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Gorp tidbit / TUE 5-19-26 / Standard musical progression / Football, informally / Massachusetts local of Manchester-by-the-Sea / Joint thing in the Venn diagram of "instruments" and "fish" / Heads of Hogwarts? / Companion to Fannie and Freddie in the mortgage biz / Classic falling-block game
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Constructor: Brad Wiegmann
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- PENTATONIC SCALE (17A: Standard musical progression)
- CHAIR UMPIRE (22A: High court judge?)
- TEAM SPORT (33A: Basketball or baseball, but not boxing)
- TWIN ENGINES (47A: Matching pair on many jets)
Suzanne Brigit Bird (born October 16, 1980) is an American former professional basketball player who played her entire career with the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). Bird was drafted first overall pick by the Storm in the 2002 WNBA draft and is considered one of the greatest players in WNBA history. As of 2025, Bird is the only WNBA player to win titles in three different decades. In 2025 she was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame and the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, and in 2026 she was inducted into the NYC Basketball Hall of Fame and the FIBA Hall of Fame. In addition to her WNBA career, Bird played for three teams in the Russian league. [...] Bird has won a joint-record four WNBA championships with the Storm (2004, 2010, 2018, 2020), five Olympic gold medals (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2020), two NCAA Championships with UConn (2000, 2002), and four FIBA World Cups (2002, 2010, 2014, 2018). She is one of only 11 women to attain all four accolades, and is one of only two basketball players—of any gender—to win five Olympic gold medals. She is also a five-time EuroLeague Women champion (2007–2010, 2013) // During Bird's WNBA career, she was selected to thirteen WNBA All-Star teams and eight All-WNBA teams. She was voted by fans as one of the WNBA's Top 15 Players of All Time in 2011, was voted into the WNBA Top 20@20 as one of the league's top 20 players of all time in 2016, and was voted into The W25 as one of the league's top 25 players of all time in 2021. Bird retired from professional basketball after the 2022 WNBA season.
• • •
The puzzle was also very easy. The fill was clued in an extremely straightforward manner, for the most part. There are a handful of "?" clues to try to make things at least a little twisty, but they didn't add much difficulty in the end. After wanting to cram in YOU ARE at 1A: What you eat, I then wrote in FOOD. Also wrong! But that was my only mistake of the day. Oh, and I had CAT POSE before COW POSE and BON AMIE before MON AMIE (39D: Term of friendship for a French woman) (should've known BON AMIE was wrong—for a woman, it would be BONNE AMIE). Other than that, there was exactly one clue that made me stop long enough to think "huh?" And that was 34D: Leaves together? (PILE). I knew right away that "Leaves" was going to be a noun rather than a verb (I've seen enough "leaves" puns in TEA and SALAD clues to last me a lifetime), but SALAD wouldn't fit and I couldn't think of a four-letter TEA starting with "P" so ... I had to work the crosses. Yes, if you rake a bunch of leaves "together," you do get a PILE. I had trouble making the leap from mere "togetherness" to a PILE structure specifically. Perhaps if this puzzle had come out in autumn, the connection would've been clearer. This clue is the only one I'd classify as "difficulty" in the whole puzzle. The rest is (mostly) remedial trivia and straight definitions.
Bullets:
- 42A: Heads of Hogwarts? (LOOS) — gratuitous Potterization. Always a bad choice. Grow up. ("Heads" are toilets, which is where this clue belongs)
- 60A: Breads for Reuben sandwiches (RYES) — I was all set to say "there shouldn't be any drinks in this puzzle outside the theme answers!" and then realized that this was a bread clue, not a whiskey clue. No foul!
- 29A: Joint thing in the Venn diagram of "instruments" and "fish" (BASS) — I see what you're doing here, but no. They're spelled the same, but they are not the same, and so would not be a "joint thing" in a Venn diagram. Unless you can play the fish like an instrument, in which case, I withdraw my objection.
- 30A: "That's so sweet!" reactions / 46A: "Ick!" ("AWS" / "EWW!") — you can have one one of these reactions, but you may not have two. Eww, no. One. One awkwardly-spelled reaction maximum! This applies also to U.S. state demonyms. You used yours up with IOWAN, puzzle! You can't then try to shove ALASKAN down my throat. Violation!
- 45D: Major unknowns (BIG IFS) — probably my favorite thing in the puzzle. Nice and slangy. A lot more lively than your run-of-the-mill shorter fill. Oh, I also liked PIGSKIN (25D: Football, informally). Apparently I just like "-IG" words.
