I think there should be a word for when you solve the crossword but miss the theme/trick.
@latenightsolver Serengridity? Gridendipity?
@latenightsolver Would that be like landing a plane on instrument?
@latenightsolver I think Homer Simpson said it best. "DOH!" Wishing you happy puzzling and the joys of discovering the goodies these grids may reveal. :)
@latenightsolver Too bad "themeless" is already taken. It would go well with clueless.
@latenightsolver in my case: dumb luck.
latenightsolver, “Gridluck”? A “straight crossing”? A “floating penny”?
@latenightsolver gridnorance?
@latenightsolver Solvent (the nt stands for "no theme")
About 90% of this puzzle came very easily to me. And then things got hard. I didn’t know either of the one-named singers, but the crosses helped me there. ALEE didn’t really fit the clue, but it fit the grid, so OK SURE. Never heard of a CONEY dog, but “chili” didn’t work so I went with it. The crossing of TNUT and ASIANA held me up for awhile as I’m not familiar with either one. But my Waterloo was Jack PAAR. I got the name, but I was sure it was spelled “Parr.” Even a peek at the answer grid didn’t help me spot the mistake, so I resorted to a puzzle check and a blue star. As the stumblers say, “ER!” (Do they, really?)
@Heidi Same here. I got the theme quickly and easily. NERTS and a few others had me stuck. Errrrr…
@Heidi You must be younger than my 70's age group. This was a gimme, as I grew up with Jack Paar on late-night TV. Didn't know he did the morning show, too.
Fun fact: In the 13th and 14th centuries, CONEY was the everyday word for rabbit. The word "rabbit" arose in the 14th century to mean the young of the species, but by the 19th century had replaced CONEY as the everyday word for the species in general. This change took place because the word was originally pronounced to rhyme with "honey" and "money". CONEY Island was named by the Dutch (their cognate was "conijn") for the abundance of rabbits found there; apparently, the word didn't sound like a dirty word to them, so it still lives on today, both in everyday Dutch and in the Anglicized version of the island's name. (And technically, it's now a peninsula, having been connected to mainland Brooklyn with landfill.) Meanwhile, back in English, the word CONEY was no longer the everyday word for "rabbit", but it was in the King James Bible, so something had to be done. The solution was to start to pronounce it to rhyme with "bony" and "stony". And it continues to be pronounced that way to this day.
@Steve L True but you are being too circumspect, doubtless to foil the emus. According to linguist John Mcwhorter's "Nine Nasty Words" coney was replaced because it was too close to a nasty word starting with "C" used derogatorily to refer to women. Recommend the book as a feast for word nerds. For example, did you know that in a sentence like "S--'s that?" (where S is another nasty word), that S-word is linguistically a pronoun?
@Steve L Excellent post! I knew CONEY used to mean rabbit, but never knew about the older pronunciation. Hilarious. There seems to be an opposite phenomenon with Uranus. Few people have the heart to pronounce it YOOR-en-iss. We want the butt jokes.
@Steve L I learned coneys are rabbits from Tolkien when I was 12.
@Steve L I enjoyed your Fun Fact today, but I suspect some Hollander may point out that the Dutch word begins with a ‘k’. I lived for five years at the intersection of the Koekoekslaan (“cuckoo’s lane”) and the Konijnenlaan (“rabbits lane”) in the town of Wassenaar in South Holland. Not-so-fun fact, if you look it up on Google-Maps, you will see a plaque there announcing, “Op 8 september 1944 werd vanaf deze plek de eerste V2 raket gelanceerd.”
Solved a hair under my average but it felt a lot tougher. ROCK GUITARIST is really funny and took the theme from good to great for me. Jack PAAR is a little before my time so I struggled with that, TNUT, and TAUS all tangled together. Worth it.
@Ben Yes, rock guitarist is what made me finally understand the theme and why the other theme answers made sense. That was a fun moment. And I had the same problem at the bottom because although I’ve heard his name a lot, I always assumed it was spelled Parr. One day I’ll memorize the Greek alphabet. But that day is not this day.
@Ben I only know Jack PAAR because she's been mentioned in Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, which was a clue in last week's Monday puzzle.
