I thought for a Monday puzzle this was very tricky. Usually menial worker is a peon and there were a lot more hard 4 letter clues. Long time player, first time commenter.
3
I've been doing crosswords for over 60 years and do both Washington Post and NY Times puzzles daily. I love doing the puzzles but, frankly, I don't get into all the hidden meaning stuff and the like. Yes, I enjoy clever clues but all this business with "flag" isn't what I'm looking for/thinking about when I do a puzzle.
3
Crossword bug bit me 27 weeks ago (I know that because today was my 27th Monday in a row!). This by far was the best Monday puzzle in that stretch. A treat to complete!
5
But ... but ... how did you know it was your 27th Monday?
“Uncommon valor was a common virtue.”
5
@John Graybeard
'... and I believe common virtue may have been common.'
Jane Grayhead
The flags are upside down? An idea odd way to commemorate
4
3 out of 5 *GALF* entries are in today's puzzle.
NYT : 4 from Shortz Era daily puzzles
DININGALFRESCO GALFORCEWINDS KINGALFRED LEGALFORCE
NYT : 1 from pre-Shortz puzzles
REGALFRITILLARY
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?regex=GALF
3
@Kiki Rijkstra - I think it goes without saying that "gal force winds" ain't a thing, at least for these purposes!
1
@Kiki Rijkstra
FRITILLARY!!!??!!?
1
@Leapfinger
Wowsa!
https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Speyeria-idalia
1
Lovely start to the week. I particularly enjoyed the cattiness of "many a waiter around Hollywood" 😂.
Joni,
What cattiness?
(Plenty of waiters around New York are actors too.)
2
A truly exceptional Monday puzzle; it makes me want to stand up and salute.
10
I enjoyed seeing OBOE and ALTO sax in today's brilliantly crafted Monday puzzle. 😎🎶🎷 Sure, you could have solved it without getting the RAISING THE FLAG theme trick, but the Thursday-like trick in this Monday-level puzzle made it all the more fun. Overall a nice puzzle!
5
I liked this puzzle.
A fit remembrance of a difficult struggle that continued after the last flag was raised. Three Marines in the photo were killed in the next few days.
I also liked the reference to Alfred the Great. I remembered the name, but not what was great about him. I looked it up. He spent of his life fighting and negotiating with Viking invaders. His Old English name was Ælfrǣd and he had brothers named Æthelbald, Æthelberht and Æthelred. Tough to work those spellings into a puzzle answer.
6
@Carl
Not to forget Æthelred II, aka Æthelred the Unready, who served twice as King of England. The first time was from 978 to 1013, and the second time was 1014 to 1016.
1
@RAH
Alfred, the Unready. Puzzlemakers, are you ready? Great clue for a Saturday puzzle. Sorry, I won't see it when it happens. Well, maybe in four or five years.
1
Was he more ready in 1014, one wonders?
2
Loci are what got me fascinated with math as a young teen. After learning about graphing a function, I would make up weird functions and then graph them by hand to see what shape curve they made (a graph y = f(x) is the locus of the points (x,y) for which the expression "y - f(x)" is equal to 0 in the plane. More generally just invent any expression with x and y in it, say g(x,y), and set it equal to 0. Later I learned you could get not just a curve but a surface in three dimensions using an expression in x, y, z, say h(x,y,z), and set it equal to 0 in space.
Now it's much easier: If you have a Macintosh then it probably has the program called "Grapher" in which you just type in the expression — in x and y (or in x, y, and z) and it will draw for you the resulting curve (or surface). Or just google "famous mathematical curves" OR "famous mathematical surfaces" and look at the images.
3
When first completing the puzzle and staring at the theme entries, I noticed only that three had ALF going down and one had ALF going up — so assumed ALF was the name of some friend of the constructor whom he was honoring in this puzzle. As a grammar school kid (P.S. 118) my best friend was named Alf, though he went by Edgar.
1
polymath,
P.S. 118 in Brooklyn or Queens ... or...?
1
@Barry Ancona
I went to PS 114 in Rockaway -- that part of Queens on the ocean.
Using Google, apparently there are two PS 118's -- in Brooklyn and in Queens.-- associated with the names Maurice Sendak and Lorraine Hansberry.
1
AS IF does not mean “yeah, I’m really sure”
2
It does mean "Yeah, right!" said sarcastically. So why not "Yeah, I'm really sure!" just as sarcastically?
