I'm getting a little annoyed by GAEA/GAIA/GAYA just being spelled whichever way anyone wants to fit their puzzle. Yeah it's an ancient language. I can probably find a scroll somewhere that spells it XYZR if I looked hard enough.
@Eric Yeah, if I have to google your answer, and it turns out it’s not really an accepted spelling of the word, that annoys me. Adjust your puzzle if you have to, but don’t just put whatever you want for fill. That’s just sloppy construction.
@Eric similar to the Amun-Ra/Amun-Re/Amon-Ra situation. You have to rely on the crosses to figure out which one it is.
@Eric I'd be fine with it if they used a softer clueing of IKE. When you're using a non standard spelling, the crossing should leave no doubt
I liked this puzzle, for reasons for which some people will hate it. Lots of general knowledge and pop culture references. Enough like BARTLEBY, MOMOA, DEADHEADS were in my wheelhouse and made the puzzle faster than average for me. As I young lawyer I often wanted to tell partners assigning me particularly mind numbing tasks, “I prefer not to,” but discretion being valor’s better part I elected to bite my tongue instead. Iloved the clue French buns for DERRIÈRES. It was interesting to see the Grateful Dead and Radiohead in the same puzzle as they are two of the bands with the most fanatic, dare I say cult-like, fan bases. In the realm of weird coincidences, after yesterday’s discussion of people’s reactions to the word MOIST, I was in a drug store today and a birthday card caught my eye in passing. The front contained only the word MOIST. Inside the card read “Now your day can only get better. Happy Birthday.”
@Marshall Walthew I got to thinking about the Grateful Dead and Radiohead cult-like fan bases. I’d like to see a Venn diagram of the two camps (true fanatics only). My first thought was that you might be able to count the members of the intersecting set on the fingers of Jerry Garcia’s right hand, but I could be very wrong about that.
@Paul Turner I suspect you’re right. I’m not in the cult of either, but I love the Dead, while Radiohead mostly leaves me cold.
@Marshall Walthew And I was in the grocery store, where both CHIPS AHOY's prominent punctuation and LORNA Doone cookies caught my eye. I don't even frequent the cookie aisle! The former was on a set of Nabisco-branded muffins, the other in the pair being our old crossword friend Oreo. I dunno, but muffins brimming with cookies doesn't sound appealing: I prefer these sweets in puzzle form!
5A should say "World capital" instead of "Capital city" if the answer is also going to include the country
@Aviv S. The Pizarro reference had me thinking Lima but I agree that normally they just ask for the city name.
@Aviv S. Why “should” it have been clued that way? Because that would have been easier/faster?
Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar in 2023, not 2022. The film came out in 2022, but it was the 2023 Academy Awards.
@Dan Perlman I spent too long trying to figure out if Jessica Chastain had a nickname or something!
@Dan Perlman I noticed that also. I’m glad I checked for 2023.
@Dan Perlman it seems like that happens more often than not. Ask 100 people when the 2022 Oscars were held they'll all say 2022. Should read "Best Actress winner for her 2022 film"...it was NOT a 2022 Oscar!!!
Yeah. I don't know why olives are a divisive pizza topping? Sure, not everyone loves them on pizza, but it's not a major source of controversy (unlike pineapple, say). Other than that, a smooth solve with no cheating and way below my Friday average.
@Jonathan Agreed. I kept staring wondering how pineapple or anchovy were going to fit in there. :) /Emu not a controversial topping
@Jonathan I love mushrooms and pepperoni on pizza. Several times I’ve been with a group who gag when I order it then try it and agree it’s really good.
Please don't say this was too easy! I have been working on getting better at crosswording and thiis week... I feel brilliant! I even got the "Bangs" on my own yesterday! I liked this Friday puzzle - just a few look-ups, but better than I've done for a long time. 💛 Love olives on my pizza. I also love pineapple. Maybe even together. 😁
@Jenny ditto! And I agree, It wasn’t an easy puzzle, we are just brilliant.
