Okay it took me till Friday morning & a long reading of Ghostbuster’s Wikipedia site (got nothing!) but finished. NYPD? Whoduh thawt??
1
what a fun solve! this amused me to no end. Such a clever theme and some really fun cluing. wonderful puzzle, Mr Cruz!
OK - - - THAT was clever!! Ingenious, in fact.
And it was a “Solve” - of the first order. The theme answers were really stumpers - - until my semi-conscious happened to notice that KCALB is BLACK - backwards - - - or DUH! - - “mirrored”! The other three answers fell like dominoes.
Was half way between “best” and “average” times - with NO “research”.
Much more gratifying than yesterday.
throughtheehthguorht
2
what is : 48 across: ONEWAYYWENO?
1
@Jean louis LONNE
It is one of the theme answers -- the equivalent of ONE WAY 'mirror', just like VANITYYTINAV is VANITY 'mirror', BLACKKCALB is BLACK 'mirror', etc.
This was an interesting and challenging puzzle--seeing the uncommon meanings of words, like "pave" for "make way" and "Tide" for pods. I really enjoy this kind of puzzle.
4
FUN. NUF said.
11
Well done Ricky! I solved it without getting the theme, then stared at it till it made sense. Thanks for a good Thursday.
1
Great debut, Ricky! Fun puzzle.
I confidently filled in mirror after VANITY and ONE WAY, since there was the right amount of letters, but my spidey sense was telling me there must be a trick since it's Thursday. As I filled in the crossings, I realized what the trick was. Fun!
Whenever I get through a late-week puzzle without too much trouble, I think I'm getting smarter (or at least better at solving crosswords). Then I come here and read that other solvers found it easier than the usual Thursday. Oh well. I'll be BACH tomorrow anyway.
2
I love Brie with fig jam! We add proscuitto and make gourmet grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with them.
I enjoyed this puzzle..up until the end. The puzzle is completely full, but I have at least one wrong entry, and I can't find it. The only word that looks suspicious to me is YIPE, but the cross terms all look fine. I've reviewed it multiple times and resorted to my favorite form of cheating -- coming here and reading the column and the comments -- but no luck. :<
@HT
YIPE is correct. UMAMI is the taste. Other than that, I’d re-check your backward (mirror) spellings, make sure you didn’t put in number 1 for I or zero for O. Worse comes to worse, you can look at finished grid on Xwordinfo.com
@Puzzlemucker
Thank you! I had unami instead of umami -- and completely overlooked it. Next time, I'll check that the entries match the clues more carefully. :>
Pretty much smashed this one, except insisting that golfers try to make the CUT, as opposed to target the CUP, and some enduring concern about IRANI (Iranian?) caused about ten minutes of annoyed flyspecking.....
Clever debut!
My first Thursday solve with no help! I'd like to think I'm getting better, but this one came together quickly after I figured out the creator's clever trick.
5
@Jake
Congratulations! The "came together" part is exactly what does it, so you "got it".
Best cheese w/ apples is Cheddar (British variety). As someone already pointed out, Brie goes w/ figs
5
Endor is a gas giant. No one lives on Endor. The clue should have been either Fourth moon of Endor or Forest Moon of Endor.
Carry on.
9
Dan,
I haven't been there myself, but this document suggests that ENDOR is the name of both the moon and the gas giant it orbits.
https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Endor/Legends
3
The shoe fell when I was continuing the cross fills with "VANITY......" and really had to look up 11D at that point -- and only then the "wow" factor hit. Now THAT's clever.
Even has Deb's signature on it (57D...)
I suspect the constructor has a sweet tooth with a guilt complex: consider 39A and some of the other fills. (PS: me too.)
Big surprise for me: 58D. Now, really?
The 22A fill has been going obsolete for some time: the Pb component is being phased out.
2
Absolutely rolled, quickly figured out the theme, crushed the middle and bottom, until....
PEDAL, PIECES, CEL, LEST would not come at all. Blank stares until I guessed at PEDAL, and then slowly....
