When it comes to seasons, summer better than others. (Of fall the puns I could've chosen.)
@Mike None other spring to mind. You win; terrible puzzle though. (Aww, tummy ache?)
@Mike I'm tired of raking leaves alone and by hand. I need to autumn mate.
@Mike 'Tis the season to be punny, eh? (Just *look* at what you've started!)
As I mentioned in my reply to John, I don’t understand the shade being thrown on this puzzle either?! I thought it was fun - I like Scrabble and Spelling Bee and who doesn’t like a good anagram? I almost got a PB tonight, but who cares? Some puzzles will be in your wheelhouse and others will be more challenging. I always appreciate what a constructor must have gone through to get to the point that their grid gets published. Thank you, Neville, for contributing to my daily fun.
@Jacqui J You probably know how quick I am to hate a puzzle but I found this one OK. It was actually quite challenging for me in places (if mostly for the wrong, trivia-related reasons). The solve took me normal Wednesday time, and without a lookup and reading the column I would have needed to check the grid.
Neville must be one of those "globalists" you hear of on certain podcasts! A better, more fluffy risotto from America? CREAMIER RICE An elderly Robert Burns from South America? RHEUMATIC SCOT What Piazza San Marco can loan us from Singapore? SPARE PIGEONS A delicacy from Iceland? CANDIED LICE And one last one, speaking of Slovenia... Certain White House NFT products from Melanesia? [The First Lady's] MEANIES SELL ENAMEL ANIMEE ANIMALS IN EMAILS...
@john ezra Holy cow, that was impressive. Did you just think of all of those? Or did you have them all lines up and waiting.
@john ezra I've solved thousands of crossword puzzles and have never won a game of Scrabble and stink at Wheel of Fortune. 🤷♀️ Brains are weird.
@john ezra that was magnificent! Well done, well done. I don’t understand the shade being thrown at this puzzle either. I like the spelling bee as well as scrabble, so what’s not to like about this?!
@john ezra Thanks for not saying her name.
The international spirit of the theme reminded me of my travels to Europe. I lived in FRANCE and RAN A CAFE I moved to BELGIUM and owned a BIG MULE I found the people of HUNGARY to be very friendly but received NARY A HUG I was bit by a dog in SERBIA and got RABIES Where to go next? Since it’s WEDNESday I’ll try SWEDEN. See you tomorrow.
@Anita Did you meet your OLD PAL PANDA in POLAND?
Thought I might be the first to comment tonight, but no. I liked it. Went fairly fast. Always fun for me no matter how easy it might be.
@NYC Traveler yes! They are always fun! Easy or hard.
Lovely theme idea, and it was fun to guess at the theme answers with as few crosses as possible. That was my favorite part of this puzzle. Excellent twist on the letter-bank genre, having the bank be a country name. Crossnerd me was also impressed with what seems like a very tight theme, given its constrictions: • The country’s name can’t have any repeating letters. • All of its letters must be used. • The answers must be in-the-language phrases. So, wow on that! I was going to end this post with “Got to go!”, drawn from TOGO, but that wouldn’t have worked for this puzzle, as “Togo” has that repeating O. Alas. I liked the theme echoes in the grid – LAILA ALI coming from the letters of “Ail” (Hi, @Steven M!), and SAHARA coming from the letters of “rash”. I also liked the PuzzPair© of BREA and a backward TAR. Sweet to see you back in the Times after nearly a five-year absence, Neville. Thank you for a fun and impressive outing!
@Lewis I was taken with the clue [Finish a flight] in the same quadrant as AMSTEL and ASAHI. Hic!
Almost got skunked today. You didn't know the pain relief brand was spelled ANACIN, which I didn't, you'd be justified in thinking ANASIN was the correct spelling and that 52A was TASK. Also, shame there's not a country that only has AIL in the name...
@Steven M. I threw in Nuprin before realizing it wasn’t nearly old enough to be associated with the first sitcom, but it was the first outdated analgesic brand I thought of other than Bromo-Seltzer, which would have had too few letters as just bromo.
Enjoyed the puzzle tonight. Thought it was perfect for a Wednesday.
@Laura Agree. This was on the easier side for me (and a Wednesday PB), but I suspect it's because I picked up on the theme immediately and was able to fill in the theme answers without crossings. But that didn't make it any less enjoyable. I am confused by the folks that come here to complain.
