[I didn't recognize John JAKES from today's clue, but it turns out my vintage paperback collection is absolutely loaded with his early fantasy / sword & sorcery / crime fiction / scifi stuff, some of it written under the pseudonym "Jay Scotland!" Dude was *prolific*]
• • •
Lots of ups and downs in this one. Speaking of UPs, right away we get UP crossing UP (HIT UP, UPEND), which is less than great form, and later on, when JAZZ UP shows ... up, well, it's too much. A couple of UPs in different parts of the grid, fine, but two UPs crossing, no, and a third UP, no no. no. The NW really put this puzzle in a hole, between the UPs and ATEN, which ... yeesh, what? I want to say that it's crosswordese, and it might be, but if it is, it's crosswordese from another era that you just don't see much any more. I had AM-N (AMON, AMUN?) here because I was thinking of AMON (AMUN)-RA. Looks like ATEN actually shows up with reasonable frequency, but typically as an innocuous partial ("Do you have two fives for ___?"), or as a UMass athletic conf. (the Atlantic 10), not as this Egyptian answer. It's less-than-great fill however it's clued, but somehow the Egyptian deity clue highlights that fact rather than mutes it. TAKE A CAB as always gave off some real EAT A SANDWICH vibes, and today IN A TRAP was his unwelcome wing man. So I emerged from the NW corner with not a lot of good will for this puzzle, but then zing, it took off in a much happier direction:
BASEJUMPERS (32A: Extreme athletes with parachutes) takes on some of the daredevil quality of base-jumping itself, as it flings itself recklessly into the void, i.e. the at-this-point empty center of the grid. The thrill of adventure continues with ZERO GRAVITY below and PAJAMA PARTY above, resulting in an indisputably worthy central stagger-stack (this is what I call stacks where the answers are are arranged like steps instead of one being directly on top of the other). Definitely JAZZes UP the grid. SO SPICY! (I had real trouble with "SO SPICY!" and am not sure I actually like it, but it definitely describes the middle of this puzzle). Some of the longer Downs that shoot through the stack are also nice, particularly SOLD FOR PARTS (8D: Like many a lemon, eventually). The smaller corners of this puzzle are often clunky, which is bizarre, as you'd think making that center part come out right would be far harder than filling a bunch of small sections cleanly. Maybe there's something going on with the constructor being overly enamored with "J"s and "Z"s and "Q"s—that NW section, which had so many problems, has a "J" in it, and the "Q" in the NE section isn't doing the grid quality any favors either. A Chinese dynasty name (there are so many!) isn't worth the "Q," especially when that section also gives us INASEC, the distant but no-more-likeable cousin of INATRAP and TAKEACAB. Oh, ANO is over there too—hmm, did you know that, unlike with Spanish, the Portuguese ANO ("year") doesn't have a tilde? It's true. I can't believe they have the same word for "year" and "anus," that can't be right, hang on ... oh look, it's just "ânus," with a circumflex over the "a." Using Portuguese really sidesteps the problem created by the proximity of "year" and "anus" in Spanish—just one tilde apart. And yet I'm still thinking about the year-anus connection—which, let me tell you, is much less pleasant than, say, the Rainbow or even the French connection. But hurray for learning things!
I had INAMESS before INATRAP (2D: Caught), UPSET before UPEND (4D: Flip), ART MAJOR (?) before LIT MAJOR (17D: Student of the classics), and DEEMS (???) before DOOMS (46A: Sentences). I also wasn't entirely sure if the RITZ were BITS or BITZ, or whether the [Endemic flora and fauna] were BIOME or BIOTA, so I just waited for the crosses to tell me. I could really Really have done without the reminder that the Bush II administration ever existed, but in the end I think this puzzle came out ahead. More good than bad. The center is very strong, and the rest of it ... well, it's there, and it mostly holds up.
A short answer messed me up and a short answer saved me. Fell into the verb trap and entered dab for "Spread makeup" at 5D. As a result I came out of the NW with crickets. Didn't know John Jakes, didn't remember BRAD PITT playing Fauci, and somehow missed 3D entirely, because TAKE A CAB would have helped a lot.
HMM at 27A saved me, as I had LITerati for the classics student at 17D, missing the singular/plural conflict.
Fell briefly into the fruit trap at 8D, but that was easily corrected.
Easy peazy outside of the NW (which is almost entirely on me), so Medium here.
The Z’s make the staggered stack work and JAZZ UP, FUZZIER, and even ESTEVEZ are okay answers in and of themselves (although it seems like I see his dad more than him these days), but QIN/QATARI felt like pure PPP scrabblef**k*ng to me. Paired with HIJABS/JAKES in the NW and it really felt like an overly fond desire for high value scrabble letters brought this puzzle down. I agree with Rex that the central stack is pretty great, as are the 12-letter crossing downs. I just think Burch should have been satisfied with the Z’s and J’s in that area and not have forced more high value letters into the corners.
Eyebrow arched at the STRICTER clue. Back in my assistant principal in a large high school days I had the reputation as the “nicer, more forgiving” one even though our data showed I was the STRICTER one. There are a variety of reasons for this but at least one of the reasons was my habit of asking the kids what they thought should happen to them as a result of their misbehavior. They’d almost always come up with an incredibly strict punishment that they’d been worrying about, so the actual consequence was a relief to them. Anyway, the clue is fine but for me the two concepts are not as entwined as is generally understood.
Cluing BRAD PITT via Fauci when OWIE is in the puzzle seems intentional. Personally I prefer a Fauci OWIE to a CONDI OWIE any day of the week (i.e. pushing for an unjustified invasion of Iraq). CONDI OWIE DOOMS seems like a fitting epitaph for the Bush II years. I see from her Wiki Bio that’s she the Director of the Hoover Institute now. What an interesting name. I don’t think “president who’s inaction made the Great Depression worse” would be my go to name for a think tank. That you think Herbie was a good prez pretty much discounts anything else you have to say as the ravings of fools.
@tb - you may want to avert your eyes **wordle alert** In honor of todays puzzle I started with a word starting with a high value letter. Ended up with a five guess effort. After 23 holes I’m sitting at one under par.
Re: 10A QIN [Chinese dynasty in which the terra-cotta army was built.]
My wife and I toured China in 2010 and while at the Terra-Cotta Museum we were told this story:
In the mid-1970s, a poor, illiterate Chinese farmer in Xi’an was digging a well when he unearthed a variety of terra cotta pieces that looked to him to be relics of some sort. He immediately reported his find to the local authorities, who verified the importance of the strike, and then thanked the farmer and rewarded him with a firm handshake and an order to move from the land his family had farmed for generations.
The farmer’s find has become one of the most significant archeological discoveries of all time and is currently a work in progress. It is the tomb of Emperor Qin, China’s ruler around 225 BCE.
The farmer who made the discovery was rewarded with a ‘job’ at the Terra Cotta Museum signing books about the dig. This story is told about him:
Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea are visiting China and want to see the museum and meet the farmer who is credited with the discovery. The Chinese government goes into panic mode as the farmer is illiterate and unable to converse in English. So they taught him a few basic phrases, anticipating a conversation with the President as follows:
Clinton: Glad to meet you. Farmer: How are you? Clinton: Fine, thank you. Farmer: Me too.
But the farmer was nervous and his English suffered and they actually had this exchange:
Clinton: Glad to meet you. Farmer: Who are you? Clinton: I’m Hillary’s husband. Farmer: Me too.
After that, the farmer became known as “Mr. Me Too”.
I bounced around a bit trying to get a foothold, even a toehold, on this one. Made bad guesses (e.g. burkas before HIJABS, arabic before QATARI) in lots of places until confidently getting BRADPITT.
Loved the stagger-steps (great term). Enjoyed the vindication I felt when SOLDFORPARTS worked, after SCRAPMETAL won that debate some time back.
Seemed to be a lot of Js and Zs today, but he (Jay-Z) didn't get to join PITT, CONDI and RAIMI's party.
Nice sub-30 Friday, making it zippy as opposed to a slog, at least in my arena.
I started with an inappropriate word from the xword and hit one out of place letter. I still got a birdie. I'm awfully lucky. I know I'm not awfully smart.
My experience was similar to OFL’s and I suspect others may echo the same sentiments - trouble in the NW, especially with HIJABS crossing ATEN, then found some joy in the center (especially enjoyed the clue for ZERO GRAVITY) and slowed down again in the south (kind of enjoyed the ZZZ’s buzzing around everywhere for some reason).
You can tell it’s Friday by just looking at some of the clues - doble, Robles, un beso, Setswana - and congrats to all who were able to dig deep enough to actually come up with the YOTEAMO/FAROE cross. Seriously, that combination looks like the CrossWorld equivalent of dog food to me (if you got that one, you have some serious solving chops and I salute you!).
Not a Friday worthy grid for me - too segmented leaving garbage short fill. I’ll second Rex’s UP take. Can we pick two worse actors - better yet follow them up with CONDI?
I did like the SAM RAIMI and PAPYRI strings. SO SPICY and BASE JUMPERS were neat - not so much beyond that. I understand that 34a was going for weightlessness - but there is no true ZERO GRAVITY anywhere in space so stay in your lane with the cute clues.
I’ll take a pass on this one. 18” forecast for tomorrow - hopefully our Saturday puzzle will be worthy.
Had to abandon the NW corner and finished it last. When I did was a little fed-UP. Didn’t care for all of their UPS at all. Have never ever sent the word INAPT in a sentence. How inappropriate to include it here. Over all not that challenging for a Friday but not that enjoyable either.
Cluing just too on the nose overall today. And when it wasn’t straightforward, it was bad (PTS and SO SPICY, for example). Nice fill, though.
You know Tutankhamun, the boy king, King Tut? He was originally TutankhATEN, having been born in a brief period when quasi-monotheistic worship of ATEN replaced traditional polytheism.
I usually don’t pay much attention to themes until the puzzle is finished, but after the UP/UP crossing and SIMMERED DOWN, I figured there was some sort of up/down theme. BASEJUMPERS contributed, as did the juxtaposition of ZERO GRAVITY and UBOATS, somehow. Even PAJAMA PARTY evokes images of kids jumping up and down. I kept waiting for the revealer that never appeared.
Absolutely fantastic center of the puzzle - as noted by @Rex, the PAJAMA PARY, BASE JUMPERS and ZERO GRAVITY were wonderful fill with good cluing. That middle excuses any other issues that may have been there. I completely missed the repeated UPs, and I accepted the TAKE A CAB, ATEN, etc etc
Thanks @kitshef for the King Tut - ATEN link. Very interesting
This is not a puzzle review. It is more like the notes from someones' therapy session. Good Lord !
I really enjoyed this one and wished that it was not over so soon. All the colloquial word play seemed unforced to me, which is usually the issue with that sort of thing.
A clue references "Classics" and the ole English perfesser puts in "Art". Gotta love it.
When you've been doing crosswords for a very long time, you will hail the appearance of ATEN as a kind of long-lost friend I remember it as usually being clued as "sun disk", or something similar.
SETTLEDDOWN slowed the middle to a crawl for a while, but once SIMMERED became apparent all was well. See also ASTOO instead of ORSO.
I really should memorize SAMRAIMI, as he is a very useful collection of letters.
And solving on paper does not allow to run the alphabet to produce a Q in a place which for me at least could have been anything. Stuck in an H, probably thinking of the old John Wayne movie.
@Joaquin=Great story.
Nice Friday, JB. Juicy Batch of Scrabble letters. Thanks for the fun.
This was a puzzle that seemed impossible to me. Until it wasn't. Only wish I could remember where that corner was turned. Maybe I'll try to pay closer attention to that in future.
It's always weird to me that I can be stumped through half (or more) of a puzzle, then suddenly I'm zooming through it in sub-average time.
This one was fun, too. All those longs - across and down - in the middle of the grid were sparkly and fresh. And I loved SIMMERED DOWN, and not just because it is a concept completely foreign to me.
One thing: how much more fun would it be if the plural of PAPYR(us) were PAPYRopodes instead of PAPYRI, which if I'm being honest, reminds me of a certain spinach-scarfing cartoon sailor.
Congratulations on a stellar sophomore effort, Mr. Burch - and keep 'em coming!
