I’m going through the archives so I’m late to this party. Nevertheless I wanted to eXpress how I enjoyed this eXcellent puzzle. ThanX!
2
And here I always thought O was kiss and X was hug.
Damnation@ I missed the fun. With some difficulty I completed the puzzle on the first attemot, still scratching my head over the four centeal answers. The aha! moment didn't come until I tapped through to these notes and saw the picture.
Just reaffirms what I've long realized: I am an extremely non-visual person. As soon as I opened the puzzle I was struck by the uncrossed letters and by the rotational symmetry of the diagram but totally failed to notice that big X.
Anyone understand the cluing for "Anon"?
Ash,
ANON is an old word for "soon" (and will be found in use in poetry and older prose and drama).
1
@Ash, “Paddock calls anon.”
@Barry Ancona thanks! I definitely did not know that...
Saw the big X in the middle and the "unchecked" cells, but thought little of them. Instead, thought that rebuses were involved when I entered NEWYOR(KER) for 8D. Then came MALCO(MX) at 34A and (SEL)ECTION at 39D. These rebuses didn't make sense so stepped back and pondered things. After some time, sussed onto the trick with MALCOM(X), then (CROSS)SECTION. My wife than flashed on NEWYORK(TIMES).
But 37A? Went to bed last night puzzling on the interpretation of the X for that entry. This afternoon, struggled with the entire NE, having only soON at 10D (later changed to ANON), TAT at 11D, and MAC at 22A. After much gnashing of teeth (and clock time), filled the section in and got GOODBYE at 37A from the crosses. Oh, (KISS)GOODBYE! Last entry was the cross of JJWATTS and BOWDOIN. Happy music ensued!
Tough Thursday for me, but enjoyable (love "gimmicks!"). Very clever theme, Mr. Westwig!
Just read on CNN that doing puzzles does not forestall dementia. Gone is my main motivation for doing this! Oh well, think I'll continue anyway. Sometimes, it's actually fun. ;)
6
Bearer of glad tidings, Ron...
I think I will continue until they determine that puzzles actually cause dementia. Sometimes I feel like that might be the case!
9
Andrew, just have to say this is hilarious.
2
Does anyone recall another NYT puzzle (perhaps within the last year) that also involved the theme of “X” meanings?
I think it also used “cross,” “kiss,” and so on. It may have been x’s in one direction and the meanings in the other direction. I don’t remember, but I feel like I was stumped by “x” meaning “kiss” back then as well.
Today’s crossword was a challenging and satisfying one! I’ve enjoyed all from this week!
2
@Viv, you're looking for this one: https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/6/2017
4
@Viv See Ron's post above. What was your question?
@Julian Thank you Julian! That is exactly the crossword I was thinking of!
Finished with an error: Had DOB for the [LinkedIn listing], and never heard of J.J.WATT. Unlike the Natick in the 38 square, I didn't correct it on my own, but asked Ms. Check when Mr. Happy Pencil didn't appear.
As for the theme: First I got NEW YORK TIMES. Then I noticed the big X. Then, proceeding closckwise, I saw CROSS-SECTION and realized there would be different uses of X. MALCOLM X was pretty close to a gimme. But I had to click on Deb's link to get KISS. And that was after toying with "unknown" and "ten" and other oddments.
Knew the Indian tea state, but not the green tea.
SAD SACK before CASE. Wanted ON A ROLL, but didn't fit. Does BATMAN really have to go around introducting himself? I'd think the pointy ears would be enough of an identifier.
Liked NERD CRED. I wish I had more of it.
I wonder if the gimme DAGMAR made up for no-knows McGREGOR, CLEARY, and J.J. WATT.
Nice to see another yute starting to construct XWPs. It's a good sign that there will be fresh things for me to play with as I continue aging.
And this puzzle gave me yet another reminder that it is time to take my beloved Jessica to the VET. She's aging too (11 years), and I want her to be healthy.
Thank you to all.
8
I felt a little cheated when I did not get my golden charm for this puzzle. It being Thursday I assumed rebuses and dutifully filled in each of those four center squares with an X and the other appropriate letter. Never thought to look at the puzzle grid. Thursday fills also often turn degrees so the twists at the end and beginning of the down fills didn't phase me. Oh well, off to the Mini.
@carol goldstein, I meant to type "90" degrees.
1
Fairly smooth solve for me although I had arthouse for 12d and applause for 14d. It’s amazing what a mental dam a wrong answer can be.
2
MALCOLM gave me the X aha. NEW YORK made sense then with “times.” Isn’t that a funny word for a math action... Cross SECTION was a third meaning for X. I had a bit of trouble getting Kiss GOODBYE, but JJWATT and downs made it possible.
I should have remembered X for “kiss.” A very, very long time ago trading notes in high school, I remember signing XXXO, for kissy, kissy, kissy, hug, to a particular friend.
Lovely puzzle, liked the cluing for several especially DO TIME.
:-)
3
@Just Carol (Hi!)
When I had confused math students, I would tell them to turn it around: instead of three times five, think FIVE, three times! That usually broke the logjam.
3
@Mean Old Lady That's basically the same as reverse Polish notation.
1
Well said, MOL.
(What did you do for "gazintas?")
1
I always thought that when you wrote “XOXO” for “hugs and kisses” that X was for “hug” (arms crossed) and O for a “kiss” (picture some puckered lips). Anyone else? Haha
3
*sigh*
Nope.
1
Hmm. With a hug, one is encircled by arms, eh?
