THEME: EMPTY WORDS — 50A: "Remarks void of meaning ... and a phonetic hint to the answers to the starred clues." Each of the theme answers is a two word phrase with words starting M and T (or "empty").
Word of the Day: HIGGS (17A - Peter ____, physicist with a field and a particle named for him) —
MOVIE THEATER (4D: *Where new features are released?)
MAGIC TOUCH (19A: *Knack for success)
MACHINE TOOLS (21D: *Metal lathes and drill presses)
MISTER TOAD (41A: *Reckless motorist in "The Wind in the Willows")
Hey, everyone, it's an Eli Tuesday! I know, you were expecting Claire. You were looking forward to Claire. I get it. I promise to do my best in substitution. Let's get going.
2D: Showgirl at the Copacabana, in song
It looks like today is a NYT debut for constructor John Liber, so congratulations! It's a clean puzzle, a nice simple theme for a Tuesday. It just wasn't that exciting for me. Two word phrases starting with M and T seems like it could pull some interesting answers, but the only one that stood out to me was MISTER TOAD. Even that would have been better with a reference to his Wild Ride. Where else at Disneyland can you be hit by a train and end your ride in Hell?
Don't get me wrong; I love MOVIE THEATERS and I hope everyone actually goes out to see movies. I'm not sure that clue required a question mark, but I get it. MACHINE TOOLS and MAGIC TOUCH didn't do much for me, especially as clued.
15A: Beatles compilation album with 27 chart-topping hits
The rest of the puzzle unfortunately didn't do much to redeem itself. I grimaced right out of the gate at ALE GLASS (3D: Vessel for a pub pint). I brew beer and I have an extensive collection of beer glasses. I'm not sure I'd call any of them an "ale glass." Can those glasses hold ale? Sure. I also have IPA-specific glasses. I just can't picture what a generic ale glass would be. I also always get bad vibes from MILADY (41D: Chivalrous address to a noblewoman). I feel like there was a specific brand of creepy dude that adopted that phrase and kinda ruined it for me. I also personally wince anytime I see AD IN or AD OUT (38A: Warning before your breaking point?). I know Wimbledon just started, but I admittedly only know these terms from puzzles. At least the clue was clever this time.
Speaking of clever clues, I thought the clue for POWER NAP was cute (35D: Get 40 winks in 20 minutes, say). But everything else felt pretty straightforward. It certainly wasn't a bad puzzle, it just got the job done. Sometimes that's all you can ask on a Tuesday.
49A: Dragon's den
Stray Thoughts:
5D: Nintendo Switch predecessor (WIIU) — This always makes me think of an ambulance siren: WiiU, WiiU, WiiU, WiiU.
58A: Like some martinis and jokes (DIRTY) — I like both!
61A: Workers in a colony (ANTS) — You didn't think you were getting out of an Eli blog without a Simpsons reference, did you?
That's all I've got for now! Enjoy your Tuesday; I'll be back with you later in the week.
Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld
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Similar experience as Eli - cute enough but lacking nuance and any real depth. I like the crossing themers with the revealer. Do I see an M and two Ts as grid art?
Overall fill is fine - smooth and clean for the most part. I’ll double down on ALE GLASS - I’ve been to countless bars and drank more than my share of beer over the years and have never heard the term. I believe this has come up in previous puzzles. POWER NAP is pretty neat and somehow HOG CALLS is fun.
Nice debut puzzle, even if Monday-level easy. Solved it as a themeless, only picking up the "M-T" gimmick after finishing. Now back to the Spelling Bee.
72-word grid with SIX interlocked theme answers (including the revealer), really? I'm honestly surprised the fill isn't straight up disastrous, and POWER NAP is a great bonus answer, but the grid is heavily constrained and it shows. ALE GLASS, MADS, WII U, LITHO, OSS, RESHOE, ADOUT crossing OUTSMART right in the middle of the OUTs.
The theme is fine and the EMPTY pun works great, but the puzzle as a whole is a perfect example of the "more themers = better" fallacy that we see way too often with basic early-week themes in the NYT.
I found this a little harder than the usual Tuesday, which I guess is good given the ccollectively bemoaned trend toward increased easy-ness in the NYTXW. But I didn’t really get the theme until I read Eli’s write-up, thanks, Eli!
I do not believe anyone has ever used MADS in the way it’s clued here. “He MADS me”, really? Even in the olden days? I’m willing to be corrected here.
