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Tactic of radical environmentalism / FRI 3-4-22 / Civil rights activist Wilkins / Secondary social media accounts informally
Friday, March 4, 2022
Constructor: David Distenfeld
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging (names names names)
Word of the Day: ECOTAGE (26A: Tactic of radical environmentalism) —
Ecotage (/ˈikəˌtɑːʒ/ EE-kə-TAHZH) is sabotage carried out for ecological reasons. (wikipedia)
• • •
The MRS. MAISEL / "MR. SANDMAN" thing is cute—a mini-theme that I don't mind at all on a Friday (31A: Emmy-winning title role for Rachel Brosnahan / 38A: 1950s #1 hit with the repeated lyric "Bring me a dream). It's the only really delightful thing about the grid, for me. I was so bummed out by the thud of ISSUE in LEGAL ISSUE (3D: Basis for a case) that it was nice to get things moving in a livelier, more Friday-esque direction there in the middle of the grid with the MR./MRS. pairing. I've been a fully-alert, pop culture-consuming adult for the entire run of modern reality TV, going all the way back to "The Real World," and today, thirty-plus years later, is the first time I'm seeing the term DOCU-SOAP (6A: Genre for "Jersey Shore" and "The Real World"). What an ugly, ridiculous, ungainly, and patently unnecessary term. It is true that I turned my back on that genre a long time ago, when I realized it was designed to bring out the absolute worst instincts in everyone (participants/viewers), so maybe there's a reality TV fandom where DOCU-SOAP is de rigueur but to me it just looks like you misspelled "Duck Soup."
[was gonna play "MR. SANDMAN" here but stumbled on this and was
too charmed to let it go by ... Curt Smith (of Tears for Fears) playing "Mad World"
with his daughter, Diva, on guitar / harmonies]
Weirdly, and yes, hypocritically, would've preferred a pop culture clue for MOULD. Briticisms are OK, I guess, but in this case I would've preferred post-punk / alt-rock legend Bob MOULD. He fronted the bands Hüsker Dü and Sugar and has a thriving solo career as well. Tuneful, guitar-driven rock. A really cool, kinda eerie voice. Bob MOULD: definitely better than British fungus.
And now, "Going Back to CALI," just 'cause ... 'cause I like it, and because I am it (less than two weeks!), and yeah, that's enough. See you tomorrow.
P.S. tonight (and every Friday night for the near future) I am live-solving cryptic crosswords on Twitch with my friends, two of my favorite crossword people-about-town, Rachel Fabi and Neville Fogarty. Here is the link. If you would like to improve your cryptic crossword skills, or just watch nerds being goofy with word games on a Friday night, tune in. Here's a recording of last week's stream.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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125 comments:
Isn't it "marquee answer"?
Constructor's XWord profile is....interesting...
The clue on 39A was worth the price of admission.
A breeze until I just hit a wall with a lot of the center unfilled. I was toying with “eye” for the attention one and some kind of “no lo ___” Latinsome thing for NO BONES Once I sorted that all out, whew, I finished.
I, too, appreciated the symmetry of MRS. MAISEL and MR. SANDMAN.
Had no idea that mold could be spelt MOULD. Sheesh. Wasn’t it Samuel Johnson who went in one night and adiosed some U’s (like in honour, favourite, etc.) from American English? Anyhoo – may you never battle spelt mould in your pantry. And, AND. . . makes you revisit SMELT, right?
Why didn’t CEDRIC join us?
Oh, poor guy - he SMELT SMELT MOULD in his house and had to hunt it down.
Hard to think about SEAL SIN. Rex’s ecocide and all that.
And Rex – I completely disagree with you on the clue for ESSENTIAL WORKERS. I think it’s brilliant.
“A red one is alarming” – where do you even start with a gem like this? A tooth? A snowflake? Kleenex? A marshmallow? EAR? PIGGY?
I had a dumb “ecorage” before ECOTAGE, and right there was the impetus for my NYT CROSSWORD LANGUAGE PONDER TIMESUCK sesh. Seems that this -TAGE is being “wrongly” parsed away from French...
...saboter (to walk clumsily in sabots) Some suggest that sabot wearers may have thrown these wooden clogs at people. I’ve just ordered several pairs and have started my hit list. First target – the guy who thought rolly chairs in a classroom was a good idea.
So anyway, -TAGE seems to be emerging as a suffix indicating someone or something trying to mess up something else. Phototage – didn’t we all take a pen to the yearbook picture of someone? And an unexpected blast of wind could be, well, ahem, dotage
There are four clues that begin “Like. . .” Listen. Like, I watch like enough Bravo crap and like Bachelor crap to get like my like quota for like a pretty long, like time. JK. Actually I sit there marveling at all the likes wondering how the heck the hapless English language learner is processing that sh&%. I can’t imagine visiting old Erlangen friends and hearing Wie, Ich spreche seit wie Jahren kein wie Englisch, also wie können wir wie stattdessen wie Deutsch wie sprechen? I actually get a kick out of the like phenomenon; my only problem is that I get so laser focused on where it can be used that I stop hearing any content.
TGIF! I get to play kickball this afternoon with some kids who earned three Navigator Passes for good behaviour, and I can’t wait. I’m a little nervous, though, what with all the trash talking I’ve been doing all week. I may have oversould my kickball skills.
The King of Crosswords was so upset because he couldn't grok the ESSENTIALWORKER clue that he trashed the whole puzzle. It wasn't an "aren't-I-clever?" / "gotcha" trick clue". It was simply a different part of speech from what a solver might initially think. Plus a slightly different sense of "help". Isn't that just a good Friday clue?
@LMS. Are you "Like" shaming?
Rex objected to proper names, as I almost always do, but prefers a clue for 37A that is a proper name I've never heard of.
Funny how the very features Rex finds annoying are often the ones I find delightful. Didn’t even mind the PPP except at the end, when I had to hunt down the cross between BReE LARSON and little PeGGY, whoever she is.
@LMS - I have to ask. What the hell do you eat for breakfast!? How can you be so prolific at this time of day? Or maybe I have it all wrong - you do it all before bed, and post in the morning? (Don't tell me, I like my fantasy of Superwoman rising daily on the East Coast, brain racing, ready to go inspire that next generation.)
