Hi all! Jess Rucks here. Thanks so much for solving. My goal with PADIDDLE was to have people from my neck of the woods feel seen in crosswords... IMO, the Midwest doesn't always get the love it deserves! Learning new things about different life experiences is one of my favorite things about crosswords (and counseling, ha!). Cheers and happy Saturday!
@Jess R - You're a brave person, Jess! Just know that most of us are OK with words appearing in a puzzle that are not in our own personal lexicons. I welcome them! I also welcome entries that do not cater to my own parochial interests. Bring on more like this!
@Jess R Very much enjoyed your puzzle. Crunchy but fair and solvable, and fun and interesting! A nice satisfying Saturday challenge with many "ahas" and "ohos" at completing the fills. When a few crosses were filled in for 1D, I put in bADIDDLE, I'm from Detroit originally and my brother taught that to me when we were kids. I'd never seen it in print so I thought it started with a B! But I didn't see how bANG could fit for 1A (though I briefly thought of that prison-film cliché of inmates banging their metal food-cups against the bars, heh) so I figured to put in the P! Lots of fun, fun clues. And it's always nice to see the wonderful Dolly Parton in a puzzle, she's the best. Had HOTpICS before HOTMICS but even with contortions I couldn't make BOOpEd makes sense for 24D… had Dit and/or Dot before DAH… etc. Nice slow build of a Saturday solve, and full of freshness. Thanks so much.
@Jess R Waiting for you to construct more. Enjoyed your puzzle very much. I hadn't thought about the car game in decades. It was a nice trigger to remember those days. BTW, we called it popeyes back in olden days around the the Smokey Mountains.
Wordplay, humor, challenge, pop, newness, oldness, vagueness – what’s not to like here? Wit and polish – all in a NYT puzzle debut. Clues that stymie, but then when you get them, seem obvious – and these I love – such as [Butt to bum] for CIG, and [Jobs done on one’s feet], for PEDIS. Fun words (PADIDDLE, SHOO), a sing-song passel of schwa enders (BONA, LANA, SIENA, AVE MARIA, IGUANA, AREPA), lovely conversationals – and all of these are appearing in the NYT puzzle for the first time, mind you – (I’M WELL AWARE, IS THAT A NO?, SAY AGAIN?, YOU TELL ME). Sweet exertion and reward for the brain; well-earned fill-ins, and enough cracks to let a little light in. I repeat, what’s not to like here? And … how bogglingly impressive, NYT debut or not. Welcome to the Times, and be back soon – please! Thank you for a splendid Saturday!
I may no longer be a New Yorker, but I know that the only acceptable "Cry while swishing one's hand" is TAXI!
Better than a poke in the eye with a sharp stick, but not by much. And I REALLY hate multi-word arbitrary phrases for answers.
@BW I've been hoping somebody else would say this. I liked the puzzle pretty well, but the trend toward random phrases bugs me too. They're not properly challenging, they're a matter of pointless guesswork. For the record, I've never heard of PADIDDLE either but eventually figured it kind of sounded like a road game. Still DNF but don't really mind if the puzzle puts up a fair fight.
@BW I totally disagree. I love when a first pass yields nearly nothing but then little light bulbs start popping when I start thinking on the constructor's wavelength. To me, this was the perfect Saturday, and Paddidle reminded me of road trips with my parents, both gone now but I am ever so grateful when things make me think of them.
@BW We sometimes solve with our daughter. She is freaky good at guessing the long, multi word phrases. She loves them, so now we do too!
"Do you know where I can get water?" "I'm well-aware." ("I can dig that.")
@Mike Other folks' pun attempts pail in comparison to yours. You always go deep. You rope us in, and always… wet our appetites for more.
@Mike Clearly you just artesian us to whet our thirst for a cool one. Mineral leaning toward the boozy kind.
