Hardest Tuesday puzzle in a long time....
1
Science hubby takes exception to the Areolar clue. As it is subcutaneous tissue and sub-muscular; to say it is of the iris is not exactly correct. Near to the iris would be more so. Dog had no voiced opinion except to lay head on the keyboard during the discussion. I take that as he agreed with hubby.
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Difficult for a Tuesday! The cross of STIEG and EGON was a Natick for me. Thanks to my wife for bailing me out!
BTW, MIEN again!
5
Just dropping in to say Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah to all. May your holidays be peaceful and snowy and your puzzle streaks joyful and growing (growy?)
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OT: Signing off for a week; we start the vigil celebration of Christmas shortly, then Christmas tomorrow, then I'm off-grid "for real" during my annual spiritual retreat (silence on our part, preached meditations each day by Catholic priest). In Culpeper, VA (see Longlea.org ). A happy and holy Christmas and Hanukkah to all (remember, I was raised clipped and dipped), and a blessed New year. I'll try to catch up on Jan 2!
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Thank you for an easy puzzle today. My husband was cropped, clipped, cut, etc., today. He even shaved. And we love a good barbershop quartet.
Happy, merry, and joy to all.
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Given that it’s Christmas Eve, and tonight’s the fourth night of Hanukkah, it seems only right to present a snippet of Philinte’s rejoinder to Alceste, followed by my *brilliant* margin note:
Come, let’s forget the follies of the times
And pardon mankind for its petty crimes;
Let’s have an end of rankings and of railings,
And show some leniency toward human failings.
My margin note: “Opp. positive view. Overlooking & forgiving.”
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Correction: tonight’s the third night of Hanukkah.
2
Yikes. I hope you can forgive my failings.
Second correction: “Let’s have an end of rantings and of railings,”
2
@Puzzlemucker
If you eliminate railings doesn't that create a safety issue?
1
No way is this a TuesPuzzle. Not when MOLIERE jumps into DE FRAY with a SIXPACK and a LIMP id only to pLEASE E-POCHAL belle's canon. Long time since filling so delicious.
While some will only think that STIEG ARE O'LARsson, I suggest considering the Steinberg crossword project. Some might think STIEG glitz an oxymoron, but he digs a fabulous rabbit-hole: "I was born in Hoboken. I am an American. Photography is my passion. The search for Truth my obsession."
TIL that the National Gallery of Art just released this year a key set of all the additional photographs that Georgia O'Keeffe donated. Worth a peek.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Stieglitz
Nice tribute to the BARBERSHOP QUARTET. I heard rumours that Will Shortz hadn't been keen on the first row, and asked Alex E-S to take a little off the top. Upon which Joel Fagliano opined, considering the original Sweet: "Add a line"
Joel TOQUE the words right out of my mouth.
Wishing each and everyone a wonderful celebration of all y'all's choice.
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"Wishing each and everyone a wonderful celebration of all y'all's choice."
Right back atcha, Leapy.
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I have corrections of my own to make.
What the NGA released this year was an enhanced key set which included later donations by O'Keeffe of STEIGlitz' work. Its being on-line also makes it uniquely more accessible than the previous print collection.
https://www.nga.gov/research/online-editions/alfred-stieglitz-key-set.html
(Slightly carried away? Yes, I AM)
Today’s my streak reached 100, fittingly, on Christmas Eve. I will end my streak here. I am not a purist; most days I had to look up various pop culture terms or proper names. The streak included some very late nights when life got in the way of puzzling solving. Fittingly I write this at 2:14 am local time (I live in Thailand). Now I will refocus my solving on minimizing the look-ups rather than prioritizing a streak. I will enjoy the freedom of streakless solving!
Perhaps my next streak of 100 will be done without look-ups. Merry Christmas to all!
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@BaldBrady - never underestimate the power of putting it aside and coming back to it. It really does help.
1
Seeing spunk as an answer (or in general use especially when referring to children as spunky) always makes me cringe. Not a polite word at all back home. It's a crude synonym for semen.
2
Come now, Sarah; you never use words that have other, crude, meanings?
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Hard to top many of the comments most of with which I concur.
