Material in some china / SAT 7-9-22 / Louis predecessor of the franc / Hub for Nollywood movies / Indoor rowing machine in brief / Max couture label / Zeljko 2008 Emmy winner for Damages

Saturday, July 9, 2022

Constructor: Kevin G. Der

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging to Challenging


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Zeljko IVANEK (40D: Zeljko ___, 2008 Emmy winner for "Damages") —

Željko Ivanek (/ˈʒɛlk ɪˈvɑːnɪk/Slovene: [ˈʒɛːlkɔ iˈʋaːnək]; born August 15, 1957) is an American actor of Slovenian-Croatian origin, known for his role as Ray Fiske on Damages, for which he won a Primetime Emmy Award. Ivanek is also known for his role of Ed Danvers on Homicide: Life on the Street and Homicide: The MovieGovernor James Devlin on Oz, Andre Drazen on 24, Blake Sterling on the short-lived series The Event, and Emile "The Hunter" Danko in Heroes. From 2014 until 2019, he starred as Russell Jackson in the drama Madam Secretary. He also had a recurring role as FBISpecial Agent Jim Racine in the series Banshee

For his active stage career, he has been awarded a Drama Desk Award and has been nominated for three Tony Awards. (wikipedia) 

• • •

Wow, they don't make 'em like this any more. Or they do, I guess, just rarely. This was a proper Saturday, a harder, better version of yesterday's 4-corner type of challenge. Lots of white space, lots of vague or tricky cluing, lots of technical terms and trivia, lots of opportunity to fall on your face. Repeatedly. But because every corner had *two* ways in, not just one, it had much better flow than these types of highly segmented grids often have, and what's really impressive is how clean this relatively low word-count grid ended up being. And not just clean, but often fresh. Yes, the "freshness" frequently comes via names of recentish fame, but it's also there in the cluing (on LAGOS, for instance (15A: Hub for Nollywood movies)). "Freshness" doesn't only have to mean "recentness," it can mean thoughtfulness and originality and cleverness as well. Because if the puzzle were entirely and aggressively up-to-the-minute it would feel narrow and faddish, whereas this one tempered its recent pop culture trivia with wide-ranging subject matter. You can feel some predilections, such as the way the grid leans into movies and television, and especially music (CLARINET, RUBATOS, ARIETTAS). This gives the puzzle personality. It was definitely a rough solve for me in places, but ultimately I felt like the puzzle prioritized solver enjoyment just as much as Saturday gruelingness. As Saturday puzzles go, it is something close to model.


Looking at the blank grid, one might imagine that the most troublesome spots were going to be the giant lakes of white space in the NE and SW, but those were actually the easier parts of the puzzle for me. Harder for me were the other, narrower corners, and harder still was the connective tissue. I foundered on both sides of that center diagonal line of black squares, where the 3- and 4-letter answers form little staircases of a sort, from the lower to upper half of the puzzle. This made zooming from one corner to the next, for me, impossible. And yet I didn't feel trapped. That is ... it was like being lost in a hallway rather than cornered in a room. I never ended up anywhere where I felt there was no escape. I just got stuck, but I knew help was eventually going to come from some other part of the puzzle to rescue me. So coming out of the NW, for instance, I got "TOOTSIE" easy (30A: 1982 film with the tagline "Behind every great man, there is a woman!"), but had only vague memories of "Catcher in the Rye" (last read age 13), so ALLIE was a bust (weirdly, I remember Holden's sister was PHOEBE, but ALLIE, gone ... probably, in part, because he's dead before the novel starts) (22D: Holden's brother in "The Catcher in the Rye"). Then I thought all those presidents used to be ELIS (not ELKS) (as you can see, above, ELKS was my very last answer) (28A: Group that counts Harding, Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy as former members). LAOS was a guess, but not an informed one (25A: Home of the Plain of Jars, a UNESCO World Heritage site). I wanted INTERACTED but I also knew it could be INTERFACED or INTER-godknowswhat, and I've never seen a CLAM CAKE in my life (clam bake, crab cake) (6D: Specialty of Rhode Island cuisine), so I had to slide down to the SW in order to maintain momentum, and there, despite having no clue as to any part of IVANEK, I blew through the corner (LOL I have watched several shows featuring IVANEK, including "Damages," so I know his face well, but he's just "that guy in that thing" as far as my brain is concerned). 


Coming out of the SW, I was excited to see the "Atlanta" clue (one of my very favorite shows, one of the greatest TV shows of this century), and was super-excited to see the name I have been waiting to see in crosswords. "It's ZAZIE ...! ZAZIE ...!" And here my brain froze (45A: Actress with an Emmy nomination for FX's "Atlanta"). I blame ZADIE SMITH. I even tried SMITH here. Which weirdly got me SINEW (wrong), which even more weirdly got me INTRO and EVADE (both right!). But I'm getting ahead of myself. Blanked on the BEETZ, but luckily Cameron DIAZ gave me the "Z" that made me remember the odd bit of municipal slang HIZZONER (35D: Informal title in city government), and I got going again ... only to get bogged down once more trying to get out of that corner and up to the NE (my last corner). BONEASH!!? Woof, that one broke me (32A: Material in some china). Made me question ARIETTAS ("is it ORIETTAS? ... or are you thinking of OPERETTAS and ORATORIOS? ... damn it!") (33D: Mozart's "Voi, che sapete" and others) And then again *all* of the short-answer clues that made up the connective tissue leading out of the SE were killing me. Kinda wanted BADE but wasn't sure. DONEE clue was too vague. No idea re: GONG (another music clue!) (37A: Subject of a smash hit?), wanted both ECU and SOU before D'OR (29A: Louis ___ (predecessor of the franc)), had FOUL before LONG. Eventually had to dip into the (empty) NE corner itself and (luckily) get EATING and REAGAN, which helped me get LUNGS (ugh) (26A: Pair of pants?) (because they are a pair ... that pants?), and I managed to work my way back through the short stuff from there. Torched the NE corner and ended up finishing up back at my first real trouble spot, which I'm calling ELKS Junction. The end. A magical, mystical journey, full of peril and wonder. But I survived the ordeal of BONEASH Pit, maneuvered past the gruesome ship WRECKS (14D: Settings for some scuba dives), powered-up with a magic CLAM CAKE (!), and completed my quest at last. Good times.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

[UPDATE: since people seem to have questions ... 39D: Pool side = SOLIDS because the "pool" in question is the cue sport that you play on a felt-covered table with six pockets (one "side" is SOLIDS, the other stripes)]

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

146 comments:

Danny 6:54 AM  

In all my 30+ years of being a classical musician, I have not once heard the pluralization of "rubato," likely because rubato is not a tempo; you won't find it on any metronome. It's a performance/interpretational freedom used against an established tempo.

Usually I let the inconsistency of pluralization of musical terms in crosswords not get to me (e.g. celli/cellos, etc.) because either term can be used, but this one just does not make any sense in any way.

Lewis 6:57 AM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Lewis 7:03 AM  

Well there it is, a proper Saturday POSER, rich with arcana, vagueness, and guile. A block of stone to chip away at.

