Big letters in home security / MON 9-21-26 / Leader of an 1831 revolt against slavery / Album for which Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize / Hardwood whose bark is sometimes used as paper / Simple two-player card game / Sometimes-floral organic compound / People of SW Britain
Constructor: Alexander Liebeskind
Relative difficulty: Easy (solved Downs-only)
THEME: FORTIES (39A: Decade of W.W. II ... or a homophonic hint to 17-, 23-, 50- and 57-Across) — four-word phrases where each word starts with "T"
Theme answers:
TOO TIRED TO THINK (17A: Mentally pooped)
TEACH TO THE TEST (23A: Deliberately give instruction in a way that targets an exam)
TO TELL THE TRUTH (50A: "If I'm being honest ...")
TAKES TWO TO TANGO (57A: "A fight requires more than one person")
Word of the Day:DAMN. (14A: Album for which Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize) —
The album has been categorized as conscious hip-hop, but also incorporates elements of trap, contemporary R&B, and pop. Prior to the album's release, Lamar released a promotional single, "The Heart Part 4". In the months that followed, Lamar released three singles from the album; "Humble" was released in March 2017, "Loyalty" in June 2017, and "Love" in October 2017, the first of which became Lamar's first number-one single on the US Billboard Hot 100 as a lead artist.
I know what the puzzle means by FORTIES ("four tees")—each phrase has four words and each word in that phrase starts with "T"—but the fact that two of these theme answers actually have five "T"s really puts this puzzle in the D.O.A. category for me. Your revealer clue says that it's a "homophonic hint" to the theme answers, but it is literally inaccurate. I guess "hint" is supposed to give the puzzle some latitude, but "four tees" is what the puzzle is telling me and "four tees" is just wrong. Factually wrong. So there's that. There's a lot of word repetition in the theme (four "TO"s, two "THE"s), but that's probably to be expected with commonish phrases. I don't think TAKES TWO TO TANGO works (well) without the "IT" at the beginning; the clue is a complete sentence, so the answer should be also. But this is a lesser problem than the five-"T" problem. The theme answers are all solid phrases, and the revealer has the requisite simple-punniness that is usually all a Monday puzzle requires. But the execution, as I say, feels fumbled. Even the clue on the revealer feels phoned-in. First of all, if you're referring to the decade, it's TheFORTIES. And second ... that's all you've got for (The) FORTIES—that WWII happened then? Yes, it's the defining event of the (first half of the) decade, but [Decade of W.W. II] still feels unimaginative (also, WAR is already in the grid). And then there's the fill, which is pretty rough throughout. I love NAT TURNER as an answer (35D: Leader of an 1831 revolt against slavery), but that's offset (for me) by "I'M ON A DIET"—I find the whole idea of not eating because you're "on a diet" depressing. Actually, it's the whole diet industry that is so off-putting to me. Predatory. Plus, "going on a diet" doesn'treally work. So ... with the long answers canceling each other out, quality-wise, there's just the short fill, which is full of stuff it seems like you'd try Very Hard to keep out of any puzzle, esp. an easy early-week grid: ADT, GAIUS, EIRE, SES, OAKEN, O'ER, NENES, ETAT. Not a big fan of DEE, ESTER, XES, NAM, or RADIO AD, either, and without a Bill Withers clue, "USE ME" is also suboptimal.
The Downs-only solve was thorny only in a couple of spots. First, ADT, which are letters I know from seeing them on signs in front of some houses, but they aren't letters I can remember (clearly) (1D: Big letters in home security). That coupled with the difficulty of parsing "I'M ON A DIET" made the NW a little tricky. Had a little more trouble in the middle, where all I wanted for [N.Y.C. subway letters] was IRT or BQE [update—BQE has zero to do with the subway, just three letter related to NYC transportation]. MTA applies to more than the subway, so it didn't occur to me. And right next door, BIRCH was not a wood I could come up with easily, not with that clue (33D: Hardwood whose bark is sometimes used as paper). And right next door to that, there was EIRE, which I had as ERIN because of course I did, classic kealoa*. The last trouble spot was where I finished up, in the SW. Specifically, EXTREME was hard for me to see from its clue (43D: Like skydiving or cliff-diving). EXTREME compared to what? As an adjective modifying "sport," it might be apt, but just calling those activities "EXTREME" seems really vague. So I needed all the surrounding answers before I was finally able to see it. But I was never really in danger of getting stuck-stuck today.
Bullets:
14A: Album for which Kendrick Lamar won a Pulitzer Prize (DAMN.) — damn, that's a pretty advanced clue for a Monday. I never saw it, of course, but I love it ... I'm just gonna go out on a limb here and say that for many regular solvers, that answer was probably not a gimme.
11D: First name of Julius Caesar (GAIUS) — another name that was probably not a gimme for many. This one I knew, but I should know it. I mean, I just (literally just) taught the end of Inferno, the bottom of hell, where Satan is eternally chewing not only on Judas, but also on Brutus and Cassius—two of the leaders in the plot to assassinate ... Julius Caesar (Cassius's first name: also GAIUS). I don't think Dante uses the name GAIUS, but I had enough classical Latin during grad school that somehow GAIUS stuck. It's not a name I'd use in a puzzle unless I really needed it.
5D: Simple two-player card game (WAR) — UNO flickered across my mind, but only because it's a three-letter card game. WAR is much more definitively "two-player."
