Didn’t know Suri either but no need since I eat Chinese
Why didn’t they name her Vera?
1
Once again, Deb has referred to her son as "The Boy" and again it has brought back painful childhood memories. I was my parents' first-born, a boy, and I was followed by three sisters (I did have a brother but he showed up while I was a freshman in college, and that's a whole other story). My dad always referred to me, and I was always introduced as, "The Boy", never as "My Son", or even as "My Boy". I heard many other fathers refer to their male offspring as "My Son" and I always wanted to hear this, but I never did. My father ("The Parent") and I never got along, my whole life, and he literally, disowned me and wrote me out of his will, on his death bed! So if you refer to your male offspring as "The Boy" (or your female offspring as "The Girl"), please think about how impersonal that must feel when they hear that.
1
A DOE is a female deer (per Julie Andrews). Reindeer DOEs have antlers. Ergo, 14A is erroneous.
1
And reindeer are the *only* deer where females as well as males grow antlers, making the clue perfectly valid as a clue (if not as a biology lesson).
2
N.B. It's also valid as a biology lesson, since a deer [adult] with no antlers *is* always a DOE (even though, as Alan noted, not all does do not have antlers).
1
@Barry Ancona
Himalayan musk deer have no antlers, so your rule isn't quite universal. Nature does a good job at exceptions for most rules.
1
Hey, Deb!
Having helped me prepare the best burgers, steaks, chili, and even homemade mayo/aïoli I've ever eaten, Kenji is my go-to for all things culinary (apologies, Ina and Marcella and Nigella).
@ Deb Amien Thanks for the link to Kewpie Mayo. I'll have to give it a try. Duke's is the southern go-to, by the way.
1
53D brings to mind one of my favourite Seinfeld clips:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ia02fGpUQfU
The New York Times needs to be out in front and lead when it comes to clues and fill that are past their pull date. It's lazy at best to clue 49D like that, or perhaps to use it all.
@Andy
To each his/her own. I find a lean, clean clue like “Uh-oh” to fulfill a 12-letter answer and its 12 crosses for a smooth, Tuesday-level solve rather brilliant.
But I look forward to your surely imminent alternate construction.
2
“Spill the tea” was new to me, and I was surprised to read Steve L’s comment that it had appeared in the 3/21/19 puzzle. Thought I must have missed that one (though I normally do the puzzle every day) but looked in archives and saw I had done it. Sometimes those little 3 letter words go unnoticed when you get them on the crosses. From now on I will make sure to check through the whole puzzle after getting the star, even when it all seemed fairly easy.
Was 59D a tricky clue? I don't think of us as a nation of tea drinkers - a better clue (and "Hi, Mom!" one at that) might be
'"What's the ___?" drag queen gossip'
where "Tea" (also T or Tee) stands for Truth. Hey, maybe there's a theme there ;)
Super quick and easy. Still an enjoyable puzzle, thanks.
My best Tues time! I’m kvelling!
6
Way to go, @Jonathan Leal! Definitely KVELL-worthy.
4
Thanks Deb
@Deb Amlen
Good to see kvell as an answer. Even better to see plotz as a clue.My father, who did the Times crossword puzzle every day, would have plotzed if he saw plotz as a clue.
You explained the answer. You might want to explain the clue too.
I feel so 38D. I told all y'all this summer about a student who didn't know what a "beetle song" was. Sigh. From yesterday, Super Sighs.
4
I just noticed that today is my personal best time for a Tuesday, no doubt due to the abundance (twenty-six) of 3-letter answers, many of which I didn't notice until post-solve because they were filled by the crosses.
1
Great solving, @Morgan!
@Deb Amlen
Now I feel like a heel; I just logged on to cancel my crossword subscription because it dominates my leisure time and I believe it's a main reason why I haven't been studying my Icelandic and Danish this past year. Every time I pick up my phone to unwind, I open the XWord app instead of Memrise or Duolingo.
I found a book of 150 NYT Crosswords at Goodwill, and the previous owner didn't touch the medium & hard puzzles, so that gives me 100 puzzles to do with pen and paper during my self-imposed exile. :)
Skál!
LOVED THE PUZZLE TO BITS, as I made BLTs last week to celebrate late summer tomatoes. I used this recipe:
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1020409-juicy-blt
Try it, and I suspect you'll love it.
