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Acronym on a pay stub / FRI 3-11-22 / Characters at checkout / Name of a family that took in an extraterrestrial / Company whose corporate logo is known as the Fuji / Scourge of the 2020s, colloquially / Cho's predecessor in Star Trek series / Color whose name comes from the French for unbleached
Friday, March 11, 2022
Constructor: Robyn Weintraub
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: LUNA (49D:1960s-'70s Soviet space program) —
The Luna programme (from the Russian word Луна "Luna" meaning "Moon"), occasionally called Lunik by western media, was a series of robotic spacecraft missions sent to the Moon by the Soviet Union between 1959 and 1976. Fifteen were successful, each designed as either an orbiter or lander, and accomplished many firsts in space exploration. They also performed many experiments, studying the Moon's chemical composition, gravity, temperature, and radiation.Twenty-four spacecraft were formally given the Luna designation, although more were launched. Those that failed to reach orbit were not publicly acknowledged at the time, and not assigned a Luna number. Those that failed in low Earth orbit were usually given Cosmos designations.[1] The estimated cost of the Luna programme in 1964 was US$6–10 billion. (wikipedia)
• • •
The stickiest part of the solve came in the SE, where the cluing really fogged things up there for a bit. Took me almost every cross to see COUPON CODE (54A: Characters at checkout). I had COUPON and no idea what came after. I thought maybe there was a slang word for "people who hold up the line at the supermarket because they have a ****ton of coupons"—maybe they were the "characters" in question. It was tough getting into the CODE part because of two intersecting "?" clues in there : 50D: Unfair? (FOUL) and 61A: World-weary sort? (ATLAS) plus a highly misdirective clue on COT (56D: Military crashing site). This was all exceedingly work-outable, but it definitely slowed my momentum considerably, for a bit. Otherwise, nothing much stood in my way. I wanted NOES (?) before WOES at 22A: Kvetcher's list and DAWG before DOGG at 27D: Tha ___ Pound (hip-hop duo). I was happy to learn that ATARI's logo has a name and that that name is "the Fuji"—I had no idea that figure was representational! For some reason the ATARI logo always reminds me of the cover of To The Lighthouse (or vice versa):
That central column that floofs out at the bottom. Something about rockets taking off ... not sure.
Explainers:
- 20A: Name of a family that took in an extraterrestrial (KENT) — they took in Kal-El, i.e. Superman
- 24A: Like a screwdriver (ORANGE) — the drink, not the tool
- 61A: World-weary sort? (ATLAS) — he carries the "world" on his shoulders
- 29D: It rarely includes chains (FINE DINING) — chain restaurants. Although the bondage kind of chains also fits the clue. At least I think it does.
OK, I'm off to sit quietly in a chair with my cat and coffee and watch the sun rise. Peace be with you.
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103 comments:
Easy breezy Friday, as we've come to expect from Ms. Weintraub. Guessed correctly at Cho's predecessor and the military crashing site. Only overwrite was Rues before RSVP at 47D, but that was corrected as soon as I read the next clue. Truly enjoyable.
What a great way to enter the gloriousness that is a weekend. Jeez Louise, I was on Robyn’s wavelength here, even though not one of the fill-in-the-blanks (always the initial low-hanging fruit I dispatch) gave me any big toehold.
Bottom half was pretty easy, especially once I sorted out my “Asahi” for ATARI and “Hunger Games” for WINTER GAMES. Maybe hunger was on my mind since my students are *constantly* asking if I have snacks. Listen, I’ve never been one to pooh-pooh school lunches, but since our school has no staff to prepare nourishing hot meals, the fare they’re offered is as ALARMing as it is meager. Darrius M went off last fall – I mean went off spectacularly – when the lunch was a small serving of macaroni and cheese and a handful of fries. There was another small fruit side, I think. I wish some bajillionaire would fix it so that all our classrooms at least had a big bowl of apples every day. Sometimes I bring in my own apples and once watched a student wolf down three. Three. That’s not bored-hungry; that’s hungry-hungry.
Anyhoo. . .Loved MELON BALLER crossing ORANGE. A bright, happy bowl of green, ORANGE, and red MELON BALLs is just so happy. It’s like the birthday cake of fruit bowls.
The top part took a bit longer, but once CUSTOMER materialized, I Locked down TABULA RASA and got’er done.
Biggest etiquette NO-NO – calling attention to someone else’s etiquette NO-NO. If someone next to you at a formal dinner mistakenly commandeers your bread plate (an easy misstep, given that those tables are jam packed with dining equipment), you just go without bread or use your dinner plate. To call them out would embarrass them, shame them even.
(I need to add that I’m often deservedly called out here for doing just this. It’s not lost on me that I cheerfully, willingly, doggedly ignore the rule and shame anyone who has grammar-shamed someone else. Publicly grammar-shaming is just a flex. A flex at a hapless person’s expense. The person whose hand was slapped needs defending, and boy howdie I’ll take off my watch and shoes, dive headfirst down in that ugly mud, and go even lower.)
GREENLIT had me remembering to wonder about new usages for irregular words in English. It’s hard to know ‘cause you really have to catch yourself out in the wild using an expression, but I think I might say green lighted instead. In other words, I’d strip to light of its irregularness and pasttense that puppy as a regular. Same with to moonlight. I’d probably say that my friend moonlighted as a stripper, not moonlit as a stripper. Is it The batter flew out? or flied out? And irregular plurals, same issue. Two computer mice or two mouses? Do you fight your way to the bar to order you and your date two more Grey Geese and soda or Grey Gooses and soda? I know I overthink this. (Semantic bifurcation, by the way, for your notes.)
Excellent offering, as usual, Robyn!
Thx Robyn; another fantabulous Fri. puz! :)
Med++
Much tougher than the typical Weintraub offering, but, as always, full of sparkle and crossed fairly.
Couldn't get a foothold anywhere; just hit and miss thruout. One prob may have been thinking I was doing a Thurs.. Do lose track of the days from time to time. Btw, does Robyn ever do Thurs. or themed xwords?
Admiring this creation post-solve, I marvel at how clean and snappy it is.
