This marks 1,000 days of my daily crossword streak!! Wahoo!!!
@Saffie Congratulations! I have "A 775-DAY STREAK" so far. I may not do a lot of physical exercise, but I'm definitely getting the brain exercise.
@Saffie Woohoo! Congratulations! This puzzle was #901 in my first streak, so I got your back.
@Saffie That’s amazing! Congrats!
@Saffie Congratulations! What a great achievement.
@Saffie My God! That's almost a *year*!
@Saffie Amazing accomplishment!
@Saffie, Yay!!! You made it to 4-digit territory!! Congratulations!!!🎉🍾🎈
I'm an old retired fart and could care less what day of the week it is. I work these puzzles strictly for the enjoyment of them and have no idea what my personal best is. Being noncompetitive by nature, I don't really understand the urge to finish a puzzle as fast as possible – it's a pastime to enjoy over coffee and maybe learn a thing or two in the process.
@Ken Same, same, all same! Flatulence aside.
@Ken Hear, hear! That, and to stand in awe of the incredible musculature of the lead runner's thighs.
@Ken Some time back, I fooled myself into thinking I’d gotten pretty dang good at this in the seven years since I retired and began doing the NYT CW. Then I looked at the site that has info about average solve times each day and saw, welp, I’m nowhere near as good as I thought I was…so now, while I do look at my times as a measure for myself, and compare times each day with my brother, I’m with you on this as an interesting pastime that often sends me off to research things, people, places I didn’t know about until I came across them in the CW.
@Ken I'm an old, broken-down special ed teacher, and I feel the same way about solving. I'm just in it for the fun! I couldn't remember the "Breaking Bad" main character's name until I had the -ALT in place! I don't smack my head on the table because I can't afford to damage any brain cells, but it was one of those "Oh, duh" moments that entertain me. I pity the people who worry about how quickly they can fill the grid. Are they expecting a reward? Fame? Fortune? A frisson of delight? I raise my glass and toast the poor dears!
@Ken Finishing the puzzles quickly also has little appeal to me. Neither does taking forever. The fun for me is in the increasing challenge offered by each day's puzzle, and the ability to complete the most difficult occasionally!
I really must stop coming here immediately after solving in the European early morning. The commentariat is full of the overnight speedy solvers from the US and some of the bragging is a bit too much for me. This was not easy. It was full of trivia that are absolutely not gimmes unless you’re in a particular milieu. It was doable with reasonable effort. It was absolutely not mid week level for me. I appreciate that some have to tell that they solved it in single digit minutes. Well done you. In the role of this forum providing feedback to the NYT folks: crossing IVER with RENEE wasn’t kind 😀 Thanks to the constructor
@Ιασων To me this was a Saturday, and the comments below are completely whacky. Tuesday... SRSLY.
@Ιασων I used to make the same mistake too! Now I come after I’ve solved and have tried to predict what people will be complaining about…
@Ιασων, I too tire of the bragging on times. I will say that I achieved a PB, but I never list my time, good or bad! In fact, I don't ever strive to beat my PB; I tend to meander and enjoy the puzzle. As for difficulty level, I find it to be very subjective, so if I comment upon that, I always qualify it with, "for me". Today, for me, was mostly accessible but I wouldn't call it easy! Happy solving!
@Ιασων The trivia belonging to a certain milieu is what I call hard for the wrong reasons. It's no reflection on your solving skills.
@Ιασων I find it strange how many folks around here interpret comments about a puzzle being easy as “bragging”. This is an anonymous forum, in which you have the opportunity to type a username of your own choosing for every single comment. What would people get out of bragging? This may not apply in your case, but I wonder if part of the disconnect here is that lots of solvers, especially newer ones, simply don’t realize that the difficulty of the average late-week puzzles (especially Fridays and Saturdays) has absolutely fallen off a cliff relative to 5-10 years ago. I don’t personally have a huge problem with that, as I still have several years’ worth of untouched archives from before the present “appeal to a broader crowd” era…but I do hope the pendulum swings back someday.