Guess this one was really in the wheelhouse for some folks who thought it was too easy --I hope y'all got great new record times from it!! For me, I finished in a little under average time and found it a nice Wednesday, with some chuckles, plus places to puzzle things out and wait for the crosses.
When are the guardians of puzzle standards going to start giving us puzzles? I long to see these exemplars of puzzledom that will represent the acme of day-of-the-week perfection, laid out before us, like patients etherized upon a table, ready for our awed approach, pencils and styluses poised, ready for the nirvana we will surely experience when we solve them. But we must try not to be disappointed when, despite the beauty of these dazzling, platinum standard jewels, there will be commenters who explain to us that they are actually duds.
@Vito I feel you but that argument is flawed. I've never directed a movie, constructed a car, made a souffle - but I know a bad one when I see one. You don't have to be a creator to be a critic.
@Vito I appreciate the sarcasm. Still, ultimately I don't agree with you. In the spirit of manipulative oratory, you exaggerate for eristic effect. As the resident puzzle hater on this board, I never tell anybody else to think of a puzzle what I did. Few critics around here do that, and yet those are the people you seem to be bent on attacking.
@Vito I found this one difficult! Brand names, sports and TV clues, Toledo is in Spain, kung fu, Splinter? don't know what ONLY FANS is ...... Nice quote from TS Eliot.
@Andrzej attack? Come now, let's not use manipulative oratory tactics for eristic effect.
@Vito Dare not provoke the guardians of puzzle standards, lest the guardians of Wordplay content rein down upon you with much more fury. Just pray that Cpt Quaalude wakes up on the right side of his table. 😛
I’m very grateful for the daily puzzle. I wouldn’t dream of criticizing the expected level for a given day. I enjoyed this one a lot. Thumbs up.
@FJC Don't know about you, but if I'm paying for something I feel almost obliged to complain about it! Just a joke (kinda), but of course constructive criticism is an appropriate response to a crossword you felt was sub-par (not that I'm necessarily saying this one was). I would strongly urge, though, that people try constructing before criticising: it's very difficult to make a crossword. That said, we do have the right to expect top-rate professional puzzles in the NYT every day. Sorry for the amount of "on the one hand, on the other" in that reply...
Fun fact, schools never close due to bad weather in Finland. Kids go to school in snow storms, -30 etc. Also, it is very common here (at least where I've lived, can't speak for the capital) that even the very young kids walk or bike to school alone. That one was definitely a culture shock for me when I moved here.
@Sonja My entire school career - elementary, JHS, H.S., college, then my teaching career - was in NYC. I can count on one hand (and still have fingers left) the number of times over 50 years that school were closed for any kind of storm. I'd listen to the news on the radio and hear all the school closings in New Jersey and Long Island and curse out loud!
@Sonja Same here. I spent the coldest day of my life in kindergarten.
@Sonja I don't know what the weather in Finland is like, but here on the prairie, it gets extremely brutal. The example that comes to mind is the Children's Blizzard, which killed at least 235 people, many of them children. It was an unusual event, starting as a warm day and descending into temperatures far below zero Fahrenheit. Memories of that blizzard make us wary to send our kids out in bad weather. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Blizzard" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schoolhouse_Blizzard</a> The idea of sending a kid out to walk to school in a blizzard is unimaginable to me. The roads are unsafe, if not impassable. Huge trucks will jackknife off the road, taking surrounding cars with them. Visibility is limited to a few feet, so it's easy to get lost, even on very short trips. The wind will strip away all your body heat and leave any exposed flesh frostbitten within less than a minute. Even as an adult, I don't go outside when it gets like that. People die every year from going out in that kind of weather.
@Sonja and @Andrzej The Solon city schools in NE Ohio were very slow to close for any weather-related issues. It had to be a blizzard with high winds (think "horizontal snow/sleet") and at least below Zero.... I can count on one hand how many "snow days" were called in the 14 years we had a kid in school there...and have fingers left over. (I had never heard of "snow pants" until we moved to that part of Ohio.)
@Sonja - The closest school of any kind to me is about 15 miles away. I cannot imagine a 5-year-old walking or biking that far, especially in a blizzard.
@Sonja Living in Lake Tahoe, CA, snowstorms often make the way to school impassible, and impossible.
@Sonja Engine block heaters are not standard here, although there are after-market options available. So if the teachers can't start their cars in the morning, school is closed. My dad grew up in Maine, and frequently cross-country skied to school. There was one big hill on the way, and the kids would wait at the bottom for a logging truck to pull them up.
