You mean the answer to "like some teenagers and pasta" wasn't ZITTI? Quite the puzzle, a real test, and I'm tickled that Ms. Iverson, in charge of the Friday ez-clue version, is on double duty this week: it'll be interesting to compare the clues. By the time I was finished my yoga pose had changed from Plow to Downward Dog to Quiet-Quitting-Dog-Tired. Taft, a big man with big appetites, had a 1909 White Steam car that accommodated him. There's a sweet 7 minute video on him and his car: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=I1GZkZTkZjw&ab_channel=HagertyDriversFoundation" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=I1GZkZTkZjw&ab_channel=HagertyDriversFoundation</a> Friendship means: not having a tarantula as a pet. Ewwww!
"I know you make great blankets, but we have to let you go." "You can't fire me, I quilt!" ("But your behavior is part of a pattern.")
@Mike what jma said, Plus: We quilters get peeved when folks refer to our works as 'blankets' or 'bedspreads.' We don't want to have to block you or batt you around.
For Jethro Tull fans like me, it’s nice to see AQUALUNG and FLUTE SOLO in the same puzzle. I was stuck for a while with TUNE “for track selection.” I still don’t know what are BATARANGS – but it somehow worked (though I was doubting myself that “hierarchal” is a word – I thought it was always “hierarchical.”)
@John Oh, very, very good! But how dare you not share a link: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=582xsqATCFs" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=582xsqATCFs</a> 1st comment of the morning, already emued!
@John 🤓. Absolutely! There’s just one problem. The song “Wind Up” on the album “Aqualung” doesn’t have a flute solo 😢. You’ll have better luck with “Locomotive Breath” or “My God” Here is a clip of the concert-version of the flute solo from My God performed in 1978. 😊 <a href="https://youtu.be/zic2jFZ745w?si=yRSyMHNYNt_O3rAE" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/zic2jFZ745w?si=yRSyMHNYNt_O3rAE</a>
Christina is becoming a master. Such an enjoyable puzzle with a lot of bite, which as the best puzzles do, made me feel denser than I felt before I started while I was solving, and made me feel smarter than I felt before I started once I was done. If that makes sense. So much to savor that I won’t dwell on anything in particular, except to note the understated brilliance of “Break into bits” for PARSE. While BATARANGS and IS THAT A THING might be marquee entries (and what an apt pair!), Christina’s mastery extended throughout the puzzle and transformed a seemingly vanilla entry (PARSE) into a star. Marking this one down as a themeless POY contender.
IS THAT A THING? EVEN PAR, is that a thing? LA LA LA, they did not sing, NIHILO and NILS cross-ing? That’s just way too much nothing! ATTA WAY, said no one ever, OH ME, you can do better, N-TUPLES, spare me the math, THRUPLES in a PORNO, I need a bath! WHETIMES, is that a thing? I don’t care for loop-de-looping, And though I hate to be party pooping, You’ll never catch me JOGGLE scooping (hey, it rhymes).
@Puzzlemucker I second the POY nomination. This was fantastic!
What does it say about me that my automatic response to flask was hip? Great puzzle; a chewy, Friday difficult offering from the wonderful Ms Iverson. I’m in the hubub of London visiting our daughter this weekend for some retail therapy, but snuck a quiet half hour for tea and crossword. Lovely.
@Helen Wright Agreed, lovely puzzle and Christina's work is sublime. as usual. BTW I live in London and lately feel like I need therapy following any retail shopping. The prices. The attitude. Oh, dear.
