Word of the Day: HALITE (16A: Melter on winter sidewalks) —
noun
sodium chloride as a mineral, typically occurring as colorless cubic crystals; rock salt. (google)
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This one was pretty sweet. Smooth and practically groaner-free. Nice mix of contemporary names and common words/phrases. I think I'm becoming one of Those People who doesn't like to see a ton of brand names in the grid. I don't mind them, I just … have limits. And when you lead with SNAPCHAT over KETEL ONE, part of me's like "easy there, Pitchy McAdman." But the commercial density of the rest of the puzzle was less intense. The puzzle also flirted with my indeterminate but very real Proper Noun Limit, generally, but managed to stay a safe distance from Insufferable Territory. Proper nouns can be boring you-know-it-or-you-don't exercises in trivia … or they can be 12D: Fox hunt leader of old (SIMON COWELL), which is some kind of genius clue. Playful yet literal, and spot-on (the "Fox" is the TV network and the "hunt" is "American Idol"). My only complaint was that it was too easy. SNAPCHAT was a gimme (1A: Instagram alternative), and that set me up to knock out the NW and then flow easily into the west and center of the grid. Thusly:
The openness of the grid—that is, the multiple access points that every section has—made consistent progress easy. I didn't get significantly held up at all. I wrote in SHOO for SCAT (36D: "Beat it!"), and that took some time off the clock, but that's a pretty minor hiccup.
I often find cross-referenced clues annoying, but today I found one very helpful. As I moved from one answer to its counterpart across the grid (the way one might move, say, from the Conservatory to the Lounge in Clue), I thought "Oh, this is what cross-referenced clues are supposed to do. Neat." Fortuitously, I got the --K at 48A: Official 18-Across of Utah and immediately saw it had to be ELK, which meant 18A: See 48-Across was probably ANIMAL. So I abandoned the ELK corner for the ANIMAL corner and worked my way methodically down and around, back to the ELK region, with the "E" in NESTED my final letter. Here's the key moment of cross-grid / cross-reference transition:
Really liked COACH K as fill. Not sure if it's completely original, but it's fresh and unusual and very much in-the-language, sports-talk-wise. I remembered what HESSIANs were, which was my big memory coup of the day. HESSIAN is a word I learned from crosswords. Not sure how they eluded me in US History class, but so many other things did, I can't be that surprised. I forgot who the hero of the 1960 World Series was, so thank god that "Z" cross was easy—as soon as I got it, I remembered Bill Mazeroski. Not sure I knew people called him MAZ (the way people called Carl Yastrzemski "YAZ"), but I do like that "Z" there. Much better than the "E" that would've taken its place otherwise (probably) (you can put a couple other letters there, but they're not great).
Some parts easy (NW, SW) some parts tough (middle), so medium works for me. The last part to go was the CHIDING/VOID/VOWED area, mostly because I had to correct my spelling of MONITOR after switching from my misspelling of Manacle.
1a was a gimme because teenage grandkids.
Just tough enough with plenty of zip. Liked it a lot! Nice one Ian.
I thought that this was going to be "too easy," but a brilliant clue and an only vaguely familiar name, SIMON COWELL, in the east made that section tough enough to be satisfying. Very smooth and lovely puzzle. Four thumbs up.
Tried BEAGLE HOUND for poor SIMON COWELL. Wanted a Fox TV answer but Murdoch did not fit. Great clue.
Neat puzzle. Had honEy for ANGEL for a while and ended up with a dnf for the second time this week with SMELTROd/LANd. Seemed entirely plausible.
Fill and clues were all well done. Real pleasure despite my blunder. Liked NOISE MAKERS and IRON CHEF. And yes, anyone old enough to remember that great World Series called him Maz.
I had the ROE okay for 19A, but thought it was troutROE. The perils of being a vegetarian I guess.
Then dnf because I had GREEnGOD for 60A. EROS -- does he wear leaves and stuff like the Jolly Green Giant? I dunno what to attribute that to. Forty years ago a supervisor chided me for carelessness and not checking my work. Guess I never learned.
I agree with Rex about the genius clue for SIMON COWELL.
As an ObGyn, very familiar with SITZbaths, for my postpartum patients. Was before my time, but as a baseball fan, appreciated MAZeroski. My favorite of the week
Liked this. Then again, I'm familiar with all the proper and brand names in the puzzle. I don't mind them at all in puzzles, but this puzzle's pushing it.
The cluing is what made this enjoyable for me. Loved the clues for ICE RINKS, ELECTRIC FAN, IRON CHEF. And while the fill didn't have anything that especially wowed me, NOISEMAKERS, NEWSHOLE and ANKLE MONITORS were some nice bits of fill.
This went by super quick, although I ended up finishing with an error. I had MAN as the answer for 29A's "Guy," thinking that there was an interesting MANN/MAN cross going on. I didn't parse the clue for 12D as referencing American Idol, so I figured SIMON nOWELL was some historical or literary figure I wasn't familiar with.
I love Ian Livengood (if that's his real name) puzzles. They are tricky and straight forward at the same time. Does that make sense? Every time I came to a road block, i.e. JAPANESE IMPORT SET IN A KITCHEN and I'm thinking Wok and end up with IRON CHEF, that is just clever.
Best Friday ever, not one write over. Can!t beat that with a stick
It's worth noticing that this puzzle is published on @Ian Livengood's birthday, so double congratulations!
Ian is a big sports fan, and it shows in his choices of fill and clues. Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run to win the 1960 World Series is the subject of this short youtube clip; and catapulted him to Cooperstown some two decades later. Roger Federer's name has to come up in any conversation of the greatest men's tennis players of all time.
Had a slow start entering half the correct letters in 60% of the total solve time. Stalled for 4 minutes before getting SIMONCROWELL which gave me STONEMASON and lead shortly to ROGERFEDERER which opened up the west for me.
@George Thanks for the MAZ link. That home run is a flash memory for me. I remember walking home from school and getting home just in time to witness it.
Really liked this easy puzzle. There was one Pirate fan in my entire Brooklyn neighborhood ( Alan Cohen),and he bragged about MAZ for an entire year. That World Series made me realize that baseball is the perfect sport. Now back to our regularly scheduled synopsis. Liked cluing for NESTED, OIL, STONE MASONS and ANKLE MONITOR. Also liked placement of KETEL ONE( not an imbiber) over a little bit of ICE and IRON CHEF crossing FED. Writeover-- ANON for soON and MAC for MAn. Maybe 29A could be clued " Slang guy ". Thanks IL and happy birthday.
I'm betting I was the only person here who never ever heard of KETELONE. I can't even remember seeing it written anywhere.... Yay SITZ because I didn't know MAZ. When you want to relieve pain from you bottom, use a bidet. Ian is CLASSY. I so enjoy his cluing. SIMON COWELL crossing ANIMAL. HOG meeting up with GREEK GOD. I wanted an old calendar in that NOISE MAKERS slot but it got fixed... Pretty easy for a Friday but lots of fun. 10 STARs for moi...
Easy here as well. Generally liked the fill but I did have some frowns at the cluing. Why is a STONEMASON a block "HEAD". I also thought only Harley's were HOGS, not all choppers. The clue for FED was (for the second time) had dinner. I suppose when one has had dinner one has "fed himself". Seems forced. On the positive side, SIMONCOWELL is clued brilliantly. B+ and Happy Birthday.
Rex – about MAZ = you said, "Much better than the "E" that would've taken its place otherwise (probably) (you can put a couple other letters there, but they're not great)." I put in S for a "sits/mas" cross.
I agree that this was easy and well-done and that the cluing was excellent. Loved the NOISEMAKER/ELECTRIC FAN cross. I love me some white noise.
Funny how those caps look like yelling, huh? I mean, you can practically hear them if you get them in a text or email. Wonder if Arabic has a way to yell at someone on a screen. Or Chinese. I think in Japanese, Katakana has this covered, but if I’m wrong, ć“ć”ć³,ć.
@danp – I know, right? Interesting duplicate clue: "had dinner." The two entries conjure up such different mental images:
Don't worry. He already ATE. (possibly some CLASSY PERSON who nibbled caviar while sipping KETEL ONE)
Don't worry. He already FED. (memories of my son's friend, Gordo R., who dispatched his pork chop, baked potato/ butter /sour cream, and salad with ranch dressing without touching his utensils)
ATE – PERSON, CLASSY, tinkly background music FED – ANIMAL, HOG, snorting, slurping
I tell you, if food in the seafood department comes alive and talks in some kind of Larsonesque world, can you imagine the ribbing SMELT ROE takes? The ELITE crab CLAW nudges his buddy, the diver scallop, “Hey, Shel. I just got a whiff of something nasty. Oh wait. Nevermind. I must’ve just SMELT ROE.” Chortle.
A lifelong Dean Smith fan, my eyebrows raised at CLASSY and COACH K sharing a grid. I saw a T shirt once that said “Krzyzewski ain't krzit.” Yeah, yeah, sour grapes and all that.
My sixteen year old daughter takes issue with "Snapchat" being an alternative to "Instagram". Her words: "that's like saying a Twizzler is the same as a Hershey Kiss, just because they're both candy."
I have no opinion, since I don't use either (and barely understand what they're all about). But she knows that every day after I finish the puzzle I visit Rex's log and she wanted her opinion noted.
Funny story. My 14YO daughter was complaining that she didn't have enough data for her phone so we looked in the phone to see which app was the culprit. She gets 2G per month, btw. At the top, by a long shot, was SNAPCHAT at a whopping 930M worth of data used for the month. The next in line was Spotify somewhere at the 300M mark. So, um, yeah. SNAPCHAT!
Is NEWSHOLE at thing?
I don't know MAZ, but the crosses solved it for me...but I still didn't believe it until I finished.
Here's another tidbit. I once talked with a rep from a vodka company who talked about claims of some vodkas that they have almost no impurities. SKYY is one that is, I believe, 5-times distilled so that there are no impurities at all but it tastes like alcohol. The vodka with most impurities in it is KETELONE. But if you know a KETELONE drinker, you know that they are usually very finicky about their vodka and will only drink K1. Why? Because flavor! The impurities that companies like SKYY try to make look bad are actually what gives each vodka its distinctive taste. I don't drink vodka myself...so maybe some K1 or SKYY drinkers here will corroborate this.
Strange day. Never heard of KETELONE, even though we are vodka drinkers (we stick mostly to Grey Goose). Never heard of HALITE, even though I have lived in the upper midwest my whole life. And never heard of a SITZ bath even though I... take baths occasionally.
@NCA Prez - I recall a vodka discussion a while back, so I hesitate to point this out again. Still, vodka, by definition, "is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color." Therefore the "best" vodka would have no flavor. Vodka lovers will swear that there are flavor differences, but they're all drunk anyway.
I enjoyed SIMON COWELL; great misdirection. Overall, this went pretty fast for a Friday but was challenging enough not to be considered easy (unless you are Rex).
@Z: reading through the linked article, I didn't see that the definition was to be without distinctive flavor. In fact it sort of nods to the fact that vodkas, depending on what was used in the distilling process, do taste different.
Vodka drinkers will swear that they have a favorite vodka based on the flavor even though it isn't a "flavored" vodka. SKYY truly does taste and smell like rubbing alcohol. The others taste like rubbing alcohol too, but with qualities that vary.
