Constructed by: Natan Last
Edited by: Will Shortz
Not your puzzle? Try today’s …
… syndicated NY Times crossword
Today’s Theme: Sleep on It
Today’s grid includes four rebus squares, each containing a PEA. With nod to the fairy tale “The Princess and the Pea”, Each PEA is under a size of MATTRESS, and lying on each mattress is a PRINCESS:
- 82D. Any of the four people disturbed in this puzzle : PRINCESS
- 14D. Item lain upon four times in this puzzle : MATTRESS
- 123A. Item that disturbs sleep four times in this puzzle : PEA
-
Belle, from “Beauty and the Beast”, lies on a queen-size mattress, with a pea underneath
- 27A. 1991 Disney heroine : BELLE
- 31A. Epithet for Leona Helmsley : QUEEN OF MEAN
- 36A. Fishing tool : SPEAR
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Princess Leia, from “Star Wars”, lies on a full-size mattress, with a pea underneath
- 53A. Daughter of Anakin and Padmé : LEIA
- 61A. Like merlot and zinfandel, typically : FULL-BODIED
- 67A. Kind of court : APPEALS
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“Xena: Warrior Princess” lies on a twin-size mattress, with a pea underneath
- 69A. Leather-clad TV warrior : XENA
- 73A. Mary-Kate, to Ashley : TWIN SISTER
- 80A. Command to a dog : SPEAK
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Princess Anne of the UK lies on a king-size mattress, with a pea underneath
- 95A. British royal : ANNE
- 101A. Builder of Israel’s first temple : KING SOLOMON
- 110A. Mate of a colorful bird : PEAHEN
Read on, or jump to …
… a complete list of answers
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Bill’s time: 29m 15s
Bill’s errors: 0
Today’s Wiki-est Amazonian Googlies
Across
9. 2011 N.B.A. champs, for short : MAVS
The Mavericks are the NBA franchise in Dallas, Texas. The team was founded in 1980, and the Mavericks name was chosen by fan votes. The choice of “Mavericks” was prompted by the fact that the actor James Garner was a part-owner of the team, and Garner of course played the title role in the “Maverick” television series.
13. Bahrain bigwigs : EMIRS
Bahrain is an island nation located off the coast of Saudi Arabia in the Persian Gulf. Bahrain is connected to Saudi Arabia by a series of causeways and bridges that were constructed in the eighties.
20. Jesus, for one : ALOU
Jesus Alou played Major League Baseball, as did his brothers Matty and Felipe, and as does Felipe’s son Moises.
21. Hawaiian island : LANAI
Lanai is the sixth largest of the Hawaiian Islands. Lanai was first spotted by Europeans just a few days after Captain Cook was killed on the Big Island of Hawaii in 1779. In 1922, the Hawaiian Pineapple Company bought the whole island of Lanai and turned most of it into the world’s largest pineapple plantation. Since then, Lanai has been known as “The Pineapple Island”. Today, 98% of the island is owned by Larry Ellison, the CEO of Oracle, and 2% is owned by the State of Hawaii.
23. Nissan Leaf, e.g. : ECO-CAR
The Leaf is an electric car made by Nissan that was introduced in 2010. The model name is an acronym standing for “leading environmentally-friendly affordable car”.
27. 1991 Disney heroine : BELLE
“Beauty and the Beast” is a fairy tale was that was written by novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. Titled “La belle et la bête” in French, the story was first published in 1756. The “beauty” in the tale is named “Belle”.
29. Like many Rolex watches sold on the street : FAKE
My most-prized possession is a beautiful stainless steel Rolex watch that my uncle bought while serving with the RAF in Canada during WWII. Rolex watches were made available to the Canadian servicemen at that time as they were shipping overseas. My uncle brought his Rolex home to Ireland after the war. He needed money one weekend and so sold the watch to my Dad, for five pounds. My Dad gave it to me just before he died, as he knew I loved the watch, and my brothers weren’t interested in it all. Not so long ago I had the watch appraised ($3,000), and my brothers suddenly took a liking to it! Still, it’s not something that will ever be sold, that’s for sure …
31. Epithet for Leona Helmsley : QUEEN OF MEAN
Leona Helmsley was a high-rolling real estate investor and hotel operator in New York City. She was convicted of income tax evasion in 1989 and sentenced to 16 years in jail. At her trial a witness quoted her as saying “We don’t pay taxes. Only the little people pay taxes.” No wonder she was known as the Queen of Mean …
39. 100 centavos : PESO
“Centavo” is a Spanish and Portuguese word, and is used for the coin that represents 1/100 of the basic monetary unit of quite a few countries, including Cuba. “Centavo” comes from the Latin “centum” meaning “one hundred” and “-avo” meaning “portion, fraction”.