I found that each corner had a pivot point that took a steep steep climb to get to, but when I got there, suddenly, there came a thrilling downhill ride where everything fell amidst a staccato of happy dings marking all the clues that suddenly made sense.

Look at how junk-free this grid is – a 66 worder! Look at the cluing skill, including the lovely misdirects for CLARINET and SKI PASSES, the art of [What might lead a person to drink] for HABANERO, and the brilliance of [Pair of pants?] for LUNGS. Look at the freshness of these answers, featuring 11 NYT puzzle answer debuts, including BY NATURE / CLAM CAKE / CRAFT BREW / I GOTTA GO / IN A TANGLE / DEMO REELS / MADE MAGIC.

Shining, sterling, a-one quality Saturday offering. You are a master craftsman, a Crosslandia treasure. Thank you for this!

Lewis 7:04 AM  

p.s. -- Loved that mini Dustin Hoffman tribute in the NW, featuring two of his memorable roles, in RATSO and TOOTSIE.

Anonymous 7:17 AM  

Totally agree

Anonymous 7:28 AM  

Pool sides = SOLIDS??

J. McShain 7:30 AM  

In the DC area, we have three major comnercial airports: Dulles, Marshall and National airports. That's it. There are no others.

JD 7:39 AM  

There’s no chance I’d know Zazzie Beetz. Netflix knows I’m not looking for modern love and Amazon figured out I wouldn’t be interested in an animated superhero action series. So I blame the algorithms for part of today’s complete and utter failure.

Do actors submit Demo Reels or do they submit videos? Clarinets are known for their warmth? Domo arigato, Mr. Rubatos, now I know that. Donee is new to me.

Skip Asses. Sorry, that just slipped out. Kiss my Bone Ash. Oh! There again. Now that I’m down to about a hundred pounds it would my Boney Ash. I’m almost Bodiless. Wouldn’t need a Full-Body Suit if you’re Bodiless. Well, maybe somebody would.

This one just wasn’t for me (see @Lewis, "rich with arcana"), but it would’ve been a lot of fun if it had been. Nice job.

Conrad 7:45 AM  


Glad to see that others found this one challenging. I needed help from Sergey and Larry for the tempos and the BEETZ person. Overwrites included CalamAri before CLAMBAKE and when I realized that didn’t work but lacked a viable alternative, dRAFT BREW before CRAFT BREW. I fell into what was surely an intentional trap, sEAtAc before REAGAN. But the one that probably hurt me most was tEATRADE before SEATRADE for Dutch East India Company at 34D.

@anon 7:28: Think of the game Eight Ball, played on pool table. In that game, one player tries to pocket “stripes” (ie, balls with stripe markings) the other “solids”.

SouthsideJohnny 7:46 AM  

I saw the Spanish test and the two geography questions (CHICA, ASTOR and LAGOS) coming right out of the gate and had very low expectations. Fortunately, the grid seemed much cleaner (but brutally difficult for me) after that. I didn’t really enjoy parsing together square after square to have them turn into ZAZIE BEETZ and HIZZONER, which mean nothing to me - but that is a wheelhouse situation.

The only ERG I have heard of was from physics class - is it a trendy new fitness machine (like the melatonins or whatever they are called?).

Anonymous 7:52 AM  

Two types of balls in pool: stripes and solids.

Anonymous 7:55 AM  

And anyway, tempos aren’t nouns - they’re adjectives, or maybe adverbs?, so asking for plural tempos doesn’t really make sense to me

mooretep 7:58 AM  

Anonymous @ 7:28.

Billiards. Stripes and solids are the choices made after the break when the first ball goes in the pocket.

Anonymous 7:58 AM  

Pool sides = SOLIDS, I believe is reference to solids vs stripes in pool (billiards)

MaxxPuzz 8:02 AM  

Danny, I am also a.claasical musician and have definitely heard rubato pluralized, e.g. "The performance was characterized by many rubatos (or rubati)."
Beautiful puzzle on this sunny and breezy Saturday!

Anonymous 8:02 AM  

vs. stripes

Anonymous 8:08 AM  

Agreed. I’m not sure what a grammatical need to pluralize rubato would be, but if there ever were I would think it would be rubati.

Z 8:09 AM  

SeaTac, Dulles, and REAGAN are all six letters long.

ABOMINATE? Well there’s a verb form I’ve never seen in the wild.

Let me not be the first to point out that BICEP is wrong, but rather be the first to say however wrong it might be for an anatomist to use it, the rest of us English speakers will do whatever we damn well please with terminal S’s and it is a well established usage so please don’t start again.

The CHICA clue chafes. “Birthday Party Honoree” —> Girl? Yeah, yeah, it’s a half step better than that since Quinceañeras are not held for 15 year old boys, but when I was finally forced to enter CHICA the eyebrow arched in a painful way.

So this is what you’ve all been crying for? I didn’t hate it, but I didn’t find myself particularly enjoying the solve either.

Anonymous 8:11 AM  

In billiards(pool), some balls are solids and some are striped in color— solids and stripes are the typical choices of “ sides” in a game of 8-ball.

Anonymous 8:12 AM  

Too many too cute clues.

Joaquin 8:12 AM  

Reward offered for return of my wheelhouse which has gone missing. No questions asked.

Son Volt 8:18 AM  

Hah - I actually knew ZAZIE after seeing her interviewed when she played the Joker’s neighbor. That helped - but this one was tough - some brutal crosses where the guessing game came in.

For pool sides - there are SOLIDS and stripes.

Really liked all the longs here - my problem was with the shorter stuff - DONEE x DOR, ALLIE etc were all ? for me. After a disastrous trip in the early 90s using National it’s been Amtrak or driving for me to DC. Backed into REAGAN. I drink a lot of beer - not sure I’ve ever used the term BREW - was trying to fit reefs into 14d.

Ed Koch will always be HIZZONER to me.

Flo’s in Island Beach is a fantastic old place - their CLAM CAKEs are good but I normally just get the fried clams.

I make it a thing when I GAZELLE on stage

This was a tough - but thoroughly enjoyable Saturday solve.

Gary Jugert 8:21 AM  

Horrendous puzzle for me and I am only partially convinced it was my fault. As usual I had to research Saturday stuff. Felt iffy about what I was learning as if DE NOVO and HIZZONER came to the construction pallet without the intervention of software. And everybody knows RUBATO is often (like never) plural. I did like meeting Zazie Beetz as it sounds like a character name I'd use in one of my short stories. And then...

Beyond Boo:

CHICA? Are you f-ing kidding me? First answer in 1A is that? It was the very last letter I entered because I knew they wouldn't possibly use a racist stereotype in 1A. And yet there it is... I lived in Albuquerque for way too long and that's not a word you leave lying around with the general public. I would like to fly to New York, crumple this one up, and throw it at @Nancy's wall myself.

There was other stuff in the puzzle, but whatever.

Uniclues to lighten my mood:

1 "Our mouse couldn't pull a rabbit out of the hat, but, our..."
2 St. Peter showing Anna Nicole Smith around.
3 Virtually every male in an Aspen bar.
4 Butter on your shirt.
5 Frankenstein's monster.
6 Songs of evil and incompetence.

