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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
- RUBS RAW (21A: Chafes excessively)
- EXCEEDINGLY RARE (28A: Nearly unique)
- HAPPY MEDIUM (47A: Compromise that, ideally, leaves both parties satisfied)
- "THIS WON'T END WELL" (58A: Prediction of a negative outcome that is true of 21-, 28- and 47-Across)
Reece Lewis James (born 8 December 1999) is an English professional footballer who plays as a right-back for Premier League club Chelsea, which he captains, and the England national team.James joined the Chelsea academy as a youth and turned professional in 2017, a season where he captained the under-18s to victory in the FA Youth Cup and was named Academy Player of the Season. A productive loan spell with Wigan Athletic of the Championship saw him promoted to the Chelsea first team upon his return in 2019. He won the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup with the club in 2021, and was appointed captain in 2023. He led Chelsea to victory at the UEFA Conference League and FIFA Club World Cup in 2025.
After representing England at various youth levels, James made his senior debut in 2020, and went on to appear at UEFA Euro 2020.
• • •
 |
| [at the Georgia O'Keefe Museum, 2019] |
The few tough spots I had could best be expressed through a two-category Venn diagram: "People with names that sound like 'Reese'" and "Soccer-related things," with REECE James in the overlap. The guy looks / sounds familiar, but I think you really have to follow Premier League to know him. In the "Reese" category with him is Dee REES, whose name is more familiar, but still, I don't know if her name would've come to me right away (actually, she wasn't an actual "tough spot" at all because I never saw her—puzzle was so easy that her name just kinda filled itself in) (21D: Dee who directed 2017's "Mudbound"). Over in the "Soccer-related things" part of the Venn diagram, in addition to REECE we've also got USWNT (50D: Squad captained by Lindsey Horan to win Olympic gold in '24, for short). I find both USWNT and USMNT confusing as neither abbreviation contains a letter that stands for the damned sport that they play! The letters stand for U.S. Women's National Team. So every time I see either abbreviation, I think "... tennis? is the 'T' tennis? Is the 'N' ... netball? oh, I remember now: United Soccer-Winning National Team! That's it."
Bullets:
- 20A: Sport in an octagon, for short (MMA) — this one's a little too timely. (don't click through if you'd rather not think about the US president today)
- 55A: Sonic boom generator? (SEGA) — SEGA is the company behind the popular Sonic the Hedgehog video game, which gave rise to movie franchise and a whole Sonic universe ("boom!")
- 33A: Assists, in basketball slang (DIMES) — this, I knew. Speaking of basketball. Looks like the Knicks lost last night. Too bad. Oh well, at least this happened (again, don't click through if you'd rather not think about the US president today)
- 61A: "We feel the same way" ("US TOO") — reflexively wrote in "ME TOO." "US TOO" doesn't flow off the tongue quite as readily.
- 62A: Airport raced through in "Home Alone," in brief (ORD) — so, Chicago's O'Hare
- 64A: Sound of a cartoon hit (BOINK) — if you watch cartoons or read comics, you know, this could've been anything. SPLAT! THWAP! WHACK! Even with the "K" in place, I wasn't sure.
- 6D: Carnivorous cinematic alien (BLOB) — That's The BLOB, to you. I don't think I knew that the BLOB was an "alien" (as in, from outer space?). I thought it was just ... a BLOB ... wreaking havoc on Steve McQueen ... somehow. BLOB is part of a really nicely filled little section at the top of the grid where (almost) all the answers seem vaguely related to each other. BLOB ... SPRAWL ... ABSURD! Maybe the government is trying to track it with SONAR, which BLEEPs periodically. And maybe at the end of the movie they case the BLOB back into the ABYSS whence it came (again, to be clear, I have never seen the movie and have no idea what happens besides ... a blob blobbing around town and Steve McQueen somewhere nearby):
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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ReplyDeleteEasy-Medium. Pretty typical Tuesday.
* * * _ _
One Overwrite: At 53D, my very, very much was a lot before it was OH SO.
WOEs:
"Mudbound" director Dee REES at 21D
DIMES in the basketball sense (33A).