@Helen Wright Just took you half an hour to solve this puzzle? Way to go! Emu food More emu food
"What does it say about me that my automatic response to flask was hip?" Helen Wright, If you find out, let me know; that my automatic response too! too, emu, too
Very, very pleasing: • Pleasing to my Libra hankering for balance, with areas of whoosh countered by a battleground zone that easily satisfied my brain’s work ethic. In addition, there were the opposite neighbors SMILE and SOBS countered by similar neighbors HIERARCHAL and LAYERS. • Pleasing to uncover not one, but two rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilaps (PEELS, STRAW). • Pleasing to learn a phrase that perfectly captures a phenomenon that there was previously no catchy word or phrase for (QUIET QUITTING). • Pleasing to “Hah!” when I figured [Wind up alone?] out. • Pleasing to be marvelously misdirected by “flask”, where I inventoried all the places a liquor flask could be stowed. To be outwitted like that is a privilege worthy of a standing O. • Pleasing to have 15 bigs (answers of eight letters or more), with practically all emitting spark, my favorites being ALL SMILES, IS THAT A THING, A LOT TO UNPACK (NYT debut answer), and the sing-song BATARANGS. A heap of pleasure in the box today. Thank you, Christina, for making this!
This was a perfect and very enjoyable Friday puzzle despite the fact that at first I forgot that Batman's boomerang is called a batarang. But like a batarang, it eventually came back to me.
Another fine puzzle with a lot of musical connections from LOUIS and the Good Book, to SUPERGROUPs, FLUTESOLOs, DISCOBALLs, and The Worst PIES In London, so I sailed by this one. There were lots of fun non musical clues too. I was privileged to have seen a production of Sweeney Todd with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury while honeymooning in NYC a lifetime ago. Her performance of Worst PIES was to die for.
@Marshall Walthew Oh, my, what a treat! I envy you that experience. Highlights from a couple of my trips to NYC were seeing Katherine Hepburn in Coco, and Zero Mostel in Fiddler on the Roof. There is nothing like live musical theater and opera for exhilarating and memorable entertainment.
That yoga pose: the description in the clue wasn’t bringing it to mind, and even though this doesn’t fit, what my brain offered up was PLOTZ. Any Yiddish speaking Yoga practitioners out there? Plotz pose: IS THAT A THING? I feel it might refer to any number of poses that are…unsuccessful.
I forgot to mention this in my first comment but I appreciated having Black Wall Street referenced in here because I think a lot of people don't know about it... or the related Tulsa race massacre. Though I would guess a lot of people in this comment section would indeed know about it but in my everyday life I have found very few who do. So much history I never learned in school!
@HeathieJ That history was never taught in school when I was there. Schools didn't want white kids feeling bad about themselves, or black kids feeling good about themselves.
I didn't love "saucy" to describe some teens and pasta. It's an outdated word that could pertain to anybody, and for pasta, I believe the word is SAUCED. I suppose that by entering FRESH I fell into an intended trap, but it was a more appropriate answer.
@Just a thought I often describe my pasta as SAUCY. I have never described a teenager that way. I may have used "sassy", but I consider saucy to be more like bawdy. That's just my take, I struggled with that corner and eventually accepted it was the word that fit and got the happy music. (I loved another poster's answer of "zitti"!)
@Just a thought Yeah. Had much the same thought! Are emus served with sauce?
Due to a minor eye injury, I've been struggling through the puzzle for a few days. By the time I'm done it's just too much to read the comments or make one, but there's no way I can let this beauty from Christina Iverson go without acknowledgement from me. Christina, you just keep getting better and better and it's such a treat to work on one of your creations.
Nancy. J, Get better soon! emus agree
My first impulse for 25 across was NOPE.
There are three things I most look for and enjoy in a puzzle. A really good trick. Humor. The ability to create curiosity in a clue. There were several clues here that created curiosity. What invention was originally used as a yellow dye? I hadn't the foggiest idea. What a great clue for the mundane TNT. What on earth could teenagers and pasta have in common? I had the S and later the Y and I still couldn't think of anything. "Overwhelming and needing time for consideration" created much curiosity too. And it also had a great answer: A LOT TO UNPACK. Also -- How inspired to find a clue, "It's a blast" that turns GALE/GALA into a kealoa. It took the lovely QUIET QUITTING to straighten me out, even though I'd never heard the term. (I suppose you can only do it when you're working from home?) If I had a memory like everyone else, I think I'd remember that I quite like this constructor. A colorful and completely satisfying Friday.
