Steve
Maine
I don't understand the problem with AHNOLD. The clue is heavy slang. AHNOLD is a well-known nickname for the man, perhaps made famous, for me, anyway, by Dana and Kevin on SNL. For those reasons, when I saw the clue, AHNOLD came to my mind first, although I entered ArNOLD, because I was, like, no way. I was thrilled to see that AHNOLD was correct. Anyway, good puzzle, fun gimmick. Enjoyable Sunday.
This morning, having only recently -- and with great joy -- moved from Texas to Maine, I was putting on my base layer, which is something I have not needed to do in the past (mumble, mumble) years. In fact, the last time I needed a base layer, the only kind was available was an off-white, waffle-cloth variety. Today I was donning a thinner, smoother, black version. As I went through the process of sliding them on, I wondered whether people still called these things "long johns" because I hadn't heard that expression since I was a kid in Massachusetts. And then I sat down to do today's crossword...
@Charles Anderson Never having seen any of the films in question except CARS, and truly caring very little about Pixar as a company or filmmaker, I still enjoyed the puzzle, so please don't include me in your "time wasting" statement.
That was a workout. Took me forever. NW corner was inscrutable until finally it was with HEE then PREACH. DEfER held me back for quite some time, making me wonder whether lOfTEDLINES were good places to sign a painting. Also, I held onto Aqua Velva for far, far too long... An excellent challenge for a Friday morning.
This is one of those puzzles that was just the right amount of "wait, now, what?" for me. The first and third sets of downs contained at least two answers each that made me go, "Hmmmm, too many squares for that...." It was not much longer before I caught on that all those answers were hyphenated. Once I knew the fill, I was still unsure what to enter, so I left the squares blank until I got the idea from the revealer that I should use hyphens. All in all, this was a perfect Sunday puzzle for me. Medium difficulty with a fair and soluble gimmick.
@qzac To quote Steve Martin, at least to the best of my recollection: "It's like they have a different word for everything!"
Really fast Thursday for me. Themers were rather easy to suss out.
I haven't read any Toni Morrison, but now I will, so thanks for that. I've already borrowed or put on hold a few books in Libby. I found completing the puzzle fairly straightforward, because all the titles, except SULA (which thankfully had no tricky crosses), were easily guessable words or phrases for me. Once I filled in TONIMORRISON from a few crosses, I able to get BELOVED, the only book title I know of hers. Also, SONGOFSOLOMON was a gimme for me, as I was force-fed a lot of bible when I was a kid, and I knew it as a book title, although was not aware it was Morrison's. Thanks to the constructor for this puzzle. I took a literature class in college that focused on US Nobel Prize winners, but it was too many years ago to include Morrison, so I'm happy to add her to my reading list. And that reminds me that I should do some research about other recent US literary Nobelists, because now my knowledge gap is gonna bug me.
I'm old and study words. Never have I ever heard or seen NOTELET until today. It wasn't difficult to suss out, but it was definitely a new one on me. I doubt I'll use it in everyday life. I prefer that people know what I'm talking about, so I'll stick with "note card" or "sticky note", depending on what I'm going for.
Thank you, Matthew Faiella, for making your theme matter! Usually (almost always?) puzzles' themes/tricks seem to be more about constructors creating challenges for themselves rather than for solvers. This results in grids solvers can fill while remaining completely clueless about the themes. Your puzzle almost requires solvers to figure out the trick, so thanks again, Mr. Faiella, for creating an excellent puzzle with a useful theme!
Cool puzzle. A bit more difficult that most Mondays, and I welcome that, so I thank the editors for placing Elliot Caroll's well-constructed puzzle here. Paul Simon is one of the great US songwriters, right alongside Frank Zappa and Bob Dylan. The greatest North American songwriter is Neil Young, and I have a special fondness for Leonard Cohen and Lou Reed. Albert Brooks has created some excellent films. I enjoy his wry take on life, particularly in Modern Romance and Lost In America, which are two American classics. (I do wonder whether anyone has ever called him "Al" -- I haven't watched the documentary yet, so that might be a way to find out.) Plus, Brooks's brother, the late Bob Einstein, is one of the funniest guys ever, so I was happy to think about him as well, particularly his years on Curb Your Enthusiasm. Why do some people still call aluminum foil "tin foil"? I have read any studies on this, but I suspect those people also say "ink pen" and perhaps even "icebox". If you say "tin foil" I'd be interested in a response, because my curiosity is now piqued. Alabama Slammers will remain a mystery to me. I gave up alcohol 5+ years ago, because it was enough already, but if I ever have a terminal disease, I will welcome bourbon back into what remains of my life. And now with YSSY playing in the background via Bandcamp, I'll continue through the rest of the NYT Monday puzzles. For some reason Eric the Actor just popped into my head, so I'll say, "Bye for now."
