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Environmentalist Leopold / FRI 1-31-20 / Command from director's chair / Jon who wrote illustrated Palindromania / Noted figure in Raphael's school of athens / treat whose name means literally flash of lightning
Friday, January 31, 2020
Constructor: John Guzzetta and Michael Hawkins
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, clipboard solve)
Word of the Day: ALDO Leopold (21A: Environmentalist ___ Leopold, author of the best-selling "A Sand County Almanac") —
Aldo Leopold (January 11, 1887 – April 21, 1948) was an American author, philosopher, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has sold more than two million copies.Leopold was influential in the development of modern environmental ethics and in the movement for wilderness conservation. His ethics of nature and wildlife preservation had a profound impact on the environmental movement, with his ecocentric or holistic ethics regarding land. He emphasized biodiversity and ecology and was a founder of the science of wildlife management. (wikipedia)
• • •
I thought the palindrome dude was gonna mess me up pretty bad because neither 56A: D-day (GO TIME) nor 60A: Noted figure in Raphael's "School of Athens" (EUCLID) came to me from their first few crosses, but MIL gave me the fourth cross for both answers, and both answers then became clear and again I was off. Slowest part of the puzzle for me was the SE because I unhesitatingly wrote in UNFRIEND at 61A: Spurn on social media (UNFOLLOW). It's a much bigger deal to UNFRIEND someone than to simply UNFOLLOW them. I also wanted BOLD (correct!) DEED (nope!) at 58A: Bit of derring-do (BOLD MOVE). My answer seems correcter. DEED seems more apt for the swashbuckling suggested by "derring-do." BOLD MOVE could apply in any context. But the answers in the grid aren't wrong. They just trapped me, temporarily. Didn't take me too long to climb out, and then it was smooth sailing to the end in the NE, where only ALDO gave me any pause. I didn't know the COWGIRLS song (whereas I know at least two songs where BIGGIRLS don't cry), but I never fell for BIG because the CO- was already in place. Not sure why the clue doesn't mention the artist: Brooks & Dunn (feat. REBA!) are big names in country music (27A: Ones who "Don't Cry," according to a 2008 country hit). Looking back over the grid, I'm really glad I never saw the COE clue (!?) (26A: George ___, original cast member of "S.N.L."), and I'm really glad the shoe guy (MCAN) was a gimme (23D: Last name on a shoe box), because otherwise that MCAN / COE cross could've been treacherous. That is all.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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115 comments:
Careful not to use the alternative spelling SRIRACCA!
GRYFFINDOR ?? Backed into that. No idea what that is?
Re: 63A “Building super’s ringful”
When one has a ringful of DOORKEYS on his belt, it looks “dorky”.
A wild pitch is not a temptation to steal. A runner “advances” on a wild pitch, and is not given credit for a steal.
Was just going to say the same thing about WILD PITCH. The clue is just wrong, and it really messed me up on this puzzle.
Wanted lUNa for way too long, but still finished with easy time. Good challenge.
TGIF, I say. On M-W I, a seasoned solver, have a lovely time warming the brain up with what are generally LOBS. Come Thursday, I'm on high alert, gimmick hunting, thrilled with the chase. But on Friday I settle into my chair, anticipating a most enriching experience, drawing from resources that took a M-Th holiday, and, as with today's puzzle, usually finding great satisfaction.
On Friday, out come the SRIRACHAs, PENDULUMs, ROSEBUDs, and GRYFFINDORs, where they land like honey on the grid, along with clues like [Temptation to steal] for WILD PITCH. On Friday out come those delicious moments of waiting for a flash of understanding (such as with "Know it alls" for SWAMIS) or for a memory to pop into consciousness (ARGO).
Out come post-solve pleasures, as with, for me, the cross of ECLAIR and MIND BLOWN, evoking precisely the memory of my astonishment, when, as a youngster, I tasted my first eclair. I can even picture that eclair, the thick cold chocolate on top with the pale yellow creamy treasure inside.
Thank you John and Michael for coming through with a lovely gift, one that was like Hammerstein's edelweiss, clean and bright, and one that made me say, once again, TGIF.
So it's spelled SRIRACHA? I also had Diana on the moon. Moving right along....Then I get to MAMMA. Actually, babies have a hard time with the "M" sound. They're more likely to say daddy or papa before the main squeeze get's her name said.
@Rex sorta said it for me today. Yeah, this was OKAY. I wasn't really MIND BLOWN but I always go looking for the smile or two. My first was that COW GIRLS song. I loved playing one when in my youth. My first horse was named hi o silver by me but every one called him George. I always liked playing Annie Oakley but her horses name was Target. Then I saw a picture of her and I didn't want to be her any more. Then I thought about how they don't cry and I don't fit the picture again. I cry at the drop of a hat. If I see a perfect stranger shedding tears, I start to bawl.
Had the same UN Friend. Super to the rescue with his DOOR KEYS and MLK with his due day. So roller-skating in the house is a NO NO? Why? I had a good friend in Cuba named Claudia and she lived in this mansion in Vedado. She was an only child living in this enormous house that had granite flooring throughout. We skated. Yep. Remember those skates that needed a KEY to tightened them up? Well, we did it. Her mom came home, screamed and banned me from ever going back. AS IF I were the perpetrator.
Liked that clue for ROSE BUD and notice that MAIL ORDER crosses GIRLS? Yikes.
