Here is what Chris provided us about this challenging puzzle:
Gary, thanks for the email. Gotta love that I find out the publication date from you (though I'm sure I'll get an email from Patti and/or Rich any moment now). Curious to see what clues of mine they kept, but I guess I'll find out in a week or so.
Quick notes on this puzzle: I wanted to make a stagger stack of some entries that I liked and had been wanting to use for awhile. Originally started w/ YACHT ROCK (one of my favorite genres of music), NON-BINARY, and ARYA STARK from "Game of Thrones", but in trying to open up the middle and work in long answers through that stack, switched it to TONY STARK. Wasn't a fan of TTS (and neither were Rich and Patti) but it was worth the rest of the down answers through the middle.
I had some options in arranging the black squares at the top / bottom of the grid after that; I though about breaking up those areas into two corners each with three squares coming down (e.g. where TBS or ARI is) but liked the idea of having fifteens through there. Needed a few cheater squares to make those larger corners work, though I'm happy with the results throughout, even with some iffier short fill. But I particularly like the lower right, which has a lot of personal flourishes and flavor that I like.
Chris's puzzles always have some fresh, contemporary items and that keeps us all learning. My last fill was the R in TONY STA_K/PETER A_NO. CHOOSING UP SIDES was my first long fill. Its twin TRIGGER WARNINGS was a new phrase for me but pretty easy to suss.
1. Sony videocassette brand developed in 1982: BETA CAM - When these two formats came out, I chose the wrong one
8. Wedding memento: ALBUM.
13. Wide-brimmed hat: SOMBRERO.
14. Plunder: BOOTY.
15. Making teams, in a way: CHOOSING UP SIDES - Getting picked last is one of the real traumas of growing up
17. "Out of the Cellar" rock band: RATT - It's a hoot when anti-establishment groups of years ago are now making commercials
18. Hit the gym, with "up": TONE.
19. Last ruler of the Julio-Claudian dynasty: NERO.
20. Organisms that move via pseudopodia: AMOEBAS
23. Sporty Audis: TTS - Chris's reluctant fill
25. A show may have a long one: RUN - Until COVID-19, Phantom Of The Opera has been RUNNING on Broadway since 1988. No Broadway shows will reopen until at least Jan 3, 2021
26. French pointillist: SEURAT - That's a lotta points!
27. Cookout options: WEENIES.
29. Honolulu setting: Abbr.: HST - The Japanese Zeros first appeared around 8 a.m. Hawaiian Standard Time on the date that will live in infamy
30. Genre originally called the West Coast Sound: YACHT ROCK - Kenny Loggins, et al. The definition and 17 examples
32. Gender identity spectrum: NON-BINARY - Ruby Rose is said to be "gender fluid" and can wake up any day as male or female
33. "I am Iron Man" speaker: TONY STARK - A role played by Robert Downey Jr.
34. MLB "twin killings": DPS - Double Plays are called a "pitcher's best friend"
37. Involve deeply: IMMERSE.
38. Exclusive MLB cap supplier: NEW ERA - A NEW ERA Washington National hat online is $39.95. I bought mine from a street vendor across from Ford's Theater for $9.95
40. Med. insurance plan: HMO.
41. ["Is this thing on?"]: TAP.
42. Wave that maintains its shape and speed through collisions: SOLITON - Gee, Gary, I'd love to see a 3 min video about this. Or not...
43. Swedish pop band: ABBA - Let's see, our names are Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Anni-Frid. What could we call our group?
45. Peter of reggae: TOSH - His website
47. Advance: LEND - Did you ever ask for an advance on your pay/allowance
48. Alerts about potentially disturbing content: TRIGGER WARNINGS- Someone with PTSD might need such a warning before watching a movie like Full Metal Jacket
52. "Elements of Algebra" author: EULER - Here's another one of his page turners
53. Emulate a bookie: TAKE BETS.
54. Dodger Pee Wee: REESE - This statue in Brooklyn commemorates Kentuckian Pee Wee REESE's support of Jackie Robinson in his first major league season
55. Sneaky programs: SPYWARE.
Down:
2. Glowing star, say?: EMOTER - Stella!
3. "Full Frontal" network: TBS - A Samantha Bee show
4. NL West team, on scoreboards: ARI - The Fenway scoreboard shows that the ARI - COL game had not yet started
5. Pair in a view?: CENTS - I love this! When you express your view, you are putting in your two (pair) CENTS worth
6. 2012 Affleck thriller: ARGO.
