Cute puzzle, but was no one else stymied by the Natick of ELSTON and ANATOLE??
I think I did well on this one because could have sworn I remembered just Regular Tennis being debuted in Seoul in 1988, (where Steffi Graff won the gold as well as all four majors that year). So typing 'tennis' at the end of the clue was the beginning for me of everything falling into place. Sometimes I DO finish the puzzles at the end of the week with Autocheck turned on, because I'm still new and inexperienced and don't want to go down the rabbit hole that will take hours to turn myself around. One day! One day I will start a major streak where absolutely nobody will be the wiser unless I rent a plane with a screen shot of my accomplishment tied to the end and fly it over the beach on a sweltering hot day! :)
2
37A could have been clued “Olympic sport never aired by US networks because it’s dominated by non-Americans*”
* Specifically China and US networks think we’re so provincial we wouldn’t turn it on.
Olympic Results...
2004 Athens
GOLD Ryu Seung-min South Korea
SILVER Wang Hao China
2008 Beijing
GOLD Ma Lin China
SILVER Wang Hao China
2012 London
GOLD Zhang Jike China
SILVER Wang Hao China
2016 Rio
GOLD Ma Long China
SILVER Zhang Jike China
2
@tensace I hear ya. Happy that you found a sport that you love to follow.
@tensace
Your medal list excludes female winners, which is more off-putting than your suggestion for the clue.
An easy but very fun puzzle. (Easy except for some of the fill.) Loved the Memorex clue; a nice 'bit' of nostalgia for a digital age.
1
I really liked this puzzle! The PING PONG theme hid itself very well and was a joy to fine. ALIENATED and BORON stalled me on the revealer for awhile.
TABLE TENNIS is a fun game. It’s been years, but I used to be pretty good. Not Forrest Gump good, but good enough to be fun.
Some really appealing cluing and fill. VARIANT, FATTER, SRTA, and BUSMAN were nice. I think it was Ella Fitzgerald in the old MEMOREX commercials scatting. That clue was definitely an age appropriate one for me!
Thanks to Stu Ockman for an enjoyable solve.
:-D
4
MEMOREX got me started, crazy what sticks around in one’s brain undisturbed for years. Enjoyed the visual theme today and my no-knows ROXIE, ADELE, ANATOLE, and STYNE were easily deduced by the crosses making for a relatively speedy Wednesday solve.
2
OT: I feel there is a future theme for some clever puzzle builder with Baby Sussex's name released: middle name: HARRISON = HARRY's SON! Brilliant. Crispy!
2
NONONO! Thought this would be a repeat of yesterday. Finished, but no happy music. Searched and searched for an error but no luck, until ... Changed OHMe to OHMY (STYNE was a no-know) and voila!
Liked ULNA and ULAN at top and (almost) bottom. DOI and INON again!
When a youngster, I was a PING PONG fanatic who frequently employed a BACKSPIN SERVE. I really enjoyed this puzzle! Kudos, Mr. Ockman!
1
I'm having a bad Google day, and half of it is the XWP's fault. I've done lookups for two separate things, only to find that the explanations did nothing to clear up my confusion.
First I tried to find out the difference between "equal" and "coequal" (I watch a lot off political and government stuff on the TV). Later I looked up "BACKSPIN SERVE." Mr. Google let me down twice.
I read the notepad in AL, so knew that the circled letters at 37A and 30D were somehow different from the other circled letters. Okay. Did the top half with little difficulty, and saw that the regular circled letters spelled out BACKSPIN SERVE.
What on earth, I wondered, was that? I thought it sounded sort of tennis-y and thought of suejean. Resolved to look it up after the solve. Since the other circled letters were sort of separate in the grid as well as reportedly in their significance, I skipped them and followed my nose down the east coast.
Got to 65A with PO?G and a reference to 63A. Obviously PING-PONG, which gave me TABLE TENNIS, which gave me NET, and all my circles were filled. The rest of the puzzle went quickly (except the baseball guy).
Back to Google. Explanations and videos of BACKSPIN SERVE did nothing to alleviate my confusion. Nor did the explanation (if that's what it was) from Barry. Some other commenters made references to what a BACKSPIN SERVE is, but I don't know whether they were equal, coequal, either, or both to Barry's.
