"I've told you a thousand times! Our horizontal coordinates are still not correct!" "Wow. You really have a bad latitude." ("But I don't know where I am!" "Well, you need to map out of it.")
@Mike I think this comment was a little off tropic…
@Mike This comment really is off tropic (or topic) but your pun reminded me a great book recommendation, “Longitude” by Dana Sibelius. It is a fascinating account of how an 18th century clockmaker, John Harrison, was able to solve a navigational problem which had vexed seagoers for centuries—how to accurately determine you longitude at sea. Latitude was easy if you could see the sun or the north stars, but longitude was a huge issue. It’s a short read but an amazing insight into problem solving. Another rabbit hole, I know, which has nothing to do with the puzzle but that’s what I love about these comments, personally.
@SP I think your comment about Longitude was hijacked by autocorrect. Dava Sobel wrote the book, not Sibelius.
@Mike “Longitude” is what each piano lesson felt like in my childhood. “Latitude” is how I feel about milky coffee. (I think it may also be how the French feel about everything)
@Mike Rudder-ly ridiculous. Sea what I mean?
@Mike Funny but horizontal coordinates are longitudinal.
@Mike With these changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes Nothing remains quite the same With all of my running and all of my cunning If I couldn't laugh I just would go insane If we couldn't laugh we just would go insane If we weren't all crazy we would go insane earworm courtesy of Jimmy Buffet
I woke up in the middle of the night so unusually I'm one of the first posters. It's just past 4 AM here. I personally found this unusually easy for a Friday, despite being unfamiliar with most of the trivia. I completed the puzzle in Tuesday/Wednesday time, and just 3 minutes slower than this week's Monday (which was surprisingly difficult for me). Now I'm wondering if the grid was undercooked for this late in the week, or maybe my good performance was down to that preternatural clarity of mind one sometimes enjoys having woken up way too early. There was nothing particularly interesting about this one, was there? Just one thing comes to mind: would a sommelier recommend the house wine, of all things? I don't know about the US but in Europe house wine usually is good value for money and perfectly fine for casual wine drinkers. It's what you get when you're not a wine snob, often after rolling your eyes at the expensive wine list the sommelier presents you with, taking you for the sort of person who will pay three times as much for a glass of red than for your main dish 🤷🏽
I was thinking of an alternative clue. Choice to snub the cab snob? Sommelier's eye-roll choice? Sommelier's bane? Zin of sin? Sommelier's red scare? Champagne usually isn't one? Cab from a carton? 🍷
Andrzej, The HOUSE WINE clue says "offering," not "recommendation," so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. And the HOUSE WINE pairs well with the light fare in the puzzle. Try it!
@Barry Ancona I'm in a fighting mood so I'll argue with you 😃 At the restaurants I know, the house wine is to be found in the general menu, along with the starters, the mains, the desserts, soft drinks, coffee, and beer. It's never on the wine list, and *that's* what an actual sommelier offers you. Can you imagine a sommelier, of all people, accepting your house wine choice without an eye roll? If there is such a thing as a sommelier card, surely it gets revoked for not looking down on people who insist on house wine.
@Andrzej “Cheap cab” FTW, as the kids who abbreviate our language into extinction say. Re. teen sommeliers: Heh, I googled “slang for cheap wine” because I couldn’t think of anything other than ‘plonk’ or ‘box wine’ (and I really refuse to acknowledge that the wine-in-a-can trend has followers), and I accidentally ended up on a subReddit which was quite clearly populated by teenage sommeliers, sniffing at their customers’ pronouncing the ‘s’ in ‘en fils.’ Ah, youth; are we ever so happily entrenched in our perceived superiority anytime after our teens? I’ve got the implied eye roll before. But that’s because I don’t drink wine 99% of the time and, instead, very shamelessly, ask what they have on tap, a Michelin star next to the restaurant’s name or not. I believe I rate below the “cheap cab” slummers.
@Andrzej In some restaurants, part of a sommelier’s job is to select the wines that are offered, including the house wines.
@Sam Lyons It means a lot that you liked one of my ideas 😃 Right? I felt so superior to so many people as a young adult... These days I only look down upon those who litter. Everything else may generally be justified. My wife and and I almost always go for draft beer, too. In Denmark we stayed at this fancy hotel that also had an equally fancy restaurant. We ordered the full tasting menu but we passed on the wine pairing and ordered ales 🤪. The server was very polite about it though 😃. @Barry I know! But I'm too lazy so usually we just order food via Uber...
