Brendan
Montreal, QC, Canada
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Montreal, QC, Canada
As a Canadian (and on behalf of the rest of the non-US, English-speaking world) I hoped for GEN ZED. I knew in my heart of hearts there'd be no chance of it, though.
Tough but fantastic Saturday. While everything east of the diagonal black staircase was somehow a breeze for me, the NW corner had me in cold sweats. I blame it on PADIDDLE and for being stuck on BERET instead of DERBY for way too long.
@Katie Are you referring to the clue for GORGE? Normally I'd be with you on slamming any fatphobia in the clues. I struggle to see it in this case, though – after all, pigs are simply animals who love to eat, and "gorging" isn't exclusive to one particular body type. Maybe I'm missing something, and would love to know what that is so I can be more sensitive in the future.
True CROCI, or, species within the Crocus genus, do not contain colchicine. It can be extracted, however, from the completely unrelated "autumn crocus" or Colchicum autumnale. Not a true crocus from a botanical perspective, though it looks a bit like one.
18A reminds me of the silliness of still referring to a main course as an "entree" in North American English. The original French word, entrée, literally means "entry" and refers to a starter course, not a main course. The etymological history of this linguistic mishap is kind of comical. At least in Canada I've seen restaurants thankfully start to replace entree with "mains."
@Jon Moog is the biggest name in synthesizers, going back to 1964. It was the first commercial synthesizer and established the analog synthesizer concept. The average person may not necessarily consider it a household term, but most musicians in the western world would have at least heard of Moog.
@Nancy I almost ejected my morning coffee while reading your description of Erykah Badu being "unknown" — perhaps for those who choose to reside in caves? Badu is one of the most successful soul artists of the 1990s and continues to carve new musical path today. Music critics call her the "Queen of Neo Soul." Hardly unknown.
For completely unfair reasons I'm not always a fan of Sunday puzzles (takes too long! Squares are too small on my phone screen!), but I found this one irresistibly fun with its hilariously subverted expressions.
Small quibble, but in my experience as a musician "noodling" on a guitar (50A) almost always implies the act of improvising random melodies on a guitar, rather than simply strumming chords.
I wouldn't normally POPUP here just to boast, but IMHERE to smugly announce that today is day 500 of my current streak. No LION. That said, I might officially break my streak starting tomorrow — with Sundays often taking me up to 2 hours to complete 😬, the rest of my schedule gets a little DARKNSTORMY.
I'm surprised at the number of commenters here who are perplexed by OGS. The slang acronym O.G. stands for "original gangster", but its meaning is broader than that (see definition below). It has been widely used in pop culture since at least the '90s. Merriam-Webster: "Someone or something that is an original or originator and especially one that is highly respected or regarded. The Nashville Tennessean recently tweeted, "What does the owner of Prince's think about all these hot-chicken imitators?" One Prince's fan replied, "… Prince's is the OG. And that's that on that."
@Grant The "Frog and Toad" series of children's books by Arnold Lobel have been around since the '70s, and were a big deal for me as an early '80s baby. There's actually a touching personal backstory to these books, detailed in the "Origins" section of the Frog and Toad entry on Wikipedia.
Really nice puzzle to ring in day 300 of my streak (#humblebrag)! Hoping that nothing icky or malignant happens between now and day 365.
@MaB To add to Paul's reply: based on the song mentioned, "Stan" has become a popular gen-z/millennial slang for someone who's an obsessive fan. It's also used as a verb (!) sometimes– as in "he Stans Mel Tormé."
Hi Sam! As a fellow Canadian, I regret to inform you that 4-H exists in Canada, too. You only need to have grown up in farm country to know this. I was completely unaware of it until meeting my partner who grew up on a dairy farm in the prairies. She participated in numerous 4-H activities as a child, and even had her own pet cow ("Wizard") as part of her 4-H duties.
@Cici I was confused by this too, but then I remembered that "man" is sometimes (often in literature) used to mean "mankind" or "the human race" – which makes it plural.
Toughest Friday in recent memory, but a fun one! Best of luck to those still winding their way through the grid.
Bemused/troubled by the number of commenters here who "of course" "couldn't possibly" have known Chiwetel Ejiofor. This amazing actor with multiple awards and award noms made such an impression on me in 12 Years a Slave that I could never have forgetten him. There is value in remembering names that don't sound like one's own.
@Mean Old Lady Wim Wenders is up on the mountain peak for most film fanatics. A name like "Jim" probably sounds odd to the average German. The holiday for Saint Lucia is known as simply LUCIA in Scandinavia. RATEDE = Rated "Everyone".
