12D reminded me of a shirt I saw someone wearing a few weeks ago. It said, with the first line big and the second line smaller: You matter. Unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared. Then, you energy.
@Isabeau I really love that. I would definitely buy if I saw it somewhere like a farmer’s market.
@Isabeau I love that.
@Isabeau <a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dc/8b/89/dc8b89d0917b954603f089eaf5d71d27.png" target="_blank">https://i.pinimg.com/originals/dc/8b/89/dc8b89d0917b954603f089eaf5d71d27.png</a>
@Isabeau That’s fantastic. Going to track that one down online for hubs for Christmas.
@Isabeau We wants one, precious!
@Isabeau one of my daughter's classmates had a t-shirt that said that, and I loved it. Someone in my neighborhood puts encouraging signs outside of their house, and the current one in the rotation is "You matter." Every time I see it, I say to myself "unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared. Then you energy." 😃
I'm almost positive there are some who would describe SCAR/SCAB as a Mauna LOA/KEA, but I'm here to climb on my tiny hobby-horse and say that a SCAB is a sign of healing, while a SCAR is a sign of previous injury. Mmmpff [speaking as a quondam owner]
@Leapfinger I'm with you in the common usage. Though I bet someone could take the perspective that from person to person, injury to injury, physical or emotional, new hip vs scraped knee, there may be a SCAR literally or figuratively that does not yet indicate a completely healed condition.
@Leapfinger A scar is a sign that healing has occurred. Scar tissue is created in the healing process. An injury that never heals will never leave a scar.
I had TAP water at first, because I prefer NO ICE, but that's water under the bridge... Glad it was so easy for y'all, but that center top area was a Baer for me. Charli whaaaa?? Great to see Hemingway and Steinbeck together here. Who was the more seductive and who the terser? For the latter, Hemingway is often credited (though it's unlikely) for authoring the World's Shortest Short Story: For sale: baby shoes, never worn. What happens when our favorite hero undergoes some changes in late middle age? Supermanopause.
@john ezra I am supporting the notion that virtually everyone who knew CHARLIXCX, or at least knew of a name with such impossible letters found this puzzle (too) easy. If you struggled to get it, if you didn't know that name was even in the realm of possibility...not so easy. I more or less by accident got the congratulations screen. I was ready to throw in the towel on this "easy" puzzle.
@john ezra Per Deb, I was on the right wavelength except for the area around 17A. I stared at 5D and 6D until the lightbulb went off on 6D. Then I ran the alphabet on 5D. The other good news is that I now know the names of some songs by 26D so I might recognize her more often.
@Francis CHARLI XCX was a gimme but I got stumped by C__T/B_ER/SNOCA_S. This grid felt like the constructor started with a Monday puzzle but decided to submit it for Friday so they put in proper names and trivia in several places, and crossed them. I really hate such construction, and that's not too strong a word for what I'm feeling towards it.
@john ezra agreed about the water :) I did this puzzle right after yesterday's and felt shocked to see that fill appear!
I've heard of beer pong but finding out beer darts is a thing explains a lot about the state of ... reality. From now on when I read the news, I will remind myself "we are the species who invented beer darts", and life will make more sense.
@Leontion I had similar thoughts. Very familiar with beer pong. Beer darts seems extremely ill-advised to me.
@Leontion better than beer Jarts, I guess. Though I’m sure that exists too.
Beer and projectile story: There’s a small tourist town nearby with an indoor Axe Throwing venue. There, wine and snacks are served, but BYOB is acceptable. How a wine and cheese crowd and axe throwing ever made a match, I’ll never know. Two storefronts down is a very, very popular brewery and drinking establishment with live music. One can only hope that the axe people remember to leave the projectiles from whence they came before returning to the brewery. I avoid both venues. 🫣
@Leontion Sort of sounds like “beer driving”, dangerous to say the least. “Lets get impaired and throw sharp objects” I wouldn’t want to play or be in the vicinity.