You and me both, Marcel Proust, we're both in search of lost time, me for putting Elk Grove and thinking "Tokato Red" is very likely the hue of the circle in the Japanese flag. Combined with HOT PICS and thinking "booped" is very likely what some folks might call a sudden rise in temperature. As in, "Crazy, I had on my sweater this morning, now it's booped into the 80s and I'm in jorts!" Or, "The President saw his polling numbers boop into the seventies after nominating Dolly Parton to the Supreme Court." Your only sin, Marcel, was eating too many madeleines after finishing your capellini. Easy man, you know can't go to the gay bar in drag like that and call yourself Lana the Iguana, they're gonna gong you right out of there. Yes, that's a no. But then life righted itself. I caught an air of exasperation to the puzzle, the longer idiomatic answers seemed impatient -- like a therapeutic session that becomes antagonistic. First, it's "Come on in! You see that crazy snownado? I even saw a derby skip by my window and catch in a tree. It was plaid, burnt siena and tomato red, nice looking hat. You know if you ever feel you're in trouble, call on me..." Then later on: "Is that a no? You tell me! I'm well aware... Say again: yes no? Happy now? Easy, man!" (To be clear, I bet good puzzlemakers make good therapists, since both involve great sensitivity toward language, its play and its usage, and an emphasis on, well, figuring things out.) That's all I got. Cheers, monoceri!
@john ezra I had BulkED up with the L crossing nicely with Gel. Btw on our Shakespeare resolution: Sam has gone dark for almost a month. I hope it's just work or some everyday evil and not the real thing. I asked Microsoft's AI tool Copilot the following: "Did Petrucchio and Kate live happily ever after? Here is the answer it generated: "Critics often debate the meaning of Kate’s speech. Some see it as a concession, but a closer look reveals a clever resolution. Kate is playing a role in this game, and her speech carries a deeper message. Petruchio trusts her with his reputation, and their relationship is far from conventional. They exit together, leaving others to ponder what they’ve witnessed. We can likely reason that Kate and Petruchio will live happily ever after, working together to dupe and gull the world around them—two players in a game only they understand."
@john ezra It never stops amazing me when people HATE on the puzzle because they find it difficult! Perhaps they should cancel NYTimes subscription and ....find a Readers Digest???
My absolute certainty that it was TiNA not LANA caused me a lot of grief. And Did you know Gwen Stephani has the same number of letters as DOLLY PARTON? Fortunately, the crosses disavailed me of that notion very quickly. Never heard of PADIDDLE in my life. A rare Saturday puzzle solved without having to resort to check puzzle. Congrats on the Times debut.
@Vaer but it’s spelled Stefani
@Vaer Just before plunking in the T for Tina, the "glamour" part of the quote struck me, and I did a fast changeup to LANA. Phew! But it took me a while to let go of Gwen for the latter quote... despite nothing else sticking in that area! I even tried iceNADO lol. Guess I'm showing my age -- I mean generation -- wanting Gwen in there! I have never heard of PADIDDLE in my life, either. All I can recall from car trips was I, Spy...
Wow, Jess, that was tough. Congratulations on your NYT debut. I'm not even smug, just exhausted. Yesterday's and today's puzzles remind me of the ones from the mid-90s which were super hard . . . I gave up on some of those (when I was younger and had less time on my hands) but once again, patience was key to finishing today. Also several visits. I have never heard of PADIDDLE but that may be because I forgot to have children. Going back to bed.
@AudreyLM: Forgot to have children, that's a great line! May I use it? (Pity I didn't run across it decades ago when everyone but me seemed concerned about my child-free status. Now they thankfully don't care any more.)
@AudreyLM I forgot to *not* have children. Never planned on it, but 2 boys in 2 years was what the universe had in mind. I sure do adore them, but after countless road-trips, four of them months-long, and one trip got them out of school for 6 months, I’m bewildered I never heard of PADIDDLE! Why have kids if they don’t help you breeze through a Saturday puzzle?
IMWELLAWARE this was a Saturday puzzle, and while I wouldn't call it EASYMAN, it was faster than Friday. YESNO for you? ISTHATANO? SHOO, emu!
@Barry Ancona Both pushed me 20% over my averages. But my Sat avg is higher, so today took more time. Lots of seemingly sound entries had to be scrapped. Glad that I wasn't solving on stone tablets.
@Barry Ancona Today, my time was about 30% faster than yesterday and about 56% faster than last Saturday.
@Barry Ancona I don’t try to speed-solve, but the stats appear to be: Roughly 50% faster than my Saturday average and faster than yesterday, which was 25% faster than my Friday avg. But both really enjoyable puzzles, for me. (p.s. my kids told me, many years ago, jorts are not fashion.)
