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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: Going for a Spin — Selling points for cars get reimagined as clues for a highly-flawed car.
Word of the Day: NEPTUNE (48D: God who aids the Trojan fleet in the first book of the "Aeneid") —
Neptune (Latin: Neptūnus [nɛpˈtuːnʊs]) is the god of freshwater and the sea in the Roman religion.[1] He is the counterpart of the Greek god Poseidon.[2] In the Greek-inspired tradition, he is a brother of Jupiter and Pluto, with whom he presides over the realms of heaven, the earthly world (including the underworld), and the seas.[3] Salacia is his wife.
• • •
Theme answers:
- OFF-ROAD VEHICLE [22A: "For our ad, how should we list the car that we found in the ditch?"]
- NEW SHOCKS [39A: "... and how do we add that it was just struck by lightning?"]
- LOW EMISSIONS [44A: "... and that the tailpipe is dragging on the ground?"]
- BUCKET SEATS [67A: "... and what about the leaky roof?"]
- KEYLESS ENTRY [82A: "... and the broken door locks?"]
- QUIET RIDE [91A: "... and the defective speaker system?"]
- REAR-WHEEL DRIVE [110A: "... and finally, the missing front tires?"]
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| The original IMAC from 1998 |
Ok, so, there's a theme. This kind of theme really rides or dies on "was this funny to you" and it just wasn't really funny to me. There's really nothing much else to say here. There just wasn't the kind of whimsy and fun and joy that these kinds of themes can provide. But that is very individual, and I hope that many (most? all??) of you found this theme amusing. It probably doesn't help that I'm definitely not a Car Person. I could not have told you what "bucket seats" were an hour ago. Or "shocks" if I'm being totally honest. Oh, and fun fact: cars are actually one of the safest possible places to be during a lightning storm because they act like a Faraday cage and protect the people inside!
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| An EEL -- a crossword favorite |
Nothing much to say about the grid. It's not flashy, but really clean. Totally does the job. We even get the driving-related bonus in SPEEDERS. Oh, look, I just noticed the TOLL-FREE and FREELOAD dupe. We are living in a post-dupe world, though, and I love it! Dupes are a state of mind. Rid yourselves of the tyranny of dupes and enjoy your crossword without worrying about whether some word appears twice. Everything will be okay!
Another thing: do you guys pronounce SARI and SORRY the same? I think non-US accents are unlikely to, but I polled some US-accent friends and even they seem somewhat split (though same has an edge right now).
 |
| Mr. Potato Head and his pink EARS |
The puzzle also played a little hard for me. No region in specific was a bottleneck, but the whole thing just seemed to offer a tad more resistance than I'm used to. Not a bad thing at all, but I wonder whether it played similarly for others or whether I just wasn't on the wavelength here.
Anyways, that's it from me today. Maybe I'll see you all tomorrow!
Bullets:
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Bullets:
- REVERE 25A: Massachusetts city named for a colonial patriot — I'd never heard of Revere, MA!
- SIDE TRIP 81D: Planned detour — Similarly, I have never heard the term "side trip" but it's very easy to infer.
- RICHER 92D: Like cheesecake vis-à-vis sponge cake — This made me really crave dessert but I'm trying to cut down on sugar so I'm going to be good and resist but man some cheesecake would really hit hard right now.
- AUDI 32D: Mercedes alternative — Look, another car-related entry in the puzzle.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Oh, Rafa, it’s not that I don’t appreciate you, but I was hoping @Rex would critique this one. He has this thing about “go wacky or go home” and I’m trying to figure out what his definition of wacky is. I kept wondering while I solved, “Is this wacky enough?” Now I’ll never know.
ReplyDeleteYou missed one possible automobile reference. RAMS are a line of pickup trucks from Dodge but, contrary to the clue, their horns do honk. Quite loudly, actually. Just try driving the actual speed limit in front of one.
I do not pronounce SARI the same as sorry. Sah-ree. Sore-ee.
I didn’t slow down much solving this one until I had to go searching for a typo. One of the main reasons I don’t particularly like Sundays is that I’m a crappy typist and there’s a lot of acreage to cover looking for that one wrong letter.
Les, here was the first Sunday puzzle in ages that I finished without a typo. That alone makes this an exceptionally satisfying Sunday. As for the puzzle itself? Um, kinda MID. But reaching the end without a typo? Priceless.
