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Japanese room divider / SAT 11-23-18 / Dora the Explorer catchphrase / Drink that competes with Monster / Actor who says it takes smart guy to play dumb
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Constructor: David Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Easy (5:10, fastest Saturday time since I started recording in April)
Word of the Day: BOFA (55A: U.S. financial giant, for short) —
So, apparently this "bofa deez nuts" thing just became a thing and I can't figure out why. From what I remember, almost the entire internet hated the "deez nuts" vine, but now for some reason it's relevant again? Every time I see it introduced out of context, "BOFA" is in all caps but no one seems to know what it is the acronym for. Google keeps giving me results for "Bank of America" whenever I search with "bofa" as a term but I can't see how that would make sense considering the proper way to abbreviate those types of terms would be "BoA" I have no idea why the F would need to be there, or why it is also capitalized. Urban dictionary says that it is slang for "both of" but that doesn't clear up anything about the origins of the recent meme, if one can even call it a meme. I shouldn't be looking this far into it, but this is just driving me crazy. (reddit) (emph. mine)
• • •
[DORA DRAMA]
The stacks are solid and there's very little junk in this grid. The middle has all of the black squares and none of the interest; weird. The answers I struggled over most were:
Five issues:
- 23A: Japanese room divider (SHOJI) — wanted SCRIM at first, but that doesn't sound very Japanese. Not sure why SHOJI eventually felt right. For the "J" cross, I was lucky to have at least have heard of JESSIE J (24D: ___ J, singer with the 2014 hit "Bang Bang")
- 13D: Spark provider (INITIATOR) — just couldn't get a grip on what form of "initial"-something was going to go here. INITIATION? "Spark" sounds like it's related to an idea, and INITIATOR sounds more like a person, so I just fumbled a bit here
- 50D: ___ Tatin (upside-down pastry) (TARTE) — well, I didn't know BOFA so the "A" in TARTE was a Total guess. Coulda been "O" as far as I knew
- 29D: ___ big (YEA) — Me, figuratively and literally: "YAY!" :(
- 34A: Angel's antithesis (BRAT) — had the "T" and wanted GOAT. . . I didn't say it was a good guess
[this video has over 1.2 billion views, yes billion]
I was lucky to be able to spell NIETZSCHE instantly and with no errors—one of those names I got obsessed with spelling correctly at some point, and it just stuck. Memorizing the spelling of weird names is kind of a NI(etzs)CHE hobby, I'll admit. Oh, and if you thought the philosopher who said "What does not kill me makes me stronger" was K CLARKSON, you are forgiven.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. At least a few people seem to think I don't know, so, to be very clear: BOFA is "B of A," a very common way of referring to Bank of America
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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They were emus. Nearly six feet tall, typically seventy-five pounds, these flightless birds stand beside the kangaroo on Australia’s coat of arms as a symbol of this otherworldly continent at the bottom of the globe. Emus seem part bird and part mammal, with a little dinosaur thrown in. Shaggy, twin-shafted brown feathers hang from the rounded torso like hair. A long black neck periscopes up from the body, ending in a gooselike beak. The wings are mere stumps, and stick out from the body like comical afterthoughts. But on their strong, backwards-bending legs, emus can run forty miles an hour — and sever fencing wire, or break a neck, with a single kick.
At the sight of them, a shock leapt from the top of my head down my spine. I’d never been so close to this large a wild animal before — much less while alone, on a foreign continent. I was not so much afraid as I was dazzled. I froze, caught by their grace and power and strangeness, as they lifted their long, scaly legs and folded their huge dinosaurian toes, then set them down again. Balletically dipping their necks into an S-shape as they picked at the grass, they walked past me, and then over the ridge. Finally their haystack-like bodies blended into the brown, rounded forms of the wintering bushes, and were gone.
After they left, I felt a shift in my psyche. But I had no idea that I had just caught the first glimpse of a life farther off the beaten path than I had ever imagined. I could not have known it then, but these strange giant birds would grant me the destiny Molly had inspired, and they would repay me a millionfold for my first act of true bravery: leaving all that I loved behind.
Sy Montgomery - How to Be a Good Creature: A Memoir in Thirteen Animals
BOFA is definitely a standard abbreviation for Bank of America, written as BofA. I suspect that it started with people saying, "B of A," and then it just lost the spaces.
Wow. This grandpa just bit it today. Had all the letters but one on 1A and still couldn't understand it. And JESSIE crossing SHOJI is a personal Natick...
Mephitis/STENCH
The striped skunk (Mephitis mephitis) is a skunk of the genus Mephitis that is native to southern Canada, the United States and northern Mexico.
I really like long stacks, without which I wouldn't have gotten 1Across. Also I was unsure of how to spell 7Down NIETZSCHE, but suspect that others had that same problem.
I had EATScrow before EATSDIRT and bosH before PISH, but still had an easy time with this one. Thanks David Steinberg.