Thanks Ethan Cooper for the neat puzzle reminding us why BLTs should be enjoyed.
3
@Louise
Trying to remember the movie where someone wants an order of toast, but the diner doesn't serve toast. They do serve a BLT on toast. So the fellow orders a "BLT, hold the BLT"!
1
@Robert Michael Panoff You may be thinking of 'Five Easy Pieces,' but I think it was a chicken salad sandwich.
@Rich in Atlanta
https://youtu.be/6wtfNE4z6a8
Chicken salad.
1
SUMTO was the one that tricked me up in this one. Had to go back and hunt for my error.
My son turned 20 this summer, and asked for an electric kettle and some tea for his new gaiwan. His birthday Instagram post was a picture of his tea set, and his caption ended with "and that's the tea." My confusion led to a lesson in the current usage of the term "tea," so I actually got that answer the first go-round.
5
@FrankieHeck
And TIL I learned what a gaiwan is!
2
@Liz B
Shouldn’t TIL stand for To-KNIGHT I learned, in this case?
1
Someone gave us a stock tip a few years back--ULTA. We had never heard of it, but when we were told it's a purveyor of 'beauty products,' I went, "Unh-uh." Disposable income. People on strained budgets (e.g., paying for health insurance, deductibles, co-pays, etc., in an ever-rising spiral) cut expenses where they can. It's true I bought a lipstick in 2017 (son's wedding) but I don't bother with make-up...and I'd never invest in such a company.... and now we hear that ULTA is in trouble.
Oh, the puzzle. Nice Tuesday. On with the day.
4
On the mayo note: most American mayonnaise brands taste like oil. There is a delicious brand available in most health food stores called Hain safflower mayo, that tastes of vinegar and pepper as it’s supposed to.
1
@Frances
Mayo is sooo easy to make if you have a food processor. I haven't bought a jar of the stuff in at least 30 years. A quart takes less than two minutes to make and beats anything that comes in a jar for taste.
This one is a mystery to me.
3
@Martin
I'm with you, but we don't use enough of it nowadays....so the DHubby buys Duke's. If we still lived in the land of fresh artichokes, I'd probably be back at it!
1
@Frances
Hain also owns Celestial Seasoning, manufacturer of herbal TEA
I thought the theme was a little light on the mayo but the fresh theme answers were heavy on the the tasty bacon.
I ate it up!
Thanks, Ethan!
4
OY!! From KVELL, I knew bupkis - so I spent I spent too much time thinking - - “Not VERDI?? Who else?” Then I gave up on that as the reason I heard no happy music and schlepped up to an easy typo at LOVEsTOBITS.
Otherwise, I would have had a new PB for Tuesday.
Picked up on the theme. (Unusual but I’m getting better at it.) Theme sort of “supported” the solve - but wasn’t critical.
Didn’t know SURI - but didn’t need to.
DID know ALBEE and ALEXIS - proud of myself.
Had tattoo located a little too low at first. (Wishful thinking!)
I wanted HARD OF HEARING or GOING DEAF to fit at 56A.
There’s a reason that TEA IS the national beverage in the UK and NOT in the US. (Remind me to tell you some time.)
ADELE and HALLE are getting to be “common place” - - NO?
Hikers are drawn to the ALPS?!?! I’ve been to the top of Kleine Matterhorn - - but I sure didn’t walk up there - - WHEEZE!! GASP!
Nice Tuesday. A definite “Solve”. Two cupcakes in a row!
5
Fine Tuesday puzzle, with a clear and consistent theme. ULTA was new to me, and at 36D I briefly wondered how A TEASE could be "relaxed." But I enjoyed this puzzle, YES SIR.
2
Deb, great column today! Laughed out loud at 19D and especially appreciated the mention of the brilliant J. Kenji Alt-Lopez, whose encyclopedic tome "The Food Lab - Better Home Cooking Through Science" is as much fun to read as it is to try the recipes, many of which turn conventional culinary techniques on their heads.
I always thought Kewpie mayo was a bit too sweet, but if you and Kenji feel that strongly, I'm willing to reconsider...
4
"Fun fact: ADELE’s albums “19,” “21” and “25” were named for her age at the time of the release of each album."
Not exactly. They represent her age when she started working on each album.
