Nobody expects the Spanish imposition!
I thought this was very silly in the best possible way! I loved it!
Two non-themers in this puzzle woke memories in me - one amusing, one profound. I have a vivid imagination when reading or listening, such that images run through my mind immediately. So on the day 45 years ago when the passage from Revelation was read by the president of the Lutheran church where I was the organist, in his most stentorian tones, which was meant to be “and I saw the wingèd creatures surrounding the throne, myriad upon myriad…” but he actually said: “mermaid upon mermaid…” I busted out with a full-body guffaw at the image I saw in my head. Nobody else knew why I was laughing during a scripture reading. When my life was fractured some 22 years ago, I went three months unable to speak. The daughter of a former colleague asked me to sing the Sheva Brachot (Seven Blessings) for her wedding, and that was the occasion of the return of my voice. Driving from New Haven to Buffalo, rehearsing the blessings over and over to be able to be part of life again. Those blessings were blessings for me. גילה רינה, דיצה וחדווה, אהבה ואחווה, ושלום ורעות
@David Connell I’m sure I’m not alone in much appreciating you being able to share your profound memory from some 22 years ago. The Seven Blessings will not ever be the same for me , and I suspect for others in our family here. Thank you for sharing this story….
@David Connell As I started reading your comment, the lines from Eliot's "Prufrock" immediately came into my mind: "I have heard the mermaids singing, each to each. I do not think that they will sing to me." I read on and was moved to see that it was singing that gave you back the capacity to speak. Whatever it was that took it, I'm glad you're past that now. Or at least I hope you are.
@David Connell Really moving story. I too had a moment in church, when I was 12 or 13, when something the pastor's wife, who was at the pulpit advocating for an organization that helped people in trouble. Something she said reminded me of a joke in a Mad magazine, and I could not stop laughing, even as she described the wretched conditions this organization was trying to address. This must have gone on for 20 or 30 seconds. It's a strange feeling to not want to laugh, but are unable to stop.
As a 16-year old, I lived in France for a year learning the language through immersion and living with a host family. The gendered nouns thing proved difficult to master. For example: Our neighbors puppy "chiot" was a girl puppy and I wanted to tell our neighbor that I liked her dog. So I said, "Vous avez une trés jolie chiote." And she reacted with fear and anger, "You have never been in my house! You don't know me. How rude! (in French, of course). Later I learned that "chiote" is the word for outhouse or more coarsely "shi%%er." That same year I got in an argument with a classmate at school and wanted to call her a bad word. I wanted to call her a little b#$ch and used the diminutive ending "-ette" and called her a "salopette." Her reaction was baffled and called me a weirdo and it ended our argument. I had called her a pair of overalls.
@Jesse 😀 The next time I do something that makes my wife mad, I'm going to call her a pair of overalls.
@Jesse I learned that idioms can be a b**** too... My friend's mom visited from Chile for the holidays and gave me a beautiful painted monkey Christmas ornament. So I googled, and practiced for the next time we met up a few days later, when I enthusiastically announced, "Gracias por el mono!", whereupon my friend and his mother both gasped then fell out laughing. I had just thanked her for "last night".
Giving athletes the resources they need to succeed is contender loving care. (This pun kind of fell sport.)
@Mike Talk about risky moves. Some set store by going all in, but you can't win a mall.
I can't remember who the setter was, but I remember a crossword from years ago where the clues were something like [Language spoken to the south] and [Uncle south of the border]. Pretty obviously SPANISH and TIO. Except the revealer showed the perspective was from Canada, hence ENGLISH and SAM. It was a sweet puzzle, as was this one.
@Pezhead Maybe it wasn't a NYT crossword, because I couldn't find one that matches that description. But a different one, from 2019, has a similar bilingual trick. You can find it in the Archives (2/6/19) if you want to try it. Here's the completed grid if you just want to marvel at it: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/6/2019&g=44&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=2/6/2019&g=44&d=A</a>
I wrote in Henny [Youngman], giggling at his joke: Two ladies sitting on the sand at Miami Beach. One says, "Where are you going on vacation this year?" The other says, "Oh, I don't know. Last year we went around the world—this year we're going someplace else." Zillions of these deadpan jokes would come spilling out of him, rapid fire, and while you were laughing at one you might miss the next. Some friends were flying to New York, and he was sitting across the aisle from them. He insisted they come to his birthday party the next day, and sent car for them. They got home aching from laughing so much.
