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Aptly named sprinter Usain / MON 4-25-11 / Logan Airport luggage letters / Old Spice alternative / Old Testament priest who taught Samuel
Monday, April 25, 2011
Constructor: Joon Pahk
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: BOS (72A: Logan Airport letters ... and a hint to 17-, 27-, 49- and 64-Across) — theme answers are three-word phrases where the three words start with B, O, and S, respectively
Word of the Day: Usain BOLT (11D: Aptly named sprinter Usain) —
Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, C.D. (nicknamed Lightning Bolt, pronounced /ˈjuːseɪn/; born 21 August 1986), is a Jamaican sprinter and a three-time World and Olympic gold medalist. He is the world record and Olympic record holder in the 100 metres, the 200 metres and (along with his teammates) the 4 x 100 metres relay. He is the reigning World and Olympic champion in these three events. (wikipedia)
• • •
I'm guessing this is supposed to be some kind of nod to the Boston Crossword Tournament, which took place yesterday. The theme is OK, I guess, though I really Really didn't care for BARACK OBAMA, SR. as an answer (49A: The father in "Dreams From My Father"). It's his name, but "SR." as a "word" is weak, and that answer isn't anywhere close to the others in terms of being a self-standing, common phrase. I was sure I had an error when I saw the answers ended "SR"; thought "what the hell kind of crazy name does that guy have?" Other than that, puzzle is fine. I never saw the theme-revealer and so had LETTING OFF STEAM at 64A: Venting (BLOWING OFF STEAM). This gave me BLTS for 54D: Common lunchbox sandwiches, informally, which seemed (and was) wrong (it's PBJS, which is better, but not by much).Theme answers:
- 17A: Rossini opera about Figaro, with "The" ("BARBER OF SEVILLE")
- 27A: Hollywood headliner (BOX OFFICE STAR) — maybe go "BOX OFFICE SMASH" (better, more common phrase) and then ditch the OBAMA answer for another 15? Or just stick with three 15s. Nothing wrong with that.
- 49A: The father in "Dreams From My Father" (BARACK OBAMA, SR.)
- 64A: Venting (BLOWING OFF STEAM)
There is something about 51D: Bank no. (ACCT.) I don't like. It's a common clue/answer pair, but I think of the ACCT. has having a number, not being a number. "What's your ACCT. no.?" If the ACCT. was the no., why would the phrase "ACCT. no." exist?
My favorite clue of the day is 18D: Vitamin whose name could be a bingo call. The answer, B SIX, is among my least favorite answers, however. Never that fond of the written-out number that you never see written-out in real life.
Bullets:
10D: Old Testament priest who taught Samuel (ELI) — not used to seeing the biblical clue. Just the semi-biblical clue (Denzel Washington movie "The Book of ELI") and, you know, Wallach and Manning and what not.- 11D: Aptly named sprinter Usain (BOLT) — because he likes to eat. A lot.
- 59D: Old Spice alternative (AFTA) — an after (AFTA) shave, I think. Change "F" to "R," rearrange letters, and get another common shaving-related crossword answer.
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63 comments:
This is a case where I liked the puzzle but the theme did nothing for me. It's like a very nicely contructed, themeless Monday.
It seems to be OBAMA parents'day! I read in the NY Times magazine about Stanley Ann Dunham (Mrs.Obama). Very interesting lady! I would have liked to meet her! And what the President said at the end about his mother--that's exactly what I'd want my kids to say about me. That she gave him “a sense of unconditional love that was big enough that, with all the surface disturbances of our lives, it sustained me, entirely.”
Im with you foodie, theme was meh but I have no problem with boring themes.
Felt like I should have been able to go faster but could not get a good rhythm going. Solid Med it is.
I'm guessing this is supposed to be some kind of nod to the Boston Crossword Tournament, which took place yesterday.
Yep, the 5 puzzles which will be appearing this week Monday through Friday are the 5 puzzles which were used for the BCPT.
