16. Brilliant artist beset by personal demons, say: TORTURED GENIUS.
21. Activities Rudolph was kept from joining: REINDEER GAMES.
33. Southern part of the Mariana Trench: CHALLENGER DEEP.
43. Leafy side: COLLARD GREENS.
52. Not conforming to traditional male/female norms, and a hint to this puzzle's circles: GENDER CREATIVE.
CREATIVE is a clue indicating an anagram, in this case for letters GENDER that stretch across the two-word theme answers.
Melissa here. Just like a dictionary documents newly added terms and definitions, so do crosswords. A recent NYT article, Will Shortz's Life in Crosswords, quotes Shortz as saying "I think the crossword should reflect the life, language, and culture of everybody who reads the Times, and that’s everybody from smart teens up to the oldest people." Here's another NYT article listing over 1,900 words that appeared for the first time in their puzzles last year.
Across:
1. Pinnacle: ACME. Wiley Coyote's favorite catalog.
5. Zither kin: HARP. All about zithers. Not to be confused with Blondie's Mr. Dithers.
9. Is profitable: PAYS.
13. Like a clown car's passengers: CRAMMED IN.
15. __ palak: dish of potatoes and spinach: ALOO. Did not know this dish. Here's a recipe.
18. Condition that may be treated with CBT: OCD.
19. Hand (out): DOLE. Perps kept mete at bay.
20. Coding shortcut: MACRO. A series of instructions in the form of code that helps automate manual tasks, thereby saving time.
24. Dudes: GUYS.
25. 2020 and 2022 WNBA MVP Wilson: AJA. Sometimes see this clued as an album by Steely Dan.
26. Sagan who hosted the original "Cosmos": CARL. Pale Blue Dot. A beautiful piece of writing by Carl Sagan about the earth.
28. Little red Corvette or little deuce coupe: AUTO.
30. "The French Dispatch" director Anderson: WES.
37. Certain sib: SIS. Not bro.
38. Engrave: ETCH.
39. With competence: ABLY.
40. "Don't __ me started": GET.
41. 20s dispensers: ATMS. My first thought, which didn't fit, was Pez. Created in 1927, as an alternative to smoking. History of Pez.
49. Unsettling, in a way: EERIE. My son and I were recently in the McKenzie River area (in Oregon) and witnessed the eerily beautiful forest, two-plus years after a raging fire. Over a 5-10 mile stretch of highway we saw hundreds of RVs where people were living while rebuilding their homes and businesses. The trees left standing were mostly black, and smoke still hung in the air, almost like a ghost.
50. Word on Irish coins: EIRE. Irish for "Ireland."
51. Issa of "The Lovebirds": RAE. Also known for her YouTube web series Awkward Black Girl.
55. Burn balm: ALOE.
56. Prison drama that was Jonathan Demme's directorial debut: CAGED HEAT. Have not seen this 1974 film. Looks kind of .... terrible.
57. Multitude in a pointillist painting: DOTS. Example: Le Clipper, Asnieres by Paul Signac, 1887.
58. Copied: APED.
59. Norway's most populous city: OSLO.
Down:
1. Person in a cast: ACTOR.
2. Jim who sang "I Got a Name": CROCE.
3. Time to celebrate with one's krewe mates: MARDI GRAS. Had to look this one up: A krewe is any
group or organization of friends who would like to band together to
host a Mardi Gras ball, ride on a Mardi Gras parade float, and
participate in social events throughout the year. In Southwest Louisiana, there are more than 60 krewes, a number that continues to grow each season.
4. First responder: Abbr.: EMT.
5. First responders, e.g.: HEROES. Clecho.
6. "Easy on Me" singer: ADELE. Mononymous is an adjective describing one who is known by just one name.
7. Rodeo contestant: RIDER.
8. GIF alternative: PNG. Image file types. Use PNG format for any image that needs transparency, or for images with text & objects with sharp contrast edges like logos. Use GIF format for images that contain animations.
