Notes from C.C.:
Today's official LAT puzzle is a re-run of the April 23, 2022 puzzle. Below is Husker Gary's write-up of that puzzle. A few other sites have the wrong puzzle.
Sorry for the confusion. New puzzles will resume tomorrow.
I’m a fairly regular contributor for my hometown (okay, home state) paper The New York Times, and a member of the in-house constructing team at The New Yorker. For those who may not be aware, The New Yorker recently upgraded their puzzle offerings to 5 puzzles per week (four themeless and one themed) and I contribute 2 each month, typically of the ‘easy’ themeless variety. Those two venues keep me pretty busy. When I’m not making puzzles I volunteer for The League of Women Voters, in a last ditch effort to save democracy. As for today’s grid, I made it a few years ago, so looking at it with older and wiser eyes there are a few entries in there I’d like to take back if I could. But the long stuff is all pretty fun—perhaps one might be so bold as to say a CROWDPLEASER—so hopefully that’s the part of the puzzle that solvers will enjoy and remember.
Happy solving,
Robyn
1. Cutting-edge name?: ATRA - Ginsu wouldn't work for this cwd regular
5. Scenery in Road Runner cartoons: MESAS.
10. Polite address: MAAM.
14. "Sorry, my hands are tied ... ": WHAT CAN I DO - Probably said by constructors when they have to settle for fill they don't like.
16. Price for hand delivery?: ANTE - Oh, a poker hand!
17. Musical arrangement?: RECORD DEAL - This shows a young truck driver from Memphis signing his first RECORD DEAL with RCA. How did that work out?
18. Revolution: GYRE - Same root for Elvis' GYRATIONS
19. "I rock!": YAY ME.
20. Class stat: GPA - Research is showing that a H.S. GPA is as good or even better predictor of college success as standardized tests.
21. "Can confirm": IT IS.
22. Mystery that may have a stirring message?: SECRET RECIPE - 23 products with SECRET RECIPES
26. Bon __: MOT - Example: ''I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.'' Clarence Darrow
29. Place: PUT.
30. Unpredictable jerk: SPASM.
31. Checked: ARRESTED - Synonyms for stopped
34. Aegean capital: ATHENS - The preferred capital in this capital is the Euro
38. Like all tigers: ASIAN - What could possibly go wrong here?
40. Draft status: ONE -A - In the 60's: Next stop - Vietnam
41. Continues: GOES ON.
43. Run ragged: OVERWORK.
45. "__ Gabler": HEDDA - One critic wrote: "Fans of Diana Rigg will enjoy a jackpot in her remarkable performance as Ibsen's icy, manipulating, despairing bitch."
47. U.N. agency: ILO.
49. Popular performer: CROWD PLEASER - Tiger Woods had no chance of winning on at the Masters last April but his galleries, in person and on TV, were very large
53. "Yeah, no": UH UH.
54. Bread machine: ATM - Here's one dispensing €'s "bread" in Europe
55. Source of some lumber: PINES.
59. Audio brand: BOSE.
60. Bridal store event: SAMPLE SALE.
63. Central German river: EDER - In red below
64. "Deep breaths ... ": TRY TO RELAX.
65. Ms. enclosure: SASE - Viking Press probably stuffed this rejection letter into a Self Addressed Stamped Envelope to Alice Walker when they rejected The Color Purple. Oops!
66. Unlikely assignment from a math teacher: ESSAY.
67. Pinch at the table: SALT.
Down:
1. A bit off: AWRY - Many of my schemes have oft gone AWRY or "gang aft agley".
2. Australian novelist Astley: THEA - Wikipedia's take on her
3. Somewhat blue: RACY and 58. Have a heated exchange?: SEXT - Be careful, the internet remembers everything.
4. Cyclotron units: ATOMS - This cyclotron at Cal Berkley was used to discover Plutonium, Neptunium and other transuranium ATOMS. in the 1950's
5. Publication credited to the "Usual Gang of Idiots": MAD - Mad Magazine Archive where you can find every edition and turn every page.
