I started this on on Thurs ... did not get far. Put it aside and came back to it today. It clicked. I got my AHA when I figured out ALTERED STATES. That movie made quiet an impression during my long-gone youth. Challenging but fun.
Finished the puzzle but still didn't figure out they were anagrams. Cleverly written.
Was Bicycle Thieves the sequel to Bicycle Thief?? Anyone???
@Carrington It was released under both titled - in the US it was originally Bicycle Thief and in the UK Bicycle Thieves. Both work, as the action of the story is set off by a single bicycle thief, but the tragedy of the film is that the father also steals a bicycle at the end thus becoming a story of bicycle thieves...
1
@Carrington The original Italian title is Ladri di Biciclette. Both Thief and Bicycle are plural in Italian. It was released in U.S and UK as Bicycle Thieves. However a New York Times review in 1949 referred to it in the singular and the posters in the U.S. were also singular. This is why it became known in the singular. However, it is more than one bike stolen, because the lead character steals another bike after his bike was stolen and he becomes a thief as well. There were 2 bicycles and 2 thieves by the end of the story.
2
The links in and to Thursday’s Wordplay column are broken or not there. Can’t get to the column from the puzzle’s info page, and the col itself has no link to a Comments section like this one.
(BTW: SEMI is the answer to 33A because the SEMIfinal round of a tournament has two matches for the four teams remaining. Each ‘one’ of the ‘two’ matchups for the ‘four’ teams is a ‘SEMI’. Nest paws?)
2
Update: it’s been fixed
Completed the puzzle but had to read the Wordplay column in order to figure out what the clue "altered states" meant. Evidently anagrams are not my thing. LOL.
4
I rarely read the Wordplay blog and accompanying comments until I finish a puzzle. Today was an exception. I felt vindicated that so many others thought this one was clunky, ill-suited for a W, not satisfying, or all of the above. Sometimes a theme forces what is very likely a perfectly fine puzzle into a straightjacket of Awkward. Today was such a puzzle for me. Oh well, streak over. Onward!
15
I object! BTWO? ABBESS crossing ELBE? And worst of all, ARAMIS, DESICA, ASTERIX, and LATEEN all in the same corner!? Much too tough for a Wednesday! 👎
28
@Ron I agree :( My worst ever time by a mile!
5
@Ron A total dill-weed of a SW corner.
3
I did not like this puzzle at all.
17
I realllly didn't like this one!
15
The newest iOS automatically downloaded and now I cannot use Across Lite on my iPad without so many machinations I may cancel my subscription. Suggestions appreciated.
@Ann
Have you tried the NYT Crossword Puzzle app? I've been using it successfully on the iPad for almost five years.
6
@Ann
How abut printing the grid and clues? Solving on paper is more fun.
When I pretty quickly saw the revealer to be ALTEREDSTATES (loved that movie at the time, and I've been in a sensory deprivation chamber a few times since), I knew the highlighted words had to be anagrams of states. But I'm not very good at anagrams and I'm lazy, so I just put the highlighted words into an anagram solver. None of them returned states. I tried a different solver, same result. Then I tried a Scramble solver and again got the same result. How come the anagram solvers don't produce a result with the same number of letters that you input?
1
We liked the anagrams, and actually benefitted from DELAWARE. Note to self: don't necessarily read the three musketeers, but please, memorize their names.
6
@David A. - yep, all four of them!
en garde
4
@David Connell
or just watch one of the movies.
1
I like anagrams.
2
@retired, with cat
Am leaking airs.
5
Sure a clever theme, but it did nothing to help solve the partially crossed clues. Sort of a waste.
6
I enjoy doing the NYT crossword puzzles. If I get stuck, I set it aside and look at it later. That usually gives me a fresh perspective and I -usually- solve what I couldn’t on the first attempt. I put this one down more than once as I was stuck in the lower left corner.. I figured out all the revealers except one and reluctantly looked at the answer for 50 across. “Real awed”. .....??
12
All streaks have to end sometime. But on a WEDNESDAY? I don’t know where to direct my venom; to the puzzle’s creator or to the editor who thought this puzzle fit nicely into the middle of my work week.
Oh well. Tomorrow is another day.
15
My longest ever streak came after a failed Wednesday. For months I was afraid I'd have to tell someone the last puzzle I ever failed was a Wednesday. Good fortune for me when I eventually failed a Saturday.
This is not particular to this puzzle, but what are the "rules" for a streak? Can I look up words? Google something? Or am I supposed to be able to solve the puzzle with no assistance, like I would at a competition? Or maybe it's just personal preference?
1
@Wade Faulkner
The NYT "streak" is kept track of by solving on-line without lookup or checking or autocheck (I think). Everything else is up to you! Google, checking WordPlay, consulting a partner or friend, etc. YOU set the rule for you. For instance, I have a rule that says a) I must start in 1A/1D and b) all entries must touch other entered letters. So my NYT streak is longer than my personal streak because I can solve the puzzle without using the "check puzzle" option, but some puzzles the NW corner just kills me! It's all personal in the end! Hope this helps!
4
@Robert Michael Panoff
ETA: you have to finish the puzzle on-line by midnight Eastern Time of the day following when it was posted. International or cross country travel has killed many of my streaks as a result.
3
@Robert Michael Payoff Holy smoke Bob. I always assumed that everyone's personal rules made it easier. Your constraints would reduce me to streaks ranging from 1 to ... 2.
6
I enjoyed the anagrammed states! I didn't know the movie ALTERED STATES, but once I got it through the crossings, it helped with my solve. The resulting phrases felt forced and unnatural, but I suppose that tends to happen with anagrams.
This was quite tough for a Wednesday. It felt like a Thursday. A lot of naticky answers out of my wheelhouse.
6
REALAWED? Color me not super-impressed.
