not sure if people realize just how good the 'fill' as they call it is in this puzzle - it's just one amazing conceit after another - it's literally on of the most beautiful puzzles I've ever seen - and I've been doing them for 30 years. just look at the words and what they mean it's not cheap trivia or cheap words it's flat out Classic.
@acjones I went back and looked at it and it is indeed well done in terms of lack of green paint, forced fill and crosswordese.
@acjones I am not one who usually appreciates the fill, largely because I am super picky. So it's noteworthy that I stopped and actively commented on it to myself today. Absolutely beautiful fill! For me, no cruft. Of course, YMMV.
@acjones Everyone’s taste is different, but subjectively I found today’s fill to be very trivia-heavy, and that’s not a compliment. While it avoids the classic three-letter dross (ENO, ONO, ORE, ETC) it’s replaced with what amounts to a bunch of pub trivia. Just because a bunch of proper nouns happen to fit a construction does not (in my opinion) make a puzzle “classic.”
"I finally found my map with earth's landforms!" "Oh, what a relief!" ("I can now save it for a terrainy day.")
@Mike Your puns are normally pretty good but today it’s just hill areas
@Mike You know what I like about you? You're always so topological!
@Mike You're in peak form today, sir. To summit up: that was a real butte.
@Mike How are you always this good, man!
@Mike You always have an upbeat latitude! 🍁☮️
That was fun. Good trivia, Orinoco especially, and clues and answers you don't see every day -- mensch, el clasico, Sisyphean and a fortiori, which was new to me. The puzzle was almost devoid of boring old crosswordese except for SRO. Let's have more like this.
@Ed I was very happy to see [MENSCH] as a clue, and correctly spelled! Alas, it was spoiled a bit by the imposition of the default English plural: -ES. It should have been -EN. Oh, well. May all your children grow up to be [MENSCHEn], boys and girls alike.
It’s been more than four years since we’ve seen Nam in the Times, and he’s continued where he left off without losing a step. Nam’s cleverness in clue and beauty in answer in the past -- such as [Needle exchange?] for FRIENDLY BANTER (2022) -- continually charmed me. And here it is again today. I especially liked the second word in [Device geared to draw rotationally symmetrical shapes] for SPIROGRAPH (a NYT debut, BTW). Another NYT debut – today’s grid design – provided for an amazingly high 20 longs (answers of eight letters or more), and man, did Nam pack in the quality. CLASS ACTS, WHIPPETS, WELL TO DO, SISYPHEAN, SIREN SONG, ON THE ROPES, SPIROGRAPH, and more. Beauty like that transforms the box into a gem. The NW gave me the kind of fight my brain loves, and there were several splat-fills to provide “whee!”. I also liked DOG crossing DANE (as in Great). But, to me, the beauty ruled today, and it greatly enriched my day, Nam. Welcome back, and thank you!
@Lewis Gosh, it's so refreshing to read your note after such a bad day at the commentariat. Lewis, you rule.
I liked the Orinoco trivia, I didn't know it was such a beast... However, to mention it even indirectly in the same breath as the Amazon is, quite frankly, an almost unforgivable insult. The Amazon has a higher discharge than the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th largest rivers COMBINED. Two of the Amazon's TRIBUTARIES would be in the top 6 largest rivers in the world by discharge if they were counted separately. The 10 biggest rivers in Peru, a nation on the Pacific ocean, all eventually flow into the ATLANTIC ocean via the Amazon. The Amazon is simply in a league of its own!
@Alex Yeah, but they way it treat's its workers....
@Alex Love your enthusiasm :) I did not comprehend just how huge the Amazon river is until your post... it is impressive. Thanks for posting.
Six years ago today - and on a Friday - my daughter was born. We were in the throes of the pandemic, yet her arrival inspired a sense of hope, beauty, and joy in contrast to the darkness and uncertainty of that time. We were enamored, and overjoyed to welcome her into our lives even with the difficulty inherent to starting a family at that time. (Grateful too for our many blessings and privileges even with those challenges.) In the relatively quiet isolation of that time, my crossword solving habit kicked off. 6 years old today she inspires me still! Watching her grow continues to be a source of both challenge and pride. And so too, for my solving habit! I went from using auto check on early-week puzzles to a nearly 400 day streak. Thank you to the constructors who provide this solace and challenge during the uncertainties we all may be facing.
@Elizabeth -- What a beautiful and heart warming post!
