Amp is short for amplifier.
“Cry “Havoc!” and let slip the dogs of [today’s theme]”
3
@Sam Lyons Ah! Marc Antony's exhortation is being followed, it seems, by Trump and Boris these days - or their mad advisers. The war theme has me thinking dark thoughts..
1
Couple of interesting crosses:
68A - 64D and 35A - 29D
Also 27A - 28D
3
@ Dr. W
I’ll add to it 40D with 44A. But I think that while sometimes intentional, it’s oftentimes more of a Rorschach effect: we notice the correlations based on what speaks to us. So while I, for one, noticed CORP crossed by POX and smiled, the PRIME RIB escaped me altogether (I *would* have responded however to, say, TOFU and FAN).
1
@Sam Lyons
"more of a Rorschach effect" -- I like that!!
Thank you.
1
Easy start on the week. Is a cats-up theme on the horizon?
2
My five favorite clues from last week:
1. Temperature test, of a sort (3)
2. Character raised in "Rosemary's Baby" (10)
3. Important thing to know, if you will (6)(3)
4. Animal that doesn't have a sound coming out of its head (3)
5. They may go on long walks (5)
SIP
APOSTROPHE
ESTATE LAW
GNU
CANES
9
I love the cross at 68A and 64D. I'm never certain if that kind of thing is always intentional, but knowing how smart crossword constructors are I wouldn't be surprised if Ms. Gray put that there on purpose. Good puzzle overall. Very fun.
3
I wish 20A didn't use "powwow" in the clue...easily avoidable appropriation...
4
This is ridiculous.
5
@Emily
I wrote HUDDLE and it seemed to fix many crosses.
I agree; it is a very disrespectful use of the word.
Love dogs, not too crazy about cats. Today's puzzle brought back memories of another delightful dog-themed puzzle from 11/14/02.
1
After being deeply (and I do mean deeply) disturbed by the posts here over the past week, posts complaining about "bae" and "no problem", I was gratified to discover the latest post (just today) from Tom Scott regarding phatic exchanges and language change:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGnH0KAXhCw
When I was first in meetings in Sénégal, I was surprised at the exchange of greetings. First, no one arrives "on time" (this is not a surprise in Africa as a whole); second, as each person arrives, the person is greeted individually by everyone already present with a three-fold exchange:
"Ça va?" "Ça va."
"Mais, ça va?" "Oui, ça va."
"Alors, ça va?" "Bien,...etc."
The first exchange is purely phatic: hello.
The second is polite: how are you doing?
The third exchange is sincere: tell me truly.
Third time is the charm. I wish more people were willing to get past the surface layer, and past the polite layer, to get to the truth.
Are you upset about the weekend's developments?
Yes.
Are you really upset about the weekend's developments?
Yes, of course, who wouldn't be?
Are you really upset about the weekend's developments, and do you have ideas about the response?
Well, let me say...etc.
We need to get to the third layer, linguistically, and politically.
End of transmission [30].
20
@David Connell
Excuse the flippant-seeming response to an erudite and poignant comment, but don’t let the NAEsayers get you down. If slang usually begins as a kind of code among marginalized or otherwise insular groups (which I believe it does), then unless and until it has been adopted by the greater society, it seems almost inevitable that it will be NAEsayed by some of those outside the originating group. In fact, members of the originating group might drop slang words from usage once they have been more widely accepted because they have lost their currency.
Great video about phatic expressions, and agree 100% with your sentiment about conveying our truths to each other, and even more importantly listening.
7
@David Connell
Thank you; excellent points & a cultural education! I'm glad to know about Tom Scott, even if those videos are another distraction while I am working from home for a few weeks. And, yes, here's to more real talk among us all.
1
@David Connell
As someone whose comment below might be construed as a complaint about BAE, I can assure you it was meant in a humorous vain. I have "no problem" with changes in the language--in fact, I find them quite interesting. However, I would still never say BAE, even though I personally don't object to it.
1
I walked into work this morning with sore hamstrings from the gym and was pondering how to spend my evening stretching them. Thankfully, Ms. Gray did my work for me with this delightful puzzle. Anything with dogs, science and some stretching is a happy place for me :D
1
Despite hundreds of Cribbage games, I blanked on the little PINS with which we count the score....and PuzzAzz also marked SHEPHERD/HEWN as wrong on the E. Weird.