1 RAT SO MADE MAGIC
2 LATE MODEL INTRO
3 SKI PASSES POSER
4 CLAMCAKE BADGES
5 FAMED DONEE
6 REAGAN ARIETTAS

Anonymous 8:42 AM  

Easily my least favorite puzzle of the year. I hated it and had to Google more than once.

NYDenizen 8:47 AM  

I recently had a Saturday themeless submission rejected by NYT. The sole reason given was, ‘too many trivia entries’. By my count there were exactly 4. Go figure!

Nick D 8:49 AM  

A comedy of errors for me: with CLOSET instead of CORSET, TEATRADE instead of SEATRADE, CRAFTBEER instead of CRAFTBREW, and CLAMBAKE instead of CLAMCAKE, it took me forever to untangle the mess.

I agree that RUBATO is not really a tempo, although in fairness it is sometimes referred to as “tempo rubato.” Either way, it is no more susceptible to pluralization than ANDANTES or LARGOS would be.

NYDenizen 8:56 AM  

Terrible mistake with 55 Across: [POSER]: {Wannabe}. ‘Poser’ means someone who poses, like someone who is serving as a model for an artist or someone who is being photographed. The correct answer to this clue is ‘Poseur’, Which is the insult insinuated by the clue. is an insult because it insinuates that the person is a liar, a sneak, or delusional.
Where’s Gene Maleska when we need him most!?

Anonymous 8:57 AM  

So many places where I went wrong. SEATAC instead of REAGAN, TEATRADE instead of SEATRADE, AUTOMODEL instead of LATEMODEL, ELUDE instead of EVADE, OFNATURE instead of BYNATURE, LETBY instead of SITBY, AREAS instead of ZONES.

Made for very slow-going - double my typical Saturday time.

Anonymous 9:07 AM  

I had SEATAC for Regan, and the it got worse. Very hard one for me.

Danny 9:09 AM  

Fair enough. But would you concede that rubato is not a tempo? That’s the aspect of the clue/answer that is more irksome to me than the pluralization.

Pste 9:12 AM  

Who on earth donates to a foundation? Foundations are endowed by their goodyshoeshoe founders, then give money away. They're donors, not DONEEs. Who donates to the Ford Foundation? I guess Warren Buffet donated to the B & M Gates foundation, but that was more a merger than a donation.

Anyway, who wants to donate to the XWord Pete foundation? It goes to support cross word solvers whose name is Pete. One particular Pete. You can Venmo your donation to @XWordPeteReallyThisIsntFake

jcal 9:17 AM  

Thanks for a great - if (for me) really difficult puzzle. Boneash was a problem

But one thing that was delightfu - after it seems months or even years of Oboes, it was so nice to discover the Clarinet making its reappearance. It's been a while, I think (and nicely clued, too).

BeaWrightThere 9:22 AM  

Just...plain...No. To say this wasn't in my wheelhouse is a vast understatement. I wasn't even on the same ocean! Didn't know a single PPP. Wait, DIAZ. None of the other actors. Knew TOOTSIE but couldn't come up with it. I lived in RI for a decade and immediately wanted quahogs at 6 D. Never had or heard of clam cakes there, or anywhere. Similarly, semi-confidently put in bEedub (BWI airport) at 12D. My father played the clarinet. I love its range but never knew it was 'known for its warmth'. I call foul (LONG) on OVAL at 44 A. My place mats are rectangular and even trapezoidal to accommodate a round table we have. Oval is so arbitrary that it elicited a big groan from me. And 6A, shouldn't that be CRAFTBeEr? I usually struggle with Kevin's puzzles and cluing, but still this had me cheating revealing so many words that in the end I just walked away from it. No joy. I thought crosswords were supposed to have, you know, WORDS!

Nancy 9:37 AM  

Gee, and I was thinking of the SIROCCO or something like that. Great clue for CLARINET at 1D.

I expected the hub for Nollywood movies to begin with an N.

RATSO/Rizzo (or Ritzo, I forget) is a kealoa. So is EVADE/ELUDE for "shake".

NOTED before FAMED. AREAS before ZONES.

So I just went to check the grid -- to see if DONEE/ZAZYE BEETZ was right. Well, the DONEE was right, but I see I had BODYLESS instead of BODILESS (really???!!!!) so I guess a one-letter DNF for me.

But I'm not accepting this. It's BODYLESS -- and if Google doesn't agree (I haven't checked) then Google is wrong! End of story.

A very tough Saturday that gave me a good tussle and that I enjoyed. But when you build a puzzle around some obscure person with a ridiculous combo of letters in her 10-letter name, I'm not going to love that puzzle. I may like it very, very much, but I'm absolutely not going to love it.

RooMonster 9:47 AM  

Hey All !
Wowsers. I hope you "these puzs are getting too easy" people got your comeuppance on this doozy. Nigh impossible, here. Well, it Was impossible (for me) sans cheating. Had to use Check Puzzle feature, along with outright Reveal Letter and Reveal Word usage. Yeesh.

SKIP ASSES. Har! I know, I know it's SKI PASSES. Also, DEMORE EELS, LUNARY EARS.😁

DENOVO, oof. Had Doover (Do over) there for a bit. DENOVO sounds like a computer brand.

So thanks for the brain hurt today, Kevin. Even my LUNGS are feeling the burn.
I GOTTA GO!

yd -7, should'ves 3

One F
RooMonster
DarrinV

DeeJay 9:52 AM  

Rhode Island is the CALIMARI comeback state.

pabloinnh 10:01 AM  

Hey @joaquin-your wheelhouse is right over there behind my box of "wish they'd run a hard Saturday". Just when I thought I had all the stars of FX's Atlanta memorized, (no, not really) here comes ZAZIEBEETZ, two letters over a very bad Scrabble rack. Of all the ZAZIEs I've heard of, she's the only one.

Hope you whippersnappers had fun with this one. The best part for me was remembering ALLIE and the poems he used to write on his baseball glove in green ink.

I surrender, KD. Knotty Disaster for me, but thanks anyway.

Nancy 10:06 AM  

Another hand up for tEA TRADE before SEA TRADE. How many of us have there been so far? Which, not knowing BONE ASH and having the completely baffling "??EAt?" to deal with, caused me no end of trouble for the "china material" clue.

Whatsername 10:18 AM  

Goodness! An outstanding Saturday but it made my brain hurt. Not that that’s much of a challenge some days. Didn’t do myself any favors by starting off with SENOR/SANTA ANA and RIZZO - one to add to the keoloa list IMHO. Some of the PPP really tripped me up. Never heard of ZAZIE BEETZ but even if I had, I doubt I would’ve been able to spell it. What a great name though.

Remember this when you go to the polls for the 2022 midterms: SKIP ASSES

TTrimble 10:20 AM  

Nice puzzle. Tricky. Lots of ways to go wrong. First to fall was the SW, but not after discarding "auditions" followed by "DEMO tapes" followed by DEMO REELS (one of several answers that impart an old-fashioned feel). ZAZ to start didn't augur well for me -- no idea of ZAZIE BEETZ, a cool-looking name however -- and the surrounding fill had me putting in "kIrk" before DIAZ (Kirk Cameron for crying out loud -- I knew he would be an unlikely honoree, but no one else was coming to mind). COTAN I put in with confidence, although it's pretty rare to see that abbreviation. Looks old-fashioned, like something out of some fin-de-siecle British math text -- I'm thinking [maybe @mathgent knows this] the one by Whittaker and Watson, where they write "shew" instead of "show".

