Excellent hint in the southwest corner and finally a Thursday puzzle that was lots of fun and I could do in less than 50 minutes.
That was a lot of fun
Thanks
1
Only a haole would say “shaved ice.”
12
@Jim
Or, if a haole lived there in the 50's, maybe neither one.
What a non-haole say?
@Zoe Baker Shave Ice
Amanda and Karl let us all ROLL THE DICE today and, it seems to me, we all came out winners.
I know I had a lot of fun figuring it all out and ended with up with a feeling of total satisfaction. What more could I ask for? (Well, may a million dollar win at the craps table ...)
Thank you two! I look forward to your next!
1
Did anyone else have CON for 61D? As in the Spanish for ‘with’ (sin is ‘without’). Made me wonder what it meant to VEnT on’e power...
2
@Jacob
Yep! That was my first fill too.
What a happy well constructed blast. I love it when the theme has a second level of coolness, it tends to fit the way my mind works. I don’t understand why puzzlers get angry when the trick doesn’t fit their preconceptions of how they should work. Isn’t that the fun of it?
Thanks for a very good time.
4
Loved it, Led Zeppelin too!.
2
Easy as Thursday goes but very impressive theme. I don't know who people construct these. Lots of fun.
1
Got hung up because this Star Trek TNG fan always thought it was “DELAY that order.” But then I realized Arthur C Clarke doesn’t write dooks, and, surprise, I got the gold star.
4
When my family lived in Hawaii, there WASN'T any such thing as SHAVED ICE (and especially not SHAVE ICE, which is no doubt related to CAN Vegetables and ICE tea.)
Oh, the puzzle.
Well, that was darling, and I had a great time. zip zip zip!
SO busy with PT and tax paperwork and a Medicare appeal that I did not even make it to the column yesterday to protest--vigorously--the maligned OKRA with its misguided Yankee-styled clue. OKRA has a viscid fluid in its pods. It could be considered slimy, but that has nothing to do with the way it's cooked. It has more to do with a bad attitude on the part of the diner, frankly.
There are plenty of gummy, gooey, oozy fluids in fruits and vegetables. Try picking fresh figs one fine morning! The milky fluid from the stems rivals superglue or epoxy.... trust me. Other harvests will dye your fingers pink, purple, red, or black, depending on the 'crop.' If dealing with real food instead of canned, pickled, frozen pre-fab veggies and fruits leaves you too prissy to confront an OKRA pod, that's just sad. Plus, you're missing out.
And then there are proteins! Come talk to me after you've beheaded, bled out, plucked, singed, and drawn a young cockerel, and we'll talk.
6
@Mean Old Lady - I waited so long for - and then a day later I returned here to see - your inevitable defense of the indefensible.
Now, all is right with the world: MOL has spoken up for the horror that is okra!
I can rest easy.
Essential step in any okra recipe:
Toss it all into the bin.
It doesn't matter where this step comes in the recipe, just so long as it is in there somewhere!
1
@David Connell
LOL...."There are none so blind as those who will not see!"
[plays Taps for the soul of DC]
I hate Thursdays.
2
Best puzzle this week!
3
Referring to 51 Across, isn’t the correct word for the Hawaiian treat “SHAVE ICE” rather than “SHAVED ICE?”
2
Loved this! - I got pretty quickly that the four squares would contain DICE and would be rolling, but the way the crosses went up and around, incorporating the DICE and rolling with them, that was fantastic! Such a wonderful second level, I enjoyed it very much!
4
Great, tricky theme—the kind that makes you feel wonderful when you put it all together. Thanks Amanda and Karl! I had a lovely hike along the Yuba River today and solved a tricky puzzle. Who can ask for more?
6
My first couple of passes through, my grid was nearly blank and I never thought I'd get through this puzzle! I persevered, and eventually I gradually chipped my way in. I'm glad I did, because once I got the theme, i really enjoyed it. So clever! FRET was a clever misdirection. I was glad to see MALALA since my daughter is reading her book now. I kept thinking Adam for the actor's name, but I couldn't remember his last name. Then I read the clue more carefully and realized Adam was more of a star than a co-star, and I remembered that ALAN ALDA was in the movie. I also had to read the clue for FIEF a few times before I noticed the lower case l. Very fun puzzle. So cool that the constructors are husband and wife!
5
Anybody know where the Spelling Bee grid/word count that Mari normally posted can be found? I understand that she's under the weather for a few days. Occasionally needed to suss out the final few!
@Steve Perry - click on Reader Picks at the top of your comments box - usually the grid will be first or second on that list.
1
All around excellent job by Amanda and Karl. As daunting as these types of puzzles seem at the start they do provide a feeling of victory, even if it's just overriding your own doubts. At 23A I started with SAUCI and thought perhaps there was a piece of French dishware I didn't know so I entered saucier. When Dr. SEUSS showed up the light dawned and it was fun to figure out the rest.
5
@Keta H, it's the old 'SAUCIER than thou' routine. My thinking exactly, and my lightbulb too.
Sister-girl!
1
I assumed that the counterpart of sin was con (sp) and got stuck for a long time. Thanks to Deb for giving the the right answer!
3
@ybs
That's what happened to me too. I guess I mistook "sin" with "san," but I looked up the definitions of "vent" and saw none that fit with its clue.
Figured out a skewed significance of the tinted squares in the NE section. Then later on the actual theme appeared thanks to the revealing 58a. I had been interpreting the word in the shade as ICED at first blush. Then the laughing bones tumbled to the correct word and it sped things up considerably...The Germanic EINK came along, but only with cross support...Overall it was a dicey but fun solve. But I still fail to see the connection of ORG to chart. Is it bio related and abbreviated?...Delbert McClinton’s paean sings of the theme.
https://youtu.be/1xqM-UGxlKk
I DID IT,
Bru
7
bru,
Organization charts have been called (and written of as) ORG charts for quite a few years now. The abbr. has turned into a word.
5
You truly blessed if you don’t know about org charts.