48. Accra-to-Khartoum dir. : ENE
Accra sits on Ghana’s coast and is a major seaport as well as the country’s capital city. The name “Accra” comes from a local word “Nkran” meaning “ants”, a name chosen because of the large number of anthills found in the area when the city was founded.
Khartoum is the capital city of Sudan, and is located at the point where the Blue Nile and White Nile meet.
49. Buildup during vacation : EMAIL
Ain’t that the truth …
53. Daughter of Anakin and Padmé : LEIA
In the “Star Wars” universe, Padmé Amidala is the Queen of the planet Naboo. Played very ably by Natalie Portman, Padmé becomes the secret wife of Anakin Skywalker, later revealed to be Darth Vader. As such, Padmé is also the mother of Luke Skywalker and his sister, Princess Leia Organa.
56. Not on terra firma, say : ASEA
“Terra firma” is Latin for “solid ground”.
58. Watch chain : FOB
A fob is attached to an object to make it easier to access. And so a key fob is a chain attached to a key so that it can be retrieved easily. There are also watch fobs, and the pocket in a vest in which a watch can be placed is called a fob. In fact, the original use of the term “fob” was for a small pocket in which one could carry valuables.
61. Like merlot and zinfandel, typically : FULL-BODIED
Merlot is one of the main grapes used to make Bordeaux wines, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot.
Zinfandel is one of my favorite red wine varietals. It amazes me that the rich and heavy red Zinfandel comes from the same grape as does the sweet White Zinfandel.
69. Leather-clad TV warrior : XENA
The Xena character, played by New Zealander Lucy Lawless, was introduced in a made-for-TV movie called “Hercules and the Amazon Women”. Lawless reprised the role in a series called “Hercules: The Legendary Journeys”. Xena became so popular that a series was built around her character, with Lawless retained for the title role. The fictional Xena supposedly came from the “non-fictional” Greek city of Amphipolis.
71. Test that’s done in ink : RORSCHACH
The Rorschach test is a psychological test in which a subject is asked to interpret a series of inkblots. The test was created by Swiss Freudian psychoanalyst Hermann Rorschach in the 1920s.
73. Mary-Kate, to Ashley : TWIN SISTER
I know very little about the Olsen twins, but I am told that folks believe Mary-Kate and Ashley to be identical twins. They look very much alike, but are in fact fraternal twins. The sisters were cast as Michelle Tanner on the eighties sitcom “Full House”, taking turns playing the role.
75. Fictional creature whose name is Old English for “giant” : ENT
Ents are those tree-like creatures that live in J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle-earth in his series of books “The Lord of the Rings”. “Ent” is an Old English word for “giant”.
82. Tide detergent capsules : PODS
Tide is a laundry detergent that has been made by Procter & Gamble since 1946. Back then, Tide was marketed as “America’s Washday Favorite”.
83. New Left org. : SDS
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was an activist group in the sixties. The SDS organized the largest student strike in the history of the United States on 26 April 1968, with about a million students staying away from class that day. The “Students for a Democratic Society” name was revived in 2006 with the foundation of a new US-based student organization with left wing beliefs. Today’s SDS was founded by a pair of high school students from Greenwich Village, New York.
87. Paroxysm : THROE
Our contemporary word “throe”, meaning a spasm of pain, has been around since the early 1600s. It is a different spelling of the word “throwe” that had been around since around 1200 AD and which meant pain, particularly a pang of childbirth or the agony of death. Pain, from cradle to grave …
89. Simba’s father in a Disney musical : MUFASA
In the 1994 movie “The Lion King”, the protagonist is Simba, the lion cub born to Mufasa and Sarabi. The main antagonist is Scar, Simba’s uncle and Mufasa’s brother. Simba is voiced by Matthew Broderick, and Scar is voiced by Jeremy Irons.
