I confess that as a full time working mom, having an extra seasonal cookie sales job was just one straw too many. I was glad to be at their various sports practices, band camp volunteering, etc, but somehow the thought of cookie season made me want to cry. So I cheated, lol! I bought a reasonable number of boxes myself, so she wouldn't be embarrassed, and we took all but one box to a local nursing home and a homeless shelter. Then we sat in the car and laughed about our clever scheme while eating Thin Mints. I haven't thought about that in years-- a sweet memory!
@Leontion The CEO of the Girl Scouts makes $805,000 in base salary not to mention benefits and bonuses. And then there is the board which is this neighborhood of compensation. That's a lot of cookies. I'm not buying....
@Leontion Interesting to know, but I would say that worse than the bigwigs sopping up all the juice is separating boys and girls at a tender age when they're supposed to be figuring out about those things. Sign me: brotherless Brownie (and Girl Scout)
@Leontion Lovely story. We had to get a lot of our orders over the phone, but I was terrible at getting repaid for advancing the money when it was older relatives who had ordered them. I was so glad when my daughter decided to move away from GS.
NEEDLEDROP/ERDA/AMO and AYO/YOU were both Naticks for me. I had NEEDLEtRiP, and both ERtA/AMi seemed reasonable and tried to brute force AYO/YOU. I figured that YOU made the most sense given second person and rexamined NEEDLEtRiP until I found something that works. I've found that having a, now 104 day, streak is a huge confidence booster. Because when I get to a situation like that, I know that 104 times I've figured it out. It means that, for an entire season now, every time I've come to a dead end, I've been able to successfully figure out the wrong squares without checking or looking up the answer. So why not tonight?
@Steven M. Well, AMO ad NEEDLEDROP were Naticks for me too, and I had DRIP first also but just thought about what made the most sense. I guessed the Y for YOU and AYO as well because I never remember her name. I guessed right on both of them, but if not I would have tried different permutations—and there’s not a lot of them—until I got the happy music. I know for some people that doesn’t count as a solve or a streak, but for me it’s OK because it’s better than the alternative of looking them up or throwing my hands in the air. I’m resigned to the fact that I don’t always know or remember everything, but have been able to work it out in 99.9 percent of puzzles.
@Steven M. Confidence goes a long way in crossword solving. It doesn’t take being twice as smart to halve your average solve time when you just become more confident enough: confident that your wild guesses will be mostly helpful, and that you can walk them back if they’re wrong. I was lacking in confidence and broke my modest streak. The thorn in my side was the area you called out. Of course, as soon as I started checking my answers, I took a stab at guessing “ERDA,” and the thing mostly fell into place at that point. This just gives me more confidence that I can stick around and defend my streak next time it’s ambushed by Norse gods and girl scouts. Great puzzle. Love me a crossword with good tree trivia.
@Steven M. Yes, same tricky spot at NEEDLEDROP and crosses, started thinking "Sure, NEEDLEtRiP , it might be a thing". Also, thought of it as NEED___ ( plus words). Great puzzle, cluing was very sly
@Steven M. I had ERDA almost right from the Tom Lehrer song about Alma Whatzername who was married to Gustav Mahler, Walter Gropius and Franz WhatzHISName. The song has Gustav complaining "I'm writing Das Lied von der Erte and she only wants to make love". I'd only ever HEARD the song and guessed at both its spelling AND the German for Earth. Would like to say I was boycotting the Search Engine That Shall No Longer Be Named, but actually just lazy. But any day with a Tom Lehrer earworm is a good day.
Forty-five years ago we lived in a smallish house in Croton-on-Hudson. My wife chaired the Girl Scout Cookie Sale for two years. On “cookie day” a very large truck backed up to our house and disgorged hundreds of cases of cookies. There were enough to fill up our small living room from floor to ceiling. With no room to spare, the cases needed to be broken down to match the orders from each of the girls - and then double checked. I was sweetly reminded by today’s spanner of all the volunteer work Girl Scout Troop Leaders and Cub Scout Den Mothers (my wife was both) perform in our communities. Here’s a toast to you all!
