No, no, no! A PIT STOP is a brief stop, not an overnight stay in a hotel. This PIT STOP is an actual PIT STOP, at an auto race, where the driver stops to re-tire his race car. Re-tire-ment, get it?
@Steve L Thanks - I would have added that if you hadn't already. Besides, in non-racing context, a PIT STOP isn't a place to sleep... it's a restroom visit.
@Steve L Exactly what I was thinking Plus sometimes cars go into the pits and, for whatever mechanical reason, don't come back out... retiring from the race.
@Steve L I knew I could count on you to bring it up. That's how I, too, read into that misdirect. The only other way I use PIT STOP is if I'm on my way somewhere but make a quick stop on the way there, a dash-in-dash-out kind of thing, much like race cars quickly getting their tires changed. That said, I'm sure many will, like Deb, see it from the angle of retiring somewhere for the night on a road trip, and I suppose it's fine. If it got them to PIT STOP, I don't see how the it can be an entirely faulted interpretation.
With all respect to Deb Amien, I thought the [Occasion for retirement?]/PITSTOP clue referred to an auto racer's pit stop where the car gets a fresh set of tires (re-TIRE-ment).
@yankeefan 100% your interpretation is correct. One doesn’t spend the night at a PITSTOP … maybe a truck stop?
yankeefan, Yes, that was the subject of the very first post in the comments last night. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/41gper?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/41gper?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> Emus should retire
@Barry Ancona Sorry, I read some of the comments but didn’t have the patience to go all the way to the end. I very rarely post anything anywhere and inevitably regret it lol
Fun puzzle with lively clues, lots of fresh and interesting answers, and few three letter answers. I solved it steadily by jumping all around. I liked REFUSENIKS (maybe Bartleby was the first one). I was also happy to see DEIRDRE (of the sorrows), which I remembered because I long ago wrote a paper on the treatment of the DEIRDRE legend in Irish literature. Don’t let anybody tell you that a liberal arts education isn’t worthwhile. But all puzzlers know that.
@Marshall Walthew. Earlier reference to Bartleby in NYT this week was by Bret Stephens. I also would prefer not to.
@Norman I missed that. I was just making a call back to a Bartleby appearance in a recent puzzle.
@Marshall Walthew the primary meaning of “refusenik” is a Soviet Union term to designate (mostly) Jews who were stripped of their passports and not allowed to emigrate to Israel. The “refusing” was done by Soviets, who also spread the lie that Zionism was “colonialism.” So in addition to having to read the constant antisemitism in the NYT, now I have to read Soviet propaganda (and no understanding or education about this horrible history) in the crossword. No evidence that this has anything to do with Bartleby. He also was not “defiant” or explicitly protesting. “I would prefer not to” is neither, which is part of the whole point of the story.
Streak hits 1000 today. A special shoutout to what made it all possible -- hey, it's already been mentioned in today's puzzle: retirement! That, and Covid boredom. Toughest puzzles of them all? The ones before and after major surgery, which thankfully were Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday. And the unexpected rewards ... for instance, where else would the idea to try bibimbap come from?
@LBG Congratulations on your streak! I first learned of bibimbap from a crossword puzzle, too. Still haven’t tried it, though it sounds appealing, and I expect the Korean restaurants are few in my new home. But maybe someday when I’m traveling. (I had a hankering for Thai food the other day, and found there are several Thai restaurants here. That was encouraging.)
@LBG Very impressive streak!
Yesterday's comment on bringing the puzzles into modern times had me reflecting on a theory I've had. Don't laugh (or please do), but I think the downfall of American education started when The Ed Sullivan Show was cancelled. Here we were, the whole family, different generations watching an hour-long program each Sunday night. The "old folks" were exposed to Elvis and The Beatles and the youngsters heard Ella, Satchmo, The Mills Bros., etc. We got a taste of everything - opera, Broadway musicals and plays, comics of all ages, magicians, acrobats, ballet, tap dancing, sports, classical as well as modern music and so much more. It was a liberal arts education in a 60 minute program. These crosswords provide another means of opening one's mind. I've learned so much through the years, but I also cherish all the knowledge I possess and am so happy to put that to good and fun-filled use. Happy solving and Happy Labor Day Weekend. May the puzzles be with you!