Also of note, which Will Wright mentioned at the BCPT: with this puzzle, Joon Pahk has now hit for the cycle (that is, he's now had a puzzle published for each day of the week). Congrats Joon!
A quick and pleasant little puzzle. Nothing new and no writeovers. Had forgotten SCHWA but it came back after 2 or 3 crosses.
As often happens with early week puzzles, forgot to look for the theme. Saw Logan airport and immediately put in BOS without reading further.
I'm going back to finish Parzifal.
BOS was my last fill, mostly with downs as I have never been to that airport. Went back to read all the long answers and thought O.K. that's cute! Easy, kinda auto fill Monday, but that's what Mondays are all about, right?
The hitting for the cycle once again is such a boy-concept I want to kick someone...that said, that is a HARD thing to do, and to do it well...I have to give Joon props.
I have written (or more accurately co-written) a couple of Sundays, many a Monday, some Tuesdays, maybe one Wed and with PB (no J)* a Thursday... but would probably never be able to write a Fri or Sat themeless if my life depended on it (Thank god it doesn't!) So for Mr. Lateweek to make a nice solid Monday, and not only themed, but themed for a specific event, is way impressive.
That's my happy speech.
My less happy one is that I read the reveal (the last letters I filled in) as BOs as in B.O., as in Body Odor, only plural. Ick. Hand me that Old Spice/AFTA/Atra.
And I thought how could phrases that were just BO qualify as a theme?!!
But in RE-reading realizing it was three word phrases (tho I agree with @Rex's quibble about SR) I was duly impressed.
Plus I'm not happy to get 1A wrong...bec I began 1A as OIL I got off to a Rocky start, but looking back at the puzzle, it seems to be my only writeover.
*I don't like to eat peanut butter and jelly, I don't like PBJ pluralized and I don't like it without the "and" or at least an "&" (ampersand-wich?)
But now that I think about it, I guess you would also say "Bacon, Lettuce AND Tomato" so maybe that's the deal, but I don't like it.
It's as jarring as if "tomato" was spelled "tomatoe".
(I'm looking at YOU, Dan Q!)
Liked it. Nice Monday.
While I'm venting, why was the tourney named the BCPT? It wasn't in Boston...I get that it's a nod to the venerable ACPT, and apparently no one likes to mention "Harvard" less they get the Bronx cheer or the Yale hiss...but why a blah acronym?
At least call it the Bossword tournament...something! Down with non-word acronyms!
i like this kind of theme and don't find it boring at all. having said that, let me defend that SR. bit a little. I'd also consider words like "of" or "off" as "weak(er)" parts of the theme answers - too common, too easy a filler in a three word phrase. So, strictly speaking, we have 12 theme words here, with three of them being somewhat 'weak' (Sr., of, off).
Now, i remember someone very familiar to this blog publishing a puzzle with the same theme (SOS), and guess how many 'weak' parts i count there: three (off, on, of).
Then again, as said, i find the theme and all of the answers more than "OK, i guess". No real critique here.
@Evgeny,
BOWL OF SOUP is a perfectly good BOS phrase.
If this puzzle had had real, common phrases with OF or OR, I would not have blinked. You seem to have misunderstood why "SR." is bad (it's *not a word*, it's an abbrev., and no one calls Obama's father that full name anyway).
I have no problem with you reaching back into the past to criticize my puzzles, but at least understand the issue you are wading into.
rp
Rex's write up is right on. Before BLOWING I, too, wrote in lettING until BOS corrected that and my big rant of the day is SR. not being a word in an answer that isn't a phrase.
I did think, though, wow, Joon has created a really well contructed, easy Monday puzzle! I'm more used to his late week toughies. So thank you , @Adam Rosenfield, for that bit of information that Joon has now been published every day of the week.
Congratulations, Joon!
@ RP: sorry about the misunderstanding, i indeed didn't quite get from the write-up that your problem is "SR." being an abbreviation. now i see it, too, and am convinced.
However, "at least understand the issue you are wading into" does sound a bit offended to me, despite the "I don't have a problem..." lead-in. i didn't even try to critisize anything ;-) Why so irritable, it's a short week!
