.png)
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: RAS the Exhorter (34D: ___ the Exhorter, character in Ralph Ellison's "Invisible Man") —
One of the most memorable characters in the novel, Ras the Exhorter (later called Ras the Destroyer) is a powerful figure who seems to embody Ellison’s fears for the future of the civil rights battle in America. Ras’s name, which literally means “Prince” in one of the languages of Ethiopia, sounds simultaneously like “race” and “Ra,” the Egyptian sun god. These allusions capture the essence of the character: as a passionate black nationalist, Ras is obsessed with the idea of race; as a magnificently charismatic leader, he has a kind of godlike power in the novel, even if he doesn’t show a deity’s wisdom. Ras’s guiding philosophy, radical at the time the novel was published, states that blacks should cast off oppression and prejudice by destroying the ability of white men to control them. This philosophy leads inevitably to violence, and, as a result, both Ellison and the narrator fear and oppose such notions. Yet, although Ellison objects to the ideology that Ras embodies, he never portrays him as a clear-cut villain. Throughout the novel, the reader witnesses Ras exert a magnetic pull on crowds of black Americans in Harlem. He offers hope and courage to many. By the late 1960s, many black leaders, including Malcolm X, were advocating ideas very similar to those of Ras. (sparknotes.com)
• • •
But ITHACAN would've been a cinch if I hadn't made the catastrophic error I mentioned back in the second sentence of this write-up: see, I'd gotten GRASSHOPPER easy from *its* back end (42A: Southern cocktail made with crème de menthe, crème de cacao and cream), and since it was the only thing in the middle of the grid I checked all its crosses and hey, did you know that there are two rainbow (i.e. Roy G. Biv) colors that fit the pattern "____G_"!? Well, there are. And I, I took the one more traveled by (ORANGE!), and that made me fall on my face. All the wrong letters! So THIRD STRIKE and ITHACAN stayed hidden far far longer than they would have otherwise. Oh, I should also mention that I haven't read "The Invisible Man" since college (decades ago), so I had no hope for any of the letters in RAS. I rely so heavily on short fill to give me traction when I'm in trouble, and that was the short fill I needed the most, and it just didn't come through for me. Ah well.
Really loved PORCH SWING and COME AND GO and "HEAR ME OUT!" They gave the grid some pep (an odd thing to say about something as folksy as a PORCH SWING, maybe, but that's how it felt). I had no idea a coxswain STEERed, LOL, I thought they just shouted rowing commands (51D: What coxswains do). I also had no idea the French also had the concept of "maid-of-honor," so I just stared at 47D: Many a demoiselle d'honneur wondering what a "girl of honor" was ... sounded like maybe a euphemism for ... an old profession. So that was weird. Only worked out the wedding context once I got the ordinary French word for "friend" (f.). It seems a bit flippant and dismissive to call PETA's (or anyone's) objection to FURS a "pet peeve" (55A: PETA pet peeves). My "pet peeve" is when people talk loudly on their phones when they're out for a walk (just enjoy the walk—and the quiet—you ghouls), or when people spell it "woah" ... both things nowhere near as serious as torturing and then killing animals solely for fashion. "Pet peeves" is awful here. Something more straightforward, less diminishing is called for. That's all. Good day.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
At 14-A I had V_L_A_ _ _ _ _, and confidently dropped in Valpariso, which isn’t spelled correctly and isn’t Catholic. It took a while to get that straightened out.
ReplyDeleteSidebar: Eventually I checked Wiki to read about Valparaiso and Villanova Universities. Wiki says the tuition at Villanova is a whopping $57,710. My senior year (1964) tuition at one of the best public universities in the US was $92.00/semester.
By all accounts, Jared Leto is a terrible person who harrasses costars (e.g., sending used condoms to Margot Robbie because he was "method" as the Joker) and is transphobic. So, you know. Lovely start to my morning to see him in the puzzle. /s.
ReplyDeleteI think this is my favorite so far this week. I’m vaguely recalling @TJS complaining about an earlier puzzle already being the POW, but I don’t think I especially liked that puzzle. Not in love with the double PPP stack out of the gate crossing the “ooh look, NAVE spelt backwards is a name” (note to anyone new here - spelling and anagramming are the lowest form of cheap cluing tricks in my opinion) clue. But that was where I finished the puzzle, as I actually filled it from SW to SE to NE. Hence, I didn’t actually notice the sour “start” until the end so it didn’t ruin my whole experience.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite clue was for FINAL DRAFT. Paper cuts where the cuts are editing to get to a writing term (not a wrighting term) about DRAFTs all as my sports apps think I care about the NBA DRAFT. I just loved the serendipity (btw - sports DRAFTs are anti-capitalism and anti-labor and should be outlawed as the violations of anti-trust laws that they are /sports business rant).
I had very similar THIRD STRIKE musings, going so far as taking STRIKE out because it just doesn’t equate to the idiom “last straw.” Like Rex I reconciled myself to lawyering a justification for it, but I’m not happy about it. I like the answer (My Tigers are not the worst team in baseball and actually look like they have a core to build around, now, not just a bunch of “prospects” that never become anything more, so thinking about baseball is good again), but the clue pushed me to my last straw.
I (sort of) agree with Rex. Going for the “pet” joke for FURS is probably a little too dark to pass everyone’s breakfast test. It doesn’t particularly bother me, but when half the room is booing and hissing maybe go a different direction.