7. Hephaestus' workshop was said to be under it: MOUNT ETNA - Here ya go! Okay, not all of Chris's references are contemporary
8. Pilates targets: ABS.
9. Butcher buy: LOIN.
10. "10" co-star: BO DEREK - OMG, that was 41 years ago!
12. Last words of Kipling's "If": MY SON
13. Disgraces: SHAMES.
15. Computer problem: CRASH.
16. Longtime New Yorker cartoonist: PETER ARNO - I think the golfer is the only guy going in the right direction
21. Sharp weapon: BAYONET.
22. "Regardless ... ": AT ANY RATE.
24. Diving device: SNORKEL.
27. Wintry, in a way: WHITE - Things are so GREEN right now and not 28. Wintry, in a way: ICY.
31. Longtime Masters TV venue: CBS SPORTS - Until this spring it was a sure harbinger of spring
32. Snarfing sound: NOM
33. It acquired the naming rights for the former Safeco Field: T-MOBILE - 7 minutes south of the Space Needle
34. Cold War warm-up: DETENTE
35. Fine points: PRONGS.
36. Smooths, in a way: SANDS.
37. Saturate: IMBRUE - Definition
39. More cunning: WILIER.
40. Twitter malcontent: HATER.
42. Unstable: SHAKY.
44. Rusts or grays: AGES - My hair is acquiring the latter
46. Quid pro quo: SWAP.
49. Its General Test consists of six sections: Abbr.: GRE - One of several test acronyms used for cwd fill
50. Fire TV button: Abbr.: REW - Sometimes, no letters no just arrows
51. Kawhi Leonard's org.: NBA - He went to Toronto for one season, got them a championship and then left for the LA Clippers. He turned down a huge salary, free housing and free groceries Toronto offered him to stay.
How 'bout some comments for Chris:
46 comments:
Good morning!
Ufda! This one required some heavy lifting, and I just wasn't up to the task. It didn't help that I proudly entered BETAMAX, TROJANS (SPYWARE, not prophylactics), and EMBROIL for IMMERSE. Ultimately figured those out, but that stack of TONY STARK / NEW ERA / SOLITON was still mostly white when I threw in the towel. This one was so far out of my wheelhouse that I don't feel bad about my utter failure. Thanx, Christopher and Husker. I'm headed down to the abasement now.
AGES: I told the young lady who was cutting my hair, "Just the gray ones, please." She countered, "Do you really want me to shave your head?"
FIRE TV BUTTON: I recently replaced my old Fire TV with a 4K Fire TV Cube. It's got four indents (buttons?) on top. The only one I care about is the slashed circle -- that turns off annoying Alexa. I keep that one permanently lit. I don't like my appliances talking to me.
19 minutes today. Had BetaMax first, too. Was unfamiliar with yacht rock, Mr. Arno, soliton, & TTs. T-Mobile looked wrong before I was able to parse it out.
Good puzzle though.
I was reluctant to check answers. SNORKEL* with the EL, SOLITON unknown, ARNO?. But a satisfying FIR.
Everyone first tried MAX? When I finally made sense of (Two)CENTS and xOUN* wasn't no making sense either I made an agonizing reappraisal:* hues wasn't working, IMBRUE seemed weird ,EULER showed up recently but for algebra? SW was work.
I have YACHT ROCK pre-set on Sirius
How many times did NERO appear recently?
My old bookie was actually named Pickles. Last bet SF-Cinci I. Official end of the old life.
I'm glad to see that this FIR was indeed difficult, at least for D-Otto who's a good barometer for me.
WC
*I was thinking of Sgt Snorkle
* Agonizing reappraisal was a 50s term. I'll LIU but I think it was John Foster Dulles
Yep, Dulles. Several articles out there with that key word. 1953. Very tempting to make a political ref, eg today. Or 2016 to be exact.
My own AR referred originally to the "end of the old life"
Good puzzle and great write-up.
Soliton/Arno was Seliton/Arne - natick. Not sure I've ever come across "imbrue."
Nice day in Chicago. Stay safe and well.
JB2
Good morning everyone.
Some real obscure stuff today. SOLITON; I didn't know TONY STARK or PETER ARNO from a bag of apples. Also, TTS. Had BETAmax before BETACAM, which messed up the whole MOUNT ETNA thing. So had to accept 10 red letters to enjoy this.
Wondered about the 10 cheater squares but Chris spoke to them in his note.
