While it’s a perfectly valid word and I figured it out, SNARFING should be thrown into Crossword Prison.
@Jamie I thought it was funny, because just a few days ago BOLT was the solution for eating quickly. Many people had never heard bolt used that way, which surprised me, and cited other synonyms like SNARF and scarf. So today was for them!
@Jamie Finding and changing my original C to an N added about 50 percent to my solve time.
@Jamie for me it’s SCARFING or bust. ‘Snarf’ was a character in the Thundercats cartoon. SNARF!
Is the word “zeitgeisty”….zeitgeisty? If so, I’m a little behind the times, or should I say my geist isn’t quite with the zeit.
@Cat Lady Margaret It’s in the dictionary but surprised me too
@Cat Lady Margaret TIL that using “zeitgeisty” is tenory of the timesy. Also spiritusy mundiy. But not milieuy.
@Cat Lady Margaret I found that entry a bit cringeworthlich, but the first citation in the OED is from 1966, so I guess it's been geisty for quite some zeit.
My first time solving a Saturday without any hints!
Soundgarden genre is Grunge. Period.
@Steve YES. I’m actually really ticked at this clue. They were one of the first bands that brought grunge to the forefront.
@Steve I'm with you here, but according to Wiki (so it must be true ;)): Alternative metal began in the 1980s with bands like Faith No More, Living Colour, Soundgarden, and Jane's Addiction. The genre achieved success in the 1990s with the popularity of bands like Helmet, Tool, and Alice in Chains. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, nu metal achieved mainstream popularity with the mainstream success of bands like Korn, Limp Bizkit, P.O.D., Papa Roach, Disturbed, System of a Down, Linkin Park, Slipknot, Deftones and Staind. After the mid-2000s, nu metal's popularity began to decline, with many nu metal bands moving on to other genres. I think it's a case of this is a puzzle not a dictionary. I did resist if for a while, but ALT anything can be deduced. Reading the wiki entry, which takes all the enjoyment out of the music, I think grunge can be considered a subset of alt metal.
@Steve I tried artmetal. That didn’t turn out too well.
In the clearing stands an eboy A chessboxer by his trade And he carries the reminders Of every rook that checked his king Or pwned him till he cried out In his anger and his shame "I'm conceding, I'm conceding, The Queen's Gambit snarfed me down" Are we there yet?
@ad absurdum LALA LA, LALA LA, LA LA LA LALA LA LA LA LALA LA LA LA
@ad absurdum great except surely "resigning" in 2nd last line
@ad absurdum I was in college from 1970 to 1974, years when I and everyone and his brother possessed Carole King’s “Tapestry” and Simon and Garfunkel’s “ Bridge Over Troubled Waters” albums (probably also James Taylor’s “ Sweet Baby James”) but I for one never did understand where “The Boxer” came from or fit in.
Anyone else get stuck with “arcie grape”?
@pmom scrolled down expecting to find this comment ;)
This was prime. First class. A worthy, worthy Saturday. A capital-P Puzzle. Packed with beauty, yes: KIBOSH, AM I CLEAR, ADMIT ONE, KARAOKE BAR, I CAN RELATE, BACKSPLASH, DUNG BEETLE, TURING TEST, and how I loved the audacious ZEITGEISTY, which to me is so outré as to be lovable. Artfully made, yes. A never-before-in-the-Times design that allowed for 16 longs, mixing variety and beauty, and including (for me) no-knows fairly crossed, bringing TILs and sweetening my brain’s workout ethic. But the star, IMO, was in the cluing. The constructors took a full month to clue this, and the care put into each clue, to me, was obvious. Feints, misdirects, and witty wordplay. Original clues like [Chip maker in a 1961 merger] for LAY, [Leaves the rest?] for AWAKENS, [What may rise over a range] for BACKSPLASH – mwah! From the start I knew I was in good hands and that I was coursing through quality. Experiences like filling in a box like this make me so grateful that all those years ago I ran into crosswords. Thank you, Adam and Ricky!