I'm no expert, and usually if I have to drink it, it's with something else (Hangar One is really good, though), but at any rate the rep I talked to said that the flavor profile of any given vodka was due to the impurities present. Ketel One could remove those impurities, but they don't because it's what makes K1, K1.
OK, so I'm the only person here who didn't know SIMON COWELL, and I went with MAn instead of MAC (shoulda remembered, crosswordese!) so I had an error in this otherwise challenging and fun puzzle. For some reason I didn't remember MAZ right away, so theorized that maybe someone, somewhere, called Roberto Clemente 'rob.' That held me up, as did soON for ANON, and rEdcoAt before HESSIAN.
My mother's family was descended from a Hessian who stayed in America after the war. They found that origin embarassing, so they changed the prefix in their name from Von to De, and pretended that they had been Huguenots. I didn't learn better until I was 50 and found some old family records.
I finished this in record time without an error, a most unusual Friday occurance. KETALONE was new to me, as was MAZ and COACHK. I'm an Instagram user myself, but I'm familiar with the disappearing pics of SNAPCHAT and that gave me a great start. My two favorites were SIMONCOWELL and IRONCHEF. Clever boy, Ian Livengood!
DNF as I had halene instead of halite, never saw American Idol nor knew of Simon Cowell, so that corner was my downfall. Got snapchat from crosses as I don't use those things. Maybe I'm too behind the times. But I'm happy to be.
I'm not a digital/Fox/sports maven, so struggle ensued. Once over the northern hump, however, fill went pretty smooth. Speaking of fill..
Fav of the day - NEWSHOLE. Holiday display ads create tons of them, mostly filled via wire service junk, that we librarians then had to cut out, paste, cross-categorize and file. Needed? Um, never.
@chefbea - My local sushi hole is IRON CHEF House.
@LMS - ć“ć”ć³,ć ?
@NCA, @Z - Usual drink at usual bar is a KETEL ONE martini (they don't have Tito's) so I can speak from experience. Vodkas can have distinctive aromas. All about the aging, methinks.
As I was completing this puzzle, a strange thing happened--green SMELT-ROE-colored paint started oozing up from my keyboard. Maybe it was being blown out by an ELECTRIC FAN?
Pretty easy for a Friday (a negative MGI) but very enjoyable. Agree with all the praise for the cluing.
I'm a vodka drinker and I am sure that I can taste the difference between Grey Goose and Stoli. We were at a restaurant yesterday which was out of Grey Goose. I had Belvedere instead. It was good but I'm quite sure that I could taste the difference.
Very nice puzzle with some great clues and clean fill!
@Jim Walker - the suffix HEAD is used for a person with a strong interest in something, as in gearhead, crackhead, Deadhead, and STONEMASONS work with blocks of stone.
@LMS - I laughed so loud at SMELTROE I woke up my wife. Funny!
I'm glad people enjoyed this puzzle - and I could see how they would. I didn't. Sports and pop culture - too much I didn't know and couldn't guess at. HESSIAN and FEDERER I got - even SNAPCHAT and ETRADE I got. But had a DNF in the SE - so this puzzle hit the 38A today for me.
Not really looking for a nit to pick, but I did circle the clue for 47 D, "Final step in cleaning", for RINSE. I might have accepted DRYING, POLISHING, or PUTTING AWAY, but isn't RINSE only an intermediate step in any cleaning process?
@mathguy - That is the most perceptive observation on the vodka flavor issue I've read. @NCA President - You elided past the definition, which I pulled right from the linked article. That said, I think the article does a nice job of showing how products evolve. Discarding excessive faithfulness to old German purity laws has resulted in craft brewing adventures that give "beer purists" fits. My favorite line, now used in marketing for an incredibly mediocre beer, is that flavor "hides imperfections." Likewise with vodka. The "best" vodka, the most faithful to the legal definition, has no flavor. Thanks, but no thanks.
I thought IRONCHEF was very clever. Would have thought the same about Mr. Cowell, but I too had "man" for MAC. One of the few times I wish I did the puzzle online, as the lack of a Happy Pencil would have forced me to reconsider my choice there.
Finished -- even though this was not at all in my wheelhouse. I found it hard, and not all that much fun. I saw SNAPCHAT early on from the crosses, though I wouldn't have known it on it's own. Though I'm familiar with many vodkas (hic), I never heard of KETEL ONE. Wanted yAZ instead of MAZ ( a little learning is a dangerous thing), but NOISE MAKERS straightened me out. Like others, I liked the IRON CHEF clue a lot.
It took me forever to see ANKLE MONITOR as I really wanted ANKLE MANACLE. (Is that just too 15th century of me?) And I don't get NEWS HOLE (58A) at all. Does that mean you fill up your newspaper with ads and then, if you have any room left at all, you deign to throw in a news tidbit or two? Just wondering.
Most likely the easiest Friday ever. Sure, lottsa brand/proper names, etc, but well crossed and gettable vid. SIMON COWELL, totally unknown to me until this morning, but got it just fine. After Googling him, not sure I'm a better person for this bit of pop knowledge. Felt much better seeing ROGER FEDERER.
It is intriguing to me how I, an older solver, connect well with some young/younger constructors and not others. Some grids are just more fairly crossed, in my view, that others.
I am always amazed at how re-reading a clue repeatedly will lead to a different interpretation of its wording. In this case, I kept thinking that a "Japanese import set" was referring to tools used in a kitchen, specifically, the dreaded Ginsu Knives, but they just wouldn't fit! Finally, the light bulb went on and I saw the "set" as the locale of the import from Japan...duh! IRONCHEF fits just fine. HONE your knives, Chef Morimoto (one of the original Japanese masters, BTW).
Will I ever SMUGly find a puzzle like this one "EASy"? Definitely not a SNAP, as it felt "medium" to me. But THEN, I am not a member of the cruciverb. ELITE.
Enough of all this KETELONE vodka talk; pour me a nice Jack Daniels on the rocks, please!
I really liked the longer Down clues. NOISEMAKERS opened up the puzzle for me.
Who knew there really was/is a Mr. LOWE? Learn something new every day!
@GILL: It's particularly ironic because KETEL ONE is a Dutch vodka. Like Grey Goose, it's overpriced. Tito's and similar but even smaller American craft vodkas are the way to go, in my opinion.
Been a loooong time, since I solved a NYTpuz in the actual NYT newspaper. But this here downtown New Orleans hotel left the paper outside our room door this mornin, so...
Puz seemed hard. Maybe I was intimidated, by actually seeing the puz in its hallowed, native habitat. Or becuz all I had was a pen? Or cuz KETELONE and SNAPCHAT were newsholes, to m&e?
This FriPuz had everything goin for it, except (multiple) U's and (palpable) desperation. SMELTROE was pretty classy, tho. Looks like a confused SMELTORE operation. Fun clues today.
Off to find ben-yays (sp?), I'm told. Haven't fed in hours...
@Z -- You seem like such a nice person. Why would you want to depress me so profoundly with that link you offered in your 7:07 a.m. comment? The "youngs" are people under age 32? The "olds" are comprised of everyone 32 and older? So, what does that make me, exactly? I think I'll get back into bed and pull the covers over my head. And a heads up to just about everyone on this blog: DON'T READ THAT LINK, WHATEVER YOU DO. It purports to be about SNAPCHAT and other social media, but it's really about...YOU!
@NCA Pres: Yes, NEWSHOLE is a real thing. When editors are given the day's pages to fill, the ads are already slotted. The blank space they have left over to fill is called the NEWSHOLE.
@NCA Pres & @Z: You're right that the differences in flavor and aroma in vodka come from the trace elements that are left (or "impurities" if one wants to think of it that way). The differences are subtle - like the differences in taste in water from different sources - but they're there. If you don't drink vodka much, you're unlikely to notice them. If you do drink it a good amount, you do pick up on it. Like with anything, picking out subtle flavor and aroma variations improves with practice and exposure.
Of course, any of vodka's subtleties and differences are lost as soon as it's mixed with pretty much anything. I always laugh at the waste of money some people will do in an effort to impress themselves and others when they'll order a top-shelf vodka with a mixer.
@Maruchka: Vodka generally isn't aged. If it is, it's in stainless steel or some other neutral material, where it's not going to pick anything up from aging. Aging it in anything else would give it color and additional flavors, which would defeat the point.
@LMS: From what I've seen at some of those all-you-can-eat buffet places, FED is the appropriate choice.
Any crossword with a COWbELL in it can't be all bad. Or can it?
I normally like Ian Livengood's work, but this one left me cold. The tendency of NYT puzzles lately toward trivia contests (pop culture, sports, brand names etc.) instead of wordplay, leaves me cold. I do not like it. One or two per a 15x15 is acceptable just to spice things up, but three are too many. KETEL ONE, E-TRADE, IRON CHEF, COACH K, HELEN Hunt, etc. also fall into this category.
When two of the marquee entries are full names of people you may or may not know, it turns me off. I lose interest. I missed the entire "American Idol" craze, I wasted those years of my life reading books and visiting Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. I had no conscious awareness of SIMON what's-his-name. Likewise with SNAPCHAT, whatever that is. I remember seeing it twice before in a NYT puzzles (by Caleb Madison and David Steinberg -- it figures!), other than that, I have no idea and do not care. But that's just me.
What I liked: NOISEMAKERS, ANKLE MONITOR, CORDELIA, HESSIAN, TEST RUN, SMELT ROW, the EROS-GREEK GOD and the ELK-ANIMAL cross references, the ELITE/HALITE near-duplication, but NEWSHOLE left me wanting an "AS" between the W and the S.
Allow me to share with you the work by American composer Henry COWELL (1897-1965) titled Ongaku ('music' in Japanese), consisting of two movements: Gagaku and Sankyoku, 'old Japanese court music' and 'instrumental trio' respectively.
Two avoidable DNF's in two days have me annoyed, but only at myself. Despite brand name reliance (as noted by Rex) a very good puzzle. Never heard of Snapchat, or newshole, have heard of Iron chef but don't know what is is, don't drink vodka, but have heard of Ketel one. My error, shared by many others, apparently, was Man and Simon Nowell. Never watched American Idol, didn't know it was on FOX, but I still should have seen that MAC and Cowell was better than what I wrote. Surprised Rex didn't know "Hessian." I always associated the Hessians with the battle of Trenton, not Saratoga, but Burgoyne didn't fit... As I said, very good, apt Friday puzzle. Very inept solution from me...
Medium for me; I did quite a bit of hop-scotching around before major chunks accreted. SLEWS of things to enjoy seeing materialize: STONE MASONS, NOISE MAKERS, ANKLE MONITOR, IRON CHEF, NEWS HOLE (that one was NEWS to me - great expression).
It happened that I knew all of the proper names (except MAZ), although I needed crosses to be reminded of a few of them; still, like @Steve J, I thought the puzzle relied on them a bit too heavily - I counted 17, a tie with my previous high (counted when there were enough to bother me).
Last night I came across a poem that reminded of the occasional times when "X" is used as a crossword clue. I thought others might also enjoy "X, a C.V." by Elise Partridge.
@Mr. Benson (10:40 AM) wrote "Just don't put Coach K's actual name in a crossword, because I will need every single cross to spell it."
Asked and answered. As revealed by a simple search in xwordinfo.com, the word "KRZYZEWSKI" was used on Friday, September 9, 2005, by Kyle Mahowald, clued as "He surpassed Smith as the all-time winningest N.C.A.A. tournament coach."