@Kevin D As a one-time Cookie Mom and Den Mother, I thank you! The giant semi bearing our cases of cookie had quite a time turning around in our cul-de-sac, plus it had snowed again...
@Kevin D I agree. Hear hear Leaders!
@Kevin D There's a lovely bit in Margaret Halsey's novel "This Demi-Paradise" where she's the Cookie Mom with a dining room stacked high with the boxes and she comes home to discover that her daughter and a friend have been playing "Run for Your Life! The Dam is Broken" with them.
"Oh no, our accounts have insufficient funds." "Let's bounce!" ("I feel an overdraft coming in.")
@Mike I sense some fraudulent punning here. At the very least, delinquency.
@Mike Where HAVE you been?? Check yourself!
@Mike I'll credit you for that one, on balance.
@Mike Trusting the pawnbroker again? The paper always looks greener on the other side of the fence.
@Mike See, told you worrywarts you could bank on Mike's return. He wouldn't withdraw for long.
Sweet baby Jesus, I found this hard as hell. With a lot of guesswork I managed to fill the grid on my own. Alas, I did not get my gold star. There were a few spots where I was not sure of what I had put in so I proceeded to Google my way out of the resulting mess. I will never remember AYO EDEBIRI's name, it seems, not exactly, anyway. I always recall most of it, but each time it appears in a puzzle I make at least one error in it. Last time it had been AzO, and today AYO aDEBIRI. STINKY PaTE didn't look weird enough to pop as a mistake for me. On the other side of the puzzle I had NEEDLE tRaP/ERtA/AMa. I had Latin classes at school but it was 30 years ago and I never was very good at them, anyway. The goddess and the needle thing were huge unknowns. Of course, now that I know it was NEEDLE DROP I see how it makes sense - for one who has seen a record player, anyway, and my mother had one when I was a kid. Girl scout cookies are not a thing here, but it's such a trope in American culture that I've been familiar with them for decades. I just had to work the crosses for TROOPS today. Btw. Poland has a vigorous scouting community. In our gendered language we call our scouts "harcerki" (female) and "harcerze" (male). When scouting was introduced in the early 20th century, Polish people consciously rejected the loan word "skaut" and instead revived an old word, unused for centuries at the time, originally denoting a brave young soldier.
In the medieval and early modern eras, harcerze or "harcownicy" (singular "harcownik") were groups of soldiers who harassed their opponents, usually by shooting their bows or just hurling insults, in the no-man's-land between two armies facing each other and awaiting battle. It was reckless, of course, and no veteran soldiers ever engaged in it, but many interpreted it as the ultimate sign of bravery. A more honorable form of "harce" (the activity of harcownicy/harcerze) also existed: experienced knights would call on their opponents to face them in single combat before a battle. It was the ultimate test of skill and honor. Apparently, the etymology is ultimately Latin, from "arcus", bow. The word arrived in Polish via Italian, German, and Czech. You may not see it, but the Polish harcerz sounds similar to the English archer, and for good reason. That being said, a Polish archer is... Łucznik, because łuk means bow.
@Andrzej I had SaGe for 25D and aRDA seemed like a pretty good goddess name (Tolkien - who was influenced by Wagner used it as the name of one of his) and eMO sort of seemed to fit too (my Latin is rusty but I bought that the prefix for emotional might have been the opposite of odious!)
@Andrzej This is about the Polish language, not the puzzle. In Thursday's NYT, the resident linguistics writer, John McWhorter, writes about the mispronunciation of Zohran Mamdani, NYC's likely next Mayor, how and why his surname is continually mangled. (Hint: it's not just malice). He then veers to the pronunciation of one of NYC's bridges, the Kosciuszko. New Yorkers have always pronounced it like koss-kee-OSS-ko. But when I became interested in languages, I learned to approximate the Polish pronunciation. Now that I've been away from the East coast for over 20 years, I wonder if traffic announcers on the news radio stations still pronounce it as koss-kee-OSS-ko. I know you don't know, but maybe other denizens of the NY metro area might.