One would only cross his/her arms to ward off a hug, IMHO. (Women certainly learn this one!)
The X is perhaps more perplexing, but could it not be > and < meeting in a kiss?
4
@Mean Old Lady There was some discussion of this farther down in the comments, but I don't think that particular interpretation of X was mentioned. I like it!
1
Cottoned on early to the X with MALCOLM. Got the TIMES and CROSS but had to read Deb’s column for the KISS! Had senCHA before MATCHA and newMAR before DAGMAR. Would have been cool if it had been Newmar as she played Catwowan which would have crossed with IMBATMAN. Fun puzzle. Look forward to more from John.
It wasn’t until I held the puzzle at arm’s length did I see the X. A satisfying puzzle to solve.
2
Good puz!
Shot myself in the foot with a childhood memory: when we kids flew kites the string was wrapped around a wooden spoon. That plus not knowing the tea variety created a very interesting Natick pattern right there.
Can't say this is dull, hm?
3
@Dr W
I have a sacred wooden bread spoon. (That is actually what I call it.) Anyone using that spoon for ANYthing else is risking severe consequences.
Was it not exhausting to try and wind up the string for a kite that was high up?
@Mean Old Lady - you have to admit that certain wooden spoons are good for whuppin' ... um ... territory.
That's pretty 'old school,' isn't it? Hairbrushes, 'switches' off of bushes, paddles.... our mother used our dad's belts after breaking the other items....and girls in dresses have bare legs... (I'm not one of the people who touts 'The Good Ole Days.')
So I did not spank. Time-out was more effective.
2
Nice puzzle! I had SECTION first out of the theme answers, and realized the X trick once I filled in MALCOLM. Took me a while to figure out "Kiss" GOODBYE. I liked seeing I'M BATMAN in the puzzle. It made me think of Bob Schneider doing his little ditty, "Batman." (He's got much better songs, but this one is fun and apropos.)
https://youtu.be/RAJ6ZXbQKcc
1
Are not ALL West Point grads ARMYMEN, I was thinking? Nay, some are women. Looked it up...those of the Class of1980 were the first.
3
*sigh*
...
*sigh*
1
@David Connell
Si
...
Si
1
Rich Jones,
I guess I didn't understand Patrick's comment the way you did. I kind of thought he read the clue correctly, briefly wondered why "some" *was* in the clue, and then realized USMA had been admitting women (and looked it up to see for how long).
3
solved it but didn't "get" it until a while after. I was helping a student on a math problem, and when I wrote "X" for "times" the little "ding" went off. Malcolm became obvious. Section took a while.
I had originally written the answer for 60A as 16A, but they couldn't both be at the same time. And having 57D cross was cute. Never heard of that type of green tea. Probably lost some 63A along the way.
NOTHING in my neighborhood is melted yet. Schools in Durham closed three days opened late today. 10-car crash on MLK Blvd. Send heat (all that BURNING could be shared!).
3
Very clever although, apparently it can be solved without ever catching on to the theme!
2
@Helena Valentine
Yep, happens a lot. The headslaps come a few hours later.
1
X gets the square in a delightful puzzle that solved with a rhythmic fluidity. The NE fell last as I changed stick to SPOOL. That uncovered my fourth and final determination of the ‘X’ in that SECTION. The answer to 37a subsequently gave rise to a fond recollection of this Petula Clark ballad from ‘68.
https://youtu.be/-wulPDIG9Zs
Mwah,
Your BRO Bru
1
@brutus - rhythmic is a strange connection - when percussion parts are written on the musical staff, the noteheads are replaced by x's. X-head notation eliminates the pitch-meaning of the staff lines.
1
@brutus
As we learned in Indiana Jones, X never, ever marks the spot:
Setup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6he6yrUqm8
Reveal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvywOjh_hdY
1
@David Connell
That was sharp of you to make the rhythmic connection. Of course it would have been double sharp of you to make the pitch connection!
I loved this puzzle. I thought at first that 8D was going to be THENEWYORK(ER), and looked for ways to apply the ER to the other three limbs, but no. It was MALCLOM (X) that gave it away for me, and I saw TIMES and KISS immediately, but CROSS took me a long hard stare after I finished the puzzle, until that penny dropped. I only saw the giant X of black squares in the grid after I minimized the puzzle. Nice touch.
Now a request for help from you techies. In Across Lite, the timer has disappeared. Anyone know how I can get it back?
3
@Viv Not sure if this will work, but in Across Lite, try going to 'Options' and then 'Tools.' That's the only place I see where the timer is mentioned.
..
Hi Viv,
Across Lite actually has a troubleshooting topic to address this specific issue.
https://www.litsoft.com/across/alite/support/win/troubleshoot/usage_prob.htm#notimer
@Wen
Thanks, but I've been there, did that, it didn't work, and they don't offer any alternatives. I'll try to do it again, anyway.
Any other ideas?
I would consider myself a fairly green crossword solver, but this one lifted my spirits that I can finish a Thursday puzzle without looking up at least 1/3 of the fill.
It would definitely have done me well to remember that Malcolm has to L's and that the phrase is I'm Batman not I am Batman.
I do owe some special thanks to my matcha addiction and love of clues ending in ?
9
@XWord Newbie Yay, you! Of course you can finish a Thursday. Keep up the great solving.
2
@XWord Newbie: If you love the "?", you're well on your way from "Newbie" to "Xpert". Nice going.
4
Really enjoyed this one. Nice, subtle theme, and fill that was fresh (JJWATT!) and just challenging enough. Well done!