Thanks Gary for 'hostling' the fine intro.
Well this was a slow challenging solve - but eventually FIR - although I had to come here to figure out the CENTS clue and enjoyed the video explaining SOLITON as that was all perps except the root that ends up in words like solenoid - thanks HG!
I had just watched a music documentary recently that had the term YACHT ROCK - but I enjoyed that musical link as well!
Off to cardio dance class with appropriate distancing :)
Thanks HG and for puzzle and stopping by Christopher!
This one was a worthy Saturday opponent. FIR in a bit more than one-half hour.
Another hand up for MAX before CAM. I had never heard of YACHT ROCK but I do not feel deprived for having missed that genre. The IMBRUE and EULER Natick was finished off with the U because that was the only vowel that seemed to make any sense. PETER ARNO and TONY STARK were names that I, fortunately, knew even if they could not be immediately recalled and I had just paid my T-MOBILE bill.
It was nice to see a Norman Rockwell drawing in the write up. Once, my baseball was chosen to participate in a game but I was not. When the game started, I hung out behind center field (no fences) and, when a well hit ball reached me I fielded it cleanly and left with it.
I finally gave up on the lower right. Never heard of NEWERA, DPS and had DETANTE instead of DETENTE because of how it is pronounced.
For the lower left--IMBRUE?? I knew IMBUE so I just went with it. Never could figure out why AGES was there when it came with the cross. All I could think of originally was ROOS for Reds and Grays since they come in those colors.
And I also had BetaMax originally--never heard of BETACAM!
Oh well, on to Sunday!
Definitely a Saturday toughie. DNF officially due to ultimately turning on Red Letters and doing some alphabet runs. HG's tour through the grid explained a lot.
I actually filled in BETACAM without going through the MAX misstep because I had CAM from perps.
Like others, I thought there were a few obscure clues and answers today. SOLITON, NEWERA, NONBINARY, SEURAT, TONY STARK and PETER ARNO were unknowns to me. I guess I live a sheltered life.
Have a safe day everyone and please wear your masks.
Add me to those who had never heard of PETERARNO, IMBRUE or SOLITON. I only know NEWERA because I've seen it in a crossword before. But crosses helped.
I also had BETAMAX first.
Supercritical Froude depth. Ya' learn something everyday.
Hi Y'all! Not in my wheelhouse and glad I didn't know some of those terms. Filled it with red-letter runs, WAGs & stubbornness. This was a Thumper special for sure. Didn't know any of the words he was so proud to use.
Knew only SOMBRERO (not Fedoras) & CHOOSE UP SIDES in the first half run. I
Gary, Bless you for taking on some of the hardest puzzles and trying to make sense of them.
I did know Kawhi Leonard, but tried to put NBA in the 50d squares & it turned red. So I tried abbrev. of all the teams where I knew he'd played. Bzzt red! Finally, realized my mistake & got NBA in 51d slot.
The world is so weird these days, we really don't need a surreal puzzle too.
There is tough and then there is Natick City. SOLITON was a gimme for this physics guy, but not sure if anyone else would know it? My boss gave me a BETA player when our first company was sold. It still runs 36 years later. It was the "correct" choice because BETA was superior to VHS in every way. VHS won because it had better licensing terms. Hand up put BETAMAX first.
Utterly unknown: YACHT ROCK, TONY STARK, TTS, PETER ARNO, KAWHI LEONARD, FULL FRONTAL, MASTERS TV. I think SNORKEL was unfair because I think of "Diving" to mean going below the level where a SNORKEL would work.
Who has heard of YACHT ROCK besides Wilbur Charles? Despite my griping I FIR!
Here I am at the Chicago Institute. The famous SEURAT painting is in the second row.
I am posing with another famous painting in the next photo.
We have many NONBINARY events here in California. But I was slow to figure out that answer.
DNF. Big white in center south. Wanted imbue. To me "gender identity spectrum" includes both binary and NON-BINARY. Wanted surferROCK (sixties). Know Iron Man's secret identity, but didn't connect it. Don't retain the names of sports arenas (except TU Center in Albany). SOLITON? Don't think I've seen TRIGGER WARNING before. Didn't know TTS or the two PETERs.
Enjoyable, though difficult (for me) puzzle.
>>Roy
Had tsunami for soliton, and "in any case" for "at any rate", got cents through crosses, came here for explanation, good puzzle.
