On what planet does decimal = often?
@Deb never mind...of ten, two words....
I started with “HELP” for 1A - - - and it took a while to get better. But it did get better and, with Deb’s help, I finished the puzzle - without getting the “trick”. (It was not a THEME in my book.)
Even with a thorough explanation, it took no little effort to figure out WHICH clues were the ones with which I needed help in understanding.
I continue to marvel at the skills of our constructors in manipulating words - in the puzzle grid and the clues. This one was particularly imaginative.
P.S. What’s a “DOOK”?
DOOK with a space is DO OK
Very Disappointing Puzzle...too Many “guess What I’m Thinking” Clues With Two Word Answers
5
My favourite DamonG since he first hove over the horizon..
And it has less than Zero to do with BEEFCAKE.
2
Clue 70 across makes no sense: "It may have a big mouth".
According to Websters DELTA means "the alluvial deposit at the mouth of a river", hence the river has a mouth, and the river can have a delta, but the deposit (the delta) obviously has no mouth.
3
@Christophe Verlinde
Thank you. I first filled in RIVER. I was thinking the river *has* a mouth, the delta *is* the mouth
4
The delta is the mouth of the river, where alluvial deposits are made. They are often wide, as the River ‘opens up’ into a marshy or boggy area by the ocean (if that’s where it is draining), and the tidal waters mix with the river. Some examples are the Mississippi Delta and the SF Bay delta, where the Sacramento River meets the bay and then the Pacific.
OT IS
WHOA, OT IS SO
exciting,
OT IS DOS-DOS
ORR ZIP-ZIP,
SANS room for ERROR.
OT IS
a SAD TALE
ORR a HEROINE’s
score.
OT IS
“NO NO . . .
WHOA, yes, SKOAL!”
3
Hip hip hooray, Damon. Loved, loved this puzzle. It seemed hopeless for a good while, but putting it down & returning later, more than once, allowed me to see 'not able' was POWERLESS. When I got DECIMAL, I laughed. By the time I figured out that 'goon' was PERSIST, I knew I was totally hooked.
I did have to look up OCHOA though.
4
Of ten
How did my comment about the puzzle get hijacked into a thread on autism and bad movies.
Don't forget that long before there was Siri and Alexa there was HAL 9000. I never should have treated Dave the way I did. Now I am alone with only Leapfinger to talk to and she is hardly ever around these days.
3
@HALinNY, my pet, this is a temporary interlude. I, like MacArthur, shall return when a modicum of normalcy returns to my environs.
I can't abandon you helplessly lost on Frelinghuysen Ave, in NewArkNJ
1
@Leapfinger ... be still, my heart (and get the defib machine ... quickly)
2
I solved the puzzle but I still don't get the other two theme clues... Often=decimal?? De cimal, Dec imal, deci mal, what an I missing?
@Dean ohhhh of ten, geez, ok
2
Dean,
Decimal is "of ten."
1
@Barry Ancona ... I thought decimal was of Dewey.
6
I enjoyed this puzzle very much. Clever theme and enjoyed the reveal.
3
This is the beefcake that Mr. Gulczynski is (unpleasantly) reminded of when he thinks of the said clue.
https://www.google.com/search?q=damon gulczynski&prmd=insv&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjz0Jyn86XhAhXKpZ4KHYD_CyMQ_AUoAXoECAwQAQ&biw=320&bih=454#imgrc=LbZ0cDnTSwYqEM&imgdii=69zUkJ59MBaQJM
Ha! A whole puzzleful of DOOK clues. Excellent.
1
Now we have to get a picture, Mr. Gulczynski. C'mon, don't be shy.
What a delightful puzzle, big aha moment with often, although the math lover in me thinks of BASE ten..
I am really, really weary of the "schoolyard taunt" entries, all across the range of crosswords that I work. IMHO they should all be retired, or perhaps more cleverly re-clued.
4
Got the theme, and a big giggle, at DECIMAL. Continuing the theme-reversal that Damon mentions, it was having figured out the theme that helped me get the revealer instsead of the other way around.
Like Deb, got hung up on incorrectly reparsing the clue for POWERLESS. I started thinking of some sort of tables in shops that had electrical outlets built in.
One quibble: BEEFCAKE certainly refers to a muscular man -- bodybuilder-type maybe -- but "sexy"? Maybe to some, but a whole lot of us find BEEFCAKE a major turnoff.
I love Thursdays.
1
@Deadline
Vegancake doesn't have the same cachet.
8
@Etaoin Shrdlu
PattyMeltCake, otoh, draws on the best of two worlds, if not three
1
XD
One of my favorite Xwords ever! I loved puzzling over the four themers until I got the revealer. Even then, I had to think awhile before that Aha! moment.
More, please, Mr. Gulczynski! (love the name, btw -- only 2 1/2 vowels!)
3
CLEVER AND CUNNING!
FOP? Homophobic much?
