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Self-esteem from the French / SAT 9-10-22 / Jukebox crooner with the 1965 hit 1-2-3 / Blues singer Monica Parker / Co-host of 1970s program People Are Talking
Saturday, September 10, 2022
Constructor: Kameron Austin Collins
Relative difficulty: Challenging
Word of the Day: LEN BARRY (17A: Jukebox crooner with the 1965 hit "1-2-3") —
Leonard Warren Borisoff (June 12, 1942 – November 5, 2020) known professionally as Len Barry, was an American recording star, vocalist, songwriter, lyricist, record producer, author, and poet. [...] As someone who sang rhythm and blues, he recorded hits in 1965 and 1966 for Decca Records in the US and released by Brunswick Records: "1-2-3", "Like a Baby", and "I Struck It Rich", a song he wrote with Leon Huff of the Philadelphia International Records producers, Gamble and Huff. // His first two hits also made the Top Ten of the UK Singles Chart. "1-2-3" reached number three. Those songs also peaked at number 2 and 27 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart respectively. "1-2-3" sold over four million copies, and gave Barry his second RIAA gold disc and a Grammy Award nomination for Contemporary Rock & Roll Male Vocal Performance. Both "1-2-3" and "Like a Baby" were composed by Barry, John Madara, and David White. // He performed at the Apollo Theatre in New York; the Howard Theatre in Washington, D.C.; The Regal Chicago, Chicago; Illinois; The Fox Theatre (Detroit) in Detroit, Michigan; and The Uptown (Philadelphia), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He also toured with Sam Cooke, The Motown Revue in the United Kingdom, and appeared on Top of the Pops.// He became a major singing star in The United Kingdom. Highlights of his European tour included featured performances at the London Palladium and Royal Albert Hall as well as numerous appearances throughout England, Ireland, Scotland and Wales. // Barry's respect for the Native American culture led him to write and produce the instrumental "Keem-O-Sabe". The song went to number 16 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1969 for The Electric Indian. (wikipedia)
• • •
That set of long Downs in the middle was actually the easiest part of the grid for me, largely because XGAMES was a gimme (coming out of the NW with the "XG-" in place), and then TAZO gave me that "Z" that made LAMAZE very clear (great clue on LAMAZE CLASS, btw (16D: Recommended labor practice)). BANANA PEELS was pretty transparent (18D: Yellow slippers?) and so with the center settled I sort of slid right down into the SE corner—once I'd changed BOLTS to BRADS (44D: Carpentry supply), which gave me PRESS BOX (48A: Writer's block?), which gave me XOXO, and two "X"s was more than enough to handle that SE corner. So without too much more than regular Saturday effort I ended up here:
As you can see, no idea about LEN BARRY. I had put LEN BAKER in there, but when that didn't work out, I just left it. That far SW part of the SW corner — SPECIALS ERRANDS TESLAS — filled itself in pretty quickly, which I thought boded omenly in a good way! Good boding! But the Opposite Was True. I got my hopes up but then precisely zero of those long Downs wanted to play along. Worse, the short Acrosses weren't too helpful either. [Calendar abbr.]s aren't gonna help anyone. "Pfft, good luck guessing us, idiot," they seemed to sneer. I kinda wanted IMAY but I kinda wanted a bunch of stuff and kinda wanting never locked anything down. Finally decided it was CREMA (36A: Espresso foam) and not FROTH because 33D: "Pass" was probably NA- (W? H?), and 32A: Yank slightly was probably TUG ON (not TUG AT, as I had conjectured) (FROTH is more cappuccino than espresso, anyway). NAH gave me OPRAH (educated guess! five-letter "host" of something where "People Are Talking"? Ending in "H"? I have a guess!). And down the long answers came. AMOUR-PROPRE, oof, ouch, wow, parsing that was ... something (21D: Self-esteem, from the French). I know it, but haven't thought about it in god knows how long. Wish that corner hadn't ended on MINT COIN SET, which felt awkward and kinda made-up, or at least didn't strike me as a coherent, recognizable, on-the-nose Thing to me. I know coins can be mint, and you can buy them in sets, but MINT COIN SET somehow doesn't land. Only answer that really made me wince and cock my head and go "really?" Whereas AMOUR-PROPRE, despite being harder, felt like an old friend. Not necessarily a good friend, but an old one. "Oh ... it's you. I know you." A more satisfying feeling of recognition.
