TIL that some people eat corn on the cob at Thanksgiving? Or am I missing another food that leaves a cob? Still…nice solve all around. Challenging but not ridiculous. Perfect Friday puzzle.
@Dan I also found the Thanksgiving-specific nature of the clue here puzzling; I did consider "cob," but then I said to myself, "Not exactly a food strongly associated with the holiday in question" and dismissed it. Maybe I'm wrong, and lots of people eat corn on T-Day? Or maybe the clue was referring to seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay Colony? Either way, I wish the answer had been clued differently.
@Dan Seems unlikely doesn't it? By the end of November I doubt you'll be finding any fresh sweet corn in the market. For a Friday it could have been a male swan type clue.
Please. It’s 2024. The sport is sumo and the wrestlers are Rikishi. Stop perpetuating ignorant misinformation and nomenclature.
@T. Sato Agreed; as a Japanese speaker, I was also annoyed by "sumos." And even if one doesn't know the proper word, "sumo wrestler" is way more common in English.
@T. Sato I was also annoyed by the mistake, but I did find it fitting that there was at least an attempt at a sumo clue today after Akebono’s death was announced.
This one was going down like a buttery slice of TEXASTOAST, but I stumbled a bit in the NW. for a long time all I had in that sector was TIBET. I tried uni for seafood delicacy rather than the more generic ROE which didn’t help. I stared and stared and eventually IOWEYOUONE jumped out at me, and the rest fell like dominoes. I wonder how many will try mint jelly before MINTSAUCE, as I did. Growing up it was always mint jelly when we had lamb.
@Marshall Walthew i was also stuck with uni for a while as I was into the whole Japanese clueing theme. Roe is not really a "delicacy" in Japan as it's quite a common food item (ikura, tobiko etc), and I guess it's a more western thing with regards to caviar. Oh well :) This puzzle has me craving lamb with mint jelly, that's what I grew up eating too!
I tried to keep the news of my new onion variety a secret. But it leeked. (Do I have to shallot out for you?)
@Mike One of my hobbies is collecting the twisted and uninformed ways folks pronounce VIDALIA... So far my two faves are "van DAY LEE-uh" (there's no N at all) and "vih-DAAAAAH-lee-uh"....Tee hee
@Mike Your secret would have been safe with me. Wild scallions couldn't drag it out of me. hi, emus
I’m waiting for one of the frequent commenters to chime in with something like, “COB is a perfectly acceptable answer for Thanksgiving detritus. It does not refer to an ear of corn, if is a recognized abbreviation for the parts of a turkey which are not generally eaten, the Caruncles (fleshy growths on the head and neck), the Offal and the Bones. Ergo, detritus. When you’re an experienced solver like me you’ll know that.” 🤪 Not trying to be snarky, I genuinely appreciate the information that the frequent commenters provide. But it’s kinda true, right?
@Cyndie "It is a recognized abbreviation for the parts of a turkey which are not generally eaten, the Caruncles (fleshy growths on the head and neck), the Offal and the Bones. Ergo, detritus." OMG, I love this! Makes so much more sense to me than the ear of corn at *Thanksgiving*. Then the only quibble would be that the clue would need to be bits, plural. (No need to reference the abbreviation: it's Friday!) 😁
Offal and the Bones would be a cool band name.
Favorite clue? [Ritual performance to break a spell], for RAIN DANCE – That is, a dry spell. Hah! Double hah! Favorite answer? Well, many. The longs were the stars, IMO, today, with eight nine-letter and six ten-letter answers. All of the longs in the NW and SE, in particular, shined brightly. The stacks in each corner were anchored by longs that have never appeared in the NYT puzzle’s 80 years – THAT TRACKS, TRAVEL KIT, TEXAS TOAST, and PRICE DROP. That’s a most lovely quartet. A paucity of footholds made this the kind of grind I relish. PACKERS instead of BRONCOS held me up for a good bit. I like how PRICE DROP descends, and how refreshing, IMO, to not have a cheer-based clue for OLE. I want a tussle in my NYT themeless, and you came through, Evan. The uncovering was especially sweet, with so many appealing answers to beautify the experience. Thank you for a most splendid outing, sir!
