Blood of Greek gods / SUN 4-28-13 / Bygone Chevy van / 1976 album with palindromic title / Sci-fi author del Rey / Author media observer Michael / One-named singing star with surname Adkins / Historic multistory dwellings / Cowpoke moniker

Sunday, April 28, 2013

Constructor: Patrick Berry

Relative difficulty: Medium



THEME: "Soft T's" — "T" sound changed to "TH" sound in familiar phrases, resulting in wacky phrases, clued "?"-wise.

Theme answers:
  • 23A: What faking a stomachache might entail? (CREATIVE WRITHING)
  • 30A: Gun belts, holsters and nightstick straps? (THE LEATHER OF THE LAW)
  • 45A: Dismounts like an expert gymnast? (GETS OFF LITHELY)
  • 66A: Women's pants with pictures of woodshop tools (LATHE BLOOMERS) — winner of Most Preposterous Theme Answer Concept award ... not necessarily a bad award to win.
  • 86A: Become a new person by washing up? (BATHE AND SWITCH)
  • 95A: Unpopular ophthalmologist's implement (A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES)
  • 108A: What the giggling supporter of the Salem witch trials was told? ("NO LAUGHING, MATHER") 
Word of the Day: LESTER del Rey (71A: Sci-fi author ___ del Rey) —
Lester del Rey (June 2, 1915 – May 10, 1993) was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey. [...] In 1957, del Rey and Damon Knight co-edited a small amateur magazine named Science Fiction Forum. During a debate about symbolism within the magazine, del Rey accepted Knight's challenge to write an analysis of the James Blish story "Common Time" that showed the story was about a man eating a ham sandwich. // Del Rey was most successful editing with his fourth wife, Judy-Lynn del Rey, at Ballantine Books (as a Random House property, post-Ballantine) where they established the fantasy and science fiction imprint Del Rey Books in 1977. After science fiction gained respectability and began to be taught in classrooms, del Rey stated that academics interested in the genre should "get out of my Ghetto." Del Rey stated that "to develop science fiction had to remove itself from the usual critics who viewed it from the perspective of [the] mainstream, and who judged its worth largely on its mainstream values. As part of that mainstream, it would never have had the freedom to make the choices it did – many of them quite possibly wrong, but necessary for its development." (wikipedia)
• • •
Galaxy.Jan56While I don't really understand the title of this puzzle (a play on the word "softies?"), I enjoyed it well enough. One of my editor / proofreader friends suggested to me that the puzzle should not have WRITE in it when it has a play on the word "writing" in the first theme answer, and that may be true, but I didn't notice, and I doubt most others will either, so no harm no foul as far as I'm concerned. Theme answers are all solid and mostly funny. I especially love A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES, esp. as (understatedly) clued ("unpopular," haha). Caleb and I did a Sunday puzzle last year that used a very similar theme concept, though ours had nothing to do with "T" per se. Just the addition of a "TH" sound to the ends of words (sigh => scythe, Rye => writhe, etc.). Not sure why we didn't use bay => bathe. BATHE LEAVES might've worked. But I digress. This is a well built grid—though the theme is fairly light, there's lots of opportunity for interesting fill throughout the grid because it's been built with so many different banks of 7+-letter answers. This also made it hard to fly around the grid. I kept getting stuck trying to move out of one section and into another, and kept having to reboot. But in the end, there was only one place that threatened to derail me—the very last squares I filled in at the bottom of the grid. Never heard of Bond villain ERNST Stavro Blofeld, never heard of Thomas BERGER (94D: Thomas who wrote "Little Big Man"), and never seen the word TRIOXIDE (to my knowledge) (120A: Arsenic ___ (ratsbane)). Luckily for me TRIOXIDE was totally inferrable, and so the scary unknown proper nouns became plausible-looking names, and bam, Mr. Happy Pencil showed up, and I was done.

