I find Deb’s comments regarding ages in the Bible absolutely outrageous and am shocked that even this liberal rag of a newspaper would print such hateful drivel in a crossword column and I’m completely kidding and I think Deb is flipping awesome and why on EARTH are you reading this comment posted 971 days AFTER the fact???
1
What is a long time to crack the code? I took 46 minutes to solve the puzzle; slightly long for a Thursday. It would be nice to have others post their times just so I could see how I fare by comparison.
1
No No No. Early on I accepted that I know nothing about atomic numbers so those would come all on crosses, OK, that happens. But TAUNT for the clue DIG? No, I say, No no no. There simply is no such usage without some kind of modifier and this isn't just misdirection it's misdemeanor. "Dig" to the contrary means the opposite - I dig you - or I dig tunnels or holes, or the dig was going fine until it rained, or dig this! or even if you want to stretch it to the closest to taunt, she took a dig at him, which I stipulate is not the same as a taunt. The puzzle is not fun with this kind of baloney in it.
Also thought ETAIL skated on the edge of ridiculous but oh well. Otherwise pretty OK for a Thursday puzzle!
2
Given how good Leslie’s Friday puzzle was, this was a particular bummer. Only her second puzzle (her first was a Monday) and already her second POW! from Jeff Chen. Much deserved. Such a perfect Friday puzzle with so many great entries. Hurts not to read all the love that I know Deb or Caitlin and Wordplayers would be heaping on it.
5
LETTER BOXED THREAD (Posting here as no Wordplay for Dec 12/13)
T - R (8), R - E (9)
- a nice phrase that describes doings in the first half of April each year!
YESTERDAY:
DYNAMIC CRUMPLE (same as NYT)
1
@Mari
YESTERDAY
DUMPER RANCIDLY
EMPIRICAL LAUNDRY
SPELLING BEE GRID (Posting here as no Wordplay for Dec 12/13)
Dec 13 2019
Y A I L R T V
WORDS: 30, POINTS: 168, PANGRAMS: 3
A x 7
I x 2
L x 2
R x 6
T x 7
V x 6
4L x 8
5L x 9
6L x 5
7L x 3
8L x 3
9L x 1
10L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tot
A 3 2 2 - - - - 7
I 2 - - - - - - 2
L 1 1 - - - - - 2
R - 3 2 1 - - - 6
T 1 3 1 - - 1 1 7
V 1 - - 2 3 - - 6
Tot 8 9 5 3 3 1 1 30
15
@Mari
Hints for today (Dec 13 2019):
29 of the 30 words end in ‘Y’ - the one that doesn’t is a currency.
3 pairs of nouns and associated adverbs ending in ‘TY’ and ‘LY’ (Pangrams are in this set)
A bird-house.
An adverb meaning not well
A collective noun meaning non-clerical or non-professional people
A noun meaning competition
PANGRAMS start with the 20th and 22nd letters of the Alphabet.
7
@Mari Thanks for the grid as always! This one is a tough one for me; haven’t even gotten to Genius, which usually is a problem.
On another note: what’s up with the lack of wordplay column?!?!?! Does anyone know? Even if a column isn’t written, its be nice to have a place where people can make comments to discuss the puzzles amount themselves.....
5
@Mari I’m missing 7 points will have to check your grid and come back. Glad I thought to come here after not finding today’s column.
I noticed that some adverbs were missing nouns and vice versa: The -ly form and the -ity form. Strange to include one and not the other.
1
Chemistry, physics, and Bible, oh my. At least there was no French or Middle English
1
Elementary to some, but when it comes to ATOMIC NUMBERS, I tend to lose track after Hydrogen and Helium.
The others I know right off the bat are C14 and P32, which would really mess up the theme; otoh, they would enhance the grid's DRUNK and LIT because I SO TOPE.
Great fun to watch Deb, the HiveMaster and David Kwong solve en famille; my solve took longer and was much bumpier, but at least as enjoyable.
I can recommend sailing to the Northern MARsAlA Islands, and choosing DRAGONS in Chinese culture, even though it's TURTLES, all the way down. Somehow, it all works out iin the end, TAUNT mieux, TAUNT pis.
@Puzzlemucker brought it up, but after dealing with renovation of two bathrooms in a 99-year old house, BONFIRE of the Vanities starts to sound pretty good.
Leggo my LAGOS, Alex E-S. Can you hear me BEGGing FOR MORE?
2
Looking for Friday's WordPlay.
12/13/19
Usually published by this time.
How do I access it?
Thanks!
1
@BLB
Broken links. Technical problems.
@Puzzlemucker
Thanks!
@BLB - expect them every week, by the way. It's a thing that happens. Every week, by the way...
3
Pak the ca at avad yad.
6
Exactly what I expect from a Thursday puzzle: tough but fair, and an amusing theme (once you finally figure it out). I didn't finish before going to the office, worked a bit more during breaks, and finished when I got home. Good times, Alex. Thanks.
2
No, no, no. This was the opposite of fun, don’t ever do this again please.
11
The photo for today - of Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos conducting - brought me some nostalgia.
Lost to time is a shoebox. In it - the autographs of every conductor and guest conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra, from about 1967 to about 1976, plus every soloist but one (no Van Cliburn, I never liked him enough to wait backstage for such a self-absorbed diva).
