Sketchbooks are resources to "draw" on because they are collections of ideas for future works, hence the question mark in the clue. One doesn't literally draw on a resource.
Can someone explain to me what “eyes” have to do with a colon?
:) :D >:D
^ There you go. Old school emoticons. Whatever you do, don’t get into a conversation with a teenager about the difference between emoticons and emojis, though. Just...don’t.
Sorry if this has been answered (I've been away) but is there a way to get rid of these stupid animated "half-done" things? Sheesh, I'm not a toddler who needs to be entertained by flying shapes. I'm happily engaged with the etymological content, this junk is just distracting. Thanks for any response, even if it's just "suck it up, old lady".
I had a bit of trouble in the southwest, especially with fish and olives.
HEADSHOPS died away around here in the early 80s, but on a recent vacation, we saw bongs on sale at a service station convenience store! Who knew!
Had ray gun before PHASER, asses before LOUTS, and ____ATREE long before PAPAYA. The downs finally fixed the northwest for me.
I didn’t care for Bill OREILLY’s show or the man, but I certainly enjoyed the war of words between him and Jon Stewart. Thanks for the clue.
:-)
2
Gosh, I posted this Friday night around 7:30 cdt. Took awhile for some unknown reason.
why is it so hard to find the crossdword from the times home page?
How does the clue “Bundle up” relate to the answer “sheave”?
@Billy A sheave is a bundle of wheat (maybe other grains, not sure).
1
I had salt water at first for quicksand - thinking of the Dead Sea
2
After solving around it, 44A turned out to be "PBR." A cheap beer option? I don't get it. Beer aficionados, please enlighten me!
I’m with you Lorraine. Google didn’t seem to help, so I’d like to be enlightened too.
@Andrew it’s for Pabst Blue Ribbon
1
pmb Thanks. My son has a bunch of those cans in the basement fridge. Never entered my mind.
Good puzzle overall. Minor quibble with eponymous. Seems like it should apply to the thing and not the person. I.e. Doppler and his eponymous effect
The person is the eponym of the thing. The thing is the eponym of the person. Language is like that sometimes.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eponym
2
Definitely a puzzle that reminded me of my misspent youth. From toting newspapers and toast to midnight Rocky Horror screenings to pilfering PBR's from my friend's dad, this one made me smile.
(Pleading the 5th on HEADSHOPS, but I enjoyed the tricky clue!)
4
Where did I see an article about the decreasing use of the word "quicksand"? As I recall, there was a period of about thirty years when it was frequently used as a scary device in movies and stories, but that gradually diminished, so that children now do not find it scary. Or maybe it was on NPR?
The puzzle was very nice - hard enough to be Friday, but doable. My favorite was EARP, and I never heard of the place called ARIA.
1
@Mary Perhaps after "The Princess Bride" used quicksand to such masterful effect, no one wanted to sink their teeth into it anymore.
About the same time as last Friday, an *hour* faster than the previous two. Only gimmes were ELLE, RES, KMART (after getting the K, like Deb), JUNG, then JANET (Thanks, Ali!). The rest was slow-going, partly due to particularly tricky clues for EYES, PILSNER, QUIT, BOUT, SPELLCHECK, ABOMINABLE, etc. Too many unknowns to list! (Disappointed in myself for not getting DOPPLER quicker.)
Final battle was in the SW, where I had everything except the last letters of EARP and ARIA. Couldn't think of anything that would make sense with BALD__TE so erased a bunch and started over. Wasted much time before understanding the clue for EARP, then reinstated what I had. Finally, just guessed at ARIA and got the solve. Whew ...
Today is the one-year anniversary of my signing up for the online NYT Xword! I've definitely improved over time, but have a long way to go to catch up to many of you!
9
@Ron
Catch up? You're pretty much there already.
@Dr W
Thanks! Hardly -- don't see 15 min. Saturdays any time soon. :)
I'm not very fond of ripe papayas. They seem, well, overripe. But the Mexican tinto variety, when at its peak, is pretty good.
On the other hand, I use a ton of green papaya and wish I could grow a PAPAYA TREE. Pureed green papaya is a great meat tenderizer, and I toss in 1/4 cup when I marinate lamb or goat overnight, typically for Indian dishes. The enzyme in green papaya, papain, is the active ingredient in most commercial meat tenderizers.
I buy a green papaya ("papita") at the Indian market, puree it and freeze it in large (2-ounce) ice cube molds. When I marinate lamb, I pop out a cube.
5
SPELLING BEE
Close but no cigar...then again I'm not a smoker. If I were, I might have gotten pangram. As it is, I made it within three words of QB before hitting a mental wall. Today is just not my day wordpuzzlewise.
1
@Nick Take a breather and come back refreshed, I bet that pangram will pop right out at you. In fact, it's a word closely related to smoking.
