Learned a few new terms today -- UBERIZE and GAMIFY. Also didn't know horseshoes had innings. Nice puzzle!
Random thoughts: • NUNHOOD brought to mind images from “The Handmaid’s Tale”. • Lovely to have that answer share the grid with the homophone of “abbot”. • MATE makes me think of the chess term, which echoes yesterday’s chess term TRAPS. • Very nice that IT’S ODD is answer 51A. • I love FIENDING. I will try to use it until it’s part of my rotation. • A couple of words that I love showed up in the clues: “hankering” and “skitterer”. • I loved the subtlety of the clue [Like many opera lovers] for SERENADED, where “lovers” refers to opera characters rather than the audience. This grid, one never used in a Times puzzle before, just has the look and feel of a Friday grid, with its 68 words, chunky corners and spanner across the middle. It gave me spots I had to return to, pleasing my work-loving brain greatly. And oh, the potential shown by this puzzle that feels like it was made by a long-time pro, actually made by one who will be graduating high school next week. My fingers are crossed, Aidan, that we see more from you. Congratulations on your NYT debut, and thank you for a most splendid outing!
Administrative note: I will be away, back on Monday, due to a family event. Wishing all a terrific weekend!
What an excellent puzzle. The kind puzzle you can really grind through and every step feels earned. My favorite clue not mentioned in the article was "dessert that rarely lives up to its name." I smiled when I screamed TART. 25 minutes, no mistakes
Since when is a GOD necessarily a male deity? Yes the word "goddess" does exist, but in my lexicon, Mars and Venus can both be described by 8D.
@Alex I agree with you, personally. You might say “the gods on Mt. Olympus” collectively and it would definitely include the female goddesses. It may be convention to speak of them as goddesses but that doesn’t exclude them from being gods. Not a big deal if course but I also thought it was a little bit of a sloppy clue.
@Alex Goddess faded away from the 1980s, along with other female diminutives like actress. So if you're a Boomer or older, the language has lost a little specificity in favor of neutrality.
A big thank you to Aidan Deshong for building WASPS into his debut puzzle. My mother was in the WASP during WWII, towing targets behind a rickety airplane so anti-aircraft gunners on the ground could get some practice shooting at live targets. The WASPs are all but forgotten today, so seeing them surface in a NYT puzzle was a wonderful surprise. And definitely my favorite entry of the day.
Yay, my first golden month To quote one of yesterday's: "Go, me!"
@Steve Congratulations! I hit a 20 day streak that unfortunately was broken this past Saturday, and I was pretty damn proud of myself. I yearn for the day I am also able to brag about a golden month.
I enjoyed the puzzle, though one entry seemed like a stretch. The musical referred to in 43A usually goes by the nickname "Les Miz." The Wikipedia page for the musical does mention "Les Mis" as an alternate nickname, but "Les Miz" has appeared as an NYT crossword entry nine times, while "Les Mis" has never appeared (until today).
@RichardZ <a href="https://www.lesmis.com" target="_blank">https://www.lesmis.com</a>/
@RichardZ I don’t remember where I read this (it’s been 30 years at least ). But someone had interviewed another person for a profile article. In the article, the writer said that the subject’s “favorite musical is ’Lame Is Rob.’”
"I didn't understand your notes on DNA." "Yeah, but you know what thymine." ("I don't want your notes on RNA either." "Well, uracilly one!")
Mike, Puns: the basest of humour. (says he who wishes he’d got them… as helix his wounds)
Ms. Iverson stumped me! I sailed through until that SW corner.
@Paige Same here! I was stumped in that SW corner. I went to sleep and the entries materialized at once upon awakening. A psychologist should investigate the phenomenon of “sleeping on it”.
Congratulations on an auspicious debut! Enjoy your time at Harvey Mudd.
I could quibble with a few things: Venus is definitely a GOD (also a GODDESS), it’s always “LES MIz,” not “LES MIS,” and nobody ever uses the plural ETHERS in regular language. But it’s a lovely spring/summer Friday afternoon, and there were some great clues and entries in here (particularly liked LETTER OPENERS and SERENADED) so I’ll lay down my minor gripes. Thanks Aidan for a fun puzzle and congrats on the debut.
