Nothing is hard to solve
Trump oughta like this puzzle. (Even though I doubt he could solve it.)
14
I’m with those who are starving the “Ego-in-Chief” of oxygen - - and I plan to continue doing that until it’s time to VOTE!! It’s MUCh more sane inside my cocoon - which does not permit permeation by anything to do with “He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named”.
The northwest corner was the toughest nut for me to crack in this puzzle. I hadn’t tripped onto the theme yet, I don’t wear makeup and I haven’t read “Cat’s Cradle” - nor have I ever spoken French when I ski. Poor me!!
1
Lotsa fun and i solved it in less time than usual. Am i smarter in the New Year? Um yea, not likely.
1
It took a while to get this, but once I got the point ("Wolf of | Street"), it fell together quickly. I loved the clue about '60s hits. Proud to get it completely correct without looking anything up.
4
I loved today’s puzzle, mostly because the impossible Lora Leigh and her ilk could be gained from the crosses or crafty guesses. For me the wall fell when General Jackson appeared.
While Kurt Vonnegut’s works never spoke to me, I am quite fond of his son, Mark Vonnegut, and his writing. He was a pediatrician for children in my extended family when I was filling in as the caregiver, but — better — he wrote “Just Like Someone Without Mental Illness Only More So: A Memoir.” One of my favorites.
I share the admiration of Mark Vonnegut’s writing. I may be misremembering but I recall an essay in Earth magazine on his draft physical - very off center - that has stuck with me all these years later.
2
Can't say I particularly enjoyed this one. Took me to look up quite a few answers before I got the theme.
But what irks me the most about it, as someone born in Belfast, is 13D.
Please do not attempt to legitimise the IRA as "an organisation". They were a paramilitary group whose actions were linked to various political parties. They were domestic terrorists. And they absolutely did not support the GFA. Their decommissioning of weapons as a result was extremely begrudging at best. This is why we wound up with splinter groups from them after the agreement was passed, who carried on their... ahem... "work".
10
I am neither Irish nor an expert on “The Troubles,” but the IRA being “supporter” of the agreement rang atonally in the back of my head. Thanks for the background.
6
This may possibly be my first time figuring out the Thursday gimmick without looking at the solve hints column. I first thought of "WALL" as a rebus, but could not make that work.
Reasonable people can disagree on whether this puzzle is apolitical, but it would fall on deaf ears anyway since the "butt of the joke" would never bother trying fill in anything that requires more than 140 characters.
32A was completely NOT in my wheelhouse since I am not a consumer of romance novels, erotic or otherwise. I had the "L" and the "R" and surmised "Lori Leigh." A Google search confirmed the existence an author so-named in the specified genre. I suppose it was dense of me not to recognize "SIFE" was incorrect for 29D, but I filled that completely with the across words and probably never read the clue.
Perhaps a romance connoisseur can tell me if "Lora Leigh" and "Lori Leigh" are the same person, or if there are two authors with one letter shy of the exact same name in the same genre.
And greetings to all from the birthplace of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.!
4
I enjoyed the puzzle. Didn't get the wall theme until almost the end. I didn't see it as political, and I hope that politics will leave my favorite crossword puzzle alone.
2
The NYT Crossword is apolitical? Ha.
4
I saw the "wall" immediately. Wow -- two puzzles in one! I passed on the top themer and entered WOLFOF...WALLST (Thanks to my wife!) for the second. STONE(WALL) JACKSON illicited that Aha! moment and I quickly corrected the middle themer and filled in the first.
I've made other comments elsewhere, so I'll wrap up. Love these types of puzzles! A nice follow-on to yesterday's clever offer.
After the deadline, please explain 25 Down.
@Sam Baker Theresa May is the Prime Minister of Britain. Or more accurately, the United Kingdom.
..
@Sam Baker
Theresa May is the PM of the UK.
1
@Rich in Atlanta
You beat me to it!
Are there any site stats comparing the number of us pikers who solve with autocheck enabled compared with who take the run without a crutch?
For this rookie autocheck is the difference between great fun and not-worth-it.
2
@gc
Some of us started before autocheck came around, and others like the challenge of solving with as little help as we can. There's a huge variety of ways to work at the puzzle, and whichever way you choose to do so is acceptable.
I never use autocheck or reveal, but that's just me. I will, on the other hand, use Google or IMDB to look up things that are not in my "wheelhouse", like actors, some authors, and a variety of other items when I can't get them from the crosses.
7
Thanks, JayTee. I'm hoping Ms Amien may have some numbers she's allowed to share.
1
@gc, just a note -- if you are ever trying to maintain a streak of successfully solving puzzles, using autocheck or reveal will break that streak, whereas looking something up on the internet will not. First and foremost, however, you should do whatever makes crosswords fun for you. If you're not enjoying the solve, then what's the point?
