37A brings to mind the old joke about the Buddhist monk who walks up to a hot dog vendor and says "Make me one with everything." After a brief chuckle at the monk's joke, the vendor hands him his hot dog with everything and says "That'll be $4 please." The monk hands over a $10 bill and waits while the vendor just stares back at him. Awkwardly the monk asks "What about my change?" "Oh," replies the hot dog vendor, "Change must come from within".
@RichardZ agreed. My initial fill was HOTDOGMAN.
"Want to join my trigonometry class?" "Oooh, where do I sine?" (And pardon the tangent, but if you love the course, you might get your degree in it.)
@Mike How formal is this class? Do I have to wear a cotan tie?
@Mike My cosin took that class. (He just couldn’t get the angle)
@Mike Great. See what you've triggered?!
Mike, My daughter wasn’t allowed to take that course, because her student loan wouldn’t cover its fees. Something about the way she owes…
@Mike Trig is easy as pi. Did you change your picture? You're looking more radian than usual?
Sometimes I play around with swapping which entries could go with which clues: Breezy things enjoyed at beach: ZEN STATES Attracted to intellect over looks: WHERE DO I SIGN We have a mutual friend: HOLY MOSES But the do-it-yourself tornado can only ever always be ACME!
@Cat Lady Margaret Oh, thank you. That was troubling me!
W(asn't)T(hat)F(un)!
My PAPA tells a great story about having lunch with Orson Welles in Barcelona in the late ‘60s. Dad was living a bohemian existence in his twenties, lillypadding around Europe and developing his painting craft while studying the works of the great masters. He fell in with a sort of artist collective there—writers, musicians, painters, et al—and they would pal around the museums and cafes during the day and the galleries and clubs by night, often getting invited to swank society parties that were looking to add a little color and flair to their guest lists. One night they ended up crashing a late night afterparty in some private residence on beach and there was Mr. Welles, amidst a flock of other celebrities and local well-to-dos. According to my father he was “feeling no pain” and was rushing out the door with a young woman on his arm, but he stopped when he saw them and asked through a slur, “are you beautiful people artists by chance?” They chatted for moment and Welles invited them to lunch the next day at his favorite restaurant, 7 Portes. “The paella is historic. Meet me under the colonnade, not before 2. Never before 2!” They arrived the next afternoon to find Mr. Welles seated at his personal table, holding court and regaling an enrapt audience with ripping yarns from Hollywood and parts abroad. Welles had apparently been there for hours, as the empty plates of at least three separate meals could attest, impossibly drunk, and wearing nothing but a fruit hat.
Regrettably, the second act of the tale fails to live up to its promise, as shortly thereafter Welles apparently became very sleepy and passed out in a plate of spaghetti, forcing my dad and his friends to chat amongst themselves for the rest of the afternoon. At one point however, Welles apparently passed wind so loudly in his sleep that he woke himself up, calling out, “Steady! All steady now, gentlemen,” before retreating back into a deep slumber.
@Ace 😂 It's like I'm actually there, Welles' Colorado Barking Spider and all.
@Ace I’m guessing 46A was no struggle for you?😎
@Ace, As soon as I see your name followed by several lines of text, I start laughing. Call me Pavlov’s dog.
"Classic Nabisco brand (no, the other one)" Hah, that's a classic one for the regular NYT Crossword solvers. Wish you had kept that one.
Holy moley! I got stuck in the middle for a while, wondering “when do I get it”? But then Moses showed up and showed me where to sign.
@Heidi This came to mind from Meet The Fockers: <a href="https://youtu.be/fNqz4AY0pm8?t=100&si=g3s01ADMDEifgZZB" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/fNqz4AY0pm8?t=100&si=g3s01ADMDEifgZZB</a>
The SAPIOSEXUAL ROLLINGSTOP is when you’re driving by the library, and *The One* comes out the doors, with those horn-rimmed glasses peeking over their stack of books, and you are smitten, but they just roll their eyes, so you move on. At least here in NB, it is. (The puzzle also had me slow down a few times, but I liked it.)
Here’s what I love about Friday puzzles. I start out thinking I know nothing. I get a few gimmes then I surprise myself with how much I can deduce. Almost done but two or three that absolutely stump me (ah sapiosexual). Darn I have to google. But I finish, and it’s sort of thrilling. I’m getting better at this. Saturday comes around and I’m cooked. Thank goodness for Sunday through Thursday.
