Do you know all about marine mammals? You otter! (Puns get my seal of approval.)
@Mike A whale of a pun, dugong it! (You walrus come up with some good ones.)
@Mike. You orca be congratulated
@Mike Your puns are like sea otters: too cute! (and slightly fishy, sometimes)
@Mike Is there a porpoise for this demand? Are you trying to make anemones?
@Mike I don't mean to sound salty, but these ocean puns are out of my depth. Maybe I'm just crabby today.
@Mike You seem to have an urchin need to create oceans of puns...
@Mike When the restaurant didn't have the coffee the customer ordered, they gave the manatee. (I used to be a TV writer -- I would dugong show jokes.)
Terrific puzzle -- no better way to celebrate my sixtieth birthday than by beating my Friday average by six minutes! Well done!
@RP Well done to you! And Happy Birthday! Welcome to the 60s club. ;-)
@RP Hope it’s been a great day for you.
@RP Congratulations and happy birthday. I turned 60 this year too!
@RP Happy birthday! I hope you're having a wonderful day :)
@RP happy birthday! I’ll be joining you in that prestigious club in about four months!
Must admit that I never heard of the word SCHUSS before today.
@Jack Green came here for the same reason. What the heck is a schuss?
@Jack Green I got it from the crosses, but as soon as I saw it I remembered. We used to ski with our kids, but it's been 20 years since they grew up and so we don't have to take them anymore!
What this puzzle lacked in Friday to-the-death challenge it more than made up for in clever clues and fills—a perfect pleasure to solve. So much of it was fresh and interesting—a bit difficult in the SE corner, but when the unicorn appeared the lights went on and the music played. Thank you so much, Evan, and congratulations on your impressive debut.
This came together in dribs and drabs (that's one of those things like zig and zag - I'm never entirely sure which is which) - e.g., I knew 35D was SEURAT but I can never remember how to spell him. Speaking of which is which - flotsam is stuff that floats because it fell overboard or the ship wrecked, while jetsam is floating material which was deliberately thrown overboard (jettisoned) perhaps to avoid sinking. There is a huge difference in marine salvage law. Not many people know that.
@Andrew Flotsam/jetsam! What a great explanation for something I've never really understood. I assume it's illegal to pull flotsam out of the water, but not jetsam?
@Andrew @Francis @MOL what a terrific rabbit hole. Explaining the difference has long been a favorite conversational tidbit of mine, and I use the same mnemonic ("jettisoned"). FWIW flotsam has "float" in its etymology. But I had never heard of the marine salvage angle. Turns out @Francis was right. <a href="https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/flotsam-jetsam.html" target="_blank">https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/flotsam-jetsam.html</a>
Wow, did that NW corner kill me. Besides ATT, I got exactly zero other words either across or down my first pass through, and then I stared at it forever to start filling it in.
@Dave K. Me too. I was too smart by half and couldn’t imagine HOTPANTS still could be used… so old. Somehow I talked myself into CLIPARTS and RATS not NATS. Took forever to unwind.
@Dave K. Mine was even worse, I wrongly put "ESQ" instead of ATT. It went great with ___SQUID for the sea creature, but then I couldn't figure out what to do for the first three letters. I could only figure it out after I read this column and learned about APERTURE and SEAOTTER...
@Dave K. @sonnel @Bob Count me in. I had raTS instead of NUTS, A(sst)DA instead of ATT, and I was sure that 1-Down was going to end in an S. When I tried NUTS, I saw PANTS and OTTER, and things started falling into place.
UK bias showing here as I thought security guards were ‘bored’!
@Lily Pretty sure over here they're that too. With guns. Not a great combo.
@Lily I rushed to that one, but "stoned" was too long. I was hoping against hope for a rebus.😀
@Lily I had excop! Oh well! Fun puzzle!
What a beauty! Favorite clue: [Artist who made a lot of good points?] I loved it so much that I even thought of posting Doris Day singing "Que Seurat, Seurat, whatever will be, will be..." Instead, but still in the spirit of LIFE's journey, I leave you with Talk Talk: <a href="https://youtu.be/l3VqAsMXE7o?si=vINdfaewGRJlX9P0" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/l3VqAsMXE7o?si=vINdfaewGRJlX9P0</a> Congratulations on and thank you for a captivating debut, Evan!