But it was also ALI for ELI showed NAST instead of NEST and so no help there. FADE instead of TIRE and so EDAM instead of BRIE and so no help on Latin phrase, never heard of ET ALII.....finally went on line for BRIE (which I hate and is good with nothing) and then it came into place.
Love the mirroring. Great puzzle.
1
Never seen et alii before, only et alia. Otherwise, for a change, I got the Thursday theme and puzzle quickly.
1
It’s the Latin plural of alia
1
@Paul No, both alia and alii are plural. They are just different genders.
2
@RC
I didn't know that either. What form is used for "mixed company"?
Loved this puzzle. At first I thought, “maybe there is an extra Y in the theme answers..” Vanity (mirror) was where it finally dawned and I went and fixed my botched up earlier words.
Pretty durn clever is all I have to say!
4
Thank you, Deb, you make me feel normal!
I do like when the trick clue/fill is obvious, and then you know it’s a trick. I first knew that the trick was there with DAILY Mirror; then VANITY mirror , with the mirror not fitting again and the YY, AHA! Delicious.
1
Thank you for providing me with such an enjoyable lunchtime! This was the perfect challenging-but-not-too-hard treat.
2
Am I blind or does the online puzzle not give us the title/theme? I have yet to be able to find it and it drives me bonkers since it's often so helpful
1
JM,
Only the Sunday crossword has a title (online or off).
3
@JM
And, as mentioned in the column, there is no revealer in this puzzle.
2
If I were asked to list every synonym for “ENDED” I could come up with, and given a month to ponder, I still think “Bankrupted” would never make the roster.
Vaguely kinda sorta in the same direction as maybe I guess does not seem an adequate criterion for a NYT crossword clue.
I could say good things about the mirror trick, but so many others already have, so I’ll just bankrupt this comment here.
11
G. L. Dryfoos,
It is a stretch, but it's getting late in the week, and it's time to stretch. I'm sure you know clues need not be definitions; why expect synonyms?
2
@G. L. Dryfoos especially when bankruptcy isn't an end. (As PG&E is learnin' us Californians)
3
K Barrett,
Bankruptcy *does* tend to be an end for owners of the common stock...
4
I loved figuring out today’s puzzle! Was definitely a bit frustrated at first since things were not going well... I didn’t have enough cross answers to figure out the reflections for awhile. But I always feel quite accomplished when I figure out subtly themed puzzles and Ricky’s debut is a great one. I look forward to more from him! (And since I’m feeling proud of myself I must say that I figured it out & finished before I came to leave feedback... I didn’t know the blog gave the game away!!)
4
Hi all--just checking in to say I'm back from my travels and trying to catch up with things. Hope to participate more here for tomorrow!
4
Congratulations, Mr. Cruz, on your NYT debut. I got here late today, so no time to reflect on my solving experience.
I enjoy it when a puzzle starts off more easily than is typical for the day. it suggests there will be something about the puzzle that is more difficult. When I see a clue like "__ de leche" on a Thursday I know there will be something interesting to follow.
2
Maybe the fastest Thursday ever (don't know for sure because I solve with pencil). Figured out the theme quickly when I got vanityyt on 29A, and twigged on to the mirror idea with the uncommon "yy" combination. Once I had the theme, the solve was easy as getting one letter on a theme entry gave you the letter on the other side of the answer. It is good when the theme helps the solve, but maybe it helped a bit too much for a Thursday!
I used to look forward to the crossword. Not so much anymore.
Some puzzles are solved the way I tried when I was six years old (multiple letters in one square), some, like today's, by mirroring which I do not really enjoy.
2
Polished this one off fast.
2
Congrats on your debut. This one was by far my fastest Thursday time, mostly because the mirror concept has been used before, which made me pick up on it right away, and the fill was pretty simple.
Oh boy, was I baffled as I struggled with those top two themers, saw the double "Y"s but then couldn't come close to completing the last half of the fill. I knew Something Strange was going on...but what? Was it something to do with "wise"?
I finally saw it at the third themer ONE WAY YAW ENO. And I almost jumped out of my chair. OMIGOD THIS IS SO BRILLIANT!!!! I went back and filled in all the baffling, previously unsolvable answers. And they all worked. And I was thrilled with myself -- thrilled, thrilled, thrilled! I was also thrilled, thrilled, thrilled with the puzzle. Complete gobbledygook until you've figured out the trick and then everything makes perfect sense.