- 8D: Gorp tidbit (RAISIN) — this wasn't my favorite clue, but I am enjoying saying "Gorp Tidbit" over and over. "Hey, who's that new guy over in Accounting?" "Oh, that's Gorp Tidbit." "I'm sorry, who?" "Gorp Tidbit." "Gorp Tidbit? Where's he from?" "Uh ... I don't know. Vermont, maybe?"
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That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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75 comments:
Easy. Solved without reading the theme clues. Cute theme, especially the clue for CHAIR UMPIRE at 22A.
* * * _ _
One overwrite, at 1A. What I ate was food before it was my DIET. No WOEs.
Rex nails it today - cute little early week theme that’s got a neat reveal and for the most part is well filled. The spanning TWO DRINK MINIMUM is the highlight here.
Mama
The gorp play is funny. Liked the ALSKAN - IOWAN pair and PIGSKIN. Have never understood the appeal of THE DUDE - however Connery and CAINE are fantastic in King. Another kiddie lit reference today?
A pleasant Tuesday morning solve.
Th’ Dudes
I enjoyed it more than Rex did. Getting TWODRINKMINIMUM from the crosses helped identify the beverages, so the theme worked for me.
8 minutes for me last night during the basketball game (TWO overtime MINIMUM!). Rooting for the Spurs just cuz.... I like the underdog, and I still like Luke Kornet who went there from the Celts. Anyway, liked the puzzle more than @REX did--I guess I don't have the sensitivity to measure the crosswordese meter quite at the same level. Loved the theme! I agree about no need to box them, and even how it would have been great to have 1 themer with 3 drinks.... Rex, you really got me cracking up with Gorp Tidbit from Vermont! Nice to see NIGER and CAPEANN and KIWI in the grid, along with ENNEADS (a word I just love love love from Crosswords : )) and TETRIS and PIGSKIN. Thanks, Brad, for a terrific Tuesday puzzle. FANTASYSPORTS (see constructors notes) was a nice one from the cutting room floor, too...
Very Easy, except for the NW, where I floundered, starting with fAd and food instead of DAP and DIET, and not knowing PENTATONIC, ENNEADS, or TETRIS—big hole in my education! Enjoyed the theme and the “sporty” references to PIGSKIN and THEDUDE. And REX’s play with the Gorp Tidbit.
"Oh, that's Gorp Tidbit. That was Gil Grape's desk until the end of last summer."
I think all those drinks got Rex in a mellow mood, but he's giving too much slack on RYES. None of the theme drinks are clued as drinks either, so that's no excuse. RYES are ryes, whether you clue them as whiskeys, loaves of bread, or NY towns with marinas.
And I don't really know French, just play at it, but is MON AMIE really possible? Is there some rule I've forgotten that you can't say "ma amie" because the two As are hard to articulate? No that I know of--some real French speaker, please help me out here!
Rex is right about "minimum," but we would need some three-drink phrases, and I can't think of any.
The outlined boxes did make it too easy; a few moments in and I was looking at TONIC__ALE, soon saw that it was different drinks every time, and the rest almost filled itself in. I don't think of the PENTATONIC SCALE as "standard," at least not here in the USA, but that's just cluing, it's fine. Could have been just "musical progression." Anyway, I was able to guess the revealer for once, so I liked it.
Random thoughts:
• I wonder why they used rectangles to highlight the drinks rather than circles.
• Could have left the rectangles out altogether, actually, and made this a Wednesday.
• I wish NIGER could have been TIGER. Then, with the previous answer, we would have had “EASY, TIGER!”
• Very nice touch by Brad – none of the drinks are stand-alone, as, say, the last four letters of “choCOLAte MILK” are. This made the theme answers far more interesting.
• As did their pop. Four are NYT debuts.
• No only did Brad find five theme answers that hid two drinks, but they also fit symmetry. Wow!
• Lovely theme echo in RYES (Hi, @Rex!), and lovely to see BASS close to ALE.
My brain loved guessing at the revealer, on top of all this other fun. A spry springboard to the day – thanks, Brad!
Easy except for the NW, where I first put in food, didn’t know ENNEADS, and wasn’t sure about DAP. Another blip was GINNIE, which I somehow haven’t heard of so I instantly threw in SALLIE and then could not understand how it could possibly be wrong, which it clearly was.
A pretty fun theme, but I agree that we didn’t need the drink squares outlined for us. Give us a little challenge!
A good job by Rex calling out the foolish square / circle highlighting nonsense. I probably struggle as much as anyone in discerning the theme constructs, and I know for sure that I don’t require (or appreciate) that degree of handholding. The dumbing down of America continues unabated - even at the lofty Old Gray Lady.
