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Overseer of Scottish heraldry / FRI 1-28-11 / Washington Irving hero informally / Mythical mortal who helped raise Dionysus / On-demand flier
Friday, January 28, 2011
Constructor: Kevin Der
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
THEME: none
Word of the Day: René COTY (55D: President after Auriol) —
René Jules Gustave Coty (French pronunciation: [ʁəne kɔti]; 20 March 1882 – 22 November 1962) was President of France from 1954 to 1959. He was the second and last president under the French Fourth Republic. (wikipedia)
• • •
A fine 72-worder from Mr. Der, but one I had trouble moving through, generally. Very herky-jerky progress: nothing, a little progress, slow, very fast, stopped, creeping, fast, slow, "people really called him 'RIP?'," and done (45A: Washington Irving hero, informally). Finished significantly over my average Friday time, but I have this weird feeling that if I'd simply looked at the easier parts first, or earlier, things might have been different. Dunno. I liked the puzzle fine, though nothing made me cheer, and several clues left me feeling like "... yeah, I guess that's right. [Shrug]." I thought a SABOT *was* a clog—no idea "French" had anything to do with it (41A: French for "clog"). I knew the MEDES but have no association of them with the "Iron Age" (18A: Iron Age people). COME for [Take place]? Yes, OK. "Whatever may COME." I suppose. "NE'ER" is [Aye's opposite, poetically]? "Yes" and "never" are opposites? I guess "Aye" means "always" here ...? Do people know that meaning of "aye?" Odd. Veterans "recall" IRAQ? In that any veteran might recall any war he/she was in ... sure. I think of (animated) cartoons as having FRAMES and comics as having PANELS (27A: Cartoon series), but people call "Peanuts" and the "Wizard of Id" et al. "cartoons" all the time, so ... I mean, it all works, but often the cluing just did not feel CRISP(ED) (38D: Like rice in some cereal treats). Fill is quite smooth, though, with only TAL and INO seeming at all subpar.
First letter in the grid was the "S" at the end of SEARS (8D: Brands ... or carrier of brands), which immediately got me RUSTY (24A: Out of top form). Last letter in the grid was the "I" in RIP. I ended up using the RUSTY / TETES / EMS nexus as my hub, striking first into the NE, then (fruitlessly at first) into the SE, then S, then NW and N, and finally SW. Toughest parts were, first, the chunk between and including LYON (5D: Lord ___ (overseer of Scottish heraldry)) and TAL up top, and second, AIR TAXI (was briefly mystified by the letter string "A-RTA-I") (39D: On-demand flier).Miscues included:
- GUN for UZI (4D: Magazine holder)
- ELIHU for ADIEU (7D: Literally, "to God")
- LYMON for WYMAN (21D: Longtime Rolling Stones bassist) — no idea what I was thinking there
- CRAZY TALK for CRAZY IDEA (15A: Nut's suggestion)
- SLURP for SLOSH (30D: Washing machine sound)
- GREAT MIND for QUICK MIND (49D: With 22-Across, genius's asset)
[Random three seconds of bikini-clad boobs in here ... No Idea why ...]
Proudest moment: getting BIENNIA with no crosses despite not knowing anything at all about the Ryder Cup except that it involves golf (42D: Stretches between Ryder Cups). Happiest moment: imagining a man who turns into toast when the moon is full (65A: Dead duck's cry).
Bullets:
- 10A: Savannah growth (COPSE) — didn't know COPSEs were more a feature of "savannahs" than anywhere else
- 19A: Mythical mortal who helped raise Dionysus (INO) — No clue. One of a handful of "No clue"s today. See also TAL (9D: ___ vez (Mexican "maybe")) and COTY.
31A: Frog-eating bird (ANI) — as with COPSE, I had no idea the clue information was particular to the answer.- 47A: Vigil locale (SHRINE) — read "Virgil locale"; this probably would have happened even if I hadn't been currently teaching the Aeneid.
