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The art of appearing effortlessly nonchalant / SAT 4-2-22 / Sushi chef's tasting menu / Capital of ancient Persia / Where "the cheese stands alone," in a class song / Midwife's focus in the third stage of labor / It started in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Constructor: Kyle Dolan
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Word of the Day: ISFAHAN (7D: Capital of ancient Persia) —
Isfahan (Persian: اصفهان, romanized: Esfahân [esfæˈhɒːn]), from its ancient designation Aspadana and later Spahan in middle Persian, rendered in English as Ispahan, is a major city in Greater Isfahan Region, Isfahan Province, Iran. It is located 406 kilometres (252 miles) south of Tehran and is the capital of Isfahan Province. Isfahan has a population of approximately 1.9 million, making it the third-largest city in Iran, after Mashhad and Tehran, and the second-largest metropolitan area. (wikipedia)
• • •
But there was no more zing after that. Just slog. All the air went out of this one in the SW. And I guess it's worth noting that the heavily compartmentalized corners made this feel like a bunch of different puzzles rather than just one, and also meant that over and over it felt like you could just get stuck. You're in this tiny little cave and there's nowhere to go. That's what the remaining corners all felt like, especially the SW, where "___ SURE" could've been a whole bunch of things, and AURAL should've been TIDAL, and ARUM? Uh, whatever you say, I guess, and I've never thought of congee as GRUEL, though I guess technically it is ... anyway ... Sigh. The very worst thing down here, though—in fact, the only genuinely bad thing—is ALL-HEALS (56A: Herbalists' panaceas). What ... what? That is the kind of word where, when you get it, you think "that can't be right ... that's a thing?" What an incredibly stupid word. Like ... was "cure-all" not enough? You somehow needed ALL-HEALS? Just a painful revelation. Giant Thud. This puzzle had a lovely sense of SPREZZATURA but with ALL-HEALS, it's all gone. Vanished. Drained completely from the puzzle. All because of this "word." Do constructors / editors not consider what it will be like, for a solver, to turn up a word like this? It's not enough to think "it's valid!" Please consider the solver. And the solver's grave disappointment. Thank you. Moving on. . . . well the rest of the puzzle is really just OMAKASE (36A: Sushi chef's tasting menu) and ISFAHAN (7D: Capital of ancient Persia), two names I had absolutely no hope on. Again, foreign words with uninferable spellings, but this time I did not know them at all. Fun! Once again I repeat—it doesn't matter that I don't know something. It happens every day. Not mad about that part, exactly. It's just annoying that the puzzle keeps leaning on the same kind of fill, fill that presents the same kind of difficulty. SCHLEP is the word that best represents how I feel. I feel like that word feels. I feel like that word looks and sounds. Bedraggled. Working but not enjoying it.
 |
| 43D: Congee, e.g. |
I'm sure many of you geniuses knew ISFAHAN and/or OMAKASE, but I am also quite certain that the general familiarity of these words is far far lower than anything else in the grid. Light years from almost anything except maybe SPREZZATURA. And yes, yes, ISFAHAN has a population of over a million people, so yes, yes, it's valid, but do you know how many cities of over a million people there are in China? Do you? And do you know how many you could name? Not you, geography trivia guy, sit down. I mean you, everyone else. Hell, do you know how many cities of four million+ you don't know? A bunch. I absolutely guarantee you, a whole bunch. DALIAN has over five million people, and I just learned of its existence right now. Again (again again), it's not about a single answer's validity, it's about a *puzzle*'s overall sense of proportion and balance. And this one just wanted to test you on trivia. And it was irksome.
I liked SPRAY TAN a lot (27A: Color not generated by light). I struggled with it a lot, and then I figured it out, and I liked figuring it out. See, difficulty can be fun! If it gets you to Aha—fun! ALL-HEALS is never, ever going to get you to fun. I keep looking at that answer and getting depressed, so I should stop. Or move on to the closing act.
Closing act:
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Closing act:
- 21A: Where "the cheese stands alone," in a class song (DELL) — LOL what? "Classic song"!?!?! Is this "The Farmer in the DELL?" Is that the "classic song?" Oy. I honest to god wrote DELI in here, and was very satisfied with that answer. You know what I remember about "The Farmer in the DELL?" The title. I can sing the title. And then sing the title again. And then "hi ho the dairy-o" and then the title again. I am 52. Have mercy.
- 38A: Midwife's focus in the third stage of labor (PLACENTA) — nearly cheered when I got this answer. Seems like the kind of thing the NYTXW would've been squeamish about not too long ago. Credit to Julie Bérubé for being the first person to put it in a NYTXW puzzle, and thus into the databases of a lot of constructors.
- 50A: Expert with picks (MINER) — I had TUNER. I think I was imagining a tuning fork as a kind of pick (!?!?). Or else I was imagining a guitar player.
- 50D: Digital job, in brief (MANI) — manicure ... "digital" here refers to fingers.
- 28D: It started in 1964 as Blue Ribbon Sports (NIKE) — more trivia! get your piping hot trivia here! Sigh. I wanted many things here. Well "wanted" is a strong word. Words just kind of drifted into my mind, words like NASA and NYSE and ...
- 14D: Flushes, e.g., in poker (TELLS) — well I am on record as hating all things poker but as ruthless misdirects go, this clue is pretty special
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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143 comments:
Medium for a Saturday, except for the SW, which @Rex has covered very well. I didn't know any of OFL's trio of foreign words, and I would add two more: MASALA at 53A and ARUM at 47A. I know the spice Garam MASALA, but not the beverage. I had no clue about ARUM. I got SPREZZATU-- from crosses and used my meager knowledge of Italian to infer the RA. Without that I would've DNF'd. teherAN(!) before ISFAHAN at 7D, which delayed SCHLEP, which in turn delayed SPREZZ...etc.
This entire puzzle took place in ISFAHAN which, by the way, is the Natick of ancient Persia.
Someone should tell Rex not to be such a sore loser. I loved this one because it was difficult, grown-up difficult, real Saturday difficult, instead of difficult because it was filled with TV shows and pop stars and other junk I can't possibly guess at and couldn't care less about. Here we had real words even if he doesn't know them all. That's the deal. I knew ISFAHAN right off, so there, but had OPERASTAR and even OPERABASS before the (admittedly slightly less satisfying) real answer. I didn't know SPREZZATURA, even though I'm usually good with the foreign language clues, and thought CONGEE must be some kind of tropical snake. Do you see me complaining? No, and I was rewarded with the happy music.
A pleasant Saturday to all in these troubled times.
I enthusiastically second all of @Rex's criticisms. Some of the cluing was awful. "Short hooking pitch" is one. It's just ugly. Worse is "It runs up the arm". The ULNA does not run up the arm. It stops at the elbow. No, don't tell me it's close enough. It's not. It's sloppy. Less bad is 1-12:abbr/MOS. I get it but it's off somehow. I don't see the match-up. Would anyone ever say "1-12" in place of "MOnthS"? I'll say something positive. I love SCHLEP.
@Rex. Why aren't all those Z's Scrabble F***ing?
I wish everyone a pleasant day.
I always come into Saturday with hope that today’s the day that I’m right on the puzzlemaker’s wavelength and that the grid will fill in like a Tuesday.
It hasn’t happened yet, but some Saturdays come closer than today’s did. I started with two across answers I was sure of, and eight down answers that included a good number of guesses. No, back up. I started by gazing at the elegant grid design, OMG gorgeous. And try filling a grid like this in as cleanly as Kyle did. Go ahead, try. There is excellence here.
Anyway, with white space abounding, things started arriving to the grid as my brain started seeing more. Eventually the puzzle filled in, save for the SW, where I didn’t know the ending to the Italian word, nor ARUM, nor ALLHEALS (a NYT answer debut, by the way, though the singular has been used once), and I couldn’t remember what “congee” was, though I’ve seen it before. SURESURE finally came, allowing the rest to follow. Along the way, I loved the clues for DEATHRAYS, TAN, and TEASER AD, and that BORDER ON starts on the border.
