I confidently filled in Ada Lovelace for 11 down.
A tough workout, but totally fair. This is how puzzles ought to be.
@Jonathan Hear hear. Just like yesterday’s.
Haven’t finished the puzzle, and probably won’t for a while, but wanted to register kudos for any puzzle that includes GRACE HOPPER
@Doug I got slowed down because Ada Lovelace fit as a guess.
It was tougher than many past Fridays, but not impossible. Made you think. I like that type of puzzle.
Grace Hopper was the first to identify an actual bug interfering with the operation of a computer. She found it in a Mark II computer in 1947. Being the excellent Naval officer she was, she inserted in actual insect (a moth) into her log. We have had computer and program bugs ever since. I would not have learned this if I had not done today's crossword puzzle!
@Christine Whittington Radar technicians were using the term before she did, though. Not to downplay her contribution to computer science, of course. She may have been aware of the term, and finding a literal 'bug' in a system may have just amused her.
Bug as an engineering problem predates radar. Edison used the term in his personal notes and correspondence to mean a difficult problem that needed solving or an engineering defect that needed fixing. He even joked about the term being related to insects, writing in an 1878 letter: "You were partly correct, I did find a 'bug' in my apparatus, but it was not in the telephone proper. It was of the genus 'callbellum.' The insect appears to find conditions for its existence in all call apparatus of Telephones." <a href="https://www.howtogeek.com/726020/what-is-a-computer-bug-and-where-did-the-term-come-from" target="_blank">https://www.howtogeek.com/726020/what-is-a-computer-bug-and-where-did-the-term-come-from</a>/
"To find the bug, you must be the bug. Patience, young Grace Hopper."
"That crossword lover doesn't have a phone?" "Nah, he's off the grid." ("How puzzling...")
@Mike Solves on paper? I have him down as across over.
@Mike They's thinking outside the boxes. (Flashback) Where the fog paws in on little cat feet. wONTYOUSEE how that works?
@Mike He may be off the grid, but he is always in God's heart. Bless you, achoo, Amen.
This is why I love a Friday puzzle. Tough…until it’s not. Sealed shut, until it busts open. Slow…until it fills itself in, all chuffed and giddy-like. And that having played hide-and-seek and knowing OFF THE GRID, “taught” me to look into Grace Hopper! Thank you Willa and Erik! Happy Friday all!
Was it a mistake that 5A appeared in today's puzzle instead of yesterday's? Seems like it might have helped some folks who were less than thrilled.
@Pezhead Very well might have. I think that once used in a puzzle similar to yesterday’s. That time I understood what I was looking for and really enjoyed the experience, as opposed to yesterday’s which I didn’t.
“Components of some make-overs” I had - - IRDOS. Brain instantly shouts “WEIRDOS!” Yes, I am one.
Not more than half an hour before I ventured into this puzzle, in the course of burrowing down some Internet rabbit hole, did I happen to read the Wikipedia entry on former Rep Katie Porter. Why am I telling you this? It happens that she attended Grace Hopper College (formerly Calhoun College, after John C. Calhoun, an ardent defender of slavery) at Yale University. That rabbit hole paid off.
You know when it’s just not your day? I’ve spent the last 4 hours stuck in road works on a shopping trip that should have taken a leisurely 2 max. I finally make it home and put my feet up to do the crossword. Naturally I find it fiendishly difficult because my brain has turned to mush. I congratulate myself on getting Ada Lovelace. It isn’t her. Half of the phrases I’ve never come across, so crawl through all the permutations at a snails pace, recreating this morning’s fiasco. The only gimme is the divine Miss EYRE. Yay, my BA Lit has its uses, even if it’s eternally the Brontë sisters. I move 300 miles away from the outskirts of their village and still they haunt me through the squares of the crossword. I then write my comment, which mysteriously deletes itself before I can submit. So this is attempt #2. I’m off to recoup my zen with the Alpacas. Toodles.
What are the odds that GRACE HOPPER would have the same number of letters as Ada Lovelace?
