Title: Over and Over Again
The odd clue ( - ) gave me a hint where I needed to look for the theme, but this was a challenge. It was great to have our LA pediatrician Peter back after a long absence. I blogged his debut puddle- I mean puzzle LINK and he has stopped by to talk with us some after his publications. With no fill longer than 9 letters, nothing jumped out. It was only by focusing on filling the downs that the light bulb came on and I 'saw' his theme in the sea of white. Very few short fill and so many interesting others like UP DRAFT, NAVARRE, SPLOTCH, DEAD SEA, SLEPT IN, APHASIA, WHEEDLED, UNWEANED, STEADIEST, SLY AS A FOX. Lots of French, many witty clues and much to chew on. Welcome back Peter; we hope you stop by and give us some thoughts.
14A. Art critic's phrase, literally : STYLE (5). OVER
17A. - : SUBSTANCE (9). This CONCEPT is called form over substance in the writing of legal briefs etc.
30A. Theme park near Dallas, literally : SIX FLAGS (8). OVER
36A. - : TEXAS (5). This THEME PARK was the response to Disneyland; it opened in 1961.
42A. Changes one's ways, literally : TURNS (5). OVER
47A. - : A NEW LEAF (8). This IDIOM appears to date back to the 1600s.
62A. Tumbles out of control, literally : FALLS HEAD (9). OVER
66A. - : HEELS (5). This PHRASE has its origin 700 years ago.
Across:
1. Test : ASSAY. I learned this word watching old westerns on TV when they brought their gold to the assay office.
6. Law degs. : JDS. Juris Doctor.
9. While-__: repair shop sign words : U-WAIT. These days they work on COMPUTERS.
15. Calendar pg. : OCTober. Random.
16. NBA's Jackson et al. : PHILS. Phil Jackson having a hard time succeeding in NY; week fill, Phil.
19. "10" co-star : DEREK. She is now with John Corbett from Cecily, Alaska20. Send out : EMIT.
21. Pamplona's municipality : NAVARRE. I am confused, not only because I do not know geography but because I thought PAMPLONA is the city for this FESTIVAL..
23. Big stain : SPLOTCH.
25. Israeli border lake : DEAD SEA.
29. "Doubt it" : NAH.
31. "Conan" channel : TBS. Any of you watch him?
34. Dayan of Israel : MOSHE. He was a storybook hero for Israel.
37. Giants manager before Bochy : ALOU. Felipe, the oldest brother.
39. Like non-oyster months, traditionally : R-LESS. Try explaining this concept to a Thai woman where the letter that looks like "R" sounds like "L."
41. Ration (out) : DOLE.
44. "The Deep" director Peter : YATES. He directed BULLITT as well. The movie was based on a book by Peter Benchley, who also wrote JAWS. Jacqueline Bisset set the gold standard for a wet t-shirt SCENE.
46. Bottom line : NET.
49. Closing sequence : XYZ.
51. They're often numbered : STREETS. Random.
52. Bench warmers? : JURISTS. More legal misdirection.
56. Loss of speech : APHASIA. Aphasia is a communication disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language (typically in the left half of the brain). Growing up around a doctor and a nurse I heard this term when I was very young.
58. Drive-__ : THRU.
59. Before, in Brest : AVANT. Literal French. No Brest milk.
64. "In the Bedroom" Oscar nominee : TOMEI. I never saw this movie, but Marisa is always a pleasure.
LINK
65. Passé : OUT.
67. "Surprise Symphony" composer : HAYDN. Wiki says it better.
68. Big tees : XLS. Not in a world of XXXL.
69. Matrix, e.g. : ARRAY.
Down:
2. Baffle : STUMP.
3. Prophetess : SYBIL. This is not a name but a description. There is much to learn if you like HISTORY and MYTH.
4. Longtime Dodger manager : ALSTON. Along with Tommy Lasorda, this MANAGER led the Dodgers through 4 world championships and the only one won in Brooklyn. If you love baseball you know this man.
5. Still : YET.
6. Whale of a guy? : JONAH. More of the wit in the cluing.
7. Half of MCDX : DCCV. Peter has used Roman Numerals as glue before.
8. Most constant : STEADIEST.
9. Kite aid : UPDRAFT. Soaring!
10. Cajoled : WHEEDLED.
11. Whistle blower? : AIR. Literal but deceptive!!!
12. Key for Fauré? : ILE. French for Island. hmm lots of French.
13. "For shame!" : TSK.