@Ιασων I really don’t think it’s bragging. Even if it is, I’ll take bragging over the incessant complaining.
@Ιασων I agree that the difficulty is in the life and mind of the solver!
I thought this a fine puzzle for any day of the week. Easy in some spots, challenging in others. Enjoyable throughout. (Just balancing out the complaints, of which I have none.)
@Heidi Your post is my favorite today, thank you 🙂
I found this one to be a breeze! In a fun way. Since you asked, NYT: I’d love to see the column give background information about some of the trivia-based clues. I rarely find the “tricky clues” section that useful, and I almost never have questions about the clues discussed in that section. But I don’t always know the people referenced in puzzles or important events associated with answers that make them noteworthy. As an example, for today’s puzzle: tell me about Pedro Almodovar’s work, the relevance Broadcast.com used to have, Bon Iver’s biggest song, how many Benihanas there are. Not only would I learn something new but these factoids would help me remember the answers for future puzzles (or trivia nights!).
@Maddy You can find out all about those things by researching all by yourself.
"You listen to sounds of balloons exploding?" "Yeah, I love pop music!" (These puns went from bad to burst.)
@Mike They really have an inflated sense of themselves. You should probably bounce. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Mike Sometimes I think you're full of hot air....
@Mike You should get a medal for having the mettle to meddle with these folk. I figured I might as well go for baroque on this one. I might be a classic, although I might be being overly romantic.
@Mike I spent so long trying to burst a balloon that I got pins and needles
There ought to be a word for what happened to me a couple of times as I solved. Where I was stumped by a clue, kept hammering at it with no success, where the crosses weren’t giving the answer away. Then, in a flash, my brain did see from the crosses the answer that was eluding me, and suddenly that thorny clue made sense, bringing a huge “Hah!”. That blissful double-barrel-of-discovery Crosslandia moment – is in need of a name! I liked the Japanese mini-theme, with HAI, YEN, and BENIHANA. I liked that every answer of the stagger stack in the middle is a NYT debut. I loved that the clue set was dense with wordplay. I enjoyed the PuzzPair© of HOOT and OWLY. Give me “Hah!” moments, likes, and loves, and how can I help but be grateful? I had a splendid time uncovering this, James, and congratulations on your NYT debut!
(Crossnerd alert) A testament to the Queen of Fridays, Robyn Weintraub. Today’s lovely grid design, one that allowed for a very high 15 bigs (answers of eight letters or more), has appeared only once before in the Times, crafted by Robyn. What’s wild is that the same thing was true of last Friday’s puzzle.
@Lewis "That blissful double-barrel-of-discovery Crosslandia moment – is in need of a name!" Epigramphany? Eurekross? Emulightenment? This is going to take more time than I thought.
@Lewis Good description of puzzle solving mood swings! 😁
After yesterday's Tuesday, this was a themeless Wednesday. Fine if you aren't interested in a challenge. Pleasant construction, wrong venue. IMO
@Barry Ancona very fast solve for me too
@Barry Ancona Not my fastest Friday, but darned close.
@Barry Ancona Agreed. Nice puzzle, just on the wrong day.
@Barry Ancona I woke up in the middle of the night, reached for my phone to see what time it was, realized the puzzle would have just dropped, and got to solving. It even occurred to me that it’d be a slow solve being that groggy. And… I posted a Wednesday average. The fill was interesting but I agree it: This was the wrong day for this puzzle. Unfortunately.
@Barry Ancona Kind of Barry, but like yesterday I had a couple of missing letters(including a typo).
One of the definitions of HOST is a literal army: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/host" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/host</a> Entry #4, def. 2. So it doesn't have to be metaphorical at all.
@Steve L Thank you. I was going to say something similar
@Steve L Yep. I was also going to say that.
@Steve L HOSTS was my first fill (well, 1A sooo). A great description of a host, the beginning of Byron's "The Destruction of Sennacherib" The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee. Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen: Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Mr. McCarron! The fill was entertaining and I especially liked the clue for BALLOON ANIMAL (it’s hard to believe that that answer has never before been in a NYT puzzle). I hope we’ll see you back here soon!