On Saturdays, I find it's best not to try to go in order, but rather to pick a section that has a few footholds, and build from there, and to work off those crosses until a corner or entire area is filled in completely, and then move to an adjacent area until there doesn't seem to be any spot where further progress can be made. Then, you start the same process in another section until the two sections meet, or until you can't go any farther. Then you repeat the process. Of course, this works best if you are proficient enough to at least get somewhere each time you start an area. But it's a good strategy, regardless of how proficient you are. The advantage of this is that if you try to go in strict order, you're more likely to enter guesses that aren't right, and are hard to let go of...or to figure out what to let go of in the first place. If you start with a cross of two entries with at least a 90% probability of being right, you're not likely to mess up that section. For me, the gimme-est gimme was 50A, DOLLY PARTON. Of course, it's also important to be willing to let go of answers you thought you were sure of. Some specifics of my solve in a separate comment.
@Steve L I had a hunch that PANGS was right, and that NARWHAL was also likely, so I actually began in the top left corner, anyway. Those two allowed me DAH and by then, PADIDDLE was a gimme for me. I inferred that the common song title was AVE MARIA. At some point, I had GOAD for GIBE, but the --AO- combination wasn't going to work for 14A, so it came out. With LIL- for 20A, I just threw down a Y before noticing the great and obvious clue for GAY BAR, so it then occurred to me that LILA was a name, too. I eventually got everything west and north of the stair steps, which was almost halfway, and then I started in below the steps. Some missteps there were ELEC for ECON and EPA for DEA (DOLLY fixed that fast!) On Jan. 27, the clue "Org. concerned with traveling" was NBA, so I figured that "They don't care for icing, for short" could be NHL. And it was. Yesterday, the LIP got a piercing. Today, it just gets GLOSS. (On Tuesday, it was SASS.) I thought ANGEL HAIR PASTA and capellini were the same, but apparently, the former is thinner. So it and capellini look alike, but neither looks much like YOGINI. I wonder if if today's PETRI would dish yesterday's HOT TEA?
@Steve L I've always loved that Dolly quote. Her humor and personality are top notch.
Oof. That was like climbing the Eiger in ice skates and oven mitts; I just could not get a hold anywhere. The more I looked, the more desperate I felt. Not a single hit. Nada. Was this finally going to end my 400+ streak?? Time to walk the dog. The bluebells are emerging, it’s not raining, life is good. Returning a couple of hours later and finally, I was off with LANA and PLAID. The rest fell very, very slowly. Like many others, the car game was a complete unknown. Ditto the pasta and the hat. Plus I couldn’t think of what we call nappies but you don’t. DIAPER! Really must try and remember that. It brought up memories of trying not to stab myself or wriggly first born. Thank goodness for Kushies with the later babes; waterproof outers with poppers that held the whole thing snuggly together. I was never a fan of disposables. It made for an instructive if not really a fun fill for me. That’s entirely on my lack of knowledge and not the constructor’s grid. It was a proper, Saturday hard puzzle, worthy of melting a brain cell or two.
I thought Tina was the glamorous Turner even though it sounded like a very un-Tina quote. When I abandoned that eventually because I could make nothing fit around it the rest fell into place.
Tough but fantastic Saturday. While everything east of the diagonal black staircase was somehow a breeze for me, the NW corner had me in cold sweats. I blame it on PADIDDLE and for being stuck on BERET instead of DERBY for way too long.
@Brendan - Yup -- beRet is what hung me up in the NW until the end -- I had to work back to it to finish that quadrant.
Voluntarily gave up my streak on day 104, as the only way I could solve this in less than a week was via Google. Integrity mandates accepting when one is overmatched.
Fun one today, and well below my average. It would have been faster except I was stuck on alphabet for 1D. (I had heard of PADIDDLE as a word used in some families to denote a car with one headlight out, but never as a game). I also started with tiNA, but LOLCAT corrected that one pretty quickly. Among the many things to admire about DOLLYPARTON is her Imagination Library, which has distributed over 232 million free books to children since 1995. As she says, "You can never get enough books into the hands of enough children." <a href="https://imaginationlibrary.com" target="_blank">https://imaginationlibrary.com</a>/
@Jack McCullough We played PADIDDLE (and ALPHABET) all the time on family vacations in the 1960s. I’ve mentioned it to friends now and then over the years, but no one had ever heard of it. I’d even wondered recently if it was a false memory, so what a relief — and a bit help with today’s puzzle — to see it!
