This is a freshly updated version of a puzzle I constructed almost 10 years ago. It’s pinch-hitting for the puzzle I had planned to post today, which I decided was not ready for prime time. Enjoy, share, etc.; you know the drill.
14 Across
41A: This factoid never ceases to amaze me. Democritus lived 2500 years ago!
43D: I realize this is a little obscure, but he’s a wonderful, widely respected player who transcends several genres of jazz.
54A/55D: In the original version of this puzzle, the intersection of these clues was a “T” and the down clue was “Mitt’s son”. Way back in 2012, Romney’s son’s name was widely known; after all, his father was running for President. Today I’m sure no one remembers him (the son, not the father). Felicitously, the company referenced in the revised entry/clue is now a big deal; in 2012 it was just 3 years old and much smaller.
Typical Tuscan landscape – olive trees in the foreground, a vineyard tucked behind them, and cypress trees in the mid-background (see 65A)
Here’s a little crossword humor for y’all. How little? You decide – and if you find the puzzle amusing, please spread the word about both the puzzle and this web site!
I have a few JeffsPuzzles.com caps left, so please email me at JeffsPuzzles@gmail.com if you’d like one sent your way (for free).
Just a couple of notes on today’s grid:
10A: We have a running joke/lament in our family that whenever we become enamored with a product, it gets discontinued. Most sorely missed: Kellogg’s Product 19, which despite the clinical name was really, really good.
50A: If you’re not familiar with the [ANSWER] variety puzzle, they’re tremendous fun. Unfortunately, I can’t explain them here without giving away the answer. All I can say is I solve the ones from Andrew Ries every week (they come out every Tuesday, followed by a tough themeless every Wednesday) and they provide a great mental workout. His site – ariespuzzles.com – is by subscription but well worth it if you’re up for a challenge.
This has nothing to do with the puzzle, but permit me to introduce my dog, Max. The squirrel got away.
The title phrase, if you don’t recognize it, is a line in this puzzle’s revealer. I hope you enjoy the puzzle and share it far and wide. (I had intended to include a PuzzleMe option but I couldn’t get it to work. So, a question for other constructors: do I need an upgraded WordPress account for iframes to work? I just have the basic level.)
14A: Friends tell me my house has walls and furniture galore in this color. Being colorblind, I take their word for it. And my wife, to her delight, has free rein on all color decisions.
20A: Also the title of an irrepressibly catchy tune from Reel Big Fish.
40A: The great Mario Vargas Llosa called this publication “…the most serious, authoritative, witty, diverse and stimulating cultural publication in all the five languages I speak.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’m not generally a fan of quote puzzles, but when I read the passage that forms the theme of this puzzle, I thought it deserved to be enshrined in a crossword – surely the highest and most enduring memorialization possible! It pithily reflects, in an exasperated way, a fundamental facet of human nature. The quote comes from the last essay in Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society, edited by the incomparable Bill Bryson. The essay’s author, Martin Rees FRS (Fellow of the Royal Society), is an august cosmologist and past-President of the Society.
La Jolla 29 Down
18A: To quote Anna Russell, “I’m not making this up, you know”: the answer is a real thing and, in fact, is studied in academia (not a particularly exclusive distinction) and used in art installations. (If you’re into classical music and comedy, check out Anna Russell’s very funny analysis of Wagner’s Ring Cycle.)
27A: Shout out to ZZ Top. Fun fact: ZZ Top’s drummer, Frank Beard, for many years was the only member of the band without cascading facial hair.
47A: I love this factoid; it sounds like a 3-year old came up with the name.
64A: My favorite clue in the puzzle. For those who are unfamiliar with this meaning of the final word in the answer, it refers to the mold on which a shoe is constructed.
70A: Apparently, Kanter is about to become an American citizen following his years-long battle with Turkey’s leader (Erdogan).
4D: Yes, yet another Harry Potter reference. Sorry, but I love these books and will cite them where possible. Deal with it.
31D: This usually isn’t ideal fill, but I figured it was ok here because this puzzle is a pangram (my first).
I constructed a version of this puzzle in 2013, shortly after Pope Francis was elected. Now that I have this blog, I figured I’d look at some of my earlier efforts – which I circulated only among a dozen family and friends – to see if any were worth revisiting.
This one is intended as a lighthearted riff on the papacy. Nothing should give offense, I hope. Enjoy the solve and, if you do, please share the puzzle.
11D: This clue is based on a true story: when my oldest son was in 5th grade, his class wrote and produced an opera. The preparation included attending a dress rehearsal of an opera (I don’t recall which one) at the Kennedy Center. For several minutes after being stabbed, poisoned, or otherwise mortally attacked, the soprano sang and sang and sang. My son says, in a stage whisper, “would you just die already?”.
I had a great deal of fun – perhaps too much, you be the judge – cluing this one. (Favorite non-theme clues: 13A, 41A, 4D (possibly rescuing the crosswordese fill), 22D.)
Gustav Vigeland, creator of fantastical sculptures, along with an avian admirer. See the notes on 32D.
Some notes:
51A: The Lennon tracks, especially Watching the Wheels, which is one of my favorite songs from an ex-Beatle, but including Woman and (Just Like) Starting Over, are solid. The others, eh, not so much IMO.
7D: Showing my age here, again. M*A*S*H was a rare TV show that maintained its quality through all of its seasons and cast changes.
11D: I wanted to clue this referring to the cracker company – try their Multigrains, which are phenomenal and at least as addictive as Stacy’s chips – but I wasn’t sure if they were just a local mid-Atlantic company.
32D: It’s a fascinating city. If you ever have the chance, visit the brilliant Vigeland Sculpture Park.
63D: Way too obscure, I’m sorry, but as a recovering telecom lawyer, this was somewhere in my useless information database (which is quite large and is elbowing aside the stuff it would be helpful to remember).
