The three long answers in the middle are a tragedy in three parts of a gambler down on their luck PLAY IT COOL DOUBLE OR NOTHING ROCK BOTTOM Very evocative. The stacks in the top and bottom tell a story too. Top stack: two friends preparing to go out “Easy TIGER, you might want to DIAL IT BACK.” “What, you want me to be ANTISOCIAL?” “No, I’m just saying BARBIECORE might be a bit much for a trip to the LONDON ZOO.” And the bottom tells the story of an agreeable quarterback open to suggestions from his coach on how to speed up the game.
Some fun clues in this one, like present day attire for SANTASUIT and they help you get off the lot for AUTOLOANS. It came together pretty quickly for a Friday. I was happy to see Marilyn McCoo get some love in the puzzle. Her smooth as silk vocals with the Fifth Dimension were some of the high points of sixties soul. Yet somehow she never gets mentioned when the great female soul singers get discussed or listed. Maybe that’s because she’s deemed more pop than soul, but it seems like an injustice to me. Her version of One Less Bell To Answer is as soulful as they come.
@Marshall Walthew I'm glad ['80s...TV host] was in the clue, because I first knew her from Solid Gold. I thought she was the most beautiful woman on my favorite Saturday night show before I learned she had a previous gig. Thanks to you and the constructors for giving her props. <a href="https://youtu.be/niwt47gHtmM?si=De_Q3U1PyA_cKX_u" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/niwt47gHtmM?si=De_Q3U1PyA_cKX_u</a>
@Marshall Walthew I agree. Beautiful voice, beautiful woman, and by all appearances, beautiful soul.
(It just occurred to me that I'm thinking of that song as I finish laundry and get ready to leave town to see family tomorrow. 🐇🐣✌🏻)
@Marshall Walthew Ditto. She and Billy Davis Jr have been married 55+ years. Beautiful voices, great performers.
@Marshall Walthew Nice tribute. I always liked the wry line, "One less man to pick up after ... "
Personally, I think the answer to "They help you get off a lot" should have been VIBRATORS.
@Shrike I thought so too! I knew it couldn’t be, but put it in anyway…and it fit! That would’ve been a fun way to start the weekend…
@Shrike My mind went there too. Glad you went there!
@Marc It's especially odd considering that only five days ago the exact same answer was clued as "Social movement of 2017."
@Marc Yeah, I had to double-check my thought on that. Invented 2006, widespread usage 2017 or so.
@Marc Last night I replied to Warren, quoting wikipedia on the topic. Today both of our comments have been purged. I guess the topic, even though acceptable as an answer in the crossword, is too controversial to be in this discussion? Anyway, I'll trim and paraphrase the quote in a separate reply.
@Marc The paraphrased quote: The phrase was initially used on social media in 2006 (on Myspace). The hashtag was used starting in 2017 as a way to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem.
Up here, north of the 49th parallel, nowadays we call 13-Down a Canadiana. Elbows up!
@Janet Lol! Like Freedom Fries. Don't blame you one bit. 2028 can't come soon enough.
Janet, Who is north of the 49th parallel? Neither I nor you. But when Gordie Howe raised his elbows No one was getting through.
@Janet Will i need to remember that when next I visit your fair land? Do you have Starbuckses there or have you kept them out? Had been considering another trip for some time even before our late unpleasantness. And since I am cis-gendered, there presumably won't be any trouble with the sex on my passport when i return. oh wait, maybe they know something else about me.
I wanted "Present-day attire?" to be Birthday SUIT. Yes, I know it doesn't fit, but I still like my answer better than the correct one.
@The X-Phile Like greeting your spouse at the door in the nude? That was a "save your marriage" (well maybe just a "put the magic back in your marriage") tip for a while. Glad it seems to have been retired.
@The X-Phile I wanted birthday SUIT, too -- I had the correct twist, wrong party. Haha!
This, to me, was about the bigs, those answers of eight letters or more. Oh, how they shined today. That shine is what vivifies a puzzle, makes it compelling, enthralls, excites. This grid design (never before seen in the Times puzzle) allowed for a soaring 15 bigs. Look at them! My favorites? DIAL IT BACK, PLAY IT COOL, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, ROCK BOTTOM, PLAY ACTION, SURE WHY NOT, AMERICANO, FIGHTS DIRTY. All these in one box! And they are placed in a solid, clean, wince-free set of answers. Plus, sweet serendipities. A no-vowel palindrome (MGM) in the box with an all-vowel palindrome (EYE). COO crossing COO in the middle. Four double-O’s. LOB and LOBOS (Hi, @Beth!) Greg, high props on your grid design and fill-in. Glenn, congratulations on your debut and the role you played in the delightful cluing. Thank you both for this spirited endeavor -- what a springboard for the day!
