When the mathematician made dessert, the proofs were in the pudding. (It came with a slice of pi.)
@Mike Lemma tell ya, you butterscotch that Krafty idea. Those pounds can add up.
@Mike When the politicians tried to make dessert, they saw it crumble before their ayes
@Mike I think I have something for today; I'll run it postulater so you can axiomother if she likes it.
@Mike Before dessert, one needs a hearty meal, so when the mathematician wants a chicken for dinner, he has to axiom.
Thanks to everyone who cheered me on yesterday - I got the gold star today and finally got my first 6 day streak! Woohoo! 🥳 Loved 1A and 30D. Such a fun puzzle!
@Maggie. Some people do find these puzzles quite uplifting.
@Maggie congratulations. I broke my gold star streak because I had to check the puzzle for a couple squares that were wrong. I always hate to do that. Impressive to get this one with no help at all.
@Maggie, Go Maggie!!
@Maggie YAAAAAAYYY! Great job! 🥳
Anyone care to join our club - Sam’s* and mine - it’s the Nap-Trapped by Catnapping Lap Cats Club. *Corbin. But, Sam Lyons, I’m sure you are a member too.
@Cat Lady Margaret definitely a member!
@Cat Lady Margaret My eyes are tearing up (not emotionally) even as I imagine this. 🤧
@Cat Lady Margaret I have two cats so sometimes I’m double nap-trapped.
@Cat Lady Margaret Alas, I’m no longer a member, though not for lack of trying. Señor Gato is now a senior gato—at least 15, per his vet—and though he still plays like crazy and zooms around like a kitten, he will no longer lie on an uneven or unstable surface such as a lap, even if the lap is lined with multiple blankets. He has switched to curling up next to me, preferably “holding” my hand. My husband refers to us as “contemplating each other” at such times. (I believe that when *he* does it, it’s called “being manly while motionless because his cat is holding his hand between his paws.”)
@Cat Lady Margaret I think of it as a sentence. No time off for good behavior, no parole.
@Cat Lady Margaret Multiple times a day!
@Cat Lady Margaret my whole family would raise their hands if they could.
@Cat Lady Margaret I shall refer you to this anthem <a href="https://youtu.be/XQzobfVNceQ?si=fVyj75qlv98CXIIO" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/XQzobfVNceQ?si=fVyj75qlv98CXIIO</a>
@Cat Lady Margaret I'm in! I have one frequent lap-napper and one lap-adjacent napper (LAN), and everything stops when they settle in. 😺
@Cat Lady Margaret Both kitties are in heaven now and I miss the inconvenience, the demands—one of them stood on the couch where I usually sat and yowled at me to get a move on and come sit down so she could curl up on my lap and get some rest. The other was more dignified and waited patiently until I was properly sprawled out myself so he could sprawl out on his back, more or less on my lap, loose jointed, almost from my shoulder to my thigh, with my arm to keep to keep him from falling off. (I have a picture of us on my desktop. I look absorbed, he looks blissful.) Now I put a pillow on my lap while I watch TV. Miss them.
@Cat Lady Margaret why, i just got up from a delightful nap with a cat! ~ just who was trapping and who was the trapper is up for debate!
This puzzle brings my streak to 365. A full year of consecutive successful solves. This one was a bit of a toughie for me. Nearly 9 minutes over my average. Not sure if the anticipated milestone clouded the mind a bit, or if this was the challenge a Saturday grid should be, either way I think I’ll celebrate with a hearty breakfast.
@JPT Congratulations. A toast to your accomplishment.
@JPT Congratulations! Excellent work! 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
@JPT thank you all for the “recommendeds” and likes.
first ever saturday! 🥳 i had a great time with this one. am i entitled to any PRIZEMONEY? lol
@Cal Koolaid Yes! First prize! You get a all-expenses-paid week vacation to beautiful Pueblo, Colorado, garden spot of Pueblo County, and my home town. Second prize is *two* weeks. I gotta tell you, Pueblo gets no respect. No respect.
@Cal Koolaid Congrats! What a fun feeling! 🎉
@Cal Koolaid woot woot!! That IS a big deal, congrats!
@Cal Koolaid So, Kool Cal, now that you know it can be done, you're on your way to many more. Congratulations!