I came to read the comments curious to see how people felt about this puzzle, and I see lots of grumpy solvers, so I'll comment to provide a different slant. I began and immediately had the very rare feeling of being on the same wavelength as the constructors; I just "got it" and this feeling continued through most of the puzzle. I usually start the Saturday puzzles with trepidation, but this just flowed for some reason. I see this was not the case for most and I'm not trying to brag, just to say that as a long-time solver, sometimes you just feel in sync with another mind(s) and it's thrilling. I'm 73, to give you some idea of my cultural references. Thanks for a great Saturday puzzle!
I was utterly defeated by this puzzle - the abundance of trivia, unfamiliar things, and words I've never heard meant I had to start with some 20 lookups. Even those were not enough, in the end - by the time I was finished I had checked several entries and revealed a few, too. Most of the clueing was not on my wavelength, either. I can't say I disliked the puzzle - it had the feel of a proper Saturday challenge, and I enjoyed some of the misdirection, but it was simply too difficult for me as a Polish guy who only speaks English as a second language. My unknows are too many to list, so I'll just give you a taste. Why does "Plural suffix" solve to ISM? What's plural about monotheism, realism, autism, etc.? Why does "Bring up to modern standards" solve to REHAB? I only know rehab as therapy for addicts. I've seen KIBOSH in these puzzles before, but for the life of me I can't remember what it means, so I have no idea how the "nix" clue works for it. It's a similar case with ALLEYOOP - I know from these puzzles that it's a basketball thing, but nothing beyond that, so the clue gave me nothing. I've never heard of CHESSBOXERS. I had IBM for the 1961 chip merger 🤣 I got KARAOKE BAR quickly, and I shuddered. I can't stand amateur singing so a bar like that would be the last place I'd go to. Also, my ears bleed when a scene at one features in a game, movie or series. Ugh. The only family member I dislike - she insulted Jorge the Lab!!! - loves karaoke. Nuff said.
Oh, and EBOY? Is that a word? I've never seen it in my life, but then again, I'm not on social media and I know and want to know nothing about influencers.
@Andrzej Can’t blame you this would be especially tough on non-English speakers. I didn’t get ISM until right now when you mentioned it— ISM is a suffix that can go on the end of the word plural, pluralISm.
@Andrzej I only got it after you listed all the other isms (I'd been equally flummoxed about it while solving)... In this case, it's merely a suffix that is used with the word plural - pluralism.
@Andrzej Pluralism -- ism is the suffix for the word plural. That clue misled me for a long time too! Kibosh does mean to stop something, or "nix" it. I would use it as "my boss put the kibosh on my project proposal".
Thank you all for the explanation of ISM in today's context. I really dislike this style of clue. There is something of a cheap trick about it. Clues like that almost always end up stumping me, but not because they are smart.
@Andrzej I had REFAB for a long time and still don't understand the HAB part.
@Eric H. I thought that might be it with REHAB. It feels weird to me though, because in Polish we have the word "rehabilitacja" but it means only two things: 1. The process of returning to good health or physical shape, as by physiotherapy and exercise. 2. Restoring a person's good name. For example, all the anti-communist conspirators sentenced to death and executed in the Stalinist era in Poland were rehabilitated after 1989. A Polish dictionary lists more meanings, but they are effectively dead in modern times, and none has anything even remotely in common with renovations, anyway. PS. You do some interesting things with my name 🤣. Given how it's spelled, I can't blame you though.
@Andrzej Sorry I bungled your name. That’s embarrassing. On of these days, I will memorize the spelling. Then I can start working on the pronunciation.
@Eric H. It's easier to pronounce and spell than you think, probably. In Polish "rz" (as well as "ż") is always the same sound: like the g in the French George or jeux. Our A is always a schwa sound. So... "And" sounds exactly like the And of Andorra (unless you pronounce the A there differently than I do; in that case it would be "Ahnd" or "Uhnd", I suppose). The final "ej" sounds exactly like the Canadian "eh". And then there is the "rz" (French g/j) sound in the middle. I have it much easier though - our Eryk sounds almost the same as Eric, we just always roll our Rs.
@Andrzej Kibosh has the same general meaning as 86 as in (for example) 86 47. And as 'ditch' or 'dump' has gone from being a noun (meaning a repository for waste products) to a verb (meaning to place such materials in the repository), 'kibosh' has taken the same verbal journey.
@Andrew Could you please explains the numbers in your post? That part I'm not following.