15
@brutus
Here's to local boy made good Delbert!
3
After I filled in the top two DICE, I optimistically filled in the bottom two assuming rotation was consistent. Thank goodness it worked out! Loved this puzzle and the cluing was great. My favorite clue: "counterpart of sin."
4
I DID IT! Well almost. I'm a newbie and this is the furthest I've gotten on a Thursday puzzle entirely on my own. I got just over 90% before I had to start googling definitions.
I figured out early on that DICE was in each of the squares, but it wasn't until SHAVED ICE that I understood the theme. Very clever!
I'm a server and charge GRATuity to parties of six or more, but I was unaware of the word's Latin origin to deduce GRATIS. I learn so much from crosswords.
Thanks for the great puzzle! Had a lot of fun solving this and feeling very proud of myself!
13
@Sarah
I likewise didn't discover "rolling the DICE" for the across entries until the end. I guess I thought INSERVIDAYS, SAUCISH, and REVERSECTIONARY were real things! 🥴
2
Lol, @Ron! I expect that, in no time, you'll be looking at Thursday puzzles with Thursday eyes. And maybe even with some GRATitude!!
Good on both of you.
I guess I'm the only one who spent quite a while with Scarlett as the "Marriage Story" answer?
It was a fun puzzle, though. Once I realized the DICE aspect due to some crossings and understood the humpback pattern lots of answers fell into place quickly.
2
@John They wouldn't ask for a first name as an answer to a clue unless they indicated it as such. Ex: "Costar of Adam in Marriage Story."
1
@John
I haven't seen it, and Alda is (according to the IMDB credits order) 45th (!) billed. I've listened to some Oscar podcasts and never heard him mentioned in it. It seems like an unnecessarily obscure way to clue someone like him.
I enjoyed the theme today, some clues caused me to fret, and some rose my ire, but I got there in the end.
5
@Padraig, some got your Irish up, did they?
Never too proud to go for the low-hanging fruit, as it served me well in making (at a late stage of life) a connexion betwixt 'ire' and 'Irish'
That was fun! I was so unsure of my answers that I was actually surprised when I filled in the last letter and the happy music played.
3
What do you say to someone who keeps scratching his/her neck? "Don't fret."
4
Neat!! 47D!!
The four across squares with 60 and 61 as the middle two should have been shaded.
Presumably anyone who couldn't finish could say "No dice".
Had a bit of trouble for a while because I thought the ending on 26A was O.
Anyone finishing has to come to their 48D.
4
I didn't see this mentioned in the column and it may be otherwise mentioned in the comments, but the letter order "roll" consistently counterclockwise from top to bottom which I think is especially clever constructing given the theme reveal in 58A. Thank you for a this excellent Thursday puzzle.
2
Kate,
I thought this covered it...
Today’s Theme
The four grayed patches of squares in Ms. Chung and Mr. Ni’s grid represent rolling DICE in a progressive pattern as we move from top to bottom.
@Barry Ancona
You're right! Missed that.
2
Darn those emus! My post included the word c--ps, a gambling game, NOT a dirty word. It may never be cleared!
@Johanna
They very well may read it and let it go a bit later. An algorithm usually pulls things and holds them until a human can read it, I’ve had that happen and half an hour later my comment popped up.
1
Oh, Deb! Please release Johanna's post.
4
Been doing the NYT crossword for about 30 years, on paper until a couple of years ago, when I started using the app. A couple of months ago, I started using the auto check feature. I haven't decided if that's cheating or just fudging. It is a nice change tho. I'm not in competition with myself or anyone else. I hide the timer, I couldn't care less how long a solve takes.
9
There are many opinions about what is "cheating" at crosswords, and IMHO, several levels of "cheating," from looking up what attar is in order to guess petals (which I had to do today) to more aggressive researching, which a lot of people do with various constraints to keep things interesting. The truth about it has been stated before: it's your puzzle, and you can solve it however you want.
But the straightforward answer is, yes "autocorrect" is totally cheating, and in the worst possible way.
2
@John I looked up 'attar' too, I allow myself dictionary-type lookups where I don't understand a word, but not general google searches.
@Bob I agree! Once I reached my 70s I realized that life is short. I sometimes use the auto check when I am stuck. I figure that is similar to looking up an answer. One can turn it on and off as needed.
4
Fun! I knew I had a problem with 67A but I couldn't figure out what it was until I realized that my answer to 61D was in Spanish and nothing in the clue suggested a Spanish answer. Still, I like the fact that my answer worked, sorta. I figured the opposite of "sin" ("without") would be "con" ("with"). That's what I get for knowing more Spanish than trig (but precious little of either).
2
@Drew Trott Glad to see that I'm not the only one who made this same mistake. I spent a solid minute trying to figure out how Vent might confer power before fixing my error.
2
Another one in the fun column. I had 2-3 of D I C & E in each of the grey squares before another peek at the revealer clued me into the theme.
Terrific puzzle. Kudos to constructors and all involved. The possibilities for complicated, interesting Thursday puzzles seems endless. For me, this rates very high. I feel fortunate.
7
Certainly not out of line for a Thursday. I even came in under average after a couple of puzzled minutes. But seriously, has anyone ever once said "trou?"
1
@racul I think the term "drop trou" still has some currency, but I'd be surprised to see the term out of that context.
7
During high school in the 70’s, we referred to underwear as u-trou. Probably pretty local usage.
2
Yes, as others said, in my high school years one heard “drop trou”. I don’t think I’ve heard it since then.
I've never ever heard of a "sauce dish" or used what I would consider to be a "sauce dish" or used the phrase "sauce dish" until this morning. This was a real clunker of an answer, one of many on this Thursday. The theme was kind of fun otherwise.
2
@E.W. Swan
FWIW, I thought it was a bit of a clumsy answer too, but a sauce dish is a thing, especially for soy sauce. E.g.
https://www.crateandbarrel.com/sauce-dish
@Liane Yes, this possibly depends on one's usual cuisine. Sauce dishes are a regular element of my china cabinet.
