I was just thrilled to see Sevareid. I could be wrong, and perhaps it was decades ago, but in all my puzzling years, I don't remember that ever coming up.
If anyone's still reading Wednesday's wordplay please help me?
Why is the end of the British monarchy "arse" and "zed"
26D/52D could have definitely been a little more elegant. Personally, I kept chopping off the ends of UK royal houses and trying to make them fit: WinDSOR, Saxe-CoBURG and gOTHA, HanOVER, SteWART, and so on... I suppose 26D could have been "End under the British monarchy?", but perhaps that makes it too obvious, or doesn't have the right flow.
Now that we've had three separate threads over many hours explaining that "Thou" clues GRAND because thou is slang for a thousand and GRAND is slang for a thousand dollars, one might reasonably ask how a thousand dollars came to be called a GRAND --
http://www.word-detective.com/2008/04/grand-one-thousand/
1
I specifically cap back to these comments to find out how that was was explained. Excellent clue, though maybe bit tough for a Wednesday.
I enjoyed this puzzle. I enjoyed the back story. Perhaps it isn't as "slick" as some New York Times puzzles, but that's o.k. I look forward to the guest constructors' puzzles...they add a freshness to puzzle solving.
7
What a great Wednesday puzzle: moderately challenging, very entertaining. Never heard of Senator Donnelly, but thoroughly enjoyed reading his commentary on his experience.
1
I'm a new solver but was able to it at least no more slowly than usual for me. But I didn't understand some of the clues, not even basketball-related (I am athletically challenged). For example: has anyone explained what is GRAND about THOU?
3
Please scroll down through the comments, Mary, and you'll find quite a few posts explaining GRAND and THOU.
2
Thou like 'thou'sand dollars which is also a grand.
Nothing to do with basketball, Mary. Thou is a slangy shortening of thousand. $1,000 is one grand.
Swish! Establishing my pivot foot early on, I found the NE the only zone where I had to press for answers. Solving today was nO LAY-up but a score nevertheless...I can still picture NYC high school B-Ball alum Kareem Abdul Jabbar launching his patented sky HOOKS UP and over frustrated DEFENDers attempting to block the, more often than not, shot...WELCOME Mr. Donnelly, I thoroughly enjoyed your debut. Mr. Maurer, having the rest of the week covered, I see that you will become cycle HITTER status when you CREATE a Saturday puzzle and have it published in the NYT. The BALL is in your court..."The Dribble Twist" by The Raging Storms (no hit wonders from the Motor City) was a failed attempt, ca '62, to jump on the CROWDED bandwagon of Chubby Checker's Twist popularity. Sad to say, The Storms' effort was TOPPLED by a host of competitors. The bit ended up as pop's equivalent to an air ball. At LEAST they tried. The uploader TOED the baseline while deciding to throw-in a video of Fred and Ginger. Their ACT alone dishes out click-worthy status to the passage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gCAi5uQr7Q
Just A HEAD OF The Buzzer,
Bru
4
Very well done, Bru.
At least as far as I can tell. I'm sure I missed several gems because of my lack of knowledge of basketball and its lingo.
A bit easy for a Wednesday, I thought, and I agree with the negative clue comments.
Once more let me return to the parenthetical final words, though. 36A Flipped doesn't work as a clue without the parenthetical through. And the answer needs it as well, which is the normal usage of the parentheses. That is, "Flipped, as in flipped through" is not what the parentheses mean.
I realize that the parentheses can also help give context for the clue's meaning, but that's not happening here either.
and Elke
It's close to 9 a.m.Pacific Time and during BREAK FAST, I was OBSESSing about the comments fiasco.
I agree with David C.. For me and , I suspect many others, the WORDPLAY is what draws us to this column.
I keep looking for an explanation ,call it 'DIALOG' , as to what is happening, that the NYT is aware of the problem and asks our patience.
That would go a far way to ASSUAGE feelings.
Yes, I know it is only a puzzle and there are more important things in life (believe me, I know ), but communication would help ( a lot).
Deb.- it's not you, we know. Speedy recovery.
3
and Elke
Wish we still had the time/date stamp. It would show that Deb's reply to David C. and my comment went on-line nearly simultaneously. Something about great minds....
3
Well stated, Elke
2
Oh, I remember the time/date stamp very fondly!
So useful. So clear and understandable. Plus I think it would be technologically easier just to mark the time and date right there on the post, without having to have whatever-it-is in the program constantly tracking how long ago something actually appeared.
Aaaah, the good old days!