Katherine did not share her husband Wilbur's zeal for French painters of the early 20th century. On a recent trip to Chicago, the couple made a visit to the Art Institute. Walking in, Wilbur exclaimed: "Kay! Seurat! Seurat!" To which she replied: "Whatever, Wilbie."
A signature Crosslandia moment is when you’re stymied on an answer, totally stuck, and then a single cross comes along and in an explosive instant, the answer is obvious. A fist pump moment. That happened several times in my outing today, revving me up, and having me view the solve as a delight. Lovely answers SASHAY, DEBRIS, and even COIN PURSE added to those good feelings. As did those answers that stop a puzzle from feeling same-old-same-old, such as Times answer debuts COMES OUT AHEAD, PROSE POET, INFO DESK, GOES BEAST MODE, and HOUSE REDS. Note that two of the three answers of that central stagger-stack are on this list. Then, a pair of echoes. TEATS recalled yesterday’s UDDER, and SCRAG, as a word that sounds like what it means, reminded me of Tuesday’s PLOTZED. This was feel-good all around. Evan, congratulations on your debut, thank you, and keep ‘em coming please!
@Lewis yes this EXACTLY! The fill came in fast and easy but NW and SE stared back at me defiantly for ages. For AGES!!! And then, in a burst of intuition or something (I don’t have the word for it and it seems to be unique to crossword land IMO) things finally started clicking into place. This year I finally learned to have enough patience and faith to allow those moments to arrive and, voila, late week puzzles are now possible for me.
How have I been around this long without knowing about OPERA cake?! Bill from Detroit, if this is something you make, I might just have to schedule a trip. Anyone else want to join?
@Cat Lady Margaret Costco sells them (sort of makes them seem less special, but I’m sure lots of opera aficionados shop the big box stores. Most people seem to)
@Cat Lady Margaret I learned about OPERA cake from some crossword puzzle, but unfortunately forgot about it.
@Cat Lady Margaret I made this one for Christmas two years ago: <a href="https://www.homecookingadventure.com/opera-cake" target="_blank">https://www.homecookingadventure.com/opera-cake</a>/ It's the only one I ever had, so I have no basis for comparison, but everyone seemed to enjoy it.
@Cat Lady Margaret I only learnt about Opera Cake as it's featured on more than one series of "The Great British Bake Off". It's quite the challenge to create
@Cat Lady Margaret they had to make it on The Great British Baking Show...
I tied my longest streak! 232! I know I'm not really supposed to celebrate until I beat the streak (and I know many of my fellow puzzlers have MUCH longer streaks) but this felt like quite an accomplishment. I'd like to thank my parents, and my wife, for putting up with me on those Saturday mornings when I ask her to wait just a few more minutes before breakfast until I finish that nasty puzzle, and my friends, who put up with endless rehashes of punny puzzle themes, and most of all the puzzle constructors and editors, who offer up such delightful challenges day after day and week after week! Here's hoping I can extend this streak to 233... and beyond!
@Dave Munger - I lost my streak during a hurricane evacuation and have it back up to 221. Take your wins where you can.
@Dave Munger - Congratulations! I tried the streak thing for a while, but gave it up at 301 for the reasons you allude to - it was annoying other people (I was hogging all the puzzles) and starting to feel like an obligation rather than a challenge. There were too many nights when I was ready for beddy-bye only to realize, "Oh my gosh, I forgot to do the puzzle today!" Giving up my streak put the fun back into crosswords for me. I hope they stay fun for you. Good luck!
I enjoyed the puzzle and solved it unaided for the most part, but the middle of it defeated me. I've been a gamer for almost 40 years, and I've been online and learning gamer speak for almost 30, but I'm not familiar with going BEAST MODE. I forgot how to spell the painter, and I did not know OAS. SCHUSS was new to me in English - I know the German Schuss, and in Polish szusować means to ski downhill fast; but how could I know it was used in English too? Of course I know YAMAHA - my friend in high school was obsessed with their pianos, and I once wanted to buy a motorbike - but I did not get it as clued. I suppose I understand HAT TIP when I see it but I only sort of know it - I could not come up with it today. I've mimed hat-tipping many a time, but never thought about what it's called in English while doing it. So yeah. I needed several lookups in the middle there. Elsewhere in the puzzle it took me ages to get that many security guards may be ARMED - over here an extreme minority of them are: basically only the ones escorting huge amounts of money. I've never seen an armed security guard in another context in Poland. Gun crime over here is almost non-existent. HOUSE REDS reminded me how good it is to not be a wine snob. My wife and I occasionally order wine rather than beer at restaurants, but we usually go for house wine and we're always satisfied 🤣. Sometimes I wonder if I would know soured wine if I drank it 😆.