Anyway, I also loved Essential Workers. Sometimes Rex's contrarionism is hard to grasp (was he trying to say the clue was so good it's bad?). And he hasn't even reached the proper age of curmudgeon-hood. What if he makes it another ten or twenty years in this life? Yikes.
Who is MRS ANDMAN?
There were answers today that I’ve never used in conversation before, like ECOTAGE and DOCUSOAP, and others that I use all the time, like USED and SEAT. But most of the answers were words that I know well but use less often, let’s say less than once a week. They’re well ensconced in my brain, but not at the tip of my tongue. I love revisiting them. It’s like running into old friends you haven’t seen in a while – it’s good to experience them again, catch up on them, and just, even if but for a moment, have them in your life again.
I loved that about this puzzle, this predominance of old word friends. Hello SAD SONGS! It’s been a while, NO BONES! Oh, I love your rich overtones REVERENCE! Man, I haven’t thought about you in a long time, GREASE FIRE!
Because they’re not in the easiest grab bag to pull from in my brain, they take a little more effort to get to. My brain loves that kind of work, adding pleasure to the solve.
Oh, mind you, there were a couple of terrific misdirects to further tickle my brain. There was [One of two in a 747] because the right answer, AISLE, has the same number of letters as the wrong one, SEVEN. And [Needed help] for ESSENTIAL WORKER, because “Needed” might be first seen as a verb rather than the adjective it is here (Hi, @Rex!) – that successfully misdirected me for quite a while, and brought a marvelous aha when I finally got it.
But mostly it was pulling out and revisiting these old-friend answers that gave me such pleasure today. And thank you greatly for getting so many of these in the grid, DD!
Every time I started to like this puzzle, I’d run into another unknown name. Rachel Brosnahan, RITA, STARR, ROY … mostly packed into the upper half. By the time I got to the smoother bottom half, patience was lost.
@LMS 6:11 - Johnson was an U fan. Noah Webster was the U exciser.
I'm using this space to propose marriage to David Distenfeld. I know that I'm old enough to be his mother and that I'm harboring a little resentment over 2D, well a lot actually because I loathe Marvel, and there's today's DNF, but these are small things and they could be overcome. In his writeup at Xword Info, he had me at Clippy.
Also there's that thing about how much I hate to cook and am now just putting stuff on tortillas to avoid dirtying a dish but, again, small thing.
39D, Zora Neale Hurston (I just reread Their Eyes Were Watching God) and Ear Warts tell me we have a real shot at happiness. Also I've always loved the English Mould, just as much as I love Mitre and Grey, so that's something too.
I swore I wouldn't comment on the blog until I finished Ulysses but I just passed page 18 and feel that I can spare the time.
PS I felt remiss at failing to acknowledge and pray for the people of Ukraine - and Russia - they're all victims of the madness of a man with unrestricted power.
Well it’s been stinker week here at the Times and they tried their best to keep it going with another dud - beginning with DOCUSOAP right in the north was a great start. The nod to MR SANDMAN (a true classic in the pantheon of pop music) over someplace called REYES was another nice touch. ECOTAGE and BASRA make for another cute couple as well.
I’m sure the fans of MRS MAISEL are pleased - but hey, apparently she at least won an Emmy (do they still give those things out - and if they do, does anyone really care ?) - it’s a shame she has to share a section with Mr. MOULD - who certainly seems as though he woke up on the wrong side of the pond today.
And a classic NYT finishing touch with the foreign/trivia crossing of AZUL/ZORA ! ! ! Yes, it’s been a stellar week in Dudsville and the hits keep on coming. Warn the wife, lock up the kids, cover your eyes and hold your nose, has fate only knows what is in store for us tomorrow. I’m definitely rooting for a reversion to the mean come Sunday.
I had the same lingering Names Names Names impression, but I counted and PPP is only 21 of 68, so still within the “normal” range. The low count is a little deceptive because we have more full names than usual, so they take up more grid space. Still, the extra acreage allows for more crosses, so all were sussable in the end.
Has STARR Carter replaced Bart and Ringo as the go to STARR clue?
REVERENCE is a fine example of why I have zero REVERENCE for spelling. Four E’s for two syllables, two of the E’s silent, the other two representing different vowel sounds. And then there is REfERENCE, pronounced essentially the same way but somehow we distinguish between the V and the F. Except, in both cases that middle of the word silent E sometimes isn’t silent with people willy nilly sticking in an extra syllable because the way the damned thing is spelt makes it look like a three syllable word. Blrrgh. And then, to top it all off, we cannot agree on -ENCE or -ANCE so we use both haphazardly making every word ending with an ents-sound a kealoa. It’s all just spelt MOULD.
Shorter than his prison TERM? In a just world.
Anyone else a little surprised we didn’t get Metallica in the blog today?
I’m having trouble fitting “Trainwreck”, “Dumpsterfire”, or “Nightmare” in 39-Across
@Trey 7:10AM: I think she's married to MR SMAISEL.
Maybe they should call 6Across genre SOAPDOX.
That’s MR SMAISEL’s love interest.
Z’s STARR Report
STARR Carter has been two of the last three STARR clues, interrupted by a county(?) in Texas.
Before that Ringo had been dominate with occasional Bart appearances. Kenneth had a run, but it looks like covering up the football team’s sexual abuse scandal has rendered him incapable of passing the breakfast test. Edwin had a run, too, while Brenda’s top STARR billing has largely faded. Belle STARR has only one Shortz era appearance even though she, Brenda, and Bart were once the Killer B’s of STARR clues. And then there is now mostly forgotten Kay STARR. I’m wondering if Kay who sang "Wheel of Fortune," 1952 has one more appearance left in her. That’s probably more likely than having the morally corrupt and hypocritical Ken make another STARR turn.
———-
@Anon 6:02 - Maybe we should just call those answers “Earl” from now on. 🤣😂🤣
re ECOTAGE: Turns out these environmental terrorists in the west have been financed by Russia so we would shut down our pipelines and have to buy energy from them. Every dollar we send send them helps to finance their war murdering innocent Ukrainians. We must become energy independent again. Reopen Keystone and increase nuclear production. It’s not a quick fix but is the only long term answer. On top of that, Greenflation is crushing the people who can least afford it. As for ONE TERM, well, we’ll see. I hope so but probably should’ve added “for now” to the end of the clue just to be sure.
Thx David; good Fri. workout! :)
Med.
A tad tougher than it should have been, due to a total meltdown in the NW.