Finally got this one pegged.
2
A perfect Monday puzzle, with a gold star for dogs.
7
Cute puzzle! I would have had my best time (for me, anyway) but I made a typo on the second row. Hate when that happens! (I blame my laptop, not myself....)
3
@Beth White
Greenville, RI.....my home town. You might have seen Adler Bros. trucks rolling down Route 44.
2
@Carl Adler Oh, of course! It's impossible to not see them! :) BTW: I worked with Debbie Adler at the library in the '90s. So small world!
1
@Beth White
Yes, a crazy small world. Nice to meet you!
There is no such thing as a bad dog ...
or a bad, or even mediocre, Tracy Gray(hound) puzzle. Today's puzzle gets a whole box of treats plus a belly rub and an ear scratch.
Thank you,Tracy, I'm now off to give my dog a big kiss on the snout.
15
If Monday puzzles are the gateway drug to our hobby, this one is irresistible: gettable, but not too easy, with a clever theme. How many new solvers will finish their first NYT puzzle today? Many, I hope.
22
Nerve racking?? Shouldn’t that be wracking?
@Rick Montgomery
Interesting - the iPhone app has wracking.
Either way is acceptable. I think the older you are, the more likely you use the silent w.
1
@Rick Montgomery
Apparently, no, but it happens....
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/nerve-wracking/
Very nice Monday puzzle and a smooth solve. Actually guessed three of the theme answers with almost no crosses. On the other hand, I'm completely unfamiliar with YOGA so that answer came with a bit of work and it's connection to the theme answers. So sort of a case where the theme answers revealed the reveal.
Trying to come up with similar themes will probably roll around in the back of my brain for the rest of the day. I wonder if anything could be done with 'condescending.' Hmm...
3
@Rich in Atlanta
It would include CONCESSION and maybe CONCUR/CONCURRENT, CONVEY, CONQUERER....
1
@Mean Old Lady
‘ConCUR’? I don’t know what the two of you are MUTTering about!
6
Descending CONs (9)
CON ARTIST
CONVOLUTE
CONSCRIPT
PRO longs (15)
PROUSTIAN MEMORY
PROMOTER OF PEACE
PROUD AS A PEACOCK
2
Personal circumstances interfered with my being able to add to my 384-day streak yesterday -- but the crossword app helpfully congratulated me this morning on having completed 100 Mondays in a row.
Today's was a fun puzzle.
6
Have I ever mentioned how much I love dogs? (Yoga not so much, I confess.)
Wonderfully breezy (and of course easy) Monday.
And of course we had the bonus of a lengthy discussion on the etymology of the awful BAE.
4
I hear that all GNOMEs ARE RUNTS but not all RUNTS ARE GNOMEs.
6
Dang, Deb! You too?? These days, I can stand at my front door and see right up into the attic. I'm waiting for the last truck to rumble out of my [narrow] driveway before I fix my neighbour's retaining wall. All I'll say is -- building codes sure have changed in the last 100 years...
Aside from that LATH thorry association, thought this a delightful Monday, with it's symmetrical GNASH GNOME (hello, Ogden!!) and the promise of PRIME RIB. My last letter was the G in WIGxPEG, which surely should have been a T, since the theme was about PETs and the grid was full of WIT.
Realized fairly late (but before the revealer) that the theme was "DOWNWARD" DOGS, and just hope we don't WIND UP on the yoga PATH with UPWARD COWS
S
I
A
L
O
R
A
H
C
....
Y
E
S
N
R
E
U
G
....
S
U
G
N
A
K
C
A
L
B
SPRAIN
8
@Leapfinger
So, it sounds like you and Deb have ePOXy on both your houses.
7
@RiA, yup. a blatant case of 'don't start if you aren't sure you can finish'.
Meth ill, meth I'll cry late; sticks like glue
2
@Leapfinger
Missed a great opportunity to do a "how now down cow".
1
In this one, the theme answers led me to the revealer, rather than vice versa. That's because I didn't know DOWNWARD DOG. But I imagine it's just one of many contorted, unnatural joint- and-spine-threatening positions that my totally unlimber and inflexible body can't perform. So I don't. I can't bring my "A GAME" to Yoga, because I don't have an A GAME in Yoga. I have an F GAME.
