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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: BAHAIS (46D: Religious adherents governed by the Universal House of Justice) —
The Baháʼí Faith is a relatively new religion teaching the essential worth of all religions and the unity of all people. Established by Baháʼu'lláh in the 19th century, it initially developed in Iran and parts of the Middle East, where it has faced ongoing persecution since its inception. The religion is estimated to have 5–8 million adherents, known as Baháʼís, spread throughout most of the world's countries and territories. [...] According to Baháʼí teachings, religion is revealed in an orderly and progressive way by a single God through Manifestations of God, who are the founders of major world religions throughout history; Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad are noted as the most recent of these before the Báb and Baháʼu'lláh. Baháʼís regard the world's major religions as fundamentally unified in purpose, though varied in social practices and interpretations. The Baháʼí Faith stresses the unity of all people, explicitly rejecting racism, sexism, and nationalism. At the heart of Baháʼí teachings is the goal of a unified world order that ensures the prosperity of all nations, races, creeds, and classes. (wikipedia)
• • •
... and then CRISP + ALEXA got me ...
Such is the power of the "X"! And so very early on, I had answers running from coast to coast, and coast to coast again. After this, there weren't many trouble spots, which may explain why the clues were trying so so hard, torturously hard, to be cutesy and misdirective. "?" clues abounding. If those things miss, they're jarring, and a bunch of them just missed for me today. The worst section for me, by far, was the POKER part of HIGH STAKES POKER, which I couldn't get for a comparatively long time, even with the "P"! HIGH STAKES ... WAGER? That's an "activity," maybe. I wanted only HIGH STAKES GAME but "game" was in the clue and also that answer didn't fit. (Sidenote: gambling / casino clues, as always, of zero interest to me ... and we already had the horrid ACETEN, come on ...). That clue on HIGH STAKES POKER is so horribly convoluted (37A: Activity for some big game hunters?). Are high rollers known as "big game"? I've heard fat-pocketed gamblers called "whales." Are whales the "big game?" Is the poker game itself the "big game"? But ... POKER is the "activity," presumably. Never considered POKER, mostly because I was looking (as the clue told me to) for an "activity," and did not think that "activity" was a "game" because "game" was Also In The Clue, Presumably Referring To Something Else. And then that section ... OK, a CORSET *has* ties that bind, but it itself is not "the ties that bind," "?" or no "?" (42A: The ties that bind?). Woof. And OAKS don't "throw" shade, literally no one would say that (28D: They may throw shade). Trees cast shadows, but they do not throw shade, so put a "?" on that (yes, I'm begging for a "?") or find another clue. I thought it was Hold the LINE at 30D: Hold the ___, not Hold the FORT, and I "confirmed" LINE with AÇAI (only to have AÇAI appear later in the solve, up top!). Finally, turns out the number of five-letter "S"-words that are plausible answers for 27A: Show disdain, in a way are manifold. Legion. I had, let's see ... first SNEER, then SNORT, then SCOWL, and only after figuring out FREE did I finally get SCOFF. Just a horrible, clunky way to end an otherwise fine puzzle.
I've never closed a (browser) window with an ESCAPE KEY ever, so that was weird (35D: Tool for closing a window). The clue on NAPTIMES is the epitome of "trying too hard" (49A: Stretches for the rest of us?). It can't lay off the (admittedly) clever "rest of us" misdirection even though "us" makes nooooooo sense here. Why are "we" taking a tap? I don't even take naps. Also, NAPTIMES has a scheduled, kindergarteny vibe, so "us" (that is, we solvers, mostly not in kindergarten, I'm guessing) doesn't work well here at all. I see what you're doing (using "rest of us" to mean "our rest"), and it's definitely ingenious wordplay, but it just comes across as forced here, as a clue for this particular answer. But as I said early on, the fill here is mostly clean and enjoyable. You can take ACETEN and HEN'S TEETH and put them ... somewhere else, but the 15s all sing. Well, the non-poker ones, anyway. And all the small nooks and crannies of this grid appear to have been reasonably well polished, so even if I thought the cluing was in the weeds a bit today, I still think the grid itself is admirable. Happy last day of September. See you tomorrow.
Thinking about it too hard, Rex. They're hunting for a big game of HIGH STAKES POKER. That's it.
ReplyDeleteIndeed
DeleteBahai is the only religion whose center is not in its original country of creation, but in Haifa, Israel, as tolerant as ever.
Delete@Anonymous 12:45pm.:
DeleteThe first Baha'i house of worship was built in Wilmette, Illinois.
ReplyDeleteMedium. My problem was in the East, where I stuck with Sneer at 27A - confirmed by elmS at 28D - for far too long. That made TARO hard to see, and I had the same problem @Rex articulated with a CORSET having ties but not being ties.
I liked this one very much. The cluing was excellent, with or without "?". Perfect Friday for me, about 47 minutes of fun. Favorite was "You might catch this when seated with other people"/MOVIE. Most vexing was English chips. I interpreted this to mean what do we call an English chip. Finally saw the clue wanted what the English call our chip.
