.png)
Longtime Disney boss Bob / TUE 8-11-26 / Big name in food wholesale / Big export of Myanmar / Head of a noted animal rescue project / Psychedelic rock band with the 2003 tune "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1" / Hip-hop group that wrote "C.R.E.A.M." and "Protect Ya Neck" / German film composer who wrote "Cornfield Chase" and "Time" / Red denizen of Sesame Street / "This is probably dumb but I'm doing it anyway" hashtag
Tuesday, August 11, 2026
Constructor: Wade Bednar
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (just 'cause the musical names might be unknown to many solvers)
Theme answers:
Points for originality, for sure. Before I ever knew what was going on with the theme, I was enjoying the (unexpected!) musical acts. FLAMING LIPS—bold opener! Of the three dynasty-containing answers, I think this will be the least well known by the crossword-solving population, but that band is old enough and big enough for me to know who they are despite never having really listened to their work, so the answer seems fair. HANS ZIMMER, definitely fair, but ... he's not really known as a "song" writer, is he? He's a (decorated) film composer. He's known for scores, not songs. Those "songs" in his clue ("Cornfield Chase"? "Time"?) were unrecognizable to me. I had to look them up. "Cornfield Chase" is the second cut on the Interstellar soundtrack, and "Time" was apparently a track from Inception, though it was remixed in a collaboration with Norwegian DJ Alan Walker in 2020, to some acclaim.
- FLAMING LIPS (17A: Psychedelic rock band with the 2003 tune "Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, Pt. 1," with "the")
- HANS ZIMMER (30A: German film composer who wrote "Cornfield Chase" and "Time")
- WU-TANG CLAN (47A: Hip-hop group that wrote "C.R.E.A.M." and "Protect Ya Neck")
The Flaming Lips are an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1983 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The band currently consists of Wayne Coyne (vocals, guitars, bass, keyboards), Derek Brown (keyboards, guitars, percussion), Matt Duckworth Kirksey (drums, percussion, keyboards), AJ Slaughter (guitar, keyboards, pedal steel) and Tommy McKenzie (bass). Coyne is the only remaining founding member following the departure of bassist and keyboardist Michael Ivins in 2021. From 1991 to 2024, Steven Drozd played a crucial role in the band as co-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.The band started out playing garage punk and noise pop, before branching into more psychedelic and experimental territory. They recorded several albums and EPs on an indie label, Restless, in the 1980s and early 1990s. After signing to Warner Brothers they released Hit to Death in the Future Head (1992), followed by Transmissions from the Satellite Heart (1993) and the hit single "She Don't Use Jelly" which broke the band into the mainstream. They later released The Soft Bulletin (1999), which was NME magazine's Album of the Year, followed by the critically acclaimed Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002). In February 2007, they were nominated for a BRIT Award for "Best International Act". The group has won three Grammy Awards, including two for Best Rock Instrumental Performance. They were placed on Q magazine's list of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die" in 2002. (wikipedia)
• • •
Points for originality, for sure. Before I ever knew what was going on with the theme, I was enjoying the (unexpected!) musical acts. FLAMING LIPS—bold opener! Of the three dynasty-containing answers, I think this will be the least well known by the crossword-solving population, but that band is old enough and big enough for me to know who they are despite never having really listened to their work, so the answer seems fair. HANS ZIMMER, definitely fair, but ... he's not really known as a "song" writer, is he? He's a (decorated) film composer. He's known for scores, not songs. Those "songs" in his clue ("Cornfield Chase"? "Time"?) were unrecognizable to me. I had to look them up. "Cornfield Chase" is the second cut on the Interstellar soundtrack, and "Time" was apparently a track from Inception, though it was remixed in a collaboration with Norwegian DJ Alan Walker in 2020, to some acclaim.
Probably the weakest part of the theme is the "song" part. There's no doubt that all these acts composed and released "songs," but none of the songs mentioned in the clues are what you'd call iconic or universally known. The theme might've made more sense if the dynasty names had been embedded in actual songs. Like, say:
or
or
So, the "songs" in question are not superpopular and Zimmer isn't even really known for "songs." And I think the theme would've been more elegant if there had been absolutely no other "song" people in the grid (no DRE, no NIALL, no SYMS)—keep the theme tight! And yet, this puzzle is really imaginative, and it was fun to solve—way more fun than your typical Tuesday. So I'm for it. I'm not for that spelling of AOKAY (?) (tragic mess) and SYSCO and IGER feel stale, but otherwise, the fill is solid, occasionally vibrant. Yeah, it's got Reagan :( but it's also got DUMPLINGS :) You lose, you win, you eat, you drink, the facts of life, the facts of life.