Delightful, also.
And -- wunderbar -- a subtheme, probably unintended, but here it is: consider the fill for 26A: how many others can you find in the grid? For instance,10D, 67A, 58A, 9D .... and in the clues too: 30D, 22A ...
1
Oh, and Irony of ironies ... today is the day I decided to get a haircut. (At least one.)
3
@Dr W, you were looking at ALS (incl UNSER?)
I looked at EPOCHAL and thought it high time HALinNY made a comeback appearance.
@Leapfinger
Just that two-letter combo -- without the S. (Or in your case the H).
Yes I've recognized there've been some absences -- hope all is well with any, regardless.
1
I love the puzzle, and it's not a good day for "bah, humbug" but "eke by" is NOT a thing. Nobody "ekes by". They may get by, or scrape by, but they can only eke OUT.
Happy holidays!
4
thelynx,
While M-W notes that eke is "usually" used with "out" (and I "usually" use it that way too), it offers examples of "eke past" and "eke along," and I'm sure somebody "ekes by" somewhere. It's not like we were Naticked.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/eke
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@thelynx
Don't mice eke?
2
@Dr W I'm pretty sure 1950s cartoon housewives eke when they see a mouse; the mice squeke.
(On second thought, maybe you're speculating that some people use EKE BY because of its similarity to "squeak by"? In which case I bet you're right.)
1
I read most of the comments. I cheat as I new to these puzzles. I never thought I would like crosswords, but NYT makes it a fun experience. The comment section is also an added like. Happy Holidays to all. NYT- you make retirement fun.
32
@Kathleen Smith
Happy Holidays back to you, Kathleen! You'll find that as you do more and more puzzles, you won't have to "cheat" as much! You'll be amazed at what you know or remember!
8
Re: 1-Across in the daily Mini. The “best hand in Texas Hold ‘Em” is a straight flush. The best STARTING hand in Texas Hold ‘Em is ACES, which is how the clue should have been written.
1
@Jeremy - well, I guess that's just the hand you were dealt.
So to speak.
Ahem.
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This was harder than I expected! My brain might not be awake yet. Happy holidays and happy puzzling to everyone from the left coast!
3
A very Solid “Solve” - no research, about half of my average for Tuesday and reasonably close to a new PB - - and almost no ‘go-backs’ during the solve. Very smooooth!!
Having seen ‘The Misanthrope’ and ‘Tarfuffe’ in excellent production at Stratford’s Shakespeare Festival, I knew MOLIERE and that enabled MCG (whoever that is/was) to fill in.
UH YES didn’t exactly thrill me.
And I don’t think IN MEMORIAM actually appears in epitaphs - - does it? Seems like something more prophetic is required - such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s suggestion for his own:
“Here he lies, where he longed to be.
Home is the sailor, home from the sea,
And the hunter home from the hill.”
I don’t know whether he actually wanted that on his tombstone - but those are the concluding words of his short poem entitled ‘Requiem’.
Best seasonal wishes to all of my fellow cruciverbalists - and particularly to the authors of all those terrible puns - - which cause me snort my coffee with such regularity.
7
While there is a tiny island in the Galapagos named Espanola, I can't help but think that clue was a typo for Hispaniola.
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@surfertom007
Hispaniola is called La Española in Spanish, which triggers the answer ISLA in Spanish.
2
(ISLE wouldn't cross, ILE wouldn't fit.)
Undone by THE tweeted Tom, torturously.
Time for a cuppa and a digestive as I prepare for tomorrow. Son and I are pulling together a last minute xmas as our original plans were scuttled. Christmas dinner will be at Bar Marilou in NOLA where they, no doubt, know how to spell THE. And, I am given to understand their scollops are c’est manifique.
The puz was smooth as others have posted. A Tuesday puzzle used to be the least liked, based on an analysis of blog posts done about 10 years ago. Wednesday was the favorite followed by Friday, Saturday, Monday, Thursday and, alas, Tuesday. At the time I did mot solve Sunday’s offering so it was not in the mix. The point I am sneaking up to is: Tuesday puzzles seem to be improving.
