Relaxing puzzle, especially after my fails Fri. and Sat. I, like some others, never bothered with deciphering the anagrams. I just used the clue provided and crosses.
While you might think I am being flippant here, I assure you I am quite serious. Being Canadian, it is obviously not President’s Day here, but something recently concocted called “Family Day”. As I went through the Across clues at Monday speed, I saw and solved the anagrams quickly, but GARFIELD evoked a large cat, MADISON evoked an Avenue, and FILLMORE evoked a concert venue. By that time I was simply focused on finishing as quickly as possible, and saw the anagrams as utterly random. I suppose if I had stopped to ask myself what the five words had in common, I would have realized sooner, but in my haste, it was only once I got to Deb’s column that I put it all together.
I did find one Canadian Prime Minister however – Joe CLARK – better known in these parts as Joe Who? Even without the anagram, if clued as One-time Canadian Prime Minister, I think it would have stumped an awful lot of people.
4
and Elke
Andrew- you know of course that us LOTUS-EATERS on the wetcoast celebrated Family Day last Monday. It was so decreed by our then Premier Christy CLARK .
Starting next year we will be one family with the rest of Canada.
PS- Today being the 19th (of Feb,)- Canada's 19th Prime Minister was a woman-Kim Campbell. Elected from my riding..... am taking the 5th whether I voted for her.
Sorry, Andrew and Elke, I'm way behind on Canadian holidays. I just found out that you've renamed Dominion Day.
1
Robert and Elke - I never dreamed that one day I would be discussing Canadian politics in the pages of the New York Times! Yes, of course Kim Campbell who managed an even shorter time in office than the aforementioned Joe Clark! As I am sure you know, she weighed in recently on the subject of female news anchors wearing sleeveless dresses. Somehow it seems that there are so many more pressing issues...
2
I've always known this song as, "Sailing, sailing, over the deep blue sea..." Is this the modernized version?
1
I think this is the original. Not sure about your version.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sailing,_Sailing
What Martin said.
"deep blue sea"? Where did that come from?
"Deep blue sea" *is* in several songs, but *not* in "Sailing, sailing..." Here's one I remember; perhaps you will:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xKp6qXB1Bc
1
FURry clues: LULUS, POLICEDOGS, ELMO and YETIS.
2
A suggestion for this puzzle: Change SLAM, ELAN, and ISMS to SLOP, ELON, and ISPs.
I'm pretty sure that AYS can also be text-speak for "Are you serious?", but I don't know if that is common practice.
Any particular reason for those suggested changes? Just wondering.
Maybe Ryan is an ELON alum,
or he dislikes French, poetry and philosophy?
1
Andrew/Barry - Don't know if you'll still read this, but I feel like at the very least ELAN is a little obscure for a Monday. That part of the grid looks like it wouldn't be too hard to refill. Plus it's a good way to work in ELON Musk.
I enjoyed this Presidents' Day puzzle. I remember being told as a boy that anyone can grow up and be president. Apparently, you no longer have to first grow up.
18
But still, you can't grow up as a boy and become president.
1
Easy yet presidential. Nice tie-in to the HOLIDAY.
Deb, I DIG that Shanty video, like, the most! Thanks for sharing.
Like all the best cartoons, the 90s TV series "Animaniacs" (produced by Steven Spielberg) included plenty of humor for both adults and children. The wonderful song "The Presidents" is a 3-minute history lesson covering all the commanders-in-chief from Washington to Clinton.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vvy0wRLD5s8
3
Animaniacs was a goto babysitter dream, as I could watch my niece and nephew AND catch all the hidden adult jokes. Like the background seeing Nancy chasing Ron walking aroun in his bathrobe. . .
2
Apparently, as Amitai and AllanJ have pointed out, the anagrammable presidents are the ones who got things all scrambled up. A fun puzzle nonetheless. I didn't get to yesterday's until too late, but I must say I really like the ones where the answers sneak around corners. Nice start to the week.
1
My favorite clues from last week:
1. Game's turning point? (10)
2. Like privates, often (9)
3. Its ribs stick out (8)
4. It's generally up and running within a few hours (4)
5. One who always has time to spend (10)
ROTISSERIE
PIXELATED
CORDUROY
FOAL
SHOPAHOLIC
6
One more time, Lewis, I just really love your thoughts here.
2
Regarding Maynard G. Krebs: The G stood for Walter.
4
Seeing both HAND GRIP and WESLEY on the same line evoked the word "Crusher" to me. One because I have been on the receiving end of some pretty forceful HAND GRIPs, and the other from my Star Trek days...
