I speak Spanish and still missed “Once” (11) being “Numero”. False cognate alert! Great clue.
@Tony Oh my word!!! I didn't get that answer until I read your comment. I'm not fluent by any means but know enough Spanish that I should have caught that. Thank you!
@Tony I speak Spanish, too, and immediately knew that it meant "eleven." But dumb me, I didn't realize until I was on the other side of the grid that the answer was going to be in Spanish. And I've been doing these puzzles since Carter had pills. (Look that one up!).
@Tony, hopefully you’ll only make that mistake ONCE.
@Tony So I DO speak Spanish yet I continued for a bit to be puzzled by the answer to "Once e.g. (NUMERO) even when it completed the puzzle for me. And when I DID figure it out I was sort of irked by it. I guess having a foreign language answer to a foreign language clue feels like a step too far.
@Tonythis one stumped even after I had the puzzle solved. Came here for an explanation. D’oh !!!
Eels dance in a conger line. (Or hire a moray-achi band.)
@Mike Accompanied by coral music?
@Mike Once again, you don the manta of success.
@Mike And here you go again...spawning a sea of puns weed do well to eeliminate!
@Mike You always manage to bring a ray of light into our day. Elver the optimist!
37 Across: Heat has surprisingly little correlation to DESERT. The largest DESERT in the world Is Antarctica, which is not known for its heat. The Gobi DESERT’s average temperature is 27.5°F (-2.5°C). I know, it’s a hint, not a definition, but what if it hints at something misleading and borderline untrue? A defining characteristic of a desert is lack of rainfall, not heat.
@Steve L this conversation happens often here. Friday and Saturday puzzles are supposed to have potentially misleading clues. The more, the more fun that they are. In this case, most of us make the mistaken assumption that, indeed, deserts are exclusively hot. A lot of deserts get very cold at night even if they are very hot during the day. I do get what you are saying though.
What if a puzzle is puzzling? Isn’t that the whole point?
@Steve L So that was my first thought while solving. However, a little Google Fu gives more credence to the clueing than I thought. Here's MW: arid land with usually sparse vegetation especially : such land having a very warm climate and receiving less than 25 centimeters (10 inches) of sporadic rainfall annually Cambridge makes no such distinction. More examples show a roughly even split between referring to temperature as a typical characteristic of a desert or not
@Steve L from a quick scan of the list on Wikipedia it looks like most of the planet's largest deserts are classified as tropical or subtropical. a desert on earth is quite likely to be a hot spot, and some of the planet's hottest places are deserts. clue seems fine to me
@Steve L If you know it's a hint, not a definition, I can't see why you are bothering to write that comment.
@Steve L As I was solving the puzzle this morning, I wondered how many commenter would pick this as their nit du jour.
I mean, sure. Define 'desert' as a place with low rainfall--and of course I admit that that is the definition--and Antarctica gets included But if I say 'picture a desert', nobody, not even you definition-pedants, imagines Antarctica. Nobody. Live here in the Mojave long enough and you'll get snowed on, but move away and what you'll remember is 120F in August. The clue is fine.
I know essentially no Spanish, don't follow any basketball, and have never heard the term c-store, so that made for some awkward moments. Eventually I had to google "c-store", which opened things up for me. And apparently I was still well below my average time, so make of that what you will. On a different topic, I have to call out our columnist - the ONE REEL of a Loony Toon short was *film*, not tape. (Grumble grumble. Kids today don't know nothin' 'bout technology older than they are, and won't even bother to look it up. Grumble, grumble, eye roll etc.)
@Grumpy You cannot truly live up to all that's implied by your moniker if you are as self aware as you reveal yourself to be in your parenthetical remark.
@Grumpy You beat me to it. I came here to say the same about ONEREEL. The first Looney Tunes were produced in the 1930s, decades before video tape technology became available. Thank you!! Mark
@Grumpy And the columnist also erred by implying that there was no relationship between a film being a ONE-REELer and how long it ran.
@Grumpy same here. I've never heard of a C-store.
@Grumpy Guilty as charged. Thanks for letting me know, next time I'll get it right! I have too much respect for Looney Tunes to not report on them with 100% accuracy.
@Grumpy I came here to say the same about ONEREEL. I.e., "film", not "tape".
@Grumpy Good catch on film. After the solve I looked up c-store. I think it's where you buy GAS STATION SUSHI.
