Saturday Themeless by Nova Qi and Matthew Stock
Today I am happy to welcome two new constructors to my Saturday Puzzle Stand. I told Nova that she had one of the most amazing names I have ever heard and she shared this with us: Gary, So far I've only had one other publication (another collab with Matthew for Universal) so I'm really excited to debut in the LAT this weekend.
Happy to share a little more about myself- I'm originally from new jersey and I'm currently working on getting a PhD in neuroscience at Columbia in NYC. I've been slowly working on constructing puzzles for about a year now and have worked on a couple projects with Matthew, as well as a solo puzzle for the Inkubator later this summer.
Feel free to share any of this and reach out if you have any questions! Looking forward to making more puzzles in the future :)Matthew had this to say:
I was pleased to tell Matthew that I started out as an 8th grade math teacher in 1968!
As for me, I currently live in St. Louis, though I’m moving to Gainesville, Florida soon with my partner, who is about to start her PhD at the University of Florida this fall. I’ll be teaching 8th grade math there (and continuing to make puzzles!). When I’m not doing either of those things, I enjoy ultimate frisbee, board games, and time outside.
Today's puzzle presented a real challenge for me in the SW corner as I knew WII but had no idea on Switch or IRMA or the clever cluing of IDES. So I'll take two bad cells and try to get through the day!
Here is Scotch, the mascot of Matthew's website, which is where I made contact with Matthew after doing several of his fun puzzles.
1. USWNT star __ Heath: TOBIN - US Women's Soccer Team. (Green Bay QB in 1950___ Rote:)
6. Shock: STUN.
10. CPR crew: EMS.
13. Backbend that counteracts the effects of prolonged sitting: BRIDGE POSE.
15. Alison of "GLOW": BRIE - No cheese here; instead this Glorious Lady Of Wrestling.
16. Finishing school concern?: SENIORITIS - Seniors in the last month(s) of school
17. "The Best of Everything" author Jaffe: RONA.
18. __ stick: POGO.
19. [Blank stare]: I DON'T GET IT - I was looking at "Switch predecessor" for way too long
21. Comfort: SOLACE.
23. Greta with three Oscar nominations: GERWIG - Behind the camera
24. Digital greeting: E-CARD.
26. Tank top: GAS CAP.
28. Laser cut, perhaps: ETCH - A laser was used to ETCH/cut my SIL's design for the dome at Lincoln, NE's Sunken Gardens
26. Tank top: GAS CAP.
28. Laser cut, perhaps: ETCH - A laser was used to ETCH/cut my SIL's design for the dome at Lincoln, NE's Sunken Gardens
30. Leaves out to dry: HANGS - These staples of my childhood are not allowed in our housing development
32. "I __ Girl From Africa": Elizabeth Nyamayaro memoir: AM A - Pretty easy to suss this "new to me" author's title
33. Doctor: EDIT - What Patti and Christina do for the LA Times puzzles
34. "～ndale!": VAMOS - Redundant?
35. Made faces, perhaps: DREW.
36. NYC airport code: LGA - One of two that come to my mind
37. Has an in-tents experience?: CAMPS - Dad joke?
38. Some Twitter trolls: BOTS - How to spot BOTS and trolls
39. World __ Health Day: MENTAL - October 10 this year
41. Former MLB commissioner honored with a statue in Milwaukee: SELIG - Turnabout is fair play for us sport's fans. I knew this one instantly but Elizabeth Nyamayaro, not so much
43. Gag reflexes?: LAUGHS - Gag as a joke not a tongue depressor in your mouth.
45. Hare kin: RABBIT.
48. Barely triumphed: WON BY A HAIR - I don't know the tortoise's margin of victory over the hare
50. Tres y cinco: OCHO - 3 + 5 = 8 in EspaƱol
52. Thomas known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans": IRMA - I had no idea
53. Comfy attire: LOUNGE WEAR.
55. Mid day?: IDES - March 15, 44 BC was the IDES or the mid day of the month and it didn't work out so well for Julius Caesar. DEES seemed right at first.
