I was sufficiently stuck to need Check Puzzle to show me that 27-down was EMBED rather than IMBED. I was rather annoyed that the crossing word was, to me, totally obscure. Who or what us the Animated Princess of Power, and how am I supposed to know her name is SHERA, not SHIRA?
1
Utterly ridiculous. I think it is very noble to bring awareness to something that brings awareness to breast cancer, but this puzzle was unreasonable.
And even a lot of the braless clues made no sense. As many have pointed out, "let" is a result of bad service?
1
@Stephen A. LET had me scratching my head for a while, but when I figured it out it was one of those aha! moments that makes later-in-the-week puzzles a delight. This word has shown up with a tennis-definition clue often enough that regular solvers can't reasonably complain about obscurity.
Resulting of imperfect service = let?
And why would many a senior hunt jobs? I thought many of them would have retired!
@MP
Tennis, college.
2
Ah, thanks! I had my senior moment there. (Truth be told, I did not know it was called a let serve.)
Could not figure this one out at all, and I figure out most eventually. Too obscure.
1
Sad to see Spelling Bee reject the poor kakapo today. Critically endangered, and now banished by the NYT.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kakapo
I didn't have access to the NYT crossword when Rachel Maddow's puzzle was published. Would someone help me find it? Two of my favorites in one place. Thanks
2
@Millie, here you go, 3/2/18 courtesy of xwordinfo.
Enjoy!!
https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2018/03/02
@Leapfinger Thank you so much.
I'm a b.c. survivor and I've never heard of "No Bra Day." I finished the puzzle without understanding the theme.
1
Enjoying reading all the comments today (and happy Birthday, Jessica!).
Had a late thought. If they were to adopt this observance in Ireland, might they call it...
Erin go braless?
(Hi Leapy)
5
Hi RiA! Are you finding yourself as thoroughly WETTED as we are in NC? There was so much water on the roads this afternoon, it was like driving in shipping lanes.
I had a yen to listen to "Sam, You Made the Pants Too Long" tonight, but discovered there'd been a move to BAR STREISAND ART.
I'll bet money that Deadline knew Double Jeopardy was Brigadoon.
1
It's a rainy night in Georgia, so here's a song for Rich:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDRbF80NKDU
(I know it's a day late, but it's a good song.)
At least this one is moving fast.
Good one, Johanna and Jeff! I finally understood the theme when NO BRA DAY was filled. I saw the problem in VIBRATO for VITO Corleone, then realized BRAs were not necessary, so BRA VERY made much more sense!
So CLEVER, you two!
:-D
PS: MOL, QUILTS!!!
3
Another puzzle this week (since Tuesday) way slower than my best. Caught the trickery after noticing BRA in the two themers in the NW, and what was left after removing them. This realization helped me to figure out the other themers. (Didn't get the revealer, though, till the end.)
Lucky guesses with LBJ and ETTA, memory of IROC from a previous puzzle, and a gimme (for my wife) of AGEE. Struggled a little with LOOFA, worried that it was mispelled.
Loved the theme and the trickery. Kudos Johanna and Jeff!
2
I meant to include this in my reply to Johanna's non-comment but forgot, so I'll do it here in my CiC:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mntp8LgUbJU
I only heard of NO-BRA DAY recently and didn't know it was today. I'm still not sure I get it, but if it in fact does raise some awareness (and money) for breast cancer, good.
I tumbled to the add-a-BRA gimmick pretty quickly though. In fact, the only real problems I had were with little entries: QBS and ETS. SHERA was also a no-know.
There is one other item of importance on this day: It is (reputedly) my beloved Jessica's eleventh birthday. She's celebrating it right now with a nap.
@Deadline
P.S.: I went to YouTube to try to get a vocal tribute for Jeff. It turns out there are a lot of possibly related songs mentioning Jeff in their titles, but they are all very strange. I think they may be inside jokes about something I'm not inside of.