But next Saturday, watch out! I’ll be right on that constructor’s wavelength! Meanwhile, I loved the trek today. Thank you so much, Kyle!
Some good cluing on items like DEATH RAYS, and even the one for the PASTA (Some ribbons and shells).
I always think it is unfortunate when the constructor/editors decide not to make the puzzle skew difficult by adjusting the cluing, but instead just go ahead and add arcane STUFF to the grid. It probably flies with the “linguistic sleuths” among us who enjoy parsing through pretty much every cross in the hopes of unearthing something plausible, However I also suspect that many of us (myself included) will tire of SCHLEPPING around the grid as if we were archaeologists hoping to find a morsel that we can take back to the lab, carbon-date and summon up specialists to assist us in deciphering our find (only to have it turn out to be an ARUN, OMAKASE, or a ISFAHAN when all this time we were in search of the Holy SPREZZATURA).
I wouldn’t have gotten the SW corner in a million years. The rest was enjoyable enough.
Right on Southside!
I certainly appreciated the challenge today, although I never like it when a ‘highlight’ answer is a complete unknown (SPREZZATURA).
I’m normally more accepting of it when a ‘glue’ entry is unknown (OMAKASE), but I also have an utter hatred of Japanese cooking terms in the puzzle. If it’s not SUSHI or SAKE, forget it.
But all the rest was good. I had a lot of cases where I had half an answer but no idea what the rest would be: ___ TABLE, OPERA____, CANNON___, ESTATE___, ____SURE, ______AD.
(FWIW, ALL-HEALS was one of my favorite answers.)
The wordplay clues are awesome, but I’m with Rex that the trivial trivia just sucks the joy out of the solve and that is embodied by ALLHEALS. From the “ruthless misdirect” (hand up for DELiS) to the DRAMA club full of DRAMA queens to the coy echoing of “pontificate” leading to AMORAL (that one made me chuckle) and finally sussing out SPRAY TAN (AMORAL SPRAY TAN - hmm…) there was above average word play in this puzzle. But all the joy disappears when confronted with stuff like SPREZZATURA. If you’re using SPREZZATURA you are exhibiting the opposite, you are being a Try Hard, a much more in the language phrase. That SW corner is really a perfect synopsis of the puzzle. Cleverness with the PGA and PASTA clues negated by the rarefied trivial trivia of ARUM and ALLHEALS. I don’t object to a trivia in the theoretical, but it is often the case in actual solving that it makes the solve less enjoyable. I put in the H of MESH as my last letter in, looked at ALLHEALS, and shrugged my shoulders. The difficulty in sussing out SPRAY TAN made me smile. Staring at ALLHEALS made me glower.
OffTheGrid's husband: A spider ran up my leg!
OffTheGrid: It only went up to your knee. You can't say it ran up your leg.
I love how Rex has so many nice things to say about specifics of the puzzle but pans it as a whole - there seems to be a disjoint somewhere. I agree with @Lewis - existing on the same wavelength as the constructor is everything. Initially - I couldn’t get anywhere with this one - but once I understood the voice it fell in.
Knew SPREZZATURA - that helped the center. The cross with ERSATZ and WIZARDRY was fantastic. Liked the misdirect on DEATH RAYS. PLACENTA x ESTATE LAW is rough. Agree with Rex on ALL HEALS. Really starting to dislike the unneeded plurals like PRE MEDS.
“The harpies of the shore shall pluck the eagle of the sea”.
Enjoyable Saturday solve.
This is just a wonderful example of "be careful what you wish for", as I have been wanting a difficult Saturday for a while now. And here it is. Hand up for all the words OFL cited as WOES, and add "congee" as a clue and some other misdirects as reasons for this taking, well, forever. But finish I did, no mistakes, no cheats, and proud I am, so Saturday did its job.
SW the last to fall, and I nearly gave up before going with ALLHEALS, which I reject as any kind of word that should be in the language.
SPREZZATURA was a high point, and makes me want to learn more Italian.
Challenging Saturday indeed, KD. Almost out of my Knowledge Depth, but made it through. thanks for the workout.
Seemed more Maleska than Shortz. Got it in 16:40, about a minute over my average, and some of the clues were inventive and hard (e.g., for TELL, SPRAY TAN, MINER, and TEASER AD). But I know a lot of words and had never heard of SPREZZATURA, ISFEHAN, OMAKASE, (Veronica) ROTH, ARUM, or ALLHEALS). Fortunately, none of them crossed in a way that made them unguessable. But that’s too many obscure words, which the NYT has been avoiding ever since Shortz took over. I also question the clue for AMORAL as I think such people are probably even more likely to pontificate than others. But since I could never construct a puzzle at all, much less one with only 25 black squares, I am impressed overall.
FH
Phew. A toughie. Loved it. Great workout. Fortunately everyone knows Isfahan is the ancient capital of Persia, so at least that was a gimme. And Omakase; not exactly a gimme but once you get the O.... Early on, struggling, I wrote in BROADSIDE at 32D with smug confidence before wondering how "Livened up" could possibly be _ _ _ B E D. Anyway. Got it done in 45 minutes, as opposed to Wordle which was a doddle.
Considered throwing this thing at Nancys' wall every time I was hoping for a toehold and came up against a sushi chef or ancient Persian instead. But...but slowly I slogged through this thing and solved it. Didn't enjoy anything except the thrill of victory, I guess. I would give this a begrudging PO of a dismal W.
Happy for OFLs' enjoyment of "placenta". Whoopie ! Not happy over "canny" as "street smart". Totally different connotations IMO. Enjoy the weekend, folks.
As I sit here, there's a TV on in another room with a band playing, all men in white suits with pocket squares and black shirts, trying to affect SPREZZATURA. They're failing miserably, and look ridiculous. Speaking of things that don't look good, that white glutenous mush in the bowl isn't very appetizing. I think they feed it to dying people not because it is easy to digest, but because it makes the idea of dying more palatable. I found a recipe for congee on the intertubes:
1) Boil rice for 24 hours, adding water as necessary, stirring occasionally.
2) Forage in the woods for 24 hours trying to find something non-poisonous to add to the rice.
3) Add stuff you found to the rice, serve in bowls.
Yum.
I actually got angry as my 56A of CUREALLS slowly, painfully morphed into ALLCURES. At least cure-alls has a built in 'ok so where lying here, but it probably cures some things, no?' attitude that I don't think ALLCURES has. Not that I really believe ALLLCURES exist outside of witchcraft books or D&D games.
Plenty of good stuff in the puzzle, plenty of bad stuff. The bad stuff would seem to have been avoidable.
Thx Kyle; what a magnificent Sat. challenge! :)
Tough.
Started well in the top portion, but thereafter all was a battle!
Just kept thinking 'faith solve' (thx @Lewis), and soon one idea came after another, eventually resulting in success.
Will I remember SPREZZATURA, ISFAHAN & OMAKASE? Will they ever turn up in a xword again? Time will tell. lol
Liked it a bunch! :)
@Eniale (5:47 PM yd) 😊
@okanaganer (6:44 PM yd) 👍 for QB yd and a super times for both pg & QB! :)
Thx, she lives in Westbank (aka West Kelowna). The whole Okanagan Valley is so beautiful! Btw, they won both games yd!
Weird that I get a different Dordle (altho it says #0067). @Whatsername sent me the link to the one everyone else seems to have, altho it's exactly the same link I use. I guess clicking on it in the email got me to the right one. Yeah, that word is a doozy, and I only got it because I knew ahead of time something very strange was going on. I used @Joe's BLIMP as a throwaway, and it got the job done! :). Anyhoo, I now apparently will get two different daily Dordles, so one more solve to add to my pleasures! Wahoo! :)
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Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Can I, uh, get a source on that ancient Persian capital clue? Or was it just a totally garbage clue because that's a city and thus capitalized?