This one defeated me. It’s funny because I am definitely in the “Make the themeless puzzles hard again” camp, and then when I am presented with things I don’t know crossing with spellings I am not sure of I get so annoyed. I guess I can’t have it both ways! Glad I no longer agonize over flyspecking in an attempt to keep a meaningless streak alive - one like this would have affected my mood for most of the day a couple of years ago. Well done to those of you for whom this wasn’t as much of a challenge, and best wishes for a great long weekend!
@BR If there is a Hell, flyspecking is a big part of it.
I wanted it to be ON THE ROCKS crossing SISYPHEAN, oh well. And had the same idea as Sean - Sisyphus trying and trying to complete a killer Saturday puzzle. He keeps getting “oh fiddlesticks” and decides to start all over. But he doesn’t give up! Because it’s his fun hobby!
@Cat Lady Margaret Best thing I think I’ve ever read in the column :) “Imagine laboring over the same essentially trivial task, every single day — I shudder to think of it. Anyway, I’ll see you all back here for tomorrow’s crossword.”
Loved, loved, loved it. Fantastic fill. Sometimes a puzzle goes so far up my alley that it really ought to have a back-up alarm.
"Accounts for checking" was just one of several really great clues. The puzzle was a consistently pleasant workout.
That was challenging in parts but not too much so. Loved DOGOWNER, RELIEFMAP, WELLTODO, and KAISER.
Not a bad puzzle, if too easy for Friday (I solved it in Tuesday/Wednesday time). There were two many direct clues, but I enjoyed what little misdirection there was. Most of my difficulties had to do with trivia, but at least I found EL CLASICO a gimme. I'm not a football fan, but that is such a huge thing in Europe one simply can't be unfamiliar with it. In Polish a compact car (kompakt) is a hatchback by definition - a sedan would generally not be called kompakt over here (however, occasionally small city cars come in versions with boots stuck on awkwardly, like the Honda City once - a Honda Jazz with an additional, ugly boot section - and I suppose those are compact sedans...) Kajzerka ("the thing of the kajzer", more or less) was usually the only kind of roll available at stores before 1989 over here. These days it's still popular, and usually the cheapest roll offered by bakeries. It took me surprisingly long to type in SISYPHEAN - mostly because the English spelling looks alien to me. The guy is called Syzyf in Polish, and his hopeless task is described as SYZYFOWY. "Syzyfowe prace" (Sisyphean labours) is the title of a famous book by Stefan Żeromski, one of Poland's best writers of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzyfowe_prace" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syzyfowe_prace</a> - it captures the patriotism of Poles living under Russian rule in the late 19th century.
@Andrzej you could submit a puzzle for publication based on your passion for the craft. would love to see a Polish puzzle in English!
@Andrzej try starting from Σίσυφος. It makes it easier :)
(Those titular Sisyphean labours of Żeromski are the Russians' efforts to Russify Poles, btw. Also, the author's most famous book, "Lalka", "The doll", about a man's hopeless love for a younger woman, set in 1870s Warsaw, has recently been filmed. Critics have received it very well. It's also the most expensive Polish movie ever made, and apparently the money was well spent - my historian father went to see the film and he was amazed by how the city has been brought to life. It no longer exists in reality after near-total destruction in WW2. BTW, do not confuse the movie with the series under the same title that has recently premiered on Netflix - it's only tangentially connected to the book. And before anybody gets overly outraged by the title - yes, the "doll" is the man's love interest, but she's a woman in her mid 20s, so it's not a Lolita situation).
Not very hard, and nothing too cutesy or misdirecting (at least, nothing that fooled me for very long), but a pretty solid grid and a CLASS ACT. I liked the corner stacks, especially the lower right, and a lot was in my wheelhouse and brought back fond memories. Love Greek mythology. Thought the SIRENSONG clue was a little forced but any Odyssey reference is OK, and SISYPHEAN is another favorite myth of mine. Our friends overseas who get shortchanged with too many American sports references should be happy we get Cricket today and their kind of Football. Thank you perennial crossword fave Enya whose song ORINOCO Flow made that a quick fill-in with a few letters. Minor medical nit—there’s not really a “certain” coronary artery, there are many coronary arteries in the heart, so “like a certain type of artery” or “like a group of arteries” would have been better worded. Any one looking for dooks, no, the puzzle is not suggesting it is OK to WHIP PETS. Finally, what a call out to my childhood crossing NERFBALL with SPIROGRAPH. Is the latter still around? I still remember the one with pins and corrugated cardboard to keep the rings in place. I still remember the commercials: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Uppffbfvw&ra=m" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a1Uppffbfvw&ra=m</a> Have a great weekend everyone!
