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Mojave
Very clever. Maybe its my mental blocks, but I did not enjoy this one.
@David Johnson If you know Gorey's work at all, this just sounds like something he would write. I'd never heard of that piece but guessed his name.
@Rahul I learned a night time prayer as a 5 year old with the phrase "lead us not into eggs aisle." Being very visual, I imagined an open air market with vegetables, fruits, and eggs. Not sure why I wasn't supposed to go there.
@Mike Pip pip hooray to you!
I understood the revealer early on, figured some letters would be missing/butt out, but had a hard time guessing the spacing of the outside word's letters. That meant not knowing when to expect a butt-out. The clues were somewhat unusual, not bad, but odd and a bit hard for a Thursday.
@lucky13 In music, no, but in general, yes. A person can orchestrate something other than music.
@Andrzej Weeping willows can be very wide trees, both above ground and in the root zone. There are not extremely tall. They are not recommended for yard planting because of their wide growth pattern.
About the article: attics themselves are vented to remove hot air, moisture, etc. and they also contain vents from house to roof to get rid of nasties such as gas or stove smoke. That is why they are great for ventilation. Other than tying this clue to the clever AC Unit entry, I don't see the connection.
@Barry Ancona I had the same reaction to this clue. Nurses do triage first, especially in ERs. We all know this. But I entered the answer because my expectations are low sometimes.
@Francis Canola refers to "Canadian oil", but it is a marketing term not usually capitalized. BTW, it is IIRC mostly or fully an oil sometimes called rapeseed oil, "rape" or "rabe" being old words for turnip. So you can see why they had to rename this oil. O, Canada, we love you!.
@Andrzej "Danish" is a type of pastry dough that has heavy cream in it, making it messy to work with but giving it flaky. Bear claws can use danish dough, so they are a specific type of danish with almonds.
@Eric Hougland I love Oxford commas. If your mother is Mary I would have no commas in that sentence, or leave her name out. I think too many put a comma in before a name. "I had dinner with my mother Mary" is clear.
@dutchiris I think you have broken some kind of pun density record. Congratulations.
This was fun at times. Ha Ha Yeah she said. But I cannot recall taking over an hour on a crossword in this century. I loved the theme answers, though they made me feel a little cross-eyed with all the repeating characters. But that was the whole point.
I was a bit unnerved by the "aloe" clue. It is technically correct, but, wow, aloe can be very bad to eat. You must get the gel and not the latex around the gel. Also, there are many new cool aloe plants in nurseries now which are not edible at all (not aloe veras). Best left to the experts, so don't try this at home kids or let your pets chew on any aloe plant.
@Alex Barry I'm happier when I see an arachnid/spider like the Daddy because I can identify it easily. It is the possible recluses and widows that make me wish I could memorize the differences. This thread reminds me of a great commercial, possibly only aired on streaming channels, featuring someone using slow Internet to look up the spider in the room with them, then trying desperately to connect to Poison Control.
@CCed I never thought of pluralizing the word hegira, but it makes sense as there are different ones. Two interesting ones are the Ethiopian Hegira and Joni Mitchell's album.
@JM Agreed. The time is ripe just means it is a great time to do something. Ripe doesn't necessarily have anything to do with odor.
Thank you so much, Deb. I wish every puzzle series had a guide like this Gameplay. I started seriously word puzzling with cryptics, which taught me that just filling in the right letters was never as fun as understanding why the answers work. As for this puzzle, it almost made me dizzy. I do question what kind of hoot is scary in the forest. Are there dive-bombing flesh-eating owls I haven't encountered? Is this a Twin Peaks reference? (I had howl for this answer for quite a while).
@Francis This ROYGBIV does describe the color spectrum. As one trained in graphics and cartography, I cannot see leaving any out. Indigo is navy blue with very little red in it (though indigo dyes can make other colors). "Violet" here is not just the red-purple color, it can mean invisible ultraviolet. "Red" is not just the primary color, it can mean invisible infrared. So OYGBI is the visible spectrum.
@Francis "catholic" is also a word in itself that means universal or broad.
@Striker Though a cat fan, I just found out about this breed this year on the interwebs. There is a doctor who has what she calls Balinese cats because her husband is somewhat allergic to cats. The cats are fluffy but apparently selected for a lower production of the main cat-made allergen.
@coloradoz I believe tuxedos made it into the Gameplay column or its picture this year. When I got this answer I had two reactions: told my tuxedo cat Maya she made it into the NYT xword; and hoped they would put a tuxedo cat in the column again.
