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Fulani braid decoration / FRI 9-16-22 / Treat with a hook / Chess prodigy protagonist of The Queen's Gambit / G.O.A.T. material / Big name in nail polish / Bygone Winter Palace resident / Platoon but not Dunkirk
Friday, September 16, 2022
Constructor: Juliana Tringali Golden
Relative difficulty: Medium+
Theme: none
Word of the Day: Kate UPTON (10D: Kate on the cover of Vanity Fair's 100th- anniversary issue) —
Katherine Elizabeth Upton (born June 10, 1992) is an American model. She first appeared in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in 2011, and was the cover model for the 2012, 2013 and 2017 issues. In addition, she was the subject of the 100th-anniversary Vanity Fair cover.
Upton has also appeared in the films Tower Heist (2011), The Other Woman (2014) and The Layover (2017). [...]
Upton started dating then Detroit Tigers baseball player Justin Verlander in early 2014, and they were engaged in 2016. On November 4, 2017 the couple married in Tuscany, Italy. (wikipedia)
• • •
There were several delightful moments today, mostly in the longer answers. After that early struggle with the short stuff in the NW, I finally looked at 13A: Sugar refinery byproduct, and ELIA and ASK (my only two sure things in the NW) provided me with enough letters to see MOLASSES, which then got me CORE BEAD IMDB etc. Just after that came a flurry of sweet answers shooting out of that corner in all directions, starting with CANDYCANE, then DRINK IT IN (very nice) and "YOU NEVER KNOW..." (), which really blew things open:
AU NATUREL is a euphemism I don't hear much any more but I still like it a lot. I also (weirdly) liked the baby demanding to be picked up ("UP, UP"!). I was also very happy to see NEVILLE, not so much because I want to see any more clues about H*rry P*tter (I don't), but because puzzle constructor NEVILLE Fogarty is one of two dear crossword friends I solve cryptics with on (most) Tuesday nights. Fantastic constructor (you can see his cryptic crosswords at the New Yorker sometimes), and a lovely human being to boot. Absolutely loved "EASY, TIGER," even though I had it as "EASY THERE..." and that mistake caused a lot of SE confusion (33D: "Hey, hold your horses!"). I should've loved seeing NOIRISH, which is right up my personal and pedagogical alley, but that clue ... grrrr. "Hardboiled" and "noir" are not (not!) synonyms. There's a lot of terminological collapse because film noir so frequently feature hardboiled men (esp. detectives), but "hardboiled" describes a person, or maybe the prose, whereas "noir" describes either the (fatalistic, downbeat) mood, tone, atmosphere, worldview ... or the actual film qualities or techniques (expressive, often high-contrast B&W photography, flashbacks, voice-overs, etc.). Plenty of noir films and stories don't have anything "hard-boiled" about them. I don't know if they clue wants me to think of a movie or of a character in the movie, but NOIRISH is completely inapt for a [Somewhat hardboiled] person. This is a "close enough" / "horseshoes hand grenades"-type clue and I hate it. Feels sloppy. I really don't like -IZE but I do like realizing that the much better "ICE" can't go in that space for not one but two reasons: first, ICE is already in the grid at ICE CAPS (1A), and second, ICE at 28A would get you SEC at 21D, which would give you SEC crossing ... ONE SECOND. So the much better ICE would (sadly) give you a double dupe! And so you get a suffix, with a funky "Z" as your consolation.
Notes, entirely on the SW:
- 59A: Immediate threat to capture, in a game of Go (ATARI) — no idea why you do this with your crosswordese. It's crosswordese. Just own it and move on. I solved this by getting crosses and then inferring the answer from "game."
- 48D: G.O.A.T. material (CHAMP) — absolutely not. There are champs and there are champs but there can be only one G.O.A.T. (Greatest Of All Time). If you are hopping on the hyperbole bus and deciding that "all time" means "this month," then sure, any CHAMP will do. But I'm taking that "O.A.T." seriously. Iga Świątek is a champ, but Serena is the G.O.A.T. You see how that works? I thought the answer was going to be one of the words represented by the letters in "G.O.A.T." but none of them would fit.
- 51D: Anne of "Mom" (FARIS) — I wrote in SARIS ... is that anyone's name? Besides film critic Andrew SA(R)RIS, I mean? Harrumph. Not having the "F" made CRAFT PROJECT harder than it should've been.
- 50D: Roasted: Sp. (ASADO) — I thought it was ASADA (as in "carne ASADA"—thanks, Taco Bell), but looks like ASADA is just a Spanish adjective and as such comes in different genders. Just when I had ASADA and ADOBO sorted in my head, now I gotta deal with this ASADO business, sigh.
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133 comments:
Rex – me, too, for wanting “asada” instead of ASADO.
I like the symmetry of CRAFT PROJECT and YOU NEVER KNOW. Yeah. I can look at that amazing popsicle stick vase or toilet paper roll napkin ring and think That’s so cool and looks pretty easy. Why not give it a shot. I don’t even know why I try. Their picture looks like something you’d buy at Neiman Marcus. Mine looks like I made it with my feet. Blindfolded.
“Hyper” before TYPE A. Guilty on both accounts. Sometimes I leave my body and watch myself dart around the room talking 90 miles a minute, horrified with how exhausting it must be to be subjected to such an onslaught.
OEUF could be hard to spell for the* hoi polloi here who didn’t major in French. It’s pronounced like /huff/ sans the H sound. I’ll pause while you write this down.
(*I did not major in Greek, but I do know that the is not supposed to be there ‘cause hoi polloiitself means the many. Sue me.
“Film site” – any number of jars in our fridge, top secured with Saran wrap and a rubber band, with mysterious murky contents. And then it’s always me who gets to give one a sniff test ‘cause Mom can’t remember what it is. Not for the faint-of-heart.
Wanted “K and W” before A AND W. Kinda cool that you can buy A AND W CREAM SODA. I mean, you can. Not me, buddy. CREAM SODA does nothing for me.
RHINO – I’m still obsessed with the fact that my daughter has given not one, but two RHINOs an enema. Every time I think about this I’m bowled over with jealousy and admiration.
FACE EAST - Never do I feel more incompetent than when I hear that I’m supposed to do whatever on the northwest corner of some intersection. You have to be kidding me. You might as well tell me to meet you at precisely 40.7508° N, 73.9891° W. Sheesh.
I kept looking back at CHAMP remembering that I think it was originally champing at the bit. Chomp has overtaken it now, though, and I’m just fine with that.