@Eric Hougland Not that one, but didn't we have BALLOONDOG recently? Odd coincidence, say I.
The puzzle was fine but have all the puzzles the last week or two been unusually easy? Other than misspelling Almodovar's name I pretty much breezed through this... Oh well, a good debut for the constructor. Congratulations. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B Same with me on Almodovar! As I am a good speller, this was a welcome correction! Loved THE FLOWER OF MY SECRET! Have seen few other films by the fine director!
@B I thought July 4th weekend looked hard but I didn’t even attempt them so maybe in general yes.
As someone who doesn't care even a little bit about solving speed, I enjoyed the smoothly elegant fill of this puzzle. I have the timer turned off in settings, but I really wish I could prevent the app from displaying the completion and average times. I do the crossword to pass the time, not to beat the clock.
@Gregg One of the many things I appreciate about solving the puzzles on paper is that I'm not concerned with how many minutes and seconds it takes me to do them. And I don't feel compelled to beat my (non-existent) personal best.
@Gregg Just use the browser. I solve on my phone in the browser (a Firefox derivative for me), with the NYT timer turned off in settings. There is no display of completion or average times etc., unless I go looking for them. This makes life so much more pleasant and makes the puzzles the enjoyable leisurely pastime I'm looking for...
I was so frustratingly, tantalizingly close to completing the puzzle - which I found very hard but mostly enjoyable - without lookups! Alas, I tripped over the unfamiliar letter salad of BENIHANA. I filled in the whole grid except for the four squares in the SW corner. I know literally nothing about logarithmic equations, in English or Polish. The "colonial group" clue stumped me, completely, ditto "collar". So yeah, I looked up the restaurant chain. The final two letters of its name gave me the crosses to deal with that corner of doom. However, had I actually got those four squares myself, I would still have not received my gold star. How come? I had IvS for hookups. There was no indication in the clue that the answer would be an abbreviation, but I've been told dozens of times in these comments, usually by Barry, that some terms, while considered abbreviations initially, became so commonly used over the years they are now words in their own right. I thought IvS fit the bill. BEvIHANA looks no less strange and unfamiliar to me than BANIHANA 🤷. Ultimately, then, I really did need that one lookup, and I would have needed it (or checking the puzzle) even if math was not my nemesis, and I were smart enough to get the ANTS clue. BTW, apparently there is one BENIHANA in Warsaw. Food theatrics... Ewww. Not my cup of tea, at all, and neither are chain establishments, in general. There is always something corporately soulless about them.
@Andrzej When I was in junior high school, our language class (It was half the year Spanish, half French, and a sprinkling of other languages as a bonus) took a field trip to Benihana. At the time, I was a sheltered child in the suburbs and found the theatrics at Benihana to be quite thrilling (a lot of sharp knife twirling) and exotic.
@Andrzej. Benihana was a case study at Harvard Business School in 1979. I remember three ways they boosted profits: kept wages low by hiring undocumented immigrants; discouraged lingering after the meal by seating unrelated parties around the same table; and signaled it was time to leave by bringing the knife display to a showy climax.
Hi Andrzej, I too thought of IVS until I checked the cross and found a restaurant I last visited in what seems like my teens. But -- as a reminder to both of us -- IVS *does* get an abbreviation signal, as it did just last month: Tue Jun 3, 2025 22A Hosp. hookups Boaz Moser
@Andrzej Idioms and colloquialisms are tough for non-native speakers! I wonder if Joseph Conrad mastered many in his English-language fiction and non-fiction!
@Andrzej I was amused by food theatrics not being your cup of tea. Tea, of course, being the basis of some famously elaborate food theatrics around the world. Nice one.
PB for me. No complaints about it being too easy. I taught my son about the difference between a glass half empty and half full today. I may have chugged my proverbial glass on this one, but it was half full of crossword fun going down.