A word about A GAME (54D), which is badly clued. If only one's "best effort" always produced one's A GAME. But it doesn't. Sometimes your best effort produces a C GAME. Sometimes you're "in the zone" and you produce your A GAME with seemingly no effort at all. Sometimes (as in the case of Yoga with me) you don't have anything resembling an A GAME.
My tennis partner of many years ago once said to me: "When you wake up in the morning there should be a giant Ouija Board over your head that says: TODAY YOU WILL PLAY "A-MINUS TENNIS. And the next day: TODAY YOU WILL PLAY C-PLUS TENNIS. This way you'll know what level of game to put yourself in that day."
I thought this puzzle was cute, btw. Any puzzle featuring dogs is a Best Friend of mine.
5
Nancy,
Your AGAME is what you bring, not a rating of the result. "Best effort" does not mean you will win. That may be disappointing, but don't take it out on the clue.
5
@Nancy
I hope you're doing something to address the "unlimber and inflexible" problem. It doesn't have to be yoga, but some type of stretching regime really does help to ward off injuries.
I suspect that the rash of injuries in today's baseball players, (have you been following the fortunes of the Yankees?), is a result of an emphasis on strength and bulk at the expense of flexibility.
@Barry Ancona -- Sorry, Barry. I'm a lifelong tennis player and I'm telling you that you can't "bring" your A GAME if your A GAME doesn't want to be brought -- matter how much effort you expend. "A GAME" is not synonymous with "A FOR EFFORT". And it has nothing to do with winning or losing either. It's a function of how well you did or didn't play that day, based on how well you are capable of playing on your best day. If I play a weaker player and I play atrociously and I still win, that is NOT my A GAME. If I play a better player and I lose, but I hit shots that I normally make less than 15% of the time, that is my A GAME. You're right -- it's not about results at all. It's about excellence.
I thought the revealer was kind of a stretch.
30
@ad absurdum
I see what you did there!
2
@Steve L Ahahaha. But I was too stupid to think of that pun myself (cobwebs this morning) so thanks!
@ad absurdum
GTYR
1
regarding today's mini: the "w" of "wracking" was omitted from the clue for "nerve". one's nerves are wracked, not racked.
@countererrorist
Actually....
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/nerve-wracking/
Everything was falling into place nicely. I had stored, from a puzzle not too long ago, that Arthur Ashe has a stadium named after him. HUDDLE was an easy fill given my following of American Football, though I suspect non-gridiron fans outside the US may struggle a little with that.
I suspected YAW but hesitated until I had some crossings, unsure if it was applicable in this clue. BAE, LEAFS (bay leafs!), POX, PAPA, NEWTS etc all fell swiftly.
And then I hit 57A. I thought immediately "ah yes, this is Mr FRY!". Cue my confusion on the down clues, when I knew - despite my lack of yoga participation - that DOWNWAFD was definitely wrong. I only know a few members of the V cast - the previouslt mentioned Stephen Fry, Natalie Portman and the unforgettable Hugo Weaving. Thankfully, the crossings filled in 57A for me, and I'm still none the wiser as to who Mr REA played. And outside of this meager anecdote, I'm not actually fussed enough to look up the cast. C'est la vie.
3
@Chris Finlay
Would you have known Stephen Rea if the clue had said The Crying Game instead?
@vaer Nope, there is probably no clue that would have helped me get his name without at least 2/3 of the letters being filled on crossings, I'm afraid. Just not someone I'm aware of.
1
@Chris Finlay
I confess to not knowing much about Stephen REA, and I couldn't pick him out of a lineup if the others were Norma Rae, Ray Charles, Ray of Hope and Ray of Sunshine, but I think vaer was referring to the frequency (more than 20 times) that Mr. REA has been clued with that particular movie:
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?word=REA
3
BAE???
M-W says first known use was in 1983. I’ll bet that was also the LAST known use.
I’ll also bet you couldn’t find one out of 500 people who would come up with this alleged word as a synonym for “sweetheart”.
BAE was the cockroach in an otherwise delectable martini.
1
@Guess Who! Considering I filled it in immediately without any crossings, I think you may be wrong. Also, I know quite a few people use it. The slang of today is just as valid to fill a crossword with as the slang of 50 years ago.
6
Guess,
Even if you don't hear or read conversations of people under 30, you should know BAE from the crossword; this was its eighth appearance, third time just this year.
5
@Guess Who!
