I learned English as a second language (I grew up in Korea) but I really enjoy solving NYT crossword puzzle. There is nothing alike in Korean b/c one Korean letter is combination of multiple alphabets so it is much more difficult to create a crossword puzzle. I personally have never solved a crossword puzzle without looking up the solutions of couple of letters... even today. But I am proud that I can get to up to 70-80% of letters correct on "easy" days and may be up to 30-40% on hard days (like on Wednesday. I don't even touch Thursday or beyond..). Hopefully one day I can solve entire puzzle without looking up the answers. But I am glad that my skills are gradually improving especially when I start to recognize some words that are repeatedly used, like "SINEW" today (which I believe was an answer to two of last week's puzzles?). I also thank NYT crossword puzzle helping me to get familiarized with random US facts. I just learned another river in NY besides Hudson (OSWEGO) or the new super market brand (IGA) and the triple colored ice cream was not napolitan but NEAPOLITAN! I thought it was named after Napoleon :)
@Jaebum I think you are well on your way to solving one of these puzzles with no lookups! I like the challenge of learning new languages and enjoyed reading your post. "Napolean" ice cream makes perfect sense, doesnt it!
@Jaebum Having read your post I've been thinking about you this morning and I realized how much more difficult doing these puzzles must be for you than it is for me. I may be a speaker of English as a second language, too, but my native tongue is Indo-European, just like English. Certain ways in which Polish and English work are essentially the same, and much of the vocabulary is similar (due to loan words from Latin, say), and I intuitively grasp things that I imagine must be alien - at least in a way - to you. I'm impressed with your progress. One thing I would suggest (but this may be wrong given our different backgrounds) is attempting to tackle late week puzzles - they are often clued differently than early week ones, and I believe one can only learn to solve them by, well, solving them. Being able to do a Monday translates into Saturday skills only to a very small extent. Once you get into the spirit of Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, you'll start acing them soon enough. Solving archived puzzles with autocheck might help you get there - it did for me, anyway. Happy solving!
@Jaebum As someone for whom English is very much my first language, I also learned today that I can’t spell NEAPOLITAN!
@Jaebum congrats on your progress! Four years ago I couldn’t even finish a Monday, and now I can do most days of the week (Saturday aside!) almost without lookups — the typical exceptions being certain US-centric knowledge, like state politicians for example. It’s been pleasing to see my progress over the years, and I love reading about yours which is obviously very impressive given that English is your second language. As well as my crossword hobby, I try to learn languages (it’s not a strong skill for me but it’s nice to try) so I am in awe of you :) I agree with the advice from @Andrzej to attempt a later-week puzzle anyway: my method early on was to simply start with Autocheck On for the whole puzzle. It meant I didn’t get lost with a wrong guess (or ten!) and if I felt I would *never* get a word I’d let the program fill it in for me etc. But as @Andrzej mentioned, seeing the clueing style for later week crosswords helped me learn the tricks. Then I moved onto attempting one or two runs through the clues before doing a Check Puzzle to find all my errors :) and now I almost never use it — occasionally on a particularly difficult Saturday, but very rarely now. Anyway, congratulations again on your progress!
@Jaebum Congratulations to you!! Thanks for sharing your experience and progress!! And for whatever it's worth as a native U.S. English speaker, I agree with what Andrzej says about delving into the later week puzzles. I ignored the advice given to avoid them until I was used to early week puzzles and I think I am much better for it. Use the helps available as training wheels, and know that it might take a while for you to go without the training wheels, but in the meantime you'll be building up your crossword muscles, which are attached to crossword sinew, and crossword bones. ☺️
I don't trust trees; they're shady characters. (One tree pun is fine, but I'll be sycamore of them.)
Mike, Now you're aspen for it...
@Mike If I cashew dissing fruit and flowering trees yew better be prepeared for mimosa harshest appleprobation, and I'm knot all just bark!
@Mike We just went through our tree puns last week, I’m nut going to do that again. Cashew later!
@Mike But BAOBAB, cashew at least say O(A)KS to an ELM, fir instance?
@Mike is this the right moment to mention that my favorite actress is Eva Green?
@Mike et al I see that everyone is full of sassafras this morning!