ReplyDeleteI had the same problem for a bit, thinking they were looking for fries.
DeleteLong fills do not a Friday make. This was way too easy for a Friday. Minor hiccup out of the gate with SHUT (UP) instead of CLAM UP but CRISP and ALEXA fixed that right away. How many of you have OKRA in your garden? A garden plant really ? Don’t SCOFF at me! Liked ACE-TEN, OCHO and FLOR. FLOR I do have in my garden.
ReplyDeleteOkra has a very pretty flower. The edible part is the seed pod. You can grow it in a flower garden or a vegetable garden.
DeleteEasier Friday in forever got 3d and 20a and never looked back
ReplyDelete@Coniuratos 5:54. Well said! I think @Rex ranted about it only because it was hard for him to get.
ReplyDeleteAlso, @Rex, ever hear of a shade tree? I never heard of a shadow tree. It's word play, quite common on Friday.
This is in the running for fastest Friday ever for me. Felt like a Wednesday with some longer fill. Mostly enjoyed it, also thought a few of the cutesy clues felt off, but not in a terrible way. Generally enjoyed it!
ReplyDeleteI liked that all the long acrosses had ‘?’ clues, and wish it could have been true for the long downs as well.
ReplyDeleteThe other day we had the always-negative ARTY. Today we get the mostly-positive ARTSY, but clued as a negative. Do we have to go to three syllables (artistic) if we want it to be clearly understood that we are being positive?
Escape key does not close a window on any device I've ever used.
44 Dn
ReplyDeleteSol.
Wha??
In theory I like the idea of a six-spanner-lattice grid, but once I got those long answers I found it a slog to fill in on all those little 4x4 corners. (What's the record for most four-letter answers in a puzzle?) Maybe I would have enjoyed it more if the spanners gave me resistance and produced eventual aha experiences, but they were all just way too easy. I look forward to the same whoosh-whoosh feeling on Fridays that Rex does, but for me this was WAY too much whooshing for a Friday.
ReplyDeleteOh man, the life in this puzzle’s longs – the two nines and the six spanners! ECLAT indeed. Phrases with zing. Those spanners are so much fun to fill in, and SLAM DUNK CONTEST – a NYT puzzle debut, by the way – cuts through three of them. Much skill evident in the making of this – a very impressive debut.
ReplyDeleteFavorites included that gorgeous answer PLACATED, the ending schwa-de-vivre of HASTA / MICA / OKRA / ALEXA / COBRA, that lovely clue [Tool for closing a window] for ESCAPE KEY, and learning that the Martian day is a SOL, and in learning that I also learned that a Martian week is seven sols, facts I’ll remember.
But what I take most from this puzzle is the fun in filling it in and the amazement that this is a debut puzzle, as it feels like the work of a seasoned pro. I hope there’s more to come from you, David. You have a fresh voice. WTG on your debut, and thank you for this bright piece of work!
Amy: Agree with Rex on HENSTEETH, ESCAPEKEY, and NAPTIMES. Otherwise, a fine Friday.
ReplyDeleteWas startled to see that Rex rated this Easy-Medium. It is the easiest Friday NYT puzzle I have ever done (14:26). Rex struggles to understand how an oak tree can throw shade?? Rex thinks that closing a window has to be a browser window?? The name of the OS is WINDOWS. His struggle with HIGH STAKES POKER is hard to grasp. Bad day for Rex.
ReplyDeleteThe spelling “Rosie” for the Jetson’s maid robot is incorrect. The actual spelling is “Rosey.”
ReplyDeletehttps://thejetsons.fandom.com/wiki/Rosey
Agreed! Totally messed me up getting "tool for closing window"...and I use the Escape key all the time to close windows...so handy. 😁
Deletetook me awhile to get ESCAPEKEY. But I did correctly assume it was computer related. My biggest problem was that I put in HENSTEEeH - misspelled HENSTEETH. That prevented me from getting HIGHSTAKESPOKER easily. had idlE before FREE. not hard for a Friday
ReplyDeleteI'd rate this one as "just hard enough" and lots of fun. Getting two of the 15s from the clues - MEXICAN HAT DANCE and HIGH STAKES POKER gave me that "whee!" sense that @Rex talks about; then I had to get to work. I loved how so many of the clues were like riddles, providing many mini-puzzles throughout the grid. I especially enjoyed PLACATED and the proverbial HEN'S TEETH. Also nice: CRISP x CLAM: a fresh one-dollar bill.
ReplyDeleteDo-overs: SCorn, Cables before CORSET, AOl before AON, COLLECTible. No idea: ROSIE, AVS.
@Rex, some of "us" in the geriatric set also have a daily NAP TIME.
@David Karp, congratulations on your debut - I'm glad you persevered! I very much look forward to more.
