My time: 13:32.
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Josh Knapp served up this themeless, which stymies the solver by virtue of its vague and misleading cluing. There is also a good bit of relatively little-used fill like LUNCH MONEY ("demand from a school bully"), IN A HOLE ("owing money"), BALD PATE ("chrome dome, so to speak"), and ON THE CLOCK ("getting paid, say"). Oh, and DIVING BELL is a great inclusion.
There was a lot of troublesome fill today.
"Stories with many chapters" is SAGAS. I'm not sure if that's technically true of a saga in the original sense (did the Old Norse authors use chapter breaks?), but I guess in the more figurative sense of just "a long story" it can be true.
I had trouble with the vague "part of a Central American grove;" it's the unexpectedly specific PAPAYA TREE.
A VOLE is known as a "field mouse," but it isn't quite a mouse. It is a rodent.
A phrase previously unknown to me (or more likely just forgotten) is the Latin IPSE DIXIT ("he said it himself"), which means an assertion made without proof.
I didn't know there's a magazine called "ELLE Decor," but it makes sense and is pretty guessable.
"Place to fish from" turns out to be DORY, as in the type of boat, a traditional fishing vessel.
We've all heard of Fall Out Boy, but we aren't at all au courant with the band's oeuvre. "Sugar, WE'RE Goin' Down" is a song by them.
For "go on a tweetstorm, say" I put *RANT but it's VENT.
I didn't know Christian DOPPLER was an Austrian physicist, but that he "studied waves" made the answer clear, as that immediately bring to mind his eponymous Effect.
ST. PAUL'S Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill in London, is the burial place of John Donne and Horatio Nelson, it turns out. Also, Christopher Wren and Alexander Fleming!
"As CHASTE as unsunn'd snow" is a line spoken by Posthumus in Act II of "Cymbeline." He is ranting about how all women are deceitful.
PILSNER is a beer, but also a type of tall, skinny beer glass. Never heard of it, but then, I don't drink beer and never have.
The Egyptian deity Ammit was a crocodile-headed goddess and demon, who also was part lion and hippo, and devoured the SOULS of those were not pure of heart, a qualification measured by weighing the heart against the feather of Maat, goddess of truth.
"Comfy safari digs" is TENT BED. Is this a real thing?
A WET CELL is a type of rechargeable and high-power battery powered by a liquid electrolyte or other acid, as opposed to a dry-cell battery.
HOBBIT is clued here as "fictional figure whose name means hole-dweller." According to Wiki: "Tolkien set out a fictional etymology for the name in an appendix to The Lord of the Rings, to the effect that it was ultimately derived from holbytla (plural holbytlan), meaning "hole-builder" (and corresponding to Old English)."
The ARIA Hotel in Vegas came up on January 2.
Clever clues: "It takes time to sink in" is QUICKSAND. "Fate worse than a ticket" is TOW. "Pipe sellers" is HEADSHOPS, a term I haven't heard since the '80s when I lived in New York City. I thought it might be *VAPE SHOPS. "Tombstone figure" isn't about statuary found on cenotaphs but the Old Western town figure, EARP. "Leg up" is EDGE, as in an extra bit that helps you win, a leg up on the opponents. "Resource for an artist to draw on?" is SKETCHBOOK. "What a colon might denote" isn't a *LIST but EYES, as when in an emoji :) --- that's clever. "Like some fish and olives" is SPEARED.
Well, I didn't do too badly this GO-ROUND. Remember, doing difficult crosswords keeps your mind JUNG!
Friday, September 7, 2018
Thursday, September 6, 2018
Thursday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 6, 2018
My time: 16:35.
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Jeff Chen used about 90% of his brain on this devious one, which is more clever than it appears. Playing off the phrase TIP OF THE ICEBERG ("hidden trouble indicator"), he arranges seven Down answers that are real words, but appear to have nothing to do with their clues; however, if you put an imaginary letter at the top of the answer, it satisfies the clue. These imaginary, unseen letters spell out iceberg, as in the TIP that is seen, while the rest of the puzzle, one then imagines, makes up the hidden 90% OF THE ICEBERG.