@Nancy I sincerely hope nobody was hurt down at the hair salon when they discovered that TNT was explosive. "I asked for a blow out, but this is ridiculous!"
Never, in all the 'concert band' months, did we encounter a passage marked TUTTI.....but, whatever. I figured that one out. The crossing of a DC Comics weapon and the flask location (HIP? LIP?) got me. Too fuzzy-headed to run the vowel progression on 27A, which would have taken care of the fake juvenalia. FAIL for the MOL. I didn't run into many teens with the style and wit to be SAUCY; they were just SASSY--(brats on occasion.) When they QUIT posturing and showing off for their friends, they were often delightful. CURED MEAT before PORK. POET before PIES ... TSK. TULSA. Lest we forget. Interesting that this is clued as 'Southern;' OKlahoma identifies as Western, and much of it is still "Indian Territory." If you can find any state in the USA that is free of racism and a history of appalling atrocities, please share.
@Mean Old Lady I immediately thought of ‘con tutti’ which I found common in music. It means ‘with all’.
As far as fake juvenalia goes-the batarang made its first appearance in 1939, so I can’t imagine there’s many people doing this puzzle who are old enough that it wasn’t around when they actually were juveniles.
Is TULSA generally considered a Southern city? I would definitely consider Oklahoma more the West than the South.
@Robert Forbes From Minnesota it certainly is. Tulsa is certainly in the Southern half of the contiguous 48 states. It’s only halfway across the country from SC.
@Robert Forbes I do know that Oklahomans sometimes call Texas Baja Oklahoma. But seriously, Oklahoma isn't the "Deep South", but it's definitely in the South. South Central, to be specific.
@Kris T Would you also consider say Arizona a southern state then? I would definitely consider it western or southwestern but not southern.
What a ride! I loved it. There's A LOT TO UNPACK in this puzzle, so I'll try to mansplain how I did it. Glad I'd manread Rebeca Solnit's book, because it allowed me to get FLUTESOLO on the crosses without even checking. There were other wonderful, millenial-speak long (8+ letter) entries, including QUIET QUITTING (Guilty) and IS THAT A THING, but Ms. Stevenson still managed to throw us boomers a bone or three with BATARANG and DISCO BALL, and as soon as I read "Traveling Wilburys", made super by the mere--apologies to any other Wilburys, living or deceased--presence of Roy Orbison, I knew it was SUPERGROUP. The cluing for TARANTULA was a scream, as my first association with fuzzy was wuzzy, and I was, like @sotto voce, looking for something cuddly. I shared a house with a Pharmacology PhD student who kept one, and I remember how fascinating it was to watch Mr. T spinning its silk. The cluing for ALL AT ONCE threw me, as "suddenly" seemed to make better sense, but it's Friday, Jake. Expect the unexpected. Loved "One-sided dice", as it's literally what "SNAKE EYES" are. I mean figuratively. I could quibble about HIERARCHAL, but I'll leave that to the Carperazzi to complain. Hadn't heard a scuba tank & regulator called am AQUALUNG since Lloyd Bridges in "Sea Hunt". (boomer ref.) Honestly, there's no better feeling that rallying back from cruciverbal despair, almost-but-not-quite ready to hit the Google button, and finishing with a flourish. Fun way to start the weekend!
The Friday puzzle is where, at least for me, the solving time goes up even when the puzzle doesn't throw anything at me that I can't figure out by the time I get to it a second or third time. That's how this one went. I can't usually solve a Friday by starting at 1A and moving sequentially. My best strategy is to find a gimme, and work outwards from there. In this case, it was 33D (QUE). I got the whole south before venturing northward, and finshed in the NE. Nothing really held me up for long, but I still finished twice as slowly as on a good Wednesday.