So there’s definitely a theme to this puzzle—a doctor’s office: Question for a psychiatrist? AMILOSINGMYMIND Make sure you take the entire dose of medicine… DRINKITALLIN …and don’t complain about the taste! SILENTTREATMENT And, of course, what a plastic surgeon does when you ask if there’s anything else you need to work on— BRINGSUPTHEREAR
@SP Actually when I wrote this I was just thinking she brings it up as a topic to discuss—but then I realized she may literally bring up the rear when she operates as well!
@SP MY WALLETS GONE! MY WALLETS GONE!
An elegant grid with four nice long entries. It took me a while to get a foothold, but, as is often the case when long entries abound, once I figured out one of the long ones (DRINKINGITALLIN), the puzzle came together quickly. I liked that the puzzle started out with ANDIQUOTE, to which there was NOREPLY, perhaps as a result of the SILENTREATMENT. OKIE From Muskogee cropped up on one of the playlists I was listening to earlier today. I’ve always loved that the singer of that anthem for Richard Nixon’s so called silent majority, contrary to the lyrics of the song, smoked his fair share of marijuana. Whether or not Merle took any trips on LSD is less certain. But I DIGRESS. A very fun puzzle that wasn’t as hard as it seemed, but that made for a satisfying Friday solve on a Thursday night.
That was a fun one. Lots of clever clues, not impossibly hard. Kudos to the author.
A nitpick for blogger Sean: Only two, not three, of the puzzle’s spanners are NYT debuts. This tiny ding is easily outweighed by the rest of your lovely review. I especially loved your choice of photo, whose tilted trees, blissfully zoned out humans, and quietly lapping ocean instantly relaxed me, as well as your take that seamlessly and cleverly melded the pop culture elements of Erica’s puzzle. Bravo, sir!
@Lewis Nice catch! You are correct — BRINGS UP THE REAR has appeared before, in the pre-Shortz era. Thanks for calling it out and I appreciate the kind words about the column.
Outstanding long entries. I mean so many fun entries in one puzzle. It could have been epic, but… yes, editors, you made it Wednesday level. It’s a shame. I want to DRINK this grid ALL IN. Editors. What’s up? Please explain?!? NO REPLY?Why you giving us the SILENT TREATMENT? It’s NOT OK. It’s fun to watch my average go down when doing 2026 puzzles, then skyrocket doing 2014 archives. I finished a Saturday Feb 22,2014 over a couple days. Granted I wasn’t “locked in”. But it took 1:09. Today’s took 25% of that. I know it is a Friday, but still. Amazing grid Erica.
@Weak The editors are telling us: ACCLIMATE.
Fan. Flippin. Tastic. Both in construction *and* editing. The lack of question marks, the subtlety of clues, the spanners, the things I learned! TURDUCKEN went in with crosses, and I was certain I’d be revisiting the NW because that isn’t a thing. In CC Land. Tripped up a couple times, but what a gorgeous balance of “ I do not know “ “ I might…know “ “ I have a couple guesses…” and “I know this!” all leading to a puzzle, growing clearer and clearer with every *single* filled square. POY contestant, fo sho. Wowza.
@CCNY Wow. Now I’ve read the comments. I looked back to see what my solve time was and yeah, it wasn’t very long. But the solve itself was still fun and challenging. My story. Sticking to it.
@CCNY, well said! That was my experience also. Was it as challenging as I would expect on a Friday? Definitely not. But the fresh fill (only one EEL!), several fun misdirects (2D’s NUMERO being my favorite!l) and the lengthy spanners made for a fun solve, albeit well under my Friday average. XWord Info gave this only a 30 for Friday Freshness* (bearing out our complaints to the editors), but a 68 for Overall Freshness. Hopefully, we’ll have more of a challenge tomorrow, but I enjoyed Ms. Wojcik’s puzzle today. *68 overall percentile means only 32% of all crosswords have a higher Freshness score. 30 Friday percentile means 70% of all Friday crosswords score higher.
@CCNY That was largely my experience, too. The solve went fast but it didn't feel like it, at all.