[Joe Jackson knew]
Beyond the proper nouns, the puzzle was appropriately easy. Tuesday-easy. I slipped up with SLIP instead of SKIP (8D: Go past), and NIALS instead of NIALL (31D: Singer Horan of One Direction). The answer that gave me the most trouble was, ironically, the tiniest answer in the puzzle (well, tied for the tiniest with several other answers)—it was "DO I!" (56A: "Abso-freakin-lutely!"). I got the terminal "I" first and thought "... 'OUI!'?" Then got the "O" and thought "... 'MOI!'?" But no, two words!! Bah! Parsing fail! I'm supposed to be an OLD PRO. And yet!
Bullets:
- 28D: Island that's the world's third-smallest country, after Vatican City and Monaco (NAURU) — I think this is, technically, an error. In a bizarre coincidence, I learned just yesterday that NAURU recently changed its name to NAOERO. How did I learn this? From a crossword puzzle, of course. One of Peter Gordon's "Newsflash" puzzles, I think (these are puzzles that take their content straight from current headlines). " In May 2026, a constitutional amendment was passed to change the English name to "Republic of Naoero", matching the spelling in the Nauruan language." (wikipedia)
- 71A: Prey for polar bears (SEALS) — well that's a grim way to come at SEALS. Accurate, but ...
- 39A: Mario's video game brother (LUIGI) — another Marioverse answer. Giving the Star Wars universe a run for its money.
- 63A: Ingredient in a Dark 'n' Stormy (RUM) — the other ingredients: ginger beer, lime slice.
That's all. See you next time.
P.S. Happy birthday to Andrew Nestler, who works in the math department at Santa Monica College. If you know him, say hi for me.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
Venmo (@MichaelDavidSharp)] =============================
✏️Upcoming Crossword Tournaments✏️:
=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
✏️Upcoming Crossword Tournaments✏️:
=============================
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
Save And Share :
100 comments:
Yup - a cute and fun to play early week theme. Not overly dense like yesterday but it works well. Always tough to build around trivia - but these were very straightforward.
I broke your back so I’ll break mine
Overall fill works - Rex summarizes nicely. DUMPLING, TWISTER MAT, EVIL EMPIRE are all top notch. I went through it pretty smoothly from top left to bottom right - never even saw NAURU. KARMIC is odd. We’ve seen ELM a bunch of times recently - I have no problem with that. WNBA getting more air time.
All That Heaven Will ALLOW
Enjoyable Tuesday morning solve.
Do You Realize??
Rex is right. Two long answers using Gen-X or Gen-Z musical groups are at least one too many, especially since the circled letters pertain to Chinese dynasties. That's a bizarre mix of themes.
I had DARE as the opposite of "truth," without a clue as to why it was right. Aren't there more reasonable clues for DARE? Maybe "I double ____ you."? Or, "Literary heroine Virginia"?
Even though I'm of the demographic that easily filled in Hans Zimmer the others were easy to get through crosses and a little guesswork. Creative puzzle!
The game Truth or Dare
[Group with the 1964 hit "Leader of the Pack]
THE (S)(H)(A)(N)(G)RILAS
Honestly, that was tricky for a Tuesday.
I liked this one but except for the revealer had to solve all the theme and most other names via the crosses. Despite the fame of YOLO, tried to make it iOLO. And was that NAURo/WoTANG or NAURU/WUTANG? Decisions, decisions….
I’m not sure which artist you’re referring to as Gen-Z but The Flaming Lips are fronted by a Baby Boomer and Wu-Tang Clan were formed 6 years before Gen-Z even began
You’re right. Music that was popular 30 years ago is too recent. Everyone knows music stopped in 1968.
This is a tight theme. I’m guessing that there aren’t going to many theme answer possibilities (with dynasties not used in today's grid) showing up in the comments today.
But the Crosslandia gods smiled on Wade, because the theme answers he did find broke into two pairs with equal letter counts, to enable grid symmetry. I would like to have seen the fist pump he made when he discovered that!