Google has failed me.
2
@Deadline
With the Google search string “table tennis backspin serve,” this video showed up right away:
https://youtu.be/dWM_a65_MrQ
I think it explains the concept very clearly.
@Ron O.
Thanks. It's a little less confusing than the other videos I looked at. I now know you hit the ball on the bottom instead of the top. This for some reason makes the ball make a U-turn. Maybe. But the other guy hits it anyway.
I'd probably send my ball up into the chandelier.
i understand that not all the words in the world can be included in the bee, but not permitting "kopek" seems a bit narrow ~ also, there is a word for touching one's cat's nose with a finger, and that word is "boop," and that word is also not allowed ~ what is up with that?? ~ i'm deeply disappointed today
5
@artlife
I thought that was odd, too, until I tried a different spelling...
1
@artlife
KOPECK, KOPEK, COPECK: the Beekeeper allows the first but not the others. Sometimes variant spellings are allowed, sometimes not.
TEPEE and TEEPEE are allowed, but TIPI is not.
Regarding BOOP: it is a modern term that doesn’t appear in standard online dictionaries (Merriam-Webster, Collins, Oxford). The only source I found is Wiktionary:
https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/boop
Perhaps its lack of inclusion in mainstream online dictionaries is a reason for not allowing it.
This is regular fare for the Spelling Bee: expect annoyance, frustration, and disappointment. They’re all (unfortunately) part of the game.
4
@Ron O. thank you!
A couple of ENGINEERS playing PING PONG when, self- admittedly, they ought to be working:
https://youtu.be/XNRx5hc4gYc
2
@brutus
Cool video! From 1969 — first ever video table tennis game.
Wordplay could also function as the copy editor of last resort. "two capable third baseman", says the Yankees coverage. Only someone who cares deeply about words and their sounds and spellings would object. If NYT were open-source, then even a reader could submit a correction which either a copy editor or the author could accept and merge into the article deployed online. I'm embarrassed it doesn't already work that way. Also, maybe someone will suggest an app to catch those egregious grammar mistakes long before this point. My browser just amended my misspelling of egregious.
4
@Andrew
I know the instinct, since I sometimes want to correct grafffiti.
But I won't volunteer to come to Wordplay to act as copy editor for the NYT. I used to get paid for that, and I ain't givin' it away!
3
@Deadline Thanks for the meta pun on correcting "grafffiti". I wonder if anyone has actually sprayed, "ceci n'est pas grafffiti".
I've never met anyone who gave it away, though I still fantasize about meeting her one day.
It's a conundrum in "open source" slash "exploitation of knowledge economy". But actually, sometimes I give a twenty to the person holding a sign, and sometimes I don't. I feel it's enough if someone usually does.
3
Solving 1-across resulted in a nice burst of dopamine. Though perhaps this priceless clue should have awaited the appearance of “radius” in the grid?
What is happening lately? So many non-words being allowed into puzzles. There are two howlers in this single puzzle.
2
Michael,
I give up: which two entries are howling at you?
5
Glad to read NYT is doing OK. I see they are capitalizing on puzzle apps: xword, cooking, and now parenting. For some reason, only one of them gives you a jingle when you get the right answer. If my parents were still alive, I'd give them a jingle.
Local library just emailed that the state library gifted us a NYT subscription. But I guess we will keep our digital subscription, in case it makes a difference in the world. The usual focus is on reporters, but recently I've gotten a lot from the photographers. I keep saying "so-and-so for The New York Times" did an amazing job with that portrait -- psychologically astute, etc, how do they do it?
Why don't by-lines read, Deb Amlen for The New York Times, etc?
2
good puzzle but i do wish they would not use rapper's names, as i have never listened to rap. i believe this is still a crossWORD puzzle, and not proper nouns. thanks
@david g sutliff
That ship sailed a long time ago. I feel the same about brand names but it is what it is
2
@david g sutliff
"I love baseball, but I wish they'd do away with the stolen base, since I don't run very fast."
The very first clue of the very first NYT crossword was a proper name:
Famous one-eyed general: WAVELL. Famous? Really?
Two clues later:
Middle name of news commentator. : GRAM
Huh?
Two clues later:
Flier lost in Pacific, 1937. : AMELIA
(Probably heard of her.)