I was proud to slap NAE NAE down without missing a beat, but then was reminded of my true self when I considered COMO for "Singer Perry". Square 24 was a total guess (am I alone on this?).
David's puzzles always make me feel that Hanukkah has come early. So many gifts:
* NIETZCHE!
* IDLE SPECULATION!
* THE CLAWS COME OUT!
* HIGH MAINTENANCE!
* IN A HOLE!
* Clues for SRO and BEEPER!
* A grid spanner that I had to get completely from crosses (1A), that felt so good to get!
Okay, so I'm so energized from the puzzle that I'm perhaps a bit ebullient. Call me hyper. And sure, go ahead, tell me, "Hyper, no hyping!"
And by the way, today is David's 22nd birthday.
I enjoyed your Como reference. I remember watching Perry Como and Perry Mason on Saturday night TV.
(guess my age)
I had one letter wrong, which turned out to be that I thought I had INHALE for 11-down, when I really had INAHALE, which seemed to work with SHAJI.
Having never seen Dora made the NW tough. Other than that cruised through. Hands up for COMO before KATY.
First Thursday, then Friday, and now this. Pretty easy. Is it because of the holiday?
This was a Wednesday puzzle at best. The clues telegraphed almost everything, with the exception of that what-have-you at 1A.
I guess it was fun and enjoyable. The kiddies will like it, so I'm going to give it five Happy-Stars for cuteness.
There's leftovers to eat, booze to drink, and college football to watch, so I've got that going for me.
So that's how you spell "YEA big." My dad used to say it and it made sense to me then, but now that I think about it, I'm not sure what that "YEA" qualifier even is.
I, too, have grown kids who watched Dora which means that I watched Dora. 1A was fill in the blank.
I don't remember NAENAE. Is that what PSY did?
Pretty easy puzzle. A few clues were just too too.
Can someone explain 57D? OCT? 10/?
Surely, it's YAY big, not YEA big.
Anytime Fred Astaire makes an appearance, he spiffs up the puzzle. "Saran" reminded me of my older brother's first girlfriend, named for 2 grandmothers before the wrap: Saranne.
And even though I know of Katy Perry ("Teenage Dream" and a Hillary supporter), my little girl self popped in COMO for "singer Perry" for a moment. I wonder if the just turned 22 year old Mr. Steinberg even knows who that is. (I thought the song "Tomboy" was written for me!)
Feliz cumpleaños y gracias, Señor.
I just read this chapter yesterday! Sy and Howard live in a neighboring town to me and I’ve loved both of their writings!
I was stuck on ToRTE, so didn’t see BOFA. Ended up with two letters wrong. Happy to get all of the rest, but would never call this puzzle easy.
I was just amazed to get Mr Happy Pencil when there was so much here about which I had absolutely no clue (Dora, Jessie J, Nae Nae, Shoji, and more). I guess that's a sign of a good, tough, fair puzzle, when you can correctly infer or suss out answers that are completely unknown to you, from challenging but gettable crosses. A very enjoyable and satisfying workoutt, though I admit that I found it a bit deflating to read that Rex found it "easy" and his "fastest Saturday."
After HIGH MAINTENANCE and IDLE SPECULATION filled in most of the north, I was still left scratching my head on 1A and that meant I had to restart, bottom up. KATY crossing KAN and BRER made YERTLE THE TURTLE (one of the few Seuss books I owned as a kid) the gimme that kept the CLAWS from coming out. COROT twice in a week or so - I need more time between so I can repeat my stories - I only have so many that I remember and hopefully y'all will forget so I can repeat :-).
NIETZSCHE - thank goodness for MHZ or I would still be fishing for that last consonant. I thought I would be cool and read NIETZSCHE when I was in my 30s. I never made it past the first few pages. It remains in my pile for those nights insomnia strikes.
I join many, I'm sure, with a hail mary pass at square 24, my last entry. SHOJI seemed Japanese enough and Jessie J also made sense but I thought I might be IN A HOLE at that spot.
For a time, I had SWIPE _NO SWIPE No and was trying to justify oENo at 15D as a name, one associated with family trees (someone investigating grape genetic lines? oENo!) GENE saved me and let me figure out what 1A was probably getting at.
David Steinberg, happy birthday, and thanks for the Saturday stacks, mostly easy but with a few zingers.
My kids were big Carmen San Diego fans not Dora, thus no idea what 1A was even after an almost complete fill. As I look at it now, I still don’t know what it means! Thankfully they loved Dr. Seuss.
I got 1A off the S in SHIIMS.
Ha ha, just kidding. I was very happy to see OFL's explanation because even with everything filled in correctly, it still made no sense. I did get the YERTLE answer off the Y, though.
Agree that once you learn how to spell NIETZSCHE, it sticks. Who says philosophy courses are useless?