@Andrzej Didn't find it interesting? Put a bird on it! <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GNpIOlDhigw&pp=ygUVYmVzdCBwb3J0bGFuZGlhIHNraXRz" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GNpIOlDhigw&pp=ygUVYmVzdCBwb3J0bGFuZGlhIHNraXRz</a>
I'm with Andrzej on this one, no sommelier is going to recommend the house red which is by definition plonk. Tonight at TG dinner we had a great Chateauneuf-du-Pape from 2009 and a fine Meursault a friend brought along. Tomorrow it's back to the plonk no sommelier would tout, some Apothic $5.99 stuff I happen to like. I also like cheese curls. How many of you had Etta before Rick? And whose consideration of Rick James has at least been partly shaped by Dave Chappelle's recurrent parody of him on the Chappelle Show? (Link below). Answer -- me and me. Poor Uta Hagen, the only Uta famous enough to be in a crossword, and I guess for Fridays a "setter" must avoid her, since that would be overly tried and true, so then it's on to the sports ticker clues, nothing to be done about it. Poor setter. I endorse the soundtrack of this puzzle: Art Tatum, Rick James, Bono, the Maytals. I'd bet good money there's a band out there called Bad Attitude and I'd also bet that they are not A-One and that no sommelier would recommend them, either. House bands and house reds...
Dave Chappelle: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dave+chappelle+rick+james" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dave+chappelle+rick+james</a>
@John ezra I've been wondering for a while when the answer to the clue "___ James" was going to be RICK instead of Etta, and have always kept that possibility in mind.
@john ezra As a somm myself, we'll absolutely recommend the house wine if the guest has a low to moderate budget and the wine fits their description. Not all plonk at all places! (see the wine enthusiast article from last year titled "The House Wine Is Getting a Makeover")
@John ezra I should have looked it up before I finished my earlier comment, but BAD ATTITUDE is an album by Meatloaf. There is also a British alternative band called VENUS FLY TRAP, and don't forget that RICK DEES performed "Disco Duck" back in the day besides having a syndicated radio program featuring the top 40s.
@john ezra I interpreted "offering" to mean that the sommelier selected the house wine rather than recommended it.
@john ezra Cheese curls and Apothic (esp. Apothic Dark Red—“Don’t buy it *just* for the cool label!”) both rock, paired or separately. The Casillero del Diablo cab makes a fine quick-shelf-grab when you’re having company who don’t try to elaborately approximate rolled Parisian r’s when reading labels.
@john ezra I don't really understand the stigma. Isn't the whole point that the house wine will be "drinkable" and NOT swill? I frequently defer to it. Why wouldn't the sommelier offer (or recommend - I'm not buying that there's a distinction) the house wine, when presumably he or she had a big say in selecting it for the restaurant?
Name drop alert…my father-in-law is buried next to the immortal Rick James in Forest Lawn Cemetery, Buffalo NY. Went smoothly for me. Knocked half off my average for a Friday.
@Geoff Offermann I have one like that too. On Mark Twain's Wikipedia page there is a picture of his headstone. In the background there are several small stones; one of them is my Mom and Dad.
I had ENhORSE for a bit. You know, when you enhorse yourself after falling off and you're [Back in the race?]
@Ioana We could all learn the art of twisted justification from you! (I myself was trying to get ENCORES to work...)
@Ioana Yes. I also tried oNhORSE.
@Ioana Based on having the "RSE" at the end, I was delighted with myself when I arrived at REVERSE for [Back in the race?]. F1 or Indy vs. political race. I still think it's a great clue for that answer, too!
A pair of answer lists to start: Debut answers aren’t automatically good, but, IMO, six of the seven today were worthy Times oeuvre additions: BAD ATTITUDE, BOOK A ROOM, DANCE TROUPE, HOUSE WINE, STAY OUT OF IT, and VENUS FLYTRAP. Mwah! A first-name windfall, with NAOMI, RICK, RORY, FAYE, ROSIE, RENE, ALICE, and not-clued-as-names DOTTY, OLLIE, UTA, and LEE. Then a pair of banger original clues: [Drive around the office] for WORK ETHIC and [Prepared statement?] for I’M READY. That terrific clue, [Plant eater?] for VENUS FLY TRAP, showed up in June in the New Yorker, but it’s clear from his notes that Jacob came up with it independently. And thrillingly, a pair of glory moments for me, getting TRIED AND TRUE off the U, and getting VENUS FLY TRAP off the A. What a beautifully built grid, Jacob, a low-count 68-worder, hardly a whiff of junk, and 14 longs. This takes another pair – talent and grit – to pull off. What a splendid outing you gave me today – thank you!