Ed in Ohio
Knew it wasn’t BETAMAX because that format was from the early 1970s. BETACAM was a later version that was a higher-end, I believe “professional” product. FIR with lookups. Stared at YACHTROCK forever, not believing that could possibly be a genre.
Fun puzzle, though.
Always use a pen to do the puzzle. Today’s puzzle ended up looking like the Somme battlefield had thrown up its mud all over the page BUT, we (wife and me) did it.
Sports trivia made this puzzle impossible for me. Like Picard, I take issue with SNORKEL as a "diving device." Your first breath underwater with that equipment will be your last! DNF.
The question today is how much time is too much time to spend on any cw? For anon who finished in 19 minutes and a couple others who did it in half an hour, I bow down (but not kneel) to you. In the end I changed Etna which was a fatal mistake coupled with insisting NBC, not CBS, aired the Masters. I knew New Era, and solitron was filled by perps. After all was said and done six blank squares in the middle for a resounding DNF. My brain cell is finished for the day.
The word all of you are looking for today's puzzle, is "brutal".
Big fat CNF (Could Not Finish) today. Utterly unable to solve Christopher's puzzle, even with the help of Google. Examples of my wandering astray include BETAMAX, CHOOSING OF SIDES, YACH TRACK, TONY BLAIR, FLAKY, MALWARE, and SNORKLE. Totally unable to extricate myself from that mess of my own making.
Shanker asks,"The question today is how much time is too much time to spend on any cw?" A deep philosophical conundrum. I usually find myself devoting as much time as it takes to solve. Very rarely will I abandon a partially-solved puzzle although putting it aside for a good while and then coming back often helps. IIRC some wit here labeled that effect "Saturday-ing" and it certainly is appropriate today. Compulsive? You betcha. Addictive personality type. More than likely - although I did get out of the drug culture 60's unscathed.
A related question would be how much time in any given day to spend on CWs? Pre-COVID I might have said that I spend too much time. In today's circumstances I find the puzzles a good way to spend time and I would guesstimate that I spend, perhaps, between an hour and two hours a day -depends on the day of the week. Some of that time, though, is spent multi-tasking. I use the Shortyz app so I get puzzles from the L A Times, Newsday, Wall Street Journal, Universal, and USA Today. To make matters worse (or better?) a good friend just gave me a NYT puzzle subscription as a B'day present. IIRC, that includes not only the daily puzzles but archives as well. OY! In today's Saturday Stumper Newsday puzzle, one of the clues is "Misspend Ones Time". Double Oy!
Picard, I have been saying the exact same thing about the Beta / VHS "wars" for decades - ever since researching and then purchasing a Betamax. IIRC, Sony refused to license the Betamax technology to any other companies (unlike JVC did with VHS). Sony, it would seem, made a significant error in judgement.
IIRC?
Long slog. I wrecked myself with my usual misspelling of SNORKEL, so missed two names I didn’t know anyway.
@ Shankers: “if I recall correctly”
Picard, you got me laughing. I never heard of YACHT ROCK but it's adjacent(on SiriusXM) to SPA which my wife insists on playing for the duration of the two hour trip to Ocala. So I moved the dial a notch until she noticed. Since it's not Beatles sometimes I can get ten minutes of music in.
But now I listen to it. America, Tojo, that ilk. Easy listening. Advanced elevator music.
For once my estimate vis a vis hard,avg, easy was correct. I took a last look before checking answers and of course, then, after a few days, it seemed not so tough (as in AGES*,NE).
SANDS took me awhile. Also, my condolences on sports questions. REESE,DPS,NBA(Kawhi Leonard) were gimmes for sports people but I suspected not for majority. I knew Picard would have SOLITON.
WC
*I took a break(like Malo) and while driving thought of HUES. Of course that destroyed ABBA. A box at a time I finally P&P'ed it.
Btw, notice ZOOM is now a verb. I had my first ZOOM MTG today.
Totally out of my range of abilities. I finally came here and filled in the grid and when I look at the fill think “It doesn’t look that hard!” But I was totally baffled when trying to do it. A big “0” for me.
Maybe if I had been WILIER I would have parsed that answer and finished the puzzle but hey it's Saturday. A beautiful day and was overcome with crossword frustration. Plus drove to Lee, Massachusetts Prime outlets where we met my daughter halfway from Utica to pick up the grandkids to take to camp this week. ("Are we there yet?" ditto, ditto.. etc)
Remember Elaine's Urban SOMBRERO?
Robert Downey Jr....a great Tony Stark (Arya's great grandson nth power) One of the few superhero names I remembered. And EULER popped out of some hidden brain cavern.