SPELLING BEE
@Nick I understand your frustration.
For once, the pangram jumped out at me - it was my first word today, which gave me enormous hope for my score.
However, I gave up at Genius when melton was not accepted as an SB dictionary word. That word has been recognized as a fabric and a coat for decades, at least. So disappointed.
Spelling Bee: It's a downright shame that the plural form of a certain word isn't OTTOMEN,
6
@Don Topaz
SB accepts lent but not lenten? Lenten fish fry? Lenten observance?
4
@Robert Michael Panoff
That would be capitalized, so it's a NO.
@Robert Michael Panoff
I think lent is ok as the past of loan but Lenten needs upper case which is not ok.
No links to the comments from the column when I finished the puzzle last night, alas. At least the column was there. What I would have said:
The top half of this puzzle came together pretty quickly for me. I got DOPPLER from DISC, ELLE, and RES, and then the whole NW filled in. The NE didn’t take much longer.
But I had not much of anything in the lower half and had to work to fill it in. I didn’t know SHAUN and WE’RE at all, and blanked out on JANET until it suddenly came to me (singing through the songs in my mind). I had IDYL, but thought it must be wrong since I couldn’t come up with any workable crosses, until I thought of JANET and RUSTIC. The W in TOW/WETCELL was my last fill.
Adding today: The clue for KMART seemed perfectly fine to me. I thought TENT BED was a little awkward. And something just pleases me about seeing an ABOMINABLE DIVING BELL.
2
@Liz B
I also could not comment last night. I finished about 10:20 and no access. I tried a few times and then forgot about it! did puzzle without problems that I remember now.
1
My wife is a harpist, and I kept insisting to myself that 43A had to be HARP, since many harps are played by angels on tombstones. I was sorry when I realized I had to go to the OK Corral to fit in SPEARED!
2
Almost a Friday best. Curse you SHAWN (before SHAUN) the sheep.
Always a Genius, never a Queen Bee. (sigh)
9
@Johanna
Hate to admit it but sometimes I'm only amazing...
1
Unrelated to today's puzzle, but a question about how to access the Wordplay section in the digital issue. Is the only way to access it, besides searching, through the small mention underneath the crossword home page? Why doesn't it show up in the contents? Is it actually in a section of the digital paper? And why is it not accessible at all on the NYT app? After starting to work on crosswords this summer, mostly on a pad or my phone, I happened to do one on the desktop, and saw the small mention "Read about Today's Puzzle on Wordplay." And low and behold a wealth of information and help opens up. Glad I found it, but wish it had been easier, and wish it was in the app. What else am I missing??
3
Same story here. Why is the blog not accessible within either the crossword app or, more obviously, the Times app itself? I'm on an older iPad, but the app seems viable (if a bit dodgy at times) for reading Wordplay entries.
Why not have a menu option, even if at the bottom of the list, for Wordplay.
Especially for paying customers!
1
Save the url as a bookmark in your browser.
3
@John Garison What John said. I’m hoping there will be a link in the app one day, but web will always come first because we have direct control over those changes, whereas changes in the apps have to be prioritized and approved by Apple and Android.
Nice satisfying solve for a Friday with nice satisfyingly bearable weather!
Had much the same experience as others have reported, with the southern regions being more difficult than the northern.
Had RANT before VENT, but then changed it when I entered STUFFED for the fish and olives. That took some untangling. Never heard of the ARIA in Las Vegas, but I've never been there. SHAUN the Sheep needed all its letters, and I've still never heard of it. But eventually sorted everything out, SPEARED my olives and brought in SHEAVE.
Likewise, SE took some thought. I don't drive so didn't think of car-related things for the thing worse than a ticket. Never heard of TENT BED. I didn't watch Jon Stewart regularly, so didn't immediately of him as the Stewart of 36D. (I do have a vague recollection that he was something of a foe of O'REILLY's, but there were so many.) I did see "Rocky Horror" once, but certainly didn't remember much about it, including character names. I'd heard of dry-CELL batteries, so WET CELL followed logically.
Loved LAUNCH PADS, LUNCH MONEY, HEAD SHOPS, QUICKSAND, and many of the shorter clue/entry combos.
Many thanks to Josh and Will and all concerned. I am happy.
2
@Deadline - Wallace and Gromit are little animated clay characters, a middle-aged man and his faithful and extremely clever dog. Full of very funny puns and adventures. In one, the knitting machine Gromit has invented shears one of the poor hapless sheep until it is bald. "That's it, Gromit!" says Wallace, "We'll name him SHAUN!" (this line must be spoken in Wallace's British accent to work out correctly).
(They give Shaun the sweater knitted from his wool.)
