I appreciate the early posts - from Deb to the commentariat. And I love the Cryptics, obviously...
I’ve been experimenting with a shorthand notation for Cryptic puzzle clues, as part of my desire to help those who might enjoy Cryptics more if they had a way in.
I was happy to see a Cryptic in this weekend’s puzzles, and it’s a little bit unusual, not a bad thing. I want to test out my notation, and invite feedback from solvers new and experienced.
First, Daniel uses personal names more than is usual in Cryptic puzzles: 1A, 11A, 21A, 2D, 16D require the knowledge of a person’s name.
Second, Daniel uses “filler words” more than I’ve ever seen in a Cryptic – they are all logical and justifiable, but there are many: “is” “for” “of” “and” “from” “with”...
Third, Daniel uses an unusual spelling (Frenchified) in one answer, and a non-Latin plural (Americanized) in another; two of the answers are names.
None of this is a problem. I point them out only to put this weekend’s solving experience in the general context of solving Cryptics.
My following posts will unveil my notation...for those who want to take the red pill...
Oops - this post was clearly meant for the cryptic puzzle page, and I put it in the wrong place...
Sorry!
I also discovered that the formatting I was using will not translate to NYT comments, - so it's back to the drawing board...
Of course, Deb, many of us folks over 50 have been familiar with AGLET for more than 40 years, ever since the first Book of Lists came out in 1977. Created by David Wallechinsky, his father Irving Wallace and sister Amy Wallace, this amazing volume was full of the kind of trivia and unknowns that today anyone can just find on the internet. But in the '70s, having ready access to a list of unusual words (among hundreds of other kinds of hard-to-find info) was a great gift!
Wonderful puzzle, with a definite DROP OF AHA when I realized about half-way through that the painstaking rebuses were unnecessary. A suprb selection of chapeaux on display.
Noticed that Greater Metropolitan Area also enjoyed the blog photo. Have to credit sly Deb with illustrating hat-making with a photo by Senor Cabezas. Kudos for the hat-trick en Espanol!
Very satisfying Sunday solve that carried over well into the week. Were I not woefully behind the Times, i could muse one the life Dora the Explorer led, and check under byways for more toppers. [Speaking of Toppers, thanks for the reading suggestions. Shall try to have the Archbishop pass on in a grid for DavidC.]
Salute to Deadline, our Bella Abug acolyte, with memories of other hat-boxes and Sondheim.
[ducking and running to catch up].
Very clever. Quite enjoyable.
I really enjoyed this puzzle, thought the southwest corner completed evaded me. Once I did the revealer, everything else was fun!
Loved today's puzzle! Hats off to Nick (and his housemate Sam) for a clever tour de force. I was stuck on CALLINTSTION for a while, but "top gear" made me think of bicycle gears, and I imagined a word being spun around a derailleur or gear in the grey box, and before long I twigged TOQUE as a drop-down... from there on it was just fun, fun, fun. I was just waiting for BERET to show up somewhere; KEPI was a nice surprise. Anyway, guys, capital work!
1
Those right turns kept knocking my hat off. I doff it now in respect for a very Sunday puzzle.
:-)
3
I'd have spent less time clamoring on and off the rebus if the appropriate signage had been posted.
"... where the five shaded detours appear"
2
Got today’s puzzle and, thankfully, never thought to rebus. The revealer penny drop (on the hat drop, this week) is one of life’s small pleasures! Fairly new to NYT crosswording...is Saturday the most difficult of the week’s fare? I tend to get Sunday and Saturday tends to get me...
@Jim - it's usually described as "Sunday is Wednesday hard but bigger" (21 x 21 instead of 15 x 15) - so, yes, Saturday is supposed to be the hardest in terms of clues and fill.
1
No brag, just fact: 18 sec. on the mini, a new record! Across only. "Chuffed." :)
3
I'm all finished banging my head against the wall now, so I'll just finish up my Sunday puzzle experience by saying, 'This is such a clever puzzle and I'm so disappointed that I missed the hidden non-rebus answers. Great job, Sam!
5
If you are going to use rebuses that work in one direction only, how is one to know that in the app? No matter which way you enter the shaded squares, either the app calls the rebus an error, or the answer in the other direction makes no sense. Broke a streak over this and am bummed, because I got the hat reference quite early on.
3
@Ed Denecke
There is no rebus. It's discussed in Deb's column and lots of comments below. The hats are spelled out.
3
It's not a rebus puzzle.
1
Late to the party today.
Really enjoyed this puzzle, a very satisfying challenge. I concentrated on the revealer so as not to pull out all my hair figuring out what the gray boxes meant. I had BOOKezRA first but that just didn’t seen right until the HATDROPped. Then the SA’FEZ’ONES fit with BOOKOFRA and there was my ‘aha’ moment.
Now if we could just get Sam to keep the super tough challenges to the XW and pull back a bit on the Bee ;)
1
@BarbJ
Very good idea to go to the revealer early!
My hat was "dropped" for a PIn--for the longest time, while I squandered away a Sunday looking for rebuses, to no avail. The SE corner was where many a "hat" was tried and discarded.
This gripe will probably reach no one - like others, I had things to do most of the day, so a late post. Seems to me, if you’re going to set up a rebus, then don’t follow through with it, where are you? With five across answers that make no sense, that’s where. As others pointed out, a rebus that doesn’t work in both directions isn’t very satisfactory either.