This was a nice, smooth, and zippy Monday, and a fun solve. But when the last letters you enter are the theme revealer (BOS at 72A), it's not much of a "hint" -- it's just a cherry on top (er, bottom).
Congratulations, Joon! Perfectly fine Monday puzzle, but I'm betting you much prefer working on a Fri/Sat.
Looking at the filled grid, readd doesn't look too good. Jamin is a Dutch chain of candy stores.
The juxtaposition of SR onto BARACK OBAMA's name is, to me, hilarious. It's so culturally specific to the British/American tradition! Do they use SR in Kenya? It's like saying Rex Parker Bey, or Will Shortz Pasha.
My husband is a Jr, and my grandfather was a Bey (in a nice Ottoman tradition), and the thought of those two worlds colliding boggles the mind! When my husband and I visited the Middle East the first time, an old maiden aunt greeted my husband in the old Turkish tradition: She kissed his hand, brought it to her forehead and called him Bey, as a sign of respect. He looked stunned (literally mouth agape) and I almost fell off my chair laughing.
Having said that, I have the greatest admiration for Joon Agha...
Easy Monday puzzle. I too had letting off steam at first.
Liked afta crossing Estee
but 72A reads "... a hint to 17- etc", which it was.
Maybe it would have been better if they were mainstream phrases, but found nothing wrong here.
SR, along with B-SIX and READD (which bothered me more) just made an A puzzle a B-.
P>G>
Very smooth and easy, filled in from 1A to 72A pausing only for toast and coffee. I also had the letting OFF STEAM write over, but soon saw my error.
@foodie: Thanks for your anecdote. Having Cambodian in-laws and Indian friends, I enjoy using their traditional greetings when we meet. I guess they are my traditional greetings now, too.
We should probably expect a more sophisticated Monday level from Joon Pahk and that's what we got.
Not in difficulty, just in unexpected entries like DIVERSE for "Multifarious" and BLASE clued by "Nonchalant" or, if you prefer, there's that later in the week crosswordese answer SCHWA.
I get the problems with the BARACKOBAMASR answer but, still, seeing the SR at the end of the entry was, initially, jarringly funny and completing the answer was satisfying as well.
A couple of bits were really strained, READD and JAMIN. The first one would need too much reworking to change but the second could have been clued as, say, "Product of a Spanish pig" for JAMON.
But, even with a theme that evokes a shrug, it's still a satisfactory Monday puzzle.
Speedy solve. Agree with the SR crowd and tried to cram PB&J into the little BOXes with no luck.
** (2 Stars)
I agree with Jack on a bit more sophisticated than typical Mondays. I like my Monday's with a bit of punch - thanks, Rex, for Peter Gabriel's "Steam". THAT was a good counterpoint to the puzzle.
Foodie, thank you for that delightful post.
Rex, dropping "number" from "account number" may be the same kind of creeping language sloppiness I hear when I go into my bank needing help, and can't remember my account (number). When the banker goes into the computer, I'm asked: "What's your social?"
I didn't get the theme on doing the first two theme answers. But then I got the airport before the full third theme answer (all I had was steam), and it gave me blowing before letting. Besides, the newsletter of the Antique Steam Touring Club is called "Blowin' Off Steam"; until now, I was probably the only person in Rexworld who knew that, and I'm no doubt still the only one who gives a hoot.
Another puzzle where you could finish without getting the theme.
Only writeover was OUTOF to OUTTA (note to self - check crosses first!)
We decided to name the chicks Peeps and Cheeps...
@OldCarFudd - Is the 'Antique' in Antique Steam Touring Club really necessary?
Finished with one bump. Forgot to go back and fill in the T in AU_O/OU_TA cross. Sleepy eyed, I guess. Comments astute. Nothing to add, or readd for that matter. Have a good week.