@Sonja When I first came to Germany, kids as young as three walked to their pre-schools alone. I was pretty startled the first time I encountered a little girl walking down the street with her little pink backpack who was barely taller than knee-high. Both my daughter and son did so at age four in the early nineties. Now it's a little different. Pre-schoolers are not allowed to come without an accompanying adult until the year before they start school: age five. All first-graders walk to school on their own, and biking is allowed after passing a test in the fourth grade. When I go back to the U.S., I can't believe how restricted kids are. Of course, in Europe the streets are safer for pedestrians than in much of the U.S. However, I do remember that when I was a kid in the 60s all schools had "walkers" and my own walk to the school bus stop was ten minutes on the gravel shoulder of a highway with a speed limit of 70. How times have changed. Personally, I blame the milk carton campaigns.
@Sonja I have long admired Finland's robust endurance throughout the winter months! Up here in the far northeastern US, the frequency of calling a "snow day" can vary from town to town depending upon conditions. In my little city of Portland where we have approx. 7,000 preK - grade 12 students, the conventional wisdom always errs on the side of safety. We have a lot of students who walk to school and if the sidewalks are not cleared in time, school is often canceled to avoid having children walking in the street amidst tall snowbanks. If schools lose power that brings another huge safety and security concern regarding emergency communications. Lastly, there is the "ice factor." We're pretty hardy up here and are used to driving in snowstorms, but if the roads are icy that can be a game changer and not safe for school buses on the road. "Snow Days" still bring an element of excitement (except for most parents) when that early morning announcement is made!❄️ With the current gorgeous weather we've been having, however, I just as soon postpone winter for as long as possible!
I'm Slovenian and I can confirm that we do plenty of alien invasions from here.
AMSTEL x SAHARA x ASAHI x MANOAMANO x SHAOLIN x ANACIN all crossing each other was... a choice. i didn't realize the SW corner was a round of POTPOURRI in Jeopardy! 5 proper nouns crossing each other in 1 corner...
Yet most folks found this one on the easy side...
@Charles That corner killed me. Everything else I got pretty easily, but I had no idea on SHAOLIN, ANACIN, or ASAHI.
@Charles I beat my Wednesday average by a few minutes, but this was definitely the corner that kept me from a personal best
@Charles Get used to Asahi and Amstel. They are crossword staples. I've run into them a few times in the last year, and so they were gimmes. In fact, because of the crossword, the last time I was at a Japanese restaurant, I ordered Asahi and quite enjoyed it.
Maybe not surprising that this isn't the popular opinion of the early crowd but this is the first Wednesday in a while where I didn't gold star, having leaned on autocorrect to get this done. Brutal amounts of trivia crossing wordplay, many naticks. If you don't know the trivia and haven't done crosswords for years, it's likely to be hard to get enough foothold to close this out. Ignore the complainers who said this was too easy. Bully for them. The trivia gap is huge on this one. The theme was ok. I've had better and worse. I strongly disagree with the columnists stating that people who do anagrams will solve this easily. I admit I find it annoying when they make statements like these as if they are universal. Not so.
The first crossword I've almost given up on because I don't know so many; so I revealed or looked up quite a few. Since some here thought it was really easy, it's just a culture/knowledge gap that's a bit too wide for me. I look forward to tomorrow!
@Jane Wheelaghan I found that there were enough gimmes to cover my lack of knowledge of women boxers, Spanish and the ins and outs of American confectionery brands. It was my quickest solve of the week so far. If I had been bothered to hunt out my typos, it would have been an unaided solve.
@Jane Wheelaghan agreed. Brutal naticks crossings.
Easy sailing in the north, took some thinking at the 45* parallel. Very nicely done. Didn’t need a revealer, just patience.
@Red Carpet Good thing you live almost exactly on the 45th parallel.