56. Staff addition: LEDGER LINE.
57. Oft-redacted no.: SSN.
58. Consignment caveat: AS IS.
59. "Ginger Pye" Newbery Medal winner Eleanor: ESTES.
Down:
1. Kitchen abbr.: TBSP.
2. Snacks filled with "stuf": OREOS - No, I did not realize the last "f" was omitted. Didn't we just have another commercial product where the last letter is omitted?
3. Game in which players form lines: BINGO - It can also be played as a two-line game
4. Particular way with words: IDIOLECT - "A variety of language that is unique to a person, as manifested by the patterns of vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation that he or she uses" Example: My sister-in-law would say of Friday's puzzle, "We done it yesterday!"
Dialect applies to an entire group.
5. Private aid gp.: NGO - Non-Government Operation More...
6. Alter ego of Marvel's Peter Porker: SPIDER-HAM - It was fun to suss out this play on Peter Parker and Spider-Man
6. Alter ego of Marvel's Peter Porker: SPIDER-HAM - It was fun to suss out this play on Peter Parker and Spider-Man
7. Dog who bit Miss Gulch: TOTO - I recently posted that TOTO's actual name was Terry (he was a Cairn Terrier)
8. Working with: USING.
9. Dollar stores?: NEST EGGS - It's where you're supposed to store your dollars
10. Off-color prints?: EROTIC ART - Google at will
11. Quick contests between turns in Mario Party: MINI GAMES - Okay
12. Ticket info: SEAT - It appears Mr. Reed had SEATS number 30 and 31 in the orchestra for that fateful night.
14. CNN journalist Hill: ERICA - Her bio
15. Cooks up: BREWS - I need to learn how to BREW iced coffee for this summer
20. French fat: GRAS.
15. Cooks up: BREWS - I need to learn how to BREW iced coffee for this summer
20. French fat: GRAS.
22. Rhineland rats?: ACH - Along the Rhine, Charlie Brown would say ACH
25. Deadens, in acoustics: DAMPS.
27. Bear hand: PAW.
28. Forum posters who stir things up: EDGELORDS - "An EDGELORD is someone on an internet forum who deliberately talks about controversial, offensive, taboo, or nihilistic subjects in order to shock other users in an effort to appear cool, or edgy." You're welcome.
29. Beijing monument whose name translates to "gate of heavenly peace": TIANANMEN - This monument is the gate that leads to TIANANMEN Square where a very famous confrontation took place.
 |
| The TIANANMEN |
34. Installment of "Assassin's Creed" featuring Vikings: VALHALLA - I'm not a gamer but the Viking reference was a tipoff
35. Dishes that may be adorned with bones: DOG BOWLS.
37. Hard to pin down: CAGY.
38. Catcher behind a plate?: BIB - or bowl
40. Big brass: TUBAS.
42. Soda size: LARGE.
44. Zappos buy: SHOES - They will let you buy one SHOE at a time
46. Seal the deal: ICE IT - If the kicker makes this field goal he will ICE IT for Cincinnati. BTW, he made it.
47. Macbeth title: THANE.
48. Switch predecessors: WIIS - The WII system preceded the Switch system
 |
51. Some deposits: ORES.
54. Afore: ERE.
50 comments:
DNF. For a Saturday, I'm okay with how far I solved. SW, NW, NE corners got me, but that's only 3/9ths of the grid!
TANK TOP could be many things, a bunch-y.
An iron war turret, or a strapless scrunchy.
A lid that's from
An aquarium.
But today it was a GAS CAP! Ain't that funny?
If you would cook an elephant, for a soupy BREW,
Chop it in fine pieces, it what you have to do.
If sufficient, it is not,
Add a RABBIT to the pot.
No more than one
Or guests are glum,
From finding a HARE in their stew!
{B, B-.}
DNS (Did Not Start). Scanned for obscure / showbiz / foreign language clues before starting, and when I hit 15 I quit.
FLN - To me, there are three types of sexual behavior:
- Triweekly
- Try weekly
- Try weakly
I'll TRY again tomorrow (the crossword, that is).