DeleteHow do you know it's just one wrong letter?
DeleteI always have to look for my typo in a Sunday grid & I'm off to do it now. I'm not a crappy typist but a FAST typist. I hear myself saying "Slow down" every Sunday. I hate that but really liked this puzzle.
DeleteDitto. I also wanted to see if this was "Rex wacky". I loved the puns, but of course I'm a dad. Very clever.
DeleteLes S. More 2:46 AM
Delete🦖 says he's okay with puns, but in practice I believe he's hated every pun puzzle ever published. I doubt keyless entry would've pushed him into a happy place.
And fair warning, down below here are a lot of New Englanders, Brits, Canadians, and maybe some southerners and Aussies all discussing pronunciation. These folks are not qualified as they have oft parodied accents causing weird sounds to emit from their faces. 🤓 Those of us out here in the west are wondering if y'all short circuited or something. Sorry and sari are pronounced the same way.
So, Gary, do you call the Indian wrapped dress a sor-ee or do you excuse yourself by saying sah-ree? This is a serious question. I think I've heard people ask forgiveness by saying sah-ree or saw-ree, but I can't remember where.
Delete@Les S. More 1:56 PM
DeleteFor me (and I think everybody west of the Mississippi) it's SAH-ree. That's a beautiful sah-ree you're wearing. I'm sah-ree about kissing your daughter. When people are saying they pronounce them some other way my mind melts and I screw up my face trying to make some odd noise fit other than SAH.
I am no ace at crosswords but this one was about average for me - TBH one spot I got stuck on was insisting that the SoCal school was UCLA - ugh - as for the theme solutions - barely even read the clues - mostly got them from the crosses
ReplyDeleteIt was SDSC when we went there…part of Calif State COLLEGE System
DeleteNever heard of “side trip” or bucket seats and other common auto terms? (I’ll forgive you on Revere.) Perhaps you’re not the right person to be evaluating U.S. puzzles? I found the theme answers to be clever and amusing. The puzzle was somewhat challenging, but in that nice way that makes you feel very satisfied once you fill in that last square.
ReplyDeleteSame on all points, thanks.
DeleteSide trip is the one that baffles me. No car required. You could take the train from NY to DC and have a side trip in Philly
DeleteI would go with Andy Freude's response below instead of this take. There are things we know, and there are things we don't know. And we've *all* learned things from crosswords, including you.
DeleteIt's pronounced "Reveah" in these parts!
DeleteThanks for that. Now I’m getting a kick out of saying it aloud as you’ve spelled it. It’s right on. (Massachusettsan here too)
DeleteThey stopped referring to them as "bucket seats" ages ago. In the olden days there were only bench seats now there are virtually no bench seats in the front row, that middle seat would be very very unsafe. So the term is very outdated, and anon 3:12 your comment reads to me as very rude and dismissive
Delete
ReplyDeleteEasy-Medium. Better than a usual Sunday. Liked it a whole lot more than @Rafa did, although I agree that Sunday puzzles generally either really work or they don't and when they don't it's a big slog. For me, today's theme really worked.
* * * * _
Overwrites:
My 1A pen name was sty, a name for a pen, before it was BIC.
asseS before TWITS for the 8D ninnies.
At 18A I had Tale for Story before TIER.
LOVEly before LOVE IT for Fabulous at 44D.
My close one was wHEW before it was PHEW (93D).
I thought there might once have been garS in the Thames (EELS, 108D)
Of course, I fell into the SoCal sch. trap at 118A, ucla (briefly) before SDSU.
One sorta WOE, I kinda knew HARARE was the capital of Zimbabwe but I still needed most of the crosses (112A).
At least it wasn’t the typical terrible Sunday puz.
DeleteWhat a hoot! Very funny theme clues/answers, many non-theme clues playing on words, a mostly no-stress difficulty level so as not to blunt the fun, and lovely answers on top of it all – SCAMP, FEIGN, QUASH, WANTON, FOIST, GALLANT, FREELOAD, ANOINT, CODGER.
ReplyDeleteThat’s entertainment! Way to lift the day, Ralph and Doug -- and with a piece-of-junk car! Bravo, and thank you both!
A mostly no-stress difficulty level so as not to blunt the fun? Talk about putting lipstick on a pig … or a lemon.
DeleteHow about the “as-is” crossword?