@ralph - I remember Maz's home run too, I was in seventh grade listening to a transistor radio hidden inside my desk. @rex -- So the COWELL clue got you thinking about American Idol, and the next thing you know, you put "Pitchy" in your review (which was very enjoyable, by the way).
Regarding the lower FED, I saw "had dinner" as meaning hosting people for the meal, thus feeding them.
I never heard of IRONCHEF or KETELONE, but the crosses worked fine. What a clean breezy puzzle! I always expect clean from Ian and he always delivers. Commenters are often complaining about esses at the end of a word; this puzzle had SLEWS of words starting with S -- eleven. I also liked SNAPCHAT/LAT/SCAT.
I'll chime in on Vodka - everything is true about the level of impurities present. The higher quality the vodka, the more times it is distilled (removing those impurities). It is also the amount of impurities present that give you a bigger hangover. The trade off sometimes is taste over how you feel the next day!
I liked the puzzle! I started last night and got interrupted, so I did not finish until this morning. When I resumed, the puzzle just seemed to fall right into place.
First Friday finish ever, so must have been easier than usual.
Biggest problem area for me was the W and WSW -- I had REDCOAT, HONEY, ENG, and SOON instead of HESSIAN, ANGEL, CGI, and ANON. Finally able to work through it once I figured out CANOE and much erasing was brought to bare.
I also briefly had MAn and SIMONnOWELL, who I was assuming was some famous(?) huntsman of long ago. Finally figured that one out too and was impressed by the clever cluing.
I'd never heard of a SITZ bath or MAZ, so that one Z square was a pain.
Hi @Benko...I actually looked up KETEL ONE. I thought I knew my labels but this was a new one. Like @Maruchka, I enjoy a vodka martini but I always ask for Skyy. So many of the others taste (smell?) like rubbing alcohol... If I were dying on a tropical beach somewhere and a genie approached me and said I can pick out just one single drink to take with me to heaven...I'd ask for Pour Moi VSOP Cognac. I only tried it because I loved the name. It's actually affordable and it is the smoothest most delightful cognac that can ever touch your lips.....
Factoid: The loudest ANIMALS are blue whales, whose low-frequency pulses are as loud as 188 decibels—louder than a jet engine—and can be detected more than 500 miles away. On land, the loudest animals are howler monkeys, whose howl can be heard three miles away.
Quotoid: "Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ENDS." -- H.L. Mencken
Hey All ! Medium here, started tough, but for some reason, ended quickly and easily. Bizarre...
No one has mentioned this, is clue for 40A correct? Shouldn't it be the other way around? All Souls Day is Oct. 31, All Saints Day is Nov. 1.
Know of K1 Vodka, k.ow of SIMON COWELL. Had soON forever, was thinking might be ANON, after ELECTRIC FAN and NOISEMAKER, finally changed it. Had ethaN before HELEN, all SMUG cause I thought I figured out the ue twist! Also two wrong letters / four wrong answers. SMELTROd/LANd, SITe/MAe. SITZ bath a new-un. Never want to commit to answers on a FriPuz, so took extra time waiting for crosses to confirm a bunch of answers!
Overall, cool puz. Not too brain draining. Wonder if NEWS HOLE sparks dirty talk at publishing places!
@LJ: yep fed on them beignets. Good enough, that I learned how to spell em. Also had a "Big Ass Beer" on Bourbon St., to wash em down. Hotish, in these parts.
Hopin Mother's poboys aint too crowded for lunch. Been soooo long since we fed last...
Odd how some like long ass odd fill in their grids (COACHK, IRONCHEF, HALITE, NEWSHOLE), but not so much short ass odd fill (weejects). All I know is BEIGNET needs to be in a runtpuz someday.
Ian Livengood has done 47 NYTpuzs in 5 years and change. Must be doin somethin right. Did somethin big ass right today, right?
Clever clues and minimal dreck made for a fun fill Friday. For those of you chasing the craft distilling craze, I recommend Cold River vodka from Maine
Wow Ludy@12:56. You REALLY know New Orleans well! Are you going to recommend Bourbon Street and maybe a Hurricane as well? Preservation Hall? You should be a tour guide with your vast knowledge of the city.
Aha, thanks @Martel, that's a new one on me. Why can't they just leave these things alone? Same as changing clocks/time. Stop it, just stop. :-)
Also, Is a soft, not too funny joke a HA LITE? "Where HE AT?" yelled everyone's wife. Guevara in LA = CA CHE Non spelling cat PERS ON Does Supermans coffee cup say S MUG? ME AN CORDELIA LIE LOW Group of men looking= HES SIAN (seein)
@Anonyass 1:47 p.m., I already made my bourbon whiskey recommendation earlier today. But I hear The Court of Two Sisters offers a jazz brunch where troll feeding is on the menu. Be careful. Wouldn't want you to choke on your food.
Steve J said "I always laugh at the waste of money some people will do in an effort to impress themselves and others when they'll order a top-shelf vodka with a mixer."
Ha-ha. Me, too. I ridicule people who aren't like me.
Great puzzle, just the right difficulty for a Friday. Got KETEL ONE right away ( cheesy ad campaign though). Loved some of the cluing... Thought there must have been a prior show SIMON COWELL was host of called Fox Hunt, until Rex explained it (although I now see the capitalization would have to have been different). IRON CHEF clue was great too... misdirection on both "import" and "set". Loved it!
I remember HESSIAN from a cheesy novel by Howard Fast, The Hessian, that I had to read in eighth-grade English class. Never thought it would ever be of any use to me until now.
As far as I remember, All Soul's day has always been Nov. 2nd. Halloween is All Hallows' Eve, awaiting that day of saints. In my Catholic grade school, we always had to attend Mass on both days, Saints and Souls.
A DNF for me on this easy Friday because 12D took me in - I associated it with British fox hunts and figured it was some titular reference to the lead hunter SIMONnOWELL (you'd think all of those English romance novels I read in my misguided youth would have set me straight, never having read the term before).
On the other hand, I worked at a small newspaper for 4 years and never heard NEWS HOLE either.
@Carola, thanks for the poem, very nice.
I don't have a single friend I can think of who would give me a reason to try SNAP CHAT and since I'm definitely one of the "olds", I guess that's a good thing.
Coming back to observe that I *knew* Yaz could not be right: wrong team. I ran the alphabet as far as MAZ and it all came back to me. In 1955 I was a Hollywood Stars fan, and Mazeroski was the young star of the Stars. Probably saw him play at Gilmore Field. Certainly heard about him on the radio. And the Stars were the top farm team for the Pirates.
i will love to share my testimony to you all the people in world i got married to my husband about 2 year ago we start having problems at home like we stop sleeping on the same bed,fighting about little things he always comes home late at night,drinking too much and sleeping with other women out side i have never love any man in my life except him. he is the father of my child and i don't want to loose him because we have worked so hard together to become what we are and have today .few month ago he now decided to live me and the kid,being a single mother can be hard sometimes and so i have nobody to turn to and i was heart broken.i called my mom and explain every thing to her,my mother told me about dr.azen how he helped her solve the problem between her and my dad i was surprise about it because they have been without each other for three and a half years and it was like a miracle how they came back to each other. i was directed to DR. azen on his email: dr.azentemple@hotmail.com and explain everything to him,so he promise me not to worry that he will cast a spell and make things come back to how we where so much in love again and that it was another female spirit that was controlling my husband he told me that my problem will be solved within two days if i believe i said OK So he cast a spell for me and after two days my love came back asking me to forgive him i Am so happy now. so that why i decided to share my experience with every body that have such problem contact Dr.azen the great spell caster on his email addresses dr.azentemple@hotmail.com
My name is Conrad Eve, my family and i live together live in USA. It was after seven years i got to discover that my Husband was unfaithful to me. I didn\'t know what was going on at first but as he got deep in the affair with his new lover, i felt that our marriage was on the rocks. I notice that he no longer light up when i touch him or kiss him in his neck and his chest cos he really liked it when i did that, he also usually get naked in front of me but when he started seeing that woman he stopped it. I remember asking him if i have done anything that makes him feel irritated when i am around him then he gives silly excuses that he has been feeling stressed up and that he need space for a while. I know when you are been asked for space its usually because there is something fishy going on. I hired a private investigator to help find out what was going on. And in a week time he brought me prove that my Husband that i have lived with for seven straight year is cheating on me with his high school lover. I had picture of him walking out a of a restaurant with her and many other photo of them kissing in public like he will never be caught by someone that knows he is my Husband. I asked myself, even when we had a daughter together he could do this to me. That same night i showed him the pictures that i got from my private investigator. He didn\'t look at it before saying, that he is seeing someone and he know that i just found out about it. Then he said that he is in love with her. At that moment, i didn\'t know if to kill myself or to kill him but the button line is that if i was going to kill anyone it was going to be me because i was so much in love with him to even think of thinking to hurt him. As time goes on he asked for a divorce and got it and i got custody of our daughter and i weep everyday seeing my daughter with out being around her daddy. I just couldn\'t get my mind off my Husband and all i could think about was getting him back and live as every family should. For a year i tried all i could to get him back with the help of my seven year old daughter. Even at that all effect was in vain, i used the help of his friend but turned out all bad. I know most people don\'t believe in spell casting but believe me this was my last option and the result i most say was impressive. And i know it difficult to believe but A SPELL CASTER Dr . azen really made my life much better because he gave me my family back. He didn\'t ask me to pay for what he did for me all i was to do, was to provide the materials for the spell and i should believe that he had the power to help me. Like he said, he was going to do something that will make him reset his love and affection for me just as it has always been. My Husband told me he woke up and realized that he should have never left me that i am all he needs.To make thing clear, his life with his high school lover was great before Dr .azen cast the spell, they had no disagreement on anything. My Husband said it himself that why he broke up with her is something he can not explain just that he woke up on the same bed with her after a very romantic night saying he is breaking up with her for no reason at all. Only Dr. azen can do such a thing, contact him to solve your problem with his email dr.azentemple@hotmail.com
A week late on this puzzle. Rex says "groaner-free"? Are you joking? The cluing was just awful. 21, 29, 51 and 59 across and 12, 20, 46 and 56 down are all false clues, all requiring re-wording to be made correct. 27A, 38A and 39D should have all been labeled "archaic" or shown something to the effect that the words or expressions aren't in speech anymore. (Honey, please turn on the electric fan -- as opposed to the coal-operated fan?) 31D, 44D and 52D are way too obscure. 19A forces me to share the constructor's love of sushi, which is never going to happen. This puzzle is defective through and through and should never have been published.
