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Sink-or-swim competition? / TUES 4-28-26 / Part of a piano or loom / Kid-lit girl with a blueberry pail / Greek goddess of the earth / Some cantina fare
Tuesday, April 28, 2026
Hello, everyone, it’s Clare for the last Tuesday of April! Hope everyone has been enjoying it, as spring has (mostly) sprung, and we’re yet to get the most stifling heat possible. I got to hike yesterday with my pup midday without dying from the heat. She loved it and got exhausted and absolutely filthy and tried to refuse a bath. I’m crossing my fingers for my Penguins (now down just 2-3 in the series against the hated Flyers) and have been going to Washington Spirit NWSL games here in DC. I also started watching the F1 documentary on Netflix and have gotten very invested in the outcome of this season, so I may be watching come racetime here in the US in a few days. Not a whole lot else going on with me… but my sister is currently on day three of walking the Camino de Santiago via el Camino Francés (French Way). She’ll be walking about 15 miles a day for over 30 days to reach Santiago, Spain. So join me in wishing her a Buen Camino!
Anywho, on to the puzzle…
Relative difficulty: Average for a Tuesday
THEME: SEEN AND NOT HEARD (58A: Like children, ideally, in an old adage … or a hint to a four-letter word hidden in 17-, 32- and 40-Across) — The word “seen” can be, well, seen in each of the three theme answers but isn’t pronounced in the phrases
Theme answers:
- TIES UP LOOSE ENDS (17A: Handles a few unresolved issues)
- CLOSE ENOUGH (32A: Not perfect, but acceptable)
- MISE EN PLACE (40A: Station set up in a kitchen)
Edna Regina Lewis (April 13, 1916 – February 13, 2006) was a renowned American chef, teacher, and author who helped refine the American view of Southern cooking. She championed the use of fresh, in-season ingredients and characterized Southern food as fried chicken (pan-, not deep-fried), pork, and fresh vegetables – most especially greens. She wrote and co-wrote four books, which covered Southern cooking and life in a small community of freed slaves and their descendants, including The Taste of Country Cooking and In Pursuit of Flavor… In 1979, Craig Claiborne of The New York Times wrote The Taste of Country Cooking "may well be the most entertaining regional cookbook in America". Food & Wine in 2025 said it was "widely regarded as one of the most important cookbooks of the 20th century." (Wiki)
• • •
Clever enough theme for a Tuesday puzzle, for which your enjoyment may have depended on how well you know — or at least how quickly you could get — MISE EN PLACE (40A). I know the phrase well, but it did take me a little bit to see it just because it looks so horrible (and confusing) when written out like MISEENPLACE. I think I had MISEExPxxx and just couldn’t see it. Luckily, the downs weren’t too hard, but I expect some people might’ve felt stuck there. The other theme answers were fine. That you don’t hear “seen” pronounced in any of the theme answers is interesting and adds a dimension to the NOT HEARD part of the revealer. I suspect SEEN could have appeared in any number of possible answers, though I may be overstating the range of potential theme answers. I’d always thought of the phrase as SEEN but NOT HEARD, though a Google search tells me the phrases are interchangeable. Regardless, while the theme didn’t help with the solve, the revealer was nice. There just weren’t a lot of answers that popped, which made the puzzle feel somewhat boring. My favorite was definitely WATER POLO (15A: Sink-or-swim competition?), and I love the use of TEA (21A: Gossip, slangily) to describe gossip. PAPAYAS (47A: Ingredients in some tropical smoothies) is fun. And I suppose CONTINUITY (10D: Script supervisor's concern) is a good long word. But I can’t drum up excitement for AXIS POWERS (29D: Coalition that opposed the Allies in W.W. II) or CANST (43D: "___ thou not minister to a mind diseased …?": Macbeth) or ARREAR (48D: Overdue debt) or GRAMMAR (27A: Linguist's concern) or… Looking back, it was hard to find much to describe about the non-theme answers because it all blended together in one ball of meh in my head.
I didn’t like how vague 24A: Welcome at the door, say was. I originally had “let in” and then “see in,” and it turned out to be ASK IN. YES I AM as 4D: Emphatic confirmation doesn’t seem to fit because it isn't inherently an emphatic phrase. Phrases like ADD TO (22A: Build on) and AT IT (36A:
Bickering) also don't inspire much interest.