Note: Analysis was conducted with a text analyzer. One assigns gradations of negative or positive values to words and then scores the written word. There is some back and forth as you refine the scoring criteria. Once an esoteric science used when analyzing phone conversations or voice recordings gathered from, say, a ubiquitous yellow cab parked in front of..... never mind. Amazing what a military grade directional microphone can pick up. Text analytics had a brief star turn in analyzing letters to/from ones incarcerated. Alas grammar and spelling were so bad the algorithms shot themselves.
Happy holidays to my puzzle solving family. All I want for Christmas is one of those green check marks.
Thanks Alex.
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BOSH! Stymied by a crumby natick at the cursed 13 square, I thought I might have EKED BY the roadblock to a solve by sheer luck, but guessed erroneously with a ‘c’...Let’s go right to the our 2-for on audio/video tape. First ‘tis Homer encored with a COLD CUT from George...Happy Christmastide y’all!
https://youtu.be/Yr3dBOB7nXI
https://youtu.be/WNg3DTBQGgk
Keeping It REAL,
Bru
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Never ever heard of BOSH (54D) used in the "Baloney" sense. Only know as "Bish Bosh" meaning "Completed the task" in a cutesy way.
A more direct equivalent to "Baloney" would be "Cobblers", a piece of old Cockney rhyming slang: "Cobblers Awls" rhymes with spherical objects. This usage has long escaped from the east end of London to the rest of the UK.
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@Alan Hunter
The reason you haven't heard "bosh" in the sense of "baloney" is that you were born too late. The OED lists five meanings of "bosh;" in the sense of "contemptible nonsense," it is attested a few times in the 19th century. The other four, also archaic, are oleomargarine or other butter substitute, the lower part of a blast furnace (used in plural only), an outline or rough sketch, and a fiddle (bosh = violin is originally Romany). None is attested in the 20th or 21st century. So it's a word, but perhaps it deserves the annotation "archaic."
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@Alan Hunter
Words don’t escape. But rather, they are commandeered. Admiring your thoughtful input, I’ll convey my kind regards in thankful recco form.
@Alan Hunter
No wonder GBS described the British and Americans as, “Two peoples separated by a common language...” - - or something akin to that.
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Very nice puzzle and about as smooth a solve as I can recall. Not that I got everything on first pass, but I bounced around and never really got hung up anywhere. Lots of really nice long entries in this one.
Side note: Having worked for many years developing software for IBM mainframes, and thus having to deal with that company directly with some frequency, I will just note that in our shop we often refered to them as (cough) One BM.
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@Rich in Atlanta
Your 2nd paragraph made me chuckle. I had a similar experience, although we usually referred to IBM as (with apologies to IBM employees, current or prior) either "Idiots Become Managers", or "I've Been Moved".
2
@Steve Faiella Poughkeepsian here. I've Been Moved was definitely common.
1
@Rich in Atlanta On that note, I have a piano student who giggles whenever she sees the abbreviation for a B minor chord, which is Bm.
2
What I liked most about this offering is that it was not a reflex solve, as Tuesdays often are. Due to vague cluing and some out-of-wheelhouse entries, I had to turn my brain on, a most lovely pre-Christmas gift.
While the greater part of today YET IS to come, let me jump into DE FRAY and wish all a marvelous 12/24, vis-a-vis 12/25.
11
What a delightful reveal in a really great Tuesday puzzle. I didn't have anything in the top section of Across clues except MOLIERE, but the downs soon sorted that out. I found this a bit easier than yesterday.
I had to look up the basketball player. I loved learning about his feat.
MWAH to everyone.
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@suejean
Spud WEBB was a gimme for me, since he went to North Carolina State U for a couple of years. He was always fun to watch.
1
@Liz B ,
I'll bet he was great to watch.
@Liz B
Of course, I had Spud WEBB conflated with Muggsy Bogues. Spud, at 5 ft 7 inches, towered over Muggsy who, at 5 ft 3 inches, was the shortest player ever to make it into the NBA. Most of those players were simply unused to guarding someone below waist level.
I’m sadly looking for my mistake . I had TeE instead of THE and am thinking I may see the error of my ways in EPiCHAL/ARiELAR. O, there it is. Happy celebrating to all that do.
