Just no fun tall.
Not to pile on, but lordt. Y’all indicating singular? Bless your heart. :)
2
Had to be written by a man and edited by a man to think that THE PILL is an alternative to a sponge... possibly the other way around but hardly an equivalent choice!
2
Against my better judgement, I'll bite. Would someone explain to this clueless male what the issue is? I just see two alternative forms of birth control.
1
Yes, that is true, but “in the moment” you couldn’t really choose a pill over a sponge, the former requiring weeks (or a month?) of prior hormone manipulation to actually prevent conception. Likewise, if I’m thinking “i’d like something for occasional protection that doesn’t mess with my hormones and possibly have numerous negative side effects” I’d be more inclined to think of “the condom” or the “the diaphragm” than the pill.
Thanks. All of what you say is true, of course, but the clue doesn't imply in-the-moment vs. long-term planning, prior preparation, side effects, convenience or any other criteria.
Whether or not a female constructor or editor might feel that these characteristics were important enough to render the comparison invalid, or at least tin-eared, I can't say. But from the usual "40,00-foot level" of crossword clues, I think the clue's ok.
2
A joy to fill. I especially loved completing HUDDLE. No idea why. Wondered to myself, which is more southern, Y'ALL or SKINKs.
1
Did anyone else look for an "S" while solving the theme clues?
I left out GECKO because I *just* knew it wasn't going to be the answer today. I liked some of the clues today: POTTY, ANTECEDE, GAY PAREE, MULL, BREN, FLITS (even though I thought of All first and entered FLOAT), and OAXACA. Fun stuff!
My mother wouldn't allow us to say Y'ALL when we were growing up; she felt its usage was just too hick-ish and uneducated. It wasn't until I moved East that it just became second nature to use - still use it today. We did use (out of Mom's hearing) the word "nem". As in, Paul nem are going to the store later. Sort of double contraction of "and" and "them"; it just made conversation much easier.
3
Just love your 'nem. Related to 'nuss? As in 'Paul nuss turned in real late'.
1
Or as my wife from Western NC might say: “How’s your mamanem?” Somehow, the conversants know exactly what is being said, even if I often don’t.
2
I was not allowed to say y'all either. Similarly, no you guys.
No way! A red card in soccer need not indicate a penalty (using the word "penalty" with its usual meaning in soccer). Red cards
indicate that a player has been expelled. Oh well, baseball season is right around the corner.
1
Players *are* penalized with red (and yellow) cards. The clue did not say "Soccer penalty *shot* indicator." Now, for that offside rule...
2
I'm a New York resident and a digital NYTimes puzzle subscriber at $39.95 per year. This week, my credit card was automatically charged $43.30 for my yearly puzzle subscription renewal. When I called the Times to inquire, I was told the extra $3.35 was a State Tax. I am not an accountant, but my understanding is that New York State does NOT tax digital downloads or subscriptions. When I pressed the issue over the phone, the Times apologized and said my credit card would be refunded the $3.35. This sort of begs the question if every puzzle subscriber in New York State was also erroneously overcharged. Caveat emptor.
8
I'll be checking my next charge.
1
OT: The Mayor's Alliance for Animals and some other groups are sponsoring an Adoption Rally on Sunday, March 25, from noon to 5:00 p.m.
http://www.animalalliancenyc.org/events/featured/allforlove/index.htm?ut...
2
Apt theme for the day, but I miss the Thursday trickery (rebus or some other, less frequently used, gimmick).
Liked that BAR SCENE and GAY PAREE with its clue were symmetrically placed.
I loved Mike Nichols and ELAINE MAY since I first heard them in the 1950s and was sad when they split up. But I was then delighted with their subsequent solo careers. "A New Leaf" was lots of fun.
I finally succeeded in setting up a working account at ClassicReload from yesterday. In the process, I was offered the chance to add an avatar, so my panda has found a new home. But I miss our avatars here. Are there any sightings, or clues as to their whereabouts and when/if they may come home?
2
Nice puzzle but not partlicularly "Thursdayish", methinks, except for perhaps today being the Ides.