5
@David Connell
Wallace and Grommit - many Rube Goldberg machines. They are so adorable. They oppose the forces of darkness with calm and decency; and good always prevails.
1
Deadline, I hope you have seen the Wallace and Grommit films but didn't recall the one with SHAUN. They are truly wonderful movies. I think "The Wrong Trousers" is my favorite, but they're all good.
3
BANANATREE ?
PANAMATREE ?? (I looked it up -- it's a thing.)
PAPAYATREE ....
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!
5
I'm responding @Wen here on an earlier discussion of 35A.
There's an apocryphal story about an out-of-towner who had to use JFK and fly to Europe for a month. He parked his car on a street near the airport, took off, returned a month later and learned his car had been towed and impounded. When he went went to rescue the car and pay the towing charges and fines, he was asked why on earth he parked on a city street where the parking was restricted to nights and weekends. He said the impound etc. charges were a lot cheaper than parking garage rates.
2
Dr W,
That story is not apocryphal, it's incorrect. Forget the $185 tow fee and parking fines: the city charges $20/day for cars in impound, long-term parking at JFK is $18/day. (Our family takes the A train and the AirTrain.)
@Barry Ancona
It's also about 50 years old; I don't remember what the charges were back then. When I used to fly I took E train - Airtrain route to JFK myself.
There was as old joke about a fellow who, on the eave of an overseas trip, takes out a large loan at a bank and leaves his Bentley as collateral.
Upon his return, he notes that the interest on the load is less than the cost of a garage.
Fun solve, some very satisfying long entries ,particularly given how they were clued. QUICKSAND and LUNCH MONEY are two great examples.
Seems like I wasn't the only one who had the hardest time on the SW corner. I had the CHECK part of SPELL CHECK; then when I surmised that an Egyptian deity might feast on SOULS, it began to fall into place. I didn't know what kind of SHOPS might sell pipes, but then I figured that a chrome dome was a BALD something. That "D" led to the "aha" that pipes were sold in HEAD SHOPS, and the rest of the corner soon fell into place.
Great puzzle and looking forward to more themelesses from Mr. Knapp!
3
@Mike M
The SW corner was the last to fall for me also...I also had CHECK for a while before I caught onto the joke. Had heart instead of SOULS for Ammit (since that's technically more accurate), raNT instead of VENT etc...really threw me for a loop!
I finally figured it out after realizing Tombstone was a place in Arizona and was able to connect it with Wyatt EARP, which helped bring everything together.
1
Had a lot of fun with this one, easier than expected. Three google lookups (40A, 3D and 28D) and a fair number of gimmes (like 43A and 52A).
34A brings Roto-rooter to mind. Don't know if they still exist, been a long time since I saw any ads for it. But yes roots in drains were the main reason for their existence. I Imagine those had to do with buried old-time interlocking concrete sewer channels.
40D came up recently in the news or in our blog: it appears that the American version is mainly dyed ground horseredish. Is NOTHING sacred any more?
8D reminds me of the shaggy story of the guy who put a few drops of vinegar in his hear to help with hygeine. Now he's got pickled hearing.
1
@Dr W I know, I know -- two typos above. grr.
@Dr W
roots in pipes still exist! RotoRooter has charged me an arm and a leg to get them out!
I wish I had put this puzzle down and come back to it later...I've only been solving for about a month, and so the later week puzzles are my favorites; spending a couple hours struggling through a Friday or a Saturday is usually a very enjoyable and rewarding experience, both because it feels good to overcome the challenge and because the aha moment for a punny clue usually pays back the frustration of poring over a blank grid tenfold.
Today, I had so many incorrect guesses gumming up the puzzle and things I should have got but didn't (DORY was in the spelling bee like 2 days ago) that I was too frustrated with myself to really appreciate the brilliant cluing for EYES, EARP, and SPELL CHECK. If I had walked away for a while and come back to the puzzle with a fresh pair of eyes, I think I would have enjoyed it much more.
Looking forward to some redemption from tomorrow's puzzle!
3
@Nick Yes there is something magical about putting a puzzle down when stumped, then going back to it. Don't know why it is, but I almost always surprise myself when I pick it up again.
1
BALD PATEd; Fess would like to sing ‘bout dat.
https://youtu.be/HZNxSOQtQp8
1
I had a lot of fun "ahas" throughout this challenging puzzle, and ended up stuck on the SW quadrant with impossible double H's going down, with HARP as the tombstone figure. Finally clicked with EARP ... loved the sound of that "complete" jingle today! Today was the first time I noticed the little pop-up signals of being halfway and 3/4 through. Nice touch.
Fun puzzle, pleasantly misleading. Can't say I loved "TENT BED" but okay... and of course, : ) colon-eyes was clever!
2
@William R
semicolon works too (wink)
1
Emoticon! I never got it. I solved the crosses.