For those of you who, either young or old, keeping score for the propositions that "these puzzles are geared to old fuddy duddies" or that "these puzzles have way too much gaming and youth slang".... Solid corner of evidence for the latter: A pop singer name (obviously created to be hopelessly complicated) crossed with an operating system name AND ALSO CROSSED WITH something about some kind of avatar. I, as one geezer, am proud of recently figuring out what an avatar is. I hope to be able to go up in one someday.
@Francis the one advantage of the pop culture references is that they are easy to look up. At least 2 singers in this one, and SNAUSAGE??? I filled in the puzzle and got the 'something wrong' message. I was sure it must be MIIS. But the crosses all worked. I had CONT -- as in continent for America. Once I found SNOCAPS instead of CAnS the CAPT fell into place and I got happy music. I knew Max BAER was something that was really German and needed an umlaut instead of the E, but wasn't sure of O or A.
Who was excited to see MENOPAUSE in a puzzle? MII! Let’s normalize normal.
My fastest Friday but still a very fun puzzle. I don’t understand people who complain about answers they haven’t heard before. That’s how we learn new things.
@Ely Especially the complaint about too much US trivia. Why do a puzzle from a NYC newspaper if the trivia endemic to NYC is an annoyance and not an opportunity? Blah blah global reach blah blah international subscribers blah blah blah. Today I was especially grateful that MIIS was stashed, UNSET, in my brain. Because I sure didn't know CHARLIXCX, but the name seemed possible for a current artist.
@Ely You will never convince me learning the name of a product or brand has any appreciable worth. It changes nothing in my life beyond influencing puzzle solve time (or ability). We could just as well agree that the clue "Smnortfg" solves to GFDRTAYH, and make it part of these grids.
Hottest item in our living room is the new pet bed, sometimes a CAT BED for Wiley, and sometimes a dog bed for Teddy. They each respect the right of the other to occupy it, but when one leaves it, the other scrambles in and hunkers down, squatter’s rights. The drama is tangible. Today is not only the first appearance of MENOPAUSE in the Times, but in any of the major crossword outlets. Huh! Loved seeing side-by-side BAER NUT as well as the contradictory cross of SECRECY and I SEE, not to mention the crossing WICCA CHAIR. A terrific TIL – the sing-song nails-the-meaning ANECDATA, which I thought would be among the DEBUTS, but it actually showed up for the first time in 2023. And a sweet brain ping: Hearing “Volare” in my brain exactly as I heard it from the radio all those many years ago. Lovely mix of old and new in the box. Thank you, Karen, for a splendid outing!
It was nice seeing CAPTain America and SUPERMAN in the same puzzle. Maybe they're here to join forces and save us.
Many really easy areas for me and a few harder ones. I had a double Natick in the upper middle—never heard of Charli XCX, MIIs and couldn’t remember OSX. Figured MIIs might have to do with WIIs and guessed OSX just because there was already an X in her name so why not, and got the happy music. BEERDARTS? I know darts are a fixture at pubs but as a drinking game I think I’m going to stay far away. On the other side living in P&G land TIDEPOD was a gimme, VOLARE was one of my parents’ favorite songs (apparently the lounge singer’s staple after their only cruise) and who can forget SISTERACT? As a Jewish person I know every famous Jewish athlete including Max BAER and the Dreyfuss affair is ingrained on our psyche so JACCUSE was also a gimme. Loved ANECDATA I’m going to remember that. Enough BRAINDUMP from me how did it go for the rest of you?
@SP I'd never heard of BEERDARTS myself. It sounds like the Worst Idea Ever. Liked ANECDATA though. And I loved SISTERACT.
Surprised that MENOPAUSE is making its debut! Feels a worthy addition that many of us know oh too well!!
@Jessica Breakfast test...guess it never occurred to the editors how many of those breakfasts were cooked by women with MxxxPxxxE.
@Jessica I was just now surprised to learn, while watching my local noon news, that tomorrow is World MENOPAUSE Day, as declared by the International Menopause Society.
