Some late arrivals, off the (colour) charts:
Drank a soda on the Outer Banks? OCHRE A COKED
This ship has sailed? It's AQUAMARINED
Hope these aren't viewed as PUCE ILL-ANIMUSSED
Or viewed angrily: UMBER AGED
I know, I know, the body parts have been marooned. Couldn't get them pat the colour barrier.
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Well, I'll be HOGTIED if sometimes YORE ORBS don't geta stye: PINKEYED
And, back from the day when I had an absolute mad pash on KKristofferson: (admitting that some of it lingers)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHReBUA8cH4
Reminding all Ogden Nash fans that EUROPA LLAMA with a RIATA (MIA from today's grid)
TRAY NEAT and SPRY Monday, MrMcCoy, and not A TALL MMESSY> SOCKET Toomey.
5
I occasionally get the xwp equivalent of the giggles when different clues or fills come to mine unbidden. Some examples:
9D fill is possibly tiny covering for foot.
12D clue is a glatt kosher oxymoron.
63A property owned by Microsoft's founder.
26D is French for a veggie.
50A male pig's hernia repair.
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Dr W, you can put lipstick on some pigs, but if you want a boar hogtied, you'll want an ascot.
Discussion of glatt kashrut being held in a beyance. :)
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Nice and easy one to start the week.
The theme was cute and Monday perfect -- and new, best as I can tell, never been done before. Some nice answers for me were GNASH, AMALGAM, and ABYSS. A great intro puzzle for newcomers. As usual, Tom terrific.
2
Fill-in-the-blanks easy. Colorful theme though, and, indeed, nicely consistent. With Halloween on the horizon, the crossing of PELTED with EGGS seems ominous.
If you want to go down an entertaining rabbit hole, follow Martin's link to some other videos by OK Go. Inventive and fun.
70s rockers Sugarloaf were a true two-hit wonder. "GREEN-EYED Lady" peaked at #3 in 1970--the song sounds more than a little Doorsy to me. (The band returned to the Top 10 in 1975 with the jokey "Don't Call Us, We'll Call You").
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_DydKnpDsk
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Was I alone in going with YELOWLIVERED instead of YELLOWBELLIED? Had to change it to fit in ABYSS
2
Isn't it traditionally lily-livered and YELLOWBELLIED?
4
I've often wondered how an internal organ (like the liver) gets colored by emotion. Anybody know?
Well, they're certainly big words ...
Love the dogs and the plug for adopting a pet from a shelter. #adoptdontshop
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Just had to crow, amongst those who would understand, that today was the Monday I've been waiting for. The one where I finally solved in 5 minutes!
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Nice job. My fastest is 7:03, but I'm a slow solver. I still marvel at those who can solve a Monday puzzle in two minutes, like in the movie about Crosswords. The movie name escapes me right now. Hopefully, someone with a better memory will help me out.
Mac, the name of that movie would be "Wordplay," my friend. ;^)
2
Two minutes? I can do that. We're talking about the Mini, correct?
5
After my laborious trek through Friday, Saturday, and Sunday puzzles, today's was a wondrous touch typing event. Tried doing the down clues first, just slightly disorienting from decades of horizontal clues first. There were hardly any spaces left after that first go-through.
Enjoyed the White Knuckle performers, both human and canine. Nice start to my week!
2
Should not the clue for 29-D have been "Co. that bought Kinko's"?
FedEx is a word, a company name, and not an abbreviation. Yes, the name derives from an abbreviated form of their prior name, Federal Express, but is now the full name.
Abbreviations that require a signal in the clue are usually spelled with a period and expanded when we read them, automatically, like "Thursday" for "Thu." We never say "thoo."
Words that are acronyms (like NATO), initialisms (like "mpg"), or derived via abbreviation (like "FedEx") may be signaled, depending on the editor and his or her whim.
1
Enjoying your columns!
What is the distinction between an acronym and an initialism?
Acronyms make a word that can be spoken, like NATO. Initialisms do not make a word and are usually spelled out when spoken, like MPG.
1
I like that it was an easy Monday puzzle. Thank you, it was a fun puzzle.
Some of us amateurs look forward to Monday's because it's the only day we can solve puzzles.
We get it, most of you are superior intellectual behemoths. You can boast about your accomplishments later in the week.
12
John, I'd been an amateur at the NY Times crossword puzzle for decades. Patting myself on the back when I occasionally finished a Friday and Saturday - a small handful during those decades.
Last year I decided to take it seriously (perhaps could be called "go pro") and make the effort to maintain the streak and do what I must to solve. I find my mind slowly become attuned to seeing through the misdirections and other conventions and patterns in the puzzles. It was also thanks in great part to reading the Wordplay blog and the comments that I understand the themes and tricks.
My point in responding to your comment is to say that I'd certainly not consider myself as anything resembling an intellectual behemoth, but perhaps someone who's now pretty proficient at solving the NY Times crossword, nothing more. Of course, there may be actual intellectual behemoths participating in these comments - there are some awfully smart people, but it doesn't take one to solve the puzzles, late week or otherwise. I'm a prime example. :)
3
Forgot the requisite inspirational video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u171GcVX9wk
Thanks for the reminder, John. The puzzles are here for all of us to enjoy. And one of the great sources of enjoyment is the realization that you are getting better and better at it. Bring on Tuesday! Bring them all on!
3
Each of the words stacked due north has a buddy in the grid -- APES/APEX, REPO/REP, ERIC/EPIC. Most amusing to be, though, is having the "two-l" beast and GNASH. What ELSE is GNU?!