Interesting that you complain about FAROE which is a gimme itself and crosses with GIF, another gimme and the ER from 33d. And yet no complaints about ICEE which is some made up thing.
Your PAJAMA PARTY Pulp cover today is degrading to women, I am so offended, you need to burn some of your paperbacks, eliminate such titillation and explain how you can show such filth in today's revisionist world
Great puzzle -- by only (brief) problem was with LIT MAJOR, thinking the clue meant literature written in classical languages, and toying with LaT as an abbreviation for LATIN.
I'm pretty sure QIN is just the more recent transliteration of chIN, but that wouldn't fit. I used to have a time-line of the Chinese dynasties posted on the side of a bookcase--wait, I still do! But I didn't consult it for the puzzle, just took a stab at it.
@pabloinnh - I was going to opine that hATARI>QATARI but then decided that wasn’t true.
@Frantic Sloth - Who would be PAPYRI the Sailor’s enemy? Blotto?
@anon7:45 - I didn’t notice all the UP and DOWN in the puzzle, but you’re right. There’s enough there to be at least a mini-theme.
@Southside Johnny - FAROE didn’t appear in a NYTX after 1990 until 2016. That timing is interesting because the FAROE Island men’s national football team upset Greece twice during the 2016 Euro qualifiers. At the time FAROE Islands were ranked 187th while Greece was ranked 18th. This was big enough of an upset to get FAROE Islands in some US headlines, and now we’ve seen it three times after it being absent for a quarter century. Blame sports.
Hey All ! NW my downfall. Zipped through the puz relatively fast for me for a FriPuz. Got stuck in NW, not knowing JAKES or ATEN, and two not coming into the ole brain, HIJABS and PTS. Dang. Googed for JAKES. Boo! But that was able to get me the finish.
Z's & Q's & J's, oh my! Got a chuckle out of @The Jokers post, as that's how silly Rex sounds. Also, @Offended 8:56, LOL!
Did you know NEWYEARSEVE has the same letter count as PAJAMAPARTY? I do! Har. Some other writeovers: mako-POOL, YOTEngo-YOTEAMO, cel-GIF, wah-COO, that's it? When a bad memory, always something to discover. 😁
Great clue for COOP. And RITZ BITS are very yummy if you've never had them. I prefer the peanut butter filled rather than the cheese filled.
Hi, could some kindly person explain why 'spread makeup' is 'pts'? Is this make up on the face? Make up exams? I have no idea and inquiring minds want to know! Thank you.
This solve was close to the Wednesday level. If I hadn't had a ONESEC/INASEC write over in the NE I'm sure it would have been Wednesday time. I'm not a speed solver Wednesdays are usually around 16 minutes today's solve was 17:56. The use of high value letters was the main culprit. They severely limit the options and are dead giveaways.
The SW and SE corners were so easy to fill I skipped the clues for ATE, LSD, ITEMS, FAROE and TSETSE. A late week themeless should at least force you to read all the clues.
Very enjoyable -- with enough challenge to keep it interesting. But without any suffering.
Now, many find BRAD PITT irresistable, but today I tried to resist him. He's a handsome sex symbol, right? -- so I couldn't imagine him playing Dr. Fauci on SNL or anywhere else. But I also couldn't think of another BRAD with a 4-letter last name. Eventually the "T in LIT MAJOR made him completely irresistable.
I didn't see FACIAL coming for the mask occasion. Why woman pay good cash money to have that yucky glop plastered all over their faces is beyond me. I would pay good cash money not to have yucky glop plastered all over my face.
FUZZIER might have been clued: "Even worse than Nancy's memory".
I especially liked the clues for ABOUND, LADLE and OP ART. A nice grown-up Friday that I enjoyed.
Z, Q, and J are letters in the alphabet; letters make up words; words make up crosswords. Whatever your real problem is with these letters being used in crosswords, I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes you would either get over it or keep it to yourself. After all, without Z, Q, and J's neighbors X and K, you wouldn't even be able to spell your own blog's name! Of course, if you really don't want to deal with Zs, Qs, etc., why not just ditch the alphabet altogether for logograms like Hanzi? Oh wait, I almost forgot about your Eurocentric disdain for learning even the most basic facts about the history of one of the world's most significant continuous civilizations and cultural traditions. Yeah, there are "so many" dynasties, but that's bound to happen over the course of 4 millennia. Anyway, the Qin dynasty is one of a baker's dozen that not only are fair game for a Friday puzzle but indeed should be well within the ken of anyone with a liberal arts phd. Despite its very short reign, the Qin is one of the most important of all Chinese dynasties. It founded the Chinese imperial system that existed for most of the past 2000 years, it developed a standardized script, and its name is the probable source of the various names for China in most Indo-European languages. You can't argue for "diversity" in crosswords and then get pissy when you are asked to recall basic information about China. I know the professor won't read this, but I hope others take note of his preposterous posturing.
JJ, QQ, ZZ. I don’t get why the whole scrabble thing matters in a crossword but there you go. And then if you look UP UP - UP pop the dupe and the trip, four out of five INA INA the top two rows. It really didn’t make much difference except for cringing when I saw that third UP, third UP, third UP. In such a good puzzle was that really necessary?
I would’ve sworn RITZ BITS were crackers, not sandwiches. Oh wait, they ARE. But the clue works since apparently they are marketed as “cracker sandwiches” or “sandwich crackers” or something. Never ATE one myself but I hear they’re quite good with an ICEE, quite good with an ICEE.
If you were going to host a PAJAMA PARTY, BRAD PITT would certainly JAZZ UP the guest list. HMM.
Went fairly smoothly, except for the NE. All kinds of issues: to start with, I had oNe SEC before IN A SEC. I couldn't envision the key next to Q, even tho I'm solving with a standard laptop keyboard. The dynasty was a woe, couldn't recall the Al Jazeera country, wasn't sure of PASO and 'chopped liver' was not evoking anything other than ugh meat.
Finally, recalled QATAR, and the rest came together, whew!
I got caught up in the weird notion that there was a theme here, arising from the fact that it seemed to me that lemons are usually sold for tarts, and that was a bad deviation I never recovered from.
Solved with fledging solver physicist niece who noted with a puzzled, pained looked that the clue for Zero Gravity was "not quite accurate." I told her that it would come up on a blog I frequent, @Son Volt. She also objected to the Scoop clue for Ladle, "A Scoopful of soup?!" @mathgent, I explained Joaquin's dictum. She was a little surprised at Sac and Papyri, not knowing that on Friday, Egg will have something to do with ova or Sac and any Scroll clue could be for the plural of Papyrus (@Frantic 😀).
(Aside to @Anoa Bob from yesterday. She later explained how degaussing works, starting with an explanation of magnetism at the atomic level. Thanks again for that.)
Solving with her made me realize that dumb, ignorant and able to suspend disbelief can be unbeatable assets in solving crossword puzzles, but they didn't help with Hajib/Hijab. Still, experience helps you learn the strange language of crosswords. You say tomato, I say Romatoes.
Favorite clues were Spread for Pts. and Fly for Setswana (niece travels extensively and was considering airport names).
Spread refers to betting. For example, if a team is favored by 3 points (pts), you can bet on it but you win only if the team beats the spread, I.e. wins by more than 3 points.
A combination of some opaque-to-me clues and some wrong guesses moved this one to the challenging side, and thus made for a satisfying Friday. And a pleasure as well, with that great pair SIMMERED DOWN and SOLD FOR PARTS and the center stack.
Do-overs: "loan" shark, AmEN, uMM, RareBITS. No idea: BASE JUMPERS, JAKES, QIN. Personal note to me: FEARED over SO SPICY! (Chili allergy. Eating out = negotiating a mine field.)
@Anon 7:45. I liked that you noticed the UP/DOWN element. Regarding themes: The general pattern in the NYT is themes Mon-Thurs, themeless Fri. and Sat. Sunday usually has a theme but occasionally not.
Ouch....I, at one point, wanted to go UP,UP, UP and away. Like @Frantic, I thought this would be impossible. I made my cafe con leche, re-sat in my favorite chair and guess what? The webs in my attic began to clear.... The NW started with an "eat a sandwich" ...was it really that easy TAKE A CAB? Yep. I seldom watch SNL because I'm sleepy when it comes on. BUT...there were several little snippets showing him impersonate Dr. Fauci. It was amusing. I understand Dr. Fauci thought so too. Oddly (or maybe not) was my trying to figure out SOLD FOR PARTS at 8D. My mind went into squeezed, sliced, used on my tacos, helping prevent scurvy....but it seems the lemon in question is acting parts? My one and only pet peeve is YO TE AMO. Why? you ask...Because nary a Spanish speaking friend will ever utter those word. Just leave out the "YO." Why? you ask...Because the verb "AMO" lets you know that the subject ia a first person singular. "I Love You" in Spanish usually omits the "I" because it's understood. A different phenomena in English to Spanish....How about them apples.... Loved the eleven long answers in the middle so all was forgiven. I even like CONDI. She had a wonderful gapped tooth grin. I love me some gap teeth. @Joaquin 7:00. Thanks for your story and a good loud laugh. When the farmer told Billy he was Mr. Me Too, did Hillary look to her husband and say: "What difference, at this point, does it matter?"
Does anyone here remember a little magazine ad from the '60s that said something like "f u cn rd ths mssage... you can get a good job as a stenographer (or something like that)." There was also one that said you could get a good job as an artist if you could draw the duck (or something like that). Something on the blog reminded me of it. @Frantic, can recall?
HMM. I would give this puzzle A TEN if it were not for that 10A/10D cross. All of the other unknowns, such as FAROE, were fairly crossed, but there was no way to infer what letter that little 10 box wanted. I went with Hin and Hatari, inspired by the H in HIJAB. Out of all the letters in the alphabet, the Q never occurred to me. (And I have a friend who lived in Qatar.)
Too many INs, UPs, and ONs, I suppose, but this puzzle otherwise had a lot to offer and was fun to solve. Especially liked SIMMERED DOWN traveling downward in the grid and NOBODY hiding in the corner. Best answers were SOLD FOR PARTS and ZERO GRAVITY. Best clue was the one for COOP.
YOTEAMO is an eyeful as a dook. Looks like the last name of an Olympian athlete.
I was so proud when I just"knew" RAREBITS was the answer for "cheesy sandwiches..." When I ran into trouble with the Z in ESTEVEZ I reread the clue, saw "...for snackers", and changed RARE to RITZ. Had me fooled for a while.
Must be a wheelhouse thing. I'm doing great if I finish a Friday puzzle in 10 minutes, and today's I did in 9. Basically read the clue, fill in the answer, If I didn't immediately know the across, one or two downs allowed me to figure out the answer.
Maybe it's what I had for dinner last night because I birdied today's Worldle, too:
Oh sure @R Duke, correct my bad joke with facts why don’t you…
@Anon who refuses to spell in anything like standard English - “squash” can mean “to put down, suppress.” I presume that’s what the “mids” meant. Just because “quash” sounds like it might be what they meant does not make it correct. In fact, since the lost posts were recovered, “quash,” with its connotation of completeness, would have been a suboptimal choice. TBF - I have seen “squash” when “quash” was clearly meant, but the “mids” were discussing lost comments, not the law. Don’t you ever tire of embarrassing yourself?
@JD & @Son Volt - As that great philosopher Mr. Spock once said, “a difference which makes no difference is no difference.” GRAVITY is the weakest of the four fundamental forces and once you get far enough away the force is roughly equal to the odds that I’ll end up dating Paulina Gretzky. Technically not ZERO but effectively ZERO.
@JD - I remember those ads. Also the Charles Atlas ads with the scrawny guy getting sand kicked in his face.
@Carola - A chili allergy. That’s awful. And never ever let me cook for you.
@Mango Sloth - I rather enjoyed imagining Alex Karras in a Mango Colored outfit fruitlessly pursuing Olive Oyl. Blotto, OTOH would probably just wear a Pollackesque suit.
@aslightrain - More preposterous to me is your assertion that the various dynasties are “basic information about China.” A more accurate description would be “Chinese factoid useful for a late week puzzle if you want a Q but can’t make a U fit.”
