It looks like we have some more changes to the commenting system. I guess that explains the hiatal hernia today. DC, if you're lurking, we'll keep our fingers crossed that it stabilizes enough to attract you back.
I missed it all having a tooth extracted and a graft made to prep for an implant. It's such a slow process. At least a year. Elaine had one and it was 18 months.
Good thing to know: never ask an oral surgeon who's drinking coffee while Clear Choice says they can do a whole mouth full of implants in one day. Or be further away than spit-take distance.
I was referring to a new format I see today. Different prolog at top. The tiny avatars are now circular, with "custom" avatars for people without real ones (the first letter of their user name).
Martin, these changes arrived here a week or two ago, after others had already reported them much earlier. A rolling scourge.
Thanks, Viv. I only saw them today. Maybe a cache issue?
Very nice puzzle. Perfect Wednesday fare. Thank you.
1
Fantastic puzzle. VentiLatte was pure genius.
2
My memory was accurate: There indeed was a Star Trek character named Mr. Atoz.
5
"All Our Yesterdays," the next-to-last episode of the series.
CONTENT LINKED ADS: because the heading is EXPERIENCING A VISION PROBLEM, my web page is populated with AARP ads asking me to "Explore vision discounts and vision insurance options for you & your family"!!!!
4
(the above comment was submitted at 13:21 eastern.)
What a terrific theme! Great idea to start with, and must have been quite a trip to find enough themers that fit so beautifully. Existing term to existing term, with nary a contrivance. And throw in that there were no non-themer double letters!! Kudos! Plaudits! Bravos and Oles!
Pretty slow start, and with a stumble. Had A TON (thought I didn't like it) before A TO Z, and still hadn't entered anything in NE when I tumbled to the theme. So when I got back up there I was left trying to thnk of a reality show (not my favorite genre) called "A MAN IN Gsomething." Only having figured out the themer made me look for a double G, get the entry, and correct my error.
Also GOT IT before NOT IT, which I had learned from a recent puzzle (and still don't really believe).
Is there a cocktail test, like the breakfast test? If so, 28A fails it. I'd hate to think of someone pouring some delicious scotch OVER RICE. (Maybe, in a pinch, a bloody Mary.)
No real no-knows today. I'd even heard of THE FLASH, though I wouldn't recognize him if he bit me. Does he wear a raincoat?
I've even -- somewhere? -- heard of BILGE RAT.
TIL: NAS and Jay-Z have a feud. Someday I may need to know that.
So POW, Jeff! POW! POM? Maybe POY?
Anyway, thanks. (And also to the co-conspirators.)
5
I see y'all found me! Good to see everybody.
P.S. Back in the 80s, I used to get my hair cut at a place called Scissors Palace.
7
And what percentage of the shop's clientele do you think got the pun, Jimbo?
(Et tu?)
3
(Hope this makes it past the censors.) There's a pet-grooming shop here called "Doggy Style." :)
4
Don't worry, Ron. That was too sophisticated to get caught in the emu filter.
(Human moderators would be chuckling.)
Memories of the late Herb Caen who often scattered 'Cuuute' business names amongst the 3 dots in his column.
It is now 13:17 in the east. About 90 minutes ago, I wrote my 6th: WHY WE'RE LEAVING message to customercare explaining that the same 12 comments had been posted and there was a 9, almost 10, hour gap with no postings. As you can see, about an hour ago, about 35 messages suddenly appeared!!
David isn't the only one frustrated.
Even if you don't think it does any good, if enough of us write in, there will be a "paper trail" to document the problem. Eventually something happens. Was it last week or the week before that my December 2017 comment finally posted?
Keep posting, keep writing to customercare.
2
Is there any evidence that Customer Care ever actually speaks with IT?
Maybe they call it Customer Care because the Customers are the only ones who Care.
1
And now the NYT is reorganizing their payment subscriptions - which I get to pay twice for the crosswords if I go with their new plan... yeah.
1
Yesterday was my first experience with "the new format" I think (Mac Pro, Safari). Links to prior columns and the comments no longer appeared on the right of the page, only Deb's or Caitlin's column.
I just blindly clicked on an icon at the top of the page with a number it it and the comments appeared. Apparently others have been noticing this for a while?
1
When a fish bites your heel,
And it looks like an eel,
That's A MORAY...
11
If you scream and you beg
But it bites off your leg
It's a moray
2
This rather neat mid-week puzzle gave me a good run for my SCRIP. Vision problems occurred and it can only be blamed on my sheer reckless scan of the clues. Today I mistakenly had tee; teeing up the dimpled orb for the answer to 22d. What a difference an 'r' makes. The answer for a diver's need was not anywhere near that of a driver's...'Twas challenging but after an extended tussle, the fruit ripened and eventually landed in the basket...Foreigner gets the nod for puzzle pertinence over SRV's Double Trouble band. This is "DOUBLE Vision."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EKBQenIY2U
RESERVEdly,
Bru
5
I had the hardest time wrapping my head around the theme!