13
I felt this was much harder than a Wednesday should be. Usually I can solve Mon - Wed without any look-ups. I didn't enjoy this one as I never could quite get a sense of where it was going. Meh is right.
11
@Sylvia yes, myself as well. First time in 12 weeks I used a Reveal.
4
@Sylvia, is there really a You-Only-Live-Once County in RACIALINFO?
@Leapfinger Yep, YOLO County on the west side of Sacramento County, home of UCD.
1
Hated it!
10
Appreciate the effort but not a favorite. SW corner was a slog for the same reasons others have mentioned. NE was also a pain until ABBESS dropped (having been in another recent edition). The streak is only saved by some increasingly aggressive googling after the 60 minute mark, which is—IMHO—enough for a good Wednesday.
5
@Scott M Agreed. This was my 52nd straight Wednesday - a full year of Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday complete! I fell into Googling earlier and managed to be done in under 40 minutes, but I'm usually under 25 on Wednesdays. I didn't use Deb's clues today, but that might have been less cheat-y than the googling.
3
Heavens! I solved the whole puzzle before I looked anything up, and it wasn't until I read this article that I learned what the theme meant. And none of the clues that were so hard that I still don't get them were in the list of hard clues here either. I think I must approach these puzzles from completely the wrong end!
1
@Meaghan
Around here no end is ever wrong. Sounds like you did good.
this one was a meh for me. too many names crossing other names-like the east section of the theme entry. big sister and verse vs verse were cute. otherwise, kind of a dud.
sorry I'm not more enthusiastic.
11
19 Across is very misleading. It's very common in crossword clues to use abbreviations, to indicate that the answer should also be an abbreviation. To me, that seemed like an unfair clue. If you wanted to point to that answer, better to use two unrelated abbreviations. I don't know about others, but I feel this is out of bounds. Other than that, I thought the theme was pretty neat, once I got it. Too bad for this one blemish.
9
A pen!? Really?
7
@Roger
https://youtu.be/Fw6NS2fws0E
2
@Roger Thank you for the link.
Not my favorite puzzle due to the tortured theme clues and paucity of clever clues (ABBESS was an exception), but IMO not a loser either (and about 20% faster than my W average). Once I got the revealer (mostly through crosses; I never saw it) it jumped out that SHOTAWNING was an anagram of Washington (it helped that I live here) and after that the pattern was useful. Given the clue for 47A it only took a couple of crosses to figure out that the beginning had to be TEEN, so the remaining letters had to be EENSS. TEEN SENSE is kind of an oxymoron, but it was the only thing that fit. Similarly, once I had enough crosses to figure out that the beginning of 57 was RACIALI, I knew the last three letters had to be FNO (in some order).
Hardest part was the SW corner, where I never heard of DESICA and REALAWED was no help at all, but then LATEEN emerged from some distantly buried memory cell and things fell together.
5
Aaand the streak is dead. Wah.
16
Longest Wednesday ever, more than double my average. I was flummoxed by the southwest corner. Got RANKBASE without ever seeing which state it was, but got all the rest. I used the theme to figure out REALAWED, and I was pleased since I rarely use the theme but only look at it afterwards. Nice construction.
10
Boy did I love this puzzle. It was a fairly quick solve, but I had to come here to understand the Altered States. That made sense, and I got most of the anagrams fairly quickly but was totally stuck on 26A. I kept thinking it should be Arkansas, but RANK sASE made no sense. Took me a lot longer than it should have, but I had more fun today than I have on a Wednesday all year.
4
Can you help me with it? I cant figure out the anagram.
1
@Michael
Nebraska
2
@Leapfinger Thanks! That one was bothering me.
1
I usually remain silent when I don’t enjoy a puzzle but this time I have to make an exception. I thought the theme had something to do state abbreviations being altered or substituted somehow.
Since I solved it without understanding the theme, I got no “aha” out of this one. And the theme answers felt very forced.
I think there should be some kind of twist that pulls things together when you figure out a theme; in this case I believe that even if I had gotten it, it wouldn’t have helped.
12
@Michael R , I'm with you on your thoughts. All of the themers were forced since none of them are actual things except for maybe SONICS WIN, and that's a stretch. Since I wasn't looking for actual things, that made the solve impossible.
5
@Michael R I feel like this is one of those themes where it's an interesting challenge to make, but boring to solve (especially because the fill ended up being full of obscure words and names)
3
I'm very bad at anagrams but consider them to be perfectly acceptable for a puzzle. I enjoyed this one and had a good AHA moment when the crosses finally gave me the reveal and I looked back at those strange entries and worked out what states they were. I also was then able to get the couple I hadn't completely filled in yet, like CALIFORNIA.
Ignore all those moaners, Alan.
5
GRRRRRRR Anagrams! I hate anagrams. I NEVER pick up on them! I completed it, but I didn’t get it until I read Deb’s column. I also had to look up Vittorio DeSica. In fact the entire SW was a bit of a natick situation for me. I had SOCIAL INFO for a very long time. Although I DID know Asterix, because I used to read it when I was little, as well as Tin Tin (*pats self on back*). But sadly it’s not really a solve today, just a completion. For me, this was more like a Thursday, because of those darn anagrams.
8
@ Ms. Cat
Correction: Tintin!
1
I happened to get the revealer clue after I'd only solved one of the states. I was delighted when I figured it out! ...then sobered when I realized that just knowing the theme wouldn't give me the rest of the related clues right away. I ended up anagramming the remaining states to figure out what the phrase could possibly be. It was an interesting twist to the puzzle.
3
Bleah! Just plain difficult without any of the fun of subtlety. A humorless slog, largely due to the leaden clues. Poor showing best consigned among the sorts of unrefined efforts that one is unhappy to find in airline magazines.
