I’m not sure why this community seems to gripe so much when a day’s puzzles vary in difficulty from week to week. There’s no objective metric by which to measure difficulty as perceived by every solver, and even if there were, there isn’t always going to be a puzzle available to run that hits that imaginary target. Just solve the puzzle, man! I thought this one was fun and lively, personally.
@Mos Bravo! 'Just enjoy the puzzle' is exactly the point. Can't really fathom how some feel the urge to gripe about a crossword puzzle not taking them enough minutes to solve. And yeah btw this was a very enjoyable puzzle.
@Mos One SUBjective metric is the presumed array of editors and beta testers who get to try out the puzzles before we do. Their entire purpose is to work towards a fair and "good" puzzle that also represents the paper's oft proclaimed standards for that day of the week. Another formal metric is the ratings compiled at places like XWStats. And another metric is the very forum responses you're talking about. Sure, one's mileage may vary, but rating difficulty is not an unknowable! The NYT clearly aims for a progression during the weekdays, and it's a little frustrating when those attempts falter...
@Mos, You were in the puzzle today!!😄
@Mos I always give a little grace on Fridays. It’s nice to have a clever themeless Friday and a tough themeless Saturday. They can’t really place a themeless puzzle that’s more clever than hard on a different day.
@Mos years ago, IMO, it used to be a geometric curve. On a scale of 0 to 10, Monday was under a one. Tuesday a 1. Wednesday a 2. Thursday was a 4-1/2. Friday a seven. Saturday a 10. I get both sides in this long, running argument. The fact remains, Friday and Saturday puzzles used to be generally harder than they are now. I’ve seen many conversations about the whys and wherefores. People are going to have their opinions.
@Mos thank you!! The endless gripping over whether each crossword meets an arbitrary standard of difficulty is wild to me. Enjoy the crossword! It’s like some angry manifestation of consumer entitlement that is preventing people from just relaxing and thrilling in the lovely unpredictability and discovery of an unsolved crossword puzzle. It’s also—to me—the least interesting form of engagement and critique, which has eroded some of the joy of this forum.
I love Vidalias. They're onion a million. (These puns have layers.)
@Mike Next thing we know you'll start singing and suddenly emerge as a rapscallion.
@Mike I enjoy your puns shallot.
@Mike This was a light bulb moment, thanks!
@Mike May have to root out this odiferous word play.
Mike, You are perhaps the greatest pun wit chive ever seen.
@Mike Allium saying is, I love onions, too.
@Mike "Dat pun fittin ta leek all over." (No chive, blood.)
Very enjoyable! Excellent clues! (Those who routinely complain about Friday or Saturday puzzles being too easy might try solving blindfolded or while balancing an egg on their nose. Just a suggestion.)
@DQ Those would be good dexterity tests. But I always try to do the puzzle unidirectionally - i.e., no crossings. Sometimes, it's all acrosses, sometimes only downs. I rarely complete the puzzle this way but it certainly raises the challenge.
@Francis @SBK You might enjoy this piece: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/opinion/i-love-new-york-except-for-the-yankees.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/09/opinion/i-love-new-york-except-for-the-yankees.html</a>
Maybe “easy” for you. A good challenge for me! Happy I finished it.
Hi all. I've been away from Wordplay for quite a while because of terrible computer problems and the fact that I become fatigued very quickly Barry A. sent me a couple of posts from yesterday's puzzle and inspired me to come and visit. He Leapy, Barry, Bessarabia. Also MOL and all the rest of the regulars, and the newbies too. Of late I've been having trouble with some puzzles because they seem to be in some very hip language. Of couse, I've never been able to remember what letter belongs to what gen. I'm a pre-boomer, age 83, and maybe I should try to keep up with the young'uns. Or not. Anyway, glad to see that most Wordplayers are sticking with it. I'll be back again soon.
@Deadline Oh! So very very happy to see you back again! Hope you'll be back again soon. ....
Hi Deadline, It's a bit late in the comment day. If I remember, I'll post a link to your post tonight as the Saturday comments open. Barry
@Deadline It is very nice to see you here.
@Deadline @Barry Ancona Great to see your comments here again. It's been a while, and I'm not the most regular commenter these days. Barry, I'm glad you made the post on Saturday's puzzle, I would have been sorry to miss this, thanks.
I see a lot of solvers were tripped by drum roll/drum solo. As a huge Beatles fan, and a former drummer, That was a gimme for me. That drum solo was the only drum solo Ringo ever had with the Beatles.