Nice puzzle - some unfortunate fill but overall solid. No issue with gamblers “hunting” for a big game. MORAL OF THE STORY was neat - COLLECTORS ITEMS and HENS TEETH not so much. Took me a while and some crosses to remember ROSIE. No idea with BAHA’IS.
ReplyDeleteSWANEE RIver
Enjoyable Friday solve.
Yep, too easy for a Friday, but I do like me some grid spanners. Seeing those random disconnected letters turn into words and then a phrase is always fun.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how many people got MEXICANHATDANCE off the initial M? I did, but if I did it makes me think it was pretty obvious. SEXIESTMANALIVE took longer because of the position of "People", never know if that's really a proper noun or not.
Always happy to see la lengua in a puzzle, today we get HASTA and FLOR and OCHO to go with the aforementioned HATDANCE.
And a shout out and a where have you been to IBEX. Nice to see you again, and don't be a stranger.
Nice smooth Fridecito, DK. Don't Know when a Friday seemed this easy, but lots of fun, for which thanks.
As a kinder school teacher I can attest, with 100% assurity, that NAPTIMES are in fact stretches for the rest of us. It's the only break I get all day.
ReplyDeleteIf you can't understand the issue with HIGHSTAKESPOKER, please re-read @Rex's comment. The clue asked for an Activity, and high stakes poker is not an activity, it's a thing. Playing high stakes poker is an activity. The clue was asking for a verb, the answer was a noun, and that's a crossword no-no (observed in the breaking of the rule almost as often as observing the rule, but still...).
Bleak is not a mood
ReplyDeleteNot quite a new record, due to running the alphabet at the OKRA AKIN cross. OKRA is a garden plant? Ok, if you say so. And AKIN as parallel is a stretch (but not a NAPTIME). So it was just letters until K made two words and boom, done.
ReplyDeleteNow that I'm retired I do make time for a NAP many afternoons, usually because I fall asleep reading!
Going to see Punch Bros. and others at Town Hall tonight! Only after buying the tix (it's a "Punch Bros. anytime" household here) did we grok that it's a Bob Dylan tribute on the 60th anniversary of his debut there.
On ESCAPE KEY: In some systems for managing regions of the display on a computer---that is, windows---there's a specific type of window called a pop-up window. In a browser, they're most commonly used for advertising, but you can also see them in other applications, when some specialized functionality is required (find and replace in some word processors, for example). You can close these windows by clicking on an X or an OK button or a Cancel button... or by pressing the escape key.
ReplyDeleteSolid debut! All these nits picked from nitwits who talk Naticks (don’t really believe the”nitwits” part but liked the way it rolled off my keyboard, and didn’t hit ESCAPE KEY in time)!
ReplyDeleteLast week, I suggested a Rookies Corner for neophyte NYTXW constructors but David’s debut deserves the Friday Main Event. Enjoyed it!
Jeff Chen calls this a tic-tac-toe themeless because of the six spanners, but the standard tic-tac-toe grid has four. Maybe he means that there are four standard grids embedded in it.
ReplyDeleteIt wasn't easy for me at the bottom. DOC, FLOR, MORALOFTHESTORY, ROSIE, KATE, SOL, AON, BAHAIS, ESCAPEKEY. Either I didn't know the word or the clue was off.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThx, David, for a nice, CRISP Fri. offering! :)
ReplyDeleteEasy+
Happy as a CLAM; pretty much breezed thru this one.
New: AON, SYRAH, ROSIE.
Fun adventure.
🙏s for S. Carolina!
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
I enjoyed this puzzle. I very much enjoy long entries whose clues are neither cutesy cutesy or obscure. Hoping for more of the same.
ReplyDeleteI've always though of the "escape key" as an emergency way to quit a program that is unresponsive. On a Mac, command-W usually closes the window. And the esc-option-command emergency is my go-to emergency method of quitting programs and closing windows.
The six grid-spanners going in two directions were really impressive and I liked all of them.
ReplyDeleteBut, oh dear, I had a 1-letter DNF. It's not as though I didn't pause at LOBARS and say what on earth... But the only cross that was up in the air was Chicago's AO? Center and it had to be AOL, right?
Wrong.
What on earth is the AON Center?
I actually ran the alphabet at ?OBARS, but came up empty. NOBARS was a DOOK for me, it didn't mean anything. I guess if I used more gadgets. Or indeed any gadgets at all. It's NO BARS, right? When you have NO BARS you have no power, right?
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, actually. I'm just relieved I wasn't solving it for the $100,000 Grand Prize.
Cell phones have "bars" on the screen to tell you how good the connection is. No bars mean no connection or service. I almost dnf'd on that cross but remembered AON is an insurance company just in time. Such a boring name!
Delete@Anon 8:26 – The page you linked also has this "trivia:
ReplyDeleteBeginning with Season Two the spelling of "Rosey"'s name inexplicably changes to "Rosie". In the comics, the spelling did not change until 1995.