@Andrzej I think Americans basically stole SCHUSS. Oh to be in a society where most security people don't have the power of life and death. How age makes a difference--I've know Yamaha from my earliest days, but it shocked me when they came out with a piano. It seemed so removed from motorbikes. I can't taste a difference in wine to any measurable extent. House wines are always fine with me. I can either pay a little and be satisfied, or pay a lot and be satisfied. (My kids often bring me the remnants of whatever drinks they tried and hated, because "he'll drink anything". (Not to say that there's anything wrong with being a wine expert. I just don't have the palate for it.)
@Andrzej when I was younger and broke, I decided not to educate my palate for wine because I wouldn't be able to afford it. I was right. Now as a middle aged wine snob, I take wine from the students I sometimes host for dinner and put it straight in the "cooking wine" category: fine to use in a sauce but I can't drink it. I don't like beer at all, though, so I am sure my palate could do with further refinement in that direction.
@Beth Hosting students for dinner 😮. Is that a thing one does in the US? Over here some teachers at uni go out for a beer with their students, but even that seems way too familiar for me. We all tend to keep things professional in higher education. I also only accept being addressed by my degree or "Sir" - no first name basis for me, thank you. My mom was a huge wine snob and from my late teens into my 40s I drank all those fine vins and vinos with her often. I'm still OK with 25 złoty (5€) wines from Lidl 🤣. I wouldn't be seen dead with industrially brewed beer though 😆
Congratulations on a stellar debut. Loved so much of the clueing: 35D…Artist who made a lot of good points, for SEURAT; 15A…Light shower, for APERTURE; Many of these begin with E, for EYE TESTS. Also, I loved your clue for 9A (SASHAY) that didn’t make the cut: Copy a working model, perhaps. Two nostalgia twinges: COIN PURSE: My father carried a plastic coin purse in his pocket, a small green oval that opened by pinching the two ends. If I needed a quarter or fifty cents (this was the 1960s, when that amount could buy lunch, or a movie ticket with snacks), he’d take out his purse, pinch it open then, before giving me a coin or two, regard them in a way that made me think he was assessing how nearer to ruin giving me that money might bring us. He was a doctor, so it was likely an echo from the Depression…though I was the oldest of eight. The second twinge came from your story about tea and crosswords with your grandmother. When I was 5, we lived briefly in Cleveland where my parents were from, while my father tried to figure out where to set up a practice; this was the late ‘50s, just after his discharge from the Navy, where he spent two years after his residency because of the doctor draft. I often some time with my grandmother when she had friends over for coffee and gossip. She’d sit me at the table with them, fill a china cup for me with milk, adding a smidge of coffee, and I’d sit, feeling quite mature, listening to chat about people I didn’t know.
For the second time in a fortnight, asps are unfairly maligned! Called “vile” (see June 2) and now described as “nasties.” First they came for the asps, and I did not speak out—because I was not an asp…
@RIch Garella Right? It's so sad to see animals clued like that for the sake of cutesy wordplay. People may be nasty or vile, but not animals.
@RIch Garella 😂😂😂 Yes, the asps are getting some pretty poisonous aspersions of late. It's like the old Indian saying: You should never criticize an asp until you've walked a mile in his moccasins.
@RIch Garella et alii (or alia, your choice) All y'all (preferred) Are bad, bad, bad. And I love you for it!
I zipped right along until I got stuck with two empty squares in the middle of the puzzle. Didn't know SCHUSS or OAS and was doggedly running the alphabet on those two (change a letter on one and then run the alphabet on the other. Change another letter on the first one and repeat.) But nothing was working. Finally, I realized my mistake was 30D. I had originally thought of DEtRItis, which obviously doesn't fit, but somehow I rationalized that maybe there was a short form of the word: DEtRIS. Yeah, that makes sense. Once I realized it should have been DEBRIS, there was much head slapping, and I could see that the second word of 38A had to be BEAST, which completed the squares I'd been working on. Never noticed SCRAG until someone mentioned it in a comment. I wouldn't have known that one either, but fortunately, I had filled in all the crosses in that section and didn't need to. Filled in APERTURE but didn't fully understand why until reading the column. I know what an aperture is and that it has to do with letting light into a camera, but I missed the wordplay with "shower" meaning one that shows. Wished the clue for WHITE RUSSIANS had something to do with The Dude, but I can confirm that the clue is accurate, for me at least. Some folks say Kahlúa doesn't have enough caffeine to keep someone up. It does if you're genetically predisposed to be a slow caffeine metabolizer and also sensitive to sugar and alcohol... a recipe for being up all night.