Thanks! That's an interesting bit of trivia, but I will sadly forget it by tomorrow, probably 😢. Btw, I was shocked in the US by how people order food. Without this and this but with that and that. Dang! Such behavior is extremely rare over here, and I've never done it myself. The menu is there for a reason...
@Andrzej I am American and also needed more lookups as well. I bet there are a lot of us today in this boat. This was a slow, horrible slog today.
@Andrzej So you think asking for any modifications in a restaurant is rude? Hmmm. I don't usually, but have been known to ask for NO SUGAR in coffee, tea and iced tea in places that usually add it. I like sweet things as a rule and even some sweet drinks, but for some reason casnot stand sweet tea or coffee. We had a beloved Lebanese restaurant when we lived in Chicago, but they kept not getting my request for the coffee. Finally i overheard the waiter saying "bila sukari", which awakened my long-lost meagre knowledge of Swahili, and now I always get Turkish/Greek/Arab coffee the way I like it. Interesting linguistically that while most words in Swahili come from the Bantu language family, "without" comes from Arabic. Maybe "bila" was shorter than some workaround phrase.
@RozzieGrandma I don't think it's rude, exactly. However, why make changes to something that was tried and tested before it was put on the menu? Isn't one of the points of eating out trying new things, put together by people better at it than you are? In European restaurants I often overhear Americans (it's always Americans...) asking for key ingredients to be taken out of signature dishes. It's very strange - and often I've heard staff not obliging, actually. Also, it's also the Americans who keep asking for stuff not on the menu, at all. At an Italian pizzeria with a very short menu I once heard an American ask for a cheese plate, of all things... The server was so confused! Tea and coffee never comes with sugar already in it over here, with the exception of Middle Eastern restaurants, where tea is traditionally brewed with sugar, and cardamom, too - but they will do it without it if you ask. However, that's not quite the same as asking for onion soup without the onions, a Greek salad without feta, oregano and olives, but with salad leaves, or carbonara with cream...
@Andrzej An ALLEY OOP is a basketball play in which one player passes the ball above the rim and the other dunks it. Hence a “two-person” shot.
@Andrzej There are many restaurants whose menus specify "no substitutions." It can indicate that the chef intends the dish to be enjoyed as created...or that everything is premade.
@Andrzej Tastelessness and Michelob go together.
"This 8-by-8 board is chess what I needed!" ("Are you paying in cash?" "I'll send you the check, mate.")
Mike, I hear that as a grandmaster, you can write 12 puns at once, while blindfolded. True? :)
@Mike Way to go! The emus are our checkers.
@Mike I'd have to pawn my checkerboard to buy that.
Octogenarian here. Got eboy from crosses. Good, hard puzzle, but not that hard for us olds who know about Turing tests, Bose, and dung beetles…
There is a connection I don’t believe anyone has commented on between TURING TEST and CHESS BOXING. I recall from a biography of Alan Turing that he and a friend used to play what they called “Around the House Chess.” After each move, a player had to jump up and run out the door. The other player had to complete his move before the first circled the house and returned to his seat. That sounds like more fun. A crossword equivalent might be good for me.
@Paul Turner Super interesting! Thanks for sharing. Human timers. 🤣
Loved every aggravating bit of it. Went for AÇAÍ rather than ALOE for quite a while. I learned about Miss La La and chess boxing. While I did know about the Turing Test, I didn’t know it related to CAPTCHA. I’m a better person than when I woke up!
Blue Skies I’ll ADMIT ONE I AM not feeling feisty DUNG BEETLE-ish Too ZEITGEISTY, More FRESNO Than Frisco More ALT-METAL Than disco. I need to REHAB my soul My ANKLEs too AWAKEN my inner OCELOT That spots LIEs SO TRUE They pass the TURING TEST And put the KIBOSH On the real you. I’ll ADMIT another I AM not feeling GLOATy NOR ELATEd NOR FINE NOR even a little BIT FLOATY I won’t SUGARcoat it This SEWER smells like . . . What SEWERS EMIT (Beware the BACK SPLASH). But I CAN RELATE My BFF puzzle-lovers At the KARAOKE BAR Ella is singing Blue SKIES And one day soon we’ll join her: “Blue days, all of them gone, Nothing but blue SKIES from now on.”