I was held up at 32A, having to choose between FACE and BASE jumping, as I only ever see the idiots jumping off cliff faces, and what the hell is BASE doing there? A little research shows BASE = B[uildings],A[ntennae],S[pans and bridges] and E[dges, as in cliffs]. Once one does all 4, they get acknowledged as BASE base jumpers, of which there were 2000 in 2017. The WIKI article also has all sorts of records listed, highest, lowest, etc. A remarkable number of the records also included "...[record holder] died the same month while while trying ..."
I suggest that they form a new category of BASE base jumpers, BASED base jumpers: B[uildings],A[ntennae],S[pans and bridges],E[dges, as in cliffs] and D[arwin award recipient].
@Z, Re. Zero Gravity, the Spock quote is perfect. But as I've said before, knowing too much can be a hinderance in solving. A Princess and the Pea syndrome. It pained her.
3D. What wine would be safe to give my host at tonight’s party? 17D. Over-served army officer 20D. Johnny’s goal when McMahon got irate. 41D. Wasteland author, shortened and repeated 51A Action you should take if you want some body ink.
TAKE A CAB LIT MAJOR SIMMER ED DOWN TSE TSE GO TAT
BTW, it seems like this has come up before, but shouldn’t 17D (Student of the classics, say) contain some indicator that the answer (LITMAJOR) contains an abbreviation?
I struggled, like most, in the NW, but once things started flowing, it was a fast and fun ride. Thanks, Jem Burch.
@GILL 1046am The "lemon" in this case is a term for a crappy car.
@JD 1100am Yes. I might have mentioned it before, but i believe it was something like "if u can rd ths msg, u can bcm a secy & gt a gd jb." I remember all those "if you can draw this..." come-ons, too. LOL!
@Anonymous 1134am 🤣 Thanks for explaining the joke because: a. I doubt anyone "got it" b. It was definitely worth saving 🙄
@Z 1137am I feel your pain. 🤣🤣
@Z 1134am I bear some of that burden because the whole PAPYRI/PAPaya thing I mentioned before. 😉
I seem to be oblivious to repeats, especially short words like UP. Maybe that is bad, but that's just me. I am not so oblivious to filling the grid with many high value scrabble values, but they seem to not annoy me. At all. So for a Friday puzzle, I enjoyed this one very much. And I expected the complaints.
Z: about my comment yesterday. I tend to speed read through the write-up because Sharp can at times go on and on with justifying his judgment more than I would care. His positive reactions to Chen seem to me to often be begrudging. I think he's said that his mind travels on a different wavelength that Jeff's. Are his comments influencd by his (often composed rants concerning) apparent hatred for the NYT and Shortz? I wouldn't know. But it seems to me his comments often relate how much at odds he is with Jeff's type of wordplay (or is it letter-play). Maybe I am over sensitive because I very much enjoy those type of puzzles. To each his own.
Based upon what the co-constructors say about Jeff, it would seem to me that he spends a great deal of time helping them. (He once asked me if I would co-construct, but alas I am just too busy.) Perhaps all the time spent working with others prevent him from creating solo constructed puzzles. Or maybe he just really enjoys working with others a lot more than solo constructing. I don't know, and only he could enlighten us.
Z, I'm not embarassed by typos and I'm unpersuaded by your argument. Doing away with speech is to quash it. Squash doesn't enter in to it. In English quash has a long history as the preferred, or, if you like, optimal word for getting rid of speech or words. Any reputable dicionary agreees. Even setting aside any metaphorical usage, simply look at the black letter definition: to supress completely. And of course, that's what the mods did initially. There was no evidence of the post, because it had been supressed completely. That the posts were recovered doesn't mean they weren't initally removed entirely. Their ultimate recovery is therefore a non-starter when it comes to the action which is what is under discussion.
Something which is squashed remains, albeit compressed. That was not what happened. I"ll grant that the disctionary that happens to closest to hand, allows the secondary definition of suqash o mean supress. But even it uses quash as the explantion of that supression. That is to say, quash it whaat's really meant.
And it isn't a mtter of law--though evern there it's clear that removing words is the key element. indictments are quashed and of course the root of indict--comes from proclaim-- that is done with words, written or spoken.
You frequently make claims. When challenged you grow strident, smug and insulting, repeating the claim as if repetition strengthend your argument. You may want to reconsider that posistion. You shoud certainly do so as it pertains to quash.
I may be the only one here who loved seeing ATEN in the grid. The all-too-brief Amarna period of the Pharaoh Akhenaten is a simple fascinating, and the earliest recorded monotheistic religion. Absolutely worth remembering and including!
After watching the Jeopardy champion lose on a relatively easy question the other day I was inspired to re-watch Quiz Show. I noticed this exchange : HERBIE STEMPEL: If Charles Van Doren told them what I told them, do you think this whole grand jury thing would be squashed? DICK GOODWIN: Quashed. Not squashed.
Nearly face-planted on this one by writing in MCKINNON instead of BRADPITT for the Fauci clue. Her impression of him is spot on, as always, and I thought “Good for the NYT going with the gender-neutral ‘actor’ instead of ‘actress’.” Once I finally abandoned that, I dimly recalled Pitt’s turn, and stumbled to the finish line.
For me - a relative noob - most every Friday and Saturday was that sort of solving experience. Stumbling 2/3s through drawing complete blanks. Then, one break starts a slow crescendo to "Tada!" and "Whew, how did I do that?!" I also started that way today - but these days I have little doubt it will end with a full grid and the Happy Song. I guess that's why we all get hooked?
Hatari means danger in Swahili. But Al Jezeera is based somewhere in the Middle East. So Qatar makes more sense. Flew through this with only resistance in the NE. (Wanted Used Car Parts) Usually I finish the W/E puzzles around Tuesday, by which time no one is interested in the Friday blog. Hence the choice of moniker.
@pmdm (12:06) -- So Jeff Chen asked you to co-construct a puzzle with him? Very impressive! I'm wondering who you are and if you're a fairly well-known constructor that I/we know?
Jeff appears to be a very hands-on collaborator. He mentors a lot of less-experienced constructors and they all seem to adore him and be grateful for all his input. Lewis is just one of the people who pays him a lot of tribute -- as he did just yesterday in his Constructor's Notes. After speaking about Jeff's very busy, demanding and varied work schedule, he added:
"Somehow he fit in exchanging 130 emails with me over the final two months of 2019. It was a very rewarding back and forth, as we brainstormed, constructed and polished this puzzle." I remember that Lewis had previously mentioned "over 100" emails sent back and forth during their last collaboration. One of Jeff's other collaborators, I forget who, said exactly the same thing.
Now Jeff Chen is brilliant at what he does, but 130 emails is, as far as I'm concerned, about 110 emails too many. Will Nediger and I usually get by with a maximum of about 10 emails each. My LAT puzzle with Lewis also probably required no more than 10 emails each. Just the mere thought of collaborating on a puzzle that requires 130 emails makes me break into hives. But, of course, I'm not famous for either my stamina or my patience.
Kinda tough at our house, in select spots. But it had The Jaws of Themelessness and almost pangram and some cool SO-SPICY-fillins like RITZBITS/RODEO, sooo … there's yer rodeo.
staff weeject picks: On the fence here, between PTS & QIN. Took m&e many nanoseconds to decode that NW corner stuff, especially HIJABS/ATEN/JAKES, but also to figure out what the PTS clue was talkin about. OK … "spread" as in point spread -- nice ahar clue moment. QIN, on the other hand, has been used before but refuses to stick in the M&A memory burial vault. Primo weeject stacks, in the NE & SW.
Them there J & Q pups kinda put M&A on pangram alert mode, but the RODEO fell an X short, on that score.
About @RP's UP Overload essay: The two crossin UP's were kinda neat, since HITUP had UP at the end, and was crossed by UP-END which btw had END at the front. If that make any sense. Now, the JAZZUP UP woulda then been a ritzbit too much, except there was also a (SIMMERED)DOWN entry. The DOWN sorta cancels out one of the UPs, sooo … ok.
@AnoaBob dude: Yo -- they had a primo TSETSE Of Convenience (TTOC), today.
Thanx for the feisty fun, Mr. Burch dude. Good job and nice UPS N DOWNS mini-theme.
Yo no soy marinero, Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan, soy capitan!
If Richie Valens sang it, it's good Spanish. And while "Te amo" is all you need to say, "Yo te amo" is every bit as valid as, "Yo, el rey", which is the formula used by Spanish kings since forever, to sign laws and decrees. (P.S., Valens put out a first-rate version of songs in Spanish that he grew up with, well worth a listen).
Total and complete DNF here. I put in "Sum" where IAM should be, and never got FACIAL. I had to look up JAKES, and fell therefore into the Kealoa Maxima, which is kind of like the Cloaca Maxima, the great sewer of Rome, which you can still see today. The Kealoa, of course, is that Egyptian sun god, who was indeed ATEN Ra in my youth, who often is replaced by Atun Ra, and confused with Amun or Amon Ra.
I am a little ashamed I did not get UBOATS, which is well clued. I did get CONDI, who made me ashamed to be a Stanford man when she worked for Mr. Clueless. But everyone respected Herbert Hoover, who may have been a lousy President, but was not responsible for any wars, and founded an Institution that had the most magnificent collection of materials related to war, revolution, and peace. I spent many an hour there poring over their collection of Chinese-English newspapers to prepare my senior thesis, designed to show that the nationalists just had no idea how popular Mao was and how likely he was to win and send them off to Formosa (Taiwan). And had I been literate in Chinese, I could have found a splendid collection of Chinese language materials useful to my topic.
If @Rex were to visit NYC, I'd know not to invite him for dinner, since he'd have to take the Q train. He'd also want to avoid the J train, which goes to a different part of Brooklyn and which shares its route with the elusive Z train. It's easy to avoid the Z train: it only runs for something like 1½ hours every other week, and you never know exactly when and there's no way to find out. Only a fortunate few have experienced sightings of it.
I had BRAD PITT and Isis in the NW and believed so heartily in Isis rather than ATEN, that the NW just sat there until the butter end. What three me was the clue using the word “deity.” Apparently, it caused me to overthink and use the goddess Isis (certainly a deity) since she is specifically the “Sun Goddess” whereas I usually see Egyptian and immediately enter ATEN.
So, after spending way too long stuck at the beginning, I began to feel the dreaded DNF nipping at my . . . Whatever. Then the sun came out to shine on the marvels of the QIN dynasty and I sped from extreme NE diagonally down to the SW.
The COOP full of layers made a lightbulb go off in my head biz the NW. figured since we had producing fowl dow at the bottom that the “egg container” up top must be a hen! Yikes.
Eventually , I gave Isis the boot in favor of (yawn) ATEN and he dutifully turned on the sunshine for me. Suddenly, HIJABS Fell and I remembered John JAKES. I adored the North a d South story. Read it in high school and all of the drama and the wonderful characters.
An enjoyable Friday for sure. Clue for LADLE is A+. Also liked the way we got to RITZ BITS, and thought QIN and QATAR - Q-words not followed by the nearly ubiquitous “U” were well done.
In looking over the grid after the fact, I think the difficult grid shape is one that often causes the of crosswordese. When the “big” fill is excellent (as is today’s central staggered stack) and the word play clever ✅ I can forgive a bit of dreck.
Fun Friday. Thanks Mr. Burch and happy weekend everyone!
nyc-lo-- honest question? What's the advantage of getting less info, as one does from actor, than more as one does from actress and actor? Should there only be two stauettes for acting awarded each year as opposed to the current four?
While YO TE AMO might be syntactically correct, it just looks so awkward to me. Only Spanish 101 students would include YO in that statement, and even they will start dropping it after some conjugation practice.
@Joaquin 700am Thanks for the fun story. And like the idiot that I am, I can't see "Mr. Me Too" without thinking Mr. Moto. Different nationality, but same continent. 🤷♀️
@pabloinnh 828am I had the same reaction to ATEN, and was happy it wasn't clued in one of the ways Rex mentioned. Yuck!
