The star of this puzzle, IMO, is the crossing triple stacks. It takes moxie – especially on a debut puzzle -- to tackle today’s grid design, which has appeared six times in the Times. Moxie because: • It is SO DIFFICULT to find six answers that will work at all, not to mention, work without creating ugly crosses. • It is orders of magnitude more difficult to include even one or two lovely colorful answers in the mix. • You are pitting yourself against some top-notch constructors who have tackled this grid design, names like Nosowsky and Pahk. And today, Alex, on his debut, can stand tall. His MASTER CLASS / CONE OF SHAME / BRAIN FREEZE is, IMO, the best stack of any that have shown up so far, not only because the answers are colorful, but also super-fresh -- the first two are NYT puzzle answer debuts, and the third has shown up but three times before. And, BTW, the crossing stack consists of three NYT debut answers. Bravo, Alex! Those stacks brought sheen to the solve. And what a lovely outing overall for me, with areas that felt like a gambol balanced by sticky areas. I also loved the echo of yesterday’s cone bra reference with today’s CONE over BRA. All in all, a splendid fill-in experience. What a debut! Congratulations, Alex, and more please!
What a terrific, imaginative, difficult, delightfully funny crossword puzzle! So many clever combinations of words that made me laugh when I figured them out (a favorite was CONE OF SHAME). I am not a musician but I managed the references without much trouble, and some clues that seemed super challenging turned out to have simple answers. I was stymied by the German poison until I remembered faux amis and translated that instead. Most of all, I was blown away to find that this sophisticated example of a MASTERCLASS in puzzle construction was a debut Wow, Alex Murphy, please do give us another soon!
'Cone of shame' and the cluing for 'Sex toy' are officially on my all time favourites list for 2024.
When I wasn't invited to the pancake breakfast, I was bent out of crepe. (You'd batter believe it.)
@Mike He’s flipped again!
@Mike You keep this up, somebody be inclined to beat the crepe out of you.
@Mike I can never figure it out. It's always a griddle why the crepe nuts flake.
Just dropping in with a reminder that what many Americans know as “mount Rushmore” is properly called Tȟuŋkášila Šákpe (Six Grandfathers), and is/was a holy site for the Lakota tribe. Rushmore was a lawyer who partially paid for the work. The blog Native Hope has an in depth history of this topic.
@Sarah I've been to Rushmore once, and that's all I'll ever need. I also went to the Crazy Horse Memorial, and have mixed emotions about that one. But one thing was clear to me: that is an enormously ambitious project to carve a horse and rider out of the mountain. I think it would take generations.
Clue for SEXTOY is nice, but I found myself less tickled by the clue's creativity than I might otherwise, because it reminded me too much of my favorite clue/answer pair of all time, that ran a while ago: "Summons before congress" for BOOTYCALL Overall fantastic puzzle though!
@Chris I find it a bit interesting that the clue/answer pair you refer to, from 5/13/2022 ( Brooke Husic and Nam Jin Yoon), was also a Friday. But the clue was [Summons before congress?] with a question mark. No such ? in today’s clue. The May ‘22 puzzle was of course edited by Will. Being a Friday, I think leaving off the ? is just fine.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable puzzle! I loved seeing RIBALD, and 56A made me laugh out loud. Congrats on a fantastic debut. It should be noted that the CONE OF SHAME only applies to dogs. When cats wear the cone, they feel no shame, only thirst for revenge.
Oh, Alex Murphy, if this is what you bring to the party you have a standing invite. BRAIN FREEZE BRO CODE CONE OF SHAME DRAMEDY… I ate this one up! Was over too quickly, but only because it was so doggone smooth. TEN OUT OF TEN. ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Second attempt. Either the first one will eventually appear, or I have to bowdlerize to get it through... Wow, I feel for that grandparent who won't solve anymore with the grandkids. Thursday, we had (word for things like pecans and pistachios) and (synonym for donkey) and today we have (common word for mammary glad) and (milk-delivering part of previous word). And that (pleasure enhancer) down south. Get those pearls out and clutch them tightly!!! !!!!
@Steve L, Can’t even imagine what the Saturday puzzle will have. I was surprised by 56A. What is the Gray Lady thinking about these days?
@Steve L I thought about her, too. But what are you gonna do? The world has ever been Brave. And New.
@Steve L That grandfather immediately came to my mind as I filled 56a. (There must be a clever way to use "entered" instead of "filled" in this context. Can't come up with it.) RIBALD indeed.
@Steve L I'd just like to note that clutching pearls is 15 letters and could make a fun spanner.
