Mo-cap suit was new to me and I'm glad to know it. I just ordered one on Amazon, so I can live in a CGI world for good, a staged eden of gatorade waterfalls that sparkle in the rain and dirt-cheap prosciutto. You should revoke my artistic license! I knew Philippics from reading classics in college. Cicero's second Philippic against Marc Antony (ca. 44 BC) contains lines relevant today: "Ought I not to have complained of the destruction of the Republic, that I might not appear ungrateful to you? And yet in that complaint, piteous and mournful as it was, but, having regard to this position in which the Senate and Roman people have placed me, incumbent on me, what was said by me with insult? What without moderation? What in an unfriendly tone? What a sign indeed of self-control it was, while I was complaining of Marcus Antonius, to abstain from abuse! all the more when you had scattered abroad the last remnants of the constitution; when at your house by the foulest traffic all things were on sale; when you confessed that those laws that had never been advertised had been proposed for your own behalf and by yourself; when, as augur, you had abolished the auspices, as consul the tribunes' veto; when you were most shamefully fenced round by armed men; when, exhausted with wine and debauchery, you were practicing in your licentious house all forms of impurity." Ah yes, minus the wine and references to augurs, he could give that speech today, and tomorrow be deported.
@john ezra That was absolutely wonderful to read. Republics have fallen before, I guess. Still it makes me sad. And very afraid. I fear that *you* might be deported tomorrow.
@john ezra Yup, except for the alcohol, old Cicero nailed it. ////
@john ezra "Ah yes, minus the wine and references to augurs, he could give that speech today, and tomorrow be deported" Just replace the wine with Big Mac wrappers--or, in Mark Antony's case, Special K--and the auspices, Fox News and Twitter feeds.
@john ezra Ouch! That quote is right on the money.
@john ezra Excellent quote. I am going to go scream into a pillow now.
@john ezra Man definitely did not keep his head down.
Does anyone else feel like the “tricky clues” they choose are not the ones you find tricky 😂
@Steph I think Deb Amlen and the other columnists do a fine job of explaining the clues that are likely to confound solvers. They can’t possibly anticipate what any particular person is going to find tricky. If there’s a clue that you don’t understand, and that the columnist doesn’t explain, ask here! There’s almost always someone who will be happy to answer your question.
@Steph 100%. To me the ones written about in the column are almost invariably the first clues I got
@Steph I feel that way sometimes too. In fact this puzzle was so breezy that the last 2 "tricky clues" weren't the least bit tricky to me because I never even got to them! They and a few others just filled in from the longer crosses and I never bothered looking at the clues once I got the happy music.
@Steph We all know that what an individual finds "tricky" will differ depending on your background. As some say around here, "Your mileage may vary." But I would find this a more interesting comment if you noted which clues you found to be tricky.
@Steph yup and not just today haha
My 3000th puzzle ever! Super fun, northeast corner had me for a while bc while my initial answer made zero sense (sohes/hustle) I thought surely I had a mistake in MOCAPSUIT, but eventually got the right sub letter. Loved the Pokémon and Mario references! For those of us (me) who are too young for most of headlines puzzle and felt frustrated, it felt good to have those as gimmes :)
@Jasmine That's a record I'll never achieve. Excellent resilience.
Congratulations, @Jasmine!
@Jasmine Wow, that's incredible!!!! Congratulations Jasmine!
@Jasmine Congrats! I'm not far behind you at 2589 -- I guess that is over a year! But I'm old (75) so the Pokemon and Mario clues are about useless to me. We each have our strengths....
There are so many funny quotes attributed to Yogi Berra (24D), but I think my favorite is (speaking of a restaurant): "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." This site has a collection of Yogi-isms: - <a href="https://yogiberramuseum.org/about-yogi/yogisms" target="_blank">https://yogiberramuseum.org/about-yogi/yogisms</a>/
Random reactions: • Star of the puzzle, IMO, is that cross of lovely phrases right in the center – MEDIA DARLINGS and CHEAP AS DIRT, both NYT answer debuts, by the way. • Loveliness spread around as well, with TEETER, RARITY, RUSTLE, and ARTISTIC LICENSE. • ITSAME is a DOOK. • PuzzPair© of TEETER and TIP. • Sincerely wondering if the IRS still has a Commissioner. • Ahh, that BERRA quote – “If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be”. Ain’t that the truth? It’s why I smile at the imperfections baked into Yogi’s well-known quotes. • Serendipities: IT bunched together three times in the SW corner, schwa-enders (GHANA, MEDIA, PARKA, BERRA, GOTTA, ITSA), and the echo of SHAMAN in the grid and “Sherman” in a clue. I just kept building off of crosses in a path that resembled a scribble, and the next thing I knew, I was done. So in addition to giving me much to bounce off of, this was great fun. Thank you so much, Boaz and Jacob!
