Oh my lord, I always tell myself to not read the comments but sometimes I need to find the last few words but holy KATS so many of you are insufferable grumps
4
Can someone explain TOOL to me?
It is a slang term, usually in a negative sense. Just like people use tools to work, it’s a person who is easily “used.”
Huh I’ve only ever heard it in the opposite sense, as in “that guy is such a tool.” In that sense, the tool is the manipulator not the manipultee
I don’t think it meant what you thought it did. A “tool” is a sap, a sucker, a fool, one who is easily used not a user.
"On the internet, no one knows you're a dog" reminded me of the kid's TV show, Dog with a Blog, which my grandchildren and I watched off and on from 2012-2015. Unfortunately, it can only be streamed now if you pay for it!
Grumpy vibe reading over today’s comments. Hey, I’m grumpy too. If you’re not grumpy you’re not paying attention. But how about “Them There Eyes” from the original Billie:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fj9bzZFKAUY
2
@Puzzlemucker
SURLY you jest. Don't call me SURLY. 😸
3
TIL AUTOTUNE. Tech has gone too far! 😩
1
@Ron
It's been around since 1997.
5
Can somebody explain ONKP? What does that stand for and mean?
2
@Julian
In the military, KP stands for Kitchen Police or Kitchen Patrol.
The image of enlisted soldiers peeling potatoes in an installation's kitchen was once associated with the popular culture image of KP duty due to its frequent appearance in mid-twentieth century movies and comic strips about life in the US services.
If assigned to this duty roster, the soldier is said to be "on KP"
5
SURLY led to SPREE, and YAKS changed ELM TO OAK and YAKS and I was done. Great fun for a Wednesday puzzle!
3
Loved it! Great way to help new people discover the puzzle but still easy for anyone who was unfamiliar with the one of the brightest music stars of today (sorry not sorry about the pop reference, if I have to learn about classical music you fogies can learn about Billie).
8
Just watch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKmqtaxIS3Y
And then tell me this is a memorable and worthy artist.
Srsly.
2
@David Connell - I'm discovering...there's no end to the cluelessness on this piece of work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4vRFodAqWo
1
@David Connell Okay boomer :)
15
@Oswald - Look for singers who know how to sing. Please! You'll thank me later.
TROMPE L'OEIL was a gimme for me, I got it with no crosses except I put it in as TROMPE D'OEIL. I always thought it was "trick Of the eye" oops! That D was very wrong, but looked right to me. I recognized OCHOA because it's on my list of crosswordese, but I neglected to study her first name, which is written down too! Dorena seemed possible as her name. While I got through this pretty fast despite not knowing the song of the other pop artist (Shakira) in the grid. I hate that type of pop, it's hurts my ears. At least Billie is unique and not twerking her her bare butt in our faces.
4
I almost finished the whole thing without peeking! If only I'd known about KRAZY KAT... instead I'd never heard of it before (guess I'm a kid) and had KAF in there because obviously an easily-influenced person would be a FOOL.
Billie Eilish is awesome and deserves every single accolade, including being honored by the NYT crossword (which is, in some circles, the biggest accolade of all.)
10
I'm curious whether another 18-year-old has ever been honored by a NYT crossword puzzle.
3
Clicking on the GINA Linetti link opened up a whole new world for me, the best part of which was ... hmm, clicking made it all go away again. Are there really people who want to binge-read entire TV series?
I spose it's no issue to want Dennis' gal pal GINA to be traded for Linetti, but you risk someone else asking Golf HoF's LORENA to be traded for Bobbitt. The 'gal pal' can hob nob in a trash clash with a 'boy toy'.
For the past year or so, my tentacles haven't reached into the outer world as much as usual for a number of unrelated reasons, so it's only on account of an atypical decision to watch the recent Oscars that BILLIE EILISH was known to me. No surprise that even the brief interview with BILLIE and BRO on the red carpet made an impression. Always noice to have a "Hey, I know what they're talking about!" moment.
After yesterday's OEUF, I also aimed to fit an extra U into TROMPE L'OEIL
OEIL vey!!
Now I have to dig up that old HIPS DON'T LIE to see if it implies that Squares do.
Thanks to FrancisH (and BEQ) for dragging me a little closer to the present.
6
With the other music references and my assumptions for the demographics of the typical NTYXD solver I had 'TRY TO' for 26D, which gives the title of this 60's song from the musical comedy The Fantastics which I can remember my boomer Mom singing:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ycPoxZ1NPBY
Even then people were yearning for the days of yore when Life In America was surely Greater.
