What a a lot of refocuses were necessary to get it done. There were so many SLY misdirects while Kate Hawkins PLAYED MIND GAMES with us, and man, did I waste a lot of time when I forgot the MOMs. Cindy and HOLLY were solid and helped a lot—I needed a couple of names I could BANK ON. One of those easy/hard puzzles that I love, and I'm just sorry it's OVA. Will there be complaints? IT DEPENDS—STAY TUNED. The constructor (SEE ABOVE) did a terrific job. Thank you so much, and keep them coming.
@dutchiris I love this comment! . . . . . . Emusing and amazing!
Just the right number of misdirects and some great cluing and fill. The perfect Friday puzzle.
Really just an excellent Friday puzzle
An answer set peppered with spark, just a cornucopia of loveliness: STAY TUNED, ZEN GARDEN, EMBROIDER, LET LIE, SEE ABOVE, CHURNS, IT DEPENDS, PLAY MIND GAMES, ALL KIDDING ASIDE, SELL SHORT (as clued). STAY TUNED, by the way, is appearing for the first time in the 80 years of the NYT puzzle, which I find amazing. One thing my brain loves is a riddle clue, and here’s a lovely trio: [Things found in a well] for STAIRS. [Where lines may be drawn in the sand] for ZEN GARDEN. [One known to disappear during work] for MAGICIAN. I also love when little treasures pop out, too, like “clutter” in one clue and “clatter” in another. Then there was the memorable moment when I saw that the answer to [Container for the Ten Commandments] had three letters, and all I could think of was BIN, which brought the to-me-very-funny image of THE Ten Commandments sitting in a bin somewhere. (Moses: "I don't know where to leave this. I'll just put it here for now.") So, Kate, you brought pleasure to the box for me from a host of directions. I relished this. Thank you so much!
"Hey, how'd you get a tour of the Matterhorn?" "Alps to know someone." ("Well, you've peaked my interest.")
Tough and a lot of fun. Really loved MAGICIANS and EMBROIDER. Everything I didn’t know was fairly crossed. Great Friday, thank you!!
My favorite Friday and Saturday puzzles make me fall asleep. If I start a themeless sleepy on the night of release and find it difficult to make much headway, I’ll allow myself to drift off to sleep rather than break my tired brain. I’m happy to report that this one put me to sleep! A brilliant Friday by one of my favorite constructors. Peace, love and puzzlement to all.
@Puzzlemucker Nice to see you back!
Great puzzle with tough but fair clues, the ones that make you “ahh” when you figure them out.
I use [[Libby] all the time for EBOOKS and audio books; it's on all my devices. And yet I was sure that [Libby offerings] referred to, you know: When it says Libby, Libby, Libby on the label, label, label,... Please tell me, I'm not the only one.
@The X-Phile You will like it like it like, on your table table table. Demolition Man was NOT wrong about the future. And all restaurants are Taco Bell. /emus wish they were an Oscar Mayer wiener
@The X-Phile I thought of glass cookware or something, which of course was Libbey. I had totally forgotten about the food products, but now that you’ve reminded me of that jingle, it’s going to be stuck in my head all day.
@The X-Phile i am 55yo and *immediately* sang that jingle to my 20yo son, who is my trusty puzzle-solving companion!! you are not alone!
I solved this puzzle with entries seemingly falling out of the sky into my head. Really. I had no reason to know MONACO is the most densely populated country in Europe, or that COMTE is the French Gruyère. And for much of the rest, answers were coming to me with just one or two letters in place. I'm still in shock. Being in such ZEN flow mode made me sad when the solve was over. I LONGED for it to go on and on. The one entry that really messed with me was not remembering any song by the name of "Chain Reaction." As soon as I finished the puzzle, I RAN to YouTube, only to find out I'd never before even heard the song, not in 1985, not ever. But of course. Diana Ross wasn't new wave, goth rock, or post-punk. She wasn't even Queen or George Michael or Peter Gabriel. Despite that 1985 ROSS vacuum in my musical experience, the puzzle was fantastic and I had a grand time. Thank you so much, Ms. Hawkins!
@sotto voce Chain Reaction definitely rang no bells, though after listening it seemed slightly familiar, possibly because it sounded very Diana Ross-like.