@Steve L I was a bit surprised that it was the editors who came up with this great clue. I just wonder what the constructor’s original clue for 56A was? I see it has appeared twice before related to a gag gift, like at a bachelorette party. Great clue, I’m glad it made it as the column title.
A couple of months ago, the man behind me in the grocery checkout had 2 items on the conveyor belt. One was a can of black beans, the other was a bag of black beans. I must have glanced at his groceries, and apparently, he felt judged. He blurted out, "This is the drive of SHAME.". He then went on to tell me that's what he calls it when his wife sends him out for one thing, and he has to return it and get the correct item. He had that same look as a dog wearing the CONE OF SHAME. Maybe he should bring home a SEX TOY next time.
@Nancy J. I don’t consider myself particularly judgmental, but how can anyone watch that conveyor belt without making assumptions about the lives of the shoppers ahead of us in line? Nor do I consider myself particularly self-conscious, but I too sometimes want to make excuses to the person behind me. “It’s for a party. Don’t judge me.”
@Paul Turner When I owned a chocolate shop, I would frequently buy 20 bags of Oreo cookies at once, especially if they were on sale. Maybe some milk, too, or 10 bags of marshmallows. I got some looks.
@Nancy J. I was once in line behind a guy whose basket was filled with button mushrooms, and only button mushrooms. One has to wonder...
Bah! I solve the puzzle with my great- and great-great-grandchildren and object most strenuously to this newfangled kind of puzzling! Bring back the trivia about the original cast Pirates of Penzance and other reasonable and fun clueing! More seriously, a very fun puzzle. I felt fast, but was not fast — personally I'm most proud of having been able to get a US drug brand name at 39D.
@The Winter Solver If you don't mind, please, I've never communicated in any way with someone from Norway. And I'm so excited! Since I was about 10, over 60 years ago, I've wanted to see Norway. Never been there, and almost certainly never will. I wrote a long paper in the ninth grade about Norway. Everything about your country fascinates me. I'd love to experience a Norwegian winter. So I'm glad you got MOTRIN. Please comment often. Like I say, I don't know any Norwegians.
@The Winter Solver @Francis I love this meeting! I've been to Norway once, and I would love to go back to see more of the country. We were in Oslo, which is now one of my favorite cities in the world. Beautiful city, welcoming people, gorgeous surroundings (our "subway ride" back to our hotel 30 minutes north was so scenic it was really part of the vacation for us). Not only does almost everyone speak English, the public transportation is very easy to navigate - much easier than NYC's, and I'm a native. Thank you for joining in the conversations here. I hope to hear from you again soon too.
We felt the need for a cigarette...... Thank you Alex. A fun solve.
A little blue and a lot of fun. TEN OUT OF TEN. Thank you!!
Yesterday's Wordplay headline was "The Best is Yet to Come". Today's, given the udderly hilarious 18A/12D combination, could be "The B(r)east is Yet to Come". I hope the emus enjoy this, because I'm guessing I've stumbled across a line somewhere. But it...was...just...so...irresistible. If I'm exiled, I hope you all know I enjoyed it all while it lasted.
Newbie to ribald puzzling? There should be a warning before there is a word rube malfunction. Call it a pre-nip.
@Charles Anderson Excellent!!!
I thoroughly enjoyed this and flew through it faster than I expected but still found the clueing very clever. I suspect this was in my wheelhouse and others may find this more of a slog with lots of pop culture references (that I loved!). Congrats on the fun debut!!
I have no problem with SEX TOY, but CREPE MIX had me going "What?!" Crepe batter has five ingredients: flour, water, eggs, sugar, salt. TIL that CREPE MIX is actually a thing, sold on Amazon. You still have to add the water and eggs, but the flour, salt, and sugar are premixed. This is, presumably, a great convenience.
@Adina Farine, lait, oeufs Never heard of water in crepes.
Dog's post-surgical device or whatever that clue was - I loved it.
OMG can we please have a thousand more by this guy? My favorite puzzle in MONTHS!
Great debut. Well done and thanks. For a Sunday: [She said yes!] CONGRESSIONALAPPROVAL
56A made me lol because it’s a terrific, challenging clue with a fun and surprising answer. 18A and 12D made me lol because I am an idiot. Absolutely wonderful puzzle. Thank you, Alex Murphy!
This was a p e r f e c t puzzle for me! The clever bits made me laugh and the tricky bits were clever, not impossible - and made me laugh when I finally figured them out. Thank you! I look forward to plenty more from this creater.