Thought the "mephitis" clue made the whole puzzle worthwhile. Fun Saturday.
Youngest child is 46, so no clue on Dora
Fortunately knew Katy which gave me Yertle which allowed me to work from bottom up. A pattern I frequently use when top is tough. Should have known high maintenance, though. Relative often refers to in-laws that way. Nice puzzle, but not as challenging as I like for a Saturday.
@Boots
10/1 meaning October 1st (in the US but no other country in the world according to a meme I saw recently), so 10/ is OCT(ober).
Having not just downed many Tarte Tatin in my time but inhaled them, that was my gimme. So too Nietszche although I essayed Aristotle first.
No idea who Dora is so that was an ordeal, especially SRTA?
Lout before Brat.
But I struggled on through one pop reference to the next and that includes Dr Seuss. We didn’t have his books in my house growing up.
Having trouble with the posting thing today so I will leave it there. It’s slways a challenge finishing a Steinberg puzzle but they are never dull.
Came to the comments hoping for a mention of the NYT app's exploding phrases for several of the letters. Didn’t catch them all but think a couple said “3/4 done” and “Congratulations”. ??? Is this something new or just this puzzle?
Is "KATY" a better answer than "COMO" to the clue, "Singer Perry"? I guess seniors shouldn't be doing puzzles these days,
Felt a bit like a tough Patrick Berry. Really hard to get going, lots of roadblocks along the way, but in the end it all came together. Other than the bizarre SWIPERNOSWIPING, had no Natick concerns despite a couple of WoEs (SHOJI, TATAMI).
Really enjoyed the experience, though that 5th row is awfully rough with Sold Right Out, megahertz, and SHOJI.
Never watched Dora so 1A was a big ?
The JESSIE/SHOJI was also a struggle.
Does the fact that I immediately threw in KATY make me a dirty old man?
Still, felt like an average Saturday here.
Too easy yet again on a Saturday. This is a Wednesday degree of difficulty. Dora is just notnot that well known outside of a very narrow specific age group and their parents. How about instead. "Hey You! You gotta have a chip on your credit card to make it work"
A few grid spanners like HIGH MAINTENANCE, IDLE SPECULATION were nice. I got them from some of the down clues. But the rest of the puzzle relied so much knowledge of trivia that it is simply not possible to proceed for mere mortals like me. David's puzzles are generally just too smart for me.
I'd maintain that those people who knew the 1A "catchphrase SWIPER NO SWIPING (whatever the hell that means) were solving an entirely different puzzle than those of us who didn't. But that turned out to be the least of my problems. And that's because I filled in IDLE SPECULATION (17A) just off the DLES. PHEW!
My next big problem was writing in CAN for the grain elevator abbr place at 51A. I knew the C was right, because my "singer Perry" at 51D was COMO. Well, what does not kill me makes me stronger. I got ACCOUNTING ERROR and then was able to change COMO to KATY and CAN to KAN. I guess there's not all that much grain in Canada, right?
But after this humongous struggle, I still ended up with a DNF because I had SHOBI/BESSIE instead of SHOJI/JESSIE. Neither my knowledge of Japanese nor of 2014-era singers is all that great. You might, in fact, call it nonexistent.
So I'll do what I always do when I miss one letter in what I believe to be an unfair cross. I'll pronounce the puzzle "solved!" in my own mind (if not in anyone else's) and move on to the next YEA BIG thing.
Anybody else bothered by "phew"?
Which is not exactly the same as "whew"
"Whew" is correct in the context of this puzzle; "phew" is not
With all that young female pulchritude, the video is worth a billion hits. Plus I love to sing along with the melody.
The only thing I could remember about SRTA Dora was her "We Did It" dance. I used to watch (in-between drinking my Bloody Mary) with second granddaughter. I would've preferred reading NIETZSCHE. Hah!
I always enjoy David's puzzles. I remember when he first started and all he got for his pre pubescent efforts, were groans. Now that he's a mature 22 year old, I like him better.
Had a DNF at SOGI/J. GESRIE/ROSE/YEE. Why not. YEE big sounds about right. I should've known Pete ROSE probably wasn't around in 2007. Wasn't he put in jail for gambling or something?
No mater, this was an entertaining puzzle. Like @pablo, I got YERTLE THE TURTLE off the Y. I never grew up with Dr. Seuss because his drawings always scared me. It's nice to know that when you do finally grow up, your world perspectives change and you want your kids to experience a bit of fright.
Don't understand the squabble relegated to BofA. Porque?
Smile seeing MAD MEN. I might watch it again just to drool over Don Draper.