3
@polymath Because you need to point out that "Yeah, I'm really sure" needs to be said sarcastically. If it were clued with "Yeah, right", I don't think you'd need the additional context. In other words, both phrases are common enough that they carry their own context. The clue as written is not and does not.
3
@pmb
"Because you need to point out that "Yeah, I'm really sure" needs to be said sarcastically."
Yeah, right!
3
Very nice theme, and just right for a Monday. I remember The Producers but can’t recall the al fresco moment. I’ll have to watch it again. It’s always good to see an old favorite, and especially one that will give me a good laugh.
2
@Shari Coats
When they go eat hot dogs, near the beginning, but still go watch it again. I’m going to. There’s so many great moments in that film. And I’ll always love the Mostel/ Wilder combo.
3
My five favorite clues from last week
(in order of appearance):
1. :15 number (3)
2. Support for a religious group? (3)
3. It's a rush, appropriately enough (7)(4)
4. Recipient of a lot of #@&! money (5)(3)
5. Time for warm-up shots, in more ways than one (7)
III
PEW
RUNNER'S HIGH
SWEAR JAR
PREGAME
11
G
A
L
F
E
H
T
O
T
E
C
N
A
I
G
E
L
L
A
E
G
D
E
L
P
I
I salute you, Jacob Stulberg!
7
Am I the only one who likes my venison GAMY? That's the whole point of game foods. Venison, pheasant, wild boar -- none of them are supposed to taste like chicken or even beef. To get the right effect, I'm pretty sure they're all supposed to be hung for a while.
I agree. You don't refer to a mixed breed dog as a MONGREL anymore. Very insensitive. Dogs have feeings that can easily be hurt and need their safe spaces, too. The accepted term is "mix". Better yet is to be a human who doesn't even see such distinctions. That adorable little thing with the collie nose and the beagle ears and the dachsund body and the poodle tail looks like the purest of purebreds to you.
I liked this puzzle. I noticed while solving that there seemed to be a lot of "F"s. I didn't notice the "G"s and the "L"s as much and the "A"s not at all. Did I see the upside down FLAG before getting the revealer? No, but it didn't matter in the great scheme of things.
7
@Nancy, I couldn't agree with you more about the term MONGREL. My dog is a mix, not recognized by the AKC. Not recognized as what? Beautiful, adorable, smart as a whip (understands English and speaks it by showing me what he wants), loyal and loving? There is no such thing as a MONGREL!
7
@Johanna That means that my parent’s purebred (but rescued) ornery, misbehaving little guy is aptly described by MONGREL.
2
@Johanna Are you sure she wasn’t being sarcastic?
I've been a throttleman on a Navy ship and I've never heard of "AMAIN". I had FLANK.
5
Chris,
It was a "pre-throttle" term.
3
N.B. Note what M-W says about the "at full speed" meaning...
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/amain
I tender my compliments to you on your Producers reference, because that is what I too always think of in connection with al fresco.
1
This managed to be quite intriguing but still maintain a Monday level of difficulty.
15D was virtually my first entry but I didn’t spot the raised FLAGS until I finished the puzzle and had a look at the long vertical entries.
I enjoyed the puzzle but very much agree with those who suggested a different clue for 53A; (or perhaps it had been changed from something else)?
1
'I'm no MONGREL', the POLICE DOG was heard to mUTTER.
Jacob S, I like what you do with pennant ink. You ran it up the GALFpole, and we SAL [soda] UTE [Western Indian tribe] YOU [done it again]!
5
As a lover of mutts, and non-AKC purebreds (read: working dogs like border collies and Jack Russell terriers), I have to link this: https://www.policemag.com/342225/shelter-dogs-from-the-dog-pound-to-k-9-duty
3
This is a solid Monday puzzle. I needed Deb for the theme, though. It never occurred to me to read backwards—I still have a lot to learn!
One question: Aren’t all domestic horses SHOD?
1
Kate,
The SHOD clue is a Monday-level misdirection.
2
@Barry Ancona
Not too shoddy perhaps?
3
I found this to be an uplifting theme.
9
Also, this puzzle is well constructed. While, IMO, it is too easy for a Tuesday puzzle, it doesn't feel dumbed-down, as Monday puzzles sometimes do.
Jacob have I loved before, and today, again.
10
Nice Monday puzzle. Congrats!
