Song about pointillism: "Que Seurat, Seurat" (B-side: "Dot's Amore")
Mike — I woulda said "Quai Seurat, Seurat" and "Dots Amore".
@Mike And who doesn't love the lyrics of your B-Side: "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie Dot's amore...."
@Mike The old joke is: A young couple, Wilbur and Katherine, were exploring the exhibits at the new Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles one Sunday afternoon, when they came upon the museum's famous collection of Eighteenth-Century French Impressionist Art. Suddenly Wilbur, unfamiliar as he was with the fine points of the period, came across a well-known painting which he mistakenly thought was an example of pointillism. He immediately called his wife over and naively exclaimed, ... Kay, Seurat! Seurat! She took one bored look at the painting and replied, ... Whatever, Wilby, Wilby.
@Mike When the fish hits your eye, like a big pizza pie, That's a moray!
I will die on this hill; microphone does not shorten to MIKE, it shortens to MIC.
@Matthew As a kid, I always knew it as MIKE. I think it's a generational thing. I still have a bit of unease when I see MIC.
@Matthew According to MerriamWebster.com and NOAD, Mike is defined as microphone…that’s in American English.
@Matthew I'd help you out, but I'm over here dying on this other hill of 'synch', not 'sync'.
@Matthew That was going to be my only comment for the day; you beat me to it. I saw the M first and thought, no, there is no way that the editors would let MIKE stand when everyone knows it is MIC, just as we write PIC when abbreviating a picture, not PICK. You are not alone on your hill.
@Matthew - This comes up every time the abbreviation appears as MIKE and not MIc. I was both a musician and electronics tech in the '60s and I very clearly remember when the standard abbreviation was MIKE. I also remember resisting the change to MIc, primarily for phonetic reasons. And both are still used to this day, even though MIc clearly is the much more common abbreviation. For some reason, younger people refuse to acknowledge this basic fact of history, even when presented with evidence. And I was not the only person who remembered MIKE being standard. I even posted a link to an image of some older electronic equipment where an input was clearly labelled MIKE, not MIc. Barry even, at one time, posted a link to an article in an audiophile magazine that discussed this transition from MIKE to MIc -- and the person who claimed that MIKE was a terrible mistake *still* insisted MIKE was never an acceptable abbreviation. This is how resistant some people are to learning. It is very sad.
DUDS ? I found it to be a fine Friday puzzle. It wasn’t fiendish but non trivial. The crowd that solves on Thursday night are often too critical. To the column: yes it can be called soccer in English english but it’s not. So really, in the whole world the only people calling it soccer are those who play football mostly with their hands. It’s not that we collectively can’t decide. It’s just you. I’m ambivalent about the World Cup. I like football just enough to watch some games but wish we weren’t remaking the 1936 Olympics. It wasn’t a good look then and still isn’t.
@Ιασων This is my favorite post ever on this board.
@Ιασων Could you elaborate on your reference to the 36 Olympics? I know about them, but not why you are comparing it to the soccer games.
@Ιασων Well, *that* packs a punch.
Ιασων, Regarding the puzzle ("DUDS?"): <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dud" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/dud</a>
@Ιασων What about the Socceroos? Agreed about the World Cup. I'm a big futbol guy with two sons who love the game. It's been hard to decide whether to boycott or not. I'm thinking about only watching the games in Mexico and Canada as a compromise.
Was I alone on the wavelength here, or did the Easy Friday clues get into the main event? This was a very nice creation from Amanda, but I didn't find it at all puzzling.
@Barry Ancona I finished in less than my Monday time, so no, I’d say you’re not alone.
@Barry Ancona, I nearly beat my Friday best time, and halved my average.
@Barry Ancona I found it - not easy - but I could do it!
@Barry Ancona Agree 100% - I breezed through it
@Barry Ancona Wednesdayish
@Barry Ancona Some fun entries, but yeah I came in at 2/3 my Friday average.
@Barry Ancona When you start off with jEAlous or enviOUS for the greenish condition, it's not a good omen. There were a few other places where I went down the misdirected path and ended up a bit above my Friday average.