Putting down NEPAL instead of TIBET; not having a clue who Jason SEGEL is; having had mint JELLY many times but never mint SAUCE; and who on earth eats corn on the COB at Thanksgiving? Well, given all that, no wonder today's puzzle was a toughie for me!
Fun clueing throughout—BLANKET HOG, especially, but also I OWE YOU ONE and HATE WATCH. Thanks, Mr. Kalish!
I enjoyed the workout here, and found most of the puzzle just right for a Friday. I stumbled in the northwest, though—when you convince yourself that 1D is NEPAL because then the cross at 19A can be ATEAM, you make things needlessly hard on yourself. Once I realized my error, that quadrant fell easily enough too.
@John Deal I had the same problem in the nw Last thing I got corrected
@John Deal I had a 50/50 chance on 1D. So of course I picked the wrong one. Even when I had decided that 1D was TIBET, the IO of I OWE YOU ONE didn’t look promising.
@John Deal my first entry was BLANKETHOG, so TIBET was a gimme.
Me to my dad over the phone years ago: “We’re going on a ski trip to Quebec.” Dad: “What!? Really?! Wow, that’s amazing. How do you get there? Was it hard to arrange?” Yep, he thought I said TIBET.
Who eats corn on the COB at Thanksgiving? Noone.
@Pat - Lots of people do. It's a traditional item for Thanksgiving dinner. Well, at least here in New England -- you know, the place where Thanksgiving originated?
@Pat You're right; the answer ought to be CARCAS, but, darn it, I just couldn't get it to fit.
Hate to be that guy, but an athlete that participates in Sumo wrestling is referred to as a rikishi, not a sumo
The NW was my nemesis -- and when the absolutely wonderful BLANKET HOG came in, it was all I could do to not jump up and dance for joy. I had had the "B" from TIBET (which I was pretty sure was right), and I'd written in (very lightly) BED something or other. BEDMATE was too short and I couldn't think of a substitute. Confession: BLANKET HOG probably wouldn't have come in if I hadn't cheated on SEGEL. Once again, I was following the Nancy Rule [TM]: Cheat only when you're really, really enjoying a puzzle and have hit a wall so that you can't continue with the puzzle that you're so enjoying unless you cheat. A tough puzzle -- with the toughness coming from fiendish cluing and occasionally from vague cluing, but not from a boatload of mindless trivia. One question: Just how many prize-winning CURIE scientists are there out there anyway? After BLANKET HOG, my favorite clue is the one for ITS A PLANE. I know zilch about the Marvel Universe, but even I know Superman and his familiar intro. Two winning clues for this week, I'm thinking, Lewis. A perfect Friday -- one that makes you use your wits rather than have to come up with up a lot of tiny, random facts. I loved it.
@Nancy - I endorse your trademarked strategy! I did not know offhand about the younger CURIEs, but I figured with a francophone surname and chemistry, it was worth a shot... searched "curie joliot" and lo and behold! Irene was the daughter of Marie! Marie won two prizes, in 1903 with her husband Pierre, and again in 1911. Eldest daughter Irene and husband Frederic won in 1935. And younger daughter Eva married Henry Labouisse, who one the Peace Prize in 1965. Quite the noble (Nobel) family! (apologies for lack of accent markings)
Good, tough Friday puzzle. I love that feeling of starting out and thinking that I can't answer a single clue, and then you have a guess,... and that fits with,... and then... Oh, that can't be right,.... but maybe it's... And suddenly you've solved the whole puzzle! Such fun!
Late to post, since this puzzle nearly killed me. You solved a Friday Crossword in 1:47:19. Finally got it on my own, but the triple of THATTRACKS, IOWEYOUONE and BLANKETHOG almost did me in. Had to take a break and return, and still I needed to spend more time on that one portion of the grid than the rest combined. Thanks, Evan and Joel, for an excellent workout!
@Xword Junkie I beat your time by all of four minutes! Upper left did me in too!