18. Run at the end : ANCHOR. The relay team in the race.
22. "Toy Story" dinosaur : REX.
24. Highland lid : TAM.
26. Ancient Germanic invader : SAXON.
27. Even, in Évian : EGALE. French mostly associated with equal. Liberté, égalité, fraternité (French pronunciation: [libɛʁte eɡalite fʁatɛʁnite]), French for "liberty, equality, fraternity", is the national motto of France and the Republic of Haiti, and is an example of a tripartite motto.W.
28. Valuable team member : ASSET.
30. Field unit : SHEAF.
31. Byes : TATAS. See below.
32. Not sharp : BLUNT.
33. More ticked : SORER.
35. Cunning : SLY AS A FOX. This is new stuff, only one other LAT appearance back in 2006.
38. Still breast-feeding : UNWEANED. Boobies next to...
40. __ orientation : SEXUAL.
43. Ignored the alarm : SLEPT IN. Good idea after sex.
45. Civil war site since 2011: Abbr. : SYRia.
48. E. African land : ETHiopia.
50. Dulcimer kin : ZITHER.
52. Crushes an altar ego? : JILTS. Very witty clue. You never know, but this sounds like some of Peter's earlier cluing.
53. Utter : SHEER.
54. Part of a skipping refrain : TRALA. LALA. I hope Linda is well.
55. Like some heads : SUDSY. Beer, both kinds.
57. King anointed by Samuel : SAUL.
59. Sports fig. : ATHlete. There is only one A in athlete.
60. U.S. govt. broadcaster : VOA. The fifth appearance this year in the LAT and the third on a Friday.
61. Acker of "Person of Interest" : AMY. She reappears soon enough that I recalled her.
63. Doo-wop syllable : SHA. Na Na after last weeks No no? No!
What a work out with some of the most fun cluing of the year. If you do not see the visual you lose the joy. I hope you all are having a wonderful December. Lemonade out.
50 comments:
Greetings!
Thanks to Peter and Lemon.
This one was doable. Yesterday's NYT also had dashes but the trick was a lot more obtuse!
Navarre's capital is Pamplona, Spain.
YATES was perped.
Really miss POI!
Have a great day!
FIR. Got the theme at literally the c̶l̶u̶e̶> clue, which helped. Difficult, but didn't seem quite as bad as most Fridays.
{A, B+, B, A-.}
There once was a SYBIL named Cybill
Who tended, when drinking, to dribble.
Not that she was clumsy
With beers that were SUDSY,
But shooting hoops, she'd sometimes also nibble!
There's a number of things that might faze ya:
A DRIVE-THRU with various ARRAYS a'
SEXUAL partners to date,
A brothel WHILE-U-WAIT,
Or a limerick writer with a case of APHASIA!
Wally at last WHEEDLED some wheels;
With his parents he had to make deals.
Although in his teens
They still thought him UNWEANED,
YET cars he loved HEAD OVER HEELS!
His ASSETS they tried to ASSAY;
Of fillies he had an ARRAY.
Jenny ASSES in sets
With little ass-ettes,
And one thoroughly exhausted male bay!
A friend of mine has two tickets for the 2017 Super Bowl, both box seats. He paid $1,700 for each ticket. He didn't realize when he bought them that this was going to be on the same day as his wedding - so now he can't go.
Anyone here like to go in his place?
It's at St Peter's Church, in New York City, at 5 pm. Her name is Nancy, she's 5'4",and about 115 lbs. A good cook, and makes $90,000 a year! She will be the one in the white dress.
Good morning!
No write-overs on this one. It was a straight top-to-bottom solve. The sports names (ALSTON, PHILS, ALOU) weren't familiar as clued, but perped nicely. Got the theme when I noticed that 17 wasn't where I expected it to be. Nice one, Peter.
Lemon, you sure had sex on the brain this morning. Of course, Peter gave you a lot to work with. Your XXXL comment made me think of Wally-World; they seem to specialize in over-sized clothing. Meat packaging, too. Cute wedding story.