Yes, nice serviceable Tuesday with a pair of initials and a revealer.... Somehow the whole MT = EMPTY thing doesn't quite work for me, cuz I'm one of those weirdos who actually pronounces that little p in there.... Favorite answers today? GODARK next to ONEDGE, and the pair of POWERNAP and OUTSMART. Also, had NO idea there was a beatles collection called "ONE". Thanks, John, and congrats on the debut! .... but c'mon, we could have extended the streak by using Stimpy and ___, right?
Easier than yesterday's puzzle, so probably should have been swapped. Nice use of the downs to get extra themers in.
In sharp contrast to yesterday, the themers are all common phrases, although MACHINETOOLS might be a little niche for some.
HIGGS’ first paper discussing the Higgs field was rejected as having no relevance to physics. Fifty years later, the search for and discovery of the Higgs boson it implied was the holy grail of physics.
Very nice puz. A lot of unexpected answers. Example: had Ghosts for GO DARK, needs to for the quaint (but cool!) OUGHT TO. Plus HOG CALLS, MILADY, ADOUT, IONIA. The clue for DIRTY I had thought could also have been DRY, albeit not long enough.
So a lot of neatness as I solved. Maybe the ole brain is just awake more this morning.
Six Themers, the Downs crossing two Acrosses each! Tough to get clean fill around that. Good job, John. And a debut, too. Congrats! As you probably know, I'm a fan of a lot of Themers.
Many Thanks for a Mildly Tough Tuespuz. Went Merrily Through this Masterful Theme and Made This guy smile. And those aren't EMPTY WORDS. 😁
I over thunk for a Tuesday at 55A and 58A I thought they'd be some version of FRAGILE and DRY, neither fit so I thought maybe there was a kind of wrap-around involved. And at ADOUT I had "ADOU - " and thought it was wrong, should be AbOUT? never did get the theme until I got here.
I liked this one. The constructor made me work a bit (for a Tuesday), but left enough crumbs here and there that I never lost the trail. I had the aha experience post-solve when I payed a little more attention to the reveal, so the somewhat pedestrian theme at least came through with a little chuckle for me.
The true enjoyment for me today was seeing Liza and a group of muppets trash the COPA. That’s a rather adult-oriented video for The Muppets’ target audience, no ?
This was a breath of fresh air. So many less-often-seen (and not EMPTY) WORDS. HIPPO HIGGS OUTSMART MILADY MAGICTOUCH HOGCALLS POWERNAP.
Right out of the gate there was the sassy SLAM/SPAM cross, continuing with BRAT/BRA and then MILADY kissing MISTER TOAD. The obligatory ASS accompanied by OSS. More double letter words - HIGGS, OUGHTTO WIIU, HOGCALLS, HIPPO, ALL, SADD, DDAY, MACHINETOOLS, and ALEGLASS.
Quite the menagerie - a HOG, a SLOTH, a HIPPO, an ASS, MISTER TOAD, some EWES and ANTS all gathered in a dragon’s LAIR.
Nice clues for DIE, ADOUT and POWERNAP.
Sleep-inducing GODARK POWERNAP column.
I’m a Beatles fan and had no knowledge of the compilation album. From Wikipedia: 1 was compiled by producer George Martin and former band members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.[6] The album contains the 27 Beatles songs that went to number one in the United Kingdom on the Record Retailer Top 50 chart or in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Congratulations John Liber - this solver won’t be SADD to see more of your work.
It felt like a Tuesday, as it should. However, ALE GLASS ???? I actually cheated for this one because i thought i must have got it wrong. Growing up in England in the 70s i guess Bitter or Mild was served in either a window or straight pot and lager in a either the same or sometimes a slightly different glass….but never in my (are my deceased parents reading this) in my 50 years of drinking have you ever called it an Ale Glass. Ok, I had to get that off my chest
This didn't come as easily as most Tuesdays for me. I had Moot Points before EMPTYWORDS; had Stain before GLAND; wasn't sure of the HIGGS / WIIU cross, really hesitated on MADS, frowned at ALEGLASS, etc. Also, one TEASET doesn't seem like a collection to me. And in the end the theme wasn't very sparkly. So not a stellar Tuesday, in my mind. .
We saw the * in the clue for 19A and, not knowing there was such a thing as a WIIU, kept waiting for the "U" in MAGIC TOUCH to be incorrect. But we finished with no idea how the revealer fit the theme answers, until reading Eli. Guess that's on us.