@Jessica What do you think, they should call the male version of this entity? Guyopause??
A fast and breezy Friday with some interesting fill. Embarrassingly I couldn’t recall either of the British singers without a lot of help from the crosses. As for 30D. Don’t get me started. It may commence in one’s late 40’s, but it goes on for ever. And ever. And ever. If the other half of the human race experienced these symptoms there’d have been a revolution in care and support. Do I sound grumpy? Back off pal, I’m in the MENOPAUSE 😡😡🥵 Perhaps I need more RICE WINE? While listening to RITA ORA’s Radioactive. I’m off to grumble to the Alpacas. Their humming is very soothing, unlike the Shiba’s screaming. (We have builders in, he’s v territorial)
@Helen Wright Isn’t the name sort of confusing? „-pause“ usually denotes something finite, something where there’s a continuation afterwards. But what is the“meno“ that then continues? And the clueing with the word „event“ was also misleading in a similar sense. Wouldn’t „phase“ or something similar be more apt?
@Helen Wright Today's order of business: - Look up alpaca humming - Send Helen a case of RICEWINE - Stay faaaarrrrrr away from Somerset 😋
@Helen Wrights as a Shiba owner, I’ve never thought to offset his screams with the pleasant hum of alpacas! Honestly, they’d probably make him scream more.
What is with all of the puzzle constructors’ obsession with Rita Ora?!
@Julia Right? I now have a habit of cluing RITA ORA whenever a pop song I don't know is mentioned. To this day, I don't think I've never actually heard her work.
@Julia She's the Oreo of pop singers.
This was a weirdly unenjoyable puzzle. Most of the clues were straight out of a Monday or Tuesday, and then there was a spot that had me stumped, but for all the wrong reasons. The tangle of the boxer, a brand of candy and "America, for one, abbr." was just cruel. I went for ConT, thinking of continent. That gave me BoER and SNOWCAnS. None of that looked like gibberish. When I did not get my gold star, that was the first area I checked with Google, and sure enough, yeah, I had made errors. I don't blame myself though as that was a triple natick, to me. I knew the singers and ANNE Applebaum (not only because of her achievements but also, less importantly but memorably for a Polish person, because she's married to our foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, a divisive figure on Poland's political arena). But again, that was more factual knowledge. An overall easy puzzle made difficult in spots not by witty clues but by the inclusion of trivia and proper names - that's what I enjoy least at NYT games. If I were George the Reviewer, just Andrzej-ish, I'd rate this grid 1/10.
@Andrzej On my way to Krakow tomorrow. I thought solving in Central Europe (and on my phone) would make the solve Andrzej-difficult. But today was easy-breezy (for me). And if I thought Polish was tricky, the Magyar language is kicking my butt! Looking forward to visiting the beer garden you recommended.
@Andrzej Agreed. I couldn’t believe how straightforward most of the clues were. I’d’ve finished in Tuesday-like time, had I not blanked for a couple of minutes on OSX (though I’ve had a MacBook for 15 years, yikes), really resisted the idea that anyone could mistake MOSS for algae, kept searching my brain for another synonym for SEXIER because there was no way someone’s last name ended in CX. Like you, I didn’t enjoy it, although I can’t quite put my finger on why. The puzzle just felt clunky to me, and it wasn’t just because I live under a rock and don’t know British pop singers or Nintendo avatars. Oh well, can’t love them all.
@Sam Lyons I was going for a Tuesday-timed solve, scratching my head -Acn this really be this easy?! - but got stumped by proper names and trivia, even though I knew a lot of it. Fridays should be challenging because the clues are smart and the answers interesting. A simplistic puzzle made difficult by pub trivia feels like a huge letdown.
@Andrzej Some days I plod through the xword just for the comments. Go raibh maith agat.