Lemon: LOL even though I was sort of expecting it!
(BTW, if anyone didn't get it: "literally the c̶l̶u̶e̶> clue" = "the second clue")
Sure glad everyone who has posted today as of 6:50 AM had an easy time, but this dumb ass is taking a DNF. The - clues made no sense to me and finally sunk in after reading Lemon's explanation the second time. In spite of my problems it was the SE corner that did me in.
Now that I see Peters gimmick, the case is solved, albeit a little too late. The sports clues were easy, but the French stuff were all perps.
Being a sports enthusiast, 52A Bench Warmers, JURISTS never entered my mind. When I filled in JILTS and SEXUAL, the light came on.
Being a lifetime Giant fan, I was happy when Bochy replaced Felipe ALOU.
Enough griping....even though it was a failure, I enjoyed the challenge. Not enough to do OVER though.
Dagnab it !
ePHASIA.
TURNS (over) A NEW LEAF gave me the game.
Prior to that, I wasn't sure what was going on. Even went so far as to open up the puzzle at the LAT Times website to see if it had dashes instead of clues.
It was worse. It didn't even have dashes. And the clue numbering is different as well. For instance, there is no 17A at the LA Times website. That might make it a bit harder (for someone that did the puzzle online at the LA Times website) to follow their grids while reading Lemonade's review.
Anyway, everything except APHASIA was either known or perped in.
I finished it but had no idea about the dashes. I understand the explanation but I think that falls into the category of Stupid Puzzle Themes. Not a fan.
Could not do this CW. Numbers in the wrong places on my CW. Impossible.
Of course I didn't see the theme, only shrugged at the unnumbered lines. A hearty thank you, Lemonade for your lucid explanation. It's too early for me anyway and I wish I had SLEPTIN.
And I'm quite sure Pamplona's region should be NAVARRA. NAVARRE sounds French, not Spanish. I have been at Pamplona one July 11 for the running of the bulls. Great fun!
Overall, this was difficult but I persevered, cell by cell. Marisa TOMEI was known and she's the only one I recall from that movie, "In the Bedroom." MOSHE Dayan also fell easily as he was often in the news. The clue for JONAH was clever.
ALSTON, PHILS and ALOU were all perped. Sports!
Thank you, once more, Lemonade and thank you, Peter Koetters for a good morning challenge.
Have a spectacular day, everyone!
Wow! Fun! I worked bottom up. FALLS HEAD OVER HEELS revealed the theme. Real challenge, but I got it unassisted. I tried to check "iffy" answers on Mensa, but the numbers didn't match. Grid was okay after all.
Perped YATES and ALSTON, wagged ALOU and TOMEI. So much clever fill, bench warmers, whale of a guy, whistle blower, key for Faure (a composer, so this was a poser),crushes an altar ego. like some heads.
I hesitated with PHILS but when I finally used it the AIR on the ILE became clear.
Good Morning.
Whew, Peter, what a challenge! Still fun and a great construction. I had no idea what was going on with the - until my last fill in the SE with HEAD OVER HEELS. Then I looked back at the other hyphens. Ah, ha!! Nicely done. Thanks.
Great guidance on this one, Lemonade! You pulled all the loose ends together with STYLE and SUBSTANCE!! Thank you.
Busy time of year. I don't know where I'd be without my Jr. Legal size lists. I start every day with one; currently they are quite long. December 2, 2016--Egads!
Have a good weekend.
TTP et al,
My newspaper had no dashes and no numbers either for the "under" clues, which caused the difference in Lemon's numbering. I also had to come here to finish it. Very frustrating.
Good Morning:
This certainly had both STYLE and SUBSTANCE to spare! It took awhile to catch the theme but, when I did, it was an Aha and Eureka moment rolled into one! Had mules before asses and, as always spelled Moshe as Moise and tried to put an extra "s" in aphasia. Other than those hiccups, all went well.
Thanks, Peter, for GOING [above] AND BEYOND with this fun and enjoyable challenge. Thanks, Lemony, for the informative review.
"In The Bedroom" was a very intense movie, definitely not for the faint of heart. Marisi Tomei is a very accomplished actress; who could forget her in "My Cousin Vinny?"