Had AptER for ABLER, triAL for LEGAL, petE for BRIE, EarS for EGGS, had no idea what's in a Waldorf salad, couldn't recall Wilkens' first name, couldn't see ELL, didn't know PREGO is owned by Campbells, and obviously the little PIGGY was hiding. iow, a hot mess! Oh, I did have LEA. :)
So, to remedy the NW, I tore it all apart (except for LEA), twigged on ELL, saw ABLER & APPLE, and Bob was my uncle. :)
Unknowns: DOCU SOAP; ICED LATTE, STARR, ECOTAGE, TRANS, FLO, RITA, CEDRIC, CALI.
Other than that, most of the remainder was pretty smooth sailing, thanks to fair crosses.
A nice challenge, in spite of all the minor ISSUEs, and a fun adventure.
@puzzlehoarder / okanaganer for 👍 recent 0's
___
yd pg: 14:35 / W: 4* ( @Gio 👍 for 2 yd)
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Some decent entries - overshadow by too much useless trivia for a Friday. I liked TREE LINED - actually the entire SW corner was fun. The MR/MRS combo was sufficient - the other TV Guide stuff shit the bed. Using ABLER at 1a and RE-EDITS prominently in the center was unfortunate.
No issue with the cluing for ESSENTIAL WORKER but I agree with Rex’s overall assessment of how this thing just kept falling apart.
Brie Larson as Captain Marvel was one of the best Marvel/superhero/ine movies ever. Even if you are not generally a fan, give it a try -- it's fun/funny and a great cast. But I sure wish she was around to handle that maniac in Russia
Never heard the term "Docusoap" so got lost there (had "Rear" instead of "Seat" and took forever to suss it out). Some of the other names really lost me, so it was definitely challenging.
Happy Friday
-- CS
Fabulous
Mods,
You memory-holed all my posts that responded to gio. Why?
He made a claim. It is demonstrably false. I harbor no-ill toward anyone, and contrary to his claim I smeared no one. The fact is there are no British soldiers buried on the grounds of the Montecassino Abbey. That honor was reserved for the Polish soldiers who liberated the Abbey. What on earth is offensive about acknowledging the truth?
I honestly can't think of an uglier, more absurd phrase than docusoap. Also had Peta Wilson for a long time which didn't help up there.
Exactly the kind of Friday I like. Thanks, David. Had Peggy instead of PIGGY because my much older brother was a Buddy Holly fan and I (mis)remembered the line as pretty pretty little Peggy Sue. It was fun remembering that song, along with Mr. Sandman.
Thought the Essential Worker clue was clever and perfectly pitched for Friday.
Beautiful day here. Off to go get out into it. TGIF!
8:09 Balderdash!! The US produces more energy than it consumes, the US exports more energy than it imports. Buying energy from Russia is a convenience, not a necessity.
No "long term” answer can rely on fossil fuels. They eventually run out.
The claim about Russian financing of (unnamed) ecoterrorists is something occasionally floated by anti-enviornmentalists, always without a shred of proof.
I often agree with many of Rex’s criticisms even if I like a puzzle more than he does. Today I disagree with most (all?) of his criticisms, and liked this a lot. It was tough, challenging — I had to chip, chip, chip away at each section till it all came together. Rex, in Media Studies DOCUSOAP is a thing, even if the genre is awful and the word is ugly. This was work, but it was fun.
I'm thinking to myself that it's "more apt", not AptER, and how can you begin your puzzle with a word that's this non-wordy. Only it was ABLER at 1A, which is a word. This initial mistake threw me off in the NW and I had to struggle to get back on track. BRIE LARSON (a woman plays Captain Marvel??? BRIE LARSON is not the name of a woman???) was no damn help. And I hadn't even gotten yet to all the TV clues. Or is Captain Marvel also on TV?
The puzzle was do-able, even with all the dumb trivia that no one will remember in 15 years or maybe even 15 months. It's too bad, because where there wasn't dumb trivia -- both from your era and my era, btw, -- there was a decent puzzle lurking behind it. I especially liked the clues for ESSENTIAL WORKER and SAD SONGS. But I resisted writing in SMELT for the source of roe. If you can't afford the roe from "virgin sturgeon" as Cole Porter was wont to call it -- and who can? -- I say don't bother with roe at all.
Conclusion: David Distenfeld watches a lot more television than I do. Why, I could have gone for the rest of my life without knowing that there was such a thing as a DOCUSOAP.
Tried and tried, but never parsed out the NW.
Nice 5 letter diagonals side by side in the west: EASED (begins at 21A) and REELS. Also, a string of 5 consecutive S's beginning at 19A/D and moving SW.
Happy to learn ECOTAGE, not so much DOCUSOAP.
I liked it okay, but still had to make my own fun. And that's never a good idea.
Witness:
CEDRIC WARTS sounds like a Wind In the Willows character. Supporting role, like Toad's sidekick.
MRS AND MAN is the lesser known title of American Gothic.
Nobody likes LOSEFAITH KATIE - she's such a pessimist. Debbie Downer is her shero.
REEDITS, the DOOK reminds me of beandits, which was my father's term for beans. "Pass me the beandits" eventually seeps into one's subconscious, only to rise again and escape one's mouth during some unsuspecting host's dinner party. Yeah. I'm that chick. 🙄
🧠🧠
🎉🎉.75
As soon as I saw Captain Marvel, I finally sympathized with those few among us who have deliberately avoided the Harry Potter books. The Marvel Universe is where I draw the line on things I want to learn.
Hey All !
So close, and yet so two-letter DNF away. Dang. Had BReE LARSON spelt thusly, wondering just who this Little PeGGY was. Probably from a nursery rhyme I had long forgotten.
Other one was NO BONoS/RoYES. Brain wanted Latin-ese for 23D, not English-ese. REYES/RoYES, toe-may-toe, toe-mah-toe.
New verbiage at the alter could be MRS AND MAN instead of Husband and Wife.
Agree DOCUSOAP was a groaner and not a real thing.
SW corner a toughie. LEES as clued still not making sense to me. Where's Progressive's FLO? Not some app. AgUa forever for AZUL, even though I know AGUA is Spanish (Portuguese?), but couldn't think of the French blue.
Had E__S for 4D and of course wanted EelS. Har.