No, I really don't think so.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/fop
5
P.S. While you will find clues and entries here that assume a gender binary or are drawn from specifically heterosexual examples, I haven't seen much (if any) out-and-out homophobia.
4
@Barry Ancona
Eye of the beholder maybe? Never heard FOP used in that sense.
3
am i the only one that thought this was unnecessarily difficult? from the theme to some of the fill it was much harder than other thursday puzzles. I enjoy clues with lateral meaning that makes you go ah ha, but these were to the point where some clues didn't make sense or the words were too obscure. 5/10
9
@david Top-center had me stuck for a while...never heard of a “fop” before, nor “sere.” I honestly found the theme a lot easier than most Thursdays’; it was some of the random words here and there that tripped me up.
@david
After thinking last Thursday that I might almost be ready to try a Friday, this was a humbling puzzle that kicked my tuches. Oh I got the NE and SW quadrants pretty quickly, but went way off the rails NW and was unable to budge off lots of blanks SE. I got two or three of the four themers without help, but made no connection between clue and answer on those.
Nonetheless I *do* think this was a worthy Thursday theme puzzle and applaud Damon Gulczynski. Ya got me good this time. I'll catch ya again down the road.
1
david,
If you found it difficult, you found it difficult.
Would you share with us:
*A couple of clues you found made no sense?
*A couple of entries you found too obscure?
1
Mrs W is a New Yorker magazine subscriber, and this week's issue has the following more-or-less on-topic graphic:
https://www.newyorker.com/cartoon/a20519
(link submitted with permission).
9
@Dr W
As long as you're mentioning the New Yorker, their recently started crossword is very good, often tougher than the Saturday NYT (but not necessarily because it's of better quality). It appears every Monday and you can access four articles (each puzzle counts as an article) per month for free. (I solve the five-Monday-month crisis by doing the fifth one on the iPad.)
Puzzles are constructed by a rotating staff that includes Kameron Austin Collins, Patrick Berry, Natan Last, Elizabeth Gorski and Anna Schectman.
The puzzles can be accessed at:
https://www.newyorker.com/crossword/puzzles-dept
And when you finish a puzzle, you get a germane cartoon with your congratulations!
@Steve L
Thank you!!
Got it, but not without grumbling at needing to lookup the entertainment clues. Those are always the blems on an otherwise sterling situation.
49A was my aha moment.
Quibble: if you have to use 46D it's not really a BBQ. Wood or charcoal for me.
Must have done something wrong when I was growing up: my 36A got just as much wear.
3
@Dr W
"Quibble: if you have to use 46D it's not really a BBQ. Wood or charcoal for me."
Hank Hill would like a word with you.
6
@Dr W
I agree. It's not at all a BBQ. Should have just been griller's purchase.
Fun puzzle and a pretty smooth solve for somewhat tricky theme. I got POWERLESS first and was thinking it had something to do with opposites, but with enough crossings I sussed out the revealer and trick fairly quickly. My longest streak continues (25), peanuts to some I'm sure but I'm proud :)
9
Thomas,
Well done! Keep it going!
Another Thursday that I solved (3 in a row, wow!). I kept scratching my head because even though I got the “tada” music, I still did not get the theme. The aha moment finally came when I started reading Deb’s column. Thanks Deb!
7
Great puzzle. Fun twist. I found the true South to be a hangup, just too much trivia I didn't know, but it all fell into place after a good stare and a head scratch.
5
It's maddening getting all the correct answers, no cross-outs and then presuming that the theme will magically and suddenly emerge. Well, I still couldn't connect the dots or make sense out of the 4 clues.
So, now that it is all explained here in the comments section I thank those for reminding me that sometimes (or decimal) things aren't what they seem to be.
I once tried to piece together a logical path that would steer my thinking into a broader perspective when I plodded through a book, Gödel, Escher Bach, An Eternal Golden Braid, especially M.C. Escher, where patterns converge, diverge but sometimes they can be completely chaotic and random. Kinda like my brain.
5
Appropriately hard puzzle for a Thursday.
5
Loved this puzzle. Definitely made me smile too, Deb.
6
I got the revealer, but the first theme clue I got was FROM WHERE I STAND for “To me.” Since the revealer also references “me,” I assumed I had to literally find clues/answers with “me” in them and separate those. I found that to be a little bit confusing as it got me way off base - I think it would have been a slightly better theme with something else instead of 17A.
3
Got off to a bad start thinking 1 Down was "heretic", but managed to recover.
4
@Mary Beth me, too.
1
@Christi H, Mary Beth
I had heretic as it went well with help at 1 D. Luckily, that didn't last long.
1
@suejean
It wasn't "atheist" either.
3
Easy but fun. I would have preferred "give me some space" to be clued differently to make the theme more challenging. My only snag was the "raw deal" clue where I initially had StiFf for SHAFT. Thursdays remain my favorite NYT crossword day.
