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Player of mother on Black-ish / SAT 11-17-18 / Band since 1922 / Gem that's been polished but not faceted / Catlike Pokemon with onomatopoeic name
Saturday, November 17, 2018
Constructor: Doug Peterson and Erik Agard
Relative difficulty: Medium (8:08) (a.m. solve)
Word of the Day: CABOCHON (29D: Gem that's been polished but not faceted) —
A cabochon (/ˈkæbəˌʃɒn/, from Middle French caboche "head") is a gemstone which has been shaped and polished as opposed to faceted. The resulting form is usually a convex (rounded) obverse with a flat reverse. Cutting en cabochon (French: "in the manner of a cabochon") is usually applied to opaque gems, while faceting is usually applied to transparent stones. Hardness is also taken into account as softer gemstones with a hardness lower than 7 on the Mohs hardness scale are easily scratched, mainly by silicon dioxide in dust and grit. This would quickly make translucent gems unattractive—instead they are polished as cabochons, making the scratches less evident. (wikipedia)
• • •
[He played this, and while it missed Linda Thompson's voice, it is such a great, great song that I did not care. Here's a version with the amazing Nanci Griffith, whom I've also seen in concert, twice, back in the '90s, which is when I was in grad school, which is when I owned that spiral-bound notebook with TRACEE ELLIS ROSS in it—full circle!]
So the clue on 1A: Going in was just malevolent (AT FIRST). I wanted some kind of verb phrase and then didn't know what I wanted. I was also having trouble with ATTACH (1D: Staple, e.g.), in part because I had HSN as MSN (which, if I was thinking straight, would've been MSNBC...) (24A: Basic cable inits.). The PILOT part of TELEVISION PILOT took some doing—I guess the PILOT is kind of a "pitch," isn't it? Anyway, my brain kept wanting TELEVISION PITCH. Seriously. It did. I kept trying to reason with it but it was like "Nah, it's PITCH." Sigh. Despite the cluing being ratcheted up quite a bit, there were enough helpers along the way (TREXES, ABDUL, KABUL, ECO, LLOSA, HONDAFIT) that I never got stranded or totally stuck. A tough workout that is fun and not maddening—that is what I want from a Saturday, and that is what I got.
[I mean ... I got to see him play this. Live. Right there in front of me. Unreal]
Five things:
- 45A: 2011 musical with the highest-charting Broadway cast album since "Hair" in 1969 ("BOOK OF MORMON") — My theater-major daughter went to see this by herself (her first show by herself) in Minneapolis a couple of days ago and was so excited. "I got to sit in a box! The woman next to me ... was not sober, but it was OK." Anyway, this show was at the front of my brain for this reason, so no problem.
- 9D: "It has one syllable" and "Its fourth letter is T" (HINTS) — I'm just gonna go ahead and give this one "Clue of the Year" for 2018
- 47D: Catlike Pokémon with an onomatopoeic name (MEW) — I as all set to be resentful at having to know some Pokémon **** but the clue really helps you out so I'm fine.
- 35A: Plied, in a way (WINED) — one of the hardest answers for me to get for sure, not least because I kept reading it as [Piled]. Also thought the adjacent answer (40A: Is up on) was READS.
- 31A: *scratches head* ("HOW ODD...") — Me, after getting final -DD: "Wait, there's no six-letter word that ends in "DD." But those Ds are definitely right ... how odd?)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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88 comments:
Good puzzle, but... "Pacific"? Really? I would have regarded that as a needless variant, and it was clearly chosen here as an attempt at misdirection. Party foul, say I.
Started with an "ooh!" at seeing the beautiful grid design, and ended with a "yes!" after hopping from area to area, getting a word in one, then getting stuck, then doing it over elsewhere in the grid, and slowly -- like an opaque crossword entry that gets clearer as letters are filled in and finally hits you with a kapow! -- uncovered itself to that thrilling fill-in of the last square.
Just two examples of skilled and brilliant cluing: "Going in" sounding like it's going to be a verb (as Rex mentioned), and the misdirect "More watery", sounding like a gimme for "wetter", especially if you have the "w".