Since this is a Times-published puzz, we don't know until told whether it is joon or Will who wrote a particular clue, but I was surprised at what I considered a very weak partial at 4 A, "From _______) shining . . . " (America the Beautiful" lyric), when even on a Monday any clue referencing the South East Asia Treaty Organization might have been preferable, IMHO.
ACME, once again, is the gift that keeps on giving:
*I don't like to eat peanut butter and jelly, I don't like PBJ pluralized and I don't like it without the "and" or at least an "&" (ampersand-wich?)"
"Ampersand-wich".
Brilliant!!
Having done this one at the tournament, and done it as part of a team working against the clock, it's funny to come here and look at the finished product and read the comments. There are plenty of clues I never even saw!
A Monday Joon Pahk is a lot crunchier than a regular Monday, and it never condescends. Personally, I think the Barack Obama Sr clue is fine if you are speaking of a book written by the younger and referring to the elder. How else does one distinguish between them? I've never seen Senior spelled out, but it is considered part of his name.
Hold on: I gotta stand up for SEATO. It isn't winning any prizes, to be sure, but it's easy and the crossings are solid and it might leave ya hummin'.
Fun puz, joon. Congrats on hitting the cycle! [Fist bump]
@foodie - Wonderful explanation and great anecdotes! Thanks.
@OldCarFudd - Agreed; it's one of the most pervasive grating phrases (it's not really a sentence is it?) in commercial use today. Plus, the thoughtless audacity, in this world of rampant identity theft, for a bank employee to ask a customer to say, out loud, for all to hear, that critical piece of information, should be grounds for employee discipline at the least! To me, an even worse retail question, grammatically, is: "Last four of your Social?" May I, at the very least, buy a verb, Pat? Grrrr!! Gotta blow off steam just thinking about it.
From a clue/answer standpoint, I'm neutral on the SR bit of OBAMA. It's certainly in the language. Weak? Perhaps. Valid? Sure. I'll give it a pass.
Hail to thee, BOS, home of the bean and the cod! Nice fun Monday. Thanks JP.
when i saw the sr ending i started to write back in the ussr...then realized it didn't follow the theme so wrote over. readd looks funny. also almost put in venting. but all in all found it a fun puzzle for a monday.
Anon 10:27 - Good catch! I've been a member of that group for about 4 years now and never noticed the redundancy.
I really liked this one despite a LOT of writeovers for a Monday. At 27A, I wanted BOX OFFICE draw. Like others, at 64A, I wanted lettING OFF STEAM. And at 59D, I wanted ARID. The theme reveal came too late to save me.
But the words! Blase! Blurb! Schwa! Kegger! Stud! Too much fun!
Hope everyone had a terrific weekend! I did. ;-)
Kierop! (The thing those jockeys should stop hitting their horses with, thank you. And no spurs either.) -- jesser
Oh, and the SR thing? Bothered me not a bit, probably because I'm a III. -- jesser carlton williams iii
Nice Monday surprise. I expect a Joon P. puzzle later in the week.
I was OK with Sr.
Acct. No. doesn't bother me but the redudancy of PIN number does.
What do they think the N stands for?
Question - is "Sr." really part of the president's father's name? Clearly, he wasn't given that name at birth, unless someone anticipated that he would have a namesake son.
My father was a "Jr." but I don't think his father used "Sr."
Just spent a good twenty minutes reading a suffix article from Wikipedia to understand Jr. and Sr. Very interesting reading and I'll not bore anyone here with the details. Search "suffix" in Wiki.
Thought chemical bldg blocks would be ACIDS as in amino. In five years of Wisconsin fraternity partying I never heard the term KEGGER, but it must be popular somewhere, like Harvard? Was surprised to learn a new word SCHWA on a Monday!
Easiest puzzle I've seen in a long time. Probably finished it faster than Rex, which is a miracle on my level. Just seemed to be clued in to the constructor's vibe, I guess, as every clue-answer starting in NW and ending in SW went fast. Theme was not much.
For a Boston themed puzzle by joon pAHk, I would have preferred a play on Boston pronunciation along the lines of wAHtAHpAHk, rather than just an airport designation.