@FWIW Thanks for making me take another look at DAMS. I got it on crosses, and thought "meh, that's not great. Yeah, I guess a dam bars water from entering the gorge below. whatever." But looking at it again I suddenly remembered dental DAMS, and it made a lot more sense.
Finally got it when I realized it wasn’t HOLYMOley L
I’ll give a fuller review tomorrow, I’m just too tired; but just gotta say if SAPIOSEXUALS is really a thing, I wish some of them were around when I went to college, cause I sure never met any! And now I’m taken. Way to miss the revolution.
When I see Hemant’s name atop a puzzle, I spontaneously break into a smile. I love his creations, and let me give you one reason why -- spark. His puzzles are alive, filled with it, that is, words we’ve never seen before in the Times grid, and their never-seen-before clues. When I say filled, I mean significantly. I did the calculation today – 58% of the white squares in the puzzle belong to debut answers. What!?!?!?!? Think about that! Now, debut answers aren’t automatically sparky, i.e., here are some potential debuts, never having been in the Times puzzle before: ADVERTISED, BACK MUSCLE, and AUTODIALER. Snore. But today’s debuts – do have buzz, IMO, all eleven of them, including WHAT’D I MISS, WHERE DO I SIGN, ALL TOO SOON, ROLLING STOPS, and TERRY GROSS. Such buzz is the rule in Hemant’s puzzles. Without a doubt, Hemant, I’ll once again light up with a smile when I see your name. You are a Crosslandia gift. Thank you!
I have to put in a special mention for the elegant [Cue ... or queue] for LINE. This clue has never appeared in any of the major crossword venues, and high props to Hemant for plucking it from the ether. Bravo, sir!
I haven't started the puzzle yet...but in the spirit of "It's too easy," I wanted to point out that The Bee has ....allowed an S to be among the chosen letters! Repent! The End is Nigh!
@Mean Old Lady I couldn't believe it when I saw it. Fortunately, there weren't that many possibilities.
@Mean Old Lady Heavens above! Were there seven pangrams, all of them perfect? Did it take 666 words to reach Queen Bee? (I always enjoy dipping my toes in other people's eschatologies!)
@Mean Old Lady This was (at least) the second S to make an appearance. But S with Q? I mean, no matter how old we get the world always offers something new!
@Mean Old Lady Yep, I thought s's were only an April 1 thing.
I was once an election campaign volunteer in Philadelphia working on a phone bank when the next name on my list was a person named T. Gross. A woman with a pleasant voice answered the phone and after I made my spiel, she told me that she was a great supporter of my candidate. As she spoke, her voice sounded more and more familiar. Then I looked back at by list, and saw T. Gross? And asked if she were THE Terry Gross?" She confessed it was her, and over the next few minutes we had a delightful conversation, which was mostly her asking me questions about the election.
@Ragland What great story. Thanks.
@Ragland She is one of my heroes. My son is publishing a book about a racial crime in the 1950s that was a big cause célèbre at the time. I've had daydreams about listening to him being interviewed on Terry Gross. I know it's very, very unlikely to happen, but it makes me happy nonetheless.
@Ragland She is one of my heroes. My son is publishing a book about a racial crime in the 1950s that was a big cause célèbre at the time. I've had daydreams about listening to him being interviewed on Terry Gross. I know it's very, very unlikely to happen, but it makes me happy nonetheless.
@Ragland I have no idea why this double posted.
@Ragland That would have thrilled me. Love hearing that she was so pleasant over a campaign cold call.
Where is the line on duplication between clues and answers? 'Kashrut' and 'KOSHER' have the same root, so I thought that kind of went against the traditional rules of crosswords. Why not, "Adhere to Jewish dietary rules"? Then there's not even a hint of duplication.
@el my thoughts exactly. Bad editing. Total foul
@el Or why not use the clue the constructor came up with in his notes? Seems brilliant to me. I agree having “kashrut” in this clue is not KOSHER. Sam did you skip this editor’s meeting?
For an ignoramus like me who had never heard the word "kashrut" and couldn't even recognize the language, the chosen clue made it harder and more interesting; I learned something. If they had gone with "Jewish dietary rules", it would have been pretty obvious, but as it was, I thought the clue might have something to do with Kashmir.