But first a constructor has to come up with the theme itself – and the idea for today’s theme – musical entities that contain Chinese dynasties – IMO, was a stroke of brilliance. So quirky! Never been done before, I’m sure.
That comes from a mind I'd like to see more puzzles from.
Bravo on all this and on your NYT debut, Wade, and there were enough no-knows for me (fairly crossed) to give my brain the work it cherishes. I loved this puzzle from start to finish. Thank you!
Way too many names. Felt like a TV Guide crossword. Thumbs down. Sorry.
Some pretty obscure musicians for a Tuesday ... all of them, actually. Probably should have been moved to Wednesday with tougher clues.
I had neard about the change from Nauru to Naoero, but conventiently forgot about it today so had no trouble with that. But why is the language still Nauruan? Should it not have changed also?
Kind of a wasted Tuesday for me this week. I didn’t know any of the theme answers, so the gist of the puzzle was basically parsing together theme answers that I had no real way of knowing if they were correct or not.
Add to that absolutely horrible crosses like NAURU, NIALL, KUNIS, and SYMS which just sucked all of the enjoyment out of the grid. It’s a Tuesday, so it was technically solvable, but why bother (except for perhaps saying you’re up to the challenge of parsing together answers like NIALL and KUNIS).
So this one was not for me. Hopefully there are quite a few others who are more on the constructor’s wavelength and enjoy this one. Rex was reasonably impressed with that extra half a star, so I suspect that may be the case and I am an outlier today.
Literally none of these theme answers are “obscure,” look them up. Just say you didn’t know them. No shame in that. But Zimmer has Oscars upon Oscars and Wu-Tang is iconic where hip hop is concerned.
Easy, even for a Tuesday. Solved without reading the clues for the long answers, which was good because I didn't know any of them. Yeah, I'm old. Cute theme.
* * * _ _
One overwrite, cachE before STORE for the 70A stash. No WOEs other than the theme answers.
I saw the Flaming Lips on the Yoshimi tour, and yeah, that was a hell of a show.
Quite hard but I liked this puzzle. Living on Staten Island, I found Wu Tang Clan to be a gimme. The clues for Noah and Eider gave me a chuckle.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Hey All !
Is it pronounced DIE-nis-tee, or DIN-es-tee?
Good TuesPuz. Don't recognize constructors name. I guess I'll find out if this is a debut after reading the comments.
Chinese DYNASTYs hidden in song writers names. Different, kinda random.
Some major celestial events happening tomorrow. Three big things, to align with another big thing for yours truly. I'm sure you'll probably guess, but I'll make a selfish announcement tomorrow. 😁
Hope y'all have a great Tuesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Way too early in the week (day) for "nauru" and "eider." Theme is interesting, though.
Heard about NAURU name change yesterday also. That didn’t stop me from forgetting the old spelling anyway and needing crosses to get it.
That Flaming Lips song sounds like what they pipe in at Walgreens or Kohls. Ugh.
Had HONG (for the dynasty rather than SOS) and HOS (instead of SOS for castaway's call) for too long.
i blame my vision, which is deteriorating, but I never saw the circles, and without them it simply did not occur to me to search the theme answers for hidden dynasty names. I just figured these were entities with a lot of hit songs, i.e. SONG DYNASTYs. I was happy with that. Not quite as happy thinking of a dynasty as a "government," so I put in "Soong Empire" at first -- not that there ever was one. That was quite a malapop.
ORS seemed too limited. I spent 5 days in the hospital with pneumonia last year, and slept on a gurney in the ER (or technically ED) for the first night because they did not have a free bed.
When will we get a fresher clue for LUIGI? I'm waiting for "Assassin Mangione."
DO I? I AM!
After MING and HAN I assumed we were talking about DYNASTies, TANG made sense but the SONGDYNASTY was news to me, although I think it would have been my favorite. The song titles were all no-knows but even this Boomer has heard of FLAMINGLIPS and WUTANGCLAN. Sorry Mr. ZIMMER, although my high school algebra teacher was Miss Zimmer, frequently called Miss Zimmerman. She would always explain, "I haven't got tthe man yet".
Names again, NIALL, SYMS, and KUNIS-- I was very happy to come up with KUNIS as I was thinking the big export of Myanmar might be RABIES.
And any baseball fan in New England will tell you that the EVILEMPIRE refers to that other AL team in NYC.