1
As a newbie I really enjoyed this puzzle - first one I have only had to look up one clue. I never heard of Amos cookies or a Slam poetry contest.
5
Carol, the name of the cookies is Famous Amos. An example of a misdirect: the capital F is not only because it's the start of the clue - it's part of the name. And the poetry contest is known as a Poetry Slam.
We learn things every day here. Glad to have you aboard.
6
Don't care, Viv. I see no reason to slam poetry.
otoh, I'm excited about that Legendary meeting.
A pleasant puzzle... only too bad that so many of the presidents used had to be from the lower half of the presidential ratings.
MADISON might be embarrassed to be in the same puzzle with them... (see the ratings in the NYT op-eds)
1
It's not Garfield's fault he's ranked so low. He showed great promise as a leader, but was fatally shot a few months into his term and lingered on awhile after before he finally died. He and W H Harrison really shouldn't be included in Presidential ratings. Neither lived long enough after inauguration to accomplish anything.
MARLA is cause for alarm.
8
And what's all this pussyfooting around with ex-wives in the puzzle, Will? Bring on Stormy! Bring on Karen!
2
First time beating my wife's time, mostly due to the fact that my anagramming abilities are far better than those of my wife. I wish there were more puzzles with heavy anagramming :D
1
I think greater care may be needed--the opening words, "First time beating my wife..." are a little alarming.
I didn't bother anagramming; I'm awful at it, and it was simpler just to get the answers unassisted.
3
MOL: You beat me . . . to it. . . .
4
I had the same reaction. The important question will be, "When did you stop beating your wife's time?" :)
3
Usually I love anagrams. When I was doing puzzles with pencil and paper rather than on my laptop, I would take the anagrams, write the letters in a circle with one of the letters in the center. This would whiplash my brain into seeing different letter combinations that eventually brought the answer to mind. Now it's a little harder as I try to rearrange them mentally.
Today I took the easy route and bypassed the anagrams until I had attempted the other clues. That didn't leave much to figure out. The only early entry I had made in the Presidential clues was DOG in the Coolidge one.
Enjoy the day, all.
2
Interesting strategy, Meg H. I am not a natural at anagrams and have long used this strategy: I put all the letters in alphabetical order. It somehow helps me see more possibilities. The one time it didn't help me was in a cryptic crossword where the word to be anagrammed was dairy. I nearly went nuts with trying to find the (incredibly simple) solution to that one.
Shouldn’t 4-down be “SCANT?”
4
Thought this was nicely done. I'm not very good at anagrams, so I just worked the downs until I had enough to figure out the theme answers. I kind of wish that I'd at least made an effort to get them without the crosses.
I see sort of a Detroit area mini-theme (Hi DL). Besides FLINT, we also have Pontiac in a clue and then Ford / MERCury for Dearborn.
I share a surname with two presidents, but Johnson looks like a challenge for an extra letter anagram. I spent a few minutes trying to think of something without success. Anyone? Hey, at least I can do Ford + J, so maybe there's hope.
1
I wish your name was Tyler.
2
JOHNSON + I = Places to stay briefly.
HOJO INNS
5
I didn't do it, RA. I knew when I was a kid that there was a place somewhere nearby called FLINT. Dearborn was actually across the street from the street from where I lived, with some of the Fairlane estate used for testing new Fords.
I remember that Pontiacs were very expensive and rarely seen by those of us who lived in the really world, and I thought MERCuries were different cars altogether.
1
Smooth and enjoyable solve, with only one writeover, at 34D: ImOut/IFOLD. The more I look at this puzzle the more the quality of its construction stands out. Clear, sharp, and no weak spots anywhere. Bravo, Mr. Haight!
2
Very nice. Easy anagrams, Monday-easy cluing, a nice painless way to celebrate whichever Presidents you like.
3
I found this to be an excellent HOLIDAY puzzle. Too often, they feel forced and inappropriate for their day of the week. Not so today, with fresh clues for a Monday and fun wordplay. I find myself in the minority on this one.
I will try not to read too much into the egocentric sub-theme -- ME FIRST, AND SO AM I, I DIG, I FOLD, EVIL EYE, AYS, AYES. On a somewhat related note, when my kids say ASK SIRI, they mean ME.
4
How many times have I heard, or even sung, "Sailing sailing over the BOUNDING MAIN" and not given a thought as to why the heck they're calling the ocean that? Great puzzle, and thanks for bringing EMU back and giving SEALION a well deserved rest.
3
Here is at least one "seemingly credible" discussion of how the ocean came to be called the MAIN and then how it was BOUNDING.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-bou2.htm
4
Fast and furious. Sadly Presidents Day is not a work holiday pour moi.
