I agree with Rex Parker, who wrote: The NRA remains a terrorist org. that profits from the blood of children (40A: Range org.) and you should keep them the hell out of your grids.
6
My experience of the solve was pretty typical: A few clues sounding a bit "off," but only at a low level of my consciousness, until my Aha! moment.
That came with STEVIE. Of course, that was pretty far down the grid, and it was right after that entry, and my epiphany, that I came to the revealer. At least I could feel moderately smug about having sussed the theme before seeing the revealer!
The one clue that gave me greater pause, before I got the theme, was the Queen of Hearts one. LAND? Didn't get it at all. I guess too many years since I've read the book? Anyway, it was sort of a relief when I got the theme and the clue made sense.
The other thing about today's puzzle is that it spurred me to do something I've meant to do for years: look up the pronunciation of "Proulx."
A couple of stumbles: ??ROPER before JD POWER. DADAISM before ART.
This was one of my favorite puzzles of recent weeks. Outstanding, especially for an early-week effort. Thanks to all.
1
Deadline,
You were thinking of Elmo Roper.
@Barry Ancona
Yeah, I knew I was thinking of the Roper Poll. Gallup (sp?) didn't fit.
This puzzle was indeed a WONDER for me. I didn’t realize the theme until I got to WOMAN. Hmmm... I thought there were several unsatisfying clues/fill e.g. BREAD, BRA, LAND. Finally the SEVEN WONDERS slapped me silly and I realized the cleverness our constructor had in the way he left the clues unmarked. Searching for the other three made the discovery all the more sweet for me! Bravo!
:-D
6
Apropos of nothing, I wish I still had my sunflower campaign pin for ALF Landon, from the 1935 presidential campaign when I was ten years old. I bet it would be worth a fortune as a souvenir. It had yellow flannel petals surrounding a 50-cent size metal pin to let people know that he came from Kansas.
Thank you Mr. Proulx for bringing back such an insignificant memory from the past.
9
@hepcat8
I heard an interview with Landon on TV once and they asked him if his loss in 1933 still stung. He said he was over it, that he was still alive at 90 while FDR was dead and that he’d been in The NY Times x-word puzzle just the week before.
11
@Emily68 Ha! Who wants to be Prez when you can live on in infamy in the NYT CWP?
STEVIE was certainly no one-hit WONDER.
I had no problem with the clue for LADY DI. She was Lady Diana Spencer. The familiar (i.e. informal) version of Lady Diana is Lady Di. Upon marrying she also became the Princess of Wales. At some point she became unofficially known as the People's Princess, probably because of how she humanized the monarchy, and her commitment to noble causes. If LADY DI was her familiar name, and she was also known as the People's Princess then I don't understand the issue.
This theme had something of a Thursday feel to it even though it was not of Thursday difficulty.
Would have enjoyed seeing BOY (WONDER) in symmetry with (WONDER) BRA.
(No smart-aleck comments please!)
1
Oops! Doh!
That would have made EIGHT WONDERS and destroyed the whole theme.
And that's why I am not a constructor...
2
Completed this solve without ever figuring out what 4 of the 7 wonders were. I got Stevie Wonder, Wonder Land, and Wonder Woman, but the rest were all plausible, if not natural, answers on their own. I had to read the column to find the rest of them. I think this puzzle would have been slightly improved by some nice stars next to the words in question or something.
3
Alex,
SRSLY?
7
35A what does it mean that this lingerie item is “owned” by Hanes? Wouldn’t “sold” or “manufactured” be a better choice?
25D is it necessary to use the word “miraculous” in the clue? While some of these medicines are, plenty fall far short of a “miracle.”
Ok never mind. I just realized those are wonderful clues...
5
@Vince
If memory serves Victor Borge did a skit in which he increased nominatives by one to augment conversational flow. He would have said those were twoderful clues. You may have heard of this befive.
6
@Dr W
Inflationary language, he called it.
:-c)€
3
A conversation that didn't really happen, but FWIW:
Me: "Today's puz took me a bit longer than usual for a Wednesday."
Mrs W: "No wonder!"
:-)
14
@Dr W - ha ha ha I laughed at your imagination.
That sounds exactly like Mrs Dr W.
1
SPELLING BEE:
I really enjoy this game, but how on earth are the word lists chosen?
Why, for example, in today's puzzle
[one word spoiler below]
is PENTANE not accepted while HEPTANE is?
4
@Cole poor chemistry perhaps.....
@Cole Nor is ethene included. Really annoying.
2
@Cole
Alao not recognized: heptet, paten
1
now that was clever!!
4
Crowdshare puzzle update.
I discovered that emails from the anonymous mailer were being flagged as spam and being automatically deleted. I've fixed that, but if you sent me a word prior to 12:30 pm on 6/5 can you please resend? Grazi!
1
@Steve Faiella, is there a way to understand what this refers to? I didn't see any thing about crowdsharing or anonymous posters.
Leapy,
Yes, it would have been better "construction" if Steve F. had posted this update on the thread he started earlier on the subject.
1
@Leapfinger
What Barry sez..
The original post is indeed further down.