There seemed to be more proper nouns than usual, such as: SOSA, KROC, RUN DMC, OPI, ROSA, IAGO , PEETE, SAGAN, and EDNA. I learned today that Calvin PEETE and Rodney PEETE (49D) were cousins. The puzzle also had a sort of mini theme with words with their origin in another country: PAOLO, CIAO, TACOS, PESOS, SEÑOR, SERAPE, MISE EN PLACE, LOX, TRE, and SUNNI.
Misc.:
Signed, Clare Carroll, who's always both seen and heard :)
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Misc.:
- I might’ve gotten the most excited today over SAL (33D: Kid-lit girl with a blueberry pail) in the puzzle. I hadn’t thought of “Blueberries for Sal” in so many years, but that was one of my favorite books growing up.
- Seeing LOX (31A: Bagel topping) in the puzzle reminds me of how many times I’ve gone to a bagel place near me in DC called Call Your Mother. I moved just a few minutes closer to it, but I’ve already gone probably four times in the last few weeks to get a bagel with cream cheese, capers, and LOX. They’re so delicious.
- I used to use OPI (5A: Nail polish brand) nail polish all the time. Then I started rock climbing, and my nails would chip after climbing just once. So I’ve barely had my nails painted at all in years.
- For National Independent Bookstore Day this past Saturday, I went to a couple local bookstores and managed to snag a print from a special edition Inciardi print. The machine to get the print requires four quarters, and when I put mine in at one point, I realized it wasn’t working because I was trying it with three quarters and one PESO (46A: Coins of Cuba) I apparently brought back with me from Mexico. Oops! I also got the book “Lost Lambs” by Madeline Cash, which comes highly recommended from my sister, and “Weavingshaw” by Heba Al-Wasity, a fantasy book I’m already halfway into and loving!
- In other very important news, BTS is now on tour!! I’m counting down the days until I get to see them in Baltimore in August and get to see something like this.
- I’m feeling a little ACHY (1A: Sore) after my hike yesterday. And Red might be, too, after our many miles…
(and a bonus (a bonus pic from when Red wanted some of my happy hour TACOS (8A))
And that's all from me, folks! Have a great month of May.
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69 comments:
Easy-medium mostly because MISEENPLACE was a WOE (Hi @ Clare) as was SAL so a significant pause was required to fill (guess at) that square.
EDNA and PAOLO were also WOEs and seeIN (Hi again @Clare) before ASKIN was a costly erasure.
Reasonably smooth grid, clever theme, liked it.
I had SEENBUTNOTHEARD entered which caused a bit of a delay...
¡Buen camino a tu hermana, @Clare!
Easy Tuesday. Cute theme.
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
My 4D emphatic confirmation was YES yes before it was YES I AM.
When I welcome someone at the door I see them IN. I probably ASKed them IN already (24A).
WOEs (mostly @jae):
Painter PAOLO Veronese at 6D.
ESTATE as clued at 16D.
I'm not familiar with the book Blueberries for Sal, but SAL as a three-letter female in song is a crossword staple.
EDNA Lewis at 57D.
Could I possibly be learning (finally!) that OPI is the nail polish and oxo is the kitchen brand?!? I got it right today!
Smooth Tuesday, clever revealer. But left me thinking about SEEN and NOT HEARD. I was always told (!!!) SEEN BUT NOT HEARD, and happy to accept the AND alternative but left me pondering the subtle differences, to my ears at least. SEEN AND NOT HEARD feels to me that in fact we would like to see the children, but quietly. SEEN BUT NOT HEARD to me lands like, if we must see the children, then they must be quiet, but perhaps would be better if they stayed in the nursery so we might enjoy our port and cigars completely at peace.
Workmanlike early week theme - cute idea and well filled for the most part. It felt a little aged overall but no critical issues. Tje two spanning themers were the highlight.
OAR
YES I AM, AXIS POWERS, SERAPE, CONTINUITY are all pretty solid. CANST, BRAS, KROC are all overdone crossword stalwarts. Nice to see Calvin PEETE in the grid.
Sunny Day Real ESTATE
Definitely not a fan of PAPAYAS in a smoothie - but can pick it out quickly in the SB now. Seeing PSST a lot lately. THAT SE corner is name heavy.
The great Ralph Mooney
Enjoyable Tuesday morning solve. Good luck to your sister on her trek Clare.