94. “Mamma Mia!” song that begins “Where are those happy days?” : SOS
The ABBA song “SOS” was originally titled “Turn Me On”. In the movie “Mamma Mia!”, “SOS.” is performed by Meryl Streep (brilliantly) and by Pierce Brosnan (terribly).
95. British royal : ANNE
Queen Anne was the last of the Stuarts to rule in the British Isles, and the first sovereign of the Kingdom of Great Britain (after England and Scotland united). Anne was the last of the Stuart line because she died without any surviving children, despite having been pregnant seventeen times.
97. It’s often served on toasted white bread, for short : BLT
The BLT (bacon, lettuce and tomato) is the second most popular sandwich in the US, after the plain old ham sandwich.
100. N.L. Central player : CUB
The Chicago Cubs baseball team was supposedly subject to the “curse of the Billy Goat” from 1945 until 2016. Billy Sianis, the owner of a Billy Goat Tavern in Chicago, took his pet goat with him to a World Series game against the Detroit Tigers at Wrigley Field. Fans sitting nearby didn’t like the smell of the goat, and so the owner was asked to leave. As he left, Sianis yelled out, “Them Cubs, they ain’t gonna win no more.” And that is how a curse is born …
101. Builder of Israel’s first temple : KING SOLOMON
According to the Bible, Solomon was the son of David and a king of Israel. Notably, Solomon is described as being very wise. In the story known as “the Judgment of Solomon”, Solomon was asked to decide who of two quarreling women was the mother of a baby. He suggested that they cut the baby in two with a sword, forcing one of the women to surrender the child rather than see it die. Solomon gave the child to the woman who showed compassion.
110. Mate of a colorful bird : PEAHEN
The female peafowl, the peahen, has very dull plumage compared to the extravagant display on the tail of the peacock.
111. Hooch : BOOZE
In the Klondike gold rush, a favorite tipple of the miners was “Hoochinoo”, a liquor made by the native Alaskans. Soon after “hooch” (also “hootch”) was adopted as a word for cheap whiskey.
115. Popular fruit drink : POM
POM Wonderful is a privately-held company that has been making fruit juice drinks since 2002. The main product line is pomegranate juice, hence the company name.
116. Debunk? : ROUST
The word “bunk” is short for “bunkum”, the phonetic spelling of “Buncombe”, which is a county in North Carolina. Supposedly, a state representative made a dull and irrelevant speech that was directed to his home county of Buncombe, bringing the term “bunkum” into the language with the meaning of “nonsense”. The derivative word “debunk” first appeared in a novel by William Woodward in 1923, when he used it to describe “taking the bunk out of things”.
117. Sixth of 24 : ZETA
Zeta is the sixth letter of the Greek alphabet, and is a precursor of our Roman letter Z. The word “zeta” is also the ancestor of the letter name “zed”, which became “zee”, the term that we use here in the US.
118. He might provide assistance after a crash : IT GUY
Information technology (IT)
119. French article : UNE
“Une” is the French word for “a”, but only when used with a feminine noun (like “une dame” meaning “a lady”).
120. Bit of salon detritus : TRESS
Detritus is the loose material that results from the process of erosion. The usage of the term has evolved to man any accumulated material or debris. “Detritus” is Latin for “a wearing away”.
121. Collapsed red giant? : USSR
When the former Soviet Union (USSR) dissolved in 1991, it was largely replaced by the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). The formation of the CIS underscored the new reality, that the former Soviet Republics (SSRs) were now independent states. Most of the 15 former SSRs joined the CIS. Notably, the three Baltic SSRs (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) opted not to join the new commonwealth, and in 2004 joined NATO and the EU.
123. Item that disturbs sleep four times in this puzzle : PEA
“The Princess and the Pea” is a fairy tale from the pen of Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. The essence of the story is that a prince’s mother tests the royal blood of an apparent princess by placing a pea under a pile of mattresses on which the young girl sleeps. The girl complains of a restless night, demonstrating a physical sensitivity that can only be attributed to a princess. And they all live happily ever after …
Down
1. Backyard get-together, briefly : BAR-B-Q
It is believed that our word “barbecue” (BBQ) comes from the Taíno people of the Caribbean in whose language “barbacoa” means “sacred fire pit”.
2. “So long” : ADIEU
“Adieu” is the French for “goodbye” or “farewell”, from “à Dieu” meaning “to God”. The plural of “adieu” is “adieux”.
