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Beer purchase in large bottle informally / SAT 11-28-20 / Liquido vital / '80s work wear with shoulder pads / Fabled beneficiary of nap / Air traveler in early winter
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Constructor: Nam Jin Yoon
Relative difficulty: Easy (untimed, but I'm somehow up at 4am (???) and still solved it with very little trouble, *well* under 10, probably closer to 5)
Word of the Day: FORTY (27D: Beer purchase in a large bottle, informally) —
4or 40, US, informal : a forty-ounce bottle or other container of an alcoholic beverage (such as beer or malt liquor) Kelvin finished his forty in seven or eight long gulps. Tossed the bottle in the median carpeted with brown grass.— Dave Byrne… smoking weed and drinking 40s while her kids run loose.— Jim Schutze (merriam-webster.com)
• • •
How to start a Saturday? Well, 1D: Designates looked like it had to end in an "S" so I wrote that in, then saw the clue on 19A: Originator of parody ads for 5-hour Empathy and Tylenol BM, in brief, and honestly all I needed to read was "parody" to know the answer was SNL. Guessed MEWL (3D: Little cry) and IRON (2D: Shellfish have lots of this) off their last letters right away. Then 15A: "Any interest in doing this?" looked like it was going to start "ARE YOU...?" so I tested the "Y," which led me to a cross-referenced clue at 34A: 4-Down, for CBS ... so obviously the "Y" was in the middle of EYE, which is the CBS LOGO. I think I dropped RUSHERS off just the "U" (6D: Running backs and defensive ends). TOE was easy. TORTOISE fell in line after that (5D: Fabled beneficiary of a nap). The short Downs at the end of the longer answers up there were all pretty easy (VAIN EMT LES), and before I knew it, I had a lovely NW corner all sewn up.
First real challenge came at 29A: Style guide? I had -RESS and figured the answer had something to do with the ... PRESS. I did not take that "P" out for a comparatively looooong time. I was honestly willing to believe there was such a thing as a PRESS CODE. The problem was I had PROPALINE at 29D: Write, and I just couldn't make it make sense. I'm always willing to believe there is a word out there I just haven't heard of, but PROPALINE, yeah, that seemed dubious. Then all at once my one-letter error became clear. Not one-word PROPALINE but three-word DROP A LINE, gah! OK, back to work. SE corner was toughest, as I didn't know what followed SURE at 33D: It can't miss and had trouble getting both GPAS and PRAT. This made getting into that SE corner tricky. I guessed OPT and TRY on those first short Downs with identical clues ([Go (for)]). TRY was wrong, but once I put SHOT after SURE and then wrote in ALA at 51D: Like, the correct "P" from OPT was weirdly enough for me to be able to see PIÑA COLADA, and that pretty much took care of that corner. Finished up in the NE, where there was virtually no resistance. Knowing Donna TARTT very much helped. Made up for not having known Jacky ROSEN in the SW (40D: Nevada senator Jacky). Anyway, done and done and very content. Hurray. Hope you're enjoying your post-Thanksgiving weekend. Cheers.
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130 comments:
Certainly my fastest ever, so automatically enjoyable because of that! Good cluing/grid all around. I rarely get below 10 on a Sat so this felt great!
It was a quick solve for me, but it was fun. The answers were bright and meaty. None of the puzzle felt grueling or obtuse. And none of the answers felt like a stretch. They were all right in the pocket with the clues and didn't require mental calisthenics to make a connection. This was a classic, vintage, Saturday cross and I loved it.
Thank god for the "?" on 8D. I never ever would have thought of literal reflection.
Who are you and what have you done with Rex Parker?
I've never understood oral contraceptives. I mean, you can't get pregnant from oral sex.
This reminds me of a Patrick Berry puzzle, with a lot of good clues and fill, very little PPP, and, like Jeff Chen says, it makes you feel smart when you finish it. Easier than most Saturdays but Enjoyable.
Early votes are in for a clear winner!
Good clean fun! That is, clean grid, fun answers. Look at all of them -- ARE YOU GAME! POWER SUITS! FAIR’S FAIR! PITY PARTY! FROG PRINCE! SURE SHOT! And this is just my top layer – there is a Team B as well, with BLOTTER, AUTOTUNES, CARRELS, PLACEBOS, and TABASCO. This puzzle has the same kind of down-to-earth feel as Robyn’s (yesterday’s constructor) do, and, to me, it had more of a Friday than Saturday feel. Usually, on Saturdays, there is more of a knit to the brow, more of an in-the-CARREL flavor, whereas today was more of a joyride.
To tell the truth, give me joyrides. Give me joyrides every day for a while to bring some bright to 2020. To help BLOTTER the blurts of the Blowhard. Give me clues like [Move to a later day, say] for TIME TRAVEL. Teach me slang for a large beer container. Have that PINA COLADA sitting right on top of that TEETOTALER. Vertically plummet DROP A LINE.
A most lovely boost, Nan. A most enjoyable solve. Thank you!
Time travel, Fair’s fair, pity party, tee totaler and sure shot
What Rex said (well except for that “probably closer to five” part). Just an outstanding themeless. I guess if you think obscure names make a puzzle interesting you’re going to hate this. The PPP comes in at 16/70 for 23% but that includes two Aesop clues and LES (where “Enfants” pretty much gives it away if you’ve had any French or do enough crosswords) and TSAR. This is about as little Pop Culture as you will ever see in a puzzle and I think the result is wonderful. More like these please.
OVER SHARES, PINA COLADA, TEE-TOTALER... there’s a story there, I suspect one of romance and heartbreak. I imagine it being told by a TIME TRAVELER in a POWER SUIT drinking a FORTY (probably of Colt 45). BEA Arthur, George ELIOT and an ORC are the central love triangle, of course.
PR today! I’ll pretend it wasn’t a simple puzzle and strut around all day carrying my SB Genius trophy. Don’t tell me how easy it was.
A fast Saturday for me as well. CARRELS is new to me. Had to look it up after I’d finished.
Nice puzzle - but (sorry @HM) I think a little too simple for a Saturday. Hands up with Rex on getting snagged at the GPAS x PRAT cross. I guess PRAT is British slang? Didn’t really know TARTT or ROSEN and find PINA COLADAS gagworthy.