But I didn't forget you, Jeff.
Deadline,
Today is not NO BRA DAY, Saturday is.
NO BRA DAY is not a fundraiser, and there is some debate about exactly what it raises awareness of.
And, just for fun, while there were many feminist protests in the 60's and 70's, "bra burning" is an urban legend.
Happy birthday to Jessica.
@Deadline.
Thank you, love that song. And happy birthday to Jessica!
I really, really liked this puzzle! It stumped me until I was down to about the final 10 letters, when I finally understood how the theme worked. I almost reset the entire grid twice.... Great job, and tough for a Thursday.
Hi, everybody! Just wanted to pop in and thank all of you who had such nice things to say about our puzzle. I am so happy you enjoyed.
This is one day I definitely won't be commenting!
But I'll be back tomorrow, along with all the rest of the great group here, putting in my two cents worth.
Thanks again, it's such great fun to be published in the NYT!
31
@Johanna
Great puzzle, but there's something odd about someone commenting that she's not commenting.
2
@Johanna
Congratulations on a fantastic puzzle with a super-tricky theme.
Wonderful way to acknowledge this important subject and a loving tribute to you Mom.
2
@Steve L, should have said, "not commenting on the puzzle."
...... or as a magician would say -- aBRA cadaBRA
5
Seems like a good mix of less umBRAge and more BRAvo.
2
I always love when a theme makes you go "aha!" and then helps fill in the rest of the theme answers. Today's was definitely one of those!
Some trickiness with the 3 letter plural clues (CCS, QBS, ETS (still not sure what this means...)) but most of the crosses made those doable. Only had to cheat on LIV/IROC, SHERA/BRER, and ARIADNE - not bad for me for a Thursday.
2
@Matt Dodge
I think, which means I don't know, that ETS is the Educational Testing Service which administers the SAT, etc.
2
@CS
It is, and as such, it is not a plural clue. In fact, none of them are plural clues, to be pedantic, they're plural entries or answers.
A thoroughly enjoyable Thursday puzzle. I found 49A devilishly clever and laughed out loud after finally catching on. Also liked 67A (ETS), where my wife worked after we married. Many thanks, J & J!
1
Sooooo..... What does ETS stand for?
Never mind, I had the sense to Google it at last.
@JaneH62
Educational Testing Service.
I got the theme idea more or less -- not realizing BRA was to be removed to make sense of the clues. I might have done that had it not been for 16A (BRAIDING), and the issue as I saw it was this: when you braid, you do indeed pick strands out of a lineup.
I do have to say that if this was a misdirection that was not intended, it sure was one hell of a choice. Grrr anyway.
That car name was in the puz a week ago give or take. Made it a gimme.
Otherwise a major gripe has to be for labeling sides. CDs and vinyls have been going out of style for quite a while. It makes me wonder if the younger crowd even knows what that 49A fill means.
@Dr W
I guess you never heard of the VINYL REVIVAL (there is actually a band called that)
DIGITAL is PASSÉ. ANALOG is RAD.
...and it's more than just nostalgia for snap-crackle-pop....
In 2015 according to the link below, it is claimed that vinyl sales outstripped all commercial (i.e., legal) streaming services. Audio tape of all kinds is making a comeback for similar reasons –
https://www.audioadvice.com/content/is-the-vinyl-revival-real-yes-and-he...
2
Our yard sales indicate that vinyl is highly desirable again. People got tired of the sub-par sound quality on CDs and are flocking back. Record companies are back in business!!
2
@Mean Old Lady
I find it unbelievable to refer to "the sub-par sound quality on CDs." The fact is that digital has *no* snaps. crackles, or pops, and accurately conveys the audio content of a performance consistent with the capabilities of the human ear. Vinyl, tube amplifiers, etc. are *fads*.