This is one of the best puzzles I've ever done in my life! IN MY LIFE, Ricky Cruz! This is a debut??? I absolutely can't believe it. Hope to see lots, lots, lots more from you in the near future.
17
I loved it! And yes, yesterday and today could have been switched, but that just means we had two great days this week. Those three YYs had me confused for a while, thinking that was the trick, but BLACKKCALB finally revealed itself and the rest ...
Anybody out there old enough to get this reference:
MAGICCIGAM
4
@CS
MAGICCIGAM is a reference to the Romper Room mirror that was used to identify children watching. Ahead of its time. I tried to leave this comment earlier, but it disappeared. Apologies if I echo myself.
1
@CS
noproblemomelborpon
1
It wasn't until I got the second and third theme answers (where the early crosses made it obvious that "MIRROR" had to be represented somehow in the second half) that the aha moment arrived. Verdict: easy and fun. I prefer hard and fun, but it was still a wonderful debut. Unlike Deb, I hated the clue for SALE, but we can all agree that mileages vary.
Nice one... had me scratching my head at YY, and I kept thinking that was meant to be “wise” or “why’s”, but once I saw it the rest of the puzzle was almost too easy, as the long theme answers could be filled in instantly. But fun nevertheless! A lot of slightly vague clues that got sharper as you got closer, so appropriate for a Thursday.
And then there was Stephan King's implied mirroring.....REDRUM....
3
This puzzle did have ABBA, a mirror of sorts. It would have been a treat if "mirrorrorrim" was an answer to "___ on the wall" but this crossword was fun enough as it was.
3
Really enjoyed today's puzzle - great "Aha!" moment when I realized ONEWAYMIRROR couldn't be right because I was absolutely certain EWOK was correct at 51D. After that it was easy sledding.
Of course, I should have figured it out when I had "YLIAD" at 17A from crosses but was missing the beginning and couldn't for the life of me think of a London tabloid that that fit with.
2
Ah, ABIERTO. I remember years ago when my husband and I were walking through our neighborhood window shopping at all the new stores and restaurants that had recently sprung up in our neighborhood due to a influx of immigrants. Several Central American businesses were now lining the streets and as we walked we saw many of them advertising ABIERTO on the windows. What could that be, we wondered? Some delicious food, a notary service, lottery tickets, cash machine? We had no idea, so when we got home we looked it up and found to our embarrassment that it simply meant they were open.
8
@Bess Many Americans driving in Germany have a similar experience with the town of Ausfahrt, which seems to be present at every exit....
3
@Puzzledog
Remember when an Israeli prime minister was once blamed for putting his name on California freeways ...
I would have saved a few seconds had I not thought "Queen or king, e.g." was an HONOR and "Step on it!" was HURRY. Once I became more reflective, this fine debut came into focus.
7
@Barry Ancona I had a similar problem in that corner, except mine were ROYAL and REVIT.
Love that moment when the theme snaps into place.
2
@Barry Ancona --I saw what you did, using the R word, nice!
LETTER BOXED
Lots of words and solutions today. My best was D-S(5), S-L(9).
Also G-R(9), R-S(7), and the even longer D-R(6), R-S(12).
@Andrew
I quit after my first, tho it's not short:
A-C(9) C-S(8)
1
@Andrew
D-S (7) S-L (9), G-R (9) R-S (10)
Too many possibilities today, none of which I found personally satisfying before I concluded it was time to move on to other things.
1
@Andrew
Duh. Just looked back at by D-S (7) and realized it worked as D-S (5)!
The moving van will be here in 2 hours, but I had to have my DAILY fix. The double Y was a dead giveaway--since I had uncharacteristically started with 1A/D...I did not recall the name of the paper, but VANITY (mirror) made that clear. I have never heard of a BLACK mirror, and Deb has not explained that one...
Looking forward to having our stuff! DHubby's toys will soon be everywhere... not to mention my mixer, food processor, china, knife block, and more. Hooray!