Liked the center block with SCOUTS and FORTY and the long FAIRS FAIR and PITY PARTY - really solid entries although when I started drinking in the 70s - a FORTY was a quart. A little side eye to the plural AUTOTUNES - plus it’s just too easy for a Saturday.
Enjoyable solve here - but too quick.
@Nam, thank you for this smooth Sat. puz. Enjoyed it to the max!
NW fell without too much struggle, and the rest of the puz was easy sailing all the way. 1/2 my Sat. av.
Write-overs: 38D "pen; 27D "forth"; 43D "pete"; 23D "bad guy"; 33D "sure fire".
New: "esta" (as clued); "Tartt"; "pina colada" (as clued); "Rosen"; "forty"; "prat"; "power suits".
Fav clues/answers: "are you game"; "fair's fair"; "dress code"; "pity party"; "bins"; "over shares"; "tee totaler"; "rushers"; "expat"; "smart money"; "taste buds"; "bad cop"; "Frog Prince"; "scouts"; "drop a line"; "Santa"; "placebos"; "gene".
WsOTD: "prat" / "tae bo"
LOTD: "Spanish"
SOTD: "Froggy" Went A-Courtin'
My favorite genre: "time travel" novels.
Peace Paz Paix 🕊
CARRELS crossed with ROSEN just wouldn’t materialize at the very end of a very smooth solve. It was because I had the beloved ASP in for “touch and go” (get it?) instead of APP. Hence, I couldn’t parse DROPALINE.
Everything else was like butter!
Speaking of which, there is a surprisingly risque answer in today's spelling bee.
Easiest Saturday in a long time for me--more than a minute faster than my Friday time--but outstanding all the way. This should probably have been a Friday but otherwise I can't find any fault with it. Is this a debut? If so, it's a stellar one.
My only major stick up was that I had PRINCESS instead of TORTOISE at the beginning (like Sleeping Beauty?) which I thought went so well with FROG PRINCE. That and I had RITALINS for Study pills? and was happy to replace that with PLACEBOS once I figured it out.
Also, as someone who studies medieval literature, it's always weird to see months clued by their Old English names-- is Winterfylleth really that popular?
Overall really fun puzzle, quickest Saturday yet!
It must be “Make Z Happy” Weekend. I just did the LA Times Saturday and it comes in at 12 of 68 or just 18%. Yowzer. If the Stumper is low PPP as well I may just have to retire while on top.
@BobL late yesterday - As others pointed out, that was me being sarcastic about the “Rex only liked it because the constructor was a woman” claims.
OVERSHARES. NOTGONNA lie - been known to. Go figure. 😉
Can't deny it's a sparkling entry, as are many others: PITYPARTY, BADCOP, FROGPRINCE, FAIRSFAIR, TIMETRAVEL - I could go on. NOTGONNA.
And then there's the imaginative (and fun!) cluing for these and others. Just a complimentary fruit basket of fun to wrap up the holiday, and I'm stuffed!
POWERSUITS was a blast from the past, but not an altogether pleasant one. The word evokes an office job, hard work, low pay, mind-numbingly pointless meetings, and all those unpleasant responsibilities of adulthood. Blech!
I'll take "carefree immaturity" for ever, Alex! (RIP)
Get-off-my-lawnism of the day: AUTOTUNES. Is there anything quite like this "technique" that illustrates our abysmal decline into the black hole of talent dregs where the "next best thing" is too often found nowadays? American Idol idle worship and its ilk have a chokehold on our culture and AUTOTUNES is just the demon spawn of expeditious fame-craving and (oxymoronic) exceptional mediocrity.
Geez. What kinda musical bug crawled up my poop chute? Did AUTOTUNES pee on my prize roses (Hi, @GILL!) or something??
Moving on...
It was smooth, easy for a Saturdee (for me) and dreck-free. Winner winner turkey dinner!
🧠🧠
🎉🎉🎉🎉
Thanksgiving always messes up the calendar. Is it Tuesday?
Always assumed it was “tea totaler”? As in the strongest thing one drinks is tea?
Terrific puzzle, very enjoyable. I got the P from GPAS, but had never heard the word PRAT. Glad to know it now! Clearly, the source of the word pratfall. That makes my day!
Disappointingly unadventurous. No snap for a Saturday; nothing to give pause along the way. Only the 1a clue has any spark. I'd have clued 35a:
"Little Red Corvette" and "Pink Cadillac"?
This song doesn't really make sense. But I like it.
I can't remember a Saturday with no erasures (paper solver here), so I guess this was the first. My first idea for everything turned out to be correct, except for Ms. TARTT (who?) and Sen. ROSEN.
Now the other unknown was FORTY, and I drink lots of beer. The preferred unit after softball was a pounder, 16 oz, and there are lots of microbreweries around so I am more than familiar with the growler, 64 oz., and it's little brother the crowler, 32 oz., but I don't think I've seen a FORTY for sale around here or heard anyone say it, nor have I encountered it in my reading. Always nice to have more beer information and I'm still waiting for growler and crowler to show up in crosswords.
Really fun stuff, NJY, but I'm in the too easy for a Saturday club. What we have here is a Saturday that know how to Friday.
This felt like earlier in the week, didn't it? Maybe a Wednesday? This went very fast for me. Perhaps the cluing made it easier than usual, e.g., do you need to be told that an ad for Tylenol BM is a parody from SNL? There's that old standby ORC, and ELIOT was in the XW recently (again with Middlemarch in the clue). And for a nice change from recent times, we have TABASCO clued in a user-friendly way, as a condiment. Thanks! Also the cluing for PITY PARTY (which answer I like) seemed easy as Saturdays go.
Fun fact that the official drink of Puerto Rico is PINA COLADA -- how many of y'all knew that? (I don't even know my own state's drink. Does my state even have a drink?)
Yeah, the grid was well executed. The corner that gave me the most trouble was the NE. I don't know Donna TARTT, and was trying to think of which sport or division has the Wolverines as a team. (I guess XMAN would be a SURE SHOT for OFL who specializes in comic books.) I had raT TRAPS before ANT TRAPS. Over in the NW, I didn't think of TORTOISE at first; I was thinking more along Rip Van Winkle lines. (When I had -OR-OISE at one point, what flashed first was pORpOISE -- curious coincidence, eh? I learned the other day that "porpoise", etymologically speaking, means "pig fish".)
Fastest Saturday ever: 10:27 which is quicker than my fastest Friday ever (11.04) and even faster than fastest Thursday ever (12.21) but then I hate Thursday puzzles.....