Moonage Daydream
Been solving for two years, and it still takes me a bit of a pause to get OPI, a name I only know from crosswords, because I always want it to be OBI, another word I know only from crosswords. Maybe now that I’ve written it in a place that is not a grid, it’ll stick.
Clare got this puzzle exactly right: solid theme for a Tuesday (though Rex might have pointed out that SEEN is not seen in all three words of MISE EN PLACE and call it an inelegance—didn’t bug me since it was just a jumble of letters for me anyway), but not much else to say about it. But I was genuinely happy to write out TIES UP LOOSE ENDS.
I loved my cloSE ENcounter with this puzzle’s theme, with its “oh I SEE Now” surpriSE ENding that needed no reverSE ENgineering to understand.
I remembered the phrase as "better seen than heard," which didn't fit, so it took a bit to sort that out.
Sorry. Don't really care what Google says about "Seen but not heard" largely because "alternative" usage seems often to stem from the incorrect becoming colloquial over time, like chaise longue and chaise lounge. In any event the British gentry and upper middle classes managed to achieve the far preferred state of both unseen and unheard for most of the year by sending their children off to boarding schools where they could receive regular corporal punishment for the most minor of offenses (like leaving food on your plate) and formality reigned: even siblings would often refer to each other by their surnames, e.g Smith Major and Smith Minor, or Smith I and II (roman numerals of course).
Didn't know mise en place and was shocked when puzzle was correct despite the crossing looking solid. Other than that it was a fast solve.
I'm 82 years old, and have never, ever heard or SEEN the word "ARREAR" in all that time. Look it up in Dictionary.com and you get "arrears." M-W does have a listing for the singular, but all the examples it gives are in the plural. I actually tried taking out one of the Rs to make it fit--but of course that messed up HEARD, so it wouldn't do. There must have been some way to avoid it.
I didn't know MISE EN PLACE either. I've only started doing that kind of prep very recently; more commonly I'm halfway through a recipe and have to go rummaging through the cupboards. If I could afford it, I'd have an ingredient shopper on retainer.
The theme was fine, and I'm in the AND camp on the saying--not that I would ever say it. And while I know about Mr. SOSA, clues like that always remind me of Slammin' Sammy Snead. (Oops! I just now realized the clue said "slugger," not slammer. Evokes the memory anyway.)
The corner pair of TESTY TACOS sounds like a sequel to the Soup Nazi.
AXIS of evil also fit that space, and once I had AXIS I put it in immediately, which obviously cause me some issues in the SE. But it became obvious that it wasn't "of evil" pretty quickly and my time was still under my Tuesday average. I enjoyed the revealer but agree with @Clare that the theme didn't help the solve. Nevertheless I liked the puzzle, although I still can't remember OPI (I had OPa to start--at least I knew it started OP_).
I got such pleasure out of uncovering gorgeous long answers rarely or never seen in crosswords – CONTINUITY, STRINGENT, MISE EN PLACE. When that happens, I stop for a moment to dwell in the beauty.
I loved the revealer too. It’s one thing to come up with theme answers that hide a word like SEEN, but to come up with a revealer that throws in a surprise element – that not only is SEEN hidden from sight but also not sounded out – that’s not only impressive, but brings a most lovely “Oho!”.
Oh, by the way, every theme answer, including the revealer, is appearing in the Times puzzle for the first time ever, giving the puzzle serious pop.
A lovely serendipity is the quartet of schwa-ending names in the east – ROSA, GAIA, SOSA, EDNA.
All the above, Hal, contributed to a splendid outing, a terrific springboard to my day. Thank you!
Yay for Call Your Mother!
Hey All !
Hello Clare and Red! Nice to see you again.
I had the 'but' instead of the AND in the Revealer. However, the Downs forced me to change it. This puz is a great example of not needing The Circles to find the Theme.
I TOO liked the puz. Flowed nicely. Light on dreck. The foreignisms that Clare points out, most have morphed into being acceptable English, if that makes sense, so didn't bother me.
@pablo
A PAOLO, close! 😁
®Uniclue:
Earth Goddess's vintage undergarments?
OLDEN GAIA BRAS
Welp, hope y'all have a great Tuesday!
No F's - Uh oh, that's two days in a row, payback for the epic Fri-Sat-Sun run, I guess.