Partly because ETTA was where I started (easy clue, y'know?) I found BRAVERY rather quickly and was brave enough to fill it in. It helped that I saw the very part of the clue that made sense. I also wanted to write in LEFTBRAIN but that brave I wasn't, until the revealer revealed all. I should have figured things out faster, but then solving wouldn't have been as much fun.
[BRA]VERY CLEVER and lots and lots of fun! I almost never jump to the revealer, and I didn't today, either, so that when it became obvious that there was no way to avoid LAB RATS and LEFT BRAIN, I was truly baffled. Real phrases that didn't fit the clues. What on earth would the revealer be??? And the revealer was great.
What makes the puzzle so good is that when you remove the BRA, you have a real word or phrase, and a pretty interesting one at that. My one query:
I have seen hundreds and hundreds of breast cancer awareness marchers in Central Park over the years and was not aware that many, if any, were going BRAless. (Maybe I would have noticed if I were a guy?) Or maybe they just weren't BRAless. I thought that a NO BRA DAY was a 1970s Feminist invention done just for the hell of it and to upset traditionalists. I might have clued the revealer differently. But all in all a terrific puzzle!
2
@Nancy You're right about the origins of NO BRA DAY. From what I've read, it started out as a feminist event held in July and is now held in October in observance of Breast Cancer Awareness month.
I'm sure you got that right, Deb! I do recall the BRA burnings, and my recollection is that all the participants were young and really didn't need them anyway. Depending on one's -um -endowment, these days it's a matter of comfort, I'd say.
After finishing the crossword in average Thursday time, I read the column and only then discovered the trick beyond the theme. I had finished it with cross clues without really picking up beyond the "BRA" inclusion, never considering the deletion. Sometimes it is better to stop and smell the roses . . . .
Before we had timers, I don't think I would have missed that detail, or maybe it is a function of online solving. I shall ponder immediately after I remove my bra for the day. Perhaps it will free up some brain cells too???
1
I'd like to thank Barry Ancona for acknowledging a new phrase I coined yesterday, DELI DILEMMA, and applying it to the OBIE discussion today. Unfortunately, both Barry's and my comments were deleted by someone replying to the original commenter.
DELI DILEMMA arose out of the situation you get when you know that something (a Jewish DELI) is "supposed to" mean one thing (a Jewish restaurant serving meat items and not dairy) to something else altogether, which might be in contravention of the original meaning (a restaurant that ignores the traditional pattern and serves both pastrami on rye and bagels with cream cheese).
Barry said that the OBIE issue--a supposed "interloper" taking over the sponsorship of the award--was another DELI DILEMMA.
@Steve L
Correction: Add "morphs into" after the parentheses in paragraph 2, line 3.
@Steve L
Wow! TAMALE TRAP, DELI DILEMMA...What's next? I look forward to the SHAWARMA SHEMOZZLE.
I'm getting hungry now, Do I eat a late breakfast or wait until lunch time?...Oh dear...
2
@Andrew
I don't have to coin that one. It's called BRUNCH.
Regarding the Spelling Bee and the sometimes (but not always) scatological word that wasn't accepted yesterday in its adjective form, but whose Y-less form didn't count, either, because the Y was the key letter: Today the Y-less version does count, just as it did the last time those letters were in play.
As mentioned, the word meaning "to appropriate for another use" is pretty much always hyphenated, and shouldn't be allowed if YOYO is not.
As a reminder, I made a comment about the first paragraph's word yesterday, but it was quickly erased by someone who replied to the original commenter. Please reply to the last reply in a thread, to help avoid this.
It seems that this issue should have been addressed by now. Patience is one thing; getting the feeling that nothing's ever going to change (except pretty screenshots about who's answering your comments at the bottom of the column) is something else.
3
@Steve L
I think it's because the y-less word is also nautical.
As for the hyphenation issue, the Bee is heinous.
@Marjorie
Nautical, yes, but it also means gossip.
@Steve L
Apologies. That was my error yesterday. I did later add a link to the "lost replies" thanks to Barry Ancona's help.