@Lewis well put and I agree, this was a super satisfying puzzle
@Lewis “Then a pair of banger original clues: [Drive around the office] for WORK ETHIC and [Prepared statement?] for I’M READY.” Absolutely loved those two 🤌
Lots of fresh entries and some good clues in this one, especially the clues for VENUSFLYTRAP and WORKETHIC. I tried REED for the James in the R&B hall of fame, thinking of the great Jimmy Reed, and only got RICK from the crosses. I was puzzled as to who James Rick was until the lightbulb illuminated, oh RICK James. Got me. Face Palm. I was thrilled to see ARTTATUM make an appearance here. He’s one of my favorite jazz pianists whose intricate riffs on the great American songbook for solo piano, are nothing short of amazing. Some find his style too ornate, but his technique, replete with glissandos and embellishments, is beyond compare. So high was his reputation among his peers that Fats Waller (no slouch himself) was reputed to have said upon seeing Tatum enter a club where Fats was playing, “I’m just a piano player, but God is in the house.” If you give him a listen, play the tune several times, the depth and complexity of what he’s doing become clearer on repeat listening, but he never forsakes the original melody. The clue references Tea For Two, but my favorites are Aunt Hagar’s Blues and The Way You Look Tonight.
@Marshall Walthew I only thought of Art Tatum because I've reread the Harry Bosch books so often. Actually, I thought 'no way, they can't be talking about Art Tatum' because its not a name like Ella, Etta, Lil Nas, Ono, Eno or Bono. Will wonders never cease.
@Marshall Walthew I still cherish the Astaire/Rogers version of "The Way You Look Tonight". She's in jammies, a towel around her neck, and shampoo in her hair while he's serenading her. The dissonance between the lyrics and the way she actually does look is a hoot.
@Marshall Walthew I'm a fan of the Bosch books, but I never stopped to wonder if all the jazz names mentioned were real or not 🤣 That guy today didn't ring a bell, which says a lot about how I approach trivia that my mind labels as particularly irrelevant.
Beat my Friday average, but I didn't find it easy. I confidently filled in ISLANDERS for 17A, and then I quickly deleted it. Wait, Bahrain is an island? Yes, as it turns out. Also, since so many of us are thinking of it on the day after Thanksgiving, if another constructor wants to use VENUSFLYTRAP as a seed, WKRPINCINCINNATI works as a spanner and DRJOHNNYFEVER, LESNESSMAN, and HERBTARLECK all fit. "As god is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
@Jack McCullough — Thanks for making this connection to one of the best sitcom lines of all time 🍗
@Jack McCullough WKRP was based on Atlanta station WQXI. That frequency is now occupied by a Korean-language station. I'm not sure, but I think before that it was a sports-oriented talk show that was done in by something offensive said by one of their crew on-air. The turkey drop actually happened. One of the characters in the show was named VENUSFLYTRAP.
@Jack McCullough We were living in Cincinnati when WKRP was a hit sit-com, and that was one of our fave episodes. And we were proud of the writers for not shying away from the stadium tragedy when laughter died...
This was no turkey, and it was light enough for those who had too much (turkey or rebus) yesterday. I'd say VENUS FLYTRAP was a TRIED AND TRUE seed, Jacob.
N.B. In case the irony was missed, VENUS FLYTRAP is one of seven debut answers in this puzzle (per xwordinfo.com). This is the fourth appearance of TRIED AND TRUE.
My first instinct for the James clue was Etta, which gave me a headache for a while.
@HEK Same here. And... that led me to do an answer history search for ATLAST: 144 appearances and... Etta James was in the clue... ....twice. Hmmm. ...
