Tom Mix vehicles /SAT 8-20-11/ 1822 Walter Scott novel / Hearts minds activities military slang / Carmen Sandiego cover-up We feel your pain sloganeer

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Constructor: Byron Walden

Relative difficulty: I forget — Medium?

THEME: none


Word of the Day: HOGAN (1A: Indian home) —

n.
A one-room Navajo structure traditionally built with the entrance facing east, used as a dwelling or for ceremonial purposes. Early hogans were made of earth-covered poles, with later models often built of logs, stones, and other materials.

[Navajo hooghan.]

• • •

This puzzle had two parts. First part: "Indian home? What the hell?" Second part: "N'SYNC ... ITALY ... hey, wait a minute, I've *done* this puzzle before." Turns out this is the puzzle that was used in the Finals of Lollapuzzoola 4, the crossword tournament I attended in Manhattan precisely two weeks ago. It's a really good themeless, but my favorite part of the puzzle was seeing the byline in the .pdf version, which I assume is the same byline as in the newspaper itself. "Edited by Brian Cimmet and Patrick Blindauer"! They were the tournament organizers. I cannot remember the puzzle being "edited" by anyone but Will Shortz. Ever. That's pretty cool. Patrick says that he thinks Will might have changed a small handful of clues, but that's it (normally, or at least in my case, he changes big handfuls of clues). I can tell you that the part that flummoxed the finalists most was the E and NE, with the most common problem being the understandable tendency to put in "YES WE CAN!" instead of "YES WE DID!" (14D: Celebratory chant at Chicago's Grant Park on 11/4/08). I know that's what I did when I was solving it. Worse, the "C" from CAN and the "L" from LAST gave me LILAC at 26A: Purple (LURID). That took some digging out. PART VI and PIÑERA (29D: Sebastián ___ (president of Chile beginning in 2010)) were hard to come up with as well. Otherwise, it's a nice, tough, thoughtful, interesting themeless. Hard all around, but very solvable.



HOGAN gave me trouble the first time I solved this, though I don't remember its clue. I also couldn't remember who Tom Mix was (bad crossword solver!), and so OATERS (2D: Tom Mix vehicles) didn't come very readily. Never heard of a QUADBIKE (32D: Certain ATV), but besides PIÑERA, that's the only unfamiliar term in the puzzle for me. No, wait, I've never heard of "THE PIRATE" (though I have heard of "THE" and "PIRATE") (16A: 1822 Walter Scott novel about Capt. Clement Cleveland). Movie questions threw me a bit. Had to piece EX-OUTLAW together pretty systematically (31D: Gary Cooper played one in "Man of the West"), and I completely forgot that PADME was Luke's mom (42D: Luke's mother in "Star Wars"). ART GUM is not a phrase I could've come up with on my own, but it was living in my brain somewhere—got it with a few crosses (39D: Kind of eraser). Love the clue and answer at 40D: "Hearts and minds" activities, in military slang (PSYOPS). What the heck is a GATEWAY CITY (46A: Miami or Amsterdam, for example). "Dude, don't try Miami, 'cause then you'll be hooked. Next thing you know, you'll be in Orlando, then Atlanta, and Charleston, and then eventually you're waking up in Nome going "What the @$#% happened?"" (that was my play on the phrase "gateway drug"—you can stop clapping now).



Bullets:
  • 18A: President Harding's Laddie Boy and others (AIREDALES) — "Laddie" told me "dog," and then it was just a matter of a cross or two. One of the easier long answers in this puzzle.
  • 19A: Elvis's and Mariah's record number of seeks at Billboard's #1 (SEVENTY-NINE) — Poor 79. Is this the only distinction you have?
  • 24A: Until June 25, 2011, its first three digits had geographical significance: Abbr. (SSN) — Cool trivia. I wrote in SSR at first :(
  • 25A: "Tempest" Golden Globe nominee Julia (RAUL) — he played Caliban in that. I know him better from "Kiss of the Spider Woman." He has one of those great crossword names where using his last name makes you sound like you're using someone else's first name.