Note the editing error: the word "round" appears as part of a clue and as an answer.
@Leslie: The clue containing "round" was for 30A, while the answer (GOROUND) was for 7D.
@Leslie
Not sure what you refer to. The word "round" is in the 30A clue and in the 7D fill, and those are separate items. It would be improper to have the same word in both clue and fill for the same entry, but that's not the case here.
Dr W,
Just curious to know on what device you read the comments such that you did not see Robert Nailling's reply to Leslie...
I was amazed that I was able to work through this puzzle Thursday night w/o looking anything up and not having to erase much along the way. Which was a LOT different than my experience with Thursday's puzzle. :)
I'm never sure if it's being more on the same wavelength with some constructors, or just having a better sleep the night before, but regardless, it was nice to work quickly (for me) through a late-week puzzle and have some fun along the way.
S Bee
Tried to sneak past the Bee with MONOLEETH, and the Bee said 'HOODOO you think you're fooling?'
https://goo.gl/images/mEGfrK
Love those HOODOOs
5
What a terrific puzzle. Loved all of the compound words.
Stories with many chapters: books? Epics?
(Tropical) grove? BANANA TREE? Just close enough to mess me up!
TENT BED? Srsly? That was a rare clunker
BALD head? Wyatt to the rescue!
Well, just a delight to solve!
Wee Bee: 38 and 143. Oh well.
On to the Variety Puzzles for the week! My first vowel-free pzzl!
3
@Mean Old Lady.
I was up a banana tree momentarily until papaya popped up; but only after I had ample cross support.
2
@brutusAnd I came up with Acacia tree, prompted by wee bee earlier this week.
No such tree problems, undoubtedly due to the DOPPLER effect.
1
To me, a "Fate worse than a ticket" would be death by QUICKSAND. Oddly, that's actually something I've thought about after seeing those old westerns with people slowing sinking.
I really loved the cluing today. It totally elevated my Friday solve from struggle to actual enjoyment.
Thank you, Josh Knapp!
2
@Johanna And the lightning sand is even worse.
But I'll still take either one over the rodents of unusual size.
I struggled through 3/4 of this puzzle, but found it fair -- if very, very tough. The other 1/4 in the SE I found very, very unfair, and I DNF.
What's worse than a ticket (35A)? I had DUI, instead of TOW. I don't drive and TOW never occurred to me. But that's hardly the worst of the SE corner. You have "Brad's gal" crossing "Fall Out Boy's song" crossing "Stewart's TV sparring partner". Who are all these people, Josh???? Nor have I ever heard of a WET CELL, btw. And what's a TENT BED? Do you mean bed inside a tent? (A real bed or a sleeping bag?) Or could it be a bed made out of a tent? Please explain, Josh.
Crunchy, yes, but a great deal about this puzzle that I hated.
3
@Nancy
I pondered a sec over dui until it dawned on me that a dui is, in its own right, a ticket. Here in the garbage state, if you are an apprehended drunken driver & you have a licensed passenger that isn’t tipsy, that person might be allowed to drive on and await the arrestee’s release.
@Nancy
DUI would likely lead to a TOW. I related my own story about getting TOWed earlier, and it had occurred to me that it's more likely a big city problem, as it happened to me in NYC.
re: TENT BED - presumably in the wilderness where you have safaris, the bed can be inside a tent to keep out the pests - mainly insects, but perhaps in some cases, small animals. In tropical countries, before air conditioning, you want to keep your windows open, and before the advent of screens, insects and all manners of critters got into the house and your bed is the one place you want to keep all of those out, right? It's a bit like having mosquito nets on your bed. I'm guessing that was one of the main reasons we had 4 poster beds?
@Nancy
Jon Stewart used to regularly invite Bill O'Reilly on to his late night show, and the two would engage in some riveting dialogue. Two radically different personalities and opinions, yet they managed to discuss issues with a certain degree of light-hearted mutual respect.
Ah, those were the days!
(I am intentionally avoiding mention of any subsequent scandal/accusations, and sticking to explaining the clue.)
Having waded into the MIA-AWOL discussion, I was prompted to consider the transformation of words and terms with raw emotional meaning, into their sometimes colloquial disconnected usage. One word that came to mind was the use of "bombed" to mean intoxicated. Does anybody using this term really stop to consider the impact of such a word on a victim of Hiroshima, Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, etc. At what point does a term's usage override its very different origins? Something to think about.
3
@Andrew
.......or a child that has had their LUNCH MONEY filched by the schoolyard gang leader?
1
@ Andrew
I feel the same way about “blockbuster” and “ground zero.”
@Andrew
The issue wasn't about using either MIA or AWOL colloquially. Both are fine as slang terms individually. But both terms still retain their primary military definitions. The problem was that the clue equated them, which they most certainly are not. The context is what is key here.
