A good, tough Friday outing. Panicked a little as I had very little first pass, but working out that long Down after a few minutes was a huge help. The names were total unknowns as usual, but the crossings were kind. I impressed myself by knowing ILEX straight off. Heaven knows I’m no gardener (that’s the DM’s territory), so where I got that from I have no idea. I’m currently preparing for a huge party here next weekend to celebrate our 40th anniversary and was slightly anxious about breaking my streak (734 as of today) as we’ll have a houseful of guests over 3 or 4 days. The recent discussions here regarding streak v auto check has made me rethink my stance. Who am I doing this for? Does it actually matter? The answer of course is no it doesn’t. So, from now on I’m going to loosen up, do the crossword daily when I can and catch up when I can’t. And breathe. My inner perfectionist is screaming and rocking in a corner but I’m going to strive to ignore her.
@Helen Wright Happy anniversary! I hope your big celebration goes smoothly! The bottle of wine I mentioned in my other comment was part of our 10th anniversary celebration. My husband and I have actually been together for over 40 years, but only got legally married in 2014. Congratulations also on abandoning the crossword streak. Trying to maintain one can be good in that it pushes you to work out tougher answers on your own, but the effort can easily lead to frustration when you have that one typo you just can’t find.
@Helen Wright Congratulations, in advance, you and your Husband's fortieth! A life together is much more important than a streak of successful puzzles, as measured by gold stars on a periodical's--even The Gray Lady's--website.
As a pediatrician I should point out that 11D should probably be “Oral vaccine target, ONCE”. Oral polio vaccine hasn’t been used in the US at least for 25 years. I suppose it may still be used in developing countries. Also, anyone else think “How Firm a Foundation” might be a Serta slogan?
@SP Thanks for this comment. I got a little confused filling in 11D because I couldn’t remember either of my kids getting their polio vaccine orally. Makes sense that probably there are other countries using the oral version even if that is not what we do here anymore.
@Rachel We don’t do it here anymore because since it’s a live virus it can be inadvertently transmitted to kids with low immunity who might have an untoward reaction, and of course the risk is very low now. But in a developing country where polio still might exist the herd immunity and ease of administration might still be useful.
I don't understand all the details about the mural, but I get the big picture. (I really take these puns to art.)
Mike, Your taking these puns to art is great frescoes we love ‘em! (according to the canvassing I’ve done, at least)
@Mike Easel for you to say! Whenever I read your posts I lose my tempera. I hope the emus don't give me the brush-off...
What a workout that was! Bouts of self doubt kept slowing me down. My first fill (after browsing the puzzle with a sinking heart because I had nothing) would have been ILEX, but I didn't know how I knew that (puzzles past?) so didn't write it in. NOIRE?, but are you sure bête is feminine? Writing in ARE YOU KIDDING ME seemed too bold, so held back on that, too. Finally I had to just take the plunges and be prepared to alter or take them out, and voila, it started to fill up. A couple of look-ups were inevitable—two names I didn't know, oWN refused to budge until I got the BIG PICTURE, and had to confirm PWN,and so it went, until it was, in all its perfection, done. A beauty of a puzzle, perfect for a Friday, and I do thank you, Taylor Johnson and Rafael Musa. Please do get together again soon.
@dutchiris Mais oui. “La Belle et la Bête.”
NO IRE here, I had fun. In a perfect world, the ballerinas pictured would be trying to crack walnuts. I remember Deb's crossword collaboration. It was with Natasha Lyonne and was very funny. Check it out in the archives; it ran on June 18, 1927*. *Yeah, fine, I don't know the actual date so I'm relying on Godel's Incompleteness Theorem which states that the best way to find an answer on the internet is to make a statement you know is wrong and somebody will inevitably correct you.
@ad absurdum 4/2/2019 I couldn’t let Gödel be wrong.