37D: People of SW Britain (WELSH) — first thought: CORNISH. Didn't fit. Here, in red, is Cornwall, which, as you can see, is even souther and wester than Wales.
That's all for today. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. Happy Earth, Wind & Fire Day, which also means: Happy Birthday to my best friend, Shaun. We met in the first weeks of grad school and ... yeah, changed my life. Instant lifelong friend. Thirty-five years now. Such a weird, rare thing. Can't wait to see Stevie Wonder with her (and our spouses) in December, in Detroit, at The Fox, where we saw him on New Year's Eve thirty-two years ago. But for today, we'll stick with Earth, Wind & Fire ๐ฅ
["Do you remember...?"]
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.
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BQE?! @Rex, the subway consists of the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit), the IND (the Independent Subway System) and the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit). The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway has nothing to do with the MTA, other than that they're both old and in need of repair.
Need to pile on here and say OFL’s gripe that “MTA applies to more than the subway so it didn’t occur to me” is a little BS. The MTA certainly qualifies as “subway letters”. They run the subway. Also we see this clued similarly every few weeks so… not buying the confusion, sorry Rex.
I nearly DNF'd (on a Monday!) because as I filled in 11D I confidently wrote cAIUS, thinking, "How do I know that?" Somehow, PAcES for 9A looked okay to me. When I didn't get the happy music, I assumed the problem was NENE (66A) because isn't the Spanish word for baby something like Nino/a? No, it's not.
BTW, @Rex: The BQE is the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, definitely not subway-related. You were probably thinking of the BMT.
Being on a diet can be a perfectly normal and healthy choice - by referring to it as flatly "unhealthy", Rex is seemingly associating being on a diet with having some kind of eating disorder. Body positivity doesn't have to mean stigmatising personal choices about someone's lifestyle or assuming something negative.
Agree. Yes, the diet industry is gross (which I think is his main gripe). But sometimes I put on a few extra pounds, and when my clothes start to feel uncomfortable, I make a conscious choice to rein in my eating habits for a little while until I'm back to a comfortable weight. One might call it a diet. Nothing unhealthy about it. And it does work. What usually DOESN'T work is going on a severe diet to lose a substantial amount of weight without changing one's underlying relationship with food.
Aww, c’mon Rex, three begins with a “T” too. I think you were a bit tough on the constructor for throwing in a few extra “T”’s. But you are also correct so there’s that. I liked having long answers so in the language that I could fill in from only two or three crosses…Anyway, many story today is ADT, who were once the General Motors of the home security industry. I was paying about $50/month and wanted to add internet access to my system and they asked for another $15/month. That seemed a bit much and some quick research located a growing new company the would provide full security service via the internet for $15 total! When I pointed this out to the local ADT rep he became incensed at my questioning the ADT charges. Somehow ADT has survived but like General Motors have surrendered a lot of the market they once had. Sic transit gloria, as Gaius might have said.
Wow. I can’t remember ever posting when I see only ONE comment (@Lewis) but I suspect I’m in a queue for release. I liked this puzzle a lot more than Rex…the extra tee in TRUTH didn’t bother me and I thought the theme was appropriately Monday level. I am not a “diet person” but as clued here, I just think of it as turning down dessert, so the clue didn’t sadden me. Loved the Earth, Wind, and Fire link. Anything from that band can put a smile on my face.
I guess for me I'd give it the pass, guessing that they are focused on the initial letters of 4 words--4 words that start with T. Sure there will be more Ts in the other parts of those words.... hard to avoid Ts, since they're the most common consonant! I liked this. Found it medium-challenging for the downs only solve.... Had the same trouble as @REX around EXTREME, and then the R mid-section. Saw TRU__ and figured it was TRUst; Somehow I just didn't think of Wales in there at all for a long time, and __LSt looked real ugly. Took EGRET out and put it back about 5 times--figured it could be a heron but TRUN_ could only have been TRUnk..... TOTELLTHETRUnk???? Anyhoo, fun puzzle, liked it way more than @OFL (*** from me). Thanks, Alexander! : )
These are the Times That Try men’s souls, and to deal with it, I do silly things, like Tiptoe Through The Tulips, enjoy some liquid refreshment (There is a Tavern in The Town), play with an old toy (because They don’t make Them like They used To), get caught up into The Talk of The Town, and get good rest – Thank The Lord for The night Time. Oh, for me, just some of The Tricks of The Trade.
The big guy nails it today - the theme is clearly understood but the extraneous Ts present an inelegance that doesn’t sit well. I get it - probably difficult to come up with 14s and 15s that meet the spec - but the additional Ts are disjoint to the revealer - speaking of which is what we used to drink at the park when we were 16.
Hey All ! Funny, didn't notice the five T's in two of the Themers. It can be lawyered that the "FORTIES" applies to just the beginning letter of each Themer, ergo making extraneous T's not a big deal. Also would've been neat had there been no other T's in the puz (well, you'd have one in FORTIES, obviously.)
We get The Typical Tirade Today by Rex. (Well, not really, that just worked with the T's!) I can see his point on some issues.
Now we need a Four-F puz ...
