So now I learn that Patrick Merrell is 'borrowing' themes from Linda Richman and Voltaire??!! Oy, I'm all verklemt...
Especially since the redoubtable PM is neither Saturday nor Night nor Live.
Despite that, PatrickM, UCONN ESS OOH OR PHANtastique, and this SunPuzz TAUT me alot. Thanks for giving us LESS TRAN FAT, and did you notice that TAILSPIN has no TAILS and no PIN?
A fitting cherry on the Thanksgiving Sunday.
2
SW corner took much longer than it should have as I just couldn’t give up on TONE DEF, which really is a much better name for a rapper, I think.
3
Enjoyed the puzzle and the theme. However I would so appreciate someone explaining how/why the puzzle’s spelling for novelist Maxim is correct?
As I typed this comment my phone’s spellchecker tried changing it to a Y 😂
3
I'm late to the party tonight, but I wanted to say I loved this puzzle! What a fun theme. Like Caitlin, I also thought of Linda Richman. I loved seeing ENGLISH HORN (the most beautiful instrument) in the puzzle. The clue for BOOT was a real groaner. Hahaha.
1
@Stephanie One more English horn solo, in case anyone is still reading:
https://youtu.be/yfDQ1JKhxjI
Enjoyed the puzzle. 3rd Sunday Crossword completed unassisted. ROE/GORKI came down to simply going through the alphabet. Can someone explain how ROE fits the clue?
1
@Celina
Think Roe v. Wade
4
@Reedie1965
Oh wow! That’s genius. Thanks
This was a Sunday best for me until MAROQUE and GODKI tripped me up for a few minutes.
BAROQUE, BABE and BOOLA were fairly straight forward. After that I tested GODKE, EARTHE, and CNORR ... nope, nope and nope.
It took awhile to relinquish “DOE” as an “unidentified person in a suit”, and only because “GORKI PARK” fell out of the rafters.
Cheers.
It’s Maxim “Gorky” not “Gorki”. I felt I got stuck for no good reason. Also, based on the answer to “parking lot souvenir”, the clue seems like it should have a question mark after it because it’s not a definition but an inferred answer
2
Syphilis, the French Disease, actually: “from the very beginning, syphilis has been a stigmatized, disgraceful disease; each country whose population was affected by the infection blamed the neighboring (and sometimes enemy) countries for the outbreak. So, the inhabitants of today’s Italy, Germany and United Kingdom named syphilis ‘the French disease’, the French named it ‘the Neapolitan disease’, the Russians assigned the name of ‘Polish disease’, the Polish called it ‘the German disease’, The Danish, the Portuguese and the inhabitants of Northern Africa named it ‘the Spanish/Castilian disease’ and the Turks coined the term ‘Christian disease’. Moreover, in Northern India, the Muslims blamed the Hindu for the outbreak of the affliction. However, the Hindu blamed the Muslims and in the end everyone blamed the Europeans. “
Extract from
Journal of Medicine and Life
Carol Davila - University Press
Brief History of Syphilis.
M Tampa, I Sarbu, [...], and SR Georgescu
3
Once again, I've lost my streak on a Sunday. I get SO annoyed at trying to find my mistake in the large puzzle and click "check puzzle." I need PATIENCE!
5
@Evelyn
Was it GORKI? Nearly did me in.
1
@Bess
GORKI / ROE did me in. I haven’t read the comments yet, your’s is the first one I see. I know I wasn’t the only one that had DOE. That one cursed cell prevented the gold star...
No complaints though. Nice puzzle. I am sure considered an easy Sunday. Okay time to scroll down.
3
dOE before ROE, ARriaNA before ARIANNA, AaHS before AHAS, and (Tone) DEF before LOC. 😄
1
PATRICK MERRELL is UP TO PAR with this excellent puzzle!