Tough but fair. For me, the fairness was the crosses for the three answers out of my wheelhouse -- the gem, Ms. Ross, and the computer code system.
All in all an exhilarating tussle. Gents, let's do it again soon, please!
Rex, your clue of the year was actually written by Will and company, according to the constructors' notes.
Takes Rex 8 minutes and he's happy (for a change). Takes me about 50 minutes (slightly above average for me) and I'm pleased as hell with myself.
Shouldn’t 2D be clued as “Apex predators of the past, in short”? Trex is not the full name which is Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Somehow I was able to almost get through this. Even having a DNF because of the cluster around cabochon still left me feeling pretty good about myself. I nearly threw in the towel a couple of times but decided to "Hang in there". That was the only clue I really hated.
It was nice to get a real challenge so thanks to Doug and Erik you crafty devils.
Pacific---Pacifists---Doves. Makes sense to me.
What a challenging and rewarding puzzle! I filled the entire bottom half in fairly easily, but the top half -- especially the NE -- came very slowly, with much struggle. I had no idea about TRACEE whatever but was getting there from crosses, until... Until I had a total face plant nosedive meltdown on 11D (Cards on a scoreboard) which of course absolutely positively had to be STL. I just couldn't give that up and it brought me to a total standstill. After staring at that quadrant for, like forever, and trying everything possible to make other things fit, to no avail, I threw in the towel and asked Across Lite to display incorrect letters. Sad, inglorious defeat! But there was ARI (sigh) and the rest I filled in in the blink of an eye. Despite my roadblock and cheat, this was an outstanding puzzle.
Built from the bottom up, as it gave me traction (am a baseball and Broadway musical fan). Wonderful puzzle! Cabochon is a new word for me. Thankfully the crosses were solid. Off to enjoy some low temperature/humidity weather and get in some miles.
Lewis,
So what?
RP
A toughie for me, with some nasty potential Naticks. TRACEE ELLIS ROSS was a WoE, and since I don’t understand the clue for SEI, (even now - if someone gets it please explain) that square was a little hairy. Also, the cross of ECO and CABOCHON was my last square as a dithered over EmO, EnO, EtO, EpO. Got there in the end, though. I bet we have some TWEEsES/LES MIs Natickers, too.
Plausible first guesses: pencE before KAINE, and a trio in the NE which sure seem like deliberate misdirects: facTS before HINTS; tonY before ESPY, stl before ARI.
THONGS threw me for a bit, until I realized that it’s not a reference to underthings, but what I call zori and I’ve heard called flip-flops.
I truly thought I would never get a toehold in this thing but lo and behold I finished it without an ERROR and no cheating. The only reason I got Fallon only because I met him once. He was the sweetest, most charming fellow even though I did not know who he was and told him I had never watched SNL. I met his Mom too. Adorbs.
Funnily enough “estates” in England can refer to public housing, hardly affluent domains.
There were several “how odd” clues today, primarily the TV pilot one. I get it, but the “pitch” really predates the pilot since it is the one used by the producers to get the pilot optioned!
And while I’m no expert on Thongs, some I’m told are clip-on. Oh wait I get it, they mean the flip-flop type of thongs. My bad. (Titters.)
I’m surprised T Rex didn’t get creeped out by the PLIED clue though. Kinda, sorta, too Me-Too-ish.
All in all a swell puzz, guyz! Thx!!
This was tough and finishing it with no cheats is my accomplishment for a Saturday. I plan to do nothing else but sit and bask in my own glow for the rest of the day.
Have never seen Blackish or heard of the actress (actor?) but fair enough, except for the three e part which had to be right but looks weird. Liked LLAMA crossing LLOSA. The author had to be Umberto ECO, crossword regular Brian Eno is no novelist, as far as I know, and the NHON ending would have been ridiculous.
My only quibble is not cluing MIAMOR as two words. Otherwise good tough fun and a real Saturday. Thanks guys.
There were a lot of unknowns for me today so I was relieved to finish. Once I had TRACey I wanted Ullman badly because she seems wacky enough for a show called “Blackish”. I had to use the crosses to realize it was Diana Ross’s daughter.
