Chiming in from the IRL meetup in Seattle with @Seward Parker, @Mean Old Lady, and @Sotto Voce—what a delight! I’m amused that it took MOL and her husband coming all the way from Mississippi to get us together here in the Pacific Northwest. We worked on a few puzzle sections together which was a lot of fun. The two husbands got along great, and it was especially nice to get to know the son of MOL and her husband. The puzzling connection is clearly strong—I felt right at home from the start. Meeting in person really underscored something about the Wordplay community: this group of solvers and commenters is full of interesting people who make my life richer. It was a pleasure to see this so clearly in real life.
@Cindy Beautifully and perfectly stated! I could have lounged in the company of all for hours and hours more... 💕
@Cindy I couldn't agree more! It was wonderful to meet you all.
I love how the crossword in recent months is committed to the only significant meaning of ELON being a North Carolina college. That's true Southern shade.
@Katie It's the one that passes the breakfast test!
@Katie Hah....except that ELON has been clued as the college for a pretty long time. Several kids from our NE Ohio HS went there every year. (North Carolina was apparently regarded as "the civilized South" while other Southern states were spurned, no matter how highly-rated by the lists of "best colleges" etc) A "college advisor" at our HS recommended ELON and Valparaiso to our daughter, despite her National Merit status and stellar GPA. It was apparent to us that he was judging her by her physical disabilities--not uncommon, but pretty outrageous.
I haven't solved yet....but I will be back in the morning to Comment. I can't resist reporting on the Cloud City Coffee meet-up. Itwas such a treat! Cindy (her real name!) and her husband cCame, plus "Seward Parker"....My DHubby and our son were part of the party.... . Sotto Voce really did make that long drive!, it was so very fun! Not to mention we learned some real names! We even finished up some puzzles that had stumped me....old collection of challenging NYT puzzles published as a book in 2016! But at last closing time broke up the wordplay!
@Mean Old Lady Excellent! Any pix to document the occasion? Inquiring puzzlers want to know. Perhaps a link to a site with the pix might be safely posted here.
@Mean Old Lady That sounds fantastic! If you ever have another I won't miss it!
@Mean Old Lady I love this. Affirms how wonderful this community is. Thanks for making me smile.
@Mean Old Lady Welcome home. Hope you had a wonderful time. We carried on without you but it wasn't easy.
@Mean Old Lady It was a wonderful time spent in the company of all. Please move to Seattle. 😜💕
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Fig. from an out-of-order ATM? (3) 2. It has a light bulb (8) 3. Helpful pointer, say (6)(3)(3) 4. Get one over on (5) 5. One clicking with an audience (3)(4) AMT DAFFODIL SEEING EYE DOG BOGEY TAP SHOE
My favorite encore clues from last week: [No comment?] (6) [Peace sign?] (2)(3)(7) DENIAL DO NOT DISTURB
Thank you for this puzzle, Mr. Fogarty. I enjoyed it. But... I can't get past the idea of ANTS ON A LOG. Celery with peanut butter and raisins sounded incredibly unappetizing. So I googled pictures of it. Dear lord, it also *looks* horrendous. I'm not a food snob and I mean no offense to those who love it, but I can't see myself wanting to try even a bite for a final verdict. Something that was indeed delicious, though, was the meeting up IRL with MOL, Sewart Parker, and Cindy. My 3-hour drive each way was entirely worth it! They're as remarkable in person as they are in this forum. Truly gracious and lovely. It was MOL's wonderful idea and I'm very grateful. I highly recommend it to all participants in this forum who live nearby each other!
@sotto voce Ants on a Log is a strictly 1950s idea of non-food food. I strongly suspect it came out of the Jif test kitchens.