The themed answers are as follows. "It's symbolized by a star and a crescent," reading as SLAM, but actually [i]SLAM. "Entry fees" is [c]OVERCHARGES. "Comes out" is [e]MERGES. "Exposes" is [b]ARES. "Like Confucianism or Taoism" is [e]ASTERN. "Formal rejection" is [r]ENUNCIATION. And finally, "put the pedal to the medal" is [g]UN IT.
See how those added, imaginary letters spell out iceberg in order? Clever!
OSLO appears in the puzzle very often, but happily, seemingly with a variety of clues. Here it's as the home of "The Scream." The landscape in the picture is recognizable as the Kristiania Fjord seen from Ekeberg, with a broad view over the fjord, the town and the hills beyond.
"Dweller along the Don" is SLAV. It is located in Russia and empties to the Sea of Azov (an answer on July 12).
I didn't know that a "closer" is a baseball term, designating a relief picther who gets the final outs. Success for a closer is thus a SAVE. Wiki says "a closer's effectiveness has traditionally been measured by the save, an official Major League Baseball statistic since 1969." Okay then. I don't pretend to understand the sabermetrics. I took it to mean that someone who ended (closed) a game did it by catching a ball (saving it, I guess).
I have never heard of "popular online comedy duo" RHETT and Link. They sound kind of stupid.
The Mosque of OMAR is a mosque built in 1193, located across from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Did you know March Madness victors got to keep the NETS? Me neither. The winning team cuts the nets off the hoop. The practice started in 1947.
I'm a huge "Dr. Strangelove" fan but had forgotten that Major T.J. "King" KONG was the name of Slim Pickens' unforgettable character,
I didn't know that ESPERANTO means literally "a hopeful person" but it's pretty easy to figure out when you know your romance cognates.
Never heard of the Book of Shadows, but I knew it had to be something occult. To answer who would be reading it, I put *WIZARDS and then *WITCHES and finally saw it was WICCANS.
For "Alexander the Great, to Aristotle" I put *PUPIL but it's TUTEE.
"Kind of operation in number theory, for short" is MOD. Modular arithmetic is when you compute with remainders, which can be visualized by turns around a numbered clock face. For example, 3 mod 12 is 3 (because it increments three times), but 16 mod 12 is 4 because it completes one turn and then increments four more times for the remainder.
Stylishness is SASS? Huh? Why? I don't get it.
The snakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark were ASPS, which I guess we should know because after Indy says "Why did it have to be snakes?" Sallah replies, "Asps…very dangerous."
LAPIN is French for rabbit, and apparently it's also a name for rabbit fur.
Did you know October 13 is No BRA Day? Me neither.
It was suggested that CHER is the "Goddess of Pop" on August 8.
"B+, e.g." was ION on August 28, so I put the same for "F-, e.g." pretty quickly.
Clever clue: "Idle on the set" is ERIC. "Exchange of swear words?" is I DOS. I like the clue "it may involve dips, in two different senses" for SALSA. "It's between an A and a B" is NINETY. "Puzzle in which people take turns solving" is MAZE. For "leader of the land down under?" I put *SANTA because I guess I was stupidly thinking he lived at the South Pole?? but it's obviously his anagram brother, SATAN. "Out" is a good vague clue for ALIBI. Likewise, "nips" is good for EDGES --- they both mean "to beat someone in a game slightly."
Man, that's a lot to write. This puzzle was more than SORTA difficult. For some of this stuff, I had NO IDEA!
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Jeff Chen used about 90% of his brain on this devious one, which is more clever than it appears. Playing off the phrase TIP OF THE ICEBERG ("hidden trouble indicator"), he arranges seven Down answers that are real words, but appear to have nothing to do with their clues; however, if you put an imaginary letter at the top of the answer, it satisfies the clue. These imaginary, unseen letters spell out iceberg, as in the TIP that is seen, while the rest of the puzzle, one then imagines, makes up the hidden 90% OF THE ICEBERG.