  • 37A: Weapon that comes in easy-to-carry and hard-to-carry varieties (MACE) — ??? I know that a mace is a heavy medieval war club, and that mace is something you spray in a mugger's face, but ... I don't know which is being referred to here. I hope not both, since they are completely different "weapons."
  • 11D: Constellation between Scorpius and Triangulum Australe (ARA)ARA should be your reflex answer for any "three-letter constellation" clue.
  • 22A: Carmen Sandiego cover-up? (TRENCHCOAT) — another excellent clue. If you are not familiar with the children's geography-oriented show "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?" then this clue/answer will be nonsense to you.
  • 33D: Dickens character whose first name is Wilkins (MICAWBER) — As a Professor of English Literature, I of course learned the name of this character ... from crosswords. I've barely touched Dickens. The only novel of his I remember reading is Our Mutual Friend (gigantic! required! Thanks, Prof. Reed). I liked it, but shortly thereafter it was all medieval, all the time. Then it was crime fiction and comics. Maybe I'll get back to Dickens, some day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

63 comments:

Opus2 8:12 AM  

Mobile version (on Blackberry) shows "Edited by Will Shortz". I don't know why they differ. Can someone tell us what it says in the real newspaper version?

Sparky 8:14 AM  

Finished this at 1:15 am. Yowzer. And now I find it was a Lollapuzzoola puzzle? Wow, I'm so happy I'm cryin'. Had to post. Off to meeting, back anon.

Anonymous 8:17 AM  

@Pres Harding. If you've got a dog, you can name him either Laddie or Boy, but not Laddie Boy. See, Laddie Boy means either Laddie Laddie or Boy Boy, depending on whether on not you're affecting a Scottish heritage. Just plain friggin stupid.

Man, you were completely useless in so many ways.

The Bard 8:26 AM  

ACT I, SCENE II. The Earl of Gloucester's castle.

Act IV, SCENE VII.
Gentleman:
They say Edgar, his banished son, is with the Earl of Kent in Germany.

Smitty 8:35 AM  

Lively Saturday.
Lots of headscratchers....The only hmmm I had was QUAD BIKE

Glimmerglass 8:45 AM  

Wow! I finished a Lollapuzoola puzzle and got it all right! That makes me feel great. Hard to rate this one. My time was probably pretty good for a Saturday (I don't keep track). Parts were easy. I knew MICAWBER off the A (just a long Dickens name), got OLIVEDRAB off the B and AIREDALE off the first A. But for a while I had "loyal" instead of EARLS (it's Saturday; "earls" was too easy). I had dirtBIKE (never heard of a QUADBIKE), and I didn't see EXOUTLAW and SWEETENER until the very end because I had PADMa for Luke's mother.

joho 9:09 AM  

I loved this.

I fell into the same LilIc/can trap as @Rex. Had SwEpT before SPENT, PincH before POACH, dEed to fEat to GEST and I wanted STAYbAck for STAYCALM. But all fell into place.

FAKESMILE made me grin. Also really liked "Let's NOTGO there."

Thank you, Byron, for a wonderful Saturday morning solve made extra special by this being a tournament puzzle.

evil doug 9:12 AM  

"Yes, we can!"
"Yes, we did!"
And in 2012, "Yes, we're leaving!"

Evil

Noam D. Elkies 9:37 AM  

Yes, the clue for 19A:79 (from the Express puzzle) is lame. Looks like they literally took it from the bottom of the Wikipage for this number. The Local clue was better, "Prime number that is the yearly cost of Amazon Prime, in dollars". Even better to go with the year of the eruption of Mt.Vesuvius that destroyed Pompeii (though it was not called 79 at the time), or simply something like "Golden number?" as ret.chem. can explain.

Fortunately the rest of the puzzle was way better.

NDE

Bob Kerfuffle 9:38 AM  

Dang! I was at LP 4, saw the puzzle done twice, got my own copy (as all participants did), thought I would fill in the grid just for giggles, and still had one write-over, 36 A, PINCH before POACH!

Re Rex's comment about poor number 79: At least one other distinction is: The smallest number that can't be represented as a sum of fewer than 19 fourth powers. This and other gems can be found by googling "Wikipedia 79 (number)"; similar results for any other number entered!

jackj 9:53 AM  

One becomes inured to the deceit of Saturday constructor's cluing so, TEPEE was never an option for 1 across and when 5 down confirmed an "N", as in NSYNC, HOGAN was clearly correct and the rest of the upper left filled in so rapidly, I thought Will had seriously misjudged the puzzle's difficulty.