Interesting that this puzzle has appeal across generations. I am old enough to remember VOLARE (which will be my ear worm for today, and I'm not complaining!), watched Sister Act with my kids, saw SCAR on screen (no doubt with SNO CAPS) and stage, am a grandmother with a MII, and though I have heard of CHARLI XCX, I have no idea what kind of music the artist is known for. Now that I think about it, most themeless probably cross generations. This is probably just the first time I noticed it. I truly enjoyed this puzzle; for a change, I won't have to finish it later, when I come home from my shift at the hospital. Meanwhile, Hubby went to the supermarket early this morning and, since flowers were BOGO today, I have two bouquets awaiting my attention. Have a lovely autumnal day, friends!
As a gen-z crossword player, CHARLIXCX and MIIS were the very first solves I got of this puzzle! I love when there are references that I actually understand in a puzzle haha.
@K That's great! I failed those crossings but happy to know they were gimmes for you! The more generations, the better!! ☺️
I’ve been using MACS since they first arrived 40 years ago. And I was alive when Max BAER was still boxing, and learning in school when Geography class imprinted SALEM in my brain. But CHARLIXCX ?? No chance. And crossing that with an electronic game tidbit left me no choice but to run through the alphabet to fill the final square. Shameful, eh?
@Brian Bragg Shameful? Not if you know the square to run the alphabet on. If you have two squares....it's gonna be a while.
@Brian Bragg I knew Max Baer from his son "Jethro." Also, my father, who was born in 1932, loved boxing, so I heard about the boxing Baer from him. Also heard about Jake LaMotta and Sugar Ray Robinson before Raging Bull came out. I miss my sports-loving dad.
Thought I was heading to a new personal best... Felt so easy breezy.... So gentle.... But then I had to come back to the crossing of CHARL??CX with MI?S and OS? Couldn't get it. No idea whatsoever. Tried CHARLes, nope, us, nope. JACCUSE, no prob! SISTERACT, didn't give it a second thought--plopped it right in... MENOPAUSE... really, is it that!? Gotta be! And so on. But no amount of furrowed brows or head scratching was going to get me there with those crosses, short of an act of God, they just weren't in the bingo ball cage that is my brain, so I revealed the last couple squares after my two wrong guesses and here we are. But I feel good about the rest. And I finished it on our suite's balcony while listening to the 80s dance party music below and inhaling every ounce of salty sea air I can. Hey, if you have to go down, not a bad way! ☺️
@HeathieJ I was saved from the same fate (for much the same reasons) by what can only be called cosmic intervention.
@HeathieJ we have Macs, so OSX was a gimme and we had a Wii with my oldest, so MIIS was also known to me. It also helps that we still have a 15 year old still at home 😉 She keeps me young
@HeathieJ I had pretty much the same experience. The puzzle seemed smooth and easy for a Friday, until . . . a name that ends in CX??? Never having heard of Charli XCX, nor of MIIS, and forgetting OSX, I was lost. Oh well. You can't win 'em all.
Phew, just got off the bus from Natick. I’ll take my Bacardi neat, please.
@Joe Every where I look today I see the seeds of classic country songs. You have the first two lines. All you need is about six more, a chorus, and a melody and arrangement, which you might be able to buy online.
If SNOCAPS don't exist in your country, and you haven't heard of max BAER, then SNOCAnS and BoER fit well with ConT, a pretty acceptable abbreviation for America. I'm probably with Andrzej on this one...
It's always hard to do the puzzle as a foreigner but SNOCAPS is a very common entry.
@Tim That's the trap I fell into. A mega natick that was.
@Tim. Although I’m from the USA, I had zero ideas about what a SNOCAP might be. But Max Baer… I got lucky there. His son was the well known Jethro on an old USA silly comedy, The Beverly Hillbillies, where the father was the great Buddy Ebsen. And the Baer family lived in the East Bay near San Francisco, where I grew up. So I was resolute on BAER, but the rest stumped me for a long time. Finally when I saw CAPT the puzzle completed. Then I googled SNOCAP and learned they are a nearly 100 year old candy brand in the USA. But mainly available in movie theaters… where I always avoid buying food, because it is too expensive.
