I’ve done puzzles about music and food, music and travel, and music and art, so the logical next step was music and horticulture, right? In the sage words of the Knights Who Say Ni, “Bring me a shrubbery … One that looks nice … And not too expensive!” (For any culturally bereft solvers, it’s a line from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.)
This one should be on the easy side, as long as you are somewhat musically omnivorous.
46A: I went with the baseball examples here, but other famous alums include astronaut Ellen Ochoa; actors Julie Davner, Gregory Peck, Marion Ross, Cleavon Little, Raquel Welch, and Carl Weathers; radio personality Art Linkletter; football’s Marshall Faulk and Joe Gibbs; and basketball superstar Kawhi Leonard. Impressive!
62A: A great band in the 60s and early 70s; other hits include Carrie Anne (written about Marianne Faithful), He Ain’t Heavy (He’s My Brother), The Air That I Breathe, On the Carousel, etc. etc.
23D: This one might be a bit obscure, but for a while in the 70s they had some very catchy hits, complete with great hooks and soaring harmonies.
As the mat says, Welcome! This one’s a moderately challenging themeless, so put your thinking caps on and remember, it’s nice to share …
34A: I apologize for failing to find a less gloomy quote for this answer.
3D: This is the heart of Miami’s Cuban community
9D: The furor triggered by the Encyclopedie, which was the first largely secular encyclopedia, makes for an entertaining story. An Enlightenment tour-de-force, the Encyclopedie was banned by the Catholic Church and blamed/credited for the French Revolution. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Encyclop%C3%A9die
I’ve got a different kind of themed puzzle for you this week. No tortured puns and no classic rock references – the worldwide relief is palpable – just a straightforward trivia quiz about US Presidents. For background, read the spoiler-free discussion below the photo. If you enjoy the puzzle, please share it far and wide. Finally, thanks to my brother Eric for helping me out of a bit of a mess in the middle of a grid.
Presidential bio collection
Over the last several years, I’ve read biographies of every US President. One thing I learned: our country has been blessed with a few superstar leaders (Lincoln, FDR, Washington, Truman), cursed with a handful of awful leaders (Buchanan, Pierce, A. Johnson, Trump), and otherwise mostly muddled along with Presidents ranging from pretty bad to good-but-not-great.
We’ve had some fascinating mixed bags: LBJ was one of our greatest Presidents in terms of domestic policy but embroiled us in Vietnam; Teddy Roosevelt was a Progressive firebrand but an unreconstructed imperialist. We’ve had at least two Presidents whose place near the top of most rankings is difficult to square with their actual achievements, JFK and Thomas Jefferson. And on the other side, there are at least a couple – Truman and Carter – who I think are underappreciated.
Which brings us to this puzzle. None of the names above is a theme answer. Of the ten Presidents included in the grid, some were very good, some were mixed bags, and some were forgettable. All, however, fit symmetrically, which is an admirable attribute.
Specific comments:
1A: This President was instrumental in negotiating the Louisiana Purchase while serving as Ambassador to France, entered several treaties with Great Britain following the War of 1812 that benefited both nations economically, resolved boundary disputes with Great Britain, obtained Florida from Spain, issued a Doctrine warning European nations about interfering in the Americas, and promoted infrastructure improvements. Of course, like every US President before 1850 except the two Adamses, he was a slaveholder, and he only reluctantly signed the Missouri Compromise because he didn’t believe slavery should be restricted anywhere.
63A: This President was a talented and internationally respected mining engineer, and during and after World War I he ran food relief efforts both domestically and in Europe that saved millions of lives. Later, as a dynamic Secretary of Commerce under Coolidge, he sought to improve virtually every sector of the economy and was instrumental in promoting the development and regulation of radio. Alas, upon becoming President he inherited an unsustainable economy from Coolidge and seemingly did everything in his power to make things worse, resulting in the Great Depression.