USWNT at 50D.
Soccer star REECE James at 54A.
This was cute - oddly attractive grid layout with varying themer lengths and a wonderful spanning revealer. The big guy rightly highlights the symmetry - it really provide the visual backdrop.
ReplyDeleteOH SO Many Years
Overall fill runs the gamut. I did like the RUBS RAW - BOINK pair for juvenile reasons. The NEW MEXICO - I MEAN CMON stack is solid. I didn’t know the REES + REECE pair - add RECEDE and it gets weird. We see EDY’S too often.
Ballyhoo!
There was something satisfying about this quirky little puzzle. An enjoyable Tuesday morning solve.
TONY’s Theme
Once again I never figured out the theme, but finished the puzzle without cheating anyway. I agree with Rex that USWNT looks wrong (what sport is it?), so I was surprised when the music sounded.
ReplyDeleteIs BOINK a real word? I had "boing" at first.
Guess you stopped reading Rex’s blog. But as he mentioned it’s soccer. The most popular sport in the world.
DeleteIn pickup basketball, you might say "Nice pass" if one of your teammates set you up for an easy basket. I never have heard someone say "Good dime!" I've never heard it in watching the NBA.
ReplyDeleteSweet theme!
The term "dime" includes the "good"--so it's just a dime. But I would have said I heard that about an accurate pass in football before I heard it in basketball, no??? (what I see online is that it started in B-Ball before spreading to football... probably just shows that I was watching a lot more football than basketball for a long time!)
DeleteAgree. DIMES is something you seen captioning a vid of a great play
DeleteI have definitely heard NBA announcers refer to dimes. Not quite in the way of your sample sentence, but talking about assists as stats (“he’s got four dimes already” or “another dime from this guy”).
DeleteI wanted to put Trump at 19 across. That said, the answer really fits!
ReplyDelete@Anon 6:29, I was going to thank Rex for taking a much-needed day of respite from seeing/reading anything about the corrupt buffoon in the White House (which was expected after seeing MMA in the puzzle).
DeleteBut your comment about the aptness of his name as the appropriate clue for 19A gets my two thumbs up.
12:12 for me last night.... so I guess it was medium-challenging for me FOR TUESDAY. I think the revealer, 58 A, was really the whole joy and the twist and the fireworks of this puzzle. Couldn't be better. I saw we were dealing with meat done-ness, thought -- how can this be, the revealer says it's a negative prediction.... that doesn't read like it's going to wrap this up nicely--but then it did... perfectly! "THISWONTENDWELL" was the perfect ending to this grid!!!! Totally agree about USWNT... totally had to rely on the crosses for that one, after the US... BYENOW, TONSIL, ALBUM, NEWMEXICO, all nice. Agree with @OFL about the story up top--the BLOB from the ABYSS.... 4 stars from me just for that incredible revealer. Thanks, Rebecca, that was fun!!! : )
ReplyDeleteI thought Rebecca did a nice job with this one. Easy enough to build up some early-week momentum, and the reveal tied it all together nicely. I agree with OFL - a solid three star effort.
ReplyDeleteI put the last letter in the grid and was told that something was amiss. I looked at every entry three times, and couldn't see anything wrong--and only then thought to check the clues. The basketball thing was in the present tense! So it was Dee REES/DIMES. A really tough crossing, if you don't know either one, and I didn't; I see and couple of others did not, either. And Dee REED would be a palindrome, so I was sad to see her go.
ReplyDeleteOther than that, a fine puzzle. For some reason, I had a hard time coming up with "MEDIUM." I tried ending and then MEDIan, but finally was led to the right answer by MEETS. Only then did I remember the old joke who goes to see a fortune teller. She tells him she loves her job, and he hits her--he has always heard that one should strike a happy medium.
REES/DIMES cross at the S and the clue for DIMES is plural, so it seems pretty fair to me.
DeletePretty challenging for a Tuesday, I thought, between the sportball references and the Reese homonyms. I was afraid I’m losing my touch for a minute there. But my mood improved when I followed Rex’s link to a clip from last night’s Knicks game. A heartwarming moment!