The NW corner stumped me, since not knowing American football lingo I went for GoalBALL, which resulted in _RaYRANGER. I've heard of green and red berets, so why shouldn't there be gRaY RANGERS? (I did not fully understand the theme so I failed to spot M was missing). I have not heard of ORAL vaccines, so I kept staring at the _RoL I had there and feeling completely lost. Also, I was stumped by the "stole from a show" clue, especially with the wrong letter at the end. I had to resolve the resulting mess by checking the column. As for BOA: Polish has the word "stola", which I think is related to the English "stole", but the meaning is slightly different. We have "boa" in Polish, too, but it's not a "stola". That word only means an ancient Roman gown and that thingie Catholic priests may wear over their shoulders. Another problem spot was the crossing of the unfamiliar painkiller brand (crosses gave me ANA_IN) and the "bulletin board sticker" in the SW. I don't really know what a bulletin board is in English and I understood "sticker" as a thing you glue onto something, so with crosses giving me TA_K, I put an "s" there. I should have known better I guess. I looked up the drug in the end. The theme was fine, but alas I wasn't observant enough to realize the answers used *only* letters from the themed countries. Doh. There was so much trivia in the grid I was worried, initially. Ultimately of the proper and brand names only ANACIN caused problems (and autism, maybe? /Sigh).
And here's Lucyfer the puppy on one of the last days before his first proper visit at the groomer: <a href="https://imgur.com/MO8lQXo" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/MO8lQXo</a> At puppy kindergarten we taught him the command to stand on stuff with his front paws - it's perfect for photo ops 😃 He's 4,5 months old now, and after 4 weeks with us we are fairly certain he has learned to do his business outside only. Yay!
@Andrzej Yay! I'm so happy for you all!
@Andrzej I don't remember seeing Anacin for a long, long time, but I grew up in the early days of television, and most commercials were fairly simple--often simple animation with the letters of the name of the product. I don't particularly remember Anacin commercials, but the headache medication money was brutally fought over.
@Andrzej I first encountered an oral vaccine at about age five, when everyone in my school got lined up to receive the new polio vaccination. I was bracing myself for a needle in the shoulder. Instead, I was handed a sugar cube with a little red stain on one side. It made me happy enough that I still remember that moment.
@Andrzej I'll be honest, these days I read the crossword comments mostly to check whether you have posted a photo of your dog. Thank you for bringing us a bit of joy!
@Andrzej a bulletin board is generally a framed piece of sheet cork (which could be quite large) onto which one attaches paper notes. In the old days thumbTACKs were used. Now it’s usually pushpins. (That is, things that go through the paper and stick into the cork.) They can be found in schools, offices and other public places to post notices (bulletins) of all varieties. In the pre-internet and app days physical bulletin boards were ubiquitous; less so today.
That was a fun one! And fairly easy for me on a Wednesday. I hope y’all enjoyed it, too. Thanks, Neville! All y’all have a great Wednesday! And GO YANKEES! You have to win or we go home. Please make my Wednesday awesome!
@Terry Yankees lost tonight. But it’s best of 3.
The fun for me was when I got the theme on 17A. I hadn't filled in any of the theme answers, only a few letters, so I stopped with the downs and filled in the theme with their own clues. Cool. Nepalese paella, indeed. And a huge answer from just Oman, nice. Very clever! They all made me chuckle.
IMHOOKED was basically me last night when we suddenly realized we'd have to wait for the next episodes of Only Murders in the Building! ACK!! Silly me, I thought they'd all dropped... Alas, no. And now the slow and painful wait from week to week. I am overcome by a deep sadness that I may never rise out of.... Okay, okay I might be being a wee bit dramatic, but the puzzle triggered me. Yeah, that's the ticket, it's the puzzle's fault!! Oh, yeah, about the puzzle. Seems to not be a very popular one today but I thought it was fine and dandy! More straightforward but I don't know, I thought it was good! Admittedly, I seem to not be very puzzle critical. There are puzzles I'm extremely enthusiastic about, puzzles I really like quite a lot, or puzzles that were fun enough to do and stretched the old gray cells, as puzzles do, even if nothing to write home about. Guess I'm weird like that. Same with pizza and tacos... I tend to like them all—to varying degrees—but no dislike... as long as they don't have olives. So, anyhow, this puzzle didn't make me shout with glee, as some do, but I quite liked it, thought the theme was cute and I enjoyed doing it. And now I'm picturing Bowser from Sha Na Na saying WOOF!
@HeathieJ I’m with you, as is often the case. I thought it was fun and clever and seemed like it was meant for the of middle of the week.
@HeathieJ I can't eat olives, either. I had an actor friend who felt the same way, and in one show he did he had to snack on olives for an entire scene. That's acting.