THEBOOKOFMORMAN was a surprise. I didn’t know any of the music had moved into the pop stream which I assume it has with that Billboard ranking. I had to work for WINED and tried pur before MEW. CABOCHON and PILOT took time. LIAISE is tough to spell. We done know much about LLAMAS in my neck of the woods. There is more but I’ll spare you.
This is what a Saturday puzzle should be, tough, clever and fair. All I entered to start was THONGS and REVS, but the tricky clueing sorted itself out in time and I finished at my average Saturday time.
QEF? As a clue for ERAT? Mean. Demonstrandum way way before Faciendum.
@kitshef: SEI is the number 6 in Italian....6 sides to a die, one of them has 6 dots.
I was thinking that had will shortz all over it...
I thought this was a great puzzle, with one exception. Challenging but fair and fun! That said, I’ve never in my life heard the word CHEAPIE. Ever. The word in the language is CHEAPO, in my experience. Is this a regional thing?
Tough, yes (brutal, in fact). Clever and fair, not so much, IMO. I await the explanation of 6D, which seemed utterly crazy.
Thongs are now underwear.
In summer we slip into flip flops.
@mbr - thanks. I actually considered that but figured it was too far fetched. "Die on one side" would be a terrible clue for SIX, and "Six of Italy" would be a terrible clue for SEI, so put them together and that would be the worst clue since that awful clue for OREO back in '73.
Wow. What a puzzle. I almost self destructed.
I had all of @kitshef's mistakes. Drove me bonkers. I'll add another mistake...a stupid one at 8A. HAS BEEN instead of CHEAPIE. At least I penned it in lightly so that I could eventually erase it like everything else.
Why does 8D Hang in there have a (!)? Why did you do that? Had you left out that damn !, I could've gotten CLOSET a lot faster.
@Rex's "clue of the year" was my DNF. I had HUNTS instead of HINTS because I have no idea who TRACEE ELLIS ROSS is. She now has a new middle name ELLUS. Why not?
CABOCHON I knew. My problem was that I wanted pop-ups for the jack in the box feature. That starts with a P. Another erasure..... of course...CRANK. evil!
I kept thinking the plethora of unknown names are making me cranky. I want a break. Help me Wanda. Oooh, THE BOOK OF MORMONS I knew. Helped me finish.
Señor Google was my friend today with ABDUL ERIKA and, of all things. THONGS. Are they the flip flops or the one piece thingy every in Rio wears?
I still have my original POLAROID that dad gave me. That, and an original Brownie. Can't find film for either but it's fun to try and explain to the young-uns how these things used to work. You have to mention that there is no phone attached.
Glad the work-out is over. It was a good one, but it did me in.
Pretty easy, but very enjoyable.
Die meaning dice on the side with six dots, therefore sei, Italian for six
That is one tricky clue! I was thinking it was die, the German article bc Austria is on one side of Italy and sei was some Italian variant: thanks for making me look deeper.
Word for "the" in Italy's neighbors.
I believe BOOKOFMORMAN charted on its popularity as a musical and the fame of its creators from South Park, etc. It is much too profane to be a real crossover pop hit.
One cannot mention Tracee Ellis Ross, without mentioning she is the daughter of Diana Ross.
@rex -- Well, to give credit where it deserves on such a good clue, and, yes, to be honest, I was feeling a little snarky because you often come down on Will, and I am sorry about the snark. You are right; I should have written my comment differently.
Nice Vincent Black Lightning, @Rex. My fifteen minutes of quasi-fame was about fifteen years ago, when Richard Thompson and I were on the same putting green outside of Las Vegas. He was clad in black. Often since, on my long commute, I've relived what we might have said -- maybe a clever exchange about "Two Left Feet," a great nonsense song he does. But Mr. Thompson had the courtesy to let me putt in peace, and I returned the favor. When my friends and I teed off a little later, I told them about Richard Thompson on the putting green. They nodded politely but without much interest.
I looked up Azerbaijan in my SSR-era atlas in order to finish. Then got sidetracked looking at Kazakhstan, then noticing how many towns go up and down the sides of the URAL mountains, then planning a trip through all of the unknown places in that vast expanse, starting at Vladivostok, and maybe taking years to complete assuming I didn't stop somewhere and just let that be the place. So finished in 46:51, about twice a normal Saturday time.