@sotto voce I hope your drive home was a good one. We must have MOL to thank for bringing the nice weather with her! Will we be back to rain now that she’s leaving? Regarding ants, quit reading now if you’re squeamish. About a month ago, I went to a visiting exhibit on Nordic cuisine and aesthetics at the National Nordic Museum here in Seattle. I was looking through a cookbook, from the Noma restaurant in Copenhagen if I remember correctly, and one of the recipes called for a particular flavor of ants. Actual ants. I guess they serve them alive on some dishes at their restaurants. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/29/twitching-live-shrimp-covered-ants-dish-noma-restaurant-japan" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/29/twitching-live-shrimp-covered-ants-dish-noma-restaurant-japan</a> That exhibit has moved on. The current visiting exhibit in the same gallery is on Moomins and their creator Tove Jansson. She lived a very interesting life.
@sotto voce As a pediatrician it’s not a bad idea to get your children to take a little more fiber and a healthier snack than many others I can envision.
@sotto voce Yay, I'm so glad it all worked out and your lengthy drive was worth it! Peanut butter stuffed celery stalks were definitely a thing not only in my childhood (a "healthy snack" like @SP said), but something I was required to create as part of babysitting duties when I was a little older. I loathed peanut butter as a kid (but not now!), so this was an especially egregious task – both creating and consuming, lol. Be glad you have only encountered it in pictures! 😂
@sotto voce Don't diss it until you've tried it! Actually quite good. And a fun treat for kids -- fruits, veggies and nuts. Especially if you use non-sugared peanut butter. I grew up eating it the 50's and fed it to my kids in 80's-90's. Peanut butter & milk eaten at the same time make a complete protein. But if you are not a peanut butter fan, try it with cream cheese instead. Also yummy, but doesn't look so much like a log.
Speaking of VR phrases, I would love to have been prompted by the theme to dance a Virginia Reel, or wistfully remember a Video Cassette, or to flash on the Volga River – and I did none of these – but here’s a VR phrase that I hope stays in the forefront in the months to come: Voting Rights.
... substitute "Video Recorder" for "Video Casette" ...
Isn't the alternative to PREGO "not prego"? Seriously though, encountering the letter salad of VANDERPUMPRULES in a Monday puzzle, especially crossed with some a capella band and some brand clued with another brand (I assume RAGU is a brand in this context - I thought using regular words for brands was haram under American law?) was a bit much for me. I dealt with it without outside help, in the end, but resolving naticks is not what I consider fun. I thought the theme was tenuous and random. Beyond being two-word expressions with V and R for first letters, the themed entries had no connection to the revealer. Do people really use VR headsets? I thought it was a fad several years ago, and it never caught on on a larger scale. My wife and I are gamers, but neither us nor any of our friends use VR headsets.
@Andrzej VR has many great applications in training and research. I never quite understood the use case for gaming, though I highly recommend trying Beat Saber, a music rhythm game, if you get the chance. I too was a bit disappointed that the theme didn't extend past VR as mere initials, and I struggled with the many proper nouns as well, but still found it a very enjoyable solve :)
@Andrzej VR headsets have some major drawbacks. Having your eyes tell you you're in motion while your inner ear disagrees is powerfully nausea-inducing for a lot of people (including me). The good ones are expensive, and the less-expensive ones aren't worth having. And, as you commented, they never really caught on, so there are not that many games available that use them.
@Andrzej I still use an old meta quest headset I was given occasionally for Walkabout Minigolf, and it’s fun in short bursts, but certainly not for any extended game play. I will say I tested out Apple’s new offering, the Vision Pro, and it’s light years ahead—it has cameras that look at your hands so you can accurately give commands with gestures like pinching to zoom in, and it has a remarkably functional virtual keyboard. I toyed with getting one but was dissuaded by the steep price, battery life, and mainly the idea that it’s nice to be able to casually pick up your laptop and work while still paying attention to other things. It does let you know when people are getting in your field of view and trying to get your attention, they gradually fade in.