@Lauren Perhaps a loo is a room in Bath.
@Mu But the clue was "double albatross", right? And that is only possible on a par five.
@Joshua Parker Many years ago I had an exam in logic class. I felt confident in almost all my answers, but I was stuck on the solution for one of the problems. I sat and thought and sat and thought and sat and thought, and I eventually gave up. After all, the rest of the test had gone well, I was sure of it. I got up, turned in the exam, and left the classroom. Then, as I got to the end of the long hallway leading to the exit, I knew the answer to that sticky problem! That's how I learned the lesson of walking away. Maybe it has to do with getting the blood flowing. Maybe it has to do with recontextualizing. I dunno. But walking away definitely works for me.
@Gecko1111 It may help to think of 'mean' in its definition as a type of arithmetic average. . . . . . . In another sense, emus can be mean.
@Andrzej I always thought Big Ben is the name of the clock, so I lose all around! 😂😳
@Martin I don't know the full answer to your question, but I think part of the premise is that the clues are tricky if you don't look them up. I've seen people comment about not knowing such answers at Raoul Walsh, and I believe it's because they want to get the answers without lookups. I personally don't mind a lookup. Not immediately, but after a few passes, if I can't get the crosses, I will hit Google for the answer.
Excellent puzzle. Tricky in just the right ways. I got the idea of 'mess with texas' first, although the fact that I had _ _ _TX very quickly had me trying (and failing) to fit the first two words in there before TX. However, once I got the A, I figured it out. That started my thinking of other ways to reinterpret the proffered old saws more literally within the context of the answer words' relationships. 'CART before the HORSE' was the second to go. It jumped out at me with only a few crosses. Then I got 'mix business with pleasure' but only after there were only two letters left. I knew what I was looking for, but just couldn't see it. Sheesh! The last to go was 'all your EGGS'. I knew YOUR was right, but it took all the crosses for BASKET before the entire phrase clicked for me. As for 'CRY over spilt MILK', I never even noticed it until the puzzle was finished. This one definitely took longer than usual, and I found it to be great fun. Thanks to all involved in it's construction and delivery!
@Andrew I wonder how many Americans would become Canadians if the immigration rules were loosened.
1) I don't understand the outcry against AMIRITE. It's legit (slang), and not much of a stretch. I hear it more than I see it, and the vocalization implies an alt spelling. I see no real need to identify slang in Saturday NYT crosswords. Haters gonna hate, I guess. 2) I got MANGIONE immediately, because that song is so much a part of my youth. I never listened to anything else by Chuck. I suppose I should rectify that, because Feels So Good is still playing in my head, every note, and I can see the album cover, even though I never owned it. 3) I got stuck in the northwest, because I was mired in the concept of threaded baseballs and eyebrows. Once I figured out the clue was actually "eyelashes", things broke open. 4) Time-wise, I found this puzzle to be on the easy side, about 40% faster than my average, although for me Monday-Thursday this week seemed tougher than usual, Monday particularly so, at 6% slower than my average. My averages are, admittedly, not super-fast, but they're mine, all mine!
Excellent puzzle. Thanks to the constructor and editor.
Hats off to another rare theme that is useful and interesting for me as a solver. I didn't catch on completely -- I found the theme answers that went up, but didn't have enough correct fill to catch on to the ones that didn't -- until I read the title. A very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks, Alex Eaton-Salners!
