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Constructor: Kathy Bloomer
Relative issue: Easy (best Sunday in current reminiscence)
THEME: “Le Puzzle” — wacky phrases created by including “LE” to acquainted phrases:
Theme solutions:
- TRICKLE QUESTION (22A: “When will the leaky faucet get fastened?,” e.g.?)
- ALL OVER THE MAPLE (106A: Where you’d discover the sap for syrup?)
- SKIPS A BEATLE (3D: Says “John, Paul … and Ringo”?)
- CLASS TRIPLE (63D: The three R’s?)
- WORDLE OF MOUTH (31D: M_U_H?)
- LOTTERY PICKLE (34D: Loss of the successful ticket?)
- STARTLE DATE (15D: Show up bare, maybe?)
- PALACE COUPLE (60D: King and queen?)
Word of the Day: OH HENRY! (64A: Candy bar whose identify is an exclamation) —
Oh Henry! is a sweet bar containing peanuts, caramel, and fudge coated in chocolate.
There are a number of variations of the Oh Henry! bar origin story. The producer Nestlé says that the bar was launched by George Williamson and his Williamson Candy Company of Chicago in 1920 in United States. The hottest alternate story is that Thomas Henry, supervisor of the Peerless Candy Co. in Arkansas City, Kansas, invented a bar he known as the “Tom Henry Bar” within the late 1910s, and offered the recipe to George Williamson in 1920. There is not any credible documentation of this story.
There are different alternate accounts of the origin of the identify of the bar. The story supported by Nestlé is that there was a boy named Henry who frequented George Williamson’s second sweet store. He grew to become a favourite of the younger women who labored there, who would say “Oh Henry” when talking to or about him, and Williamson used this phrase to call his new confection. The different (undocumented) story is that the identify was modified from the Tom Henry Bar to Oh Henry! when it was bought by Williamson. Popular myths are that it was named after O. Henry or Henry Aaron.
The Williamson Company was offered to Warner-Lambert in 1965, which quickly offered Oh Henry! to Terson, Inc. Nestlé acquired the United States rights to the model from Terson in 1984. In 2018, Nestlé offered the rights to its U.S. confectionery merchandise to Ferrara Candy Company, a subsidiary of Ferrero SpA. Ferrara quietly discontinued the US model of Oh Henry! in 2019. (wikipedia) (emph. mine)
• • •
So … [Erstwhile candy bar whose name was an exclamation], then. Good factor they discontinued the sweet bar “quietly,” in any other case, my god, you’ll be able to think about the uproar …
This is a type of themes that feels prefer it belongs in another publication. The idea is fairly stale. You’re simply including letters. Two letters: “LE.” Why? I do not know. The title, “Le Puzzle” … is that speculated to evoke Le Car? What is that? It’s as if the title is admitting, “yeah, there’s not a lot of an idea right here, however there’s wackiness, so, , take pleasure in.” Seems like you may add “LE” to phrases all day lengthy, after which the variety of phrases you would possibly use these phrases in, hoo boy, that record has gotta go on without end. So you discover some and also you organize them symmetrically and right here you might be, however the place are you, actually, moreover killing 10 min. to a half hour on a Sunday morning. The wacky actually Really has to repay for a theme this conceptually skinny to work, and it is arduous to argue that the payoff could be very substantial right here. I gotta give credit score to WORDLE OF MOUTH for not less than making an attempt arduous. That reply is grammatically tortured nevertheless it’s bought the suitable concept: as with all issues wacky, go huge or go dwelling. The clue is revolutionary and cute and the reply is present, so props to that themer for positive, however the remainder of that is fairly lackluster. Well, STARTLE DATE is fairly startling, and that is higher than simply being chuckleworthy, so we’ll depend that one as a plus as effectively. The relaxation, shrug. There they’re.
The non-thematic fill is fairly unremarkable, and infrequently wobbly. RATEDAAA and AAH … I really feel like there is a potential theme right here someplace [Like bonds issued at a spa] (RATED AAH), one thing like that. But all of the AAAAAA motion right here is bizarre. The TNOTE / NOTPC (ugh) / O’MEARA part is fairly thick with mustiness as effectively. SEE ME!? I LAY! The fill by no means will get above mediocre. The grid’s important downside is that it is poorly crammed a lot as that it is simply loaded with peculiar, unremarkable 3-to-5-letter solutions. Not quite a lot of enjoyable available there. Second day in a row for HORSEMAN, which is the bizarro truth of the day (okay yesterday was HORSEMEN plural however shut sufficient). I did not have a lick of bother wherever with this one. Maybe getting from [Boos] to HONEYS took me a number of beats, or acceding to ASSHAT, which may’ve price me some seconds, however principally I used to be writing in solutions as quick as I may learn clues. I want there was extra to speak about at present, however this grid simply is not giving me loads to work with. I had PROD earlier than CROP (101A: Whip) and could not bear in mind the Nickelodeon brothers’ names (PETE) (102D: Name of both brother in a basic Nickelodeon sitcom) (that present missed me utterly, although actually that is true of just about each present on Nickelodeon; I used to be too previous for that community, and my daughter simply by no means cared).