@Jenny You are brilliant! Any time a Friday or Thursday puzzle is completed, I say, "Job well done!"
@Jenny For the longest time, I stuck with Onion on the pizza before I switched to Olive. I don't happen to like either on pizza, but I can pick the olives off, but the taste of the onions stays no matter what I do.
I must have the election on my mind. SOCKS reminded me of Clinton’s cat. BARTLEBY made me think of President Josiah Bartlet of “The West Wing”. IKE, well, Ike. And OH BEHAVE, well, never mind. Today I was charmed by SLAM DUNK CONTEST, which looks so good spanning the center, and by its terrific question mark [Jam session?] clue. Another great question mark clue was [Office max?] for TERM LIMIT – a clue never used before in any of the major crossword venues. There were five question mark clues in the grid, and I liked them all. Not to mention the non-question-mark [Feat on a beat] and [French buns]. Right at the start of the Olympics, it was lovely to drink in the international feel of rows four and five, with KATANA, DERRIÈRE, SERAPE, and LOS. Other lovelies: EAR over ERA, STAND down, DOBERMAN near DOG(MA), and PuzzPairs© SWEET/TEA and GIT/I’M OUTTA HERE. Andy, you got my brain whirring in the best way, not only cracking riddles, but visiting places and things familiar and not-thought-of-in-quite-a-while. What a gift! Thank you so much for making this!
A picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s one of the wonderful Michelle YEOH holding her Oscar. Zoom in and you can read the date. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/3fmhzhc3" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/3fmhzhc3</a>
@Eric Hougland For those who can't be bothered, it clearly reads "2022".
Pathetic. Incorrect Oscar year/winner... Gaia/Gaea... Olive pizza topping... "Oh Behave"... I'll stop now. Lousy clues, poor choices. Sorry.
@JP Inframan Well, this gripe comes up every time an Oscar year is mentioned. Ms. Yeoh won the 2022 Oscar, which was handed to her in 2023. Hard to give out an award when the year hasn't ended yet.
I believe it takes two buns to make one derrière.
Nice puzzle! Powers of Ten, 1977 <a href="https://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0?si=9UOMrZaJYmKflkjS" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/0fKBhvDjuy0?si=9UOMrZaJYmKflkjS</a> I play this for students anytime we're doing scientific notation or negative exponents.
@C-64. Thanks for posting the link-- I wondered if that was what the reference was-- a distant memory now!
@C-64 - Very nice! Thank you.
Yo, you yo-yos, Yeoh won in 2023, not '22 (Jessica Chastain). I want my money back! [French buns] for DERRIERE was a high spot, especially since I was trying for BRIOCHES there when it dawned on me. OK, you got me there. It made me ponder the singularity of "buns" and that no one refers to sets of buns as a "bun." As I pictured bunches of bums in my mind, I was amused that the images I imagined were slightly stout, neutral-gendered manikins dressed in jeans and flannels, as if my mind, usually to be found in the gutter, had suddenly become prudish and chaste. Oh Behave! it was saying to me. So much about this puzzle is fun. Loved DEADHEAD crossing PROPHECY...one of the Dead's standards for a time was "Estimated Prophet," sung by Bob Weir and evoking one of those crazy California lunatics who believes he's the Chosen One, with the chorus: California, preaching on the burning shore California, I'll be knocking on the golden door Like an angel standing in a shaft of light Rising up to paradise, I know I'm gonna shine OR, can it be read as a prophetic parable of the rise of Kamala Harris to presidency? After all, the song begins: My time coming any day, don't worry 'bout me, no Been so long I felt this way, but I'm in no hurry, no Rainbows and down that highway where ocean breezes blow My time coming, voices saying they tell me where to go Kamala was just waiting for her time, and now she's gonna be like a kangaroo at a slam dunk contest! And the Dead were onto it!
@john ezra Yeoh received the statuette in 2023; she won it for her work in 2022.