- 12D: Dish topped with crushed peanuts and lime (PAD THAI) — big, fat, tasty gimme.
- 36A: Herpetologist's supply (ANTI-VENOM) — briefly forgot what "herpetologist" meant. Somehow "HEPA filter" got in my head and I was thinking about air pollutants. . .
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61 comments:
Tough puzzle. SW-easy, NW-medium, East-tough. Lots of missteps, e.g. ADIOS, STUN, ARABIAN, WENTAS, and SNARL (which really slowed me down in NW). When I finished I was the fastest solver on the IPAD app at just over an hour. I suspect that won't hold up. Very solid/challenging FRi. Liked it a lot!
Really tough today, but parts were gimme for me, like SABOT. The word sabotage comes from when French workers threw their SABOTs in machinery to gum up the works to protest working conditions.
Puzzle turned out to be much tougher than I thought it would be initially. I got SIMULCAST and SCRIMPS almost immediately so much of the NW got filled in very quickly. I never even saw TAL and INO since they were filled in via crosses. Good thing too, 'cause I never heard of either.
Trouble started in the SW. I got CASTAWAYS without difficulty, but then placed D-DAY at 48A, which actually fit with SPARTAN so I was slow to let go of that answer. Finally realized it had to be QUICK MIND (not one of my features) and IRAQ became the clear, if somewhat strange, answer.
Total misfire in the SE where I confidently plopped in JAZZ HANDS and became stuck for quite some time. Even as I wrote it in though, it just smelled wrong. Fosse's all about angular slithering ubersexy movement, and while JAZZ HANDS is a movement commonly used by choreographers, it is certainly not a Fosse signature or specialty. Stupid on my part, especially when ONE ACTS should have immediately set me straight, which it eventually did. Again, no QUICK MIND here.
Fun, challenging, stimulating puzzle. Great way to start my Friday. Oh, and I really like how SIZZLE and ONE ACTS intersect with that Fosse JAZZ DANCE.
Excellent puzzle, but no love for the AMO clue. EMS wasn't Bad.
I lurched through this one.
Would not a single duck say 'I'm toast,' and multiple ducks say 'WE'RE TOAST'? The clue was Dead duck's cry. It would have been a better clue for it to read Dead ducks' cry to indicate the plural of WE'RE. The punctuation indicating the singular is misleading.
Once I find an error such as this in a puzzle I become Miss Crankypants.
Plus I had SNAKE EGGS rather than ANTIVENOM and that made this puzzle pretty hard for me!
First time I have successfully completed a Friday puzzle ranked "challenging", so very happy about that.
A year of doing Fireballs has made me a much better NYT Friday and Saturday puzzle finisher. For any others trying to up their game, I highly recommend the Peter Gordon weekly series (received by email).
First words in the grid were TAL, TETES and EMs, and then it was off to the races. Loved ANTIVENOM next to VITALSIGN.
Thanks Kevin, great effort.
The cluing was so tough at times, it seemed border line misleading but, on reflection, that was only my battered ego talking and the cluing was, in fact, downright brilliant.
A gem from Kevin Der.
Like others, I didn't care for the cluing for AMO (does anyone really say "just a mo?"). Seems like something based on the Spanish meaning would have worked better.
Also had NE'ER heard of "aye" meaning "ever," (I don't read a lot of poetry) but found this example on line at freedictionary.com: Always; ever: pledged their love for aye.
Like RP, I slogged through this one clue at a time -- similar degree of toughness everywhere, which is a mark of a wellmade puzzle.
INO and ANI were new to me, and TAL is beyond my limited command of Spanish, but all were gettable. NEER as the opposite of AYE was a puzzle, until I started thinking of poetry with a Scottish accent.
Agree with @christelb that the clue for WERETOAST seems incorrect. I got TOAST pretty early, saw that WERE would fit, but decided it couldn't be right because the clue is singular.
As RP said, COPSE seems like a pretty random association with Savannah. Copses make me think of the English countryside -- that being where I grew up.