My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Eavesdrop from afar, maybe (4)(4) 2. Holder of all the digits, from 1 to 0 (6) 3. Line of passengers (3)(2)(5) 4. Tie with strings (4) 5. Poison classification (4)(5) READ LIPS KEYPAD ARE WE THERE BOLO HAIR METAL
My favorite encore clues from last week: [Small sounds] (6) [Something in which you might stand for a spell] (3) INLETS BEE
Lewis, For the Lewis Favorites Archive, please note that the BOLO clue is [Tie with string] (singular).
What an elegant theme, embracing wordplay (with SHADOWBOXES), and visually illustrating the SUN shining on objects known for bringing shade, and casting shadows.. Elegant and complex, and simply beautiful. Many experienced solvers eschew Monday puzzles as an unsatisfactory throw-away. I find, often, that they contain delights that I’m grateful for not missing. Today’s charming and adeptly executed theme, for instance. I’m guessing Michele came across the term SHADOW BOX, and from there she wove this multifaceted and artistic result. That’s first-class constructor’s mind. She’s got the knack. This from a constructor who, per her notes, tried to make her first puzzle at age 11, found it hard, and waited 40 years to try again. I’m glad you did, Michele. This puzzle lit up my day. Thank you!
@Lewis I’m with you. I was surprised that some folks had quibbles about it and at least one person said it was too easy!! This is why I only read the first several comments. We all have plenty to be upset about these days and crosswords are an entertainment and often a challenge.
My hours of NYT Crossword solving really paid off for me this weekend. This weekend was "Moose Madness" in Grand Marais. Part of it is there are posters around town with facts about moose, with one letter highlighted. We were told there were six signs, and that if we could get them and unscramble the word, we'd each get five "moose bucks" to spend at one of about a dozen stores in town. We were also told the word was related to moose. We found signs with the following letters: PLDW. At this point I knew the answer, and was not surprised to hear that the final two letters were A and E. So we get home, my wife and I and two grand kids, and they sat down at the table to work out the word. I told them I already knew it (as many of you probably do as well). My wife tentatively said DEWLAP, but she thought it was a joke. I confirmed it. Price of NYT Games subscription: about 4 dollars a month. The adulation of your grandkids: priceless.
@Francis Well done! I wouldn't have gotten dewlap very quickly, that's for sure.
'Does anyone else have trouble spelling the name of this [Tricolored ice cream flavor]? I’m always tempted to begin spelling NEAPOLITAN with “neo,”' *Raises hand and hangs head.*
@Anthony Hmm..well, not if you think of NAPOLI, which--now that you've made ME rethink on it--doesn't make much sense by the time it's on the label of the ice cream I don't care for.... Only the "POLI" part was left standing. NAPLES is no help. I don't believe you can be blamed for the confusion. All is forgiven!
@Anthony NEAPOLITAN is a Greek-based demonym meaning "of the new city." "New city" is νέα πόλη (nea poli) in Greek, and Napoli, Italy was originally Neapolis. The S at the end and the I at the end in Italian probably made early cartographers think the name was a plural; hence, we have "Naples" in English. But what's a Naple, anyway? Interestingly, Nablus (in the West Bank) is a cognate. As in the next hamlet to my own Haverstraw, which is New City (which is not actually a city). Carthage, Newcastle, and dozens of others share a similar meaning.
@Anthony having never heard of "IGA," and confidently having filled in "NEoPOLITAN," I spent about 50% of my solve time looking for what I had wrong.
A nitpick (but that’s what people who write footnotes do for a living): the author of The Raven would be Poe, EA!
This was discussed earlier... <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4jnv8h?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4jnv8h?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
Thought I was going nuts....misspelled NeOpolitan and couldn't find my error....
@AliS Same here. I finally saw it but it took awhile
@AliS Me too. And I didn’t know the crossing supermarket, so that was no help. NEAPOLITAN still looks wrong.
@AliS Same, I was squinting so hard at the crossword until I caved and asked a friend for help and she said that the way I spelled it didn't look right.
@AliS SAME! Didn't help that I had to clue as to the grocery store.
Beyond the shadow of a doubt, this puzzle was a lovely way to spend some time on a serene Sunday afternoon. Thank you, Michele. You put together a Monday puzzle that was easy, with clues that were imaginative! (Not fawning about the awning, but not said tepidly.)
