BELA / LENAPE seemed a little tough for a Tuesday. But a fun solve nonetheless
@Stephen I listen to a lot of classical music, so BELA was a gimme for me. But for a Tuesday, a clue about Mr. Lugosi may have been kinder. Though it's possible even BELA Lugosi is fading from the public consciousness. It's sad to think there may be people who never saw him wrestle a rubber octopus in Bride of the Monster.
Nice puzzle and cool theme, but a hard for a Tuesday for me, considering I got the Friday last week. Lots of intersecting obscure names - BELA / LENAPE / ANG and SILAS / ASTAIRE as well as SHA / ANNAN. I feel like where possible, pop culture references shouldn't intersect each other this early in the week, and instead intersect a vocab or wordplay clue. That way more people can have a go.
@Reuben Completely agree with you. I've been disappointed by the presence of Naticks in the past few Tuesday puzzles Natick Natick Natick Emu
@Reuben as a fellow Aussie I can’t agree with you on this one - the clues you mention aren’t part of “pop culture”, unless you’re in some sort of very cloistered community. Ang Lee is a respected film director (and commonly used for clueing in the NYT crossword), Fred Astaire is hardly obscure, ditto Kofi Annan. The only ones I had to check were Bêla Flack and the Delaware tribe, but I’m sure we’re not alone there.
@Reuben These were all gimmes for me so it may be an age thing, skewing toward older.
Americans should feel some sense of obligation to know and name the peoples who lived on this land long centuries before the invasion of Europeans. It saddens me that the name Lenape / Lenni Lenape (the people who were given the exonym “Delaware Indians”) is a stunner. Their territory spanned from what is now Delaware north to southeastern New York, including all of New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. Their language survives in the names of rivers, hills, towns, long after their descendants were forced to move out to the midwest. Where I grew up, toponyms like Wissahickon, Conshohocken, Wyomissing, Wyoming, Tulpehocken, Aronomink, all echoed the language of the displaced Lenape. Oto/Otoe, Ute, Hopi, Erie, Cree, Crow, and others make frequent enough appearances in the puzzles to be dismissed as “crosswordese” (a term I dislike greatly). But each name names a people, a culture, a history and - more often than is credited - a present and a future.
@David Connell Despite having lived for a brief time outside of Philadelphia, I think it’s only been a few years since I learned the name LENAPE. I had, of course, heard of the Delaware. Neither of the dictionaries I looked at mark that as an exonym, but I agree with you that we should call a people by the name they use for themselves.
Too many obscure proper nouns and sketchy theme makes this unsatisfying. On the theme, I guess what the constructor wanted was all signs point to yes? But why is the phrase itself (sign) in the clue? It should’ve been “what all circled answers point to”
@Intermediate level Hey, gonna get you to the advanced level. All eight words in the circles are types of signs. CALL sign, PLUS sign, DOLLAR sign, etc. And the Magic 8 said "All signs point to yes."
Very nice! It's fun to have an early-week puzzle with a visual element. What an interesting clue for Amelia EARHART.
@Liz B Yes! I thought of her, then discounted it (has wrinkle -free fabric been around that long?) and was delighted to find it really was her with the help of a couple of the cross clues.
If you learn about addition, that's a plus! (Well, for sum people.)
@Mike Loved that show Black Adder. One can go forth and multiply by "shift and add" process. Works with binary numbers.
Annoyed with the BELA/LENAPE crossing. Fortunately it was my only incorrect square and solvable through brute force. I wasn't any more confident of it being an L than any given consonant Agree with Steve L about the theme being useless
@Steven M. Agreed on that crossing. I was 90% sure on the director, but those were pretty harsh crossings. I have never heard of either.
@Steven M. I expected that people would consider this to be a Natick, though I knew both words without any crossings.