9. Land on an isthmus: PANAMA. An isthmus is a strip of land that connects two continents, two different parts of the continent, or a peninsula to a continent. See?
10. Painter Neel known for nudes: ALICE. Did not know this American artist. 1900-1984. Wikipedia says she was "known for her portraits depicting friends, family, lovers, poets, artists, and strangers." This is a beautiful site to browse her art. The site is a little tricky to navigate, but you can hear Neel speaking about her work if you click on The Met (on the right menu), and then use the navigation buttons to go forward to 7/17, and click on the words "Neel speak."
11. "What's mine is __": YOURS.
12. Meh: SOSO.
14. In need of a doggy bath, maybe: MUDDY.
17. Key with four sharps: E MAJOR. F♯, G♯, C♯, and D♯
22. No longer valid: NULL.
23. Garden entrance: GATE. Here is a famous one.
27. Fish at a sushi bar: AHI. In Hawaii, “ahi” refers to two species, the yellowfin tuna and the bigeye tuna.
28. Anti-apartheid org.: ANC. Wikipedia: The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa, a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid.
29. "Gross": UGH.
30. Episodes on YouTube, say: WEB SERIES.
31. Fish at a sushi bar: EEL. Tastes like chicken. (Not really, but it's tasty.)
32. Hidden asset?: SPY. Nice clue.
34. Actress-turned-artist Sobieski: LEELEE. American artist and retired actress.
35. "__ Jones Sings Lady Day": 2001 album: ETTA.
40. Moves smoothly: GLIDES.
41. "Deal!": AGREED.
42. Traction aid: TREAD.
43. Gnarls Barkley singer-songwriter Green: CEELO.
44. " ... unless you'd rather do something else": OR NOT.
46. Mournful tune: DIRGE.
47. __ blockade: NAVAL.
48. Take care of: SEE TO.
49. Quaint oath: EGAD.
54. However briefly?: THO. Nice clue.
45 comments:
White rabbit, white rabbit.
EIRE, known to us as Ireland
Has a history noted and grand.
The Fey, begorrah,
In the halls of Tara,
Bestow EERIE wonders to the land!
EIRE's symbol is the HARP
That minstrels play from dawn to dark.
The sweetest notes
Lure Little Folks,
And Oberon their monarch!
I wasn’t familiar with “Challenger Deep” although the other themed answers were simple enough to suss. And I knew that the first word of the reveal had to be “gender “, based on the clue, while “creative “ was discovered mostly through perps. Although there were some obscurities , such as “Aja” and “Leelee ,” on the whole I found the puzzle fair and solvable. FIR, so I’m happy.
Anon-T will tell you about MÖTLEY CRÜE(krewe)
Not having OMK 's knack the circles were no help except of course for filling letters
The plethora of pop-cul was perpable
Rudolph the Red, adorable
The cacophonous bleat
The result of CAGED HEAT
Said REINDEER behavior, deplorable
Poor Ralph felt CRAMMED IN
that little apartment with ALICE
RIDER/RopER; PNG/Pdf
FIR
Good morning!
Wilbur, I also thought of Ralph at that answer. When I sussed the circles I said to myself, "Uh oh, Jinx is not gonna be happy with this one." Well done, August and MelissaBee.
FIR, and oddly, without erasure. Tons of pop-cult junk in this one, but I did get both of my Naticks ALICE x ALOO and CEELO x DOTS. OK, so those weren't exactly a heavy lift.
I was in my early teens when Caged Heat came out. Very inspirational for a young boy. It was also every bit as real-life as Elvis' Jail House Rock.
Never heard of GENDER CREATIVE, but I have heard of "gay for the stay," an expression I learned from some formerly incarcerated folks.
Thanks to August for the Friday-like challenge, but if clues like this were all I worked, I'd rather drive a truck. (Apologies to Rick Nelson.) And thanks to Melissa for the truly fun RECAP.