@Beth 😂 I went through the same chase with DEBRIS. I actually had it all in there, and for a couple seconds didn't recognize it as a word, as I was so set on it being somehow derivative of detritis.
@Beth @Francis I know DEBRIS very well - I remember hearing it on Star Trek TNG in the early 90s. I had no idea how to spell it - so I checked, was surprised, and I still remember all those years later 🤩.
@Beth I also went down there detris path.
@Beth I, too, was hoping for a Big Lebowski allusion.
@Beth et alia ( or is it alii?) Hand up for DEtRIS. Sounds like it should be a word.
This fine and breezy puzzle got me reminiscing about the French Revolution. I came out a head. (Obviously that centuries-old antimonarchy movement has no relevance to contemporary society whatsoever.) (None) (Zero) (Nada) (Let them eat opera cake)
@ad absurdum You gotta love a nation which tears down its state prison, then builds an opera house in its stead.
Not to tread on Lewis' clues of the week, but this is my clue of the week so far, and I seriously doubt anything tomorrow will top this one: Artist who made a lot of good points I laughed and immediately filled in SEURAT.
It was a good one; I'm not sure Lewis will deem it original enough. NYT alone has already had: Thu Oct 5, 2017 25D Artist who went dotty? Alan Arbesfeld Sun Oct 25, 2015 46A No one says his art was pointless Bill Zais Tue Jun 7, 2011 28D Painter who had a point to make? David Liben-Nowell
@Eric Barry's right. Lewis's choices are always a fresh clueing angle. But I agree, it was a great clue.
I found it perfect for a Friday. Certainly I've solved Fridays more laboriously. A few things were obscure but I could get them through the crosses. I didn't know "schuss" but I'm not a skier. I'm always grateful to learn new words. I was thinking the requirement for a triple play was two on base, but "no outs" makes more sense.
@Jonathan Two (or more) on base *is* a requirement for a triple play. At least as far as I know
Anyone else confidently slap in PIC for [Image, informally]? Et tu, emu.
@Lewis Sure, that was my first thought. Thankfully, the second one was REP 🙂
@Lewis No, but apparently I’m the only one trashy enough to immediately type “VODKAREDBULLS” in 18A. 😆
So. Between 4:18and 4:28am EDT, as I sat with my wake-up cup of coffee, I opened the puzzle, just to see what I might be facing when I got a chance later. For the marine critter, I got as far as SEA-blankety-blank-blank; then it was time to go make the opéra cake*. At 4:45, about halfway through my bike commute to work, I shouted out "Sea Otter!" I didn't get a chance to get back to the puzzle until my lunch break, at which point I could check it, and, in fact, complete the puzzle. *As if. Covid did a number on the hospitality/food service industry, from which it will never recover, at least in my career; and now I'm more likely to be cooking breakfasts than baking fine European patisserie. I know, I could look for a better job, but heck, I'm a couple years away from retirement, have Union seniority, and Hell, I can bike to work! Why go elsewhere? —But Bill, with your talents, you really should open up your own shop!** Yeah, right! Like at my age, I want to kill myself working with no health benefits and with little or no profit. I would rather work forty hours a week flipping omelets, and have sufficient resources and time to attend the Opera, than work eighty hours a week making opéra cakes at a loss. I can bake opéra torte (or more likely ruhubarb pie) at home should I desire some. And now I do. Sorry for the rant. **Hi, @Oikofuge! That's an em-dash used as a quotation mark.
Bill, There is very little better in this life than a good rhubarb pie. Especially when you want one. :)
Wha? Any grid that leads with HOT PANTS, immediately followed by SASHAY is a winner in my book. And a GOES BEAST MODE stretching its way across the center? Shoot. That’s insane. Fabulous Friday debut. Well played Evan! It’s Friday all!
@CCNY there's another earworm! "HOT PANTS explosion" by the B-52's.