Ah, but it is usually only one duck among a flock of dead ducks who shouts out WE'RE TOAST. We ducks are notoriously incapable of simultaneous exclamations.
It sounds a bit like a herpetologist’s nightmare, VIALS of ANTIVENOM missing in a crisis: Lost the whole SHEBANG? You and your CRAZY IDEA, why didn’t you MIND the warnings, what a SNAFU, STRUCK by its JAW, COME on, QUICK, I’m in a DAZE, just A MO, too much time WENT BY, failing VITAL SIGN, bad OMENS, we’ll NE’ER make it, WE’RE TOAST. ADIEU!
Like Rex, I thought of Elihu since there was no indication of French! And roamed into a Chapel before SHRINE. However, I did know INO and can't imagine we haven't noted the SABOT before now? @David L: Ever and Aye, a Scot's always -- yes, their opposite is NE'ER!
Favorites were SIZZLE and JAZZ DANCE crossing, with memories of the song and dance number Steam Heat, with apt words "Need my love to keep away the cold"! @Greene, help!
∑;)
AND we have a pangram....
Why the 5 seconds? Because
a) I felt the video needed some hetero injected there, and
b) I'm friggin Mick Jagger
DErAT for DEFAT spelled I am toast. Also wanted a k in ASAHI and that spelled ok you are toast.
I am in the antiamo group... but I figured that one out.
A lotta SIZZLE in this puzzle. Perhaps it increased the number of calories burned. The average is 100 for completing an x-word: Inquiring minds will want to know.
*** (3 Stars) And we keep fetal mice on hand for our snake. Hmmm..... I might name today's little mousie Kevin.
christelb_devlin, don't you find cranky pants slimming :)
DNF - IWASTOAST in the SE
"Que TAL" is introductory-level Spanish. Nothing specifically Mexican about it. I guess SABOT was clued as French since it's the French word for a clog (and the origin of "saboteur").
SABOT is (now) the *English* word for clog. It's a solid US dictionary word. "In French" / "sabotage" etymology = irrelevant. [Clog] would've been a perfectly accurate clue.
Favorite Rolling Stones concert moment: 2005 tour, Charlottesville - Mick messes up the lyrics and, briefly, loses the beat at the end of Midnight Rambler, causing Charlie Watts to roll his eyes while the Jumbotron camera was on him.
I stared at my blank grid hoping for a toe hold and finally took a chance on antivenom. From there things started to click.
Kevin you tricky devil.
Cool to learn the origin of sabotage. I know more French than I thought! Even guessed adieu.
In the NE corner, my steadfast loyalty to KUDZU as the answer to 10A (Savannah growth) made for a long haul!
No "medium" about this one for me. Had to work from the SE up, and it was tough going the whole way. I agree that the singular cluing on WERETOAST was just wrong. It kept me from filling it in on the first couple of passes.
Repeated, extremely obscure or vague cluing made this a real slog and a DNF for me. Started with SABOT and EMS, then IRANIAN and MADONNA and settled into the NW. Yesterday's discussion about OSAKA/Omaha led me to Creighton's locale and I got thru most of the NE. COPSE and MEDES unfinished, though. Then couldn't get a toehold in the south despite liberal reference to Dr. Google.
Loads of Animal House characters have 5-letter names, so HAZER was a letdown. Bob Fosse was known for loads of innovations in dance, and crosses were no help to me. And IRAQ for veterans? With nothing more, even on a Friday? And all the probs noted by Rex.
I also discovered that there is a Rainbow Bay in Australia and another in the Bahamas, neither of which is the LUNAR Bay of Rainbows. Sigh.
Dashed through the upper two thirds, then got lost with jazz hands, chapel, crispie and though I had lots of right answers in there, couldn't quite untangle things, so came here for clarity. I enjoyed it even so. Liked the cluster of z's. Briefly had snarl for SNAFU. Liked ANTIVENOM, VITALSIGN, SHEBANG and have a sudden craving for PADTHAI.