Simple and elegant theme, and what I especially like about it is that even if you crack it after uncovering your first theme answer, you still have to work to fill in the others. In some puzzles, you get the first theme answer and suddenly all the others are gimmes, making the rest of the fill-in unsatisfyingly rote. I like WHIM crossing WHET because when I say these words aloud, I actually ever-so-slightly pronounce the H, as opposed to words like WHILE and WHIP, where I don’t. I don’t know why I pronounce that H on some but not on others, but I do know that when I pronounce the H, I somehow feel … classier. I liked the two long downs. REAL MCCOYS because it has a great ring and I haven’t heard it in a long time. HUMAN ERROR, well, yes. It is all around us. It is a fact of life. It is inescapable, and I’ve learned to accept and love it rather than bristle at it. See: WABI SABI. So, wow, not only a solve that satisfied my brain’s workout ethic, but thought-provoking as well. Just a lovely experience, and thank you for that, Daniel!
@Lewis Interesting. Scots accents pronounce the wH sound in words like where, when, what, whether, wheel (and my name) and so the word whale sounds quite different from the country of Wales.
I was solving without seeing the theme, but having a terrific time anyway. So many clever fills—a cocky construction, the REALMCCOY with a bit of SASS. Thank you, Daniel Rayon! (Oh, and by the way, that was an inspired theme when I finally got it.)
@dutchiris Oh no, not another one (sigh). Oh well, Daniel, you know I meant RayMon!
Gosh, do Enya, Sade and Seal have sore throats? Even though both have made an appearance this year, Akon and Neyo didn't come easily to me; having Chili Dog didn't help, either -- the closer you are to Ohio & the Midwest the more likely they're simply "coneys" -- it's regional. Anyway all of that plus skeg, ulnar, T-nut, made this a good healthy puzzle, oaten and nutritious, flavorful too. I particularly liked the parity of RSVP and TLDR in their mirrored spaces and REAL MCCOYS. Only real Hatfields would object. I was also too clever for my own good, plopping in PBJs for [They might be jam-packed] before grudgingly going with JARS. Which begs the question: how many of us PBJ consumers use jam, not jelly? My ardor, reflected in my larder, is for jam. [..., ...] ORBITS OF EARTH
@john ezra Your question made me think about how similar yet also different traditional Polish sandwiches are to traditional American ones. The simplest Polish "sandwich" is just a slice of sourdough with butter and a sprinkling of salt. With how good Polish sourdough and butter are, the taste is much better than you can probably imagine. Our simplest traditional sweet sandwich is just bread with butter (not peanut butter, as that was completely unknown in Poland before 1989, and only came popular after 2000) and either dżem (jam), konfitura (confiture, but not quite) or marmolada (marmalade). The difference between the three has to do with fruit content: marmolada is closest to your jelly I suppose, because it has no fruit chunks. Konfitura always has fruit chunks, most often plums (but never whole fruit), and jam usually contains fruit chunks and whole fruit, typically cherries.
I had a short stint (1 week, most boring job ever) as a life guard. I grew to hate Marco Polo and vowed never to save those who played it. Thank you Daniel, a fun solve.
Rebus clues! SRSLY!
@Barry Ancona Now come on. you’re always preaching about just getting better at puzzle solving. Welcome to the “that wasn’t fun club.” We serve coffee and donuts on saturdays, parking is reimbursed - that is if you can find a spot. And we don’t put other people down when they find a puzzle that was plain mean.
To me, bull terriers are coney dogs. So cute. Think Spuds Mackenzie. Who was portrayed by dog actress Honey Tree Evil Eye. Yes, really. Imagine calling that out every time you want her to come to you. That ad campaign didn't last too long, ostensibly because the use of a cute pup might encourage underage drinking. But I think it was just symptomatic of Hollywood's treatment of aging actresses. (Cone of shame)
So, half an hour ago, at the end of our rehearsal, I asked the guitarist where he had studied. Florida State. Oh, FSU! I had many students come up for grad school from FSU. Excellent program. He agreed, a solid music school. That’s Gators, right? No, he replied - they’re the enemy. We’re the Seminoles. And a half an hour later - here they are!
@David Connell In the Connections on Monday, I kept getting my gators and crocs mixed up. (Admittedly, not as dangerous as getting gators and ‘noles crossed.)