What a fun and challenging battle this was! :)
___
yd pg: 23:55 / W: *3
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Yeah, NRA and RONA gave me pause but I'm used to it by now.
I was really impressed with this puzzle overall. I would add one more answer with every pass, gradually filling it in. I couldn't hit my stride, couldn't trust half my answers until the end, and it felt like a real challenge.
Robyn, thy name is Entertainment. We see it in your fun clues and answers. Less obvious but equally contributing are your junk-lite grids, your grid designs that allow for many of your zingy longer answers (today 14 answers of eight letters or more), and the in-the-language NYT debut answers you populate the grid with – seven today, and look at them: BONUS ROUND, COUPON CODE, DEFINITE MAYBE, DROP DOWN MENUS, I HAVE TO RUN, MELONBALLER, and WINTER GAMES. Wow!
I smiled at your clues for FOUL, BIG TOE, ATLAS, and FINE DINING. I was grateful for several areas of sweet resistance due to your expert tricky cluing. One reason I love your puzzles is that the difficulty comes from riddle-like clues rather than answers I’ve never heard of, which are almost always three or less, like today’s.
Then there were sweet things to find in the grid, whether you planned them or not. There were three palindromes, for instance: SEES, ANA, AMA. I liked the SLAP down and the SEES on the side. There was the crossing mini-tale in the NW: I HAVE TO RUN, I RAN. Plus the mini-tale in the SE: [Propose (to)], ROAR, WEDS.
Thus, once again, Robyn, you entertained, and I’m always left with the feeling that you entertain because you want to make the solver happy rather than that you want to show off. You are a treasure. Thank you!
I don’t usually follow the specific constructors very closely, but I knew Ms. Weintraub is capable of producing a gem every now and then, and it seems as though she delivered one today. I could tell it was solving on the easy side (cause I pretty much plugged and chugged my way through the entire east coast, which is rare for me on a Friday).
A touch surprising that with like 500 TV channels these days that some shows gain enough traction to simply be known by their initials - so I’ll bet SVU is pretty good, even though I have no idea who/what it is all about (SNL is an institution that has spanned generations, so that is the exception I that regard). I also enjoyed learning what TABULA RASA meant - sounds pretty cool as well.
Some days it is kind of nice when NRA makes an appearance in the grid, gives OFL a chance to get it out of the way with one of his canned laments and obviates the need for one of his tortured, contrived screeds on days when he has to really excavate or outright invent something about which to take offense.
Don’t know what it is about Mr. TAKEI - but hat’s off to him. It must be a very crossword-friendly name - he had what, one (supporting) TV role on a series that went off the air about 60 years ago. Maybe Spock gets more airplay in CrossWorld, but it can’t be by much.
@LMS - Now I’m imagining your friend moonlighted as a moonlit stripper. Good Morning!
Arched eyebrow at 1A. I was pretty sure PABST was what was wanted and I was pretty sure all three beers are owned by some hedge fund or something like that. Turns out both the clue and I are right. PABST is the holding company and it is owned by a partnership between Russian-American beer entrepreneur Eugene Kashper and TSG Consumer Partners, a San Francisco–based private equity firm. {Wikipedia} If you drank something besides Bud, Miller, or Coors in the 1960’s, 70’s or 80’s because you wanted something local and you see it on a shelf now that beer is probably brewed under contract and the brand is owned by PABST. The list of brands PABST owns is pretty impressive.
Otherwise, a well crafted and smooth Friday. I did think calling Dolly OVINE was a little rude.* Hand up for Cleveland’s DawG pound before hip hop’s DOGG Pound, and then me wondering if either person in the duo was named Phileas DOGG. Or would it have to be Fileas DOGG? And is moonlit stripping part of their act?
I agree with Rex that RONA already feels dated. It was current from March 2020 to about July 2020, back when people still thought a little less stupidity from our fellow Americans might let us be New Zealand instead of seeing a million Americans people die. But I haven’t heard or seen RONA used this way it what feels like a decade (COVID time - where what happened last June can feel like a week ago and a decade ago simultaneously).
ANywhoo… BIG TOE ROAR, Why does stubbing your BIG TOE hurt so much? Do we really need that many pain signals rushing through our body when we stub that digit. I swear there is an adrenaline response when it happens. Why? Seems so unnecessary.
👍🏽👍🏽👍🏽 Fun Friday Puzzle.
*It’s a joke. Dolly the cloned sheep, not Dolly Parton. Duh.
@Rex's NRA rants are beyond tiresome but still warrant a response.
What @Rex COULD have said......
"While I detest the appearance of NRA in the grid, at least the clue 'Org. targeted by Moms Demand Action' reminds me that this group, and others, are actively opposing the gun nuts who are responsible for the gun carnage in the U.S."
I don't think banning NRA from cross word puzzles will significantly reduce gun deaths.
P.S. Being upset by RONA is kinda silly.
One things I can normally count on in a Robyn Weintraub.I’ll struggle with it more than most people. Not true today, though.
As always, the fill is excellent. But many clues seemed a little off (for ROAR, ORANGE, NONOS, e.g.) or just completely baffling (for SWIM). And there is only one DOGG I want in a puzzle and that’s Snoop. My issue with RONA is not its appearance in the puzzle, it's that I've never heard anyone call it RONA, nor seen it in print that way outside of the NYT puzzle.
First wordle DNF today. I play hard mode, meaning you must use the letters you've already earned in all future guesses.
Wordle 265 X/6
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
@kitshef - Ditto and there are still two possibilities left for me. This is the most Wordle I’ve seen on Twitter in awhile so I think lots of people struggled.
Wordle 265 X/6
⬛⬛⬛⬛🟨
🟨⬛🟨⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
Regarding the Wordle Cheating discussion of a few days ago, when you fail the correct answer appears at the top, no need to go searching for the right answer on the web.
@Kitshef. My rules give you an EAGLE. Here's why. Once you established your 4 green squares there were 6 more possible answers. Ergo, one answer is as good as another since the puzzle became a guessing game. Unfortunately, the Wordle format says you failed, as did I, in a similar way but gave myself a par.