@el Solving the NYTimes crossword? You don't have to be Jewish, "But it wouldn't hurt." Thanks for the memory, Gilda. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ1Z5TIx4wI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ1Z5TIx4wI</a>
@el I tried EATNOPORK
TIL - SAPIOSEXUAL. Is there a term for people attracted to humor over looks? Asking for a friend! 🤣
@Amy - iocosexual, perhaps?
I'm from the generation that actually did the LINDY HOP; I knew that CASH is king; and I checked to see that 37A was a plural of some sort before writing in HOLY MOSES with confidence. QWING to that, the NE was a slam dunk for me. Would that the rest of the puzzle would have presented such EASY READS. SAPIOSEXUAL was a huge WT (you-know-what) for me (love the clue for the latter). Is "agitate" STIR or ROIL -- I have only the "I". If it's STIR, then "avoid rage-quitting" is SIT BY. If it's ROIL, then the answer is...RETRY???!!! WT (you-know-what)??? This to me is one of the most oddball clue/answers of all time. I struggled to prevail, but prevail I did. It felt like it took forever. And what I know about myself is that, even with three times the knowledge of arcane trivia that I possess right now, I will never be a good time solver because of my tendency to obsess over things I can't figure out rather than to simply LINDY HOP blithely around the grid, filling in all the things situated somewhere else that I DO know and would have filled in long ago had I gotten to them in a respectable amount of time. Puzzle tournaments that care about such a thing as solving time: Don't hold your breath for my appearance anytime soon.
@Nancy For the RETRY: It's not your workplace job you're quitting; it's some app or other that is not responding, and you keep getting thrown off or back, or in some circular trap, and you're getting madder and madder and decide--in a rage--to QUIT! Dang it! But then you cool down or decide to RETRY.
@Nancy I would pay good money for a recording of you doing the "Lindy Hop".
On the west coast, we call them “California stops”
@Kay I thought it was a California roll.
@Kay Northern California - I grew up hearing “Hollywood stop”
@Kay According to my driving instructor, in CT, 60 years ago, the correct term is "California rolling stop."
@Kay STOP = slight tap on pedal 😄
All the constructors should add their fave cut clues! Loved reading those
That was one of the hardest recent NYT Friday puzzles I can recall. A very satisfying workout!
That was quite the back and forth struggled between the puzzle and me. It no-hit me through the first half of the game, then I managed to get a scratch single, and second base on a throwing error, yada, yada and I finally scored. Now get some crosses and I'm only my way. But then it sacked me well be hind the line of scrimmage, then allowing no yardage at all against the stiff defense of clues. Then I saw an open player downfield, made a spectacular pass and they put it right in the back of the net. I'm thinking the fight is over when it lands a crushing right hook, a 3x3 part of the puzzle that I simply cannot get. Barely managed to finish the round on my legs. Then I caught all of a second shot, which landed in a perfect spot on the green, for an eagle three, Victory! The puzzle points out the two squares I'd forgotten, dashing my ALLTOOSOON celebration. Then the puzzles drains back to back treys and suddenly those two squares had turned into six squares, after retreating on RAIL and RODDY. I don't remember much of the run after that. Everything goes kind of dreamlike in the last part of marathon. I was ahead, then it pulled ahead, and I came back, and somehow we'd both collapsed across the finish line. Photo finish. Me, by a nose. A $2.00 bet paid $7.25.
@Francis What, no hockey? And who were the bookies that set those odds? Never in doubt! That $7.25 was a gift. They musta lost their jerseys.
@Francis and to think you did all that without ICING even once!
Some good cluing alongside slightly too much terrible trivia. Not a breeze for those outside of the US specific sport/media bubble
@Matt Some of us inside the US are still outside the media and sports bubble.
@Matt Weird, it's like this puzzle is from a US newspaper or something. Sport-specific clues drive me bonkers sometimes too, but I never understand people complaining about Americanisms when doing a puzzle from the NYT.
@Matt I genuinely wish you (and others) would give examples of the terrible trivia; I understand your frustration with US-specific fill, but a lot of the trivia here was international (CESAR, PAPA, ICING, DUMAS; SARA and ARI may be US-based but they are internationally famous). No I didn't know MAHOMES or TARA, but I thought the crosses were fair.