@Andrzej My only experience with VR was driving a racing simulator at the Andretti Experience. Man, that was intense. At one point, I looked down and saw that I was "wearing" driving gloves and a fireproof suit. The indoor go kart track was also cool.
@Andrzej VR is being used to help with chronic pain, actually! Last time I looked it was still being studied, but now it's in use. I wish I didn't have such terrible motion sickness so I could try it. I'll just have to stick to regular gaming, which does help distract me.
Lovely Monday theme with a terrific punny revealer. I particularly liked a trio of word-quirk serendipities – the symmetrical palindromes TOOT and SEES, anagrams LEON and ELON one above the other, and DREVIL, a most lovely DOOK. Even after seeing the V-R commonality among the theme answers, I tore my hair out trying to guess the revealer before uncovering it or reading its clue, and, as often happens, I spectacularly failed, but man, my brain reveled in the sweating. I liked that the possible no-knows in the grid were easily crossed, so newer solvers could see that even unknown answers in a crossword can be filled in. Lovely start to the week and day, and a splendid outing for me. Thank you, Neville!
This is not exactly tragic, but DHubby's little portable printer Ran Out Of Paper! I had to go to the puzzle on my iPad and try to make it go where I wished (up, down, back, I SAID BACK!) and then finally I had a Wrong Letter somewhere. DHubby wants me to scramble eggs, my coffee has gone cold, and now......I failed a Monday puzzle, and it's my own fault for ignoring past experience. Read every clue! However, even this can't sully my mood. It has been a wonderful week, and meeting my fellow-solvers (plus one!) in real life was so delightful that I can only say: The real thing is SO much better than "Virtual Reality." I'll be back eventually to read more Comments and add on....
@Mean Old Lady For me it was two wrong letters to fly-speck; 36A was not AGAPE. Also, can confirm; IRL Mean Old Lady is actually very nice!
I don' t usually discuss other NYT puzzles in comments on this column, but I understand it's OK to discuss the Midi here. That said, as a Black US-American with a history of hair issues, I have a real problem with 6A in today's Midi. How on Earth does the clue "Natural style once called a blowout" lead to "AFRO"? An AFRO is naturally curly or kinky hair, the exact opposite of a blowout! Am I misreading this somehow?
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen As a Caucasian (with a few hair issues too like the terrible tangles when daughter and granddaughter were little) I very timidly venture to suggest that the clue-writer thought maybe an afro is the opposite of something tightly curled (or braided or corn-rowed) or sleek (because of straightening chemicals and/or hot combing). So "blow-out" sorta fits though not well.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen I think the wording is convoluted. I'm not black but have unruly hair and sometimes got blowouts to tame it (now I just use a straightening iron which is so much quicker.) So here's what I think the clue meant – that a blowout hairstyle, in its natural state, would have been an afro. (The blowout relaxes the kinds and curls of afros and was -or still is?- very much resorted to.) Maybe a better description would have been "A blowout reverted to its natural style."
Hardly my field, but is the clue suggesting the "Layered Curly Blowout" in the link below is somehow an AFRO? <a href="https://thehairstylees.com/blowout-hairstyles-for-women" target="_blank">https://thehairstylees.com/blowout-hairstyles-for-women</a>/
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen it's counterintuitive, but I did find this: ========= Yes, an afro was often called a blowout (or "blow-out"), particularly during the 1960s and 1970s. This term referred to a hairstyle where natural, tightly coiled hair was dried with a blow dryer and combed out to create a large, rounded, and voluminous shape, effectively "blowing out" the curls. ========== I think the point was to get as much volume as possible. Here's a link regarding Johnson's Afro Sheen Blowout Kit. Check out the photo on the box. <a href="https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_209542" target="_blank">https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_209542</a>
Never in a million years could I have imagined that having brunch yesterday at the Vanderpump restaurant in Las Vegas and having my friend explain "Vanderpump Rules" and its origin to me would come in handy in the next day's puzzle. 🤯
Some friends of mine watch Vanderpump Rules religiously. I've never seen a single episode and don't really have any idea what it's about, but when I was in Las Vegas last year I felt compelled to have a drink at Vanderpump Cocktail Garden and send my friends lots of pics to make them jealous!