A "panacea" is a remedy, not a maxim. You can go around saying "ALL HEALS" until you're blue in the face, but it won't cure my sore heel. Of course your recommended "herbs" probably won't cure my sore heel either, but at least they'll fit the clue.
This FARCICAL answer is one of the reasons I couldn't finish the SW. Not even after cheating on SPREZZATURA.
I cheated the "honorable" way. I typed in what I already had, which was SPEZZAT---, only Google fed me the answer at just SPEZ.
When this delightful-sounding word was being coined and then (I assume) being used, where was I? Was I still in bed, having not yet RISEN? Could this possibly have been Kyle's seed entry?
I have a better chance of remembering SPREZZATURA than I do of remembering ARUM, which I've seen in puzzles before but never remember what it is, so the clue's never any help.
How does MESH keep burrowers away? Congee is GRUEL??? I thought it was an eel. (Or is that a conger?)
The SW was impossible for me. If I had a streak, it would have been broken today. But I don't think I had a streak, so no harm done.
Hey All !
Hoo Boy, I TELLS ya. NEATLY defeated by this tough puz. Crammed full of stuff the ole brain said "SURESURE, you un-LEARNED soul." Needed some WIZARDRY to finish (ok, just the Check Puzzle feature.) You might say it was a FARCICAL DRAMA.
I did finish error free, but again, ample and unabashed use of the Check feature. You NAME IT, I Checked it!
Ah well, such is a SatPuz. Did it IN SPIRIT of solving. Not focusing DEATH RAYS upon it. I DiD I DID.
Cut the puz out, stick a straw in the middle Blocker, and it'll make a neat pattern when you twirl it around. Don't cut it out if it's on your computer! 😁
Good job Kyle on my defeat. Har.
yd -1, should'ves 0 (wow on that missed 9)
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Come for the answers, stay for the kvetching.
I'm in total agreement with @Rex. I love a challenge but this one crossed the line, even for a Saturday.
Well, actually I knew Prunella Vulgaris as HEal-All, not ALLHEAL, but it's a lovely plant and it's in your backyard, I'd think you'd be happy to know that. Much happier that I am to say learn names of Rap Singers or characters on bygone cartoons. And I may not know all the cities with 4 million people in them in the present day, but that was not what was asked; I did know a bit about Cyrus the Great, whose capital was ISFAHAN. I liked this puzzle.
My first fill for "congee" was guppy. Because, ya know, an eel's victim.
@Nancy "Sprezzatura is an Italian word that first appears in Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 The Book of the Courtier". It seems to have had a renaissance starting in 1990s, all recent references seem to be in a fashion vein.
I’m with Teresa 6:59. This was a hard puzzle in lots of fun ways. I know SPREZZATURA only from Castiglione’s Book of the Courtier. Never thought I would see it in a crossword puzzle. Got ISFAHAN from Gabriel Faure’s lovely song “Les roses d’Isphahan.” Thank goodness for all that music history back in college. Had never seen ALLHEALS, but it’s got that ring of old-timey, New Agey herbalist-speak. Way over my usual Saturday time, and loved it.
I'm with @Joaquin today. SPRAYTAN is clever. Me, not so much.
Oh dear. Rex, I fear for you. Every day the same sad tears, lamenting the puzzle in your valley of tears. I hear your signs, and offer this consolation: grow up. It sounds harsh, but it will do you wonders. Not the least of which is to enjoy beauty, like this terrific puzzle,
Setting aside your heavy-handedness, and the tedium of your complaints, let’s examine some of those words which caused you so much grief.
First,Isfahan. It’s a city of nearly two million not just “more than a million”. Be fair when sing statistics. It’s also the third biggest city in a country long important in geopolitics, it’s not too much to ask educated citizens to know it. You could argue that even crossword enthusiast are obliged, dim-witted though we are. But most compelling? Isfahan has been in the news this week. Iran is set to execute two men accuse of espionage there. It’s a major story if you happen to care about world events, and the marginalized in other parts of the world.
As for sprezzatura, well, it’s one those words and concepts every intro art history class since 1689 has used. Everyone. And why not? It’s not just beautiful, it’s one of those rare gems that enables its user to slyly imitate what the word denotes, if only we could all be so clever.
But, I’ll concede that it is hard to red all the news, and one can not take every course in the academy.
But there’s never any call for petulance. And that’s what this review drips with. Phrases like “I’m, whatever you say I guess” are flippant pushback. It’s what a know-nothing 13 teen year old says when corrected by an adult. No, Rex my friend, the veracity of the usage is not contingent upon the constructor’s say so. And to passively aggressively asset that iits is, is well, you all over. Mores the pity.
I could go on… calling those who know Isfahan geniuses, really??? That’s just another way to dismiss the clue. I’m no genius, and I’m guessing Teresa ( who sounds lovely, smart and reasonable) doesn’t call herself a genius. Why should anyone be mocked for knowing something? And that’s what using genius in this case is—a dismissive sniff. It’s not to praise the knowing, but to excuse the ignorant. That’s petulance. A bad look for a teen.Intolerable in an adult.
Off to look for yellow-throated warblers and Louisiana water thrushes. Wish me luck.
Liked what seemed like a Roma and italia theme-pasta, consul, etc etc with a balance of Asian and middle eastern stuff (but not sated.)
But it was difficult!
Needlessly so? 🦖’s critique and his point about consistently obscure clues/answers - makes sense! .
(Also 🎯 was @Joaquin’s Ishfahan natick note😂)
Enjoyed it mostly!
(And Babylon fits perfectly in Ishfahan - the latter a name that IMhO only a Middle East specialist would know. 🦖🎯🦖)
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
Thanks to OFL for capturing my own sense of dismay at this apocalyptic mess, the worst in years. But it's getting harder to say that, because the precipitous decline continues at an accelerating rate.
This was the most "challenging" puzzle I've seen in a while, or maybe my headcold got the better of me. I was not able to get a toe hold anywhere. Eventually throwing in likely letters like -er, s, ing in hopes that something would open up. Finally turned on the autocorrect and threw in some guesses. Over and over again, answers gave me that feeling of "that doesn't totally work" or "never heard of it". So much so that I didn't trust the constructor on the really good clues like SPRAYTAN. Any one of these off clues would be okay, but the sheer density just put up roadblocks everywhere I turned.
I think I'm guilty of complaining about Rex's complaining, but after the tough time I had today was really hoping for an evisceration - I think I get this whole thing now.
Unlikely to pontificate is such a stretch to come up with AMORAL. No definition suggests this. I've heard plenty of AMORAL people pontificate - DJT anyone?
Stuff, but not junk = SATE? I wanted VERB, like a clue from a few days ago. SATEd means you stop eating when you are satisfied, not continuing until you are stuffed.
17 Withdraw - secede, recoil, recuse...oh, RECANT.
Do people use CARDTABLEs for drinks when not playing cards?
Have to share this one. It's today's first Wordle 2:
WordHurdle 147 2/6 #wordhurdle #peace
🤍💛🤍🤍🤍💛
💙💙💙💙💙💙
https://www.wordhurdle.in
A hard hard grind with a very few rewards for the effort. I dislike when Saturday are too easy, but damn. Trivia slog indeed, with a LOT of unguessable foreign words, as Rex rightly complains. I wanted to guess SPREZZATURA but I'm familiar with it as a musical term and without any suggestion of that in the clue I was reluctant to fill it in. When I did, a lot of the East half resolved, but damn those corners! SE was the most actual fun. Wanted "broadside" for 32D, but when CANNONADE popped into my head that corner finally crumbled. Huzzay for being a huge Patrick O'Brian fan. SciFi fan too, so I loved DEATHRAY down there as well. SPRAYTAN I think of as SPRAY-ON TAN, so even with "TAN" that one took a while. But yeah, good one. WIZARDRY was an "aha" and helped to get the aforementioned 23D as well as ERSATZ (another great word). Didn't associate the APOLLO program with Ike, so that hung fire for a while, but lots of fine misdirect "aha's" in the NW. Tough going, but all pretty rewarding...