Missed opportunity to post a link to the Kinks' Definite Maybe:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u90DU3H5vsk
I guess I had the anti-Rex solving experience today. Yes a quite enjoyable Friday and I appreciated the clues. And the NRA has turned into a very nasty organization over the years but is usually a gimmie answer that is helpful especially late week. But TABULARASA is a term that had slipped my mind entirely and was just random letters. Post solve look-up (actually post Rex look up becUse I knew it would be his word of the day) it was like Oh yeah I knew that once. Is that what he meant by plain vanilla? Or am I missing a pun?
I also had blank-CODE in for a long time with no idea of COUPON and filled in ATLAS FOUL and COT in two seconds total for all 3. Weird.
We have had the LIT-lighted conversation conversation before. He lighted a cigarette sounds so stilted to my ear I could not believe it was correct and taking over the world (in my experiennce). On the other hand moonlighted sounds almost natural (but not preferred) to my ear while greenlighted sounded bizarro-world but I have gotten use to it. The spotlight lit the room. The spotlight lighted the room. Or neither? The yellow marker highlit the paragraph. Wow that sounds moronic.
Had to play around at the end to get some of that plain vanilla stuff at the end so the music would play. Otherwise a sucessful Friday.
It wasn't easy for me. It took me a while to get a foothold (LOCI/ECRU) and even then I had to work. But it wasn't the kind of work where I have to guess a lot of entries I don't know. Only five mysteries, like DOGG and AIMEE. Some Fridays have close to twenty.
I don't like Robyn Weintraub's puzzles as much as most people here. The cluing always seems a bit off for me. But I liked it, especially the 14 longs.
I learned that Marine ONE is the presidential helicopter.
I didn't like "Pumpkin, e.g." for VINE. I got it easily because I knew it was a four-letter word beginning with V. But cluing a large set with one of its members doesn't narrow things down enough. Like cluing "Joe Biden, e.g." for MAMMAL.
I’ll add to the praise for another great RW puzzle. Lots of misdirection in the cluing that made me say, “Ha! I’m on to you, Robyn, but I still don’t quite have the answer…” ex. 1: “Family that took in an extraterrestrial.” I know you want me to think “E.T.” or maybe “Alf,” but I don’t think you really expect me to remember those families’ names. It has to be a family name I’ll recognize but not someone I think of immediately as an extraterrestrial. But I still needed crosses to get “Kent.” Ex. 2: “It rarely includes chains.” I thought right away, “not metal chains but chain establishments” and was trying to come up with a phrase for “charmingly quaint small-town shopping district.”
But you got me on “Dolly-esque.” My first thought was “buxom.” Did not see the cloned sheep in Parton clothing.
Speaking of buxom, bewigged women - EDNA. This story is about the original “Hairspray” movie with Divine as EDNA, not the later one with John Travolta. Years ago, friends convinced me to make my first appearance in drag at an epic DC drag party called Miss Adams-Morgan. I told a friend, and she said, “Oh, do you want to wear Rikki Lake’s wig from ‘Hairspray?’ “ Uh, definitely (not DEFINITELY MAYBE). Turns out her sister was a producer for many John Waters films and gave my friend one of the many wigs. I wore it but I constantly had to take it off to show people that the tag really said “Tracy Turnblad 5” or something like that. Another friend’s mother, who always went to support her son as a contestant in the drag show, told me I was a good-looking man but not so attractive as a woman. Last time I did drag.
I'm with REX on RONA
I'm completely baffled by "Get in the swim." Never heard that phrase. When I keyed it in I was sure I'd have to go back and fix it.
FH
Easy at first; thought I'd break my record. Then.....deep do-do. I felt like that Russian column stuck between Chernobyl and Kyiv.
I did love seeing NRA, for the obvious reason.
One or two complaints: As clued, the "Like a screwdriver" answer should be ORANGY not ORANGE and since that crossed with someone I've never heard of, AIMEY seemed definitely possible. The clue on ROAR was pretty lame. Anyway, 21.50 in the end which is more like an average Friday for me.
Wordle: It was very hard today. First 6 I ever got. My kids all struggled too. Still, I may take a leaf out of 'Wordler's' book and award myself a 3. Or something. While I'm at it, I'll tell people I finished today's crossword puzzle in 9 minutes flat.
My favorite constructor delivers again. Everything Lewis said.
Had to clean up after the DawG before I could hear the happy music today.
Opposite of Rex, I had the back end of COUPON Code (Characters at checkout) and felt like it had to be something like UPC BAR CODE (which is redundant).
I enjoy Ms. Weintraub's puzzles every time, but didn't seem to be on the same wave length with her this time. No less enjoyable, but more work.
Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) of the day: Big fish in a little pond
Answer: KOI (begins at 20A, moves to SW)
I'm still mad at Robyn for creating the ridiculously hard puzzle that I failed to finish at Lollapuzzoola. I'm still smarting from that beatdown. Today's was enjoyable though.
Ay ay ay. I'm glad some folks found this easy, but it took me forever to get going. After that it was slow and steady with many a small aha! as things filled in, but, oh, the speed bumps. Tooling around in the SW when DONTS showed up to halt things temporarily, and then PULLDOWNMENU (yeah, I know). I did know MELONBALLER as we had them in our restaurant kitchen (two sizes!) but a BRIDGELOAN seems oddly specific, like a CULVERTLOAN maybe.
And of course, I wanted Dolly to be BUSTY. Uh, no, and stop that.
Re. LMS, I've come to accept baseball announcers saying the batter flied out, as claiming he flew out to center field evokes an image which is entertaining but alas impossible.
Thanks for all the fun, RW. I remain a huge fan, but this one was a Real Workout.
I enjoyed this one, toodling my way here and there through the grid and finally filled it until—-
Dead stop at FINEDINING. I had no idea and the crosses weren’t coming. I guessed some kind of games for 22D but… that one's embarrassing not to have seen.
I really Really wanted busty or buxom for 31A, and Solo for “He's no scoundrel.”
Was 53A mood? Game? Race? I knew Bowie but he couldn't help because Elton wouldn't get out of my head to let him in.
Was 43A a hurricane? Maybe Irma, Erma? Surely not Germ. Of course I wanted RSVP for 47D, but maybe Noes?
NotquITEMAYBE? Do you carry chains in your Expedition?