ReplyDelete[“… but what about the fact that the grid is rife with obscure never-heard-of answers?]
[“… or that a number of the answers are misspelled?”]
[“… and many of the hints are so impenetrable it makes me want to scream!”]
FRESH FILL
NOVEL WORDPLAY
ENGAGING CLUES
Very good! I'd enjoy that puzzle.
DeleteA propos of clue complaints, but not of the puzzle's theme:
OBTUSELY ABSTRUSE CLUING
is a 22-letter Sunday spanner!
Car puns - densely packed - there are some cute ones. LOW EMISSIONS and QUIET RIDE are the standouts. BUCKET SEATS x NEPTUNE dead center is pretty neat.
ReplyDeleteIRIS
The grid is well filled for the most part - I’ll chalk that up to Rex pal Doug. Stan Newman runs a lot of his early week puzzles - they’re always nuanced and professionally built. GALLANT, WANTON, TURF WAR, FREE LOAD, EVIL DEAD - some pretty solid non-theme longs. The grid forces a bunch of 4s but it never felt sticky. The limited trivia is well placed. In the early 90s I worked on the Central Artery Tunnel in Boston - met a brilliant engineer from REVERE who’s turned into a lifelong friend. RYE has its marina - REVERE has its beach.
Mercury REV
Enough of these went big enough and hit - I got a few chuckles at least. Enjoyable Sunday morning solve.
Sleep well
Rafa, until a minute ago you didn’t know the term BUCKET SEATS, yet you can drop “Faraday cage” without blinking an eye. You’re my kind of nerd, pal!
ReplyDeleteYes, I was going to add "ASIS" as part of the theme material, but Lewis, you are above and beyond this morning! 30 minutes for me last night, so medium. Like @CONRAD I really enjoyed this one. How to make bad sound good! Wacky enough for me : ) Ralph and Doug, this was a blast. Thanks! : )
ReplyDeleteDifferent wavelengths, found this probably the easiest Sunday I've ever done. I have to say my stomach sinks every time I see that it's going to be yet another Sunday with yet another set of not very inspiring puns: we're overdue for another tour de force along the lines of David Kwong's museum heist puzzle, a high point I still think of fondly years later.
ReplyDeleteRevere MA is a mere 24 miles from Natick MA, turns out...
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this one. Astonishing for a Sunday. Read the themes to my wife...she stopped doing crosswords years ago ("too much like doing homework )... and she laughed at them all. Some challenging cluing a superb fill. She keeps repeating "bucket seats"! Would've liked to see what Rex thought....
ReplyDeleteI really liked it, probably because I’m a car guy. Record time.
ReplyDeleteI loved this! Made me literally laugh out loud.
ReplyDeletePor poco no lo contamos.
ReplyDeleteI always wish they'd challenge me with wordplay and today they gave me all I could handle, but I survived. Felt kinda sloggy, but I think it was me on a different wavelength than the cluing. In the end I liked beating this one and felt happy.
The puns in the theme are terrific. Smiled after each one. Extra funnyism points today.
The slogan on the first penny was Mind Your Business. Seems like a decent upgrade to trade it out to In God We Trust, even though we don't.
HARRY POTTER IS #1.
AUDI is an alternative to Mercedes the same way a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is an alternative to a T-bone steak.
❤️ Ninnies and kerfuffles and old yeller.
People: 9
Places: 6
Products: 13
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 37 of 140 (26%)
Funny Factor: 8 🙂
Tee-Hee: SEX. STREAKS.
Uniclues:
1 Pre-baby-carrot politics.
2 Disbelieving reaction to the headline: Mad grampa runs naked through Phillies game.
1 BEFORE ORANGE TURF WAR
2 CODGER STREAKS? I NEVER!
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Punny god. BAD JOKES BRAHMA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Hi Gary. You beat me to the punch (or the PBJ) commenting on the non- alternatives AUDI and a Benz. Goid one.
Delete"I'd never heard of Revere, MA!"
ReplyDeletePerhaps because in Massachusetts it is pronounced, "Rǎ-VĒ-ǎh."
I have not been doing Sunday puzzles, but I woke up early, saw Doug Peterson's name, and decided to give it a try. I'm glad I did -- it wasn't very hard, but it was fun guessing the theme answers. NEW SHOCKS eluded me the most -- I was thinking about charring of the paint. Most of them went right in, though.