ECLAIR's don't taste like a flash of lightning.
Just a bit too much junk for a themeless. LPN IMY RDS CMS MIL MCS. We all know baby’s first word (besides un-oh) is Mama, not MAMMA.
I do like the mini Asian vibe with INDIA, SWAMIS, FAKER, SRIRACHA, ARGO, CHINESE. Europe is well represented, too, with Diana, EUCLID, CLEESE, ÉCLAIR, TETRIS, TNT, GRYFFINDOR.
Who knew George COE was an original SNL member? Not me, for sure.
Really wanted “noj” for 52D.
If you didn't know Gryffindor I envy you - you still get to read Harry Potter for the first time!
a very easy friday for sure. a few extra minutes in the ne and se but nothing to complain about.
somewhere i remember when a new network took over baseball broadcasts (could have been fox) they tried to "avoid talking about anyone who was dead." no ruth, no ott, not shoeless joe jackson. maybe we could have this going forward. no dead people in the puzzle. imagine!
yes, the stolen base clue is wrong. here's the MLB rule:
9.07 Stolen Bases and Caught Stealing
The official scorer shall credit a stolen base to a runner whenever the runner advances one base unaided by a hit, a putout, an error, a force-out, a fielder’s choice, a passed ball, a wild pitch or a balk, subject to the following:
zippy
So much fun! It felt like there was a surprise everywhere I turned. When I was done it felt good but I was sorry it was over.
With answers like mind blown, bold move, keen on and several others it did not go down the usual path. Thanks John and Michael.
@ Joaquin, I thought of dorky too.
Would have been one of my fastest Fridays, except DNF @ WILD-ITCH crossing hospital acronym. Just stared at it with no idea, forgot about sports
Just to add to Unknown and Eric, I found this:
A runner can be credited with a stolen base if he breaks before the pitcher begins his delivery (of the wild pitch).
Nevertheless the clue is wrong. But in my opinion a small flaw in a really nice puzzle.
Or is it MoMMA?
Yeah, I got killed by the MCAN/COE crossing. Didn't know either, and the C is not reasonably inferable/guessable on the down, IMO. Bummer. Other than that, I thought this one was pretty strong.
I'm with @Suzie Q today. After the first pass, thought I might have to resort to the Google. Happily did not. ROSEBUD and RENEW were my favorites.
Shouldn't the Diana answer be "the hunt"? Or "hunting" but just HUNT sounds off. Grammatically and sense wise.
Super easy and fast and not much to groan over. Never heard of Tetris but luckily all the pieces fell into place.
TGIF!!
Like @Lewis, I get into the groove Monday thru Wednesday to sharpen up the rapidly rusting brain going into the weekend. But unlike him, Thursday is the day I relish and look forward to settling in with in the comfy chair with coffee and the cat. Fridays are always more of a challenge to conquer, and this stumped me right off with SRIRACHA. My first big city job was at a Sears Roebuck MAILORDER center. It was a massive place with cavernous hallways and creaky elevators. Like RP, I had unfriend before UNFOLLOW which is what I invoke when friends start sharing too many political posts.
I had not heard of REI and was surprised to learn there is a store in the KC area. Speaking of Kansas City, on Sunday I will be cheering for my beloved CHIEFS as I have during just about every game in every season since they played their last Super Bowl. With all respect to the formidable 49ers, I think we’re going to see a great game.
Regarding Rex’s take on ALDO...
I’m surprised he found that vague. Sand County Almanac is a classic and must-read for any environmentalist. It has influenced almost every environmentalist writer since. I’m proud to have Aldo Leopald Wilderness Area here in my home state of New Mexico.
But, I’m very pleased that Rex chose Aldo as the word of the day. Spread the word! With our current administration’s threat to our environmental future, we must take up “arms” in the form of knowledge and passion and voice and action.
Easy but not best, if we had started downs instead of across may have beat best time. Major hangup was MCAN; have never heard of this (old chain?) and a cross on an equally old proper name meant this was a stochastic solve, thankfully 'C' is early.
Very nice puzzle! Nice not to have to sweat out the Friday puzzle for a change! Not difficult,
but still well done.
@Flinque-- have you been living on another planet? Please go immediately to your LOCAL
INDEPENDENT book store and purchase all the Harry Potter books. Alternatively, but not
as much pleasure, watch the movies!
It's FAKIR not faker.
Not a sports fan, so WILDPITCH had to come from crosses, and never read any Harry Potter, though I'm vaguely aware of GRYFFINDOR. I was in my 20's when SNL came out, but didn't remember George COE.
Actually it depends how wild. A pitch in the dirt that the Catcher fields is a wild pitch and not an auto advance for the runner.
Another wild pitch complaint here. It's just wrong and really no excuse. You want baseball? How about "result of Uecker's'just a bit outside'"
As for Agee, Rex is wrong. "Mets' world series hero" works just fine.
No problem with ALDO and always nice to see John CLEESE anywhere, thr funniest angry person ever. Some minor quibbles--I would have clued COE with Sebastian and Agee with Tommy, COWGIRLS with the Tom Robbins novel, DOORKEYS strikes me as somewhat green painty (do supers carry other kinds of keys on a ring?, and I had to relearn how to spell GRYFFINDOR, Also, what others have said about stolen bases.