Oldsters will remember tax due day used to be March 15. This is why 18A provokes a chuckle. And seeing gambling terms 43A and 63A a titter.
I'm going to quibble about 31D: The original (British) term for that little flyer was "flutterby" --- which became Americanized to "butterfly." So -- it flutters -- not flits. Mosquitos flit.
1
Another thing that we oldsters remember is Flit, the bug killer that came in a can with a pump attachment that you chased the pests around with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flit_gun
2
I have an ASH CAN. I don't know what an ASH BIN is. How do you empty it? Does it have handles? Do you have to shovel the ashes out into a can so you can carry them up the basement stairs and spread them on the ice in your driveway? Then you can sweep up all the ashes that you track in on your boots and dump them back in the ASH BIN.
3
TIL: had never heard of SKINKS, so read up. Cute/weird little lizards. I like the blue tail one! There is also one with a blue tongue.
http://www.animalspot.net/blue-tailed-skink.htm
I use my IPad for xword and had never seen the avatars. (Also have to re- enter all links....). But if the avatars return, and I can have one, I am considering a blue tailed skink!
3
This was a great Thursday puzzle for me, although I wound up with a filled grid with no happy music. After carefully reviewing each answer, I decided that fUARTO should be gUARTO. Then when that didn't work, I had a vague recollection that four in Spanish was CUARTO, and I had a successful solve with no checks or lookups--- and all in Just under an hour!
My initial problem was that I did not remember, if I ever knew, that the Women's Army Corps (WAC) had been briefly preceded by the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC); so I had filled in WAAFs, which was the name for women in the British Air Force. Just to round things out, in the U.S. Navy we had Waves, and the Royal Navy had Wrens. It was tough duty, and I sadly suspect that in today's world they would all (or mostly all) be #ME TOOs.
4
Waves is poetic.
Let's not forget the WASPs, who had an even rockier time trying to get the military benefits they had earned and richly deserved.
0313201813530452V019279
(BTW, I knew Elizabeth Gardner, the woman pictured, a few decades ago.)
1
Okay, I don't know where that strange string of numbers came from. Here (I hope) is the link I was trying to post.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_Airforce_Service_Pilots
1
Enjoyable puzzle.
Since yesterday was PI day (3/14) and there was no hint of that in Wednesday's puzzle, I was not prepared for the IDES making such a strong showing today. But what do all Y'ALL think of the plethora of ID do this and ID do that?
2
I’m sure other southerners will chime in, or have done. But anyway: let’s disabuse ourselves of the idea that “Y’ALL” is ever a singular form of address.
It is a second-person familiar pronoun. It is analogous to “yins” in the Pittsburgh area, “youse” in the Northeast and Scotland, and “you guys” in general American use.
It is a singular pronoun only in movies that like to stereotype southerners as a bit dim.
Grrrr...
6
I see I am late to the party! But DHubby slept in, and with the dishwasher running and the laundry folded, I finally made it to my desk.
If I'D known you were coming, IDA baked a PI, Joe.
I'm appeased by seeing my name in the puzzle, but to be honest I'D have liked more themers in there....or maybe more ID words like IDEAL or people like IDA Tarbell. Just sayin'....
Had a K in place early, so the SKINK was a gimme; we have blue-tailed SKINKS slinking around in the stone wall's many crevices.....
1
Timely puzzle for today. Despite no rebuses or other tricky fill, I was a little slow on the draw this morning. I resisted entering GECKO @1A, even with none of the downs filled in, and SKINK came to mind off the K in KEYIN. I could spend hours watching/listening to ELAINEMAY and Mike Nichols routines on YouTube.
Chicago rock group THE IDES Of March hit #2 in 1970 with the horn-driven "Vehicle," sounding a whole lot like Blood, Sweat & Tears.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiLaNEFyCiM
2
Hope youse guys enjoyed this one as much as I did. Seeing SKINK reminded me of the great character in Carl Hiaasen's novels.