Oh, congrats on the debut, New Constructor. I hope there are more Thursday puzzles in the pipeline!
6
It’s a Netflix show. Reminiscent of The Twilight Zone.
1
@NH Right. It's the television I referred to.
1
@Mean Old Lady the Black Mirror in the series name is one's smartphone. So many people gaze at it.
1
Within the village of Three Pines (aka Brigadoon) we spread our Brie on baguettes with savory or sweet jelly or jam (see Louise Penny for more details).
Once held a photo shoot on a Roller Coaster. 20 takes into the shoot our "models" ACTEDUPON their NAUSEA in ways you might expect.
Off to Mississippi in about 10 days to avoid the prefix to 59d.
Thanks Ricky
2
@dk
If only you could bring some Frigid AIRE this way....
2
@dk ,
I was surprised to read that in the Chief Inspector Gamache books. My favorite accompaniment to BRIE is more BRIE.
5
@Mean Old Lady
I'd be glad to send you some of ours!
1
This puzzle had a great mixture of easy and challenging, until I 'broke' the mirror code with The Daily Mirror clue. Then just about everything else fell into place, with a few hints from Wordplay for "Queen or King" and "Off" time, and one or two lookups (can never remember the spelling of umami).
2
Nice puzzle, but I didn't do terribly well on it. I could start by blaming letter counts. First - VANITY and MIRROR have the same number of letters. I spent a while trying to work around that until I finally had a failed check on one of the down crosses in mirror. Worked a bit and finally saw it. Then I was able to go back and get through the weird-looking mess I had in the NW, but it wasn't the end of my troubles.
Here's the opening line of the Wikipedia article on 'One-way mirror:' "A one-way mirror, also called a two-way mirror..." Well, 'one' and 'two' have the same number of letters and I picked the wrong one. Another failed check before it finally dawned on me. Also had never heard of "BLACK Mirror" so that was another struggle. But there also a lot of non-theme stuff that I wasn't getting. Just not my day.
Music link: Somebody below already beat me to 'Constantinople.' Also considered 'One Tin Sold(i)er,' but I think I'll go with through the Looking Glass for something a bit more pleasant:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVx8L7a3MuE
..
1
Nice clever trick for a Thursday puzzle by a new constructor, well done, Ricky.
Luckily Mail, Express, as well as Mirror didn't fit at 17A, so it seemed that must be the trick; a few downs revealed the backwards YLIAD a nice early Aha moment, which did help with the rest.
As far as the tricky cluing went for the rest of the puzzle, I didn't do as well as I sometimes do, so not on Ricky's wave length today for the non theme part of the puzzle.
I was in China in 2007, so saw the BIRDS NEST, so a nice gimme with which to start.
2
Clever! Caught on with VANITY YTINAV. What else could it be -- Mirrors don't lie!
2
Read this morning on FB: Things that don’t lie: Children, drunk people and yoga pants
7
@AudreyLM
Has that poster ever met any children?
4
@AudreyLM
FB. Fact Boy has his own website now?
I’ll play the Things that don’t lie game: all animals but humans,* 4:00 a.m., old friends.
* that one is begging to be challenged (as is anything in this game).
2
People report sailing through this, but not I. For me there was much oblique and vague cluing, answers that resided in far out posts of my wheelhouse, one terrific misdirect on what Venus lacked, which I was sure was arms, and all of this stalled my discovery of the theme. After that happened much filled in, but even then I scraped and tore to the finish. From beginning to end in this puzzle, I was overcoming resistance. In other words, I loved it. Thank you so much for this, Tricky Ricky!
9
Nice debut Señor Cruz. And thanks for the inventive cruciverbal twist. It is reflective of a creative imagination...Not to the MOON Alice, but rather “Through The Looking Glass;” when you’re Mott, you’re Mott.
https://youtu.be/MqSRI1E_mjM
2
@brutus
Inspired choice, thank you, Bru. My favorite line, “Morning mirror, you ain’t no rose.”
Timely too. I just looked up Mott the Hoople and, amazingly, the band is in the news. Mott The Hoople ‘74 has had to cancel its U.S. tour because Ian Hunter has tinnitus. Bad news, good news. Bad about the canceled tour and tinnitus, good that Ian Hunter is still alive and well enough to tour but for tinnitus.