I think my favorite part of the solve was learning that JAPAN enjoys world zipper-making dominance. Now *there’s* a claim to fame if there ever was one. I feel very happy for them. No. Really. It’s just so sweet.
Gotta go eat before I head back to Turning Point for round two in my 5th block. We had few dust-ups yesterday with the introduction of four (!) new kids who came in at full throttle. I need some good fuel to face the day. . . I usually eat three eggs. . . but the ones I have now are these huge ones from France. . . (see where this is going?). . . so one egg. . . is an OEUF.
I got hung up figuring what NO IRISH meant (!)
Wanted Committed to be ALIN. That messed me around for a bit until I goit DRINKITIN which eventually helped me clean it up but wound up finishing Tuh that.
As for the rest
ASADO -not on any menu or recipe anywhere only in the puzzle so stop it.
NOIRISH - didn’t care for it and defaulted to it with the downs and still thought it was wrong until I finished in the NE and ther app told me I was done.
Feeling a little meh about this one. Especially after yesterdays offensive execution of a theme. I needed a bounce back today but didn’t get it.
This puzzle like its answer was nit the GOAT!
Often I find a puzzle fairly tough or worse and Rex rates it as “easy.” It was the opposite for me today — I zipped through this, not believing it was a Friday, and Rex gives it a Medium+. I agree that some clues were a bit “inapt,” but they didn’t hold me up. Nice puzzle!
@Phillyrad1999 — be sure not to order the pollo asado at Chipotle.
I had so much fun with this one - probably because I thought it so easy. I had fond memories with Cream Soda - and superglue (despite Rex's issues) was a gimme. (it was obvious and funny too0. And Icecaps was right there as soon as solved Imdb. Easiest Friday in a long time. Thanks to Ms. Golden.
I have come to detest IAMB and all clues for it. Also, all nail polish companies.
More M&A U’s than Lewis double letters today.
If you look at the nearest zipper, you'll likely see it has the letters "YKK" on it. This originally stood for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushikikaisha, the company in Japan making all those zippers. Now, they are just named YKK, similar to how Microwave Communications Inc. became MCI (before Bernie destroyed the company and they eventually got assimilated by the Verizon collective).
I was happy to learn that the game company is named after a term in Go. Crosswordese for you, fun fact for me.
Nice Friday. A welcome reward after slogging through Thursday “cleverness.”
This puzzle is just fantastic. @Rex apparently misunderstood the 'vapor trail?' clue. IZE is a suffix (trail) for the word vapor, not what a vapor trail is. I do not accept any of his other complaints. A CHAMP is material for a GOAT in the same way cloth is material for a dress, so no problem there. There were a couple of others. Anyway, great fun, and I'm looking forward to @Lewis.
MAC is a Monterey runner? Is that a bus line, perhaps?
Rex ignores the work "material" does in the CHAMP clue. The clue doesn't mean or imply that all CHAMPs are GOATs--as if there could be more than one GOAT.
I fault this one for being a pretty good collection of answers, spoiled by a large number of too cute clues - clues that tried too hard.
I thought it said ‘no Irish’ too, and was confused!
MLS CUP is the equivalent of the NFL Super Bowl’s Lombardi trophy, so “final” in that clue makes perfect sense.
Re 48D, the clue is “G.O.A.T. material”. You can’t become the G.O.A.T. unless you have been the champ many times. Each championship victory is part of your case for being called the G.O.A.T.
Mmorgan, I also enjoy when Rex rates a puzzle Medium and I came in 5 minutes under my average. I also got Wordle in 5 turns while Wordle Bot says there was a 59% failure rate in today’s edition. And I got Phoodle in 4! So I got all that going for me. Now I just have to find a place to use it.
I liked it well enough for a friday. There was the difficult start as expected with a big, blank NW, but the rest of the puzzle filled in okay letting CANDYCANE pop back up which indicated ice caps, which confirmed the suspected IMDB, and felled that corner. The actress named next to ASADO proved too much for me so off to Google I went and FARIS made that corner clear up. I like the show and actress well enough but I just don't keep track of actor names in general. And also isn't the tall one the star of the show now?
Thought that SUPERGLUE and FACEEAST were too green paint. Liked the cute phrases, and, yup, had EASYThere at first, too. Liked AUNATUREL very much. I use it often, along with 'in situ' and 'per se'. If you are in my circle of friends, get used to it.
Found the puzzle quite easy, for me. I love tricky misdirecting clues, aka puns...lots of aha for me, and I always expect it. Sometimes makes easy clues harder. And it was a sensual pleasure...drink in the sunrise, the cream soda and fondly remember Gloria Gaynor. This was a happy puzzle.
@7:55 - The Monterey clue took me a minute or so to see the answer. It's MAC as in Apple Macintosh. Monterey is the current of about a billion names Apple has for its various iterations of OS X/MacOS (the operating system it runs out.) Some previous ones are Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, Sierra, etc. I run Macs all over the house, and I still hesitated to suss it out.
@LMS - I smiled when I saw your asterisk for "the hoi polloi," as I knew where it was going. In English, I consider it fine, as we're not speaking Greek, and we use phrases like the famous example "the La Brea Tar Pits," in which "La Brea" itself means "the tar", so you have something like "the the tar tar pits." There's many more examples. It's fine, and I won't be pursuing grammatical legal action against you.
HARRY POTTER IS #1. NEVILLE is honestly my favorite character.
Themeless, meh. A bunch of words. Lacks sizzle to me and a sense of humor. Gimme another tetris puzzle.
IAMB/BETH and SEZ/IZE required some research, but otherwise crosses helped on things I didn't know. Yawl pole is my favorite clue even if I didn't know the answer. HYPER before TYPE A.
Things I'm looking to 🦖 to explain: In the altogether, ATARI, MAC.
A&W looks so ugly in the grid and took me until just now to grok it and I can't bring myself to spell it out. NOIR-ISH is only a thing in dictionaries. And GOAT material = CHAMP was a clue written by someone who has never ever watched any sports.
Google sez ASADA means roasted and ASADO means roast. Hopefully our native Spanish speakers will weigh in.
And thank the sweet lord I finally know where zippers come from.
Uniclues:
1 Succeed in American football.
2 "So I'm naked, tada."