This is exactly how my Spanish sounds. In my rather sorry attempts at speaking Spanish, More sacred = MÁS SACRED, etc. That is, until I’ve had a few drinks - y luego hablo español con fluidez! Fun, relatable puzzle for me. Thanks, Hanh Huynh!
@Striker Is "Times Pick" new? Maybe I just never noticed. Congratulations, Striker!
As a native Spanish speaker, I admit I struggled by using dinero vs tender on my first pass (thought my language was being *massacred*) but as the theme revealed itself I honestly chuckled. ¡Mil gracias, Hanh Huynh!
Bueno! Clever and witty. And nostalgic, for this solver. “Da plane! Da plane!” I was old enough to be allowed to watch, but young enough I did so with my hands ready to cover my eyes at any moment. And my dear old dad, who loved On the the Waterfront. He did a great (terrible) dad-like impression “I coulda been a contender…” I miss him. And his terrible (awesome) impressions. Fun Wednesday! Thank you Hanh Huynh!
The Fantasy Island clue brought back a fond memory. It was my 21st birthday and I found myself uncharacteristically alone. So I went to one of my favorite bars in Soho (NYC) to drown my sorrows. I had just sat down at the bar when a little person climbed up on the stool next to me. We started to chat, and he told me he was about to appear in a TV show. I honestly didn't believe him. When I told him it was my birthday, he bought be a glass of champagne. Imagine my shock when just a few weeks later "Fantasy Island" debuted, and there he was, Hervé Villechaize!
Just when I'm thinking the puzzle caters to younger people, up come Li'l Abner and Henny Youngman, woo-hoo!
@Teresa I gotta tell ya', us old people don't get no respect. No respect!
Fun puzzle. Good long workout for me, of course, but just enjoyed every minute of it. And of course a puzzle find. A Thursday from September 22, 2016 by Jeffrey Wechsler. Some theme clue/answer examples: "A number of stage items in a French play? :" SEPTPIECES "A number of cocktails in Berlin? :" DREIMARTINIS "A number of Freudians in Freiburg? :" SECHSTHERAPISTS "A number of grain-producing sites in Normandy?" HUITFIELDS And a couple of others. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/22/2016&g=46&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/22/2016&g=46&d=A</a> I'm done.
Coming up with this word list was just an act of genius, IMHO, and I loved this puzzle. Except for LOCO, which after all had long been included in our English language, these were, indeed, words learned in BEGINNER SPANISH--8th grade "sub-freshman" year, 1960-61. Speaking of included words in our language, today's Spelling Bee STILL excludes CONTINUO. It's sad when MUSIC education is missing from someone's background. But 'peplum' was fine the other day? In 2010, when LeBron left CLEveland, people burned their jerseys. Quite the turn-around n 2014. Enjoyed the proximity of Lil ABNER and "Backwoods Barbie" Dolly PARTON....as a substitute for Daisy May. Or was it Mae? In The Fifties, "the Funnies" were the big event; we three kids vied over who'd get the paper first. And Funnies on Sundays were in COLOR!!
@Mean Old Lady Ah yes, the Sunday “funny papers” in color, I would fight with my two brothers over those every week. We also had on Sunday “Parade Magazine” , in color as well. Now I see that Parade was once the most widely read magazine in the U.S. I guess it is no longer around, except as some kind of website with a newsletter. Thanks for the memory!
@Mean Old Lady My thrifty and crafty Swedish mamma would save the Sunday pages to use as wrapping paper! I always believed at birthday parties that everyone was so impressed by my extra fun wrapping. Looking back- we were just too poor to buy it!
I’m not familiar with US immigration terms, so I got stuck at EMEND vs AMEND.