1
There are no rebuses in the puzzle.
2
@Barry Ancona, obviously, and replacing them with one letter to get the solve means the five across answers become nonsense.
Just read downwards from where you thought of putting the rebus. Down until you’ve completed a hat synonym. Toque, for example. Then start across again. Drop of a hat, as 108 says. No rebus, no nonsense.
2
Can someone explain CYBERHICS to me?
@CP You read down, Cyberethics, with the BERET going down before you go back up. It's the same with the other hat clues. Book oFEZra etc.
1
“Beret” and CYBERETHICS. I made the same “error” even though I still finished the puzzle. I didn’t realize the downs from the shaded squares spelled out types of hats until I read Deb’s column.
2
It was a tough one, Sam, but it's hard to find an hour on a Sunday to spend on these puzzles. Too many other commands to heed at the drop of a hat.
splendid!
1
Yes, I know the country is falling apart thanks to the NYT, but still it's annoying when the paper doesn't get delivered (always the Sunday magazine, always) so you have to do it online, and you do it, and it tells you there's one square wrong, but there isn't. WHICH ONE IS IT? WHY WON'T YOU TELL ME? My grid is exactly the same as the one on Rex Parker.
@Susanne
Hit 'check puzzle'
@Hildy Johnson
I did, but it didn't highlight what was wrong. Now I know that you weren't supposed to rebus it.
Now I also know that although I pay for 7 day/week print paper, since they consider delivering it on Saturday just a suggestion, I didn't get the Puzzlemania section yesterday either. Really READY TO CANCEL.
@Susanne - You can write to customer service and ask them to redeliver the missed section. I've done that a few times when my Sunday magazine with the puzzle goes missing, since I prefer to solve Sundays on paper.
1
Boy, did I ever misinterpret the theme before the revealer. I thought of 5-speed manuals when I read the title. When I flashed onto the trick to understanding the across themers at 27A/9D, I thought the idea was to "downshift" at the gray squares, the number of "gears" being five in the top two themers! :D Maybe because I drive a 5-speed? I did puzzle about why the downshifts were only three or four in the other themers. I did not notice the hats until I got the revealer.
Slower than recent Sundays. Finished, but no happy music. Suspected the Natick at IR_NIC/AGL_T where I had an O. Remaining problem was with LaM/aHBOY. Changed the A to an O and voila!
Loved this one! Amazing feat, Mr. Ezersky!
2
I don’t think anyone’s pointed out that this puzzle shows only black and white squares in AcrossLite (at least the version I have on my PC). The lack of gray may be one reason I was sure at first it had to be a rebus, despite the obvious disconnect between across and down entries. At length, with Mr. HP still a no-show, I took a second look at the reveal and finally saw the light. HATs off to Mr. Ezersky for an ingenious piece of cruciverbal art. It was fun matching wits with it, though I have no mental energy to spare. I'm resigned to frittering away the evening in idle amusements.
1
and Elke
Fidelio- I printed it out in Across Lite on my PC, using the toner/saver function, The 'gray' was very faint, but was there,
Did it in 26:02. A few minutes longer than average.
What confused me and added a little time, was whether in the shaded squares to put the full name of the hat (needed for the across answer) or just the first letter to fit the down
1
Am I the only one who thought of the brilliant mirror sketch with Harpo Marx and Lucille Ball and the dropped hat? I just watched it, but never know how to post a clip.
4
@suejean Here's the clip (and yes, I remembered that sketch):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79EnDc-Ucv8
..
4
@suejean That sketch is new to me even though I've been watching an "I Love Lucy" episode most evenings this autumn. Thanks, Suejean! That's a great tie in!
Here's the link: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TNm5Dax56ck
2
@Cindy in Seattle
Thanks Rich and Cindy. I hope others enjoy it as well
1
I’m really mad. I got all the answers but wrote the hats in as rebuses, even though I realized they were also going down. I couldn’t get a “finished” result and ended a three year streak!w
2
Same thing here. I did them as rebuses. and never noticed that they were in the downs.
2
This the problem with gimmicky puzzles. Particularly when done on the app.
6
@BuffCrone
I also wasted time and broke my streak looking for an error that wasn't there. The puzzle should have accepted either rebus or first letter, since either the across or the down answer is wrong either way.
5
Nice TOQUE, eh?
2
Loved this one! Figured out the trick when I got the revealer on my 2nd pass through the clues - although at first i thought the drop-down would always be HAT. I know KEPI as a (classic) spelling bee word - pretty sure it was in the booklet we studied back in the mid 70s. And I have gained familiarity with other hat names because they earn bonus points in the iOS word game app "WHIRRED" (which needs a bigger player base, so try it out word-lovers!)
Hat's off to Lawrence O'Donnell for 16D.
1
and Elke,
Michael- it's KIND of you to mention him.
Curious at the choice to tell the solver where the themed clues were through the use of the gray squares. I can't recall that having been done in the recent past, and feel like the older, trickier style of puzzle construction would require the solver to figure out where the themed answers go, unassisted.
Was this an intentional choice to make the puzzle easier?
You guys! :) If I ever need a confidence boost, I'll be sure to revisit this thread.