@Puzzlemucker [insert empty words of encouragement here]
The lagniappe at the end of the tunnel was the constructor notes. Extraordinary persistence in construction yields extraordinary satisfaction in solving!
This innit my week. Maybe it's due to my sleep schedule being shot because of Roland-Garros, but three blue stars in four days. I only had two in all of last month. Got slowed down because it took me way too long to change alt to LIE for 11D. But the mistake I couldn't find was the ARNIE/SNARFING crossings. Of course there's no ARCIE Grape, but I didn't know ukr character's name, so I didn't give it a second thought since ScARFING is a proper response to that clue. Oh well. Three American men already into the Round of 16, things could be worse...
@Steven M. I had scarfing and arcie too. It was quite frustrating hunting that down after I thought I’d cracked a puzzle that was well out of my wheelhouse.
@Steven M. SNARFIING and SCARFING is one of those ambiguous entries I’ve learned to keep my eye out for. Oddly there was another one in this puzzle, BASSES and BASSOS, which made finding TURING TEST challenging.
For everyone who's been hankering for a challenging Friday or Saturday puzzle like in days gone by, I hope you're happy now. For a bit, I was quite stuck. It was smooth sailing until I hit the SW corner. About the only thing I had there for a while was MALI. Why MALI and not Chad or Togo? I don't know, but I did know that the country in question was likely not Peru, Cuba or Fiji. (If I remember correctly, those are all the countries with four-letter names.) I wasn't sure if [Two-person shot] was sports clue or a cinematic one, which slowed me down. I've never heard of CHESS BOXing, so even with BOXER I couldn't figure out the first part. Eventually, though, I got the clever wordplay of [Leaves the rest?] and was quickly finished. I enjoyed seeing ARNIE clued to the charming movie "What's Eating Gilbert Grape?" We watched it again a few years ago and it has held up nicely. Thanks, Messrs. Aaronson and Cruz!
@Eric Hougland SW was the tough section for me, as well. Managed the rest reasonably short order. (And, big props if you were able to pull the name of any Grape but Gilbert!)
@Eric Hougland My first guess on the country was Laos. I've been trying to learn African geography so I should have thought of Mali, but I didn't. There are a lot of countries in Africa and so many of them have different names than they had when I was young and my brain was spongier.
@Striker That was a gimme for me, as the only line I remember from that movie is, "Where's Arnie!? Where's Arnie!?"
@Eric Hougland I had no clue, and ScARFING with ARcIE seemed ok until it didn’t. Solid puzzle that gave me the I’m never gonna solve this feeling until it came together.
@Shan Laos! How could I have forgotten that one? Actually, I forgot several countries with four-letter names: Iran, Iraq, Laos and Oman. Between flubbing that list and messing up Andrzej’s name, I apparently had my head up my [Donkey]. I sympathize with your attempts to keep African geography straight. I can maybe name and locate only half those countries, which is not good enough.
@Eric Hougland - I guessed at the correct answer to 33D, which the "m" at 39A confirmed, so Mali it was. I too never heard of 47A -Chess boxer. I tried cross bower, which probably doesn't exist.
I love a puzzle that seems impenetrable and then slowly over time the answers coalesce into place, materializing out of a haze of confusion. I love how an answer that seems unknowable pops into my head after setting the puzzle aside for 30 minutes. A fun struggle!
Thank you for a bravura construction! So many wickedly clever clues, and so much triple thinking needed to suddenly have the fill jump out at you. I confess I had to google a couple of times to confirm that a resulting one was right (e.g., EBOY??), then had to press on when it was. Not surprising to see that this was a Two-person shot—a super ALLEYOOP. Congratulations, Adam and Ricky. Please try not to GLOAT.
My first ever gold star on a Saturday!! 28:15. NW corner was the last to fall. I had eSs for 22A for wayyy too long though. And EmAil for 27D. And ScARFING
Error and by NW I mean NE, but that's probably obvious
Welp...I did my best, but there's just not enough time, energy, or mental capacity, apparently, so I gave up. That tiny NE corner got me. Did not (still do not) know the Degas work, know nothing of the bands at 16A an 14D, though I partially got the latter (METAL)... I had LILA for the lady and ART for the genre....and the first 2 letters of 12D eluded me. I guess I should feel good about getting all the rest of the puzzle, especially the long SE entries. I have never heard of the game, the influencer, o the juice source (ACAI, but not ALOE as juice)... BRATZ dolls...who would want one? Plenty of people raise their own live ones. Speaking of DUNG BEETLES, sudden drastic cuts were imposed at the Corps of Engineers research and development center; projects were summarily moth-balled, and scientists were told to find something else to do. There wasn't any fraud or abuse, so Someone decided to create waste, it appears.