Only one person's name (ROSEN) and, delightfully, no rap references.
So this was fun but really a bit too easy for a Saturday.
Tied for fastest time. This would have been a good Thursday for me, or maybe a challenging Wednesday.
All good answers, only got a little stuck at CARRELS and ELIOT crossing ROSEN (I had PEN name). All the long answers just flowed, no guesswork, bam bam bam. PITYPARTY, AUTOTUNES, SMARTMONEY, ANTTRAPS, FAIRSFAIR, DRESSCODE, POWERSUITS, OVERSHARES, PINACOLADA, TEETOTALER... got 'em quick with a few crosses.
Hey All !
Wow, Happy Early-Morning Rex. Rarity. :-)
Liked this puz. Zippy answers, zippy time. Words just seemed to fall into place without too much of a struggle. Toughest spot for me was SE, but now I see it done, not sure why. SURE SHOT held me up a bit. Wanted SURE bet or SURE thing, but one too short, one too long. Put in HOLIC after the TABASCO O, which got me ORAL, but saw mothing else worked, so erased the HO-IC. The O of ORAL got me OCT, then the SE fell as easily as the rest of puz. A few seconds short of 15 minutes, which for me on a SatPuz is lightening speed. I don't try for speed, but the timer keeps ticking when you do puz in NYTAPP, so you always see the end time.
Didn't know TARTT, took on faith as crossers seemed correct. Had PEn for PET, almost getting me my one-letter DNF, but fortuitously happened to glance at ELIOn, and the ole brain said, "That looks like it could be ELIOT". So thanks to crosswords for the otherwise unknown ELIOT because unsophisticated me. PEn fits clue as good as PET.
A good themeless weekend, peppy and fun puzs. And a Happy Rex!
Two F's (in one word!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Love time travel novels and this clue. Also liked Donna Tartt's The Goldfinch more than most. Agree this was easy, but early week easy. Fun to breeze through a Saturday.
So, I guess I liked "not gonna ___" so much as a clue that I mistakenly referred to it as a grid entry in my previous comment. Yay me! 🙄
I'ma go ahead and claim that it was the constructor's genius and artistry that did me in because nothing diffuses stoopit like paying a compliment. Especially a well-deserved compliment:
Nitpicker: You idiot.
Me: Oh, I love your shoes!
Nitpicker: Aaaaww! 🥰
Works every time.
Because I solve in ink on paper, I really hate it when 1A tricks me. And because "reschedule" fits so perfectly and makes perfect sense, I just dropped it in without hesitation.
Then I had to decide whether to TIME TRAVEL back to when the squares were empty or just print a new grid.
Why wasn't this a Tuesday puzzle?
Best time here as well, enjoyable solve. Similar to above only trouble was on CARRELS and ROSEN. GPAS and PRAT was a fun set.
Clearly I'm an outlier in this group: I found it way way too easy for a Saturday, and while normally I don't mind if a puz's difficulty is off by a day or so, I finished this in literally half my normal Saturday time. Maybe it's because it felt like there were *a lot* of 3 letter words? I'm sure there's someone here on this site who tracks things like that.
Mostly I like to struggle w/ a Saturday. I don't even mind if I'm left with a DNF. That's what Saturday is supposed to be. But to effortlessly move from one answer to another . . . . It almost made me feel like I was getting smarter.
Not a fan of AUTOTUNES; I listen to a lot of today's music and just sort of cringe.
But I do enjoy the occasional PINACOLADA, so there's that.
How are you supposed to distinguish PEN from PET given the clue? Especially since ELIOT is a pen name.
Lately, when I see an unknown name in the grid, in this case Jacky ROSEN, I wonder who the best-known person with that name would be – the one you would use to avoid a Natick. In this case, the first two I thought of were Al Rosen, the baseball player, and Al Rosen, the actor. Then came Nathan Rosen, of Einstein-Rosen bridge fame. Who did I miss?
Pretty much a Wednesday puzzle. Yesterday’s puzzle was much harder. Cross of CARRELS (what?) and ROSEN (who?) was pretty much the only problem. Oh, and TARTT. And yes, I put in reschedule for 1A but almost immediately knew it had to be wrong.
You can keep your manly drinks. Give me something fruity with an umbrella, and I’m at my happiest. Your PINA COLADAs, mai tais, or zombies. Of course, in real life I mostly drink $3 wine from Whole Foods, but that’s more a money thing than a taste thing.
Almost naticked at the GPAS and PRAT crossing. Slapped in the P just because the P was the only letter that worked at all for both. Had no clue what boobs have to do with PRATs.
Looked it up. It IS British. Second definition for the word is "A person's buttocks."
So a little T and A for a Saturday morning.
Rex mentioned not remembering this constructor. A debut? So, I looked him up (whaaat? Yes, I occasionally do that) and this is only his second NYT (only looked up NYTXWs because, well, I do have my limits) crossword!
More interesting: Rex liked him then, too. His review closing lines:
"Hope you all enjoyed this puzzle as much as I did. No weak spots. Bouncy and fresh. Totally crushable. Everything a Friday should be. And I'm pretty sure it's a debut! Nice. See you later."
@Nam Jin Yoon You're on a roll, young sir! More, please!!
♪So I waited with high hopes
And she walked in the place
I knew her smile in an instant
I knew the curve of her face
It was my own lovely lady
And she said, "Oh. It's you."
And then she took out a pistol
I realized "uh-oh, I'm through...
"Let's have a piña col–" [BANG!] ♪
I don't do spelling bee every day, but that got me curious. And yeah, I figured it out. Haha.
Great time solving this one, but I was a little disappointed that it wasn’t more challenging. I like to stew a little more over the Saturday puzzle.
I as well was troubled by this clue and answer. But the name Gene had to work. So....
An excellent, amusing puzzle RUINED by 20 across. I can’t believe that the constructor used this clue originally. I smell dirty “shorts”.
What a delight! Like others, this was my fastest ever Saturday solve even though I felt misdirected and had to change answers several times. Overall I was on the same wavelength most of the (very clever) clues.
Now to libations: FORTY had my TASTEBUDS warmed up for a PINACOLADA but perhaps the TEETOTALER gets the last laugh!
@Georgia— to give us a well-designed puzzle with good clues and snappy answers, and NO GenZ slang, that’s why.