What is the over/under on how many times this will be mentioned in the comments?
@Jeff I smugly filled in Ada Lovelace on my first pass thinking I'd nailed that one. The University of Surrey has an Ada Lovelace computer lab. I now know a bit about Grace Hopper.
@Jeff Or IDA, as I misremembered AND misspelled her name! Yeah, and had to take it all back.
The only liquid gold I have ever heard of was breast milk. It fit, but I read the clue a second time when the crosses didn’t work and then saw cooking byproduct?! 🤣 🤣 Okay, time to put the thinking cap back on. I’ve been laughing at myself for the last thirty minutes for that epically wrong answer. PASTA WATER makes so much more sense 🤦🏼♀️ Beautifully constructed puzzle. Thank you for starting off my weekend with a laugh at my own expense!!
@Jacqui J I thought it was going to be bacon fat, but nope!
@Jacqui J 😂😂😂 Let's test to see how prudish the emus are tonight. Well, a long time ago I was told, in an intimate moment, "Now you're cooking." I guess that could have eventually led to breast milk as a byproduct.
@Francis "Gimme that pasta water!"
@Jacqui The only food I've ever heard referenced as "liquid gold" is schmaltz, which is chicken fat.
TONI INOT Is kinda cool
@Bill in Yokohama Yes, and it's nice that INOT was clued I NOT, rather than the traditional IN OT.
I can appreciate this was a good, properly hard Friday puzzle. For me, however, it was impossibly difficult. With great effort I did the top 60% myself, despite unknowns such as I TOO, LUIS, and GRACE HOPPER. FLY BALL I only got when I was missing F and B. Why does one catch it Red-handed, exactly, and what is it anyway? The column has told me by now - it was the sort of clue I will never be able to get as a Polish person. BRIE as clued confused me for a long time, too. I know BRIE the cheese, obviously, but I've never eaten it or even seen it on a cracker. Is topping crackers with BRIE popular in the US? The bottom section defeated me. I've never heard PASTA WATER called "liquid gold". HAW flakes were alien to me. I have no idea who Superboy and his crush LANA are. ADA is just one of those American abbreviations I can never remember - there are just so many of them! I'm familiar with many Hills, but not DRU. ONE AND DONE I came up with only with many crosses, and it's not a phrase I *know*. I didn't understand why READY OR NOT was clued with "Seeking comment?" Ok, I checked the column. Yeah, nah, that was not gettable for somebody who has never played hide and seek with Americans. With word checks I filled the grid but... No blue star. Review did not help. PAwS/wONT looked good... I only got that with a check of the whole puzzle 😢 So yeah, a good puzzle, but one of those unsolvable for me, a Polish guy with idiosyncratic interests - unsolvable without aid, anyway.
@Andrzej I was somewhat surprised to remember LANA, but Superman was a popular comic book first, in 1938, then they filled in some of Superman's younger years as Superboy (1944), which included characters like LANA Lang, a teenage girlfriend. So these were already out before I was born, but the comics continued to be produced long afterward. Then there was the TV series, Smallville, which focused on the young Clark Kent (Superman's "normal" personna) and his friends (never watched it, always worked evenings back then). I've heard ONE AND DONE used most often with college basketball stars, who attend and play their freshman year, and then turn pro if they've performed up to expectations, so the term describes their college sports careers.
@Andrzej Brie on a cracker? Not here in the land of fromage! Maybe in the states, but I still find it hard to believe.
@Andrzej Maybe the "Red-handed" is because one of our baseball teams is the Cincinnati Reds. That's probably why the R in Red is capitalized. Pretty devious, even for an American.
@Andrzej You're playing the game Hide and Seek. You close your eyes and count to ten while everyone scrambles to hide. When you're done counting you yell, "Ready or not, here I come!
@Andrzej It's the Americans with Disabilities Act. Maybe that'll help. Signed into law by a Republican president back in the day, George HW Bush.
