I just did not care for this one at all, for some reason. Half of the fun of misdirected cluing is that you get the “aha” with a few letters left. I had quite the opposite experience: only after slogging through crosses did the answer reveal itself, and by then the “aha” had become “oh, huh?” HTTP was a great example. Like, sure, it kind of makes sense once you already know it. But the clue is so vague that you could ONLY ever get it on crosses—a brutal position for 1D that puts you on the back foot immediately. Other toeholds felt similarly torturous and/or nebulous (TAX EXILE? SKI AREA? SEX MANUALS?) Most of these are outside of common parlance, or have components easily interchanged (park for AREA, e.g.) Most answers just fell into this “lumpy” category for me where I’d maybe have part of a compound word that could go a number of ways, leading to more frustration than fun. But that’s just my two bits.
@Edward So for those of us looking back to more challenging days, those are the kinds of nebulous clues we long for. But diff’rent strokes, I suppose.
@Edward Your three examples of torturous and/or nebulous answers seem like normal phrases to me.
@Edward Modern youth has its limitations. Tax exiles, ski areas, and sex manuals were all common parlance when I was coming of age.
@Edward I really know what you mean. I understand the slippery, unsettled feeling that one gets deep into the puzzle, with a lot of scary white space and even more iffy answers. But, like SP and Steve L says, this is what a tough puzzle has--lots and lots of answers that could go one of two or three ways. I was stuck with TheEXILE for a long time. Who'da thought the answer would have not one, but two Xs in it. Likewise, I had tAkESON for a long time as well. This was a doozie, IMHO.
@Edward Is only been 1:40 since puzzle drop. But I’m surprised this is the top comment. I guess the entries could be considered “green paint”. But they are legitimate things. Though I’ve never heard of tax exile. Tax haven. Yes. Tax exile, I assume means leaving the country and never coming back. But I guess the point for me is that the cluing was actually fun. I mean wordplay fun. And gave the puzzle a level of difficulty that I think many solvers here long for. But of course, YMMV. and that’s cool. It’s great that you were so thoughtful in stating your dissatisfaction.
@Edward This seems to be more a complaint about difficulty than quality. Of course most answers in a NYT Friday should be solvable only once you have a few crosses… that’s the point of a CROSSword. It would be a rather dull affair if you could simply deduce every single answer from the clue alone… the vagueness is a feature. HTTP is a pretty odd example too: once you have HT, what else is it going to be? The same is true of the rest of your examples too… just because something is nebulous doesn’t make it bad… again, this should be a feature of late-week puzzles. Fairly harsh assessment, given the cluing is largely excellent, and there are plenty of AHA moments. I think this really just reflects that people have become too used to the simplistic cluing that has begun to characterise late week NYT crosswords the past 5 or so years, which is a shame.
@Edward I agree with the HTTP complaint, too vague a clue. Also, "a ding thing" is an awful clue - why would someone necessarily equate a "ding", which is a very specific sound, to a text message? Any sound can be used for a text message notification, and a ding could be used for any infinite number of things. How many people actually have that as their notification sound for a text? A good clue / answer pair should have at least one of the two parts be very specific and unique. This one had neither. I don't mind hard, but this puzzle seemed overly complicated, even for a Friday. I was almost double my average Friday time.
@Edwardi felt exactly the same. And I'd argue that http isn't really _usually_ followed by an "S"? Sometimes, sure. Even often. But it depends on the site.
@Edward Like SP says, different strokes. I thought the puzzle was great. For me, the "indecipherable" clues, like HTTP and PST, were interspersed with gimmes, like KOFI, ACTI, and ERE. I fell into several traps, like antes up before CATSITS. I thought HTTP was brilliant. Isabeau says she got it with no crosses! And I was curious, these days almost every site is HTTPS. I have seen a trend towards that in the past several years, and a poke around browsing history showed me that every site I'd been to recently was HTTPS. The answer came slowly, partly because I've found that I'm almost always ignorant of "modern lingo", so I give it a wide berth. I've never heard ski park. It's a ski area or maybe resort.
@Edward The Rolling Stones became TAX EXILES from the UK to France in early 70s to escape 90%+/- taxes and remain solvent. There, they recorded EXILE on Main St.