Had "tEA TRADE" before SEA TRADE, and dRAFT BeEr before CRAFT BeEr before CRAFT BREW, CLAM bAKE before CLAM CAKE (I'm still trying to picture, unaided, a CLAM CAKE). Wanted something like "ab OVO" before hitting on DE NOVO.

TOOTSIE, blech. Something really annoying to me about the mincing mannerisms of Hoffman's impersonation of a woman. Just me?

I'm fascinated by BONE ASH. Too much to learn in this life! I had no idea that bone china is made from bones.

Which reminds me: Rex, after yesterday's QUBIT, you might find fascinating the whole idea of quantum computing. It's pretty mind-bending stuff.

beverly c 10:27 AM  

The NW was unworkable for me. The rest I managed, except for needing to google BEETZ. I had SEATRADE and HIZZONER but I still couldn’t sort out the rest. CHICA never occurred to me. The abundance of Zs made me suspect RIZZO for 19A. No idea for HABANERO, and when I googled Nollywood I came up with Ghana and Nigeria, not Lagos. I really think there's a Saharan wind that ends in ET but I couldn't find it anywhere…

The SW was better, with only one unknown trivial answer, and I enjoyed getting SOLIDS. That leaves the NE, where Pair of pants might have been dUNGS? Huh? LUNGS as a “Pair of pants” would not be in my puzzle.

I liked GONG.
I had LOSER for Wannabe for a bit. Thought it was the constructor calling me out.

Anonymous 10:33 AM  

the reason everyone put in tea trade is because it's actually a thing. "Sea trade is not." Agree rubato is not exactly a tempo. Who is this Ivanek dude? And I could quibble with "sporting" a ski pass, as sporting generally implies wearing in a way to make attractive. Finally in what way is reagan the "informal" name for reagan international? This added word confounded me and I held off filling in reagan for a while because it. overall, very tough, some of it quite good, some of very annoying.

Laura 10:36 AM  

Toughest puzzle for me since I started doing them regularly, when I turned to Google often. As I did today. Wish they would raise the bar on all the puzzles, but maybe not every Saturday...it makes me appreciate the ones that make me work but not this hard.

I learned about Nollywood and china making.
Learned a bit about Kennedys and Harvard. Every late week puzzle should teach me something. Hats off to Kevin. Thank you.

albatross shell 10:38 AM  

I probably won't have time to do this puzzle today. Off to an all day blues fest. Looked for a few minutes last night. Got CHICKA ASTOR SOLIDS OVAL BADGES DIAZ ZONES, something MODEL, TATAMI and BONE something or something BONE. Or think I do. And a huge pile of no idea.

@Zed
Late Thursday. I think I was down to the last possibility on the dnf Wordle. But looking at the long long list of --A-E words I not so sure. Some I am sure are not on the Wordle list for answers. I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed your clever and totally phony objection about AGAPE.

@anon also late Thursday
Shaking my head (your words) how does that relate to anything I said and how can you not afford to live? Are you on food stamps yet?

Joaquin 10:42 AM  

@Whatsername (10:18)

"Remember this when you go to the polls for the 2022 midterms: SKIP ASSES."

FTW!

Newboy 10:44 AM  

Yep, it was Saturday here too….in spades (or maybe SOLIDS?). So pleased to have ELiS just like OFL until revising the final square to hear my favorite song of the morning. There any comparison to Rex’s flow ends! No flow in our tag team solve today as Ms. N and I trampolined around the grid desperately seeking any point of attack. Having santa ana fitting so nicely for 1D was only the first of many, many misdirections that made today’s solve tempo truly RUBATO at best. Finally admitted puzzle POSER status and called Uncle Google to sit in on CLARINET for assistance. Thanks Kevin for your challenging puzzle. Back upstairs to see what commentariat felt.

Barbara S. 10:50 AM  

Wheeeee! Wordle!

Wordle 385 1/6

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The Joker 10:50 AM  

"They're sported while going on a run" At one point I had S_I_ASSES and I had the thought that runners were sporting their SLIM ASSES. I knew it couldn't be but I amused myself.

Cine File 11:01 AM  

TTrimble. I agree with you on TOOTSIE. Also, there's something off, for me, in other movies with that gimmick, like Mrs. Doubtfire and Some Like It Hot. It's neither amusing nor interesting.

Carola 11:01 AM  

In sum: Tough + loved matching wits with the constructor + DNF. Like others, I was happy to be confronted with more of an old-school, brain-cracking Saturday. My fun ended where DONor met the unknown-to-me ZAZIE, who in my cast list appears as ZAZy r. BEETZ. The resulting BADo is ridiculous, but with various other "rando" shortened forms floating around....

@Pete 9:12 - As I mentioned, DONor was my undoing. The thing is...to answer your question, "Who donates to a foundation?", my answer is "I do!" Namely to the University of Wisconsin Foundation, which functions as the donation collection spot for all kinds of university programs and to which I'm an annual DONOR. Which for some reason I failed to think of.

Beezer 11:11 AM  

Pretty much what @Zed said for me but throw in “one of least favorite puzzles” this year ala @anonymous 8:42. No doubt my wheelhouse went missing today.

No clue about CLAMCAKES and it also sounds like nothing I’d want to eat. I put in CRAB with the thought that RI has some nerve challenging Maryland on THAT!

For whatever reason, CHICA didn’t occur to me but I see that is pretty much spot on.

@Nancy, I also had TEATRADE first.

Oh. And I cheated to finish the puzzle.

Anonymous 11:13 AM  

tempos are understood as adverbs, that’s probably why it sounds strange. Like saying “quicklies.” That said, you can nominalize pretty much anything in English, and here the dictionary actually does have “rubatos” and “rubati.” Presumably meaning “a collection of passages to be played rubato.” Not pretty, though.

Rex Parker 11:13 AM  

I *absolutely* had TEATRADE at first. A key component of the BONEASH Pit!

RP

egsforbreakfast 11:17 AM  

I believe that in some states this constructor could be imprisoned for including ABORT in the puzzle.

This was right in my wheelhouse, as I am the founder of the ZAZIEBEETZ fan club, and have, in fact composed several fun little ARIETTAS in her honor.

Thanks for a real workout of a puzzle, Kevin G. Der.

Blue Stater 11:33 AM  

I lived in Rhode Island for a decade (most provincial place on earth, but that's another conversation), and never once saw or heard of a "clam cake." QUAHAUGS fit, but didn't fit with anything else. I think I got a total of six entries without having to "reveal," some kind of record. The difficulty was achieved, for the most part, by rank obscurity (BONEASH? DEMOREELS? ZAZIEBEETZ?!?), which made the whole exercise supremely uninteresting.