AptER-ABLER, rEAr-SEAT, bedS-LEAS (thinking how clever, whah whah), (@Lewis) seven-AISLE, Club-CAFE, plus had ONETERM and INHD in early, but when nothing was happening, took them out, only to see they were correct. I call that a "Brainy", as for some reason, I can see what answers go in the crossers if I'm unencumbered by even the correct letter. Maybe because there's less constraints? Silly brain.
That all the DEETS for today.
The ESSENTIAL WORKER who SMELT it...
😁
yd -12 (egads!), should'ves 8
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
No time to do the crossword today but I took a glance and wanted to stop in to read comments about 39A. My own first response, albeit a letter short, was SO OVER.
@Z: I grew up about 15 miles from Kay Starr's birthplace, and even there she's not well known by most residents today. I mainly knew of her because I would ride my bike through the Arbuckle Mountains on Kay Starr Trail.
"Lees" are the dregs that settle in wine.
@kitschef. Your rebuttal to @Nancy should have read "a U", not an.
Tough + lots to like = a very enjoyable Friday. On the tough side: the names that had to be pieced together from crosses, the NE swath, and a few of the clues ("Needed help"!). The biggest treat for me was MR SANDMAN, which instantly transported me back to 1950s Saturday nights when the family without fail gathered around the TV for Your Hit Parade. Runners-up: NO BONES, OVERSELLS, LOSE FAITH, SEALS IN, SAD SONGS.
Do-overs: AptER, AZUr, a shot in the dark at "reality tv." Help from previous crosswords: RITA, ECOTAGE. No idea: DOCUSOAP, STARR, CEDRIC, ALTS, CALI.
@Anon 6:02 – Yes. Marquee. Not the Marquis de Sade. But what do you expect from someone who can't figure out that eco-TAGE derives from sabo-TAGE.
This was a fairly easy Friday, except for the error on 37 Across. The clue was "Like Trump's presidency" and the obvious answer - indeed, the ONLY possible answer - is "Invalid." I left that answer in there ...
Amen.
@CS (8:52 AM) Happy Friday to you, too! 😊
Thx, got BRIE LARSON as Captain Marvel cued on Disney+ for viewing later today. 🎥
___
td pg: 4:07 (rare 0 in under 30 mins, today) / W: 4*
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
I really liked this...but holy tomatoes, I saw the pile up of names I didn't know and I thought I'd be making toe jam.
Lots of food stuff here and that always squeaks my taste buds. Forgot (for a bit) about the APPLE in a Waldorf salad. I haven't made one since, well, since so many years ago, I've forgotten.
I really had to take my time and guess answers. They were gettable and I was enjoying the eeny, meeny, miny, moe moments....Is it Miss PIGGY and counting toes? Doesn't BRIE need a little jam? ICED LATTE is on my menu...I have had SIMMERING moments over a GREASE FIRE. I always sit in the CAFE bar on Amtrak... because my friends and I can have a drinky-poo going home.
Besides the names, (and I didn't fret..this time) I learned a few words that won't pop up in my daily, inane conversations. DOCUSOAP and ECOTAGE. I believe they are lawyers from JD's firm. They came into my bar and only talked about LEGAL ISSUES and I yelled "PREGO, you two"....I would never RETAIN your services even if they came slathered with MOULD.
I loved the MRS and MR pairing. I loved ESSENTIAL WORKER as clued. Please continue with your foreign words,..give me all the food items you want....a puzzle like this brings on a smile...
I have said many times that I only look for fun, and enjoyable puzzles that evoke memories. That's just me.
This one did just that, David. Thank you!
Found the puzzle a little tiresome because of the proper names, but once I got beyond the names I kind of liked the solve. Does that sound ambivalent? I suppose that would reflect my reaction?
So,Z, if you were setting text to music, would re[fv]erence have 2 or 3 notes [one for each syllable]? I think I set it to three notes, but if the music requires, I will set the word to two notes. I suppose the same problem happens with words like PRISM. The solution: set the word to the greater number of notes, and print the score out ambiguously so the singer has the ability to take either direction.
@ Anonymous (6:02 am)
Yes.
Fabulous Friday, and a big woohoo from me for me and my 23 minutes, OMG and 'medium-challenging' to boot. Loved it. First off, ECOTAGE - Edward Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang was one of those important novels in my formative years that changed the way I saw things and I still love it. Worth the price of admission alone.
TOOLONG for 39A would've fit, and the fact ONETERM actually happened was enough to LOSEFAITH. That GREASEFIRE should've been put out. There's a theme there...
LOL, actually did briefly wonder why I didn't know MRS ANDMAN.
Brisk, fun, lively puzzle. TGIF.
I am surprised there are not complaints from the commentariat regarding Pt. REYES. I've been there many times but I would expect it to be a total Natick to most non-Californians.
I believe @Rex did, in fact, mean to refer to the "marquis" answer; his take on today's puzzle is torture.
Speaking of Brie Larson, the granddaughters will be displaying some 'girl power' at the British Columbia Provincial ringette tournament this weekend. The eldest is team 'captain'. First game starts in 5 minutes. 🥅
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Classic Rex: I didn't like it because I didn't know stuff.
Like Rex, I've been around reality TV since the original Real World, never heard of DOCUSOAP, but I like it.
And @anon 6:46: right on.
Played about average for a Friday for me. Maybe a little on the fast side.
I'm afraid my tv viewing is mainly limited to sports and news, so a lot of this was of the "help from the crosses" variety. I knew MRSANDMAN, of course, and ZORA, but then I counted seven PPP references to things I had neither seen or heard, including a three-way intersection in the NE, but eventually I had everything filled in and gave myself the happy music, as I'm a paper solver.
So, some good long answers and some good misdirects, as have been noted, and tough enough not to waltz through, which is what I want on a Friday, Fun enough, DD, but I do feel Decidedly Dated trying to keep up with all this post 1980 culture. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.
I never click on Rex's videos, but I did punch the "Mad World" video and it is indeed charming.
Boo: DOCUSOAP, ECOTAGE, LEGALISSUE, so many TV shows. If you add a T to ECOTAGE you get e-Cottage which is a simulated house in the metaverse woods. That should be a thing.
Yay: ESSENTIALWORKER -- literally the last fill because my brain got tricked. The stack of LOSEFAITH, TREELINED, and SADSONGS, oh and NOBONES.