Bunch of names I didn't know today. In addition to ERNST and BERGER, I was baffled by WOLFF (80A: Author/media observer Michael), and (to a lesser extent) HESS (34D: Physiology Nobelist Walter Rudolf ___). On the other hand, I was able to uncover TESH pretty easily (72D: "Music in the Key of Love" composer), aADELE (8D: One-named singing star with the surname Adkins), MITCH Gaylord (68D: Gymnast Gaylord), and LESTER del Rey were all gimmes. Had real issues with CAP'N JESU there in the center-left part of the grid (54A: "___ Andy's Ballyhoo" ("Show Boat" song) + 62A: Bach's "___, meine Freude"). Not at all familiar with the "Show Boat" soundtrack, or with any Bach track that begins "JESU" and does not end "Joy of Man's Desiring." Sorted it all out once I got PUEBLOS (55D: Historic multistory dwellings). I always thought Maya LIN was an architect (43A: Architectural designer Maya). What's the difference between an architect and an architectural designer? Is it that you can't actually dwell inside the stuff she builds? She's probably most famous for the Vietnam War Memorial. Last thing I saw that she did involved massive designs called "earthworks"; hey, there's one in Ann Arbor. Installed while I was there. I had no idea.


My HONKS were HORNS at first (31D: Rush-hour din). Otherwise, no real gaffes. I liked the clue at 79D: Bygone Chevy van (ASTRO), both because I knew it, and because the phrase "Chevy van" always makes me think of this enjoyably silly '70s song.


Have a Chevy-van Sunday.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

86 comments:

Anonymous 12:05 AM  

Is there a problem with the nytimes puzzle on the iPad app?
Mine is a diagramless. I didn't get the puzzle Rex is showing.
Anyone else having problems?

Anonymous 12:07 AM  

Yes same problem. Quite irritating!

Anonymous 12:07 AM  

Magmic sux, is the problem.

Anonymous 12:08 AM  

So far, everyone seems to be stuck. The app version is a diagramless, and no one knows how to fill in the blank squares.

retired_chemist 12:11 AM  

@Rex - JESU meine Freude and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring are the German and English titles of the same music.

Took me a LONG time. Did not get the Y in SCYTHE - put SCITHE, thinking it was an alternate spelling to allow "I KNOW," which in retrospect doesn't fit the clue for 96D very well. But neither does Y'KNOW IMO.

Lots of stuff that had to be overwritten, lots of unfamiliar names, and a theme that threw me for quite a while.

Nonetheless it was an enjoyable but challenging solve,. Thanks, Mr. Berry.

Elle 54 12:16 AM  

Same problem. Also weird for a diagramless. Clues not numbered and in wrong columns

jae 12:18 AM  

Medium for me too.  Sailed through the top third, but the bottom third was tougher.   The SW corner was challenging.  TOCCATA involved a couple of erasures and YKNOW looked strange so I didn't want to commit to it.

This seemed about right for a Sun.  Amusing/whacky theme that took a bit of effort, but then it's Patrick Berry.

Allison 12:21 AM  

I sure am glad I'm not the only one clueless about how to do this diagramless mystery puzzle on the ipad.

syndy 12:27 AM  

I Misspelled SaRGEANT and am DESOLATE! LITHELY lisping my way into and around this clever clever beauty was too much fun though.I got the end of 108 across MATHER and confidently threw in Cotton!I had ASKAbout so I wanted a sepTEt?Berry's fill is just superb even SATIE OSTEO ASTRO HAG (poor girl)

Kyle 12:29 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Kyle 12:33 AM  

I've never done a diagramless puzzle before. I looked on the web for instructions, found some, couldn't match them up to the grid as shown on the iPad.

Unknown 12:37 AM  

I got the diagramless puzzle as well. What gives?

paulsfo 1:00 AM  

This is strange. First Rex calls this a medium and others say they had problems. For me, this was the easiest Sunday puzzle I've ever done. I often don't even finish, but today I did it in 38 minutes (my previous record was just under an hour).
Time aside, I have to be a grouch again about straightforwardness and general blandness of the clues. I'd like part of the editing process to be "please rewrite this set of clues to be a *little* bit more interesting and less obvious."