Nice debut, Evan! Keep 'em coming. And nice pic for the column photo, Deb. An alternative meaning for light shower, and an echo of the other day's rainbow as omen. Just to show how addicted I am to letter play--- this morning's beach walk took an extra twenty minutes when I spotted the remains of someone's broken friendship bracelet. Little cubic letter beads O, V, and E were found but I kept looking for the L. Love lost, I s'pose.
@Linda Jo Some of us thought that the rainbow (from yesterday's puzzle) elicited an "Amen!", which is what I said when I finished today's puzzle.
For gamers familiar with the back story, it's funny to note that LEEROY JENKINS fits in 38 Across.
@Greg B Haha, I did not try it as it obviously did not sync with the clue, but *of course* I thought of it 🤣 Now I'll let nostalgia for the UBRS of old engulf me.
@Greg B See that would have been a legend answer
@Greg B I was so sure it was going to be a LJ reference. Missed opportunity!
Thank you for a fun puzzle. I felt stumped for a while and then all of a sudden it came together! Such a nice feeling!
Great debut, Mr. Mulvihill! I really enjoyed [Light shower?] an d I had to put some English on MORES to get it to fit [Practices]. And you got a SEAOTTER into the puzzle! We had river otter the other day and some people were irritated that river otters don't float on their backs. I originally had Starfish there, which mucked everything up pretty good.
“Seraut”… “Serrat”… oh, what’s the point? The painter presented just one of my spelling hurdles. Entering DIScS also caused a little confusion in the lower right corner. But it’s all good now. Who wants to meet me at the intersection of HOUSE REDS and WHITE RUSSIANS? It’s party time!
@Heidi I see what you did there. ;)
SCRAG is a brand new word for me. I spent a looong time trying to figure out why I was getting a nonsense syllable.
@Margrethe I've never encountered the noun form before, but saw it easily enough from "scraggly". I gave it a bit of side-eye, but I accept it.
E-yetests, just like e-anything, is complete crosswordese. Or so I’ve seen mentioned in these comments. Fun Friday puzzle. I’ll schuss up now.
@JohnWM The reference is to the chart that ask you to read at the optometrist. Often, but not always, the first large letter on the top line is an “E”.
@Marc A. Leaf I wondered, why E? T I L <a href="https://atlanticeyeinstitute.com/history-of-the-eye-chart" target="_blank">https://atlanticeyeinstitute.com/history-of-the-eye-chart</a>/
@JohnWM I initially put in LOUIs and spent too much time wondering what a sYE TEST might be.
@Barry Ancona - I don't think he was. He was comparing e-yetests to e-readers, e-file taxes, and e-mail. He forgot about the opthalmologist.
Jennie, These are the Wordplay comments, where irony often appears without warning.
@JohnWM Never, I say, Never! I will never give up my old pen-n-paper, brick-n-mortar yetest!
Northwest took a while to crack. My first guesses of mamaS and ratS did not serve me well SCHUSS took a while, especially since I had rEseT MODE (Hey, I can make a term a thing) Really the clue fits “on tilt” better, but that didn’t fit. I had TASER, but what really cracked the NW was ARTS which in retrospect should have been obvious. Good puzzle over all Nice and crunchy
@heironymous Yeah, I had tees for ARTS and reeeally held onto it til the bitter end! I even resisted TASER, though I could see it was correct. Because [Goes after] is Hunts, right? That term is a thing! D'oh.
It's been a good week for me in crosswords! Loved the long entries, funny and guessable. In a rare occurrence I had no typos and no wrong answers the first time through even though several were guesses: Seurat, schuss (although it felt kinda right), oas was pure luck, I knew opera cake from doing crosswords... and yeah, it all worked. Loved prose poet, goes beast mode, thought "wha" was funny, and of course the combo of hot pants and sashay made me smile. Busy weekend ahead with an all-day church festival and me as the treasurer sprinting around with pockets full of cash that I collect from various stations. Hoping for sunshine! And hope that none of my fellow singles out there get ghosted this weekend!! 👻😆🤞🏼
Too easy for a Friday?
@Tim Lexvold nah…it’s about right. Sometimes puzzles just speak to you and are personally easier. There is always the chance that a whole other batch of people feel it’s too hard.
@Tim Lexvold Fast time for me too, but I didn’t see too many gimmes, I thought this was one of those nights where I was in the same wavelength and made a lot of good guesses.