Raise your hand if you didn't know that the clue for ROWDY [Neither demure nor mindful] was an allusion to an internet meme created by Jools Lebron in 2024. [Insert emoji of raised hand.] <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gFB2-wFJv5c" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/gFB2-wFJv5c</a> Here's a video that discusses how the meme went viral: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL4WZlRJMZA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tL4WZlRJMZA</a>
@The X-Phile Thanks. That explains it; I thought that was a very weird and clunky clue otherwise (and maybe still is for those not into internet memes, but at least explains the reference).
@The X-Phile Fun fact - in India, the rap sheet of a known criminal is known as a 'Rowdy sheet'
@The X-Phile I figured it out 6 hours ago.
@The X-Phile Thank you for explaining this! I appreciate the YouTube links instead of tik tok where this seems to be originally from.
Never considered that ELMO was a monster. The clue for ROWDY [neither demure nor mindful] was nagging at me. Finally got it this morning. It's a play on a Tik Tok poster's phrase, Very demure, very mindful, that went viral in 2024. Solved this on the quicker side of Friday time, but no complaints today.
@Vaer My initial thought was the Looney Tunes character Gossamer. I don't see tickle-me-Elmo as a monster, either.
@Vaer If you ever saw “Avenue Q”—which is admittedly no Sesame Street, but is about muppets—you’d be reminded the difference between human muppets and monsters since monster racism is a theme. My eyebrow raise was that while Elmo does have a red head, he has red fur everywhere, so not sure you would really refer to him as a redhead. Still, I kind of liked both of those misdirections.
@Vaer I agree. Maybe Hemant has never actually seen Sesame Street... ELMO is the perpetual five-year-old... and even Cookie Monster isn't much of a threat.
@Vaer Wikipedia describes Elmo as "[a] furry red monster who speaks in a high-pitched falsetto voice" and notes his first appearance in the Sesame Street song "We Are All Monsters"
Although it features Grover and not Elmo, the classic book is "The Monster at the End of This Book". Most of the muppets are monsters.
@Vaer re: muppet monsters My take is that some muppets are roughly human (bert and ernie, the swedish chef, beaker); some are recognizable animals (Kermit, Miss Piggy, Big Bird, Rowlf). The ones all covered in fur that are not recognizable mammals are generally lumped together as monsters, although not the scary kind. There's a music-teaching videogame called Elmo's Musical Monsterpiece.
@Vaer Thanks for all the monster explanations. Perhaps I should have added that i never really considered Elmo at all, except as a critter with an annoying voice. But then again I'm not in the Elmo demographic nor had young ones that might have been.
For the many fans of TERRY GROSS (and Public Radio afficionados, in general), you must see this short film by Mike Birbiglia (made for Ira Glass's "This American Life") which plays on TERRY's public persona to tremendous effect! <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LFl_Ey2BkY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LFl_Ey2BkY</a>
You know what else is a fitting anagram of NOTES??? STENO, that's what! Eventually finished this excellent puzzle anyhow - thanks for the fun!
This is exactly what I want from a Friday. Started out breezy but got trickier later on; I finished in 13:42.
@Hugh what planet are you from? 😳 I loved it too. It took me 35 minutes. I’m quite happy.
There is a Michigan left, but it is very specific to boulevards. Instead of going left at a light, you go right, cross all of the lanes to get in a left-turn lane that is between intersections, and then go left. It's supposedly better for traffic flow, but it takes a whole lotta getting used to if you are not from here!
@Julie Wait--as a former Michigan resident, I was going to give a different definition of Michigan left, although also specific to (just a few) boulevards. It' s where a left turn is prohibited, so you go STRAIGHT, then you do a U-turn at a designated spot a bit past the intersection, then you turn right at the original intersection. I have never seen the version you are describing, though perhaps both exist. (And I think yours has to involve a U-turn after the right, right? Otherwise, right plus left equals continuing the same direction in which you began!)
Found this one challenging, and never felt I was tuned to right frequency today. Solved it without help, but took over half-an-hour. Didn't know TERRYGROSS or TARA VanDerveer, and have never seen SAPIOSEXUAL before (though it was simple enough to figure out from the very direct clue). Made quite the mess by entering STENO rather than TONES for "Apt anagram of NOTES", figuring that, of course, a stenographer takes notes. Looking back at my filled grid, it seems that the entries themselves were not the issue. For whatever reason, the clues simply weren't clicking with me today. Personal peeve--having linked clues for *consecutive* horizontal entries that appear in the wrong order, i.e., don't use that style of cluing when you have HOP LINDY sitting in the grid, rather than LINDY HOP. All in all, a perfectly fine Friday puzzle that I found surprisingly difficult to solve.