@HEK Ditto! But it made me grin to later realize I had instantly gone for the bait :)
@HEK Given how often we've seen ETTA appear in the crosswords, probably almost all of us did this.It was a really deft misdirect. The only lookup I needed was a check on how to spell ARMISEN, and had I just followed my first impulse I would have gotten the whole thing cleanly. I got all the proper names, despite not knowing most of them, from the crosses. I did know ALICE, though, because I read the passage about her being free with advice she seldom followed fairly recently. Three quarters of my ancestry is untraceable, but the quarter of them that I do know about came to the US from rural Lincolnshire in 1907. Winnie the Pooh (the original, not the dancing, singing, ad-pitching Technicolor Disney version), Alice in Wonderland, The Jungle Book, and other aspects of Victorian England were all part of my childhood and my adult outlook, which is a little strange given that I look a little like a wild-haired elderly version of Ho Chi Minh. As a child I had no idea that my older relatives had immigrated here. I just thought that as you grew old you started speaking in what I now know was a Lincolnshire accent.
Nice quick Friday to end the work week, for those *not* in the US. Hope y'all had a nice Thanksgiving.
I was curious if others would have found this easy or not; I finished it quickly but had to jump around a lot, and I had a few footholds with proper names which I wasn’t sure others would know immediately. Seems like so far that’s the case but it’s early and the jury’s still out. Still I enjoyed it, and it was nice that even when I had one or two sections the rest weren’t gimmes. Gotta thank Steve L today, if memory serves, for using SETTERS in a comment recently which would have been a mystery otherwise. Gotta show some love for ROSIE although it’s a gutsy call to cite a character who is barely in the books or movie; still that last scene of LOTR is so affecting and IMO is one of the best endings in literature, I for one will never forget her name. Had a few misdirects which didn’t fit the puzzle so didn’t slow me down; thinking of EMMA before ALICE, CRACKERJACKS before CHEESECURLS and some sort of office putting green before WORKETHIC. And everyone, you are entitled to your opinions but remember BADATTITUDEs are not constructive. George—this may be an easier Friday, or not, but Tuesday??!! Come on.
@SP Even I thought this was of a Tuesday/Wednesday difficulty, and I'm as different from George as it gets. ROSIE was such a token, trope presence in LoTR, lacking any sort of character, a prize for the man back from his adventure. The whole ending of that book/movie always seemed inelegantly tacked on...
@SP C’mon folks where are all my Tolkien fans? Or am I the only one who loved the ending of LOTR? And nobody standing up for Frodo? Andrzej, just remember this was not a novel nor was it meant to be. It was an attempt to create some mythology, and on that basis the characters and even some of the villains fleshed out more than most.
A nicely chewy grid, glad to see I’m spared the nightmare that was yesterday’s offering. Felt hard but solved reasonably quickly. Unknown ?comedian? Jazz pianist and the obligatory sports name aside, it was fairly smooth once I got a few of the blanks filled in. PAINTBALL *shudder* The weekend before I started a new job I was invited to their social outing; paintballing on one of the wettest, coldest days of the year. All went well until some idiot hit me point blank. In the face. Those things Hurt! My first day in the office I looked like I’d gone 10 rounds with Ali. Several years later I had an X-ray pre dental work. I was asked what treatment I’d had for my fractured jaw. No wonder it hurt.
Liked the puzzle, but one small nitpick. No restaurant that maintains a sommelier is going to be happy if they recommend a HOUSE WINE.
One small nitpick to your one small nitpick: the clue says "offering," not "recommendation."
N.B. There was a lengthy discussion of HOUSE WINE twelve hours ago. Here's a link if you don't want to scroll: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4c40il?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4c40il?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Derek Parks Recently I ate with friends at a sports bar in the Village. When it came time to order, the following dialogue took place: Friend: What red wines do you have? Waiter: Red Friend: I'll have the red, then
Very fast today, about half my usual Friday time, which is actually fine because I need to pull out of my holiday laze and get some work done. Some clever clues. I especially liked "Drive around the office" and "Prepared statement?" The flash mob clue and answer reminded me of something I heard about but never saw. Apparently when the pedestrian scramble was first introduced to our local intersections, during the 15 seconds when pedestrians have use of the entire intersection, improvisational dancers would dash out from the four corners, do a 7 second dance, then dash back.
And now reading the comments, I see I'm one of a crowd with my two favorite clues.