UNTIL THAT DRATTED SW. Geebus. "GRUEL," ok, but how about a Dickens-oriented clue just to give us a chance? Instead of "congee" which I was sure must be eel-related somehow. Not some asian soup or whatever, never heard of, don't care, inttantly to be forgotten trivia. Blech. Same with ALLHEALS. Same with SURE SURE (IMSOSURE in there for a while because repeating a word like that is such a cheap trick). PGA coulda-shoulda been the thing that cracked that corner but by then it had me in that flummoxed place. Good misdirects for TEASERAD--I was sure sure it was some kind of baseball term--and PASTA. Really would have been a decent solve except for congee/GRUEL. Resorted to Google for that one, which sucks, I never allow myself to do that but that one cracked my resolve. And it was a big thud. Could have been the sparkler for the whole puzzle, but instead left me with a bad taste. Editors with NO sense of what the solvers are in it for. That is definitely not it.
All heal, ALLHEAL or all-heal may refer to a number of plants used medicinally including:
Prunella vulgaris, a species in the mint family
Stachys, a genus of plants in the mint family
Valeriana officinalis, a species in the valerian family (Wikipedia)
"Prunella vulgaris, the common self-heal, heal-all, woundwort, heart-of-the-earth, carpenter's herb, brownwort or blue curls,[1][2][3][4] is a herbaceous plant in the mint family Lamiaceae.
Self-heal is edible:[1] the young leaves and stems can be eaten raw in salads; the plant as a whole can be boiled and eaten as a leaf vegetable; and the aerial parts of the plant can be powdered and brewed in a cold infusion to make a beverage.[1]" (Wikipedia)
@RooMonster (9:46 AM) 👍 for -1 yd
___
td pg: 15:40 / W: 3* (wrong guess at 2)
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
The moral for ALL-HEAL haters is to take some:
"Government and Virtues. -- It is under the dominion of Mars, hot, biting and choleric; and remedies what evils Mars afflicts the body of a man with, by sympathy, as vipers' flesh attracts poison, and the loadstone iron. It kills the worms, helps the gout, cramps, and convulsions; provokes urine, and helps all joint aches. It helps all cold griefs of the head, the vertigo, falling sickness, the lethargy, the wind colic, obstructions of the liver and spleen, stone in the kidneys and bladder. It provokes the terms ... it is excellent for the griefs of the sinews, itch, stone, and tooth-ache, the bite of mad dogs and venomous beasts and purgeth choler very gently."
-- from Culpeper's Complete Herbal (1653). My undated mid-20th c. reprint, published in London by W. Foulsham & Co., belonged to Janice W. Bernath, who wrote her name in ink three times in an otherwise near-fine copy.
Some real garbage in this one; "amoral" does not mean one could not "pontificate." Nike, arum (a vintage crossword puzzle answer), Teaser ad?? Don't get me started...awful one today, imo.
I started out thinking I was going to kick butt today when I plopped in CONSUL and CARDTABLE. But, after I filled in the northwest I WENT. NOWHERE. FAST.
Well. I definitely learned a lot of things working the puzzle today that I will probably NEVER remember. There were a few times I was happy with figuring out clues like ribbons and shells but then also spent way to much time with DELIVERY as the focus for the midwife…and wouldn’t THAT focus be the baby? Seems like that clue was trying WAY too hard to be…HARD. A reference to the final stage of labor might have been better. I will have to Google to see how these stages of labor are categorized today…
It goes without saying that at some point I started cheating with reckless abandon and this was not one of my favorite puzzle experiences, but that isn’t necessarily the constructor’s fault. Well. ALLHEALS is probably his fault…
@Son Volt - Are you saying a puzzle has to be entirely meritless to be criticized? Or, rather, that is what you seem to be saying and I wonder if you actually believe that or if for you the good stuff in the puzzle outweighed the bad stuff.
@Puzzled & @birtonkd - Re:AMORAL - The other definition for “pontificate” is what the Pontifex does and usually we assume the Pontifex is A MORAL person (despite many historical examples of AMORAL pontiffs). In this case, the presence of PAPACY in the puzzle should have helped suss that one out. This is probably my favorite clues because the more common usage of “pontificate” in no way leads to the clue. This is the good stuff. Usually a misdirection is having to use a metaphorical sense of a word instead of the literal sense. Here the key is recognizing that the word has a literal sense.
@TJS - The first definition for “canny” over at M-W includes “clever,” “shrewd,” and “prudent.” That’s pretty much my understanding of STREET SMART.
@Nancy - See @Greater Falls…
@Anon9:56 - I love old-timey, New Agey herbalist-speak.
@bocamp & @jae - After not having the time to tackle Croce I just did the last two. Either they were easier than usual or I’m starting to get into the Croce wheelhouse. Both were about as hard as this puzzle for me.
I stared at the SW for a long time until I saw PASTA. Shells! That led to PGA and SURESURE. And the damned thing is solved.
I cheated to get SPREZZATURA the same way Nancy did. I just finished a new biography of Cary Grant by Scott Eyman. There was a guy with SPREZZATURA. BTW, excellent book.
Don't know why I had so much trouble with it. Only seven mystery clue/answers. Some Saturdays have 20.
*********** Wordle Stuff ************
My second straight eagle this morning. I use the same first word every day and it's really coming through. It gave me two greens and a yellow. That narrowed reasonable possibles down to about five. One of them seemed familiar so I went to the complete Wordle list and saw that it had been used in February. I lucked out and guessed the correct one out of the four.
**************************************
I was just going to ask for an explanation for the clue to TELLS when I figured it out. "Flush" refers to the player's face, not his hand. It should make Lewis's list if it hasn't been used before.
Hard and with little sparkle. No me gusta.
Filling this in today required WIZARDRY. I mostly succeeded, with a DNF in the SW (a dumb one, as they mostly are) but this was another extended Saturday solve, 10-12 minutes over my average.
Most of the hold-up was in the beastly SW. I was convinced, to the point that I took out my PGA gimme, that an herbalist's panacea would be "sage teas". Really, isn't everyone's panacea an ALL-HEALS? Isn't that the definition of panacea? So SUREly, 56A would have something to do with herbs, natch.
Anyway, AMORAL led to "okay, SURE" which meant, like "coloratura", my SPREZZAT would end in URA.
My SW downfall was with AlUM rather than ARUM. I was confusing it with AliUM. Congee, bringing to mind something congealed, meant GlUEL looked off-ish but not completely wrong. Oops.
Not exactly a kealoa, but 17A was my other mess with RECuse becoming the wrongly spelled REcind, but finally morphed into the correct RECANT. Whew.
Thrill today was seeing, from D_A in place, DEATH RAYS, which opened the SE nicely. Also PAPACY opened up the central area and gave me the answer to WIZARDRY which had only been WI__R before that. I was very iffy about PREMEDS (is that a legitimate pluralization?) to the point I took out MEDS for a while.
Kyle Dolan, thanks for a GlUEL (not quite cRUEL, not quite GLUEy) Saturday puzzle.
OMAKASE! I really LEARNED a thing or two today. This was tough enough to make my confidence meter BORDER ON a DYSfunctional scale. ALL this in ONE DAY?
Still I was undaunted and continued to SCHLEP fearlessly through the columns and rows, even though it felt FARCICAL at times to think I could finish. “I got yesterday’s Dordle” I said. I can do anything. Just NAME IT! And for my efforts, I was rewarded with dazzling clues like the ones for for TELLS, PASTA, MANI, OPERA GOER and finally, the loveliness of SPREZZATURA - all pulled together in a grid that was a thing of beauty. Thanks Mr. Dolan, for this superb Saturday.