Marjorie is correct. The scatological use of the P- word is secondary to its primary (nautical) meaning – hence kosher.
There are no rules in the English language about hyphenation. You could use etymology to bolster your case (the Latin roots of the "appropriation" and "coordination" [itself a word that is hardly ever hyphenated] words are not hyphenated).
The only general guideline I know of is to use a hyphen to avoid confusion or to guide pronunciation. By these criteria I agree that YOYO should NOT be hyphenated, but our famous Hawai'ian bird might better be written as NE-NE (origin is imitative).
Well, I got sucked into the trick at first and couldn't figure out how BRAIDING or BRAVERY etc. could possibly make sense. The RADAY part of 61 wasn't enough to help. Finally figured out CORSAGE and JOBHUNT and BRIBES and others that made things clearer.
Very CLEVER!
1
Great to see ARIADNE having recently been REELed in by Madeline Miller's Circe where she makes an appearance. EAGER TO see what she writes next!
2
@Macu
I just read Circe, too, and thought of her immediately with ARIADNE. An excellent book!
1
The Comments are behaving oddly this morning. It was 51 degrees this morning (after a week with temps in the upper 80's) so the weather has followed suit.
For NO BRA DAY there certainly seem to be a lot of articles of lingerie lying about.
Very CLEVER puzzle, and well done (as one expects when Jeff Chen is involved.) YAY for Johanna (any relation?) Fenimore!
Pleased to see 4D QUILTS in the puzzle. It is clued as "Collections of patches, say," and I'm going to let that pass as fair game for a late week clue....but if I were to nitpick, I would mention that we assemble *blocks* (not referred to as 'patches,') and that not all quilts are patchwork quilts. (There are appliqued quilts, whole-cloth quilts, and quilts that mix techniques. And there are various types of patchwork, to boot.)
5
@Mean Old Lady
All poodles are dogs but not all dogs are poodles.
Thought of you when I got QUILTS, but it took a while because the crossing Q never would have occurred to me.
I was really stuck at first, very little filled in, so I looked up IONIAN, and after that, everything was great. The BRA words threw me for a minute, but my crosses were solid, so I trusted that something would explain them, and yes, it did!
Very clever. Kind of hard. Lots of fun!
It was fun figuring this one out after a stretch of obscurity. I knew there was a day like this in October because it's near my birthday and my daughter took me to a solidarity march - the Susan Komen march - for my birthday a few years ago because her mother is a two time survivor.
The best kind of theme puzzle - where the theme helps you solve the puzzle.
4D was a gimme for you, MOL. Nicely misleading clues for shorties OIL and LET.
3
Viv,
Good health to your daughter's mother.
@Barry Ancona
Thanks.
I got a little stuck on the passing clue at first. I interpreted it as TAS as in Teacher's Assistants, who often do the grading and thus decide (judge) if you pass. Once I got QBS, QUILTS was easy and a lot of the rest fell into place. The -BRA gimmick held me up for a bit too. Very clever puzzle!
1
@Adam
"The -BRA gimmick held me up"
Yes, BRAs will do that.
9
@Andrew
There's also the male counterpart. A xwp with that theme gimmick would be interesting ...
I don't know about themes, but JOCK has appeared as an entry in the Shortz era (usually clued akin to a sports male) and earlier (Mrs. Farrar approved "One of the Whitneys"). The full JOCKSTRAP appeared once, in 2010, as "Guy's means of support."
(When standing in the wall ten yards off the ball to block a direct kick in soccer, a male player is arms down with hands clasped, a female player is arms up and crossed.)
Pleased to learn that the constructor is Johanna from Ohio whom I enjoy interacting with on these pages.
Nice Thursday puzzle that I found a little on the easy side because I twigged to the theme early on. I was held up on the west side at the end because I tenaciously believed in FOREARM instead of CORSAGE. In my mind a CORSAGE only went on a dress so the connection with wrist never entered my mind. The thought of pinning something to one's wrist makes me wince.