HOSTS as the answer for [Armies] made me think of the phrase "And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly HOST praising God, and saying..." From the Gospel of Luke, but I really know it from "A Charlie Brown Christmas", and from Handel's "Messiah ". A Charlie Brown Christmas <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bPhqMJpQsYQ&t=1m20s" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bPhqMJpQsYQ&t=1m20s</a> Messiah <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GbicfvN4zFM&t=46m04s" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GbicfvN4zFM&t=46m04s</a>
Today's crossword was the first Friday I've solved without help! I'd like to believe my brain suddenly expanded, but I suspect its a much easier puzzle than most Fridays. I'm still taking the win ! Thank you, I needed that today.
@Toni-Ann There will always be some vicissitude in difficulty from week to week. Maybe this was a bit easier than last week. But what is not random is the consistent improvement we experience in solving from week to week! Maybe last year you wouldn't not have finished this puzzle, and maybe next year you'll solve Fridays on some consistent cadence. Take the win! You deserve it! Friday or not - this wasn't "easy".
Just shows what trivia you know matters. Everyone was crowing yesterday about the puzzle being too easy for a Thursday, and I had to run the alphabet in several places to finally get it right because of a few names. Whereas this one, despite not remembering how to spell Pedro's last name and only remembering that the Breaking Bad lead's names were alliterative but not what they WERE, fell right into place. Delightful puzzle, whether on a Wednesday or a Friday.
I hope all of you will humor me in allowing me to write an update to the story of the fawn born in my back yard. Though I was filled with angst that I would discover a fawn corpse in my foliage (my mind is always working overtime to find things to worry about) and have to remove a fawn corpse, they are both doing fine! They visit our yard every couple of days, to dine at our hosta bar. So I get long views of her cleaning up the fawn with licking that looks is so full of anthropomorphized love, the fawn prancing around her. I sometimes see them in other parts of town, too. I don't know how many houses they are entertaining, but I almost can't stop smiling when watching them.
@Francis I can relate. A hummingbird built a nest in our courtyard this summer. We didn’t try to look inside because the mom was clearly agitated whenever we went into the courtyard. So we didn’t know for sure if she laid eggs until the two babies hatched. Then we spent two or three weeks watching with a mix of fascination and terror as they were fed and then fledged. There are a lot of predatory birds around here and of course we know that they have to live too. But we were so relieved that these little guys made it.
@Francis Hey, I am so happy there is such sweet joy for you in your backyard in these difficult days. Something to be grateful for as always a good thing! ❤️ May they live long and prosper! You too!!.
First, a fine debut and, 3 more in the queue?! Well done. Regarding Deb's request for input two thoughts come to mind: Picking up on Lewis' comment below I'd like to learn more about grid designs, how they are categorized and how is Lewis able to say that this is only the second appearance of today's style? Is there a database of grid designs somewhere? Second, although I've no interest in speed solving myself I would be interested in something along the lines of "Secrets of Crossword Speed Solvers".
@John Carson -- It's just my phenomenal memory! No, I get that info on the XwordInfo site, which I subscribe to. It analyzes every NYT puzzle, and part of that is telling whether this grid design has ever been used before (and if so, which puzzles and who made them), and shows other puzzles with similar designs.
You can please some of the solvers some of the time, but never all of the solvers all of the time.
Really liked the clue for 21D: Film star whose name consists of two presidents. Why did I never notice that!?
@Margot I was convinced it was going to be someone I’d never heard of. Nope, not at all. Somehow I’d just never noticed.
Nice puzzle, but I shouldn't be able to finish a theme-less Friday in under 9 minutes. There have been quite a few breezy late week puzzles lately. I think it's an issue of clueing. The fill on these puzzles does satisfy, but I think I should have to work a little harder to get them.
@Jim “I shouldn’t be able to” …“I shouldn’t have to” … “wah wah wah me me me”
This was fun! I loved the clue for Harrison Ford and the whole thing was a good solve.
@Caitie Besides sharing the name of two presidents, I believe Harrison Ford has also played the role of POTUS twice: Air Force One and the latest Captain America movie, Brave New World.