I liked this puzzle. Mostly because it was my 2000th solve in a row! That number has seemed so far away for a long time. But doing the crosswords every day has been a great source of entertainment, accomplishment, satisfaction, education, challenge, … I could go on. One of the best things has been getting to the point where my mindset is that I can always finish the puzzle. It might take me a while, and the hard ones won’t be done in one sitting, but I’ll figure it out. I think that carries over subconsciously to other areas of life, and that ain’t bad.
@NYC Traveler Impressive! 🎉 Reaching the point where every puzzle is doable, whether it’s a K2 or a happy little hillside, is very zen. Enjoy the climbs!
@NYC Traveler As I've been saying, When, not if. I have a big number coming up, too, in about a month. Will keep everyone posted.
@NYC Traveler I haven't reached that point yet. There still come puzzles that greet me with fresh terror, making me despair of ever finishing and threatening a "streak". (LA Times today was one such.) I try to remind myself that the solved puzzle almost always has answers that seem a lot more straightforward than I had feared while contemplating them. It's hard to remember. I don't really expect this feeling ("if, not when") to ever go away for me. That's okay. :)
@NYC Traveler 💃🥳🍾🎉🎊🤹♀️🪇 Hearty congratulations, my friend!! That's quite an accomplishment, with a lovely and inspiring side of life lessons! Yay, you!!! ☺️
@NYC Traveler I'm a few months behind you. But I have a feeling when my streak gets broken, it will be by a Tuesday.
@NYC Traveler WOW! That’s impressive! Congrats!
@NYC Traveler, what a great accomplishment! Sincere congrats! 🎉🥂
NAP-TRAPPED. Hah! OMG! One of our sons took forever to go to sleep at night, as a baby. It would never happen without intervention – lullabies, stories, holding while gently swaying. During the latter, he would often, finally, drop into sleep. But that wasn’t enough. You had to hold him longer until he dropped deeper; you were nap-trapped. Finally, finally he would ever-so-gently be laid down, and you would tiptoe out, and then came the 30 seconds where you waited IN TERROR, because half the time he’d wail anew, and you’d have to do it all over again. This is a memory now infused with smiles and love, and thank you for triggering it, Kyle. And thank you for more: • That gorgeous SE stack of FLAT-FOOTED, ROLLICKING, and YES INDEEDY. Mwah! • Puzzle-sparking Scrabbliness, a Q short of a pangram. • Five double-O’s, including the lovely dook GOONTRIAL. • A terrific new clue for ACHOO – [Exclamation made while covering the face]. • PuzzPairs© of PUPU/NONO and WONDERBRA/CUP. I left this grid feeling good all over – a gift. Thank you for a splendid outing, Kyle!
Today's walk down memory lane: the PUPU platter! The very mention of the word takes me back to visits to Chinese restaurants in the '60s. Any family trip to a restaurant was a rare treat, and Chinese restaurants were the best! But there were always restrictions, usually monetary about what we could order, and the PUPU platter was always off-limits! We would look on with envy at the other tables who ordered this magnificent appetizer: an enticing assortment of tasty tidbits, most often with a seductive Sterno flame in the center to re-heat the items, and a sea of sauces for dipping. It always looked so good, but it was declared to be too expensive by the parental units. When I finally had the resources to order a PUPU platter for myself (and my guest), it was, of course, anti-climactic. All flash and show, mediocre substance: "shrimp toast" with little evidence of shrimp, semi-soggy slices of eggroll,... Such are the lessons of so-called "adulthood".
@The X-Phile In a roundabout way, you led me to another puzzle find. A Monday from September 19, 2005 by Timothy Powell. Three theme answers in that one: MOOGOOGAIPAN VOODOOECONOMICS YOOHOOIMHOME Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/19/2005&g=20&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/19/2005&g=20&d=A</a> ....
I should add, however, that I always loved the spare ribs: fatty and juicy, with their sticky, sweet and salty ("umami"?) sauce
My comment was emu’d and may be people’d too once it gets a second “look.” I’ll give a SFW abridged version: I spotted three genres within the puzzle: 1) Spicy Romance, in which our female ACTION HERO has ROLLICKING HOT OIL the subject of “the talk”; 2) ANTI-NOVEL, in which our former ACTION HERO lives IN TERROR and feels as FLAT-FOOTED as an AHI at a FISH FRY; and 3) Romance, which features an OPAL exchange at a CHAPEL accompanied by Chick COREA’s “You’re Everything,” followed by our HERO’s happy ending straight out of SHONDALAND. If I was someone who wrote gratitude lists, I’d put NYT crosswords near the top of my list.