I managed to FIR but did not enjoy this CW: too many obscure names. Also, never saw the theme: Melissa Bee had to ‘splain it. Nice write up, Melissa Bee, thanx.
Thank you, August Miller, and thank you, Melissa
Nothing tough about this crossword either. Once again, didn't read some of the clues until getting to the review. For instance, I never saw the clue for ALICE. Is this easy week ?
Melissa, a perfect preface. Thank you. Enjoyed the Will Shortz interview and link to the first time words.
Jinx, here's my tip. If the clue sounds like it might be of an Indian food and references potatoes, the answer is probably ALOO. If the clue or answer is aloo something, then you are on your own :-)
Wilbur Charles or D-O, I don't understand the CRAMMED IN reference to Ralph. I get that's it is a reference to "The Honeymooners" but that series was before my time. Was crammed in a catchphrase, or were there continuing story lines about the size of their apartment ?
TTP, the Honeymooners character played by Jackie Gleason was Ralph Kramden (crammed in). Maybe you had to be there...
FIR. Way too many proper names for my liking. Fortunately the perps made it happen. And I'm not sure I get "gender creative". I noticed the anagrams of gender early, but do not understand the reveal.
Aha ! Now I get it. Thanks, D-O.
Took 6:04 for me to get the gender reveal, although I didn't even notice the theme after filling-in the actual reveal.
Oh joy, circles. I understand that conventional thinking is: having jumbled words in the crossword apparently helps make the solving experience better. In actuality, I don't find that to be the case, because forcing the theme in forces worse fill in too.
Knowing "Challenger Deep" helped me tremendously today (sorry, SubG), but I didn't know "Leelee" or "Alice."
I didn't want to spoil any one's guesses yesterday, but I could name one other RATT song ("Lay it Down").
I had a similarly eerie experience to Melissa Bee's this past summer in Northern California near Lassen Volcanic National Park. Fire had ravaged the land recently, leaving swathes of charred trunks.
Having the letters of GENDER mixed-up and crossing two words must have been a challenge for the constructor!
This was a steady fill- didn't know CAGED HEAT - but filled with perps.
CSO to Big Easy with MARDI GRAS which just ended with Ash Wednesday last week.
I heard A'JA Wilson interviewed on the NPR show "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me" and she said she was named after the Steely Dan album, Melissa, which was one of her dad's favorite songs.
I was thinking I wouldn't get the 20A computer answer - not being a computer whiz- but even I have heard of MACRO.
Thanks to MB and to August for a fun start to the day!
After a stretch of FIRs (trying to emulate IM), I got sloppy today writing in RaINDEER. And CROCa niggled at me but I didn't catch on. Humble pie for me today with a FIW!
The theme reveal came before I got around to unscrambling the letters I had noticed repeated in the circles. I did appreciate them as I filled perps. Thanks, August and MelissaB, for a CREATIVE start to the month.
Celebrate March today, everyone!
Oh and I think of Cee Lo Green more with his solo song of a few years ago "Forget You"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NkxCzwFPjx0
A DNF today. The NE got to this TORTURED non-GENIUS. PNG, ALICE, and ALOO were unknowns and I had filled ROPER instead of RIDER. The rest of the fills were done correctly but DNK LEELEE, AJA, CAGED HEAT, CEELO, or ADELE. And when did CEELO Green get out of prison for rape? Oh, he got probation.
Little River Band had a song "Take it EASY ON ME", it should be easy to see.
MARDI GRAS for krewe- that was a gimme here.
I think GENDER BENDER would describe some of the puzzle fills since Rich retired. Newspapers drop Dilbert but publish this? It's getting stupid. Obscure names for books, movies, tv shows, and other A&E things that can only be filled by perps and WAGS.
Melissa, Beep Beep ! I forgot to mention that I also liked how you bookended Wile E Coyote in your review. :-)
Here's inanehiker's link CeeLo Green - Forget You.
Transcendent Tuesday. Thanks for the fun, August and melissa.