From a Billboard article from 2015 discussing "25":
Early in the segment, Lowe quipped that Adele was too young to have to lie about her age. Sessions for the album began when she was 25, though time has moved on. “I was 20 when 19 came out. I was 23 when 21 came out. I am 27. And so proud of being 27, thanks very much,” she explained. “But I quite liked it when I was 25.”
Full article can be found here: https://www.billboard.com/articles/columns/pop-shop/6738256/adele-albums-age
2
Thanks, @Art Kraus! I had heard it the other way around, but I have corrected it in the column.
It doesn't happen often, but I actually got the theme after only two theme answers. My mother would KVELL! I have always loved that word. It is almost onomatopoeic.
4
Way to go, @CS!
2
I would be more comfortable with BORN TOO LATE with the clue "Like a millennial *who prefers* 1960s-'70s music."
2
I did not think that this puzzle or Deb’s commentary would engender any deep antipathy. Seemed like a relatively Benign, Light, Tuesday to me. Yet . . . AARP, BLT, “Hi Kids!”, even TEA have roiled the seemingly calm waters, once again confirming that humans are complex and surprising creatures.
(This is not a knock on anyone’s knock, just an observation. My own nit was MOS, which I would have preferred to have been clued to “__ Def”.).
9
@Puzzlemucker
It appears that kvetching comes more naturally to us bipeds than KVELLing.
2
Mostly smooth solve. The only place I got hung up for a bit was in the mid-south. I didn't know KVELL or TEA (as clued), but my biggest issue was that with BORNTO in place I was hung up on thinking that it was going to be BORN TO L___ and wasn't considering BORN TOO L. That left me with FSTLP at 44d and I spent way too much time trying to figure what else might be wrong before that light finally went on.
My youngest son has a LOWERBACKTATOO; and an upper back one and... well, almost everywhere that isn't visible when he's wearing a suit. Everybody's favorite is one on his forearm, which is a quite accurate rendering of the photo from my great-grandfather's wanted poster.
I'm a big fan of SALMA Hayek and Frida (the film). I might watch it again tonight if I can find it on demand. Very... unusual movie. This clip might give you an idea of whether you might enjoy it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyKfuDzbbOI
..
2
One of those too-easy puzzles where I amuse myself by guessing the clue/answer simply by looking at my partially filled-in grid. But not even that could make this puzzle interesting.
I also knew from the first two themers alone that the revealer would be BLT. Then I'm pretty sure I yawned. Some other thoughts:
They really named their daughter SURI?
You want OLD music??? I'll give you OLD music! "It's a Long Way to Tipperary". "Old Folks at Home". "Danny Boy". 1960s-70s music (38D) is well within my lifetime and therefore by definition is not OLD :) I think the person who wrote this clue was simply BORN TOO LATE.
SUM TO???!!! Who on earth says that? A truly hideous, nay illiterate, phrase.
The good news? At least I didn't write in DON HO instead of TONTO today.
2
@Nancy, I think Katie and Tom had just seen a revival of "Oklahoma" before naming their daughter.
1
@Johanna -- As in "Surrey With the Fringe On Top"??? That is just too funny! Well, actually it's funny for you and me and perhaps Katie and Tom, but probably not so funny for poor SURI. ("Alas, poor SURI. I knew her well.") I'm so glad I had unadventurous parents when it came to choosing names. Aren't you, Johanna?
With all due respect to Deb (whose commentary I enjoy very much), for someone who dislikes themes and fill that are not fresh, you certainly have ran the trite “Hi, kids!” into the ground.
9
@Jeremy
You might have missed Deb's irony. Most of us participants are either long in the tooth or missing a few.
3
Dr W,
Sorry, but I don't see a bit of irony. Perhaps you haven't noticed that some posters here are paying into, not receiving, Social Security.
(Deb uses "Hi, Mom!" to explain newer usage to "the elderly.")
4
@Barry Ancona
Yes, Barry, but once in awhile Deb could change this usage - Hi Dad, Pops, Gran, Abuela, etc.
2
I thought the theme was cute and the theme answers strong. I liked that CLOUDS is high in the grid, and that SPACE X is on the edge. I'll attribute it to FATE that OLD and AARP reside in the same grid. I expect a predominance of easy/direct clues on Tuesday, but also a handful of thorny clues, and, IMO, this puzzle fell a bit short on that.
