BOOTYCALLS is one of the best clued answers I've seen in a while
@Big Mike I agree it’s a great clue. It’s not original to Hemant or the NYT though—the semantic similarity of these two terms has been noted by many for a long time. For example, here’s a blog post about it from 2012: <a href="https://englishfromfriends.com/blog/2012/03/08/butt-dial-vs-booty-call" target="_blank">https://englishfromfriends.com/blog/2012/03/08/butt-dial-vs-booty-call</a>/
I’ve never understood the people here who complain about things like RAWR. You’re probably the same people who think there’s no good music anymore. Language, like any art form, doesn’t plateau just because you do. One of the reasons I love the NYT Crossword is because constructors continue to find new ways to incorporate contemporary language into their puzzles and I hope that continues long after I fail to understand what the kids these days are talking about. Also, I’d like to nominate Butt-dials/BOOTYCALLS for clue of the year so far. It was straight bussin, on god fr fr no cap fam.
@Jamie When in a struggle, I remind myself that if the puzzle doesn't stay relevant, it will die with us.
@Jamie From one old person to another? I definitely feel you. I’m on the wrong side of 50, but I actually understood your last ‘sentence,’ without the help of urban dictionary. That’s sad, actually. My main contention is that I only hear bussin’ in the context of food (delicious). I remember the first time i heard little 6? Year old say the term “mean mugging”. a couple months later, it was in a puzzle. The little ones are the key to day solve times. Sharing is caring!
Tonight’s episode in Funny Wrong Answers: “Cause of some buyer’s remorse”: The buyers move into the new house, bring in all the boxes and furniture, go to open up a closet, and there they are! HIDDEN FEET! Also wrong but maybe not as funny: I first thought M-W and Waldo were simply BESTSELLERS.
@Cat Lady Margaret I confidently filled in BEST SELLERS myself. I had a hard time letting go of it, but the actual answer was timely and depressing. Paging Dr. T. Bowlder! The term “bowdlerize” came about because he published an edition of Shakespeare without sexual references or double entendres. If he were alive today, some would let him loose on the dictionary.
@Kris T I thought Bestsellers at first too but not confidently. Does anyone know why they’d ban the 9th Collegiate Merriam-Webster’s?
@Charlotte PS: Ok thanks, all! Got it from earlier comments. 🤣
Intriguing carnal sub-theme: a BANNED BOOK novel could be told using the key words BAE, BOOTY CALLS, BANGERS, BARES, BONES, CHAP, RIDE, SHOOK THINGS UP, UP TO NO GOOD, SHAG, ON A ROLL, COT...by the time I got to RAWR I felt I was caught up in the IDLE speculations of some stuffy nosed lad with acne no tissues could quite BLOT OUT. These days all you have to do is click on various JPGs to get the idea, but some of us grew up in different ERAS, when the possible love between Sherlock Holmes and IRENE ADLER (what a great feat to sneak her into this puzzle!), was enough to pep us up. What's that? Reading SEDATES you? Well you can watch what TINSEL TOWN has made of their relationship in "Game of Shadows" (2011); Rachel MacAdams is not quite as I envisioned Irene Adler, who was based on the beautiful Lillie Langtry, but who cares? Watson assures us that even though Sherlock referred to her as "The Woman," his affection for her was purely Platonic. I certainly never thought of him as much of a hugger. Still, Holmes liked a toot of cocaine once in a while. And you thought that stuffy nose was just a common cold. Lordy.
@john ezra Great job spotting the carnal sub-theme in an ostensibly themeless Friday. I would add to your collection VOTE on some JPGS (PIC). CRINGE.
@john ezra Holmes injected more than he snorted, even though Watson disapproved of the quite frequent drug use.
@john ezra this comment was almost as good as the puzzle. I didn’t realise they snuck IRENE ADLER in until you mentioned it!
The pumpkin thieves were up to no gourd. (But I squashed their efforts.)
@Mike You should've summoned the police; it's butternut to tangle with scoundrels yourself.
@Mike You should've summoned the police; it's butternut to deal with scoundrels yourself. (once more with praise for the emu!)
@Mike What acorny pun! The emus' favorite kind.
Feeling quite proud today as I always thought Fridays were too tough for me. I always do M/T/W then bail out. This one did bear repeated visits as certain clues became clear immediately upon return. So excited to have a Friday under my belt!
@Kate Congratulations! I’m sure it’s just the first of many Fridays and Saturdays for you.