@Tim In the US, America is not a continent. The New World is considered to have two continents: North America and South America. At least among Anglophones.
Pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve seen Rita Ora’s entire name used in the puzzle
@Wesley It may be the first time you’ve seen it, but it’s the fifth time that it has appeared. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?w=RITAORA" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder?w=RITAORA</a>
@Wesley, I imagined a memo being sent to the editing staff, announcing a new policy of requiring RITA ORA to appear in the crossword at least twice a week.
No foothold in the Northwest. Moved on clockwise and did okay until I found myself back where I hadn’t started. I asked my grandson to please put down his game controller and answer the Nintendo clue, which he did. At which point, the crossings started to fill in and I was done. It takes a village.
@Kevin D 😂 A great demonstration of how matter how unequally the crossword puzzle wisdom may be divided, it can always happen that the last piece will come from the unlikely source.
Just noticing a trend: when clues refer to current popular culture, they are “trivia filled” or “only for 20 something’s.” Once upon a time clues some of us all accept as “normal” were part of popular culture. Asta, (Heddy) Lamar, references to M*A*S*H, etc. have all appeared with no complaint about “trivia.” Maybe we all need to keep learning and internalizing Rita Ora instead of Rita Hayworth?
i was quaking in my boots over the past 24 hours, hoping that i could get my gold star today and extend to a best-ever streak of 21 days (i impose very strict rules on myself to use no look ups of any kind when solving, so if i can't crack it i use "check puzzle" before reading the daily column/googling to break the streak). the northwest corner was the last to fall, but i made it! here's to the wonderful crosswords that we all enjoy, no matter how we solve them.
Yesterday’s exercising and practicing went well, still is, although not as much the celebratory part as I first thought. This too, shall pass. I apologize for invading others’ daily comments. Today’s puzzle had little effect on my creative juices, other commenters did all the work for me. I tried to keep the invasion to a minimum, knowing It can be a tad off-putting to simply *have* to insert myself everywhere. Dang it! High road, right, sorry. 😉 For this month being Sober October, the NYT puzzle cartel is doing a masterful job of challenging those of us who’ve opted out of alcohol. It’s only been 5 months for me, but it’s like quitting smoking. (Actually, it’s easier than quitting smoking). Once you quit, there are cigarettes everywhere you go. They’ve always been there, unnoticed, but now they're exposed. Likewise with alcohol. The doctors agree it takes a minimum of six months before your organs adjust to being alcohol free. I’m not up on how or if your organs rejuvenate, but the lungs take ten years to completely rejuvenate. But the urge to light up never really goes away completely, it just subsides. I find that true with alcohol, too. So, take that, Crosslandia!
Congratulations, @Jerry! You’ve got this.
@Jerry You know that I don't hold off invading this forum with my prolixity. Neither should you. Best of luck.
@Jerry MAZEL TOV! I wish you all the best on your sobriety journey. It will be worth it!
It still feels like cheating if one looks up the trivia answers like songs and albums. If this was pre-internet, on paper, It seems unlikely I'd ever get past Tuesday.
@SMM I know what you mean but I've made my peace with it. I now call it 'learning' 😁
@SMMi am too old for perfection. Learning to enjoy and let go except when I yell out if frustration!
Being of a certain age, CHARLIXCX did me in. That NW corner was a real bear.
@Jon Onstot If you really want to be, " done in", check out said, " singer" on Youtube.
Nice puzzle but I can’t believe that this was the first time MENOPAUSE made its way into a NY Times crossword puzzle. Wow.
Not at all challenging and not really appropriate for a Friday in my estimation. The columnist's feeling that he or she was "on the constructor's wavelength" seems to be yet another example where that functions as an (unintentional) euphemism for "this puzzle was easy". That happens here in the comments a LOT. It's not a bad puzzle though.
@B We're on the same wavelength :-) -- comparing my solution time to my daily averages, this was more like a tough Wednesday or easy Thursday. I enjoyed it nonetheless.