Back to today, The Late Late Show is currently hosted by James Corden, and while I'm not a big fan of his, he is a talented singer and has a deep knowledge of popular music. Here's a link to an episode of his Carpool Karaoke featuring Billie Eilish. The link starts where she is singing three song fragments accompanied by ukulele:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh2qG\
WfmESk&feature=youtu.be&t=292
I enjoyed hearing her in this exposed, un-produced way. For an 18-year old that's still living at home with her parents and whose music was produced with her brother in a bedroom of their suburban house she's done pretty well and apparently seems to still be the 'wholesome girl living next door'. I hope that's true and she stays sane in the industry she's working in.
4
@Dave, your link for carpool didn’t work for me, will this one?
https://youtu.be/uh2qGWfmESk
I enjoyed her ukulele songs!
1
@Margaret @Dave
Thank you both, that was abso abso wonderful. She makes up for an awful lot!
1
This one was a little heavy on the trivia. In a puzzle where the theme is related to a specific aspect of pop culture, it would be nice if it were used sparingly elsewhere.
6
@Justin
Don't you mean "used sparingly here"?
@Dr W, I believe the 'elsewhere' relates to entries other than the theme. Within this here puzzle, as you say. ;)
1
Art techniques of a foreign persuasion are not one of my solving strong suits. 47a needed every one of the downs to lift my spirits and uncover that optically elusive French answer...Gee Mr. Wilson, did you really need crosses to remind yourself of my good ol’ friend GINA? I DID... I can’t speak for that cute, impish, little Mitchell kid but can ATTEST TO his bespectacled neighbor being far from a BAD GUY. But George Wilson had just such a persona ingrained in the show.
https://youtu.be/mwcrfPNETTo
Dave Mason heard his break up ballad being played regularly on RADIOS starting in ‘77. Here he is strumming the 12 string while handling lead vocals on “We Just Disagree.”
https://youtu.be/3Ke1w_V3Fpk
In An IDYLLic Mood,
Bru
3
Flashback moment. Thx!
Nice puzzle. Challenging but not impossible. Clever without being condescending. The theme was ok. No comment on the subject of said theme, just glad that it wasn’t so impenetrable as to be frustrating. Great job, thanks!
I had no idea who or what Billie Eilish was until I read a blurb about her in the current Week mag. A well-developed (saftig) 18-yr. old who dies her hair slime-green and wears baggy clothing to hide her form. But, what the heck, I'm a Bad Guy, way over the hill and older than dirt. Nice puzzle, though.
2
@SteveG Her music is good. I only heard of her because approximately 1,000 teenyboppers were outside a concert hall cosplaying as late 90's ravers and Hot Topic wearers and that had me intrigued enough to start check her out. (The teens nearly killed me with their eye rolls when I asked if they were waiting to see BTS.)
@SteveG
It's 2020. The days when old men could comment on teen girls' bodies are long past. It's none of your business how 'zaftig' you imagine her 'form' is under her baggy clothes.
5
I first heard Billie Eilish perform at the Oscars. She thought she "bombed" because she was sick and uncomfortable in front of all those movie stars, "not her people." But I was mesmerized by her unusual voice and delivery.
At 18 she's the youngest ever to write and perform the theme song for the next Bond movie. It's been released before the movie's release, so you can hear it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB_S2qFh5lU
Thank you, Francis Heaney for shining a light on this extraordinary new talent.
5
@Johanna Ah, BAD GUY: now that's a TROMPE L'OEIL!
@Johanna. You know who else is great? H.E.R.
@Johanna - OTOH - she did bomb
jus an opinion
I adore Billie Eilish and her music, and I love this puzzle. Nice Wednesday solve!
4
A fine puzzle, I suppose, but not my cup of tea ... mainly because I feel no affinity with modern pop music and have never paid the least attention to Grammys, etc. No doubt some of it is definitely worth listening to. But there has been *so* *much* pop music I was told was great, but which turned out to be wholly uninteresting to me, that I stopped trying. (My genres are classical, folk, and pop before 1980 or so, such as is heard in the film "Coming Home.")
One more comment about yesterday's 29A clue "Sets of points, in math" for loci: This could hardly be more mistaken. A locus is a certain kind of set of points, namely, the points satisfying some condition. (Like given two points P and Q in the plane, the points (x,y) whose distances to P and to Q sum up to a fixed constant value form an ellipse.) But a set of points is only very, very rarely viewed as a locus.
Technically, any set of points could be artificially made to be a locus. But nobody but nobody in math thinks of loci that way.
2
ONKP and KATYDID? Was really hoping for some clarity in the write-up on these but I can't help but view that section as a bit of a mess.