3
E.W. Swan,
I'm sorry you've never encountered a sauce dish. You've been missing out on some great sauces in any number of cuisines ... or you've been missing out on the option of doing your own saucing.
4
This puzzle is terrible. If you’re going to do a theme, make it consistent. SCIFI BOOK, for example, doesn’t follow the “roll the dice” theme but INSERVI[CE] DAYS does. It’s frustrating and confusing, not fun. AUDI is “Truth in Engineering,” but there’s an extra ‘c’ in there because... why? No. This theme is the worst yet.
2
@Mike I don’t understand what you’re talking about. If you think of the dice squares as the northwest northeast southeast southwest corners the letters of the word dice always proceed in a clockwise order and the letter D always starts on a different quadrants.
9
@Mike
The theme is quite consistent. There are four theme answers which go across, and those are the ONLY answers with the "trick" of the rolling DICE. All the other across answers are direct and straightforward. There are no vertical theme answers in this puzzle.
9
Some will say "This puzzle is terrible;" others may say "Please help me understand it."
14
A bit unfair, I thought. I was putting in the word "ice" as a rebus. had it solved, mostly, but expected it to be a rebus puzzle, being a Thursday and obvious words that didn't fit.
@ Jonathan
And that’s exactly why it’s a Thursday puzzle! They’re NEVER predictable. And they’re not always rebuses. Anagrams, backward answers, numerals, blank squares, using the black squares... you name it. They can be very frustrating, but super fun.
12
I have the app and it tosses in archive puzzles on the first page so you have extra puzzles in case one a day isn’t enough. I worked one the other day where a slightly off center black square represented ‘dead’ which was either the last part or the first part of the four answers around it. Frustrating until it clicked.
1
@Ms. Cat Yes. My objection was that from my point of view it WAS in fact a rebus (requiring more than letters in a square) but then wasn't really, if you looked at the answer key. I was correct in putting ICE in a square to spell inservicedays, except that was not what the puzzle wanted. I guess I should have been clued in by the down crosses which did not require those extra letters.
1
Attar of roses is made mostly with damask roses and I think Bulgaria used to be a big producer. A lot of rose absolutes are grown in southern France and the New Yorker produced a beautiful piece on rose production for Chanel:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/03/19/fragrant-harvest
1
Here's maybe the place for this recipe for rosewater - useful in making turkish delight, adding to teas, cakes, and many other things.
After your Valentine's roses have started to fade - pluck the petals - it's best to assume they've been sprayed, so rinse them well and pat dry. Take a saucer and bowl and a large soup pot with lid. Place the saucer upside-down in the pot, and place the bowl rightside-up on top of it. Strew the rose petals all around this assembly in the pot, and put in just enough water to barely cover the petals. Invert the lid on the pot, fill it with ice cubes, and set the whole thing to simmer on a burner. The roses will give up their essence into steam which will condense and drip down into the bowl. When you're finished, there will be a clear rosewater essence in the bowl.
10
@David Connell
That sounds lovely. A great simple idea for extraction, too. I once made white peach ice cream with rose petals in it from my Tuscany superb rose that was amazing. I really miss that rose.
3
@Frances - losing a treasured rose is a loss along the lines of any beloved pet, isn't it?
http://microtop.ca/lepetitprince/chapitre21.html
ma rose
A favorite minimalist approach is first to try and "solve" the highlighted areas only and fill in the revealer, forgoing the remainder of the puzzle. Saw four shaded areas suggesting cubes tumbling through the grid and straightaway looked for the clue (58A) to the theme. Took a chance and tested the answer. So far, so good. Went back to fill in the first three "cubes" by cross-checking some squares. Noticed the rotational aspect and filled in the last cube without hesitation. Thought this is easy for a Thursday until going back to complete the rest of the puzzle. Then the elegance revealed itself in the incorporation of the spinning dies into the acrosses. Nice. Unexpectedly so. Alea iacta est.
8
2D....don’t use a chamois to apply carwax....use it to dry the car before waxing. But enjoyed the puzzle.
7
Best time for a Thursday, less than half my average.
I got the theme early--sort of! I thought it was a slip on the ICE in INSERVICEDAYS rather than a roll of the DICE. Once I realized I had to include the extra letter I tried to figure out how ICED worked before rearranging to DICE.
This was a good week for the AEsir ...THOR the other day; VALHALLA today.
And thanks, @Deb, for the Led Zeppelin!
1
Enjoyed this puzzle! Nice how the four groups of four circles displayed each possible rotation of the letters D, I, C, E in circular order, definitely "rolling" the dice.
Had encountered the term "reverse dictionary" before for a dictionary whose words are alphabetized in reverse order (e.g., https://www.amazon.com/Chambers-Back-words-Crosswords-Peter-Schwarz/dp/0521600073 ), but had not known it's an alternative term for a thesaurus.
This puzzle had a particularly pleasant mix of words from all walks, ambles, trots, and runs of life. Also enjoyed the abundance of refreshingly original clueing!
5
The solving experience was a delight, a series of one Aha! moment after another, with a theme that is clever and fun, and fill that sparkles. I'm going to have a spring in my step all day long today.
6
Having never seen the ‘grab from the row above’ motif before, this one had me rolling and tossing alright. I got the DICE idea relatively early, after solving 58-A. Since there was no conceivable option to INSERVICEDAYS, squeezing CED into the SE corner of the shaded squares. Since D was the last letter in the rebus, and needed for TED, I decided the letter placement complied (sort of) with the rule that the down portion of the rebus is always last. This pattern held up for the next two shaded squares, so I thought I had it made. Just as I was about to cry IDIDIT, the pattern didn’t hold for the lowest shaded squares group. Checked and rechecked all other clues, but no happy music. I had to read today’s Wordplay to see the error of my ways. Anyone else get thrown in the same way?
@Convinced Before I got all the dice answers I kind of expected the letters to rotate in an orderly fashion.