I'm giving up on "Designated Survivor." It was far-fetched from the beginning but has become farther-fetched than I am willing to fetch! Ditto for "Scorpion." I'm still enjoying "This Is Us" and tongue-in-cheek "Bull." It's kind of goofy but it's an antidote to all the blood and misery that I close my eyes at while watching "Chicago Med" and "Code Black."
Waiting for the serviceman to pronounce my furnace fit as a fiddle. My car passed inspection with flying colors, let's hope the furnace does, also. Then, off to buy a gazillion birthday cards, Christmas cards, and gift cards. What's in your wallet? 🤓
Have a great day.
It took me 3 sessions to complete this puzzle. I used red letter assistance but never had to do an alphabet run. I never figured out the theme. Thanks, Lemon, for the explanation, but the 'visual' turned on the understanding for me.
Phil Jackson was born in Montana.
In my early teaching days, a company started mining gold in the Little Rocky Mountains just south of my home. There is a town from the Old West days (where Butch Cassidy, Kid Curry & the like hung out) that had an assay office they needed to tear down. They brought all the equipment to the local chemistry teacher (me). My community had a great time looking at the strange glassware (retorts were the favorite) and such. I kept one of each to display, gave some to our museum and gave the rest to any person who wanted it. The best item was a balance that still had the quality one would pay huge dollars for now. My school certainly never could have afforded one. Good memories.
Have a good day,
Montana
Sent from my iPad
Kazie, my newspaper had no dashes and no numbers either for the "under" clues, which I appreciated. It alerted me immediately that the numberless clue and and answer would be a run on following a previous clue. Mensa was numbered like Lemon's. I wonder how the original puzzle was numbered.
I have seen Navarre before. I just now looked it up and see that the -e ending is our conventional way of spelling it, although the Spanish use the -a. It was formed from part of the ancient kingdom of Navarre which the French ruled at some time in the past, hence the French spelling. I find it interesting the way many nations have changed the spelling, pronunciation and sometimes even the names of foreign places. For example, Wien became Vienna to us.
I think we are becoming a style over substance people. I have seen it in education even before I retired 16 years ago. Sound bytes and quick clicks seem to have replaced deeper thinking and reflection. Kids, especially, have become impatient and look for superficial answers. You see this everywhere. It is in politics, too. Here endeth the rant for today.
Oh my goodness! I was in over my head with this puzzle, but finally went over and beyond and solved it, hooray. I, too had no idea there were dashes, but when turn over a new leaf appeared, I could go back and make sure everything else was what is was supposed to be! Yes, I still lurk here and always have a wonderful time reading everyone's postings. Yellowrocks, your rant is something I, too, fear is happening everywhere. Scary! I'm off and so I can get getting busier by the minute. Thank you all for your my break just for myself! This puzzler is over and out.
What a workout today. Thanks for the fun Peter and Lemonade.
I did the CW on Mensa with dashes and did not get the theme. I actually thought the theme had something to do with TAR (SUBSTANCE from TEXAS, TarHEELS, but couldn't figure out how a New Leaf would fit) - AHA moment when I got here!
I had Cle before ILE (other meaning of key!), Mete before DOLE, Moore before DEREK, Mon before OCT, and toyed with Paul or PHIL because Reggie wouldn't fit. (There are lots of Jacksons in the NBA!)
I don't know my American TV stations and had to Google for TBS and VOA.
I smiled at SHA and TRALA and TATAS.
I was momentarily STUMPED when I saw the DN combination but then HAYDN immediately came to mind.
I am confused by SYBIL especially since we recently (Nov 27) had Sibyl clued as "legendary prophet" (and even the link above goes to an article about SIBYL). I think SYBIL is the name NOT the prophetess or are these just alternate spellings?? Can someone enlighten me please?
Enjoy the day.
Welcome tiptoethru and Chief petosegay from yesterday. Join us again soon.
Montana, it was interesting to have the CFL clue (Toronto Argonauts) yesterday after our Grey Cup discussion.
Big Easy, also interesting re your nephew's trip to Grey Cup.
One site I saw said Sybil and Sibyl were variant spellings.
Good morning everyone.
Good commenting, Lemon. Thank you.
" till it's over,over there."