Much love, respect and appreciation from your friendly neighborhood King Bee (and his housemate, Nick).
P.S.: "Palp" will count in SB moving forward.
P.P.S.: I, too, waffled over the legitimacy of LEGO BLOCK for the longest time. The fun factor won out in the end.
P.P.P.S.: Next puzzle of mine will probably be a 70-word Saturday. Consider yourselves warned!
15
@Sam Ezersky
I know we could advocate a ton of words, but I promised to behave given your lovely crossword today. So a limited request:
The poor LIMA bean resents GARBANZO being accepted, and who could blame it?
And for fans of Prince, Cher, Sting, Liberace, Cantinflas MONONYM?
P.S.: We've called them LEGO blocks, bricks and as I said earlier, curse words when stepped upon or vacuumed by accident. They're all legit. (Anybody need a few thousand, while we are at it?)
P.P.S.: Thanks for the warning. I'll pass on next Saturday if I have any sanity left.
3
Technical problem for those doing the puzzle on line— I put the hat names in with the rebus function, completed the puzzle, and was still getting the message I had a mistake somewhere. I gave up and use the lifesaver tool. The highlighted “wrong” squares were the 4 hat names. When I replaced all 4 with ONLY the single initial letters that solve the “down” clues, the on line version finally recognized the puzzle as correctly solved. Grrr... why have a rebus function at all?
3
@Madeline you aren't suppose to use the rebus. The hat names drop down literally. As in "Drop of the hat".
2
@Madeline You weren't supposed to use the rebus here. The hats literally "drop" from the themed squares using the down clue, as opposed to occupying the entire square as a rebus.
2
@Madeline I did exactly the same thing!
1
UPC, the Universal Product Code, is a system of codes that assigns a unique ID and symbol to each product.
Developing the UPC took over 25 years, starting shortly after World War II and ending with announcement in 1973 of the final design. Success has many fathers, but Joe Woodland — funny, smart, and persistent and a Raleigh area resident — certainly can claim a good part of the paternity here. He was credited by IBM with the actual design, although the politics and persuasion to push it through acceptance included others as well. IBM awarded Woodland either $100,000 or $150,000 (I can’t remember which) for his contribution. It was the largest employee award at that time.
3
If that payment was in 1973 it’s the equivalent of about half to three quarters of a million today.
@ADe - My dad worked for IBM for 25 years, and would have been there at the time. But
I didn't know the UPC was developed at IBM. Cool!
Great puzzle... the SE corner was a lot easier once I gave up on FEDORA and went with FEZ.
I am so happy to see so many comments regarding this remarkably fun Sunday puzzle!
I figured it out at BERET and gleefully went to find the others. As I said, so much fun, let me say that again IN CAPS (like the themers are all wearing): SO MUCH FUN!
Thank you, Sam! (And Nick!)
8
Once I took the beret out of rebus I got along NATANTly. That’s a new one on me! Tip of the hat for a fun and easy Sunday!
3
@Amy - if anyone invites you to spend a day at the natatorium, say yes!
Totally confused through most of this puzzle: just did not see all those hats hanging there. Totally starstruck when the aha! moment came with the theme reveal.
I take my hat off to Mr. Ezersky!
6
CITALTHEME!
A
P
25
What a pleasure! Today, a think-fest, as opposed to yesterday's trivia-fest. The fact that the Downs dropped down and the Acrosses were squished into a single square made the puzzle crunchier. Crunchier, in fact, than POPCORN -- and I really enjoyed it.
And such fun hats -- TOQUE and BERET and KEPI and FEZ and TAM. Sort of a world tour, but in hats. I got the theme at CALLING IN[TO QUE]STION, then hoped that all the hats would be different. And they were. Oh joy! Because that, too, made the puzzle crunchier and much more interesting.
I got all the rebuses initially from the squished Across answers, except one. Didn't see SNA[KE PI]T right off the bat, so needed the drop-down KEPI to figure it out.
Was there a MOO MOO in "Old MacDonald". I had to sing it to myself to make sure.
I only know FETISH in the sense of something like a foot fetish, but I guess it must be some sort of African market item. Haven't looked it up yet.
And what a fabulous revealer! It was so fair, that I was able to write it in AT THE DROP OF A HAT. Terrific puzzle, Sam! Loved it.
3
A smartly dressed puzzle. A tip of the hat to Sam and Nick.
5
This was a lot of fun. The Bible clue was what gave me the trick (plus, starting at the bottom gave me the Reveal hint. Once again DHubby fails to help with the sports clue, but I got it off the P once I had MIKE nailed down. Only one of the hats was guessable just from the first letter for me...
So, our Wee Bee constructor pleases with this nice Sunday Special. Maybe now he will have time to expand his word list (snark snark) to include PALP, PALAPA, and the like..... It's a thought!
It's NOT raining here; we can see the sun!! Yay!
3
Sam is 31-A (ACES). His work is and has always been so. Thanks for the puzzle.
2
Given the theme, my favorite was In CAPS.
5
@Mary
You might say:
CITALTHEME!
A
P
ADD TO QUEUE and “Play next” are not the same. If you’re on the first song of a playlist and you ADD one TO the QUEUE, it will not “play next.”