37D: This President served as governor of the Philippines under McKinley and Teddy Roosevelt and strove to secure land for Filipino farmers, treat Filipinos equally with Americans, and give Filipinos a role in governing their own country with an eye to eliminating the perceived need for American presence. Following his largely unremarkable Presidency, he served as a well-regarded Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, where he markedly improved administration of the federal courts.
The highest-ranking angel, our dog Mia (see the clue for 1 Across)
Word Count: 70
Average Length: 5.40
Difficulty: 5 out of 5
The seed for this one, not surprisingly, was 5D, which I first thought of when constructing my two Set List puzzles a month or so ago. Joni Mitchell has remained one of my all-time favorites since the early 70s, and her fourth album is phenomenal, justifiably considered #3 on Rolling Stone’s most recent list of the 500 Greatest Rock Albums of All Time. My views on Taylor Swift have pulled a “uey,” to use some bad crossword fill. I used to dismiss her as just another bland pop star, but now that I’ve given her a chance, I think she’s an exceptionally talented songwriter and performer. Her first acoustic album from 2020, “folklore,” is really nice.
Anyway, I hope you enjoy the puzzle. Please share generously!
38A, flowing under the Ponte Vecchio, the oldest bridge in Florence
Here’s an easy holiday puzzle for y’all. To mark the 4th, I thought I’d focus on “American” music (gee, that’s a surprise, says anyone who’s solved one of my puzzles). I put “American” in quotes because the music we play, listen to, and create is a hodgepodge, an olio if you will (yes, you can use the word outside of crosswords) of indigenous, European, African, Latin American, and Asian influences. We harmonize our disparate heritages in our music.
In brainstorming – never ideating, which is a horrible word and should be banned from crosswords despite its friendly orthography – possible theme answers, I found the three here. Not only are they symmetrical; they illustrate my “olio point” in an appropriately tinted manner.
Finally, one specific comment on the puzzle: Given the theme, I had to give a shout out to Ms. Russell in 50D, as the co-star (with husband Matthew Rhys) of one of the greatest shows in television history.
After last week’s excursion into immoderate inanity, here’s a straightforward themeless. Please share with gusto and flair; please comment if you’re so inclined.
17A: I believe this is a universal phenomenon; I’m only slightly embarrassed to admit we have three of these in our kitchen.
24A: The proud home of Lagavulin, which crafts wonderful whiskies. I love their 16 year old offering (see photo above); that and the Balvenie Double Wood (non-peaty) are my go-to Scotches.
50A: “It’s better to burn out than to fade away” – one of my favorite Neil Young lines, though not as good as “This much madness is too much sorrow,” which could have been the theme song for the administration of he-who-shall-not-be named (45).
8D: Notable example: the turtle from Kentucky
53D: This was a new one on me, but apparently, it’s a disparaging term aimed at the less physically gifted (such as yours truly). I checked its currency with my younger son, who is a baseball player and has heard it before. It’s “in the language,” just not one I speak. By the way, it stands for Non-Athletic Regular Person.
55D: Suboptimal fill, to be sure. I thought that there was a current famous person with this surname (not Matthew of The Americans fame, who spells it Rhys), but other than a bevy of Welsh rugby and football (soccer) players, I was wrong.
This has nothing to do with the puzzle. It’s the tiniest rabbit I’ve ever seen, happily munching on our front lawn yesterday.
Word Count: 72
Average length: 5.44
Difficulty: Um, all I can say is it’s probably an easier solve if you’re in the same state of mind I was during much of the construction process.
Here’s the idea: the 3-letter answers are common words and abbreviations/acronyms and should give you a decent foothold in the puzzle. A significant majority of the 4-letter answers are common words, but each of those words is clued without regard for the word’s actual meaning. The remaining 4-letter words and all the longer answers are either neologisms or nonsense phrases, the more ridiculous the better.
I hope you have even a fraction as much fun solving the puzzle as I had constructing it. If it’s not your cup of tea, never fear; I promise my next puzzle will be considerably less Alice-out-Wonderlandish.