Back when PDAs were a thing, was Android a thing? Or am I not getting the context?
@Alex the Motorola Droid was an early smartphone that kind of looked like a Blackberry. Maybe that's what they meant.
@Alex one could say that all smartphones are PDAs (in the stretchy "crossword clue is not a definition" sense, especially on a Friday)
Kind of an easy puzzle? SUREWHYNOT. We deserved a break. No complaints here, and this one was fun. Lots of amusing clues tucked in all through the grid: Discretely fill in, in a way; Present day attire? Well pitched—very cool indeed. Thank you, Greg and Glenn, I needed that.
Interesting clueing for Isis, as it invokes her later, Hellenized tradition. Her original Egyptian name translates literally as She of the Throne and was pronounced something like Ahs(e)t, with Ahs meaning throne, plus the feminizing -t. The Greeks dropped the -t and added the Greek feminizing -is, et voilà! Isis was born. And from the sibling-mother of Osiris, her myth eventually became much more universal. Here is Apuleius having her introduce herself in 2nd c. CE: “I am Nature, the universal Mother, mistress of all the elements, primordial child of Time, sovereign of all things spiritual, queen of the dead, queen also of the immortals, the single manifestation of all gods and goddesses that are. (…) Though I am worshipped in many aspects, known by countless names, and propitiated with all manner of different rites, yet the whole round earth venerates me. The primeval Phrygians call me Pessinuntica, Mother of the Gods; the Athenians (…) call me Cecropian Artemis; for the islanders of Cyprus, I am Paphian Aphrodite; for the archers of Crete, I am Dictynna; for the trilingual Sicilians, Stygian Proserpine; and for the Eleusinians, their ancient Demeter. Some know me as Juno, some as Bellona of the Battles; others as Hecate; others again as Rhamnusia. But (…) the Egyptians, who excel in ancient learning and worship me with ceremonies proper to my godhead, call me by my true name: Queen Isis.”
Excellent puzzle, but I have to note that “Vegas hot spot” is an unfortunate clue for the MGM Hotel. In 1980, the former MGM Grand was the site of a terrible fire, the worst disaster in Nevada history and the third worst hotel fire in US history.
I thought I was so smart as I immediately wrote in mooS for [Low notes], but I was quickly disabused of that notion. Breezy Friday with some lively cluing. NO FAIR crossing FIGHTS DIRTY was a nice touch.
@Nancy J. Oh that's a good one! That would have been funny.
@Nancy J. I'm not always crazy about alternatives that solvers come up with, but moos for low notes is a real winner in my book!
Congratulations on your NYT debut, Mr. Davis! The grid is full of lively and fresh answers. Many of the clues feel fresh, too (e.g. YASIR, LONDON ZOO, GUAM and FACTS. Thanks, gents!
A satisfying and clever Friday solve. I feel compelled to say, however, that my OY's are anything but faux. An OY is a heartfelt expression of despair and one I find myself using with increasing frequency these days.
@NovelaMaven Agreed! From watching TV news to cleaning up matzo crumbs, the OYs have it!
@NovelaMaven I wondered about that too!
LONDON and TIGER reminded me of William Blake, but his poems are not that forum-friendly. So DOUBLE OR NOTHING led me to Wislawa Szymborska “Nothing Twice,” which begins with a wallop: Nothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice. Even if there is no one dumber, if you’re the planet’s biggest dunce, you can’t repeat the class in summer: this course is only offered once. It could end as she ended another poem, “Love at First Sight: Every beginning is only a sequel, after all, and the book of events is always open halfway through.
One definition of an ANTISOCIAL person: Someone who, seeing “garlic rich topping” and - - OLI thought for even 3 milliseconds that could be E COLI.
I love the puzzles where after 7 minutes it looks totally hopeless and after 13 (ok, 13:05 in this case) it's totally done.
Good grid. Interesting without being too chewy. I guessed LONDON ZOO without having ever been, though I did once stay overnight in a hotel overlooking Regents Park, the home of said zoo. It was surreal to hear the lions roaring while in bed in the middle of London! Wasted 5 minutes looking for my error. Turns out the divine Ms Angelou was talking about FACTS, not FAtTS. It’s CZAR not tZAR. Duh. Glad I’m not a gum chewer. Also, my instinctive answer to ‘ring bearer’ will always be Frodo.
