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Hagia Sophia feature / FRI 11-13-26 / Perform an entrechat, e.g. / Sci-fi companion who speaks "binary," familiarly / Ye olde quaff / Big name in discount supermarkets / Lutheran hymn / Relative of a mandrill
Friday, November 13, 2026
Constructor: Mike Graczyk
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium
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| [50D: Sci-fi companion who speaks "binary," familiarly = ARTOO] |
Word of the Day: EMIL Nolde (53D: Actor Jannings or artist Nolde) —
Emil Nolde (born Hans Emil Hansen; 7 August 1867 – 13 April 1956) was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and was one of the first oil painting and watercolor painters of the early 20th century to explore color. He is known for his brushwork and expressive choice of colors. Golden yellows and deep reds appear frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. His watercolors include vivid, brooding storm-scapes and brilliant florals.Nolde's intense preoccupation with the subject of flowers reflected his interest in the art of Vincent van Gogh.
Even though his art was included in the Entartete Kunst exhibition of 1937, Nolde was a member of the Nazi Party, with racist and antisemitic views, and a staunch supporter of Nazi Germany. [...]
Nolde was a supporter of the National Socialist German Workers' Party from the early 1920s, having become a member of its Danish section. He expressed anti-semitic, negative opinions about Jewish artists, and considered Expressionism to be a distinctively Germanic style. This view was shared by some other members of the Nazi party, notably Joseph Goebbels and Fritz Hippler. // However, Adolf Hitler rejected all forms of modernism as "degenerate art"; the Nazi regime officially condemned Nolde's work. Until that time, he had been held in great esteem in Germany. A total of 1,052 of his works were removed from museums, more than those of any other artist. (wikipedia)
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Happy Native American Heritage Mo., I guess! (16A: NOV.). Also, Happy Friday the 13th! And finally, happy birthday to my mother, Sarah, who wrote me last week to tell me, "Even when I went by Sally, no one ever called me Sal!" (see this past Sunday's puzzle for more on this alleged "Nickname for Sarah" controversy). If my mother's birthday is on Friday the 13th, then that means mine is on Thanksgiving Day this year. Don't get my own special day just for myself, but ... I love Thanksgiving so much that I don't really care. Best meal of the year, daughter will be home, etc. I think I'm gonna ask to celebrate my birthday a few days early, just to keep some recovery space between the birthday cake and the Thanksgiving pie. But back to the puzzle ...
About a minute slower than last week, but still very doable. The grid really felt like a Saturday. Something about its strongly quadranted and blocky shape ... but the quadrants really aren't that cut off from the rest of the grid. Lots of points of entry make for nice flow. I never got a real whoosh-whoosh zoom-zoom thrill, largely because there aren't any answers that really shooooot across the grid from section to section, but I really really liked the big stacks up top and down below. I think "CAN'T BEAT THAT" is the (far) more common expression (4 million+ hits), but "CAN'T TOP THAT" does exist (~68K hits), and doesn't grate my ears too much. And the other long answers up there—stellar. "ALONE AT LAST" is a winner, and the first of a slew of longer colloquial answers that all seem vaguely related, like they're snippets of the same conversation. "ALONE AT LAST ... so how have you been?" "I MET SOMEONE" "Wow. CAN'T TOP THAT. Is he married?" "LET'S HOPE NOT." And then someone with a shopping cart shouts "MOVE IT ALONG!" because this conversation takes place in a grocery store and the people involved are blocking the CEREAL AISLE. Speaking of CEREAL AISLE, that clue is an all-timer (15A: Total area). I've seen Total used in this misdirective way before, but today it really got me.
["You better loosen your girdle, Margaret!"]
The fill overall seemed pretty strong today, with very few things making me wince or frown. There's your usual smattering of EPEES and ATO and NAH and ARTOO and OTOE and ENE etc., but there's nothing particularly egregious, and the mid-range and longer stuff stays bright throughout, which is all I ask of a themeless puzzle. The puzzle felt harder than it was. I think that's because the puzzle never felt like it broke wide open. There was always an answer or two I had to work around. So I just made steady progress. Worst problem was also the first problem, i.e. 1D: Acquiesce. As you can see on the grid animation above, I dropped in GIVE IN, crossed it (successfully!) with EPA, and then ... those two just sat there while I worked on other things. Even when I circled back to fix GIVE IN, the first thing I changed it to (ACCEPT) was also wrong (it's ACCEDE). Ouch. Nothing else tripped me up for long after that. Took some time to see CRY WOLF (39A: Raise a false red flag) because of the awkward clue: I know false flags and I know red flags but I've never heard of "false red flags" (though I can infer what they are). Struggled to parse "TRÈS CHIC!" since there's nothing in the clue to indicate Frenchness (36D: "What style!"). Had no idea a CHORALE was a [Lutheran hymn]. I just thought it was a musical piece for a chorus. Rather, it's "a hymn or psalm sung to a traditional or composed melody in church also : a harmonization of a chorale melody" (merriam-webster.com). It's also used as a synonym for "Chorus" or "Choir."
["AAH..."]
What else? I thought Lincoln might have been talking about PEOPLE or a PERSON, as I couldn't immediately conjure up the closing lines of the Gettysburg Address ("... PERISH from this earth") (43D: Fourth-to-last word of the Gettysburg Address). I had absolutely no conception of the Memphis-to-Nashville dir. (ENE), so that little bit of directional crosswordese was a nuisance, for sure. I did manage to remember ANAPHORA, though—a rhetorical device that involves repetition at the beginning of successive phrases. ANAPHORA is not to be confused with AMPHORA, which is some kind of earthenware jug, if I remember correctly. Yes. Though it's more "jar" than "jug." Narrow neck. Handles. Used in ancient world for storage and transport of various grains and liquids.
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| [AMPHORA] |
- 53D: Actor Jannings or artist Nolde (EMIL) — Jannings has been the NYTXW's go-to EMIL for as long as I've been solving. Nolde you see less often, perhaps because, despite being an astonishing painter, he was a very big Nazi (see Word of the Day, above). Didn't save his art from being condemned as "degenerate" by Goebbels et al., but yeah, he was a member of the Nazi party and an enthusiastic racist and antisemite. Not sure why Jannings couldn't have just held this clue down by himself. [sorry, we regret to inform you that Jannings was also a Nazi] There are a handful of other EMILs out there as well.
- 6D: Spiny succulents (ALOES) — fell into a CACTI pit. Pretty painful, as pits go.
- 2D: Perform an entrechat, e.g. (LEAP UP) — Perform a "between cat"!? I'm imagining my cats leaping up. Seems a poor analogy for the dance move. According to m-w.com, "entrechat" is a "modification of Italian (capriola) intrecciata, literally, intertwined caper"
- 11D: French bean (TÊTE) — your "bean" is your "head" is your TÊTE (in French).
- 50D: Sci-fi companion who speaks "binary," familiarly (ARTOO) — as in R2-D2. I love that the day after I mentioned how long it had been since we'd seen a Star Wars clue, we see a Star Wars clue. I honestly thought "I'm gonna jinx it." And ta da! You're welcome!
That's all for today. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Letterboxd]
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