Davis 1:04 AM  

Count me as another user of the Magmic app who received the diagramless, rather than the crossword. I'm getting tired of all the Magmic-related issues (including the fact that the app crashes every time I submit a puzzle).

Those of you who are considering getting the "official" NYT crossword app: Don't.

Michaela 1:08 AM  

Magmic app WTF here too. I guess it's a good thing their app started timing out and broke my year-long streak a few months ago, now I won't feel bad about DNF'ing this one.

Einat 1:38 AM  

So weird. On the NYT website it is showing the diagramless as today's variety crossword as opposed to the daily crossword. Wha' happen?!

Mike 1:40 AM  

Well s--t. I guess my streak breaks on this one. WTF.

North Beach 1:48 AM  

Magmic showing a 17x17 Fred Piscop diagramless. Unclear how to contact Magmic. Sorry to spoil the party here but look how many voices/eyeballs use iPad/Magmic. Don't you have a Batphone @Rex? Hoping they fix it by morning…. Plus I'm squinting so as not to see answers here since I love a Patrick Berry. Woe is me. ;-)

Greg Charles 1:58 AM  

I also get the diagramless on the iPad. (And crashes on submit since their last update.) Gormless wankers.

Davis 2:00 AM  

@North Beach - there's a "Siupport" link under "Extras" in the Magmic app where you can submit support requests. They're incredibly unresponsive, but it can't hurt to pile on anyway.

North Beach 2:08 AM  

@Davis Yeah, tried that but sounds like no one sees it 'til Monday. In Canada.

Eejit 2:10 AM  

WTF.

okanaganer 2:30 AM  

I also had SCiTHE and iKNOW...no way I would have ever caught that error. I had DESERTED for 58D and spent a lot of time trying to make it work, as it's such a perfect answer. ARACHNE was a tough one, crossing four (!!) other answers to which I had no clue; fortunately the word arachnid popped into my head and saved the day.

Not a big fan of the theme as executed... I groaned at each answer (except CREATIVE WRITHING, which is elegant because you simply add the H to a common phrase.)

Benko 2:54 AM  

I also had deserted for DESOLATE and wasted a lot of time trying to make it work. Pretty annoying until I realized CAPRIATI was what was needed in the cross.
Liked CREATIVE WRITHING and THELEATHEROFTHELAW, the other ones not as much.
Liked seeing LESTER Del Rey, as am big sci-fi reader.
ERNST Blofeld is the inspiration for many a super villain, sitting there stripling his cat.

Benko 2:56 AM  

"Stripling" is more popular a word than "stroking"? I find that hard to believe, text correct.

chefwen 3:11 AM  

I guess I'm in the minority here, I absolutely loved it. Connected right away with 23A which is what I would do when it was my turn to do the dishes. Mom always fell for it and would do them herself. Mom was always an easy touch.

Top half easier than the bottom half for me. A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES really made me wince and rub my eyes. YOUCH!

jae 4:38 AM  

@chefwen -- Seems like we had the same take on this one.

@iPad users: I highly recommend the Stand Alone Inc. app.

Bob Kerfuffle 6:12 AM  

A few write-overs, some already mentioned: 21 A, had AR___NE, put in ARIADNE (duh!) before ARACHNE; 31 D, HORNS/HONKS; 45 D, GRATE before GNASH; 58 D, DESERTED/DESOLATE; and 59 D, ASK ABOUT before ASK AFTER.

David 6:19 AM  

Magicmic got around to putting in the correct puzzle. But their constant ineptitude is frustrating.

Rex Parker 6:35 AM  

You all realize I don't work for Magmic, don't use the Magmic app, and have nothing to do with Magmic, right? The ineptitude of the NYT, or Magmic, or ... well, anyone but me, is just not my problem. Let *them* hear it.