I kinda dig the theme. Put BADGUY on Spotify when I discovered it and realized I've heard that song dozens of times by now in commercial gyms (when I forget my earphones) without knowing whose work it is. I like the squirrelly synth lines even if the rest isn't for me (especially the last 30 seconds... Eugh)
Apparently she's done the intro track for the new Bond film? I have a theory that Bond films largely tend to be as good as their intro tracks (at least for me) so I'm even more curious now.
This is the closest dalliance with modern popular music I've had since Shakira's 2006 hit, appropriately enough.
1
Maybe you know that in the U.S. Army, KP stands for the task called "kitchen police" — peeling potatoes and the like. And a katydid is a grasshopper-like insect.
I believe it's kitchen patrol ;-)
3
I believe it is either or both.
I wonder if KELLI signs her name with a small circle atop the i, opined Tom odiously.
BENHUR has a few classic errors. One scene has our hero charioting wearing a wrist watch and another a vehicle driving away in the background. These days those items could be digitally edited. In the days of film and Arriflex often one hoped one would not notice.
Speedy solve although I have never heard of BADGUY or its songstress.
Thanks Francis
5
@dk
Why would you wonder if a woman signs her name with a circle above the i?
Hi @Hildy,
I'm not sure whether @dk checks for messages, but I know he doesn't respond as a rule, so perhaps I can interpolate.
It could be considered somewhat "cutesy" to change a name that usually ends in Y to having it end in I, so I suspect that @dk was just extending into second-order cutesiness with the idea of dotting that final I with a circle. Personally, I remember advanced practitioners of Cutesiness who, in their pre-teen years, dotted their names' I's for a while with little hearts or smiley faces.
I imagine that, with the explosion of emojis, we may yet achieve the dotting of I's with rainbow hearts.
It's the March of Civilization, I suspect
In the spirit of enjoying the cultural references in the NYTXW, I've started a to build a playlist on Spotify of songs referenced in the daily puzzle. The Playlist is https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vxpMh06oxbZz1YCwGfiic?si=ZV1yMHw6SRawTMJGujeasw
Today's additions "Bad Guy" by Billie Eilish obviously, and "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters
I've also set up a spreadsheet that anyone can comment to add a new song, following the template I've set up. I think it'd be fun to see what kind of list each year puts together
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/13Ld8gVTHnIOMN0ePvgmPue7lyYi054TSPnkgd2e275A/edit?usp=sharing
6
@Sam T ... And "Hips Don't Lie" by Shakira!
2
@Sam T
Dr. Wu by Steely Dan.
2
Not a "Nancy puzzle", as I'm sure you already know, and my mistakes were real hoots.
My 67A hit song was BED GUY. As in swordsman, natch. Thought for the day: A BED GUY can sometimes be badder than a BAD GUY, no?
Even though actor Morales appears in about 150 puzzles a year, I couldn't remember the second letter of his first name. Nor did I know thw texting format at 46A. I don't know the short version and I don't know the long version either. And therefore, with the clue at 26D being "_____ to remember" and with my having filled in I?EE?, I wrote in I NEED. Which gave me EnAI for Morales and SdS for the texting format. I knew ENAI was wrong, but you have no idea how often I NEED TO REMEMBER. I never remember and I always need to. I SEEM TO REMEMBER never crossed my mind -- mostly because it's a phrase I seldom get to use. As in the case of poor, forgotten-but-not-gone ESAI.
My mistakes in this puzzle amused me greatly. The puzzle itself, not so much.
3
@Nancy SHORT MESSAGE SERVICE
LETTER BOXED
M-S (9) S-K (5)
4
@enilorac
Yesterday:
STUMBLER RAWDY
WESTWARD DUMBLY
BEMUSE EASTWARDLY
Guessed at RAWDY.
https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/rody
@enilorac
M-H(6), H-K(8)
Yesterday SAWDUST TREMBLY
I love Billie Eilish, and it's great to see her in this puzzle! I hope this inspires people who haven't heard of her to give her music a try.
5
I knew TROMPE L'OEIL immediately and misspelled it just as fast
35
Me too, but I’m experienced at misspelling it and the crosses helped
Really wish the pic of Billie wasn't in my eyesight as soon as I started the puzzle.
6
Why on earth would you put a photo of Billie Eilish right under the puzzle? Really ruins it for anyone actually trying to figure it out. Could have thought that through a little better.
8
@amy I've noticed that on puzzles before. Sometimes I'm stuck, and accidentally scroll too far and see it - and I get the theme/clue/whatever I missed. Oddly though for me, on this one the link to the article wasn't showing on the puzzle page. I had to go back to the main NYT Xword page and find the link there.
I see this criticism about the picture sometimes, and I’m not sure I get it. Since there are typically many revealers in Deb’s/Caitlin’s column, wouldn’t most people read it after solving, or for the purpose of receiving hints? Do you read it prior to solving?