So, Joon is a guy. And Jesser isn't a nickname?
Didn't get the theme, probably because of SR.
Neither harder nor easier than the average Mon., IMO.
This puzzle shared BARBER-, ETAL, and BOS.
@Doug - KEGGER is oldster.
Also like my PB and J, with a nice slice of "and."
I'm definitely a fan of the puzzle. No quibbles at all. High 5 also, Joon, for hitting for the cycle! You're in some pretty rare company.
Loved GOO crossing OKRA because if you're not careful.....Also STUDS and SPEEDOS are a good match, well some of the time, at least.
SCHWA a first for me -- where have I been? But quick and fun puzzle, as I'm partial to Boston and am at Logan frequently!
doubt very much if anybody was dubbed at birth as senior.one would pick up the cognomen after naming ones son after oneself.pliny the elder didn't start out that way! I believe it can be used irregardless of its use by the object.that said BOS is so thin a theme it hardly matters (only saved by being in conjunction with the BCPT) @Andrea carla -would you really prefer they call it the cambridge crossword competition?
Maybe it's because I've never made
a puzzle but I can't understand
this bickering about SR.
First of all, I have never seen
in print "Joe Blow Senior".
It's always "Sr." and pronounced
Senior.
When I filled it in I said
"clever" and went on to the next
clue.
Nate (aka Anon B) - Until recently I never knew anyone who was named Senior. After all you don't name your children John Smith Sr, so, technically, the whole clue and answer are wrong as there was Barack Obama and Barack Obama Jr. When the father died the son dropped the Jr., I assume. But, who's counting?
From Dictionary.com:
Word: a unit of language consisting of one or more spoken sounds or their representations
in writing...
Maybe Sr.is does not represent
the actual sound but it is always
pronounced "senior", not"sr".
Easy, but a lot of writeovers - not only STAR for DRAW and BLOWING for LETTING, but JAMIN for RAMIN. Fortunately, the crosses caught them all.
I get Rex's point about Sr., but also see the humor when you discover it's intended as a word. It didn't bother me as much as READD or SEATO (the clue was just way too easy- you could leave out the intiail "from" and the name of the song and it would still be easy.)
The clue for 51D could be "Type of no."
The truth is, though, I haven't figured out Monday standards. For 21A, I just wrote in PUPA_ until I got the cross, as I thought a Latin plural might be too hard for a Monday. I'm glad to see it was not.
But the real question is: was BARACKOBAMASR born in the United States???
Fun Monday. Like many others, I started "letting" OFFSTEAM and had a hard time swallowing my PBJS.
Thanks, Joon!
thanks for the kind words! yes, this puzzle was certainly made with the BCPT in mind, but i'm glad non-boston solvers could enjoy it also.
i think hitting for the cycle is totally overblown in baseball, and maybe also somewhat overblown in crosswords. true, it's not easy to do (i had a much tougher time with this puzzle than making some midweek ones), but it doesn't necessarily follow that it's worth striving for. neither patrick berry nor patrick blindauer has bothered to complete the cycle, so it can't be that important, can it? i'd much rather have their résumés than mine.
late-week, i definitely would have clued SEATO as the treaty org. but on a monday, a partial is far preferable to an obscurity (which SEATO definitely is to some solvers). i also didn't care for crossing geographical abbrs. the partial clue is easy, sure--but that's by design. no such thing as too easy on a monday in my opinion. (too boring, yes; but that's a separate issue.)
i would've liked BOX OFFICE SMASH too, but i couldn't find a suitable matching 14. actually the theme answer i really wanted was BUNS OF STEEL (hat tip: BEQ), but it was the only 11 we came up with, and i was already using OF for BARBER OF SEVILLE.
i will have to disagree with some, it seems, on BARACK OBAMA SR, which i thought was the most interesting of the theme answers. sorry if SR struck people as awkward, but that's how it's almost always written.
pete: brendan and i did a boston accent theme for last year's BCPT. last year it was puzzle 4. today's puzzle was puzzle 1, so it was never going to have a tricky wordplay theme.