ReplyDelete“The Blob” - scariest movie of my childhood! Was on a meteor, found by a farmer…always a farmer who finds things from outer space.
ReplyDeleteGiven that you are such an amazing film buff (dare I say scholar!) you must watch "The Blob". It is truly one of the greatest (and campiest) of the 50s sci-fi flicks. Not as great as "Forbidden Planet" or George Pal's "War of the Worlds" but well worth a Friday night retro sci-fi party!
ReplyDeleteThere is an annual reenactment of the panic scene in front of the theater, which remarkably still exists, in Phoenixville, PA. Don't ask me the date, or the reason for that matter, maybe THE Blob premiered there, anycow it makes the Philly news every GD year!!!
DeleteApparently you don’t actually watch the news report.
DeleteYes, The Blob was filmed there. The Colonial theater is the name of the theater.
The best thing about that Blob trailer is "Starring Steve McQueen and a cast of exciting young people!" Those youngsters can git yer blood pumpin'.
DeleteDefinitely some non-Tuesday material today; I'm looking at you, REES and REECE.
ReplyDeleteHand up for hAIrSALON before NAILSALON.
I was taught that DIMES comes from the days when phone calls at phone booths cost a dime, and if you needed to make a call you'd ask for a dime to help you out.
1) I have no idea if this is true; I tend to be skeptical of such explanations.
2) If I were making up an origin story, I'd relate it to 'stopping on a dime'.
3) A phone booth was a small, enclosed structure containing a landline telephone and a phone book, useful for making calls in the days before cellphones. Also useful for changing clothes if you are Superman.
True story: Just last night I had occasion to ask a City councilman how much was being collected these days on an old city tax on telephone land lines. His answer was "A couple of DIMES a month".
Delete@kitshef, I looked up the origin of "DIMES" as a basketball term. It's lingo that broadcasters use (overuse, to try to sound hip, in my view). Not as ridiculous as when they say "scoring the basketball" (instead of...just..."scoring"), but it gets a technical foul for excessive lingo from this ref.
DeleteBut you are spot on, at least if the AI-generated response is to be believed.
Yip Harburg wrote the lyrics for a Depression-era hit song, “Buddy, Can You Spare a Dime?” The dime is both literal and a metaphor for a helping hand, I suppose. And a helping hand is a metonym for assistance in general, now that I think of it.
DeleteDime slang for assist in baseball. There is no definite proof it came from drop a dime on a criminal ( and assist the police) but the appears to be the most likely.origin.
DeleteIn basketball it first appeared among urban players in Eastern cities. Not pros necessarily but players in general. Since this group was largely Black American ithe odds are great that this basketball meaning arose among black Americans. BTW much of American slang arose among Black Americans . In case you didn’t know.
It strikes me as odd that most of the sources don’t even mention the possibility. I find that odd. At the very least, basketball players came up with the term, not the broadcasters
Very very much clue having an answer of “ohso” … haven’t heard that before.
ReplyDeleteA few laudatory notes re the theme.
ReplyDeleteIt’s original. That revealer? That gorgeous THIS WON’T END WELL? It’s hard to believe but true that it has never appeared before in any of the major outlets. High props to Rebecca for fixing that!
Its punchline perfectly caps its set-up. Not only does WELL superbly follow RAW, RARE, and MEDIUM, but the revealer also superbly puns on “ending well”. Brava!
It vibrates with spark. Just look at those theme answers – RUBS RAW, EXCEEDINGLY RARE, HAPPY MEDIUM, and THIS WON’T END WELL. Bam, bam, bam, bam!
Rebecca not only nailed the theme, but, intentionally or not, surrounded it with echoes:
• Food echoes: SALAD, WOK, penne ALLA vodka, EDYS.
• Sparky answer echoes: BLEEP, BOINK, BLOB, SPRAWL, I MEAN C’MON.
This was, for me, not only fun to fill, but a tour of beauty in the box. A high-quality outing through a high-quality creation. Thank you, Rebecca!