Before you say “eeeasy” about a Saturday, I guess you have to look back at the fill, ask yourself whether it was really normal that you filled in KARAOKE BAR, MALI, and DUNG BEETLE without any crosses—and things like ZEITGEISTY with one cross. Maybe you have to look inside your coffee cup and ask yourself what exactly the brunch place is putting in their beans (also, in those really, really excellent bloody marys), then look up toward the SKIES: Is that a “Marry me Rhonda” banner behind that plane or is that the constructors’ brainwave circling over your head? Excellent fill. From Soundgarden to Tolstoy to the geography of countries with populations exactly 10x that of FRESNO. A solid Saturday. I tip my traditional ratty Saturday-brunch Running Utes hat to Adam and Ricky.
Soundgarden is, and always has been, a GRUNGE band.
@bps That confused me, too. Soundgarden is grunge, and Linkin Park is nu-metal.
@bps Amen to that. Anyone who thinks Soundgarden is a metal band has never heard an actual metal band.
@bps True, but you must remember that the editors don’t care about accuracy.
@Chet The editors at the NYT listen to show tunes. Not that there's anything wrong with that...
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Soundgarden is grunge.
@Nick Post-grunge, but grunge, nonetheless. Thought it was just me
@Josh Agreed. Soundgarden were firmly in the grunge era — there was nothing "post-grunge" about them.
For a while, I really thought this would be the one blue blemish on an otherwise gold star month, but I got gold eventually. It has been a while; my last perfect gold star month was January 2023.
I'm going to use 40D as an excuse to honor one of my all-time heroes, John Aaron, a steely-eyed missile man. Stop reading if you've heard this already. Just after Apollo 12 launched for the moon, suddenly all the telemetry was garbled, possibly because of a lightning strike to the vehicle. After a few moments of confusion, Aaron suggest "Try SCE to AUX", saying to change the SCE dial setting to "AUX". He'd seen something like this in testing, and he recalled that this workaround seemed to clear electrical problems. It did. And he saved the mission which might have been aborted (a dangerous procedure which may not have been successful), and it was the second to land on the moon. And yes, NASA deniers, they did absolutely put men on the moon in the 1970s. I challenge anyone who says they didn't to either a debate or a fist fight. I could do either.
@Francis Correction: I'm going to change that to just a fight. I know how debates go with conspiracy theorists.
@Francis Or chess boxing, perhaps?
@Francis I actually had a t-shirt, which I designed myself, featuring the Apollo 12 CM control panel, lit up with the alarms that occurred after the lightning strike. It's flanked top and bottom with the words KEEP CALM AND TRY SCE TO AUX in the typeface of the old UK government wartime "Keep calm and carry on" poster. Must see if I can find the original graphic I built. The original t-shirt is probably in landfill in Norway.
Loved it. Any puzzle that can squeeze in TURINGTEST and ZEITGEIST(Y) gets a thumbs up from me. Got a good chuckle out the cluing for BACKSPLASH, ISLET, and LAY - good stuff there. I did give myself the ‘N’ in SNARFING/ARNIE as I, like many others, had ‘C’ in there - being much more familiar with “scarfing down”. After filling in the grid and getting “aw shucks” instead of the music, I hit the column and the comments. Gold star by my standards, YMMV of course. re: musical genres. As someone who listens to lots of music and loves exploring different genres (experimental industrial or dark ambient, anyone? ;-), I learned to give these puzzles a pass a long time ago. “Ish” applies here. If it’s close enough, it works. Labeling music to begin with is a divisive endeavor; dancing about architecture and all that.
@KidA - The indignant comments about the "wrong" label being applied to Linkin Park and Soundgarden make me chuckle. It reminds me of the People's Front of Judea being insulted when they're mistaken for the Judean People's Front in "Life of Brian."