But these are mostly nits. 75% of the solve was enjoyable and the PPP crapfest in the NW didn’t bother me because I ignored it until the end and it didn’t ruin an otherwise pleasant solve.
It’s not my blog, but I would think readers would be more interested, for instance, in an explication of why “come and go” is an answer than in Rex’s not thinking about Ithaca. Jim
ReplyDelete(@rex -- Very nice writeup, with some very funny moments.)
ReplyDeleteWell, this had a bit of everything, a pleasing quilt of a Friday.
There was fun in the clues for BARK, CANOE, and FINAL DRAFT. There were a couple of splat fills that included long answers. There were pockets of resistance, including little answers I didn’t know, such as NSC (as clued) and the rare non-dorm RAS, and some tricky clues. There were self-conversations, such as when [What “2” can mean] made me go “It can’t be TWO, it can’t be TWO,” and, whew, it wasn’t.
There was that mini-theme of 11 words ending in O, including the sing-song ECKO / LETO / TORO / ERGO. And the glorious PuzzPair© of neighbors SPOT and BARK. And, finally, a moment of amazement that this is the first time in NYT crossword history that POLICE TAPE has been in a puzzle.
A sprinkle of this, a sprinkle of that, and the next thing I knew, I had a most lovely experience, and I’m grateful for it, Eric!
Really nice puzzle. I didn’t like ITHACAN - it’s bad fill but other than that and maybe RAGU solid all around. PORCH SWING, FINAL DRAFT and EL CAPITAN were all fantastic as was the clue for POLICE TAPE.
ReplyDeleteA little too quick - but an enjoyable Friday solve.
I filled in the top of this so fast I thought we might have a Monday Friday, but I was quickly disabused of that notion as things came to a screeching halt somewhere near the middle. Couldn't think of Joe TORRE and had some letters that suggested BERRA, but I knew that couldn't be right. Then put an answer in the wrong place, because eyesight. Finally got a restart on my second cup of coffee and things that had been hidden started falling in, so a very satisfying solve.
ReplyDeleteHave to say that TORO is about the least imaginative name for a bull mascot that I could think of, and reminds me that many years ago there was a suggestion for a pro team (soccer?) in Toronto to be named the "Toronto Toros". Whoever was reporting this said it made about as much sense as, say, "The Mexico City Canucks".
Great Friday, EB. Just chewy enough. Take the Fridazo Prize as an Earned Bonus.
A nit. El Capitan (1A) in Yosemite is a glacial-carved cliff or a formation or a wall or a promontory but it’s not a “peak.” A peak denotes a mountain, which El Cap is not.
ReplyDeleteThat threw me as well.
DeleteThx, Eric for a mighty fine Fri. puz! :)
ReplyDeleteMed solve.
Got EL CAPITAN right off, then smugly reversed apse for ESPA which got the axe for NAVE, leading the way to VILLANOVA, and the entire upper portion of the puz was history.
Had a bit of a struggle in the SE, which turned the puz from easy to slightly under medium.
Very much on my wavelength for the most part, and very enjoyable in every way. :)
Sang LIDA Rose with our barbershop chorus. (video: Buffalo Bills from 'The Music Man'.
@TTrimble
I'm betting you'll get that 5er from yd. 🤞
___
yd 0
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Tolerance ~ Health ~ Kindness to all ~ 🕊
NETS or NABS slowed me down, as well.
ReplyDeleteKind of cast: PLASTER. Served me well until it became ALLSTAR.
ReplyDeleteI agree with @pabloinnh that this looked too easy for a Friday in the NW, but got harder as you went down the grid. I thought yesterday's was a lot more challenging and, of course, trickier, and I did like it more, but this was a solid puzzle with some very nice clues. I especially liked those for RESET, BARK and FINAL DRAFT, though the question mark sort of gives the first two away.
ReplyDeleteI had NetS before NABS for "hauls in" and I had -- as I always do -- NSA before NSC. This gave me AANOE at 50D which just wouldn't do.
All you anti-baseball people who complain whenever there are too many baseball clues: You must be thrilled that THIRD STRIKE was clued not by baseball but by a TV game show. I thought it was pretty odd to do so, but it came in just fine anyway -- even though I never heard of RAS.
As for ECKO: "Fashion designer Marc" will always be Jacobs to me. That is to say when I think about fashion at all -- which is just about never.
I'm 17 and can do Monday through Friday pretty regularly but I HATE when simple, interesting enough words or phrases are clued as obscure alcoholic drinks. Last week it was SEABREEZE and this week it's GRASSHOPPER. How is nytxw supposed to be more relevant and welcoming to younger solvers when they do this?! Yes, both were pretty easily parsed from the crosses, but it's still a shame that alcoholism is so deeply ingrained in American culture. If you're going to clue regular things as depressant drugs you might as well start cluing cannabis varieties. Even weed isn't as bad as alcohol not to mention that cluing fancy cocktails only stresses the socioeconomic status difference between the solvers you know you have and the solvers you try to attract.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteHall of Shame: I'm not a speed solver; far from it. But I do tend to skim the clues and sometimes I'm a little too "skimmy". I read the clue for 34D as "... character in ... 'Invisible Man'". I thought of the H.G. Wells novel, *The* Invisible Man. I've never read it and I didn't know it had a three-letter character, but happily RAS was inferable from crosses. The link to Ellison's novel didn't hit me until I came here.
@Joaquin: Were you an in-state student? I also attended one of the best public universities in the US, but I was out-of-state and my senior year tuition (1969) was $1800/semester. Still a far cry from Villanova.
