Sherman
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I searched and searched for where to put the ARHAT entry today, but the ARHAT streak has been broken. For me, a typical end-of-week solve. Like many others here, after the first pass I was staring at a near-empty grid. But with the help of Google and a jackhammer, I drilled away and received the gold star. Yes, the NW was a bear. ECTO, I am looking at you. I am sure there are solvers who know all there is to know about parasites, but I am a NAÏF. I really enjoyed the long entries.
EGGIEST?? That’s the crosswordiest entry I’ve ever seen! It’s in the dictionary, I know it’s fair, I guess this is the complaintiest I’ve ever been. Are we still doing the emu-lations?
Should I be delighted to solve this puzzle, when doing so took me fifty percent longer than my usual Sunday time? I feel like this crossword addiction is unhealthy, my subscription by coincidence ends today. Will take a break and will come back in a while. I enjoy solving, but I am slow, and I cannot justify the over two hours spent today, a rat in a maze, just for a small piece of cheese.
Fun puzzle. I tortured my brain to solve my last remaining clue … what Italian suit designer could it be? Mario Silenti, Versace’s less successful and unknown competitor? Then, I realized, the DADJOKE was on me. Quotations meant the clue was literal. The CIA and the NSA appeared today, we were spared the FBI. And my favorite pair in this puzzle: NICK and GATSBY, reunited in proximity in the grid.
I enjoyed this puzzle - lol’d the clever 2D ‘70s GERALD Ford. Great misdirection after the 58A had me thinking of mid 20th century cars like the GTO. The best part? Commenters noted the instances of OO, but I count 13 double and even one triple letter, like the 34A ZZ.
@Jim Murray No offense intended by the constructor for the term “age out”. In the States, many people have health insurance offered by their employers. The employers are required by ERISA federal statute to include the employees’ children in the policy until age 26, at which time it is said the children “age out” of the plan. They grew too old.
@Kurt Reflexively giving this literal reply: Little ditty bout Jack and Diane Two American kids growin’ up in the heartland -John Mellancamp
@Throckmorton To ”cry uncle” is to give up, admit defeat.
@drsophila The clue is not “sought help” but “sought for help”. Somebody sought for help, so they RAN TO me. Tricky, but it’s Saturday.
@Steve L At NYU, in the mid-70’s, the bursar was a gal. Ms. Devanny culminated a long career at the university by heading that office. How do I know her? She came up with the idea of hiring students part-time to perform as tellers and clerks. Saved the college lots of money during their near bankruptcy. I was one of her first student hires. Nice to earn spending money while attending school.
My solving streak was doomed to end eventually, I am gratified to complete 78 consecutive puzzles without a hint. The puzzles are certainly getting easier, but today I was fooled by the crossing at 55. According to Google, there is a lender called Viva, and there is such a thing as a veg stand. So when I did not get the completion music, I tried to find the one error and failed. What’s the point in looking for a needle in a haystack, instead of spending time enjoying something else? It’s on me, not knowing that KEG STANDs existed, and people turn to KIVA for loans. Putting my bruised ego aside, I otherwise enjoyed the puzzle.
Fun puzzle. The last clue to be conquered was 40D, at first I had “carfare”. That’s what the older generation called the money paid when hopping on a bus. (Streetcars used for public transportation were replaced by buses.) But that didn’t suit the cross, I modernized my entry and happy music was played. I assume CABFARE will eventually be modernized as “uberfare”.
The previous commenters said it best- this puzzle is a complete delight.
Been solving the puzzle on and off from the late 60’s under the editorship of Farrar through today, I appreciate Will Shortz’s innovations. So welcome back to the second toughest job in America. I found today’s puzzle slightly more difficult than the typical Monday. After a couple of weeks off, I am ready to tackle the time-consuming TFSSu grids again.
Nobody mentioned (I think) that the entry pair BOOK…ENDS actually bookend the puzzle, with BOOK on the top left of an imaginary shelf and ENDS at the right. Clever. I was familiar with the term BRAH because I follow YouTube blogger Reviewbrah. He posts his reviews of new fast food items, calls his blog “Running On Empty” and is often entertainingly sarcastic. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheReportOfTheWeek" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TheReportOfTheWeek</a> Movie theater operators keep little of the money charged for admission to their auditorium. They make money selling overpriced snacks such as RAISINETS. Finally, count me as another solver who completed the puzzle without difficulty, but could not make head nor tail of the revealer.
I did enjoy the puzzle except … Wordle players may not have appreciated seeing the 21D entry, the most missed word in that game, causing 48 percent of players to lose after six tries.
@Eric I scored a personal best for Sunday puzzles today. It took fifty percent of my average time. The 18A, “Head of a noted animal rescue project” was a very clever way to clue a tired entry. Kudos to the team.
@Marshall Walthew Sometimes I wish I were four years old, with no habit of reading the newspaper. The only thing I know about pangolins is that four years ago they were accused of spreading COVID in the Huanan Seafood Market.
@Andrzej Yes, one needs a knowledge of baseball to recognize the rival teams - the Yankees from New York (NYY) and the RedSox of Boston (BOS). I had first entered NYM, for the other team in New York, the Mets. The crosses, of course, did not fit.
@Andrzej Since all the clues begin with the letter “C”, “ceremonial” takes the nod over any clue that begins with a different letter. See? I enjoyed that every clue began with the same letter.
On the subject of Girl Scout Cookies: There are two national firms that bake the treats. A troop or a locality decides which bakery’s snacks to sell. Some similar cookies have two different names, depending on the manufacturer. So the cookies you may know as Caramel deLites, are also known as Samoas. Delicious by any name.
