Utterly unfamiliar with Sno-Caps, I at first though it was “pop caps”. Until I remembered that was a mobile game developer, and it was going to lead into saying “Persia” was the country below Hungary, which was wrong on many many counts. It also gave me a more wearisome or sarcastic “oh don’t” initially instead of “no don’t”, which I think I liked.
Nothing really that could be considered a major sticking point for me, but I did have to look up Paper Moon. And I was very unsure that “espies” was going to be a word as I filled in the crosses, but thankfully I left it.
The second musical reference in today’s puzzle, 58D, is the English band ELO, whose big hits in the USA, include “Strange Magic”, “Can’t Get It Out Of My Head”, “Evil Woman” and “Don’t Bring Me Down”. Despite moderate chart success here, they never managed to hit #1 in the US. ELO was inducted in the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame in 2017, and lead singer Jeff Lynne is currently on tour as “Jeff Lynne’s ELO”.
Re: 64A “Lyin’ Eyes” by the Eagles was the second single release from the album “One Of These Nights”. The song peaked at #2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in November, 1975.
Wouldn't it have been nice to have some answers in the form of a question. . .
@Robert Michael Panoff
Well, at least we have a comment in the form of a question!
The clue about the sisters and the clue about the lumber both seemed hard to me. Yet, most of it was easy as pie. Anyway, I enjoyed it!
1
I'm off to a new streak of one with this puzzle. Finished in just under 34 minutes without any lookups or checks. It helped that I have heard of JEOPARDY and have actually watched as much as 10 minutes of WHEEL OF FORTUNE. I remember seeing Vanna White spin the wheel. All the other celebrity names were guesses.
Thank you, Michael Black, for a great start to what I hope will be a successful week (at least until Wednesday).
3
Loved it! My grandma, Baba, introduced me to this one-two 7pm punch 25 years ago when we spent months living with her and Grandy while my parents renovated the house. In Toronto it was WOF at 7 and J! at 7:30. It was somewhat jarring to think that other watch these in a different order! Thanks Mr. Black
3
Very nice Monday puzzle. Cleverly clued, it was much more interesting than difficult.
A bit of geography with ARAL, SBIA, QATARI, and NAPALI. I liked the cross of fade and faint.
The WHEEL OF FORTUNE and JEOPARDY have been staples in our household for a long time. We record JEOPARDY because our station shows it at 11:am. WHEEL is after the news in the evening. We’re going to miss ALEX TREBEK when he retires. Wonder who will replace him...
:-)
3
Solved this one early last night but didn't have time to post until now.
I too, like Mr. Black, am trying to pass the watching of the two shows to my kids. I always thought of Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy kind of analogous to word search and crossword puzzles, in terms of their difficulty level with respect to each other. Of course, that doesn't mean that we should look down on the easier of each pair. Quite often, I'm amazed at how few letters it takes for someone to come up with the right answer on Wheel of Fortune.
This puzzle was a lot of fun and nostalgia - that my kids can watch the same hosts for the same shows I loved as a child is an amazing testament to the longevity and staying power of the three hosts. They look amazing at 78, 71, and 61 years old.
One other note - the theme entries by themselves comprises 21 unique letters of the alphabet, leaving out only CGMQZ, which made the pangram a better than usual possibility. I'm not fussed about the missing Z. It is already a very good puzzle.
In Boston, WOF airs before Jeopardy, at 7pm Eastern Time.
2
This comment says more about me than about the puzzle: coming here after a slog through national news, I saw 12D and the clue for 14A and immediately fell into a state of 28A.
1
Clever and fun, a thoroughly delightful Monday. Totally agree with @Nancy about 1A.
Several years ago I appeared as a video clue on Jeopardy! It was part of the promotion for a documentary on Nat Geo. First I had to sign ten pages of contracts, all of which emphasized that Jeopardy! could take all my money and my first-born child if I disclosed anything about the clue or answer before the episode aired. Then we filmed three different clues, with multiple takes of each clue. They gave me the clues one at a time, with 2 minutes to memorize each one. The takes had to be word perfect, and I was not told which clue would actually be used. When the episode aired, my clue was worth $1000! The first contestant missed, but the second one got it right (the correct answer was "Who was Augustus?"). Since then, my career has all been downhill.