I think there is an error with one of the clues. 42A should say best actress Oscar winner of 2023, not 2022. I am completing in the app.
@Catherine This complaint occurs every time such a clue shows up. Oscars (and many other awards) given early in one year are for the preceding year's candidates. Ms. YEOH won in 2023, but she was the Best Actress of 2022. Hope this helps!
@Steve L That's simply incorrect as a look at the Academy's own webpage makes it clear. Yes, the film was released in 2022, but the awards are listed as 2023 winners.
Basketball players earn net income. (They invest some of it in dunk bonds.)
@Mike Then there's always the market for hoptions⛹... and then you have your day trey-ders... and of course EVERYONE always loves a Bulls-ish market... . OK my comment is not worthy. Your Pun Kung Fu is the best. 🙏
Years ago now, we were parents to a DOBEy mix. While he never had the pleasure of accosting a tax collector come to our door, I can totally see him as a potential IRS asset. 180 pounds of constant agitation anytime he wasn’t safely at home, stretched out at a diagonal across our bed. We called him Foofie, short for Rufus, after a ghost in a (somewhat misremembered) book I’d read as a child. Foofie’s namesake hadn’t been very successful at being a ghost: He’d roam the house at night trying to scare the children, rattling his chains, removing his head and carrying it under his arm—all in vain; no one was afraid of him. Foofie lived in a similar predicament: He’d strain the leash, hurling his 180-lb fluffy self at passing chihuahuas, but then he’d scare himself by passing wind and subsequently bark at his own DERRIÈRE instead. The chihuahuas laughed at him, of course. I think a tax collector could have monetized all that eager fury. Provided he kept Beano on hand.
@Sam Lyons -- Sam! Good to see you! What a joy! Lovely, lovely, post, as always... Et tu, emu.
Sam! Missed you! emus missed you too
Solid puzzle. Got a little mixed up at the end with GAEA/IKE, but that was easy to find and correct. 19 minutes
Nice one. Breezy, until I 🤦♀️ when I realized the *obviously* obscure capital city was just LIMA PERU. Don’t usually see the country added, but why not? And it’s Friday, to boot! Nice clueing. Thank you. Happy Friday! Do something really nice for yourself today!
Changing "MIS" to "MIZ" to fit the puzzle really irritated me. Same with "GAEA" which I also often see in puzzles as "GAIA" or even "GAYA". Seems like constructors just get to pick whatever suits them on any given day? Otherwise, this was so much fun to solve!
@Sydney Seems like I usually see Les Miz as short for Les Misérables -- spelt that way to reflect correct prononciation. But I also got tripped up by GAEA/GAIA.
@Sydney GAEA is crosswordese. It’s a ding on an otherwise pretty good puzzle, but Lordy does it clang.
As a childless (by choice) non-cat lady who feeds hummingbirds, is a plant mama, and relishes being a so-perceived cool aunt, I would hereby like to take a STAND and say that I'm 100% behind: - OLIVEs on my pizza (never pineapples) and in my rice, and in my potato salad, and permanently in my fridge for noshing on with no competition from said hummingbirds and plants. - OLIVE, or EBONY, or TEA-tone as a human color, despite not being any of those myself (and needing lots of SPF) because I was taught that character is what matters, whether for a romantic DUET, a friendship, or my endorsement. A shout-out, too, to PINTO beans, and "This Is SPINAL Tap," and to my brothers, for their ever-present (and near- always SWEET – because siblings will be siblings, ya know) FRATERNAL love and support. Thank you, Mr. Kravis, for a sharp-as-a-KATANA puzzle, with some stumbling blocks that did nothing but add welcome spice to the solve, as well as interesting discussions to this forum.
@sotto voce I second your STAND! I am in sync your sentiments 100% -- except I am a cat-lady who's mother feeds hummingbirds (but I don't); no brothers for that FRATERNAL support; and being more of an OLIVE tone myself, though I'm still careful and conscientious about that SPF! This is not the first time I've noticed we are like-minded about many things. Perhaps we have compatible STAR SIGNS. One thing is for sure, I enjoy reading your SWEET posts!