I am a recent retiree and a newbie to the crossword. Loved this one, because I also do yoga and love dogs. BAE was easy, my 25 year old son and former students use it frequently.
5
Ver nice puzzle with just one minor quibble.
ACE is not "Unreturned tennis serve". That would be a service winner. ACE is "Untouched tennis serve".
2
Bojan,
1. Clue, not definition.
2. Even as definition, "untouched" is a subset of "unreturned."
Replay the point.
4
@Barry Ancona
It is a very explicit clue, with its only difference to a literal definition being the one of imprecision. There is no leap that one has to take to understand what was meant. And yes, I am aware it is a subset, but that's exactly what I found awkward. It's like if the clue were "Crime" and the answer "Murder".
@Bojan - welcome back, you've been away for so long.
2
Recovering from emergency surgery in June, but here I am, back at the NYT crossword.
What's not to like about a dog puzzle?! Good Monday fun.
9
@Nina Rulon-Miller -- Welcome back, Nina!
3
@Nina Rulon-Miller, I'm looking forward to reading your comments again and hope all goes well with your recovery.
2
@Nina Rulon-Miller
Welcome back, and happy to hear of your recovery (but not of your emergency).
Lovely theme and a very smooth solve for a Monday.
One morning a few weeks back I was flipping through the TV channels trying to get away from the 24-hour news (ugh) and came across Namaste Yoga on something called "Z Living" (662 on our FiOS - your channel may vary).
It's kind of like watching "The Joy of Painting," except with limber young women and BEAUTIFUL scenery from the Vancouver area. Very relaxing, and they seem to air several half-hour episodes every morning, with frequent DOWNWARD DOGs. :)
@Art Kraus
It seems to be channel 226 on RCN. (It's one of those channels you have to pay extra for.)
Good reminder to get back to a yoga routine. Love the doggie theme! Nice, fast Monday.
2
LATH or lathe, gray or grey, csar or tsar these are questions for the ages, puzzled Tom ponderously.
Nice one Tracy.
1
@dk
Grey and gray, and tsar and czar, are alternate spellings of the same word. However: A lath is a thin strip of wood used to form an inner wall, floor or ceiling, onto which plaster can be laid. A lathe is a machine that rotates a piece of wood in order to shape it into table legs and the like.
https://writingexplained.org/lath-vs-lathe-difference
4
Grey will usually get clues in some way intimating we’re looking for the British spelling. Unless of course we’re talking a dog themed puzzle, in which you might find a GRAY HOUND instead of a greyhound just to get tripped up...
I think Tracy got the balance of interesting but easy just right for a Monday, and the theme being in the vertical clues added another layer, so a great start to the week.
I also liked Deb's examples of difficult clues for ARE as opposed to Tracy's Monday clue.
No red wine though, maybe tomorrow.
7
@suejean
The red bottles are EMPTY. But there are ROSES for us SOTs.
6
@Alan Hunter, good point, a rosé is nice on a summer day.
LETTER BOXED SKEIN
Going long today - I’ll come back after more sleep to look for 13’s. I have the fun B (ends in) S (11), S-Y(6).
I hope that doesn’t get jumped in by the emus.
1
@Kevin I have almost the same:
B---------S (11), S---Y (5), substituting cabbage for tasty.
@Kevin
I had the same as you, although Mari’s is a tad more economical. I’m expecting something shorter will turn up.
Back with a slightly shorter B to S (7), S-Y (8)
Spelling Bee
47 words, 202 points, 1 perfect pangram, bingo
4 5 6 7 8 Σ
B 4 4 3 3 2 16
E - 1 - 1 - 2
I - 2 1 - - 3
L 5 2 3 2 - 12
N 2 - 1 1 1 5
T 5 1 1 - - 7
Z 2 - - - - 2
Don’t forget who you are when you log on, provide some architectural support, and don’t publish anything rude about Eastern European dishes.
45
@Ben Yes quite a few singular (and plural) egg-and-flour concoctions today (including the perfect Panagram) - all loan-words from other languages. The N-7 word went out of fashion in about 1999, as the internet and browsers became more available to everyone. I suppose you could call it a legacy word, no longer in common use. Words I tried that were not accepted: NILL, TITBIT, LINNET.
5
@Ben, thanks for grid. First time I’ve been tempted by so many German words, alas not accepted.