Captcha - words (no kidding)
BARACKOBAMASR was born in Kenya. His son bearing the same name was born in Hawaii.
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation of my method):
All solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 6:33, 6:53, 0.95, 30%, Easy-Medium
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:26, 3:40, 0.94, 27%, Easy-Medium
@joon - i agree that hitting for the cycle is overblown but i don't really think baseball players strive to hit for the cycle. its just something that happens, and its rare and therefore kind of cool, in an afterthought sort of way. crappy announcers who have nothing else to talk about are the ones who usually make the big to-dos.
the crossword cycle seems a little different to me - something to be proud of - because you set out (presumably) to make puzzles at all those levels of difficulty, and you succeeded. So, again, Congrats!!
@Joon: do you happen to have a link handy for the unsolved Boston Accent puzzle? Would love to do it.
@Mac - Joon's puzzle of last year
Nice Monday. Just right.
For FAA, could have clued something along the lines
"Gov't empl. asleep in tower"
(Could also be ATCs)
I'm sure ACMe will have a better joke.
Speaking of PBJ. I like crunchy. And How many Youtubes have a dog licking peanut butter off it's mouth.
ORAL
STUD
TEEN
MUD
where is the NYT going with this. Sounds like weekend when my wife is out of town.
As to the SR. question. I have in my hands a copy of a copy of Barack Obama's father's birth certificate. Oh wait, I have to putcha on hold ... I have a call from Donald Trump on the other line ...
sorry for run-on.
It was buggin' me.
I just read about someone hitting for the cycle. Of a slightly different baseball type.
The home run cycle. A solo, 2 and 3-run homer and grand slam, in a double-header.
Any guesses ... See answer below.
Hitting For The Home Run Cycle
Sam Posey, Buster Posey's sister, is a star softball player at Valdosta State, who hit four home runs in a doubleheader Monday
http://sports.espn.go.com/ncaa/news/story?id=6394752
Buster Posey's sister Samantha hits for home run cycle in softball ...
Apr 21, 2011 ... Giants catcher Buster Posey isn't the only slugger in the family. His younger
sister Samantha, a third baseman at Division II Valdosta State
She is the female version of the SF Giants savior and Rookie of the Year (ROY)
@mac - Blogger ate my link to Joon's puzzle. If you're really interested, it's here: http://select.nytimes.com/premium/xword/Apr1510.puz
Thank you, Helpful Guy!
My son is a III, and fortunately he didn't pass his name on to HIS son. Enough already.
When I was a kid, there was actually a person by the name of Palmer Senior, Jr. in my home town. He had some sort of civic position, IIRC.
Here's the deal: No living person is a "senior." The son with the same name is a "junior" during the lifetime of his father. When the father dies, the father becomes "senior," and junior loses his title. It's really pretty simple, and correct in the puzz, which I loved and thought was fun and fresh and easy. Readd was a little sketchy, but hey, it's Monday, and really, it just looked funny.
Hey! Just (Wed 4/27) looked at President's birth certificate online - gives last name as "OBAMA, II". What (if anything) does that do to this discussion?
I finished the puzzle and couldn't figure out for a couple of minutes how BARACKOBAMA'S R could mean his dad. Doh!
Memorial Day, 2011
Puzzle appeared on Memorial Day in syndication so a lyric from "America the Beautiful" seems entirely appropriate. I did not know that Mr. Obama shared his name with his father - I didn't read the book amd I guess I didn't look closely enough at the long-form birth certificate he released recently. @Bob Kerfuffle, not sure that does anything to the discussion, unless you want to say Dad was Obama, I instead of Sr. (and as somebody already pointed out, in Kenya he probably was neither but something else entirely.) Still liked learning that biographical fact about our president, and also SCHWA that needed all the crosses.
Had SPanDex before SPEEDOS but the BARBER came along and fixed that.
Good Monday puzzle - if you have a chance to watch the National Memorial Day Concert on PBS tonight, I recommend it.
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