4
Why is a goose egg ZIP, or nothing? I presume it’s not other forms of zip,which would be weird. As anybody who lives near obliging poultry farmers knows, if you have a goose egg, you got something. It’s a heavy physical reality.
2
Goose egg is sports slang for “zero” — i.e. “The scoreboard is all goose eggs going into the 6th inning” means neither team has scored a run. Don’t know the origins for its use though!
1
@Alex
Oh,okay. I can see that. It’s just visual.
At first I worked off the ZI- and entered ZIT, which I thought was disgusting, and then PIPS corrected me. So I was foxed by it.
I didn’t get this theme at all but still got in under my average. Thank god it was light, though it was not bad. My brain is clogged up from a cold and oversleeping.
1
@Alex of LA — If I had to guess at the origin of goose eggs on the scoreboard, I'd probably blame fabled baseball announcer Red Barber, a southern gentleman whose characteristic exclamation of astonishment was, "Oh, Doctah!"
This was a fun puzzle, because I didn't twig to the theme until after I finished and was chided for being 50 minutes slower than my Thursday average. I filled the "tome" and "often" and "notable" answers by crossings and inferences; not until a few minutes after completion did I understand.
But now I'm on a run of 13, so the extra sweat was worthwhile.
3
Wow this one took me while, solidly over standard Thursday time. I did really enjoy finishing it, finally, once I sorted out that NW corner which was the trickiest due to CORRIDA being unknown. I appreciate the theme coming from the clues since you don't see that often anymore and it really allows much more flexibility in the grid. The result is four great corners full of awesome bonus fill, my favorite being the SW. As for themers I liked the Goon/PERSIST pairing the most but I think Often/DECIMAL was great too. Revealer was solidly in the language and looks nice across from FROM WHERE I STAND. Biggest hitches were cHAFe before SHAFT, rEgular before DECIMAL, and both elm and oak before ASH. And yeah NW was stubborn, wasn't familiar with the clue for ANOINTS. I appreciate the mental workout though.
Good Fill: DEW RAE ZIP SKYE( puppies :) ) ALOHA CREEP DAWGS DINGO SHAFT ARRIVAL HEROINE INFIDEL PERSIST RADICAL WHATAMI YESLETS BEEFCAKE(lol) LIZLEMON ; tons of great 7s today
Bad Fill: ADA EDT ERS MTA ABES(awk) ANAT ISSO OTIS PCBS(iffy plural) RECT SPFS(worse plural) NOMSG ; all excusable given those bonuses
Best Clues: 41-A Give a raw deal (I appreciate the slang over the mine shaft decision) ; 70-A It may have a big mouth
Worst Clues: 38-D ___ and Carla (1960s R&B duo) - rarely do I think an elevator company is more well known ; 28-A Palindromic girl's name (read as: this is a random name pick which one!)
tl;dr Tricky little Thursday with four really great corners
6
Side note: I wish the pictures for the articles didn't give away answers. I accidentally scrolled down slightly (I'm usually good at avoiding this) and saw the picture of the DEW which made me cross out AnA and kinda felt like cheating :/ Ik I would've gotten it eventually but still a bummer when you feel like you only did 98% of the puzzle.
1
Re: bad fill
Will,
Did your native New Yorker pals who ride the subway but couldn't recall the IRT immediately after spring break remember the MTA today?
2
@Will From College
Have to agree with your "Wrost Clues" choices today. I don't remember (if I ever knew) OTIS and Carla, and the girl's name just had soooo many options. And both of those crossed POWERLESS, which I had problems with because of ["No table"] instead of ["Not able"].
Will the clue "stylists" fit todays theme? The expected answer is Messitems.
1
@msk
All I know is that Mesopotamia is a lot of potamia. (That would would work better if the theme clues had been phonetic dooks)
1
@msk,
I think STYLISTS would be Duroc, Poland China, Hampshire and Pot-bellied.
STYLIST is a FABulous pick-up, btw!!!
New to this but finished the puzzle; figured out the theme, except for persists & decimal, until I realized I was trying to parse the answers not the clues.
What is dook?
@Saundra Hopkins
As mentioned below, DOOK is either an "affectionate" appellation for someone from Duke University, or a simple word that can be broken up into two or more words. NOTABLE --> No Table or Not Able. My favorit was Goon --> Go On.
1
@Robert Michael Panoff - So, is DOOK a dook for DO OK? Is that the origin?
@Sue
As far as I know, and I only know DOOK, NATICK, NIXON terms from this blog!
I surprised myself in catching on pretty quickly with "tome." No answer long enough for the spaces came to mind, and the crosses filled in just enough for the "aha" to arrive. The one that stopped me for a moment was "often," because the answer was so short. Then I had the D and AL and the "oho" moment came.
Nice job!
2
If you get stuck as I did, you just have to goon.
21
I figured this one out without help. Wicked devious but fun.
13
@Helena Valentine Way to go!