I'm not up on presidential numbers, but the B of BRISTLE led me to LBJ. And I don't see what the hoopla is about the OBIE clue as long as the American Theatre Wing currently presents the awards, which seems to be the case.
Brava, Johanna!
1
@Andrew
A wrist corsage is something of a bracelet (elastic band)... and we're trying not to be disturbed that you even *thought* about pinning...
3
@Mean Old Lady - hee hee
https://youtu.be/7sPU3ymk2ms?t=72
It was often NOBRADAY when I NECKed: Circa 1967. HS GF had a Citroen with a massive back seat. We would head to the Drive-In for the horror triple features, collapse the front seats and settle in. While the aforementioned snoggery might occur we often fell asleep. Mr. Excitement even then.
Vision of the day will be LABRATS on my upper body. Hope their not still mad about the brain surgery conducted in neurology.
Thanks J and J.
5
dk,
This one's for you!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LojqhHnmyvc
@Barry Ancona
Not sure it's the right era, Barry. That song was popular when I was in high school, ten years before dk.
Deadline,
I assure you that many of us who were in high school in the early 60's are quite familiar with great songs from the late 50's.
(I had eye surgery -- with ether -- in November 1957, and I took my radio to the hospital with me. I can sing from memory every song on the WMGM top 40 rotation for Thanksgiving week.)
As an ESL who has just started doing crosswords and never lived in the US before, l found today’s puzzle to be super hard. It has never crossed my mind that you should take out three letters to form the answer...
7
@Pork
G'day and welcome to the comments section. More specifically, welcome to Thursdays.
This kind of trickery is common on Thursdays and only rarely appears on other days (well, maybe sometimes on Sundays). Understanding how the trick works has nothing to do with your level of English or your knowledge of US culture.
But as they say, practice makes perfect, and aside from doing more and more puzzles, the best way to learn is to read the blogs.
4
@Pork
There is usually a "revealer" in such puzzles. Today it is 61A. Get it?
Wee-Bee:
Words: 30
Score: 109 pts
Pangrams: 1 (perfect)
A x 1
C x 14
J x 2
K x 2
P x 4
T x 7
4L x 16
5L x 6
6L x 2
7L x 4
8L x 2
One of these days, I'll work out how to do the fancy grid...
7
Bill, here's my version of the grid:
Tot 4 5 6 7 8
A 1 1 - - - -
C 14 7 4 - 1 2
J 2 1 - - 1 -
K 2 1 1 - - -
P 4 2 1 1 - -
T 7 4 - 1 2 -
O - - - - - -
Tot 30 16 6 2 4 2
A few unusual words - especially one C-5 that should almost always be hyphenated - I was surprised.
5
@Wen
Yes, I'm not sure what made me try *both* those possibly hyphenated C-5, but I too was surprised the less common one worked.
@Bill Shunn It's the old smush up theory of prefixes and suffixes at work. If you think, you will miss them!
I thought today's puzzle was one of the easier ones of the week, with the musical T-7 as the biggest challenge. HINT for two of the longer C-words. Think fauna, fleet afoot and aloft. Think of France for a start . . .
I loved this witty, meaningful puzzle. As a crossword newbie, Thursdays are definitely hardest for me. I was tripped up by BRAVERY, which seemed legit, but once I figured out what was going on, all went well. Laughed out loud at OIL as an application for Mr. Universe & am going to own that SHERA was the first clue I knew cold. Thank you for a fun morning!
5
@Lizziefish
The H is SHEERA (a total unknow to me) was my last entry. I had the typo E instead.
@Ron
Unless you were a ten year old girl in the early eighties, I cannot imagine why you would ever know the She-Ra reference. Not my proudest intellectual moment, but the brain keeps what it keeps. That said, She-Ra was a "Princess of Power", so in that way she fits with today's theme of fighters.
Clever mini with cute and quirky symmetry.