After a major slowdown in the upper right, (it wanted to be WIREHAIRS but only AIREDALES worked with its neighboring clues), things were back to the usual head-banging solve.

Some of the early stumbles, tried MALEALE with MINTS the crossing clue, (found out quickly it was PALE and PINTS), and wished too hard for PADME to be PADMA, the lovely Ms. Lakshmi.

Filling in MICAWBER for the Dicken's character took much too long since my memory of the character was he was MISTER Micawber, no first name revealed; sorry Wilkins.

All was finally sorted out and, when I learned it had been the closing puzzle in the recent Lollapuzzoola tournament, a bit of reflection had me wondering how in the world anyone could have solved this puzzle, on a giant white board, with a huge crowd looking on, in just 9 minutes?

No mere mortals are our best solvers!

mac 9:54 AM  

Hard to believe I saw this puzzle before...
Still, a great Saturday! 49A Not go was my favorite, and the fake smile is great, too!

Raul 10:13 AM  

Knowledge of Tony Hillerman's Navajo Mysteries certainly helped with 1a:

This Hogan will be a blessed Hogan.
It will become a Hogan of Dawn,
Dawn Boy will live in beauty in it,
It will be a Hogan of white corn,
It will be a Hogan of soft goods,
It will be a Hogan of crystal water,
It will be a Hogan dusted with pollen.
It will be a Hogan of long - life happiness,
It will be a Hogan of beauty above it,
It will be a Hogan of beauty all around it.

Lindsay 10:16 AM  

I'm an Aesthetic Experience solver, rather than a speed solver, but the print version's blurb noted that the Lollapuzzoola champion had knocked this off in less than 9. So I took the bit in my teeth and charged right in, throwing down 14D YES WE can crossing 26A lilac. Bad start. More haste-makes-waste write-overs ensued, culminating in a filCH/mOoCH/POACH meltdown at 36A.

And reading Rex's summary, I see I have an error, GeT AWAY CITY. I mean, don't people take vacations in Miami and Amsterdam? Star Wars means nothing to me. Not fair.

First encountered Micawber when I transcribed an 1877 manuscript chronicling a coastal sailing adventure. One of the fleet runs aground, and the diarist describes how he rowed over to assess the situation and "found most of the crew placidly engaged in digging clams, and Micawber-like, waiting for the tide to turn up."

David 10:17 AM  

the clues for 1A (HOGAN) in the two finals versions were Savage rival? and Crane part? Still tough but gettable. I would have a heckuva time with today's 1A clue.

I think my fastest time ever for a Saturday is somewhere in the 25-30 minute range. I was in awe of the finalists at Lollapuzzoola, who got up there in front of everyone and in essence speed-solved the thing. Just before the Finals took place I was sitting next to the person who finished 4th (I finished 51st!). We had all gotten a copy of the puzzle beforehand, and she zipped through it like I would do a Tuesday or Wednesday. Truly amazing....

quilter1 10:23 AM  

What, only 12 comments? I too fell prey to the yes we can/lilac trap. Solved from the bottom up again, finishing the SE first. I felt very optimistic until I got to the NE and became mired down. Oh, well, I'll rate my effort medium and the puzzle challenging.

retired_chemist 10:33 AM  

Hand up for LILAC but not CAN. MISUSED early @ 23A plus the date made the DID obvious.

@ Anonymous 8:17 - there are no dog naming rules. Besides, AIREDALES may think the name ANONYMOUS is stupid.

SEVENTY-NINE is the atomic number of gold, which Elvis and Maria had plenty of (both monetarily and in records).

35D was COLD ALE briefly. And 50A was COVERALLS. Not a major time sink since MICAWBER came to the rescue soon enough. DIRT BIKE was a problem in the SW too.

The NW was TEPEE (1A) and/or DUKES (15A) first until the rest of the acrosses there made the downs easy.

Much to like, not much not to like. EX-OUTLAW is my least favorite answer.