RP

Anonymous 6:41 AM  

@David - How did you get the magmic app to download the correct puzzle after you've already loaded the diagramless puzzle? Or had you not already downloaded?

I tried restarting the app, logging out and back in again, selecting date in calendar and selecting "today's puzzle", all with no luck.

Elle54 7:14 AM  

@anon. 6:41. I just went to the app and a pop up said , there is a new version of today's puzzle, would you like to download it ? I clicked yes. Then I clicked today's puzzle and it came up.
@rex don't worry. We don't expect you to solve our iPad problems. Thanks for this forum to communicate with each other.

Anonymous 7:20 AM  

@Rex - sorry that we're hijacking the conversation, but you've fostered a community here and sometimes people are going to talk amongst themselves, go off-topic, etc. In this case, I think most of us are trying to find out whether anybody has discovered a workaround that would let us get our fix and return to the regularly-scheduled programming.

On that note - without considering how to submit the puzzle via the magmic app, I'd still really like to try the solution. The primary roadblock is that the clue numbering (and possibly the across/down categorization as well) is screwed up. It would be extremely helpful if someone with access to the PDF version could post a link.

Or perhaps someone here who has the ear of the NYT puzzle dept. powers that be could suggest they make the across lite/standalone app version freely available in light of this screwup.

With regard to the Magmic app - I've gradually come to see its shortcomings, but it's still hard to rationalize spending more than double for the annual subscription for the sake of avoiding headaches with a few novelty puzzles/errors like this each year.

Anonymous 7:25 AM  

@RP, no worries mate. We know you don't work for Magmic. But since they don't have a forum for such kvetching, it'll naturally spill over to wherever crossworders congregate. FWIW, there is a support link in the app, and I suspect many people including myself complained about it last night so it's fixed now.

Anonymous 7:44 AM  

For those of you who want to take the conversation away from REx's sandbox (or is it wheelhouse?) and over to where it belongs at Magmic, here's the link to the thread:

http://support.magmic.com/entries/23682516-April-28-2013-Puzzle

Give'em heck.

chefbea 8:02 AM  

Boy am I glad I print out the puzzle and use a pen!!!
Did most of this last night and finished this morning with a few googles. I too had deserted at first.

Thought it was a great puzzle.. Gotta dash - busy day

Loren Muse Smith 8:20 AM  

I WENDed my way through fairly easily. "Manners" before BEARING and "denim" before CHINO.

Huge shout out to a big Shout Out Grump! HAH!

Was already a GN into GNAW where GNASH is when I noticed it wouldn't fit.

Liked GRR crossing CORGI

PAROLEES crossing BREAKS IN. One of my students (the EPEE crossword guy) is up for PAROLE in six years for quite a few armed BREAK INs. He has given me all kinds of advice about where to hide valuables when I’m on vacation. I used to hide cash in the freezer. He sighed and said that’s the first place he looked.

@DK - I lead with Jung, Asch, Beck, Paco, Rank, and Real before I settled on HESS. Right.

@Rex – because of my education here in Rexville, I did actually notice WRITE (and also the “soft” THEs and THIN). But because I’m an established shameless sycophant, because PB is the supreme constructor CAPN of the universe, and because he’s really such a darned nice guy, I simply figured that that’s all just fine by me.

CREATIVE theme! Tanks, Patrick!

Anonymous 8:26 AM  

I had no problem with Magmic puzzle layout on my iPad.
Not sure why others are having a problem..

Anonymous 8:29 AM  

To load the new puzzle I deleted the app and reinstalled

joho 8:48 AM  

When I was done I visualized Daffy Duck and went over all theme answers again: FUN!

Anonymous 9:04 AM  

@joho - that's dethpicable!