Proper names are part of crosswords, always have been, from all walks of life. I don't care for rap, either, but I don't expect the constructors to create puzzles around my tastes.
9
@david g sutliff
Glad you enjoyed the puzzle. In law you can make a “standing objection” at a deposition to a line of questioning rather than object to each and every question within that line of questioning. If you like, you can make a standing objection to all puzzles with “rappers’ names” as entries or, even broader, all puzzle with “any names” as entries. Note that the very first clue of the very first NYT puzzle back in 1942 was for the name a British General WAVELL. Nonetheless, you are entitled to a standing objection.
Here’s a good intro to “rap” non-rap short song by hip hop star Kendrick Lamar, who won a Pulitzer Prize last year. The song is called “Blood”:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e2LUHtstVf4
3
One of the fun things in doing the NYT is the shared knowledge across the the world in contrast to what seems common knowledge here and unfathomable there and the reverse !
This just to say I do not know if you guys did not mention the hemline index, because its so common knowledge its not worth mention or not. The index is based on the hypotheses that hemlines and the stockmarkets move together (happy! miniskirt; depressed, long skirts) propsed by George Taylor in 1927. BBC humourous take on it:
https://twitter.com/i/status/1103007539275419648
4
@Laura Rodrigues in London
How come you added "in London" to your screen name? Were you being confused with another Laura Rodrigues?
@Steve L
Both Laura and Rodrigues are very common in Brasil - I think on the time of phone books you had pages of Laura Rodrigueses, and in all sort of international things -Skype, email, the lot -“ laura rodrigues” was already taken up- because of of Brasil, but also Portugal and lusofone Africa. And so adding In London became a reflex. I did not think before putting in the NYT. Missed opportunity to adopt an alias- scarface? Viola? E Bennet? I I guess I did not expect how personal the blog was going to be. Nice surprise!
1
@Laura Rodrigues In London
I'm sure there are a lot of "Steve L"s in the world...in fact, there was one other in my class in...um, seventh grade or so. But that's my "handle" here. I deliberately didn't include my last name while I was still in the workforce, but that's not an issue anymore. Still, I'm "Steve L".
Laura is a common enough name in English as well (and a very melodious one, as well!), and if Rodrigues is to Portuguese is what its counterpart with a Z is to Spanish, I can imagine how common it is. As a former teacher in the South Bronx, I can tell you that we had dozens of Rodriguezes from the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and of course, homegrown ones, too. Rodrigues with an S was a rare occurrence because we trended Hispanic, not Brazilian or Portuguese.
I just found it interesting that at first, you went by your name alone, and then added the "in London" later.
1
Based on the first use of busman's holiday, Otto on "The Simpsons" (44D) would not qualify as a BUSMAN. Said busman's bus (in the U.K.) was horse-drawn.
2
Thank you, Stu Ockman! Your persistence plus your constructor skills have given us this beautifully bouncy visually captivating puzzle.
I'm truly a terrible TABLE TENNIS player but when done with this puzzle I felt like a champ. So much fun!
1
I was rather surprised that ATARI was cross-referenced to TABLE TENNIS rather than to PONG.
5
Andrew,
It's a clue, not a trademark.
2
I love how the ""The Weekly' Team Room" picture is framed so that men in the black and white photo on the glass are sitting at the table in the room.
It's cool, but I wonder what the purpose of that black and white photo is and who are the people pictured. Looks like a scene out of a MAMET play.
1
@Justin Now you got me wondering. It's bugging me. Who are those guys?https://consultkeith.com/2018/03/14/who-are-those-guys/
1
Loved this puzzle! Sorry, but I have to object to LEAVE BE, a pet peeve of mine.
I think of this phrase as a mistake, mixing up “let be” and “leave alone.”
It drives me crazy whenever I hear it (along with “could care less”).
Is it just me?
4
@Darcy
I would just let it alone.
6
@Darcy I seem to recall my Kentucky grandmother using “leave be” in the sense of “let it go” so it may have been an early 20th-century regional usage.
@Darcy
I have heard "leave it be", so perhaps "leave be" is a bastardization of that?