Is this a good time to tell you we also have ź as a separate sound? 🤣
I’m irrationally annoyed this puzzle isn’t Halloween themed!!
@alan Friday and Saturday puzzles are themeless. That's why the last few puzzles were related to the holiday.
Vegetables are pacifists? Beets me why you wouldn't see what an artichoke is up to. Notice on the golf course how, especially on the greens, they get so par snippy? And ap-peas-ement? Forget it.
vibed heavily with this puzzle, 5:35!!
@Amit Wow! Do you compete in the Annual American Crossword Puzzle Tournament? It seems like someone who completed this tough puzzle in that amount of time should.
Pretty smooth sailing for me, although I suspect some will complain about a higher than average burden of proper nouns, nothing I couldn’t get on crosses. For all the times she’s been in crosswords, at least for a first name, AYO EDEBIRI is not yet on the tip of my tongue. I have never heard of NEEDLEDROP but it’s an interesting term; even if I knew it, the way the word was clued might lead me to think of the place in the film where it might happen, rather than the term itself, like MONTAGE or INTERLUDE or something. I confess I think I am probably just a MEDIOCRE APE. I like the GIRLSCOUT clue, LETSBOUNCE, and of course the Green Bay clue not only because it’s clever but because I’m from Wisconsin. Had HURRAH before HUZZAH but the crosses fixed that pretty fast and can’t argue with a Looney Toons Dickens call out. Overall I think a straightforward and enjoyable Friday.
I came here to say that 22A is just flat out wrong. When a ballgame goes into extra innings, a runner is automatically placed on second base in order to — What’s that? Oh! I thought we were still NATTERING on about yesterday’s puzzle. My bad. 😆
@NYC Traveler Loved that. Well played. And you're the first to point it out!
@NYC Traveler But not in the World Series?? It might have helped that 18 inning crazy game on Monday!
Unlike other commenters, I am not sad that this puzzle failed to provide Halloween related content. I was, however, disappointed that OREO did not appear for a third consecutive day, we had to put up with ORCA instead, its close cousin and hottest competitor for the most-used NYT solve word trophy. Hats off to GIRLSCOUTTROOPS for taking on today's cookie challenge. I strove mightily to fit DOUBLESTUFFOREO into those squares but, alas, it was not to be. But tomorrow is another day, and I'll even be placated by a HYDROX.
@Don H They're both black and white. And can be deadly.
@Don H Two puzzles this week and today's mini and other puzzles are Halloween adjacent. That certainly seems like enough spooky content to me.
@Don H In my childhood, my family knew that Hydrox were far superior to Oreos. To this day, I rue that Nabisco's marketing department managed to obliterate Hydrox from the grocery shelves.
Was surprised to see run appear twice. Is that not unusual?
@Mark "Cool" appearing in both the question for 19A, and the answer for 24D too 🤔
@Mark I thought so, too— always understood that to be off limits.
@Mark AFAIK the no-no is having a word in both the clue and the entry.
I AM SO GRATEFUL THEY FINALLY GAVE US DARK MODE! i do these at bedtime. once i finish, closing the puzzle and suddenly getting hit with the bright light of the screen… it wakes me fully up at the worst time. i enjoyed this puzzle, and i’m thrilled to celebrate the solve in dreamland.
@deborah Hmm, dark mode has been available on Android for ages.
@deborah Same!! I’m so grateful I won’t be blinded any time I exit a puzzle, lol. Now I just need them to tone down the bright yellow NYT Games title screen whenever you open the app.