This was another instance of “keep plugging away and it will be done” - not in a bad way, just in the “don’t give up” way. And another case of the upper left corner holding out until last. Mint jelly just had to go, according to the rule “when in doubt, tear it out.” I miss my old Palm Pilot. I’m sure it’s in a drawer somewhere. I spent a good while perfecting the technique of writing with the stylus.
@David Connell Upper left was my final problem area as well. I felt good about AUTHOR, but was convinced that “Save on rent” ended with two words A BIT and searched hopelessly for a three letter verb that would fit. Also spent much too long searching for Jason’s surname ending in EL. Final breakthrough was COHABIT followed by I OWE YOU ONE.
@David Connell I miss my BlackBerry. For my first three iPhones I insisted on appending the BlackBerry-like keyboard to the carrying case.
OooooKAY. It's MINT JELLY, never SAUCE. Ewe are mistaken. And speaking of Eww: "Piercing site" for LIP Fails the Breakfast Test !!! Plus, I work in my STUDIO. It's not an ART *LAB*... ask any artisan, crafter, artist, maker, painter, potter, quilter, etc. It wasn'ta LAB even in HS ART class. The SAUCE and the LAB seem to be desperation entries that should have been torn out and redone so that we would not have to HATE Solve. OPEL and AUDI were my early choices for the European car makers. On the Good News side, the RSV vaccine has miimal side effects--a welcome constrast to most other vaccines recommended for us Elderly Patients. NASONEX, eh? Would that be any help for those of us living in The Pollen Capital of The Nation? Because we all have runny noses and sneezing fits. The End.
@Mean Old Lady Mint sauce and mint jelly are two different things (one had a jelly consistency and the other a vinegary consistency), both are acceptable accompaniments for lamb.
@Mean Old Lady My dear old mother always served lamb with MINT SAUCE. I accept this must be a regional difference (my Mom’s upbringing was definitely in the British tradition), but the constructor was certainly entitled to include this entry. While I did try JELLY at first, I quickly changed it due to that ___JE of the cross.
"And speaking of Eww: "Piercing site" for LIP Fails the Breakfast Test !!!" --@Mean Old Lady @MOL -- Piercing ANYWHERE on the body doesn't pass my breakfast test! Even though EAR would be an acceptable answer in most Western countries, I consider it just as barbaric. There are two things I've never been able to watch a friend do: thread an earring through a hole in their ear lobe and insert a contact lens. I tend to be squeamish and I always close my eyes.
Greco-roman wrestlers are not “greco-romans” Football players are not “footballs” Sumo wrestlers are rikishi. Corn on the cob is eaten in summer. Roe is not a delicacy (depending which fish gives it up). Mint sauce is real, and fine with lamb, but not traditional. Loved the puzzle.
@Douglas agree on all points! And still loved the puzzle as well.
@Douglas in Britain, mint sauce is totally tradititional. It would be unusual to have roast lamb without it.
The NW corner had me worried for a minute (as did last Saturday's puzzle), but I pulled through and my streak hit 1000 today. Woo-hoo!
That was fun! I immediately entered BLANKET HOG without anything else filled in that area. I don't know how it came to me so fast. A few times I wondered if I was wrong but I loved it for an answer and was so hopeful it would be correct! Huzzah! That was definitely my favorite but I also loved IT'S A PLANE and THAT TRACKS and the clue for ARSON. Actually, it would be easier to say what I didn't like because it was all fantastic—except SUMOS for reasons already stated earlier. I refused to enter it for the longest time. I couldn't believe calling athletes SUMOS would be a thing. Anyhow, loved it other than that! I noticed in the comments people discussing how strange it seemed to have COBs at Thanksgiving. I'm in that camp. We might have corn, but never on the COB. It reminded me of when my husband and I were planning our first Thanksgiving together. I listed the essentials: turkey, stuffing, gravy... but when I got to mashed potatoes, he was like, "Mashed potatoes!? Why would we have that? And who eats stuffing?" I was perplexed. Like, doesn't every single person who celebrates Thanksgiving have mashed potatoes—and most have stuffing too!? I informed him of these facts (har!) he said they always had potato salad (the mayo based one). I was like, noooo, potato salad is for the 4th of July! In fairness, he lived in the Caribbean for his first 13 years. Suffice to say, our Thanksgivings now include mashed potatoes, stuffing, beans-n-rice, and potato salad. He's worth it!