Kurisu 11:49 AM  

Wrong answers I had at first:

TEATRADE
CRAFTBEER
CRABCAKE
BODYLESS
DEMOTAPES

I'm surprised Rex liked this puzzle so much; I just can't get past the completely unknown ZAZIEBEETZ crossing the non-words DONEE and HIZZONER (crossed with REI).

mathgent 11:53 AM  

I'm guessing that LUNGS for "Pair of pants" came from Kevin Der not the editors. Shame on you, whoever you are.

bocamp 11:55 AM  

Thx, Kevin; enjoyed the workout. Sorry I couldn't do better! :(

Tough.

Good effort, but came up short.

Had ZAZyrBEaTZ, so 3-cell dnf.

BODyLESS, DONER, ARIATTAS all led to downfall. Pretty much knew it should be DONoR, but let the 'E' slide; DONEE just didn't occur to me. Of course, 'foundations' both give and receive. D'oh!

TEA TRADE before SEA TRADE made BONE ASH hard to see.

The 2nd 'Z' in HIZZONER was a lucky guess, altho, the 'E' was misleading. Why not HONoR?

Wanted Chinook before CLARINET. Had SeaTac before REAGAN, and CrAb before CLAM.

Got SOLIDS right off, which was the key to the SW.

Nevertheless, always appreciate a good Sat. xword battle; this was definitely one! :)
___
yd's: W: 3* / WH: 3/ Duo: 34 / (taking a summer hiatus from SB, with the exception of trying to whittle down my disastrous g -11 performance from Thurs.; got it down to g -7. Will work on it a bit each day.)

Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊

johnk 12:02 PM  

Yes, finally a Saturday puzzle that's impossible to solve without either an eidetic memory or by cheating! What's more: RUBATOS is not a word. And why no gripe from Rex over HIZZONER?
I GOTTA GO.

MichGirl 12:02 PM  

I stumbled hard over 29A. I wanted evu, I was willing to consider sou. I finally looked it up and maybe I'm missing something but I'm pretty sure D'or was a successor, not predecessor, of the franc.

Anonymous 12:13 PM  

The only kind of pool that cares about solid/stripe is 8-ball, and that's what it's called, not POOL.

The Swedish Chef 12:19 PM  

We go to Block Island (at least once) every year for decades. We get RI clam chowder, which only exists there. The state, not just the Island. A CLAM CAKE??? No.

Smith 12:20 PM  

Hard!!
ZAZIEBEETZ??? No way, had to ask Uncle Google. Liked the misdirect on wind... trying for zephyr, too many ZZZ s on the brain, RizzO before RATSO.

Anonymous 12:20 PM  

Why not honor?
The same reason it’s buzz not his. Hizzhoner replicates the actual sound people used when referring to Koch.
Red his Eminence and Hizzhoner. The Big Apple is today unrecognizable from when the exchanges chronicled in that book occurred.

Joe Dipinto 12:35 PM  

"I'll trade you the Aral Sea for the Bay of Bengal."
"Get bent. You think I don't know the Aral Sea is all dried out? And it's not a sea, it's a lake. I do crossword puzzles."
"Okay, you got me. What about the Sea of Holes and Sea of Green for the Sea of Rubatos?"
"Where the hell is that?"
"Sheesh. Rubatos is an island in Greece. It's predicted to be the next big tourism spot. If you have control of the Sea you'll be sitting on a gold mine, trust me. (Inter)Act now and get in on the ground floor. Or maybe I should say, C Level."
"Hmmm..."
"I'll throw in the DeMoreels Sea and the Ariettas Sea."
"All these plurals...don't you have any singular seas on offer?"
"Not really. I don't suppose you'd want the Sea of Wrecks, a/k/a Zazie Zones Locker, then? You could rename it the Sexy Rex Sea."
"I'll (ski)pass."

Warmth x 3 (with rubato intro)

NYDenizen 12:36 PM  

FYI: Today’s grid is identical to the one he used in a previous NYT published puzzle.
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/17/2014
See that puz for Der’s lengthy self-analysis of his constructing approach. Sounds like a man on a mission to me.

Rube 12:39 PM  

Good Saturday challenge. Saturdays are for advanced solvers.
Too tough for you? Well I have to endure mondays and tuesdays.

Ethan Taliesin 12:41 PM  

OUch. I was unable to finish without consulting the computer for a few answers. I'm a cheater today.

CDilly52 12:45 PM  

This one fooled me too. Mot a pool player.

Smith 12:45 PM  

SeaTac is on the other side of the country, people! And I only knew ERG because I recently read Lessons in Chemistry (a bestseller), not that I necessarily recommend it, but ERGs feature prominently. Not in the chemistry part.

Phillyrad1999 12:47 PM  

Enjoyed learning a lot of new stuff. A lot!!! But this was a brutal slog even with a couple of look ups.

Kent 12:55 PM  

Humbling. I saw Rex’s comment on Twitter before solving so I expected a tough one. With that expectation, I was proud of myself for getting a few challenging answers immediately without crosses. Unfortunately, they proved to be spectacularly wrong. SeaTac for Washington airport and admiral for fleet runner were the two most notable, with one having the added distinction of sharing half its letters with the correct answer. I still like admiral, and if any constructors read this comment and want to use that clue/answer combo, I won’t sue for royalties. :)

CDilly52 12:56 PM  

Good one, @JD SKIP ASSES just sat there staring at my beleaguered soul along with wondering what the actual bloody heck SOLIDS had to do with pool sides (thank you others for explaining).

This was tough for me. I made every mistake Caitlin Lovinger at the NYT made and then some. Just brutal. Did a lot of guessing. Thankfully the SW was much easier except I thought 52A was about fishing and thought DEMO was a brand of REELS. But I did finish.

bookmark 1:05 PM  


And I donate to the Richland Library Foundation. And I'm not rich.

NYDenizen 1:06 PM  

In constuctor Der’s own words:

“I am a perfectionist. My mind fixates on anything suboptimal. When constructing a puzzle, this habit can be helpful as hundreds of judgements are made — whether a partial is worth it, are there too many plurals in the grid, etc. And since a submission can be rejected for a single flaw — e.g. one entry is deemed too obscure — diligence is needed. The trap is that the mind can go too far in this direction, dwelling on the smallest imperfection while forgetting the merits. I once spent days agonizing over a themeless with a single entry I disliked before I came to my senses.”

https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/17/2014

jae 1:06 PM  

Very tough. Remembered Phoebe but not ALLIE, RUBATOS was a WOE, had bAKE before CAKE for way too long, but I got all of that sorted out. I did not get the ZAZIE area sorted out. @Nancy - me too for BODyLESS, plus tONEr (foundation makeup?) sent me to google for the cast of “Atlanta”. A worthy challenge, liked it.

Anonymous 1:07 PM  

Poser is how people seem to spell it today. Don’t think this qualifies as a terrible mistake.

Anoa Bob 1:11 PM  

SEA TRADE sounds like some TABLETOP board game. "I'll TRADE you my Caribbean SEA for your Caspian SEA. To sweeten the deal, I'll even throw in my South China SEA."

Clueing LUNGS as "A pair of pants?" was a stretch way, way past the breaking point.