My thoughts while solving this "puzzle" :
I can't quit this thing because I can't believe it can get any worse, but it just does. Prego X brielarson X mrsmaisel and moult. But wait, here come a Jersey Shore reference X a Wire reference X whatever the hell The Hate U Give is.
Whoa, here's reedits X inhd X alts, then Cali X Katie and deets.
I finally got back to the Northeast and said to myself " This better not be "acti", then I saw the clue for 13 down and took it for an omen.
Worst Friday in living memory, and I have lived a long, long time. Now they want to ask me if I'm a robot. I wish...
Joaquin,
Point Reyes is just shy of Mecca status to birders. Certainly one of Cali's top 5 places. Not sure it's at all obscure.
I am a day late, if not a dollar short. These comments refer to yesterday's discussion of the High Holidays.
The castaway joke, as I recall it, involves a castaway being rescued, and the rescuer notices a pile of rocks nearby and asks the castaway about it. "Oh, that's my temple -- it's where I prayed to God." As they are about to leave, the rescuer notices another pile of rocks a little further away. "What about those?," he asks. And the castaway says, "Oh, that's the temple I used to belong to."
But my favorite joke on the topic involves two older Black gentlemen.
OBG #1: Hey, I'm off tomorrow.
OBG #2 Why? It's just Tuesday.
#1: Well, my boss is a Jew. Tomorrow's Yom Kippur, the business is closed.
#2: Yom Kippur? What the hell is that?
#1: Oh, man, you don't know what Yom Kippur is?
#2: No, what the hell is Yom Kippur?
#1: Well, you know what Shabbos is, right?
#2: Sure, I know what Shabbos is.
#1: Well, next to Yom Kippur, Shabbos ain't shit.
Ba da boom.
Lewis is a treasure. I especially like it when he talks about his brain as if it were his pet. "Every day I feed the puzzle to my brain and then take it for a walk."
Nancy, try the Greek appetizer, taramosalata. It's made of inexpensive roe from cod or carp. A dip with pita pieces.
The only DOCUSOAP I've seen is the first, American Family on PBS in 1973. I loved it.
Very good puzzle. A lot of longs (13) made possible because only seven threes. A little lacking in sparkle, though.
Medium. I started out with AptER which made NW tough. That said NE was last to fall even with CEDRIC (I recently rewatched The Wire) in place. DOCUSOAP was a major WOE. Fortunately I knew a lot of the names so the rest went fairly smoothly. A bit of sparkle and just enough crunch, liked it.
No one says that Rex is consistent. He complains about too many names and then says that MOULD should have been clued as a name.
Wandered blind through the grid with nothing…nothing…nothing until finally I got to 39A and happily (for more than one reason) wrote in ONE TERM.
Suddenly the grid started opening up and the next thing I knew. the puzzle was solved, even with all of those names I didn’t know and terms I had never heard of. A DOCUSOAP about ECOTAGE with STARR Carter and RITA Wilson as oologists gone wild? ASK ME LATER.
Liked the pairing of MR. SANDMAN and MRS. MAISEL and *loved* MRS. ANDMAN and MR. SMAISEL (thank you @Trey and @Conrad). Also liked the clues for SAD SONGS, DECAL, and ESSENTIAL WORKER.
I keep staring at REED ITS and wondering what it’s doing there. Then I see RE YES and think, well, at least that’s a repeated affirmation. And it’s in the same row as ONE TERM.
Poor Rex. I know how he feels - some days nothing sparks joy. At least he found a video to cheer him up. Yes, I did think there were a lot of names, but I’m learning to ignore them - not about to let stupid PPP spoil my puz party if I can help it. Today it worked and I had fun. So there.
I think it helped that I did actually solve from the bottom. Saw “Better suited” and my first thought was “Please don’t be AptER.” So I skipped dinner and went straight for the Kit KAT bar.
First thought at 53A was LOSE hope. I was so relieved it was too short. LOSE FAITH seems less desperate. If you lose faith you can still HOPE, maybe write some SAD SONGS, but without hope….well, it wasn’t the answer so enough of that.
Had ECOrAGE, which really mucked up that little acre. I worked around it and finally had no choice but to question what I thought was a gimme. Oh, ECOTAGE! In an instant ECOrAGE went from a legitimate tactic to a potential subject of an SNL skit. Hilarious.
Is ECOTAGE related to SEAL SIN?
Liked the MRS and the MR. Fun parsing them as MR. SMAISEL with his SMELT roe and MRS. AND MAN.
ONE TERM. REEDITS and weep.
PREGO PIGGY reminded me of the meat discussion yesterday. I think it’s purely conditioning. Think of all the things various cultures consume that make others recoil in horror. We develop the taste for things early on. We eat meat before we know what it is. As a child I never had a problem with beef, but I remember being put off by chicken, especially legs, with their veins and tendons.
Ok, time for some birthday music. No SAD SONGS today.
GLUMPERFINKLE Might have saved this one? I’m seconding @pabloinnh for today’s grid, & I have pared the TV news down to PBS on Friday. Also second the recommendation to enjoy xwordinfo constructor notes—Mr Distenfeld’s creativity and humor sparkle.
@Joe D 10:08 I love you man, but what about "Oh, ECOTAGE, like "sabotage" ... ", the very first sentence, made you thing Rex didn't get the connection between ecotage and sabotage? While we're here, as Rex has used marquee correctly about a zillion times and made this one mistake, what's the reason for piling on?
So TAGE (as in sabotage and ECOTAGE) seems to connote that something is being willfully harmed or destroyed. I’m scratching my head now about décolletage. Perhaps a perfectly good turtleneck was snipped away until a low v-neckline was produced?
I make NOBONES about feeling that the clue for 23D (Lack of objections, in a phrase) is slightly off. I think of it as expressing willingly your true belief about something.
I guess Rex didn’t see the DOCUSOAP where MRS ANDMAN gets PREGO by MR SMAISEL, and that was just ACTI.
I found this puzzle easy (for a Friday) and delightful, especially ESSENTIALWORKER. Thanks, David Distenfeld.
@Carola, I flashed on "Your Hit Parade" too when I saw Mr. Sandman. They featured the top twenty or so songs each week, and I always thought it was funny watching them try to come up with a different production when some of the songs were on the list for months. I mean how many ways are there to sing "How Much Is That Doggy In The Window ?"
@Z, "reverence" has 3 syllables.