4
Hi Deb,
Without updating my OS, today the "blue bar" is back in enhanced form, with a post highlighted. Only problem is that while the blue bar says "Join the conversation," at the top it says "Deb Amlen is replying to comments." I hope newbies will not expect -- and NYT does not expect -- *you* to reply to every comment.
@Barry Ancona
That's strange. My blue bar says "READ 33 COMMENTS" and there is no reference to Deb replying to comments.
@Barry Ancona
Thanks, but we're pretty well known round these parts as having no problem sticking our noses into the conversation.
I think this new feature is meant to get some of the reporters involved with their articles and the people who read them. It's still in beta, and Wordplay is one of the testers.
1
Deb,
Too bad the current comments system itself is still in beta. Threads getting destroyed because a fourth person replies to a thread-starting post is getting old. And while we know you didn't do it, you're closer than we are to those who did do it.
Fun and moving. Can't ask for much more. Plus, thanks to Lewis, I can connect one of our constructors to one of our contributors. So glad Johanna could pay tribute to her mother. Mine too is a survivor -- twice. Talk about BRAVERY.
5
@CS
Don't forget that Lewis is also a constructor.
2
Wasn't familiar with the annual event but VIBRATO helped clue me in because of VITO Corleone. Started off well with CCS and QBS. Counted back from 45 to get to LBJ at #35. Had to fill in some Down clues to get ELNINO for Producer of rain.
Good puzzle. Enjoyed it.
2
Today's theme was of the 'wry smile' variety, very nicely executed.
SB:
Stuck at Genius, 28 / 97.
I stooped to cheating after an hour at 27 words, for all the good that did me - the only additional word my underhand tactics revealed was a 5-letter K related to botany.
I have the two wildly different pets with almost identical spelling, one of which is the only real stumbling block I can see in the list (aside from the aforementioned K-word).
Any hints gladly received.
Yours in frustration,
//s
2
@Scott
I've added some scant hints above.
1
In case you don't know, Johanna the co-constructor today is the same Johanna who comments here almost every day. Her comments always reflect her positivity and love of solving, and always have a witty bit that makes me think, "Dang, I wish I thought of that." That wit is evident in the perfectly-pitched vague clues in today's puzzle as well as the playful ones.
I clambered through this until the sweet rush of getting the clever theme, and then it was a jaunt to the finish, which is a template for a terrific solving journey, and this one was spiced up with yummy resistance and a pair of especially lovely answers (CLAMBERED, BRISTLE).
Both Johanna and Jeff -- the J-Crew? -- the former, who I sporadically communicate with, and the latter, who is always so quick and helpful in response to questions and requests of mine, are kind, giving, and nourishing souls, so this collaboration, in addition to giving me an entertaining solve, also warmed my heart.
26
Thank you for letting us know. Johanna is an unusual name (to me, I've never seen another Johanna before) so I wondered if they were one and the same last night when solving. wonderful to have a fellow commenter and SB enthusiast have her puzzle published. YAY!
Looking back on the puzzle again - re-parsing the theme entries make for some interesting phrase. - BRA IDING (yep, that one's mine). "Put your LEFT BRA IN, put your LEFT BRA out...", BRA KING (not sure where to go with that), NO BRAD(A)Y - what many anti-Patriot fans want. LA BRATS - Los Angeles food truck sausages?
3
I thought this was extremely clever (after the fact), but I was pretty much doomed from the start by two things. First, I wasn't familiar with the observance. I think I might have gotten past that if not for this: I happen to have the comment area on Across Lite arranged (it's adjustable) so that the clue for the reveal ended at the first period in the ellipsis, so I had no idea that there was any more to that clue and went through this thinking there was no reveal.
Not saying this would have been a no-BRAiner without that; I still had my usual collection of things I couldn't remember or clues I didn't get. When I saw Quantico I thought of the marines and never got past that. Had ROCK instead of FOLK, couldn't remember AGEE or ARIADNE, never thought of SIDEB and... well, lots more.