Interesting stuff today, WB. Some Went Beyond my knowledge base but it's always a good day when you can learn something. Thanks for all the fun.
Reasonable Tuesday. Missed a couple of letters. Curious as to what % of solvers know the names.; Wutang Clan and Flamingo Lips.
Then again; my 40ish cousin didn't know the name Dizzy Gillespie.
Reasonable Tuesday. Missed a couple of letters. Curious as to what % of solvers know the names.; Wutang Clan and Flamingo Lips.
Then again; my 40ish cousin didn't know the name Dizzy Gillespie.
agedOUT crossing OUTer?? lots more dupes allowed these days...
I saw them last year on tour with Modest Mouse. Not a huge flaming lips fan but have to admit it may have been the most enjoyable concert I’ve been to - huge glitter filled beach balls bursting over the audience and special effects to rival Spinal Tap.
Yeah, no. With FLAMING LIPS, NIALL someone, WUTANG CLAN, I definitely felt as though I had AGED OUT of this puzzle, I didn't feel like an OLD PRO; I just felt completely out of my wheelhouse, especially with sportsplayers creeping in there, too. Not a whooshy Tuesday for me.
Enjoyed this puzzle more than an average Tuesday, and got a kick out encountering the FLAMING LIPS, an old favorite, but oof did I get Natick’ed at the intersection of the Maldives region and the jazz singer.
I didn't think so. I didn't know YOLO, so it could have been Flaming HIPS or Flaming PIPS for all I knew!
"...none of the songs mentioned in the clues are what you'd call iconic or universally known." No kidding, Rex. So why all the stars? Originality only counts for so much. This puzzle wasn't Tuesday-appropriate at all. Yesterday's was so much fresher and cuter, and didn't strain to be impressive the way this one does.
It was so fun seeing Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in the clue! It had been forever since I listened to that song, but I used to listen to it a bunch. It took me two down letters to remember the Flaming Lips, and just the beginning W to put in Wu Tang Clan. I liked the Chinese dynasties theme.
How do you get down off an elephant? You don't! You get down off a duck!!!
If you want a nice hat, go to LENSCAPS. He'll have your CAPSIZE in something you can remove in the boudoir.
The first emperor of the SONGDYNASTY was Dar Ling, but he was overthrown by the DUMPLING movement.
My granddaughter insists on a Bandaid every time something hurts, even if there is no visible symptom that would benefit from it. She's ALLOW and no blood.
Didn't HANSZIMMER compose the Star Wars music, highlighted by Han's solo?
Pretty wacky combo of dynasties and songs. Fun stuff. Thanks and congrats, Wade Bednar.
DIE-nis-tee for sure, and DIE-nas-tic.
Thought I had an error at 33D. Never heard or read the word EIDER. Learned something on a Tuesday.
Anonymous 6:38 already referenced the game 'truth or dare'; I'll add the the clue does not say 'opposite of truth' it reads "Alternative to truth" so dare makes perfect sense in context of the game.
Always wanted to see them but after i read a review where Wayne ranted at the crowd i decided to just stick to their recorded stuff
Had UPTO for 57 down, so DUH for 56 across. Seemed reasonable!
Lol
Alas, NAURU officially changed their name to Naoero last week.
Same!
Did it? That’s fascinating. Rex really should’ve mentioned that…
Okay for a Tuesday, though AOKAY crossing (POC) OYS was certainly Not Okay for me.
Liked the clue for NOAH.
Overall, solved as a themeless, guessing at the final letters of several names crossing names. Knew WU TANG CLAN, but not the other two.
Not bad long Downs TWISTER MAT (brings up a memory I'm not sharing) and EVIL EMPIRE, or "NYY" on baseball scoreboards.
Too much trivia for me today.
An EIDER is a species of duck, not a generic word for duck down. All ducks have down, but theirs is not called eider. Unless, do people use it as a short form of the full phrase "eider down" when they're talking about pillows, etc? Fine, but even then it's specifically eider down, not generic duck down. I could easily be missing something, or maybe I'm right and this is a weak clue!
Loved this puzzle. Suited an international audience, 40 year old solver such as myself. We all need a day in the sun and mine was this one, an nyt crossword without the football team mascots and such that always leave me at a loss - not that I'm complaining - it's expected! but enjoyed not feeling out of my realm! A very easy solve. Do I with iger was the only thing that left me guessing.
Not in Knightsbridge.