@LEWIS gets a point today! I have slacked off on my Year Name Count, though. It started just by keeping track of ROOs and PABLOs (plus his extras, as PABLO in a grid is quite rare), but started to include others whose names popped up. I don't have a complete list (I know I missed a name or two here and there), but I have LEWIS as one point total. I'll do better in 2027. ๐
Tyrannosaurus Traipsed Through Trees. Put that in a grid and smoke it!
Rex is probably right about DAMN., but my imaginary Venn diagram of the people who know and care about Kendrick Lamar and the people who know and care about the Pulitzer Prizes has large non-overlapping areas, so I’d guess there are a lot of folks who can get to that answer one way or the other.
I was impressed with how tight the theme was – four-word-common-phrase with all those words starting with T, and all in 15 letters or less. I like that for some reason when I’ve been looking at RADIOAD in the grid, what my brain first sees is RADIOHEAD.
But the best thing for me was that I left the revealer blank, didn’t read its clue, filled in the rest of the grid, and … and … I figured out what it was! This is a skill I am so woeful at and practically never get, so when it does happen it is actually a thrill, I have to say.
So instead of stepping into my day today, I bounded into it. Thank you for that, and for a most enjoyable solve, Alexander!
Unfortunately, this one required too many concessions to the practical realities of getting the answers to fit with proper symmetry and ensuring that the reveal “made sense”. Blowing off a portion of the final theme answer simply to get the proper number of T’s is a step too far, and blowing off a portion of the reveal ices it (what the hell is FORTIES? - the referenced decade is THE FORTIES).
So we are already on shaky ground, and the constructor chose to include foreign language clues for NENES x SES (on a Monday !), which is never going to garner any sympathy from this solver at least.
It had the potential to be a winner, but it just wasn’t in the cards for this grid. They must have had better submissions than this for a nice, clean Monday puzzle.
I didn't mind the extra Ts. If I had noticed them I still wouldn't have minded. But I was just a tad irked by the extreme easiness of some of the clues, like 6-D, 39-D, or 59-D. But the idea of parting one's hair with a COMB brought back fond memories. Those were the days!
At first I had a hard time believing that Rex had never peeled off a piece of BIRCHbark and written something on it, just to see if it worked. But then I remembered that he grew up in California; birches are pretty much a northern tree. And Robert Frost mentions only swinging on them, not writing on them.
There must be a way to solve the T problem by referring to World War II as being at the start of four tees, but I can' quite get the right wording there.
This was a good start to the week with a tight Monday offering. It’s not often we see a Monday with so few annoying short answers, and plenty of long answers that are familiar but Monday appropriate. To add to the fun, the MIDI puzzle today takes my delight to a new level. Excellent start to the week, despite the gloomy skies!
Rex’s goose/geese joke combined with the clue for BIRCH reminded me of my favorite tidbit from dabbling in Old English: that the word boc (modern “book”) pluralizes the same way to bec, which is where we get the name for beech trees. Beech trees are “books” trees.
Rex mentioned not getting "stuck-stuck' solving downs only on this puzzle, and he also pointed out that GAIUS might be a sticking point for some solvers. Indeed. I knew it once I saw it, but the combo of GAIUS and SIKH (which I also "knew" but couldn't come up with) forced me to concede my downs only solve to defeat.
Kind of a paper-making mini theme with BIRCH and REED.
Mrs. Egs wondered why I said I needed her help to stain our white Go board a nice light brown. I had to explain that it TAKESTWOTOTANGO.
Well, the fact that the revealer should have been FORTIESORMORE didn't bother me. Or alternatively, the constructor could have tried to strip T's in places. Anyway, a pretty good d.o. solve. Thanks, Alexander Liebeskind.
SW Britain is generally considered to be Devon & Cornwall. Wales is Wales, S Wales & N Wales. Snowdonia national park, Eryri in Welsh would be considered as NW.
It occurred to me for the first time while solving this puzzle that Lois and Clark (The New Adventures of Superman) is a play on Lewis and Clark. Rex is right about the extra Ts.
Cute tee-zer puztheme. Themers did, unfortunately, have them five tees, two times. But, hey -- they were just countin the startin tee-words, sooo ... ok, but then maybe tweak that revealer clue, just a tad.
staff weeject pick: SES. Clearly a French-possessed weeject. honrable mention to: TO, which appeared in all four themers, as well as in the revealer clue.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {___ and Clark} = LEWIS.
some other fave stuff: GAIUS. IMONADIET+ANTACID. TARS clue.
Thanx for the fun y'all teed up for us, Mr. Liebskind dude. Suitably easy-ish, for a MonPuz.
Had a classic comment nearly set to go when our new cat thought the lap top was in the way and erased the whole thing. Then off to do errands so I'll try again.
ADT crossing DAMN was an "oh oh" but that was about it for snags. Actually knew GAIUS from somewhere and ERNST from crosswords so no trouble there. The revealer was in the middle and I should have skipped it a la Lewis but alas I did not. It did make guessing the other two themers kind of fun, if not terribly difficult.
Surprising that OFL had trouble with BIRCH as I thought it was one of the more direct clues in the puzzle. It's always interesting to find things that you take for granted that others haven't heard of. Happens to me all the time with pop culture when someone says "everyone knows that". Well, not everyone, it turns out.
Nice Mondecito, AL. The extra t's bothered me not at all, and thanks for the fun, which was A Lot.