I never heard of PADIDDLE, and because of that idiotic - yes, idiotic - entry, I could not finish this puzzle. Call me a curmudgeon. I've taken perhaps 20 cross-country road trips, and never once have I come across this game. To those for whom this entry brought back fond memories, per the constructor, more power to you. Am I disappointed? No. I'm just plain mad. I'm sure this will raise some hackles, but so be it.
is it just me or did something about the puzzles change lately? they just dont seem to "flow" anymore. its not even about the difficulty necessarily its just like something feels off or wrong and they seem less enjoyable like eating at your favorite restaurant but the food is just meh and nothing really tastes like its supposed to.
@no I've been doing puzzles for a few years, and factoring out nostalgia bias, find that they're just about as good as they've always been. Of the 100 or so crosswords I've done this year, some of them are awesome - 5 out of 5 - and I show them to my students as examples of creativity. Some of them are heavy on trivia / pop culture (anything more recent than 1900) / exotic foods / Spanish, and I struggle to get through them, but I live for that struggle. I find the clueing to be occasionally transcendent, always of high caliber. I also find the continual stream of ingenious, novel themes to be just glorious Of course, there are occasionally sadistically hard crosswords that cause much gnashing of teeth and consternation in these pages -- aka "Saturday crosswords", and they make you work really, really hard for that music. Obviously, YMMV, but IMHO the crosswords are just as good now as they've ever been, and it is thanks to the vast number of authors, editors, beta-readers and the like who labor on our behalf. I am glad they do so.
I've never heard of PADIDDLE, which is kind of a bummer since its the germ for the puzzle. I thought of I SPY and PUNCH BUGGY but that didn't help. I got NARWHAL right away but spelled it wrong (NARWALL). I probably would have given up on this normally but I happen to be visiting my dad who is a pretty good solver and between us we managed to plow through it eventually.
The upper tier of this puzzle really....well, puzzled me! For one thing, I had FLIT for 6A (a better answer, IMO). Last thing into the grid was the DERBY (for which I had to give up BERET)....leaving me with the mysterious PADIDDLE. We criss-crossed the continental United States twice (before interstate highways were a thing, so Route 66...and then a more 'northerly' path so as to visit Dad's Coast Guard buddy...) and you can bet there were games....just nothing named PADIDDLE. JORTS? Can that be correct? (No one has ever accused me of being 'fashionable' or 'fashion-conscious.') My best moment was figuring out 3D...it was actually kind of a thrill, as I find it delightful that such a creature exists. Got it off the 'Mono' and 'ceros'..... DIAPER PINS (I can hear the derisive snorts from here--but Yes, people do still use cloth diapers.) Those early "artificial diapers' (as I kept calling them ) caused instant rashes for my kids.
@Mean Old Lady -- Hand up for FLIT as well. Et tu, emu.
@Mean Old Lady It was beret for me too for far too long. I didn’t know what a DERBY was. Also with you on towelling diapers. Disposables were all the rage when I had my kids, but it felt wrong to shove all this stuff into landfill. I got a lot of stick for using nappies (the mess! The washing!) but I can feel environmentally smug now. Plus the modern ones are a lot easier to handle.
@Mean Old Lady I did cloth diapering around 15-20 years ago. That apparently made me a "crunchy granola mom." But I figured if my mom and her mom and her mom, etc., could do it, so could I. Diapers reused with additional babies; diapers later gifted to equally "granola" sister-in-law or used as cleaning rags. Seemed liked a pretty solid system. I didn't usually use DIAPER PINs though, as there was a lovely invention called a Snappi that was a stretchy Y-shaped dohickey that was a cinch to use. Still appreciated the clever clueing there!
I have to say, I am not a huge fan of super-niche nonsense terms like PADIDDLE. I’m not saying that should be out of bounds. I got it through the crosses, although since I wasn’t really up on the term JORTS either, having both was a bit of a headache. But there are better and worse puzzles. And IMHO, puzzles that rely on that sort of you’ve-either-heard-it-or-you-haven’t term are simply not as fun for those of us who never heard the term, and therefore not as sparkling overall, as those that tap into broader vocabulary and knowledge. But that’s just me. Otherwise a fun puzzle.