Found an old (circa 1937) Philco radio that stands about 4 feet high. Left the old dial and added a very low "watt" LED light to replicate the warm glow of the original dial. Cleared out the rest as it was beyond repair and replaced it with self powered speakers and a woofer, coupled with a hook up for one of my i(fill in the blank) devices. How does this relate to the puzzle:
i + radio equals dk's new toy?
ps. The Sheryl Crow/Stevie Nicks version of "Are you Strong Enough.." sounds great. Now for some stories by Joe Frank.
Thank you Bruce
2
Bruce, the puzzle is solid as can be, clean with a Monday-cute theme; well-done.
I know you didn't intend it, but it has made me reflective on two fronts. First, it felt way too soon for BANG -- I would have liked its cross SHEBA to be SHESA (as in Beatle's song "_____ Woman", Rolling Stones song "_____ Rainbow", or Tom Jones song "_____ A Lady"). SHESA is not a great-looking crossword answer, but SANG would not have wounded like what is there.
Second, the focus on President's Day made me realize, really think about, what can good about the Presidency, and what is missing in this one, our ME FIRST national symbol.
It's not your fault, Bruce, but while the crossword place in my brain got a kick out of the solve, I'm left with a bad taste in my mouth.
4
Completed the puzzle successfully but no rewarding little warble! Another difficult day with the algorithm acting petulant...
2
Hi Charles,
Did you check for any errors of blank squares? I'm not saying you made a mistake, but I'm told that that's the first step in diagnosing why this is happening.
Second step is to hit the Feedback button and send the CS people a note. This gives them enough information about your set up to help fix your issue.
I have people!!! Thank you Deb for letting me know. Now I only have to find them.
1
While you're at it, CS, would you please fix the finish thingy? Thanks!
First. Let me express my thanks to my well-wishers in Saturday’s comments.
Barry, the move was definitely voluntary ad I very much hope that it will be positive.
Viv. I now live a stone’s throw from the legendary Penguin Café. I would be delighted to meet you there in August, or any other time.
I liked today’s presidential puzzle, even though – with the notable exception of Madison, the presidents chosen for the anagrams struck me as a rather SAD LOT.
Aside to Caitlin re Saturday’s article: The algorithmic scale referred to looks logarithmic to me. I f you agree you might correct it for the record. If not, please correct me.
4
Legendary is good, Amitai. See you then.
1
I left my usual objection to the gun related clues as a reply to BLB.
As for the rest of the puzzle, I thought it a great and impressively constructed President's Day puzzle. I'm usually dreadful at anagrams, but these were nice and Monday easy and fun to solve.
3
Yes, Deb. The Shanty Chor Bremerhaven are the best. I love them all, but the guy who clearly has trouble with the whole English thing is especially endearing. And the "cabin boy" on second accordion. I'm ready to move to Germany and sign up.
2
I'm spending way too much time on youtube tonight.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RAjzG5a01nk
2
I have my popcorn ready and am fully waiting for your debut, Martin.
2
and Elke
Nice anagram plus puzzle for Presidents' Day.
Nevertheless, struggled with 'like atria'- mind was on heart and was looking for Kardiac Kath (aka LEAPy) to chime in. But finally the light bulb went on and SKYLIT was it.
My offerings :1) Clue:Where press secretaries can hide.A. BUSH + R= SHRUBS.
2)Clue :Accessory to go with MURSE .A.: OBAMA + N= MANBOA :))
I've mentioned before our friend with the license plate :K 9 HORA ( Kein Ayin Hora ); he wards off the EVIL EYE with it and three ptuis for extra help.
Celebrate the good Presidents that were and may be in the future.
8
In my family we elided the ayin so it sounds like "kinna hura." (It was usually "a kinna hura," as in something you really didn't want to happen.) I wonder if that's a common Litvak pronunciation.
I'd have thought the license plate referred to their dancing dogs.
6
Even though we lived on an island, we pronounced it "kinna hura" too. Perhaps I should point out that we did have relatives who lived on the mainland and we saw them several times a year.
The reference to the license plate reminded me of one I saw several years ago: "18 O AG".
Chai O Silver.
3
Chai O Silver, oy Vay.
3
Love doing all these crossword puzzles but I was taken aback by the gun references in this puzzle.
Am I the only one to think their inclusion to be insensitive and inappropriate so soon after suffering tragic gun deaths at yet another of our schools?
3
BANG is the sound from a starter's pistol (firing blanks) at a race, and the sports photographer who gets ready to shoot AIMS the camera.