Clue reads "Activity for some big game hunters?" SEE, the ? means "Be careful what you assume". Turns out it's not about someone looking to kill large quadrupeds. The clue wants an "Activity".
ReplyDeleteSo a big money poker player "hunting" for a "big game" would want the "activity" of HIGH STAKES POKER. Playing card games IS an activity. Maybe I'm not smart enough to understand why some folks don't understand this clue.
I didn’t see why SEXIESTMANALIVE was right until I got here and started pondering why that answer was so obvious to Rex. Finally it clicked. I was also slow on the uptake for why NAPTIMES fit the clue, but I like it ALOT now.
ReplyDeleteI flew through this puzzle with wings on my finger. I liked MOVIE, and seeing OCHO made me feel smart. (Unjustly?)
@ Gary Jugert - I once had a black and white striped Marimekko blouse and asked my artist (not ARTSY) friend if it was too loud. One SCOFFing glance and I realized the correct question was, “Is it loud enough?”
@beverly c 10:31 AM
DeleteI'll bet your shirt is fierce. I hope every one of us has an artist friend who tells us we need to be louder. The tallest turkey is the first to die, but he's the only one who can see it coming. A friend of mine was leaving the building the other day headed to the symphony wearing the loudest shirt I've ever seen, and I warned him they would have to turn up the trumpets in order to be heard over that shirt.
@Nancy...We are LO BARS twins.
ReplyDeleteLike @pablito, I did a fandango tango with just the M at 4D. I put on my happy feet and danced with the SEXIEST MAN ALIVE at the MEXICAN HAT DANCE parade.
I think this puzzle might be just perfect for folks who might feel trepidation at tackling a Friday. You look at the 15's and think you will never be able to do it....and then you do. The doityoudo award.
I was hoping @Rex would say this was difficult just so that I could be a happy CLAM and pat myself on my back. I actually flew through this. Well, I didn't exactly fly, but there is something so satisfying when you don't need to think much because you just know you're right until...you're not.
I had a few snafus: COLLECTion ITEMS was one of them. Then I had to SCOWL the wrong way. Finally saw the SCOFF and POKER gave me my ACE TEN. Fun.
Aside from the same mistake as @Nancy..I had another one at 44D. SOL? I had SNL because everything bizarre is SNL.
@Rex...You don't NAP? Ever? I've been napping my whole life. My favorite are the 20 minute ones. Any longer and I get snippy.
Very nice puzzle, David. Are you friends with MAS?
Done. Humor-free puzzle. I am still surprised how many solvers look forward to Fridays. They usually feel like homework to me -- something you do because you assume it'll be good for you.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Colorado and a Denver clue stacked vertically, so there's that. We have a lovely day ahead by the way. So bummed to see the devastation in Florida.
Took as long as many Sundays for me. Glad to hear the early solvers wooshed through it. They're better at this than me. Weirdest part was how easily the longer answers arrived, but how much struggle the short stuff still presented with the long ones in place. Researched TARO and AON and checked spelling of SYRAH.
I should have researched BAHAIS, but it filled with crosses. They had a beautiful temple down the street from my studio, but it recently went up for sale. It's hard to keep churches in city centers afloat when new parents move to the suburbs and join the multiplex indoctrination centers out there.
I conduct a small community guitar orchestra here and we're working on Spanish-inspired music this season. Among the tunes I arranged was Jarabe Tapatío for the Mexican hat dance. I probably read a novel worth of material trying to determine if the song had become too racially charged for us to play at all. You know, Looney Tunes and all that. But the more I read about it, the more I fell in love with the song, the dance, and its history. They really do teach it in elementary schools.
Uniclues:
1 Built her a house, made some nice furniture, brought home plenty to eat after the whole losing everything over an apple tragedy.
2 The street most of us live on.
3 Apparently right after I go into the little room, get naked, put on the paper thing, but well before they actually see me... um, hey, this is awka-awka.
1 PLACATED EVE
2 SCOFF AVENUE (~)
3 DOC NAP TIMES
What an amazing debut. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteThank you. David Karp, for making me feel smart this morning.
ReplyDeletePlayed easy for me (37+ minutes). Got the 6 spanners fairly easily. Had HENS TooTH and COLLECTible _ _ _ _ (thought it might be toys, but chose to wait and eventually shifted to COLLECTORS).
ReplyDeleteAs one who has directed and performed in Waiting for Godot, the BLEAKness of the "mood" shares the stage with the delightfulness of the comic elements (as evidenced by the fact that the roles have been played by the likes of Bert Lahr, Zero Mostel, Steve Martin, etc.).
Very enjoyable Friday.
I liked AOL and LOBAR myself.
ReplyDeleteAON and NOBARS
DeleteI was blown away by this sparkling themeless jewel! So smooth and so polished, I thought sure they had printed the wrong name on the byline because it had to be from one of the Friday experts like a Weintraub. To David Karp, all I can say is wow! A superb debut to which I would have also awarded Puzzle Of the Week. If this is just a hobby for you, I can’t wait to see what you do when you get serious about it.