Came here expecting lots of complaints about the lack of difficulty and a negative review by Andrzej for all the pop-culture trivia. First expectation fulfilled. Second, not so much. Which I guess augments the first. I still think the changes are inevitable, but I’m starting to feel the pain of so many here. I mean, when a trivia-laden puzzle can’t even make Andrzej mad, what’s the point? (I say this with love.) I’ve never had turducken, and it’s safe to say I never will. The very idea creeps me out. It’s the horror movie version of culinary fusion. Or a chef’s recreation of the old lady who swallowed a goat to catch the dog to catch the cat to catch the bird to catch the spider that wriggled and jiggled and tickled inside her. Either way, I’m not going to be the outmost layer in this unholy matryoshka.
@Heidi I'm right there with you on the turducken. It seems a bit obscene, frankly.
@Heidi I've never been used as a litmus for anything before so... thank you? I appreciate the love, and I reciprocate. One correction - puzzles rarely, if ever, make me mad. I am, however, often personally disappointed by my solving experience, but the feelings I then experience are closer to annoyance than anger.
I was immediately intrigued by the stark grid design, with its bold elements: the photo album corners, sash, sideways crosses (or tees), four black bars, and no distracting scattershot blocks. For me, the puzzle had an easier half on one side of the sash, and grittier half on the other, which gave me the sweet blend of whoosh and rub. Standing out were the four spanners which were rewarding in two ways. First, it was fun trying to guess them with as few crosses as possible, and as each answer came, it brought a marvelous “Aha!”. And second, all of them were gorgeous, and simply lit up the grid. I fell for [Once, e.g.]; confidently wrote in ADVERB and stubbornly stuck with that until it became too strong a barricade. Aside from the spanners, I loved AND I QUOTE, DIGRESS, ACCLIMATE, TENABLE, and AUGERS. I also liked the abutting I LOVE IT and DRINKING IT ALL IN. A rich and scrumptious outing for me, lush with lovely. Thank you, Erica!
Lewis, I was with you on paragraphs 1 and 3. I wish my solve had had a grittier half.
@Lewis I liked AND I QUOTE, but I don't see how it can be "indignant" as it was clued.
This was a fun one for me - after dropping in just a smattering of guesses on my first sweep I became increasingly worried I’d have to resort to extensive googling to make any real progress. But gradually (and sometimes suddenly) things started to click, and feasible answers slowly emerged for the clues where my knowledge failed me. Super satisfying!
I am getting better at these Friday puzzles! Loved the spanning entries. Still have to look up names and places. Really liked this one. Thanks! Y’all have a great Friday!
More fun than usual on a Friday, thanks to the constructor!
[What Frankenstein's monster said upon discovering that his stitches were coming undone] AM I LOSING MY MIND
@ad absurdum Meanwhile, Dracula was DRINKING IT ALL IN.
Excellent Friday puzzle. Completely solvable, but little that was obvious from the start. Lots of answers that were guessable, but very few gimmes. TENABLE is a good example: perfectly "reasonable", but hard to guess. And lots of fresh answers; little that was stale. I'm a fan, Erica Hsiung Wojcik! I worry about those who complain that a sweet puzzle like this is too easy. They are in danger of becoming the boys and girls who cry wolf, who therefore can be ignored.
@The X-Phile Numbers don’t lie. I finished about ten minutes under my average, so about twice as fast as usual. There was some fun stuff, but almost nothing to actually make me slow down and think. Not sure how that’s “crying wolf” when it’s just pointing out an obvious, true, provable fact experienced by many here.
I found this refreshing and not a bad challenge for me at least for a Friday—I had to jump around a fair amount, and with MASH instead of MOSH, FINE instead of FIRE (wrong ERA—she’s so FINE), not too sure about NES and not enough depth in Beatles knowledge, that area of the grid took some permutating. Loved the NUMERO, TURDUCKEN and DIVORCE clues. I was SOIN for the Yas Queen clue. The long entries were all fun. And finally, in the “Everything I Know I Learned from Star Trek” department, anyone else first learn about ENGRAMS from “The Ultimate Computer” episode in the original series? The one where Daystrom copies his ENGRAMS onto the computer and drives it insane?
@SP Oh yes and to answer the constructor’s notes I did appreciate the 1-a clue as well.
SYNODS x FANTAN was a tough one for me. Interestingly, these sorts of Naticks never seem to make it into the “tricky” portion of the column, but the fun or interesting clues always seem to (even if they’re not that hard to solve). I’d probably make the same decision as a columnist, but I might suggest a different heading for that section. The rest of this puzzle went by really quickly but it was fun to solve, nonetheless.