@Anon, 10:03, I have a wish for you, and it's not luck.
SPREZZATURA? OMAKASE? MASALA? ISFAHAN? ALLHEALS?
I don’t know what language this puzzle is speaking, but it sure ain’t mine.
Hey, Z, if Merriam thinks "canny" means "prudent" then she doesn't speak American.
I walked away from this puzzle - twice. Just had a mental block with that SW corner.
Finally decided to screw the streak and do a "check", but just before doing that, I glanced (just glanced, mind you) at that corner and, as if by magic, it all went right in. WTH?
This little hellion was stop and go throughout, taking over twice my average time to complete. So not on this dude's wavelength - lucky for him. The cluing just felt off to my ear, but I think that's just a matter of opinion more than anything else.
Did not know ISFAHAN or OMAKASE, but that's just my ignorance shining through. On the other hand, I found OPERAGOER, PREMEDS (as a POC), SURESURE, and ALLHEALS (?? Is this a real term??) clunky and somewhat homely, if not downright ugly.
Overall, it was an enjoyable challenge that, despite my ludditity, did not quite feel out of reach to conquer. Good, clean, fun!
🧠🧠🧠🧠 (ever so close to the dreaded 5-brainer)
🎉🎉🎉.5
only got TAMS. might have gotten ISFAHAN if the clue referenced either Strayhorn or Ellington. otherwise, not worth the effort (and cost) for paper solving; many, many copies needed.
@starwarsyeah 9:39
Here's one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbas_the_Great
It's Wikipedia, but sourced from Encyclopedia Britannica.
Hey, what if I wanted a clothing accessory from you?
Sure, just NAME IT.
OKAY, I’ll take your TIE MAN.
Who knew that they commemorated a Spanish chicken on the back of the Eisenhower dollar coin (15A)?
What a fish packer does for a living. SCHLEP SCROD.
Very enjoyable puzzle. I’m not sure whining about answers one doesn’t immediately know is providing much useful insight, but it’s a style. Anyway, thanks, Kyle Dolan, for a sweet Saturday.
If only 23D had been clued as "Nonchalance", I might have finished sooner because it would have been quicker to google. SURE SURE, many solvers like unknowns because they learn new words. Not today. No way I will remember the 4 words I googled. This was GRUELing.
Any puzzle that includes Isfahan is a friend of mine. This should have been today's music link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2U1MGX8SLU. Enjoy - one listen and you'll never forget it.
@Nancy
"Allheal" is any of a number of plants, in particular valerian, used in herbal medicine and traditionally considered to be effective in treating a variety of conditions.
@TJS
It's always amusing when commentators second-guess professional lexicographers.
I guess anyone who knew ARUM would have known MESH as something to keep gophers out of your garden. But not me. And ALLHEALS sounds like something someone in flowing robes and a bad wig would try to sell me at a ren faire. Ugh. GRUELing.
Incredibly open puzgid. And the fillins were pretty much fair yet feisty. As for many, the SPREZZ-whatsit/ALL-HELLS crossin was probably the biggest double-no-know intersection of mystery.
Cool SPRAYTAN clue. As for @RP, enjoyed the ahar moment there. Ditto, for SATE clue.
staff weeject pick: DYS. Hard to beat a funky-good prefix.
sparkly bits of spray: WIZARDRY. PLACENTA [Knew a gal who knew a gal who named her kid that]. SCHLEP. Double yo's to Caesar [CONSUL & clue for IDID]. Learnin all kinds of new stuff.
Interestin @RP facts learned of lately: Gave up the booze. Hates poker. Has a workout trainin coach.
M&A has a soft spot in his heart for poker. Used to play it a lot with old friends, in high school. We played for a pre-payed pool of one buck each. Started out with 100 chips each, but U could borrow 50 more at a time if U tapped out. Whoever ended up with the most at dinnertime [after reductions based on the borrowin parts] won the money bucks pool. Good old times. Always hated it when the dealer chose High-Low 7 card stud for their deal, tho.
Thanx for the isfafun, Mr. Dolan dude.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s. Good luck and safe travels to all the ACPT-goers. Kinda wish I was there.
bad 13-D word alert:
**gruntz**
About 75% of this was easy-medium. The rest (and by the rest I mean the SW corner) was “expletives deleted” nasty hard. I had the SPREZZ of SPREZZATURA and had no idea what came next, and the SW corner clues were not particularly helpful. I did finish with no cheats, but jeez what a struggle. I was all set to really not like this one but then something serendipitous happened. We have been watching “The Big Bang Theory” late at night for quite a while and tonight we watched the episode where Sheldon and Amy get married. Early in the episode Sheldon is worried about his tie being crooked and Amy tells him asymmetry is fine and uses the term SPREZZATURA to explain why. Coincidence? Yes, but it moved me to give this one a “liked it” despite OMAKASE, ALL HEALS, and ISFAHAN.
Thanks to @DrBB for nailing my response and saving me the DRAMA of having to spend even more time with this slog. Thanks Kyle for the humility I hope I LEARNED from your grid! Luckily I have a former florist wife who could give me both PLACENTA & ARUM and unpack the TEASER AD.
I luv-luv-luved this baby, for exactly the reasons @Rex hated it. It had real *words* in it, no you-know-what-movie-franchise characters, no quota-filling obscurities, a minimum of conversational snippets of the sort relied on by Robyn Weintraub et al. I don't know what @Rex's criterion for trivia is, because to me it had virtually none compared to the usual diet we get force-fed. It actually felt satisfying to complete. Every Saturday puzz should be this good.
This was composed by Billy Strayhorn with the original title "Elf".
Confidently wrote in “Babylon” for 7D, and it was all downhill after that. No joy. We’ll, maybe a slight smile at OPERA… for “Met…” after listening to “Va, pensiero” after reading psalm 135, hence the confident Babylon…Full circle…No joy.
Rex's review seems to belie his "Medium-Challenging" rating, but perhaps the "Medium" part is everything he didn't mention. I agree with most of it.
SPREZZATURA is fun to (kind of) remember and say!
Also, like @Teresa 649am, couldn't stop thinking of "congee" as "conger"(Hi, @Nancy!), so that added self-inflicted difficulty to an already problematic corner.
@Pete 908am LOL! Love your congee riff!
@Megafrim 953am Ha! The conger and the congee makes perfect sense to me!
I came to post that I went to the internet wormhole that is ISFAHAN, and that the mosque there is perhaps the most beautiful building I've ever seen. Stunning. And the Khaju Bridge? Equally stunning.
Okay, I got "SLAMS" for "In-verse functions' from the crosses ... but I do not understand this clue and answer. What am I missing?
@Z 10:49a - Not at all. When I shit on a puzzle - even due to a single or a few questionable entries I’m going all in. Today Rex rips on ALL-HEALS and rightly so but is gaga over the multiple Z crossing, SPRAY TAN and PLACENTA. He even calls the cluing on TELLS “pretty special”. That’s a lot of real estate to like only to be depressed over the puzzle.
I get it - you can go out and have a good meal, drinks etc and have an evening ruined by poor service etc. but the absolutist Rex world is sometimes baffling. Entertaining but baffling.
Isfahan. One of the most beautiful cities in the world. Check out the lovely architecture. Also noted for medicine, cuisine, archaeology, music… so much more. Difficult for a US citizen to visit during these troubled times so find some pictures of the incredible buildings. You will be enchanted.
@Mary McCarthy, I also wrote in Babylon which I thought must be the correct capital of ancient Persia. But Wikipedia says "Iran (Persia) has had numerous capital cities and royal centers throughout its history", and then it goes on to list no less than 60!