6
It wasn't much help that I confused the clue for 17A with the 14A line about Talking in a movie theater... but once I finished filling in the puzzle and sat looking at the 49A clue Goon, the Aha Moment burst upon me. The end.
Cute! Damon the Demon hits another one out of the park!
Book Triage, Day Two:
I am down to only 13 cookbooks. I am donating a couple to the library and sending 3 to our son (my domesticated offspring.) The large file with loose pages doesn't count, right? And the little tiny booklets for Springerle, pasta maker, crockpot, and so on don't count, either.
6
"...our son (my domesticated offspring.)"
MOL,
I knew she was the PhysicsDaughter;
I didn't know she was also Wild Thing!
1
@Barry Ancona
Ha ha....
PhysicsDaughter is the big sister; our son is a Software Engineer. Both are opera lovers....Cat People....but somehow the cooking gene bypassed the girl-child. She likes to dine, however.
2
Thanks to Mr Gulczynski for a very nice Thor's Day puzzle!
I love puzzles that make me say WTF? (to myself, anyway). I only wish there could have been even more of the theme.
Happy Thor's Day!
:-c)€
2
I was thinking that the four clues are often either non-DOOK clues or answers. Maybe another puzzle would be to have the clues themselves show up as answers, either as DOOKS or not.
Frequently--> Often
Volume--> Tome
Thug--> Goon
Significant--> Notable
I can't get the hang of puzzle construction, but this may make a future constructor challenge. Fun Fun!
4
@Robert Michael Panoff
That’s a great idea for a theme - clues that are also entries. There’s a bunch of crossword construction software available. Have not looked deeply at it, but the cost seems relatively modest. Here’s a Wordplay article from last year that touches on software:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/11/crosswords/how-to-make-crossword-puzzle-grid.html
1
Damon could write a book, "DOOKS Are Fun." What a wonderful idea to put the DOOKS into the clues. A beautifully done switcheroo!
I thought I got the trick by thinking the reveal GIVEMESOMESPACE meant we had to add the word SPACE to the theme answers. DECIMAL(SPACE) kinda made sense. THE(SPACE)FROMWHEREISTAND = clutching at straws! None of the others worked at all.
I never did get the trick (Hi Wags and etal!) I just didn't PERSIST long enough.
Regardless of my fail, this puzzle and Damon did anything but. Bravo!
2
What are DOOKS?
1
Elizabeth,
DOOK is a funny way of referring to Duke University. It is also Do OK. Commenters here call such words as the theme clues DOOKS.
4
DOOKS!!!! I saw it immediately, just as soon as I first laid eyes on "Tome". Either I've been doing crosswords too long or it's been done before. And once I had the theme from "Tome", all of the DOOKS seemed obvious. Except for "Often". That was the trickiest.
I knew what the revealer would be based on just about no crosses. I wrote in GIVE ME -O-E SPACE and waited to see if it would be GIVE ME SOME SPACE or GIVE ME MORE SPACE.
Tome, it's FROM WHERE I SIT, not from WHERE I STAND. But I suppose that goes with my general philosophy of life: "Never stand when you can sit and never sit when you can lie down. Except when you're playing tennis."
This would have made a delightful Tuesday puzzle and that's where it should have been slotted. It's not the constructor's fault that it appeared on the wrong day and was really too easy for a Thursday. Difficulty level aside, I liked it.
1
@Nancy I also got the revealer with no crosses. It was a fun (albeit quick) challenge to figure out the clue and come up with a phrase about needing space(s); once I had it -- and verified that it had 15 letters -- I knew it was right.
NOOOOOOOO!!!!
If they start publishing puzzles like this one on Tuesdays, my “longest streak” statistic will become the number ONE!!
Clever theme. It took some cross fills but when I saw ISTAND in 5A and SPACE in 64A the light went on. Well done.
I love Thursdays, its just another level, isnt it?
But one should never become complacent! The constructors brilliant minds will always find creative new ways to trick us...
So today i got completely stuck and had to read Deb for the trick. In the clues, not in the fills! Nothing is sacred on Thursdays!
Oh what a pleasure afterwards! My all time favorite clue is often!!!! DECIMAL! A thing of beauty!
I was delayed by PUPAS instead of PUPAE and not knowing much about fishing, and curious about this unkown to me bait, I googled " SELS as baits" to which google replied " did you mean EELS" ? The humiliation....
Finally, if the stripped bass likes EELS, what does the colorblock bass like?
7
@Laura Rodrigues in London
Just want to say that your glue and theme-bit poem from last night was wonderful. I’m sure many people missed it because it went up late Eastern US time.
CLOMP CLOMP OAT BAR
HIP HIP MONA PARR
was my favorite of three great couplets , especially because it transformed yesterday’s consensus “worst” entry (MONA) into something special. I actually had to double-check the puzzle to make sure (Catherine) PARR’s first name wasn’t MONA.
2
@Puzzlemucker
Kind words from the master!