@Striker this was the exact spot that was tough for me too
Fun Friday. SAN MIGUEL really crushed me today because I was so certain it was SAN MANUEL. What difference two letters make...
I'm happy to see that Dale Chihuly and his amazing glass art pieces are now deemed to be sufficiently well-known so as to be included in a puzzle clue. For those unfamiliar with his work, here is an introduction. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPZSZFC3YJw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPZSZFC3YJw</a> I encourage to look for videos of his work being created. In art glass, the production of the artwork is an integral part of the artwork as a whole.
@The X-Phile The Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock had a fabulous show (inside and outside displays!) that included some of Chihuly's inspirations, such as a collection of brilliantly-colored woven blankets. It was such an intriguing presentation. A few years later, the Crystal Bridges Museum in NW Arkansas had a show (again, many pieces inside and some outside along the walkways.) We got to vote on which piece the museum purchased for the permanent collection!
@The X-Phile Thank you. This is new to me and looks fabulous. I noted on the video there’s an installation at Kew Gardens. I was thinking I hadn’t been for ages, will definitely make the trip now to look at what I think is a glass waterlily installation.
@The X-Phile I’m fortunate enough to be visiting the museum in June! Really looking forward to it.
Another 20 minute Friday solve. I fear that even the tricky cross of LOYD and OTRA is not going to make this puzzle sufficiently difficult. I am not looking forward to the comments, even though I'll agree with a lot of them. However, I am going to find something to say about this puzzle other than that, if it's the last thing I do. How many remember the Beatles song "No Reply"? It was always one I enjoyedl I became aware of rock music when the Beatles broke onto the scene, and I always liked how it seemed to flow differently from the standard early Beatles song. And this song provided a lot of interesting stray thoughts: "I tried to telephone. They said you were not home. That's a li-i-i-e". I also just realized that a lot of what I think I know about dating and mating rituals comes from early rock music, which was answering questions for me before I really even knew they were questions.
@Francis Great Beatles song. It reminds me this one by Elvis: Return to Sender I gave a letter to the postman He put it in his sack Bright early next morning He brought my letter back (She wrote upon it) Return to sender Address unknown No such number No such zone We had a quarrel A lover's spat I write I'm sorry But my letter keeps coming back <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZmUfUBqE-s" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZmUfUBqE-s</a> The Beatles stopped by and telephoned, but Elvis sent a letter!!
@Francis Interesting! I was hearing "No Reply At All" in my head but knew the voice wasn't a Beatle (it was Genesis) so I went online and listened to the song. It's rare that I stumble across a Beatles track which seems that unfamiliar. I know their catalog pretty well, but there are gaps in the earlier stuff. I listened to the later albums straight through ad infinitum, but knew a lot of the earlier stuff from radio play and compilations.
The photo reminds me of a popular feature of Andrew Sullivan's former blog (The Dish), The View From My Window, where readers would submit photos from their windows and others would try to determine where the photos were taken. At first glance, this looks like it could be any beach anywhere. But zooming in, there are some clues. There's a bit of garbage here and there (not kept immaculate), the dog looks like a stray mutt, palm tree and coconut, man pushing wheelbarrow full of something he's collecting (maybe just rubbish)... all of these give me a feel of SE Asia... That the beach/ocean is relatively empty of people says it isn't a popular tourist place like Phuket or Boracay... The sign on the tree might be helpful but I can't make it out even after zooming in...
@Bill in Yokohama At the top of the sign appears to be the words “ya chup anh” which I believe translates to “take a photo” or something similar in Vietnamese. So, I think you’re correct in your thinking that this photo was taken in SE Asia. Interesting observation to make, and you inadvertently led me to stare at a photo that I would typically just glance at…..
Yeah, I thought I recognized the Vietnamese-Latin alphabet in that sign, with the thingies at the tops and bottoms of letters.
@Bill in Yokohama this is the kind of detective work I come to the comments section for 👏👍🙂
@Bill in Yokohama Phu Quoc, Vietnam
Quite the challenge! Never heard of turducken… looks awful. As for ‘desert’, it’s defined by lack of rain not heat. The Antarctic is a desert, and it ain’t hot there!
I can't think of a TURDUCKEN without thinking of the great John Madden, NFL coach, and later, football "color commentator". He would lovingly speak of this dish every year at Thanksgiving during the broadcast of games. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d8ynf7IGbR8" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d8ynf7IGbR8</a> Here's a video that claims he put the bird(s) on the map: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ahdutg60n6o" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Ahdutg60n6o</a>
@The X-Phile and @retired, with cat For what it's worth: I have never heard of John Madden! But TURDUCKENs came up often on cooking shows, so that was a gimme. We take different paths in life, do we not?.....