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LETTER BOXED THREAD
Dec 24th 2019
First effort:
M - L (7), L - N (8)
3
@Mari
YESTERDAY:
GRAPEVINE ENRICHMENT
THRIVING GRAPHEMIC
@Mari
YESTERDAY:
GRAPEVINE ENCHANTMENT
1
@Mari
Ditto. Nice phrase somehow.
1
SPELLING BEE GRID
Dec 24th 2019
G A E L M P X
WORDS: 27, POINTS: 98, PANGRAMS: 1
A x 7
E x 1
G x 13
L x 1
M x 4
P x 1
4L x 13
5L x 9
6L x 3
7L x 1
8L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
A 1 3 2 1 - 7
E - 1 - - - 1
G 9 3 1 - - 13
L - 1 - - - 1
M 2 1 - - 1 4
P 1 - - - - 1
Tot 13 9 3 1 1 27
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@Mari I’ll repost my comment that I had no words containing X and no pangram until I remembered that I went to a movie theater with multiple screens.
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@Mari
Here to kvetch as always, but I feel that if ROMCOM and GAYDAR are accepted, then GALPAL and GLAMP should be too.
Yes @Kevin Davis I agree it is unusual that X is only used once in the solution set. I don’t recall a letter appearing only once in any of the prior Bees
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@Sarah Also PEGLEG. Our Sam is an eclectic curator. But hey, it keeps the hive buzzing.
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SPELLING BEE
14 minutes again 27 words 98 points 1 pangram
I had no words containing X and no pangram until I remembered that I went to a movie theater with multiple screens.
1
So I’m assuming “—-plex” is your word with X, but I’m missing it.
Help!
@Zoe Baker - there was a movie theater along I-95 that had a big neon sign: Cinema 1-2-3.
The next year the sign read: Cinema 1-2-3-4-5
The next year it read: Cinema 1-2-3-4-5-6-7
We swore the next year it would just have
Cinema
with an 8 on its side.
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@David Connell
And every one of them showing a superhero/zombie/space cowboy sequel, ad infinitum ...
1
Not as slow as usual, filled the last square at just under 20 minutes (partly because of having to wait for typing to show up on screen), but it took me another 10 minutes to fix INMEMORIuM where it crossed with STuRMAN (I'm never surprised at names of unknown songs) and realize that bologna was better described as COLDCUT then bOLDCUT. MbG seems just as likely as MCG, whoever he/she might be, for a director of Charlie's Angels.
4
The clue for 47A brought to mind Peter Falk's classic line as Lt. Columbo (though I guess his actual line was "just one more thing ...").
5
and Elke
Got the CUT, CLIP, CROP and TRIM, but also found the UNWEAVE. Wikipedia says that hair weaves are "artificial hair integrations", so would be done in a BARBERSHOP, no?
Speaking of hair: How do you recognize a Hanukkah hippie ?
He's the one with the DREIDEL locks.
Also, what did Adam say to his wife the day before Christmas ? It's Christmas, Eve !
One final one: Knock,knock. Who's there ? Murray. Murray who ?
Murray Christmas !
To all- -may we all have a peaceful and joyous festive season.
21
This puzzle was a cut above the rest.
(A barber's favorite Christmas character: Tiny Trim.)
21
@Mike
Talk about a razor-sharp wit... it'll be hard to strop that.
17
Really, Mike? Comb on.
9
@Mike
God tress us, everyone?
12
2d. Billie Holiday was known as Lady Day but I never heard Ella Fitzgerald referred to as Lady Ella. Regardless, check out her songbooks of Gershwin, Berlin and Rogers and Hart. After listening to them, you will call her Queen Ella.
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@Queenie
Besides her boundless swing, Ella always sang with perfect diction, even when she "scatted!" A special shoutout to her long time accompanist Tommy Flanagan, a superstar jazz pianist. Check him out, too.
6
Queenie,
I had not heard Lady Ella either, but wikipedia has:
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917 – June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer sometimes referred to as the First Lady of Song, Queen of Jazz, and Lady Ella.