1
@Laura Rodrigues in London
I've heard a rumour that once upon a time, Napoleon MONA PARRed
3
Where does the SPELLING BEE get its allowed words? Today it doesn't accept GLEBE.
2
@Rick Box
Welcome to the "lots of crossword answers are not spelling bee answers" club. All kinds of entries every day that you need to know for the crossword puzzle are not recognized by the SBP. And some of the words which are accepted are just scrabble fodder, not words used by most people. It's a fun diversion, though, no?
4
I guess no one had time to do a grid. :\ it was a big puzzle 244 points and 51 words. I can give it a shot i guess...apologies if I screw it up, first try
Letter 4L 5L 6L 7L 8L 9L 10L TOTAL
A 1 3 1 1 6
B 13 7 7 2 4 33
E 1 2 3
G 1 2 3
L 1 1 2
M 1 1 1 3
N 1 1
51
17
also, 1 pangram
I got held up on 5A. I know that the 5 Rs has something to do with conservation, but nothing seemed to fit. For 21A, "Dan dies", all I could think of was Rather, but I think he's still alive. By the time I got to 67A, "Pass", I decided it was time to give up...
5
I’ve never heard of Aloha shirts. Is that the same as Hawaiian shirts?
@Alanna Berger
Embrace Wikipedia!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aloha_shirt
NB no better place to seek Hawai’i than a wiki
4
Very clever theme, and Deb’s explanation was also nicely done.
4
March Madness!
Did our DOOK fans DOOK on this puzzle?
5
@Barry Ancona
C'mon Barry.....you're an icon.
@Barry Ancona
This one did! :) Thanks for asking!
2
Ana instead of ADA put me in a hole. Tried to think of a contemporary of Robert Frost, etc. Snailly found joy in the extra few minutes it took to do the dew.
Love it when there is no rebus or tricks on a Thursday.
Thank you Mr. D.
4
@dk
So you don't classify DOOK's as tricks? :)
1
I make brief notes as I'm solving, and after I saw PERSIST (with several letters filled in) and looked at its clue, I wrote down, "IT'S A DOOK PUZZLE!", laughed, and dashed in the other theme answers, which all also had some letters filled in. It's always, to me, a pressure reliever when I figure out the Thursday trick. And that, combined with the fact that this theme, IMO, was funny, made for a great great solving moment.
Question for @leapy: Could OK's be called YESLETS.
Nice clues for IPODS and BSIDE, a mini-theme of double E's (5), and a great reveal -- a first-class puzzle, in my estimation. Thank you Damon!
4
@Lewis, lol about your YESLETS. I've been having [am still having] a tomwallager day, so I only got as far as thinking YESLETS were small assents.
All in all, I can't think of a puzzle better suited to the Leapfinger modus op. Could not be happier!!
2
Fun! I had a lot of stuff filled in once I got to the revealer, and although I didn't have the answer to it, the clue gave me all I needed to grok the theme. It alerted me to the fact that some of the clues were meant to be interpreted in a different way, and I had DEC_MAL for 30A, which was obviously DECIMAL, but that didn't match the clue "Often". That was the a-ha for me. I love simple but clever themes, so this grid was a winner for me! Favorite clue - "Court org. - or a former court org.". Nice!!
4
LETTER BOXED THREAD
Lots of word possibilities, I only found one solution so far.
W-M(6),M-E(11).
@Kevin Sparks
Lots of word possibilities, but most of them leave a horrible set of letters to finish with. I don't think there will be many different solutions.
Mine: P-C(9),C-K(8)
I also figured out yours; both form understandable combos that may never have been uttered by anyone ever.
2
@Kevin Sparks
I was wrong about your phrase. It has been uttered. There's one in Phoenix (although the W-M refers to a boulevard, not to what you think it means).
@Phil P
I got the same as you in record time. I will go look for Kevin's now.
Tough one for me, though quite satisfying in the end. I'm amazed that some people got this without figuring out the theme; I absolutely needed it to finish.
Was stuck in multiple places early on, but worked out the general NE area. Finally had enough to suggest DECIMAL, stared at the clue for a moment and it dawned on me. Still took a lot of work elsewhere. Usually working out the theme answer (or the reveal) and then one more down cross was the breaking point in each section.
Remembered OTIS with just a bit of thought; LIZLEMON took more thought and some crosses. Some tough clues (for me) elsewhere, but managed to work them all out. Nice puzzle.
Afterwards, got curious about SHAFT and whether it had ever been clued to the film (or character). It's appeared 50 times and was clued relative to the film (or title song) twice in acrostics, but other than that just once - "Recurring film role" in 1975. There was a sequel in 2000, and evidently yet another sequel coming up this year. Should be in most everybody's wheelhouse by then.
For a music link today I'll go with OTIS and one of my all-time favorite songs. I just love the way this builds up:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnPMoAb4y8U
..
5
@Rich in Atlanta
One of my favorite tunes of the era, and it's been re-done a few times (Three Dog Night, The Commitments are two awesome covers that I can think of), but it's Otis's tune for sure! Thanks Rich!