I found this incredibly hard and it took me forever, but I refused to DNF on a puzzle 2 days in a row. When, even though I've never heard the term, I finally guessed CONE OF SHAME (poor dog!!!) from CONE plus the SH, I realized that I might actually solve the thing. Much perplexed me. Was "suck up" a verb or a noun and did it mean sopping up fluid or toadying? What kind of "chef" uses a "timesaver" and what would it be? And KRONEs instead of KRONER kept me from seeing TALLER. A word about TALLER (41D). Someone failed to alert my gene pool. My 5-years-younger brother is 5' 11 and a half, whereas I'm only... No. That's a state secret never to be revealed, not even if someone sends me to Guantanamo. Suffice it to say that I had a ridiculously hard time with TALLER. Some wonderful clue/answers. My favorites were for SEX TOY and DRAMEDY -- both of which stumped me for the longest time. A tough, lively and involving puzzle that I thought was a very worthy Friday opponent.
Fun Friday Fare, and my solve time was well below my average. There is some discussion below on the meaning/necessity of double-sharped notes in music. One comment explained the proper use of the notes E# and B# in scales that have already employed the 5 unambiguous accidentals (A# C# D# F# G# or Ab Bb Db Eb Gb), namely the scales that contain either 6 or 7 accidentals. I didn't see a comment addressing double-sharps or double-flats. Here's a way to understand their use: Let's say we're in the key of B, five sharps; only natural notes are B and E. We've got a melodic passage, let's make it B-C#-D#-E-D#-D-D#. How to notate that? As the C and D are already sharped in the key signature, we can write them in with no need for any additional accidental markings. For the 6th note in the sequence, what to do? We could un-sharp the previous D with a natural sign, and then re-sharp it to continue. I've seen it done, but IMO most composers and musicians would find that sequence more problematic to read, due to either graphic clutter, or due to its violation of scale theory, or both. The preferred approach would be to not unsharp the D when writing the 6th note of the melody, but to instead use the dreaded C double-sharp, thereby eliminating inky clutter and sparing the musician potential confusion. When fewer altered notes appear on the page, and when lower tones are represented by notes lower on the staff, and vice-versa, negotiation of passages becomes that much easier.
@ColdFinger I think I'll try to find an online course on music theory. This is just fascinating to me, for no apparent reason. One of my auditions for a band (I played the trumpet), the interviewers asked me to play the scale, which I did, then to play the F scale, which I played with a B natural rather than a B flat. It didn't sound right, I stopped, then shrugged and went on. I got into it anyway. I don't know how bad you had to be to not get in.
I liked the nice neat grid. A typical Friday for me, needed a fair amount of help, maybe not quite as much as usual. Well done, Alex, hopefully there will be many more.
RIBALD is one of my favorite words, and in my opinion, it has been underused. Perhaps, with "an act of congress," it will enjoy a moment ... Great debut, Alex Murphy!
Remember the French FALSE FRIEND (faux ami) pun? "One man's fish is another man's poison."
Frank Oz was the voice not only of YODA, but many characters on the Muppets, including Fozzie Bear. Today I realized [TIR?] that Fozzie must certainly have got his name from Frank OZZIE, as well as being a close cognate to "fuzzy bear". There is no try. Waka, Waka.
I expect quite a bit of excreta to hit the air circulation blades concerning this one. I, though, enjoyed it immensely. 56A, clued as [What might be included in an act of congress], was a real zinger. Of course it's "congress" with a small "c". But, in reality, given the quality of recent legislators it might currently work with capital C Congress .
When I finished the puzzle this morning and saw that there were 145 comments, I felt a moment of dread for fear that a couple of playful (and excellent) clues/answers might have stirred up the drama department. Each to their own, of course, but I was delighted to find overwhelming support and praise for Alex Murphy’s first rate debut. (I suspect the intro to Deb’s column may also have been meant to mitigate potential pearl clutching.) Alex, I loved the puzzle and your comments!
I paused for quite a bit before completing 56A thinking surely not. Nice to see the Gray Lady let down her hair a bit. A very fast Friday at 3 minutes below my average, but definitely fun.
@JBW Seems she's letting down more than that, eh?
Let's hear it for proper nouns. The only fill I was sure of on my first pass was LEA, YODA, and TOMLIN, with an either/or for the Hollywood Chrises of PRATT/Evans. And from that ignonomious beginning, I was able to get through the whole thing. So yay me? Sleeping on it is a good thing. Congrats on the debut.
@Vaer Oh, yeah The only 18 Across I'm interested in seeing referenced in the puzzle is Grace Jones's song. <a href="https://youtu.be/39GK66e_vY8?si=oZhBvoZmX7dHlv7B" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/39GK66e_vY8?si=oZhBvoZmX7dHlv7B</a> She looks like she's Waiting for Godot in that video.