Perry COMO. Oops, no. But KATY and ACHE gave me the bottom row, and I worked my way up from there. My kiddo is older than Rex'a, so SWIPER NO SWIPING was a total mystery, but even that became clear eventually (since SNIPER NO SNIPING seemed a bit graphic for a kid's show). Liked seeing TATAMI and SHOJI in the same puzzle (thank you for Shogun, James Clavell), and props to Mr. Steinberg for giving us CAL rather than the odious UCB -- who will stomp Stanford in the Big Game this year. (I can dream.)
Wanted so much for 1 across to be Vamos diego vamos, Fortunately saw the error of my ways. B of A pretty normal ala A universities U of A.
Anonymous@9:42 : I usually enter PHEW when the puzzle wants WHEW so maybe it's a regional/usage thing. They're pretty much synonyms as I see it. My dictionary has "a strong sigh of relief" for both, and I'm certainly "Phew! I'm exhausted!" when I finish raking the leaves out back. :)
Gotta watch more kids tv I guess.....
Found all of this week easy, but this puzzle killed me. I got maybe a quarter done before I just gave up. And being the father of a 4- and 2- year old, I even was able to lead with the SWIPERNOSWIPING fill! After twenty minutes, I still had about 75% of the puzzle staring back at me, and I simply couldn't make the connections to make it work, so I gave up. This after having a fast Friday, a good Thursday, and the second fastest Wednesday ever. There goes my streak.
Tenth month.
This was fine, I suppose. I finished around average time, though the puzzle was really not my thing.
No clue on SWIPER NO SWIPING. Even needed the crosses to get SRTA... I think my kids watched Dora, but they were a little older by the time it came out and their TV watching was largely unsupervised by then. So I've heard of the show but never seen an episode, didn't even realize Dora was Hispanic.
I also didn't know YEA big.. until I looked it up just now and see that in fact I do know it. Certainly didn't get that sense off the clue.
On the flip side though, I dropped in KATY without even considering COMO, which, well, I don't know what that means. I knew NAENAE, sort of.. I mean it was in the puzzle a few weeks ago and so I knew it was a thing but it took me a few crosses to remember how to spell it. (AIDeN being just as plausible as AIDAN).
MHZ or kHZ, that was the question.. FM or AM radio? that stuck for a bit.
If you actually say PISH to people in normal conversation, unironically, please raise your hand.
I did not like the clue on EATS DIRT. I thought it means "physically fall, face first, particularly when performing some sort of stunt or athletic feat." In other words, eating dirt can be humiliating, but is not the humiliation itself. Googling it I get lots of hits on geophagia and also some diet book.
@Anonymous 9:42: I am not bothered by PHEW as clued. People can say "PHEW, that was a close one" or they can say "PHEW, I'm tired." (They can also use 'whew' the same way). Perhaps this is a regional difference.
Even though I got 16A from the -GH- , the arctic region was a mystery to me, primarily since I've never seen a Dora episode. Got traction when -UR_ gave me YERTLE-etc which suggested -DANCER and things started to open up. Self-imposed roadblocks MINT/ZEST and ONLY/ONCE, CROW/DIRT eventually were overcome. Finally guessed right on SWIPER but guessed wrong on the dance craze I've never heard of.
A reminder that two generations separate Mr Steinberg and me. Dora who? ___ J? mONeT and boSH made the bottom really tough, but faster than Saturday average even so. Nice puzzle!
Cool mat: https://www.google.com/search?rlz=1C9BKJA_enNP624NP624&hl=en-US&q=cool+mat&nfpr=1&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGvtPbsu3eAhXBVt8KHWtcDOEQvgUIIygB&biw=768&bih=915
"I dropped in KATY without even considering COMO, which, well, I don't know what that means."
I think it means that you don't "skew old", @TomAz :)
YEA, David Steinberg. Awesome puzzle even though 1A and 60A were not even on the same frigging planet as my wheelhouse.
Liked the clues for MEOW and BEEPER. My crossword aviary member was at first an ERN, but my love of Australia soon brought me home to EMU.
Gonna go down a RED BULL now do a little NAE NAE. Then I’m gonna go figure out how to frigging spell KNEE CHEE.
I was not charmed. First, the PPP* comes in at a hefty 25 of 68 for 38%, and that doesn’t even factor in the top and bottom grid spanners. Thus, this puzzle is already tainted by relying on trivia over word play, but there is still more non-PPP trivia to be had. SHOJI, Mephitis, Number below # (how many of you computer solvers cheated and peeked?), military ranks, TATAMI, this puzzle is rife with trivial trivia. @kitshef thought this was Berryesque. In Steinberg’s dreams.
The SHOJI/JESSIE crossing is BS. Crossing a Proper Name with a foreign word is always bad. Make that foreign word transliterated from a different writing system and “bad” doesn’t do it justice. Just awful.