1
Oh yes!
1
There it is.
1
Thursday, just when you think you're getting the hang of this crossword stuff it's Thursday again.
21
The clue for 21A could have engendered a grid-spanning LIONSDENFALLACY.
2
@Lewis
OK, I give... what? LOL
2
@Steve Faiella
So... think of the clue for 21A as going along with the theme, seeing it not as the ostensible word it is... and I guess you need to be familiar with classic Old Testament stories.
2
@Lewis
Got it. Excellent! I thought you might be referring to a British sex scandal. Your “revealer” after Steve’s question led to even more of an aha moment for me than with the puzzle themers.
2
Normally I crack a Thursday theme long before finishing. Today I got the happy music without understanding the theme, so I didn’t really consider it solved. In my quest to understand the theme, I found myself trying to add spaces to the questionable entries but to no avail. When I finally realized that it was the clues and not the entries that needed space, I felt the satisfaction of a mission accomplished.
I still haven’t recovered from the image of Hal in NY chatting with the lady who operates his voice mail!
3
Very clever. I am surprised I got the theme as soon as I did. Stiff before SHAFT slowed me down a bit.
6
@Paul
That was one of my "scars" too, Paul.
:-c)€
@Paul
cHAFe before SHAFT. . .
2
NO PROB.
OTIS was "my man" for SHAFT.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIpc_2rayFM
2
I'm feeling quite smug as I got the theme quickly. The crosses were very kind for the first answer, and somehow I immediately saw that Tome was To me. As far as Notable goes, luckily I didn't notice it could be No table, just saw Not able. So no problem with the theme, but I did slow down a lot in the south, especially the SE corner for some reason, even though I got the reveal quite quickly.
I love Thursdays.
8
Very nice theme and fun puzzle! Can someone explain PIPS for Card count?
@Eric Pips are the shaped symbols on playing cards that depict the number and suit of that card - the 3 of Hearts has three heart-shaped pips, for example.
7
Ohhhhhhhh. THANK YOU
1
Am I the only person here who watched 30 rock with religious conviction? You people have missed out on some of the most brilliant comedy of our time.
15
@zzDoug ... I piously observed the reruns as much as I could. At first, the novelty held my attention but after not too many more episodes, it became tedious.
I know there are an awful lot of people who think Elizabeth Fey is brilliant and funny and perhaps she is but I did not see it. She had a lot of buzz and most of it, IMHO, was from a drone.
1
@HALinNY
I always thought Elizabeth Fey was meh. Tina, on the other hand, comedic brilliance. I also credit her with saving us from ... oh well, never mind.
16
@zzDoug
I'm with you, Doug. 30 Rock was amazing, and as an added bonus, I worked for GE at the time and the inside jokes were hilarious! My favorite was that Alec Baldwin's Jack Donaghy (modeled after Jack Welch) was the " Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming".
8
Indeed. Few professions suggest "beefcake" like crossword puzzle constructor.
8
@zzDoug
It's a well kept secret... ;)
1
Getting DECIMAL was the key to cracking the code; I then knew that OFTEN had to be parsed as OF TEN. This made solving the other theme answers and the revealer easier.
LIZLEMON was a no-know, but I got a phone call during the solve and my TV-savvy friend gave me the answer. That changed NIL to ZIP and LIPS to PIPS so CARD COUNT finally made sense.
So I can’t take complete credit for a faster-than-usual Thursday solve, but most of the non-theme clues were fairly straightforward.
A fun puzzle which I enjoyed without the usual amount of Thursday head scratching.
@Ron O.
Ditto here, NIL & LIPS. I had to check the solution to figure that one out.
@Ron O.
I was also thrown off by NIL & LIPS. I probably wouldn't have been if I had ever watched 30 Rock.
@Grizzly
My friend sent me this video of the best of Liz Lemon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMKrAR6YBDI
Deb's reasoning in relation to the theme is well explained and valid, but the absolute incompatibility of "Tome" (as book) with all those spaces at 17A *forced* us to realize that something was up, which we know to expect on Thursdays, anyway. Thus, the need to overcome our mental inertia and shift to lateral or divergent thinking was imposed on us rather than requiring an effort of will on our part. The next step, practicing those kinds of thinking, was where the hard work was required.
For me, vertical crosses made FROM WHERE I STAND inevitable, and then t-o-m-e sorted itself out, revealing the theme gimmick. Great fun the rest of the way.
4
@paulymath
You're right about Thursday itself being a bit of a giveaway that something would be up. I can't remember the first time I did a puzzle with some trick in it (probably a rebus) but it would have been when I was in my 20's probably, in the 1990's, before blogs and such. It must have left me gobsmacked and grinning. I wish I could experience once again the completely *unexpected* surprise of a Thursday puzzle, but I suppose that, like virginity, one's crossword innocence can only be lost once.