@AuLaitCru Thank you!! Your comment helped finally finally figure out my error and get the happy music! Kept checking and never looked at that answer somehow.
@Divs love when that happens
So much fun from start to finish, and just right for a Wednesday I think. I always enjoy seeing EMUS as an entry, part of the fun. Come back soon, Hanh.
As a retired profesora de espanol, I loved this puzzle. If I were still working, I would have shared the words with my students inmediatamente! My fave was mas sacred. Gracias!
@chris Same here from another retired profesora de español!
A fun Wednesday. My high school Spanish really paid off. In a cute coincidence, just yesterday someone posted on my FB feed, “It finally happened: someone asked me where the library is in Spanish. I’ve been training for this since high school.”
@Melvin Hoagland That is really funny! For me it was French class and the next line of the dictée was, “C’est tout droit, Tu y vas tout de suite?” I also remember, “Il est midi, c’est l’heure du déjeuner”. Don’t suppose I’ll ever forget those lines…. — — — — — — — —
@Melvin Hoagland We must be the same age! And how do you feel about meatballs? A mi no me gusta las albondigas.... Those are the only two phrases i remember from my high school Spanish. I learned German in college and spent some time there, so am fairly fluent. But now I work in a school district that is about 70% Spanish speaking, so the high school lessons are coming back a little.
Muy bueno! CONfirm belief, I must say this was an excellent puzzle from a MASsage constructor. Anyone who disagrees, please reply CONtact lest you incite MAStiffs. That was fun! I feel very right now. . . . . . ¡Hola, EMUS!
@Heidi Ah, apparently brackets are verboten in the comments. Which means my final joke was stripped out and my comment makes no sense. It read: “That was fun! I feel very (with temporary shelter) right now.” Hope the parentheses make it.
I loved the theme! And then I spent way too much time trying to remember when Frodo Baggins was chased by ORCS. He spends most of the first book being chased by ringwraiths, and most of the second and third books /hiding/ from ORCS, but he does actually get chased by them in Moria. So that's okay. 😉
@Adina I've learnt in these past few months of solving that when there's a LOTR reference in the clues it almost always solves to ORCS so I just put it in blindly 😁
@Adina Isn't it Goblins in Moria? He's chased by Uruk Hai at the end of the first book, after they leave Lorien. I guess you could say those are technically Orcs
What do you mean when you say that LOCOMOTIVE doesn't solve the clue "Crazy reason"? That was my favorite clue!
@Andy Only pointing out that themed entries tend to be words or phrases that can also be disambiguated from a puzzle's theme! in ordinary English, a LOCOMOTIVE is just a term for a train. A [Crazy reason] is indeed a LOCO/MOTIVE, but that requires a bilingual interpretation of the entry, which we do only because the theme tells us to.
@Andy I don't think Deb was singling it out as being inferior or something. She was just explaining it as an example.
I love the way talented constructors sometimes include self-contained mini-puzzles in their grids. The SE today, for instance, had enough ambiguity to make it a puzzle, but not so much that it slowed down the solve. Like a well integrated mini. Thank you for the fun diversion, Hanh Huynh, and I too am glad the editors they kept your reference to Hervé--it made me smile.
I loved this one. And it was a breeze to get through.
Quick correction: 23A’s clue should be [Li’l], not [L’il].
@Joe Hey, I spend a lot of my time editing or proofreading, and when I think I've caught an error in the Times' crossword, I'm usually wrong. But this one looks valid--good catch!
@Joe One of my favorite Peeves. As Eyeore would say, "Thanks for noticing [me]."
I enjoyed the multilingual wordplay in today’s puzzle. I’ve never even taken beginner Spanish, but have absorbed enough over the years to be able to figure out today’s Spanglish themers. I also loved the misdirection of having a clue “Li’l _____” rather than the more common “______ [insert name of rapper here]”. Naturally I started trying the names of the various “Li’l” rappers I’ve learned about through crosswords, but couldn’t get any to fit. I was delighted when, instead, the answer turned out to be ABNER. That took me back to the sixties when one of my great joys in life was reading the Sunday funnies. Li’l Abner had the place of honor at the top of the front comics page and I enjoyed his edgy wit. However, when he created Joanie Phoanie, he caused a stir in our household because Joan Baez was a sacred icon to my father (and me as well).