6. Wrap: END.
7. Military blockade: SIEGE - The 47- Day SIEGE at Vicksburg, MS gave the Union control of the Mississippi River at the same time the South fell at Gettysburg.
8. Makes fit: ADAPTS.
9. Array for catching rays: SOLAR PANELS - There is a 5 acre "farm" of SOLAR PANELS a quarter mile south of me.
10. Disappearing act?: MAGIC SHOW - I don't think he fooled the kitty
11. "I'm waiting ... ": ANYTIME NOW.
12. Aweigh: ATRIP - ATRIP is an obscure (to me) synonym for aweigh which both describe when the anchor is no longer touching the bottom.
13. "With Reagan" memoirist: MEESE - He held high positions in Governor and Presidnet Reagan's administrations
15. Advances slowly: CREEPS.
23. Relocation option: CUT AND PASTE - I type my daily musings in Word and then CUT AND PASTE them into the blog.
24. USPS assignments: RTES.
25. "Have some": EAT.
26. Helgenberger of "CSI": MARG - A mile from my golf course there is a sign showing she was raised in North Bend, NE
27. Cookie with the same colors as a crossword: OREO.
28. Construction projects guaranteed to get off the ground: TREE HOUSES - Wow!
32. Neither here nor there: ELSEWHERE.
33. "Rainbow in the Dark" metal band: DIO - Here ya go
35. Fictional Wolfe: NERO - The author's name dominated this early novel
36. Drink that may be served warm: SAKE.
39. Brand with Vanessa Hudgens workout collection: AVIA.
42. Like 2021: ODD.
44. Educator Annemarie who co-founded a school in Greater Detroit: ROEPER.
46. Sites for some rites: ALTARS.
49. Products with triple the power?: CUBES - 4³ = 64 (the product of 4 x 4)
50. Sitcom whose 1974 pilot episode was titled "Joe": RHODA - Rhoda leaves Minneapolis (and The Mary Tyler Moore show) and moves to NYC where she meets Joe
51. Awards won by 50-Down: EMMYS - Valerie Harper
52. Climbs: RISES.
56. Beyoncé voice role: NALA.
57. Airline whose first flight was from Geneva to Tel Aviv: EL AL - It returned Israels's prime minister to Tel Aviv from a conference in Geneva
62. "The Thin Man" star: LOY - Myrna LOY poses with Thin Man costar William Powell and a dog whose name appears here quite often too.
53 comments:
Hmmm...this puzzle is not the one that I solved today, my LAT CW was constructed by one Brian Rom?
Exactly, plus the one Gary posted is vaguely familiar
WC
Plus I'm anxious to learn the name of the writer of "Ain't I a Woman"
Woo-hoo. I just changed the unk letter and am amazed at my FIR
WC ~ my WAG of the K in the HOOKS/DHAKA crossing also gave me a FIR in 20:14.
I’m not sure what’s going on, but like the rest of you I did a whole different puzzle from the one that’s indicated on the blog. So here’s what I have to say about the puzzle I DID do, not the one indicated:
The puzzle was a bit of a slog, but nowhere nearly as difficult as last Thursday’s, for example. Getting “kinda sorta” for “ish” opened that section, and getting “RPMs” for “CD rate?” opened up that section for me. Finally, getting “Planet of the Apes” for “gorilla war?” made that section clear, too. Anyway, FIR, so I’m happy.
Wilbur Charles @ 4:23 a.m. - The name of the writer referenced is “bell Hooks” and that first lower case “b” is not a typo. Look her up on Wikipedia (or other source) if you’re interested.
Oh, sorry. I just realized her entire name is given as lower case, so it’s “bell hooks” “kinda sorta” like “e.e. cummings”, I hope all is clear now!
FIR, with hand up for WAGging the Natick HOOKS x DHAKA. Erased see in for ASK IN, inlay for INSET, and erron for ERROL.