I liked it. After seeing the theme pattern in the first two phrases, I enjoyed guessing the reveal and the other two phrases - not that it was hard, just satisfying. Add me to those who knew GAIUS but are unacquainted with Kendrick Lamar.
I solved this the traditional way and found it to be a cute and breey Monday puzzle. Didn't notice and am not bothered by the extra T's, and the puzzle t didn't strke me as having much "gunk." I didn't know the album name but it was gettable from the crosses. And I do think Rex's problem with the simple line "I'm on a diet" is way overblown!
I get Rex's complaint about the extra T in 23A, which could have been avoided by specifying the "beginnings" in the reveal clue. I still enjoyed the theme idea and the four long theme answers (I, too, needed the IT in front of 57A so I just mentally put it there.)
I knew GAIUS from the King Arthur books by Mary Stewart. Or I thought I did but Google is not backing me up here.
Alexander Liebeskind, thanks for a nice start to the week of puzzles.
A good puzzle to do down clues only, as it made getting the theme more challenging. I finished nice and clean in just over 20 minutes. However, I missed the revealer at 39 across because I just never read that clue until well after finishing. Too bad, because I remember thinking: where's my revealer?
Yes, the missing IT in 57 across was jarring. But aside from that it was a pretty good Monday theme. Typeovers: for 3 down "None for me, thanks" I thought it was in a pub, so I had IM DRIVING! And of course ERIN before EIRE, IRT before MTA, OAKED before OAKEN, and JOHN BROWN before NAT TURNER (hey, wasn't he a singer? Oh no, that was IKE).
Anoa Bob FORTIES Not just regional Most Americans.do tend to pronounce it closer to a d. But the British do use a T. Also for emphasis Americans might say Did you say forty?with a T sound. I say close enough for crosswords,
I liked this one. I did it downs-only, as usual. I liked the themers. Didn’t mind the extra Ts and somehow, as a non-American, knew NAT TURNER with no help from crosses. Weird.
Some nits. I see @Lewis loved it and the NYTXW uses it all the time, but roads and driveways and the like are, as far as I know, no longer paved with tar. Even back in the 80s, when I worked for the provincial highways department cutting up roads to install inductance loops for traffic counting, signal activators, etc., we were cutting through bitumen asphalt and patching with tar as we left the site. So paving with tar is not a thing. Feel free to correct me here.
Also, I’ve toured a few wineries in BC’s Okanagan valley (Hi, @okanaganer) and I am friendly with a guy who makes very good wine in northern California (east of Placerville in the Sierra Nevada foothills), so I’m no stranger to wine culture, and I have never heard a vintner refer to his barrels as OAKEN. Oak, yes. OAKEN, no.
Does anyone still listen to RADIO with ADS? Do ads still do jingles?
12D Max ERNST. There are other Max artists, NYT. There’s the light-weight pop Artis Peter Max. There’s also Max Beckmann, German expressionist (though he disliked that term) whose works almost defy interpretation. The Nazis called him a “cultural Bolshevik” and basically cancelled him. Worth a search.
And, finally, @ac yesterday. Had a nice chuckle at your “no wonder people hated math class” remark.
[My comment from about 1:40 pm has vanished?... anyway:] A good puzzle to do down clues only, as it made getting the theme more challenging. I finished nice and clean in just over 20 minutes. However, I missed the revealer at 39 across because I just never read that clue until well after finishing. Too bad, because I remember thinking: where's my revealer?
Yes, the missing IT in 57 across was jarring. But aside from that it was a pretty good Monday theme. Typeovers: for 3 down "None for me, thanks" I thought it was in a pub, so I had IM DRIVING! And of course ERIN before EIRE, IRT before MTA, OAKED before OAKEN, and JOHN BROWN before NAT TURNER (hey, wasn't he a singer? Oh no, that was IKE).
NAT TURNER. Yesterday there was a review in the Times Book Review of a book about a Virginia family and their plantation during 50 or so years before the Civil War. The NAT Turner revolt started right near the plantation. While it is often stated how bloody the revolt was it is also often left out that 100 Blacks were hanged in its aftermath. Since Turner was educated, for good measure, Virginia( and other slave states)passed a law forbidding the education of enslaved Black people.
I wasn't on a diet today but I did indeed fast for Yom Kippur so I am very late to the party...
I thought the theme was just right for a Monday and while the extra couple of Ts in a couple of places should not have bothered me, they kinda did. I get that it's four *words* that start with T but seeing one too many (based on my take from the revealer) took some of the elegance away.
With that, however, the themers are all very, very good fill and it was fun sussing them all out. Much respect for coming up with all these T phrases, I think it may have caused some constraint in the grid leading to just a bit of less than stellar fill.
Some nice long downs with NATTURNER and IMONADIET. I'm with @Rex on that whole industry being questionable. Proper, sensible, and healthy eating is just fine, but "predatory" is a spot-on description of what's being sold as dieting and weight loss these days, IMHO. But the phrase looks nice in the grid.
Despite the extra T here and there, I had fun with your creation, Alexander. Thank you!
And now Hugh's Monday Haiku Two TEASE in ATHLETE And Two TEASE in NATTURNER But one DEE in DAMN (sorry, friends, I'm tired today...๐ซค)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: That happy feeling when you're buying all the feline accoutrement for the first time at PetsMart in anticipation of a little house guest. FOSTER KITTEN GIDDINESS.