ReplyDeleteI had trouble with MOTT'S because I don't think of applesauce as a snack; and at 99-A I was looking for an ordinal number rather than a first name. We've got Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter--two days in a row for the former! I was afraid the latter was going to be some made-up name, but no, just PREFECT.
If they wanted you to pronounce SARI like Sorry they'd've spelled it with an O.
Rafa, I've certainly heard SIDE TRIP, probably even said it. I was told once that Michelin's criterion for giving a restaurant two stars was that it was worth a SIDE TRIP.
In addition to applesauce, Mott’s makes a large variety of fruit snacks.
Delete"Similarly, I have never heard the term "side trip" but it's very easy to infer."
ReplyDeleteAs in "Let's take a little side trip to the packy to grab some beer on our way to Revere Beach."
👍🏻
DeleteI enjoyed the puzzle, which offered just enough resistance, & found the central conceit idiomatically sound.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteGot a kick out of the descriptions for the used car. Sneakily, if misleadingly, correct. Imagine reading about this car, then going to see it, and it's a pile of junk. "But you said ..."
"Hey, it's all technically true!"
"No sale, bub."
/scene
Fill very nice. A few pieces of dreck, but hardly noticeable.
@Rafa, and others
You should really learn the basics of a car, ergo, to not be taken advantage of by unscrupulous shops claiming you need blinker fluid or Johnson rods. (Which aren't real things, btw)
Anyway, have had (still do?) cars like the one described here. Now at least I know how to advertise them for sale! 😁
Hope y'all have a great Sunday!
Seven F's - LOVE IT
RooMonster
DarrinV
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLoved it.. and laughed, which I rarely do with a Sunday puzzle. Great job, Ralph! Looking forward to more.
ReplyDeleteMy completion time was a few minutes less than my average. I thought it was medium ish. I am a late middle aged woman and hardly a car enthusiast but I was familiar with all of the car terms.
ReplyDeleteI was optimistic when I opened this one up and was greeted by a clean, wide-open grid that was devoid of annoying circles and other grid “artwork”, and as it turns out, I actually had a pretty pleasant solving experience.
ReplyDeleteThe theme answers were all related to and discernible from the theme clues themselves without the need to decipher gibberish or perform mental gymnastics (wow, what a concept !), and I was on the same wavelength has the constructor for most of the “regular” clues and answers, so I only had to struggle with the popular culture and other trivia. That’s a bit unusual for me, as I usually struggle with two out of the three (the theme construct, the “normal” crossword clues, or the PPP). It felt nice to have an experience akin to what I”m sure many solvers experience on a daily basis. I could get used to this !
I was a bit sorry to hear that Rafa felt this was only fair average. I thought he or Rex would blow through it like a hot knife through butter - it sounds like Rafa struggled with the theme answers a bit, which can definitely get a bit tiresome (especially with a Sunday-sized grid). Anyway, I enjoyed being on the right wavelength today, which doesn’t happen all that frequently.
Thought it was Easy/Medium and when I turned to Rex was flabbergasted to see CHALLENGING show up until I saw Rafa. I guess without car familiarity it would be more of a slog. Once I got the theme, I could infer some of the answers without too many crosses. Laughed out loud at BUCKET SEATS and overall pretty amusing.
ReplyDeleteWhen my wife and I finally figured out 41D, I exclaimed "We have the METES!"
ReplyDeleteAll-male college: MENU
Profligate consomme: WANTON soup.
******
We are finishing up a week in Detroit, the Paris of the Midwest, so it's apt to find a car puzzle. Enjoyed it!
MENU!! lol.
DeleteHurray for Detroit, pronounced De'twa. Saskatoon is referred to as the Paris of the prairies in a great song by The Tragically Hip.
DeleteExcited=Sends. ????
ReplyDeleteThink of the Sam Cook song, “You Send Me”
Delete“You send me . . .honest you do, honest you do . . . “
DeleteDo you know the song with the line "Darling, you send me" . . . ?
DeleteOne meaning of 'to send' is to delight or thrill ... or to excite. NYTXW loves to use 'send' in this manner, so it's good to commit to memory.
DeleteOne of the definitions of “send” is “to delight or thrill”.
DeleteI👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
DeleteFun theme, but ... very easy Sunday. Rudimentary clues, except when they tried to hard to be clever. And no, sorry and sari are not pronounced the same.