5. Documentarian Burns who’s the brother of Ken : RIC
Ric Burns is a documentary filmmaker, the younger brother of the more famous Ken Burns (who was behind “The Civil War”, “Baseball” and “The War”).
8. Bunkum : SNAKE OIL
There is actually a real snake oil, a Chinese medicine made from fat extracted from snakes. You can buy snake oil at traditional Chinese pharmacies and it is supposed to be very efficacious in the treatment of joint pain. Snake oil was introduced into the US by Chinese laborers working on the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. Medicine salesmen started to ridicule the snake oil as it competed with their own remedies, and in time the term “snake oil” became associated with any cure-all potion.
9. Home to the 72,000-foot volcano Olympus Mons : MARS
“Olympus Mons” is Latin for “Mount Olympus” and is a large volcano on the planet Mars. Olympus Mons is about 14 miles in height, making it the tallest mountain on any planet in our solar system.
13. Nobelist Wiesel : ELIE
Elie Wiesel was a holocaust survivor, and is best known for his book “Night” that tells of his experiences in Auschwitz and Buchenwald. Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.
16. Chaac, to Mayans : RAIN GOD
Chaac was the Mayan rain god, a deity who carried a lightning axe with which he struck the clouds producing thunder and rain. The equivalent Aztec god was Tlaloc.
26. “Who’s on First?” left fielder : WHY
Bud Abbott and Lou Costello made up the comedy duo Abbott and Costello who were immensely popular in the forties and fifties. Even when I was growing up in Ireland and knew nothing about baseball, I was rolling around the floor listening to Abbott and Costello’s famous “Who’s on First?” comedy routine. Can you name all the players
First Base: Who
Second Base: What
Third Base: I Don’t Know
Left field: Why
Center field: Because
Pitcher: Tomorrow
Catcher: Today
Shortstop: I Don’t Care/I Don’t Give a Darn
32. Start of the line that includes “wherefore art thou” : O ROMEO
In William Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet”, the lovers discuss the sad fact that they have been born into two feuding families in the famous balcony scene. Juliet says:
O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?
Deny thy father and refuse thy name;
Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,
And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.
Romeo’s reply includes the famous lines:
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
41. Beating by a hole, in match play : ONE-UP ON
That would be golf.
42. Rock star known for his 360-degree drum set : NEIL PEART
Rush is a Canadian rock band that has been around since 1968. The band has three members: Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart.
44. Parts of Mr. Clean and Lex Luthor costumes : BALD CAPS
Mr. Clean is a brand of household cleaner from Procter & Gamble. Mr. Clean is a sold as Maestro Limpio in Mexico, Monsieur Propre in France, and as Monsieur Net in French Canada.
Lex Luthor is the arch-nemesis of Superman in comics. Luthor has been portrayed in a number of guises in the comic world as well in movies and on the small screen. For example, he appeared as Atom Man in the 1950 film series “Atom Man vs. Superman”, and was played by actor Lyle Talbot, opposite Kirk Alyn’s Superman.
50. Concerning a pelvic bone : ILIAC
The ilium is the upper portion of the hipbone.
54. Shakespeare title starter : ALL’S …
“All’s Well That Ends Well” is a play by William Shakespeare, one with elements of both tragedy and comedy. As such, “All’s Well That Ends Well” is classified as one of Shakespeare’s “problem plays”, plays that cannot be neatly classified as either tragedy or comedy.
59. Georgia, in the art world : O’KEEFFE
Georgia O’Keeffe was an influential American artist, one who led the introduction of American art into Europe. Famously, she was married to photographer Alfred Stieglitz who helped develop her career in the early days. Georgia O’Keeffe’s last home was in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she had done a lot of her work during her lifetime. She died there in 1986, at the ripe old age of 98. One of her most famous paintings is from 1926, called “Black Iris III”.
62. Future plan for many an econ major : B-SCHOOL
A B-school is a business school.
63. Home of the ancient Temple of Artemis : EPHESUS
Ephesus was an Ancient Greek city on the Ionian coast in present-day Turkey. Ephesus was home to the Temple of Artemis, which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
The Temple of Artemis, also known as the Temple of Diana, was a Greek temple located at Ephesus, now in modern Turkey. Artemis was a Greek goddess, the twin of Apollo, and she was depicted as a virginal huntress.