I don’t know supermodels, but somehow saw the W and my brain filled in the -EK. Don’t know if Alex is male or female! How? Where? Why was that taking brain space when I’ve been trying to remember my neighbor’s name for at least a year? I’d like to return some of the useless stuff living in my noggin, for like, I dunno, things I need to know..? Why? Is there a number I can call? Can I speak to a manager?
@CCNY It's ALEK, but I see that ALEX is taking up space in your noggin and won't allow the name to be over-written! (I relied on the crosses.)
@CCNY Let me know when you find out where to call, please. I’ve had the lyrics to “Along Comes Mary” banging around in my brain for, oh, 50 or 60 years now, and I’d like to clear them out to make room for something more useful. Like the expiration date on my credit card so I don’t have to look for my wallet when I want to buy something online. Also, the location of my wallet.thanks.
Anyone else think that "What might come with a twist or two" was going to be a cocktail? I held onto that misguided notion long after I had enough crosses to falsify my initial hypothesis. Nice misdirect!
@The X-Phile Yes. I have cocktails on the brain.
@The X-Phile I was suckered into entering (already having BA- in place) BARROOM.... thanks to the suggestive "twist"!
@The X-Phile. I thought it was soft serve ice cream.
There are already 215 Comments, and the first two I see are bemoaning the too-easy solve... PISH-TOSH (I say you can't have one without the other!) I'm supposed to know "Mean Girls", Katy Perry songs, the meaning of Phanerozoic, a supermodel, and dot-com bubble cannibals, and a Bon who's not JOVI? AND a screenwriter???? Sheesh. Yes, I completed the puzzle, I found it challenging. (Is BENIHANA still in business?) I did enjoy the tricky clues like "Tales are related about them" and "Please, take this off my hands".... but I believe OWLY belongs in the list of "desperation entries" requiring a rewrite.
@Mean Old Lady I amazed myself by managing to get ROAR from one letter (the "O") and the clue. It made me mentally strut around for a while. Still doing that, actually. I did have to google a few things, though.
@Mean Old Lady - BeniHana is still around, but that one def falls in the category of "The 90s called and they'd like their clue back."
@Mean Old Lady, I saw OWLY and thought it would pair well with EELY.
I just looked up the year that MURDER AT THE ABA was published and it was 1976 -- so I was running the Mystery Guild Bool Club, which I ran from 1974 to 1974 at the time. And I can't remember if I took it as a Selection or not. I must have -- Asimov was a big name at the time, though not in the mystery genre. The title and premise were amusing -- the ABA, which often hosted terrific publishing events, was well-known to us publishing types and we were therefore being promised an "insider's" murder mystery. But I'm pretty sure the book was a dud, because had it been good, I would have remembered it. I needed crosses to get ABA in the puzzle today. My biggest hiccup today: I had the W from WHOA (7D) and wrote in "aWed" for "big-eyed in a way." Thank you, OGDEN Nash (one of my faves) for getting me to OWLY -- which I don't like very much. I like AWED much more. Also had to wait to see if it would be SOLAR, LUNAR or TOTAL ECLIPSE. Not terribly hard for a Friday -- but very engrossing, I thought. Liked it.
@Nancy I knew him for mystery writing... And reportedly of his only 4 adult novels between 1957 and 1982, two were mysteries. A collection Asimov's Mysteries was published in '68 and he was often in mystery magazines. But of course with his output one could make the case for any genre. From Wikipedia: Asimov was also a noted mystery author and a frequent contributor to Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. He began by writing science fiction mysteries such as his Wendell Urth stories, but soon moved on to writing "pure" mysteries. He published two full-length mystery novels, and wrote 66 stories about the Black Widowers, a group of men who met monthly for dinner, conversation, and a puzzle. He got the idea for the Widowers from his own association in a stag group called the Trap Door Spiders, and all of the main characters (with the exception of the waiter, Henry, who he admitted resembled Wodehouse's Jeeves) were modeled after his closest friends.