3 Anna's nickname at a temp job she took in the mall as an elf at Christmas time before she hit it big.
4 Single's job description.
5 Activity for millennials once, before (like generations before) they too realized vinyl sucks.
1 MLS CUP-IZE
2 AU NATUREL DEALT
3 CANDY CANE FARIS
4 ASK OUT. ACT NICE.
5 SET ON RECORDS
Ah, what a lovely collection of answers to populate the box with. Everywhere I look, my eyes fall on something pleasing. My favorites: DRINK IT IN, YOU NEVER KNOW, AU NATUREL, CREAM SODA (which I haven’t thought about in ages and whose flavor I immediately remember), ACT NICE, MOLASSES, and EASY TIGER. (Three of these answers are NYT debuts.) There’s even a Team B, including MUSS, SEZ, ALACK, and NOIRISH.
I like the ASK OUT neighbors crossing YOU NEVER KNOW. I like that FACE EAST does.
I like being initially mystified by a clue, then in a burst, cracking it. That happened with [Exemplar of stick-to-itiveness] where I was initially thinking of famous people and characters, [“Platoon”, but not “Dunkirk”] where I was thinking movie awards, and [Treat with a hook] where I was thinking crochet.
This puzzle drew me in, fully engrossed me, took me on a mini-vacation that I was glad and grateful for. Juliana, I was impressed with your last puzzle, a NYT debut, with the reveal of WEATHER BALLOONS and its encircled rebi of RAIN, WIND, SUN, and ICE. And now, after today, I’m a hardcore fan, hungry to see what you come up with next.
Despite my 6 I was happy with the Wordle today. It became "Guess a letter" after my 2nd entry with a half-dozen possibilities. So I claim a moral victory 3 by my rule. When down to one letter needed and it's a 100% chance situation, any possible answer is as good as another.
Wordle 454 6/6
🟩🟨⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
I felt a bit like the toddler who finally got UPUP. I flew through this - mostly - Oh yes! That's it! Um, yes! Close! Aha! Wait, wait, aah.
Very enjoyable and I can’t get on board with the critique today. I see the point about NOIRISH, but there is the ISH, and this is a crossword puzzle clue.
My biggest slow down was the SW corner, with a typo d at the end of ACTNICE. I didn't know FARIS and had ASADA (Yes, I have heard ASADO). I forgot what G.O.A.T. stood for - I thought maybe the acronym for multi-talented award-winning performers that slips my mind at the moment. But all was revealed once I noticed the typo and saw PROSE.
The only thing wrong with this puzzle is that I wish I was still working it!
In England "Dunkirk" is pronounced as an iamb. So no, this clue is both clever and wrong.
I'm on team fun and easy today. Very much enjoyed this puzzle. Loved the clues, in particular for their "vagueness." Isn't that what crosswords are all about? Isn't that what makes a Friday puzzle a Friday puzzle?
BYWTK**
A yawl is a 2 masted sailer with the aft mast behind the rudder. A ketch is also 2 masted but with the aft mast forward of the helm.
HERE'S ANOTHER GOAT
**Because You Want To Know
So since I am not up on nail polish brands and I assiduously avoid Apple products , craftPROJECT was tough.
Choppy grid with those big 5x5 blocks in the SW and NE. Mostly pleasant - agree with the big guy that some of the cluing was strained. I liked EASY TIGER and DRINK IT IN. CRAFT PROJECT and HAS AN IDEA were a little pedestrian.
NOIRISH? Given the propensity of bras in our puzzles - I figured MLS was a CUP size. Backed into the kid lit guy and Anna FARIS.
Love Ella’s SATIN Doll but here’s the Heartless Bastards
Enjoyable Friday solve.
Are you the Greg with Barb?
This has been the worst two weeks for the NYTX that I can remember. Whats the PPP on this one ? We got a wave function and a sine wave, axis/axon,alpha/type a. OPI<MLS<IMDB<AANDW<ECO<MAC<. This is a Friday, people.
"I'm looking forward to @Lewis." Yeah, I wonder if he liked it.
If Irish is hard boiled as in “Get your Irish up”, then No Irish is semi-hardboiled, at least that’s how it worked for me. I probably just needed more coffee.
@Gary Jugert - As an adjective ASADa/O can take either ending depending on the noun it is modifying. That's why you get carne ASADa, but pollo ASADO. (Plenty of signs for both in my Hispanic neighborhood, but I believe even Chioptle has pollo asado.) "Carne" is feminine and takes the -A ending. "Pollo" is masculine and takes the "-A" ending. Adjectival gender agreement is a feature in many languages.
I thought maybe NOIRISH meant ‘no Irish’ not getting one’s Irish up- ie kinda hardboiled?
I thought noirish was No Irish. Lol
@Peter P - thank you for the MAC explanation. I was baffled at the time but forgot to look it up afterwards. What a terrible clue.
@Offthegrid "behind the rudder"? Wouldn't that be in the ocean?
Hey All !.
A little toughie for me today. NYT bringing back to the harder FriPuzs. DRINK IT IN, because YOU NEVER KNOW, in ONE SECOND they could become EASY TIGER again.
Got @M&A's Jaws of Themlessness, but they usually don't go with threes and fours, so that's different. They usually are there to anchor your 12-13-14's.
Full confession: DNF today. One kinda silly, AUNATURaL/aAR. What did I think AAR was? Beats me. (It is a Plymouth Cuda rare model, 1971-ish). And NOIRISt/BETt. Come to think of it, that one was silly also.
Puz grid weirdly looks wider than 15. Unsure why. Blocker location, possibly. Brain malfunction, probable.
UP UP and UPTON!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Liked the puzzle except for "NOIRISH." It isn't a word (my spell-check rejected it at first); "NOIR" means "BLACK" or "DARK," but neither word relates to hard-boiled.
A far better clue would have been "SIGN AT WORK SITES IN 1850." Irish immigrants were automatically rejected for most jobs then.
I'll go with @Rex's Medium +. With ELIA and ASK not giving me enough to go on in the NW, I got my start in the NE with LAURA and ALPHA and was soon able to back my way into the grid with ONE SECOND and YOU NEVER KNOW and then branch out from there and enjoy the grid's many pleasures. I especially liked ICE CAP over MOLASSES over DRINK IT IN, but there were so many good entries, from the brief but darling UP UP to the extended CANDY CANE and EASY, TIGER.
Do-overs: photo before SATIN finish; EASY there. No idea: FARIS.
@kitshef 7:26, re: YKK. JAPAN was one of the few entries I could write right in. It recalled to my mind my surprise when decades ago in my home sewing days I learned that the new-fangled plastic coil YKK zippers that pushed aside familiar US-made Dritz products came from Japan. In those days there was still a tinge of inferior quality associated with "Made in Japan." and I still remember the sort of "course correction" my brain had to take.