@PeterOregon: Thank you. I was wondering whether El Capitan qualifies as a "peak".
Cornell is not an Ivy
ReplyDeleteYes it is
DeleteIs too
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivy_League
DeleteCan anyone explain net/tab at 35 across?
ReplyDelete"Are you the ones with the red CANOE?"
ReplyDeleteI've lived in this town of 670 or so souls for twenty years, but I meet people all the time. In the small talk of establishing which house, etc., is ours, it emerges that our old CANOE on the bank of the St. Croix River, a mile or so upstream from the main village, is a recognized part of the landscape. Once its image is invoked, the conversation meanders forward.
Orange, yes! Same mistake. Nice to see Lida Rose: won my high school drama award for playing Eulalie M. Shin, the mayor's wife, in "Music Man." Now, up and at 'em. Moving causes one to reflect upon the nature of stuff, and too much thereof.
ReplyDeleteMan! I was clicking on all cylinders with this one. It doesn't even matter that I don't have any cylinders - I was clicking on them.
ReplyDeleteBad news: It was over too soon.
That double "I" of IIMAGINESO cost me a few nanos (sneaky!), but that was the only holdup.
I, IMAGINESO, Ancient Roman lord of daydreams and revelry declare this puzzle SNO SOSO - S'Marveloso.*
*I know it's wrong, but meraviglioso doesn't work. Besides, Stephen Sondheim is not a playwright. 😉
🧠.75
🎉🎉🎉.5
I had exactly the same thought about PETA pet peeve. It would be like clueing TORTURE as "Amnesty International pet peeve".
ReplyDelete@anonymous represent!
ReplyDeleteI initially wrote in ITHiCAN off of the first I, then thought "wait, it's ITHACAN, right?" and changed it, then thought "well, that doesn't look right" and went back to ITHiCAN. The cross was of no help whatsoever, so finished with ITHiCAN/RiS.
ReplyDeleteSPOT crossing FURS = 101 Dalmatians.
Cornell is most certainly an Ivy.
ReplyDelete@Anon 7:09 Something that doesn't last may be said to COME AND GO. Like my earnings.
ReplyDeleteI suspect that anonymous at 8:30 is older than 17...
ReplyDeleteNot one to get offended by crossword puzzles but not sure the PETA joke landed. @8:41- Cornell is indeed in the Ivy League.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone explain the relationship between Iron and CLUB? Everything else made sense but when I finished I got the "keep trying" message and obsessed over that NW corner thinking it couldn't be CLUB/NABS because CLUB makes no sense.
ReplyDeleteTurns out my problem was I had RIS/ITHICAN instead of RAS/ITHACAN but I finally had to break down and do some googling to figure that one out (I would have bet money ITHACA is spelled with an I in the middle)
Golf is the relationship between iron and club. Do you know what connects net & tab at 35A?
DeleteIt's not NET and TAB, it is CHECK (restaurant/bar) and TAB!!
Delete@David Grenier -- An iron is a golf CLUB.
ReplyDelete@Anon,8:30. Lighten up, Francis. If you sound like this at 17, you're gonna be a real riot to hang around with at 30. Roll a joint. Save the roach. Pound a beer or two. Just my opinion, of course, but it's always worked for me.
ReplyDeleteAs for the puzzle, kind of a letdown for a Friday, but way better than any of the rest this week.
A very nice Friday and a little above average in resistance.
ReplyDelete@Roo, I missed your Wednesday comment so a belated best wishes for you father.
@Nancy, great video clip yesterday. If I ever mansplain anything just shoot me.
Easiest Friday in a long while for me. Ran right through this thing. But no complaints. Well composed puzzle.
ReplyDeleteNot to GLOAT but I was pretty proud of myself for finishing this. It was like pulling a MOLAR to start with but I set my AIMS and persevered until I could STEER a course to the finish. Pretty standard Friday, not that there’s anything wrong with that.
ReplyDeleteI loathe the very existence of FURS unless you’re talking fake ones. That said, I actually own a beautiful mink cape but have never worn it, not once. It belonged to my dear departed mother-in-law and I’ve just never been able to part with it.
Would an oniomanic VILLANOVA student buying beads in New Orleans be called a Mardi GRAS SHOPPER? Oh THATS RICH.
Easy, fun to solve. LIDA ROSE was lovely with PORCH SWING. I can almost smell the lilacs scenting the summer evening air.
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why growing animals for their furs is any worse then growing animals for meat. We use countless resources, farmland, water, rainforest destruction, so people can have cheap burgers. Why is fur such a big deal compared to that? It's all selfish and unsustainable. Sure, people can eat meat, but not in the factory farming way.
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDelete@kitshef 9:08's DNF was my DNF also. Dang. After fixing NetS to NABS, I thought I was golden. But... Almost There! Argh! Hit Check Puzzle, crossed out that I in ITHiCAN.
My hardest spot was the NW. ELCAPITAN was nicely hidden, and stupid brain refused to see VILLANOVA, even though I thought it was VILLAsomething. "VILLArOca? VILLAcOsa?" Har. Originally had pLaSTeR for ALLSTAR. Good misdirect.
Never heard of SNO-Seal. Where are the infomercials on that? I only see FlexSeal. And OxyClean.
Some nice clues. HOOKAH bars are still kind of big out here. In case you didn't know (because I never told you!) I'm no longer a Limo driver. I work at a Classic car place now. 🙂👍 14 years of driving rich people around was enough. Har. So not 100% on those HOOKAH bars anymore, especially after the Covid shut-down.