4
Good thing I wasn't ON THR CLOCK last night. I never feel obligated to rush through a crossword puzzle.
Spent a bit of time hacking my way through a bAnAnA tree and promptly fell asleep, overnighting in a somewhat cozy ???NBED, dreaming about whom (Jimmy/Little/Jon) Stewart may have sparred with and various battery types.
Upon awakening, I figured if the Fall Out Boys lived up to their name with Sugar, then "WE'RE Going Down" might be worth a shot. That required a WET CELL, then JANET could be a girl's name. Now wouldn't it be fun if Jon Stewart had debated Bill O'REILEY? Sorry I missed that one. So I had slept in a TENT BED? And a TOW is worse than a parking ticket. Got it
Great clues fo QUICKSAND and SPELL CHECK.
1
The easier than usual week ended for me today, in spite of getting LUNCH MONEY and LAUNCH PAD early on. To enter the KMART debate, I had no idea so looked it up, tough for us overseas solvers, not a complaint of course; just an excuse. It is a USA puzzle after all. I may have had an advantage with ST PAUL'S , a gimme for me. Last entry was EARP, a groaner and a great clue.
1
@suejean: The crypt in ST PAULS Cathedral is one of my favorite spots in London. The only problem is that it is often closed to visitors (for funeral services, etc.). It took me three trips to London before I could see it.
1
SHEAVEs and crackers did I ever suffer in the SW. There were several other areas of consternation but much less troublesome. I’ve come to expect a non-copACETIC experience late week; this tussle WAS A BIg one...A figure on Tolkien’s tombstone is 1973. He reunited with the SOULS of Middle Earth that year on September 2...SURE barkeeper, feel free to pour me a draught PBR right down the middle of a frosted PILSNER. While you are at it, I think I’ll GO for a ROUND for the house!...This is the E-Street Band from the Greetings From Asbury Park, “Lost In The Flood.” The disabled link disallows me from offering leg up. Sorry WPers, you will have to do your own pasting and copying. This new stranglehold on my link sharing psyche is, historically and hysterically, not unlike a ban on my bringing some DISCs to a friend’s house for a listening gathering; end VENT.
https://youtu.be/DpYOtJfzWjs
‘Nuff SAID,
Bru
@brutus
It’s alive, it’s alive! As our dearly departed Emily Latella would consistantly lament, “never mind.”
3
I really enjoyed this: a straight-forward challenging puzzle that takes time and patience. The NE corner came easily to me and then I worked and worked to get the rest. Bonus: the return of the phrase “Dammit Janet” to my vocabulary! And maybe a quick jump to the left and a step to the right.
1
I solved another Friday without using 'Check Puzzle' and I'm very pleased. I wonder if I'm the only one for whom the K-Mart clue wasn't a gimme. I'm old enough to remember them, but they're largely gone from my area (are there any left?) and the NW corner was my last one completed. Something I'm curious about, if any old hands care to help, is why some of the filler clues seem to cycle. It could be my imagination, but I think that I've seen a lot of 'aloe' and 'mia' lately. Other times, other fillers seem to repeat.
1
Wow! This was a challenge on a Saturday level for me; way over my average. My normal "back and forth upper left to lower right" solving method had to be abandoned as I needed to build on the few entries I could put in with confidence (looking at you, SHAUN). So this one went in a spiral from there finishing in the NW with DISC, which I entered confidently at first, erased when nothing tumbled, and eventually re-entered.
This is the kind of puzzle that keeps me coming back for more. Tough but fair, arcane AND modern clues and answers, minor crossword-ese.
5
I was more patient than I usually am on this one and came close. Just a couple of failed checks - not sure if I could have done it without those or not. Got going in the SW with EARP and HEADSHOP and a couple of lucky guesses and mostly chipped my way out from there.
Was surprised to be able to work out the SE with a cluster of unknowns (or at least unknown as clued). I think I was more lucky than anything down there.
Give me a couple of letters on Friday/Saturday cluing and I might have a shot. Minus that, I'm typically a deer in the headlights. Today it was making guesses on short answers and wondering 'how about this?' and then trying something else if that didn't work out. I'll try again tomorrow.
3
Like Andrew, I flew through the top half and then slogged through the bottom. Loved the clue for SPELL CHECK (a good name for an APP on a witch's iPhone!).
Originally thought the SKETCH resource would be a PAD, and then found it under the LAUNCH. Like LAUNCH and LUNCH sharing the L.
Wanted to kick myself after I finally got ROOT, inasmuch as we currently have water in the basement exactly because a ROOT is obstructing our pipes. The last letter to fall was the W in TOW and only after a very long alphabet run. Oy.