@SP I wanted a Spirograph so much when I was a kid, as I was completely inept at drawing. And I'm sure my mother would have preferred a nerf ball to the baseballs I occasionally tossed around the house.
Bravo. This one is really on my wavelength. Apologies for this self-absorbed comment but I'd like to raise a toast to the puzzle creator: I was writing a blog post about the Sirens' Song right before I started the puzzle. Prufrock is my favorite poem. Asahi Superdry is one of my favorite beers. I like relief maps and even have a relief globe. Wong Kar Wai is one of my favorite directors (though I prefer Days of Being Wild over Chungking Express). The Myth of Sisyphus is one of my favorite myths. I like noodles and martinis (dry though). The only sport I like to watch is international soccer. I like Dali, LOTR, and I have a dog. Look forward to your next puzzle!
Puzzle of the year candidate? It’s a strong contender! (In my best Lewis impression) the fill sparkled and the crosswordese was kept to a minimum. The journey to hear that NYT serenade felt anything _but_ SISYPHEAN. Hats off to you, Nam Jin Yoon, for bestowing a sweet solve like this on an otherwise unassuming Friday morning.
*Why was there a question mark on the 54A clue when an ANNAL is precisely a "Record of the year?" *I loved "One who regularly takes a best friend out?" for only the second NYT appearance of DOG OWNER. *I thought LEPER wasn't goin to be clued that way any more. *Interesting answers in the grid, but I'm not sure how one would make the clues for them Friday level.
@Barry Ancona You have always been a word master. Now, as you try to soften your verdicts, you are demonstrating an absolutely hilarious ability to camouflage. I speak, of course, of the utterly brilliant "I'm not sure how one would make the clues for them Friday level".
@Barry Ancona And the Grammy Award for Record of the Year goes to the band Question Mark and the Mysterians. (Hey kids).
My late father (who was born in 1928) once told me he didn’t know what all the fuss about Native American iconography in sports was. I told him that it wasn’t up to us but up to Native Americans to decide what is offensive to them. And that we’d be horrified if a team had a mascot in blackface or yellowface. He told me he understood. So it’s up to the people with Hansen’s disease to decide whether the term leper is derogatory. And they have. So perhaps the Times could find alternatives? <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/12/health-campaigners-call-for-an-end-to-the-use-of-the-word-leper" target="_blank">https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/jul/12/health-campaigners-call-for-an-end-to-the-use-of-the-word-leper</a> Ps. I served in the Peace Corps in West Africa and saw people with serious cases of Hansen disease. They were ostracized enough without more help from us. PPS. My wife and I visited Kalaupapa NHS on Molokai where Father Damien ministered to people with Hansen disease who were exiled there. In the early 1980s a state legislator in Hawaii seriously proposed sending people with HIV there.
@Victor Well-said, thank you. I found the clue a bit painful to read also. May we be patient with one another as we continue to grow and learn.
@Victor I just don’t see the entry “Persona non grata => LEPER” in today’s puzzle as taking any kind of value stance. It’s certainly not saying that people with leprosy *should* be ostracized, or viewed as morally culpable of their disease, or anything along those lines. Perhaps your argument is more that, by simply publishing that entry, the NYT is complicit (regardless of intent) in perpetuating a meaning/association that should be stricken from the popular lexicon. As I see it, the term’s presence in major English translations of the Christian Bible alone guarantees it will outlive both of us in the popular lexicon; and apart from Biblical references, “leper” is used almost exclusively for hyperbole (“treated me like a leper”) in contemporary contexts (in American English, the primary/default language of NYT crossword puzzles). I can understand why your personal experiences would have left you with very different (and much more vivid) associations with/feelings about “leper” than the term invokes for the average NYT crossword solver, but you can’t please everybody. Personally, I’m fine with the continued appearance of LEPER in these puzzles.
All dogs are good dogs and all cats are hellcats.
The clue for 35 down was cheeky and hilarious! A super-long delightfully easy to guess quote (it even name drops "Vader") in the middle of a Friday puzzle! It was such an over-the-top gimme that I laughed out loud when I came to it. Lovely placement!
MC, Exactly! You said way more clearly what I was slow-typing over-verbosely, and I missed yours until too late. “Over-the-top gimme” is perfect!