7
For once, I actually "got" the theme, as opposed to managing to fill the squares but not understanding why some of the answers were right until I read Deb's column. I would have gotten it a lot sooner, though, if I hadn't outsmarted myself by assuming that the use of the name "First Battle of Bull Run" (rather than "First Battle of Manassas") indicated that the Union commander was the one being looked for.
2
@Becky Wall
At the risk of sounding tiresome, I wondered whether your name gave you an unfair advantage today. :-)
6
@Andrew
It probably should have, but, alas, it did not!
1
A great concept! I was slow-moving for quite a while, but once STONEwallJACKSON made sense, a lot else did and it was a good, challenging ride right to the end -- with PUP/PEN. PUG was the better answer; and PEN?? I just felt that was a poor clue. Ah well, another day, another dither...
1
@William R Exactly the place and answers that I was left with at the end. I liked PUG much better myself.
@Lawdad I'm glad we see eye to eye on that!
@William R, I agree with you both. PUG was my guess, and the clue "Boardom?" made absolutely no sense to me. Bad clue, IMO.
Wow, "Boardom?" completely escaped me. Otherwise my only wish was that more of the horizontals had been wall-oriented (or =adjacent).
2
Neat puzzle -- my first reaction to the grid was -- why are we getting two halves? (Like I always complain when I see "half-and-half" at a coffee shop counter -- why can't they just call it "one"?)
Anyway! Had to do three look ups -- the Vonnegut opus reference, the film, and the cosmetics person. Then had three wrong starts -- BURETTE, FREESLOT and ASEPTIC.
Thoughts rambled over to the Frost poem about a mending wall, and if Tim Polin could have used "Wall-E" or wall-eyed pike.....
Got to thinking is "exoderm" redundant? Nah. But "derm" is a wall.
1
DEB,
Does the use of emojis (non-mean of course) cause a person’s comment here to be rejected or to slow down its posting?
Thanks!
@David Scott Pearce
I've tried once to post something with an emoji. It was rejected. It was pretty innocuous too, so I've never tried to post anything with an emoji since then.
But, I was inspired to do so because I saw someone had posted a comment with an emoji, so it must be doable?
1
@David Scott Pearce As far as I know, it’s not possible. And, as you all know, I’ve NEVER been wrong before. :)
2
@Deb Amlen
I now recall the emoji that I'd seen someone post previously - it was the peace symbol. ☮
And it was only a few months ago.
1
In respect of the fill for 9D, I first refer to this item:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scram
so as to point out here that there is an alternative meaning of the acronym SCRAM, as follows:
A story associated with Enrico Fermi's development and initiation of the first working nuclear reactor in 1942 in Chicago had to do with the control rods hanging by ropes from the ceiling above vertical holes drilled through the reactor body to be inserted (i.e. dropped) rapidly into those holes in case the reactor showed signs of running out of control. A staff member stood by on a nearby elevated platform with a sharp ax ready to cut the ropes holding the suspended rods aloft when signaled to do so. He was the designated the Safety Control Rod Ax Man.
(No ,,,.. I didn't make this up.)
5
Dr W,
Just to be clear, while the "nuclear" SCRAM may be an acronym, the earlier, non-nuclear scram is not.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/scram
1
@Barry Ancona
Was there an earlier one? As far as I know it really started as an acronym.
Unless we hava an anachronism going.
@Dr W
May I inquire what SCRAM in either a nuclear or non-nuclear sense has to do with 9D, the clue of which is "Lumberjack" and the answer of which is AXMAN?
good one. haven't thot about ice nine in years. but some weird stuff sticks back there in the pile and comes in handy one day.
2
Busy day today, so I couldn’t finish the puzzle until now, but want to mention that “Ice Nine” is the name of the Grateful Dead’s music-publishing company.
1
This one was just ok. Re: the wall theme, my ‘ahas’ weren’t a lot of fun. As a former ballet dancer, the term “chasse” doesn’t work. Other than that, the clues seemed a bit ‘tricky.’ Ah well, the sun’ll come out tomorrow!
@Peter Fitzgerald Adams - I'm sincerely asking the question, as someone who played for ballet classes for years and was a partner of a ballet instructor - exactly how do you mean "chasséd" doesn't correspond to "glided"? How does it not work? I'm curious about that.
3
@Peter Fitzgerald Adams As a sister of a former ballet dancer, I questioned it too. But it is kind of a glide, with maybe a small hop, no?
Just following up on the question once raised, I find this in my best French dictionary:
Chassé II.− Subst. masc. [Correspond à chasser2] Pas de danse au cours duquel une jambe glisse sur le côté, bientôt rejointe par l'autre jambe qui prend sa place.
"glisse" = "glides"
Perhaps the objection was to using the step's name as an English verb? There's a long history of those usages in describing dance (pirouetted, for example).