@WordSleuth 903am 🤣 Well, that didn't take long. You fell right into my expertly-set trap and no, I do not. 🤣
@The Modem Gal-Totally agree. (@GTLL I-I agree with you too.) Our friend @old timer may be joking when he quotes Richie Valens as an authority on Spanish usage, but he could also notice that after "Yo no soy marinero, which I think is there for the rhythm, "yo" disappears--"soy capitan". And of course Yo el Rey has no verb at all.
Yo te amo isn't wrong, and could be used for emphasis--YO te amo, unlike that guy over there, but people who use "yo" too frequently can be accused of "yoismo", and are seen as a little too full of themselves.
@GILL 107pm Now I'm confused. LOL! I thought you were questioning how "lemon" related to parts. SOLDFORPARTS as in "this car is such a lemon, only its individual parts can be used and/or sold." Or am I just being obtuse? Been known to happen.
@JD 11:46 - I was impressed with “not quite accurate” instead of “wrong.”
@egs11:57 - re LIT MAJOR - I guess it could be argued that LIT MAJOR is now a stand alone phrase, or that it’s Friday so the clues give less information. I tried “art” first and now I know why, lack of the shortening indicator. It’s all Shortz’ fault!
@pmdm - Are you confusing Rex with me? I think Rex likes Chen puzzles more than I do and everything you ascribe to Rex is stuff I’ve written. Where Rex is more critical than I is on the close relationship between the NYTX and xwordinfo.com. I do think that relationship impacts what is written there, but it’s not a secret so I’m fine with that.
@Anon12:07 - Thanks for the thoughtful response. Here’s where I think we disagree. You seem to presume that the mod wanted a different word. I think the word they did use is okay, even preferable. If they had used “quash” instead I would have understood the meaning as intended to be subtly different, the meaning you describe. But since they didn’t use “quash” I assume they didn’t mean “quash.” The only time I thing “squash” is definitively wrong is in a legal context.
YO TE AMO has 155 million+ views so somebody thinks it is okay.
Since it's chilly and windy outside and it's spitting rain and I'm home alone, allow me to point out that making a plural of convenience (POC) to boost an entries' letter count (as happens with 32A BASE JUMPER and others) isn't the only way to inflate letter counts and fill power without adding much if anything of value or interest to the puzzle. I've clumped these together with examples at letter count inflation or LCI.
There are several LCIs in today's grid where SIRE, FEAR, FUZZY, ZOOM, SIMMER DOWN and STRICT all get a bump in letter count and fill power. The pre-LCI letter count of those is 33 and post-LCI is 44. That's a 33% increase from all those -EDs and -ERs. Do they result in a 33% increase in interest and value to the puzzle? Certainly not for me.
Don't mean to single out today's offering because LCIs, especially POCs, appear in just about every puzzle and this one is probably about average on that account. But they are "empty calories", so to speak, and when used excessively, can lower a puzzle's overall rating, if you ask me. They are more filling and less satisfying (with apologies to Miller Lite).
Z 2:41...That dude "Cheyenne" looks exactly like the first Spaniard I fell in love with. He dumped me after many moons of being together, for a Swedish bimbo dudette who couldn't even speak Spanish.....If he had ever said YO TE AMO to me, I was asleep at the lemon wheel.
@Anoa 2:52 - I enjoyed the link to your informative article re LCI's and the like - thanks for sharing. In it you state:
"I think LCI's are like abbreviations, partial phrases, foreign words, random Roman numerals, crosswordese, and the like. Any of these used judiciously to facilitate filling the grid of an otherwise excellent puzzle would be unremarkable and above reproach. It's when they are used excessively that, for me, they become intrusive and degrade the overall quality and integrity of the puzzle, and diminish my enjoyment of the solving experience."
I don't know that I quite agree with that one (from purely a solving experience perspective - not opining on the intricacies of construction). I've stated many, many times that I believe abbreviations, partials, foreign crap and RRN's to be abhorrent. I don't feel that the LCI process you described has the same degree of adverse impact on the solving experience - If CAMP would be perfect but doesn't fit - I don't see any real harm in going with CAMPING or CAMPERS as a legitimate alternative (with appropriate cluing of course).
Of course you also mentioned in your article that judicious use of pretty much all of the above can be a valuable tool - I would state it a little differently - something along the lines of "If you can utilize LCI and POC's to eliminate PPP, foreign nonsense and other esoterica, then the trade off is well-worth it, so have at it and enjoy yourself". I would rather have CAMPERS instead of "Nero's first begotten", "Egyptian moon goddess" or " Swahili for leopard" any time, any day of the week. There seems to be quite a bit of support for your assertion though, so maybe my personal preference is an outlier.
Tripped up by too many words with one or more letters that I wasn't confident about: FAROE, BIOTA, YOTEAMO, QIN, JAKES, HAJIBS, CONDI. I had the right answer for all of them at least once, but never had the right answer for all of them at one time. That spells dnf
Liked JAZZ UP, PHASE IN, & SIMMERED DOWN side by side by side.
Glad Rex didn't go off on the Scrabble letters in his inimitable style on the topic.Perhaps because constructor Burch chose not to shoehorn in an X.
HDW answer:
BEAM ("BEAM me up, Scotty"--begins in 44D square and moves to NW.
Yo Southside @4:27, points well made and points well taken. I think that LCIs are in the same category as crosswordese, abbrs., random Roman Popes, etc., but agree that one crosswordese might equal three LCIs in terms of their negative impact on the puzzle's overall quality.
Speaking of YO, I took some undergrad Spanish classes and as I recall the textbooks always included personal pronouns in verb conjugations so YO TE AMO sounds textbook perfect to me. But I also know that hereabouts they would just say TE AMO. Seems to me to be a difference that doesn't make a whole lot of difference.
Just to clarify any confusion over the SNL episode...Dr Fauci was interviewed and asked whom he would like to portray him in a future movie. His reply was "Brad Pitt, of course." That is why I ended up playing him on SNL.
The foreign phrases got me today. The SE cross between YOTEAMO and FAROE was my DNF square. Some names were tough for me too, but deduced them from crosses (wasn't sure if it was RAIMY/CONDY, RAIME/CONDE and finally entered RAIMI/CONDI).
Wouldn't ZEROGRAVITY be a lack of force in space, not a force in space?
It always gets old when Rex complains that clues he doesn't agree with politically should be excluded from the CW (more so even than when he gushes embarrassingly over woke terms).
Nancy: Sorry, Jeff just reached out to me after I sent him a few emails about the puzzle. He rightfully pegged me as someone who would like to construct a puzzle, but alas time is wanting. I would guess the number of emails is high because he mentors those with very little experience. And he likes what I would consider tricky themes. I regrettably am not a well known constructor. My brother did have two puzzles published in the Maleska era well before the NYT included bylines. But then again, he likes to use an alias.
Z: Yes, I know you are harder on Jeff than he tends to be and he is harder on the NYT than yourself, but I guess it's all relative. I tend to enjoy Jeff's puzzles so maybe I over-react to Mike's criticisms. I think that has happened a number of times. Might it be that you explain your complaints logically and calmly (usually except when something infuriates you) while Mike can be over the top and kind of make me feel as if I don't know what I'm talking about. In the long run, I guess it's not what you say but how you say it.
So it's about 1:47 before the governor's snow emergency edict goes into effect. Time for me to rest up and prepare myself for some lengthly snow shoveling. Not enjoyable. And probably not enjoyable that my paper won't be delivered on Saturday. At least I can access the Replica Edition, annoying as it is.
@Z, anon Maybe, and unsurprisingly, I do not understand the the issues in the moderator discussion. Squish squash or susquatch doesn't bother me at all. What does is the idea that the moderators were intentionally suppressing posts. I saw no admission of this and no evidence of this. I also think anon has directed inacurate and gratuitous insults at the moderators without contradiction during this foray into the minute subtleties of the imprecise usage of words. The more important issue has been left unchallenged. Not that I can't be amused in such explorations.
Glad I solved in an order that made me warm UP to the puzzle. When I got to the ORSO/ONTO reflections, and then the NW corner, I was willing to overlook the less than stellar fill.
A couple of weeks ago on my TV screen saver was a stunning picture of the FAROE Islands. I was curious so I read a bit about it, and guess what? I actually remembered it today and got it from the clue! Whee.
@CDilly52, @Whatsername, and other fellow procrastinators, I confidently put in bookrePoRt for the thing keeping kids up at night. Luckily it was too short.
Tried coke before ICEE - didn’t Coke have some ads with polar bears?
OK, I've had it with all these SCRAP/lemon/PARTS references and the radio ads that also seem to be targeting me and trying to get me to donate my 1998 Saab. Yes, the check engine light is on, the coolant has a leak and the top isn’t waterproof, but she is not junk!
Just because. Two over par for the season. Happy shoveling everyone! Oh yeah, I really liked the puz, thought it was tricky, and came in a few minutes under my average time, so go figure. Loved the LEMONS clue.
A, A 900? Keep the faith. It’s a wonderful car. Not sure where the leak is coming from, but, if all else is well, even the worst case scenario regarding the leak is likely worth repairing.
@anon And you know what the posts were and everyone agrees with your judgment and there could be no other judgment being made about those posts except yours. Like that it is just troll causing trouble about a nothing to do with anything issue except getting an insult in that was originally booted.
Z - The Qin ruled for 15 years, 1 year longer than Roman emperor Nero. Both reigns were followed by a tumultuous interregnum period and the eventual establishment a long period of stability, internal peace, and some of the greatest accomplishments of any civilization in the world before the modern period. Regarding Nero as inherently or objectively more worth knowing than Qin is quintessential eurocentrism. Something that is not taught and thus not learned (Chinese history) can still be worth knowing. I never learned about the Tulsa race massacre until I was an adult, and I am sure many Americans still do not know (enough) about it; nevertheless, I consider it not just "basic" information but essential information about American history.
Treating Chinese dynasties as unappealing crosswordese trivializes Chinese history. Your defense of this is a sad reminder that orientalist attitudes are alive and well.
@Z. Thanks for the link. Very interesting article. Makes Rex seem more reasonable/mainstream than some of us give him credit for. Don’t know why they didn’t contact you for quotes.
Easy medium? Not for me. DNF because I went with JAcob instead of JAKES for 16A. I looked it up just to confirm and the correct answer came up. (I hate when that happens). Lots of misdirects. Had Mckinnon before BRADPITT (like lots of others) cAvEJUMPERS before BASEJUMPERS, baby before POOL and FaintER before FUZZIER. I was INATRAP for quite a while in the NE corner until I realized there was a U-less Q in play. This one’s definitely not ATEN - not even a six. There were just a few too many clues and answers that made me go HMM…
If Renaissance woman CONDI Rice isn't DOD-worthy, no one is. C'mon, first ever woman to get an Augusta National membership?
Lots of Scrabble-you-know-what-ing today. A little of it serves to JAZZUP the grid, but then when you keep on cramming them in...
I had several false starts. If this was football, I'd be on first and 25. Went from useDcaRPARTS to useDFORPARTS and at last to SOLDFORPARTS. Hand up for the arTMAJOR. You know...the "classics?" My brain was a bit FUZZIER than usual today. Can't fault the puzzle though; birdie.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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116 comments:
A short answer messed me up and a short answer saved me. Fell into the verb trap and entered dab for "Spread makeup" at 5D. As a result I came out of the NW with crickets. Didn't know John Jakes, didn't remember BRAD PITT playing Fauci, and somehow missed 3D entirely, because TAKE A CAB would have helped a lot.
HMM at 27A saved me, as I had LITerati for the classics student at 17D, missing the singular/plural conflict.
Fell briefly into the fruit trap at 8D, but that was easily corrected.
Easy peazy outside of the NW (which is almost entirely on me), so Medium here.
The Z’s make the staggered stack work and JAZZ UP, FUZZIER, and even ESTEVEZ are okay answers in and of themselves (although it seems like I see his dad more than him these days), but QIN/QATARI felt like pure PPP scrabblef**k*ng to me. Paired with HIJABS/JAKES in the NW and it really felt like an overly fond desire for high value scrabble letters brought this puzzle down. I agree with Rex that the central stack is pretty great, as are the 12-letter crossing downs. I just think Burch should have been satisfied with the Z’s and J’s in that area and not have forced more high value letters into the corners.