7
True, Jim, but when I must get in a long and not clearly defined line, when somebody says they are the end of the line, I step behind them and reply "I guess I'm next."
2
Quick nitpick: is clue 107D properly posed, grammatically speaking? I keep going back to it wondering what is being bowed.
4
Agreed. “Gifts for which ones usually bows when receiving,” perhaps?
2
@Dr W, "bow" is an intransitive verb (i.e., one bows to receive a ___) but the lack of grammatical clarity here is part of the misdirection. I too wondered for a while whether 107D might be the direct object of "bow."
2
It’s generally necessary to bow one’s head for a lei to be placed around one’s neck. A short presenter would probably require bowing some at the waist.
Rereading the filled puzzle after finishing it my eye hit the clue 91A and got me a good laugh.
Big surprise: only two lookups -- I'm not a Cather reader and know Greek geography even less. The other unknowns filled naturally.
Missed opportunity for Will: cluing 65A as "chopped liver".
Interesting associations: the hats associated with clues, specifically 83A and 89A. I kept hoping for Indiana Jones' fedora there. Nope.
Puzzle assessment: Yikes!! Good workout.
2
GARYCARTER before MIKEPIAZZA. A little knowledge is a dangerous thing.
3
@Magpie Gary Carter was in the 80's. As a Mets fan, this was the easiest clue for me.
1
John, As an Expos fan, Gary Carter will always be an Expo!
3
@Andrew
Yes, Andrew.
Whenever I see a Sam Ezersky puzzle, I settle in with a mix of trepidation and excitement. His puzzles are always challenging, but frequently put my streaks at risk. Today's puzzle definitely fit that bill. It took me a while to figure out the theme, but that didn't stop me from feeling in much of the grid. It wasn't until I was about 3/4 finished that I started to hunt for the theme in earnest. This was a fun puzzle to solve, and kept me and gauged the entire time. Perfect for a rainy Northeast Winter morning.
2
@Steve Faiella I really need to be sure that I proofread before hitting submit, especially when using voice recognition. :(
2
@Steve Faiella
You dictate your posts?
I entered MONACO before MALAWI, mistakenly thinking that Nebraska might be NA.
Andrew,
That one's ON you.
2
I signed up for the crossword subscription today for 38 cents per week paid annually but can’t access the crossword, what to I do to get access?
1
@L KENNEDY did you login when you got to the puzzle page after you created your account? There is a small box in the upper right hand corner where you will see the word login if you have not logged in yet. If you have already logged in, that box will say account, and if you click it, it will show you information about your account.
@L KENNEDY
Sorry to hear you're having trouble. Assuming you'd logged in, and depending on how you got the subscription, there may be some other stuff you need to do like connect the subscription to the login or something like that - I don't recall having to do myself but that was years ago.
Here's the help page for the crosswords - maybe something in there might help:
https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014755667-New-York-Times-Crossword
Deb might have better information on what to do when she gets on later.
1
@L KENNEDY Sorry you're having trouble! Please write to [email protected] for technical help.
Well, I did say I was looking forward to a themed puzzle as the themes usually help, and this was just that, eventually. I wasn't quite getting how those circles were to be used but didn't think it was a rebus. When I got enough downs to get the reveal and glanced back at those entries those HATS all figuratively jumped out at me. (I really wanted to say literally, but I know what sticklers you all are for accuracy). In any event it was a really great AHA! moment and helped me to understand what I had already filled in and finish off the rest.
Terrific Sunday puzzle!
6
@suejean
Also needed the reveal to figure out the theme which I really enjoyed. I was bowl-er-ed over in fun.
2
Don't know where else to put this.. Was anyone else who is a digital subscriber disappointed that at least parts of puzzlemania were not made available to us who pay extra for the crosswords?
Will's letter a few weeks back about the "A Place in the Alphabet" sentence contest which is part of puzzlemania didn't mention that this feature would be only in the print edition. For those of us living outside the NY metro area obtaining a print copy of the Times without advance warning is not easy.
3
@Margaret Campbell
Is any of PuzzleMania available to us? and if so, where should I look? (Deb?)
@Mean Old Lady I recall from last year that you need to buy a paper copy. I dispatched the hubby to do so, so college boy and I can snuggle up with puzzles over the holidays.
Here in rural Vermont one does not simply go out and get a print copy of the Times. One would think that a printable image would be possible a la Split Decisions (my favorite!) puzzles.
1
I thought this was a very clever idea and the reveal was excellent. I just thought it was a little thin on theme material. Five theme answers and, beyond the very nice 27a, two of the remaining four are WHATAMI and SNAKEPIT. Even more than that - ignoring the drop down part, the 'across' portion of four of the five theme answers are occupying 5, 5, 7 and 7 letter segments. Just doesn't seem like much for a Sunday.
Of course I also struggled with this (as always), and maybe the fact that I got up at FOURAM didn't help.
That was my take on it, but I'll defer to the majority.
Really liked the puzzle — like others, figured out the theme faster than usual.
One thing bugged me in the cluing. I think of “at the drop of a hat” as a comment on frequency/regularity, not immediacy.
@GreenGirl NYC
All dictionaries I checked define the phrase as "without hesitation or delay." No reference to frequency, which brings to mind "like clockwork."