This will probably gross some of you out, but my wife makes, as an alternative to BLTs, what she calls DLTs, where instead of bacon the sandwich has pan-fried dulse, and let me tell you, it's a great combination.
Thank you for the ride, Ethan!
5
@Lewis
Seaweed as an alternative to bacon? Yup, that would be a hard sell...
Steve,
Lewis wrote "alternative," which did not suggest (to me) "imitation" or "equivalent." And Lewis wrote "it's a great combination," not "it's a great replacement." If there was a sell intended here, I'd say it was rather soft.
2
@Lewis That sounds delicious! I've also made eggplant bacon: marinate thin slices of eggplant in soy sauce, a bit of sugar and a few drops of liquid smoke. Bake in the oven until crispy or bake until done and then dry it out in a dehydrator.
3
Like some others I also had Selma, but that didn't last long as ALBEE was a for sure.
I noticed the BLT's in the phrases fairly early on which helped a bit to get the rest of them. I didn't notice that none were in the correct order for the sandwich until the reveal. It's lunch time for me now and I really wish I had one.
Cute puzzle and hope we see Ethan more regularly now.
2
Nice to see Ethan back on the puzzle page. I remember when he was looking at PIXELs in my Tech 6 and Computer Science 7 classes during in his middle school days. Several of his former teachers were KVELLing when he started getting his puzzles published not long after. This was a nice puzzle to wake up the brain before I’m head out the door to teach this year’s kids.
8
A lot of people are commenting and complaining about "Spill the TEA." It's an expression that I don't use, and I don't hang with a crowd that does, but I did know it this time.
That's because it already has appeared in the NYT crossword, on March 21, 2019, clued as "Spill the ___ (dish out gossip)".
But out of 785 clues for TEA, today's is only the second time ever that it has been clued to this phrase.
1
It takes a while for usage to make it into the mainstream and into The Times Crossword. (See the link I provided in another thread.)
@Barry Ancona
Some would argue, not long enough. I might side with those people regarding this use of TEA. I think it's fine to use modern slang if it's known by most of the populace, but when it's (up to this point) trendy and used by only a segment of the population, I don't think it's ready for prime time.
But that's just my opinion. Obviously, others love it.
1
Steve,
Tea is used as clued here on national television; you may not watch, but it's already prime time.
Good puzzle (on the easy side) that left me hungry for a BLT. Two notes:
Era-defining is an especially nice clue for EPOCHAL because epoch and era are more-or-less synonyms.
Re BORN TOO LATE: my millennial-aged son (born 1993) tells me Neil Diamond’s Sweet Caroline (1969) is one of the songs DJ’s play when they want to get everyone up and dancing. Not the song I’d have chosen to represent my generation but..
5
@Doug
Hearing audiences scream out "So good, so good" when the chorus comes on has soured me on this otherwise very good song. Those shouts are like fingernails on a chalkboard to me. I do realize it's just a personal feeling; others obviously feel differently.
Listening to the original version without those additions is fine, though.
LETTER BOXED
G-K(4), K-E(12)
2
@Mari
Had to stop looking today. This puzzle has been frustrating me more lately, as I have been finding two-word solutions harder to come by.
Yesterday however, I managed CORPUSCLES SHIVA.
Beats my K-S(13),S-G(4).
@Andrew
I too had to throw in the towel today because my plate is too busy to obsess. In order to keep myself from coming back to it, I used an unscrambler to glean today's solution obtained by Mari. Now I can get it out of my head for the rest of the day. I think it would have taken me hours longer -- if at all -- before that K-E would have come to my brain.
Yesterday, my briefest solution was CORPUS SHRIVEL. Otherwise it was the nonsensical : SPHERICAL LOUVER (or Mari's spelling: LOUVRE) or PREVIOUS SPHERICAL
SPELLING BEE
C E L M O P T
Words: 29, Points: 123, Pangrams: 1
C x 21
E x 3
L x 2
O x 2
T x 1
4L x 12
5L x 7
6L x 3
7L x 5
8L x 2
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
C 11 4 2 3 1 21
E - 2 - 1 - 3
L 1 - - - 1 2
O - 1 1 - - 2
T - - - 1 - 1
Tot 12 7 3 5 2 29
41
@Mari The Panagram describes itself. Only disallowed word I found: COLLOP (old English and American - a slice of meat). The same set of letters were in the Bee on July 19th, with a different center letter, so many of the words were still in recent memory.