1
@Jenna G. A preview link often appears below the puzzle on the web version - so it's sometimes easy to see the image early
2
The "Hi kids!" thing seems a little irksome when I'd have to be at least 80 years old to remember it.
2
@Chris Hinricher I'm 57 and I knew both of those answers. Guess I'm an octogenarian at heart.
5
@Chris Hinricher
Or 62, as both of those were gimmes for me..
@Chris Hinricher
I'm 80, and I remember from cartoons shown at Saturday movie matinees.
I've yet to finish today's puzzle, but I feel as the resident IoM-based solver I'm duty bound to provide some trivia on 8D - feature of a Manx Cat
1. Not all Manx cats have no tails. Some are known as "stubbies", where they have a small portion of the tail
2. A true Manx cat is born with little or no tail - contrary to many popular beliefs, they are not cut off
3. The mutation is a form of spina bifida
4. It is illegal, at least here, to breed two Manx cats together, as the resulting litter will have too many health problems from the aforementioned SB.
5. Manx cats, provided they're the result of responsible breeding, don't suffer from their condition. Though they may have less balance.
6. They tend to have more body strength to compensate, and if a Manx cat goes hunting it can often take down a rabbit with ease.
Back to the puzzle!
15
@Chris Finlay Ok, time for some thoughts now that I've finished. Had a couple lookups mainly due to cultural differences. In the UK, Dennis The Menace is friends with MINNIE THE MINX, and is a whole different comic strip.
SEGA was an answer that I stopped to reflect on - not because I didn't know it, but because I'm a huge fan of the Dreamcast and the games on it. I got lost thinking about Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia...
Shakira's excellent half-time show probably kept HIPS DONT LIE in my mind - had this puzzle appeared this time last year I may have needed longer. Personally I prefer "Whenever, Wherever", but she's talented.
Speaking of talent, nice to see some recognition for BILLIE EILISH. I may be far removed from her target demo (as a 33 year old male) but I do enjoy BAD GUY, and perhaps more, Bury A Friend (which has an insanely terrifying video... go check it out, I'll wait). She has her critics, but who doesn't?
I struggled on ONKP/KATYDID. I've never heard of a KATYDID, and I guess ONKP means "on kitchen porter (duty)"? Not a term I'm familiar with - so that was another lookup. I initially had CATYDID so I was close.
The only other trip was TROMP L'OEIL. I knew the phrase, but I couldn't get ETOILE out of my head.
Today fell in 13:24 - 9 minutes below my average for a Wednesday (odd, when taken in the context that Monday and Tuesday started the week feeling a little harder than usual) and about 3 mins off my best.
@Chris Finlay
" I may be far removed from her target demo (as a 33 year old male)"
That would make me "on another planet removed" as a 62 year old male... LOL
1
@Chris Finlay
Interesting. You may have been linking l'Arc de TRiOMPhe de l'ÉTOILE?
Ages since I saw it, but what I remember most clearly is the Eternal Flame, which seems to have been just a smudge-pot at the time.
"11A. Hi, kids! “Krazy KAT” was a comic strip by George Herriman that ran from 1913 until his death in 1944."
"Hi, kids," yourself, Deb,
Did you miss the Krazy KAT animated cartoons that were on TV when you were a kid?
3
@Barry Ancona
"I love you Ignatz!"
@Barry Ancona I did not, which is how I learned about Krazy Kat. Oddly enough, however, there are readers who are too young to remember even that.
In an informal poll taken among the Games team, most of whom are in their 20s and 30s, no one had heard of the character, and the closest guess was "Some sort of glue stick?"
3
@Deb Amlen - This is a regular bit on Ellen...
(^_^)
1
De gustibus non est disputandum.
5
Going about my usual pop-culture oblivious rounds sometime back, I thought I overheard someone make mention of "Billy Eyelash sweeping the Grammys."
I briefly thought to myself, "Never heard of him." And went on with my business.
Searching the filled grid after having gotten no happy music, my only Google of the day was to search up "Haps Don't Lie" because that didn't make sense. HIPS DON'T LIE doesn't mean anything to me either, but changing the "a" to "i" did the trick.
Deb's "Hi Kids" notes are almost never news to me. What I occasionally need is a "Hi Gramps."
5
This was a new record for a Wednesday for me, and I did it all in one sitting (usually there’s something that gets me stuck and I shelve the puzzle and come back later.)
4
It is inconceivable *not* to think of The Princess Bride when solving this puzzle...thanks for that, Miss Eilish!
12
Wow! I’m surprised so many had not heard of Billie Eilish! I’m totally Boomer, no grandkids to clue me in, and I was rooting for her Grammies (from my bed where all good Boomers are at award show times).