I knew it had to be DETENTE but thought the SPYWARE perp was plural with an S at the end. SOLITON? wha? huh. Sounds like a name for another Superhero... "Soliton! We need your help: send a nonobstructed wave and save us!!"
Almost put Bolero the music from "10" so close to the spellng of BODEREK. SNORKle or EL....IMBRUE? C'mon!
But stewpidly put walkman (an audio thingy) for BETACAM (clearly a video device)
So end Saturn's day with a bust and
Worker in a Chinese laundry........ IRONMAN
Bronx father to errant son "When you evah gonna _____?" LOIN. ***(where did ARGO?)****
Optimist's picks.....CHOOSINGUPSIDES
Nephew's little sister .......WEENIES
Brief sleeping sound.......SNORKEL
Have a great safe weekend.
I knew we were in for it--after that delightful Friday pzl.
We're paying our Saturday dues with this one.
After filling in the bottom third, or a quarter, I stagnated, then figured it was too great a test for my patience.
I cheated a cuppla times. Glad I did. Too many references outside my wheelhouse.
(Oops. Whatever became of that faddish expression?)
Don't feel too bad, Jayce. You are in fine company.
~ OMK
____________
DR: A single diagonal, on the far side.
Its anagram makes me think again of the fill for 27A, as we all understand that these weak-kneed songbirds are the guys most likely to squeal to da fuzz.
Are YOU one of 'em?
Are you with us, or are you a...
"MISTRUSTED RAT"?
Not in my wheelhouse. When I was no longer having fun, I threw in the towel.
Puzzling thoughts:
Having worked on constructing a few xword puzzles, I realize the difficulty of getting a completely clean and tight grid. SEURAT, IMBRUE, and SOLITON rank up there as words/names not usually known. But, they fit. I had to look up a few clues, and eventually FIW. Not surprising.
I’m listening to Steely Dan on Amazon Yacht Rock Radio right now ... Deacon Blues ... nice 👍
Bo Derek and Dudley Moore in “10” were quite the pair
As a golf fan, I knew CBS SPORTS. So glad they took over for Fox in the recently staged PGA Tournament
Speaking of golf, this haiku just came to mind:
Golfer’s wife gave birth
Of course, above the crib, he
Hung a T MOBILE
And from last night; for -T, I expanded on this pun:
I’ve a stomach pouch.
Am I a marsupial?
I koala-fy ...
Hey Moe
Guess what the national animal symbol of Kuala Lumpur is?
I have always thought that Kipling' s "If" was good advice for daughters, too.
I got about 1/3 on my own, looked up a few answers, then quit. Thanks for the challenge, Christopher H. Thank you, Gary, for explaining everything I didn't know.
I've been to the Chicago Museum and seen the Seurat painting. Instead of brushstrokes, the paint is tiny little dots. Quite an undertaking, and the painting is huge! 7'x10'! Very impressive!
Good evening!
How is it not BETA MAX?!?!? BETACAM(?)... Arggggg! DNF.
//It was a DNF already 'cuz I looked up SOLITON and PETER ARNO (Ach, not CHOOSING by SIDES) but still...
Hi All!
I see I'm in good company at 1a. I thought I was going to do so well when filling 1a, 6&10d, and 17a [wasn't partial to RATT but knew their ALBUM] sans perps.
Thanks Christopher for the puzzle. Thanks HG for the fine interview and illustrated review.
Thanks Cornerites for the convalescing! (in Spain?) [JudyBats - if you've never heard it, give a listen].
WOs: DETaNTE (Hi BobLee!), only one M in IMMERSE until there were extra squares left over.
ESPs: Like, you know, most the grid. Duh! :-)
//it was a bit here a bit there all day long
Fav: It was going to be BETA MAX :-)
I'll go w/ SANDS. Today, Youngest learned by feel ("that's smooth as a baby's butt, dad.*") why there are different paper-grits.
MISTRUSTED RAT(T)? OMK? :-)
Love'd 'em both today C. Moe.
Shankers - If I Recall Correctly (oh, Hi Spitz!).
Ozzy Osbourne didn't fit at 33a but he said it in Black Sabbath's Iron Man [you only need :13]. Youngest is into the superhero movies so I've seen many and STARK pop'd out.
WC & Picard - SiriusXM advertises the YACHT ROCK channel over on NPR's 122 - that's how I know of it. Not my cuppa - Classic Rewind (25) is more my jam.