@Kate, congrats on nailing a Friday puzzle!
Something new I'm noticing about the column and comment section that I'm not too fond of... When I click open the comment section, the main part of the page is now grayed out, and I cannot scroll it up and down as before. So every time I want to refer to the column while reading the comments, I have to close the comments and then reopen them. When I go back to the comments, I'm at the top of them again, not where I was before. This is new, and it is annoying. Why don't the tech people fix the problems that are really problems, like the lack of an equals sign on the iPhone app? Or whether the first letter of a rebus will be accepted?
@Steve L You're right. This is really annoying.
@Steve L Speaking of, I solve on a MacBook. I used to use Chrome (because NYT help desk once told me the puzzles work best in Chrome) but switched to Safari because I constantly had timer trouble with Chrome (e.g., clock would continue running when puzzle paused, giving me multi-hour solve times) Safari lasted just a few days as I quickly learned that if I click on the pencil icon to give a fainter font, I can't immediately start typing in the grid; I then have to also click on the main part of the page to return to filling puzzle From tomorrow, I'll try my luck with Firefox...
@Steve L I don't like this either. It's an "improvement" that doesn't actually improve something that bothers most users, and it creates a new problem. My work IT people do this kind of thing all the time, because they don't actually talk to a broad enough cross-section of users.
I'm sure this puzzle was composed some months ago, but here's the first paragraphs of an article in today's WaPo on BANNED BOOKS in Florida, very eerily coincidental: Dictionaries were removed from library shelves in a Florida school district last year as part of an investigation of more than 1,600 titles for mentions of “sexual conduct” that could violate a 2023 state law. Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus for Students, Merriam-Webster’s Elementary Dictionary, the American Heritage Children’s Dictionary and other titles were pulled from schools in Escambia County, Fla., where officials are reviewing books for compliance with the law’s prohibition on materials with “sexual” content. Also investigated were the World Book Encyclopedia of People and Places, the World Almanac and Book of Facts, and other reference books on topics including science, mythology and the Bible, according to a list published by the school district and circulated this week by PEN America, [which] has sued the school board over the removals. It demonstrates how sweeping the state’s new rules are and how fraught the climate in districts has become, said Kasey Meehan, director of PEN America’s Freedom to Read program. “This was just another example that illuminates the heightened atmosphere, the chilled atmosphere that we’re navigating,” Meehan said. “Librarians are feeling so pressured to err on such extreme caution that these are the types of books that are being pulled for review.”
@john ezra Thanks for sharing that. I spent almost 30 years drafting legislation for the Texas Legislature, much of it dealing with public education. I never had to work on anything quite as absurd as the Florida law, but there were plenty of times when my colleagues and I had to point out to the legislators the possibly unintended consequences of their proposals.
@john ezra My youngest graduated 2 years ago, before the real witch hunting started, and I thank God everyday. So many great, dedicated teachers have left or are leaving our schools that I’m afraid there will be no one left but the ones in cahoots with “Moms for Liberty” and their hideous ilk. They’ve even moved on higher education. Soon Florida will be an education wasteland and we weren’t so high on the rankings in the first place.
I was feeling like I wasn't on Hemant's wavelength at all--it felt like I was struggling to fill anything in--and then suddenly it was finished. So I guess I wasn't too far off. I liked things like SPOILED ROTTEN and SHOOK THINGS UP. Nice job! And I agree with Steve L about the graying-out and freezing of the column while I look at comments. Very annoying.
Before we get into today's puzzle, I want to cut and paste a comment and my reply from late Thursday. I assume that since I replied so late, few people saw it, which is why I'm repeating it. SPOILER ALERT: If you haven't solved the Thursday puzzle yet, you'd best skip past the rest of this. I'll leave some s p a c e ..... Bonnie from Long Branch wrote: Great puzzle ... very smart! But, afterward when I glanced over the grid, I asked myself: "who on earth is Pia Noleg?" Really... I was Dooked big time. Onto reading... I replied: @Bonnie Pia Noleg is the pirate's moll. Her nickname is Peg. Her sister is Mia Oneleg, but they call her Eileen.
@Steve L I had just copied your joke and was going to paste it here for everyone who didn’t check the late comments yesterday! It was too good to go without.
And Eileen works at the International House of Pancakes.