RooMonster
DarrinV
It seemed like there were quite a few answers that could have gone multiple ways (ASK IN could have been SEE IN for example, fruits in a smoothie, and the foreign stuff). Add in the usual assortment of propers and the Shakespeare quote of the day and the difficulty may have been a touch more than the usual Tuesday, but probably not quite Wednesday level.
Fortunately the theme answers dropped right in for me and the reveal confirmed it, so I was able to wrestle this one to the ground without getting too sidetracked.
funny cause i (dad of two boys) hear it as we like to watch the kids as we enjoy our port but (not and) do not want to hear any guff about how much port we are drinking
@jberg, I've been easing my spouse into helping me with dinner prep, including the concept and practicality of MISE EN PLACE. I've also been easing him into early week crosswords - will be interested to see if my kitchen lesson took :)
Enjoyable puzzle with a fun theme. I also filled in 40 Across by guessing because I didn’t know the phrase.🎈🎈🎊🎊
SEEN *BUT* NOT HEARD — never heard it any other way
Clever theme. I spent some time pondering what could be the commonality among the theme phrases, but SEEN was not seen by me. I like those hiding-in-plain-sight fake outs. And I thought the theme phrases were very good.
Do-overs: add me to the "but" camp; STRenuous before STRINGENT.
Beautiful dog BTW and I'm not particularly a dog person. Never heard of Mise en place.
Hands up for AXISofevil!
Thanks, Clare, for the great write up! I was kinda wondering what the 2nd half of the revealer was doing there... didn't really get it til I read your comments, and now I totally admire it! One of the E's is silent in each of the themers.... cool! I really don't know the expression "MISEENPLACE" so that was totally a WOE; agree with @jberg about ARREAR (!). Took me 11:28 last night but I was watching basketball, so I think it was medium... But all in all, a terrific puzzle, thank you Hal!!!!!
Yeah, saw PAOLO , and since we're being strict, was not planning to claim and points. So close.
Not quite your age, but totally agree on ARREAR, which I wrote in while thinking "please don't be that".
Always good to hear from you Clair, with your busy urban life. And wishing your sis a Buen Camino, from one who has the Credencial and the Certificate they give you in Santiago. I imagine she enjoyed Pamplona. You ought to fly over and surprise her at the cathedral next month!
Puzzle was easy, no slowdowns except for MISEENPLACE, which I'm sure EDNA used. Although the traditional Southern approach to life might suggest a more casual approach in the kitchen!
Theme was meh, but acceptable for early week. Overall nice one , 3 star
I'm with all the other folks who think we need a BUT and not an AND. The fact that something is possible does not make it a good idea.
Today I was happy to remember OPI, guess RUNDMC, and write in CONTINUITY off the C. OTOH, I had MISEENPLACE entirely in and spent overly long trying to parse it, eventually the phrase looked sort of familiar, but don't ask me to define it. Hello, EDNA. Know you principally as a Simpsons character.
Buen viaje a tu hermana, Clare. Nice to see you blogging today, as later I'll be performing at a nursing home for my granddaughter's (Emma Clare) great-grandmother Clare, so I'll be seeing lots of Clares. You might say I'll be Clare voyant.
Very nice Tuesday indeed, HM. Slight nit with the BUT/AND thing, but it Hardly Mattered. Thanks for all the fun.
Just wondering if I should welcome into my home a pelt claiming to be a relative of mine.
Just ASKIN if I should ASKIN ASKIN ASKIN. ASKIN for a friend.
Question that is no longer asked on arriving in Bangkok: Are YESIAM or are ye Thailand?
Sign at the retirement home when @pablo and friends don't show up: NOSINGalong Tonight.
Many prefer the lesser known mAmAYAS.
If you're just starting out at the Detroit Medical Center your ambition may be to RUNDMC someday.
I've SEEN AND HEARD enough Tuesday puzzles to know this was a wonderful one, especially the theme. Thanks, Hal Moore.
And thanks for the nice write-up, Clare. Red's markings look a good bit like those of our Australian Labradoodle Baffi (Italian for "mustache"). He's feeling a bit put out about the introduction last week of his 9 week old furball of a sister, but he's starting to come around.
I've heard plenty of people use a long E sound at the beginning of Enough. That would make seen in "close enough" heard, as well.
Ditto here. I've been saying the phrase out loud both ways "SEEN but", "SEEN AND" and they both sound familiar.
Either way, tough time to be a kid. 👶
Sesame seeds, poppy seeds etc are bagel toppings. Lox goes inside the bagel!!!!