@Nancy For a time in my youth, I read everything I could by Asimov: science fiction, but especially science fact. I just loved reading his accounts of scientific discovery and writings about the universe. In fact, I didn't read him--I studied him. In fact, I think he's a large reason I went into science in the first place. But I won't hold that against him.
@Nancy I liked it too. If it were a lunar eclipse we wouldn't need eclipse glasses though!
I'm pretty sure there are going to be some crusty comments about how easy the puzzle is, despite there being some clues that are not what they seemed to be, but I'm fine with it. It was interesting and often funny, and I would have been happier if it had been a little more of each, but not every Friday needs to make us tear our hair out. I'm a fan of both Almodovar and Ford, so they were easy fills, and names I didn't know I got with the crosses (had to google to confirm that I didn't have a bad RAPP), but there were a lot of names. Should we anticipate a puzzle in the near future that will be all proper names, with maybe a couple of Oreos and urns for glue? James, I don't mean to be mean—you construct the puzzle, but the editors choose the day—and you did your part commendably. I think we were just expecting it to be tougher. Thank you, and come again soon.
@dutchiris I took another look at the puzzle, and there really weren't all that many names names names! Maybe I've just developed an allergic reaction to clues about famous people I never heard of before.
The Hydra was not a sea monster. It was found (legendarily) at Lerna in the Peloponnesus, in a swamp. There is a sea creature, not monstrous, called hydra after the monster, with its multi-headed appearance.
@John Well, I’d agree, except that the clue doesn’t specify that we’re looking for the eponymous Hydra from Greek mythology. You are correct: Greek myth lacks a canonical sea serpent figure akin to, say, Norse mythology (hello, Midgard Serpent). Hydra of Lerna is a singular, chthonic, freshwater monster—deadly but definitively non-marine. Her name (ὕδρα) is etymologically related to “water” (ὕδωρ), but functionally a proper noun. There’s no plural or generic use in Classical Greek—to Euripides, Pindar, et al., Hydra is the Hydra. Even as late as the 2nd c. CE Bibliotheca, Pseudo-Apollodorus summarizes very matter-of-factly how Heracles dispatches her: monster, marsh, many heads, cauterized stumps. But then from Late Antiquity into the Middle Ages there’s a semantic shift. If you look at the Hydra in Aberdeen or Cambridge bestiaries, Christian morality seeps into the text and the Hydra is now more allegorical. Also, the illustrations start placing her in a marine setting. The serpent imagery is absorbed into Christian theology: serpent = Satan; multiple heads = persistent sin; water = baptismal or apocalyptic terrain. Now “hydra” officially breaks free of the Greek marsh and starts moonlighting as a generalized sea monster/symbol of sin. The texts are now less interested in mythic canon and more in moral allegory—fertile ground for semantic creep. Fast forward a few more centuries and today hydra (lower-case h) is indeed a [sea serpent of myth]. (Just not Greek myth.)
@John I'm glad I am not the only one who was peeved by this.
"Though an host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear: though war should rise against me, in this will I be confident." Psalm 27 3, KJV.
A solid, steady Friday puzzle. I really enjoyed it, though OWLY gets a side-eye from me...
HARRISON FORD and Pedro ALMODOVAR in the same puzzle? Be still my beating heart. And it's nice to see so many others familiar with Pedro's work. And for those of you whose spidey sense was tingling when filling in BALLOON ANIMAL, it was just last Friday that we had BALLOON dog.
@Vaer "HARRISON FORD and Pedro ALMODOVAR in the same puzzle?" To quote my spirit animal/person, Mr. Peanutbutter of Bojack Horseman: What is this, a crossover episode?
@Andrzej "Tie Me Up, Blade Runner!"
@Andrzej A fellow Bojack fan! But now I'm concerned about you and your relationship to Mr. Peanutbutter. I'm sure you're aware that people who seem happy are often the most depressed. If you need help, we're there for you.
workAHEAD before READAHEAD rioT before HOOT Era before EON AonE (A-onE) before ACME DarnS before DRATS Misplaced confidence in the first guess does tend to slow one down.