I thought the cluing for this puzzle had been turned up an extra notch. Examples: 17A "It doesn't run below the bridge" 20A "Rough patch?" 37A "A-list guest, to a host" 45A "Things that are best kept low, in brief" 8D "High ways?" 14D "The seasons, e.g." Like others here, I had to jump around the grid, entering answers here and there, even if they were just stabs, e.g., VOTE, ALOE, ANTS, PIKE, OTOE, MIATA, in areas I had nothing else. But like every other puzzle, with a bit of effort the other answers start to emerge, including some names that had to be pulled out of the recesses of my memory -- RIDE, ADLER, ASTOR, DOWD. In a few places I had to "erase": rank instead of IDLE, bed instead of COT, occlude instead of BLOT OUT, and scOop instead of FLOAT. My verdict? Hemant's puzzle definitely SHOOK THINGS UP. Maybe I've been SPOILED ROTTEN by easier late-week puzzles recently. Good thing I didn't have to solve this one with a STUFFY NOSE.
As a chemist, I didn't love "atno" as an abbreviation for atomic number. The sincere question I have that I hope someone will answer (nonsnarkily, please - we know crossword answers are not definitions) is, when "Abbr." is ina clue, even a tricky Friday one, can that mean any old combination of letters from the complete word(s)? Because "at. no." is pretty much that. "At" is not a recognized shorthand for atomic, while "no." for number is...would "atono," for a five-blank fill, be acceptable? Same logical, but seems off. Anyway, reminds me of the expression/equation tiff of yesterday. FWIW, Z is the appropriate shorthand for atomic number.
Mike, No snark. ATNO may not work as an abbreviation for Atomic Number for you as a chemist, but it works for this dictionary: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atno" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/atno</a> Abbreviations in today's NYT Crossword *should* be generally accepted if not the most common. In the pre-Shortz puzzle archive, you'll find some abbrs. that don't meet that criterion.
@Mike As a person in a similar field, I put AT NO in instantly with no question. I'm pretty sure it's the standard abbreviation, and my old periodic tables use it I type it into Google and all I get are "atomic number" hits. It's standard, and a fine clue.
TIL, evidently along with many other solvers, that BestsellerS and BANNEDBOOKS have the same number of letters. It occurs to me that that is the sort of trivial fact that cruciverbalists find fascinating and significant and that would be utterly lost on anyone else. (“Um … so?” “But don’t you see — two distinct terms so different in meaning but with the same number of letters!!!!” [*backs away slowly*]) Anyway — really liked this puzzle. In an ideal world I could have done with fewer names, but the sparkling long entries more than made up for them, and the two crossings that I suppose are, technically, Naticks (ADLER/RIDE and BADU/JEAN) were easy enough to suss out — for me at least. And while I was suspicious of RAWR, sure enough it seems that it’s one of those things kids say — or text — these days. At least that’s what Google tells me. Thanks Hemant for a nice Friday.
@Nat K Hey....even little old white-haired ladies can muster up a RAWR for, say, a Denzel Washington or a Colin Firth...
A certain amount of crosswordese is to be expected, but ACER? RAWR? ATNO? INSP? Really?
@Coriander Crossword glue is to be expected and often helpful in establishing footholds. For example, I was helped by ATNO and INSP. For me, the positive aspects of this puzzle far outshone any minor “annoyances.”
@Coriander I agree with you on ACER (see previous comment), but...crosswordese is made up of things that are very rare or arcane in the real world, but are used often in crosswords because of their convenient letters. RAWR is not crosswordese, having appeared just four times ever. If it's not familiar to you, it's because it's textspeak/internet slang for exactly what the clue says. AT NO is just the normal abbreviation for atomic number. I'm sure you learned this in your middle school science class, unless you were absent that day. Although it has appeared 190 times, it's not because it's crosswordese; it's because it's a real thing. (Sometimes, the clue signals the words "at no", such as "___ extra charge!") INSP is the normal abbreviation for INSPECTOR as a person's title; out of 28 clues, most refer to the P.D. (to signal an abbreviation) or Clouseau (with Abbr. signal). Twenty-eight clues do not make it crosswordese, and it's a real-life abbreviation.
@Coriander I'm with you on RAWR but I think the others are fair clues.