5
@Mari Oh - and COCOTTE, CLEOME and CELT are still not accepted.
4
@Mari missing 2 still, the T7 & E7. I’ll keep trying but hints appreciated.
A nice, clippy Tuesday. Thanks!
1
I'm with Deb: Music from the 60s and 70s isn't OLD, Kemosabe.
3
Even though it predates me by a couple of decades, the 1958 BORN TOO LATE is one of my favorite songs.
A quick count shows 9? 10? pop culture clues, but they’re nicely offset by Verdi, de Tocqueville, Shakespeare, and Albee. The schadenfraude I felt at seeing ALBEE sardined right next to SCORN elicited zero guilt because I never forgave him for “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?”
Always good to see MUTTs or any four-legged creature. TIL KVELL and have already tried it out on two people. Now I’m trying to learn to spill the matcha, er, TEA, instead of beans, but it’s not going well. Linguistically, that is. I’m a master spiller of actual liquids.
A very smooth solve, a nice unhurried 7 minutes. Sometimes the memory banks are tilted just so and things roll right out before you’ve even read the whole clue.
5
Possible response to 37A: 49A
Beautiful, Lovely, Terrific puzzle.
3
@Mike
"Possible response to 37A: 49A"
Or, to look on the bright side: 18A
2
Deb, I gotta say, as a millennial, the “hey kids!” quips keep getting more and more condescending. We know who Clark Kent and Lois Lane are.
22
@Mayra, I'm glad to hear that. No condescension is ever meant. And not all of the "Hi, kids!" notes are meant for you. Some younger people (and older people for the "Hi, Mom!" notes) don't know these things. Those points are meant to help them. If you don't need them, that's wonderful. Feel free to scroll on by.
9
@Mayra
I’m late to this and I know I said I wasn’t knocking anyone’s knock in an earlier comment, but I have to say that it surprises me that anyone would read Deb’s column regularly and believe that she was being condescending to any group of solvers. In my experience with Wordplay over the past year or so, I have found her and Caitlin to be unflagging supporters of newer solvers, more experienced solvers, and all those in-between. Not to be overly dramatic, but I find that she and Caitlin are truly breaths of fresh air in an all too often jaded and snarky Internetverse. My $.02.
11
You are never BORN TOO LATE to appreciate the "high-brow" music of the 1940's and references to LAMBS who eat ivy
https://youtu.be/EU2CKQQr90E
2
and Elke
This was fun. Am wondering : could a LOWER BACK TATTOO be considered A TEASE ?
Bubbes BORN in another EPOCH would probably not KVELL at seeing a BLT sandwich being constructed for consumption...
Re AARP- if somebody knows how to get off their mailing list,please let us know. Have been trying for >25 years (including returning their SASE with names removed).
Nice new cluing for URI even tho the ALPS are close by.
LOVED it TO BITS (even without tasting it).
Ethan -your bubbe can KVELL.
6
@Robert
You, too, huh? When my home state digitized their social security records, my date of birth was entered with my year of birth transposed. I started getting AARP mailers in college. I’d’ve thought turning 100 a decade ago (acc. to their math) would’ve set me free, but no such luck.
4
@Robert
Re AARP, I had planned to say the same thing. I do not want the daggone car trunk organizer! Stop asking me!
3
@Robert - Hah. American Association of Really-annoying-life-insurance Pushers.
4
I figured an UNuSEd bathroom would be available to all. SURI doesn't seem a bit more like a name than SURu. And De Toqueville's name was something like ALEdIS. But they told me I had at least one square wrong.
1
The only clue I had trouble with was “reach by addition.” I guessed it started with SUM, and the crosses gave me the preposition TO.
1
I was surprised to read that Mr. Cooper had previously created 14 crossword puzzle, because I would have bet good money that this one was put together by a 12 year old.
I'm also a bit tired of the ongoing cavalcade of male crossword authors.
3
@jaded
"I'm also a bit tired of the ongoing cavalcade of male crossword authors"
then construct one! (assuming you're female).