Brag time: I finished it in 32:41 without looking at any of the Down clues. I only used the Acrosses. First time I’ve managed this on a Friday. AT LAST! RARITY! Great puzzle!
@Petrol Congratulations! I occasionally start out trying that, but never make it more than a few entries before I realize it's hopeless. Very impressed, especially or a Friday.
@Petrol Congratulations. I think this is my first Friday solve with not help or look-ups. Hard for me to imagine toing it on the across clues alone.
@Petrol Congrats from me too. And leads into a recommendation I'd been going to make for those who are always complaining if a puzzle is too easy: Try to do with acrosses (or downs) only. If it is kinda easy, this will prolong the fun; if it isn't, you can always selectively look at a few from the other direction. I hit on this for Mondays (they go by too fast for me otherwise). @Petrol is clearly in a whole different league from me!
I call foul on ICE RAIN. The link doesn't even include the term, it refers to freezing rain. I had ICy RAIN until the bitter end. Crosswordese run amok.
@Nora I agree with you completely. We get those weather events occasionally, and I have never heard them refered to as ice rain. It's always freezing rain. Ice rain would be an oxymoron. Rain is liquid precipitation, and ice is, well, not liquid.
@Nora Agreed, and several others too. I can't even be bothered to list them. Lazy/lousy/questionable cluing takes much of the fun out of what's already overrun with sports, video games and silly random phrases.
@Nora When I saw the two entries, 3 and 4 letters, I immediately thought "ice rain" but didn't enter it until I had several crosses because that couldn't possibly be the answer, right? RIGHT???
@Nora I immediately expected crosswordese so I went straight to ICE RAIN. E is more likely than Y.
@Nora Our weather forecasters call it ICY Rain here in Omaha and we get it a lot!
Hey, Deb, you do a great job. Just one tweak to today’s column, re: the Sherman Act, though. (Anyone: Feel free to ignore this post if this stuff bores you.) You might wonder, “if the Sherman Act outlaws monopolies, why do they still seem to be all around me?” The SA doesn’t outlaw all monopolies. (Common misconception.) So-called “innocent” monopolies are allowed. e.g. If you just happen to build a better mousetrap than anyone else and all consumers flock to you. In fact, we grant (temporary) monopolies all the time to encourage innovation. (Yeah, Pharma Bros play games to over-exploit this.) What’s illegal is anticompetitive monopolization—acting to *inappropriately” restrict others’ competitive behavior and opportunities. It may sound like a boring quibble, but it is an important distinction, in particular in an age of platforms like Amazon and Google.
@Warren You might have heard of my antitrust law professor, Lino Graglia. (Ronald Reagan nominated him for the 5th Circuit, but pulled the nomination over Graglia’s controversial remarks about school busing.) The two things I took away from that class were that Graglia didn’t believe that monopolies existed and that, if you were a second-year law student, there was still time to switch to dental school, but if you were a third-year, you had too much invested in law school to abandon it.
Yes it’s technically an Antelope, but it’s really the iconic Springbok made famous in the movie Invictus, the symbol of South Africa in general and rugby in particular (2 time defending World Cup champions, and 4 time overall winner - the most of any nation)
"Getting to first base" was always a struggle for me as a kid baseball player or as a teen Romeo but I finished this Friday in 35:47 at age 81! There is hope!
Dog's motto: "Gotta fetch 'em all!" (No bones about it!)
@Mike You were late! I had to come back here at 1:30 a.m. to look for your pun. I count on you to be an early bird!
I figured out using "antelope" for 16A but it's a springbok on the coin.
@Max Nicks As a springbok is a variety of antelope, is that not fine?
@Jez it's like saying "bird" is the right answer for what is on the back of a US $1 bill instead of "eagle". Technically correct but...
@Max Nicks I was surprised that Paul Kruger still appears on the coin. I would have thought they'd have replaced him with Mandela.