She, and her brother/producer, broke in with a unique sound outside the big money system of music. Glad to celebrate someone with talent who can break through the homogenous sound of popular music today and bring something real and fresh in.
16
@Cooofnj I also love that she's a woman artist who isn't on the stage mostly naked. She is so very talented.
1
@Cooofnj
So you convinced this boomer to go to Google Play Music and fire up some Billie E. It is unique for sure! Almost reminds me of a Bjork type of artist - pushing musical boundaries in a new direction. Another band that comes to mind is the South African group "Die Antwoord". Not for everyone but intriguing. Here is a sample (NSFW):
https://youtu.be/8Uee_mcxvrw
1
@Steve Faiella
Wow, interesting! Definitely NSFW and hard to turn away from. Now to see if "I Fink U Freeky" will replace anything by Ed Sheeran for the first dance song at future weddings.....
1
Fun and poppy. I have a resident 18-year-old at home (but moving into her own place this weekend! I am about to get even less cool than I am already.) so I have no excuse for needing all the crosses to get BADGUY. Just could not wrest it from my brain last night. BIL LIE EIL ISH is one of many young people around nowadays who makes me feel that the kids are all right.
7
I’m a boomer, but my daughter introduced me to Billie Eilish, and her second album is great. I don’t think you needed to know anything about her to solve the puzzle, as it was pretty Wednesday-ish.
5
@pi
I'm missing out on all this cool stuff. I need to hire me a teenager for weekly pop culture lessons! 😅 It would be worth it just for the eye rolls...
3
Hah! I totally called this last week, in a discussion right here over "I never heard of this singer so the puzzle was bad." I posted something along the lines of, "OK, be prepared for Billie Eilish entries, boomer." So, when I filled in 1A, I knew exactly where the puzzle was going.
Nope, I'd never heard of Ms Eilish either, before she won 4 Grammys. Is "OK, Xer" a thing yet?
3
@Grant I remember when you wrote that, or someone did but was not sure where I read that.
After I was finished I was wondering who said to be ready for Billie Eillish in the puzzles, alas it was you. You should go pick a lotto number now.
1
@Grant
“OK, X-er,” needs to be a thing since we, the generation in question, have all turned 40 by now (haven’t we?)
Immediately upon turning 40 I began noticing whenever anyone underaged ventured a foot onto my lawn, and experiencing a corresponding visceral desire to remove said foot by any means necessary.
@Grant
My millennial colleague tells me that for Gen Xers it is "OK Karen", to go with the memes. Now I feel responsible for all Gen Xers.
Odd solve for me. I'd never heard of...
BILLIE EILISH or her song BADGUY
KELLI O'Hara
HIPSDONTLIE
AUTOTUNED (at least the usage in the clue) or
the AON tower.
and...
This had to be my fastest Wednesday solve ever. Didn't even have to take a break, which is rare for me. Still shaking my head.
Off-topic: In regard to yesterday's discussion in a series of replies about driving across Texas (and yeah, I knew the panhandle didn't count): I had an odd related thought this morning. Driving across Michigan from east to west, with the restriction of having to start and end in an adjacent state. Probably a bit farther than one might think.
6
This puzzle has three palindromes (ONO / PEP / BOB). I don't remember seeing a grid with that many before. Maybe it's happened related to a theme, I don't know, but, as I recall, not in the wild in a puzzle, and it's something I inexplicably look for.
That gave this puzzle some freshness and zing, and there is more (and thank you, Francis!). Three of my four favorite answers were NYT debuts -- AUTOTUNED, TROMPE L'OEIL, DRAWS IN -- and the fourth (AS YOU WISH) has only appeared once before. The ultimate freshness for me was Ms. Eilish herself, who is new to me, and who I will check out. God bless puzzles for pointing me to new knowledge in directions I never would have thought of going!
5
I enjoy it tribute puzzle but was a bit disappointed that the subject was completely unknown to me. That didn’t take away from appreciating a well constructed puzzle with an interesting way of revealing the theme.
6
I “might” have heard of BILLIE EILISH - - but it certainly wasn’t as an important part of the world I live in. (She doesn’t look as if she performs classical music.) So the theme was useless for me and I prefer puzzles that are less-thoroughly fascinated with the current “music” scene.
I didn’t know Ms. Ochoa’s first name - which became a lookup.
But that was the only one. And I remember BEN HUR as if I saw it yesterday - with all of Charlton Hestons over-acting. And I just saw plenty of examples of TROMPE L’OEIL in the Louvre last week.
So I’m awarding myself a “solve” rating. (The capital ‘S’ becoming a lower case character because of LORENA.)