How i got my boyfriend back.Am Stacey Bruno by name I never believed in love spells or magic until I met this spell caster once when i went to see my friend in Indian this year on a business summit. I meant a man who's name is Dr ATILA he is really powerful and could help cast spells to bring back one's gone, lost, misbehaving lover and magic money spell or spell for a good job or luck spell .I'm now happy & a living testimony cos the man i had wanted to marry left me 5 weeks before our wedding and my life was upside down cos our relationship has been on for 3years. I really loved him, but his mother was against us and he had no good paying job. So when i met this spell caster, i told him what happened and explained the situation of things to him. At first i was undecided,skeptical and doubtful, but i just gave it a try. And in 7 days when i returned to Canada, my boyfriend (now husband) called me by himself and came to me apologizing that everything had been settled with his mom and family and he got a new job interview so we should get married. I didn't believe it cos the Dr ATILA only asked for my name and my boyfriends name and all i wanted him to do. Well we are happily married now and we are expecting our little kid, and my husband also got the new job and our lives became much better. His email is: atilahealinghome@yahoo.com
Life is good when you have your love ones around you, I am saying this because when i had issues with my lover i never seen life as a good thing but thanks to Dr. AGBAZARA of AGBAZARA TEMPLE, for helping me to cast a spell that brought my lover back to me within the space of 48hours. My husband left me for another woman after 7YEARS of marriage,but Dr.AGBAZARA help me cast a spell that brought him back to me within 48hours. I am not going to tell you more details about myself rather i will only advise those who are having issues in there relationship or marriages to contact Dr.AGBAZARA TEMPLE through these details via; (agbazara@gmail.com) or call him on (+2348104102662).
How To Get Your husband Back & Avoid Divorce,Love Spells That Really Work Fast
My Name is isabella, I am From United Kingdom.i am hear to give testimony of how i got back my husband, we got married for more than 9 years and have gotten two kids. thing were going well with us and we are always happy. until one day my husband started to behave in a way i could not understand, i was very confused by the way he treat me and the kids. later that month he did not come home again and he called me that he want a divorce, i asked him what have i done wrong to deserve this from him, all he was saying is that he want a divorce that he hate me and do not want to see me again in his life, i was mad and also frustrated do not know what to do,i was sick for more than 2 weeks because of the divorce. i love him so much he was everything to me without him my life is incomplete. i told my sister and she told me to contact a spell caster, i never believe in all this spell casting of a thing. i just want to try if something will come out of it. i contacted Dr NICE OKSE for the return of my husband to me, they told me that my husband have been taken by another woman, that she cast a spell on him that is why he hate me and also want us to divorce. then they told me that they have to cast a spell on him that will make him return to me and the kids, they casted the spell and after a week my husband called me and he told me that i should forgive him, he started to apologize on phone and said that he still love me that he did not know what happen to him that he left me. it was the spell that Dr NICE OKSE casted on him that make him to come back to me today,me and my family are now happy again today. thank you Dr NICE OKSE for what you have done for me i would have been nothing today if not for your great spell. i want you my friends who are passing through all this kind of love problem of getting back their husband, wife , or ex boyfriend and girlfriend to contact professionallovespell@hotmail.com . and you will see that your problem will be solved without any delay.
POWERFUL SPELL MAGIC Hello everyone you came across this post not by mistake but by chance there is a powerful man of God whom i know that helped me get my lover back and restored my home his name is Dr Zadson of eduduzadsontemple@yahoo.com. He specialezes in the following
1:Love Spell 2:Protection Spell 3:Pregnancy Spell 4:Invisibility Spell 5:Financial Prosperity Spell This Man has been of immense blessing to me and my friends and i am putting his email here to help the world at large know about his abilities and power to solve various types of problems contact him today via eduduzadsontemple@yahoo.com or call +2347050269626 dont miss this opportunity
Hello to every one i want to testify of what a spell caster has done for me,i was in a relationship for two years happy with my partner few months to our wedding she left me and went after another man she never came back home again, i cry all day looking for help i have contacted so many spell caster but no result one day i was on the internet when i came across a testimony on how Doctor Jatto helped some one to get back his lover so i gave a try and it work out for me am so happy to have my lover back to my self again thanks once again Doctor Jatto for helping me to bring back my lover if you are passing through the same problem or any kind of situation and you think all hope is lost my dear is not. contact Doctor Jatto on his email : (drjattosplltemple@gmail.com). OR you can call the great man on +2349035512062. my name is Juan Rohit
CORDELIA seemed ELITE and CLASSY, yet STAID, But THEN she’s no ANGEL when she’s VOWED to get laid. During ROLLS in the sack she’ll CLAW, THEN she YELLS, she turns from PERSON to ANIMAL, but THEN nobody tells that during her HEAT she’ll LIELOW, NESTED with all takers, SMUGly CHIDING them until they become all-STAR NOISEMAKERS. MANN, if you CLIME on this PERSON for a TESTRUN, THEN below her NAVAL, on ANON you’ll find fun.
The spellcasters are back with a vengeance! It was nice of them to take a couple of weeks off, anyhow. On to the puz, MAZ.
Yes, MAZ was a gimme for me--in the same way, I suppose, that SNAPCHAT was for OFL. Me? I needed help up there; as usual, the NW is where I finished, my last letter the K of SKI. Hard to parse KETELONE after having ...LONE in place. Still, one pf my easier Fridays by comparison.
Started with HALITE, which I have spread many times--but not since moving to Vegas, baby! How I love the no-HALITE existence! Getting CHAOS gave me an -OE ending for that unknown masago; had to be something-ROE. The R was enough for ROGERFEDERER, an entry that is sure to tickle a few Syndilander tennis buffs no ENDS. SIMONCOWELL was a while coming; finally saw it with the W of RENEWAL. Far-out clue, that! Most of the rest of it fell pretty quickly; the K of ELK was all I needed for NOISEMAKERS, and so on. The expression NEWSHOLE is new to me, as is IRONCHEF (I'm a George Foreman PERSON, myself).
Smart is not necessarily CLASSY. Take Scorpion. Though Walter is taking CLASS lessons from the luscious Paige, he still has far to go. (Katharine McPhee, you could teach me ANYTHING!) But I get it; "smart" in the sense of "chic." Just another clue designed to derail one's train of thought. But RINSE as the final step in cleaning?? I would think that'd have to be "dry." No? Clue should read "penultimate." And "Gave one's parole"????? Huh?
Though a bit on the techie side with SNAPCHAT, NEC, CGI and ETRADE (and we could include YELLS as clued), the fill was...RINSEd. I liked it because I welcome a doable Friday now and THEN. A-.
I’ve never used SNAPCHAT or Instagram, but knew just enough about them to start the puz. But it didn’t exactly go easily. ANKLEMONITOR doesn’t sound right, have always heard them called ANKLE bracelets – and NO, I haven’t needed one.
ELECTRICFAN seems a little green painty, and nevah hoid of NEWSHOLE. But HELEN Hunt, yeah baby, and COACHK were gimmes.
Notable write-over was VOtED; seemed good at the time.
Could have used the ACT as clue for MANN. And No again, I never got caught at it; coulda though I suppose, since I’ve always lived on the MN/WI border.
Like OFL I got ANIMAL only after the ELK appeared. Last letter to fall was the C in MAC, Once I “got” the Fox hunt (not HELEN Hunt, but that would be a fox Hunt IMHO) cluing. No CHIDING this puz.
@Loren, I'm betting that T-shirt had a background color of Carolina blue. Having lived in the RTP area for almost 20 years, I remember that shirt & lots of other clever ones in that eternal rivalry. It also made that clue a gimme, which is usually far from the case for me with NCAA stuff...I never gave a rip about the roundball(*gasp-- blasphemy!*). Thanks for the reminder of my Carolina years!
This was one of the easiest Fridays I can recall for me. I literally checked the top of the page to see if I'd gotten real confused & it was actually Tuesday. Love to kick off the weekend feeling SMUG instead of stupid.
I don't get the whole vodka thing. If you drink it with mixer, I don't think it matters which one you use. Otherwise, if straight, is there really a discernible difference, and if the best ones have no flavour, what's the point? Now, when it comes to a martini, the only type to have is the original--gin and a couple drops of dry vermouth with olive or twist of lime. Talk about flavour. Of course, even that pales in comparison with Lagavulin Scotch.
Oh yeah, the actual puzzle. I'm no techie, but I knew SNAPCHAT, my sister has a Utah license plate, and KETEL ONE was obvious. Thus did fall the NW.
MAZ! I still bristle remembering that home run which beat The Mick and the Yankees, who used to be my favourite team (hate them now). But at least I knew him right off. Also remember the sitz bath my ex loved after giving birth to my three kids.
Otherwise the puzzle was a nice one, despite SIMON COWELL. I agree that ELECTRIC FAN is green-paintish, but I liked it anyway. Good Friday.
It's hard not to notice the prevalence of the use of euphemisms and rationalizations to explain simple DNF'S by many solvers with egos probably not a lot bigger than mine. Like me, they typically hate to fall short of their standards. It may even apply especially to RP.
Today, I was fairly pleased with myself until I saw that I DNF at what I took to be the MAn/nOWELL cross. My excuse is that because of "of old" in the 12D clue, this "leader" had to be some literary character from long ago whom I had not heard of. So it goes.
Hello everyone i can safely say that with my experience with several spell casters there is non as real,powerful and kind hearted as Dr Zadson whom i saw his email on a blog and contacted him as my husband grew so unfaithful to the point of bringing different girls to our home when am away i waas deeply pained and thought of the best possible solution to this. I contacted Dr Zadson and he told me all the processes to be done to achieve results and i believed in him. Believe you me my husband in less than a week he turned a new leaf i was really amazed at such tremendous power and its been glorious ever since. If you happen to find your self in such condition or in need of a powerful and real spell caster email Dr Zadson on ( eduduzadsontemple@yahoo.com ) and await a new dawn of things.
I'm Mellisa Thomas; My husband just came back home after leaving me for so long. I can't explain this but I just have to share my joy and happiness with the world I don't know how Dr Ihunde helped me in bringing back my husband. I have been frustrated for the past 6 years with my 3 kids in a marriage of 19 years after my husband had left me for no reason, all i did every day was to cry. One faithful day a friend of mine came visiting and I told her about the situation i have been for years now, she then told me about a very powerful man called Dr Ihunde Spell Temple. that he is a very powerful man, at first I never wanted to believe her because I have spent a lot going to different places but she convinced me, so I had no choice because I really need my husband back. So we contacted Dr Ihunde who told me all I needed to do and i give him a trial. But the greatest joy in me today is that Dr Ihunde was able to bring my husband back to me after years of not even taken my calls. and now we are living happily as never before. Thanks to Dr Ihunde. If you have problems of any kind I will advise you to contact him via his email: (ihundespelltemple@gmail.com) or call him +2349055637784.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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103 comments:
Some parts easy (NW, SW) some parts tough (middle), so medium works for me. The last part to go was the CHIDING/VOID/VOWED area, mostly because I had to correct my spelling of MONITOR after switching from my misspelling of Manacle.
1a was a gimme because teenage grandkids.
Just tough enough with plenty of zip. Liked it a lot! Nice one Ian.
I thought that this was going to be "too easy," but a brilliant clue and an only vaguely familiar name, SIMON COWELL, in the east made that section tough enough to be satisfying. Very smooth and lovely puzzle. Four thumbs up.
Tried BEAGLE HOUND for poor SIMON COWELL. Wanted a Fox TV answer but Murdoch did not fit. Great clue.
Neat puzzle. Had honEy for ANGEL for a while and ended up with a dnf for the second time this week with SMELTROd/LANd. Seemed entirely plausible.
Fill and clues were all well done. Real pleasure despite my blunder. Liked NOISE MAKERS and IRON CHEF. And yes, anyone old enough to remember that great World Series called him Maz.
I had the ROE okay for 19A, but thought it was troutROE. The perils of being a vegetarian I guess.
