Charles Peterson
Now in SW VA
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Now in SW VA
Once I changed SOUPCAN to MARILYN things clarified.
Yeesh. People ought to lighten tf up. I'm tired of the tudes. It's a puzzle. That's all it is. (And were it my forum, anybody ending a comment with 'do better' wpuld meet an immediate banhammer. That kind of off-the-charts condescension is just obnoxious.)
As so often lately, I find the vehemence of hate expressed here unfortunate and...puzzling. It's just another puzzle. Lighten up. For me, the themers helped me solve the revealer: it was clear from 17A and 19A that we were inserting/ removing OM. The go-to meditation mantra (... mani padme hum). Mantra. Chant. Chants. Chance. Perfectly fine Thursday puzzle! Solved in slightly above Thursday average time. Lighten up.
Wow, the vehemence of this puzzle's haters is wild and weird to me. For once, 'haters' does not seem like hyperbole. Folks. Just a freakin puzzle. You didn't care for it? For reasons? OK. Fine. You have an opinion. So what? That does not mean the puzzle was [objectively] terrible, or even bad; it certainly does not deserve a rating of zero. I can't see that it should result in cancelling of subscriptions, much less calls for banishment of the constructors. Bunch of egos. Lighten up. It's only a puzzle. (A perfectly fine one, if a bit on the quick & easy side for Thursday, is MY opinion. YMMV!!!)
I've read these comments and I find myself amazed and appalled at the number of folks that didn't get or--worse-- can't take a joke. Lighten up, is my advice.
@Scott Their lived experience (ugh) is fact. If one has never heard STU or TRE used (*raises hand*), then...one hasn't. The problem comes in egotistically assuming that one's experience is all- encompassing. [I learned a lesson in my very first comment in this forum, in which I questioned a phrase that (I learned) was common among hip-hop types. Lesson learned: Google before ridiculing or complaining.]
@Rachel Is it? And if it is, so what? Derogatory terms are words, and therefore FAIRGAME for a crossword puzzle.
So many hated this one that I felt I had to chime in on Team Liked-It. It took me an hour and a half, much of that time spent thoroughly and pleasantly puzzled. It was mentally stimulating. I made errors and incorrect assumptions, eventually found them, corrected them, figured out the trick (thanks to SHelFP), and solved the puzzle with a gold star and no lookups, even though I don't know actresses or sushi. In short a real Puzzle! Kind of the whole point, I thought.
Proud Papa warning. Here's the video for REDWINESUPERNOVA, edited by...my daughter Raven! <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VS6ixn2berk&list=RDVS6ixn2berk&start_radio=1&pp=ygUScmVkIHdpbmUgc3VwZXJub3ZhoAcB" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VS6ixn2berk&list=RDVS6ixn2berk&start_radio=1&pp=ygUScmVkIHdpbmUgc3VwZXJub3ZhoAcB</a>
Love this guy schooling the NY Times on what is and what isn't a crossword [puzzle].
@Olivia We in the Play-Doh community don't care.
I did the puzzle late because I was at a music festival all day where--no kidding-- I played my cornet and FLUGELHORN. So happy to see the NYT XW debut of my favorite instrument to play. Trivia: the modern flugelhorn is the direct descendant of the soprano saxhorn, invented by Adolph Sax who of course also invented the saxophone family.
"Maybe you're a zoological Sherlock Holmes" Why, yes. Yes I am. Taught vertebrate zoology for years, and knew all the themers instantly. I also knew the color of coot eyes the other day and POTOROO whenever that was. Yep. Smells pretty bad in my wheelhouse, but occasionally it pays off with a Sunday PB. (I know you Spelling Beeists knew ACACIA...)
@Will The parts of a sled that slide on the snow = runners.
Hmmm Now I'm trying to think of a clever Thursdayish way to mash up Joe KINGOLIVER with Barbara KINGSOLVER... btw, boo hiss for OBEYER.
@Darren wrong It was intentional. For the theme you loved in all caps. Not lazy slop at all.
SOLI again. I can say I've seen it in the wild, though not as clued. In a jazz big-band arrangement, when the whole saxophone section stands up and blows a chorus in harmony, the many bars of rest in the trumpet charts will be labeled 'Sax SOLI'. So it means something like a 'group solo' instead of the plural.
What's 'super offensive' to one long-time paid subscriber is NBD to another. If you are super offended by ordinary, bog-common metaphorical usage, then I guess I'd advise lightening up. Life's too short.
@NanuNanu I'm so old I thought immediately of Hubert H. Humphrey.
@Steve L PhD biologist here; while of course I noticed, it didn't bother me at all. Perfectly fair misdirection based on legitimate polysemy IMO.
That bottom third made this the hardest puzzle--for me-- since I started solving around Xmas. Streak-breaker with three lookups AND an autocheck to correct 3 bad squares. Not complaining.
@Times Rita "Mommy, when I grow up, I want to be an Objectivist." "Well, you'll have to choose one or the other."