1
@brutus
Thanks for the link. Ashamed to say I did not know this song or this band. I enjoyed it very much.
1
SPELLING BEE
Lamnory
45 words, 201 points, 1 pangram
A x 10, L x 14, M x 9, N x 4, O x 4, R x 4, Y x 0
4L x 14, 5L x 17, 6L x 6, 7L x 5, 8L x 3
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
A 3 3 2 1 1 10
L 6 6 1 1 - 14
M 2 4 1 2 - 9
N - 1 1 - 2 4
O 2 1 1 - - 4
R 1 2 - 1 - 4
Y - - - - - 0
Tot 14 17 6 5 3 45
53
@Ron O. Thank you for grid. Only needed it for two words today, but I got those quickly once I saw what was missing.
The bee was similar to others we have seen so it was not too difficult despite having 45 words. There was one geographical term that was on the far edge of my vocabulary, and one chemical term that I only know from its medicinal use.
I counted 11 words ending in ly but not all were adverbs.
First two letter list:
4-AL, 3-AM, 3-AN
2-LA, 2-LL, 10-LO
4-MA, 5-MO
3-NO, 1-NY
2-ON, 2-OR
1-RA, 3-RO
16
@Ron O. I was missing 4 when I saw your grid but then found the rest thanks to it. Unusual words today include a chemical I’m familiar with from poppers, a place the L5 animal might graze that sounds similar to that animal, a slang term for cash, and a dental remedy.
4
In the ANNALS of the Spelling Bee has annal ever been allowed? Hmm
11
If you break this puzzle, that's seven years of bad luck!
(That's mirrorly a superstition.)
16
...and the best week of crossword solving continues! Bravo, Ricky Cruz. ¡Stellar|rallets!
3
A fine debut in every respect, except for the minor quibble that for the 4th mirror I wasted time looking for a 4th YY pair, thinking this might me a subplot to the theme (but why Y-fronts?); eventually Black Mirror revealed itself (never heard of it), and I needed to google to confirm.
Otherwise, no sports, no (other) TV. Nice Thursday-level theme and cluing/fill. Nice job!
1
I saw the same things—and since I already had WISEST, I (mistakenly) thought there was a connection (Ys-est), which I then briefly thought that TOO WISE would be better. Ooh... maybe an idea for a puzzle theme...
2
@NICE CUPPA (and Jeff)
Oh, a couple of Ys guys, ay?
5
I knew something was up when the the downs 6,7,8,and 9 spelled out LIAD @17A, and I looked at it and said to myself, "That's DAILY backwards!" From there, I was able to speed up because I knew to put the answers half-backwards. So much fun! Very, very satisfying. Which will carry me through Friday's likely collapse of my self-congratulations.
1
I liked this one. I really enjoyed the feeling I experienced when the nonsensical double letters in few answers suddenly made sense. Thanks.
5
@Peter C I too love a puzzle with an "AHA" moment in it...
1
In another fun coincidence (though nothing will top the time that the pot-themed puzzle was number 420 of my streak!), tonight I finished reading my daughter the first in a series of reimagined fairy tale books that center on a magic mirror. I feel seen! ;)
Got the mirror theme right away after reading the theme clues, but needed crosses to figure out how the answers worked, of course. Fun puzzle and great debut!
6
Now that was fun! Frustrated that DAILYmirror wouldn't go and the double letters looked weird but somehow I finally caught on at BLACKKCA_B. Beat my very slow average by eight minutes even though I'm getting slower and slower on average.
1
That double YY was my aha moment for VANITY mirrored. The NW corner was the hardest and last for me to complete, and I'm thankful for the mirror device because it helped me fill in more letters in that corner. Nice debut!
2
I thought that the DAILY YLIAD went out of business about 22 centuries ago.
14
Right, because Homer couldn't get his typewryter fyxed
11
@Joe I just knew that someone on this list would have an explanation. :) . Thanks
I would have had a much faster solve if Ms. Bronte had written Jane EYRi and people did things INMASSE
5
Bodacious debut, Ricky Cruz! Very clever theme, which I got quickly, only because I love reading all the British tabloids. And Black Mirror is a great show.