So silly. Took me forever to find my ‘almost there’ mistake. I put in MESS instead of MUSS so when the cross came out to be EBOAT instead of UBOAT I guess I was tired and my mind must have accepted it like any new modern electronic version of an old school item. Don’t do these puzzles when you’re tired!
6
@TxMary I did the exact same thing!
1
Another tip — if you get stuck, put it away for an hour or so and then bring it out again and look with “fresh eyes.”
Me too. EBOAT! IMED so why not EBOAT!!
1
A definite “Solve” (with the capital ‘S’ properly earned) - but I blew past my average a bit. Guess I’m still recovering from the jet lag induced on Saturday. (It gets worse as you get more “advanced in years”.)
I object to anyone trying to play “Word Police” - - but even I would have preferred “Begins target practice” as a slightly kinder, gentler clue for 53A. On a Friday or Saturday, the clue might have been something like, “Begins a particularly scathing tongue lashing”.
4
This was unusually slow for a Monday (for me). Just got stuck in a couple of places - the mid-north, notably - but did manage to work them all out.
Beyond that... this was definitely a 'feat of construction' puzzle. Find three phrases with an embedded GALF and add a relevant clue. Didn't really help with the solve and not my favorite type of theme, but I'm pretty much fine with that.
But... I really wish they hadn't run this on the anniversary (it did appear yesterday), as if it was a tribute puzzle when it's not. Work in Ira Hayes somewhere? Yeah, that would have helped a little. And, by the way, that's never been an answer in full. HAYES? 81 times - never clued that way. IRA? 851 appearances and clued to IRA 3 times - but only as the Johnny Cash song.
So, I'm a little bothered by this and can't really explain exactly why. So I'll just link this old favorite which should nicely expand on my ambiguity:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F3kImL2gDkI
..
@RiA
I knew it! It was having Neil Young appear in the clue that rankled, wasn't it?
NAM
@RiA
I knew it! It was having Neil Young appear in the clue that rankled, wasn't it?
NAM
LF, I had to turn my head sideways, but at last my stereo specs kicked in.
1
LETTER BOXED THREAD
J-A (9) A-E (7). Maybe I shall do so later.
Yesterday, my alternate solution was DISTANT THOUGHTFUL.
3
Thanks! The hints help me stay on time getting ready for work 8>》 Yesterday: THOUGHTFUL LADINGS.
@Liane
Same as you today.
Yesterday GOLDFISH HAUNT
@Liane
I had the same as you and it came to me within seconds. Normally I pore over the letter boxed puzzle and very often come up empty-handed. Not today.
SPELLING BEE THREAD
02/24/20
Center Letter: I
6 Letters: F M O R T Y
21 WORDS, 62 POINTS, 1 PANGRAM=Perfect
First Letters:
F x 3, I x 2, M x 5, O x 1, R x 4, T x 6
Word Lengths:
L4 x 14, L5 x 3, L6 x 2, L7 x 2
Grid:
4 5 6 7 Tot
F 1 1 - 1 3
I 2 - - - 2
M 2 1 1 1 5
O 1 - - - 1
R 4 - - - 4
T 4 1 1 - 6
Tot 14 3 2 2 21
29
@EskieF Oops! Apologies to Margaret, who posted the Grid while I was still editing it to follow Greg's format. We are up early (or late to sleep) on the East Coast this morning!
8
SPELLING BEE
Ifmorty
21 words, 62 pts, 1 pangram
F x 3
I x 2
M x 5
O x 1
R x 4
T x 6
4L x 14
5L x 3
6L x 2
7L x 2
4 5 6 7 Tot
F 1 1 - 1 3
I 2 - - - 2
M 2 1 1 1 5
O 1 - - - 1
R 4 - - - 4
T 4 1 1 - 6
Tot 14 3 2 2 21
60
@Wen: how’s this one compare for small number of words or points?
2
It was definitely doable but intimidating because it’s so tight. I had a hard time getting my mind to roam the possibilities.
7
Did anyone else try TIRO, which was allowed as a variation in Sunday’s crossword?
15
32D FOG as typical London weather? In B/W movies, yes, but not in my lifetime. Changed by legislation after the 1952 “Great Smog”. Grumpy email already sent to Will Shortz.
4
@Peter Biddlecombe
Perhaps FOG = Typical San Francisco summer weather?