@The X-Phile My favorite turducken memory came from Susan Stamberg’s annual NPR thanksgiving feast discussion - wherein chefs would describe their ideal creation. K-Paul went on at length for his version of turducken, then summed it up: “when you cut into that thing, you just gonna won’t believe…”
I really wanted 3D to be "Drink the kool aid" alas.
That's a good answer for 'Q follower'.
A beautiful challenge. What a delight! It is so fun to see the long entries emerge.
Nope. Pop Trivia laden, natik fest. You can't deduce the words just look them up.
@Lauren, hmm. I loved that there was almost no pop trivia, and the few such entries that were unknown to me (I haven’t yet seen Anora, didn’t know the Beatles song, forgot Jewell’s last name, and love Edward NORTON but didn’t know the movie), I got from the crosses and simple deduction. For example, no clue who he is (though TIL!), but Anora’s husband IVA_ had to be IVAN, which helped lead to NORTON, and I guessed Jewell LOY_ was LOYD. I was also unfamiliar with the Chinese game FANTAN but ultimately got it from FISH (out). While my knowledge of Bad Bunny’s repertoire was only recently expanded, I got a couple of letters of OTRO from the crosses and deduced the rest. That’s how these puzzles sometimes work for me—a few squares at a time until before you know it, whole sections get filled in where before there was a lot of emptiness. I love it that way!
Loved this one, especially NÚMERO.
All the obscure proper nouns didn’t bother me because I was able to get them with crossings. A good example for constructors.
Did the puzzle last night at 10 p.m. Saw 37A [Hot spot] with six squares, without hesitation entered DESERT, and immediately wondered how much pushback there would be and how soon. This morning, when I looked at the comments, I was not disappointed. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4fa83l?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4fa83l?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Barry Ancona I waited for crosses on that clue, not sure whether the "Hot spot" was going to be an "inferno" or a "hip club", but when I had it filled in, I asked myself the same question.
@Barry Ancona I didn't think it was going to be Steve L though. I thought he was going to be the one explaining the nature of crossword clues to the ones complaining.
@Barry Ancona I had a rESoRT for the "hot spot" and no, I hadn't seen the column photo.
Like many here, I've never in my life called it a C-store, but I got AT, and realized the c pointed toward initials. I don't know Spanish, but have learned enough just from doing puzzles to get OTRO. The definition was was clearly clued. And "Once" was a wonderful misdirect! This was one of those puzzles where I was able to intuit the things I didn't know, as I filled in others. And now you leave me no choice but to work! TGIF
@Amy I have never called it a C-store either, but when living in Massachusetts I certainly heard them called packies (package stores). Did that term also make its way down to Connecticut?
Had an absolute blast with this one. This puzzle was a breeze when I had the two neat horizontal spanners down quickly. Last entry to fall in was NUMERO, even though I learned what once in Spanish means from an archive crossword.
I have to confess I ONCE again I fell for it, reading "once" as an English word rather than Spanish, aunque sí hablo español.
I really enjoyed working this puzzle. Thanks for the workout!
Am I the only commenter who watched NFL Thanksgiving games in the John Madden era?!? Of course TURDUCKEN!
Little things slowed me down... (like OTRA before OTRO) and the inexplicable (to me) NUMERO for "Once, e.g."....oh, wait.... unless it was 11 in Spani....Never mind. Muy inteligente. The FANTAN I know is a card game--lots of fun! But I think I've read about the gambling version. Nobody I know still uses NEOSPORIN-- too many people were allergic to one of the ingredients in the "triple antibiotic." It's amazing how much treatments --even for minor wounds--have changed. You can't even get those old remedies. These days it's petroleium jelly post-op. UCSF was a gimme! I got to know all of the tunnels and alternate routes in that sprawling medical center up on Pill Hill. When PhysDau got new bracing, we went down to one of the museums surrounding Golden Gate Park and visited for an hour or so; by then, any trouble spots would show up as red areas on feet or legs, so we could zip back up the hill to the orthotics lab for adjustments...much better than another hour-long trip. One time, the Natural History Museum had a huge exhibit of Gary Larson cartoons (originals)--hilarious!--and it about killed me that I didn't get to see it all. My six-year-old, hyperactive companion didn't get the jokes, of course....ah, well.