@ad absurdum 4/2/19 Not to correct you, but to use xwordinfo.com. I recently renewed my account and want to get my money's worth. :)
It’s an interesting collaboration. Taylor’s NYT puzzles have mostly been early week, and Rafael’s have mostly been themeless. And yet even though each filled in half the grid, the puzzle to me seems unified, as if made by one person. That’s the sign of a lovely pairing. The puzzle has five NYT debut answers. One, NANCHERLA, I hadn’t heard of, and even after it filled in I wondered if it was correct. But it was, and whenever I fill in a long unknown, especially a name where it’s hard to infer letters, well, that sure makes me feel good, so I’m grateful for it. Regarding the other four debuts, what wonderful contributions to the oeuvre they are, and I’m amazed that they have never appeared before in the 80 years of NYT puzzles: HORNY TOAD, IN DISPUTE, WHO KNOWS, and RATE HIKES (even RATE HIKE hasn’t appeared before!). Nice to see the letters for “Eras” in SNARE, the grid neighbor to SWIFTIES; lovely to see SOLACE, a word that calms me top to bottom; and it was sweet to see the hand-centered PuzzPair© of ARM WRESTLE and SHAKE ON IT. What an entertaining outing! Thank you, Taylor and Rafael, and give it another go, would you?
@Lewis And SHAKE ON IT echoes "Shake It Off"... No surprise endorsement at the convention, though. !!!!
Another tough one for me (of course) but managed to wrestle through it (with a bit of cheating). Some nice 'aha' moments when I finally had enough crosses to work something out. Couldn't help but notice the close pairing of HANOI and COMBAT, but that's just me. Very appropriate (for me) puzzle find today. A Wednesday from April 1 (!), 2020 by John Ficarra and Patrick Merrell. Three fifteen letter theme answers in that one with their clues: "Historic town in Veszprém county, Hungary, noted for its baroque architecture : " AREYOUKIDDINGME "Left tributary of the Vitim River in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia :" WHOTHEHELLKNOWS "Village between Kruszyna and Jacków in Silesian Voivodeship, Poland (pop. 305) :" IHAVENTGOTACLUE I'm done. ..
@Rich in Atlanta I thought of that puzzle as well, one of my all-time favorites.
I enjoyed this Friday puzzle, and had a few less cheats than I did on Thursday's (ten, compared to thirteen). But I got all the long answers on my own, and was quite delighted. How many will complain of puzzle ease? This average solver loved it, though! I hope Johnson and Musa work together again!
@Joan Sometimes the "too easy" comments sound a bit like humblebragging. (BTW, that term would be a good grid-spanning answer.) I look at my time when I'm done, but that's just to compare my today self to my previous self. I'm more interested in comments about particularly good (or bad) clues; questions/comments about an answer; and various jokes, puns, or wordplay.
I liked the clues for the 10-letter across answers in NE and SW, among others. I initially thought KESHA was too general an answer for “TikTok creator” as I missed the subtle difference between that and “Tik Tok” that was mentioned in the column. I remembered the song then and thought that was a very clever clue. It also struck me that she spells her name KE$HA (or did at one time) which would have been an appropriate rebus for RATE HIKE$ 😀
I had what is for me a rather common experience: everything filled except the “opening” corner, top left. All I had was sine, for a long time. Stop for “organ piece” was, for this professional organist, an interesting entry. “Pulling out all the stops” is a relatively well-known expression and comes from the world of the pipe organ. On a pipe organ, a row of pipes that make the same sound but at different pitches is a “rank”. The pipes in a rank are sitting on top of a chest of pressurized air so that, when a key is pressed, a valve opens to admit air to the pipe corresponding to that key. But there is a slip of wood with holes drilled in it that slides back and forth, either closing off the flow of air (stopping it) or admitting air (opening it) to that rank. When the knob for a rank or group of ranks is pulled out, the holes line up and the pipe gets air and sounds: so “pulling out all the stops” means “the whole shebang”: letting every sound sound; nothing held back. A good organist knows to unleash that full sound judiciously, so that the power of the instrument is held in check until the right moment. Unfortunately, too many organists do not understand this… see also: action movies
Started out fast but definitely had to ARMWRESTLE to see the BIGPICTURE in the SE corner. Good Friday!