@Steven M. Gimmes for me and I suspect for many others
Sweet never-done-before idea for a theme, to visually portray the common phrase, “All signs point to yes”. PLUS for that! Did it help with my solve? Yes it did, and a PLUS for that as well. A couple of times I looked at the partially-filled-in-circled words, and filled in the blank circles to make a kind of sign. It’s a testament to Josh’s puzzlemaking skill that this was cleanly filled, because having diagonal answers really restricts the words that can go into the grid. Once again, a PLUS. Quick thoughts: • When I looked at the empty grid, the circles reminded me of fireworks in the sky, and I thought it was a 4th theme. Nope! • I tried to think of other kinds of signs, and four that strike my fancy are POUND, TAKE, VITAL, and AT. • Lovely PuzzPair© of WAYLAY next to STALLED. • Lovely answers WAYLAY and PROWESS. A clever, skillfully-made, and pleasing puzzle – a most appealing solving experience. Thank you, Josh!
@Lewis I too was impressed by how good the fill is. The reason diagonal words put pressure on the grid is because every circled letter has to work in three words instead of two. That frequently leads to a grid with a lot of junky fill. (I know you know this, but other solvers might not.)
I am surprised to see so many negative comments! I thought I would throw my 2 cents in to say how much I enjoyed this puzzle. The theme was clear, and it reminded me of how much fun I used to have with my friends and a Magic 8 Ball. It was the perfect amount of difficulty for a Tuesday-- made me think but not want to pull my hair out :) Thank you to the constructor!
@KEF I've been solving NYT xwords for 50 years and have enjoyed every one of them.
Ermmm…erhhh…[head scratch] Nope…theme still eludes me - eight ball good with that but were these answers or something else, a headline? Not a pretty solve. East and West US GK naticks. Guessed one, flunked the other. Get’s a distinct “meh”.
Not my favorite for a Tuesday. Theme made no sense, and too much reliance on trivia/names.
Did some digging into the Lenape after reading the natick-blamestorm here. I knew of them from growing up in the Pennsylvania Delaware valley, but never that their territory extended to Long Island and the lower Hudson valley. Another fun fact - the word Manhattan is from Lenape
The theme went over my head as a history with the Magic 8-Ball was woefully lacking in my life. I remember seeing/playing with one maybe five times in total, and those were at least 60 years ago. Not something I'd remember on my own, I'd need a revealer naming it. Nevertheless, it was a nice Tuesday exercise that was readily solvable, with crosses that indicated errant entries that were quickly corrected. Growing up in NJ helped me to remember LENAPE, and I'm a Béla Fleck fan. Thanks, Josh! Béla Fleck & the Flecktones: Sinister Minister: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Q4CBDFaEc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0Q4CBDFaEc</a>
I thought this was delightful! Sorry others didn't. Remember though that Magic 8 Ball shaking is a pseudoscience as opposed to hard sciences like physics and osteomancy. For example, I asked mine "Where is Amelia Earhart?" and it answered "On the uninhabited island Nikumaroro, next to the Starbucks". Hopelessly vague like horoscopes, right? [Siesta, in the Sarbonne] LENAPE
EARTHRISE is NOT a natural phenomenon, and if you're standing on the moon, you'll never see it. The moon always keeps the same side facing the earth. The reason the Apollo 8 astronauts (and those of Apollo 10 through 15) saw it is that they were orbiting around the moon. As they came around from the far side to the near side, the earth appeared to rise in their "sky".
... and Bill Anders did not take his famous photo while on the moon, of course. Apollo 8 never landed on the moon. He took the picture from lunar orbit, above the moon.
@Jan Wolitzky Fully agree, and the main reason I came to the comments was to point this out if nobody else had. It's not even clear to me that the Earth was even rising (as opposed to setting) when the picture was taken, but it does make a nice title. (Technically, there are places on the noon where you could see the Earth rise, and then gradually set again, over the course of a month, due to libration, but nobody has ever been to those places.)
@Jan Wolitzky Good point! The earth just hangs in a part of the sky on the moon, and doesn't move significantly. However, I'm not why what you call it when something rises (or falls) when you move on a surface. Still seems like a arise and a fall to me.