2
@GreenGirl NYC - How often do you drop your hat? I think the meaning comes from the fact that when you drop your hat, you immediately stoop to retrieve it. It's not about dropping your hat with regularity.
Help. I got all the hats, etc., but am I entering them incorrectly? That is, I have simply inserted the hat name where appropriate. What am I doing wrong. Lovely puzzle, btw.
@Chris Gibbs. The hat names go down beginning with the shaded squares. There are no rebuses. Anyone looking over your shoulder would think you were filling in gibberish for the across phrases where there are shaded squares.
1
@Puzzlemucker, got it. Thanks. (Sound of head slap!)
1
@Chris Gibbs. You’re way ahead of me. I completed the puzzle without seeing the hat names. I thought the “hat” in the revealer was a visual in the grid that I could not quite make out.
A tip of the TOQUE to Sam Ezersky for this entertaining Sunday puzzle with a crafty Thursday twist.
The fact that PIUS III supported the House of Borgia, however, may well be the most trivial bit of trivia ever.
1
Re Spelling Bee - what on earth is going on with the word list? “Palp” not on the there? Spelling Bee is turning into Wack-A-Mole
7
@Paul Stratford
It's not palp-able!
@Paul Stratford
It's omission is doubly odd since the other technical term beginning with a P was accepted.
This was a very clever and tight theme, and involved arranging types of hats that work equally well in two phrases and arranging them so they fit just right in a symmetrical grid. That is impressive, but more importantly, as I stress often (and as Sam mentioned in his notes), how was the solve?
Special for me. At first, the puzzle fought me hard, mainly due to clues that could legitimately have several answers, so their answers couldn't be filled in right away. But I chipped away, first at the periphery, then working my way in. The reveal appeared and the first theme answer (the FEZ phrases), and that did it -- I was totally charmed and enchanted, eager to figure out the other theme answers with as little filled in as possible, and that was so much fun, the puzzle ended up to be like some books, tv shows, and movies I've seen: I was sad when it was over. Being won over by a puzzle always makes me forgiving of nitpicks and keeps my thumb pointing way up.
Sam, IMO, you whipped uP AN AMAzing puzzle and deserve epiC APplause!
19
Deb, minor typo - "No, we wrote in the mysterious CALLINGTSTION," should be "No, we wrote in the mysterious CALLINGINTSTION,"
Gorgeous puzzle, Sam! Got the clever clever trick early on but thought the shaded squares were rebi and the app was at fault. D'oh.
3
audreylm,
I hope you saw -- or will see -- the replies Rich (in Atlanta) and I made to your last comment on yesterday's parachute thread. Salute.
@Barry Ancona I did. Appreciated it.
QB
52/207 1 Pangram, no bingo
A - 8 - 2x4, 3x5, 1x6, 2x7
F - 18 - 7x4, 3x5, 5x6, 3x8
I - 3 - 1x4, 1x5, 1x6
L - 7 - 4x4, 2x5, 1x6
M - 5 - 3x4, 2x6
P - 11 - 5x4, 3x5, 1x6, 2x7
Y - 0
Stay close to those you love this Sunday and don't take any wooden nickels!
10
QB today is 52 / 207, 1 pangram, no bingo.
Tot. 4 5 6 7 8
A 8 2 3 1 2 -
F 18 7 3 5 - 3
I 3 1 1 1 - -
L 7 4 2 1 - -
M 5 3 - 2 - -
P 11 5 3 1 2 -
Y - - - - - -
Standard Bee fare today. Lots of -Y words.
Just one compound - although there is an entry comprised of two ‘words’ that *aren’t* accepted. Does that count?
The last one to fall for me was an animal that may be better known as something else...
7
Might it be said that anyone who strives for but fails to achieve Queen Bee status has met, or perhaps missed, his or her WALLAROO?
7
@Scott. Thanks. I was a 4 letter word away and did not feel like torturing myself. Chart got me to isolate in two seconds.
I’ve complained about the omissions of this letter set very recently. Since Sam gave us such a lovely crossword today, I’m going to stlfle myself!
1
Thank you, @Scott and @BarbJ for posting info.
Didn't get the animal that may be better known as something else.
I started keeping track of plurals (still need to suss out other plurals in SB history other than those from the other day). I don't see any in today's puzzle. Does anybody?
Yesterday's new words:
ALLOW
WALLAROO
WALLOW
WARLORD
WORKLOAD
WORLD
2
Great puzzle! I solved the entire thing without noticing that the hat names we’re actually spelled out in down clues! I thought “dropped hats” simply meant that the letters were dropped entirely! I only got it by reading the post (sigh).
I feel so dorky for not seeing that very obvious result! I hate when that happens!
Still, kudos on using “toque”. It’s such an excellent word, which doesn’t get used too much since not many people wear them anymore—except for chefs I guess.
2
@Ms. Cat
We also have a restaurant in NYC named "Toqueville".
@Ms. Cat
Louise Penny has her characters wear them all the time, but spelt TUQUE.
2
@Ms. Cat I also got all the crossings and never noticed the hats or title.
Have to be a TCM film fan to get “Lom”.
Quotidian—- how many parts to a show - 13 ?
Anyone? aglit—- hmm.
Challenging as usual for Sunday.