5D is not a Paris neighborhood but a city proper outside of Paris. It is where Saint Denis died sometime around 250 CE after being beheaded in Montmartre (Mount of Martyrs) and not dying on the spot. Legend has him carrying his head and preaching a sermon over the butte and down the other side. When he finally finishes his speech he drops dead. On the spot, St. Genevieve has a chapel erected which becomes the basilica of Saint Denis. A minor quibble to a good puzzle but a fascinating story, which goes much deeper than my short version.
Johnny, It was suggested here earlier that the clue does not refer to the city but rather to Rue Saint-Denis. Thoughts?
I had a number of lookups even before I gave up and turned to Mr. Aronow for help. Names were a big problem. Some of them were in the 11 clues to names that I couldn't answer (well, I was pretty sure of ALICE) and I only recognize two of the answers, ALICE and BONO. But here is a weird thing that keeps happening to me. I'll see something like ___T_T__ from crossings at 35A and decide to google "art tatum" and it turns out to be a real person's name that I don't remember ever hearing or seeing before! A less startling case was at 30A where crosses gave me __R_. "Maybe rori?" I wondered, seeing a use for the first R. Close enough! The silly app thinks I really solved this puzzle and have a five-day streak!
@kilaueabart Art Tatum was an absolutely amazing jazz pianist, certainly one of the greatest, if not THE greatest. He was blind, or nearly so, which only makes his playing more remarkable. Definitely worth a listen!
@kilaueabart Thank you for sharing this; as one of the many in your fan club, you've just made me smile and yell out "Yay! Way to go!" It doesn't matter that you had look-ups – many people do. And some of your look-ups were just confirmation of a hunch you had, which makes them really special. You *do* have a five-day streak, and one that includes late-week puzzles! 👏🏻♥️
Who else thought "fake account" was BOT?
@Barry F Yup! The NW corner had me totally stumped for a long time. I had WALKATHON for 'Drive around the office', I guess I've watched The Office too many times, though I think they had the Fun Run. I thought drive as in fund raise, you know? Oh goodness... I lost the plot with 'Dead ends?' When will those types of clues stop tripping me up! Was lost on 'Back in the race?' and no idea for 'Rap figures'. I finally looked up Sam's wife, and with that things, finally, started to fall into place, but I'm annoyed about having to look something up! Ah well, I made it pretty far just on grit and guesses!
My favorite clues were 14A (for WORK ETHIC) and 37A (for VENUS FLY TRAP); my least favorite was 50D (“Locked horns” for AT IT). I finished the puzzle listening to ART TATUM, who I first heard of while solving 35A :) Thank you to the constructor for the introduction.
A solid puzzle, with some fun clues and misdirects, but pretty easy for a Friday. Not difficult, but engaging, which seems just right for a holiday. Thank you, Jacob. I'd say you're a fine SETTER.
I got a PR today and this past Wednesday! I was actually getting slower for a long time so this feels good. Have a great weekend everyone!!
Thank you for an LLM free puzzle. Calling it AI is an insult to intelligence. At my work when it’s used it’s referred to as the 🦋. The butterfly wrote this or said this allows for the chaos that sometimes follows and avoids giving it any veneer of respectability. With the exception of the natnick A at 35A/36D the rest was a good fair workout. Thanks
@Ιασων “Calling [LLMs] AI is an insult to intelligence.” Amen, sing it! It’s absolutely crazy-making how the term “AI”, in popular usage, has suddenly come to refer to a very specific crop of genAI tools, and the associated money bonfire that so much of the US economy’s output is being tossed onto.
ART TATUM was The Man. OMG such skill, such crisp playing, such beauty. Here. You owe yourself at least this -- two-and-a-half minutes of pure virtuosity: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35tR9Slmql8&list=RDEM8fz5yQ2L7r9pQAkiolEYgQ&index=4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=35tR9Slmql8&list=RDEM8fz5yQ2L7r9pQAkiolEYgQ&index=4</a>
@Lewis 👍👍 I’m glad to see some people having an appreciation of ARTTATUM, like you, and some others open to giving him a listen. Just another way that puzzles can broaden our worlds — turning trivia to treasure.
I’d like to have seen Wordplay give a shout out to jazz great ART TATUM. Here’s a YouTube that shows the nearly blind pianist’s absolute virtuosity: <a href="https://youtu.be/q0QD558TWSQ?si=12BCt0S4rgPRAegC" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/q0QD558TWSQ?si=12BCt0S4rgPRAegC</a>
@Steve, thanks for the link. I was listening to Tea for Two when I saw your comment. Tatum was one of those Mozart-esque geniuses who could hear something once and then play it almost note-for-note. There's the famous story when he went into a club where Fats Waller was playing. Waller saw him, stopped and said “ Ladies & gentlemen, I just play the piano — but God is in the house tonight.”