1
Did the entire puzzle thinking that it was themeless and scratching my head over it.
Lesson of the day: don’t gloss over the blanks so quickly! Pay attention to the *whole* puzzle, not just the pretty letters!
4
@Margaret Fox
You sometimes get a helpful ( therefore deliberate) tip from the black square grid pattern. This happens more often in the Sunday big one.
1
It took me an hour to realize that the X didn't need to be entered in those squares. Call it "The Thursday Effect" where my assumption they'd be Rebuses nearly broke my streak.
5
@NotDeadYet, yeah, but I still want credit for dutifully and painfully making up rebuses (rebi?) for all those squares, then going back to make sure I had the x’s in the proper order - to no effect. GRRR. Again, my condolences to those who had to suspend operations to go earn a living. Hope you were able to keep your streak alive, and if you don’t care about streaks - good for you.
1
@NotDeadYet
Put X in with white ink. :-)
1
Just the right Rx as far as I'm concerned.
4
Hmmm. Very interesting. Filled in rather quickly, once I changed SAUCEPAN to SAUTEPAN. The NE was the toughest, but once I got to the CRIMELAB my prints were all over it.
3
This puzzle goes to XI.
9
@Nigel Tufnel
The Chinese president?
1
@Wen
It's such a fine line between numeral and president.
@Nigel Tufnel
I always think of the White House occupant as POTUS 45. Keeps the systolics down.
Liked the puzzle a lot. MALCOLM made filling in the X very easy, and after I did, I figured out the "kiss" meaning of X in KISS GOODBYE. But I can't believe that I thought NEW YORK X was that quaint mid-Nineteenth Century publication called THE NEW YORK TEN. I'm a lifelong (well, since adulthood) NYT home subscriber and I never thought of them once. And that's because I had no idea that they went back that far. Why, you're older than dirt, NEW YORK TIMES! As for X SECTION -- I didn't cotton onto CROSS-SECTION, either. I'm a bit slow this morning. Too much wine at the Christmas party last night? Some other thoughts:
The constructor is obviously an optimist. He comes back from vacation both RESTED and TANNED. Not STRESSED from missing his connection and being stranded in Podunk, nor from having his luggage lost for the first four days, nor from being jammed in a seat between two Sumo wrestlers. Nor PALE, because it rained at the beach resort for 10 days in a row or because he was iced in at Grandma's house in Toronto over the holidays. Lucky John Westwig. Can I travel with you in the future, John?
Does Batman really fly around declaring I'M BATMAN? What a truly boring action hero. I'm just getting to know you, Batman, and already I want to X you GOODBYE.
But not a boring puzzle. This was a lot of fun.
11
Note to self: do NOT travel with star-crossed Nancy!
1
@Nancy
Ditto on the BATMAN reference.
@Nancy
I think that I have experienced all of your travel woes at one point or another in my life. But I still get that childlike excitement and optimism when it comes time to vacation travel. And Podunk can be quite beautiful this time of year.
As for I'M BATMAN, at least it is grammatically better than Tarzan's famous line.
Ten plus puzzle
5
I definitely noticed the grid and wondered if it would be a major part of the theme, which partially came to me with MALCOLM X. At that point I was thinking X as a letter for all of them which of course wasn't getting me very far. The AHA moment finally came with the NEW YORK "Times", then "cross" SECTION. Like others I never got "kiss" to go with GOODBYE.
My uncle went to BOWDOIN, but I had to check the spelling. Since I use a mobile phone, the cell clue didn't fool me, but as I live in Yorkshire I wanted nowt for NADA at 51A.
This was a different kind of trickery and I liked it a lot.
4
I probably should have walked away for a break, but I have a dental appointment, so I just went ahead and googled the Sportsperson. (I had guessed WATT, but I'm hopelessly UNinterested in professional sports, so....J?) And I had the unlikely ANEC-- (having abandoned I ACCEPT as the opening of a speech.) And my first pass at the puzzle yielded only about 3 entries, plus I'm so far only Amazing on the Wee Bee. And it's pouring buckets again. So, it felt like it was going to be One of Those Days!
MALCOLM X was obvious, and then X=KISS made sense, and after some staring at X=Unknown, I realized CROSS-SECTION (even though a CROSS is different from an X in my book.) The NEW YORK TEN? The NEW YORK UNKNOWN? And then the WordPlay photo came onto the screen and POW! I got it. Doh!
I give this puzzle a Ten out of X.
I would like to know how many West Wing jokes our constructor has had to endure.
Everyone stay safe and warm!
6
@Mean Old Lady - JJ Watt received a lot of media attention last year, outside of football, because he started a foundation that raised over $41 million for Hurricane Harvey relief. His mother actually did most of the actual work of day-to-day coordination, I believe.
1
@Donna
I did learn that when I had to google him; then I thought it was very nice of SI to honor him along with his colleague Jose' A__.
It still doesn't make me care about pro ball.
1
@Mean Old Lady
"a CROSS is different from an X in my book"
Likewise a times-sign (multi) isn't an X, but close enough for XWP.
I must say, I'm not a fan of puzzles with truly unchecked squares. The last few times there were unchecked squares in a NYT puzzle, they actually spelled something, or were in fact checked.
1
@Julian
Today's squares were "checked", not by a cross (although SECTION was, I suppose), but by having to integrate with an X (or interpretation thereof).
That's not "checking;" whatever the X does to help you "get it" is only in one direction (Across or Down). We had a puzzle recently where the second check dimension of seemingly unchecked squares bounced up and down (to the chagrin and dismay of many commenters), but they were checked both ways. Most, but not all, are.