3
Lots of fun and a terrifically entertaining, informative theme. My favorite clue was the one for BOOT. The answer didn’t come immediately, but I laughed out loud when it did. Other possible answers to 67A (shoe, step . . .) held me back for a bit in the west, but otherwise it was a relatively quick solve. Thank you Mr. Merrell. And thanks to Dr. W for your poem and for alerting us to the artwork with the print version (we subscribe to print but I do the xword on the app).
4
I had fun doing this one. Actually… I was aware of most of the "Actually…" entries, so this was a fairly easy one for me.
2
Fun! And I learned some new things from the special clues. Solved on the app in 16:35, better than my average
1
Fun puzzle. Actually, 111D, LLOYDs of London is an insurance marketplace, not an insurer. Started in late 1600s as a coffee shop that belonged to an Edward LLoyd, where potential insurance underwriters gathered.
1
@retired, with cat
Its jaw-dropping failure is a plot point in the play "Amy's View," which I saw on Broadway years ago, with Judi Dench playing Amy, a famous actress. When Amy mentioned the annoyance of hearing a cell phone ring in the audience during a performance (first time I'd heard that mentioned in a play), guess what happened? Yup.
In May I'll see The Lehman Trilogy, making a list of two.
Getting EMU, EDIT LAURA and Yin in my first run, last evening, made me optimisitic! Having foot instead of SOLE really made that part of the puzzle hard, until I got a few more hints.
What an enjoyable puzzle, with so much richness in clues and fun as the answers filled! Before I knew it, the puzzle was complete. Wow! Thank you, Patrick Merrell!
2
Hey, thanks for a bunch of really nice comments. The community here on Wordplay has always been great, and you helped make this a nice day for me. For those of you who solve the print version in the magazine, here's a small note about the puzzle's intro on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/patrick.merrell.5/posts/2789705324401020?comment_id=2790265494345003¬if_id=1575221399654304¬if_t=feed_comment
18
Here's a shorter link: shorturl.at/azBNQ
1
@Patrick Merrell
Thanks to you, Patrick, for this and other occasions of lovely, lazy enjoyment.
I'll skip the link, though, because ... Facebook.
6
@Patrick Merrell , what Deadline said.
Thanks for a fun Sunday, Mr. Merrill! I liked the theme and learned a thing or two about misnomers.
3
Once again Saturday night attempts brought discouragingly few squares filled in. But, ah, Sunday morning, I was suddenly on a roll and when CHINESE CHECKERS came to mind with a chuckle, I was on my way. Would have finished with no help but the SW corner stymied me until I read Caitlin and then stumbled on CATGUT on the blog. Then that whole corner fell in place.
Loved the theme answers and their quirky clues. Add to that the links to wonderful classical music and lively comments - my day is complete. Thank you all, but especially Patrick!
5
A red giant is either a K or M class star. What the heck is an S Star ?
@Mitchell Ross
This might be helpful:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stellar_classification
Isn't TAT an abbreviation?
1
Tom,
Yes, but no. When we say an abbreviation as a word, and it makes it into the dictionary as a word, it's fine for the puzzle without being clued as an abbreviation.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tat
3
Looked at my dash dial and saw I was moving a mACH ONE speed. Then I noted that OTmO was a strange mascot name, so corrected it to OTTO and was able to TACH another ONE to my unimpressive streak
6
Very nice Sunday puzzle, with a clever theme and excellent fill (can I get an AMEN?). Of course SAINT PETERS SQUARE is not a square, but a perfect ellipse, and it is a striking experience to stand on one of the foci and see the perfect alignment of Bernini's colonnades.
6
@archaeoprof
AMEN!
...and when you're in Providence RI, which is such a beautiful place, it feels as if you're on an island, even though you know you're not.
3
Patrick Merrell - you are actually amazing!
How anyone could fit so many interesting anomalies into a fun Sunday puzzle is beyond me, but I admire the result.
16
A “solve” - - lower case ‘s’.
I could NOT make KNORR pop out of the depths and had to benefit from Caitlin’s wisdom.
I get it, but “Move offshore, say.” is a LOUSY clue (IMHO). “Move off shore.” would have been more accurate. “Offshore” implies “out of country” - - and, certainly, beyond the 12-mile limit!!