Whew, finally Elton got another gig, BOWIE RSVP’d and I got in the SWIM. GENT! Definitely not Solo! Ha!
Hooray!
Got crossed up with DAWK/DOGG TOO. LOVE MELONBALLER in the puzzle but it is a unitasker in the kitchen so no.
Lots of fun today - just enough mystery to make it interesting. Another hand up for DawG first. DEFINITE MAYBE and BONUS ROUND were cool. MELON BALLER was a surprise. Didn’t know EDNA. Rex needs to hang with a different crowd - all of the laborers and tradesman I deal with on job sites generally use terms like the RONA or the vid. Love the KENT clue.
The only LUNA I like
Highly enjoyable Friday solve.
This was a strange but very enjoyable experience for me today because the timer indicated I finished it quickly compared to most Fridays BUT I initially plugged in way more wrong answers than I usually do (one of the times I’m very happy I work on the iPad and don’t have to erase or write-over). A list of these are:
THEOLYMPICS before WINTERGAMES
DONTS before NONOS
GOTS before NOTS (yeah, luckily my mother PRIVATELY grammar shamed my tendency to say “I got”)
BUSTY before OVINE (@Wanderlust, I like BUXOM better!)
One thing that came to mind with James Corden’s network clue is that I can actually watch a show these days and not remember what channel it is on. I’d blame old age but I really think it’s a function of using the remote menu guide for so long. I use that memory function to remember whether to get into Netflix or Prime.
@Mathgent, you made me laugh with your Joe Biden=MAMMAL comment!
And now everyone has me intrigued on the Wordle thing today. As a creature of habit, this is always my last thing to do…
This lifelong crossword solver and Life member of the NRA finds Rex to be such a clown on issues like this. If you want a puzzle that 100% aligns with personal political views that create it yourself. But lobbying the rest of the world to change to please you just makes you look like the lefty clown you really are.
Robyn rules. This one flowed so smoothly it was a bit fast for Friday, but that's fine. TGIF, everyone.
This was, once again, a puzzle I was SURE I'd never get, and then I did. I really wanted IvegotTORUN and when it didn't fit, I despaired. But when IHAVETORUN dropped, my progress improved. Star Trek names are meaningless to me but TAKEI popped up out of nowhere and in such fashion, I stumbled about until I got the good news.
Wordle got me for the first time today. Shoot!
Wordle 265 X/6
⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
What I liked about this puzzle is that it was totally accessible without being boringly easy. I think of some Patrick Berry puzzles that way too. It was really a lovely solve. My only moment of distaste was RONA and I choose to believe the clue was an editorial decision. That needless trivialization could have been avoided by the clue blank Barrett, early gossip guru with a lisp, a nod to the senior solvers.
I got RONA on crosses, but having lived as a connected adult through all the 2020's that have happened yet, I have not heard Covid referred to that way. Ever. There are RONAs I have heard of. I think it's a brand of glassware.
I don’t get the love for this one - easiest Friday I remember, almost at the USA Today level.
RW may be a fine person and an amazing constructor, but this one was not up to Friday challenge standards.
(And to get around Rex’s distaste for NRA, how about “I’m _ _ _ the Eighth I am, _ _ _ the Eighth I am, I am…”)
Wow, 30 sec off my fastest Friday, love a Robin Weintraub puzzle!
Never heard 'RONA and didn't understand it until @ Rex (ahem, for a hot sec I was thinking, puzzled, if you will, RONA Jaffee, then realized 99% of the world would not get the reference), and I agree with him (!!) that it's way too offhand for a deadly pandemic.
I used GREENLIT once in a talk. It sounded right. And agreed that "moonlighted" sounds correct. But some past tense forms have existing meanings, so to get a new(er) meaning you use the regular past form of a verb with an irregular past. To wit, "He flew out." is the answer to "How did he get to California?" Or "Did he leave in a hurry?", so to my ear the baseball term should be "flied out", because otherwise it sounds as if the batter grew wings and flew out in a huff. But since I know zip, zero, nada about sports I'm probably wrong.
Et tu, Robyn?
I tend to adore your puzzles because, in addition to the sparkling fresh phrases, I can always count on you not to stuff your grid with rockers and hip-hop duos and TV show characters and all the other pop culture WOES embedded in puzzles by lesser constructors.
Today, though, you did it to me too. I had to cheat on BOWIE (even though I already had B----E). I also cheated on DOGG. (I already had -OGG). I don't know this stuff, Robyn, I just don't. And I truly don't care about it.
And does anyone call the coronavirus RONA? A cutesy nickname for the worst scourge of most of our lifetimes? Thank God I've never heard it, not even once, and I hope I never will. If you wanted to baffle me with that clue, you succeeded, but the cost is much too high. RONA Barrett would have served very well in its place.
The clue/answers for TABULA RASA, DEFINITE MAYBE, and especially FINE DINING are very Robynesque and I liked them. But alas, there was a lot that I didn't much like today.
I'm tired of seeing REX in puzzle talk. . . It means KING - and we don't like kings. . . So, REX MUST NOT be seen or heard. That's the problem with the cancel-culture - Sooner or later, You're the one getting cancelled. Good Day.
For me, a Robyn Weintraub puzzle with a good deal more bite than other recent ones. The top few rows went quickly, but then the stream of answers got clogged up, with only OVINE, LOCI, and ATLAS making it through. Some work on the Downs got me DEFINITE MAYBE, which then functioned sort of like a DROPDOWN MENU for the spaces beneath, and row by row I made it to the bottom. Almost had a technical DNF by not understanding what RONA meant (some scandalous pop culture star?), but finally did get it (@Hartley 70, I agree with you). Last in: COUPON x LUNA. A workout for me, and a pleasure.
"There's No Cure for Idiocy" Department: Me: "The family that took in E.T. was named Kent? Huh." Seriously.
Hey All !
Monday puz-maker gives us a nice FriPuz. Props to be able to pull both off.
Rex rates this easy, I say Ha! to that! This was a toughie! That SE corner, I came *this* close to Googing as angstness was settling in. Unlike Rex, I had the ends of CODE and ROUND, so COUPON didn't want to show itself. Plus WRAPUP and PLAN playing "hide-away from Roo". Managed to suss it all out, and got the Happy Music!