Technically, "PalmPilot" went away in 1998 after an out of court settlement with Pilot Pens. The underlying operating system, PalmOS, went on until 2011. I just couldn't let this go because I used to write Palm applications.
A bit of an East meets West mini-theme with TiBET, INDIA, SUMOS and Chinese HOT TEA vs. LARAMIE, BRONCOS, TAHOE, and TEXAS TOAST. I like the RAIN DANCE clue “Ritual performed to break a spell”, which reminded me of our spell break theme earlier this week. Lots of clever wordplay, as hoped for in a Friday puzzle. A great start to the weekend.
Excuse me? You guys get free HOT TEA? All we get for free are those prawn crackers that taste like fishy styrofoam. No fair. A very tough Friday for me, which lead to a very satisfying Ahah when the grid filled. I was particularly pleased with myself for getting BRONCOS once I’d filled the COS. I really am learning US sports. Go me. I couldn’t decide between FIAT and Seat for ages; RAINDANCE and TRAVEL KIT came in late. A heck of a lot of complete unknowns for me; never heard 1A or 20a. Had no idea what 62A or 64A are. A proper learning curve this morning. Which is a good thing.
@Helen Wright Much like the Saab automobile, I think free HOT TEA at the Chinese restaurant is mostly a thing of the past around here. The last time we ordered tea at a Chinese restaurant, we were charged for it. I remember being in a Chinese restaurant in Dallas in the late 80s or early 90s and being surprised that they charged for tea back then, as it was not the custom in New York at the time.
@Helen Wright I had the same thought, no restaurant I've been to gives out tea for free. I was stuck on that one for a while, as "water" or "chopsticks" didn't fit, lol
Good one. Btw, things I’ve never had: Texas toast, corn on the cob for Thanksgiving (!), and while I suppose mint sauce is a thing, I always think of mint jelly.
@Richard G maybe some else can weigh in, but I’ve not lived anywhere corn on the cob is in season at Thanksgiving. Maybe down south?
Fun, tricky and fresh! And nary an OREO in sight! I do love a puzzle that avoids the usual suspects.
If you are going to serve a nice red wine with your lamb, ( and why not ) skip the MINT SAUCE. Tough but interesting Friday puzzle with a lot of clever clueing, needed lots of help as usual on a Friday.
@suejean I thought the answer was MINT jelly. Anyone else? emu food more emu food
Remember this one: It's a bird. It's a plane. It's a frog! It's not a frog. It's Underdog! (His girl was named Polly Purebread, and he confronted an evil nemesis named Riff Raff. His alter ego was Shoeshine Boy, plain and loveable.) Who thinks up this stuff? A lot of made-up stuff today, which I suppose is what Deb means by "fresh." Heigh ho. Still a rigorous challenge. Thanks, as always.
@Foster I loved Underdog! The greatest cartoon theme song ever. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEVsRLhet2k" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tEVsRLhet2k</a> Thanks for the memories!
@Foster The emus must have flagged my earlier comment, which included a link to the Underdog theme. The greatest cartoon theme song ever! There's no need to fear .... Underdog is here! Thanks for the memories.
This one lived in a different cultural universe than I. Which is not a criticism just a statement about how the NYT Crossword must evolve if it is bring in new and diverse solvers. For example in my many many decades of Thanksgiving meals at a variety of different homes I have never once been served a corn on the cob. And I doubt if many people making a corn soufflé start with corn on the cob and not canned or frozen corn. I had no idea what Texas toast is. I never use the expression Diss And I can’t even fathom why anyone would ever pierce their lip.
@L.A. Sunshine It was difficult for you, but it's Friday... Friday puzzles are difficult, and I struggled with parts of it, too. A few Friday and Saturday puzzles are just too difficult for me without at least using Google, and sometimes I just have to outright look up the answers for a few clues, or else I won't be able to finish them at all. But it's really rewarding when I can complete a late-week puzzle without resorting to that. Part of the appeal of NYT crosswords is that some of them are really challenging. Asking the Times to 'evolve' in order to make them doable for more people is like asking for marathons to be shortened to 10Ks so that soneone who normally only runs a mile a day has a chance to finish it. There's lots of 10K runs already, and there's lots of places to find easier crosswords.