Really quite simple for a Thursday once STONEwallJACKSON leapt into place. Nonetheless, the NE stumped me for the longest time, thanks to ERNO Laszlo, whose cosmetics haven't appeared in this house, and LORA Leigh (American siren?) whose work has escaped me, plus I didn't remember ICENINE and had RESENTS instead of DETESTS for the longest time. Still, all in all, this was a wall worth building.
2
Love the wall idea! It’s “great” [lol] and topical without being overtly ideological.
2
STONE(wall) JACKSON was the “aha it’s a wall” moment. That made WOLF OF (Wall) STREET visible.
There was quite a lot of difficult fill in this puzzle. ICENINE was slow to crystallize, and GLIDED was a guess. HASIDIM, PMS, and EMOTER came from crosses. Had TUSSLE before RASSLE and held on too long.
Glad I was able to get to it earlier in the day than usual, I don’t think my afternoon brain could have finished it. Tough one.
:-/
5
Car before LSD. I guess that's just how I roll. But counting up the songs that come readily to my mind cars out pace LSD, by many lengths. Little Nash Rambler. GTO. Little Deuce Coupe. Deadman's Curve. Little Old Lady from Pasadena. Fun Fun Fun. Baby you can Drive my Car. Mustang Sally (well, not really, but OK) On the Road Again... vs Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds. (Maybe) Pusherman. ummmmmmm, jeepers.... what else..... I think there's one more..... If the answer was 'drugs' it'd be a different story... [insert smiley face here]
1
K Barrett,
SEX.
2
@Barry Ancona Keyboard alert!! LOL!!
@K Barrett war before lsd
3
Hi all,
I've been told that the comments are getting a little heated here, so I'm popping to to remind everyone about the rules of civility that are in place when it comes to commenting on the New York Times website.
Here they are, for your delectation: https://help.nytimes.com/hc/en-us/articles/115014792387-Comments
In plain words, if you like something about the puzzle, fine. If you don't like something about the puzzle, also fine. Out with it.
But put it in words that do not stoop to name-calling, insulting me, The Times, or other commenters who disagree with you. We are all better than that.
And while I'm here, just so everyone understands: If you submit a comment that is civil but contains mild swear words, even just for emphasis, they will be deleted. Yes, we are all grownups here, but them's the rules. And it's why you might not see your comment published.
29
@Deb Amlen
How far in advance are you supplied the puzzle, and how far in advance do you prepare the accompanying column?
@Deb Amlen - I'm curious to know whether your post was prompted by what we're seeing
or
by what we're not seeing?
Back in grade school I was fascinated by the idea that a roomful of priests was secluded away, reading and then deciding which books we wouldn't be allowed to read...
index librorum prohibitorum
2
@Deb Amlen
Thanks, Boss. Will do.
2
Now that's a wall I can support! Saw the grid design and wondered, but it wasn't until THE WOLF OF STREET that I got it, and I already had DESKTOP PAPER but didn't think about it. Hand up for 'yum' and tuSSLE; in fact ENSURES was one of the last to fall. The absolute last was PMS for May and others (a great clue). My favorite has to be LECARRE! Gave me a Smile-y.
11
So sometimes the wall is a wall. And sometimes the wall is not a wall. And only the constructor knows for sure.
Is this a spoof of what Trump is planning to build on the Southern border? (Assuming he gets his $5 billion, which I sure hope he doesn't.) If so, it's going to be one very peculiar wall.
At any rate, this is one weird puzzle. It will be interesting to see what everyone else thinks. I'll go back now to see. And while I do, I'll check on whether or not I Naticked on the ICENI?E/ER?O cross. I was so uninterested in the identity of that letter that I forgot to look.
@Nancy Judging from the number of Vonnegut fans who comment here, I'd guess that a fair number of solvers would have considered ICENINE more of a gimme than a Natick.
2
@Al in Pittsburgh my problem was memory, for some reason i kept trying to figure water nine had ti look it up and flpped my head for the lapse
@Nancy well, since you brought it up, I hope he does get the money and builds the wall.
Couldn't get to the comments yesterday.
Lots available today - I enjoyed them.
As usual on Thursdays, I needed some help.
BFN
2
Fine Thursday workout, and a highly original puzzle! At 4D I confidently wrote in BooKkeepER, slowing down everything on the W side. Only after the E side was filled in did the scales fall from my eyes.
Never have seen "The Wolf of Wall Street." Have I missed anything?
Looking at the grid just now I see the WOLFETTE OF (WALL) STREET. Sounds like a great movie to me!
I was very happy to see that this puzzle earned the POW! as it is most deserving. Thank you Timothy Polin!
FWIW The puzzle and this blog are my oases from the world. Is it too much to ask that we leave politics at the door when we come here?
15
A little side note about PERSE, that some of you may not know, is its relationship to the ampersand.