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My five favorite original clues from last week
ReplyDelete(in order of appearance):
1. Fall or fell (6)
2. It's not a full stop (9)
3. Element of a dating profile? (4)(4)
4. Permanent, perhaps (2)(3)
5. One can be felt (4)(5)
TOPPLE
SEMICOLON
TREE RING
IN PEN
GAME TABLE
My favorite encore clues from last week:
Delete[Two in a row?] (4)
[Water containers] (4)
FOES
DAMS
Congratulations on your appearance in today's puzzle!
DeleteBQE?! @Rex, the subway consists of the IRT (Interborough Rapid Transit), the IND (the Independent Subway System) and the BMT (Brooklyn-Manhattan Transit). The Brooklyn-Queens Expressway has nothing to do with the MTA, other than that they're both old and in need of repair.
ReplyDeleteNeed to pile on here and say OFL’s gripe that “MTA applies to more than the subway so it didn’t occur to me” is a little BS. The MTA certainly qualifies as “subway letters”. They run the subway. Also we see this clued similarly every few weeks so… not buying the confusion, sorry Rex.
DeleteIt was never a gripe. He was explaining why it was slow to come to him. No complaint detected. Go back and reread his exact words.
DeleteFair, heard
Delete
ReplyDeleteI nearly DNF'd (on a Monday!) because as I filled in 11D I confidently wrote cAIUS, thinking, "How do I know that?" Somehow, PAcES for 9A looked okay to me. When I didn't get the happy music, I assumed the problem was NENE (66A) because isn't the Spanish word for baby something like Nino/a? No, it's not.
BTW, @Rex: The BQE is the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, definitely not subway-related. You were probably thinking of the BMT.
Very sloppy. Also adding to the list... XES at 46A, when you have ___-X at 45A. Plenty of other key combinations to get "CTRL"
ReplyDeleteBeing on a diet can be a perfectly normal and healthy choice - by referring to it as flatly "unhealthy", Rex is seemingly associating being on a diet with having some kind of eating disorder. Body positivity doesn't have to mean stigmatising personal choices about someone's lifestyle or assuming something negative.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Yes, the diet industry is gross (which I think is his main gripe). But sometimes I put on a few extra pounds, and when my clothes start to feel uncomfortable, I make a conscious choice to rein in my eating habits for a little while until I'm back to a comfortable weight. One might call it a diet. Nothing unhealthy about it. And it does work. What usually DOESN'T work is going on a severe diet to lose a substantial amount of weight without changing one's underlying relationship with food.
DeleteAww, c’mon Rex, three begins with a “T” too. I think you were a bit tough on the constructor for throwing in a few extra “T”’s. But you are also correct so there’s that. I liked having long answers so in the language that I could fill in from only two or three crosses…Anyway, many story today is ADT, who were once the General Motors of the home security industry. I was paying about $50/month and wanted to add internet access to my system and they asked for another $15/month. That seemed a bit much and some quick research located a growing new company the would provide full security service via the internet for $15 total! When I pointed this out to the local ADT rep he became incensed at my questioning the ADT charges. Somehow ADT has survived but like General Motors have surrendered a lot of the market they once had. Sic transit gloria, as Gaius might have said.
ReplyDeleteDowns only finish! I also had IRT first, but the ERIN/EIRE kealoa held me up the longest. Good way to start the week!
ReplyDeleteWow. I can’t remember ever posting when I see only ONE comment (@Lewis) but I suspect I’m in a queue for release.
ReplyDeleteI liked this puzzle a lot more than Rex…the extra tee in TRUTH didn’t bother me and I thought the theme was appropriately Monday level. I am not a “diet person” but as clued here, I just think of it as turning down dessert, so the clue didn’t sadden me.
Loved the Earth, Wind, and Fire link. Anything from that band can put a smile on my face.
I guess for me I'd give it the pass, guessing that they are focused on the initial letters of 4 words--4 words that start with T. Sure there will be more Ts in the other parts of those words.... hard to avoid Ts, since they're the most common consonant! I liked this. Found it medium-challenging for the downs only solve.... Had the same trouble as @REX around EXTREME, and then the R mid-section. Saw TRU__ and figured it was TRUst; Somehow I just didn't think of Wales in there at all for a long time, and __LSt looked real ugly. Took EGRET out and put it back about 5 times--figured it could be a heron but TRUN_ could only have been TRUnk..... TOTELLTHETRUnk???? Anyhoo, fun puzzle, liked it way more than @OFL (*** from me). Thanks, Alexander! : )
ReplyDeleteThese are the Times That Try men’s souls, and to deal with it, I do silly things, like Tiptoe Through The Tulips, enjoy some liquid refreshment (There is a Tavern in The Town), play with an old toy (because They don’t make Them like They used To), get caught up into The Talk of The Town, and get good rest – Thank The Lord for The night Time. Oh, for me, just some of The Tricks of The Trade.
ReplyDeleteToo tough to top!
Delete๐
DeleteThe big guy nails it today - the theme is clearly understood but the extraneous Ts present an inelegance that doesn’t sit well. I get it - probably difficult to come up with 14s and 15s that meet the spec - but the additional Ts are disjoint to the revealer - speaking of which is what we used to drink at the park when we were 16.
