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Portmanteau unit of computing information / FRI 7-8-22 / Dog that's a cross of two French-named breeds / Insect with a delicate nest / River for which a European capital is named / Pocket-size medical tools / pre-marriage name of 1940s-50s first lady / Point oceanic spot farthest from land / Lyre-playing great-granddaughter of 8-Down / Something a provocateur opposes
Friday, July 8, 2022
Constructor: Kyle Dolan
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Word of the Day: BITON (50D: Dog that's a cross of two French-named breeds) —
The Biton is a hybrid designer dog created in the United States. Bred as a family companion from crossing a Bichon Frise with a Coton de Tulear, the Biton retains the small size and adorable fluffy or long and curly coat of its parents. (wagwalking.com)
• • •
I really don't get deciding that your most "original" bit of fill is going to be short fill, and today I am particularly looking at QUBIT (7D: Portmanteau unit of computing information). No idea what that is. Seems like a little smug nod to techy folks. I'm guessing it's pronounced like "cubit," and that it's a "portmanteau" of, uh, Q*BERT and OBIT. Oh, dang, it's actually "quantum" + "bit"—way less interesting. Anyway, let's just say that this answer has made its one appearance for this decade. See you in the '30s, QUBIT! Another thing I don't get is trying to disguise your weak fill (BITON) under the name of a "designer dog" (the very phrase makes me queasy) (50D: Dog that's a cross of two French-named breeds). It would be one thing if the two breeds involved in the name (portmanteau! again!) were well known, but I was sitting there going, "OK, it's a bichon frise and ... and ... huh ... I got nothing ... oh, crap, is DRUB right? Is it DRUM / MITON!?!? A Maltese and a ... python? What in the hell?" If you were familiar with the dog breed Coton de Tulear (the -TON part of this dog-engineering experiment), then congratulations. I just had to trust DRUB (49A: Defeat soundly) and pray that BITON was ... something. Not a great position to put the solver in. (And hey, if I'm the only solver that's out of the BITON fandom loop, then I take it all back and apologize for my ignorance)
Other bits:
- AREA MAP (40A: Part of a typical business search result on Google) — ugh. This answer pretty much embodies how scintillating I found this grid (not at all). I had SITEMAP and one point. So dreary to have the answer you need to get into one of the corners be this bland / vague. Thank god for GODSPEED down there (that answer looks positively electric compared to most of the rest of the grid)
- TOGAED (28D: Like ancient Roman senators) — one of those forced-adjectival answers that you just have to accept. I mean, am I currently SHIRTED (well, am I?) (I am). But I'm happy to allow a few of these Crossword Specials in the service of a wonderful grid. Just wish this grid had been more wonderful.
- EVA / DUARTE (38A: With 45-Down, pre-marriage name of a 1940s-'50s first lady) — first, congrats on using "pre-marriage" instead of the gendered, creepily virginity-focused "maiden"; second, wow, learning a lot about Bess Truman* today.
- MIR (34A: "Es tut ___ leid" ("I'm sorry," in German)) — unless it refers to a space station, your MIR clue is gonna be lost on me.
- MAGIC ACT (34D: Tricky thing to pull off?) — had the "G," but that was less help than you'd imagine. I first tried EGG-something (thinking that it was "tricky" in the "trick-or-treat" sense, and maybe kids were egging someone's house), and then I tried GAG-something (thinking of, I don't know, a joke, I guess, although those aren't technically "tricky," are they?)
- DOTE / TOTE — I just notice that these answers are symmetrical and they rhyme and for some reason I think this is cute. Get yourself a DOTE TOTE! Filled with all the books and candies and other items your beloved enjoys! This is the note I choose to end on. Good day.
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129 comments:
What @Rex said and.........
foreign word and geography trivia laden
NUHUH is really ugly
Overuse of "?"
But Fridays are almost always quite difficult for me. I respect the challenge and it always feels like a good workout, though frustrating.
TUMS was a bright spot and I liked CRICK and BLOTCH.
No common threads, but challenging in a good way. As for Qubit- no more of a smug nod than any trivia Rex happens to know!
I have two Cotons de Tulear so "biton" was a gimme. The Coton is not all that well known in America, though. The breed is thought to have arisen when the French brought their Bichons to Madagascar and they bred with local dogs there. They are known as the "Royal Dog of Madagascar" and have been featured on postage stamps there. They were only brought to the U.S. in about 1976 by an archaeologist who discovered them on a dig there. They are extremely friendly and produce unique vocalizations. Also extremely devoted to their humans, to the point that they won't let you out of their sight when you are home. They have a habit of walking on their hind legs, apparently just for fun. So concludes your Coton lesson for today,
Pretty tough for a Friday, with most of my troubles in the NW where I had genErIC before TOTEMIC, poeT before SCOT, and thinking cRoNoS or kRoNoS before URANUS. And then those errors combined to make me think 15A would begin with LIME, and that Point zErO would be the most remote ocean spot.
Most of the rest was still challenging but mostly error-free. Just IRON fist before RULE caused any troubles.
BTW we’re supposed to use Ulaanbaatar now, not Ulan Bator.
NUHUH is awful.
Easier for me than it was for OFL. I dropped in STATUS QUO at 1A from the clue and confirmed it with SLID, AMSTEL, UNO and URANUS. Didn't know EVA/DUARTE, but the crosses were reasonable enough. Hated @OffTheGrid NUHUH and @Rex TOGAED, but overall a medium challenge.
It looks like it was phone-it-in-Friday for the entire team of editors up in the NW - TETON County, AMSTEL River, Point NEMO, Burns (SCOT), QUBIT, Sky Father URANUS, TUMS . . . Wow, ITS TOO BAD they didn’t decide to add a real crossword section to their puzzle up there instead of just adding a heavy dose of standard NYT nonsense.
Thankfully, it appears as though someone finally sobered up, wandered into work and cleaned up the other 75% of the grid, leaving us with a few rough spots such as EVA DUARTE (a worthy historical figure), BITON (yuk, but ok, at least a lot of people own pets), and ERATO (more yuk).
It appears to me that they missed an opportunity to really shine, but maybe wheelhouse aficionados, trivia-buffs and those who enjoy the challenge of parsing their way through a difficult section will love it. Rex has that level of solving chops but didn’t do much gushing. Others may obviously feel differently.
Thanks @EricStratton for the BITON lesson. I'm not a fan of mixing breeds and calling them anything other than 'adorable mutt'. But that's probably just me. This puzzle gave me fits, but a self-satisfied feeling at finishing with only one google (THAILAND). An odd solving experience, I got no traction until the SW corner with MIR. Then moved counterclockwise back to 1A. Rolled my eyes in exasperation at 38A, thinking "Oh no! Now I need to know pre-marriage names of FLOTUSes?! But was happy to quickly realize that we were talking about something more familiar when EVA made itself evident with the A of GEARUP. That confirmed the V of the suspected SYLVAN, though, having visited Maine a number of times, I truly wanted the answer to be Fiercely Independent, or even Kookie. Last bump in the road was great grandfather of ERATO. Kept wanting to put Apollo in there. But the KLEENEX (I liked that clue/answer) helped get ODDSMAKER which oddly fed me the ends of that whole NE and finally let me fill that corner. Thanks, Rex, for the QBert reference. I still own my copy and dust off the old Nintendo every few years to play it. So, all in all, I found the puzzle to be Friday though, but nothing to boo at.