And I DO NOT understand the clueing for BOOT - - and am not likely to in the absence of a short essay from someone who does.
ALL the rest was a fun, semi-crunchy romp through a Sunday morning. Immensely enjoyable.
P.S. For the edification of all golfers:
This is not about YOU! In this instance, “UP TO PAR” is a figure of speech - perhaps adapted from your milieu - having nothing necessarily to do with the game of golf.
AND - if we were to ask a thousand people which is easier - a PAR-2 hole or a PAR-3 hole (no other background or philosophizing on golf course design), I’ll give you twenty bucks for every person who picks the latter if you’ll give me a dollar for each of those who pick the former.
Any takers??
2
@PeterW The calf in question is not a baby cow but the calf of the rancher's leg. A great misdirection that I didn't get until almost the end of the puzzle.
7
@PeterW The rancher’s leg’s calf... not the ranchers’s cow’s calf. Kind of loved this one.
6
PeterW,
Even on the shores of the Great Lakes, people refer to an onshore or offshore breeze. Here on an ocean shore, I have no issue with an EBB [tide] as a "move offshore..."
4
I really wanted TESTBEDS before RESTROOMS, but I’d have had to darken a square.
1
Lahore is not the capital of Punjab (65 across)
@RM
It would seem that there are two Punjabs. One is a state in India. The other is a province in Pakistan. The capital of the latter is LAHORE.
8
When I first encountered Wordplay like about 15 years ago Jim Horne and Patrick Merrill were moderating the column and encouraged my participation. Patrick also contributed his artistic savvy in the form of a cartoon character pair embellishment named "Ashen and Noir" -- white and black talking squares making trenchant commentary as needed. For some reason -- much to my regret -- he stopped.
So -- it was a distinct pleasure to see his byline and drawing skill on the puzzle page of the NYT magazine again. And of course the puzzle itself was great.
Patrick's verse in his illustration has a distinctly familiar meter -- which caught my ear (huh?) and stimulated a little bit of verse, herewith:
On the road to Word-a-play
Where the cruciverbs have their say
And the dawn comes up like tundra
Out of Jamaica on the Bay
There I sit with mouse beside me
Wasting thought on Spelling Bee
Then a furry creature tiptoes by --
Turns his head and spits at me.
Rearing up with intone drastic
Squeaks with quivering agony
"That's a lifeless hunk of plastic
That looks nothing like me!"
Ship me somewheres east of Jersey,
Where the best is like the worst,
Where there aren't no Ten Commandments
An' a man can raise a thirst --
For the gridded blanks are calling
And it's there that I would be --
On the road to Word-a-play,
Where the cruciverbs have their way
And the dawn comes up like tundra
Out of Jamaica on the Bay.
21
Fun, and a neat idea for a theme. Much faster than my usual times.
1
What fun! Who knew? I admire the research that must have gone into this puzzle's theme. Patrick is one busy guy, is he not? (If you are not doing the Variety puzzles, you are missing some weekly fun.)
Who says VAX? No one.
Who still uses MSG?
Happy December, everyone.
3
@Mean Old Lady
"Who says VAX? No one."
Does that make you anti-VAX? :-)
8
@Mean Old Lady
Maybe the anti-vaxxers do.
The Knicks and Rangers do. To varying degrees of success. Billy Joel, more so. Seriously, though, Chinese restaurants.
3
Time to read the latest research on MSG, which has been unfairly maligned and is a great healthy way to reduce salt intake.
Bottom line - Chinese food syndrome has much more to do with overeating and high salt content than it does with MSG.
8
I’ll have to agree this one struck me as easy for a Sunday too. Not only did I not have to research anything but I whipped through 20 minutes faster than average. And it is 99 on a streak, so a good start to a holiday packed month. The theme give away was solving St Peters Square and then looking at the “I” hint. A lot of fun.