I'm PRETTY SURE this one was a very easy Saturday puzzle, since I finished it. Like the old puzzle that wasn't posted today, the long answers were fun.
We're all Bengals fans this week, even if you want the Ravens to win. Do you think the team will be inspired by Damar Hamlin's survival of last week's injury, or will they be distracted by his absence?
Thanks to Brian for the fun. My favorite was SUCK IN, which is also what middle-age guys do on the beach when some bikini-clad babe walks by. And thanks to Gary for the fine review of the wrong grid.
Remember when Martin Short learned about "gorillas" in the jungle in Captain Ron?
Same here. Totally different puzzle
Hamlin is on the Bills…
Anon - Right you are. I blame decaf. We're all Bills today. Guess I was thinking about the docs at UC med ctr.
I don't remember the puzzle but I FIR in 15 minutes today. ROEPER, NALA, HEDDA were filled by perps. Easy for a Saturday; filled NW to SE.
The correct puzzle is the LA Times website has it. By Brian Rom/Patti Varol
https://www.latimes.com/games/daily-crossword
"When I’m not making puzzles I volunteer for The League of Women Voters, in a last ditch effort to save democracy. " From whom?
B-E, you're trying to start a political argument. Don't bite, folks.
Our newspaper, the Hartford Courant, had the correct clues, but a different grid. We had to go to the LA Times website for the correct grid.
FIR, and in record time. I was on the constructor's wave length for sure.
Not sure why some of you had a differently puzzle, but mine matches the blog. Very odd!
I solved the Brian Rom puzzle on Washington Post site.
Finished it wrong today in 9:18 - that's when I put on the "check puzzle" to see my guess should've been "k" for the crossing of Dhaka and hooks. So, to be clear, I did not, once again, know today's female author.
I didn't know the Lee director (not the one named Spike, anyway) or the Hodge actor. I would've clued "Aldis" as referring to the grocery store, though I don't know if that's a regional thing.
I also didn't know contretemps/spat, but that was fair for a Saturday because the crossings weren't obscure, foreign, or proper names.
Is "knee pants" really a thing? If so, it shouldn't be.
I thought it was a slightly easy Saturday puzzle, other than hooks/Dhaka and contretemps.
Anon, Johnny Mercer's song Blues in the Night starts:
My mama done told me when I was in KNEE-PANTS
My mama done told me, she said Son
A woman will sweet-talk ya, she'll give you the big eye
But when that sweet talkin' is done
A woman's a two-face, a worrisome thing
Who'll leave ya to sing the blues in the night
My mom sang that song to me when I was a little kid. I only remember the first line.
I, too, had the Brian Rom, puzzle. Two red letters to change today.
Is there an explanation for two different puzzles?
FIR, and got a fast time like others. I happened to know DHAKA and the O in ODETTE was an easy guess, but like yesterday, we have ANOTHER normal word (HOOKS) crossing TWO (!) names and clued as a name.
Well, this is puzzling...
My xword was by Brian Rom also!
Learning moment:
I never realized HOW MUCH I enjoy the write ups, until I was missing one!
Another learning moment:
You could print old puzzles, and I would never have a clue I had done them before...
Todays puzzle? (At least, I think it was todays...)
Finally, a Saturday construct that was on my wavelength.
It was enjoyable sussing at its finest, at least for my level of brainpower. Not too hard, not too easy, right in "my" Goldilocks zone.
My xwords come from an INSERT* to the Sunday TBTimes.
I echo Jinx re. Difficulty but much harder than Thursday in that the majority of clues were Saturday level. vv for Thursday
Although fewer pop-cul
WC
Clue from the SubG,WC,Jinx version
BTW, perhaps the "hooks" people shouldn't discuss because our version may show up online next week
I am in the group that had the Brian Rom LAT puzzle in my paper. It had a few challenges but had some long fill that came pretty easily which helped to open up other swaths of the puzzle.
Mini theme for the themeless with PLANET OF THE APES crossing BARREL OF MONKEYS for the grid spanners. I enjoyed playing it and my kids did too - it was a game that was easily taken on a road trip with its compact plastic barrel case.