@Barry Ancona I found it to be a perfectly cromulent Friday puzzle.
For twelve years we owned an ice cream parlor. Made our own cream. It was heaven. The cream, that is. Sixteen percent butterfat. “Super Premium” cream. It was lovely to have it For the first twelve years of our boys’ lives, but man- that was hard work. Thirty-two teenaged employees ( the drama!). Seventeen pieces of machinery to clean and maintain. Around eighty gallons sold to over 1500 customers on a nice day. Seven days a week, 15-20 hours a day for eight months straight. And still, relatives would ask, “Do you still have the ice cream *stand*? *STAND*?! Them’s fightin’ words.
I hope people aren't gong to complain it was too hard or too easy; This a typical Friday that is just hard enough.
@Jonathan Well too late for that, I guess. My own estimation was that it might not have been so easy overall, but at least terribly inconsistent; which still bugs me for an otherwise enjoyable puzzle and a terrific grid. I can’t help but wonder could they really not come up with a better Friday clue for DASH or GENIE or LION, for example?
@Jonathan Nah. Atypically easy for Friday.
yeah, it was easy. i found both the clues and the fill to be among the best i've seen in a long, long time. i really enjoyed the puzzle.
Every time I check the comments on crossword puzzles many are either "its too easy, therefore quality is down" or "cluing is too obscure/difficult, therefore quality is going down." I just wonder why people keep playing if it frustrates them so? I'm not a good Friday solver, and Saturday is rarely doable for me, but I try every week so I can learn more. And when a difficult clue clicks for me with no help I celebrate, even if I bomb most of the puzzle. Life's too short to be unhappy about my leisure activities.
@Carrie G 1) Hope springs eternal 2) People may be frustrated about too easy/too difficult clues but not necessarily frustrated by everything about the puzzle. I had a fun time with this puzzle, it was enjoyable, it’s worth my time and the cost of the subscription; but that doesn’t stop me pointing out the many overly easy clues here that could have been improved and would have made the solving experience better. I keep hoping the editors will read and if enough people talk about it they will be motivated to move the difficulty level in the direction that I, at least, think it deserves.
@Carrie G "cluing is too obscure/difficult, therefore quality is going down" Nobody ever says that.
@Carrie G I think there is a crossword culture split playing out here. A split between people who learned to solve before the pandemic and witnessed a significant change in the cluing difficulty when the puzzle page income model changed, and those who began solving after the change and are surprised and dismayed when a puzzle they are paying for is substantially more difficult than they are used to. Many of us who cut our teeth on the pre-pandemic puzzles like a difficulty level that tests our solving skills enough to provide a distraction for a half hour or so. But someone who has been solving since, say, 2022, who has only been exposed to the easier era and may have a substantial streak, may feel that the occasional harder puzzle the editors have recently been adding into the mix is unfair. And I think there is a much smaller third crowd whose puzzle satisfaction seems to lie mainly in lighting firestorms by denigrating the editors and constructors. I don't know the answer to this.
I'm really glad I didn't understand the GENETIC LOTTERY before I was born, because it would have terrified me into never coming out. (My mother's glad I didn't understand it, either. In fact, even now I think it's kind of a dirty trick. We have no influence on whether we arrive here, and we have no influence over how we're going to be built. I genuinely feel sorry for so many people who came up short in that lottery. But, this was a very enjoyable puzzle. Good clues, good answers, smooth solve. I wish I'd known how POINTILLISM was spelled before the puzzle. SALON for [Do business?] was fun, as was RETINAS for [Cone holder].
@Francis The more I think of the "not wanting to come out", the more bizarre it gets. Hospital room, doctors, nurses, my mother and five or six cops, one of whom says through the bullhorn, "We know you're in there. Come out with your hands out." "Come in and get me, copper", come a tiny voice from somewhere.