@sotto voce I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for your kind words yesterday. It annoys me no end when people think my attempts to elevate their game is criticism. Well, maybe it is, in a way, but in the same way a coach teaches his players better technique. I’m glad at least one person understands how I operate.
I found this one to be on the tough side. I took a few minutes longer than my average, which is quite unusual these days. I thought it could have been a Saturday. But I am aware that I'm unusually tired tonight. That might have something to do with it. But Kate Hawkins always produces a top-quality puzzle, so I knew it would be fair and doable. And it was.
@Steve L It was challenging, but no tricks or silly words. I sometimes have more trouble with Friday than Saturday puzzles. Not sure why.
@Steve L 17 minutes for me. My Friday average is 23
@Steve L Really? I got through it in half my average time.
Breezed through that for a Friday PB! It’s always fun when the long clues just snap in with little help. Though getting Zoolander off the bat helped with the entire bottom. “What is this, a puzzle for ants?!”
This might be the first Friday puzzle I've completed without resorting to Google or the wordplay blog. Woo hoo! So satisfying! I'm coming for you Saturday puzzle. Attributing it to a couple lucky guesses on some longer answers.
@Cara Congratulations! You can do the Saturday puzzle. Just resist the temptation to look something up and set it aside if you get stuck. Good luck and have fun!
@Cara Brava! As far as I'm concerned, Friday and Saturdays are interchangeable. I don't think there is any huge difference between them. So you're ready for them, I'd guess.
Nicely done,@Cara!
This is what I consider a perfect Friday puzzle. Didn't stall once, but only picked up one or two answers each run. My standard procedure is to do so the acrosses, all the downs, all the acrosses, all the downs, etc until I stall. Then I play zone. Took me 17 minutes, but I feel like it would have been a lot quicker if I remembered the name ZOOLANDER. Every time I got to that clue, I kept thinking, "What was the name of that Ben Stiller Blue Steel movie?" I needed a lot of across letters before I remembered the name
I breezed through this airy puzzle as if I, rather than AIR, were inspired, and finished in a faster than usual Friday time. I had the unknowing help of my art conservator daughter, thanks to whom I knew about Cindy SHERMAN, and my nephew, thanks to whom I knew ZOOLANDER, because when he was young we watched the movie together and he used to do a fair imitation of Ben Stiller’s blue steel look. I thank myself for remembering that hendecagon relates to ELEVEN. And last, but not least, I thank the crosses for teaching me that MONACO is the most densely populated country in Europe. A fun puzzle that seemed much harder than it turned out to be.
Haven’t done the xwords in a while. I thought I had no chance with this one. Very little progress after 10 minutes. Then somehow COMTE popped into my head (uh, I think that’s a cheese?). Then the bottom somehow filled in. The top half was going nowhere. And then, even though I thought I went through every clue 10 times, somehow, I realized I never read the clue “Showrunner Rhimes”. But somehow, 20 minutes in, I finally saw the clue. And that’s all I needed to scream through the top half. I can’t be the only one this happens to. You go through all the acid and down cores multiple times, but late in the some, you see a clue you somehow skipped like 5 times. But it is a critical gimme that unlocks the puzzle. So I guess proper nouns saved me. COMTE and SHONDA. very nice Friday. The two vertical spanners were great. I alleviated the three S long entries: SEEABOVE, SELLSSHORT, STAYTUNED. Maybe a Friday + / Saturday - Thanks for the puzzle
@Weak The amount of autocorrect mistakes in my post is laughable. I can’t be the only one this happens to. You go through all the across and down clues multiple times, but late in the solve, you see a clue you somehow skipped like 5 times. But it is a critical gimme that unlocks the puzzle. Alleviated = appreciated
@Weak Me too. Also clues that you have read multiple times just come to you after you take a little break
Challenging, and some interesting misdirects—I had SCARE and SCOOT instead of SPOOK and SPLIT, which oddly fit, which let me try SPORKS for the Libby offering (I was thinking of the canned food company, maybe they sometimes include plastic utensils?) And of course ART instead of AIR so that corner took a lot of manipulating. Also oddly DELAY(S) could work instead of AVERT or DETERS (and of course DEFERS). And RUCKUS instead of RACKET. So all in all I was flummoxed for a bit. But fun once I sorted it all out.