@Doug Is that right? Ringo had only that one solo? Wow!
@Doug I had no clue about the Beatles's song/piece, but as a Band member in HS, I got that entry off the R. Can't really explain it. I only paid attention to the very early Beatles' career... I only questioned it briefly because OATS on a parfait? (Which I only think of as a dessert)....
@Doug "Rain" was such a great opportunity for Ringo to show off his chops. How awesome it would have been had they also included a drum solo!
I suspect many will find this one a little easy for a Friday, and I think I'd probably go along with that, although it took me a while to find enough answers to start to fill out sections. Still, all in all, I'd say I was much more challenged yesterday that today. I enjoyed 54A, and I think it's a sign that the NYT, which was once too staid to publish pictures or drawings, is loosening up in a major way. The BARTRIVIA clue was exceptional. I'm glad ENRON was clued as it was, as I took great delight in their demise. Especially after they'd gamed energy prices by causing brown outs in California. They were, I think, a canary in the coal mine concerning business malfeasance. Did any of them go to jail? Wait, of course not. What was I thinking? In most puzzles there's one that I get that I have no business getting. Tonight it was PLINTH. I think I only had the H when I filled it in, and I have no idea where it came from. I guess I'm a SIGMA male. I don't know how to feel about that.
@Francis - Same experience here with PLINTH! It kind of fell out of my head. Love the feeling when that happens! The brain is mysterious. (p.s. I always enjoy your comments! Thanks for that.)
@Francis Also mysterious — no kidding, my son made us SCALLION pancakes to go with my husband’s broccoli beef tonight. (Did not know the proper name ‘Cong you bing’ until now.) Closed my puzzle by helpfully drowning out the nightly military chopper annoyance with that Beatles’ DRUMSOLO. Signing off from beautiful, peaceful but Occupied Portland.
@Francis I enjoyed today’s puzzle so I know it will be too easy for others. I do not welcome 54A, as I’m old-fashioned and think it’s nice for some places to remain clean. For the record, Enron’s CEO Jeff Skilling served 12 years for fraud and conspiracy and former CFO Andrew Fastow was sentenced to six years for his role in the company’s collapse. Enron founder Ken Lay was convicted of fraud and conspiracy but he died before his sentencing hearing.
@Francis I'm on the other side on 54A and other cuss words. It is completely inevitable that we are on a downward slope here, with more intense obscenities crossing the border into normal use. Like Bartleby, I prefer not to. This solve just shows the constructor's paucity of vocabulary. And, in reply to the inevitable retort, yes, I have constructed crosswords.
@Francis Dude, that bar trivia clue is such a gem 🤌
Highlights: • Playful cross of PEEKABOO and ALAKAZAM. • Lovely answers PLINTH and RARE BIRD. • TEAM of NFLTEAM abutting TEAM of TEAMO. • [Something you might have when trying to move quickly] for FIRE SALE. Mwah! • FLAME touching corners with FIRE. This was a Reconstruction Solve for me, where I put in many answers that ended up being replaced. LAYUP before TAPIN. NUTS before OATS. RARE SOUL before RARE BIRD (which is much better). PRIM before GRIM. WENT IN before FELT OK for [Was no longer under the weather]. Fixing these entailed much riddle-cracking, and brought much satisfaction. Thus, satisfaction and spark in the box today, simply a splendid outing. Thank you, Colin!
You should have gone with “between grave and adagio” for the tempo clue. The answer is generally not faster than lento and is often considered “slower” in that it is more drawn out and broad when used than lento so conductors I’ve played under tend to go nearer to 40bpm for largo and 50-55 for lento on average (but the bmp is essentially the same, 40-60, one basically meaning slow, the other broad), so… yeah, hiccup that makes me think you only checked one source that doesn’t align with music textbooks. Sigma is completely new to me. It didn’t sound like an alpha, but that was the only thing I could think of in that context.
Fun puzzle! I am compelled to correct the constructor, though, who wrote their work was “nerve-racking”. This has become a common error, but it’s “nerve wracking”. Racking and hyphenating are wrong, they wreck my nerves.
@PFox (the P is silent) Now if only we could get rid of "heart-rendering". Yeesh.
