Missing the Point
Today's constructor (and neurosurgeon) Dr. Zachary David Levy, presents us with 3 three theme clues filled by two word metaphors ...
17A. Complicated and potentially sensitive subjects: THORNY QUESTIONS.
28A. Shrewd one: SHARP COOKIE.
46A. Fruity drink with a kick: SPIKED PUNCH.
... and this reveal ...
60A. Failing to grasp the obvious, maybe, and what 17-, 28-, and 46-Across are?: MISSING THE POINT. The reveal was not at all obvious to me and I consulted 2 other other Cornerites before Malodorous Manatee came up with a plausible and quite subtle interpretation -- the reveal is a meta clue: "All three answers contain an element of sharpness (thorn, sharp, spike - things that can jab/stab someone) but they are idioms that do not, in and of themselves, have anything to do with being jabbed/stabbed (difficult, smart, laced with alcohol). so they are missing the point." Thank you Joseph!
Here's the grid ...
Here's the rest ...
Across:
1. "When __ fly!": PIGS. "When pigs fly" is an adynaton, a way of saying that something will never happen. The phrase is often used for humorous effect, to scoff at over-ambition. But then never say never -- on November 4, 1909 British aviation pioneer (and humorist!) John Moore-Brabazon, 1st Baron Brabazon of Tara made a flight in his aeroplane with small pig in a waste-paper basket tied to a wing-strut, proving that indeed "pigs can fly". The Baron's porcine pioneer was named Icarus II, who for this feat saved his bacon ... 😀
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| Icarus II |
9. Celebrate: LAUD. Clever clue. "Celebrate" here doesn't mean to throw a party, but rather to "praise", LAUD being a word from Latin meaning praise -- e.g. "Today we laud the Roman poet Ovid for his contribution of the word ODE to crosswordese". Lauds is also the old name for Morning Prayer, a set of Psalms and scripture readings that many Catholics begin each day in praise of God.
13. Each: A POP.
14. Pale as a ghost: ASHEN.
16. "Sesame Street" regular: ELMO. ELMO made some news recently when he asked on Twitter "How is everyone doing?" CNN reported that he received over 180 million responses ...
17. [Theme clue]
20. Events with mutton busting: RODEOS. A CSO to Chairman Moe for reminding me about Crossword Tracker, a database of clues and answers that reveals that this may be the first time this clue has ever been used for this fill. Google however does know about it -- Mutton busting is an event held at rodeos similar to bull riding or bronco busting, in which children ride or race sheep. Here are the Mutton Bustin' highlights from the San Antonio Rodeo on Feb. 10, 2024 ... 21. Color: DYE.
22. Shoe front: TOE. -- or P. Martin Shoemaker, the front (or editor) of the Treetops Tatler, a popular liner for the floors of bird cages. 😀
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| P. Martin Shoemaker |
23. Aquatic mammal: OTTER. Otters are one of the more adorable species of crosswordese. And of course English otters are the most adorable 😀...
24. Intimidates: DAUNTS.
27. Lav: LOO. Britspeak -- the LAV is where you'll find the LOO. The first is a place, the second is a euphemism, which may or may not have originated in Victorian times.
28. [Theme clue]
33. Trimmer's target: BEARD.
34. Civil rights org.: NAACP. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du Bois, Mary White Ovington, Moorfield Storey, Ida B. Wells, Lillian Wald, and Henry Moskowitz. Over the years, leaders of the organization have included Thurgood Marshall and Roy Wilkins.
35. Flight assignment: GATE.
38. __ couture: HAUTE. Haute couture (French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design. In France the creation of Haute couture is actually regulated by the state to insure the quality of clothing products, much like the Appellation system insures the quality of French wines. Here we see Haute couture fashion models walk the runway during New York Fashion Week.
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| Haute couture models |
42. Graphic that typically has HI and AK in insets: US MAP. Here's a contiguous US MAP with HI and AK not shown as insets ...
44. Gets rid of: OUSTS.
46. [Theme clue]
49. Topper: CAP.
52. Better half: SPOUSE. This expression has been around at least since the 1500's. My favorite diminutive for a SPOUSE is used by Welshmen who throughout their lives refer to their wives as "my new bride". Perhaps it has gone out of fashion, as Google's AI was unable to find it.