Obscure, to say the least. Fridays usually sit empty for awhile and then fill, because of the multi-worded answers and requirement for deep thinking. It's my favorite puzzle day of the week. This puzzle? This was an absurd overuse of random names to fill a grid, requiring knowledge of abstruse trivia - and certainly not contemplation. I'll go back to the archives for my Friday fix.
Cruisy but interesting. Thanks!
@Hector Pefo You coined a new crossword comment word. I’ll have to remember that one!
@Hector Pefo i like that. I was wondering how best to describe it. It filled fast, but the fill was top notch (e.g. SISYPHEAN ‼️). Took some time for me to spell everything correctly in the SE.
Poor Erik Satie! Today, known mainly for his three Gymnopédies (Satie often wrote in sets of three, almost identical, pieces) and a Gnossienne or two--where would freelance wedding harpists be without them?--his work was much more broad-ranging than that. From his early mystical works: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CX1NSswGZQ&list=RD8CX1NSswGZQ&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8CX1NSswGZQ&list=RD8CX1NSswGZQ&start_radio=1</a> (talk about EGO: "I dedicate this work to myself"; in reality, Satie was anything but egoistic, merely sarcastic.") To his later, satirical works, some of which even @Captain Quahog would approve: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzuWmVaUoFw&list=RDrzuWmVaUoFw&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzuWmVaUoFw&list=RDrzuWmVaUoFw&start_radio=1</a> (Bonus points if you can read the French in the scores.) (both recordings by Jean-Yves Thibaudet.) *** Get that wax out of you ears, kids! Here's a Song to the Siren, by Jeff Buckley, performed live on . . . the Monkees!: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaa22ULitds&list=RDvaa22ULitds&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vaa22ULitds&list=RDvaa22ULitds&start_radio=1</a> And here's a brilliant cover by Elizabeth Fraser, of Dead Can Dance: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFWKJ2FUiAQ&list=RDHFWKJ2FUiAQ&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFWKJ2FUiAQ&list=RDHFWKJ2FUiAQ&start_radio=1</a>
@Bill Jeff Buckley on the Monkees? Head exploding, must find out more. There's even a Captain Q-adjacent line there. The Saties were great, the second in particular. Not sure if the second wouldn't have gone over my head if I hadn't been reading the comments while listening, though it is pretty blatant. I'm also visualizing Hugh Grant in Impromptu. So ala Darren, 10/10 for you today.
@Bill And you hit it out of the park again with your musical choices. Haven’t listened to the others yet, but Tim Buckley’s Song to the Siren is in my top ten most played list. Beautiful, beautiful song.
@Bill I’m guessing Bill knows the following but was tied to the mast being pummeled with siren songs: Elizabeth Fraser was with the Cocteau Twins Dead Can Dance also did a cover of Tim’s song Elizabeth Fraser had a relationship with Jeff Buckley Jeff was Tim’s biological son, but they had no personal relationship Here is Jeff Buckley (well known for his cover of Hallelujah) doing his song Lover, You Should’ve Come Over <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XHXVDWsSm38&list=RDXHXVDWsSm38&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XHXVDWsSm38&list=RDXHXVDWsSm38&start_radio=1&pp=oAcB</a>
@Warren et al. Boy! What a lot of mistakes! 1) It was a typo, confusing Tim Buckley with his son Jeff--both father and son dies very young, tragically. 2) Confused Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins) with Lisa Gerrard (Dead Can Dance). Both groups were signed to the label 4AD. "Song to the Siren" was released by the "band" This Mortal Coil, a "dream group" assembled by 4AD producer Ivo Watts-Russell, which included personnel from both groups. Explanation for my confusion, not an excuse. 3) Did not know that Elizabeth Fraser had a relationship with Jeff Buckley. 4) Heard Dead Can Dance live in concert in Lakewood, Ohio, at the Lakewood High School auditorium.
@Bill - Wow! I knew the Gymnopédies, of course, but not the others -- and the sea cucumber one? Whoa! It bothers me that people are saying they don't know who SATIE was-- surely, were they to hear Gymnopédies, they would recognize the music. Right? Right?.... Right? I don't want to know the answer....
A fun workout. Well done and thanks.
17A and 2D almost did me in, but after 1 hour and 29 minutes I finally got it with no lookups or help of any kind. Phew!