Maestro Frühbeck de Burgos was so wonderful, a real gem. I loved his work onstage, and loved meeting him when I was just a tween. He hardly looks older in the photo, though he died only a few years after it was taken.
When my parents split up, the shoebox was lost. What it would be worth now, who knows? All those autographed original programs! Sigh. Has anyone seen "Empire of the Sun"? That scene at the end, with the suitcase floating away - always reminds me of my lost shoebox!
I think Franz Allers was the most charming backstage - "Do you read music?" he asked, before drawing a staff, clef, and F, A, along with his signature.
7
It sounds like you had an extraordinary childhood.
2
@Thomas Downing - I guess I did! - my first real memory is of attending with my father a duo concert by Oscar Ghiglia and Jean-Pierre Rampal when I was just six - and from that age on I knew you could, if you dared and were patient, go backstage after the concert and meet the performers for at least a moment. That concert certainly determined my life's path.
5
@David Connell
Very touching story. One of the orchestras that Frühbeck de Burgos was affiliated with in the '70s was the Montreal Symphony Orchestra, an orchestra I became very familiar with in subsequent years. I never heard him conduct them however.
I was careful to keep all of my concert programs from the three years I spent in New York from '78-'81. With all of the moves since then, I have lost them now. While they were not autographed, I would love to be able to browse them in order to remember the many concerts by Gilels, Serkin, Horowitz, to name a few, not to mention the many Metropolitan Opera performances attended. But to have had those autographs on top of it, it must feel like a real loss.
1
Drives me nuts that so many clues in puzzles are from TV or movies or rock bands. I pay little attention to these things, so my personal rule is that I can look them up. I LOVED this puzzle because I have a science background and got it right away. It's about time you threw us science people a bone.
3
I love this puzzle, brilliant & entertaining! I never peak at the column until I’ve hit a wall, & this time a few hints helped me fill it all in. I love these columns, helps me get so much more out of the puzzles; I think of all the NYT crosswords I’ve done over the years where I finished but still felt like I missed the joke.
1
Brilliant! I suspected the two-cell entries were elements before getting the revealer, but wasn't aware of ND or SM. I also didn't appreciate the order of the elements until I read Deb's column. Duh!
Cell 1 was a Natick for me. My first guess turned out to be correct. 😊
Great puzzle, Alex!
How does cow = daunt?
1
@Jaime - https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/cow
cow verb
cowed; cowing; cows
Definition of cow (Entry 2 of 2)
transitive verb
: to destroy the resolve or courage of
also : to bring to a state or an action by
4
@Jaime Cow can mean to intimidate someone by threatening e.g. cowed into submission.
5
“Under the table” had me thinking of tax evasion, so I tried noiNK
4
Great puzzle, Maestro Eaton-Salners!
For Bowed, to a cellist, I thought of how they sit, and their legs are nearly bowed. But the "g' didn't work for "DECO."
I WILL SO eagerly look for your next puzzle.
2
Challenging and full of antiquity; HOSEA, ENOS, GALATEA, ESSENES as well as clever word play; DRUNK, MAESTRO, FURL and DAUNT to name a few.
The longer clues were good fill in the middle, leaving just the NE corner to obfuscate the proceedings. Eventually CA and LI fell into place and the crossing clues held water.
The N of AIRTRAN and the I of LIT were the last clues amended.
Cheers!
Very challenging, great aha moment when it finally all came together. 😊
3
The two letter answers are symbols, not names.
5
I loved this puzzle! Not only was the grid beautiful, but it had a clever and well-executed theme, and the fill didn't feel STALE at all. I'm also pretty proud of myself for knowing all the elements but Nd and Sm (though I was a straight-C student in chemistry).
3
@Katie
I just got back from shopping, where I saw phone holders for the car and home that stuck to the phone with neodymium magnets!
3
Cute use of the elements. Could they resolve in drawings, with the little electrons flying around the nuclei when the puzzle was done? A lot of the rest felt a little weird to me; I kept thinking are these americanisms? I think here we say SMACKINTO or SMACKBANGINTO: personally I never heard SMACKDABINTO? And I never seen dipstick used other than applied to a stick you deep for quick medical tests or to test depth of say oil in a car. I see HIED is archaic- Google says a relative of the Greek kíein, as kinetic a few days ago. Felt relieved when I filled in YIKES, only to discover it was YIPES ( I did try to find a flower called kansies)? Tried different forms of mushrooms or other drugs before BONFIRE, and had digits before BLAMES.
I may have been distracted because of elections today -“Hope is the thing with feathers, that perches in the soul, and sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all”. Deb: the Maestro, and your view of the elements - do keep us laughing !
11
@Laura Rodrigues In London - you cite Dickinson, and she's a worthy poet.
I cite Vaclav Havel:
Hope is an orientation of the heart, an orientation of the spirit.
It is not the certainty that things will turn out well, but the conviction that, however things turn out, they do so for a reason.
9
@Laura Rodrigues In London
SMACK DAB INTO is American slang from the '50s or earlier.
YIPES is when they need a 'P' I've never once heard it used, but I have seen it in NYT puzzles.
1
I would not ask Sherlock Holmes what he thought of this puzzle .......
:-)
1
The wordplay subtitle "Alex Eaton-Salners makes a periodic appearance" gave away the theme :(
3
James,
The not unreasonable expectation is that people will attempt to solve the puzzle before looking at the column.