Challenging here. My offspring watched Doug and Rugrats, I don’t think Dora the Explorer ever interested any of them. YERTLE THE TURTLE, on the other hand, just needed a few letters to go right in since Seuss and Boynton were often heard in this home while the boys were young. I also remember having to buy multiple copies of the last three Harry Potter books on the days they came out because they all needed to read them immediately. The time between sitting on lap being read to and devouring Potter seems non-existent. Anyway, YERTLE fixed my Como error. I worked my way from YERTLE to Dora, finishing at that J in JESSIE. My only significant writeover was pAnAMa before TATAMI. I also had insignificant writeovers with wHEW before PHEW and YuRTLE before YERTLE. I understand why people would enjoy this, but more wordplay and less trivial trivia would have improved the puzzle.
*PPP is Pop Culture, Product Names, and other Proper Nouns. Whenever 33% or more of the puzzle is PPP some subset of solvers struggles. The subset will vary depending on the nature of the PPP.
ACCOUNTING ERROR has a scary number of letters in common with ACCrUed INtERest, which seemed for a while like it ought to be right...
Easier than a usual Saturday - especially from David Steinberg on any day! I enjoyed it.
Australia couldn’t even beat them in the Emu War of 1932!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emu_War
To those commenting on NAENAE, I feel like this is the third time we've seen it in the NYTimes puzzle in as many months. Looks like it showed up in Oct 21 and Oct 12's puzzle. Also in June 29's, April 22's, and Jan 21's puzzle. (I may be missing some in there. For some reason, I feel there was one clued something like "when repeated, a hip-hop dance" for NAE, but I may be thinking of another paper's crossword. So it's one to commit to memory for at least a couple of years, before everyone forgets about it (around here, the nae nae probably peaked around 2015/2016, so it doesn't have much currency left.)
Hey All !
Pitfall city on this one. BOFo/ToRTE - had a chuckle about BOFO. In the North, joining the crowd who's never hear 1A. Got all the way to square 7, and put in a G. Plus, couldn't get oHm out of the ole brain for MHZ, so my Philosopher was gIETmSCHE, and my Actor was oRT. So a three letter DNF. After getting the Almost! screen, changed square 7 to the N, which made me see the NEIT beginning, and said, "Ohh, NEITZSCHE, I've heard of him, and lo! MHZ and MR. T!"
I thought TATAMI was a type of food. What am I thinking of? Anyone?
Biggest hold-up in the North, besides 1A, 14D with sgtS forever for NCOS. Tricky, David, tricky! Also wanted to spell 16A HIGH MAINTaiNENCE.
ups confounding me for DHL. 25A wanting Hair or Coif, what the hey? They're all one letter short! Same on SARAN, is it SARi, gyRo? And BRAT. demon? devil? One letter short! Felt like a NiTWiT.
Overall a nice puz. Difficult, frustrating, some AHAs, some tricky clues, but sussable for the most part. AT PAR for DS. Finished in 47:30, albeit with three ERRORs, so a win in my column!
THE CLAWS COME OUT - MEOW!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Luckily my kids are just young enough that we watched Dora as pretty much the last of their children's programs - and "I'm the map" didn't fit, so I threw in SWIPER NO SWIPING and, as @Rex said, the rest of the puzzle just fell into place. YERTLE THE TURTLE was also a gimme, particularly with KATY Perry as the first letter. Nearly easier than yesterday's super-easy puzzle. I loved "THE CLAWS COME OUT" and "HIGH MAINTENANCE" and IDLE SPECULATION - the stacks were a lot of fun today but offered practically no resistance.
its YEA BIG just because it means "sorta this BIG" not "whooppee BIG"
@Roo
FYI
E3 - Private 1st Class
E4 - Corporal
E5 thru 9 - Sergeants
@Peter P - Since NAE are very useful letters when constructing puzzles I fear the NAE NAE may become the Yma Sumac of dances. Your data strongly suggest it is well on its way.
FWIW - High PPP puzzles often have the Wheelhouse/Outhouse divide in the comments. As Rex pointed out, if you know SWIPER, NO SWIPING you have the start to 15 downs, over a fifth of the puzzle, with likely toe-holds well into the middle. On the other hand, if you aren’t up on Dora then you end up with what plays like 15 uncrossed letters.
17A - false allegation. Clever misdirection
I'm so old my kids played Dora the Explorer on an Aoole IIGS. But the catchphrase was on TV or something and I never heard it. Also missed SHOJI but that is on me. I certainly know the word.
Anyhow I was easily able to guess the bottom stacks, and came up with the top ones with the help of crosses, so SHOJI was my only DNF.
B of A was very familiar to me. Had an account there for years.
Thanks to @ Leon 7:08 for that essay.
Thanks @ Banana D for the explanation of Yea Big. Now I get it and I've heard it a million times but never recall seeing it in print.
Success today but I have no idea how with so many things I didn't know. I guess it must be a combination of years of puzzling and the talent of Mr. Steinberg.
I liked learning mephitis. I can't wait to drop that one into casual conversation.