Oh it was fun! And the gift that keeps on giving is to go back and try to find all seven. I'm still rather a newbie, but usually they're in the longer clues, or part of a running pun or joke. This one was different and fun. I'm still using training wheels (Autocheck) Wednesday-Saturday and sometimes Sunday so no credit but fun nonetheless! Really Wonderful! (Oh alRIGHT, stop booing!)
6
Some commenters have pointed out that the 38th parallel doesn't divide Korea because the DMZ, the de facto border between the two countries, is on an angle and the 38th parallel only passes that border at one point. Therefore, the clue is wrong.
Others say that regardless of whether the 38th is the border, it still bisects the peninsula, and therefore it divides it. Thus the clue is valid.
Let's make an analogy. Let's say "the 38th parallel divides the US". Technically, you can look at the areas north and south of the 38th and claim that these are the northern and southern areas. This is fairly accurate, because in the East, the 38th parallel is pretty much where Maryland and Virginia meet on the Delmarva Peninsula, and on the West Coast, it's just around the Golden Gate Bridge.
But wait a minute. Is the land in the Maryland portion of the Delmarva significantly different from the Virginia portion? Is the northern half of the Bay Area somehow distinct from the southern half?
At one point (the 1860's) there was a line that truly divided the country near its middle; the Mason-Dixon Line, which ran a bit further north and was not a single straight line in any event. The 38th parallel bears no similar importance.
I think that unless what's on one side is significantly different from what's on the other, you don't say that an arbitrary point divides the land. Especially when in the case of Korea, the 38th once did have special significance, which changed after the truce.
1
@Steve L - 54 40 or Fight?
https://www.britannica.com/place/38th-parallel
Terra nullius?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5iJSXaVvao
Straight Lines?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_the_States_Got_Their_Shapes
1
@David Connell
It's been a long time since I first wondered why the northern border of Maine made such deep incursions into what would be Canadian territory, if the border were to maintain its generally straight line.
As with so much else, Wiki provides an answer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aroostook_War
It's an interesting tale, and the part I enjoyed most was right at the end.
"Unjust as such accusations are, it is nevertheless a fact that many Canadians still consider the Ashburton Treaty of 1842 to be the first and most important instance of the loss of Canadian rights due to the complacency of Great Britain and the crooked diplomacy of the United States."
[Harrumph]
@David Connell
I've heard about the "terra nullius" at the Egypt/Sudan border. I've watched many episodes of How the States Got Their Shapes, which I found rather interesting.
As to the Britannica article, I wasn't aware that people still refer to the Korean border as the 38th parallel, even though it really isn't. I for one don't, but for the most part, I don't have much to say about that boundary, so when would I?
Still in all, very interesting.
This felt quite easy for me, right up until the NW corner. I've never heard of a BROGAN shoe, I'm not sure why RADON would be in a uranium mine, and AGIN is just alien to me.
2
Corruption of AGAINST.
1
Radon is a radioactive gas that comes from uranium decay. In many parts of the country you need to test for and remediate radon gas in homes, if the levels are too high. It’s naturally occurring in the environment. CT is known for areas of high radon gas, and the house we just bought outside of Chicago needed remediation after the elevens came back high.
2
Agin has its deep roots in Scots English. Americans retain many Scottishisms in Appalachia that have since disappeared - or nearly done so - in Scotland.
oatmeal
2
So I think the take-home lesson for the day is to see the WONDER where it isn’t immediately apparent
20
@Leapfinger Thanks for that! :-).
2
Hello everyone,
Thanks to all who pointed out that the theme entries were symmetrical. I have corrected that in the column.
To be fair, Deb, while they were symmetrical, they were hardly balanced. The NW and SE corners were noticeably absent of theme entries, and that, along with the number and orientations, led me to think there was a lack of symmetry at first as well.
2
Missing my opportunity to catch Bob Seger, “I WONDER” if he got into this SLOW JAM last Saturday evening Central NJ.
https://youtu.be/oLseLrToSHw
4
I enjoyed the 2012 guest column. Thanks for the link.
1
I don’t think I’ve ever seen as many positive comments about a puzzle. Add one for me.
About streaks - have you ever heard of a PR? It’s a welcome innovation more and more coaches use to spur budding athletes toward achievements without the discouragement of comparisons. IMHO far better than “participation trophies.”
My streak is simply a PR, and I love it and don’t resent it when others note a special milestone or two of their own.
7
@Doggydoc
As a competitive swimmer in the high school and college in the 1970s, I could tell you what my PRs were in every event I swam (all the freestyle events, 200 and 400 IM and 100 and 200 butterfly), in meters and yards distances, down to the tenth of a second....
1
It OISE a TARE-ible ending, searching the grid to find my Caribbean Pirates had traded their CAVERN ACT to ATTend a TAVERN. My JDPOWER was also judged second to CDPOWER, I'm now disclosing. But a WONDERfully scenic trip, until the last re-gluing bits
It takes a deft hand to have a 7-themer not sink under the weight, and keeping themers short with many on edge did the trick. Also, a neat sorting of the WONDER placement, with the Across themers leading (WONDER)BREAD, -WOMAN, -LAND, -DRUG, -BRA, and the Downs having WONDER trail. NB, nobody's calling STEVIE WONDER a ONE-HIT WONDER.