1
[Comment on the Comment Comments]
When the system is clogged up as it has been these past days, it doesn't merely keep commenters' posts from appearing. Much more importantly to the quality of this page and our experience of it, it keeps us from talking to and responding to one another. When a night's worth of posts all appear simultaneously up to 8 hours after they were written, there will be, as there is today, a wealth of overlapping / duplicating comments, and a dearth of playful interaction.
Let's all hope that a solution is in the works. This is an unlovely situation.
7
Hi all,
Yes, I've reported it a couple of times. Unfortunately, the department in charge of comment queues has had some issues that past few days, and they are working on fixing them.
They don't necessarily see your complaints on here, though. If you would like your voice heard, please email [email protected] or call 800-698-4637. That is the help line, and they can direct your call.
5
I'd like to see David and Elle send their comments to that email address .
Given that many of the references (clue or fill) are to basketball items, this got me wondering -- where in the basketball canon does 58D fit?
2
Once again, no problem with the constructors, but the fine hand of the editors is evident (or should have been used for restraint) in the clues: End of the monarchy is labored at best, both times.
2
Very enjoyable puzzle!
1
Being a big round ball fan, this was pretty much up my ALLEY, and I enjoyed the cheekiness of 7A and the not-so-subtle slams on Great Britain. Not being a big fan of Robbie Burns, though, I had FOULLANE before FOULLINE, but that was quickly resolved.
This was a mixture of easy and tough. I typed my way through about half the grid and then got stuck with some of my automatic answers. Sharpens? HONES, of course. Well, you know just how far that got me. Figuring out GRAND for Thou was an aha! moment. I finally cleared up the SE with WHETS and was just stuck in the NE. Noggin knocks? RAPS, TAPS. Another dead end. I never would have come up with WISEASS without Deb. That let me tease out BANKSHOT and ORNATELY.
“A loaf of bread, a glass of wine and (a) thou”
Isn’t it GRAND that “thou” works two ways?
12
Nice puzzle, Senator. You had me guessing and so you have a great future!
For 64A Something bleeped out for Television I thought the answer was FOUL L(ang) with the rest bleeped out. And I stubbornly hung on to WI(ly)ASS for 7a, Smart Farm Animal
1
REALLY?
two-bagger : (baseball, slang) A double (a two-base hit). Jones got a two-bagger in the first.
(slang, pejorative) An extremely unattractive person (usually female), the insinuation being that one bag covering her face would not be adequate. Within this joke, the second bag is often understood to cover the male's head in case the female's bag were to fall off.
Wiktionary
2
It doesn't take long on "urban dictionary" to determine that a very large part of what is posted there is utter nonsense and has nothing to do with a) the language as it is used or b) the language in use. The fact that googling, then reading, terms on urban dictionary produces disturbing information just gives you another great reason not to bother with clicking on urban dictionary results.
I don't click on Fox News when google returns it either. It's all about understanding whether you're dealing with a reliable, trustworthy source, or not. If not, then don't.
3
I've had the same reaction to Urban Dictionary, David.
Often, it appears that the term I'm looking up, if it's even real, is or was used by a very narrow segment of the population, and one I (mercifully) seldom encounter.
Confess I occasionally go there when trying to understand what something means to someone else, whether the term is in a puzzle or a political polemic. (I was relieved to find that basically no one else understood "jumo" either.)
I thought a 64A started at home plate and ran along first and along third bases.
In my experience (and I'm not the best exemplar to catch such) TV bleeps were applied to words, not lines.
Given what the fill for 52D turned out to be, I wonder what fill would qualify for the start of the monarchy.
Far be it from me to question our constructors' bona fides as basketball fans, but, as mentioned by several other commenters, 'Oscar Robinson' and 'Isaiah' (rather than Isiah) Thomas? Gimme 20 laps around the gym, guys.
I did not start with a FASTBREAK today. First gimme was all the way down at "Pigeon-TOED." But things got rolling after that. Being a sports fan helped, and all the themers were clever. Would the responses for the two British clues count as FOULLINEs?
My favorite quote from "Titanic," when Jack first lays eyes on Rose: "Ah, forget it, boy-o. It's as like have angels fly out of your 52 Down as get next to the likes of her."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cX9ti62dMbw
(I hope that doesn't detract from my aura of boyish innocence.)
Pretty sure I linked this once before, but it syncs up perfectly with today's theme: Kurtis Blow scored a hit in 1985 with the gentle rap song "Basketball." The lyrics name check many NBA stars of the 70s and 80s.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_shxzlTRK44
2
There is actually a player named ISAIAH Thomas now, as well as the classic ISIAH Thomas. I find it very confusing.