Now I know why I've always liked David Steinberg. He and my son have the same birthday, though my son is 50 today.
Having no knowledge of Dora, it took me quite a bit longer than usual to finish. One mistake: BOFA crossing COROT. Just no idea.
Challenging for me, enjoyable to struggle with, rewarding to finish. I started in the NW with SRO x IGLOO, followed by NIETZSCHE x MRZ; but despite PAT, I couldn't get enough traction on pattern recognition to do anything with those three top spanners. Below the puzzle's waistline, answers came in dribs and drabs, gradually accreting to a finished lower tier. Then, another look at ..GH.AI....A... unlocked the top. Last in, right back where I started: the delightful MEOW x SHIMS.
Help from previous puzzles: SRO, KATY, NAE NAE, ONCE, COROT (because we recently saw it). No idea: Dora's phrase, JESSIE.
Do-overs: wHEW, IN A coma, SHOgI.
Random memory trigger: My physician husband used to drive a STATE CAR to his stints at out-of-town clinics. One day, he returned home with the car to pick something up before returning it to the lot, inadvertantly locked the keys in the car with the engine running, and in his haste to fetch another key, backed our own car out of the garage like a rocket and rammed into it.
BofA is part of the Swift number.
68-worder. Primo trip spanners, tops and bottoms. Surely some juicy desperations would ensue … but not near enough to satisfy M&A's weird tastes. Closest to suspicious, IM&AO, was actually STATECAR, which was out of the grid-spanners' line of fire entirely. [Do like the concept of havin a state car … sorta like havin a state bird. KAN's could maybe be a kanvertible, or somesuch.]
Toughest crossin at our house was the oft-mentioned SHOJI/JESSIE. But, guessed right off the ?ESSIE, sooo … ok.
fave superb fillins sample: NICHE & NIETZSCHE. WELCH'S. ESCARGOT. THECLAWSCOMEOUT.
staff weeject pick: YEA. On account of it bein YEA big: 3.
Best suggested fill: @Carola darlin's 11-D {Not just down} = INACOMA. har. Very post-Thanksgiving-feast-like. It woulda even been worth havin crossers of ASTEE, SMEAZY, and STENCC [7 dwarfs alternates].
Thanx-givins to the Steinbergmeister. This sucker could not've been easy to build.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
As a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs, I have mixed feelings whenever I see Sammy SOSA’s name.
Have twin granddaughters, so, like Rex, 1A was an immediate gimme. Don't think I've ever filled in a 15 letter first, before. And, with the singer being "______ J", SHOJI seemed obvious to me.
@ROO MONSTER: maybe “tahini”?
I was an E4 in the Army and definitely not an NCO. I was a Specialist.
I didn’t want to mention this, but my weirdest Thanksgiving happened during my year in Thailand as a Specialist 4 in the Army Engineers. I awoke on Thanksgiving morning lying naked on a tatami mat in a structure that reminded me of a tepee. When I dressed and poked my head out the door opening I found myself in a small village in the jungle. I walked to an outpost bar and ordered a razor, soap, a mirror, and a pan of water. I shaved. I’m not sure if I drank any more in the bar, but I was super saturated already. As I walked back to camp, I saw a young girl carrying a sword in a scabbard. I bought it from her for $5 worth of local currency (Bahts). By the time I got back to camp it was mealtime, so I headed into the mess hootch and was told to check my sword at the door. Then I ate one of the wonders of the Army: a full course Thanksgiving dinner. Life can be interesting.
Happy birthday, David! Today’s my daughter’s birthday, too, @bookmark. And while I’m at it and we’re among friends and all, may I say she’s killing it in vet school. Hasn’t made a B yet. I spent the past week trying to ask questions that made her think I’m smart. Like when she was talking about these eagles that were mouth-breathing, and the subject turned to breathing in general, I asked, What exactly is breathing, though? She said, Wow – great question. I was beyond proud. I pretty much peaked for the week with that one.
Look. I like to think I do a service here to any other weak-vobabulariat by freely admitting that I wasn’t sure what reticent or taciturn meant. I had to laugh when I looked them up. Please understand I have seen the words – duh; they’re just not part of my daily chit-chatting vocabulary. But boy howdy could they be part of my husband’s. He’s always wanting me to be more expressive and stuff. Share my feelings. Feelings shmeelings. I just get all tight-lipped and slam cabinets. I don’t “share.” It’s on him to infer. That’s the deal when you marry a two-bit, sneaky, game-playing, reticent, manipulative southern girl. Sorry feminists; I’m probably your biggest challenge. So whenever he does win the Communication Battle, when we finally talk it out and sit knee to knee to recap (hah), it goes like this (and I swear this really happens):
Husband: So what I think I’ve heard from you this past hour is that you need blah blah blah from me. What have you heard me say?
Me: You want communication.
These sessions last a taciternity.