The best compliment to the Proulx-dent theme selection is noting that good WONDERful phrases don't grow on TREES. I thought of "You'll WONDER where the yellow went", but.... Right, but nope, no, no way.
There's a plethora of WONDERlands in books, movies, TV shows and music, but while strolling down Memory Lane I fell off the beaten path a little, into the Django Reinhardt territory of the jazzy Parisian Caravan Palace. I kind of like a beat, and you might could dance to it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23HLTfBMT34
Point to pONDER:
Somehow, in French, DROIT is both the direction opposite gauche, and the legal right, Just as 'right' is both in English. I didn't think that homonym/homograph thingy was common across languages.
"The Full Monty" ends with "You Can Keep Your Hat On". I guess that's NO DOFF.
Hey, YEW TREES!! Get off my churchyard lawn!!!
(or yew'll be Proulxned!)
11
@Leapfinger - da, pravda (= right, the opposite of leva = left).
The left is the wrong in most Indo-European languages, and the right is the right.
As Deb says, "I didn't do it!"
It's a sinister element that right-hand, straight, true, ahead, correct, just, and natural (among many other ideas) cluster together in historical language and thought. Important to remember in June's Pride month that a good part of what is being asserted is "sez who?"
6
Also true in Spanish. Derecho means the direction “right” and human “right”
2
@David Connell - in the 1960s, my big brother was forced to write right-handed by the nuns at our Catholic grade school. His grades went into the gutter. Eventually, my mother went to bat for him and forced the nuns to allow him to write left-handed as he was born to write. His grades immediately shot up where they belonged.
"Born this way" isn't an anthem. It's a truth.
4
What an Aha! moment! Wandering through this puzzle, and then all at once -- boom! - theme answers popping up all over. Straight out of a crossword WONDER land.
PS: I am looking forward to the day when NRA will be clued as "defunct gun organization."
23
This excellent puzzle really made me WONDER what was going on! The theme answers felt off, but I didn't male the connection to the missing WONDER until I finally saw the light at the reveal.
Rich, you made my aha moment a real doozy. Perhaps your puzzle is a WONDER in the world of crosswords!
4
LETTER BOXED
Today I got M-A(4), A-L(13)
I had to really grit my teeth upon entering that first word...
Yesterday I struck out.
2
@Andrew
I added one letter to that M-A to avoid the 4-letter one. I think it was worth it.
1
@Andrew
Struggle for me today.
I have
M-O(8),O-L(9).
Hi, Deb!
I see that others have already commented on your statement that "The other six WONDERS are not symmetrical..." so I won't repeat their comments.
I found the symmetry of the theme answers (both in location in the grid and whether the WONDER belongs before or after the answer) to be an enjoyable part of the solve.
1
G'day, all.
Often when reading the comments, I see people wishing that this or that word would appear in an XWP. I've often thought, I should write them down and try to get them into some future grid of mine.
Then I had an even better idea... Crowdsourcing!!
For those of you unaware, crowdsourcing is "the practice of obtaining information or input into a task or project by enlisting the services of a large number of people, either paid or unpaid, typically via the Internet" (thank you Google).
I want to create a puzzle with input from all of you on what you'd like to see in it. Depending on how many responses I get and how they fit into a grid, I will either submit the final puzzle for publication, or make it available for download "just for fun".
I've also found a way to allow you all to email me your words without disclosing your email address to me. It's a website with the URL https://anonymousemail.me/
When you get there, you only need to fill in the boxes labeled "TO:" and "Subject:", along with your word in the box below subject, and I will receive your email. Noone (including the service itself) will know anything about you, since you don't need to supply any info.
Let's see what comes from this!! :)
6
@Steve Faiella
It would help if I supplied a "TO:" email address... LOL
send your entries to [email protected] if you'd like to participate.
@Steve Faiella
Sounds interesting. Will have to think on it.
3
So I completely "bought" stand-alone BREAD at 8A. I thought ONE HIT was an odd answer to 15D, but I accepted that too. WONDER didn't pop into my head until WONDER DRUG came along at 25D, and now the rest of the puzzle started to make sense. But I'm still trying to guess what the revealer will be. BLACK WONDER? HIDDEN WONDER? WONDER SQUARES? WONDER BOXES? I wondered and wondered.
"Aha", I said -- but only after the answer filled in. SEVEN WONDERS! Now why didn't I think of that??
A very enjoyable puzzle that I found harder than most Wednesdays. Made harder by the fact that my "heavy, ankle-high shoe" was a BROGue for a long while. Sort of a cross between a BROGAN and a clog, I suppose.
5
It was a Wonderful solve.
And thank you for reminding me of Quick Draw McCraw, a gunslinger I haven’t thought of for eons.
I was once young!
10
@L.A. Sunshine
When I was three I received a smiling purple stuffed animal for my birthday. It wasn't a character I recognized (except for a subtle resemblance to my Dad's protruding ears!), but I was quickly smitten and was never without it for the next few years.