I don't really pay attention to the theme in an early week puzzle until I'm done. This one made me smile. Even though I never had or played with a Magic 8 Ball, it's very familiar and gave me a feeling of nostalgia by proxy. Nice clue for TSP [Shortening used in baking?], and an enjoyable Tuesday overall.
Fun puzzle! I have a "Series of Unfortunate Events" themed Magic 8-Ball. It only gives you depressing answers. I ask it questions when I'm feeling particularly masochistic.
All clues point to sign? What you do at the end of a letter or your taxes… or clue to the circled words. Very confusing puzzle. Frustrating and annoying as a Tuesday.
@Alyson The answer to the clue [What all signs point to in this puzzle] (38A) is YES. This is from the Magic 8 Ball game; it's one of the various answers given by said ball. If you aren't familiar with that item, which was hugely popular many years ago, the puzzle might not click for you. But all the circled words are kinds of signs: CALL sign, PLUS sign, EXIT sign, etc. And they all point to YES in the center. Some of the sign words read in reverse because of their orientation; e.g., 40A is RATS [Dang it!] , but as one of the circled words, it's read facing YES (i.e. backwards) as STAR. And a STAR sign is your zodiac sign. It wasn't the least confusing to me, but I was familiar with the Magic 8 Ball. Maybe you weren't. Hope this helps.
I'm not sure why there is any confusion as to the theme. I ignored the circled letters at first, but after I filled in EXIT (37A) and then read the revealer clue right after (38A) I immediately knew what was going on and it even helped me fill in a few missed circles. I thought the theme was clever and amusing and perfect for a Tuesday. I've never had or played with a Magic 8 Ball (though they are still sold in my local Walmart) but the phrase is pretty common outside of that sphere. LENAPE was a gimme, as a fan of the TV show "Ghosts" (one of the ghosts is from the Lenape tribe). It's a great show, the only sitcom I currently watch.
Not a fan. Too much trivia, too little wordplay. Not sure what kind of solver this was fun for
@M not sure what kind of solver I am but it was very fun for me. I usually get stuck on the heavy trivia puzzles but this one went pretty smoothly for some reason?
Glad I wasn’t the only one flummoxed by the Lenape/Bela thing. Banjoists don’t belong on Tuesday puzzles. Frankly I’m not sure they belong anywhere. I also don’t really understand how the theme question in the center has anything to do with the circled theme bits. Yes they’re all words that preceded “sign”, but no they don’t all point to yes. I’d say all signs point to “meh” on this one.
@Nathan Baltich They circled clues all point to the center of the puzzle when read as a "sign" word. (E.g. It's not a RATS sign, it's a STAR sign.) The clue at the center of the puzzle is "yes", so all of the signs point to yes. As for the crossing, yeah, that one felt a bit harsh for a Tuesday, no argument there.
@Nathan Baltich I think we should update the terminology from "nattic" to "lenape". E.g., "I got really lenaped on this one."
A satisfying lightbulb moment. Thanks for a good one!
My advice, if cranachan is on the menu: Do not bother with signs or doodads that predict what you should do. Just go straight to YES.
@Cat Lady Margaret You made me go look it up, because if CLM recommends something, it must be considered. Sounds delicious. From the Wikipedia entry: Cranachan (Scottish Gaelic: Crannachan pronounced [ˈkʰɾan̪ˠəxan]) is a traditional Scottish dessert. It was originally a celebration of harvest, made following the raspberry harvest in August. The dessert of cream and fresh seasonal raspberries is bolstered by Scottish oats and whisky. It has been called 'the uncontested king of Scottish desserts'.
Okay puzzle but way too many names and titles, especially crossing names and titles.