16 minutes into the puzzle and I was still reading clues. But correctly finished this challenging puzzle making it my fourth hardest Friday puzzle since I started tracking. When I checked my times against those on the NYT page, I had to go backwards. Less than 3 minutes? Really? Top 10 solvers, with all respect, must be from another planet. My hat is off to you!
Kept looking for Adam & Eve on a Raft in short order form. Had a hard time getting rid of EYE for the hook connection.
Enjoyable slog...I need a shower after that one!
mining=what I had to do to the deepest recesses of my brain to solve this puzzle
Now when I see Kevin Der at the top I'll be thinking, "Oh, dear!"
It's been a very long time since I DNF. Both the NE and SW corners did me in. I was not on Kevin's wavelength, not even close. My veterans were recalling eRAs and so on and so on.
But thanks, anyway, Mr.Der!
Rex;also contemplated that toast howling under the full moon!Knocked down the top half without too much problemo(combination of iranians and Iraq somehow led me to the medes.Last in was JAZZ_HAZER SIZZLE But I finished a K DER friday that REX called challenging!Feel like calling the (LORD LYON king of arms and demanding my banner!!!
Smooth up top, not so much down below.
Eventually worked my way out in the SE when I went for ONE ACTS. Delta, Omega, Otter, Pinto, Stork, Bluto, Mandy, Larry, Gregg,...
Hopelessly mired in the SW because you know who lives on islands? Manta rays. Manya rays live on islands. (I have a mind, it's just apparently not sharp, smart, quick, agile, alert, or dirty.) Had I only remembered SPARTAN I'd have been able to work my way out much more easily.
Tough puzzle, with hard parts throughout, but the NE gave me fits. I finally gave up on what I had and erased "grasses" (Savanna growth) and "go on" (take place) and started over. A fresh start was what I needed.
Mixed puzzle for me. Most went down pretty smooth, but the SE was a killer. Surprisingly, I didn't have ANY of the problems Rex laid out. Not surprisingly, I couldn't get a toehold anywhere in the SE. KIRIN is the only Japanese beer I know, so AS??? never got better. Had a lot of lightly penciled in answers down there, blEw for TEEM, ??DANCING for JAZZDANCE, kappa for HAZER, ONEACTS (actually got one right), ??YEARS for BIENNIA. All in all, a total SNAFU. Never even saw AMO but - UGH. Have to admit that AGELIMITS is good.
My first fill was RIP, which got me AIRTAXI, SPARTAN and CASTAWAY. Just goes to show how different the solving experiences can be.
Wunderbar, Der Kevin, for this most pleasing Fritag puzzle. I'm both delighted and edified to learn you're the Koenig of the Hill, as a Scrabble player amongst your cruciverbalistic peers!
My initial notion for Bob Fosse specialty at 60A was "Chain Smoking"...Alas,his stellar dancing career was an afterthought.
In closing,this was EXACTamundo what we yearn for from our exceedingly learned weekend Xword contributors.
The CaseAce, aka WHH
Juicy, pangrammy winner.
Know 44 loves the "pangram" word. Me, I look at it like an extra long and nasty guitar riff in a song. Not absolutely necessary. Maybe a little showy. But I say if you can make it work, go for it.
Kevin went for it -- and it works. Fun and funky solve. So, thumbs up.
Seth I too went through the cast of Animal House, my favorite comedy ever. This was a tough puzzle and I DNF. I don't google, not that that may have helped.
NE was my undoing. Had no idea re Copse, Creighton University, Medes. Wanted 12D to be MaiTai,but was one letter short. This was very challenging for me.
Based on Comments, apparently I was the only one who hesitated to put in ANTIVENOM, thinking it might be ANTIVENIN. Interestingly, the two paper dictionaries I looked in have the latter and not the former, and the computer spell-checker agrees with them.
I’m with Daffy on the duck clue (and that's good company). Imagine a group of, say, five dead ducks. One of them says, “We’re toast.” Tricky but accurate, methinks.