I clearly remember being around 6 and realizing that my beloved "Blabbermouth", in fact had a printed tag with a name.
Now able to read, I was shocked that my beloved toy was in reality, a Quick Draw McGraw show character.
Just found him by quick internet search: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/quick-draw-mcgraw-blabber-mouse-ultra-1884605741 .
His name was Blabber Mouse, and the toy didn't look much like the cartoon character, but it really looked a lot like my Dad!
4
Oh my Blabber Mouse! I have not thought about him for ages and now it all comes back to me.
Thank you so much for your story.
To stay theme consistent it was Full (Wonder).
Yes! This was a WONDERful puzzle. I caught it with STEVIE and confirmed it with WOMAN. So much else though because my brain wasn't at full throttle this morning. Thought DelphiI before ORACLE, OVERload, OVERfeed before OVERfill; Meghan before LADY DI. Couldn't remember DADA for the longest time. I tried rain and rock fall before ACID. But it was the J in SLOWJAM and JDPOWER that would have killed me had I not taken a peek at the answer key.
2
Beautiful puzzle, thank you! Sometimes what’s missing is the key to understanding what's right in front of us.
2
VERY NICE puzzle - with a clever theme, (which I did not grasp completely until reading the column - as so often happens).
I was about to get MY underwear in a wad over the continued use of BRA in a puzzle - but the need for WONDER in front of it sort of reduced the level of offense.
Why don’t we ever see JOCK STRAP in a puzzle?
What has happened to “equality of the sexes”?😡
2
I also did not fully realize what the absence of “wonders” meant until I read Deb’s column. Thanks, Deb! I took it as the absence of the Seven Wonders of the World, i.e. the pyramids. When I read Deb’s explanation I could see what a gem of a puzzle this was, and enjoyed reading the “spoilers” at the end of her column.
1
@PeterW
JOCK STRAP has appeared once in 2010. I don't think that it is an "equality of the sexes" issue, so much as the fact that it is a nine-letter word starting with a fairly uncommon "J". If it makes you feel any better JELLYFISH has only appeared twice in puzzles.
5
@Andrew
Sounds jolly good.
1
One of the rare times I wished I had printed out an early-week puzzle; I just love coloring in themers with a highlighter. And of course, any puzzle with a reference to QUILTs has extra sparkle. I am missing my 'bees' but I feel pretty sure I will be able to find my Tribe before long.
I appreciate the diversion presented by puzzles, in between checking the news from Arkansas, where our erstwhile area--including the lake--is really suffering. The predicted rain won't be a help, and it is going to take a good while for the water levels to begin to drop.
Here's to Mr. Proulx (any relation to Annie?) and more puzzles.
Before I go....I got to Genius + and I am quitting at 197 pts. The quirkiness of the Ezersky List is beyond reason, though a nod to the Big Sur is always nice, I guess.
2
@Mean Old Lady
You moved?
This was a tough but fair monumental gem. Thanks a bunch to all of the folks that had a hand the publication of this enthralling, enigmatic prodigy...Pardon my French, as I naticked on sq. 42 with a ‘t’ which begat the erroneous J t POWER crossing tROITS. OISE vey!...There were no more disconcerting probs other than a boatload of unknowns. I exhaled a sigh of relief when crosses bailed me out of a slew of alien answers. I don’t want to bore you with the lengthy laundry list...I attended the antithesis of a 15d’s show in Philly in ‘72 at the once DEFACED, now defunct Spectrum. STEVIE’s entourage, me thinks The Blossoms led them onto the stage, warmed up the crowd artfully for the headlining Rolling Stones...This SLOW JAM came to mind mid-solve. Jeff Beck chips in with a lovely guitar solo.
https://youtu.be/MPTK9Bmu6iY
ONE HIT deserves another:
https://youtu.be/AwplqsDPwow
EnCHANTEDly
Bru,
4
So, I'm training myself to be a speed solver. I want to start attending and participating in Xword tournaments, now that I've got the time to travel.
I offer this by way of explanation for why I went to "Man, this puzzle is a MESS", to "OMG! This puzzle is *amazing*".
Since I usually scan clues, there isn't enough time for my brain to fully process them, so answers like ONE HIT, WOMAN, LAND, and DRUG were making me nuts! These are the lamest answers for these clues! What the heck was Will thinking?? I even had solved the revealer of SEVEN WONDERS, and my addled need for speed brain didn't make the connection.
Once the connection was made, however, it was what might be the best A-HA moment ever for me. I love the *heck* out of this puzzle, and Will, I apologize for doubting your expertise! :)
4
I actually stopped mid-puzzle to check the calendar. I thought I had slept through Wednesday. WONDERful, even if it all escaped me until the end.
8
Big grin! Thanks, Mr Proulx!
I have a dear friend who now is unable to do the crosswords due to a brain tumor, but who for many years was my crossword buddy: we’d save up puzzles to compare when next we were together to see what clues the other had drawn smiley faces next to, what scars (errors in pen) the other had made, and share our admiration for (or occasional indifference towards) the theme. He seldom had any scars, & I learned from him some ways to make fewer. Today I had one scar only & it is one he would never have made. At 38A I had ?LOW??M, & I’d already inked in the G of GLOWworM before I saw it wouldn’t fit. (He could tell at a glance whether any entry, no matter how long, would fit into the boxes. I’m still tapping them out.)