53. "I'm at your disposal": USE ME. 59A me!
55. Notable time: ERA.
58. Autograph, briefly: SIG. Here are some famous autographs.
60. [Theme reveal]
64. Notion: IDEA.
65. Gather, as information: GLEAN. Long before information was gleaned, the poor used to gather grain left over for the harvest, as shown in this famous painting. Can you find the Easter egg in the artist's last name?😀
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| The Gleaners Jean-François Millet |
66. Tropical tuber: TARO. Taro is a root vegetable. It is the most widely cultivated species of several plants in the family Araceae that are used as vegetables for their corms, leaves, stems and petioles. Taro corms are a food staple in African, Oceanic, East Asian, Southeast Asian and South Asian cultures (similar to yams). Taro is believed to be one of the earliest cultivated plants. Here are some things you should know if you want to try it.
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| Taro roots |
68. Circular current: EDDY. An eddy is a miniature whirlpool or whirlwind resulting when the current of a fluid doubles back on itself.
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| An eddy |
Down:
1. Reconnaissance group: PATROL. As has been reported here before, the first known reconnaissance mission is reported in the Old Testament book of Numbers chapter 13. But the skills and technology at the disposal of recon teams has improved considerably since then. Probably the most famous modern recon patrol was Operation Neptune Spear conducted by Navy Seal Team 6 to assassinate Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania.
2. Bygone picture-editing app: IPHOTO. iPhoto is a discontinued digital photograph manipulation software application developed by Apple Inc. It was included with every Mac computer from 2002 to 2015, when it was replaced with Apple's Photos application
3. Treating properly: GOOD TO. Practicing the Golden Rule, common among many religions.
4. Free-for-all: SPREE.
5. Blurts out: SAYS.
6. Letters on some business cards: ESQ. In the United States, esquire (often shortened to Esq.) is a title of courtesy, given to a lawyer and commonly appended to his/her surname ( e.g. , John Smith, Esq. or John Smith, Esquire) when addressing the lawyer in written form. A CSO to Jason and Susan!
7. "Crazy Rich Asians" director Jon M. __: CHU. Crazy Rich Asians (note -- no comma after Crazy) is a 2018 American romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jon M. Chu, from a screenplay by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim, based on the 2013 novel of the same title by Kevin Kwan. The film stars Constance Wu, Henry Golding, Gemma Chan, Lisa Lu, Awkwafina, Ken Jeong, and Michelle Yeoh. It follows a Chinese-American professor, Rachel, who travels to Singapore with her boyfriend Nick and is shocked to discover that Nick's family is one of the richest families in Singapore ...
8. Got ready for a drive: TEED UP. A golf ball TEED UP and ready to drive ...
 |
10. Tons: ALOT.
11. "Yeah, I don't think so": UM NO. Would you make up your mind!?
12. Rx information: DOSE.
15. Bass group?: NSYNC. Clever clue. This perped in, but I didn't know that Lance Bass was a singer in the boy band 'N Sync. Here's their It's Gonna Be Me ...
18. Like Loki: NORSE. The god Loki is a trickster in Norse mythology.
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| Loki |
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| The Tetons and the Snake River Ansel Adams |
24. Olympic swimmer Torres: DARA. Dara Grace Torres (born April 15, 1967) is an American former competitive swimmer, who is a 12-time Olympic medalist and former world record-holder in three events. Torres is the first swimmer to represent the United States in five Olympic Games (1984, 1988, 1992, 2000 and 2008), and at age 41, the oldest swimmer to earn a place on the U.S. Olympic team.
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| Dara Torres |
26. Some dailies: SOAPS. Not news publications but soap operas, daytime dramas or soaps for short -- long-running radio or television serials, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored by soap manufacturers. The term was preceded by "horse opera", a derogatory term for low-budget Westerns. The longest running American soap was the Guiding Light, with a combined run on radio and television from 1937 to 2009 with a total of 18,262 episodes. See 51D for more about soaps.