Otherwise thought it was just about right for a Friday, some moguls at the outset but then turned into a nice intermediate cruiser. Thanks for the fun guys. You can be on my Friday team any time.
The wordplay component played pretty easy today (Thursday-ish?). I got torched by the MCAN / COE cross - a Natick for me.
No clue what GRYFFINDOR means. I was able to piece it together with the crosses but got stumped by what I think is a very tough clue for DISSES (“Burns”) - but hey, it’s Friday so that is fair game.
I also fell victim to the bogus clue (more slipshod editing) for WILD PITCH. Cluing it as a “temptation” connotes “preliminary” which is simply not true - the runner doesn’t get an SB if he (or she, I guess) doesn’t doesn’t break before the pitch is delivered.
Are there other NYT crossword sites out there? I need a change of scenery.
Luckily, I'm old. 1996 the last Thom Mcan stores closed, crossing 1975 first season of SNL 1975. No problem for me, but I can see the difficulty for many.
Tough and absorbing. My struggle began at 1A, where the only hot sauce I knew was TABASCO and it didn't fit. Look, I like some spice in my food some of the time, but it has to stop right before the place where it burns. A burning mouth, a burning throat -- these to not spell f-l-a-v-o-r to me. These spell p-a-i-n. I don't know how hot SRIRACHA is. All I know is that I don't do anything jalapeno, serrano or Vindaloo. (My spelling appears to be wrong. Forgive me.)
I had eND SCENE, otherwise know as "Cut", before AND SCENE (16A). I thought "know-it-alls" was a pejorative term for obnoxious people, rather than an admiring term for people who really do know stuff, like SWAMIS. I didn't know GRYFFINDOR. Did anyone?
I don't like "burns" = DISSES at all. I would have actually preferred SRIRACHA as a clue.
Thought for the day: If you have no "followers" and if you seek no "followers" then no one can ever UNFOLLOW you, right? Leading to a much happier life, I should think.
Aren’t DOORKEYS just KEYS?
Why did EUCLID UNFOLLOW ETHEL?
Personally, I do more Twitter than Facebook so my spurning usually involves blocking. Basically three types fill my blocked list, trumpkins, russian bots, and bernie bros. Candidly, they all sound alike. Anyway, hand up for UNfriend. Here’s a morning chuckle on the subject.
@WILDPITCH complainers - What @Flinque said. Any pitcher who makes a catcher move their feet unexpectedly is a temptation to steal.
I fully expected to see @John X make a reverse COWGIRLS comment. SRIRACHA indeed. (Warning: if you don’t know the reference you probably shouldn’t google it at work).
Slowest section was the SE. The French clue for ACME was not helpful. I’m so enculturated to think of mountain tops that “the ultimate” meaning wasn’t coming to me. Then -ESE had me looking for an Italian City so CHINESE/ACME was a Double D’Oh moment. I knew MCAN but had the same thought about that C. COE ain’t easy to clue.
Harry Potter is sorted into the house GRYFFINDOR
McAn: NOT a gimme for me. Bleh.
A question for the Blog World. If you had a puzzle published by the Times, would you read this blog the same day?
The name clues are what they are. Live with it.
@Z: “ne plus ultra” is Latin, not French, roughly meaning “no-more-beyond” ( supposedly inscribed on the Pillars of Hercules as a warning to go no farther) not to be confused with a “sine qua non”/“not-without-which”.
DOORKEYS its ugly and redundant as would have been room, as I knew they were (duh) keys on the ring.
Ask any doctor, especially a pediatrician, you will learn it's
DADADADADA not mommy. Mothers get upset, spending all their time (once, anyway) with navy to hear DADADA not momma just because
It's far easier for baby to make the da sound than the ma sound.
Try it, you will see.
Will S. is total crap with medicine and anatomical science
The only way I got the MCAN/COE crossing was by inserting different consonants in the "C" spots until the puzzle check told me I'd gotten it right. I'm old enough to remember Tom McAn back when they had freestanding stores and sold cheap shoes but had no idea they were still in business, so the name didn't come to me. Never heard of George Coe. Got hung up on 61A, where I confidently entered UNFRIEND and then had to recover.
The erroneous WILD PITCH clue: so typical of Shortz, who, apparently, has no more respect for facts than the current administration.
Otherwise, an enjoyable puzzle and appreciation for some really good answers: DOORKEYS, SRIRACHA, GRYFFINDOR, FEEDME.
@Nancy, re followers. I got rid of my Facebook and other social media accounts a year ago and feel like Atlas throwing off the world sitting on his shoulders. I couldn't give a hoot anymore whether someone is following me or not following me any longer and I find I'm much more engaged in the actual world around me. I've also returned to reading books, at least one a week. I share my impressions and opinions with people I'm talking to in live time, in person. Just like the old days. I even have more time to do crosswords! Lol
@Flinque and @Z, no, it really is wrong, and there's no ambiguity. A wild pitch can be a temptation to *advance*, but such an advance is not a steal. As others have pointed out, a steal and a WP can happen on the same play but only if the steal is initiated first--in other words, precisely because the wild pitch is *not* a temptation. If the pitch tempts the advance, it's not a steal.
If I’ve ever seen MCAN before in the thousands of crosswords I’ve done, it left no impression. So that MCAN/COE crossing is solidly a Natick in my book. I had to go with a pure guess on that square, but luckily picked the right letter.
Otherwise this was an above-average Friday offering.