Like Lewis, I first saw the DICE in the grey boxes and thought that it was a bit tame for a Thursday. Then when the answers that crossed into the grey boxes started looking like they didn't have enough squares for what had to be the right answer, the second a-ha came. Nice!!
Like others, I had never heard of INSERVICE DAYS or SAUCE DISH. We Italians are pretty good at drizzling olive oil into a dish and dipping our crusty bread in it, but usually not sauce. Of course, I'm not saying that a SAUCE DISH isn't a thing, just saying I don't go to restaurants that have them (unless the salsa dish in the Mexican restaurant for dipping the tortilla chips in counts as one). 😀
3
Steve,
Try a beef* fondue some time. You'll want a number of sauce dishes.
https://www.yummly.com/recipes?q=beef%20fondue%20dipping%20sauces&gs=a1b73c
*or veggie
2
https://www.yummly.com/recipes?q=beef%20fondue%20dipping%20sauces&gs=a1b73c
Let's see if the entire URL will work now...
1
I guess not. Sorry.
How about this?
https://www.tasteofhome.com/recipes/beef-fondue-with-sauces/
I still don’t get 37-D. I was excited by the idea that it was the biblical book of Ruth, because while I Samuel is the NINTH book in the “Old Testament” (Christian text), it’s the eighth book in the Tanakh/Jewish Bible simply because (from my rabbinic perspective) the book of Ruth is inserted between Judges and Samuel. (Xn order has the stories in more or less chronological fashion, while Jsh version groups Ruth and several other short, non-prophet books in the 3rd section of Tanakh, called simply “Writings.”)
But there’s no verse 28 in chapter 2, at least in the Jewish numbering. So is this a reference to the Equal Rights Amendment? A time period? RBG? Enlightenment, please! And thanks.
7
@Reb Deb Gordon - Babe Ruth’s ERA
8
@Reb Deb Gordon
It’s a baseball acronym for Earned Run Average. The the average number of runs (scores) a pitcher allows over the course of nine inning pitched (a complete baseball game). I’m sure this definition isn’t technically correct, but good enough to explain the answer to you.
Babe Ruth was a famous baseball player, known for his home runs, but he was also a pitcher.
I too thought of the book of Ruth and only got the answer from crosses. Gotta love Thursday.
3
@Reb Deb Gordon Thanks for asking this! I was also thinking the Book of Ruth (though with much, much less knowledge of the subject) and only got the answer from crosses. Glad that a. I wasn't the only one confused and b. someone explained the clue/answer. And thanks to @Convinced and @Newbie for explanations!
1
@NYT
Could you - PLEASE - provide a separate forum(s) for the SPELLING BEE and LETTER BOXED fans among us?
The (apparently) required “lists” and “grids” take up WAY too much column space and they do not intertwine with crossword discussion at all.
I think you should also have a columnist (equivalent to Deb and Caitlin) to discuss those other daily word games.
And I think everyone would be “happier” in his/her own milieu.
I’m not holding my breath but - - - “just sayin”.
11
@PeterW
I disagree with you (surprise, surprise). I like seeing Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed comments within this forum rather than having them cordoned off in separate forums.
Full disclosure: I rarely do the Letter Boxed puzzle (when I’ve done it I’ve obsessively tried to get a 13-letter solution, which is usually impossible for me), but have begun to do the Spelling Bee on a daily basis, primarily because I saw how collaborative and enthusiastic the Spelling Bee commenters were. I do think that limiting comments about each to their respective threads should be followed to the extent possible. I also respect your point of view Mr. W.
17
@Puzzlemucker & PeterW - I moderate between your comments - failing any other place to put them, Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed threads will appear here in Wordplay perforce. There's no alternative. Yet my efforts to shepherd what had been a well-contained thread into remaining a well-contained thread were met with open hostility from the bees.
Before the appearance of our current queens (has any hive ever had two queens before?), the bee thread was a single thread. Our current queens made darned sure that this accommodation would not survive, and chased any worker bees out of the hive if they thought the hive should behave itself. Current status: chaos. Buzz buzz buzz.
1
@PeterW
Today there are only three separate posts regarding Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed, making today an odd day to complain about those threads. I don't find that so onerous to skip over, if I were inclined.
Like David Connell, I'm okay with those threads persisting with caveats. I too want minimization of threads (and yes, internal to those threads folks need to learn to refresh before posting a repetitive grid ). With new players constantly coming on board, that sometimes requires some herding and guidance. David and I, along with a host of others, have gently done the herding in the past. Hopefully others will take up the mantle going forward (as we have gotten weary and met some resistance, but only from a few folks). On the whole, it is a very cooperative HIVE.
I recall you being pestered by the Bee thread since the first day you posted. Sorry to see you haven't softened toward it. To my mind, there is a way in which those threads do intertwine and why I advocate they remain here subject to thread minimalization. Many of us do multiple puzzles daily. We - as a community of "Word Players" -- intertwine. Most days, I do not care about the grid details of the Spelling Bee thread having completed the Bee first, but I often care about the posters themselves. Hence, I know and regret that Mari -- who mostly posted on Letter Boxed and Spelling Bee -- is unfortunately combatting illness. I wish her a speedy recovery. I vote thumbs up for community.
11
I think I’ll claim a “solve” today. Why? I had INUIT instead of ALEUT. I had CEDE in place of VEST. And I had GPS for ADS. All of these seemed “correct”.
I had the rest of the puzzle nailed - and the theme was dawning on me because 17A, 23A and 36A needed help to make any sense. The revealer made the theme clear - so I knew what I needed to do at the last of the “DICE”.
AMBERGIS wouldn’t fit at 46D so I had to “peek” to get PETALS. (This cost me my capital ‘S’. See 1st paragraph above.)
Fly-specking to find my error with CEDE took me over my 2020 average for Thursdays.
This was a challenge, was clever, and was enjoyable. It felt good to get through it without more “research” and, I think, there was only ONE word (TROU) in the “slang” or “modern” word category. All the rest were pretty “normal, every day, English” (with a German and Latin exception).