@sotto voce, OH HI! Also as a childless (though not by choice) lady who is very allergic to cats, has two hand-carved hummingbirds hanging from her garden balcony full of edible plants, and is (I think) a cool aunt by both biology and friendship, I'll be your third (after @G - OH HI!) on your STAND except for.... OLIVEs! Olives are one of the few foods I truly can't stand. But if we ever share a pizza, I don't mind them being on your half. I'm not unreasonable... if any try to push their way onto my side, I'll gently nudge them back. When my husband, who is EBONY to my need for loads of SPF, is out of town, I'll sometimes get a a very small all veggie plus pineapple pizza! I'd rather he be in town, and I also enjoy the pizzas with only ingredients we both like on pizza, but it is a nice treat for me sometimes. 😊 I also agree with you on the stumbling blocks. I definitely found a few PERILS in the puzzle. Strangely, I had the perimeter filled out pretty well but struggled in some center areas. But it all worked out eventually.
A note on Oscar years: The Oscars held in 2023 for the work of 2022 were neither the 2022 Oscars nor the 2023 Oscars. They were the "95th Academy Awards...honoring movies released in 2022". <a href="https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023" target="_blank">https://www.oscars.org/oscars/ceremonies/2023</a> This tracks with what happens with Super Bowls. Super Bowl LVIII was held in 2024. The Roman numeral designation was specifically designed because each Super Bowl settles the championship of the previous year. Kansas City won that game, and therefore were the 2023 NFL champions. That being said, there can still be some ambiguity as to whether a clue such as today's refers to the year the award was given or the year of the movie's release. Clearly, the Academy sidesteps this issue for the most part. However, the NYT Crossword staff is extremely consistent in their approach. Therefore, you have two options: complain every time such a clue appears, or just accept how they word such clues. The editors could avoid this controversy by wording the clues differently (Best Actress RECIPIENT in 2023 or Best Actress for her 2022 film). But they don't...so far. It seems to me that most of the people getting peeved must be annoyed because they Googled the answer...and looked on the wrong row. People who don't look things up (or know without looking it up) can easily figure out who is meant by solving crosses like EBONY, YOKED, and SCOOP.
@Steve L I have a terrible memory for dates (since half of what I remember is further in the past than I think it is), so despite my probably better-than-average movie trivia knowledge, I always wait for a cross or two on these things. I got lucky that EBONY was the [Wood that sinks in water]. I know there are other dense woods of five letters, but “wenge” has yet to be in the puzzle. The Y from EBONY was all I needed to get YEOH (who was wonderful in “Everything Everywhere All At Once”).
@Steve L But have pity on all the poor souls who spent untold time with the rebus button trying to jam CHASTAIN in there!
@Steve L It really is funny how every time an Oscar clue includes naming a particular year, we go through all these criticisms about citing the “wrong” year. I appreciated your earlier short comment essentially saying, look if the clue mentions a year, just assume it is for the year the movie was made. I always just use that approach, but I do not have the data to back it up. Of more than 200 clues including [Oscar winner] only something like 25 have included a year….someone with some time should check the answers and report back. I will point out that on October 14, 2004 the clue referenced [1930 - 31 Best Actor Oscar Winner] . At that time they had the 2nd Academy Awards ceremony on 4/3/1930 honoring films released 8/1/1928 and 7/31/1029. The 3rd Awards ceremony on 11/5/1930 honoring films released 8/1/1929 to 7/31/1930. And the 4th Awards ceremony on 11/10/1931 for films released 8/1/1930 and 7/31/1931. The clue referred to the last of these three award ceremonies….oh boy…
English buns? - LONDONDERRIERE Oh - not an easy one for me and had to cheat a bit early on, but managed to work it all out. Of course a couple of puzzle finds today. Here's one: A Sunday from July 8, 2018 by Bruce Haight with the title "Person/Place/Thing." Some theme answers: ALGREENBAYWINDOW OLIVERNORTHPOLEDANCE RICHLITTLEROCKMUSIC MAEWESTBANKHEIST Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/8/2018&g=52&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/8/2018&g=52&d=A</a> I might put the other puzzle in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from May 4, 2008 by Richard Silvestri with the title: "Poplar music." One clue/answer example: "1957 Jerry Lee Lewis song for tree fanciers? :" GREATBALSAFIRE Some other theme answers: HEREYOUGUMAGAIN OLIVEROCKNROLL PAWPAWPITIFULME Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/4/2008&g=79&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/4/2008&g=79&d=A</a> I'm done. ..