I was unfamiliar with HANSZIMMER before he was a correct response in Final Jeopardy a little while ago. So today, 30-A almost filled itself.
Since I have the album on which "Yoshimi" appears, the FLAMING LIPS was a gimme. And it was the only theme answer I knew, as clued. Actually no idea about HANS ZIMMER but at least I've heard of WU-TANG CLAN (but not their songs.) Interesting info about HANS ZIMMER and "Inception" which just showed up again on TV the other day.
When I saw NAURU in the grid, I immediately thought, "Oh, that clue is outdated." Though I couldn't remember the spelling of the new name, Naoero. It'll take a while before it sinks in to my brain.
Cisco, Sisco, SYSCO, sigh. And the 33D clue, "Duck down" read as a verb phrase rather than a noun. I laughed when EIDER filled in. It was a relief because I couldn't think of a word that meant to "duck down".
Wade Bednar, thanks for an unusual theme for a Tuesday!
My son is a New York City firefighter and for a while was stationed at Engine 160 on Staten Island. Where the motto of the firehouse is “ First due to the Wu”
“Peregrine White and Virginia Dare
Were the first two Americans anywhere
One of them cradled in Pilgrim oak
The other one born in Roanoke…”
More or less. Anyway, she was a real person.
Just in time, too! Nauru is now Naoero.
ELMO: El Cid's goofy sidekick.
YOLO: How Superman addressed Lois Lane when they were chillin'.
OYS CAMO VIA rings a bell. Did Santana have a song along those lines?
If it comes down to a choice between duck down and metals that can be mined and processed, it's an EIDER/ORE decision.
AGED OUT could be a euphemism for one who died of old age. Is Frank still alive? No, he's still dead. He aged out at 94.
Personally, I hope to die peacefully in my sleep when my time comes, like my grandfather did. And not screaming in terror like the passengers in his car.
Roo. I've done absolutely no "actual" research on this but I think North Americans say DIE and Brits say DIN. Strange, because Canadians usually follow Brit protocol, but I don't think I know anyone who says DIN-uh-stee.
As a Flaming Lips fan for around 30(!) years, there was plenty to like. But Sysco makes a whole lot of money by driving local restaurants out of business and replacing them with central-distributed frozen meals, so they can go f*** themselves.
Interesting dichotomy ... psychedelic, hip-hop and then we have nary, chide and a Reagan quote. Oy, indeed!
For the record, I knew them all. They are still obscure.
Yesterday I was delighted by how approachable the puzzle would be for new solvers; today I pity any new solver who tried to take a stab on a Tuesday. I think if you’re going to make an early-week puzzle with every themer a proper noun, they better all be very widely known (WU-TANG CLAN probably falls in this category, but not the others), or have very easy crosses. But instead, this puzzle crossed HANS ZIMMER with two other proper nouns (NIALL and REESE) and a species of sea duck (EIDER) that I’m going to assume must be familiar to crossword solvers for its abundance of vowels. I like Rex’s idea of song titles, which would have solved that problem: even when people are unfamiliar with a specific song, they can often infer them from crosses since they are normally composed of a coherent string of words.
Anyway, since I chimed in to defend yesterday’s puzzle as a very good early-week puzzle on the metric of beginner appropriate, I just wanted to point how drastic a jump this one seemed on the level of approachability.
Easy-medium. No erasures.
I did not know NIALL and SONG DYNASTY.
I did know the theme answers but the clues were no help. I needed crosses for recognition to kick in.
OKAY Tuesday but I didn’t like it as much as @Rex did.
Rex did mention it.
Engine 160 served with courage and many losses (to this day) amid 911.
I solved as a themeless & came here to see what the circles were all about.
WUTANG CLAN, HANS ZIMMER = Woes but otherwise pretty speedy (with no typos) for me.
Congrats on your debut, wade.
All the SYSCO comments have reminded me that they use to deliver stuff to us when we ran our restaurant. Came in a big semi and of course we always referred to the driver as The SYSCO Kid.
For the record, you should look up “obscure” — an ignorant statement, and an astonishing one to double-down on. Wu Tang “obscure”? Infinite lols
I've certainly heard of all three theme musicians, although I've never deliberately listened to WUTANG. Rex is right to object that HANS ZIMMER is not really a SONG guy, more instrumental stuff.