@Steve -- Hah! We have very similar taste in ART. (See my post below...)
Some great cluing in a not-as-hard-as-it-seemed puzzle. I feel compelled to point out that all plants eat. Venus flytraps are merely some of the few who aren't cagey or crafty enough to do their hunting under cover of night. Consider the lilies!!
On today's roster of proper names, we're just one shy of a rugby league. NAOMI WATTS, RICK JAMES, RORY MCILROY, FAYE MARSAY, ART TATUM, PAUL HEWSON (BONO), ROSIE, ST DENIS, RENE, FRED ARMISEN, ALICE, JOSE OLE.
cameron, You missed a couple, but who's counting?
My immediate entry of the crossword go to, ETTA, for 21 across gummed up the northeast corner for me. I kept ignoring my wife's insistence that maybe it's wrong until she finally wore me down and I deleted it. It all fell into place after that. A lesson learned.
@Tom I too thought first of etta, but I knew that 21 down had to be RENE. I nonetheless kept trying to find a way that etta could be right but finally gave up and tried to think of someone whose name started with R. I finally got it, but only thanks to the crossings.
I filled in 15D from the crosses and stared at the answer for a while, convinced it meant that one who was at the back of the race was the END ‘ORSE.
We’re making plans for a trip to Paris in a few months. We are learning every day as we research each arrondissement, and have a map taped to the pantry door, right in front of me, as I solve, with a red dot on the place we are staying, on Rue de St Denis. The puzzle can be creeeeeepy…
@CCNY Crunchy to start, then came together. Nice puzzle. I used to stay in a tiny hotel on Square des Innocents (now a MacDonalds), which had a fountain and a carousel. It was at the foot of ST. DENIS, where ladies in doorways wore a fur coat over lingerie. I love when my memory lanes lead to solving these puzzles. Have a great trip, and as you’ll be near, see the free Brancusi Studio recreation outside Cèntre Pompidou.
@CCNY You want creepy? St Denis was martyred by beheading. He picked up his severed head and walked six miles to where he would be buried and his cathedral built, with his head preaching the gospel along the way. I'm sure you will see his statue there, holding his head in his hands. Fun for the kids! (Headache sufferers pray to St Denis for relief.)
Having read all the comments, I have to laugh at the "house wine" debate here, not long after reading this absolutely hysterical piece in the Washington Post, about the theft of six bottles of French pinot noir from a fancy restaurant in Virginia valued at $38,000. This is a gift article, so it should bypass the paywall. Enjoy. We can all use some levity from something out of Washington. <a href="https://wapo.st/3XTgXPV" target="_blank">https://wapo.st/3XTgXPV</a>
“I wish I had more hands so I can give (this puzzle) FOUR THUMBS DOWN!” Kidding of course, quoting the Chappelle skit. This one gets four thumbs up despite calling Fred Armisen funny. 🤣
Robert Davis, I will grant you that Fred is not everyone’s cup of tea, but I wish I lived in a world where, however tactile, we all could laugh as hard as I do every time I watch him do Nicholas Fehn on Weekend Update. <a href="https://youtu.be/WKLHsJyhTYs?si=gwgTWEWP9rJpXl2c" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/WKLHsJyhTYs?si=gwgTWEWP9rJpXl2c</a>
I never get the Friday puzzle. Today I got the Friday puzzle (pretty much without a sweat). Was the puzzle too easy or does my 75-year-old brain still have some life in it?
A tried and true Friday challenge. Thanks Jacob!