@Andrzej Yes, I can see that this would be hard, and not just for you. READYORNOT fits [Seeking comment} because it's the thing someone says when s/he is starting to SEEK the people who are hiding. I just realized that. ITOO? ITOO had no idea what that's from. Never heard of RAYE, DRU, LANA, or HAW.
mbm, Bothered? Not really. Briefly misdirected? Yes.
@W johnson people often use crackers when they have baked brie. It's soft and gooey, and you spread it on a cracker, maybe with a little pepper jelly or fig jam. My wife loves it.
@W johnson My daughter who lives in France laughed at us when we were visiting, looking for crackers to consume with our cheese. It is VERY HARD to find crackers in France! Fortunately a baguette serves the purpose even better (alas, it is very difficult to find a good baguette in the US!)
My first thought for 'liquid gold' was bacon fat. My mother saved it in a jar which was kept in the fridge and we used it for frying potatoes and the like, and my dad melted it and added it to waffle batter. Both were mighty tasty as a result, well, the cooked waffles of course! And hey, wasn't 'result' a yesterday's answer? I think it was! Anyway, perhaps using bacon fat for cooking is no longer to anyone's taste, but my parents' habits were shaped by the Depression and WW II era rationing, so yes, they followed the golden rule of those times, then and for the rest of their lives: 'Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without'. Now, pasta water? I love to cook and I've watched a lot of cooking shows, so I understand the use for it, but, I can't say I ever have. Have a good weekend everyone, and maybe make your mom some waffles, bacon fat or not.
@Lily We save bacon fat to use in our cornbread and beans!
@Lily I don't own a waffle iron, but that sounds good. I generally make the bacon first, and then make the pancakes in the bacon grease. By the time pancakes are ready to serve, the bacon has mysteriously vanished, so I make another batch, reserving the grease in my Pyrex dish for more pancakes, and perhaps for hamburgers later in the day. Repeat as necessary. Liquid gold.
@Lily I always keep a small bowl of bacon fat in the fridge. When it gets empty we have bacon again with our eggs 2 or 3 times a week until I've cooked a pound of bacon to refill. I use it mostly for scrambling or frying eggs. You get that good flavor w/o actually having bacon that day.
Felt extremely easy then almost hopeless then it was over. Surprisingly intense & demanding solve given that it didn't actually take that long
Amazing how all it takes is one or two breakthroughs for the pieces to fall in place after getting nothing on the first pass! I thought I’d be OFFTHEGRID on this one.
Deb once gave a piece of advice along the lines of: relax, your brain knows this. To one who is circling 70, and who cared for a mom with dementia, memory is a fragile, fickle-fingered thing. While i can, i wait for these figures to walk back to me and often they still come. Haw flakes. Toni Morrison. Free trade. James Baldwin. Boss, i'm ok.
ITOO liked this puzzle. How could INOT. Nice symmetry for those two answers. I thought I was in for a tough ride when a pass through the acrosses yielded very little. Luckily, as often seems to be the case, the downs were friendlier. I caused myself some flyspecking by inserting chili rather than CHILE, but caught that fairly quickly.
Hit my 365-day mark with this toughie. House guests a year ago compelled me to miss a day in my prior solving streak, but since then, no house guests, no missed puzzles. Win-win! I guess.
@Alex Barry Did you know that if you miss a day, you can preserve the streak by completing the missed day before you do the newest puzzle? I've needed that a couple times when I was OFF THE GRID for a day...
@Dave Munger I’ve done that too. Just wondering, do you know if it only works if you miss a single day? If I miss two would my streak be preserved if I solve the missed days in order?
@Cyndie I believe I have missed two days and saved the streak by completing the missed puzzles in order, but I'm not sure. Anyone with a streak less than 100 want to test it out and get back to us? I'm on 197 and feeling like that's a bit too much to risk!