Looking back, now I wonder why I was stuck in various spots. It's not the answers, apparently it's the clues. BIGTOE was neat. Wanted BIGone for a sec! Had Apple for ATARI first, wondering why I had never heard of that slang. Five letter company that starts with A? Why, Apple, of course.
I need a BRIDGE LOAN to put gas in my car. Holy moly.
yd -12, should'ves 4 (another weird worder)
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
@pabloinnh - Just in case you weren’t joking, a BRIDGE LOAN is not a loan for a BRIDGE.
@Levi Frishman - Sort of ironic given your name. GET IN THE SWIM/IN THE SWIM do strike me as something I heard more in my youth than now and the interwebs didn’t seem to churn out much that was applicable. IN THE SWIM has a Merriam-Webster entry, but nothing beyond the basic definition and a couple of examples. So apparently it has lost whatever currency it once had before the world wide web came to be. This also makes me realize that “swimmingly” has disappeared from usage. I can imagine Cary Grant saying it to Katherine Hepburn, but not anyone in color doing the same.
@Todd - Bold. Admitting continuing membership in that pro-Putin, pro-child murder, pro-suicide, anti-Democracy organization in March 2022 is bold. Good on you never letting facts or criminal behavior change your mind.
While I, like Rex, I presume, am a life-long democrat - I find his political rants ridiculous. If we should be standing for anything on the liberal side, it should be free speech and an end to all this idiotic censorship. I've never fired a gun in my life, but I've got no problem with the NRA: they work their side of the street and I mine. I suspect faculty types like Rex are largely responsible for the increasing absence of free speech on our major campuses. If it weren't for academic tenure, I think Rex might be working the checkout at a 7/11. (Plenty of those in upstate N.Y., at least.) My bloated taxes paying for a guy to teach a course on comic books ... alas!
Andrew 9:26. Took me a FEW seconds but...NICE!
I wonder if the guy who thinks that the NRA is pro-suicide also thinks people who support lockdowns and mask mandates are pro teen suicide and pro opioid addiction and death. I hope not.
@Carola. The E.T. is KAL-EL, AKA Superman, AKA Clark KENT.
@Z-Actually I was joking, although not terribly successfully, it seems.
See, I've already forgotten what's-his-name's law.
PS-I still think CULVERTLOAN is pretty funny.
@Wordler 8:01. I had two possibilities left, so even given one more guess I still might have failed.
Not sure I agree with your scoring though. My choice of first word put me in a bind, but possibly that was an inherently bad choice.
Well...I guess I need some manipulated brain cell mutations because I didn't know:
RONA. Did my stay at home, wear a mask, mandate affect my inteligencia?
Dolly-esque was BUXOM and no way in my nethers, was I going to change that.
DOGG and EDNA had no I.D. on them. NO NOS was the bartender last night and he wouldn't allow them in.
The only beer I know is "Blue Moon" and I haven't a rabbit ears clue who makes that.
The rest?...I did an axel jump or two getting the long answers. I seem to be in the same row boat as Robyn. It's as if a twinkle in the eye gets passed between us.
BIG TOE was my favorite. I have pretty feet (so I'm told) and the BIG one gets in the way of my shoes. I wear a size ten and I still feel papa toe gets squished. He needs to go barefoot.
I do have a MELON BALLER that I use to scoop up my cookie dough. LIME and ORANGE sitting in my fruit bowl every day in my GREEN LIT kitchen.
Did you have WOES when you came to the bottom? you ask. Well, yes. Get in the SWIM? Never heard that expression. I wanted WEAK for 50D but it became a FOUL....gues what? I cheated on crying FOUL. .. but the cheat was worth it because it gave me the much needed COUPON CODE and the lovely BONUS ROUND.
Me gusto mucho, Robyn. This was much better that some of the ugh puzzles we've had this past week.
It’s days like this where making a entirely new word with as many of the possible remaining letters can be a big help, instead of hitting them one by one.
⬛⬛🟨⬛🟩
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟨⬛⬛⬛
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I stopped playing on hard mode for this very reason, I hated having to just guess one-by-one and rely on pure luck rather than skill
Wordle 265 4/6
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
⬛🟩🟨⬛🟨
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Maybe I'm just smarter than @Kitchef & @Z 😂😂😂😂
When a puzzle just flows like honey and is a pure delight to put together, all of a sudden you SLAP yourself on the forehead and think of course! It’s Friday. And it’s a DEFINITE Weintraub. BONUS ROUND!
BRIDGE LOAN is a term I had never heard but was clued perfectly. Some great misdirects had me putting DOWN a FEW interesting wrong answers such as BUXOM for Dolly-esque and trying to think of a complex math term for BIG TOE, another head slapper.
I HAVE TO RUN NOW. The weekend’s here and we’re all out of PABST.
@OffTheGrid, 10:39 - Thank you. Yes, that was part of my idiocy - I'm old enough to have watched innumerable Superman TV episodes, with Lois, Jimmy, and that "mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper." Unfortunately, I lacked the x-ray vision to see the connection :)
Yes, and ditto, 🦖!
👍🏽🧩👍🏽
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
On needing a BRIDGE LOAN to fill up your tank:
I was looking for some perfume for my wife's birthday. I found one that seemed nice and asked the woman behind the counter how much it cost. She said $60 an ounce. I said "Ouch! What's in it -- gasoline?"
On the way home I pulled into an Exxon station. The attendant asked: Fill 'er up?, and I said, "No, just give me $80 worth."
I'm a nurse. I hear 'rona' regularly. Mostly though it's 'positive.' She's positive. You tested positive. Ironic given how negatively we now feel about each other. Scourge is accurate no matter what you call it.
I apologize for bringing politics into my post. I know better. Sometimes I think Rex is "baiting" us with some of his commentary and I bit. Burp ... excuse me!
While this puzzle wasn't the push over that most of this constructor's creations are it still had all the anodyne esthetic that grates on my nerves. A perfect example of this was 45A. BOWIE and TIDEPOOL we're gimmies and this being a late week puzzle I naively assume that she's finally broken down and put some obscure mathematical term in her puzzle that I'll have to smoke out. Then it turns out to be BIGTOE and I just want to puke.