There was a lot of GLUE in this one: ERIE, ICEE, EDAM and ERR, but no Oreo. Is there a name for the species of anagram used in this puzzle where the answer uses only the letters of the clue, but can reuse letters?
@Marshall Walthew As the columnist points out, it's called a letter bank. And contra the curmudgeons above, I enjoyed this. Not every puzzle needs to furrow my brow; some can just give me laugh lines. And I was glad to see that the boxer in 10D turned out to be LAILAALI. In the same spirit, here's another sports-based clue: Scored the most goals in international soccer. ANSWER: Nope, not him. Not him either. It's Christine Sinclair of Canada. (The AI slop machine gets it wrong too.) PS Go, Jays!
@Marshall Walthew @Marshall Walthew According to the Constructor Notes, Will Shortz calls it a "letter bank".
@Marshall Walthew My first reply didn't post, so I'll just summarize. Read the Constructor Notes.
Having just done the Mel Taub PandAs yesterday, the theme leapt off the page. Nice tribute.
I tend to disagree with the opinion that it was too easy for a Wednesday. I found it a little chewy for a Monday. Took me a while to figure out PAELLA pan and I am not into European beers. So I think the ease depends on your knowledge. However, was still 2 minutes under my average
@Megan The AMSTEL/ASAHI cross definitely would have gotten me had I not have Amstel flash in front of my eyes. So, yeah, I thought that was a very naticky kind of thing: two clues, both are foreign names, both of the same product...phew!
"...I am not into European beers." Megan, ASAHI is not a European beer.
a wednesday served up with a fillip of thursday. tasty.
Am I the only one who thought of Sha-Na-Na when trying to figure out 51A? Didn't get into the swing of things with this one; thought there'd be more of a twist lurking about.
@Call Me Al You are the second to reference Sha-na-na so far, at 117 Comments (reading from Newest)....and I don't get it. Hope that distorts the stats.
General observation: After a Monday and a Tuesday that xwstats puzzlers found Hard (slower than average median solve time), an Average Wednesday (17% faster) would seem comparatively easy. Personal observation: In crosswords, I prefer wordplay to letterplay.
@Barry Ancona I found Tuesday's puzzle hard, I even needed three cheats, which is rare on a Tuesday. And I loved this Wednesday puzzle. I admit I love the letter play. I solve the Spelling Bee every day, never stopping until I get my crown. Different strokes for different folks!
Not too crazy about the Bowser cluing for WOOF. Avid Nintendo fan and the name for a dog never once popped into my mind.
@Kristopher That’s precisely why it made me chuckle (after I found my way)
Hi Will! This puzzle would have been tricky-funner without the IMPLICATION OF SHOUTING, say. *** Anyone remember the Toledo War? As a former Ohioan/present Michigander, it is fresh in my memory! By the fourth decade of the 19th c., it was clear that the Maumee River, and the port of Toledo on Lake Erie, was going to become vital to water transport from the Eastern Seaboard to the (then) Western Frontier. But who owned it? Basing their claims on differing geographic surveys, and specifically the southern most point of Lake Michigan, there was an ten mile wide strip of land, running from Lake Erie to the Indiana, and which included the mouth of the Maumee, which was claimed by both the State of Ohio and Michigan Territory. The issue came to a head in 1835, by which point Michigan was suing for statehood. However, Ohio would not approve, unless Michigan ceded its claims to the Toledo Strip, as it came to be called. Arguments grew hot, to the point that Ohio and Michgian both stationed militias on opposing sides of the Maumee; and one boozy Sunday night, volleys of musket fire were shot into the air (the Battle of Phillips Corners). Luckily, there were no casualties. In December of 1836, at the Frostbitten Convention in Ann Arbor, Michigan finally ceded its claims. As a consolation prize, it received the Upper Peninsula from Wisconsin Territory, which, at the time, was considered worthless, but became economically valuable once copper was discovered there in the 1840's
@Bill <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toledo_War</a> Here's a greeting from Bowzer [sic] and friends (Hi, @CmAI!): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE68acc19LQ&list=PLQSFwAoVrj-1SLbu2YjLpA5WXH7Xmyb0T&index=7" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE68acc19LQ&list=PLQSFwAoVrj-1SLbu2YjLpA5WXH7Xmyb0T&index=7</a>
@Bill That's a really fascinating story. I would assume that Michigan feels it's gotten the better of the deal over the long run.