An enjoyable Friday. Typical tough workout, and had to look up a couple of things but just had a good time working things out from the crosses. And.. as a former mainframe programmer, GRACEHOPPER was an immediate gimme for me. Was quite surprised to see that FLYBALL, CANISMAJOR, CRIMEDRAMA and DONTYOUSEE were all debut answers. Seem like pretty familiar terms. And... interesting puzzle find today. I'll put that in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from April 3, 1988 by June A. Boggs with the title "Linkages." Four 21 letter grid-spanning theme answers in that one, and... it took me a long time before it finally dawned on me how the theme worked. Never seen one like this before. Let me know if you get it. "Feather" BEDPOSTMASTERKEYCHAIN "Letter" HEADLIGHTHOUSEFLYBALL "Game" SHOWCASEWORKHORSESHOE "String" BEANBAGPIPEDREAMWORLD Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/3/1988&g=52&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/3/1988&g=52&d=A</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta A very enjoyable puzzle. I managed the miracle of a cheat free puzzle, which I don't think has ever happened on a Friday. I loved it! More like this please!
@Rich in Atlanta I get it! I think I remember seeing it in an Omnibus. Good one. Thanks!
@Rich in Atlanta Got it! Very clever. Not sure if I would have been able to get it to solve the puzzle, though.
About as clean and fun a construction as it gets. Congrats to both creators. As pointed out by Yokohama Bill earlier. . . TONI INOT . . . in the SE is pretty cool. Well done and thanks.
With Lewis not around today to point this out, please note that at 54A and 56A we have a palindromic pair, with TONI directly above INOT.
Was 100% sure that 57A was CHICKENFAT. My mouth started watering as I filled it in. I think every letter was wrong.
@JJ I'm with you and really disliked this clue. Not only is pasta water not golden in colour but I have /never/ seen it described this way. Schmaltz (whichever variant spelling you choose) doesn't fit the spaces but it is commonly described with this phrase, not least because it is actually gold. Very weak clue. Oy!
"OFFTHEGRID?" Thursday's HORDE was a CRIMEDRAMA! Why the OCCULT PHASE from this USERBASE When a letter, like a FLYBALL left its usual space? Then TOUTS took to SPADE and lifted mean SOD What DRU their ire? It was a TMI fire. DONTYOUSEE? Variety is the FREETRADE of puzzleLAND. ITOO, wish more solvers would try constructors who could DARE to CRAM and SLIDE words! Take your SHIP past the TIP and solve that iceberg! Be the TASTER of quirky CAKE. Be the RAJA of your solving mistakes! HAVEAHEART and prePEAR CANISMAJOR (and autocheck) will HOIST you there - Forget the win, The PLAYMONEY that got you in. Be the TASTER of all crossword BAIT OUST the FRAIL and TEENY hate. Imagine how BITTERSWEET your published grid appears when CHILE solvers cuss your derrière. Glad Dan's not ONEANDDONE. READYORNOT, I hope HES just begun. He SLEW it for me - Butt of course, there's always one! SUITS me! Today's fine construction by Willa Angel Chen Miller and Erik Agard was also verily appreciated. No fleas on those two!
Is it just me, or does everyone get nervous when they’re called to the boardroom to meet with the Hairdos? (I hate tress codes. But I liked this puzzle.)
Got this yesterday from the care team at NYT. Not totally satisfying but at least they see that there is a problem: Hi John, The comment section may be showing fewer replies because only direct replies to the original comment are being displayed, while nested replies (replies to replies) might not be included in the initial view. This approach could be intended to streamline the viewing experience, reducing clutter in threads with many nested responses. However, I understand this makes the VAR function appear inconsistent, especially since it used to show after 3 replies, and now it’s not triggering reliably. Your workaround of clicking the timestamp to display all replies, and the fact that emailed links show all replies, aligns with this explanation, the timestamp likely forces a full thread reload, including nested replies, while the email link bypasses the streamlined view. I’ve tested the thread you shared, and I can confirm the VAR button isn’t consistently appearing, which suggests a potential change in how we display replies. I'll note this ticket as feedback for our team to review and consider as we continue to look for future improvements for our solvers, thank you.
@John Carson Thanks for letting us know. That sounds promising-ish.