@Min That’s an interesting theory. I vaguely remember watching the Ed Sullivan Show when I was in grade school. But it’s important to note a couple of things. I think far fewer households had multiple TVs back then. And even if they did, there were far fewer viewing options available. Both factors increased the likelihood that a family would watch the show together. I’m 65. I don’t always know the cultural references from generations that grew up after I did, but I appreciate learning some of them from crosswords.
@Min There’s something to what you say, but in this internet era there are still many opportunities for people to stay culturally connected across generations. Those who are truly intellectually curious will stay abreast of current trends and be aware of history. The trick is to not dismiss the past as irrelevant or treat the present as something to be avoided. One benefit of the modern online world is that crosswords, which for me were for decades a largely solitary endeavor, can now be shared with a wonderful community of enthusiasts like this one.
I, a wordplay stan, loved the cluing, which was rich with it. I’d like to focus here on my two favorite clues, because they were original – and, trust me, given the long history of crosswords, it’s hard to come up with an outstanding original clue. Today, I should mention, there were clues based on words – “home”, “handle”, “retirement” – that have been punned on before in puzzles. I, an experienced solver, smiled at these old friends. But I wowed at two terrific clues that broke new ground: [Alternative to hanging out?] for DRYER. [Marked Twain] for DOGEARED. A moment of appreciation, please. These are crossword gold. Joy from the cluing was buttressed by lovely answers: REFUSENIK, GARISH, PLOT HOLE, DOGEARED, DEAR GOD, GO POOF, SPLAY, YOINKED, ESTHETE. Buttressed by resistance that satisfied my brain’s work ethic. And buttressed by hardly a whiff of junk amid all that white space in the grid. Why all the white space despite the paucity of long answers? Because there are only 29 black squares, even less than in the average Saturday puzzle. So, wit, beauty, bite, and grid-building chops – a recipe for a stellar outing, which is what you delivered, Colin. Bravo, and thank you!
Hi, @Lewis! Although it's usage has broadened, I like to keep the protmanteau "stan" to its original, creepy, sense of "stalker-fan." Do you consider yourself a creepy "stalker fan" of Wordplay, Lewis? I don't! emu-stalking
Enjoyed this puzzle so much better than yesterday’s. Finished quickly, despite a slow start. Maybe because this feels like my generation’s puzzle (Gen X). Steve L is right, Deb. PITSTOP was undoubtedly about a place to re-tire a race car 🏎️. Fun fact: I haven’t owned a clothes DRYER since moving to Portugal two years ago. I wash my clothes in a fancy washing machine (máquina de lavar roupa, in the kitchen of course) and then take them onto an adjacent veranda where I hang them out to dry like a typical Portuguese person. It’s soooo relaxing and the clothes are so fresh! I save money and help the environment. The clothes last longer, too, I think. I never imagined myself doing this but here I am! I was slowed down a bit in my solving due to my characteristic stubbornness, for example insisting on eRNURSE instead of ORNURSE. Also, I was convinced Burna Boy’s genre would have been AFROrap instead of AFROPOP but that was GenX popping out instead of GenZ! Fun Friday 😊. Another good one, Colin!
@Pani Korunova I understood PITSTOP as the place where the decision to retire a car in a race can be made. I used to watch Le Mans 24 Hours for years, and the drama at the pit stops - Will they fix the car quickly? Will they fix it at all? Will they have to retire? - was one of the highlights. As for dryers - they are quite rare in Poland, too. Most of us live in flats, not houses, so space is limited and all our washing equipment has to fit into a small bathroom or kitchen (our Warsaw apartment is 90 square meters, which verges on the luxurious in this city; many families live in 3 rooms on 60 sq.m or less), and running a dryer is extremely expensive given European electricity prices. Hanging clothes to dry - in summer on balconies, in winter on racks in well heated rooms - is what a huge majority of us do.
