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Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: PUPUSA (42A: Thick tortilla that's the national dish of El Salvador) —
A pupusa is a thick griddle cake or flatbread from El Salvador and Honduras, made with cornmeal or rice flour, similar to the Venezuelan and Colombian arepa. In El Salvador, it has been declared the national dish and has a specific day to celebrate it. It is usually stuffed with one or more ingredients, which may include cheese (such as quesillo or cheese with loroco buds), chicharrón, squash, or refried beans. It is typically accompanied by curtido (a spicy fermented cabbage slaw) and tomato salsa, and is traditionally eaten by hand. (wikipedia)
• • •
If ever in a comedy somebody tells a character or a group of characters to move/turn left, you can bet the character/one or more of the group will go right instead, prompting the phrase, "Your other left!" (Or they correctly turn left, at which point the first character realizes that they actually meant to say "right" and tries to cover with the same phrase.)
If this doesn't happen, it's usually replaced with a confused exchange about "My left or your left?", even if the characters are facing the same way. [...] To be entirely fair, though, it's not like this doesn't actually happen with an alarming regularity in real life. We're just talking about its predictable appearances on TV. For some reason, it's always "your other left," never "your other right", even though you'd think both occur equally often in Real Life [...]. A likely explanation is that most people, being right handed/right dominant, will default to the right when confused, prompting "The other left". (tvtropes.com) (emph. mine)
So I like / love the energy of the answer, but primarily it's the energy of the answer that isn't actually there, the correct one, the "LEFT" one. And as for "WHAT ELSE IS LEFT?" ... it's a plausible question, yes, but it does quite crackle with slangy specificity of, say "WHAT ELSE IS NEW?" I actually wanted "WHAT ELSE IS THERE?" to go in here, but as with "YOUR OTHER LEFT," it just didn't fit. What I'm saying is that there's a nice colloquial feel here, but the whole "theme" angle ... it doesn't really feel like they nailed it.
The NW corner is dull by comparison to the rest. I love RESCUE DOGs, but the NE corner isn't doing a hell of a lot either. Things get much more interesting down below—also a little trickier. I really had to hang on to my hat there at the end, with SLUICE sluicing down through *three* blank squares to complete the grid. I don't think of the LINK as the "invite"—it takes you *to* the invite, but the LINK itself doesn't really invite you. Never heard of PUPUSA but after reading about them (above) they're all I want to eat right now. As for Buck O'NEIL, once again I apologize to him for not knowing for sure if he's an -AL O'Neal or an -IL O'NEIL (also couldn't have told you for sure if he's a one-L O'NEIL or a two-L O'NEILL ("he's a beast!"). Blanked on LUNA, which seems absurd, in retrospect, since they're practically handing you the sun/moon thing in the clue (34D: Sibling of Sol, in Roman myth). Thought 11D: Cross was a verb and so had ANGER before ANGRY ... which doesn't even make sense, now that I think of it. If you cross someone, sure, they might get angry, but "to cross" doesn't mean "to anger." Sigh. Wanted TRASH FIRES before TIRE FIRES (54A: Utter disasters), since those are the metaphorical fires I've seen referred to most on social media this past decade, but TIRE FIRES are also metaphorical disasters, so thumbs up to that answer, as well as SPACE/TIME, immediately above it (51A: Warped fabric, it's said).
Not sure why, but I'm finding "HI ALL!" an adorable (and original) little 5 (53A: Friendly start to a group email). Always nice to find a way to bring some fresh, conversational energy to short fill. And I like the clue on SLURPEE, in the sense that I like the idea of the central answer of the puzzle just making a really disruptive noise. All the artsy intellectual types and SOCIALITEs are sipping their ROSÉ and eating canapés off of TOOTHPICKs and there's probably, I don't know, some light classical playing, maybe an actual string quartet, and then in walks some leather-clad / torn-jeans rebel who plays by their own rules, fresh from the 7-11, and right in the middle of, let's say, Vivaldi's "Spring" — "SLURRRRRRRRRP!" Cue affronted glares from the liter- and glitter- and possibly even Twitterati. End scene. What, doesn't everyone create elaborate if hackneyed movie/TV scenes from the answers in their crosswords? Ah well. I yam what I yam (to quote a famous sailor, and a recent crossword). And with that, the [Early morning caller]s are calling, so it's time to take my coffee to the porch and say hello to them: Good day.
I had fun with this one - and In the Mail made me laugh. For those of you in the Los Angeles area there is a great Pupusa stand in the Grand Central Market in downtown LA.
ReplyDeleteHard to see which clue you’re mostly likely to find your support for abortion on demand in but I’m sure you’ll find it.
ReplyDeleteA good tough Friday. If this is Friday, tomorrow’s puzzle must be a bear.
ReplyDeleteIN Transit before IN THE MAIL was unfortunate but easily fixed. Nice clue for POSTS.
WHAT ELSE IS LEFT seemed awfully eat a sandwich-y to me. Words that go together, but not a strong standalone phrase.
Cross = adjective. Think "I am cross" as "I am angry."
ReplyDeleteThis was a great themeless. Cluing was clever and creative without trying to be cute. There wasn't a single clue or answer that caused my eyes to roll or my face to frown. I think @Rex liked this even more than he said. He had to dig pretty deep to come up with a rant topic.
ReplyDeleteLots of fun here and by far the best of the week. The LEFT - RIGHT subtheme was neat. I’ve heard both YOUR OTHER LEFT and YOUR OTHER RIGHT - didn’t know there was a standard.
ReplyDeleteLiked SPACE TIME - associate TIRE FIRES with The Simpsons. The SLEW x SLAW cross was a little unfortunate. ARCHES was cool - but I need a little more green.