37
A few random thoughts:
The last time LL Bean and J Crew stirred up this much passion was in 1986 when Sissy Taylor showed up to Buffy Amsterdam’s debutante ball pre-party wearing LL Bean no-wrinkle khakis. The internet is still buzzing about that one.
Never (rarely) heard on Jeopardy: “As my first category, I’ll take Anagrams for $1,000, Alex.” Like many others, when I see anagrams, I can hear my brain moaning, “Dear god, no.” But that doesn’t mean I have to listen to it.
Hard puzzle ≠ Bad puzzle.
12
@Puzzlemucker I think many of those who commented aren't just complaining that the puzzle was difficult, but instead that difficulty was pretty much all it had to offer. And I can see the point being made. Completing this one felt more like running through scales on the piano than playing a thoughtful, moving composition. Technically admirable, sure, but not much more.
6
@LetsPlayTwo
"I think many of those who commented aren't just complaining that the puzzle was difficult" -- I agree. But at least 28 people have, so far, have approved of the following message, which essentially boils down to "Did not like. Too hard!":
"Give me a break. Terrible puzzle. Constructor was trying to be way too clever for his own good. And talk about obscure proper nouns! Sheesh!"
The criticism that a puzzle is "too clever for its own good" is a pet peeve of mine. These are PUZZLES, which are supposed to PUZZLE us (i.e., cleverness is an asset, not a shortcoming). Sorry for shouting but at times some people seem to overlook the word "puzzle" when critiquing crossword puzzles.
7
@Puzzlemucker
I've started to wonder if Rex's blog isn't taking comments this afternoon.
5
Well, considering 47D, and if you like quasi-coincidences, one of yesterday's fills was EXACTO.
3
Instead of commenting today, I just upvoted most of the positive comments. I really liked the puzzle. I found the clueing multigenerational and across many disciplines.
12
Seems to me that this puzzle had more negative comments than I've ever seen before. It came very slowly and a couple of time-outs before I got near to completing it. It was that darn NE section. I'd had SLAM but actually deleted it at one point. Then, as I glanced idly at the grid, anagrammed DELAWARE jumped out at me. There I was with RAN and a possible K. So I mentally toured the US and stumbled on NEBRASKA. Then all that corner filled in quickly. With no music, I switched to HAJJ. Ta da!
Feel proud, Mr. Arbesfeld. That was tough but you done good.
15
Liked the theme, and I like anagrams, but IMO the constructor was forced to use too many factoids. AKELA? Intersecting rivers? Not much fun for me.
10
Start your puzzle out with "big name in water filters" and you're going to cause me mucho trouble. I should know from walter filter brand names? In fact, you're going to cause me a DNF, as I had BRITo/oRGON and didn't realize it until just now. Doesn't oRGON sound like something you'd find on the periodic table? Also, it just occurs to me: add one more letter and you get another STATE.
I think I've now figured out all the ALTERED STATES anagrams -- but trust me, they were no damned help in solving the puzzle. Still, I won't complain: any Wednesday that makes me work this hard is welcome. I never mind a challenge, even when I don't quite measure up. But I do mind BRITA. I will always mind BRITA. And I'm quite sure I will never remember BRITA in the future -- even though I'm typing it three times.
I laughed out loud at the thought of a PEN as a "hotel amenity". To tell the truth, I'd prefer either a big fluffy terry robe or a really well-stocked [free] bar.
3
@Nancy Funny, I thought BRITA was a freebie. Just goes to show... It takes all kinds. :)
5
@Nancy
Oddly enough, BRITA always speaks very highly of you but then there isn’t much that gets past BRITA.
(I used to know a very nice person named BRIgitTa from GOteborg, so I thought I’d just filter in a little nomenclature humour)
5
Tough for a Wednesday, maybe could'a been a good Thursday. I spent way too long trying to figure out how Arkansas could be RANK AS ASS, when the actual answer was slightly easier.
I thought I'd end my streak, or at least cheat with the comments or Google, but in the end, some lucky guesses put me close enough to the right track, and I focused on the correct wrong letter to run the alphabet, getting from ELBA to ELBE pretty quickly.
Someday, a Wednesday may end my streak. But not today, Wednesday. Not today.
10
Oof. This is probably the toughest Wednesday I've ever done (almost double my avg Wed. of 18:40, and that was with capitulating at the 35 minute mark and looking some up).
Maybe it's just my wheelhouse showing its bias, but SO many of these seemed Eurocentric: Tudor, Aramis, Asterix, Mersey, Elbe, De Sica, (three of which made the SW corner hell).
I don't know how many people know who Milton Berle is, let alone that Texaco was his longtime sponsor, or that a triangular sail is called a lateen. I sure didn't, and the crosses didn't help.
Never even heard of the theme movie, let alone seen it, and all the theme answers weren't common phrases or "gettable" in some way.
I appreciate the effort, and I like the idea (I love anagrams), but man, you gotta give us more help with the crossings or put this later in the week (Fri/Sat).
12
@Ryan I don't know. I hate to have to look things up, but I like the chance to learn. For me, it all balances out.
8
After finishing the puz (and needing to look up the river feeders to do so) I started wondering why the Thursday puz is a day early. The state anagram aspect finally came to me after reading the blog comments -- I don't think would have seen that otherwise. (Or hetrowise...)
A good tough one.
This one took forever and almost hurt when I “got it”, but was a surprisingly tough, yet satisfying Wednesday.
1
EMBAR. Yesterday's HBAR led to someone wondering how many one letter possibilities there are prec ending BAR(I, T, J, H)
Two letter possibilities: DE, EM, FU, IM,IN(name) KA (knives), KE (River), LO, RE, TU(brand of locks), UN. Those in (), I found with search help
2
@ColoradoZ
Preceding, not prec ending(whatever that may MEAN)
@ColoradoZ
ZA (NYC bagels), BA (the French elephant), EX (one’s old drinking establishment), HI (what to say when you see Streisand).