GILL I. 9:05 AM  

"Scary unknown proper nouns" indeed!!! I had a real hard time on most of them.
Regardless, I loved the puzzle. I'd like to own a pair of LATHE BLOOMERS; that would be A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES.
@LMS - well, where should we hide our cash if not in the ice cream?

Milford 9:14 AM  

Liked this fun theme and the play on words, CREATIVE WRITHING and GETS OFF LITHELY were my favorites, but they were all good (although the sadistic ophthalmologist one made me shudder).

Felt like I had to step in the way-back machine to get MITCH Gaylord and Jennifer CAPRIATI. Wonder what her dad is up to...

Was sure that 75A was either Fawn or FOAL, so I knew the ghost town couldn't be DESerted, but DESOLATE was hard to see here, also. Had rosTERS before BATTERS, too.

New word for me : ICHOR.

Had the Magmic malfunction here last night, but woke up to the Berry puzzle, so all is well. Plus, it's a gorgeous day in Michigan!

MikeM 9:25 AM  

anyone else have ASeeTHEFORSOREEYES?? I sis and SEETHE seemed perfectly OK. So that screwed up my whole SE. Couldnt see YKNOW becase I never had the Y. I had ALSORAN but little else down there. Despite all this, I did like the puzzle and had little trouble with the rest of it. Thanks Patrick Berry

MikeM 9:26 AM  

sis = did sorry

Carola 9:35 AM  

Fun. BARRELED through it (relatively speaking). Themewise, I thought CREATIVE WRITHING got things off to a great start, with some fading through the midsection, and then a very strong finish with that SCYTHE and especially, "NO LAUGHING, MATHER!" Very Puritan.

Liked the MUSICAL subtheme: LISTEN! HEAR or PLAY SATIE, (Bach's) JESU and TOCCATA, perhaps written in F-FLAT.

North Beach 9:40 AM  

Wishful thinking rules the day and Magmic came through. Seems to me the last time there was an actual technical snafu Magmic bested the "real" NYT. These things happen. Thanks to our Prickly Leader @Rex for the forum space. Nothing more to see here. Move along.

Pete 9:41 AM  

I'm announcing my, hopefully temporary, departure from solving puzzles until I can figure out how I read "What faking a stomachache might entail" as "What faking a moustache might entail".

Anonymous 9:51 AM  

Always feel good when I get something others struggled with. Cap'n Andy was a gimme for me, I once played a bit part in a community theatre production of Showboat.

baja 9:57 AM  

Enjoyed this one. Would have liked a sports reference for creative writhing but all good.

lawprof 10:11 AM  

Probably one of my fastest Sundays, with just two writeovers: liz/ANN and tbsp/DASH. Knew TOCCATA, but had to wait for the crossings because I couldn't remember whether there were two C's or T's.

I thought the theme was clever and some parts of it were hilarious (NOLAUGHINGMAHER being my favorite). Thanks, Mr. Berry.

jackj 10:14 AM  

Much as I admire Patrick Berry’s work, this one, for the first time ever with a Berry puzzle, was a bit of a slog.

The theme seemed a shrug, though it had a few touches of cleverness like CREATIVE WRITHING and BATHES AND SWITCH, and also the fill was uneven and filled with entries that were uncharacteristically unfathomable as straight up propositions.

LESTER, WOLFF, ICHOR, JESU, CAPN, ASTRO, GRR, YKNOW, CORGI, BERGER, TRIADS, TOCCATA, CAPRIATI, TRIOXIDE, ERNST, MITCH, TITAN, HESS are some of the more obvious questionable answers, with the totality of them giving the feeling that an inexperienced intern had been given free rein to work on the computer’s contribution to the cluing of the fill.

Fortunately though, with Patrick there were clues that called for obvious answers like the “ghost town” clue that was easily DESERTED and its next-door neighbor, looking for “Showing polite interest” that was, of course, ASKABOUT.

Of course, my foot! Surprise, surprise, they only work as DESOLATE and ASKAFTER, each delightfully clever misdirects.