There’s a special aha feeling when it’s a visual treat, for me . And this was so adorable: the NET standing in the middle of the table, the path of the ball pinging on the table and going over the net in BACK hand SPIN SERVE! One can almost hear the ball! For me, his was almost a fusion between words/ concepts and visual art, with a sense of humor. And Pong’s ATARI, and PING and PONG at the end. Really enjoyed every square of the theme.
Ré Busman’s Holliday’s, may I mention “Busman's Honeymoon: A Love Story with Detective Interruptions “ by Dorothy Sayers? Written in 1937 and has been popular and in print since. Busmans Honeymoon is interesting, moving and very very funny. Dorothy Sayers was a poet, play writer, translator, essayist. She loved puzzles. She once said :
“ Time and trouble will tame an advanced young woman, but an advanced old woman is uncontrollable by any earthly force.”
13
@Laura Rodrigues In London
I don't think that BACKSPIN SERVE should be confused with a backhand serve. My understanding is that BACKSPIN refers to the spin that is put on the ball rather than the side from which it is served.
4
@Andrew thank you. Always learning!
2
Laura Rodrigues in London:
Thanks for the great quote from Dorothy Sayers. She has always been a favorite of mine, and I can easily imagine her saying that. Also, I just turned 70 and I like idea of being immune to the controllers.
3
I’m going into my 9th month of puzzle solving; it’s great to pull out on subway/bus/taxi/Uber while stuck in traffic. Have improved enough to get through all days, given enough time. Streaks only on M-W. By George I think I’ve got it. I’m learning that there is a way to think about the clues that helps, & of course I rely on: ASP, TSAR, ERS, IDS, & the fabulous ENO to get through!
15
For ‘Drink sold by the yard’, I had ADE instead of ALE, thinking of a lemonADE stand in your front yard.
20
@Mike Same here. I then imagined some poor kids’ beer stand getting raided by ABC.
3
@Matt🤣
@Mike
*steals clue for a future puzzle* ;)
I completely ignored the annoying tiny little circles and ended up enjoying the puzzle a lot. The gray squares of TABLE TENNIS helped me. When I had only the TA of TABLE TENNIS along with only the PI of PING, I saw the theme and wrote in all the related words. I then had to come here to see what the letters in those peculiarly-arranged circles added up to. BACKSPIN SERVICE, huh? Coulda fooled me: No ping pong ball has ever traveled thusly in the entire history of ping pong. No matter how much spin you put on it.
I think the grid is one big mess, theme-wise, but the puzzle was fun anyway.
@Nancy
I am confused as well. If that is the path of a served ball, it hit the server side first. . . not allowed, is it? Or am I missing something?
Also, the "shading" on the AcrossLite version is missing and is just more circled squares. So the clue for 30D appeared to refer to ALL the circled squares, not just the 3 of 30D. Strange!
Nice puzzle but the theme was muffled.
@Robert Michael Panoff
Unlike tennis, yes that is the trajectory of a serve in TABLE TENNIS. The ball must hit the server's side first and then hit the receiver's side once before being returned.
3
@Robert Michael Panoff @Nancy
Yes, a table tennis serve must hit the server's side of the table first. Picturing the game without that restriction conjures some strange violent images.
The symmetrical path shown is more likely if the serve is hit with little or no spin.
1
Not sure if anyone cares (Deb didn't mention it, so I guess folks are just sort of used to it these days) but this grid uses Left/Right symmetry instead of the much more frequently used Rotational Symmetry. I really prefer Left/Right as it seems to make grids whose black square arrangements are more aesthetically pleasing.
This was a fun solve, because seeing the circles and the gray boxes gave me the sense that it was a multi-element theme, and I wasn't disappointed.
Nice job, Mr. Ockman!
6
Steve Faiella,
That of course make sense since the visual is of a L-R symmetrical tennis table and a ball ricocheting from one side to the other.
4
@Henry Su
Indeed! That didn't even cross my mind. Must have been a conscious decision on Stu's part!
Steve Faiella,
Yes, continuing yesterday's discussion on grid design, rotational symmetry wouldn't work for this visual because then the NE would need to look like the SW instead of the NW.
1
LETTER BOXED
Well, I really surprised myself this morning with the longest words I've ever found in this game:
F-E(3), E-M(13)
3
Correction - word not words.