@PFox (the P is silent) First things first: If it were used as a participial phrase, i.e., an experience racking the nerves, then it’d be written sans the hyphen. But we have, “[re-gridding] was a bit nerve-racking,” where ‘nerve-racking’ is a compound adjective modifying ‘it’ (re-gridding), the subject. As to rack vs. wrack: These two verbs have been etymologically and semantically entangled almost since their inception, to the point that English can’t cleanly separate them anymore. Rack descends from Old English reccean, to stretch out. Think of the medieval rack—the kind of stretching that was done in the Tower of London. Wrack comes from OE wræc, punishment, misery. As the consonant cluster ‘wr’ reduces to just ‘r’ as Middle English evolves, however, by Chaucer’s time, wrack sounds the same as rack, although the orthography has fossilized. The meanings of the two words start intertwining in spoken English, and wrack also becomes a verb meaning to ruin, destroy, rip apart. And don’t get me started on wreck and wreak which also enter ME from OE wræc—sort of… There are contemporary similar, but not identical, meanings of the these words entering ME at the same time from Old Norse and Old Dutch, having evolved from the same Proto-Germanic root but under different circumstances. Good Freyya, I love medieval England (et insulae). Hopefully I get to finish this in the next comment. Running out of space AND my husband is getting off the freeway…
So glad YINZER didn't make it. Yes, we know you're a US publication. But there's a limit to what your international readership should have to tolerate 😉
@Ged I had to look that one up. Yinzer??? There’s a limit to what the US readership should have to tolerate, too.
@Ged When I was a kid in Pueblo, Colorado, I'd occasionally hear the word "bojohn" which seemed to correlate with Eastern European ancestery. That makes me a bojohn. But I hadn't heard it in a long time, and I googled it and found that the usage *was particular* to my very town of Pueblo. Didn't really exist elsewhere.
Deep sigh. Language is a living thing. That puzzle was over so fast, but wait . . . today my hub commented on my slow but steady recovery from a knee injury, "Well, we're not Spring chickens anymore..." Could you hear my squawk of disbelief from your comfy armchair? My feathers had just settled into mild indignation when the unavoidable answer to 54A was encountered. Might have a new contendor to boot OREO off the throne of misery - if I tyoe it here, this post will be eaten by emys, but yoy know it as the end, the rear, the tail - anotheri cutesy cuss word crawling into the crosswords. So, 1 out of 10 words on social media is a cuss word. Advertisers say curse words are "daring" "innovative" "fun" and "timely" Guess I'll have to grit my teeth, and walk on by when the cheery greeter at the big box store tells me to have a nice blankity-blank day. Apologies - my Senior moment, and my dang @#$!* knee ain't working right. 😉
@Whoa Nellie Of course, you're right. But... Just now, don't we have serious need of these terms? Elegant ripostes just don't have enough....punch. Eh?
I can always count on this forum to make me feel like an imbecile. I solved it, but I did not breeze through it. And for what it’s worth, I thought it landed right where it belongs. TGIF.
@Heidi Please don't! We all solve at our own rates. A solve is a solve.
@Heidi I am sorry you feel this way. I’ve had similar feelings. The community here unfortunately has a toxicity problem and a few too many commenters whose only joy in their day seems to be punching down on people on the internet. Don’t let it get you down though. Some days things click and some days they don’t. Honestly, I’m taking a break from these games as I find them a bit tired and the discussions irksome. If you want to take a break too, that’s totally valid. Remember that this is meant to be fun, and if you’re not having fun, then just don’t do it. :)
@Heidi I didn’t breeze through it either. Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays always take longer for me and are always more puzzling And as I commented to Amy, who also responded to you, I try to remember that the puzzle on any given day is really only a puzzle, only a game. Not worth getting your knickers in a twist about. Also wanted you to know that I love your name. I have a sister named Heidi (and a sister named Amy). Cue song “It’s a small world . . .” 🎶🎵
@Heidi Don't let the annoying "too easy" commenters get you down. Among video gamers the ones who complain the most about games being too easy are a toxic yet vocal minority, who are best ignored - I'd say to some extent that applies to crossword solvers, too. Dealing with these grids is about having similar thought patterns to the constructor (being on their wavelength) *and* knowing the day's trivia. Sometimes the complex, experienced, knowledgeable people we are simply don't sync with a puzzle and its creator. And it's fine. I wouldn't have been able to complete this puzzle without several lookups, and I generally struggled with it. Ditto my wife, who is the smartest person I know (this is not an exaggeration). Btw. For most of my life I only knew the name Heidi from the Alpine story. I always liked the look and sound of it. I invariably smile when I see it by your posts on the board.