ReplyDeleteI had some stumbles but no major obstacles. Really wanted FRIES at 1D, going the opposite direction across the pond with the translation there. No IDEA on BAHAIS, BOOT leg jeans before WIDE, I was IDLE before I was FREE, SNEER before the dreaded SCOFF. Hah. And ESTE before OCHO but I don’t know why. It was just a four letter Spanish word that looked like it might work. HASTA was a gimme but I could’ve used @GILL’s help with that and FLOR. The situation was BLEAK.
Is SEXIEST MAN ALIVE a still a thing? I haven’t looked at an actual magazine in AGES and am so out of the MOVIE and celebrities scene I wouldn’t know where to begin to find him.
Wednesday easy for me too. Other than that, liked it.
ReplyDeleteThere was a Jetsons comic?
ReplyDeleteCongratulations Mr. Karp on joining that rare fraternal order of NYTXW constructors with today’s debut. Thanks for keeping on the Crossworld AVENUE until you were PLACATED with Will’s approval David; your struggles have provided an interesting morning at our house, errrr, make that home. I was getting NO BARS for SOL & AON, but I’m happy to have learned them for future grid work. Your puzzle was fun from CLAM to SETH and the long scanners and sneaky clues seemed just right for a Friday tussle.
ReplyDeleteI forgot to say that my favorite thing in the puzzle is BLEAK as the answer to 59A. Finally someone willing to tell it like it is. Thank you, David.
ReplyDeleteI have always described Beckett's work as "plays to slit your wrists by."
The worst play that perhaps I've ever seen was a 1-act horror by Beckett called "Krapp's Last Tape". It's a one-actor-play about an old decrepit man making a tape recording as he eats a banana.
It was paired with Albee's brilliant 1-act "The Zoo Story" and, most happily, it came 2nd in the production.
I loved "The Zoo Story". I had to slap myself across the wrist to keep from fleeing from "Krapp's Last Tape." It was an ordeal to sit through it.
Its view of the human condition is so wretched, so despairing, so utterly, yes, BLEAK, that it really does, however briefly, make you want to slit your wrists.
I was only about 23-years-old at the time.
I agree with everyone saying that this felt more like a Wednesday than a Friday, got my best time on a Friday by a full 90 seconds. Ironically, Wednesday felt more like Friday difficulty for me, so the week balanced out in the end.
ReplyDeleteFelt like an enjoyable Tuesday to me…highlighted by the sweet memory of my father telling me to watch out for elan and eclat many decades ago.
ReplyDeleteReally liked the latticework of 15's puzgrid design. Also liked the X's in the early encounters with the lattice [at 4-D & 20-A]. What really woulda been impressive: If all the latticework 15's had intersected each other at X's.
ReplyDeleteBut, hey -- this puzgrid was probably hard enough to fill, as is. Especially in the wider-open-than-snot non-corner areas. The constructioneer clearly suffered, but did a nice, smoooth job.
Very few pesky no-knows: FLOR. BAHAIS. That, and some mostly friendly clues, made for a pretty easy FriPuz solvequest.
staff weeject picks: the AVS & EVE pair. Straight from the Garden of Even. Only 8 of the lil darlins today, btw.
fave spots: HENSTEETH. SLAMDUNKCONTEST. NAPTIMES clue.
Thanx for the themeless fun, Mr. Karp dude. And congratz on yer primo debut.
Masked & Anonymo1U
**gruntz**
I sense an embedded porn mini-theme. Look closely and you’ll find SEX, ERECT, POKER, TATA and Vagina. MORAL? Hardly.
ReplyDeleteDo EVE’s EAVES EVER fall down?
Really enjoyed this lightening-fast solve. Apparently Rex is so disinterested in gambling that he has avoided all references to it in literature, film and media. Thanks for a great debut, David Karp.
@egsforbreakfast 11:48 AM
DeleteTee-hee. 🙃 🍆
@Smith (9:13) I’ve done the same thing since retiring but have made a concentrated effort to avoid a regular NAP TIME because I didn’t want to get into a cycle of sleeping during the day. However, I have the same problem with trying to stay awake while reading and if I wait until the evening then it’s completely hopeless. I’m lucky if I can get past a few pages.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of good books and the CRISP, I’m currently reading Andrew Lonnie’s Traitor King: The Scandalous Exile of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor - which is to say King Edward VIII and his controversial paramour Wallis Simpson in the years following his infamous abdication of the British throne. I’m learning they were not particularly nice people but finding it one of the best nonfiction books I’ve run across in a long time.
Googled Mexican Hat Dance, just to refresh my memory. Saw a nice YouTube video of an elementary phys ed teacher showing you how to teach K thru 2. Fun. Forgot how to do the dance. 27A scorn not scoff. Couldn't get poker, fort. Eventually did finish.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it "hold DOWN the fort" not "hold the fort"? Grr.