1
Fun! The easiness was nicely cut by the TILs and some very amusing clues: wind-up toys, litter-proof, salsa dance move. The Punjab capital sprang to my head from somewhere deep in my cranium, probably from reading the engaging novels of Sujata Massey. My nephew heads back to Yale today; we are all very proud of him - BOOLA BOOLA!
Caitlin, thanks for the horn solo. Absolutely gorgeous.
4
Hi Caitlin-If you want to go further down the rabbit hole reading about board games, there is this:
https://blogs.brown.edu/libnews/liman-exhibit/
The article is about a display of old board games at Brown University in Providence, RHODE ISLAND. The display was a temporary exhibit which has come to an ENDE. However,
AT PRESENT, there is a permanent display of old games on the third floor of the John Hay library at Brown
4
I actually learned something today ... how refreshing!
My favorite clue and answer was "A rancher might pull over a calf" for BOOT. I went around in circles: rope? Hood? Sack? Cape? Bonnet? Gorilla suit? I laughed when I got the BOOT. That was a first!
Patrick Merrill, thanks for educating me!
(And for the mouse cartoon, too.)
6
@Johanna
I glossed over that clue/entry without thinking about it too much or wondering why. Your post gave me a belated Aha! Thanks!
1
@Andrew
Chuckle over the mental image of a cowboy using footwear to lasso a baby cow.
2
@Johanna
I wanted CHAP.
Right wavelength, wrong wheelhouse.
People always want to start off newbie solvers with a Monday puzzle, but I've never understood why anyone would want a newbie solver to think that solving a puzzle was less interesting than watching [green] paint dry. This, to me, is the perfect puzzle for newbie solvers. It teaches them Surprising Interesting Facts and, because they're probably on the youngish side, they won't forget those Surprising Interesting Facts the way I most assuredly will.
On many, many clues, this puzzle was the EASIEST, but then I would SNAP TO when an especially good clue came along: BOOT (82D); KITES (113A); NEUTER (124A); ORPHAN (103D).
As far as the themers went, my favorite clue/answer was for RESTROOMS.
You do understand that I've forgotten many of the Surprising Interesting Facts already. But that's on me, not Patrick.
11
@Nancy This is one of my favorite Sunday puzzles. I also really liked the moon landing commemorative puzzle from this summer. Not a bad idea encouraging a newbie to start with a meaty, interesting Sunday puzzle if they're up for the challenge. A Monday puzzle doesn't have to be boring because it's easy, though. I se that tomorrow's puzzle is by Lynn Lempel. I haven't solved it yet, but I always enjoy her puzzles, so I am anticipating a good time.
What a fun, smooth, absorbing puzzle!
4
Has anyone ever eaten a LIMEPIE that was not Key LIMEPIE? I have never heard of nor eaten one. Actually... a mature properly ripened Key lime is yellow.
4
nash.mark,
I hope the Key LIMEPIEs you eat aren't green!
3
What a great idea for a theme! I was going along quite quickly, and wasn't sure what it was until HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE. ( Voltaire's quote always makes me laugh, so thanks for the reminder, Caitlin. ) I love a puzzle that makes you look forward to the next theme answer, but that still has lively answers and good cluing throughout. Thanks, Patrick,
for a real treat.
I also get a kick out of the repeats, CEYLON yesterday, SRI Lanka today (13D)
Now I might see if I can get the song Santa Baby.
9
I always avoid looking at the title on Sundays, so this turned into two different solving experiences for me. First was the half hour I spent just getting a few bits and pieces here and there and just not getting much of anywhere. And then I finally looked at the title and 12 minutes later I was done. I knew a couple of the theme answers just from the clues and typically had enough crosses to figure out the others, and that was enough to fill in everything else.
Very nice puzzle and theme.
Regarding the clue for 33d, I have often noted that many Vietnamese marriages are a Nguyen/Nguyen situation.
8
Rich,
If one of my former co-op board presidents had asked others to join her in running for election, it would have been a TRAN slate.
4
@Rich in Atlanta
That's as bad a pun as "Abyssinia."