Well this was good and hard. The upper left scared me for a long time. As did the upper right. As did the bottom right. What I'm saying is I was scared. :) It started to come together pretty quickly though, and if I tracked times I suppose it would be on the lower end for me. Nancherla, Ilex, Mr. Jones, and even Aveda were unknowns. I kind of envy those who found this too easy. /Emus think Iago was comic relief, not the antagonist
Gosh this was smooth and fun. A little bit of fussing in the north (dumping "I guess so" for YEAHFINE obviously made a big difference), and is it terrible that I'm still laughing at the HORNYTOAD ending in SEXED? Well, now you all know I'm actually a 13-year-old boy housed in a 44-year-old woman's body. Thank you as always to the constructors for sharing your creation with us, and happy Friday to all.
Very pleased I didn’t have to fly speck on this one. I’ve had a lousy streak of not getting a gold star without a second (or 100th) pass over these last few weeks. I haven’t checked the consensus on whether this was a hard or easy puzzle yet, but, for me, it felt just crunchy enough for a Friday. A bit under average, but right in the Friday sweet spot. Taylor and Rafael, I had a good time and I thank you!
Great Friday. SINE is tough! Absolutely loved PWN, like most solvers I put in OWN first and found the right answer only when figuring out BIG PICTURE. Long answers were fun. NANCHERLA obviously some brutal trivia but the crosses were all totally fair. Had a terrific time :) Thanks!
@Ben Would you have been happier with a clue [____ die]?
I'm not going to go through 130 comments to see if this was already pointed out, but "PWN" was originally a typo for "OWN," but spread like wildfire through gaming forums.
So I immediately knew that the salty comment was going to be a sailor's comment -- but do sailors really say AHOY cHERi? This confusion was brought about by confusing the Jones jazz guy with the Baker jazz guy and at first having CHET at 22A. ETUDES made me change it to CHAD, but that was no help for the AHOY CHERI thing. Finally I realized that CHAD Jones must be THAD Jones. A note about NOTE TO SELF. It was almost my first entry in because I'm sure that I've written more NOTE TO SELFs than any human being, living or dead. If there were a Guinness Book of Records for such a thing, I'd be in it. I thought my name would make it into the puzzle at 33D, but no such luck. I'm really glad I don't have a name that's such a mouthful. I had the "S" and wanted SPERM before SEX-ED for the Planned Parenthood offering. Especially good clues for BIG PICTURE and ARM WRESTLE. I had BIG OICTURE initially because I had OWN before PWN. Didn't you? An easy Friday with a lot of breezy and colorful fill.
@Nancy Well, I put in NANCY at 33D, because nothing else made sense...and still doesn't.
In the event I disappear from the Blog: My old laptop is in its death throes and has been hanging on by its fingernails. At 2 p.m. today, my tech-savvy handyman comes to set up my new one. I have a note to him of the websites I hope and pray will recognize me in my new home base. This is one of those sites. He's good at this stuff...but you never know. Fingers crossed...
Started in the SW corner and headed N by NE, turned west and finally made 'own' cry pwncle for the win!
A smooth comfortable puzzle. Not too easy but fun. Good way to end the week or start the weekend MMK
Last letter to fall? P in PWN. I was so dedicated to oWN. And SOothE. So SE took as long as the rest of the grid. NOTE TO SELF- If it ain’t working, ditch a few letters and find SOLACE in the solve! Solid, fun Friday!
I enjoyed this one... there was some trickiness, but the long entries actually helped me correct some mistakes I made in the shorter fill. I had "pipe" instead of STOP at 5D. That was my last correction (with the crosses).... I never would have guessed it otherwise. Thankfully I filled in NANCHERLA with crosses, another tough one. In conclusion, challenging but doable.
@Janine I had the same error and had also not heard of 33D. My extra blip was having San for SAC. Still no wiser.
I really thought today would be the day I would lose my streak. I wrestled a long time with the SE corner. It took me a while to admit “own” was incorrect (along with 43D- “soothe” instead of SOLACE) and I am now up on my NANCHERLA bio. But even after hammering all that out , there was no happy music. After flyspecking everything, I had to put the puzzle down and walk away. Okay- let’s try this again. 1A- I have no idea, but 1D is “line” and “Lara” makes sense. Wait a minute. . .“line”? Head slap. SINE! SINE and SARA. Head shake. Sigh of relief.
@James Morgan 1A and 1D were last to fall for me too, for the same reasons.