TIL “HAGIOGRAPHY” - - which sounds like it should have something to with those who go on a HAJ.
Whatever my streak might be at this point, it will be broken by tomorrow. We leave for Malta and Paris this evening and my body clock will be maladjusted for the next several days.
I had CO_ for "Counterpart of sin", and immediately went to Spanish - "sin" for without vs. "con" for with. Doubly tricky!
4
@Andrea
I had an alternate error that also sorta made sense. With CO- I made it COU figuring they were thinking "COUsin." But when I got the crossing VEST, I understood how COS was a counterpart of "sin."
1
@ Andrea
I had exactly the same. It was the flyspeck that I needed to fix, added about three minutes to my time. I had entered CON early, thought it was very clever, and therefore never revisited it. Ended up with VENT instead of VEST, but never really noticed it because I had gotten it entirely from the crosses.
REVERSE DICTIONARY! Railed Tom righteously. Had directory first.
Spent most of my time deciphering the Tumbling Dice (cue Rolling Stones) as i got the reveal straight on.
EINK was a strain but I get it.
Thank you Amanda and Karl
1
I am still a n00b, so I struggled even after figuring out the DICE clue (Thursday-Saturday ... does it ever get easier??).
I love puzzles like this with a theme that helps me solve and without a lot of people // pop culture references. Enjoyed learning about E INK and jaguarundis this morning!
4
@Elizabeth
As we progress from Monday to Saturday, having one puzzle get easier than the previous one would be something akin to a thermal inversion (cold air on top of warm air). It’s not supposed to happen - - but it does - - - rarely.
1
It gets easier up to a point. you'll know you're no longer a n00b when a Thursday-Saturday is unusually easy and you feel let down. That was it? it's over already?
3
Margaret, I don't know — I felt I was post-noob when, after years of trying, I became able to occasionally finish a Saturday puzzle no matter how long it took.
Loved this puzzle! Jeff Chen gave yesterday's puzzle his POW, but I would have awarded it to this one. Both puzzles required really impressive constructing chops. But this one also requires really good solving chops, whereas yesterday's didn't. In order to know what on earth is going on, today you must understand the theme. Whereas yesterday I solved without needing to pay any attention to what was in the tiny little circles.
I used the theme not only to get such initially baffling themers as IN SERVICE DAYS and REVERSE DICTIONARY, but also to get, say, OCELOT. I have never heard of a jaguarundi, and that "C" really helped me.
Long before I got to the revealer, I knew it would be ROLL THE DICE. But that in no way weakened the puzzle for me. The pay-off was the work that I had to do to solve the thing. Thanks for including me, the solver, in the fun, Amanda and Karl. Nice, crunchy puzzle.
9
@Nancy
How can one award the POW until we have gotten to the EOW?
@PeterW
We'd have to ask Jeff, but I'm assuming that perhaps Will sends him an entire week's puzzles to evaluate? Just a SWAG tho...
1
Steve,
We don't have to ask Jeff...
Spelling Bee - "coptic" isn't considered a word?
3
@jo Proper noun, I believe.
5
Spelling bee has their own rules on what is allowed and what is not. MANHATTAN and PANAMA have been allowed (presumably describing a drink and a hat respectively) while other “words from a proper noun origin” are not. Shrug. In this puzzle boric is allowed but picric is not. For some reason COIR is never allowed. Just shrug and move on.
10
The dictionary used does not seem to be consistent to me, and I agree with the shrug and continue methodology.
4
TIL —
BELAYTHATORDER wasn’t the closed-caption writer having a bit of fun on Star Trek. I’ve been bemused by that word choice for years (I watch a lot of Star Trek) without for a nanosecond thinking the word was real.
I knew something was amiss when INSERVICEDAYS wouldn’t fit nicely and there were grey boxes in our midst. The themed clues were pretty easy after that.
OATH messed me up for a while because I was expecting a plural answer to the plural clue.
Has anyone counted how many times ETTA James has been clued in the NYTXWord, lol?
Have a happy Thursday!
4
@Pani Korunova
ETTA has been an answer 461 times. It's been clued specifically to 'James' 150 times.
In second place is ETTA Kett with 101 clues.
"Girl's name" or a close variation 99 times.
11 times each for Jones and Place and then a lot of clues referencing it as a suffix in a woman's name (HenriETTA, e.g.)
3
@Pani Korunova BELAY is an old seagoing term, and is one of the "ship" terms that move from water to air to (presumably) space. Another is "way" (originally, "weigh"), as in, "Get us under way, Mr. Spock."
6
i heard it many times in the Navy, I was surprised they attributed it to Star Trek in the puzzle as it certainly wasn't as popular as "engage" or "I'm just a doctor, Jim!"I
4
LETTER BOXED
Thursday 02/13/20
B - T (9), T - I (4)
first is a compound word often seen with a hyphen
4
@EskieF
Yesterday’s Letter Boxed solution:
BRACKISH HUMBLE
also:
BICKERS SUMACH (variant of SUMAC)
HUMBLER BLACKISH
@Lou
BLACKISH HUMBLER was also my solution yesterday.
@EskieF Good find!
Interestingly, you can add 3 letters to your solution to make B-T(9), T-B(7) which is not optimal, but does make for a rare order-independent solution.
I got hung up on the experience of past rebus Thursday’s. So, even tho I did get the rolling d I c e idea, I wasted a lot of time trying to make the letters work in all directions instead of just one horizontal answer. Talk about making things harder than they needed to be...doh!
3
G L,
Sort of like having caucuses instead of a primary...
4
Touché. However, in defense of the hundreds of volunteers who worked the caucus sites, it is not their fault that most software developers seem to think that ‘test’ is a four letter word and complex is better than simple. The few who seemed unable to add or perform a simple a x b / c calculation cannot be excused considering how many phones equipped with calculators there must have been available. Moral of the story, do your beta test before rolling a program out. Not to mention never buy version 1.0 of any software.
4
G L,
Understood and agreed regarding the mix-up this year, but even when reporting works...