As a representative of the Techie Folks, I have NFC what a QUBIT is. Never heard that before in my life. Whole NW was a PITA and the last thing to fall.
TOTEMIC?
TETON?
STATUS QUO?
LEMON CURD?
I had _____NCURD for a while there, no idea. DOTE and SLID are simple enough, but TOO simple, they were not obvious. Got the rest of the puzzle done with little fanfare but NW was just... ugh.
Thought it was odd that PENLIGHT was clued as a "medical tool." I mean, doctors use pens too, does that make them medical tools? They wear shoes, does that make them medical garb?
Nice to see a crunchy Friday - agree that there’s some unfortunate fill but overall I liked it. Attractive - low word count grid with huge corners. LEMON CURD jumps out to start - makes me think of @Gill’s elegant discussion recently. ODDS MAKER, NURTURE, SAY GRACE, PAPER WASP and others - lots of wonderful longs here.
Learned AMSTEL and BITON. NUH UH, TOGAED are pretty rough. STOAT again?
In 9th grade we read and had to memorize certain classic poems - mine was Tintern Abbey - O SYLVAN why thou wanderer thru the woods. I love the word.
Music sub-theme today. The great WHO’S NEXT, STATUS QUO, STOLEN CAR, Bobby Hatfield singing GODSPEED my love and of course TESLA Girls
Enjoyable Friday solve.
Yeah, I bit on Miton.
POINTNEMO has been called "the middle of nowhere." It's a point in the Pacific between South America and New Zealand, about 1600 miles from the nearest piece of land. If a circle were drawn on the earth's surface with POINTNEMO as its center and having a radius of 1600 miles, there would be no land inside of it. The computer program that pinpointed it must be massive.
Aside from STATUS QUO and STOLEN CAR, this was a dreary slog, and the fill was often truly bad, as in NUHUH and QUBIT. Other answers were just off: LEMON CURD is not a "dessert topping;" it's a part of the dessert--the filling in a lemon tart or lemon meringues pie, for example. A dessert topping is fudge sauce or whipped cream. IRON RULE doesn't quite line up with "absolutism."
But the icing on the cake was the inclusion of a designer dog--and not just any designer dog, but an extremely rare one. All while 4000 to 10,000 shelter pets are euthanized EVERY DAY, despite the fact that 90 percent of them are adoptable. And for all you dog snobs out there, there's another name for a "designer dog": mutt.
Felt like a bit of a slog. Totemic and Nemo had me a bit tied up. Crossing a Bichon with a breed I have never heard of didn’t help either. Thought TOGAED as a verb and NUHUH were a bit weak. Editors appear to be in love with STOAT this week.
Slowish but steady here, went from ULAN down and around, finishing with TUMS of all things, as I was looking for the name of a pharmacy chain and not a product, which was not very bright.
TOGAED is one of those anweres where I read the clued and think "please don't be TOGAED" but it is anyway. OFL give that more of a pass than I do.
In the Didn't We Just Have That" department, I've got STOAT, ERATO, and the MAGICACT theme. Even my not-great short term memory found those familiar.
I have sung some German pieces with choral groups and I'm sure MIR was in them somewhere, and it rang a faint bell after I had it totally filled in from crosses. Any foreign words in crosswords should be in Spanish, obviously.
Just about the right amount of Friday crunch for me, KD. I Kept Digging away and had a satifying time, so thanks for all the fun.
Note to Rex: You seem to have fallen into the ‘you-speak’ habit. This is the positively awful, and might l say, lazy, way of using ‘you’ where it simply does not belong. When l see this increasingly common construction my reaction is, ‘you talking to me, dude?’ Since l have nothing to do with the puzzle, why address your comments to me? What’s wrong with ‘he’, ‘she’, or if requested, ‘they’, or ‘constructor’, when it’s him/her/they you’re talking about. You may also try to use ‘l’ and ‘we’ where apposite. In other places the ‘you’ is totally unnecessary. For example, ‘You get Qs’ where ‘There are Qs’ seems perfectly adequate. But whatever you do, please stop trying to talk to me. After all, we hardly know one another.
Paper wasps are common in New England. They love to build their nests under eaves and inside your outdoor lights. You can get paper decoys to discourage them. The decoys work really well, which is surprising considering how little they look like a real (established, competing) hive to a human
Amy: was able to get several entries from the ends of the words, e.g., car, act, lights. Qubit and biton did not delight. I do love lemon curd and enjoyed the Kleenex clue.
I'm surprised at all the hate for QUBIT. Besides the cool spelling (how many words can you think of that start with "QU[consonant]"?), according to google ngram viewer it is in more common usage than "lemur," "foxhole," and, yes, STOAT (the last by a very considerable margin), none of which are remotely obscure IMO. Yes I am (was) a techie but in fields fairly removed from quantum computing. And I don't see it in my technical work, I see it in popular press articles (e.g. NYT).
Had the same reaction as @pabloinnh to TOGAED. Thought of it right away but refused to enter it until it became clear it was inevitable.
Wasn't sure about MIR until I flashed on "Bei mir bist du schön."
I was thrown off because Mission Santa INES is located in the Santa Ynez Valley, and I'm more familiar with the valley than the mission.
Every here and there, on an end-of-week puzzle, I hitch on to its wavelength and start slamming answers in, to where I slap in a word, mentally holler “WHO’S NEXT?”, then slap in the next – one big splat fill.
Those solves are thrilling. And then there are solves like I had today. Where answers are anything but handy; where they have to bubble up from the depths. Where I’m bucking the tide, looking for something, anything to fill in, then for the fifth time I look at a clue/answer and it clicks. That answer may trigger another one or three, until the puzzle pushes back and tosses me again into stuck-ness. There are no bam-bam-bam streaks of glory in this type solve, but those ahas do keep coming, each time a mini-thrill. At some point I notice contentment – knowing I’m going to reach the finish line – and when the last square is filled in, *I’m* filled in as well, with deep satisfaction.
Two faces of crossword's best wows – the Slam-Fill Thrill and the Slow-Build Thrill, the latter which you gave me today, Kyle, with your clean, tricky, and well-executed puzzle. Thank you for this beauty!
Just a note that in German it could also easily have been “uns” instead of “mir”, as in “es tut uns leid”, meaning “we are sorry”, versus “es tut mir leid”, meaning “I am sorry”. These both have fit the gap and have the same letter count, so it was a sloppy clue even for those familiar with the language.
Anonymous (7:41am)
Unlike shoes and a pen, a penlight is a tool used for conducting a medical examination - particularly when examining eyes, ears, nose and mouth/throat. Doctors can examine these part without wearing shoes or having a pen in their pockets, but they would be hard pressed to do so without a pen light - or some substitute.
After holding out forever, today for the first time I solved on the NYT app rather than the paper. Wow, so much faster.
I surveyed the finished grid before coming here and had pretty much the same feelings as Rex did -- nothing here too exciting. To be fair, nothing awful either, but no zip. Only the clue for ODDSMAKER got a smile out of me. Oh, and realizing after ~50 years that TUMS refers to one's tummy -- I am "dumb da DUMB dumb DUUUUUUUMB"!