ReplyDeleteLooking For LEWIS and Clark
Rex summarizes the strained fill nicely. There’s a lot of glue and gunk - constructor went all in on the theme and the resultant entries suffer.
Rough start to the solving week.
Bill Morrissey
The Long Ryders is perfect, SV, but was also hoping for a John Roderick sighting: https://share.google/XzVrfXj2yFRRpsh9s
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteFunny, didn't notice the five T's in two of the Themers. It can be lawyered that the "FORTIES" applies to just the beginning letter of each Themer, ergo making extraneous T's not a big deal. Also would've been neat had there been no other T's in the puz (well, you'd have one in FORTIES, obviously.)
We get The Typical Tirade Today by Rex. (Well, not really, that just worked with the T's!) I can see his point on some issues.
Now we need a Four-F puz ...
@LEWIS gets a point today! I have slacked off on my Year Name Count, though. It started just by keeping track of ROOs and PABLOs (plus his extras, as PABLO in a grid is quite rare), but started to include others whose names popped up. I don't have a complete list (I know I missed a name or two here and there), but I have LEWIS as one point total. I'll do better in 2027. ๐
Tyrannosaurus Traipsed Through Trees. Put that in a grid and smoke it!
Hope y'all have a great Monday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
If you made it "T-Rex Trod Through Trees" you could get it into a Sunday grid.
DeleteRex is probably right about DAMN., but my imaginary Venn diagram of the people who know and care about Kendrick Lamar and the people who know and care about the Pulitzer Prizes has large non-overlapping areas, so I’d guess there are a lot of folks who can get to that answer one way or the other.
ReplyDeleteI thought [Paves the way?] was a clever clue for TARS, and I liked the PuzzPair© of TEASE and COMB. I loved the lively theme answers.
ReplyDeleteI was impressed with how tight the theme was – four-word-common-phrase with all those words starting with T, and all in 15 letters or less. I like that for some reason when I’ve been looking at RADIOAD in the grid, what my brain first sees is RADIOHEAD.
But the best thing for me was that I left the revealer blank, didn’t read its clue, filled in the rest of the grid, and … and … I figured out what it was! This is a skill I am so woeful at and practically never get, so when it does happen it is actually a thrill, I have to say.
So instead of stepping into my day today, I bounded into it. Thank you for that, and for a most enjoyable solve, Alexander!
Unfortunately, this one required too many concessions to the practical realities of getting the answers to fit with proper symmetry and ensuring that the reveal “made sense”. Blowing off a portion of the final theme answer simply to get the proper number of T’s is a step too far, and blowing off a portion of the reveal ices it (what the hell is FORTIES? - the referenced decade is THE FORTIES).
ReplyDeleteSo we are already on shaky ground, and the constructor chose to include foreign language clues for NENES x SES (on a Monday !), which is never going to garner any sympathy from this solver at least.
It had the potential to be a winner, but it just wasn’t in the cards for this grid. They must have had better submissions than this for a nice, clean Monday puzzle.
I didn't mind the extra Ts. If I had noticed them I still wouldn't have minded. But I was just a tad irked by the extreme easiness of some of the clues, like 6-D, 39-D, or 59-D. But the idea of parting one's hair with a COMB brought back fond memories. Those were the days!
ReplyDeleteAt first I had a hard time believing that Rex had never peeled off a piece of BIRCHbark and written something on it, just to see if it worked. But then I remembered that he grew up in California; birches are pretty much a northern tree. And Robert Frost mentions only swinging on them, not writing on them.
There must be a way to solve the T problem by referring to World War II as being at the start of four tees, but I can' quite get the right wording there.
Secondary revealer today at 50D: TEASE
ReplyDeleteBiography of the artist Max: The Importance of Being ERNST
How Don, from yesterday's puzzle, introduces himself: IMHO
Compendium of material on floral organic compounds: The Book of ESTER.
Fish drawings: CARPART
First name of Julius Caesar: Julius
I'm probably not the only boomer who put down "Peter" for "the artist Max." Sadly, he passed away a week ago today.
Nice that EAVES is a down answer (dropping).
I'M ON A DIET: It's Yom Kippur: might as well fast.
Liveprof
DeleteExtra food today
If you insist.
DeleteThis was a good start to the week with a tight Monday offering. It’s not often we see a Monday with so few annoying short answers, and plenty of long answers that are familiar but Monday appropriate. To add to the fun, the MIDI puzzle today takes my delight to a new level. Excellent start to the week, despite the gloomy skies!
ReplyDeleteRex’s goose/geese joke combined with the clue for BIRCH reminded me of my favorite tidbit from dabbling in Old English: that the word boc (modern “book”) pluralizes the same way to bec, which is where we get the name for beech trees. Beech trees are “books” trees.
ReplyDeleteDowns only had some interesting early misses, GIN before WAR, IRT before MTA (as others), and JOHNBROWN before NATTURNER
ReplyDelete@Anon 9:08 am, hands up for JOHNBROWN at first.
DeleteI found the missing “it” in It Takes Two to Tango to be more of an issue than the extraneous Ts.
ReplyDeleteKealoa is a good example, but I would think the prime example of that issue is tsar/czar.
Following the guideline that TS is for the old Russian ones and CZ is for current ones, like an energy Czar, generally takes care of that one.
DeleteErin/Eire is my nominee, as both are really common in puzzles. Because of the useful letter, tsar appears way more often that czar.