The themed answers are as follows. "It's symbolized by a star and a crescent," reading as SLAM, but actually [i]SLAM. "Entry fees" is [c]OVERCHARGES. "Comes out" is [e]MERGES. "Exposes" is [b]ARES. "Like Confucianism or Taoism" is [e]ASTERN. "Formal rejection" is [r]ENUNCIATION. And finally, "put the pedal to the medal" is [g]UN IT.
See how those added, imaginary letters spell out iceberg in order? Clever!
OSLO appears in the puzzle very often, but happily, seemingly with a variety of clues. Here it's as the home of "The Scream." The landscape in the picture is recognizable as the Kristiania Fjord seen from Ekeberg, with a broad view over the fjord, the town and the hills beyond.
"Dweller along the Don" is SLAV. It is located in Russia and empties to the Sea of Azov (an answer on July 12).
I didn't know that a "closer" is a baseball term, designating a relief picther who gets the final outs. Success for a closer is thus a SAVE. Wiki says "a closer's effectiveness has traditionally been measured by the save, an official Major League Baseball statistic since 1969." Okay then. I don't pretend to understand the sabermetrics. I took it to mean that someone who ended (closed) a game did it by catching a ball (saving it, I guess).
I have never heard of "popular online comedy duo" RHETT and Link. They sound kind of stupid.
The Mosque of OMAR is a mosque built in 1193, located across from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
Did you know March Madness victors got to keep the NETS? Me neither. The winning team cuts the nets off the hoop. The practice started in 1947.
I'm a huge "Dr. Strangelove" fan but had forgotten that Major T.J. "King" KONG was the name of Slim Pickens' unforgettable character,
I didn't know that ESPERANTO means literally "a hopeful person" but it's pretty easy to figure out when you know your romance cognates.
Never heard of the Book of Shadows, but I knew it had to be something occult. To answer who would be reading it, I put *WIZARDS and then *WITCHES and finally saw it was WICCANS.
For "Alexander the Great, to Aristotle" I put *PUPIL but it's TUTEE.
"Kind of operation in number theory, for short" is MOD. Modular arithmetic is when you compute with remainders, which can be visualized by turns around a numbered clock face. For example, 3 mod 12 is 3 (because it increments three times), but 16 mod 12 is 4 because it completes one turn and then increments four more times for the remainder.
Stylishness is SASS? Huh? Why? I don't get it.
The snakes in Raiders of the Lost Ark were ASPS, which I guess we should know because after Indy says "Why did it have to be snakes?" Sallah replies, "Asps…very dangerous."
LAPIN is French for rabbit, and apparently it's also a name for rabbit fur.
Did you know October 13 is No BRA Day? Me neither.
It was suggested that CHER is the "Goddess of Pop" on August 8.
"B+, e.g." was ION on August 28, so I put the same for "F-, e.g." pretty quickly.
Clever clue: "Idle on the set" is ERIC. "Exchange of swear words?" is I DOS. I like the clue "it may involve dips, in two different senses" for SALSA. "It's between an A and a B" is NINETY. "Puzzle in which people take turns solving" is MAZE. For "leader of the land down under?" I put *SANTA because I guess I was stupidly thinking he lived at the South Pole?? but it's obviously his anagram brother, SATAN. "Out" is a good vague clue for ALIBI. Likewise, "nips" is good for EDGES --- they both mean "to beat someone in a game slightly."
Man, that's a lot to write. This puzzle was more than SORTA difficult. For some of this stuff, I had NO IDEA!
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Wednesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 5, 2018
My time: 5:32, about 16 seconds slower than the record! I'm on a roll this week!