Such a fun Friday fling! Our eldest was born wanting to talk. I won’t say *which* parent he takes after, but it’s not my husband. Words by 10 months, full sentences at about a year, reading when he was two. We didn’t teach him. Read tons of books, but who teaches a baby to read? A Pokémon poster on the basement door, that’s who. He *needed* to memorize the names cuz, he had to both catch ‘em all, *and* teach his little brother the names. He’d stare at those characters… we’d hear a quiet “…mee-owf…” 120 of them. CC’s Useless Parenting Tip #11. Loved the puzzle, and really needed the ease and flow of this gem! Happy, happy Friday all!!
@CCNY Sesame Street and the renditiion of "Letter B" (Let it Be) pretty much took care of that at our house. Thank goodness Pokemon came along too late for our offspring.
If anyone's interested in our original pitches for ICE and RAIN, we had [Solid that's denser than its liquid form] and [Fall in the spring?]. I didn't think to investigate ICE RAIN's legitimacy when they sent the proofs over. Sounded like a thing to me! I'm fascinated by all the research here, especially regarding its translation from German. I checked on my wordlist, and at some point I downscored ICE RAIN to where it wouldn't be used. So all the ICE RAIN dislikers will be happy to know ICE RAIN will almost certainly not be in future puzzles.
@Boaz Moser but ice is not denser than water, that's why it floats.
@Boaz Moser ICE RAIN appeared in another puzzle not too long ago. I was incensed at the time, but excited to be able to put the new-to-me term to use in this delightfully tricky-but-doable puzzle.
@Boaz Moser You’re hardly the only constructor who’s used ICE RAIN! It’s just a really uncommon term for freezing rain. I think sometimes constructors lean into certain odd phrases when they get a bit stuck with the fill. (“I RULE” is another one.)
ObPedantry: Cicero did indeed write philippics, but they were a long established literary form by his time. The name comes from Demosthenes's tirades against Philip II, centuries earlier.
This was really a great themeless puzzle to work through. Seldom am I this impressed by a themeless. Dynamic, clever and fluid like molasses. It was a slow and sweet solve. Some of my family tree has roots in farming, TEAT made me chuckle. Although milking is usually done by machine these days, who doesn’t want to try their hand at it just for fun? When I was 43 years old, my father finally came around as a father, and apologized for being a terrible, neglectful one during my childhood. He gave me a Gameboy that came with a POKEMON game for my birthday that year. I was stunned that he would even think to purchase such a novel thing. Then realized he had actually put some thought into it, and that was really a novel thing. I was addicted to playing POKEMON every spare minute for quite a while. I still have my POKEMON games and Gameboy tucked away in a box with other happy memories.
@Mark He finally retired, and with the weight of all that responsibility lifted from his shoulders, opened his eyes and realized what was precious. I’m so sorry it took that long, but glad that you got to see it. Some of the most special times I’ve had with my kids is when I told myself, “I’m definitely going going to do this differently than my folks did.” (Lovely and hardworking as they were. Gosh, they were young! Even their parents were young! My grandmother was 46 when my older sister was born.) Ironically, deliberately choosing to do things differently wound up binding my siblings together and leading to some pretty great vacations when all the cousins got to hang out together.
@Jacob Many thanks to you and Boaz! A fine achievement, I hope to see more from you guys!
@kkseattle Thanks for your kind words! I am happy to hear you made time for your kids. Although I didn’t have it easy, I am living proof that whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Yes thank you for your kind words Mark!
@Boaz Moser You are welcome. Well deserved!
I found this to be a charming Friday puzzle, with crosses that were gentle enough to resolve my unknowns (First or third base? Sherman Act??? Philippics????? The Pokemon tagline?) Through it all, it was nice to have Joey tagging alongside me, asking "How you DOIN'?" "Hangin' in there, Joey, hangin' in there" until all the pieces started falling into place and I could beam as I answered him "DOIN' great!" Thank you for a great outing, Boaz and Jacob – and congrats to the latter on your NYT debut! I really hope we see more from you.