At 2D, advERb fit perfectly for "Once" and I left it in for much too long. But it wasn't working with anything else in its nabe. Nor did it help that I thought that the "fully appreciating" clue would be thaNKfulness of some sort. I had all the wrong letters in that section and I fell into every trap. But eventually I sorted it out. What I didn't sort out was the NE corner, where PUB (!) led to U?M which led to nothing. Didn't know OTRO as clued, didn't know LOYD and don't know what a "C-store" is. Therefore I didn't know it had an ATM. If I had thought of LAB, but I didn't. So a DNF. Could have cheated on LOYD, but why bother? A tough puzzle for me -- made tougher by all the pop culture. Not really the way I want my puzzles toughened up, much as I like the challenge in theory. But the clue for DIVORCE at 37D is worthy of a Clue of the Year award. I don't know if it's new, but it stumped me, like, forever! And the clue/answer for TURDUCKEN is pretty terrific too. As an aside -- I wouldn't have the faintest idea what a TURDUCKEN is were it not for the NYTXW.
@Nancy In NYC, you call it a bodega, while the rest of the country calls it a convenience store.
@Nancy "Why bother?" is very representative of my experience with this puzzle, too
Nancy, Today's clue for DIVORCE is new to The Times (Lewis will know if it has appeared elsewhere). It was hinted at twice in one year a while ago. Thu Aug 8, 2013 31A Splitting headache? Daniel A. Finan Thu May 16, 2013 45D Split Brendan Emmett Quigley and Elizabeth Donovan
Pretty smooth sailing until I got stuck with MINI bar instead of TIKI. Are Tiki bars still around? "Not OK" looks like NOTOK, which sounds like some kind of snowboot. "Just a sec, let me get my notoks on!"
@mirle234 I had DIVE bar.
@mirle234 I didn’t understand NOTOK until reading your comment, so thank you for that. I’d parsed it out as NO-TOK and assumed it was some sort of TikTok slang I didn’t know about! 😂
Thank you, Sean, for the Jewel Loyd and WNBA shoutout. It’s great to see men supporting and enjoying the league! Appreciate ya.
I was chuffed (Hi Sue Jean) to see the clue for Bridget Jones's blue soup. Even though i knew it was wrong, I wanted to put tuna in that spot, because ever since I saw the movie whenever I open the fridge to look for something, I become "Bridget Jones...searching for tuna." I fell asleep last night with those last pesky entries that refuse to come to you still incomplete, and when I woke up this morning they magically came to me. I love when that happens.
@Vaer I kept thinking about the George Carlin bit about here being no real blue foods… <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l04dn8Msm-Y" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=l04dn8Msm-Y</a>
So many great misdirects in this puzzle! "Once", "citation" (I was wracking my brain coming up with what one might say to an officer while trying to get out of a ticket), "hot spot", and several others. I'm embarrassed at how long it took me to realize that N_T solved to NYT 🤦🏼♀️ and thank you for the reminder of my visit to the Chihuly garden in Seattle... Absolutely magical.
@Ash, I also wracked my brain for a classic retort to a police officer!
Great puzzle 👏🏻. Late week puzzles are always a challenge, which is as it should be. I have trouble with sports, very current music, and very current slang. My husband helps out with the sports (but he’s not home now 🙁) and my grandson helps with current slang occasionally. Sometimes I turn to Mr. Google. Today I took several runs at this one and got quite a lot on my own but did look up the WNBA star eventually. At least I know who Bad Bunny is now but needed crosses there to get his song. My last corner was the NW where “Nested birds?” fooled me for a long time. Thanks again to the whole team, and I’m enjoying your comments Sean.
The occasional brilliant clue (looking at you, 2D and 1A) utterly diluted by Tuesday dross. I will not stop calling out the demise of the Times puzzle.
@Matt This took me Wednesday time, despite my being unfamiliar with much of the fill - like Grumpy I struggled the most with the stack of the basketball player, c-store feature and Spanish title, and only resolved it with intelligent/lucky/chancy guesses, after looking up what a c-store was. So... I can only imagine how easy this must have been to you. I actually found the solve quite enjoyable - it felt much harder than it turned out to be. I was surprised when I looked at the timer as I finished: I was expecting to see a proper Friday time there. Also, I really dislike The Beatles and know almost none of the titles of their songs 🤣
NORTON is, in my opinion, one of the best actors of our time, and A Complete Unknown is used to clue him? There were so many better options. I did otherwise really enjoy the long entries this Friday. Difficult, but revealed themselves nicely with a few crossings.