Well on its way to becoming a candidate to this theme answer set -- and may that change! -- is PRESIDENT-ELECT.
1
@Lewis -- More to the matter at hand, this smooth, clued-with-care puzzle, with its engaging theme, was a lovely experience. Thank you, Patrick!
3
@Lewis
Breakfast test, Lewis! Breakfast test.
3
LETTER BOXED THREAD
Dec 1 2019
TODAY:
C - L (8), L - K (7)
YESTERDAY:
BIFURCATE EMPTY
2
@Mari
Same as you today.
Yesterday despite persistent BIFURCATION, I came up EMPTY handed.
I had EXiT ramps before SIGN and GORKy b4 GORKI. I had to look up BOOLA because I’m not a big sports fan. I loved this puzzle. Didn’t need Caitlin’s help but enjoyed her article post solve.
4
SPELLING BEE GRID
Dec 01 2019
A D I L P V Y
WORDS: 42, POINTS: 180, PANAGRAMS :1 (Perfect), BINGO
A x 7
D x 8
I x 1
L x 3
P x 16
V x 6
Y x 1
4L x 15
5L x 15
6L x 5
7L x 5
8L x 1
10L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 10 Tot
A 2 3 2 - - - 7
D 3 3 - 1 - 1 8
I - 1 - - - - 1
L 3 - - - - - 3
P 6 4 3 2 1 - 16
V 1 3 - 2 - - 6
Y - 1 - - - - 1
Tot 15 15 5 5 1 1 42
50
@Mari Hints for today: 5 adverbs ending in 'LY: A short-lived flower and an exotic fruit, a heroic quest, much discussed on this forum previously (usually a Proper Noun), a majestic female performer, an adjective often applied to small dogs, a noun/adjective indicating a pair, a rice-field and a couple of fathers.
21
@Mari
Many thanks!
Google yes, PAYPAL no?
6
@Mari thank you for grid. Had a few stragglers today. Time to stop D10-ing around and get to P6!
First Two letter list:
AL-2 AP-2 AV-3
DA-4 DI-3 DY-1
IL-1
LA-3
PA-14 PL-2
VA-4 VI-2
YA-1
24
Missed opportunity - 6D could have been clued as: (actually) McCorvey.
3
@James Hamje
The mansplainer in me feels compelled to highlight the brilliance of your suggestion by noting that Norma McCorvey was Jane ROE in the Roe v Wade case.
1
When I'm walking through Italy, I'm just ROMAN around.
(And a geography pun to boot!)
8
@Mike
I’d feel like a heel if I didn’t respond.
. . .
. . .
. . .
ST. PETER’S SQUAREs
3
Puzzles with TIL moments are the best, and TIL I learned what CATGUT is. I had left _ATGUT for last as I wasn’t familiar with Tone LO_, guessed “C” to be the likeliest fill, enjoyed my happy music reward, then it was off to Wikipedia to read up on CATGUT.
Maxim GORKY was an interesting clue/answer. I’ve never read him as there’s no Soviet modernism spoke in my wheelhouse, but Arshile Gorky’s art leaves me quite breathless, and the latter adopted the former’s last name. I’m surprised, I suppose, that GORKY wasn’t clued as Arshile, rather than Maxim.
4
@Sam Lyons
I rather think Maxim is the more famous GORKY/GORKI (apparently both spellings are used), by a considerable margin. Moscow's central park, Gorky Park, is named after Maxim.
1
Nice to have an easy one, and an honest solve, for a change. Of course, easy for me still takes an hour. Theme a fun and easy catch and made the rest even easier.
Fast and stuffed with three and four letter fill, saved by the theme and clever cluing. I enjoyed it. Thanks, Patrick.
1
@Al in Pittsburgh
OT: I’m assuming that when it comes to PIEs, you’re thinking more mincemeat than lime tonight, given what LSU made of Texas A&M today.
@Sam Lyons
I was thinking of you and worried about your health while watching the first quarter of the Utes' game. All's Well That Ends Well.
1
@Al in Pittsburgh
Just a little hoarse, just a little hoarse.