30. Penn of "House" and the White House: KAL. Kalpen Suresh Modi (born April 23, 1977), known professionally as Kal Penn, is an American actor, author, and former White House staff member in the Barack Obama administration as the Associate Director of the Office of Public Engagement.
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| Kal Penn |
32. Ecol. watchdog: EPA.
33. Egg crackers: BEAKS. Among the birds that eat the eggs of other birds are the Fish Crow, the American Crow, and the Blue Jay.
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| Ovivorous Blue Jay |
35. Gloomy guy: GUS. The term Gloomy Gus originated from a comic strip character created by Frederick Burr Opper, an American cartoonist. The term was first used in 1904.
36. Nile reptile: ASP. Legend has it that Queen Cleopatra VII of Egypt committed suicide by subjecting herself to the bite of an ASP. This famous painting shows her trying out different methods of execution on condemned prisoners, ostensibly to find the least painful method, should she ever need to take her own life.
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| Cleopatra testing poisons on condemned criminals Alexandre Cabanel 1823-1889 |
37. Short "Didn't need to hear that!": TMI.
39. Adjust: TUNE.
40. Top-left keyboard key: ESC. Among the many advantages of being a leftie. 😀
43. One side in the cola wars: PEPSI. We're non-aligned in these wars -- we don't drink colas.
45. Dull sound: THUMP.
47. Not just talking about: DOING. "Actions speak louder than words, but not nearly as often" -- Mark Twain, et alia.
48. Designer dog crossbreed with a black snout: PUGGLE. A puggle is a portmanteau of PUG and BEAGLE. The official breed originated in the 1990s in the United States, but it wasn't initially by design.
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| Puggle |
49. __ disease: gluten intolerance: CELIAC. Celiac disease is an illness caused by an immune reaction to eating gluten. Gluten is a protein found in foods containing wheat, barley or rye.
50. Detroit Lions Pro Bowl receiver __ St. Brown: AMONRA. Amon-Ra Julian Heru John St. Brown (born October 24, 1999) is a German-American professional football wide receiver for the Detroit Lions of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the USC Trojans and was selected by the Lions in the fourth round of the 2021 NFL draft. St. Brown was voted to the Pro Bowl from 2022 to 2024, and was a first-team All-Pro in 2023 and 2024.
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| Amon-Ra St. Brown |
51. Place name in 1960s TV: PEYTON. As in Peyton Place, an American prime-time soap opera that aired on ABC in half-hour episodes from September 15, 1964, to June 2, 1969, for a total of 514 episodes It had an all star regular cast and many guest stars. With Peyton Place, ABC hoped to bring the success of the British serial Coronation Street to America. The latter started in 1960 and as of this post it's still running, with a total of 11,474 episodes. The next longest Brit soap is Emmerdale, which started in 1972 and is currently at 10,193 episodes. The Brits love their soaps!
55. Doha dignitary: EMIR. Doha is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar, an Arabic country located on the Persian Gulf. Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani is Emir of Qatar, reigning since 2013.
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| Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani Emir of Qatar |
57. Way out there: ASEA.
59. Wee: EENY.
61. Down in the dumps: SAD.
62. "Ideas change everything" org.: TED. Sometimes for the better, sometimes to no effect, and sometimes for the worse.
63. Bamboozled: HAD.
Cheers,
Bill
And as always, thanks to Teri for proofreading and for her constructive criticism.
waseeley
29 comments:
Like Waseely, I didn’t understand the reveal until it was explained. I got the “point” but not the “missing” part at first. It still seems a little far-fetched, but okay. Anyway, I didn’t find this puzzle to be all that difficult. FIR, so I’m happy.
Good morning!
Nope. My THUNK and HAT made it impossible to see through the trees in the SE. If I knew CELIAC, I didn't remember it. I never knew AMON-RA. I knew PETYON Place, but couldn't remember it. Bzzzzzzt. Thanx, ZDL, waseeley, and Teri.
FIR, but hedge->BEARD, seat->GATE, hat->CAP, ext->ESQ, scars->SPOTS, afar->ASEA, and tiny->EENY.
I still refer to my better half as "my bride," after almost 34 years.
The late Bill Withers had a big hit with USE ME.