@Francis: your comment made me think of Wisława Szymborska’s poem: (translation, sorry, Andrzej) Nothing can ever happen twice. In consequence, the sorry fact is that we arrive here improvised and leave without the chance to practice. Even if there is no one dumber, if you're the planet's biggest dunce, you can't repeat the class in summer: this course is only offered once. No day copies yesterday, no two nights will teach what bliss is in precisely the same way, with precisely the same kisses. One day, perhaps some idle tongue mentions your name by accident: I feel as if a rose were flung into the room, all hue and scent. The next day, though you're here with me, I can't helping looking at the clock: A rose? A rose? What could that be? Is it a flower or a rock? Why do we treat the fleeting day with so much needless fear and sorrow? It's in its nature not to stay: Today is always gone tomorrow. With smiles and kisses, we prefer to seek accord beneath our star, although we're different (we concur) just as two drops of water are.
@Francis Ever consider suing? <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47154287" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-47154287</a>
Amanda’s first Times puzzle (4/15/24), a Monday, had a theme that radiated elegance, and I marked her name as one to watch. Her next, today’s, exuded that quality, IMO, in answers such as ATTACHE, GENETIC LOTTERY, POINTILLISM, and in clues such as [Contents of a modern flood] for EMAIL, [Needing no script] for OTC. The grid design itself is elegant with those stair-step corners, and quartet of lovely black square patterns dominating the center. An air of elegance is rare and wonderful in a puzzle. This was all bolstered by happy memories of CONEY ISLAND and that powerful Les Mis song. And by a very funny moment, where I had AN_S for “Empire of the ___” (that badly-rated movie), and wondered if my missing letter was a U. I loved coming across the bouncy sing-song words ANEMONE, “tzatziki” and “Nanak”. Feel-good from start to finish, Amanda. I greatly look forward to your next. Bring it on, and thank you!
Seemed a bit easier than the average Friday, but fun puzzle overall.
I would have liked this to last longer, but other than that it was an ideal Friday puzzle. It occurs to me that it *might* be an editorial decision to make weekend puzzles easier *periodically* to help allay the frustration that some solvers probably feel when tackling a NYT Friday or Saturday crossword.
I tried to start the solve in the NW. Children's book character, Les Misérables lyric, Nanak followers... "Who?what?huh?" Yesterday all roads led to Rome. But not today. I was lost in the woods until I came upon the beloved Powell's City of Books. PORTLAND OREGON broke it open for me. Down the line, when I encountered SALMON, I wondered if our constructor was from these hereabouts or just kindly shouting out. It turns out it's both. Thank you for this puzzle, Ms. Winters. I enjoyed all the misdirects and, of course, filling in PORTLAND OREGON. Powell's is close to our hearts over here. Four floors of books, spanning a whole city block, shelves filled to the rim with new books and their used counterparts (at a fraction of the cost) side by side. They sell books, they buy books. And if you want to spend the whole day perusing, no one's going to wonder what's wrong with you or think you need to get a life. Powell's IS life! :-) The solve flowed very smoothly thereafter. Thankfully this wasn’t a quiz, but a great crossword that in the end answered all my who, whats, and huhs quite nicely.
@sotto voce I had forgotten about the fish ladder at the Bonneville Dam. For prospective visitors, there are viewing windows inside the dam, and you can see the SALMON leaping their way upstream. There's also an above-ground sturgeon farm, which is also quite an experience.
The first time I ever went to Denmark, I wanted to get a DANISH for breakfast. I must have spent 30 minutes walking the streets of Copenhagen before I found one. Many people back home were quick to tell me that it's actually an Austrian thing, not a Danish thing. I had much better luck when I went to Vienna later that same year. And I distinctly remember finding Wiener Schnitzel carts similarly to how we have hot dog carts in New York. I also remember when I trained to be a Little League umpire, we learned about a rare case where an inning can have four OUTS. Imagine bases loaded (or first and third), and a hard hit ground ball to second (or short). The fielder grabs the ball, tags the incoming runner for the third out, but notices the runner on third scored before he made the tag out. He then throws the ball to first to make the fourth out of the inning, which negates the run scoring.
@Steven M. The nearest Costco has some pretty good Danish pastries. I can't really fly any more.
@Steven M Wow! Learn something new every day!
@Steven M. Never thought of this one. Does the throw to first (to beat the runner) need to occur before the runner on third reaches the plate?