I also agree with OFL that the Venn Diagram clue is, at a minimum, poorly worded - and to me it seems flat out incorrect as the two BASSes would be in the separated parts of the circles (unless, as Rex mentioned, someone is playing their fish as an instrument). You could attempt to lawyer it into legitimacy by claiming that the clue refers to the actual “words” and not the things they represent - but the clue specifically states “THINGS” and this is a CrossWORD puzzle so one must assume that the editor understands the meanings of the words he is including in his own puzzle.
Oh good, more Harry Potter! Time to add a days since for that trash too. CHAI, and TEA at that, are not really "drink minimum" associated drinks. CHAI was last to go in because I didn't actually think that would be included in the, largely cocktail/alcohol, comedy club minimum drink thing.
Hey All !
I believe if the Themer drinks weren't outlined (or circled, or shaded), we'd get people complaining there is no way to find the drinks. Maybe. But, the Revealer would definitely be a head scratcher sans the outlines.
I started with TenDRINKMINIMUM. Har! Ten drinks! Minimum. Dang.
Had edys in for TCBY, found EDYS later. Malapop? Isn't that what we call that?
What's the difference twixt an ENNEAD or a Nonet?
Liked this puz. No objections thrown from me. EASY, different type Theme, good smooth solve. Like a good smooth whiskey.
Hope y'all have a great Tuesday!
TWO F MINIMUM
RooMonster
DarrinV
I've been a college professor for 20 years and have never heard of the term "gut course" until today.
I had an English friend who was one of 10 kids born to a sweet little lady who stood about 4'10" and couldn't function after a couple of drinks (especially the dreaded WINE/GIN combo). They called her TWODRINKMINIMUM.
A person who is attracted sexually to several different genders will often find themselves looking at BIGIFS on line.
The guy who won the PGA Championship on Sunday went to confession on Monday for his RAISIN.
I believe a PIGSKIN is a boar (like some of my kin, now that I mention it).
It occurs to me that if I was constructing a drink themed puzzle, 60A maybe wouldn't RYES to the occasion. But at least we got dark rectangles for iPhone solvers to complain about not seeing, rather than the usual circles that they can't see. IOWAN apology to@Rex and several others who have already mentioned these things. And thanks for a thirst-slaking Tuesday, Brad Wiegmann.
Medium experience, poor solving time. Gotta stop entering answers with just a single left-hand finger. And I'm right-handed. What is the matter with me?
Had dOg POSE before COW POSE. (MOO.) The "d" there made me thing that EDY'S was going to be at 39 Across, and not at 50 Down which is where I had it the first time. Worked over 39 Across multiple times before finally getting MTN. [There's some model of ATV or SUV or UTE or whatever it is, some big lumbering thing, called the Denali. Yes, I played with at least two of those and also something beginning with "b", like Rex had tried at one point for 39 Down (MON AMIE). In case you didn't know, Denali is ALASKAN.]
I didn't really enjoy the puzzle. Two much short fill of not especially great quality. The boxing of the words is really ugly, and the theme itself left me cold.
LOL at "Unless you are a mathematician, I suppose, ENNEADS is one of those words that exists only in crosswords." Just what is it he thinks we mathematicians do all day? Count groups of nine? (We do the darnedest things, but that's not one of them.) No, the closest I've come to seeing ENNEADS in the wild isn't quite that, but something called an "Enneagram", one of those personality assessment things. I've never taken it, but apparently each of us is one of nine possible personality types.
It is to be a scorcher today. The pool is clean; may be time to give it a go. Enjoy the day!
I thought it appropriate that there was a MOO and a COW om this one as too many clues were MOO COW easy, or as OFL would say, straightforward. I've seen the "what you eat" clue before so waited to check 1D, which made DIET obvious and the rest of the NW was almost equally easy. No real write overs anywhere else except for CAPECOD before CAPEANN.
I did like seeing PENTATONICSCALE which reminded me that we saw The PENTATONIX a while back, hope some of you checked them out. Also a smile to see THEDUDE, who abides.
Nice enough Tuesdecito, BW, But Would you, could you, eliminate things like the boxes and TV Guide cluing? Thanks, and thanks for some breezy fun.
IOWAN: Obi-Wan's cousin from the Midwest.
PENTATONIC SCALE: What you use to weigh your pentaton.
The director of the documentary on farming found it was hard to make a COWPOSE. But it turned out to be a very good MOOOOOOOOOVIE.