An absolute pleasure to solve. What better way to relax and feel accomplished on the Sat after T’giving? Smart Money
knew even old sourpuss Rex couldn’t help but enjoy this one! Thank you, Nam!!
Easiest Saturday ever in the history of puzzles
Loved the Robyn-esque feel, but definitely not a Saturday level of difficulty. I rarely polish off a Saturday puzzle this early in the morning!
Sorry, @hungrymother, but hold up that SB trophy with pride! Hubby and I do the Bee as a team, and, like you, we set the bar for Genius and that’s just fine. He starts and gets as much as he can, then he passes it to me as the “closer.”
On the other hand, the NYTXW is my baby. If I finally give up, rather than go to Google, hubby looks at the solution and gives me just enough additional hints until I can get back on track. He enjoys this because he can relish the wordplay and mis-direction without actually solving the puzzle itself.
The proper names (of real people) stumped me but were gettable. The pair of fabled names, on the other hand, were absolute gems.
Great long words, fun clues—I have another favorite constructor, thanks, Nam!
I rarely dip my toe into a Saturday grid, but decided to dabble today and found the crossword clues to be about Thursday-level difficult, which was a nice, pleasant surprise. I never heard of Ms. TARTT or Mr. ROSEN (I’m guessing that ELIOT is the T.S. dude - don’t know anything about him either), and I don’t speak Spanish so I had no real chance at an unassisted completion. However, whenever I get north of 75% there on a Saturday I consider it a moral victory.
I wonder who ghost-wrote Rex’s column today - whoever it was used up a month’s worth of compliments in one day though.
Lot of fun, especially for a Saturday! Got mildly held up by putting "WHOS WITH ME" in for 15A, but once I got down to the CBS logo clue I was able to rectify it. Fresh answers like "PITY PARTY" and "OVERSHARES" added some zing.
Delectable cluing in this delightful puzzle -- starting at the top with the wonderful clue for TIME TRAVELER and ending at the bottom with the clue for TEETOTALER. And in between: VAIN; GENE; SCOUTS; PLACEBOS and APP. APP was my biggest hiccup: I had TAG for "touch-and-go".
And TAG gave me a GG in the middle of 25D, where I really, really wanted FROG PRINCE. But I only wanted FROG PRINCE when Sleeping Beauty didn't fit. Anyway, when DROP A LINE came in, I changed TAG to APP and all was well.
This wasn't the hardest Saturday I've ever done -- not by a long shot -- but it was one of the most enjoyable. In addition to the terrific cluing and the very colorful fill, please notice everyone: There were pretty much NO proper names!!! I can only find three (!!!) and one of them is SANTA.
Oh how fervently I wish that all puzzles were like this!
I enjoyed it lots - but why the ? on DRESS CODE and not one on TIME TRAVEL - seems like 29A was a straight clue and 1A was joking.
Easy, with some charm provided by the TORTOISE and the FROG PRINCE and some other grid felicities. I liked the cross of TASTEBUDS with TARTT and the stack TiME TRAVEL: ARE YOU GAME? POWER SUITS - the idea of returning to the DRESS CODE of those days (the POWER shoulders paired with those heinous "pussy bows")....shudder. Also loved the placement of the TORTOISE next to RUSHERS (like hares) at the starting line.
Of course not. Oral sex is just talking about it.
Really easy for me, especially for a Saturday. Is it me or....well, it is not I as everyone seemed to agree. Still quite enjoyable even if it left me with too many hours to think of other things.
A word on POWER SUITS: I never wore them because I never especially wanted to have power in my job as an editor in book publishing. And even if I'd wanted to have it, I didn't. (See my non-fiction corporate satire, UPWARD NOBILITY, published in 1979 under the pseudonym "Addison Steele"). But I still had to contend with the awful spawn of the POWER SUIT: the woman's jacket with shoulder pads. Very, very big shoulder pads.
They were ubiquitous. They were everywhere. There were simply no other jackets available for about 5-10 years. You try to wear shoulder pads when you're a small vertically-challenged woman. On a good day, they make you look like Rosalind Russell or Joan Crawford. On a bad day they make you look like Joe Namath.
I had to have all my jackets altered by a tailor. Because when you take the pads out -- a big job anyway since most were sewn in -- you now have shoulders that droop down to the middle of your upper arms. Said shoulders have to be raised back up to...where your shoulders are. As clothing alterations go, this turns out to be one of the most expensive.
If I had back all the money I spent on taking all those damn shoulder pads out, I'd be wintering on a private island in the Caribbean.
Easier than last Saturday's puzzle was challenging.
I found the SE 10x easier than the NW, FWIW
I often hate myself for tackling Saturdays because I know I’m going down in utter defeat, but today made it all worthwhile. What a superb effort! It was far from easy though, and I still had to work at it but a great feeling to finish without help, a rare weekend feat for me.
I remember well the DRESS CODE of the 80s, and those shoulder pads were not restricted to POWER SUITS. They were in practically everything for ladies, dresses, blouses and even formal wear. Who could forget the huge, almost winglike getups on some of the characters in the primetime TV soaps ALA the evil Alexis Carrington on Dynasty?
I’ll take a Bloody Mary over a PIÑA COLADA any day but please hold the TABASCO, too much for my TASTE BUDS. No need to be a TEETOTALER but stay away from the FORTY crowd. You might OVERSHARE and end up accidentally kissing a FROG.
Agree, this had a Patrick Berry feel to it, refreshingly doable. Tried to put in Snow White as the fabled kiss beneficiary, then Aurora, the name of Sleeping Beauty before finally seeing the frog. Woody Allen describesd oral contraception as follows; “I asked my girlfriend to have sex. She said no”. Sorry
Too fast for a Saturday. I like to be tortured by my themeless puzzles and this did nothing of the sort. My first entry into the puzzle was one of only two write-overs today. TARTe in the NE got me started. Because of that *e*, I spent some time wondering if 14D was going to be a product, ANT eRAse, but I finally remembered Donna spelled her name TARTT. I read "The Secret History" a long time ago and I hated it. So much so that I've never been tempted to read her blockbuster, "The Goldfinch". I can't remember why I hated it so much. I seem to remember finding it insipid, not horrible. Ironically, over at xwordinfo, constructor Nam Jin Yoon praises it.
My other write-over was PEn name before PET but ELIOT fixed it.