If you can keep your honor under pressure,
And never look up TRACEE ELLIS ROSS,
If CABOCHET and ABDUL fail to getcha,
And even MEW can't throw you for a loss,
And if AT FIRST at first is quite beyond ya,
And you can't tell a "cria" from a foal,
And when, of course, you do not know the HONDA,
But this you know: Not Googling is your goal.
When fill that ends "DD" makes you unhappy,
When anagrams of Capitals depress,
If clue for 23 Across is crappy,
If clue for 34 Across screams: "Guess!"
If still you leave this puzzle undefeated,
Without a single answer that you missed,
And know you never, never ever cheated --
Well, I'm afraid that you're a masochist!
THONGS is really not a fair answer for anyone under 40.
I guess I'll assume the same about CHEAPIES. I have literally never heard anyone use this term.
QEF is just a strange way to clue ERAT. It's the same word as QED, why the artificial difficulty?
I could go on (and on). I expected Rex to hate this one. I guess I'm not quite up on who his friends are.
Rex made our day with the RT clips. Oh yeah, the puzzle was fun and we didn’t smash a record but came in below average with no uncle Google
@Nancy wins comment of the year award. Now if you'll do one for dreamy Omar, I'll love you even more!
;-)
Many aha moments: 1A 8D 29A 31A. Was so sure of STL for cards. (Sob)
Had to look up Ms Ross... not in my age group.That opened up the top for me, duh!
Big BB fan but never knew that rings only started in 1922.
*scratches head* HOW on earth did I ever overcome all of the self-induced trials I went through, solving this? AT FIRST, I wanted "to starT" for 1A. This worked for my guess of "armS" for "Guns". But nothing else worked (and I never put either of those in) so I went to the lower LAT where I got my start with LES MI_ crossing LAT (I left the Z blank just in case).
With _____________RING in at 48A, I was convinced I was looking for a magnetic or asteroid belt that was discovered in 1922. WORLD SER_E_ RING didn't really change this idea for me. And, oh.my.god, how long did I have a fOrD AFIT in place? I figured 31A's fOWODD was going to be something all the kids are saying these days. Then, whoa, fOrODD but that made "Blown away" = WOrED. When HOW ODD and HONDA finally crawled out of the depths, there was more than head "scratching" (read "slapping") going on. And really, WIrED is not a bad answer for 35A's "Plied" - there's plenty of multi-ply WIrE out there!! But yeah, WINED, got it.
I fell for the STL Cardinals. And I had a couple of eXitS on the road. And LIAISE was solved by dashing off __AISE in my margin and filling in possibilities - not prAISE and not chAISE.
So this was a great Saturday workout (no DNFs, yay) and I'm glad I hadn't seen it was an Agard collab or I would have had major brain freeze! Thanks, DP and EA!
@Nancy, WOWED, just WOWED!
@Nancy - Brava! Extraordinary work today.
I thought this was great. Also, I've been burning through my backlog of my Jeopardy! DVR, and just this week watched several episodes featuring a young puzzle maker (with a truly heroic hairdo) named Erik Agard. Surely this is the constructor of this puzzle, yes? I've now seen him on TV and in puzzle form just days apart. Very neat. Also very humbling, because he looks no older than his mid-20's, and I am no match for him in either forum.
Maybe it is regional -- CHEAPIE was my first thought, but I didn't put it in because it didn't fit the cross with "stl."
@Nancy, wow! just wow! Great Kipling parody and one that captures my experience in every detail. Well, I did get ABDUL off the D, but other than that. (And maybe that's a form of guessing). I got all the way to KABUL before I was sure of an answer; and I needed that to replace Trump with KAINE (oh that we could!) It was a mammoth struggle, but a rewarding one at the end.
By the way, you and I seem to have been the only people here who didn't know what a "cria" was -- or did everyone else just get it from crosses?