From "The History of the Ampersand" (Link below)
By the early seventeen hundreds... (&) ...had become common place and was all but inducted into the English language as the 27th letter of the alphabet. It became so widely used that children in school, when reciting the alphabet, would include & after the letter Z. The result of this was that phonetically you would hear “X, Y, Z and per se and” indicating that the & stood by itself at the end of the alphabet. The phrase “and per se and” was inevitably slurred into one single term and by 1837, the term ampersand was well and truly immortalised in the English dictionary.
https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&ved=2ahUKEwj-xYKc6dHfAhVGxoMKHd11BTkQFjADegQIDhAB&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedium.com%2Fblack-lion-banner%2Fthe-history-of-the-ampersand-c81839171940&usg=AOvVaw3IVd6ZfsEHNr3x5l6Ubp86
18
The link above doesn't work by clicking on it, but if you paste the whole thing into a browser window it should work. Or... hopefully this one works better:
https://medium.com/black-lion-banner/the-history-of-the-ampersand-c81839171940
1
Fascinating. I love info like that. Thx
2
@Dan From Portland
Thanks Dan. I didn't know that. I am instinctively skeptical of information gleaned from the internet, but I consulted my trusty OED and sure enough the origin was corroborated. What I found equally fascinating is that the symbol evolved from the cursive writing of ET ("and" in Latin).
1
He man before AX MAN, N B A star/L A LAKER, open date/OPEN SLOT, yum/MMM and wile/IDLE gummed up the works considerably...I GRABBED onto the theme when I unearthed the answer to the clue for the DeCaprio flick. That helped me spot the obvious vertical line of demarcation; cross it and you’re on my side!...To NAME one of my favorite SINGERS, the WISE and powerful Professor Longhair, ‘tis SAFE to say his DEEP voice is the antithesis of SOFT SPOKEN. His art always stirs my auditory SENSES. Hear for yourself:
https://youtu.be/kobJl7rGzkM
MMM Good,
Bru
4
I had ____OF WALLST for a bit, until I stubbed my toe on old STONE[WALL].
Also took me a little bit to remember that it was ICENINE, not WATERNINE (I was trying to make HOO fit.....).
My final delay was PUG for a lightweight boxer, which I like better than PUP actually, but boardom wasn't going to be GEN, as much as I tried to convince myself it might be in some obscure and incomprehensible way (nor was it going to be STY, which was my first thought when I saw boardom), so I finally started running the alphabet until I ended up in a PEN.
I really liked this puzzle--it was one that started off seemingly impenetrable, then unfolded nicely.
5
@Puzzledog
A lot of people entered PUG before PUP, myself included. I was thinking of the dog breed, but obviously boxers are a breed too. Then there is PUG perhaps as an abbreviation for pugilist. I wonder which one people were thinking when they entered PUG?
@Wen For some reason, the early comments hadn't shown up when I posted, so I didn't realize just how many people had PUG. As for me, I was thinking PUG as a small (lightweight) dog with a smushed in face, as a boxer is a larger dog with a smushed in face.
I will wait for the day that a constructor manages to include, and Mr. Shortz agrees to allow, "smushed" in the puzzle.
2
@Wen, @Puzzledog - I too entered PUG first, thinking of the smaller dog with similar looks to a boxer. Pugilist never came to mind. I came back to it in the end, knowing that something was off with GEN. This unusual grid took me about four minutes longer than average. Once I found a toehold, it began to fill in. I started in the SE with CLAN and STANLEE and JESS. People often complain about unfamiliar pop-culture names, but for me today, the J in JESS led me to STONE (wall) JACKSON and the theme.
1
I liked this one and got the theme early on only because I googled the DeCaprio film. (I let myself use google for up to 3 pop culture/celebrity/athlete clues on any post-Wed puzzle.) I'm a little ashamed I didn't get it with Stonewall Jackson, because I read a lot of popular American History. Oh well.
I'm confused. I am daily astounded in this column by the numerous innocent references in the puzzle that are wittily related to current events, social issues and the like. Lengthy discussions flower from a single entry. And yet when the entire theme is a WALL, it apparently never even occurred to many here to connect it to one of the major issues of the day! As Steve L succinctly put it, Amazing!
2
@Andrew
Perhaps because the puzzle isn't "for or against" a wall -- it's just a puzzle wall.
And maybe because we are all too verklempt about the ridiculous drama going on in real life about that proposed real wall to want to rehash it here.
Many of us prefer the puzzles to be an escape from reality. To wit: Tuesday's puzzle flap was the antithesis of fun. That said, I wouldn't have wanted what happened to pass unnoticed. This, since it has no sides, except east and west, or obvious or even unknown meaning, I can let slide . . . .
26
@Liane
Very well expressed. Thank you.
2
Sometimes a wall is just a wall.
5
Really enjoyed the puzzle today. The grid, the clever clueing, the references to bygone days, all made it especially enjoyable to solve.
I’m with @Rich in Atlanta regarding the reference to current absurdities. I’m also doing my part to starve certain attention seekers of oxygen. If there is no one in the audience, can there be a show?