Then dnf because I had GREEnGOD for 60A. EROS -- does he wear leaves and stuff like the Jolly Green Giant? I dunno what to attribute that to. Forty years ago a supervisor chided me for carelessness and not checking my work. Guess I never learned.
I agree with Rex about the genius clue for SIMON COWELL.
As an ObGyn, very familiar with SITZbaths, for my postpartum patients. Was before my time, but as a baseball fan, appreciated MAZeroski.
My favorite of the week
Liked this. Then again, I'm familiar with all the proper and brand names in the puzzle. I don't mind them at all in puzzles, but this puzzle's pushing it.
The cluing is what made this enjoyable for me. Loved the clues for ICE RINKS, ELECTRIC FAN, IRON CHEF. And while the fill didn't have anything that especially wowed me, NOISEMAKERS, NEWSHOLE and ANKLE MONITORS were some nice bits of fill.
This went by super quick, although I ended up finishing with an error. I had MAN as the answer for 29A's "Guy," thinking that there was an interesting MANN/MAN cross going on. I didn't parse the clue for 12D as referencing American Idol, so I figured SIMON nOWELL was some historical or literary figure I wasn't familiar with.
Got Simon Cowell from the crosses and it was familiar, but thanks Rex for parsing the clue.
A fun Friday for me because I could get it--sometimes I can't even get started on Friday/Saturday.
I love Ian Livengood (if that's his real name) puzzles. They are tricky and straight forward at the same time. Does that make sense? Every time I came to a road block, i.e. JAPANESE IMPORT SET IN A KITCHEN and I'm thinking Wok and end up with IRON CHEF, that is just clever.
Best Friday ever, not one write over. Can!t beat that with a stick
It's worth noticing that this puzzle is published on @Ian Livengood's birthday, so double congratulations!
Ian is a big sports fan, and it shows in his choices of fill and clues. Bill Mazeroski's walk-off home run to win the 1960 World Series is the subject of this short youtube clip; and catapulted him to Cooperstown some two decades later. Roger Federer's name has to come up in any conversation of the greatest men's tennis players of all time.
Had a slow start entering half the correct letters in 60% of the total solve time. Stalled for 4 minutes before getting SIMONCROWELL which gave me STONEMASON and lead shortly to ROGERFEDERER which opened up the west for me.
@George
Thanks for the MAZ link. That home run is a flash memory for me. I remember walking home from school and getting home just in time to witness it.
Really liked this easy puzzle.
There was one Pirate fan in my entire Brooklyn neighborhood ( Alan Cohen),and he bragged about MAZ for an entire year. That World Series made me realize that baseball is the perfect sport.
Now back to our regularly scheduled synopsis.
Liked cluing for NESTED, OIL, STONE MASONS and ANKLE MONITOR.
Also liked placement of KETEL ONE( not an imbiber) over a little bit of ICE and IRON CHEF crossing FED.
Writeover-- ANON for soON and MAC for MAn. Maybe 29A could be clued " Slang guy ".
Thanks IL and happy birthday.
I'm betting I was the only person here who never ever heard of KETELONE. I can't even remember seeing it written anywhere....
Yay SITZ because I didn't know MAZ. When you want to relieve pain from you bottom, use a bidet.
Ian is CLASSY. I so enjoy his cluing. SIMON COWELL crossing ANIMAL. HOG meeting up with GREEK GOD.
I wanted an old calendar in that NOISE MAKERS slot but it got fixed...
Pretty easy for a Friday but lots of fun.
10 STARs for moi...
Had dinner = fed? As in "I FED with my in-laws last night. What pigs!"?
Easy here as well. Generally liked the fill but I did have some frowns at the cluing. Why is a STONEMASON a block "HEAD". I also thought only Harley's were HOGS, not all choppers. The clue for FED was (for the second time) had dinner. I suppose when one has had dinner one has "fed himself". Seems forced. On the positive side, SIMONCOWELL is clued brilliantly. B+ and Happy Birthday.
Rex – about MAZ = you said, "Much better than the "E" that would've taken its place otherwise (probably) (you can put a couple other letters there, but they're not great)." I put in S for a "sits/mas" cross.
I agree that this was easy and well-done and that the cluing was excellent. Loved the NOISEMAKER/ELECTRIC FAN cross. I love me some white noise.
Funny how those caps look like yelling, huh? I mean, you can practically hear them if you get them in a text or email. Wonder if Arabic has a way to yell at someone on a screen. Or Chinese. I think in Japanese, Katakana has this covered, but if I’m wrong, ć“ć”ć³,ć.
@danp – I know, right? Interesting duplicate clue: "had dinner." The two entries conjure up such different mental images:
Don't worry. He already ATE. (possibly some CLASSY PERSON who nibbled caviar while sipping KETEL ONE)
Don't worry. He already FED. (memories of my son's friend, Gordo R., who dispatched his pork chop, baked potato/ butter /sour cream, and salad with ranch dressing without touching his utensils)
ATE – PERSON, CLASSY, tinkly background music
FED – ANIMAL, HOG, snorting, slurping
I tell you, if food in the seafood department comes alive and talks in some kind of Larsonesque world, can you imagine the ribbing SMELT ROE takes? The ELITE crab CLAW nudges his buddy, the diver scallop, “Hey, Shel. I just got a whiff of something nasty. Oh wait. Nevermind. I must’ve just SMELT ROE.” Chortle.
A lifelong Dean Smith fan, my eyebrows raised at CLASSY and COACH K sharing a grid. I saw a T shirt once that said “Krzyzewski ain't krzit.” Yeah, yeah, sour grapes and all that.
Really, really nice job, Ian. Perfect Friday.
My sixteen year old daughter takes issue with "Snapchat" being an alternative to "Instagram". Her words: "that's like saying a Twizzler is the same as a Hershey Kiss, just because they're both candy."
I have no opinion, since I don't use either (and barely understand what they're all about). But she knows that every day after I finish the puzzle I visit Rex's log and she wanted her opinion noted.
Great puzzle.
@Airymom - I had the exact same reaction as your daughter, 'tho my comparison was KETEL ONE and Two-Hearted Ale.
SNAPCHAT also reminded me of this article. Anyone over 32 will appreciate the feeling, with your appreciation increasing the more over 32 you are.
A fine Friday.
Funny story. My 14YO daughter was complaining that she didn't have enough data for her phone so we looked in the phone to see which app was the culprit. She gets 2G per month, btw. At the top, by a long shot, was SNAPCHAT at a whopping 930M worth of data used for the month. The next in line was Spotify somewhere at the 300M mark. So, um, yeah. SNAPCHAT!
Is NEWSHOLE at thing?
I don't know MAZ, but the crosses solved it for me...but I still didn't believe it until I finished.
Here's another tidbit. I once talked with a rep from a vodka company who talked about claims of some vodkas that they have almost no impurities. SKYY is one that is, I believe, 5-times distilled so that there are no impurities at all but it tastes like alcohol. The vodka with most impurities in it is KETELONE. But if you know a KETELONE drinker, you know that they are usually very finicky about their vodka and will only drink K1. Why? Because flavor! The impurities that companies like SKYY try to make look bad are actually what gives each vodka its distinctive taste. I don't drink vodka myself...so maybe some K1 or SKYY drinkers here will corroborate this.
Overall, an easy (very easy) Friday.
Strange day. Never heard of KETELONE, even though we are vodka drinkers (we stick mostly to Grey Goose). Never heard of HALITE, even though I have lived in the upper midwest my whole life. And never heard of a SITZ bath even though I... take baths occasionally.
ššš (3 mOOOns)
Hah! Even with Utah plates on my car I penned see instead of SKI. I followed that up with peen vs. CLAW.
I can make a smooth puzzle rough without any effort.
No complaints other than my brain was clearly made by STONEMASONS.
Thank you Ian
@NCA Prez - I recall a vodka discussion a while back, so I hesitate to point this out again. Still, vodka, by definition, "is neutral spirits so distilled, or so treated after distillation with charcoal or other materials, as to be without distinctive character, aroma, taste, or color." Therefore the "best" vodka would have no flavor. Vodka lovers will swear that there are flavor differences, but they're all drunk anyway.
I enjoyed SIMON COWELL; great misdirection. Overall, this went pretty fast for a Friday but was challenging enough not to be considered easy (unless you are Rex).
@Z: reading through the linked article, I didn't see that the definition was to be without distinctive flavor. In fact it sort of nods to the fact that vodkas, depending on what was used in the distilling process, do taste different.
Vodka drinkers will swear that they have a favorite vodka based on the flavor even though it isn't a "flavored" vodka. SKYY truly does taste and smell like rubbing alcohol. The others taste like rubbing alcohol too, but with qualities that vary.
I'm no expert, and usually if I have to drink it, it's with something else (Hangar One is really good, though), but at any rate the rep I talked to said that the flavor profile of any given vodka was due to the impurities present. Ketel One could remove those impurities, but they don't because it's what makes K1, K1.
FWIW...
OK, so I'm the only person here who didn't know SIMON COWELL, and I went with MAn instead of MAC (shoulda remembered, crosswordese!) so I had an error in this otherwise challenging and fun puzzle. For some reason I didn't remember MAZ right away, so theorized that maybe someone, somewhere, called Roberto Clemente 'rob.' That held me up, as did soON for ANON, and rEdcoAt before HESSIAN.
My mother's family was descended from a Hessian who stayed in America after the war. They found that origin embarassing, so they changed the prefix in their name from Von to De, and pretended that they had been Huguenots. I didn't learn better until I was 50 and found some old family records.
I finished this in record time without an error, a most unusual Friday occurance. KETALONE was new to me, as was MAZ and COACHK. I'm an Instagram user myself, but I'm familiar with the disappearing pics of SNAPCHAT and that gave me a great start. My two favorites were SIMONCOWELL and IRONCHEF. Clever boy, Ian Livengood!
DNF as I had halene instead of halite, never saw American Idol nor knew of Simon Cowell, so that corner was my downfall. Got snapchat from crosses as I don't use those things. Maybe I'm too behind the times. But I'm happy to be.
I count 13 compound words or phrases and 3 2-part names. That has to be some kind of record.
Easy Friday, and a lot of fun!
I'm not a digital/Fox/sports maven, so struggle ensued. Once over the northern hump, however, fill went pretty smooth. Speaking of fill..
Fav of the day - NEWSHOLE. Holiday display ads create tons of them, mostly filled via wire service junk, that we librarians then had to cut out, paste, cross-categorize and file. Needed? Um, never.
@chefbea - My local sushi hole is IRON CHEF House.
@LMS - ć“ć”ć³,ć ?
@NCA, @Z - Usual drink at usual bar is a KETEL ONE martini (they don't have Tito's) so I can speak from experience. Vodkas can have distinctive aromas. All about the aging, methinks.
As I was completing this puzzle, a strange thing happened--green SMELT-ROE-colored paint started oozing up from my keyboard. Maybe it was being blown out by an ELECTRIC FAN?
Too tough for me. But of course knew Iron Chef. Don't think I have ever had smelt roe
Pretty easy for a Friday (a negative MGI) but very enjoyable. Agree with all the praise for the cluing.
I'm a vodka drinker and I am sure that I can taste the difference between Grey Goose and Stoli. We were at a restaurant yesterday which was out of Grey Goose. I had Belvedere instead. It was good but I'm quite sure that I could taste the difference.