I FIRed and saw the CREATIVE theme (21A was my first themer to fill and I unscrambled GENDER quickly).
The unknown names (LEELEE, ETTA as clued, ALICE, AJA) and food (ALOO) perped.
I thought of TORTURED Soul but it was too short. GENIUS fit.
I wanted Aptly before ABLY fit.
I think of NULL and Void before Valid.
We were NAVAL not Navel gazing today.
DOTS reminded me of OwenKL’s creative poem yesterday on the J site, hinting at the Wordle (polka). The line ended with “beer barrel dots”.
Wishing you all a great day.
I meant to mention that I did get the grid-spanning themers w/o much problem, and perhaps if I had taken the time to THINK about the circles, I may have figured out the theme. I didn't do so because I was just glad to be done.
Canadian eh at 9:00am, is it Tuesday in Canada?
13 proper names, by my count. Knew two. Dnf.
FIR and the circles are an anagram of GENDER which is lately divisive issue. What a DRAG 😄. (What does CHALLENGER DEEP mean?)
DAME Judy Dench almost caught shoplifting
Couldn't remember "Palak" from an old puzzle ergo WAGed, ALOO, MACRO, PANAMA (was looking for a generic landform)..."Gnarls Barkley/Green"? Neel?
Inkover: able/ABLY
Carl Sagan quote: "Pointillism consists of billyuns and billyuns of DOTS!!"
Navel blockade....LINT
Semblance....GUYS
NYC bus driver Ralph....CRAMMEDIN (CSO Wilbur C)
Detained lettuce....COLLAREDGREENS
Mr. Christian's captain..ABLY
Have a great day.
Good Morning! This one seemed Friday level to me. Lots of unknown people/places/things.
Perps & WAGs to the rescue.
Got all but the NE then crashed.
Naticks for 10D with 15/20/25A. Can I call that a triple? Tx August for the humbling experience.
Thanks, Melissa, your cheerful, fun and informative recap lightened my grumbles after finishing this puzzle. Loved the Beatrix Potter illustration. Put a smile on my face!!.
After a very slow start, REINDEER GAMES gave me the circles that gave me the necessary letters for the other long words. Even then I couldn’t see a word.—-then 43a, ah, GENDER———. Took a guess at the L in ALICE and ALOO.
I always liked LEELEE Sobieski (“ Les Liaisons Dangereuses”) and probably remember her for her unusual name.
“Time in a bottle”, Jim CROCE, always made me sad but it is a lovely song. Other singers CEELO and ETTA.
DAME Judi Dench spoke recently about her macular degeneration. Such a sad development for such a wonderful actress who needs to be able to read and memorize scripts.
Interesting puzzle Mr. Miller and a delightful write up MB!
RosE @10:00 I don't know if I'd say Friday-level... but it did take me a Thursdayish time, AND it's slightly undersized (only 14 columns, to have the 14-letter revealer span the grid). A whole bunch of names and the clues seemed a bit tougher than a typical Wednesday.
Hola!
Where to start? I'm no TORTURED GENIUS but I do feel TORTURED by this puzzle. FIR in small steps. I knew ADELE but not ALICE as clued. No idea who LEELEE is but love DAME Judi Dench and will see any movie in which she stars.
I well remember the KRAMDENS and Ralph shouting "ALICE".
Hah! a familiar fill: ALOE
One erasure at STRAIT before PANAMA.
Too bad HARP was not associated with EIRE. That could have been fun.
WES Anderson came immediately to mind.
I understand GENDER CREATIVE but it is beyond my comprehension. The world is too challenging and I'm glad to be on my way out rather than face it all. Yes, I'm a coward and too old to change. However, to be honest, in my family we have same sex marriages and I love them because they are family and lovely people.
CSO to Misty's dad at RCA.
Have a beautiful day, everyone! It's March already!