Anyway, my rambling aside, nice FriPuz that seemed tough to crack at first, but eventually fell to my awesome puz solving ways. 😋 (Pay no attention to the DNF behind the curtain.)
And thanks again to all for the well wishes the past two days.
Oh, how does "2" = TOO? Thanks.
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Being indignant because a puzzle refers to someone whose character is less than sterling is pretty ridiculous. It would be one thing if the clue extolled the person for the act(s) that makes them despicable. If a crossword were to clue, say, "Spacey" as "Hollywood star known for patting the behinds of young actors" we could be righteously indignant. But if the clue is merely "He played Keyser Soze," why is that wrong? Should we excuse the name of any person accused of any impropriety from the NYTX?
ReplyDeleteWhich brings me to yesterday's puzzle and Millard Fillmore (born 1800). He grew up in the Finger Lakes area of NY and when he was a youngster, befriended a neighbor who'd moved to the area in around 1814. That neighbor was Daniel Shays. He apparently talked with Millard about the fate of impoverished people in Massachusetts, many of them Revolutionary soldiers, who were sometimes imprisoned for debt and lost their small farms and homes, which led to Shays' Rebellion.
Fillmore was elected to the NY State Assembly in 1828 on the anti-Masonic ticket and lobbied hard to abolish debtors' prison. In 1831 the state did so, and the first banktruptcy laws were enacted.
Fine piece of work. Enjoyed solving it.
ReplyDeleteWhere does 2 mean TOO? Rap music?
Torre sits pretty in that sequence of Yankee immortals. 3, Ruth. 4, Gehrig. 5, DiMag. 7, Mantle.
@Conrad (8:31) - Yes. I was an in-state student. Perhaps a more fair comparison would be the cost at USC at the time. It was $65 per credit hour, or almost $1000/semester. Today, USC charges almost exactly the same as Villanova. And my alma mater's in-state tuition has increased by a multiple of fifty since I graduated, far outstripping even real estate in the hottest markets.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous (8:30 AM)
ReplyDeleteWell said!
@kitshef (9:08 AM) / @David Grenier (9:33 AM) / @RooMonster (10:04 AM)
Same issue with ITHACAN / RAS, but for me, the 'A' looked better, so I lucked out there.
___
pg -1
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Tolerance ~ Health ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Easy-medium. I’ve seen the movie so EL CAPITAN was a gimme and it went pretty smoothly from there. I’m also rewatching “The Wire” so that helped. That said, the bottom half was a tad tougher than the top.
ReplyDeletePlenty of sparkle, liked it.
@bocamp - I ran apse backwards in my head but never put it in.
FWIW I found this:
ReplyDeleteEl Capitan is a peak in Culberson County, Texas, located within Guadalupe Mountains National Park. The 10th-highest peak in Texas at 8,085 ft (2,464 m), El Capitan is part of the Guadalupe Mountains, an exposed portion of a Permian period reef uplifted and exposed by tectonic activity during the late Cretaceous period.
Said I, "Texas has mountains?"
(Pssst. I know 1A refers to Yosemite.)
Unknown @8:50: TAB= “check” as in “I’ll pick up the TAB for dinner.” But I wonder how “check” became synonymous with “bill”?
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you. I couldn’t pick up that connection for some reason!
DeleteI drank my first GRASSHOPPER when I was 17. I was a freshman at the U. of Wisconsin (for which I paid $26 a semester, a discounted rate because I was in the top 10% of my high school class; most in-state students paid $110). Anyway, our dorm had its annual banquet in the spring, and one of the criteria was that it had to be at a place that did not check IDs. I also had my first screwdriver, my first stinger, and a couple of other drinks. The results were not pretty. I never knew it was "southern," though.
ReplyDeleteMe too for 'netS' which really held me up -- EL CAPITAN had to be right (I've read about the movie, though not seen it) but EVAN was the only cross that worked in that section; I had to work around it until ADULTERER finally became inevitable.
Someone asked about COME AND GO, but it's straightforward; if something comes and goes, it doesn't last. I thought it was in the lyrics to "Our Love is Here to Stay," but no -- that's 'and in time may go.'
2 is textspeak, maybe UNIX speak before that, as in the immortal dialogue
I LUV U
I LUV U 2
I think TAB = check in the sense of 'keep tabs on,' though that's a stretch.
Fun fact: VILLANOVA is not an Ivy.
@whatsername 9:51 - 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽
ReplyDelete@Frantic Sloth - My brilliant late night soliloquy didn’t convince you? Well now I’m just depressed. Depressed enough to invite Millard Fillmore to dinner? No.
@Anon/17 - Do you know why more highly educated people drink more?
@They aren’t 17 - I dunno. I could have made that speech at 16. By 17 I was over it. But nothing says “teenager” better than the absolute certainty that you know everything. Which is sooooo annoying to those of us who do. 😂🤣😂
I'm curious how else you spell "woah"?
ReplyDeleteFound it! Re: TAB 35A=check=bill: (wrtingexplained.org). basically they all mean “a slip of paper as a receipt for something”
ReplyDeleteIt is speculated that check, meaning restaurant bill, originated from a few potential sources. It is thought to have evolved from the term check as it is used in chess. It may have also derived from another, more literal meaning of check, which is to ensure, or check, for accuracy on a document. During the 19th century, around the same time check was first used in this context, diners at restaurants would check their coats and hats and were given a slip of paper acknowledging receipt. Although its exact etymology is unknown, this is perhaps the most plausible explanation of its origin.