"The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco." - This quote has been attributed to Mark Twain, but the attribution has not been verified.
3
@Peter Biddlecombe, you say you fired off a grumpy email to Will Shortz.
Aha! But was it an open-fired off grumpy email to Will Shortz?
SPELLING BEE
21 words, 62 points, 1 perfect pangram
4
Hints:
Strengthen
Unreliable, slang
Tiny, slang
Annoy
Reflective surface
Baseball glove
Severely embarrass, perfect pangram
Theme
Leave out
Short repeated musical phrase
Unleavened, unfilled naan
New Zealand songbird
Donut shape, plural
Shinto shrine gate, NOT plural of above word
26
@Kevin Davis
First 2 frequency:
DI x 3 DO x 3
HI x 1 HO x 1
ID x 1
LI x 4 LO x 6
NO x 1
OL x 1
PI x 2 PL x 2 PO x 5
2
@Dave You posted letters for the wrong day :)
4
On Friday night before bed, I finished the Saturday puzzle in 32 minutes, then spent 45 minutes yesterday trying to find the mistake the note said I had made. I went over it so carefully I practically memorized the puzzle. Today I got the sad news that my 59 solved puzzles streak was broken, so checked reveal to show where I'd gone wrong. There weren't any changes, corrections, nothing. I had solved it correctly. Is the NYTimes just being mean and wanted to break my winning streak? Did anyone else have this experience? Am I losing my mind?
@dutchiris I've had similar crazy-making experiences. My least favorite part of doing the crosswords is when I get that message that I've made a mistake and I can't find it. I do remember one time I was absolutely sure there was not one letter amiss. I checked and double checked, compared my puzzle with the answer key more than once. Finally found one vowel causing the problem. It took me multiple passes to see it. And breaking your streak? ouch! Doubly frustrating. I feel your pain.
1
@dutchiris - One thing that is regularly suggested is to make sure that your O's are not 0's.
My best suggestion is to check on the diagonals, which prevents your seeing things that aren't there because you expect them. If you just read the diagonals, nothing makes sense as a word, it's just a pile of letters.
3
@David Connell I'll plow through it again, but I thought when you hit "reveal" it would highlight a mistake. (Ah, give it up, Dutchiris! Life's too short to obsess about a silly puzzle!—yeah, right.)
When the baristas fell out of love, it was grounds for divorce.
(I love these puns a latte.)
47
Yes, but who will corespond?
I spied the FLAGS after the fact, still fun!
Here is a memory of LOCI: a student of a colleague was asked to give a definition of “locus”.
Their answer: “A locus is when [[love this use of ‘when’]] a point climbs onto a curve and stays there until the equation is satisfied.” Heh, they understood the idea but found such an original way of expressing it.
10
Solid, interesting Monday puzzle. Combined with the Mini, plenty of "tiny amounts" going around today.
1
A Monday puzzle that was so well-constructed and gave me such pleasure! Definitely straightforward enough for Monday, but that GALF twist was quite a pleasure!
My favorite was 63A, which I read as "A TOM", and wondered for a second why I never heard of that before as meaning "tiny bit." :)
6
@Mary
No!! That was Tiny TIM - - - not TOM.
2
Of the 82 Medals of Honor awarded to Marines in World War II, 22 of them were earned at the battle of Iwo Jima, 12 of those posthumously.
15
@Wags
Indeed, my junior-high math teacher in rural Illinois, Bobby Dunlap, was a Marine Corps major when he was wounded during the Battle of Iwo Jima and subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Hugo_Dunlap
Even more amazingly, one of two Medal of Honor winners from tiny Abingdon, Illinois (1940 pop. 3,200) — the other being Ross Perot's VP running mate, James Stockdale.
6
Having Wacko for SICKO completely threw me and my time - sigh. I was so sure it had to be correct, esp with KING ALFRED...
Took me a while to figure out what DOS HOTS were
8
@coloradoz
If you don't see it as DO SHOTS, I wonder if you really have figured it out.
@Kiki Rijkstra !
Obviously did!