Nice duo: RAISIN crossing CAINE
Here's a "three couples" joke I was reminded of by "Dinner's ready."
On a honeymoon cruise, three new husbands met in a lounge and started talking about marriage. One says he read an article saying you have to lay down the law early in the marriage: let the wife know you're the king and what you expect from her. They decided to try that out and meet after a year to compare notes. The year passed and they got together again.
The first husband reported: Well, right after we got back from the cruise, I sat my wife down and explained that I was the king of the castle and I expected a home-cooked meal every night --- no excuses, and that it was her role to keep the house spotless. "And how did it go?," the others asked. He said, "Well, my wife is from Kansas and very sweet. For the first few days, I didn't see any progress, but by the end of the week I started getting some pretty good meals and the house is in decent shape. So, overall, I'd have to say, I'm pretty pleased."
The second husband reported next. "I laid it all out on the line: the meals, the housekeeping, everything I expected of her." "And?" they asked. "Well, my wife is from Nebraska. I also didn't see anything at first, but things started to improve pretty quickly and now our house is in great shape and I enjoy home-cooked meals on a regular basis." "Excellent," the others said.
"And how did it go with you?, they ask the third. "I took the same approach," he said. "As soon as we got home from the cruise I sat her down and made the king of the castle speech and told her my expectations." "And how'd it go?" they asked. "Well, my wife is from the Bronx. I didn't see anything at first. But after a few days the swelling went down, and I could make out shapes."
The themers started as non-alcoholic & alcoholic pairs the first 3 times, which I was assuming would be explained in the revealer. But then the 4th pairing was wine and gin. Could they not work that pattern through consistently?
Also, we all know that pairing wine and gin is a sure fire route to a bad hangover.
I liked the puzzle a lot. The theme was easy, but the fill was more challenging to me than to others. I’d give it a medium.🎈🎈🎊🎊
That is an old wives tale
Can we please stop trying to make ICE SHOW happen?
Gratuitous Potterization?
The rude imperative “grow up.”
Rex, you are absolutely unhinged.
A small musical nit: A progression usually refers to a sequence of chords: "one, six, four, five, one", or something like that. I suppose in layman's terms, the notes of a scale do progress from one note to the other, but the clue sounds a bit dischordant, ha! (otoh, not easy to clue a scale without using scale or sequence)
Wry. But maybe too inside baseball viz marina town.
Was sure OFL would balk at RYES
The “gorp tidbit” movie poster is cracking me up
Really? The term has been around since the ‘40s.
Ther Times wrote an article about Guts at Yale in the late 80s.
Bad cluing on (42D), as Hannibal LECTER was not the villain in Silence of the Lambs-- frightening, but not the villain. Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb was the villain. In fact, Hannibal helped agent Starling crack the case. Easy enough to infer from crosses, though.
Cute. I was whooshing until I wasn't. Going back to find my typo :(
Yep - saw the clue and immediately thought IV-V-I.
From gasrtro.uw.edu: "The University of Washington School of Medicine "Gut Course" - HuBio 551, is a comprehensive journey through GI pathophysiology through the lens of GI luminal, hepatic, and pancreaticobiliary clinical diseases." But I'm guessing it's not a "gut course" in the sense used in today's puzzle.
I, too, have never encountered this, so I'm wondering how common (or regional?) it really is. In my college days this was called an "easy A".
@ Anonymous 10:08 AM. Yup, I'll echo the earlier comment by Anonymous 8:15 AM. I attended three universities (BA, MS, PhD), and I've taught at four (and been at the most recent one for 16 years). This was my first time hearing the term "gut course." Maybe it's a New England regionalism?
2 drink minimum [and maximum, evidently]. Cute puztheme.
I reckon the boxes were used to show a clear boundary between CHAI & RUM, the one drink duo that was scrunched together?
staff weeject picks: EWW & AWS.
fave things: ALASKAN & IOWAN.
Thanx for the drinks, Mr. Wiegmann dude. Nice one.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I liked the fanciful combinations of the TWO DRINKs, my favorite being TEA + PORT, which reminded me of the 1773 party in Boston Harbor. I also enjoyed writing in PENTATONIC SCALE and the crossing ENNEAD (no accounting for crossword tastes). One do-over: SOLO act.
@Rex, LOL at Gorp Tidbit, the guy in Accounting. Also, from yesterday - it always makes me happy to see Ida so healthy and contented.
Medium.
Costly erasure - misspelling ENNEADS
I did not know PENTATONIC SCALE.
Cute theme, liked it.
So unfunny. Not even a little.