ReplyDeleteboth
DeleteEasy, fun Friday. I loved the clues. Rex struggled, by his standard, so he hated the clues. Sheesh. Grow up.
ReplyDeleteLiked this puzzle a lot though I have a few questions. Do people really giggle at a RIOT? Once it becomes a RIOT, isn’t the audience laughing out loud? And what’s the connection between squirrels and EAVES?
ReplyDeleteAKIN to and parallel seems a stretch.
I use the ESCAPE KEY to close the presentation mode of Power Point but otherwise close windows with the little x at the top right.
I knew SOL from reading The Martian.
Bruce
I thought the puzzle was way to easy for a Friday. Got MEXICAN HAT DANCE almost immediately. SEXIESTMANALIVE even faster. HIGHSTAKESPOKER took a while, but when I figured it out I thought of that great movie set on a train, whose name I now forget, The players hire a dealer known to be the most honest dealer in the country, but for a big reward, he cheats.
ReplyDeleteMy only DNF: Not figuring out NOBARS. I had lOBARS, which I thought was wrong. Only here did I figure out the service was cell phone service, and NO BARS of course fits.
Gotta say I find it hard to believe some folks did not get HENS TEETH at once. There is nothing scarcer than HENS TEETH. Plus all its crosses were gimmes.
@OFL:
ReplyDeleteyour not closing a *browser* with ESC, but a *window* within the browser, or any program. I'm decades older than you, and even I know that.
@kitshef:
ReplyDeleteEscape key does not close a window on any device I've ever used.
sure it does: most any pop-up can be dismissed with ESC.
My start into this puzzle paralleled Rex's rather closely. And I would rate it Easy easy, not easy medium. Though I did have a DNF at the 38D-45A intersection. I'd forgotten the AON Center and went with AOL which left me with LOBARS. I did briefly wonder if that's how LOw BARS was referred to these days but not enough to rethink AOl. Oh well.
ReplyDeleteThen there was my "snake" in place of COBRA which was the only real hold-up today. AVS had me worried but I should have figured a CO hockey team could be AValanches.
I will agree with Rex that some clues were a real "stretch", especially, for me, CORSET and NAPTIMES.
David Karp, congratulations on your debut!
The puzzle was well constructed, but some clues were a STRETCH, meaning technically correct (if you want to be finicky about it) but unhelpful:
ReplyDeleteVex (RILE) – To confuse means stir up?
Run down (LIBEL) – To tire means denigrate?
Tool for closing a window = ESCAPE KEY? Not always.
One with a forked tongue = COBRA. If all snakes have forked tongues, clue wasn’t specific enough. Again, nits, but more of an impediment than normal.
Please explain Martian day. SOL is Roman god of the sun. How does that relate to the length of a day on Mars?
Sol is what scientists call a it.
DeleteDoesn't bother me.
Also run down as a verb phrase can mean speak ill of someone.
Z and others pointed out many times that clues are clues, not definitions. So this is quite common, especially later in the week. A Cobra is a snake after all.
5D is an error - the clue is singular, so the answer needs to be HENS TOOTH , not HENS TEETH. It was the only thing that slowed me down today, and I’m still mad…
ReplyDelete“Rare find” works on these levels: 1) If you assume a hen (singular) could have multiple teeth, like a human, then finding a HEN’S TEETH would be a rarity. 2) HENS’ (plural possessive) works as well if referring to many hens’ TEETH. 3) Google shows no instance of “rare as a hen’s tooth.” However, the commonly used spelling is “hen’s teeth” — which seems to put the apostrophe in the wrong place. Cluck, cluck.
DeleteAt SEXIESTMANALIVE I perked up, until my chances were judged BLEAK at the bottom.
ReplyDeleteP.S. How do you respond to a specific comment vs showing up at the bottom of the page? I’ve seen gray responses and indents.
@TedP 1:26 – You can only respond directly to a comment if your display is set to Mobile mode. Click on the "Reply" link at the bottom of the individual post, as I am doing here. My reply will show up under your post, in Mobile mode.
DeleteIn the Web mode display there is no individual "reply" link. Any reply post will just show up chronologically in sequence on the page, whether it was made in Mobile or Web mode.
Our convention is to always begin a response with [@name of poster - timestamp], so that it will be clear what we are responding to regardless of the viewing mode you are using.
@Joe Dipinto 3:21 - Adding to my 3:28 response to you (which should have been inserted here), I discover that replying on a cell phone to a specific comment works there, but on the PC version it still gets relegated to the bottom of the page. A Blogger shortcoming, IMO.
DeleteReally nice puzzle, but the easy cluing made it go by awful fast. As @Lewis and others noted, this is a debut... impressive!
ReplyDeleteWriteovers: AOLI before ACAI (Kealoas?) And hands up for AOL creating LO BARS briefly. Stupid stadium names, not my fave type of clue. Almost as bad as team mascot clues for university abbrev's.