@Rich in Atlanta Re: LONDON DERRIERE. That is always what I think when I hear the name of the Irish folk tune the “Londonderry Air” 😂. Which, being one of the standard pieces learned early on in Suzuki violin instruction, happens A LOT when you are the parent of someone who learned violin that way 🤓 .:.:.:.:.:. .:.:.:.:. .:.:.:.
I'd like to voice a complaint with this puzzle: Why wasn't MOMOA crossed with STUD? There's no letters in common, you say? Well, you just should make it work. I want my money back. Okay, okay, I'll relent. Only if you change the cluing! [Jason of "Aquaman"] is so inadequate in that space: use it for 7D instead! // Sorry, I couldn't resist. Let's see if this makes it past the emus! Now back to our regularly scheduled programming... This was a puzzle chock full of fun words and words to have fun with. SLUSH next to SOCKS immediately put me in my winter boots on a miserably wet day -- not a bad trick in the middle of summer! Or maybe I'm just a poor SOD who's galoshes OOZED too much. The PERILS of the cold: ACHOO! Or is it all a SAD LIE? Can you play 5-card STUD with UNO cards? How about all those double-E's (and a couple of double R's)? CREE, CREEP, SEEK, SWEET, KERRI... and of course DERRIERE. The best clue out of a great bunch. Thanks so much for the ride!
@G I second the emotion on your first three paragraphs. ;-) I'm definitely hoping that the PERILS of the cold and the rain are all a SAD LIE. All those beautiful Olympic specimens just got soaked for four hours. Fingers crossed none of them start going ACHOO!
Oi! Six fact lookups to get enough crosses for all the other stumpers ! Kudos to all of you who got this one -it was beyond me!
Faced with the choice of giving up or looking up, I chose the latter. I just couldn't get with it. Example: for [French buns] I wrote in chignons, and had to give it up when I started getting crosses. Looking back, only three look-ups, but maaany put-it-ins—take-it-outs, until the right word(s) came along. I always heard lambs say mAA, not BAA. (Actually, I never heard a lamb say either one.) I have never seen an Austin Powers movie, nor "Aquaman" but some of the other pop clues finally climbed out of the SLUSH and I was done. Hooray. Now I'M OUTTA HERE. Thank you, Andy Kravis. Not a SLAM DUNK CONTEST, but I wasn't HATING it. To be honest, it was fun.
@dutchiris The convention is that sheep (including lambs) say BAA, and goats (including kids) say MAA. (Of course, in their native languages, different alphabets are used, and it's all arbitrary transliteration.)
As I’m sure will be the case for many people, I ended this puzzle by switching GAiA to GAEA and hearing the music. My own fault for not remembering IKE, despite having spent a great deal of my college years watching South Park.
@Stephen that’s exactly how it went for me!