Thank you, Mr. Walden. I did not notice the note until just now - fortunately it has nothing to do with the solve.

skua76 10:35 AM  

I got QUAD BIKE from just a couple of crosses, but was surprised to see it clued here as it is more an Australian/British term. Well, not really, it is usually shortened to QUAD. Wow, no errors here (but a good bit longer than 9 minutes).

thursdaysd 11:07 AM  

I finished off the north last night, but was having no luck in the south, so took a book to bed. Amazingly, said book included a reference to ARTGUM, so this morning after I put that in I whipped through the SE. That left the SW and I finally had to google to get EXOUTLAW, after which it dawned on me that STAYCOld and steal were wrong.

I was pretty sure 37A was referring to both kinds of MACE. I have heard of QUADBIKEs - I've mostly seen them as options for riding over sand dunes. Probably a lot more comfortable than a camel... Wasted time wondering if I could spell spats with two Ts, instead of remembering GAITER.

hazel 11:09 AM  

i've never heard QUADBIKE either. - down here they are called four-wheelers. Not a complaint, just an observation. That was just one of many many clues that had me stumped, besides.

Byron Walden puzzles always give me fits, regardless of their elegance. He never seems to give me enough toeholds and almost everything remains tentative for a good long while. after 9 minutes, i was sure of approximately 4 answers, and it turns out one of those was wrong! i love his grids though. i hope i can master them one day.

Anonymous 11:17 AM  

I don't accept "lurid" as an answer for the clue "purple"--not even in the phrase "purple prose." Surprised no one else objected.

syndy 11:26 AM  

As I have not yet gotten to my lollapuzzoola's I did this for the first time last night and loved it. The only slightly creaky fill (imho) was VEE-48 down.I got a small thrill out of working out the meaning of URSI MARITIMI_too sweet(!)Yes virginia both types of MACE were indicated and yes the GATEWAYS do refer to the passage of drugs.My first answer to 14 down was "YES WE WON!"

Jim 11:27 AM  

With minor gaps along the way, I moved smartly from NW to NE and across the SW but couldn't get a foothold in the SE.

Mostly b/c I had shmeE for Luke's mother (stupid mistake, and yet another reason to hate Episode 1--for giving me this woman's name!) Of course, that's ANAKIN'S mother! D'oh! Also having NO IDEA on -EST for 'Exploit'. Hmmph. Never heard of that word. Woulda given me GATEWAY part of that answer and it woulda been all good.

Except of course, I had no idea on the terminal A in AIREDALE (I've never heard of that word...is that a dog breed?) And the six letters in the NW comprising the HOGAN/EARLS/HEISTS/OATERS/ALLEN crossing wasn't coming, until I cheated for the H and, then, duh!

Good puzzle...I probably should've attempted it with a little more sleep; I might've been patient enough to finish it.

And yes, Rex, I'm sure the MACE clue meant what you feared. I thought it was brilliant, not groan-worthy.

Mel Ott 11:41 AM  

Splendid puzzle. I have no idea how my time compared and I couldn't care less. It took some work and it was just a pleasure to work through it.

Minimum of crap fill - even SSN had a fresh, interesting clue. Minimum of proper names (PADME?).

36A evolved from FILCH to PINCH to POACH. I still like FILCH.

MINTS and MALT ALE? No, PINTS and PALE ALE.

Hands up for the YES WE CAN trap. But I already had GALE/GURUS, which helped me find LURID rather than LILAC. Pleasant aha moment when I realized it was YES WE DID.

JaxInL.A. 11:45 AM  

Loads I didn't know, and all I could think of was sitting at a tournament feeling completely lost. A couple of Googles and I finished, but those are not available at a contest. Ah, well, it was a very good puzzle.

Chip Hilton 11:57 AM  

Nine minutes? Geez, more like 19-Across for me. But a fun trip.

Yup, LILAC and YESWEcan slowed me down as did McCAWBER and MaCAWBER - had a Dickens of a time remembering the correct spelling there.

I loved the fill: OLIVEDRAB, FAKESMILE, TRENCHCOAT, etc. Just great words all over the place. A nice end to the week.

Two Ponies 11:57 AM  

Very enjoyable puzzle.
I like the way this one made me think.
Polar bears was my first entry.
W. C. Fields played his best role ever as Mr. Micawber in David Copperfield.

archaeoprof 12:00 PM  

I'm a plodder, not a speeder, and I enjoyed every long slow step with this one.