4
The ex-gov! That's why I recognized the name! He was awesome. Good call.
1
I avoided the GECKO trap by confidently filling in ANOLE -- he's the little green guy who shares my patio in great numbers. He's also a member of the retail set, although I read the replacement looks like a tail, but has a different structure than the original part.
5
retail set ha ha nice one
(the carolina anole can change color a bit, enough to be interesting when observed)
4
I'd heard there is anole boys' club.
Went with GECKO bec AXOLOTL was over-long. I'd no idee about SKINK until I realized everything would fall into place if only I changed LOG_IN to KEY_IN
2
Anole! Thanks for that word. I have just been calling them lizards. But they are brown on my lanai. My recently transplanted cats torture them as a substitute for the field mice of upstate NY.
More apt pic?
https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.pinterest.com/pin/5395875990744...
1
What a refreshing start to my day. At first I came up with no answers and two of the earliest were in Spanish! I think my first ID was I'D BETTER GO, eased in with ASH BIN instead of ASH CAN. My first 'sponge alternative' was THE BILL but GAY PAREE straightened that one out. The NW was the last to fall. I just didn't connect SUPE with condo life and SKINK was a long time coming.
All in all, it was great fun. No ho hum words here.
2
I agree on SUPE, who may be a VIP in an apartment building; the VIPs in a condo are the members of the board.
1
Agreed on SUPE, Meg and Hepcat. Just to keep apartment building terminology straight, a SUPE (in NYC a Resident Manager in a larger building) may be a V.I.P. in a *rental* building, but in a condo or co-op the V.I.P. is a board member.
1
While my building is not a condo, I have lots of friends who live in them. When the toilet is blocked up, they call the SUPE(r), not any board member.
1
Enjoyable. It would have been better for me if THEIDES had been clued as “date TODAY, providing a phonetic hint to 4 other answers in this puzzle”. To make it solvable. Then it would help with the 4 IDs, rather then been revealed by then....I need all the help I can get!!!
Kept looking for rebuses. Had ETALIA and GECKO first like y’all! In my innocence, I tried to fit LOOFAHS instead of THEPILL as a substitute for sponges. Had FLIES before FLITS, resulting in a confusing lock, SUREBEES.
Great fun!
2
Late to the party today, but YALL have offered a FEAST of fine comments. My only regret for this rebusless Thursday was that the grid was not a tad larger. Instead of four themers, I'D rather have seen three 15's.
2
Deb, I enjoyed the Brutus tweet, but I'm surprised you didn't quote Marc Antony's more relevant "Friends, Romans, countrymen, et y'alia ... "
12
Damien Lewis’s “friends romans countrymen “
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/video/2016/may/03/damian-lewis-antony-...
1
Nice!
1
The revealer helped me dodge the evader trap. And the March ides haven't been so bewarable since they moved the tax deadline to April a few decades ago.
1
"Y'all" is only singular when Yankees are adopting bad, insulting Southern accents.
If I say I'm throwing a party and y'all are invited, I may mean just those present, but if I say all y'all are invited, I'm including everyone in your family or other group.
7
Couldn't have explained it any better than this.
Thank you.
1
And I apologize for breaking my rule of never posting or replying before I've read all of the comments.
This was also well-explained multiple times earlier.
1
Thanks, Craig. I too am sorry I posted as soon as the composing window came up rather than reading the thread first.
English doesn’t have a good plural- familiar second-person pronoun that most speakers use. (“Ye” is one, but nobody uses it anymore.) Instead we rely on regional variants to do the job.
Ha! Not PC but SKINK was a term used to describe a male or female when picked up at a BAR-SCENE who may freely offer up.... i tell ya us science majors were a beaker full of laughs.
DUAL USE ha. IRS made a mistake on my return and refund amount. No correction yet. Perhaps they are tax hoarders.
Last full day in Atlanta. Off to Mary Macs Tea House for dinner tonight.
Thanks Joe for a rebus free Thursday.
1
Are you sure your definition is not SKINK but SKANK?