There’s a lot to like here: Fun entries such as LET’S BOUNCE and I GOTTA RUN (those are so close that they’re like the crossword equivalent of harmonies from the Everly Brothers or the Louvin Brothers). HAILEE Steinfeld, whose performance in the remake of True Grit was just fantastic. GIRL SCOUT TROOPS, which reminds me of my mother and her dedication to being a troop leader for my younger sister Andrea (both of whom died decades ago but too soon). THAT’S SO COOL, which is just such a nice way of expressing appreciation for something. JUAREZ, which brings back memories of a 1968 road trip with my family when we made a brief stop in El Paso and walked across the bridge into Ciudad JUAREZ. I bought a cowboy hat there and was later heartbroken when it blew out the window of the car on an LA freeway during rush hour traffic. (Dad, I forgive you for not stopping the car so I could retrieve my hat.) JUAREZ again, which reminds me of a convivial dinner circa 1988 with our good friends Jack and Blair at which everyone but me was highly amused by my bungled pronunciation of “Ciudad,” which I still have trouble with. (Jack, who a few years later died at 33 of complications from AIDS, had a stock phrase that is the perfect retort to those who are outraged over RUN appearing in the same grid as I GOTTA RUN. I’m not sure if it would get past the emus, though.) NEEDLE DROP. SIDE EYES. And on top of that, wonderful clues like [Provided entrees] Thanks for the fun, Ms Golden!
@Eric Hougland "True grit"! That's why the name sounded familiar! It was a very good movie, one of the few I actually liked in the past 20 years or so, and she was indeed great in it. Thank you for reminding me 🙂
@Eric Hougland OMG NEEDLE *DROP*???? Well, that sorta makes more sense with the clue, but as the partner of a Stereophile, let me observe that were I to perform a NEEDLE DROP it would be curtains for this marriage after a mere 46+ years.... (Still more so if performed on the antique Brunswick Ultona that plays both Edison/Pathé and Victor standard records.....)
@Eric Hougland Curious: how old were you and how long did it take you to forgive him? Obviously you NEVER forgot.
First Friday done with no hints! Feelin good
Peas *are* predatory. Sneaky villains, showing up in soups and stews and casseroles. Podcasts. I have to stay on guard, always.
@Linda Jo Just don’t put them in guacamole.
@Linda Jo All we are saying... is give peas a chance 🎶
@Linda Jo Much like raisins and cilantro, they have their place in small amounts. I still haven't figured out why lima beans exist. THEY are the killer pods as far as I'm concerned.
@Deb Amlen Hard to believe that happened in 2013. I believe the equivalent in the Gameplay universe was the great Clotbur kerfuffle of 2018 in the very, very early days of the Spelling Bee.
@Jen according to Google: In July 2015, a New York Times recipe for "Green Pea Guacamole" went viral and sparked significant backlash on the internet, which became known as "#GuacGate". Traditionalists and food purists were outraged, arguing that peas have no place in guacamole. Notable figures like President Barack Obama and Jeb Bush even weighed in on Twitter, both stating their opposition to the idea. The Texas Republican Party tweeted that the NYT had "declared war on Texas"
Selling GS Cookies was not for the faint of heart, at least in the 80s! Once you took all the orders, with your cute little Brownie going door-to-door in Navy Housing, you had to take possession of the cookies and sign a paper that said you were FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE for all of them. She sold about $1500 worth of cookies - more than her E-6 dad made in a month. Then you had to deliver them and pray that these people would pony up. I don't mind saying I had to strong arm a few along the way!
@Amy That took me back. I was the Cookie Dad for my daughter's troop one year, and we had to Eat a few orders where customers ghosted us. That was a cryin' shame.
Loved being a Girl Scout, and then a GS leader for my girls. Great organization. Thanks, Juliana, for your work with cookies
Didn’t even start the puzzle. Just came to say “Halloween hat badge in spelling bee”. They made the be super easy today. (At least to get to genius). Simple pleasures
@Weak handled is an adjective to reflect that irons have handles. The plural is reflected in agentS
I enjoyed this one a lot for the wordplay, and the memories. 144 dozen boxes of GSCookies sold when I was 14! ERDA was a gimme for me. Back when I was entering singing competitions, I soon figured out the trick of pairing an obscure Handel Kamikaze-coloratura aria, with Erda’s stentorian, “Weiche, Woran, weiche!” I won prizes. I never thought of opera as “relevant,” but in her scene, Erda warns Wotan (President of the Gods, if you will) of what will happen if the gods stop obeying the law: Armageddon. Wotan’s lust for gold and a magnificent palace trumps all else. He ignores Erda’s warning, and betrays, cheats, philanders, lies… Wotan has disappeared from the stage by Wagner’s final opera of the Ring Cycle, “Götterdämmerung,” but the world still ends in fire. And flood.