Very nice puzzle with some great clues and clean fill!
@Jim Walker - the suffix HEAD is used for a person with a strong interest in something, as in gearhead, crackhead, Deadhead, and STONEMASONS work with blocks of stone.
@LMS - I laughed so loud at SMELTROE I woke up my wife. Funny!
I'm glad people enjoyed this puzzle - and I could see how they would. I didn't. Sports and pop culture - too much I didn't know and couldn't guess at. HESSIAN and FEDERER I got - even SNAPCHAT and ETRADE I got. But had a DNF in the SE - so this puzzle hit the 38A today for me.
Mighty fine puzzle, Medium for me.
Not really looking for a nit to pick, but I did circle the clue for 47 D, "Final step in cleaning", for RINSE. I might have accepted DRYING, POLISHING, or PUTTING AWAY, but isn't RINSE only an intermediate step in any cleaning process?
@mathguy - That is the most perceptive observation on the vodka flavor issue I've read.
@NCA President - You elided past the definition, which I pulled right from the linked article. That said, I think the article does a nice job of showing how products evolve. Discarding excessive faithfulness to old German purity laws has resulted in craft brewing adventures that give "beer purists" fits. My favorite line, now used in marketing for an incredibly mediocre beer, is that flavor "hides imperfections." Likewise with vodka. The "best" vodka, the most faithful to the legal definition, has no flavor. Thanks, but no thanks.
I thought IRONCHEF was very clever. Would have thought the same about Mr. Cowell, but I too had "man" for MAC. One of the few times I wish I did the puzzle online, as the lack of a Happy Pencil would have forced me to reconsider my choice there.
Finished -- even though this was not at all in my wheelhouse. I found it hard, and not all that much fun. I saw SNAPCHAT early on from the crosses, though I wouldn't have known it on it's own. Though I'm familiar with many vodkas (hic), I never heard of KETEL ONE. Wanted yAZ instead of MAZ ( a little learning is a dangerous thing), but NOISE MAKERS straightened me out. Like others, I liked the IRON CHEF clue a lot.
It took me forever to see ANKLE MONITOR as I really wanted ANKLE MANACLE. (Is that just too 15th century of me?) And I don't get NEWS HOLE (58A) at all. Does that mean you fill up your newspaper with ads and then, if you have any room left at all, you deign to throw in a news tidbit or two?
Just wondering.
Most likely the easiest Friday ever. Sure, lottsa brand/proper names, etc, but well crossed and gettable vid. SIMON COWELL, totally unknown to me until this morning, but got it just fine. After Googling him, not sure I'm a better person for this bit of pop knowledge. Felt much better seeing ROGER FEDERER.
It is intriguing to me how I, an older solver, connect well with some young/younger constructors and not others. Some grids are just more fairly crossed, in my view, that others.
Fun Friday, Ian. Thank you.
I am always amazed at how re-reading a clue repeatedly will lead to a different interpretation of its wording. In this case, I kept thinking that a "Japanese import set" was referring to tools used in a kitchen, specifically, the dreaded Ginsu Knives, but they just wouldn't fit! Finally, the light bulb went on and I saw the "set" as the locale of the import from Japan...duh! IRONCHEF fits just fine. HONE your knives, Chef Morimoto (one of the original Japanese masters, BTW).
Will I ever SMUGly find a puzzle like this one "EASy"? Definitely not a SNAP, as it felt "medium" to me. But THEN, I am not a member of the cruciverb. ELITE.
Enough of all this KETELONE vodka talk; pour me a nice Jack Daniels on the rocks, please!
I really liked the longer Down clues. NOISEMAKERS opened up the puzzle for me.
Who knew there really was/is a Mr. LOWE? Learn something new every day!
Thanks, IL and WS.
@GILL: It's particularly ironic because KETEL ONE is a Dutch vodka.
Like Grey Goose, it's overpriced. Tito's and similar but even smaller American craft vodkas are the way to go, in my opinion.
Just don't put Coach K's actual name in a crossword, because I will need every single cross to spell it.
18 Vodka, made in Indiana, is hands down the best vodka on the planet.
Been a loooong time, since I solved a NYTpuz in the actual NYT newspaper. But this here downtown New Orleans hotel left the paper outside our room door this mornin, so...
Puz seemed hard. Maybe I was intimidated, by actually seeing the puz in its hallowed, native habitat. Or becuz all I had was a pen? Or cuz KETELONE and SNAPCHAT were newsholes, to m&e?
This FriPuz had everything goin for it, except (multiple) U's and (palpable) desperation. SMELTROE was pretty classy, tho. Looks like a confused SMELTORE operation. Fun clues today.
Off to find ben-yays (sp?), I'm told. Haven't fed in hours...
M&A
off the road but far from home
@Z -- You seem like such a nice person. Why would you want to depress me so profoundly with that link you offered in your 7:07 a.m. comment? The "youngs" are people under age 32? The "olds" are comprised of everyone 32 and older? So, what does that make me, exactly? I think I'll get back into bed and pull the covers over my head. And a heads up to just about everyone on this blog: DON'T READ THAT LINK, WHATEVER YOU DO. It purports to be about SNAPCHAT and other social media, but it's really about...YOU!
@Bob K - Shampooing?
@thomas808. Thank you!
@NCA Pres: Yes, NEWSHOLE is a real thing. When editors are given the day's pages to fill, the ads are already slotted. The blank space they have left over to fill is called the NEWSHOLE.
@NCA Pres & @Z: You're right that the differences in flavor and aroma in vodka come from the trace elements that are left (or "impurities" if one wants to think of it that way). The differences are subtle - like the differences in taste in water from different sources - but they're there. If you don't drink vodka much, you're unlikely to notice them. If you do drink it a good amount, you do pick up on it. Like with anything, picking out subtle flavor and aroma variations improves with practice and exposure.
Of course, any of vodka's subtleties and differences are lost as soon as it's mixed with pretty much anything. I always laugh at the waste of money some people will do in an effort to impress themselves and others when they'll order a top-shelf vodka with a mixer.
@Maruchka: Vodka generally isn't aged. If it is, it's in stainless steel or some other neutral material, where it's not going to pick anything up from aging. Aging it in anything else would give it color and additional flavors, which would defeat the point.
@LMS: From what I've seen at some of those all-you-can-eat buffet places, FED is the appropriate choice.
Pretty easy, except for Ketelone, which I had never heard of until this puzzle. Cheers
Any crossword with a COWbELL in it can't be all bad. Or can it?
I normally like Ian Livengood's work, but this one left me cold. The tendency of NYT puzzles lately toward trivia contests (pop culture, sports, brand names etc.) instead of wordplay, leaves me cold. I do not like it. One or two per a 15x15 is acceptable just to spice things up, but three are too many. KETEL ONE, E-TRADE, IRON CHEF, COACH K, HELEN Hunt, etc. also fall into this category.
When two of the marquee entries are full names of people you may or may not know, it turns me off. I lose interest. I missed the entire "American Idol" craze, I wasted those years of my life reading books and visiting Carnegie Hall and Avery Fisher Hall. I had no conscious awareness of SIMON what's-his-name. Likewise with SNAPCHAT, whatever that is. I remember seeing it twice before in a NYT puzzles (by Caleb Madison and David Steinberg -- it figures!), other than that, I have no idea and do not care. But that's just me.
What I liked: NOISEMAKERS, ANKLE MONITOR, CORDELIA, HESSIAN, TEST RUN, SMELT ROW, the EROS-GREEK GOD and the ELK-ANIMAL cross references, the ELITE/HALITE near-duplication, but NEWSHOLE left me wanting an "AS" between the W and the S.
Allow me to share with you the work by American composer Henry COWELL (1897-1965) titled Ongaku ('music' in Japanese), consisting of two movements: Gagaku and Sankyoku, 'old Japanese court music' and 'instrumental trio' respectively.
TGIF
Two avoidable DNF's in two days have me annoyed, but only at myself. Despite brand name reliance (as noted by Rex) a very good puzzle. Never heard of Snapchat, or newshole, have heard of Iron chef but don't know what is is, don't drink vodka, but have heard of Ketel one. My error, shared by many others, apparently, was Man and Simon Nowell. Never watched American Idol, didn't know it was on FOX, but I still should have seen that MAC and Cowell was better than what I wrote. Surprised Rex didn't know "Hessian." I always associated the Hessians with the battle of Trenton, not Saratoga, but Burgoyne didn't fit... As I said, very good, apt Friday puzzle. Very inept solution from me...
Medium for me; I did quite a bit of hop-scotching around before major chunks accreted. SLEWS of things to enjoy seeing materialize: STONE MASONS, NOISE MAKERS, ANKLE MONITOR, IRON CHEF, NEWS HOLE (that one was NEWS to me - great expression).
It happened that I knew all of the proper names (except MAZ), although I needed crosses to be reminded of a few of them; still, like @Steve J, I thought the puzzle relied on them a bit too heavily - I counted 17, a tie with my previous high (counted when there were enough to bother me).
Last night I came across a poem that reminded of the occasional times when "X" is used as a crossword clue. I thought others might also enjoy "X, a C.V." by Elise Partridge.
@Mr. Benson (10:40 AM) wrote "Just don't put Coach K's actual name in a crossword, because I will need every single cross to spell it."
Asked and answered. As revealed by a simple search in xwordinfo.com, the word "KRZYZEWSKI" was used on Friday, September 9, 2005, by Kyle Mahowald, clued as "He surpassed Smith as the all-time winningest N.C.A.A. tournament coach."
@ralph - I remember Maz's home run too, I was in seventh grade listening to a transistor radio hidden inside my desk.
@rex -- So the COWELL clue got you thinking about American Idol, and the next thing you know, you put "Pitchy" in your review (which was very enjoyable, by the way).
Regarding the lower FED, I saw "had dinner" as meaning hosting people for the meal, thus feeding them.
I never heard of IRONCHEF or KETELONE, but the crosses worked fine. What a clean breezy puzzle! I always expect clean from Ian and he always delivers. Commenters are often complaining about esses at the end of a word; this puzzle had SLEWS of words starting with S -- eleven. I also liked SNAPCHAT/LAT/SCAT.
Not easy for me. DNF at crossing of K-TELONE and N-C. So, @Gill- you bet correctly!
Wasn't sure about NEWSHOLE either, but guessed right there.
Had yAZ for a while. And never heard of COACH K.
I'm in the minority today.
“Krzyzewski ain't krzit"
That made my day!
I'll chime in on Vodka - everything is true about the level of impurities present. The higher quality the vodka, the more times it is distilled (removing those impurities). It is also the amount of impurities present that give you a bigger hangover. The trade off sometimes is taste over how you feel the next day!
I liked the puzzle! I started last night and got interrupted, so I did not finish until this morning. When I resumed, the puzzle just seemed to fall right into place.
First Friday finish ever, so must have been easier than usual.
Biggest problem area for me was the W and WSW -- I had REDCOAT, HONEY, ENG, and SOON instead of HESSIAN, ANGEL, CGI, and ANON. Finally able to work through it once I figured out CANOE and much erasing was brought to bare.
I also briefly had MAn and SIMONnOWELL, who I was assuming was some famous(?) huntsman of long ago. Finally figured that one out too and was impressed by the clever cluing.
I'd never heard of a SITZ bath or MAZ, so that one Z square was a pain.