I enjoyed this puzzle well enough, and it capped off a week of puzzles that were relatively easy for me, all coming in below average, Thursday close to a personal best. The theme of this puzzle, though, is what I want to comment on, because it is coincidental to my having read over the last few days the book It's Not Me It's You by John Kim and Vanessa Bennett, both relationship therapists and in a romantic relationship with each other. I'd like to recommend the book to anyone looking for relationship insight. I am always seeking such insight in my quest to blend better with humans. <a href="https://www.harperlibrarybookclub.com/9780063206311/its-not-me-its-you" target="_blank">https://www.harperlibrarybookclub.com/9780063206311/its-not-me-its-you</a>/
@Andrzej I only got into improv because, as a then-filmmaker, I wanted to meet actors. Before my first class, which I arrived at compulsively early (of course) I was speaking with the instructor about how much I don't like improv and my motivation, and he explained that what he teaches is not "Whose Line Is It Anyway", but that it more explores the human condition. I was intrigued. At the end of the first class, the instructor said off-handedly that we'd be doing a show at the end of the class. I did not know what to say! I can't do a show! Get on stage without a script?!?! No way! All my classmates seemed pretty psyched about it, but I informed them, sheepishly, that I would almost certainly not be able to perform in a show on stage. Well, now I've done 100s of shows, and, while I don't enjoy watching improv, I do enjoy performing. If the audience doesn't like what I do, that's on them. I perform for me. My partner and I also do scenes at home all the time. It's fun ... and there is always truth, which is cathartic. Improv gave me the confidence to approach life more freely. It also gave me the ability to fail publicly without wanting to literally die. (Okay, I'm still working on that, but I'm a lot better.) I quit drinking. I got out of a long-term relationship that I'd figured I was destined to die in. Anyway, that's part of my story...
Thanks for the shout out to Jean-LUC Godard on the anniversary of the day of his birth. Godard's is one of the few birthdays on my Google calendar. He changed film editing forever with BREATHLESS. This bit of self-indulgence contains a nod or two to Godard. <a href="https://vietnamgardens.hotlikethedesert.com" target="_blank">https://vietnamgardens.hotlikethedesert.com</a>/
I walked out of the theater after having seen GF3 thinking, Who the hell was that? She was so terrible. Although GF3 is mostly a brilliant film, SC's performance stood out as my big takeaway, which sucks. I finally brought myself to watch GF3 again when it was released as Coda, and SC is not nearly as bad as I remembered, so I'm pretty sure the recuts included some editing of her part. Fwiw, my all-time-favorite film to watch is the 7.5 hour Godfather Saga, which is brilliant. I have sat down more than once and watched it through, with breaks for nature and food, of course, I'm not a maniac... Riveting.
@Jack McCullough I played so many games of marbles when I was a kid in the 60s in Massachusetts. We had steelies, clearies, boulders, and cat's eyes, but never did we ever have taws. Those were just marbles. I learned "taw" from crossword puzzles.
@K If you're going to spoil the mini, at least you could do a Google search first. <a href="https://tofurky.com" target="_blank">https://tofurky.com</a>/
@Paul Turner OT: I am a Mike Oldfield ("Tubular Bells") fan and have two stories to tell. 1) When I was a kid, our small independent baptist church was doing a Christmas cantata. I had to fill in for one of the singers who'd been called away for a couple weeks. One part of the cantata needed a song with strong timpani to accompany it. I was able to get "Tubular Bells" (Part 1, I believe) into the mix for that. Had our choir director known it was from the album that spawned the theme for "The Exorcist", he'd have nixed it, even though the music was perfect. I file that in my list of small victories in subversion. 2) Not knowing anything about Mike Oldfield besides "Tubular Bells" and "Hergest Ridge", I went to a music festival in Augsburg, Germany -- I was stationed there -- in 1983. On the bill were Van Morrison, Crosby Stills & Nash, Robert Palmer, John McLaughlin, Blue Oyster Cult (who cancelled last minute dammit!), Peter Tosh, and ... Mike Oldfield. I was intrigued about what he'd do at a festival. Little did I know that Oldfield's more recent (at the time) work was a bit more lyrically inspired, and, interestingly to me, the huge crowd of Germans in attendance sang along with all the lyrical songs. I became a huge fan after that great show. Fwiw, Crosby Stills & Nash were good not great and Van Morrison stumbled -- apparently drunk -- onto the stage 10 minutes after his band had started his opening song, "Moondance", barely did a couple tunes, and that was that...