@Jennifer, So good to see you here again! I’ve missed your interesting and insightful comments. It’s been too long! 😊
@Jennifer and that was where *I* got stuck. Not knowing Needle Drop or Erda, much less the opposite of ODI, I had Needle Trip and Erta and ami. A fun puzzle, however!
@Jennifer Too modest. It doesn't take a devious mind to succeed with those particular arias. It takes a supple and powerful set of pipes. Brava.
I was a Girl Scout (and a Brownie). I can't remember if I sold Girl Scout cookies or not--it was so long ago. But I do remember two of the badges I got. One was for camping and I learned to make a fire with an A-frame, tie a square knot, and to use a Girl Scout pen knife which I still have and use. The other one was the Dabbler badge. We dabbled in all sorts of arts and crafts. I love Thin Mints but tend to stave off chocolate these days due to its caffeine--which keeps me up all night. I wish the Girl Scouts would discover or invent caffeine-free chocolate. I read that some people were looking into it: there's some variety of chocolate bean that grows naturally caffeine-free!!! I'm a NEWBIE. I was offered the Easy Mode version of this puzzle in my email. But I finished it without Easy Mode, although Google did help me out a little. I've been doing puzzles again for the last two months after years of not doing any. I used to do KenKen a while ago. I love math. I did the tough ones. Lately, I've been doing a lot of New York Times vintage acrostics which someone in this comments section alerted me to. I return the favor--a lot of fun. <a href="https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/premium/xword/acrostic/acrostic.html" target="_blank">https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/premium/xword/acrostic/acrostic.html</a>
@lucky13 Welcome to the gang. Glad to see you here. ....
@lucky13 Just took a look at the link you included. Those look like a lot of fun, will definitely try one in a bit. Thank you!
@Peter @Lucky13 I just sent that link to my email. There goes Saturday! 🤣 Thanks!
I love when my plans for the day aligns with the crossword— just watched Sinners today with HAILEE, then when shopping for the local Ren Faire coming up this weekend (HUZZAH! It will be my first time going), will be dressing up with my blue apron a la The Bear for Halloween (AYO), and my partner will be SPIDER-Man. Even better? Came across a skunk today and whispered “damn, that is BUSHY” so I definitely laughed when I saw that prompt!
Humans, gorillas and chimps, oh my!
@ad absurdum Thank goodness TATUM was there to keep me from insisting that it had to be _ _primatES.
@ad absurdum So in the Linnean system of biological taxonomy we all use, the one devised by Carl Linnaeus, every genus has a "type" species--a species which most perfectly represents the genus; and every species has a holotype--a particular specimen, collected and described in the scientific literature, which most perfectly represents that species. So, for the genus *Homo*, the type species is *sapiens*; and for *Homo sapiens*, the holotype was . . . . . . Carl Linnaeus!
That lovely crossword solving moment where your brain shifts gobbledygook into sensible words... I confess staring at NEEnLEDROP at 2D for a quite a while, helped along by FAn at 19A (which also works nicely for "cool when hot")... Sure, that darn D seems obvious now 😄 Apropos nothing, spare a thought for the kids of Toronto tonight, who MUST finish all trick or treating befire the World Series game 6 start at 8. Happy Halloween all y'all and GO JAYS 🎃!!
Perfect timing for Juliette Gordon Low’s birthday today—a Girl Scout holiday!