COPSE, MEDES, COME, ANI -- couldn't see any of them. That led me to miss PAD THAI. And I love PAD THAI.
I must have still be wearing my streaky glasses from yesterday. The "c" and "l" of clog blurred together and read "dog". Chien didn't fit.
For 16A I had _ _ AH_. So is it Omaha or Idaho?
Despite my shaky beginning I got on Mr. Der's wavelength and really enjoyed this. I'm sure my smug grin will be gone tomorrow when I'll be the dead duck. Come to think of it, dead ducks probably don't say anything.
Hey Rex - Thanks for your blog - I refer to it almost daily! I was inspired to start my own blog about...something :) I'm an aspiring med student, so I'm writing about that. X-words are great for critical thinking skills. Keeps you sharp for the MCAT verbal section. Thanks!!
Definitions of ANTIVENIN on the Web:
Antivenom (or antivenin or antivenene) is a biological product used in the treatment of venomous bites or stings. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antivenin
[Continuing a tradition of FWIW search results, without further interpretation]
Solid medium here. ANTIVENIN almost cost me the puzzle, but I finally figured it out.
What Greene said re: the Fosse crossing.
Sidenote - yesterdays blog turned me on to Arrested Development - it's about as good as sitcoms get. Son-in-law (to be) set me up with a Roku last weekend, and I've watched half the first season so far.
Midday report of relative difficulty (see my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation of my method):
All solvers (median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Fri 29:19, 26:16, 1.12, 74%, Medium-Challenging
Top 100 solvers
Fri 15:44, 12:54, 1.22, 87%, Challenging
@SethG: I, too, considered manta rays. Sad when I figured out they really don't live *on* the islands. Foo.
captcha vangs--Dracula's dentures
I looked up the Medes.
The place they lived was Media.
Now there's a Saturday clue/answer!
@clark - I had the same problem with copse, medes, come, ani. I figured if you "take place" (as in win, place, show) you "lose." So once I wrote in "lose" instead of "come" there was no chance of getting "copse."
Otherwise I had a fun with this puzzle.
@imsdave - Just wait - it keeps getting better.
I liked the puzzle a lot. Not many trivia related words. Proud of myself that I got over 50% filled before needing any help. That's a great accomplishment for me for a Friday puzzle. First word in was CRAZY IDEA. Got the NW and SW filled in. Had SNARL instead of SNAFU in 32A, SMOGS for OMENS in 11D and STEP DANCE in 60D. Finally I had I AM A ROAST instead of WE'RE TOAST in 65A.
No idea what is a herpetologist and who is WYMAN. I liked the clues for SIMULCAST, RADIO DIAL, VITAL SIGN, AGE LIMITS and AIR TAXI among others.
Initially had ADIOS instead of ADIEU. Does that mean "to God" in Spanish?
Needed some reassurance from the machine that certain words were correct but most of puzzle was done without help and it was a satisfying solve.
Definitely a toughie. Like everyone, I had a lot of miscues, my favorite of which was HEAT LAMPS for {Herpetologist's supply}. I had an amateur herpetologist as a roommate for a year and our electric bill could have powered Iceland.
I wouldn't have known SABOT any better or worse if it had been clued simply "Clog." New word to me either way.
Tend to agree with the sentiment that the grid was more fun than the cluing thereof. Really loved {Ball of wax} for SHEBANG.
Medium for a Friday for me - I love this kind of puzzle. Printed it out in the morning, before we were plowed out, but ended up doing it late in the day in the real paper. There's a difference.
@jae: I'm with you, adios, Arabian, went as and snarl.
I also finished in the SW, but once I got exact the rest fell into place. Before that, thought the genius might have a crack mind.... Isn't a copse just a stand of trees? Not necessarily in or on the savannah?
Iraq? I had WWII for a few moments. This was a pangram that didn't feel forced and twisted. And thank you, Daffy, I agree.