4
I solved this puzzle as if it were themeless My AHA moment was postponed until I read Deb’s article, even though I had THE IDES early. A relapse into theme blindness?.
Like others, I had GECKO before SKINK, which I had never heard of, but my worst guess was AYE before YEA, coupled with PLAY as the last four letters of 53A. I had to look up ELAINE MAY before I could fill the SW corner and complete the solve.
I raised an euyebrow at 42D; perhaps a generational reaction.
3
It's an old, but really cute movie, with Walter Matthau....
1
Joe is a pro, coming up with this theme to honor this day -- great idea, Joe! And what a beautiful stack you made with ACAIBERRY/TAXDODGER/BARSCENE. Also, SURE BETS is a lovely answer for the first big day of March Madness. My AHA at figuring out the theme came after the solve, and it was a good one.
I see Will is sticking to his guns...
MULL brought back the memory of a visit to the Isle in Scotland with that name, a place with spectacular scenery -- epic, truly -- and so worth driving through. And then you have the option to make a short hop over the water to IONA, a magically peaceful isle that will make all your stress melt away without you making any effort.
3
Hers, there is a mini Iona fan club here. Tendered ashore in a driving rain, very exciting.
2
Agreed catpet. The rain and mist on Iona add to the spiritual atmosphere.
1
my favorite scotish Mull sung by Susan Boyle for the Queen (written by Sir Paul McCartney):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eu-xCh7Fzlw
2
I'D rather have had a rebus, but quite enjoyed this clever idea for March 15. I liked all the long phrases. My other disappointment was that gecko was incorrect for 1A as I was sure about that one. So far no one else seems to have made that mistake. I can add my name to the list of ALIA first people, mainly because I always forget the double I ending.
It is fun to get the misdirections quickly; today I was chuffed with HUDDLE and ALOU.
Getting the reveal was an AHA moment for me, and quite satisfying.
Thanks, Joe.
3
suejean, I entered gecko confidently, and then deleted it meekly after not a single one of the letters worked with the downs. I liked the long phrases, which I popped in one after the other as soon as I had guessed THE IDES. So, a quick solve but quite enjoyable.
I was happy to read the learned discussions about Y'ALL, because although my first instinctive reaction was to agree with what Deb wrote, I now see that the clue was indeed correct. Wordplay, what would we do without you?
4
Viv, I should have gotten rid of gecko much sooner, just was so sure it was right and that I would think of downs that fit the letters
1
Hand up for GECKO first; I just didn't want to mention it! It took me a while to think of the word SKINK, although we had lots of them around when I was a kid. And there are still lots of them around now.
Well, I just worked a puzzle in record time....as far as my stats go that is. My internet connection was gone the entire time I worked the puzzle. So when I got it working again, the puzzle was blank but I quickly filled it in!!!
I'm surprised that you can continue to work the puzzle when you are offline.
3
I enjoyed the puzzle—and got the theme. Not a rebus, but OK anyway.
I've been doing crosswords for about sixty years, and although I've seen STEN
many dozens of times, as far as I can remember, this is the first time I've seen BREN. It must say something about the relative usefulness to crossword constructors of the letter combination ST versus BR.
1
STEN/BREN is one of those answers I always try to wait on before filling in, although STEN outnumbers BREN in the puzzles by almost 10 to 1. So I might as well just stick with STEN.
1
QUATRO instead of CUATRO held me up for a while ... isn’t the former a better fit for the clue?
2
That was my final hang up, too.
Dos is Spanish, quatro is Portuguese. Dois is two in Portuguese. Cuatro is four in Spanish.
4
Muito bem, parabéns!
No AJAR spotted, but KEY has now come in 3 days in a row. I'll leave all y'all down yonder way to fight it out among y'all selves. My fingers typed SATAN before NATAN even though I knew. I see that in this puzzle MAY came before APRIL.
3
Hey, I just realized! PI day has slipped by unnoticed! Happy circumferences, everybody.