TIME TRAVEL's clue was the best thing about this puzzle which was cute but it went by too fast.
@Rex, very enjoyable review, thx! :) Pretty much the same experience in the NW for me, as well. Same with "-ress", except I didn't drop the "p" in, as it didn't sit right with me. Got the (d) in a couple of seconds. More or less the same for me in the SW. Had two of my write-overs there, "pete" and "sure fire". Took a couple of minutes to sort it out.
Oops … just remembered, had 1A "reschedule" as a write-over (hi @Joaquin 9:02 AM / @kitshef 9:13 AM / @Amy Reynaldo). Didn't pass muster, as none of the short crosses would have it. LOL
Agreed with those who felt this might have been better placed in another slot, however, it's a nice feeling to occasionally be fast on Sat.
@Joe Dipinto 8:36 AM - "Love" over all!
@TTrimble 8:40 AM - Trying to think of the guy that slept all those years (couldn't recall his name or the number of years, so that nixed that idea. LOL / Rip Van Winkle by Washington Irving, unabridged audiobook
@Joaquin 9:02 AM - Too funny! 😂
@Anonymous 9:39 AM - Yup, the clue for "than" seemed bland for a Sat.; not sure what would have been better, tho.
@SouthsideJohnny 9:56 AM - George "Eliot" (Mary Ann Evans), among my top 10 authors: "Middlemarch, A Study of Provincial Life" / Audiobook: here. May queue this up for re-reading. It's been years.
Thx to Amy Reynaldo (Diary of a Crossword Fiend) for the breakdown of 44D; she writes: "44d. [Boob, on the Tube], PRAT. This one took me a while to suss out. Boob, as in idiot. On the Tube, London’s Underground. A bloody PRAT."
Had two "carrels" in our classroom.
Peace Paz Paix 🕊
Refreshing and invigorating Saturday
Joining the crowd from the mountain west, so smooth and easy solve from PST zone as well as those East coast early risers like REX! Only long ago relays had me thinking laP for the touch and go....dropping the baton on that one. Had a minor cringe at FORTY with undertones of ghetto classist vibrations, but probably more a personal rather than cultural association though malt liquor and Mad Dog grate in similar fashion. Not as much fun as Yoon’s EYEOPENER debut a few months back, but the same mastery of longish stacks that are glued with interesting short fill—looking forward to many future puzzles from this guy: ARE YOU GAME? Bring it Nam!
Lots to like in this one. PITY PARTY was my favorite. Spent many hours hunched over musty tomes in library CARRELS in grad school.
Interesting to see a Bloody Mary with TABASCO sauce dropping down through and a PIÑA COLADA running across TEE TOTALER. Throw in a SURE SHOT of whiskey and you got a theme, no?
Speaking of PIÑA COLADA, many times after several hours in the CARRELS, I would do a bartending shift at a local popular watering hole. One of the waitresses (this was the 1970s, no PC police yet) would provide a much needed comic relief during the height of a happy hour crush when she would say loudly and clearly to one of us bartenders "I need a tequila sunrise, two vodka collins and a penis collosus(!). Never failed to elicit a few yuks.
I felt like I was a lone genius until I read today’s comments and realized that we’re all f***ing genii. You know a puzzle is well done when the vast majority of negative criticism centers around which day the editor chose to run it.
Finished it so fast that the wife and I got in two episodes of Queen’s Gambit before an early crash.
Nice piece of work, Nam Jin Yoon.
I got it! On a Saturday! So, naturally, I loved it. My favorites: placebo and pina colada. Have always loved both. And, I think that I have seen this constructor's name before. All in all, even though it was, by all accounts, easy, I feel like a genius! 😊 - newbie
Loved this one.
@Nancy (10:47) You’re right those shoulder pads; they were everywhere and could be really overpowering on a petite frame. Me, I always found them flattering because they balanced out my rather obvious lack of [ahem] “padding” in other areas. I especially liked the removable ones that were attached with velcro because I could take them out and put them in other garments that lacked them. In fact, I still have a few of them stored away in a drawer somewhere. BTW, glad you enjoyed the Clair de lune lullaby last night.
Reflecting on this outstanding puzzle has made me think about our presidential election this year. Joe Biden was like the TORTOISE. He followed the rules, wore his face mask, held his drive-in rallies, and quietly plodded along, slow and steady. While Trump was racing around the country, putting on big shows, flaunting the rules, and making fun of his sleepy opponent. But now he’s the one having a PITY PARTY.
Good name for a Biology Teacher, I put in Herb. The reason is when I was in High School, our school decided that everyone was always late for Home Room, that it would make more sense to have home room between first and second period. Instead of the 5 minute between classes break, it would be 15 minutes so we could go to home room and get our attendance taken.
I had a double period of Biology for first and second period, giving us a 15 minute break in between. My friends and I thought it would be a good idea to go smoke pot during that break.
We would come back to Biology wasted out of our minds and I am sure, reeking. Our biology teacher's first name was HERB. He was a cool, hippie kind of guy. He had long hair and we thought he was so cool. We used to say he was growing pot in the little Science Greenhouse. Anyway, Herb KNEW we were stoned, but he was not going to turn us in, just kind of give us hell, sort of make us paranoid. Well, those were the days- 1978. I guess HERB is more like a BOTANY teacher's name.
Wow, what a pure delight, and a debut as well. This is definitely going to make our newcomer constructor a favorite of mine. Had a little frisson of “freaky” in that my start was identical, and I mean identical to that reported by @Rex. I could have written that word for word. Freaky.
My solve went counter clockwise pretty much. Got stuck on XMAN, because I just don’t know that genre (except for what I have learned from solving), and I thought the answer to 12D was probably StART rather than SMART. Really wanted it to be Seed MONEY, but alas. So for me the very last square (with a Simpsonean “Doh!”) was the M. What can I say, it was early.
Our always positive @Lewis along with OFL said it all for me. Congrats to. NAM JIN YOON! I am perfecting some bread recipes and I smell that a proof is done and ready to be “loafed” and proofed again - gotta go bake.
Very enjoyable. Sixteen longs, smart cluing, sparkly.
What makes a puzzle hard for me is where there are a lot of entries I don't know at all. For instance, a recent Saturday had 18 of these mysteries. Today there were only three - - POWERSUITS, ROSEN, FORTY. And since I had filled in a lot of the surrounding letters, they were easily guessed. So it was pretty easy but not at all boring.