@Heidi FWIW I didn’t breeze through it either, but enjoyed it all the same!
Uh oh, 37-Across is a fail. Though it's not 100% defined, LARGO is generally considered the slowest tempo in music, slower than Lento.
@joel88s Ok I was curious, so <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Approximately_from_the_slowest_to_the_fastest" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempo#Approximately_from_the_slowest_to_the_fastest</a> My goodness this is confusing! How do musicians ever know??
Was this puzzle "Easy for a Friday?" I found it so. Many people also found it so. Some people did not. Global Stats Difficulty Easy Median Solve Time 11:41 Median Solver 24% faster ⚡87% of users solved faster than their Friday average. 58% solved much faster (>20%) than their Friday average. 🐢13% of users solved slower than their Friday average. 4% solved much slower (>20%) than their Friday average. My beef? The "Newspaper Version" PDF link was to the Thursday puzzle, so I had to print the regular PDF. Glad I didn't miss any italics or graphics. First world problem.
TIL that French fry and ONION RING have the same number of letters
idk what it is about Fridays but I really love them!!! its like you think you don't know anything and then suddenly everything clicks into place!
Concerning Fridays: reading today's comments here just got me remembering my first successful Friday puzzle! I was working on a presidential campaign 20 some years ago. A fellow volunteer and I were sent to do some errands. He drove and I navigated. Someone in the office must've had the Times and I grabbed the crossword. We did not know each other. He had just started doing the crosswords. Together we managed to complete the Friday crossword. A fun memory. Wish I had saved that puzzle. Have a good day everybody and thanks for a fun puzzle today.
Mary, Do you think you recognize the puzzle today? Take a look in the archive!
Very easy but FABULOUS clues. Such a fun, fizzy treat. Thanks!
Puzzle find today - don't recall another like this. A Sunday from October 29, 2017 by Ross Trudeau with the title "Going off script." Some theme clues and answers: 22a: "The Lion King" HAKUNAMATATA 24a: "Pool divider, or a further hint to 22-Across" LANELINE 42a: "Jerry Maguire" SHOWMETHEMONEY 59a: "Carnival, say, or a further hint to 42-Across" CRUISELINE 76a: "The Force Awakens" CHEWIEWEREHOME 99a: "F-150s or Thunderbirds, or a further hint to 76-Across" FORDLINE 101a: "The Dark Knight" WHYSOSERIOUS 61a: "Musical score marking, or a further hint to 101-Across" LEDGERLINE Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/29/2017&g=20&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/29/2017&g=20&d=A</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta I don’t understand. Why post an older crossword here, seemingly encouraging others to try, but then include spoilers for all the best theme entries?
@Rich in Atlanta What @Nancy J said! (Also what @MOL said.) I am always interested in your take on puzzles: the connections you find, the "seed" words from the current day's puzzle that inspire you and get you searching, and the "curated" dips into the archive as a result. My methodology for your posts, fwiw: I read the first bit. I read your personal stories when you include them, such as memories of your time serving our country: really appreciate those! If any given puzzle find is (a) from the 21st century, and (b) seems intriguing to me, I stop reading the answers as soon as I have a sense if the puzzle might appeal to me. I then *go* to that puzzle in the archive and fill in an easy answer or two, just enough so it shows "in progress". Then I put it away for later, when my gray cells certainly will not recall any details! Thank you for sharing your finds with us!
I would also like to know what is the idea behind posting other non-related(?) puzzles here. @Why posed a valid question…
@Rich in Atlanta I always enjoy your posts. Most of all, I enjoy the joy you find in these fun clues. Thank you for sharing. I have A LOT of archives to work through!
@Rich in Atlanta Yay! I love your posts, and have absolutely zero expectation of remembering any of them when I come across the puzzle in the archive. Heck, I was once 8 puzzles into a Sunday Omnibus when I realized I had already been through that one. 🤣
I started the puzzle tonight to get a head start on the second most difficult of the week. Before I knew it, I had finished in record time! Was this a Tuesday puzzle misplaced on a Friday?? ⭐️
Fine, but felt a little light for its day. I was going to observe that it didn't suffer from overused fill, but then I realized it had eves and Incas and Adele and LSU and I Lost, all of which have seen an awful lot of appearances recently. So, it was fine. (I still don't like seeing a-- in the puzzle, but my ascot is askew.)