I am very surprised by today’s comments, as I expected to see complaints that the puzzle was too easy, not that it was too hard! BELA? UGLYCRYING? SILAS? These and many others were gimmes for me. Not bragging, just trying to demonstrate that not knowing something does not necessarily mean it’s “obscure”. My only complaint about the theme was that it wasn’t saved for a harder puzzle, because it’s fun to get that lightbulb moment and then fill in the theme words for clues to harder words. I had the lightbulb moment (yes, I had a Magic 8 Ball— they were very common) but didn’t really need the clues. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t a clever puzzle. It was. But will some people still find fault with it? Unfortunately, all signs point to YES.
52 Across: pass leading to a dunk in basketball lingo is a lob. Not an oop. The act can be referred to as an alley-oop but no one ever said “oop it up here and I’ll dunk.”
I have to echo the sentiments of a lot of other commenters, not a good puzzle for a Tuesday. A weak theme and way too many clues asking for names. I’m especially irked by puzzles that have crossing clues that are both asking for names. Don’t know any banjoists or indigenous tribes? Whelp then you are SOL on this one.
My solving experience was a lot different than that of many of the early commenters. The theme could not have been any clearer. Happy to help clear it up for you if you still don’t understand it. No naticks for me, but I get that Bela Fleck is not that widely known outside the Americana genre, though he certainly serves to be. I got the missing letter of LEN_PE on first guess.
I understood that all the circled words were signs pointing to the middle. I had an 8-ball growing up, so I understood that all signs point to YES. But it seemed like two different themes to me. What does YES have to do with all of those particular signs? Nothing. To me, they don’t go together like other themes do. And for a Tuesday, the Natick of 32D/41A was too hard. Just had to run through the alphabet until I got the happy music. Still, I solved it 5:00 faster than my average, so it wasn’t all bad. Just didn’t get it.
This might as well be a themeless puzzle, such is the lack of correlation between the circled clues and the theme entry.
@John Dude, read the column. "All signs point to yes" -- each of the words links with the word "sign" (dollar sign, star sign...) and they're pointing to "yes." That's a theme right there. Emus, you can't be that far from Melbourne: flap on over and say hello to the gent.
@John Take a look at my reply to Alyson about two hours earlier. I agree that "this might as well be a themeless puzzle", inasmuch as the theme didn't help me with the solve at all (see my first post), but the "lack of correlation between the circled clues and the theme entry" was really your missing what was going on.
Typical Tuesday workout for me, and realizing that the sets of circled letters were all 'signs' was a big help. But... ...must confess that I am completely unfamiliar with 'all signs point to yes,' so was baffled by what was going on there. Glad to see that for once I'm not alone in that. No big deal. And, of course I have a puzzle find for today - inspired by THATSAMORE. A Sunday from May 15, 2016 by Patrick Berry with the title "Exhibit A." Some theme answers: AGGRAVATEDASALT THATSAMORAY APATCHYHELICOPTER ARIVALDATE And a few more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/15/2016&g=46&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/15/2016&g=46&d=A</a> ..
first off, the theme itself is great and deserves applause. however, half the puzzle was outright trivia - there was almost no wordplay and problem solving throughout the puzzle. really frustrating to see a great theme slowly crumble due to the insertion ~30 different trivia clues about inane knowledge. this doesn't belong in a tuesday.
Well. I had a Magic Eight Ball as a young dk. I get the concept of EARTHRISE as one comes around the moon. ko and I, not fans of little tricks in puzzles, found this one to be fun. Thank you Josh
I'm surprised to read that so many didn't like this puzzle! I loved it. I remember 'Bela Fleck and the Flecktones' from way back when and now via the local NPR station. Maybe it helps to be 'auld'. The only unfamiliar name was the tribe, which I easily got from the crossing words. Thank you Josh, for the fun!
First time doing the puzzle the night before! What will I do while I sip my tea in the morning..? Fun one. Didn’t need (or even pay any attention to) the circled letters, but that’s fine by me! Fun Tuesday (…Monday). Thank you Josh! Archives on the menu tomorrow! Happy Tuesday all!