@Andrzej Another thing about living in Europe is not only the lack of DRYERs but also the overall emphasis on energy efficiency. I live in the suburbs of Lisbon as I lived in the suburbs all my life in the US. Here, the mass transit system is so well organized! In my village, there are buses to the mid-size town nearby, to the capital, Lisbon, to the beach, all over Portugal and even to Spain. We now have just one car, a small turbo diesel. In the US, by contrast, taking a bus — where they existed in the suburbs — was not viewed positively. We had three gas-guzzling vehicles, including a big SUV. I had a huge washer and DRYER, enormous refrigerator and a second one in the garage. We drove everywhere whenever we wanted without care. I never thought I’d see my husband join me on a bus as he does here, just as he did when he was growing up in Slovakia. I’m ashamed of my former greedy energy consumption. Should I return to the US, I will not return to that planet-destroying mentality. I enjoy the crossword puzzles because they not only give us new information to learn but also give us interesting ideas to discuss 😊.
Because I like wearing an off-the-shoulder dress while working in the garden*, 1A could also have been: SUNSCREEN DEERFLIES NEIGHBORS (* “Is she joking?” PROBS!)
@Cat Lady Margaret My first thought was Gravity, but it didn't fit.
It’s not often I get to comment with the early birds but DEAR GOD I found this puzzle to be just so much fun I had to say something. BRASTRAPS and PLOTHOLES and GRODY SKORTS OH LORD! Thanks, Colin Adams! And thank you Steve L, I somehow did not get the gist of PITSTOP until I read your comment. D’oh!
Personally I found this a strange puzzle, very enjoyable in places and impossibly hard in others. I had to look up a few things, but even then the SW corner was just too much - I ended up turning on autocheck to resolve that area in reasonable time. The crossing of _OINKED and FRO_O was a mystery for a while but then I came up with a Y to go there. Perhaps I have seen FROYO before in NYT puzzles? I can't remember. It's not something I've seen in Poland or Europe in general, anyway. Also, what scale involves a DOE? Is it a play on do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do, as a comment below implies? If so, it was incredibly arcane. I wanted to ask about the enigmatic VEEPstakes, too, but Google explained it to me. I am not an ignoramus, and I am following the build up to your presidential elections (as Putin's neighbor I care about the result no less than you do, possibly), but I do it in the Guardian app, which being British/Australian does not use American slang.
@Andrzej I also had to Google VEEPstakes afterward. US born and raised and have never heard of it.
Oh, also, I had no idea blue could mean OBSCENE. I googled the etymology and it seems to be related to French culture in the 18th and 19th centuries - or somebody made that up. Feeling blue?
@Andrzej the musical, the sound of music has a song where it is made much more clear. DO - a deer, a female deer RE - a drop of golden sun MI - a name, I call myself FA - a long long way to run SO - a needle pulling thread LA - a note to follow SO TI - a drink with jam and bread That will bring us back to do Doe! - a deer, a female deer
One of those puzzles that seemed impossible at first, then slowly, step by step, inch by inch, it got solved. I was a little surprised (?) to see OH LORD and DEAR GOD in the same puzzle, even if they had very different clues. It was nice to have OSSIE Davis instead of GEENA or BETTE (not that they would have fit the specific clue). And what Steve L said about PIT STOP.