DeleteRex mentioned not getting "stuck-stuck' solving downs only on this puzzle, and he also pointed out that GAIUS might be a sticking point for some solvers. Indeed. I knew it once I saw it, but the combo of GAIUS and SIKH (which I also "knew" but couldn't come up with) forced me to concede my downs only solve to defeat.
ReplyDeleteThe puzzle felt clunky today. I would not call it easy.
ReplyDeleteI hate games that go into OT. I'm all FORTIES.
ReplyDeleteKind of a paper-making mini theme with BIRCH and REED.
Mrs. Egs wondered why I said I needed her help to stain our white Go board a nice light brown. I had to explain that it TAKESTWOTOTANGO.
Well, the fact that the revealer should have been FORTIESORMORE didn't bother me. Or alternatively, the constructor could have tried to strip T's in places. Anyway, a pretty good d.o. solve. Thanks, Alexander Liebeskind.
SW Britain is generally considered to be Devon & Cornwall. Wales is Wales, S Wales & N Wales.
ReplyDeleteSnowdonia national park, Eryri in Welsh would be considered as NW.
Had the clue been England, then Cornwall would be correct. But clued as Britain, Wales is correct.
DeleteI found Rex's rant more annoying than any flaws in a cute puzzle. Extra tees? Who cares? Four was included in five the last I looked.
ReplyDelete“Four was included in five” ๐จ๐
DeleteAnd seven ate nine
DeleteEasy. No costly erasures and DAMN was it for WOEs. I’ve heard of Kendrick but that’s as far as it goes.
ReplyDeleteAdd me to those not bothered by the extra Ts, liked it more than @Rex did.
Croce Solvers - Croce’s Freestyle #1149 was a mostly medium Croce for me, however, the NE had a couple of evil clues. Good luck!
I rate 1149 as easy, but I did have a one-letter DNF at the cross of 42A and 44D.
DeleteIt occurred to me for the first time while solving this puzzle that Lois and Clark (The New Adventures of Superman) is a play on Lewis and Clark. Rex is right about the extra Ts.
ReplyDeleteIn writing BQE, perhaps you were thinking of the BMT, which, along with the IRT and IND, were the initial separate subway lines in NYC.
ReplyDeleteGene
Cute tee-zer puztheme. Themers did, unfortunately, have them five tees, two times. But, hey -- they were just countin the startin tee-words, sooo ... ok, but then maybe tweak that revealer clue, just a tad.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: SES. Clearly a French-possessed weeject.
honrable mention to: TO, which appeared in all four themers, as well as in the revealer clue.
fave moo-cow eazy-E MonPuz clue: {___ and Clark} = LEWIS.
some other fave stuff: GAIUS. IMONADIET+ANTACID. TARS clue.
Thanx for the fun y'all teed up for us, Mr. Liebskind dude. Suitably easy-ish, for a MonPuz.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Had a classic comment nearly set to go when our new cat thought the lap top was in the way and erased the whole thing. Then off to do errands so I'll try again.
ReplyDeleteADT crossing DAMN was an "oh oh" but that was about it for snags. Actually knew GAIUS from somewhere and ERNST from crosswords so no trouble there. The revealer was in the middle and I should have skipped it a la Lewis but alas I did not. It did make guessing the other two themers kind of fun, if not terribly difficult.
Surprising that OFL had trouble with BIRCH as I thought it was one of the more direct clues in the puzzle. It's always interesting to find things that you take for granted that others haven't heard of. Happens to me all the time with pop culture when someone says "everyone knows that". Well, not everyone, it turns out.
Nice Mondecito, AL. The extra t's bothered me not at all, and thanks for the fun, which was A Lot.
I liked it. After seeing the theme pattern in the first two phrases, I enjoyed guessing the reveal and the other two phrases - not that it was hard, just satisfying. Add me to those who knew GAIUS but are unacquainted with Kendrick Lamar.
ReplyDeleteI solved this the traditional way and found it to be a cute and breey Monday puzzle. Didn't notice and am not bothered by the extra T's, and the puzzle t didn't strke me as having much "gunk." I didn't know the album name but it was gettable from the crosses. And I do think Rex's problem with the simple line "I'm on a diet" is way overblown!
ReplyDeleteJnlzbth
DeleteCompletely agree with all your points b
I get Rex's complaint about the extra T in 23A, which could have been avoided by specifying the "beginnings" in the reveal clue. I still enjoyed the theme idea and the four long theme answers (I, too, needed the IT in front of 57A so I just mentally put it there.)
ReplyDeleteI knew GAIUS from the King Arthur books by Mary Stewart. Or I thought I did but Google is not backing me up here.
Alexander Liebeskind, thanks for a nice start to the week of puzzles.
A good puzzle to do down clues only, as it made getting the theme more challenging. I finished nice and clean in just over 20 minutes. However, I missed the revealer at 39 across because I just never read that clue until well after finishing. Too bad, because I remember thinking: where's my revealer?
ReplyDeleteYes, the missing IT in 57 across was jarring. But aside from that it was a pretty good Monday theme. Typeovers: for 3 down "None for me, thanks" I thought it was in a pub, so I had IM DRIVING! And of course ERIN before EIRE, IRT before MTA, OAKED before OAKEN, and JOHN BROWN before NAT TURNER (hey, wasn't he a singer? Oh no, that was IKE).