10
@James
I had the same reaction as Barry, however I realize that you might be referring to the fact that the headline, picture and byline are visible at the bottom of the puzzle page while solving. This is something that I find unnecessary, and I wonder whether the NYT could do something about it...
4
Don't scroll down.
Done,
easy peasy.
4
Deb I just read the FAQs, having done the puzzle for a while I didn’t think to do so before. They’re great, funny and informative.
3
Thanks for reading, @Frances! you never saw it before because I just published it this morning. :)
4
This crossword would have been much better without the spoiler ATOMIC NUMBERS. That took the mystery out of the 2-letter answers. My brain began working in a higher gear with NE and TI but when I got the spoiler I downshifted into the ordinary, fill-in-the-blanks mode.
@Tony S , most people (myself included) would not have gotten it without the revealer (or spoiler as you call it). I haven't had any exposure to chemistry since I was a freshman in college, which was a very very long time ago. Also, the relative locations of the elements in the puzzle correspond to their locations in the periodic table, as the clue states. Without the revealer, those are just 8 random 2-letter entries to most people.
9
Chemistry of this puzzle was good for me. Like some others, I was briefly misled by NE into believing the two-letter answers corresponded to the quadrants of the puzzle. And I initially misspelled ELIXIR. In penance, I give you this poem by George Herbert, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44362/the-elixir
1
Two thumbs up for the science lesson and the crunch!
At first, I thought I would not like it -- those two letter entries blurring the line of acceptable crosswordese -- but it grew on me as I went. A fine Thursday entry.
2
The Elements Song. Kind of catchy.
https://youtu.be/zGM-wSKFBpo
6
@vaer
Loved it. Did you notice the RLESS final lines which rhymed Harvard and discovered? Very timely for today's puzzle as well!
3
Always a treat to be reminded of a Tom Lehrer item ...
3
@vaer
My daughter, at 8 years old, sang this in a duet with her dad at parties and once, in a school talent show. Great memory you brought back!
2
My first time having a comment jettisoned for using an entry in the crossword in my comment. In a purely objective way.
I guess don’t objectify donkeys.
There’s some discussion below about Naticks, and I’m too lazy so I’ll address it here; I always considered it very odd that Rex had never heard of N.C.Wyeth. I think I knew who he was when I was a child. Certainly by the time I was a functioning adult (late) and the whole Helga controversy (what? an artist had an affair!) came up you would hear of the whole Wyeth family if you followed news stories and I guess weren’t busy watching Friends.
And that remark is much more mean-spirited than my original comment which I felt was scrupulously fair. I apologize to all Friends fans.
4
@Frances
Aaaand there’s my comment below. I guess they put it to one side til a human can read it. Thank you NYT, for a very conscientious editorial policy.
1
@Frances
The Portłand (Maine) Museum of Art has a great exhibit of N C Wyeth's works running thru January 12th
1
@Frances
I've had two comments jettisoned today. A lengthy one which was quite harmless, yet repeated some puzzle entries. I also had submitted a second reply to your post below, which subtly implied a slightly different interpretation of the beginning of your final paragraph. I don't think that one will be appearing...
1
I was fooled by the alternate spelling of the Skater. I've always put a J in her name. Otherwise, this was my fastest thursday ever!
1
@Sophia Leahy
The Skater, that mystery woman, does have a J in her name. But it's in her first name. And it's in the clue.
1
Steve,
I'm fairly sure Sophia knew there was a J in the first name; I'm not sure whether her use of "alternate" was irony or error.
I was shocked when I finished to find I had completed it perfectly. I never got the theme, only lucky with the crosswords.
4
Not really a fan. I love the periodic table, but I’m not hardcore enough to know anything about neodymium which spellcheck just spelled for me let alone its atomic number. I don’t even know tin’s.
Because the periodic table is non symmetrical I’m not sure that shoehorning elements into this beautiful symmetrical grid is aesthetically pleasing.
I almost didn’t finish, breaking a streak of several years but I finally realized that what was up in the NW had to be lithium. I’d like to nominate Friends trivia as my Natick.
Ultimately, I was really excited by the grid itself, and so maybe I’m more negative about it than it deserves.
Also, dipsticks for asses is a stretch to me. Surely there are better ways to be pejorative.
7
@Frances - Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrain disagrees with your assessment of use of dipsticks. That's who I'd learned it from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheriff_Rosco_P._Coltrane
4
@Frances
"better ways to be pejorative"
Sounds like a good mantra for the President!
7
@Frances I love calling somebody a dipstick (privately, in the chambers of my mind of course, never out loud) instead of something worse. It rhymes closely enough to what I want to say. Heehee.
2
Deb, I loved your science essay! Really made me smile.
I got the theme in slow steps. I suspected elements early but I was thinking the numbers had something to do with a clock face or compass directions. Once it clicked that it was the clue number that made it easier (in that I gave up trying to come up with the elements on my own).
Very slow start that accelerated hard in the back half for a pretty average solve time for me. But a very above average puzzle in my opinion!
3
@Michael R
I was wondering at first if it was the solfeggio scale in music (do, re, mi, fa...)
1
@Sophia Leahy - I went there for half a second...LI is the solfege for La sharp, so I thought, for half a second...and then went "nah, they wouldn't do that!"