As I was nearing the southern end of the puzzle, I'm thinking to myself that either I'm missing out on something, or this is way too easy. After reading commentaries, the puzzle was just way too easy. My fastest time ever for a sunday puzzle was 57m as nd change. Today... 42:17, unaided. 15 m faster. Now what am I to do with the rest of my night? All day and afternoon tomorrow?
1
Wow, this might be the easiest Sunday puzzle I've done since I went back to doing the nyt crosswords about a year ago after a 50-year hiatus. Was it the puzzle or am I getting better at it? Nah, it was the puzzle ... it was just easy. But I am not complaining!
4
Always good to see Patrick's name up there. For you noobs, he was one of the Wordplay pioneers.
When I caught on, I expected to see Haagen-Dazs, but it doesn't quite fit the theme.
5
Fact Boy lite:
Actually . . . given that a golf score is based on par (e.g., “1 under par”), a par 2 hole is not necessarily “easier” than a par 3, just as a par 3 hole is not necessarily “easier” than a par 4. If it is more difficult to make par on a particular par 2 hole than it is to make par on a particular par 3 hole, then the par 2 hole is more difficult, not easier. On some mini golf courses, the most difficult hole is a par 2. Indeed, at Slo Jack’s Drive-In in Hampton Bays, NY, the most difficult hole, No. 18, is a par 1:
https://www.danspapers.com/2019/08/top-18-east-end-mini-miniature-golf-holes/
2
@Puzzlemucker
As a some time duffer, I must disagree. My way of thinking says that the less strokes it takes you to sink the ball, the easier the hole. Therefore a par 3 hole will always be easier than a par 5 hole for me, because (theoretically) I should be able to sink the ball in less strokes.
I can even demonstrate this another way using RATIOS (he beamed proudly). If it takes me three strokes for every normal golfer's one stroke, then a par three hole will take me 9 strokes, a mere 6 over par, while a par 5 hole will take me 15 strokes, a ghastly 10 over par. A par 2 hole would take me only 6 strokes, (4 over par).
However you look at it, I am not UP TO PAR, but you have made me realize that the two golf-related clues were symmetrically placed. Fore!
5
@Andrew
Fact Boy rarely responds to challengers. I am adopting that practice for purposes of this thread. Other than to say that you are wrong and I am right. See Amen Corner, Hole No. 12.
4
@Puzzlemucker
I side with you, Puzzlemucker.
By the way, Andrew, it is fewer strokes, not less strokes. Unless, of course, you are trying to become a sports' announcer. In that case, stick with less.
3
Some years ago, I visited the Peruvian city of Cuzco. In the Cuzco Cathedral is an 18th-century painting of The Last Supper by Marcos Zapata. Jesus and his disciples are gathered around a table, about to consume a guinea pig. I was so startled and impressed by the painting that this was the first theme to fall for me.
10
Me too on the surprise. That item raised my eyebrows, for the consideration presented by this link:
https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/people-cultures-in-the-bible/jesus-historical-jesus/was-jesus-last-supper-a-seder/.
98a Rapper Tone DEF, I mused. Had to be a pretty good bet.
20
@Mike R
Same! Ha!
3
@Mike R
I did the exact same thing, and I loved me for it!
2
@Mike R Me too!
2
Actually, the official name of our smallest state which, as Caitlin says, is RHODE ISLAND and Providence Plantations, exists because it was an amalgam of two different areas of settlement. One was on the mainland, in the towns of Providence and Warwick. These were the Providence Plantations.
The other was in the towns of Newport and Portsmouth on Rhode Island, which is now often called Aquidneck Island (but officially is still Rhode Island). Aquidneck/Rhode Island is the largest of the islands in Narragansett Bay, the body of water which abuts the mainland portion of the state, and consists of three municipalities, Portsmouth, Middletown and Newport.
Thus, actually, Rhode Island (the island) is an island, and the use of Rhode Island as the name of the state is just a common shortening of its full name.