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The Terrific Trio of Amanda Chung, Karl Ni and Erik Agard synergized their best qualities to bring us this exercise in TEAM BUILDING, a "goal for six answers in this puzzle." Six NFL teams are created by solving two-part rebus or charades-like clues. For example, "actor Lundgren + elected officials" is DOLPH + INS, or DOLPHINS. "Butter square + hilarious people" is PAT + RIOTS, OR PATRIOTS. My favorite is "London's Big ____ + ladies" which is BEN + GALS, or [Cincinnati] BENGALS.
The first themed answer, and the only one I had trouble with, is "'Whatever You Like' rapper + gets some color at the beach." I knew the second part was TANS, but I'd never heard of the song in the first part. It's T.I., whom I've heard of but don't know anything else about.
OMAN is the Arabian land near the Strait of Hormuz. This is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. On the north coast of the strait lies Iran, and on the south coast the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.
"Take a stand by not standing." KNEEL. I like it.
LUNISOLAR is not a word I've encountered before.
There are extra innings at times in baseball games, but it doesn't look like people use the phrase TENTH INNING all that much. It is the name of a follow-up Ken Burns documentary about baseball.
Somehow I remembered the Linux operating system UBUNTU.
I was not tricked this time around for Queen stadium name ASHE, which has come up several times since October 11, 2017.
"Mr. Robot" actor RAMI Malek last appeared August 12. Surely after so many appearances I know him. Starting... now.
Western Hemisphere grp. OAS appeared way back on October 17, 2017.
Exodus hero ARI Ben Canaan was chosen for puzzle glory on October 4, 2017.
I came so close to beating my personal best today. Don't worry, I'VE GOT A PLAN to beat the record. It's to go faster next time.
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The Terrific Trio of Amanda Chung, Karl Ni and Erik Agard synergized their best qualities to bring us this exercise in TEAM BUILDING, a "goal for six answers in this puzzle." Six NFL teams are created by solving two-part rebus or charades-like clues. For example, "actor Lundgren + elected officials" is DOLPH + INS, or DOLPHINS. "Butter square + hilarious people" is PAT + RIOTS, OR PATRIOTS. My favorite is "London's Big ____ + ladies" which is BEN + GALS, or [Cincinnati] BENGALS.
The first themed answer, and the only one I had trouble with, is "'Whatever You Like' rapper + gets some color at the beach." I knew the second part was TANS, but I'd never heard of the song in the first part. It's T.I., whom I've heard of but don't know anything else about.
OMAN is the Arabian land near the Strait of Hormuz. This is a strait between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman. On the north coast of the strait lies Iran, and on the south coast the United Arab Emirates and Musandam, an exclave of Oman.
"Take a stand by not standing." KNEEL. I like it.
LUNISOLAR is not a word I've encountered before.
There are extra innings at times in baseball games, but it doesn't look like people use the phrase TENTH INNING all that much. It is the name of a follow-up Ken Burns documentary about baseball.
Somehow I remembered the Linux operating system UBUNTU.
I was not tricked this time around for Queen stadium name ASHE, which has come up several times since October 11, 2017.
"Mr. Robot" actor RAMI Malek last appeared August 12. Surely after so many appearances I know him. Starting... now.
Western Hemisphere grp. OAS appeared way back on October 17, 2017.
Exodus hero ARI Ben Canaan was chosen for puzzle glory on October 4, 2017.
I came so close to beating my personal best today. Don't worry, I'VE GOT A PLAN to beat the record. It's to go faster next time.
Tuesday, September 4, 2018
Tuesday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 4, 2018
My time: 4:40, twenty seconds slower than my record!
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Bruce Haight celebrates THE EIGHTIES ("when Pac-Man and Rubik's Cube were popular"), or more phonetically, the A.T.'s. Which means the themed answers start with A and T. These four themed answers are ALL TOGETHER ("in unison"), ATOMIC THEORY, AIRPORT TERMINAL, and ANCHOR TENANT ("big department store in a mall, e.g.").
TAG UP, as in to retouch a base after a fly-out, came up on December 28, 2017.
USA is the network for "Mr. Robot" and "Suits," as shown on August 7, 2018.