Had to look up how 63A rum related to a zombie, huh? Had no idea there is a drink called zombie. Considering all the different types of rum the drink is made with, including one with 151 proof, very aptly named.
2
@Chatte Cannelle
Lucky for me I didn't think gin when I was entering the first three-letter booze that came to mind.
1
Congratulations to Ricky Cruz on his NYT Crossword debut, and a Thursday no less! I saw the mirroring through crosses in VANITY YTINAV and understood the theme then. The puzzle went fairly quickly although it didn't seem easy. To me, most of the cluing and fill was direct. I did enjoy the clues for OUNCE, CEL, and ITCH.
🙂
4
Fun and zippy theme, and a debut at that! Enjoyed so many clues, 1A Queens and Kings, 6A make way, 21A off time, 54A pods (!), 11D Beijing stadium. Even a wanna be theme clue 60D Take a Chance on Me ... Thanks!
3
It took a moment or two of reflection to see the path this puzzle was following, but it solved fairly quickly after that.
5
Great debut! And that had to be a new (clever) clue for the beloved and ubiquitous OREO 🤓😎
7
Denzel Washington playing ALI is well known crosswordese, and my first guess. But ELI? Well, he has made a lot of movies, so I suppose he's played Ilie, Ollie and Ulee as well. I'll be watching for those guys too.
1
@Mike R
Will Smith played ALI. (Denzel’s biopic was Malcolm X).
7
Excerpted from Wiki: The Book of Eli is a 2010 American post-apocalyptic neo-western action film directed by The Hughes Brothers and starring Denzel Washington. The story revolves around Eli, a nomad in a post-apocalyptic world, who is told by a voice to deliver his copy of a mysterious book to a safe location on the West Coast of the United States.
No connection I know of to this great song by Laura Nyro.
https://youtu.be/EfW41eKUkKE
5
@vaer It was actually a pretty good movie. Not something I would have chosen on my own, but I watched it with my husband and it was interesting. Grisly, though. I wouldn't recommend to anyone very sensitive.
Nice job & congratulations on your first NUT! I enjoyed the fun clues, figured out the theme about mid-way, and finished without any fly-spelling. Go, me! Go, you!
2
@Ann
Er...your first NYT. Flyspecking. Thanks, autospell.
@Ann
Ha! It seems that auto correct is not smart enough to change autospell to auto correct!
:)
1
@Andrew
As I always say, Dammned ought toe corps wrecked!
2
The city formerly known as Constantinople underwent a name change following the Turkish conquest of 1453, to Konstantiniyye, an Arabic calque of the Greek name. That was its official name throughout the remainder of the Ottoman period. "Constantinople" was acceptable during this time only in documents written in the Roman alphabet; but this usage was limited to non-Turks, since Turks used the Arabic alphabet. When Turkey dropped the Arabic alphabet and adopted the Roman alphabet in 1928, the prevalent colloquial name "Istanbul" became official. So "Constantinople" is really Byzantine, not Ottoman. The name change is celebrated in a novelty song titled "It's Istanbul, not Constantinople" released on a 78rpm platter in 1953 to commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Turkish conquest of the city. Sample couplet: "Why did Constantinople get the works?/It's nobody's business but the Turks'."
18
@Fact Boy
They Might Be Giants are on the case:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xo0X77OBJUg
19
@Fact Boy
By The Four Lads, if memory serves....
4
Fact Boy,
Thanks for posting your regular report. Just to be clear, the clue and entry are just fine: during the time of the OTTOMAN Empire, English speakers correctly referred to the city as Constantinople.
2
Funny how my eyes continue to play tricks on me even after having completed the puzzle. I see the first themer as the DAILY ILIAD, the second as VANITY NATIVITY, the third as ONEWAY Rita MORENO, and the last as BLACK CAB (for Cutie).
A lively debut by Ricky Cruz. More PROS than OREOs with a theme that needed to be *cracked* before the DOOR would ABIERTO. When a pair of birds have an AIR DATE, the next step is often a BIRD’s NEST. A fun rebusless Thursday that gives us a nice rear-view heading into the weekend.