My paper did not render the odd - clue; ours were numberless. So soldiered on anyway and eventually got it all except couldn't suss SUDSY in the SE. Thought of the tête head, and the 'bathroom' head but brain spasm eschewed 'beer' head. C'est la guerre.
Thought it was a great puzzle with new fill as Lemon pointed out.
Kudos to Dr. Koetters. Seems like a Dutch name.
Numbers in my paper were misplaced.
Thanks, Peter, for a fun workout. Had no clue as to what the missing numbers (no dash for the clue) until SIXFLAGS and TEXAS gave it away.
Thanks, Lemonade, for a great write-up.
Absolutely hopeless!! L.A. Times had numbers missing and in the wrong place. Very frustrating.
D-O as we say in the old tongue "Mah nishtanah, ha-laylah ha-zeh,mi-kol ha-leylot" I have a normal male brain.
I almost like Scorpion , the characters are fun, but the plots are not.
Yes, Sybil and Sibyl seem to be variant spellings but when referring to "prophetess", the accepted spelling seems to be Sibyl (from the Greek sibylla). So perhaps that is my Nit for the day!
What joy?
Well, as predicted, my wonderful speed run of this week came crashing down a bit today. Part of the problem was the lack of dashes and numbers in my paper, but even so, I still did pretty well--getting everything but that tough SE corner. At that point I had to cheat a bit, alas. I kept wondering what the "literally" in a number of the clues referred to--now I know. But hey, getting about 4/5 of a tough Friday, isn't terrible, and tomorrow will probably be worse. So I'll just celebrate and enjoy the fun items and the tricky fills, Peter.
I kept thinking the "In the Bedroom" nominee had to be Sissy Spacek, but I guess not. And thank goodness I know my Roman numerals.
Have a good end of the week, everybody!
I seem to be the only one who liked the puzzle better as it appeared in my paper without dashes and numbers. I would have been confused by a number that was not a new idea, but part of the answer above. I still wonder how Peter intended it to look.
Hi all!
I too had lack of numbers and clues UNDER. Eg. There's no number under 14a, to start TEXAS, under 40a and 60a. I liked that 'cuz I knew something was A FOOT.
However... Too many names and f'erin' stuff. I had to Google my ASS off (4d, 16a, 20a, 33a, and didn't stand a chance in the SW w/ all stacked names (I did know VOA tho - I'll take my small wins :-)
Thanks Peter - quite creative. Thanks Lem for helping us suss this OUT. BTW, WTH is a ZITHER/Dulcimer [I just looked it up and still don't know - played w/ a bow or pick'd?]
SIX FLAGS [literally? OH!!!!] over TEXAS was my 1st git. For you techies - remember Novel? In '96(or '97?) they bought out the theme park for their conference in Dallas. I road the Texas Giant 4 or 5 times in a row. I don't think my back has been the same since ;-)
WOs: ref b/f AIR; old b/f OUT; mete b/f DOLE and hem b/f NET.
ESPs: Not many - Google rescued me
Fav: SLEPT IN 'cuz tomorrow's Saturday. XYZ c/a was cute too.
{B+,A-,A,A}
Nice to see you again tiptoethru and Peg.
LOL Lem... I started reading "It is in New York" and though 'NAH, Super Bowl LI is in Houston, TEXAS.' Then it hit me. The giggle made up for my dismal effort.
Well, that's about it for today's SPLOTCH of ink. I'll play later if I think of something CED-like to link.
TA TA, -T
As you said, NAVARRE is a province; Pamplona is the municipality.
STYLE [over] SUBSTANCE is not an "art critic's phrase, literally"; the answer is illiteral: It leaves out four letters: O V E R. Ditto for the other three "literally"s.
Some ASSES are "jennies"; not all "jennies" are ASSES. Some jennies are weaving frames. . . .
Ugh, but Wow.
This was tough but worth it. I exercised a bit of "option 2," but nothing extreme. Got it mainly through my efforts and also thanks to Lemon's setting me straight at 12-D.
He says 11-D is deceptive, but I'll carry that honor over to 12-D. I mean, I'm still not used to untangling "quay" from "key" (yes, I know one's a sort of islet and the other a pier-like thingie), and yet I'm expected to appreciate how punnie Mr. Koetters is being?
Just sayin'.