I *got* them all. I knew the title AMAZING RACE so AMAZING GRACE was clear, as were, eventually, OVER RICE and DEEP ENDS. But as for VENTILATE to VENTILATTE, I am not familiar enough with coffee house offerings to recognize VENTI. And I kept trying to find something else that bound the four together. It made me feel cross-eyed in my brain!
This is not a complaint! It was just real interesting to me the way seeing the theme kept slipping in and out of focus. I also enjoyed having to work a bit to fill in the rest of the grid...but not BILGE RAT, mateys!
12 comments at 10:20 AM EST, the most recent posted 9 hours ago. Is there anybody out there?
Throwing out a message in a bottle, then, short and sweet: good level of difficulty for a Wednesday, cute execution of the theme. Got a kick out of BILGERAT.
Ex-Mott the Hoople frontman Ian Hunter is "SEEING DOUBLE" with this power ballad from 1982:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X9IUFPXgm-0
P.S. to the NYT tech team: RULE ONE - "Keep the Customer Satisfied"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YNsZLtzF18
3
Jimbo: I doubt the NYT tech team will see your note, because I doubt they ever actually read what they have wrought.
And they obviously don't care about keeping the customer happy, or anything else except showing off their own bells and whistles.
2
I loved “Curl Up and Dye” from _Blues Brothers_, and locally we have “Head First.” Fun salon names are great.
Completed this puzzle from the bottom up for some reason. DOUBLEVISION was an awesome theme!
1
I’m excited because this is the first Wednesday I’ve done with no help at all from Lord google. I was able to do so in below average time to boot. I got the revealer after getting AMAZING GRACE, and I didn’t catch the double letter thing going on even though it is obvious, until I got confused with OVER(R)ICE and finally figured out what was going on. Cleverly done.
3
What a challenge! I knew I was in for a long slog when I saw Jeff Chen’s name. More like a difficult Saturday than a Wednesday. The northwest was the hardest. Kudos to RMP for finding the NW the easiest! It was an ouch for me!
1
I have 2 close British friends and worked for a British company for more than a decade and have never heard, not once, any Brit exclaim, ISAY.
Plus today’s puzzle was one clue short of a NYTimes puzzle trifecta. Worked in RAP, LGBTQ but no OBAMA. So close! (sigh)
2
Don't do as I do, do as I SAY.
You probably here I SAY more in period pieces, PG Wodehouse or Rumpole and such.
3
Hi tensace,
#1. I haven't either, but I *have* heard "I SAY."
#2. STASH and LSD TABS don't make up for no OBAMA?
2
Only Terry Thomas, the gap-toothed British comedian, could say ISAY and get a laugh from me
2
After speeding through Mon. and Tues., today's puzzle was like a giant stop sign. Meandered all around the grid, finally ending up in the NE -- 4+ minutes over my Wed. average. But no complaints; as Liz B. said, slowing down is not a bad thing. This one was very enjoyable, with a clever theme that took a while to work out and lots of fresh entries. Thank you, Mr. Chen.
2
To my friends who've been very kindly missing me...
This is why.
12 comments, twelve hours after the puzzle went live.
Twelve.
This is why I'm outta here, meaning, no longer trying to post.
The NYT team, trying to make this website conform to the "normal world," has destroyed everything that was good about it.
I value this community of friendly, intelligent people, WAY too much to bother with this comments stream.
PS to Deb - I DID write to Feedback team, more than once - and all I ever got was "we'll get back to you...sometime..."
2
Oh, David, this one is probably my fault; it took The Times nine hours to figure out how to get the new comments system onto my steam-powered desktop PC. I've got it now, so everyone should be good. (Wow, those avatars are sure small.)
2
Just so long as, erm, You'll get back to Us...sometime...
Like a nephrolith, this too shall pass.
[smiley]
2
David - please come back! When they did publish your comments they were really worth reading!
1
Nice puzzle. I had to fill in two themers before I realized exactly how this was supposed to work. The only time I visit a Starbucks is when it happens to be the closest place to get a cup of coffee so I was unfamiliar with 38a.
Smooth solve for the most part, but I got hung up for a bit in both the NW and NE corners. Part of it was possibilities just not dawning on me, but in the NW one big problem was that I was reading H_O_R_N_E as H_O_M_E. Not the first time that's happened. Musical Home? Old Kentucky? The Range? Finally noticing that it was capitalized allowed me to get past that.