@CCNY If you have not already, do the July bonus puzzle in the morning. emu later
@CCNY Sometimes I need to start at night for Friday and Saturday puzzles. A little the night before, a bit in the morning, and finish it off later in the day if still needed.
Fun fact: with today’s puzzle, Ani DiFranco has now appeared in more puzzles than the number of albums she has sold.
This is a perfect example of a puzzle that can be solved without any regard for the circled letters or the theme, which can then be figured out after the solve is done. And the solve, least from my experience, was a gentle and smooth and therefore relatively quick one. At no point during the solve did I even bother to see what words the circled letters spelled, although the left-side ones and PLUS were difficult to miss. Nor did I stop to figure out what they had to do with YES. At the end, it became clear that the puzzle referred to the Magic 8 Ball toy, an object I had little use for even when I was a wee lad. So the theme did not sing for me, although I guess if you enjoyed playing with Ouija boards, that thing kids made out of folded paper and moved about their fingers, and other divination toys, you might feel differently. But disregarding the theme, it was a perfectly good puzzle.
Most Tuesday puzzles can be solved without regard to the theme, but I enjoyed looking at the grid and seeing where the circles were going as I solved. I assumed after seeing the top three that they would all be signs; the revealer -- which I knew because more than one childhood friend had a Magic 8 Ball -- told me the circled version of 40A would be read backwards, and I saw PEACE and NEON before I filled them in. I didn't *need* the theme to solve the puzzle, but sussing it *while* solving made for a more enjoyable than usual Tuesday solve.
happily entered BAS into 10A at first, until i realised it takes more than that to be considered a research scientist. Oh well back to my job as a research assistant *sobs*
Cute, fun. I worked in New Paltz, which has both a Lenape street and a Lenape elementary school. BTW, what happened to the Spelling Bee? It appears stuck on Monday in the game app.
@PK I’m having the same issue - hoping for a fix soon! My coffee isn’t the same without some pangrams ;)
@PK Some suggestions: Try restarting your phone. Then try uninstalling and reinstalling the app. Or you can open Spelling Bee in a browser. Hope this helps! !!!! !!!!
32 down and 41 across are rather obscure clues for a Tuesday puzzle. Yes, some of you might be aware of one or the other, but that is not the norm. Quit your humble bragging.
@Walt Absolutely true. Indefensible for a Tuesday. Reasonable for a Saturday.
Quite a disparity about the LENAPE/BELA cross. Some people, myself included, thought it was essentially impossible. There simply was no way out if you didn't know at least one of them. Others found it to be a gimme. It seems to me that most of the people who hated it are from somewhere other than the Northeast states. And most of those (one exception that I found) from those states thought it was almost unpatriotic not to know LENAPE. I think Barry was so aghast that I didn't know LENAPE that he dropped his hammer and probably his chisel on his toe in astonishment. Hope it didn't smart too much, but also that it didn't smart too little, either. This is the biggest geographical variation I think I've ever seen in these puzzles.
@Francis I am admittedly from and still living in the Northeast, but I knew LENAPE from watching the recent television series Ghosts. As a long term fan of roots music, including bluegrass, BELA was a gimme for me. But this crossing was just a lucky case of “in my wheelhouse”, and I can see where it might have frustrated people in a Tuesday puzzle.
Pretty quick though I had to guess on Weist and Ani, lucked out first try. I liked the reference of Earthrise in here. The theme of signs helped me with a fill, but I had no idea why “yes” was being pointed to, having never heard that expression. A good Tuesday. TIL cranachan.
@Crevecoeur ANI is one you should commit to memory. It has appeared 605 times, with many different types of clues, including a Wheel of Fortune buy (AN I) (and other clues with this type of parsing), the jewelry brand Alex and ANI, the childhood nickname for Anakin Skywalker (otherwise known as Darth Vader), a type of black bird (mostly pre-Shortz), and of course, Ms. DiFranco, who last appeared on May 14, and Nov. 14 before that. Dianne WIEST, on the other hand, has only appeared 7 times. However, [Dianne] as part of a clue has also appeared exactly 7 times...and every time the answer was WIEST. It's an unusual spelling...