When I was 18 pretending to be 21 in a restaurant in New Orleans. the first cocktail I ever ordered was a GRASSHOPPER.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed it and many years later this puzzle as well.
I had pOO at 24A for a long time, and no regrets.
ReplyDelete2=Too if you are Prince (he used that technique quite a bit in song titles; one of his biggest hits was "I Would Die 4 U"), although I think the reference is to the shortening that we often see in texting.
ReplyDeleteTAB as in short for “TABulation” maybe? “Check” from “Checklist” maybe? Bill, check, and tab all have enough different meanings to be fine fodder for late week clueing. I did a quick peek at etymology online and found nothing illuminating.
ReplyDeleteOn tuition it’s probably fairer to compare tuition to minimum wage. How many hours would an 18 year old need to work to pay their own way? It’s still a shocking increase as most state legislatures have drastically reduced funding to public universities, but not quite as bad as the raw numbers suggest. There are other comparisons but I like using minimum wage because we still see this myth that a kid can put themselves through college. This has never been the case, but is less true now than ever in my life (If you were paying some tiny sum, the help was coming from the taxpayers- a good thing IMHO but still help).
I made the exact same error (orange for indigo.) Tough one today.
ReplyDeleteIt's fine, I live in Ithaca, made the same ORANGE mistake, and ended up struggling with my own town as I tried desperately to get a nickname for New Haveners to fit.
ReplyDeleteIt's not easy being green. And where did you have your first GRASS HOPPER you ask....Why... New Orleans of course. And what made you even want to tell us, you ask....Because @Whatsername made me laugh at Mardi GRAS SHOPPER....
ReplyDeleteNice little Friday romp. A few little "wait and see" moments. Is it TIT or is it TAT.? Does my start of the day begin with a SHOWER or Lattes? Is my grinder, teeth or MOLAR? So many questions...so many wait and sees.
I also don't think of FURS as a PETA pet peeve. As a child, I never much thought about where Mink stoles came from. My Mom, her friends, and my grandmother all wore them. Then I read what they did to the little beautiful critters....and they never ate them.....I'm pretty sure that if you wear a mink stole these days, someone would throw a bag of TORO caca at you.
I used to cheat at card...did that make me an ADULTERER?
Re: TAB, bill, check:
ReplyDeleteWhat the duck said to the barkeep: 'put it on my bill'.
Btw, when I moved to Vancouver in '76, I soon learned that the 'check' at a restaurant is called the 'bill'.
@jae (10:30 AM)
What? you sayin' ESPA isn't a legit name? It's just that SILLANOVA wasn't having it. 😂
___
pg -1
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Tolerance ~ Health ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Liked it much and not only because I finished (although I guess that had something to do with it.)
ReplyDeleteOrdinarily I don’t read Rex - I swore off months ago - but occasionally I peek. Can’t help it - it’s like watching a traffic accident. I was amused to find he couldn’t get ITHICAN. In my experience as a college professor, those of us in “lesser” institutions have the Ivies in their minds, in their hopes, in their dreams. I find it hard to believe Rex didn’t know the sevens and struggled with the tenant cities. There are only seven. I think he holds himself above those who fantasize being an Ivy professor.
I remembered the song I was thinking of.
ReplyDeleteHold me
through the bad times
Cause the glad times
they come and they go...
From "Molly-O, by Elmer Bernstein, from "The Man with the Golden Arm."
OMG - why did I have Third WIFE for the Family clue?????
ReplyDeleteI'm losing it - but I did enjoy this puzzle :)
Anonymous@ 830 am
ReplyDeleteYes & I hate the constant clues for Harry Potter
Why don't you have the b__lls to print your name?
Anyway, enjpy your Monday - Friday puzzles, as I do :)
I have this horrible habit of miswriting my letters. In this case, INDIGO went right in (didn't even think of orange) but my D looked a lot like an A, and I was totally mystified by THIRaSTRIKE. Some little known feature of a show I never, ever watch? Other than that, a pretty good puzzle. And yesterday, Johnny Cueto got quite a few THIRD STRIKES, and I was a happy camper, being a huge Giants fan, as we all are in this house. Well, except for a benighted grandson from Oregon who is a Mariners dude.
ReplyDeleteI too wondered about EL CAPITAN, which isn't very peakish, though it is a huge climbing destination. Always fun to take binoculars and look at the tiny climbers making the ascent, from a favorite spot in the Valley.
I knew what a GRASSHOPPER is. My stepfather never drank them, but our home bar had the ingredients, and I think he learned how to make most cocktails. My tastes in booze were formed when I was 18 or 19, and a dorm friend and I got in the habit of visiting the bar at a restaurant down by the Bayshore in East Palo Alto. The owner/bartender took us under his wing, and let us drink whatever we wanted, including the odd glass of creme de menthe (yuck!) and creme de cacao (yummy). I ended up liking gins and whiskeys, and to this day, I only drink Martinis (with vermouth, please) and Manhattans. But I think we actually had him make us a pousse-cafe, just to see what it was like. My main hangout was the Oasis in Menlo Park (now gone, alas!), where I learned to love Anchor Steam Beer, and ate many a burger or LA Sausage sandwich. The more popular quaff there was Coors, sold by the pitcher, and not bad, all things considered. Beer and wine only, but hardly anyone drank wine.
@JohnK:
ReplyDeleteI don't understand why growing animals for their furs is any worse then growing animals for meat.