@Helen Wright I immediately thought of London Zoo, too, and was surprised to learn that I was right. Aas soon as I thought of it, my mind took me back to my childhood (OK, back in the 50s), visiting the zoo and seeing the lions pacing back and forth in cages. Even then, it didn't seem the best place for them. Last fall, I walked past the zoo on a stroll through bucolic Regent's Park and I thought of the lions that must be living in much better circumstances now.
Got stuck on SOW instead of SOD which made me have to hunt for the “wrong letter” at the end. I knew WISC didn’t make any sense, but hey on a Friday who knows. Needed google to get me past that, otherwise no hints!
@Bob I agree, I had SOW as well, because DISC is a terrible answer too. A lozenge would be any hard candy shape, why would it be a disc?
Same experience as others. Started out with next to "nuttin" until the bell rang and worked out from the SW. Nicely done and thanks.
Oy! Antisocial rock bottom Czar fights dirty. Why not? Facts!
One thing I've learned from reading the Wordplay column is to slow down, take a breath, and take a sip of coffee whenever I see a ? in a clue. Going at the usual solve-speed always means I'll make an error. But the ? means something's a-foot. (Did I need that hyphen? I'll look that up later.) That extra second won me SANTASUIT, which was a nice chuckle. TOE filled itself in, thank heavens, because I don't think I'd have gotten that on my own. Some of the longer fills were less difficult than I expected just because they were fun. ACCELERATE reminded me of a time, about 52 years ago, when my then-fiance and I were driving very late (about 3 or 4 a.m.) back home from somewhere on Long Island (maybe Long Beach?) on a deserted highway, and he chose to, ahem, ignore a light. When the only-still-awake cop pulled us over, I told him "say you sneezed" (hey, I was still a kid) and that's what he did. I swear the cop had to stifle a laugh. Either that, or the friend-of-the-police thing he carried in his wallet with his license got us off with a warning, and he drove responsibly after that. Greg and Glenn, thanks for a fun start to my Friday!
Correction: I had a good laugh when I thought that 12D was going to be some variation of a Birthday Suit. But barely nothing would fit. Great Puzzle!
I really wanted for 1A to be "simmer down." And it fit. I'm glad I waited for the crosses. TIL Guam's flag, with its little sailboat and palm tree. I'm pretty sure I'll never forget it, what with it being so darned cute. This was overall a very enjoyable puzzle and I thank you, Mr. Snitkin and Mr. Davis. The two of you should definitely pair up on another one!
@sotto voce I was going to ask you if Christopher Cross would make for the accompianment to this puzzle -- with the Guamanian flag cueing his Sailing -- until I scrolled down and read this wonderful thread initiated by @Marshall Walthew about Marilyn MC COO: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/46ut1o?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/46ut1o?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> Like @Beth below, I am that age to know Ms, Mc Coo as the glamorous host of Solid Gold who would occasionally accompany her guests. Her soulful singing had completely escaped me before now!
For my current crossword puzzle solving ability, this was right in my wheelhouse. No lookups. So IMO a perfect Friday Puzzle. Huzzah!
A shockingly easy Friday. I wasn't rushing, and finished in half my average time. I hope Saturday's puzzle puts up more of a fight.
@DawnW same experience for me, but I'll take 'em when I can get 'em.
@DawnW Of course this means nothing because I'm Polish but for me this was impossibly hard without lookups 🤷🏾
Not only a fun and clever puzzle, but that’s three days in a row for me with almost the exact same times. I just know Saturday’s going to be a 40-minute debacle to make up for this.
I did see a mini-theme in the puzzle: double or nothing—play, play, Barbie, doll, talc, rock, accelerate, dial it back.
@Brenda Bronner -- Nice catches!
@Lewis do you know if double-or-nothing has ever been the theme for (a trick in) a puzzle? It seems vaguely familiar but I do not know how to search that delightful archive you often point to. (At least I think it's you who often directs us to interesting past puzzles...)
The wisdom of the jungle - using your stripes to obscure your own truth, the facts of tooth and claw. Is that fighting dirty? A very fast solve.
Based on my solve times and my feeling while doing the puzzles, Wednesday and Friday got switched. Today felt very easy, whereas Wednesday provided resistance, with Thursday sitting between the two.
@John, I agree. The longer entries came rather quickly without many letters for help. Probably had to gauge difficulty on those. The right half of the Wednesday puzzle was a slog for me.
Wonderful puzzle. I laughed, I cried. It became a part of me.
"Whoa! Easy there, buddy!" Easier read than done. Harder to fill than some. Was scratchin my head like a porch hound with September fleas. After 40 mins, called calf rope with TWO little squares amiss - "plants" shore had to be SITES, as in factories. Funny how the old bean can persuade you that wrong fill is good fill, till it ain't. Great Friday solve!