3
@PUZZLEMUCKER
ZA is one of my favorite NYC spots. Not on a first name basis with BAR
1
I never comment on puzzles, but I wrote my French thesis on Astérix and I can’t express how excited I was to see it in the crossword (despite bad flashbacks to the thesis writing experience as a whole). I highly recommend it.
15
MERSEY me!
Astonished (No, Madam! I'm surprised. You are astonished.) that so many had their noses out of joint with this stately anagrammatic confection. I had it as Deb did, a two-part discovery, rather than a SONIC SWINdle.
Esp fond of finding words with old-time connections for me, like DESICA and the classic LATEEN, awa a personal history of wrestling with BRITAs. Funnest part was considering how to fit in Elizabeth I in five spaces as the last VIRGINQUEEN.
Simply speaking, A FLORID thankyou to Alan A, from one not too shameless for the lowest-hanging fruit.
11
Bouncing off that VIRGINQUEEN, VIRGINIA almost anagrams to IN VIAGRA
5
@Leapfinger
In part, because she was the Virgin Queen, she became the last TUDOR.
6
[tee hee, @vaer, I don't think Robert of Essex called her that!]
Besides that, dearest vaer, you don't think there was an entire flotilla of TUDORs parked in the wings? Palace intrigue of the day was rife for a coupe d'etat...
I solved before "getting" all of the anagrams. I had the theme, but not the source states of the anagrams. I had RANK____ and tried to anagram ARKANSAS to no avail. Filled in BASE and then slogged on. Finished and then spent some time to figure out what had been anagrammed.
2
I don't tend to leave comments or even normally read wordplay, but I HATED this puzzle.
20
@Stephen Spaulding
Come back again to weigh in about a puzzle you enjoyed. And bring a clam pizza from Pepe’s Pizza with you, please!
6
@Stephen Spaulding
Well, you DID leave a comment and you DID read Wordplay -- from which I can safely infer that you DID like this puzzle.
1
@Puzzlemucker
A clam pizza from Pepe’s? We usually preferred The Spot!
(Not to overlook all the Italian bakeries around in East Haven)
1
This puzzle was a unique combination of boring and unsatisfying. The theme was completely forced and therefore didn't draw me in.
And, even after solving it there was no AHA moment.
Anagrams for the sake of anagrams isn't the same as a theme.
30
@Dmisita
um.... Crikey?
The theme is "Altered States". They aren't anagrams for the sake of anagrams; they're anagrams for the sake of the theme. It's a play on words: US states have been selected, and have been altered.
It may not have been to your liking for any number of personal reasons, but it is a consistent application of a reasoned play on words. I also thought it was nicely worked into an interesting grid and well (sometimes devilishly) clued.
Et bien, variety, yes?
2
SONICSWIN was the toughest for me to unscramble. Ironic. As other commenters have noted, the anagrams were pretty forced. BRITA was a gimme. All in all, a good puzzle. Any puzzle I have to sleep on is a winner in my book.
4
Bee and X word: things that got lost in the ocean crossing: Us and double letters. Ocean travel metamorphosis : Licence, license- C into S! Zeds into zees and zeds into Ss. A defence for this offence? Just pretence.
5
The concept was excellent, and it was nice to have a harder-than-usual Wednesday puzzle. But I'd agree with the kvetchers muttering that the anagrams were pretty weak.
7
Not a fan of this puzzle, but I may just be sore it took me over 11 minutes past my average time.
Hazard of old age: The answer that popped quickly to mind for 27A (Old Seattle sports page headline) was "PILOTSWIN."
It fits *perfectly.*
I'm too old for my own good. Plus, I don't pay enough attention to the NBA to have even heard the Sonics were no longer in Seattle (or, technically, in existence). Thanks, Wikipedia.
2
@Brian Drumm
I was looking for Pilots, too, since they moved to Milwaukee and became the Brewers, but I had ____CSWIN; duh, Wisconsin! And why does Seattle keep losing its professional sports teams?
1
Gotta point out that the writers of Asterix were Belgian. Yes they wrote in French and the action takes place in ‘France’, but calling it a ‘French comic book series’ seems a little misleading. Yes I’m being pedantic ....
6
@Steven Vlad
? Pretty sure they were French. Are you thinking of Herge? Asterix was first published in a Belgian magazine I think.
@Frances - You're referring (I think) to Tintin, probably the most popular kids' toon in Francophone places, who was indeed drawn by the Belgian Hergé.
3
Goscinny and Uderzo were French; sons of immigrants both, but French nonetheless. You weren’t being pedantic - just wrong. ASTÉRIX was definitely my favorite entry in that puzzle. Also my favorite comic book growing up!
2
Start your puzzle out with "big name in water filters" and you're going to cause me mucho trouble. I should know from walter filter brand names? In fact, you're going to cause me a DNF, as I had BRITo/oRGON and didn't realize it until just now. Doesn't oRGON sound like something you'd find on the periodic table? Also, it just occurs to me: add one more letter and you get another STATE.
I think I've now figured out all the ALTERED STATES anagrams -- but trust me, they were no help in solving the puzzle. Still, I won't complain: any Wednesday that makes me work this hard is welcome. I never mind a challenge, even when I don't quite measure up. But I do mind BRITA. I will always mind BRITA. And I'm quite sure I will never remember BRITA in the future -- even though I'm typing it three times.
I laughed out loud at the thought of a PEN as a hotel amenity. Truth to tell, I'd prefer either a big fluffy terry robe or a really well-stocked [free] bar.
1
@Nancy I thought BRITA was a gimme. I've heard the water is very good in NYC, so maybe you don't need water filters?
26A - I finished the puzzle, but haven’t been able to figure out what this altered state this is.
1
@Josephine corn huskers
1
Ha!