So I ended up revealing a couple of things and still wasn't quite getting it until I revealed the reveal, and after much pondering it finally dawned on me that there might be more to that clue and I scrolled over to see it.
So, nice but belated 'aha' moment but I was well past failure by then. That's all on me; still think this was an enormously clever theme and good puzzle all around.
I couldn't help but wonder - could this be our Johanna?
3
@Rich in Atlanta It is indeed! In fact, this is her fourth puzzle for The New York Times.
1
@Rich in Atlanta
Having already had the --LK, I put TALK in for the Grammy genre. Then of course I realized it was called "spoken word."
@Deb Amlen
Now that Johanna is shown to be a celebrity as well as a frequent commenter, I think it's fair to ask how she pronounces her name. Deb?
I was muddling along in WTF mode with about 2/3 of the puzzle done until I solved 61A, at which point it became a LoL experience and an easy completion. Very amusing and satisfying puzzle.
2
Enjoyable puzzle with a very clever theme.
I wouldn’t have had to look way down the list of Cast and Crew of Lord of the Rings if LIV has been clued as: 39D ___ Ullman.
1
Super nice puzzle today and I really enjoyed the solving experience. The theme both helped and did not help me in the sense that I did use the BRA sequence to guess the rest of the theme clues. But I did not understand fully till I read the blog.
For me it was a puzzle of two parts. The first part went very smoothly; I had almost half the puzzle done in less than 10 minutes, and was wondering when the Thursday trickery is likely to show up. Soon enough, as the second half was really tough for me, what with the theme clues making no sense and ‘those’ names! Eventually I was managed to hack my way through without looking up anything though I did check if CORSAGE and LIV made sense as clued. Big smile, when the happy pencil chime came up!
Thank you all.
3
I think the best crossword themes are the ones which the solver must grasp to effectively solve the puzzle. Often the theme merely lays there, inconsequential to the solve. Not today.
Going through the grid a couple times left me somewhat disoriented. I had some answers, but quite a few partial entries seemed to bear no relation to the associated clue. For example, 55a clue "Chess Piece" had B_A__NG!? I'm very familiar with chess, and no piece contains that letter combo. But the crosses looked pretty solid. 24a "Extremely" had _RAVER_!? So what's going on here?
So I eventually did what flummoxed males sometime do, against all our instincts. I read the instructions.
OK, so it's NO BRA DAY? Yet I notice that some of the theme entries indeed have BRAs. Then I see that the rest have space reserved for them. So I make a quick run to Macy's and acquire enough BRAs to complete my theme entries. This helps immensely with the down crosses. Finally, it dawns on me that in order for the theme clues to suggest their associated entries, their BRAs must be, ahem, removed. Took me a while to see through that.
Now, time for a selfie!
5
@Mike R
For 24A I first had put into _RAVE_Y GRAVELY, as in "gravely ill" = "very ill", not noticing that the L didn't make sense in the down answer. But the G let to GREY Fox, which shouldn't have needed the capital F in the clue. However, this bollixed up that section for a while.
Then I figured out what was going on. I think it started to hit me when I realized that there would not have been anyone named VIBRATO in The Godfather. Or when no muscles were called LABRATS.
3
Cant't help feeling that this was inspired by the clue relating to the Beatles at 49A.
Ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on bra
La-la how the life goes on
Ob-la-di ob-la-da life goes on bra
La-la how the life goes on
2
How long did it take y'all to finish? I was just under 20 minutes. 19:35.
29:20 though I spent a few minutes looking for my error before changing iMBED/SHiRA to EMBED/SHERA.
16:29 vs average of 17:36.
@David Meyers
32:47 with exactly the same error.
and Elke
CLEVER puzzle. But my LEFT BRAIN really LET me down- this is the first time I hear of NO BRA DAY. Am aware of October being Breast Cancer Awareness month.