Agree with @Rick Sacra about how emPty is pronounced, although I'm sure we've seen M-T as a homophone for EMPTY in crosswords before. Strikes me as a reversal of last week's mini-controversy about "BZZT"; there the "T" was included as part of the pronunciation, here the "P" is not.
Was not at yesterday's World Cup match in Foxboro, but GPS re-routed us to avoid its incoming traffic. The fans there got quite a show, and otherwise neutral fans who cheer for "the underdog" (hand raised) saw a huge upset by victorious Paraguay.
Did you hear about the Higgs Boson that walked into a Catholic Church? The priest said, “Hey, we don’t allow Higgs Bosons in here”. The Boson said, “ Hey … without me, you can’t have mass.”
A little more thought required than read-clue-fill-in-answer, better that way. Had all the themers and the revealer before I made the MT connection, although as kids we used to tell someone to point at their head and say the abbreviation for "mountain". Hilarious, except then you usually had to explain the joke to the victim.
Today's WTF is WIIU. Agree with the criticisms of ALEGLASS, one of those "please don't be that" answers. Didn't know Ms. STILES and had MYLORD before MILADAY, sexist pig that I am. Otherwise smooth sailing.
Nice work, JL. Played Just Like a Tuesday, congrats on the debut, and thanks for all the fun.
Played like a Wednesday tome. Mads tho?? The revealer actually helped me solve. Liked Mister crossing Milady. OK, now I oughta MT my ale glass and take a Power Nap (go dark).
I liked the idea of a MAGIC TOUCH getting you a MEAL TICKET, and it was fun to be reminded of MISTER TOAD. I thought it was an impressive Tuesday with the interlocking theme answers. I'd noticed the MT line-up and wondered where it was leading us; it turned out to be the rare day when I could guess the reveal. I found more to like in the grid than @Eli - I thought the WHOA - WIIU cross was funny and enjoyed imagining MILADY retiring briefly for a POWER NAP.
Tee-Hee: BRA. ASS. DIRTY jokes ... get 'em here folks.
Uniclues:
1 Company man who believes the logo shirts at work are the best shirts anywhere. 2 A sugar daddy? 3 Provide new Nikes to one who'll "Just Do It Eventually." 4 Kindergartener's lunch plan. 5 "Maybe we should just get jobs?" 6 Radiologist's cry, or what my ex-girlfriends usually said to me on their way out of the door. 7 Cop's declaration in Lilliputian Court. 8 Words from Lady Gaga's costumer. 9 Borrow Moby Dick from Libby (including the 100 meaningless chapters). 10 Log off. 11 Rest while stewing. 12 "You're getting arrested on the roadside, ha, ha. Okay now your turn."
1 POLOS PIOUS ONE 2 BRAT MEAL TICKET 3 RESHOE SLOTH 4 INTENDS PASTE 5 LAIR EMPTY WORDS 6 DIE DIRTY GLAND! 7 YES, ANTS SPED 8 SPAM BRA MILADY 9 ORDER IN TOME (~) 10 OUT SMART PHONE (~) 11 GO DARK POWER NAP 12 SADD TEASE TOSS (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Tomato stake tie that is pink rather than green. PEEKABOO TWISTY.
Thanks for the write-up, Eli! Not to be *that* commenter, but you’re short one themer, MEAL TICKET. Don’t know which category you’d put that one in, but I at least didn’t know the idiom, so I found it nice to learn.
I find revealers that pun on sounds to be pleasant enough, but am never too thrilled about “all theme answers start with the same letters” themes. I think the term Rex uses is arbitrary: you could come up with almost infinite M/T phrases, so what is special about these particular ones. So you’re definitely right that they should have at least nailed the excitement factor.
I give up, or have forgotten - is F your pet letter? Are you on a promotional campaign for more Fs? Are you challenging cruciverbalists to make their puzzles less "incapable of being expressed or described in words, too sacred to be spoken"?
After seeing from Eli's write-up that there was a Star Wars entry in the grid, I had to go back and look for it. At first, I looked at the clue for 31A and saw "Slow-moving tree". Oh, it's ENT! No, it's SLOTH? Ah, there's a tree-dweller in the clue, aha.
Then I saw the dragon in its LAIR and wondered if all dragon references should be associated with, oh no, I'm thinking of GoT, not Star Wars. No dragons (that I know of) in Star Wars. Finally I saw Kylo REN in a sector where I didn't need the downs clues. Whew.