Nice write-up, Nikita! I have to say, when I hit 29D [Sitar virtuoso Shankar] during my solve, I kind of smirked, knowing the "O.G." Shankar is of course RAVI, and the answer is four letters. But the [Sitar virtuoso Shankar] who is still at the top of their game is Ravi's other famous daughter, Anoushka! Here she is on "Orange County", the recent single off the star-studded album The Mountain by Gorillaz: <a href="https://youtu.be/X70VHzox6uA?si=uTYZPV61vFcplxgY" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/X70VHzox6uA?si=uTYZPV61vFcplxgY</a>
@G - I got to see RAVI Shankar perform about 25 years ago in Berkeley. Anoushka was there on stage too, but she was injured and unable to play.
A fun way to start the puzzling week! A few mildly tricky ones. I was cross when I whispered TSST to my roommate to come check the spelling (to my horror and chagrin) of AGAST.
I'm probably wrong, but I don't think it's been mentioned yet here that the theme is more than simply two word phrases beginning with VR. In VR HEADSET, "head" means the beginning, thus the revealer means that the letters V and R are a set of letters that begin the words of the theme answers. Sweet wordplay, IMO, going from equipment for a gamer, to a different literal translation of VR HEADSET.
Lewis, You are not wrong; it had not been mentioned. No snark or shade, but perhaps because it was too obvious to mention?
Fun to see PENTATONIX - been a fan ever since their debut on The Sing-Off. And to paraphrase a quip about the Kardashians: Everything I know about VANDERPUMP RULES I’ve learned against my will.
Vanderpumprules over Pentatonix? Really?
Thanks to our food-oriented guest columnist du jour for offering up pickle slices for the lead photo. One of our commenting colleagues recently confused pickle slices and SPEARS. The difference can be seen clearly without today's revealer.
And for once, the intelligence-sucking reality shows my wife watches finally bear fruit!! Cheers.
I've never seen "Vanderpump Rules," but it is amusing that the people who think an obscure reference that matches their knowledge is "clever" are acting like not only are they better people than those who watch reality shows, but that having to solve a crossword puzzle with that clue is beneath them as well.
@Matt Agreed! I did get know the answer, but building a puzzle around a grid-spanning proper noun is never good to me.
@Matt Not sure exactly what you are getting at, because part of your statement seems to be questioning people who like that entry and part those who don’t like it. Can you clarify? For my part I wouldn’t say the entry is “clever” but it’s certainly a legitimate part of pop culture these days and fair game for the puzzle, as long as it is gettable by crosses which I think it is. I poked fun at my wife’s “vice” for enjoying some of these shows but fact is I’m as hooked on Survivor and Traitors as anyone out there, so can’t make a claim on high-brow tastes any more than she.
Matt, I've never seen the show either, and I'm so far removed from reality tv that the clue meant nothing to me. But it took only one or two crossing letters to fill in the answer. Usonians would have to be very far under a rock to have never heard of it. (N.B. Subjects I don't know are neither beneath me nor above me, they just aren't me.)
@Matt I have to laugh at all the fellows who declare, "I don't watch those shows, but my wife does." Uh huh, likely story.
Nikita, I like your writing style in today's column. It's brief, concise, witty and imaginative. Of course, growing up in Marietta and being UGA grad (sorry about NYU) 😋 surely paved a path towards your success as a NYT editor. Way to go! We lived in Marietta for 20 years (Lassiter HS district) and our children are UGA grads. We've since retired and reside in the Athens/Clarke County area. We still enjoy an occasional visit to the downtown restaurants. Great job, and go Dawgs!