I don't know if Asiana is really competing with Korean Air anymore, they've been working on merging since 2020. Asiana will become a subsidiary of Korean Air very soon (US DoJ actually approved the deal today), and will cease operations/be fully absorbed in 2026.
Checked several references, “alee” does not mean safe, just “on the side away from the wind”. And some of the musical clues are quite nitty.
@Sam If you want to talk to Barry Ancona, just say so directly 😉. I knew what the answer would be, but I had a similar problem with it as you do. Let's see what the comments will reveal to us both.
@Sam OK, I'm not Barry, but I'll try. On the lee side you're not being buffeted by the wind, so it's safer. In a storm, being ALEE of an island (or ISLA!) would be safer. It's a stretch, I agree. But there are many stale clues for alee, so I thought it was good.
After several years of mostly retirement I'm suddenly in DC for a conference where I'm expected to participate from 8 am for hours, perhaps even through dinner. So for a few days the xword has become my late evening wind down. So weird to be an early commentor; my comments are usually reactive. For instance I'm wondering how our foreign language solvers felt about MARCO (Polo). Ah well, sleep calls. Will try to check comments at some point tomorrow.
It was a gimme, for the strangest reason. I had never heard of the game of MARCO Polo before playing one of my favorite PlayStation video games, 'Uncharted 2: Among thieves' in 2009 (along with The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 that game is in my personal top 3 of action games). Two of the protagonist enjoyed a respite from all the action in a game of Marco Polo (in a pool on the rooftop of a ruined hotel overrun by baddies). So there. I had to look up CONEY dog, that guy who hosted stuff, ASIANA and NEYO (the latter name always sounded ridiculous to me and I could never remember it). And of course I did not understand theme, at all. I got the answers to the themed clues from crosses only.
Whew. Quite a workout - never caught on to the trick in the clues and just had to work out the theme answers from the down crosses. So I remained puzzled until after I finished and went to Xword Info. Don't recall seeing one like this before. No complaints. This was quite an amazing puzzle idea. Oh - and was VERY surprised to see that all of the theme answers were debuts. They are all quite familiar terms or phrases. Hmmm. Oh, and of course I have a puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: This one was another with a theme I don't recall ever seeing before. Anyway - a Wednesday from July 9, 2008 by Tim Wescott. In that one the clue and answer for the reveal was: 65a - "The first word of the answer to each of the six starred clues describes the number of that clue, e.g." HINT And the theme clues and answers: 4a. - "*Balance in personality" EVENTENOR 6a - "*Pitcher's dream" PERFECTGAME 11a - "*They don't belong" ODDMENOUT 25a - "*Basic Scout ties" SQUAREKNOTS 33a - "*It's no fake" REALMCCOY 37a - "*It follows the evening news" PRIMETIME Think about it. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/9/2008&g=33&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/9/2008&g=33&d=D</a> I'm done. ..
Personally, I thought this was, in a word, BRILLIANT! Took me quite a while to catch on, but when I did, grinned from ear to ear. Never heard of AKON or NEYO, but the crosses were kind for both. Thanks -- for a great puzzle, and for lightening my mood!
@Snowfly I actually really disliked the cross for AKON- HON could also be spelled HUN, meaning that even with the letters AK/N, I had to guess on whether the proper noun was AKON or AKUN.
As soon as I filled in PRICEESTIMATE, I caught on. And I loved it! That made this a fairly Tuesday puzzle for me. (Only here can a day of the week become an adverb.) It was a brilliant theme, and while there were a few entries that were more Wednesday-ish, they filled in quickly from the crosses, making me very pleased with the puzzle as a whole. Seeing Elie Wiesel here brought a smile to my face, remembering him as I last saw him. We were at a fundraiser; he was the speaker. My job was to escort him around, make sure people had their photos taken with him, and make sure he had everything he needed/wanted. But, ever the gentlest of gentlemen, he needed nothing, asked for nothing. Stood patiently as people asked him to sign books, as I signaled the photographer to quickly catch that photo, and barely ate any of his dinner. Finally, he turned to me and whispered very softly in my ear, "I need... the bathroom and my car." And that was the last time I saw him.