@sotto voce "Crosses that were gentle enough to resolve my unknowns" describes my experience exactly. Late last night, a number of answers were just beyond reach at the edge of my brain -- the quadruple double, Sherman Act, the Pokemon tagline, 5-letter names of African nations, [Corsair]... All things I knew I know, but just a little fuzzy in the moment. I thought I'd sleep on it, but then it all quickly, suddenly smoothed out for the win! ...I did get on FIRST BASE without a problem. As a sometime softball player, it was a gimme -- at least until I struggled with _LAP and had to recheck the clue! Nope, it definitely says [walk *from* home], so it would not be third BASE! Middle-of-the-night brain did not see FLAP for the longest time, haha. Sotto voce, don't you have [a song] for us to TUNE IN to? Even if you have to take some ARTISTIC LICENSE to get there today, I'm always up for one of your earworms! :)
TUNEIN to a podcast? Holy boomer clue Batman!
@tapebouquet Haha it is a bit of a dated clue! You may be interested in learning about skeuomorphs. Things like the floppy disk save icon or record scratch sound effect. Sometimes bits of older technology persist in language and design despite no longer being necessary! Our original was [Do touch that dial!]
@tapebouquet What do you say for a podcast? Listen? Download? Stream? What generation are you? @Boaz Moser TIL “skeuomorph.” I know I’m not the only one who pantomimes a circle with my wrist and forearm for “roll down your window.” 😀
@tapebouquet I had the same thought! Perhaps they were thinking of podcasts that air on the radio. If so, they got it backwards. Radio shows are often distributed as podcasts, not the other way around. The fact that it's a podcast means there's nothing to "tune in" to!
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, "parka" is originally Nenets (Samoyedic) and found its way into Aleut via Russian.
@Fact Boy At the Sitka Salvation Army store, no doubt.
[Target of many 2025 acts] TRUST And continuing with the “News”: CHEAPASDIRT MEDIADARLINGS (Fun puzzle today. The long-term forecast: continuing trend of easier solves with frequent ICERAIN.)
Today I learned the term MOCAP SUIT. I suspect that I'm not the only one. Although I've know of their existence for some time as an aid to CGI film-making, but I had never seen the word. It's basically a black suit with ping-pong balls glued to it. It's amusing to think of your favorite superhero being filmed. In the final movie, they may be flying across the sky, shooting fireballs out of their fists, but, in "reality", they're lying on a table in front of a green screen, wearing a black suit with ping-pong balls glued on it. Some hero!
@The X-Phile "It's basically a black suit with ping-pong balls glued to it." Thanks, I just figured out my next Halloween costume! Is there a phone app for that? If not, there should be. "What are you supposed to be?" "Whatever you want."
Showing my age again. I knew PHILIPPIC from the Simon and Garfunkel song on their first (?) album: A Simple Desultory Philippic. But so much else was only obtainable from the crosses, such as MOCAP SUIT. As for ANTELOPE, I can't even read the words South Africa without becoming nauseated.
@Times Rita don't diss South Africa. Envy them for being rid of him.
@Times Rita surely you’re able to separate one dude from a nation of 57 million, no? I assume here you’re talking about Mr. Musk
@Times Rita Thanks for the tip on the S&G song. I'm a fan, but I didn't know this one. I can't decide if it's an homage to Dylan or a parody...or both? "I learned the truth from Lenny Bruce."
Deb, there's a little typo - in the Constructor Notes, it mentions the original clue for DEEP DIVE but that should be for DEEP END.
I burned through it in under 10 minutes but that’s not why I liked it. There was so much fun fill and clever clues. Although ICE RAIN is another one of those crossword-isms I would like to send to outer space.
Fun puzzle. I liked the 'not left in Japan' clue, had me trying to fit in something about driving or cars, filled in then saw 'tip'. Nice.
The northwest corner really baffled me -- I confidently entered "pirate" for 18A and who "dis" for 25A and it went downhill from there. I really enjoyed ITSAME, though!
Hoping to hear fewer cries of "Too easy/fast/etc." for this enjoyable puzzle with its interesting entries. My first word into the grid was PERU--a guess based on the linguistic features of the canyon name. Had to backtrack at 18A PIRATE before RAIDER. Most reluctant entry: MOCAPSUIT. My thought was "MOCK UP SUIT" but that wouldn't fit, and the crosses were also insiistent. What exactly does MOCAP stand for?? I'm unfamiliar with Pokemon and Mario--a situation that is unlikely to change. After all, I still have an ATLAS. 27D calls to mind the scene in "Witness" where Harrison Ford is assisting the Amish farmer (Rip Torn) with the milking--or trying to.
