If OOHLALA is going to mean something delightful or pleasant, it should be clued in English, "Great news!" My French speaking exchange students always corrected me that it was an expression of dismay in their homelands. A better French clue might be "Quel dommage!"
4
@Kevin Yes! and I'll bet they tell you it's pronounced "oh la la" rather than "ooh la la" n'est-ce pas? For me "ooh la la" is a petite bete noir.
2
@AudreyLM & Kevin - between the two of you, the truth will out.
Ooh la la is an American expression of fascination, prurient delight, or surprise. (wowza)
Oh là là is a French expression of dismay, disappointment, or judgment. (tsk tsk)
Whether the clueing was appropriate or not depends on whether one understands the clue "C'est magnifique" to be French or English. Would, for example, "Quid pro quo" be a Latin clue, or an English one? How about "Gesundheit!"? Can that be a clue to "bless you" without objecting to its origin in German? or must the fill also be German?
Eye of the beholder...
5
@Caitlin. Maybe you're too young to have seen "The Honeymooners," but I'll always remember Jackie Gleason mock-threatening his wife with a wish to send her "to the moon, Alice" by punching her--"Pow! Right in the kisser!" (He never actually touched her, but somehow this was considered funny in the 50s.) So, seems like "kisser" is just as vulgar as ("shut your") "trap."
2
Even after solving the puzzle and recognizing the NATO Phonetic Alphabet in the clues, the theme flew right over my head.
I was perhaps still mulling over the Mueller report findings. (pun intended)
The puzzle begins with the first across as BEARPIT (aggressive political environment) and ends with the last across as DOSSIER.
Am I the only one who caught this irony given the events of the day?
No one could have planned this.
3
@Donna White
I had the same experience with the theme... Thanks for connecting the first & last Across entries; I also missed that irony. Too bad "lead balloon" wasn't one of the Downs - that would have been perfect.
Truly enjoyed the NATO PHONETIC ALPHABET theme. I had a bit of trouble with UNIFORM BET, but the others fell without too much pain. My favorite and the first one I filled was BOSTON TANGO PARTY aka BOSTON Tea PARTY. Clever, clever, clever.
TIL that Utah was previously known as DESERET. It’s always nice learning something new doing crosswords. My most confusing moment came with ALIENEE. Took me several moments to separate the A. Weirdly wonderful.
:-)
3
I got the theme right away and thought I’d breeze right through it. But I had to spend about :20 looking for a typo. My only puzzlement was for BRAVOSTING. I couldn’t imagine what the song had to do with Bee Stings. I even looked up the lyrics and didn’t connect Sting with The Police. Duh.
Re the mini: Anybody else think the clue "That lady's" meant "That lady is?" (SHES rather than HERS)
Enjoyable, very nice clues, I needed crosses and a few lookups. I did not remember the whole NATO ALPHABET, just a few letter, including TANGO. So my first suspicion was that the whole clues were just combinations of the NATO words, say, ROMEO and JULIET TANGO in NOVEMBER,, or YANKEE UNIFORM. But as didnt remember all letters, I was a little puzzled. Could BOSTON and PARTY be NATO PHONETICALLY ALPHABET? It sounded possible. I just decided that the fills had only one NATO word each with PRINCESS and PAPA. I was absolutely sure that the NATO PHONETICAL ALPHABET did not include “PRINCESS”!
Anyone had Century rather than ONE YEAR? In quaint England, often one can buy a house but the land where it’s built belongs to someone else, often dukes and such, for a lengthy period, often hundreds or even a thousand years. At the end of the lease, the property goes back to the leaseholder, unless you buy or extended the lease. The duke of Westminster is said to own ( the lease of) half of London and 0.2% of all the land in Britain.
https://www.gov.uk/leasehold-property/extending-changing-or-ending-a-lease.
Also NOCHE as what comes before MANANA?
Like the theme, the clueing and the misdirections!