Fun puzzle! I got held up at the northwest corner because I had SOSO at 28 across for the clue "Fair." Took me a while to get out of that one!
2
Me too! I also had PIE at 16 across for the clue ___ chart, so that was a miserable corner for me.
1
Didn’t see the DICE until I got the revealer, and like others, was so relieved to get rid of SAUCISH (and the other three nonsensical across answers).
I love (and am mightily impressed) that this is a collaborative effort of two new parents. Happy Valentines Eve!
2
Nice puzzle and a good Thursday workout. Caught on to part of the theme and the reveal early on, but didn't see that the DICE were part of one of the crossing answers until I was baffled trying to work out 36a. That, by the way, was not familiar to me. Neither was INSERVICEDAYS, though my mother was a high school teacher.
Still very tough in a lot of sections, and I was quite surprised to finally work everything out.
Today's answer history search was inspired by ETTA James, who is a long-time favorite, and I guess in part inspired by 61d, as I went way off on a TANgent.
Anyway, much to my surprise MINNESOTAFATS has been an answer 7 times in daily puzzles (and once in a variety puzzle). WANDERONE, however, has never appeared in any puzzle.*
Need to re-watch Cadillac Records one of these days.
*For those baffled by all that, someone will explain.
2
When I saw the “sin” clue, I wondered if Jacob had a brother.
2
I had CON as in how you order water in some countries - with or without gas.
I am truly amazed that after about 16 months at plodding away at these puzzles, I solved a Thursday, only checking if BELAY was a word that made sense for William Shatner to say! 1:01:11!! We’ll see about Friday . . .
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@Mae Well done! And in a nice coincidence, your progress timeline matches the age of the constructors’ baby.
1
I also checked to see if BELAY meant what I thought it did.
1
@Mae
Congrats. Soon you’ll that Friday that just seems to fill itself. Like you constructed the puzzle.
I found my Friday once. Literally once...
Same for Saturday.
You got this.
Love my Thursdays and this was especially fun. I did spot those rolling dice quite quickly and guessed approximately what the reveal would be.
So often I Haven’t the foggiest “ about quite a few of the clues, but not today, (well, maybe 61D).
Let’s have more from Amanda and Karl!
10
Engaging and quick, nothing to FRET about. Enjoyed reading in comments about Valhalla. I can't listen to Wagner much but what a great story! And thanks for the Zep clip, Deb!
2
Most folks dry a car using a chamois; I don’t know anyone who applies wax with a chamois.
14
@Dbsmith1 I thought that some of those car wax kits came with a chamois for applying the wax.
2
Dbsmith1, are you suggesting that the clue was shammy?
3
Lets not wax wroth ....
1
I had a real kapow! here. After getting the first DICE from crosses, I looked at the clue to the revealer and immediately wrote in ROLL THE DICE, and figured the grayed squares would all spell DICE, an okay but kind of meh theme.
Then, when I had two-thirds of the grid filled in, but the last third still fighting me, I filled in SAUCISH from the crosses and thought, "What the heck is a SAUCISH?" Then came the kapow! and a quick completion followed. Between that and the glorious percussion of ahas and HAHAs at overcoming thorny cluing I was battered with bliss there for a bit.
When a puzzle gives me a ride like that, I'm all in. Big thumbs up, you two, and thank you greatly for the lift!
7
@Lewis - "today's special is a batch of fresh bliss-battered Lewis, with a side of saucish."
9
@David Connell -- Hah!
For 36A, ROGETSTHESAURUS fit perfectly, which is what I gleefully entered early on before grasping the roll-the-dice thing. Talk about devious.
16
@Paul Frommer I admit I thought of Rogets thesaurus as well but then it is in alphabetical order.
1
@Paul Frommer You and me both. When that did work as what I thought was the seed I had to accept "defeat" until the true answer started revealing itself in the crosses.
@Keta Hodgson *didn't
SPELLING BEE
26 words, 135 points, 1 pangram.
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@Kevin Davis Hints coming up when I write them. I came up with 25 words and was missing the pangram. It came to me by knowing which letter the missing word started with (thanks Shunn); then I just tried to come up with a word with all the letters.
4
@Kevin This Bee left me feeling icky...
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@Kevin Davis Tough words today. Four Latin plurals with I ending.
Obscure word hints:
Movie genre about a person
Adj. for living things, word contained in pangram
Acid, or adj. of element no. 5
Wispy clouds, plural
Acid, or adj. of oranges, lemons, etc.
Spherical bacteria, plural
Take for a different or one’s own use
Chicken pen, or to confine in a small space
Black duck, or a foolish old man
Baby bed, or slang for house
Reviewer or complainer
Holey shoe, or gator kin
Spring flower, plural
Plant grown to eat, or to trim hair or photos
Incorrect Latin plural of Greek-named 8-armed mollusk
Vision or eye adj.
Small loops of thread in lace or embroidery
Columned outdoor roof, often attached to a building
Bacteria that help digestion, pangram
Test monitor at school
Adj. for machines that perform human tasks
Ornate architecture, décor, or art
Subject of text or conversation
Donut-shaped adj.
Fine knitted fabric. I thought it was a 3-cornered hat.
Warm zones 23.5 degrees N & S of equator
44
That puzzle was worth the dice of admission.
(I rolled my eyes at that one.)
29
@Mike
I’m just here for your dad jokes 😝
6
@Mike
You're a real pip.
4
@Mike
Lets hope you don't crap out…
Sin, as in without, counterpart would be COn - at least with my basic Latin. And VEnT works (sort of) for conferring power. That cost me a lot of time.
11
That was the spot that snagged me as well. I was definitely in a Latin mode. But 67A makes a whole lot more sense with the correct answer.
1
@Dave S
So there were at least three of us. I don't feel quite so dumb now.
2
@Chris
I thought Spanish.
Sin (without) and con (with), as well.
Cost me a gold star! Oh well.
Great puzzle. I figured out dice super quick, but never understood how to use them until very late. I kept thinking is SAUCISH some kind of portmanteau?