@Steve L Same here. Is HIERARCHAL strictly correct? M-W seems to indicate otherwise.
There will no doubt be laughter in some solving quarters about the notion that the Acela Express is high speed. Some great clues - like Deb I liked the FLUTE SOLO one; and 28D. My in was TINY for the Lilliputians; some long forgotten and dusty neuron told me that TITO was one of the Jackson 5; I sussed the Hall mate in seconds; I guessed that TAFT was the car owning president; and the whole unpromising grid began to fall. Fun and quickish for a Friday.
@Andrew Well, POLK was too early, and despite his name, FORD was too late. So it had to be TAFT. I don't think there were any other four-letter presidents, but TAFT definitely was around the right time.
"There will no doubt be laughter in some solving quarters about the notion that the Acela Express is high speed." Andrew, The clue was "High-speed *commuting* option." ACELA is definitely high-speed compared to MARC, SEPTA, NJ Transit, Metro-North, CT Rail or MBTA.
I'm sitting here stunned, still trying to wrap my head around how a Friday puzzle could have flowed so (almost) effortlessly for me. It's like the answers were coming to me out of thin air, with misdirects quickly grasped, expressions falling into my head from the sky, and crosses revealing all the unknowns. A very astonishing experience, a perfect dance of delight and disbelief, which I wish sincerely upon all. The funny part of the solve was when "Fuzzy" had me thinking fuzzy-wuzzy, soft and cuddly, and... whaaat? No! TARANTULA!?! Thank you, Ms. Iverson, for this laugh-out-loud moment and for a cloud nine solving experience I won't soon forget.
@sotto voce Congratulations on a smooth Friday solving experience. It’s nice to have those, isn’t it? TARANTULA was a gimme for me. One of my favorite bands is from Colombia. Their name, Aterciopelados, is usually translated as “the velvety ones.” I think it’s a reference to the velvety appearance of TARANTULAs. 25 years ago, we were driving an unpaved road in the Grand Staircase—Escalante National Monument in Utah when my husband spotted a TARANTULA in the middle of the road. He must have spent 20 minutes crouched over that spider.
I kept thinking, I'm not getting anywhere with this, it's not possible. But I kept putting in the fills (and taking them out again), staring at the gaps, asking IS THAT A THING? Ready to cry UNCLE. At last I had to come to the column and PLOW into it. Happily, that answered the last question, and ALL AT ONCE, QUIETLY QUITTING, I was done! ALL SMILES! What fun it was! What a SUPER GROUP of clues. Thank you, Christina, for this challenging puzzle. I had a BALL.
Shout out to Deb for plugging the ‘walk away’ strategy. I’d love to know how and why it works but a lot of times it just does.
@Joshua Parker I think it's the walking part. For me, putting down the puzzle and turning on the TV isn't the same. Today I got stuck, walked to the library and back (2 miles each way), and when I resumed the puzzle it practically solved itself.
@Joshua Parker It works for so many puzzles and problems that need solving—both games and real life puzzles.
@Joshua Parker Many years ago I had an exam in logic class. I felt confident in almost all my answers, but I was stuck on the solution for one of the problems. I sat and thought and sat and thought and sat and thought, and I eventually gave up. After all, the rest of the test had gone well, I was sure of it. I got up, turned in the exam, and left the classroom. Then, as I got to the end of the long hallway leading to the exit, I knew the answer to that sticky problem! That's how I learned the lesson of walking away. Maybe it has to do with getting the blood flowing. Maybe it has to do with recontextualizing. I dunno. But walking away definitely works for me.
Fabulous Friday! SUPERGROUP of clues; when I finished I was ALLSMILES. Wanted the flask on my hip (hi again, Helen!). Didn't at first specify the CUREDmeat. Ranked HIERARCHic first. ALLATONCE is came together. Thanks, Christina. (Enjoy the warm weather!)