Eyebrow arched at the STRICTER clue. Back in my assistant principal in a large high school days I had the reputation as the “nicer, more forgiving” one even though our data showed I was the STRICTER one. There are a variety of reasons for this but at least one of the reasons was my habit of asking the kids what they thought should happen to them as a result of their misbehavior. They’d almost always come up with an incredibly strict punishment that they’d been worrying about, so the actual consequence was a relief to them. Anyway, the clue is fine but for me the two concepts are not as entwined as is generally understood.
Cluing BRAD PITT via Fauci when OWIE is in the puzzle seems intentional. Personally I prefer a Fauci OWIE to a CONDI OWIE any day of the week (i.e. pushing for an unjustified invasion of Iraq). CONDI OWIE DOOMS seems like a fitting epitaph for the Bush II years. I see from her Wiki Bio that’s she the Director of the Hoover Institute now. What an interesting name. I don’t think “president who’s inaction made the Great Depression worse” would be my go to name for a think tank. That you think Herbie was a good prez pretty much discounts anything else you have to say as the ravings of fools.
@tb - you may want to avert your eyes
**wordle alert**
In honor of todays puzzle I started with a word starting with a high value letter. Ended up with a five guess effort. After 23 holes I’m sitting at one under par.
This puzzle was fun, and had enough Z's in it that when I got to 41 Down, I spelled it TzETzE! An X short of a pangram.
Re: 10A QIN [Chinese dynasty in which the terra-cotta army was built.]
My wife and I toured China in 2010 and while at the Terra-Cotta Museum we were told this story:
In the mid-1970s, a poor, illiterate Chinese farmer in Xi’an was digging a well when he unearthed a variety of terra cotta pieces that looked to him to be relics of some sort. He immediately reported his find to the local authorities, who verified the importance of the strike, and then thanked the farmer and rewarded him with a firm handshake and an order to move from the land his family had farmed for generations.
The farmer’s find has become one of the most significant archeological discoveries of all time and is currently a work in progress. It is the tomb of Emperor Qin, China’s ruler around 225 BCE.
The farmer who made the discovery was rewarded with a ‘job’ at the Terra Cotta Museum signing books about the dig. This story is told about him:
Bill, Hillary, and Chelsea are visiting China and want to see the museum and meet the farmer who is credited with the discovery. The Chinese government goes into panic mode as the farmer is illiterate and unable to converse in English. So they taught him a few basic phrases, anticipating a conversation with the President as follows:
Clinton: Glad to meet you.
Farmer: How are you?
Clinton: Fine, thank you.
Farmer: Me too.
But the farmer was nervous and his English suffered and they actually had this exchange:
Clinton: Glad to meet you.
Farmer: Who are you?
Clinton: I’m Hillary’s husband.
Farmer: Me too.
After that, the farmer became known as “Mr. Me Too”.
I bounced around a bit trying to get a foothold, even a toehold, on this one. Made bad guesses (e.g. burkas before HIJABS, arabic before QATARI) in lots of places until confidently getting BRADPITT.
Loved the stagger-steps (great term). Enjoyed the vindication I felt when SOLDFORPARTS worked, after SCRAPMETAL won that debate some time back.
Seemed to be a lot of Js and Zs today, but he (Jay-Z) didn't get to join PITT, CONDI and RAIMI's party.
Nice sub-30 Friday, making it zippy as opposed to a slog, at least in my arena.
I'm so sick of all the low value letter Scrabble F***ing in every puzzle. So many E's, I's, N's O's, A's and S's. Not to mention R's and T's.
*WORDLE*
I started with an inappropriate word from the xword and hit one out of place letter. I still got a birdie. I'm awfully lucky. I know I'm not awfully smart.
My experience was similar to OFL’s and I suspect others may echo the same sentiments - trouble in the NW, especially with HIJABS crossing ATEN, then found some joy in the center (especially enjoyed the clue for ZERO GRAVITY) and slowed down again in the south (kind of enjoyed the ZZZ’s buzzing around everywhere for some reason).
You can tell it’s Friday by just looking at some of the clues - doble, Robles, un beso, Setswana - and congrats to all who were able to dig deep enough to actually come up with the YOTEAMO/FAROE cross. Seriously, that combination looks like the CrossWorld equivalent of dog food to me (if you got that one, you have some serious solving chops and I salute you!).
Not a Friday worthy grid for me - too segmented leaving garbage short fill. I’ll second Rex’s UP take. Can we pick two worse actors - better yet follow them up with CONDI?
I did like the SAM RAIMI and PAPYRI strings. SO SPICY and BASE JUMPERS were neat - not so much beyond that. I understand that 34a was going for weightlessness - but there is no true ZERO GRAVITY anywhere in space so stay in your lane with the cute clues.
I’ll take a pass on this one. 18” forecast for tomorrow - hopefully our Saturday puzzle will be worthy.
Had to abandon the NW corner and finished it last. When I did was a little fed-UP. Didn’t care for all of their UPS at all. Have never ever sent the word INAPT in a sentence. How inappropriate to include it here. Over all not that challenging for a Friday but not that enjoyable either.
Cluing just too on the nose overall today. And when it wasn’t straightforward, it was bad (PTS and SO SPICY, for example). Nice fill, though.
You know Tutankhamun, the boy king, King Tut? He was originally TutankhATEN, having been born in a brief period when quasi-monotheistic worship of ATEN replaced traditional polytheism.
I usually don’t pay much attention to themes until the puzzle is finished, but after the UP/UP crossing and SIMMERED DOWN, I figured there was some sort of up/down theme. BASEJUMPERS contributed, as did the juxtaposition of ZERO GRAVITY and UBOATS, somehow. Even PAJAMA PARTY evokes images of kids jumping up and down. I kept waiting for the revealer that never appeared.
Absolutely fantastic center of the puzzle - as noted by @Rex, the PAJAMA PARY, BASE JUMPERS and ZERO GRAVITY were wonderful fill with good cluing. That middle excuses any other issues that may have been there. I completely missed the repeated UPs, and I accepted the TAKE A CAB, ATEN, etc etc
Thanks @kitshef for the King Tut - ATEN link. Very interesting
This is not a puzzle review. It is more like the notes from someones' therapy session. Good Lord !
I really enjoyed this one and wished that it was not over so soon. All the colloquial word play seemed unforced to me, which is usually the issue with that sort of thing.
A clue references "Classics" and the ole English perfesser puts in "Art". Gotta love it.
When you've been doing crosswords for a very long time, you will hail the appearance of ATEN as a kind of long-lost friend I remember it as usually being clued as "sun disk", or something similar.
SETTLEDDOWN slowed the middle to a crawl for a while, but once SIMMERED became apparent all was well. See also ASTOO instead of ORSO.
I really should memorize SAMRAIMI, as he is a very useful collection of letters.
And solving on paper does not allow to run the alphabet to produce a Q in a place which for me at least could have been anything. Stuck in an H, probably thinking of the old John Wayne movie.
@Joaquin=Great story.
Nice Friday, JB. Juicy Batch of Scrabble letters. Thanks for the fun.
This was a puzzle that seemed impossible to me. Until it wasn't.
Only wish I could remember where that corner was turned. Maybe I'll try to pay closer attention to that in future.
It's always weird to me that I can be stumped through half (or more) of a puzzle, then suddenly I'm zooming through it in sub-average time.
This one was fun, too. All those longs - across and down - in the middle of the grid were sparkly and fresh. And I loved SIMMERED DOWN, and not just because it is a concept completely foreign to me.
One thing: how much more fun would it be if the plural of PAPYR(us) were PAPYRopodes instead of PAPYRI, which if I'm being honest, reminds me of a certain spinach-scarfing cartoon sailor.
Congratulations on a stellar sophomore effort, Mr. Burch - and keep 'em coming!
🧠🧠
🎉🎉🎉.5
As the solve unfolded, had fun with the scrabbly fill. Good observation, @Anonymous 7:45 AM. Happy Friday.
Interesting that you complain about FAROE which is a gimme itself and crosses with GIF, another gimme and the ER from 33d. And yet no complaints about ICEE which is some made up thing.
It's MICROGRAVITY, not ZERO
Your PAJAMA PARTY Pulp cover today is degrading to women, I am so offended, you need to burn some of your paperbacks, eliminate such titillation and explain how you can show such filth in today's revisionist world
Great puzzle -- by only (brief) problem was with LIT MAJOR, thinking the clue meant literature written in classical languages, and toying with LaT as an abbreviation for LATIN.
I'm pretty sure QIN is just the more recent transliteration of chIN, but that wouldn't fit. I used to have a time-line of the Chinese dynasties posted on the side of a bookcase--wait, I still do! But I didn't consult it for the puzzle, just took a stab at it.
OK, I'm off to a meeting.
@Frantic (8:33)
Don't you mean "spinach-snarfing"?
Something that people might actually know:
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt0100828.
YO TE AMO is totally artificial without a comma after the first word.
And i'm not very keen on QIN, either.
@pabloinnh - I was going to opine that hATARI>QATARI but then decided that wasn’t true.
@Frantic Sloth - Who would be PAPYRI the Sailor’s enemy? Blotto?
@anon7:45 - I didn’t notice all the UP and DOWN in the puzzle, but you’re right. There’s enough there to be at least a mini-theme.
@Southside Johnny - FAROE didn’t appear in a NYTX after 1990 until 2016. That timing is interesting because the FAROE Island men’s national football team upset Greece twice during the 2016 Euro qualifiers. At the time FAROE Islands were ranked 187th while Greece was ranked 18th. This was big enough of an upset to get FAROE Islands in some US headlines, and now we’ve seen it three times after it being absent for a quarter century. Blame sports.
Hey All !
NW my downfall. Zipped through the puz relatively fast for me for a FriPuz. Got stuck in NW, not knowing JAKES or ATEN, and two not coming into the ole brain, HIJABS and PTS. Dang. Googed for JAKES. Boo! But that was able to get me the finish.
Z's & Q's & J's, oh my! Got a chuckle out of @The Jokers post, as that's how silly Rex sounds. Also, @Offended 8:56, LOL!
Did you know NEWYEARSEVE has the same letter count as PAJAMAPARTY? I do! Har. Some other writeovers: mako-POOL, YOTEngo-YOTEAMO, cel-GIF, wah-COO, that's it? When a bad memory, always something to discover. 😁
Great clue for COOP. And RITZ BITS are very yummy if you've never had them. I prefer the peanut butter filled rather than the cheese filled.
Couldn't fit an X anywhere, Jem? ROT!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
We're caught IN A TRAP . . .
Hi, could some kindly person explain why 'spread makeup' is 'pts'? Is this make up on the face? Make up exams? I have no idea and inquiring minds want to know! Thank you.
This solve was close to the Wednesday level. If I hadn't had a ONESEC/INASEC write over in the NE I'm sure it would have been Wednesday time. I'm not a speed solver Wednesdays are usually around 16 minutes today's solve was 17:56. The use of high value letters was the main culprit. They severely limit the options and are dead giveaways.
The SW and SE corners were so easy to fill I skipped the clues for ATE, LSD, ITEMS, FAROE and TSETSE. A late week themeless should at least force you to read all the clues.
yd -0
Very enjoyable -- with enough challenge to keep it interesting. But without any suffering.
Now, many find BRAD PITT irresistable, but today I tried to resist him. He's a handsome sex symbol, right? -- so I couldn't imagine him playing Dr. Fauci on SNL or anywhere else. But I also couldn't think of another BRAD with a 4-letter last name. Eventually the "T in LIT MAJOR made him completely irresistable.
I didn't see FACIAL coming for the mask occasion. Why woman pay good cash money to have that yucky glop plastered all over their faces is beyond me. I would pay good cash money not to have yucky glop plastered all over my face.
FUZZIER might have been clued: "Even worse than Nancy's memory".
I especially liked the clues for ABOUND, LADLE and OP ART. A nice grown-up Friday that I enjoyed.