Deb, I really like the new FAQ article you wrote.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/11/crosswords/faq-wordplay-crosswords.html
But I often wonder with FAQs in general, are these really the most frequently asked questions? I noticed emu was addressed. I think there are a number of other historical things (NATICK, for example). Would you be able to modify that to include new Q's as they become FA'ed?
I would suggest adding a link to the FAQ page in your ending section entitled "The Tipping Point". I think it'd be useful especially for people who often come here asking for technical support. reading the comments, and then wondering what all the comments are on about, etc.
5
Hi @Wen, I'll add to it if things come up frequently, but those are the main questions I get.
Of course, the emu section was added because I honestly didn't think people would read that far.
4
I was baffled until I managed to battle my way to a correct solution. For that reason alone this seriously science-challenged person appreciated this puzzle. In fact, my being able to solve it speaks volumes about Alex' ability to build a fair puzzle. Thanks for that, Alex!
5
Finished to "Something's Amiss." Crunching back through clues and answers, I found the problem was I had "I WILL dO" for the insistent comeback and dEAL for the notary's need instead of I WILL SO and SEAL.
1
For me, fun puzzle, easy solve, but have no idea what most of the two letter answers stand for...anyone?
@John Dietsch - Elements on the periodic table?
@John Dietsch I had to read the creators comments. The double letters stand for the accepted abbreviations of atomic elements (LI=lithium, Ca=calcium, etc...) but the tricky part is their positions correspond to their numerical placement on the atomic table. You’ll notice that Li is 3D. Lithium is 3 on the atomic table. Ca is 20A, which matches calcium’s position at number 20 on the table. Extremely devious and clever. I had to look it up myself to understand what the relevance of the positions was. I got stuck on 62D (Sm-samarium, which I’m sad to say I’m not sure I had heard of before today, or at least didn’t remember) and had to look it up to finish the puzzle.
2
John Dietsch,
If you have a question about the puzzle, reading the Wordplay column (for which these are the comments) is a great place to start looking for an answer.
(Bonus: you get to read Deb or Caitlin!)
2
I was able to get "COO" for "Dove bar?" but I don't get how "coo" has anything to do with a musical measure, or bar--and I'm a musician.
1
A person sings, a dove COOs
@Matt Right, but I still don't understand how it relates to a measure of written music. I can't get it to make sense. Can another musician explain this to me?
CKent,
No, but hum a few bars and we'll fake it.
6
Well, as I suspected, the emus have held up my post for further examination, my having repeated some of the puzzle entries that must be on their verboten list. So I will take a completely different approach.
I got the theme on my third guess. At first, I was thinking of directions - NW, SE etc. However there were too many two-letter entries for that. Next came US states and their geographical position, but that didn't pan out either.
As a kid, I remember my older brother spouting off a sort of rhyming mnemonic(?) he had devised to memorize the periodic table. The beginning of it has always stuck in my mind:
H-Heli Beb-C Nof-Ne Namgal... and then my memory fades out. Well this up till now useless memory confirmed 3D and 10D and consequently the whole theme for me. Thanks, Dave!
So, a dove walks into a bar... Any takers?
3
@Andrew - that did remind me of my own Postal Codes mnemonic, that begins with
Alakazar!
https://youtu.be/dLECCmKnrys?t=82
@Andrew
Trying to come up with a joke for that one would be coo coo.
2
@David Connell
Alas, living in Canada your video link is "unavailable" to me. I see it is Conan, so I am very interested. If you find any other versions on youtube, please send them my way!
"...were smote"--YIPES. Smitten! You wouldn't say, "The cookies were ate," I'm positive. Though using "were smote" adds to the humor, I suppose.
Oh, the puzzle.
Well, I never watched "Friends."
I didn't know the lover in "Metamorphoses."
I had no idea about LTE or AIRTRAN.
The Biblical clues were gimmes, but even after I filled in ATOMIC NUMBERS, I didn't 'get' most of the two-letter combos (XEnon and CAlcium and SN were recognizable but otherwise...) and this puzzle does nothing to improve my attitude about physical science. The Periodic Table.... I managed to avoid that, plus they keep adding to it.
I Googled the GALATEA and LTE clues.
In other words, Epic Fail.
[Slopes off, skulking and slouching, sulkily]
11
@Mean Old Lady
"Well, I never watched "Friends.""
Great! That makes three of us! You, me and Doug.
2
Andrew,
Make that a table for four.
3
Well, the numbers weren't going to be the corresponding Roman numerals, so what on earth were they going to be? Time to go to where the revealer was lurking. When ATOMIC NUMBERS filled in, I thought to myself: "Oh, great! Thanks a bunch!"
I took a combined chemistry/physics course for non-science majors in college because my father had said: "No person can call herself educated who doesn't know any science. Bad enough Dalton didn't teach you any. And, no, you're NOT filling the science requirement by taking Geology or Astronomy!" So I took Physical Science 193 under duress, where I understood nothing in the very badly taught physics section but I aced the Final Exam essay question in Chemistry which had been very well taught. I was able to describe how atomic weights and ATOMIC NUMBERS related to each other or something of that sort. And much more.
Almost 60 years later, all I remember from the course is that there's a reason why chocolate ice cream melts faster than vanilla ice cream. though I don't remember what that reason is. It made perfect sense at the time, though.