Well, be advised that this comment won't end well ... but at least it started that way.
ReplyDeleteWell done.
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteNice puz. Good way to solve your non-symmetrical Themers, put 'em in a left/right symmetry grid. Nice Theme, going from RARE to WELL. Personally, I like my steaks WELL done, I never feel comfortable eating undercooked food. Just give me some steak sauce, and I'll be fine.
That USWNT is quite the abbr. I thought it was verboten to have a five letter abbr. in your grid.
Good fill, not as easy as most TuesPuzs, provided a bit of a pushback . SPRAWL is a fun word.
Hope y'all have a great Tuesday!
No F's - I MEAN, C'MON!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Even though I felt this puzzle was harder than Rex did (alas), it was enjoyable to solve.🎈🎈🎊🎊
ReplyDeleteI live w a large German Shepherd and I would not feed her raw steak, although she might enjoy. I missed the steak theme; thank you Rex. USWNT is a new one on me. Nice Tuesday; Well done and medium challenging.
DeleteSaw what was going on after RAW and RARE and wondered how the degrees of doneness would appear, which was accomplished with an elegance I couldn't see coming. Great stuff.
ReplyDeleteBeing a sports guy helped with this one--I knew DIMES and the USWNT (which is always abbreviated this way, the men are, guess what, the USMNT) and have heard REECE's name but never seen it so I started with REESE, easy fix. Not to be confused with Dee REES, of whom I had not heard.
Some fun words in this one SPRAWL, ABYSS, BOINK.. Re TONSIL--years ago I had an infected TONSIL and the TONSIL was removed so now I have just one. This makes me feel EXCEEDINGLYRARE.
I liked this one a lot, RG, a Real Gem. Thanks for all the fun.
Somewhat harder than MEDIUM, I think. Nice puzzle! I agree with Rex over I MEAN, C'MON -- the usual way I hear "I mean, come on" is emphatic, almost imploring, whereas the only way I hear MEAN, C'MON as sounding natural is by making it more clipped and less emotional, as if the addressee is normally reasonable but is just having a momentary lapse. The only other thing I didn't enjoy is USWNT. Initialisms (and I don't mean acronyms) are usually the junkiest of the gunk, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteBut if that's all I'm complaining about, then no complaints, and I think I'd even add an extra half-star. To make a good Tuesday, and one that's not too easy -- that's saying something.
RAW means EXCEEDINGLY RARE, don't you think? ;-)
Georgia O'Keefe is a nice way to clue NEW MEXICO, much better than Los Alamos say. It's a beautiful state, one I hope to return to.
Anyway, WELL DONE, Rebecca Goldstein!
tht
DeleteI can see why a string of initials can be annoying, but I learned from pabloinnh that USMNT & USWNT is the standard way the US soccer teams are initialized. I gather that the two teams do not only appear in the Olympics but also in the World Cup ( if they qualify) where every country has a national team. So in this case after the fact I found it interesting.
Rex’s write sounded better than the rating. I agree with your reaction.
Worried parents' lament: ARSON keeps playing with matches.
ReplyDeleteI had such a blast talking to my dead Uncle Morty that I left a big tip for the woman who conducted the seance. The result was a HAPPY MEDIUM.
Two names I never heard of!!?? -- I hate those REES/REECEs to pieces! It was a SOAR spot for me.
My lawn has so many bald areas on it, I should probably RECEDE.
BLEEP! That's what not-so-little Bo Peep said when she lost her fricken sheep.
No love for the theme song from The Blob? I mean, c'mon!
ReplyDeleteNot knowing basketball terms or the director caused my DNF. DIMED and REED looked right, so I never questioned it while scanning the puzzle for ten minutes trying to figure out what was wrong.
ReplyDeleteThe rabid but slightly eccentric group of fans that roots for the USWNT is the U.S. Team of Oddballs (USTOO).
ReplyDeleteI appreciate @Lewis' comment that starts with WELL. I'm sure THISWONTENDWELL-related jokes in today's comments.
When the Seahawks released Richard Sherman he was ALLPRO and no team.