Had to do a few lookups when I became totally stuck, but that’s ok. This is how we learn. (To add to the discussion from yesterday, I only look up factual terms, not wordplay. And only when I’ve exhausted all guesses. These are my personal rules, and they’re designed only to keep me from being lazy.) I was amused by NAPTRAPPED, mostly because I’ve never heard the term before. But I can relate. Not from children, but from spouses. And dogs. And cats. Basically, anyone who wants to plant themself upon you. I’ve learned to take it as a compliment. I’m just that cozy! 😁
I was almost able to fill the grid without lookups, but I broke down in the SE corner and googled Freud's rat man. Of course I'm familiar with OCD, but must it be clued so arcanely, even on a Saturday? That area of the puzzle was super hard for me in general. I have no idea why it's bad to be caught FLAT FOOTED - I wanted red handed, but it wouldn't fit. Is it some expression I don't know? Apparently. I thought I knew what it meant but now I'm doubting myself. "Xxx tootin'" solving to YES INDEEDY was beyond cruel for a non-American solver. It's what I get for coming here as a Pole... What on Earth is a PUPU platter? I finally inferred "PALS around", but it was new to me, too. And don't get me started on PUDGY baby fingers... It is one of the di5turbing qualities of babies that puts me off them. But at least I knew the word. Another problem spot was around DO DIRTY. I did not know that phrase, nor was I familiar with LEE as clued. I also had no idea REPENT could be used with "of". Finally, I've had my fair share of hair therapy (with a mane of hair to show for it), but hot oil never came into it. I have fond memories of the WONDERBRA brand. As a teenager I visited London, and I was fascinated by this amazing metropolis, so different and so much more exciting than the dreary Warsaw of the early 90s. I loved almost everything about it, but one of my favorite sights were giant billboards of the supermodel Eva Herzigova advertising WONDERBRA 🤣
@Andrzej To be caught flat footed is to be caught unprepared, not on one’s toes. A pupu platter is a selection of Chinese hors d’ouervres.
@Andrzej Lee (short for leeward) in this context is the opposite of windward. Windward would be the side of the mountain or island or ship exposed to the prevailing wind, whereas lee or leeward would be the other side, less exposed, more protected from the wind. As clued, REPENT might refer to regretting and changing one's behavior. i.e. repent of one's misdeeds.
@Andrzej I almost crashed my car looking at that Wonderbra ad…. 🙄
Argh, posted in the wrong thread the first time. Andrzej: From me, an erstwhile Texan, to you. Merry Early Christmas: <a href="https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/more-colorful-texas-sayings-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at" target="_blank">https://www.texasmonthly.com/being-texan/more-colorful-texas-sayings-than-you-can-shake-a-stick-at</a>/ (If you get stuck behind a paywall (you shouldn’t), open it in DDG.) Welcome to the Texas you may not get to see till you’ve spent (and enjoyed) some time in the sticks. Pop quiz in January.
@Sam Lyons Even though usually I hang out more often than Mama's washing, I read through the list, and found it fine as frog fur - if that ain't a fact, God's a possum! It brightened my day, which is much appreciated, as for the past few days I've been as full of pains as an old window, after a tooth extraction. I bookmarked the list for future reference :D Wanting to reciprocate, I found some English explanations of well-known Polish phrases - the list is nowhere as long as yours, but perhaps still interesting for you <a href="https://www.exploringpolski.com/post/30-funny-polish-phrases" target="_blank">https://www.exploringpolski.com/post/30-funny-polish-phrases</a> There is also a good reddit thread on the topic: <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/poland/comments/186o3js/polish_idioms" target="_blank">https://www.reddit.com/r/poland/comments/186o3js/polish_idioms</a>/ Something similar to the reddit thread: <a href="https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-beautiful-Polish-idioms" target="_blank">https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-beautiful-Polish-idioms</a> You may expect a pop quiz raz na ruski rok.