SKI PASSES isn't quite at the level of ASSESSES in the Super POC (plural of convenience) category but it does have the main ingredients; it is a plural itself plus it enables four others crossing POCs. (We only see three here, SOLIDS, ZONES and BADGES.)

Anyone else have CLOSET before CORSET for 4D "Symbol of confinement"?

17A ABORT next to 18A ABOMINATE sent me to my trusty old hard copy dictionary. They share the same prefix AB-, from Latin meaning "off or away from". The Latin stem for ABORT is oriri meaning "appear, come into being" and for ABOMINATE it is omen meaning "good or bad sign"; I guess here it would be "away from a good sign".

hello jamie: 1:16 PM  

I would think a GONG would be the "object of a smash hit" not the "subject of a smash hit", which would technically be the mallet (if that's even what you call the thing you hit a gong with; I've never done it myself).

bocamp 1:24 PM  

@Barbara S. (10:50 AM) 👍 for the Ace! :)

@Anonymous (12:20 PM)

Thx for the expl! I did give it some more thot after posting, and concluded that all is fair game after HIZZ. Didn't know of the book. Found it on The Internet Archive (1 hr., renewable loan).
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊

Bonnie Buratti 1:27 PM  

The thing that made this one so hard was the large number of clues where I had reasonable answers that were very close to the answer but "wrong": Seatac for Reagan; Crabcake for Clamcake (although I do realize the former is really Maryland); Teatrade for Seatrade; Dungs ("dungarees") for Lungs; Craft beer for Craft brew. I just don't remember there being that many, even on a Saturday.

JC66 1:47 PM  

@Smith

The clue for 12D is "Washington airport. familiarly."

So SEATAC* works as well as REAGAN.






*Seattle/Tacoma in the state of Washington.

Anonymous 1:52 PM  

Same! Last 2 days I have felt like our wheelhouses were on different planets… ah well, puzzle and learn…

Georgia 1:56 PM  

We natives call it DC and that airport National.

Anonymous 2:20 PM  

How is REAGAN informal? It is the actual name. Rhode Island has more well known foods, like Linguica and Quahogs. Puzzle was too vague. Worst ever as I was just guessing. No point in trying to finish.

Larry 2:26 PM  

@Pete 9:12 Was this your coy way of telling us all that you're not well endowed? Why would you do that? I'm usually loath to comment on behalf of everyone here, but this time I'll make an exception: We don't care.

sixtyni yogini 2:29 PM  

Agree with all the points made pro and con. @JD said it best and closest to my experience.

Will add that IMHO some of the clueing was unnecessarily vague or obscure and at the same time I do appreciate a puzzle that humbles me. 😂 so YAY and a little BOO.

Mostly however interesting, informative or challenging - the 🧩 failed to provide any fun rewards or MAKEMAGIC for me even though that was my favorite 👍🏽🤗👍🏽answer.

ps I too had SeaTac rather than Reagan or even Dulles and a few other fits but misses.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖😜

Anonymous 2:42 PM  

There was a big, very big, BOO when National was renamed for Reagan. DC is not a hotbed of Right Wing feeling. Most native/long-time residents still call it National. Airports are usually (too lazy to Google it) associated with the closest large city. Or some Hero. Can't think of one that's referred to by its state.

Masked and Anonymous 2:54 PM  

Tough puz, at our house. Tougher than habaneros on chicas, or somesuch.
Figures of some interest:

* 66 words.
* 25 black squares. A wide-open puppy.
* 2 U's.
* 4 weejects. staff weeject pick: Louis DOR French moneybucks. Short for DO-Re-mi?
* 0 Jaws of Themelessness.
* 4 ?-marker clues. Seemed like a lot more.
* 7.5 no-knows. (The HIZZONER one was vaguely inferable.)

faves: BYNATURE. IGOTTAGO. CRAFTBREW. LUNARYEAR. LUNGS clue.

Thanx for the challenge, Mr. Der dude. Remarkable job.

Masked & AnonymoUUs


**gruntz**

Anonymous 2:57 PM  

Uh, incompetence?

oceanjeremy 3:06 PM  

“If you’ve never watched Atlanta or otherwise heard of this person with uninferable letters in her name, you can kindly go £#€¥ yourself.”
— This puzzle

DNF’d because ZAZIEBEETZ (a wtf to me and my wife) conspired with DOR (also a wtf) to make donee’s _ONE_ a blank and eternal mystery. We probably would’ve figured it out if we solved on the app, by just punching in random letters until we got the happy music, but no such tricks are available with pen and paper.

Too many actors. Dear constructors: If you must fill your puzzle more than 1/3rd with trivia, please don’t lean so heavily on one arena of trivia (in this case film and movies). I get that we should be expected to know *some* general trivia, especially trivia that appears often in your publication’s puzzles. But when you specialize your trivia so narrowly you exclude a large swath of solvers. We want to be challenged, and we want it to take time and errors and fixing those errors. But we want to be able to reach a final “Aha!” on our own, based on grokking your tricky cluing and experiencing wordplay.

When the final squares of a puzzle are impossible to suss out without googling someone’s name, it loses all enjoyment.

Here’s hoping for a better experience tomorrow.

Wright-Young 3:10 PM  

“Bicep” is flat wrong. Dor crossing donee crossing Zazie Beetz? UGH.

ghostoflectricity 3:10 PM  

My response to this puzzle: AYFKM.

Anonymous 3:18 PM  

The music sounded weird because the soloists were using differing rubatos

Anonymous 3:34 PM  

Anon 2:42,
As you say, there were plenty of boos when National was renamed. But plenty of hurrahs as well. They were especially loud from the people outside the Beltway bubble.

As for bicep being correct because the actual word ends in an s despite being singular, well there’s bad new(s)on that front.
Seems the feeling here in Brussel(s) that anyone who uses bicep in lieu of biceps may have been injured at birth by an OBGYN who misused the forcep(s). Again, this isn’t definitive and I may have misheard— the acoustic(s)—that’s a fancy word for the physic(s) of sound- are wretched. Maybe it’s me. I had the mump(s) as a kid and my hearing isn’t the best.
I’ll finish this up later. I’m baking and wouldn’t you know it, I’m out of molasse(s). Got to run.
Now, where did I put my pant(s)? Civvic(s) class taught me that law-breaking is bad citizenship. And running around with out pant(s) is almost as bad as running with scissor(s).

Blog Goliard 3:40 PM  

The clue for LUNGS was definitely the worst of the day.

But that was merely irksome. The one big thing that turned this from a tough-but-fair-and-rewarding challenge to an unpleasant ordeal was ZAZIEBEETZ. Not that putting her in the puzzle at all was out of bounds, but this combination of circumstances made it fatal to the puzzle for me:

1) Not just an actor from a current TV show, but one on cable that (Wikipedia tells me) had no more than 1.08 million viewers for an episode the first season, and never more than 0.31 its most recent season...

2) ...and the actor wouldn't be known to significantly more people than that from anything else...

3) ...and the name is unusual enough that not a single letter can be confidently inferred from any other letters...

4) ...and there are multiple crosses that are among the most brutally hard ones in the puzzle...

5) ...and at least one of those, BODILESS, has an ambiguous letter/alternate spelling precisely at the cross.