I like Eli's WiiU idea (siren sounds) better than the random game console clue.
Well ... sorta cool ... a TuesPuz runnin on M-T. Jackson Browne would approve. Puztheme mcguffin was tricky to spot at first, as some of the themers were Down-ers.
staff weeject pick: PRE. Had a historic ?-marker clue. primo weeject stacks, NE & SW, btw.
some fave stuff: HIGGS [There was a Harry Higgs golfer playin in that recent US Open, too boot]. POWERNAP & clue. GODARK. HOGCALLS. ORDERIN by OUTSMART.
MADS. har
Thanx for the M-T fun, Mr. Liber dude. And congratz on yer magic touched debut.
I liked this one more than Eli. The theme, while simple, was totally appropriate for a Tuesday (even Monday) but it was well thought out, clever, and gave me a nice '"aha" moment when I sussed the revealer. The themers are all good words that look pretty in the puzzle as well. Agree that ALEGLASS is a real stretch but otherwise i thought the grid was fairly clean. Non-themers like POWERNAP, GODARK and ONEDGE were nice. I also liked the in-the-language of OUGHTTO. Congratulations on the debut, John! I thought this was MOSTLY TERIFFIC, I had a MERRY TIME. MANY THANKS!!!
I tried solving down clues only and almost succeeded. Turns out, I had not the slightest idea what 53 down "Org. promoting responsible choices for youth" (yuck) could be. And looking at IONI- for 56 across, not allowed to read the clue, figured it just had to be IONIC. And 62 across SPE- wanted to be SPEC. So for 53 down, SCDC looked ugly but, what else could it be?
It was kind of a nice surprise to encounter two down theme answers! A bit rare with the downs-only method. Unfortunately, the theme was pretty lame, even for a Tuesday.
Where all the commenters who has usually written In by now?
I didn't look back to see the theme after I finished ThinK I had TV on at the same time. Fun puzzle. Like some comments above I wanted "dry" or martinis and jokes, "dirty" is better (besides being long enough)41A took me all too long because I wanted to write mister as Mr making the answer way too short I went way pulling over who else it could until some crosses brought me the spelled out mister.
I had three of the themers filled in and was trying to figure out what devilishly clever concept was afoot when I came across the reveal. Huh? Two word phrases where the words start with an M and a T? Talk about anticlimactic. Sigh.
When I saw the clue for 3D "Vessel for a pub pint" I thought it might be FLAGON. In my grad school part-time bartending days I had a regular customer who would sit down and ask for a "Flagon of your finest brew". Never seen or heard that term used anywhere else and I thought today might be the first time. ALE GLASS? Sigh.
I'm a big fan of witty two word clues and there's gem here for 57A DIE, "Rolled randomizer". Yay!
Me too on the emp-tee thing, Also lie- brair-y and Wed-nes-day. Sometimes these pronunciation themes just don't quite work for me. This one wasn't the worst.
kitshef. I saw lathes and drill presses and immediately said "shop tools", which, of course, didn't fit. So I left TOOLS in and waited for some help (I'm usually working D-O on Tuesdays).
Like others I found this a relatively hard for a Tuesday - liked it! Never heard of WIIU but will always remember it as a ambulance siren! Had to guess at ONE, DEA and OSS. MAD as a verb is new to me and I’m old - madden yes, MAD no
For anyone who thinks MILADY is an odd entry, there is a car dealer in Illinois called "M'Lady" and their license plate frames are inescapable in the Chicago suburbs.
There is the Ionian Sea, of course, but the "Ancient Greek region along the Aegean coast", emphasis on the words "Ancient" and "region", would imply Ionia, in the western portion of ancient Anatolia, Turkey.
Thanks, A. Not surprised it's in an old Irish ballad. It's been in use since the early 1400s. "Bring me a FLAGON to drink, to wash down me mulligrubs..." had me looking up mulligrubs. Ah, some kind of "bad mood". It's sung with a proper Irish brogue so I didn't understand a lot of it!
Law 10 reads "when competition rules require a WINNING team after a drawn match"' (emphasis mine) so...Paraguay did win. You could say they won advancement if you don't want to concede they won the match, but I'd argue "huge upset for victorious Paraguay" is an entirely accurate statement.