@Andrzej Everything you said in your other post plus this: The emus have defeated me. I loved the link to Polish expressions but the emus didn’t. Persevering, mulish obstinacy of inanimate things such as content-moderating bots will outlast human stabs at discourse every time.
@Andrzej Not a fan of pudgy baby fingers? You probably don’t care for dimpled hands either. I thought I related to you but now… Well, Nie ma róży bez kolców 😆
@Andrzej ‘Hello boys’ We used to drive past an enormous poster of the lady and her ‘girls’ hanging over the Chiswick flyover on the way to work and back. I can tell you, the ‘boys’ may have appreciated it, but we ladies were less enamoured. I also struggled with the large amount of US specific content today.
@Andrzej I am naturally flat footed, orthortics help me get around easily. I am no ACTION HERO, but I have a ROLLICKING good time living and doing puzzles.
Solved this while being nap trapped by my 8 week old!
@Jenna What do we call it when a grown sleeping adult is weighting down your arm while you try to use the other one to stab at the crossword on your phone?
@Jenna I was so tired when my children were that young that I couldn’t solve what 2+2 was, never mind solve a crossword puzzle. Good on you!
Feisty. Quick. Conservatively, I counted 30-plus clues that were plain trivia. It wasn’t a bad puzzle, but I was not Saturday-level entertained. Kudos for including Sartre on a longish entry. Puzzles that require having read a book or two make for better puzzles. Happy Friday night to everyone; Happy Saturday morning to fellow insomniacs.
@Sam Lyons Aren't all crosswords trivial at the end (or start) of the day?
Started out right away with a gimme - PTOWN. When I was in college I went there a few times with a friend. We just thought it would be a cool place to go. And it was. Except for the fact that she was tall, slim,natural blonde, and drop-dead gorgeous, and I was quite the opposite. Walking down the street with her did nothing for my ego. She was such a looker that even the women couldn't take their eyes off her. It was only after our second excursion there that I learned why women kept looking at her. There was no LGBTQ terminology in those days, but my mom later told me that it was that way even that way when she was young. More that 50 years later, my friend is still beautiful. And I'm still short. To add insult to that long-ago injury, I'm having trouble with my eyes, so I put PTOWN in the wrong place. Not a big deal for you online solvers, but a disaster for my pen on paper solve. Caught it, though, and went on to finish the puzzle rather quickly.
@Times Rita Not a thing in the world wrong with "short".
@Times Rita FriXion pens!! They have an eraser, or in a real emergency, heat will make the ink disappear. (I use them for some quilt-marking, though only where the lines will be hidden; not really made for fabric but works wonderfully well!)
@Times Rita More hearteningly you still call her friend. 👍
Well, I figured it to be LAP TRAPPED and that LASTY is the new way of saying incredibly bad. People, or things, that often (if not always) comesin last (in a race, or a taste test) must be incredibly bad to attain such dishonor. Those people, or things, are so...LASTY! And lasty is worse than nasty any day of the week. I'm serious! Yup, the GOON TRIAL. Goons -- in the NHL -- are "enforcers" -- they spend a lot of time in the penalty box for deliberately provoking targets on the opposing team, often in fights, often in trouble for flagrant fouls. In the good ol' days "there was a fight and a hockey game broke out," and the Penguins didn't have a goon on the squad per se, but we did have Ulf Samuelson and he was not only an excellent defender but could DO DIRTY on you, often while the refs weren't looking. We loved him, but the goons on opposing teams, like Tie Domi, we thought deserved to be put on GOON TRIAL and maybe spend some time in the Big Penalty Box instead!
@john ezra I am so stealing “lasty.” “Don’t be a lasty!” “C’mon, move those legs/Monopoly token/brain cells—better be a fasty than a lasty!” My freshly 12-year-old niece who’s the daughter I never had, already a linguist while still a tween (we’ve started running Latin verbs on FaceTime), and neologizer extraordinaire (she’s bilingual because her dad’s German, and how can anyone who speaks German like a native *not* be a notorious word-compounder?) is going to love the musicality of it. So watch for “lasty” soon coming to an elementary school near you.
@john ezra Plus, who can forget that iconic Janet Jackson hit LASTY?