SE gave me trouble, when I too-confidently wrote in "greave" for 38D, and "cover" for 51A.

Fine Saturday! Makes me want to try Lollapuzzleloola next year.

Nancy 12:00 PM  

Can you solve this anagrammed poem that is a tribute to someone we all know and love? Each blank space is a 5-letter word and they are all anagrams of each other:

DIABOLICAL

The ----- today wasn't tricky enough.
The Editor just made it tougher.
He wants all our ----- to be dripping with sweat,
He wants all us Solvers to suffer.
Now you know the -----: It's a Saturday grid.
The clues will be weird and Shortz-sited,
The answers as long as a passage of -----.
Your every attempt will be blighted.
And just as a ----- is a thing that will change
From a seed to a bean to a bean dish,
A puzzle's a thing that will change through the week
From the guileless and sweet to the fiendish.
--Nancy Stark
nls456@yahoo.com


The clues will be weird and Shortz-sited.

Scott 12:25 PM  

The medieval MACE is hard to carry, the modern MACE goes in your purse or whatnot so it's easy to carry. Don't see what the clue confusion is.

Entrap Vapor 12:34 PM  

Great puzzle. A couple of early mistakes made it harder than usual for me, but I love a themeless like this. Took a very wrong stab with FIRSTPETS instead of AIREDALES. PILSNER instead of PALEALE. FILCH. Anyway, it all worked out. Fun fun fun...
PS Paper version has Edited by Will Shortz in big letters next to Crossword, Edited by BC and PB in little letters, following Puzzle by BW.

imsdave 12:50 PM  

If memory serves (and it rarely does), the clue for HOGAN at the tourney was something like:

Savage opponent

The hightlight of this puzzle for me, was seeing the look on Rex's face when I finished it in 26 minutes.

Masked and Anonymous 12:55 PM  

No big problemo in the NE; did have to rip out YESWEcan, tho. Big problemo in the SW. I mean, RUDE = "snarling"? Dude. Also had to rip out nupRIN/nukE at 37-AcrossDown. Couldn'ta spelt MICAWBER, if gun held to head. Not likely I'd be able to tomorrow, either -- just looks... wrong.

Super super great fill in this puz. Thumbs up. Good call, #31.

At Evil Doug: Politics! Har. Can't get more evil than that.

Lewis 12:59 PM  

@hazel -- my experience exactly
@rex -- your gateway city bit made me laugh out loud.
@nancy -- I believe I have the answers, but don't want to give it away.

Noam D. Elkies 1:05 PM  

@nancy: neat puzzle poem. (Solution in rot13: cbfre, cberf, ebcrf, cebfr, fcber.) The National Puzzlers' League Enigma seems to be the main venue for such verse today; if you liked Nancy's "Diabolical" poem, you'll enjoy these as well (once you get used to NPL-isms like "flat" for a verse puzzle and "transposal" for what the rest of the world calls an "anagram").

NDE

Lindsay 1:42 PM  

Since I last posted, it has dawned on me that GeT aWAY CITY is two letters off GATEWAY CITY, not one letter off. So I checked my grid, and see that somehow PALE ALE is spelled with three "A"s (pala ale). Well, it was right when I wrote it in the grid. Too many write-overs. Not enough thought.

Gotta take a nap. Study up on drug-smuggling routes so I'll be set for next year's tournaments.

evil doug 2:08 PM  

Be it be a simple Monday, lowly like Delaware State of the ----,
Or the great Friday-level power wielding the ----, large or small,
I ---- here with but one purpose:
To reach the ---- of them all.

Evil

Shamik 2:40 PM  

Paid for and received my set of Lollapuzzoola's puzzles, yet haven't had time to get to them. Now I get it with tweaks by Mr. Shortz? Feeling disgruntled and not quite sure which aspect is annoying me.

Oh well.

Would they have even given 42 minutes to solve this puzzle? I took 41:17. Otherwise, loved this challenging puzzle.

imsdave 3:03 PM  

@Shamik - we were given 45 minutes for this one - you won!

santafefran 4:18 PM  

Friends visiting this week and we just went to the Wheelwright Museum built in the shape of a Navajo hogan so this was the first answer that came to mind, but I thought it was too easy. :-)

Indian Market here this weekend so I will be avoiding downtown.