6
Geez, I had a hard time to get in this setter's groove! I only discovered the theme after I had completed the puzzle, but I was drawn to the barrier, moat, gap, etc. from the outset.
Keep 'em coming, Mr. Polin.
1
My AP english and history scores helped. Saw the wall and hoped beaner was not in the grid. Happy to discover the membrane was semipermeable.
One of the better Thursday stunts.
Thanks Tim
3
Oooooh! You said one of “those words”!! What is it you have against Bostonians?!?!?
I saw the wall immediately, because puzzles never look like that. It took me longer to see how it fit into the theme answers. Puzzles often make me think about current events, and that’s not a bad thing. They also make me think about past events and how everything may eventually make sense (or not). I like it when puzzles make me think about something from a new perspective - and I’m happy to say that happens almost every day in the NYT puzzles. Thank you!
4
Heck, even I saw the wall!
Figuring out what it was about still took a bit.
The DeCaprio title didn't come to me, even though I'd been encouraged to see it and husband enjoyed it. So it was Stonewall Jackson that gave it away, but not until I had a few crosses filled. Modern movies and the military would put me on the bottom of Jeopardy any day!
Enjoyed the puzzle tremendously, taking exception only to some obscure (or soon to be) name fill: Jess, Lora. It was a
challenging Thursday with an enjoyable theme that fell right in line with my Thursday average.
3
I got the theme with WOLFOF STREET, saw the dividing "WALL", then looked for others and saw that it only applied to the divided clues.
Though I am a bit of a news junkie I didn't make any connection to the current controversy until I read the blog and comments. Maybe I was compartmentalizing.
11
How can you have any pudding if you don't eat yer meat?
Somebody will get that. Clever puzzle but a really tough start for me. I already had some failed checks before I got going anywhere. Like others, caught on with STONEWALL and then things started falling together. Thinking of longer answers was the key in multiple places.
Rambling: No, I didn't think of 'that' wall while I was doing the puzzle. My thoughts on that: I don't think the person in question really cares whether what he does is good or bad or whatever; he's just happy if everyone is thinking and talking about him all day long. I will do everything I can to avoid that.
Regarding 55d: The question mark in the clue leads me to conclude that the intent was not Billboard 'hits.' But I never heard anyone refer to taking a 'hit' of LSD. You drop it. A little story on that note:
Early 70's - Colorado. I'm the designated driver heading back to our trailer with my 3 roommates, all of whom have 'dropped.' It's snowing heavily and visibility is poor, so I'm completely focused on the road ahead. Turns out that there is a cop car behind me with his lights on but no siren for at least a couple of minutes before I notice it. I pull over and he walks up to tell me that one of my tail lights is out.
Then I find out that all 3 of my passengers had seen the cop car, but were so fascinated by the flashing colored lights that none of them thought to inform me.
38
A hit means a dose or a tab, e.g. "He took two hits."
@Rich in Atlanta
And, China found The Dark Side of the Moon.
3
Unfortunately, nowadays, it's not LSD.
Too many people are getting too comfortably numb on opioids.
Common comment themes today:
1. "I missed the wall created by the black squares until I came here."
2. "I didn't think of the wall in the news until I came here."
Amazing.
12
I completely missed the "wall" created by the black squares and solved the puzzle as a rebus with the word wall to finish Stonewall, wallpaper and Wall Street.
2
@Ken
Sorry, but the rebuses would have to be (top to bottom) WALLP, WALLS, and EWALL. ?
Ron,
I understood Ken to mean that he considered the three black squares between the pared clue themers to be rebuses of WALL -- which they are -- but did not recognize the top to bottom black squares *as* a wall.
@Barry Ancona
Reasonable interpretation. Ken?
The Bee:
QB: 25 / 93, 1 pangram
H 3 (2*4, 1*5)
M 9 (7*4, 2*6)
P 2 ( 1*4, 1*6)
T 8 ( 3*4, 3*5, 1*6, 1*8)
U 3 (1*5, 1*7, 1*9)
14
ugh. this one was hard for me. thanks for the grid, it put me over the top.
1
@susgraham
Thanks! I couldn't see a last four-letter word and this narrowed it down. Lately I've been seeing the pangram almost immediately and then I get mired down in the four-letters, like today.
3
@susgraham
It had been a while since we've seen a similar letter set. Glad to be rid of AOCLR for a day!
Short, sweet for old hands. Done before coffee, although I didn't see the pangram right off the bat as usual. No CLOTBURS or HAMARTIALS at least.
HINTS AHEAD: As you munch on that vegan product, having kicked your habit, wearing this comfy gown, scroll through the tv guide bar finding double helpings of this amount of choices (but nothing good, of course, though you mean feel an urge to check out something). Listen to your teacher's instructions well, young Jedi!
4
Really enjoying my crossword subscription. First time catching on to the theme before reading the comments.
19
@Linda That’s great! You’re making progress!
4
Thank you!