I often look at XW Stats after I finish. I will never come close to the median time but I generally have the same experience as the average solver there. If they find the puzzle “easy,” solving within about, say, three minutes under their average time, that’s about where I am with my own time. Today, however, it was pretty crushing to see the average solver finished 28% under their average time, as I found this quite difficult, finishing a minute and a half over my average time. I had never heard of PUPU, or ANTINOVEL, and had difficulty getting on the constructor’s wavelength. This is not a complaint…the crossword is the crossword is the crossword. It’s just that sometimes it’s in my wheelhouse and other days I’m lost asea, to use a common crossword fill. Still, I finished and with only one lookup, it’s 70 degrees, I’m on my deck drinking coffee, looking at the woods behind the house, and listening to an album my daughter gave me because she thought I’d like it, which I do.
@Joe, Love your last paragraph. That sounds pretty nice. 😎
@Joe Where does one find “XW Stats”?
YESINDEEDY, I enjoyed this puzzle. It was a ROLLICKING good time, despite my trying frolicking first. I cruised through the top two thirds in good order, but bogged down a bit in the bottom third, thanks to the aforementioned frolicking fiasco and having ante for pot filler before getting STEW. I still finished relatively quickly for a Saturday, but thought the puzzle was loaded with fresh clues and answers, which compensated for the relative ease of completion. TIL the term NAPTRAPPED. I’m familiar with the concept, although in my family it is usually a cat or dog that does the napping and trapping.
@Marshall Walthew "can you [task] for me? I'm trapped under a cat" is a common refrain in my house.
A satisfying one that started with the feeling that I would only ever manage the NW corner, but like a good crossword should, it led me just clearly enough into the next chunk and the next. Really fun, faster than my average time. Also, I like the crossing at 24. I knew SHEL well as a kid, with an English teacher grandma who made sure I had all his poetry books, but I was oddly delighted a couple decades later to learn that another big outlet for his work was... Playboy Magazine. Something about a writer who knew so well how to do insightful kid stuff for kids and decidedly adult stuff for adults is appealing. Happy Saturday to you all.
@Regine I love that for years Playboy Magazine was the premiere outlet for short story fiction.
@Regine Do you remember Uncle Shelby's ABZ book? It looked like a kids' book but was really a naughty book for adults. I remember something about putting sugar in your parents's gas tank....
@Joe In the version I'm familiar with, Little Rabbit FooFoo didn't get a trial, but was summarily sentenced to be a goon.
This was an easy Saturday ansd I am not complaining.
For me that was hard. SHONDALAND, ERNO, PTOWN, DODIRTY all unknowns. It was heavy on USAisms (eg PUPU, COBB) which makes it a bit of a slog for those not living your culture. Fish and Lent is universal but FISHFRY was news to me. Anyway, it turned out ok. Teat for organic energy source was the last to be switched out. Thanks
@Ιασων “Fish and Lent is universal…” Maybe not so much in Saudi Arabia or China.
@Ιασων Great typo! "Organic energy source" indeed!
FIRSTOFALL, I was caught FLATFOOTED by NAPTRAPPED and PTOWN, but eventually I OBVI earned my PRIZEMONEY (grand total: 0 RIYALS) by finishing faster than usual.
I am almost always NAPTRAPPED while solving the daily crossword! And hoping for no poo-poo platters!
Oh. and what the heck - one more puzzle find. A Sunday from October 31, 1999 by Frank A. Longo with the title "Twin states." Some theme clues and answers with the rebuses in parentheses. LIFETI(ME)(ME)MBERSHIPS COMIN(GA)(GA)INST EL(IL)(IL)LYANDCOMPANY CNNHEADLI(NE)(NE)WS ROY(AL)(AL)BERTHALL SCENESFRO(MA)(MA)LL SING(IN)(IN)THERAIN BE(AR)(AR)ESEMBLANCETO CLAU(DE)(DE)BUSSY A(MI)(MI)SSINGSOMETHING Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/31/1999&g=58&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/31/1999&g=58&d=D</a> ...
I was so sure the Sartre clue was about his refusal to accept the CUP and the fill was ANTINObEL. OBVI I'm a little behind the times slangwise. Nice puzzle, Kyle. I enjoyed it.