Before everyone starts slamming this post, let me explain. Just moaning that there are so few female constructed puzzles does nothing to move the needle forward. There isn't some vast conspiracy among puzzle editors to shut women out of the constructor business. If the grids aren't being submitted, then they can't be published. There are constructors out there that are trying to change that by offering mentoring assistance to women who might be interested in construction.
There is a group who publishes female constructed puzzles exclusively (The Inkubator). They are available by subscription and are awesome! Support them also if you want to see more women building puzzles. If you're interested in construction, check out the Facebook group "Crossword Puzzle Collaboration Directory" where you can get a lot of advice and help for constructing and solving.
Don't just sit and complain... do something about it! :)
14
jaded,
Since you are jaded, this may mean nothing to you, but:
1. Could you cite some of your issues with this puzzle instead of insulting the constructor?
2. What further affirmative action do you suggest to secure and publish more non-male constructors?
14
@jaded
UH??? Your point is a little vague. There have been some excellent puzzles here constructed by individuals in that age range.
I’m sorry you have a problem with male constructors. There are quite a few of them - and they produce excellent puzzles - as do females.
1
Loved this puzzlebut when I finished I was surprised that I didn’t fill it correctly. Thus, I began the tedious task of looking for errors. I first had THIStooiSBAD, which seemed weird and messed up EPOCHAL. I fixed it but puzzled at KVELL. I thought the answer would be Yiddish but I’d never heard KVELL before. Adding it to my mental lexicon! Turns out SALMA was the last error because I wrote SeLMA.
Spilling TEA is very, very common so you probably want to add that to your list of words/ideas that will pop up fairly often. I encourage a positive view of modern language! Talk with younger folks and you’ll be surprised how much will end up in the NYT Crossword!
This was ideal Tuesday puzzle — the clues were LIT 🔥.
7
@Pani Korunova
It took me 5 minutes to find SALMA instead of SeLMA. Edward eLBEE also is not very well known.
3
@ColoradoZ
Salma [Hayek] comes up often in puzzles so maybe this will help you think of her name next time she’s clued: she’s of partial Lebanese extraction and ‘salma’ means ‘peace’ in Arabic, as in ‘as-salāmu alaykum.’
I know her from her lead role in “Frida, a film I highly recommend for her and Alfred Molina’s respective performances, its gorgeous cinematography, and sublime music. Even if you care little for Frida Kahlo’s artwork (I was only tangentially interested; Diego Rivera’s art interested me more), the film tells a riveting, visually compelling story.
8
@Sam Lyons
I also enjoyed SALMA in "Frida" and the movie
" Selma", which didn't have SALMA in the cast
2
Great fun!
Minor complaint (about these puzzles generally) - so many US-centric sports and other clues!
Don’t forget this is the INTERNATIONAL New York Times, née International Herald Tribune. Fewer US cultural references, please, few more from Rest-of-World.
Still, all trivia knowledge is good trivia knowledge so now I know what “stealing a base” is all about.
4
@Peter Douglas
Isn't baseball big in Japan?
4
@vaer
yup. they tend to talk about in Japanese tho'...!
2
@Peter Douglas
Can one say "oy vay" in Japanese? Just asking.
1
Some puzzles feel like the level of difficulty in the vertical fill doesn’t match the horizontal fill. I wonder if such puzzles wouldn’t feel harder rotated 90 degrees.
6
@Doug
It might also depend on which way you choose the rotation.
1
@Dr W
It wouldn't matter, because a rotation 90 degrees to the right leads to normal downs, but right-to-left acrosses; while a leftward rotation leads to normal acrosses, but bottom-to-top "downs".
@Steve L
Ah, but we’re assuming rotating only around the Z axis. I say we take it for a spin around the X and Y axii and watch the kvetch-to-kvell ratio blossom into an outright rebellion.
Liquids - I'll stick to that*.
Kvell is the Yiddish cognate of the German Quelle (the qu is pronounced as kv): a source (as of water, but also metaphorical as in English), a spring. Side note, Q is used by Biblical scholars to designate the hypothetical source text behind certain of the Gospel passages, standing for Quelle. The Yiddish verb, to kvell, is to overflow with tears, or with pride, or other emotion, just as a spring overflows.
"Spill the tea" is very current. My students (late mid-teens) this summer used the expression regularly. Late-night sessions where they shared their personals and gossip about others were called "sleepytime tea", which was odd, since they hadn't heard of the chamomile tea brand of that name.