@Edward HTTP had an incredibly vague clue, sure, but gettable with any 2 crossing letters since it's such a weird combo. It is Friday after all. I thought TAX EXILE was a great clue, and SEX MANUALS is surely not that obscure. I'd agree with SKI AREA, a very bland and generic description I don't think I've even seen before. Maybe it's an actual thing in areas that have skiing...
@Edward Funny, I struggled with some of the entries you highlighted…but came away with exactly the opposite overall impression. As SP said, this is *exactly* the kind of puzzle lots of us hope for on Fridays (though TBH, still decidedly on the easy side for a Friday, let alone Saturday, by historical standards).
@Edward I agree that many of the clues were vague and difficult to decipher, But, for me, that's part of the fun of Friday and Saturday puzzles. They're supposed to be puzzling. A note on "toehold": I use that term for when I get a word that I'm not sure of (usually a short one), and it makes me see other answers that were previously obscure, opening up an area of the puzzle. It seems that one of us is using the term incorrectly. (Or have I misunderstood you? Or maybe the word has multiple meanings?) What do others think?
@Edward It depresses me that this is the top comment.
Katie, Depressing, perhaps, but ALAS, not surprising. Clicking is always easy, solving can be hard. Lots of unhappy clickers today.
Gotta admit I've never seen EAR LAP rather than ear flap.
@Adina I ran through the vowels on that one, decided on an I because ear lip sounded more plausible than ear lap, and only switched to an A when I got the end-game reprimand. EARLAP still sounds strange to me, even though the dictionary confirms it’s a real word. ( The definition? “Earflap”.)
@Adina It's one of those words that's in the dictionary, but no human ever uses it. Except for crossword constructors.
That was kinda awesome - properly challenging but also enjoyable and very satisfying to solve. There was just so much misdirection! Finally! That happens so rarely at the NYT these days I almost literally feel giddy when it does. Great job constructors, and cheers to the editors for apparently not messing it up. It took me the longest time to figure out ELF HAT and TED TALK - both things are very American and not really present in my psyche. Our Polish Christmas lore involves no elfs (or elves), so their attire is largely alien to me. I tried listening to a few TED TALKS but every time I thought there was something irritatingly infantile about them: as an academic I just cringed at all the oversimplifications, and the obviously much rehearsed, hammed-up enthusiasm of the speakers rubbed me the wrong way, too. Too much drama, too little substance (incidentally, for similar reasons I generally avoid American documentaries). I was familiar with RONDA and KYIV, but for NAST, NHL, KROFT (I wanted KRaFT so badly there once only a few letters were missing! And knowing Lara Croft didn't help) I had to rely on crosses - but I appreciate how the constructors avoided nativity crossings. I don't rate puzzles but if I did, this one would be 10/10.
Nativity... That was supposed to be "naticky" but if course autocorrect knew better, and I missed it.
@Andrzej It's good to hear your praise for a puzzle. I have to admit, to you and to myself, I look to you, as I do others here, for self-confirmation of my opinion of a puzzle. I thought this was a quality puzzle, and at the half-way mark I'd probably have given myself a one-in-six chance of solving it cleanly.
@Andrzej Definitely agree with your assessment of TED TALKs. To me, they appear to be a sales pitch for something, but I’m never quite sure what I’m supposed to be buying.
@Andrzej I agree that TED Talks and many documentaries are annoyingly superficial. I have found that YouTube is the best place to find in-depth information on things that interest me, but it does take a bit of effort to sift through all the content.
@Andrzej - I think the original TED talks are often worthwhile But the franchise -- the TEDx talks, are all over the place. But there are occasional gems, such as this one -- the best part of which is excerpted in this video. (I am ignoring the fact that he can't pronounce "interstitial" correctly...) <a href="https://youtu.be/2FMBSblpcrc?si=9EgqCS9kVzSSyWn4" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/2FMBSblpcrc?si=9EgqCS9kVzSSyWn4</a>
Oof, that was hard. But very satisfying to complete!
Hope no one HATESON this puzzle, because I thought it was TODIEFOR. I had almost nothing until somewhere near the bottom and even then not sure how I got a foothold, in retrospect. A ton of fantastic misdirects, loved the MEDSCHOOL clue (natch) and STARTERKIT and TAXEXILE not far behind. Even the non misdirecting clues were well written and interesting—ANTICOMEDY (I was thinking of what we used to call “Shaggy Dog Stories”) and WHENINROME. Would expect nothing less of these great constructors. The NW was particularly tricky for me as I had SEDATE before ATEASE (there’s a DOOK) and EGGS for the scallop clue before EYES. Well done, could have even been a Saturday, certainly! If tomorrow if even harder I look forward to it.