@Lewis 7:08 Thank you for your comments. You're a warm cup of cocoa on a cold day.
I don’t mind proper names I haven’t heard of, like ILDO, COE, GRYFFINDOR, ADOLFO, AGEE. Cryptics often have unclued entries. They add crunch.
Gill I.: I had the same shock when I first saw a picture of Annie Oakley.
Happy to see EUCLID in the puzzle. I’ll check out “The School of Athens.” The Elements is one of the greatest achievements in mathematics. Euclid didn’t write it, at least not all of it. Some of the proofs in it were known previously. But what a monumental editing achievement.
I wish I enjoyed solving crosswords as much as Lewis.
Pretty good puzzle. It hasn’t been a great week.
Happy coincidence to see John Cleese, a big supporter of Brexit, in the grid today,
@What? - Of course you would. You would want to know how your puzzle was perceived, and want to know what could do better, and what you would really, really want to see is that some clue that Will Shortz changed on you got savaged on the blog.
agree especially for non baseball fans which,apologies to Rex, is mist people
@Flinque. There is no automatic advance by a base runner on a wild pitch (unless it's ball 4 and 1st base is occupied). A runner MAY advance if he thinks success is likely.
Perhaps if my father had referred to ECLAIRs as "flashes of lightning" I'd not be so reluctant to eat them. As it was, he always called them "pus buns".
@Mary McCarty - Yep. Knew the meaning but for some reason thought it was French. Thanks.
@Erik - No, really, it’s how you and others are thinking about it that is wrong. There’s a stat, a wild pitch, that has a formal definition. That is not what the clue is referencing. The clue references a WILD PITCH, the kind of PITCH that a pitcher who is WILD, lacks control, might throw. A good catcher will catch most of these, or at least keep them in front of him, but a slider in the dirt is a WILD PITCH and a temptation to steal. This clue is known in crossworld as a misdirection, a specific kind of misdirection directed at experts who are so locked into the technical definition that they forget English will use words in different ways. My personal hypothesis is that these kinds of misdirections give Shortz special pleasure. I have no actual evidence that he is sadistic like that, but I have no evidence that he isn’t either.
Sure am glad I know nothing about baseball today. Folks up in arms like I get with all the improper use of music Italian Will lets through. My baseball knowledge is local and old. To me, the NY Yankees are Mickey Mantle, Roger Marris, Jim Bouton, and Whitey Ford. Yogi's the manager. Beyond that, nothing. Oh. Yaz, of course.
Mah-ma? First or not, it'd be mama. Thought "mammy" but not for a first word; it did trigger Judy Garland at Carnegie Hall though. Just hang my cradle, mammy mine, right on that Mason-Dixon line. And swing it from Virginia, to Tennessee with all that love that's in ya.
I thought I remembered and knew every cast member from the first season of SNL. Nope. No clue about George Coe. Got it from the downs. Now I have to google him.
Mind blown. I never even saw Aldo, NE was all downs. I was reading Rex thinking, "why is he calling Adolfo Aldo?" Ha. Must get that book.
Fakir reminded me of Winston Churchill.
Gryfendoor? Gryfindore? Two effs? Who knew?
Out of the gate I made no headway in the NW so I went east then south then west then north. Worked out well and took a while.
nice puzzle
Mcan/Coe??? Seriously? Targeting a pretty narrow demographic with that combo.
Had ENDSCENE and apparently didn't check the first E's cross. Lost time trying to figure out what was wrong. Down errors are always harder for me to spot.
Thought "Temptation to steal" had to be something-ITCH. I could not get that out of my head till I solved all the crosses. Then thought to myself "Doh, I get it. I get stuff!"
I liked the puzzle.
Rex pretty much nailed it.
Thank you, I needed this info too!
Interesting responses to an interesting puzzle today. I have not the character of @Lewis & others who can take the M-W lobs with a smile.i guess I’ve become that grumpy ole fart yelling at the kids on my lawn—sigh! Anyway, I wanna puzzler of a puzzle, a GO TIME for words I don’t know (COE &AUCTIONEER) on first seeing the clues or even better that I know but can’t spell (SRIRACHA & GRYFFINDOR).
@Unknown 9:10 Nicest thing about Rex’s posse and his blog are the suggested links that occur that lead into other paths to explore Crossworld. If you don’t already , try the xwordinfo blog for some different voices and interesting constructor notes.
I looked George COE up on IMDB. He was only in ten episodes from 1975-1986 and he was uncredited in 9 out of 10 of them...
That's...that's a big stretch.
Could have changed MCAN to MEAN and had EOE (which I guess is just as bad fill...)
No @Z, you are thinking wrongly,imo. PUTTING WORDS INTO CAPITAL LETTERS DOES NOT CHANGE THERE DEFINITION. See. Almost anyone who has followed baseball will say that a wild pitch is one the catcher was not able to stop from getting away, and could not reasonably be expected to do so. That is why there is a specific stat for the wild pitch category.And why is it up to you to define what the clue is referencing ?
I actually read the first Harry Potter book, so I got that the clue was about the house he was assigned to -- but I couldn't remember the name, and even after it started to emerge had no idea how it was spelled. And then that Peace Nobelist's first name right next to it? So my otherwise easy solve just ground to a halt right there. I finally worked it out, but not correctly -- I liked BOnD MOVE so much for the derring-do that I never looked for anything else. A BOLD MOVE would be something along the lines of sacrificing your queen, rather than swinging across the room on a chandelier. So I ended up with ADOnFO -- not much of a name, but what did I know?