Dear Brutus, won't you come out and splay? Dear Brutus, I have a brand new cat toy! The veep is up, Chicago Sky wears blue; blue's not obscene, so please don't sue! Dear Brutus, won't you come out and splay? Dear Brutus, watch our garish Tsar break ties Dear Brutus, see his ranks of grody spies. As rulers they'll go low, unreality's new NCOs: "The wall will be built with their pesos!" Dear Brutus, won't you open up your eyes? [Apologies to Prudence] *** [A la Joplin's "Mercedes Benz"] Oh Lord won't you buy me a trip to see Seoul? I was writing a novel, fell down my own plot hole. A refusenik all my lifetime, from Hanoi to mining coal. So, oh, Lord, won't you buy me a trip to see Seoul? Oh Lord, won't you elect me a Person-of-Color VP? A garish relic who serves unreality just ain't for me There's an OR nurse doing delivery every day until three So oh Lord, won't you elect her a Person-of-Color VP? (I was going to conclude with a version of Hunter Hayes' "Dear God" -- remember him, last seen playing the Natick Auditorium? -- but couldn't really redo his lyrics with puzzwords, so I'll just quote him instead...) Here I go again Three glasses in, countin' my sins Home alone again It's three in the mornin' Just me and my demons at war again So I'm callin' in, are you listenin'? You made a man that's fragile You made a heart that can break You showed me the road less traveled Knowin' I'm gonna run away You make me love so hard When everything I love just leaves...
@john ezra Your second verse of "Oh Lord . . ." makes me wish I could hit "Reco" forty-six--nay, forty-seven--times! one grody emu-toy.
I always thought "bigwigs" were people of high, if not highest, rank. CEOs, company presidents, managing editors, directors, managers--people with a lot of authority and few, if any superiors. How does a Marine corporal--outranked by several levels of sergeants and all.officers, from 2nd Lieutenant on up--fit that description? (Cuevthe regular Defenders of Every Clue.)
@Tom As a former NCO whose son is currently an NCO, just ask the people who were in our charge if NCOs are big wigs 😁. The clue was not the biggest wigs in the USMC. PS, I’m not a regular clue defender but I get what you mean 😉.
Tom, Agree. After clueing NCO correctly (in a variety of ways) 283 times, the Times hit a clunker. I gather the expanded and more diverse test solving team does not include any veterans. Pani: e.g. [U.S.M.C. barracks boss] as used twice, but not [U.S.M.C. bigwig].
@debamlen, I interpreted 8D differently. In a car race, new tires are put on at a pit stop, hence “retirement.”
@Bob M Ohhhhhhhhhhh... now that makes sense. I only got it through crosses.
@Bob M hah! I like that play on words. [Retirement?] would have been a great way to clue it. I interpreted it as truck drivers calling it a night.
Embarrassing to say that I had spelled GRODY with a ‘t’ since the 80’s till, well, today. And tween girls need to spell GRODY, well, often. ‘Marked Twain’ was fantastic.
@Sam Lyons GRODY. Duh! Can you tell I worked in the San Fernando Valley circa 1980
@Sam Lyons Hi Sam! Seeing you here lately seems to be a rare occurrence, yea a rare treat, these days! I believe GRODY actually derives from “grotesque”, so early versions probably did have a T instead of a D. But of course, you know…English.
@Sam Lyons Sam! It's so, like, (w)itchin'* to see you here today! *emu-proofing--gag me with a spoon!
One itty bitty (or is it itsy bitsy, or teeny weeny, not to mention teensy weensy) error: I had YOICKED instead of YOINKED. But I forgive myself, because IMO, these are not real words. I thought maybe CCO stood for Chief Commanding Officer. Come to think of it, I like my answer better. Isn't NCO a non-commissioned officer? Why would that be a big shot in the USMC? ' ' ' ' ' So there!
@Times Rita “Isn't NCO a non-commissioned officer? Why would that be a big shot in the USMC?” Yeah, this was a bit of a stretch. I guess one *could* plausibly refer to a handful of the top NCOs in a given branch as “bigwigs”…but outside of a crossword puzzle, I don’t think anyone ever would.
Totally up my alley. Had I not been married to eRNURSE for *way * too long, this would have been a very smooth and satisfying solve. Oh, who am I kidding. It was anyway. REFUSENIK was new to me, so thank goodness this wasn’t a fill-in-the-blank, but a crossword. Chewy Friday with a creamy center! Thank you Colin! And…it’s Friday!