Yes yes! Common on menus : Carne asada! Very tasty with added jalapeño.
@LMS - "so one egg. . . is an OEUF." FTW!
one might argue that STICKTOITIVENESS is the common way, while with the -'s around TO does imply some kind of physical glue?
Dunno if anyone said this already but it’s a common expression to say, when faced with a task, that you’re “on it like superglue!”
Was this trying a bit too hard by making the clues as vague as "platitudes and glittering generalities?" So many "Should it be this?....Should it be that?" The glittering I enjoyed... meeting up with EASY TIGER. A smile and a dance with CANDY CANE and running into my all-time favorite LUCY. Coin toss...could it be Desi?
The names, as usual, got me. I realize they are needed in order to SUPER GLUE your puzzle. I'm still dreaming of a Fri/Sat. without proper names. Le big sigh.
I started from the bottom EAST. I took a coffee break at NO IRISH. NOIR ISH didn't figure in. Then I thought how rude because I remember there were signs put up in store fronts, written in pejorative PROSE "NO IRISH need apply." I went upstairs to attic city and opened a few windows. AHA...MOLASSES gave me the upper NW. Little by little....Had to call a neighbor for LAURA and UPTON and GAYNOR and sister BETH. They were no-shows at my party. Didn't know what GOAT meant and I'm not good at being AUNATUREL...
I finished....I had to think way too hard but I suppose that's what a Friday conundrum is suppose to be?
@Nancy from last night....Thank you for the Musical Gift...ANything Omar is like eating a juicy plum.
DNF on the "Letterboxd" clue crossing the "Go" clue crossing the "Mom" clue. Don't care.
There were other places I might have DNFed as well, but I managed to get through all of them. I found this difficult, PPP-strewn and not much fun. Bring back Robyn.
Agree with everyone about asada vs asado. Also glad to see that I wasn't the only who was trying to figure out what "No Irish" meant!
“Hard Boiled” is the name of a movie - an “action thriller directed by John Woo (thanks, Wikipedia - no I won’t donate but my spouse donates for both of us). It’s like a Dirty Harry movie, which I don’t think of as “noir” but I guess it could be.
@Loren Muse Smith
You might as well tell me to meet you at precisely 40.7508° N, 73.9891° W.
I’m curious… did you pick those numbers randomly? Or are you purposely trying to send people to the Macys Department Store in the middle of NYC? Flash mob?
Thx, Juliana; your Fri. puz was Golden! :)
Easy-med-hard.
Easy top, med middle, tough SE, brutal SW.
Got IMDB (which I visit often) & BEAD, which helped make short work of the NW.
LAURA & ALPHA sparked the NE.
hYPEd before TYPE A hid MAST for a while.
DEALT & AXIS made for an EASY central East Coast.
Then the WOEs began: anna before BETH; There before TIGER. Finally saw FACE EAST, and finished off the SE with SUPER GLUE & NO IRISH.
Then came the SW (which took forever to suss out). Had PROJECT in place, but just couldn't see CRAFT. Had ACT NICE & HAS AN IDEA as anchors, so dropped in MEDIC; then came to a standstill.
Had eATER, hATER, RATER, RAvER (even thot about RAgER).
Thot I was clever, finally distinguishing between ASAna & ASADA, which finally after getting CHAMP, left me with PRa_E. Didn't have a clue re: FARIS or ATARI.
Finally clicked that maybe ASADO would work, i.e., a gender thing between 'a' & 'O'. This allowed for PROSE, and finally the ATARI guess to get the happy music.
What a trip! Well worth the effort, tho! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Mediumish. DRINK IT up before IN, EASY There before TIGER, and UPsy before UP UP were my major erasures. Mostly smooth and solid with a bit of sparkle, liked it.
Interesting clue for ATARI.
....me to for ASADA
I have to say that my solving experience was pretty much what @Rex said but I think I enjoyed the puzzle way more than Rex and I would count it among the easier Friday puzzles from my perspective. And like others have said above, I had absolutely no problem with the CHAMP clue.
To those that have trouble with the nail polish clue OPI has made repeated past appearances so you might want to commit it to memory. Sure, I actually occasionally use that brand of polish but no excuses! (Kidding, kidding)
Also, does anyone else ALWAYS think of Boz Skaggs when LIDO is in the puzzle?
ICE? No ICE? That is the question of polar opposites again today. Very cool puzzle to CAP the week Ms. Golden, golden indeed. ATARI sent me on the Go to chase down that illusive final square, but worth the effort. Names as usual provided a NOIRISH SECOND here and there. I’m posting this before reading other’s reactions…especially wondering what @Lewis makes of IAMB & IMDB. And those vapor tracks overhead are ICE too to harmonIZE what sounds good to my EAR.
Yikes! I got schooled big time today which I don’t really mind at all on a Friday but this one worked awfully hard at trying to fool me, a little too hard at times. MLS CUP. What’s that? OK now I know. ASADO. Yeah I don’t know Spanish either. Chess player? Nope. MAC? I know lots of them but what does that have to do with Monterey? Or running? And I would’ve sworn NOIRISH was a reference to potatoes. No, really. On the UP UP side, there’s LUCY, bless her CORE, and A AND W and CREAM SODA from my youth so I didn’t feel like a complete dunce. Thank goodness.
Moderator. I thought I posted a Wordle comment. But maybe it didn't go. Or you withheld it for a reason. I didn't think I gave anything away. Are Wordle results now verboten? I'm not upset, just curious. Thanks.
Liked most of it. Didn't like the part where the no-knows ASADO/ATARI/FARIS crossed each other, makin for a nanosecond-gobblin nat & tick guessin contest, at our house.
staff weeject pick: IZE. Not prezactly what Patrick Berry shoots for, to splatz into one of his [now almost exclusively New Yorker] puzgrids.
some real neat stuff: The ceremonial Jaws of Themelessness [Says "Let the puz about nuthin begin!"]. YOUNEVERKNOW. EASYTIGER. CANDYCANE & its clue. AUNATUREL.
fave har-word: NOIRISH. A debut piece of mystery meat.
fave har-clue: MLSCUP's clue. Wowsome.
Thanx for the feisty fun, Ms. Golden darlin. It was definitely UPUP to snuff.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
I intended to make a comment Wednesday, then forgot. Did anyone else notice the combined GOT/Simpsons clue, "Stark and Flanders, for two"---NEDS?