1
For the Buffy fans out there (I'm not sure how many there might be...), there's a little Easter egg with Anya in the puzzle only a step away from Olav (of course, his name in the show was Olaf). The flashback / origin story sequence showing how the unfaithful Olaf was cursed by Anya to become a troll has to be rated at the very top of the funniest scenes in the whole 7 year series. I was only able to find a fragment of the scene on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=15LH44yevqk
Hide your babies and your beadwork!
6
@David Connell
Thanks for this. Was never sure why everyone wasn't a Buffy fan.
1
I solved the puzzle and knew the theme had to do with NATO alphabet, but had to read Deb’s column to understand the beauty behind it. Thanks Deb!
2
Oops, I meant Caitlin!
2
Only 5 sec over an hour (a new personal best)!
"Alienee??" Oh, "A lienee." (Have I mentioned that I hate articles on the front end of an entry?)
Clever puzzle, Mr. Charlson, but I would've preferred needing to understand the theme before being able to grok the answers.
P.S. Just heard the big news. I'm INARAGE and INCENSEd. NAE, what about the DOSSIER?!
3
Ron,
It *is* Alienee. The constructor knew of your sensitivity to articles in an entry.
2
@Barry Ancona
Just looked it up and you're right! "Dated" term, however.
2
The theme cluing here was too forced for my taste. I'm familiar with Whiskey-Tango-Foxtrot talk, but the term NATO PHONETIC ALPHABET meant nothing to me. After reading the explanation of the revealer and reviewing the theme answers, I got no afterglow here as I almost always do for the NYT crossword themes.
I did share the LOL reaction to the gradual dawning of NIAGARA that many others did and very much appreciated that one. More cluing like that, please-- I know-- it should be so easy.
A few more:
ALFALIST Pack of assertive dogs
ECHOMAIL Return to sender letter
FOXTROTTROOP Zany dancers at Ft. Courage
GOLFSUIT Plaid pants on the links
OSCARRING Band never worn by Clint Eastwood for acting
6
For a short time I tried to figure out what a PHONETICAL PHABET could possibly be. DOH!!
And there was a reason that UNICORN BET didn’t work!! (But the clue doesn’t stand up - even after the theme is thoroughly explained.)
PROSPERO was a slam dunk. I’ve been privileged to see both William Hutt and Helen Hunt perform the role at The Stratford Festival - and Prospero’s closing words are now pleasantly ringing in my ears for the rest of the day.
Now my charms are all o'erthrown,
And what strength I have’s mine own,
Which is most faint. Now, ’tis true,
I must be here confined by you,
Or sent to Naples. Let me not,
Since I have my dukedom got
And pardoned the deceiver, dwell
In this bare island by your spell,
But release me from my bands
With the help of your good hands.
Gentle breath of yours my sails
Must fill, or else my project fails,
Which was to please. Now I want
Spirits to enforce, art to enchant,
And my ending is despair,
Unless I be relieved by prayer,
Which pierces so that it assaults
Mercy itself and frees all faults.
As you from crimes would pardoned be,
Let your indulgence set me free.
Indeed!! RIP William Shakespeare
7
Arghhhh!!
It was MARTHA HENRY who performed Prospero’s role at Stratford, ON. Just last year, I think, or the year before.
1
Kudos for the cluing of SLED, POACHED, NIAGARA, and SISYPHUS. Also, a fun theme! Nice Sunday puzzle!
3
Good theme, but JUJITSU is just wrong. There's jiu-jitsu or jujutsu, but upon Googling jujitsu seems to be nonexistent...
Bella,
This dictionary seems to know it (and notes your first spelling as a variant):
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/jujitsu
3
I solved this one North to South for the most part, and was puzzled by BOSTONTANGOPARTY, and the others. It got a little sticky in the mid-South, so I gave in and solved the reveal, which actually helped with BRAVOSTING. Entertaining, I thought. Wasn't there another puzzle featuring the NATO phonetic alphabet recently, or was that something I dredged out of the archive?