Fun puzzle, though I agree that it can be solved quicker than most Friday xwords. I enjoyed the FOOTLONGS entry especially, since I do indulge once or twice a month. TIL that the plural of plus can contain two OR three s’s. The former looks wrong to me, but who am I to argue with Webster, millions of writers and our esteemed editors.
@Barry Ancona New Yorkers of a certain age may remember the Dry Dock Savings Bank. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Dry_Dock_Savings_Bank" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dollar_Dry_Dock_Savings_Bank</a>
Fun puzzle which I solved in my average Monday time. Not sure if a reminder of wintry weather ahead in NYC as December approaches is welcome. Can’t wait for spring to begin here in earnest in May. I do have a nit to pick. To my understanding, a precursor is replaced by the new iteration. If so, then the mainframe is not a precursor to the supercomputer. In fact, Control Data Corporation and Cray Research made mainframe computers which were called supercomputers. From wiki: “Mainframes and supercomputers cannot always be clearly distinguished; up until the early 1990s, many supercomputers were based on a mainframe architecture with supercomputing extensions.”
@G Sahara is the name of a brand of pita bread.
For trivia fans: Yes, EVIE Sands was the first to record “Angel of the Morning”, written by Chip Taylor. Chip has a more famous brother, the actor Jon Voight. And a more famous niece, Angelina Jolie. But Chip wrote some big hits - “Wild Thing” was a smash in the mid-1960’s. Three years ago, EVIE released a new album of songs she wrote herself. But it is fair to call her a 60’s singer, since she released several charted singles during that decade, when she was in her early twenties.
@Paige Same here! I was stumped in that SW corner. I went to sleep and the entries materialized at once upon awakening. A psychologist should investigate the phenomenon of “sleeping on it”.
@el TIL that an AutoTuner is a tool used by car mechanics. As for its use in music production, some people call it that, so it’s a close enough entry for crosswords.
@Warren We called the small ice cream treats “Dixie Cups”, which is also a brand name of the disposable utensil and cup manufacturer.
@Kerri The entry is parsed as DO OR DIE. Clever.
@Fact Boy 5600 parrots on Noah’s ark?? Good they had all that rain. Otherwise … I’d hate to be the one responsible for swabbing that deck.
@Tim Turns out The Beach Boys did. Aside from 51A FUN FUN FUN, they had a top ten hit in 1964 with Dance, Dance, Dance. . . . Emu, Emu, Emu
@Wes There were two President Harrisons. So to be precise, counting Benjamin, William Henry and Gerald, the actor’s name consists of three presidents.
@Aaron I have a different problem, a nit. I understood that the clue and the entry should always match. But here we have a non-abbreviated clue with an abbreviated entry. Perhaps a reader can comment? Automated Teller Machine, with 22 letters, would not easily fit in one row, of course.
Having the first and last letters, I entered carmax before CLOROX at 38A. In those days of panic used cars were at a premium, since the supply chain ills made new cars difficult to obtain. The crosses, however could not fit, so I disinfected the entry. An enjoyable Sunday puzzle.
@Andrzej The puzzle was doubly difficult. For me, the theme took way too long to reveal itself and the fill was diabolical. I couldn’t imagine a three-letter nickname for Ms. Goulding, so my suspicions turned to rebus. What a wonderful debut puzzle!
@Jane Wheelaghan SSN stands for Social Security Number, a unique identifier assigned by the USA government to a person and used for such purposes as keeping an account of government pension contributions.
@J-J Cote My dentist uses lidocaine. Even with anesthesia, my trip to the dentist is a pain. He rewards me after the visit with small samples of floss, paste and even brushes. Are these bribes to encourage me to return?
Fun puzzle. One can put thirteen different clues in a bag, shake them up, and randomly reassign those thirteen, (reserving the revealer clue for last, 71A.) And nobody complained about the Portuguese clue at 61A, since the entry is easily solved by the crosses.
@B I was not a fan of SAFARI, since the question mark in the clue indicates it is part of the theme. But if you delete the I in SAFARI, you get safar, which is not a common English expression. I enjoyed the word play of the puzzle, but I agree with other complainers - the puzzle was sloppily edited. I most agree with the complaint that one of the theme entries had three I’s - 47A. WIRYSIMILE. All the other themers had two I’s, and one did not have to choose which two to delete.
@Chris NOAH is no stranger to puzzles. After returning to our puzzle after a six-month needed break, I am finding that my times are improving (with the help of Google late-week). Perhaps they are trending easier. Been playing off and on since LBJ was president. I filled this one rapidly, and after completing it, I discovered the clever theme. My new streak is at ten, but I am sure it will be broken soon enough. Sometimes after a couple of go-rounds, I can’t find that one letter in error, and I throw in the towel.
@Andrzej Weather-wise, late April is a good time to visit New York City. Unless you are very unlucky, you will not risk a snowstorm or extreme heat or cold. A heavy jacket may be useful at night. Remember, you will always need to refer to the area north of the city as upstate. :)
@SusanEM Misery loves company, I could not find my error, which was revealed as TEDS/SESTET. Hard to locate one error in a 15 x 15 grid. I gave up after one review. Really enjoyed figuring out the theme.
@Bruce In the states, <a href="https://www.uschess.org" target="_blank">https://www.uschess.org</a> sanctions many over-the-board tournaments. They become social events. In all probability, the sore loser would not make such accusations to their opponent’s face. The organizers and directors of tournaments do their best to ensure fair play.
@Steven M. Sampras’ father’s mother was Jewish. And that’s all I can find on the web about the subject. . . . . . Emus, amuse me.
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