1
There was enough trickiness and unknowns to make the solve satisfying, a squeaky clean grid, and perhaps the first DOOK of the year in PERSE (Hi, @KEllis!), but I kept wondering who this Stone Steel-Slats Jackson person was.
14
Thank goodness JACKSON didn't have a 5 letter first name or I might have missed the clever theme; as it was, a great AHA moment and as always fun to go back to the other themes to see how they worked. It still took me a while to get the first one as computers never occurred to me until I had it almost completely filled in.
I liked all the misdirection clues, LE CARRE being my favorite perhaps.
This Thursday puzzle certainly didn't disappoint.
3
What kind of person is Will Shortz and why isn’t he better-supervised? His editorial decisions reek of adolescent snickering. So soon after his idiotic BEANER decision, this one is an obvious and unnecessary provocation. Something is organizationally wrong at the NYT. I’m considering dropping my subscription and looking for a paper that’s run by grownups.
2
This is a rich considering the current example our govt is setting.
8
Do you have a problem with BEANER for "Pitch to the head" in the Tuesday puzzle? Why?
2
"...this one is an obvious and unnecessary provocation."
And yet so many people in the comments who said they did not make the connection while solving.
3
Well, I got access to this wall for my annual subscription rate of $39.95 .A far better deal than $5 Billion for a monument to 'crazy"?
But maybe that's just me...
31
Oh, Stan Lee!
May his memory be for a blessing
10
I'm embarrassed to admit that I don't really seem to take in the visual, I am usually too excited to start solving when I see the new puzzle notification on my phone! I even found myself feeling a little frustrated/confused about the Stonewall Jackson clue ("huh, maybe they went for his proper name? Maybe I'll figure that out on the downs...")
So it was really visiting Wordplay and reading Deb's concern about whether it's be controversial that I grokked to it. A good bit of controversy does serve to get the comment section active even if not in active debate, and we can see where (for the most part) puzzlers engage in a fairly respectful manner, which I really appreciate about this community. Usually a lurker, but figure chiming in positively was a good way to help break down a wall. ;)
8
@Sasha Regarding politics, Deb keeps us straight. Polarization R not us.
2
55D:
Light My Fire
Cold Turkey
Eight Miles High
Anyway, that's how I got it.
5
Not to mention "Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds"!
3
Stuck for a long time substituting Pug for Pup until I gave up and read the blog.
6
I went for PUG as well because DEN for Boardom was just beyond me (and still is to be honest).
Sorry, PEN for boar-dom(icile).
Audiomagnate,
There are two definitions for boar. The wild animal does not belong in a PEN, but the uncastrated male domesticated pig does.
(Greetings to commenters in the Cedar Valley and other locations in the Hawkeye State.)
2
How can I not comment on today's puzzle?
In case of Mr. ERNŐ however, László was his surname.
There is another Ernő László, better known as Ernest Laszlo (1898-1984), the renowned cinematographer. His filmography includes Stalag 17, The Naked Jungle, Inherit the Wind, Judgment at Nuremberg, Ship of Fools (Oscar winner), Fantastic Voyage, etc.
Excellent puzzle by Timothy Polin today, proving that a wall can work. I had the slightest objection to PUP, PIP, PIPETTE (a minuscule PIP?), MMM, and PMS, the last one rescued by an ingenious clue. I'm no germophobe, but still like ASEPSIS.
One evening not that long ago an AMALGAM of SPELUNKING HASIDIM, a SOFT SPOKEN BRIT called Ace, and an IDLE AXMAN whose hairline started to RECEDE, walked into a pub. They GRABBED some stools and GLIDED into an OPEN SLOT at the bar. "ACE,SIT" said the AXMAN to the BRIT, then opened his PERSE and bought a round for all. But since they didn't get into ICENINE arguments and didn't RASSLE, this story is going nowhere. So I must be going.
I thank everyone, especially Ms. Amlen, for the kind replies to my comment last week. Sad to hear about the passing of our friend, Mac Knight. I will always treasure his beautiful avian photography.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday season. Again I wish a happy, healthy and prosperous 2019 to all.
24
and Elke
Laszlo- nice to see you.
Not only are you, Laszlo, clued today; you are in JACKSON Heights....
Don't be a stranger. Come back agin soon and finish that yarn.
3
@Laszlo, I hope we don't have to wait until there is a Laszlo in the puzzle again before we hear from you again.
3
Ernő László is the kind of name to cause stomach trouble - both names are common given names, but in a language where the family name traditionally comes first.
With Liszt Ferenc / Ferenc Liszt, there's no doubt about the name, whether the Hungarian or English tradition is followed. But Ernő László? Yikes!
2
and Elke
What an apropos puzzle- have the TV on in background (MSNBC) and I kept hearing ''--WALL--''. So I got STONE(WALL) JACKSON without knowing a -LOT about US Civil War history.