This one didn't bode well on the first horizontal pass. Very few filled spaces! The downs went better, and gradually things improved to manage a surprising FIW. Big Easy- I agree about the trend of late for esoteric clues. To quote Larry Niven, "Think of it as evolution in action".
Musings
-I wondered how GENDER would be revealed
-I don’t understand the dislike of circles
-ALLO, RAE, AJA, LEELEE, CEELO, that ETTA and that ALICE went into the puzzle and out of my memory in a flash
-Will Cognitive Behavioral Therapy keep me from tracking whether I have eaten an even or odd number of French fries?
-The songs Little Red Corvette and Little Deuce Coop were fun red herrings
-HEROS – I make a point to thank any first responder for their service when I see them
-We had Chevrolets with Power GLIDE transmissions
-FWIW, it was fun to be back subbing yesterday after my procedure but I was glad to get home too. My oldest daughter wrote to say I should take it easy and added, “as if saying that will do any good!” :-)
Apologies,
Haven't been around lately, as I have been entertaining guests. (Instead of you guys.)
Yesterday, I spent the whole day showing friends what to do and where to go when you can't go to the beach during red tide.
(Dead fish everywhere, smells horrible, and red tide spores make you cough.)
In desperation, since they are visiting from the frozen north, I showed them a sandy beach on an inland lake. A very nice day actually...
Charlie Echo, I "love" Larry Niven!
but unfortunately, I am a sinner, as I am breaking his fourth law.... (scroll down)
Larry Niven act7ally predicted "flash mobs," before the internet...
The puzzle?
I dunno...
But I am a little concerned...
Is it just me, or does this version of Elon Musk look a little attractive?
FIR quickly, despite all the names. Perps and wags were kind. Seeing the scrambled letters in the first theme answer I solved, gave me letter suggestions for the other ones.
I believe that the mere mention of gender creative does not promote it any more than the mere mention of Ash Wednesday promotes the Christian religion. Fair game for puzzles. Hiding one's head in the sand doesn't make anything go away.
I loved the reference to the Kramdens. After all these years I still enjoy their show.
Leafy side / collard greens was a clever misdirection. I have never tasted them.
Due to the plethora of proper names, I didn’t enjoy this puzzle much, but I did manage to FIR.
However, I did LOVE Melissa’s tour. I enjoyed Will Shortz, plan to make the aloo palak (is it spicy?? I have a design flaw that simply prevents me from enjoying spicy stuff - really annoying), laughed at the Roadrunner, etc. etc. Thank you so much, Melissa. Thanks to August as well.
Weather in Dana Point is “frightful” lately, but we all hope it means our drought will ease. Others across the country are really suffering, so my complaint is minor.
inane hiker, now that you mention that i heard that WWDTM also, but had forgotten.
also, if you haven't seen this version - haha.
wendybird, thanks. weather in OR pretty gnarly too, nearly every day for 2+ months has brought rain, sleet, hail, or snow.
LOL unclefred- I must have gone to daylight savings time early and lost a day instead of springing ahead. Thanks for letting me know that it is a Wonderful Wednesday.
Delightful March 1 puzzle, many thanks, August. And always enjoy your commentary and pictures, Melissa.
Nice to start off with some fun poetry, thanks for that too, Owen and Wilbur. And Lucina, I can't believe you remembered that my Dad worked for RCA! We lost Dad last year, and I'm so sorry I can't tell him how RCA is cheerfully remembered on our blog--he'd be delighted.
Lots of people with CHALLENGES in this puzzle. Does singer ADELE sing in E MAJOR and play a HARP? Does painter ALICE create and ETCH EERIE pictures of weird things like CAGED MEAT? Does CARL celebrate MARDI-GRAS, even if he's not an ACTOR? Hope everyone has a fun year ahead, going to RIDE an AUTO after visiting some ATMs on travels to EIRE and OSLO.
Have a good March coming up, everybody.
Nice write-up, MelissaB! That list of debut words is much longer than I would have guessed!
The circles helped me with CHALLENGER DEEP.
I like WES Anderson's quirky movies.