*with appreciation to Deb for posting the link to the video about Warwick NY. I was deeply disturbed to see 23A in the puzzle and hope it's a long time before it comes back.
8
Icelandic 'hver' (pronounced somewhere between kwair and kvair) means a hot spring.
@David Connell
Interesting - My experience is just the opposite of your students'. I have never heard the expression "Spill the tea" but know Sleepytime® tea is Celestial Seasonings best selling product.
@David Connell
I find it interesting that if you reach far back enough, the (Yiddish) kvell/(German) quälen/(English) quell/(Icelandic) kvelja etc. all derive from the Proto-Indo-European kwelaną — to suffer, torment, torture, hurt (plus the causative [j]aną suffix). The etymological descendants of kwel have survived with relatively minor phonetic adaptation in not only English, German, and all of the Scandinavian languages, but also in Slavic languages (primarily Baltic, but as far south as Armenian, too). The modern meanings range from triumphant (kvell), to those of subjugation (quell), to crying out in pain (kwilić), to annihilation (yes, kill and quell both come from kwel). They all express different aspects of the original sense of pain. Whether kwel has come to symbolize inflicting, overcoming, or merely expressing pain in each of these modern languages may simply speak to the outcome of the encounters between the respective early speakers of each and those who had coined ‘kwel’ in the first place.
Qualifier: this is a 3 a.m. anthropolinguistic train of thought.
15
Another late masterpiece by VERDI stars the MOOR in Otello!
3
Spill the TEA was a new one for me as well, but I missed the clues for that, KVELL, and ULTA by filling in the crosses first. The theme answers weren't too difficult, but I didn't pick up on the significance of the initial letters of the words until I hit the revealer, which was right before I got to the last two themers, which made those a bit easier. A quick, but very nice, Tuesday.
1
KVELL-ing to see one of my favorite Yiddish words make its debut!
14
Now, THERE is some mishugaas I don't hear most days in the Adirondacks. Please send more.
8
CALEB Carr sounds interesting. I think I'll check out his books.
Still a few blanks on my grid, which is unusual for a Tuesday. I shall sleep on it and see if my brain will work them out in the morning.
3
@Stephanie if you listen to audio books Carr contributed an article to a series called "What If" of counterfactual history. He wrote it, he doesnt read it. There are 4 of them.
3
I came back to the puzzle this morning, and the blanks I left in the grid were laughable. The brain does need sleep. I still like solving before bed, though. I find it relaxing. I've even started solving a few minis with my daughter before she goes to sleep.
2
@K Barrett. I do like audio books. Thanks for the recommendation.
When I read the clue “Rocket building company since 2002” I thought “Oy vey, I can’t deal with this meshuggah Tuesday puzzle.” But I solved all the down clues so by the time I completed the puzzle I was kvelling.
8
For “like 43” I put OLD. Ha, even though...it isn’t...
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43!? BORN TOO LATE to be OLD.
1
@Margaret
ODD and OLD (per 38D):
“Silly Love Songs” - Wings
“Don’t Go Breaking My Heart” - Elton John & Kiki Dee
“Disco Lady” - Johnnie Taylor
“December, 1963 (Oh, What a Night)” - Four Seasons
“Play That Funky Music” - Wild Cherry
— Top 5 Singles for 1976
4
@Puzzlemucker and Wen: to clarify: 43 isn’t old, cos it was Quite Awhile Ago!
1
Never heard of "spill the tea."
3
@Kathleen Reilly I thought it was beans, not tea, that got spilt.
4
Stephanie and Kathleen,
Deb anticipated that:
59D: The phrase used to be “Spill the beans!” but we are TEA drinkers now, and TEA has come to mean the truth about something or gossip.
4
Perhaps a link might have been in order. Not surprising to see the putative source of many new American expressions...
https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/428090/where-does-the-expression-spill-the-tea-come-from
2
Did not know how to spell moo shu(i) pork or k(c) ato or Sa(e)lma Hayek. Also "spill the tea" sounds more like a protest against taxation than revealing sensitive information. Learned something and enjoyed the puzzle.