@SP I had serenE instead of ATEASE. Got the right interpretation of white collar but slow to realize that neither Parson nor Pastor were going to absolve my solve. Liked the up to date Mammoth clue and the shoutout to Molly Goldberg.
@SP Ditto! You've captured the thrill of solving this gem of a crossword puzzle quite well. Like you, looking forward to another one.
@SP I had placid before ATEASE and felt pretty good about that. Awesome puzzle, like days of yore, ERE things got too easy.
@SP ATEASE and EYES were both in the NE, no?
Yes! Yes! Yes! Beautiful torture for 38 minutes. Over my average! I’m so happy. I made it through without looking anything up and that most delicious of experiences: “I’m never going to finish this one without help!“ Thank you for the fun before I go to bed.
@Jake G Took me almost twice as long, but otherwise the exact same for me.
@Jake G Lots of comments complaining about the difficulty and taking over their average time to solve. Those people should stick to the Mondays. I've been doing the Fridays (and a lot of Saturdays) too fast lately. Which is a bummer because I look forward to the challenge. I don't care about my average, I'm a glutton for this kind of frustration. I don't want to know everything, I want to figure it out. Today's was a decent challenge, but I still have my hair.
I love the crossing of Julius Caesar’s [Beware the ides of March] in ACT I, the CHERUBs of [Raphael’s “Sistine Madonna”], and the proverb WHEN IN ROME. And since I’ll be visiting soon I thought I would repeat the origin of the phrase. It is attributed to Saint Ambrose, a theologian and statesman who served as Bishop of Milan from 374 to 397. As the story goes, Saint Monica and her son, Saint Augustine, discovered that Saturday was observed as a fast day in Rome, where they planned to visit. However, it was not a fast day where they lived in Milan. They consulted Saint Ambrose who said "When I am here (in Milan) I do not fast on Saturday, when in Rome I do fast on Saturday". That reply is said to have brought about the saying "When in Rome, do as the Romans do”. I hope to do just that. A very enjoyable puzzle. Thanks guys!
@Anita TIL! Great bit of etymology, thanks for sharing. Enjoy your trip!
@Anita That is indeed a great back story, but who fasts on a Saturday? That's a day for grilling brats and watching college football.
@Anita so interesting! I hadn’t given it much thought, but I assumed it was along the lines of the biblical ‘Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s’.
@Anita, Upon looking up this work by Raphael, I see that the two CHERUBs are extremely familiar to everyone, having been reproduced universally for decades. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Madonna" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Madonna</a> I hope you’ll make a point of seeing the Borghese Museum while you’re there. It is unbelievable how many stunning artworks were collected in one place. As a patron of the sculptor Bernini and the painter Caravaggio, there are famous masterpieces by each on display there. The surrounding gardens are beautiful, as well.
Sometimes the ones that stump me the most annoy me, and sometimes they impress the heck out of me. This was definitely the latter. Almost double my average Friday time, and I enjoyed it enormously. I just hope Saturday isn't this hard, or I'll be at it all night.
I have to disagree with the general sentiment here - That this was a good puzzle. We've been so starved of good puzzles lately, we are conflating difficulty with quality. This one felt like a slog, with very little reward.
@Hitch Agreed. Finally a Friday that took (me, at least) more than 15 minutes. Some people really care about their average times. It's just you against the puzzle. A solve is a solve and easy is no fun. I want to get to the point of brute-forcing answers to try and get something to take shape. Today's didn't quite get me there, but still gave me a good test.
@Hitch Could it be possible that you’re just not there yet? I thought it was a very good puzzle for a Friday because it made me think, and there was nothing that I found problematic. Those who found things to be problematic just didn’t know them or understand them.
That was the perfect combination of some solid garbage-free fill and some very clever cluing. Based on the constructors' notes I assume the editors retained a lot of the original cluing in today's puzzle. More such Friday puzzles please!
Now *this* is my kind of Friday puzzle. So many clues that could go any which way, forcing me to work the crosses. Reading the constructor notes gave me the feeling that much of the cluing was left intact. Let's do that more often.
When it comes to sleeveless garments, I have a vested interest in them. (They suit me just fine!)