@SP I also had scare and scoot first!
@SP This! I went through DElays and DEfERS before DETERS, and RuCKus before RACKET. It took a bit to get them straightened out.
@SP I also had ScooT first, but since I already had HOLLY, I had no good answer for 9 down until I filled in some more answers and realized ScooT must be wrong. .:.:.:.:. .:.:.:.
Brilliant. If there was fluffy fill, I didn’t even notice it. Worked around, leaving an area, coming back and just getting one word in here and there, watching the grid just fill itself. I do love a fanciful Friday. Thank you Kate! You never disappoint.
Great Friday puzzle with its clueing and difficulty.
I really liked this puzzle. It is great when you see a few letters in a longish clue and the word pops up from some corner of the brain. Today ALLKIDDINGASIDE came with just one or two letters filled in but PLAYEDMINDGAMES took a lot of time. But I had never heard of COMTE nor the kids rhyme and so on, so it is OK. But ZOOLANDER AND DIRECTIVE and a few others just popped up, and whoosh, in they went! When I do a Friday puzzle in half an hour or less, without any look ups for names and such, it brings a little joy to my day, and that pretty much is when a puzzle is good in my book.
I beg your pardon. I never promised you a ZEN GARDEN. I was disappointed that Parisian Beach Volleyball Court did not fit at 30 Across. It's always a pleasure to solve a Kate Hawkins puzzle.
Ah - another Katie Hawkins day*. Really enjoyable workout for a Friday - typical slow start for me and just a bit of cheating early on, but then things just fell together from the crosses. *Oh, and... SADIEHAWKINSDAY is 15 letters, but it's only been an answer in 3 puzzles. And the only time it was in any way part of the theme was in a Saturday puzzle from 1990. In that one the other two theme answers were LILABNER and DAISYMAE. I'm done. ..
EMBELLISH instead of EMBROIDER had me tripped up for a while. This puzzle felt hard not when I was done I was 12 minutes under my average (but then, I have so far to fall...)
Dan, I too wanted EMBellish first, and DIRECTIon too. A hendecagon put me off those two. Also, SccoT didn't work for [Skedaffle]. And that March wasn't Men. I beg your pardon, I never promised you a ZEN GARDEN.
Australia is on the bottom of the globe and therefore literally and inarguably upside-down which is why their national motto is "Sea above, sky below". And kangaroos don't actually hop, they just fall. Scientists are at a loss to explain why emus can't fly.
@ad absurdum Something my oldest son said to me long after he reached adulthood: "When I was little I asked you why people lived in Australia, and you told me that they went there because they wanted to see what it was like to walk around upside-down." Then, raising his voice: " And I believed you! For YEARS!! "
I had so many wrong guesses that at one point I had to just wipe out an entire quadrant and start again. DEFERS and DELAYS instead of DETERS. Some sort of KEN doll from the Barbie movie instead of ZOOLANDER. EMBELLISH instead of EMBROIDER, LEAVE instead of SPLIT, EBBS instead of SAPS, WANTED instead of LONGED, AWE instead of AIR, etc. I’m halfway convinced that there might actually be a consistent alternative solution possible if I had kept looking.
Fast but fun. I too liked the ZEN GARDEN clue, and the Z was enough to convince me that the movie quote had to be ZOOLANDER. (That’s a movie we didn’t get very far with.) By the time I saw the clue for ELEVEN, I already had enough letters to get the answer without reading the clue. That was a little disappointing, because “hendecagon” was an answer in the Newsday Saturday Stumper about a month ago, and I don’t think I had heard it before then. Thanks, Ms Hawkins!
Seemed plenty challenging even if I did beat my average by 27%. Fill was fresh with what seemed like very little crosswordese. Great puzzle!
Funny that some folks here say this was easy/breezy. This one was well above my Friday average!
This was one puzzle just the was I like them! Not too hard, still some quite creative cluing,/ Full of grid-spanning conversational phrases,/ Not to mention an '80's music reference! And you know how I like to rifle through the OED for historical quotations! Made my Friday!--Thank you, Katie Hawkins!
TIL that pilsener has two Es! I never noticed the first one before today
@L Perhaps you never noticed that second E because Usonians spell it “pilsner.” Personally, I much prefer a well-balanced ale. I think today’s task is to find a liquor store that carries Burnt Toast, an ice brown ale that is brewed in a little town about 120 miles from here. (That’s a bit far for a beer run.)