It always fascinates me how Rex can rail against PPP with one side of his mouth and then use the other to voice his preference for his kind of PPP. No duh. I'll take a Briticism over obscure (to me) musicians for ever, Alex.
ECOTAGE is new to me, but I have heard of ECOcidE which I believe would be the flip side of the same coin.
DOCUSOAP is simply a word befitting its genre.
Put me on the "liked it" side for ESSENTIAL WORKER because it fooled me for a nano.
@JD!!! 717am At least now I know your painful absence was time well spent. And if I need a winky face after that, then I just don't know what. Mr. Distenfeld had me at his debut puzzle bio (his Candy Kitchen coup opened the door into that colorful Land of Odd), but today's note brought a whole new level.
Gotta run! I'll finish reading y'all later.
NAMES NAMES NAMES.
🎯Agree w/🦖 on entire crit.
But possibly enjoyed 🧩 more.
Mrs. Maisel and Mr.Sandman - was annoyed by the outdated latter - but realized they are from the same era (1950’s I think) and that’s kinda clever.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
The problem with ECOTAGE is that it's treating "sabotage" as if the roots are "sabo" and "tage," when in reality it derives from "saboter" or, more simply, "sabot" (a wooden clog). Tacking "tage" onto the end of other words doesn't really make sense etymologically as it's not in any way a stand-alone suffix denoting, well, anything. I guess that doesn't actually matter and all language is bastardization in some form, but it's still a little grating.
This puzzle made me feel so smart! I just made up names and it turned out right!
Was it luck or was it solving experience? Who knows?
the proper clue for ESSENTIAL WORKER:
The Orange Sh!tgibbon's (not my coinage, but I cleave) expendable citizens, particularly Spring 2020. can't slow down Big Bidnezz profits, now can we?? what's a few thousand immigrants, prisoners (and their guards), and such by comparison.
I got REYES, and being on the Other Coast, it should be a Natick (or Athol), but the name/word stuck in the lower brain stem from some movie or other. Pt. Reyes is the setting for The Fog, according to the wiki, which I've never heard of, much less seen. could be mentioned in The Birds may be?
@mathgent- in Rex’s defense, he prefaced the MOULD comment with “hypocritically.”
@Jess Wunderin- If you read Rex’s comment , it’s pretty clear he didn’t grok the sabotage connection until he looked up ECOTAGE in the dictionary.
Like others, had for aptER before ABLER at 1A.
Unliked others, had cabin before AISLE at 24A.
Liked MRS/MR and ESSENTIAL WORKER.
Wordle 258 4/6
⬛⬛🟨⬛🟨
⬛🟨⬛🟨🟩
⬛⬛🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I’ve been watching and reading too many old Perry Masons. LEGALISSUE? Nah, how about scartISSUE? That gummed up the far NW and prevented an otherwise quick Friday. It didn’t help that I could only picture a male portrayer of Captain Marvel. My apologies, BRIE.
I found this puzzle easy, but then I knew most of the proper names. Didn’t know BRIELARSON played Captain Marvel, but she was gettable from a few crosses. As someone else pointed out, Rex objects to names from popular entertainment but then suggests some obscure rocker as the clue for MOULD. MRSMAISEL and BRIELARSON are bad answers, but the lead singer of Husker Du(!) would be a fine clue? At least Rex didn’t complain about MRSANDMAN. I thought sure he’d bribe because it wasn’t from 10 minutes ago. Oh, and I’ve seen ECOTAGE plenty of places besides crosswords.
Had some hi- and lo- lites, at our house. M&A's ESSENTIALWORKER was Google, to look up a lo-tta the names of mystery.
Best hi-lite was 39-A's {Like Trump's presidency} clue. The mind boggled, at the richness of the answer pool. First of all, U hafta decide if "Like" is gonna be a verb or a preposition, usage-wise…
"Like" meanin "enjoy" -- some possible better answers:
* BEWEIRD.
* LUVPAIN.
* ODONFOX.
* FAKEITTOWINYERPRIMARY.
"Like" meanin "similar to" -- some possible better answers:
* BIZARRE.
* PUTINNY.
* GHASTLY.
* ILLEGAL.
* UNSTABLYMORONIC.
fave stuff: NOBONES. ECOTAGE. moUld. DOCUSOAP, in a raised-by-wolves way.
staff weeject pick: KAT. Better clue: {Krazy feline breed??}.
Thanx for the MR and MRS FriPuz theme-let, Mr. Distenfeld dude. Fooled M&A into thinkin it was a ThursPuz solvequest, just briefly.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
I'd forgotten about the LL Cool J song-- I assumed the clue was referencing the Notorious B.I.G. classic of the same name.
@Jess Wundrin –
I had no idea how to say it or what the -TAGE part was supposed to mean. I figured maybe it was some kind of artwork, like collage or découpage.
Rex realized the connection after he looked it up, apparently. But ECOTAGE has appeared five times since 2013 clued almost exactly the same way as today. I don't get complaining about a word that you've "only seen in crossword puzzles". For someone who does the puzzle every day (and even blogs about it), I'd think it would be automatic to start retaining words and their meanings once you've seen them in the puzzle more than once or twice.
But that's just me. :-)
MFCTM.
TJS (11:36)
@TJS 11:36: "I always thought it was funny watching them try to come up with a different production when some of the songs were on the list for months." Me, too. Like...how about the singer dragging around a ball and chain for the nth week of "Let Me Go, Lover"?
"Cold brew alternative" for 17A ICED LATTE had me in puzzlement but a quick cyberpeek showed that I was thinking "Cold brewski" as in alcoholic beverage, not one with caffeine.
When I was an electronic maintenance tech at an aerospace company in a former life, one of the buildings where we worked had 15 or 20 drop forges, machines that turned flat sheets of metal into complex shapes by hammering it with massive, heavy metal dies. Some were so huge as to shake the earth when they dropped. The collective sound of all those beasts was beyond deafening. When I clicked on OFL's link to the Bob MOULD video I was reminded of that grating thunderous cacophony. I'll take the British food fungus, thank you. Now get off my lawn!
Well, I was bold when I shouldn't have been and hesitated when I knew the answer, which led to a Saturday-like solve today. Splatzed in "maybe LATER" at 28D and held up on MR. SANDMAN even thought it was a gimme. Sat on "flaws" for 36D when the INHD I was considering demanded the W was wrong. Forgot which character was Daniels in "The Wire" and thought it might have been an Irish-American cop named padRIC, yikes. How could I forget Daniels?
