before AGS (Hi @Rex).
Cringy - SLEEKEN, ORGEISH
Cute idea, liked it.
The movie choices didn’t seem to me random or unfocused, as Rex says, but instead iconic choices of movie genres: horror, musical, kids movies, and comedy.
ReplyDeleteRex hinted at this but didn’t say it outright. How can you not have “Electric Boogaloo” in the puzzle? Its such a preposterous name it has become a thing in its own right. I would think that the sequels chosen should be as famous or more than the original.
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of the grid art was not evident to me, so I ignored it. ANS bothered me, and SLEEKEN is a word nobody would ever use, unless in fun, the way I sometimes say to my husband, "Would you hotten this up for me?" if my coffee is too cold. So the grid just felt meh. I hope there's a good Thursday puzzle tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteI've seen countless Broadway shows (acted in 7) Mama Mia is the only one I walked out of at intermission.
ReplyDeleteYou really should repeat that feat for the movie so they can say "there he goes again!"
DeleteWhat took you so long?
DeleteFurther proof that with age comes wisdom.
DeleteYou must never have seen Cats, or The Mystery of Edwin Drood
DeleteI read the 1A clue and thought, I bet that's SAFARI, which it was. Faith solving at its finest. Being a little late to the comments is always interesting. While solving, I like to write down things of interest or things that bother me. Today's notes referred to the second kind, viz., OGREISH, DOTER, SLEEKEN, and TRANK instead of TRANQ. Reassuring to think I am not alone in finding these irksome.
ReplyDeleteI did see the Roman numeral II right away and knew we were dealing with sequels, which helped not at all as I hadn't seen any of the originals. I know that a NEGRONI is a cocktail and those of you who enjoy them have my blessing. Not my jam.
OK Wednesday, JS. Some stuff I wish weren't there. Just Sayin'. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.
from Dr Google
ReplyDelete"Xylazine is a medicine given to animals to sedate them for surgery or relieve pain. Xylazine, sometimes known as tranq, is not approved for human use. However, xylazine is now being used as a recreational drug. Xylazine is often mixed with heroin, fentanyl and other opioids that are taken illegally."
I think I'll head over to the Grid Art Museum's cafe for a NEGRONI. I'll use my two eyes to see if have a clue as to why anyone would like this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThis played more difficult for me. Which I liked, but I didn’t know the names of the sequels and thought they might be joke titles. I did catch on to the significance of the romance numerals fairly early. Pleasantly challenging.
ReplyDeleteSeven little puzzles for the price of one! Long whacky downs that were apparently sequels. Still fun
ReplyDeleteBoy, time-wise for me this was like a challenging Saturday. Solving last night, I got bogged down and frustrated in the upper right so I put it on pause. Then forgot about it until bedtime... doh! So tried to finish it at midnight. I had a real mess up there with EROS instead of AMOR, SLIM instead of THIN, and AHI instead of UNI. And the across clues were tough; the only one I had right was SOLICIT from the straightforward clue.
ReplyDeleteAnd of course, hands up for TRANQ when I eventually got it... I don't think I've ever seen it with a K.
As for the theme, I kinda forgot about that too. Just before shutting down the computer last night, I got the idea: oh, sequels? Okay fine, good night. And I couldn't figure out what the Ls meant.
Well, our big rainfall yesterday amounted to: 0.5 mm (0.04"). That makes 5 mm (0.2") for the year to date. Oh, boy.
i had DAS instead of AGS — thinking that non-abbreviated is “attorneys general”
ReplyDeleteGreat, theme answers are four movies I’ve never seen. Didn’t know there was a sequel to Mamma Mia. The original Mamma Mia was the only original movie I saw.
ReplyDeleteHaving never seen a Freddy Krueger movie or a musical based on ABBA songs, I had a fair bit of trouble with this. I started the puzzle last night but ditched it because I was just too tired. Picked it up this morning and still had trouble getting into it. Sister Act? 1992. There was a sequel? Why? I did see the original Home Alone and thought it was pretty amusing but was not motivated to watch a sequel. And you're calling 2 large Is "grid art"? That's a pretty low bar. No thanks.
ReplyDeleteBecause of the path I took, I had the letter string NEWY toward the bottom of the Home Alone answer. Remembering that the original film was set during Christmas, I figured the sequel might have something to do with the NEW Year, which, if correct, would have indicated a continuation of the original, giving the subtitle a bit more of the sequelness Rex was hoping for.
ReplyDeleteZero days without our LSD dose - I think somebody’s addicted.
ReplyDeleteI thought we might see a one-star rating today. Glad OFL is more tolerant. I AGREEd with him on everything except the part about liking it. A bunch of movie titles, a segmented grid and some oofey fill. (Oofey is my ANS to SLEEKEN.) And I was definitely thrown off trying to think of titles indicating some kind of repetition.