When I play SPORCLE quizzes I often pause when filling out capitals with DHAKA for Bangladesh vs. Dakar for Senegal - my mnemonic is remembering the old TV show Dharma & Greg where she is a yoga instructor - that Dh- words are usually related to Hindusim and India.
Thanks Brian for the puzzle and looking forward to HG resuming next week!
I had the Brian Rom puzzle and even though it was difficult, I FIR, so I really enjoyed it. I won’t talk about it since as WC mentioned, those who didn’t get this one, might get it later.
Another beautiful day of sunshine and mild temps.
Hola!
What a strange line of comments! My puzzle was the one noted in Gary's comments by Robyn Weintraub.
It was a slow slog but not as obscure as some Saturday puzzles.
I was happy to see HEDDA Gabler in the puzzle. It's not an ordinary fill though we sometimes see the author, Henrik Ibsen. It was on my reading list of World Literature. My Liberal Arts major prepared me for doing crossword puzzles!
How can ALL tigers be ASIAN? Aren't some African?
My Natick was at the crossing of ROEPER/ILO/AVIA. My knowledge of AVIA is a shoe brand.
SOLAR PANELS are becoming ubiquitous here in the desert where sunshine is abundant.
NERO Wolfe is an occasional fill and easy enough to remember. So far.
SAMPLE SALE. I recall going with my daughter to shop for a BRIDAL dress! It was one SALE after another and many, many tryouts later that she found one she liked. Most had too much lace, beading, ruffles, etc. for her taste. She wanted and found something simple and plain. Many years later (and now divorced) she used it for a Halloween costume with some modifications as the Bride of Frankenstein. Yes. That's my daughter!
Now I need to get going and cook my dish for today's party.
Have a spectacular Saturday, everyone!
So I've done this (Robyn's) puzzle before? Just last year? Hopefully, I did better today. I mean I FIW/DNF'd it, but it was a good college-try and I filled most of the blocks - even if some were wrong.
Hi All!
Thanks Robyn for the grid. Thanks HG for the re-recap.
FIW: Yea! ME, AVon (39d), melT (58d) - I was being literal with heat-exchange / thermodynamics.
WO: ELAr //I should really know this by now
ESPs: why bother? FIW
Fav: RECORD DEAL's clue. CUT AND PASTE's clue was cute too (I was thinking CUT AND RUN - another relocation option)
CED - c/as are in the .puz file -- I wrote a Python script to build the outline of the blog with all the Acrosses / Downs pre-formatted. The Bloggers just have to:
a) parse / add spaces to multi-word clues/fill
b) move themers to the top
c) come up with a fun "title"
d) comment on clues / fill
e) provide silly and/or pertinent links
f) add meta-tags for future web-archaeologists
g) ?
h) Profit! //just kidding - it's all volunteer.
My pinch-hits take about 6 to 12 hours of playing / fact-checking my own thoughts / getting links & formatting right / DW & TTP edits.
Our regular hosts deserve a huge round of applause. And, TTP (who does a buncha behind-the-scenes), gets an atta-boy too.
Y'all have a wonderful afternoon. I'm getting a new batter in my Alfa Spider - if I can get it done before the rains, I'll take it for a joyous spin.
Cheers, -T
*battery -T
My paper, the Charleston (SC) Post and Courier, had the Brian Rom crossword, dated 1/07/23. It also had the correct solve for yesterday.
Kind of weird that others have a XWord from months ago, has to be a local (LA) mistake, else why would their 1/07/23 puzzle be published elsewhere? Why would they even send it out and then publish an old one?
Anyway…got the solve, a nice Saturday grid.
Looks like something went "1D" on the distribution of this puzzle but I did get a FIR on the version I received (according to HG anyway). "19A!" Given my track record on Saturday puzzles I probably FIW the 4/23/2022 puzzle, so as SG would say, "I'm happy".