He’d have enjoyed this puzzle quite a bit, I think, & also several recent ones that were a blast. We could sometimes make the other smile just by saying ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM. My friend D is still with us & I enjoy seeing him regularly, but his slow mental decline has made me recognize that grieving is complicated, & you can miss someone even when they’re still there.
Anyway, I don’t know what made me think of him working this particular puzzle, but since we all here enjoy sharing the solving experience, I thought I’d let anyone know who maybe never thought about it, that the urge to share the experience predates social media. Probably it’s as old as the first crossword.
22
So often 'friends' drop away in the face of illness and decline.... so glad for your puzzle-buddy and for you that contact has continued.
Our once-nextdoor-neighbor (circa 1983+) recently lost his wife of 76 years. I suddenly realized we are some of the few friends who are still among the living. I am resolving to write regularly (wishing there were fewer miles between us.)
12
@Floyd So true, you can miss someone while they are still here. Many of us have gone through this, and we empathize with you today. Thank you for putting it out there. And thank you for being a great friend - we need more of those in the world.
11
@Floyd, what a nice and thoughtful tribute. If only you could share it with your friend, but thanks for sharing it with the rest of us.
5
Quick fill, especially for a Wednesday. ONE HIT revealed the theme for me and it was a smooth as a sail down the Nile after that.
2
Really nice puzzle and one of the best 'aha' moments that I can recall. Had four of the theme answers (BREAD, ONEHIT, BRA and DRUG) filled in before I finally got the reveal, and even though I had furrowed my brow at each of those, I never made the obvious connection.
Still struggled in the general NW area for a long (long) time. A couple of complete unknowns but I just blanked on some things that seem obvious in retrospect. Switching from SPELLED to QUILTED somehow finally opened the whole thing up. Very satisfying to finally fill in the last square.
4
And it makes me wonder ...
https://youtu.be/qIfuNPbBaaA
https://youtu.be/UJ6Lzs_woUE
https://youtu.be/wSWMJxbxj7c
https://youtu.be/mfnlBXLHd08
(where are the horns?)
https://youtu.be/kmmPFrkuPq0
https://youtu.be/AGWRpPHYSwA
https://youtu.be/eFP3uD_gXsQ
(Is it any wonder this is the finale?)
4
Bless you, Mr Ed Zeppelin!
I was beginning to Wa -wa-wa-wa- wonder when Runaway was going to surface. It was my freshman year anthem.
Not positive about this, but wasn’t it Del Shannon’s ONE HIT WONDER?
@Leapfinger, I would say "Hats Of To Larry" disqualifies Del from the OHW club, although nothing else he did ever came close to the popularity of "Runaway".
Still I don't think there's any widely accepted criteria for what makes a one-hit wonder but here's one very few would dispute:
https://youtu.be/-cXrEPNvRO8
1
SB Thread - hope the formatting sticks in the grid!
68 words, 278 points, 1 imperfect pangram, bingo
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
A 1 1 - 1 1 - 4
E 1 2 1 1 1 - 6
H 4 3 2 2 - 1 12
N 4 2 1 - 1 - 8
P 6 6 2 1 1 - 16
T 8 7 3 - - - 18
Y 2 2 - - - - 4
Tot 26 23 9 5 4 1 68
One major quibble - the 7 carbon alkane counts but the 5 carbon does not! #justicefororgo
47
@Chungclan
Thanks, I am stuck mid-way!
1
great job! 68 words midweek isn't for me!
6
@Chungclan Thanks! Now, only 20 more words to go! I may be back later for hints.
2
Nice one Rich.
Honors english paper was on iconoclasm in 18th century lit. Moby Dick was the cornerstone. I am still making amends for boring my HS friends with seemingly daily new examples from the literature support my central theme. For example.... no must not relapse.
7
That was fun! I didn't get it all until I got the revealer. Wonder-ful!
5
As with @layla, beautiful answers massaged my sensibilities: ORACLE, SLOW JAM, BROGAN, LEMON DROP, YEW TREES.
Gullible me never made the connection and I blithely accepted every single theme answer -- "Oh, maybe the Queen of Hearts is in the tarot deck and her domain is land", "Oh, I guess Stevie Wonder is so well known that he regularly just goes by 'Stevie'", and so on.
When the reveal emerged it was more a "D'oh" (Hi, @peter jackal) than an "Aha!" You got me fair and square, Rich. I loved this!
9
@Lewis
Isn't it hilarious how your mind compensates when an answer looks "off"? The one that really made me crazy was DRUG. "Miraculously effective medicine" - DRUG?? Really?? What the heck, Rich Proulx? And yet, I still accepted it as correct...
6
Having teched Don Giovanni in my youth, I had SEDUCED BY before SERENADED. Yet another plausible fit, in keeping with @vaer's observation.