6
Steve,
Just so I'm clear, you're saying the clue is correct for a state all of us call Rhode Island but not correct for an island none of us call Rhode Island? I can live with that.
14
@Barry Ancona
Only technically, but yes.
Is Long Island two counties, or four?
@Steve L
Beats me, but it it both long and an island.
6
This was a very smooth solve and I caught on to the theme quickly with ST PETERS SQUARE. At Barry’s behest, I attempted a 55 year-old Sunday puzzle the other day. My feeling is that there is really no comparison of difficulty between then and now, as I got myself totally bogged down in that old classic, and was nowhere close to completing it. Today's clues were delightful both in their construction and in how quickly they filled in.
Thank you for the beautiful English horn solo, Caitlin. Here is another of the most beautiful solos for that very expressive instrument.
https://youtu.be/jeuYd8nltBo?t=348
7
@Andrew - not just a beautiful solo part, but a truly wonderful performance all the way around! Thanks for the link.
3
@Andrew Such lovely tone and expressive playing.
Nice and easy.
1
Fun puzzle! To Caitlin's Linda Richman reference, I'll add another cultural touchstone that feels apt: as each themer fell, I sort of heard Ted Mosby ("How I Met Your Mother") telling the gang at MacLaren's, "Actually...." And after ten of them, everyone has poured a beer on his head.
2
118A I have always known this instrument as “cor anglais” never as “english horn”.
And a maths teacher’s quibble on 85A. In my years of teaching we always distinguished between RATIOs and RATEs, the former being comparisons of like measurements, giving a pure numerical value. (No “per” is needed.) Mileage is a rate which is unit dependant. (Miles Per gallon, kilometres per litre for instance need unit conversion to be comparable.) This distinction is important and useful.
5
You really should have begun your quibble with an "Actually..." ;-)
11
@Patrick Jordan
Whatever the origin of the instrument’s name, it is certainly known by North American musicians as English horn.
I will plead ignorance on the math question however.
3
Patrick,
I agree: miles per gallon or kilometres per lire are rates, not ratios. But the clue was "Fuel mileage, for example." If my car is twice as fuel-efficient as your car, that *is* a fuel mileage ratio.
2
"the GUINEA PIG, which comes from the Andes, might have cost a guinea at some point, but the little furballs were already known as “ginny pigs” before the first guinea coin was ever struck."
And the Andeans like to fry-up those cute little furballs and eat them.
2
And theyre tasty when done right....Like crispy duck
Just my kind of puzzle, albeit a little on the quick side for a Sunday grid.
Took me a minute to figure out what Caitlin was talking about when she mentioned sports with regard to CATGUT. Then I figured out that she probably meant tennis racquets when I was thinking of violins. (And yeah, I know, not the same.)
'tenny rate, this is my kind of silliness, and a lot of the "actually" parts were things that I'd enjoyed in the past and filed in my tickle-brain.
Pleasant and soft end to a holiday weekend.
Now, folks, get back to work!
7
Well, that was fun! And interesting! What more could one ask? Merci, M. Merrell!
4
Very fun solve! And living in Minneapolis, I loved the reference to the METRODOME.
2
@Ginny Thanks; not knowing Minnesota sports well, I had "Motordome". And I just now realized that Detroit is in a different "M" state, so now I know I don't know sports OR geography.
1
@Ken
I let some crosses fool me into noTReDaME until that "a" fell and I changed it to asTRODOME for a while.
Got caught by a few personal Naticks:
- the K in GORKI/KNORR. Did not know either of those words, and so many letters could have fit
- the C in LOC and CATGUT. Without knowing who the rapper was or what CAT GUT was, it could have been any of R, C, B.
Then two spots that weren't exactly Naticks:
- The L in BOOLA/LUV. Could conceivably have been W, which I remember specifically from a Futurama episode: https://i.redd.it/r5pn1uyjst511.jpg.
- The R in GORKI/ROE. I had a D here for a while, and replaced it with an R but was not super confident about it.