Slept in....can't say it has augmented my powers. I was getting the Wordle in 3 all week; 5 today. Got 1 point past Genius in The Bee, and left the room immediately. Rec'd 2 strikes before completing the Connections. However, Strands was too much of a Gimme, starting with the Instant Spanner....so that hardly counts. And now the the pizza ingredient. At OUR house, we had to wait for both DHubby and PhysDau to be away in order to have ANCHOVIES yum yum! But we ALL agree that PINEAPPLE on a pizza is an offense to the pizza gods AND to Hawaii. But OLIVEs? There are people who dislike OLIVEs?? Well, I just don't know what to say. Then again, there are people who like JD Vance, too. Or so I hear. Moving on....tried PONCHO before the other item. Was blocked briefly by the 11/12 pair (What? WHO?) and 62A AND 55D and 59A.... I had read BARTLEBY the Scrivener once--LONG ago, early 70's--but it took the second B in an empty line-up before I remembered it was one of Melville's books. We see a lot more of TYPEE and OMOO in these parts--it's A HABit.
@Mean Old Lady I thought of anchovies as the divisive pizza food, although, of course it didn’t fit. I enjoy them myself. I learned to love anchovies on pizza in college, because it cut down on hall mates wanting to mooch a piece or three.
@Mean Old Lady I went ahead and smugly entered QUEEQUEG in the Melville clue right away just based on the number of letters... that one didn't last long!
@Mean Old Lady I like “regular” black olives well enough. Green olives? No thanks. Kalamata olives? Keep them far away. Oddly, I’m fine with olive oil, although I usually manage to make a mess with it in a restaurant where it accompanies the bread. BARTLEBY the Scrivener (a gimme) takes me back to high school or junior high. I don’t remember particularly enjoying it, which may be one reason I have never read “Moby-Dick.”
Was this a very easy Friday puzzle for you? OR NOT I encountered no PERILS. (No LIE. Not SAD. Nor SOD.) DEADHEAD, but no SPINAL tap? SWEET? HATING? No PROPHECY. IM OUTTA HERE.
Pretty easy for Friday. Never knew OLIVEs were controversial on pizza
confused by it being MIZ and not MIS for 60D, but i know spelling varies
The clue for 63A has a question mark at the end. I'm pretty sure that the "divisive" nature of OLIVEs as a pizza topping simply refers to the fact that they are generally chopped and not whole.
@DaddyD The only divisive pizza topping I can think of is pineapple, and that had me wonder if today's puzzle had a rebus for the longest time. Many people do not like olives in general (I suppose mostly because the pitted, industrially made ones are nauseatingly horrible indeed, unlike artisanal olives with pits, which are awsome), but what does it have to do with pizza, specifically?
@DaddyD The web version didn't have a question mark at the end. I'm pretty sure it means what everyone else thinks it means. (I love olives but vote no for olives on pizza.)
I don’t understand all the complaining about Oscar year math. Regardless of differing opinions as to what clearest notation should be: as it is, rather than immediately knowing the exact year that is being referenced, the solver has to choose between 3 potential years. I supposed that makes such clues *slightly* more challenging…but we’re all here to be puzzled, right?
@Man and 2 dogs either way, the 2022 Oscar winner for best actress is not Michelle Yeoh. It’s not complaining, it’s factual.
@Man and 2 dogs The 95th Academy winners were for movies in 2022. I guess that's the math. I knew both the actors in this puzzle, but misspelled Momoa. I knew the actress of 'Everything, Everywhere, all at Once', but for some reason couldn't think of her name, only the name of the character she plays in Star Trek, "Georgiou". So I had to count those as cheats. Fun puzzle, and seven 'cheats' for a Friday is about par for me.
I didn't love how the answer for 5D was both the city and the country, when the clue only referenced the city. Maybe that's SOP and I'm just out of the loop. Apart from that, I enjoyed the puzzle and thought it was appropriate for a Friday.
@C That's always been a struggle for me, too. I think one just has to be prepared for the possibility. It would have been to easy if the clue had been something like "Capital city and country that..."
Quick for a Friday. I was also late to the GAIA GAEA (was the South Park kid IKE or IKI - I know only Kenny) conundrum.
In the column, Deb says a SLAM DUNK CONTEST is “in which basketball players compete to see who can jam the ball into the basket within certain time constraints.” The contest is less about the time constraints and more about being awarded points based on style, uniqueness and difficulty of the competitors dunks.