Even on a Saturday, even though I'm a veteran solver who likes a challenge, more than two or three of those five at once is out of bounds. (Speaking of unsatisfactory, unpleasantly hard elements in the neighborhood.)

GILL I. 3:56 PM  

I got my first little gut wrench at 1A. Nothing wrong with the word CHICA- it actually depends on how you use it. I would've changed that clue. CHICA can mean small and in Cuba it's what we called a maid.
I said a little gut wrench but I meant it as in: WHAT ARE THESE WORDS/THINGS/NAMES? Ay dios mio, did I struggle. Another Sisyphean Saturday. My boulder was able to reach the top on a few occasions only to come crashing down again.
To be frank,( sorry Frank) I actually liked sweating a bit. CRAFT Beer instead of BREW...crab CAKE instead of CLAM...I stopped so many times to catch my breath that my LUNGS finally gave out.
I didn't know what Incorporeal really meant. No one introduced me to ZAZI BEETZ nor IVANEK. I forgot about ALLIE, never seen any RUBATOS and if I knew that my favorite English coffee cup is made of BONE ASH I'd switch to a paper cup.
I wondered why Kevin didn't clue 12 down as (at least) Washington D.C.???? SEATAC was glued on permanently.
Like JD...this wasn't for me....I actually thought it tasted quite rich; fancy Belgian chocolate on a tort made for a queen...but...being the simple person that I am, I probably could've handled a TOOTSIE roll a little it better. Still licking my wounds.

Anonymous 4:03 PM  

This is an example of a ridiculous puzzle that is completely ungettable if one isn’t following every kind if activity in order to know every name in every genre. Sure, the clue misdirects and ambiguity were clever, but this reminded me that there are better things to do with my Saturdays.

Anonymous 4:11 PM  

Pair of pants as a clue makes no sense. Maybe “pair of panters”??? “Pairs that pant”??? But that wouldn’t work with the wordplay. My most difficult Saturday ever.

chefwen 4:16 PM  

@Nancy, sorry about your wall, I’m good for any repair costs. Yes, I threw it THAT hard.

Anonymous 4:47 PM  

simply impossible. Easily the hardest (see what I did there?) crossword I've ever attempted. Charge = bade? WTF? DEMOREEL? GONG (with that clue)? How is INATANGLE not the worst greenpaint clue EVER? ARIETTAS???? ABOMINATE?????? and nearly every costume out there is a full body suit. SITBY??? Who, in the history of the English language has ever said that?

Least fave puzzle I've ever done. Ever. Pair of pants. As if LUNGS is a verb.

SRSLY!!!

Anonymous 5:10 PM  

Yesss thank you I had DULLES there for the longest time 🤦‍♀️

MarthaCatherine 5:16 PM  

If this had been the first crossword puzzle I'd ever done, I'd never do another.

Whatsername 5:17 PM  

@Barbara S: Big congrats on the hole in one!

puzzlehoarder 5:23 PM  

If my wife hadn't given me the IE of ZAZIEBEETZ Id still be spinning my wheels on that section. Charged as a clue for BADE was the number one reason. It was the only word that fit but it's never been clued with "Charged" as it's just plain wrong. However I tried to fill that section it always came up again that stumbling block. Another thing was with my spelling I had no way on my own to know that BODILESS is spelled with an I.
Just to whittle the puzzle down that SW section took a lot. ELIS before ELKS, DEMOTAPES before DEMOREELS, TEATRADE before SEATRADE. While they didn't reach the write over level there was hesitation over is it BEER or WRECK, RATSO or RIZZO?

I wouldn't cheat on my own but my wife was getting tired of the time I wasted on this.

C. Berry 5:52 PM  

DNF CLV

Anonymous 5:56 PM  

anon 2:20 pm said : How is REAGAN informal? It is the actual name. The actual name is Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport. Thus…

TJS 6:07 PM  

Total garbage. And this guy is a self-proclaimed "perfectionist" ? Hah and hah !

Anonymous 6:09 PM  

Nice to have a challenging puzzle. Also nice to have a nice write-up by the blogger. I was reeling after reading that Wednesday….I don’t know what to call it. It was an embarrassment. I will just stay away from the Wednesday “entry.”

Es tut mir lied is of course very common. What is more interesting is Das tut mir aber leid. I Anyone know it?

Anonymous 6:11 PM  

Shortz was probably trying to clue REAGAN in a benign way so the scolds wouldn’t freak out.

Barbara S. 6:38 PM  

After my hole-in-one in Wordle (thanks @bocamp and @Whatsername), I could do no wrong. I didn't know the answer to 1A (but of course that was a temporary aberration), so I filled in "sciRocco" for 1D (hi @Nancy), an answer that was confirmed by RATSO, convinced I was bound for glory. In fact, I was on my way to Disasterville. A very difficult puzzle which I appreciated more than loved, which taught me stuff, and which I wish was more representative of Friday/Saturday puzzles in general, because I think this level of challenge would make me a better solver. Here's to you, Mr. Der -- drop by my weekend any time.

Anonymous 6:40 PM  

Using one word of the name does not make it informal to me. SEATAC is informal. LAX is informal. Newark is not informal because they took out “International Airport.”

Nick 6:48 PM  

Meh. Enjoyed the tricky clueing, but difficulty relied on random trivia.

Henry 7:12 PM  

@Gary Jugert forgive my ignorance but I'm confused. What's wrong with the word chica, in the context of discussing a 15-year-old girl's birthday? If it's about the offensiveness of using the word while harassing someone, then I feel like that's about the harassment, not the word. "Girl", "babe", and perhaps especially "female" can all be pretty offensive in that context, but I'd say all are fair game for crosswords (unless clued offensively, of course).

But also I might be missing something - would love to know if so.

Anonymous 7:18 PM  

I love Zadie Smith, so I was really excited to learn that she’d turned her hand to acting. Eventually I did figure out that it was really ZAZIE something, but by then that terminal h was set in stone, blocking HIZZONER. I DNFed with BEETh/HIShONER.

I AGREE THAT SEA TRADE is meaningless. But the Dutch East India Company dealt with Indonesia, a notable source of coffee but not particularly of tea.

Based on the 2020 Democratic National Convo, I wanted the RI specialty to be Calamari, then went to CLAM bAKE. Crosses finally forced me, reluctantly, to CLAM CAKE, something I’ve never encountered IRL.

@jberg

Z 7:58 PM  

@albatross shell - I’m glad at least two of us were amused by my agape joke. It did lessen the pain of the DNF a wee bit and then @JC66 had to rub salt in the wound.

@Anon11:13 - Thank you.

Anonymous 8:05 PM  

Henry,
Nothin is wrong with chick. Nothing at all.

Lt. Kije 8:49 PM  

Enjoyed this and flew through it in 45 minutes…until crashing headlong into DONEE and BADE. Simple had no idea how to finish it off, and didn’t help that I had FINEASH and FORMLESS instead of BONEASH and BODILESS. Also had DINOVO / BIETZ rather than DENOVO / BEETZ which is arguably a Natick (yes de novo makes more sense, but with ariettas nearby I was thinking Italian not Latin). Anyway, definitely appreciate how good the puzzle is but hitting those last few squares and just having no idea kind of spoiled things for me. Had to Google Zazie’s first name to in turn get bodiless which then gave me donee, finally.