I thought it was "teatotaler" too. The etymology seems to be cloudy.
Today's WSJ has a Patrick Berry variety puzzle titled Trail Mix. He's done a few of them before. It's a 14x14 grid with no black squares. There are two words in each row. Each of these letters are checked by trails of letters of different shapes. You can download a PDF without being a subscriber. I suppose you can transfer it into your app.
I enjoyed this Saturday puzzle a lot - flew thru it at first & then got caught up. All in all, a fun puzzle.
TEETOTALER is wrong. The word is TEETOTALER.
I see a two-T mini-theme: TIME TRAVEL, TORTOISE, TASTEBUDS, ANT TRAPS, TARTT (technically 3, but the double-T ending stands on its own), BLOTTER, AUTOTUNES, PITY PARTY, TEETOTALER.
Odd-one out today is two-F FAIR'S FAIR, sitting right there in the cat-bird seat were this a truly themed puzzle.
But whither gone the two-L llama? Off into an Andean sunset, I suppose -- today is brought to you by the honest letter "T".
TARTT -- Foraging for something new, I ordered a used copy of Donna TARTT's "The Secret History" (1992) this morning. It was her first of three novels, published in ten-year increments. I'll read it when I get through Walter McAffrey's biography, "Elizabeth I."
@Jim 10:22. The placement of the "?" seems arbitrary. IMO they shouldn't be used at all but especially not on Fri and Sat. A "?" is the cluer's way of telling you that you're not smart enough to get it. Same for "say" and "in a way".
gross
@Nancy 10:47 AM - Wonderful anecdote!
___
@egsforbreakfast 11:36 AM - Genii, indeed! One big happy family. LOL / Btw, "Queen's Gambit" : my all-time fav series, bar none.
Today's constructor (thx Nam) recommends: The Secret History - Donna Tartt. Got it on hold. Will take a look at "The Goldfinch", too (hi @amyyanni 8:50 AM).
Nam and Jeff comments on "X-Word Info": here.
Amy Reynaldo comments on "Diary of a Crossword Fiend" here. / Tylenol BM (thx to Amy).
5-Hour Empathy parody
A few of my favorite "time travel novels": 11/22/63 / Time and Again / Kindred / Outlander
Not sure I ever had a "piña colada"; never really liked hard liquor, although forced it down at the EMC from time to time. Always took a bottle of peppermint schnapps with us on trips from Long Beach to Tijuana, early '60s. Happy to say, tho, coming up on 50 years a "teetotaler". / Another "teetotaler" article.
Peace Paz Paix 🕊
@Teedmn (11:12) re TARTT -- Had I read your post before clicking the "Proceed to Checkout" button this morning, I might have more money in my pocket. But I'll read it even so and, if there's something to say, report back.
I complete perhaps 25% of the Saturday puzzles. I finished today's Nam Jin Yoon puzzle. No Google, no helpers. I didn't even have to ask my wife for help. :-) So all the complaints about "too easy" or "wrong day" hit me wrong. I'm not trying to put anyone down, so don't take offence, but I'll GLADLY take a finished puzzle like this one on a Saturday.
@Whatsername, love your icon/avatar. Do you live or are you from KC? I'm in a KC suburb. Chiefs on a roll again. Hoping for a second-in-a-row Superbowl trophy. I hope Mahomes gets MVP again. Go Chiefs!
To those in the commentariat who complain that Rex is too hard on the NYT puzzle. Just look at the feedback on this puzzle. I daresay it's buoyant ... joyful ... even giddy. Now compare to the comments nearly every other day - the "likes," "fines," "cutes," etc. we typically see.
Of course, not every puzzle will be as sparkling, fresh, and fun as this one, but shouldn't we expect more than what gets thrown out to us regularly (and especially on Sundays).
I, for one, am grateful this year that Rex is pushing for better puzzles on behalf of all of us in the solving world.
@Joe D. from late last night: Thanks for the musical notation info. My piano teacher only taught me only one name for each for those dual-named keys. Specifically: F-sharp, D-flat, E-flat, A-flat, and B-flat. He probably thought: This is such a musical notation-challenged child already, so thoroughly hopeless at sight-reading, let's not confuse her any further.
Everything went smoothly until I had to write in the T at the intersection TARTT and TOR. Didn't get TOR but now see it's short for Toronto.
I must know what the ‘risqué’ word is. Is it another word for woman. Other than that I got nothin.
Yep, much too easy for a Sat. My only hiccup was roc before ORC. Liked it a bunch, but it was just not a Sat. puzzle.
@anonymoose - I agree that the “?” seems arbitrary at times and I agree that it’s absence on Friday and Saturday would be fair. I’m sure I will surprise no one by saying I’d much prefer challenge from word play and misdirection to challenge from names and trivia.
@mathgent said regarding TEETOTALER, The etymology seems to be cloudy. I don’t know where you looked but I checked etymology online, Merriam-Webster, American Heritage, and Lexico and the only disagreement is over the first documented use (sometime in the 1830’s, suggesting it was in the oral language before it was documented in writing). Basically, the T from total is repeated for emphasis, i.e. T-Total.
I liked this one a lot. Unlike Rex, I struggled with NW as an entry point. Tried both across, then down there and only had 19A mostly because three letter TV shows in brief are often SNL. Also had playERS for 6D which didn't help. Then went through all the acrosses and had about six entries. One pass through all the downs got maybe half a dozen more, mostly in SE. I built on those and somehow set a PR*, even with the slow start. Looks like I'm the fortieth one to do so.
I learned about a FORTY from the movie Blind Side (great movie, BTW). Someone asks for a "forty" for Michael Oher and a very large beer bottle appears. Learn something new every day.
I got TEETOTALER and OVERSHARES off a couple of downs using cryptograms experience. When my kids were teenagers and dad would drone on, they came up with referee signals to call foul. Passing a flat hand over the top of the head was for oversharing (TMI nowadays) and waiving the hand over the ears was for roughing the listener. The attempt to assess a five dollar penalty failed.
For most of my engineering career, the offices had DRESSCODEs and I wore a suit and tie for a long time. Casual Friday was a welcome change. I don’t recall if POWERSUITS were allowed.
I know TOR from geology but also knew the team names. Learned what a CARREL is.
*Not to mislead – not a speed solver. My times are usually 5 to 8 Rexes as today was.