The chicharron PUPUSAs with curtido at Nuevo Izalco in Woodside are unreal.
Spill the wine - take that PEARL
Enjoyable Friday solve.
My favorite answer was MOOED.
ReplyDeleteTough, just as I’d expect from these two guys.
ReplyDeleteLiked Tapioca, Toothpick, Tutu, Tire Fires because together they sound like a modern jump rope song (… we don’t know how to help you ‘cause we’re all new hires). For a long time, all I could think of was Dumpster Fire. Never heard of Rex’s Trash Fire (agree with @Son Volt on the Left/Right thing).
How did the word for a little mosquito become a woman’s name? In the ‘60s Mattel came up with a plain friend for Barbie named Midge. None of us wanted one. She was like the New Coke of dolls.
Some really nice cluing, constructors. Thanks for Masseuse, Toothpick, Rescue Dog, Spacetime (which my feeble brain will never grasp). Clever.
Had WHATS STILL LEFT at first.
ReplyDeleteYou (I) might expect a good score with 3 greens in your starter. You (I) might be wrong.
ReplyDeleteWordle 391 5/6
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I wrote down 13 possibilities for an Eagle but nearly lost. I still had 3 options for my 5th guess. This can be a quirky game.
@rex -- Your SLURPEE takeoff was priceless. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThis was an Edelweiss puzzle – clean and bright.
ReplyDeleteThe brightness came from answers we’ve never or hardly-ever seen in the NYT puzzle before – even TOOTHPICK is a debut, which surprised me. I loved the look and sound of new-to-me PUPUSA, another debut, and will thus remember it.
Sweet crosses of SLEW / SLAW, and RAGER / ANGRY, and an ultra-sweet PuzzPair© of RESCUE DOG / PUP USA. While YOUR OTHER RIGHT gave me a good chuckle, my absolute favorite answer was TAPIOCA PEARL which evokes beauty to me in every way. As far as clues go, among the original clues, my brain smiled at the cleverness of [They might be measured in pounds] for RESCUE DOG, as my heart smiled at the thought, after the pair of rescues who were part of my life.
There were enough footholds to get me through the grid with but a modicum of blips, until I got stuck in the SW. Finally, I emerged from that FRAY when, with a sheesh, I divorced from the sport meaning of “fencing” to get POSTS.
I loved this first collaboration of yours, Matthew and Nam Jin, and, to continue the motif I began with, may you two bloom and grow forever. Thank you!
Much more agreeable puzzle today, compared to yesterday. Did think it played on the easy side, but then got hung up on the completely unknown to me PAPUSA. So, sadly resorted to uncle g. Always like seeing RESCUE DOGS in the grids. Had FANG for TUSK at first at 27D. Which brought to mind imagery of an ANGRY RESCUE DOG snarling at his handlers who much prefer working with DOCILE BIRDS. So, yes, I, too, make up imaginary imagery stories from the answers, though nothing like OFLs SOCIALITES tableaux. A little nit, not sure that Shy = DOCILE. Thx constructors for an enjoyable start to my day
ReplyDeleteFunny, I would have said that the phrase was always "your other right"--not sure I have ever heard "your other left."
ReplyDeleteI had heard of "Dumpster Fires", "Goat Rodeos" and the like. TIRE FIRES is a new one for me - it sounds more like a controlled burn rather tan a 3-alarmer, although I'll let the H20's in the crowd offer an informed opinion on that one if they are so inclined.
ReplyDeleteI like the way Rex jumped on "OTHER Left" vs "OTHER RIGHT" - does anyone else think it really matters (and further, if it does make some sort of a difference, do you care)? I'm not being rhetorical - I'm curious as I know that some people put a lot of time and thought into ensuring that their theme (or in this case, quasi-theme) is consistent and congruent.
To me, TIRE FIRE doesn't evoke a huge conflagration, but does describe one that smells really, really, really bad.
DeleteLoved INLAW and especially the double meaning of “relatively” in the clue
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteClean, smooth Friday, except for one writeover: briarPIpe before TOOTHPICK at 27A. I was thinking of the old saying, "A pipe gives a wise man time to think and an idiot something to stick in his moutn."
It took a bit of staring for SLUICE to materialize.
@Wordler: Equally tough for me, but in a totally different way.
Wordle 391 6/6
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Agree with all the likes on this one, a Friday that knows how to Friday. Took some trial and error and some memory retrieval and that's all good. The only real unknown to me was Ms. TODD, but there's a lot of pop culture with which I am unfamiliar.
ReplyDeleteAll I could think of for a while was a samosa, but I recognized PUPUSA when it finally showed up. I'm with OFL on the ONNEAL/ONEIL dilemma, see also, Shaq.
I'm more used to YOUROTHERRIGHT when dealing with children putting on shoes or raising their hands, but it seemed more common to me than the answer ending in "left".
Just a swell Friday, MS and NJY. Mighty Snappy and No Junk Yard stuff at all. Thanks for all the fun.
Left Hand of Darkness is one of my very favorites. Excuse me now while I go read it again
ReplyDeleteEasy Friday. Loved the cluing which felt fresh and on the easier side, which I needed to compliment today’s gloomy Chicago weather. Don’t see much crosswordese which is always a pleasure (other than maybe ELBA and RIGA? I can let those slide.) Had IN TRANSIT before IN THE MAIL but no other major hangups.
ReplyDeleteIs “slurp” an instance of onomatopoeia? I wouldn’t have thought so. It refers to a noisy activity, yes, but the liquid sucking sound you make while slurping does not seem much like the sound of the word “slurp” to me. And if you go to SLURPEE, you seem even farther away.