Good morning!
Got the theme at 19a -- I DON'T GET IT. I'm definitely getting too old for this...stuff. Names that I didn't recognize, even after I got 'em, included TOBIN, BRIE, GERWIG, IRMA and ESTES. Instead of falling together, this one fell apart. I seldom throw in the towel, but after 30 minutes and still lots of white space, I gave up. Thanx for the challenge, Nova and Matthew. Husker, I salute you for only two bad squares.
NOSE RINGS: This is probably another "age" thing. I don't see any beauty in nose rings, eyebrow rings, lip rings, or tattoos. It's just mutilation art.
There was a large amount of misdirection and wordplay in this cw. There was also a plethora of proper names. Nevertheless I persevered ( P and P?) and managed to FIR, so I'm happy.
Enjoyed the puzzle - never heard of EDGELORDS. Needed help with that one..... As always, a very (!!) entertaining writeup from Gary - don't know where he finds those photos!
FIW. Guessed an L instead of an R at the crossing of Gerwig and Gras and got it wrong. Lots of unknowns, and a few WAG's, but overall got thru. Really tough puzzle!
Wow, this was a toughy! FIW with 7 wrong squares in the SW. (Good for you, Subgenius with a FIR, KS with 1 error, and Husker Gary with only 2 mistakes!) Could not come up with SSN and had middle of a day instead of month in my mind way too long, entering noon at first. IDES later occurred to me but no idea about WIIS so it ended badly. Lots of ink used in the NW corner too. Overall, I came out better than I expected. So, no more grumping. Thanks, Nora and Matthew. Maybe next time I will do better.
Thanks, Husker Gary for explaining the puzzle and for contacting the constructors. Very helpful and interesting. I had no idea USWNT referred to soccer. And of course my SW corner needed info.
Hope everyone is looking forward to a fun weekend. We hope to get some rain. It's partly cloudy and cooler so far.
Enjoyed the puzzle. Congrats on the LAT debut!
A few nits to pick: IDIOLECT, EDGELORDS and the proper noun stack in the NE. But, what the heck (ACH!) it is a Saturday puzzle.
Doing the puzzle while my 12 yo Grandson Ollie is playing one of his Mario video games, I'm so tempted to ask him about "Mario Party"
So far..Inkovers: shake/ICEIT, savings/NESTEGGS,
Anyway it's finally too nice a weekend in the Adirondacks to struggle thru all those unknown proper names..so I'll take a DNF now and go kayaking instead.
So just asked Ollie about "Mario" and he rattled off the answer.
Enjoy the weekend š
A very tough puzzle, the way a Saturday themeless should be, but alas, I had to TITT at 50 minutes. I had the grid filled but couldn’t find my mistake(s), which when I hit the reveal link I had 4 wrong squares, my main error was having DEES where IDES should have been, DNK what Switch was so that didn’t help, and I wasn’t familiar with IRMA either. The other wrong letter was where the “N” should have been in TOBIN. What kind of a name is that anyway?? But, if my 8th grade math teacher taught me anything, it was how to figure percentages, so 4 divided by 191 is 2%, so I scored a 98 which is still an “A”, so that is my consolation for the FIW. š. Thanks to the constructors for the challenge and hats off for defeating me this time, congrats on your LAT debut, and I agree with Gary, Nova Qi is a beautiful name!
HG ~~ thank you for the sparkling illustrative review, I always learn a LOT from your blogs šš¼
Good Morning:
This was a DNF due to the SW corner, i.e, the Irma/Wiis/Ides/Edge Lords quagmire. I know Wii but never heard of Switch, as clued, nor Miss Thomas nor Edge Lords. If you’re going to use pop culture in your puzzles, the least you can do is clue the perps toward a broader solving demographic. I realize there is a major cultural and generational gap between today’s constructors and long-time solvers, but the basic goals of challenging and pleasing the solver seem less and less relevant, sad to say.
Thank you, Nova and Matthew, for stopping by and sharing some background info and thanks, HG, for the, as always, educational and entertaining summary and for sharing the constructors’ comments.
