Said Something in Response

Wanted to point out an error in the crossword for the 18th of this month, 34 across. The clue asks for the name of a German composer; the answer is Englebert Humperdink, but he isn’t a German composer, he is an English singer.

This one was tough. But I loved the challenge, and I hope many voices are lifted up on election day. Thank you, Erik.

Fun watching Eric on Jeopardy Friday. Spoiler alert if you have not seen it yet.. He won. Will be back Monday.

Is it me or was this one a killer? I almost never have to look anything up, but so many of the clues in this puzzle had me completely stumped that I gave in.

not enjoying this one at all, lots of the cluing seems cheap or just far too close to nearly wrong for my tastes...overall simply wasn't enjoyable for me. a few of the clues we're interesting, but didn't flow. may have been me of course, it seems most were happy with it today!

Long time lurker, first time commenting. Fun fact: my husband is Deb Amlen’s vet! (Her pets’ vet, that is. I was tickled when he told me. Hi Deb!) I started doing the puzzle almost daily after the 2016 election as a coping strategy. I’ve been getting steadily better and now can routinely finish Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I never thought that would happen. I used to be happy if I could fill in a few clues on Thursday. That said, today was my worst Thursday in months! Couldn’t break open the left side at all. Ah well.

That was a toughie for me! A definite "fly by the seat of your pants" puzzle. Took a swag on several answers as they just "sounded right", and when I entered the last letter I was genuinely surprised to hear the happy music! 20 minutes above my average Thursday, but what a fun ride! Loved the wickedly tricky clue for COLON!

Tough! Slightly slower than my terrible average (weighed down by marathon sessions when I was just starting out). Early on, had "naEnAe" for 1A. The correct crosses with ERIE and ADELE kept it there while I gave up on the NW and went through the rest of the puzzle. Finally sussed on HELM at 2D, which led to THEDAB (flash from a recent puzzle), which led to TMS, DIDNT... and BARON..., and of course MERIDA. Also had trouble *spang* in the middle. Guessed HOTLAVA, but couldn't grok on all the crosses with LAVA. Clues for AUG and COLON were very tricky (as was that for OUI, which I did not interpret as French), and I'd never encountered the name EVIE and BECCA was an unknown. Elsewhere, it didn't help to have "egypt" before CAIRO. Last fill was the O and last E of RECODE (guesses). Besides the tricky clues, there were some that I found obtuse, i.e., those for ATBAT, DENT, GABFEST, TEN (Could someone please explain?), NAY, and ATON. Thanks to my wife for LIFTEVERYVOICE (I'm embarrassed not to have know this). Caught on to the trick after staring at HOTLAVA for a while, then noticed "bass" and "treble" in the others. This was a puzzle where knowing the theme actually helped me, namely, in filling in BARONETCY, which I was struggling with. After this, please Friday, be gentle ...

It was a good puzzle, tho a little tricky. And I totally missed the read-the-answer-backwards for the theme. All in all, I enjoyed it, but it wasn't a top ten.

An interesting puzzle that challenged me from onset to google. For some reason my brain focused on "non" as a prefix and it took forever to get the crossing with AUG. Must revisit France soon! In all the discussion about voices, I am surprised no one has mentioned countertenors. David? Maestro?

Was thrown off immediately by filling in the ubiquitous NAENAE for 1A, which fit with ERIE and ADELE but left me scratching around trying to work in EARL(something). Overall a nice mix of gimmes and mysteries uncovered through chipping away at crosses. Very satisfying.