In a well crafted puzzle like this one, rather than seeming like “random trivia”, unknown-to-me clues and answers like 56A (the soccer game) come across as interesting things to discover, and also another bit of evidence that these puzzle-makers have mastered the craft of making things dicey but do-able. I believe that one, and Wong Kar-Wai, were the only two I found completely new, but lots of others were only remotely familiar and allowed for a similar, pleasingly-gradual remembrance. And the ‘oh, yeah’ is not always in the answers - sometimes the clues are what teach us, or remind us, of noteworthy facts. For example, it had completely slipped my mind that the 21st word of that line by Princess Leia was “brought”. Nice puzzle.
Ugh, the crosses AFORTIORI/LEFAY/AFI, and SATIE/ALY/SISYPHEAN were too much. I almost always solve Fridays, not today.
@Tim M I struggled with these exact crosses. Finally guessed the right combo of letters, but geez…
Some real highs and lows in this one. Highs: SPIROGRAPH crossed with NERF BALL Lows: Clue for EGO: “It’s mine! All mine.”
sorry, too many proper names,( hong kong filmmaker c'mon) and the law term, really?liked dog owner with whippets
@rob I hear you, but Wong Kar-wai’s “In The Mood For Love” is often cited as one of the best films of the 21st century, and “Chungking Express” is similarly revered. I feel the same way about athlete names, so I know it’s all relative to personal interests. But he’s not esoteric.
I really enjoyed this puzzle; it felt like walking through a private garden or museum, each entry something curated and meaningful. Taught me a few things, too. Thank you!
there is on glaring and offensive clue - the latin for persona non grata does NOT MEAN the answer in the puzzle. it never has it never will. it's like saying someone with cancer or whatever disease is persona non grata - I imagine the constructor was talking about people who aim to hurt others and are then personal non grata. call it what you will - don't blame the sick for health people's criminal actions
@acjones It's not nice and probably most decent people would not use it today, but "trędowaty" (leper) for centuries was as a term for a persona non grata. The clue works, linguistically, even though I personally would have used an alternative.
@acjones I thought of LEPER as the answer when I read the clue, but didn't write it in immediately because it seemed a bit crass. Not sure if this backs up your point or not...
@acjones It ever has and it likely ever will mean this. It may not be PC and may very well be anti-woke and a dozen other kinds of offensive, but this is one of its very well established meanings.
@acjones Here's a philosophical question: If people with the condition are now said to have Hansen's Disease, and it is now curable, such that sufferers do not have to be pariahs, can the meaning of the original disease now shift exclusively to a metaphoric one? If the much maligned wandering people from South Asia are now called Romani or Roma, can we now use Gypsy to refer to anyone who simply has a wandering spirit? Or are the old words simply "personae" non gratae? Anyway, getting back to the illness, Wikipedia still calls it "leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease."
@acjones Dude, you’ve posted like 5 breathless comments on this topic. Some people object to this entry because they find the term “offensive”, but you seem upset that the clue hinges upon an incorrect translation of a Latin phrase. But crossword puzzle entries are not like dictionary entries, and the one you’re hung up on today is not meant to be a Latin phrase as the clue with a literal English translation as the answer. The association between “persona non grata” and “leper” goes back centuries, and there really is just no basis for disputing whether the entry *works*. Of course it does.
@acjones Illness is a bad thing. To pretend otherwise is to deny the reality of human existence. An ill person can still construct a good life but it is /despite/ the illness, an act of overcoming. Great spirits can integrate their illness's intrusions and turn them into part of who they are but it is an immense struggle. To jettison the use of illness – any illness – as a metaphor for evil is pointless. Whichever ailment you name, someone has used it to embody alienation and difference. And A FORTIORI, infectious diseases exemplify the pervasiveness and seepage of evil into a healthy society. Do we treat the ill among us as lepers? Hopefully no longer, although the COVID years provide some uncomfortable memories. But does the image remain effective? Yes. Some metaphors die, when their referents no longer have meaning. Does anyone say "caught between hammer and anvil" any more? When illness passes from the earth, its metaphors will go too.
@acjones I think this particular clue shouldn't be used again but it's nowhere near as offensive as words which denigrate entire genders, races etc.
A very trivia-heavy Friday that sadly got the better of me. A lot of these answers have been 'banked' for future puzzles, and I'm quashing the frustration by treating this as a learning experience 🤣 😬. All in all, I felt this was an excellent, challenging puzzle. I always felt I was in with a fighting chance...