I have a list of the NATO PHONETIC ALPHABET which I keep handy for when I'm making airline reservations and as it happens I used if just a couple of days ago and was given my reference number which included P for PAPA and T for TANGO. I have no idea how long it would have taken me to get the theme otherwise, but as it was it came very quickly and I loved it! Such a fun idea with several theme answers, and so many other great clues. It's hard to beat the clue for NIAGARA as has been noted.
Keep them coming, Trenton!
6
I found it quite fast, 10 minutes below Sunday average, and the puzzle struck me as sort of "meh, okay."
The theme was not critical to the solve at all and I continue my trend of not loving post solve reveals or themes which don't require sousing out what's going on to answer the clues. This just filled in pretty effortlessly.
I ponder how many young solvers will even know Fred Astaire, let alone his sister ADELE. Not long before that passes into historical oblivion. . . .
3
@Liane
I concur with your comments. Meh ...
My first thought was Ginger for 106D, but it didn't fit. ADELE came to mind from a previous puzzle.
Mr. Shortz, ROTE is a noun! I 😢
1
@Olivier
According to M-W and the OED, it is also an adjective.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/rote
4
I loved this one, especially SLED and NIAGARA clues.
I look forward to more Sundays from Trenton Charlson.
3
Well, that was fun! The very first themer did give it away, but it was a while before I BOTHERed to 'translate' the other phrases. I only know the old Army phonetic alphabet, and some of the words were changed in the NATO version. Some day I should look that up.
Trenton is certainly a promising constructor (as in, promising a lot more fun for us!) Let's all wish him "Long Life and many more puzzles!" Plus, nice of him to provide a photo. The Ohio State University must be proud!
Hit Genius early on the Wee Bee, but still haven't come up with the pangram! sheesh. Had to bag yesterday's--just too much to do. The listing on our house went active yesterday evening, and a showing has been scheduled already.
4
@Mean Old Lady
....and now QB for me. Yay. Now back to my breakfast.
1
Wasn’t Erin the receptionist and not a secretary?
1
Secretary TO the manager.
Todd,
I needed all four crosses for ERIN, but extensive post-solve research suggests your correction is warranted.
Opera lover's dilemma after a performance.
To Bravo or not to Bravo.
19
Excellent!
1
9D and 96A say it all.
Kudos!!
Who knew learning the NATO phonetic alphabet would ever help solve a NYTimes Sunday Crossword. Cool!
1
I got BOSTONTANGOPARTY pretty early so I had the theme figured out, but it was still fun.
If you've ever listened to the lyrics of 85A, you might agree that a more accurate exclamation after a performance would be "You're totally creeping me out, Sting! I'm getting a restraining order." (But it was a bit late in the puzzle for a rebus.)
Here's a sample:
Every breath you take
Every move you make
Every bond you break
Every step you take
I'll be watching you
Every single day
Every word you say
Every game you play
Every night you stay
I'll be watching you
Oh can't you see
You belong to me
My poor heart aches
With every step you take
10
This was one for me where I started at the top, got frustrated, went to the bottom and worked my way up fairly smoothly. Once I had NATO and CHARLIE WORLD the revealer and theme clicked pretty easily. Wasn't a big fan of the NIAGARA clue. I think "newly married" would be better than "already married." Special shout out to Professor John Mixon, who taught property law at the University of Houston Law Center for over 60 years, without whom I would not have known ALIENEE.
Wasn't a big fan of the NIAGARA clue. I think "newly married" would be better than "already married."
Thomas,
That would have made it a gimme rather than a clever misdirection (IMOOC). But while we're on the subject, doesn't the clue for ELOPE have it backwards?
2
@Barry Ancona
You don't think long- or already-marrried couples visit Niagara?
Dr W,
We established in the very first thread in these comments that married couples with children visit Niagara. Sorry, but what is your point?
Found it quite challenging for a Sunday and liked it -- even though I wouldn't know the NATO PHONETIC ALPHABET if I fell over it. Whose ALPHABET, again? I knew there was some sort of phonetic alphabet that some people like to use some of the time -- Military people? Space traveler people? Techie people? -- but I didn't have any idea who the alphabet belonged to. Ah, NATO. I see.