@Steven M. Dropped third-strike ball with two out, allowing the runner to advance to first and forcing the pitcher to face another batter, is similar (and similarly uncommon).
@Steven M. Almost. There has to have been a baserunning infraction, missed at the time but appealed before the defensive team has left the field. The base runner is then called out, making 4 outs, and this would negate a run if one had scored before the 3rd out. It's never happened in The Show.
@Steven M. I have a feeling we will get a really long baseball treatise in a few hours.
@Steven M. Odd you should mention Copenhagen. That’s where I am right now. On a 19-day tour through Scandinavia, where the puzzle will drop at 4 am. It’ll be odd to do the puzzles at breakfast!
@Steven M. Also, something is off about your baseball scenario. If the runner on first is forced out for the third out, the runner never scores. So that would be that, and nothing further needs to happen. I think you’re misremembering.
Department of Showing One's Age: Had ALOU for baseball trio.
@LBG Was thinking that as well! Old crossword standby.
@LBG I said to DHubby: If only I did not have an O in there first, I would put in the ALOU brothers!
This puzzle was right in my wheelhouse and the relatively easy long downs made the puzzle a breeze. But plenty of nice clues and bright entries made it an enjoyable, if too brief, exercise. Seeing the lovely ANEMONE in the puzzle reminded me of the beautiful white Japanese anemone (elegantly named Honorine Jobert) that I used to grow in my garden, but which absconded years ago. A nice pink anemone (regally named Prince Henry) happily persists.
@Marshall Walthew For me too the white anemone variety seems more fragile. But both are lovely!
Finished this without hints (a first for me on a Friday) while waiting to donate blood. Some lucky person is obviously getting genius blood! :)
@Mamie Thank you for donating blood. It is lifesaving.
Fun puzzle! Thanks for the heads up on the Portland bookstore. Will definitely check it out when in town.
@Sandy Yes, I always thought that Foyle's in London was the biggest - maybe it was once (I bought many of my university books there but it was 55 years ago) - so I will have to check out Powell's if I am in Oregon.
@Sandy The original Powell's bookstore remains here in Hyde Park, Chicago. I've been to the Portland one, but it was kind of overwhelming, given that I had to get on a connecting train up to Seattle before long.
@Sandy They have a pretty good web site, but it is overwhelming. I assume the brick and mortar store is as well.
I've been many times to the Portland store and it is always well worth a visit! I didn't know its history until today — that after the father of the man who in 1970 founded the Chicago Powell's worked in that store briefly, he returned home to Portland, Oregon where he founded the now-iconic Powell's there. And the stores in Chicago in Portland are now unaffiliated.
Wowie--223 Comments already! Well, I did sleep in til 7:00... When I glimpsed the clue at 1A (Get-up,) I thought, "Aha! A Southerner would say DUDS." I'll have to read the column to check. I really enjoyed this puzzle. Starting the day at an ICE CREAM PARLOR--now there's an idea we should pursue! And 58A: Powell's... reminding me that I asked our son if there would be time to visit that bookstore during our visit to Seattle; he enjoyed breaking the news that it's in PORTLAND, OREGON. Sarcasm is a portion of his winnings in the GENETIC LOTTERY....
I needed some enjoyment this evening, a distraction with just enough challenge to hold my attention, without any more frustration added to another maddening day. I'd be LION if I didn't admit that a few gentle gimmes were welcome (nice to see Powell's City of Books). Sometimes a walk on the easier side is what one SIKHS. Thank you, Amanda, for a fine construction (ignore the PANS).
I think it’s time someone complained about the people complaining about all the complaining
@Patricia Henry or as Monty Python put it... <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxhaunU2AxY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxhaunU2AxY</a>
Weekend puzzles getting too easy? There was a time when if I finished a Friday puzzle in 11:30, I would be thrilled. Now, it's just annoying.