2
I just did the PI Day equivalent of my mom's christmas shopping after christmas: I went out tonight and bought several pies marked down so we can celebrate PI day tomorrow (experimental variation taken into account). If you want to see a fun approximation, and ability these days of a browser, type 355/113 into the address bar of your browser!
1
I acknowledged PI Day on Facebook, with a list of my Top 15 "Pie" songs. #1 was "American Pie" by Don McLean, of course.
2
did you include the pie song from the movie Michael?
A touch easy for Thursday, but fun. Air cooling is what almost all machine guns have by default, except for the few that are water-cooled. Remember WWII movies where there's a machine gun with a large cylinder at the front? It was full of water.
2
and Elke
I'D be lying if I did not admit to having blueBERRY before ACAIBERRY ,and falling hook , line and S(K)INKer for 'Seder' instead of FEAST . And 'stEN' before BREN.
If the BOSS does not produce his records by THE IDES of APRIL , is he a TAX DODGER ?
But NATAN can claim 'my name says it all (I have given)'.
If there is a BEAR PIT, there must be a BULLPIT.
Coincidence that THE PILL crosses ROLLS DICE ? Lack of former may result in latter.
When I got to THE IDES, I stopped looking for a rebus or any other trick.
ALAS .
5
Luckily (or unluckily), the Ides of April fall on the 13th, so the taxes may yet be paid.
Ides are not the 15th?
I always have to leave blanks when deciding between BREN and STEN.
Just like ET ALII and ET ALIA.
Etc.
"Y'all" is plural. "All y'all" is just more plural. :-)
"Y'all" always means more than one -- anything from two people to the entire audience in a sold-out arena rock show. "All y'all" means "I'm talking to everybody here, not just to some of y'all."
If you hear "y'all" and can substitute "you all" or "all of you" in your head in normal English (as opposed to some dialect stereotype), then it's being used correctly.
"All y'all," which inherently involves repetition, is an emphatic -- mentally substitute "I mean **ALL** of you."
7
In my home town of Pittsburgh there is the similar “yins” vs “yins guys” - both plural but one is more plural.
2
In Philadelphia it's parallel - yiz vs. yiz guys.
4
But how do we splain this to today's yutes?
2
Nice puzzle... but I struggled with trying to fit BAT CAVES then BATS CAVE ...
Until finally accepting BAR SCENE.
Would really have improved my time if I had just given it up.
I liked THE IDES crossing DEIST
1
Likewise (the bats); same sequence.
I didn't know what a SUREBEE was, but the crossing didn't help. FLITS/FLIES undid me.
2
42 down, "sponge alternative," i.e., THEPILL, was a little racy. Altogether a good puzzle, but a little too easy for a Thursday. Nice to see the Elaine May clue.
1
I usually associate sponges with a different Elaine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sy7BotZqVy4
11
Steve, as WP's resident country music maven, I'm surprised you didn't also link "THE PILL" by Loretta Lynn. Pretty controversial upon release in 1975, it still made the Top 5 on the country chart, and even reached #70 on the pop chart.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DcdONaKSQM
1
Jumbo, sorry I disappointed you, but since you already posted it, I’ll post a tune that is having a bit of the same effect these days. It’s the latest single by new American Idol judge Luke Bryan. The video is at the end of the article.
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/song-review-luke-bryans-most-people-a...
1
"aha" moment was my second to last word so I was pretty happy about that
1
Opinions and regions may differ, but in my experience:
YEW is singular.
Y'ALL is plural.
ALL Y'ALL is REAL plural!
(big wink here!)
Confusion sometimes appears to a non-Southerner who witnesses "Y'ALL" being said to one person. The observer may think the speaker is addressing the listener only. To a Southerner (in my experience), the implication is that the speaker is including a mostly absent group of which the listener is the only member present. "What y'all doin' this weekend?" might mean "What are you and your family doing this weekend?" The identity of the group in question depends on context, perhaps a group the speaker routinely asks about, or a group already mentioned in the conversation up to that point.
The only place I hear the singular Y'ALL is in fake-Southern dialog on TV and in movies.