Oh, lovely longs today, and a good number: 6 tens, 2 elevens, and 2 thirteens. My favorites were SPOILED ROTTEN, UP TO NO GOOD, and the NYT debut answers BANNED BOOKS, HIDDEN FEES, STUFFY NOSE, and SHOOK THINGS UP. Coursing through beauty like that, to me, is like gazing at a field of sunflowers or being entranced by a Gaugin. Lovely resistance in the cluing to conquer as well, for me. Vague one-worders, such as [Coup], [Figures], and [Eclipse]. Vague multi-worders, such as [What might make the news, for short], [Ice cream shop purchase], and [The seasons, e.g.]. Clues that could go different ways, such as [Covered expenses] – is the answer a noun or a verb? I liked the answers that evoked energy – BANGERS, SHOOK THINGS UP, OH IT’S ON NOW, RAN AT, HUGGER, ON A ROLL – balanced out by FLOAT and SEDATES. And ooh, five double O’s, plus the marvelous PuzzPair© of BARE over BONES. But mostly, superbly executed in the box today, the sweetness of beauty blended with the feel-good of overcoming resistance. What a splendid outing, and thank you, Hemant!
I was thrown for a while by my mistaken BESTSELLERS instead of BANNEDBOOKS
@Timothy I made the same mistake. Can't figure out why a dictionary would be banned.
@Timothy Ditto! Although it took some mental gymnastics to imagine a dictionary being a bestseller.
@Brendan I did the same thing. My first thought for how it could have happened was perhaps being a required textbook for a lot of classes. I don't know if that's the case, but it was the best explanation that came to mind.
My anchors were—DOWD, ASTOR, RIDE, ADLER and of course Clouseau! I'm usually out on a limb with names and these lovely people nailed down some corners for me. The near fills were driving me crazy and I thought I was going to be ACEd out, but it all came together beautifully. Thank you, Mr. Mehta. A lovely ending for the week, and maybe a bit of a warning for the week-end. LORDY!
@dutchiris “I'm usually out on a limb with names and these lovely people nailed down some corners for me.” There’s so much whining about proper names that goes on in a forum like this one. People forget that proper names are sometimes the only answers you can be confident about. I solve lots of crossword puzzles, so I understand how challenging an unfamiliar proper name can be. But the complaints from people who think crosswords should be limited to “real” words are both ridiculous and way too late. (In the first NYT crossword puzzle, February 15, 1942, 1A was “Famous one-eyed general.: WAVELL.”)
Hands up for BEST SELLERS before BANNED BOOKS. Our society has become truly misguided when we ban dictionaries and children's hidden figure books ! OK - rant over . I did really enjoy this solve - clever long entries :)
@Cathy Parrish - Check out Hemant’s link in his notes to the Waldo banning. It happened in the 1990s and it takes a magnifying glass to actually see the ‘offending’ image.
Very well crafted Friday. I really enjoyed it. It took me longer than I wanted, and I really thought about punting as I couldn't crack the SE. But then LORDY finally popped into my brain, I was able to finish. Well below my 'average,' but higher than my past year Friday average (whatever that number is). I actually liked that the long entries were comprised of so many words (oh it's on now, shook things up, on a roll, up to no good). I not sure if that made it harder or easier to solve, though. Such a quality puzzle in my opinion. If only SHAG and BOOTYCALLS could have crossed. "Oh it's on now" could be a related term, if you squinted hard enough. Perhaps a RAWR started the whole escapade. Do the kids still say "Netflix and chill?" Thank you for the fun puzzle, Hemant!
@Newbie Mike Myers has always made me CRINGE, so I have never seen an Austin Powers movie. But those things are so popular that I have picked up on some of the jokes and language, and SHAG was an early answer that I was 100% certain was correct. It’s nice to have a few of those gimmes in a challenging puzzle like this one.
Good one. Lots of fun. Good clues. Great answers . Short ones. Long ones. Shag and brag baby.
Deb says: 47A. “One who puts one past you” is a gifted tennis player, or an ACER. I’ve heard the word “ace” used in this way, but ACER is new to me. I'll agree that ACER is probably not used much as "one who serves aces in tennis" in the real world, and I don't think it's any dictionary, but it has been clued that way several times before, even though there's the computer company and the maple genus (used more often before the company was known here) to clue the word. But although it's crosswordese royalty more than a commonly seen real-life word, ACER has been clued in some very punny ways in its tennis sense: • Expert service provider? • One providing great service? • A-1 tennis server • Serena Williams (or Pete Sampras), often • One-hit wonder? • One who has a quick point to make? • Hot server • One with a fastball? • One who gives special service? And in its last appearance before the Shortz Era, something just a little different: • Very lucky golfer? But the only clue that references both tennis and laptops was this one from last year: • Apt laptop choice for a tennis pro? TL;DR: If Will Shortz says it's a word, it's a word.