I think the clearest sign of the New New York Times puzzling is not only the existence of 56A, but that it was used for the headline for wordplay. Bravissimo!
@Francis And the accompanying photo! I laughed out loud.
Whew. Everyone else found this one unusually easy and I couldn't get anywhere with it. Even going back and reviewing I see a whole bunch of answers that I was never, ever going to get from the clues and I just never had enough crosses to work much of anything out. Even going back and reviewing, I still see a bunch of answers that I still don't connect to the clues. Oh well. Just me I guess. See you tomorrow. ..
@Rich in Atlanta I found this very hard but enjoyable. So not everyone found this easy, no worries.
@Rich in Atlanta Not just you. Mostly my being a Brit isn’t too much of an issue but several answers I still don’t get at all. Eg dnatural And why are yo-yos idiots?
@Rich in Atlanta If you want to try the grid with different clues, Friday puzzles have a second edition with easier clues. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/paid/easy-mode-70" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/paid/easy-mode-70</a> I like to first do the easy mode version, then try the original version a few days later to see if I can figure out the more difficult clues.
@Rich in Atlanta I did not find this unusually easy at all. I got Lea Salonga right off the bat and thought that was a good sign, but by the end Deb had to feed me several answers to get me through it.
@Dave No problem! It's a shame they're not promoting it more, I can't remember how I came across it. From the above link, you can change the number at the end and go through all of them, although it's worth noting it only works via browser (not accessible through the NYT Games app). There is also a newsletter where they explain how to solve harder crosswords, how these are built... <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/easy-mode" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/newsletters/easy-mode</a>
Ah yes, the 34A. The look on our dogs faces when they’ve been forced to wear one. Priceless. I have recently discovered Grace and Frankie, currently on season 3. Lighthearted but very enjoyable. Stellar acting chops amongst the cast. Thanks for an entertaining grid.
Congratulations on a fun debut, Mr. Murphy! This was the kind of puzzle I like best — not too many gimmes making it too easy, but also nowhere where I got stuck and stared at a half-filled grid for a seeming eternity. Hope we'll see you back here soon!
What a fun Friday puzzle! I know many of the regular solvers may find it too easy, but some of us mere mortals appreciate being able to figure it out without the usual amount of stress. I guess that I am also a firstborn that bucks the trend. Not only am I nearly a foot shorter than the second born in our family, I am also much shorter than the third through seventh born. I told my siblings that my growth was stunted from having to help out so much.
@KadyRN I’m a regular solver and I definitely did not find it too easy
@KadyRN, Statistically speaking, first-born children have been found to be generally older than second-born children.
@KadyRN My little sister is taller than me and I have never forgiven her.
@KadyRN One of my favorite memories is my 2nd child -- son age 3 or so -- complaining about his older sister picking on him about something. "Mom, when will I be older than Rachel?" I had to sadly tell him that he would never be older than her, but he would soon be taller. They were about the same height as children. By the time she quit growing at age 12 at 5'5" he had already caught up and he's now 6 ft. But my husband and I are both oldest children, and both taller than our next-younger siblings. Needless to say I had a hard time with this answer!
I hit a snag when I tried to force the lions to sleep in Detroit, but otherwise I really enjoyed this one. A smooth, friendly, well constructed Friday. The kind of solve that makes the coffee taste better. Wishing for many more puzzles like this in the future.
@Cynthia That would be the Lions, not the lions. (Noticing capital letters or the lack thereof is helpful in solving crosswords, especially at the end of the week.) !!!
Cynthia and Steve, I struggled there as well because, as everyone knows, the lions sleep in the Mighty Jungle. Wimoweh, wimoweh . . .
Cynthia et al. So to riff on JohnC’s musical theme, you were: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/WonderingWhereTheLionsAre" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/WonderingWhereTheLionsAre</a>
@Cynthia Well, the Lions aren't sleeping any more in Detroit. Amazing. We have hope.
Mmm, edible underwear. I wonder if they come in Oreo. (This is in reference to the column by Deb Amlen, often referred to as Crosslandia's Dan Savage) I thought the central stacks were wonderful. The constructor is a musical theatre actor! Seems like just yesterday we had an actor/constructor. NEhoo ... MASTER CLASS could have been clued to the play with music about Maria Callas by Terrence McNally. And now for the big finish-is the plural of sect sex?
@ad absurdum Crosslandia's Dan Savage! Wow, nice. /obligatory ambien something something drug and/or love reference that wouldn't get past the emus even if well crafted /dare I proceed without my usual anti-emu signature armor?