I considered “shogi” before SHOJI because, well, I may not know taciturn, but I do know Japanese chess. Another fleeting thought on a Japanese room divider would be nattō. Nattō-eaters, y’all just go squat over there in that corner and don’t come over here mouth-breathing on us.
The Sound of a Sock feels like the last line to yet another haiku I don’t understand and believe deep down no one else does, either.
NIETZSCHE’S well-known strengths mustn’t thwart Czechs. 9 vowels 37 consonants. Your day is pretty much complete now.
@LMS - Anyone who understands Haiku doesn’t.
Sorry that your daughter hasn't been able to make a B yet.
Great puzzle with fun long answers.
I had to get a few crosses before filling in 1A. But what a fun idiosyncratic catchphrase!
Had no idea about JESSIE or AIDAN, had to use crosses. AIDAN/NAENAE was almost a natick for me.
Had trouble figuring out where the Z belongs in NEITZSCHE - that dude has 5 consecutive consonants in his name! Must be a record.
@RooMonster
I'm sitting here eating sushi, reading the blog, and cracking up. Are you confusing TATAMI with wasabi?
Easy-medium. I made an educated/lucky guess on the JESSIE/SHOJI cross. SHOJI just looked right perhaps from reading Memoirs of a Geisha many years ago?
I too had no idea about 1a, but as the crosses filled in I remembered that my now 20 yr. old granddaughter used to say that to me when I tried to snick her french fries at restaurants. Now I know where it came from.
Solid with a bit of zip, liked it.
What Z said. Some of this is just awful. You can't cross _essie with Sho_i. Irresolvable obscurities, although I guessed right. Swipernoswiping?? PLEASE! Completely meaningless to the Doraless masses. But I got it. Pleased I finally know Katy Perry. BOFA? An acronym crossing the ambiguous T_RTE. I guessed wrong and put torte. Nae nae? That is something??? I spelled ____Quinn ( have no idea who that is) Aiden. Nee Nae makes just as much sense as Nae nae, does it not? So two misses. I always cringe when I see "David Steinberg" at the top, although sometimes I get lucky. Not one of those times. Gripe or no griping? Chose the former. Phooey...
Reticent, @Loren? Taciturn? That's awfully hard to square with what we see from you on the blog. It seems to me that if you told your husband even 20% of what you share about yourself with us, he'd have all the "communication" he could possibly handle.
Is anyone else as surprised by Loren's post as I am?
I actually thought of *too many* Dora catchphrases before I got to "Swiper no swiping." Like, "backpack, backpack" or "I'm the map I'm the map I'm the map" or "Come on vamanos!"
@lms -- Your natto take -- HAH! and YES YOU ARE SO RIGHT!
This Grandpa smugly put down, "SNIPER NO SNIPING." What a gimme, especially for a Saturday. Off to the races... Oh, wait.
BOFA crossing COROT - No. Could have been any vowel. No way to infer if you didn't already no one of them.
If your initial fill for Singer Perry was COMO, you're officially old.
@old timer - Dora the Explorer would have post-dated the Apple IIGS by a good bit. I had to look it up, since I grew up in with IIGSes in high school, and I have no memory of knowing who Dora the Explorer was until the 2000s, and thought, really, is Dora the Explorer that old and I just complete missed it? Looks like the pilot was in 1999, with the first season in 2000, and the character doesn't seem to predate the show. Perhaps you're thinking of Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?
@JC66 12:19 You are correct as to Army ranks, but not entirely. I was a E4 in the army, but a Specialist, or Spec-4. I am sure a Corporal would have had a higher rating, even though of the same rank.
@Harryp
I'm sure you're right more recently, but when I was in the Army (pre-Vietnam), there were very few Specialists. Back then, a vast majority of the E4s were Corporals.
I mean really... Nothing more than just a regular Monday, a little on the al dente side, eh? At most!
Pish??!
@Lewis—Me too on Perry Como— I actually wrote it in, thinking “At last, a clue for me age cohort!”
@Loren, FETICENT— yeah, that’s you.
‘WHEREINTHEWORLD’ fit also, then remembered it was dora
Syndicationland here. A better puzzle will not look too much like "let's look up a word to fit in here." For me, JESSIE crossed by SHOJI, ESTEE, SOSA was too much. I don't mind getting "KATY" wrong - who ever heard of EERTLE THE TURTLE? - but I minded the mid-East. Yes, I think those of us who know nothing about Dora were doing a different puzzle - had WHEW instead of PHEW and no reason to change it (I do the puzzle on paper). I hope the editor wasn't so enamored of the "youthfulness" of the puzzle-writer that he didn't take a look at the final product.
No D the E fans in our house, so that took a cross-by-cross effort. With SGTS instead of NCOS, it took lotsa time off the clock, too. Started with WIDER and IGLOO--and then MEOW off the _EO_--but then everything petered out and I had to jump around.