"Dern of cinema" has become my favorite kea/loa, because both "Laura" and "Bruce" fit. So you have to get it from the crosses, as we say. REX on "aggro" yesterday, "aggro" is and always has been a noun, and the clue clearly called for the adjective "angry". Your confusion may be caused by the fact that "aggro" is derived from "aggravation", not "aggressive". Lived in England for 42 years, so I thought I would help to clarify the issue.
No one says SEZ. Absolutely no one anywhere says SEZ, casually or otherwise.
ASADO is grill (not roast). My girlfriend, who is a Spanish translator by trade, SEZ this is just wrong.
Dating etiquette in 4th column. ASK OUT ACTNICE
I get the feeling the constructor (or maybe the editor) doesn't actually know how "stick-to-itiveness" is used.
Changes that might have appeased @Rex:
• 8a could have been clued as "1944 Otto Preminger film", and then 66a could have been clued as "Like 8 across".
• The SEZ/IZE cross could have been changed to SEL/ILE, adding to the OEUF AU NATUREL Frenchfest. (Are CHAMPs-Élysées G.O.A.T. matériel in Paris?)
It's an excellent day for a balloon ride, c'mon!
I'm not trying to be mean or a troll but why do you or the 47 other commentators think that we care about your analysis of the puzzle. It's titled Rex Parker not Rex Parker and friends do the... just wondering about your thoughts
@Nancy from yesterday: The problem you’ve encountered with posting links might be due to the quotation marks. Depending on your keyboard, you may need to change them from the “standard quote” marks to what they call "smart quotes." If you look closely at what I just typed, you can see that the standard marks are slightly slanted but the smart quotes are straight up and down. My experience has been that even when I cut and paste the link from my email that @JC sent, I still have to make this change. Every single time.
On my iPad and iPhone, I do this by holding down the quotation mark key and then moving my finger up to the straight marks above it. My desktop computer only has the smart quotes but it’s a brand new computer and keyboard. If your desktop is older, you may have to do the same thing there.
And by the way, Robyn had the Thursday puzzle in The New Yorker yesterday. I have not done it yet but it’s labeled “beginner friendly.”
My notes in the margin have mostly been covered (NO IRISH, MAC?),
Some original stumbles--
Wondered if AANDP ever had a restaurant. No.
Had _____UPm asked myself if the "goal-oriented" thing could be a PRENUP. Also no.
AXLE? No. AXIS.
Otherwise on the easy side. My ignorance of HP means I would have preferred a Chamberlain clue for NEVILLE, but since I decided to do these things HP is fair game.
Nice Fridecito, JTG. I Join The Gang of those who enjoyed it, and thanks for all the fun.
Thought - tending to dominate = ALPHA was an unfair clue, because it’s a noun and a pronoun. Bc if so, you are ANALPHA.
I don’t know, maybe it was a great clue that just didn’t sit right with me. 😜
Enjoyed this one for a themeless. Enough “gimmes” that I could get or guess the difficult or vaguely clued answers.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🤗
it’s a community to discuss the crossword. people enjoys sharing and hearing each other’s experiences each day! i personally don’t have many friends in real life who do the crossword so i like reading the comments and hearing people’s thoughts!
@Gerry Kelly - Some friendly advice - you should make it a point to try not to be better looking and rich as sin. You would surely end up better looking and rich as sin, as you're incredibly good at achieving that which you try not to be.
Long time reader, first time commenter just popping in to say, I enjoy and appreciate the people who take the time to comment with their analyses. While it is Rex’s blog, the comments create a sense of community and offer an entertaining and interesting understanding of others’ experiences of the puzzle. They are also very easy to ignore if you’re not interested. I think one of the reasons Rex’s blog has become so popular over the years is because of the comments and community that add value to the site beyond his own insights.
We all happen to love Loren Muse Smith. So yeah—we care about her comments and find them wildly entertaining. And you just know as soon as you read someone saying they don’t want to be mean or a troll that they can’t wait to be exactly those things.
From the FWIW files: I just read that today’s Wordle is trending as the hardest ever. Apparently the average finish is a fail. I barely squeaked with my last stab.
Really enjoyed your post.
Monterey is the name of an Apple operating system
Compelled by this snarky note to say I also appreciate your comments Lauren!
Truly brilliant puzzle. Rex just misses the boat. He complaints ring hollow to me.
The puzzle has many nicely paired answers.
CREAMSODA AANDW
ALPHA TYPEA
TYPEA-I AM B
SCAN RECORD
MOLASSES SUPERGLUE
SUPERGLUE- CRAFTPROJECT
NEVILLE BETH
(Matthew Lewis was Neville and a chess-playing friend of Beth in Queens Gambit)
FACEEAST-DRINKITIN
(Savor the sunset)
AANDW dooked until I came here.
SEZ was good because of where was the needed final S puzzle. Who SEZ SEZ? I SEZ SEZ! Yes IZE duz.
The clues were mostly wonderful. Funny clever and fun trump the complaints. It's a Friday. You don't need to mouth a gift horse. Yeah you figure it out.
Anyone else notice bucknaked has the right letter count?
My one disappointment was DEALT for Like playing cards. I wanted DICEY.
No idea about MAC. Thanks for the info.
If you see green paint I think you must be color blind. This was a treat with a hook. Suck on that.
> medium+ for me. I got my start with ALAI in the SE and worked from there. Not only were many clues vague, but others I totally misinterpreted. Take 4D: I was thinking Gong Show hook and CANE in place didn't help me any. I wanted vaporOUS but couldn't come up with any text-ese ending in U meaning "mentions".
But like many here, ASADa and/or FARIn took the most time to fix. First with PRanE, then with PRaSE, I stared and was about to let it go as a DNF when PROSE finally broke through the logjam. Whew.
Does everybody except me and my co-worker know what Monterey and MAC have to do with each other. It was a long time after solving that I was able to come up with an operating system connection.
@LMS's CRAFT PROJECT attempts remind me of my finds yesterday while looking for a lace sweater pattern to knit. I found a knitted vase cover and a chair cover and they both looked great, but why do it?
Thanks, Juliana, you had me thinking today.
@Nancy, from yesterday, re: the embedding link. I'm so glad you have it memorized. I do too but I still usually look at my embedding instructions note on my iPad before hitting submit. The ignominy of a failed link is just something I don't want to deal with.
If anyone wants me to send them what I sent Nancy, let me know. My email is available by clicking my avatar. I think I may have sent her a photo of my explanation by email.