Robyn Weintraub stop making puzzles. Please stop.
When I see Robyn’s name I know it’s going to be hard going because it’s difficult to write anything while jumping for joy.
@Smith 9:35 Yes, you're so right; he flied out in baseball. I would use the past participle moonlit as an adjective (a moonlit night) and moonlighted as a verb, greenlit as adjective, greenlighted as a verb. Why? LMS???
Love the puzzle but not the RONA.
2nd Amendment my friend is protected by the likes of the NRA. People kill people, not guns. It is every American's right, whether or not liberal academia (which is destroying this country) likes it or not. Change the constitution and stop calling everyone who disagrees with you a "white supremist" or "racist". Only someone who doesn't want educated discourse would resort to name calling.
Easy. Top half easier than the bottom but very easy overall, which seems to be typical for Robin’s Friday puzzles. I put in PABST with no crosses and just kept going until the SW slowed me down a bit. I also had DawG at first and FINE DINING was elusive. Smooth, solid, and sparkly, liked it.
“Definitely Maybe” is a charming 2008 rom-com with Ryan Reynolds.
MFCTM
Loren (5:40)
kitshef (7:32)
pabloinnh (8:56)
Beezer (9:02)
"let kinder memories rule ya" is my motto. When I went to summer camp, there was Riflery always, and the targets were supplied by the NRA. It seemed like such a nice organization, and let's face it, target shooting is fun. No gun lobby then, and no one ever died. Training for war? I suppose so, but all U.S. wars were just, we were taught.
(BTW, I have reached the age when "Old Peculier", the song written in praised of Yorkshire Ale, and sung by Holdstock & McLeod, is relevant. Their advice, when thinking of the loves of your younger days, is: "... let no such memories rule ya. Forget the maids who said they might, recall but those who did, sir.")
I thought the puzzle was quite hard, as a Friday should be. I was sure the FINE DINING clue would involve buying tires (sorry, chains not included). COUPON before CODE was a Woe, had "pullDOWN before DROPDOWN MENUS, PABST was hard to remember (though I remember the craze for PBR a couple of decades ago).
RSVP and RONA were the last to fall. But I did hear RONA quite a bit -- I did a fair amount of outside dining when indoor eating was verboten, and one overheard quite a bit of talking about the RONA virus. For the most part, from men who were trying to sound brave in the face of our common disaster. But everyone around here has gotten their shots, and most have had their boosters, and the numbers in the last month have been crashing big time. I am looking forward to the day when the COVID stats are not the first thing I turn to in our local paper.
Pretty smoooth solvequest. The occasional stuff I didn't know [ANA, COUPONCODE, MELONBALLER] was all easily inferable, after gettin a few crossers. Not a Tough CUSTOMER, this Friday.
Oddly, didn't encounter many ?-marked clues, until I got to them two in the SE corner [for ATLAS & FOUL]. I always enjoy more ?-markers along the way, as they often impart most of the humor in any otherwise dry, themeless puz trip.
RONA? yeeesh, more than har
some fave glow-words: IHAVETORUN. DEFINITEMAYBE. BONUSROUND. LIME & ORANGE.
staff weeject pick: ANA. Better clue: {Second banana part??}. Humorous, right? Well, funnier than RONA, anyhoo.
Thanx for the PABST to get m&e rollin, Ms. Weintraub darlin. [haec redacted]
Masked & Anonymo6Us
easier than snot…
**gruntz**
I'll take my COUPON CODE with me when I shop at my local RONA.
TABULA RASA was a phrase the profs loved to use in architecture school. Usually they meant there was no existing context you had to worry about.
[Spelling Bee: yd 9 minutes to get to pg, but finished -1 again. Frustrating!]
Got PABST, PITA, AHAB, BABE at the get-go; didn't know Mariska Hargitay or SVU, and wanted TABLA / SNL, so the crosses were shot, and thus began my ordeal.
Strange, tho, bc I often think of TABULA RASA, and love the concept of starting every day (or moment) with a 'clean slate'.
Had DawG before DOGG, so crosses were hidden, adding to my woes.
In/into the SWIM (of things):
: involved in an activity or informed about a situation (M-W)
Very lucky guess on today's Wordle 265 4/6*
⬛⬛🟨🟨⬛
⬛🟩🟩⬛⬛
⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Unlucky guesses on archived Wordle 65 X/6 (first dnf)
⬛🟨⬛🟨⬛
⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩⬛🟩🟩🟩
https://www.devangthakkar.com/wordle_archive/?65
Win some, lose some; it all evens out in the mix. :)
___
td pg: 13:06 / W: 4*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I got caught by a NO NO at 44D - my etiquette rules were based on NOrmS for a long time. It's really hard to come up with a PLAN when P__r is in place. And I was very glad I knew EDNA's name because that was key in unraveling the SE.
I like the TIDEPOOL REVEALED combo - checking out all the cool sea creatures when the tide has ebbed is so amazing.
My co-worker thought he had a tough CUcumbER on his hands; since he's on the phone with CUSTOMERs all day, I thought that was delightful.
Thanks Robyn, nice Friday!
Good Lord, what's going on in American schools today?
I spent all my grade-school years in dirt-poor rural Eastern Kentucky coal country; deep-Appalachia (picture a scene right out of the movie Deliverance if it helps). But every day at noon in our typical public school, every student enjoyed a hot, balanced meal in the cafeteria, with four or five items from the basic food groups, and milk.
Never, ever would it even have occurred to any student to ask a teacher about snacks. There was no snacking in the classrooms, no vending machines on the property.
As a life-long non-parent, I'm out of touch. What type of school and what state are you in? Any other commenters on here who see the same things in their school systems? Is this all about our national turn towards a Russian-like oligarchy - billionaires who pay no taxes, and everyone else be damned?