Just how many singing voices are there? While most people would answer four (soprano, alto, tenor, and bass), most musicians would add three more to that list: baritone, mezzo-soprano, and treble. (And opera aficionados add many more subtle distinctions such as coloratura and spinto, but that's a completely separate discussion.) As David Connell mentions in his note today (which I had to school to the bottom to find!), many are named in relation to the tenor (the "held" voice because those monks sang extremely long notes known as the cantus firmus). Altos, from the word for "high" (think "altitude"), nowadays thought of as low female voices, were high male voices, and the soprano voice soared over ("sopra") the altos. Trebles are the highest voice of all. Each voice has a corresponding clef on the five-line musical staff. A clef is simply a symbol which designates with range of notes will be on the staff. The clefs familiar to anyone who has taken piano lessons are treble and bass. Bass clef places low G on the bottom line and middle A on the top line, which is a comfortable singing range for basses, and treble clef does the same for trebles, sometimes known as boy sopranos. Other voices used a movable C clef (still used today by violas and trombones). Alto clef, for instance, puts the clef on the middle line indicating that line as middle C, putting the comfortable range for male altos on the staff. Perhaps the seven clefs would make a good Xword theme?

Tough one for me. OK, I'll pick this nit: "Symbols in superscript, for short" is incorrect. The symbols in superscript ARE "T" and "M", so the "symbols IN superscript are TMs. That they are short for "trademark" is a separate fact. And I had NOS for a long time...in part because "no" IS short for "numbers", though I can't reason that out. When I changed it to NMS, I got cranky. I had to google "tms superscript" to figure out what TMS was, so focused was I on footnotes. (Shouldn't that plural be "feetnote"?)

Pop music references today: 18A: Lady Gaga or Judy Garland; LGBT ICONs 32A: Nickname of singer of 2007’s “Umbrella”; RIRI (Rihanna) 5D: Singing superstar born in Tottenham, England; ADELE 34D: German composer Humperdinck; ENGELBERT We had fellow crooner Tom Jones in the puzzle yesterday. Today, Englebert Humperdinck makes an appearance. He had several top 40 hits on the US pop charts from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s. His 2 biggest hits were: “Release Me” (#4, 1967) “After The Lovin’” (#8, 1977)

A baronet is not a member of the nobility.

Tough day on both the crossword and Bee. Too many pop culture clues for me in the XW and too clever cluing (equals too vague cluing). SPELLING BEE - QB 35 Words 189 Points 2 Pangrams C-4 (4L-2, 5L-1, 9L-1) E-3 (4L-2, 7L-1) H-3 (4L-1, 6L-1, 8L-1) I-1 (10L) L-1 (8L) N-2 (6L, 7L) P-21 (4L-8, 5L-4, 6L-3, 8L-2, 9L-1, 10L-1, 11L-1, 12-1) HINTS: Growing up in the City of Brotherly love as I did will lead you to four words, including both pangrams, none of which you use on a daily basis. Lost a small bit of skin on one clotburrish "P" word - 8 L.

This was a nice workout, albeit not particularly Thursdayish. Got the gimmick right away, since LIFT EVERY VOICE was a gimme. It helped a bit, but I really didn't realize TREBLE was a voice. I know there's a TREBLE clef, but not sure what it is. And I initially misspelled ENGELBERT. Two letters that I had to guess at, luckily both correctly: OCEANIAN/NAY and RECODE/REY. Other major no-knows, requiring great assistance from their crossing entries: MERIDA, RIRI (the nickname and the singer and the song), ELVIRA, BECCA ("The Bachelorette"? Really?), RORY, ADELE as clued, CFL, NET BALL. Wasn't familiar with FATE LINE, but it made sense. Loved the clue for COLON! Had DIDN'T WASTE TIME before DIDN'T MISS A BEAT (which I loved). GABFEST is great. MAGICAL before LATERAL, which led to my seeing a GOAT at my fair instead of a TENT. I really like that this puzzle's challenge grew from good clues for good entries, and wasn't too TRENDY with the pop culture (sorry, RIRI and MERIDA). Today is National Chocolate Cupcake Day. Have a good one.

Three tries before the column came up with the Comments. Sheesh. Nonetheless, I DIDN'T MISS A BEAT. This was a pleasure to solve, and it was fun to spot the VOICEs. Today "Just Carol" and I are getting together for lunch. At last-- a CrossWorld gathering I can attend! I am stuck at Amazing 131 on the Wee Bee. A number of words rejected, including (of course) PIPPIN. May go down in flames today.

I just can't wrap my head around the clue for 10D. "Let" me in on how it's related to the answer?