@Steve L I blanched at ACER as well and, indeed, it was the last solve for me. I also don't see why PDFS are any easier to share then .docx, .odf, .txt, .xls, .csv or any other file format... like .JPG(S) or .jpeg. And furthermore, any well-read sophisticate with a minimally discerning palate-- *moi*, par example -- wouldn't dare confuse the restrained format of OPEDS with the free-flowing whimsy of a proper think piece. Not in mixed company, at least! But... here's the thing. I got all three of them. A person who performs a feat known as an "ace", according to the rules of English, is an ACER. A PDF is easy to share. I often think while I read OPEDS.
We moved around this grid like the Tidy Bowl man. One April First, while in Grad School, we removed 100 or so ersatz flamingos from people's yards and placed them in the town park (all facing the same direction). A day or two later we return them all as we had written the flamingos address on a strip of masking tape attached to their BOOTY. I have had two friends who have been on Survivor like shows and I know you will be shocked to hear: They are all faked. Nice one Hemant
Whatever your feelings on book banning, clearly there are compelling and intelligent arguments on both sides*. But I think we can all agree "Where's Waldo?" should be banned. A grown man who only ever wants to play hide and seek? OMG is he annoying! Why even try to find him? Okay, maybe I'm just jealous of his incredible fashion sense. And yeah, alright, if I ever found the perfect outfit like he did, I probably wouldn't ever wear anything else either. *lol
@ad absurdum For all the Star Wars fans out there, there's a similar book called Where's Wookiee? I think it was self-published on A to Z.
I worked this one peripatetically, jumping all around the puzzle getting a word here, a letter there until it mostly came together. But the pesky SW corner stubbornly refused to yield. SINGTO and HUGGER had to be right, but because I had entered Ford for Futura instead of FONT and had spelled RAWR rowr I was bedeviled. It took longer than I care to admit to see the error of my ways. Some nice misdirections made for a good challenge.
@Marshall Walthew I did the same. It was with great reluctance that I let go of the R and D in FORD, but then I had an easier time with the crosses, so FONT became obvious. Oh, and I always misspell RIAN Johnson the first time around, because I use a Y instead of an I.
@Marshall Walthew I had a terrible time in the SW too, but because I was positive that 27D began, OH I'M SO... (that GEM at 37A made sense (to me) didn't help)
I love a puzzle that keeps me moving around the grid, and this did exactly that. From the conversational "OH ITS ON NOW", the silly BOOTY CALLS and STUFFY NOSE to the adorable RAWR, Hermant Mehta SHOOK THINGS UP. LORDY, that was fun!
In a world where "Where's Waldo?" Is a BANNED BOOK, all I can think is, "Good night, IRENE!" My self-doubt got in the way of the solve to some degree, but I knew odd things like MIATA, actor JEAN (quite the hunk...RAWR!), and DANDER....as in, "A lotta folks have got their dander up over both yesterday's and this puzzle. OOooo-ee!" I think it was interesting and imaginatively-clued, and I hope to see more from Hemant Mehta!
I automatically had BEST SELLERS for BANNED BOOKS on my first pass, and that held up in that section for awhile. Luckily BOOTY CALLS and ACNE saved me. It’s like being 17 all over again!
Wow. That is some of the best clueing in months — the kind that has you completely stymied until you get a few crosses and then the answer suddenly makes sense. My favorite is probably 17A, “It doesn't run below the bridge”. STUFFY NOSE.” (Thanks to Flonase, I have much fewer sinus problems than I did before. I take more meds than I would like, but Flonase is the only one that I miss if I forget to take it.) I started solving the puzzle after getting in bed, but a day of skiing meant that I got sleepy quickly. So I put the puzzle down with only a third of it completed. When I woke up and couldn’t get back to sleep, I finished the puzzle in about 10 minutes. Everything made sense, and there was just a cascade of answers. That’s my favorite type of solving experience. I am glad that I couldn’t remember which auto maker used to sell a Futura. FOrd and FONT are so close that it would have been easy to be stuck with the incorrect answer for too long. (My husband was a graphic designer, so the Futura typeface has been in my vocabulary for decades.) Thanks, Mr. Mehta! I’m already looking forward to your next puzzle!