The rest was more like dealing with a fence--
Was sort of sneaky to have for 8A HASIDIM. Other acceptable spellings are HASSIDIM, CHASIDIM, and CHASSIDIM which brings me to 5D clue : CHASSED
Well-deserved ''POW''. Anybody with qualms- remember it's a puzzle. For a DETENTE, pick up Deb's book about PMS :))
5
@Robert
I likewise got hung up a bit with the spelling of HASIDIM.
Sorry, but I don't understand "5D clue : CHASSED."
@Ron
A chassé is a dance step that produces a gliding motion.
I was a ballet dancer, and there’s a hop in the middle of a chasse, which didn’t ring true for me re: gliding. A glissade would’ve been appropriate but wrong for the puzzle.
I've quit for the night after discovering the trick. Is this puzzle timely or what!?
3
My first fill for 59A was CLEAVER, as in Eldridge. Wrong generation.
6
@Alan Young
I had no idea that Black Panther was a film, so tried hard to remember Cleaver. Luckily failed and eventually had enough crosses to get STAN LEE, so looked it up to see what he had to do with the Black Panthers.
2
@suejean and Alan, I was on the same track, but the only people I could think of were Bobby SEALE and Huey NEWTON.
Fortunately, neither of those fit.
While I, too, am much more familiar with the "60s edition," I did note that the clue said "Panther's," not "Panthers."
3
At first, I thought the grid was a cactus as @GreenGirl mentioned, then thought maybe an icicle from the roof due to the ICENINE reference. Once I got down to the 50A clue I knew it was a wall. My last name is Jackson so the rest just followed.
Favourite clues : 15A: Author known for the intelligence of his writing? LECARRE, and 55D: Subject of many '60s hits: LSD
2
@BarbJ, these were my favorite clues as well. LE CARRE gave me a smile when the meaning finally broke. And the cluing for 55D makes sense, in my view, with music hits as well as drug hits, see https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/16/lsd-70th-anniversary_n_3092536.html. My favorite would have to be Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit." The imimitable Grace Slick!
2
Edit: "inimitable" -- it's getting late here and I need to stop typing.
@Henry Su
Good top ten! Like ‘White Rabbit’ too and ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’. Was only 11 in 1967 so had no idea what the lyrics mean then! Found out much, much later :-)
1
48D is two words! I had to look at the answer key and it still stumped for a sec.
1
This one was fun! I enjoyed the wall theme. My husband and I (29 & 34 respectively) do these puzzles together every night, and we enjoy getting streaks and beating our average time. Though the “May” clue had me stumped for awhile (I wanted it to be MOS), we still finished 15 minutes under our average.
4
Great Thursday puzzle by Mr. Polin. Following Deb's advice, I studied the grid before proceeding but I can't say I saw any wall or other visual hints at the theme. I then jumped around the grid as there weren't many answers that were coming immediately to mind. Luckily I did not find the vertical stacks to be particularly difficult (e.g., SOAP OPERA, SPELUNKING, SOFTSPOKEN) and they gave me some toeholds.
I eventually made my way to the SE where, with JACKSON at 52A, the wall came crashing down. Even so, 19A/20A took a bit of work to figure out because my mind kept turning to windows and (WALL)PAPERS in homes. I also had PUG before PUP at 38D.
Overall, I'm quite pleased to have finished with no lookups (several proper names - ERNO, LORA, JESS - were no-knows) and eight-plus minutes under my Thursday average.
2
Ditto PUG.
1
Ditto on PUG before PUP; STERILE before ASEPSIS, but there were a few gimmes as well: SOAP OPERAS, PIPETTE, and LA LAKER among them. Did have to resort to lookups, because I don't follow TV or movies other than superficially.
@JayTee, same here -- especially TV. I always breath a sigh of relief when I get these no-knows through the crosses.
Fun puzzle. Great to see ICE NINE. Can't wait to see Granfalloon
6
@Rodzu. I almost drove through Philadelphia once
.... just Granfalloonin’
God Bless You, Mr. Rodzuwater!
Had ASEPTIC for the longest time. Went way over average as a result.
1
@Brian
Join the club!
@Brian
Same here.
I started with STERILE before I had any crosses. Then ASEPTIC. The quick jog over to ASEPSIS was easy.
1
I liked this puzzle, though I have to admit I was worried. With that WALL in the middle, I may leave one side of the puzzle stranded without help from the other half. Fortunately, it was a little bit easier to keep that from becoming reality. First pass left the grid depressingly bare. Thank goodness for STAN LEE.
Like Deb, I figured out the gimmick at 50A. Like Liz B, I didn't think about THAT wall. I was only trying to figure out how to surmount the wall in the puzzle. Inexplicably, I pulled ICE NINE out of some dusty recess of my mind even though I never read "Cat's Cradle" (it's on my list).
No-knows - ERNO, LORA, JESS.