Low to medium difficulty. I'm really not sure that this was appropriate for a Friday. I don't think I've gotten all that much better at this. I realize balancing difficulty levels must be a chore for the editors... but isn't that part of the job? The puzzle was... fine. I can't really say I enjoyed it much though. Nothing stands out.
@B agreed. Either I’m getting smarter (unlikely) or these are getting easier.
I enjoyed it. Not difficult for all the old pros who are the first to comment here, but for someone just breaking in it'll be hair-pulling. Letters of coverage? What is a noob supposed to do with that? My favourite is French buns, btw.
A fun puzzle that was a 33 minute solve. However, I had to google the Oscar winner in 2022 and then I searched “Angie Thomas” after I entered it in the puzzle. I am completely clueless on current pop culture. Also, I got all 35 words in today’s Spelling Bee. I’ve had more Queen Bee scores for July than I’ve had total going into this month. I’m hoping for another today! Be safe folks and enjoy your Friday!
@Prof. Toru Tanaka is it a common thing that the clues for Oscar winners are always a year off from when they actually happen? Michelle Yeoh won the Oscar in 2023...not 2022. Should I always assume these clues mean the year of the movie not the year the Oscars were held? Always annoys me when they do that....
@Tom C. The Oscars for movies in 2022 have to be given out in 2023 because otherwise 2022 hasn’t ended yet.
Seemed more of a crosstrivia puzzle than a crossword puzzle to me, but a good Friday workout all the same. Another short streak has bitten the dust, since I entered GAIA and wasn't bothered that doing so gave the name IKI to some South Park kid. What makes an OLIVE a divisive pizza topping? Are olives too moist? No, that would make them hated. I feel like the world has left me behind ... Probably says something that the first two entries I filled in with confidence were BARTLEBY and DEADHEAD. Most of the other proper nouns I had to work for, like ANGIETHOMAS, for example. Not an easy puzzle for me!
@Xword Junkie I laughed all the way out loud at “are olives too moist” lol!!!!!
I came to see if anyone else found the puzzle as easy as I (new Friday PB). I mainly found a bunch of people complaining about the Oscar clue, which is amusing. It is clearly written ambiguously, since this is a Friday crossword. P.S. I do not understand how anyone likes olives. I trust that my friends are not just lying to me, but it is truly incomprehensible to my taste buds that someone else's could find them anything but vile.
@John Oh, olives are lovely. Pineapple or anchovies, on the other hand .... are divisive. Sadly, neither of those fit in a five letter space or have PITs. We've been misdirected, or maybe it's just me.
@John - Yes, this puzzle was quite easy for a Friday. And, yes, olives are just plain awful - on pizza, not on pizza, anywhere. I think they are proof that humans don't all experience the same sense of taste. There is no possible way anyone could enjoy the disgusting taste an olive unleashes in my mouth when I bite into one.
I had a typo that I didn't even catch when I looked at the answer key. Drove me nuts. I finally closed it down and got a snack. Opened up later and there it was "oosed". 😂 So back to the puzzle comments. I liked the puzzle and got all the hard clues, but had problems with " Gaea" as I have never seen Gaia spelled that way before. And I would never in my life use "stud" as a term of endearment. Geez Laweez. It fit, but I was so sure it had to be wrong that I put off filling it in. So, so little things like that threw me off and left me less confident of the clues. Some very clever clues were "cold call", "feat on a beat", and of course my favorite "French buns". I had Derr... on the cross when I started laughing. It was nice to see katana again after finding it in Strands a few days ago. Time to shut it down. G'night folks. Cheers from Texas.
@Bonnie Ann P.S. I just wanted to give Mr. Kravis a shout out for the two bean cross. Lima and Pintos are a staple here in my kitchen. Nice
@Bonnie Ann Surely you remember Sandy calling Danny STUD in the number "You're the One That I Want" in Grease? <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oKPYe53h78" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oKPYe53h78</a> (At 0:47 or so.)