Clever clues: "One involved with a grand opening?" is PIANO TUNER. "Pair of skivvies?" is VEES.
I SAY, this was an easy one. AND HOW --- there was nothing new to me. Well, I'M OFF.
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Bruce Haight celebrates THE EIGHTIES ("when Pac-Man and Rubik's Cube were popular"), or more phonetically, the A.T.'s. Which means the themed answers start with A and T. These four themed answers are ALL TOGETHER ("in unison"), ATOMIC THEORY, AIRPORT TERMINAL, and ANCHOR TENANT ("big department store in a mall, e.g.").
TAG UP, as in to retouch a base after a fly-out, came up on December 28, 2017.
USA is the network for "Mr. Robot" and "Suits," as shown on August 7, 2018.
Clever clues: "One involved with a grand opening?" is PIANO TUNER. "Pair of skivvies?" is VEES.
I SAY, this was an easy one. AND HOW --- there was nothing new to me. Well, I'M OFF.
Monday, September 3, 2018
Monday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 3, 2018
My time: 3:39, nine seconds shy of the record.
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Trent H. Evans gets our minds moving and our thoughts racing with this one, which showcases four phrases that start with action gerunds. "Defenseless target" is SITTING DUCK, "directive that's in force until canceled" is STANDING ORDER, "notice when getting fired" is WALKING PAPERS, and "repeated comical reference" is RUNNING JOKE.
What I like especially about this is that the four action words are in order of least to most movement.
Images on Kansas City Chiefs' helmets are ARROWHEADS. Good fill word. And inside the image are the letters KC.
I'm not familiar with Alaska's North Slope, but it only takes a passing familiarity with the state to know that its resource must be OIL. The Alaska North Slope region includes the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska. The region also includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It's not a great mix.
There were a lot of old crossword friends in this one:
Ancient Asia Minor region IONIA was discovered on December 29, 2017.
Hawaii's tallest mountain Mauna KEA first popped up on September 4, 2017 --- nearly a year ago to the day!
Pitching stat ERA (Earned Run Average) had its attempted definition on February 22. At first I had *RBI, which is a stat for a hitter, because I don't know jack about any sports.
Broncos QB John ELWAY appeared on December 10, 2017, and I remembered him!
Pre-CIA organization OSS was last uncovered on December 27, 2017.
We met newsman and "Meet the Press" host Chuck TODD on June 4.
NPR host ARI Shapiro first appeared October 31, 2017, and a few times since.
YIPES, this puzzle was crazy easy. In addition to there being almost no trouble spots, there was a lot of material that had already been covered in this blog. If I had just typed in the letters a little faster, I'd be a big winner, BRO.
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Trent H. Evans gets our minds moving and our thoughts racing with this one, which showcases four phrases that start with action gerunds. "Defenseless target" is SITTING DUCK, "directive that's in force until canceled" is STANDING ORDER, "notice when getting fired" is WALKING PAPERS, and "repeated comical reference" is RUNNING JOKE.
What I like especially about this is that the four action words are in order of least to most movement.
Images on Kansas City Chiefs' helmets are ARROWHEADS. Good fill word. And inside the image are the letters KC.
I'm not familiar with Alaska's North Slope, but it only takes a passing familiarity with the state to know that its resource must be OIL. The Alaska North Slope region includes the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska. The region also includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It's not a great mix.
There were a lot of old crossword friends in this one:
Ancient Asia Minor region IONIA was discovered on December 29, 2017.
Hawaii's tallest mountain Mauna KEA first popped up on September 4, 2017 --- nearly a year ago to the day!
Pitching stat ERA (Earned Run Average) had its attempted definition on February 22. At first I had *RBI, which is a stat for a hitter, because I don't know jack about any sports.
Broncos QB John ELWAY appeared on December 10, 2017, and I remembered him!
Pre-CIA organization OSS was last uncovered on December 27, 2017.