Hi Deb! Even as I filled in 2D, I thought--"I know it's ORCA, but I wish just once it was predatory peas!" *** For anyone unfamiliar with My Friend ERDA the Green-faced Torso, let an ordinary opera-goer introduce her: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WduYrwAGews" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WduYrwAGews</a> (about 0:30) "Weiche, Wotan, weiche!"
@Bill---You made my morning. This is wonderful. "She then proceeds to bear him eight daughters."
@Bill Facehugger didn't fit in 2D. (That's from "Alien," for those of you not in a scary movie vibe.)
Most vegetables are pacifist? Should I be wary of the celery?
@Laura The celery’s OK, but the salad has a license to kale…
@Laura Only if they're driving a Courgette Stingray.
@Laura just wait until the bamboo shoots
@Laura Now, see what you did? Unleash the kraken!
Beet, squash, bean, and artichoke seem to have violent tendencies. Lettuce be thankful there aren't a lot more. I know I yam.
Uneventful, quick, and probably much too easy for a Friday, but opinions will always differ. Some cleverness - the irons clue was terrific! - and some unremarkable cluing. The only part that gave me any trouble at all was the middle left. German goddess crossed with unknown (to me) Latinate crossed with a decorate synonym it took me too long to get. (Yes I knew amo but not its reported opposite - so I guess that's where odious comes from.) This one mostly sailed by, and I mostly enjoyed it. :)
@B I got stuck at the goddess and iconic song scene cross. It didn't help that I thought the Latin word was AMa not AMO. So I had NEEDLERAP for faaar too long 🤦🏾♂️
Nothing so obviously problematic as the baseball clue from the Thursday puzzle, or whether a thumb was a finger, or even whether being the thumb of the Finger Lakes means it's a Finger Lake. Or anything about what kinds of knobs electric guitars have. The recent puzzles all seemed to have one or two sore-thumb (couldn't resist!) clues/answers that you knew were going to dominate the comments. This puzzle, on the other hand, didn't have anything like that, as far as I could tell. I'd say more, but 60A.
This is my favorite “ Constructor Notes.”
It was fun to be taken back to third year Latin, more than half a century ago. I can no longer recite the Catullus poem that starts out "odi et amo", but I recognized it immediately. Some memories may fade without disappearing entirely. I thought I'd heard of HAILEE Steinfeld before, but it was only today that I learned her name didn't end with a Y. No idea of 28D, but maybe that's what comes of being the only person left who hasn't watched "The Bear". ROmp before ROUT, appS before USES, but never really stuck. Thanks!
@Jack McCullough. Odi profanum vulgis et arceo. Favete linguis… or at least that’s my memory of 62 years ago. One of those mind worms that just seemed to stick
@Jack McCullough HAILEE Steinfeld is fantastic in True Grit and pretty good in Sinners (a much smaller part). Everything I have read about The Bear makes me think that I would enjoy it. But we already have three streaming services that we’re not getting our money’s worth from. (Our fault, not theirs.) You’re not alone in not having seen it. Ditto on ROmp. I should have learned by now to just leave the last two letters off.
What's with the "A Natick in Every Puzzle" gimmick? Some thriller (beach book, I take it) crossing WHO??? (Not everyone subscribes to the special channels....such as the one featuring "The Bear," and yes, we hear it's great, but we haven't run out of Netflix offerings yet....) So I guessed, but that still left the Latin term at 39D crossing 3D, which clue is strange, or creepy, or bizarre, or perhaps common parlance amid the drug scene...? I was Cookie Mom one year. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Honest! No, Really! I mean it! 1989. I'm almost over it now.
@Mean Old Lady We recently saw a trailer for a movie called Ella McKay coming out around Christmas that is written and directed by James L. Brooks, who did Terms of Endearment, Broadcast News and As Good As It Gets (among others). AYO EDEBIRI is in it, along with some more familiar faces like Albert Brooks, Jamie Lee Curtis and Woody Harrelson. It might be at the top of my list of movies to see this winter. (My taste in movies is such that there are often few movies that appeal to me until September, when the studios start releasing the stuff that they think might win awards.)