Best
@Dry Socket
At the risk of stealing from Wen, you only have to be a Pink Panther fan to know Herbert Lom. As straight man to Peter Sellers, he was a blast!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoHc6qerUh0
1
@Liane
Thank you for the Peter Sellers link.
@Liane
Thank you again for Peter sellers. I have been watching video after video.
and Elke
Was I ever glad to see the lighter gray squares-even with the toner saver function on.The title ('Top Gear') and the first group helped.
There was a Canadian theme- MOUNTIE and BUNDLE UP meant that TOQUE (alternate spelling TuQUE ) was the required headgear. TOQUES here are knitted caps.
BERET was tougher to dissect than TAM.
Observation re LEIS - whether or not the recipient has to bow depends on her size relative to the donor....
Locally some ornamental KOI , kept in a small man-made pond, not connected to any natural waters, became victims of a very wily river otter. How it got into the pond and his escapes from baited traps were news items for several days. PS- the otter did not look cute at all. Nothing like those sea otters.
Now to take care of my hat hair-result of earlier head covered with
brimmed hat.
Sam (and Nick )- this clever puzzle makes up for recent SB toughies. Keep up the collaboration- You may collude.
4
Brilliant theme (“GOOD IDEA” per previous poster) and brilliantly constructed/executed. It’s puzzles like these that utilize the crossword format so well that keep me coming back. (The “roundabout” puzzle a couple Thursdays ago was similarly inspired.) Bravo!
3
I started my subscription last month and have been working my way back through previous puzzles. This morning I did Friday Nov 24, 2017, which happens to have the theme AT THE DROP OF A HAT.
4
Hi there - newbie poster here -
57A clued “much sales” for “retail”? Feels like bad grammar. “many sales” perhaps?
And agree with earlier comment that UPCs are codes, not IDs.
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@D Nelson "many" or "much" may depend on whether the "sales" are discrete events or aggregate amounts as in national income accounts.
UPC's are indeed codes, in name at least. But if there is a 1-1 correspondence between a UPC and an item, as appears to be the case, then the UPC is like a catalog number which is an ID of sorts.
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@Backup
Also depends on what kind of a neighborhood. you grew up in and learned to talk.
I'M EASY -- puzzle not so much. clever pairing of HATs and MITTENs!
FEZzes are cool!
Maybe sometime this season KEPIs, BERETs or TOQUEs will be cool too. (Especially for you, Deb, and you know Whovians.)
A most excellent Sunday treat (enjoyed on Saturday night, yes, after a couple of glasses of wine). Felt like the most on point Sunday in a while, challenge and time wise, right on the mark. Clever, challenging in spots. and fun at the finish and slightly after as the hats were spotted.
Well done Sam and Nick. I'll even forgive you for the Killer Bee now or at least forget it.
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Loved it! Just wanted to note that the iOS app (specifically on an iPhone XS running iOS version 12.1.1 and Crosswords app version 2.17) did not accept the full rebus answers in the special squares, but did acknowledge a correct solve when I replaced them with just the leading letters. Or, possibly, I don’t know how to spell my hats. Thank you!
There was no rebus. Read Deb's post.
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No rebus today. The hats are dropped. Very clever!
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@Sendhil
Glad that I'm not the only one to go through the whole puzzle using rebuses.
And, BTW, same experience with AcrossLite.
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OH BOY, that was pretty fun. As usual I keep forgetting to check the title of the puzzle, but in today's case, it wouldn't have helped.
Finished pretty quickly, despite, in earlier passes, not trying to suss out entries - if it wasn't a gimme, I moved on. So it wasn't until after a couple of passes that I started to get foothold.
I learned about AGLET courtesy of watching Phineas and Ferb with my kids: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7BPMZp5QYNE
Like others, I caught onto the theme gimmick at CYBHICS/BERETTA and CALLINGINTSTION/ADD TO QUEUE. It was a GOOD IDEA.
UPCS are codes, not IDs. Difference mainly is that IDs tend to be unique and codes are shorthand for a whole category/class of the same thing. But that's just pedantry. Sometimes we allow for imprecision and vagueness, in cluing, but still good to point out when it's a little off.
Whenever EIDER shows up, puns relating to it shows up in comments. Sure enough, 6 comments in, @Andrew was inexorably pulled into that blackhole.
Other observations:
MALAWI crossing GHANA, SEMIS crossing EIGHT NOTES, MISS M and EMS, NAH, I'M EASY, I PASS, I'M SPENT....then IN A COMA.
I keep looking at CYBHICS and keep thinking CYBER HICKS. Would they be the Internet trolls?
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@Wen
"@Andrew was inexorably pulled into that blackhole."
As a much more recent presence on this forum than most of you, I should have realized by now that anything that I think might be new has probably been done to death here already. My apologies.
@Andrew
That wasn't meant as a criticism. Just an observation. :)
I've only been posting for last 2 years. You started not too much later after that, I think, so not really "much more recent"
EIDER just happens to be ripe fodder for the punning punners who like to pun.
@Wen and @Andrew, as an even more recent commenter, I enjoyed the pun and it made me think of a potential crossword theme, in which the orientation of an answer is part of the answer. Consider the following:
XX-Down - Animated film featuring Garfunkel's "Bright Eyes" (1979) (nine letters)
XY-Down - Zimmer-scored film set in Mogadishu (2001) (nine letters)
YZ-Across - Fab Four-tribute romance (2007) (eleven letters)
ZX-Across - Womack classic song and movie of the same name (1972) (eleven letters/numbers)
1
O’Neil and LEGO’s lock stumped me. It yielded IS AFT and that seemed ok to to me. Took me a while to get MHP.