Cheers for a great Friday puzzle, though! :)
Hi @Benko...I actually looked up KETEL ONE. I thought I knew my labels but this was a new one. Like @Maruchka, I enjoy a vodka martini but I always ask for Skyy. So many of the others taste (smell?) like rubbing alcohol...
If I were dying on a tropical beach somewhere and a genie approached me and said I can pick out just one single drink to take with me to heaven...I'd ask for Pour Moi VSOP Cognac. I only tried it because I loved the name. It's actually affordable and it is the smoothest most delightful cognac that can ever touch your lips.....
Factoid: The loudest ANIMALS are blue whales, whose low-frequency pulses are as loud as 188 decibels—louder than a jet engine—and can be detected more than 500 miles away. On land, the loudest animals are howler monkeys, whose howl can be heard three miles away.
Quotoid: "Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ENDS." -- H.L. Mencken
"Sitz bath," huh? I thought this was an alternate spelling for "Schvitz bath." Now I know.
@M&A, I hope by now you ATE your beignets, along w/ a cup of steaming chicory coffee at the CafƩ du Monde. Nothing beats that, plus people-watching and admiring the St. Louis Cathedral across Jackson Square from the outdoor terrace there on a fine Spring day. Don't forget to sample Aunt Sally's pralines down the block by the French Mkt. and take a few minutes to stand behind the surprisingly talented artists as they paint scenes on their portable easels along the Square. Enjoy!
Hey All !
Medium here, started tough, but for some reason, ended quickly and easily. Bizarre...
No one has mentioned this, is clue for 40A correct? Shouldn't it be the other way around? All Souls Day is Oct. 31, All Saints Day is Nov. 1.
Know of K1 Vodka, k.ow of SIMON COWELL. Had soON forever, was thinking might be ANON, after ELECTRIC FAN and NOISEMAKER, finally changed it. Had ethaN before HELEN, all SMUG cause I thought I figured out the ue twist! Also two wrong letters / four wrong answers. SMELTROd/LANd, SITe/MAe. SITZ bath a new-un. Never want to commit to answers on a FriPuz, so took extra time waiting for crosses to confirm a bunch of answers!
Overall, cool puz. Not too brain draining. Wonder if NEWS HOLE sparks dirty talk at publishing places!
ROLLS
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Roo - this from Wikipedia, the font of all knowledge:
All Souls' Day is now held on 2 November and is associated with All Saints' Day (1 November) and its vigil, Halloween (31 October).
@LJ: yep fed on them beignets. Good enough, that I learned how to spell em. Also had a "Big Ass Beer" on Bourbon St., to wash em down. Hotish, in these parts.
Hopin Mother's poboys aint too crowded for lunch. Been soooo long since we fed last...
Odd how some like long ass odd fill in their grids (COACHK, IRONCHEF, HALITE, NEWSHOLE), but not so much short ass odd fill (weejects). All I know is BEIGNET needs to be in a runtpuz someday.
Ian Livengood has done 47 NYTpuzs in 5 years and change. Must be doin somethin right. Did somethin big ass right today, right?
M&A
Clever clues and minimal dreck made for a fun fill Friday. For those of you chasing the craft distilling craze, I recommend Cold River vodka from Maine
Wow Ludy@12:56. You REALLY know New Orleans well! Are you going to recommend Bourbon Street and maybe a Hurricane as well? Preservation Hall? You should be a tour guide with your vast knowledge of the city.
Aha, thanks @Martel, that's a new one on me. Why can't they just leave these things alone? Same as changing clocks/time. Stop it, just stop. :-)
Also,
Is a soft, not too funny joke a HA LITE?
"Where HE AT?" yelled everyone's wife.
Guevara in LA = CA CHE
Non spelling cat PERS ON
Does Supermans coffee cup say S MUG?
ME AN CORDELIA LIE LOW
Group of men looking= HES SIAN (seein)
Last one a stretch!
RooMonster
Are the HESSIANS related to the HAMITES or are the HAMITES related to the HALITEs?
@Anonyass 1:47 p.m., I already made my bourbon whiskey recommendation earlier today. But I hear The Court of Two Sisters offers a jazz brunch where troll feeding is on the menu. Be careful. Wouldn't want you to choke on your food.
Beignets at Cafe du Monde! Gee, I bet no visitor to New Orleans would have thought of THAT without @Ludy's recommendation! Must be a native.
Insider tip: If you go to Paris, you should check out the Eiffel Tower.
If you go to New York, make sure to go to Times Square.
Steve J said "I always laugh at the waste of money some people will do in an effort to impress themselves and others when they'll order a top-shelf vodka with a mixer."
Ha-ha. Me, too. I ridicule people who aren't like me.
Great puzzle, just the right difficulty for a Friday. Got KETEL ONE right away ( cheesy ad campaign though). Loved some of the cluing... Thought there must have been a prior show SIMON COWELL was host of called Fox Hunt, until Rex explained it (although I now see the capitalization would have to have been different). IRON CHEF clue was great too... misdirection on both "import" and "set". Loved it!
It's been my experience that after the fifth or sixth shot they all taste about the same.
Putin is here again? I hate that guy.
I remember HESSIAN from a cheesy novel by Howard Fast, The Hessian, that I had to read in eighth-grade English class. Never thought it would ever be of any use to me until now.
As far as I remember, All Soul's day has always been Nov. 2nd. Halloween is All Hallows' Eve, awaiting that day of saints. In my Catholic grade school, we always had to attend Mass on both days, Saints and Souls.
A DNF for me on this easy Friday because 12D took me in - I associated it with British fox hunts and figured it was some titular reference to the lead hunter SIMONnOWELL (you'd think all of those English romance novels I read in my misguided youth would have set me straight, never having read the term before).
On the other hand, I worked at a small newspaper for 4 years and never heard NEWS HOLE either.
@Carola, thanks for the poem, very nice.
I don't have a single friend I can think of who would give me a reason to try SNAP CHAT and since I'm definitely one of the "olds", I guess that's a good thing.
Ian Livengood, nice puzzle!
You"ve said it all. It was tough to get started, then fell together. Nice puzzle.
I had some tiny smelt roe on my steamed dim sum at Hakkasan tonight. Could just barely remember the Japanese name in the clue!
Ketel 1 may be Dutch, but it is not drunk much in Holland. Martinis just aren't popular. Old folk drink jenever.
Nice puzzle, easy for a Friday. NEWSHOLE seemed like green paint to me, but it turns out it's just very, very, insider.
Sure, anyone can fit in COACHK, but let's see a puzzle with KRZYZEWSKI in it.
Kept wanting to put yaK for 48A, even knowing it couldn't be right.
Had MAn before MAC, CLever before CLASSY, StingRay before SmeltRoe.
I like the mini-theme that I'm going to call 'resources'. HALITE, ICE, SMELT (as in ore), OIL, STONE, CORD (of wood), IRON - all on acrosses.
Coming back to observe that I *knew* Yaz could not be right: wrong team. I ran the alphabet as far as MAZ and it all came back to me. In 1955 I was a Hollywood Stars fan, and Mazeroski was the young star of the Stars. Probably saw him play at Gilmore Field. Certainly heard about him on the radio. And the Stars were the top farm team for the Pirates.
i will love to share my testimony to you all the people in world i got married to my husband about 2 year ago we start having problems at home like we stop sleeping on the same bed,fighting about little things he always comes home late at night,drinking too much and sleeping with other women out side i have never love any man in my life except him. he is the father of my child and i don't want to loose him because we have worked so hard together to become what we are and have today .few month ago he now decided to live me and the kid,being a single mother can be hard sometimes and so i have nobody to turn to and i was heart broken.i called my mom and explain every thing to her,my mother told me about dr.azen how he helped her solve the problem between her and my dad i was surprise about it because they have been without each other for three and a half years and it was like a miracle how they came back to each other. i was directed to DR. azen on his email: dr.azentemple@hotmail.com and explain everything to him,so he promise me not to worry that he will cast a spell and make things come back to how we where so much in love again and that it was another female spirit that was controlling my husband he told me that my problem will be solved within two days if i believe i said OK So he cast a spell for me and after two days my love came back asking me to forgive him i Am so happy now. so that why i decided to share my experience with every body that have such problem contact Dr.azen the great spell caster on his email addresses dr.azentemple@hotmail.com
My name is Conrad Eve, my family and i live together live in USA. It was after seven years i got to discover that my Husband was unfaithful to me. I didn\'t know what was going on at first but as he got deep in the affair with his new lover, i felt that our marriage was on the rocks. I notice that he no longer light up when i touch him or kiss him in his neck and his chest cos he really liked it when i did that, he also usually get naked in front of me but when he started seeing that woman he stopped it. I remember asking him if i have done anything that makes him feel irritated when i am around him then he gives silly excuses that he has been feeling stressed up and that he need space for a while. I know when you are been asked for space its usually because there is something fishy going on. I hired a private investigator to help find out what was going on. And in a week time he brought me prove that my Husband that i have lived with for seven straight year is cheating on me with his high school lover. I had picture of him walking out a of a restaurant with her and many other photo of them kissing in public like he will never be caught by someone that knows he is my Husband. I asked myself, even when we had a daughter together he could do this to me. That same night i showed him the pictures that i got from my private investigator. He didn\'t look at it before saying, that he is seeing someone and he know that i just found out about it. Then he said that he is in love with her. At that moment, i didn\'t know if to kill myself or to kill him but the button line is that if i was going to kill anyone it was going to be me because i was so much in love with him to even think of thinking to hurt him. As time goes on he asked for a divorce and got it and i got custody of our daughter and i weep everyday seeing my daughter with out being around her daddy. I just couldn\'t get my mind off my Husband and all i could think about was getting him back and live as every family should. For a year i tried all i could to get him back with the help of my seven year old daughter. Even at that all effect was in vain, i used the help of his friend but turned out all bad. I know most people don\'t believe in spell casting but believe me this was my last option and the result i most say was impressive. And i know it difficult to believe but A SPELL CASTER Dr . azen really made my life much better because he gave me my family back. He didn\'t ask me to pay for what he did for me all i was to do, was to provide the materials for the spell and i should believe that he had the power to help me. Like he said, he was going to do something that will make him reset his love and affection for me just as it has always been. My Husband told me he woke up and realized that he should have never left me that i am all he needs.To make thing clear, his life with his high school lover was great before Dr .azen cast the spell, they had no disagreement on anything. My Husband said it himself that why he broke up with her is something he can not explain just that he woke up on the same bed with her after a very romantic night saying he is breaking up with her for no reason at all. Only Dr. azen can do such a thing, contact him to solve your problem with his email dr.azentemple@hotmail.com
A week late on this puzzle. Rex says "groaner-free"? Are you joking? The cluing was just awful. 21, 29, 51 and 59 across and 12, 20, 46 and 56 down are all false clues, all requiring re-wording to be made correct. 27A, 38A and 39D should have all been labeled "archaic" or shown something to the effect that the words or expressions aren't in speech anymore. (Honey, please turn on the electric fan -- as opposed to the coal-operated fan?) 31D, 44D and 52D are way too obscure. 19A forces me to share the constructor's love of sushi, which is never going to happen. This puzzle is defective through and through and should never have been published.