@Mean Old Lady Motion capture! I learned a lot about it when I was obsessed with the Lord of the Rings movies as a kid. Andy Serkis is the actor who played Gollum. He had to wear a MOCAP SUIT for all his scenes, which is arguably better than having hobbit hair glued to your bare feet.
@Mean Old Lady, MOCAP I believe stands for MOtion CAPture, e.g. Andy Serkis portraying the Gollum character in the LOTR films.
@Mean Old Lady [Book is having trouble milking a cow] Eli Lapp: You never had your hands on a teat before. John Book: Not one this big. [Long pause; then Eli Lapp roars with laughter] Loved it. But Eli Lapp was played by Jan Rubes(I had to look that up).
Good Friday with interesting fill. Slightly distracted as waiting to hear when my son can get home from Bangkok. He’s stranded as Heathrow airport is closed. Can’t believe a fire in one sub station can shut down one of the world’s busiest airports! At least he wasn’t in the air and diverted to who knows where. Flying eh? Think I’ll stick to the train (when they run).
@Helen Wright Gosh. Hope he makes it home safely.
@Helen Wright That sounds terrible. Best Wishes for a prompt return for your son!
"Oh Thor, not again! Haven't we already established that "ice rain," or "icerain," or "ice-rain," is not a Thing? Even CTRL-F failed to F it on the NOAA webpage--soon to be doged away, no doubt--which Deb linked." (As I remember, someone [CQ?], established that "icerain" was perhaps the product of AI auto-translations, from the German "Eisregen.") OTOH, icy, freezing rain is definitely a Thing, as I found several times this past winter, driving in Northern (Lower, RiA) Michigan. Better get off this freeway ASAP, at the next exit, before I kill myself. Not familiar with the backroads in this part of the state? Luckily I have my handy DeLorme® Atlas and Gazeteer of Michigan, wedged between passenger seat and the shift console. (Pull safely off to the side of the road before consulting.) The other, of Ohio, is in the back seat; and several (but not 48) more are at home, on the book shelf.
@Bill Delorme atlases were the very best. And I agree, it’s freezing rain, not ice rain. But otherwise, good puzzle!
@Bill I'm pretty familiar with freezing rain, and I totally agree that ICE RAIN is not a thing. I only got it because it was in a previous puzzle. One could talk about an ICE STORM, as in the 1998 ice storm (eastern Canada and NE US), which happens when there is a certain accumulation of the freezing rain. But no, not ICE RAIN.
@Bill I see I'm not alone in despising ICE RAIN. ;-)
@Bill, my old DeLorme is marked up with directions and such from the days before GPS. “Second driveway”, “Kathy’s house”, “Big oak”. Sorta like how some people make notes in the margins of novels.
@Deb Amlen A couple of Wordplay corrections: While Cicero did write a set of Philippics (against Mark Antony), the origin of the term is from the TIRADES of Demosthenes against the imperialist tendencies of PHILIP II of Macedon (Alexander's dad). Two mistakes in the Constructor Notes: DEEP END, not DEEP dive and ALES not I.P.A.S.
@The X-Phile You'll have to forgive Jacob for the oversights in his wordplay column— by the time we get around to writing them its almost a full year since we initially did the puzzle. It's easy to remember putting in one word only to see it was something else, d'oh!
It's amusing how the first comments here naturally claim that the puzzle was "too easy", allowing them to be the first comments. Personally, I found this puzzle quite challenging because I wasn't familiar with many of the categories (video games, sports, South African money, etc). Plus, I mistakenly thought that this was a Thursday puzzle so I kept looking for the Thursday trick... Oops.
@Gregg Based on ‘yesterdays’ comments, you might still be looking for the trick
@Weak I did yesterday's and I enjoyed it, I just forgot about it LOL I'll have to check out yesterday's comments.
@Gregg I also found this puzzle challenging, needing fifteen cheats. I marvel at all the brilliant people who solve these puzzles so easily. I might be 'smart' in my small local pond here, but in this larger lake, I'm left behind by all the fast 'swimmers'. But at least I'm in the race! Keep plugging along!
@Gregg I had a tough time in the northwest quadrant.
Sow with salt was a tasty clue.
Yes that would have been harder!
This was a lovely one for me. It felt like the cuing were done entirely towarsds my generation. except that I would happily pay an extra subscription fee to have a sports-free edition - as a sport-agnostic Danish person, I have a hard time even googeling random american ball players, coaches or terms 🤨
@Welling Thankfully with the basketball one though RARITY I didn’t need to know what it really was. I may look it up.