Are Gaia and Gaea fraternal? Also, could someone remind me: did the 21st century start in the year 2000, or 2001? Asking for a friend… …who likes to watch when people argue ;) (Enjoyably puzzling outing, this one.)
@JohnWM You remind me of Eris (?) rolling The Golden Apple into the gathering...... Quite the troublemaker!
This lively, quirky puzzle from Andy Kravis does not disappoint. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ??????????
Divisive pizza topping is normally pineapple, but as a bread baker, i admit that 50 % of my customers like olive in their bread and 50% do not. I imagine the same holds true for pizza.
@Norwood I wonder if the general population tends to be 50/50 on olives or whether the numbers skew more one way. I feel as though olives in general are a far more divisive food item than pineapple. I'd imagine people who don't like olives on their own also don't like them on pizza, whereas far more people probably enjoy pineapple alone but not on pizza. I wonder what the numbers are for people who like olives alone but do not like them on pizza. Of course it depends on the type of olive too... I digress!
One chooses one’s friends (but not one’s lovers) on their compatibility of pizza toppings. My BFF Paul and I share a fondness for olives, mushrooms, and, yes, anchovies. Ham and pineapple are definitely no-no’s. (I am, at present, in Windsor, ON, Canada, the city in which the Hawaiian pizza was invented—by a Greek.)(OR NOT—fact checking, it was actually in nearby Chatham, ON.) Good week for the Pre-Olympians. Although Wikipedia (and Hesiod) lists her home address as Mt. Olympus, all four of Artemis’ grand parents were Titans, which means she saves postage by needing to send only one “Happy Birthday, Great-Grandma” card—to Gaea. Wikipedia also lists Apollo as her FRATERNAL twin, as well as “many paternal half-siblings.” I’d say.
I've never seen the spelling at 58d before. Also, a pizza without any 63as just isn'y a pizza for me. If you don't like them I'll have yours!
Re: OLIVE. I've never fought anyone over OLIVE because no one else I've ever shared a pizza with ever thought to order it. You say PINEAPPLE is the best answer, but I'm not sure how many pizza joints in NYC even offer it as a topping. The correct answer is ANCHOVY. I like anchovies, but no one else I know does. Lo, the poor ANCHOVY. You can't even get it in a Caesar Salad anymore. Now they just wave the anchovy bottle over the salad and call it "done!" -- sort of like waving the vermouth bottle over the shaker of gin in an ultra-dry martini.
Late addendum that I found from a roundabout search . If you want to be entertained for a bit, go check out Richard Silvestri's author page on Xword Info. Here's the link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Richard+Silvestri" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Thumbs?author=Richard+Silvestri</a> 181 puzzles including 48 Sundays. His puzzles often have similar kinds of wordplay tricks - taking a common word or phrase and then changing a letter (or two) or... adding or subtracting letters to come up with a joking version. Some example answers: JOHNNYCACHET ISLEOFMANET DOCTORFILLET CONICARTIST ANTICEATER IRONICHORSE ALLFUELSDAY BILLANDCUE MEWEDMUSIC WINNIETHEPEW VENDERBENDERS OCTOBERVEST REVERENCEBOOK And lots and lots of others. ...
The French buns brought to mind an old intro made by Miss Wisconsin during a Miss America Pageant. She invited the audience to come to Wisconsin and "smell our dairy-air." By the way, there are so many kinds of olives. I wasn't a fan in my younger years, but really appreciate their versatility & flavor now. Happy weekend to all, no matter how you top your pizzas. LOL
In 2022, the Best Actress Oscar went to Jessica Chastain. YEOH was given the award at the 95th Academy Awards in March 2023.
@This Isn’t TictacToe? Yup, but Michelle Yeoh was the winner OF the 2022 films
Personal best for a Friday at 12:48 (my average Friday time is 1 hour). 22 across was my favorite clue by far. Thanks Andy for a fun puzzle!