Typical tough Saturday for me, with a few complete unknowns and others that were never going to dawn on me just from the clues. A little bit of cheating but otherwise managed to slog through it. No complaints. Interesting puzzle find today - a Thursday from June 21, 2001 by Peter Abide. The 'reveal' in that one: Electrical device with a hint to answering 17-, 27- and 48-Across : ONOFFSWITCH And... those clues and answers: "Management group for a pro team :" FROFFTONICE ""A Star Is Born" co-star :" KRISTONERSOFF "Gridiron ploy :" OFFSIDEKICKON Always nice to see something different. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/21/2001&g=63&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/21/2001&g=63&d=A</a> ...
fantastic Saturday puzzle!!!!! I hope everyone is having a good weekend!
'Twas a ROLLICKING good puzzle, YES INDEEDY. Toy chests before PROP ROOMS, but that was quickly "crossed" out. IN ANY CASE, I'm still waiting for the GOON TRIAL.
@Linda Jo We Southern ladies think alike! (We also have *pink* PHLOX in our borders.)
That was as hard as yesterday’s was simple. It was the ‘Americanisms’ that got me, as they will occasionally. LLC=Ltd in the UK. As I only had C for ages I was stuck. PUPU? I’ve only discovered by reading the comments that it’s a Chinese type food dish. Not knowing 1A held up almost everything in that quarter, as I had no clue for 3, 6, or 9D. Though of course I’ve spent years of my life (it seems) being 1A’d without knowing what to call it. Ah me. Still, a fun, crunchy outing. SHONDALAND WONDERBRA and ANTINOVEL were helpful gimmes and the rest fell gradually. Memories of being faced with a gigantic Eva and her ‘girls’ on the Chiswick flyover on my daily commute. It did nothing for us women I have to say, neither the over exposed vision of a beautiful half naked woman, nor the actual bras, which were bulky monstrosities.
Did 21D make anyone else think of "Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH?" (Young me was very excited to learn that NIMH was not made up.)
@Jennifer I always think of that book when LEE comes up in crosswords!!!
@Nancy that was the first time I’d heard (read) the word in that context, and I read the book more than once, so it stuck with me. 😊
Another quick one, but I enjoyed the fill. FIRST OF ALL, my in-laws live on Cape Cod, so Province TOWN was a gimme. I’m also a big fan of Keanu Reeves and Bruce Willis, so ACTION HERO just plopped itself in there. As a SoCal native, the ANAHEIM Ducks another gimme. Even though I’m a Halloween baby, I’m not a fan of scary movies and I would definitely react IN TERROR if I had to sit through one 😬 I could go on and on about how the puzzle intersects with my life, but I will just say that I was on the same wavelength as Kyle. Thank you for a breezy Saturday grid.
Took me forever, in fact as I was writing this comment, to parse 18A, not had by = ONTO. "I'm ON TO you." The rest of the grid was nice and challenging, but I was totally stuck at NONO and ONTO. Plus not being super hip on Sartre terms. Minor nit: a JIB is set on the forestay, which is in front of the foremast (or just mast if there's only one). The jib is not really set "on the front of a foremast", but in front of. Yes, the top point of the sail is attached to the mast, but that's all. The luff, or forward edge of the jib, is attached to the forestay. That said, what other 3-letter sail is there?
@Nora The NYT doesn't believe LUFF is a word, so the CrWd Crew stopped reading when they got to that part. Better luck next time!
@Nora OMG THANK YOU! My partner and I could not make sense of “ONTO” as that answer.
@Nora And I just thought that ONTO was what was omitted in the abbreviation TOR.
Another Kyle, eh? I certainly fell for some misdirects: AXIOMS before PROOFS, and I BET for "No duh!".... and (like Linda Jo) TOY CHEST for the Other Kind of Play... and I had I CAN'T for 2D before I was persuaded to rethink that corner. 40D reminded me of the enormous TAIL FINS of the "Belch-Fire Eight" in Sunday funny paper cartoon fame... not to mention the infamous Edsels even though it was the FISH-face front end that really won the "1950s car design" booby prize. On with the lovely day....
Today I learned that ‘rollicking’ is yet another word that separates the English speaking world. It has an entirely different meaning to a Brit!
@Mr Kitten Even better is when you frolic while you rollick!