@Ken (formerly Upstate Kenny)
O'NEIL was a problem for me too, but at least it had fewer letters than MIKE PIAZZA.
I just resign myself to the inevitability of sports references, and to the fact that I will never remember them from one puzzle to the other. Maybe it's because they are just floating out there in puzzle-space, and I don't have a face or a voice to put to them.
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@Deadline
Both you and Ken are referring to O'NEIL rather than O'NEAL. I assume that this is a typo as IBAFT would be even stranger than ABAFT.
@Andrew
No need to be so STERN.
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Minor quibble that delayed me. Lego calls their pieces “bricks”, not “blocks”. Sometimes one can have too much trivia knowledge.
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@Larry. I had LEGO BRICKS first.
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@Larry.
Legos are properly called !**#*! - at least after you step on one. Or have to rip apart a vacuum bag to retrieve a precious one.
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The only thing after II Chronicles in my Bible and those of millions of others is the back cover.
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@Steve L
I'm curious. Which version of the Bible do you have?
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@Peter Jackel
The original one.
1
The one where the back cover is on the top.
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Pure genius. Just hard enough, even after figuring out the theme early.
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Killer crossing at 40A and 17D. Still not sure about CYBERHICS, but it got me the happy music and after the fact I recalled that Irene means “peace.” Enjoyed the theme/gimmick. Want to read comments to learn what cyberhics are all about...
“Cyber ethics” with “beret” as the hat in the down slot
@Puzzlemucker the “B” in CYBERHICS is actually the first letter of the name of a hat (of sorts)… think Left Bank
Thanks Larry. I thought maybe cyberhics were rural Russian hackers or bumps along the cyber highway (as in hiccups). Glad to know that I’m just dense, not completely ignorant of modern techno-slang.
Has anyone ever said "I'm spent" when meaning "Watta day"? Ever?
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@GreaterMetropolitanArea, only after finishing some Sat and Sun crosswords .... (grin)
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Check this out for someone who has:
https://youtu.be/fGpQZ5wMDw4
@GreaterMetropolitanArea: I worked for someone who said it frequently and I picked it up and now use it occasionally, usually when the day has been unusually rough (every day is rough).
Love the illustrative photo. At first I thought it was Monopoly pieces!
Nice crediting of the partially credited, but now almost famous, housemate Nick! Nick, what did you think of Deb's efforts to include you?
How was the decision made to shade the rebus squares? Better without.
I had SHELL pink first.
"Kepi" was new to me, but I figured it out anyway. Shades of Yiddish--enjoyed that.
Misspelled "Beretta" at first due to TV show title (viz. Dukes of Hazzard, et al.) and didn't know it was a person's name. Learned!
Heart sank when I saw that one of the major players was the name of a sports person...ugggh. But managed.
Side benefit was being happily reminded of the brilliant, hilarious Flanders and Swann's "At the Drop of a Hat" and "At the Drop of Another Hat"...saw them onstage once and remember it well...nearly wore out the LPs, but still have 'em. Maybe I'll take another listen soon. The comedy of that era is still funny. Not edgy, but I've had enough edge for a while. Sometimes it feels as if it's all edge these days, y'know.
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@GreaterMetropolitanArea
Here's one of my favorites:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjnOj9O16_I&list=PL21R3B8VIGNrP9vJiENdU_GHKJv_cM0mx&index=6
(You thought it was going to be "The Gnu," didn't you.)
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@GreaterMetropolitanArea
If you can't have a sports person, then surely you can't have a rap, hip hop performer, or an opera singer, or a film star (I have long since stopped watching movies, say I who was enthralled by movies for the first 50years of my life), or countless others. There will always be a category of answer that someone is not conversant with.
4
Wasted too much time filling in rebuses, scanning for whatever error was preventing me from getting the all clear, then de-rebusing - but other than that glitch, a smooth Sunday with just enough grit to make it challenging. Nicely done.
9
@Hildy Johnson Same here. I filled as one directional rebuses, then spent wasted time scanning and scanning, then realized the "hats" were hanging down in the middle. Sigh.
3
I surprised myself by figuring out the theme fairly early on, with BERETTA and CYBHICS. Although it was then a little disorienting to try to read the Across answers cleanly and make sure the letters were in the right places.
The pope I was trying to think of was Alexander IV, not PIUS III, but I couldn't remember his name and he was the wrong one anyway (but he was a Borgia).
Everything filled pretty smoothly except the SW corner. I couldn't think of MIKE PIAZZA's last name and I'M SPENT did not come readily to mind. Figuring out MOO MOO and PONZI were the keys here for me.
@Liz B
MIKE PIAZZA and all of his surroundings slowed me down quite a bit since I'd never heard of him. In fact, the last themer that I got was SNA[KE PI]T, and I did get it from figuring out that the baseball guy's first name was probably MIKE.
Very clever theme and enjoyable solve. I caught on about half way through, but I got both CALL INTO QUESTION and CYBERETHICS without even realizing there were hidden hats. I was still thinking that "top gear" would be referring to some sort of driving reference.