1
@PeterW
LORENA has been the clue for OCHOA seven times in the Shortz era, and the last time was on Feb. 12th (you may have been out of the country).
I enjoyed the puzzle, but having this particular Wordplay header image displayed immediately below the puzzle on the puzzle page (on the desktop site) was definitely a disappointing spoiler for the theme for me.
3
SPELLING BEE GRID
N C E L O T Y
WORDS: 52, POINTS: 224, PANGRAMS: 1, BINGO
First character frequency:
C x 16
E x 2
L x 6
N x 13
O x 3
T x 11
Y x 1
Word length frequency:
4L: 19
5L: 13
6L: 9
7L: 10
9L: 1
Grid:
4 5 6 7 9 TOT
C: 2 2 3 8 1 16
E: - - - 2 - 2
L: 3 2 1 - - 6
N: 6 4 3 - - 13
O: 3 - - - - 3
T: 5 4 2 - - 11
Y: - 1 - - - 1
TOT:19 13 9 10 1 52
Two letter list:
CE-1 CL-1 CO-13 CY-1
EC-1 EN-1
LE-2 LO-4
NE-6 NO-6 NY-1
ON-3
TE-6 TO-4 TY-1
YE-1
64
@Doug, TY!
I often quit at Genius on these big Bees, but today I just have one to go. It's a C7 that's not either form of the pangram, a military word, attach, storm, adjective for fabric, lass or word meaning to hatch a plan. Any hints are much appreciated!
3
@Johanna
Kevin Davis provided a clue for this C7 in his list, but that is a separate thread. In his clue the C7 is a verb.
Alternatively, If Bernie Madoff penned a memo, you could call it a.......
5
@Doug Thanks! Can't think of the L6. And need an N6. Any hints?
SPELLING BEE
52 words, 224 points, 1 pangram
11
Surprisingly, not that many adjectives or adverbs, considering we had LY in the letter set.
Hints:
Genetic exact copy
Caterpillar baby home
Military rank below general
Irish girl
Pre-Revolutionary US “state”
Devise a plan or story
Attach
Imply as a consequence
Peacefully happy, adj. & pangram adv.
Plant fiber for making clothes, noun & adj.
Hurricane in the Southern hemisphere
Region of transition between 2 biological communities
Informal alliance between states
Slowly, in music or Italian
Hawaiian goose
Abbrev., those who believe in peace through strength
Stinging plant, noun & adj.
Full of ropes to catch fish (not real definition)
Christmas season
For one use, or temporarily (literary)
Group of 9
Stocking fabric
Itty
Command-line comm. protocol
Principle or belief
Wood joint paired with a mortise
1,000 kg
Slang for animated film
Mr. Howell on Gilligan’s Island
Busybody or matchmaker
36
@Kevin Davis
Thanks for the clues -- That EC-7 word gave me a headache -- going to take some TYLENOL!!
4
@Kevin Davis
Thanks, Kevin. I really needed you today. Somehow with these big bees, I can think I've already written a word when I didn't. But your help was especially
useful with several strange N words.
1
The only difficult part of this puzzle was correctly spelling TROMPELOEIL.
Deb's friend who hates non-English entries must be screaming........
6
@RAH I had to look it up. I wanted to put a D in there.
2
@RAH
I always remember TROMPEL___L, but those 3 vowels remain a mystery as to proper order. Sort of odd since I have 3 consecutive vowels in my surname.
2
Taylor didn't release an album in 2013 but KATYDID.
(I'm only hearing crickets.)
22
I love the cover art of Steely Dan’s Katy Lied.
1
@Mike
No Buddy Holly?
2
@Steve Faiella
@Mike
Or Beatles?
2
Love Billie Eilish! Love this puzzle! What a great match!
3
Finished the main puzzle in 2/3 my reported (very slow) average time but the Mini cost me 3:30!
2
@kilaueabart
Seems like the mini has been a LOT crunchier the last few days.
@kilaueabart
Yeah, the mini really kicked my butt today. I started out with two wrong across answers and it was all downhill from there...LOL
30 seconds off but best Wednesday but somehow didn’t feel like it.
Well, the puzzle was a fine conception in terms of the fullness of the theme and a fine Wednesday right in the zone. I wish I had any enthusiasm for Ms. Eilish's singing. Everybody has their own likes, I suppose.
7
Is this where “ok boomer” becomes appropriate?
7
Boomer or not - listen to her massacre "Yesterday" in this year's Oscars broadcast. Then get back to me about what a great singer she is.