@Nat K Padiddle was new to me, too. I got it on the cross also. I still don't know what it is. I recently saw jorts in a mini crossword the other day, so am learning new jargon. Actually, I don't really know if jorts is new. It may have been around for a while, just new to me. I agree, fun puzzle.
@Nat K Intersting, PADIDDLE and JORTS are in my daily lexicon. Maybe a Midwestern thing?
@Andrea I grew up in New Mexico and padiddle is definitely in my lexicon from childhood (or maybe teen years?)
Another Dolly Parton fan here, I’ve admired her for many years, so nice to see her today. It helped to make up for finding the puzzle even more difficult than usual for a Saturday. ( not a complaint, of course)
A YOGINI is a female practitioner of yoga (Hindu or Buddhist), not necessarily a teacher.
Darcy, But if a teacher is a YOGINI, the clue is valid. And isn't a YOGINI a bit more than just a practitioner? I'm asking; I don't know. Wiki offers: A yogini is a female master practitioner of tantra and yoga, as well as a formal term of respect for female Hindu or Buddhist spiritual teachers in the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Greater Tibet.
@Barry Ancona A teacher in Hinduism or Buddhism could be a yogini (or not), and a yogini could be a teacher (or not). A yogini could also be a goddess. The association of the words feels a little too loose to make for a satisfactory clue, I think—maybe something akin to juxtaposing “recognized expert” and “college professor.”
Ah, PADIDDLE, a game taught to me by 17 year-old Wendy Clark, a girl I had tried to date for months, finally went out with me. She mentioned that game as we were out cruising. I never would have guessed that tiny fragment of a memory would come in handy nearly 60 years later.
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Ms. Rucks. If anyone is angry about PADIDDLE, just ignore them. I never heard of it, but your crosses led the way. This wasn't gnarly like the past few Saturday puzzles, but it was still enjoyable and caused me to change a few answers along the way. Erasures: tiNA for LANA (Tina wouldn't say that, what was I thinking?), LiE for LEE (kinda sorta works?), Elec for ECON.
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Ms Rucks! Although my family took a road trip every summer, my sibs and I didn’t play PADIDDLE. But my brother-in-law’s kids from his first marriage did, and they taught the game to my nephew. (Their version involves saying “Skadiddley-hop PADDIDLE” and touching the inside of the roof of the car.) I enjoyed the puzzle. It wasn’t nearly as difficult as it first seemed, and all the unknown stuff was easily inferable. Thanks for the fun!
Fab. Bravo for your NYT debut. I had never heard of PADIDDLE which hampered me in the northwest corner, and I knew enough to work out that "monodon monoceros" had to be a one-horned something but got stuck on UNICORNS. I hadn't thought about sea creatures! The dumb blonde quote made me think immediately of Madonna, and since it didn't fit I thought maybe she was going for her real name. I cheated to look it up and find out her actual name IS Madonna (Madonna Louise Ciccone), so in TIL she joins Prince as "rock stars with perfect stage names that are improbably not made up." Things you learn doing a crossword.
@Steven My first thought for 50A was also Madonna, though now that I know the answer, it sounds more like something Dolly Parton would say. My sense is that Ms Ciccone takes herself a bit more seriously than Ms Parton does.
@Steven Debbie Harry was my first thought for that quote but maybe she's actually a true blonde after all.
In answer to Barry's question, for me this was a much easier puzzle, done in less than half the time that yesterday's took me. Maybe I was on the same wavelength as the constructor, but things, once I had an entry down, seem to continue to drop in and stay there. Maybe it's being of an age to remember playing PADIDDLE, and knowing the Dolly quote… It's nice to see another constructor, and thank you, Jess.