1
@Mari
Would like to keep enjoying this chilly dawn on a Maine lake but the N7 is standing in the way. You've already been so generous with hints...may I ask for one more hint so the QB can fly and I can let this Maine morning mesmerize me?
A perfect puzzle for the dog days of summer.
ARF.
12
@Sam Lyons
You can say that again.
2
Good theme, although I’m more of a cat person!
6
Loved the dog theme. Thank you, Tracy Gray for such a nice, comforting puzzle to start off the week.
Nice picture of triangle pose, although not of the theme.
1
Chatte Cannelle,
Our columnists try to *avoid* the theme in the lead photo (to not give it away to accidental viewers). This cleverly chosen photo is "of the revealer" without a reveal of the theme. (A goat yoga photo would have been too much of a misdirect for a Monday.)
@Chatte Cannelle
Check out the photo at xwordinfo.
GOOGLE DOODLE should have been able to make it though the gauntlet.
After all, my neighbors doormat says "No Doodle Here". They have a Black Labrador Retriever.
No Doodle at my place. Just Poodle.
1
@2Woofs
“Doodle” = LABRADor” + “pOODLE” contraction; also the result of two dogs of two distinct and recognizable breeds messing around behind the barn; also see “Cur” or “Mutt”; specifically NOT a recognized dog breed.
The AKC would be AGHAST at the suggestion - - I hope.
I’ve been given to understand that it mutt is a dog of unknown ancestry, as opposed to a hybrid of known lineage. In any event, they’re all dogs!
@Rick Montgomery [snork] I misread your response as 'a multi is a dog of unknown origin...' and thought now there's a good way of putting it! From now on I'll refer to them as such. Nice multi you've got there!
The only bad part about having my fastest solve ever is that this puzzle was over too quickly and it feels like a looong time til puzzle drop tomorrow.
12
A fun and fast Monday solve. Matched (but did not beat) my Monday record of 8:21. But I am generally not really going for speed - this was just an unusual day in that I knew or could guess just about everything in the puzzle - or if not, the crosses took care of it.
a good WINDUP for the week ahead!
2
Never heard of "bae" before so learned something new. Also enjoyed the doggy theme...
@Robert Kern
We're getting lazier, it seems! Bae is said to be short for Babe which is short for Baby. . . alternative explantation is that it is a guttural form of "Betty" which is slang for a cute woman, said to come from Betty Rubble, others think from Betty Cooper from the Archie comics. That is for those looking for competitors to the recently explained Mary Ann v. Ginger debate.
1
@Robert Michael Panoff
BAE = Before Anyone Else
We had an event at our library a couple of years ago which included teens reading dialogue they prepared using youth-speak and teams of adults had to guess at the meaning. BAE was one of the terms used. A fun time. I don’t think it’s laziness, but rather a normal phenomenon in which young people differentiate themselves from their parents’ generation through language. It’s kind of groovy.
7
@Puzzlemucker
That's totes adorbs, which is so totally 2011 or so, probably.
9
Easy and cute! I got a time of 1:32, and while I know I was fast today, I also know I was not *that* fast! Maybe in the five minute range. Guess I'll never beat my new Monday time!
4
@FrankieHeck
So many of you can do puzzles even faster than I could type the answers if they were dictated to me. I'm always flabbergasted.
3
@FrankieHeck
Same thing happened to my hubby. His "Best" is in the 3 minute range, but his actual solving times are more in the sub 20 minute range. All I can think of is that somehow the connection to the times servers gets broken and it uses whatever time it received last. Not much that can be done about things like that because there are so many possible things that affect internet connectivity. You may be able to get the incorrect time removed from your stats if you contact the EMUs... I know that folks have mentioned this in the past...
1
@FrankieHeck
I somehow have a best Monday time of 1:32, which is utterly impossible. The day I supposedly accomplished this miracle is in 2012, which is several years before I started solving online! So I too will never know my REAL best Monday time. In any event, today probably came close to my fastest solve, whatever it is. A wonderfully fun and quick puzzle.
2
Coincidentally, AVCX had the same theme last week.
Would that there was a phrase that ended with MUTT, so my Chester could be included with this pack!
The puzzle has 61 theme squares -- a huge amount -- and look at how jank-free Tracy made it. That was not easy, and big props to the Gray lady for that!