1
What is really confusing to me anyway is why there were 14 recommends but only 2 comments for so long.
I also didn't think that 'monarchy' added anything to the ARSE and ZED clues.
5
I think monarchy was just a minor misdirect.
Suejean, the Comments system *was* posting reco's immediately last night even though it was holding up the comments.
Thanks, Barry. That makes sense.
I finished the puzzle fairly quickly and with a minimum of fuss, but basically missed the whole theme until Deb explained. (For those who don't know, I'm unsportsed.)
ALLEY OOPS was cute, but I thought it was a play on the comic strip "Alley Oop." (Is that still around?) Then thought FAST BREAK was a play on BREAKFAST. I knew BANK SHOT from pool, but didn't get the wordplay or the clue; is the reference to a robber firing a warning SHOT in the air to scare people into submission? I thought FOUL LINE and FREE THROW were just fairly straightforward plays on terms I'd heard. FOUL LINE of course sent me back to the bowling ALLEY. If I'd thought about it more, or if someone had asked me, I'd probably have made the basketball association with FREE THROW. But no.
Many years ago (Indiana's U.S. Senators at the time were Birch Bayh and Vance Hartke), I had a consulting gig that took me back and forth to Gary. Whenever I met someone new and it was time for get-acquainted chat, I was invariably asked "What sports do you like?" Not "Do you like sports?" or "What leisure activities do you like?" No, "What sports?" When our work wasn't the topic of discussion, the natives with whom I was working seemed to start speaking another language, one I couldn't understand. Eventually I figured out it was basketballese, which helped my understanding not at all.
I'm a failure! (But thanks, guys. I had fun.)
3
Not in my book!
1
Deadline, I think you've nailed the BANK SHOT. We can work on the FAST BREAK tomorrow.
(Your Indiana "What sports do you like" sounds like my Iowa "Which church do you attend?")
4
Barry, I daresay you are right that your "What church do you attend?" is from much the same place as my "What sports do you like?"
I found out the hard way that an acceptable answer to the Indiana question is decidedly not "bowling."
I don’t mean to be a WISEASS, but why the silent chorus of disapproval for this puzzle? It is a quintessential Wednesday: clear, consistent and clever theme, strong fill, slight misdirections in cluing (28D, 26D, 53D), yet still smooth and accessible for newer solvers. Compared with some other recent products from US senators, this puzzle is a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
27
Agree with your last sentence, archae, but I don't think the "chorus of disapproval" is "silent."
Also, can a "chorus" be "silent"?
1
This one went down a little smoothly for a Wednesday for my taste, but it was a fun solve. Congratulations Sen. Donnelly on your puzzle debut, and keep fighting for us veterans.
The comment by Mr. Maurer about quip puzzles prods me to say--more quip puzzles please! It seems they used to be quite common but they hardly ever appear anymore. I truly enjoy having to work around the long, unknown quip bits and the final "a-ha" moment is often quite satisfying.
9
You are so right. I'd much rather have quips than the "Change a letter to make a funny phrase" themes, which are far too common these days, partly because they are rarely funny. I miss the quips!
1
Apparently the Comments system caught Deb's British flu.
Puzzle? Skip to my lou [loo, liu]; too much glue, glue, glue.
3
David R. Let us say you are a Monarch and you have a set of Scrabble tiles the last one in the alphabet would be ZED.
Always like it when our elected representatives turn out to be regular Joe's.
Still not sure why thou = GRAND.
The Big O was also a bar in Dewitt NY. Perhaps an homage to Syracuse U, just up the road.
Thank you Gentlemen.
$1,000.
cookies
2
I don’t get why thou = GRAND either. Scratching my head.
dk, thou-sand
1
I thought this was an original and fun offering today, but I wonder if I’m being too much of a wise ass to see if this gets by the emus?
1
A charming puzzle with its FREE THROW rug and Ramadan FAST BREAK. But whoever connected ARSE to monarchy was a WISEASS toying with a FOUL LINE. Monarchy refers to a form of government; it is not a synonym for royal family.
Afraid we have to assess you Hoosiers with a double technical.... The Big 'O': Robertson.
1
Zed for end of the British monarchy still makes no sense. Why monarchy?
In Canada, the UK and other commonwealth countries we say the last letter of the alphabet as ‘zed’ instead of ‘zee’
This puzzle was too easy and pretty much devoid of fun with the one exception of the ARSE clue.