@Whoa Nellie BTW - must subtract 15-20 mins involving eyes closing for eyelid inspection. Too comfy on couch, almost dropped this dang device twice while solving. Gettin old Out West ...
Zipped through this puzzle. Nearly every long entry I filled in without crosses was correct, and the few proper names were ones I knew right away. Either I was on the same wavelength as the constructor or somehow Wednesday and Friday got switched. I'm the right age to remember Marilyn McCoo as the host of Solid Gold. For the youngsters (including myself!), I only learned last year that she was a member of The 5th Dimension in the 60s and 70s. <a href="https://youtu.be/vbCH5lnZ6sA?si=pPsdBDGm4crLFaVI" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/vbCH5lnZ6sA?si=pPsdBDGm4crLFaVI</a> TIL talc is used in chewing gum, but you know what else most modern chewing gum is made from? PLASTIC. Most chewing gum manufacturers stopped using natural chicle (rubber) in favor of synthetic, petroleum-based rubber (i.e. plastic) decades ago. <a href="https://petroleumservicecompany.com/blog/petroleum-product-of-the-week-chewing-gum" target="_blank">https://petroleumservicecompany.com/blog/petroleum-product-of-the-week-chewing-gum</a>/ There is still natural chewing gum, but to me, it's not great. And gum gives me a headache anyway. No thanks.
I was very proud of myself for knowing that the Schönbrunn Zoo in Vienna is the oldest zoo in the world and happily put VIENNA ZOO as the answer to 32D. Not sure why, since that’s not even the zoo’s name! Alas, my overconfidence threw me off in that whole section. Once I (begrudgingly) corrected my mistake, I breezed through. Nice puzzle.
@Ingrid A bit of etymology here, pretty widely known but fun to discover if you've never encountered it: Public areas set aside for the display of plants and animals from around the world were once referred to as botanical gardens and zoological gardens, respectively. The former term is still widely used, but the latter got shortened to "zoos," in the nineteenth century, and has pretty much supplanted "zoological gardens." I could try referring to Atlanta's botanical garden as "the bot," I guess, but I don't think it would catch on.
Once again, I'm begging for there to be proper usage of asocial/antisocial. Antisocial typically involves intent and actively being against. Asocial means more withdrawn, quiet, solitary.
@Emmy You are precisely and accurately describing the distinction between definitions of the two terms, of course, but somewhat-misleading clues like this are expected in crossword puzzles, especially late in the week in NYT, and part of the challenge. See Deb Amlen's column today, under the "Tricky Clues" section, as she mentions this 15A distinction.
Delightful puzzle! Loved AUTOLOANS, SANTASUIT, and ONKEY. Super fun - I have a 50/50 solve rate for Fridays so it’s nice to get this one solved!
@Lily AUTOLOANS was difficult for me to get because 'a lot' means 'frequently' or 'often.' Not the US meaning of an area of land!
@Jane Wheelaghan Here, the retail establishment where cars and other vehicles are sold is called a lot. A car lot. What is it called where you are?
Loved it. I was totally on the constructors' wavelength. My Friday PB!
Congratulations! It's a personal best for me too, better than my best Thursday time.
@Turing I’m happy to join the ranks of the new Personal Bests today. What a fun solve! Thank you for a great puzzle @Greg Snitkin and @Glenn Davis
@Turing Add me to the list of Friday PBers. Breezy Friday!
AMI crazy, or was that was a Friday personal best by a very, very wide margin? Spoiler alert: I'm not crazy! Wow, I flew through it and I wasn't even trying to. I don't aim for speed and I even forgot to turn off my clock when I went to pour myself a little spot of... Dang! But, it was a lot of fun and had a lot of fresh and lively entries in it I thought. A handful of things I didn't know offhand, but the crosses were incredibly kind. I'm still in shock at my time. I thought they'll leave it to Beaver clue for DAM and the present day clue for SANTASUIT were especially cute. I'm happy that I don't chew gum and I think I might have to make my husband stop. No idea why I knew the GUAM answer immediately. It's probably because I have plans geography game, but I haven't really gotten to the flag level yet. Anyhow, fun outing! Also, I SAY, I really wish the box didn't default to being checked. My personal email box is already where all things go to die, I don't need anymore in it and I keep forgetting to uncheck it because I used to just have it constantly unchecked.
@HeathieJ What's a plans geography game? I need to up my geography game... ideally, by getting one! 😆
@HeathieJ well done in GUAM! I was hoping to get the flag more quickly from Worldle experience. I tried to think of a four letter island nation but none came to mind immediately until I had a crossing letter. I think that "email me" box might default to whatever you had before - at least that was the case for me. I checked it once and it stayed on; toggled it off and it stayed off. (Might also be a bug/feature that changes with various app updates...)