@Sonja And I have always thought he's one of those actors whose method is not acting at all and hoping audiences will mistake it for skill 🤣
@Sonja Oh, that's easy - I haven't seen it :D @Dave It was meant to show how people's perceptions of the same thing may differ. And also, there is a personal theme, here, too. One of the most acclaimed Polish actors was Gustaw Holoubek. I couldn't stand him. He simply never did any acting. He just stood there, or sat, maybe, and talked - and that's it. Not matter whom he played, he "acted" the same. I mean, I don't enjoy it when actors ham it up, but the opposite is equally annoying, to me. Sonja is obviously the smarter person here, so don't put much stock in anything I write.
I posted my second post above on the wrong board level: it's in fact a reply to the two replies to my first post.
Drinking it all in, I enjoyed all four spanners.And some nice misdirections throughout. Thanks.
This is the first time I can remember NYT itself being an answer-- curious how frequently this self-referential answer has been in puzzles.
@Tom Now I'm curious too! According to XWordInfo (a great resource if you're interested in answer frequency), NYT has appeared 47 times in the New York Times Crossword.
@Tom Yes! When I was in college, my job was to play films for classes. Very often this meant playing reels of film. You had to be careful not to miss the change over if it was multiple reels… you didn’t want to forget and have to be reminded by a professor! (The worst was if the film broke and you had to quickly splice it back together) Kids these days have no idea how easy they have it! Of course I’m dating my self to admit all this but it did help me to answer that clue. I feel like solving crosswords is kind of like watching Jeopardy, just having lived longer gives you an advantage!
I found the long entries to be fairly easy, and there were some clues that I have learnt like EKE and IRK, (and I always say SAT NAV and not GPS), DIVORCE, IDLE and LAB were clever; FISH was a little bit unusual. Quite a few words and phrases that I had never ever heard of. Antibiotic ointment? Is that a good idea with antibiotic resistance growing? Didn't know that existed. Yas queen? No idea! Totally down for/So in? I would say I'm 'up for' something, I didn't know it had changed to 'down'. Ixnays? How is that pronounced? TURDUCKEN I thought what followed Q was ARE. If you visit UK it's cotton buds all the way. Then the trivia names, as usual, knew none of them apart from RENE. Half was a challenge, half not.
@Jane Wheelaghan Jorge the Lab often needed antibiotic ointment so it definitely is a thing, and very useful at that.
@Jane Wheelaghan I can help you with a couple of language weirdisms. “Turducken” is a dish made of deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck stuffed into a turkey…somehow. Have never tried it, but it is a thing. “Ixnay” is Pig Latin for “nix”—Pig Latin is taking a word, moving the first consonant or sometimes group, like “th”, to the end of the word and adding “ay”—code-like. Kids used to do it a lot as a way to pass secrets. “Ixnay” is used a lot to say “shhh” or “quiet” if you don’t want to be overheard. In the 1970s, the PBS kid’s show “Zoom” introduced their version of a word game/language called Ubby Dubby, which was hilarious fun. You inserted “ub” before a vowel sound in a word, so “crossword” would become “crubosswubord”. I digress. Sorry ’bout that.
@Jane Wheelaghan I like that TURDUCKEN is on its own line, with no elaboration. For those who don't know, TURDUCKEN is an American abomination where you cook a chicken inside of a duck inside of a turkey. I'm not sure anyone has actually done this, or if it is only legend.
@Jane Wheelaghan I don't think I would have gotten SAT NAV without having watched "Top Gear." We don't say mod cons, either.
Grid full of lazy random slang and pop culture trivia. Not enjoyable in the slightest bit. C-Store... Really??
Really. <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/c-store" target="_blank">https://www.dictionary.com/browse/c-store</a>
@Michael It's okay to not know slang or trivia, but please do not call the constructor lazy. She worked hard on this puzzle.
@Michael while it wasn’t that difficult for a Friday, it was about an average workout. As to your not enjoying its construction, I say this with affection: maybe the NYT puzzle is not for you.
"Once, e.g." was my final hold-up. Nice cluing!