I have so many pictures of the author of Tuesdays with Morris that I started a Mitch ALBUM.
IRATE this puzzle GNU and OHSO good. Thanks and BYENOW, Rebecca Goldstein.
Morris was an autocorrect from Morrie. Kind of wrecked the joke.
DeleteI got Sonic boom generator as SEGA because Sonic Boom is the name of a Sonic franchise tv show (and game I guess) I grew up on. The “boom” being the rise of a major franchise also makes sense given that it isn’t capitalized.
ReplyDeleteThe best part about this puzzle is 47A when I had HAPPY_ _ D _ _ _ and I put in 'HAPPYENDING' thinking no way they coulda put this in the puzzle. Turns out if it seems too good to be true, it is too good to be true. Also, no idea Steve McQueen was in The Blob. I'm gonna watch that soon.
ReplyDeleteI felt the use of a common unrelated catch-phrase to pull together the theme was pure fun. Very worthy of @egs heaping of puns. Aside from the REES/REECE duo and maybe USWNT, most clues did not require specialized knowledge. OK, maybe throw DIMES in there too if you are not a sports fan.
ReplyDeleteEsto no terminará bien. Nosotros sentimos lo mismo.
ReplyDeleteUSWNT ... amirite? ... where's the auto-reject button.
Tough puzzle for me today, but I was watching the basketball game while trying to solve it. Another tepid theme, but the fill was kinda fun.
NEW MEXICO representing! On the TV news last night they reported we have been 50th in education for, get this, ten straight years. Last for a decade. I should mention we have two national labs here, and yet with all that brainpower floating around, we can't teach these kids to read. Maybe it's the green chile making us dumb, but it's really good. On the other hand, the Georgia O'Keeffe museum is great and the skies and the landscape here kinda make up for everything else. Who wants to read when the sunsets say everything you need to know. Oh, and there's no doctors here either. (But, it's still mostly lovely with those minor issues withstanding.)
ABYSS is on my favorite word list right under PIÑATA.
❤️ Put a sock INIT. BLOB.
People: 3
Places: 3
Products: 6
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 18 of 75 (24%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: RUBS RAW. LSD. BOINK.
Uniclues:
1 What I need all carbohydrates to do.
2 Phrase we utter here to replace the phrase, "This is stupid."
3 Git yer act together Port-au-Prince.
4 Talking jock.
5 My favorite medieval character.
1 ENTER WAIST
2 OH SO NEW MEXICO (~)
3 I MEAN C'MON HAITI
4 ABSURD ALL PRO
5 SPRAWL MAIDEN
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: My unspoken thought when I listen to the future plans of my arty-farty daughter. DREAM BIG PSYCHO.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Bunch o' gems today, @Gary Jugert. I'll be attending my 50th reunion (although it'll be my first) in Santa Fe in October.
DeleteWe were in NM for ten days last fall with a Road Scholar trip and enjoyed it very much. Food is great, scenery is spectacular, but we were most impressed by the friendliness we encountered everywhere.
Delete@egsforbreakfast 11:45 AM
Delete@pabloinnh 12:05 PM
The food in Santa Fe is world class and not available other places. Really special. Albuquerque, not so much. My kingdom for a decent slice of pizza. And of course the scenery up north is ridiculous. It's easy to see why Georgia O'Keeffe moved in. And, weirdly, yes, people are so nice here. Everybody. There's something in this Land of Mañana fixing everyone's agita.
Egs... I will still be here in October and I will block off my entire schedule for a chance at lunch with you.
A REQUEST! If Eggs and Gary get together for lunch, please, please, please record, video or in some way document that event! 😊
DeleteAlong with the Star Wars clue counter, there should be two more that show up whenever the grid has ARSON or ELOPE.
ReplyDeleteNUMBER OF CONSECUTIVE "ARSON" APPEARANCES WITHOUT A "?" CLUE: 0
The ELOPE counter is at 4 (last appearance Mar 18 2026, last "?" clue Jan 24 2025)
I really liked your puzzle, Rachel, despite solving as a themeless & seeing the theme here - thank you :)
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry, REBECCA😳
Delete(I still liked YOUR puzzle :)!