20
@archaeoprof
I love your JEOPARDY memory -- especially the comment about taking all your money and your first-born child. Wonder if I saw the episode with you in it -- possible, but there have been many clues with Augustus as the answer, so I can't be sure. (He's sort of like the JEOPARDY male Amelia Earhart.) The curiosity as to who you are IRL is killing me. And didn't you used to be on the Rexblog?
I responded to someone on this blog last week. My response went into the ether and was never seen again -- at least not by me. So I do hope you get this.
2
Yes, I used to be a regular with Rex. He's a great guy; even skyped with my crossword club at the college where I used to teach. So did Deb. Rex just got a little too negative imo. In real life I'm nobody famous, just an archaeologist and professor of ancient languages and religion. Did some tv documentaries, but that genre has since gone haywire. I co-direct a dig at a place called Horvat Kur.
1
@archaeoprof
You know about Bizzy Bone? (I realize you're not digging bones at Horvat Kur, but still ...)
1
I'm a big Jeopardy! Fan... Wheel, not so much. I used to watch them both religiously, but Wheel has morphed over the years into a big product placement show, plus for me it just doesn't hold my interest as long as Jeopardy! Does. I did enjoy today's puzzle, though. Once you get the theme, it all falls nicely into place. Some of the clues may have been a bit non-monday (I will confess that I had heard the word sagacious before, but couldn't recall it's meaning), but with crosses it wasn't a stumbling point. Thanks for a relaxing and entertaining offering, Michael!
3
Interestingly, JEOPARDY and WHEEL OF FORTUNE may be aired back to back, but not in the same order in all markets. For instance, here in RI, WHEEL is first, while in NYC JEOPARDY airs first.
One of the highlights of my life is shaking ALEX TREBEK's hand during a contestant audition in 1980.
1
The theme of this puzzle should be "Who is M_CH_EL BL_CK?"
6
The biggest surprise of today's puzzle to me was that nobody had thought of it before. Kudos to Michael Black for seeing it and so expertly fitting all the theme answers into the grid. I did notice the missing "Z" and congratulate him on his restraint. (Or the editor's!)
I can't think of any more loved and enduring puzzle games than JEOPARDY and WHEEL OF FORTUNE. It's really nice to see them celebrated. Thank you, Michael!
2
Faster than average, but not an easy Monday for me. AGEGAP/ENC/UNCLIP held me up, as did SNO and SOAPBOX (for some reason).
The increasing negativity and bickering in the comments over the last week or so is disappointing to me. Yes, yes, I can just flip past or not come here, I know, but I’ve always enjoyed reading others’ perspectives and learning in this space. Ok. I will get off of my SOAPBOX.
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What a great clue for 1A. It's been said that the 1A clue determines how you'll feel about a puzzle, so the Venus/Serena clue for AGE GAP predisposed me to like the puzzle more than maybe I would have without it. I was looking for SEASON instead of AGE GAP, but checked the crosses even though it's Monday -- and it's lucky I did.
I had no idea ahead of time what all those cross-references were going to be. Some thoughts on my beloved JEOPARDY and the inane WHEEL OF FORTUNE which I just can't watch.
Don't you think the viewer demographics differ greatly for the two programs? Discuss.
Is *turning letters* a fit occupation for any woman in "The Year of the Woman"? Discuss.
Does ALEX TREBEK make you want to hurl him across the room when he obnoxiously says "Boo, Hiss" to a contestant who's just missed an answer? Does he make you want to hurl him across the room even when he doesn't say it? Discuss.
I thought this was clued better than 90% of Monday puzzles, and didn't mind it at all.
6
My sister got me into to listening for how often Alex Trebek says "good for you" during the interviews. What bothers me more is when he presumes to know what a contestant was thinking when answering incorrectly or not answering at all (oh, I mean asking a question).
1
@Nancy Yup. Alex is singularly the most pompous game show host of all time. And while I'm sure he'd perform well as a contestant, it's so easy to be snooty when you have the "answers" in front of you.
1
My five favorite clues from last week:
1. Blue-green? (7)
2. Effect of surplus oil (4)
3. Core group (5)
4. They typically revolve around steps (10)
5. Go down or come up (5)
SEA SICK
ACNE
SEEDS
AA MEETINGS
OCCUR
6
Game shows! Carped Tom competitively.
Never a fan despite Acme's star turn(s) on same. Misspelled REESES as reeces resulting in a challenge for SOAPBOX. Staring at cOAPBOX for an EON or two resulted in a FAINT synaptic firing.
