Wild Alpine goat / MON 11-10-14 / Video game with paddle / Golf ball elevator / Idyllic garden / Popular satirical news source
THEME: "No way!" — is the clue for four answers
Theme answers:
- "DON'T MAKE ME LAUGH!"
- "FUHGEDDABOUDIT!"
- "YOU'RE KIDDING ME!"
- "THAT'S RIDICULOUS!"
Marvin Gaye (April 2, 1939 – April 1, 1984), born Marvin Pentz Gay, Jr., was an American singer-songwriter and musician. Gaye helped to shape the sound of Motown Records in the 1960s with a string of hits, including "How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved By You)" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine", and duet recordings with Mary Wells and Tammi Terrell, later earning the titles "Prince of Motown" and "Prince of Soul". During the 1970s, he recorded the concept albums What's Going On and Let's Get It On and became one of the first artists in Motown to break away from the reins of its production company. Gaye's later recordings influenced several R&B subgenres, such as quiet storm and neo-soul. Following a period in Europe as a tax exile in the early 1980s, Gaye released the 1982 Grammy Award-winning hit "Sexual Healing" and the Midnight Love album. He was fatally shot by his father, Marvin Gay, Sr. on April 1, 1984, at their house in the West Adams district of Los Angeles. Since his death, Gaye has been posthumously honored by many institutions, including the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, the Rhythm and Blues Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. (wikipedia) • • •
I assume you all know who Marvin GAYE is. I just made him WOTD so that I could have something nice to listen to while I contemplate this blah puzzle.
I assume you all know who Marvin GAYE is. I just made him WOTD so that I could have something nice to listen to while I contemplate this blah puzzle.
This is one of those "From the Vault" puzzles, which, even if it was made yesterday, feels like it was made in some crossword version of "Yore," when themes this basic and fill this banal were thought to be just fine. Okey-doke. Jake. Swell. There's nothing offensive about this puzzle. It's pure filler. You won't remember it by lunch, let alone tomorrow. There's no zing, no "cool," no "clever!" The theme just is. And the fill is … well, not good, but it's probably NYT-average these days, frankly. I do like JAVA. I do like reading about knights (and detectives) on QUESTs. I do like Marvin GAYE. So if I just kinda squint at this puzzle and then allow my mind to wander, I can turn my experience with this grid into some kind of good time. Otherwise, no.
Bullets:
- BOHR (13D: Physics Nobelist Niels) — You'd think after 20 years of seeing this guy's name in scores and scores of M and T puzzles I'd remember it's not spelled BOER.
- TOTEM (31D: ___ pole) — I found this hard. SOUTH fits. NORTH too. I guess those "Poles" would be capitalized. Honestly, the only "pole" that entered my mind was "fishing."
- STRIP (49A: Undress) — Had the "P" and wanted UNZIP. I didn't think it was right. I just *wanted* it.
- UNITES (44D: Marries) — Really don't like this in a grid that already has UNIFY. UNI- is doing essentially the same thing in both of them. Could've done ULSTER there or … really a million things. It's a freakin' Monday grid that you could refill and refill and refill a ton of different ways. This is why the missteps / clunks are so annoying. FORA? INB? All unnecessary.
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