@L Pilsner can have two Es as an alternate spelling. I've always seen the single E spelling in Coors ads (see Wikipedia too). TIL about the 2 E spelling. Online kitten chat: E-mew E-mew ... E-mew
@L That's because it's PILSNER... Trust me; we have done personal research during years spent living in Europe. (I don't care what Wiki says; ditto B.A.)
I can't remember the last time I enjoyed a puzzle this much...the Robin Weintraub vibe was strong throughout. Before I go on long flights I do a search and print as many of Robin's puzzles as I can find. Now I can search Kate Hawkins as well.
(Huffily) Well I wouldn't call just crossing the shallow part of a river an entire "expedition," because... because .. Oh no. Please.
@Bruce 😂 Just something about writing it down that changes the pattern of neurons firing, and suddenly you see it.
That was so good! Not super challenging but really good fill and overall just satisfying. Looking forward to more Friday/Saturday from Kate Hawkins
Once HERD that the Czechs consume the highest amount of beer per capita in the world. A sip of the PILSENER explained why.
@LBG my current favorite is Summit Brewing’s Twins (Minnesota) beer. Several years ago they won a national award for best Pilsner for their Keller Pils, but it didn’t really catch on. I never could find it in SD. So apparently they made a deal with Twins and now use the Keller Pils recipe for the ball park beer and distribute it all over our area. It’s delicious! Had to guess at the alternate spelling though. The extra E helped with the comparative cross
You know how sometimes you’re on the same wavelength as the puzzle creator and sometimes you’re just… not? This is definitely a “not” for me. For the very first time, I had to step away for awhile, get some answers from the column, and I’m still not done. I’ll stick with it because I’m a completionist, but . Glad others are having fun.
Lovely puzzle Kate. Took me a good while to gain any traction in it.
Nice. One of the ones that scared me a little at first, which I suppose is a good thing. I eventually had to pass through all the quadrants before making real progress. The last area to come together for me was the middle left, where I had been trying to play head games in meal rooms where a host "has" me. :) Just about right for a Friday or Saturday.
Who knew Libby was a source for E BOOKS? I'm guessing that the name is a play on library. I was hung up on canned fruit (applesauce) but that would be Libby's. Fun fact about MONACO: you have to prove that you're a millionaire to live there. Everyone who actually works in the principality commutes from their homes in France or Italy. Sorta like Martha's Vineyard.
@Grant Libby is the app that most/many libraries use to distribute ebooks and audiobooks. It rose to higher prominence during COVID. I use it all the time - it's a great app! Hook your library card to it and you'll get all the books you want delivered immediately for free! <3
@Grant It's a library app that allows you to download stuff (like "The New Yorker") and the logo is a girl with pigtails who has a slightly annoying habit of nagging... All the magazines in the local library ....aren't IN the local library any more; they are online. Sigh.
A really nice Friday entry. ZOOLANDER took a second or two to recall but other answers intuitively jumped out at me after the first pass: LET LIE, FOLIO, COMTE, BURGS and IT DEPENDS, for example. In my county library system, LIBBY is available for as many ebooks as you can listen to at once, while EMBROIDER, SELL SHORT and LOVERS all felt vaguely clued and required some gronking. Cheers Because ZOOLANDER is a personal favorite, here are three more great quotes: “I'm not an ambi-turner. It's a problem I had since I was a baby. I can't turn left.” “A eugoogalizor, one who speaks at funerals. Or did you think I'd be too stupid to know what a eugoogoly was?” “Just because we have chiseled abs and stunning features, it doesn't mean that we too can't not die in a freak gasoline fight accident.”
@Michael Oh my gosh, that gasoline fight!! 😂 I was definitely thinking of that as I filled ZOOLANDER in. And I frequently think of the scene where they're trying to get into the computer! 🐒
@Michael Will Ferrell as Mugatu saying "Hansel. He's so hot right now" at the funeral — it lives rent-free in my brain.
MAGICIAN!!! What a great freaking clue. Put the puzzle down and just reveled in that clue/answer for a bit this afternoon.