ReplyDeleteDoesn't @Rex always prefer the LEFT?
ReplyDeleteRipped through the East, negotiated the NW, and then…. WHATELSEISLEFT? The SW:
ReplyDeleteEPEES to FOILS to, finally, POSTS. That SW roadblock cost a lot of time.
Really like YOUROTHERRIGHT.
@Anders, Fill you mouth with water, press the sides of your tongue against your top teeth with a little open space at the sides and suck, followed by immediately closing your. Now take a bow.
ReplyDelete@The Joker, That's really good.
Another nice thing about it, only nine Terrible Threes. Rare to be in the single digits.
ReplyDeleteYOUR OTHER RIGHT sounds perfectly in-language to me, but the constructor could have considered YOUR OTHER LEFT and something like THAT AINT RIGHT, and inverted their positions so that the LEFT answer was on the right and vice versa, so as to develop the mini-theme with a dumb left-right transposition joke.
ReplyDeleteWell Rex, until reading your grumble this morning I had never before heard the phrase "Your other left". So I researched: 16 billion Google hits on RIGHT and a paltry 8 billion on LEFT. Hah!
ReplyDeleteI see your research found the famous reference guide TvTropes(?) to prove your point. "Tropes" tells us the LEFT phrase originated with Indiana Jones. TvTropes clearly never met Tech Sergeant Stover who screamed "YOUROTHERRIGHT, jackoff!" at Arthur Macy when Macy turned left at the command "Column Right March" on day 3 of basic training - this well before the Jones movie. Case closed.
Unlike you, Rexford, I will allow that "your other left" probably exists out there somewhere. Just not nearly as often. Shape up.
Fun Friday, made even better by the "LEFT/RIGHT" conceit.
I almost googled in the tough SW (poles, foils, epees) but so glad I persisted, nice payoff Friday.
ReplyDeletehands up for INTransIt
@offthegrid - I agree, if I ignored the not totally unfounded but preposterous amount of wordage for creating a right/left debacle as if that were the interesting or important part of the very original answer, it was a terrific review, Rex at his best!
I couldn't get the Trump "dumpster fireside chat" phrase out of my head to see the much preferred Simpsonian Springfield tire fire.
For morning caller, I was looking for "cock" or something else a lot more specific on a Friday than BIRD, fun head slap when it came in, since most of my guesses were some kind of bird, but couldn't see it.
@ JD, I thought about that with MIDGE. Main character on Marvelous Ms Maisel goes by that, and it kind of fits the personality.
I always have a chuckle with boba tea because of a quote from Ping Pong Playa: Don't you know 'boba' is Chinese for b*obs? You drink enough of it, that's what you get. Man b*obs.
I use YOUROTHERRIGHT a surprising number of times when teaching piano; students occasionally find it amusing...
@Eric, I like your idea - save it for about 10 years and develop it when nobody remembers this one:)
I remember Kitty Carlisle from 70s gameshows always being introduced as a SOCIALITE. Term seems a little loaded (see spry) rich, connected, otherwise unemployed. I didn't learn about her distinguished career, including working with the Marx brothers, until I was a little older.
We finally get a RESCUEDOG, rather than a designer breed. Good boy!
Certainly a solid Friday and difficult for me with a few things I never heard of such as niminy piminy, bubble tea, MMA and TIRE FIRE. I don’t know about the rest of you but my utter disasters are referred to as DUMPSTER FIRES. Cute clue for RESCUE DOG but thought 12A was weird. “Relative” addition to Thanksgiving I get but why would you call an IN LAW “new?”
ReplyDeleteDid my puzzle as usual with the birds and the bees this morning but I didn’t hear a single BIRD calling other than a few geese on their way to the pond. I think the poor things are just too hot. Our forecast next week is brutal - triple digits 5 days out of 7.
Thought for the day: July is the last month of the year without football GAMES.
Note the question mark. Last year your sister's boyfriend was not an inlaw but after a summer wedding he is a "new" inlaw.
DeleteHI ALL ! (😁)
ReplyDeleteDecent FriPuz with a minimum of -ese. Never quite sure how a collaborative themeless puz works. Is it like a second opinion? A fresh set of eyes? You go back and forth cleaning up the grid? Neat they got DUET in at 1A.
SLURPEE would've been better named as SLURPAHH, you know, cause you SLURP and say "AHH, that was good!" Or maybe SLURPBRAINFREEZE.
MIDGE was a new one here. Wanted nuDGE for a bit. AMC, is that the Auto company, or the movie theater chain? Either one works as the answer, as they both have arm rests and cup holders. Although, I believe it's the movie company, as cars typically don't have cup holders in their armrests.
Too bad constructors didn't put DEADCENTER in the middle of the puz. C'mon, two people couldn't come up with that? 😁
PUPUSA took a minute, even though out here, you see PUPUSARIEs everywhere in town. (Off the strip, in the actual city of Las Vegas). Never tried one...
yd -8, should'ves 6 (some super easy ones... Ugh)
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I'm not sure if this is where the phrase originated, but when I was in Army basic training 60 years ago, they marched us everywhere. The drill sergeant would call cadence: left, right, left. Left, right, left. And when one of the trainees got out of step, the sarge would get in his face and yell YOUR OTHER LEFT.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. This comes from the military. I had the same experience in boot camp in 1977.
Deletedid @OFL miss the gag?? the LEFT answer is on the left and the RIGHT answer is on the right. the 'theme' doesn't care which answer is the dominant in the vulgate, only that it fits the grid structure.
ReplyDeleteMidges were the undoing of Joba Chamberlain as the Yankees fell to the (then) Indians in the playoffs on 10/5/2007. I've never seen anything like that.