We met newsman and "Meet the Press" host Chuck TODD on June 4.
NPR host ARI Shapiro first appeared October 31, 2017, and a few times since.
YIPES, this puzzle was crazy easy. In addition to there being almost no trouble spots, there was a lot of material that had already been covered in this blog. If I had just typed in the letters a little faster, I'd be a big winner, BRO.
Sunday, September 2, 2018
Sunday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 2, 2018
My time: 23:58, not that good.
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Tom McCoy designed this one, with the title "Going Head to Head." It showcases eight classical rivalries, but with a twist. The title gives us a clue: the first name is printed in the puzzle backwards, so the two characters in the rivalry are going, in fact, head to head. So we have DIVAD [vs.] GOLIATH, NAMTAB JOKER, SUESEHT MINOTAUR, and so on. My favorite is ETOXIUQ WINDMILL.
The David-Goliath one was the first I filled in, but wrongly (i.e., I put David left to right). After I saw the title, I suspected the first name had to be changed in some way, because Mario wasn't fitting in OIRAM BOWSER.
It's tricky to fill in, but is it wit? I got through most of this puzzle fairly quickly, but a couple of rough patches made the time drag.
The Durham Bulls are an AAA baseball team out of North Carolina.
"One of the o's in o/o" confused me. It's OWNER, as in OWNER-operator, mostly used in the trucking industry.
ENO is a near-weekly answer in crosswords, but this time it's playwright Will ENO, who was nominated for the Pulitzer for "Thom Pain (based on nothing)" and won an Obie for "The Open House."
DRAKE University is in Des Moines, Iowa. The fighting Bulldogs!
The protein shell of a virus is called a CASPID. Caspid the friendly virus coat.
"TD Garden athlete" is BRUIN. TD Garden is an arena in Boston, named for TD Bank, a Canadian financial concern. The Boston Bruins are the ice hockey team.
ELISE Stefanik is a New York Representative to Congress. First elected at the age of 30, she was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at the time. She is a member of the Republican Party.
I'm a geography know-nothing. "Body of water connected by canal to the Baltic" is the WHITE SEA.
The NSA is based in Ft. Meade, Maryland. Or so they'd like you to think! According to their website, "One reason the site was selected was because it was deemed far enough away from the capital in case of a nuclear strike." That's reassuring.
Wapitis are actually ELKS. And apparently the more accurate name.
The TV show "GLEE" is set in William McKinley High School for the Arts, a fictional school in Lima, Ohio.
"One out four" in a grand slam" is RBI, which I learned on July 9, but promptly forgot, and was surprised anew.
Clever clues: "Potential queens" is PAWNS. "Strong suit?" is ARMOR. "Tours can be seen on it" is a legitimate pun for the LOIRE. "Brightly colored blazer" is SUN. "They're found under a bridge" is NOSTRILS. "Under half of 45?" is B-SIDE.
This was a tough one. AH, ME.
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Tom McCoy designed this one, with the title "Going Head to Head." It showcases eight classical rivalries, but with a twist. The title gives us a clue: the first name is printed in the puzzle backwards, so the two characters in the rivalry are going, in fact, head to head. So we have DIVAD [vs.] GOLIATH, NAMTAB JOKER, SUESEHT MINOTAUR, and so on. My favorite is ETOXIUQ WINDMILL.
The David-Goliath one was the first I filled in, but wrongly (i.e., I put David left to right). After I saw the title, I suspected the first name had to be changed in some way, because Mario wasn't fitting in OIRAM BOWSER.
It's tricky to fill in, but is it wit? I got through most of this puzzle fairly quickly, but a couple of rough patches made the time drag.
The Durham Bulls are an AAA baseball team out of North Carolina.
"One of the o's in o/o" confused me. It's OWNER, as in OWNER-operator, mostly used in the trucking industry.
ENO is a near-weekly answer in crosswords, but this time it's playwright Will ENO, who was nominated for the Pulitzer for "Thom Pain (based on nothing)" and won an Obie for "The Open House."