I thought yesterday’s puzzle was too easy and I shared that sentiment as a complaint. I thought today’s was too easy too, but no complaints this time. Don’t ask me why one easy puzzle left me bitter and the other didn’t. Maybe it’s because I expect a little more trickery from a Thursday than we got yesterday. But more likely, it’s just a mood thing. Knocked a few nagging items off my list at work today. Ate some good tacos for dinner. Solved while watching an entertaining World Cup match. Easy puzzle. No complaints. 🤷🏻♂️
@Striker Life is good with football and tacos. 🤙
As a person who is miserably sick right now, holed up in bed, paranoid of so many things, including my mortality and my New York Times crossword puzzle streak, thanks Amanda for devising a gentle and reassuring puzzle that (I think) was a delight to solve in my fevered dream state.
A delightful Friday puzzle with some clever clues.
I could not for the longest time figure out what a PARTONE is. It finally hit me….
@anne fly specking for the second time through, I FINALLY wondered whether PoRT ONE was maybe the problem 😅
"Oak Park" -- Ernest Hemingway's birthplace, a Chicago suburb -- is the same number of letters as KEY WEST. Just sayin'. (The crosses straightened me out.)
@Michael Weiland There were a lot of identically dressed Hemingway wannabes when I was in Pamplona and Sanfermines was on. (Note: Bulls are faster runners than people.)
Reading "Deuce follower" and seeing a 4 letter answer, I couldn't help but think of the Parks And Rec tennis blooper where Rob Lowe's character asks, "What comes after deuce?" and Chris Pratt's character sheepishly answers, "Wipe?"
This is one of the most straighforwardly-clued Fridays I've ever seen. Themeless Wednesday, anyone? DESIRE has me thinking of the U2 song, but I like other songs from that album more. Here's one of them, a collaboration with the late great BB King. <a href="https://youtu.be/_TGU35i8czo?si=cTQidN-k_P2B4D9t" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/_TGU35i8czo?si=cTQidN-k_P2B4D9t</a>
@Vaer It took me between Friday and Saturday time, with lookups in two places 🤷🏽
@Vaer Yep. Third Wednesday this week for me. Times for the last three days were within 30 seconds of each other. Can we blame the orange one for this, or do we have to keep to the news side for that?
@Vaer My experience was like yours. It almost confused me at first, thinking “…it can’t be that…it’s Friday…” Truly enjoyed it, but it solved between my Tuesday and Wednesday times this week. Like you said, surprisingly straightforward.
@Vaer Thank you for the link. It was my first time hearing that song. Imagine being one of those musicians, so calm and competent and confident, sharing a stage with BB King. Every word that man sings makes me imagine it in italics. A woman who briefly blew theough my life for a very intense (and, for her, a very long) three months, went alone to a BB King concert in Alabama. She sat on the front row, with the stage at arms length. At one point, BB King walked across the stage, sqatted in front of her, looked her in the eyes, and said to her a brief little speech that was interspersed with a few licks on his guitar. From what he said, I knew he had seen who she was at a glance.
@Vaer Thanks for the link! I've seen U2 and B.B. King in concert, individually, and never knew about this collaboration. Priceless.
@Vaer Glad you all enjoyed the concert.
A very enjoyable puzzle; chewy but not too taxing, which is just up my street right now. I’m struggling with post wedding/building energy levels, the brain fog and desire to stay in bed is rather hampering daily activity. The only clue/answer that really stumped me was ADIN. Any explanation to how Deuce Follower links to that answer gratefully appreciated. 🤷♀️
@Helen Wright ad-in is when the serving player wins the first point after a tied deuce score. Hope that helps.
@Helen Wright We’re talking tennis here. At 40-all (deuce) if the server wins the next point, the advantage goes to server: ad-in.
@Helen Wright Thank you @Tahira @Darcey O’D. I don’t follow any sport with any form of enthusiasm, with the half a**ed exception of Rugby League, so Tennis scores never entered my head!
@Helen Wright I came to the comments just for this too! Had no idea what was going on.
Three cheers for Amanda Winters!
Should read “Smith who won” as she is no longer with us.
I found this one a breeze except for the cross of AdIN and dANA both of which were new to me, only being used to hearing "Advantage McEnroe" or such with the name of the player rather than their status. I assume that "AD IN" is used in club tennis where the umpire may not know the players' names.
Or by the players themselves if no umpire.