I had to uncharacteristically resort to Google for MERIDA, RORY and UNOS in order to finish this. I have a rather busy day, and despite having all of the theme entries and revealer in place, I could not for the life of me grok the theme and I was extremely curious. Having entered LGBT IdOl did not help me finish either. I must remember that "idol" and ICON are often interchangeable. Despite my opera knowledge giving me Donna ELVIRA and ENGELBERT Humperdinck, I could not see the voice types running up the themers. So I now have a "cheat" solve to extend my streak but who's gonna know?

I love a good Erik Agard puzzle and a good Thursday puzzle, so today was a double treat. Lots of sports going on with CFL, AT BAT, and NET BALL, not to forget SLIDER, LATERAL, and HIT AT (the last a bit of a stretch). How mortified am I that my foothold was the Looney Tunes surname combined with the designated driver's order?! GRADS are usually associated with June (as in Dads & GRADS), but colleges generally hold commencement in May so I guess 23D is okay. I cannot wait to see Erik on Jeopardy. As someone who has been through several contestant searches, I am a little envious but, as Iago the parrot would say, why am I not surprised?!

"HOTLAVA is redundant!" Spewed Tom sanctimoniously. Thinking that a noble domain might be the periodic table lead me astray. Some knowledge of intellectual property gave me 1D, but no knowledge of 1A or 14A resulted in the dreaded guess. Speaking of odious entries 14A brought a smile. Dame fortune smiled as I penned in ELVIRA, as I know she is more than the "Mistress of the Dark." In sum, a slog but a fun one. Thanks Erik

Worked out the right side of this with a few early gimmes (ENGELBERT, ERICA, etc.). Knew the song, but couldn't remember it right way. The V in LEV was enough to get me there. Just couldn't get a foothold on the left side. To the fairly obvious set of unknown factual clues, I'll add this age-related moment regarding 23d. June is graduation month. Yes, I have grand-children and I'm aware that's changed, but I still don't understand why, and in any case 'May' will never lead me to think about graduation. Impressive Feat of Construction. Not my day.

Amazing tour de force! And a great way to highlight a beautiful anthem that was an important part of my Unitarian Sundays for many years. My limits were definitely stretched, not knowing many of the references, including the name of a Bachelorette and that The Dab was banned in Saudi Arabia. (they may want to rethink what is allowable there - ahem...) I find it an extra layer of fun to hear the happy music first and then have to hunt for the theme answers. Truly enjoyed this many-layered puzzle. Bravo, Mr. Agard!

I felt like a rock climber trying to find a path through a difficult rise. There were formidable obstacles -- 10 answers out of my wheelhouse and some lovely-yet-torturous oblique cluing -- as well as gifts along the way (DIDN'T MISS A BEAT, GABFEST, cracking the theme before completing the puzzle). In the end, I only had to guess once, at the intersection of RECODE and REY, so overall the puzzle was fair for me. And when I finally pulled myself over the lip of the climb to the summit, I have to tell you, it felt mighty good.

I really had to work for this one despite getting the theme pretty early on. "The Bachelorette" and "Gilmore Girls" are definitely not in my wheelhouse. Probably my longest Thursday time in quite a while.

I found this puzzle a bit tough, with lots of write-overs, but it is a Thursday! I would quibble over BARONETCY clued as a "domain". I got the word without difficulty, but the title has only ever been a rank, without any claim to land or rents. This is in distinction to a Baron who holds tenure of a Barony.

Kind of a disappointment. AT BAT answer for “turn up” does not match part of speech (clue is a verb phrase, answer is a preposition phrase or noun), other clues and answers were lackluster as others pointed out.