3
@CS.
Sounds like you stubbed your TOW on that last square CS. Cue the rimshot.
2
@CS
"Loved the clue for SPELL CHECK (a good name for an APP on a witch's iPhone!)."
A SPELL CHECKer was an essential part of the final (or close to final) Zork games. It was wonderful.
Puzzle: I am one of the people who found this an easy Friday. I hadn't met SHAUN or JANET, and the ARIA came well after my Las Vegas time, but none of them were in Natick, so I will not REPROVE myself (or the constructor). All else, if not in my wheelhouse, was on my wavelength.
Column (nit, not VENT): I am familiar with the "DOPPLER effect" (describing waves); I don't recall "Doppler waves."
2
@Barry Ancona No Rocky Horror??? Horrors!
2
And to think I lived only a few blocks from the old Waverly and never made it to one of the midnight shows. And now it's the IFC. My younger daughter became a member in high school. I'd ask her if she'd run into Frank Mills.
1
@Barry Ancona
She probably lost his address.
1
Reply to Lorne Eckersley from previous thread--
I didn't say that it was a hard clue or that people couldn't come up with it. I don't think you read what I wrote carefully, so I will make a second attempt.
Specifically, I was referring to the column's assertion that the clue for Kmart gives you the K. Objectively, stating that the first letter is stylized as oversized and red in no way indicates what letter it is.
The second part of my comment is that the clue should have read "store name with a big red initial IN ITS LOGO", since when most people write "Kmart", there's nothing oversized or red about the K.
Neither of these observations has anything to do with whether or not solvers could come up with the answer.
Hope that helps.
Also, @Diana Sandberg, if Deb already had the K, her comment would make no sense.
Steve,
What Deb wrote (discussing what to do if you didn't get QUICKSAND from the clue) was:
"Solve those crossings (in this case, the clue for KMART was on the easy side, giving you the K)."
Clearly, the 24D clue made KMART a gimme ... for Deb. I don't see anything other than its "gimme-ness" being "asserted" in the column, and it either is or is not a gimme for you and everyone else. It probably would have been a gimme for me, too, but I had already entered QUICKSAND (as it were), K?
@Barry Ancona
I didn't get that after reading and re-reading the column. Perhaps if she had said, "giving you the K in QUICKSAND"...
Steve,
Maybe give it one more try?
We all know that people sink in QUICKSAND, so that’s part of it, but just that won’t get you completely to the answer, unless, of course, you’ve seen it clued that way before (another reason to solve regularly). If this was, say, an early to midweek puzzle, the clue would be more straightforward, like “Mucky movie hazard.” You see how far away “It takes time to sink in” is from a straight(er) clue? That’s a Friday for you.
When you encounter a puzzle full of these far-from-straightforward clues, don’t panic. Get out your solving chocolate and breathe. Find your gimmes. Solve those crossings (in this case, the clue for KMART was on the easy side, giving you the K).
My solve was a bit different from most others reported. I found that the top half of the puzzle filled in very quickly, (as in fast...). Then things really bogged down, and I felt myself sinking in QUICKSAND. I had to put the puzzle down and sleep on it. Fortunately I had some early morning time to work through the very resistant lower half and finished in far from record time.
1
Just what a Friday should be--not much starting out and then all coming together despite some missteps along the way. Loved the clues for 38A and 41A.
4
@Paul
I call a tossup between the SPELLCHECK and the QUICKSAND clues.
An embarrassment of riches, say I.
DOPPLER and SPEEDY in the same puzzle, nice touch. The old red shift. My favorite was 38 A, betting that will make the Lewis from Asheville list.
2
When I clicked on Wordplay, I fully expected a picture of Tim Curry and Susan Sarandon! Lots of empty spaces to start but it moved along nicely after that--perfect Friday puzzle. Though when I finish under 15 minutes I assume it's on the easy side because I rarely finish a Th-Sat in one go. One quibble--and it's my first crossword quibble ever because I am in awe of the marriage of art and science (or constructor and editor?) that goes into creating one of these. I don't think a tow is worse than a ticket. Yes it takes more time to resolve, but it's usually covered by insurance and doesn't go on your record. Utterly subjective (it's not as if I'm speaking from experience or anything . . . )
2
@audreylm
Concerning the ticket-tow comparison, it might depend. I am assuming that what is being referred to is a tow for a parking infraction. Where I live, the car is towed to the very outskirts of the city, and you are left with having to find your way out there, pay a massive fine to get your car back, and lose most of a day in the process. I don't think any of that is covered by insurance, so I'll take the ticket!
3
.....
The ABONIMABLE enforcement technique, though less invasive than a TOW but every penny as much of an annnoyance is the boot. The scofflaw is still liable for the infraction and susceptible to a break-in and/or outright theft. The booting ‘fee’ probably supersedes impound charges.