Got restarted in the SE with the "ofwich" BOFA; that's as SLEAZY as the @wich. But BRER and AFOUL produced a R_L_ end to the Seuss title. which was all I needed to nail YERTLETHETURTLE. Then things got a little easier, but I still call this challenging. Triumph points accrue.
Hand up for thinking of Como first, but KATY Perry rules as DOD. If you ever want to kiss a guy, honey...
East was the hardest--because who knew Sammy SOSA smacked north of 600 dingers? I knew he had that one great (?) year, but ten like that? I didn't even consider him. PISH!
Despite BOFA, which was damn near an automatic stroke penalty (at least it has first-time freshness), David ekes out a birdie--possibly because EKE did NOT appear.
I know that Dora the Explorer exists, and that a friend of mine, who had a young grandchild in Dora's early days, likes her. End of my D the E knowledge.
And I'm not a SWIPER. My tech skills are firmly rooted in 2004, or thereabouts. (If, indeed, Dora is referring to the tech swiping everyone does, and not the shoplifting swiping.)
I came this close to cheating - this close, with the upper half staring at me blankly.
Then the one by one stuff started to happen. Oh how I love that. And the satisfaction of finishing is high. So not an easy one at all for me. But a happy one.
I'm beginning to feel human again, not just hungry and nauseous at the same time. Might have some yogurt...
Diana, LIW
Oh yes, and I agree with @Lewis about "Perry Como" vs. KATY.
Lady Di
AIDAN AFOUL GENE
Thanks to IDLESPECULATION by BR'ER NIETZSCHE,
(as THE CAT who's THE INITIATOR of THE NICHE),
TAPDANCERs call THE NAENAE MADMEN SLEAZY,
but THE WIDER RAPSHEET masses just say, "PISH!"
--- SHOJI TATAMI
this stream of unconsciousness brought to you by REDBULL
Got it. I had more trouble in the bottom half than the top half, especially the right side. Challenging for me. Last entry was the P in BEEPER.
And finally, from my NICHE of NIETZSCHE joke...
God is dead: Nietzsche
Nietzsche is dead: God
Hand up for considering Perry Como before checking crosses to see if it was indeed KATY Perry. Obviously Steve Perry (Journey)didn't fit. Mr. Como's voice was in the background of a Christmas commercial this season singing the 1959 (not 1954) version of There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays. It was on every 5 minutes or so, his voice famously sliding into every note held a beat or longer. Was that just his charming style or was it a problem finding those notes? KATY Perry has her own problems. So does Steve, these days.
I, too, know of D the E, but 1a might just as well have been a foreign expression. In a way it was.
Thanks to @teedmn for higher awareness of COROT, which helped tremendously in that corner, having started with Behr before BOFA appeared.
Yeah baby JESSIE J was a gimme.
No STENCH to this puz.
The only way a soldier has the rank of corporal is to have been busted from an E-5 or higher rank. You'll find very few such ranks.
I look forward to David Steinberg, especially on Saturdays, because he's always clever, entertaining, and usually quite fair. (Got this one. YEA!, but with "___bIg" clue?)
Toughest grid-spanner, at top, SWIPERNOSWIPING (not current with Dora, the SRTA).
Easiest spanner, at bottom, YERTLETHETURTLE (sounded just right and vaguely remembered).
Other unknowns, nicely covered with crosses: SHOJI, NAENAE, STENCH, and MRT, who made a STATECAR out of STAffCAR.
Thanks ONCE again, Mr. STEINBERG. (Maybe he's gained immunity by now?)
Lousy puzzle. How many of us had kids who watched Dora ? Only a certain generation, and then only those whose kids actually watched the stupid show. A lame obscure Dr Seuss title and some propers mixed in made this totally unenjoyable, and not worth even a few minutes of your time. Hope Saturday is a puzzle for adults.
Meant to mention HIGHMAINTENANCE as favorite clue/answer. (I'm a bit on the frugal side.)
I wanted a different answer to 58d, but I guess nobody solves in PEN anymore.
Years ago the NYT crossword ran a clue "Animated friend of the monkey Boots", for which the answer of course was DORATHEEXPLORER. But not having any grandkids at the time, I had no idea. But now, having watched the eponymous cartoon series with each of my 7 grandchildren at one time or another, I quickly entered SWIPERNOSWIPING with great confidence. So I guess there's a modicum of truth occasionally to the old adage "with age comes wisdom".
Late in the evening finishing this puzzle after I finally caved and looked up 1A. That, and the "other" Como along with a few words like Naenae made this one a bear for me, but then, my "kids." are older than Rex and a lot of yiou, so I guess it’s that old generation gap showing up again. Guess If it didn't happen we'd all be saying thee and thou and dancifng the gavotte, but I wish the crosswords would,be a little less what Lewis calls PPP and more real language oriented. Happy New Year!!
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