Maybe we are drowning our sorrows? It took a few listenings for me to understand the lyrics as well. Lyrics AZ is a good source for further info..Yes, me too with the muligrubs, particularly since the lyrics sites say it's mulligrups. I think it's just a phonetics thing.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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55 comments:
Similar experience as Eli - cute enough but lacking nuance and any real depth. I like the crossing themers with the revealer. Do I see an M and two Ts as grid art?
You’ve Got The MAGIC TOUCH
Overall fill is fine - smooth and clean for the most part. I’ll double down on ALE GLASS - I’ve been to countless bars and drank more than my share of beer over the years and have never heard the term. I believe this has come up in previous puzzles. POWER NAP is pretty neat and somehow HOG CALLS is fun.
Modest Mouse
Very familiar with HIGGS. SLOTH, HIPPO, GO DARK are all solid. There’s limited glue here. Didn’t we do ANTS yesterday?
Mr. Incognito
Easy - but a pleasant Tuesday morning solve nonetheless.
Buzzcocks
Nice debut puzzle, even if Monday-level easy. Solved it as a themeless, only picking up the "M-T" gimmick after finishing. Now back to the Spelling Bee.
72-word grid with SIX interlocked theme answers (including the revealer), really? I'm honestly surprised the fill isn't straight up disastrous, and POWER NAP is a great bonus answer, but the grid is heavily constrained and it shows. ALE GLASS, MADS, WII U, LITHO, OSS, RESHOE, ADOUT crossing OUTSMART right in the middle of the OUTs.
The theme is fine and the EMPTY pun works great, but the puzzle as a whole is a perfect example of the "more themers = better" fallacy that we see way too often with basic early-week themes in the NYT.
I found this a little harder than the usual Tuesday, which I guess is good given the ccollectively bemoaned trend toward increased easy-ness in the NYTXW. But I didn’t really get the theme until I read Eli’s write-up, thanks, Eli!
I do not believe anyone has ever used MADS in the way it’s clued here. “He MADS me”, really? Even in the olden days? I’m willing to be corrected here.
Felt like a Monday.
Yes, nice serviceable Tuesday with a pair of initials and a revealer.... Somehow the whole MT = EMPTY thing doesn't quite work for me, cuz I'm one of those weirdos who actually pronounces that little p in there.... Favorite answers today? GODARK next to ONEDGE, and the pair of POWERNAP and OUTSMART. Also, had NO idea there was a beatles collection called "ONE". Thanks, John, and congrats on the debut! .... but c'mon, we could have extended the streak by using Stimpy and ___, right?
Easier than yesterday's puzzle, so probably should have been swapped. Nice use of the downs to get extra themers in.
In sharp contrast to yesterday, the themers are all common phrases, although MACHINETOOLS might be a little niche for some.
HIGGS’ first paper discussing the Higgs field was rejected as having no relevance to physics. Fifty years later, the search for and discovery of the Higgs boson it implied was the holy grail of physics.
27A MEAL TICKET is also a theme answer.
Hey All !
WHOA, spelled correctly!
Very nice puz. A lot of unexpected answers. Example: had Ghosts for GO DARK, needs to for the quaint (but cool!) OUGHT TO. Plus HOG CALLS, MILADY, ADOUT, IONIA. The clue for DIRTY I had thought could also have been DRY, albeit not long enough.
So a lot of neatness as I solved. Maybe the ole brain is just awake more this morning.
Six Themers, the Downs crossing two Acrosses each! Tough to get clean fill around that. Good job, John. And a debut, too. Congrats! As you probably know, I'm a fan of a lot of Themers.
Many Thanks for a Mildly Tough Tuespuz. Went Merrily Through this Masterful Theme and Made This guy smile. And those aren't EMPTY WORDS. 😁
Hope y'all have a great Tuesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I over thunk for a Tuesday at 55A and 58A I thought they'd be some version of FRAGILE and DRY, neither fit so I thought maybe there was a kind of wrap-around involved. And at ADOUT I had "ADOU - " and thought it was wrong, should be AbOUT? never did get the theme until I got here.
I liked this one. The constructor made me work a bit (for a Tuesday), but left enough crumbs here and there that I never lost the trail. I had the aha experience post-solve when I payed a little more attention to the reveal, so the somewhat pedestrian theme at least came through with a little chuckle for me.
The true enjoyment for me today was seeing Liza and a group of muppets trash the COPA. That’s a rather adult-oriented video for The Muppets’ target audience, no ?