@Mike Can i coat you on that?
@Mike Looks like Petrol was going for the tie today. It also looks like he lives in a rural area; if he moves to a city, he'll be cumnerbund.
@Mike If a princess wears one, is it a Divestment? Asking for a friend.
In the category "Be careful what you wish for," I present this puzzle. More than once I thought the puzzle was going to defeat me. The only thing "certain" after my first pass was LOOP and KOFI (and I thought, "Thank Zeus for proper nouns!") Starting to put in probables, I had BELL (for "Ding thing") and TIC (for "Jerk"). Thanks to PST for correcting the first, but it took too long to remember my high school French and SORTIE. (Thank Mithras, that wasn't a misdirect.) Loved the "white coat" clue; took too long to see the "duties" misdirect. Couldn't understand forever(!) how "Scrumdiddlyumptious" could end in FOR. A tough, tough puzzle... And I loved it! Thanks, Rafael Musa and Geoffrey Schorkopf. And thanks to the Games editors for letting this go through with its tough clues. [See how filled with gratitude we can be?] More, please?
@The X-Phile As a birder whose art conservator daughter taught to appreciate Renaissance art, it’s the Madonna of the Goldfinch for me.
Guess I need to phrase this differently for the emus: Speaking of SEχMANUALS: “Want to come to this Indian οrgγ?” “Sure, do I need to wear anything special?” “No, just Kama’s you are.” “OK, Sutra self!” (Or, to ask another way—“Sari, not sari?”)
In what world is an earflap known as an "earlap" (10D)? Just admit that you stretched this too far.
@Rick "But if it's a fox, I'll make a fine hood of it, with long earlaps." — The Owl's Ear by Émile Erckmann and Alexandre Chatrian
@Rick Um, in this world? Just because you don’t use the term, or have heard of it, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist and just looking it up in a dictionary should confirm that for you. Agree it’s less common, but that was t your point.
@Rick Yeah I'm with you on this one. Nobody says "EARLAP", that was like literally 1000 years ago. 12th century stuff. It's just confusing when you think the crossword genuinely has a missed letter in a word.
I don't comment often, but I thought this especially terrible puzzle earned it.
@Kevin I think all those who yearn for harder puzzles deserve their 'bone'. Of course I found this Friday horribly hard. I would have given up with the first clue. But that's where the 'Easy Mode' clues come in. (The link to them comes in an email you can sign up for.) I needed twenty one of these lifesavers. Christina Iverson's efforts shouldn't go unused!
@Kevin This oughta rile up the troops
@Kevin I don’t know about riling up the troops but these sorts of comments do irk me. Not because you didn’t like it, which is fine; nor if you thought it too hard, if that’s the case; not even if you thought it unfairly hard if you give some examples to back it up (or even if you don’t). But to just say “this is a terrible puzzle” is just very self centered and annoying. It obviously pleased a lot of people, including myself, so on that basis alone it isn’t a terrible puzzle. It’s just a puzzle that YOU found terrible, or detested, or found unfair, etc. I am very respectful to people who make respectful negative comments, but I disrespect comments that seem to make global statements about their own experience, especially in an unnecessarily hurtful way.
@Kevin - I don't comment as often as I used to, but I thought this especially terrible comment earned a reply.
I loved this. There were many things I loved about it, but the best thing was the curiosity that "Address no longer than 18 minutes" engendered in me. What could that possibly be? I just HAD to know! When TED TALK came in, I practically shouted out: "Of course!!!!" I love when that happens. But many entertaining clues and answers. I especially liked WHEN IN ROME, TWOS for the slam-dunks (which I thought was going to be EASY), TAX EXILE and TO DIE FOR. Was RONDA the only unknown name? KOFI was a gimme for me. But I must say there were some unknown non-name answers: I didn't know MANIOC and I didn't know ANTICOMEDY as clued. Come to think of it, I don't know ANTICOMEDY in any sense of the word. A good mixture of swooshiness and resistance. I found it very entertaining and involving.