I was taken aback last night when I heard a newscaster pronounce Egregiously, Egg gar a lis ly. Where is YR when you need her? š¤
Today and tomorrow are supposed to be scorchers, but more temperate throughout the week.
Have a great day.
HG, I also would have known "Bridge in Boston" DNF, not FIW. Mad at myself for not getting TIANANMAN (Square) thinking it was UNK. The wicked* SSN clue fooled me. I inked Six
As for NW, I had TOBey and actually thought of IDIOLECT.
Why the simple EDIT for "Doctor" never dropped. I plead… Let's just say Mr S was no help again
SELIG finally popped but the other pop-culs were UNKs.
I actually inked turret for the top of that tank. I FIR east of the big river.
WC
* c. Today's J
On to Gary's expo
I TITT
(I threw in the the towel)
(Soaked in gasoline)
(In a very large bottle)
No, seriously, when I came to "tank top" that had the same letters as "turret", I knew,
with my method of thinking I didn't have a chance at this puzzle...
Disclaimer:
this post brought to you by...
Gary - I live in Lincoln and recognized the Sunken Gardens photo immediately. Nice job by your SIL. Surprised to hear you live so close.
I had fois/GRAS as in fois Gras but figured that one out
That LEDGER LINE could have been an employee staff payroll line too
Owen, two solid W's today. Tres bien
RayO, I would have given Ollie a 10% share. Or a $Ten
SSN is an example of imagination needed to solve. Having the X I guessed annex for the end of the Chinese place.
There was a lot of LHF but UNK pop-cul in the worst places. Thinking mod, I had Ione/IRMA for the Nola torchy.
I should have gone online and blanked out six and other similar and if it took all day…
But I had to see Gary's write-up
WC
Thank you Nova and Matthew for a Saturday challenge for which, after several hours of on and off I ultimately TITT. However I did get Matthew's website link, so the morning wasn't a total loss.
And thank you Gary for filling in all that white space, which seemed obvious after the fact. And thanks for explaining LEDGER LINE, which I thought had something to do with accounting. Well I guess it does account for extra musical notes. And thanks for the explanation of "Mid Day". Oh yes, and for Toto's breeding. š¶
There was a lot of good misdirection and punning in the cues for the fill that I did fill. As there weren't many of the latter there were only a few I can cite:
26A GAS CAP.
9D NEST EGGS.
Now Teri and I are off to get some tomato plants.
Cheers,
Bill
CED @10:38 AM You are wicked!
Not only did this puzzle defeat me, but I shot myself in the foot by not reading properly. I was stuck at HARE KIN, an easy clue, because I kept reading HAVE KIN. I also read BACKEND in 13 H instead of BACKBEND. I need cataract surgery.
Cross-eyed-Dave, I also wrote in turret. Your concoction sounds like a Molotov cocktail.
I was puzzled by the spelling of “STUF” for #2 D?
For 3D I wanted Conga instead of Bingo.
Phew. A slug loaded with unknowns. I usually like Sunday puzzles, so looking forward to it tomorrow.
Close but no cigar...
//but it looks like I'm in good Saturday company
Hi All!
Thanks for the puzzle and some inside-baseball Nova & Matthew. I'll add to the 'keep away from names' chorus.
Mighty-fine expo, HG. Thanks for taking the lead on Saturdays.
DNF - 15a:_RIE, 17a: _ONA
FIW - GERrIG @23a blocked BREW's clue... So close!
ESPs: Names!!! + EDGELORD (they self-title themselves?)
Fav: POGO but not as clued.
Other fun - puppies TOTO and B-I-N-G-O was his name-O.
{B+, B}
LOL Jinx @5:42a
LOL putting the Tank on plastic, CED.
Gotta run - BIL & I are catching Nolan this afternoon.
Cheers, -T
Saturday toughie, but still with some fun items here and there--many thanks, Nova and Matthew.
And thank you for your always helpful commentary, Gary. I especially liked your picture of that BRIDGE POSE. Could not have pictured what that was without your help.