@Mean Old Lady “written partly in the second person” was enough for 33A, no? “Needle drop” refers to the sound of a vinyl record starting to play.
@Mean Old Lady I’m not sure if it’s also so in the US, but for me the TV series adaptation of the thriller novel IS a Netflix offering—how I was familiar with it.
Our constructor's name is apt - this was a Golden puzzle! Trickiest part for me was the bottom left corner - you're in for trouble if your chosen OPEC member is OMAN and not IRAN. Having fixed that mistake, solved faster than usual.
Went quickly and smoothly for me except for two letters... NEEDLE_R_P. Never caught Das Rheingold (wasn't he in the Brat Pack?) and they didn't offer Latin at my high school, so nothing to do but guess words that sound right after needle. Trip? Trap? Grip? Prop? Crap? Eventually I gave up and looked at the answer key, but it's fine; Fridays are supposed to be hard, and getting all but two letters is better than a lot of days. I'll get you next time, NEEDLEDROP.
Using "run" in two answers is defective setting.
I know fridays are typically themeless, but a halloween theme would have been more fun. also, why do we have the word RUN twice?
"why do we have the word RUN twice?" cameron, To be eerie for Halloween.
I've seen 2 seasons of "The Bear" and really enjoy it. Guess I better start learning the cast names. They're all going places.
This was a nice Friday themeless exercise, lots of clues that made me pause a bit, but not so hard that I wanted to tear out what’s left of my hair. I would have liked it for the clue for GIRLSCOUTTROOPS alone, not just because that struck me as clever but because getting it really opened up the solve.
AYO aDEBIRI and Stinky PaTÉ: the kind of cross that makes some run the alphabet. I’ll go back under my rock now.
@Sam Lyons We might meet. I made the same mistake.
@Sam Lyons Maybe too late for you to see this, but I just read yesterday's comments and was happy to see some fellow Borges fans. I've been using Neruda's Odes to Common Things for a poetry unit in my ESOL class. They are good for working on your Spanish and, though they are very different from Borges, they also make you see the world from a different perspective. My students liked "Oda a las papas fritas." This is a good one too: <a href="https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/pablo-neruda-oda-a-los-calcetines.htm" target="_blank">https://www.poemas-del-alma.com/pablo-neruda-oda-a-los-calcetines.htm</a> <a href="https://poets.org/poem/ode-my-socks" target="_blank">https://poets.org/poem/ode-my-socks</a>
EviCT looked so at home at 9A that I hesitated to [Boot] it.
@DIVAS IVLIVS Same! Solved the whole puzzle only to have to hunt down EviCT to get the happy music, not knowing JUAREZ from vUAREZ or ESTA from iSTA.
Connections, Stands and Spelling Bee all had Halloween themes...a missed opportunity here. Admittedly a first world issue, but still...woulda been fun!
Very enjoyable puzzle. Though now I realize how long I have to wait for Thin Mints. It's gonna be a long, long winter. I saw Denyce Graves as ERDA once, when the Minnesota Opera did Das Rheingold. It was the one and only time I went to the opera, and Ms. Graves made it worth it.
@Katie Keebler Fudge Mint Delights are a close match, if not identical.
I know that Friday is meant to be a “straight” puzzle, but I confess I was a little disappointed at such a stark absence of Halloween-related clues—especially considering the uniqueness and timely themes of today’s Strands, Connections, and full-app “dark theme” unveiling. Still a very fun and solid Friday, but a part of me wishes that it had some more seasonally appropriate “crunch” (like some candy being distributed today!)
👹👻💀🦴🎃🪦⚰️🕷️🕸️ There. Maybe that will make you feel better 😃
This was a very smooth and enjoyable solve for me - until I finished and found out I hadn't quite solved it yet. After checking for mistypings, I started doing some lookups to verify my work. My problem was the anagram I'd come up with - SAGE - and my opera IQ, which is in the single digits. Once I discovered ERDA, all became clear and my gold star appeared. Thanks for the fun!