CONEY, of course, was a gimme for me. (Is that redundant?) There is much heated debate about the origin of the Coney Island Hotdog, but one thing's for sure: Nathan Handwerker may have put a beef frankfurter on a bun, but he didn't bother to put chili on top of it. A good contender is Todoroff's, opened in 1914, in Jackson, MI; but it's enduring popularity originated when Gust Keros opened American Coney Island, in a flat-iron building at the intersection of Michigan and Lafayette Aves. in downtown Detroit in 1917. Soon thereafter, his brother, William, started Lafayette Coney Island, in the space next door. The establishments, and the rivalry, exist today. The exact recipes for that weird chili stuff are, of course, heavily guarded trade secrets, but one ingredient is said to be finely ground beef hearts. The restaurants are a convenient walk from our apartment: my Partner prefers Lafayette, although he usually orders a "loose"--seasoned, but unsauced, ground beef on the bun, then topped with the chili, mustard, and onions. I usually get a couple of plain hot-dogs. As you can see, we take this very seriously.
@Bill A somewhat related atrocity is popular in Cincinnati: most visible purveyor was Skyline Chili...."chili-dog with cheese and onion," but no Rolaids/Tums/Pepto...
@Bill It's been almost a year since I last stuffed my face with cheese CONEYs from Skyline Chili. Three-way (with onions) for me, please, and pass the hot sauce.
@Bill Also from 1914, but there are too many comments to get through for me to research the origin. Chili sauce, mustard, and onions. 😁 Fort Wayne's Famous Coney Island <a href="https://g.co/kgs/R4B3WzC" target="_blank">https://g.co/kgs/R4B3WzC</a>
Oh,darn! I thought DION might have made a comeback I missed... Fun slog, cool theme, nice one! (First comment, zillionth solve)
I didn’t understand the theme until I’d solved the whole puzzle. Then I went back over each and had the aha moment.
Lol, had to come here to figure out the dang theme, thought it was the easiest Wednesday puzzle ever until the theme eluded me! Nicely done puzzle.
That was fun. Because of a few difficulties (ASIANA and CONEY, among others) I finished a little over a minute slower than my average. I still enjoyed it, and even got the theme, which doesn’t often happen. A fun way to spend a STRETCHOFTIME before breakfast! Good Wednesday. Bom dia, os amigos 😊
@Pani Korunova Respect! I wish I was able to get themes like today's. Apparently I am not smart enough. The only entry that probably would have given the theme away to silly old me was the last one: had I thought a moment about why a slash solves to rock guitarist I would have nailed it. But by the time I got there, the puzzle was almost complete so I did not have to think about it at all. The other themed clues were too opaque for my puny mind. I saw Guns N' Roses play live in Warsaw in 2022. Axl was not his old self but Slash rocked - it was amazing 🎸
I wasted far too much time looking for POLO elsewhere in the grid. Why you leave me hanging, Dani?
Wowzers! This was way more brilliant than I! Excellent puzzle.
Fun! As an old fogie I didn't know "Play Hard" (I do now...) nor did I tick to the theme until the very end, but I got everything through the crosses (though not quickly!). Much enjoyed , Mr Raymon!
Great theme, Daniel. I solved without seeing it until I got to /. Very clever! Funny, that for a puzzle centered on punctuation, I missed the comma in the clue for 53D and figured that CONEY must be a dog food brand I had never heard of. Oh, *that* kind of dog!
I knew I couldn't solve with inverted commas full stops hyphen and tried FORWARD SLASH Like others, I only got the theme through crossers and after seeing SLASH. I assumed one clue was about dog food (meaty sauce on top of dog biscuits?). Hot dogs have never really become popular here, unlike burgers. There are tins of orangey things. I lived in NYC 1974-5 and tried one hot dog from a street vendor, just for the experience. Some complete unknowns, a few too obscure to guess at. But lots of easy clues too, and I like clues like 'ballet bound'.
@Jane Wheelaghan I have never thought about this. Are hot dogs really not popular in the UK? I suppose I don't remember any from my visits to the UK... In Poland cheap sausages made with highly processed meat - we call them parówki (para=steam), because they were traditionally prepared by steaming the meat in its casing - were one of the few meat products that actually were sometimes available to buy pre-1989. Meat was generall scarce then, and high-quality meat especially so. Since parówki were availble, so were hot dogs, and they became popular because there really was no alternative. After 1989 Polish hot dogs simply became fancier - with more condiments and garnishes that were not available before, like fried onions, or sauces other than the simplest ketchup or mustard. These days they are typical Polish petrol/gas station fare - various chain stations compete ferociously for the title of the maker of the best hot dog. Burgers on the other hand were not a thing in Poland pre-1989. They only became popular since then, and nowadays we have all kinds, usually very good quality and tasty, too.