Worst clueing ever.
@Gerry With all due respect, your comment is ridiculous. First, if people were not meant to publish their comments, why would this blog have a comments section? Second, if you can read the musings of Ms. Smith and not be entertained, perhaps a wordplay blog is not the place for you. Her posts are a huge reason why I visit this site and when she doesn’t post my day is slightly emptier.
Pollo Asado. It’s delicious.
@ whatsername
SPOILER ALERT wordle
Not really a hint but just in case
AVERT YOUR EYES
. I got all but one letter correct and in place on my second guess and wordlebot tells me there was only one word left. I got it in six.
Lauren Muse Smith’s comments are a main draw here buster!
On another note, this puzzle was so weirdly easy for me that I was prepared for Rex to complain that it was a Tuesday level puzzle. I finished it in about my Tuesday average time. I guess I just grok with this constructor!
Masculine vs. feminine. Carne (beef) is feminine so its adjective is asada. Pollo (chicken) is masculine so its adjective would be asado.
@whatsername, I did the SAME thing! I held my breath at what I thought was the best of two choices on my LAST chance! I’m glad you posted because for SOME reason, I thought I had already done Wordle today. @Nancy got me into doing Phrazle so anymore I can’t keep track of my mind games! 🤣
While I am here. Our “parliamentarian” @Zed has been off-blog for a bit so I will attempt to make a point about this blog that he could make more eloquently, but I’ll take a stab: I’ve noticed a lot of commenters lately whose messages seem “random”…that is, they seem to be responding to a particular comment, but you can’t tell WHAT comment. Here is where it gets tricky for me to explain. Ok…Rex’s blogger “platform” is different depending on what kind of device you are on. One (I’ll just call it “platform”) allows you to “reply” to specific comments. My meager understanding is that this MAY just be with phones. The other “platform” just sequentially lays out comments…there is no “reply” function. This is why commenters do the “@Anonymous 7:23 am designation. Or @Nancy, @Joaquin, etc. Please understand this not a “scold.” I didn’t know this either when I started and wondered “what up with this @ stuff”?
Friggin' NAMES!! THREE crossed in the NE -- I happened to know RHINO records, but I wouldn't expect non-music-geeks to necessarily be familiar with that label; Natick'd on the other two. No idea about 29 D LUCY (who?), 51 D FARIS (who?), or 58 D BETH (who?); Don't speak French, so OEUF stopped me, too (no way to even *guess* at a spelling like that); no idea how MAC = "Monterey Runner" (some obscure Californian track & field athlete I never heard of?). No idea what an OPI (46D) is. Also, what the hell is a "fulani braid" (or is that another pop-culture name reference)??
BLECCHH!!!
@Anonymous (12:30 PM)
Welcome to the commentariat, and thx for your reasoned approach! 😊
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Just have to add to those who commented "it looked like NO IRISH to me". For years I followed the excellent forum on SkyscaperPage called Noirish Los Angeles. (It has been going for 13+ years, so good luck catching up! I kept with it for ages then a few years ago for some reason I stopped, as people will.) I remember a couple of people who saw the title on a list and started viewing it thinking it was about discrimination.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0; good QB streak 6 of last 7.]
Make that *FOUR* names in the NE, with that ridiculous/semi-coherent AANDW added to the list.
@Gerry (11:53) I don’t know who the “you” is in your post, but I’ll state my thoughts as one of the 47 other commenters. This is a blog with the dedicated single purpose of discussing the New York Times crossword puzzle. I automatically assume that anyone who makes the effort to find it and access it already knows there will be people voicing opinions and exchanging thoughts. You know, because it’s a blog. And I automatically assume that because they took the time and made the effort to get here, they’re genuinely interested in those opinions and thoughts. Otherwise, why would they bother? Or ask such a question? Unless maybe they’re just fooling themselves about being a troll.
Rex,
You are a sad, sad man. Cancelling Harry Potter by using asterisks?
That's a akin to some spinster librarian afraid to utter the word hell and saying H-E-double hockey sticks. You're beyond parody at this point.
@greg 8.08
ichiro - G O A T.
champion (mlb) never.
Just barely mad it this time. First, the ATARI/FARIS crossing--all I had to go on was a thought that maybe they names the console after the game term, but that might have been wrong. Then IAMB/BETH -- a little more, because I knew it was a girl, so sETH was unlikely; but it took me forever to figure out IAMB (partly because overwriting There with TIGER made it hard to tell what that first letter was -- looked more like a t than an I in my grid).
I'm glad to learn that some of you remember CREAM soda with fondness. I'd get a bottle every year or two just to see if it had become enjoyable to me, but it never had.
Anyone else have bare naked before AU NATUREL?
These are puzzling
“No Irish” would have been a much better answer!
I don't know, fundamentally, I actually agree with Gerry Kelly.
Some posters( mighty few) here have genuine insight.
Many have an amusing tale related to a word or phrase in the puzzle.
But anyone who's been around here for any length of times knows this comment section is a club. There are popular members and pariahs, but make no mistake it's jut a club. And like all clubs over time, there develops different ranks and relationships. That's why some posters are habitually given a pass on posts rife with error, or snark or evil and other posts which are merely opnion are spiked. We all know who's posts are sacred cows and which are all too often road kill. Quashed by the clubs gate keepers.
The one who's got the wrong end of the stick is Beezer. Z is not, nor ever has been the site's parliamentarian. He's just gassy. But prodigious posting is no substitute for authority. And unless he's been fibbing about bein a moderator, He has none.
More important, Beezer, your post is a scold. It's gentle but nevertheless, you are in fact taking people to task for (in your opinion) failing to follow some convention of the club.
I say, that's not your job. If the mods think a particular post is unintelligible because it's unclear whence its provenance, they can quash it. That they don't suggests that at least they find the post acceptable. And that's good enough for me.
AUNATUREL
INTHENUDE
BUCKNAKED
BAREASSED
UNCLOTHED
@TJS 9:42 AM Oh my grumbly friend. This is a chronic refrain you have typed out many times before. I continue to be in admiration of your willingness to do an activity that brings you such sadness, and then come to a blog you dislike, written by a guy you really dislike, and commented on by people you openly despise. I am not even being sarcastic. It's astonishing on a Quixotic level. Especially when I think about the fact we spent 12¢ on today's puzzle and it brings up such emotions in you. Every day we have winners and losers in each puzzle, and I am willing to pay my 12¢ ante even if we're DEALT a losing hand. I can't think of anything I spend a dime on that would cause me such angst. I hope you continue to bring your unique brand of curmudgeonry. It's inspiring in a very ironic way.