One day last week I was stuck on a puzzle everyone else found easy and it took me way longer than usual. It's nice to be with the crowd today; I found this one smooth and quick. But for those of you who didn't, I know that feeling well. I suspect a lot of others here do, too. The difference is that those days and those puzzles no longer make me feel like an intellectual inferior. Well, maybe for no more than a few moments.
@Lynn ditto on last week--I had at least two puzzles that everyone else found easy that just killed me. Got today in 12 seconds over average.
One of those themeless Friday puzzles where I just felt in a mind meld with the constructor. Hummed right along, delighted by the word play and misdirections in the clues.
Great fill, fantastic clueing. I would have loved, loved, *loved* this puzzle on a Wednesday.
@Sam Lyons Agree 100%, and possibly a Tuesday.
@Sam Lyons Same here. Good puzzle but in my view not challenging enough for a Friday.
@Sam Lyons I solved this one close to my average Friday time. But I started on the phone in a cafe and finished on my computer so that might account for some of the difference. It felt a little easy for a Friday. According to XWstats most folks finished faster than average.
Fun puzzle! Quick but not necessarily easy.
My first Friday with no autocheck, in a nice time of 22:22! Though this probably says more about this puzzle’s accessibility than my skill. Also appreciate the punny clues strewn across the grid. Now SCALLIONS and ONIONRING have got me thinking about lunch. :)
I wish this had been a Sunday-sized puzzle so I could have savored it longer. So much fun to solve, with so many tiny trip-ups that slowed me down. Anyone else have Cal(endar) instead of MOS for 12 pgs? And I don't know how it happened that I decided ENRON was wrong and maybe the stock was Apple, which did do a couple of tanks in the 2000's. (Why didn't I buy!!? Oh right, no spare cash.) I asked a guy I knew who made a living off the stock market if he took a hit in the Enron debacle, and he said no, he never bought it. Asked him why. He said it didn't look to him like they produced anything. Well duh! Thank you Colin. The pleasure was all mine.
@Vito I’m so addicted, I wish every day could be a Sunday-size puzzle.
I would have found this a pleasant enough puzzle were it not for the trivia-infested SE corner. I needed several lookups there.
I did this whole puzzle thinking it was the Thursday puzzle. I kept thinking this really feels more like a Friday puzzle. Nice construction and an enjoyable solve.
Tricky Tricky Tricky...the clues, I mean. Fun from bottom to top (my preferred sequence)!! I did not realize that LSU had a LIVE TIGER. Yikes. I thought 12 pgs. Might equal a VOLume...Tsk. ANT FARM (shudder)....too soon! I still have post-sting lesions thanks to the "Native Black Fire Ants." So.....Colin and other Constructors are allowed the Big No-No in 54A, but mere Solvers will be BOOED and SILENCEd if *we* use it. I was popular as a BLOOD DONOR (B+) but one messy draw took weeks to heal, and my enthusiasm was definitely curbed. If it had been at an MD's office, I would have stopped the tech after the third try, but for some reason it seemed wrong to "fire" a Red Cross person... BOO. Hope to see more from Colin Adams!!
@Mean Old Lady Those of us blessed with the B+ blood type have an advantage over all other blood types. We get to use that advantage when things around us seem to fall apart or be influenced by naysayers among us. We get to rise each morning, breathe deeply, and say "Be positive." 😉
@Tom Despite being O(h so) negative, I'm quite popular with the donation centers.
Thanks, Colin Adams. Really enjoyed this one. I got TENET partly from crosses and because I knew it was a palindrome. Had never heard of the movie, but started looking online for a way I could stream it, as it sounds interesting and features some actors I like. No luck finding how to watch it. Guess I’ll have to ask one of my teenage grandsons to help me. 😝👵🤷🫤 Suggestions from the group are welcome. (About streaming the movie, not about my sometimes incorrect use of emojis. We are all doing our best, I’m sure.)
@Shari Coats I knew TENET as a title because a friend of mine is a fan of Nolan's work and can't shut up about it 🤪. I can't stand any of it. I find it pretentious slop being sold as intelectual masterpieces. I suggest you don't stream it 🤣
@Shari Coats Your emojis are perfect 😊 I couldn't find it streaming on any platforms, but looks like you can rent it online for $3.99. I saw it in the theater, and without spoiling, I'll just say it's a mind bender! I was lost! But if you do watch it, please return and report on what you thought!
@Shari Coats Lucky for me, Tenet is my favorite Christopher Nolan movie!