Very windy here last night and today. Misty, I don't know if they rolled in on the breeze, but we have butterflies today! Not monarchs, but those pretty little white guys. Flitting about. Neat.
On the other side of Animal Kingdom, I must report that our Golden, Maggie, woke me at 4:50 with her whimpers. I thought she had forgotten to take care of business during her 11 PM outing, so I worked my way very carefully downstairs, clinging to the banister rail because so very s l e e p y, to open the patio door for her. But when I couldn't get her to go out, I realized it was the heavy, noisy winds that were frightening her. I had to go out first -- and coax her to follow and see that it was mainly sound and no real fury. I got her to follow me out, but she wasn't convinced -- so I had to listen to intermittent whining for the rest of the night.
I wonder why our big retriever is so scared, while our two little guys (Louie the Yorkie and Nacho the Chihuahua) slept peacefully. Lil' angels.
The word style is literally positioned over the word substance.So clever.
Well, the gimmick totally escaped me. One frustration with doing the puzzle on line, at the LA Times games site, is that it was impossible to select the unnumbered across entries and type them in. One had to manually move the cursor to each square, with the down entry selected, to fill them. I don't know, though, maybe being able to select and type those across entries directly would have been even more frustrating to me. Anyway, I flat out didn't get it, even after filling in the entire puzzle.
Calling NAVARRE a municipality threw me. UNWEANED made me wrinkle my nose. I do wish that, if the constructor must use French or other foreign words, he would limit them to words that a speaker of English who has not studied the foreign language would be expected to know, or to have heard of, anyway.
There was plenty of other good stuff in the puzzle, though, such as SPLOTCH, APHASIA, and WHEEDLED, that was pleasurable.
My wife actually slept in until 9:30 this morning. That is highly unusual; she even surprised herself. She's not ill or anything, thank goodness. Just tired. It was nice snuggling together for a couple extra hours.
Best wishes to you all.
Irish Miss, I think LW and I have probably watched "Designated Survivor" for the last time also, for the same reason you gave. Also, it's on from 10 to 11 PM, and we would probably benefit more from going to bed an hour earlier than staying up to watch it. "Bull" is kinda silly, and Michael Weatherly's acting range is rather limited (he's still only a slight variation of Anthony DiNozzo), but it's good clean fun.
Solved, but very tough and misleading. Not looking forward to Saturday.
Re: Municipality. Like others, I was jarred by this clue. Felt that Pamplona WAS the municipality. Dictionary definitions support the "local" idea.
But a state or, in this case a province, are in a sense local or regional, too. Par ejemplo, our usage of the term 'municipal bond' includes, up to the state level. There may be other examples, as well.
Navarre constitutes ~ 4000 sq mi. We have over 100 counties in the US that are larger, and I suppose we would call them local entities. San Bernardino Co., CA is 5 times larger than Navarre.
FWIW
How nice that you had some butterflies today, Keith.
I thought I heard that there are only two episodes left on "Designated Survivor," and, if so, I think I'll watch it to the end. I hope that secret traitor doesn't become Vice President.
Whether I like a TV show (or movie) is mostly about whether I care about the characters. I cared about Tony in NCIS but I didn't care about any of the characters in Bull. But to be fair, I only watched it once. I did care about some of the characters in Designated Survivor.
It's in the 60s outside but very windy. Riding north was painfully slow with sand in my eyes. Going south, I hardly had to peddle. Not my kind of day.
Barbara just got home from Chemo. (Geez, I hate that word.) She has a 'port' installed in a vein so inserting the needle is much easier. Still, it's 3.5 hours of boredom. They give her something in the IV to ward off nausea though it catches up with her about three days later.
I hope you all have a good evening.
I got the tough stuff like JURISTS for benchwarmers not JAYVEES.
And I never corrected UTILE and always messed up the clue used to stay away from CLAMS in new England.
So why did we always chow down on clam rolls in June?
I commented that "It seems like ASS has gone the way of PC " and lo and behold two days in a row.
Hondo, I remember Walter Alston very well, he of the 15 straight one-year contracts. He substituted Sandy Amoros in lf just in time to snag Yogi's fly ball and double off McDougall.
From earlier. It came to me that the Lakers kept the name because it had the
L A.
Much like St Pete dropped the Devil and ended up with just Rays as in the sun's rays.