Thanks. :-)
1
Worst Wednesday puzzle of the year. Anagrams were forced and essentially nonsensical.
25
@Hornhighaces: How could anyone not get "SHOTAWNING" from "Storefront cover that's totally busted?"
6
About my mean, median and modal times for a Wednesday. I enjoy anagrams, but these were forced to say the least. Note to compiler: no theme is better than a bad theme.
As an aside, I’ve just started looking at old puzzles in the archive. Happy to see LATEEN appear today after seeing it yesterday in the puzzle for 10th December 1993.
4
@Alan Hunter
"no theme is better than a bad theme."
Love the ambiguity!
5
@Alan Hunter
No TEEN is better than an LATEEN!
5
It took me almost to the end of the puzzle to get the revealer and figure out the theme. The theme entries were pretty lackluster, being neither common phrases nor interesting wordplay. I wasn't REAL AWED by this one.
14
Very satisfying, because harder is better, especially on a Wednesday. What made it hard for me? I'm weak on pop culture and geography. But the biggest obstacle was not knowing the revealer right off combined with the fact that 17A SHOT AWNING was so close to SHOP AWNING. So I kept looking for stuff like TFORP in the movie title. It wasn't until I had the first few letters of the revealer that I could fill in the movie and then all was clear. Another interesting anomaly is that RACIALINFO and SONICSWIN were not at all punny, and RANKBASE and REALAWED seemed especially forced and TEENSENSE was in the middle someplace. But that all made it a little bit harder and therefore more satisfying to solve.
4
I am not a big fan of anagrams to begin with and I felt that the ALTEREDSTATES as answers were somewhat forced. I thought of LLBEAN , but felt it was not a representative competitor of J Crew. More likely a competitor of Orvis?
Wow, Milton Berle's sponsor, even at my advanced age I can barely remember the uniformed "men from Texaco" singing the jingle on our Dumont black and white tv.
4
@Ken s
That jingle:
"We are the men from Texaco.
We work from Maine to Mexico."
is what popped immediately into my head when reading the clue.
Mysterious are the workings of memory.
5
Yes that vague mind picture of the Texaco men singing that song still lingers. Thanks for the memory.
Since when is L.L Bean a competitor of J. Crew??
48
Toughest Wednesday in a very long time, like a major-league knock-down pitch. But I got up, dusted myself off, and stepped back into the batters box. Swung and missed a couple of times, but when at last I connected, it was sweet.
8
I appreciated this puzzle. It was challenging but do-able. perfect for a Wednesday. I guess I would quibble over the spelling of "hajj" and knowing nothing about JLO, DLO looked just fine to me.
thanks, NY Times and Alan Arbesfeld!
#626AndCounting!
5
Bad, inaccurate clue-ing (J. Crew for LLBEAN?), boring and frustrating to solve, no fun. Days like this I hate that I’m addicted to these stupid little things.
21
@Patrick
There is help for you: 1-800-EXX-WORD. Learn to live free from anagrams, puns, and rebuses, while saying goodbye to JLO, OREO, and OLE forever. #Kickthehabit, #WordsNoMore, #KenKenCan
11
@Puzzlemucker
PM you are hilarious!
2
OH! - a memory was triggered.
Back in 1970, my bride and I drove through what seemed to be about six hundred European countries in three weeks - including through East Germany to West Berlin.
The Russians were particularly peeved at something The Allies had recently done and they were making entry to the city as difficult as possible. We sat in one of a dozen lanes of cars that backed up to Italy (or so it seemed). The delay stretched for hours. I had to take the cap off of my toothpaste to show a rifle-toting guard the contents. (Can you spell INTIMIDATING?!)
Now to my point: I think I owe retention of my sanity to my wife having along a hard-cover Asterisk comic book - - in FRENCH. I do not speak French - - but I certainly picked up a few words and phrases from the reading - and RE-reading of that book!!
8
I think I'll just say that I didn't do very well on this one and leave it at that. Who am I to judge?
Side note: First time clue for ONEL, which has appeared 75 times. Previously it was always some variation on a first year law student, Ogden Nash's priest or a Scott Turow novel.
5
@Rich in Atlanta I'll judge: that puzzle was terrible! YMMV
9
@Rob
MMDV (My mileage did vary).
5
Surprisingly tough for a Wednesday. Again puzzle that was satisfying to complete. I enjoyed the post-completion challenge of figuring out the ALTERED STATES.
5
Wellll? I guess this one squeaks over the line into the “solve” column - - but note absence of a capital “s”.
Had to research DE SICA and AKELA and the theme blew right by me - completely - until I read Deb’s words of wisdom. The theme answers just seemed “weird”. Interestingly, getting MERSEY was helped by nothing so much as a line from a Beatles song - i.e. “...so Mary cross the Mersey ...”
I agree wth others that this puzzle WAS a notch above normal Wednesday difficulty - but not all that far above - - for people who caught on to the theme and have good MAGANARA skills - which I definitely do NOT!
The feat of making SIX theme answers - ranging from 8 to 10 characters and symmetrically arranged - and fitting with the crosses has GOT to make us doff our collective hat to Mr. Arbesfeld. The fact that the cluing for these theme answers seemed a little “off the wall” has GOT to be excused. (The theme answers WERE “weird”!!)
9
@PeterW I'm sure you meant, "Ferry Cross the Mersey" by Gerry and the Pacemakers - another good Liverpool band from that time.
17
@PatrickC
OT but couldn't resist
“I can see clearly now, Lorraine is gone”. Correct lyric: “I can see clearly now, the rain is gone” from Johnny Nash’s ‘I can see clearly "
6
Go look up "mondegreens". Those are misheard twists on standard phrasing. (And how my hearng works, BTW).
2
Interesting to read the comments and note where others’ brains are at. I’ve long love word games but have only come back to crosswords recently.