@Anon 10:03 - Please, try to be a little more arrogant. Just try. I bet you can't.
Two days in a row I have had to go sobbing to the archive to scratch my itch.
@Nancy (10:27) Brava! I came away with birdies on Wordle, Dordle and Wordle 2 using puzzle words for each, but that came to a screeching halt on Quordle.
@bocamp: Thanks for the other links you sent. I’ll give them a shot after my poor overextended brain has recovered from the DRAMA of this Saturday slug fest.
I think I saw SPREEZATURA somewhere during my safari in ISFAHAN or maybe it was in OMAKASE. I stood alone at that cheese stand... it smelled like it needed one of those "hi o the derio" thingies.
I really got tired of staring at lots of white and a few black squares. I began to think I needed a FARSICAL hat and go sit in a corner and suck my big toe.
I began peeling my banana. The peel fell apart in so many places and my banana looked awfully rotty. Toss it out and start with a new one. Didn't like my bananas so I switched to an Orange. It was labeled ARUM. Was this imported from some exotic country? I peeled it....but I had to call a friend several times and ask for help. He finally lent me a juicer and I was able to NEATLY squeeze the last drop out....
It tasted good in some parts.... a bit tart in others..I SPICED it up with MARSALA... but my Herbalists' kept yelling "Drink it...ALL HEALS, ALL HEALS the farmer is in the DELL".
I haven't read @Rex nor any of you geniuses yet because I'm scared I'll lose my eyeballs if you say you loved this easy Saturday
The jury is in. I was found guilty of cretinism by reason of sniffing GRUEL. My sentence was DEATH RAYS aimed at my SCROD. NO COMERAS were allowed in the court because nobody wants to see a feeble woman dance en ERSATZ fandango tango.
Hey, Sandy, you sayin I amuse you ?
Let's hope N.C. sends Coach K packin. (Even though I saw him play in high school at Weber in Chicago. I told y'all I'm old.)
It seemed like so many of the clues were tin-eared; but going back through them now, it seems like a combination of tin-eared and obscure. The tin-eared to me included [short hooking pitch] for TEASER AD; [it runs up the arm] ULNA; [offering for a developer] LOT; [in an elegant way] NEATLY; [flushes, e.g., in poker] DEALS; [unlikely to pontificate [AMORAL]; [coming in waves, in a way] AURAL; and [match] SET. It's hard to explain why some of these seem off. But, like, [it runs up the arm] for ULNA. Usually, these kinds of clues are intentionally misdirecting, and that's the fun of them. So, for example, "it runs up and down the spine" makes you think SHIVER, so it would be a good clue for, say, VAGUS NERVE. But "it runs up the arm" doesn't make you think of anything. It's not a thing. Okay, I'm bored of my own post, so I'll leave it there. But I could analyze the others more or less the same way. Clues that don't satisfy are a lot like jokes that don't land. It's in the phrasing, it's in the timing, it's in one's linguistic instincts.
Started this puzzle last night and could barely make a dent. Seemed impossible. Returned to it this morning and was similarly stymied. Felt ready to give up. Finally had a moment of inspiration and solved most of it in the space of about twenty minutes, then took another 15-20 min to tie up the loose ends. Challenging.
Apologies, the term I was looking for was really "tone-deaf" not "tin-ear." Maybe the tone-deaf clues in this puzzle threw off my phrasing, timing, and linguistic instincts.
Very annoyed by ARUM and AMORAL — the former because it’s arcane dreck, the latter because it is clued just flat out stupidly, inaccurately, just a real … blech.
While solving my wife wanted to give up and cheat and I said, “No we got this!” We had never heard the term SPREZZATURA, so this did elevate the puzzle to Much Harder than Most Saturdays (for us). We were stuck, in a bad way, for a long time — but we never did cheat! Just hacked away, often experiencing little joy for our labor.
There were definitely some pleasant “aha” moments, though! I loved TELLS (the poker misdirect is just 😘👌) and SPRAYTAN and a few others. I did not get the sense the puzzle was *that* trivia-heavy, possibly because I used to work at a Japanese restaurant so OMAKASE was a gimme.
And now I’m craving sushi! Better go do something about that.
Ok, I cheated. Had to look up ARUM, which I should have learned. I did enjoy the puzzle— there were so many cases when I suddenly figured out the trick in the clue, as with TELLS or, best of all, TEASERAD— after first considering both baseball and golf.
I didn’t really know SPREZZATURA, though I think I’ve heard it as a musical term, so I got it from the SPRE.
Hardest part was that congee—I thought it might be like a Gumbo, which really made it hard to get the SW until I gave up and searched for orange candle flower. Sigh.
Alternate clue for SPRAY TAN. "Beauty tip from 45."
Re - Where is the cheese. How do we actually know that the cheese is in the DELL? The farmer is in the DELL, as presumably are the wife, the kid, the nanny, ..., yet the cheese stands alone. If the cheese stands alone, is it still in the DELL? I don't think so. If it did, any of the above would have eaten it, so it must be distant from the farmer's whole family / collection of critters.
MFCTM.
Pete (9:08)
@M&A, I'll take High-Low 7-card stud over Night Baseball any day!!
Wow this was a workout; when I filled in the last square I was shocked to get the Happy Pencil. And looked at the timer, which said 35 min., and was shocked again... it had to be an hour or so! It just seemed that long. Satisfying to finish, but I wouldn't want every Saturday to be like this.
I kinda knew ISFAHAN but had to try ISAFAHN, IFASAHN, etc, etc. But so many I just hadn't heard of: congee, OMAKASE, SPREZZAwhatever. @Mike in Bed-Stuy, agree with your "a combination of tone-deaf and obscure".
As a physics major, the clue "Color not generated by light" really had me thinking. All I could come up with was something like JET BLACK. Black is a color in many contexts, even printing... the CMYK color space is cyan, magenta, yellow, and black.
It's also the title of a wonderful Ellington/Strayhorn tune. https://youtu.be/m2U1MGX8SLU
@Zed (10:49 AM) 👍 :)
I doubt I'll ever be on Croce's wavelength (there was one Friday-like, but that's it). Otoh, one never knows). 🤞 @jae and I are always 2 or 3 behind the current puz.
@mathgent (10:56 AM) Wow! 👍 👍 :)
@Bob Knuts (11:42 AM) / @Joe Dipinto (11:58 AM) re: ISFAHAN
@Cliff (12:15 PM) re: SLAM
"A poetry slam is a competitive arts event in which poets perform spoken word poetry before a live audience and a panel of judges. Culturally, poetry slams are a break from the past image of poetry as an elitist or rigid artform. While formats can vary, slams are often loud and lively, with audience participation, cheering and dramatic delivery. Hip-hop music and urban culture are strong influences, and backgrounds of participants tend to be diverse." (Wikipedia)
What a sweet tune by Billy Strayhorn and so well played by Johnny Hodges. Loved the way Duke held the music for him! Thx for the link! 🎷
@Whatsername (12:29 PM) yw :)
Slugfest it was, indeed! 🥊
–––
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Great Saturday puzzle for me until I finally reached the Last little corner in the SW and discovered I wasn’t up to the challenge. Nothing, nada and by 2 pm I threw down the phone and cried uncle. Even after hitting reveal. ALLCURES, SEE, PASTA, GRUEL and AURAL don’t work for me. You win some/You lose some and it’s all good.
Oy +++ After 40 minutes I'd still only done a third of it so I gave up. But ISFAHAN was a gimme for me because of the beautiful carpets.
@anonymous 8:50 -- I cackled at your comments about the spider
SB - G after about 40 minutes and still no P, tough today just like the puzzle.
Walk into a natural food store and ask for an all-heal and see what kind of looks you get.
"Flush" is a noun. TELL is a verb. How are these synonyms?