Today’s highlight was a certifiable hall-of-famer, “Uses a keyless entry system?”, and in Berryworld it is BREAKS IN and that is a touch of genius which identifies this puzzle as Patrick’s, notwithstanding the other problems that seemed to diminish today’s effort.

Maybe it’s the tree pollen that’s making me cranky.

Z 11:05 AM  

Medium. Dead tree version has both puzzles. No software issues.

Late for ultimate - gotta run.

Norm 11:12 AM  

Very easy and entertaining, although I had a hard time accepting that Y[']KNOW was legitimate. If it was good enough for Mr. Happy Pencil, it's good enough for me.

Sandy K 11:17 AM  

Y' KNOW, today I'm really glad I do the puzzle in the newspaper...

Enjoyed Patrick Berry's CREATIVE WRITHING, as usual. A SCYTHE FOR SORE EYES was perhaps the best.

On to the diagramless, on paper.

Carole Shmurak 12:12 PM  

Thought this was very easy! Not even tempted to Google. Had DESERTED too, but that was replaced as soon as I saw that CAPRIATI had to be right. But CAPN Andy, TERESA Wright, ICHOR and ARACHNE were gimmes for me so that helped. Loved CREATIVE WRITHING, winced at SCYTHE for sore eyes!

jberg 12:22 PM  

Hey, if you magmic sufferers buy the paper, the magazine has both puzzles, a recipe for mushroom bruschetta, AND a nice photo feature on the Abu Dhabi Falcon Hospital (just what it sounds like!)

Oh, yes, the puzzle. @Rex, the title just means that you soften the T sounds, which are hard, by turning them into TH sounds, which are soft. I don't think 'softies' means anything about the puzzle.

I'll go with medium -- same experience as Rex, I'd get one block of answers then find no route into the next block, so I'd have to start over, whereas normally I work my way down until I get an across, then try to do the whole puzzle by working the crosses. First answer I got was ARACHNE, since all the earlier ones could have been anything.

And FOISTS! C'mon, you don't see that too often, y'know?

Tie between LATHE BLOOMERS & NO LAUGHING, MATHER for most outrageous answer, though the SCYTHE was certainlyh in contention. As for THE LEATHER OF THE LAW, it certainly gives you something to think about!

Anonymous 12:49 PM  

Does anyone have the problem while solving online against the clock that a correct puzzle is not accepted? This happens to me frequently recently. I even retyped the entire puzzle to no avail. Most annoying!

Carola 12:52 PM  

@jackj - I think it's the pollen. Just teasing! I was interested that among your questionable answers were some of my favorites, especially ICHOR and TOCCATA. Also wanted to thank you for reminding me of TRIAD as another MUSICAL word, as well as (in a stretch) Mahler's first symphony, the TITAN.

@Sandy K - Another diagramless fan here. Just off to tackle it.

retired_chemist 1:27 PM  

TOCCATA was cantATA to start, and hand up for DESerted. The latter made me think veAL for 73A.

Watched a Jeopardy! rerun this morning with teh ctegory "Four Letter Crossword Staples." Answers: STET, EPEE, OGEE, and two more I forget. Too easy......

Anonymous 1:28 PM  

@pete-- strangely I too had the moustache thing going. However, I count myself lucky that I do the Sunday puzzle after the paper is delivered to my door in one bundle on Sunday morning. No Magmic issues at all, but I'll never catch up with all of you!!

Unregistered Architect 1:37 PM  

An architectural designer is an architect that is primarily involved in the design of buildings or urban landscapes, as opposed to the construction documents and management required to construct it. Architectural designers have good creative skills, imagination and artistic talent. Although most students of architecture are trained to be designers in school, not all become designers in practice.

Sandy K 2:21 PM  

Hi @Carola-

Found this diagramless kinda tricky. Did it on scrap paper first. Was relieved that I was able to finish it- cuz I had my doubts for a while!