@Xword Junkie I was guilty of STENO, too!
@Xword Junkie I just took the "hop lindy" thing as a Friday-level misdirect (I originally had "the" rather than HOP). I knew a couple who were really accomplished Lindy dancers. They attended a concert when in Japan, and as they often did, went to the back of the venue to dance. Within maybe a half hour they had attracted a large enough crowd that the police arrived to break things up. A cross in the northeast corner forced a couple of lookups due to my lack of knowledge about pop culture and sports, but other than that a fast clean solve.
@Xword Junkie pretty sure I once read that with linked entries, the phrasing is supposed to clue which word comes first. But I can never remember what the convention is until I have them filled in!
@Xword Junkie As a lifetime fan, it stunned me to see TARA VanDerveer. I've been doing the daily for over a decade and don't remember it ever showing up, despite its crossword-readiness.
Well... tough one for me and had to look some things up. Ten debut answers and a couple of them completely unfamiliar terms. No big deal - that's just me. And... puzzle find today. A Sunday from November 14, 1993 by Norma Steinberg with the title "Where in the World?" I'll just list some sample theme answers: VENICEDINNER LAOSRESORT SEVILLESERVANT PUSANBOOTS ELBAGREASE CHILERECEPTION BEIJINGSUITS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=11/14/1993&h=26a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=11/14/1993&h=26a</a> See you tomorrow. ....
This is exactly what I want in a Wordplay column. Well done, Sean; more, please!
I had penciled in TollS for 28D, so coSYREADS seemed obvious for 30A, but then I couldn't figure out c__KOSHER. (Eat and keep are the only relevant verbs I can think of.) Or ZENSTA_lS or why 35A could be "ale", for that matter. It's funny how having text filled in makes it hard to see the alternatives. Once I took out toll (left the s though) and o, and put in EAT, I was better able to think of what else 28D might be. You could say it was a taxing process...
Done, but I wouldn't say all too soon. Some easy fills with catchy clues, and some I'd never heard of. Well, sociosexual—I always dreamed that would be my signature label, but everything was always so muddled up I could never tell. As they say, beauty is often in the eye of the beholder, and people get a lot better looking when they make you feel smart. Thanks for the Friday, Heman Mehta. You craft a great looking puzzle.
This one came together beautifully for me. Bit of a rough start and then everything just fell into place. Well done!
My mother told me playing video games will get me nowhere, but I had the last laugh with 12D
Great puzzle today, lots of fun clues. Maybe on the easy side for a Friday whereas yesterday was hard for a Thursday. SAPIOSEXUAL might be one of my favorite crossword answers in a while. When I had HOLYMO--- of course I filled it in HOLYMOLEY at first. Which made that area tougher for me. Trying to figure out what could fit in ZEN_TA__L when I also thought the laundry one might be LINTFILTERS. TERRYGROSS crossed with TARA also mad that area tough as I knew neither of those names.
@Chris, LINTfiltErS before LINTSCREENS, HOLYMOley before HOLYMOSES 🙋🏻♂️
My initial answer for 37A was “DALAILAMA” from the Karl Stefaovic joke he made to Dalai Lama making him one with everything(the joke being it was at a hot dog cart.) Frustratingly enough — intentional or unintentional — it fit, which was obviously incorrect but still a bit of fun
@Cliff Shaw But remember, as the MRI clue reminds us, "Change comes from within."
Very clever clues. Seemed like there were multiple layers of misdirection. Rather difficult but all the more satisfying to complete. Key was to give up on some answers I was very confident of. Honestly thought I wouldn’t get it.
Well this was probably easy if you knew all the stuff I didn’t know and all the sayings I never heard of. I gave up half way through because it had stopped being fun. I revealed just so I could see all the answers I didn’t know. I’m wondering if aside from living under a rock I’m aging out of these puzzles.
@Crevecoeur Are you still alive? Are you still reading/listening to the news, repellent though it is? Do you occasionally listen to music and watch shows that didn't exist ten years ago? Then you're good to go. Enjoy.