@Tim Lexvold I thought it was challenging enough--it took me a little longer than my average Friday time and had interesting stuff in both clues and answers. I hope Evan builds more puzzles for us!
@Tim Lexvold I found almost the entire SE corner to be naticks.
@Tim Lexvold a few lucky gimmes. One lucky wrong thought correct answer misspelled , had Serrat, was thinking Cassatt, and realized I had wrong painter, but just slightly misspelled. Was slower than my Friday average.
@Tim Lexvold For me, my solve time was almost exactly my Friday average.
@Tim Lexvold I've often been on the same wavelength as the constructor, but I may have actually written this puzzle in another life. My solve time was less than 1/2 of my usual Friday. Fun, but over way too soon!
@Tim Lexvold Yes. Lovely puzzle, but should have been a Wednesday.
@Tim Lexvold I will support to the death your right to be wrong! Which you are.
Congrats on a fantastic debut, Evan! Lots of sparkle and joy in this one - looking forward to your next one already!
I really enjoyed this one. It took me awhile because I was very unfamiliar with the 3 long middle clues, and COIN PURSE did not come easily. I was looking for an idiom to do with not wanting to spend your money. My father's favourites: "He makes every penny a prisoner." "Tight as two coats of paint."
Jane Wheelaghan, One I heard for the first time ever, just a couple days ago on a BBC show, is: he could peel an orange in his pocket. New to me, but I think I get it: he doesn’t want to have to share the orange. But can he eat it in his pocket too?
I’m liking all the various takes on how to interpret the orange peeling. Nothing definitive that I’ve found to prefer one, so I guess Jane wins: don’t overthink it. Surreally! As for cherries, G, I’m tongue-tied. :)
Did anyone else go straight for LEEROYJENKINS on 38A only to be sorely disappointed?
Good to be back, after a hospital stint followed by rehab (not the drug kind :) ). Couldn't do any puzzles besides the magazine that was brought to me courtesy of Sunday home delivery, since I'm strictly a print solver. Though my brain is still a little foggy and I'm still not up to par, I was surprised at how easy Thursday and today's puzzle seemed. Even if I had wanted to try solving on my phone, it wasn't cooperating, so I have a lot to catch up on. I missed all your comments!
Times Rita, Welcome back! Enjoy the puzzle backlog.
@Times Rita Welcome back! I hope your recovery goes well.
@Times Rita So good to have you back!
@Times Rita Wow, that does not sound fun. So glad you are back, and back with us! Perhaps it was the joy of solving that helped them seem easy. Or perhaps that they are smaller grids (non-Sunday puzzles). No matter, here's to you continuing to get up to par!
An admirable debut, Evan. Thanks!
Typical tough Friday for me, but managed to work it out. Pretty impressive feat of construction - looking forward to more from Mr. Mulvihill - Would suspect that he's going to be a regular in the not too distant future. Really interesting puzzle find today - a Sunday from December 16, 2012 by Matt Ginsberg with the title: "Hearing double." Really clever theme and... 15 answers that never appeared in another puzzle. One clue/answer example: "Souvenir from the Petrified Forest?" WOODYOUMINED And some other theme answers: AYEOFKNUTE MAIDOFMETTLE CESTGOODKNIGHT KNOTFORPROPHET BYRDOFPRAY PROSEANDKHANS And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/16/2012&g=3&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/16/2012&g=3&d=D</a> I'm done. ...
@Rich in Atlanta Ooohh - and stumbled across another puzzle. Quite unusual. A Sunday from December 19, 1999 by the great Frances Hansen with the title: "Christmas Cache." Four 21 letter grid-spanning entries - the first clued as "Start of a verse" and the others clued as "More of the verse" and then "End of the verse." Those answers: WITHINGENUITYANDGUILE INVENTIVENESSANDFLAIR IHIDMYHOARDSOSLYLYILL BEBLESSEDIFIKNOWWHERE Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/19/1999&g=80&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/19/1999&g=80&d=A</a> ....
"Light shower" reminded me of my first “Oh, Will, you devil!” moment from over 20 years ago. The clue, as I recall, was "Car tower" and the answer was REPO MAN.
20% longer than my Friday average with no look-ups. So for me it was definitely difficult enough.
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Evan! I enjoyed the witty clueing and mostly zipped through the grid. My biggest slowdown was probably at 34A, where I had COMES OUT on top. I hope we’ll see you back soon! Thanks!