6
@Lewis
“Would that there was a phrase that ended with MUTT . . .”
There is: SUNDAY BEST.
4
@Puzzlemucker --
Three people recommended your post, so a minimum of three people understood (as of now, 9:44 a.m. EST) it. But I don't get it at all. Can you please explain if you get the chance? I won't pick up your answer for at least 7-8 hours (the weather is gorgeous in NYC right now for a change) but I'll look for it when I get home. Thanks so much.
1
@Nancy
I am usually afraid to ask for clarification of posts that I don't understand, thinking it must be an indication of my inferior mental acuity. Since you have posted this, however, I will second your request for an explanation!
3
I finished the Sunday puzzle just a little while ago. Glad to move on to Monday!
Very cute doggie theme. We have three of our own and one grand dog living with us as well. They all know FEED ME. Most often we hear a larger cacophony of What's That, Who's There, Get Away from My Yard!
Love dogs.
;-)
6
Very easy but still a cute puzzle. Who doesn’t like dogs?
5
@Mr. Mark
Trump. Nuff said.
1
@ad absurdum
Woof!
And since all dogs go to heaven, the place must be full of them. Which should keep out the undesirables.
1
GOOD from the ONSET to the WIND UP! enjoyable Monday!
2
Sneaky that the theme answers and revealer were in the downs, so it took me a long time to see them. And then the delightful surprise of all those DOWNWARD DOGS.
I also liked Matt Damon's movie THE GOOD SHEPHERD crossing Ben Affleck's movie ARGO. (Plus a Canadian shout out with ARGO.)
I wonder how many BOXER's out there are named SHADOW?
8
@vaer
BOXERs
@vaer
Nice to see both of you again tonight! ;-)
4
@Andrew
Me and my evil twin.
4
Sneaky that the theme answers and revealer were in the downs, so it took me a long time to see them. And then the delightful surprise of all those DOWNWARD DOGS.
I also liked Matt Damon's movie THE GOOD SHEPHERD crossing Ben Affleck's movie ARGO. (Plus a Canadian shout out with ARGO.)
I wonder how many BOXER's out there are named SHADOW?
2
I once did a Monday puzzle in a ridiculously fast time, according to the NYT records (I'm not saying how many minutes and seconds because this is not about me bragging.) On a good Monday, I'd come in at least a minute slower.
Some speed solvers, such as Rex Parker, regularly do Monday puzzles faster than that particular number, but not by much. I'm not a speed solver per se, but I can plow through a Monday pretty fast. Still, the above referenced time has always looked like one of those mistakes that people say happened to them when they switched from one computer to another or something like that.
Today I came within 8 seconds of that previous mark. And I wasn't going as fast as I could have been. I wasn't really speed solving, but there was no resistance on this one. As Deb said, "Plural 'is'" isn't much of a challenge.
I guess I could have been 8 seconds faster one Monday. Who knows?
3
@Steve L
According to my NYT statistics page, my fastest Monday is 4:14 which I know to be impossible as today was virtually non-stop and came in over 8 minutes. I do tend to solve on an iPhone, and I realize that on a laptop if I were really racing I might get a somewhat better time but nowhere near 4 minutes I'm sure.
@Andrew
As a former computer geek, I was interested in how much faster you could solve on a physical keyboard device as opposed to a touch screen one. The answer (depending on how fast of a keyboarder you are) can be as high as several minutes! I stopped using my tablet to solve many months ago and my average times have been decreasing steadily - the earlier in the week the more dramatic the difference, of course, since on late week puzzles there's a lot more thought involved as opposed to typing speed.
@Andrew
I did it on a desktop, which is my preferred method, whenever possible. I can attest to the fact that 4:14 is possible on a desktop. Rare, but possible.
Previously we had BEER ME, now FEED ME. Getting all of the bases covered, especially with the crossing of PRIME RIB
1
@ColoradoZ
Oof, I missed the PRIME RIB! I also miss Durgin Park at Faneuil Hall in Boston, especially their "surly" waitresses and prime rib.
3
@Robert Michael Panoff
It has been 25 years since I went to Durgin Park. Just now found out it closed. I love restaurants that seat you with other people.
1
@ColoradoZ
Maybe tomorrow we will have DOME!
2
"Pre-snap powwow" is a DOGgone good clue
5
A GNOME HUDDLE sounds like the punchline to some ACHY HUMOR.