Ergo, thank you Robyn for the repeat and thank you Husker for going to all the trouble of reviewing it again, even if it just a "23D" job.
We're headed out the door for our first post-pandemic hike, so my comments will be brief [Please hold your applause]:
A few FAVS:
18A GYRE. Immortalized in the first line of the Irish Bard W.B. Yeats' The Second Coming
"Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ..."
... I think I'll ARREST here, before I'm ARRESTED for violating the "no politics rule".
40A ONE A. I was a ONE A, but won the Nixon Lottery (#327). Many others were not so lucky.
5D MAD. This mag got me through high school. Thanks for the bookmark Husker!
13D MEESE. In addition to the plural of MICE, IIRC MEESE was also a proprietary fork of the MUMPS programming language (you'll have to take my word for that, as it predated the Internet); and of course he was the USAG for Ronald Reagan.
Cheers,
Bill
p.s. Sorry if none of this makes any sense to those of you who received the other guy's puzzle.
CrossEyedDave @12:10 PM. Better watch that stuff CED or C.C. will come knockin' at your door!
AnonymousPVX @1:02 PM LAT make a mistake? Tsk, Tsk!
OK, I have three sources for the LAT puzzles. The LAT web site and Virginian-Pilot have Brian's puzzle, but the Ocala Star-Banner has Robyn's.
As you folks can clearly tell, I had the Brian Rom puzzle. That was the one on the L.A. Times website. Now, Wilbur Charles, you say the rest of the folks might get this puzzle later on. But I don’t see how that would be possible, since it has already been on the website, although perhaps the L.A. Times could run two puzzles on the same day. Since that could be a possibility, I will refrain from saying anything more about the (current) puzzle. BTW, my local paper, the Richmond Times-Dispatch, had the same puzzle as the website i.e. the Brian Rom puzzle, so I still don’t see how so many people got the old one. It’s a mystery!
NERD ALERT!
waseeley - M seems eerily close to perl hashes [associative-arrays]. I'd use the crap out of hashes for fast storage / sparse-arrays. Larry Wall is 1/2-genius|1/3-nutty | linguistic thief [in the best possible way].
Cheers, -T
Brian ~~ thanks for clearing this up, KINDA SORTA. Anyway, I enjoyed the solve very much and thank you for that!
I enjoyed solving the Brian Rom puzzle today. Some nice cluing, as posted by CED. Enough "gimmees" to provide some footholds and the rest of the answers built upon those. Were it not for DHAKA I never would have gotten HOOKS, which of course is one of those "either you know it or you don't" answers.
Good wishes to you all.
Rerun puzzles? ( has this ever happened in Patti's predecessor's time? )
Multi-puzzle print chaos, breach of copyright? My goodness! I do crosswords to get away from the drama I find in everyday life!
(What is this world coming to?)
Anon-T,
Thank you for the batter/battery correction.
I thought you were going to do this!
Waseeley,
I'm not worried about CC knocking on my door, she knows I never finish anything I get started.
(Exhibit A above, only across-no downs)
( my laziness is secure...)
Plus,
I was saving the downs for after a couple of beers,
Thought it might come out more entertaining that way...
I needed three (maybe four) cheats for this one. Not the toughest for a Saturday XWD.
Funny, I hadn't heard of ROEPER.
I always have trouble with spelling grunts and groans.
UHUH could be just as positive as it is here supposed to be negative.
~ OMK
__________
DR: Three diagonals on the near end.
The middle diag gives a somewhat disrespectful anagram (11 of 15) for either an ambulance or, if that should arrive too late, a black or deep purple often-elegant limo--yes, a hearse!
Put on your vulgar cap, and dub it a...
"MEAT VEHICLE"!
OMK:
LOL!
Yet I doubt that the relatives of the deceased would find that amusing. But given time they might change their minds.
Especially if the departed one was particularly meaty, er, uh, that is, maybe obese. I know of one person who would fit that description. He was grossly overweight and might have required a specially designed coffin. I'll have to inquire from someone who would know.