DRAKE University is in Des Moines, Iowa. The fighting Bulldogs!
The protein shell of a virus is called a CASPID. Caspid the friendly virus coat.
"TD Garden athlete" is BRUIN. TD Garden is an arena in Boston, named for TD Bank, a Canadian financial concern. The Boston Bruins are the ice hockey team.
ELISE Stefanik is a New York Representative to Congress. First elected at the age of 30, she was the youngest woman ever elected to Congress at the time. She is a member of the Republican Party.
I'm a geography know-nothing. "Body of water connected by canal to the Baltic" is the WHITE SEA.
The NSA is based in Ft. Meade, Maryland. Or so they'd like you to think! According to their website, "One reason the site was selected was because it was deemed far enough away from the capital in case of a nuclear strike." That's reassuring.
Wapitis are actually ELKS. And apparently the more accurate name.
The TV show "GLEE" is set in William McKinley High School for the Arts, a fictional school in Lima, Ohio.
"One out four" in a grand slam" is RBI, which I learned on July 9, but promptly forgot, and was surprised anew.
Clever clues: "Potential queens" is PAWNS. "Strong suit?" is ARMOR. "Tours can be seen on it" is a legitimate pun for the LOIRE. "Brightly colored blazer" is SUN. "They're found under a bridge" is NOSTRILS. "Under half of 45?" is B-SIDE.
This was a tough one. AH, ME.
Saturday, September 1, 2018
Saturday's New York Times crossword puzzle solved: September 1, 2018
My time: 12:08, great for a Saturday.
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Randolph Ross designed this elegant, minimally-black-squared Saturday. There's some admirable fill in here, like IT'S A ZOO ("frazzled communter's comment"), CONAN O'BRIEN, TIGRIS RIVER ("bisector of the Fertile Crescent"), the awful neologism NOTHINGBURGER ("overhyped event, in slang" --- the term's been around since the '50s, I learned to my surprise), and CONTORTIONIST ("one who gets bent out of shape"), among others.
I also like "how someone may be interrupted" for MID-SENTENCE.
The smallest country in mainland Africa is The GAMBIA (the puzzle leaves off the definite article, which is in fact part of its official name, tsk tsk). It is only 4,120 square miles. Algeria has 919,600. The US has 3.7 million square miles.
For "country club figure" I put *DEB but it's PRO.
I am not up on all the newfangled diets. A ketogenic diet encourages the intake of FATS, to replace a dearth of carbs. It is named for the metabolic process known as ketosis, in which your body burns fat for energy instead of carbs.
Soccer great PELE is known as "the Black Pearl," as well as "King Pele."
"Road Runners' race classification" isn't about birds; it's TEN MILE. There are several local groups of runners calling themselves Road Runners who typically run that distance.
For "money in the Bible" I initially put *SHEKELS but also knew TALENTS for the backup when that turned out wrong.
Historical figure I am not familiar with: Henry L. STIMSON, Secretary of War to Taft, Roosevelt and Truman. A looming fiure in US foreign policy, he helped formulate military strategy, and oversaw the Manhattan Project. He supported the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During and after the war, Stimson strongly opposed the Morgenthau Plan, which would have de-industrialized and partitioned Germany into several smaller states. He also insisted on judicial proceedings against Nazi war criminals, leading to the Nuremberg trials.
I was never an Ozhead, as fans of the L. Frank Baum series are called, so I didn't remember the character of Miss Almira GULCH, the film character who threatens to have Toto put to sleep for biting her.
I have never heard of Hunter College, a school that is part of City University of New York, or CUNY, the largest urban university system in the US.
We all remember Janet Reno, but history has drawn a veil over her predecessor, William BARR. An appointee of H.W. Bush, Barr was known as a strong defender of Presidential power and wrote advisory opinions justifying the U.S. invasion of Panama and arrest of Manuel Noriega, and a controversial opinion that the F.B.I. could enter onto foreign soil without the consent of the host government to apprehend fugitives.