Needless to say, I didn't/couldn't finish this puzzle. But Chemistry majors are entitled to nice mornings too. Hope you had fun, people.
6
@Nancy, to avoid any real science classes I took "Physical Geography" where the handiest thing I learned was how to figure the Adiabatic rate. So I could determine how the temperature would drop as the ski lift went up. A feat I've long since forgotten.
Wow! Good thing I didn’t leave this one until later in the day! I needed a few hints from Deb (and let’s take a moment to be grateful for Deb and her guidance!) and misspelled GALATEA, but I eventually got there. And on only one cup of tea!
I think it’s time to reward myself with another. Y’all have a lovely day.
5
@Barb Prillaman Pretty quick solve for a Thursday. Although they're very hit or miss with me. Completed without understanding the theme. Originally thought that the 2-letter clues would refer to their geographic placement in the grid, but quickly abandoned that notion and plugged along.
Read the fun, educational Wordplay after (as always -- Thanks, Deb!), but wouldn't have gotten that theme in a million years! Loved it
3
@childishgrambina -- 10 points for your nom de wordplay!
1
Good solve, interesting theme, but not particularly fun or satisfying to find out the theme since I don't know the location of elements in the periodic table.
2
@Ann Young
Thanks to this puzzle, now you do know! I can't claim I did know these particular elemental locations (or even all the elements) at the start, but I did enjoy finding them through the help of the crossings.
2
Very enjoyable puzzle! The theme revealed itself slowly but (since I don't know from atomic numbers) wasn't involved in solving. The clues were hard and tricky. And the symmetrical diagram was unusually pleasing aesthetically. I got a bit jammed up with the first two letters of the pizzeria, but after a few guesses that sorted itself out. It's a bit unexpected for a themed puzzle to have several 15-letter answers unconnected to the theme, but unless I missed the connection, so be it.
1
Almost forgot: Why is coo a dove "bar" (I get the dove part)?
1
@polymath
It's referring to a bar of music a bit of a stretch IMO but not inaccurate... :)
3
@polymath
Well, the closest I could get is that a dove's song is COO COO COO. A bar is a measured part of a song - hence COO.
P.S. Shouldn't a self-described polymath know the atomic numbers? :-)
4
Finished grading exams yesterday, so today I am in a state of mild euphoria. So I might be GOINGOUTONALIMB, but it seems to me that Deb's write-up today is a gem, and this puzzle is a masterpiece.
13
I had SLOG instead of SERF which kept me from getting GALATEA, ARTDECO and IFORGOT until I was almost done. Without them I just couldn’t come up with the revealer, even though I already had MICNUMBERS. The part that makes my inability to see any of this ridiculous? I have a PhD in chemistry and can recite swaths of the periodic table from memory. ROFL.
20
@RogerM
Slog led me to Roccoco which led me to say over my average
Managed to resist looking up a periodic table...got lucky on the crosses 🙂 and I'm amazed at how the constructor got it to work! SUPEr!
4
@Brian That's sulfur-uranium-phosphorus-erbium...
1
Phew, that was rough! I was led astray in a few key places ("fauna" instead of DAUNT (d'oh!) and I remembered something about a "dome" in Yosemite, thus missing THENOSE), and had to come back in the morning to finish up. Impressive construction!
Margaret from Maine mentioned Tom Lehrer, an apt reference not only for the elements but for "Hah-vahd." Here it is, live:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yaFxrYEDmCs
2
Good one Steve L, capitulated Tom callously.
I am often LABELed a dork for having a periodic table placemat. Today, you only wish you were me.
Thanks, Alex
5
@dk - head slap - I have a periodic table coffee mug! Yipes.
Under the table, it says,
"I use this mug periodically."
6
@David Connell
If you were doing the puzzle over coffee, I can only imagine what the temptation to cheat was like!
Your post also made me have to wonder: was 37A "under the table" a sly hint to the theme, especially placed where it was...
YIPES! I'm not that SMART, but Alex gave us kind crossings so I got there eventually. I know who Ross and Monica are, but we are just on a first-name basis, so that one I had to guess at. Rachel was Monica's roommate and Ross's girlfriend, right? They had giant apartments.
This was so clever and carefully made! Nice work, Alex.
4
Oh, it's an incredibly impressive construction feat, a huge wow on that front. But the construction always plays second fiddle to the quality of the solve, I believe. And that turned out to be quite satisfying.
It wasn't easy. It was one big ol' gauntlet to climb for me, between what I didn't know and vague cluing. It did eventually fill in, albeit in dribs, so it was for me an SSF (Square by Square but Fair). I was looking for a big payoff, something to make astonishing sense of the two-letter answers, but alas, atomic numbers and their elements are not in my bailiwick, so instead of a glorious "Oho!", all that emerged was an "Oh".
But the solve, the fight to finish this thing, that was glorious, worth every moment of the struggle, and for that, Alex, I am infernally-yet-eternally grateful.
12
To borrow from DK's playbook:
This puzzle was elementary, said Tom periodically.
3
Below, in the thread Doug started about Ross and Rachel, I replied in two parts, because the original post, although within the character limit, would not post. This has happened a few times recently. The issue has been in the last paragraph every time, and even a three-line last paragraph has not been able to post in this situation. But retyping the paragraph verbatim seems to work. It getting a little silly, but there must be some explanation.