@KidA I leave the categorizing of music to Rolling Stone...and then I ignore that magazine. On a happy note, Linkin Park will be performing before the Champions League final match in a half an hour. I'm hoping CBS will show at least some of it.
OMG! So so hard. Luckily, I'm from Pittsburgh, so US STEEL was an early foothold. Then slowly slowly the answers were revealed. Had EMO METAL before ALT METAL, SCARFING before SNARFING, and it turns out I had no idea how to spell KIBOSH. I love that I can learn new words as I solve (ZEITGEISTY, CHESSBOXER, EBOY) and that ukes are made of ACACIA. A perfect Saturday. Well done, gentlemen.
I enjoyed the constructor notes as much as I enjoyed the puzzle. Love seeing what goes on behind the scenes--so much so that I buy the DVD instead of streaming.
someone please splain me how "ism" (22A) has anything to do with plurality. and splain me soon.
There I was, feeling all smug with the top half filled in at speed. Grinding to a halt at the mid point, Caitlin’s column well and truly burst my bubble. Ah me. IBM before LAY,; the crisp (!) not being a familiar name here I went with the microchip, it being the sixties and all. Haven’t seen the Grape film so that was my last fill. Having USB instead of AUX really didn’t help, nor did ScARFING. I regained a little smugness guessing both 56 and 60A, but the rest was still a battle. Chuckled at the mis-direct at 11D. I was thinking bot, which fit, or troll, which didn’t. Well done chaps, a splendid brain workout before getting on with the rest of my day. The animals are fed, watered and walked if they’re a dog. I only got spat at twice today while sorting the alpacas; not in the icky snotty way of Llamas. They get jealous if they think a sister is getting more food, so they emit a pellet strewn heavy tut. As I’m still feeding them it tends to hit me rather than the intended target. I’m frequently caught in the 4 on 1 crossfire. Nice.
@Helen Wright I too had bot, and was feeling right smug myself, but that caused no end of trouble in the NE.
@Helen Wright Yeah, my first wild stab at the “chip maker” question was AMD; I ended up getting it completely from crosses and only saw the actual answer after getting the solving chime. I thought it was kind of clever. If you ever visit the US (not that I necessarily recommend you do for at least the next few years), you might notice that the logo for Lay’s potato chips is basically identical, except for the name featured, to that for Walkers crisps from the UK: Frito-Lay and Walkers have had the same owners since 1989.
@Helen Wright Don't feel alone -- I'm American and was around in 1961 and it took me forever to think of Lay's potato chips. I also wanted IBM there at first. And thanks for the amusing glimpse into your day, what with spitting alpacas and jealous llamas. It makes my gritty, edgy urban life seem almost bourgeois.
@Helen Wright Pellet Strewn Heavy Tut is the name of my new ALT METAL band.
I found that last entry a bit cringeworthlich, but the first citation in the OED is from 1966, so I guess it's been geisty for quite some zeit.
So often I will slog through a puzzle only to come here to see many people commenting, “So easy for a Saturday! Finished in less than two minutes!” At least I see I am not alone in my struggle…however, although I finished 10 minutes above my average time, I am satisfied that I was able to grind it out without looking anything up. I did cringe at ZEITGEISTY…though it appears the word is not as obscure as I thought it might be. Loved the clueing for 17A, 31A, and 12D, among others.
That was easy. Until it wasn’t.
Really liked this puzzle a lot. But I gotta tell ya, if EBOY is a thing, it shouldn't be.
Ken, You're a bit late with the "shouldn't be;" it has been for more than twenty years.
@Ken E-anything is pretty much just bs crosswordese.
@Ken As Barry pointed out, "eboy" peaked in 2004, then a rapid decline to not much of a thing anymore, according to Ngram Viewer.
Say what you want folks -- EBOY is where I draw the line. I realize fixing it means blowing up part of the puzzle, but that's mho.
Really tough one for me that I ended up needing an assist with. Was totally thrown in the NE because Soundgarden and Linkin Park aren't the same genre, so I was stymied from the start there, and then wrote in ICON for 16A which didn't help. Also didn't know the Degas painting title, so, yeah. EBOY eluded me in the SW, as I couldn't squint hard enough to make the clue read like a pointer to EBAY (or our other favorite, ETSY). So the NW and SE went smoothly enough with some effort, but then I struggled. Nice to have a challenge like this on a Saturday!