Was thinking BOOKKEEPER before BANK TELLER. FREE SLOT before OPEN SLOT. TUSSLE before RASSLE, PUG before PUP, CODE before SAFE, LOPE before TROT. Wasn't sure if it was going to be MPS or PMS, but that wasn't hard to suss out from crossings.
Something of a saving grace - it separates left-right and not top-bottom. And this one presumably only costed NYT 100,000,000 times less than the amount being requested for the real-life version. We need to keep the WOLF off our STREET, or something, I guess.
PEN and Boardom. I didn't get it until I read Deb's explanation, and even then, I'm not 100% on board(om) with it.
6
A couple of trivialities:
Not only was Gen. Thomas J. Jackson present at First Bull Run, that's where he and his brigade acquired the nickname "Stonewall." When nearby troops under Gen. Bernard Bee began to falter, Bee rallied them by shouting, "There is Jackson standing like a stone wall." Though more familiar nowadays in reference to the general, Jackson himself considered that the nickname properly belonged not to him, but to the Stonewall Brigade, which if I'm not mistaken was the only Confederate brigade identified by name rather than number.
On an entirely different subject, 5D put me in mind of another term I came across not long ago: "Mancunian," meaning "the associated adjective and demonym of Manchester" (according to Wikipedia). I wonder how many head-scratchings would have resulted if the clue had been "Mancunian, e.g."
7
@Alan J Long-term fans of The Beatles or the English Premier League would probably have handled Mancunian with ease.
1
Surprised how many didn’t think of the wall in the news. It was my first thought when I cracked the theme. When I first looked at the grid, I thought maybe the shape was a Saguaro and that there would be a cactus theme.
5
@GreenGirl NYC
"Surprised how many didn’t think of the wall in the news." ... Me too! I'm kinda jealous.
2
"It was my first thought when I cracked the theme."
GreenGirl NYC,
At least it wasn't your first thought when you looked at the grid.
2
@GreenGirl
I also thought it was a plant of some sort.
Really great puzzle! Very tight - fair clues, good challenge. Icenine was the high point for me. What a random piece of knowledge that was. Can't remember how much stuff I can't remember and yet I still remember that!
8
Great puzzle! One of my easier Thursdays. Loved it.
Wall.....get it? Very interesting
Wow. What a workout. I usually “twitch” at connected clues, but once I got the theme, I was thrilled to find them. Some nice clues for our Brit community members and I hope our Vonnegut lover(s) do this one. For me, this was a 10 out of 10 for a Thursday puzzle. Kudos to the constructor (I’ve not yet read Deb’s column) and Will Shortz on a great puzzle.
10
Oh, and a clue/answer tailor-made for David Connell. Took me awhile to find the obvious with that one.
1
@Puzzlemucker - I'm not sure which one you meant, Puzzlemucker, but my guess is either 61A (Choir composition), which gave me a chuckle, or 30A, which was my first fill in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHVnrvEalJw
(My solve: I had the entire right half of the puzzle filled in before I caught the trick at all, and nothing but "PIP" on the left!)
3
@David Connell. Yes, I was referring to 61A. I had the entire right side filled in with just BRIT on the left. Recognizing the theme really helped at that point. You might say it brought me out of the depths.
2
It wasn't until I read Deb's article that I thought of any possible reference to THAT wall. As far as I was concerned while solving it, that black line down the center was just an abstract wall taking part in the wordplay connecting the cross-referenced clues. And that's how it still sits in my mind. Fun, diverting, and non-topical.
30
Absolutely agree with you on this. The possible (remote?) political connotation was never on my radar until Deb brought it up.
6
Same here, even though I think of myself as very in tune with the news. Speaks to how effective the crossword is as a haven from daily troubles. OK, I guess I have to go to work now...
4
@Alan J You took the words out of my mouth. I turn off the political part of my brain when I do the puzzle.
2
I didn't even think about that wall when I was solving. At first I did wonder what the heck was going on. Like Deb, light dawned with STONEWALL JACKSON, and then I realized that WOLF OF WALL STREET would fit.
I was really glad that I remembered ICE NINE, although I couldn't have told you exactly what it was. SECEDE before RECEDE and YUM before MMM. Also, an interesting misspelling of HASIDIM before I figured out the Hebrew plural. Otherwise, a grid that looked like it could lead to a lot of dead ends ended up coming together pretty smoothly.
3
Hand up for YUM before MMM as well.
TIL HASIDIM=plural (Thanks!)
3
@Liz B Me neither. And I spend a lot of the rest of my time thinking about it, so...apparently I'm well-trained to leave my politics behind when it comes to puzzling.
3
IM is often (always?) the plural suffix in Hebrew.
good puzzle! cracked the Wall with WOLF OF WALL STREET and then STONEWALL JACKSON. Apt puzzle given all the angst over the government shutdown!
3
That’s the one that cracked it for me, too. And then I groaned.
@judy d
Same here.
Clever, but should have done more with it.
3
Whaaaaaaa! I’m hurt.
1