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Unchecked
1
@Andrew, it took me forever to get GOODBYE at 37A. For a while, I had ?OOD???. Since no entry checks the G in GOODBYE, there was only one way to get that square. Here's an example of a puzzle with squares that appear unchecked, but are in fact checked: https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/20/2018
The Thursday puzzle is a bit of a strange animal, since it often breaks traditional rules, but it can't break them too much. The roundabout puzzle of 11/29/18 got me to thinking that the Thursday puzzle may have mutated far enough from the norm to deserve its own category, like diagramless and puns. "Mutations", perhaps?
That way, those who enjoy figuring out the rules of the puzzle could do the Mutation puzzle- and those who enjoy doing a NYT puzzle could do the regular Thursday puzzle.
Also, this would open up the possibilities for Mutations, since they wouldn't have to hew too closely to tradition.
3
@postagoras
mutatis mutandis perhaps?
2
Nice puzzle — but the “not a rebus” requirement to get the happy music was annoying.
My family bought our first television set in 1954 so they could watch the Army-McCarthy hearings live. The hearings ended around 1 pm and resumed later in the afternoon. My younger sister and I came home from school for lunch, 12 to 12:45, so I learned how to fix lunch. It’s worth rereading the Army-McCarthy hearings in Wikipedia or elsewhere. “Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
DAGMAR? I think she was on to other things by 1954, but lived on in dreams and car ornamentation styles.
2
@ADeNA My family also got their first TV in 1954, though not specifically to watch the hearings. I was still 4 at the time and still at home, so that is one of the first things I remember ever watching.
Of course I had absolutely no idea what was going on, but it didn't matter; it was a television!
1
@Rich in Atlanta
You got that last one right. The last time that particular emotion hit me was when I discovered the mouse on the Mac. At that point I did three things at work: returned the PC back to the office supply people, recovered my IBM selectric from the closet shelf to replace it, and put in an order for that Mac.
2
@Rich in Atlanta
My uncle bought my grandmother a TV in 1948, and replaced it with a fancier model in 1952. The old one was passed on to my parents, just in time for the Republican National Convention. It stayed barely alive long enough for the Army-McCarthy hearings.
It wasn't a great introduction to the new medium, with my father fuming about that lefty Eisenhower defeating the good guy Taft, and then having people pick on his hero, McCarthy.
A person could be scarred for life.
My memory is that DAGMAR lasted a bit longer than that, but a quick look at Wikipedia tells me that Jerry Lester went off the air in 1951. Now I'm confused.
2
I wonder if Brian Eno even gets a kick out of appearing in the crossword anymore.
12
Sad admission. I am Deb's scribbler. I am embarrassed that I did not notice the big X in the grid despite my promise to appreciate construction more, though I wouldn't have presumed it meant the letter "X" even if I had noticed.
In truth, I did the puzzle really fast -- four minutes under average -- without really glomming onto the theme all the while looking for one or a trick.
Obviously I thought "X" after Malcolm, and was prepared to go back and rebus the entry. I thought I'd have to go back and rebus The New York(er), but when the grid was taken as complete, I forgot about it until I read the column. Section worked as an answer without "x" well enough. Goodbye was the deal breaker. It didn't seem quite right for the clue, but it couldn't be anything else. When I put it in, voila - complete puzzle.
I can see it now, although kiss goodbye as x goodbye would never have come to mind quickly. I guess I need to slow down and smell the roses.So either the theme was too subtle for me or I was too dense for it!
Enjoyable solve in any event.
Loved NERDCRED (which I have) and ADA references. Didn't have trouble with the other names either either because of knowledge or crosses. Keep them coming Mr. Westwig. I'll try to be more observant next time.
5
@Liane We still love you! But it's a gentle reminder to stop and enjoy the puzzle once in a while.
A lot of crosswords make me smile but not many make me laugh out loud. I sensed something was up with the four entries containing unchecked squares, but I'd filled in nearly half the grid before I hit upon "MALCOM X" and snuckled a little. (That's snorted+chuckled.) And then I assumed that each of the other three entries would contain the letter "X," and smiled (and maybe snuckled or snortled again) when I realized that 8D would end in "TIMES". This was a lot of fun to work on.
I drew smileys next to all four theme entries' clues, but nowhere else this time. But I had two scars where Mr Westwig got me: I had "SAD SACK" for 24D and then even after I fixed that I had RISE for 48A, although I now realize that RISE doesn't quite fit the clue, since "lift" is transitive and "rise" isn't. Too bad, because otherwise it would have made a great potential pairing for a Schrodinger puzzle.
I've been preoccupied this week (among other things: I was snowed in for three days) so this is my first posting here since Friday. Just thought I'd post that I really, really enjoyed the clues in last Saturday's crossword! I think I drew eight or ten smileys.
Happy Thor's Day, everyone!
--Floyd
4
@Floyd, if you aren't rapelling in Macchu Pichu on 12/26, perhaps you could be tempted into joining a select group of WPers (ie, mostly locals) at Elmo's on Ninth Street for brunch and snuckles. Keep an eye out for LizB or AlanJ message confirming time (10:30/11:00?) and RSVPing.
It may still be chilly, so be prepared to bring a portmanteau.
Hope you can make it!
1
Ahhh Elmo’s!
Both daughters went to school just down Ninth street. What memories of brunch!
Enjoy!
@Leapfinger
Thanks but I'll have to take a rain check. Will be in Kentucky for Christmas.