@Anthony Yeah only the Xword would put them in the same genre.
@Anthony FWIW I Googled the genre issue and got the following from the AI overview: “Yes, both Soundgarden and Linkin Park are often considered to be part of the alternative metal genre. “
@Elizabeth Odd that Google's AI overview for two identical questions was not the same? I am shocked, shocked I tell you. 😮😮😮😮😮
@Elizabeth, @Byron I've found quotations in Google's AI overview, complete with the webpage where it found the quotation, gone to the webpage, and a search on the page revealed nothing even approximating the quote. Not even the meaning behind the quote. Not even the approximate sentiment of the quote. This has happened to me enough times that I usually don't bother any more to try to verify information contained there. I do use some other versions of AI in my work, but for me, the Google overview just seems to knock useful links off the bottom of the page. I'm mentally growling at it as I write this.
@Byron Maybe it isn't able to recognize those clear, razor-sharp boundaries between genres.
Sailed through the NW corner, despite the fact I’ve never seen KIBOSH used as anything but a noun (put the kibosh on) and Nix as anything but a verb (nix that). A dictionary proved me wrong for KIBOSH but has anyone else used it as a verb in real life? The rest of the puzzle was fair challenge, and I learned a few things, like CHESSBOXING, ZEITGEIST turned into an adjective, and the source of CAPTCHA.
Live and learn. Here I was thinking BOSON was a French name, with the second syllable pronounced akin to "fish" in French, "poisson." Kudos to the Indian physicist, but I'm a little disappointed at the loss of chic-ness. Favorite clues: [500 people?] and [What may rise over a range]. The latter had me pondering for a while after I got most of BACKSPLASH from the crosses and before the penny dropped. ZEITGEISTY, now I know, is very in the zeitgeist. And ALLEY OOP, will I ever remember thee? Probably not. This was an amazing puzzle and I can't thank you enough, Adam and Ricky, for sticking it out for so long. The love you put into it is the love with which I solved it. To cap it off, Spandau Ballet with "SO TRUE" - <a href="https://youtu.be/AR8D2yqgQ1U?si=7ohA1zGdyo3d-dmV" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/AR8D2yqgQ1U?si=7ohA1zGdyo3d-dmV</a>
@sotto voce I also thought of Spandau Ballet when I got this answer! They were my first concert 🤩
@sotto voce OMG that video! It's been a while since we've seen pop musicians dressed like they are going to a board meeting.
@sotto voce I’m assuming the Indian physicist is the guy with the speakers?
@Steve L No. Bosons are named for the early 20th century physicist Satyendra Nath Bose, in honor of his work on the theory of what's now called Bose-Einstein statistics. The audio company was founded by an MIT electrical engineer named Amar Bose.
Just wow on the construction history on this one. Color me impressed. I had Acai for ALOE which added a couple of minutes to figure out and correct - I knew ALLEYOOP had to be right, so Acai came out. TIL about the DUNG BEETLE and CHESS BOXER. Very interesting. And finally, SO TRUE had me reminiscing about my very first concert, Spandau Ballet. The Kemp brothers are so talented. Loved Tony Hadley’s voice. Thank you for your perseverance in the creation of this grid, Adam and Ricky. I loved every minute of the solve.
Thank you for finally making a puzzle that will confuse the older players! I've read many a comment that makes me feel very silly for not knowing who Uta Hagen is in the past, so thank you for teaching them what an eboy is ;)
@Braun Old dog here. I can read "Male influencer archetype" but EBOY still means nothing to me. ;-)
Xword Junkie, EBOY has been around for a while... <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-kid" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-kid</a>
@Barry So has nail fungus.
@Barry Ancona Sorry, still means nothing to a lot of us.
Good one. Some lovely ah-ha! misdirections. The Pittsburgh tower broke it for me, forcing a lookup. I knew it had to be __STEEL, but unfortunately had kNockING for [Downing, with "down"], giving me a bad cross at the critical cell. Kicked myself several times when US turned out to be the required initialism, and then saw my way quickly to SNARFING, which is a known but very foreign word for me. Lots of stuff solved on the crosses, including CHESSBOXING, which seems more like a companion to extreme ironing than an actual sport. And TIL what a "ride or die sort" is---when that solved on the crosses to Best Female Friend I was completely blank. [Male influencer archetype]? EBOY? I had a lot of potential four-letter words for that one, and one surname, but that was a new one.