2
A good game. Go Warriors!
1
the big ‘o’, the prototype for jordan and magic, considered by many to be the best player of his era, is named oscar robertson, not robinson.
2
Other possible theme clues/answers:
1. Send to the mat
2. Run-on sentence user
3. Drooler's feat
4. Shortest encyclopedia volume ever
5. Two
6. Announcement at a barn raising
7. When a dreidel falls
BOX OUT
AND ONE
DOUBLE DRIBBLE
MAN TO MAN
ONE AND ONE
POST UP
TURNOVER
4
"Run-on sentence user" Brilliant!
1
Lewis.
8. Out of pocket before prolonged success.
PICK AND ROLL
1
This is the kind of theme that compels me to come up with more, but I knew you would do it better, Lewis. I was thinking of something like hush hush governing organization for BACKBOARD.
1
The very thought that our beloved Queen should be used to clue a very vulgar word! “AR*E” is most certainly not a word used in polite British company. Clever clue, though, I got it straight away.
3
Some seem to want to do away with "political correctness" or, as I like to call it, "basic civility and decency".
1
Enjoyable. My son also objects to the clue for Zed.
How does he feel about the clue for ARSE?
An easy and fun solve for this Hoosier.
1
There is no 33Down; she meant 33A.
I believe the "Big O" was Oscar Robertson.
2
and Elke
Seems that the comment system is still a GRAND MESS.
It's 8:45 pm Pacific time, and two comments have cleared the FOUL LINE-
one (Steve L)with a green check; the other (Wags) is sans.
Is anybody watching ?
Eric SEVAREID was a given , given my age...otherWISE not up on my basketBALL .
1
Well! I just got back from seeing my hometown Ottawa Senators get clobbered 8-2 by the Chicago Black Hawks. Not in the best of moods so I thought I would get my mind off it with tomorrow's puzzle before bed. First thing I find is that it was constructed by a Senator (grr... I'm not too happy with Senators tonight). Ah! A sports theme. How nice I thought! I laughed aloud at ALLEY OOPS! Beautiful clue. But then I got to be cruelly reminded of the earlier massacre with clues like 59D "Chicago daily" and 47D "Protect against the other team scoring". GULP!
I really didn't understand the use of the word monarchy in either of the two identical clues. All told between the hockey game and the puzzle I am left feeling MEH.
2
Sorry that was the game you picked to go see. I jumped on the Senators fan-wagon when they came into the league and the North Stars went to Dallas and have been a huge fan ever since. This has been a maddening season indeed.
Great to know that there are Sens fans south of the border! (Heck, even here in Ottawa half of the city seems to cheer for either Toronto or Montreal). A number of years ago at a conference in Virginia, I met someone from Madison, Wisconsin. He was a huge fan and knew more about the team than I did. Apparently at the time a number of our big stars had gone through University of Wisconsin, so he had seen them develop before they hit the NHL. This year has been pretty dismal so far!
The constructors should know that one of Indiana’s greatest basketball players is Oscar Robertson, not Robinson.
3
Still confused on 28 Down
Me too. Would love someone to shed light on it.
That one had me flummoxed for quite awhile too. 'Thou' is short for thousand and GRAND is $1,000.
3
A GRAND is $1,000, a/k/a a "thou."
So-so theme, but some really sparkling fill. Fun puzzle!
2
Oscar Robertson was pretty good too.
1
Oscar Robertson, not Robinson. Isiah Thomas, not Isaiah.
1
Only two comments have appeared so far, so yesterday’s problem has evidently not yet been solved. I imagine that the flood will eventually be unleashed.
Today’s puzzle was pleasant enough, but it struck me as uneven: The left side solved itself like a Monday whereas both the NW and SW cost me a bit more effort. The basketball theme was obvious.
I thought that “The end of the Brtiish monarchy?” was a bit fat fetched for both entries. “An end ..." might have been better. In the same connection, I pointed out several days ago that Shakespeare had expressed the opinion that “W_______n ZED [is an] unnecessary letter “ (Lear II,2).
1:30 in the am, only 2 comments have showed up. And none for 3 hours. Comment issues continue. Going back to bed and expect to read this in 4-6 hours.
9:17 in the a.m., and your post is labeled "37 minutes ago."
Good morning.
I checked this morning and there were only 2 comments, and just came back and there were 60. The pipe was DILATEd I guess.
I enjoyed this one. Not quite a slam dunk, but close.