Today's puzzle is proof positive that the solver doesn't need to know all the answers to get all the answers. Having yet to fail a Thursday puzzle this year, I really redoubled my efforts to solve this one. What I did not know: TMS/MERIDA (natick), BARONETCY, SANTERIA, RECODE/REY (natick)m Ms ELVIRA, RIRI, Bessie, BECCA. Most were eventually gettable from the crosses, but a QWERTY keyboard run was required to get TMS/MERIDA. Only while writing this comment did I sus the nature of the theme. Three human voices, BASSI, TENOR and ALTO, are found reversed, or rising, in the theme entries. A fourth audio voice, TREBLE, doesn't work as well for me as the others. But some great clues in the fill as well. COLON as the "Middle of time" was my favorite. LIBRA as "Sign of balance" was great too. NAY, as clued, seems very archaic. Might be heard in a revival or Shakespeare play. But I liked it. And it took me quite a while to accept that ENGELBERT was the Humperdinck du jour. Gotta admit, I know the name but nothing else about the person. Thought he might be a pop singer. So this solve took me over 2x my average, but was quite satisfying in the end. Now on to Wordplay to find out about all this weird stuff.

Sub locations? sONAR POSitions

"Hot lava" is such a weak clue. It's the second time in the last while there's been such a clue. Someone setting at the level of the NYT should know better...or at least inform the editor that he's located some cold lava before using the clue.

Pretty difficult for a Thursday, but fun.

So good! Required a lot of digging on my part. Had to ignore the Astro’s and Sox — meaning tougher than most Thursdays.

and Elke THE DAB may be TRENDY nowadays, but this ELDER is not SAD AT that it is only ca, 2x TEN hours til the Friday puzzle.

Tropical Storm Michael (i.e., the passing remnant of Hurricane Michael) took down a tree nearby last Thursday, which left me without power until Monday afternoon, and without cable and internet until today. That being the only impact, I count myself among the lucky and unaffected, relatively speaking. The only casualty is my streak which snapped at 474. (Sigh) I would have liked to reach 500, but c'est la vie and no real harm done. So I have some catching up to do. I did last week's Thursday puzzle on Wednesday night before the storm. This afternoon I added last Friday's, and now I've done the brand new one for Thursday. That leaves Saturday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, plus the weekend Variety puzzles. I've got a lovely busy Thursday waiting.

Popular culture items that were too obscure for me led to three naticks. But I suppose I should at least memorize all the Disney princesses; it was a category on Jeopardy recently after all.

I gotta sit down. What a commendable use of raw linguistic dexterity rather than rhombic obfuscations. I don’t understand two or three clues; “AND MORE THAN THAT” for example, but getting there was half the fun. Almost as difficult as that Thursday puzzle a couple years ago where you had to fold the letters in half or whatever. Kudos.

Really tough but fun one, shot my Thursday stats through the roof. I was stuck forever on the Lady Gaga / Judy Garland one, both sure it did and did not start with LG. Once I asked my wife for the Spanish help and knew it ended in ICON it finally clicked. Great clue and answer.

Tough puzzle, really obscure and arcane theme. Got some breaks on the crosses, didn’t get the theme until after the happy music played and read Deb’s blog. 10 minutes over average playing calculatus eliminatus in 2 boxes (4 times as many combinations, eek).

I teach a segment including "Lift Every Voice and Sing" every summer near or on the Fourth of July. It's important to recognize that the poem was written in 1899 at the high tide of post-war achievement for African-American people. The song celebrated how far the people had come, and the vision of a dream achieved. The backlash which had already begun in the 1890s grew in strength through the period of Jim Crow laws, the disempowerment of black elected leaders and destruction of black-owned businesses, disenfranchisement policies and so much more - and, during those same decades of retrogression, the erection of statues honoring the heroes of the southern cause. All of this devolution transformed the song from a hymn of celebration to an anthem of solidarity and a call to continue the long struggle. It is a proper American anthem, and should be known and sung by all, not just black America. I guess the string "onarpos" is hard to find in a phrase, so "treble" is the highest voice in the puzzle today. It's standard to call the highest part in a men-and-boys choir the "trebles"; they can be very touchy about being called sopranos. The "tripling" meaning of treble (single, double, treble) shows the origin of the term: in medieval music, the main voice was the tenor ("hold these notes"), and the added voices were duplum, triplum, quadruplum... So the name for the voice two up from tenor became "triplum" or "triplex" - in English "treble."