And once again, too many names: SYSCO SIAM ELMO NIALL LUIGI NAURU REESE IGER DRE KUNIS SYMS. Only REESE and SYMS were total Unknowns, but I certainly wasn't glad to see any of them.
Wildfire wise, we actually have, quote, "Chance of showers" predicted tonight and tomorrow. I'll be rather shocked if we actually get any, but boy that would be some good news.
😆
Especially, too much pop culture that doesn't pass the "generally known" test.
A “?”-less misdirection on EIDER on a Tuesday is crazy. Not to mention that usually it’s clued as the duck, not the down, as in [Something to get down from?]. And then there’s the Stumper, which once clued EIDER as [Down clue answer, often]. Just brilliant.
Way too difficult for a Tuesday and for me 😢
Having been on Alaska time for two weeks and having so many trips packed in by our daughter and her husband I actually SOLVED today’s puzzle, and in “my time” and was pleased to see how delightful it was for a Tuesday (it IS Tuesday, right?). Happy to report I was familiar with all the theme song writers/performers and agree on Rex’s rating.
I suspect that NAURU will continue to show up in crosswords for awhile, similar to Turkey and Kiev, but since I missed the memo on the recent change to Naoero I managed to plop that in without crosses.
Anon 11:24.
Look, I’m in my mid 70s and working downs-only and I managed to drop in FLAMING LIPS off just a few crosses - and HANS ZIMMERMAN and WU TANG CLAN, too. Yay me. I have millennial kids, one of whom is a chef and I never see a Sysco truck near his restaurant. I’ve asked him why he uses GFS and he has told me (and even though I’m using quotes here, I’m paraphrasing), “I like my rep and the delivery guys. They don’t always have everything I need, but I can usually send someone out to the greengrocer’s”. Never mentioned Sysco’s dubious practices. I’ll have to quiz him on that.
Personally, even though I make money from my investments in publicly traded companies, I prefer the privately held model. Seems they might care more for quality and service than just profit at any cost.
I did a search of Sysco vs GFS and found one site that had a list that was headed “Choose Sysco if…” and “Choose GFS if…” and the last line for choosing GFS was “You have had rep quality issues with a larger national distributor”. I love that.
Anon 8:38, I like the renaming of the Flaming Lips to Flamingo Lips. Puzzle was fine, not much dreck. I recently read an article on NYT about the new name for Naoero so that was a timely error. The Lips & Clan were immediate answers for this sr citizen.
From Wikipedia: Once Upon a Time in Shaolin is the seventh studio album by the American hip-hop group Wu-Tang Clan. Only one copy was created, with no ability to download or stream it. Feeling the value of music had been cheapened by the internet, the producers Cilvaringz and RZA hoped to return it to the value of fine art. The only copy was purchased in 2015 for $1.5 million, making it the most expensive work of music ever sold
Jnlzbth
YOLO has been in the puzzle fairly often of late. Enough Ro call it crosswordese. Iit soul be worth it to remember because it will show up again! Helpful letters.
I like the Flaming Lips's music just fine. I like them a lot. In the pantheon of music artists I love, they'd rank okay.
But I'd go so far as to say they are my favorite band to see live. They put on a show!
Even with recent internal tumult and personnel changes, they are still GREAT. Highly recommend.
So many names I did not know - and they were hard to guess too. But I did eventually solve this puzzle without look ups, so there’s that! Not easy because of the names. TIL Myanmar exports RUBIES - who knew? Another awful regime….
All in all a good Wednesday puzzle
Much tougher than a usual downs-only Tuesday, but an interesting journey. Had scuttle for CAPSIZE at 9D for far too long and couldn’t recall EVIL EMPIRE at 11D. Had Malta before NAURU. I know nothing about the WNBA so REESE was a mystery and Horan of One Direction? Not a clue. Finally got that one with a few inferred crosses and knowing NIALL (31D) was a legit Brit name, though I never know how to pronounce it. Seems it’s Nye-ul in England and Nee-ul in Ireland.
At 26D I had vinyl for the LPs and 45s but the I still helped me get ZIMMER. 62D SYMS is someone I know but I just blanked for a while.
So not a Tuesday level puzzle for me, but I enjoyed the workout. Thanks, Wade Bednar.
Another trivia contest, not a crossword.
Conrad
FLAMINGLIPS & WUTANGCLAN were new over 30 years ago as someone above said . I am also old and didn’t know the songs. But I was lucky because I read about them and the unusual names came back to me after a few crosses.