4
@David Connell - Here's the link, judge for yourself:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKmqtaxIS3Y
1
and Elke
Wjile I had no difficulty fitting Hoda KOTB and TROMPELOEIL into their respective squares, I could not fit my answer for 19D "rolled-up grass" : TOKE into the three available slots--drat :))
11
@Robert
Those funny little left-handed cigarettes are sometimes called (individually) a BUN, JAY or ZOL according to WIKTIONARY.
Take you pick - - but any of these would mess up the crosses pretty badly.
This one was way too easy for a Wednesday. Felt like a Monday.
2
@Danielle
Monday?!?!?
EGAD!! I would have nearly doubled my average for Monday puzzles.
It wasn’t easy if one has never really heard of Ms. EILISH.
@PeterW I don’t even know what to say. I feel like your reply here and your stand alone comment elsewhere say a lot about you - you’re either purposefully shutting pop culture out of your life (Egad??? That’s a term you use and not just a crossword puzzle filler?) or you’re getting up there in years. Either way, the NYT puzzle has to stay modern to keep new users. The idea of a crossword puzzle is that we’re able to figure it out from the clues, not that we know the pattern. I’ve never heard of Asta from Nick and Nora except in the NYT crossword puzzle. Whoever makes these things has to stop using such dated references, and I welcome the change.
3
Danielle,
Let's have both. My children enjoy the current pop culture in the puzzle, but they like Asta too, having enjoyed The Thin Man and having heard from me that their great-grandmother would have enjoyed drinks with Nick and Nora.
5
'Duh' - very clever and well-played NYT Crossword. I dig it!
5
I had heard of Someone Eilish because she was the youngest to record a James Bond song and was lauded accordingly. I couldn't have told you her first name but with___LIE EILISH Billie was a fair guess - I didn't know the toy company at 21A. A reasonable Wednesday - maybe a Tuesday plus.
1
It's "trompe l'oeil," not "trompe l'oueil."
It is correct in the puzzle, but wrong in the article.
5
@Steve L
Still wrong. The verb TROMPEr is to fool or to deceive; the adjective TROMPÉ is fooled or mistaken. TROMPE ≠ FOOL.
5
@Tammy - of course you are correct that "trompe" is not to be translated as "fool" (neither noun nor verb).
However, to be completely fair, in this expression "trompe" does mean "fools", since it is the 3rd person singular of the verb "tromper."
{"Telle chose ne trompe personne." = "Such a thing fools nobody."}
"trompe l'œil"= fools the eye = deceives the eye
"trompe d'œil" would be "trumpet of the eye", if there were such a thing, with such anatomical terms as "trompe d'Eustache" (Eustachian tube) as examples.
3
@Rebecca B
Re: “wrong in the article”
Not any more. Must have been fixed.
A rare trip up for a Wednesday. TR0MPE D'OEIL x DORENA was my undoing. I count it as a natick due to "French X Ochoa" in the cluing. Turns out D'OEIL is incorrect, though I've seen it many times.
From Wiktionary:
trompe-d’œil
1. Alternative form of trompe d'œil: misconstruction of trompe-l’œil.
6
I finished the puzzle without ever seeing the revealer, since I got the whole SE corner via downs. It left me wondering where this "honoree" was.
I'm not sure what to make about this "grand slam" by Ms. Eilish. I'm not automatically dismissive of current pop music, like some of my generation are, but I wasn't wowed by the hit song at the bottom, which is embedded into today's commentary at xwordinfo.com. What happens at the Grammys is often enigmatic, to put it politely. I think a lot has to do with the voting members, who can cast ballots in all categories, even those they're not very familiar with.
The area that I am familiar with, as some of you may already know, is country music. This year, the only thing that prevented Tanya Tucker from a sweep of the country awards was the fact that she was neither a duo or a group. Now I like Tanya, but she hasn't had a hit in 20 years, and I actually saw her about a year ago, and in real life, it seemed to me she had no voice left. Maybe she was having a bad night. But for her to suddenly win awards for material most country fans had never heard--or even heard of--was enigmatic, to say the least.
The same thing happened with Johnny Cash, several times in the 2000s decade. Cash's fading voice, combined with the relative obscurity of the recordings, had me scratching my head over the decision to choose him over many deserving current hitmakers.
At least Eilish's music was popular last year.
8
@Steve L I agree wholeheartedly - as a dedicated metalhead, I stopped caring about the Grammys when Jethro Tull beat out Metallica in the Best Hard Rock/Heavy Metal category. Sure, Tull was great back in the day, but they have a flute.
@Grant
Wait...aren't flutes made out of metal?
1
A very small number of people control what music is played on syndicated radio stations which have a huge share of the market. It would be nice if some of those obscure winners overcame that hurdle with sheer talent.
Alternate Clueing for 43A – Emacs alternative
6
@pmb - wow, is that rivalry still going on?