@Nancy 10:47 AM - Wonderful anecdote!
___
@egsforbreakfast 11:36 AM - Genii, indeed! One big happy family. LOL / Btw, "Queen's Gambit" : my all-time fav series, bar none.
Today's constructor (thx Nam) recommends: The Secret History - Donna Tartt. Got it on hold. Will take a look at "The Goldfinch", too (hi @amyyanni 8:50 AM).
Nam and Jeff comments on "X-Word Info": here.
Amy Reynaldo comments on "Diary of a Crossword Fiend" here. / Tylenol BM (thx to Amy).
5-Hour Empathy parody
Peace Paz Paix 🕊
@J-Dip 930am Hilarious reality check!
@Unknown 1156am Thanks for clearing that up. 😉
Rex's usual complaints aren't just to complain. He complains when puzzles are stale, old, the clues are "of yore" and themes have been dones hundreds of times.
It's easy to say, well what does he want? This is the kind of puzzle he wants. It's clear he wants present day, modern cluing and answers.
I've only been here a few months but that is basically all there is to his opinions on the puzzles. Don't give me old, dried up crap!
He's not crotchety and whiny. He hates old-fashioned, stale, crosswordese-filled puzzles. This puzzle proves that ot is possible to make a current day one.
Don't know about the etymology but I always thought it was teatotaler. I put GENa, which made no sense but neither did TEETOTALER. The only rough bit in a very enjoyable puzzle.
@bocamp
You seem to have linked to the 24 Hour Energy sketch. Here's 5 Hour Empathy.
Yep, a good one!
👍🏽❤️🧩❤️👍🏽
Couple of great things about this puzzle:
1. Understandable errors in the fill were soon corrected by filling in good long clues. For example, I had grit and peep for 2 and 3 down, but they were rapidly corrected by "time travel", right on top of "are you game", which I got right away.
2. On the SE corner pina colada had teetotaler right below it. And then right above was overshare, which might happen from too many pina coladas.
Very good SatPuz. Especially enjoyed the "Fabled beneficiaries" mini-theme [See TORTOISE & FROGPRINCE].
Didn't knows: PRAT. TARTT. POWERSUITS [kinda inferable, tho]. ROSEN.
fave sparklers: TIMETRAVEL. SANTA. GENE [clue].
fave puzgrid feature: The Jaws of Themelessness. Good to see em. Been a while.
Pretty eazy-E solvequest at our house, for a SatPuz. Appreciated the combo of smooth fillins and clues with 'tude.
Thanx for the fun, Nam Jin Yoon. And congratz on yer soph puz effort.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
@birchbark, I will be interested in your opinion of the book. It may be that my dislike of books set in college colored my opinion of the plot.
@foxaroni: Always happy to meet a fellow fan of the World Champion Kansas City Chiefs. @Joaquin is also one of us. I grew up in central Missouri and lived in KC many years ago, now settled in the Springfield area. I’ve been a fan since Super Bowl One, the earliest football game I can ever recall watching. It’s been my dream all these years to see them win another Super Bowl and it still seems like a dream that it finally happened. Who knows what this weird season is going to bring but I too am hoping for a repeat. No matter what happens though, it sure is a grand time to be a fan!
I agree. Fun to solve. Fresh. Best NYT puzzle in a long time. Probably should have run on a Friday, but that's not the constructor's fault.
Today is day 41 of my streak! So close to having a FORTY on day 40~
Day 2 of being able to do it without a cheat.
@Unknown what is a teetotaler?
*** STUFF ALERT***
I have to say that SB's, um, interesting word that was allowed today made me wonder even more why INTROIT, which I had a few days ago, was "not on their word list". Not sure what the criteria are.
It's funny to see people mention the Patrick Berry quality of this. I pulled up the Saturday PB puzzle yesterday that Z recommended and accidentally did that one today (saw Saturday in the browser tab and didn't check the date, name or anything else). It was much tougher than this and had a fair amount of obscure PPP, but with some devilish clues elsewhere. Oddly filled in the entire East side and none of the West. I was thinking Rex is going to hate this. After seeing the blog today say EASY, I was ready to slam the computer shut. Then saw the completely different puzzle and realized my mistake. Side by side, they don't seem very similar. This one took less than half the time. Fun, though!
I actually own a copy of Antares AUTOTUNE, so that plopped right in.
Where is Rex? Also why is Nancy not complaining about on ORC from LOTR and an XMAN character? Why is Z having a pleasant interaction with an anonymouse? Nice that the spirit of Thanksgiving lasts a few days:)
Surprised at how many don’t know about FORTYs. And is that Ted Danson? I spent some time working at a party store* in the ‘80’s and FORTYs were pretty popular with certain clientele, i.e. those wanting to maximize their alcohol dollar. Also popular with that group was Mad Dog 20/20.
@Giovanni 1:25 - 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
@TTrimble - 2:00 - That video is viciously funny. 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
*party store
Posted this earlier as a reply instead of a new post. But any way if my job was counting the number of small pieces of golf equipment used only on initial strokes of each hole, or counting the number of uses of one letter of the alphabet in a library, I would be drinking.
A Google free Saturday. Start the day AUTOTUNEd. No PINACOLADA necessary. Maybe put on some Steely Dan and skip the IRON Butterfly or Maiden.
CARRELS- never ran into that word but have been in one.
Juicy (SOUPed uppy?) sparkly puz too easy for Saturn Day. Did I mention it was a no-cheat solve? Yes? You sure?
TAE BO and PLACE BO @bo camp had me reaching for the TOcAS bO.
Did I mention ...
@albatross shell 1:48 PM 👍
@TTrimble 2:00 PM - Right you are; my bad! Your link is "not available in my country", so there's this: 5-Hour Empathy - Did SNL Steal This Idea?
Best "time travel"novels (have read most of them).
___
50 yrs. a "teetotaler" at the end of Dec.
___
-12
Peace Paz Paix 🕊
@Teedmn – I read "The Goldfinch" and didn't think it was nearly as great as everyone was saying. There were a few things I liked in it, but overall I was unimpressed. It didn't make me want to read any more of her books.
***Stuff Alert***
Sorry, I have to ask the mods to be on the lookout for any spoiler comments for today's SB (letters AEFLMOT, central is F). (Although it would be nice if in such cases they could simply remove the spoiler and not the whole comment.)