I’m not here to defend ICE(-)RAIN as an “in the language” equal to freezing rain, ice pellets, sleet, driving slush, or hailstones the size of golf balls. Clearly, the phrase is a rare phenomenon. But I posted this little bit of Canadian weather journalism last time the storm clouds gathered around the puzzling weather terminology, so for consistency and secretly hoping to see it become more common: <a href="https://www.saobserver.net/local-news/winter-storm-warning-issued-for-eaglerogers-pass-salmon-arm-hit-with-ice-rain-7691224" target="_blank">https://www.saobserver.net/local-news/winter-storm-warning-issued-for-eaglerogers-pass-salmon-arm-hit-with-ice-rain-7691224</a>
@JohnWM Thanks for re-posting, I must have missed it “last time.” FWIW, “last time” on 1/9/2025 we had as the number one comment from TJ: “Ice rain…not a thing. It’s freezing rain” And the number two comment from Jamie: “Did not enjoy. Weird cluing, clunky fill. No one calls it ‘ice rain.’ It’s ’freezing rain.’ “ Even our old friend CQ wrote in to question the validity of that term. But your quote seals it in my mind…
@JohnWM Well, I definitely stand corrected! Since another poster, Bob T., referenced an article from Maine, I wonder if it's a Maritime(ish) idiom. But who am I to question the fine meteorologists of Salmon Arm?
I did not know about “Gator-aid.” From Wikipedia: “The University of Florida researchers initially considered naming their product "Gator-Aid", but eventually settled on "Gatorade". Darren Rovell notes in his history of Gatorade, First in Thirst, "the doctors realized that they probably shouldn't use the 'Aid' suffix, since that would mean that if the drink were ever marketed, they would have to prove that it had a clear medicinal use and perform clinical tests on thousands of people."Gatorade co-inventor Dana Shires explained, "We were told that you couldn't use that because the Food and Drug Administration prohibited that. That would classify it as something other than a cola or soft drink, so we changed it to ade."”
@Brad So it doesn't really aid in becoming a gator? :(
@Brad this was part of my original clue! Glad you found your way to the same info
@Brad That story seems suspect. Kool-Aid and Flavor-Aid were around since the 1920s. Clinical tests, really? ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Feel like my (F24) youth is showing. The crossing of "To-do" and "For a song" made no sense to me. Needed the comments to help finish today!
@meredithb23 yeah I also have no idea what 'flap' has to do with "to-do" and Google is doing me no favors. Fortunately got enough of the cross clues to put it together by luck.
@meredithb23 Here's my take on this: I always thought that [for a song] meant something you could buy on the cheap. And [to do] means some type of controversy, as in it's a big to do, which could also be called a flap.
Back me up here, fellow fashionistas: Thor doesn't wear Megingjord, Megingjord wears him.
@ad absurdum It accessorizes so well with the essential little black tunic.
All the hue and cry over ICERAIN. My wife is not a native speaker of English, and she'll use terms like that. It may take me a second or two to get what she means, but the notion that language is descriptive rather than prescriptive is more appealing. I thought this grid was a little too easy for a Friday. It took a little less time than Wednesday's and Thursday's puzzles, and just a bit longer than Monday's and Tuesday's, so it's been an oddly flat week like that. That said, of course, I have a feeling I'll be gobsmacked by Saturday's puzzle.
Ice Rain is not a real thing, term, name, idiom, euphemism, or anything else. The end. I get so tired this level of arrogance. Not to mention that the image on a Krugerrand is specifically a springbok and we're proud of it.
@Gianni <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/46898n?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/46898n?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> and a springbok is specifically a kind of antelope. and I'm not sure where you're seeing arrogance. hey look, here's some ICE RAIN in your own backyard! <a href="https://b985.fm/the-historic-ice-storm-of-98-rolled-into-maine-25-years-ago" target="_blank">https://b985.fm/the-historic-ice-storm-of-98-rolled-into-maine-25-years-ago</a>/ "The fully fueled system was then pushed eastward, where it dumped snow and ice rain on thousands of square miles."
@Gianni - Yikes! The weekend has not come a moment too soon for some people, it seems.
@Gianni I was definitely trying to fit springbok into the puzzle. Why shy away from this foreign, specific and correct word when the puzzles are stuffed with them these days?