6
An archer also AIMS to shoot an arrow. I'll take a President's day themed puzzle even if it seems to have gun-related entries and Donald Trump in it. There is no good time for gun references - mass shootings (whether at schools or not) happen frequently. If you're worried about school shootings, I'd say it's still too soon after Columbine. Or Sandy Hook.
7
BLB, you are not the only one disturbed by the unnecessary gun references. AIMS could easily have been clued as "Goals", and BANG by any number of references to sound. The recent tragic shooting in Florida was apparently the 18th school shooting so far this year, so to see the clue "gets ready to shoot" was gut wrenching for me.
4
And the center answer for the president's day puzzle 2018 is LIES.
11
Hmm...that's odd. The center answer in my puzzle was FILM LOVER.
4
Am I the only one having a terrible time getting the website to acknowledge that I've finished the puzzle? This has been going on for most of the week.
3
Hi Dave, please click the Feedback button and drop customer support a note. It’s the only way they can get information about your experience and fix it.
Same here, Twice this week.
1
What I've noticed is that I am no longer getting that great prompt when I've completed all of the entries and have one or more errors. I miss those grumbling and self-mocking jabs! When I find the error and correct it, I then get my musical hurrah. I will share this in feedback, Deb
4
Donald may appear to be absent from today’s puzzle. YET I SEA a SAD LOT of LIES.
6
TRUMP + E = TERM UP
38
7D MARLA? One of his divorce-causing-remariages-leading-to-divorce. His name in the clue. Plus 35A: LIES. and of course 9A: BALDS. These are not intended to SPORK a political debate. Just to point out that Donald was arguably in the puzzle after all.
9
Not soon enough.....
3
Filet Mignon. Rare, please.
It always amazes me that no matter what can be said about the puzzle; good, bad, hard, easy, funny or sad, the date on the main puzzle page is always correct.
What is even more amazing, is that when I got here to enter my comment, I found Fact Boy's excellent (and tedious) remarks regarding dates of presidential elections. As a result, many of you will try to fabricate a relationship between my comment and Fact Boy's when, in fact, there is none. It is simply a Quincy Dance.
Perhaps I am digressing. Nevertheless I did take my meds today although that was over 10 hours ago. Happy Presidents' Day, y'all.
4
OK, I'll bite. What's a Quincy Dance.
Googling basically leads to dance studios in Quincy, Mass.
1
Steve,
I believe a Quincy Dance is a coincidence.
This is going back a ways and I hope I got it right from when I learned it from Zeppo Marx who, as you should know, had a marvelous lack of command of the English language and was therefore responsible for many of the idioms used today.
A Quincy Dance is when two or more titularly independent, yet virtually identical, events occur simultaneously or nearly simultaneously. In this case, I wrote about the date and FB wrote about the date almost at the same time although not quite exactly the same.
Upon further consideration it occurs to me that perhaps it should be one word and not two: Quincydane. Unfortunately, Zeppo did not write any of this down and we are forced to listen carefully for nuances in his speech pattern in order to determine multiple versus singular words and spelling, particularly double letters and vowel choice and placement. This is not always an easy task and if for some reason I got it wrong I apologize profusely.
Any other questions? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?
Hey, Deb, don't overlook the other "beat cat" in the video, Ed "Kookie" Byrnes, breakout heartthrob from the private eye TV series, "77 Sunset Strip." (There's plenty for the grandparents to explain here, too.) Kookie-mania spawned a rather "kooky" rock and roll hit single recorded by Brynes along with Connie Stevens, "Kookie, Kookie, Lend Me Your Comb." Obviously, the Fonz on "Happy Days" was not the first TV teen idol with a thing for his comb.
https://youtu.be/UdoS3MXnB5c
I enjoyed the President+1 anagram theme. Others seem to find it lackluster, but it was fine by me.
Jeff Chen complained about using BALDS as a verb. But for me, anyway (to paraphrase Descartes), I age, therefore I BALD. (But that's an entirely different complaint.)
9
Hi Alan,
I loved Ed Byrnes in this video, but would you say he was a beatnik? I think of them as more like Krebs.
"Talking hip" was for *all* young people in the 50's: Hollywood's idea of a beatnik like Maynard G. Krebs, proto greasers like Kookie the parking lot attendant, and, for that matter, the Jets in "West Side Story."
5
I see your point, Deb, and Barry's. I just thought I'd point him out under the "ask your grandparents" umbrella.