Todays puzzle showed excellent qualities in opening my closed tubes. Sad that it included the part about sects, as they took 16 years from my life that I will not gain back. But what can you do. Thank you New Yorker Time!
@Krists Andersons I’m happy you made it out and are able to share even the small joys of this puzzle today.
Personally, I find the worst mind games are when someone puts all kidding aside. This world weren’t made straight: you always gotta zig-zag them zen lines. Breezy puzzle today, pleasant crossings to the foreign (to me) names.
Today's crossword was not as much of a brain twister as yesterday's, but it was still a challenge. I started off slow, entered a few wrong answers, but eventually started filling in enough white spaces that the tricky clues started making sense. I managed to finish fairly painlessly and in a decent time. It gives me hope that I may eventually complete a Saturday puzzle without look ups. Although I got the answer for it immediately, the clue for ZEN GARDEN was the kind of clever wordplay that puts a smile on my face for the rest of the solve.
@Janine You’ll get your Saturday puzzle sans look-ups. And probably sooner than you expect. Good luck!
@Janine You can do it!! As someone who's only recently been able to do some Fridays and Saturdays without any helps, it feels so very good!! And it seems the more you go without helps, the stronger your crossword muscles get!
I have never run into "Criss-cross applesauce" even when I was Cookie Mom for the Brownie and Girl Scout troops. And DHubby says it's not a thing, so I have back-up. I thought gruyere WAS French; COMTE ...hmm. I store that tidbit next to the 'hendecagon' in case of an emergency... Remember that book, _GAMES People PLAY_?? Never saw ZOOLANDER; are we missing out? (Just saw a Netflix movie, "Falling for Figaro" which we really enjoyed. ) Had MESS TENTS for the 'faclitiies' for a bit... Obviously I am just rambling aimlessly here. Worn out from the fundraiser...but at least it wasn't cookies we were selling!
@Mean Old Lady Re Zoolander, you are not missing out. Re Cris-cros applesauce, I first heard it very recently and now I'm driving myself crazy trying to remember where.
@Mean Old Lady You likely knew it as sitting "Indian style" but the terminology has changed with the times.
@Mean Old Lady My daughter is constantly reminding my grandson to sit criss cross applesauce. Apparently it’s better for his hips. I had never heard it before that, but my wife remembers it from her childhood in the sixties.
This crossword would be a key component of the curriculum at the The Center For Kids Who Can't Read Good And Who Want To Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too.
I had a nice amount of white space after my first pass but never stopped writing. Whenever I got stuck, I'd move on and fill in another section. What seemed intimidating at first ended up as a fairly quick solve. Even a few bad guesses, like I'm not sure for IT DEPENDS and lAndS for RAINS, didn't cause much grief. It must have been the ZEN GARDEN that made this so relaxing.
Seemed like very fine Friday puzzle. Solved it without assistance, but took me 40 minutes. Entering PLAYEDHEADGAMES instead of PLAYEDMINDGAMES slowed me down a bit. Didn't really know ZOOLANDER, but my brain suggested it was right. That gave be ZENGARDEN and BURGS (not BURBS!). "Tube travelers?" for OVA was clever. Don't recall seeing that before, but somehow I doubt it's brand new. Time to read the other comments and fill in some gaps.
@Xword Junkie The wording “Tube travelers” appears to go back to a 2012 puzzle by Peter Gordon. Earlier puzzles clueing OVA used “tubes” without “Fallopian,” but that’s the first appearance of today’s terse and wittily misdirecting clue.
@Xword Junkie The last few puzzles have been a bit...um...female-reproductive-centric, it seems to me. OVIDUCTS, etc. How about a few entries about vasectomies?
Confidently dropping EMBELLISH in the southeast corner slowed my solve for that part. What a fun puzzle!!
@Carl i did too. Was so sure it had to be right.
started out *very* slow with almost nothing first time through. but the the dam broke SW corner and wound up 8 minutes under my average.
Lovely puzzle. Brought to mind a favourite book by Neil MacGregor and podcast from the BBC <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/pieces-of-eight/id351096296?i=1000087703918" target="_blank">https://podcasts.apple.com/de/podcast/pieces-of-eight/id351096296?i=1000087703918</a>
@Ιασων This sounds right up my alley. Thanks for posting. If only I could leave it at that. But no, I am on the emus' radar.