I wandered around this puzzle somewhat haphazardly and stumbled upon the revealer and STEVIE at much the same time. Aha! Then found the other WONDERS. Like Deb, I question LADY DI. Did people refer to her as LADY after she became a princess? There are lots of lovely words in the puzzle, including SERENADED. But I do admit to having a problem with the clue, calling what Don Giovanni does as innocuous as wooing bothered me. It's been a while since I've watched or listened, but does he ever just SERENADE anyone?
I know, it's just a puzzle.
Back to STEVIE. Here's AS, one of his best SERENADEs.
https://youtu.be/L_sG0weS1d8
3
In Mozart’s opera Don G. sings to Donna Elvira’s maid underneath their window. Not sure about the play.
2
@Trish
"Deh, vieni alla finestra" ("Oh, Come to your window")
from Don Giovanni, W, A. Mozart
sung by Thomas Hampson
https://youtu.be/VEIfV7Vo4fM
Definitely a SERENADE, with mandolin accompaniment no less. It's all part of yet another seduction, it's true, but on the face of it, it's a SERENADE.
2
@vaer
That's an excellent question. I wish I still had enough of my memory left to remember if I had heard her referred to as LADY DI once she became Princess Di.
Such a tragic end... I still feel such sorrow when I think of it. She was a beautiful soul.
So much to love about this puzzle. I caught on with 25 down. aware that not every DRUG is a miraculously effective medicine. Favorite aspect was the lack of ?s at the themed answers which added a delightful frisson of excitement throughout. Definitely a Wednesday puzzle--not quite diabolical enough for a Thursday. I like to really suffer through the late week puzzles or I tend to NODOFF.
2
I filled in BREAD, BRA, DRUG, LAND, ONE HIT, and WOMAN because they fit, but I WONDERed about the accuracy of the clues.
It wasn’t until I got SEVEN WONDERS and STEVIE that the light bulb went off.
A post-solve search found the other six, and finally the clues made sense!
A fun puzzle with great post-solve AHA! moments.
4
Multiple reactions. Once I caught on, I felt like some TV game show contestant hunting for Double Jeopardy, and I wondered as I wandered looking for wonders. And the whole time an earworm wouldn't go away till I got them all, and not even then!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yZcSw46YP4Q
4
Nothing but applause for this one
5
Lovely puzzle. Hoping THE UNCONSOLED makes it into a puzzle someday. A neglected Ishiguro masterpiece, IMO.
3
Gorgeous puzzle!! My favorite in a long time. A beautiful theme amidst beautiful words. ORACLE, CHANTED, SERENADED, YEW TREES, CAVERN, ABLARE, OPEN SEA, ASYLA. Ahh.
7
What causes a streak to end? In the middle of a long streak, I successfully solved a puzzle without looking at answers or reading the column about the puzzle, etc. But it didn’t qualify for the streak. Why is this? It has happened twice now. Thanks!
@Desert Rat - I suspect that sometimes, a concerned member of the puzzle team will notice that a streak has gone on for way too long, so they kill the streak in order to reunite people with the spouses they have not spent time with in weeks, or if they have no spouse, to free up enough time in order to acquire one, or perhaps just to get reacquainted again with unpuzzled society.
25
@Desert Rat
Did you finish the puzzle by midnight of the publication date? This is the most likely scenario.
Were you online when you finished the solve? (Once you download the puzzle, you can solve offline, so if your solve doesn't register through the internet, it won't be counted.)
Did you actually hear the happy music at the end? If not, you might have typed an 0 for an O, or more rarely, a 1 for an I.
You don't lose a streak because you look up answers; the site has no way of knowing that you did.
2
@Steve L
Also, did you use Check or Reveal? Using either of those features will end the streak.
2
I drifted into the SW where the beloved movie gave me the theme. I have unreasonable expectations for the sequel, which might be tagged WWII.
I agree with others that getting ICED IN has gotten old. Could you at least clue it with some wonder? "Not frozen out." Also, the unsettling sound of frozen water crashing from the eaves in Maine is an ICE DIN.
3
@Andrew
ICE DIN. The sound you hear all night long when you're sharing a hotel floor with a fraternity, and the ice machine is right next to your room.
4
@Steve L
What I am hearing is that NO ICED IN and NO ICE DIN would be NOICE.
@Andrew
Let's keep the NOICE down shall we? (And I think I'd better check the trays in the freezer ........)
AGIN and PELEG took me for a ride today. And I spent a solid portion of the first ten minutes thinking the theme was NEVER (based on LAND, mixing up my Disney animated properties) Still, got over myself and got it done in 20.
2
Amazing how Kazuo Ishiguro's novel title fit so well into this puzzle - brought back WONDERful memories of that story. Did not "get" the theme even though actually writing in SEVEN WONDERS was rather simple. The Queen of Hearts light finally went on and it was more "face-palm" than "aha!" I must have been doing this puzzle sound asleep, having NODded OFF. Thanks for a quick, fun solve even if I didn't know what I was doing.
2
One day I will have to do my DNA testing to see if Homer (Simpson) and I are related. Even after filling out the answers, easy for a Wednesday, and saying to my self - "Stevie, ?? oh yeah - Stevie Wonder" - I still could not relate the seven wonders of antiquity to the puzzle.