I entered rebuses with X in all the unchecked squares. Eventually resorted to doing a puzzle check. I had to X my streak goodbye.
6
@Michele Williams See my comment above. After an hour checking every bloody square umpteen times, then asking my wife to check my work, I finally tried deleting the Xs. It was a great lesson for me in always -- on Thursdays -- checking my assumptions as well as my answers.
2
@NotDeadYet
Good advice, which I will heed next time! I didn't know about the Thursday weirdness.
Tricky, tricky, tricky. And so much fun.
Congratulations on a brilliant debut, Mr. Westwig. Can't wait to see what other tricks you have up your sleeve!
4
@Chungclan - though he's only a senior in college, he's had two puzzles already published by NYT!
3
@David Connell: Fantastic! Hope the puzzle-making continues after graduation. This was fun
2
@P I love that there is a next generation continuing the tradition of both creating and doing crosswords. I hooked my son; maybe he'll start creating crosswords one day in his spare time. (Mom is winking at you David if you are reading the comments!) I know one of his Swarthmorian classmates is creating and publishing them for students to do.
4
Interesting puzzle even though not a complete success for me. Partly caught on with having enough crosses to suggest NEWYORK early on and then remembering the approximate date. Then MALCOLMX after some crosses. Took me a long moment to think of CROSS even after I had SECTION filled in. I was done in by the general NE area with too many unknowns. Even after I filled in GOODBYE after cheating, I didn't get the 'kiss' part until after I read comments.
Going way OT (and way back in time). I still have my copy of 'The Autobiography of Malcolm X' somewhere in storage and remember what a huge impact reading it had on me. Alex Haley spoke at my college in either 1967 or '68. He mostly talked about that book but at the end mentioned that he was working on a book about his family history. Always remembered that.
I had a long-time friend who joined the Nation of Islam while in jail and changed his name. He later switched to Sunni and eventually became a Baha'i, though he kept the name. I remember an era when if one met (or heard of) an African-American with an Arabic name, one of the first questions was always, "Nation?"
Enough of that.
5
GRRRR!! I’ve just been introduced to “unchecked” squares - - and, like Sam-I-Am with certain breakfast selections, I DO NOT LIKE THEM!!
Perhaps even less, though, I do not like the clue for 11-Down. I have none of them myself but, even I know that a tat (noun) is made up of a whole LOT of “bits of ink” - - not a single bit of ink.
There are many more accurate clue options for “tat” - - using the modern abbreviation for tattoo (noun) or the creation of one (verb) or lace-making (verb). Even “Many bits of ink?” would have been a more satisfying clue.
Still - - a delightful puzzle - with some quadrants that just fell together easily - and others that required “research”.
2
@PeterW I believe that the bit in this case refers to the shortened answer - TAT. Another term for a tattoo is simply "Ink" (I'm getting some ink today), so a bit of ink is a TAT.
2
@PeterW
I think one can say, "I have a bit of ink on my shoulder" or equivalently, "I have a tat on my shoulder," suggesting that "bit of ink" and "tat" are pretty synonymous. (Disagreeing with Steve Faiella, I don't think the "bit" need necessarily be a hint that "tattoo" is shortened. "Tat" seems to me to be in such widespread use that a shortening hint isn't needed.)
@Floyd
I'm with Steve on this one. I think that "bit" was an indication of an abbreviated entry.
1
I loved the inclusion of Ms. Lovelace!
11
Tee for TOE and not knowing how to spell a certain green tea had me ONARUN.
Sorta got the little trick at 8D and 34A. X as kiss came much later.
Nice one John, Thank you
1
Dear John,
Loved it. Saw the big X immediately and then thought I "got" it when [cross] SECTION arose. Briefly, tried to make everything start or end with [cross]. Best was [kiss] GOOD BYE.
Yours sincerely,
X
3
I must have not had enough coffee this morning before solving. Up until I came here to Wordplay, I was somewhat disappointed that a Thursday puzzle was a themeless, with no Rebuses or trickery involved. I did think some of the answers were kind of odd (MALCOM, NEWYORK) but the other two almost worked on their own.. after all a SECTION can be thought of as a representative sample and GOODBYE... well, it sort of fit... At any rate I had solved the puzzle and then came here to see what everyone else thought. Once I started reading Deb's opening commentary though, it suddenly clicked. The puzzle had the best kind of trickery! A theme that was subtle enough to be easily missed, and yet was really required to make all of the answers make sense! Well played, Mr. Westwig, well played!
17
Finished in 45 mins with help from the supplied clues . Not bad for a Thursday Elke
1
So the X stands for different words, except for in MALCOLM X, in which it stands for...X??!!??
I would have used a random pope (first name inferable) such as GREGORY X instead. CLEMENT X would fit, too, but is less inferable, since no one names their kid CLEMENT these days.
Reminds me of the grade schooler who asked the teacher, why was he called MALCOLM THE TENTH?
@Steve L If I had to guess, I'd say that having the big X in the grid actually stand for X was a subtle hint at the theme, since most people know of Malcolm X, and a good number of us know the quote. So seeing just MALCOLM would give people pause. It did seem odd to me, but since I'm not a huge history buff so I thought perhaps it's another person whose last name is Malcom.
2
@Steve L - (treading on my don't reply to New Yorkers rule, I know I'll regret it) -
Seriously? Malcolm Little X'ed out his "little name" on purpose - he chose X as "unknown quantity" - as "name written by an illiterate person whose illiteracy is a product of an evil social system" - as "person whose family and family names and relationships were historically erased by racists and slave masters." It is way way way more meaningful than simply the letter (shape) X.