So I really like the anagrams, and although they weren’t a gimme, I enjoyed solving them.
But that NE corner was terrible for me and forced me to look up answers. A river crossing a river means I’m in trouble. Add to that EENSY (where I had EENIE) and ABBR and it’s just a slog.
Thanks for the anagrams though!
6
Tough for me, too. Or it felt that way; my time was a little over average, and no flyspecking at the end. Lots of lucky guesses, though. If there must be anagrams, let them be fun phrases (SONICSWIN was funnish). Agree, LLBEAN clothes are for granddads, JCREW's for preppy young up-and-comers.
6
I got the revealer fairly early but I'm not an anagram fan so it was still a bit of a struggle especially when the anagram is a bit of a stretch to clue, SHOTAWNING, RACIALINFO. Clever but not one of my faves.
3
I have a few Dalek models about. I sometimes enjoy pointing them at a knotty math problem, turning them on and hearing a chorus of: Exterminate.
Concur with Kelly or Toronto LLBEAN and J.Crew are not alike. That said, there may be a J.Crew in Freeport (home of Beans) a once quaint village now a shopping mall. Cue "Take paradise and put up a parking lot."
This puzzle was a bit of slog for this solver.
Thanks Alan.
10
I’m honestly just bothered that J. Crew was the hint to get LL Bean. You definitely can’t go to J. Crew to buy a sleeping bag or a kayak... hmmm. If it was supposed to just be because of the initials in the name, that’s a big stretch. I feel like this puzzle had a lot of stretches.
35
Eddie Bauer maybe. J. Crew? No way.
4
The theme definitely helped me in a couple of whitish areas, whitish because of things I didn't know and vague cluing. My brain has to work hard to crack anagrams -- Jumble puzzles give me a headache -- so this puzzle shifted me out of my crossword comfort zone, and thus I left it feeling, "This was an onus, but it was good for me."
From time to time, I'll take a puzzle that leaves me feeling like that, and I will profit from it, as I did today. Bottom line: While low in the "Whee!" factor, this hard-work offering was something I gained from, and thank you for that Alan. Now, I'm off for some comfort food.
5
I'm REAL AWED by Ross' puzzle. The double Jays in HAJJ provided an extra twist.
Five ASTERIX from me.
9
Meh....I do not see anagrams everywhere the way some do, and I didn't 'see' states. Well, TENNESSEE did jump out....but still. Hated the fake phrases (or the exhaustion is getting to me) and DHubby is under the weather, so I am not feeling like it's fun to be toyed with in this manner. Is Wednesday the new Thursday?
14
Way out of my wheelhouse today. This was a slog for me. I detest anagrams. I got HAJJ, BRITA, SLAM, ISLE and TUDOR right away so I thought it was going to be a slam dunk. Then the wheels fell off. Are PENs really hotel amenities though 🤔?
Oh well, that’s completed. On to Thursday.
11
SPELLING BEE
N C E I L M T
Words: 64, Points: 352, Pangrams: 2, Bingo: yes
C x 8
E x 8
I x 12
L x 12
M x 8
N x 7
T x 9
4L x 18
5L x 8
6L x 14
7L x 9
8L x 7
9L x 4
10L x 3
11L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Tot
C 1 - 3 2 - 1 1 - 8
E - - 1 4 1 - 1 1 8
I - 2 4 1 1 3 1 - 12
L 5 1 2 2 2 - - - 12
M 4 2 2 - - - - - 8
N 4 1 1 - 1 - - - 7
T 4 2 1 - 2 - - - 9
Tot 18 8 14 9 7 4 3 1 64
43
@Mari thanks it helped me find 2 more words, just missing 1 now, the M6. I have the one kids wear in cold weather.
1
@Kevin Davis Remember the trick with 'EE' the Bee Keeper loves...
8
@Mari
2-letter Word Starts
CE 3
CL 5
EL 1
EM 2
EN 5
IC 1
IM 2
IN 9
LE 4
LI 8
ME 1
MI 7
NE 2
NI 5
TE 5
TI 4
Total 64
16
Sounds like the Wordplay faithful here NOMINATES this puzzle as a rather tough one for a Wednesday.
I must state that I thoroughly enjoyed it.
(I have no alterior motives.)
7
@Mike, no alterior motives, eh? In that case, you may as well go fer the gold 'n' go fer broke.
A fair bit of undeserved negativity today. I found this enjoyable and challenging. I caught on with SONICS WIN and ALTERED STATES and that certainly helped me extract the theme entries. How anyone could hope for common everyday idioms from anagrammed state names is beyond me! The resultant anagrams were completely appropriate answers to the clues.
I too was stuck on trying to make ARKANSAS work at 26A.
I had B TEN before B TWO. However at some point I did find myself pondering the question: B TWO or not B TWO?
14
Most embarrassing moment: Thinking that John Tyler was that Aerosmith singer.
Thanks for setting me straight, Deb!
6
SPELLING BEE
Stuck st 60 words 317 points. License not accepted nor licensee. Only unusual word I don’t remember seeing here previously is the verb form of a common noun meaning an encouragement.
@Kevin Davis found another unusual word which is the opposite of bad weather. Now at 61 words 324 points.
@Kevin Davis oops I meant licence. Autocorrect changed it. No wonder it wasn’t accepted!
Words are my forte. Geography isn't, let alone US states, so this one was tough. I enjoyed the challenge, though, and after figuring out the revealer I was quite impressed by the fact that the constructor had managed to fit six anagrams in there.
Fun fact: my first and last name together anagram to "occult bovenkamerbeheerder", which literally means "occult upper room manager", but "bovenkamer" is commonly used in Dutch to signify the head or brain ("He isn't quite right in the bovenkamer"). I really should have become a neurosurgeon or a psychiatrist.