Z, Q, and J are letters in the alphabet; letters make up words; words make up crosswords. Whatever your real problem is with these letters being used in crosswords, I'm sure I'm not the only one who wishes you would either get over it or keep it to yourself. After all, without Z, Q, and J's neighbors X and K, you wouldn't even be able to spell your own blog's name! Of course, if you really don't want to deal with Zs, Qs, etc., why not just ditch the alphabet altogether for logograms like Hanzi? Oh wait, I almost forgot about your Eurocentric disdain for learning even the most basic facts about the history of one of the world's most significant continuous civilizations and cultural traditions. Yeah, there are "so many" dynasties, but that's bound to happen over the course of 4 millennia. Anyway, the Qin dynasty is one of a baker's dozen that not only are fair game for a Friday puzzle but indeed should be well within the ken of anyone with a liberal arts phd. Despite its very short reign, the Qin is one of the most important of all Chinese dynasties. It founded the Chinese imperial system that existed for most of the past 2000 years, it developed a standardized script, and its name is the probable source of the various names for China in most Indo-European languages.
You can't argue for "diversity" in crosswords and then get pissy when you are asked to recall basic information about China. I know the professor won't read this, but I hope others take note of his preposterous posturing.
@Unk 9:20 I figured PTS as in point spread (i.e.betting on sports) - but who knows, it could pertain to make-up or cheese dip for all I know.
"Spread" refers to gambling lines on sporting events like football. One team is favored by a certain number of "points" over another.
JJ, QQ, ZZ. I don’t get why the whole scrabble thing matters in a crossword but there you go. And then if you look UP UP - UP pop the dupe and the trip, four out of five INA INA the top two rows. It really didn’t make much difference except for cringing when I saw that third UP, third UP, third UP. In such a good puzzle was that really necessary?
I would’ve sworn RITZ BITS were crackers, not sandwiches. Oh wait, they ARE. But the clue works since apparently they are marketed as “cracker sandwiches” or “sandwich crackers” or something. Never ATE one myself but I hear they’re quite good with an ICEE, quite good with an ICEE.
If you were going to host a PAJAMA PARTY, BRAD PITT would certainly JAZZ UP the guest list. HMM.
Spread refers to how many points (pts) one team is favored over another. Capeesh?
Thx Jem, for the RITZy Fri. puz! :)
Med+.
Went fairly smoothly, except for the NE. All kinds of issues: to start with, I had oNe SEC before IN A SEC. I couldn't envision the key next to Q, even tho I'm solving with a standard laptop keyboard. The dynasty was a woe, couldn't recall the Al Jazeera country, wasn't sure of PASO and 'chopped liver' was not evoking anything other than ugh meat.
Finally, recalled QATAR, and the rest came together, whew!
Fun and challenging. Liked it a lot. :)
@TTrimble / @puzzlehoarder 👍 for 0's yd
___
yd pg (26:13) / Wordle 4
Peace ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Sports betting. The number of points one team is favored over another, aka the point spread.
I got caught up in the weird notion that there was a theme here, arising from the fact that it seemed to me that lemons are usually sold for tarts, and that was a bad deviation I never recovered from.
Solved with fledging solver physicist niece who noted with a puzzled, pained looked that the clue for Zero Gravity was "not quite accurate." I told her that it would come up on a blog I frequent, @Son Volt. She also objected to the Scoop clue for Ladle, "A Scoopful of soup?!" @mathgent, I explained Joaquin's dictum. She was a little surprised at Sac and Papyri, not knowing that on Friday, Egg will have something to do with ova or Sac and any Scroll clue could be for the plural of Papyrus (@Frantic 😀).
(Aside to @Anoa Bob from yesterday. She later explained how degaussing works, starting with an explanation of magnetism at the atomic level. Thanks again for that.)
Solving with her made me realize that dumb, ignorant and able to suspend disbelief can be unbeatable assets in solving crossword puzzles, but they didn't help with Hajib/Hijab. Still, experience helps you learn the strange language of crosswords. You say tomato, I say Romatoes.
Favorite clues were Spread for Pts. and Fly for Setswana (niece travels extensively and was considering airport names).
Rex read my mind for this review. The long answers were okay, but so much of the smaller fill was pathetic.
Spread refers to betting. For example, if a team is favored by 3 points (pts), you can bet on it but you win only if the team beats the spread, I.e. wins by more than 3 points.
A combination of some opaque-to-me clues and some wrong guesses moved this one to the challenging side, and thus made for a satisfying Friday. And a pleasure as well, with that great pair SIMMERED DOWN and SOLD FOR PARTS and the center stack.
Do-overs: "loan" shark, AmEN, uMM, RareBITS. No idea: BASE JUMPERS, JAKES, QIN. Personal note to me: FEARED over SO SPICY! (Chili allergy. Eating out = negotiating a mine field.)
@Z it may be a CONDI OWIE, but it’s a Fauci ouchie.
Z,
regarding my assertin that the mids shou;d've used quashed instead of squashed, are you claining that squashed is in fact the proper usage?
@Anon 7:45. I liked that you noticed the UP/DOWN element. Regarding themes: The general pattern in the NYT is themes Mon-Thurs, themeless Fri. and Sat. Sunday usually has a theme but occasionally not.
Easy-medium. QIN was a WOE. The center scrabble stuff made for a fun solve. Solid with some sparkle, liked it.
FAROE Island salmon is really good if you can get it.
@Z I got confused between PAPYRI and PAPaya the sailorman. Hence, Mango. Oh, well...🙄
@JD 1010am Thank you! Now any crossword solving success I've had can be explained! It never made sense to me before. Big surprise there. 🤣
Wordle 223 5/6
⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Had to try one stupid letter in all five positions before the answer came. Weird that that's what made to difference.
Ouch....I, at one point, wanted to go UP,UP, UP and away.
Like @Frantic, I thought this would be impossible. I made my cafe con leche, re-sat in my favorite chair and guess what? The webs in my attic began to clear....
The NW started with an "eat a sandwich" ...was it really that easy TAKE A CAB? Yep. I seldom watch SNL because I'm sleepy when it comes on. BUT...there were several little snippets showing him impersonate Dr. Fauci. It was amusing. I understand Dr. Fauci thought so too.
Oddly (or maybe not) was my trying to figure out SOLD FOR PARTS at 8D. My mind went into squeezed, sliced, used on my tacos, helping prevent scurvy....but it seems the lemon in question is acting parts?
My one and only pet peeve is YO TE AMO. Why? you ask...Because nary a Spanish speaking friend will ever utter those word. Just leave out the "YO." Why? you ask...Because the verb "AMO" lets you know that the subject ia a first person singular. "I Love You" in Spanish usually omits the "I" because it's understood. A different phenomena in English to Spanish....How about them apples....
Loved the eleven long answers in the middle so all was forgiven. I even like CONDI. She had a wonderful gapped tooth grin. I love me some gap teeth.
@Joaquin 7:00. Thanks for your story and a good loud laugh. When the farmer told Billy he was Mr. Me Too, did Hillary look to her husband and say: "What difference, at this point, does it matter?"
Does anyone here remember a little magazine ad from the '60s that said something like "f u cn rd ths mssage... you can get a good job as a stenographer (or something like that)." There was also one that said you could get a good job as an artist if you could draw the duck (or something like that). Something on the blog reminded me of it. @Frantic, can recall?
HMM. I would give this puzzle A TEN if it were not for that 10A/10D cross. All of the other unknowns, such as FAROE, were fairly crossed, but there was no way to infer what letter that little 10 box wanted. I went with Hin and Hatari, inspired by the H in HIJAB. Out of all the letters in the alphabet, the Q never occurred to me. (And I have a friend who lived in Qatar.)
Too many INs, UPs, and ONs, I suppose, but this puzzle otherwise had a lot to offer and was fun to solve. Especially liked SIMMERED DOWN traveling downward in the grid and NOBODY hiding in the corner. Best answers were SOLD FOR PARTS and ZERO GRAVITY. Best clue was the one for COOP.
YOTEAMO is an eyeful as a dook. Looks like the last name of an Olympian athlete.
And another something for all the Avid Owie fans:
https://youtu.be/u3MX-rUtS6M
I was so proud when I just"knew" RAREBITS was the answer for "cheesy sandwiches..." When I ran into trouble with the Z in ESTEVEZ I reread the clue, saw "...for snackers", and changed RARE to RITZ. Had me fooled for a while.
Must be a wheelhouse thing. I'm doing great if I finish a Friday puzzle in 10 minutes, and today's I did in 9. Basically read the clue, fill in the answer, If I didn't immediately know the across, one or two downs allowed me to figure out the answer.
Maybe it's what I had for dinner last night because I birdied today's Worldle, too:
Wordle 223 3/6*
⬛⬛⬛🟨⬛
🟩🟨⬛⬛🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
FWIW, Alex Karras played MONGO (not Mango) in Blazing Saddles.
Oh sure @R Duke, correct my bad joke with facts why don’t you…
@Anon who refuses to spell in anything like standard English - “squash” can mean “to put down, suppress.” I presume that’s what the “mids” meant. Just because “quash” sounds like it might be what they meant does not make it correct. In fact, since the lost posts were recovered, “quash,” with its connotation of completeness, would have been a suboptimal choice. TBF - I have seen “squash” when “quash” was clearly meant, but the “mids” were discussing lost comments, not the law. Don’t you ever tire of embarrassing yourself?
@JD & @Son Volt - As that great philosopher Mr. Spock once said, “a difference which makes no difference is no difference.” GRAVITY is the weakest of the four fundamental forces and once you get far enough away the force is roughly equal to the odds that I’ll end up dating Paulina Gretzky. Technically not ZERO but effectively ZERO.
@JD - I remember those ads. Also the Charles Atlas ads with the scrawny guy getting sand kicked in his face.
@Carola - A chili allergy. That’s awful. And never ever let me cook for you.
@Mango Sloth - I rather enjoyed imagining Alex Karras in a Mango Colored outfit fruitlessly pursuing Olive Oyl. Blotto, OTOH would probably just wear a Pollackesque suit.
@aslightrain - More preposterous to me is your assertion that the various dynasties are “basic information about China.” A more accurate description would be “Chinese factoid useful for a late week puzzle if you want a Q but can’t make a U fit.”
@Anon 11:34 - Wow! I did not catch that. It seems @Mango Sloth is slier than she appears…
I was held up at 32A, having to choose between FACE and BASE jumping, as I only ever see the idiots jumping off cliff faces, and what the hell is BASE doing there? A little research shows BASE = B[uildings],A[ntennae],S[pans and bridges] and E[dges, as in cliffs]. Once one does all 4, they get acknowledged as BASE base jumpers, of which there were 2000 in 2017. The WIKI article also has all sorts of records listed, highest, lowest, etc. A remarkable number of the records also included "...[record holder] died the same month while while trying ..."
I suggest that they form a new category of BASE base jumpers, BASED base jumpers:
B[uildings],A[ntennae],S[pans and bridges],E[dges, as in cliffs] and D[arwin award recipient].
I write this with a heavy heart. I whiffed on Wordle. There were exactly two possibles for my sixth try and I picked the wrong one.
Using Gill's delightful expression, today's crossword didn't fancy my tickle.
A common comment on the blog is "I had X (wrong entry ) before Y (correct entry)." Ah, yes. There are two words that fit that clue!
@Z, Re. Zero Gravity, the Spock quote is perfect. But as I've said before, knowing too much can be a hinderance in solving. A Princess and the Pea syndrome. It pained her.
Alternate clues:
3D. What wine would be safe to give my host at tonight’s party?
17D. Over-served army officer
20D. Johnny’s goal when McMahon got irate.
41D. Wasteland author, shortened and repeated
51A Action you should take if you want some body ink.
TAKE A CAB
LIT MAJOR
SIMMER ED DOWN
TSE TSE
GO TAT
BTW, it seems like this has come up before, but shouldn’t 17D (Student of the classics, say) contain some indicator that the answer (LITMAJOR) contains an abbreviation?
I struggled, like most, in the NW, but once things started flowing, it was a fast and fun ride. Thanks, Jem Burch.
@GILL 1046am The "lemon" in this case is a term for a crappy car.
@JD 1100am Yes. I might have mentioned it before, but i believe it was something like "if u can rd ths msg, u can bcm a secy & gt a gd jb." I remember all those "if you can draw this..." come-ons, too. LOL!