I did vaguely remember that TANGO=T, so I picked up the theme at the first theme answer and this made my solve easier. But hardly TOO EASY. I was completely dependent upon identifying the cross-referenced college (ARMY) at 110A in order to get the NAVY section: the section which included lots of stuff I didn't know like BRAVO STING and ANYA. Thought I'd DNF there, but didn't.
An excellent clue for SISYPHUS (88D) and a brilliant one for NIAGARA (34D). And I need help, everyone. Can someone fashion a foolproof mnemonic system whereby I shall always know whether the answer is OLAV or OLAF? Thanks in advance.
4
@Nancy
I just leave the last letter blank until clarity comes via the crosses.
4
@Nancy
The snowman in "Frozen" and the saint in the college name are both OLAF. So are Snoopy's brother and the Count from the Lemony Snicket books/movie.
There's a speed skater named Johann OLAV Koss. And there's the Antarctic Prince OLAV Coast and Mountains.
But if it's the king or patron saint of Norway or occasionally the king of Denmark, it's a crapshoot. Since F is slightly more useful than V in crosswords, it'll be OLAF a little more often than OLAV. (255 to 179). But as MOL says, wait for the crosses.
2
@Mean Old Lady -- Like you, I always do wait for the crosses, and I did so again today. But today I was impatient -- OLAV/F was smack dab in the middle of the section that was causing me the most trouble and I wanted the answer ASAP. Oh, well, since when it comes to Norway there seems to be no one sure right answer, I guess there will be a lot of OLAV/F waiting in my puzzle-solving future.
awkward theme but I made it through.
3
Well, I'm dumb. I know there are a variety of phonetic alphabets, and didn't know (or had forgotten) that the NATO version is precisely what we were using the service 50 years ago. So, I was thinking that the primary words in the theme answers that I didn't recognize were from a different phonetic alphabet. Yeah, I was largely dissuaded by PRINCESS (and others), but by that time I was completely confused and never got the theme until I got here.
Nice workout and a clever theme. It seems so obvious now. I can't believe I didn't get it.
4
same here, i know the nato alphabet from my time in and so i had no problem getting part of the theme clues but needed the crosses to finish the rest
1
@Rich in Atlanta
IBM used the WWII-era phonetic alphabet, (Able, Baker, Charlie, Dog, Easy, Fox), when they introduced the System 360 and hexadecimal characters in the mid-1960s.
I did some searching and found that the NATO alphabet was adopted in 1956, (when Vietnam was mainly a French problem). Wonder if IBM decided that the old usage would be more familiar to its engineers and developers. Maybe internal design and development were already underway before 1956 and it would have been confusing to change mid-project.
1
@Al in Pittsburgh My first programming jobs were on System 360's, but it was early 80's. We even used punch cards. I'm familiar with the older phonetic alphabet, but I don't remember it coming up a lot on those jobs (but it's been a long time).
I've always remembered that in one of the children's books that my kids had there was a character (a chef) named Able Baker Charlie.
2
It was two puzzles in one for me, first the solve, then figuring out the clever theme concept. Random observations:
* AVAST abutting NAVY.
* WROTE and ROTE
* I keep looking at ALSORAN and thinking it is an inhabitant of Alsor
* HAT TREES brings fruit trees to mind, because Carmen Miranda.
7
A fun and relatively easy Sunday puzzle for me; took about 60% of my average Sunday time. Lots of fun clues and answers.
Saw that phonetic alphabet words were part of the theme answers, but didn’t get the final back-substitution of the letters they represented until reading Caitlin’s column. That added a smile after the solve as well!
3
Letter Boxed Thread
H-E(9), E-M(6) for me.
Pretty smooth sailing after a couple of rough days. Yesterday was a stumper until I saw Phil’s solution.
3
@Kevin Sparks
Today's popped out at me. Same solution as you. Funny, I feel sleepy now . . . . very sleepy.
I still can't recall what I had yesterday, only that it took a lot of tries and something started or ended with a G. Not very helpful, I know. I was just too worn out by Spelling Bee to write anything down!