C## DNATURAL - that has to be one of the most mysterious things I have ever seen in my life, and not only in a crossword puzzle. I suppose it's a musical thing? The only thing the answer made me think of was the Polish "denaturat", denatured alcohol, for decades a favorite among heavy drinkers without a lot of money over here. My mother's mentor at university, a renowned professor of history, was also a foodie - a rare thing in pre-1989 Poland. He enjoyed food-and-drink-related challenges, and he was determined to make denaturat as palatable as possible. He tried different filtration methods, finally settling on straining the liquid through a cut up potato. My mother thought it was still undrinkable. So yeah, I may have been clueless about this entry but it still provided me with some fun. I needed quite a few lookups to complete the puzzle but I enjoyed it overall - it felt very fresh.
@Andrzej C double sharp being a D is in fact weird. Even weirder, I think, is that E double sharp is F sharp. We have several serious musicians in the forum who I would love to hear chime in. ("Chime"? get it? like a musical....never mind). I'd like to know why anyone would use a double sharp (or double flat) when they could just score the note? Next topic: Denatured alcohol??? Yikes!! You may know this, but, unless I'm mistaken, what makes "denatured" alcohol denatured is that methyl alcohol (wood alcohol) is added to make it toxic, and thus less drinkable. Except that it tastes the same, and no one would know it was denatured unless someone told them. So this never made any sense to me. Methyl alcohol does a whole lot of things to humans, almost all bad. When I was a young chemist, I worried that I may have *breathed* too much methyl alcohol vapor and might go blind. But then I was somewhat neurotic.
@Andrzej The only way I can figure out something like that is to visualize a piano keyboard. If you are at C, a sharp tells you to go up a note, which would get you to the black key, C sharp, and then another sharp tells you to do it again, which lands you on the white key, D natural. I'm sure there's a more correct way to explain that, but that's where taking piano lesson until 10 gets me.
@Andrzej Even musicians think double sharps/flats are annoying and pedantic sometimes. It’s true that if you want a group of notes to be immediately obvious as, say, a triad, the most common type of chord, they have to be “spelled” with the right note names. An A Major triad is A on the bottom, then C sharp, then E. A major triad that’s a half step higher, starting on A sharp, still has to have some “flavor” of C and E in it, otherwise it’s not a triad. So that chord has to be spelled as A sharp on the bottom, then C double sharp, then E sharp (which is the same as F natural). This drives string instrument players crazy, though, because for us the most vital information is not the name of the note, it’s the distance, the interval, between one note and another. So a composer might be technically correct to write a B double sharp followed by an E double flat, but that’s problematic for us because the brain sees B to E and assumes it’s some variety of a fourth, when it’s actually a half step since B double sharp is C sharp and E double flat is DNATURAL…
@Andrzej My question is - how does D natural differ from D, and if it’s the same, why add the natural? It’s like they’re just trying to be obtuse.
Easier than usual for a Friday, but not *too* easy. To be honest, it was a nice change from the brain-racking I usually put myself through.:-)
18 across. Often censored. 6 letters. Starts with NI. I was worried for a minute!
@Jake Assuming I get what you mean, good lord I sure hope never! Yikes.
@Jake Oh, wow! I just got it. As America bravely marches backwards in racial harmony, we may ultimately reach the stage where it could happen.
Wow that was a fun Friday, thanks. Solved it a little faster than average, lingering in the southwest corner. I couldn't figure out what a breakfast chef would use to save time. Knew it couldn't be powdered eggs or instant orange juice, yuk. I do love crepes, but don't really think of them as breakfast food. I also love acts of congress, but that's a different story.
I really, really enjoyed this puzzle. Fun, clever clues; reasonable crossings everywhere; looked intimidating but had the right number of footholds. I really look forward to more from this constructor, well done!
@Diana Your first line was going to be my first line! Lots of great clues and answers - many of them up-to-date without being obscure imo. Very clever and fun puzzle!
14:54, a new Friday PB and 25 minutes under my average! A very fun puzzle, nicely constructed! I'm not sure if it was easier or if this one just clicked with me, but it's the direct opposite result of my time yesterday :)
I clutched my pearls so ROBUSTLY that they are now rolling all over my floor!! Whatever shall I do!? From the get-go, I really loved the grid design. I'm not really sure why certain designs appeal to me more than others but this one definitely did. And I super loved the puzzle! Smiles and chuckles aplenty, which is definitely not something I take for GRANITE in a puzzle! Overall, it felt very clean and lively to me. It didn't seem easy to me and I initially fell for a few fun traps but I was able to finish it laughing with the entry of TOY in just a hair under my average. Huzzah!! A TEN OUT OF TEN MASTER CLASS experience for me!
“What might be included in an act of congress” is the most crosswordy crossword clue ever.