@Nancy MANIOC is supposed to be poisonous unless cooked properly; back in "Radio Days" we listened to a mystery where someone had poisoned a victim in just that way....so I tucked that bit of info away just in case I needed it at some future time. And here we are, just 69 years later....Voilá
PSST! That was proper good fun, that was. Rafael Musa and Geoffrey Schorkopf did not lay any eggs here - my POW for sure. The grid had me all kinds of twisted, but it was fun looking for a place to land. Just when MUGS were SORTIEd, the antes were not placed, but we'll be havin' well-tended moggies. ATEASE, twas it? And the icing on the cake is Sean McGowan's column. Like the Stiffy by the Liffey, he gets his point across. Informative, delightful, hi-larious! Pure gas, lad! Another slow pour, please.
@Whoa Nellie Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the puzzle and column.
When 1A starts of with a clue that has "____ in modern lingo, I know automatically that this is not going to be a puzzle designed with this geezerette in mind. But by the time I finished, I not only had filled in that answer, but had also heard the term. I had not, however, heard of ANTI-COMEDY. I thought for sure that the Mammoth home was NHM, for Natural History Museum, until I realized that it was probably a sports team and threw the L in. Somehow, I pulled MANIOC out of some deep, dark recess of my ancient brain, and there were enough older references (POOH, NAST) to help the flow along. Instantly thought of SORTIE, but only as a military term; not that I have knowledge of anything military, but I probably picked it up from some old novels. But when I put it in tentatively, it helped me finish the puzzle, the last quadrant to fall. Finally delighted to have a true Friday puzzle that starts out inscrutable but gets the job done at the end!
@Times Rita Watching coverage of the first Gulf War drilled SORTIE into my permanent vocabulary.
@Times Rita where’s the POOH? I’m assuming this is a typo, but can’t figure out what for.
Regarding the column: I knew about the Mammoth as an NHL team, but I figured their home was SLC. I also thought that "coats of white" was going to refer to snow. Interesting how sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes a kitty is just a kitty.
@Steve L And sometimes a French exit is just a French exit, and not an Irish goodbye.
Yes. Just…yes. Take my money. (Wait, you already do.) Take *more* of my money.
I found that to be fun and well clued, and also I had a heckuva time getting the last few letters right.
@Dan I don’t think I’m selling myself short when I say that I could do these things for another hundred years and I could never get a puzzle like this in 14 minutes or however, long it took you. It doesn’t make me feel bad, though. I loved it so much. This is what we wish for.
Very Friday worthy, methinks? I plodded along making slow progress, like I should expect for a Friday. “25 minutes. Okay a couple more cells to go” But that NW corner. I couldn’t not decipher 1D. I had THERENOW. So I need a word that is _T_P “I am sure it’s HATESON. but there is no word that starts with ht_” 10 minutes of filling in and erasing the same four cells. It finally dawns on me. I loved it. Thank you constructor AND EDITORS! for this nice Friday. (Now I will go to read the comments, which will all say “too easy!”)
@Weak Oh. TIL how to spell chichi. To me. That reads like a name like the old golfer chichi Rodriguez. I figured it was always spelled shishi. But that looks weird on paper as well. I know one thing, I’ll never write that word in a sentence or text. My go to for fancy in texts in bougie. Though of course, it’s pronounced like bourgeoise.
@Weak Fortunately, it doesn't seem to have been "too easy". But I am always uneasy about the "too easy" because my heinie's been right well kicked.
I loved this puzzle; so many AHAS. "Hollywood is on it," for one. Some kind of weight-loss drug, right? And I'm quite familiar with RONDA Rousey, but not the spelling of her first name. TIL she was an Olympian before moving to MMA, and a medalist to boot. You go, girl! I was also intrigued by the division of labor between the two constructors, with one setting the grid, and the other writing the clues. I wonder if that is common.
@Grant Great question! Anecdotally, I know co-constructors who have divided the labor this way before, so it's definitely not unheard of. Just like solving a crossword, there are many different ways to build one. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle!
@Grant - Common or not, that division of labor worked well for this team. This was a fun puzzle (though I'm not great at sports trivia). Took me forever to get the upper left corner because I thought 3D [Ding thing?] was either 'bell' or 'gong'.
@Sue It did indeed work well. Some collaborative efforts feel like two puzzles jammed together, despite the best efforts of the editors. My cell phone chimes when I get a TEXT.
The clue for 19D is wrong. And would be for any puzzles posted between early March and early November. I understand that any qualifiers such as "may be" "can be" or "in summer" would break the misdirect, but that doesn't make it any less wrong. I feel like Bill Clinton arguing what the definition of is is, but Hollywood is on PDT, not PST. On another note, I have a goal of doing at least one Midi without looking at any of the down clues. Today marks the second or third I've come up one short. Soon enough...