@Crevecoeur I often feel the same way about aging out. Every clue about current culture feels gets harder than the one before.
@Crevecoeur I'm an old fart and have aged out of a lot of things but crossword puzzles ain't one of them🤞
The Pittsburgh left is when the driver going straight signals to the driver across to make his/her left turn. It isn’t jumping in front of the oncoming vehicle to make the left turn… it’s being politely allowed to make the left turn. Pittsburgh drivers are nice that way. Philadelphia, I don’t know.
@DKS when my brother moved to a north-of-Boston suburb in the 70s we were surprised that when a light turned green the local custom was clearly to let the one or two cars waiting to turn left go first. Very welcoming.
I loved the puzzle, but I loved the column even more :)
Fun puzzle! Thank you, Hemant! (And thank you for your Instagram post about the process - @friendly.atheist) Will listen to some Sara Bareilles music while eating one of my toddler’s cracker snacks. I’m sure most of us put the other one first. Holy Moses, let us live in peace.
I enjoyed the breezy fill and like Hemant's puzzles in general, but c'mon this was a Wednesday at best. Some of us have Friday work we're trying to avoid and need the challenge of a Friday puzzle to use up time!
@Erik that's actually a good reason for complaining about puzzles being too easy. Like the pile of bills to be paid sitting a few inches away from my laptop.
Took a bit to find the toehold but flowed smoothly after that. Also finished up yesterday's. Both were good. Many thanks.
@John Carson I never actually found a toehold, and things didn't quite open up for me at all. I had to look up a few word definitions to get things moving along.
According to ngram viewer, SAPIOSEXUAL was barely used until around 2008 when it saw a steep rise. I suspect that had to do with the concurrent rise in the use of dating apps.
Thank you, thank you, thank you! Beautiful Friday puzzle like the old days. Yummy. The entire right half gave me fits.
Chewy Wednesday. Thanks, New York Times!
@Matt There was just too much I didn't know (the names) and understand (among others: guff; how ROWDY was clued) in the right side of the puzzle, and especially the lower two thirds of that section. I needed lookups, checks and reveals. In Warsaw it definitely was not a Wednesday.
@Matt By now my wife has also finished the puzzle, and she struggled no less than I did, despite her English being no worse than mine, and her immersion in Americana likely being greater (she knows loads about American sport - albeit not baseball - she has watched your late night shows, etc.)
10D [Someone attracted to intellect over looks, say] SAPIOSEXUAL Thanks to the column for explaining that "homo sapiens" refers to a "thinking" brain. I had never "thought" of it. Of course, there are many other words with this root. "To think" is "savoir" in French and "sapere" in Italian. There's also "savoir faire" and "savant" and "quien sabe" and "je ne sais quoi," to name a few. Not quite the same, but along the same line: "Je pense donc je suis" or "Cogito ergo sum."
@lucky13 Oops. I said: ["To think" is "savoir" in French and "sapere" in Italian.] I meant to say "To know" is "savoir" in French and "sapere" in Italian. I guess that thinking and knowing are very similar--and that homo sapiens could also be called a "knowing" person.
So, to be honest I’m of three minds about this puzzle. I’m not going to say “too easy” because there were a few spots that gave me some pause especially the SE, and there were a reasonable share of clever clues and interesting fill. My second mind was the number of clunky clues that I don’t expect in a Mehta puzzle—the kashrut one (which is not his fault), the ROWDY one, and ROLLINGSTOPS. The last isn’t really a maneuver, in that it’s not something deliberate you do for a definite reason—or if it is then that contradicts the lazy part. I know it doesn’t have to be perfect, it just rubbed me the wrong way. Then finally there were just the usual Friday gimmes like USSR and others that just feel like they are phoned in. Two other examples—maybe STENO could have been an alternate for TONES but still I feel like a basic anagram clue like has no place in a Friday or Saturday. And ZION. Why do we need the hint that it’s the last alphabetically? Here’s the thing, I was already considering RAZING for the cross, although there were likely others. Then I need to check the downs. If there were some other trivia about ZION that I knew, great, then I feel a sense of satisfaction. Or maybe some other crosses that make sense. But when I see “last alphabetically” I’m done. I don’t have to know ZION yet or anything else, I immediately know that RAZING is right with no extra work on my part. It’s just why I’d like every Friday and Saturday clue to have an extra kick in it.