The lower half, not so easy. Had DOLCE for DULCE which slowed down REQUIEM. Also, couldn't make SPATS fit.

jae 4:35 PM  

YESWECAN, plus STAYCOOL, DIRTBIKE, and ATEALLUP. Got it all sorted out in medium time for me. Excellent puzzle.

Recently finished Denis Johnson's Tree of Smoke which is sort of about PSYOPS in Vietnam. Good read!

The 79th Olive Drab Pirate 6:57 PM  

I did not finish in more than 9 minutes.

Isn't it "it's" which is misused?

Sparky 7:01 PM  

Dukes and Lords before EARLS. A lot of erasing and took me about an hour.

McCAWBER for a while. Wanted koalaBEARS, then tried to drean up some sort of sea creature called bearlike. 'Fraid not. Agree LURID and RUDE feel off the mark. Real smile at FAKESMILE.

Loved solving. The printed out version I used had no note so I didn't know it was from Lollapuzzoola till reading Rex's coments. Great blog and postings today. Thanks a bunch, bunch.

michael 7:12 PM  

hands up for yes we can and lilac.

At least 4X Jeffrey Harris, maybe as much as 5X.

I skip M-W 8:18 PM  

So a quad bike has four wheels? Shouldn't it have eight?
bike = bicycle = two-wheeler. or else just call it a quake.

Chip Hilton 8:48 PM  

@The 79th...
I agree, you see that unneeded apostrophe a lot more often than an improperly used 'its'. Drives me crazy when I see it in newspaper ads. Shouldn't they know better. Its very frustrating (just kidding).

Anonymous 9:41 PM  

Nemo shmemo.

Matthew G. 9:52 PM  

Harder clue for 14D: {"Oh, ______" (2009 slogan for new Domino's Pizza recipe)}

Rookie 12:01 AM  

Glad to see that there was another "firstpets." Was surprised there were not more. As a beginner at this, I was so sure of my cleverness that I stuck with it for awhile.

Like so many others, I had "yes we can" until I had one of the Ds. Loved "fakesmile" (brought back my principal days with helicopter parents). Thought "rude" was kind of bizarre for snarling.

sanfranman59 12:53 AM  

This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.

All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)

Mon 7:28, 6:51, 1.09, 82%, Challenging
Tue 7:25, 8:54, 0.83, 7%, Easy (8th lowest median solve time of 113 Tuesdays)
Wed 11:31, 11:51, 0.97, 47%, Medium
Thu 25:22, 19:13, 1.32, 94%, Challenging (8th highest median solve time of 114 Thursdays)
Fri 20:32, 25:51, 0.79, 15%, Easy
Sat 28:37, 30:04, 0.95, 37%, Easy-Medium

Top 100 solvers

Mon 3:57, 3:40, 1.08, 85%, Challenging
Tue 4:01, 4:35, 0.88, 11%, Easy
Wed 5:37, 5:51, 0.96, 44%, Medium
Thu 14:03, 9:22, 1.50, 96%, Challenging (6th highest median solve time of 114 Thursdays)
Fri 9:33, 12:47, 0.75, 12%, Easy
Sat 15:11, 17:08, 0.89, 30%, Easy-Medium

COIXT RECORDS 1:23 PM  

Anyone else confidently throw in "FIRSTDOGS" at 18 across? Blazes!

Howard B 11:01 AM  

All I can tell you here is that in test-solving this puzzle for LP4, there was indeed at least one other interesting trivia clue for 79 in the versions before the final one. I believe it had a financial-related clue (a company's initial stock price or total value in millions), or some such. I thought while solving that it was a bizarre but fun piece of fill that must have been a real challenge to clue in an interesting way.

Glad that people had fun with it, both at the event and solving at home. Top-right was the toughest part for me in all versions.

william e emba 5:15 PM  

We saw the full 15-letter Wilkins MICAWBER last year in the puzzle. Like many, I was familiar with his last name, and was a bit surprised to learn that he in fact had a first name. I believe that answer last year made this year's mention of "Wilkins" go down that much easier.

stowitts 12:46 PM  

Erratum: Lurid clue was used in error for LIVID. Etymologically, lurid is "yellowish", whereas livid is "bluish-red".