ReplyDelete@Whatsername 9:48 - your mom, dad, and siblings are part of your Thanksgiving your whole life. Once you get married, your INLAWS become part of Thanksgiving, as well. So they are, relatively speaking, new.
ReplyDeleteSolid. Reading back through it, I find so many great words and phrases and clues, so there's plenty of joy in Mudville.
ReplyDeleteOn one hand, there's less junk in many themeless puzzles, on the other hand using phrases like WHAT ELSE IS LEFT and YOUR OTHER RIGHT as marquee answers begs the question... why?
Typical Friday not knowing stuff.
TAPIOCA PEARL
BUCK O'NEIL
PAPUSA
BEVERLY TODD
AMC
LES AMANTS
Yays:
ColeSLAW! makes yet another crossword appearance. Like blueberries and chocolate chips, it seems inescapable.
RESCUE DOG instead of the "purebred you've never heard of" of the week.
SLEW, SLAW, SLUICE.
Uniclues:
1 Tombstone reading, "They'll have to pull the electric turkey carving knife out of my cold dead hands."
2 Schumann on an electric violin.
3 Carved tiny penis inside of a carved flower on a carved headdress above a carved elder's face among many in a column.
4 Prepares to dance.
5 A small screwdriver.
6 Untying the Knot Part 2.
7 Cruz separating out the Lucky Charms marshmallows.
8 Democrats (Republicans) to childish Republicans (Democrats).
9 Make fun of a baby carriage's construction.
10 My esophagus.
11 The Moon Uncle in Fralatinish.
12 Really big pastries.
13 Scot sends regards to a Brit.
1 INLAW PROMOTION
2 SOCIALITE RAGER
3 TOTEM'S COMEDY
4 PRICES TUTU
5 RIVAL TOOTHPICK
6 MASSEUSE'S RETRY
7 O'NEIL BOWL GAMES
8 TIRE FIRES TRIBE
9 DISS PRAM POSTS
10 TAPIOCA SLUICE
11 LES LUNA TIO
12 TEAM-UP ECLAIRS
13 MIDGE IN THE MAIL
Oh, and my baseball BUCK dilemma is always ONEIL or EWING. Both played, both managed, and both are in the hall of fame.
ReplyDeleteThree letters that I had to leave unfilled in the SW. Was that a moral victory? A Pyrrhic victory? Or no victory at all? (You needn't answer that if you want to be really kind.)
ReplyDeleteBut I thought my end result would be much more of a TIREFIRE than that.
TIRE FIRES is one of the things in this puzzle I never heard. Some others that I ultimately got: YOUR OTHER RIGHT (I thought I was losing my mind on that one.) And TAPIOCA PEARL -- which sounds a lot more appetizing than "bubble tea", which sounds godawful.
Here's what I didn't get: The "K" of TURK for an incisor. To me TURK is a person, not a tooth. I kept running the alphabet with "TUR" in place and then said the hell with it.
"Modern meeting invite" is a LINK? Who wants to be invited to a LINK?
Didn't know PUPUSA, couldn't get SLUICE from the clue, and didn't know whether it was ONEAL or ONEIL. I never do for any of the ONEAL/ONEILs.
Put it all together and it adds up to three unfilled squares. I finally threw in the towel: I'd suffered enough for one morning.
Congrats to all who solved cleanly. I hope tomorrow is easier.
@Nancy 10:15 AM I also stared at TURK forever trying to get a tooth out of it too, until I remembered strangers willing to touch my body come in various genders, as does masseuse, and TUSK appeared as my final square.
DeleteWHATELSEISLEFT is a common enough phrase but I fail to find any sparkle in it. The only sparkle it may have in this puzzle comes from being companion to the sparkly YOUROTHERRIGHT.
ReplyDeleteI would have preferred if both RIGHT and LEFT were clued non-directionally or at least the same way. But they on their proper sides of the puzzle. Then again given the clue they could be on "the opposite side".
I guess Rex is correct about the LEFT-RIGHT issue, but not in my life. Being a lefty and being left-right challenged at times I have been hearing YOUR OTHER RIGHT for at least 3 plus decades.
Good Friday. Hard work and fun.
SPACETIME TIREFIRES TOOTHPICK ELECTIVES RESCUEDOG RAGER COMEDY and (as clued) INLAW ELBA all good stuff.
Easy-medium. Delightful. Gotta love puzzle with YOUR OTHER RIGHT in it!
ReplyDelete@Nancy:
ReplyDeleteIt's the second cousin, once removed, of DUMPSTER FIRE. Every now and again will be a news report of some 'tire recycling' yard, almost always on the other side of the tracks, going up in flames.
Thx, Matthew Stock & Nam Jin Yoon, for an excellent Fri. workout! :)
ReplyDeleteMed-tough.
The West coast was a real battle; not at all on its wavelength. The other 2/3s was much easier for me.
Had epeeS & fOilS before POSTS.
Always have a prob understanding the meaning of 'Oh, snap!'
DIS or DISS
"The American word meaning (1) to disrespect, abuse, or insult and (2) an act or instance of disrespect, abuse or insult was originally spelled dis when it emerged in the late 1980s. But diss has gained ground as an alternative spelling, and the two are now battling for ascendancy." (Grammarist)
Aphid before MIDGE.
TIRE-FIRE was a WOE. First cousin to a dumpster FIRE, I guess.
Loved 'Neck lines' for FRETS.
Time well spent; liked this one a lot! :)
___
Peace 🙏 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🕊
If I’ve had too much SOAVE and ASAHI I tend to do two things……SLURPEE.
ReplyDeleteWhen would you ever employ a pool stroke with a highly inclined cue? Oh, there are many MASSEUSES.