PADIDDLE???!!! What on earth? But I would have considered myself lucky if that had been my only problem in the NW. I had two answers in: PANGS (easy) to GOAD for "taunt", which I thought was easy too. But what to do about the OL ending for "benefit" and the AY ending for "felt hat"? Only at the very end did I think of GIBE instead of GOAD and only then could I finish the puzzle. Oh, it's AVAIL! Oh, it's DERBY! Neither of them hard. So many traps -- and I fell into all of them. Still, I maintain that all my kealoa answers were better than the puzzle's. GASP is better than GAPE for the "expression of shock", but GAPE it was. GEL is better than GOO for "Mousse", but GOO it was. And why did I even bother to study Latin if I now confuse BENE with BONA? BENE left me with -ALLeN for "tap" and I knew the answer couldn't be FALLEN. Finally I figured out CALL ON and that gave me NCAA. It also enabled me to change cREPe to AREPA -- a street food I don't know at all. Am I living in the wrong city or just the wrong neighborhood? After all I DO know tacos and tortillas and burritos and fajitas and gyros and kabobs. I suspect this was tougher for me today than for most of you -- assuming you didn't fall into the same traps.
@Nancy every NYC streetfair has multiple arepa vendors, I'm surprised you haven't seen one.
Nancy, Re: AREPA Wrong neighborhood. You'd have to cross Lexington Avenue. Our "go to" is a six-minute walk.
@Nancy You and I must have been separated at birth. I followed your very path.
Did anyone else have SNOWCANO? It did say "rare," but that did started to feel a bit too rare after a while ...
@Brian LOL, I shudder to think what happens when snowcano erupts while a sharknado roll in! . . . . Please, no tsunemus!
I was inspired by today's puzzle to wonder about homographs, that is words spelled the same but pronounced differently, like Polish and polish. They seem to be quite common in English (an incomplete list on Wikipedia includes hundreds of them) but extremely rare in Polish. In fact, I found only two examples: "cis," which means either the note C-sharp (then it's pronounced [ʦ̑ʲis]) or a yew tree ([ʨ̑is]) and "zamarzać:" to freeze [zãˈmarzaʨ̑] or to starve (somebody) [zãˈmaʒaʨ̑] - in this latter meaning the word is antiquated and its use extremely rare: I've never heard or seen it used anywhere in the 4+ decades of my life.
You'll see green alligators and long-necked geese...* ... where was I? Oh yeah - glad to see another new constructor. Looking forward to more from Ms. Rucks. This was a tough one for me and probably had more look-ups than I should allow, but - no big deal. Probably won't get through tomorrow anyway. *... but you ain't gonna see no unicorns (and yeah that was my first guess too - slowed me down up there). And... "you ain't" led me to my 21 letter answer find today: YOUAINTHEARDNOTHINYET It was an answer once - in a Sunday from November 1, 1992. Oh, and of course I had to look for: RUCKSacks. That's been an answer in 3 puzzles. I'll shut up now. ..
"Good morning. Solving a crossword puzzle today is less a quiet test of mid-20th-century minutiae and more a spirited conversation with modern culture." Melissa Kirsch This goes a long way to explain my declining performance. I still like the minutiae, though, and hope this whimsical policy statement doesn't have undue impact on the creators.
My husband and I always have enjoyed 20th century minutiae, also. Melissa Kirsch points out that NY Times Crossword puzzles now regularly include modern slang, internet speak, references to memes and films that weren’t shot on celluloid, etc. In your effort to be more inclusive of the younger generation, you have now excluded many of us in the Boomer generation. I'm disappointed. I appreciate a reasonable challenge, but I am not going to do a deep dive into Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. just to be able to work your Crossword. We have been told to "exercise our brains" by doing the Crossword, and we used to enjoy the NY Times Crossword. But no more. You have effectively excluded us. We are saddened and disappointed. Bella Romain
Loved this one! Was totally stumped at first, learned a new word, and finished with a little help from my brother! Perfect with Saturday morning coffee!
Some days are a breeze and others like today are just one big brain fart...
TIL that my brother didn’t make up the game “padiddle” when we were kids! 😂 I always thought it was an excuse for him to punch me in the arm. Fun times. And by fun I mean ow.
I wanted to put UNICORNS for NARWHALS as I deduced the meaning of the name. I figured fantasy creatures don't typically have scientific names. I guess a narwhal is a kind of unicorn.
Enjoyed this one, enough to think “leave a positive comment for a change.” Voila. I remember playing PADIDDLE, and it’s more violent VW variant “punch buggy,” which I disliked, being a congenital pacifist.
@JohnWM It’s my iPad’s autocorrect, my autodon’tcheckfortypos, and my congenital need to show I know when an apostrophe should be used, that has led to all this autocomment about that more violent mishap. kkseattle, per slug bug, maybe a new variant: my typo bugs me, so I’m gonna slug myself and my iPad. :-)
Today I learned about: PADIDDLE, YOGINIs, and SNOWNADOs "Thank God for DOLLY PARTON," they said with a KNOWING smile.