@Andrzej If you’re ever at a hotdog stand in Chicago, skip the local Chicago-style dog, which is way too messy and overloaded with condiments, and order a Maxwell Street Polish. You’ll get a good, spicy sausage in a natural casing, a bit bigger and more robust than a typical American dog, on a bun with grilled onions and a little mustard. Heavenly!
Two consecutive Wednesdays, longer than average, I am digging this!
For those of you who were flummoxed by this one, or just want a little amuse-bouche, there's an easy-as-pie Robyn Weintraub in the New Yorker today: <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2024/12/04" target="_blank">https://www.newyorker.com/puzzles-and-games-dept/crossword/2024/12/04</a>
@Steve L Funny, I was just thinking how THE REAL MCCOYS showed up as an entry in Monday's--the hardest of the week's-- New Yorker puzzle, by Patrick Berry. It was clued to a 50's-60's sitcom. Hope this doesn't spoil the fun for anyone.
@Steve L There's a little Robyn sparkle there, but not much. Every Thursday night I hope for a Friday puzzle from Robyn. There's only been one this year.
@Steve L I didn’t mind this one, but I’m always happy to queue up a Weintraub. Thanks!
@Steve L Thank you for that link. I love a Weintraub puzzle. (I breezed through this one in less than five minutes, a rarity.)
Jack PArR added confusion and minutes to my solve. However, TAUS make much more sense than TrUS. Thought it might be TriS, but could not make TNi- work for a cross. Frustrating end to a really fun puzzle.
Oooh, I liked this one and its fun theme! Didn't get it immediately until I had enough crosses to think it might just be STRETCHOFTIME and I was my first effort to fill answer "Tickle pink" at 12D, with was wrongly amuse. Saying it ELATEd me would be a big STRETCH but it definitely amused me! :-) There were a few other SNAFUs for me but all was gettable in the end at a reasonable time, though closer to my average than my best for a Wednesday. But the amusement continues long after the timer has stopped. Loved seeing MARCO but especially loved seeing NERTS! Frank Burns, who apparently eats worms, is my favorite reference for it. I remember it from I Love Lucy and Thirty Rock too. But nothing tops ole Ferret Face! ;-)
@HeathieJ Eek! Part of my first paragraph is a bit non-sensical! Probably should have reread before hitting submit! ;-)
@HeathieJ You mention Frank Burns. As a "Frank" I am highly insulted by the number of TV, movie, and other characters named "Frank" which are absolutely horrible people. I have a list of over two dozen, among them Frank Burns, Frank Barone ("Everybody Loves Raymond"), Frank Costanza ("Seinfeld"), and Frank Booth (psychopath in "Blue Velvet". There are many more. This is in contrast to real live Franks, who are exemplars of decency and good nature.
Did SKEG give anyone else any trouble? Im even a surfer and it’s foreign to me, but maybe im in the minority.
@Henry Weatherly I’m a SoCal native and have surfed (long boards, small waves) off and on here and in Hawai’i, where I've also lived, my whole life. I always thought the word was “skag,” which is what I entered. When that spelling ended up stopping me from completing the puzzle, I looked it up, and sure enough, I’ve been pronouncing it wrong all these years… TIL
Fun puzzle. Hit the spot for a Wednesday. But now I have no puzzle for break time tomorrow...
I *stumbled* at 54A, because I was positive it was a SKAG fin, and I had my stumblers saying “AR!” instead of “ER!” ERRRRRR I spent so long trying to figure out where the error could be!! Great puzzle!
I think this is the first Wednesday puzzle I was unable to complete in the more than five decades I've been at it. Never heard of MARCO or AKON. The rest was fairly easy, but didn't get the theme until I read the Wordplay column. To say I didn't enjoy this puzzle is putting it mildly.
@Times Rita You've never heard of the game Marco Polo?