This is the kind of comment that deserves some hate, in my view. The constructor almost certainly did not include LAHTI et al. to display her cleverness, but rather because she couldn't figure out anything else that fit and worked. She does not deserve to be aspersed.
@Grant Alas. It's not true. The Coriolis effect is weak and does not work at such small spatial scales. When my parents visited Ecuador they were fooled by a huckster who 'demonstrated' water swirling in opposite directions just a few feet on either side of the equator. Alas.
Weird comment dichotomy on this one. I thought it perfectly fine, slightly above Tuesday average time but noplace I got stuck for long. I knew COATI and RAITA, made a justified guess for PALMAS, and just never ran into any major problems. Perfect Tuesday imo. As for the cookout sausage, yes it's a 'wiener' ala Wien ('vienna sausage' if canned). But the diminutive has to be 'WEENIE'. It just is. I'd be very surprised to see 'wienie' in print.
You've never heard of Tarzan the Ape-man??
I find it odd how some folks seem to think the NYT Crossword Puzzle needs to reflect their personal opinions. FAKENEWS is an all-too-common contemporary phrase for, yes, media misinformation. It doesn't matter if most accusations of such are accurate or not, nor from where on the political spectrum such accusations originate. The term's fair game and the clue is fine. ART, like many words, is polysemous. It means Da Vinci and Warhol and my daughter's preschool crayon scrawlings and advertising layouts (and even The Deal). What do these A.I. programs produce, then, 'graphics'? (Yes, I know 'slop'.) OK, it's not 'Fine Art', but it's a kind of art, in a way. Clue is fine. Lighten up, is my personal opinion.
@Andrzej I enrolled in cheerleader school and showed up for my first class, Rah 101, but the prof started talking about Sis-boom-bah. I asked if this wasn't Rah 101 and was informed that no, that's a course of a different holler. I guess that's a pretty American joke.
If only there were a word crossing it that could help one decide...
@D you are mistaken It was not a failure. It was intentional.
I find the 'constructor vanity' canard puzzling. Don't we want constructors to be clever? Can one really be 'too clever', or does that just mean 'cleverer than me'?
@Weak It worked both ways.
@Bill You are evidently unfamiliar with NYC Nancy's commentary. She's consistent, I'll say that.
@Justin Agreed re SOLI, but thus like the third time in a month it's been clued that way. The sax soli is when we trumpets get a swig of beer.
In before Cap'n Quahog, so I'll try to handle the invertebrate zoology today. In re: the VELVET WORM. An absolutely fascinating creature. Far from "slug-like"-- the scientific name is Onychphora, or 'claw-bearing'-- velvet worms are actually related to tardigrades and arthropods. Their appendages and segmentation make them look sort of like centipede prototypes. But they are different enough to be classified in their own Phylum. A fossil that is very similar in form to modern types is known from the early Cambrian, 500+ mya (though it was marine and all modern species are moist-terrestrial). They are insectivorous and indeed catch their prey by spitting an adhesive goo at them. I saw one in the wild in Ecuador in 2009, and it was one of the greatest thrills among many on that trip. It's not often that one gets to add an entire Phylum to one's life list!
@Francis Many people are saying so. Words like nobody's ever seen.
@Ben Not a thing wrong with any of your examples. It's not Monday.
@Gamer Your complaint is entirely subjective.
I mean, sure. Define 'desert' as a place with low rainfall--and of course I admit that that is the definition--and Antarctica gets included But if I say 'picture a desert', nobody, not even you definition-pedants, imagines Antarctica. Nobody. Live here in the Mojave long enough and you'll get snowed on, but move away and what you'll remember is 120F in August. The clue is fine.
@Nancy When the work's all done and the sun's settlin' low I pull out the fiddle and I rosin up the bow The kids are asleep so I keep it kinda low Thank God I'm a country boy.
@Matthew I'd help you out, but I'm over here dying on this other hill of 'synch', not 'sync'.
I've read the comments and--oh, fine puzzle but more Wednesdayish to me, and faster than yesterday's actual Wednesday--nobody's flagged all of the plural beverages? WINES (which is fine) DEWS (some y-g sodas? eh) PEPSIS (come on: Pepsi is just one cola in the cola wars STOLIS ( ugh) RYES (clued as bread, but still) Constructor may be a SOT.
@Nick What a--surprising comment. You've also noticed all the French and Spanish lingo? The NYETs and the HERRs and the OROs? Perhaps you can take solace in all those Midi grid swastikas.
@John k. Grammys "Record of the year" Always has been a single.
@Asher B. Yes, you are a fuddy-duddy. Avoid Thursdays, is my advice.
@Christian *gasp!* Crossword clues that are "vague and unspecific"! Oh, the humanity.
@tory I got the wordplay right away but, alas, went with CORNEA.
Seems most would disagree about the putative 'uptick'. Friday PB for me, e.g.