A fun Tuesday puzzle even though I had two fails - foaming lips crossing pool, and Bob A-E-I-O-U GER crossing abso-freaking-lutely. The cluing was fun - see NOAH - and my first thought answers didn’t seem to be the right length. Maybe it’s a me thing.
Vas por buen camino.
Another in-yer-wheelhouse or not puzzle. Definitely in mine, even though I don't know anything about Chinese history, unfortunately. And even though none of the songs or songwriters are of interest to me, I've at least heard of them.
When the first three across answers are all gunk, it doesn't bode well for our counter. Usually most of it is found in the downs, so an inauspicious way to fire up the gunkometer. But after counting, this is a fairly typical puzzle and way less gunky than I would have thought.
Of all the ways to clue seals, listing them as a lunch menu item seems the most obtuse.
I enjoyed this and maybe learned a little.
😩 KARMIC.
Gunkometer:
People: 10 {plus 2 more in the theme}
Places: 5
Products: 3 {plus 2 more in the theme}
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 26 of 78 (33% or 38%)
{If you're inclined to include thematic skullduggery, it's still under 40%, so hardly remarkable.}
Funny Factor: 2 😕
🔥 Ooh-la-la! 🔥GAILY. Truth or DARE {"pick dare, pick dare"}.
Uniclues:
1 Declaration of one prone to cursing.
2 Pirate sea shanties.
3 Accept the tripe from literally anybody associated with the current administration.
1 I AM FLAMING LIPS (~)
2 RUM SONG DYNASTY
3 ALLOW DRIP INFO (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Wobbly bar stool. TESTY ASS REST.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Les S. More
My impression been that on the whole Canadian English accents are closer to the American broadcast accent rather than English I have to hear about to tell the difference
Jberg
There is another reason to keep you on a gurney.in the ER. which they never mention Hospitals often lose money for every day a Medicare patient is admitted. They often make money in the ER. The last time I went to the ER (the oxygen content was below minimum) I was ignored, on a gurney for five hours. Then taken to be treated. The placed in a room, that was almost like a hospital room, on gurney that was almost like a hospital bed. I stayed in the ER. overnight. I thought that was long. But 5 days! The odds are overwhelming that they didwhat the higher ups wanted them to do, lie.
Anonymous 9:04 AM
Every on a Tuesday, there no requirement that all answers be universally know. That would be a place mat level. And the second group is not obscure.
Sam
Question of age. Before synthetics took over almost all winter ware, , eider down coats were , and are still, well known by my generation. A gimme for this Boomer.
Les S More
Another thing about Sysco. I live in a crowded city neighborhood with narrow streets and a lot of restaurants. The Sysco trucks are big! And just the other day one partially blocked the entrance to my condo garage.
So sorry to hear about Ed! 😁
frank…
Chis S: Not sure what your point is. If you're trying to say that because that one album was sold as a single copy they are obscure, you are wrong (e.g., it has been the subject of multiple articles in the NY Times, for example).
Among other things, the group will be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in November! To say they are 'obscure' is ridiculous.
Great that you are communicating again. Rex just got back from a family trip as it happens. My family has had a great time with them
I liked the puzzle also. I just realized that the awkward clue for SONGDYNASTY was necessary. Some people complained but really no choice.
@Liveprof, you're thinking of OYE COMO VA, and yes, by Santana.
Lively song; we learned a Latin dance to it.
@Les 3:57 pm, hands up for me for VINYL before DISCS; a much funner answer I would argue. And it did cross ZIMMER properly!
@Beezer, Alaska, nice! I was there exactly 50 years ago, Juneau - Skagway, etc. Really late sunsets.
Way to remember Naoero: It's Not Oreo , Nay Oreo, Naoero. 😁
Roo
dgd. That's always kind of bugged me. I have never said a-boot and neither, as far as I can recall, have any of my friends. It's a-bowt (bow rhymes with fir bough). I am as Canadian as as Canadian can be but I'm West Coast Canadian. Maybe they say that in Ontario. I think I may have heard it in the Maritimes.
Gary. Re: seals, polar bears. Todo está en el menú del almuerzo.
Ed's gone too. Been a tough year.
There's a controversy over Virginia Dare's birth story. I can't prove it either way; it's either history, or a legend promoted by self-interested folks (like her father).
Post a Comment