Ah, TETRIS! I think it delayed the completion of my first book by at least a year. I was so addicted that I finally deleted it from my computer; unfortunately, I did not have the will power to throw away the installation disk, so I would just reinstall it whenever I was tempted to play.
Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with your family and close friends; you just have to shun any political comments, ads, etc., and only post things that those family members and close friends would like to see.
I had the MC from crosses, so I put in MCAN right away. My first thought was that it was nice to see a company that made shoes for ordinary people; I mean, if I hadn't had crosses I'm pretty sure I would have put in CHOO. I didn't realize they were out of business -- I guess that's why I haven't seen a store lately.
SWAMIS, FAKIRs -- I thought we might be getting a tour of the world's religions, was sorry we didn't.
Great clue for RENEW. And seeing ACME in the grid always makes me wish we were still seeing her in person. Does anyone know if she has shifted to another blog?
A Patrick Berry puzzle in the New Yorker, and the biweekly Inkubator puzzle is out today -- so I have to run along.
@GILL.I and @mathgent...are you sure you aren’t mixing up the photos of Calamity Jane with Annie Oakley? A.O. wasn’t a raging beauty but there are photos of her all corseted up in dresses and I would say she would have been considered at least “attractive.” Calamity Jane....hmmm, not so much, plus history suggests she was a pretty severe alcoholic.
I enjoyed this puzzle but really got no traction until the last half of the puzzle. I think this particular constructor was just not on my wavelength/wheelhouse but I like my Friday puzzle to be tough so that’s ok!
Nice piece of themelessness. Lotsa scenic fillins, with personal faves PENDULUM, SHELLSOUT, SMACKED, COWGIRLS, AUCTIONEER. Also some clues that put up a polite fight, with fave {Keep the books?} = RENEW.
Okay okay … I'll go as far as to compromise & buy that BIG COWGIRLS "Don't Cry". Song or no song.
Stuff I learned new: SRIRACHA (hard to deduce, from those letter choices). GRYFFINDOR (ditto). UNFOLLOW (U coulda told m&e it was UNHALLOW, and I'da only weakly raised one stink-eye).
DOORKEYS at least sounds like a cool slangy answer to {Spurn(s) on social media}. (yo, @Joaquin)
Sooo ... some babies are actually discernin enough to onpurposely double the "M" in their very first utterin of that "MAMA" word? (yo, @Lewis, et al.)
staff weeject pick: IMY. Better clue, anybody? (yo, @kitshef) [M&A suggests somethin with a "slimy and/or grimy" flavor.]
Thanx for the good FriPuz, and of course for gangin up on us for some reason, JG & MH.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s. I might be absent at times in the followin week. On account of houseguests that might be spooked by their host wearin a mask when around the computer. Don't judge m&e -- or the Lone Ranger -- on this. tehar [hybrid experimental snort]
yo, Iowa … the latest poll:
**gruntz**
Very easy Friday. I'm surprised how many folks were unsure about Thom McAn – I feel like that name's been in the puzzle a lot. George Coe was credited as an SNL cast member for Season One, Episode 1, and That's. It. (He apparently showed up uncredited once or twice after that.) I actually know who he is, only because he was in the original cast of "Company" on Broadway, which I saw, and on the cast album. But geez, what an obscure thing to put in even a late-week puzzle.
Mamma must've lost her door key again.
Nice puzzle. Too easy for a Friday. And yes, I had a hard time spelling the hot sauce, which was freaking me out.
Ah, baseball. No greater fan than Amelia. I love baseball. I love that every single year I learn something new. I'm giving Shortz some leeway here because baseball and its rules are tricky.
But here's the question. If a runner is thrown out on a wild pitch (recovered and thrown, that is) is that a "caught stealing" on his record?
@Z
The WILD PITCH clue/answer is obviously baseball related and, as such only has one meaning. By definition, if the catcher catches the ball, the pitcher may be wild, but the pitch isn't.
Any demerits for not giving me the Friday workout I’d have liked were more than offset by the pleasures of filling in the grid (see @Lewis 7:08). I especially liked the pairing of the magical GRYFFINDOR with EL DORADO and GO TIME sharing a line with BOLD MOVE.
For fellow Harry Potter fans - tonight I’m taking my grandkids to “The Prisoner of Azkaban” + symphony orchestra, their first time in a concert hall. Of course, all three of us know the movie by heart, but I’m hoping it will be a memory-making thrill.
I was glad @Rex made ALDO Leopold the Word of the Day. @Mikey in El Prado 8:24, I live not far from Leopold’s “Sand County” and was surprised and pleased to learn he has a wilderness area named for him in New Mexico. I realized that I’ve thought of him as a local hero, rather than one with such a widespread influence.
Pretty easy. Solid with a couple of nice long downs, liked it.
Me too for UNfriend.
ALDO and ADOLFO were WOEs and I did not know ECLAIR had anything to do with lightening.
@Rootin ... (11:42) I think you’re right. It was the picture of Calamity Jane I saw. Annie and Calamity were both sharpshooters who performed with Buffalo Bill. Neither looked like Betty Hutton.
This kept me going but can we ever ever post a puzzle without reference to Star Wars & Harry Potter?