@Gareth Gorey was a strange American artist and author who focused on disturbing content. His art is I believe still featured on PBS's Mystery! series. It is mostly black and white parlor scenes from the early 20th or Victorian days. Apparently, ladies fainted a lot and the sky was always scary looking.
@Francis Sort of right. Bread and Roses was the name of an important strike/rally in Lawrence MA. The labor events back then, especially if run by the IWW (Wobblies), had participants and speakers from dozens of cultures. They probably did get boisterous.
@Cat Lady Margaret I miss the NYT novelty puzzles that did this, sort of. I think it was called Spiral. I also like vowel-less puzzles and the clueless puzzle. Those went away for us merely digital subscribers.
@CCed I am fostering a cat who happens to be a sweet little dude. I seem to only have female pet cats. So now I get to say this a lot, probably a few times times a day.
@Dave H As a former map expert, I concur. Pan around, zoom in. You can sort of do both in some software, but they are different actions.
@Robco AC units condense moisture from inside air and have to drip that somewhere else. Some of the moisture dries inside the unit. The water dripping on the ground might end up back in the air outside your apartment. Dehumidifcation is an endless battle.
@MWC Using a tool such as ChatGPT is barely AI. There are many ways to select word patterns, all using selects and general expressions. Some people can do this with special software, some with Web sites (such as Litscape), and some with programming languages and word lists. ChatGPT is just helping those who want to save some time. Real AI can learn, guess, and almost think like a human. It might be trained to create a mediocre crossword from just a theme and a grid. IMHO, that would be cheating using AI.
@Valerie That sounds like a recipe I made called Rooster's Beak (Pico de Gallo). Lots of salsas get called Pico de Gallo, but this one really does look beak-like (the chile or paprika tints the white jicama pieces).
@Lewis [Lot's wife] I'm Still Standing
Re the column, I don't think ogee is quite crosswordese. It is a common answer but not rare. If you have ever done any remodeling, picture framing, or furniture repair, you will encounter an ogee.
@Francis "Cava" is on Spanish champagne labels but I thought it was an adjective, not the type of wine. TIL for me. The Iota clue refers literally to the three (Greek) I symbole.
@Andrzej It is the middle of many work weeks, which end with TGIF (thank God it's Friday). Some also start with Manic Monday.
Loved this one, and also still remember the Clinton/Dole one (but I heard about it years after it was published and managed to solve it (IIRC)). I was a little too focused on filling in the answers and the software showed me the rebuses before I had a chance to think about what the circled letters might mean.
So, through no fault of my own, I have eaten head cheese. I was in primary school. One uncle was a retired butcher. IIRC, it was pressed, sliced thick and sauteed, a bit like meat loaf. I think I enjoyed it. But maybe because that uncle never cooked, it was a lot of work for him (a labor of love), and others enjoyed it. No, I would never consider it again, as I just don't eat much meat or grease.
@sue Squee is also what some softer eagle sounds are called. I would not be surprised if this arose from viewers of nest Webcams. Squeeing is pretty cute.
@Ιασων ATRA, from Gillette.
@Jess Or you could take a trip to Mauna ??a.
First time in a few years for a new personal best. I just kept typing. It did feel easy. One thing I've done in the last month or so was to go back to doing Fridays and Saturdays, which I suspect makes the other days less intimidating (most days are getting faster).
@Phil B They both be soon in somewhat archaic language.
@Francis Whatever happens, don't go in the basement..or the barn.
@Marshall Walthew I had trouble with this one because I was thinking about individuals, not businesses. I wanted it to be something like "recovered".
@Tom I don't think so. I think of a porch as a sitting area that has a house door opening into it. My only porch has a trellis, not a real roof. Only rainy places need porch roofs.
@Barry Ancona There are also doges galore in Ann Rice's book "Cry to Heaven".
@B Also, the article itself always includes spoilers, so why would anyone go to the comments not expecting them?
Fun puzzle. Caitlin: a run time error is simply an error that occurs only when the program is run...as opposed to one that happens because of syntax or other errors that can stop a program before it starts. These are often someone putting in data that the program did not foresee being entered.
@Grumpy That's how I feel about the one-word sentence. Every. Time.
@Ned S But it is still a great and accurate clue. I went first for Biked because lots of wheeled things can do doughnuts. As an occasional baker of doughnuts, they are truly doughnuts, usually prettier and healthier than the fried ones. Bonus: they are also toric.