Have fun! : )

Carola 2:44 PM  

@Sandy K - Yes, it had me scratching my HEAD a few times. That FAB chunk was floating out in space for quite a while. Really liked the grid - a little unusual, I thought.

quilter1 3:04 PM  

Visited Mom this a.m. so did the puzzle over a late lunch. Very Berry clever. I love word games and this gave me many smiles. Thanks, Patrick. P.S. so glad I use paper and pen to solve.

Z 3:29 PM  

THE LEATHER OF THE LAW, scored by John TESH, sounds like a bad porn movie.

John Hoffman 3:40 PM  

The reference to MATHER and the Salem Witch trials is too obscure, right? Anyone ever heard of this before?

Z 3:50 PM  

@John Hoffman - eighth grade history class had a whole section on Cotton MATHER. It's been a few years, but I got it pretty easily. It took me a lot longer to get MARINO.

retired_chemist 3:59 PM  

What Z said.

Sandy K 4:09 PM  

@Carola- Exactly! That FAB chunk gave me a HEADache- until I could anchor it.

It wasn't as easy as ABC for me. Had to really use my NOODLE, but loved the challenge.

Next week- an acrostic. Not my fave.

jerry k 4:46 PM  

Boy, am I happy I buy the paper and use a pencil. Was a slog for me but only missed the scythe thing. Oh yes, the pencil has an eraser.

Anonymous 6:42 PM  

116A--It keeps things moving.

Ans. INERTIA ???

Not on my planet.

Anonymous 7:22 PM  

This was a medium puzzle. My least favorite was the yknow answer. It was not a kosher clue! Lower left quadrant took the longest, but I got the "soft t" business quite quickly. All in all a nice puzzle.

Wikipedia 7:44 PM  

@anonymouse 6:42- What universe do you live in and how did you end up here? INERTIA - In common usage the term "inertia" may refer to an object's "amount of resistance to change in velocity" (which is quantified by its mass), or sometimes to its momentum, depending on the context. The term "inertia" is more properly understood as shorthand for "the principle of inertia" as described by Newton in his First Law of Motion; that an object not subject to any net external force moves at a constant velocity. Thus an object will continue moving at its current velocity until some force causes its speed or direction to change.

MetaRex 10:27 PM  

140W, 68B...if I counted them right...word and square counts v. similar to last Sunday's...too sleepy to make any more thoughtful observations...Thx, PB...

Ellen S 12:05 AM  

@Retired_Chemist. When my daughter was about two years old, once I left her for the day with a friend who also had a two-year-old red-headed daughter. Except for the hair color they looked nothing alike, but when Chris took them for a walk, a woman stopped, cooed and gurgled and asked, "Are they twins?" Chris said, "Yes, but they have different mothers."

Same for " Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" being the English translation of "Jesu, meine Freude." It looked probable to me, too, but once i listened, seems like different mothers. They sure don't sound the same.

Loved "Creative Writhing." Hand up for Deserted and ... oh, ASK AFTER was correct. Wonder how many times I crossed that out and put in ASK About and then back to AFTER. Lotsa writeovers and two googles. I wanted to get here before tomorrow. ....

Sorry I haven't been here for a few days. Actually working on stuff. What a concept. Missed you all.

Mark 10:03 AM  

Maya Lin is referred to as an "architectural designer" in the puzzle because "architect" is a title that requires licensing and registration that she has never pursued. To become an architect, one must not only have a professional degree (which she does), one must also intern for a given number of years with an architect or firm and take a series of licensing exams. Like becoming a doctor only MUCH less lucrative. But since not all projects that can be considered architecture require the participation of a registered architect (single-family houses are the most common example), virtually anyone can call themselves an "architectural designer." Some of them, like Lin in much of her work, collaborate with registered architects or landscape architects.

Anonymous 12:38 PM  

Rex, how can you be so informed and yet never have heard of Ernst Stavro Blofeld of iconic James Bond fame? And you're not familiar with "Showboat"? Shame on you. But you're familiar with Chevy vans...just like a man!