EVER?
@Rootin' 11:42...Both were pretty homely but I'm betting they could out-ride, out-drink and out-shoot most of the men they met up with. My new avatar is in honor of us COWGIRLS that don't cry.
Today was Weintraub-esque in its Friday EASY WIN-ness. I struck out at 1A when trying to spread @Nancy's tabasco across 1A but Diana's HUNT and INDIA, the cricket powerhouse, pointed me to the Rooster answer there.
I mixed up MEL's diner with Moe's Tavern briefly and my difficulty in discerning the meaning of 9A has me wondering how I ever managed my first word. I'd put haS for "hosts" at 9D. ECLAIR fixed part of that but 9A sent me on the oddest tangent, similar to the way 41D did yesterday. I was searching for a phrase, perhaps in Latin, that started with "many" and, first word = _AMMA. MIND BLOWN when the hammer fell on MAMMA. Perhaps because I would expect MAMA instead, a la @kitshef?
I'm with @Gill I on the crying - all I have to do is see someone's eyes water or hear a catch in their throat and I'm all set to burst into tears on their behalf.
And @M&A, I like your thought of UNhaLLOW = UNFOLLOW. It seems (from the outside looking in - this blog is as close as I get to social media) as if being shunned on Facebook or Twitter is certainly the equivalent of being de-beatified.
I loved the clue for WILD PITCH and circled it as one of my faves of the day. You baseball purists [eye roll]. 53A twisted my brain a tad, when "Taken with" led me to "a grain of salt" meaning before KEEN ON fell into place. And "Keep the books?" for RENEW, very nice!
Thanks, JG and MH, for an entertaining Friday puzzle.
@Unknown:
A wild pitch is not a temptation to steal. A runner “advances” on a wild pitch, and is not given credit for a steal.
True in the baseball sense, but 'advance' on a WP is also, frequently, called 'take' the base. And, since 'take' and 'steal' can be interpreted as synonyms, grammatically correct.
Since I've not read nor movied the lightening bolt guy, I couldn't figure out what GRIFF.... had to do with Peter Rabbit.
Cleese is nearly dead and Brexit will kill England.
Forgive my SASS but I get the feeling sometimes the puzzle is designed for people twice my age. COE/MCAN was a non-starter. I did get CLEESE but wow. ETHEL K. is over 90 and has had no relevance in my lifespan.
This puzzle was easier than usual because these references were only a minority - a much more severe hindrance on a typical late-week.
In my wheelhouse like few puzzles I've done. Less than half my average time. The Tetris clue really described my solve with everything falling nicely into place. I wasted a lot of time in college playing Tetris. When I finally went outside it was difficult to not see the world from the game's point of view. "If I could just turn that tree on the horizon upside down it would fit perfectly between those two others."
@Baseball Purists bothering us with specificity about WILD PITCHes - The clue is either not wrong, or more wrong than you think - it's only a WILD PITCH if a player advances. If there's only a guy on second and the pitcher throws one into the radio booth, it's not a wild pitch until the guy on second makes it to third. Unless you're allowing a wild pitch to metaphorical (in which case you're wrong), there's no temptation to advance (or steal) on a WP because it's not a WP until the player advances.
Easy medium here.
Fortunate first thoughts that worked out: CLEESE, FAKIR, ENVOY, FEED ME, and ANY NEWS. A few that didn't: MAILed out before MAIL ORDER, OUIJA before EMERY, LvN before LPN and, like @Rex, UNFriend before UNFOLLOW.
Flew through the north, thanks to gimmes like INDIA, ARGO, REI, I MY, and AMERICA.
Got bogged down a bit in the UNFriendly SE, but MLK made me realize my error and I was free at last.
Haven't read Potter, but GRYFFINDOR sounded kinda familiar. Thought it might have been a LOTR reference.
MCAN was a gimme that saved me from the COE WOE.
I was a longtime baseball player (can't really stand the game now), and had no real problem with WILD PITCH. Never even gave it a side eye when it revealed itself - more of a, "Nice. I'm flying now!" But yeah, I guess technically, you don't get a steal if you're tempted to advance by a WP, but ... ((shrug)) ... it's just a clue to the answer, not a definition. We once lost a Pony League championship game because our catcher let TWO runs score on a passed ball. That certainly bothered me more.
Just have to record my disagreement with@ Z . No one uses wild pitch in common parlance outside of the baseball context. However, I do agree that, though a pitch which does not advance a runner may not technically be recorded as a wild pitch, if a pitcher throws a ball to the backstop or consistently throws the ball in the dirt he appropriately may be described as wild even though there are no runners on base.
@Everyone who Didn't Know Coe but think's it's because they're too young - Coe was listed as a cast member only for the first episode of season one. No one remembers Coe. It isn't a matter of age.
Interesting, today’s “WILD PITCH” is generating as emotional vesting as yesterday’s PC. Unfortunately , we are back to the point where everyone is saying the same thing over and over (reminds me of my in-laws). I didn’t pay any attention to the brouhaha about PC because it’s pretty simple to me - if you are under 30 and Chris Rock bothers you, your parents did a poor job raising you.
It’s definitely fun to see all of the lawyers try to justify the “temptation to steal” nonsense - Yes, Billy was right, let’s kill all the lawyers and kill them tonight (I’m saying that rhetorically - I’m a pacifist).