@Peter P 9:45 AM This explains everything. Thank you. Now I am hungry.
Sounds like lots of folks had this today
Wordle 454 6/6
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🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
Anon 2:25. Sure, some people here are liked much more than others. They're the ones who try to be likeable. And the ones who aren't liked? They're the ones who try surprisingly hard to be dislikeable. Almost always they're anonymous, almost always they're snarky, and then they wonder why they're not clasped to the bosom of the blog? Grow up, Anonymous 2:25.
Long time GLUE aficionado here. That would be my go to answer for 60A "Exemplar of stick-to-itiveness", just GLUE. I think SUPER GLUE is a trade mark name. It is actually called CA or cyanoacrylate GLUE. I use it a lot but it is no more stick-to-it than, say, epoxy, PVA wood GLUE, polyurethane GLUE or CRAFT PROJECT GLUE. They each have their applications where they stick-to-it in an exemplary fashion.
I balked at the unwordiness look of the "...-itiveness" part of that GLUE clue. I think "Stick-to-it-ness" would be better, no?
Another reason why I like CA or cyanoacrylate GLUE is because it has the name of my favorite deer-sized Indonesian buffalo embedded in it!
Thanks for the Bryan Ferry video, Rex. He’s definitely a GOAT — IMO.
I've never heard the term "hard boiled" in reference to a character (kept thinking "eggs") and I parsed it as "no Irish." I got it right, but I was mad confused until I looked it up.
I find it mildly amusing that the word IAMB is itself a trochee.
Okay, re Wordle - I'm among * hoi polloi who failed. But you won’t know that from my new app stats because I play on the web and then enter the correct solution as my first guess in the app. Ta Dah!! Genius! I'm a genius!
I figure I'm stocking up percentages for when the the internet version goes away. It will all be downhill from there.
How was Beezer’s comment a scold? He was explaining why some folks reply using threaded replies, while others use the @ feature, as Blogger utilizes slightly different functionality options depending on the device or browser you’re using. I’d didn’t see him make any instruction or direction on HOW to reply to posts. Maybe you should read that again.
@Gerry - you could not be more wrong. LMS’ comments are in fact one of the main reasons I visit here daily. I rarely comment, but this nastiness compels it. You misunderstand this community entirely, and dissing LMS specifically shows the egregious depth of this misunderstanding.
Comments as discussion on blog posts, and other types of social media- are nothing new. What nasty, awful attitude that isn't needed here.
Also a long term lurker who never comments. I agree with all of the above and especially about Loren, who is totally something else. But what I want to add is that I’ve been liking Rex lately, which isn’t always easy to do. He seems to be turning into an old sweetheart. Go figure!
@Gerry Kelly 11:53 AM
"I'm not trying to be mean or a troll but..." said every mean troll ever.
I believe everyone in the @LMS army would use @Rex as a human shield to protect her. Actually, maybe not, we'd probably use @Nancy's wall. It's impenetrable at this point. Honestly, @LMS doesn't need our help, she's legit.
And there's LITERALLY a line where @OFL comments stop, so it's a clue for anyone wanting only his opinion to stop reading. And, here's a novel idea I opined over a month ago, people's names are at the top of their post and if you're uninterested in their opinion THAT'S WHY YOU HAVE A THUMB.
@Gerry Kelly 11:53 AM
Oh man... I don't think you knew what you were doing when you attacked LMS. So many of us here would use ourselves as human shields to protect her!
Everyone else... Don't let the trolls get you down!
I had the marvelous experience of starting this puzzle, getting stuck in many places, and having to put it down for other tasks. When I came back to it, all the answers popped out clear as day.
eggshellent setup and joke cracked at the end, LMS, but I cry fowl. The vowel in Oeuf is not the same as in huff, but closer to the e in "her".
@nancy, if memory serves me right, I think you need to remove the quotation marks completely when using JD’s cheat sheet.
@Anonymous 6:34 AM. ME TOO!! And spent a stupid amount of time on it simply because I absolutely rejected that NOIR-anything was in any possible way synonymous with “Hard-boiled!” And was trying with all my common sense not to prepare to rant long and loud(ly) about a pejorative “ism” degrading the IRISH. Yikes.
Saw a Facebook post for a birdwatching event and the directions had a name and latitude and longitude. And “stop before the coal tipple”. Getting there will be a puzzle.
Parsed NOIR ISH as it was intended. I think it refers to the novels and films by the likes of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett. Didn’t think of NO IRISH need apply until I came here LOL.
I am always puzzled (pardon the pun) by the days on which I mysteriously am admitted to the typically “by secret code or invitation only” world of a constructor’s personal wavelength. Today was such a day and I am still scratching my head.
Immediately, I assumed the “poles” at issue were the type with ICE CAPS. Now, my hubris was not so controlling that I dropped that one in, but it was my first thought. Immediately following were MOLASSES and BEAD, both entered. With the mentally “pencilled in” ICE CAPS, and the obvious ELIA going down, the entire NW was done with NEVILLE and CANDY CANE leading me nicely into the center and I didn’t really lose steam until the SE where it took me a few “thinks” to get IAMB mainly because I had mentally thought EASY there which gave me resistance because the old saw Jai ALAI was a gimme (and one we have mercifully not seen for quite a while), I read “The Queen’s Gambit” early on so BETH was already in which made me at least think about IAMB. But I resisted only because I really limed EASY there. Ugh!
I finished the SW unsure why ATARI is the answer (no gamer, I, but certain only because of crosswords) which gave me RECORDS, OEUF, and JAPAN.
At this point, I was well under my average Friday time, and emotionally so opposed to NO IRISH that I let the puzzle sit for a couple hours just to allow my brain to percolate in the hopes of resolving my objection to the clue that (to me) made anything “noir” wholly improper and left me with something that sounded worse.
I decided to go ahead and fill in NOIRISH. Ta-da!! Happy music? Really? Apparently so.
I rarely get my knickers in a twist about any puzzle or any part of a puzzle, but in my opinion, the editorial staff really was asleep at the wheel in letting that non-synonym cause me such distress all day.
I have successfully removed my tongue from its place firmly lodged in my cheek.
@Beezer - thanks for taking another stab at explaining “random” posts. I usually read the blog on my iPad so when I started to encounter “random” posts re: @lms I logged on to the blog on my phone to see where they were all stacked up.