MOULD - I had no idea where Fulham is so the British spelling took a long time to grow on me - like Rex, if the clue had been for Bob Mould, it would have been a slam-down gimme - I have lots of Bob Mould, Sugar and Hüsker Dü CDs.
My co-worker was surprised I didn't know Rachel Brosnahan - turns out she used to babysit his nephews in the Chicago suburbs, the girl next door.
David Distenfeld, nice job on your sophomore NYT puzzle and thanks for the laughs over at xwordinfo.com.
The 48D clue is incorrect. The novelist's name is Nora Zeale Hurston, not Neale.
CORRUPT and ONETERM each have 7 letters.
DF,
Correct! I debated posting that very thought myself. Kudos.
Any idea on where sabot comes from as it pertains to firearm ammunition?
I know technically a sabot is the thing wrapped around another thing to keep it centered in the barrel. But hunters use the term more broadly to refer to the entire slug itself. You probably know all that, but whence the name? Any thoughts on etymology?
Thanks in advance.
Half of "Guys and Dolls?" Mr Sandman / Mrs Maisel
I totally agree too many names, but I enjoyed it anyway. Had trouble in the NW corner since I had LIBEL ISSUE. Also, for the 747 clue I had SEVEN at first (too cutesy).
The ESSENTIAL WORKER clue is the best in weeks.
[Spelling Bee: yd -1; missed this "word", which M-W thinks is 2 words.
td only 2:11 to reach pg...new personal record! Congrats bocamp for fast QB td!]
@okanaganer (1:48 PM) 👍 for 2:11 (that's really flying!)
Various dics have it as one word, two words, and hyphenated. I wouldn't have got it anywhichway, lol. It's now on my list, tho.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Oh, wow! @Carola and @TJS -- I love reading you both -- it's like reliving my youth. Yes, I remembered MR SANDMAN (and can still sing it) from Your Hit Parade and also all the songs that you've mentioned, too: "Let Me Go Lover" (but I didn't remember the ball and chain) and "How Much Is That Doggie in the Window".
What else do I remember? Let me see:
Richochet Romance
Oh My Papa
Teach Me Tonight
Tennessee Waltz
This Ole House
Make Love to Me
April Love
Secret Love
As far as the "coming up with different production ideas for a song that was on week after week", I remember in particular the "Tennessee Waltz" where partners were constantly being yanked away from each other in ways that became increasingly novel and bizarre.
I did this on paper last night and it stretched out to a 35 minute Saturday level solve. My APTER/ABLER write over was the biggest single reason.
The unknown DOCUSOAP and STARR entries slowed down the NE but I was able to work my way through it without having to go back like in the NW.
The central section was as tough as the NE but the entire southern third of the puzzle was easy.
To me ECOTAGE is all those Super Bowl commercials showing four wheel drive vehicles tearing through the wilderness with soil flying.
When I had enough letters in place to recognize STARR I had a distinct memory of an ad clip for the show in which a man is telling a young woman that she was named STARR for a reason or words to that effect.
yd pg-1 it's a great 8 letter compound which we've had before but I had forgotten.
@Nancy. Three Coins In The Fountain, anyone? And I'm not going to look it up, but I think one of the regulars was named Snooky Lanson.I hate my brain sometimes.
@mathgent,(or anyone), I'm almost afraid to ask, but what does MFCTM stand for ? I only know stuff like LMAO.
I guess I should play this today, considering it was the Billboard #1 song on my birthday. (I like the third comment underneath.)
@Frantic darling I lurked! Why is it that all the people I love went to Catholic school?
My favorite comments this morning (plus or minus a half hour). @mathget specialty. He got tired of typing it out.
Oh dear and I thought I was doing okay at pg -2 in 15 minutes! Well-done, @okanoganer and @bocamp :)
As for MRSANDMAN, not grateful for the earworm.
@anon139pm
In soe bizzaro word maybe. Here on Earth One its ZORA Neale.
@Joe Dipinto (2:57) - You seem to be a lover of music and if you like, as I do, the old-time guitarists (Chet Atkins, Les Paul, Charlie Byrd, etc.) you will enjoy Chet Atkins'version of "Mr. Sandman".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-c66SJPuUI&ab_channel=renig427
@TJS - "reverence" has 3 syllables. - 😂🤣😂 - I dub thee Sir Willy Nilly… and I looked at three online dictionaries. One says 2, one says 3, and one says either 2 or 3.
@DF - Sabotage is from “Sabot” and the suffix -age, so ECOTAGE doesn’t make etymological sense in that way. But to say it is “etymologically wrong” would be an example of the etymological fallacy. Adding -TAGE is as etymologically logical as adding -gate to indicate the scandal du jour. Does the -gate suffix grate, too? Or maybe this is just Grategate.
@Anon12:13 - Thank You!
@Anoa Bob - Your comment reminded me of my favorite recent comparison for some reason, these “trucker convoys” to the Sex Pistols. Explicitly the line I don’t know what I want But I know how to get it.
Lots of Too Many Names comments so I feel obligated to repeat that the PPP is in the NYTX not excessive range. Where I do agree with Rex (and even his Bob MOULD wish) is that the PPP isn’t especially diverse.
The last five REYES appearances have been clued as some version of Point REYES, which is why it was easy for me. Just before that we got a Spanish king clue and a José REYES the baseball player clue. The California spot is the number one clue during the Shortz era but I have to wonder about the first Shortz REYES clue, Five Felipes. I assume that’s a reference to five Spanish kings but it really feels like Shortz Feliped the bird at solvers with that one.
Agree x 1000 on Bob Mould, but you missed a major credit not known to many: you might have noticed how hard the theme song of The Daily Show rocks. Yup, he wrote it.
MR SANDMAN, one of my fave tunes, and it doesn't get any better than Chet Atkins. Thx @Joaquin (4:02 PM)
@Eniale (3:07 PM) ty 😊
Well done! I was probably very near your time when I reached pg -2.
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
"What might get stuck in a window" = DECAL? "What might get stuck *on* a window," yes; "what might get stuck *in* a window," no. Who edits this stuff? Oh wait.
And for a professional, challenging, well-edited crossword, may I refer y'all (again) to The New Yorker.
@Joaquin – thanks for that link. (When I first pasted it in I got some weird Russian page – I thought Putin had hacked my phone.)