@Nat K I’m still pondering your comment about ETHERS, as it’s a bit of a complicated subject. The term exists and is grammatically correct. There are many ETHERS that a chemist might discuss in a chemistry lecture, for example anisole which has a smell of anise or licorice. But the clue refers to , “They’ll knock you out.” Diethyl ether, commonly referred to as just, “ether” is the only one I ever studied in my anesthesia training. So on the face of it I would agree with you, that the plural is inappropriate. However, now I see that historically “vinyl ether” was for awhile used as an inhalational anesthetic, so ETHERS may technically be correct. We all know about Steve L’s TCS (which I believed he proposed renaming to the more scientific Extreme Proximity Syndrome, but was lost in the OCS/anxiety fiasco) , but do we have a reverseTCS where an answer is technically correct, but so out of normal usage to be absurd? Hope someone else will weigh in….
I hardly ever do the puzzles at night, but I made an exception today and did it early. I really enjoyed the puzzle and for me it was the right balance of “I’m never gonna figure out this one” to “hey, I actually did it”. I must say that Deb’s comments were really exceptional, especially her ponzu recipe. Also, to get a constructor about to attend Harvey Mudd just a day after having that entry in the puzzle is pretty special. Finally, I wanted to touch base early as there was a very late comment yesterday from Alena from California. She commented that yesterday was the first time she had been able to complete a rebus puzzle and she was so thrilled. EH from Austin welcomed her to the “dark side”. I had previously commented that yesterday could have been the perfect chance for Joel to offer a Wednesday rebus to help attract newer solvers to warm up to the idea. I offer the example of the rebus puzzle of Wednesday 3/4/2009, which was remarkably similar to yesterdays’. Please take a look at the thread Alena started, including a response from Deb: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/3vc318?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/3vc318?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Hardroch I always do the puzzles at night. I don't have time during the day. Except some weekends. I would feel too stressed to enjoy a puzzle if I had to finish in a couple of hours. PS: I'm firmly in the Rebus dark side - I think it helps solve the puzzle by giving as extra clue and sometimes actual letters. I get some might find that makes puzzles too easy, but I'm not at the stage where any are easy after.
It's another example of the language changing. I have heard some of the answers in today's crossword, but there were a couple that I hadn't, and others used rarely in normal conversation. I may be old, but I do like to stay at least somewhat aware of what's being said and how it's being said. Though when the words appear in the crossword they may be on their way out. I liked the variety, and that some old stuff showed up as well as new words/usage. Very nice puzzle, and not everyone gets to debut with a good Friday. Thanks, Aidan
Congratulations to Aidan on being published here and on starting Harvey Mudd. I agree I had not seen "uberize", but it was pretty guessable. I also wanted to use this place to call attention to a great feature in today's mini: The paired entries 2D and 6A, both clued as "cut down the middle", both actually cut the grid down the middle. (Apologies for being slightly off-topic, but the mini doesn't have its own forum).
In our household, a large percentage of our grocery dollar becomes money put into the hands of the heirs of billionaire brothers Theo and Karl Albrecht (well, technically just Karl's, since all the American stores are part of Aldi Süd). But who can't pass up Le Choceur brand hazelnut spread, or Intermingle red wine? And the frozen strudels one finds during German week! I just finished up half of a Fruits of the Forest one while I solved this puzzle. As we know, much of Aldi's branding and labeling is designed to suggest the name brand products they're copying. My favorite was Boot Tread--no longer available--an imported Belgian brown . ale whose labeling was intended to suggest the popular Fat Tire. Now Fat Tire is a "Belgian-style" ale, brewed in Fort Collins, Colorado. In other words, Boot Tread is a knock-off of a knock-off. My Partner loves a bit of fresh fruit with his breakfast, and for a long time he would come home from Aldi and exclaim "I got two bags of nectarines! They were on sale!"--nectarines? they're not even in season!--eventually I realized he meant clementines. But now he, and I, just refer to them as "littlebabyoranges"--not "little orange," or "baby orange," but "littlebabyoranges," one word: "Would you care for a littlebabyorange?" But at seventeen letters, LITTLEBABYORANGES wasn't going to fit in to the grid!
@Bill Went to ALDI near me and immediately saw you needed a quarter to access a cart. So I went in to see if it was worth the bother, especially since I never carry change. Immediately left and went to Wegmans.
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Aidan. It's very encouraging to see young people interested in keeping crossword puzzles alive. Ps. I loved LETTER OPENER for "It might raise a flap".
Oi!! WHAT A MESS the SW corner was for me! Was flying (okay, more like traipsing) down the stack and after PEI and ART…nuthin. …plopped in RNS and Okay… Eventually deleted those and considered breaking my no look-up streak, but there was nothing to look up! Abed for “sick”? No… The rest was quite smooth, though *not* simple. Just a satisfying Friday. Fantastic construction. *Chefs kiss*
A Friday where I didn't have to look anything up! Not my best time, but who cares? Very enjoyable, a few moments of "duh" and finally, happy music when I didn't even realize I was done. A solidly satisfying start to my day! What a great debut! (Of course, had I gotten stuck and not finished, I might be sitting here with sour grapes, but now I feel like it's gonna be a great day!)