1
Only time I've ever been to a Starbuck(no apostrophe)s was when the chain was new and I had to meet someone there (not my idea). Besides the apostrophe thing, I was very unimpressed with the place and have never been to one again. Including the one that's been in my building for about 20 years!
Nonetheless, I've heard of the VENTI and various other LATTEs, mostly from people who have been making jokes about such things.
I resorted to Google for the exact details, but back in 2005, Starbucks introduced the Chantico, a hot chocolate concoction so rich and creamy it was like drinking a melted candy bar. It was pulled from the menu in less than a year. Such a pity.
I, too, first read the clue to 15A as "Musical Home." Of course, I've been needing new glasses for some time!
A . This is why the NYT puzzle is great. Fun, very clever, and actively exciting. More more more!!
3
Wow that was great! My favorite unveiling of a new meaning was DEPENDS/DEEP ENDS! TILs SCRIP, TRITIP. Like mini themes:Met Gala:
POPE, LAMA,IMAN,HERESY. Doors of perception: STASH, LSD TAB, IDEAS MAN, BAIL.
Before FROG we had WOLF
https://youtu.be/SKxWJP_LH7A
I thought when a clue is between [ ]it indicates the solve is a sound so we had augh, uugh, aigh, before accepting SIGH. In fact why was [That is ... so sad] in brackets?
OVER ICE: from Frozen
https://youtu.be/moSFlvxnbgk
2
Well a SIGH is a sound - an audible exhalation. Sometimes people say the word SIGH to be explicit I suppose but the sound says it all.
1
I give this a POW! Perfect Wednesday. Fun, no bad fill, great clues, clever theme. Loved it.
3
A bit of history on the Newport steak (24A):
https://blog.kathrynmcgowan.com/2011/04/07/the-mysterious-newport-steak/
2
Thanks for the link, Barry. I liked the part about how the steak is suited to those of us who live alone, for whom buying and preparing meals poses a special challenge. I've never noticed newport steaks for sale anywhere near me, and I'm certainly not trekking all the way to the Village to buy dinner, but now I know what to look/ask for at the butcher.
IIRC we had TRITIP in a puzzle a little while ago. I'd never heard of it at the time and had to Google to find out what it was. So today I was able to fill in the entry pretty quickly.
1
Never heard of Newport steak or TRITIP. Thankfully, I had all the crosses.
A quick Google search led me to this U.S. map of punny business names. Enjoy!
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/behold-the-ultimate-crowdsourced-m...
I especially liked the demolition company called Edifice Wrecks and the landscaping business Lawn & Order: Special Grass Unit. The signs for the latter use the exact font from the TV show.
4
Lovely link, thanks so much!
I have the country's best mechanics in Carrboro, who work under the name AutoLogic. If you run up a tab of $1000 or more ( which can happen when you need the master/slave cylinder replaced), you can get a free T-shirt featuring a large wrench, overdrawn to look like its name, Tyrannosaurus wrench.
2
What a terrific link!
Another example of the internet meeting needs you didn't know existed.
1
Not a PUN and not a hair salon, but my favourite name for a laundromat "Lost Sock Laundromat".
This was a Goldilocks Wednesday for me. A nice theme and just enough challenge to make it interesting. And That's AMORE always makes me smile.
3
How good of you to report on that, Deborah, today of all days.
Yes, today is Lost Sock Memorial Day.
1
Blame it on my current preoccupation with the upcoming marriage of son and FDIL, but I saw more than one OMEN in today's grid. Although the celebration will be in Newport, we are not having TRITIP, but they will be seeing the TREVI fountain on their honeymoon while humming That's AMORE and hoping to catch a glimpse of the POPE. I, on the other hand, will no doubt SIGH and CRY as they become AWED (CUE back to ADOZE comment).
Totally fun puzzle from ATOZ, Jeff. Best Wednesday in AGEs.
2
Best wishes for the wedding!
2
Thank you, Laura!
So nice to hear of your family wedding, CS, instead of further bombardment about the British royal family's planned nuptials.
(I'm getting really sick of hearing about that.)
Jeff Chen is a PHENOM and this puzzle proves it. Period.
6
An enjoyable solve! I would’ve liked it even more if both meanings had been clued for the theme entries. For example: “How chop suey is served...or how champagne is served when 59 across”
1
Not being a Starbucks customer, I as seriously worried about VENTI LATTE. It looked like a group order for twenty cups of caffè latte, with not one espresso or macchiato drinker in the lot. The plural of latte in English is lattes, so the whole entry must be in Italian!! Is that cricket?
I then read Deb’s confident reading of VENTI LATTE as a singular term in English, turned to Google for a full explanation, and can now rest assured.
1
Salon somewhere outside of Lewiston ME: Cut, Curl and Die.
IMDUE is an unfamiliar yet familiar phrase. Had fin instead of AIR.