First off, meat allows most of us to live. Second, with some exceptions, we don't 'grow' animals for their furs, we just kill the ones we find. Food is one thing, ostentatious adornment is Something Else.
The way we consume meat is a luxury, relative to the resources that are wasted in allowing us to do so. And no, most furs come from mink farms, ermine farms, etc, not trapped in the wild like it's the 19th century
Deleteyep. Agree with Anonymous colleague above, that 2 = POO more than 2 = TOO.
ReplyDeleteGreat fun for a themeless. Had yer 3 ?-marker clues, of which {Result of multiple paper cuts?} really stood out. NW started out with ELCAPITAN, from M&A's fave visited natl park.
staff weeject pick: RAS. Had no earthly idea, but can't help luvin anyone named RAS the Exhorter. Is he one of them coxswain dudes?
Many cool fillins, tho not quite sure what the seed entries might have been. That 3-pack of niners in the SE were sure extra sparkly, tho. Also they were all crossed by THATSRICH, poo boot. [2 good, 2.]
Thanx, Mr. Bornstein. ALLSTAR stuff.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
@Whatsername 951am 🤣🤣🤣 I bet @anonymous 830am would have appreciated that as a clue! Also, congrats on your rewarded tenacity! 👍
ReplyDelete@Roo 1004am You might have mentioned your career change before, but this is the first I heard of it. Alas, no more Ramblin' Roo. 😉
@Z 1047am 🤣 Somehow, I think you'll live, despite knowing how much you care about what other people think. Oh, and stick with the ping pong. 😉
How does an ATM "take cash"? It certainly takes a debit card, but I was definitely thrown off by the cash part of the clue
ReplyDelete@kitshef (9:08) Re SPOT FURS . . . “Puppies darling. I have no use for babies.”
ReplyDelete@Z (10:47) Not sure I deserve applause but I’ll take it, anytime. Thanks!
@GILL (11:34) And you made me laugh out loud with TORO caca. 🤣🤣🤣
Yeah, I guess Cornell is ‘technically’ an Ivy League school. Rex, you never disappoint.
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle. I almost gave up after my first run-through yielded precious little. But, at some point, the DAM burst and I flew through the last three-quarters. Thanks, Eric Bornstein, for a solid Friday test.
I think I have to turn in my Crossword Solving scout badge - I went extremely wrong on this puzzle before finally successfully finishing; I just can't account for the way my brain worked today.
ReplyDeleteI had the OP of 27D and decided that sun bears and sloth bears sounded like fuzzy bee varieties. Now 26A was ApIAN and Oniomania was an uncontrollable desire to...nope, can't be right. ASIAN, sheesh.
_URS at 55A, my first thought was bURS in the animal coats. Nah, it has to be cURS, all of those strays. My excuse is that I must have subconsciously agreed with Rex that FURS were much more PROFANE than a mere pet peeve.
I messed up 42A so badly that I can't even tell you about it, it's too painful.
Eric Bornstein, you got me today. Thanks for the nice, should-have-been-easy, Friday puzzle.
@old timer 12:16p - I had my first beer (it was a pitcher of Coors which we didn’t have in NY yet) and burger at the Oasis in the late 70s visiting my cousin at school. I loved that area - so close to campus and just a cool vibe. Ten years later or so - I think ‘87 we caught the Dead at Shoreline just south of there and that vibe was gone. Always made time for the Oasis when I went thru - sad to hear it’s closed.
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 12:48pm - I have seen ATMs that accept deposits of cash as well dispensing bills. So making it truly an Automated Teller Machine doing almost everything a real teller would do.
ReplyDeleteAs a west coaster, I usually get to the comments section several hours after the posts have started, and find it amusing to see what themes popped up. Definitely amused by the 2/TOO and the check/TAB threads (though I never saw TAB as it was filled by crosses.)
I also made the NetS error for NABS.
Really thought 1A sounded familiar, but Half Dome didn't fit. Was actually helped by 1D whereas I normally skip past those anagram/reverse clues. But I checked "apse" and "nave" and the latter paid off with EVAN.
Definitely an enjoyable Friday solve for me.
Very enjoyable, difficult at first but went looking for the reveal and figured out the theme with Gwen. One writeover - REpute/RENOWN.
ReplyDelete@Whatsername, I’m in the inherited fur boat with you. It’s been over two years - think I might try to give it to a cousin.
@Roo, your new gig sounds tres cool! Wonder if I could work at a classic car place?
Composers born on July 30 are scarce, so when I saw Emily Brontë was born on this day in 1818, I looked for a poem set to music. The Garnet Valley Elementary School 5th Grade Chorus was happy to oblige with this simple and lovely song from a December 19, 2019 concert. Hope they get to sing together again soon.
Wintersong - Audrey Snyder, Emily Brontë
The text isn’t on the video, so here it is. It even ties into today’s puzzle.
“Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.
I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night’s decay
Ushers in a drearier day.”
― Emily Brontë
Thanks for the Friday workout Eric! Like many above I had to use the trampoline method to fill today’s grid, bouncing around while mental gears clanked before meshing. Also interesting commentariat today like @Johnk at 10:03 and our anonymous early poster’s (17 or 71 makes little difference) link. I’ve heard it said that “Every millionaire is a policy failure.” And that’s no TORO caca to borrow @Gill I’s excellent phrasing.