Thanks to Mr Gulczynski for a nice puzzle!
Happy Thor's Day, everyone!
:-c)€
4
I can only offer the highest accolades for today's puzzle's theme. The reason? I frequently talk like that just to confuse whoever is unfortunate enough to engage me in conversation. I don't get much practice, however, because I have no friends and almost no relatives and so no one talks to me much. Sometimes I get so lonely, I call the woman who operates my voice mail. For some reason, she always says the same thing. Once I tried out an iPhone and spoke to Siri for 10 minutes and "she" shut down with some excuse about her battery needing a charge ... yeah $800. Quite a charge. Anyhow, well done for today's offering and I hope you all enjoyed it.
16
Halinny,
Laugh out loud funny! (Unless your serious...).
5
@Andrew
Even if he is serious, it's still sorta funny, no? :)
1
@HALinNY
hilarious! !
But seriously, apparently many children in the autistic spectrum enjoy, learn and developed skills by talking to siri, alexa etc . According to a funy interesting (and controversial) book, to Siri, with love.
4
After getting the themer and having TO ME as a clue I wondered if all of the words needing to be split would involve the letters ME, each requiring SOME SPACE, but alas it was not 2B.
Worked my way from top to bottom without too much difficulty, wondering why some of the clues didn't match with their answers. Finally got to the bottom, filled in the revealer, and then it took a moment for it to sink in that the clues needed spaces in the appropriate spots to make the answers appropriate. I'm impressed by the thought that had to go into making this. Very clever, and fun!
4
The crosses made it clear to me that four answers had to be correct despite their not seeming to match the definitions. I had faith all would be "explained." And it was. Judging a puzzle is of course subjective, but, for me, this was one of the better ones! Nice cluing and very little use of over-used three letter words or archaic usage (like "afire" "aflame" you know what I mean.) Congratulations to the creator!
5
Terrific puzzle in the great Thursday tradition.
9
I did not see the trick even though I got to the clue Goon, inserted PERSIST and looked at the spacing in the clue to see if there was a space between the o's. Then I moved on totally oblivious to the fact that I had seen the trick. DUH!!! Clearly time to get some sleep.
6
@Margaret
PERSIST were the last letters I filled in; somewhat shocked that I got the happy tune, I had to think about it for a minute before realizing that GOON could have been a theme clue. Fun!
1
@john
Could have been?
1
@Margaret
And still, you PERSISTED? ;)
2
very subtle theme. cottoned on with PERSIST. also liked DECIMAL. TOASTS to the constructor!
4
Crafty theme by an even craftier constructor.
Caught on to that theme early with the back half of 17a. Very appropriate that those clues were not highlighted, so the solver has to figure out which ones the theme applies to. I was stumped on 49a for a while because I SPACEDed out the theme. So my Aha moment was when I remembered the theme might apply to the clue.
Seems I needed less SPACE.
and Elke
Andrew, Henry et al.- CC comment:
That No. 4 (born in Parry Sound,Ontario) in the DECIMAL system is 1.82m tall. In Boston he was 6'0".
And , Steve L- I won't mention my Chevy Nova- learned my lesson before, so I won't GOON anymore :))
@Robert and Elke
You don't mention your Nova, and I won't mention my bagel.
@Steve L
Speaking of Bagels, have you seen the atrocity being committed in St. Louis??
https://slate.com/human-interest/2019/03/bagel-sliced-bread-st-louis-twitter-viral.html
@Steve Faiella
Yes, it was on the Channel 4 news this morning. I wonder where the Nova goes?
1
I had FROM WHERE I STAND from the crossings but didn't understand the cluing until I got to the revealer. Aha!
However, it wasn't completely smooth sailing thereafter because Mr. Gulczynski cleverly hid the other three themers with innocuous one-word clues and one-word answers. Thus I hitched at DECIMAL, made worse by the crossing with IS SO, which I had as AM SO until I figured out B SIDE. I also hitched at POWERLESS, made worse by the crossings with DEW (I tried three different palindromic girl's names - ADA, ANA, AVA) and LIZ LEMON (a no-know). Like others, I also had NIL before ZIP, which I had to fix to get the happy music.
Very tricky Thursday.
2
@Henry Su
I had LIZ from seeing it in another puzzle recently, but did not know the last name. So that gave me ZIP. Frost relative led me to try ICE first, but EKE nixed that, and DEW finally dawned on me. Had river before DELTA, and that helped me finish the SW and the puzzle.
A clever and entertaining puzzle. Thank you.
5
Anyone else misread 37A as NO TABLE?
No? Just me then? OK.
4
@Rick Box - I did too, briefly. So did @Morgan - see first thread at the bottom.
@Rick Box Yes. :)
1
@Rick Box yes, totally in maitre d', no reservation mode!!!
i solved fairly quickly, but didn't get the actual theme regarding separating the clue words until i read this column ~ also, i still do not get "TOASTS" and "SKOAL" ~
@artlife I think "toasts" is third person form of verb "toast".