Hi, @Teedmn -- No, you sent me a handwritten hard copy instruction page via snail mail. It sits in my Luddite Drawer along with...
(These are all on separate large sheets of typing paper)
*Load a DVD
*Enter a Zoom Meeting (total failure on this one 4 different times in 4 different ways!)
*When computer screen gets too small, what to do
*Reboot a computer and why
*How to send a photo in Yahoo email
*Access and watch Netflix
*Get back sound volume on computer
*Use my DVR
*When DVR and/or Netflix go blank on TV screen, what to do
*Use flip cell phone: answer/erase/send/turn off/clear screen
When something goes wrong on any of my gadgets, whatever it is, I go to my drawer, pull out the big pile of papers and hope to God that one of them covers the problem I'm dealing with at that moment. I won't remember, of course, whether I have -- or haven't -- ever dealt with it before. Which is why I lovingly maintain that drawer.
@CDily
Did you get my email?
Really, Gerry? What kind of comments would meet YOUR approval, then? You really have me wondering. Anyway, LMS makes me laugh, so that's reason enough for me.
@anonymous 2:25 Talk about irony. You explain why no one is in charge, then proceed to explain why you are the one in who actually knows the real deal with the comments section. You then start insulting people, while complaining that your posts get taken down by the mods. Then you throw out a few more insults and a few more poor old me.
I am sorry that no one here is bright enough for you. Why you spend all your time here is not clear since the entire commentariat is obviously way beneath you.
Had atani for the go clue. Thought that might be go player terminology for a piece at the top of a string of opponent pieces. Like the dot of an i. Rex didn't seem to know why atari works there. Can anyone explain?
Nvm I Googled it but seriously at an i is better lol
Wordle 454 6/6*
⬜🟨🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩l
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
If you're just here to read Rex's review, why did you bother to scroll down? Let the rest of us enjoy ourselves over here.
LMS, *two* rhino enemas?!?! Clearly you raised her right!
Atari. Atari (当たり) is a term for a situation where a stone or group of stones has only one liberty and may be captured on the next move if unable to attain additional liberties
From googling atari in Go.
Doesn't actually explain much.
@Joe Welling i agree. you have to be a CHAMP to be considered for the GOAT. thus, CHAMPs are GOAT material, and it doesn't mean simply being a CHAMP once or even many times makes one a GOAT. i was confused as to why rex had so much trouble with that clue.
new best time for a friday. i came here expecting rex to rate this easy and was surprised. a lot of the clues actually felt too obvious/easy but it was fun and, especially after yesterday (and also because i'm visiting family and didn't get to do the puzzle until midnight-ish) i'll take it! had DOING ORIGAMI before CRAFT PROJECT, and, like rex, ASADA before ASADO and EASY THERE before EASY TIGER. also took me a bit to see ICE CAPS because i thought for sure starting off that the clue had to be referencing something i wouldn't know about polish folx. otherwise, smooth sailing. guess i was on this crossword's wavelength tonight.
only thing i wasn't crazy about was SEZ, and i still don't really understand the ATARI clue as written. google says "Atari Go is a modification of the classical board game Go, that is often used to teach new players the rules of Go. The rules are basically the same as the Go rules with some modifications to make the game a bit easier." but how atari itself is an "immediate threat to capture"...i don't grok that. but i might just be very tired.
Since I have surface-level knowledge about Go, I actually knew what ATARI was, so even as a novice I had a good time with that corner. It is something similar to a piece being in "check" in a chess game.
Actually, and je regret disagreeing with LMS, œuf is pronounced just like neuf, without the “n”, and not huff without the “h”.
Thanks for the insight. I couldn't get what they were trying to say about vapor tail until I saw your comment. Brilliant
I agree with burtonkd (which I always read as Burton Kid!) on the pronunciation of "oeuf" - it's that tricky French vowel sound that is close to the e in her, but you have to close down on it a bit! Takes a lot of practice to get it in your facial muscle memory! But thanks to LMS for the translation of "hoi polloi" - I knew it referred to the masses vs upper crust, but not that it included the "the"! Also, thanks to the person who explained why it's acceptable to include " the" in English before a "the" in a foreign word/phrase. (Sorry, I couldn't find your comment!) I really enjoy the linguistic discussions in the commentary 😊
That crossing at 59A, 50D and 51D almost caused a DNF for me. I had to guess the AR in ATARI which crosses ASADO and FARIS. I guessed right but that was just dumb luck. The SE corner was the last to fall because IAMB and NOIRISH took forever to solve. NOIRISH is just bad. And IAMB is almost as bad as IMDB. MLSCUP and TYPEA are just letter glue jammed in there out of convenience as is AANDW in the NE corner. PSI, IZE, ECO, REI, EER, SEZ, and the weirdly-clued MAC are not going to make anyone COO with delight. This one was slow as MOLASSES and not much fun.
SUPER I CANDY
ALACK, FACE ONESECOND of doubt,
YOUNEVERKNOW what YOU're DEALT,
if IT's Kate UPTON YOU ASK OUT,
then ACTNICE AUNATUREL.
--- NEVILLE GAYNOR
I guess YOUNEVERKNOW from ONESECOND to the next. I thought OFL would like this puz after what we had last Friday. Wrong. He nearly tore it to shreds. Another hand UPUP here for ASADa and EASYThere for an inky mess. Kate UPTON, yeah baby.
Wordle double bogey (phew!) due to 4 shots at BGGBG.
A bleeping mazing that I got this with only a tad of help (with a name, natch). Tho it took lots of time, I had fun during the effort. So fun to put in an answer thinking, "nah - it couldn't really be that. But here's a cross, and another cross, and let's keep going." My fave kinda puz.
Yes - so odd to see IAMB and IMDB in the same grid. YOUNEVERKNOW!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
While it's true that the Derns supply another Kealoa, in either case the middle letter will be U (har, @M&A), thus our Kate becomes the becoming DOD UPTON, and help arrives for the NE.
I liked this one because it was tough to do yet doable. I got TYPEA right away; unfortunately I "got" it at 15 across! Had to leave the troublesome NE for a while. Then I found TYPEA where it belonged, and thus was able to eliminate it from its erstwhile location. Certain that the P of UPTON was correct, I was able to dig out ALPHA, and all was well.
Good Friday test, and nothing too far afield. Birdie.
Wordle par by a curious route:
YYBBB
BBBYY
BGGBG
GGGGG
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