8
Wikipedia has a good article on the subject:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Y'all
The consensus there seems to be that Y'ALL is almost always plural or implied-plural, but that every so often there's an unexplained singular use. They give a quote from H.L. Mencken to that effect:
"[The plural use of Y'ALL] is a cardinal article of faith in the South. ... Nevertheless, it has been questioned very often, and with a considerable showing of evidence. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, to be sure, you-all indicates a plural, implicit if not explicit, and thus means, when addressed to a single person, 'you and your folks' or the like, but the hundredth time it is impossible to discover any such extension of meaning."
The Mencken quote cites no examples supporting singular use of y'all. Nor are there any examples given anywhere in the article. There is only the bare unsupported assertion that it can sometimes be singular. Mencken suggests its frequency as one time in a hundred. My experience is never in thousands (if not millions) of uses. As a native Southerner, I've never seen a convincing example that cannot be explained either by reference to a group not present, or misuse by speakers mimicking erroneous TV/movie dialog.
5
My experience over many summers in North Carolina tallies with Alan J's, unsurprisingly, but I would precisify his "all y'all" with the characterization, "each and every one of you," in contrast to "you as a group."
"I need all y'all to sing in tune" means it is each singer's responsibility to sing in tune.
"I need y'all to sing in tune" means the choir should be in tune.
3
didn't like seeing TAX DODGER as I am right in the middle of doing them! I did enjoy the puzzle however; especially seeing ELAINE MAY -- her routines with Mike Nichols were brilliant!
5
No idea why, but very easy and quick today. I haven’t thought of skinks since my childhood in Florida, when we pulled off their tails when we were bored. We knew they’d grow back and didn’t hurt the things. Amazed that potty worked too. A lot of fun.
2
IIRC, one of the Zorks (or maybe another Infocom game) had a SKINK in it.
I too almost always write in ET ALIA first (or want to--gradually I'm learning to wait on the last letter) but I just checked and ET ALII has been used 44 times and ET ALIA only 21 times, so I need to change my approach there.
Nothing else seemed too hard or too easy. This solved in just about average Thursday time. I'd been hoping for a rebus, but maybe next week!
4
It's a Mauna Loa/Mauna Kea thing, along with the o/a endings of Spanish words and AAH/AHH.
2
I used to always assume ET ALIA until I first encountered ET ALII in a NYT XWP. Being the clever fellow that I am, I now just leave the last letter out until I get it from the cross. Otherwise, I find I may end up guessing wrong and then having to peruse the whole puzzle to find my mistake - if I never even read the crossing clue before completing the grid. ET ALIA is neuter, ET ALII is masculine as I now understand. For me the NW corner was the last to fill. It took me awhile to "think SKINK" and I had LOG IN for awhile before abandoning it in favor of KEY IN, which led to SKINK, just from the second K.
4
Some day some constructor will cross everybody up with ETALIOS, the usage if you're talking about people.
1
Ironic that this puzzle included the entry AHA moment, since it didn't contain one.
UZI yesterday, BREN today. We're going from semi-automatic to automatic. Progress???
In the South, you don't address one person as Y'ALL. One person is "you," more than one person is Y'ALL. "All Y'ALL" is when you're standing in front of an auditorium.
11
Oh, yeah, one more thing. I'm not an expert here, so someone correct me if I'm wrong theologically, but I've never seen a depiction of the Last Supper as particularly festive--a minimal amount of food; you know, the bread and the wine and not much else. So the Last Supper as the clue for FEAST seems off to me.
My understanding was that the Last Supper was a Seder.
Veronese's Feast in the House of Levi was originally painted as a Last Supper. But there seemed to be too much frivolity going on and the Inquisition got involved. Instead of redoing the painting, he changed the title of it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Feast_in_the_House_of_Levi
3
Amen, to the proper use of y'all. As a native Texan, I'll confirm that Y'ALL is always a second-person plural pronoun. I think the confusion comes because you might hear someone ask an individual, "How are ya'll doing?" But, that's is because the questioner is asking after his or her friend's entire family.
Now, ya'll remember that, ok?
3