@Bill I used to be a yooper - actually right on the border of Wisconsin. My town was founded after the discovery of iron mines (and got it's name from that). This country's largest artificial ski jump and some nice ski hills as well. Still miss that place. ...
@Bill The other day, I learned that the northernmost point in the lower 48 is not in Maine, as I had thought, but an odd salient of Minnesota that was caused by a map-making error. It sticks up into Ontario about 150 miles, and you have to drive through Manitoba to get there, as it's not connected to Minnesota by land. I'm guessing the Canadians were too polite to want to fight over it.
@Bill "Anyone remember the Toledo War?" [Elrond mode] I was there, Gandalf, 3000 years ago [/Elrond mode]
After Tuesday's delight, this one felt awfully flat. The theme was painfully obvious after the first clue. Nothing to write home about, just a very meh Wednesday puzzle done in Tuesday time.
5 minutes of extensive research has revealed that ANACIN sponsored "Mary Kay and Johnny", the first TV sitcom. In the United States! As far as I can tell however, they did not sponsor the first sitcom, a British show called "Pinwright's Progress", which premiered one year earlier. (I loved Pinwright's catchphrase, "I say, old chap, how you doin'?")(That last bit is the only part of this I made up.)
One of the laziest and easiest Wednesday puzzles I've ever done. Boring theme, very average fill, forgettable clueing, and not in the least challenging. 1.5/10
@George Have never agreed with you more. I'm actually shocked at how bad a puzzle this was. It's fit for Highlights for Children or maybe, maybe the old TV Guide.
@George I'll know you'll not respond. But I'm still waiting to hear what people mean by "lazy" in the context of crossword construction.
MAN O MAN, that was an easy puzzle and theme.
I know it’s customary, or at least traditional, to have anagram clues in all caps. I feel that in this case, however, I would have preferred the clues not use all caps, and just a question mark perhaps. The puzzle was too easy knowing what letters made up the theme clues, and having to eventually figure that out would have at least provided for an Aha moment.
@Andrew Where is this custom from? I've never heard of it or even seen it here. Am I just clueless?
[Tagline for a movie featuring only actors playing themselves from USA] US AS US
It's been so long since I used a bulletin board or thumb tacks that 52 across stumped me for a good while lol.
@JD Ugh!! Because I didn't know the trivia crossing it, I had TASK in that slot and couldn't for the life of me find what was wrong with the completed puzzle.
Count me in the “uninspired” column. I wouldn’t say this is a “bad” puzzle but there isn’t anything engaging to me about it. The fill is pretty bland—I found it easy myself but I can see where some might not have. We’ve seen LAILAALI a zillion times at least as a first or last name. No clever cluing. As for the theme, I give some credit for pure anagrams, but a letter bank just seems to be pointless—anyone can make random words or phrases from a bank of letters, they don’t have anything to do with the countries involved, and PAELLAPAN and SUMMERRAIN border on “green paint” for me. One interesting crossword coincidence for me today. I only recall hearing about Shaolin monks once in my life—on Survivor: China in 2007. I just rewatched it (in my run up to their 50th season) and literally finished that yesterday. So there’s that!
@SP I'll have to agree with your opening sentences. I enjoy puzzles that evoke imagination and drum up past experience. My earlier post indicates my lack of inspiration. There's always tomorrow. 🙏
@SP, Wasn’t Caine of Kung Fu fame a Shaolin monk? That was where I had heard it.
We may not all agree on the Wednesdayness of this puzzle. But, I’ll go out on a limb to say Sam picked the most “aww” inspiring photo for the column I can recall.
@Kevin D Agreed! Sam always picks the very best photos!!
Slow to start but gradually began to work my way out from the NW corner and gratefully everything started to click. The theme was pitched just right IMO. A helpful clue, but not so helpful that all the theme clues are a gimme once you've figured it out. So close to beating it without assistance, but I genuinely had zero idea the note was SOL rather than SOH. Apparently it's sew in the song so I'll blame The Sound of Music. That one I didn't mind but the ANACIN ERIE Natick was more frustrating. Is Anacin a household name in the US? We get exposed to lots of US brands over here but that one has never come up.
@Seb The practice technique used by singers in which the notes' names are sung, in place of nonsense syllables like tra-la-la, is called solfeggio (Ital.) or solfège (Fr.). Its name is derived from sol-fa.