@Anonymous 1134am 🤣 Thanks for explaining the joke because:
a. I doubt anyone "got it"
b. It was definitely worth saving 🙄
@Z 1137am I feel your pain. 🤣🤣
@Z 1134am I bear some of that burden because the whole PAPYRI/PAPaya thing I mentioned before. 😉
I seem to be oblivious to repeats, especially short words like UP. Maybe that is bad, but that's just me. I am not so oblivious to filling the grid with many high value scrabble values, but they seem to not annoy me. At all. So for a Friday puzzle, I enjoyed this one very much. And I expected the complaints.
Z: about my comment yesterday. I tend to speed read through the write-up because Sharp can at times go on and on with justifying his judgment more than I would care. His positive reactions to Chen seem to me to often be begrudging. I think he's said that his mind travels on a different wavelength that Jeff's. Are his comments influencd by his (often composed rants concerning) apparent hatred for the NYT and Shortz? I wouldn't know. But it seems to me his comments often relate how much at odds he is with Jeff's type of wordplay (or is it letter-play). Maybe I am over sensitive because I very much enjoy those type of puzzles. To each his own.
Based upon what the co-constructors say about Jeff, it would seem to me that he spends a great deal of time helping them. (He once asked me if I would co-construct, but alas I am just too busy.) Perhaps all the time spent working with others prevent him from creating solo constructed puzzles. Or maybe he just really enjoys working with others a lot more than solo constructing. I don't know, and only he could enlighten us.
Z,
I'm not embarassed by typos and I'm unpersuaded by your argument. Doing away with speech is to quash it. Squash doesn't enter in to it.
In English quash has a long history as the preferred, or, if you like, optimal word for getting rid of speech or words.
Any reputable dicionary agreees. Even setting aside any metaphorical usage, simply look at the black letter definition: to supress completely. And of course, that's what the mods did initially. There was no evidence of the post, because it had been supressed completely. That the posts were recovered doesn't mean they weren't initally removed entirely. Their ultimate recovery is therefore a non-starter when it comes to the action which is what is under discussion.
Something which is squashed remains, albeit compressed. That was not what happened. I"ll grant that the disctionary that happens to closest to hand, allows the secondary definition of suqash o mean supress. But even it uses quash as the explantion of that supression. That is to say, quash it whaat's really meant.
And it isn't a mtter of law--though evern there it's clear that removing words is the key element. indictments are quashed and of course the root of indict--comes from proclaim-- that is done with words, written or spoken.
You frequently make claims. When challenged you grow strident, smug and insulting, repeating the claim as if repetition strengthend your argument. You may want to reconsider that posistion. You shoud certainly do so as it pertains to quash.
I may be the only one here who loved seeing ATEN in the grid. The all-too-brief Amarna period of the Pharaoh Akhenaten is a simple fascinating, and the earliest recorded monotheistic religion. Absolutely worth remembering and including!
After watching the Jeopardy champion lose on a relatively easy question the other day I was inspired to re-watch Quiz Show. I noticed this exchange : HERBIE STEMPEL: If Charles Van Doren told them what I told them, do you think this whole grand jury thing would be squashed?
DICK GOODWIN: Quashed. Not squashed.
Nearly face-planted on this one by writing in MCKINNON instead of BRADPITT for the Fauci clue. Her impression of him is spot on, as always, and I thought “Good for the NYT going with the gender-neutral ‘actor’ instead of ‘actress’.” Once I finally abandoned that, I dimly recalled Pitt’s turn, and stumbled to the finish line.
My favorite comments this morning.
Joaquin (7:00)
kitshef (7:44)
Pete (11:44)
For me - a relative noob - most every Friday and Saturday was that sort of solving experience. Stumbling 2/3s through drawing complete blanks. Then, one break starts a slow crescendo to "Tada!" and "Whew, how did I do that?!" I also started that way today - but these days I have little doubt it will end with a full grid and the Happy Song. I guess that's why we all get hooked?
Hatari means danger in Swahili. But Al Jezeera is based somewhere in the Middle East.
So Qatar makes more sense.
Flew through this with only resistance in the NE. (Wanted Used Car Parts)
Usually I finish the W/E puzzles around Tuesday, by which time no one is interested in the Friday blog. Hence the choice of moniker.
@pmdm (12:06) -- So Jeff Chen asked you to co-construct a puzzle with him? Very impressive! I'm wondering who you are and if you're a fairly well-known constructor that I/we know?
Jeff appears to be a very hands-on collaborator. He mentors a lot of less-experienced constructors and they all seem to adore him and be grateful for all his input. Lewis is just one of the people who pays him a lot of tribute -- as he did just yesterday in his Constructor's Notes. After speaking about Jeff's very busy, demanding and varied work schedule, he added:
"Somehow he fit in exchanging 130 emails with me over the final two months of 2019. It was a very rewarding back and forth, as we brainstormed, constructed and polished this puzzle." I remember that Lewis had previously mentioned "over 100" emails sent back and forth during their last collaboration. One of Jeff's other collaborators, I forget who, said exactly the same thing.
Now Jeff Chen is brilliant at what he does, but 130 emails is, as far as I'm concerned, about 110 emails too many. Will Nediger and I usually get by with a maximum of about 10 emails each. My LAT puzzle with Lewis also probably required no more than 10 emails each. Just the mere thought of collaborating on a puzzle that requires 130 emails makes me break into hives. But, of course, I'm not famous for either my stamina or my patience.
@Joaquin-thanks for sharing that story, sad ad it is (on several levrls). I engy you your trop.
@Frantic 12:02....Did my answer elicit a Mango oof? Gadzookybobs. Of course the old car that won't start and sputters down memory lane....
@RooMonster I had NewYearsEve before... errr... on the eve of PajamaParty as well.
Kinda tough at our house, in select spots. But it had The Jaws of Themelessness and almost pangram and some cool SO-SPICY-fillins like RITZBITS/RODEO, sooo … there's yer rodeo.
staff weeject picks: On the fence here, between PTS & QIN. Took m&e many nanoseconds to decode that NW corner stuff, especially HIJABS/ATEN/JAKES, but also to figure out what the PTS clue was talkin about. OK … "spread" as in point spread -- nice ahar clue moment. QIN, on the other hand, has been used before but refuses to stick in the M&A memory burial vault.
Primo weeject stacks, in the NE & SW.
Them there J & Q pups kinda put M&A on pangram alert mode, but the RODEO fell an X short, on that score.
About @RP's UP Overload essay: The two crossin UP's were kinda neat, since HITUP had UP at the end, and was crossed by UP-END which btw had END at the front. If that make any sense.
Now, the JAZZUP UP woulda then been a ritzbit too much, except there was also a (SIMMERED)DOWN entry. The DOWN sorta cancels out one of the UPs, sooo … ok.
@AnoaBob dude: Yo -- they had a primo TSETSE Of Convenience (TTOC), today.
Thanx for the feisty fun, Mr. Burch dude. Good job and nice UPS N DOWNS mini-theme.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
Yo no soy marinero, Yo no soy marinero, soy capitan, soy capitan!
If Richie Valens sang it, it's good Spanish. And while "Te amo" is all you need to say, "Yo te amo" is every bit as valid as, "Yo, el rey", which is the formula used by Spanish kings since forever, to sign laws and decrees. (P.S., Valens put out a first-rate version of songs in Spanish that he grew up with, well worth a listen).
Total and complete DNF here. I put in "Sum" where IAM should be, and never got FACIAL. I had to look up JAKES, and fell therefore into the Kealoa Maxima, which is kind of like the Cloaca Maxima, the great sewer of Rome, which you can still see today. The Kealoa, of course, is that Egyptian sun god, who was indeed ATEN Ra in my youth, who often is replaced by Atun Ra, and confused with Amun or Amon Ra.
I am a little ashamed I did not get UBOATS, which is well clued. I did get CONDI, who made me ashamed to be a Stanford man when she worked for Mr. Clueless. But everyone respected Herbert Hoover, who may have been a lousy President, but was not responsible for any wars, and founded an Institution that had the most magnificent collection of materials related to war, revolution, and peace. I spent many an hour there poring over their collection of Chinese-English newspapers to prepare my senior thesis, designed to show that the nationalists just had no idea how popular Mao was and how likely he was to win and send them off to Formosa (Taiwan). And had I been literate in Chinese, I could have found a splendid collection of Chinese language materials useful to my topic.
If @Rex were to visit NYC, I'd know not to invite him for dinner, since he'd have to take the Q train. He'd also want to avoid the J train, which goes to a different part of Brooklyn and which shares its route with the elusive Z train. It's easy to avoid the Z train: it only runs for something like 1½ hours every other week, and you never know exactly when and there's no way to find out. Only a fortunate few have experienced sightings of it.
I had BRAD PITT and Isis in the NW and believed so heartily in Isis rather than ATEN, that the NW just sat there until the butter end. What three me was the clue using the word “deity.” Apparently, it caused me to overthink and use the goddess Isis (certainly a deity) since she is specifically the “Sun Goddess” whereas I usually see Egyptian and immediately enter ATEN.
So, after spending way too long stuck at the beginning, I began to feel the dreaded DNF nipping at my . . . Whatever. Then the sun came out to shine on the marvels of the QIN dynasty and I sped from extreme NE diagonally down to the SW.
The COOP full of layers made a lightbulb go off in my head biz the NW. figured since we had producing fowl dow at the bottom that the “egg container” up top must be a hen! Yikes.
Eventually , I gave Isis the boot in favor of (yawn) ATEN and he dutifully turned on the sunshine for me. Suddenly, HIJABS Fell and I remembered John JAKES. I adored the North a d South story. Read it in high school and all of the drama and the wonderful characters.
An enjoyable Friday for sure. Clue for LADLE is A+. Also liked the way we got to RITZ BITS, and thought QIN and QATAR - Q-words not followed by the nearly ubiquitous “U” were well done.
In looking over the grid after the fact, I think the difficult grid shape is one that often causes the of crosswordese. When the “big” fill is excellent (as is today’s central staggered stack) and the word play clever ✅ I can forgive a bit of dreck.
Fun Friday. Thanks Mr. Burch and happy weekend everyone!
nyc-lo-- honest question? What's the advantage of getting less info, as one does from actor, than more as one does from actress and actor?
Should there only be two stauettes for acting awarded each year as opposed to the current four?
While YO TE AMO might be syntactically correct, it just looks so awkward to me. Only Spanish 101 students would include YO in that statement, and even they will start dropping it after some conjugation practice.
*Stepping down from mi plataforma improvisada*
Reposting because stupid link.
@Joaquin 700am Thanks for the fun story. And like the idiot that I am, I can't see "Mr. Me Too" without thinking Mr. Moto. Different nationality, but same continent. 🤷♀️
@pabloinnh 828am I had the same reaction to ATEN, and was happy it wasn't clued in one of the ways Rex mentioned. Yuck!
@WordSleuth 903am 🤣 Well, that didn't take long. You fell right into my expertly-set trap and no, I do not. 🤣
@Z 907am 🤣 Mango. Played by Alex Karras.
@aslightrain 934am You sound like you'd be a lot of fun at parties.
Completely missed all the UPiness, but did catch a whiff of Scrabble; however, barely a twitch of my brow.
@The Modem Gal-Totally agree. (@GTLL I-I agree with you too.) Our friend @old timer may be joking when he quotes Richie Valens as an authority on Spanish usage, but he could also notice that after "Yo no soy marinero, which I think is there for the rhythm, "yo" disappears--"soy capitan". And of course Yo el Rey has no verb at all.
Yo te amo isn't wrong, and could be used for emphasis--YO te amo, unlike that guy over there, but people who use "yo" too frequently can be accused of "yoismo", and are seen as a little too full of themselves.
He dicho.
@GILL 107pm Now I'm confused. LOL! I thought you were questioning how "lemon" related to parts. SOLDFORPARTS as in "this car is such a lemon, only its individual parts can be used and/or sold." Or am I just being obtuse? Been known to happen.
@Pete - BASEd JUMPERS - 🤣😂🤣 👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽
@mathgent - Unlucky.
@JD 11:46 - I was impressed with “not quite accurate” instead of “wrong.”