Oh well, not sure what I'm expecting with this little rant. But I'm posting it anyway!
1
Having abandoned the idea that states were involved it took me until XE to figure out the theme, ( and yes, I also spelled ELIXIRS incorrectly.) Nevertheless, I really enjoyed this challenging Thursday puzzle, full of interesting entries with great clues.
I was watching a quiz show while having my lunch just after I finished the puzzle, and the first set of questions were all about the periodic table.
I'm didn't quite manage to extend my streak to 4 as I couldn't resist a couple of checks to see if I was on the right track. I was, so that probably means I didn't need to.
2
And this is the clue that allowed me to finish. I had ELIXeR and then was disappointed that I didn’t finish when the last box was filled.
@suejean I didn't extend my streak either. You came closer than I did. I had two look-ups of things that I knew but couldn't remember - I allow myself those. But I also had one look-up of something I didn't know and one failed check.
By the way, your rules are stricter than mine - I allow successful checks.
1
@Rich in Atlanta ,
I had no rules at all before I discovered wordplay, and am still far from strict.
1
What’s a “cheater square”?
@Jeremy A cheater square is a black square that does not serve to divide one answer from another, but only to shorten the answers in both directions.
In this puzzle, the four corners are all cheater squares, as are the black squares at both ends of 34a and 39a. And then each one at the base of the L-shaped blocks is also a cheater. If you consider what happens if you remove any of those squares, you can see that it doesn't create another answer, it just makes the two contiguous answers (across and down) one letter longer.
12
@Jeremy
A black square that could be removed without changing the number of entries in the puzzle. In this puzzle, it's the 4 corners, the ends of ATOMIC NUMBERS and BEGGED FOR MORE, and the points of the 4 chevrons. They are generally used to make the fill easier for the constructor, hence the "cheater."
4
@Jeremy yeah. Constructor notes raises my level of obsession/insanity. Here I thought a cheater square was when I looked at the grid in the back of the book.
2
Deb, I loved your science lesson today. Please never change.
19
52 down "were" is a plural. "WAST" is a singular. Fair?
@mld
“You were” = “Thou wast”
2
@Puzzlemucker OK, thanks. I apologize.
@mld - it's a double fake-out - the senses in Puzzlemucker's post are added to by the subjunctive:
If you (singular) were =
If thou wert (singular subj.)
So, only the w could be for certain until the crossings appear (subjunctive).
1
This is the first time I completed a Thursday puzzle while still mired in phase 2 (bafflement) of the 5 phases of Thursdays puzzles. On the one hand, TIL 8 new symbols. On the other hand, I was unable to access the optional stage 6 (smug). On the third hand, I will never remember those symbols. On to the bee.
4
@AudreyLM
👏
1
Audrey, if you find yourself in Eastport ME this summah (note RLESSness) I will lend you my periodic table placemat.
2
@dk
Is that anywhere near Eastpot?
I did this puzzle in elementary school.
(I only post puns like this periodically.)
11
@Mike
I’m guessing you did it at a table?
7
SPELLING BEE GRID
Dec 12 2019
O G I L M X Y
WORDS: 22; POINTS: 84; PANGRAMS: 1
G x 9
I x 1
L x 5
M x 4
O x 2
Y x 1
4L x 11
5L x 4
6L x 5
8L x 2
4 5 6 8 Tot
G 1 2 5 1 9
I - 1 - - 1
L 5 - - - 5
M 2 1 - 1 4
O 2 - - - 2
Y 1 - - - 1
Tot 11 4 5 2 22
51
@Mari
Why isn't "myology" accepted??
1
@Mari Today’s hints: A noun, adjective and adverb all indicating semi-darkness; a dodgy cricket throw (British English); a very large number; an ice-cave; an adjective meaning sluggish (strangely, the equivalent adverb is not accepted); an Iberian stew or mixture of many ingredients; an archaic verb meaning to moisten; an Eastern spiritual teacher - or a Bear; Pangram starts with the 13th letter of the alphabet.
9
@LStott
Also no golgi, they are not words in common usage.
LETTER BOXED
D-C(7), C-E(7).
3
@Andrew
Same solution here.
YESTERDAY:
KLATCH HONEYDEW
3
@Andrew R
E-L (9) L-Y (7)
or C-L (11) L-R (6)
I suspect with a little effort, a very long solution is also possible. Disappointed I could not find something to go with P-Y (9), which was hard to unsee after seeing it right away.
1
@Liane
I was sure that something would go with P-D(7) which was my immediate catch. No such luck.
Can't say I liked this theme once. For one thing, the revealer is wrong; the 2-letter entries are NOT numbers, they're chemical symbols. But more important, 2-letter entries are so short they become insta-Naticks. So when you've got C? and the ? is a character in a 2000-year old poem you never read, you're stuck. (There are nine elements whose symbols begin with C: Ca, Cd, Ce, Cf, Cn, Co, Cr, Cs, and Cu.) And then when ?I and the ? is a name from a TV show you never watched--same thing again. There's a reason 2-letter entries are nearly forbidden, and this is it.
7
The position of the clue is the atomic number. For instance, Lithium is *3* Down.
7
@Doug
What’s a Natick?
Let’s answer the clue exactly as it’s worded.