Great puzzle, Aiden! Congratulations on your graduation and acceptance to Harvey Mudd.
I mentioned the other day how wowed I am by constructors who are published while still at school. Mr Deshong adds to that emotion with a clean grid that updates my vocab. Like a lot of us older models I didn’t know UBERIZE or GAMIFY, but having worked them out with the crosses, their meaning is clear. 49D threw me; I automatically entered WAAFS, the UK RAF Women’s arm of the airforce during WWII. I knew SOMALIA was the country on the Horn, but stubbornly stuck with my error til the end. Google has kindly informed me what WASPS stands for. Brave women on both sides of the Atlantic. It wasn’t the most difficult Friday I’ve done, but it made me work hard enough to feel a sense of satisfaction on finishing.
@Helen Wright I actually was’t too sure about WASPS, but I did remember the US Navy WAVES ( Women Accepted for Voluntary Emergency Service). This organization was formed shortly before the WASPS and has been clued as such more than 15 times since 1944, the last time being 1996. I think this is only the third time WASPS has been clued as it was today. WACS on the other hand (Women’s Army Corps) has been an entry 48 times, the last being in 2014. Of note, the first director of the WAVES was Captain Mildred H. McAfee who later became the President of Wellesley College (and has twice been an entry).
@Helen Wright My local municipal airport had a large detachment of WASPS whose job was to test-fly B-17 bombers from the Chrysler factory down the road, and then ferry them over to Britain. That did not translate to jobs as airline pilots after the war.
I thought this was a solid puzzle with some quirky neologisms that were fun to puzzle out. I tried nunnery before the crosses led me to NUNHOOD, but had no other major glitches. I seldom get a long spanner without at least a couple of crosses, but MANDARINORANGES jumped right out at me and gave me a huge boost.
Yes siree!!! i'm a old geezer and really enjoyed this puzle...keeps me on my cultural toes. Grazie Aidan!
NUNnery before NUNHOOD and DeepdIvE before NUNHOOD and DATAMINE slowed me down a bit but once I reworked those it was smooth sailing to the music. And I loved that clue for DEW!
Okay, once again the crossword is teaching me words I'd better get used to because they're here, they're coming at me, and even if they were contrived to fill a fill, I will no doubt see them again. UBERIZE? GAMIFY? I do a lot of FIENDING, even if I didn't know the word for it before, and it is one that I am happy to welcome; SICK and DOPE seem to be trudging into a language that now uses negative antonyms to express admiration and were not entirely unknown to me; GAMIFY is rather sweet; but UBERIZE? I'm still trying to figure out how to use that one. Altogether, they added a challenging spriteliness to an otherwise medium-tough, solid, well crafted puzzle, and as someone who learned the word (blush blush) "meme" from a crossword, they are helping me to navigate this first quarter of a century that I'm still trying to get used to. Aidan Deshong, I wouldn't say you made my day, but you sure as heck added some fun to it. Thank you, and Harvey Mudd should be congratulated for choosing another smart, imaginative student to add to their prestigious reputation.
A source of delight for some, a source of annoyance for others. The stretchiness of language. FIENDING, as if it derives from my mother's favorite expression for anyone using any illegal drug as "dope fiend". NUNHOOD. I've never heard it used, I don't think, but it makes perfect sense. I very well could have heard it or read it and never gave it a second thought. 16D is a hoot and a half--my favorite. GAMIFY, UBERIZE...both signs the language is living and growing. Which really POs some people, but you might as well rail against the tide.
Fun and fresh! Thank you for a great puzzle.
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Mr. Deshong! I’m happy to say that of all the “new” words in your zippy grid, FIENDING was the only one that I hadn’t heard before. Congratulations also on your upcoming graduation, and best of luck with your studies at Harvey Mudd.