@John Carson If you have a dialog with this person, can you mention getting thrown back to the top of the comments problem, if you haven't already?
John Carson, Thanks for sharing that info. On one hand, it would be nice if they *also* shared a little info when they suddenly change how things work. But on the other, I suppose it’s good that they think we’re smart enough to puzzle it out. (Waiting for replies to replies to appear outside the margins of my screen :)
Vaer, If it works the way it's apparently supposed to work, you won't have to click on the timestamp, just on View All Replies, so you won't get "thrown back" after reading.
@John Carson I am using iPad app for NYT. I can't click on the timestamp. I usually read in Reader's Picks order. It used to be that replies to a thread had a "View Thread" link. That way you could see what started the discussion. Now there is no link back. It's weird when a reply has more recommends than the original and there is no way to see the original easily.
I liked everything about this puzzle, the constructors, their cluing, the fill, and even Deb's column. Did I get it all? No of course not. But that didn't stop me from enjoying it. Thanks guys!
This was hard to crack open at first, and I had to look up a few things, but once things got going there was no stopping me. A very satisfying solve.
@Heidi Life is too short not to look facts or people up. I do try not to for my Sunday printed paper's LAX crossword. But the items in the harder towards the end of the week daily NYT puzzles need looking up, so I can move on.
A 30-minute Friday breath of fresh air after yesterday's downer. Thank you, crossword gods.
Went straight to Wikipedia after this puzzle to learn more about GRACE HOPPER. How could I NOT have known her story?
I did not know Grace Hopper, and entered it as HOTPER, with TEAK as the cross, which I was sure of. So who on earth is this heroine EYKE then? Took me a minute to wise up. Nice puzzle, very chewy but quite digestible.
Wow - what a Friday ! A ton of misdirection. Ada Lovelace instead of Grace Hopper ; Coax , lure - nope BAIT ; execs - nope - SUITS ; send - nope SHIP .. and I could go on ! This one took way more time than usual for me - but a great solve none the less. Ready or not - I finished .
@Cathy Parrish The misdirection tripped me up in that SW corner for the longest time (lure for BAIT, send for SHIP), especially since i was sure liquid gold was some sort of fat or lard AND I had a brain fart and spelt HORDE as hoard initially *facepalm*. But like everything else in this puzzle it all eventually fell into place most satisfyingly.
Sigh. I have become an old person who does not readily know phrases like ONEANDDONE. Oh well I knew PLAYMONEY. Thank you Will and Eric ps. Ida Lovelace fit as well... but was wrong.
@dk I had Ada too, sadly. Am also an old codger who’s not up with the latest lingo. We can be old people together, reminiscing about how much better it was in ‘our day’.
Helen, You (in the U.K.) get a pass on ONE AND DONE, since it became popular in connection with U.S. National Basketball Association player draft rules. dk does not get a pass, since it has been popular in that context, other sports contexts, and non-sports contexts, for almost twenty years.
Happy to see nothing falling OFF THE GRID tonight. But, as always, when I try to solve a week-ender with the kids and the t.v. screaming in the same room as me, it seemed impenetrable. I thought for sure we had another beast on our hands (after my near 1.5 hour solve, yesterday. Turned off the tube and got the kids in bed and knocked it out in 20 minutes. Phew! Really, totally enjoyed this one the whole way!
Nice, challenging, fresh Friday puzzle. Took me just about 2 minutes more than my average, but I appreciate stretching my brain to complete a puzzle with zero look-ups. The freshness of the clues and answers really gave my brain a good workout. Center of the grid — 35A and 35D — was the last to fall. Thanks for the workout.
This one started out slowly for me due to some faulty assumptions - today I learned ADA LOVELACE and GRACE HOPPER have the same number of letters, as do CRIME DRAMA and PROCEDURAL - but once I caught on the sailing was pretty smooth. Thanks for the fun!
@Peter C.same! ADA really threw me for a long loop!
I thought the SW corner was going to end me, but I finally got it sorted out. Love an Agard puzzle!