ITSTOOBAD feels like a RARE substitute for "That's too bad". The ONRAMP clue was weak -- there are plenty with no incline whatsoever.
SYLVAN is one of those words that I read a lot but cannot define. If someone asks me what it means, I would struggle to answer more fulsomely than, "You know, like much of Maine".
Just-right tough for me and enjoyable to grapple with. The hardest section for me was the NW, where my making the same mistakes as @kitshef 7:17 (generic, poet, cronos, zero) made the rest of the AREA impossible. Crossword stalwart ERATO next door in the NE gave me my entry into the grid, and I was able to proceed around clockwise, with SYLVAN, BLOTCH, CRICK, and DRUB providing highlights along the way. PAPER WASP went right in (we've had some impressive nests on our property) and brought me back up to the NW, where I finally saw STATUS QUO hiding amid the incorrect letters.
More do-overs: fURTher before NURTURE; ToMS before TUMS (thinking about Tom's of Maine, with Maine being the "target area" - shaky reasoning at best, but the cross with SYLVAN Maine was nice). No idea: NUHUH, QUBIT, BITON.
SYLVAN?
If you want to know what the Maine woods are really like, I suggest reading Stephen King's "The Girl who Loved Tom Gordon."
SYLVAN will never mean the same to you again.
M. Welby, I appreciate that you're a doctor, but I am not. I have a penlight. I use it for non-medical purposes. Unlike, say, a stethoscope, scalpel, or one of those single-purpose rubber hammers whose only reason for existing is to abuse knees, AFAIK the penlight was not invented specifically for medical reasons --- it's just a small flashlight.
OK I get your point but I still think it's a weird clue. And I feel like complaining, so there.
Hey All !
Shock and awe (and a fist pump) when I put in my last letter (the M of NEMO/TOTEMIC) and got the Happy Music! WooHoo! Thought for sure I'd have a wrong letter somewhere. (I found NEMO! Har)
DRUB/DRUm. Correct decision to go with the B. Hadn't heard of the dog breed. Had TINS in for the Spam clue, but nothing else was happening in that NW, so took it out, only later seeing it was correct all along. Toughest corner for me, the NW. Not saying the other areas were easy, because they weren't. This felt SatPuzish.
Wanted FELL for 1D, I see it's instead at 56D. QUBIT. Sure, whatever you say. 😁
Didn't get a DNF, NUHUH!
yd -14 (yow), should'ves 8
Duo 35, missed 1-2-11
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Just a quibble, PAPER WASP nests are not very delicate. They are an engineering marvel, waterproof, with hexagonal cells inside. I think they'd be hard to smash with a hammer. Not that I've tried.
I found this difficult and needed to look up several of the numerous trivia related clues. Still, the finished grid was impressive with several nice entries I’ve never seen before. Especially liked SAY GRACE over the KLEENEX blessing
STOAT two days in a row! What are the chances?
QUBIT was new and a tough one as was BITON. I know nothing about the French breed Cotons de Tulear but found @Eric Stratton’s post at 6:36 very informative. I love them all but my favorite designer dog is a cross between RES and CUE. You can find this breed at shelters everywhere and there’s likely one just waiting to adopt you. Please consider it the next time you’re looking for a furry friend.
@M. Welby 9:09 and @Anonymous 7:41 and 9:36 - If I can chime in on PENLIGHT: aided by having -GHT in place, I filled in PENLIGHT immediately and with a smile, recalling the proud day in the late 1960s when my med student husband was first going on rounds, in a white jacket, stethoscope draped around his neck, and a PENLIGHT in his jacket pocket. Still, @Anonymous, I did wonder how many solvers would make the "medical" association.
So sorry about ERATO for those who tire of the parade of Muses. I never have a problem with them because my college (St. John’s College in Santa Fe) was so Greek-oriented that the women’s dorms (yes, we had a sexually segregated campus) were named after the Muses: Erato, Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, Polyhymnia, Terpsichore, Thalia and Urania. They were built in a circular formation with only one entrance, a large metal gate that was locked at 11:00 pm. The mens dorms were not so imaginatively monikered. As I recollect, they were A Dorm, B Dorm, etc. To show how dated this all is, the thing that deterred guys from staying with girlfriends in the Muse dorms was that the maids (yes, the paid cleaning staff) would come at about 7:00 am. At that point a fast-thinking fellow might jump off the balcony to the piñon and cactus below, rather than being reported to the administration. Some of my fondest memories are of hitting the ground after bailing from a balcony and seeing multiple friends in the same situation.
The other, possibly narcotic-related, flashback in this puzzle was triggered by URANUS. At some point early in our marriage we were living on Java Street in San Francisco and decided to seek more spacious digs. We found them on Uranus St. Before even signing a lease we had sent out housewarming invitations saying “We’re having a party on URANUS.” For reasons that escape me, we never signed that lease, and the partygoers had to be accommodated on Java St.
I liked the thrill of finishing this puzzle more than the act of solving it.
I'm thinking of the phrase "never ceases to amaze" this morning as I gaze out the window across the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards Mt. Baker. The views in my new Pacific Northwest home are stunning, and locals tell me it never gets old--it never ceases to amaze.
And that's what I feel when I tackle a puzzle like this one. I looked at every clue in the NW (across and down), then moved to the NE, then tried down the entire W--and the only answer I even had an inkling about was CRICK. I dropped it in, thinking it probably wasn't correct. (I also thought about entering LEMONzest at 15A, which according to my phone's calculator, would have been 55.55555556% correct.)
But through the MAGICACT of puzzling, a few more guesses gave me faint life (the reappearance of STOAT and ERATO helped), and when at 51:34 I held my breath and typed the M in the NEMO/TOTEMIC cross--happy music! (I could not see the TOTEM in TOTEMIC until after I had typed it in.
I never cease to be amazed at this kind of puzzling journey.
By the way, with no idea who the great-grandfather/"Sky father" of Greek myth was, I tried adoNiS for a while, which led me to wonder if there existed an acne medication called "ZITS."
anon 7:41 & 9:36 apparently, put PENLIGHT in your rolodex of xword medical equipment. Doctors use the penlight when they ask you to say AHH, another xword staple.
anon 9:08, the clue asks for "I'm sorry", at least on the app.
the medicine just had to be for acne, oh TUMS, nice!
Much of Maine was "wooded" on my grid for too long. So glad the answer wasn't "vowels"
As usual, with Lewis on this faith solve. Lots of resistance and white squares for a long time, but persistent and consistent effort paid off in a most satisfying way.
Could they possibly use "False" as an answer for "Not true!" on Saturday as a misdirect? NUHUH
I feel sufficiently blessed for my efforts today with GODSPEED, SAYGRACE and KLEENEX for that matter.
TOGAED seemed like it would look too weird, so resisted it for quite a while.
I get the distaste for designer dog breeding, but if humans hadn't been involved in selective canine breeding, we would still be living with wolves, surprisingly the progenitor of all the different breeds we know today.
I think I used to know what ULAN BATOR was in the wild, now just a mix and match xword phrase in my brain.