@Greene and imsdave: odd, I don't know very much about ballet or dance, but I remember clearly being told that Bob Fosse's choreography was very much about the hands when I went to "Chicago".
And, Geoff, I love one-acters, find intermissions boring.
finished in good time for me, but contrary to X-word standards, don't think genius necessarily implies quick mind. Deep, yes.
Age is sometimes an asset for this, since Fr. for clog was obviously sabot to me.
Never heard of tal vez, nor recall Ino. Medes were obviously iron age. SJ Perelman's(?) line: "One man's Mede is another man's Persian" connects w/ Iranian oil. Hmmm, middle-eastern mini theme. Iranian vets surely recall Iraq. Where did Ino hang out?
Helps not to know too much, as then jazz dance seemed obvious for Fosse. Never heard of jazz hands.I wondered about antivenin too, but m was pretty definite.
had most trouble with hazer/asahi cross, since I had heard of Asahi Shimbun newspaper and wasn't sure it would also be beer, and my main memory of seeing Animal House is how sticky the theatre's floor was.
captcha is chive, yesterday's jive, which fits with jazzdance, I think
Whoops, forgot to mention other age benefit: I remember seeing newsreels of Auriol giving way to Coty, who was related to perfume family
new captcha = paste, would have done this w/ previous entry if knew how
I didn't find this particularly hard and liked many of the clue-answer combos. It helped that tal vez and Creighton's city were gimmes for me. Got amo and ino and asahi only by crosses. Agree that it should be "dead ducks' cry."
This week's relative difficulty ratings. See my 7/30/2009 post for an explanation. In a nutshell, the higher the ratio, the higher this week's median solve time is relative to the average for the corresponding day of the week.
All solvers (this week's median solve time, average for day of week, ratio, percentile, rating)
Mon 6:03, 6:55, 0.87, 7%, Easy
Tue 11:40, 8:58, 1.30, 99%, Challenging
Wed 11:45, 11:44, 1.00, 57%, Medium
Thu 17:57, 18:59, 0.95, 45%, Medium
Fri 29:19, 26:16, 1.12, 74%, Medium-Challenging
Top 100 solvers
Mon 3:15, 3:41, 0.88, 4%, Easy
Tue 5:35, 4:36, 1.22, 96%, Challenging
Wed 5:57, 5:46, 1.03, 65%, Medium-Challenging
Thu 8:13, 9:08, 0.90, 36%, Easy-Medium
Fri 15:03, 12:54, 1.17, 82%, Challenging
My first clue was tal for tal vez since I did have Spanish in High School. I usually have difficulty finishing the Friday puzzle, but with my husband's help and your help, we did it! Thanks.
Ok, officially do not get the Gilligans Island pic and am hungering for a she bangs one
Oh castaways...I thought it was a back reference to Tina Louise from a few days before...I blame jet lag...sorry
This was a pretty tough one, although the NW fell right away, and there were some gimmes sprinkled here and there.
I took me forever to finish the SE as I have no idea who Bob Fosse is, and wound up with SAD GLANCE (the cross clue, Hook Connection Point, is a bit obscure to me.
I'd put down OTTER for "Animal House" figure and stuck with that for too long. Spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to think of another character's name that would fit.
A good, tough workout.
Five weeks later, and I made the exact same mistakes in the NE as @Glimmerglass, but unlike him (her?) I did not recover and so DNF. I never totally straightened out my mess in the SE either - wanted Hook connection point to be arm (you know, like Captain Hook?) so the three long crosses with it eluded me, too.
Still a fun time - humbling, but fun.
Did no one get the connection of
Bob Fosse's movie "All that Jazz"?
I've never heard anyone call a clog a sabot, nor read it in ads, nor...
Does anyone but Rex know it as a word in the English language. I knew it as others did from French and "sabotage".
@artlvr. Thanks for the amusing herpetologists nightmare story.
Foo. Defeated myself in the NE, miscuing VITAL STAT vs. VITAL SIGN, and RAINS for OMENS ("forecaster's concern"). Finished all but that corner.
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