The less said about about me and this puzzle the better, but not the puzzle's fault. Circling back to the Roger Ebert puzzle comments from a few days ago, a number of people revealed themselves to be John Prine fans. Here's an unlocked article about him and a documentary about him, which is playing at the Quad cinema in NYC and that will be available to stream at some point next year. It features performances from a tribute concert a few years ago. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/arts/music/john-prine-documentary-you-got-gold.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4k8.gqQF.3jpPoswQLd0r&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/27/arts/music/john-prine-documentary-you-got-gold.html?unlocked_article_code=1.4k8.gqQF.3jpPoswQLd0r&smid=url-share</a>
@Vaer Here's a link to the Bonnie Raitt/Brandi Carlile performance of Angel From Montgomery from the tribute concert. <a href="https://youtu.be/l8mp01ioZjY?si=mcrVXIspsk-S0lZ3" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/l8mp01ioZjY?si=mcrVXIspsk-S0lZ3</a>
@Vaer Thanks. John Prine is one of my favorites and I listen to a lot of his music. We saw him at Red Rocks in CO some years ago and it’s a wonderful memory. He is sorely missed but he left us a lot of great recordings.
@sotto voce John released it in 1971; Bonnie in 1974 on her album Streetlights, I probably heard her version in the late 70s Are you familiar with either of the sisters Shelby Lynne and Allison Moorer? Each are singers with their own careers, but they did in an album together of mostly covers a few years back called It's Not Dark Yet. I think you'd like it. The title song is definitely on YouTube.
Enjoyed the puzzle, but falling asleep in the sun in the middle of it certainly hurt my average Friday time. Too much tryptophan yesterday.
Bit of an odd puzzle find, inspired by current circumstances. I'm now in a VA facility and the one picture I brought with me to hang on the wall is 'The Venetian Lamplighters' by Maxfield Parrish. Because of my compulsive letter counting it dawned on me that that name is 15 letters. And.. it was an answer once - in a Monday puzzle from July 27, 2009. And... the other two 15 letter theme answers in that one were: PUBLISHORPERISH and LOUISIANAPARISH And... the constructor of that puzzle was... Allan E. Parrish Don't ever recall coming upon anything quite like that before. Here's the link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/27/2009&g=17&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/27/2009&g=17&d=A</a> ...
Thank goodness for a puzzle that does not require one to stuff nine letters in a single cell -I'm thinking yesterday, yeesh! This was an enjoyable solve.
@Asher You're right - this was a grid to satisfy those who don't enjoy any interesting twists to their puzzles.
Fun Friday puzzle. Had 'CHEESE PULLS' for 6D and was starting to form a rant in my head about how it's not a kind of junk food before I realised my mistake.
Fun puzzle. Slow start for me. Everything was in my head, but getting it out was another thing.
Enjoyed this one, decent crunch but flowed well and no obvious clunkers for clues. More of these please!
My thinking while working through this puzzle: WTH is going on here? Tabbed through all the across clues and filled in maybe 6 or so, with a few provisional/probably incorrect answers. Finished in 17 minutes, an epic collapse for a MONDAY puzzle. Started reading the comments and was genuinely confused by all the "Friday" discussion. Took me a while. Holidays really mess with one's sense of time. Anyway, now that I'm back in reality, those 17 minutes don't look too bad.
I'm glad to see some classic Jazz in today's puzzle. And I'm grateful, on the day after Thanksgiving, that no one has (yet?) called ART TATUM an obscure musician.
@The X-Phile Your comment yesterday was absurd. And touching. Thank you.
I just want to give thanks to Christina Iverson for her 'easy mode' clues. I needed twenty of her clues this morning. This saved me from 'full cheats'! Enjoy your weekend, everyone. (Enjoy your leftovers!)
@southern gal I was moved by what you wrote yesterday and wrote a response. It is pretty buried. Here is the entire thread started by Helen Wright. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4c3rsj?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4c3rsj?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Lynn Thank you for reposting this. Heart-breaking – and unfathomable that an adult should do that to a child. @southern gal It's time you learned the truth: what happened had nothing really to do with your writing. Your teacher was evil, that's all. If Hemingway, with his style of writing, had been your teacher's pupil, the literary world would have a void where his books should be. What you shared with us was beautifully written. But even so, no one in this forum is here to judge writing acumen nor grammar proficiency, much the less writing style. This is a safe space for you to share your experience with the puzzle, your opinion about it, and memories it might evoke or knowledge you might have. Start with one or two sentences, if that's what you're comfortable with. Or let it rip with full paragraphs, no matter how long it takes you to write what's on your mind. This forum is not a writing class nor contest, and there are no evil teachers in sight. As long as comments are respectful of constructors, editors, columnists, and commenters, we all just want to share experiences about the puzzle, culture, and life itself. Please take the leap! 😉
This had some nice clues and the fill was clean. But overall, this puzzle had the difficulty of a Tuesday puzzle. The constructor should have seen this, and the editing team should have done better to make this at least slightly challenging for a Friday. 3.5/10.