Learning moment about CHALLENGER DEEP. Wikipedia: "The depression is named after the British Royal Navy survey ship HMS Challenger, whose expedition of 1872–1876 made the first recordings of its depth." I see it is near Guam, so I guess I passed over it.
Here were some of our MARDI GRAS KREWE members in San Luis Obispo in 1995.
Sadly, our brilliant artistic leader Anne (tall blue puppet at the left) died rather young this past year of cancer.
Here I practiced my KREWE part on my unicycle in the hotel corridor.
We have many GENDER CREATIVE people in our community and on the University of California campus. Especially in our Solstice community. I wonder how this will all sort out in the long term. It could be like fashion or it could be biology. Probably a mix.
Okay, so I fully solved this puzzle without having to look anything up, so there's that. And there were a few really clever and amusing clues, too. And some nifty fill, such as CRAMMED IN, MARDI GRAS, MUDDY, and DIRGE. Plenty of, well, junk, too.
As for the word GENDER jumbled in the circles, when I filled REINDEER GAMES my brain repeatedly flashed DEERING at me. Funny, that.
Like Parsan, I knew LEELEE Sobieski. I saw her in a few movies but I can't remember now what they were.
Thanks for an interesting RECAP, melissa bee.
Good wishes to you all.
No a fan of anything related to gender.
Boy, that Anonymous T character must be swamped at work ! So unusual for him to be so inactive on the blog :-)
It was almost 60 degrees here in Chicago today and I loved it. Got to get a jump on the yard and enjoyed being outside and getting ready for the spring plantings. The neighbor children are out playing in short sleeved shirts.
I am somewhat regretting that I snubbed my nose at Mother Nature by putting my snowblower away prematurely. We are supposed to be getting a major front on Friday, and the weather people are projecting somewhere between an inch to eight of heavy wet snow, depending on the model. It is so hard to believe that on such a beautiful day.
Jayce, as well you should. CSO via anagram !
I counted 8 people named in the puzzle and I knew 7 of them. Not bragging because some days there are 10 names and I don’t know any of them
Jim CROCE died in an airplane crash at age 30. Here are some lyrics from “Time in a Bottle”
If I could save time in a bottle
The first thing that I’d like to do
Is to save every day ‘til eternity passes away
Just to spend them with you.
If I could make days last forever
If words could make wishes come true
I’d save every day like treasure and then
Again, I would spend them with you.
Picard, you and your krewe sure know how to have fun . Btw, nice tights
GENDER CREATIVE? How much alphabet is left? It's like Covid variants(They haven't even begun to address the likes of me and my quirks)*
I thought these lyrics were CROCE
“When you comin’ home, Dad?”
”I don’t know when, but we’ll get together then
You know we’ll have a good time then”
But it was Harry Chapin.
Hearing that Chapin song was a great learning moment
WC
* At c. 40 years of age I contemplated applying for a lefty reliever spot with theRedsox. One batter every two or three days. I could handle that for a half $mil/yr
FIW. I didn’t know 30A, and I flubbed 39A, which messed up 32D. Should have thought about it a little harder. Some of the other names were also unknowns, but perps to the rescue.
Thanks, August Miller and melissa bee.
“Don’t get me started” happens to be one of my favorite phrases, so much so that there are a couple of people at the museum who say it for me, when they know it’s coming.
“What’s MINE is MINE, and what’s YOURS is MINE,” sayeth the tax man!
Puzzling thoughts:
I didn't do today's puzzle, but after looking at the grid, I am counting 14 squares by 15 squares - did anyone else notice this? I was unaware that LA Times allowed a 14x15 (16 squares x 15 squares is more common ...
Dear Moe:
The odd grid size seems to be part of the recent 'house cleaning.' Mostly I don't notice the grid size, being occupied by figuring out who 34D might be, and other excursions into la nouvelle vague.
Diagonal Report: Asymmetrical grid, unfortunately.
~ OMK
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