It took me an hour to finish this puzzle, but it was worth every minute. I won't lie and say that, like yesterday, I was on the same wavelength or in flow, or that all was spilling out from my brain as if by magic. It was, instead, a very intensely focused solve, furrowing my brows as I tried to unravel the clues, then sighing with relief at each correct entry. And so, steady as she goes, I weathered this storm of construction creativity, beautifully executed. I have a few more wrinkles now, but that's what brilliant misdirects will do. ([Nursery purchase] alone is responsible for three of those new forehead creases.) Thank you, Mr. Adams, for this OBSCENEly good puzzle!
@Deb: A pit stop in an automotive race is when new tires are installed before the car is sent out for more laps. Hence, the car is re-tired.
@Gary — Yes! And I particularly enjoyed that bit of punnery. Assuming we are right, and I’m sure we are, I guess the columnists do not run their drafts by the constructors. Is that true?
My wife loves to watch me do the crossword every morning. She doesn’t usually chime in, but danged if she didn’t bust it wide open for me today, when she blurted out “bra straps”
@Wesley I was actually fiddling with my dress to get it to cover my BRASTRAPS as I began the crossword. Serendipity!
@Wesley We get by with a little help from our friends -- and our wives, who, if we are lucky, are our best friends.
For the longest time I stuck to tent as the camp covering and OHdear as its neighbor. This lead me to coed for the traditional Scottish New Year’s Day gift which didn’t seem likely, but you know those Scots… A fine Friday puzzle it was
A lengthy stay in the Emergency room gave me DE-GEARED--was this some weird nautical term for down-shifting into second? And the neologism "VEEPstakes" made for a post-solve look-up. Yesterday we had OSCAR WILDE; today we had (A)ESTHETE (how I wanted to enter the digraph Æ as a rebus!) Yesterday we had TOGAE, which prompted my comment about assassins hiding daggers in theirs; today BRUTUS made his appearance. *** *** The novelist/poet Robert Graves and I have difficulty thinking of "Psyche and Eros" as a genuine myth--in the sense of a shared cultural meme. Rather, it's a contrived allegory of the Soul and Desire, most of the details (full of PLOT_HOLES, dontcha know) invented by the Roman novelist Apuleius. At the end of story, after all Psyche's trials, Hermes, in his role of psychopomp, conducts her up into Olympus, and to her wedding with Eros. How pretty! My close friend Tom--a composer and painter--recently passed away. In his will, he bequeathed me a painting which he titled "Chromapotheosis," itself a deconstruction of the marble of Hermes and Psyche, by 19th c. sculptor Reinhold Begas, which stands in the National Gallery in Berlin (<a href="https://tinyurl.com/6bprxxb6" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/6bprxxb6</a>). It hangs proudly in our living room. So you see, I have a bit of emotional attachment to the story.
Did anyone else suggest that PITSTOP didn't refer to sleeping but to changing the tires in a NASCAR race?
@Michael Dover Yeah; I think Deb spun out on that one.
Well I see the column's pit stop / retirement error has already been addressed (and I'm near certain we've seen this tire changing answer before). "Doe" just seems plain wrong. It's used jokingly (doe, a deer) in the Sound of Music of course, but the note sound is written as "do", always, as far as I know. Each note in the scale represented by two letters. The only thing that held me up here was having "ER Nurse" and wondering for a while what de-gearing was. "Handles differently?" was the best clue. (Meanwhile veepstakes is kind of dumb, even if it's used by a lot of news media.). Anyhow, a good puzzle overall. /Jesse Goldberg Wednesday 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade
@B each note in the scale is 2 letters except for sol! I also side-eyed DOE.