69. “Skylarking” band : XTC
XTC were a band from Swindon in the UK whose most famous hits were “Making Plans for Nigel” from 1979, and “Senses Working Overtime” from 1982.
78. Common download : PDF
Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format introduced by Adobe Systems in 1993. PDF documents can be shared between users and read using many different applications, making them more universally accessible than documents saved by one particular program.
79. “Wicked Game” vocalist Chris : ISAAK
Chris Isaak is not only a rock musician, but also has had a lot of acting parts. Isaak had small roles in movies like “Married to the Mob” and “The Silence of the Lambs”, but I remember him as astronaut Ed White in the fabulous HBO miniseries “From the Earth to the Moon”.
84. Where Karl Benz debuted the world’s first auto : MANNHEIM
Mannheim is a city in southwestern Germany. The city is a little unusual in that it has streets and avenues laid out in a grid pattern, rather like an American city. For this reason, Mannheim has the nickname “die Quadratestadt” (city of the squares).
It is generally accepted that Karl Benz invented the internal combustion engine, although others were doing similar work around the same time. He certainly was awarded the first patent for an automobile, in 1886. His first automobile, the Patent-Motorwagen, couldn’t get up hills unaided so his wife Bertha Benz suggested the introduction of gears. Sure enough, the next model had two gears. Behind every successful man …
87. Grammy winner Meghan : TRAINOR
Meghan Trainor is a singer-songwriter from Nantucket, Massachusetts now living in Los Angeles. Trainor’s style is sometimes described as “retro”, with strong influences from the fifties and sixties.
94. Who wrote “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting” : SUN TZU
“The Art of War(fare)” is an ancient military text that is attributed to a high-ranking Chinese general called Sun Tzu. I’ve even seen the principles in Sun Tzu’s book applied to modern business.
100. ___-de-sac : CUL
Even though “cul-de-sac” can indeed mean “bottom of the bag” in French, the term cul-de-sac is of English origin (the use of “cul” in French is actually quite rude). The term was introduced in aristocratic circles at a time when it was considered very fashionable to speak French. Dead-end streets in France are usually signposted with just a symbol and no accompanying words, but if words are included they are “voie sans issue”, meaning “way without exit”.
102. Canoodles, in Britain : SNOGS
“Snogging” is British slang of unknown origin that dates back to the end of WWII. The term is used for “kissing and cuddling”, what we call “making out” over here in the US.
104. Air supply : OZONE
Ozone gets its name from the Greek word “ozein” meaning “to smell”. It was given this name as ozone’s formation during lightning storms was detected by the gas’s distinctive smell. Famously, there is a relatively high concentration of the gas in the “ozone layer” in the Earth’s stratosphere. This ozone layer provides a vital function for animal life on the planet as it absorbs most of the sun’s UV radiation. A molecule of ozone is made up of three oxygen atoms, whereas a “normal” oxygen has just two atoms
105. Setting of Hercules’ first labor : NEMEA
“The Twelve Labors of Hercules” is actually a Greek myth, although Hercules is the Roman name for the hero that the Greeks called Heracles. The first of these labors was to slay the Nemean lion, a monster that lived in a cave near Nemea. Hercules had a tough job as the lion’s golden fur was impenetrable to normal weapons. One version of the story is that Hercules killed the lion by shooting an arrow into its mouth. Another version says that Hercules stunned the monster with a club and then strangled him with his bare hands.