My husband and I split a bottle of wine with dinner last night, which we rarely do. I started this fun puzzle around 10:30 last night. Typically, I would have finished it before going to sleep. But when I found myself typing random U’s in the grid, I knew that I should leave the last third for later. Like a lot of people, I didn’t know the name Arpana NANCHERLA (“Bojack Horseman” is the only program she has worked on regularly that is at all familiar). But the already tricky SE corner was made trickier by having ARM WRESTel. I would take issue with the idea that a WARPED record is “broken.” A warped LP will likely still be playable, though it may not sound good. I’m jealous of the constructing skills displayed by working in fun answers like ARE YOU KIDDING ME? and NOT TO SELF. They remind me of a Robyn Weintraub grid. Inspired by 43D, here’s a favorite piece by Scott Joplin: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/443svjjs" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/443svjjs</a> Thanks for the fun, Messrs. Johnson and Musa!
@Eric Hougland Oops! I forgot to say how much seeing a HORNY TOAD in the grid makes me smile. It’s almost as good as seeing one in real life. Thanks again, gents.
@Eric Hougland Unrelated to today's puzzle--congratulations to you and your Husband on your leocation! I hope it was prompted by something good. Emus seem particularly voracious today.
"My husband and I split a bottle of wine with dinner last night, which we rarely do." Eric, I was waiting to hear that with dinner you two usually have a bottle each... Cheers!
The fill here was excellent, though the puzzle on the whole seemed a bit "gentle" for a Friday. Solved it unaided in about twenty minutes. Was unfamiliar with AVEDA and NANCHERLA, and only at the end did I grasp that the clue for 40A included "Tik Tok" and not TikTok. Also forgot that it's PWN and not OWN, but got that fixed once I saw the BIGPICTURE. The (common) name of the lizard is Horned Toad. A HORNYTOAD is a bufonid with an overactive libido. (OK, I suppose an unclued colloquialism is permissible on Friday.) "Try to get the upper hand?" for ARMWRESTLE was very clever. All in all, a very fine collaboration!
@Xword Junkie Except that (a) I knew AVEDA once I had the A and the D, and (b) you knew the KESHA/TikTok business, I noted the same issues that you brought up. HORNY TOAD is what a six-year-old says, for Pete's sake.. I had OWN until forced into PWN, which I still don't get. Generally I love comedians, but I prefer ones with easy names. I do NOT connect Cubism with Art DECO... Srsly? And 'Meeting greeting'?...it oughta be HI, Y'ALL, right? Au revoir, mes ENFANTs.
This was one of those surprisingly fast puzzles because the long entries were so at-hand. I guess it's a matter of being on the same wavelength as the constructors, as I was able to fill in the long entries with barely any crosses, which then gave a kick start to everything else. Really enjoyed the puzzle, and also enjoy knowing there are folks out there with the same version of "in the language" as me.
Really wanted "Makeup ingredient" to be hug! I let it hang out there as long as I could but alas it needed to go pretty quickly. Filled this out in fit and spurts as we drive down to Milwaukee, Minnesota to see family. SE corner took me as long as the entire rest of the puzzle did. I thought SNARE crossing with ENFANT was clever because I did briefly fall into a trap and wrote in iNFANT. Remedied it quickly but it did give me a chuckle. Good thing I was mostly wary. But what did me in in the end and kept me from a gold star was that crossing at 1A and 1D. I had lARA and lINE. When I didn't get the happy music and I couldn't find anything I thought was wrong, I did a check puzzle and that was it! My bff is Lara. I'll be visiting her this weekend and line seemed perfectly legit to me! Oh well! Fun one! I especially liked the long entries, particularly ARM WRESTLE and NOTE TO SELF! NOTE TO SELF: PWN is a thing! Remember it!
@HeathieJ Have a good time in Milwaukee! For my money, it's the jewel of Minnesota!
Loved the crossword, although getting the long down early definitely helped. Side comment on the "mini": I DON'T pronounce "sense" and "cents" as homophones. There's a definite "t' in the small coin.