@Hitch I feel for you. Trivia was my biggest challenge today, and I know from my 3+ years here how rotten it feels when you can't deal with a puzzle not because you're being intelligently misled, but simply because you haven't learned some name in your complex and interesting life. I liked this puzzle, and I solved it on my own, but I also got the impression it was a bit heavy on trivia.
This was a really nice construction. I couldn't insta-solve every clue, but the crosses were so well considered that unexpected wordings and uncertain spellings were quickly resolved. Really high quality stuff!
On LEPER. I have always used this term, not that I've had occasion to use it in this way very often, in a sardonically figurative way to express the idea that I feel like a leper because of the way I'm being treated. It's a species of hyperbole. I'm also happy to report that no one has ever accused me of being insensitive to the plight of people suffering from leprosy.
Took me 29:29 but oh so satisfying to hear the music and see the yellow!
@Joy Harkin, There is something great about hearing the music at the end. Definitely adds to the reward of finishing. Well done!
incredible puzzle thanks Nam - this is a true words with meaning puzzle with popular references that have deeper meaning. Bravo!
I liked that Class Acts and Relief Map were in the opposite corner from El Clasico and Sisyphean.
Do you feel good about yourself? Aforti-whatever, pak, spirograph ,plus about 20 proper nouns... I would have gone to the pub last night if I wanted a mega dose of trivia. Such snob-bish construction. Thanks for nothing.
@Mark I agree. This puzzle was a 58 across
Mark, Do you feel bad about yourself?
At times I was 'on the ropes' for this sisyphean challenge. Not knowing el clasico made that SE corner a challenge for me. Spirograph brought back good childhood memories. Loved that as a gift. Oronoco brought back 9O's memories listening to Enya. I had a little trouble with Class act at first, as the word mensche is so much more nuanced. And finally, look at us having SRO twice in a week. Did I tell you the time I....
@Jeff B MD - I made the same mistake -- when I first entered ORINOCO, with great confidence since I knew it from the clue, I misspelled it because ORoNO is so firmly embedded in my brain. It's a Maine, thing, I guess. And... if you've spent time in the general ORoNO area, and you're over a certain age, you may recall the infamous ORoNOCa Restaurant...
We've all had this stress dream, yes? You're being given an exam in a class that you never attended and for which you've done no reading at all. That's how I felt trying to do this puzzle. Boy, was I not having fun! All these tiny pieces of unrelated and unfamiliar info I was expected to know, but didn't. If I managed to finish this -- and I'd definitely need to cheat, at least a bit -- would I feel smart? I suspect I'd just feel tired and put upon. So I stopped. I do that a lot these days. No sense in suffering needlessly, that's what I say. And please note that today I didn't put "suffering" in quotes -- a dead giveaway to how I'm really feeling about a puzzle deep inside. In case you couldn't figure it out, that is:)
@Nancy, I had a version of that dream this week! A former boss (along with her very recognizable accent!) was chastising me for an important work assignment that I had completely forgotten. Almost worse than a nightmare. …and I’ve been retired for 3 years now. Someone please tell me when it will stop!
@Nancy We all have permission to stop, unless we're in a play by Beckett. ("I can't go on. I must go on.") If you're still reading, stop. Go to the library, the corner store, the park. Call your best friend, your partner, your child. Bake a cake. Clean something. Make something dirty. 😉 Cut open a ripe peach or a lemon and breathe in deeply. Visit someone who needs a visitor. (At least you can cheer them up.) Hope to see you tomorrow.
@Nancy My version of that recurring dream is being thrust on stage to play a role for which I don’t know the lines. I hate to admit that sometimes life feels like this to me when I’m wide awake. I found today’s puzzle a tough solve but beautifully constructed. Fair clues and a lively, diverse set of answers. Not quite SISYPHEAN but I had to come back to it twice to get it done.
@Nancy I occasionally have a dream where I can't remember which dorm room is mine or what room calculus is in. My college days ended in 1972.
@Nancy I have that dream ALL the time. Another variant is that I'm in a play but haven't memorized the script. 😂 My subconscious must feel woefully unprepared for something!
Did you know that there's a direct correlation between the decline of Spirograph and the rise in gang activity? Think about it...