Ale be honest, I barley made it through this puzzle due to pour decisions. But I was fer-ment to finish it.
I was very proud of my answer for 42A: "SEEN IT" – until I wasn't.
I was stuck for ages on RADIATION for 10D, and built several dubious crosses around that, too. But sometimes you just have to admit to yourself that DBATH and GALEM are not words.
Who else here will admit to parsing 56A as BARN ONE for a little too long? .
Sometimes you have those Mondays where it makes perfect sense for Teddy Grahams to be PEAR shaped, even if APU Dhabi sounds more like a Simpsons reference than a city.
Blame it on my age range as a Xennial (micro-generation between Gen X and millennial) but RAWR somehow came to me very quickly, which means I've seen or heard it at least a few times before.
Am I the only one who overthought 29D, thinking it had to do with the Isle of Man, England, from whence the Manx cat originated? If the CC had this in mind as a possible misdirect, huge kudos to them!
@Nora Just to add on to that: OG does mean originator, by definition, but the acronym itself stands for "original gangster."
@Eric Hougland Thank you, I still have no idea what Nancy meant by POC, as I'm only familiar with the acronym for Person Of Colour/Color.
2/4 time is so rarely used in notation with any modern music genres — except to slip in as an "extra bar" within a 4/4 or 3/4-time song. Surely there must be a few other fellow musicians here who knew right away that 43A couldn't be RAP.
Maybe it's just me, but I find that 1A clues are always especially tough in late-week puzzles. So I didn't trust myself when I guessed ENYA right away; I also don't imagine a "musical act" ever being a solo artist — in my mind that term applies only to bands.
@Katie Apparently I filled in ROSA using only crosses so I hadn't even noticed her there. Thanks for pointing that out!
33D: was wondering, it being Saturday and all, whether our constructor would go for the correct (but lesser known in English) Italian singular form of CANNOLO, since the clue didn't imply multiple cannoli. .
The expression "Hot as Hades" would have been completely unknown to me, as a Canadian, were it not for the excellent Billie Holiday song "I Must Have That Man": <a href="https://youtu.be/o2wfHTYRIbE?si=OLZiJq1zMCotb5np" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/o2wfHTYRIbE?si=OLZiJq1zMCotb5np</a>
@SBJ It refers to "stuffing" the basketball into the net - a lesser-used slang variant of "dunking."
@Kevin A kettle is known for heating water. Thanks to its spout, it also dispenses that water. Would you argue that a kettle does not dispense hot water?
Can some kind cruciverbalist please explain the cluing for 34D? Why would Gail be an appropriate middle name for OPRAH?
@RichPFromDC I'm struggling to see how HART is too "remote" from its clue. As a relative newcomer to crosswords I knew this answer (thanks in part to some rudimentary Shakespeare learning back in high school).
@Brendan *DDATH, oops. Even worse! Emu food
@Reuben With no disrespect to my neighbours to the south, many experiences throughout my life have led me to suspect that Canadian geography is not really included or stressed at all in US school curricula 😅 — so I doubt PEI was a gimme for them either! Side note: I always got a kick out of seeing Alex Trebec (the late, much-loved host of Jeopardy and a Canadian) react to the befuddlement caused by any questions involving Canadian geography.
@Josh Agreed. Soundgarden were firmly in the grunge era — there was nothing "post-grunge" about them.
I can only assume the H is added to the Anglicized word to make it more obvious that the second syllable most be pronounced — the average, uninitiated English speaker would probably look at "boke" and pronounce it as a monosyllabic word that rhymes with Coke.
@jp inframan I see "Sea: Fr." on the app, not "See: Fr." Was there a typo earlier on? Only emus know
For longer than I'd care to admit, I had 42A as CLICKED, thinking it had to do with the sound of the keys on the instrument opening and closing (which is sometimes deliberately embellished, as an "extended" musical technique).
@Wes I looked this up — a lei can also be worn "around one's head, wrist or hat." Hula dancers wear them around their heads.
@Nancy Oddly, ROY was my first and only gimme on my first trip around the grid.
@Connor If you're curious, HOV stands for high-occupancy vehicle. The HOV lane in North America is reserved at peak travel times for multi-occupant vehicles, including carpools and buses. I'm not sure about elsewhere, but in Canada you only need two people in a vehicle to qualify as "multi-occupant."
Having a mental blockage with 35D, SYNONYM. Everyone is loving this answer, but I can't seem to get the connection! Please explain?
For longer than I'd care to admit, I was stymied by my entry THAT-DOGGON-THING, assuming "doggon" had to be an alternate spelling of doggone.
@Timothy Ditto! Although it took some mental gymnastics to imagine a dictionary being a bestseller.