First item I got was BRIE--a name I remembered for some reason.
Getting SOLACE gave me some solace.
Of course thought of doctor as medical, not a Ph.D. EDIT of a thesis or something.
RABBIT for 'hare kin' made me laugh.
Have a great weekend, everybody.
Edward (Los Angeles) listening to my grandmother’s Spanish finally paid off! LOL
I got no pleasure whatsoever from this puzzle. Additionally, and unrelated to that, I was totally unable to solve it even with many lookups. The only way I could fill in all the squares was to turn on red letters and robotically put in letter after letter until they stopped being red. Even now, looking back at the completed puzzle, I find myself repeatedly thinking, "What? Who? Huh? Yeah sure. Um, okay. Whatever." And finally, "So what?" I simply stopped caring.
Now I will read Gary's write-up, which I imagine will be up to his usual high standards and will emphasize the positive aspects. Then I will read, and very likely enjoy, all of your comments.
Seeya later maybe.
Google and I filled every cell correctly, but because I cheated so much w/ Google I have to take a DNF. Too many DNKs to list. IDIOLECT? Never hoida da bum! EDGELORDS? Oy vey. I had no clue what USWNT stood for, so off to a tough start. MINIGAMES coulda been MINDGAMES. PERP needed. MENTALHEALTH coulda been DENTALHEALTH. Then there is the SW corner quagmire, which even with Google cheats, took forever. 3D = very clever clue for BINGO. 10 proper names in all. Geez, I had NO CHANCE AT ALL at this CW W/O massive cheating, and even then it took 54 minutes to fill. I thought YESTERDAY'S CW was a skull-buster, so I'm not sure what to call this one. Oh yeah: the Saturday CW!! It's funny that once it's all filled in I can look at it and think, "Geez! That shouldn't have been so hard! What took so long?" The answer is: my disgraceful level of ignorance. Well, I do the best I can. Wow, this was tough even for a Saturday. Thanx (I think) MQ&MS, for your hard work to make me work hard. Thanx, HG, you never disappoint, your write-ups are always both enlightening and entertaining. On behalf of all at the blog, THANX for all the time and effort. It IS appreciated.
Hola!
It was a long, hard slog in two parts, but I finished. Two parts because I woke early and started solving then midway returned to bed, slept some and came back to finish.
For some reason, ECARD just didn't occur to me though I've sent many of them.
EDGELORDS? No idea. However, I love the clue for BIB which, of course, I thought would be related to sports. A nice surprise. Great misdirection on NESTEGGS. The same for DOGBOWLS.
Zappos buy I know!
I don't know that ERICA but it was easily sussed.
VAMOS is the only fill of which I was totally sure.
Thank you, Nova Qi and Matthew Stock; and special thanks to Gary for providing the missing pieces for me.
Have a special Saturday, all!
Owen I really enjoyed your offerings today. You are in fine form!
Excellent write-up, Gary. Thanks. I enjoyed reading all of your comments, folks, and following your links.
Maybe from now on I'll do as Jinx did. I'll scan for proper names, showbiz trivia, product brand names, and pop culture trivia clues before starting, and when I hit 15 or so I'll quit. Hmm, I wonder how many of those there are in today's puzzle. I shall now count them...
1. USWNT star __ Heath: TOBIN
2. Alison of "GLOW": BRIE
3. "The Best of Everything" author Jaffe: RONA
4. Greta with three Oscar nominations: GERWIG
5. "I __ Girl From Africa": Elizabeth Nyamayaro memoir: AM A
6. Former MLB commissioner honored with a statue in Milwaukee: SELIG
7. Thomas known as the "Soul Queen of New Orleans": IRMA
8. "Ginger Pye" Newbery Medal winner Eleanor: ESTES
9. Alter ego of Marvel's Peter Porker: SPIDER-HAM
10. Dog who bit Miss Gulch: TOTO
11. Quick contests between turns in Mario Party: MINI GAMES
12. CNN journalist Hill: ERICA
13. Installment of "Assassin's Creed" featuring Vikings: VALHALLA
14. Zappos buy: SHOES
Jinx may have a different list.