ReplyDeleteWell, this was not particularly on my wavelength. EVAN was apparent right away, but otherwise the NW was not going down without a fight, so it was bottoms up -- speaking of GRASSHOPPER and all. I think my mom (a Southern lady) used to make them now and then in the late 60s or early 70s. For my part, my biggest association with Creme de Menthe is a bong (that's a kind of marijuana HOOKAH for those who don't know) that was made the rounds between apartments I lived in as an undergraduate, that had Creme de Menthe instead of water. I guess like a marijuana Kool? Yikes.
ReplyDeleteNow I'm a little freaked out. I don't think I roomed with anyone named Eric Bornstein, but the NARCOTICS HOOKAH GRASSHOPPER connection has got me wondering...
I think I would love to see that El Capitan documentary. Was this the guy who rock-climbed the sheer face? The mind boggles at such feats.
Lots of wrong turns, but I had fun anyway. The obvious straightforward "toupee" before STRAND. Forensics before NARCOTICS. Didn't know what to put in before INDIGO came out of the fog, but I know "yellow" made a cameo appearance as well.
"MOM jeans". Now that can't possibly be a marketing ploy.
RAGU as "pasta topper". How sad it it that my first association is with the commercial tomato sauce product, a processed foodstuff with lots of added sugar? I'm staring now at real Ragu (courtesy of Google), holy crap, and getting hungry.
@bocamp
Even your powerful vibrations were not enough -- I had TABbed back to the crossword and thus could no longer get back to yd's SB where I had the outstanding 5-letter, which I might have gotten with luck. Sniff. Oh well, at least I got QB today, after struggle hunting down a 4-letter. Yay, me.
@A (2:10 PM)
ReplyDeleteThx for the lovely vid! :)
@Newboy (2:17 PM)
Hands up for the 'trampoline method'; pretty much on the bottom half today.
___
0
Peace ~ Empathy ~ Tolerance ~ Health ~ Kindness to all 🕊
LOL, all tomato-based sauces add sugar otherwise they'd be so acidic you'd never get unpuckered. The sugar may not be white granulated, but there's sugar all the same. As for processed foods being some sort of negative, um, not so much. Processes in food are good. Like pasteurization, and my favorite, fermentation.
ReplyDeleteWhile generally considered a compliment, the term came into existence from a guy (either a coach or sports writer, don't recall which) who was asked about the teams in the conference and spat back, "Well, it's only an ivy league!"
ReplyDelete@anon 3:49 -- The tomato sauces I get have no sugar (or sweetener of any kind), nor do they make me pucker.
ReplyDelete@A (2:10) Love the Emily Brontë verse. Beautiful! I will think of it this winter when I see the snow where the rose should grow.
ReplyDelete@TTrimble-The El Capitan movie is called "Free Solo" and is one of the most amazing things you will ever look at, except for when you can't watch, but you do. It's the story of a guy who climbed El Capitan with no equipment, ropes, help, anything. Just one guy on a cliff face. We got to wee it here at The Telluride Film Festival before it was released, and it is just unforgettable.
ReplyDeleteLewis, good for you!!!
ReplyDelete@pabloinnh
ReplyDeleteI did see some sort of documentary material of this sort, specifically of the man who first scaled EL CAPITAN without equipment as you say (and I had heard of this earlier), but I cannot swear that it was "Free Solo". In any event, thank you. I have some nervousness around heights, so possibly I would look through half-closed fingers at some of it, but I'm gobsmacked by the level of ambition and planning and practice required to execute such a feat (to say nothing of the developed musculature). I think it is fair to say that problem-solving at this level is high art, even if people don't think of this as "art".
Make that "see it". Sheesh.
ReplyDeleteActually I’m guessing that @pabloinnh had the same unconscious reaction most of us experience walking out onto that glass bridge at the Grand Canyon. The Medicare questionnaire I filled out today euphemistically called it “leakage” which I am happy to accept as a geriatric indignation....Sheesh indeed!
ReplyDelete@Newboy-You certainly could be right. Haven't used the term "Freudian slip" in a long time, but it may apply. The glass bridge experience is not on my bucket list. I'm OK on a ladder, if it only goes to the second floor.
ReplyDelete221b,
ReplyDeleteJulia Child disagrees. So does Craig Claiborne. But, by all means, enjoy!
OK...So I just have to weigh, way, whey in here on the tomato sauce/sugar issue. @@Lewis 3:56 gets my vote of confidence. I make my sauces from scratch (horrors)...RAGU can go take a nap. I've never once - ever - used sugar. I know some sweet Italian Mamas, and they would tsk tsk you to death if you did. Tomato's have their own natural sweetness and I can assure you, if you added sugar to them, Mama Mia would slap you silly.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone gives a flying fig
ReplyDeleteLike so many useful, even venerable phrases, the precise origin of Ivy League is uncertain.
No one seriously doubts that in 1937 Caswell Adams, a sports reporter for The New York Herald Tribune bitched to his editor about having to cover the Penn-Columbia game saying, “ Why in hell do I have to watch the Ivy grow every Saturday afternoon? How about letting me see some football away from the ivy-covered halls of learning for a change?”
But the idea that The Ivy League was some kind of lesser league is quite wrong. Risible in fact. Dartmouth ended the season ranked 7th in the country. Yale 11th. Hardly bush league.