@Grumpy I made the exact same missteps as you, with one apparent advantage: I lack any confidence whatsoever in my guesses and am quick to abandon them when challenged.
TIL that we Americans have ruined another word: Accouterment is an accepted spelling.
@McX Yes, when I saw that I had to check the dictionary as I’d not seen the “er” spelling before. Sad. Mark
@McX If you check the OED, you might be relieved to see this spelling is centuries-old
@McX I was also surprised to see that. If you think the alternate spelling is off, check out the alternate pronunciations. I'm not one to rail against language change, but this is one of those borrowed French words that only sounds right to me with something close to the original pronunciation. It can be risky trying to throw some of these words into conversation if you've mostly only seen them in print. My brother-in-law used this word recently, and his pronunciation made me wonder. I think it was close to one of the M-W versions, but it sounded weird to me. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accoutrement" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/accoutrement</a>
A quick solve for me, but as I was completing it, I anticipated there would be trouble for some international solvers. I'm betting that later on there will be complaints about PISH. For what it's worth: <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pish" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pish</a> I've loved ALMODOVAR for decades. My husband and I watched his most recent and first English language film, "The Room Next Door," a few weeks ago. Tilda Swinton, Julianne Moore, and John Turturro are excellent in it. Highly recommended, but be forewarned that the subject matter is pretty heavy. I won't say more. Leaving for our road trip on Saturday, and now I'll be sure to add Bon IVER to my list of albums to listen to during the many hours of driving. Bon Iver was a gimme for me, despite the fact that I've never actually listened to them. (At least, not knowingly.) Fun to see HAI and BENIHANA on opposite sides of the same puzzle.
@Beth in Greenbelt Almodovar? Heavy? Surely not! 🤣
@Beth in Greenbelt Complaints about pish? Pish-posh.
@Beth in Greenbelt PISH probably wouldn’t be used in the uk, say, in a job interview or in the classroom. Yesterday we had ‘knackered’ for tired in Strands. Viewed as vulgar or rude by some. Links to knackers - how to put it politely - men’s bits. Same in US?
@Beth in Greenbelt Where I come from, PISH is a minced version of a word meaning to urinate.
@Beth in Greenbelt I used to be a big fan of ALMODOVAR, and then I started to grow tired of him (around the time that "Volver" came out). But then I saw "Pain and Glory" and fell back in love with him. Great movie!
@Heidi Thanks for triggering a memory of "Mary Poppins." That movie always brings a smile to my face. (I don't care what anyone thinks of Dick Van Dyke's accent!)
With a Natick at 26D/A, random phrases (at least one of which could have been clued so many other ways) and far too many entertainment references, pop song lyrics, models, restaurant chains and tech references, this was more like an ad page than a puzzle. As to complaints about proper nouns, as I've said before, to me it's not proper nouns in and of themselves, it's the quality of them. Names of capitals, countries, rivers, famous historical figures, literary characters, fine. Those things are worth knowing. Others are just clutter. On top of all that, this was quite easy even with the numerous things I didn't know and didn't care about. I realize it's just a puzzle and should be fun, but to me this type is just tedious. Strictly my own opinion.
@Teresa At least four of the Naticks are human beings, not “just clutter.”
@Teresa Perhaps it's a problem for you because you're living in Berlin, but I think 26D is a major gimme for a huge chunk of the solving population. Breaking Bad was a major hit series from 2008 to 2013, and the anti-hero WALTer White was as well known to the generation that watched the show as Lucy and Ricky was to its generation. I never even watched an episode of Breaking Bad, and I knew who the character was, his existence has so permeated the collective zeitgeist. I think that if you can't--or won't--keep up with current cultural references, you'll just keep getting mad at the puzzle. Current and recent cultural references have always been part of the puzzle, and will always continue to be. Alek WEK is a well-known model whose time in the spotlight mainly was around the turn of the millennium, but probably never as widely known as WALT.