It would have been cute if they had replaced STOLE with BRIDE under MAILORDER - would have given you starchy old farts something other than baseball to argue about.
A wild pitch won't be scored unless a runner advances. A stolen base and wild pitch cannot be credited on the same play unless the runner has already commenced the attempt prior to the pitch reaching the catcher. In that case, the wild pitch wouldn't be a temptation to steal.
While I never heard of sriracha, I got it from the crosses. But the clue for wild pitch was just unacceptable, especially when it crossed L _ N, a "hosp. figure." A licensed practical nurse? I didn't know they even existed! And a wild pitch is NOT a "temptation to steal," it may be a temptation to advance. Just needlessly contrived, crossing an acronym. Bad construction. How about a clue like "Beanball??""? I really sailed through the rest of the puzzle, though...
Hey gang! You know what would be fun? Let's all go to the MLB rule book and find every instance where Wild Pitch is mentioned, then report back at length.
The pitch of my roof is pretty wild so baseballs never get stuck up there. But the gutter occasionally steals one.
@M@A - How the sixth vowel introduces itself?
😆
Go time is H-Hour not D-Day.
Loved it. Low PPP for a change.Learned some things I didn’t know.
Hate to disabuse you, but m* and m*m* are about as close as human language comes to a true universal. Mama is mama because we all have always agreed that the baby just used one of our consonants... albeit inadvertently, as an unavoidable part of suckling. Mmm...
Word. Now, go read them in your highschool "foreign language." It's a hoot. Poufsouffle!
ALDO ALKALI
Who else could you have "thought to..." and, how?
I respect that Harry Potter stuff is part of the general pop culture world and fair game for crossword puzzle cluing. But I also reserve the right to have never read any of it and still consider myself an educated and reasonably well-read chap. And yes, a few puzzles with no Harry Potter and no Star Wars and no Game of Thrones would be a welcome breath of fresh air in the x-word world.
@bigsteve46:
But I also reserve the right to have never read any of it and still consider myself an educated and reasonably well-read chap.
It's worth mentioning that Rowling writes for the class of attention limited folk called teenagers.
@kitshef, 3:12pm : yep. Great IMY clue … better than anything I had come up with. ( {Slimy parts??}, {Grimy backside??}, {Grimy and slimy feature??}, etc.)
Well done. That's what M&A is talkin about.
Lookin forward now, to needin to clue up a desperate IMU entry in some future runtpuz.
M&A
That Rex has never heard of Aldo Leopold only saddens me. He was one of the earlier environmentally-leaning writers/journalists. Sand County Almanac is considered a classic in the field. George Coe on the other hand . . . .
@Joaquin - “Pus buns” is what you call them when you don’t want to share.
@TJS - Why is it up to you to say that the only possible reference is the baseball rule book? Also, there’s a convention here about capitalizing words in the puzzle. To emphasize that the words look the same but are being used differently I varied from convention.
@JC66 - “...only has one meaning.” What? Not even true in a baseball context. “Effectively WILD” comes immediately to mind, a common description of WILD PITCHes that are keeping the batter off balance.
@Amelia - Yes, which can happen especially if the backstop is a hard surface. I don’t know if the “caught stealing“ negates the WILD PITCH for the stats.
@anon2:01 - Yep. Not that the other COE clueing options are much better. Sebastian COE would work for me but I can’t say he is more generally well-known.
To reiterate, my rule of thumb is to not say how a clue is “wrong,” but to find how it can be “right.” Also, the specifics change, but this is not a new plaint. Sailing, music, math, science, it’s always the experts who can’t wrap their heads around that the words are being used differently than they ever would.
haven't read all the comments, but hopefully some guys have "caught" the faux pas of stealing on a WILDPITCH, advance on WP is not a steal, so temptation or not, you can't steal here
if you're caught here's it's not a Caught Stealing, it's an out from catcher, likely, to whoever covers base your caught on
Dear Heavenly Father....pleeeeeease don't ever have a baseball pitch clue again.
Thank you.
I'm sorry - I must have gotten a different puzzle. The clue just read "Temptation to steal". Seems everyone else's must have read "temptation to steal that results in a stolen base on that pitch".
The whole argument is moot if you just allow that that "temptation" may be acted on later - say on the next pitch!
Brilliant Friday clue Mr. Shortz or devisors. (Got me completely - could not let go of ITCH.)
Good grief. Two grownup puzzles on consecutive days. No rappers, sitcoms, texter junk, phone apps, pop singers. Two puzzle masters showing they know something about life and the world before the 21st Century. Good for them. Some good chops. How did they ever get through the Shortz dumbdown filter?
I liked this one a lot. Finished with the only lookup to see if that hot sauce is really spelled that way. I tried to make it something related to the hot wind.
Dad joke of the day: Here's lookin' at Euclid.
An alternate for COE: Army bridge builders for short.
MCAN is crosswordese of the highest order
Alternative for COE - Sebastian, the miler, a damned good one.
GOTIME MAMMA
The AUCTIONEER made a BOLDMOVE toward her,
ASKING – ASIF ANYNEWS wasn’t crass –
IF the CHINESE weren’t KEENON MAILORDER
to SHELL_OUT for AMERICAn COWGIRL’S SASS.