@Andrew
You can swap out your first word for something much longer too, to play our alternate two longest word game: P-E (11) E-M (13).
If only we could have found a way to stick that F in the second word, we'd have achieved Letter Boxed nirvana!
Alternate solution for yesterday was PUBLICIZE ENTRENCH
@Andrew
Silly phrase: F-O (8) O-E (8).
A refuge for abandoned young dancers?
Table Tennis clubs used to dot the NYC landscape. Now I think there may only be one left. My father was a table tennis player in college (Syracuse: Go Orange). We had a ping pong table in our cellar (imagine 100 year old farm house in upstate NY with a dirt floor and lots of spiders). Mon pere took great delight in putting down his martini and skunking our friends after spotting them 9 or 10 points.
Stared at NOEAR for a few minutes until the gray cells kicked in.
I suppose a great test for sobriety would be the ability to say 42A fast, three times in a row.
Thanks Stu.
4
"Table Tennis clubs used to dot the NYC landscape."
dk,
There are still lots of places to play.
https://foursquare.com/top-places/new-york-city/best-places-ping-pong
1
For awhile, I went back and forth about this puzzle. 😊
22
archaeoprof,
And your verdict? DO I or NOT I?
Do I? I do!
2
@archaeoprof
Great Chiasmus or is it Antimetabole?
Internet search inconclusive (at least to me).
Is there an English major in the house?
1
This one was multi-layered; a bunch of stuff going on including the lucid visuals. Well played Stu and the rest of the WP crew...Busy day ahead, so let’s go directly to the video tape. This clip of Queen’s signature song will help those with deficiencies in lyric appreciation. Follow the fore-SPIN service of the PING PONG ball. The graphic won’t help if you’re saddled with the dreaded NO EAR syndrome.
https://youtu.be/fp1eB1n2C68
Your SERVE,
Bru
PS: a hummingbird just buzzed by my weeping cherry as I write this post. Ah spring when hope blooms eternal.
4
I came into this puzzle feeling neutral, and am leaving it waxing high.
First, BUSMAN brought up "busman's holiday" which I've heard all my life but didn't know the meaning of, so I finally looked it up and now I know. That I will remember, and it will erase a question mark that was probably floating around somewhere in my brain.
MEMOREX brought back that commercial with the shattering glass, something I haven't thought about in forever, and how nice to have a dormant brain-bit massaged.
"ULAN Bator" has a funny exotic ring to it, and I love when it comes my way.
The balance-loving Libra in me felt very at peace with the symmetry of the circled letters over the vertical in-the-middle-row net, anchored by the solidly resting PING and PONG on opposite corners. I'm not kidding. Just looking at these elements brought any tense vibes inside me to a calm happy place.
And for all these things swirling in a bowl filled with my love of ping pong, I thank you, Stu, and now, thanks to your puzzle, I'm going to go and carpe me some diem out there.
10
@Lewis
MEMOREX brought back that "blown away by a speaker" commercial, but when I looked it up I now see it was for MAXELL. My brain has low fidelity playback...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XiJzLfxWooo
2
Justin,
You want "Is it live ... or is it Memorex?"
2
@Lewis
For me MEMOREX brought back the memory of Ella Fitzgerald whom I remember being involved with their advertising campaign.
Rather than link to one of those ads, here is an incredible performance with the truly great Canadian pianist, Oscar Peterson. (I'm not expecting any pushback from David Connell on this one!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoT4CC0O-Xk
3
Bottoms up. I had very little running through the across answers in the top half, but that all changed in the bottom. By the time I got to 65a, I glanced at the downs and that was enough to confirm PONG and I went back and filled in PING and TABLE TENNIS and NET and then the rest filled in pretty smoothly.
When I was first in college (fairly briefly), I joined a fraternity that had a ping-pong table in the basement. A couple of the members were exchange students from Japan. That's where I first encountered a BACKSPIN SERVE. Those guys were so far out of our league that we might as well have been playing one on one basketball against Magic Johnson. Don't believe I've ever picked up a paddle since then.
5
Ah! Today I get the NOT I I was so sure of yesterday (when it was NOR I)! Fun puzzle to figure out today. Paid no attention to the circled letters until it was all finished. Delightful!