On the tough side for me.
ReplyDeleteI did not know USWNT, REES, DIMES, and REECE.
We too have been to the O’Keeffe museum.
Not knowing DIMES made CMON tough to see.
Costly erasure - BYE bye before NOW.
Cringe - USWNT
Cute theme with some sparkle. liked it except for the cringe part. .
Found this to be a lovely Tuesday. The revealer revealed well, in both ways. I smiled when I saw it—I tried to pick up from Lewis the habit of trying to guess early-week themes before I got there, which makes revealers more fun when they come (I absolutely did not see this one coming). And all the various non-Tuesday-appropriate things were fairly crossed, so it ultimately “ended well.”
ReplyDeleteJust have to throw in that my dad always says, “Good steaks are rare these days.” You’re welcome.
Difficult downs-only Tuesday for me. A bit sports heavy, and I’m not even, like a lot of you, averse to sports. But USWNT? Really? Clued with a person I’ve never heard of? And English soccer star REECE James. If you say so. (Didn’t see the clue.) The basketball clue at 33A, even though I didn’t have to deal with it while solving, threw me because I had never heard it. I watch a lot of hockey, some MLB, and a bit of soccer but the number of basketball games I watch in a year could be counted by … well … not counting. So DIMES was totally new to me.
ReplyDeleteInferring acrosses while working downs-only is always so much fun. BOINK? Could it be BOINK? How will they have clued that? I had a different idea in mind. Shame on me.
I didn’t think the theme quite worked. You go from RAW to RARE to MEDIUM, shouldn’t you end the sequence with WELL? Why is it that THIS WON’T END WELL? It should, if you keep cooking.
If you watch "a bit of soccer" you should probably know Lindsey Horan (now Heaps) and Reece James! They are both global stars of their respective genders.
DeleteLes S More
DeleteAbout the revealer
I thought each themer didn’t end well. Worked for me.
So much to like today. A beautiful, spanning, and in-the-language themer in THISWONTENDWELL. A perfect bow to tie a tight theme together.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sharp enough to notice the particular symmetries in a grid but coming here, I echo @Rex, this one had some real visual appeal to add to what was already an enjoyable solve.
Did not know the REES/REECE duo but the crosses were fair. Cute that one of them crossed with RECEDE
IMEANCMON really popped for me, very in-the-language and if I had a DIME for every time it comes out of my mouth, I'd be rolling INIT. EXCEEDINGLYRARE is a pretty spanner as well.
Thank you Rebecca! This had everything I look for in an early week puzzle.
ETA: Sorry! THISWONTENDWELL is a *revealer*, not a themer! IMEANCMON, Hugh!
DeleteM&A prefers his steak to be HAPPYMEDIUM. But really prefer Mushroom Swiss Burger, cooked thru.
ReplyDeleteFun puztheme, with a lotta meat to it.
staff weeject pick: IRL - king of the central weeject stack. honrable mention to RAW.
some fave stuff: E/W puzgrid symmetry. IMEANCMON. BYENOW. The BLOB [cool schlock flick]. NEWMEXICO with the Santa Fe O'Keeffe Museum [we visit Santa Fe -- and Albuquerk -- regularly, and have spent a lotta time at that primo museum].
Agree with @RP on that there USWNT abbreve -- kinda needs that extra "S" for "Soccer". USWNT scored a NTPuz debut today, btw.
Thanx for cookin all this up for us, Ms. Goldstein darlin. And with SALAD, too boot.
... and maybe cinnamon roll?
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
TIPS - I maintain that the polish goes on the nails, and only on the tips is you're messy , but I'd still tip you for trying.
ReplyDeleteWeren't we getting over being RUBbedRAW
just recently or was that in the LAT?
I've understood that a fair compromise is one wherein both parties are equally unhappy .. there is another way?