@Steven M. I thought the exact same thing, while solving. I saw "PST" and refused to enter it for a long time for the reason you cite.
@Steven M. Eh, I disagree. It’s true that Hollywood is on PDT at the time of this puzzle’s publication, but given the lack of any qualifiers (as you mentioned), I view PST as an evergreen answer — whereas if the answer was PDT, I would definitely want some kind of nod in the direction of “sometimes” or “right now”.
By convention, crossword answers need not be true all the time, or true for all cases, or all examples of the clue, etc., etc. PST and PDT are both valid responses to the 19A clue. How many AHAS does it take to know which one to use?
@Steven M. Am I the only one who thought of the Pacific Coast Highway PCH or variants thereof? I was forced into PST by crosses but didn't get it until I got here.
Fine Friday fare. 62A and 36A. Thanks, gents!
"Ding thing". Wow! I thought I was a genius well I came up with "bEll".
@Francis I had bEll first also, which led me to put TelE_____ for the "away from duties" clue, even though there weren't enough spaces for teleworker...
But... Hollywood is currently on PDT not PST...
@Michelle If that middle letter is the last cell of its corresponding cross. It will always be on standard time in crossworld. Because plurals don’t end with a D!
@Michelle Maybe it was PST when the puzzle was constructed.
@Michelle At first, I thought the answer was SAF for San Andreas fault line. But no.
@Michelle Trying to keep straight all the American time zone initialisms gives me PTSD
Not a comfortable experience. EARLAP? Seriously? ANTICOMEDY? Huh? I dropped in ELFHAT, half expecting it to be wrong. Delighted to see NAST, creator of Puck, himself. Howdy, KOFI. But, otherwise, yeesh.
Very nice. Big improvement on yesterday. I came in just under my average time and struggled with the NW corner. I, too, couldn't let go of DENT, sharing it's second and fourth letter with the correct entry as it does. I notice that happens in a lot of crosswords, the correct answer sharing key letters with an intuitive but wrong alternative answer, and I always wonder if it's intentional or just dastardly serendipity. If it's intentional, that seems like next level constructing to me...evil genius.
@Jim I think it's intentional. People who can call up words easily, as I assume constructors and cluers can, could certainly monkey around with a clue to get two or three "reasonable" answers. It's also quite impressive.
@Jim I can only speak to my own (limited) constructing experience, and while this is frequently intentional, sometimes it is just luck — some solvers make associations and fill in answers I never would've considered when cluewriting.
This is a Friday puzzle worthy of its place in the week. I struggled with much of the cluing. (I have doubts about EARLAP but most other tough clues left me slapping my forehead when they resolved.) I finished eleven minutes slower than my Friday average, but it feels, I don't know, earned?
bald, then soft, before SORESPOT SKImSTONES before SKIPSTONES SARee before SARAN (we call it clingfilm) Didn't know MANIOC or EARLAP (how is it not flap?!) Definitely a challenge for me this morning. Good Friday!
@EnglishRose I also had never heard MANIOC. It has always been cassava or yuca where I went. Apparently, a manifestation of my limited experience. I had heard of EARLAP before, but never understood why it wasn’t flap.
I can see what an excellent crossword this is, even though I couldn't do some of it. Interesting that quite a few people immediately thought of gambling at the word 'kitty' when I never would, and thought cat. A lot of comedy does not have a punch line, but I've not heard of ANTI COMEDY. Maybe 'alternative' comedy. TAX EXILE has been quite a common term in UK, some celebrities have avoided tax this way. It has been used as a plot point in mystery stories - when you had to be out of the country for the entire year to avoid the tax, but sneaked back for a day and were seen, and then blackmailed.
@Jane Wheelaghan George Harrison wrote a song for the Beatles way back when about the Taxman. <a href="https://youtu.be/fqdHU7_rHcA?si=98cLemlcz3s-NFf4" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/fqdHU7_rHcA?si=98cLemlcz3s-NFf4</a> The Beatles did not become TAX EXILEs back then, but the Rolling Stones moved to France.
@Vaer I thought of the Rolling Stones first. Their first album from their new home was fittingly called, "Exile on Main St." @Jane That subject is quite the hot topic in NYC at the moment, thanks to their new ultra-left mayor. They're all fleeing to Texas and Florida, at least for the better part of the year.