@audreylm
Andrew's right, and the TOW is definitely referred to forcible removal of car, not because your car has broken down, because the comparison is about possible methods that you could be punished for parking violations.
I can tell you in NYC more than 2 decades ago, a $50 ticket is definitely better than spending more than $600-$700 to get your car back.
I had my car towed from a Queens municipal parking lot. I thought it was stolen. Went to the police, they told me it was towed for non-payment of parking fines. I recall there was a towing fee $250, Sheriff's fee ($150), the original fine amount, $50, the maximum escalation of non-payment ($200), more than $100 in other surcharges, having to go to court to pay the charges first, in Manhattan, then having to go to back to Queens to where they impounded the car. I was young and didn't understand the consequences of being a scofflaw and didn't think I could afford the parking ticket. Well, after that experience, I REALLY couldn't afford the parking tickets and eventually had to give up the car. And in this kind of TOW, insurance doesn't cover it.
I don't know what it costs now in NYC, but fees generally get higher - more than keeping up with inflation, so it's got to be a lot more now.
In re BEE
I'm in the UK visiting family, so the BEE is released at 8 am local time, giving me something of a head start.
Today's BEE had considerable overlap with one from a week or so ago, which includes that funky phonetics word (and its sort-of opposite in full and abbr. form), that odd-looking student, the card-game, the musical term, that metric term, and the male protuberance. There are also 2 portmanteau words, one from the 40s and one from the 70s, both beginning with T. The rest is standard fare, but there are 4x7-letter and 3x8-letter words.
QB=42 words/164 points
2xE, 1xH, 5xL, 11xM, 8xN, 2xO, 13xT (BINGO!)
9
@NICE CUPPA please, what is a bingo?
@NICE CUPPA
@David Connell mentioned the odd-looking student yesterday in the discussion about TUTEE that was in yesterday's crossword puzzle. A few days ago, David did a similar thing, mentioned a word in these comments that ended up in the Spelling Bee the next day.
@NICE CUPPA Definitely hitting a lot of puzzle overlap of late. Makes it easier on daily solvers. I thought the technology oriented word the hardest of the bunch. At the end, I had one or two four letter words to go. I just kept cycling through the possibilities. Hint: if I was unwilling to try proper nouns, I would routinely be defeated in my quest for QB.
2
To equate MIA with AWOL is questionable, even if these are used as slang and even if it is just a puzzle, and even if "so to speak" is tacked on.
Not only do they have two completely different specifically defined meanings, MIA has an enormous emotional context that AWOL does not, which is perhaps the biggest reason for not equating them like this even in "just a puzzle."
10
@Johnny From SoCal
Second thread on this topic so will add my comment here.
I mentioned a couple of days ago that I didn't care for the light hearted clue for MIA, and got one reply (Andrew perhaps) explaining that it now could mean showing up late at a party. I'm glad to see that others are concerned about this, especially liked Rich's contribution.
@suejean
I believe that was Barry the other day. I did reply today to Rich's very touching post however.
See other thread...
I enjoyed this one immensely. I assumed it was HOME Decor at the start and eventually caved to check. Way off! I also needed help confirming that it was, in fact, BALD PATE. Once confident in the T, VENT eventually came, finished SHEAVE, and wrapped it up. Within two minutes of average, so no complaints. No real rapid breakthroughs; certain of six or seven in the first round and then slowly, individually, it unfolds. A very well constructed puzzle. Kudos!
(Also, great blog on how to tackle the rewarding challenge of a themeless puzzle.)
2
SW was the slowest quadrant for me. I had SPANISH olives and RANT along with BALD HEAD, so there was some mopping-up to do.
I never know bands and rock songs (over in the SE) and I waited to decide between DRY and WET CELL batteries.
(I've already complained about the TENT BED--who says that? It's a COT!)
3
@Mean Old Lady
A TENT BED is really a cot?
Here I was thinking it was some esoteric bit of camping gear that served a dual purpose, and I was trying to imagine how that would work.
@Deadline & MOL
I assumed TENT BED was a really awkward way of referring to the comfortable beds found in fancy safari tents--"glamping" or glamorous camping--as opposed to a more rough-and-ready style of camping.
One quibble; I don't think that a dory is a place.
I found it tough but liked it.
1
@PaulSFO
You can fish from it.... or from the bank, or a dock, or a pier, or a seawall, or a jetty, or even from another type of boat. Can't get hung up on these fixed locations....
1
The duty status AWOL is not even "so to speak" the same as, or similar to, MIA. Absence without leave is an offense punishable by cofinement to the stockade; missing in action is a duty status incurred on the battlefield. They are two different categories of duty on the Morning Report; see Army Regulation 335-60.