@Eric Hougland I'll comment above but it was my confident entry of FOrd that had me jammed up in the SW forever! Yes, the Futura was a type of Ford Falcon.
@Eric Hougland Pretty sure he's got a few in the archives, I remember enjoying his previous puzzles too
@Eric Hougland Flonase has been a life-changer for my partner, too! He really feels it when he forgets - even when it's not allergy season (like winter in the Northeast). Not allergies (nor anything very severe), but he is currently suffering from a head cold -- so when STUFFY NOSE finally clicked for me, I had to immediately show him the clever clue (no PR time for me today!). I said "look, you're in the crossword!". He wasn't as amused as me -- I'm chalking it up to the cold! Hahaha.
Of cooooourse I cracked up at BOOTYCALL because I’m a grown up child lol. I also loved the clue for STUFFYNOSE and RAWR was fun. The only thing that tripped me up was originally plopping in Iffy for IDLE, but that was a quick fix. Otherwise fair and fun!
@Joya I looked at ko and said: "I am not the only 12 year old here."
Excellent, Mr. Mehta! This was an utterly enjoyable ride. Tricky cluing, many great entries, and few enough gimmes to fill in some unknown names, once again pointing out my painfully challenged knowledge of up-to-date pop culture trivia. Instead of "where's Waldo?" I had to ask "who's Upton O'Good'? More like this, please. RAWR...
This one felt so satisfying! And now I remember saying exactly the same thing about one of Mr. Mehta’s previous works! Seems you have a gift for this sir. Thank you for sharing it with us!!😁
For solvers of a certain age (millennial), there is nothing "sexy" about a RAWR 😧 The maxim of the 00s was "it means 'I love you' in Dinosaur," usually accompanied by a cheesy illustration. I have never seen this unusual bit of slang in any other context!
2023 POY FINALIST Fellow Wordplayers, we have only a few more days left to vote for the 2023 Wordplay POY. The various Puzzle of the Year Categories can be accessed and voted on via the following links. Please stop by and vote. Sunday POY finalists: <a href="https://nyti.ms/3H5F3ih#permid=130285736" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/3H5F3ih#permid=130285736</a> Monday to Wednesday Themed POY List: <a href="https://nyti.ms/48K6zgV#permid=130285760" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/48K6zgV#permid=130285760</a> Thursday POY List: <a href="https://nyti.ms/41RM7IA#permid=130285793" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/41RM7IA#permid=130285793</a> Friday/Saturday Themeless POY: <a href="https://nyti.ms/47segXW#permid=130285814" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/47segXW#permid=130285814</a>
@Tito Today’s puzzle is the first entry on my list of possible candidates for the 2024 POY list. For anyone interested in nominating puzzles, I found it very helpful to keep a running list during 2023 with every puzzle that I particularly enjoyed. If nothing else, it’s a great reminder of how high quality the NYT puzzles are overall.
@Puzzlemucker, Hope you’ll do us the honor of announcing the winners this year. You do the best write ups, and you’re our POY guru. Don’t know your schedule, but can you confirm what time the voting will close, and at about what time you’ll be announcing the winners. Appreciate your input as always.
This puzzle is a tough but fun challenge that feels perfectly "Friday" to me. Very clever cluing with humorous reveals. I really enjoyed it.
Lots of clues that delighted me today. STUFFYNOSE was my personal favorite. Got a bit hung up with ACER thinking it was ICER, like a hockey player who flings the puck past you. Must by the Minnesotan mindset getting to me!
@Jack Minnesota hockey fans learn what icing the puck is in day care. 🏒 I can be relied upon to explain that, plus the infield fly rule. In the days before Google, I won a couple of bar bets that way.
That was a fun one — and who else is 🤯 about “Waldo” being a banned book? But then again, fewer things surprise me these days… 🙄🙄🙄
@Michelle One of my favorite T-shirts until I wore it out was from the ACLU. The front said “Celebrate Freedom/Read a Banned Book.” The back listed a dozen or so books that had been banned from various places in the US. The only ones I remember for certain are “Huckleberry Finn” and “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
Ooh! A crunchy, chewy Friday! NW was mostly blank and last to fall. Love clueing like this. Many feel like tiny riddles rather than clues. Butt-dials? Doesn’t run below the bridge? Nice one!
RAWR, really?! Feels like a bit of a reach. I filled that in last because it seemed like it would have to be right but blimey! Another Friday where I could only complete it with the aid of the simple clues after I'd exhausted the normal ones. Still forced to look up the Mazda because they don't have names over here in the UK. Not sure why, they're all just called things like MX-5 or CX-3 or just 'saloon'.