@Marshall Walthew Another keen Joan Baez fan here, as was my husband.
@Marshall Walthew That should have read: rather than the more common clue: “_____ [insert name of rapper here]”. This was both a typing and a proofreading fail. I seem to be farther off my game than usual this morning.
@Marshall Walthew I still remember the first time I heard her singing those early folk songs. The beauty and purity of her voice were electrifying. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui6pHB3D-O0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui6pHB3D-O0</a>
Great Wednesday puzzle! Definitely a Goldilocks theme for me…just the right amount of trickery.
Fab. My Spanish is still non existent so the puns went over my head, but still thoroughly enjoyable. I certainly can’t complain about this one being too US-centric with clues for Anthony EDEN, NORSE gods, Roman (is she? Always mix Romans/Greeks) goddesses and of course anything LOTR based. Lovely.
@Helen Wright Does it help to remember ATHENS is in Greece, so that ATHENA....would be Greek? Though she did ROAM around a lot.
With so many contemporary pop culture answers lately, I went with Lil Wayne first.
Strands #227 “How Poe-tic” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 That was an easy but fun Strands. It suggests a whole sub-genre of Strands that I would love to see more of. No spoilers until we get below the fold, please.
@Warren While I loved this Strands, and was able to finish it quickly, I couldn't help wondering about younger players: do they know it as well as older players do? Today's students have to learn more history, how to hide in a closet, what to do in an emergency, how to apply a tourniquet properly, and this century's version of New Math. (Remember Whole Language? That was the 80s.) They may not learn cursive, or what happened along the Tigris and Euphrates, or the three branches of government, and checks and balances. So... great lit? I just wonder... But I bet they do way better than I do on Sports Connections, which I gave up on almost immediately.
@Warren yes, that was fun. Strands #227 “How Poe-tic” 🔵🟡🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵
@Warren Strands #227 “How Poe-tic” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🟡 I was slightly nervous after my first word but quickly realized I needn’t be.
@Warren Strands #227 “How Poe-tic” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 The title gave away the general theme. Finding the Spangram first made me wonder if the actual theme would be a bit broader. It wasn’t, but I had to stretch my memory a bit to find everything. It’s been a long time. My knowledge of the general subject is not extensive, so I’m not sure if I would like to see this become a regular variant. But maybe a movie-themed Strands would be cool. “Citizen Kane” would probably work.
@Warren Strands #227 “How Poe-tic” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵 The most sui generis Strands experience I've ever had! Poe in the title prompted me to look for The Raven, which I know to be his most famous work. That's how I got the Spangram first. But because I've never actually read the poem, every other word was found on eery instinct calibrated to anything of darkness. It's just a game but it was strangely visceral, leaving me with a need to recalibrate to positive energies so I might have a good day. And now you know why I never ventured to read the actual poem!
@Warren Strands #227 “How Poe-tic” 🔵🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🟡 My favorite so far. I also started looking for other titles after seeing the Spangram, but was happy to be wrong. Love the sub-genre idea!
@Warren I don't do Strands every day but your post prompted me to do today's and I'm glad I did! A very fun and easy one for me too! Probably the best Strands I've experienced. :-) Strands #227 “How Poe-tic” 🟡🔵🔵🔵 🔵🔵🔵
@Warren Hmm, off-hand I cannot think of another poem I would know well enough to solve in Strands. Maybe Alice in Wonderland, jabberwocky would be distinctive and recognizable. I doubt I would ever figure out a puzzle on Thirteen Ways to See a Blackbird even though we've seen it frequently this past year. This may be a generational thing. My dad, Greatest Generation, memorized several poems in school and recited them all his life. (Hiawatha, anyone? Not PC anymore, but fun rhyming and rhythm.) My education as a Generation Jones/late Boomer kid did not cover many poems and no memorization or recital. Song lyrics could work, but that also would be age-specific. I could handle American Pie or Alice's Restaurant but not any Taylor Swift songs. I would not be deft at Eric's suggestion of movie themes, although I think many people would find them appealing. Any of these themes would be fun once in a while, but I wouldn't want Strands to be dominated by them.