Loved this Friday puzzle! Tough, fun and fair. So many good, fresh long answers. My spouse and I solve together and I was stuck on “partner who is deep under cover”. She just looked at me and said “You don’t know the answer because you are the BLANKETHOG and sleep through the annoyance!” I agree with the others that didn’t like the clue for COB. Better options were available. “Male swan”, but maybe a bit easy for a Friday? How about “5 pm for some shops, for short”? By the way, the puzzle inspired us to make lamb chops tonight. Here’s a favorite recipe for MINTSAUCE. <a href="https://food52.com/recipes/4179-mint-sauce-for-lamb" target="_blank">https://food52.com/recipes/4179-mint-sauce-for-lamb</a>
@Tom Your blanket hog story made me LOL! I think I'm probably the guilty party in my household... and definitely needed a lot of crosses there. Coincidentally, we had lamb loin chops for dinner last night -- with jarred mint *sauce*. It's typically readily available in my local supermarket, but a few years ago it was not to be found. At the time, I couldn't find a recipe I liked -- clearly, it was before food52's 2022 post. Thank you for that!! Enjoy your dinner! 😋
@Tom I got so distracted by the mint sauce recipe, I forgot to add that I think your alternate clue for COB is great! (The second one, not the swan.) Even starting by knowing the answer, it took me a minute to figure out what you were saying -- the mark of a good clue, IMHO. Shopkeepers don't need emus to stay open!
Tough but rewarding. IOWEYOUONE in particular refused to look correct until I completed almost the last cross. So. Many. Vowels. Thank you for a pleasing diversion on a day when I desperately needed one.
Evan Kalish has created a terrific Friday puzzle that had some crunch and was lots of fun to do. I loved ITS A PLANE at 11D and the conversational DONT MIND ME [59A], and I OWE YOU ONE [15 A]. I really enjoyed this and hope to see more from him soon.
This one stumped me for a bit. I was filling in YOUOWEMEONE with the crosses and I could not parse it for the life of me, it just looked like a jumble of vowels. I was certain my crosses were wrong, when suddenly it all came together, definitely a d'oh moment. I had "studio" instead of ARTLAB for the longest time, which gave me "Saab" and "Audi" for the cars. That section was the last to fall for me. Tough, but doable, and only a few googles. (I am not skilled enough yet to do most Fridays and Saturdays without googling).
Whoops, that was IOWEYOUONE..... See, I'm still befuddled by it, lol ............................... ..............................
I really liked this puzzle. I made tough but steady progress over the course of a ~45 minute solve. In each quadrant I began with really promising fill that I eventually had to go back and delete / rethink. When that happens, and the replacement answer is worse than my first (incorrect) response, it’s always disappointing. That was not at all the case this evening. Loved the challenge, loved the clues and really loved the fill. Hearty thanks and a job well done to Evan Kalish!
Fun Friday! Those beautiful stacks! BLANKETHOG and TIBET were early lucky stabs, and then it was (mostly) a series of nose-squinching…brow furrowing…lightbulb! …and whole sections just revealed themselves, one by one! Such a fun ride. Except for the 5 minutes or more that I had cOokie instead of HOTTEA. A lovely themeless! ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
A breezy but fun fresh themeless, easier than the last few weeks for sure. I whizzed through the NE then went clockwise pretty quickly. Thought I might get close to my best time but the NW gave me some pause. Loved BLANKETHOG!!!
Nicely done Friday puzzle. Thanks. Packers then Cowboys before Broncos. Any sports teams named after emus???????????????????????????? ???
@Vaer I thought about going in cold with Packers. Then, after getting EBB, I wondered “Buffalo?” I love these consecutive sellout statistics even though the attendance goes up and down from game to game.