@Jerry Hey, you figured out the profile icon thing, congrats! (I was reading that comment thread from yesterday's puzzle just this morning.) And I'm with you on Nikita's writing style. Nicely done!
@Jerry Glad to see you're back to your usual J. What was the trick that worked?
@Jerry Thanks for the nice note, Jerry! I'm a Sprayberry graduate so we were essentially neighbors. A hearty Go Dawgs to you, too!
Thanks to the suggestions from NYC Traveller, Vaer and SBK, I'm finally icon-free! The letter next to everyone's name isn't an image, per se, it's text. Therefore it cannot be saved in any other format than text. The solution: I captured a screenshot of the letter in the "Me" account settings on the app, cropped it, and saved it. The file saved on my iPad as a PNG image with a file size of 8k (150x150, or 144 pixels/inch). This meets the criteria for uploading. Then I replaced the existing image.
I would say that 4D ["Feed a cold, ___ a fever" (dubious medical advice)] STARVE is definitely dubious medical advice. Better to give some of that COCO, ANTSONALOG, Prego or RAGU with PASTA, pastrami from the DELI, fruit aged with RIPENER, some nice CHAR like barbequed spare ribs, some ROOT beer or ROOT veggies like beets or carrots, or how about a CROP of turnips, don't forget a TUB of Rocky Road, or something from the fish STORE that's been ASEA, and definitely don't forget to consult ERMA Bombeck for a recipe for mom's own apple pie.
@lucky13 It’s especially dubious advice because what the heck’s a cold vs a fever? By “cold” do you mean an upper respiratory virus? In which case you may or may not have a fever with it? Or is the implication that a “fever” is a more serious version and when it gets that serious you should stop eating? I never understood it.
@lucky13 I’ve only encountered “Feed a fever and starve a cold.” With a fever, you’re burning up calories, and with a cold, you’re stuffed up and can’t taste anything anyway. Makes more sense.
Feeling a little cranky because I just watched two Mets games, but eventually the puzzle won me over despite the absence of Victoria Regina. (Could have done w/o Vanderpump Rules.) And by the way, I'd like a word with the commenter who mentioned TWERK the other day. Most of the pop culture was in my wheelhouse. The scene where Han says "I know" is my favorite in that movie. Yes, i was 20-something when I first saw that movie and in it for the characters not the battles. And it was quite the cliffhanger, too. The only place I hesitated was LEON Spinks, I was sure his name was Leonard, but didn’t know people referred to him as LEON. Lewis will like the location of ELON just above of LEON, I'm sure. And here is Ray Davies of the Kinks to help get PENTATONIX out of your head, should they be lodged there. <a href="https://youtu.be/brlLH8fqJM?si=zzzoKF1GTjPw2WnF" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/brlLH8fqJM?si=zzzoKF1GTjPw2WnF</a>
@Vaer PS So far Nikita has been my favorite guest columnist. Major points for knowing who The Jetsons are, but one demerit for not linking to the opening of the episodes.
@Vaer One more try with the link <a href="https://youtu.be/brlLHo8fqJM?si=xrXXYIYipiHKA5Cp" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/brlLHo8fqJM?si=xrXXYIYipiHKA5Cp</a>
@Vaer I don't follow baseball that much, but from what I gather your post could have ended at the first comma, and it would have made perfect sense. I can't swear to this, but I heard about a guy who left his car unlocked with two upcoming Mets-Dodgers game tickets clearly on the dashboard. When he got back, someone had gotten in and left four more tickets. (Recycling a joke I first heard about the Vikings.)
@Vaer Don't despair. My Jays have had a pretty rocky April but they did last year too, and look where that ended up. BTW huge Pentatonix fan here, going back to their appearances on the a capella reality show. They need no VOCAL REST.