3
Not my fastest Monday ever, but in the vicinity. I think it says a lot for a theme when you think 'this has to have done before' but see no evidence that it ever has.
Random thoughts: I wondered about an 'eye / eyed' theme - redeye, blackeye, 'blue-eyed boy.' Is that last even in the language any more? How about 'red-headed stepchild?' I'm guessing not.
I've always thought it would have been neat if a 60's era black muslim named "Fred X" had started his own delivery business.
Lastly, I wonder if Martin goes back far enough before the 'if/ELSE' era of programming to remember what 4770 means.
1
Well, there's still "blue-eyed soul," a pop music genre frequently attributed to Hall & Oates, among other acts.
1
Brown-eyed Girl.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kqXSBe-qMGo
1
Brown-eyed Handsome Man was an interesting song for the times.
Unless I missed a post, no Deadline since Friday. Hope all is well and hope she checks in late.
OT: (more OT) If anyone is watching the new Ken Burns documentary, let me know if they mention Edward Lansdale, who was evidently both quiet and ugly.
With RUBIO and THE DONALD in the puzzle, we could have had an entirely different theme if that RED HANDED had been SMALL HANDED.
1
Unlike most of the other commenters, I was very disappointed by this effort. Even for a Monday puzzle it was too easy. My first reaction was to make sure that I was indeed on the NYT site and not some local paper. A bit of a challenge is enjoyed over my morning coffee. I managed to fill in most of the squares on the first pass that simplified the completion of the longer answers on the second.
3
Agree...
The "local" papers in les Etats Unis generally have themeless puzzles. We can count on NYT to arrange a theme for each one in the Sunday-to-Thursday sequence.
Like Peaches, I've never filled in a puzzle so quickly in my life. I frequently don't know what day it is, and today I was somehow thinking it was Tuesday, so I was really surprised.
I just looked back at the puzzle to see some of the entries I missed because of not needing them. I would not have known RUBIO. VEST reminded me of the many differences between British and American English; a vest is an undershirt here.
Any puzzle with a 2 L LLAMA is fine with me, just over too soon today.
3
We've had a fair number of the three-L variety in NYC lately. Lots of sirens.
2
Great dog video! The tricks are all safe, and the dogs appear to be having fun. Nothing is forced. The handling is wonderfully gentle. And the dogs are all rescues. A win on all counts. (Was that a goat?)
I don't think I have ever finished a puzzle as quickly as this one. It filled as quickly as I could read the clues and type the entries. I like the theme, though, and the fact that the constructor snuck an entirely orange body in there, too (THEDONALD). I'm not completely comfortable with that entity getting such a neutral clue, but it helps that he is referred to as someone's ex. Two someones, in fact.
9
I loved the goat's cameo too.
2
and Elke
Don't want to indulge in too much purple prose , but I did notice that LUST is separated from THE DONALD only by ETHER AKA 'thin air'.
7
cute. Liked the colors and the body parts! other geography goddesses: Athena Io (Ionia) and Asia.
1
"A most excellent puzzle, Mr. McCoy," she brown-nosed.
10
Nice approach, Beejay!! But... at the risk of repeating myself, some puns are bad enough to be blackballed.
5
Ooo, Leapy!...ouch!...and ouch again!
(He said winking his hopefully-not-pink eye.)
1
Then before ELSE, but otherwise clear sailing.
Thanks for the puzzle. Yay my streak is 1 again.
14
and Elke
Mac K-- got any pictures of YELLOWBELLIED sapsuckers ?
2
Nope, but here's a red-naped sapsucker:
http://www.pbase.com/macknight/image/43314905
3
How much sap could a sapsucker suck if a sapsucker could suck sap?
(Let's see if this makes it past the emus.)
1
Easy, enjoyable Monday. Clever even. Wanted WHITEASASHEET but that didn't slow me down much. Good way to start the week.
2
This nit does not mean I thought the clue was bad for a Monday puzzle; it does mean the clue is incorrect aka wrong.
Athena in Greek is Athene and ends with an eta, not an alpha. That's the more egregious part. As with all Greek words beginning with a capitalized vowel, the first sign written is the smooth breathing sign - less of a sin, since the breathing signs may be omitted when the name is carved in stone.
7
ARGOS or ARGUS part two? Seems our editors only know the Latin names of many things Greek, including deities.
Greek goddess of wisdom, skill in the arts, warfare, etc., from Latin Athena, from Greek Athene, perhaps from a name in a lost pre-Hellenic language.
athene. Dictionary.com. Online Etymology Dictionary. Douglas Harper, Historian. http://www.dictionary.com/browse/athene
1
Do you think, David, that we will be told that "Athena" *is* a word in Greek even if the Goddess is Athene in Greek, and it was a Monday misdirection?
1
Athena _is_ used in Attic Greek, though my Greek dictionaries (actual, printed, physical entities) all point from Athena to the proper entry under Athene. Wikipedia seems to be set up the other way, with Athene redirecting to Athena. That is exactly parallel to Argos/Argus, by the way. One Greek word that indisputably begins and ends with "alpha" is..."alpha," but that clue might break a more fundamental crossword law.
There's some dispute with Athena/e as with most of the Greek deities, whether they were named for the thing or the thing for them. (Is the rainbow Iris, or is Iris the rainbow? Is Athene the goddess of Athens or is Athens the city of Athene? Inquiring minds want to know.)
doro wat
3
I'm not mealy mouthed in saying I very much liked the puzzle.
1
Lovely Monday puzzle. Smooth as silk and enjoyable from beginning to end.
Well done Mr. McCoy.
1