Rex can’t remember if [Buck of baseball] has an I or an A, and whether it’s one L or two. Funny that the name contains the answer to these questions. ONE IL. Feels like some sort of meta something going on there. Maybe a SPACETIME warp.
I liked this one a lot. It appropriately Fridayed for me. Thanks, Matthew Stock and Nam Jin Yoon.
@Nancy. TUSK
ReplyDeleteTotally flummox'd by "Your Other Right." Never heard of it.
ReplyDeleteWordle 391 4/6*
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How come mine says 4/6 and others 5/6 and 6/6. Are all 391's the same?
Please enjoy this 3 STOOGES SAMPLER
ReplyDeleteQue fun....Took me a while to get either my left or right sided brain to function according to the laws that be. I glanced at the constructors names and knew...just knew... I was going to be in for a good roller coaster ride.
ReplyDeleteIt was. I did.
Once I got going, I couldn't seem to stop. One might be measured in pounds was my favorite clue. It also took me the longest to finally get RESCUE DOG. Maybe had I know what a niminy piminy is, I might've rescued a bit faster.
PUPUSAs. I love those babies. I make them from scratch with masa harina. Mine are stuffed with pork shoulder butt and black beans. You can put all your LEFT overs in them and they will always taste just RIGHT (but only if you use your imagination.).....
I got SPACE TIME but I don't get it...Warped fabric?
This was going so smoothly from the beginning that a) I thought it might be a record Friday and b) I checked to see if it was a Robyn Weintraub (whose puzzles I love). Then ... I got to that SW ... wow.
ReplyDeleteI was confident that baseball's Buck was ONE_L, so -- I put the first POSTS in -- I took the first POSTS out -- I did the hokey pokey and my brain spun all about. Didn't help that I had Strait for Streaming Channel, Baby for EARLY MORNING CALLER, and (wild guess) PEtaL for PEARL. However, I persevered, and the happy music commenced when I dropped in the the 2nd P of PUPUSA.
It was a fun struggle.
@Nancy, I pondered TURK for a while myself before coming to the aha that massages are offered not only by MASSEUrES, but also by MASSEUSES. And a TUSK is a large incisor indeed.
Seems to me YOUR OTHER RIGHT/YOUR OTHER left is an absolute 50/50 proposition--kinda six of one/half dozen of the other--kinda heads/tails. I thought it was a fine answer.
@Nancy: the sizeable incisor is a TUSK, not a TUrK. That would’ve gotten you the other gender doing the massaging at 36A.
ReplyDeleteThe LINK is the invitation, aka “an invite” . I disagree with Rex on this one…every time I see blue letters in text I consider it an invitation to go check it out. No need to restrict the context to an event.
This one started out so hard for me: I couldn’t believe my first answer was a French word! Should’ve gotten 16A easily, but I was working the down clues, which misled me on “fang” for 27d, totally messing up that middle section for a while, til I got some help at NAE (which could easily have been clued as a foreign word!)
The question is, do you live IRL, or do you live in TV sitcoms? In the former, whether you say "OUR OTHER RIGHT" or left depends on the situation, and either direction is equally probable. I know this from observation as well as theory -- my wife and her eldest daughter are both prone to look/turn the wrong way, and they say these things to each other all the time. They even say them to themselves.
ReplyDelete@Nancy, I am guessing you put in MASSEUrES instead of MASSEUSES, which would have given you TUSK.
I loved the clue for 24D. I'm sure some of you have actually gone to RIGA, but the rest of us just sat there pondering Oslo, Brno, RIGA (WHAT ELSE IS LEFT in 4-letter capital land?), and waiting for crosses.
I've always wondered about the inconsistency: if they're PEARLs, why isn't it pearl tea? And if it's bubble tea, why aren't they TAPIOCA bubbles? If you know, please tell me, so that I can sleep at night.
Interesting the variety of comments on the toughness of this one. Played quite easy for me from a time perspective -- far closer to my Friday best than my Friday average. It did not feel easy, but never really got bogged down.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure I really get the clue for RESCUEDOG ("One might be measured in pounds"). I mean I get that pounds refers to dog pounds, but measured? Why would a rescue dog be measured at all? I could see measuring, e.g., the weight of a rescueD dog, but why would you measure the rescue dog. Or does measured mean "mild-tempered" here? In which case, what does being in a pound have anything to do with it? Yeah, I clearly don't get that clue.
@Son Volt (7:35) Thanks for PEARL link. That took me back.
ReplyDelete@Roo (9:48) Re HI ALL. Yes, thought of you when I saw that. For a minute there I thought maybe they were onto you. 😆
@kitshef (10:06) Yes I got that but just felt the “new” was superfluous. I guess the heat is making me cross. 🥵
As a directionally challenged person I've had YOUR OTHER RIGHT hurled at me more than once, especially by my cycling coach. He finds this phrase very clever. I think I've heard RIGHT more then LEFT but can't be sure.
ReplyDeleteAlso I do the Wordle later in the day and I read this blog first thing. When you post results so early, it gives me a hint. It's sort of a spoiler. If you could wait until later in the day, that would help. I do try to avert my eyes.
SLUICE makes me think of the hospital room where they dispose of human medical waste. I looked up the other meaning as a gate, used in wastewater treatment. Surely you wouldn't name a TVstreaming channel this, so the clue was actually excellent wordplay, if not kind of gross.
For me, a very enjoyable brain-racker. With my entry to the puzzle in the NE at RAGER x MIDGE, I solved from east to west, and by the time I'd struggled my way through the SW corner, ending with LEFT x TODD, I'd forgotten all about the long-since entered RIGHT so missed the joke. I really enjoyed the creativity and wit in the clues, my favorite, too, being the one for RESCUE DOG. I also liked the fourth Row: SOCIALITE and RAGER, in the "ne'er the twain shall meet" category. Fun puzzle!