I was so amused to see GRODY in the puzzle, I had to use it as my Wordle start word ! [bad idea]
A REFUSENIK does NOT denote “defiant protestor.” This usage (as applied in the puzzle) is obscure, and it unfortunately obfuscates what many people know as the most common usage: (from Wikipedia:) “Refusenik, or Refusnik, was an unofficial term for individuals—typically, but not exclusively, Soviet Jews—who were denied permission to emigrate, primarily to Israel, by the authorities of the Soviet Union and other countries of the Soviet Bloc. The term refusenik is derived from the "refusal" handed down to a prospective emigrant from the Soviet authorities.” Yet again the NYT crossword fails to include basic history of the Jews and other marginalized people in designing its answers and clues. Many of those “refuseniks” finally found peace by getting to Israel, the only place that would give them safety. My grandmother helped many through a Soviet Jewry assistance program in Miami in the 1980s. And to be clear, the Jewish people were not the “defiant protestor”s; they were defiantly treated with antisemitism by the nation that helped spread the lie that Zionism was “colonization,” a lie that continues to be used to harass Jews today.
@LC Wow, thank you for explaining the origins. I just read up a bit more about it after reading your comment. I had never heard the term before, to my recollection, so it was a completely new to me and I truly understand your taking the time to explain the significance of its true meaning. I think that words like this, with such historical significance, should be sacred rather than becoming a more generalized concept as this one seems to have become for many.
LC, The word, like many words in the English language, acquired a second meaning. The clue, like many a late-in-the-week clue, uses the second meaning. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refusenik" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/refusenik</a>
@LC Thanks for the lesson about the origin of the word REFUSENIK. But as Barry Ancona observed, it has acquired a secondary meaning that is consistent with the way it was clued.
The original meaning of fast in English has nothing to do with speed, but with firmness and security: to hold fast to tie fast to make fast all of which can be replaced in modern English by “fasten”. Think also “steadfast” (staying firmly in place), “colorfast” (meaning dyes that don’t run or bleach). Fast is pure, unadulterated English, and worth knowing and - if you are a language lover - loving.
@David Connell Thanks! I appreciate your spelling that all out! I mean, I got it in the puzzle (not initially) but I'm glad that you made me think it through! I do love it! I guess you didn't *make* me think about it but you gave me the opportunity and I am grateful! ;-)
@David Connell I'm savoring this over my breakfast. Btw, our previous exchange immediately brought to mind the following: Ach, Bächlein, liebes Bächlein, Du meinst es so gut, Ach, Bächlein, aber weißt du, Wie Liebe tut? Ach, unten, da unten, Die kühle Ruh, Ach, Bächlein, liebes Bächlein, So singe nur zu. ----------------------------- Hinunter und immer weiter Und immer dem Bache nach, Und immer heller rauschte, Und immer heller der Bach. Ist das denn meine Strasse? O Bächlein, sprich, wohin? Du hast mit deinem Rauschen Mir ganz berauscht den Sinn. Hope that you don't fall in to the same fate as Schubert's young Miller.
In defense of YOINK(ED): One or the other has been in the puzzle 5 times since 2018, and 3 times this year alone. Usage example: "When my sister got up to answer the phone, Jingles (our cat at the time) jumped up on S****'s chair, YOINKED a chicken breast from her plate, then ran into the kitchen and threw it in her bowl". For years, in the retelling of the story, we've been saying "Jingles swiped" or "Jingles snatched". YOINK really gets to the heart of not only the taking but the stealth and skill involved. All I am saying is give YOINKED a chance.
The Mittens clue was a great diversion. Felt like the constructor was pawing with me!
@The Whip Diversion? Why? Was it not obvious the clue would be about a cat toy? This is a legitimate question. I wondered why there was a question mark there since the clue seemed very straight forward. I am obviously missing something and I would like to understand what, exactly 🐈
Even when I dredged up fills so cleverly masked that I fell smart when I got them, and words I didn't know I knew—DEIRDRE? where did that come from? GRODY? sounded right—there were fills in this puzzle that I couldn't know: YOINKED? FROYO?; and I never imagined that an non-commissioned officer would be considered a bigwig in any branch of the service—I spent an OBSCENE amount of time on the solve and had to go for help where I could find it. I do not often complain about the difficulty of a puzzle, and I'm sure others will say they were delighted with it, but this time I definitely did not have a good time.