Duh (or doh, I'm never quite sure) repeated six more times.
5
@Peter Jackel
You can get DNA from ink? (or pixels?)
Wondrous! Kinda like a midweek Thursday/Sunday bonus mashup.
Love Thursday trickery. Check.
Love Sundays when the theme is shrouded in mystery until about 2/3rds through the grid and where the amount of sand that has passed through the hourglass starts to make me feel self-conscious before the pin drops and the magic happens. Check.
More please!
11
what a delightful puzzle!
6
and Elke
It's a WONDER that I got this theme.
When I got 15A ORACLE, my mind went to Omaha and Warren Buffett, but was brought back to reality with one of his companies, HanesBrands, spec. WONDER BRA .(I hear it does WONDERs for some).
Was fun looking for the other theme answers- i.e. nice not to have the circles.
47D-"Havens" ASYLA- made me remember our recent trip to Oswego , NY. In 1944 , it had become the "safe haven" for ca. 1000 WWII refugees .
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oswego,_New_York
For those not liking ICED IN, the other choice may be "Snowed in" in Oswego NY with ca. 11feet (130 inches) in 2007 ?
Fun puzzle- now it's time to get TREVOR's take on today's happenings.
3
@Robert - thanks, that was an interesting tidbit about Oswego. I spent quite some years in upstate New York, all unhappy memories, so internment there sounds like the natural state. Just to think of it elicits the most foul of euphemisms, or whatever the word is for a synonym which captures the worst sentiment while remaining printable. The most appropriate city name would be NEVERLETMEGO, as in never let me go there. Perhaps also NODOFF, New York, a sleepy hamlet on a bend of the upper reaches of the Delaware where you wind up if you doze while driving and unintentionally leave the road.
@Elke
Thanks Elke. We adopted our former dog from Oswego from a saint of a woman who fostered, and adopted out, rescue dogs on her farm. She did that in addition to her full-time job as a doctor. I was unaware of the town’s prior history as an ASYLum for people during WWII.
1
@Andrew - "minced oath" is what you're looking for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minced_oath
My mind naturally filled in what was omitted- "oh, the answer is LAND instead of wonderland" and "oh, look how the answer is ONE HIT instead of one hit wonder" - but when I got to STEVIE, even my slow brain caught on. "It's a theme ... duh!" I said to myself.
Sometimes I am a little thick, but it just makes comprehension that much sweeter.
That was fun!
6
@Mary
I think you'll find that a lot of us had the same experience. I know I did! :)
1
GRRR. This was one of those totally frustrating puzzles that I solved without getting the theme! I did get the “missing” part of 58 across—WOMAN—but I completely blanked on the other six. I hate that—it makes me feel like such a dumba$$! And it was a Wednesday puzzle at that.
I get it now, but, in my opinion, it was a tad difficult for Wed.
3
@Ms. Cat
You are not alone in wanting to, I’m guessing, confine trickery to Thor’s Day puzzles. Others here agree, as do (usually—today being something of an anomaly), Shortz & co.; this is, after all, an anomaly.
But there are also those (me included) who appreciate—thrill at, even—unexpected delights. This puzzle on Thor’s Day would still have been fun. But it would have been easier & would have sparked less joy.
I care & appreciate that these anomalies are rare, but I’m glad they’re there.
:-c)€
1
@Floyd
I really don't think this theme qualifies as Thursday-level trickery.
But whatever, and whatever day, it's neat.
Super fun solve. Even if I stumbled into Brogan/Agin, neither of which I “get.”
@Dennis,
AGIN is a dialect form of "against."
BROGAN is a type of shoe, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brogan_(shoes).
4
I think it was when I looked and thought, who the heck is ST. EVIE and isn't that a WOMAN's name when the penny dropped. Of course, then once I got the SEVEN WONDERS, and then saw WOMAN, I SEE IT! It was obvious. And LAND came logically, as did DRUG and ONE HIT.
Solid sort of theme. I think it's pretty well executed given that they are all well known usages with WONDER and it's all symmetrical.
A little tired of seeing ICED IN and its variations. I believe we've seen five instances of it and variations this year so far.
10
@Wen
...and LAPEL, UTE, PTA(S), and UAE, all of which have been in multiple puzzles recently.
On the plus side, it was a great theme and a good puzzle overall.
1
@Wen I think ST. EVIE is one of those little-known saints. Maybe the patron saint of grooviness?
4
@Wen
re: “penny dropped” - just an observation
THERE is a phrase for which the origin has rapidly disappeared into the “fog of history”.
Time was when one could put a penny into a dispenser under a big glass ball of gum balls and be rewarded with an “all day chew”. Probably were several other things a penny could be dropped for too - - but this is the one that comes to my mind.
Nowadays - - - -?? Sigh! A phrase about when the “quarter dropped” just doesn’t have the same ring.
I “wonder” how many other phrases are like this one.
“It’s your dime.” Comes to mind.
“Nickleodeon”?