3
@David Connell
I get that, but in the end, it's still an X, pronounced "X."
I guess we just disagree here. I'm not trying to offend MALCOLM's memory or legacy.
Like others, I solved this one without getting the significance of the big X. I was very amused afterward though. On a different note, can someone explain "natick?"
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@Puzzledog A natick is when two answers that cross one another are both difficult to figure out. Generally, when an answer is tough or obscure, it can still be worked out from the words that cross it. With a natick, there is an across entry and a down entry that are not easily obtained by crosses. As you may imagine, a natick is very personal in nature. Two difficult or obscure words for me might be a piece of cake for you. If you're really interested, here is a blog post about the origins of the term, from the person who coined it, Rex Parker:
http://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2008/07/sunday-jul-6-2008-brendan-emmett.html
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@Steve Faiella
Thank you! Hadn't realized it was Rex.
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Verrrrrry interesting. The theme just kept opening up, and the fill is extraordinary. Who knew JJWATT could work in a crossword?!
Back in college a professor I looked up to said that every white person should read The Autobiography of Malcolm X. So I did, and it changed me, permanently. Now I tell my students that every white person should read Ta-Nehisi Coates.
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@archaeoprof I listened to the audiobook version of Between the World and Me. It was powerful to say the least. This is one of the few audiobooks that I would prefer listening to over reading. The other being Trevor Noah's Born a Crime.
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@archaeoprof
Both you and your professor are absolutely right!
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Well I dove right in and actually finished filling it in before I figured out the theme. I of course noticed the unchecked squares but charged ahead. Four different uses of the X symbol. I like it and I should have stepped back sooner to look at the grid. I knew NEWYORK Times but I was looking at a tree instead of the forest so to speak. The aha came with MALCOLM X. Then forehead slap and I saw the others.
I guess in the future I should look for grid patterns before plunging ahead. My age was showing again when I knew DAGMAR. Also liked 63A NERDCRED and 18A DOTIME.
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For the first time I actually noticed the empty grid and its elegant X. At 34A I found myself with ___COL_ and was thoroughly convinced that it had to be LINCOLN. However I was becoming increasingly sure of LEADOFFS for 36D, and bit by bit MALCOLM filled itself in. All I could think of was MALCOLM in the Middle, a TV show that my kids used to watch, and the quote seemed strangely misplaced. Then I thought of MALCOLM X and had a somewhat delayed AHA moment as the grid design asserted its significance.
On the subject of the 33A/26D Natick, this one was in my wheelhouse, yet for the wrong reason. I knew of BOWDOIN college from my student summers spent in Maine, and I was convinced that I knew JJ WATT, because I mistook him for J C Watts, who was a local celebrity here as a quarterback for the CFL Ottawa Roughriders. I knew that he had gone on to become a prominent politician in the US, so I thought no more about it until after the puzzle was completed and I decided to look him up. Oops!
Someone commented wondering whether FJORD was replacing FiORD as the preferred spelling. I learned the spelling FJORD in the 1960's so I am wondering whether it might be a Canadian-American difference in spelling.
Favourite clue - Old flame?
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@Andrew - I went to wiktionary to follow up on fiord (which I'd never seen) - it is the standard spelling in New Zealand, Catalonia, and Poland, apparently.
@Andrew
Watts in a name? :-)
@David Connell
Thanks for looking it up. I learned FJORD in the 1950s (or maybe '40s) and had never seen FiORD.
The Bee:
QB: 31 / 139, 1 pangram
A 4 (1*5, 3*6)
C 6 ( 4*4, 1*5, 1*6)
P 19 ( 8*4, 3*5, 4*6, 1*7, 1*8, 2*9)
R 2 (1*6, 1*8)
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@susgraham. This Bee is more notable for the vast number of words not taken. Let’s start with PICALILLI, RIPRAP, PALAPA.
I think this is a letter set I had sworn off for that reason. If only I remembered.
HINTS: when in Philly always order your roast pork with this green. Or get it grilled flat. You couldn’t taste these treats without these things. Critters include flat wrigglers and woolier beasts. Don’t dam that creek without knowledge of these rights.
Off to XW soon. Hope it’s more pleasant than the last two days of Bees.
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Plus PRIAPIC and PALP. I even tried PRINCIPIA (Mathematica) and PRINCIP. That happens when one is desperate.
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@Liane
Not accepting month names seems a little wrong, even if they are always capitalized when used and are, I guess, considered proper nouns.
There were 4 words unfamiliar to me. I know the green that you are referring to only by an alternate name.
Great puzzle. Got GOODBYE without getting the kiss part but now I get it. Favorite clue 9D.
great puzzle. i dont have a strategy like many in the comments...i guess i dont have a winning strategy, anyway...i start out with the idea that I will only do the across comments like a real genius type then when i get stuck I'll see if 2D gives me any hints then i allow myself to do both across and down then i just shoot down to the northeast corner as if i'm reading the last page of a mystery then i just frantically look for something (ANYTHING) I know!! Then i find Brian Eno.
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@Patrick McGovern that’s brilliant! Thanks for the laugh.
A true X-word puzzle!
First I was struck by the gorgeous grid. Then I was amazed, as I was right in the pocket on this one, cottoning to the theme quickly and smoothly and steadily slapping down answers section by section, all the way through, not an often Thursday occurrence. Then I remembered that there was a puzzle in the last year or two that also used X in its different iterations, but not as elegantly as this offering. I got a smile from the X of BARE and BOTTOMS.