@Vaer Seems so. The Athelite Australian Emus are Australia’s national representative Touch Football team. They represent Australia in the Touch World Cup and the Trans-Tasman Test Series. Their jerseys are terrific with a prancing yellow emu under the words, “ Emus since 1976”. I think the NYT should buy a bunch of them and send them out with digital crossword subscriptions. See: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/4fc8p2xz" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/4fc8p2xz</a> — — — —
The early returns seem to imply that NW was the hardest to fill... I was stumped longest on NE... everything North of Broncos took me a while to figure. Didn't help that one of the only answers I entered on the first pass through the puzzle was WANE for 16A. The section I finished next to last was NW, but COHABIT unlocked that whole section for me. I'm also on team skeptical of COB as Turkey Day detritus and I started with PACKERS for the NFL team. With all the errors and the tricky top of the puzzle, this was a good crunchy Friday challenge.
Nice puzzle. Tough, but I didn't lose any hair. "That Tracks" and "Hate Watch" are both new terms to me, but the crosses helped. Well done.
A little breezier than expected for a Friday, but the clever clueing made it a fun puzzle. Really liked: BLANKET HOG ITS A PLANE ANVIL HATE WATCH I OWE YOU ONE LATIN MASS Thanks, Evan.
Thank you, Evan! That felt like a workout ina good way (mind you, my crossword muscles are hardly developed)! I had lots to untangle to get this one done, but my whopping 100+ days of solving is leading to notable improvements in cold guesses, I didn't have to touch TIRE, DENIM, TENTS, ROE, AUTHOR or ARSON after the first pass! MINTjelly held me up for a while, as did trying to figure out how one abbreviates atoll(s), and I knew Cog wasn't mechanically right, but it was three letters starting with a C. Once I had ITS__LANE, all I could picture was Lois correcting people that, "it's MS Lane," (in a "They call me MR Tibbs!!" way) which I guess would be mis-miss-identification. I didn't see discussion in comments below (though, granted, I skimmed), but can someone kindly help me with [Goes down] = SETS? The best I've come up with is if someone SETS a record, then that person [Goes down] in the record books. I have a sneaking suspicion that my mother's (and her mother's) unrelenting correction that set/lay are transitive is preventing my seeing another angle to connect with intransitive go.
Other than TATS, the Northwest was just undoable for me. Even after looking up TIBET and SEGEL nothing was clicking. I just wasn't on the right wavelength, even guessing BeddingHOG at one point. Duh.
I never look things up but was really tempted to see whether QUITO or LAPAZ or NEPAL qualified as answers to "roof of the world" -- I had them all penciled in at one point, along with the ultimate answer. Also, the NW corner was misleading me into answering straight clues with quirky answers, as I was convinced for a while that "All-star group" was ORION.
Like Deb, I loved 17A. That corner was the hardest for me, but it was worth it to see that answer fall into place with my last letter.
NW corner left me cold and pillow-less. NYT: YOUOWEMEONE cc: emu handler
What a refreshing puzzle - no silly or arcane entries. Thank you.
"Fix it again Tony" is the term I know for FIAT. Alfa was for Alfa Romeo. Yet another petty quibble. Nice one Evan, thank you.
HOT TEA as a freebie? Wish I could get that deal. since this is Friday and tricky clues are acceptable, I would’ve clued it as "Juicy gossip."
@BC Agreed, I’ve always had to pay for HOT TEA. Occasionally I’ve had a free egg roll thrown my way. Fortune cookies, on the other hand…
I haven't eaten in a Chinese restaurant for a while, but I do order take out. When I picked up fried pork dumplings and salt and pepper squid across the street a few minutes ago, I confirmed that when dining in there is no charge for HOTTEA. Your local establishment may vary.
It's a very Nobel day for me today! First, Irene Joliot-Curie in today's puzzle. And I just finished one from the archives, in which the entire theme was female laureates, including Irene's mother, Marie Curie, of course. I had only heard of Marie and one of the others. At first I thought it was going to be terribly difficult trying to come up with all of those long names but it was perfectly crossed and include, I thought. It was a Tuesday and I went through it in about half my average. Nice and educational coincidence for me! The constructor of that puzzle included many more female laureates in her notes and wrote a very nice commentary about it. Crosswords are such a fun way to learn!! Now let's see how much of it sticks.
Witty. Fun. Fantastic. Thanks for this puzzle.