As for the NE, that initially looked much dicier than the SW—didn't get much help from those longer Acrosses leading into that deep corner. "LOOK HERE!" was good, and then I got MEH, which felt probably right, but MIMICS felt like a bit of a guess, so the whole situation seemed tenuous until I lucked into SPEED SKATES (off just the initial S-E-). Being able to drop a long Down early made everything easier than it had been in the SW, even though that NW corner is *full* of things I simply didn't know. IDEAL GAS LAW? LOL, whatever you say. SISTA Monica Parker, WES Studi ... this corner was here to remind me that however good I am at crosswords, I am actually one sorry ignorant human being, because that is the condition of being human, so you better stay curious and stay (reasonably) humble or you are not going to enjoy the ride. In the end, I enjoyed this ride, even if it leaned a little more heavily into trivia I typically like.
Notes:
- 46A: ___ Studi, first Native American man to receive an Oscar (2019) (WES) — his Academy Award was an Honorary one. I assumed I didn't know this guy, but boy was I wrong. He has appeared multiple (hilarious) times as Bucky on "Reservation Dogs"—my favorite current TV program (now that "Better Call Saul" is off the air).
- 59A: In descending order: Mount Everest, K2, Kangchenjunga, ___ (LHOTSE) — hoo boy, no idea ... but that corner was so easy that the answer just came together from crosses. I never even saw the clue until I had the answer completed.
- 35A: Blues singer ___ Monica Parker (SISTA) — wrote in SANTA, SANTA Monica being a thing I've heard of / place I've been / boulevard I've driven. Parker sang blues and gospel and died fairly young (age 58, in 2014)
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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122 comments:
I BONEDUP to Haul ASS. TeeHee....
A huge yes to Reservation Dogs. Terrific series.
Those of us of a certain age really really really wanted to put that bygone sponsor of ABC's Wide World of Sports TIMEX in 6D. ROLEX may be fashionable and expensive, but I seriously doubt that when it takes a lickin', it keeps on tickin'.
Toughest puzzle in donkey’s years. Had everything but the SW reasonably quickly, but that one section took a good twenty minutes.
Probably easier for anyone who knew RANGE ROVERS, or CREMA, or whoever that TV person from a local Baltimore show from 50 years ago is.
If you are from New England and pay any attention to football, you know all about the ideal gas law ....
For a KAC Saturday, I always need to bring in the big solver’s toolbox, as opposed to the pocket-sized kit that suffices for a typical early week puzzle.
I needed that toolbox for the NE and SW quadrants today, as the NW-to-SE sash filled in remarkably fast (for a KAC Saturday).
Those tough quadrants were rife with deterrents: Vague clues like [Makes fast], [Settled (on)], and [Smooth, in a way]; things I didn’t know, like the lightyears-out-of-my-ken IDEAL GAS LAW; knotty wordplay, such as [They’re not usually offered]; and a paucity, in those quadrants, of gimmees, forcing a spate of guesses.
Thank goodness. I want a steep Saturday climb. I want to earn my progress. I want to learn things. I want chess and swordplay, to break through stiff obstacles and see the light on the other side. I want to need that big toolbox.
These I can count on, on a KAC Saturday, and you delivered once again, Kameron. High satisfaction today, sir. You make a great puzzle. Thank you!
I fought for every single square of this beast.
Kameron always, always BRINGs IT. He has woven an astonishing, vibrant tapestry of humanity here. You got your RANGE ROVER, TESLA-driving, ROLEX-wearing LUXURY SNOB, ALL in up in his smug AMOUR-PROPRE. . . you got your Ethiopian speaking SOMALI, your Asian LHOTSE, your Muslim MOORS (work with me here), your OPRAH and SISTA Monica Parker, your Greek Zeus AEGIS and Penelope SUITOR, your stoner X-GAMES dude, your hapless YEOMAN just trying to make some COIN. . .
Too many brilliant, fiendish clues to list. Honestly, the clues were the star of this show imo. But I have to say, BONED UP doesn’t feel as desperate and rushed as its clue. If I BONE UP on something, I may casually read about it while eating Fritos and watching Below Deck. If I cram, I’m hunched over a desk, earplugged up, panicking that I won’t get that all-important A+.
CELIAC’s IDEAL GAS LAW. Just don’t eat gluten. Period.
Considered “Twinkie” before SNOBALL.
SOMALI – “Amharic” has one too many letters. I can say thank-you in Amharic and enjoy startling cashiers at the Charlotte airport. I never assume they’re from Ethiopia, so I always ask first, chatting them up, overthinking that somehow I’m coming across as condescending or snobby or racist but soldiering on nonetheless. As I leave, I toss back over my shoulder my wobbly ameseginalehu hoping against hope that they understand that I’m just trying to reach out and be friendly.
Loved “haul ASS.” LOOK HERE – If you have a guide dog to help guide you through streets and a plow horse to help plow your fields, you can have a haul ASS to haul your camping gear to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, amirite?
BORE TO TEARS. Just settle in to tell me about how your doctor is adjusting your thyroid medication. Then I’ll tell you some esoteric linguistics crap, and we’ll be even.