Fun puzzle! ross before JOEY really slowed me down but the rest of the grid was a joy.
@Laura W I put Ross in there before JOEY, too. And guess hmwhat my son’s name is? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not Ross. !!!!
Due to a busy Thanksgiving weekend, I was 6 crosswords behind, gah! Lost my streak, but it was a short one this time so not too upset. Saturday's puzzle was a beast, but I'm all caught up now... and have 2 gold stars to start my next streak (still trying for 1 year, my longest is 318). Sun-Wed has been quite fun, with much cleverness and a plethora of EMUS... hoping the rest of the week goes as well!
@Janine Wow, you celebrate Thanksgiving early!
Swear I heard a rimshot after I filled in 55 Across!
You can imagine how thrilled I was when 1A was a friend on "Friends" and 1D was a martial arts name. And JET didn't even have to be clued as a name at all. Uh oh -- this is a constructor who seems to be besotted with pop culture. This is not looking good. Nor was it. Here are some other answers needlessly clued by testing one's knowledge of pop culture: PLANE (67A); PURGE (15A); ESS (65A). Look, there are always names in the grid that can't be avoided in the cluing, but to go out actively looking for them... I don't know why some constructors think it's going to be a big thrill for solvers to cough up this mindless ephemera. Oh, yes, the theme. Even though I don't know Spanish, I know enough to have had no trouble with the theme at all. I liked it and thought it was cute. Better cluing choices could have made this a much better puzzle. Maybe next time...
@Nancy For every person like you who counts and obsesses over how many pop culture references there are, there's probably one like me who doesn't care one whit whether the answers are pop culture or ordinary words. And there's probably someone else who'd rather see the pop culture references than sesquipedalian and obscure words. I realize you're writing from your point of view only, and that you think that's to be assumed, but it doesn't come off that way. It seems you think there's only one way to clue crosswords. Besides, why does ESS have to be clued as [Road curve] for the 14th time? Krypto? Superdog? Doesn't that say something to you? It's a clue that requires lateral thinking, and it's better than [Hook shape] (13 times) or [Double curve] (18 times).
@Nancy Your mindless ephemera are my witty bon mots, and I’m 66. I love that the crossword draws from ALL of my references, and rewards my engagement with culture, whether Shakespeare or Fantasy Island.
@Nancy we get it, we get it, you don’t watch TV. But even though I don’t watch cartoons, I don’t watch martial arts movies, I never saw the Frodo movies, I’m not Jewish, and I don’t know sports team mascots other than those very close to my home, I still completed this fun puzzle with no cheats and found it very entertaining.
@Nancy My pop culture rant is that so many of the references come from streaming services that many of us do not patronize. Yesterday, it was Percy Jackson, which is only on Disney+. Okay, I finally broke down and did the trial subscription so I could watch The Mandalorian, which is great. So last night I watched a few episodes of Percy Jackson, and found out that LEAH Jeffries' character is a daughter of ATHENA. As for Krypto, Jor-el sent Kal-el's dog into space as a trial run. The spaceship went off-course, and drifted around for a while before the pup was reunited with his master. Apparently, Clark Kent's apartment building didn't allow dogs, not even super ones, as Krypto was left behind in Smallville.
Loved this one, I’m currently enrolled in Beginner Spanish so right up my alley! Taking the class for pure enjoyment of the language a few nights a week is much better than force feeding it in school (French)
Very nice puzzle Hang, and it took me a bit to parse some of the theme answers correctly, but once that was done I found it quite clever. Maybe I shouldn't do the puzzles this late at night so I'm not quite as tired. Thanks!
What a great theme! Once you figure out the first one, fun to guess the other ones without crosses. Really nice :)
This was such a fun solve, thank you Hanh! I especially like it when I get the theme early, and able to use that knowledge to get the remaining ones. I originally put in BEGINNER ENGLISH (which fit too), but obviously didn’t work at the crossings. Favourites today where the themed clues, MYRIAD, SHOPS.