@egs11:57 - re LIT MAJOR - I guess it could be argued that LIT MAJOR is now a stand alone phrase, or that it’s Friday so the clues give less information. I tried “art” first and now I know why, lack of the shortening indicator. It’s all Shortz’ fault!
@pmdm - Are you confusing Rex with me? I think Rex likes Chen puzzles more than I do and everything you ascribe to Rex is stuff I’ve written. Where Rex is more critical than I is on the close relationship between the NYTX and xwordinfo.com. I do think that relationship impacts what is written there, but it’s not a secret so I’m fine with that.
@Anon12:07 - Thanks for the thoughtful response. Here’s where I think we disagree. You seem to presume that the mod wanted a different word. I think the word they did use is okay, even preferable. If they had used “quash” instead I would have understood the meaning as intended to be subtly different, the meaning you describe. But since they didn’t use “quash” I assume they didn’t mean “quash.” The only time I thing “squash” is definitively wrong is in a legal context.
YO TE AMO has 155 million+ views so somebody thinks it is okay.
Since it's chilly and windy outside and it's spitting rain and I'm home alone, allow me to point out that making a plural of convenience (POC) to boost an entries' letter count (as happens with 32A BASE JUMPER and others) isn't the only way to inflate letter counts and fill power without adding much if anything of value or interest to the puzzle. I've clumped these together with examples at letter count inflation or LCI.
There are several LCIs in today's grid where SIRE, FEAR, FUZZY, ZOOM, SIMMER DOWN and STRICT all get a bump in letter count and fill power. The pre-LCI letter count of those is 33 and post-LCI is 44. That's a 33% increase from all those -EDs and -ERs. Do they result in a 33% increase in interest and value to the puzzle? Certainly not for me.
Don't mean to single out today's offering because LCIs, especially POCs, appear in just about every puzzle and this one is probably about average on that account. But they are "empty calories", so to speak, and when used excessively, can lower a puzzle's overall rating, if you ask me. They are more filling and less satisfying (with apologies to Miller Lite).
@Anoa Bob 2:52. You neglected to reference the rare Foreign Letter Count Inflator (FLCI) employed by having the superfluous YO precede TEAMO.
Z 2:41...That dude "Cheyenne" looks exactly like the first Spaniard I fell in love with. He dumped me after many moons of being together, for a Swedish bimbo dudette who couldn't even speak Spanish.....If he had ever said YO TE AMO to me, I was asleep at the lemon wheel.
@Anoa 2:52 - I enjoyed the link to your informative article re LCI's and the like - thanks for sharing. In it you state:
"I think LCI's are like abbreviations, partial phrases, foreign words, random Roman numerals, crosswordese, and the like. Any of these used judiciously to facilitate filling the grid of an otherwise excellent puzzle would be unremarkable and above reproach. It's when they are used excessively that, for me, they become intrusive and degrade the overall quality and integrity of the puzzle, and diminish my enjoyment of the solving experience."
I don't know that I quite agree with that one (from purely a solving experience perspective - not opining on the intricacies of construction). I've stated many, many times that I believe abbreviations, partials, foreign crap and RRN's to be abhorrent. I don't feel that the LCI process you described has the same degree of adverse impact on the solving experience - If CAMP would be perfect but doesn't fit - I don't see any real harm in going with CAMPING or CAMPERS as a legitimate alternative (with appropriate cluing of course).
Of course you also mentioned in your article that judicious use of pretty much all of the above can be a valuable tool - I would state it a little differently - something along the lines of "If you can utilize LCI and POC's to eliminate PPP, foreign nonsense and other esoterica, then the trade off is well-worth it, so have at it and enjoy yourself". I would rather have CAMPERS instead of "Nero's first begotten", "Egyptian moon goddess" or " Swahili for leopard" any time, any day of the week. There seems to be quite a bit of support for your assertion though, so maybe my personal preference is an outlier.
Hidden Diagonal Word clue:
Verb in Scotty's command
Tripped up by too many words with one or more letters that I wasn't confident about: FAROE, BIOTA, YOTEAMO, QIN, JAKES, HAJIBS, CONDI. I had the right answer for all of them at least once, but never had the right answer for all of them at one time. That spells dnf
Liked JAZZ UP, PHASE IN, & SIMMERED DOWN side by side by side.
Glad Rex didn't go off on the Scrabble letters in his inimitable style on the topic.Perhaps because constructor Burch chose not to shoehorn in an X.
HDW answer:
BEAM ("BEAM me up, Scotty"--begins in 44D square and moves to NW.
With regard to "POC" and "LCI" discussion. It looks like you are concentrating on finding things to be unhappy about in a puzzle. Sad.
Yo Southside @4:27, points well made and points well taken. I think that LCIs are in the same category as crosswordese, abbrs., random Roman Popes, etc., but agree that one crosswordese might equal three LCIs in terms of their negative impact on the puzzle's overall quality.
Speaking of YO, I took some undergrad Spanish classes and as I recall the textbooks always included personal pronouns in verb conjugations so YO TE AMO sounds textbook perfect to me. But I also know that hereabouts they would just say TE AMO. Seems to me to be a difference that doesn't make a whole lot of difference.
Just to clarify any confusion over the SNL episode...Dr Fauci was interviewed and asked whom he would like to portray him in a future movie. His reply was "Brad Pitt, of course." That is why I ended up playing him on SNL.
The foreign phrases got me today. The SE cross between YOTEAMO and FAROE was my DNF square. Some names were tough for me too, but deduced them from crosses (wasn't sure if it was RAIMY/CONDY, RAIME/CONDE and finally entered RAIMI/CONDI).
Wouldn't ZEROGRAVITY be a lack of force in space, not a force in space?
It always gets old when Rex complains that clues he doesn't agree with politically should be excluded from the CW (more so even than when he gushes embarrassingly over woke terms).
Hope this isn't too late to be viewed.
Nancy: Sorry, Jeff just reached out to me after I sent him a few emails about the puzzle. He rightfully pegged me as someone who would like to construct a puzzle, but alas time is wanting. I would guess the number of emails is high because he mentors those with very little experience. And he likes what I would consider tricky themes. I regrettably am not a well known constructor. My brother did have two puzzles published in the Maleska era well before the NYT included bylines. But then again, he likes to use an alias.
Z: Yes, I know you are harder on Jeff than he tends to be and he is harder on the NYT than yourself, but I guess it's all relative. I tend to enjoy Jeff's puzzles so maybe I over-react to Mike's criticisms. I think that has happened a number of times. Might it be that you explain your complaints logically and calmly (usually except when something infuriates you) while Mike can be over the top and kind of make me feel as if I don't know what I'm talking about. In the long run, I guess it's not what you say but how you say it.
So it's about 1:47 before the governor's snow emergency edict goes into effect. Time for me to rest up and prepare myself for some lengthly snow shoveling. Not enjoyable. And probably not enjoyable that my paper won't be delivered on Saturday. At least I can access the Replica Edition, annoying as it is.
@Z, anon
Maybe, and unsurprisingly, I do not understand the the issues in the moderator discussion. Squish squash or susquatch doesn't bother me at all. What does is the idea that the moderators were intentionally suppressing posts. I saw no admission of this and no evidence of this. I also think anon has directed inacurate and gratuitous insults at the moderators without contradiction during this foray into the minute subtleties of the imprecise usage of words. The more important issue has been left unchallenged.
Not that I can't be amused in such explorations.
Glad I solved in an order that made me warm UP to the puzzle. When I got to the ORSO/ONTO reflections, and then the NW corner, I was willing to overlook the less than stellar fill.
A couple of weeks ago on my TV screen saver was a stunning picture of the FAROE Islands. I was curious so I read a bit about it, and guess what? I actually remembered it today and got it from the clue! Whee.
@CDilly52, @Whatsername, and other fellow procrastinators, I confidently put in bookrePoRt for the thing keeping kids up at night. Luckily it was too short.
Tried coke before ICEE - didn’t Coke have some ads with polar bears?
OK, I've had it with all these SCRAP/lemon/PARTS references and the radio ads that also seem to be targeting me and trying to get me to donate my 1998 Saab. Yes, the check engine light is on, the coolant has a leak and the top isn’t waterproof, but she is not junk!
Wordle 223 4/6
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Just because. Two over par for the season.
Happy shoveling everyone!
Oh yeah, I really liked the puz, thought it was tricky, and came in a few minutes under my average time, so go figure. Loved the LEMONS clue.
A,
A 900? Keep the faith. It’s a wonderful car. Not sure where the leak is coming from, but, if all else is well, even the worst case scenario regarding the leak is likely worth repairing.
@anon
And you know what the posts were and everyone agrees with your judgment and there could be no other judgment being made about those posts except yours. Like that it is just troll causing trouble about a nothing to do with anything issue except getting an insult in that was originally booted.
Rex will probably link to this article tomorrow but here it is now. I’m shocked they didn’t ask me for a quote. 🤣😂🤣
Wow @ Southside. I guess I'm warming up to you. You stick to your guns.
Z - The Qin ruled for 15 years, 1 year longer than Roman emperor Nero. Both reigns were followed by a tumultuous interregnum period and the eventual establishment a long period of stability, internal peace, and some of the greatest accomplishments of any civilization in the world before the modern period. Regarding Nero as inherently or objectively more worth knowing than Qin is quintessential eurocentrism. Something that is not taught and thus not learned (Chinese history) can still be worth knowing. I never learned about the Tulsa race massacre until I was an adult, and I am sure many Americans still do not know (enough) about it; nevertheless, I consider it not just "basic" information but essential information about American history.
Treating Chinese dynasties as unappealing crosswordese trivializes Chinese history. Your defense of this is a sad reminder that orientalist attitudes are alive and well.
@Z. Thanks for the link. Very interesting article. Makes Rex seem more reasonable/mainstream than some of us give him credit for. Don’t know why they didn’t contact you for quotes.
@me923pm
Welll I thought this was a reply to an anon comment which I can no longer find. Nevermind
Hoover was a great humanitarian still remembered in Belgium to this day for efforts to address hunger after WWI.
Well, this is a great blog. Really impressive and I like that kind of post. Thanks. If you are looking for a legitimate financial service, check it out Link below. Deep Web Money Transfer Valid PayPal Dark Web Transfer Darknet PayPal Transfer Dark Web Financial Services . Please continue and continue blogging. Thanks again.
SOLDFORPARTS was enough to sell me on this puzzle. Some clunky stuff, but that one was excellent.
FEARED PARTS
AT the PAJAMAPARTY AT the RITZ,
certain ITEMS did ABOUND,
but NOBODY GOTAT her SPICY BITS
until CONDI SIMMEREDDOWN.
--- BRADPITT
The NW corner was a major Natick for me. Don't stay up late enough to watch SNL enough anymore. The rest - fun and doable!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
BTW - isn't the APT in INAPT too much of a derivative of the "appropriate" in the clue? Anyone?
Lady Di
Easy medium? Not for me. DNF because I went with JAcob instead of JAKES for 16A. I looked it up just to confirm and the correct answer came up. (I hate when that happens). Lots of misdirects. Had Mckinnon before BRADPITT (like lots of others) cAvEJUMPERS before BASEJUMPERS, baby before POOL and FaintER before FUZZIER. I was INATRAP for quite a while in the NE corner until I realized there was a U-less Q in play. This one’s definitely not ATEN - not even a six. There were just a few too many clues and answers that made me go HMM…
Did surprisingly well, considering the six total pissers. Fun, though...
Pretty much ZOOMED through this except for at first arTMAJOR, and the foreign words/phrase. All those UPs, a couple ONs, and only one DOWN. HMM.
There are probably some who would give BRADPITT or Emilio ESTVEZ a yeah baby. IAM not one.
Brush UP on your gods, dynasties and such.
If Renaissance woman CONDI Rice isn't DOD-worthy, no one is. C'mon, first ever woman to get an Augusta National membership?
Lots of Scrabble-you-know-what-ing today. A little of it serves to JAZZUP the grid, but then when you keep on cramming them in...
I had several false starts. If this was football, I'd be on first and 25. Went from useDcaRPARTS to useDFORPARTS and at last to SOLDFORPARTS. Hand up for the arTMAJOR. You know...the "classics?" My brain was a bit FUZZIER than usual today. Can't fault the puzzle though; birdie.
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