4
@artlife - SKOAL is a Scandanavia TOAST. And the S at the end of TOASTS is because of what @Backup said.
2
Danish: skål!
Icelandic: skál!
2
It took me a while to figure out what the answer to 17 across had to do with "to me." I was thinking of physical movement.
1
I have no shame, I'll admit that I got everything and couldn't figure out the theme, as much as I stared at it all. Had to come here to get it. Very clever.
14
Me as well! Thankfully, we are in the company of others here who’ve posted the same lament!
and Elke
For a change , once I got past POWERLESS, I knew I would DOOK with this puzzle.
10
This has been a fast week for me. Monday-Thursday's combined time is less than my Thursday average. A welcome relief after Friday and Saturday wrecked me last week.
2
Figured out the theme on the second pass through and got most of FROM WHERE I STAND. Figured out that it was to re-parse Tome as To me. Then it was on to look for the others. I got DECIMAL with a nagging thought, but didn't realize it was a theme entry until I read the revealer and realized there were 4 themers and I only knew of the long one. From there, figured out POWERLESS and PERSIST were the other themes along with DECIMAL. For the revealer, I had GIVE ME MORE SPACE before changing the MORE to SOME (because TOAMTS doesn't make any sense).
Having never watched 30 Rock, LIZ LEMON was the last to fall.
DINGOs may have been known as the Down Under predator, but nowadays, it is feral cats. They are decimating native fauna.
2
@Wen
Likewise on LIZ LEMON. Worse, I had NIL in place of ZIP, and thought LINLEMON and LIPS were legit crosses. LIPS for "Card count" puzzled me, but not enough to think it wrong. I had to do an "Across Lite dodge" to check the grid and realize that NIL should be ZIP.
4
@Wen Too Right! And foxes...
@Alan J - ooh I had NIL and LIPS too. Forgot I was puzzled by that also.
Brutal. I got nothing.
2
I still don't get goons
2
@BasoMas This is one of the theme clues: "goon" = "go on" = "persist".
4
@BasoMas
Do go on.
Or, if you prefer, doggone!
1
@BasoMas
Not plural. GOON becomes GO ON when you invoke the theme and give it some space. When you PERSIST you GO ON doing what you were doing.
2
Deb, I love the part in your write-up "it’s only when I stare at the grid while my brain rifles through all the files in my head that I emerge with the right answer." That really describes what I enjoy most about solving puzzles, that "going through the files" in a random, playfully disorganized manner, arriving at the serendipitous moment when the answer appears.
8
@Philly Carey
Me too! My favorite puzzles tend to be Thursdays because I always wonder what trickiness they're so innocently hiding. My aha moment in this puzzle was with DECIMAL, which seemed certainly correct by the crossings but didn't mean "often"... until I realized that it did!
:-c)€
3
I’m not one to complain about a fast solve, perhaps because “fast” for me is probably “average” for truly fast solvers. This was fast for me. I struggled to get the theme, but I sort of got it with POWERLESS as “not able”. But notwithstanding the fuzziness of my comprehension, answers seemed to come readily, including the themers. Thursdays tend to intimidate me, but this one didn’t and frankly I felt thankful rather than resentful.
I do enjoy golf, even watching it, and so I think my favorite entry was Lorena OCHOA, a superstar on the LGPA tour during her prime in the 2000s. From 2007 through her retirement in 2010 she was the No. 1 women’s player in the world. Yet, she is not as well known here (she is Mexican) as Michelle Wie or Annika Sörenstam. So, it was great to see her get her due.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorena_Ochoa
10
Edit: LPGA not LGPA. (Perhaps it’s time to consider changing “Ladies” to “Women’s” and changing PGA to MPGA).
5
@Puzzlemucker
Agree on both counts.
40% below average without applying the theme. Just forced PERSIST, POWERLESS, et al because the crosses left little choice.
I gave up playing golf in my 50s when I developed an incurable case of the yips. Putting had always been the best part of my game. I find myself watching the LPGA more often than the men's game. I can't relate to guys who hit their 7 irons 220 yards.
1
@Al in Pittsburgh
I feel your yip pain. My cure is to give myself two strokes every other hole and one stroke for the rest. Just slightly an exaggeration. My putting has become yippier than Abbie Hoffman.
2
I liked it! Very satisfying aha moment!
1
Often, someone will mention that Chevrolet didn’t sell its Nova in Latin America because “no va” means “it doesn’t go” in Spanish. This is a myth.
I ask them if they saw a store called “NOTABLE Furniture,” would they think it didn’t sell tables?
Today I realized that it was really “NOT ABLE”. The durn furniture can’t do anything you ask it to.
7
@Steve L - I'm surprised you didn't refer to the theme as a DOOK theme.
4
I parsed 37A as "No table" and was trying to think of a phrase like "eating off your lap".
@Morgan
BACHELORHOOD?
4