Eli: You seem to have missed MEALTICKET, a colorful themer, as clued.
This was a breath of fresh air. So many less-often-seen (and not EMPTY) WORDS. HIPPO HIGGS OUTSMART MILADY MAGICTOUCH HOGCALLS POWERNAP.
Right out of the gate there was the sassy SLAM/SPAM cross, continuing with BRAT/BRA and then MILADY kissing MISTER TOAD. The obligatory ASS accompanied by OSS. More double letter words - HIGGS, OUGHTTO WIIU, HOGCALLS, HIPPO, ALL, SADD, DDAY, MACHINETOOLS, and ALEGLASS.
Quite the menagerie - a HOG, a SLOTH, a HIPPO, an ASS, MISTER TOAD, some EWES and ANTS all gathered in a dragon’s LAIR.
Nice clues for DIE, ADOUT and POWERNAP.
Sleep-inducing GODARK POWERNAP column.
I’m a Beatles fan and had no knowledge of the compilation album. From Wikipedia: 1 was compiled by producer George Martin and former band members Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr.[6] The album contains the 27 Beatles songs that went to number one in the United Kingdom on the Record Retailer Top 50 chart or in the United States on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
Congratulations John Liber - this solver won’t be SADD to see more of your work.
It felt like a Tuesday, as it should. However, ALE GLASS ???? I actually cheated for this one because i thought i must have got it wrong. Growing up in England in the 70s i guess Bitter or Mild was served in either a window or straight pot and lager in a either the same or sometimes a slightly different glass….but never in my (are my deceased parents reading this) in my 50 years of drinking have you ever called it an Ale Glass. Ok, I had to get that off my chest
This didn't come as easily as most Tuesdays for me. I had Moot Points before EMPTYWORDS; had Stain before GLAND; wasn't sure of the HIGGS / WIIU cross, really hesitated on MADS, frowned at ALEGLASS, etc. Also, one TEASET doesn't seem like a collection to me. And in the end the theme wasn't very sparkly. So not a stellar Tuesday, in my mind. .
We saw the * in the clue for 19A and, not knowing there was such a thing as a WIIU, kept waiting for the "U" in MAGIC TOUCH to be incorrect. But we finished with no idea how the revealer fit the theme answers, until reading Eli. Guess that's on us.
Agree with @Rick Sacra about how emPty is pronounced, although I'm sure we've seen M-T as a homophone for EMPTY in crosswords before. Strikes me as a reversal of last week's mini-controversy about "BZZT"; there the "T" was included as part of the pronunciation, here the "P" is not.
Was not at yesterday's World Cup match in Foxboro, but GPS re-routed us to avoid its incoming traffic. The fans there got quite a show, and otherwise neutral fans who cheer for "the underdog" (hand raised) saw a huge upset by victorious Paraguay.
Enjoyable debut puzzle. I wish I could construct puzzles like this one.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Did you hear about the Higgs Boson that walked into a Catholic Church? The priest said, “Hey, we don’t allow Higgs Bosons in here”. The Boson said, “ Hey … without me, you can’t have mass.”
A little more thought required than read-clue-fill-in-answer, better that way. Had all the themers and the revealer before I made the MT connection, although as kids we used to tell someone to point at their head and say the abbreviation for "mountain". Hilarious, except then you usually had to explain the joke to the victim.
Today's WTF is WIIU. Agree with the criticisms of ALEGLASS, one of those "please don't be that" answers. Didn't know Ms. STILES and had MYLORD before MILADAY, sexist pig that I am. Otherwise smooth sailing.
Nice work, JL. Played Just Like a Tuesday, congrats on the debut, and thanks for all the fun.
Played like a Wednesday tome. Mads tho?? The revealer actually helped me solve. Liked Mister crossing Milady. OK, now I oughta MT my ale glass and take a Power Nap (go dark).
I liked the idea of a MAGIC TOUCH getting you a MEAL TICKET, and it was fun to be reminded of MISTER TOAD. I thought it was an impressive Tuesday with the interlocking theme answers. I'd noticed the MT line-up and wondered where it was leading us; it turned out to be the rare day when I could guess the reveal. I found more to like in the grid than @Eli - I thought the WHOA - WIIU cross was funny and enjoyed imagining MILADY retiring briefly for a POWER NAP.
Why wasn't MADS clued as Mikkelsen?
Ven aquí, cerdito, cerdito, cerdito.