Just one complaint: I don’t really think LECTER was the villain in Silence of the Lambs. The villain was Buffalo Bill. I would call Hannibal LECTER more of the antagonist. But maybe that’s just me…
BIGIFS had me rolling
We were at the Comedy Cellar on MacDougal St in NYC recently (saw a surprise appearance by Mike Birbiglia who tried out some new material). They did, indeed , have a TWO DRINK MINIMUM, but they also had a three drink maximum! lol
Had SOLO ACT instead of SOLOIST, and that messed up a lot.
No, mathematicians do not use ENNEAD. If it's important that some kind of thing has nine elements, you might use "a set with nine elements" or "9-tuple" or some such, but not ENNEAD.
My understanding is that it's similar to "a" vs. "an" in English. We use "an" before a noun that starts with a vowel sound. Similarly, instead of "ma" before a feminine noun that starts with a vowel, use "mon". Source
I too have degrees and teach at Universities and “gut courses” is an expression I have heard a bunch, though admittedly not lately. it’s not regional I don’t think (I’m from CA) It’s just old fashioned
That’s mean, but true. The “joke” is Sexist in the extreme as well as unfunny. And longer than the whole write-up, why?! There should be character limits on comments.
A repeat but definitely not one of the worst ones, for sure.
Thanks, Son Volt, for the Mama Cass link. You'd think a guy raised om the Yardbirds and Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, and the "guitar gods" - in no particular order - Clapton, Beck, and Page, I wouldn't be a fan. But I keep a Mamas & Papas playlist and crank it up in my truck when I'm out running errands.
When Cass's solo number ended, my computer cued up M&P's first appearance on Ed Sullivan, so I watched that, too. Lotta fun.
Had fun with this. Found some of the fill a bit more challenging than most Tuesdays but crosses were fair. I kinda think Gorp tidbit and Semaphore device are Wednesdayish cluing... no complaints, just my humble...
I loved the theme. Did not see anything going on with the shaded squares (other than the fact that they caused an ugliness to the grid that was completely unnecessary) until the revealer, which was so straightforward that it fell with virtually no crosses. I then scanned the grid that I'd already completed and said "oh cool!" out loud. That was a fun moment. TWODRINKMINIMUM is a great revealer and a spanner to boot - presses *my* happy buttons.
I had no issue with the short fill, the fun factor of the theme outweighs any slight annoyance I might have had (which is always close to nil when it comes to short fill anyway). I do once again agree with @Rex - why oh why do we need a Harry Potter reference to clue LOOS. There has to be dozens of other cute, clever ways to get us there...
It was fun to read Brad's constructor notes and see some of the other phrases he thought of for his two drink theme: ALExander POPe, cALEndaRYEar, FANTAsysPORTs, RUMpsTEAk. I would have loved them all. It must have been a good time to sit and muse about this stuff!
Brad, thanks so much for this, it was a fun ride! I understand that you now only need a Saturday puzzle to hit the cycle - I hope you get it!
That is what I was thinking also. The character is more of an anti-hero: he helps solve the main crime, and has a friend over for dinner at the end:)
I'm familiar with "gut course" as an easy class. But it also got me remembering my youth in Eugene, Oregon where teens in every sort of auto (muscle cars to VW bugs) would "drag the gut" for hours on Friday nights. This meant driving up and down Willamette Street and razzing everyone else, preferably while surreptitiously drinking beer under the not-so-watchful eyes of Eugene's finest.
This was a cute enough Tuesday theme. I tried to do down clues only for a bit, but soon gave up which is just as well since I probably would have totally missed the theme.
I'll make my usual complaint about clumps of names. TETRIS AER UCLA FEY TBS GCBY (yuck!), and then GINNIE CAPEANN NIGER GESTE.
Got back home last night after a great long Victoria Day weekend at the cabin. Of course after several weeks of hot sunny dry weather, it changed on Friday to cool cloudy rainy and windy, naturally climaxing in a violent storm at Sunday holiday dinner time. As I was washing the dishes, the eavestrough collapsed from the weight of rain water right outside the kitchen window. My nephew ran out and quickly found a piece of lumber to prop it up with (he's very handy).
It was at the University of Minnesota in the 60s.
Didn't Gorp Tidbit play shortstop for the Pirates after Wagner retired?
Sallie does Student loans, not mortgages. The others don't originate mortgages, they help create mortgage backed securities (MBS). I could go on but I'm already boring myself.
Never heard gut course while in college in the 80's nor much to date. I thought it would be a HARD course. But crosses disabused me of that notion.