Deb 4:38 PM  

I decided to time myself on this one just to see how much I had completed at the nine minute mark. Result: Six words I had lightly penned in as possibles and only one actual entry I was certain of (econo).

The only thing I feel good about now is that I immediately knew it had to be YES WE DID.

Am I the only one who was thrown by the use of the term "Indian" (instead of Native American) for 1 across?

Anonymous 5:37 PM  

@evil doug: Delaware, State of the emac? I thought that was California.

Anonymous 6:50 PM  

I am of the opinion that Jeffrey Harris cheated.

SE stumped me big time. First 49a reminded me of the year NBC changed their slogan from "Be there" to "Lets ALL BE there"...wrote it in, then wrote over it when I decided NOT GO seemed more plausible.

Outdo became ONset before eventually (like more than 9 minutes later) becoming ONE UP.

Had ECONO and BY NOW by now, but could not see WORMS until finally runnng the alphabet to get the R.

And believe it or not, I was actually looking for some sort of 11-letter phrase that meant GATEWAY CITY and might fit in this spot:

_ _ T E _ _ Y C I T Y

...but I drew a blank.

Waxy in Montreal 7:11 PM  

@Deb, right, the preferred terms are now Native American in the US and First Nation in Canada. I think the Lollapuzzoola 4 clues for HOGAN that others have cited were better than this one. Not sure why the change was made.

Fun puzzle but DNF because of REPROVES (30D) and FEAT (46D) which led to gridlock. Literally. Time to put on a fake smile and stash away a pale ale...

Captcha=COFFI which is either a var. on the spelling of my second choice beverage or a hint as to where I'll soon be if I imbibe too many of my first choice (op.cit.).

Anonymous 10:59 PM  

I don't mind the pirate Airedales, but I've had it up to here with all these rude polar bears.

another in Montreal 12:01 AM  

again, 6 weeks late because of syndication, but to say "the preferred terms are now Native American in the US and First Nation in Canada" might be true in some circles but not all. In Canada many Canadians who do not belong to a Treaty First Nation fall under the Indian Act, and call themselves Indians.

Anonymous 2:18 AM  

I'll contribute one more trivium for the number at 19a. In the novelty song "Transfusion," Nervous Norvus opens: "Cruisin' down the highway doin' 79, I'm a twin-pipe papa and I'm feelin' fine..."
@anon.10:59: And I'm sure you have felt a trenchcoat gale, tried sweetener worms on Survivor, and gone to a concert featuring Nsync with g(u)est. Stay calm, Motrin will help. At least you don't have to thin out pale ale; they've done that by now.
Had STAYCOOL (did not know Ms. RAUL) but came around with the marvelous word REQUIEM. Got the CAN/DID thing straightened out, but had GARTER for the longest time in the SE, the last area to crack. 46a was a real toughie, since I had no clue about 46d. Blank-EST, I ran through the alphabet and came up with zero. Finally hit on BYNOW, but did not know ARTGUM, so I had _ATEWAYCR__. Shrugged and put in the G. I always thought PSYOPS was PSIOPS, so it was coming out GATEWAY CR_I. Clearly there was an owie in there. AR_GUM, hmm. Art gum? was there such a thing? CRTI, like Crtibank--wait...Citibank. Citi? No, CITY. GAITER?? Was there such? Looked it up. Whuff, that's done!
And you say that some jamoke did this, WITH NO HELP, in NINE MINUTES??? I don't believe it.
[That] I can hear Yoda intoning [is why you fail.]

subso: short for subsolver, obviously me.

Anonymoso 7:12 AM  

@Anonymous, 2:18 AM - Please go back and read Rex's Bullet Points. It is not "Ms. Julia RAUL". It is Mr. Raul Julia.

(Sorry if you are joking; it is hard to tell sometimes.)

LongBeachLee 2:31 PM  

Seventy nine wasn't that ludicrous because the crosses eliminated other possibilities. Like s from heist requires the first part to be either sixty or seventy, but x doesn't feel right for a ten commandment word, etc.

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