@Mr Kitten Wasn't a "gorlocking" a savage beating in "A Clockwork Orange?" I don't think that's quite right.
@Mr Kitten OK, if it gets past the ever-vigilant emus, what do Brits think it means? (Euphemisms welcome, if needed.)
Just a really nice flow to this puzzle. Interestingly, I'd skip a clue, hopeless, only to quickly double back on a cross as the answer clicked. I panicked on the riyal/repair cross - my brain kept trying to fill in an 'o' instead of an 'i' there and I couldn't keep my eyes off the clock. But then it fell into place, like the rest of the puzzle did; an interesting experience. I just might have caught the author's wavelength.
Pretty fun challenge! NW was the last to fall for me
@Hugh It was the trickiest for me too, although I did get through it first; the rest came a bit faster.
@Hugh That's so interesting! It was the first area of the grid I dealt with, and quite easily, too. ACTION HERO was my foothold, and I got SHONDALAND quicky, with just a few crosses. I'm not familiar with "Grey's Anatomy" or who was responsible for it, but I know that brand very well from "Bridgerton" 😃 For me the SE was impossibly difficult without looking up the Freudian clue.
'"That way" is not an accurate clue for YON. The proper solution to that would be the adverb YONDER: "He's over that way"; "He's over yonder." YON is a demonstrative adjective, like THIS or THAT, and precedes a noun: "he's over by yon tree." (Originally THIS meant near the speaker, THAT meant near the interlocutor, and YON meant away from both. Over time the meaning of YON got folded into THAT.)
@joel88s Yes, ‘yon’ was primarily adjectival in Old English. As an adverb synonymous with ‘yonder,’ however, it’s attested since early 16th c. Middle English and well into Modern English—one might argue into today, if you take into account dialectal or literary use. You may have seen it in contemporary writing (if sparingly used) in ‘hither and yon:’ ‘this way and that way.’
@joel88s, first thing I thought of when I got the answer was the old expression “hither and yon,” which means here and there. So I suppose it worked both ways.
The NW slowed me down a bit. I was only sure of P-TOWN and PEAT. Just when I memorized Rubik's first name, I see I have another ERNO to remember. Give me music, food, and animals and I'm unstoppable, but organized sports, movies and TV shows are never at the tip of my pencil. Good little challenge in an otherwise quick solve.
@Nancy J. Let's hope he's the only one. There are plenty more where that came from: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern%C5%91" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ern%C5%91</a>
@Nancy J. I've looked up and typed SHEL a dozen times, and still have to look it up. Slippery little sucker.
@Nancy J. Your comment about ERNO strikes me as a great example of something I’ve noticed about NYT crosswords: the strong tendency to play fair by giving us an inference pathway even when presenting us what may appear to be wildly obscure trivia. Laszlo is the most distinctively Hungarian name I can think of, so it makes sense to try the only distinctively Hungarian four-letter first name most of us know. If the cosmetics czar had been named Dave Laszlo or Sven Laszlo I don’t think the editors would have done us dirty. In other words, I like the way one can so often use general knowledge where it might look like unreasonably specific knowledge is called for, and that seems deliberate.
Sam (Corbin), I like to call it "laptrapped" when a cat has me pinned down …. 😺 Alas, many years since that has happened, due to guilt over trapping a cat in an apartment that stays empty of humans for fourteen or more hours at a time. Swell puzzle. Tough, but still finished close to my usual time.
@Alita Shaver I work from home, sometimes at my computer for a few hours at a time, particularly if the writing is going well. Sometimes my cat jumps onto my lap and I know he’s saying, “Dude, you need a break.” After maybe ten minutes he will jump off again, giving me permission to resume writing.
Turns out JUST PEACHY contains the same number of letters as YES INDEEDY 😂 I lucked out today with several gimmes in the NW ...ACTION HERO, SHONDALAND, PTOWN, and figured the second half of 1a was TRAPPED (as I find myself frequently cat trapped, like right now). I clearly remember the anxiety of attempting to lay a sleeping baby down without them waking up. Phew! But that SE corner had me stumped for a long time. I loved the clues for STEW and WONDERBRA. I kept thinking of push-pops instead of push-ups and was trying to come up with an ice cream brand that starts with W 😂 nicely done!