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot--chewy but not grisly, demanding but not like my high school football coach (before he gave up on me completely). There are roughly three ways my grid can look when I'm about half way in, timewise. 1) Nothing but completed blocs and blocs I haven't gotten to yet. 2) No section is really completed, but a lot is filled in and there are several answers which cross. 3) No section is complete, and there are vast areas of white space with a very few, uncrossed entries. The first is easy, the third is where I usually gave up on weekends a year or two ago, and sometimes still can't pull it off. The middle one was tonight. I had a lot of places where I was unsure (SISIPHyAN instead of SISYPHEAN, SATay or SATIy instead of SATIE, ERICA vs. ERIkA). Usually this kind of pattern means I'll have flyspecking to do, and tonight was no exception. I took me a while to deal with the uncertainties in the previous paragraph. I would have helped had I known SATIE, because it landed in all that mess. I'm asking the Spanish speakers here: I struggled with EL CLASICO vs EL CLASIkO. I can't think of any Spanish words with a "K". Are there any? Is "K" used in Spanish?
Apologies. "Grisly" should have been "gristley". The puzzle wasn't grisly either (I rarely do blood sacrifices to try to appease the crossword gods), but I meant "with gristle".
@Francis I couldn't think of any. Google says only loan words from other languages.
@Francis once you choose C instead of Γ and move G to Γ you are free to ignore K or Κ 😀
@Francis "K" is very rare in Spanish because it's very rare in Latin. "K" had been all but phased out in Latin by the time Spanish evolved, and the Latin spelling systems have been closely preserved. The history of the letters C, K, Q and G is well worth a deep dive, but far too long and interesting for me to attempt a quick summary here...
@Francis Here's a four minute introduction to Satie's dreamlike piano music. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/4nwhruj2" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/4nwhruj2</a>
More than 50 years later, the TV commercial for the Spirograph is still lodged in my head: “I don’t (can’t?) believe it, I just don’t believe it The things you can draw (do?) with a Spirograph”
The NW corner was too much for this old solver! Had SPIROGRAPH and took it out because 20A just had to be SPITBALL, AMA recommends all kinds of unpleasant screenings. SET seemed too simple. Had 1,2, 3, and 4D but then confusion reigned. 58 indeed!!!!!!
Very nice! I was in battle with the SE corner for just the right amount of time. I'm not familiar with Satie, Erica Jong, or that Eliot quote, and the lack of an "abbr." indicator on RECON had me second-guessing myself (that's not a complaint, especially not on a Friday). With ONTHEROckS throwing me off the trail for a good long while, PARASITIC landing unlocked it for me, though I still kept waffling on SISYPHEAN vs SISYPHiAN, even briefly contemplating SISYPHaeN like an absolute brute. Lots of fun wordplay here, spanning lots of categories while doing a respectable job avoiding crossing proper nouns. Even though I couldn't remember if it was spelled with an I or a Y, I particularly enjoyed finally recalling the name of a SPIROGRAPH. Nice Friday.
I don’t find the daily crossword Sisyphean. More like a different hike each day, sometimes through an easy green meadow, sometimes rock climbing up a cliff. Almost always something new and word-clever. And some homes near me have giant garage doors facing their patios that overlook the ocean! Elephants would fit through the door but protrude out on to the patio.
Enjoyed the puzzle a lot, but got stuck on 40A (NPR Program since 1987) for way too long. The only name I could think of associated with NPR was Ari Shapiro, so I tried ARI ON AIR, but then solved OASIS and SPIROGRAPH and got ARISHAIR. Could there possibly be an entire show dedicated to Ari’s hair? He does have nice hair, so why not?😂 Happy Friday!
@Valerie..... "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross...a wonderful program not to be missed!!!
@Valerie Fresh Air and Gross are amazing and of unrelentingly high quality. I only recently noticed how far behind I was in their podcast feed. Turns out they are producing DAILY. I thought it was weekly. Nearly unfathomable how they can keep up the pace, even as she's added cohosts. Fresh Air is a gem. Journalism and interviews worth anyone's time, even if the (very wide) subject matter isn't always up my own alley.
Not much to add. I shared many of the both the positive and negative feelings already provided. But, after circling and checking and circling some more, it was done! Very satisfied customer.
Not only did we have LOTR (ORCS) and Star Wars (LEIA), but for a moment I thought we had Babylon V, with [Psy-]OPS, but no, that was Psy-Corps. But Babylon V was an excellent, ground-breaking, series, with long story arcs which describe, among other things, how quickly democracy can descend into fascism. Hmm. But it was long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, in which Princess Leia's mother, Padmé Amidala, observes: "So this is how liberty dies: to thunderous applause."