@Seb Yes, Anacin is still a household name, although not as much as it once was. They advertised heavily on US television in its early days. The current version is just aspirin and caffeine. Caffeine withdrawal usually causes a headache, but a lot of people aren't aware of that. The small amount of caffeine in many headache relief pills takes care of that very quickly, and it reinforces the idea that the pill you just took is really effective against pain.
@Seb In the early 11th c., the Benedictine monk and music pedagogue Guido D'Arezzo, noticed that the six lines of a hymn to St. John the Baptist, "Ut queant laxis," each began with a note one tone higher than the one preceding. He used the first syllable of each line as way to have his students remember the pitches--thus "FAmuli tuorum/ SOLvi polluti." There have been some modifications over time, mainly adding the syllable "si," later "ti," for the seventh, leading tone; and, in some countries, changing "Ut" to "Doh." In pronunciation, the "l" of "Sol" is usually silent. Aren't you glad you asked?
I can still hear Howard Cosell.... And as to 17A..."Elite soldier from GERMANY"-- Yikes. Given the current atmosphere/events, my immediate thought was: Too Soon.
I've never understood how commenters could call puzzle constructors "lazy". I'm in awe of their skill and dedication to the game. But -- and you knew there had to be a "but" -- there's something weak about using OMAN as the "letter bank" for MANO A MANO. SLOVENIA for ALIEN INVASION? Much more impressive. And a note to Sam: the themed answers not only use "only" the letters from their designated country, they use "all and only" those letters.
Love me some anagrams. Well done! Each letter used only once in the country name, and the solves comprising of only those letters? Chef's kiss! I didn't know ANACIN/ASAHI but guessed it could only be an "A", and I somehow pulled SHAOLIN out of the recesses (wasn't there a movie years ago called Shaolin Soccer?). Loved the clue for SAFE (and hope the M's stay SAFE through the weekend! 🤞🏼) Lovely Wednesday!
All i can think about is Bowser from Super Mario barking like a dog
Has anybody commented that "pan pan" (paella pan) and "desert desert" (Sahara Desert) are both in this excellent puzzle? Haven't seen "the the people" (the hoi polloi) for a while.
Bob, Yes, nobody had noted that PAELLA is the PAN, but the clue for SAHARA did say the word came from the Arabic for desert, so I'm missing your point about it. Perhaps we should discuss it at the La Brea Tar Pits?
@Bob, A major street near me is named Table Mesa.
@Bob back when I lived in Palo Alto, it was common to call the main north-south thoroughfare “The El Camino”… originally “El Camino Real”… the road that went from… San Diego (or maybe Cabo) all the way north to San Francisco (or maybe Sonoma) during the Spanish era.
@Bob Avon River is another. Means ‘river river’ from the original language.
@Bob The Los Angeles Angels = the the angels angels
I enjoyed this one, not too easy and not too hard. Sorry there are some complaints, but I’m pretty sure I’m not alone in having enjoyed the solve. So thank you, Neville Fogarty. And I always enjoy Sam’s comments, but I will admit to being just a tiny bit shocked about the true nature of OnlyFans. Always surprises for me somewhere in my daily puzzle adventures.
@Shari Coats Same on all counts! ☺️ Including being a bit shocked at the website... I quickly turned my tail and fled! (I was on my work laptop! 😬Whoopsies!)
My usual late puzzle find. A Saturday from March 26, 1983 by Sam Bellotto Jr. One theme clue and answer example: Daffy Duck? : CINEMALLARD And the other theme answers: PELICANTORS GUINEAPIGEON CIVILWARBLER Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/26/1983&g=22&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/26/1983&g=22&d=D</a> ....
Solved it easily enough but was a bit underwhelmed by the theme. (Though I used the theme to help see MANOAMANO.) SUMMERRAIN seems a bit like "Green Paint" to me, though I suppose its distinctive enough to have been used as a song title once or twice. Had one of the themers hailed from Mozambique I suppose I'd have been more impressed. ;-)
@Xword Junkie "it's" ... wish the emus would fix my typos for me.
The answer for 47A seems more like a "situation" than a "style" of fighting, but i guess it's about the wordplay. I got the theme quickly, and it's witty.
@Greg4734 in Oakland Mano a Mano is Spanish for hand to hand so can be a style as well as a situation
This one went very quickly for me until I became caught at 44D/52A. I had talk for a while and was purely guessing at the brand name. But got there eventually. (Also initially guessed GoldBALL, which would be a nice reward though probably quite expensive.)