2
Huh. I thought the celebrant was the one performing the ceremony, like a minister at a wedding. So I had DEAN for GRAD til the crosses insisted.
1
@Tim Erickson - the person leading a eucharistic ceremony (a mass; a communion service) is the celebrant - but the person leading a rite or an event that focuses on / happens to a special person or family (like a wedding or a baptism) is the officiant. Technical talk from the liturgical world.
Very obscure: the person who preaches is the predicant. The person who prays is the precant.
The -ant is the performative suffix in Latin words. It means, roughly, "the one who is doing" - in contrast to the continuative ergative suffix -or, which is "the one who does by habit" (celebrator, officiator, predicator, precator).
inhabitant = one who is living in the (named or implied) place;
inhabitor = one who is in the habit of occupying this kind of place.
2
@David Connell - oof, on behalf of Spelling Bee addicts, I add:
natant = swimming, a thing that is floating or swimming
natator = swimmer, a person who swims (whether swimming at the moment or not)
2
@David Connell
And: pedant=the person who walks??? (smile)
2
I was in need of a good book to read yesterday, so I went “bookshelf shopping” and for some reason settled on my collegiate copy of MOLIERE’s The Misanthrope (and Tartuffe). Got distracted by other things and have not yet started, but from reading the introduction (and my hazy memory), I know that it’s a comedy about a society marked by rampant dishonesty, injustice and selfishness. Not at all relevant today! ;-)
Here’s a taste from the title character, Alceste:
My God! It chills my heart to see the ways
Men come to terms with evil nowadays;
Sometimes, I swear, I’m moved to flee and find
Some desert land unfouled by humankind.
(I loved this Tuesday puzzle by one of my favorite constructors).
34
@Puzzlemucker
The Misanthrope is very timely indeed. And the question is, are we supposed to admire Alceste for his fierce idealism or find him ridiculous on that account?
7
@Millie
I just read over my margin notes to see if they have any answer. No great insights but fun to read what my 19 year-old self had to say.
9
@Puzzlemucker
I remember reading some old books and chuckling at the moronic comments "someone" had left in the margins, until I realized the moron was college-aged me. Embarrassing.
9
EKEDBY isn’t a usage I’ve heard before, but otherwise, a satisfying and relatively quick solve.
9
How could you not love a puzzle with both HEEHAW and MOLIERE in it? Unexpectedly crunchy for a Tuesday. A pleasant surprise.
Happy holidays all.
25
@vaer
It's a little known fact that when Hugo von Hofmannsthal was adapting Le bourgeois gentilhomme for the Austrian stage, he wanted to add Hee Haw as a divertissement but couldn't find a banjo player in Vienna, so he went with commedia dell'arte instead, and voilà! Ariadne auf Naxos!
16
@Fact Boy Thank goodness it went the way it did; can't imagine Hee Haw, though I'm sure Strauss would have found a way to make it great. BTW, there is a great DVD of Ariadne auf Naxos featuring the Moliere play as the first act and Ariadne as the second. It's rarely done this way.
1
@Nick Schleppend
I pretend that Strauss isn't a family name when in the company of those who find Ariadne Obnoxious.
Will now try to imagine a collaboration between Strauss and Buck Owens.
Lively and entertaining. I actually saw the CUT-CLIP-TRIM-CROP as the phrases filled in, but I didn't get the theme until I had most of the reveal. It didn't help much that I accidentally typed IN MEMOMIAM, so BARBER SHOP wasn't evident at first. Had no idea about MCG, but the crosses were easy.
4
French satire, Baltimore baseball, Ziggy Stardust, and a Christmas carol! What's not to like?
Fun little Tuesday puzzle. Happy celebrating, everyone!
21
@Ann
Such a great song.
https://youtu.be/sI66hcu9fIs
Thought of you as soon as I saw the ORIOLES.
6
@vaer
That’s a great video. By all accounts, Bowie was a very generous and kind man. Gone too soon.
10
@Puzzlemucker + @vaer,
I love the part in the video when Bowie pulls his backup singer in close, so they can share the mic, arm around his shoulder. It's the picture of generosity.
2