2
I know nothing about basketball, so when I completed my first theme answer (fast break), I expected a reversal of sorts of common words or terms (“breakfast” becomes “fast break”). When that got me nowhere, I concentrated on the down clues. Eventually, with “free throw,” the only b-ball term with which I’m familiar, I realized I was barking up the wrong tree.
4
I got every one of these clues with no lookups, and that gives me a lot of pleasure--I love how words just pop into my head out of the depths.
I did try to look up 62D but couldn't find it quickly--knew it was some combination of 2 vowels, so just played around til the happy song played. Agree with Deb about ZED.
Am surprised there are only 3comments posted here this morning. But then, this whole blog is working differently on my iPhone this week--the blinking"I" on the puzzle takes me directly to the day's column now and in the NYT app rather than in Safari, as before. Do they always make changes without telling us?
1
I noticed that, too. IMO I like the change; I hope it’s permanent.
What I remembered for 62D:
Oh what power the Giftie GIE us
To see ourselves as ithers see us.
Inexact, I'm sure, but I don't know Burns well enough to call him Robbie.
Thank you, Senator, for your bipartisanship. It is a much-needed asset in our political system. I enjoyed the basketball theme.
Thanks.
10
Thanks for this most enjoyable puzzle...was it our 36 years of being a Cameron Indoor Stadium season ticket holders that made us feel right at home with this puzzle? What is it about Indiana and crosswords?
2
Go Blue Devils!
1
Two-bagger? I had no idea what this was so made the mistake of looking it up. I did not appreciate finding out this is a term that is much more commonly used to demean women. The clues on this puzzle leave a lot to be desired.
4
Really? I have heard the term pretty often, but only with reference to baseball.
6
Or pot of tea.
2
Did you look it up in the Urban Dictionary to find it was demeaning? Two bagger has been around as long as baseball.
1
Nice puzzle. Unusually deft for a celebrity hybrid.
2
I've never heard of Oscar Robinson. We must be talking about "the big O" (Robertson).
1
Fun, except for those 2 "British" clues? What has the monarchy got to do with it?
It seems to me that "An end to the British?" would have worked fine as clues/misdirections for both.
12
Based on the paucity of comments up at 8 am, If I can assume one thing today, it is that there is "technical" difficulty with the blog, but not worth a FREE THROW. I thought it was a cute puzzle, especially for a celebrity collaboration. Favorite was FOUL LINE.
Love that the link now takes us right to Deb’s column.
Also loved the punny clues. Doing the crossword is my fave part of the day!
1
Looks like the emus are asleep on the job again. I can't get Xword Info to open either. Gotta love computers.
Nice puzzle and a smooth solve. I needed crosses for all the theme answers and didn't put it together until I had it all filled in. I thought BANKSHOT as clued was a bit odd, but no other real issues. Oh - I guess most of us know that there is a FASTBREAK after sundown on every day of Ramadan, not just at the end.
I played basketball just about every day from junior high through high school, mostly on somebody's driveway. Driveway is solid ice? Well, it just becomes a different game. Then played frequently again once my sons started coming of age until the last of them left home. There's still a backboard and rim on my driveway but the net really needs replacing. I am occasionally tempted.
Spike Lee, Aaron Copland and basketball. A nice combination of three of my favorite things:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYX1Ub5JsYA
..
5
That was fun, Rich.
I think I've mentioned before that my father was a great fan of basketball and was thrilled when he ended up sitting next to Dr.J on a plane once. (Not your Dr. J)
1
Only 2 comments, but twice as many reccos on the negative one. I thought it was a funny punny puzzle, and I recognized all the basketball terms even though I don't especially follow the sport. I did once belong to a bowling team, so identified with ALLEY OOPS.
You "sound" like you are feeling a bit better, Deb. I hope so anyway.
7
Thanks, suejean. Nearly there. It turns out that the British flu is a lot tougher than the American flu.
1
I enjoyed the puzzle and puns, suejean. Also knew the basketball terms and occasionally watch a game here in Warriors land. My original positive comment didn't post.
Looking forward to the end of the British flu, no doubt.
1
That was fun. I hope the senator's Hoosiers can regain their former glory on the basketball court (but not so much that they beat my Spartans).
9
Go Boilermakers
There is life between Nap-town and Gary
And a really good basketball team
Fun puzzle
1
49 Across.
19
and Elke
19D- OP. CIT.
1
First ZED explanation is unconvincing.
Is this comment not a bit rude? I found it a good effort with some nice and fun clues. And I say this not only because I am a former Hoosier!