Peel Me a Grape
Of the various versions of the 1962 song “Peel Me a Grape,” Diana Krall’s 1997 rendition may best capture the sense of entitlement so evident in today’s world. “New Thunderbird me, you heard me,” she croons. People demand their luxuries as though they were necessities. And the market is all too happy to supply those luxuries – for a price that the wealthy and the wannabes are all too willing to pay.
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari, published in Hebrew in 2011 and in English in 2014, is mostly about other topics, spanning the whole of human history from the Stone Age to the present. His observations in this sprawling and insightful work could well provide pithy acrostic quotes on any number of themes. We chose the quote in this week’s puzzle because it speaks to the dynamic of today’s “New Gilded Age,” marked by overindulgence and crass commercialism.
Not surprisingly, we had many thematic clues and answers at our disposal in constructing this acrostic; one doesn’t need to look far to find all manner of luxury brand names and other status symbols. How many did you spot?
On another note, we – alright, mostly Dave – are taking special pleasure in getting the phrase embedded in Clue/Answer A. (“up the ying-yang”) into the acrostic. To the best of our knowledge, by which we mean “based on our checking of the clue database in www.xwordinfo.com,” “ying-yang” has never before appeared in a NYT puzzle. Perhaps the fact that it passed muster this time around reflects yet another development in our society’s tendency toward crassness and crudity that we should not have exploited. But still, what fun!
For those not familiar with Diana Krall’s cover of “Peel Me a Grape” – here you go:
There’s a lovely coincidence between the subject of this puzzle’s quote and one of the seed entries in today’s NYT crossword, as the entry (at 49A) is LIFESTYLE CREEP. A wonderful stroke of serendipity! But it occurs to me that as Will Shortz edits both puzzles, it may not be such a coincidence after all.
Oh, what fun it was to complete this acrostic. As a one time New Yorker, as soon as I typed in “Sutton Place,” I was off and solving.
Highly enjoyable, as always.
While I don’t care a fig about any of the luxury brands in the clues, it is revealing to ponder how pleasures and comforts we now take entirely for granted would have been considered unimaginable luxuries for virtually all of human history. I’m talking about on-demand hot and cold pure running water; on-demand heat and air-conditioning; all manner of fruits and vegetables, year-round; life expectancies into the 70s and 80s; the virtual elimination (or control) of smallpox, bubonic plague, polio, malaria, etc.; virtually unlimited access to literature, movies, art, music — all on demand, all relatively inexpensive, covering everything from pop culture to high culture; relatively inexpensive travel to virtually any place in the world; etc.
Most of these would have been luxuries not just beyond the reach of, but inconceivable to, the most powerful rulers of the past, from the Egyptian pharaohs to Louis the 14th to Queen Victoria.
We have a lot to be grateful for. And I’m not referring to Rolex watches.
The paucity of comments is worrisome. Your hard work deserves to be recognized. Thank you for providing high quality Acrostics that are at once a luxury and a necessity.
Enjoyed the thoughts in this puzzle. I’m in the process of downsizing which I do periodically and will take this quote into consideration. Had not heard word D before, Aughties, and got a real kick out of it. Diana Krall is wonderful.
In response to Etaoin Shrdlku, before the NYT cut off the variety puzzles and put them into this separate pay site, there was a regular and sizable group of folks who spoke up each week. Strangers all, but recognizable in their style and quirks and predictabe in their appearance. Perhaps “community” is too strong a word,, maybe a neighborhood of familiar literary faces. Many moved out for reasons of their own or like mysef, deprived of the additional social pleasure of the solve, do it alone.
Lawrence-
Probably no one will read this, but yes, I miss that little community, too. To me these puzzles are worth at least the discussion of Wordle and Connections…
I found this puzzle interesting because, however apt its sentiment, the language was so banal that phrases were easy to guess from just a few letters -TAKE IT FOR GRANTED, COUNT ON IT, CANT LIVE WITHOUT IT – this in contrast to the original expressions in other recent puzzles that made them quite a bit harder…Still, Dave and Jane always make it a pleasure…