1
US Presidents aren't elected in leap years. They're elected every fourth year. One of the changes made in the Julian calendar by Pope Gregory XIII (eponym of the so-called Gregorian calendar, which is really just the Julian calendar, tweaked) was a new rule for adding leap year days; the Julian calendar added too many, which had caused the calendar to drift backwards in the cycle of the seasons by 12 days between its instititution by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and 1582, when the Gregorian reform went into effect. Century years are now leap years only if evenly divisible by 400. Since reform, the only century years that were also leap years were 1600 and 2000. If the clue were correct, Thomas Jefferson wouldn't have been elected nor William McKinley reelected. Calendar reform is the reason why the anniversary of the Glorious October Revolution was observed in the Soviet Union on 7 November (Russia stayed on the Julian calendar until 1918), the last day for filing an income tax return in the UK is 6 April (it's the last day of the Julian calendar year), why Orthodox Easter and everybody-else Easter are almost never on the same Sunday (the Orthodox church still runs on Julian time), and why we observe George Washington's birthday on 22 February, when he was born on the 11th (the UK and its colonies switched in 1752). Some of us are old enough to remember that his and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays were federal holidays once; they were replaced by Presidents' Day.
6
Our calendar is a sinister contrivance. I am particularly disturbed by the duplicity of the Ides' definition.
2
Revised 6D clue:
_____ years (when anyone doing this puzzle has voted for president)*
*assumes reference to Presidents of the United States
1
By FB's logic, Presidents are NOT elected every four years, or else Washington would not have been elected to his first term (1789). Starting in 1792, every leap that has come along since then has had a presidential election in it. In addition, so have 1800 and 1900, which along with 1789 are the three non-leap years (so far) in which presidents have been elected.
I think this falls under the clue-not-definition heading.
Nice summary of the Gregorian reform, though. Too bad it doesn't matter.
2
Shakespearean "ays" reminds me of the only role I played in a Shakespeare performance, Soothsayer:
"Beware the Ides of March!"
"Beware the Ides of March!"
"Ay, Caesar, [the Ides of March are come] but not gone!"
and that would be the entirety of the lines I had to work out...
A very, very quick Monday. This President's Day is as good an occasion as any to encourage reading about some of the awful, awful folks who held the office in the 19th century, the jeopardy they put the US of A into, and thus working on hope for the future...hope is always better than despair.
8
D.C., you remind me of the very first time I appeared onstage in a professional production, and my very first line. The play was "Caesar and Cleopatra," and my first and only line was, in its entirety, "Ftatateah."
2
Apologies, but the pedant in me needs to point out that the Federal holiday is named Washington's Birthday,not Presidents Day. If I recall correctly, when the Federal Monday holiday law was past, Watergate was still very fresh, and the notion of a holiday that might be interpreted as honoring Richard Nixon was not able to garner the votes.
3
Rodzu, I thought for sure you were wrong, but you are not! Where did Presidents Day come from? My mistaken belief was that Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday were merged into Presidents Day. Not.
1
I thought that about Washington & Lincoln, too, CS. A I recall (always iffy!), the two holidays were melded into one ... maybe because Lincoln's bday wasn't a holiday everywhere? And/or,the Scrooges in Congress didn't want people having two days off when one would do?
[pause}
So instead of more speculating, I went and looked it up, duh. Here's part of Wikipedia's report:
"The day is a state holiday in most states, with official names including Washington's Birthday, Presidents' Day, President's Day, and Washington's and Lincoln's Birthday.[3] Depending upon the specific law, the state holiday might officially celebrate Washington alone, Washington and Abraham Lincoln (whose birthday is February 12), or some other combination of U.S. presidents (such as Washington and the third president Thomas Jefferson, who was born in April).[3]"
1
Another wrong thought here.
I just thought that Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays were combined because (a) they were so close, (b) states still fighting the Civil War still hated Lincoln, and (c) so many people wanted to make holidays of their favorite presidents that there were just too many.
Where I stand on honoring various presidents is something I'll just keep to myself (sorta).
But there's still that problem of where, if anywhere, one should put the apostrophe.
Oh, just read Jeff Chen. I wanted everyone to know that he said the same thing I did, but I didn't see it until afterward.
I don't always agree with Jeff, but we had the same first thought this time.
3
Ditto, and hand up,
Again.
OK, presidential anagrams on Presidents Day, I get. But why the extra letter? Doesn't seem to add to the experience.
Now if adding the extra letter could turn the president's name into something significant (if HARDING had been known for working with tools, or if COOLIDGE plus a letter turned into SILENT CAL or RETICENT or whatever, maybe it would make the extra letter interesting.
6
Agreed, Steve (and Jeff). Alternately, if the extra letter(s) had some connection to the theme (i.e., adding "US" to GARFIELD)...
2
Agree, Steve L, Barry, and Jeff.
Smooth.
4
Silky.
No need to check a single cross.
3