I would just like to say, as one about to celebrate an 80th birthday, that I am fine with 54A and am claiming it after finishing this puzzle at 20% off my Friday average and with no helps. Yes, it is no doubt at least ATAD easier than usual. But I had to struggle on the SE, so don't rain on my parade. BTW grateful for so far not needing either 55A's. A sound digestion is a big blessing. is this being a GEEZER or a FOGY?
RozzieGrandma, It is being a RARE BIRD, if not a CELEB!
Nah, it's just that you're so SIGMA! Har!! Eric Houghland kindly posted a link to modern usage of it, or I'd have never known!😊
@RozzieGrandma Just FYI - EIGHTY has been a part of 26 answers in NYT puzzles, including... NINETEENEIGHTYFOUR and...19EIGHTYFOUR. And just a side note - My age has mostly been clued with "TROMBONES," though it once was clued, along with JULYFOURTH, in reference to the Declaration of Independence. ....
Nice grid, some good cluing, good attempt to make some clues different to ones we've seen many times before. The clue for BARTRIVIA was great. But this was far too easy for a Friday. Editing team needs to do better. 6/10
@George You need to do worse!
About to post how easy this was (felt like a Tuesday) but the first comment I see is "felt like a Saturday for me." Funny how that works.
@Jake I enjoyed this Friday puzzle. Of course, I had to cheat, seven 'half-cheats' (easy mode clues) and three full cheats. But it seems the Friday and Thursday puzzle (which required seventeen cheats) were switched. (And of course, if I enjoy a puzzle, some one, maybe lots of people are going to say "it's too easy". C'est la vie.)
This was such a fun puzzle! Thanks, Colin! Y’all have a wonderful Friday!
A nice crunchy Friday. Had to revisit a couple of times to finish. Not easy (as I read some found) but not the hardest. The sports terms/teams and product names held me up a tad, but fun overall.
@Helen Wright Great day outside today, free of humidity, lake levels still down and a Towhee has our full attention. My wife's hummingbirds are becoming scarce, probably heading to Peru, or somewhere. The loons should be making their way down here within the next few weeks for their winter holidays. The entire west coast of this grid stumped me. I did what Deb Amlen suggested and squinted to find a hint... nothing. Someone earlier posted about a llama that guards her chickens. That got a grin out of me 🙂 B+!
Did anyone else notice that CROSSWORD fits 49A as well?
Thank you, Colin, for a very sweet Friday crossword. I enjoyed every bit of it and completed this puzzle in my best Friday time while still learning new facts that far exceeded BAR TRIVIA! Happy start of the weekend to all!
Who puts oats on a parfait?!?
@Lisa M I see it any time a parfait is on the menu at a cafe, is it a regional thing?
Lisa, Quite a few people, but usually on only one of the things we in the U.S. call a parfait. In the United States, parfait refers to either the traditional French-style dessert or to a popular variant, the American parfait, made by layering whipped cream, ice cream, sometimes fruit and occasionally liqueurs. It is usually served in a tall clear glass, but can also be served in a short, stubby glass. The clear glass allows the layers of the dessert to be seen. Parfaits can also be made by layering yogurt with granola, nuts or fresh fruits (such as peaches, strawberries, or blueberries). This version is sometimes called a yogurt parfait or fruit parfait. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parfait" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parfait</a>
@Lisa M I 100% agree with you. The clue ought to have specified yogurt parfaits.
@Elizabeth Connors I can’t recall the last time I saw a non-yogurt parfait
One more puzzle find. A Thursday from May 2, 2013 by Josh Knapp. Four theme answers (all with asterisks at the beginning of the clues): WILLBEBLOOD GOESNOTHING COMESTHESUN WASANOLDMAN And.. the reveal: "*Irrelevant ... or what the answers to the five starred clues have?" NEITHERNOR That was different. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/2/2013&g=35&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/2/2013&g=35&d=A</a> ....
this one felt like friday homework. month 10 here and my snootiness is worsening. if a puzzle doesnt take me to another time or dimension or make me snurfly or laugh then im just looking out the window and waiting for tomorrow. can someone explain to me how "We're booked!" yields "ROOMS"? when the front desk says "We're booked!", it means there are NOROOMS. and when a gleeful and relieved traveler gets off the phone/internet machine and proclaims "We're booked!", a common rejoinder from her partner is "ROOMS"? if her partner is a cyborg, maybe. splain me, lucy.