It's fine. They're definitely MT phrases, not MT words, but nobody should care about such things. Hand up for MIDAS TOUCH.
I do like the pro-cannibal anti-imp vibe of grilling a BRAT at a tailgate party.
I'm unsure why anybody would be surprised to learn a HIPPO is dangerous.
❤️ MEAL TICKET. GO DARK. POWER NAP. MILADY.
😩 MADS
People: 7
Places: 1
Products: 5
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 0
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 19 of 72 (26%)
Funny Factor: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: BRA. ASS. DIRTY jokes ... get 'em here folks.
Uniclues:
1 Company man who believes the logo shirts at work are the best shirts anywhere.
2 A sugar daddy?
3 Provide new Nikes to one who'll "Just Do It Eventually."
4 Kindergartener's lunch plan.
5 "Maybe we should just get jobs?"
6 Radiologist's cry, or what my ex-girlfriends usually said to me on their way out of the door.
7 Cop's declaration in Lilliputian Court.
8 Words from Lady Gaga's costumer.
9 Borrow Moby Dick from Libby (including the 100 meaningless chapters).
10 Log off.
11 Rest while stewing.
12 "You're getting arrested on the roadside, ha, ha. Okay now your turn."
1 POLOS PIOUS ONE
2 BRAT MEAL TICKET
3 RESHOE SLOTH
4 INTENDS PASTE
5 LAIR EMPTY WORDS
6 DIE DIRTY GLAND!
7 YES, ANTS SPED
8 SPAM BRA MILADY
9 ORDER IN TOME (~)
10 OUT SMART PHONE (~)
11 GO DARK POWER NAP
12 SADD TEASE TOSS (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Tomato stake tie that is pink rather than green. PEEKABOO TWISTY.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Thanks for the write-up, Eli! Not to be *that* commenter, but you’re short one themer, MEAL TICKET. Don’t know which category you’d put that one in, but I at least didn’t know the idiom, so I found it nice to learn.
I find revealers that pun on sounds to be pleasant enough, but am never too thrilled about “all theme answers start with the same letters” themes. I think the term Rex uses is arbitrary: you could come up with almost infinite M/T phrases, so what is special about these particular ones. So you’re definitely right that they should have at least nailed the excitement factor.
I give up, or have forgotten - is F your pet letter? Are you on a promotional campaign for more Fs? Are you challenging cruciverbalists to make their puzzles less "incapable of being expressed or described in words, too sacred to be spoken"?
After seeing from Eli's write-up that there was a Star Wars entry in the grid, I had to go back and look for it. At first, I looked at the clue for 31A and saw "Slow-moving tree". Oh, it's ENT! No, it's SLOTH? Ah, there's a tree-dweller in the clue, aha.
Then I saw the dragon in its LAIR and wondered if all dragon references should be associated with, oh no, I'm thinking of GoT, not Star Wars. No dragons (that I know of) in Star Wars. Finally I saw Kylo REN in a sector where I didn't need the downs clues. Whew.
I like Eli's WiiU idea (siren sounds) better than the random game console clue.
I liked the MISTER TOAD answer - "Poop, poop".
Thanks, John Liber, for a nice Tuesday puzzle.
Came to see OFL get MADS
Well ... sorta cool ... a TuesPuz runnin on M-T. Jackson Browne would approve.
Puztheme mcguffin was tricky to spot at first, as some of the themers were Down-ers.
staff weeject pick: PRE. Had a historic ?-marker clue.
primo weeject stacks, NE & SW, btw.
some fave stuff: HIGGS [There was a Harry Higgs golfer playin in that recent US Open, too boot]. POWERNAP & clue. GODARK. HOGCALLS. ORDERIN by OUTSMART.
MADS. har
Thanx for the M-T fun, Mr. Liber dude. And congratz on yer magic touched debut.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Tuesdayish Tuesday, but we get Eli! I, for one, welcome our new Crossworld overlord
I liked this one more than Eli. The theme, while simple, was totally appropriate for a Tuesday (even Monday) but it was well thought out, clever, and gave me a nice '"aha" moment when I sussed the revealer. The themers are all good words that look pretty in the puzzle as well.
Agree that ALEGLASS is a real stretch but otherwise i thought the grid was fairly clean.
Non-themers like POWERNAP, GODARK and ONEDGE were nice. I also liked the in-the-language of OUGHTTO.