108. Grp. with a saving plan? : EMTS
Emergency medical technician (EMT)
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Complete List of Clues/Answers
Across
1. Outlaw : BAN
4. Electrical systems : GRIDS
9. 2011 N.B.A. champs, for short : MAVS
13. Bahrain bigwigs : EMIRS
18. Flap : ADO
19. Up : RISEN
20. Jesus, for one : ALOU
21. Hawaiian island : LANAI
22. Tease : RIB
23. Nissan Leaf, e.g. : ECO-CAR
25. “C’mon, we’ll be fine” : ROLL WITH IT
27. 1991 Disney heroine : BELLE
29. Like many Rolex watches sold on the street : FAKE
30. Establish a mood : SET THE TONE
31. Epithet for Leona Helmsley : QUEEN OF MEAN
34. Sunbeam : RAY
35. Persians, e.g. : RUGS
36. Fishing tool : SPEAR
37. Fishing tool : POLE
38. Lovey : HON
39. 100 centavos : PESO
40. Took the trophy : WON
43. Ear piece? : COB
45. Admiring words : I’M A FAN
47. Gave drugs : DOSED
48. Accra-to-Khartoum dir. : ENE
49. Buildup during vacation : EMAIL
51. Fishing tool : ROD
52. Troubles : AILS
53. Daughter of Anakin and Padmé : LEIA
55. Right angle : ELL
56. Not on terra firma, say : ASEA
57. Makeup of many a veggie dog : SOY
58. Watch chain : FOB
61. Like merlot and zinfandel, typically : FULL-BODIED
64. Equal chance : FAIR SHAKE
67. Kind of court : APPEALS
68. Back cover? : CAPE
69. Leather-clad TV warrior : XENA
70. In a footnote : CITED
71. Test that’s done in ink : RORSCHACH
73. Mary-Kate, to Ashley : TWIN SISTER
75. Fictional creature whose name is Old English for “giant” : ENT
76. Up on things : HIP
77. Grandiose : EPIC
80. Command to a dog : SPEAK
81. Heist target : SAFE
82. Tide detergent capsules : PODS
83. New Left org. : SDS
84. Basis for a raise : MERIT
86. Qualifiers : IFS
87. Paroxysm : THROE
89. Simba’s father in a Disney musical : MUFASA
91. Jets can be found in one : SPA
92. Allow to : LET
93. Churn : ROIL
94. “Mamma Mia!” song that begins “Where are those happy days?” : SOS
95. British royal : ANNE
97. It’s often served on toasted white bread, for short : BLT
99. Cut : SAWN
100. N.L. Central player : CUB
101. Builder of Israel’s first temple : KING SOLOMON
106. Website feature resembling an odometer : HIT COUNTER
110. Mate of a colorful bird : PEAHEN
111. Hooch : BOOZE
112. Live : IN REAL TIME
113. Western gas brand : TESORO
115. Popular fruit drink : POM
116. Debunk? : ROUST
117. Sixth of 24 : ZETA
118. He might provide assistance after a crash : IT GUY
119. French article : UNE
120. Bit of salon detritus : TRESS
121. Collapsed red giant? : USSR
122. Marina sights : MASTS
123. Item that disturbs sleep four times in this puzzle : PEA
Down
1. Backyard get-together, briefly : BAR-B-Q
2. “So long” : ADIEU
3. Lofty : NOBLE
4. Environmental advocacy group : GREENPEACE
5. Documentarian Burns who’s the brother of Ken : RIC
6. Has a vacation day : IS OFF
7. Leave suddenly : DECAMP
8. Bunkum : SNAKE OIL
9. Home to the 72,000-foot volcano Olympus Mons : MARS
10. Moisturizer ingredient : ALOE
11. 1980s cartoon robot : VOLTRON
12. Islamic sovereign : SULTAN
13. Nobelist Wiesel : ELIE
14. Item lain upon four times in this puzzle : MATTRESS
15. Not farmed out : IN-HOUSE
16. Chaac, to Mayans : RAIN GOD
17. Places : SITES
24. Domain : REALM
26. “Who’s on First?” left fielder : WHY
28. Jazz’s McCann : LES
32. Start of the line that includes “wherefore art thou” : O ROMEO
33. Approaches : NEARS
38. Tippled : HAD A FEW
39. Government study, informally : POLY-SCI
40. Government aid : WELFARE
41. Beating by a hole, in match play : ONE-UP ON
42. Rock star known for his 360-degree drum set : NEIL PEART
44. Parts of Mr. Clean and Lex Luthor costumes : BALD CAPS
46. Antagonist : FOE
47. J’adore perfumer : DIOR
50. Concerning a pelvic bone : ILIAC
52. Certain Far Eastern fruits : ASIAN PEARS
54. Shakespeare title starter : ALL’S …
56. Suffix with lime : -ADE
58. Feature of a probability distribution where extreme events are more likely : FAT TAIL
59. Georgia, in the art world : O’KEEFFE
60. Doctor’s orders, often : BED REST
62. Future plan for many an econ major : B-SCHOOL
63. Home of the ancient Temple of Artemis : EPHESUS
65. Flavoring in the Mideast drink arak : ANISE
66. Cat-meets-dog sound : HISS
69. “Skylarking” band : XTC
72. Command at a surprise party : HIDE!
74. Popular game with 162 cards : SKIP BO
78. Common download : PDF
79. “Wicked Game” vocalist Chris : ISAAK