"I know"="Ya know. I'm hungry. Let's get something to eat".="I know. I heard you the first time. "
Really grateful for some juicy modern answers like PENTATONIX, VANDERPUMPRULES, and of course VRHEADSET
Nooooo.... I'd finished all of 3 Monday crosswords in a row without help, but this one ..... impossible. I knew EWAN, RAVI, LEAR and ETHAN but knew none of the other names. I did guess PENTATONIX from crossers, but the VANDER-thing not really guessable, nor ELROY. Crossers got PASTA, unsure how prego relates to RAGU. A few years ago I started hearing a new phrase, to 'double down'. I found it confusing because to double means to increase ie go up, not go down. 'Doubling down assertion' still didn't make sense to me, and that made OAKY tricky to get. Oh well, maybe next Monday!
@Jane Wheelaghan Prego and RAGU are both names of store-bought jarred tomato sauces to serve with PASTA.
@Jane Wheelaghan 'Double down' is a gambling term. Essentially, it means to increase your bet when some of your cards remain unknown. It has migrated into common speech to mean persisting in a plan even while your risk if failure appears to increase. See here: <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/double-down" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/double-down</a>
VANDERPUMPRULES crossing PANTATONIX???!!! (I think that "N" is right but I wouldn't bet the bank on it). Give me a break! And DREVIL ???!!! Who he? DREXIL sounds more like a name, but the VR theme tells me it has to be a "V". FWIW, I plan to go to my grave without once wearing a VR HEADSET. But, hey -- you do you. This is not a Nancy puzzle. Nevertheless, I probably should be grateful that it gave me some pushback on a Monday. Admittedly it was the wrong kind of pushback, but this was a puzzle that I couldn't solve on automatic pilot. So there's that.
Today's poem made from words found in today's puzzle <br> <br> a/ our lips say i love you <br> our eyes drift together <br> and hand in hand you <br> d/ remove me from <br> the a/ record <br> <br>
Loved today's crossword, but statistically speaking a tiny bit of the gaming community uses VR headsets for gaming regularly :)
VanderWhatNow? I was well on my way to a mediocre solve time when I encountered that one. Never heard of it. Later Googled it. Or, I'm not sure. I typed it in some search spot and it might have gotten Googled, or gotten AI'd. The distinction escapes me and frankly I don't wish to be asked. You know what I'm talkin' about? You post a question and receive a prompt back -- "Would you like the answer straight up or an ***AI ANSWER****" and you go, uh, I just want to know what I asked, that's why I asked it. In old Bavaria, they used to draw water from a well, of course, not having modern technology. But sometimes the pump in the well would fail. Then one member of the family, perhaps the young milkmaid, would asked what do do when the pump fails and another member, usually the patriarch, would get defensive and demand that no one worry, and assert that there is nothing to do "Van der pump rules!!" You're welcome.
@Asher B. In a Google search, you can append “-ai” in the search criteria and receive no ai suggestions.
This retired chemist is really, really irrated at the clue for 29Across. RIPENER is not a chemical. Go ahead and ask your sophomore science teacher.
Margrethe, Not to be too reductionist, but some would say even my sophomore science teacher was just chemicals. I agree, “ripener” is not an IUPAC official name. But neither is “oxidant” and oxidants are chemicals. That’s how I read it, anyway.
@Margrethe TCS. (Too close syndrome.) As a chemist, retired or otherwise, you’re too close to the technical details to see the obvious. Everything from water to LSD is made of elements and has a chemical formula. That makes them chemicals in the everyday, if not the technical, sense.
@Margrethe Thought the same, although whatever the specific chemical name is, of something that promotes ripening in fruits, would probably be pretty untypical for a Monday NYT crossword.