@wanderlust from yesterday--I meant to say wish you a happy yesterday and didn't get around to it so happy belated today. I was told a few times that I was supposed to be born on April Fool's Day and was now proving it when I did something especially dumb.
Also wanted to agree with your loathing of coconut. When I was in high school and was mightily smitten, my fist really serious girlfriend and her Mom offered me a big slice of coconut cake one time, and I ate the whole thing, hating every bite. Never wanted her to think she could do something wrong. Last time I ate coconut.
I'm an OLDIE and can remember days of yore when wallpaper was the decor of choice in most homes. Now I know what that gloppy paste that was used to glue up the wallpaper was---congee! Wow, people actually eat that stuff?!
I've played a lot of poker B.C. (Before Covid) from small home games to big tournaments in Vegas and I've watched lots of it on TV. I appreciate the effort at misdirection for 14D TELLS being clued as "Flushes, e.g., in poker", a flush being five cards of the same suit. But flushes as a player's skin turning hot and red is not a TELL that I have ever seen or would expect to see at a CARD TABLE.
Tried ARTISTRY for 39A "Dazzling skill". Ah, WIZARDRY. The mistake and correction both SPICED up the solve for me.
Yes, I did notice several two for one POCs where a Down and an Across both get a letter count and grid filling boost by sharing a single final S. The first was the S at the end of SLAM/TAM and the last at the place where a two for one POCifying S is most likely to be found, in the lower, rightmost square.
My inner 14 year old always thinks SCROD is part of the conjugation of the verb SCREW.
The NW and SE went fairly quickly for me, but I really struggled in the NE and SW. Didn’t think I’d finish for a while, but kept with it. Glad I did.
@MetroGnome - In poker a "tell" is when someone subtly gives away that they have a great (or crappy) hand. If someone flushes when they see their hand, it may be a tell they have a good hand.
MetroGnome - looking flush, that is so excited from having four aces in your hand that your face reddens, would be a TELL, a give away that you are not bluffing and I should fold rather than betting more.
@Ando - Read anything about my congressman and it seems he’s in the ALL HEEL party.
Speaking of - at least two commenters are so enamored of ALL HEALS that they wrote ALLCURES in their comments. Autocorrupt or brain farts?
BTW - Four debut answers today. ALLHEALS, OMAKASE, SPREZZATURA, and DEATHRAYS. Hmm, normally debuting four words would be a good thing.
I /hated/ this puzzle. It was godawful and should be tossed in the rubbish bin of history. All heals? Fuck you, NYT. I can think of a dozen better words!
@Ando - No, I don’t know why your food store comment reminded me of orgy invitee congressman. Probably something along the natural —> au naturel —> do ALLHEALS have naked thorns —> naked cawthorn —> OMG How Stupid Is This Guy Synapse Trail
Hi Rex - I love your column but haven’t posted yet. But I am from North Carolina and there is a big basketball game tonight. So…
Perhaps “allheals” could actually mean “All Heels”, taken with you learning Sprezzatura from a basketball game portends wonderful things for tonight.
IMO, Gloucester's association with fish is about as well know as Natick's association with the Boston Marathon.
Isn't ERSATZ + ARUM + OMAKASE + MASALA + ISFAHAN + (of course) SPREZZATURA a bit much, even for a Saturday?
Villager
I was thinking ALLHEALS was something like ALLITAL or ALLATOL- like a Geritol- ITOL kind of suffix as a Cure All. That screwed me up for awhIle until I got MESH and ALLHEALS so that section was hard.
Then I had WOKEN instead of RISEN so I thought a MAKER was an expert in picks, like an Odds Maker makes picks.
Welp, finally got the music after almost 95 minutes.
Hold on there, Rex: "hi ho the dairy-o" is NOT the lyric. It's "hi ho the derry-o" thanks! And "The Farmer in the Dell" is a childhood rhyme, song, AND game.
TJS,
Thanks for the wishes. They worked!! Not only did I get the two lifers for my pal, I got him a third. Very unexpected. I’m sure your thoughts were instrumental in our great day.
isnt this the NYT puzzle? as in New York? omakase has been one of the biggest food trends in NY (before the pandemic because you cant run a 12 seat restaurant with very expensive fish at half capacity and you cant do omakase takeout). omakases are all over the city. there are even budget omakase now for less than $100 per person. there is even a tempura omakase in murray hill.
a rare gimme in a very hard saturday. loved the TEASERAD clue - the last corner.
PGA i play golf and use clubs but can’t get the second sense of how it applies.. baseball comes closer assuming you stretch bat into a club soeven though I wanted PGA had to go with MLB, GRUEL and PASTA made PGA work in spite of myself.
ALLHEALS filled in easily, i think Rex just got his academic westerncentric culture flaming a bit.
Slow downs for me
Had ERSATZ and tried to make breEZy something or other work
1-12 … looked for lower school initialisms with an M to start
But it all worked out which made for a very fun hard puzzle
thanks MrDolan
DNF. Completely out of my element. I had literally no chance with this one.
@Logman (3:58 PM)
Welcome to the commentariat; as good a time as any to post. The best to your 'heels' tonight! :) I originally had ALLHEeLS / SPREZZATURe. Thot maybe eating bread heels was a healthier thing. Fortunately, when reviewing the completed puz, I noticed the ITALY derivation of SPREZZATURA and changed the 'e' to 'A'. Figured ALLHEALS made more sense than a bread loaf, even tho I had no idea what an ALL HEAL was. Anyways, I always pull for the underdogs, so go Heels! :)
–––
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
Beaten.
Congrats to those who solved it.
Like an earlier commenter, I got TAMS. And PGA. And maybe 3 or 4 others.
I’d say I lose badly a half dozen Saturdays a year. Well done, Mr. Dolan. You got me.
@Phil 5:01. Do you take your golf cubs home with you, or do you leave them at the golf club?
@Hartley70…well said! You pretty much boiled down my experience even though I spent a lot of time in my comment with DELIVERY v PLACENTA…what can I say…it plagued me…🤣🤣
DNF. The SW corner killed me.
I let out a little squeak of delight when I came upon SPREZZATURA. (And then I thought this word will cause a lot of unrest on the rexblog today.) As others have mentioned, it was coined by Baldassare Castiglione in the early sixteenth century, and he used it to describe the way the ideal courtier must behave, such that every action "conceals art, and presents what is done and said as if it was done without effort and virtually without thought" (Book 1, Chapter 26). Somebody else first applied the term to art – and, as @Anonymous (10:03) said, it’s been turning up in art history classrooms ever since. It’s a concept often associated with Mannerism, an artistic style that appeared in a puzzle a few weeks ago. John Shearman in his seminal TOME on Mannerism has this to say: “Castiglione, in the Cortegiano (published in 1528, but written earlier), invented a word for the courtly grace revealed in the effortless resolution of all difficulties -- SPREZZATURA, which is that kind of well-bred negligence born of complete self-possession that Van Dyck and Gainsborough not accidentally divined in the English gentleman -- and this term was used with enthusiasm by [Ludovico] Dolce for works of art. As with ‘facility’, the opposite vice is the visible application of too much effort or any sense of strain in the performance.” In more recent times, SPREZZATURA seems to be invoked primarily in the discussion of fashion, that artful, slightly deshabille, devil-may-care look that no one knows you spent two hours assembling before you left the house. In this grid, I liked how SPREZZATURA’s opposite number was STREET SMART – a subtle linkage there.
I also enjoyed seeing ISFAHAN, although I would have sworn blind that Persepolis was the capital of ancient Persia. [Looking it up…] Ah right, Persepolis was the capital of ancienter Persia, fifth and sixth centuries BCE, while it looks like ISFAHAN didn’t become capital until the Islamic era.