2
@Ann
"Paid no attention to the circled letters until it was all finished"
NOR I.
3
What fun, worth all the rewrites.
I'm quite sure it is my first puzzle beyond Monday/Tuesday for which I needed no look-ups or checks. All my early guesses turned out to be correct.
I always do the puzzles in the morning when I am SOBERER, so that helps. I do have a yard of ALE drinking container hanging on the wall next to my dart board, but haven't attempted to drink from it.
Thanks, Stu, I really enjoyed that.
6
SPELLING BEE
Pbcekot
25 words, 78 points, 1 pangram
B x 2, C x 4, E x 1, K x 3, O x 0, P x 12, T x 3
4L x 16, 5L x 4, 6L x 3, 7L x 1, 10L x 1
4 5 6 7 10 Tot
B 1 1 - - - 2
C 2 1 - 1 - 4
E 1 - - - - 1
K 2 - 1 - - 3
O - - - - - 0
P 9 1 1 - 1 12
T 1 1 1 - - 3
Tot 16 4 3 1 1 25
33
A mercifully short Bee.
Hints:
* a type of music
* a monetary unit
* a beverage
4
@Ron O. Thanks! First ever “QB before breakfast”.
2
@Ron O.
Thanks! That C7 kept eluding me; I had the last 3 letters reversed.
No POPPET. :-(
9
Fans of the Alien franchise who have seen the latest installments (Prometheus and Alien: Covenant) will appreciate that the legs of the tennis table are ALIEN(ATED) and ENGINEERS. The movies introduced additional VARIANTs of the xenomorphs. Hmmm, I wonder, if you have a xenomorph larva incubating inside you, are you supposed to be identified on the ship's manifest as a PLUS ONE?
4
Very clever visual puzzle by Mr. Ockman.
Cluing PING-PONG as "another name" for TABLE TENNIS, however, may IMPINGE on the rights of Indian Industries, which still holds U.S. trademarks on the former, originally registered by Parker Brothers in 1950. See, e.g., https://trademarks.justia.com/715/64/ping-71564016.html
1
@Henry Su
Very interesting! Would be funny if the puzzle had to include TM in the spaces immediately following any trademarked brand name or phrase. And since celebrities often trademark their names, the TM would have to appear after many celebrity entries as well. Might make for an interesting FAIR USE themed puzzle — every entry but FAIR USE being a trademarked name, word or phrase.
BTW “concatenation” appeared in a NYT article I was reading this morning. Knew it right away, thanks to your recent use. The writer also used “vague cirrostratus scrim” to describe Laura Dern’s eyes. Had to look that one up.
Puzzlemucker,
In reverse order, a couple thoughts in reply:
I read the same article about Laura Dern and loved the Amtrak scene. And from the way Ms. Smallwood gushes about Ms. Dern's many talents, it's safe to say that the former views the latter as the DERNier cri in Hollywood.
Regarding your idea for a puzzle featuring trademarks and other forms of intellectual property, my additional thought is that a puzzle would require solvers to enter PAT PEND, TM, SM, or COPR as rebuses, which would make these signifiers appropriately smaller next to the entries to which they are associated.
Simply referring to a trademarked good or service is of course fair (nominative) use. Here, however, I read the clue for 63-A as attempting to commit "genericide"--i.e., treating a trademark as another generic term for the sport (of table tennis), at least in crossworld. Indian Industries' lawyers might have something to say about that. 😊
1
@Henry Su
Whoa! To the puzzle idea (love it and just think of the comments!). And to the ”genericide” concept. If I want to make a late-career change to IP, I’ll now know at least one useful term.
(I liked the train “scene” in the article too.)
1
Is there a correlation between MAXI skirt appearing in this puzzle and today's stock market drop? (This may be a somewhat obscure reference to you youngsters in the crowd- internet search "skirt length and the stock market")
Have actually seen a couple of guys successly chug a YARD of ALE at the Golden Bee pub at the Broadmoor Hotel in Colorado Springs. Have seen a couple of dozen fail. I found it a challenge to try to take a normal sized drink without spilling it.
2
clever puzzle. just saw Ralph Fiennes in The English Patient on HBO the other night -- amazing acting especially with all that burn-victim make-up on.