Like Judy d, am remembering in high school the CORSAGE going on the wrist. Always figured that it took too much BRAVERY for the date to pin it in the BRA area. Or wishing to prevent injury in the event of some NECKing ??
Approve of the public health message, but don't forget that more women die from heart disease than from breast cancer. So after that selfie, get a check on your b.p.
Was at first distressed to think of a ''senior'' having to JOB HUNT.
Upon reflection, 'senior' could be 'high school senior', not an 'aged senior'. Feel better now.
LA BRATS reminds me of a couple of relatives who are too cute to be labelled as such. YAY.
Thank you, Johanna F., your Mom and Jeff C. for bringing this important message.
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@Robert
Someone on a JOB HUNT is just as likely to be a college senior, and these days will find it just as difficult as does a senior citizen. Happily for my family, my two granddaughters, each with a B.A., have been able to pull this off in the past two years.
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@Robert (and Elke)
I thought of senior *citizen* and didn't blink since nowadays, with the demise of traditional pensions, many are having to go back to work to make ends meet.
As long as you can't LOX from the American Theater Wing, I'm good! Nice theme, quick solve. What held me up was thinking there were answers with BRA removed, rather than added. I enjoyed it!
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Very enjoyable, and it was nice to have a theme that meant something. Took me about twice as long as the usual Thursday.
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Enjoy the theme. Easy for Thursday.
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28D Journalist in a military unit = embed???
The journalists are EMBEDded with the military units (i.e. go out on missions with them). EMBED is what they call the journalists, as a noun. It's a relatively new usage, I think. I could be wrong.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embed
See 2a
: to attach (a journalist) to a military unit for the purpose of covering a conflict
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@Wen I believe you're correct on all counts.
As a verb, it's em 'BED
As a noun, it's 'EM bed
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"Embed" joins a long list of words that follow the same pattern cited by Muleshoe2. There's a list of these initial-stress-derived nouns at the wikipedia page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Initial-stress-derived_noun
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Good puzzle, but not very hard. Even with the NO BRA trick.
Though it seems obvious afterward and I knew something was off (haha), I didn't realize what it was until I read Deb's post. I didn't invest the time to think about it, and somehow solved by getting the crossings. Not only NO BRA, but NO DOGS too. Is there something against FAST FOOD as well?
Is the LEFT BRAIN SIDE B and the right one side A? I didn't get the MEMO.
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@Wen
I'm amazed you finished (quickly, apparently) without catching the trick!
In solving Thursday's Puzzle
58 Across is an incorrect clue.
The American Theatre Wing did Not award OBIES.
They hand out the TONYs.
The OBIES were awarded by the now defunct VILLAGE VOICE. (I got two of them).
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congratulations
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@DB Congratulations on your achievements, DB! According to the American Theater Wing website, “In 2015, American Theatre Wing joined the Village Voice to co-present The Obies with the mission to celebrate the diverse artists who bring important, progressive work to every New York City stage.”
I would consider it a correct clue.
@Deb Amlen
Yeah...... even I don't buy that, Deb. In a comment section where the propriety of lox being sold in a deli is debated endlessly, a mere 3 years of co-sponsorship of an award that existed for 52 years apart from the Tony's and celebrating a different form of theater, in a different locale, by a different host doen't entitle the American Theater Wing sole ownership of the award, as stated in the clue. The clue does not state or imply the true co-status in any way, shape or form. I'm sure money changed hands in co-sponsorship, whether the Villiage Voice is defunct or not. As such it needs to be recognized by Will Shortz.
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VERY CLEVER. I remember fondly the wrist CORSAGES of long-ago prom nights in high school during the FOLK song era!
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I was so clueless in high school I didn’t know I was supposed to bring a corsage for my prom date. True to form, CORSAGE was the last word I filled in today. I had been stuck on TARSALS.
As usual, I found the Thursday puzzle easier than Wednesday.
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