SAMBAS clued as "lively dances in 2/4 time" appeared on November 11, 2017.
A shedload of clues worth of the clever classification today: "Had a fit?" is TRIED ON. "Japanese stock holder" is MISO --- very clever. "Force of nature?" is CENTRIPETAL --- my old high school physics teacher Mr. Scott would be proud. "Ones on Telemundo" is UNOS. "Luxurious Italian house" isn't *VILLA but PRADA. "Abbr. for those who don't like parties" is IND. "What's left" is a rather laconic clue for ESTATE.
This was a refreshing, fun puzzle with lots of terrific modern fill and challenging clues. This puzzle shows that Saturday NEED NOT be a slog. CAN IT BE both difficult and fun? Randolph Ross made it so.
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Randolph Ross designed this elegant, minimally-black-squared Saturday. There's some admirable fill in here, like IT'S A ZOO ("frazzled communter's comment"), CONAN O'BRIEN, TIGRIS RIVER ("bisector of the Fertile Crescent"), the awful neologism NOTHINGBURGER ("overhyped event, in slang" --- the term's been around since the '50s, I learned to my surprise), and CONTORTIONIST ("one who gets bent out of shape"), among others.
I also like "how someone may be interrupted" for MID-SENTENCE.
The smallest country in mainland Africa is The GAMBIA (the puzzle leaves off the definite article, which is in fact part of its official name, tsk tsk). It is only 4,120 square miles. Algeria has 919,600. The US has 3.7 million square miles.
For "country club figure" I put *DEB but it's PRO.
I am not up on all the newfangled diets. A ketogenic diet encourages the intake of FATS, to replace a dearth of carbs. It is named for the metabolic process known as ketosis, in which your body burns fat for energy instead of carbs.
Soccer great PELE is known as "the Black Pearl," as well as "King Pele."
"Road Runners' race classification" isn't about birds; it's TEN MILE. There are several local groups of runners calling themselves Road Runners who typically run that distance.
For "money in the Bible" I initially put *SHEKELS but also knew TALENTS for the backup when that turned out wrong.
Historical figure I am not familiar with: Henry L. STIMSON, Secretary of War to Taft, Roosevelt and Truman. A looming fiure in US foreign policy, he helped formulate military strategy, and oversaw the Manhattan Project. He supported the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During and after the war, Stimson strongly opposed the Morgenthau Plan, which would have de-industrialized and partitioned Germany into several smaller states. He also insisted on judicial proceedings against Nazi war criminals, leading to the Nuremberg trials.
I was never an Ozhead, as fans of the L. Frank Baum series are called, so I didn't remember the character of Miss Almira GULCH, the film character who threatens to have Toto put to sleep for biting her.
I have never heard of Hunter College, a school that is part of City University of New York, or CUNY, the largest urban university system in the US.
We all remember Janet Reno, but history has drawn a veil over her predecessor, William BARR. An appointee of H.W. Bush, Barr was known as a strong defender of Presidential power and wrote advisory opinions justifying the U.S. invasion of Panama and arrest of Manuel Noriega, and a controversial opinion that the F.B.I. could enter onto foreign soil without the consent of the host government to apprehend fugitives.
SAMBAS clued as "lively dances in 2/4 time" appeared on November 11, 2017.
A shedload of clues worth of the clever classification today: "Had a fit?" is TRIED ON. "Japanese stock holder" is MISO --- very clever. "Force of nature?" is CENTRIPETAL --- my old high school physics teacher Mr. Scott would be proud. "Ones on Telemundo" is UNOS. "Luxurious Italian house" isn't *VILLA but PRADA. "Abbr. for those who don't like parties" is IND. "What's left" is a rather laconic clue for ESTATE.
This was a refreshing, fun puzzle with lots of terrific modern fill and challenging clues. This puzzle shows that Saturday NEED NOT be a slog. CAN IT BE both difficult and fun? Randolph Ross made it so.
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