1
@Kevin Sparks
Same answer.
I was sure I had figured out a one word solution to this one, but apparently ZOMBIETELEPHONY isn't in their dictionary. If they won't give us LYCANTHROPES, they could at least let us talk to the undead.
1
@Phil
You know I live for the day when LYCANTHROPES appears!
Well that may be an overstatement as well as a mixed metaphor...
SPELLING BEE
Icknpty
30 words, 99 points
C x 2, I x 3, K x 5, N x 5, P x 8, T x 7
4L x 16, 5L x 11, 6L x 1, 7L x 1, 8L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
C 1 1 - - - 2
I 3 - - - - 3
K 3 2 - - - 5
N 1 2 - 1 1 5
P 4 3 1 - - 8
T 4 3 - - - 7
Tot 16 11 1 1 1 30
15
1 pangram. The last word I found. The complete antithesis of yesterday’s Bee. Short and sweet.
4
@Ron O. Thanks Ron! Ya think the pangram may be a thinly veiled dig at all of us who complain about non-accepted words? I'm still bitter about priapic. :)
14
@AudreyLM
Could be! Here are the non-accepted words I found:
INIT, KINNIKINNICK, NITTY, PINY, PIPPIN, TINK, TIPI.
As usual, PIPPIN and TIPI get no love.
4
TIL I’ve been missing an A in NIAGARA this whole time. I kept trying to make it work because of LOTHARIO and because it was more and more locked in by other crosses.... but I kept being convinced I was in error because I thought it was “Niagra”. Slightly bemused that I could spell VANUATU yesterday — to which I’ve never been — but not one of the best-known waterfalls (clusters of) in North America... which I’ve actually visited. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
2
@Elizabeth - you spelled it the way it sounds like it's pronounced - and it rhymes with Viagra. Perfectly understandable. However, since you'd actually been there...your brain's ability to willfully ignore all of the many correct spelling you must have encountered is quite formidable. :)
1
After today, my current “official” streak had as many days as Babe Ruth had home runs in his career.
12
@David Meyers
Congrats! That’s quite an achievement. Now on to Hank Aaron!
4
@Ron O.
Yep. And we won’t discuss Barry Bonds. My streak may end over final-four weekend though, because I’ll be away with friends playing too much golf, drinking too much beer, playing too much poker, and watching too much basketball to have time to do the puzzles in time. Time will tell.
2
@David Meyers
If you abandon the streak to have fun with you friends, that’s a badge of honor.
Caitlin: You say that "TANGO rang a bell" but you aren't sure why. I wonder if you were remembering the 2016 Tina Fey movie "Whiskey Tango Foxtrot." (When it came out, I was glad I didn't have to explain the title to kids. Or maybe everybody just says that all the time now.)
3
@Greater Metropolitan Area
I like to express that sentiment as “Wednesday Thursday Friday!”
6
@David Meyers
Love it!
@Greater Metropolitan Area
Saw a "new" (to me) variation of it the other day. The "Florida man challenge" has been trending on social media (google "florida man" + day & month of your birthday) to see what weird things people in Florida have done on that day. The phrase was "What the Florida!"
Strictly speaking, chewing gum is not outlawed in Singapore. It's the commercial import and sale of chewing gum that is. This is a common misconception. Not that I'm a fan of it.
18
@Teo Hong Siang Excellent distinction, thank you! For me, a post like yours is one of the joys of being part of this international community of wordies. I was in your beautiful country many years ago--I remember it fondly.
6
Worked my way through this one a bit faster than my usual Sunday. Got the theme answers written down correctly through most of the puzzle, then about three-fourths of the way through I realized what was going on with the theme answers.
I had minimal exposure or need for the NATO alphabet during my stint in the army, as I was lucky enough to stay stateside working in a medical center. I did remember enough to recognize the terms as letter names used for spelling out words for clarity.
ELROY was a gimme—once you head the theme song for The Jetsons a couple of times it was imprinted in your memory. I thought the clues were generally quite clever, especially those for NIAGARA and SLED, although I worked the downs through the SW and most of the bottom section and missed it entirely.