Enjoyable Tuesday but had never heard of mise en place. Nice info.
On just another note; most dogs dislike baths. I brush my German Shepherd daily and it works just fine for her... also not so easy getting a 75 lb dog into a tub. She accompanied me to the ACPT in Stamford a couple of weeks ago and she so appreciated the warm welcome and many pats and hugs she received from the crossword community. Thank you from both of us.
Great puzzle for a Tuesday; liked it better than Clare.
Not questioning EDNA Regina Lewis (RIP) as the WOTD, but could also have recognized another African-American pioneer, Calvin PEETE (RIP). Peete is described as the most successful Black professional golfer until Tiger Woods. My favorite line in his bio (Wikipedia) was his response "...to ask a Black man what he feels about traditions of the Masters (which had previously been whites-only) is like asking him how he feels about his forefathers who were slaves". Good answer. There's a reporter who should have been SEEN AND/BUT NOT HEARD.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think ARREAR (singular) is not accepted in Spelling Bee.
Amazingly, this nonsense, below, does not overlap egs's fine work.
PESOS: Cry for help in gym class
What you get when you sneeze incorrectly: ACHY
Anna and Tori got their Indian breads all mixed up. Ha! A trap!
Paul Bunyan's credo: AXISPOWER
CIAO: Our nation's intelligence bureau (Central Intelligence Agency Organization) before the Dept. of Redundancy Dept. got its hands on it.
Not if you keep the halves separated.
Agree. "Accompaniment" would be better.
For some reason, after reading @Lewis' comment, I started thinking about the phrase, CLOSE ENOUGH. Close enough for rock and roll is one I've heard (what does that even mean?) And then there's "close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades" and I realized we solvers could tack on "and crossword clues."
I watch a bunch of Food Network cooking shows so I've often heard MISE EN PLACE but only today did I look it up and get the precise definition. Something I need to practice better in my own kitchen.
I thought the TIE-in of the theme answers to the well-known SEEN AND NOT HEARD phrase (I'm actually in the "but", not "and" group) was very clever. Thanks, Hal Moore!
MISENPLACE (along with YESIAM) was a woe, despite my recognizing it immediately after the fact. Overall thought this was a slightly tougher than task Tuesday puzzle. The British gentry were famous for wanting children to be neither seen nor heard and having separate rooms run which to segregate them, but spending time with or kids in London we were amazed at the variety of entertainment and educational facilities dedicated to children—even British Airways had special service the for children.
Hand up for NOT knowing MISE EN PLACE and realize that as I’ve gotten older and more prone to forgetting to chop or dice an onion, shallot, or various fresh herbs for a recipe, I started instituting this method without knowing it had a name! And yes, I’ve also never seen ARREAR without an S.
Thought this a tougher than usual Tuesday puzzle. MISENPLACE (along with the ambiguous YESIAM) was a woe. The British gentry were long thought to prefer children be neither seen nor heard but living in London with our kids we were amazed at the entertainment and educational facilities available for children, and British Airways always had special things for them to do.
Re Clare’s note, look at Red! All grown up and beautiful. Also, I initially skipped the intro so didn’t realize it was Clare writing until I hit the paragraph where she mentions using nail polish—at that point I kinda figured it was not a Rex write up.
I learned what mise en place is years ago as my partner is an avid baker. Our kitchen island looks like he’s going to be doing a television show when he has everything laid out. It’s also extremely helpful
yup.
I completed the Camino Francese about 20 years ago. It's a moving experience to reach the Cathedral in Santiago.
Weird. Seemed tougher than it was. Chewy. Liked it a lot. I switched to Downs-Only Mondays and Tuesdays about 5 or 6 years ago because I preferred not to finish my puzzle before I finished my morning toast and jam - usually about 6 to 7 minutes back in those days. So I crippled myself by removing half the clues and I stretched out my enjoyment time to somewhere between 20 and 25 minutes. I rarely check the timer these days but, because this seemed difficult, I was curious. Seventeen minutes flat, while watching a Stanley Cup playoff game. As I said, weird.
Really nice theme (which I didn’t really use to solve) and not a lot of junk. As a certified kitchen rat, I loved MISE EN PLACE. The other themers and the reveal were excellent. Couldn’t ask for more in an early week grid.