SYLVAN pertaining to woods, wooded. As Penn's Woods is Pennsylvania. You may think of it as peaceful but there is also Transylvania. King's Tom Gordon book was a ghost story or a monster story. A good short one too.
I must have been lost in a time warp again when I tried too TOO BAD. Also repeat my German comment from yesterday if too many more complaints pop up.
PAPERWASP was my lone longish entry with no crosses. Used my 3 cheat Friday allotment early but after that I only needed QUBIT.
Thought the 9 letter horizontal stacks were very good and the three 8 and one seven letter vertical stacks were just a hair or three weaker.
With @Sun Volt on this one. Fun solve. Nice tight puzz.
@anon
Absolutism does line up with IRONRULE.
BTW, I'm with M Welby, Anonymous--I own a couple of hammers, but I am not a carpenter by any stretch of the imagination. But I absolutely grant you your right to complain. Well played.
I get it that Rex sees a lot of crosswords and can find this one a bit wanting for a Friday. But as someone who only does 2-4 puzzles a week, incLuding Friday and Saturday, I found today’s to be delightful and stimulating. A little trouble in the SE, having guessed EMOTIVE and SABLE first, but otherwise a steady progression through interesting clues.
@whatsername
Chances are pretty good because Shortz loves his repeats for I believe 2 reasons. Memory reinforcement and giving daily solvers a leg up.
But maybe that is what you meant also.
@Nancy and @Teedmn Thanks for your (wildly differing) opinions on Lollapuzzoola and crossword competitions from yesterday. Bells ringing, martinis for lunch, and solving in Central Park. All quite fascinating.
Now, onto today:
Ah Friday... first read through the puzzle netted me AGA... and that's it... and I wasn't even sure about that. I guess this type of thing brings longtime solvers joy -- the not knowing, the fight, the dreary specter of failure, the knowing full well the answer is sitting right there in the other window called "Google," but not going there because it's so Cheaty McCheaterpants and there's a pretty good chance you're gonna know Eva Peron's maiden name... I mean who doesnt?
Fought my way through it. I guess someday I will grow more accustomed to hideous things like TOGAED, NUHUH, and the runaway winner of most important varmint this week, STOAT.
Ended up researching TUMS, ULAN, and DUARTE. Apparently I don't know any words with U in them. Had INIT for INTO making RED TIDES and ASOCIAL hard to see.
Yays and boos:
I think the puzzle is almost entirely a yay, except my brain got body slammed, so I am on concussion protocol and my opinions have been benched.
Uniclues:
1 What fuddy-duddies bring to the party.
2 Strawberry fan's reaction to an outrageous suggestion.
3 Luthier's assessment of a broken lyre.
4 The dude who smells like Kentucky Fried Chicken in the back room of the recording studio.
5 Every Craigslist ad according to legend.
6 Robert Burns at an Animal House party.
7 Summer drama camp counselor's advice to an eight year old.
8 Asian acne.
9 Defeated fancy ferret.
1 STATUS QUO IN TOW
2 LEMON CURD? NUH UH!
3 "IT'S TOO BAD, ERATO"
4 AUDIO ART EDITOR
5 CLEAN STOLEN CAR
6 SCOT TOGAED
7 NURTURE EMOTING
8 THAILAND BLOTCH
9 OUTRACED STOAT
Got up one morning to find a wasp nest about the size of two footballs hanging from the eave of our front porch, accompanied by hundreds of wasps. I started calling around to find anyone who removed these things but got nowhere. We had to use the back door to go into and out of our house. The next morning, gone ! The wasps had apparently only planned on staying one day and had dismanteled their home and taken it with them.
It's hard to make a convincing argument when quoting a statistic of "four to ten thousand". And I'm not sure dog breeders should be blamed for the number of dogs euthanized.
Liked this way more than Rex. When "ulan" is the first answer you know for sure, you know you're in for a battle. Took me forever to see "arteditor", and should have nailed "status quo" off the get but had to come back to that corner for the finish. Good Friday, IMO.
I convinced myself that 9D (Book agent?) was ODDSTAKER, which led me to believe that the Drugstore brand name must be BUTS (maybe some kind of wipe?). Consequently, I had QUBIB, which seemed like it could be right, though I had a nagging suspicion that it ought to end in BIT. Took me quite a while to realize it was ODDSMAKER, which revealed TUMS (duh). Otherwise no major problems. I agree that it was on the challenging side.
Sorry, "Rex," but you're going to see QUBIT more and more often---quantum computing is and will continue to be the hot ticket in tech. By the way, "techy folks" enjoy solving crossword puzzles, too.
10 U’s. You don’t see that every day in the NYTX. It is still the rarest of the AEIOU group today, but I cannot remember the last time we had this many U’s in the puzzle.
I liked it more than Rex. What surprises me is that his built like a Saturday puzzle is supported by xwordinfo.com. I clicked in the “analyze this puzzle” button and five of six elements measured are closest to the Saturday average. It felt Fridayish enough to me. I guess it’s a sense people more deeply involved in construction of puzzles pick up on quicker. Anyway, I still found it to be a pleasant Friday puzzle.
@Greater Fall… - “Delicate” can also reference appearance.
@Anon9:36/7:41 - 🤣😂🤣 - For Future Reference.- Clues work for an instance, not all instances. Feel free to complain when “Red fruit” leads to “cherry” (thanks @whoever came up with this example) but Cherries are indeed a red fruit sometimes. Not all red fruits are cherries nor are all cherries red, but it still works. This is actually a very common cluing ploy, especially later in the week.
@Joaquin - I think both the Mission and the valley have been in the puzzle recently… Oops, the Santa Ynez Mountains were in the puzzle a few times lately, the last in 2019. 2012 is the last time the valley was the clue. The last time the Mission was the clue was 2011, but there are more INES clue options.
@NYDenizen - That ship is well under weigh. Think of the word “one” when used as an individual of a vaguely indicated group : anyone at all and recognize that this is already an established usage for “you.” That’s One definition 2a at Merriam-Webster. 2b is used as a third person substitute for a first person pronoun, which is how Rex is using “you.” Let me encourage you to look up “you” at Merriam-Webster and scroll down to read the history of how it has been used. After which I will happily point you toward some other windmills at which thou canst tilt.
@egs
The difference between the names of the dorms based on gender gave me a giant belly laugh. Thank you.
Whatsername (10:03) - Thanks for the plug for that great designer dog the RES-CUE. Somehow this breed just knows that you, their rescuer, has done them the ultimate favor and they love you accordingly.
Depending on whose numbers you believe, there are approximately one million or more shelter dogs euthanized annually in the US. Do a mitzvah and save one!
This was the type of puzzle I felt SO proud I finished without a cheat, felt good that @Rex found it medium-challenging, then felt kind of bad when he dubbed it mostly a bit of a “drag.” I will say that today the fact I work on the app, and not as GOF intended, helped tremendously…URANUS in, URANUS out…then in, plus the SAME for ERATO. Also count me in as one of the folks who had POET before SCOT. The NW was the last to fall for me since I apparently have a hole in my geography knowledge that AMSTEL is a river. So boring to @Rex, but I got enjoyment from cracking this puppy!