Beer before liquor, never sicker. Liquor before beer, never fear. As the saying goes, is quite wrong according to science.
I am a woman from the Bronx and I think it’s very funny. Lighten up people.
Love the distinction. Certainly not the villain, but beside his jailor, who does Lecter have a beef with?
That is, his antognisn doesbt existvas itvrelates to the heroine or her quest.
The clue was not The Villain.. it was... Villain in Silence of the Lambs. Lecter certainly was that.
Ennead- a new one for me. Good Tuesday.
At a certain point there may need to be a "days without a Potter reference" counter. It's getting gratuitous.
I did a frowny face at CHAI and TEA. They're both TEAs, right? And in what comedy club would TWO TEAs satisfy the TWO DRINK MINIMUM?
ENNEAD or its letter count boosted ENNEADS has appeared in the NYTXW 103 times over the years (xwordinfo.com). The reason is all those common, low Scrabble score letters make it super grid fill friendly. Can you think of a seven letter word with a lower Scrabble score than 8 in ENNEADS?
I also have taught at quite a few colleges and universities at different places, especially in the early days before landing a tenure track position* and have never encountered 57A "Like a gut course" for EASY. Not sure how "gut" could mean EASY. Like to see the Venn diagram for that.
*When I told my mom over the phone that I had landed a tenure track teaching position, she asked "Why is it just for ten years?"
Very good enjoyable Tuesday puzzle. The reason the two drinks were highlighted was for new solvers - the two drinks would not have been things they would look for buried in the words. I missed RUM in my tiny print copy!
My grandkids just did a very nice ICESHOW!
Hand up for “liked it more than Rex did!” However, this is a fabulous example of my occasional “rantlet” titled “Puh-leeze! We don’t need the neon signs!” The outlines that blinked “Hey there, do you see a beverage here?” were both unnecessary and extremely annoying.
I also agree that the excellence of the reveal was just a teensy bit diminished by the (highlighted and only) two drink examples. Additionally, and as my tiny nit, I thought CHAI was outside the realm of the theme. I forgive it in the name of grid pressure and need to fit a Tuesday difficulty level, but every TWO DRINK MINIMUM establishment I have ever patronized (and that’s a lot of establishments in my lifetime) required the drinks to be alcoholic. I don’t care much for CHAI, but I don’t think it’s alcoholic. I shall happily be educated if I’m in error.
The heavy outlines bothered me lots more than the easy fill from early week Central Crossword Casting. This is a Tuesday puzzle and newer solvers need to learn the fill from Gunktopia somewhere, right? (Hi Gary!)
I liked this Tuesday oeuvre from Mr. Wiegmann. My notes “remember” him from a couple Sunday and Friday puzzles and I enjoyed the clever/humorous clues. SOUP’S ON reminded me of summer when Mom would ring her locally famous school bell (a la the ancient “Ding Dong School”) - clearly audible throughout at least a four square block area to call me in. Upon darkening the back doorstep, my apron-clad Gran was there to say “Wash those filthy hands. SOUP’S ON in ten minutes.” Summer was heaven back in the day.
Having Mama CASS join the party today was icing on the cake. I’ve been listening to all the great late 60s -‘70s music pretty much nonstop lately. Reminds me of the good old days when protesting really changed things for the better. Civil Rights, Voting Rights, Reproductive Rights and Viet Nam. We The People were heard and our music was part of the force for positive change. And Mama CASS et all are still here to remind me not to give up.
Although I, like others started out with food/fad, that was my only snag. This was easy breezy and lots of fun. Could be a bit of rose colored glasses effect too. For the first time in 2+ weeks, my tenacious Pip slept for 6 full hours after downing a (for her) a very large healthy late dinner which meant that we had no glucose alarms ergo I also slept. Hope springs eternal today in my little corner of the world. We shall continue the fight(s) - on all fronts.
Peace &Love
Love your Gorp Tidbit character. I was thinking a scandalous news item involving trail mix would be a Gorp tidbit. I'm so sorry.
@Johnny, the BASS clue gets the "it's trying too hard" penalty flag, no? The same word has two meanings and, in this case, pronunciations; that's it. Too much. Maybe it could get the "I'll allow it" from Rex if the duplicity covered a singing voice and an instrumental piece. Definitely in sync with the downgrade rating today.
The black outlines were annoying. IMO the editors tried too hard there too, although some here have taken the alternative "what if?" position that without the squares it might have made the drinks too hard to spot. Maybe so.
