What I do know is that I like to run into the kind of people he's talking about in this puzzle...the helpful, courteous sort.
The theme answers, clued as Helpful person's line, are:
17A: No need to thank me.
32A (with 42A): Glad to be of / assistance.
61A: It was my pleasure.
I've always thought that people who work in a service industry should be providing a service to the customers they serve. And I'm always glad when I find them working in the stores that I frequent. Good service is part of the reason I frequent a store. Well, that and good coffee...or chocolate...or shoes...or whatever.
We've had an abundance of pangrams in the last week, and we have another one today.
I liked all the Zs in the northeast. Actually, there are only two, but the crossings give it the appearance of more than that. 9D: One of the Gabors (Zsa Zsa) shares her Zs with 9A: Districted (zoned) and 21A: Most comfy (coziest).
My favorites in the northwest include 2D: Kriegsmarine vessel (U-boat), 4D: Substitute players (B team)...one that generally stumps me..., and 20A: Spiral in space (galaxy).
Other clues and/or answers I liked:
23A: Vice squad arrestees, perhaps (johns).
25A: Perturbation (alarm). I love the clue. I hadn't heard the word in some time and thought it might be anger. It fit for a while.
46A: Like good pianos and engines (tuned). Both of mine are, although I don't use one of them as often as I do the other.
60A: Coterie (clique). Both words are great. I haven't heard clique used since I was in high school, but I'm sure they still exist.
65A: Tied up (even). I was thinking the other kind of tied up.
69A: Virtual mart (eBay). I haven't been on eBay in several months, but you wouldn't know it by my Visa bill. It's always something.
8D: "Hello, Dolly!" jazzman (Satchmo). The best.
28D: Flushing stadium (Shea). A sports clue...and it was a gimme. Finally! I mean, how many times has it been in the puzzle in the last few months.
40D: __ Artois beer (Stella). I've seen it before but didn't get it right away. I thought it might be something that started with St...the abbreviation...as in St. Pauli Girl.
43D: Agrees (says yes). Aside from the theme answers, there were only a couple of multiword answers in the puzzle, so it really stood out.
I was checking my solution online and got the nasty note that my solution was incorrect. It took me forever to find, since there were two areas involved. For 56A: Spode ensembles, I had teapots, rather than the correct tea sets. I didn't even notice that 47D: Stylish then became drossy, rather than dressy, or that 59D: Clipper's sheet was pail, rather than sail. Once I fixed that area, I was sure I had it...but no. I didn't know 26D: 1989's __ Prieta earthquake (Loma), so I didn't notice the error I made at 38A: Philosophy of bare existence? (nudism). I had nudist (along with Lota), until I realized that philosophy in the clue meant that the answer wouldn't end in a T.
48A: Levitated (arose) makes me think of "The Santa Clause"...a Rose Suchak ladder.
For a Tuesday puzzle, I struggled more than I should have. I noticed that the fastest solvers weren't fazed by it, but what about the rest of you?
Another 8:00 meeting tomorrow, so I'm off to bed. Here's the grid...
...and I'll see you tomorrow.
Linda G
12 comments:
Pay no mind to those "fastest solvers", they read the puzzle and then compete to be the "fastest typists" -- it's true!
Linda,
I too had nudist first but realized later that it should be nudism. As I teach a course in Philosophy, I always point out to my students that the suffix "ism" indicates a system of belief (e.g., Buddhism, Theism, Communism, Utilitarianism, etc.) and "ist" indcates a proponent of or believer in (e.g., Buddhist, Theist, Communist, etc.). However, here I am initially making that mistake.
I agree with donald, being a fast solver only proves that someone types fast.
Linda, I found today's puzzle pretty easy. That only proves that my experiences and knowledge in certain areas jibed with the clues today. I usually have totally different results.
Why is a comment deleted? And why is it mentioned?
I have one problem with the puzzle...18 down...EXPATS are those living abroad permanently not those visiting, as the word sojourner implies...otherwise a good puzzle....like Linda and profphil I too had ist rather than ism....nice to be in good company!!!
Bob
I wasn't referring to those who post false times. There are a lot of fast solvers out there...names I recognize from ACPT...and I meant that those people weren't fazed by this puzzle.
JD, when a comment is deleted, Blogger automatically puts in the notation. I can delete any comment that's posted (and do only if it's spam, which has happened a few times). An author can also delete his or her comment, which happened in this case. Donald deleted what he wrote...a typo that changed the meaning of his comment.
I'm glad to know I was in good company with nudist, rather than nudism. I'm sure we weren't the only ones.
Jean, when a puzzle is called a pangram, it means it uses all the letters of the alphabet...quite a feat, I'm sure. Technically, though, pangram has a different meaning...using all 26 letters in a sentence.
I had problems with this puzzle (although I am relatively new to NYTxword). My NW, was totally off, I had DULL instead of DUMB (1A), so I had to read your blog to finish... also had TEACUPS instead of TEASETS... thanx Linda!
Thanks for the backup, Linda! We see the same names consistently posting similar times on the applet, 100% legitimately. There are still cheaters who pop up here and there, but they gradually get purged from the rolls.
Orange, no need to thank me. It was my pleasure. Glad to be of assistance.
I'll bet no one has ever used all of the theme answers in a comment before ; )
Actually, this puzzle was a bit of hit and miss - I think I actually skipped the top-left until later, as there were a lot of tricky clues wedged in there. What helps on a puzzle like this are finding out where the unusual letters are (like the fun ZSAZSA and CLIQUE), which narrows the crossing possibilities a bit. The 'Glad to be of' partial answer helped to fill in 'assistance', too. The helpful stuff offset the really tough clues. It was a pleasure to solve :).
"I'll bet no one has ever used all of the theme answers in a comment before"
excellent!
(i privately call x-word blog commenters a "coterie." those on some blogs more than others...)
On the 2-down clue [kriegsmarine vessel] and its answer: Isn't it SOP that if a clue contains a foreign language, the answer should use the corresponding language? This would then make the answer to 2-down "UBOOT" (German) and not "UBOAT". This, of course messes up "Galaxy", (20A), and a few other things.
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