10
LETTER BOXED
S-S(10), S-G(5).
Quite quick today. I’m sure a 13 is possible.
@Andrew
U-S(5) S-D(9)
@ColoradoZ
Also H-T(6), T-D(8).
Knowing the revealer was not at all helpful with solving the themed clues, IMHO. For the first time in 38 days of commited daily solving, I felt no joy and had no aha! moment while completing this task of a puzzle.
13
Here in Colorado, my next door neighbor's cannabis use puts in her in ALTERED STATES of mind so often we call her LOCO DORA
13
@ColoradoZ
Sounds like BUD LORE to me.
5
@ColoradoZ
Although I'm sure she considers herself COOL DORA.
5
isn't loco referring to a man? so maybe your male neighbor named Daro? or Rado?
1
I was expecting math. Consistency Isn’t the hobgoblin of anything: consistency is chicken soup for our pattern-loving brains.
At least you could have crossed BTWO with TWODOOR. That morning would’ve been nice. Wouldn’t that have been nice?
3
@Sam Lyons
Yes, crossing BTWO with TWODOOR would have been a real COUP(E)!
2
Would y'all settle for crossing BTU with TUDOR?
Merseybeat. Yeah. Old school. Funny where wormholes will take you.
4
NEBRASKA took me forever. Even after I gave up on ARKANSas, I was sure that there was no state which contained both a B and a K. ;) I guess the fact that the K comes at the end is what threw me. Plus I started (in my mental traverse) from each coast and worked my way inwards.
5
me too!
A bit tougher than the usual Wednesday, at least for me, and I was a tad over my average on this one. Wasn't a real fan of the themers, although the anagram idea was nice, some of the answers felt a bit forced and awkward.
Had HAdJ before J LO fixed that; started off with ALien... before realizing it was ALTERED STATES; knew ARAMIS and somehow remembered DESICA; and some clever clueing kept me guessing at a few others; but finally things fell into place.
2
A fairly difficult puzzle for me for a Wednesday but I enjoyed the challenge. I like anagrams (and rebuses, too). The aha moment was delayed as it took me a while, after the solve, to figure out the theme.
As a Seattleite, I enjoyed seeing SONICS WIN. Ah, the glory days! I have fond teenage memories of having just enough time at half-time to whip up a batch of scones which came out of the oven early in the third quarter. My dad, sister and I would eat them during the rest of the game. Win or lose, it made the experience sweeter.
My sister still holds a grudge against Starbucks for former CEO Howard Schultz’s part, as owner of the Sonics, in moving the team to Oklahoma over ten years ago.
3
Easily takes the record for most things I've never heard of in a Wednesday puzzle.
51
To me this felt tough but fair. Like having your aunt for a baby sitter. :) I had ELBA before ELBE. I may have finally imprinted the difference in my mind. Didn’t know MERSEY and ABBR didn’t tickle the right synapse, but an otherwise enjoyable puzzle I thought.
4
Hard for a Wednesday. Lots of stuff I didn't know, like MERSEY, ELBE, ABBESS (though I remembered it from a few weeks ago in a puzzle), TEXACO, EMBAR, LATEEN, DESICA, ARAMIS. Made the NE and SW very difficult.
Add that to trying to fit ALTERED CARBON (Netflix show based off of a graphic novel) as the revealer, and this was a hard puzzle. Was trying to figure out how many ways I could anagram varieties of carbon... and came up with none.
3
@Tyler D.
There was no Netflix in 1980.
4
@vaer thanks for letting me know
2
@Tyler D., nothin' better than a good laugh...
Double my Wednesday average. I enjoyed the challenge, but a bit torturous of a solve. Themers helped once I got the reveal and realized what was called for, but kept trying to make Arkansas out of Nebraska in the NE and was at a loss in the SW with LATEEN and DE SICA crossing ASTERIX.
6
I love a clever, challenging, well-constructed puzzle. But a puzzle that's bogged down by esoterica and dubious theme answers... well, not so much. Sorry, but this one was a disappointment. Meh.
31
Loved this puzzle from my old high school geometry teacher; I had it done in no time. Thanks, Mr. Arbesfeld!
15
@EvangelineNY.This was constructed by a geometry teacher? Why wasn't there any math? I guess he didn't know would be published during math week.
Well, at least there was MODE.
1
Give me a break. Terrible puzzle. Constructor was trying to be way too clever for his own good. And talk about obscure proper nouns! Sheesh!
46
Anagrams? I'd rather have math.
10
@vaer
You bet!! Calculus even! Or Differential Equations. Laplace Transforms even.
ANAGRAMS? How about CHELBHHH?
@vaer
Snarky initial comment aside, I did enjoy the challenge of solving the puzzle. I got the movie title about a third of the way through so knew what was up with the theme answers. Other than TENNESSEE, which was very apparent, did not bother with the other anagrams last night. But this morning after some sleep, could see them all quite clearly.
@vaer
"Anagrams? I'd rather have math."
OK. Here you go then:
Solve for z where z = the number of puzzle entries.
Let x = the number of anagrams
Let y = the number of revealers
Then:
{(x + y) times LLBEAN} - y = z
Hint: = the number of trombones in the big parade.
Hope that helps.
3
REALAWED? i’m all for taking some liberties when trying to fill a theme, but c’mon man! Wasn’t a huge fan of this one. Too many esoteric answers.
25
@Jeremy
Yeah - - - but consider the difficulty of coming up with any answer that met the requirements of the theme AND fit with all of the crosses.
MIND BOGGLING!!
Gotta cut some slack for what may have seemed “esoteric”.
2
That was very fun.
4
@Benjamin Teral
For me too! (Though I was over my average solving time by 12 minutes.)
HAJJ did not make me happy -- that's a new spelling for me. Otherwise, a good, challenging Wednesday puzzle. (By the way, they didn't have seatbelts when I took my driving test, but I managed to flunk anyway.)