Another day, another holier-than-thou finger wagging from Rex
Having TABULA RASA coming out of the gate at 17A had me won over to this most excellent Friday puzzle. This was the standard way of introducing the nature-nurture debate in Intro Psych with English philosopher John Locke's (1672-1704) idea that humans are born with a "blank slate" upon which experience "writes" all the elements of our personality being the nurture side. (Sneakily clever there LMS!) The most extreme form of this argument occurred among early 20th century radical behaviorists such a John B. Watson who said
"Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him [sic] to become any type of specialist I might select - doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his [sic] talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors."
And as every Intro Psych student knows, the ultimate answer is that both innate and learned factors mold our personalities.
For those who are relatively new to this comment board, one of our regular posters used to be "mathguy" or "mathdude" or some such until another poster remarked how he was unfailingly civil and polite in his comments, after which he began calling himself "mathGENT". And I agree the PUMPKIN is a gourd and the PUMPKIN plant is a VINE.
Thanks for asking, yes I did notice that one of the marquee longs DROPDOWN MENU needed a little POC asstants to fill its slot. If that rubs you the wrong way then you can just kiss my BIG TOE BEAN!
No time to read comments as I’m full time with visiting four year old granddaughter for three days. I assume most everyone loved this puzzle the way I did. See you when I resurface.
Bridge Loan
A short term loan to bridge the gap until long term loan comes through
Thanks Robyn for a interesting grid. You seem to become more adroit as a puppeteer pulling OFL’s strings as the months go by, glad to see that he is willing to acknowledge the flow your puzzle presented and the clueing excellence. ATLAS was a heavy lift!
Also enjoyed @Wanderlust and his wig. EDNA played by anyone is a memorable character & any Hairspray trigger brings a smile akin to mentally pinging on Babe or The Princess Bride
First, a belated doff of the chapeau to @M&A from yesterday 5:57pm for his brilliant additional themers. Worth a look if you missed it.
This morning I definitely got up on the same side of the bed as Robyn - most of the long answers came to mind without competition. Yes, she made me think of Dolly Parton but my B-word wasn’t buxom or busty, but built. Which was bad enough that I didn’t write it in. BIG writeover was WindUP before WRAPUP, which brought the SE to a screeching halt until COUPON became my CODE of choice.
I did finish with the erroneous ORANGy/AIMEy. I’ve seen AIMEE’s name but apparently not enough.
@Rex - “off to sit quietly in a chair with my cat and coffee”
As was I, until it was time for her to go to the vet. Sadly, x-rays revealed cancer almost completely taking over the lungs of this 19 year old spunky little tuxedo cat. She is a spunky angel now. I think she would like La Muerte del Ángel, by Astor Piazzolla, born March 11, 1921. If you don’t know of him, there’s an interesting writeup here, including the following excerpt: “From the 1960s comes La muerte del ángel (from a series of 'angel' pieces), one of the distinctive pieces with which Piazzolla shook the conservative world of tango. "Nuevo tango = tango + tragedy + comedy + whorehouse" was an equation Piazzolla used to define his new direction. To that could be added greater harmonic sophistication - chromatic lines over chains of dominant sequences, much like baroque ground bass forms - and an elusive jazz swing.” A more famous (and appropriate for our times) work of Piazzolla’s is Oblivion.
"I keep trying to get constructors to take it [NRA] out of their word lists entirely. And now here I am, trying again."
Clearly rex's influence is pretty much limited to his acolytes on this site!
I love a good RW puzzle! The only clue I had a hard time with was the (to) attached to PROPOSE for PLAN. I guess that was meant as misdirection, but to me PROPOSE with out the (to) would have been the cleaner, clearer clue.
And I'm not sure I would have a PITA with my moussaka? A salad? yes! A pita? I'm not so sure.
I, too, ran into the WORDLE guessing game today.
NRA and RONA are, to me cringe-worthy things. But trying to censor people’s work is (in my opinion) inappropriate The NYT has an editorial department and its own publication standards to determine “appropriateness” so I prefer to let the editing standards of this publication govern. I solve lots of puzzles all of which have differing standards designed, I suppose around the publication’s values. I disagree so strenuously with @Rex on this issue.
As for the puzzle, it was wonderful and not easy for me. I adore this constructor! Her gift seems to be crafting amazing puzzles with completely accessible answers made difficult with her clever clues. Loved remembering Dolly the sheep, LUNA, and enjoyed the clue for BIG TOE.
I sailed through the NW section and actually took a beat to verify that I had seen the constructor’s name correctly. I did. And as I moved through the top, I began to struggle and lose my “vibe”. So typical for me with Robyn. After some hunting and pecking, I reconnected with the wavelength, but it took a hot second, and the DEFINITE MAYBE, GENT, GREEN LIT chunk was largely blank until the end. Poor DOLLY was there by herself. A very enjoyable Friday solve.
@A (3:30 PM)
So sorry to hear of tuxedo cat passing on. My condolences.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
@Anoa Bob (2:26). You're right. When I started on the blog, I called myself "mathguy." But the reason I switched was that one day the puzzle was by my hero, Patrick Berry. He had "math" and "gent" near each other in his grid. "mathgent" is my pitiful attempt to put myself into one of the puzzles by that genius.
I am not certain why the answer to 24A: Like a screwdriver is "ORANGE". It should be "ORANGY", as in orange flavored or vaguely orange in color. (Clearly I did not know the correct spelling of Aimee Mann's name. Changing the "Y" to an "E" is the last square I filled in.)
I seriously finished this thing in under 7 minutes. That's not at all a normal Friday for me. I am as anti-gun as it gets but I'm not going to whine that "NRA" is in my crossword. I don't like that it exists at all, but removing it from crosswords isn't going to make any difference to that. Also I was like "Is it really RONA?! Damn!" I've been calling it that from early days. Sometimes you gotta cute-ify something up to deal with it. I just pretty much knew all these answers and it was GREAT.
Just seeing Robin's name when I open my puzzle tab makes me smile; her puzzles are by far my favorite. I had to work from the bottom up, but I just GET her clues - thanks so much for this Friday treat!
I was just not on Robyn's wavelength today and could not see the SWITCHeroo even with the reveal. So I kind of hated the puzzle and now I love it, but feel dumb. Though at least we filled it all in fairly quickly after a rocky start - could not get a toe hold not even with my BIG TOE in the northwest.
I know someone who says RONA and it makes me cringe every time. I prefer to call it the plague myself.