I always confuse HENS TEETH and HOUNDSTOOTH. Today's clue might help in the future.
[Spelling Bee: yd pg-1; missed this 9er which I'm pretty sure I've never heard of; definitely not a should've. My QB streak ends at 15 days but I don't feel too bad.]
Kristin (12:30) Agree, that’s how I’ve always heard it. “Hold down the fort” or “hold the phone.”
ReplyDelete@Anonymous (12:58 PM)
ReplyDeleteAgreed re: ESC dismissing various pop-up 'windows' etc. It's also useful for getting out of 'full-screen' mode. I employ this 'key' numerous times a day. I use Cmd+W to close Finder windows.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
I didn’t get the ocho clue. Can someone explain
ReplyDelete@ Anon 1:44
DeletePicture the infinity symbol. Now imagine it "standing up". Looks kinda like an 8. Ocho in Sp. per the clue.
Ocho clue??
ReplyDelete5D clue is singular. "Hen's teeth" is plural. I call bullsh*t.
ReplyDelete16A clue explained: The clue is Spanish for "Symbol of infinity," (i.e. the numeral eight sideways, or rotated 90º). "Ocho," of course, is "eight" in Spanish.
ReplyDeletePut me in the AOL and LOBARS crowd.
ReplyDeleteThis is not the first time OFL's unfamiliarity with POKER---HIGH STAKES or otherwise---has hampered his solve. Some players go for insanely HIGH STAKES POKER, even to the point of having their own private jets to fly around the ORB to them. They are not, however, called "whales". These are crazy rich people who are willing and able to drop megabucks in casino games like roulette or craps.
I commented here a few years ago that the typical NYTXW puzzle seemed to have changed from the difficult brain busters of old to ones that could be solved much more quickly and easily, say during a lunch break or a commute to work. Now I see that many articles in the online NYT even have a "__ MIN READ" qualifier below their titles. The average seems to be around four or five minutes. Ever onward (downward?) to a twitter speak world.
Old timer @12:38, "...nothing scarcer than HEN'S TEETH"? I recall from long ago hearing the phrase "Rare as HEN'S TEETH and horse feathers". One of Stephen Jay Gould's collection of his Natural History essays is titled Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes. Maybe we can add civility in public affairs to that list of rarities.
p.s.
ReplyDeleteOCHO clue I think is partly in Spanish, sayin that the infinity symbol, rotated 90 degrees, gives U a figure 8 (OCHO). Or somesuch.
M&A Help Desk
Such clever clues and long answers. This was fin and challenging. I felt like I might get whiplash! Blasted out of the gate. Just as I was thinking “this is like Tuesday,”. . . Wham!! The clever clues for most of the long answers. . . . HAT DANCE I got immediately simply because of the very easy west 1/3 top to bottom. The others not so much.
ReplyDeleteUnlike @Rex, I adored the clue for NAPTIMES. “The rest of us” implies allowing the child supervisors whether adult, teen, parent, babysitter or whomever some rest-respite from the child or children’s high energy activities. “Stretches,” simply means parcels of time. Far from “trying too hard,” I thought this one was just full on clever.
Clue for MORAL OF THE STORY fell jn the BAT DANCE category for me, again because of the fully completed west side. But it also was a good idea.
Was totally stuck trying to recall the Jetson’s maid, and I even recalled the episode where Judy decided to order one. Eventually, the crosses helped my aging memory.
This probably wasn’t hard enough for a “classic” Friday, but I enjoyed it tremendously.
Anyone wondering about SOL: Mars sol on Wikipedia. Very close to an Earth day.
ReplyDeleteFinished it OK, but still don't understand "NOBARS." Can someone explain?
ReplyDeleteNo bars on a cell phone means you have poor reception, i.e., bad service.
Deletere: 5D
ReplyDeleteWhat's singular about "rare find"?
One can find lots of things in lots of places.
Just the other day I found $8 on the sidewalk while walking up the street.
@TedP 1:26 - depending on your device and OS, it may or may not be possible. I generally work on a PC, where a) it cannot be done b) when people do reply to a specific post, I can't tell that's what they are doing. Their comments just appear as sometimes-inexplicable posts in the comment chain. But if I go in using my Android phone, each comment has "reply" link in blue underneath it, and I can reply to a specific comment and see which other replies go with which original comments.
ReplyDeleteKitshef 3:22 I now understand the deal. On cell phones you can reply to a specific comment, whereas on a PC you can’t — hence must reference the original post at the beginning of a reply. The PC version of this blog can be disorderly at times, but still I enjoy reading comments from this articulate and educated crowd.
Delete@Joe Dipinto 1:26 Thank you, Joe. I now see that the mobile version allows replying to individual posts, whereas the web version does not. Puzzling why that is, but I appreciate the heads-up.
ReplyDelete@JCC - How many times have you walked on a street, and how many times have you found $8 walking on a a street? I'd say your finding $8 while you're walking on a street to happen < 1 in 25000 times. That's pretty rare.