How i got my boyfriend back.Am Stacey Bruno by name I never believed in love spells or magic until I met this spell caster once when i went to see my friend in Indian this year on a business summit. I meant a man who's name is Dr ATILA he is really powerful and could help cast spells to bring back one's gone, lost, misbehaving lover and magic money spell or spell for a good job or luck spell .I'm now happy & a living testimony cos the man i had wanted to marry left me 5 weeks before our wedding and my life was upside down cos our relationship has been on for 3years. I really loved him, but his mother was against us and he had no good paying job. So when i met this spell caster, i told him what happened and explained the situation of things to him. At first i was undecided,skeptical and doubtful, but i just gave it a try. And in 7 days when i returned to Canada, my boyfriend (now husband) called me by himself and came to me apologizing that everything had been settled with his mom and family and he got a new job interview so we should get married. I didn't believe it cos the Dr ATILA only asked for my name and my boyfriends name and all i wanted him to do. Well we are happily married now and we are expecting our little kid, and my husband also got the new job and our lives became much better. His email is: atilahealinghome@yahoo.com
Life is good when you have your love ones around you, I am saying this because when i had issues with my lover i never seen life as a good thing but thanks to Dr. AGBAZARA of AGBAZARA TEMPLE, for helping me to cast a spell that brought my lover back to me within the space of 48hours. My husband left me for another woman after 7YEARS of marriage,but Dr.AGBAZARA help me cast a spell that brought him back to me within 48hours. I am not going to tell you more details about myself rather i will only advise those who are having issues in there relationship or marriages to contact Dr.AGBAZARA TEMPLE through these details via;
(agbazara@gmail.com) or call him on (+2348104102662).
How To Get Your husband Back & Avoid Divorce,Love Spells That Really Work Fast
My Name is isabella, I am From United Kingdom.i am hear to give testimony of how i got back my husband, we got married for more than 9 years and have gotten two kids. thing were going well with us and we are always happy. until one day my husband started to behave in a way i could not understand, i was very confused by the way he treat me and the kids. later that month he did not come home again and he called me that he want a divorce, i asked him what have i done wrong to deserve this from him, all he was saying is that he want a divorce that he hate me and do not want to see me again in his life, i was mad and also frustrated do not know what to do,i was sick for more than 2 weeks because of the divorce. i love him so much he was everything to me without him my life is incomplete. i told my sister and she told me to contact a spell caster, i never believe in all this spell casting of a thing. i just want to try if something will come out of it. i contacted Dr NICE OKSE for the return of my husband to me, they told me that my husband have been taken by another woman, that she cast a spell on him that is why he hate me and also want us to divorce. then they told me that they have to cast a spell on him that will make him return to me and the kids, they casted the spell and after a week my husband called me and he told me that i should forgive him, he started to apologize on phone and said that he still love me that he did not know what happen to him that he left me. it was the spell that Dr NICE OKSE casted on him that make him to come back to me today,me and my family are now happy again today. thank you Dr NICE OKSE for what you have done for me i would have been nothing today if not for your great spell. i want you my friends who are passing through all this kind of love problem of getting back their husband, wife , or ex boyfriend and girlfriend to contact professionallovespell@hotmail.com . and you will see that your problem will be solved without any delay.
POWERFUL SPELL MAGIC
Hello everyone you came across this post not by mistake but by chance there is a powerful man of God whom i know that helped me get my lover back and restored my home his name is Dr Zadson of eduduzadsontemple@yahoo.com. He specialezes in the following
1:Love Spell
2:Protection Spell
3:Pregnancy Spell
4:Invisibility Spell
5:Financial Prosperity Spell
This Man has been of immense blessing to me and my friends and i am putting his email here to help the world at large know about his abilities and power to solve various types of problems contact him today via eduduzadsontemple@yahoo.com or call +2347050269626 dont miss this opportunity
Hello to every one i want to testify of what a spell caster has done for me,i was in a relationship for two years happy with my partner few months to our wedding she left me and went after another man she never came back home again, i cry all day looking for help i have contacted so many spell caster but no result one day i was on the internet when i came across a testimony on how Doctor Jatto helped some one to get back his lover so i gave a try and it work out for me am so happy to have my lover back to my self again thanks once again Doctor Jatto for helping me to bring back my lover if you are passing through the same problem or any kind of situation and you think all hope is lost my dear is not. contact Doctor Jatto on his email : (drjattosplltemple@gmail.com). OR you can call the great man on +2349035512062.
my name is Juan Rohit
EROS CHAOS
CORDELIA seemed ELITE and CLASSY, yet STAID,
But THEN she’s no ANGEL when she’s VOWED to get laid.
During ROLLS in the sack she’ll CLAW, THEN she YELLS,
she turns from PERSON to ANIMAL, but THEN nobody tells
that during her HEAT she’ll LIELOW, NESTED with all takers,
SMUGly CHIDING them until they become all-STAR NOISEMAKERS.
MANN, if you CLIME on this PERSON for a TESTRUN,
THEN below her NAVAL, on ANON you’ll find fun.
--- HELEN LANE LOWE
The spellcasters are back with a vengeance! It was nice of them to take a couple of weeks off, anyhow. On to the puz, MAZ.
Yes, MAZ was a gimme for me--in the same way, I suppose, that SNAPCHAT was for OFL. Me? I needed help up there; as usual, the NW is where I finished, my last letter the K of SKI. Hard to parse KETELONE after having ...LONE in place. Still, one pf my easier Fridays by comparison.
Started with HALITE, which I have spread many times--but not since moving to Vegas, baby! How I love the no-HALITE existence! Getting CHAOS gave me an -OE ending for that unknown masago; had to be something-ROE. The R was enough for ROGERFEDERER, an entry that is sure to tickle a few Syndilander tennis buffs no ENDS. SIMONCOWELL was a while coming; finally saw it with the W of RENEWAL. Far-out clue, that! Most of the rest of it fell pretty quickly; the K of ELK was all I needed for NOISEMAKERS, and so on. The expression NEWSHOLE is new to me, as is IRONCHEF (I'm a George Foreman PERSON, myself).
Smart is not necessarily CLASSY. Take Scorpion. Though Walter is taking CLASS lessons from the luscious Paige, he still has far to go. (Katharine McPhee, you could teach me ANYTHING!) But I get it; "smart" in the sense of "chic." Just another clue designed to derail one's train of thought. But RINSE as the final step in cleaning?? I would think that'd have to be "dry." No? Clue should read "penultimate." And "Gave one's parole"????? Huh?
Though a bit on the techie side with SNAPCHAT, NEC, CGI and ETRADE (and we could include YELLS as clued), the fill was...RINSEd. I liked it because I welcome a doable Friday now and THEN. A-.
I’ve never used SNAPCHAT or Instagram, but knew just enough about them to start the puz. But it didn’t exactly go easily. ANKLEMONITOR doesn’t sound right, have always heard them called ANKLE bracelets – and NO, I haven’t needed one.
ELECTRICFAN seems a little green painty, and nevah hoid of NEWSHOLE. But HELEN Hunt, yeah baby, and COACHK were gimmes.
Notable write-over was VOtED; seemed good at the time.
Could have used the ACT as clue for MANN. And No again, I never got caught at it; coulda though I suppose, since I’ve always lived on the MN/WI border.
Like OFL I got ANIMAL only after the ELK appeared. Last letter to fall was the C in MAC, Once I “got” the Fox hunt (not HELEN Hunt, but that would be a fox Hunt IMHO) cluing. No CHIDING this puz.
110 not so good today
@Loren,
I'm betting that T-shirt had a background color of Carolina blue. Having lived in the RTP area for almost 20 years, I remember that shirt & lots of other clever ones in that eternal rivalry. It also made that clue a gimme, which is usually far from the case for me with NCAA stuff...I never gave a rip about the roundball(*gasp-- blasphemy!*).
Thanks for the reminder of my Carolina years!
This was one of the easiest Fridays I can recall for me. I literally checked the top of the page to see if I'd gotten real confused & it was actually Tuesday. Love to kick off the weekend feeling SMUG instead of stupid.
I don't get the whole vodka thing. If you drink it with mixer, I don't think it matters which one you use. Otherwise, if straight, is there really a discernible difference, and if the best ones have no flavour, what's the point? Now, when it comes to a martini, the only type to have is the original--gin and a couple drops of dry vermouth with olive or twist of lime. Talk about flavour. Of course, even that pales in comparison with Lagavulin Scotch.
Oh yeah, the actual puzzle. I'm no techie, but I knew SNAPCHAT, my sister has a Utah license plate, and KETEL ONE was obvious. Thus did fall the NW.
MAZ! I still bristle remembering that home run which beat The Mick and the Yankees, who used to be my favourite team (hate them now). But at least I knew him right off. Also remember the sitz bath my ex loved after giving birth to my three kids.
Otherwise the puzzle was a nice one, despite SIMON COWELL. I agree that ELECTRIC FAN is green-paintish, but I liked it anyway.
Good Friday.
CACHE CODE
The IRONCHEF is no GREEKGOD,
nor is SIMONCOWELL,
But ROGERFEDERER has the bod,
over which SLEWS of girls will howl.
--- EVE HALITE
News hole= Fox news' Bill O'Reilly!
Wish Rex would find a way to dispell these
spell casting spammers!
It's hard not to notice the prevalence of the use of euphemisms and rationalizations to explain simple DNF'S by many solvers with egos probably not a lot bigger than mine. Like me, they typically hate to fall short of their standards. It may even apply especially to RP.
Today, I was fairly pleased with myself until I saw that I DNF at what I took to be the MAn/nOWELL cross. My excuse is that because of "of old" in the 12D clue, this "leader" had to be some literary character from long ago whom I had not heard of. So it goes.
P.S. Burma Shave again proves himself a genius of risquƩ humor.
Didn't know the vodka. Didn't know the sushi. Didn't know the Open winner. Didn't finish!!
321whar did I expect?
Hello everyone i can safely say that with my experience with several spell casters there is non as real,powerful and kind hearted as Dr Zadson whom i saw his email on a blog and contacted him as my husband grew so unfaithful to the point of bringing different girls to our home when am away i waas deeply pained and thought of the best possible solution to this. I contacted Dr Zadson and he told me all the processes to be done to achieve results and i believed in him. Believe you me my husband in less than a week he turned a new leaf i was really amazed at such tremendous power and its been glorious ever since. If you happen to find your self in such condition or in need of a powerful and real spell caster email Dr Zadson on ( eduduzadsontemple@yahoo.com ) and await a new dawn of things.
I'm Mellisa Thomas; My husband just came back home after leaving me for so long. I can't explain this but I just have to share my joy and happiness with the world I don't know how Dr Ihunde helped me in bringing back my husband. I have been frustrated for the past 6 years with my 3 kids in a marriage of 19 years after my husband had left me for no reason, all i did every day was to cry. One faithful day a friend of mine came visiting and I told her about the situation i have been for years now, she then told me about a very powerful man called Dr Ihunde Spell Temple. that he is a very powerful man, at first I never wanted to believe her because I have spent a lot going to different places but she convinced me, so I had no choice because I really need my husband back. So we contacted Dr Ihunde who told me all I needed to do and i give him a trial. But the greatest joy in me today is that Dr Ihunde was able to bring my husband back to me after years of not even taken my calls. and now we are living happily as never before. Thanks to Dr Ihunde. If you have problems of any kind I will advise you to contact him via his email: (ihundespelltemple@gmail.com) or call him +2349055637784.
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