DNF. First loss of the week, and probably of several weeks. Does that make it a good Saturday puzzle? I'd say no, but a few of you FIR, so hats off to you!
Today is the 4th anniversary of the day in 2018 when I became a resident of Hoskinson House assisted living center. The 25th was a Monday that year.
My room is the smallest size in Wesley Manor and is perfect for me. I will live out the rest of my years here, and I tell the staff that "I'll be here for 20 years."
I named my abode "The Chez," and have a sign at the door stating "To Chez or not touche".
I live in "Putzity" where I putz at the speed of putz.
My mascot is Miss Lickie Riche AKA licorice, a black stuffed puppy dog.
Too much for now.
ĆaviĆ°
AKA Ć!
Hi Y'all! This puzzle was not on my wave-length. First pass thru had more white spaces than filled. I agree with what Jayce, Jinx, IM & others said. Nova & Matthew and Patti, if long-time solvers cannot fill your puzzles, is all your mental effort worth doing? There is tough and there is ridiculous. This puzzle borders on the latter. I did manage to fill it with red-letters streaming. Too many unknowns. Hard not to feel angry at having an enjoyable pastime ruined by over-zealous nerds.
Gary, thank you, for all your SOLACE & information. The BRIDGE POSE (never heard of it) was scary. If I tried that, I'd never get up again.
EDGE LORDS? EDGE tuRDS seems more apt.
I'm familiar with BRIDGE POSE from yoga though I have to confess it's been a long while since I practiced yoga. Time to get into it again and limber my stiff joints. All pain is now gone so I should be able to do some if not the whole routine.
D4, good to hear from you again. Happy 4th entry anniversary! Glad you have a good place. My family wants me to go to assisted living, but I'm too tired to dismantle my house & they don't have time.
Tough PZL, the kind that dignifies a Saturday morning from the new Qi/Stock team, refereed by H'Gary.
I enjoyed the many illustrations, but especially of the clothesline for HANGS. Reminds me of the long clothesline out our back window when I was a kid growing up in San Francisco.
HuskerG's note points up how such lines are not allowed in most housing developments today. I wonder about our old line on Union Street. It stretched behind our home, to a high pole over the long garden--unseen by passersby in front.
But even out of sight, such a line has probably vanished given the ubiquity of modern dryers, and under peer pressure from those whose backyards adjoined ours.
I am just guessing here, but since our modest old SF home, that we rented for a truly modest monthly fee, was recently on the market for millions of dollars(!!) I'm pretty sure nobody expects to see a tenement-worthy clothesline flying out the back window.
~ OMK
____________
DR: Two diagonals today, one to a side.
The near side offers an anagram (11 of 15 letters) honoring a super cool native-born Israeli.
Sababa, bubala! I mean a real...
"SMOOTH SABRA"!
Musings
-Back from watching my grand-nephew playing baseball in Omaha after a call from my sister 30 minutes before first pitch.
-Anonymous – Yes, we live 45 minutes north of Lincoln are meeting our kids and their kids for a Lincoln Saltdog game tonight. It has become a Father’s Day tradition but they were out of town on that day. The president and GM of the club is a friend who is going to let us sit up in a luxury box.
Hi PK! Sorry to hear that you didn’t enjoy the puzzle (or at least struggled with it), though I find the claim that the puzzle was “ridiculous” a bit disheartening. Nova and I are both young people making puzzles with an admittedly younger audience in mind, and I hope that that can be celebrated — a new generation of crossword lovers is joining the community! — rather than scorned. Hope the next one is more to your liking and that you have a great weekend.
Matthew, thanks for answering PK. I try to work the puzzles and like the challenge as long as obscure and unknowns don't cross or are stacked.
Foiled again in the NW. TOBIN (and USWNT), IDIOLECT, ERICA Hill, BRIDGE POSE, & SENIORITIS are unknowns. I had TBSP, OREOS, TOTO, and even guessed SPIDERHAM but the gap was too wide to fill in. The rest of the puzzle was normal Saturday tough with unknowns EDGELORDS, GERWIG, MINIGAMES, AM A, and ESTES coming by perps.