Interesting to see KLEENEX clued in its (USA) “genericized” way. Does that mean it doesn’t get counted as PPP? 🤔
"TOGA ED" is the fun guy at the frat parties.
Medium-tough. BITON and QUBIT were WOEs, as well as NEMO and MIR as clued. ich before MIR made the SW the toughest corner. Solid (with the possible exception of TOGAED), but I agree with @Rex that it was “not a ton of fun.” Didn’t hate it.
I dunno--finished this in just 2 minutes over my Friday best time, with no help from Google. As they say in textspeak, YMMV.
One more thing: proper speech now is "mix" instead of "mutt" for a dog (I suppose it could be a cat) of mixed breed lineage.
I would have loved this one regardless, because it was so exciting to guess STATUS QUO with no crosses. But unlike Rex, I am looking for challenge more than flow, and this one had it. And the 8s and 9s may or may not have been eye-popping, but they were definitely fresh. A fine puzzle despite TOGAED.
BTW, I'm not a doctor, but I have a scalpel. I bought it for an online botany class, which I never completed, but I suppose that means botanists use them.
I don't understand why anyone would want to cross a Bichon with a Coton de Tulear. They are essentially the same dog- small, white, fluffy lap dog. I understand people cross poodles with every breed to cut down on shedding. I know what a Coton is, we used to dogsit a lot here and had 2 different clients with them. The ones we watched were the worst dogs we ever had the displeasure of caring for. They were so nervous that they had massive bowel issues. The one family used to hire us for 3 hour intervals because it couldn't be left alone. He got so sick here, I had the owner pick him up early. Obviously I know that's just an anecdote, and they could very well be wonderful dogs. Even knowing what a Coton is, didnt help me figure out what the TON in BITON was.
TUMS! I was going through a Sam's Club sized bottle every week but I haven't taken one since my hernia and GERD surgery 7 months ago!
Rex has said that he writes this blog in a very casual, conversational way and that his scholarly prose is in an extremely different style.
Thx, Kyle, for this excellent Fri. workout! :)
Tough.
As hard as it gets for a Fri. Double my avg time.
The NW was almost undoable, but STATUS QUO finally got the job done!
Great way to start the solving day; loved it! :)
@okanaganer (2:19 PM yd)
Thx, I was lucky, altho it did seem plausible sound-wise to similar words.
___
yd g -11 (took forever to get to g; missing one word for pg. This may be a hint to take a break from SB for a while.)
Disremembered this 6er from last Sat. QB streak ended at 22.
W: 4* / WH: 2 / Sed: 18 / Duo: 34
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
FH
Fun and on the easy side for me and, sorry, but it did flow.
It's amusing in a way but also annoying how Rex and others bitch-and-moan about 'poor clues' just because they didn't know the relevant words (thinking QUBIT, TESLA, PAPERWASP, etc.) Many of us don't know all the rap artists used as answers, or second-rate poets, or obscure characters in medieval plays - - mud we muddle through, thinking, "Well, that's part of the challenge and the pleasure of a crossword puzzle".
Have a rotten day!
Still think there should be a Pekingese in there somewhere, but no French connection? French Bullnese?, don’t go there.
Very easy for me on a Friday, although I agree with much of what Rex has to say. BTW, I have a degree in Computer Science had a 30 year + career in the field, but QUBIT is new to me.
I take an origami class and last week we learned to make PAPER WASPs.
This took me a few minutes longer than my average for a Friday. That would put it in the low end of the Saturday range. QUBIT and BITON we're unknown but the crosses were fair. I had URANIA before URANUS. That's a bit ironic as someone else has pointed out that URANIA is also a muse. My trivia knowledge is often vague I just try similar pieces until I find what fits.
yd -5, one was an unknown pangram a couple of words I knew but couldn't spell them and once again I forgot a common flowering shrub
Volunteer EMT here. Pretty much any medically trained person who interacts regularly with patients uses a penlight, mostly to gauge pupillary response in connection with doing a neurological assessment.
Another "keep the faith" puzzle for me. No section was easy and I kept looking for toeholds everywhere. On most answers I required at least one filled-in letter. Very few exceptions: DOTE; TOTE; STIRS; SAY GRACE. That's about it.
Never heard of a PAPER WASP. If it can sting me, I don't care how "delicate" its nest is. I really don't.
I thought RED TIDES were a bad thing. A very bad thing indeed. "Colorful blooms along the coast" make them sound like a highly desirable thing of great beauty.
The best clue in the puzzle, the one for KLEENEX, was "spoiled" for me since I already had the "K" and therefore KLEENEX was a slam-dunk.
A BITON is a cross between a bichon and what? (Never mind, I'll go read the blog now.)
NUHUH shouldn't be allowed, but other than that, this was a nice challenging Friday. Although maybe MIR didn't have to be clued in...German. The NYT expects me to speak SO many languages -- it's really getting quite silly:)
@Joker (11:29) - If you are interested in origami, there is an informative series on the subject available on tv. It's on a Paper View channel.
Well put. Not delicate at all. Impressively sturdy.
I sort of understand what you’re saying with DRUm as a possibility — but really, DRUB is the objectively better answer. You would “DRUm” someone out of town, metaphorically I guess, but DRUB doesn’t require a strained interpretation like that. I didn’t consider DRUm there and so I just got BITON from the crosses.
Tom T 10:25. We lived in Sequim on Bell Hill, northfacing, for 17 years.
Great views. Enjoy.
@albatross (10:35) Not sure I meant anything, just an expression I suppose. But that’s interesting about Shortz, good to know.
@Joaquin (10:51) “They love you accordingly.” Yes they do and yes, they definitely know. I had a little Yorkie who came from a puppy mill and had never walked on grass before because she had lived her entire life in a cage. She was filthy, smelly, matted, and the most beaten down, defeated creature I have ever seen. Heartbreaking. But what a joy it was to watch her blossom once she began to feel secure. It took a full six months before she would voluntarily approach me but once she did, we shared a bond that I have never felt with any other pet, and I’ve had a lot of them.
So I went to bed early last night.... slept 10 hours and felt I needed a DOTE of smiles. My eyes were very blurry as I perused the crossword. First words out of my mouth? WHAT THE HELL.....I'll go fix myself a LEMON CURD tart to pucker up.
I know what a provocateur is and I know what STATUS QUO means. But the cluing felt tres vague. Do I really have to cheat on 1A? Yes...and don't be ashamed. So then I'm trying for the downs. Cheat, cheat, erase, erase, sigh, sigh. TOTEMIC? I never would hire one. QUBIT? If URANUS needs KLEENEX or, say, some TUMS to wipe away the little ughness here and there, so be it. And so it went.
Like @Rex, I look forward to a Good Friday. I want you to slap my happy and my clam, and find something that will fancy my tickle. TOGAED, PAPER WASP and BITON were escorted out of my bar for being ambiguous. Or maybe because I didn't like what they wore. Just one smile I ask....Instead I got a boatload of NUHUHs.
Sorry...this one wasn't for me.
PS...at least there is @egs to give me a laugh or two. AND...I loved @whatsername's RES and CUE.
I've forgotten how to SAY GRACE....
thank you. i found your Cotin lesson for today more interesting than the puzzle itself.