ReplyDeleteI grew up in the midwest and southwest. I pronounce them exactly the same way. Those of you leaning toward the long O sound for "sorry" must live up north or be Canadian!
DeleteThis Canadian Doesn't pronounce "sorry" with a long O. I grew up in Montreal and the A in sari is like the A in sat, the O in sorry is like the a in saw.
DeleteMerriam-Webster has for SORRY ˈsär-ē and for SARI… ˈsär-ē. Standard US pronunciations. No variants given.
DeleteI enjoyed this one a lot more than Rafa. But I'm a motor head. Went smoothly and fast for me, 26 min, while watching the crossfit games on youtube. And this person with a hard NYC accent does NOT pronounce sari and sorry alike. But just checked with my wife who is from NC but without a southern accent. She pronounces the same, but to me she is mispronouncing sari.
ReplyDeleteRevere, MA has the first public beach in the US! I call it the People's Beach because it's free, public, and transit-accessible. I'm a big fan.
ReplyDeleteand for what it's worth, I'm from the US and do not pronounce sari and sorry the same. They're close but a little different for me.
(North)easterners make fun of Midwesterners who say Sore-y for sorry. They say SARI for both. But Mary, merry and marry are distinctive to them, whereas they are all the same in the Midwest as in NY merry.
ReplyDeleteIt's ony Northern midwesterners who say sore-y. Minnesotans and such.
DeleteAs someone from the Boston area, I do not pronounce SARI and sorry the same, but I knew of Revere!
ReplyDeleteI enjoy this type of puzzle. So much fun to solve. 🎈🎈🎊🎊
ReplyDeleteI really needed this blog for the sari/sorry clue! Can confirm it doesn't work with an English accent and at the time I just had to assume the homophonous game was something I'd never heard of.
ReplyDeleteI did enjoy the themers but I think that was mostly just for how quickly I could fill them in once I got the gist of it, it's always fun to speed through clues even if afterwards it feels a bit naff.
Biggest blunder was that I kept moving ACT around the grid [Part of a plot, at times; Long stories have them] before finally getting it into the right configuration for [End of "Our Town" or "A Doll's House"] but it was getting to the point that I was fighting the urge to stick an ACTS in for [The third one is dangerous] just for the sake of it, seeing as I was so happy to try it for seemingly every other clue. Absolutely no idea how a third act could be dangerous, perhaps I was imagining tragedies, but either way the word was haunting me.
"...a bit naff"?? Huh???
DeleteDefinitely a slog
ReplyDeleteI thought that most of the themers were hilarious and clever, I actually, for the first time, laughed out loud at some of them!
ReplyDeleteIf you grew up in the 60s, this was fun….bucket seats is a term that quickly came to mind, but then I realized it had been 30-40 years since they were advertised….who remembers “2 4s” as key parts on a well tuned dragster?
ReplyDeleteThe themers were well-clued and fun, thank goodness, because this was a case of cluing being on a wavelength definitely not my own. Started in the NW of course and went all the way across the top and down some as well before getting anything at all. Finished, finally, back on top and saw things like BIC and BEFORE and instead of an aha! this led to a "what's the matter with you anyway?, so much less joy than there should have been. No real total WTF's just too many wrong first guesses that wouldn't go away. I solved on line as my high-strength reading glasses have secreted themselves somewhere (again) and as they say, I can't look for them until I find them.
ReplyDeleteTurns out your Sunday was more fun and fairer than I thought it was when I was solving, DP. I'll take my lengthy solve time as Deserved Punishment, and thanks for an interesting Sunday.
PS--RS--I noticed, finally that I did not include you as a constructor. I'm Really Sorry.
DeleteEditor's memo heading to poet: REVERSES
ReplyDeleteBefore we went to gender-neutral nouning, caregivers were either a carer or CARESS.
We're waging war against ants here and I took special delight in terminating a very bold, rude one while yelling, "You've got a lot of GALLANT"!
There's a lot going on with SPEEDERS clued as [They might be on one's radar]. If one is a cop on traffic enforcement duty, and there happen to be speed limit violators in the location you are monitoring, then they, along with all of the non-violators might be on your radar. Now that's what I call good clue writing.
Took this one for a spin and came back with a few dings but no major damage. Pretty fun ride. Thanks, Ralph Sharaga and Doug Peterson.