(KISS) GOODBYE reminded me of "Kiss today goodbye", the first line of "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line, and now it will be going through my head all day. This is a good thing.
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@Lewis
I could X you, Lewis. I'm still crying from At the Ballet on Sirius in the car last week.
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@Lewis Thanks for the earworm, Lewis! LOL
I often get gobsmacked by Thursday trickery, but did get this one in the end. Had SAD sack before CASE, and had to look up the BOWDOIN / WATTS crossing.
I had noted the large X of black squares before starting the solve and then promptly forgot about it until the end. I had put an X, rebus style, into the four squares as sort of place holders, noting the cleverness of X meaning, X, Times, kiss, and cross. Then dialing back my focus a bit I realized the X was already there. [mwah]
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never twigged to the trick but still finished in 20 mins.
Doh. I forgot that "X" could stand for "times" and I decided that "The New York Star" must have existed. It turns out that it did, and was founded in 1868, so I was nearly correct. :)
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Almost a record time for a Thursday which surprised me given the subtle theme and the excellent fill. Bravo!
Congrats to John Westwig for today's outstanding Thursday/Saturday hybrid.
My first impression of the grid art was that it sure didn't look like a Thursday puzzle. ButI I never go theme hunting early, so I just dove in. Finished about three quarters at a normal pace, but really bogged down in the NE, which took me longer to get through than the rest of the puzzle. In DO TIME (great one that) i finally got rolling, wrapping it up with a good guess at the natnick of JJ WATT and BOWDOIN.
I didn't catch on to the theme completely until after the solve, so my experience was more that of a Saturday puzzle, which is just fine with me. I did notice the big X after MALCOLM, but not right away. And even though I had NEW YORK and SECTION, the significance of the X still eluded me. This even after I had figured out the subtle revealers at 9d and 55a. The four uncrossed socket squares at the center of the C were yet another subtle theme clue. It was really cool to finally see that the central X needed to be interpreted in four different ways. That was an AHA moment. Definitely tough for a Thursday but a great puzzle nonetheless.
As they say, "X marks the spot." And for me, this puzzle really hit the spot. Bravo!
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@Mike R
I was expecting buried treasure, myself.
Well, there was something hidden, I guess.
Easier than Wednesday but harder, too, because I was still puzzled for a long while.
This was a steady methodical solve for me. I DID IT on another flight sans wifi and hence no lookups for PPPs like DAGMAR and JJ WATT. So I'm happy still to have come in under my Thursday average time.
I did exactly what Deb said not to do, which is to dive right in to the puzzle instead examining the grid carefully. But the X intersection of MALCOLM, NEW YORK, and SECTION finally revealed the theme for me. Like others, X GOODBYE was the hardest to figure out. Before I realized the unchecked squares were something special, I had MANDELA instead of MALCOLM (like @Wen, I'm not good with quotes either and MANDELA crossed with SLY) and SPECIES instead of SECTION but MOORS and NACRE, respectively, signaled that I was on the wrong track.
I appreciate Mr. Westwig's effort to put in higher quality fill. TIL NERD CRED and DAGMAR. The "lead-in" cluing for 9D and 55A was particularly tricky because I'm so used to words and not letters. Still, I found old friends like ASSAM, REPS, and FOLIO helpful in completing the grid.
Now on to Friday.
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Meh. I grokked the theme but it didn't really strike* me as all that interesting. *see what I did there?
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@Morgan
/ me!
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Morgan,
That's one way to frame it.
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k then...
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Never got the trick, just was very lucky with the crosses. Slower time for me, on average. The naticks were not annoying.
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"The naticks were not annoying."
Interesting. Then were they Naticks?
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and Elke
Wow- a puzzle where X marks the spot.
Started on the BOTTOM(S), and sure thought that I was ON FIRE until I got to MALCOM -instead of MALCOLM...
NOTED that a 'flute' is usually a GLASS reserved for champagne, but not for HOMEBREW. Anyway, was ON A Roll, not on a RUN.
I think MATCHA was in SB recently (?). Was sure of ASSAM.
MODEL made me think of the Tesla X. Their owners have the occasional funny license plate. We have seen some (relating to today's puzzle) : LOL WATT; OFF GAS ; BYE OIL ; NADA MPG.
ABSOLUTE made me remember Grade X history : 'Power corrupts, and ABSOLUTE power corrupts ABSOLUTEly '. And that is no TROMPE l'oeil.
Most apropos clue today (if your name is MC):Get cell service = DO TIME. It's a real SAD CASE.
Time to read the REST of the NEW YORK XX. And listen to Rachel Maddow.
XOXOX
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Congratulations to everyone who got the theme without Deb's help. For me it was just too subtle—a circumstance I encounter all too often. I also ran into a lot of no-knows: MATCHA, ADA, 34A, CLEARY, I'M BATMAN, NERD CRED, A TEMPO, AND 13D, but I had no Naticks, because there were so many informative crosses.
Has FJORD entirely eclipsed fiord in the way that tsar has pushed czar into a distant corner? Just curious.
This one just matched my memory banks. ADA and ASSAM came immediately and eased the NW. BOWDOIN, MCGREGOR, NACRE, JJWATT were first try successes. MALCOLM gave the theme away. And DAGMAR was there for those of us of a certain age. A big sigh of relief for a Thursday.