ReplyDeleteDo-over: the misspelled MAtreSES before MASSEUSES. Help from previous puzzles: MMA, ONEIL, NAE. No idea: TODD.
Nancy 2 8.15 AM, it's a TUSK, not a TURK. Can't spell MASSEUSES?
ReplyDeleteI think us lefties tend to hear "YOUR OTHER RIGHT" more often than others, perhaps. Probably from people describing "right" as "the hand you write with" all too often.
ReplyDelete“Your other left” is from military marching, when a new recruit starts off on their right foot. One always begins marching with the left foot. So the drill sergeant gets in one’s face and yells, and everyone else stifles giggles.
ReplyDeletelike any joint, a DOG coming into a pound has some amount of its vitals measured. weight would surely be one, although a near-feral DOG would likely be seen as severely under-weight without being measured. measuring at entry gives the staff a way track weight gain and overall health. same as you going to a new/first physician. on exit it is deemed a RESCUE DOG. although I've never heard of a dog rescue org. being called a pound. pounds were always run by the town/city, and strays that ended up at one seldom left upright.
ReplyDeleteSolving this made me feel smart. I hope the feeling lasts for a while.
ReplyDeleteCount me in with those who wanted their utter disasters to be DUMPSTER FIRES. I’ve heard of TIRE IRONS and TIRE PRESSURE, but never TIRE FIRES.
Liked the LEFT and RIGHT pairing and IN THE MAIL which is a phrase I hear too often when waiting for checks. Also liked a lot of the clues, especially those for TOOTHPICK, MASSEUSES, and RESCUE DOG.
Given the puzzles many highlights, I forgive the constructors for PUPUSA crossing SLUICE and for the very idea of a TAPIOCA PEARL.
wildFIRES. Now those are utter disasters, to me.
ReplyDeleteMy boot camp experience (more than 45 years ago) was a little different from that of the other ex-military commenters. The phrase that sticks in my mind doesn’t include “other.”
ReplyDeleteWe were issued uniforms on the first day, and we had to immediately stencil them with our name and SSN (hope the Navy doesn’t make the recruits use that any longer) before we could lose them. So the instructor lined us up at tables with our uniforms and our stencils and the pots of ink and took us step by step through the process: “Now, take your right hand YOUR RIGHT HAND . . . .” He yelled the second part immediately, not waiting to see how many of us had gotten it wrong.
When it came time to march, we did that on a grinder (not a hoagie or a hero or a submarine).
Several years ago, there was a huge tire fire in Virginia that, as I recall, was impossible to extinguish; it just had to burn itself out, which took months (or maybe years).
Google gives 14k results for “your other right” and only 9650 for “your other left”
ReplyDeleteRe. Bubble tea. There are no bubbles in it. My Millennials always called it Boba Tea.
ReplyDeleteThis from the wiki, "Bubble tea (also known as pearl milk tea, bubble milk tea, tapioca milk tea, boba tea, or boba; Chinese: 珍珠奶茶
I play semi-pro tackle football--quarterback. 18 months ago I started shifting from throwing left arm to throwing right arm. It sounds easy until you realize that throwing a football is about footwork. for over two months, I couldn't figure out what foot went where as we re-wired my brain. During that awful time, my trainer used to stand there and scream "no, your other right." So, I know in some contexts Rex might be right that is gets used as "your other left," but I filled that answer right in with a wince, cause I heard it about 750 times directed right at me.
ReplyDeleteAnyone who lives in my neighborhood of Washington, DC, knows what a PUPUSA is. We have a very large Salvadoran immigrant population and there's a pupusería on every corner. You're right to salivate over the thought of them, Rex, they are great. @GILL, I never thought of trying to make them (and don't really need to when I can walk five minutes to get one) but you've made me want to try. I lived in Nicaragua, and a comparable specialty there is nacatamales. If only I could find those here.
ReplyDeleteLiked the puzzle, and I don't see the point of getting all niminy-piminy over whether YOUR OTHER LEFT or YOUR OTHER right is more common. They're equally valid whether one is use more than the other or not. And I'm going to try to fit niminy-piminy into as many conversations as I can. I'm about to go into a mid-year review with my boss, and if she has any criticisms at all, I will tell her to stop being so niminy-piminy.
LOVED the clue for RESCUE DOG. After seeing what the answer had to be, it took a bit to figure out how that clue worked. And I love anything about RESCUE DOGs -- I've never had a dog who was anything but and they've all been great, including the current rescue, Annabelle.
The clue for FRETS was pretty great too.
Rex!! Treat yourself to a plate of pupusas!!! Often to be found at periphery flea markets if no El Salvadoran restaurants are in your area. The curtido, a cabbage oregano slaw has fun variations and makes the pupusa experience magic.
ReplyDeleteLiked the puzzle. Nothing too brilliant. I didn’t understand Rescue Dog clue….why do they measure them at the dog pound? Do they have to be a certain size?
Excellent way to sneak in a FriPuz theme, with the old LEFT-RIGHT combo. Like.
ReplyDeleteThis puz wasn't tryin real hard to put up a fight at our house, in that …
* Only no-knows were: PUPUSA & TODD.
* Only two ?-marker clues. [fave: The "relative-ly" INLAW one. Altho … that ?-less RESCUEDOG clue was kinda sneaky I'd grant. Ditto for MASSEUSES's clue.]
lotsa fill-faves, includin: RESCUEDOG. SOCIALITE. TOOTHPICK. TIREFIRES. SPACETIME. ECLAIRS [yum]. MOOED [M&A's very first entry into the puzgrid today, thank U].
staff weeject pick: (Of but nine choices) - MMA. Fr. abbreve for "momma".