@Matt I interpreted it as the anthropomorphized rooms telling us that "We are booked".
@Matt we refers to rooms… i.e. ROOMS are booked. It wasn’t a quote 😉
@Matt Imagine that it's the rooms that are doing the talking.
@Matt I may have missed your back story, but month 10 where? And why should it affect your snoot level? As for the ROOMS, it is a common crossword clue trick to have inanimate objects describe themselves or announce their activities. E.g., Clue: "Honey, I'm home." Solve: HOUSE
Loved the Beatles reference. I spent some time reading up on and listening to that song before coming back to the puzzle. Earworm firmly dug in.
As an older Gen Z: I could not believe my eyes when I saw that SIGMA clue! I cringed so hard and then couldn't stop laughing thinking about that term being broadcast to this audience. It's almost more of a Gen Alpha thing & they've added more (nonsensical) nuance than just "lone wolf". Definitely sharing this clue with the middle school boys at my club because they'll get a kick out of it. Otherwise I really enjoyed everything about this puzzle!
@Laney Well, as I self-identified below as a sigma male, I anxious to learn what other characteristics I may have unintentionally confessed to? 😀
@Laney As a young Gen-Xer/geriatric Millennial, I've never heard of sigma in this usage. It's so funny to observe how I lose touch with the younger generations. It's probably inevitable, as it has been for millennia...
@Laney I started thinking "incel" but that's not a Greek letter.
@Laney <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sigma-meaning-2025-slang_uk_68dd0758e4b0f3800bcd7cc3" target="_blank">https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sigma-meaning-2025-slang_uk_68dd0758e4b0f3800bcd7cc3</a> Seems pretty nonsensical to me.
@Laney et al With so many five-letter spellings of Greek alphabet letters, I had to wait for some crosses. It's too early in Seattle for me to ask our son, and our daughter is probably already at work, and as for asking my 84-year-old DHubby: hah! Waste of breath. I followed the link, read the article, and feel none the wiser...but fashions in name-calling/insulting change faster than the styles in clothes, so pfft! Having children is signing up to worry for the rest of your life, but one does learn many (unexpected) things, almost all of them more important than "SIGMA".
Im afraid that was more like a Saturday for me. I wonder what tomorrow will bring.
@suejean As always - nice to be in good company. See ya tomorrow. ...
@suejean How'd you do on the "Thursday" puzzle, to me, that one was WAY harder! (We're likely to get a doozy on Saturday, a thirty count cheater?)
Happy Friday! I’m guilty of being an avid participant in 49A, and with a good teammate or 2 (or 3), I can usually 54A. I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, despite not following my hunches on a few clues. Cheers!
I had a little trouble in the NW because I had rewrap for RETAPE (treats that sprain again), which led me to renew for RUNAT (charge) and I thought the inheritance was some kind of lawyer. Then in the SE I let drumroll trick me into erasing LIST and OATS. firerale sounded plausible but I don’t know anyone who puts lats on their parfait lol! Once I reworked that (duh DRUMSOLO!) I got the music and thought “very clever puzzle!”.
@Joya My solve exactly!! Only I had the G, so I thought perhaps [inheritance] had something to do with... gerentology? (Is that even how it's spelled?! My keyboard doesn't seem to think so!) My last fill was the K in PEEKABOO, which in hindsight is an absolutely brilliant clue, but I had no idea for a [Magician's cry] beyond Abracadabra lol. (My nickname with my niece & nephew is Boo, as a result of playing peekaboo with them when they were very young.)
@Joya OATS threw me off and made me change DRUMSOLO... ...are there people who put OATS on a sundae? And is it "common???"
Quite enjoyable, and maybe a little easier than other Fridays, or maybe I'm getting better at Fridays! Regardless, today is my day to volunteer at the 14-Across, so I need to get my butt moving. People are showing up sicker (usually we don't see so many "ill" people; we see patients with heart or limb problems, or other organ issues, strokes, and age-related stuff, but not as much coughing and fevers). So that means flu and covid and RSV seasons have begun. Avoid hugging and shaking hands if you can!
@Marlene For anyone confused by this comment, you mean 14-Down, right?
I did this while enjoying a manicure and pedicure, gussying up for our 20th anniversary trip next week, and I really enjoyed it!! (The puzzle and the of spa experience.) Definitely came in faster than average, but I thought it was a lot of fun with some really amusing clever clues. My favorites were PEEKABOO and BARTRIVIA. Cheers!