Rafa: Interesting that you mentioned that being inside a car is one of the safest places for a lightning strike. 20 years ago this month, my wife and I were struck by lightning in my (at that time new) car. Every electrical component in the car had to be rewired and replaced ( fortunately the insurance paid), and the car was perfectly good for the next 13 years. And me and my wife were terrified but fine.
ReplyDeleteAs for the puzzle, I liked it. I thought the little jokes were clever and well done.
This one was much fun for me. Had me grinning for the whole trip. BUCKETSEATS were the bane of lover’s lane advocates. Great punning. And great satire on advertising in general.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this once I got the theme and had a lot of chuckles. Usually don’t like weird italicized clues, but it turned out fun in my book, with great non-theme fill.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great Sunday. First time in a long time, for me. The only thing that tripped me up was CODGER.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys :)
Don’t really get18A Story. Is the clue supposed to be to be “Storey” as in floors of a building or am I missing something to get to TIER as an answer.
ReplyDelete"Storey" is the British spelling. In American English one level of a structure is a story.
DeleteAmericans use story for a tale and as a part of a building (story = tier). I was raised in Canada with story = tale and storey = tier or level. This is an American puzzle.
DeleteAnd Italian for storey is "piano".
DeleteIn my lexicon tier is not a synonym for story. "Look at that huge 100 tier skyscraper", and "That 4 story wedding cake was impressive" are nonsense.
DeleteThe first themer, OFFROAD VEHICLE, was so dull that my heart sank a little, expecting a dull puzzle. But then BUCKET SEATS, QUIET RIDE, and NEW SHOCKS came along and made me smile.
ReplyDeleteClever clues included those for WRAP, REV, STREAKS, ON ME, and SALIVA. Had Quell before QUASH but that was my only writeover. All in all, very easy, but I liked it fine.
Entertaining but easy….not that challenging
ReplyDeleteP.S. HAMS crossing RAMS was fun.
ReplyDeleteGreat time with this puzzle. I know that car.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle should be dedicated to Joe Isuzu - I, at least, kept imagining him making this sales spiel and I found myself smiling throughout. After the unenjoyable Friday/Saturday combo, it was a pleasant change to have something that was fun and generally wittily clued. One surprise: I thought I blitzed through this, but my 12:02 is actually a tad above average for Sunday; nevertheless, I would have been happy to have spent more time with this puzzle. Well done!
ReplyDeleteDisagree with Rafa. This puzzle was extremely easy, and I loved it. But to each his own!
ReplyDeleteRafa, you were very hard on this puzzle. It was definitely not necessary to be nto cars to appreciate the themers. C'mon, "New shocks" from lightning didn't make you smile? "Bucket seats" to catch the drips? Aw, your loss! As for not having heard of side trip, what's that about? I'm glad most of the commenters appreciated this very well done puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI started doing the NYT Sunday crossword puzzle in 1972 when I got a job selling space in the magazine advertising department. I would get an advance copy of the Sunday magazine on Wednesday, so I had lots of time to play around with the clues until it’s Sunday release, so speed was not a concern. That said, I think today’s puzzle was my fastest solve in all these years. Not only was it quick and easy, I thought the theme was hilarious. Just what I wanted on a warm summer weekend with outdoor things to do.
ReplyDelete@Hartley70, nice to see you!
DeleteI liked this a lot, thought it was funny and reasonably well-constructed. The car stuff was just fine. Finished quickly (for me). A couple of write-overs:
ReplyDelete- 18A: TALE before TIER.
- 44D: LOVELY before LOVEIT.
You don't have to be a car enthusiast to know the terms, but you do have to watch TV commercials, including some from a while ago. BUCKETSEATS, for example, probably hasn't been heard as a selling point for car in decades. And hardly anyone advertises REARWHEELDRIVE, with so many vehicles now with all-wheel drive (or second choice, front-wheel drive for control in bad weather).
Anyway, congrats to Ralph for an amusing and entertaining debut!
I do agree that had Rex critiqued this puzzle, he probably would've found it only mildly amusing....
ReplyDelete@Colin, I agree. I'm more of a fan of puns than Rex, but definitely ascribe to his preference for uber-wackiness. Today, for me, for Rafa, and I'm betting for Rex it just didn't measure up.