This train of thought reminds me how, as kids, we managed to buy cigarettes from a dispenser on the lower floor of the Student Services building on the MSC campus (before Michigan State College became a University). They cost only a quarter per pack at the time!
If the machine were still there today, it would be attached to an alarm system of some sort and would require feeding in $5 bills.
3
I got the trick with ONE HIT. Having started in the NW like most people, I didn’t come upon any themers for the first quarter of the solve. But as soon as I saw the clue for ONE HIT, I knew it had to refer to a ONE-HIT WONDER, and I even had the —HIT already. So I said to myself, “Self, the theme is a missing WONDER.” And from that point on, it was the most obvious theme idea ever.
4
Steve,
I'm sorry you were disappointed.
1
Clever and fun. WONDERful! And just right for a Wednesday.
3
good puzzle. Timely to have LADY DI today at the time when folks are remembering her classic outfits from the 80's upon seeing Melanie Trump's on the UK trip.
Correction: Look again. the themers ARE symmetrical. Matching stair steps from SW to NE (with 35A perfectly in the middle), and 25D/32D correlate across. Even more genius. One of the best puzzles this year.
9
Hi Deb!
"The other six WONDERS are not symmetrical, ..."
Actually, they are. BRA is at the center, and STEVIE is rotationally symmetrical with ONE HIT, and the remaining four form two rotationally symmetrical pairs as well.
12
@Henry Su
True, but the weird and tricky part is that 19-across (symmetrical to the theme reveal and long) is not part of the theme, as one would expect. Add to that the fact that there were probably five more popular dystopian movies in the '00s based on books.
Note that I'm not complaining: I like trickiness and "Never Let Me Go" is a great book!
Respectfully regarding Deb's column, I submit that not only are the themers placed symmetrically (see Jeff Chen's highlighted version at xwordinfo.com), but even the two oddballs where "wonder" is the second element are symmetrically placed. A very tightly woven construction.
And a third opportunity for me to "wonder" whether Rich Proulx is any relation to the composer / church musician Richard Proulx?
9
@David Connell - I see one or two others who connect him to Annie Proulx. I simply can't stand her writing.
I remember reading The Shipping News, which had been highly recommended to me by a colleague, with growing concern: will _any_ of these people _ever_ turn into anybody I should _ever_ care about? Answer, after turning the last page: NOPE. Book thrown across room and left to be eaten by spiders. The spiders all have since died, btw.
Don't get me started on Brokeback Mountain, either...same retort...
3
I was also surprised by Deb’s comment about symmetry, especially with me being impressed by the mix of peripheral and internal symmetry
1
@David Connell - I am lucky to be friends with this Rich Proulx. He has no known relationship to either Proulx (composer Richard/novelist Annie) you asked about. Apparently this unusual name is common in French Canada—and believe it or not Proulx is (or at least was) the *most* common surname in Montreal. This Rich did try to find composer Richard Proulx while in Chicago, but wasn't successful in doing so.
This is what I recall from when I checked in with Rich about it after spotting his name in a corner of a UU hymnal a few years ago. He's so talented and busy, I thought maybe he was also writing music in his free time ha ha.
2
Note to editors: KOREA is divided by the DMZ (demilitarized zone) which does not follow the 38th parallel but reflects the opposing lines at the time of the Armistice (below the parallel in the west, above it in the east). It has not been divided by the 38th parallel since the North Korean advance in June 1953. This clueing mistake has been made before.
4
TIL. Thx.
@Tim O’Brien - They could have clued KAN for KANSAS or DMZ for the DMZ.
@Tim O’Brien
Then the 38th parallel DOESN’T pass through - - and therefor DIVIDE Korea??
All those details about the DMZ may be correct - and perhaps interesting to some - but they don’t change the fact that the 38th parallel DOES “divide” the peninsula.
5
WONDERful!
11
I liked that the theme entries weren't marked in any way; it gave me a few surprise "aha" moments even after I had figured out the theme. (Before I figured out the theme, I had a few instances of "this answer doesn't seem quite right, but it mostly makes sense and it fits and if there's some kind of Wednesday rebus going on I can come back and adjust as needed.")
21
@Morgan
Your solve very much parallels mine! I thought, well that sort of works. Then when I got the revealer, I really had to go back through and hunt for the theme answers. And then I realized _why_ those answers didn't quite work. It was a very slow realization!
9
@Morgan
And Liz: sane here. First BREAD. Really? Well, okay, not my favorite clue. Then ONE HIT. Again: well, maybe some people say that I guess. Finally (third time’s a charm), I saw the light with DRUG. And then the revealer made me smile. Expecting symmetry, I hunted down the counterparts at the bottom. Big grin!
There’s a great argument to be made here for allowing a little more of the trickery typical of Thursday’s to slop over into other days of the week occasionally. Would even some minor, easy grid trick not make even a novice Monday solver smile?
Had this been published on Thor’s Day, it would have spoiled a bit of the fun I think, & I surmise from others’ comments here that many would agree.
:-c)€
4
@Floyd
Agree with everybody in this thread.
Jeff Chen seemed to wish that the themer clues had had asterisks. I'm really glad that they didn't.