PUPUSA kinda sounds like an -AllAmerican Kennel Club event for runt doggies.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Mssrs. Stock & Yoon dudes. Nice job & congratz on scorin a themed FriPuz.
Masked & Anonym8Us
**gruntz**
@Nancy. M-a-s-s-e-u-r-s is the correct spelling for plural so it is too short to be correct. It has to be MASSEUSES, which gives TUSK.
ReplyDelete@UPSTATE GEORGE, I think @NANCY might have been hoping for a masseur, not a masseuse!
ReplyDeletePutting to rest, once and for all, the "other left" vs "other right" contretemps, Google Ngrams comes to the rescue. The two were neck and neck until 2012, when the great schism occurred, with "other right" falling into near obscurity, and "other left" taking up the slack. Ok, so maybe I exagerated.
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:52,
ReplyDeleteYou play QB in semi-pro ball and you're for all intents and purposes ambidextrous? That's incredible. What league?
A very average Friday. Without the SW it would have been subpar for Friday. I expected more from these constructors.
ReplyDeleteyd -0
Gary J,
ReplyDeleteVarious genders? LOL.
I dunno. In my world, it's YOUR OTHER RIGHT. It didn't even occur to me that it could be LEFT. Regionalism?
ReplyDeleteI know dumpster fires but TIRE FIRES was a new thing to me.
But Rex's SLURPEEs amongst the SOCIALITEs was brilliant!
"One might be measured in pounds" seems to be causing a lot of trouble. It's just wordplay on "pounds". A RESCUE DOG would be measured in pounds (weighed) and it would be in a dog pound.
ReplyDeleteI vote for YOUR OTHER RIGHT being more common than LEFT.
ReplyDeleteI also had WILD FIRES for disasters; in this arid area, just the sound of those two words causes a gut sinking feeling, especially after last year's horrors. Here is a short video shot from my back yard last August. Fortunately the fire didn't get any closer than that!
Had EQUAL before RIVAL but the Q didn't play nice.
As an astronomy buff, I'm embarrassed it took so long to see SPACETIME for the warped fabric.
[Spelling Bee: yd pg-1, missed this 7er though I would swear I tried it.]
TIREFIRES? What an utter disaster that answer is. In what universe does that phrase exist? Maybe if I traveled through SPACETIME I might find it, but I doubt it. The answer is FIRESALES. Seriously, can anyone find me a single instance where TIREFIRES is used (aside from this otherwise-easy Friday puzzle)? I'm not sure if the editor or the constructor got that one wrong. Completely marred an otherwise enjoyable puzzle.
ReplyDeleteFrom The Free Dictionary.
ReplyDeleteTire Fire
Slang: A complete and utter disaster or a completely chaotic situation, so-called because a fire involving tires can quickly become uncontrollable and is very difficult to extinguish. The phrase can be applied to both situations and people. @Photmatte. Hope this makes you feel better.
I worked the puzzle much later than usual today AND it took me much longer to work than a normal Friday (according to my stats). Wow, I thought the puzzle was pretty amazing today. Last section for me to fall was the SW, partially because when I gave up on EPEES I hesitated to put in POSTS because I had never heard of PUPUSA so looking at PUP in my minds eye made me keep that blank for awhile.
ReplyDeleteOkay. For those of you that would doubt that TIREFIRES are utter disasters, please just Google “tire fire” and look at the images. They typically can be seen from miles away and are EXTREMELY difficult to put out. I highly recommend that if you are ever looking for residential property make sure it is not close to a tire “recycling” facility…if it goes up in flames, the smell is the least of your worries.
Were there no hit duets between 1976 and 2018?
ReplyDeleteRESCUEDO G is a Salvadoran rapper. He likes to pooh-pooh South America.
(That is one putrid doggie clue, btw. RIVALed only by the one for IN-LAW.)
If that cross left you cross, perhaps you should make the sign of the acrostic before coming across the acrosses.
ReplyDeleteMy last day of vacation with my family and a lovely snappy Fripuzz. Great day. Buck O’NEIL, a PUPUSA and a RESCUE DOG. All topped off with some really clever clues (Warped fabric being my favorite, but streaming channel “running” a very close second. Enjoyed it thoroughly. Home to the hear wave that is punishing Oklahoma right now. Ugh. Glad my cat will be there to cheer me up.
ReplyDeleteOops. MASSEUSES. Yes, I did have MASSEURES -- and I knew something was wrong, but... Of course I should have seen it and I should have fixed it, but I was struggling in so many places at the same time.
ReplyDeleteBut thank heavens that TUrK is now explained. I was wondering what sort of critter sported a TURK for an incisor. Maybe a vampire? Aha. TUSK!
(Absurd mistakes like this are why I don't show up at puzzle tournaments.)
I'll side with "YOUROTHERRIGHT is the common way". First place I ever heard it was in How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying -- Hedy LaRue is told by a judge to raise her right hand, she raises her left, and he says No, your other right hand.
ReplyDeleteThe very idea someone would set up some pedantic "based on MY experience" rule, and that Rex would cite it, is somehow the essence of this blog. (Which I love, and patronize every day.)
So yesterday we got TEA RAT and today we get its Southern Borneo relative, the TEA MUP. They come from the same rodent Order, rodentia, I believe.
ReplyDeleteThis was a tale of two puzzles for me, with some nice stuff, like YOUR OTHER LEFT, and some meh, say what? stuff like the arbitrary, rather bland conversational snippet, WHAT ELSE IS LEFT. I don't think that sentence merits taking up so much prime, themeless territory, even if considered part of some themeless puzzle theme.