Congratulations on the debut, John! I thought this was MOSTLY TERIFFIC, I had a MERRY TIME. MANY THANKS!!!
Medium. Tuesday for me.
No WOEs or costly erasures but I needed more than a couple of crosses on several of the theme answers which did not come easily.
Junk free and cute, liked it.
Midas touch before Magic touch at 19A, mis read farrier as Farmer at 29A after which I Made (good) Time!
I tried solving down clues only and almost succeeded. Turns out, I had not the slightest idea what 53 down "Org. promoting responsible choices for youth" (yuck) could be. And looking at IONI- for 56 across, not allowed to read the clue, figured it just had to be IONIC. And 62 across SPE- wanted to be SPEC. So for 53 down, SCDC looked ugly but, what else could it be?
It was kind of a nice surprise to encounter two down theme answers! A bit rare with the downs-only method. Unfortunately, the theme was pretty lame, even for a Tuesday.
Is Ionia not on the Ionian? It felt wrong to say it's on the Aegean.
Where all the commenters who has usually written In by now?
I didn't look back to see the theme after I finished ThinK I had TV on at the same time.
Fun puzzle.
Like some comments above I wanted "dry" or martinis and jokes, "dirty" is better (besides being long enough)41A took me all too long because I wanted to write mister as Mr making the answer way too short I went way pulling over who else it could until some crosses brought me the spelled out mister.
And yes, I see now that ENTs aren't in Star Wars either, but LOTR. Sheesh!
I had three of the themers filled in and was trying to figure out what devilishly clever concept was afoot when I came across the reveal. Huh? Two word phrases where the words start with an M and a T? Talk about anticlimactic. Sigh.
When I saw the clue for 3D "Vessel for a pub pint" I thought it might be FLAGON. In my grad school part-time bartending days I had a regular customer who would sit down and ask for a "Flagon of your finest brew". Never seen or heard that term used anywhere else and I thought today might be the first time. ALE GLASS? Sigh.
I'm a big fan of witty two word clues and there's gem here for 57A DIE, "Rolled randomizer". Yay!
Me too on the emp-tee thing, Also lie- brair-y and Wed-nes-day. Sometimes these pronunciation themes just don't quite work for me. This one wasn't the worst.
I wwwrote my earlier comment an hour or more before I posted It made more sense then (ther Whereeis everybody part)
kitshef. I saw lathes and drill presses and immediately said "shop tools", which, of course, didn't fit. So I left TOOLS in and waited for some help (I'm usually working D-O on Tuesdays).
Germany and Paraguay played to a draw.
Paraguay did not win despite their advancing.
Wow - you are right about Liza at the copa with muppets
Like others I found this a relatively hard for a Tuesday - liked it! Never heard of WIIU but will always remember it as a ambulance siren! Had to guess at ONE, DEA and OSS. MAD as a verb is new to me and I’m old - madden yes, MAD no
@Anoa Bob, have a flagon on me (and Christy Moore).
Good one. Both my husband and I laughed out loud.
I knew it wasn’t Claire because I doubt she’d write she likes both her martinis and jokes dirty.
For anyone who thinks MILADY is an odd entry, there is a car dealer in Illinois called "M'Lady" and their license plate frames are inescapable in the Chicago suburbs.
Anyone else suddenly having buggy problems in the app, getting booted out of the app over and over, while solving?
There is the Ionian Sea, of course, but the "Ancient Greek region along the Aegean coast", emphasis on the words "Ancient" and "region", would imply Ionia, in the western portion of ancient Anatolia, Turkey.
Thanks, A. Not surprised it's in an old Irish ballad. It's been in use since the early 1400s. "Bring me a FLAGON to drink, to wash down me mulligrubs..." had me looking up mulligrubs. Ah, some kind of "bad mood". It's sung with a proper Irish brogue so I didn't understand a lot of it!
Yes - every few minutes for the paste few days. Very annoying.
In for Lewis….
Law 10 reads "when competition rules require a WINNING team after a drawn match"' (emphasis mine) so...Paraguay did win. You could say they won advancement if you don't want to concede they won the match, but I'd argue "huge upset for victorious Paraguay" is an entirely accurate statement.
Maybe we are drowning our sorrows? It took a few listenings for me to understand the lyrics as well. Lyrics AZ is a good source for further info..Yes, me too with the muligrubs, particularly since the lyrics sites say it's mulligrups. I think it's just a phonetics thing.
I’d love to know what Rex thinks of this!
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