ReplyDelete@A Stats
ReplyDeleteYep, about as rare as HENS TEETH.
Every once in a while I get an email from the NYT, telling me that our paper will be delivered late. Usually it comes on time anyway; but today the email said it will be delivered tomorrow ("production delay"), and they were right (at least about the part where it's not coming today). Eventually I figured out how to print out the puzzle from their website, which used to require a separate subscription but now seems to be included with home delivery--but not until I ran off for a longish hearing test; so I am just getting here now.
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm not as smart as the rest of you -- or maybe too smart for my own good. I had no idea about AON (still don't!), so naturally it had to be AOl -- which meant that the bad service must be one that went high up into the air, in lOB ARc. I could see that 10D had to be COLLECTOR'S ITEMS (not much of an answer, but I couldn't think of anything else for the bad service, so DNF. I think part of my problem is that I put in COLLECTible first, hoping but failing to find a second word that would fit.
@mathgent -- for me the tic-tac-toe feel comes from the line segments of 3 black squares each, not from the grid-spanning answers.
I don't know from Macs, but on a PC if you close a program you also close the window it's running in, so that one seems fine.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteGot a buddy in town from PA, so no comment from me so far. I know y'all can't live without reading me for a day (😜😆), so I just wanted to pop in. I call Shenanigans! on the AON/NOBARS N cross. What the hell is an AON? And LOBARS, although spelt slangily, works for the clue. Harrumph. Har
Good puz.
Now back to your life with the security of me having commented.
RooMonster Really Hoping Nobody Takes This Seriously Guy
I had no trouble with AON because of all their victims on 9/11. They lost 176 in the towers.
ReplyDeleteI’ll grant many of Rex’s quibbles about cluing; and there’s one or two things in the fill that are probably yeesh-worthy, and yes, the pleasure lasted less than half as long as usual (I’ve completed Fridays faster than today’s 6:16, but very rarely)…
ReplyDelete…but overall, this puzzle felt so fresh and lively that I was more than happy to overlook any and all blemishes. Well done; more like this, please.
Thanks to Anonymous for explaining "NOBARS." i don't have a cellphone (and don't need one), but I'm grateful for the explanation.
ReplyDeleteLoved the 15-letter spanners, and thought the puzzle as a whole was just a joy.
ReplyDeleteAlthough light years easier than the Friday puzzles from 20 years ago.
What a debut!
Two of my posts never made it past the mods yesterday; we'll see about today!
I’ve only ever heard “hold DOWN the fort,l as in take care of things while I’m gone. Hold the line, hold the door, hold the phone all better.
ReplyDeleteThe AON Center is a skyscraper previously known as the Standard Oil Building and the Amoco. (It is not a stadium).
ReplyDeleteSped through about 40% mostly toward the North.
The rest went slower with a couple of little areas taking a long time.
Much easier for me than yesterday's disaster.
Biggest surprise: MACK not hess.
Biggest weird coincidence: I had ROSey before ROSIE and SiRAH before SYRAH. I looked both up later and the first place I looked for both answers said my 2 initial answers were correct. And one was dropping a Y and adding an I. The other was adding a Y and dropping an I.
I think in every case today I am with the clue and against the nitpickers.
In wordle another eagle.
Wordle 468 2/6*
🟧⬛🟧🟧⬛
🟧🟧🟧🟧🟧
Hold the fort
ReplyDeleteThis expression has been traced to an order given by General William Tecumseh Sherman in 1864, which was repeated as “Hold the fort [against the enemy at Allatoona] at all costs, for I am coming.”
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteReally enjoyed this. Easy but also elegant. Didn’t realize it’s a debut. Well done.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteARTSY TIMES
ReplyDeleteTHE MORALOFTHESTORY
is BLEAK as EVER, NO jive:
MOVIES are a poor KEY
to THE SEXIESTMANALIVE.
--- KATE MACK
So OFF never takes naps. I dare say it might improve his attitude if he tried it.
ReplyDeleteToday's offering had me looking at the calendar: is this really Friday? I had a few shrugs, like, do they really call the Martian day SOL? And what is SYRAH? I'm ordering wine for two: "'Kay, SYRAH, SYRAH." (Apologies.) But other than that, this was a walk in the park. As a POKER player, I had no trouble figuring out what came after HIGHSTAKES. I simply checked the down clue where K would hit...yep, they throw shade, OAKS, we're good.
AON was my only other unknown. As I've said before, grids with 15s are vulnerable to a quick solve if one or two of them are apparent. In this case it was most of them! A nice, junk-FREE puzzle, but not Friday fare. Par.
BBYBG
GBBGG
GGGGG for another birdie.
A one-run loss sends the Phillies to Houston with the arduous task of winning two there. Good luck, guys! At least the Eagles held up their end.
Pretty good. Not thrilling or NEATO but decent enough.
ReplyDelete