A funny thing about KYIV: My mother was born in Ukraine a few years before the Russian Revolution. She came to the US in 1921 at the age of 8 or 9. I often heard her pronounce the city's name as "Keev," and I sometimes would try to correct her by reminding her that the name was "Ki-EV." I didn't know, and she probably didn't either, that this was the Russian version of Kyiv, and her pronunciation of Kyiv was exactly right.
@Michael Dover Ha ha! Correcting your mother’s pronunciation when she was born there! We’ve all done that to our poor, beleaguered parents, but your poor mom. Ha ha ha.
Now *that's* the NYT Friday crossword we know and love! I'm delighted to say I needed look-ups and a "check puzzle" halfway through, not to mention feeling like my brain was being PAN SEAREd. Just beautiful! Bravi to Rafa and Geoffrey, and Will Shortz and the editing team. I don't get to feel suddenly absurdly smart, which is how it should be. And these are the puzzles that allow me to feel legitimately proud of the ones I actually do nail without any checks. My only brag on this one was knowing MANIOC. The manioc flour ("farinha de mandioca") is ubiquitous in Brazil and, toasted with butter and onions (with other variations as well), is an essential accompaniment to black bean stew ("feijoada") but often enjoyed with the run-of-the-mill black beans and rice. One cannot have lived in Brazil and not know tapioca and MANIOC. Funnily, I only came to know the tuber as cassava here in the States, so I felt rather avenged for always calling it MANIOC. I only had two points of honor with this solve. That was the first one. The second one is having done did it, as Eddie would say. Many thanks to the outrageously talented Rafa and Geoffrey!
@sotto voce, I know manioc from Brazil too; my husband lived there for 8 years!
I've posted here many times about my displeasure with the puzzles being dumbed down. I won't be doing that today, as it was obtuse, oblique, and a total joy for what I expect from the NYT. I know the trend was hatched to attract new puzzlers, but considering you now have 3 different crosswords, why not configure one for new solvers and another for those of us who have challenged ourselves for many years? Of course, they should be identified by non-insulting terms.
I expect I am Not Alone when I say, "I hope this satisfies all of those who were "criticizing, in modern lingo" the clues that were too simple, too easy, too obvious....just "too-too!" I don't want to TOSS STONES, nope; I want to remain SERENE nope SEDATE nope. Why not try to put the ELF HAT in at 46D instead of 45D for some extra fun? And stick to my guns about fLAP at 10D? AW MAN.... For the record, I think "Chichi" implies that the "swank" is overdone--lacking in elegance. This certainly took me a good while, until suddenly it all fell into place. Nice one, Rafael Musa and Geoffrey Schor-head.
@Mean Old Lady I had SEDATE and TOSSSTONES first too
There have been complaints in the past about humble brags. So I'll just make a gloating brag brag. This one appears to have been VERY HARD for most, but it was completely in my wheelhouse. For the first time ever, I beat the median solve time on XWStats. And by a lot, at that. (I'm usually some substantial multiple of that time.) It helped that I dredged up the French word for "exit" from French 101, figured Raphael would have CHERUBS, always have to NEATEN for company, have lived through many Atlanta ICESTORMS (including one completely amazing one in March of about 1978 or 1979 after all the flowers were out and got encased in what looked like an inch of clear glass), my grandmother frequently called YOOHOO out of her back door, and I have done CATSITting before. The only wrong across answer that held me up for awhile was that I had Prebake for 'crispy crust' for awhile. Unfortunately, none of this makes me feel any smarter. Just feel as though I drew the lucky card today. Actually feeling a little nervous that the rest of my day may compensate. Hope the chewiness was fun for most! Gotta take a Dutch exit right now.
@Lynn We were living in Connecticut during the ICE STORM of 1973. I was pretty young, but I remember that Dad had to drive to New Jersey to buy a chainsaw.
@Lynn I, too, had PREBAKE at first. When I got the first A, I switched to PARBAKE, and thought myself very clever. When I got the N, I wanted to put in PAN FRIED, but it didn't fit. It took (seemingly) forever to get PAN SEAR. It was that kind of puzzle today. Ain't it grand?
More hard puzzles please!! Loved being stumped on a Friday. I only needed one hint for things to fall into place, and some trust in my crossings. Once unlocked it solved smoothly and cracking it was al lot of fun.