2
I love the puzzles that move around a bit. Thanks to the new parents for a fun creation.
10
Another theme that helped me fill in gaps. Sadly, I had to resort to looking things up today after 2 days on my own. The southeast corner was bare after I completed everything else. For buses & taxis I had gps then app before ADS.
“BELAY” that order was familiar to me as a Navy term, not just Star Trek.
I never got SAUCEDISH without the crosses. I tried fondue pot but it didn’t fit.
1
Re 62A: “Buses and taxis have *them*” means the answer has to be plural, and GPSes (if that’s the plural?!) doesn’t fit.
Reb Deb,
The plural of GPS is GPS.
Let's hear it for the crosses.
2
In which version of Star Trek did they use the phrase "BELAY that order"? I've seen a fair amount of TNG (although I'm certainly far from an expert), and I don't recall that phrase. I just remember "make it so."
EAVE and EVE . . .
5
EINE and MEIN
5
@SPB, also: EINE and EINK, which I dookified into a single word before understanding what it meant.
3
@Margaret
Love this thread. NAY and YAY.
(Surprised there hasn’t been any squealing about EINK: “I’ll believe that’s a valid crossword entry when EPIGS fly!” EINK EINK)
3
Enjoyed the puzzle but it took some head scratching to suss out 37D. Tried at first to link it somehow to RBG, but eventually deciphered it as the Bambino’s Earned Run Average. Imaginative clue for a gluey answer.
12
Thanks! I just submitted a long comment about the biblical book of Ruth, the Equal Rights Amendment, and RBG … Even after getting my gold star, I had NO IDEA that I had needed to switch genders from EVE, ERMA, ETTA, MALALA and HEIDI and think about ALAN ALDA, GOYA, SEUSS, ARISTOTLE, HERB and TED (and TOAD?). I owe you and OCELOT.
@Reb Deb Gordon 🙋♀️I was also thinking of the Bible book, especially after the 1 Samuel clue, and then wondering if the answer related to RBG.
A good time for a Thursday. 1A and 1D gave me the most problems but I saw the DICE thing fairly early on. I guessed HEIDI from the H and then ECO, and together they gave me the first DICE. Enjoyable puzzle.
1
still struggling on 1A and 1D. why do I always get stuck on the things everyone else breezes through??!!. Sigh. help please.
@Amee. I think someone already explained 1A, but in case you missed it, CCS is short for "carbon copies," which these days refers to sending the same email to multiple recipients. It's a throwback to the days when people would use a sheet of carbon between sheets of typing paper to make a copy.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tap. See definition 5 regarding 1D.
Got the idea pretty quickly with the first two themers. Wife is also a teacher, and on some Fridays they have their INSERVICE DAYS. Noticed the slot was two (too) short then saw the shaded squares and figured it out. Had DICTIONARY filled in, but wasn't familiar with the REVERSE variety, but that came with enough crosses. Interesting to see a VEST below the TROU—someone doing a handstand?
4
Here pants are underpants and a vest is an undershirt which works fine as a handstand as well.
3
I hope Hari Kondabolu enjoys solving this puzzle as much as I did, namely, a lot, although I would not like to do it as an exhibition.
I guessed that the longest answer was REVERSE DICTIONARY (by then I had figured out the geometry of the theme element) and that turned out to be correct and to generate a huge chunk of what was left. So was it too easy? Well, maybe, but I've done the puzzle and I can go to bed early!
2
Nice cross with HATHA and HAHA. Hmmm ... does seem like HAHAHATHA yoga is a discipline we could use a right now.
I'll sign up for it.
25
@Mike R -- Actually, your wish came true a number of years ago. Google "Laughter yoga" -- it's a thing!
6
@Lewis
Nothing like a little forced laughter while your head is where your backside is supposed to be and you are not sure if that bony projection is your elbow or your knee. . .
(Just kidding of course. My wife tried and enjoyed (kind of) laughter yoga some years ago. I think it has since been superseded by goat yoga).
@Puzzlemucker:
Goat yoga?! Oooh, that sounds pretty baHAHAd!
1
When a puzzle is particularly clever, I love to show it to my non-solver spouse, and to listen to her marvel over its brilliance. This was such a one! Beautifully done!
18
@David Lundy Similarly I show it to my non-solver spouse but I expect her to marvel at my brilliance, not the setters'.
8
David and Andrew,
What do your solver spouses make of this?
3
@Barry Ancona They don't know about each other. Hence there is never a cross word between us.
2
Clever! Cottoned on with REVERSE DICTIONARY. Very crunchy with little "crosswordese." YAY!
2
Delightful. Just hard enough to make me slightly dizzy at first and not too hard to drive me to bed. Nice to see this couple back.
A friend told a joke tonight from Guys & Dolls: Big Julie brings his own dice with him to a dice game, but they don’t have any numbers on their sides. When Nathan Detroit points this out, Big Julie responds, “Don’t worry, I got ‘em memorized.”
23
Wotan has a contract with the giants Fasolt and Fafner; if they build a castle for the gods, they get the goddess Freia as payment. Fricka and Wotan discuss the contract, then Wotan has it out with Fasolt and Fafner; both discussions are accompanied by the Walhall-Leitmotiv, one of 33 leitmotifs in the score, and a far-off castle is visible on a painted backdrop in Scene 2, but no action takes place there. Of the four scenes, 1 and 3 are set at the bottom of the Rhine and in a cavern; all other action takes place in a setting described in Wagner’s stage directions as “an open region of mountain peaks.” The only time the place name Walhall is uttered is at the last moment, as the gods are lined up at the Rainbow Bridge to file across it at the end of Scene 4, when the opera is nearly over:
Wotan Folge mir, Frau: In Walhall wohne mit mir!
Fricka Was deutet der Name? Nie, dünkt mich, hört’ ich ihn nennen.