Oh gee whiz, I've been beaten by a Monday puzzle. I had mAy I GO instead of CAN I GO, and I don't flyspeck, so... Still, I had a good time, and marveled at the SHADOW BOXES so precisely placed. Wonderful idea and execution, Ms. Govier. Thank you! For some puzzle music, here's a staple of the 70s, Andy Gibb with "SHADOW Dancing"– <a href="https://youtu.be/PZxA3FVUwvk?is=jo58ihSTvUd-TFwo" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/PZxA3FVUwvk?is=jo58ihSTvUd-TFwo</a>
@sotto voce If it makes you feel any better, I needed to root out two errors in my flyspecking tonight. So if I didn't flyspeck, I'd be in the same boat. One was a misspelling on NEAPOLITAN, the other a blatant typo.
@sotto voce Even if you did flyspeck, those would've been hard to spot.
@sotto voce So I suppose you thought Wichita was Mountain standard time? I gotta believe you’ve been around here long enough that you’ve seen Nala here. Yala is what my wife says, it means “Let’s go!” What do you consider flyspecking? Do you not look for mistakes? Or are you trying to assume it’s a newspaper and you don’t know if you got it wrong?
@sotto voce I'm with you. We should get shirts that say "I DON'T FRYSPECK".
I rarely encounter unknown vocabulary in Monday puzzles. PERMED??? I knew of the hair-related noun "perm", but I had no idea it could be a verb, too, and thus the clue and entry stumped me. The cross of OSWEGO was cruel for me. I actually ended up looking up the NYT geographic name when I didn't get my gold star upon typing in the last letter. Your AWNING is our markiza. The etymology of the word is quite interesting and related to your marquee. Apparently in olden times marquises (the high-ranked nobles) often served as military commanders. On campaign a marquis would sleep in a tent distinguished from those of lesser men by a linen canopy over the entrance. Both the Polish "markiza" and your "marquee" arose from the association between marquises and the canopies of their tents.
Ahh, my first puzzle completed in, I think, four days. I thought I would do them faithfully over my vacation, not because of streaks or gold stars, but because I enjoy them. In fact, I started each one, but then would get distracted by other lovely things to do that I can't or don't do at home. Ahh, the salty air cruise life is the life for me!! Then I thought I would catch up on the long plane ride back, but unfortunately my ole undiagnosable rampant nerve pain nemesis roared back with a vengeance on Sunday, our travel day... What a very, very miserable way to spend four hours in an airplane. In any case, I was not able to focus my mind on the puzzles, so watched Independence Day on the inflight movie, instead. I need something familiar but fun and comfortable, and that did the trick. All of which brings me to today's puzzle, which I really enjoyed! I should have noticed the theme earlier, but I only noticed it as I filled in the third entry, THATSRIGHT. (Body is behaving at least a little bit better today, but my brain is still a bit tired and sun and salt washed.) Very sweet theme and a nice amount of, as they say, crunchiness. I took today off to recover, so I will probably try to finish up the last few days of puzzles. And I'll have the benefit of my big screen monitor, rather than the phone, so that's good In the meantime, where in the h e double hockey sticks is the buffet in this place!? I tell you, the service here leaves a lot to be desired! 0/10! Har!
@HeathieJ Glad to see you back. Thoughts and prayers in your direction. Take care. ....
@HeathieJ What @Rich said + lots of love and Diet Coke. Feel better soon! 💕
@HeathieJ I guess your body was just protesting that it didn’t want to go home yet… seriously, sorry you had to endure that. As if being stuck on a plane wasn’t already miserable enough. Sounds like you had a nice vacation, though, and I’m glad for that. Good to have you back. As for the buffet here, there’s always plenty of beef. It can be overly salty at times though, so maybe just stick with the (smart) cookies. 🍪 (Oof, that was bad. Where’s Munster Mike when you need him?)
Regarding TAS: When our kids were little, we had a nanny from England who tried to teach our little ones to be thankful, by making them say "TA" when they received something. The wife and I were scratching our heads over this mystery word, which eventually we figured out. We had to inform the nanny that no one says "TA" in America.
@Steve L I'm Australian and it's a standard response from me... When I visit America I'm certain all the servers must think there is something wrong with me making these weird sounds when they bring my drink over. Random sounds is good though! I loved being in Charlotte and when I would say "thanks so much" the response was "yip".
@Steve L Twelve hours later, I'll add that "ta" is not a word like "lift" for "elevator" or "lorry" for "truck" that most Americans recognize as a Britishism. It's something that is mostly unknown over here, eliciting looks of befuddlement when we come across it. Of course, someone who watches Bridgerton or Doctor Who will probably tell me I'm way off course, but I'm talking about most people, not Anglophiles.