Specific comments:
22A: I am happy to do my small part for the Indie Constructor Steely Dan Recognition Drive.
39A: With all apologies to Monsieur Van Gogh, I couldn’t resist the clue
Palette or palate, what’s the diff? Artists have painted still life arrangement for centuries. You might ask, though, what happens when artists become one with their food? Solve and see! And please, share bountifully.
34 Down: My Selmer Mark VI
The seed for this puzzle was an earlier incarnation of 23A: my wife, who is a punster extraordinaire, came to me last week and suggested using “bialy” as the second word, which I like because it is inherently funnier than the actual second word in the answer. Alas, the exigencies of symmetry stamped their feet after I came up with the other two theme answers and bialy was toast, so to speak.
Special thanks to my test-solver (son Adam) on this one – he always has good input, and here he suggested some edits that I think greatly improved the final product.
Difficulty: Between 3 and 4 out of 5, depending on the overlap between your musical memories and mine.
Statue of The Beatles, taken in July 2019 in Liverpool.
Enjoy this musical mash-up, and please share freely with kith and kin alike. Comments and suggestions are welcomed. Questionforconstructors using CrossFire: is there a way to specify the type of symmetry, or are you stuck with rotational unless you hand-insert the blocks to create central symmetry?
26A: The long-ago anthropology major in me finds it fascinating how various cultures have disparate takes (and bestow different significance) on very similar foods, as with the dishes in this clue and answer (cousins of which appear in cuisines from around the world); crepes/blintzes/blini/enchiladas are another example.
62A: The last song in the set list was first performed by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, but Andy Williams is most closely identified with the tune.
71A: In cluing this, it just occurred to me that several common synonyms for “try” are pretty violent – this answer, “shot,” and “tackle” come immediately to mind. I wonder if that’s true only in English or whether other languages have similarly aggressive formulations. Any ideas?
76A: My favorite Steely Dan album, containing my favorite Steely Dan song (the deliciously paranoid and gentrification-bemoaning Kid Charlemagne). Several years ago, I saw them on back-to-back nights at DAR Constitution Hall. They played this complete album the first night and Aja the second. I’m (Can’t-Buy-a) Thrill(ed) to see the recent proliferation of Steely Dan references from independent constructors.
45D: My apologies if you like this stuff, and no offense intended, but this is one unappetizing flavor combination as far as I’m concerned.
Difficulty: Between 2 and 3.5/5, depending on the breadth of your musical knowledge
I hope you all enjoy solving this as much as I enjoyed constructing it. After 63 years immersed in rock, jazz, and classical music I figured I’d zero in on something I love, which accounts not only for the theme but also 8 of the non-theme answers. Anyway, please have fun and share the puzzle extravagantly if you liked it. Constructive comments and suggestions are always appreciated!
On the road to Nordkapp, Norway, the northernmost inhabited point in continental Europe. The surrounding area is populated by 31A and their reindeer herds.
Specific comments:
20A: The Dylan album in the answer is way up on my top 10 all-time favorites. The first two cuts (Tangled Up in Blue and Simple Twist of Fate) are brilliant; Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts is fantastic; and Shelter from the Storm is a classic.
23A: In my first draft of the puzzle, the final letter in the answer was an “L,” which made both 23A and 21D dull. Then I realized I could change the last letter and give a shout out to a world music giant, while also marginally improving 23D.
27D: This song has the most hilariously self-deprecating lyrics I’ve ever heard, starting with the first verse:
I have a mansion, forget the price Ain’t never been there, they tell me it’s nice I live in hotels, tear out the walls I have accountants pay for it all
30D: For the most part, Joan Baez has interpreted other artists’ songs, but she wrote the gorgeous yet scathing song (about her ex-lover, Bob Dylan) whose title forms the answer. She truly deserves her recent Kennedy Center Honor.
Jeff's Puzzles 