Thank you Michael
1
Multiple cross-references make me cross-eyed, so I didn't even bother to try to figure out the theme answers from the clues early on. I just chipped away until they finally became evident. Still only a couple of minutes slower than a typical Monday for me. Was surprised to see that all of those names could be arranged symmetrically.
For a while now, I've thought that they should have a 'seniors Jeopardy' for those of us with fading memories. After you ring in on something that 'you know you know,' you get three minutes to see if you can actually remember it. Then they could edit out those time gaps when the show is aired.
14
Please don’t use “ESL” as an answer! It’s out of date lingo. Today we use EAL for English as Another Language or ELL for English Language Learners. Often students are learning English as their third, fourth, etc. language.
1
@Stephen m
My city of residence is a prime refugee destination ("the most diverse square mile in America" per Wikipedia) and my wife (DRJ) assists with ESL classes held at a local church. So it's not out of date here; I'm not sure why it would be problematic.
By the way, the church is about a block and a half away from the 'Atlanta Area School for the Deaf,' so ESL and ASL are in close proximity.
8
@Rich in Atlanta
In NYC, the new lingo is ENL (English as a New Language). So everyone now has to explain and re-explain.
IMHO, any additional language that is not one's primary language is a second(ary) language.
RIA -- I love the proximity of ESL and ASL.
1
When I first watched Jeopardy it was a day time show and the prizes ranged from $5.00 to $25.00 in single Jeopardy. I especially liked that all the contestants could keep their winnings with the winner returning of course. Now my son records it so I watch when I visit which is less than 2 weeks from now as it happens.
Oh, the puzzle. No problems, impressed by how much theme material fit in so nicely. No Naticks for me, always good to see Dr J, my father's favorite basket ball player and Rich's wife.
Now I'm going to google the programs to catch up on their history.
3
@suejean
Please do wave as you fly over!
2
SJ, you bring back memories of $2,000 or so being a winner's take (as well as thoughts of Art Fleming).
3
@suejean
Excuse me if I am missing something here, but Dr. J is Rich's wife???
1
I solved the mini but I don't understand what DJs or aux cords have to do with road trips in 1A. Anyone?
2
If you're on a road trip, the person who uses an aux cord to plug their iPod into the car's audio system determines the music to be heard by all. (Usually one of my children.)
1
Spoiler alert notice wd be appreciated...
(I always do the big puzzle first, but sometimes save the Mini for dessert. Guess I should rethink.)
@Mean Old Lady
same here--big puzzle, wordplay, then mini, hard sudoku and spelling bee. Maybe that's because we get Wheel before Jeopardy here.
Nice little rhyming thing going on in this puzzle with STRIP/QUIP/DRIP, and even APU/AFEW.
Nice catch by the constructor that ALEX TREBEK and VANNA WHITE have the same number of letters, as well as PATSAJAK and and JEOPARDY.
I watch JEOPARDY regularly, and credit the knowledge I've gained from solving crosswords with steadily improving the number of correct answers I call out while watching. I like that my brain is waxing fuller rather than emptier as I'm getting more senior.
5
While this puzzle theme using BOTH Merv Griffin shows may be new, there was a puzzle (Jan 10, 2013) that was Wheel-themed.
This puzzle also brings up my connection with the great "Weird" Al Yankovic. He lost on Jeopardy! in 1984 ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvUZijEuNDQ ) while I lost on Wheel in 1991 (sorry, no video of that is available, thankfully). :)
3
Solving a Monday puzzle with no assistance is no great achievement, but for someone who does not watch American television and is unfamiliar with contemporary pop-culture, it is an indication of how much trivia can accumulate in a wheelbox from a daily diet of NYT Xword puzzles.
14
@Amitai Halevi
Hands up here as "someone who does not watch American television and is unfamiliar with contemporary pop-culture." Many of us (in NYC I would imagine) are more well-grounded in realities than the tweeters would have you think. D'acccord on your last statement.
3
Bee
68(!) words, 1 pangram, bingo
E5
L5
N10
O4
P23
T18
Y3
4x32
5x15
6x15
7x2
8x4
Good night.
7
@Martin
Thanks. I just scraped home at GENIUS (51 words) with a string of 4-letter words (some in my head....) that I had bypassed in search of the high-pointers; but I have little appetite to strive for QB status without a supply of royal jelly (a form of epigenetics, a branch of biology discovered at least 100 million years before humans; and which we may now generalize to the "nurture" part of "nature AND nurture"). Still, with your number counts, I may be inspired to try (without cheating, that is).