Fun to have a DOWNWARD themed Monday. Even better to have a DOG themed Monday. WIG reminded me of the BBC (Amazon) show “Silk,” a worthwhile drama about a firm of English barristers with a strong female lead. Thanks for a good start to the puzzle week, Tracy.
3
@Puzzlemucker
Reminded me of Rumpole of the Bailey. No strong female lead but many references to "She who must be obeyed".
@Puzzlemucker
Martha Costello!
1
@Chatte Cannelle
Must find the actor in other series. She was sensational.
Saw this same theme with a slightly different grid and arrangement of theme answers on July 31, five days ago in the AVX crossword by Steve Faiella. The theme was downward dog and the answer shadow boxer was used as well. So, different, but might similar as well.
3
@Jeff
Big congratulations to Steve! Will try to find it online.
3
@Jeff
Thanks for the shout out, Jeff! I feel terrible about the timing of these grids, but of course how was anyone to know? On Rex Parker's blog today, the guest blogger Annabel mentioned this and posited that it was a case of GMTA. I agree! Tracy, if you're reading, perhaps we should put our like mindedness to use on a collaberation! :)
1
@Puzzlemucker
Thank you PM! See my comment above to Jeff. Nothing that either one of us could have done about the timing... just one of those weird synchronicities that seem to happen every now and then...
1
Like Tom, I remember the raining cats and dogs puzzle. This one was fun, too. What I really noticed at first was that the down theme entries were really long! I didn't try to figure them out as I went along, until I got to the reveal. No GNASHing of teeth required here; it was a smooth and pleasant solve.
2
I was positive about both Laboratories and LUMEN but wasn't sure how a LLama would be a bracelet securer
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I hear they’re resourceful animals so you never know.
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@Sam Lyons
Especially the ones written about by Ogden GNASH.
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@ Leapfinger
That’s absolutely GNaughty of you. I love it.
Speaking of LLamas, a guy used to walk one in a park I sometimes took my Aussie(ish) cattle(ish) dog to (she was mostly a mutt). She’d go nuts; the llama ignored her. Some years later, in the middle of a DC neighborhood, we came across a couple walking their two ostriches. My dog froze. She gaped at them as they passed by, briefly looked at me to see whether I was seeing them too, and when I said nothing, she took a moment to shrug her herself back to reality, and then started walking as if nothing had happened. “Nah, that was just me,” she said. “Mom didn’t see ‘em. I’ve gotta lay off whatever’s in that dog food. Whew.” She was such a funny, nay, GOOD SHEPHERD.
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Bah on BAE. Not the clue, the word itself. Pronounced "bay".
If I called my sweetheart BAE, she would ask me if she reminded me of a horse and would call me a horse's PATOOTIE
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@ColoradoZ - I wonder if she ever confused you for a hair-ribbon or an implement for playing the violin? That is,
if she ever called you her beau.
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@ColoradoZ
Couldn’t agree more.
I’ll bet that no two people out of a thousand would come up with BAE as an alternative for “sweetheart”.
This one was like a cockroach in an otherwise perfect martini.
@David Connell
She has called me many things over the years but beau ain't one of them
RUNTS and WOOF/FEEDME nice across extras. (Could have done with the cat reference!) A good Start to the week while enjoying my "birthday coupon" at the wifi-enabled Ruby Tuesday.
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@Robert Michael Panoff
Happy birthday, Bob!
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... and many many more to come!!
Did not know you are a member of this particular club, @RMP. We should have a ring-ding for the maturing Leos in the area. How does lunch at the Vin Rouge sound?
@Leapfinger
Sounds good but teaching all day with hardly a lunch break for next few weeks! Maybe something will open after that!
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Fun puzzle.
Reminded me of a Sunday puzzle a few Memorial Day weekends ago that was raining cats and dogs, literally. The long down fills included dog and cat breeds. Clearly made an impression on me since I still remember it.
This one will be memorable because it took my streak to 667. I would have hated to have missed today and had to look at 666 for the next how long.
- Tom
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@Tom Martin
You live in Los Gatos, no wonder you remembered it!
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@Tom Martin
Yowza! What a great streak! Congrats!
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@Tom Martin
Maybe it's because you're in Los Gatos, CA?
too easy for monday...
just kidding. a lovely start to the week. Sunday's was a really great one too!
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