@Eric Hougland Same mistake I made. Really held up that side of the puzzle.
@Eric Hougland I had the same. Amazing how quickly it came together after changing 34A.
The irony of “Requirement for a triple play”— Nice!
@Aviv S. Oh, its baseball. That explains why I understand little of the explanation 😢. I'm sure you explained it well, I just lack a basic understanding of the terminology to follow any if it. Where's the irony?
@Andrzej I think Joe is saying it's ironic because if a team has NO OUTS things are going very well for them so far in the inning (meaning that it's their turn to bat and run and hopefully score). A player can get an out in several (many 😂) different ways, such as striking out or being thrown out, and occasionally those things happen in combination so that three players are out basically all at once during one player's turn to bat. Once the team has three outs, the inning is over and it's the other team's turn, so it's an instant end to what was going well at that point. So the team was required to have NO OUTS in order to lose their turn by getting three all at once. Perhaps ironic but also heartbreaking, potentially devastating, if it's your team.
@Steve L I think that IS the irony, the contrast between the logical and the emotional, partly because it is rare.
Cathy, Consider: A triple play may be ironic; that NO OUTS is a requirement for it is not ironic.
@Mean Old Lady Your post is one of the few in this thread I actually understand, and it answers my question. Thanks! 😘
I woke up to a light shower, and was finally able to open the APERTURE of my window to get some fresh (albeit damp) air in. I loved seeing both PHO and IPHONE in the same puzzle. There is a restaurant in St. Paul by the name of iPho. They're pretty good! Located in beautiful Frogtown.
A really well constructed debut puzzle. Gauged by my usual struggles with late week puzzles, this might have been a tad easier than the norm, but I am not complaining. Great clues for APERTURE and SEURAT. Nice job Evan!
I too struggled mightily in the NW corner. I had RATS instead of NUTS so I was hopelessly stuck until I decided to revisit everything and then it fell into place.
@Lpr Me too! And the funny part is that when I initially put in "RATS," I mumbled to myself, "but I don't like it," since it was so similar to the clue [Drat]. Only when looking at it later did I remember my dissatisfaction. And of course after I deleted it, everything started falling into place!
Immediately entered HOTPANTS for "Short shorts" and PIGGYBANK for "What might be pinched for pennies". Quickly deleted both, only to restore HOTPANTS near the end of my session. Knew that "Artist who made a lot of good points?" called for a pointillist, but had to get SEURAT entirely from the crosses. After yesterday's discussion <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/485p6q?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/485p6q?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a> of UDDER-squeezing, it was interesting to have TEATS in the grid. And crossing SEAOTTER no less, given Tuesday's discussion of back-floating otters. Don't think I've seen SCRAG lately (ever?), though scraggly is a common enough adjective. Recently re-watching several seasons of the the Great British Bake Off helped with OPERA cake. Almost blew this one with CORA instead of CORI. But fortunately I saw DASKS and fixed the error before filling in my last box, preserving my short streak. Seemed like a solid Friday puzzle. Solved it without help, but took almost 25 minutes. Congratulations on the debut!
@Xword Junkie Margaret Tietz Nursing and Rehabilitation Center is a nursing home in Queens that advertises a lot on the radio. The surname, pronounced just like the cow parts, make me snicker like an 9-year-old every time I hear it.
@Steve L Sadly, there's a little bit of Beavis and Butt-Head in all of us.
@Xword Junkie - I had to doublecheck the spelling of Georges S***AT by looking up "Sunday in the Park with George".
Oh Evan, your comment takes me back! I learned to love the Sunday crossword in the 1970s from my friend Marylou, who had worked on the Hyde Park Herald, and who, with her husband Tom, was instrumental in saving a Louis Sullivan door which was donated to the Art Institute in Chicago.
@Kris H and the AIC is where you can find SEURAT's masterpiece "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"
@Bob T. I'm guessing that's the painting that Cameron is captivated by, in "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." It's the first thing to come to mind when pointillism is mentioned.
SEAOTTERS in HOTPANTS: Oh my! First guess was Shirley Temple Thanks Evan, a fun solve.
A perfect Friday experience: despair, inspiration, frustration, determination, hopelessness and then finally enlightenment.
That NW corner was a bit of a beast but really good puzzle overall. Didn't say 'yuck' one time.