Started very fast. Ended very slow. I got tripped up in the SW section, because rOOm _had_ to be right! (I'm pretty sure I've played Clue. I couldn't tell you which decade that was, but I definitely remember rooms.) I recognized that 17 was probably too high a number, but what else could it be? Duh... And it didn't occur to me that DOGOODER could be an insult, as I perceive "holier-than-thou" to be ... until finally it did. Sheesh! All in all, I enjoyed this puzzle -- lots of ease with some stunning challenges. A good way to start a Friday before hitting the disc golf course!
@Richard Will Smith starred in Independence Day and Hancock, so I assume that is the connection. And broadening the meaning of Independence Day beyond movies, the clue makes sense, notwithstanding the fact that the declaration of independence was not signed on July 4, which is the US's Independence Day. Point taken 100%. This clue stretches beyond the others.
@Diane Schaefer To long for something is to ache for it. Both require 'for', so no (for) is needed in the clue.
@Bill I love me some Roches. Thanks for reminding me of that!
@RubyTC That's what I had at first, too!
@Erma And that explains why it's pronounced with a short-a sound. Mystery finally solved!
@J I can't speak for anybody else, but if I know I don't know an answer that's a very specific bit of trivia, and the crosses are not helping, I look it up with Google.
@Andrzej Improv changed my life completely in my late 50s. Not the jokey kind of improv, but long-form Chicago style. Most people still use it primarily as a humor delivery method. I treat it more like improvised theater. I say it changed my life, because improv serves as a way to speak truth safely. I feel compelled to speak truth, and polite society does not allow it. An improv scene does, whether on or off stage. Monika Odzarska is a talented Polish improviser. She is in a duo with American Jeff Michalski. I saw them do a great show last October. Having said all that, I will also say that I hate watching improv. It's almost always terrible. I recommend learning and performing long-form improv to everybody, because, as I said, it allowed me to change my life. I wish I'd started doing improv when I was a kid. But not really, because then I wouldn't be who I am now. TJ & Dave have some recorded improv sets on Vimeo that are, to me, improv at its best.
@Thad Could have been done, too, with a LAW / OWER crossing.
@Patrick J. Neither seems right, because the tea was not thrown off the ship by the crew of the ship, so it's not jetsam per maritime law. <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/flotsam-jetsam.html" target="_blank">https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/flotsam-jetsam.html</a>
I listen to a lot of audiobooks. They are a huge reason I am able to get chores done, because I hate, for example, washing dishes, but I love doing that if I am also spending time reading what I often call a book-on-tape-on-cd-on-Libby. Not that that helped me get BOOKONCD, even though the book I am currently streaming, an old Harlan Coben, has cues in it like "End of CD 4". I enjoyed this puzzle with its challenging-but-gettable answers. As a self-avowed James Bond fan, both of the books and pre-Daniel Craig films, I found WALTHERPPK to be a gimme. It's not that I don't like the Daniel Craig films. They are well done. However, I came out of the first one thinking, "Well, now that was just an action-adventure film, not a James Bond film." I have not reassessed that opinion, nor have I watched all the Craig films. I may do both at some point. Lazenby was the best film Bond, the most Fleming, I think. I will note that my opinion may be colored by the fact that his "Bond girl" was my first love, Diana Rigg. Dalton is highly underrated as Bond. Perhaps, if he'd had been able to get out of his Remington Steele contract to take the role when it was originally offered him, Brosnan would have been excellent, but I find him the least watchable, although still entirely watchable, Bond. The first Bond film I ever saw was Roger Moore's Moonraker, which I loved, but I wouldn't rank it very high in the series now, having seen all the pre-Craig Bond's multiple times.
@Ben Hmmmm... That was the first one I figured out. The last one to drop for me was the one with three rebuses.
@Sarah Sinatra's HEADSTOne reads "The best is yet to come." Just need to grab the NE back from COCKneY in the other answer.
@Jenn Thanks for alerting me to that. I just read the article at the Palms Springs Life website about how the headstone got changed. What a mess!
@Bill in Yokohama It's just one syllable for me. I can only hear it as two syllables if I put on a Scottish accent, and, to be fair, I don't even know whether I'm doing that properly.
@Fluffy I never figured it out until the very end. I only had 'U' in the Reba squares.
That took me 17% longer than my Monday average. I've no idea why. Looking back over the puzzle I didn't notice anything too tough. Maybe Salk is better than Sabin for a Monday POLIO vaccine clue, but with the crosses the answer was obvious. I enjoyed the theme.