Had a lot of fun with most of this puzzle but the marquis entry left a bad taste in my mouth. The idea that someone who is “just” doing the job that they have been hired to do instead of going above and beyond (in other words, throwing in some unpaid labor) is quitting has always been troubling to me. If a company is looking for more from a role, then they should build those expectations into the job description and compensate accordingly.
@Rachel For more on the problems around “quiet quitting:” <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/08/quiet-quitting-not-real-work-culture" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/08/quiet-quitting-not-real-work-culture</a> …emus, you’ve done your job, you can take a break now.
@Rachel I'm with you on this. QUIETQUITTING is a result of poor management and, particularly, a lack of clear expectations. It's very rare that someone gets up in the morning with the intention of being mediocre. The modern workplace that allows autonomy, is passionate about mastery, and instills purpose in their employees will thrive. The old industrial revolution madate of obedience and efficiency doesn't work any more.
@Rachel @Chris From Utah I work for a very large software company (150k + employees) and I have a different take on this term. I don't work 50+ hours a week--it's 40 for me. And, I'm all for work/life balance which I encourage with my team. My interpretation is this: people who just go through the motions but really don't do a whole lot. Sadly, there's a lot of that... Just my 2 cents. Hope you both have a lovely day, especially Chris out in the Beehive State where I have family members.
10 minutes in, all I had was 1D (AFTER). Thought I was in for a brutal Friday and the perfect puzzle streak was going to come to an end. Put the kids to bed. The house fell silent. The brain returned to the body. Lo and behold. Another perfect puzzle to round out the work week and keep the streak alive. Thanks, Christina Iverson! (And may the 49ers win the Super Bowl)
According to Merriam-Webster, hierarchical (or hierarchic) means "of, relating to, or arranged in a hierarchy". HIERARCHAL, on the other hand, is an adjective relating to a "hierarch" (the person highest in the hierarchy). Guess I'm being finicky :P Very enjoyable puzzle, a little bit on the easy side for a Friday, but that's because of good cluing and only a small amount of trivia.
@Krzysiek The clue is fine. See my reply to LBG in the earliest thread of the day, a thread that begins with a comment I made last night. !!! !!!
Loved the clue for 10D so much. What a fun variety of possibilities that teenagers and pasta could share! Allowed myself some time to explore ideas without the aid of crossing answers. First thought was CURLY. Then BAKED.
@Tom Hands up for BAKED. It worked with BOoS for Sounds of melodrama.
I'm sitting here stunned, still trying to wrap my head around how a Friday puzzle could have flowed so (almost) effortlessly for me. It's like the answers were coming to me out of thin air, with misdirects quickly grasped, expressions falling into my head from the sky, and crosses revealing all the unknowns. A very astonishing experience, a perfect dance of delight and disbelief, which I wish sincerely upon all. The funny part of the solve was when "Fuzzy" had me thinking fuzzy-wuzzy, soft and cuddly, and... whaaat? No! TARANTULA!?! Thank you, Ms. Iverson, for this laugh-out-loud moment and for a cloud nine solving experience I won't soon forget.
@sotto voce GOOD FOR YOU! Don't know how you do it, sotto voce! emu food more emu food
Today I learned that I can find four different ways to spell HIERARCHAL, and that three of them are wrong. Thank heavens for the crosses. One of the trickiest parts for me was “place where a flask might be kept.” I had the R _NGS from BATARANGS, and so I naturally filled in a I because RINGS, amitite? Wrong. RIB was the closest answer I could come up with, but that was clearly wrong. And I went through CUB and KIT before I got to PUP. I can never remember that one. Loved the clue for STRAW! I enjoyed solving this—I was pleasantly surprised by the solving flourish. Nice work!
@Kris T Hand up for KIT... Also, I see no evidence that Bat-moms refer to their adorable babies as PUPs. Who came up with that? Just sayin'.
Great puzzle! So many clues that required thinking resets.