I tried doing down clues only, but had too many blank downs after the first pass. Some clues are almost useless without a lot of crosses to help out, eg 3 down "Sheesh, gimme a break"... I MEAN CMON is well down the list of answers I would try. So I reverted to "normal" solving. Just a fine Tuesday theme, and the 4 themers are solid.
ReplyDeleteSeveral Unknown Names: BLOB, INDY, LANA, REES, REECE, and USWNT. But I did know NEW MEXICO and HAITI right off the clues! I think I went to Georgia's museum but that was 33 years ago, so...
Never heard DIME used in a sport. The only slang term I can remember is, a certain young woman associated with the NYT puzzle editor team was once described as "a dime", meaning 10 / 10 on the attractive meter I guess. Not sure if that's a nice or creepy thing to say.
Cool, dark, and rainy today. We sure need the rain, but we really got spoiled by summer weather in May.
I am not a steak eater but I really enjoyed this fine Tuesday puzzle that did indeed end well for me on discovering USTOO and BOINK. Love the revealer! I did have to guess at REECE, USWNT and DIMES but the crosses took care of those.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteThis one got off to a great start for me. The clue for 5A ABYSS reminded me of one of my favorite phrases, "the bottomless pit of philosophical speculation". Ah yes, grad school days.
And then another golden oldie showed up. Long ago in the previous century I was a SONAR technician in the Navy. Spent countless hours listening to echoes from our sound transmissions or "pings"---we were called ping jockeys---and also passively (no pings) listening to underwater sounds. Dolphins are chatterboxes, shrimp beds make a constant crackling noise and whales can make some long, low frequency, eerie-sounding calls/songs.
As a self-appointed POC jockey, I always notice, and not in a good way, when a theme entry needs some convenient help to do its job as happens here when a two-for-one S helps both RUB RAW and YEN fill their slots.
I'm a longtime basketball fan (go Spurs!) and don't recall ever hearing assists being called DIMES. Not sure how I missed that.
Anoa Bob
DeleteI might have run into a crossword reference to dimes/assists. But I rarely watch sports. Why you missed it. It has , according to online, been around for decades, but I think mostly used by basketball players. Maybe it wasn’t till recently that the broadcasters started using it and it began to spread enough to be used on a Tuesday. On the rare occasion I do watch say baseball, I tend to not register the new slang words, thinking stupid stuff from annoying announcers. But I was intrigued by this word. It goes back to dropping a dime in assist the police.
Frankly, it beggars belief.
DeleteAppreciate Rex’s (possibly unknowingly) using “overlap” when discussing Reece James, as overlapping is an important part of what many fullbacks such as Reece James do on offense
ReplyDeleteNYT had a steak-themed Midi recently! Last month I think? So I was actually surprised they did another steak-themed crossword so soon.
ReplyDeleteHow RARE to encounter a debut theme in an early week puzzle. Even more unusual, one WELL done. Debut or not, in terms of theme, I missed it. Again.
ReplyDeleteThe fill sat firmly in my wheelhouse as did the cluing. My brain was catching mostly down clues so once again I solved as a themeless and went back to correct the one little chunk that slowed me down.
I’m not a big fan of an early week puzzle in which the theme is so complex or esoteric that one requires the help of a MEDIUM (happy or otherwise) to plumb its depths and achieve understanding. This theme showed itself immediately and made me want to go mortgage my tiny house and buy a thick, juicy, prime rib steak for dinner. Last I looked, a prime half to three-quarter pounder was upwards of $35.00. Guess I’ll wait for a super-special occasion.
My one sticky spot today was at 5A, thinking chasm - and leaving it because the remainder of the fill in that center top just wasn’t offering any help so it stopped my whooshy progress. Ended up filling in everything but the top center without ever considering a theme and enjoyed it in my post-solve review.
Actually, this solve was not unlike yesterday’s in that I was really slow on the thematic uptake there too. I am just hoping that my brain will get back to normal soon so I can stop feeling so dense.
I thought both Monday and Tuesday were fine early week offerings. For me though Monday had more clever clues and humor and its theme and reveal were much more cohesive. Monday’s reveal actually (and cleverly) “revealed.”
And so to Wednesday.