@B I'm getting a real sense of deva ju. But is it still deja vu if it really did happen before?
@B It’s always a difficult question for me. I usually try to assess whether there is unusual specialized knowledge I happen to know or not. Sometimes it’s hard. Is JACCUSE common knowledge or obscure? Is VOLARE a common song or do I just know it from my parents? Etc. It certainly seemed pretty easy for me overall, easier than usual, and there certainly seemed to be more than the usual number of Friday clues that more obviously clued, regardless of some trickier ones I happened to know. In any case I do try to make a serious attempt, at least, to be somewhat objective.
@B agreed, this seemed more like a Tuesday or Wednesday. It was my Friday PB without breaking a sweat.
@B Exactly what I thought. (And the columnist is a she.)
friday hiding in wednesdays clothing. but at least TIL anecdata. why will the cutting "isao aoki" never take root in my brain loam and forever and always only be cultivated on crosses? nor will both parts of "rita ora" ever fully bloom though she sprouts in some iteration on a seemingly weekly basis.
@Matt RITAOREOSPEEDWAGON needs to get in a puzzle someday.
I sped through most of this puzzle until, like many it seems, I got stuck in the NW corner. I had no foothold except CHARLIXCX. I was stuck on rocks being "loose" & America being only a country until finally my brain became UNSET and LET me puzzle out the rest. The satisfaction of all the pieces clicking together at the end leaves only ECHOS of annoyance (not Alexa...sigh) and I have to say I enjoyed it!
@Laney "I had no foothold except CHARLIXCX" And I think that's what makes this puzzle special: the utterly even divide who knew that cold name, or at least had a significant part of it, and those for whom it was as foreign as...as foreign as...a foreign thing that you'd called "foreign" real soon. Within five seconds or so.
I knew that we weren't learning Rita's last name for nothing. What a thrill it was to write in her whole name!
Themeless Friday? Nah. Here's what I SEE in this grid: In old SALEM, ECHOS of J'ACCUSE! could be heard around town, charging some with the practice of WICCA under the shadow of a LUNAR eclipse. A SISTER ACT, the townspeople exclaimed, each RECRUIT hiding their tell-tale SCAR under a cloak of SECRECY. When they gather, some bring a CAT BED for their familiars, but one dangled a black widow spider lovingly called WEB EDITOR. Another CRUSHES VINE and MOSS for some kind of potion. If you don't believe me, just ask ANNE RICE, who's written books about them. Or CHARLI XCX, who's reportedly playing the role of Jadis in an upcoming The Chronicles of Narnia film.
@Henry Su ANNE RICE would have celebrated her 84th birthday this month, October 4. There will be an All Saints' Day tribute to her at the Orpheum Theater in New Orleans, Saturday, November 1, 2025.
@Henry Su I love the idea of Charli xcx as Jadis!
I knew Max BAER from the movie Cinderella Man (Russell Crowe). Great movie. Breezy Friday on my son’s 10th birthday. Played hooky and took him to a pumpkin in Petaluma. Fun day.
While I did struggle with the NW. I guess it was a relatively easy Friday. But not that fun to be honest. It was just a proper noun and definition festival. No wordplay at all. Like zero. I’m surprised this ran. It was as dry as the Sahara. Brutal comment I guess. But it’s not a constructor debut. Obviously I hope for everyone else, YMMV.
@Weak Right? I had the same impression. Monday-level clues plus a slew of trivia and proper names. Huge disappointment.
@Weak an embarrassment of "x"s always smooths the solve.
Agree with others that it was way too easy for a Friday. Hopefully tomorrow's puzzle will be a challenge. And of course we must not notice that the clue for MENOPAUSE fails to refer to the fact that only some people go through it. I cannot specify which people, or use the word "biological", for fear of being accused of a hate crime. J'ACCUSE, indeed.
@Dorothy I understand your concern about stepping on a cultural land mine, but you should be aware that both sides are under that stress. If each side would get their members to pull back a bit, we might not need to experience what could be coming.