12
@Fact Boy
Quite right but, for better or for worse, both acronyms have been adopted in colloquial terms to mean someone who fails to show up when expected. Therefore they are "so to speak" equivalent. While on the subject of literal meanings, the definition of "so to speak" according to M-W is:
"used to indicate that one is using words in an unusual or figurative way rather than a literal way."
3
@Andrew I'm afraid I have to agree with Fact Boy on this one. There are lots of terms that are in common use that we're never going to see in a crossword. MIA is the most painful status for the families of the soldier and cluing it in association with another military status may seem cute to the editors, but I think it's going a little too far.
My unit had two soldiers officially listed as MIA after one engagement. Everybody who was there knew they were not MIA; there was just nothing left to recover (the ammo dump had blown up after the battle). I know my company commander fought for years to have that corrected; it took 32 years. I feel pain for those two families every time I think about it.
I would also note that after that same engagement, the same commander went well out of his way to have the bodies of the NVA delivered to our enemies (long story, but circumstances would have prevented them from returning to retrieve them). He knew that it was just as important to them as it was to us to have a body to bury and a confirmed status.
I know MIA is too common a piece of short fill to eliminate from puzzles, but let's not get even mildly cute with it. Better yet, stick with Farrow or Hamm.
5
@Rich in Atlanta
Thank you. I can only imagine the horror associated with the term MIA.
I find it sad that the term has been so trivialized by a generation who have no idea of this association. For those people "action" is only something enjoyable, and "missing" only means a temporary state. How far from its true meaning the term has been twisted.
Tough one for me. My experience was a fair number of gimmes followed by some progress from crosses followed by ... crickets. I had a tough time in the SE and SW, which was last to fall. Except I tried PANAMA TREE (from PA-A-A TREE). Looking through the downs led me to change STNAULS to STPAULS and then PAPAMA TREE to PAPAYA TREE. Gold star followed.
1
@David Meyers
Hand up for PANAMA TREE, same reasoning. I'm not an expert on religion, but I did recognize the improbability of ST. NAUL'S.
1
Not too hard once I got my head out of RUSSIA. Suspect the NYT anonymous Op Ed columnist has been thinking the same thing... Shabbat Shalom everyone.
6
That was my favorite kind of puzzle: seemingly intractable at first, but then gradually, agonizingly, yielding its secrets. I had a lot of trouble in, well, everywhere to start, but especially the southwest and northeast corners. I could not remember SHAUN, I had YEAR then BORN for Tombstone figure (nice clue!), and spent no little time fishing off of a PORT, which worked with Google PLUS, and trying to figure out what an ADMISORT board was.
Thanks for making my Thursday night, Mr. Knapp!
11
Hobbit comes from "holbytla", which does not mean "hole dweller" but rather "hole builder". Tolkien used actual Old English to represent the language of the hobbits - and "hobbit" itself is a perfectly good OE term.
The "quick" in quicksand means "living" - as seen in "cut to the quick" and "the quick and the dead." Nothing to do with speed but rather with movement.
2
David,
The "hole-dweller" etymology comes from Tolkien, in Appendix F.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rohirric
1
Regarding your other comment, I presume you're just providing interesting background about the etymology of quicksand, and not nitting on the clue, right? The clue implies that quicksand has nothing to do with quickly since "It takes time" is the opposite of "quick."
(I'm presently suffering from a bit of a nicked quick under a nail, so I'm sold.)
1
@Martin - Tolkien cited kûd-dûk as the word in the language of Rohan that would correspond to the word used in the Shire, kuduk. This was his way of evincing the sister relationship between the two languages. He was very clear that the word "hobbit" as he used it to "translate" kuduk was a corruption of the older "holbytla", hole-builder. Of course, those who build holes to dwell in dwell in holes.
Yes, the quicksand note was not a nit, just a reminder that quick didn't always mean "fast."
How does the clue for KMART give you the K? It's
"store name with a big red initial." Doesn't say what initial, or even that the initial is read as a separate letter. The cap logo for most baseball teams is a big initial; some of them, such as the Cubs', are red. A clue "ball club with a big red initial on the cap" does not point to a letter C.
Additionally, the clue is flawed because the big red initial is on the Kmart logo; ordinary uses of the name do not contain an oversized capital K nor are red, as you can see in the above usage.
@Steve L Deb tends to assume we solve these things in the same order she does. So, we already have the K from QUICKSAND. Didn't work that way for me, but...(shrug)
@Steve L I'll bet KMart was easily found by most solvers. Your complaints make no sense to me.
1
@Lorne Eckersley
I don't know about you, but I haven't seen a KMart in Canada for decades. It was only when I had KM--- from the crosses, and started wondering what was wrong there, that I had a sort of aha! moment for that clue.