Once again, listening to the Warriors game while I solved (The horror! The horror!) and wasn't paying attention to how things were oging with the puzzle until I finally bailed on the game and saw a lot of empty squares. Autopilot hadn't worked as well as I thought it would and I had some work to do. OFF THE GRID sank Ada Lovelace and I had to do a look-up for GRACE. And who know about CHILE and Antarctica? Everyone but me? A Friday of a puzzle, and just right to prepare for a possible crusher of a Saturday. Thank you, Willa Angel and Erik, I feel better already.
@dutchiris will the next week of crosswords be enough to distract us from several steph-less playoff games? I hope so.
@dutchiris I didn't know CHILE either, but it became apparent with a few crosses and made sense geographically. One more factoid learned from a xword puzzle! GRACE HOPPER filled in from the crosses too. Didn't know that one either. Luckily, I was going from the bottom up, so I already had enough filled in to know it wasn't Ada Lovelace.
@dutchiris Aw, come on. Minnesota really, really needs a championship. It's been a long, long time. And besides, the series is only tied 1-1, isn't it? Don't worry too much. You can always, always, always count on Minnesota teams to choke.
Ken and Spade two days in a row ?
Now this... is a crossword puzzle!
This, too, shall pasta. (I spent way too much time trying to make "pot liquor" fit. Is that just a Southern thing?) Good chewy puzzle, thanks, Willa and Erik.
@Linda Jo I've never heard the phrase North of the Mason-Dixon Line... plus I think it's spelt "pot likker." My dad was an aficionado of pot liquor and never let it go to waste. Northerners likely say "stock" instead.
@Linda Jo I believe it's spelled "pot licker". If you spell it with a "q", you're too highfalutin for me and my kin.
@Linda J I used to date a moonshiner's daughter- She made me liquor.
@Linda Jo This Yankee had to look up pot liquor. Oh, it's that? Yeah, I lived in the South for a few years and I love the cooking, but I turn my nose up at collard greens...and grits.
@Mean Old Lady Mmmmm...pot likker. I feel like I'm being healthy when I order greens at a BBQ place, but the best ones are probably half pork fat. 😁
I thought Liquid Gold was what my mom used on the kitchen cabinets.
A tricky Thursday and a tough themeless on Friday! I can’t wait for Saturday. And don't throw the past away You might need it some rainy day Dreams can come true again When everything old is new again.
See, "liquid gold" to me is "chicken fat" which is incredibly useful when rendered out and is also the proper color!
@Kal I had "bacon grease" in there for way too long
@Kal Duck fat, schmaltz (chicken fat) are liquid gold. I'm 73, a home cook of above average competence, and definitely make use of starchy pasta water but have never heard it referred to as liquid gold. It's cloudy water.
I’d be interested to find out what instruments are made of pear wood. I’ve seen guitars and other stringed instruments with spruce, rosewood, mahogany, koa, sapele, ash, maple, and ebony.
@Peabody I think pear wood is used for oboes, clarinets and similar aerophones.
Peabody, In one of those neat coincidences, just a couple days ago I was watching a video about the construction of hurdy-gurdies, and was struck by their use of pear wood. I was surprised that pear trees got large enough for some of the lumber they were cutting.
@Peabody - Recorders made of pear wood produce a beautiful soft, liquid sound very distinct from the sound of, say, maple. I have a soprano and an alto made of pear and they are perfect for certain pieces, especially when accompanied by plucked strings. Other fruit trees, especially apples, also get used for recorders. The main quality prized by instrument makers is close, even grain, which applies to all the woods you named.
@Peabody Same here. My guitar is made of Koa, Spruce and Ebony. Wasn't aware of Pear wood, either.
@Peabody I thought those woodwinds were made of ebony, but it turns out that pearwood is highly resistant to moisture (saliva) and is dyed black to look like ebony. My Les Paul is mahogany with a maple top, and it's pretty heavy, but that tight-grained wood is great for sustain.
Thank you, Willa and Erik. A great workout. 18A worth the price of admission.