@Peter ADIN has thankfully been a staple of crossword puzzles. As for ___Point, calif. as a Southern Californian the Points that immediately sprang to mind were Point Mugu (which couldn't be it because of the ordering of words) and Dana Point. But I can definitely see that tripping up people who are not familiar with the area (or have an encyclopedic knowledge of Points in Ca).
People are complaining about this one being too easy, but I thought it was just right. Do you know that ENVIOUS has the same number of letters as SEA SICK? I took out ENVIOUS because I knew there was a Hemingway house in OAK PARK (a suburb of Chicago and Papa's birthplace), which has the same number of letters as KEY WEST. And a true epic begins with BOOK ONE, not PART ONE, as readers of the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid all know. And I also had WELL-KEPT before BEST became clear. And a nice TIR (Today I Remembered) moment: ANEMONE comes from the Greek and means "daughter of the wind". Lovely word. Ovid's Metamorphoses says that the plant was created by the goddess Aphrodite when she sprinkled nectar on the blood of her dead lover Adonis, turning the blood into a flower.
@The X-Phile For a Friday, this is way too easy. Fridays should not be solvable by many. Go back and do some 2010s Fridays or earlier. I think it is sad to remove a lot of challenge.
@The X-Phile ENVIOUS was the first thing I filled in, but we visited KEY WEST last year, and toured the Hemingway Museum, so that didn't last long. And yes, we saw the famous six-toed cats.
I've always thought Powell's would be an awesome place to visit! But I doubt they have as many books as my to-read shelf.
@ad absurdum Hah! A kindred spirit! Once, in my teens, I brought home yet another art book and excitedly showed my dad the new addition to my collection. He never took his eyes off his PC screen as he said, "That's great, honey. When are you going to start reading them?" Oh, dad...don't you get it? Some books are for occasionally opening at random and reading just that one page. Some books are for having within reach; not for reading front to back. Thank you, ad absurdum. I continued to buy books I only occasionally open at random. And now, at last, I feel understood!
@ad absurdum I used to try to read before I went to sleep, but promptly dozed off. Eventually I realized my best reading time was between two and four am.
@ad absurdum @sotto voce I'll join you. All for one and one for all!
Summah time - jes hangin’ out down at the parlour with all the retinas. Eyes scream for ice cream… cones… to hold… …in Coney Eye Land.
Hey! This was a much less obvious, Friday-level joke when I submitted it. Even mentioned an optic lobe.
Before reading the comments, I predict about a dozen will be, "how does SEND mean elate?" Links to the Sam Cooke song will follow. There will be plenty of "too easy for Friday" comments as well. Right, I just saved you a half hour. I've been to Powell's Bookstore, BTW. I was visiting a girlfriend in Eugene, and she insisted that I experience to enormity of it.
Boy, was I ever wrong. Today's Nit Parade was led by AD IN, followed closely by "Ex-" for PAST. You cannot be serious!
@Grant Well, why not? Honest you do, honest you do, honest you do. At first I thought it was infatuation.... <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y3VnMm53pc" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_y3VnMm53pc</a>
I consider having ridden the Cyclone and gotten lost in Powell’s two of the greatest joys in my life! A lovely puzzle!
Today's poem made from words found in today's puzzle<br> a story of courage a/ in the weight of the flood spanning green worlds d/ you carry a wish up a ladder it’s a a/ secret key
Fun to see Powell's in the puzzle. When I lived in Oregon, I would go there occasionally, even though I lived 100 miles from Portland. It's a great book store and I am pleased that it has survived. I can also recommend Elliott Bay Book Company in Seattle and the Tattered Cover in Denver. I have yet to make it to the other great books stores -- The Strand is on my radar. Bangor is lucky to have two thriving independent book stores -- The Briar Patch and, my favorite, Bull Moose Books. They are far from massive, but then again, Bangor is far from massive, too. There's Longfellow in Portland, and Left Bank Books in Belfast -- many independent small books stores to choose from.
@Captain Quahog The only huge bookstore I'm familiar with is Tattered Cover in Denver. I was initially excited because "DenverColorado" fit.