Brian:
I especially like No. 56
About today's puzzle, I too had Brian's version. Thanks to CED's mini review, it looks like a FIR for me today. Who would have thought such a kerfuffle would happen in our crossword world? What next?
Well, it's sunny here this afternoon and tomorrow is another day....
Enjoy your weekend!
The Florida Times Union (Jacksonville) had the puzzle shown at the top here. Got it in 19:36 which is really quick for me for a Saturday. I figured something must be off…
-T @1:44 PM You are correct about MUMPS in that it has many similarities to Perl, but the former was developed long before the latter. MUMPS was originally developed on VAXes in the pre-virtual memory days. Thus real memory was precious and "pretty printing" code was actually discouraged. The guy who taught it to me actually discouraged the use of carriage returns because "they were a waste of memory" (this after a year I'd spent coding 370 ALC, where each instruction took up one line!). "Your lines are too long" he said. "Well how long should they be?" I said. He then spread his arms apart the width of a sheet of printer paper and with a grin said "This long!".
The major difference between MUMPS and any other language I recall working with (except perhaps Apple II Basic), was that it was a complete self-contained environment that provided an Operating System, a recursive procedural language, a hierarchical DBMS, symbolic indirection (self modifying code), and direct access to memory locations (the only thing it lacked was "comments"). MUMPS was the only code running on the system.
Believe it or not it's still around, especially in hospital environments. In addition to Massachusetts General Hospital where it originated, it's used by the VA Hospitals.
Brian ~ thanks for coming by and giving us the whole take on the relationship between constructor and editor, I can understand how you feel when 80% of your work is changed for publication, sometimes I feel the puzzles are over-edited to the point that the original work is hardly present. I would have liked a stab at the CW with your clueing. Thanks again for the Saturday challenge!
Just got home and saw Brian’s explanation. Such treatment of a constructor isn’t acceptable. It’s like a book editor who deletes close to 80% of a writer’s work and says tough.
I look forward to Brian’s work in the future since I liked his original puzzle.
I don't care enough to critique the content of the original clues, but they are in general far too long-winded. Newspapers have limited space, and there's a strict character count for the clues.
If you can't handle having your work edited, don't submit it for publication.
Well that's an interesting day.
Re: The phantom crossword by Brian Rom
Would someone please explain 11A. CD Rate ? = RPMS
Thank you in advance.
Not @7:57 PM Just a swag: Revolutions Per Mminute, although I think RPS would be a better measure for the spin rate of a CD ROM player.
Brian - keep trying while knowing what a good production crew brings to bear. What I love about this clip (first few seconds) is all the folks it takes to make it so: BTO - Let It Ride.
Best & Cheers, -T
Brian, I appreciate your coming here and explaining the situation, and I understand how frustrating it is for you. I might suggest looking at it from a slightly different angle. The editor has a vision of what she wants the LA Times crossword puzzle to be like. She's not a gatekeeper; she's a person with very specific ideas who is entitled to have those very specific ideas. Whether we agree or disagree, she is the editor and she gets to make that choice. You got paid and gave up your rights. Many, many book authors will tell you how much they hate the movie adaptation of their novel. Many, many, many. Many actors will tell you that they are upset with director and editor decisions that hurt the way their performance looks in the final film. But those novelists and actors got paid in exchange for giving up their input into the final product.
The system could and should be much better. Yes, the parameters should have been clearer and the communication should have been better - as someone who has worked in the magazine industry, I can tell you that limited printed space is a huge thing that seems extremely obvious to an editor but is not something a new author is going to think about unless it is communicated to him or her. Yes, it should have happened in a less last-minute and apparently somewhat chaotic fashion. But the general premise is not going to change, which is that a creative artist (and a crossword constructor is a creative artist IMO) is going to have to decide whether they can make compromises in their art to get paid and/or reach a wider audience. You may decide that you don't want to. Many constructors publish for free on their own website. But if you want a crossword published in a mainstream widely-read publication, there is going to be an editor who is going to make decisions you don't like.
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