Today they will TEE UP for the Pebble Beach Pro Am tournament. Scotty Scheffler will be playing for the first time since accidently stabbing his hand with the stem of a broken wine glass - while making homemade pasta.
I've just started Mossad, a book about the Israeli version of the CIA (only better.)
I was drinking about 1.5 liters of caffeine free diet soda (PEPSI, or Coke when the PEPSI version was out of stock) every day, but gave it up as a New Year's resolution. So far, so good.
Tom T. Hall grew up near where I did, and wrote a great song with the line "this is just a little PEYTON Place, and you're all Harper Valley hypocrites." The ears of the folks in his home town of Pleasant Valley, Kentucky must have been burning when they first heard the song.
Thanks to ZDL for another fun puzzle, although CELIAC and AMONRA just about brought me down. Changing hat to CAP saved the day. And thanks to Bill 'n' Teri for another fine review, with help from our MalMan.
Took 6:46 today for me to play the blank Scrabble tile, or suffer from acute bronchitis.
The clue for "arduous" made me think of our own SubG.
I didn't know "puggle", nor what a "designer dog crossbreed" was.
Luckily, I remembered "Dara", "Kal", and "Amon Ra". Amon-Ra has two brothers: Equanimeous (also played in the NFL) and Osiris. Their father's name is John, and he was a former Mr. Universe. The brothers' last name is "St. Brown," while their parents' last name is "Brown."
Not too difficult today but I still had to accept a FIW, had the grid filled in good time but no congratulatory message. Pored over the puzzle for a bit and couldn’t find a mistake, finally gave up and clicked on “reveal grid”, I had taunts/Tara instead of DAUNTS/DARA. DNK PUGGLE, CELIAC, or *NSYNC as clued, but I did know AMON RA (those with a sports allergy probably won’t though). I saw the points, but didn’t get the meta “missing” part till the expo. Thank you Zachary for your construction, and to Bill and Teri for another outstanding review. I learned a lot today, among which is what an adynaton is, which auto correct doesn’t even recognize.
FIR. Proper names and obscure glues made this a tad crunchy today. I had to really work at this puzzle.
Even with the explanation of the theme, I still found it rather obtuse.
So overall, not an enjoyable puzzle.
Did the same...Tara instead of Dara
Jumped into the Thursday fray, typically a bump up in difficulty but tat least a gettable theme. GLOOMily the reveal reveals I FIW had *TARA/tAUNTS ☹️ (like YP)
Inkovers : Rise/RIDE, Sara/TARA, (wrong) lookto/GOODTO
“Base ball been …. GOOD TO me…”Couldn’t find an SNL skit with Mets player “Chico Escuela” (Garrett Morris) except on TIK TOK
AMONRA ? The Egyptian sun god? (Or a deli sangwidge)… EENY or EENSY,(which is bad enuff,)
“An EENY piece of pie??” Thought it was smartCOOKIE. Like our CW favorite Oreo.
What’s “mutton bustin? they asked sheepishly UMNO 🤨 . What’s the correct way to GLEAN roses? : THORNY QUESTIONS
“….TETON is français for ___ 😳 (Refer to the Cleopatra painting)
“Almosts”: a nice Hawaiian “punch” too long. seat “assignments” cult SECT
What happened to “no politics” ? I.C.E. / OUST, USMAP (no “new” insets?) 😆
Yesterday’s debate AS PER calling gramps ____ …. APOP.
One male Olympic swimmer ____ shoulder rotator cuff tendon…. TORRES
One female Olympic swimmer went on to ___ knee ligament…*TARA
TG tomorrow is F. What a week
Arduous today for me, not a walk in the park. Friday-like. One bad cell. I, too, had Tara and Taunt. I put down the T and didn't look for a better letter. Duh! Daunt makes much more sense.
After I finished I sussed the theme. Not a fan.
I PHOTO was all perps. With NSY-- I thought of the group, NSYNC. PU---E suggested puggle.
Mutton busting? UM NO. When my kids were aged 4-7 I would not have let them do that.
I used to belong to an all women's exercise group. They spilled the tea about the soaps' characters as though they were real. I hope she doesn't... She should... I feel sorry her. Will they hook up? Not my cuppa tea.