Glad to see another new constructor; looking forward to more from Mr. Deshong. I couldn't complete this one; just couldn't get enough of a toehold anywhere to work it out. That's all on me. One answer history search today was for MAILER. I've come across things like this before - the clues for it just changed almost entirely from pre-Shortz to Shortz era. Pre-Shortz it was ALWAYS clued to the author. In the Shortz era it was clued that way twice, but every other appearance referenced an envelope in one way or another. A couple of interesting puzzle finds today; I'll put those in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened. For no explainable reason - this morning I thought about two old songs: One was "Born in the USA" and the other "Back in the USSR." Ended up doing a search for USSR. One puzzle was a Sunday from June 16, 2002 by Manny Nosowski with the title: "Working over C's." Some theme answers in that one: BASKIINTHEUSSR DUSKBILLEDPLATYPUS MUSHTOBEDESIRED FASTSANDFIGURES BRASSTASKS Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/16/2002&g=63&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/16/2002&g=63&d=A</a> And the other was a Sunday from September 13, 1998 by Cathy Allis with the title: "Getting A-Long." Some theme answers in that one: BRAINMUFFIN LACEYCOMEHOME BLUEGRACESTATE BAITATHOUSAND BAKEINTHEUSSR Here's that Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/13/1998&g=106&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/13/1998&g=106&d=A</a> I'm done. ..
@Rich in Atlanta For some reason, the MAILER popped into my head because it's 'padded,' and over the past year+ I've been mailing smaller art quilts in those (along with a cardboard 'stiffener'). Hey, Aidan--how about using THAT word? DHubby helped me when I had DATA M--- . So many clues suggestiive of Life As We Know It Now--joint inflammation- check. Beat- check. And, as a teacher, I can attest that 52D should have been OOH! OOH!, not OH, OH! For the sake of accuracy. Please note for next time, Aidan....you can authentify it!
I found this to be a mostly smooth and interesting solve, though I did struggle for a bit in the NE corner. I had DNA swab, and the crossing of GAMIFY and FIENDING wasn't helping. I think this was a great debut,and I am impressed and glad to see the talent of the next generation of crossword constructors. :)
Congratulations to Aiden on both your NYT crossword debut and HS graduation! Best wishes at Harvey Mudd. It must be more than coincidence that Harvey Mudd College has appeared in consecutive days, as a clue and now as a destination for Mr. Deshong. Things to ponder.
I have learned so many new words from the NYT crossword -- I'm still pissed about the 2021 clue of "zaddy," which was a whole thing. This puzzle was great, and I love that it was constructed by a high school senior! I feel like as soon as I turned 30, I started relying on my Young Friends to explain things to me, but my Young Friends are now in their 30s as well. Thank you, new Young Friend, for expanding my vocabulary. I've heard "uberize," "fiending," "gamify," etc., but I never expected to see them in the NYT crossword. Fantastic job, hope to see more from you. :)
I remember speaking to the creators of Who Wants to be a Millionaire. One of their key phrases and watchwords was: “A question is only easy if you know the answer.” Therefore always interested in posts that say a puzzle was easy. Perhaps it might be more accurate to say, I knew the answers to this one. As it appears rare that the same folk will appear saying that “[Day] puzzle utterly defeated me and I was forced to press reveal. “ I can comfortably say I got nowhere with that one. Off wavelength completely and realised was going nowhere very slowly. Reveal showed a series of perfectly reasonable answers that my brain refused to tune into and I am therefore obliged to say it was hard for me and I used up all my lifelines on the first question.
(2nd post) There's been a lot of chatter today concerning the confusion and differences between mandarins and clementine. But the biological taxonomy of not just those two, but *all* the citrus fruits--oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit--is incredibly complex, with a great amount of natural hybridization and domestic cross-breeding. It appears that most of the fruit we eat today are based on three original wild species: Citrus maxima, C. medica, and C. reticulata. True mandarins are as close to pure C. reticulata as one is likely to taste. All navel oranges are based on cuttings (and therefore, clones) from an original mutation discovered in Portugal (or Brazil?) around 1819. The genetics of the cruciferous vegetables--cabbages, et al.--are equally complex.
SPOILER ALERT : GAMIFY, FIENDING and NUNHOOD are actual words. Fortunately, 'F' is early in the alphabet, so it didn't take too long to run the alphabet on my 8 A, 12D natick
Challenging and satisfying Friday. SW corner tripped me up. Get thee to a nunnery! Or so I thought at first....
@Mike Hand up for the NUNNERY....which I certainly liked better than what I ended up with. Ah, well... I susppose this was a way to GAMIFY the puzzle. [moue]
This gave me the kind of challenge I like in a Friday puzzle, so that even though I have some real quibbles, I still enjoyed it a lot. The hardest section for me was the SE. I didn't know WASPS, I only knew WACS and WAVES (I think). I didn't know there were INNINGS in horseshoes, didn't know SYNERGY; and kept saying to myself: "Not DATA SURF. DATA what???" Finally came up with DATA MINE. I'm so proud of myself on CAPTCHA. I've never seen a CAPTCHA like that, but I asked myself: "Who or what are they testing with that question?" Aha, I thought -- they want to know if you're a robot! And that kind of test is called a...CAPTCHA!!! NUNnery before NUNHOOD. You, too, right? Quibbles: Here's a puzzle that verbizes everything. GAMIFY. UBERIZE. The mind boggles. ETHERS takes its place today right next to yesterday's ALCOHOLS. It's LES MIZ, not LES MIS. SERENADED opera lovers may not know that -- but musical theater buffs will. An entertaining puzzle, nonetheless, despite its flaws.