Overall, I really liked the theme. Peanuts being legumes came up several times this week: one of my Thanksgiving guests has a deathly peanut allergy hence the conversation. Also found myself looking up whether nutmeg is a nut. Turns out it is not.
1
@Tyler D.
Speaking of Naticks, I tried googling it to see why the word comes up frequently in these comments, but didn't get a clue.
@kilaueabart
I just searched using DuckDuckGo and the eleventh hit was an Urban Dictionary definition that answered your question.
kilaueabart,
Natick does come frequently here, but I gather you've missed every mention that included a link to the source of the term.
Since you do google, try googling Natick crossword; that'll do it.
Thanks for the explanations, Caitlin, expanding the solving experience, and for the extraordinarily beautiful example of an English horn. So much hard work to produce such a sweet sound.
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I enjoyed all these misnomered references. Many of them seemed to be misapplied nationalities, though not all by any means. Puzzle solved smoothly and about right difficulty for a Sunday IMHO.
In case Caitlin's embedded clip whets your appetite for even more English horn music, here is The Swan of Tuonela by Jan Sibelius. It's a bit more atmospheric than the Dvorak clip, and goes on for the whole length of the movement (8:33), whatever that may mean for your personal mileage.
https://youtu.be/X3_H5YlgKFU
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@Alan J
Thanks for the link, Alan.
I noticed the horn player had a mic on her neck.
Is this a usual touch? I don't watch enough music to know. The horn would have stood out without the mic just as it would have in the days before mics like that. So why the mic? Because it was being recorded?
Tone poems take me back to my childhood in the 1950's and 78's.
I think the reason I became a fan of Jeff Beck was that he played tone poems now and then on his guitar.
@Peter Jackel
I believe what you're seeing is a neck strap which aids in holding up the instrument. You may have seen similar neck straps used with saxophones.
@Alan J
You are right.
Thanks.
Interesting fairly easy puzzle.
One of my favorite Sunday themes — looked forward to each of them. Even the one themer that seemed a little clunky, REST ROOMS, had some appeal because I first thought of REST ____S with an equal number of letters but which did not quite work with the clue: REST STOPS and REST HOMES.
I also liked the cluing for some of the non-theme fill, including for TANTRA, RATIO, IRISES, BOOT, KITES, and ITCH. “Septennial symptom?” for ITCH gets my vote for best clue of the week. And BAROQUE and VIGNETTE are lovely words.
A nice end to an excellent puzzle week.
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@Puzzlemucker
Hand up for REST STOPS (briefly) before ROOMS.
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@Deadline
I guess if they were truly good places to sleep, they would be called REST BEGINS.
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I had BEST rather than REST and couldn’t figure out why WESTERN didn’t fit.
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Interesting and educational...and one trick word to re-solve to get to the solution....nice.
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The 25A clue and answer were prevealed/hinted at in the comments a few days ago by David Connell with his "From what city is New York State due east, west, north and south?
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Note on 83-Across:
Game whose English name is German and whose German name is English = KICKER
Game whose English name is German and whose German name is English = FOOSBALL
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Fun, fast, easy, and breezy--which I found to be a good thing on a long holiday weekend with lots of other stuff going on. And thanks to Caitlin for doing all that historical research!
Having spent many years in Boston, I'm used to the concept of a SQUARE that's shaped nothing like a square--many of them being no particular shape at all, just a confluence of streets.
Durham Wordplayers are planning to get together for lunch on Saturday Dec. 14 at Pulcinella. If you're not part of the Durham-Wordplay Google Group and you'd like to meet up for lunch then, say something here so we'll know to look for you. (And so we can make a reservation for the right number of people). We'd love to see you there!
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@Liz B
If you would like to get in touch to join in with us, you can use the contact form on my web site, giving the subject line Durham Wordplay and including your email address where required by the form. I will forward any requests to Liz, who is co-ordinating the event.
http://www.arjentium.com/index.php?pg=contactus
Wish I could be there... Do have fun, and I'll look forward to seeing the pix.
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Quite entertaining.
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