Nice work, Hal Moore. You have gained a fan.
ingredient
I'm with the first ANonymous - only more strongly. It was hard for me to chanage "but" to "and". "And" doesn't fit with the intent, attitude, etc of the expression as normally used. I feel like it was changed for the puzzle.
I got to meet Cal Peete at an event at our club years ago. Very much a gentleman. On the practice tee, he took an iron and tomahawked it into the ground so it stood straight up. He then put a tee in the top of the handle and hit a drive further than I have ever hit one in my life.
When I read the revealer, I went back and tried to find hidden 4 letter words meaning "children" (eg KIDS?) in the theme answers. It was a bit anticlimactic to realize it was just the word SEEN over and over. It is nice that you don't hear SEEN in those phrases... except as @anonymous 9:08 am said, I sorta do in CLOSE ENOUGH.
Not quite as many names as yesterday, thank gof. They didn't bother me too much, except that little cluster in the lower right. And the only Unknown Names for me were EDNA, SAL, and PEETE. I watch a lot of golf, but the name Calvin Peete is only vaguely familiar, and I couldn't have got it without the crosses. (It has been 40 years since his last PGA win.)
CLOSEENOUGH OK imbedded-word puztheme, but ...
MISEENPLACE = SEEN and not known.
Always nice to learn new stuff, tho. Even French stuff, I suppose. Will try now to employ MIS-EEN-PLACE in my daily conversations about kitchens.
staff weeject pick: OPI - for some reason, I cannot ever remember this here brand name for sure. Havin it cross no-know artist Veronese didn't help, at our house.
PAOLO oughta be clued up as a xword tourney champ, btw, IM&AO.
fave stuff included: WATERPOLO & its clue. GRAMMAR. CONTINUITY. STRINGENT.
Thanx, Mr. Moore dude. OK ... now I need to not MIS my PLACE EEN line, for the next cinnamon roll out there in the kitchen ...
Masked & Anonymo3Us
p.s.
Runt Puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Had greet instead of ask in & yes sir (much more emphatic) before yes I am. If water polo is sink or swim then it seems like any sport or activity on water would also qualify. So did not like that clue. Did like Claire's write up, 4.5 stars.
Very good Tuesday - I liked the reveal. I had to run the alphabet for MISEENPLACE because I did not know GLAM. Lots of names I did not know but gettable from the crosses. I too wanted but instead of AND in the revealer, but ODES took care of that. Fun puzzle thank you! And love your happy dog Clare
Clare. This Camino de Santiago thing …
I find the whole idea confusing. I know I’m going to to take a fair amount of flak for this, but I know a couple of people who, as far as I know, are not church goers, and have undertaken this trek. They don’t claim to have done this religious pilgrimage for religious reasons. Their answers to my queries about motive boil down to “Well. It was a thing to do.” Like climbing Everest “because it was there”, without all the heights and cold and oxygen tanks.
I’d love to stroll through the Galician countryside, but I think it might be much better without a timetable and passport stamps and a final destination that is meaningless to non-believers. So, with no ill intent - your sister is probably a wonderful person - I’m asking you and any commenters here who have done this pilgrimage, why?
I’ve done things that were hard to explain. I signed up for hockey school when I turned 50. I still can’t really explain that to my friends who don’t understand the allure of hockey. So I’m more than a bit empathetic, just not totally clear on the concept. Maybe I never will be.
Oh, and why do cyclists get a certificate? They’re cheating.
M&A. It's MISE EN PLACE (meez on plass) simply means "put in place". Some people seem to think it's a prescribed regiment but in my kitchen it simply means "get sh*t out ahead of time".
Your kitchen island is extremely helpful? Nice.
Haha…like I said above…I started doing MISE EN PLACE in last few years without knowing what it was called (and I don’t watch cooking shows). As for “close enough”…I was a government attorney and people would say (in jest) “close enough for government work.” It was because THAT is what people in government THINK about how it’s perceived by some/many people that do NOT working for the government. (Since many govt attorneys would work at home…NOT getting paid “billable hours” like private attorneys). And this is NOT a slam on private attorneys, because the ones I worked with KNEW I was getting paid “peanuts” and working “off hours.”
Like DAVinHOP, I said it as "seen but not" and "seen and not." I always heard it "seen but not," so of course that option sounds more natural to my ears.
Hiding the word "seen" in a phrase or string of words is not very impressive or clever or interesting - sorry.