@Dorothy I'm not sure why you felt the need to bring that up in a crossword comments section?
@Dorothy It's a crossword. It's trying to obscure the answer in vague wording. Please don't make this into something it isn't.
Pretty easy until the bitter end, upper middle. Never heard of CharliXCX. MIIS? How could anyone confuse MOSS with algae? Played the guessing game until I finally “solved” this one.
@Mark it’s more likely for people to confuse algae for moss because not everyone knows that algae isn’t always aquatic.
Susan Stamverg of NPR has died. Among many other things, she was responsible for instituting the puzzle segment on Sunday Edition. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/business/media/susan-stamberg-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uE8.rTpS.n8zasRlKJQT_&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/16/business/media/susan-stamberg-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.uE8.rTpS.n8zasRlKJQT_&smid=url-share</a>
Fun puzzle, new personal record for a Friday! Quite a relief after getting beat up one side and down the other by Offerman this week!
Oh, right, CHARLIXCX! One of my favorites. How could I have forgotten his name? All my Engish friends talk about him all the time. I think he may even have had a few duets with RITAORA (actually, RITA's been hanging around in our crosswords for a long time). Despite having had to ask Prof. Google about Mr. XCX, I had fun solving this one. Some witty clues, which were JEST fine with me. But still, Karen, J'ACCUSE you of sneaking in some real CRUSHErS. SNAUSAGES?? (HOPI didn't hurt your feelings.)
@dutchiris Charli is Ms…not Mr 😉
@dutchiris My creative, yet slightly twisted mind makes me say: These are the 2020s, assume nothing, yet assume everything. Google “identifies as” Mr.? 😛Images of Charli vs. images of Laverne Cox?🤔 1970: 🎵Girls will be boys and boys will be girls It's a mixed up muddled up shook up world except for Lola La-la-la-la Lola 🎵 – or – 1972: "Hey babe, take a walk on the wild side" I said, "Hey Joe, take a walk on the wild side" Thank you. Am I bothering you, miss? - Jay London 😁
I look forward to your Thursday and Friday columns Deb—they are always humorous and I had to laugh out loud today at your 30D comment! Thanks for always brightening up my mornings :-)
Actually surprised that so many found this one unusually easy for a Friday. Tough for me with more than a couple of completely unfamiliar answers - ANECDATA, CHARLIXCX, SNAUSAGES, MIIS... and some other answers that I was never going to connect to the clues. No big deal - that's just me. And of course a puzzle find today. Thought this one was kind of cute. A Monday from May 27, 2013 by Doug Peterson. The reveal clue and answer in that one: "Blackjack player's option ... or a description of the answers to the starred clues?" DOUBLEDOWN And the answers to those starred clues (all down answers and straightforwardly clued): DURANDURAN WALLAWALLA GOODYGOODY LOUIELOUIE KNOCKKNOCK Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2013&g=31&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/27/2013&g=31&d=D</a> I'm done. ...
@Rich in Atlanta Ooohh! And one other puzzle find - just stumbled across this one. A Monday from April 13, 2015 by Alex Silverman. What was quite amazing about it was finding out that five titles of Beatles songs are.. 15 letters. A couple of clue/answer examples: "Navy captain's favorite Beatles song?" YELLOWSUBMARINE "Empty nester's favorite Beatles song?" SHESLEAVINGHOME "Sexagenarian's favorite Beatles song?" WHENIMSIXTYFOUR And the other two theme answers: PAPERBACKWRITER HERECOMESTHESUN Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/13/2015&g=58&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/13/2015&g=58&d=A</a> ...
FWIW, here's how I solved the crossing of 17A and 5D, neither of which I had heard of. At first I thought it was going to be a personal natick. "Personal" because I assumed these were not actually obscure (since the editors go to great lengths to avoid naticks). But that was no help to me. Then I figured, this being a Friday puzzle, there must be something to suggest what the missing letter was. If not I or Y, it could be any letter. So, probably I or Y (since the editors go to great lengths to avoid naticks). If an I, then 5D would be similar to the Nintendo WII, whereas MIY didn't seem to relate to anything. So I went with I. Thinking that something is a natick seems to cause my brain to short circuit. Adopting the assumption that it is really not doesn't guarantee a win, but does open other avenues of thought.