@Wen - Until I’m dead and buried, YES!!
2
@Doug little know fact the comment entry box here supports emacs control characters for editting:
Control-A : move to start of line
Control-B: backward character
Control-F: forward character
Control-E: move to end of line
Control-N: next line
Control-P: previous line
So EMACS lives even in the NYT Puzzle page.
:-)
2
Well, that went quickly. A lot of today's puzzle was definitely in my wheelhouse. The reveal and theme was a nice aha!
2
The photo was a complete spoiler for me before I even started the puzzle. I solve online, obviously, and just that tiny bit of photo that showed up on the page when I started the puzzle was enough to give it away. Although I'm in my fifth decade, a friend of a friend is Billie's mother. I've always loved her music. I still enjoyed the solve. Good puzzle.
4
@Zon. I never read the Wordplay column until I’ve solved the puzzle. It’s fun to read, but it is a complete spoiler.
11
@Christine Peterson
What Zon may have been referring to is the fact that on the online solving page, the link to Wordplay is just below the puzzle, and the picture always accompanies it.
I've always wondered why the photo is even necessary, since either it's a complete spoiler, or it has a negligible connection to the puzzle.
3
Oh that would stink! I'll stick to the app.
1
“On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”... except all those surveillance capitalists!!
7
@RampiAK
ARF??🐶
1
I don’t watch the Grammy awards anymore because I don’t know most of the presenters or nominees. And I am rarely impressed by the artists I do see. I listen to classic rock. It’s classic.
6
@Queenie
I watch the Grammys for exactly the same reason that you don't. I get to find out who Lizzo is, or Billie Eilish, and so forth. No one likes everyone, but at least you're aware of what's out there. I could never get into Ed Sheeran, but I like a lot of Taylor Swift.
As for classic rock, you can be sure that in 2070, the music of 2020 will be considered "classic" by the geezers who are listening to Billie Eilish now.
28
@Steve L
And it's not just the music that's great. Lizzo and Billie Eilish, their art makes a statement that helps to normalize the concept that women are actual people.
23
@Queenie OK, Boomer!
Mod Squad was a fave because of Peggy Lipton (easy on the eyes).
1
Seeing the answers LORENA and BOB side by side made me cringe a bit. Hard to forget the story of the Bobbit couple.
23
@Robert Kern
CRINGE!!
2
This puzzle should build the excel song sheet nicely.
6
That was quite fun. A very fast one - almost Tuesday like. Still took three passes through to complete. Some pretty interesting entries, and I didn't really get the tribute to BILLIE EILISH because I didn't fully read the clue for 67A. And even if I did, I probably wouldn't quite have gotten it.
Nevertheless - liked some of the entries like TROMPE L'OEIL, AUTOTUNED, and MINUS SIGN. Also liked the K's sprinkled through the puzzle. Interesting to see TWO AM and PAN AM (should that mean all morning hours?).
14A - I expected another one of those AM RADIO tricky clues, except....it didn't fit. But happy enough with RADIOS.
Now, did Ms. Perry cry from BILLIE EILISH's GRAMMY wins because she hasn't won any herself yet? Probably not, but KATY DID cry from something else she did: https://metro.co.uk/2019/12/18/billie-eilish-makes-katy-perry-cry-adorable-home-video-18th-birthday-11924850/
6
I always get Hoda KOTB mixed up with GINA ONKP.
16
Don’t know why but Billie Eilish’s BAD GUY reminds me of Suzanne Vega’s “Tom’s Diner”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLP6QluMlrg
(from the ancient 1980s)
1
I guess it would help to link to BAD GUY. I thought Deb had but apparently not.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyDfgMOUjCI
1
@Puzzlemucker I linked to it in the first paragraph.
1
@Deb Amlen
Thanks, Deb. I thought I saw it on first read, then looked again and didn’t catch it. Only one takeaway: it’s time for bed. But one more link before I go. No relation to the others but inspired by catching a bit of tonight’s PBS profile of Miles Davis. “So What”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGx1HvLV_NQ
3
I'm glad I paid [a small amount of] attention to the Grammys this year! And good job on getting the -EIL as the end part of a phrase! It helped a lot that I was sure of the spelling on that one. All in all, this one went very smoothly for me.
I think GINA was always my favorite Dennis the Menace character--she was the one I wanted to be.
7
At least there were enough clues for us old folks (ONO, PANAM, LEIGH, MOD) to balance the fact that I know nothing about Miss Eilish or her music. The theme was of no help, but still a near record Wednesday.
4
@Steve
I SEEM to remember BEN HUR and Krazy KAT as well, but the last was before my time.
@Steve
I’m RIGHT THERE with you on this one.