This puzzle gets the prize for vaguest cluing of the year, I think. I really struggled with Mantle's cover -- my first try was 'globe,' thinking of the mantle in a gas lamp. I was pretty sure the Amsterdam feature was a CANAL, though, so I considered other meanings: Mickey? A cloak? Nothing worked, especially since I thought it had to cross 'teAm up' at 16D.
Well, it all came together for a near-perfect Saturday.
p.s. Note to self-- Anais Nin is NOT the only 3-letter novelist!
@Nancy, fabulous! As for the “die” clue, I thought it was the German feminine definite article “die” and the Italian counterpart? but that was just a stab in the dark. Anyone know for sure whether the dice answer is right?
What a fascinating list of complaints. It is Saturday. The rest of the week are quizzes, Saturday is the final exam. Early in the week we get HINTS about football or baseball Cardinals, but not on Saturday. T-REX will get some sort of HINTS about it not being a full name on Monday, but it is enough in the language that no HINTS are given on Saturday. Why the “artificial difficulty” on ERAT? It is Saturday. Paula ABDUL appears enough that even if you don’t straight up know that she was once a Laker Girl, “singer ending in -UL” should be enough for us to pass the final. I still remember the days when puzzles like this would have defeated me, no, soundly routed me and I’d come here in awe of people who could finish it. But I’ve done my homework.
This was a fun solve. CRUST was my toe hold and I worked my way into the SW from there. The grid spanners in the south were no help, but ACT ONE and LLOSA gave me enough to build on. Actually, I started with just the first L and final A of LLOSA because I feared I was misremembering the middle letters. The real writeover mess in that region was forD to forDAF to mazDA FIT to HONDA FIT. The south was finished but I had to restart in the north. I’d wanted FALLON and CEOS, but didn’t write them in because the N suggested cnN. Recognizing that Staple was the “too easy for a Saturday” clue for ATTACH finally got me going. Sussed out TELEVISION PILOT with about four letters in place, and the north finally fell. Last letter was the TRACEy or TRACEE debate, but I decided that SEI looked more like Italian for six than SyE does. W00T.
I have heard, even used, CHEAPIE. CHEAPo is the person, CHEAPIE is the thing a CHEAPO buys. Because someone will misconstrue how these words are used, let me add that a CHEAPO is always a person who could afford the good stuff, but is too miserly to do so. Back in college we bought Pffeifer because $4.99 a case was a good use of our limited cash. If I stocked my fridge with $4.99/case Pffeifer for the holidays now (not that it is possible anymore) would make me a CHEAPo.
Hey All !
@Nancy - Awesome!
Wondered what TREXES were (say it as one word, ala DOOK). Har. Also not sure what an Apex animal-wise is, so that didn't help. Also see: MIAMOR, HOWODD. Good stuff.
Unabashed and ample use of Check Puzzle feature. Not getting help on a SatPuz be damned! Never got ON A TEAR today, kept hunting and pecking and Checking.
POLAROIDs had a mini come-back a few years ago. All the kids were WOWED for a bit. But didn't last long. With phones now doing everything, pretty soon you'll be able to speak to your self driving car where to go, while Tweeting about it, then napping on the way.
Agree with CHEAPIE as not a thing as clued. You can call a person that. There is even a savings flight place called Cheapo-Air. Look it up, save on your next flight. (No compensation for that plug!)
So a good SatPuz overall. TASTY, one might say. Put a LODE on the ole brain. Repeating ERIES. See WORLD S-ERIES-RING. Speaking of Baseball, who thought 1A should be AT THIRD?
TWEEZES ERROR
RooMonster
DarrinV
@jberg - I had the LL in place when I read the cria clue the third time. Looking at the puzzle I just noticed the lovely five L’s in that area (ABDUL/SOIL/LEADS/LLAMA).
Didn't get much traction until I hit the southern hemisphere. The B in BLT tipped BOOK OF MORMON, somehow dredged CABOCHON out of my memory with just two crosses, then had a BRAIN FREEZE in the north, helped greatly by the STL trap. Even with some CHEAPIE HINTS from my wife it took me over an hour until I finally guessed 15A. And yes, @Nancy expressed my thoughts perfectly!
Darn dim Capchas!
Many thanks to @GILL, @Teedmn, @kitshef, @jberg and @Quasi for your kind remarks.