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Great puzzle. It took me awhile to realize that I wasn’t getting “happy music” because Rebuses were not accepted/needed in the 4 orphaned middle boxes. Also, I convinced myself that AMBER is an old flame (and not knowing NACRA from NACRE) until an EMBER appeared out of the recesses of my mind’s SAHARA and voila, happy music.
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Puzzlemucker’s second sentence is crucial here for streak seekers.
I knew the New York Times started in 1851 (because I was a librarian) so I immediately saw what the X of black squares was doing. What I didn't immediately see was that it also stood for KISS and CROSS (although I got MALCOLM X). Or even slowly see. It took Deb's column to make that clear to me.
I lucked into MCGREGOR because I had the C from CLEARY and the G from GO FLAT and the R from RESTED and MCGREGOR was the only name I could think of that would fit. I didn't know JJ WATT at all, but I did know BOWDOIN, and once I stopped trying to cram NORWAY into FJORD that section worked out. The clue for MODEL seemed opaque to me--what's a Model X?
I enjoyed the puzzle tremendously (a successful solve will do that!). Nice job, Mr Westwig.
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My experience with MCGREGOR was just like yours. Similar on JJ WATT and BOWDOIN.
Model X - Tesla. https://www.tesla.com/modelx
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@Liz B
ohhhhh kiss....thought it might be "wave"
Enjoyed your tricky puzzle. I am curious what this puzzle constructor's lingo means.
- Given the low density of the theme, I tried to keep the fill as clean "as possible."
Can you explain. Many Thanks
@Alex - themed puzzles have a set of answers (fill) that belong to the theme (in this case, the four answers that go straight across / down the middle, including the big "x" in the grid). Those are the themers. The rest is the "fill" that is independent of the theme, and the constructor attempts to make it interesting, lively, fresh. The opposite of such "clean" fill would be stale answers that appear all the time, so-called "crosswordese" (things that are encountered in crosswords but rarely in the wild, as Brian ENO), and things that don't make sense on their own - we use the term "dook" to describe the phrase "do O.K." when it is in the puzzle, likewise AANDE for the A&E channel on cable TV. Those kinds of things, sometimes used to hold a puzzle together, are called "gluey," though for some reason people around here didn't like that word in the puzzle itself!
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A couple of notes on David's excellent response: "fill" comprises the entries that aren't themers (David said that but the first sentence makes that a bit ambiguous); and the "low density" part of the comment refers to the fact that this grid doesn't have the usual long phrases as theme entries. The themers are ordinary words with the rest of the phrase implied. So the grid looks more like a themeless, making the quality of the fill critical.
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@David Connell
Some of us listen to Brian Eno. For me, ENO is a piece of fill that I have pleasant associations with, unlike Oreo which I dislike and would like to see removed from first the crossword and then the world. However that would deprive lots of people of relatively harmless pleasure,
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So if X can equal KISS, then what are the O's in the ubiquitous XOXO-type sign-offs?
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@Paul Frommer
Hugs.
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@Paul Frommer
As @Amy G explained. XOXO=hugs and kisses.
@Wen and @Amy G
Aha. Thank you! OOOO
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exCELLENT!
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liked KISS IT GOODBYE best. Tough puzzle for folks like me who are not GEN X, Y or Z. But I'm glad to say: I DID IT!
@judy d
I never know which "gens" are which, and I think I'm pre-gen.
@suejean
Cheers to Gen-W! ;)
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Clean. Simple. Fun.
More clever than tough.
STEM got to clue ADA this time.
(Waiting for Natick calls for 34D x 38A.)
Nice job, BRO. You've got NERDCRED.
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Barry, you predicted my Natick!
@Wen
And mine. I think that's a true Natick, given that they are both proper names and you either know them (or one of them) or you don't.
I sure didn't.
A children's writer and a martial arts person? Not likely I'd know either. I wound up entering O'LEARY before checking the down entry and figuring McGREGOR was a more likely name that MOGREGOR.
@Barry Ancona
Got CLEARY from my wife, an English major, teacher, writer, an avid reader.
Didn't get the theme until after I finished solving, looked the photo in Deb's post, did I realize the Publishing Debut of 1851 wasn't New York magazine, but the New York Times. Then from there it was easy to work out that the center crossing was serving as a part of the 4 different theme entries in each direction. I was for the longest time trying to figure out what was the Thursday trick (also forgetting for a few moments that it was tricky Thursday)
So I was able to solve the puzzle somehow without understanding the theme, but that was ok.
There were some crossings that were Naticky. Notably, MALCOLM and MCGREGOR. MIt's not that I didn't know who MALCOLM X was, but I'm not good with quotes. And forget about MCGREGOR. JJ WATT and BOWDOIN was a bit of an unknown for me too. But I vaguely recall seeing JJ WATT and living in Boston, I have seen BOWDOIN on those college car stickers, simply by proximity to ME.
The theme was pretty clever. But puzzle itself wasn't too hard. My time was just a couple of minutes longer than my best time for Thursday.
Liked the clue for DO TIME. Appreciate the tricky GLASS, MAC, GEN, MODEL.
Had TEE before ABSOLUTE turned it into TOE. NATCH before NOTED. Didn't have to correct much. Went pretty quickly.
TIL about DAGMAR. And yes, the publishing debut of 1851.
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I tried putting in rebuses (rebii?) and was thinking, "Wasn't The New Yorker started in the 1920s?" I stared at the grid for a good two minutes before figuring it out the trick. Nicely done, and not as nutso as last Thursday!
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Cute idea. I had to work at the meanings of the four central entries, but enjoyed the eventual revelation. Now I’ll go read Deb’s column. ;-)
Clever.
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