DeleteI actually liked the first one, OFF ROAD VEHICLES, the best. The others didn't fall flat, but didn't result in actual laughter, unfortunately. Most here seemed to enjoy it, as Rafa hoped. But as the saying goes "it's why they make chocolate and vanilla" and for me, this was the other one.
Very enjoyable easy puzzle, with theme answers that were fun to guess. I imagine the folks who weren’t familiar with DOT from yesterday were the ones who didn’t take to this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThe answer that made me laugh out loud wasn’t theme related - I don’t think. It was CODGER for Old yeller? I wanted copper first…
i found it very easy. personal best time wise. the theme answers,once the gimmick presented, filled in mostly with no crosses. despite those facts i found the puzzle pretty old timey fill wise. it was better than alot of sundays but i am not sure if that rises to level of praise ?
ReplyDeleteEasy, a very whooshy solve for me. I put in BIC and just kept going except for valiANT before GALLANT.
ReplyDeleteNo WOEs.
Cringe - NEONS
Mildly amusing, liked it.
I find that these pun-themed puzzles usually have one or more clunkers, but this one was really hitting on all cylinders! Every one made me chuckle inside. I finished with a smile.
ReplyDeleteAbout 24% faster than average, so that might be part of it. Had densER for RICHER for a bit, but once I fixed that I was back in gear.
I pronounce SARI like sahhh-ree, for what it's worth.
Loved this puzzle — so funny and clever!
ReplyDeleteNot a car person, but this was hilarious and we'll done. Reminds me of a similar NYT crossword from decades ago, in which the theme was how to give a decent job recommendation for someone who should never be hired: Applicant is a sexual harasser, and his rec said "he touched everyone in the office".
ReplyDeleteLikable humorous SunPuz theme. Reminds m&e of the M&A-mobile. A 2007 Ford 500 that's still hangin in there. But, hey -- the sis & bro in-laws just asked to borrow it, while their wheels are in the repairs shop.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: RSS. Can never remember this, as it makes no sense and I don't use whatever it is. Maybe I file it away as a backward SSR ...
some fave stuff: EVILDEAD. OFTTIMES. NEPTUNE in a BUCKET(SEAT). STREAKS clue. INFLUX.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Mr. Sharaga & Peterson dudes. And congratz to Ralph S. on his half-debut.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Another fan of the puzzle here. A little easy, but entertaining. First car for me with KEYLESS ENTRY was a 1989 Taurus SHO with a code to be entered on buttons on the door. I remember someone on here mentioning having an SHO - RooMonster, maybe?
ReplyDeleteRarely have the occasion to use "sari" in speech - I'd like to think I pronounce "sari" and "sorry" differently, but probably not..
Going out for a drive in car with carbon BUCKETs shortly - they hold one firmly in place. Nice should the car become an OFF-ROAD VEHICLE. Oh, and it's REAR-WHEEL DRIVE.
Who else had SATIVA before SALIVA for “What wets the appetite?” 😆😆😆
ReplyDeleteWhets..
DeleteAn “easy slog,” if that’s a thing. Dull with too many “?” clues trying to be funny/punny in an already theme-dense puzzle. I am not a car girl.
ReplyDeleteVery easy. But, while the revealers were fine, they were just basic. Where’s the pizazz and entertainment? No real 5-star answers . . . any where! Did the counterpart [yes, the same pair had a different puzzle there] in today’s LA Times and felt the same way. C’est la vie!
ReplyDeleteBUCKET SEATS! I thought all of the theme answers were clever, but that one, for me, really deserved its center-stage placement. Otherwise, I agree with @Rafa on "medium-challenging" - I can't remember another Sunday where clue after clue I had no idea what the constructors were getting at.
ReplyDeleteSeveral comments about puns in the theme.
ReplyDeleteWhat puns? These clues and answers aren't puns. They're just jokes, putting a good spin on a bad car.
Want a thematic pun? TURBOCHARGED as an answer to 39A. Yes, I know. A turbo pun!
I often find Sunday a slog, but not today. The theme was cute and a bit silly, and it took 26 minutes which is not bad. It was fun uncovering each themer, which is often not the case.
ReplyDeleteBonus: hardly any Unknown Names! (Isis Naija Gaston excepted)
I was born and raised a Michigander, and to my ear "sorry" and SARI are distinctly different. But I've known quite a few New Yorkers who pronounce them alike.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed the cluing voice in this puzzle, and actually found the fill clues more entertaining than the theme puns. Definitely on the easy side for a Sunday, which is not a bad thing.