@Ash I had Yes siree Bob for a WHILE 🤣
FIRSTOFALL, I'd never heard the term before but I realize now that sometimes I NAPTRAP myself... I mean, not really, since I can't exactly lay across myself, but I sure can burrow into a nice napping position with the blankies juuuussssst right—and feel wonderfully trapped by the wonderfulness! I know this makes no sense, but I'm okay with that and ohhhh, I do love a good nap! Mmmm! Still, that was my last area to complete... it took a long time to come up with NASTY. I was a bit blocked by thinking of AWFUL, but I was pretty sure of ACTIONHERO, fortunately. But no idea of PTOWN, caNS before TINS, ANAHEIM was somewhere in my bingo ball cage brain and eventually popped up with a couple of crosses. Kept thinking of emotional breakdowns at 19A. Don't know why... I mean, it's not like I had a small one the other day or anything.... Nope, not me!! Har!! DODIRTY did not come easily and isn't familiar—though now I'm singing dirty deeds—done dirt cheap—in my head. So, that was my toughest area but it all eventually pieced together without much trouble. Once I finally had NASTY (Ms. Jackson if you're NASTY) in place after getting all but 3D, the only thing that made sense there was a P, even if I didn't know what PTOWN meant at the moment. Huzzah!! INANYCASE, nice puzzle! Definitely on the faster side again, even with those slowdowns, with some crunch to it. I like the cut of its JIB!
Oops, apologies for capping the word awful. Whoops!! That's a NONO! Also, I'm captivated by Sam's photo choice today. The expressions (especially the young man right above the blond lady's head), the minister (I assume)... the lady that appears enamored with his backside. I mean, what is going on here!? The church basement potluck dinners of my youth sure never looked like this! Har!!
So, second themeless Wednesday in a row. Dont get me wrong. It was fun to solve. The combo that had me most flumoxed was Ducks on ice/ANAHEIM. OBVI.
@Vaer Wednesday? Was there a time-slip while I wasn't online?
I did this tucked up in bed. Not really a Saturday, more of a warm and comfy sweater of a puzzle that I moved through enjoying the wit and rhythm of the solve. The constructor’s comments were the perfect ending for my day.
@Kevin D Me too, tucked in, but fighting off them viruses (or is that virii).
Really enjoyed that! Tough and I had nothing for a while. Lots of American stuff that I didn’t know but so satisfying to finally slog it to completion. I had ‘in horror’ for a while which held me up for a bit… Good puzzle.
@Gareth Yup, I had to hold off on terror or horror until I got some crosses to confirm terror.
Ooohh! And one more puzzle find. A Sunday from September 29, 1991 by Nancy Nicholson Joline with the title "Vowel play." Theme answers in that one - all straightforwardly clued: LILIUOKALANI POLLAIUOLO LEEUWENHOEK OEILDEBOEUF SEANOFAOLAIN ONOMATOPOEIA MOOGOOGAIPAN Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/29/1991&g=16&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=9/29/1991&g=16&d=D</a> .....
Y'all, I twisted my brain silly but could not make my MAIDENFORM BRA fit in or around the spaces. 😂 Fun puzzle! Thank you.
I had a ROLLICKING good time. Admittedly a hefty serving of both trivia and tricky/misleading clues; and admittedly I knew a fair amount of the former, and I believe you can never have too much of the latter (a minority opinion, perhaps). Maybe it’s just the way my mind thinks; I’m embarrassed how quickly I came up with WONDERBRA. Wonderful seed entry in NAPTRAPPED (new to me, but I’ll be sure to use it from now on). I could list more favorite clues but too many to count. I will call out ProvinceTOWN; a lovely little place that is worth a trip to if you are up that way. I know it because they have a Tennessee Williams festival every year and my son frequently directs shows there; his first coincidentally was Mae West’s SEX. Welcome back after your crossword hiatus Kyle!
That was an upside-down week, for my solve times. Fastest to slowest: —Friday —Saturday —Monday —Tuesday (Worcestershire) —Thursday (wheels) —Wednesday (duck rabbit) Wed was 2.2 x Fri Enjoyed them all
Re the sleeping cat - we call that cat trapped, maybe a clue for another puzzle!