Gary-After looking at the BRIDGE POSE the V8 hit me. My physical therapist just calls it the BRIDGE, but doesn't have me bend my back; just keep it straight to strengthen the glutes.
IRMA Thomas was a gimme for me. So was Mardi GRAS. She sang the original "Time Is On My Side", a local hit before the Rolling Stones made it known world wide a year later. I've seen her perform many times. Diane and I would attend her shows on New Years Eve at the Marriott. About 15 years ago she, Harry Connick Sr., and other New Orleans musicians were performing on a cruise that I was on. DW and some of the other women were taking a line-dancing class and IRMA also attended. She can sing but she can't dance.
SENIORITIS SATURDAY. Thanks for the fun Nova and Matthew, and HuskerG.
I threw in the towel too eventually, but I did get some enjoyment out of this CW.
I smiled at clueing for BIB, IDES, GAS CAP, even OREOS.
But yes Matthew, we are showing our age with our complaints about the new “geared younger” clues. But if you note Irish Miss @10:33am
“If you’re going to use pop culture in your puzzles, the least you can do is clue the perps toward a broader solving demographic.”
All we ask is fair perps and not whole areas of intersecting unknown names.
Jayce, I considered TOTO fair when I realized Miss Gulch was from Oz.
This Canadian entered ABE for the long timer on Capitol Hill, but I guess he is actually sitting (no that’s the statue on the Mall?) I didn’t know the ELM. I’ll just claim Canadian disadvantage.
Good to hear from Falwell and D4 today.
Wishing you all a great day.
Matthew - Thanks for stopping by The Corner to comment on feedback.
Having just crossed the mid-century mark, I'm an 'inbetweener'; between you fresh Young constructors (and Patti's takes) and (what my wife refers to as) my "Octogenarian" friends. Arts & Entertainment outside of comedy & music and I'm clueless - worse so for anything released in the last 20 years (I had more time BK [before kids]).
I think new artists are fair IF they don't cross / stack more new names (or cross a ? clue) - that's how we learn & stay young (at heart anyway). And I'm sure some of the new A&E will eventually replace the Silent Film Folks I had to learn when I first started solving ;-)
Nice to read you D4! Sounds like everything is still going swimmingly.
BigE - SENIORITIS is the disease of "don't give a damn" that sets in on most 18yr olds about 2 months before graduation. I know I used all my Truancy-Tokens to dodge class and spend time with future DW.
C, Eh! - ELM took this American a while too... I was going for POL until I went MENTAL.
OMK - You're not HUNG out to dry on the banned clothes-line assumption. I couldn't imagine folks paying that $$$ want to see anyone's smalls blowing in the wind.
Baseball fans - I highly recommend Facing Nolan. Great story about a great Texan who could FLING a ball. BIL & I loved it -- as did the other four people in the theater. We all talked for at least 10 minutes after the movie.
Cheers, -T
So far we haven't heard much from the younger generation (-T excepted of course š) that the new guard is trying to attract. I hope that the LAT is sending out a lot of "Tweets" and "Instas" to bring them into the fold, because without them the Corner will eventually fold, and C.C.'s wonderful creation will go the way of all flesh.
I agree with all the comments about fair perping. It's a way for constructors to teach us about all the "New Tricks" (one of my favorite British detective shows). But it could work the other way as well, teaching the younger generations about the past. The past never really goes away. It just accumulates.
Cheers,
Bill
It's not the supposed target audience for these puzzles that I have been griping about. I like learning new things. My complaint has been about so many of the answers being simply trivia which you either know or don't know and often can't figure out or make sense of even with help from the perps. This, to me, is especially aggravating when a person's name is spelled in a way that I couldn't possibly guess. For example, I remember (rote memory, mind you!) Whoopie Goldberg's real first name is Karen, except it's not, it's spelled Caryn. So if, for example, the crosses gave me -AR-N I would still not be able to figure out the missing letters are C and Y, not K and E, unless (1) I knew already how to spell her name, or (2) the perps revealed those two letters (assuming I can solve those perps). If the perps are also unsussable, then that portion of the puzzle becomes, by definition, unsolvable, or at least unsolvable without having to look up Whoopie Goldberg to find out her name. The puzzle resembles more of a cross trivia puzzle than a cross word puzzle.