@Theo sadly they are no longer called Miata anywhere except by fans of the car. Part of the boring numbers sequence now.
It’s called the MX-5 Miata on the US website.
I almost hurled this into my wall on several occasions -- especially when the unknown BADU crossed the unknown JEAN and ROAR turned out to be something not-ROAR, and quite possibly illiterate. I was completely flummoxed in the NW and while the phrase STUFFY NOSE is great fill, the clue for it...isn't. If it's STUFFY, it doesn't run above the bridge either. The only thing I got immediately on the entire left side of the puzzle was GET. Thank you, Barbara Walters. But that was hardly enough. I struggled in the East, too with HIDDEN COST "confirmed" by CIA, before I realized it was HIDDEN FEES, confirmed by FBI. To have PDF and JPGS in the same puzzle was too much of a bad thing. Once I'd limped to the finish line -- without any cheats, I might add -- I realized that there was some quite wonderful and lively fill in the puzzle: BOOTY CALLS; SPOILED ROTTEN; SHOOK THINGS UP; TINSELTOWN; BANNED BOOKS, as clued (and what does that teach you, Ron de S?); and UP TO NO GOOD. I wish I'd enjoyed it as much while solving as I did after I finished solving. It reminds me of the famous writer (can't remember who) who claimed that happiness isn't writing; happiness is having written. I've never agreed with that aphorism at all, but I do think it can frequently be said of puzzle-solving.
@Nancy I almost ejected my morning coffee while reading your description of Erykah Badu being "unknown" — perhaps for those who choose to reside in caves? Badu is one of the most successful soul artists of the 1990s and continues to carve new musical path today. Music critics call her the "Queen of Neo Soul." Hardly unknown.
@Nancy your getting older and the puzzles are getting younger. What can you do?
This felt like a very Gen Z puzzle and I absolutely loved it. Love myself a Hemant Mehta puzzle and this did not disappoint.
Most fun and challenging I've seen in a while. It's always a treat to get a long entry just by crosses even when you don't see the connection to the clue. Started out with a handful of gimmes and a sense of dread. Finished with a lot more satisfaction than usual.
Some may complain about ACER, but I thought it was a clever clue and answer. As was BOOTYCALLS. After the first pass through the acrosses and downs, nothing much came quickly. Yep. What we have here is a Friday puzzle. But then the bottom half was filled, and the top half came together and then it was over at 12% faster than average. I wasn't sure about the bridge reference in the clue to STUFFYNOSE, so I had to look it up: "the upper bony part of a person's nose." Solid and enjoyable puzzle.
@Jim I think the only real complaint one can make about ACER is that it feels like a vanishing brand to STILL be one of the 'standard answer' set in the NYT that you basically can only get by having done it enough times. Today's had four for sure: ACER, ANTS, ALOE, OTOE and then a few others that I'm not yet sure if they are definite repeaters but it does seem like we get a lot of PDF, IDLE, FBI and even OP EDS. We also had HI-HAT just a couple of days ago so maybe that's about to become a standard?
Nice workout but was totally stuck in the SW because I would not easily let go of FOrd for Futura, which was the base of the original Batmobile. <a href="https://www.starcarstn.com/cars/1966-batmobile" target="_blank">https://www.starcarstn.com/cars/1966-batmobile</a>/
@John Futura as a FONT was such an immediate gimme for me that I didn't even consider any alternatives -- it wentvin so fast I even had the passing thought that it was likely incorrect! Thank you for providing a different perspective, and something for me to learn today! Très cool. 🦇
@John Hand up for FORD...not only did it sound like one of those "Belch-fire Eight" models, but the FO- was correct, which made it even more difficult to give up. Sheesh.. but now I feel I was in good company!
Another puzzle very hard for a non-native English speaker living outside the US. Trivia and words unknown to me forced me to turn on Autocheck and reveal some words yet again. Also, on an intellectual level I can appreciate today's clueing, but for me personally it didn't work - the constructor and I must think in very different ways. There are clues I still do not understand and I would appreciate if somebody explained them to me: Zip: TANG - I can't even Google this one because there apparently is a band called Zip Tang and it obscures search results. Figures that are best kept low, in brief: ERAS. I suppose ERA is short for something finance-related? I was about to ask about the running below the bridge clue but as I began to write it dawned on me. I would never have figured it out - the answer emerged from crosses.