Omissions: (i) I cannot believe that LEPTON, much in the news of late, is less well-known than a French term for a bunch of cyclists. Perhaps LEPTOPHOBIA is a good neologism for the BEE-keepers. (ii) And why do we have a North-east British dialect word for an outside toilet, but are not allowed our TELLY (television). How could we have done today's crossword? (iii) And what happened to the TENPENNY nail. How do the BEE-keepers construct their hives?
7
@NICE CUPPA
Last week GLUON was not allowed. Today it's LEPTON. What a strange quark of the constructors.
My last word was so rare it meant either tippling or an Eastern shrine or a grove.
where is Wordplay for Sunday's puzzle? I can't figure out the five-word message and it's making me crazy.
@Kim
Google the name of the art in the centre clue. It's written on the painting.
Plus it is in French.
I had not noticed the Note when I printed from A-Lite, so I couldn't figure anything out from the circled letters until I thought to go back and check. Voila!
@Stuart
Ah. Thank you; constructors are so clever and have interesting wheelhouses; I'm so often awed by their ingenuity, especially when I fail to see the theme even after I've finished the puzzle.
Tonight I came crashing down from the highbrow MAGRITTE theme to the much lower brow VANNA WHITE/PAT SAJAK theme. In fact at some point I felt that I was in a time warp and back solving TV Guide puzzles from forty years ago.
Very glad to see ALEX TREBEK in the puzzle however. He is an alumnus and very enthusiastic patron of the University of Ottawa. And I do enjoy JEOPARDY!
https://ottawacitizen.com/news/local-news/jeopardy-host-alex-trebek-has-...
1
@Andrew
Jeopardy is such a great game never to be missed in our household. It’s like a live crossword puzzle with major time constraints! Watched Alex as host of ’Reach for the Top’ when....ahem....I was much younger.
1
@BarbJ
Ah, I remember Reach for the Top. However not with Alex Trebek in my markets (Montreal and later Ottawa). Was he perhaps the Toronto host?
Well, while it was a much faster than average solve, I still thought it was clever. With different cluing, this could be a Tuesday or Wednesday puzzle. And, while I am a big fan of Deb's, Caitlin is always a fun read.
My opinion of the quality of a puzzle usually says more about my inability to solve it; IOW, the problem is usually me. That's why a natick (for myself) is only a natick when I can't get it!
3
Ok, time to disclose this after so many years. My BFF, native of Wellesley Mass, lives in Natick, with her darling hubby and my other BFF, who is NEPALI. I finally told them about the Natick thing over the summer. Quite unimpressed were they.
4
As one who lives minutes from Natick, when I started reading these comments a few months ago, I was confused. Later when I learned the origin, I was bemused. One person’s Natick is another’s clotbur.
1
In the TV markets in which I've lived for the past 37 years, Wheel is always on at 7:00 and Jeopardy at 7:30, local time. (Those would be Nashville, Charlotte, and Washington, DC.) I didn't realize some markets led that hour with Jeopardy.
1
We do in NYC!
1
Good thing I got “ajak” from crossings, for 54A, as I had no idea where the theme was going. Once I got 54A, everything opened up (turned?). Also, I had the WoF board game, as a kid.
Ural instead of ARAL killed me.
6
“It is I, here to woman the Wordplay Waffle House for a couple of weeks while Deb navigates the maelstrom of moving. If I hear anything other than indecipherable sounds of frustration, I’ll pass it on to you.”
I love it Caitlin. Bring it on!
4
Your clock is crazy. Says my time was over 2:45:+ when I spent 20minutes max. Not the first time it has happened
Linden,
It isn't the columnist's clock and it isn't the commenters' clock. Use "Feedback" to email details of the problem to the people in charge of the clockworks.
(Clockworks; Even Cowgirls Get the Blues?)
2
I suppose If WHEEL OF FORTUNE fans switched to doing crossword puzzles, they wouldn't be so clueless.
4
SERBIA is *south* of Hungary; by what measure is it *below* it? GNP? Certainly not FIFA ranking.
3
@Barry Ancona If you look at a map, North is up and South is down, ergo below. Not that complicated.
6
@Barry Ancona
"The Bronx is up and the Battery's down"
:-)
TRIO and TSP two days in a row! Since three TSPs make a tbsp are we going to have another TRIO and a TBSP tomorrow?....just wonderin’.