O’GREISH cheered me no end, however, and I’ll endure SLEEKEN, DOTER AND TRANK as being O’GREISH’s USER FEE.
ESE and company (STYE, ILK, SST, ISEE) - “Crossword conclusion experienced briefly in this grid.”
Holding out hope for a Thursday that ISOK…
I am upset that Rex didn't rip this one apart; it seems he liked the movies, so he ignored the fill, which he is usually much harsher on. This was the worst crosswordese and awful fill in a puzzle in years. SOU, IS OK, ALTA, GEES, ESE, LSD, ANS, APSO, AGS, AERO, UNI, SST, the puzzle is just littered with hot garbage.
ReplyDeleteHey, what happened to the bottom row? Someone stole the bottom row! Hmmm, maybe we only get a 14 tall grid so as to SLEEKEN things up a bit.
ReplyDeleteAw, now I need to put an asterisk beside my "Fastest Wednesday Solve" personal record.
DeleteSLEEKEN??? WTF!
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle was filled with crosswordese, as David said, but I thought it was okay. The grid art probably made this stuff inevitable
ReplyDeleteLiked SAFARI the best.
This one played tough for me even though I recognized the Roman Numeral 2 right away in the grid. I have not seen any of these sequels but they are famous enough and most of the crosses gave me the support I needed. It took me a couple of seconds after the solve to appreciate the theme, but appreciate it I did and elicited a quick smile.
ReplyDeleteI found it quite difficult to get my footing, I suppose that happens when you need to be creative with the grid layout. The NW was pretty sticky for me, similar to @Rex I had das before the correct AGS and that gummed up the works for quite a while. That made SAFARI tough to suss out and SOU is not front of brain for me so I had all kinds of trouble there. OGREISH did not help either but I like saying it (but don't love seeing it spelled out)
I had a head tilting moment for SLEEKEN, really gave that a funny look for a minute but all the crosses were fair and it makes some kind of sense so all good.
This didn't have a whole lot of pop and sparkle for me, but I still had fun with it. Good stuff Jeff, thanks for this.
Aquí vamos de nuevo.
ReplyDeleteI knew the movies, but didn't know any of the sequels. The phrases were in the language enough to get them crosses however. So no big whoop. More importantly though, I am still of the opinion that sitting through a live performance of Mamma Mia was the worst two-hours of my adult life. I would happily stay Lost in New York forever if they promised never to force something like that on me again.
Speaking of forcing, what is up with the NYTXW and LSD? It's their new ASS I guess. Maybe they went in for a butt lift and it came out looking like a junkie from the 70s. I mean really, they're not even crosswordy letters, so they must be going out of their way to get it in every day.
The SLEEKEN was a tweakin'
and the deacon was a freakin'
and those peekin were a shriekin'
Speakin' thus they said
we we were seekin' what was creakin'
what was reekin' and what was leakin'
but it was just the SLEEKEN
who was sqeakin' while streakin'...
and the moral is keep yer pants on around SLEEKENS lest ye alarm the DOTERS.
❤️ OGREISH.
People: 8
Places: 3
Products: 4
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 67 (34%)
Funny Factor: 1 🤨
Uniclues:
1 Church basement meeting down the hall from AA of Nebraska's trying to be nicer.
2 Helicopter mom's little helper.
3 What?
4 When the flavor of a really ridiculous crossword entry lingers on your tongue like bad medicine.
5 Sixth Sense adjacent movie phrase where a kid understands new math.
1 OGREISH OMAHANS
2 DOTER TRANK
3 RELABEL AMNESIA (~)
4 TASTED SLEEKEN (~)
5 I SEE OVAL NINE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Grampa radicalized by Fox News explains taxation. SAD SACK YELLS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
14x15 grid (down/across). Easy enough to Wheel-of-Fortune the taglines from a couple crosses. The 3/16/22 duck grid (with numerous "duck" clues) will forever be my favorite. I recall a cute pinata grid, or morbid hanging of an animal. Probably a horse. After beating it to death, candy comes out. What a weird lesson to teach kids.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing THESMELLOFFEAR (14) was immediately scrapped. (The Naked Gun 2 1/2)
Unique grid, nice construction. Thanks Jeff Stillman!
I presume OOXTEPLERNON is usually depicted holding an EPEE?
ReplyDeleteAll four sequel titles, I would have assumed to be common knowledge. I suspect they are for people born in the 80s.
ReplyDeleteThree-star puzzle (debatable), but five-star write-up including both Rex and commentary.
ReplyDeleteTraveling yesterday, so by reading today I got all 125 (as of this writing) comments. Thanks to all...quite enjoyable!