@dutchiris I didn't have a good time in that section either. I had frosé for the summer snack and slicked for snatched and I was thinking sadly instead of risqué so I didn't see OBSCENE until I deleted the whole section and redid it.
@dutchiris I got DEIRDRE from just the D and the second R because it seemed like as a solid Irish name. Maybe somewhere in the depths of my memory was the knowledge that it was from a legend, but I can’t be sure of that.
Such a great puzzle! Not a single unreasonable answer, wonderful cluing. Especially liked DEARGOD and OHLORD.
Let's put PROBS inside the same (hopefully padlocked) cupboard that holds ADORBS. And while we're at it, let's shove GRODY in there too. GROSS means the exact same thing, takes less long to say, and is even a real word. I hear it gets really cold in Scotland. May I have a COAT, please, instead of COAL? Thank you. A word about YOINKED -- which isn't a word either. It could have been BOINKED or ZOINKED of JOINKED for all I knew, but I guessed that the snack with the swirl might be FROYO as in frozen yogurt. It was just a complete guess, but it kept me from having a DNF. Things I know nothing about: the Tower of Hanoi puzzle; Gold Bond and its ingredients; Wizkid and Burna Boy. Another puzzle that I feel invites certain demographic groups in -- while telling the rest of us to drop dead. I did love the clue for DOGEARED, so there's that.
@Nancy I feel like those same demographic groups feel likewise on some days. I'm going kicking and sceaming into 2024 and beyond - but learning enough as I go to keep completing crosswords. And wow - in Strands today, I only knew a couple of those video games. Ah memories - my son and his friends playing Halo unendingly back in the day.
Nancy, You've got a few years on me, but we're both definitely olds. I breezed through this puzzle. If groups of solvers were invited to or rejected from this puzzle by demographic, the demographic was not age. ###
I suggest possibly that for 8D, "retirement" doesn't actually mean sleep (though that was also my first thought), but rather replacing all the tires, something commonly done at a literal pit stop...
@Chris You are in good company! I totally missed it and agreed with Deb's explanation, there's been a lot of discussion in the comments about it in favor of what you are saying.
So good! I feel like we’ve had a lot of great Fridays recently. DOGEARED and CATTOY were very well clued.
GRODY took me back to the 80s and my time as a valley girl (the Ottawa valley, that is).
Well... two day losing streak for me. Can't remember the last time that happened. Just got completely stuck in a couple of places and couldn't work it all out. We'll see about tomorrow. ..
The three little kittens They lost their mittens And they began to cry <a href="https://beta.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46968/the-three-little-kittens-they-lost-their-mittens" target="_blank">https://beta.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46968/the-three-little-kittens-they-lost-their-mittens</a> I kind of love that the Poetry Foundation has nursey rhymes.
Nothing GRODY about today's puzzle—loved it! I am unofficially counting it a Friday best because I had help on what is officially listed as Friday best—whereas this one was completely clean! Huzzah! And it was fun and lively! Had some slower for me spots but it all worked out. Seems I'm the only one here who didn't immediately put BRA STRAPS at 1A, but... I did try to stuff strapless bra in and left it for later when it didn't work. Never heard of a REFUSENIK before, I don't think and didn't know the Chicago team but the K seemed the most likely. VEEP STAKES was also new. Thank you, crosses! I know there are a bunch of comments about this, but I admit I had the same reasoning as Deb about retirement/PIT STOP. I also remember having similar confusion in earlier puzzles. I never think of retiring cars, only changing tires. As usual, I hope writing this helps me retain that misdirection for future puzzles. Favorite - by far - was DOG EARED! What an absolute delight!! Also loved GRODY (so glad I went for it instead of GROss!), CAT TOY, UMPS, GARISH (great word!), Handles differently for RENAMES... I guess there really wasn't anything I didn't like, including the handful of answers I didn't know. I'm used to getting a Gee whiz or Aw, shucks or whatever at the end but this one went straight to happy music! And now, I should make like an ANT and an UMP and get back to working industriously at home! Cheers to the weekend, all!! :-)
Not to be picky, but years of television commercials taught me that [Dove] beauty bars are not SOAP, but rather “one quarter cleansing cream”! @deb Why is nothing more useful than an OWLET?