@Peter C. Seeing "mistypings" in your comment just now, my brain initially broke the word up into "misty pings" before it reset. But I rather like "misty pings," and I'm trying to imagine what they might be.
I did not know the term NEEDLEDROP but it was an appropriate answer for me today because I had a whole lot of needles dropped into my body... I started up an acupuncture treatment today. First time going back in about 10 years, so the answer did kind of amuse me. Also, I prefer my original answer for 61 across, because I misspelled 28D AYO's last name. I GOTTASUN. I miss the cruise.... And all of its sun, sea, and twist cones! 🌞🌊🍦 Fun puzzle and really fun column. Everything Deb wrote I pretty much experienced myself today. Love it!!
HUZZAH! That was a fun, fast Friday. I beat my average by some distance. Being a fan of The Bear helped tremendously with that. I enjoyed the mini Spanish theme. Now I GOTTA RUN. My son is saying LET'S BOUNCE for the Halloween festivities.
When it's a good idea to be on the lookout for the celery. Just right for tonight! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaTzakoiHnA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gaTzakoiHnA</a>
There are some very serious GSC sellers in Vail, Colorado. At the right time of year, the route from the slopes to the garage and bus terminal has several girls along the way with wagons full of cookies ready to sell to tired and hungry skiers and snowboarders.
This was great fun! I loved the wordplay and the clueing. Hurray and thanks.
Somehow I managed to get GIRLSCOUTTROOPS from a single crossing letter (the "R") the moment I read the clue. I struggled with the name of the name of the Wagnerian earth goddess but got three of the four letters from the crosses. I considered running the alphabet for the last letter but caved and just looked it up...pretty much the same thing, but faster.
@Bruce Right? I couldn't agree more with that final bit.
@Bruce We hail from the same city; I don't see how we can be so far apart in our knowledge bases... well, except for the fact that I date from an era where you could drive out to Stone Mountain and just park and hike. And Georgia State College's classes were still mostly in the converted parking garage. And the intersection of North Druid Hills and Briarcliff Rd was pretty much The Suburbs; you had to drive to the Colonial Store at Little Five-Points for groceries.
@Bruce I was surprised to learn that AMAL has been in the puzzle 16 times now, beginning in 2018, and always clued as Ms Clooney. The only reason I know her name is from seeing it in puzzles.
@Mean Old Lady My son graduated from Georgia State. At one point I was looking for information about the school and happened on an article about the converted parking garage. For those who don't know, the conversion retained the ramp structure and just added classrooms adjacent to it, so that when you exited a classroom you were standing on a sloping concrete surface that spiraled up through all the floors. I would have been tempted to bring roller skates, or maybe a bicycle. Probably several people did exactly that at some point, but no telling how it was tolerated by the university. Probably not well at all. I passed through the intersection you mentioned only yesterday, on my way back home from a guitar lesson at Maple Street Guitars.
@Eric Hougland I had to chuckle at your observation, especially in light of George frequently referring to himself as Amal's Clooney's husband. She's a superstar as well, in her field.
@Bruce @MOL You and the infamous MOL came up in the old Atlanta, as we transplants coin it. I only know your area well enough to have visited friends in Brookhaven, attended concerts at the Roxy, went to jazz venues at Cafe 290, and loved the smaller venues at Variety Playhouse at LFP. We've been to Stone Mountain several times. It was one of the obligatory stops when our out-of-town visitors visited for a few days. I've always wanted to visit Maple Street Guitars and buy a Santa Cruz acoustic. I'm happy to see it's remained a nice mom and pop store, maybe because Big Guitar couldn't handle MSG's high-end inventory(?) How you still manage to navigate the Buckhead area is beyond my understanding, but keep it up!
@Mean Old Lady Musicals? Wow, you go way back. I've seen several rock concerts in Chastain and really loved the venue. I remember there was a noise ordinance, which believe is still in effect. By the time 11pm rolled around, most of us were ready to leave, anyway.