Whew. That was a challenging and chewy puzzle! Glad I managed to get it completed. Northwest corner almost got me. Then I got PST, realized that 1D must be HTTPS, and it finally fell into place. Very good puzzle!
@Rodzu Did you, like moi, have that "DOH!" moment when the HTTP penny dropped? I thought it was especially fiendish of Rafael and Geoffrey to sidle that up against the AHAS of tortured discovery - it was only a TEXT away ...
Sometimes the right amounts and proper densities of vagueness, mist, murk and multi-directionality instead of straight-up Algonquinesque precision result in a proper Friday/Saturday grid. Like today's. And based on my archive dives they're becoming much less frequent. Some really artful examples back in the 00's and 10's. Thanks, setitors.
@Matt I need some way of telling when I'm definitively stuck. My ideal software would have a timer, and if a certain amount of times goes by without a correct square fill, the game turns automatically to "autocheck". I find myself going to autocheck on a lot of the archived puzzles. Otherwise I'd spin forever. I'd be a perpetual motion machine until I died.
@Matt I dig the staccato of vague…mist…murk. Puzzles (and life) become their most beguiling selves in hazy…mazy…grey.
It would have been more appropriate if the answer to 8A was A TEASE rather than AT EASE, because that’s how this wonderfully ticklish puzzle felt to me! Keep ‘em coming!
I used to love the two CHERUBS with their little butterfly wings, gazing up in wonder and awe at the young infant and his mother in the "Sistine Madonna". Then they started appearing on every other Christmas card for a number of years,...and the painting became my least favorite Raphael Madonna. <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raphael_-_The_Sistine_Madonna_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg" target="_blank">https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Raphael_-_The_Sistine_Madonna_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg</a> But, fun fact?, there are not just two CHERUBS in the "Sistine Madonna". If you look carefully at the clouds that surround the Madonna and Child, you will see dozens(!) of little (rather eerie!) CHERUBS!
"So, what *are* your favorite Raphael Madonnas, X?" I hear you asking. I'm glad you asked. Number 1: The Alba Madonna <a href="https://www.nga.gov/artworks/26-alba-madonna" target="_blank">https://www.nga.gov/artworks/26-alba-madonna</a> Number 2: The Madonna of the Meadow <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_del_Prato_(Raphael" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_del_Prato_(Raphael</a>) Number 3: Madonna of the Goldfinch <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_del_Cardellino" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madonna_del_Cardellino</a> And if you want to know why Raphael is the greatest painter of this theme, I'll be happy to tell you. Or, better yet, go to the Metropolitan Museum in NYC and go look for yourself!
@The X-Phile "Cherubim" if we're being snooty with the plural. I'm on alert after the "elks" brouhaha yesterday...
@The X-Phile More than the EYES in a scallopPP
I left out "La Belle Jardinière"! Certainly deserving of being in the top three! <a href="https://smarthistory.org/la-belle-jardiniere" target="_blank">https://smarthistory.org/la-belle-jardiniere</a>/
Very well made and challenging, best Friday in a while
The gold star isn't enough today. The Times should award at least a platinum star for completing a puzzle like this.
Today’s amusing inventions: Pointy red and green ELK HAT, of course — those fraternal societies get up to all kinds of antics. And please note, the plural of elk hat is elk hat. Scrumdiddlyumtious had to be TOTES YUM. Oh wait, guess not, because part of the answer was used in the clue. Still, you all are welcome to use “totes yum” as you see fit.
@Cat Lady Margaret I do believe it is "ELF HAT"?
@Cat Lady Margaret "Totes yum" will never pass my lips. Well, maybe once, just to watch my sons' reaction.
@Cat Lady Margaret The Proper Plural of ELK HAT is ELKHAT!!1!
First pass= one answer (I’M LATE). That was an apt indicator for what was a very slow, but very satisfying, solve. You might even say it was TO DIE FOR. HIP HIP…. nah, never mind.
Like a lot of people, I spent a lot of 2020 baking bread. I had also bought a gigantic obsolete plasma screen for next to nothing from a company that had used it in the course of converting the movie "Titanic" to its 3D version, then left it in storage for at least a decade...I set it up in my bedroom and used it, of course, to watch baking shows. Which is why, for the clue "Hollywood is on it," I had "BBC." The "rat taxi" paragraph in Wordplay made my day, by the way.