@Andrzej TANG and zip both mean that food has a little kick to it. ERA(s) is a baseball term. It means earned run average, and it’s good for a pitcher to keep it low.
@Andrzej TANG is like spice, ERAS refers to a pitcher's earned run average in baseball
@Andrzej If it makes you feel better, both DHubby and I were stumped at ERAS (although I knew it had to be correct)...and we are big baseball fans! After all those years in Ohio, cheering The Reds and then The (now re-named) Indians, we should have cottoned onto that at once. (You can look up "cottoned onto.") Grated lemon peel adds a bit of TANG to most dishes...
Shagadelic, baby! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItCANGTHPz8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ItCANGTHPz8</a> I'll just leave it at that. Folks have already highlighted most of the gems in what was, for me, a relatively easy, but delightful Friday.
6D BANNED BOOKS including a dictionary is of course up-to-the-minute news. And 13A Butt-dials? may be an early contender for Clue Of The Year.
@Andrew I went to Deb's link about 'Where's Waldo?' ('Where's Wally? in the UK where he originated) and why it was banned. Worth a look. I had to blow the page up (Command + repeatedly on my Mac, CTRL + [ I think ] on a PC) to see the before and after pictures from an early effort which resulted in it being banned. No comment.
Whew. After a first pass through the clues I didn't think I had any chance at finishing this one, but... at least wanted to fill in the whole thing. Ended up going bottoms up and had a lot of considering alternatives and making my best guess, and... ...was quite surprised to finish it successfully. Lots of nice 'aha' moments. Good puzzle. Answer history searches: Was surprised to see that HUGGER was making it's first appearance in a Shortz era puzzle. Turns out that its only other appearances were in two pre-Shortz puzzles. Anyway - that led me to go do a search for: HUGGERMUGGER Four appearances - all in pre-Shortz puzzles. Vaguely remember that term from childhood. Fascinating puzzle find today - I'll put that in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened. One of the strangest puzzles I've ever encountered - a Sunday from February 16, 1992 by Joel D. Lafargue with the title "Crypt-teaser." After reviewing it, it's not hard to see what the 'trick' is, I just can't really comprehend how all of the theme clues actually work (accurately). Here are some examples of clues and answers (And yes - all the theme clues were in caps): "I AM A CAD, MA" : MACADAMIANUTS "STONE'S DAD" : TOSSEDANDTURNED "MACARONI" : ROCKYMARCIANO "OLD PIES"" : SPOILEDROTTEN "B. A. DONNA" : RECKLESSABANDON "FINGER" : LUNATICFRINGE Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/16/1992&g=47&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/16/1992&g=47&d=D</a> ..
@Rich in Atlanta that reminds me of British style cryptic clueing - RECKLESS, LUNATIC etc hinting that the rest of the letters are a scrambled anagram. Even NUTS could imply the same for the top one.
@Rich in Atlanta Hugger-mugger sounded vaguely familiar to me so I had to look it up, and fortunately it's not as cringe as it might sound. For those who were also wondering, it can mean confusion or confusedly, or it can mean secrecy or secretly.
Delightful Friday puzzle, with such clever, fresh clues! Butt-dials made me LOL!!
... [pauses knitting, puts another log on the fire, and settles back into comfy chair] Lordy, lordy. What have NYT crossword puzzles become? Clues reveal more anatomy, scatalogical humor, and repetion - more of a detritus float than scoop. “One clever enough to win every argument … but not clever enough not to” How bout, "one clever enough to want all solvers happy, but not clever enough to keep all solvers happy" Signed, [sigh] Tired, but bearing the cost, Out West
@Whoa Nellie What 'scatalogical' references? BOOTY and SHAG might be slightly naughty, but not AMOUNTing to 'obscene,' or suggestive of excrement. Did those make you drop a stitch? (I bet not. You Western gals're tougher than that.) This storm we're having is a doozy, but even that is not making me clutch my pearls. (BTW, I dressed up for the New Year's Party--hereabouts, it went from 6 to 8 p.m. I had on a dressy sweater, pearls, and even a dab of moisturizer on my face. One of the other residents didn't recognize me. Oh, dear.)
I had snog instead of SHAG for the longest time. Fun puzzle!
@Tracy K Ditto, which begs the question, " What cam first the snog or the shag"? ( asking for a friend).