I should quit while I'm ahead, but @GILL (10:27) has requested an "ode" to Omar Sharif in Dr. Zhivago. I cannot disappoint.
For @GILL:
Across the wide and frozen steppes
He schleps.
There's all that snow and ice --
Not nice.
A Doctor brave and bold,
But cold.
Yet hot in Lara's grope,
I hope.
You wish that it were you,
It's true.
But hot he cannot be
For me.
My heart he'll never stir
In fur.
This is what a "Saturday" should be, for me.
45-60 minutes of a couple cups of coffee, ease into the day...
Nice...
Now it's time to clean the garage...
Great Saturday puzzle. The lower half was routine Saturday difficulty. That upper half was, as Nancy's brilliant Kipling mash-up says, a truly masochistic experience. Why it took me so long to remember ARI as the alternative for STL I can't say. Some times I just go stupid. Between that and thinking 10D had to be OBIE or TONY kept me from entering the obvious PILOT portion of 17A for a very long time. The clue for 8D is a real groaner once you get it. The one for 9D had me convinced that the fourth letter must be anything but a T.
My vote for the all time maddening clue in this puzzle was the one for 6D. That's some really crypto mangled English. I couldn't figure out if it was about death, dice, or foreign articles until after I had solved.
I ended up with a clean grid but thanks to the upper half I really got my share of puzzling.
Now that I've seen Erik on Jeopardy (it's always nice to put a face to a name, especially here) I try to stick with his puzzles - even (especially) on a Saturday!
Ah ha! Thanks... could only think of Ocean...island nations....
Superb puzzle, even though I did eventually give in and Google 15A. The cluing was off the charts good.
Loved it, and must agree with Rex about 9D, one of the best clues ever, whoever actually wrote it.
"The Book of Mormon" is THAT old!! I need to get out more.
First, @Nancy, comment of the year, for sure.
Next, I have to file this one under the "Be Careful What You Wish For" column since I have been carping about the easiness of Fri. and Sats. lately. Not today ! What a workout ! Had every problem mentioned above, but finally got the bottom half finished. Then just stared at the top forever since I had nothing going except STL, ofcourse. Finally talked myself into the fact that googling a television characters name wouldn't be too grevious a violation of ethics, and battled to the finish. Great Puzzle, gentlemen, thank you.
And @Lewis, I loved your comment and did not think any follow-up explanation was neccessary.
Can someone please explain 6D to me?
I am oncec again really annoyed that I was one letter wrong because I do not know a particular foreign language... why is this okay? Why are we expected to know certain European languages other than English but never Korea, Thai, Sioux ? Why does Rex - who is offended everytime the word bra or gun appears think this Eurocentrism is okay?
Someone please help! I don't understand 11D. I had STL at first, but was able to get ARI from crosses.Thanks
All the people fooled by the Card clue made me look at that section again. I didn’t put either in until after I had TELEVISION PILOT, seeing that there were two choices right away. I’ll pat myself on the back for holding up on the ARI/stl decision, but even more amazing is that I held up on throwing in tonY off the Y in TASTY. That “too easy for a Saturday” instinct that slowed me down on ATTACH saved me on ESPY. I grokked the HINTS clue immediately, but the “Hang in there!” for CLOSET didn’t appear until I had - - OSET. I see the love for the HINTS clue, but that “!” in “Hang in there!” is devilishly good, too.
Rex has criticized Shortz for many, many things, but the only times I remember him criticizing clue writing is when it is tone deaf or right-wingish. Indeed, the maxim I learned from reading Rex is if it is the grid praise/criticize the constructor, if it is the clue praise/criticize the editor. As with all rules of thumb there are lots of exceptions, but I certainly understood his clue of year nomination as an implied compliment of Shortz.
@Nancy - But apparently the unfurred and unfurled version meets with your approval?
@Missy - The NFL team is the ARIzona Cardinals.
@Anon1:39 - “Die” is the singular of “Dice.” One side of a die has six pips, which in Italy would represent SEI, the Italian for “six.”