Anonymous 10:34 AM  

I love PB but this puzzle gave me a headache. I had to put it down a few times to reboot. Hated MATHER, LITHELY oh all of it. SW corner was last done and I never saw creative writhing. I kept thinking wretching.I thought Capriati was spelled wrong. Engaged in battle at war or mad at. Cooks up was schemes. Never heard oh Wolff. Title was stupid too.ugh.

Spacecraft 11:38 AM  

Poor monitor-locked folks. I may get mine a month late--but it's PRINTED in the paper, diagram and all! Beware progress.

Now to Mr. Berry's latest. I must admit to a slight disappointment. A theme answer with not one, but TWO "THE"s? Flag on the play! I didn't notice, as OFL predicted the WRITE/WRITHING infraction, so no hankie there. But...what about 98d? "Some MoMA works" = OPART: doesn't the A of MoMA stand for ART? Five yards and loss of "down."

Agree with @Anon 12:38. OFL is, somehow, NOT a Bond fan; I am shaken (not stirred).

Hand up for DESerted; seemed a no-brainer to me, and was my lone writ(h)eover. A double unknown for me at #72, but luckily the "T" was inferrable. SW was hardest for me, with every single letter of TOCCATA having to come on crosses.

Sometimes the clue writer(s) stretch unnecessarily, just to avoid a gimme: 73a "Take to sleep with, say" could indeed be BED, if you use "sleep with" as an archaic euphemism for, well, YKNOW. But there must be less obfuscating clues for BED that still don't give away the store. It's Sunday, guys, not Saturday.

The theme was OK, I guess, but I think Mr. B.'s wheelhouse is the themeless 15x15. There's plenty of the old Berry brilliance here--FREAKISH SCRAWNY PAROLEES (what an image!), etc., but I guess I'm spoiled. Seeing that name, I want better.

Anonymous 3:04 PM  

A few more:

DEATH FOR NATURE SWAP: An execution to save the redwoods?

FIFTH FOR NOTHING: A shot on the house

LOVE BOTH: Bisexual?

BASEBALL MYTHS: Groundless rumors of corked bats?

Dirigonzo 5:18 PM  

I had a '94 ASTRO conversion van with a tv/vcp that provided many memories of many wonderful times with my sons so "Have a Chevy-van Sunday", as Rex wished everybody, has special meaning to me. I generally like Patrick Berry's puzzles so I looked forward to doing this one and was not disappointed. I caught on to the theme early at CREATIVEWRITHING and that helped me overcome some of the fill I otherwise might not have known (TOCCATA, I'm looking at you). Henceforth I am going to refer to myself as "Seasoned" instead of OLD.

Anonymous 6:04 PM  

@Pete 9:41 AM /Anon 1:28 pm
"Yes, it's a moustache kind of morning." - P. Griffin

Thankfully I come up with the same answer to both clues.

This puzzle represented a fairly easy and enjoyable solve for me, despite its moustachelessness.

Anonymous 7:29 PM  

@Anonymous 3:04 PM
As much as I enjoy your suggestions, you'll note that all the theme TH's in this puzzle are soft TH's. Has anyone noted that yet? I don't think so. It's not just T to TH, it's T to soft TH. Does add another dimension to the "Soft T's" title. But since you're on a roll, I'll let you come up with some creative clues for these:

OTHER DISAPOINTMENT
MOTHERING TO ONES SELF
BED WEATHER
TWINKLE THOSE
RESERVED SEETHING
FARTHING NOISES
TIT FOR THAT

cb77305 3:22 AM  

Jesu meine freude is a motet - the longest at 20 minutes. Jesu Joy of man's desiring is a barely 4 minute chorale in the cantata of the same name BWV 147 - TOTALLY different music!

lurker 10:35 PM  

Memorable moment: First time jackj's comments haven't been a papped up version of Rex'.

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