Fun puzzle! Starting to get my rhythm back.
Dare I say that I think I actually enjoyed a Friday puzzle? I needed two lookups (5 and 11 down), but I just chipped away at it little by little until I finished it (around 5:30 am after waking up way too early). I’m so glad I stuck with it! It was 9 minutes over my average, but I’m proud of my perseverance today. Now, back to bed! 😴
Very enjoyable despite being fast. I’m curious as to the editorial choice to spell Thor’s belt as megingjörd. Snorri Sturluson spelled it as megingjörð in Old Norse, same as modern Icelandic spells it. This spelling is retained in most modern translations of the Prose Edda. I understand opting not to use the edh ð in an English language crossword puzzle (hence Thor, not Þórr), but then why retain the ö? It doesn’t add anything to the English pronunciation of the word. This is why our anglicized spelling of fjörð is fjord. Yes, I’ve veered into seriously pedantic here, but I’m genuinely puzzled by the broader trends in editing lately.
@Sam Lyons It may be a computer thing. It's not just accuracy they have to take into consideration, it's how the puzzle is going to look across platforms. Maybe the ö showed up just fine, but the ð didn't. Or maybe they decided the ð was too hard to see--a problem I'm facing now as I'm typing this out. I could almost confuse the two characters.
@Sam Lyons Being pretty ignorant on this, I just find it hilarious to learn that apparently every last thing that touches Thor has its very own name. His hammer, his belt, and I assume his underpants and handkerchief all have their own formal proper names. I shall name my old t-shirt Seenbetterdaez! ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Sam Lyons Oh my. I hope you're not thor about it!
Maybe it's just that opening day is so soon, but this felt like a nice baseball puzzle to me.
@chris same! I'm always glad for baseball clues, even more glad when there are multiple baseball clues, and gladdest (?) when one of them is Orioles-related! Can't wait for opening day...
Another Friday puzzle that treated me quite gently. All the long entries dropped easily into place, and even the unknown MOCAPSUIT made perfect sense once I looked at it. Last time it appeared, the very unfortunate ICERAIN was a single entry, and was clued as "Cold-weather driving hazard". Of course, there's no such thing, but it seems the editorial staff insists on foisting it upon us, today intentionally pairing ICE and RAIN to create this non-existent English compound word. In English we say "freezing rain", not Eisregen. On an alphabetical note, this grid was packed with very common letters. Looks like the K in SPARKLES was the sole "interesting" letter in the puzzle.
@Xword Junkie I was very surprised the editors doubled down on ICE RAIN here after its prior, single-answer occurrence you described -- even so far as to make an anodyne appearance in Tricky Clues. As two entries, it certainly seems there was plenty of opportunity to clue these words otherwise!
Despite more than usual that I was unfamiliar with, I was able to finish in a decent amount of time. Quite enjoyable for a Friday! No chewed nails (as if I would do that to my expensive nails!), and only one cuppa. Now, off to the ER for my shift. See you all tomorrow!
@Momerlyn Yes, the second cup came after the puzzle and the neighborhood tour with the doggo. PDQ.
Slight panic when first go-around came up with almost nothing and settled in for a slog, but came through in the end and emerged victorious. (Enjoyed the baseball clues.)
I can never remember where the c's and s's go (wait, is there an s?) in license ... or is it licence? That hurt me today. By tomorrow, I'll have forgotten again.
Once again, spending time with my grandson helped me, because GOTTACATCHEMALL and ITSAME were gimmes. On the other hand I had never heard of a MOCAPSUIT. No major hurdles, and nothing that really grabbed my attention.
I can't be the only one to put BIGLOAD for 29A, right? I only changed it when I couldn't figure out what a TOAT would be on a farm
@Stephanie You’re not alone! I had BIGLOAD and GOAT, like a misbeahin’ goat on a farm would be a “handful.” Both made perfect sense to me at the time.
@Stephanie me too! It sounded a bit naughty though so I was sceptical 😂
@Steph same since GOAT made sense, in the end though I guess it wouldn't actually be a bad thing to blow 🤣
@Stephanie I had THELEAD for the longest time, but couldn't figure out the African nation (or 1 and 2 down, of course) until I finally ripped "the" out. Combined, you and I would've made a good team! Lol.
@Stephanie My imagination is running wild at what it might mean to blow a BIG LOAD, and I'm not happy with the directions it's going in.