1
@Kiki Rijkstra
I did DOOK finally
8
A tribute to LEVI Stubbs of The (ReGAL) Four Tops:
Billy Bragg’s “LEVI Stubbs’ Tears”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4v8VJ0LRgA
The Four Tops with LEVI at his most powerful with “Bernadette”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3C_17FtGG6M
and “Standing in The Shadows of Love”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhtzMwA5gJI
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
She takes off the Four Tops tape and puts it back in its case
When the world falls apart some things stay in place
Levi Stubbs' tears run down his face
(Billy Bragg)
11
@Puzzlemucker
For a fun one, here's Levi doing "Mean Green Mother from Outer Space" from Little Shop of Horrors:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pi8duYy-i8U
1
Is 4 years (more or less) a record length of time from submission to publication? Nice to see this at an appropriate time of year--definitely a little more chewy than your average Monday!
7
I didn't pick up on the theme. However, I thought the puzzle to be solid and like the fact that only two proper names were used. My limit is four to one puzzle.
7
@Brian Bear warms me to hear from fellow cruciverbalists who are also not fans of proper nouns. American pop/TV culture is definitely not in my wheelhouse. So, it is not much fun when crosswords are full of proper nouns, especially in the crossings. I wish, we would have a weekly puzzle without pop culture references. Oh well! I'll keep dreaming!
6
Anyone know what’s going on with this: when I click the link to the column on my iPad, it used to take me to my NYT app. But for the last few days, it sends me to Safari instead.
@John Kroll
Are you solving on the xword app or in Safari or some other app? I solve in the NYT xword app on my iPad and the link is taking me to the NYT app as usual.
@JeffinEdina yes, I’m solving in the app. But thanks for the response; now I can focus on solutions specific to my iPad.
@John Kroll
One advantage of going to Safari is that you will see all replies to messages instead of just the first three.
1
'Starts shooting'? Perhaps we haven't had a headline-grabbing mass shooting in a few weeks, but this clue seems pretty ugly.
6
SanFranFerg,
Given that it's crossing RAISING THE FLAG (on Iwo Jima), I'd give it a pass today.
(22A)
18
@SanFranFerg
I am amazed, in light of the to-do about the NOOSE clue yesterday, how few people are up in arms (yes, I did go there) about this one today.
Perhaps Barry is right; perhaps it's just less obvious than yesterday's. But certainly, they're in the same vein.
I, for one, didn't mind either clue being used.
2
Next time, clue as "Takes a tablet."
FWIW, the times attributed to posts are clearly off. This can make it tricky to find an older post when searching. Is the time of the post updated when someone “likes” it?
Doug,
"Time since post" is not exactly a time stamp, but it's usually fairly accurate ... and it doesn't update with "recos" or "replies."
@Doug - sometimes people find it helpful to toggle on the Newest - Oldest button at the top.
There's an element of surprise involved when posts are held back by the moderators - they end up stamped with the time they go up, rather than when they were posted.
Unfortunately, there is no such toggle on the Times iPhone app. If I solve at night, it’s easy to read the handful of comments. If I solve the next day, I usually just read Deb/Caitlin and skip the endless scroll.
But I always pop on over to Reader’s Picks to find the Bee threads (much love to everyone there who helps me hobble along to QB).
2
OOH, raising the FLAG...I didn't get the gimmick until Deb's explanation. On Mondays I tend to go quickly and not think about the theme much.
KING ALFRED and CAROB was new to me (I never where they came from). I put IOTA in the place where ATOM is when making the across pass, and then had to change it when going down.
Is 66A true? I thought they were just GAMY, whether you let them sit a while or not?
3
Wen,
GAMY works both ways:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/gamy
2
Ah, thanks, Barry. I didn't realize there was a spoiling side to it.
Wen,
Our constructor clearly wanted the unspoiled meaning; the editors were not game.
9
I finished this about as fast as I could type it. Which is still slower than some people claim to do the Saturday puzzle.
14
@Andrew I know!
5
@Santi Bailor and Anfdrew
To me, the constructs are such works of art! I imagine the timers get through the National Art Gallery is about 10 minutes? Eat Thanksgiving dinner in 30 seconds? Umm, dare one allude to other experiences that are heightened by a slow pace?
Well, to each his/her/their own!
9
@Andrew
It “don’t make no never-mind” what other people claim for their solve times or that they claim streaks longer than the NYT has been publishing puzzles.
The only thing that matters is YOUR pleasure in the act of solving.
6
Definitely a Monday pace but chewier than the average.
6
Surprised that this is the first time for BARISTAS. BARISTA has appeared 8 times since 2012. I had BUTCHERS first, thinking of ground beef.
2
This GAL Finished this off in a jiff.
11