What I said, as I finally filled in NUHUH: "By George, I think I've got it!" Which leads, of course, to wondering when folks started saying, "by George". It's in My Fair Lady, and maybe in Shaw's play, and I suppose it's because 19th Century folks were very averse to uttering the name of God outside of purely religious contexts. Why George? I am guessing because St George, legendary slayer of dragons, is the patron saint of England.
But I digress. I love to digress. This was a fiendishly difficult puzzle. I only survived because, with a cross or two, I got GODSPEED, which is Well Clued IMHO. Now as a native Californian, I know about Mission Santa INES and have been there. California schoolchildren traditionally learn the names of all the Missions, and very often live near one that they can easily visit on field trips or with their parents.
I also know that INES is in southern and Latin American Spanish totally interchangeable with Ynez. Ynez automatically has the stress on the second syllable, while in Castilian Spanish, INES requires an accent mark over the E. So for the original Spanish settlers, Ynez was simpler than INES. The Santa Ynez Valley is quite lovely, and if you take that California trip, you want to spend time there. Everyone likes to go to nearby Solvang, famous for its Danish heritage (and pastries).
The toughest answer for me was NUHUH. I guess folks say it but I never do. Next toughest was remembering EVA Peron's maiden name, and I like "maiden name", because it is traditional and a lot clearer than any substitute. In theory, all first-time BRIDES are maidens, which does mean virgins, though I don't think I've met any ladies of my generation who were maidens, in that sense. Quite different for folks in my parent's generation, even the men were often virgins, and the women usually were.
Actually, DEI Fratelli was tough too. For some reason, I only buy Ragu, or occasionally some local, craft-y tomato sauce. I don't think I've even seen it.
Yep, agree mostly w/🦖.
Difficult for me with only a few fun rewards that have been mentioned- including STOLENCAR and GODSPEED that seem to go together nicely if not legally…..so WHOSNEXT
Liked the clue for KLEENEX.
GODSPEED, y’all
🤗🦖🦖🦖🤗
Oh and TOTAL 👎🏽 For TOGAED.
No, just no! 😂
I thought this was fine. I'm fine when a puzzle doesn't have eye-popping! memorable! (frequently: stupid!) answers. This provided a nice degree of difficulty.
Soundtrack notes:
"Bei MIR Bist Du Schön" ("To Me You Are Beautiful") was a Yiddish theater song that became the Andrews Sisters' first big hit in 1937 with English lyrics added by Sammy Cahn and the title Germanized.
And kicking off today's festivities is this memorable psychedelic hit from 1968. The wah-wah guitar background part was removed for the stereo version for some reason. (Related anecdote: When I worked at MCA we administered the copyright, and the manager of the band Camper Van Beethoven called me to request a copy of the sheet music because the band wanted to cover it but they couldn't understand any of the lyrics. Here's their version.)
So this puzzle went to geography instead of the brewery (Amstel) and Disney (Nemo), and science instead of the car (Tesla). And then away from sexism in science* (Crick) to a pain in the back. Refreshing. Very nice. A beautiful mind at work here.
Tesla broke it open with the A this morning. It sounded like a title he’d come up with (if he actually did).
First Lady was tricky. Wanted Mamie Doud Eisenhower, one of only two first ladies whose birth name I know (Eleanor doesn’t count).
Should’ve known Area Map because I’ve worked on those blocks that pop up when you google a business. Duh.
If you found it dull, you may have missed what was going on. Much appreciated Kyle Dolan.
*Yes, yes we’ve already argued this point here so I won’t revisit.
nuh yep. Kinda tricky. Lotsa ?-marker clues, bulgin handful of no-knows, tons of longballs (cuz only a 68-worder). Challengin but mostly fair. M&A can forgive a lot, to a puzgrid with The Jaws.
Only 6 weejects, sooo … staff weeject pick: UNO. Admire its taste in vowels.
TOTEMIC, huh? Probably a variant of the more better-well-known TOTEMISH, TOTEMESQUE, and TOTEMALOGOUS versions. But certainly inferable. Except for the mysterious Point NEMO part, I'd grant.
a few faves: NUHUH. BLOTCH. WHOSNEXT. SYLVAN. ODDSMAKER. STATUSQUO. KLEENEX clue (funnier than snot).
Bigtime mongrel no-know: BITON. Have known me my share of bitin-on doggies, tho.
DEI Fratelli sauce sounds catchy. Coulda told M&A is was IED Illetarf sauce, tho -- and I'da been none the wiser.
Thanx for the TETONic quantum bit-on of a challenge, Mr. Dolan dude.
Masked & Anonymo10Us
**gruntz**
"My favorite designer dog is a cross between RES and CUE. You can find this breed at shelters everywhere and there’s likely one just waiting to adopt you."
What a great comment, @Whatsername. I love it.
But I also really like @burtonkd's observation at 10:26. Namely that every kind of dog breed known to man was a "designer dog" at one time. And I'd add that even our newest mixes -- the goldendoodle, the cockapoo, the puggle -- are really just...dogs. With their own special personalities, sense of play, desire to please, and unfailing devotion to the members of our own exceedingly fallible species. Does that adorable labradoodle puppy think of himself as having been "designed"? Should we? Isn't that an unfair prejudice we might call "breederism"?
Eventually, dear lovable "designer dog", you'll make it into the Westminster show and all will be hunky-doggy.
I seem to be the only one of us fascinated by Point NEMO. Another way to think of it. If you are at Point Nemo, and you sail in ANY direction for 1600 miles, you won't came to any piece of land.
Don’t you just love it when, in checking your puzzle, you get to the bottom row with a perfect grid only to have an error at the absolute end? Sigh . . . PiNLIGHTS crossing DUARTi. Oh, well. I enjoyed this. Found it quite challenging. Favorite clueing on KLEENEX.
@erics 6.36 wait what? was it an excavation of a kennel ? did him bring a dead dog home ?
I've been meaning to ask NYC print subscribers:
For about the last two months I've gotten a barrage of emails from the Times about a potential late delivery, along the lines of:
Dear Subscriber,
Your delivery may be delayed today for the following reason:
General Delay
While you may receive your New York Times on time, the new estimated completion time for delivery in your area will be 08:00 AM EDT, Friday, July 08, 2022.
Is anyone else experiencing this? I get these messages at least 3 or 4 times a week. Normally the delivery seems to be on time, though often I don't go downstairs to get it until after noon.
I live in wasp country and it is very useful to know the difference between yellowjackets and PAPER WASPS. Note: they look very similar!
Yellowjackets build nests in the ground. They fly in fast, random zigzags; they are aggressive particularly in August-September, when they will sting you as soon as look at you. I have been stung by them many many times, usually when I didn't even know they were there.
Paper wasps build those light paper nests. They fly kind of lazily (their legs hang down when they fly!... good way to ID them quickly), are really mild mannered and they worst they have ever done to me is accidentally bump into me.
Typeover: RED ALGAE before RED TIDES (I think they're the same thing).
[Spelling Bee: yd g-5, missing 1 pangram. A frustrating one; all words I actually knew but I just got tired of trying. @bocamp, I don't feel so bad now.]