Menopause mentioned 🙌🏼 I was definitely on the constructor's wavelength today, despite a few don't-knows (I'm looking at you, BoER and SNOCAnS.) Loved seeing CHARLIXCX here, but my favorite clue was for CAT BEDS. I ended up donating our unused cat beds to a shelter, as mine much prefer an obliging suitcase, my desk chair, or the highest traffic areas of the living room floor. This was a fun one!
Definitely my sweet spot as I knew the “obscure” trivia right away, and hey I’m not young! Old enough to know all about both MENOPAUSE and SISTERACT but still a fan of both RITAORA and CHARLIXCX! Fun if fast for a Friday.
A Steinberg! Always happy to see one of the Steinberg family creations. @Deb, I too feel seen. When I was in my early thirties , I went with my mother and a bunch of her friends to see MENOPAUSE The Musical. I remember laughing along with them, but I clearly couldn’t relate in quite the same way that she and her friends did. Fast forward two decades and hoo boy can I relate now 🤣 As for CHARLIXCX, it helps that I still have a teenager living at home 😉 SISTER ACT was one of my favorite movies and I still love to watch it (and the sequel). ANECDATA describes many of the comments posted here on the daily 🤣 A little taste of MENOPAUSE The Musical <a href="https://youtu.be/bEAKqgEw8xg?si=tSsf90ii54kica21" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/bEAKqgEw8xg?si=tSsf90ii54kica21</a> Thank you, Karen 😄
First time ever getting sub 10 minutes on a Friday! To quote Charli XCX: “I love it!”
@Yael Omg, I've been quoting Charli XCX all my life?! The stuff we learn from these puzzles! Wow!
Andrej, when have you ever said "I love it"? (Surely you'd never call Lucy "it")
@Andrej Good answer, although I thought maybe you'd have said it about one of your many favorite musicals.
Never heard of ANECDATA, ISAO, MIIS. Good thing this is a CROSSword puzzle, cuz I'd be lost without them. Fun solve, Karen!
I'm feeling in good company that XCX was a toughie. I do remember the SNAUSAGES commercial, have eaten plenty of SNOCAPS (probably during SISTERACT), have consumed BACARDI, had a MII at one time, and love to sing VOLARE...so I COPED happily. Have a happy Friday.
Yes, @Francis, CHARLI XCX was a gimme for me, and yet even with her name in place, that section was my hardest. Didn't know the Zola letter, never heard of the word prolix (but I'll look it up as soon as I'm done here... I'm guessing it means verbose?), didn't know Applebaum, and had SCAb instead of SCAR at first. Fortunately, SNAUSAGES finally popped into my head (I'm guessing those outside the U.S. had problems with that one), as I remembered the commercial from the 80's (<a href="https://youtu.be/58YO1OgmUFM?si=cOuBaBIJ0QLCmt_i" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/58YO1OgmUFM?si=cOuBaBIJ0QLCmt_i</a>) and the rest fell into place using logic. No lookups, but it was dicey for a bit. The rest of the puzzle felt pretty straightforward. I'm surprised MENOPAUSE hasn't appeared in a NYT puzzle before. I too feel seen, Deb. TIL that the XCX part of CHARLI's name stands for Kiss Charli Kiss. She came up with it as a teen and explains it here: <a href="https://youtu.be/5sJeQa1KDrU?si=k9E2ygPLqxRPW7qH" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/5sJeQa1KDrU?si=k9E2ygPLqxRPW7qH</a>
@Beth in Greenbelt I totally agree. Imagine all that combined with not knowing that singer. I came within a second or two of just giving up. Fortunately I did have some of the others: jaccuse, terser, and snausages (though how, I can not tell you). I figured there was a story behind the name.