1
I laughed out loud at this from Deb: “SOBERER sounds like something a person might say if they weren’t quite ... well, sober.”
I am visually challenged and it took me a long time to see the NET. I tried imagining looking down on the table from above; looking from one end of the table; eventually I realized that if I looked from the side of the table directly along the net, the image came beautifully into focus.
Was glad to have ADELE clued to a more personally familiar musical genre. I’m not getting PLUS ONE for “Unidentified date”. Anybody? A fair and enjoyable Wednesday.
4
@Andrew
If you’re on a guest list and are also allowed to bring a companion, you’d be put down as Andrew +1.
6
@Rory
Ah! Of course. Thanks!
1
@Andrew Almost fell out of my chair 5 years ago when my usually secretive 24-year-old son asked if he could bring a PLUS ONE to a family event. Unidentified date indeed!
4
and Elke
Fun puzzle- took me back 50 yrs. when we had a PING PONG TABLE in the basement (sorry :"den" ).
NE'ER did manage the BACK SPIN SERVE over the NET...
Great visual in this clever puzzle- but, OH MY- where's the ball ?
Or is it outside the grid?
2
Elke,
The (flight of the) ball, have been served with back spin, is shown by the circles. Given the limitations of a grid, it's a fairly good representation. Having been struck level, it drops on the server's side, crosses the net, and after landing on the receive side, changes direction again. I found that a rather elegant part of a puzzle -- much better than the original bouncing ball -- that otherwise left me somewhat disappointed by the combination of two activities I (too) enjoy.
2
Since it's still Tuesday as I write this… Happy Teachers' Day to all the schoolmarms (and schoolmasters). Thank you for providing the education that allows us to participate in activities like this.
7
I am fairly certain that this is the first time I have ever completed a puzzle with just one pass through the horizontals and then just one pass through the verticals
4
In my youth, I was an UNgroovy guy. Later, I became an UNHIP Dad. Then, I moved on to being an UNcool Dude. As of now, I think I am (not 100% of current lexicon, as it may have changed) an UNsick old man. And somewhere, back in the day, I was definitely an UNrad maaan
3
Oh, Deb. Janice Dickinson would like to have a word with you. 🤣
3
@Irene
For those who might think Janice Dickinson is or was an editor, put a little backspin on it and think supermodel. Turns out there are several contenders for “first supermodel”, dating back to 1900 (Evelyn Nesbit), 1930s (Lisa Fonssagrives), 1940s (Dorian Leigh), 1960s (Twiggy), through the 1970s (Margaux Hemingway, Beverly Johnson, Janice Dickinson, Cheryl TIEGS).
3
@Puzzlemucker
Forgot to link my source: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermodel
Only reason I looked was because I thought Janice Dickinson might be a supereditor. The joy of crosswords and Wordplay, sending you down paths you never knew you had any interest in.
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@Puzzlemucker
"The joy of crosswords and Wordplay, sending you down paths you never knew you had any interest in."
It also helps explain why all those female images are in your browsing history! ;-)
4
The "backspin serve" actually helped me a bit as, living in the northern USA, what I normally consider a 'coat' on a fir is snow, and that absolutely didn't work, but having "spin serve" in place made "back" the obvious option. Overall a fairly quick solve.
Appreciate the persistence that it took to create the visuals and the puzzle.
3
Had hAMS for RAMS at first, a different type of butt, and AdE for ALE. I was thinking that lemon AdE was sold by kids by the front yard, but had to give that up for ADELE.
Deb's column spot on today. Agree that the clueing was clever even when the fill left something to be desired.
Enjoyed the puzzle and was even able to complete it before falling asleep. Though now I have no idea what I'm going to do at 3:00 am.
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@vaer
You can come over and take care of my crazy Basset Hound, who without fail attempts to wake me every morning at 3AM to go out for a walk. I usually manage to hold him off until 4...
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@Steve Faiella
I didn't think dogs liked the dark all that much. Is he part cat?
@vaer
Not sure, but he's all "hound" (I have to think that the phrase "stop hounding me" came about because of hound dogs. They can be relentless when they want something!)
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Vaguely recall going out with a PLUSONE. NE'ER did get her name, so I suppose she was an "unidentified date". Maybe I should have been SOBERER.