I wonder how many stars Rex would give this…
ReplyDeleteIn today’s political climate, the better answer for 41A is “misLed”. True, I have no idea what “blog feed letters” are.
ReplyDeleteThis one went down pretty breezily today, at 60 percent of my average.
ReplyDeleteMy teenage hobby of coin collecting helped me a little on TRUST. But only a little. I can't believe I couldn't bring Donahue's first name PHIL to mind. Also my delay in filling in ATHLETES even with A_H__TES in place. I even fancy I had the right word flit through my head at some point, only to be rejected. Weird.
I imagine Rex wouldn't have liked PREFECT clued that way, but I'm not quite so dogmatic about the HP world. Lots of other people worked on it, especially the movies.
Today's crossword-size crossover was ESE (for "Linguistic suffix").
Errors: TALE for TIER (wrong kind of story, as was probably intended). ELFS for ENTS, briefly. I AM for I GO. EVENED for IRONED. UCLA for SDSU. That's pretty good for me!
I think it was a very good puzzle, fun and funny. Rafa must not own a car?
ReplyDeleteKind of fun and kind of a slog for me. Maybe I just wasn’t in a Sunday grid mood. That happens. I’m a Sunday wackiness/punfest lover from way back, but today just felt a bit meh. Really creative though. I was hoping for a bang-up finiah with a reveal though. Of course it wasn’t really necessary, but it would have put the cherry on top.
ReplyDeleteMy only real nit (and it’s a teensy one) is NANA instead of NoNA. To me NANA is simply interchangeable with any word referring to a grandmother. For me, when the clue specifically mentioned the Yiddish “bubbe,” I thought the answer needed to be more specific and that NoNA was more on the money.
Sunday’s in the books. Thanks for subbing in, Mr. Musa. Excellent job on the blog and a superb puzzle this week as well.
Italian for grandmother is nonna; is it spelled nona in dialect or some other language?
DeleteVery easy and lots of fun today. Perfect Sunday puzzle to while away the afternoon and come up with a win.
ReplyDeleteI thought the theme answers were a riot. It's rare that I sit with a Sunday puzzle, figure out the answer, and just smile. In these days of gaslighting on steroids from our overlords, these true/not true characterizations really captured the zeitgeist.
ReplyDeleteOverall, however, the fill felt a little bland, mostly out-and-out definitions. For me, the bright spots were other car references, e.g., 16D Barely runs? (STREAKS) and 53D Runs out of gas (DIES). I thought the constructors did a great job with the theme itself.
One other note: Will had a typo in his description, at least in my printout version. As a former proofreader, I was aghast.
I judge a Sunday puzzle by how far I get into the solve before I quit. I've been interested in all things automotive since childhood so today I finished the whole thing, ergo, I liked it.
ReplyDeleteI thought the puzzle title was a clever pun. "Going for a spin" usually means taking a casual drive in a vehicle. The pun part comes into play when "spin" gets a different meaning of describing bad news in a way that makes it sound positive. Perfect description of what the themers are doing, right?
The "SoCal sch." at 118A was originally (1898) the San Diego Normal School. By 1921 it became San Diego State Teachers College. In the late 1950s it became just San Diego State College. By the time I graduated in 1973 it was California State University, San Diego. (That's what's on my diploma.) That discordant mouthful was mercifully changed in 1974 to San Diego State University, SDSU, and has remained so to date.
Thank you! I completely missed the title pun. That's perfect.
DeleteRafa is right about one thing: the fill was clean. There weren't any naticks, and the very low Gary's Gunk Rating probably helps explain that. I thought the theme was rather cute, certainly original. Count me with the majority who like this one.
ReplyDeleteWait, isn't Edmund Hillary actually spelled Hilary (only one "L")?
ReplyDeleteSo much fun!
ReplyDeleteSari to see it end…
Can I be the first to say that “Fen” and “Ents” were the tough ones for me?
ReplyDeleteEasy but very fun Sunday. Thanks!
ReplyDeleteVery easy today, quite close to a personal best time for a Sunday. I think Harare would have been a more interesting Word Of The Day than Neptune.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this one. I found it relatively easy.
ReplyDelete