87 across was EIDER. Would have preferred to see EIDER down. (groan...)
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@Andrew, I had the same experience -- I figured out the detouring answers first and only saw the hats after I solved the revealer. I didn't even notice the theme "Top Gear" until you referenced it just now, although I doubt it would have been of any help to me.
@HenrySu. I finished the puzzle but did not see the hats until after I read Deb’s column. When I solved the revealer I thought the hat was a visual in the grid that I just couldn’t see. Dare I say it? My hat’s off to Mr. Ezersky for a very impressive puzzle.
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@Puzzlemucker, nice! Clearly today's puzzle had many solvers wondering what the gimmick was---rebuses, a visual theme, etc. I also appreciate the ingenuity; kind of like David Kahn's BO(HEMI)AN RH(APSO)DY, it involves extracting types of hats from carefully chosen answer pairs (e.g., CY(BERET)HICS and (BERET)TA).
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Whew. This was a tough one. I probably should have scanned for the revealer before tackling the puzzle but I didn't. Part of the fun for me is being puzzled as I make my way through the grid, and then figuring it out either on my own or with from the revealer. Today it was a combination of both. I knew 40A had to be CYBERETHICS and happened to see how the answer dropped down at 41D. I then got the theme and recognized (some of) the hats when I answered the revealer. Pretty clever -- kudos to Mr. Ezersky and his roommate Nick, as well as Mr. Shortz's editorial talents.
Regarding the rest of the grid, some of the quadrants (e.g., NW and NE -- I do know AGLET!) were completed more easily than others. I was left with the SE, where (like @Deadline) SIDES instead of SODAS, MOO MOO instead of MOOS, and some dastardly cluing ("Like TV but not radio?" and "Notable schemer") threatened to leave me with a bunch of naticks. I sorely wanted Google to help me with MIKE PIAZZA (sorry I just don't know baseball) but forbore and ultimately figured it all out.
Finally, I loved the refreshing use of a different sense of FETISH. I had to rely on the crosses for that one. (I had CAT before KOI at 112A.)
Edit -- "I was left with the SW, where (like @Deadline) SODAS instead of SIDES, ..."
@Henry Su
I was stuck with FRIES before SODAS because up here we call them soft drinks.
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@Andrew, yes, indeed SODAS is one of those terms subject to regional variations in the US (e.g., pop). Tennis shoes or sneakers is another example.
Very clever; too clever for me, in fact. I was stunned when the "All done!" music started to play, looked hard to discover why the weird fills were accepted, and finally came here in hopes of clarity. what would I do without Wordplay!
4
I feel really, really dumb.
Well, maybe only one really.
I caught on to the HATs quickly, with CALLING IN[TO QUE]STION and CY[BER ET]HICS. But I didn't notice that the HATs were spelled out in full leading down from the circled squares. So I dutifully entered the HATs as rebuses, and felt some disappointment that each rebus worked only one way.
Even when I got down to the bottom and the revealer, the penny didn't ... er ... DROP.
When MHP didn't appear, and I couldn't find an error, I asked Ms. Check and was quite startled when she had Xed out all my lovely rebuses. In the past, AL has accepted *either* a full rebus *or* the first letter, but now it was accepted only the latter??? Boo! Hiss!
Then I came to Wordplay and Deb explained that the HATs had been DROPped. D'uh. Unboo. Unhiss.
Other than that major catastrophe, I found the puzzle pretty easy going. Only real pause was 89A. The only HAT I could think of that began with an F was "fedora," and I was pretty sure there was no BOOK O[F EDORA]RA.
Also SIDES before SODAS.
[Babe]/SWEETIE is borderline icky.
Anyway, this was enjoyable.
And, since I definitely *am* a HAT person, I tip mine to Sam (and his housemate Nick) and all concerned.
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I vaguely recall seeing a photo of you and Barry when you met up in the city a couple of years ago and you were wearing a hat, I think resembling one that might have been made using a mold similar to those in the photo.
@Wen
I have a variety of hats. The forms in the photo, though, look as if they are for hats that are not as flexible as I prefer.
But I definitely like brims. Keeps the nasty old sun out of my eyes.
@Deadline
Brims are good umbrella substitutes.
(for thin people....)
1
Ha, I was fooled by the first two hats, thinking I had to squeeze them into little hat boxes, but then the crossing answers showed the right way out.
So glad to see Willa Cather in there, she's one of my very favorite authors, and "My Ántonia" is such a beautiful book. "Death Comes for the Archbishop" is the one I keep coming back to, and "Lucy Gayheart."
Moss green and coral pink...an interesting color scheme. Teal is the actual complementary color for coral. Preppy.
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@David Connell
Challenge for a puzzle maker: Get the full title of Death Comes for the Archbishop into the grid and make David happy!
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@GreaterMetropolitanArea - I can't imagine how it could fit! hee hee
Seriously - I love how her books - and Louise Erdrich's - keep going past the demise of their main characters. There's something very true in that kind of story-telling.
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@David Connell
My favorite is "The Professor's House".
There is a Pulitzer Prize winning biography of the real life character that "Death Comes for the Archbishop" is based on. It is "Lamy of Santa Fe" by Paul Horgan, and I think it might interest you.