Daveyhead 8:59 PM  

What just about everyone else said. :(
I gave up after about an hour only a third finished. I don’t Google for answers so that was the end (not at all casting aspersions on those who do)

“Pair of pants”? One of the worst clues I have seen in twenty five years of doing these. And I had a double lung transplant

Anonymous 9:52 PM  

I inexplicably could not get CLAMCAKE despite eating some for dinner. That set the tone for this solve. (For the record, they are deep fried deliciousness — a fritter that looks like hush puppy, but with a few pieces of clam.)

LateSolver 10:02 PM  

Maybe I'll come back to it, but at 10 pm, I have no patience for all of the PPP, obscure or ambiguous clues, etc. After a once through of the acrosses with little filled in, and a third through the downs with not much better result, I'm throwing in the towel for the night. Maybe if Sunday goes well I will pick this back up tomorrow, or maybe I will punt and peek at the solution.

Tina 10:52 PM  

I bailed on this one. It wasn’t even fun for me to tinker with it for awhile. Everything was so way out there I just gave up. You don’t sport a ski pass. You just wear it. Crabcakesbut never heard of clam cakes. The Beetz lady never crossed my radar. Come on… am I a good puzzle creator if I make everything so esoteric and weirdly clued? Pair of pants? Really? I’m stopping here.

mmorgan 11:04 PM  

I grew up in RI, left there in 1971, and have missed CLAMCAKEs nearly every day since. Never in my life did I think I would ever see CLAMCAKE in a NYT puzzle. I'm only overstating this a bit, but now I can die happy.

E.J. Copperman 11:21 PM  

I don't often disagree with you, but I thought this puzzle had a mean gotcha vibe to it and didn't enjoy it at all. Others' mileage may clearly vary.

Anonymous 11:53 PM  

Preach

dgd 12:04 AM  

On the other hand, l a life long Rhode Islanders know CLAM CAKEs well, but clam cake is the reverse of Anoa Bob's usual complaint: it is a singular of convenience.

Anonymous 12:36 AM  

RI is very small so naturally it is very provincial to an outsider. And it is a blue state after al.
If you are a life long Rhode Islander like I am you would know "CLAM CAKEs" are a thing. They are what most Americans call fritters. The term is obscure to most Americans of course and the answer itself is a " singular of convenience".
Never said it that way.

Anonymous 8:22 AM  

HIZZONOR is a longtime Daily News term for the mayor. The answer is fair game for New York solvers, as we’ve seen the word hundreds of times in screaming tabloid headlines.

SueO 8:47 AM  

Another Rhode Islander here. Confidently put down calamari (the official state appetizer) though I’ll eat a CLAMCAKE now and then. The RI thing to do is to dunk them in your chowder.
Also had teatrade, demotape (though I knew it didn’t really make sense) and craft beer so it was slow going for me.

Anonymous 9:26 PM  

I said “SANTAANA,” which led to 15-across becoming “ABUJA,” and it was all downhill from there…

Anonymous 9:31 PM  

People (myself included) put in SeaTac because it is in Washington… state. The clue never specified *which* Washington

Anonymous 2:48 AM  

People definitely called National, "Reagan" when I lived there 20 years ago. Not sure if that's gone out of fashion...

kitshef 11:14 PM  

Waaay challenging. A lot of that was unknown music words (ARIETTAS, RUBATOS) and names (IVANEK, ZAZIE BEETZ). Finished with four errors: CLAMbAKE/RUBAlOS/INTERAblED, and tOR/tONEr/ZAZIrBEETZ.

And of course, there is BICEP. Just no.

So while I've been clamoring for a good tough Saturday, this wasn't the one I wanted.

Anonymous 8:31 AM  

This was my first multi-day Saturday in a long time. At first I thought it was my covid torpor but then realized the confluence of musical terms and slim hint cluing made this far out of my wheelhouse and impossible to complete. There was some satisfaction when it fell into place but it was dwarfed by what a slog it was to get there. I hope this won't be anyone's template for a Saturday.

Manuel Franco 8:51 AM  
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
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Anonymous 12:50 AM  

Gary — “chica” simply means female teenager in Spanish. It is a harmless term of endearment for most. High school Spanish teachers address their class as “chicos y chicas,” and the day a young woman turns 15 would be the day she transitions from being a “niña” to a “chica.” No native Spanish speaker I know would ever take issue with this answer, and I’ve lived among them and studied their language for 30 years on 3 continents. I think your outrage has missed the mark here.

spacecraft 10:43 AM  

The one and only mark on the page that I could make is what I think of all this uber-obscure bullshit: RATSO! Needless to say, DNF. Plus, WAKE HIM UP AGAIN!!! Geez, we need a new linker. This one seems to have narcolepsy.

Anonymous 12:40 PM  

A fair, workable puzzle was contained in this one, but was buried in an infestation of pissers. Rejected.

rondo 1:33 PM  

Miracle of miracles to finish this one! Write-overs aplenty for sure, and plenty of educated guesses, but wow, talk about triumph points. One for the books here.
On the other hand, rare wordle DNF. Nearly a bird but too many options.

rondo 1:44 PM  

Forgot: one of my favorite 1970s bands WishBONE ASH

Burma Shave 2:00 PM  

FAMED TOOTSIE

With that MODEL I MADEMAGIC,
INATANGLE from the INTRO,
like a GAZELLE she INTERACTED,
then said, "So LONG, IGOTTAGO."

--- HIZZONER RATSO REAGAN

EightAndEight 3:08 PM  

I was surprised that Rex did not complain about 13 Down, as it seemed awfully close to that infamous bane of his, EAT A SANDWICH.

thefogman 3:36 PM  

“A proper Saturday.” I’ll say. Challenging. Forget the medium. Finished with one error. Had eLLIE and didn’t check the cross which did me in. Had CrAblegs before CLAMbAKE before CLAMCAKE. Had tEATRADE before SEATRADE like just about every other normal human being. Same with CRAFTBeEr before CRAFTBREW. BONEASH took forever to suss out. Lots of hard to solve PPP like MARA, IVANEK, RATSO and REAGAN etc. But I loved seeing ZAZIEBEETZ who is simply amazing in every way. One thing I don’t like seeing is REI. Please make it go away forever Mr. Shortz. The BADE-DONEE crossing was cruel. So was the cluing for SKIPASSES and many more such as 46D, 13D 26A etc. HIZZONER is just plain bad. Anyhow, it was a big crunchy challenge and I almost solved it. One little square WRECKS it for me. OK. Time for a CRAFTBEER or two…

Diana, LIW 9:06 PM  

Quite the good Saturday - got "almost all" of it. I'm happy.

I'll be away for about a week w/o internet access, but I'll still be doing the SyndieLand puzzles. See you in a coupla!

Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords

Diana, LIW 9:17 PM  

Oh - I forgot to mention - having DULLES cross GASPS (instead of REAGAN/LUNGS) had me in a tizzy for a while. I still think GASPS is a better answer to that clue.

Lady Di

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