@Margrethe. My first thought was ethylene, but too long and, as noted, unlikely for Monday
Very Relaxing Monday with an appropriate theme (that I could see coming a mile away, no surprises here). My wife’s television vices would have already prepared me for VANDERPUMP RULES but as Neville noted another in would have been Tom Sandoval on The Traitors, which is a hoot of a show if only for Alan Cumming’s antics. Hopefully those who weren’t familiar with it (along with PENTATONIX, which was new to me) could get through with generally uncomplicated crosses, and hopefully the N of that cross was guessable if you knew neither). I liked PENTATONIX crossing TRIAD, and I hope we won’t see the same skeptics we saw in an earlier puzzle with TETRAD (or at least, it should have prepared you). Throw in the gratuitous DR EVIL and ELROY references and I got my pop culture hits for the day.
Totally reliant on the crossings for Vanderpump Rules; it ended up including the last square for me to fill as it seemed such an unlikely name! When I went to search for it after the solve, I thought I was searching for a kind of pump, and was marveling at how this could be a spinoff of The Real Housewives.
My own career in electronic gaming consists of PONG (on the big console) but never-the-less I managed to piece the puzzle together. Oh, I'm forgetting pinball and "Operation." I prefer Virtuous Reality mindsets.
Breezy little Monday. Serious question….given the crosswords are created by different constructors and I assume in a vacuum/silo, what explains the often very-close repetition of certain answers? Example today is “OHARE,” which I’m fairly certain was also used a few days ago. I understand that two times does not a pattern make, and some words like “OREO,” Brian “ENO,” and “LSD” lend themselves to helping fill a grid. Even so, some not-so-common words (like OHARE) occasionally make a run. Coincidence or contrivance?
@Dean I’ve noticed the same thing and think you pose a good question. Might the editors be requesting the inclusion of certain answers? Or, alternatively, might they select puzzles from a “ready to be published” library of puzzles to offer these interesting cross-puzzle themes (mild pun not intended)?
@Dean Coincidence. They certainly don’t solicit them, and I also feel certain they don’t look for such mini associations over the course of a few days (if anything they would try to avoid them.) Look at it this way, given the large number of clues and days there will probably be some repetition and it just stands out in your mind when you see it. Kind of like you only need 23 people in a room to have a 50% chance of two having the same birthday. Seems remarkable, but it really isn’t.
@Dean As a reptilian: my higher-ups (we call them king cobras, even though they are lizards... go figure) have authorized me to tell you that you are correct. It is in fact a conspiracy, and it's been so successful in pushing our agenda we no longer have to keep it secret.
@Dean I've always thought of it as an editorial option to give something like an Easter Egg for regular solvers. Especially when it involves an uncommon word, name, or usage. But then, I'm on record here as one who does not believe in coincidences generally.
@Dean speaking here as a learning constructor (not yet at the accepted stage, but far enough along to get a good look under the hood - check out the excellent blog series linked at the bottom of the Wordplay column for a trip down the rabbit hole), I've come to suspect this is a side effect of the various software packages we use to put grids together. In my case that would be the free online app Crosserville, but they all share datasets. Put simply, software is an invaluable tool that speeds up the process of finding interesting paths from an initial concept, but also a false friend that can dogwalk you into particular sets of fills that everyone else is using at the time. There was a phase last year when I saw the same filler words and clues being repeated on successive days, knew how annoying it was as a solver and resolved to do whatever I could to avoid it in my own work. My current relationship with Crosserville's suggestions has a strong element of Man Vs Machine and I've noticed a real difference between grids I made mostly on paper and those I developed electronically. When and if I get to the point where an actual editor works with me, I will discover whether they substitute my inventive but rubbish filler clues for stock fare, which I could see happening in a busy boiler room. Though at this level it would be like entering a Michelin star kitchen and being made to heat up ready meals.
Will Nediger has a nice Monday puzzle over at The New Yorker.
@Barry Ancona I think I see (maybe) why you recommend that puzzle today. Do you do both every day?
tricia, Quite a few of us appreciate that The New Yorker's Monday puzzle is their toughest one, a pleasant counterpoint to what we find here on Mondays. (One of the regular commenters here has co-constructed several NYT XWP with Will Nediger.)