Teresa, 26D/A might be a Natick for solvers in Germany; in the USA it would hard to not have at least heard of WALT (I never watched the show; I knew WALT). Sorry you're not a fan of Casual Friday.
@Teresa One solver's "clutter" is another's gimme, and what's worth knowing to one person is another's trivia. It depends on your background and interests. As people say around here, "Your mileage may vary."
The solvers who knew the cultural references found it too easy and the solvers who didn’t found it too hard. Count me among the former. Fun and breezy puzzle. Renee Rapp is a powerhouse performer and super fun to think about. Here she is in her first number from Mean Girls from the movie, though she also played the role on Broadway: <a href="https://youtu.be/D6GENmNRuhQ?si=61FNbc26vwEudqTf" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/D6GENmNRuhQ?si=61FNbc26vwEudqTf</a> To Deb’s question: I feel like there are a HOST of cryptic crosswords tricks that I don’t know. You columnists often explain the ? for the newbs, and there is the ! which means to take the clue literally, e.g. in “It’s a blast!” is not something fun but rather a word that means blast. And the thing is that I think there are other, rarer, more esoteric tricks like that. I would enjoy learning about more of those. Thanks for asking!
Nice puzzle - typical tough Friday for me, but enjoyable working things out from the crosses. And... six debut answers in this one and most of them fairly familiar terms. Surprised to see that. Oh.. and some of those: READAHEAD RACECARDRIVER GETTINGCLOSER And.. even SOLARECLIPSE had never appeared in a Shortz era puzzle before. Surprised at all of that. I'll put my puzzle find in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As promised: a Monday from December 28, 2020 by Alan Massengill and Andrea Carla Michaels. Four fifteen letter theme answers in that one, but... all of them were down answers, placed synchronously. Those answers, all straightforwardly clued; ACMECORPORATION PEAKPERFORMANCE HEIGHTOFFASHION TOPOFTHEMORNING Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/28/2020&g=3&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/28/2020&g=3&d=D</a> ...
Since SL has effectively parsed away the mythological Hydra, I was hoping CQ might chime in on hydras--the non-mythological genus of cute little Cnidarian critters which, like their namesake, are fresh-water, can regenerate severed body parts, and are (perhaps) immortal. I say "cute little," but a quick glance at the wikipedia entry on hydras informs me they are carnivorous, and, without mentioning exactly what sort of flesh they dine upon, describes their feeding habits in such monstrous detail that it makes me glad that I am not small enough to be on the menu!
Regardless of how long it took me to solve the puzzle, i had a great time. It’s a bonus when its a new PB! Thanks to the constructor, looking forward to many more!
I really enjoyed today's puzzle and was very proud to crush my best Saturday crossword time. Realizing today is Friday was a bit of a let down. I think I'll go back to bed now, it's only 4:40am here.
Looks like I'm not alone in getting a PB today. Most of the long answers came easily and the trivia was in my wheelhouse. I kept thinking I'd reach a section that would stop me in my tracks for a while like usual, but it never happened. Just a slight delay to get the B in ABA. Funny how hip hop lyrics sometimes help me with the crossword. They are often dense with pop culture references. This one from the song "Putting Shame in Your Game" helped today: I'm the Benihana chef on the SP12 I chop the f out the beats left on the shelf (FYI, The SP12 is a drum machine/sampler, and "chop" means to mix beats.)
In contrast to many of today’s solvers, I found this one to be a challenge. I was almost 29 minutes over my average time. Having said that, I found it to be a very enjoyable. Lots of good clues and misdirects and nothing that I would say is unfair. Good puzzle!
@Wayne Harrison Why do I seem to fly through some of the "difficult" ones and get absolutely blocked on many of the "easier" ones? The NYT CW some days makes me feel like a genius, only to take it all back the next day and stick me in the corner with a dunce cap. "The Crossword giveth, and the Crossword taketh away"
Natick hell, but there weren't many options. Weird combo -- lots of obscure proper names but not a terribly difficult puzzle overall.