@Crevecoeur PS TIL cranachan, too. But it had to be OATS...it's Scottish, see? What else could it have been? cf. Haggis... !!! !!!!
Anybody else dislikes the constant ASPCA commercials of abused pets being left in the cold or heat that they hope would pull at your heart (and purse) strings? I vehemently hate them. I know there are abused animals out there and they need help, but I don’t need to see graphical images of them (likely accompanied by Sarah McLachlan lacrimoso whines in the background) over and over again. They ruin my day. Show me pictures of the abusing owners in handcuffs or better yet, tied to the same spots without food and water and I will contribute tenfolds.
@Remy I agree. Very hard to watch. I do my best, and give up a lot of time and money (five figure vet bills), supporting abandoned pets. But I can't save them all. And I hate the implication that I can, or that I'm not doing enough. I turn them off. So does my dog loving wife. They are counterproductive.
@Remy Agree wholeheartedly. My wife and I (animal lovers both) have to run past all these infomercials, but especially the ASPCA ones. No videos or photos of animals actually being rescued. And does anybody believe that your contribution will actually help these suffering animals? (Oh, and these fund drives, probably made by the same agency, now don't just want contributions--they want monthly contributions, and not by check--if you send a donation using a credit card, they will send you a t-shirt or a blanket, and they would like to charge you monthly for life). Plus, your credit card card information is now open to be sold and misused by criminals.
I put down "Lob" because I thought there was no way for the pass leading to a dunk would be an "oop". No one who plays or watches basketball at any level calls it that. I stubbornly argue that "Lob" is actually a more accurate answer... Anyone else?
@JHK I believe it's short for Alley-OOP, which is a basketball term, which I only learned from a different crossword puzzle.
@JHK Yep. This was the most obnoxious answer of the entire puzzle, and there were quite a few. I understand it’s an alley-OOP. Not once has it ever been referred to as an OOP. Just a truly horrible puzzle all around.
Even with the explanation, I still do not understand this theme.
@Sam Me, either. Glad I'm not the only one.
@Sam I'm surpised so many people are unfamiliar with the Magic 8 Ball toy. They've been around for decades. I never had one, but have seen them on desks in offices and heard them mentioned in comedy routines. I loved the way the theme worked. For the uninitiated, one of the answers you can get from a Magic 8 Ball is "Signs point to yes" and Josh came up with 8 types of signs (CALL, STOP, NEON, etc.) all pointing to the word YES. I hope this makes it more clear. See below for more information: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8_Ball" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_8_Ball</a>
New here! Been enjoying these crosswords for a long while, and this was no exception. I wasn't familiar with the YES phrase, as well as a few other clues, namely LENAPE and BELA. Thought this was particularly tricky for a Tuesday, but it was well-designed nonetheless!
Today’s theme was/is brilliant. After completing today’s puzzle I pondered for a few minutes, asking myself “how does neon equate to yes ”and “peace = yes? I’m all for it but seems like a stretch to me”. Then it hit me, like a stop sign flying through a tornado (TWISTERS 2 COMING SOON WOOOOOO). Maybe I would’ve caught on a lot easier if one of the circled answers was “M NIGHT SHYAMALAN” 😅. Throwing up the peace sign to today’s puzzles and taking a nap 😆 great work again!
This puzzle shouted "Magic 8 Ball" to me from the beginning. I'm not sure what it was that clued me in so early, but I found it a fun and medium level puzzle as Tuesdays go. It wasn't as fast as yesterday's, but definitely faster than, probably, tomorrow's will be. Thoroughly entertaining, for me. Magic 8 Balls can still be found. Go to a toy star and ask one a question. Maybe it will solve a problem for you.