14
Cute theme idea and very visually pleasing puzzle. I enjoyed this puzzle, except for a few gluey, contrived bits. Fairly easy and fun.
2
BUMS/RAMS. The former didn't work.
Also, good and warm memories with ELSTON Howard from this ever loyal Yankee fan!
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Once I saw the NET vertically as opposed to horizontally I “got” the clever visual. Pretty cool. Stubbornly held on to MAAMS for MARMS as I seriously considered AOXIE. Fun puzzle. M, T, W have all been keepers.
Theme helped solve (THS) rating: 6% (Note that “visual themes” typically have low THS ratings).
Aha! rating: 74%. (Visual themes typically have high post-solve Aha! ratings).
DISCLAIMER: The Federal Crossword Commission has been unable to validate the Theme Spectrum Theory (TST) or anything else that its originator has ever written about crossword puzzles and therefore requires this disclaimer on any TST-related blog post, tweet, email, text, and napkin scrawl.
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@Puzzlemucker🤣
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Puzzlemucker,
Glad to see you put the TST into play!
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@Puzzlemucker
So would the "holy grail" of grids be one with a high THS and also a high AHA? Do we have a term for that? We may have a new objective for our constructors!
1
I kept thinking about those spots they play during Hoosier basketball games that show the young Will Shortz who wouldn't be here today were it not for the education he got at Indiana University. I think they show him playing PING PONG.
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@Wags
Was that back when the old fieldhouse had a dirt floor?
Hams/Rams
@Steve Melville
Almost fell into that trap, but hams aren't butts; butts are pork shoulders.
2
@JayTee
Does that apply to humans as well? If so, I do spend a lot of time sitting on my fat shoulders.
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@Steve Faiella
So sometimes you don't know whether to shoulder the load or to butt it?
JAMB on!
3
Fun puzzle! I agreed with Deb that a bit of the fill was less than stellar, but the theme more than made up for it. Very cool.
I struggled mightily with the top center portion of the grid. I looked up MARM and found that it's a variant of "ma'am" (which was my original fill). I'm not familiar with this one - can anyone shed some light on when/where MARM is used? Same goes for MAXI as "calf coverer." I've only know MAXIs to be used by ladies around...other...body parts.
2
@Ryan I took MAXI to refer to maxi skirt, a calf-length skirt.
5
@Ryan what a visual that puts in my mind, of maxi pads rather than maxi-length skirts or dresses covering the calves. Maybe some kind of low-budget soccer protection?
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@Ryan
Betty is correct. In olden times (the 70s mostly, though with some spillage on either side), skirt lengths were referred to as mini, midi, maxi and went in and out of fashion frequently enough that whatever length skirt you owned it was wrong the next time you wanted to wear it.
School marms were staple characters in television shows, movies, books usually set in the west in frontier times. Couldn't even say how I came to know this. One just did. Was Cat Ballou a school marm at first? I can't recall.
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This is one of those cases where an easy solve doesn't mean I don't appreciate the skill of the construction. My dislikes were the same as Deb's; no need to reiterate. I did think, "Wow, that's really cool!"
8
Clever theme; impressively constructed! As one of a long line of schoolMARMS I have to raise a minor quibble: table salt is made of IONs whether or not it’s dissolved.
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@Bianca
There's an opportunity for a bondage joke in here somewhere. Anyone?
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I'm not sure about electricity flowing through dry salt.
1
I'm not sure about electricity flowing through dry salt.
MARM malade?
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Since table tennis is Will Shortz’s OTHER passion, I’m guessing he kinda liked this one. I enjoyed it too.
3
Quick and easy. I kept expecting to run up against some kind of trick or twist, but never did.
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@Peter Ansoff
That's tomorrow, Peter... :)
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I thought this was cute. It didn't take long to discover the TABLE TENNIS, NET, and the PING and the PONG. I didn't worry about trying to read the backspin serve until I'd finished. It does feel like it has a lot of proper names in it, but maybe that's because they seem to be concentrated in the North Central/NE and SE sections.
I am impressed at how much work and revision goes into making a puzzle like this!
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Liz B,
If you haven't already, check out the version of the constructor's notes on xwordinfo and you will see an image of Mr. Ockman's first iteration of this theme along with Will's feedback about the rebuses featured in it.
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