Hunh, a puzzle from Hanh Huynh. Fresh and fun. I got the theme with CONTENDER. Although I took Spanish in high school, I don't remember enough to come up with any more entries to fit the theme. EVEN SO, though the theme may DEPEND ON knowing enough Spanish to recognize it when MASSACRED, I could solve it because so much Spanish has been adopted into American English. Now to REST UP for Thursday's puzzle.
Some of these clues and answers were laugh-out-loud funny to me. Very fun Wednesday.
Excellent Wednesday puzzle. I had to pause a second and decide whether to go with zOEY/zET or JOEY/JET, but I made the right call. I should memorize the Friends characters because they do pop up from time to time.
Would have had a record Weds time if not for my lack of Office knowledge. I coulda swore there was a character named Pat and that TYRIAD was some Greek word. Finally I accepted that the T was wrong, went back through my memory and recalled that there was a character named PAM! It’s funny the things that trip us up. Appreciate the horror nod, this being October, but still haven’t seen The PURGE! It’s on my list.
I knew there would be comments on SPAY. I knew there would be comments on ANYHOO. It's getting so I can find the clue/answer pairs that are going to be pointed out as "wrong" in some way. I get it. It's something fun to pick nits. But my question is, was anyone really unable to solve the puzzle because of these? Did [Neuter] really prevent anyone from solving it as SLAY? Because if it did, I must be doing the puzzles wrong. I often don't even notice some of them because I fill the last letter in from a cross, and never check it except maybe for spelling sense.
@Francis Maybe we should have a pick-nits column for all the folk(s) who are unable to sit back and enjoy the experience of working and completing a puzzle others have created for us. Let's exercise "those little grey cells" in the best of health & humor.
@Francis Jeez, my typos. Instead of SLAY, please read SPAY.
AND YET before EVEN SO; MIND? before MAY I? Clue for 10A could have an article qualifier, as I was puzzled what word could represent the entire US immigration policy? Wasn’t familiar with HENNY or ASTOR but crosses were friendly. SHADY for [Suspect] seems, well, a bit shady! CAV was easy but clue did not suggest an abbreviation. Cute theme. Was waiting for SPANGLISH to be the revealer…
@rajeevfromca CAV is more of a nickname/short form term rather than an abbreviation, and is frequently used in making headlines or article headers, though often as a plural.
"CAV was easy but clue did not suggest an abbreviation." rajeev, [King James] in the clue was the signal for the informal answer.
Column says: “ When acronyms or initialisms are used in clues with question marks — such as in [V.I.P. section?] — that clue is often calling for the phonetic spelling of a letter.” Not sure that’s the case. The key word here is [section] which, along with [?], suggests one of the letters is to be spelled out. If it was just [V.I.P.?], that would not suggest the phonetic spelling of a letter at all!
What a fun puzzle. So great to have a Wednesday puzzle that was actually *doable*. The theme words were such groaners (60A has an old and dishonorable history). I only had one lookup -- two words could have worked for 11D, and this Canajian was not familiar with DACA. Por favor, let's have more from this constructor. Gracias.
@Natdegu Here's a strategy when confronted with such a situation. Think of the two possibilities. The other, DECA, can easily be clued as a prefix meaning "ten". And it has. Ninety times, with no other type of clue. Why then would you clue it as some initialism that some people wouldn't know? The correct one, DACA, cannot be clued any other way, and has only appeared twice. If you don't know the answer, one is more likely than the other.
@Natdegu Which puzzle are we talking about here? 11D is [Revise]
["Yes, flashy jewelry!!"] Que an amusing theme! I don't care what the dictionary says, the plural of orc is orc! SIBLING
@ad absurdum Perhaps we need an ad orc committee to look into that. All orc and no play . . .
@ad absurdum Excuse me, but they prefer to be called Uruk Haii. ORC is a Dwarvish corruption of that. You might as well be saying Eskimo.
Fun theme! I enjoyed this puzzle quite a lot.