This one was a lot of fun.
2
NOT BAD! Very clever. My favorite is YANKEE (WHY) BOTHER!
4
Took me a while to catch on to the theme, and I got all the theme clues except the annoying baseball player (clever!). But a fun puzzle, and my friend Charlie will appreciate hearing about his theme park.
I found this to be a relatively quick and painless Sunday even though (1) I did not glom on to the theme until BOSTON TANGO PARTY came into view, and (2) I do not recognize all of the letters of the NATO PHONETIC ALPHABET (no to PAPA, UNIFORM, and YANKEE).
I liked the cluing in the fill as well. My favorites were "Spots for hammers and anvils," "Tireless racer," "Something taken in by sailors," and "One fighting an uphill battle?" The one that doesn't seem quite right to me is "Falls for someone who's already married?" I get the misdirection but aren't the NIAGARA Falls for someone who wants to get married (or to ELOPE)? See http://niagarafallsusa.org/marriage-license/.
3
@Henry Su
No doubt you could elope and get married in Niagara Falls, but before the days of cheap air travel, Niagara was known as a honeymoon destination above all.
13
@Henry Su Those were my favorite clues too. Plus ALSORAN for "one who didn't even show." And I must be an older generation than you re: your Niagara comment; as Steve L says I always thought of Niagara Falls as a honeymoon destination.
3
@Steve L
My Ohioan parents did just that. Still fell for the misdirection before I fell for the Falls.
1
Head slap. I had a gap in every theme word until I got NATO PHONETIC ALPHABET. That told me the small vocabulary for filling the gaps and forced YANKEE BOTHER. Huh? CHARLIE WORLD? At the end I was still in the dark. Then it dawned. Charlson had done a double substitution: homophonic letter for a word (Y for WHY) then NATO code for the letter (YANKEE for Y). A good "aha" moment.
7
A SLED is also "tire-less."
9
@Suzy M.
Brilliant. Totally missed that meaning of tireless in the clue. Thank you for pointing it out.
2
Puzzlemucker and Suzy M,
Sorry, but which meaning of tireless (other than "not having tires") did you *first* consider to be appropriate for SLED?
1
@Barry Ancona
Please check your tone as to Suzy. I believe that she was responding to Caitlin, who (if taken at face value) suggested the same meaning for tirelesss as I read into the clue.
7
I am wondering if anyone else experienced my train of thought during the solving of this puzzle. I had not yet understood the theme, though I had rather quickly entered BOSTON at 22A. The first themer that I filled in based on the clue was THE PRINCESS AND THE PAPA. My thoughts immediately went to Mark Twain's "The Prince and the Pauper", and because of BOSTON, I assumed that this was going to be something to do with a BOSTON pronunciation of the theme entries. I didn't understand why Prince had become Princess, but it wasn't until BRAVO STING and CHARLIE WORLD, that the real theme began to make itself clear to me. Anybody else go through this?
2
I should have added that my second theme answer was BOSTON TANGO PARTY, and I spent much too long wondering what on earth was a BOSTON TANGO POTTY.
@Andrew
When I first had a few letters in 67A, my mind immediately went to "The Prince and the Pauper," but it didn't stay there. Among other things, I'd already figured out the theme from BOSTON TANGO PARTY, which speeded up my thought processes quite a bit.
Andrew,
May I never find out what a BOSTON TANGO POTTY is.
1
Got the theme and it helped me solve, but not that into it.
Loved some of the non-theme clues and entries: POACHED, NIAGARA, ITALY, SISYPHUS, OUTLAWED, STARTER. Was with my baseball-loving and baseball trivia-loving great-nephew this afternoon. Wish he had been here tonight to help me get OTT.
A somewhat sappy but still beautiful duet by Sting and Sheryl Crow, Always on Your Side:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=FseuxxcTlvA
2
@Puzzlemucker
Nice video! Thanks. Wasn’t familiar with that song.