Clue: “This puzzle’s two-letter answers correspond with ___________, given their locations in the grid.”
Answer: atomic numbers
6
and Elke
YIPES- like others, I got ATOMIC NUMBERS fairly quickly, but...
then remembering a couple of weeks ago when NUMBERS referred to "dentists", so I found myself GOING OUT ON A LIMB and decided that ATOMIC referred to some new anesthetic , not too effective, so that a patient BEGGED FOR MORE...
It was downhill after that and not even down THE NOSE.
Am not DRUNK, just not too SMART (today ?)
7
RANSMACKDABINTO neodymium - ND. Did not know it, but the crosses made sense and led to the happy music playing.
@Brian
Neodymium magnets are insanely strong. You can get them from Amazon. I use them to hold potholders to the side of the oven and other little hook functions. A magnet the size of a nickel takes a great deal of strength to remove. They're lots of fun.
2
@Martin
Actually neodymium magnets are an alloy of neodymium boron and iron. Be very careful with them, they can be dangerous. There are numerous videos online attesting to it. Even small ones can pinch and cause nasty blood blisters.
4
@Robert Danley
Yep on all accounts. You need to be careful with them, but in the hands of adults they're very useful.
1
The Boston accent is not RLESS. True, it has no Rs where Rs belong. But where they don’t belong, it has them aplenty.
So when the clue referred to Harvard Yard, my first thought was “plazar.”
5
@Thomas Downing This is very true.
I had a roommate with a very strong Boston accent who owned a dog named "Sheba."
When she called her, she would shout "Heeeeya, Sheeber!"
2
@Thomas Downing One is also reminded of JFK's interest in Cubar.
Amusing and valid side notes all, but the answer is fully accurate for the clue: "Harvard Yard" *is* RLESS is a Boston accent.
In response to Deb's favorite comic -- that's a great one. And I saw a similar one -- the conductor's score is a sequence of stick figures showing different positions for the arms and the baton.
3
I am in what I suspect is the vast camp of those who had the ATOMIC NUMBER fairly early, but were not helped by knowing it to fill in those two letter entries. Despite that, the solve was very smooth. TURTLES all the way down!
14
@vaer
Yup, same.
@vaer The clue number = Atomic number of that element
@James
No kidding.
The answer to 28D reminded me of another accomplishment by the legendary climber Alex Honnold (who free-climbed El Capitan in 2017 as seen in the 2018 documentary "Free Solo"). He and fellow climber Tommy Caldwell set a speed record (under two hours) for the Nose route up El Capitan.
Here's a link to the story if anyone's interested:
-
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2018/06/alex-honnold-tommy-caldwell-speed-record-el-capitan-nose-yosemite-culture/
7
@RichardZ
Even knowing he made it, "Free Solo" was hard to watch in spots for an acrophobe
4
@RichardZ
The Nose route on El Cap was also in the news recently due to the death of Wayne Merry, who was on the first ascent back in 1958. That ascent took 45 days spread over a year and a half. Modern-day climbers stand on the shoulders of these pioneers.
Read his Times obituary here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/03/sports/wayne-merry-dead.html
1
@coloradoz - I can only imagine what it was like for the crew involved in coordinating the filming of the climb. If I recall correctly, some had to avert their gaze at key points during the ascent because the handholds and footwork were so tricky. At least with the Nose ascent, they had some safety gear.
Interesting puzzle. I got the revealer pretty early and the two 15 worders surprisingly fast (for me).
But I can’t be in the minority when I say, I know what an atomic number is, I know elements are abbreviated with two letters, BUT I have zero clue what element is associated with a particular number. I think I stop at hydrogen, helium...
so I presume the revealer really didn’t help most, except to know that a grayed XE was probably okay...
If I could spell ELIXIRS correctly, I would have had a very quick solve. Really? It’s not elixer…?
10
At first I thought "locations in the grid" might be something like NE or SW but there were too many of them, so no. And then I really went down the wrong path when I decided that the reveal was ARABICNUMBERS -- I had A...ICNUMBERS and that's what jumped out at me. Can you tell I don't know much physics, or is it chemistry?
Eventually the crosses made me realize my error, not that ATOMICNUMBERS helped me finish my incomplete 2-letter answers, since I don't know the At.No. of anything let alone its 2-letter abbreviation. But so many truly neat long answers and good fill made it enjoyable to work through those mysteries.
5
Great puzzle. Not hard, but I was delighted when I figured out the theme about a third of the way through. Nicely done!
3
I got the theme with LI, NE and CA though like others I first thought locations or states. The sad thing is that decades ago, I majored in chemistry so I knew those three (sort of by number), but I had to work out the rest by crosses. XE saved me in the SE corner.
1
Very challenging, but enjoyably so. I don’t have the periodic table memorized so even the revealer didn’t help much. I’m an AES fan.
3
Truly an ingenious puzzle - a clever idea which was nicely executed. While the longer answers (6D, 7D, 39A) appear to be debuts for the NYT, all are solid phrases.
I agree with Deb that 61A is the stand-out clue.