If I have two little quibbles (and trust me, it's very very hard to quibble after last night's news) - - - I wasn't crazy about ETHERS in the plural - it's ETHER that knocks you out, right? - - - or NUNHOOD (I was going strong with NUNNERY until I just couldn't any more). But UBERIZE kind of made up for those two little glitches. Says the old guy. All in all, a satisfyingly easy Friday.
@BAuskern Thanks to ChatGPT, today I learned that there were several types of ethers: simple ethers, mixed ethers, cyclic ethers and aryl ethers. Either way, there are more than one.
I really enjoyed this one. Not easy and not terrifically hard either. Some nifty cluing. My only objection is burnishing Uber in any way; they are undeserving of the Kleenex treatment.
@B FWIW I refuse to use Uber. I use Lyft only. But I have read that Uber may have cleaned up its corporate act particularly the bro culture in the office. Need to confirm. Ride hailing has become more expensive than taxis here in Portland so there’s somewhat less motivation, but I still use them. Mark
@B The term UBERIZE refers to disrupting an existing marketplace by introducing cutting-edge technology. I haven't been in a taxi in forever, do dispatchers still call drivers on those radios under the dashboard?
Learning that the puzzle maker is soon going to graduate from high school led me to rethink any objections I might have had to this puzzle. Now the answers GAMIFY, UBERIZE, and FIENDING simply make me feel old. At least I knew CAPTCHA and ABBOTT Elementary! Congratulations, Aidan Deshong! And good luck in all your future endeavors!
@Linda Took me nearly two hours to solve this one. Guess what? The very ones you list in your comment are the same ones that gave me the biggest difficulty. It was guesswork in the end that saved me.
Taking us all the way from a letter opener to Captcha: loved the synergy. Nice puzzle!
Okay! Dragged kicking and screaming into the NextGenZone, eh? Quite the contrast to have ABRAHAM between a CAPTCHA and UBERIZE, and then the quaint AMEN on the right and the repurposed word DOPE on the left... Just so you know...ETHER hasn't been in use for ages; they have better ways of knocking you out (and you should be grateful.) Best wishes for your college career, Aidan Deshong; I'm sure you'll make the most of all that is offered....not least, real words with precise and apt meanings that can substitute for all the slang. It'll be SYNERGistic!
Did anyone else accidentally invent the term datadive while solving this morning? I think it has great potential! Could be referring to digging through old documents or social media posts.
@Mark Yep. :) It went along with my big pub "date" and the horseshoe inving I invented. Had to check mate (!) to get the jingle that's mine.
“Technically a GODDESS is a GOD” -☝🏻🤓 . Great puzzle. Fun, smart clues.
This was another puzzle that did not pose a challenge worthy of a Friday. The difficulty has dropped off considerably recently. Very disappointing.
@Archie - I agree. While I enjoyed it, it was a bit easier than I like for a Friday.
@Archie Maybe you’re just getting better? My time was slightly better than my Friday average, but that’s to be expected, as the days for that average starts about 8 years ago.
8 Down strikes me as incorrect… unless it’s meant that Venus is a goddess vs a GOD? Seems weak if so…
@E. Tru Threw me until I saw that possibility. I thought it was pretty sneaky, in a good way.
@E. Tru Yes, that slowed me down considerably. And god/goddess was the only thing I can come up with. Still, I gotta hand it to a teenager for constructing a NYT crossword. Very impressive.
Sparkling new fill! Thank you for helping to update my vocab. It did feel a little easy for a Friday, but I’ll take fresh over haut anytime!
Bravo, Aidan. Such an enjoyable Friday. And congrats on getting into Harvey Mudd (who has also appeared in the NYT Crossword). Hope to see you again here soon.
While at Harvey Mudd dine at Tropical Mexico in Pomona and Walters in Claremont. It could be eLONSO, could it not. Nice job Aidan. Welcome to the club.
@dk I’ll keep those in mind, thank you!
I also was surprised to see that this is a debut by someone so young. Well done. Daily solving has given me enough "sideways thinking" to quickly see through clues such as [Wet blanket] and [. . . joint inflammation] but I too got tripped up by UBERIZE and NUNHOOD.