Solved from the NE clockwise on this one, so I had PAPA, but the first complete theme I had was also BRAVO, STING. Then I got ALPHABET and figured there would be a letter in each theme answer. But I got so involved with running the NATO ALPHABET and the clues that the PHONETIC code escaped me until after I completed the puzzle. When I realized the B for bee, U for you, etc., that was so much icing on the cake! Congrats on the Sunday debut! It was Foxtrot Uniform November!
1
Also, quite cute to get Army and Navy into the military mix!
9
The kids make fun of us for listening to the police scanner app every evening, but today it paid off! A few squares were questionable till the end, but overall I enjoyed this quite a bit.
2
@FrankieHeck
The scanner is on 24/7 in my newsroom, and in addition to alerting us to breaking news, it also offers a window into larger societal problems. For example, firefighters/EMT's spend a huuuuge amount of time responding to people in diabetic crises and police to domestic abuse incidents called in by minors, and suicide threats; it's eye-opening, and heartbreaking.
There's the occasional levity -- gallows humor -- of someone calling in UFO sightings or a ghost rattling in the garage (that's probably a raccoon).
Anyway, it's a worthy pastime and nothing to be made fun of -- I bet your kids will come around too, someday. :-)
@Hildy Johnson
Yes, we hear a frightening number of responses to suicide threats and drug overdoses. But we find it most useful in the winter when we can hear which icy roads are causing the most accidents.
We also hear the campus police responding to rooms where there is "smell of a controlled substance." I wonder if the students are smart enough to have the scanner on to know when to flush their stash. Probably not, if they are dumb enough to smoke in the dorms.
And we hear a surprising number of elevator entrapments!
1
The literal translation for "Hasta mañana" is "Until tomorrow" although "See you tomorrow" is close enough.
3
Which is why translation is an art, not a science, and why scholars will argue in favor of one translator over another for any foreign text.
2
I got the theme -- at least basically -- right away, at BOSTON TANGO PARTY. I saw that it had to be one of those code-speak things used by the military and airlines and the like. Wasn't sure whether everyone used the same one or not, but anyway, I got the idea.
HAL in NY articulated my one problem, that I had to think about the ones where the actual letter wasn't what was being coded. That started with my second themer, YANKEE BOTHER. Took a minute to go from Y to Why. Same with UNIFORM BET. On that one, I thought what was bothering me was that I wasn't crazy about the base phrase.
When I got down to the revealer, i probably would have entered ARMY or NAVY before NATO, but both of those had already been used. And that pretty much exhausted my military knowledge anyway.
Like Caitlin, I was led astray and entered AHORA at 54D. But I really wanted LOTHARIO, and when I remembered the name of the lawn stuff I made the change.
Didn't know ELROY as clued (or probably any other way). Someday I must catch up with all that Hanna-Barbera stuff. TIL that JAKARTA used to be called Batavia.
Agree with Caitlin and other commenters: What really elevates this puzzle is the quality of the cluing -- NIAGARA, SISYPHUS, others. That's what we're here for -- Wordplay!
Congratulations on your first Sunday, Trenton. I'll be looking for your byline in weeks to come.
(Back to the figure skating -- Worlds!)
6
@Deadline
re the Jetsons
https://youtu.be/tTq6Tofmo7E
Also agree about the quality of the cluing.
2
Loved the puzzle overall, but A LIENEE??? I still wasn’t sure about it until I heard the music.
1
@Maria - it's one word
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alienee
3
@Maria: As DC has noted, the transfer of title to property is sometimes referred to in the law as alienation. The transferor of the property is the alienor and the recipient is the ALIENEE.
6
Thank you! (The perils of being a life-long renter.)
3
OT for Rich, catching up from late Friday (today's theme making the subject somewhat ironic):
My 1/8/6 ETS (including 9/9 in country) was shortened for political, not medical, reasons. I got my MOS CAS after basic, worked at Fort Rucker doing a radio show and at Fort McPherson with the Third Army Soldier Show, and came down on a Vietnam levy when my MOS went critical (after Cambodia). In early '71, "Vietnamization of the war" was on Nixon's agenda, and six of us who would have the minimum nine months in "took a unit" back to CONUS. As the E5 with the most time, I was NCOIC. Under 5, ETS upon DEROS.