9
@Puzzlemucker
Good taste in music!
1
I really enjoyed this one, got the theme as soon as I saw those doubled letters in the middle. And it immediately brought up an image of Arvo Pärt’s Spiegel im Spiegel (mirror in mirror): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZe3mXlnfNc.
4
Super quick. The theme was fun but not to hard to figure out, and once you had one of them the others became gimmes. Enjoyed it though, thank you.
3
Operas can be constructed as "number operas," or may be composed with continuous music that does not divide readily into distinct numbers. Number operas were the norm prior to the mid-19th Century (with some movemenet toward continuously composed operas). Wagner opposed the use of numbers, and wrote his music dramas with continuous music. From that time, number operas became passe for a time, though some 20th-21st Century composers have returned to it. Operetta and popular musical theater generally use numbers alternating with dialogue.
In a number opera, each number might be an ARIA, duet, trio, (...or larger ensemble), chorus, ballet, march, intermezzo, (...or other instrumental passage), interspersed with recitative or dialogue to serve the narrative (which are not usually numbered, or which may simply be combined into the featured numbers).
4
@Alan J
Wagner may have eschewed the use of numbers, but his operas are numerous.
Sorry.
2
@Alan J,
I can think as literally as the next person. I started out thinking the numbers in operas were the ACTS [So watch out who you stand next to]
@der Schleppende Nick,
And loud. Don't forget loud.
Before joining Wordplay I would often solve a puzzle but be left with an unsavory taste in my mouth because I never got the theme or the joke.
Thank you Deb for Wordplay. I never would have made the mirror connection if you’d not explained it.
Good job Mr. Cruz.
12
Not only was Bach a contemporary of Vivaldi, but an admirer as well.
Here's his transcription of one of Vivaldi's concertos, made over by Bach as an organ solo:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BhgATpiXPHo
13
@David Connell
Thanks for your comment, David, but isn't it a little like Babe Ruth admiring Mario Mendoza?
@John Dietsch - I looked up Babe Ruth and Mario Mendoza and read a bit about each, trying to understand your comment (peace to all who insist that everyone must understand sports, I hope you can eventually get over the fact that some of us just don't).
I guess you meant something like "Bach's genius was worlds above Vivaldi's"? Which is kinda sorta true, but doesn't change the fact that Bach indeed admired Vivaldi's music and his style.
Vivaldi wrote much more good music than most people credit to him; Bach wrote much more not-so-good music than people who haven't played through all of what survives credit to him (sorry, that was a hard phrase to phrase). With prolific composers (which they both certainly were), "there's always mouse dirt in with the pepper", to quote Martin Luther out of context.
5
@David Connell
In my office (alone) blasting this while writing a brief.
Awesome. Thank you.
1
What a fun romp!
I got DAILY, and I knew there had to be a Thursday trick. So YAWN gave YY, and I thought, WHY WHY, that’s it. A pun, just looking for context.
When the crossings revealed the actual trick, what a great AHA! And the rest is easy.
3
Enjoyed this one very much! Loved it when the theme revealed itself.
This puzzle was definitely not just smoke and ekoms.
38
Got the trick on the Pierce Morgan one without knowing the answer. It was looking like it was going to be DAILY ILIAD (that would've been something). Thank goodness for the...[YAWN]
Great debut. Maybe it was me, but felt a bit on the easy side. Because of the gimmick, every theme entry had a mirror, which made it a slightly bigger constraint, and a little easier because you knew one half, you knew the other half.
Some of the entries felt a little more difficult but mostly all were very gettable. I was going to put SOYA where TIDE was, but knowing that it's all the rage with the kids, I didn't hesitate to put TIDE there, only to discover SOYA on the down pass later.
Once in a while, it's good to see my name EMBEDed in an entry, even if it had to be in a mirror.
3
Yes, I did expect that the editors would have used up this week's trickery on Wednesday's puzzle. Silly me!
Today's puzzle wasn't exactly easy, but I did find it fun and amusing. Nice debut!
9