Oops, sorry for the duplicate. I should have know that would happen; the first one wasn't yet visible at 3:09 pm when I re-posted it.
DeleteIsn't everyone ON A DIET of some kind all the time?
ReplyDeleteNever noticed this before but if I say FORTIES, it sounds more like four-dees than four tees. Maybe regional?
Finished with an error. For 23A I had TEACH TO THE TEXT. That made 11D "First name of Julius Caesar" GAIUX. Sounded fine to me.
Anoa Bob
DeleteFORTIES
Not just regional Most Americans.do tend to pronounce it closer to a d. But the British do use a T. Also for emphasis Americans might say Did you say forty?with a T sound. I say close enough for crosswords,
I liked this one. I did it downs-only, as usual. I liked the themers. Didn’t mind the extra Ts and somehow, as a non-American, knew NAT TURNER with no help from crosses. Weird.
ReplyDeleteSome nits. I see @Lewis loved it and the NYTXW uses it all the time, but roads and driveways and the like are, as far as I know, no longer paved with tar. Even back in the 80s, when I worked for the provincial highways department cutting up roads to install inductance loops for traffic counting, signal activators, etc., we were cutting through bitumen asphalt and patching with tar as we left the site. So paving with tar is not a thing. Feel free to correct me here.
Also, I’ve toured a few wineries in BC’s Okanagan valley (Hi, @okanaganer) and I am friendly with a guy who makes very good wine in northern California (east of Placerville in the Sierra Nevada foothills), so I’m no stranger to wine culture, and I have never heard a vintner refer to his barrels as OAKEN. Oak, yes. OAKEN, no.
Does anyone still listen to RADIO with ADS? Do ads still do jingles?
12D Max ERNST. There are other Max artists, NYT. There’s the light-weight pop Artis Peter Max. There’s also Max Beckmann, German expressionist (though he disliked that term) whose works almost defy interpretation. The Nazis called him a “cultural Bolshevik” and basically cancelled him. Worth a search.
And, finally, @ac yesterday. Had a nice chuckle at your “no wonder people hated math class” remark.
To me, having "four Ts" doesn't mean "exactly four Ts." It could be more.
ReplyDelete[My comment from about 1:40 pm has vanished?... anyway:]
ReplyDeleteA good puzzle to do down clues only, as it made getting the theme more challenging. I finished nice and clean in just over 20 minutes. However, I missed the revealer at 39 across because I just never read that clue until well after finishing. Too bad, because I remember thinking: where's my revealer?
Yes, the missing IT in 57 across was jarring. But aside from that it was a pretty good Monday theme. Typeovers: for 3 down "None for me, thanks" I thought it was in a pub, so I had IM DRIVING! And of course ERIN before EIRE, IRT before MTA, OAKED before OAKEN, and JOHN BROWN before NAT TURNER (hey, wasn't he a singer? Oh no, that was IKE).
NAT TURNER.
ReplyDeleteYesterday there was a review in the Times Book Review of a book about a Virginia family and their plantation during 50 or so years before the Civil War. The NAT Turner revolt started right near the plantation. While it is often stated how bloody the revolt was it is also often left out that 100 Blacks were hanged in its aftermath. Since Turner was educated, for good measure, Virginia( and other slave states)passed a law forbidding the education of enslaved Black people.
Er...is no one else going to point out that World War II started in the decade *prior* to the Forties?
ReplyDeleteI wasn't on a diet today but I did indeed fast for Yom Kippur so I am very late to the party...
ReplyDeleteI thought the theme was just right for a Monday and while the extra couple of Ts in a couple of places should not have bothered me, they kinda did. I get that it's four *words* that start with T but seeing one too many (based on my take from the revealer) took some of the elegance away.
With that, however, the themers are all very, very good fill and it was fun sussing them all out. Much respect for coming up with all these T phrases, I think it may have caused some constraint in the grid leading to just a bit of less than stellar fill.
Some nice long downs with NATTURNER and IMONADIET. I'm with @Rex on that whole industry being questionable. Proper, sensible, and healthy eating is just fine, but "predatory" is a spot-on description of what's being sold as dieting and weight loss these days, IMHO. But the phrase looks nice in the grid.
Despite the extra T here and there, I had fun with your creation, Alexander. Thank you!
And now Hugh's Monday Haiku
Two TEASE in ATHLETE
And Two TEASE in NATTURNER
But one DEE in DAMN
(sorry, friends, I'm tired today...๐ซค)
Para bailar el tango hacen falta dos.
ReplyDeleteYup, there are four Ts and saying that's like 40 is kinda funny. It's Monday, so no expectations firmly met.
Gunkometer--
People: 5
Places: 4
Products: 3
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 4
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 76 (29%)
Funny Factor: 1 ๐คจ
๐ฅ Ooh-la-la! ๐ฅ DAMN.
Uniclues:
1Phone directory of Chinese nationals who are bad at karate.
2 Spreads love.
3 My onion defense system.
1 ASIA WIMP PAGES
2 CREATES XES (~)
3 EXTREME ANTACID (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: That happy feeling when you're buying all the feline accoutrement for the first time at PetsMart in anticipation of a little house guest. FOSTER KITTEN GIDDINESS.
¯\_(ใ)_/¯