@Captain Quahog And if you're travelling abroad, visit Foyle's and Waterstones in London, both of which are immense and well worth spending a day (ore two or three) in.
@Captain Quahog I've been to the largest (at the time) bookstore in the world, the Xinhua megastore in Beijing. Not exactly independently owned. I bought an English translation of "Romance of the Three Kingdoms," which I still have.
Well, "Key West"--("duh!'' said my polydactylic cat,"everyone knows that!")--because WALLOON LAKE, (Mich.) wouldn't fit. (I believe the house there is still owned by a great-niece or something.) Yes indeedy, danish, croissants, and the like fall into the category of patisserie known as "Viennoiserie." They're also known as "laminate doughs"--a block of butter is sandwiched between two blocks of flour/water dough, the rolled and folded, rolled and folded, until one has innumerable layers. Just those ingredients, and you have Puff Pastry (Pâte Feuilleté); add yeast, and you have Croissant Dough; add eggs to *that*, and you have Danish Dough. I guess they got a lot of their eggs from Denmark. A Friday I couldn't finish during my lunch break--Yay!
@Bill And first I tried OAK PARK which also has an Ernest Hemingway House -- the one he was born and raised in, now a museum -- and the town where I lived for many years.
Typical tough Friday for me, but ended up being an enjoyable workout - finally figuring things out with just enough crosses. And... was really surprised about 3 of the debut answers as they all seem like quite familiar terms: PORTLANDOREGON ICECREAMPARLOR BESTKEPTSECRET Just surprised to see those as debuts. And.. a fun puzzle find today - a Wednesday from April 10, 2013 by Julian Lim. Six theme answers in that one, all starting with "Memorable movie line spoken by...". Here are those answers; HERESJOHNNY ISEEDEADPEOPLE YOUHADMEATHELLO STELLAHEYSTELLA IWANTTOBEALONE ETPHONEHOME Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/10/2013&h=58a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/10/2013&h=58a</a> See you tomorrow. ....
Friday is often just dense and hard without a payoff, but I really liked this one!
My aunt had a big boat car that everyone called "a deuce and a quarter" so that kept coming up for me. It was a big Buick Electra, and she was a very small woman. It had shiny plastic bench seats and I remember sliding around hard in the back on sharp turns. This was a fun puzzle.
@Margaret Ah those old car memories! That one must not have had back-seat seat-belts. Did it even have front-seat ones? Remember when the driver just swung out their right hand in front of the kid next to them in the front if they slammed on the brake? We really are safer now and I'm always happy when children nag the grown ups about buckling up. The only thing I miss is letting the kid sit up front when it's just the two of you on a longish trip.
Super puzzle today! Very clean fill with no really obscure entries. Entertaining because of freshness of long entries and nice deceptive clueing.
I’d say overall an enjoyable Friday, although with some SPOTTY COVERAGE in terms of challenge. A lot of gimmes—even on the marquee entries, like CONEYISLAND and ICECREAMPARLOR—interspersed with a few clever clues and some interesting trivia, like the Ernest Hemingway house and the bookstore location. So I learned a few things and had a nice time despite wishing that many of the clues stretched a bit more. I did have some misdirections—ASIA before ALPS, TIRED before DATED, ex-PATS before PAST, which was a bit tricky since it’s what the prefix means, not what comes after it. Also, double misdirection because “cab alternative” has come to signal a wine option, so pointing back to a real cab was sneaky. All hail MAGGIE Smith, an absolute gem, and TIL about the acting triple crown which I guess is an EGOT without a Grammy, and only for acting. I was thinking it might have meant Golden Globe, Oscar and SAG but there’s probably a ton of those. Lastly, I can’t see an independent bookstore in Portland Oregon referenced without laughing about the “Women for Women First” feminist bookstore in the Portlandia television skits. I would link to them but it might offend some of you; but if you are up for it, Google some and watch them, they are hysterical as long as you can laugh at some light hearted, non-PC humor.
@SP Oh man, I do *not* have time for that rabbit hole today. Portlandia was a great show.
Very nice Friday puzzle, and loved the today-I-learned fun fact about the bookstore in Oregon