Spent 15 mins reading and rereading my puzzle, the post, these comments, everything... Only to find I had Neo instead of Nea [facepalm]. No one to blame but myself.
@J same x 3. Thank you for posting!
@j one of my many blunders today. Oof I’m an OAF.
I totally missed the SUN! How cool was that? Should have been highlighted or animated or something, at least at the end.
@SP It's highlighted along with the revealer when either is selected. (On my phone.)
“Is it OK for me to leave?” Is MAY I go? “Is it possible for me to leave?” is CAN I go?
@VCarlson That ship sailed long ago
@VCarlson "You MAY if you CAN," is the standard reproof for misusing either of those two words....
@VCarlson Check this out: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/when-to-use-can-and-may" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/when-to-use-can-and-may</a>
@VCarlson Ruin a date in four words or less. "Four words or *fewer*!"
It's Monday. It's early. That's my excuse for not noticing the repeated words above the "shaded" entries. Actually, the gray BOXES were SHADOW enough, and I didn't sit back and look for more. Now that I ponder how I could have missed something like AWNING upon AWNING, I realized I was using only the Downs (having started at the bottom of the puzzle, as is my wont.) Thus...the matching across entries did not stand out. Oh, well. I put in 28D's "Sapporo rival"....ASAHI, and then thought, "Wait! That's a beer, not make-up." But it had to be correct... Turns out I mixed up Sephora with Sapporo... I'm as likely to have one as the other. Sheesh. May as well be Monday! More coffee, please.
Who knows what cleverness lurks in the pages of this newspaper? (I dunno, who?) Nice one.
@John Carson, Only Ms. Govier knows! 😄
Regarding 30A, this is not correct citation form; you always give the last name of the author, followed by the initial(s) of the first (and second) name(s), quoth I.
@Strudel Dad. It depends on what system you are using. I was instructed that, while in endnotes and bibliographies which are sorted alphabetically the for is Last name , the initials or full names, in footnotes names were entered as in the source, that is First name,or initials the last name. I can’t locate my copy of Tiburion to b
@Strudel Dad Thank you. I wanted to point that out but thought "That was true decades ago when I was in school ... maybe the NYT Style Manual is different?"
FWIW, answers do not have to follow NYT Style; clues do.
After I posted my comment, I did a Google search, learning that there are (at least) three different styles of citation; one being referred to as “Chicago” style where the author’s last name goes last. (My earlier comment was based on having been the editor-in-chief of a law journal for 15 years.)
@Strudel Dad Like they say about crosswords, they're your citations. Write them any way you want. (Unless, of course, you're being graded or published. I generally just leave a link.)
Neapolitan ice cream--not a good ice cream memory. Growing up in a family of 6 kids, my mother bought Neapolitan to please as many of us as possible. To me, the taste was all mixed up. No matter if I managed to carefully scoop vanilla without any chocolate or strawberry, I could still taste all 3 flavors. A travesty!
@Jancy youngest of eight kids here. All I ever got was the strawberry because no one else liked it.
@Jancy I feel your childhood pain. Youngest of eight kids here. All I ever got was the strawberry because no one else liked it.
@Jancy, My memory on this was in giving my parents such a laugh when I called it Napoleon ice cream 😂
- is it me or has 'sinew' become the new 'ore' for the repeatable daily clue?
@Mayor McCheese...... Yes! It seems to be here for several days in a row.
poem made from words in today’s New York Times crossword puzzle a meditation to the sun a/ i see the day i praise the day i praise the day i feel the air i thank the air the wild air i see you i thank you i thank you a/ everyone you touch becomes gold everyone you love becomes strong everyone you change floats a/ away
Cool coincidence, seeing CANIGO CANADA on the day of Alberta’s so-called referendum vote. I find something serene and beautiful about the lengthening shadows this time of year (maybe because I’m trying not to think about the coming cold and darkness?). Very nice puzzle.
SINEW again? Okay, as long as they don't try to sell me sinewy Oreos. Well-constructed, with a smart little fillip of a theme. Thanks, Michèle.
@Linda Jo, Ha ha :) ! Your post makes me wish for a celebrity Oreo collab for former British (and in my opinion, best great-name-for-a-) band Throbbing Gristle. I’m not actually aware of much of their music, so will leave any youtune recs for others.