MOAB was a gimmie as sister lives there and we spend every Thanksgiving hosting the Barbie Shoot: Social event of the season.
Thanks Jeff.
Xwordsolver, here in Wisconsin we call Bud Light - a training beer.
2
5D slowed me down and mucked up things for too long, as I cycled through PLUMPFOR to STUMPFOR before finally landing on CHAMPION. Beyond that bit of obtuseness on my part, this was a nice, sticky challenge for me.
My favorite groany pun store name was a vacuum cleaner and sewing machine store in. NH named "Vacman and Bobbin".
Very nice puzzle today!
7
So clever. Even the fact that I've not heard of VENTI LATTE, or what I assume is a reality show, AMAZING RACE, didn't keep me from really loving today's puzzle.
Like David Meyers, my hardest section was the NE. I thought of heretic for 14D, and knew there was a form of the word to express the thing rather than the person, but just couldn't think of it for ages, fairly typical of how my mind doesn't work actually.
Favourite clue: 70A which Deb explained nicely.
Well done, Jeff.
3
I liked 70A for an additional reason:
O D O U R, with or without the U, might almost have been parsed as SMELT.
8
LOL, Amitai. I never thought of that
The first thing that I, your resident alphadoppeltotter (and a puzzle maker), noticed right away, was that there are NO DOUBLE LETTERS in the non-theme answers. That took some doing. That is anything but easy to accomplish. That was a wow.
But that's not all I like about this puzzle. The theme answers are wonderfully clever. Try coming up with more of these! The grid is squeaky clean, as usual, for a Chen puzzle. Plus you have some terrific answers (PHENOM and BILGE RAT being my favorites), AMAZING GRACE resting on the POPE, and two terrific misdirects -- CAT instead of asp, and MEDALS instead of metals.
Plus, there's that Chen polish. The patina that comes from a puzzle that is fine-tuned again and again. This was a most lovely solve, and thank you for that, Jeff!
9
I didn't notice the lack of double letters in the non-themers until I read Jeff's column over at xwordino. Then I immediately thought of you, Lewis. Jeff wondered whether anyone would notice, but I certainly knew you would!
I'm glad you found it a wow rather than a disappointment in your little alphadoppeltotting heart.
Agree with everything else you said.
2
Puzzle was ‘A Cut Above’ ... and enjoyable!
@Deb - a soy milk, decaf latte here in the Northwest - home of Starbucks- is also referred to as a ‘why bother’ ...
14
and Elke
I SAY, AGE is just a number , if one can still POWER UP and RUN ON the AMAZING RACE and be a CHAMPION and win a grand PRIX or some MEDALS. 'THE FLASH' winner can also sing AMAZING GRACE, - of course that DE(E)PENDS on not needing DEPENDS :))
I give my POW(ER UP) to Jeff.
4
Puzzle reminded me that Wednesday is sometimes "almost Thursday". Got the NW to start and then had trouble breaking out since I couldn't "get" to 59A for help. TRITIPS was a lucky guess that broke through.
3
Wow! This puzzle was PHENOMenal. The north center took forever. Only after the fact did we see the A TO Z. Duh on us!
4
NE was the hard area for me. Had SHORE before BEACH for some reason though I gave up on it fairly quickly when things didn’t work out up there.
1
So the CAT was a sacred creature in ancient Egypt? If you ask our two, they would say nothing has changed.
16
Every time a CAT of mine has tried to pull that "We were held sacred in ancient Egypt" line on me, I've just pointed out that the ancient Egyptians locked their little sacred ones up in their tombs with them.
Then I'd give them a treat and a snuggle.
5
Shear Envy
Shear Madness
Shear Elegance
Shear Joy
Mane Event
Cutting Edge
Cookie Cutters
Curl Up & Dye.
14
Head masters
1
Great list! There's also A Cut Above, but besides the hair salon and barber shops, turns out that's also the name for a clothing boutique, a uniform service, and several lawn care and tree trimming outfits.
Lotta self-styled PUNSters out there.
1
clever puzzle -- like seeing the two different meanings appear!
I clearly remember "That's AMORE" from the 50's as a child. I think it was a big hit for Dean Martin.
3
Indeed!
2
Lots of interesting fill in this one--it felt very fresh. It also slowed me down considerably (which is not a bad thing, just a thing).
There's a hair salon here in Durham called "Do or Dye."
12
Let's just leave it at the fact that it's rather easy for some folks to come up with some cute salon names, otherwise this could get pretty hairy.
6
Just past the 11'8" can opener bridge!
2
There’s one here in Buffalo called Hairway to Heaven. I’m a sucker for puns so that name still amuses me every time I go past it. Sorry JayTee, I just couldn’t leave it. Hopefully you can just brush it off. :-)
1