Speaking of prime territory, there are 4 two for one POCs in the grid*. This is where a Down and an Across share a final S in a single square. All four Ss could be changed to black squares, the clues slightly tweaked, and nothing of value or interest would be lost. This is similar to what is called a helper/cheater square. The grid would now have a virtual 38 black squares; I think that 34 was already a bit high for a themeless. The committee was unanimous in giving this grid a POC Assisted rating.
*To spot a two for one POC, check out the squares in the grid where a Down and an Across share a final square. The first place is at the ends of ROSE and SOCIALITE. Both are up to the task of filling their slots, so no POC there. The first two for one POC happens when neither TOTEM nor FRET can fill their slots and need some grid filling help from the S. I count three others, though I may have missed one.
Mmmmmm pupusas.
ReplyDeleteThis was the first Friday I've ever been able to get and I honestly thought there was an error and it was a Tuesday or Wednesday because it seemed too simple...I'm so pumped!!
ReplyDelete@Anoa
ReplyDeleteAccording to the constructor (in Wordplay) WHATELSEISLEFT was the seed entry inspiration for this themeless puzzle.
YOUROTHERRIGHT was a later addition. Surprised me. Why would that be worthy? Deb Amlen claims 8D is worth the price of admission by itself. Maybe we're missing something. O Lord, you have taken everything from me! What else is left? An existential Howl? I don't see it.
@Joe Dipinto318pm
ReplyDeleteRob Pilatus and Fab Morvan, 1989?
Found this easier than a typical Friday. SW was the last to fall for me. I like puzzles like this, where the challenge is the cluing, not obscure answers.
ReplyDeleteI thought we'd get a Springfield TIREFIRE GIF from the Simpsons in the blog, but it was the Squishee instead.
@albatross shell 9:20 – LOL, well no, I wasn't thinking of them.
ReplyDelete@albatross shell 9:20 - amused face emoji
ReplyDeleteI’m a retired judge. When I would swear in witnesses, I would begin with “Raise your right hand,” often followed by “No, your other right.”
ReplyDeleteGiven that the Venn diagram of “people born in El Salvador but raised in the US” and “daily NYT crossword addicts” might be small (anyone else?), I thought this would be the best puzzle for me to post my first comment. They are, indeed, delicious, but like Italians who believe it is a sin to put pineapple on pizza, I believe it is a sin to put anything other than cheese, chicharron (pork meat), beans, or loroco on pupusas. If you can get to a restaurant that serves authentic ones, run don’t walk!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteEveryone so caught up in OFL’s “other left” comment that only one person above acknowledged the the LEFT answer is on the LEFT and the RIGHT answer is on the RIGHT. So easily led? My biggest issues were turning plaidS into TOTEMS and INTransit into INTHEMAIL and fOilS into POSTS. Challenging because of those.
ReplyDeleteBTW, the ‘hike’ back to the Devil’s Garden in ARCHES National Park is more of a non-technical climb. Did it last April and crossed it off the bucket list and moved it to the *uck it list. Not a lot of folks my age back there.
ReplyDeleteFRETS ORE GAMES
ReplyDeleteTHE FIRE’S dying, YOUR RIGHT,
INTHEMAIL world AGE IS heft.
Be a DOCILE SOCIALITE?
After TIME WHATELSEISLEFT?
--- “ANGRY” MIDGE O’NEIL
Upon completion my feeling could be summed up by saying WHATELSEISLEFT ??? Not an enjoyable solve. Not medium but challenging and not in a fun way. Way too many CUTE clues that just make you ANGRY once you finally solve them like 5D 36A 23A 37D 56A and 12A. That crossing with SLUICE and ONEIL was a baddy. Unless you know old-timey baseball and figured out that ridiculously obtuse clue for SLUICE you were screwed. Also, can we dispense with the Disney trivia (52D) please? Stop plugging their movies. They can buy an ad like anyone else. God knows they can afford to. Had ELECTIonS before ELECTIVES like everyone else. The good thing is I completed in spite of all the irritating traps and bad misdirects. I don’t mind so long as it’s fair, but this one is just designed to stimie the solver. No real Aha! moments. Definitely not one of the NYT’s PEARLs. It’s just a TIREFIRE of a puzzle and I’m glad it’s behind me now.
ReplyDeletePS To Rondo: I also had INTransIt before INTHEMAIL.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised; I thought you guys were readers. Does no one remember Poe's "The Gold Bug?" In it, the deciphered message calls for a plumb line to be dropped from the left eye socket of a skull in a tree. Jupiter, Legrand's assistant, climbs the tree and drops the line through the wrong eye, whereupon the hunt is stymied. They retrace back to the tree, where the error is discovered, and Legrand says, "The OTHER left, Jupiter!" This predates TV.
ReplyDeleteA nice Friday romp, twin vertical 14's necessitating "cheater" squares but having "LEFT-RIGHT" symmetry. Some fun cluing, though I thought the one for RESCUEDOG was a bit murky. Don't quite know where the "measured" comes in. PUPUSA was of course a total fill-by-crosses deal, but those were fair (what else could _EARL possibly be but PEARL?). Birdie.
Wordle bogey because I tried SHRUB before SHRUG.
To Spaceman. Re: Measured - Dogs are measured (weighed) at the pound before they are adopted as RESCUEDOGS.
ReplyDeleteI liked the central joke, which I think is the reason for the choice of sides:
ReplyDeleteQ: "WHAT ELSE IS LEFT?"
A: "YOUR OTHER RIGHT."
It wouldn't work the other way around.