Challenging , yet awesome . Loved the clue for ARM WRESTLE . Had OKAY fine before YEAH fine , SOOTHE before Solace and thought we all lose at least one HAIR a day . As a non gamer hung on to OWN way too long - I was looking at the trees instead of the forest :) As another pediatrician on this thread , didn't even blink before writing in POLIO as the oral vaccine absolutely is still used by the WHO worldwide .
The average person sheds one lung a day! Ha. Ow. Gasp.
I don’t know AVEDA from AtEDA so I had IHAtETORUN instead of IHAVETORUN.
@Wayne Harrison I don’t usually care to pay a lot of money for things like bar soap. But about 20 years ago, we stayed in a B&B in Vancouver (the house in which “O, Canada” was written) that had AVEDA soap in the bathrooms. It really was a lot nicer to use than what you can buy at the grocery store, and we bought it for a few years.
First off, I'd like to thank my high school teachers Herr Edmonds, Mlle. Krzic, and especially Mrs. Lindquist, my trig/calc teacher, for the ability to pwn today's puzzle. Welp. Typing "Ke$ha*+Organ" into Youtube's search field provided no results (although there is an "Organ Remix" of "TiK ToK"--which does not feature the organ.) Neither did "Bushel and Peck+Organ", but it did produce a couple results which tie into yesterday's "player piano" (Youtube remembers these things, you know)--here's one: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02gXQTfdmpc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02gXQTfdmpc</a> "Taylor Swift+Organ" drew up quite a few results, but most, if not all, were not real organs, with real stops, but synthesized using MuseScore or similar programs. In other words, David, get busy! In the end, I had a bad enough headache, I needed a little Solace: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-xhilEj51Q" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-xhilEj51Q</a> *I know the Fed are a wacky bunch, but styling them "Rate Hike$" seems a little over the top.
@Bill You really pulled out all the STOPs. Loved your Fed footnote. And emus only love my comments when they are four lines or longer.
Great puzzle..but I think AHOY CHERI /CHAD/KiSHA is much better solution. : ) Merci Taylor and Rafael!
Fun puzzle. Got hung up for a bit when I slapped in “soothe” for 43D. And did anybody else go back in time to the Oz books when “TiK ToK” showed up?
Friday puzzles are usually tough for me, so I subscribe to the "Easy Mode" version. I did the puzzle yesterday, and thought that the clues were a bit difficult for Easy Mode, but I finished it. Today there was a note in my mailbox that said that the Easy Mode had an incorrect link, it was actually the original Friday puzzle. Either it was an easy Friday, or I'm getting used to Friday.
I flew thru the top half and got stuck for a while on the bottom. Last to fall was the middle right with 33D being a little unfair. Got it thru the crosses.
John H., If you did get 33D through the crosses, how can it be even a little unfair? It's a crossword puzzle. I also got it through the crosses. How about YEAH FINE? P.S.: okAy FINE didn't work. That was my only other slowdown. An enjoyable if easy Friday for me. Thanks, Taylor and Rafa.
My math skills are deteriorating. It took me way too long to get 1D.
@Francis Don’t let it worry you. I remember virtually nothing from trigonometry other than a few words like SINE, secant, and their co- companions. My memory of calculus is even worse. I think math is just a “use it or lose it” subject. I’ve had occasion to use algebra in my adult life, but the rest of it? Fuhgeddaboudit!
@Francis, I only got it after having every letter but the S. A sine of old age.
Nice and crunchy puzzle that stretched my brain in a good way. Taking breaks definitely helped. I particularly liked HYMN and HORNY TOAD.
I flew through this fine puzzle until I didn't: the SW corner was impenetrable for quite awhile. I was unfamiliar with the Unreliable Narrator author and "pwn" (how is that pronounced?) was likewise unknown to me. I had "own" in there until the penny dropped with the forest metaphor.
@momonjava Deb Amlen said in her column that PWN is pronounced like “pone.” Merriam-Webster agrees: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pwn" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pwn</a>
If you're walking into a Planned Parenthood clinic, you've probably already had SEX ED, but just weren't paying attention. That was the last thing for me to fill in, guessing at ILEX over ILEr. Also, a handshake deal isn't official, you have to PUT IT IN INK...but that was one letter too long. Admittedly, some times I can't see the forest for the trees.