(“Follow me, woman: reside with me in Valhalla!” “What does the name mean? Never, methinks, have I heard it named.”) Valhalla has no history; to date, no one has ever been there. A place where not only no action takes place but where no action has ever taken place — and whose name is the next best thing to unknown — cannot be called a “locale;” cf. “Where it’s at” = LOCALE (9/13/02). Locales have names that people know, or at least postal abbreviations; cf. “MA or PA” = LOCALE (4/13/03).
17
@Fact Boy Thanks for this. Quite right.
And may I offer in return the great Anna Russell and her immortal analysis of the Ring:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN5dAQLYYrs&t=611s
"You know I'm not making this up!"
7
@Fact Boy I know my Wagner too, and I have no problem with Valhalla as a Rheingold locale. It's a locale in the Norse mythology on which the Ring is based so it certainly has a name that people know, and it's a visitable place by the end of the opera.
8
@Paul Frommer Thank you for that: I'd forgotten about the wonderful Ms Russell.
I really loved this puzzle and the themed clues. Once I figured out what “roll the dice” meant, it actually helped me to finish the puzzle faster. I enjoy when this happens. As a “math fan”, I particularly liked the clue for COS-good misdirect!! Thanks to the authors for an enjoyable puzzle.
11
Took me a while to pick up on the counterpart to SIN. I kept thinking of moral frailty, even though I teach math. But a fine puzzle--clever and fun.
9
HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error
Is anyone else having problems accessing xwordinfo.com?
@Kiki Rijkstra - yes. But 10 minutes ago it was working.
Very fun puzzle! Started off slowly, but once I got to SHAVED ICE, I figured out what the trick must be. Things rolled pretty quickly from there.
3
Any reference to Wagner's Ring Cycle (as in 38D) is the perfect excuse to post a link to "What's Opera, Doc?" - perhaps the best cartoon from the golden age of American animation:
- https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2vbbh3
I imagine most people of a certain age have seen it, but if you want to watch it again, there it is. There used to be a touring concert musical called "Bugs Bunny on Broadway" (which featured some of the classic Looney Tunes cartoons with a live orchestral accompaniment), and I believe it always concluded with that cartoon.
14
@RichardZ This Wagner fan thanks you!
1
@RichardZ. I love "What's Opera, Doc?" Thanks for sharing!
Here is some info on Bugs Bunny at the Symphony.: http://bugsbunnyatthesymphony.net/mobile/ I saw it earlier this year, and it was fantastic! I highly recommend going if you're able to. It's great nostalgia for those who grew up with WB cartoons and/or the music featured in them, and it's great for getting young audience members interested in classical music. My daughter (who is tired of being "dragged" to concerts, and would rather be playing than listening) really enjoyed it.
One of those odd synchronicities: ATTAR was in both this puzzle and today’s Spelling Bee. And I only know it because I recently read “The Secret Commonwealth” by Philip Pullman, in which attar of roses figures prominently. Thanks, Phil; you have not only given me many hours of great reading but also the immense satisfaction of reaching Genius level.
10
Emd, I couldn't think of the pangram in today's Spelling Bee, so laid it aside and worked the crossword. But your post reminded me of the pangram so I just tried to tackle it again, and managed to solve it in no time flat. (Not having spent any time at all thinking about it in the interim.) Am intensely curious how that works.
I’ve been working up to the Thursday challenge for a year now. Today I was happy that Deb didn’t reveal all of the theme clues. I persevered and finished! A real sense of accomplishment.
38
@Laura Williamson
Did you shout 47Down?
Congratulations!
2
@Laura Williamson Preceded by 33D? Congratulations!
1
Congratulations, @Laura Williamson! I bet you’ll be hooked on the Thursdays now.
2
Good thing we've seen this particular trick before. That helped me get the theme gimmick and having gotten the first three shaded DICE rolls, I filled in the last one in SHAVED ICE. A little ironic that knowing the gimmick I figured out how the DICE rolled in the last position, even though the point of rolling DICE is to produce a random outcome.
Another oddity is to see Kismet/FATE, which is again, pre-ordained rather than random outcome. NO IDEA what's going to happen? It's ok, It's all already been decided. You will finish this puzzle. It'll be OVER and you will say "I DID IT!" and you shall see VALHALLA.
And Deb, I'm with you on thinking of the Immigrant Song when I see VALHALLA.
5
My wife is a teacher, so I'm quite familiar with "inservice days" and once I saw the CE hanging out above the apparently too-short space, it clicked for me. I suspected it was something like this, since the LA Times puzzle often uses this device. By the time I got down to the revealer, I was ready for it.
3
Loved this puzzle! Struggled with the NW corner until I realized that there are more types of charts than PIE charts.
5
@Ian Carrillo
I finished in the NW. I had to give up on PIE and BAR charts and also SO SO for fair. CCS? Does that mean people who are in the loop? New to me.
2
@Kiki Rijkstra
Same with me, put in PIE and SOSO before I realized they didn’t work. CCS is copying someone on an email, looping them in.
5
@Kiki Rijkstra CCs as in looping someone into an enajm
2
Clearly 17A was going to be INSERVICE something, but what and how? And SAUCI??? And SHAVE ICE or SHAVED ICE, neither of which fit? So I worked the Downs, and as Deb said, once you've gotten one of them, you can figure out the rest of them.
I misread the clue for 1A as having only one "in" in it, so it made no sense until I looked more carefully. Sometimes I'm just too careless. Nice puzzle, though.
7
@Liz B - I did the same thing with 1A! Spooky. I kept on trying to think what's a three letter synonym for loops.
2
But, but, but, some of these answers aren't words, so this can't really be a crossword puzzle! (Roll with it.)
Once I rechecked the clue to be sure a SAUCIER didn't belong on a dining table, I was on my way.
A little glue never hurt a playful puzzle. Thanks, parents!
14
@Barry Ancona it took me a _long_ time to give up on saucier. The others had a roll of the DICE, but that one looked OK as-is.
1
Hand up for saucier, but didn’t like the author starting with 2 E’s.
1
@suejean
e.e. cummings? Although you'd have to abbreviate his last name to make it fit.
1