82. Any of the four people disturbed in this puzzle : PRINCESS
84. Where Karl Benz debuted the world’s first auto : MANNHEIM
85. 16-ounce beers, slangily : TALLBOYS
87. Grammy winner Meghan : TRAINOR
88. “Yes, quite” : HOW TRUE
89. Unsavory connections : MOB TIES
90. Criticize snidely : SNIPE AT
94. Who wrote “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting” : SUN TZU
96. Discharged matter : EGESTA
98. Overly : TOO
99. Top : SHIRT
100. ___-de-sac : CUL
102. Canoodles, in Britain : SNOGS
103. Clean a spill : MOP UP
104. Air supply : OZONE
105. Setting of Hercules’ first labor : NEMEA
107. Wild ___ : OATS
108. Grp. with a saving plan? : EMTS
109. Parent : REAR
114. Dead-end job, e.g. : RUT
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13 thoughts on “0930-18 NY Times Crossword 30 Sep 18, Sunday”
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50:29, no errors. For some reason, I clawed and scratched my way through this one, with trouble at every turn. I did get the entire theme, though, with the princesses finally taking a bow at the finish line … 😜.
74:06. 2 squares off, but they were huge errors. When I “finished” the puzzle, I had figured out the rebus, but I only had 3 “PEA’s”. The clue to the reveal overtly states 4 instances. I knew something was amiss. I finally figured out the error. I had “sic” for “Command to a dog” which left the well known ASIANirs as the eastern fruit and ScIPBO as the card game.
After about 10 minutes of looking around, I figured ASIANPEARS contained the missing “PEA” which made me realize SPEAK and SKIPBO as well.
Tough but impressive puzzle. Was that 2 errors (total squares), 4 errors (total words) or 8 errors (total letters) off? Hmmm.
Best –
That was great fun. So clever~ I totally missed the princess aspect.
2 hrs. in I had finally figured out PEA but three hours in I only had placed 2 of them and gave up.
For me a terrible puzzle
Would really be nice for us rookies if there was a * or a ? before the clue with the rebus squares.
Thanks was fun
45:56, DNF (2 blank squares) after 45:56. Completely bolluxed up 117A ‘_E_A’ and 121A ‘(T)S(A)R’. Couldn’t see ZETA for the life of me. Grid started out with very simple cluing, thought this would be a breeze. Then bogged down due to very vague clues in the lower half. Discovered the ‘PEA’ under the various mattresses fairly early, but never made the connection with the ‘PRINCESS’ on top.
I liked this puzzle. It was hard, clever, and doable all at once.
I hate rebus puzzles. I will say I’m getting better at them. Still hate them.
So, if you’ve never heard of this fairy tale, or anything about it, I guess you’re just sh*t out of luck, right? I thought so.
More reason why I can see myself abandoning this puzzle, never to return. Every week it gets more “precious”, more cynical, or more stupid.
Right out of the starting gate with this one; later, was able to get more of the clues with help from family and friends. Came back to this even later and resumed it. Once I realized I had inserted “cats” instead of “rugs” for 35A (“Persians, e.g.), it was all downhill from there.
Felt like a total dolt with some of the answers I had inserted beforehand, which were, of course, all wrong. On the other hand, figured out aspects of the theme relatively early in the puzzle, which helped a lot:). The concept behind the cluing arrangements still eluded me until the end, but I had a bit of an advantage with realizing elements of this puzzle’s theme.
Great, if somewhat confounding, puzzle with a few twisted clues. Thanks, Natan! Keep them coming!
46:23, 2 errors (TEXACO for TESORO). Theme was utterly completely irrelevant to the solve. Ultimately just plain stupid, but par for the course for the New York Times.
My wife and I are two old farts (72 years) who love doing the Sunday puzzle because we want to keep our minds sharp in our senior years. She is always the one who figures out the rebus tricks that always escape me. But we needed your explanation of the princess on top of the mattress over the pea to fully appreciate the puzzle theme.
We do the puzzle a week later because that’s when our local paper (in Vancouver) publishes it. But in case you haven’t found out yet how the pea fits in google ‘the princess and the pea’ and all will become clear. What a clever puzzle!