I agree though with some commenters that some of the inclusions can be seen alternately as eyebrow-raising and capricious. A non-spoiler in this respect is the fact that "dildo" is acceptable (last seen some days back), but not "clit". I'm not sure what Sam Ezersky's criteria are in this regard.
Lots of ordinary words don't make the cut. Some time back I was shocked when the perfectly prosaic "deglaze" and "deglazed" were not accepted.
Right now I'm PG -4 for today's. I'm a little vexed.
Eliot is George Eliot (Pen name of Mary Anne Evans). She was a 19th century British novelist most widely known for the novel Silas Marner that many of my generation had to read in English class in high school.
@Unknown 12:56. Both are wrong. The word you actually want is TEETOTALER.
More seriously, I am guessing that you meant to say "TEETOTALLER", and that you are from or living in an area where British English is spoken.
Regarding inclusion or non-inclusion of words in The Bee: Definitely not allowed are proper nouns, foreign words, abbreviations and obscenities. CLIT is probably disallowed for being vulgar slang. DEGLAZE is probably considered too obscure. I think the obscurity factor is the big gray area. DILDO and today's word of note are real terms for real things and hence allowed. That's my 2 ABES worth (the penny not the fiver).
@TTrimble - We can only approve, disapprove, or delete entire comments.
@Wannabee
We agree then that "too obscure" is in the eye of the beholder. I don't know whether you do SB regularly, but IMHO there is no way that the ordinary cooking term "deglaze" is more obscure than say "callaloo". Examples like these could be multiplied ad nauseam.
If the letters CILORST should ever appear, then your "real terms for real things" hypothesis might be put to the test. "Clit" is of course a "real thing"; perhaps it's slangy, but so are a lot of accepted words. As for "vulgar", it's only a shortening of "clitoris" which is both a well-known English word as well as a sanctioned medical term that isn't at all vulgar. I won't argue this further, but I'm just saying I'm curious how Ezersky would treat CILORST.
***SORRY, MORE SB STUFF***
@Wannabee--I recognize the categories you point out and understand them. My problem is with what is considered "too obscure". I wanted DEGLAZE too and I'm no cook. I could probably look at the QB list from any random day and find several words that I would consider "too obsure", and yet there they are. I applaud those of you that regularly achieve QB, but I suspect that sometimes you are guilty of entering combinations of letters that look like they might be words, and I just can't do that. But I have to add that SB is just a ton of fun.
Excellent puzzle. Kudos to Mr. (not a guess; looked him up) Yoon on his 2nd NYT effort. There’s a week’s worth of interesting, clever answers in one puzzle. That said, the GPAS AND PRAT cross was a bridge too far — not just for me, but apparently several others. Nowadays, when you clue “Tube”, especially with a capital “T”, you think of YouTube first. Honestly thought “P-Rat" was some kind of internet star until I looked it it up. Embarrassed to admit, I had to run the alphabet to get that last square. Nevertheless, very satisfying. Boy, “Bill the Cat" yesterday, this one today — Will, you’re on a roll!
Agreed! Should have known “reschedule” was too easy, and BACARDI RUM made perfect sense for an official drink of PR. Would have been a good day to start with the down clues instead.
Running backs are not RUSHERS. They are offense.
@Swingfish
I beg to differ.
Sam Ezersky's P&A puzzle was fun today.
@Joe Dipinto
Oh, holy cow! I didn't check the byline. I also enjoyed Puns and Anagrams.
A bit easier than normal but I really liked this! I thought the theme was clever; I couldn't get it until I had solved much of the puzzle but then I got it and it helped me solve the rest which is what a good theme should do. Can't help but notice that I like puzzles by female constructors more (I happen to be female). This suggests that the NYT could broaden is solver audience signficantly if it ramped up the number of female constructors included.
Easiest. Saturday. Ever.
Just the opposite of OFC, I not only didn't know TARTT, but was convinced I'd misstepped somewhere in the NE with that -RTT ending, while Jacky ROSEN is actually MY senator--and today's DOD to boot. (I have a thing about the name Jacky: it was the name of my first real crush.)
This was one of those puzzles where a first scan of the clue list elicited a "Huh?" but then began to open up like the petals of a flower, and almost before I knew it I was done. So, triumph points at least for the first reaction. Such solves are always pleasurable for me, and at 69 words (gotta be at least close to a record), done in pretty good time. Also no fill worries.
If truly a debut, this is fantastic. A rare instance when I'd say "DO give up your day job; this is now it!" Eagle.
Two good ones in a row! Liked most of it but found the crossing of 40D and 42A a bit unfair. I guessed correctly by going with the O in ELION. TARTT was a complete unknown and looked wrong, but it was getable via the crosses so FAIRSFAIR and no PITYPARTY if you missed that one I had GENa before GENE and that was only because I had TEaTOTALER at first. Went with GENE instead of GENa and looked up the etymology of TEETOTALER. Was surprised it had nothing to do with drinking tea instead of the demon rum
MBA OVERSHARES
The SMARTMONEY is on a SURESHOT,
a PITY your POWERSUIT'S so lame,
and I've SEEN that PARTY DRESS you've got,
ONCE you OPT to PET, AREYOU FAIR GAME?
--- ELIOT ROSEN
This was a good puz, but awfully easy for a Saturday. Seems like lotsa folks like it that way. I would expect more of a challenge. Not a hint of a write-over; not even the popular PEn before PET, since I already had ELIOT. Although I really wanted to put in 'reschedule' at 1a, but wisely checked crosses first.
That's probably as close as a TEETOTALER ever gets to a PINACOLADA.
The corners will get you ARTS RATS TARS TSAR STAR.
Hope this constructor is SEEN again.
Agree, that “T” was my only red ink in today’s puzzle...
Great puzzle. Certainly easy for a Saturday, but an absolute pleasure to solve. One write-over at PEn/T, and a little time getting OCT (was trying jan, dec, cnd feb for awhile, but CEDE gave it up). So smooth, and reeking of competence.
A smooth, gettable puzzle, relatively easy for Saturday. Especially the 3-stacks in the NW and SE, and the long downs in the NE and SW.
The middle was another matter.
Never being a big time beer drinker, FORTY didn’t exist. After looking it up the rest fell into place.
I like NJY’s style.
I agree with @Rainy - a pleasure to solve. Completed in one sole sitting, with cats, early in the morn.
Diana, LIW
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