I hope I have expressed my thoughts clearly enough that y'all understand what I'm talking about.
On a lighter note, I'd like to share with you all that the endoscopy on Thursday went extremely well and with no discomfort at all. Everybody took excellent care of me, made me comfortable, answered all my questions (very important to a patient!) and I was sedated to the point of being asleep for most of it. Never felt a thing. And the other good news is that the results showed that my esophagus, stomach, etc. are unblemished and perfectly healthy. That night I slept like a baby.
Jayce, I had a list of your unknowns that I knew, and my unknowns that you didn't list, but "Preview" ate it. First time that's happened to me.
Good luck on depending on the younger generation to sustain interest in newspaper crossword puzzles. Maybe you can hope that they will continue the popularity of playing Whist, too.
I've said many times that we folks with a technical background can provide clues and fill that would be doable for us, but hard for the general audience. We even think THIS is funny.
Sorry Pawel F, autocorrect turned you into some Shakespearean character.
Jayce- glad the endoscopy went smoothly and the results were good.
AnonT- you make this Canadian feel less disadvantaged about ELM. BRW, how did that Elm survive the Dutch Elm disease?
Matthew, thank you for answering my critique. I am glad you found it disheartening. I meant for you to understand that it is more disheartening for those people who are trying to solve one ridiculous clue after another. I hope you will read what we are saying and cut us some slack. I don't believe younger people will find it much easier if they are even at all interested in trying or have time to do so.
I have to agree with the sentiments of many of the posters, namely with the new editor in place, there are many more obscure (to me) names and trivia. This was a slog, no offense to the constructors. I think it’s the direction they are getting that is the problem.
Let me see if I can unpack some clarity. 1A is clued as "USWNT star _____ Heath".
Okay, so the acronym unpacks -- with some wags -- as "United States' Womens National Team." Okay, but which sport is it USWNT for? Badminton? Polo? Even if I followed soccer (fat chance), everything that shows up in the media is about professional soccer. So we are already in trouble.
And which Heath is this? Barnaby? Aloyisius? Nguyen? Oh, it is a totally unknown and unperpable 'Tobin.'
Then cross this maze with 'idiolect', and the puzzle just becomes a slog.
CanadianEh, ELM was a long way down the list of tries for me after Sen(ator), Pol(itician) and several others. I don't associate ELM with that locale at all. Does anyone?
I am feeling a great deal better about the impossibility of me doing this CW when I read many of the others, all of whom are better solvers than I, also found this CW simply impossible, or very nearly so. Anyone? When the CW becomes SO difficult it is no longer any fun, and I'm no longer challenging my mind but simply looking up one item after another, I'm done with it. I've been doing CWs for forty years or so, and my finding them much more difficult lately I do NOT believe is exclusively due to diminished capacity due to age, I believe the CWs truly ARE getting far more difficult. Anyone who truly solved this without looking something up or (if done online) using red letters, my hat is truly off to you. Truly, did ANYONE today solve this w/o cheating by looking at least one item up or using red letters? Please tell me if you did.
Secret Service protection.
unclefred:
In solving crossword puzzles my rule is to never look up anything if at all possible. Sometimes, though, it becomes impossible especially on Saturdays. What I do is fill an answer and if I have any doubts I may look it up to see if I'm right. Today's puzzle was exceedingly challenging and I had to put it down several times to recharge then start again. The obscure names are particularly hard.
With the large numbers of DNF's and questioning the constructors today, 15 A?!?!
Aren't the editors' supposed to minimize such issues???
I hate it. when the layout eds site the cw squarely on the fold! Just sayin'...
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