@Both - I do think both of these clues have been explained above. If you use your find function for “6d” or “11d” you can find all the discussion on both clues. Usually by this time explanations of the tricky clues has appeared and whatever tricked you almost always has tricked someone else.
@Nancy....Bravisimo. I shall treasure my special ode forever.
Perhaps if you saw him without fur....he might stir?
Easy-medium except for the NE. I too fell for stl and tony before ARI and ESPY...so a very tough corner that sucked up a boat load of (@m&a) nanoseconds.
A fine Sat. with some devious cluing, liked it a lot! Nice one guys!
Ground it out in 2:16, maybe a personal slowest. Luckily, I had plenty of time available as I hide from the cold weather. Nothing particularly hard, just a slow slog.
A worthy Saturday puzzle, for sure. Like others, I got my toehold at the foot of the puzzle at LAT x ACT ONE, with ...RMON getting me the grid-spanner I needed to make blanket progress upward. Also like others, I struggled mightily in the NE corner. I had no idea about Ms. Ross and wanted some sort of TV ad sLOT. I also had stl before Atl (wrong bird) before ARI and tonY before EmmY before ESPY. It took me a very long time to see CLOSET and understand HINTS. Besides that clue gem, I also liked "Missing out, e.g."
Thank you, constructors. I really enjoyed the challenge.
@Z -- Fur-less, and in that sizzling photo you put up yesterday, he's dynamite!
@Nancy - Good stuff!
Puzzle did me in as I predicted it would Friday. Sniff...
@Z Thank you! Not a big professional football fan...
First time commenting for me though I love reading this blog after I discovered it about a month back. I’m not a native English speaker and learn sth new in every puzzle practically. This was a super tough puzzle for me though I hung in there for 85 min before the DNF. I’ve never heard of CABOCHON and thought the cross was PRANKS. Ugh! Kept thinking the error was elsewhere. Also the STL which turned out to be ARI, CHEAPIE, TRACEE ... was brutal. I don’t get SEI. Very nice puzzle overall.
Rex’s times are unreal - my goal is to get inside 10X first :-) I have to agree on HINTS - fantastic clue.
@Nancy 10:14: that's a wonderful poem! Nice work!
You gave me the lift I needed, after stumbling over all the PPPs and obscurities.
Thanks very much.
Let me make your day. Took me 54 and that was 12 faster than average! I usually get them done without cheating but my mind is t always quick.
Agree with DeeJay. I got it from the reference to a German article.
Got stuck on cheezie for cheapie for a while, “but that’s not important right now”
Gained a whole lotta respect for “Rex” learning he’s a Thompson fan.
Disappointingly, I have yet to see tour dates where I live.
Oh what a day! A fine puzzle, a frothy concoction from @Nancy and a stellar performance by Richard Thompson and his Vincent 52
Can someone help me understand the clue for ERROR? I feel like it doesn't follow the part of speech of the answer. "Missed out" is past tense and a verb, so I would think that would be an example of when you "erred," not an "error" (noun).
Oh dang, I got it after I posted. A missed out like in baseball. Good clue! I just didn't catch onto it.
Anon 1:39 PM English shares an alphabet with those European languages.it doesn’t share an alphabet with Thai, Siouan etc.
I’m not quite sure when that linguistic tradition ocurred but I remember getting a very odd look from the young salesperson when I walked into a store one time with my toddlers in tow and asked if they sold thongs for kids. Must have been late ‘90s, but I wa probably behind the times since Monica’s thong had certainly been in the news long before that.
for anyone who does these every day, the clue for 9D had will shortz name all over it (just like the baku clue). i still think rex was being facetious complimenting it.
Wow. Hardest one for awhile now... Very nice, dancing @Nancy!
As for the CHEAPIE controversy, that's been common parlance in my region and lifetime. Had no clue (well, except the one given) about Ms. Ross, had to finally get that from all the downs.
Agree, @SmallTownBlogger, T. Rex should've been clued as an abbreviation.
The final puzzler for me was LESMIZ -- a bit unfair, that. I kept checking whether perhaps the clue would indicate the British spelling for TWEESES. Hit my forehead when I changed it to a Z to finally hear the blessed completion jingle!
Pacific? Wow is there a need to be that misleading even on Saturday?