@Marc A. Leaf lol! As I filled in SOAP I thought to myself “oh Dove is gonna hate this” lol!
@Marc A. Leaf True. But what is the other three quarters?
I had a somewhat embarrassing "one final letter mistake," as I call it. I wasn't sure what "Marked Twain?" meant, but I had filled 39D as ER NURSE, and DEGEARED was in the dictionary, so I just left it at that and went about the rest of the puzzle. Only once the "Something's amiss" message had popped up did I trawl through the grid and find my mistake. Oops!
@Andrew M — wow! I did almost the exact same thing, because I was derailed by the notion of “mark twain” referring to checking the river depth from a paddle steamboat, and thought “degeared” must be a room relating to that which I simply don’t know. But I always thought it could either be ER or OR nurse, and at the last minute, I switched it out.
@Andrew M It was an evil cross indeed. I kept changing the one cross I was unsure of to no avail and finally stumbled on this error. Phew. Today was a good workout.
@Brad Ellis I had that in mind and filled in MEASURED which really got in the way of getting the rest of that section...
Any time a -NIK occasions a puzzle, I’m sold. Admittedly crosswordese but I, I daresay, chortle. cc: emu handler
SW corner was impossible. Gave up after 30 minutes. Managed the rest of the puzzle easily enough
@Steven M. It was tough for me too, and the last quadrant to fall. Having _ _ _ EARED, and guessing DOG got me unstuck. Speaking of unstuck, this is like my third comment in a short period of time, and not a particularly long one, so to keep this comment unstuck, that is, safe from the emu filter, I add this extension.
I try to avoid the “alternative to hanging out” whenever possible. Unsurprisingly I found this a more Saturday than Friday level of difficulty, so wonder what tomorrow will bring. Quite a wide range of interesting fill however.
@suejean I used to line-dry my clothes, but now my yard gets too much shade and tree debris. I loved it, though - especially the sheets.
@suejean A surprising number of people in the US think that hanging up clothes to dry creates an eyesore. My next door neighbor actually came onto our property and cut our clothesline down at one point.
Really fun Friday puzzle! I spent a while with GRODI and DRIER quietly denying me the completion. Thanks, English.
In her column, Deb said "I have no idea why Ms. Zappa was dressed as if she was going to a garden party, while the backup dancers were dressed as if they had just stumbled out of a Jane Fonda workout video". The answer to the second part is: it was the 80s... Jane Fonda Workout videos were all the rage, and lots of people thought it was an attractive, cool look. I think the answer to the first part is (mostly): she was underage at the time, so wouldn't wear/wasn't allowed on TV wearing, the dancer gear. But also partly: she's a Zappa, so was predisposed to doing something unexpected.
I just thought I would mention that Moon Unit Zappa has just in the last couple of weeks come out with a memoir entitled, “Earth to Moon”. It reflects on her childhood in the shadow of the bigger-than-life Frank and her upbringing in an unconventional household in 1970’s -80’s Los Angeles. I opted to get the audio version which she narrates. I’m only part way through, but I’d recommend it for any aging Zappa fans out there. I know we had a discussion here about the Mothers of Invention “Phlorescent Leach and Eddie” at the Fillmore East at one point, but I don’t remember the context.
Since, when I replace the rubber on my car I retyre it, I saw the PITA STOP as the place where cars that can go no further are retired from the race.
Great Friday puzzle. What a good week so far.