@Oikofuge As a frequent commenter, you're a bit of an EBOY yourself 🤣
@Oikofuge A BFF can be an EBOY. You might realize this, but I can't quite tell from your post.
@Oikofuge Fun puzzle! SW corner held me up for a bit. I could be wrong, but I thought BFF meant Best Friends Forever.
@SuzyQ I haven't done "best" friends since I was eight years old, so I'm no expert, but young women of my acquaintance contrast their Best Female Friends with their Best Male Friends, and I find that usage attested online, along with the (slightly stalkerish, to me) Best Friends Forever you mention. Anyway, Best Female Friend is what immediately comes to mind when I see BFF, and it seemed to fit with the "ride or die" thing about as well as Best Friends Forever.
@Oikofuge US STEEL is a company headquartered in Pittsburgh, in a skyscraper. I didn't know it was the tallest one in the city. I was thinking of the Cathedral of Learning, which is a tower on the Pitt campus, but doesn't have an eponym, which I associate with peoples' names, like Carnegie. (It was his company before JP Morgan bought him out.)
@Oikofuge please tell me more about extreme ironing!!!!
@Niki B <a href="https://medium.com/@egolde/b-sports-part-4-extreme-ironing-e3d2c6b92d7f" target="_blank">https://medium.com/@egolde/b-sports-part-4-extreme-ironing-e3d2c6b92d7f</a> I was (very) peripherally involved in an EI attempt on the Inaccessible Pinnacle in Skye. The name of the location tells you all you need to know. No photographs---forced off by hail and high winds.
CHESSBOXER - huh? EBOY - huh? SNARFING - nobody says snarfing, and everybody says scarfing.
@Richard If by “nobody” you mean you, ok. Otherwise, you’re hardly qualified to speak for everyone.
@Richard i can accept that I am nobody, but not for the reason you cite.
@Richard There’s videos of chess boxing on YouTube. My younger son introduced me to chess the phenomenon. He’s quite a good chess player and a very physical athlete so I think he thinks he’d probably do well at it. LOL.
There were a lot of knowledge-based clues in this one. Between the ones I knew and the ones I was able to get using the wheel of fortune method, along with some educated guesses, I managed to complete about two thirds of the puzzle before resorting to looking up some things. (The SW was a mystery and also the NE somewhat.) For me that's pretty good for a tough Saturday. Most chuffed about getting BRATZ and then ZEITGEISTY off of just the Z and G.
@Vaer I love using the wheel of fortune method and hadn't heard anyone else use that term before although I call it that in my head. The pleasant mental tension of not looking at the clue and trying to let your brain fill in the letters is something I love about crosswords. Also got Bratz with just a couple letters and I guess I owe it to my now 17 yr old who was born in 2007 ❤️
I was kind of grumbling along, thinking that this was too easy for a Saturday puzzle then, Screeeeeeeech! I hit the SW corner. All I had was ALOE and REPS until I unraveled the wordplay at 33A and 41A. Those finally gave me enough of a toehold to start piecing together the three longer downs. Thanks, Adam and Ricky. You cleared out some cobwebs for me this morning.
I am SOO close to my longest streak (13 days away! 😬), so I really wanted to get this puzzle. It was definitely a doozie, but I think a fair one. NE and SW were last to fall. I stuck with ACAI for way too long and while ISM was the only suffix that fit, I didn't see the connection to "plural" until after I finished the puzzle and came here. Finally guessed CHESSBOXER correctly even though I've never heard of it and am repulsed by the concept, and eventually everything fell into place. If I do end up beating my longest streak, I'll definitely feel like I earned it after today!
I found this puzzle a lot of fun! Looking back, nothing seems like it should have required the umpteen worrying but brain-engaging cross-checks it took me to complete this one. Am I clear? Not very, after five days of caring for two little girls and being older than the first time we did it. I’m not very brawny, but maybe someday I’ll upload some of my chess unboxing videos.
Kind of wish Alan Turing's brilliance wasn't associated with anything the techbros ever touch. Just a snarky observation on a grayish Saturday in May. Good crossword, though.