@Linda Jo. Literally came to the comments to see if anyone is noticing it. I looked it up. 3rd time in the past week, 4th time in the last 2 months.
Sam may be confused about the spelling of NEAPOLITAN, but Neapolis does mean "new city" in Greek. I'll also mention that the clue/answer agreement rule allows for exceptions based on the meaning of the words. Since "TORTS" is a single law class, the clue can be singular without breaking any rules. (I'm not saying Sam didn't know this, but I wanted to point out that this pairing is not just some random outlier.)
@Steve L It also helps if you know that in Greek, "polis"(=city) is feminine. Hence "nea-politan," not "neo-politan." But's that a lot to ask. (There's some linguistic reason it's "acropolis," and not "acrapolis," but I forget what it is. )
Technically, the plural of BAHT is BAHT. You don't say BAHTS in Thailand.
@Michael Are you surprised languages subject loan words to their own rules of grammar? You don't say pierogis in Poland, either, or panini in the singular in Italy. And the plural of "hamburger" in Polish is not "hamburgers" - it's hamburgery. Do you expect speakers of English (or Polish, or any other language) to learn the grammar of every language in the world and then apply it to loan words in their mother tongues?
@Michael Some (not all) dictionaries list "bahts" as an alternative to "baht", but it seems ridiculous to me. The English language has no trouble treating "yen" as both singular and plural, presumably because that was how the Japanese themselves used the word.
@Michael I follow your thinking, but you're provably wrong. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/baht" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/baht</a> <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/baht" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/us/dictionary/english/baht</a> <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/baht" target="_blank">https://www.dictionary.com/browse/baht</a> (See especially example sentences.) And for full disclosure, one dictionary does agree with you: <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/baht" target="_blank">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/baht</a> But since several list the plural with an S as an alternative plural, the clue is fine. We do the same with euros and Legos. It's a natural part of a foreign word's acceptance into English. BAHTS is taking longer because fewer people talk about Thai currency than pan-European currency. Perhaps you're just thinking of the use of the word with specific prices. People probably tend to say "10 baht" more than the other way, but it's probably more common for someone to say "He was carrying around dollars, pounds, euros and bahts."
Shout out to my hometown county, OSWEGO
Scott, Do you miss the snow?
Only just now saw that the SHADOWBOXES were all words in the “shade” of the actual words themselves, one line below and to the right. (Kind of skipped over Sam’s description of that in the column — oops!). Very impressive construction, Ms. Govier!
Learn something new even from a Monday. Per Wikipedia, "The correct spelling of his middle name has long been a matter of debate. The physician who delivered him wrote "Elvis Aaron Presley" in his ledger.[3] The state-issued birth certificate reads "Elvis Aron Presley". "
Took me longer than a usual Monday. OK Yes, I spelled NEoPOLITAN wrong, and so arrogantly that I didn't even look at the crossing. That is often my downfall! It took a thorough flyspecking.
Technically, Mr T's hairstyle is a Mandinka, not a Mohawk, but I'll let that slide on a Monday. I actually turned up for Army basic training with a Mohawk, knowing they were going to shave it all off anyway.
Nice , soothing Monday puzzle. Good way to end the weekend!
Really top notch Monday and interesting, clever theme. For anyone who hasn’t tried Mondays with across only, it’s really a fascinating way to look at how your brain and common words work. I had everything but the bottom left and the revealer (I thought; I had ARNESS before ARNETT; MRT looked like it would work fine but should have known POES wouldn’t be there especially with POE in the grid). I got the theme with TREE first, which I thought was odd in two places. I hadn’t noticed HAT. But what was really funny is I did think of FAWNING OVER first but didn’t use it because I had GOAT going down instead of N for the GNAT; and was thinking how odd it was that it had AWNING in it, but still didn’t connect it. But the SW was most interesting. I had _A_M_D for “made waves” (my A was wrong but that’s because I naturally had OSWALD before OSWEGO especially because it was in a recent puzzle). I thought of CALMED first—oddly the opposite of made waves. Then DAMMED which made sense. Then when I got TEPIDLY I finally settled on PALMED as in waved hello and goodbye. My other misread on acrosses was REMOTE then SEDATE for the retreat. Any way, no way I was going to get the revealer without help and all those wrong guesses (and would never have guessed an X for _ER.) So I finally gave in and looked at the downs. So that was a 30 min Monday for me but it made it really interesting and a brain teaser, I really recommend it for anyone bored and sailing through early week puzzles!