@George Here is the perspective of a newer solver: I can usually do Tuesdays with no help, but I only got halfway through this puzzle without needing to consult the column (And comments) for hints. I think the raters got it right, and that you are probably so good at solving that you can't tell an easy from a medium. Like how grandma can't tell if your friend is 16 or 23, you know?
@George I think you are seriously underestimating the level of challenge inherent in calibrating crossword difficulty with much precision. For me, this puzzle felt pretty much exactly the same as last Friday, difficulty-wise — which is to say, more or less average. Based on xwstats and the bulk of the comments, your experience of today’s puzzle seems more representative of the wider group’s…but does that mean that I and the rest of the 23% of xwstats users who came in above their Friday averages today were somehow *wrong* about the difficulty of today’s puzzle, while you and the remaining 77% were *right*?
Loved this one. Had almost nothing through the top 11 rows on my first pass, but gained some traction in the bottom four rows and slowly worked my way up, finally finishing in the northwest and top center, with the answer for the delightful “Drive around the office?” being the last of many aha moments. Thanks, Jacob!
Typical tough Friday for me. A number of answers that I was never going to get just from the clues, but... working the crosses was enough for something to finally dawn on me. Ended up being a mostly enjoyable workout. Oh... and seven debut answers but UNDERACTS was the only one that was completely unfamiliar to me. A couple of puzzle finds today. The first one a Thursday from January 15, 2015 by Herre Schouwerwou. One square with a "-" (dash) in it rather than a letter. Anyway - the theme answers in order: ICOULDHAVE LOVEDNEWYORK HADINOTLOVED BALTI-MORE Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/15/2015&g=38&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/15/2015&g=38&d=D</a> I'll put another puzzle in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Thursday from September 5, 2013 by Damon Gulczynski. That one had four squares that apparently could be alternated between two letters, and... with either letter the answers made sense with both the down and across clues. Some examples: 1a: "Belief system founded in China" (M)AOISM (T)AOSIM and 1d: (M)OIL (T)OIL And some other answers, both ways: S(P)ATTERED S(C)ATTERED) (P)HI (C)HI S(P)UTTERED S(T)UTTERED (P)HI (C)HI (R)ICERS (D)ICERS (R)UST (D)UST Here's that link. <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/5/2013&g=39&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/5/2013&g=39&d=D</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta I don't know Thing 1 about him but I love Herre's name. In fact, I'm just wild about Herre.
Yowser dowser, as DHubby is prone to exclaim. Rhythm and Blues, Disney films, grcery brands that are likely regional, a literary protagonist that was NOT a character imagined by Jane Austen ...how tricky can you get?? PAINT BALL... it can do more than splatter! (Recalling the night our neighbors' storm door glass was shattered, and windows on our station wagon were shot out....orange PAINT but no fingerprints... "Back in the race" had to be REVERSE, right? More LOTR characters arrgh! Is there anyone who DIDN'T play "Tea for Two"?? Maybe I should take up eating candy and other junk food, just to help with solving... A real Saturday workout! Thanks, Jake.
@Mean Old Lady I read all the LOTR books, saw all the movies, and cannot recall any of the names except the two or three main ones. In fact, the ones I recall the best (of the more obscure ones) are those that show up in Xwords. I share your frustration. Sometimes I feel as though I am being punished for not being culturally current, since I have no idea who the Gilmore Girls are, or the rap stars (I can read rap, but not listen to it), or who was whom in which movie, or... But I do read. Due to the advocacy of this community, I finally read Moby Dick (well, most of it. Argghh). But when those culture clues come up (here, and on Jeopardy!) I shudder. Some I've learned, others, I wait for the crosses. And I thought PAINTBALL would be bomb, not ball. Oh well.
Where is Bill from Detroit?? I have a pie emergency to discuss with him --for future pies' sake, not last night's-- but I guess he's sleeping off T'giving, poor guy. Wishing everyone a Happy Leftover Day...
Hi. MOL! It was late in the day yesterday when I saw a note you posted for me when I commented on @ Marshall Walthew's post. Thank you so much! I was very moved by the kind words, especially coming from you who are a V.I.P. in this forum and very much loved. I hope you and your family are having a happy Thanksgiving weekend!