Anonymous 9:05 AM
clohs eenuhf does not equal cloh seen uhf
Spaces andsyllables make a big difference in pronunciation
Anyway ee nuhf is mostly used for emphasis. That phrase is almost always said clohs uhnuhf.
Enjoyed this one. Clever theme with a spanning revealer and a spanning themer (I've said often that I'm a sucker for spanners.) I am seeing and learning about MISEENPLACE for the very first time. I had thought it had to be wrong and then got the happy music, which was appropriate because I'm very happy to learn this new little nugget today.
Like many, I also had *but* in the revealer until it just wouldn't work with the crosses. I don't love the way it looks/sounds with AND, but I don't hate it either and from what I read above, both are acceptable.
Thought it cute that SENOR crossed with SERAPE, that made me smile.
I will also never, ever, ever remember nail polish brands even though it is almost always OPI, something in my brain is not letting me retain that data point. It didn't help that today it crossed with a proper and a poem that were not front of brain for me but admittedly should have been.
Put up a bit more resistance for me than most Tuesdays which I appreciate. Thanks Hal, this was a good time!
Really? You don’t know the purpose of a pilgrimage? Ever read Chaucer? How about Augustine? Or even Emilio Estevez.
@Beezer, one of my best friends was a Human Relations lawyer for the state of MN. It always annoyed her that the image of government workers was that they didn’t work all that hard. She said the vast majority of them were extremely dedicated employees so I get the irony of the “close enough” idiom.
Loving the positivity Clare. I agree
- it was a plenty fun puzzle. Found it easy to a Tuesday. I spend a while trying to figure out what a Miseen Place is though.
Los niños deben ser vistas y no escuchadas.
Cute dog photos Clare.
I would rather hear kids and not see them. Really dumb adage and unworthy theme, but executed just fine as long as you love names and no humor. Here's the adage: What you've done here is done well, it's just not worth doing. The other adage I've lived a happy life on: CLOSE ENOUGH.
Is there a noticeable amount of sinking in WATER POLO? I've never seen a match, but the video clips make it seem very swimmy.
MISE EN PLACE is new to me. Kinda fancy for little bowls with your ingredients in them.
People: 10 {unnecessary}
Places: 0
Products: 4
Partials: 4
Foreignisms: 4
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Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 74 (30%)
Funny Factor: 0 😫
Tee-Hee: BRAS.
Uniclues:
1 Why you're just not able to be funny.
2 Canned tuna on Wonder bread.
3 How I start my daily comments.
4 When accompanied by a head nod, this gentle prodding indicates someone nearby is putting on airs.
5 We're a parliament / of midnight gnarliment ... and ... If you hear our hoot / your life is prolly moot / you better scoot.
6 Evil pays and pays and pays.
7 How mother Earth kept things perky.
1 STERN GRAMMAR (~)
2 CLOSE ENOUGH LOX (~)
3 SEÑOR POSTS (~)
4 PSST ... ACTS GLAM (~)
5 OWL TROOPS ODES
6 IAGO CONTINUITY (~)
7 OLDEN GAIA BRAS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The sun. RED NOSE TOASTER.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t look to the NYTXW for my political or social commentary needs. But the theme is not only already vile on its own merits, and the root of so much abuse and dysfunction of the generations who were subject to it, but is specifically one of the exact phrases that are actively being dismantled on social media at this moment, and getting tossed to the ash heaps of history. To post this puzzle smack dab amidst the online trend of having GenX and older parents quiz their children to “complete the phrase” on these old harmful adages, and post their replies of not being familiar with the phrase, to show how the cycle is starting to be broken…and then resurrect it for a nostalgic good time is just an extra level of how tone-deaf this is. Seriously akin to when the NYT “discovered” boba tea a good 5+ years into the trend. I can’t think of when a NYT puzzle made me cringe like this (oh wait, summer camp still takes the cake).
I think a lot of the motivation for the non-religious is just the convenience of the existing infrastructure. If you wanted to do a 10+ day Galician hike some where else it would be a daunting logistical endeavor.
comments on this blog are not being published to satisfy Rex grudges and biases - divergent views on puzzling and what it means for solvers should be published in the blog
I thought the same. Sure there’s a space but no one speaking normally will pause between them. But then, speaking normally, I think most would pronounce it with a short i sound rather than a long e. Source: me saying “ah that’s close enough” over and over to my dog
I’ve heard the phrase more with AND as well. But mostly just from my grandparents
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