Quite possibly the worst clued puzzle ever, if not, than in recent memory. I can just see the constructor thinking “Ooh, good one, they’ll never figure that out”.
I think I'm certified a Dog Person (volunteer with rescue; owned dogs most of my life; had subscription to Dog Fancy magazine as a kid and read AKC books for fun) and I had no idea what a BITON is. So Rex (which is often clued aa "a friend of Fido and Fifi"), you're in the clear on that.
I hope I remember Evita's pre-marriage last name in the future. Natal last name?
Did get "Es tut mir leid" but that's only because I took 6 years of German. The Jewish side of my family was nonplussed by my choice of German rather than Spanish or French. "Why would you do that?!" Eventually they landed on the idea that I took it to be "different" but the real answer was that it was easy. Der Mann? Das Hand? Sign me up!
@okanager - If you ever do get stung by the wasp, yeowww!
@Joe D
I subscribe to and get home delivery but haven't experienced that problem.
I live in Manhattan.
Maybe it's your delivery service.
@Joe D --
Like @JC66, I too live in Manhattan and have not been getting any of the warnings you've been getting.
I do however get "your paper may be delayed today due to" emails from time to time. I've also had actual delays or missed deliveries from time to time as well. The really diabolical aspect of this is that I've never had a delay alert email on the same day I've had an actual delay or missed delivery and, conversely, I've never had an actual delay or missed delivery on the same day I got an email alert.
Go figure.
@okanaganer, oh man oh man you are right about yellow jackets! I’ve been lucky enough to not have a nest in my yard BUT both times I have been stung I was minding my own business walking down a city sidewalk during the “season” when they prowl around trash cans looking for soft drink cans. It feels like you’ve been cut with a shard of glass. The last time it happened I felt a bit wonky for a bit so I may try to get an epipen. @burtonkd…yellow jackets actually ARE wasps…they just look like bees…and I have to say all the other wasps I see just kind of float around minding their own business as long as you don’t bother them. And I give them ALL a wide berth.
@Mathgent, the Point Nemo thing DOES fascinate me but it also sends a bit of a shudder down my spine!
Qubit: Rex is ignorant of most science terms but he thrives on trite trivia of popular culture. Widen your horizons, man.
Offering a correction on a throwaway joke is a total buzzkill move, but Bess Truman is the wrong decade! You want Mamie Eisenhower.
Also this puzzle was blerghhhh. Not because it was hard for me (it was!) but because as Rex noted it was a dreary slog. Give me a TUMS!
@Joe Dipinto:
I live in Westchester and get these notices occasionally (maybe once/month). More often I experience what @Nancy experiences -- an unexplained late delivery or no paper at all. And last week when we were away for a long holiday weekend, we suspended delivery for four days using the online portal, only to find all four papers waiting for us when we returned. So, clearly some challenges between the NYT and whatever delivery service they use up my way.
Eva DUARTE was a gimme but only because I memorized the entire soundtrack to the show Evita.
A tango singer found out! A Tango singer- Augustin Magaldi, who had the distinction of being the first man to be of use to Eva Duarte....and the way he sings "Eva Duarte" in a very low note makes it stick with you! Tra LaLa my shower singing coming in handy!
That line is from "On this Night of 1000 Stars."
You could have used a Double "The Jam" in your post, with "It's Too Bad" being the second song.
@burtonkd and @Beezer... I have read that paper wasps actually do have a painful sting; I've just never had one because they're generally so placid. Once I felt something land on the top of my head, so thinking it was a bit of tree junk I reached up and picked it up to look at it. A paper wasp! I let go and it flew lazily away.
@B Right There:
I'm not a fan of mixing breeds and calling them anything other than 'adorable mutt'.
Then you'd likely only like the proto-dog from some time after the last ice age (or thereabouts) since all breeds resulted from the domestication of said proto-dog, aka docile wolf, and thence 'breeding' in and out certain characteristics from certain existing breeds. Kind of like humans. Eugenics for fun and profit.
@mathgent:
The computer program that pinpointed it must be massive.
nope. so long as each spot of land, which hasn't been known about since Columbus, aka having a known distance from mainland is noted, you've eliminated the entire Atlantic, Arctic, Indian, and Caribbean from consideration. it's a simple (relatively) triangulation maximization program. since the largest (semi-)confined ocean is the Pacific, and holds the longest distance between continents the answer has to be there. and since you already know the maximum distance between historically mapped land points, that's the edged of the radius from some point in the Pacific to South America, Australia, and Asia. the tough part is getting the GPS data.
@M. Welby:
or some substitute
well, yeah. the one my doc uses doesn't look anything like a pen. it looks like a tinkers' hammer.
Beezer, Burkonkd et al,
Yep, yellow jackets are wasps. But not at all the same as paper wasps. As for looking like bees, we’ll… um no. Kind of like Cdill52 (whatever ), and her vireos.
If you take the time to look you’ll note one of the -easy-to-see anatomical differences between bees and wasps: hair. Yeah, bees are fuzzy, wasps are not.
There’s also the tell tale anatomy. Wasps have incredibly tiny waists. You’ve no doubt heard the term wasp-waisted? It isn’t misplaced. Want to know where the name Vespa—- as in scooter— comes from. Yeah, The Family Vespinae.
But go ahead, flame away. Tell me I’m wrong
. BTW, was enjoying red eyed vireos singing at Bombay Hook NWR yestaerday. Not a holly in sight.😉
@10:42:
quantum computing is and will continue to be the hot ticket in tech.
ah, yes. the latest Best Thing Since High Button Shoes. will flame out just like crypto. fact: a quantum computer can't solve a deterministic problem any better than the current crop. and lots of problems can't be solved by one at all, to acceptable degree of accuracy. those that may be amenable to quantum computing are few and far between. remember when 'parallel computing' was going to solve Moore's Law? turns out there are few to none embarrassingly parallel problems. didn't happen, and won't. physicists can't reconcile relativity with quantum mechanics; I doubt a bunch of coders can do any better.
Eva Duarte, better known as Eva Perón, First Lady of Argentina. Aka Evita. Nothing to do with Bess Truman
I liked this one just fine. PAPER WASP won me over early. I grew up in SYLAN Tennessee countryside and learned at a young age to avoid all kinds of WASP, bee, hornet, etc., NESTs. This lesson was driven home when, at around seven or eight, as I was going into a tool shed that had a low metal roof and two by four rafters, I was stung by a PAPER WASP. It came straight down and stung me on the side of my nose, about half way between the bridge and end. They may look harmless as they casually fly about but, let me tell yous, when defending their NESTS, they have a quick, fierce attack and enormously painful sting.
The entire right side and part of the left side of my face swelled up to a cartoonish level that lasted for a couple of days. When my friends and relatives saw me, they would burst out laughing and say something to make fun of my humiliation. But, hey, getting stung or bitten by something was a commonplace growing up in the country so I took it all in stride.
When I first heard "Flashbulb memory" (remember flashbulbs?) that episode came vividly to mind.
I've experienced RED TIDES. They're awful. The smell reminds me of tear gas. A RED TIDE is also called a "harmful algal bloom" or a HAB.