Welp, this ‘un was a sticky wicket! Actually - top half flew by, giving me that oh-so-dangerous false sense of ease. About halfway, needed to ditch my fill-squares-in-order. And how! (Didn't help that I plopped in PArR.) When ROCKGUITARIST emerged the bottom opened up and…victory! Love a Wednesday that WHETs my appetite for word WHIMsy and gives me a bit of a workout! (And plopping the surfboard fin in my pocket, cuz that puppy’s bound to show up again!) Thank you Dani! Happy hump day all!
Hey, NYT, can you possibly make the theme punctuation marks any smaller or fainter? I wasn't even sure that there was ANY mark at all at 26A -- which turned out to be a teensy tiny light gray dot which turned out to be a teensy tiny light gray PERIOD. I knew this after I filled in STRETCH OF TIME and not a nanosecond before. For the first half of the puzzle, I relied on word pattern recognition to fill in the themers. PRICE ESTIMATE was also a great big "Huh?" since the quote mark was pretty much invisible too. But once I saw what was going on, getting the theme answers was easier and much more satisfying. Too bad I never heard of Slash the ROCK GUITARIST, but MAKE A RUN FOR IT for the dash that also could have been a hyphen brought an "Aha". (The other themers had belated "Aha"s.) There were also some nice long Downs in REAL MCCOYS (Oh, that's why there's a double "C" there!) and HUMAN ERROR which has a very nice clue. My very own personal solving tip of "Go for the obvious when guessing pop song titles because pop song titles are always boringly obvious" was dashed (pun intended) by "DANI California". with DAN- in, I had no idea ("Dan's California"? "Dank California"? "Dang California"? What on earth is "DANI California"?) But otherwise no problems once I had the theme figured out. This provoked enough curiosity at the outset to make the puzzle an enjoyable solve for me.
@Nancy How have you not heard of Slash? That is really, REALLY amazing. And somewhat weird.
@Nancy I’m 60. My only exposure to Slash was some kind of weird Geico commercial or something like that.
Why should this quiz -- which I put some real thought into -- go mostly unseen because it is buried deep "beneath the fold" of the thread under my first comment today? It's a response to someone on this blog who seemed quite incredulous that I didn't know the guitarist Slash. Happily, many other people rushed to my defense and said that they didn't know Slash either. But we all know music, I'm quite sure -- certainly I do. It's not about one's generation nearly as much as lots of people think, but much more about what genre of music you actually LIKE. See how YOU do on these questions -- any one of which would be a "gimme" for me. This is a popular (but not "pop") music quiz: Quiz: 1) Who was the first stage performer to sing "You Can't Get a Man With a Gun" and "Moonshine Lullaby"? What show are they from? 2) What's the Opening Number of "South Pacific"? Of "Carousel"? Of "My Fair Lady"? 3) Name the four singers who comprised "The Weavers". 4) What song of Steven Sondheim's did Judy Collins popularize? 5) What's a "patter song"? What's the famous patter song from "Iolanthe"? From "Company"? 6) Name three Simon and Garfunkle songs on the soundtrack of "The Graduate". 7) What lyricist had a stripper (as she was stripping, no less) sing: "Zip! I was reading Schopenhauer last night. Zip! And I think that Schopenhauer was right!" Answers will be provided later.
@Nancy What's the motivation for this quiz that is obviously geared toward your specific knowledge base from a specific time period, written when you were offended by people saying a clue referencing a musician from a very popular rock band from 35 years ago is relatively common knowledge. Is it to try to make the youngs feel inadequate? To make yourself feel superior in the face of clues beyond your cultural knowledge? I'm always interested in motivations. There's almost always trivia that I don't know in a puzzle, and it never bothers me. Ever.
@Nancy Maybe we're the same age and fellow theater buffs. I didn't know Slash, either, and I can answer almost all of your questions.
Nancy, Enough with the trivia already; get with Will and turn it into a crossword.
@Nancy I think it's more fun when people share interesting trivia that's related to the day's puzzle as opposed to just flexing. Looking (admiringly) at you, @David Connell
@Nancy I know almost no movie/pop culture trivia, and I did not know who Slash was either. As for your pop quiz, the only question I can try to answer is 2) The opening number to My Fair Lady is 'Wouldn't it be Loverly?', I would guess.