I saw Les Paul when he was about 90 and had a weekly gig at the jazz club Iridium. He sounded great. My father had some of his records. The one I remember him playing a lot was called "Meet Mr. Callaghan".
I think you're overthinking the derivation of ECOTAGE. It wasn't coined by a linguist. The word "sabotage" definitely comes from those workers in sabots (clogs) destroying machinery [I wrote something about this here a few months ago].
But I think the ECOTAGE coinage is based on the similar long O sound in the middle, nothing to do with
-tage as an ending.
Possible thought process:
"Sabotage means to destroy machinery. Environmental words often start with ECO. Replace the sound of 'sabo' with the sound of 'eco' and voila, ECOTAGE, meaning to destroy nature."
Purely sound based.
Guessed on MRSMAISEL, never seen it. 👋 rEAr before SEAT. Loved ESSENTIALWORKER once I got it, had ____IALWORKER and took a long time to lose specIAL...
Thanks DD for something to think about besides Ukraine.
I had no idea about RITA, whom I confused with RonA, leaving Sn_rr where STARR was supposed to be. So I ended up in the NE with DOCUrOmP above rOIL. I wanted ACT I but couldn't make it work. So finally I looked up STARR, and the rest all fell into place.
ECOTAGE is not a made-up word. It was used, and probably coined, by Earth First!
On the other hand, I had a great day kayaking through the J.N. "Ding" Darling Wildlife Refuge, so it was all OK. But NO BONES? Is that really a phrase? No one else is objecting, so I guess it is.
ECOTAGE is a term well known to anyone who followed EarthFirst! back in the day, or read Edward Abbey's "The Monkeywrench Gang." Ah, where is Dave Foreman now? (If you know, you know.)
The issue with the proper nouns = they were on the long side, took up valuable space, so if you didn't know them, you were stuck with a lot of empty squares.
And when STARR and CEDRIC intersect, it just magnifies the issue. It has very little to do with "what % of the puz is made of proper names"?
This to me felt like a Friday of ten years ago. It had some real teeth to it, & for that I'm grateful.
More importantly, today was "easy" but hard, and ended my 2-day streak of birdies.
Wordle 258 4/6
⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
re ECOTAGE: Say what you want about Rex, he owns his brain farts. I don’t even do that and I’m anonymous lol.
@Joaquin
Can complain about "REYES" as being a bit of trivia, but not as a Natick. All 5 crossing answers are "real" words, not PPP.
Seems people are taking to using "Natick" for any obscure answer, not as defined as a crossing of 2 obscure answers!
Z,
The gate suffix for scandals absolutely grates. And for good reason. It misunderstands the meaning of gate.
I can’t recall the work, but there is a mainstream movie which skewers this very topic. The punchline is that watergate isn’t a scandal about water.
It’s the same problem. Morons and midwits misunderstanding language.
Hone in, cut and dry, to be pacific, nipped it in the butt, on tender hooks, a doggie-dog world etc
@David from CA:
not as defined as a crossing of 2 obscure answers!
Well... no. This is OFL's definition (and he's the Decider)
"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. "
N.C. Wyeth is hardly obscure. There's more than one Wyeth painter, so you could call foul, but I wouldn't. Natick, except to Boston Metro denizens, yeah. I grew up in western MA and didn't know it existed until I moved to Framingham next to Shopper's World.
I thought DOCUSOAP was a good woody word as Monty Python might say.
MRSMAISEL and BASRA were interesting to me because I knew the words but couldn't tell you how.
I know The Wire very well. Best tv series ever imo. So I knew CEDRIC, but he’s mostly referred to as Lt. and later Major Daniels. Think a CEDRIC the Entertainer clue would’ve been more fair. Or even Cornbread Maxwell. Whatevs.
A but surprised that there was no (well deserved) rant about what I guess was the best thing about the previous prez (one term), but it still churned my stomach to see even a reference in the clue to him considering the state of things right now.
I doubt there's anyone up at this ungodly hour but I've seen a few "what's with this "gate" thing?" in the comments and am wondering how many of yous remember the Watergate scandal from the Nixon era. Watergate was a complex of buildings in D.C. where some political operatives broke into the DNC headquarters and whose exposé ultimately brought down President Nixon. After that the suffix -gate became affixed to any political or other scandal or imbroglio. My vote for all-time top -gate is Billingsgate.
@Anonymous 9:06 There are over 4000 Commonwealth service people buried at the Cassino cemetery, those who died in the 4 WWII battles for Monte Cassino. So in addition to being kind of a dick, you’re wrong.
The -GATE suffix as shorthand for a scandal is an example of a
libfix.
Presumably –TAGE is one also, although it's not included on this list (too new?). However, ECO– is on the prefix list. So I guess ECOTAGE is a double libfix. Or maybe a portmanteau libfix?
That's the Gary Jules take on Mad World, used in many commercials and most notably
DONNIE DARKO
ECOTAGE - Read: State of Fear by Michael Crichton
@Anoa Bob
Re: Watergate... Ford pardoned Nixon the day I was born.
Shocked that Rex had no comment for the trump clue. The clue could have easily asked the same with Jimmy Carter.
SLANDER ALERT
For the LEGALISSUE MRS.MAISEL hates,
ASKMELATER for the DEETS;
she said MR.SANDMAN made NOBONES on DATES,
yet he SMELT BRIELARSON's SEAT.
--- KATIE "KAT" STARR
After answering the clue for 39a, I just had to write in the margin:
THANK GOODNESS!
Back to the puzzle. APPLE & EGGS--two of my favorite foods--got me kick-started and I actually found it to be just about medium for a Friday. Once I hit on WARTS as defects, the gridspanner fell; there wasn't a lot of pushback after that.
KATIE Couric, have a DOD sash. David, you may not be a Steinberg--yet--but you're closer than most. Birdie.
Speaking of, with ESPN cameras recording his every STEP, let alone shot, Mr. Woods held it together for a -1 71. He's not going to actually WIN the thing, but I'm grateful he didn't embarrass himself.
Loved this one. It’s David Distenfeld’s second NYT puzzle. This one shows he’s ABLER than most new constructors.
Got most of it - almost all. That's the best I can say.
Diana, LIW
IMO, a 747 has 2 DECKs but 3 AISLEs. One is on the upper deck and two on the lower deck. 787 would have been a better choice in the clue.
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