The clue for HIERARCHAL is wrong. According to MW, the word "hierarch" is a noun that denotes a leader. Someone at or near the top of a hierarchY. The adjective "hierarchal" refers to these leaders. A hierarchAL table is one where all the hotshots sit. A hierarchICAL table is one where the seating is arranged according to status. Easy to confuse, but ... editing?
@Walter Burton - That depends on which dictionary you use. Several other dictionaries define HIERARCHAL exactly as clued in the puzzle. In fact, I find more dictionaries that include that use than I find ones that omit it. Do you consider M-W to be the end-all of all dictionaries?
Well, I needed my hip flask to get through it... I certainly didn't SAIL(s)BY but I was ALL SMILES when I was done! All smiles, at least until I learned that Hall and Oates are on the outs.... I can't go for that! No can do!
@HeathieJ Now I have an earworm. I was very late to finding Live from Daryl's House, but this recording of I Can't Go for That with CeeLo Green is terrific. <a href="https://youtu.be/rlwrWOJ0Pno?si=cIgQugmvualXYLCF" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/rlwrWOJ0Pno?si=cIgQugmvualXYLCF</a>
The clue for FLUTE SOLO held me up for a few minutes; it’s a wonderful bit of misdirection. QUIET QUITTING and Addison RAE are things I know of from solving crossword puzzles. It’s nice to have a chance to use that kind of stuff. Nice to see LURID as an answer after the lucid/lurid issue I (and several others) had with Wednesday’s puzzle. I had a similar problem tonight, thanks to having SNObS at 51A. Luckily, MEbES is not a word, and I found my mistake relatively quickly. Thanks, Christina!
@Eric Hougland LUCID Motors turned up in a sponsored ad in my email feed yesterday. Creepy. I wanted to enter RAE for Addison, but had no idea why. I've put my foot down and refuse to learn the names of "influencers."
@Eric Hougland I want to know in what universe SNOTS are "conceited sorts"? I've always used SNOT, SNOTTY, and SNOT-NOSED to designate annoying immature sorts.
As always at the end of the week I needed plenty of help solving today’s puzzle, but perhaps a little less than usual because I have been following Deb's advice about taking a break and coming back to it. That has definitely helped. I thought of LET for Court ruling? straight away so was chuffed about that. However in spite of living in a major Spa town I didn’t get 46D, PEELS. Nice Friday puzzle. Christina.
Hard and fun, opined ko. As a practitioner of 32A for nearly five years I was happy to see it in the grid. Woes for SOBS caused a tear but we did it. And, add me to the hip flask group. Thank you Christina, a great solve...... again
I knew today's IS THAT A THING subject would be HIERARCHAL. 😄 I went a bit over my average time on this puzzle, but it didn't feel like a slog. Most of my time was spent pondering the meaning of clues (and life) and then being greatly amused at the answers. I did hit a few snags with SANAA, ACELA, and PANAY... but that is a pretty low count for a Friday. I'm not a teenager, but I feel SAUCY!
This is just a great puzzle. Difficult and enjoyable so that it felt like a perfect Friday.
FLUTESOLO was one of the last fills for me, but as a former flautist, first in my heart!
I am SOOOO glad the puzzle system doesn't blow a streak if you finish yesterday before you start today! I just opened the iPad App and Thursday's puzzle opened -- only 2/3 finished! I was at 357 days. I really want to hit 1 year. I usually do the puzzles after dinner while my husband does dishes (I cook....) But then a family of 6 arrived who are staying with us until Sunday for their grandmother/great grandmother funeral. They are all close. Grandma was 98 last Monday, so this is a celebration. Anyway, I forgot to go back and finish the puzzle! Now it's done. Streak is 358. Life is good. I just started Friday. Too hard, as usual, but I'll get through it.
The sooner the phrase “qu… qu……” disappears, the better. It’s horrible eye-rolling management-speak for “working to rule” which is what workers should be doing. If an organisation needs to overwork you beyond the conditions of your employment, the onus should be on THEM to review their processes, not try to shame workers into compliance. Join your union and take back your power.