I'm back to great unread status again.
WC
Musings
-I had absolutely no time to do the work on this until 9 pm and am so glad I got it done. A NEW LEAF finally gave me the gimmick, which was so much fun! Coupled with the unique fill Lemon mentioned, I felt it was a privilege to get a shot at this puzzle!
-I had to work it online and got that something “was afoot” when I couldn’t get some across clues to show up!
-Good Night after a long day! I subbed, did some crossword chores and then went to a movie that Joann wanted to see and I thought I would hate. Turns out I was right (kept that to myself) but that’s what a good husband does.
Wilbur I look forward to reading you, i n part because of what we have in common. If you saw the blog figures another 1000 people will come here in the next week
enjoy
Lem - 1000 folks to this page or to the Corner in general. I've been curious how many visitors the Corner gets ever since noticing that just typing part of a clue into Google finishes that day's clue. E.g. Type 'Giants Ma'... And ..'anger before Bochy' is top prediction. Lots of folks must be playing (and Googling) the LAT for that to "trend" today.
So, Wilbur, you do get read :-)
Cheers, -T
Sorry to be so late to the party! This is the constructor, Peter Koetters; never got a chance to check in earlier. Thank you, Lemonade, for the kind write-up, and all the comments (positive and negative too) -- it all goes toward making better puzzles! It has been indeed a while since I have had any puzzles in the paper, save a collaboration with Scot Ober earlier in the year. Too many new responsibilities at work! Anyway, I am getting back into it and hope to have more soon.
I think insight as to how the editor changes the original might be fun for folks to hear. As submitted, my puzzle had numbers and "see ___ across" for the bottom halves of the theme entries. I actually like it the way Rich Norris made it. I think that the print version that skips a number altogether was the best way to present it.
So very many clues are changed, in every puzzle, for so very many reasons. Often it's just the editor's preference. So, for instance, I can neither support nor defend Navarre as a "municipality," as that was not my clue. One clue I hoped to sneak by but know deep down it would not pass the breakfast test was for "ILE." Instead of "Key for Faure," I wrote "Erect appendage." Sometimes I just can't help myself. The rest of the French was incidental, not intentional really.
Rich decided to re-fill the entire right lower (southwest) quadrant. I think it was to get rid of ICHAT which I didn't love either in the original where AVANT is now. Not that ATH and VOA are very attractive either, but that is the editor's choice. So, you see, the editor is a lot more than a name on the banner, actually does a lot of work on every puzzle, and constructors don't know if any changes until the puzzle is published, normally.
Thanks again, and good night.
Peter, thanks for dropping by. Fun puzzle.
I enjoyed reading your insights about the editor's preferences.
Peter: Thanks for checking in. My gripe is just a personal failure - I'm an idiot when it comes to not-English, geo, and who did what when (though I knew Bo!).
I did love the theme and the (clueless) presentation as typeset in H. Chron. Thanks for your effort. I've a few puzzles to my name (thanks to C.C.) and it takes a meta-moment to think one up, C.C to fix :-), and then Rich kicks it up. And yeah, I get the work thing too - my focus has been there since I started designing our security framework (Third try's gotta be a charm!) and not thought 'meta' outside of it.
Thanks again for the inside-baseball. Cheers, -T
I hate to be a downer, but I think this one was stink on a stick. The only good thing for me was Lemon's reveal and Superbowl story. I heard a similar one, but about classified ads. The punch line was "send picture of boat".
Would love another crack at one of Peter's puzzles, hopefully after another LONG absence.
These days we get between 3500 and 6500 hits for a puzzle write up. Every so often we get 10,000 or more.
Peter, so nice to have you stop by and share your experience. Do you all remember the constructor who came and commented how awful what Rich diod to his puzzle was? Neither do I...
Good morning Wilbur.
I hadn't had a chance to reread in here.
Lemony, I think the big brouhaha I recall was over at Rex Parker's blog about Will Shortz changing some clues.
I pretty much left NYT because the folks here are positive and posts informative and uplifting.
Ps. I think Rex derived his name from two old comics: Rex Morgan and Judge PARKER
I usually do the comics before the XW and am not embarrassed to say, like LuAnn
WC
Rex, the Wonder Dog.
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