I love the term DEFINITE MAYBE. It makes me laugh every time I hear it.
I really wanted the Dolly clue to be buxom, but I waited till I got a cross - which was a long time since I was thinking WorldxGAMES and other wrong thoughts.
I also did not know how to misspell dog today. GawG wasn't heloing with my Dolly.
@Z You people. Gas prices anyone?
@bocamp - thanks - she was great little cat and I’ll miss her. Also thanks for the info on “get in the swim” - I figured it was something like that but it was a new one for me.
@pablo - CulvertLOAN was very funny.
@A-So sorry to hear your news. Our 18+ tuxedo ( and his brother) are still with us, but we thought we were going to lose both of them a couple of months ago, and just the thought of that was beyond upsetting. We all know they don't last forever, but there's still no way to be ready. Sounds like she had a good long run and hope you can hold tight to the memories.
My wife and I use the archives on Monday through Wednesday and always solve together. I couldn't have gotten melon baller without her. As befits our 80-ish age, we usually struggle with the Rap "gimmes" and so called slang (we call them non-words...) Couldn't get RONA but crosses saved us (More non-words) I enjoy these comments very much.
mathgent @3:53 thanks for the correction. That leaves me wondering where I came up with idea you changed it in response to a previous comment. Maybe it was after you had already changed that someone remarked that GENT seemed apropos given the general tenor of your comments?
PABST!!! who knew that swill seller still existed???
@A – condolences on Tuxedo Cat's passing. We had two tuxedo cats growing up – one had black rectangles parting dramatically over his eyes so we named him Curtains. They'll be waiting to welcome yours.
A chorus I was in sang "Libertango" by Piazzolla a number of years ago. This track is from an album I like of his music played on flute and guitar, with a couple of other instruments added on some selections. "Oblivion" is also on it.
As Puny Pence said:
"Where would Russian tanks be today if NATO had not expanded the borders of freedom? There is no room in this party for apologists for Putin. There is only room for champions of freedom.”
The NRA is culpable. Rex's irritation is irritating, but justified.
Back in 1968, the USofA ignored USSR/Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia. That was even worse, in that Czechoslovakia had never been an SSR. Khrushchev gave Crimea to Ukraine, which led to 2014, and now Putin's determination to re-create the Great Russian Empire. Anyone who asserts that he'll stop if he gets Ukraine is either a moron or a Putin stooge.
There's a existential reason for Russian/Putin aggression: the vast majority of Russia is worthless tundra, and the only useful bits border those democratic countries to the West. Remember: after WWII Russia looted all those factories for itself. true fact.
@Anoa Bob and @Mathgent -- Both of you remember a bit, but not all, of the Whole Truth. I don't remember much, but I did remember that Anoa Bob was right about the change having been made at the suggestion of someone on the blog. Who, though? So I did the research, and here's the relevant comment. The interesting thing is that it happened on @Mathgent's birthday. And @Mathgent is right that both MATH and GENT were in the puzzle that day.
joho --
Happy Birthday, @MATHguy! I also noticed the shout out to you at 22D. Maybe on your special day you can be MATHGENT and get your whole name mentioned!
Got a chuckle from IHAVETORUN crossing IRAN at the R.
@Jc66 11:03 - Obviously
@pabloinnh - Poe’s Law, but not Edgar Allan. And CulvertLoan was funny. I was 75% certain you were joking but 100% certain someone would believe you were serious. My attempt to not have multiple explanations of a BRIDGE LOAN still failed.
A screwdriver, Vodka and Orange juice, is ORANGE. It is also ORANGy. But if the clue were “Like the sky” would any of you have wanted “bluey” instead of “blue?”
I loved the clue for Clark Kent aka Superman: Name of a family that took in an extraterrestrial. Of course Superman was an extraterrestrial. I just never thought of him that way before.
What, exactly, is wrong with Woke, anyway??
Rex doesn't like the National Rifle Association, thus its abbreviation shouldn't appear in any crossword puzzle. Hello? That's like saying, "I don't like labor unions, so don't mention them in my presence."
I don't like the NRA, either. But it's the height of political correctness to suggest that it shouldn't even be mentioned.
PLAN REVEALED (AYE AYE TO NONOS)
Best FINEDINING excuse that a BALLER EVER found:
BABE with DROPDOWNMENUS, WRAPUP with BONUSROUND.
--- ABE "GENT" KENT
What's new Syndicats? WOEs WOEs WOEs
I Liked IHAVETORUN crossing FORrEST.
DEFINITEMAYBE REVEALED. ORANGE GREENLIT COUP ON CODE PLAN
I really have to run
Easy my AYE! RW is one of the crossword puzzle world’s great ones. I loved it until I hit the NW corner where it suddenly became hard to WRAPUP. Had TABaLARASi as I had no idea what the Latin phrase was and the crosses 4D and 9D were outside my wheelhouse. Also lost my first Wordle today. The end of a 91-game win streak. :-(
I wonder if MAYBE we could divide this blog into Crosswords and Wordle, at SEPARATE sites? Thank you.
@Zed re TAKEI: George was a forerunner--groundbreaker even--for actors coming out. That, IMO, makes him a bit more newsworthy than merely for the Sulu role.
This was Friday-medium but for the SW, where I was dragged, kicking and screaming, into RONA. That made no earthly sense to me, and when I learned on this site what it stood for, I just let out a huge groan. Is there some new law of language that prohibits people from calling a thing WHAT IT IS??
My only other hiccup was WindUP before WRAPUP. Overall though, as is usual for Ms. W., we have a good clean grid. AIMEE Mann for DOD. Birdie.
Nut control, not gun control.
In this part of the continent, RONA is a hardware chain (now owned by Lowe's) - probably not too keen on being known as "the scourge of the 2020s", colloquially or otherwise.
Only difficulty here was the SE corner even with NRA, COUPON and BONUS in place. Oh and the FICA/ANA intersection which was a pure guess (ENA? INA? UNA? ONA?) for someone whose pay stub is not American and doesn't know any actress named de Armas.
Ms. Weintraub's puzzle as always deserves a Blue Ribbon, with a PABST being a DEFINITEMAYBE.
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