I like both STATUS QUO and its "provocateur" clue. Both of these have enormous Venn Diagram Circles with an enormous numbers of overlapping terms. I would assign a subjective score of "very interesting" to these. I like interesting stuff in puzzles.
There was a time when knowing world rivers and Greek mythology was helpful in solving xword puzzles, so it was nice to see AMSFEL, URANUS and ERATO. Finding out that ERATO was the great-granddaughter of URANUS was bonus.
Yes, I did notice that S in the lower rightmost square where one is most likely to be seen but that did not significantly detract from my thoroughly enjoying this very fine puzzle.
Did the puzzle with my coton snuggled up beside me, but BITON checked my "something new I learned today" box
@anonymous 4:13…lol, ok, I’ll bite! Yes, I know about “wasp waist” and “bees are hairy,” etc. would you grant the fact that (at least in my territory) yellow jackets are black and yellow striped, which is why many peeps mistake them for bees, plus the fact they are not quite as “wasp waisted” as mud daubers and most other wasps?
If I really cared to remember how to create a hyperlink on this site I’d send you the evidence that red eyed vireos DO breed in OK (and Texas) to support CDilly. I mean OK DOES have areas with tall trees…Hey. I’ve never seen one and I live WAY north of OK but it is NOT like saying you’ve seen “tons” of cottonmouth water moccasins in the northern peninsula of Michigan. Anyone who has actually seen a red-eyed vireo IRL is lucky wherever they live.
14D should have clued "Album with cover picture depicting four streams running down the side of a concrete wall."
anon 4:13, beezer, okanaganer:
Who would win between a wasp and a red-eyed vireo?
I did know the difference between yellow jackets and paper (or other lazy flying) wasps - but didn't thinking about both being wasps, so thanks for that. I learned recently that a chipmunk is a squirrel, as is a woodchuck.
I have been stung by many a yellow jacket in NY and NC. I was walking down a deck with no idea that a paper wasp nest was attached to the bottom of a step. That sting definitely seemed more painful, although not as painful as a wasp on Big Island, which felt like something between getting jabbed with a 4 inch needle and a gunshot (although I'll have to stick with my imagination for that one for now).
Vespa is named after the wasp, but more for the sound than the svelte middle. Now that I think of it, I don't think I've heard a wasp, other than maybe around the hive? Possible misnomer?
@whatsername
The repeating answers stuff is just my observation based on puzzles in the NYT. The reasons for it are my creations. To my knowledge Shortz has never commented on it in any way at all. Many here have noted that it seems to be a frequent occurrence.
@JC, @Nancy, @Sir Hillary —
Thanks. I checked my inbox and since May 1st I've gotten 23 of these emails. What I just noticed though is that the "estimated completion time" is usually only an hour later than the normal delivery time, which I believe used to be 7 am (today it says it will come by 8 am).
Are all these alerts really necessary? Maybe some of my screechy Park Slope neighbors have complained at 7:02 that their paper hasn't arrived —I wouldn't put it past them— so the emails are pre-emptive strikes.
And yes, occasionally the paper doesn't show up at all and I never get an alert when that happens.
@anon 5:05 Go back and try reading the last line in the blog, the one with the asterisk, under Rex's signature.
@burtonkd, it really doesn’t matter that you didn’t know a yellow jacket was a wasp. And I cannot tell you whether a yellow jacket is worse than any other wasp. I can only tell people that if you are near a public trash receptacle in oh, let’s say Illinois, Indiana, or Ohio (did I disguise this?) in August…be careful because, even if you are not near a yellow-jacket nest, they are “crazy” during this time, and I feel like they just sting for the helluvit!
Hence the clarification ("I'm sorry", in German)
PAPER WASPs are familiar residents here -- some summers they build their delicate nests way up in the eaves of our house, as others have noted. And sometimes they build the nests under one of the Adirondack chairs on the back deck -- and hilarity ensues, to quote the "Greatest Crossword Solver in the Universe."
As bad as RED TIDES are, the clue was a great "bloom" misdirect -- possibly my favorite clue/answer combo today.
@Rex, thanks for The Jam -- a band I just keep coming back to.
@Joaquin 11:48 - That is awful. I loved it.
@Beezer 10:52 - I would count KLEENEX as PPP no matter how it was clued.
@webwinger - My two don't care either way as long as they get fed on time and enough exercise.
@mathgent and @anon4:07 - I feel like a really good map (well, globe probably) and a compass would be enough.
@Paperback Writer - I think you missed part of the clue: pre-marriage name of a 1940s-'50s first lady. That would be Bess, not Mamie.
@albatross shell & @whatsername - Shortz is on record somewhere a long time ago that those dupes are coincidental. I did not believe it until I started doing lots of non-NYTX puzzles. I have had an unusual entry appear in the NYTX and then happen to solve a two month old puzzle from some other source that I hadn't gotten to and that randomly have that same unusual entry (by "unusual" I mean something like DUARTE, although I don't recall specifics now). That makes me believe Shortz' previous assertion.
@Nancy (1:07) Thanks and you are absolutely right. They are all adorable, no matter what we call them.
@okanaganer (2:15) I did not know that about the different patterns of flight between the wasp and a yellow jacket, good info. The paper wasps build nests around my storage shed every year but I let them be. As you said, they almost say excuse me when they bump into you.
I got stuck because I was convinced that 34D was MAGIC HAT. It would have been a better clue for that answer too, since you literally pull of a hat.
I like to read the comments on difficult days to see the people claiming how easy it was. Having never heard of a Bichon Frise or Coton de Tulear, and not being a dog person, why would EVER know BITON. Lots of PPP and a few MEH words that were just clued ambiguously makes it a tough puzzle but not a clever one. I have finished some Fridays and and say 'Oh, now I get it', but today I just said NUHUH (one of the suckiest answers in the puzzle).
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thought this was harder than rex thought.
Challenging. Not medium-challenging. QUBIT was pretty cruel. Had roadMAP before AREAMAP, NUHUH is an epic fail and should never see the light of day on a NYT crossword. Same with TOGAED. This one just leaves me feeling NUMB. ITSTOOBAD the standards have SLID so much for the Gray Lady lately. OK. WHOSNEXT?
PS - Wondering what Burma is going to do with 8D…
ASOCIAL WAIF
IT’STOOBAD, the STATUSQUO,
and RARE when EVA’s INTO sex:
STOLEN moments ON AUDIO,
EMOTING EVA cries, “WHO’SNEXT!?”
--- INES DUARTE
Challenge accepted
NUMB AREA
There’s no IRONRULE to this MAGICACT,
the ODDSMAKERs SAY IT’S famous;
NURTURE that BLOTCH, DOTE ON this fact:
I SLID a KLEENEX out URANUS.
--- SCOT TESLA
This guy saw me coming. "Don't like the NW, eh? Wait'll you get a load of THIS!" Rest of the puzzle, medium. NW? IMPOSSIBLE! DNF. QUBIT indeed. Wordle par. That is all.
NW did take some time to suss out, in large part due to Burns being a poeT for longer than he was a SCOT
Wordle par
Why does LEMONCURD sound just, well, awful. A desert? I'll pass.
Did passably on this puzzle, but had a couple of "huh?"s QUBIT is not the measure Noah used, right?
Diana, LIW
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