MManatee - LOL your center-field story. In pickup games, I was oft picked last 'cuz I couldn't hit very well. However, the joke was on them 'cuz I would kill myself fielding a catch**.
Picard - You're comment reminded me - SEURAT's park painting was in Ferris Bueller's Day Off" [@1:10 & 1:29on as Cameron gets lost in it]
Tim Conway on Snorkel
//Sorry, Ray-O TRIGGERed me.
Cheers, -T
*she had the sander w/ 100grit and I the one w/ 150. 1/2-way through, I stopped her and said, "Pet your board. Now pet mine."
"Am I just a bad sander?"
"No, it's th..."
"Oh, the sandpaper. Wow!"
**My best: Playing short, I made an unassisted triple-play against the best team in our little-league.
Musings
-Our video store had both VHS and Beta formats and I chose the Beta player. Not long afterwards the store phased out Beta and I was outta luck
-Time spent on crosswords? Redux: Last Thursday I spent hours on a Jeffrey Wechsler puzzle where the Omaha World Herald printed the wrong grid. Stubbornness, OCD, completion anxiety and fear of looking stupid kept me working for waaaaaay too long trying to figure out the gimmick that wasn’t there. The clues were familiar but I had no place to put them. Sysiphus had nothing on me!
Yikes! Way above my pay grade, but I did make a valiant attempt. Just too much stuff about which I hadn’t a clue. Still, a very interesting set-up, Chris. Maybe next time I will do better.
FLN and the mentions about Maggie Smith. We have seen Woman In the Van and The Most Exotic Marigold Hotel, both of which were great. Coincidentally, last night Netflix had Quartet on their line-up, which is just a lovely film.
Stay safe, everybody
Forgot to sign my very punny homonym post yesterday ...did anyone even read it? Today: AAARGH! Good that no sharp objects weren't handy! YACHT MUSIC?? HUH! Someone mentioned Steely Dan as part of that genre?? NOOOOO! "West Coast Sound" is associated ONLY with "Outa Compton Rap"! Steely Dan was my fav "blues/jazz" rock group."binary list"are "either/or", "non-binary" means there's lots of variations between the two poles. Though many people hang on to to the idea that sexual identity is "either/or" a vast majority of psychologists and psychiatrists now agree it is NON-BINARY! FINALLY: "Fine points"are TINES, large flat and rounded points are PRONGS. Anyone agree? Better not disagree: very hot/,muggy weather has put me into an ugly mood !!
Yep, Steely Dan shows up quite a bit on YACHT ROCK.
Wow, Wilbur FIR'ed one of the tougher ones. Then again I've come real close before. Once misspelling DNeiPER, another misspelling STieN
WC
-T, I was going to mention that YACHT ROCK wouldn't be your cup of tea. The name is not indicative of the genre
WC
It's just about bedtime so finally gave up on the puzzle after spending all day coming back for another try. DNF with six empty squares. Reading Gary's excellent explanation, I saw what should have filled them in. Having irons for SANDS and gain for LEND led me astray as well as erasing the beginning of DETENTE. That general area was a disaster. Oh well, I should have been WILIER instead of cagier.
Other than spelling WiENIEs wrong though, I got the rest of the puzzle right, to my amazement. Thanks to Christopher and Gary for my brain exercise today.
Anon @11 am...or whenever it was...I’m citing CED, whom I admire.
Yes, of course you are entitled to your opinion, however misguided. But, dear heart, we are also entitled to our opinion. And it seems most of us disagree with you, as CED stated.
Our constructors work hard to provide us with the pleasure of solving, and most of us appreciate their efforts on our behalf. Some of us like some puzzles more than others, for a wide variety of reasons, none of which have anything to do with the intelligence of the constructor. Sports? Pop culture? Foreign words? We all have our favorites, and weaknesses.
But the integrity and contribution of the constructors remain supreme. If you don’t enjoy a puzzle, fine. But that’s your problem, not the constructor’s.
In college, b/f DW switched to English, she was in RTVF (Radio, TV, Film). The studio at NLU had only BETAMAX CAMs. You couldn't tape on VHS and expect it to look good on TV.
Unknown @7:44p - you're thinking of the East Coast/West Coast Rap dichotomy -- 2Pac v. Biggie. The West Coast Sound (now called Yacht Rock) was laid back mellow tunes as opposed to pounding beats of most Rock at the time.
I do like some Steely Dan now and again.
Cheers, -T
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