Thought Rex would chastise the inclusion of non-alcoholic drinks. Next time someone goes to a bar or event with a TWO DRINK MINIMUM and orders a (CHAI), I'll withdraw this objection. Otherwise, beverages like milk, water, soda etc could have been fair game but hardly puzzle worthy.
And @Anon 12:09, BI GIFS followed TWO DRINK MINI MUM. @Egs had the two LOL minimum today in my book. Sometimes my early morning brain has trouble understanding his pun-manship; he and other keep the cleverness meter chugging.
@pabloinnh, you likely have at least heard of CAPE ANN, which is on the other side of the coast (from Boston) as the more famous Cape Cod. This was a gimme for us.
Manchester-by-the-Sea is a snootier version of, simply, Manchester (of your NH and many others' fame). The good (and rich) folks there added "by-the-sea" as a nickname in the late 19th century. And in 1989, the town (by a vote of 97-95) voted to officially change its name to M-b-t-S.
It's such a small community that their kids (those who who don't go to private school) attend a regional district with the town of Essex which is still called Manchester-Essex Regional and not (yet anyway) Manchester-by-the-Sea-Essex.
Hand up to join the “liked it lots more than Rex did” group. However, I also agree with him wholeheartedly that the annoying black boxes detracted from the solving experience. They were neon signs constantly blinking “Hey! Two drink names here! Could be a theme!” and absolutely unnecessary. And that’s my repeat “rantlet”on the subject of wholly unnecessary “grid art” that dilutes or destroys the enjoyment and surprise of a theme. As for the theme, I also agree with Rex that having all the theme answers have precisely two drink names weakens the effect of the reveal.
Speaking of diluted, is CHAI really a legit member of the theme? I don’t care for CHAI, but isn’t it both non-alcoholic and not a mixer like TONIC? Every TWO DRINK MINIMUM establishment I’ve patronized (and that’s lots of GIN joints in lots of towns - sorry, couldn’t resist) requires that the “minimum” number of drinks be alcoholic. That’s today’s nit. I forgive it in the name of grid pressure and need to have the rddequisite Tuesday solve-ability.
My only snag was the same as several others. Happily, my food/fad error was pleasantly short lived. The remainder of the solve was simple and enjoyable.
When I saw TONIC emblazoned within its neon sign, and sitting here in our first true North Bay heat wave (90 at 1:00PM) it made me think that since it’s 5:00 somewhere, I could finish this with an icy G&T. Learned to crave good GIN working with my British colleagues. Bliss with lots of lime.
When I checked today’s byline, my notes told me that I have enjoyed Mr. Wiegmann’s earlier puzzles, especially his Friday offerings. Today’s did not disappoint. I forgive lots of fill from Crossword Central Casting on Mondays and Tuesdays. Newer solvers have to learn to recognize and memorize fill from Gunktopia somehow. (Hi Gary!) This will give them a good start, and since it is Tuesday and my sparkly fill expectations are low and the theme enjoyment fairly high for a Tuesday, I’m happy.
The puzzle also reminded me of the blissful summers of my misspent youth. At 5PM (or as soon as she was home from work) everyone within 4 blocks would hear Mom’s annoying “Ding-Dong School” bell calling me in from my undoubtedly creative day. My ability to roam my “area” freely was conditioned on never missing “the bell.” It was something hard won, had “conditions” and could easily be lost. I’d literally race home and upon bursting through the back door (“Don’t bang the screen!”) Gran would smile and say “Wash those filthy hands and face. SOUP’s ON in 10 minutes.” Blissful summers.
What also made me happy is seeing Mama CASS today. I have been playing all Thr ‘60s - ‘70s greats lately to keep my spirits up. All the music from when protesting worked and things changed for the better: Voting Rights, Civil Rights, Reproductive Rights, Viet Nam. We must persevere and so we shall. Hopefully, The People get their heads out of their . . . screens, actually engage face to face, find that common ground that is still there and change will come. I believe.
Good moods prevail here in our tiny corner of NorCal today. Thankfully, last night Pip had a large-for-her and as usual fashionably late supper and slept for 6 straight hours without her glucose alarm waking us to adjust food or insulin. This means I also had some sleep. Game changer.
It’s a good day here, whatever comes. We shall meet it head on with Peace, Love & Humor in our hearts.
Rex's naming of Gorp Tidbit as the new guy from accounting was classic; made me almost refrain from stating my pet peeve about CPAs being (in the world of crosswordese) a "return sender" (or filer, or April 15 maven, or whatever, professionally demeaning, largely incorrect stereotype). Almost.