Good Morning:
I (partially got the theme on my own but totally “got” it after the excellent explanation. I like the themers but I believe Smart Cookier is the more common term. Amon-Ra and Chu were unknowns but no w/os. I didn’t care for Sig as an abbreviation, a small nit in an otherwise enjoyable solve.
Thanks, ZDL, for a fun Thursday and thanks, Bill, for a very informative summary. Love the Puggle! Thanks, also, to MalMan, for explaining the depth of the theme so well.
Have a great day.
Cookie, not Cookier. 😬
There was much to like about today's puzzle. It was well-constructed, with two grid-spanners, including the reveal and one of the theme answers. I thought the theme clever, with the reveal reminding us that the key words in the three theme answers--thorny, sharp, and spiked--actually lacked needle-like points. Interestingly, only one of the three was a true idiom ("sharp cookie").
Another refreshing aspect to Zachary's puzzle today was that it avoided that annoying aspect of crosswordese, the ubiquitous use of vowel-rich tired old staples like ACAI and OREO.
And as a lover of misdirection, I appreciated clues like "Egg crackers?" and "Used books?"
All was not bliss, however. I shared with others the Natick quagmire in the SE, as well as taunt/Tara vs. daunt/Dara. You either knew the name of the swimmer or you didn't.
Thanks, Zachary, for a fresh and entertaining challenge, and Waseeley for leading the way.
DNF, I wasn’t SHARP enough to come up with COOKIE since I missed NSYNC, SOAPS, á clever clue, and I didn’t know KAL.
The rest fell into place though I didn’t know AMONRA and DARA, but perps took care of them.
As for the theme, I had no IDEA how to make it work. IMHO, that’s the weak element of this CW that is otherwise á fine one.
I know about goldendoodles and labradoodles, but I hadn’t heard of PUGGLEs.
Thank you waseeley for á really fine review.
Hola! Yes, I remember DARA Torres for her age as a swimmer, 40 at the time.
One of my friends has CELIAC disease. She never eats bread or any flour product. I know LAUDs as explained by our host, a morning prayer; it is preceded by Matins.
AMON-RA is a historic Egyptian pharaoh.
PUGGLE is new to me but I don't know many dog breeds except the most common. Sometimes I watch the Westminster Dog Show and am in awe of the many, many dog breeds, most of which I don't know and won't recall.
Have a lovely day, everyone!
Musings
-Me too, TAUNTS/TARA was right. HAH! Give me one bad cell.
-Wow, talk about subtle gimmicks.
-Flo, on the TV show Alice, said, "When donkeys fly!"
-It’s getting harder and harder to find teachers to EMPLOY for openings
-I did not get TEED UP yesterday because the lack of moisture caused my course to close for the time being
-Yeah, Jinx, Jeannie C. Riley sang
And then you have the nerve to tell me
You think that as the mother I'm not fit
Well, this is just a little PEYTON PLACE
And you're all Harper Valley hypocrites
Well,
I did this puzzle at 6pm EST yesterday... finally all caught up and enjoyed reading all that went on in the past two days. The fact that a west coast paper posted the next days puzzle at sometime before 3pm (their time) caught me completely by surprise. I should have known when the website cookies showed the completed symbol two puzzles down from the top, but I had recently cleared my cache and deleted my cookies, which always takes a few days to get reloaded properly, so I just didn't realize that they take their morning crowd coffee club very seriously...
Ray-o- you ask a THORNY QUESTION about those new insets.
Testing Thursday. Thanks for the fun, Zachary, and waseeley and Teri. (LOL on that GLEAN Millet Easter Egg.)
Officially a DNF today with the cross of GLEAN, PUGGLE and TED leaving me short at the L and E.
Plus a FIW- hand up for Taunt (and of course this Canadian didn’t know DARA). I had toyed with Haunt but totally missed DAUNT which matches the clue the best.
I did see the POINTs in the themers, but scratched my head since they are not MISSING !?? Meta themes are not my cup of tea. Perhaps Zachary will pop in here to elucidate.
Nails changed to BEARD, Scars to SPOTS.
Thud was too short, but THUMP fit.
Hand up for Hat to CAP.
This Canadian can never remember NAACP but perps were friendly.