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@Barry Ancona ... oh, I love when you talk military :=)
2
Hal,
I was amused when you said you had trouble grasping the theme. I hope you're not under water in sympathy with Offutt.
1
@Barry Ancona ... I was stationed at Offutt for almost 3 years. Maybe the best 3 years of my life.
1
Went down like a gelcap with an Asti chaser.
13
@Etaoin Shrdlu
Spumante?
2
This was not TOO EASY but an enjoyable puzzle! Had the whole left side solved without breaking the theme or getting any of them fully. Even after I got the revealer it was a struggle till I made my way back up to BOSTON! I have to say OOHLALA and BRAVO!
1
I tried really hard yesterday to fit JAKARTA into 17A, "Pacific land west of Fiji" (ans: VANUATU), and was rewarded for that effort by putting it in 39A today.
Loved today's theme. When I first saw that NATO characters were popping up, I expected a puzzle like last year's Greek letters puzzle, a puzzle where every theme answer was a run of NATO characters making a passable phrase. When that didn't happen I was slightly stumped, but suddenly I saw Boston Tea Party and was able to close it out.
5
I had absolutely no idea that part of my brain was frozen into an early 1940s configuration until I found myself wasting time trying to fit in DJAKARTA. Grading on an exam would make that a D minus.
The very idea that the capital of Indonesia was once named Batavia absolutely buffaloes me.
[Heels up by 10 halfway through 1st half]
1
I enjoyed working this puzzle but I must admit that the theme escaped me until hours after reading Caitlin's explanation. Even so, there is a bit of inconsistency in the theme answers because sometimes the code letter is used normally and sometimes it's a homonym and that bothers me.
All in all, though, it was F.U.N. Maybe even more F.U.N. than a W(ednesday) T(hursday) or F(riday).
1
@HALinNY The puzzle has only been out for one hour, how did you see the column hours ago? Do you get the puzzle early somehow? Because I want to get the puzzle early, too. :)
@Tyler D.
You can get the puzzle early if you have home delivery; Saturday's paper comes with some of the Sunday sections, including the Magazine, in which the puzzle is found. Personally, I wait until it's up online, because I don't like solving on paper as much.
However, Caitlin's comments do come out at 6:00, so I don't know how hours have elapsed. An hour at best.
2
@HALinNY
I see as base phrases
BOSTON TEA PARTY
WHY BOTHER
YOU BET
SEA WORLD
THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA
BEE STING
and I don't see the inconsistency of which you speak. None of the base phrases contain the letter per se; they're all homonyms.
10
In 1963, instead of doing schoolwork at Newton High's study hall, I fell in love with the Times xword when I solved the puzzle to find that the answers to 'Peking factory inspector' and "Commisar donning a topcoat' were CHINESECHECKER and RUSSIANDRESSING.
Those were my favorites until today, replaced by the answer to 'Falls for someone who's already married?'
19
@Don Topaz ... I think I actually remember those. My all-time favorite from a Sunday: 1/64th note keeper.
HEMIDEMISEMIQUAVERSAVER
9
Ha ha ha Niagara Falls!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KpsUlvzbkk
Step by step...inch by inch...
8
(It's right here on Wordplay that one of my life's mysteries was solved. I posted about my family's first visit to Niagara when I was a child – how I had a distinct memory of the Falls having been turned off. But how could that be? Other Wordplayers put me on to the fact that the US Army Corps of Engineers turned off the water at Niagara for several months, while they assessed the longer term prospects for the geology of the site. It was a relief knowing I hadn't imagined it! And also typical of my family, to go there when the water was on vacation...)
12
@David Connell
A classic with Sidney Fields playing two roles in the same sketch.
Here's an item with photographs and memories of that year (1969).
http://www.niagarafrontier.com/dewater.html
When I was a kid, all I could think was, "why are people so excited about a cliff?"
6