Wait, hasn’t talc been linked to cancer? Isn’t that the reason for the long court battle over baby powder? And it’s in GUM? I don’t know what to think, other than I’m glad I’ve never been a gum chewer. This one started slow for me, but then some cracks appeared and gave me a way in. My biggest holdup was being certain that the Great Mother goddess had to be Gaia. The fact that I already had the third letter in place (the “I” from BARBIECORE) didn’t help.
@Heidi I’m not an apologist for Big Talc, but talc is in a lot of food. <a href="https://www.fao.org/gsfaonline/additives/details.html?id=299&d-3586470-s=2&d-3586470-o=2&lang=en" target="_blank">https://www.fao.org/gsfaonline/additives/details.html?id=299&d-3586470-s=2&d-3586470-o=2&lang=en</a> The reason for the baby powder dust up (hee hee) is a debatable link to cancer. Talc could have asbestos in it, so inhaling it isn’t a great idea. Eating it, though, shouldn’t be a problem. That said, I found an article from Australia that said it was bad and should be banned. But what they talked about was inhalation hazards for the food workers. It’s just a rock, basically, and you eat plenty of that already. Yum.
@Heidi (Part 1) Talc and cancer is a challenging conversation. The core of the conversation is that talc is a soft white rock and asbestos is a soft white rock...AND they are often mined together and get mixed a little. Asbestos and cancer is an interesting conversation as well. Asbestos is looked at as most dangerous when its friable. Meaning that it easily turns into dust in the air. Asbestos mixed with things like cement or roofing tiles is looked at as not friable typically. The people who were most at risk of asbestosis or cancer worked in asbestos mines...OR in navy shipyards and were exposed to A LOT of asbestos... AND smoked. People who had asbestos in their homes on their boiler and heating pipes were not as likely as those absolutely covered in the stuff to get cancer. (end of Part 1)
@Heidi (Part 2) Back to Asbestos and Talc... So there was some asbestos mixed with talc. Which creates a problem for personal care manufacturers. The were using talc for lots of things. SPECIFICALLY on feminine protection products. This led to asbestos being found in the reproductive system of women who used products with talc...and it leads to a conversation about ovarian cancer. Here's where it gets tricky and interesting... 1)Many women using talc laden products may already have had co-morbidities which lead to health problems such as ovarian cancer...such as extra weight. 2)Memory is fuzzy...so people when asked if they used talc in feminine products may have been using corn starch and not talc 3)Ovarian cancer is pretty rare...so it may be impossible to determine if asbestos in the reproductive system led to the tiny increase in cancer reported. So that's where we are on that. BUT if asbestos does pose a risk to mucous membranes....Would you want it in your digestive system? Would you want it to touch the walls of your mouth? Or does mixing it with gum make it non-friable and perfectly safe.
GAIA for ISIS and GDAY for ISAY really held me back 😆 Today years old, I found out TAR is (or hopefully was) an additive in gum. SUREWHYNOT. IMO, I fear another class action lawsuit may be on the way.
@Sebastian Unless I'm missing a joke here, it's TALC that was the additive in gum. TAR is the "roofing supply." I'm not crazy about talc in my food either though.
A relatively easy Friday(close to my record time) but I’m not complaining.
This one whizzed right along for me, and might have been a PB except for the NW corner, which caused a little stumbling. Gaia, aorti, BARBIEchic were all in there first. Then ended up with all A's and I's trying to fill in 15A. Call me ANTISOCIAL, but I'm really just more of a solitary person. I'd prefer if one didn't TAR me with the same brush.😊
@Amy Get out of my brain! I had all the same things you did. (Had a stent implanted last Saturday, so aorti are sorta on my mind.)
A fun fill! I copped some flak on Wednesday for saying "I'm all for a challenge" but thought the clues on that puzzle were mean spirited - this is a great example of a challenge where patience and lateral thinking will yield answers. (still not over PTUI :)
Trouble sleeping, so I got up and worked through the "hard-mode" version. Just finished the "easy-mode" at lunchtime. First time I've done it this way. Mostly I just stick to the easy mode. I enjoyed it both times!
That's not what antisocial means
@Jerry Kuntz It's not a definition, as Deb points out at the top of the column.
Normally, Friday solves takes me about 15 minutes. I'm already going on 15 and only about halfway done. Loving this.
First pass through brought out a really meaningful "OY!" But from there things settled down and I even discovered that Barbiecore is a thing!
Loved the puzzle today, very clever. Great job!