I find it ironic that the biggest gateway to the northwest corner was 32A, EASYMAN, because I found that portion of the grid to be by far the most challenging. I eventually settled on 1A, Evidence of hunger, PANGS, although I entertained GROWL, GAUNT, and, in an act of desperation, MEWLS. I thought that 5D, D.L., represented a driver's license, so I had STATE there, which meshed with 14A, Benefit, ASSET. And, of course, I'd settled on 17A, Felt hat, BERET. I was also inordinately proud of 25A, Fit for a queen?, SNUG. In short, I'd made just about *every* possible mistake that could be made in that corner. But then, just when all looked bleak, I killed off the BERET, which allowed 4D, Taunt, GIBE, to replace my earlier choice of GEER, inspired by the meme, "I don't often spell JEER, but when I do, I do it wrong 😀". Then, a herd (?) of NARWHALS swam into the center, a DERBY popped up at a jaunty angle. Eventually (in the AM, after a good night's sleep) all the rest of the pieces fell into place -- including the absolutely awesomely named game of PADIDDLE (which I intend to play as soon as I learn the rules. I'm hoping canoeing and riddles play a role). Anyways, this was a *splendid* Saturday, thanks, Jess (and Joel!!) P.S.: our daily podcast, Jean & Mike Do The New York Times Crossword, is, as always, fun, free, ad-free, we cordially invite you to have a listen!
@MP Rogers Clearly a sibling from another mother. I had every one of your mistakes.
@MP Rogers TIL the group name for NARWHALS is a "blessing." How great is that?! . . . . Emus are just a "mob." They are a blessing and a curse.
This puzzle wasn’t easy, man. But boy, was it fun!
A shout-out for the Monodon monoceros -- the mascot for my alma mater! I'm maybe a tiny bit surprised no one has yet mentioned Gnarls NARWHAL, mascot for The New School University since 2014. TBH, I wasn't sure when the mascot came into being and read up about it. Imagine my surprise that another answer in today's puzzle popped up in the backstory! Apparently when the student body was polled for mascot ideas, some students voted to be represented by a CIGarette(!). (Probably my favorite clue today was "Butt to bum".) A NARWHAL as a school mascot, you scoff? In this household, it's par for the course! My undergrad is represented by a thoroughbred, because yes, Skidmore College is proudly located in Saratoga Springs, with its vaunted racecourse. And my partner's alma mater has the best mascot of all, the Drexel unicorn! It literally tops lists of these kinds, haha. And with that, I've come full circle back to that monoceros! This backstory about Gnarls Narwhal is so very New School. Cute! <a href="https://www.newschoolfreepress.com/2022/05/08/behind-gnarls-the-backstory-of-the-new-schools-climate-change-fleeing-vogueology-loving-narwhal-mascot" target="_blank">https://www.newschoolfreepress.com/2022/05/08/behind-gnarls-the-backstory-of-the-new-schools-climate-change-fleeing-vogueology-loving-narwhal-mascot</a>/
@G - I love narwhals! Fascinating animals with fascinating biology and behavior. And cute as all get-out, too. They were a popular topic for semester projects I used to assign to my students. I had no idea it was the mascot for any school. Glad to hear about Gnarls.
Clues like 10 across are deeply unsatisfying. Almost every organization has eligibility requirements. The only way to get the answer is by filling in the crosses. I think of excessively vague clues like this as ‘clavins’ after Cliff Clavin’s “who are three people who have never been in my kitchen?”
@N.E. Body Clavins!! I love that. Hope it sticks. IMHO, a few Clavins here and there are fine, as they can introduce some ambiguity & play, but I end up agreeing with your assessment if the balance is wrong.
Last Supper I’M WELL AWARE ANGEL HAIR goes limp if overcooked, HAPPY NOW? IS THAT A NO? Maybe the NARWHALS will eat it. Richard Shindell’s “Are you happy now?” <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn6AbrtjK9I" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hn6AbrtjK9I</a>
@Puzzlemucker Thanks for the Richard Shindelk link. I hadn’t heard that song in quite some time.