5
Asterix is all kinds of wonderful. It's incredibly pun rich, which makes me admire the many translators who must essentially write all new puns in a great many languages. Including Latin.
16
Thought the theme might be oxymoronic after seeing TEEN SENSE. Not really. Even with the ALTERED STATES hint filled in, it took TENNESSEE for me to realize there were anagrams afoot. REAL AWED, I wasn't. The anagram solving was the best part of the puzzle for me. I had a bit of hold up in the southwest corner with LATEEN and DESICA. Took little trial and error to get it done.
🙂
5
The brain is a marvelous and curious thing. Crosswords and anagrams both deal with words. Why is it that I can be pretty good at one of those diversions and so bad at the other?
7
This one really took me a while to figure out themewise...it was Tennessee that did it. I imagine it's hard to hide an anagram of that name! By the time it was all solved, it felt strange. None of the anagrammed states have personal resonance for me (with all due respect to each of them...) and the anagrams really didn't do much other than be anagrams. I had grown more attached to my half-sensed possibilities for a theme than to the actual theme once revealed.
Even the musical tie-in - "Ferry Cross the Mersey" - I went to find it, listened to it again, and felt the same kind of "meh" about it that I felt 54 years ago. So, I'm only left with a nod to the Mother Abbess - from the first movie I was ever taken to see, just about that same year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKuqySkqhHw
4
Greetings from the altered state of O CRANIAL THORN! (Or if you'd rather, NOON RAIL CHART or RANCH RAIN TOOL.)
This was fun. I needed the revealer to make sense of the theme phrases, because as Deb noted, they're not really in the language, and feel a little tortured without the anagrams to back them up. But as I found with my examples above, it's not easy to anagram a state name into something elegant. So kudos from me for the themers we got.
All in all, thumbs up from me.
12
As a Canadian, this one was tough. I completed it using the crosses, but still had no idea what it was about until I checked the Wordplay column. Oh well, next time an answer involves Saskatchewan or Nunavut, I’ll be laughing!
18
@Sascha Honestly, I don't think your Canadian-ness had you at a disadvantage. Even with the revealer, this puzzle made no sense.
9
Nice comment, @Sascha. I agree with Nunavut.
7
Mike R,
Awful pun.
(Thank you)
5
Slowest Wednesday for me since June 1, 1976.* Felt like I was solving the NE and SW while stuck in quicksand, esp. the SW. Anagrams, French comix, sail types, EMBAR, ABBESS where TERESA was supposed to go . . . REAL AWED by thIs Weds. test. I finished, but with a C-, and a strong sense of relief.
*Hyperbole
26
@Puzzlemucker thanks for the "hyperbole" clarification. i thought there were some crossword analytics I was missing and I wanted it!
it like 30 seconds slower than my average for me...since I'm almost always "faster" than average I must've had some dog slow puzzles when i first started.
1
I was really tickled by this puzzle, as Altered States was a favorite movie when I was about 22. I spent a good part of my college ramen money seeing it multiple times. It was A MINE of interesting visuals, and a genuinely LOCO ROAD. I love anagrams, so this one hit my sweet spot! Thanks, Mr. Arbesfeld!
6
@SLO Paul,
I CONNECT CUTe dots whenever I see them also, and KNOW YER no way the SLOPpy guy you're presenting to be.
Not for a New York minute.
@SLO Paul,
I CONNECT CUTe dots whenever I see them also, and KNOW YER no way the SLOPpy guy you're presenting to be.
Not for a New York minute.
1
The three Ms of math are more accurately clued as the three Ms of statistics (or probability). And I hate anagrams!
26
@jprfrog
Aren’t statistics and probability mathematics?
1
@Steve L Yes, but they are a rather small part of a very large field, and they are also very much applied math. In that sense, physics, actuarial science, computer science, and any real world application that uses 2+2 =4 become "math" and make the description pretty useless in terms of locating a specific term.
1
@jprfrog
To be more to the point, statistics and probability are often units in high school math courses or courses in college math departments.
This was tough for Wednesday.
25
ALTERED STATES and CALIFORNIA tipped the scales for me. And knowing the theme helped with the rest. TENNESSEE was an EENSY bit obvious too!
2
@judy d
CALIFORNIA! I kept seeing CAROLINA, with an IF thrown in.
4
@Puzzlemucker
Nothing IFfy about Carolina, okay?
I'll volunteer TENNESSEE as the only one at all obvious, and especially had to stare at WASHINGTON to make it work.
2
@Leapfinger
You're not staring hard enough. :)
1
I’m teaching an extended learning class tomorrow about 15th century sailing ships, so LATEEN was definitely a good omen. I was also glad to see the name of my hero, ASTERIX. Ils sont fous, ces romains!
13
Tough but very satisfying
8
Alas, anagrams. Not my favorite, as my brain just doesn't work that way. I did see Tennessee in TEEN SENSE pretty quickly, but the others all took so much longer to parse, especially Nebraska. I think I did figure them all out eventually, and I console myself by knowing that I have other skills, like remembering names like DE SICA and ASTERIX and AKELA. So it balances out.
It was kind of hard to consider a PEN a hotel room amenity. I'd go for something like a fluffy bathrobe or an ocean-front balcony instead!
19
Vittorio for me also, though sad to think the number remembering DESICA is probly diminishing.
The pen as amenity does seem chintzy; I was expecting the chocolate on the pillow with evening turn-down service at least. My best was the time my reservation was messed up (I had the confirmation) and they had to assign me penthouse lodgings with a view of Lake Michigan and 24-hour free access to open buffet. There were students at that meeting so that quickly developed into something of a Mother Hen and her chickens scenario.
OTOH, given AMENity, the answer could be the ubiquitous Bible?
5