13
Love, love, love Jeopardy!
Used to watch Wheel of Fortune but they ran out of normal phrases, and contestants with half a brain, so now I just can’t stand it if I’m slow at changing the channel after Jeopardy comes on and the WOF music comes on.
3
Where is the Sunday Wordplay?!
@RIts
@Ron
At this point, you'll need to go back to the crossword page, look underneath the puzzle for the Sunday link, open it, and you'll see the link to the Wordplay column underneath.
Ron,
Right where it's supposed to be. Here's a link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/22/crosswords/daily-puzzle-2018-09-23.html
Thanks to the magic of technology, I can watch Jeopardy! (note the exclamation point) in 17 minutes after recording it and then FF-ing through the ads and the goofy contestant interviews. It also allows us to cheat on Final Jeopardy by freezing the answer on the screen to give us more time to come up with the correct question. (I feel terribly ashamed when I do that, of course.)
6
@Wags
There's no need to freeze the FJ answer to get more time to come up with the correct response. On *most* days, the FJ clue will be the "Clue of the Day" published in the print Times and also available on the Jeopardy website that morning.
https://www.jeopardy.com/play-shop/new-york-times-clue-of-the-day
The few times it isn't are mainly when there's a visual aspect to the FJ clue (e.g., artwork, map) and they'll use one of the other clues off the J or DJ rounds. And you can usually tell, since it won't read the same as a normal FJ clue, and will have a category used in the J!6 game that day on the Jeopardy website.
2
It is kinda hard to believe that this theme hasn't been done before. It was straightforward, easy, and quick to get the theme. Three cheers for symmetry!
Caitlin, I see people who have cell phones clipped to their belts--and key rings.
1
I sometimes clip a tape measure to my belt, but if I clipped it to a tool belt wouldn't that count as being clipped to a belt? I'm not saying we should include fan belts, or the borscht belt, or the Belt Parkway....
1
@Liz B
People do still clip key rings on their belts, but increasingly not phones - too big! Phablets (large smart phones) have taken over and they can only go in pockets and purses.
It used to be "cool" to have flip phones clipped to your belt (like beepers before them) because, you know, you look like a busy person who needs to have the phone on you. Now, it doesn't because it means you have an old phone that you can clip on a belt. People simply have their smart phones always in their hands or in their pockets. And have retronym for old cell phones like "dumb phone"
@Wen ... I clip my holster, cuffs, bullets, and nightstick to my belt. I am not a police officer and all those things are toys and I like to play "cop." I go out on the street and accost strangers and they think I am maintaining peace in the community while I am secretly getting a great deal of pleasure.
I only do this after I've taken my meds and when my caretaker is not around so it does not happen very oftern.
Hey! no littering here!
After a trio (Fri-Sun) of masterful demonstrations of the setters art, I'm sorry to say that this descent into a mishmash of sports stars, brands and TV shows was terribly unsatisfying.
On the plus side, I am grateful to Caitlin for the link to the origin of the 'Natick principle' (which I now understand is a euphemism for clues which are "[n]ot clever (à la Walden), or evil (à la Klahn). Just dickish.")
1
WM,
You may wish to read the linked item again. Naticks are all about entries and not a bit about cluing.
6
@Barry Ancona
Also naticks are indicators of not having a clue ....
A Natick is the intersection of two words that you don't knwo.
A fun puzzle that capped off a morning with the Sunday puzzle and an afternoon dipping in and out of the SB. This was engaging and quick.
I don't see *any* Naticks in this puzzle, Caitlin. By Rex's definition, for which you have provided a link, a Natick occurs only when a proper noun *that 1/4 of the solvers won't know* is crossed with other than a reasonably common word (or name). I think it fair to assume that at least 1/4 of NYT solvers are familiar with *either* LARA *or* VIJAY as clued, and, similarly with *either* REBA *or* DRJ as clued. Which "unfamiliar proper nouns" did you see crossed with uncommon words or names?
@Barry Ancona
Vijay and Reba for me, today!
3
Caitlin,
A single unknown entry is not a Natick; a Natick is when two unknowns cross. If you didn't know VIJAY, it's not a Natick if you know LARA; if you don't know REBA, it's not a Natick if you know DRJ.
If you didn't know all four of them, you did have two Naticks; if you didn't know just the two you said you didn't know, you had no Naticks.
@Barry Ancona
WEGETIT
(Sorry, I couldn't resist :) )
3