I enjoyed the puzzle with these two words, plus many others, mostly in the top half – CONSUL, IN SPIRIT, APOLLO, FARCICAL, SCHLEP, SPICED, ERSATZ. But I was completely at sea with some of the food-related answers. OMAKASE was a complete unknown, as was “Congee” in the clue for GRUEL. Knowing one of the NYTXW’s favorite obsessions, I was one of those people contemplating eels. I finally broke down and looked it up, otherwise I’d probably still be wrestling with that fiendish SW corner. (I did get PASTA right off, though, despite the sly misdirect.)
Good puzzle. Wheelhouse, mostly. Sorry for all the teeth-gnashing that went on for so many.
Started this very late last night and promptly fell asleep. Finished it this morning, er, DNF'd it this morning. Pretty much what everyone said. I was happy to learn SPREZZATURA, because I already knew it would be in Italian, having gotten 13D ITALY before dozing off.
Got three misdirects right off - opera, of course, for the Met (or it could have been the museum); digital = fingers; sci-fi effects beyond stunning as in way more hurtful, yikes (am a sci-fi fan). The rest, well, I prefer to be, as a certain clue mentioned, publicity shy about my failings today.
What I really wanted to say is what a funny post, @Jess Wundrin' 1:28 pm! Laughed out loud. Then read it out loud because the extra nuance of inflection is even better. Bravo!
Having 'Pontificate' and PAPACY in the same grid was good to SEE.
In what context does 'Match' mean SEE?
With you all the way on this one Rex!
@SFR
In poker, if you "match" a bet, you SEE it.
Lovely response, thank you!
I’m probably that geography trivia guy - or at least one of them - and I had no idea about ISFAHAN. Kept getting stumped by trying to get Babylon to work, which I knew at some level wasn’t right. SCHLEP had to be SCHLEP, and if it weren’t, I knew I’d have a DNF.
I know I’ve seen OMAKASE somewhere before, so it vaguely rang a bell. ERSATZ was easy. Totally agree on ALLHEALS. The SW was tough for me also, since I had SAMETOME instead of SURESURE and the crosses didn’t help much until I got AMORAL, and the clue made me smile.
Just under an hour, a bit longer than usual for a Saturday.
SFR,
You need the word Holy, Roman, Petrine or the words The Apostolic, before See to make it related to The Bishop of Rome.
There are many Sees in the world. Only the Holy See pertains to the central government of The Church.
FWIW, the Holy See maintains bilateral relations with more than a 180 nations around the globe.
Ugh
Babylon is Mesopotamian. Persia is quite far East of it. Isfahan is more than a thousand kilometers from the (ruins) of Babylon.
Please, please, please. Read History Begins at Sumer. My God, the lack of knowledge of the ancient world is beyond disheartening.
Born free, as free as the wind blows
As free as the grass grows
Born free to follow your natick
This musical interlude is brought to you by tomorrow’s DNF on an otherwise extremely easy puzzle. And, no, it wasn’t Andy Williams who sang it in the soundtrack. Not that that matters.
@egsforbreakfast - I don’t know about where you play, but here in bear country we are encouraged to leave our golf cubs alone because mama is usually nearby and is always over protective.
@Zed 9:04. I was obviously referring to offspring of Tiger Woods when I invoked “golf cubs”. Do I have to spell out everything for you?
@Anon 8:26, 8:53 - First, SFR made a joke. Jokes generally don't require strict adherence to precise terms of address. The confluence of Pontificate / PAPACY and SEE (with or without a specifier) is sufficient for the joke. If you can't read and identify a joke, don't comment. If you can read and identify a joke, but don't think the joke is funny, don't comment.
In terms of your Babylon rant, before you decry someone's lack of knowledge, recall that 7D was "7D: Capital of ancient Persia". Take a quick tour of your encyclopedic knowledge (by which I mean do what you probably always do and look things up in Wikipedia and pretend you knew it all along) for the extent of the Persian empire through the years. You'll not that for centuries it included all of ancient Mesopotamia. Thus, your quite offensive rant about Babylon being 1000km from Ishfatar and could never have been the capital of the Persian Empire is not only without merit, it is out and out wrong. Somewhere between the rules of Cedric the Great and Xerxes1, Babylon was in fact the administrative capital of Persia (see what I mean about looking things up in Wikipedia? Anyone can do it. It's what I did, but I admitted it).
@Patrick K admitted to an error, in public. There's no need for anyone to jump on him for having the humility to admit his error, and specifically not from someone who was wrong.
ZEGGS. God you losers, get a life
@TJS 10:21. If attempted humor offends you, let me be the first to apologize.
@Anon 10:50 First, the point was the Babylon was, in fact, the capital of the ancient Persian Empire for a period of time, and as such, was a correct answer to 7D (Capital of Ancient Persia), constraints of the puzzle notwithstanding. How far it is from Ifshtar, when it was the capital, how long Mesopotamia preceded the Persian Empire is besides the point. You ridiculed someone for initially thinking Babylon was a possible answer. You were wrong. Straight up, factually wrong. You were rude. You know you are wrong, or don't care that you are wrong, but you're such an arrogant fool that you can't admit it, and can't admit that you were and are rude.
Also, if you knew Mesopotamian history so damned well, you would probably have known that it was part of the greater Persian Empire for over a thousand years, and that for 200-300 of it, served as the Babylonia was the capital of the Persian Empire. That's if you really knew your Mesopotamian history pretty well. Perhaps you only knew your pre-Persian Mesopotamian history pretty well.
@Zed 3:43pm Whoa! And I’m in the ALLcures club. How bizarre of me. I suppose I prefer it just a tad more than ALLHEALS for no particular reason. Thanks for pointing that out!
I'd love to hear why a handful of poppy seeds wouldn't have an effect on foot pain. It's not like it's a controlled substance in concentrated form or something!
The Star Trek utopia where we eat precessed computer jello that resembles food is the real fantasy. You're supposed to eat plants goof.
Premeds don’t study anatomy…not clear how they even could. Med students do. A good answer might even have been artists.
Genius
Another Saturday of cryptic clues and OBSCURE answers. Just an exercise for the constructors to show how smart they are ( or how well they use the software) and for people to prop them selves up by saying 'Oh, today's was easy'
Is "gar-bage-io" a word?
Wow, just finished this one, Wednesday morning (because I have a life and this one just wouldn’t budge on many fronts). But must admit to pride in having finished it, all on my own. And disgust for having taken so long. And at all the horrible clues. Oh well. Win some, lose some. I finished, so I win.
I started with SPREZZATURA and ISFAHAN, which were gimmes for me, and from there it went pretty quickly, though I was slow to remember DELL of all things.
Humbling, but edifying.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
So many new words, so little time...
CONSUL DRAMA (PAC MANI INSPIRIT)
SPREZZATURA ONEDAY, now AMORAL, you SEE,
IT's STREETSMART, SURE some say, an ERSATZ PAPACY.
--- APOLLO ROTH
Extreme pisser infestations do not create enjoyable crossword puzzles. Boo!
Huge DNF. Unknowns and obtuse (at least to me) clues. Don't understand how many languages we're supposed to understand; the last two days have included at least half a dozen different, besides English. And ALLHEALS?
Wordle going downhill:
YBBBG
BBYBG
GGBBG
GGGGG
4 under after 4
Saturdays should be tough but fair. Not impossible and cruel. If you don’t know SPREZZATURA you are screwed. I didn’t and thus the DNF. I was only missing the top part. I knew it had to be WIZARDRY for 39A and I had the E from LEARNED. But I gave up and resorted to the Google. Somehow I managed to get ISFAHAN via the crosses. Had seNate before CONSUL. All in all, a very frustrating and GRUELing puzzle
DNF for me as well: for a change, the SW. I could get nothing in there. Had all but the last four letters of that ITALY thing, but that was it. For me, that entire corner was one giant natick.
An uninspiring par in Wordle:
BBYYB
YBYBB
BGGBG
GGGGG
1 over on the first 6 holes of the back nine, -3 for the round.
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