@Nancy None of these work as crossword answers, so the point it moot. But to whit: 1) Ethyl Merman in "Annie Get Your Gun." 2)The overture in all of them 3) Pete Seegar, Lee Hays, Ronnie Gilbert, and Fred Hellerman 4)Trick question, as there are really too many to name. But we can start with "Send in the Clowns," or if you prefer "I'm Still Here," or if you must, "I'm Losing My Mind. 5) A patter song is a song that is spoken quickly (not unlike the rap of Akon and Neyo, say). "The Music Man" and "Pirates of Penzance "contain the best examples, but if you must 6) There were five. The Sound Of Silence, The Big Bright Green Pleasure Machine, and Mrs. Robinson are three. 7) Most might answer Rogers & Hammerstein here, but the lyricist is Lorenz Hart. Feels too tricky for a Wednesday, tbh. None of these musical theatre/folk music/film questions are from the last 60 years and they all happened before I was born (and I'm not kid, I'm 47), so maybe it is generational?
I never caught on to the theme, but after reading the column, Doh! Nicely done as far as a sneaky, but certainly discernible theme. Coincidence, the REALMCCOYS was also in the New Yprker puzzle the other day, but clued as a 50s-60s sitcom.
While the emus incubate an earlier post, I will correct my failure to have mentioned that just last evening I was reminded of, and read about, the Newfoundland town called Leading Tickles. So I was (some level of emotion less than) elated that tickle’s leading today’s column. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading_Tickles" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leading_Tickles</a>
@JohnWM Okay, I'm moving to Canada for real this time.
@JohnWM I did a cycling tour of Nova Scotia back in the day, and rode through the town of Comeauville. I happened to notice that pretty much every headstone in the cemetery bore the name Comeau. The names on the mailboxes? Comeau. Wow, that was next level...unsettling. There were a few more towns like that, but that was the only name I remember specifically. We have the same thing down here, mostly in Louisiana. (Also Acadian populations.)
Slash was a gimme for me, which helped a lot. On the other hand, AKON and NEYO were complete mysteries. Fortunately, my guess of CONEY dog was correct, which got me NEYO and salvaged the SW corner. Don't think I know SKEG, but that and ERS seemed the best option there. ASIANA and TNUT also took some thinking to discern. A solid theme, though I'd have preferred 48A to have been a noun like the other themers. Certainly "dash" has several usages as a noun. For example, OLYMPICSPRINT would fit there (though, of course, that would force a wholesale reconstruction of a sizable portion of the grid). Found this one tricky for a Wednesday, but fair. Didn't know all the answers, but was able to solve the puzzle unaided with the help of some intelligent guessing.
Ah yes, that famous rock guitarist Virgule. Love his riffs.
Fun puzzle, and I can't wait to show it to my wife, Dani - not short for Danielle, not Dana, not Danny, just Dani! I think she'll enjoy seeing her unique name make the New York Times Crossword puzzle!
A great theme marred by terrible fill. Nerts? Sked? Akon? Neyo? Surprised this got the greenlight from the editors
Robert, Skeg, not sked. Sorry the editors didn't get your approval for the answers in today's puzzle.
It took a little while to get the "point", but I figured it out and ran with it. Listening to music, but not GnR. Needed the crosses for a few, but managed to get through it without too much difficulty. Entertaining puzzle! Thanks, Dani!
Ok, I found that REALLY tough. My slowest Wednesday in a long time. But such a sense of completion when it was done. Took me far too long to get the 'punctuation' ones but once I did, it was ok - apart from bloody PRICEESTIMATE. Aaargh. Defo struggled with the NW corner but once I did, I felt very silly indeed 🤦🏾♂️
One could argue, I suppose, that a volleyball team is a septet, rather than a SEXTET, as you have 7 in the starting lineup, with the libero switching with the non-serving back row middle blocker.
Sonja, And that with the DH a baseball team is more than an ennead (to say nothing of the subs in any sport), but the crossword convention for "team" is the number of players on the court/field/pitch at one time. N.B.: My wife coaches volleyball.
@Sonja @BA Yet the Xword convention for “team” will always grate.
I wasn’t making much sense of things until I got to 48A, Dash. Very clever and fun Wednesday theme.
TEDx - not a place for human er-ers. (and personally, I find steel a bit chilly; I gird with cloth)