@Grant When I was young and broke, I went to Planned Parenthood for birth control pills. I think that means I paid careful attention.
@Grant Many thanks to @Nancy J. for adding enlightening information about the MANY services of Planned Parenthood. Teachers--with low pay and bare-bones health coverage--could get annual exams there. When DHubby and I decided to rush headlong into parenthood, I went there for a pregnancy test. The 'counselor' sat down next to me and lit a cigarette, prepared to discuss next steps-- apparently unprepared for my delighted smile. I've always wished I had asked her to put out that cigarette! Then I left to go home, walking past a phalanx of protesters; I've always wished I had told them why I was there!
Weighing in late, the puzzle was enjoyable, but easy for a Friday.
I ARMWRESTLEd with this one a bit. I didn’t have a thing until ILEX, and there were quite a few names that I didn’t know (NANCHERLA, SARA Shepard, KESHA) which left some gaps. I did, however, know ESAU, IAGO, and fine jazz trumpeter THAD Jones, which helped me get started. Before long I had enough fill to begin to see the plethora of phrases and I ended up with an averagish Friday time. It was a perfectly fine puzzle, but not one that particularly tickled me.
I thought this was a good Friday puzzle in difficulty. Cluing was excellent and grid was superb. I dumbly put down down 'Hank" instead of Thad for the jazz trumpeter on my first pass.
I breezed through the one. It must be me as my completion time was several minutes faster than Tuesday. Perhaps there was an mis-sequencing of grids for the week!?
I made this one harder than it needed to be by not reading the clue for Note to Self until the end. Successfully resisted the urge to google jazz musicians. Win!
Loved this breezy Friday puzzle, my solving times have increasingly improved ever since I've taken the approach of doing a first pass of the across entries then downs, and once stuck look at a short Easy Mode clue and go from there. Don't need to use any Googling like I do on a Saturday, or as my wife says - cheating!
@Joel I don't know what Easy Mode is, but if you found this thing "breezy" I'd suggest it's time you can move to normal mode. It's harder and more satisfying to do the puzzle on one's own. /emus monogamous, no cheating
What was I going to do about PWN(own?) and BIGPICTURE? (Well "oicture" wasn't an option.). I even considered whether it might be an odd Friday rebus. Fortunately I left P in there, and it wasn't my last square. Poof! Gold star. It wasn't INDISPUTE. I did go look up PWN afterward - whaddaya know!?
I did a Google search for Unreliable Narrator. The book wasn’t anywhere near the top of the results. I looked on Amazon and only 32 people had reviewed it. My cousin’s book that no one has read has more family and friends reviews. I search NYT Bestsellers. Not there. I get Fridays are obscure, but we’re drifting into the realm of clues that read “14 random letters”.
Tom, Did you need to know she wrote "Unreliable Narrator" to distinguish which [Comedian Aparna] was the correct answer? #####
@Tom R - Third result down for me, after two dictionary definitions for the phrase "unreliable narrator" which is what I would expect.
@Tom R It just goes to show you one person's random is another one's wheelhouse! I pay a LITTLE attention to comedy and knew without needing the book title that it had to be Nancherla as soon as I saw Aparna. (Also the googling can be finessed a bit... with a common phrase like "unreliable narrator" you'd have better luck googling "comedian Aparna"... just a tip!)
I got hung up in the SE corner this morning before my blood donation, but was able to finish in the canteen. Apparently being down a pint is exactly what I needed. Or the Cheez-Its. (Or maybe ARMWRESTLE came to mind after it took 2 phlebotomists to find the squirrely sucker.) I pieced together 33D from the crosses, but didn't know who she was until I read the Comments. I loved BoJack Horseman, and could hear Ms. Nancherla's voice as soon as I learned she was Hollyhock (a wonderfully sympathetic, complicated, realistic? teenage horse).
I was owned by PWN and NANCHERLA... i would have needed to replicate the original typo that created PWN for a shot at a perfect solve... BIGOICTULE was so promising
ARGH. I did well...but could not find what was wrong. I had 1A/D wrong--Lara/Line instead of Sara/Sine. Added 10-15 minutes to my time.
@sunny617 Thank you for posting!! I made the same error and also couldn’t figure out what I had done wrong.