Cool virtual-reality grid construction, such that if you hold two puzzles up, one in front of each eye, it puts U right in the middle of the street grid of Crosslandia. Even works with the paper version!
A message to fellow Bravo superfans: You know that it's our time! These are the best days of our lives! Just raise your glasses high, This one's for you tonight!
Puzzle find: A Sunday from April 15, 1990 by Judith C. Dalton with the title: "C+". A couple of clue/answer examples; "Stare-downs" EYECLASHES "Crazy talk" MADCHATTER And some other theme answers: CHARDBOILED SPLITCHAIRS FIRSTCRATE SPARECRIBS COPTICNERVE CROCKBOTTOM Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/15/1990&g=39&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/15/1990&g=39&d=D</a> ...
Many years ago I came across the observation that the advice “Feed a cold, starve a fever” could be read in two contradictory ways. Directly as you should feed a cold if you have one, or, starve any fever. Alternatively, if you feed a cold the as a consequence you will end up starving the resulting fever.
got this one done quick. the hardest part was VANDERPUMPRULES. i'm not tapped into real housewives. also trainspotting mentioned!!!
@Colin Yeah, I am a huge non-fan of "reality" shows. Once I saw what this one was, I even refused to enter the name, I just let the crossing words do the job.
What Barry said re stuff we don’t know about 👍
Nice use of theme! VR HEADSET… because I don’t know if I would have ever figured out VANDERPUMPRLES 😂 Rating: 8/10
I don't watch reality shows, but I must have heard of VANDERPUMP RULES at some point, as it wasn't ungettable, and I'd already sussed out the VR theme. PENTATONIX was a bit harder, but I do know my scales. Nice Monday puzzle.
As my colleagues used to say, this was a fill-in. I almost completed in one pass which for me is a feat. I didn’t have a new PB as far as time goes but did beat my average by over 2 minutes. I’m a one finger hunt and peck typist so records rarely get set. Nice way to start the week.
I solved with mostly down clues. PENTATONIc and SEcTS got me. I was Very Riled up.
Never tried a VR headset and have no plans to. I'm just old onts analog.
Maybe I’m wrong….i often am….but isn’t Monday supposed to be the easiest puzzle of the week? If this is the easiest puzzle, I’m in for quite a ride this week.
@Charlie It is, and it seems that the verdict was that this was an average Monday: 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Average Median Solve Time 5:16 Median Solver 9% faster ⚡68% of users solved faster than their Monday average. 27% solved much faster (>20%) than their Monday average. 🐢32% of users solved slower than their Monday average. 10% solved much slower (>20%) than their Monday average. But that means some found it easier than normal, and some found it harder. Sorry your experience was tha latter.
In 24 across, ‘basalt’ is inappropriate. It is classified as an igneous, not a volcanic rock.
@NYer “Igneous” means produced by fire. Volcanic rock is igneous rock. From Wikipedia: Basalt (UK: /ˈbæsɒlt, -ɔːlt, -əlt/;[1][2] US: /bəˈsɔːlt, ˈbeɪsɔːlt/)[3] is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of all volcanic rock on Earth is basalt. Seems like basalt is both igneous and volcanic.
For some reason, emus withheld my initial post. I wrote another. That one appeared after a short delay. Now the original post showed up, too. Do any of you have any idea what about either of those posts may have triggered the bots?
@NYer - As has already been said, BASALT is a volcanic rock. By definition, all extrusive volcanic rocks, and this includes BASALT, are also igneous. (I am, for the sake of simplicity, ignoring the metamorphic volcanic rocks, those that are modified by the heat of lava/magma, and whose parent material may or may not be igneous.) The clue and answer are perfectly fine as written.
@NYer For more information, I can recommend a trip via google to The Big Island where there's a park and a great website. Our family was there before the park was built, but we saw a very big eruption in 1959 when Kilauea Iki "woke up."
a personal best time. and I liked the puzzle too!