2
Once the principle is in hand, then all the two-letter answers are predictable. This is an interesting parallel to an aspect of the Periodic Table that has been forgotten since the discovery of promethium in 1945: it worked like a crystal ball to predict the future. Dmitri Mendeleyev took a one-dimensional list of 64 natural elements, arranged in ascending order by atomic weight, and turned it into a two-dimensional list by grouping into vertical columns elements having similar physical and chemical properties. This caused gaps to appear in the list, each of which corresponded to an undiscovered element. The approximate atomic weight of the missing element could be inferred to be intermediate between those of neighboring elements (horizontal) and physical and chemical properties could be inferred to be similar to other elements in the same column (vertical). In other words, the Periodic Table was a predictive tool, and as such, it sped up the discovery of the 28 elements that were unknown when Mendeleyev published the Periodic Theory in 1869, since it gave scientists indications of what to look for. What makes this parallel particularly piquant is that the crossword puzzle is, like the Periodic Table, two-dimensional.
24
There's a fascinating book about the periodic table -- The Disappearing Spoon, by Sam Kean, who is a reporter for Science Magazine. Science, history, personalities, rivalries, accidents -- you don't have to be a serious scientific sort to be totally riveted. Like so much in the universe, the more you know about something, the more interesting it gets. Strongly recommended.
13
I was about 90% done when I figured out the gimmick. I thought at first it'd be directions but that was quickly disabused. NUMBER was easy enough to get, and it had to be ART DECO (when was the last time say, Brutalist was in the puzzles (xwordinfo says never).
The gimmes were EDU, R-LESS (I hear it all day long at work), BRA, LIT, MACES, ERA, URL, FURLS, SEAL (wait...FURLS=FUR+SEALS?), LTE, COO.
Lucky guesses were: ARCO, GARNET, SALS, BUM.
Had TAB before ESC.
In the end, the puzzle didn't DAUNT or TAUNT. It was plenty SMART. I'm GOING OUT ON A LIMB to say that by tomorrow, we'll have seen many people BEGGED FOR MORE. I FORGOT nearly all of atomic numbers of elements, so knowing the gimmick didn't help. The only one I knew was LI.
And yes, the clues for MAESTRO, COO, R-LESS, were quite good. Those two long downs were fabulous. This was very enjoyable.
16
@Wen - ah, if only we could get brutalism to have the same frequency in the real world.
1
@David Connell
There are a few places where I like Brutalism. There used to be a whole Tumblr for it. May still be I’m not on Tumblr any more.
@Wen
Predicting MAESTRO shows up in Lewis' list!
2
I feel like I'm usually not on Alex's wavelength, but for some reason this puzzle fell into my wheelhouse (she said, mixing metaphors). I knew GALATEA and dredged up GELLER from some recess of memory and guessed MARIANA, and was off to a good start. Like others, got misdirected briefly thinking CA was for California (before noticing that I had GELLER and MARIANA, giving me LI at 3D). ATOMIC NUMBERS filled in relatively early, as did the two very long Downs at 6D and 8D, so I had a good framework to build on. And the things I had no idea on--THE NOSE, AIR TRAN--filled in easily from the crosses. It was fun!
8
I, too, thought they were going to be American states, although CA didn't help my notion that they would be geographically correct (maybe another crossword?). I even filled in American state (since states didn't fit) as the revealer before having to take it out. Since it has been many decades since I studied anything relating to the periodic table, and I don't think it featured heavily even then, I have no idea what most of these abbreviations are, never mind what number they go with. It felt like luck that I finished with no help.
Also nearly naticked at GELLER/GALATEA. Fortunately able to dredge up the latter as I have never watched Friends...
2
Like many others, I first thought I was dealing with state abbreviations. CA seemed well placed, but NE was all wrong.
The thing I liked best was that the puzzle was doable even though I didn’t recall a single atomic number. I did pull out my periodic table when it was all over.
4
My excuse: Our teachers went on strike for two months the year I took Chemistry.
Almost as hard of a Thursday for me as Saturday was for a Saturday. Even after I got the ATOMIC NUMBERS revealer, I was flummoxed in several places. Once I finally got the two long Downs and BEGGED FOR MORE (great clue!), and changed some wrong entries (YIkES to YIPES and ELIXeRS to ELIXIRS), things finally fell into place.
Another AES Thursday gem. I won’t BEG FOR MORE because that was more than enough — it set a BONFIRE to my vanity.
16
@Puzzlemucker
Raises hand for misspelling "ELIXIRS."
5
@Puzzledog
We can blame Puzzledad for that one.
1
@Puzzledudes,
Interesting, because -- as long as you know there's an X in the middle instead of a CKS -- ELIXIRS is spelled exactly the way it sounds.
Isn't it?
I periodically enjoyed this one.
23
An absolutely scrumptious puzzle!
3
I bet the person who used Tom Lehrer to come up with ASTATINE last Saturday was all over this one! (sorry, I don’t remember who you are)
3
That was me, Margaret, and yes I thought this was a great puzzle.
2
Took a bit to figure out the theme and loved when I did. First got misdirected as I got CA first and thought they referred to State abbreviations but super fun when it all came together.
3
@Sf I got the NE first and since it was in the NE corner of the puzzle, I then wrote in NW but abandoned the NW corner when nothing fit with that. Soon realized my mistake.
2
@Sf
Sanfanciscium?
I also thought that they were state abbreviations and I was annoyed that they were in the wrong places. The only one I knew for sure was lithium, atomic number 3, because an electrical engineer, who designs batteries, recently mentioned that fact to me.