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@Robert Kern
I like your definition of "spill the tea"
1
The idea of BORN TOO LATE seems to imply that if you like the music of an earlier era, too bad. You're not allowed to listen to it. I say, if you like it, listen to it. If you don't, don't. We're all BORN TOO LATE for Beethoven, right? Only, nobody is really BORN TOO LATE for Beethoven.
On a related subject, here is Peter Schickele's "Unbegun" Symphony. The Prof. explains in his intro/standup bit how "BORN TOO LATE" applies to this piece. Lots of fun. The better you know the source music, the more hilarious it is. But I dare say it's a treat even if you don't.
https://youtu.be/dLDzeGvzK4s
16
Typically, this is a phrase one applies to oneself and not one assigned.
3
No, this puzzle I hadn't LOVED TO BITS. But it was quite good nevertheless. SALMA Hayek, on the hand, I do really like.
TIL: KVELL. I didn't really need to know about ULTA, but there it was.
Was it SLY to have TRY ON and STEAL down at the bottom?
LOWER BACK TATTOO - I only know that as tramp stamp (I know some people will object to that, but it's how I knew there was a term for it at all.
Adele's album names always struck me as a bit of humblebraggadacio. Don't get me wrong, I like her music.
Oh, the puzzle, yes. the glut of 3-letter entries detracted a bit, but some of the mid-length ones were quite good and the theme entries - long and eclectic. Liked the use of the three X's. It's a solid Tuesday. IMO.
5
@Wen There are many LOWER BACK TATTOOs that are beautiful and original works of art ( mine included).
1
@MichelleB - I agree that tattoos can be quite beautiful, regardless of location - I'm not down on it and can certainly appreciate it as a proper form of art. Though I have to say, just as there is good art and bad art, there can be some pretty bad tattoos.
1
@Wen
I agree on LOWERBACKTATOO. That was so sanitized it was funny.
Very quick Tuesday for me. Didn’t know KVELL. I had tried KVECH as I couldn’t think of anything else starting with KV. Enjoyed seeing both Aida and Ot(h)ello which evoked VERDI which was in turn placed above AID. (Endless Verdi opera?)
8
Well, this went very smoothly. My only hiccup was the clue “reach by addition”. SUMTO is a bit awkward, isn’t it? And I didn’t know ULTA, so it took a few minutes to straighten that out. But everything else rang a bell and the BLT theme was fun. More puzzles from this creator will be welcome.
7
Been loving Tuesdays (and Wednesday’s, and ...).
-Tom
2
destroyed by sAlma :(
2
Francis (Bacon) Iceberg (Lettuce) You say . . . (Tomato)
Also, a BFT (Blazingly Fast Tuesday). Well, as “blazingly” as I get, which is within School Zone speed limits for a speed solver.
Enjoyed it, especially some of the fill, like EPOCHAL, MOO SHU, KVELL, and ULTA (which I didn’t know). Also, the subtle BLT theme. And, it’s nice to be reminded that America is a democracy . . . Would like to see TONTO clued along the lines of, “One of the first Native American characters in TV or film portrayed by a Native American” one of these days. But there was diversity in the puzzle names, which I appreciate. Welcome back, Ethan, and thanks for an enjoyable ride.
7
I got down to the bottom, and TEA was my last fill, and I thought, "What?" Had to look it up, since I'd never heard that phrase before. Wiktionary cites it from January 2018 and says, "Apparently, the expression appears to be a recent one."
I liked the BLTs. Merritt's Grill in Chapel Hill is famous for its BLTs. They are delicious, and full of bacon. Mmmmm, bacon.
5
An even more topical clue would be That’s the ____.
@Liz B Agreed! Merritt's makes the best BLTs. Might just have to get one for lunch today.
1
This is an excellent early-in-the-week puzzle for people who prefer themeless (or almost themeless) crosswords.
[And that's *not* a knock on the puzzle.]
6
@Barry Ancona I beg to differ about your characterization of the puzzle as almost themeless. The mathematical theme, with all the permutations of BLT was delightful. As a mathematics-loving solver, any sort of shout out to everyone's favorite subject to hate brightens my day!
3
@Tami Martin and Barry,
I don't love mathematics but thought this a great early week theme.
2
@Barry Ancona
I agree that it was essentially themeless. I went through the entire puzzle at a fairly efficient clip without knowing what unified the answers. The reveal came after every themed answer was filled in. I had a good smile, but only after the fact.
1