Similarly, HI and AK as abbreviations meant nothing to me -perps again for the Aha.
I have visited the TETONS on a drive from Yellowstone Park to the Canadian Rockies.
SIG could have been paired with DOSE in RX information clueing. SIG is short for the Latin “signetur” meaning “let it be labelled”, and gives the prescriber’s direction for the instructions on the Rx label (ie TER in dies or TID, instructing that the DOSE is to be taken three times daily).
Wishing you all a great day.
I really liked this puzzle, but FIW at the TARA/TAUNT intersection. Until that, the clues seemed easier than the last few days. Go figure. Didn't fully grok the theme until Waseely cleared it up. Remember, that when pigs fly, the wise individual carries a sturdy umbrella.
CanadianEh!, the TETONS are south of Yellowstone. Were you taking a round-about route to the Canadian Rockies?
The solve was a bit crunchy but Thursday worthy.
The theme was an esotaric stretch. Not my cup of tea.
Hand up mystified by the theme. Yes, it would be ideal if Zachary David Levy stopped by to tell us exactly what he had in mind. But I did get the idea that all of the theme answers involved POINTy idioms.
Last to fill was mysterious AMONRA/EMPLOY as clued. Now that I see how it is AMON-RA I am intrigued at the hubris of his parents to give him that name. The top god in the Egyptian pantheon of gods. FIR.
waseeley Thanks for the PIGS FLY illustration and the note about MILLET subjects harvesting MILLET.
Here is my article on a most interesting RIDE Merlie and I recently took in San Francisco.
Has anyone else had this experience?
LOL d’otto. We did travel north through Montana and took the scenic Going to the Sun road through Glacier National Park and then north to the Canadian border at Eastport, Idaho. I have always associated the Tetons with this area. (But it was over 30 years ago.). Thanks for setting me straight.
It was and ARDUOUS trek to FIR today. I noticed the SHARP items and MISSING THE POINT, but metas? Didn't notice.
DNK CHU, NSYNC. or AMON RA. He doesn't remind me of the Egyptian sun god, Amun Ra. I see his brother OSIRIS as another Egyptian god.
"When PIGS fly!" Remember SWINE FLU from a few years ago.
Jacob said "Be fruitful and multiply", just leave out your neighbor's wife.
Why is HAUTE couture regulated because nobody, other than the models, ever wears those goofy looking outfits.
Another abbr. SIG that can join SESH, CONVO, and a few other non-words showing up in puzzles to go along with "real" words. OTT, ORR, ORA, DUA, KAL to fill three letter holes.
PUGGLE can join Labradoodle, Golden doodle, Picapoo...et al. Never heard of that cross-breed.
Thursday puzzle. All cheers pointed to 50 down …..So deserving.
Greet the day.
Better clue for SIG: "___ Sauer." At least for those of us who enjoy the shooting arts.
You won't see PUGGLES, goldendoodles or labradoodles at Westminster, except for the non-confirmation events like agility, which is open to all kinds of canine.
That was the day my momma socked it to the Harper Valley PTA. Kind of interesting that he was local. I'm too young when Tom T lived in the neighborhood, but family lore says he used to frequent our restaurant, and ordered a hamburger and fries every time. He was also a DJ at our 1,000 watt AM, daytime-only radio station, and used to entertain at the drive-in movie before the start of the feature, playing from the back of a flatbed truck. He made big, just like Limu the Emu. To locals his name was "peewee," not Tom T.
Tough, but still entertaining Thursday puzzle, many thanks, Zachary. And thanks for that sweet picture of the cute PUGGLE, Bill and Teri--I loved seeing it.
Well, this puzzle DAUNTed me with words suggesting doing harm--like THORNY, and SHARP, and SPIKED and ARDUOUS. I figured we needed a PATROL to keep us safe in this place. But then nice concepts emerged here and there too, like a suggestion that maybe we should be GOOD TO people, and wear a LEI, and take care of some PIGS and an OTTER, and of course that sweet PUGGLE. Then we could read the US MAP and figure out where we might be able to see a RODEO, while drinking a PEPSI. Wouldn't that be a great IDEA?
Have a sunny day, if possible, everybody.
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