Recall the source of the bitch ( it wasn’t a plaint🙄). Adams was a graduate of Fordham. And Fordham was, in 1937, at the height of its football powers. I’m guessing you’ve all heard of the seven blocks of granite? That’s the nickname of Fordham’s legendary offensive line. Among its members were centerAlex Wojciechowicz (HOF) and a pugnacious guard from Queens named Vince Lombardi. In 1937, Fordham ended the season ranked third in the county. The alleged slur of the Ivy League is nothing more than a fan boy not getting to cover his team
Wanna know where Columbia ended up (recall they had won the Rose Bowl two years earlier)? Or the mighty Quakers? They who,led the nation in attendance? Well, let’s just say it wasn’t the Red and Blues’ finest hour. And Columbia? I mean, who cares?
My current go to spaghetti sauce when I’m buying something at the store is Rao Arrabbiata. No sugar. No corn syrup.
ReplyDelete@Frantic Sloth - It’s not that I don’t care what people think, it’s just that I’m far more interested in how people think. The Rexian Commentariat is an endless stream of epistemological fascination. And, despite my reputation, I also always admit when I’m wrong. Is it my fault that people miss it when I do? Probably, but I like having my fun. On a more important note, how about Musical Ping Pong? You know Shortz singing Cats as he smashes a little white ball sounds like great fun and everyone who is anyone would pay good money to watch that.
I got stuck at the South East … seemed relatively easy up to that point. I don’t think of fur as merely a pet peeve of PETA. That slowed me down for a while. And while Ragu came to mind right away, I dismissed it at first, thinking both that it couldn’t be that easy and they probably weren’t looking for a brand name.
ReplyDeletewhy would rex say that Cornell is "technically" an Ivy? It either is, or it isn't, and in this case, it is. Crunchy Friday, and the SE corner gave me fits. "Pet peeve" didn't bother me, but I'm not as delicate as many of you.
ReplyDeleteHere are some stats.
ReplyDeleteIn a serving size of RAGU Traditional Tomato Sauce (1/2 cup = 4oz.), there are about 8 grams of sugar. That's about 2 teaspoons per 1/2 cup. Source.
Julia Child in her Provencale tomato sauce calls for 1/8 teaspoon of added sugar for a yield of a quart (4 cups) of sauce. Source. Craig Claiborne's recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon of added sugar for a yield of 3 cups of sauce. Source.
(People from Italy often comment on how tomato sauces in America are much sweeter than what they are used to in their home country. Gee, how can that be?)
As for the link between (chemically) processed food consumption and health, here is one article.
Tough for me. I was not on the same wavelength with the cluer on this one. Literary references are an immediate no for me, unless I have seen it in a puzzle before, and I imagine that most solvers are the same way - including the critical 1A and 1D (how does evan become a part of a church?, who is Lida?, Ras, Spy from the cold?) Everyone knows Flex-seal (Phil Swift saws a boat in half), but Sno-seal? And the 'commonalities' iimagineso and thatsrich are phrases that i have never uttered. Yeah, I know Fridays are supposed to be more challenging, but I would describe this as more as obscure than challenging.
ReplyDeleteTTrimble,
ReplyDeleteSo we agree. The most celebrated American chef of the last 60 years added sugar to her tomato sauce. Just as I said.
I wish I hadn't read Rex's difficulty scale which was "EASY" (not even for a Saturday)
ReplyDeleteThis was NOT easy but kept me going all the same & I enjoyed it.
Never read Rex's revues!
sorry - this was for Saturday's puzzle (uh oh)
ReplyDeletePretty hard, but good. DNF because I had RiS-ITHiCAN. Seems I wasn’t the only one…
ReplyDeleteALLSTAR ADULTERER, MOM TOO
ReplyDeleteIHOPE you HEARMEOUT.
PROFANE? IIMAGINESO.
ERGO, it LEAVES no DAM doubt,
my AIM’S just to COMEANDGO.
--- PAT MILES
This one played relatively easy at the Space station. The Family Feud clue was strangely worded, for sure, but with only ___RDS_____ in place it just had to be THIRDSTRIKE, no other entry made sense. Also the "exchange" bit was either TIT or TaT--and there's no "A" in ROY G BIV. Hence I--and INDIGO. This in turn locked in ITHACAN (Cornell, of course, where my hero Carl Sagan held sway).
ReplyDeleteI wonder if they put POLICETAPE around the SHOWER in Cabin #1 of the Bates Motel. GRASSHOPPER reminds me not of a drink, but of Kwai Chiang Caine and the Shaolin Temple. Ah, those were the days. Do INEEDANAP? IIMAGINESO. Birdie.
@foggy – I saved that dead center square for last and guessed correctly at A instead of I. Really close to putting the I in on the first pass but waited until the end for the coin flip.
ReplyDeleteThe corners STEERS you to that or RESETS, the singular of which is in the puz.
Everybody’s MOM should get a yeah baby.
Relatively easy puz save for that one-hole ?.
NE stunk.
ReplyDelete-letter dnf. The I/A controversy, as well as utter lack of 007 knowledge.
ReplyDeleteBut at 1/10th of the way thru I was certain I'd never get this half filled, so I was pretty happy with the outcome.
Hey @Rondo - did you just have a BIRTHDAY???!!!!!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
I’m shocked Burma didn’t use 22A today…
ReplyDeleteClue and answer of the day: “Oniomania...the uncontrollable desire to____”. Some PROFANE answers to that one, but I’ll just leave it with a chuckle at the SHOP.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, finished with a SPANK, but not a “sound defeat”.
@D,LIW - Last Friday. Turned the number of the route that is the best. Coincided with an all-school reunion, so largest bday party ever for me. Great time.
ReplyDelete