OATES is not so much a mate of Hall anymore—professionally or as a friend. Great puzzle, BTW.
Sigh. PiNAY crossing with LiNE did me in. I voluntarily give up my gold star when I need to look something up, as I had to do with PANAY. Unfortunately LANE and LiNE both fit the clue "Track selection" so I never would have figured it out without looking it up.
@Gregg Gregg I was looking for my mistake for ages! Thank you!!!!?
I was tickled when a search on QUIET QUITTING led to a December 2022 New Yorker article in the topic, which leads off with an illustration of a woman in the PLOW pose. Very well done puzzle, Ms. Iverson.
@Charles Anderson Nice find! That illustration to lead off the 12/29/2022 New Yorker article is just uncanny. There’s just no way that can be a coincidence. I think C.I. Has given us an Easter Egg here you were astute enough to uncover it. It’s behind a pay wall, but anyone with a subscription should definitely take a look…
Another Friday that is way too hard for me. I'll just keep on trying though. Might be a good idea to try a few more Iverson puzzles since she is just SOOOOOO good! emu food more emu food
@Bonnie I see that Christina has 25 puzzles with several Monday - Wednesday... so, I plan to start with Monday and go from there. What a wonderful time I plan on having. TY Christina!
This is a good rule of thumb, and I see it violated so frequently in the crossword comments, that I think it bears repeating (from Steve L's earlier comment). "Basing an evaluation on one person's experience may not really be a fair assessment". And a corollary: Basing the value of a comment on its length alone may not be a fair assessment of its value. Emus, if you, like the scarecrow, only had a brain. Maybe through the process of OZmosis this idea will sink in.
And just to be clear, I think it is perfectly fine to say you have never heard of something because that is just a statement of fact. But to infer from that that no one else has heard of something is flawed logic.
@Jim Irregardless of how you orientate it, HIERARCHAL appears to be a word. It doesn't mean you have to like it.
AQUALUNG crossing SUPERGROUP is fun. Nice puzzle!
I majored in chemistry. I had the two T's for the yellow dye and the answer blew me away. I'm glad that they did not ask me to make a yellow dye in the lab.
An ideal Friday puzzle. Lots of disambiguation, lots of obfuscation and lots of grid-spanning answers. I particularly liked 12 and 28 down, while 16 Across was clued just discreetly enough to think maybe the arachnid in question was a mammal one could snuggle. Final entries for me were LAB and LANE. Cheers.
Michael, You do you in the comments, but I didn't memorize the clue numbers and I'm looking at the comments, not the puzzle, so I don't know which two you particularly liked or which one you found discreet. (I could see your final entries.)
Please don't start asking me the names of social media influencers! There aren't many topics that I avoid knowing about on principle! (I know it's fair game) Great puzzle nevertheless.
@Dan Yep same haha Reminded me of 55A in this Will Nediger grid...not a proper name but similar in principle <a href="https://crosswordr.com/a/puzzle/HdRsHL65a5c6ebk6" target="_blank">https://crosswordr.com/a/puzzle/HdRsHL65a5c6ebk6</a>
Dan, I did not know the last name of the social media influencer either, but I was not CROSS AT the clue since that and a few breaths were a CURE to fill it in. Looking her up post-solve, she seems to be a bit more than just a social media influencer.
@Dan Why would I ask you anything? Ok, jist ask me! emu food
I wish the app had an inactivity time out. Now that I think about it, does the (Android) app disable a smart phone from turning off? Solving after a long day I sometimes nod off while contemplating a clue with my eyes closed, only to wake up some time later to find an hour has gone by. Finished in 1:23. Oh well I'm not a rapid solver, and don't really care but that's well over my Friday average.
@TMD Hey, I’ve done that. Searching through the remote drawers of my brain is soporific, what can I say? I often catch myself nodding off, but do I put the puzzle aside? Nooooooo.