The clue on ALL OVER THE MAPLE feels very bizarre (106A: Where you’d discover sap for syrup?). Imagine in case your maples have been truly lined in sap … as a result of that is what I used to be imagining, as a result of the picture the clue evokes. You know what’s truly ALL OVER THE MAPLEs (outdoors my home) proper now? The rattling screaming blue jays. What is it with the blue jays this late summer time / early autumn? I’ve by no means heard extra rattling jay yelling. I imply, jays are notoriously pushy jerks, however they’re actually going at it, screaming-wise, this yr. They are lovely birds, however I’m trying ahead to shut-the-hell-up season, each time that’s.
I’ll depart you with a few bonus options at present. First, video of the crossword round-table dialogue I participated in final week as a part of the opening festivities of the Finger Lakes Crossword Competition (it is me and “Wordplay” blogger Deb Amlen and constructor Adam Perl, moderated by New Yorker constructor (and Cornell professor) Anna Shechtman):
And then, lastly, an e mail I bought from a reader this week. It had the topic heading: “A Will Weng story” so naturally I used to be intrigued (Weng was the NYTXW editor within the ’70s, the successor to the unique editor Margaret Farrar and the instant predecessor of Eugene Maleska, who was Shortz’s predecessor … mind-boggling that in 80 years there have been solely 4 NYTXW editors!). Anyway, right here it’s, your Crossword Anecdote (from reader Oliver)!
It is 1970. I used to be doing my two-year Vietnam navy obligation in San Francisco, working for the Yellow Berets within the U. S. Public Health Service (q.v. — “Yellow Berets”).
I used to be then married to Lisa Ferris Brown [ed.: not her real name], a cruciverbalist and cryptogram solver.
Lisa, then 25, determined to compose an X-word puz for the NYT. It took some prodding on my half (not re: content material, however re: persistence), however finally Lisa accomplished the puzzle and despatched it off to Will Weng. Just a few weeks later, a poorly typed letter on undersized and mis-aligned stationery (poorly typed due to a variety of overstrikes with ribbon-clogged keys) arrived from Mr. Weng.
Mr. Weng wrote: “Change ‘Ahab to arab’ and we’ll publish it.” There was one different change Mr. Weng wished — I can’t recall. After some extra encouragement, Lisa made the urged modifications and mailed the revised puzzle again to New York. Lisa additionally despatched a Xerox (a Big Deal in 1970) of the puzzle to my dad, who, as I famous in my take a look at e mail to you, was a 30-year veteran NYT X-word professional — may even do the Friday puzzle between Lexington and Wall Street.
OK. Silence for one more few weeks, after which…. a letter to Lisa Ferris Brown (née as written, however might have despatched her letter to Mr. Weng as Lisa Brown Kelman) from the New York Times arrived. Well, an envelope arrived, not precisely a letter. In the envelope was a examine for $15.00 from the NYT’s financial institution. No trace what it was for.
Just a few extra weeks handed. Then my dad known as me: “Lisa’s puzzle is in today’s paper!” I’ve no recollection whether or not it was a Monday or another weekday.
End of story? No.
In April, 1970 Lisa and I took the Italy Grand Tour. On the way in which again, we checked in at Fiumicino in Rome for our flight to SFO. A man within the window seat had the International Herald Tribune (which carried a mishmash of Euro stringers and NYT stuff) opened to the crossword puzzle. Lisa was sitting subsequent to him. At some level, the man turns to Lisa and asks, “Hey what’s a 4-letter word for XXXX?”
Lisa says, “May I please see that puzzle for a moment and may I borrow your pencil?”
The man surrenders the folded Herald Tribune and his pencil. Maybe it was a pen.
It’s Lisa’s puzzle, the rights to which she had surrendered when she offered it to the NYT for a small fortune.
So Lisa proceeds to finish the puzzle in mere seconds with out trying on the clues and palms it again to the man within the window seat. The man makes a number of feeble efforts to examine the clues in opposition to Lisa’s fill-ins to ensure she had not entered only a bunch of letters, after which says:
“How did you do this?”
Lisa solutions:
“I wrote it.”
The man doesn’t know which is extra unbelievable — that she wrote it or that she was some type of 200 IQ genius. But Lisa convinces him it was only a freak coincidence. They man was a shrink from Berkeley.
We shared some drinks.
Y’all are free to ship me random crossword-related tales like this *any* time you want. They entertain me no finish. Take care, and goodbye.
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