So you wouldn’t have paid the compliment had you known it was Shorts...that’s what.
@charles on ERROR. I took it as a reference to baseball. If you made an ERROR, you may have missed one of the three OUTs in the inning. There are other results from an error, but a missed out is certainly one of them.
I know this is days late so I hope you somehow see this. I'm often a pokey solver and do several in one day. This time three days.
Great take - more fun than the crossword itself!
DNF by half. Got the west, then...nothing. WORLD--what? I should have been able to complete THEBO--but just couldn't come up with it. Had I even had the second O, maybe, but of course I was never going to get LLOSA. Had TELEVISION, but what? PILOT, it says here. "Pitch for a whole season," says the clue. PITCH, really? You mean, like, a sales pitch to TV execs? That's pretty mean and cruel, for a clue--even on a Saturday.
That, plus "band" as a RING (okay, fair, but the brain has too many avenues to run down and I missed it), plus guessing "Heights" for 14-down, scuttled my butt good. I don't watch "Black-ish," so I don't know 15-across. Paula ABDUL is a shoo-in for DOD. Had I finished, I might well have scored this high, but...no score.
It's true that ATFRST I merely stared at this, then guessed at a few, and got them right! Like CRANKS and ESTATES. Gave e a bit of courage.
Eventually I did look up TRACEEELLISROSS - unfair to span the grid with an unknown (to me) name - only if you watch all 708 TV channels can you learn all these names!! And I, unfortunately, watch only movies and the occasional HGTV show at the gym. Gotta keep up with those $150,000 unusable kitchens.
I even eventually got the WORLDSERIESRING - well, no, I didn't win it. My softball days were very sad.
BAABAA.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Croswords
ISOLATED ERROR?
ATFIRST THE TESTRUNS WOWED me - those ACTONE LESMIZ songs -
but THE TELEVISIONPILOT allowed me to POSE the LEADS in THONGS.
--- ABDUL "BAABAA" LLOSA
DNF. Trouble across the north. I've seen a coupla episodes of Black-ish, not enough to know the names of the LEADS. And stl for ARI. Not much correct happened starting at the corner of KAINE and LIAISE in the NW except FALLON, ICEES and CEOS. And I thought "die" stood for "the" on the Austrian side of Italy. The other 2/3 of the puz looks pretty clean.
LESMIZ is on the front page of the St. Paul paper's Life section (wherein the puz), so that was top of mind.
Breast cancer awareness hopes to save BASETWO. Don't stop ATFIRST.
The guy that does the voice for the animated MC Skat Kat in yeah baby Paula ABDUL's video Opposites Attract is a RADIO exec at 89.3 The Current, MN Public RADIO.
FIRST DNF in quite a while. Fair enough puz, ISOLATED fail for me.
Tough one. I had one mistake. hEADS and hLOSA instead of LEADS and LLOSA. Doh!
"...just the right balance of breeziness and brutality..." says Rex. Agreed. My lowlights and highlights:
Most brutal were TRACEE ELLIS ROSS, who by now must be pretty well known to most of today's solvers, and similarly, the very obscure CABOCHON.
Maybe qualifying for the "breeziness" part, among others, were the LLOSA/LLAMA cross, which made me smile with a bit of x-word pride, and the other three grid spanners, which might have opened it all up but didn't.
There's a lot else to like (and not like as much) about this clever and challenging puzzle, but let's leave it at that.
DNF.
Very tough here. In fact I was sure I would DNF in the NE, due to my putting in "clues" and "stl" at 9D and 11D respectively and left them there forever.
I actually started in the lower part of that section with ALA, ERAT, WROTE, DORIES, and continued down that diagonal picking up LLAMA and WEAKER en passent. That was enough to enable me to eventually conquer the South. CABOCHON just appeared via crosses, and I wasn't sure about MIAMOR but moved on up North leaving it in (correct!).
15A is a name I see frequently on ads for a credit card. Never watched Blackish, but that and just slamming down TEST RUNS let me complete the NW.
Back to the NE to w/o "clues" and "stl" with HINTS and ARI, guess ESTATES, and voila!
The pride factor is strong with me today.
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