TIL how to correctly spell that particular ice cream flavour.
@Confused Kiwi That one caught me out because I was a huge fan of Roosterteeth's RWBY for some time. You'd think of the gallons of the stuff I ate as a kid, I would've looked at the name on the container once or twice!
What a lovely theme! My one nitpick is that with the sun positioned directly over hat, the shadow box should fall directly beneath it. Anyone else notice how often words flit between the mini, midi, and maxi?
@Josh Yes, they do seem to waft about. :)
19:48 (because of neapolitan / neapolitan) What an amazing Monday puzzle!! You could do it while completely ignoring the theme or fill in the shadows as you go. Feels very approachable
The fact about tepidly is a great one. A brilliant word and often under used. Really enjoyed this one and came in with 17 mins on the clock!
What a fun serene Monday puzzle theme. Now Monday won't feel so manic, more like Sunday. That's my fun day.
@Jeff B MD Your I-don't-have-to-run day?
Yay, i tried the Across only challenge (no looking at the Down clues) and i did it! A slight detour via OSWald before i realized it couldn’t be him again. Nice puzzle! By the way, i bet there are some lawyers here, but i also bet most of the rest are not 100% sure what TORTS are. I remember learning about tort law via the classic case of the slug in the bottle. In short, two Scottish ladies went to a cafe. One ordered drinks for both of them. The one who didn’t order found a snail in her ginger beer and tried to sue the ginger beer manufacturer, Mr Stevenson. He claimed she couldn’t sue them because she wasn’t the one who ordered the drinks, and therefore she had no contract with him. But the judge ruled that he still had a “duty of care” to her, contract or no contract, and he had been negligent. He had committed a tort: a wrong that isn’t governed by a contract. (Now all you lawyers can tell me how i got this wrong…🤓)
@Petrol I did the Across-only challenge, and a challenge it was! But being a Taurus and therefore bull-headed, I stuck with it. It took a while, but I got it.
@Petrol In France, they might have charged her extra for the snail. Moi, non merci.
"Garcon, what is this snail doing in my ginger beer!?" "It appears to be crawling about very slowly, Madame." "I see. And what is today's special dessert?" "Assorted TORTS."
Shout out to the Midi puzzle today. Very witty.
Loved the shadows! Nicely done.
Very clever theme today. Don't recall anything similar. A contender for a Monday puzzle of the year. Thanks!
Had to share that I've only heard the word "ta" from watching BritComs and for some reason I always heard it as "tar". So I looked it up: "Tar is black sticky stuff, used for making roads. What you've heard is “ta”, for which you can blame the Vikings. “Thanks” is variously “tack”, “tak”, “takk” in various Scandinavian languages today – the use of “ta” for “thank you”, mainly in Northern speech in Britain, is a relic of the days when this was Viking territory." I'll blame Onslow's accent for the mis-hearing.
@John Carson We watch lots of British mysteries, so I got that one too. It's also why I so desperately hope someone will start a trend of calling me Guv.
@John Carson Onslow? Oh, that show. The first time I saw "Keeping Up Appearances," I thought, oh that's who Benny Hill is spoofing in his white tank top.
67A across really resonated; I literally just got home from a screening of YOU HAD TO BE THERE, about the 1972 Toronto production of GODSPELL which launched so very many comedy, acting, performing and directing legends, including Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Gilda Radner, Andrea Martin, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, and Don Scardino. Very fun puzzle. Fast--even for a Monday--but that's allowed, even on Mondays. ;)
As I was doing the puzzle, I thought it was rather challenging for a Monday. I was surprised that I actually beat my average Monday solve time by over a minute, so I guess it was just right for a Monday.
Yikes! I can't recall a Monday time a minute and a half above my average, but that was today. And here I was thinking right along that this seemed too easy, but it illustrates the squishiness of labeling certain clues "obscure". In a realistic sense, nobody would call the characters in a Disney cartoon obscure, but if you've never seen The Lion King, say, you might get stuck in the bottom left. Especially if you internalized the can/may distinction in school.
@Jack McCullough--Or if you're so old as to have not seen an animated Disney film since the "60's, it becomes obscure.
Nice and breezy, perfect start to the week.