Les S. More
Mama Cass was a decent person with a beautiful voice. The two men in the group treated her shabbily. And the press was no better. The whole story about the sandwich could politely be called a myth. Sadly, she died of heart failure, just after a successful performance in London I am finally no longer a Mama she told a friend on the phone shortly before she died.
Rex should have googled ennead. I read 2 sites and no mention of math was made. Ennead is from Greek via Latin and literally means a group of 9. According to Wikipedia,Ennead most often is used to refer to nine related Egyptian Gods. It is also used to refer to groups-of nine gods in various mythologies or groups of nine related things in general. It has been be used in many of the comics based movies. They do like their pretentious wirds. But ennead has been heard by millions of people.
I agree with many that the puzzle was better than Rex’s rating.
"Gut course" was certainly a common phrase at my New England college in the 60's.
😳 The definite article is the peg you’re hanging you’re hat on?
Gow w God.
This. People blaming the boomers for all of today's ills conveniently overlook all the real accomplishments or our generation.
OK, ___
Commenting late because I’m in a conference in Europe, and thus did the puzzle in the morning before Rex’s early morning post in the US, and then stayed busy all day. But anyway…
The fish/music Venn diagram so wanted to be “scales,” but it didn’t fit. It was so painful, because “scales” is the exact Venn diagram between fish and music. And there’d have been no qualms in that case about BASS being pronounced entirely different for music and fish. It was so perfect that it took me quite a long while to get BASS.
My only other thought about the puzzle, as a still new-ish solver, was that the Tuesday-easy scale needs some serious redefining. To whatever extent this puzzle has easy crosswordese, it’s inundated with things that non-solvers have never heard of, often crossing each other, to an extent that I struggled even as I’ve had some time time build my crosswordese vocabulary. I’m not complaining (I’m enjoying the craft as a newbie), but I’m glad that when I was first getting started I didn’t have to try to solve a “Tuesday east” puzzle with SERE, GESTE, ENNEADS, CCCP, SUE (as clued), CPA (as clued), ARI…and those are just the ones the ones that I’d have struggled with even with crosses to help when I was getting started. Yes, “easy for a Tuesday” for regular solvers who have heard of the gunk, but want to give a shout-out to early-career solvers for whom the “easy” gunk would have played quite hard. But I get that we have a wide range of approachable smaller puzzles now for the initiated, so maybe not an important point.
La cena está lista.
Seemed fine. I'm less bummed about the tired glue 🦖 hates and more by the oodles of gunk. The other criticisms here strike me as kinda hollow. You can't drink RYE bread. There are at least two drinks in each line, so yeah, it's the minimum and the fact that it's also the maximum seems irrelevant. The Venn diagram is fish and musical instruments, so BASS is the obvious intersection whether you think it's funny or not. Putting more than one state helps me fill out the Places part of the Gunk report. And, KIDs, the venue where you elect to spend your subscription money is going to use little circles and squares to help people get the theme. Maybe make peace with it? Without those squares, lots of us wouldn't have wasted our time even looking for the drinks. So they hold your hand. It's nice. They have warm soft hands.
HARRY POTTER IS #1, but we don't like HP, or GoT, or LOTR, or Star Wars, or Barbie, or anything on TV really, or Taylor Swift, or any pop music from the last 50 years, or any of the sports that are not baseball. So it's almost as if we're against what's generally appreciated by the unwashed masses and think our snobby, bourgeois, elitism is an asset ... right? It is, right? But, I add sheepishly, even if you're not a fan of the putrid Potter purveying billionaire, Heads of Hogwartz is a funny clue.
DIET/DAP caused my only problem today, mostly because I spelled ENNEADS with an initial A partly because that's what I hear in my head and mostly because I have no idea what an ENNEAD is.
I find the PENTATONIC SCALE to be the least interesting scale of all the scales. Count me in the "never heard of a gut course" club. And is shooting at your OWN goal common enough to get its OWN term?
I only know the word semaphore from the song Do Your Ears Hang Low which was the original James Bond theme song.
❤️ EGAD ... Ick, EWW AWS.
People: 9
Places: 7
Products: 8
Partials: 4
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 30 of 76 (39%)
Funny Factor: 6 😅
Tee-Hee: BI GIFS. {I see @egs beat me to this joke.}
Uniclues:
1 Bossy baby.
2 {Aside: GINE appears to be nothing, but if it was and you could be grossed out by tying it up, we would really have something here.}
3 Rid axels with axles.
1 CHAIR UMPIRE KID
2 EWW TWINE-N-GINES
3 ICE SHOW TOW AWAY
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Lass logging hours at the love hotel. RIB-LINT MAIDEN.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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