--- ADOLFO “ALDO” GRYFFENDOR
He did it again. EASY????? With three (!) naticks in the NW alone?? I had no hope of knowing what that hot sauce was. How would you even SAY anything starting with SR? Our tongues don't work that way. And what a clue for SPARS! "Starts an argument?" Really? You're gonna call that a clue that even brushes by "fair?" Then we have the director saying "AND--" not "END--" SCENE. Right. Nonetheless, I made a WILDPITCH at 1, 4 and 16, and miraculously got them all right.
I don't know about hot sauce, but hot Spice I can handle. DOD MEL B; I rest my case. Hand up among many for UNFriend, another spot that almost caused a DNF. It feels like these people sincerely WANTED us to fail. 2020 award for the most awkward partial of the year: AMI. Turnabout twin abbrs: CMS and MCS. How did I solve this? I still don't know. And OFC says easy. Making lucky guesses doesn't really yield a "triumphant" feeling. Too tough and obscure. Bogey.
Many solvers seem upset that the constructor employed clues outside their ken. To me, that's part of the thrill of solving. Yes, Sebastian Coe and James - or Tommy - Agee would have been in my wheelhouse, but I got George and Agee through the crosses and was introduced to two people I had not encountered before. If I immediately knew every answer, solving would be a dry, tiresome endeavour, one that I would soon tire of.
I check my answers first by going to nyxcrossword.com and Bill Butler fills me in with additional information. From him I learn just who Jon Agee is and that TNT was originally marketed as a yellow dye and other interesting facts. Who knew "The original El Dorado was a Muisca chief who was covered with gold dust in a tribal ritual and then dove into Lake Guatavita in present-day Colombia."
It's only after this that I go to Rex, mainly for the pleasure of finding out just what pissed him off the most in today's puzzle.
Yes he is the most "woke" human being on the planet. I would have said the most PC, but I know that epithet infuriates him like no other.
So why do it Rex, if it so angers you? Masochism? For the notoriety? For the money? (Maybe your plea for donations is more rewarding than one might expect?) Why not just stick to your day job, molding young minds? (A little 'black' humour there).
1a a gimme, since at least the last 5 years, maybe 10. For a while in the NEWS for upping production after becoming so popular and causing irritation to eyes, noses, throats, etc. in the neighborhood. So that made 1d a gimme and it was GOTIME. Biggest problem was spelling GRYFFINDOR; thank you crosses.
The four corners spells SEAS, or an enclosed SASE. Remember mail?
Agree that a better clue for COE is Sebastian. Also DOORKEYS = green paint. Unless it’s a giant dook for some kind of nerds.
A few of the baseball ‘experts’ actually got it right about WILDPITCH, unlike the clue, which is not right.
Remember ‘Even COWGIRLS Get the BLUES’? No, not the movie with yeah baby Uma. The book by Tom Robbins.
Good puz, but I didn’t have my MINDBLOWN.
Well since I didn't have to HUNT very long for answers (I'm up there in the NW) I got thru this Friday fairly quickly. For a Friday. I mean, I had to think and all. But I got it.
Yes, @Rondo, I remember the book - from my friends in the 70s. Good times. No blues for me.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
PS do those keyrings make the supers look DO/RKEY?
That's not how I spell MAMA.
Savoy Brown “Tell Mama”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZM8z_jF8Os
ABBA “Mamma Mia”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=unfzfe8f9NI
Townes Van Zandt “Delta Momma Blues”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuq_bAVNAtE
Merle Haggard “Mama Tried”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKuc4nfJByc
Started with an easy NW; finished in the challenging SE: the rest was medium, I'd say. Overall, this was a puzzle that continually tweaked the solving muscles and I just went through almost square by square until the SE, where I almost stopped. ADOLFO was a guess that kind of opened that section up, made me get rid of UNFriend, enabling me to finish.
I don't know any GRYFFINDOR, but letter by letter, I got it. Liked this puzzle.
Actually, for kids. The first Harry Potter book published in the U.S. was published by Scholastic, which is for kids grades 1 through 6.
Probably why adults can't spell GRYFFINDOR.
SRIRACHA has to be the word of the day, followed by UNFOLLOW, and learned that EUCLID was a figure in Raphael's painting. Peculiar mix of stuff to put ONFILE, maybe.
Sriracha: A Brief History of the World’s Most Popular Hot Sauce
Unless you’ve been living in under a rock, in a world devoid of flavor, you’ve probably heard about the extremely popular Sriracha. And if not, don’t worry, I was right there under that rock with you until very recently. In the past few years, it seems to be popping up everywhere –you can find it in most grocery stores, tabletops of Thai restaurants, and probably your friends’ fridge.
Sriracha sales in the US last year exceeded $60 million, with over 20 million sales. The hot sauce industry as a whole has been rapidly expanding; it is now one of the 10 fastest growing in the country, and has over $1 billion in global sales. So with all the hullabaloo about hot sauce, we’re here to give you some info on the new favorite, Sriracha.
It goes on, and on, and on ...
Terrible southwest corner. Way too much obscure trivia. I'm familiar with many of George Coe's characters but not his name and he was credited on a single episode of SNL in 1975.
I've never heard of Thom McAn shoes and, considering they all closed in the 90s, I'm not surprised.
Apparently Mel Sharples ran a diner on a show that ended in 1985 and won zero awards.
I guess Palindromania is a book that exists?
I'd rather have clever wordplay than this compilation of arcane knowledge.
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