I’m 40 years old. I’ve never in my life heard the word “padiddle.” How did that get past the editors into the NY. Times crossword puzzle? That is absolutely ridiculous.
@Jonathan I'm 70, and though I can't say I never heard the word over the course of my life, I can say that being in a family that drove around a lot with many children in the car, we never, ever, played this supposed car game.
Jonathan, How? It seems your having or not having heard of a word is not the criterion for its acceptance in the NYT Crossword. Shocking, isn't it? P.S. I hadn't heard of PADIDDLE either, and it is hardly the first answer I've run into here that I didn't know, but I had no problem solving the puzzle.
@Jonathan I'm 40 and I've been playing it my whole life
Jess, you had me at Beyoncé’s AVEMARIA and DOLLYPARTON (not to mention GAYBAR, PEDIS (which go with manis monthly for me), among other great entries). If you haven’t already done so, please listen to Beyoncé’s newest genre-breaking album, Cowboy Carter. It’s ostensibly a country album that she developed in response to the disses she received at the 2016 CMAs despite her great performance with the then-Dixie Chicks. Opera singers are chiming in about her amazing performance of Caro Mio Ben within the song, Daughter. Her song Halo is another phenomenal example of her incredible range. If you’re dismissing Beyoncé as a vapid pop star, I dare say you are missing out. Ave Maria 14 years ago: <a href="https://youtu.be/hKmI1avKHJI?si=TWqSZKw9aDulIxD3" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/hKmI1avKHJI?si=TWqSZKw9aDulIxD3</a> Opera singer’s reaction to Daughter: <a href="https://youtu.be/Ux_WaF5YwG8?si=ilKCJlAaLeun6EGP" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Ux_WaF5YwG8?si=ilKCJlAaLeun6EGP</a>
@Pani Korunova, When I read that clue, I thought maybe Beyoncé’s next project was going to be an album of Schubert lieder. Die Forelle, Du bist die Ruh, An die Musik… am I right?! It would be interesting!
@Pani Korunova Not to mention, the "puzzle synchronicity" of Beyoncé and DOLLY PARTON in the news and in the NYTXD! Specifically, Beyoncé's terrific version -- I'd call it a re-envisioning -- of Jolene on Cowboy Carter!! Dolly herself requested Beyoncé make a version "done in a big way". <a href="https://youtu.be/x9XHMK3nWr4?si=-HdPUwRhZMzauG9w" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/x9XHMK3nWr4?si=-HdPUwRhZMzauG9w</a> One of many articles on the subject: <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/29/entertainment/dolly-parton-beyonce-jolene/index.html" target="_blank">https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/29/entertainment/dolly-parton-beyonce-jolene/index.html</a>
Very pleasant puzzle. I'd love to see some more by Jess. We called the car game Popeyes back in the olden days...
This boomer agrees with Melissa Kirsch, “The Gen Z Crossword Era” in today’s NYT Newsletter. Now I don’t feel so bad for not getting PADIDDLE? Anyway, I’ve been enjoying the Gen Z versions on Fri and Sat using auto correct. The stuff I’m learning for casual coffee shop conversations!
@William this is a good wholesome response to a crossword with fill outside of your lexicon - which is funny, because someone on the cusp of millenial and gen z ( * shudders * ), i almost always do not get the latter's slang or references! Too many people just complain and say the puzzle is not good because it doesn't speak to their generation enough. Just wanted to say thanks!
I had a great time today with this lovely, funny Saturday puzzle. I had to laugh at my enlightenment solve to "you kill me". When I went back to clean up that part of the puzzle....that can't be right, could it? So it was "Lee", not "lie" and that eponymous dish was a petri (I should have gotten that right away, but hunger had me thinking food}. I really enjoyed all the clues and had fun with the solves. They just killed me. I died laughing. Looking forward to the big Sunday puzzle. Thank you Mr. Rucks.
My first thought for blondes was Debbie Harry, and it fit. But if course, Dolly Parton is much worried than DH.
@CalGal I really must review my posts with more care. How auto correct got "much worried" from what I intended to write is beyond me. I meant that Dolly is much wittier than Ms. Harry, who always seems so serious.
@CalGal Me too—and the fact that she fronted Blondie made her seem the obvious choice. Plus, of course, beginning with D and having the right number of letters. Devilish!