(Poor guy in my homeroom yesterday was telling me that he was talking to this girl he was asking about in my fourth block. I was like, Oh? and wiggled my eyebrows. He smiled and was like, Naw – I’m not TALKING TO HER talking to her. . .. I couldn’t help myself. Tried to explain reduplication in some languages and how in my opinion we do it in English like in
Did you eat?
Yeah, I had a couple of crackers.
No – did you EAT eat.
I’m pretty sure I lost him at reduplication. Sigh. I can’t blame him. But I think my reduplication observations are every bit as compelling as thyroid medicine updates. That alone should make me just shut the hell up.)
Attractive - minimalist grid layout. The resulting set of vertical tri-stacks are the real deal. The IDEAL GAS LAW for me is like Beowulf to Rex - sometimes these things work out in your favor. Lots of ?’s and scrabbly letters. Looks to be a few short of a pangram.
The SW played hard - I knew RANGE ROVERS since everyone in NY drives them now but needed every cross to get my French self esteem. Not a huge fan of the calendar abbreviations but liked CREMA and the OPRAH trivia.
SNOB ALL could be interesting. For my sister Susan - LEN BARRY was the Bristol Stomp. Wanted ArGUS for 28a.
The SPECIALS
Enjoyable Saturday solve.
Now that's what I'm talkin' about! Great Saturday puzzle from KAC. I'm an old guy, so Len Barry was a gimme, and a physics nerd so the Ideal Gas Law was as well. I also tried Timex before Rolex, but oh well.
One more thing. A hallmark of Kameron’s Saturdays are their NYT answer debuts – which make them feel especially fresh – and today there were nine additions to the oeuvre, including BORE TO TEARS, CURTAIN TIME, LAMAZE CLASS, SPEED SKATES, and hard-to-believe-its-never-been-in-the-NYT-puzzle LUXURY.
Jeez, what a bear. Got ADVERB instantly, and DUO and VIM and then nothing until SPEEDSKATES, which was a guess that panned out, and AMOURPROPRE, another good guess, I hoped, and then nothing for almost ever, but nevertheless I persisted and actually finished the whole thing. Good thing I have nothing on the schedule for another hour and a half though.
Two nits-PINA without the tilde looks weird, and I hate the clue "calendar abbr., which showed up twice, and may as well be "random three letters".
Didn't know the models of RANGEROVERS. The very notion that people think they need a RANGEROVER always makes me a little angry, especially urbanites. Think I'll stop before a major rant though, but I mean, really.
Finished at the mysterious LHOTSE and am still awaiting an explanation. I'm sure I'm missing something here, but still don't know what it might be.
Well, KAC, I'm familiar with your work form New Yorker Monday puzzles, so Knew A Challenge was forthcoming. An excellent Saturday workout, and thanks for all the fun.
Too soon
Interesting layout today, with most of the long answers as Downs rather than Acrosses. I wonder if this was done deliberately to avoid having ASS at 1A...
It is somehow comforting to come here after a battle and see that Rex also struggled. I don’t think I’ve ever felt compelled to comment, but that was rough. Loved it.
18 D: I had “eels” and was so sure that I was dealing with an animal that I couldn’t consider “peels.” Oof. Hard but great puzzle.
Huh. I guess this just happened to be up my alley. Easy-medium for me, but still very enjoyable. The only major hangups were AMOUR PROPRE and SISTA. ASS and MEH were literally the first two I dropped in, and that piqued my interest. For the most part I wasn't let down.
Never heard the term BRIO and while I'm familiar with base-12, I've never heard it called DUOdecimal. But the crosses were easy so no problem there.
Oh, and nails before BRADS, but only until I got the B.
All in all, a lovely little jaunt.
Terrible, terrible cluing in this puzzle. ETAL does NOT mean 'among others'. That is inter alia. Who the h*@# has heard of Len Barry? A MINT COIN SET is just that . . . a set. That clue for 20 down does not even make sense. You can put a set in a case, but . . . . There are similar strains throughout the puzzle. Writer's block = PRESS BOX? We talk about prison blocks. It just pushes puns and meanings too far in my view, when it isn't just outright wrong. And it is, more than it should be. Does BONED UP = CRAMMED? Not in my book. The latter implies a time constraint and possibly some desperation. Let's hope for better editing the next time we are forced to solve one of this constructor's puzzles.
Pretty much what Rex said for me. A very tough but enjoyable ride, with lots of stuff I didn’t know at all but some great clues.
Amy: Uncle!
Loved ASS in this puzzle probably more than the bottoms I met at my gay orgy in Palm Springs last weekend. Great inclusion.
Wow, 3/4 of it was fantastic for me (cluing and answers feeling fresh, relatively little crosswordese - challenging but doable) until I got to that terrible SW corner... I came up with every car descriptor I could for RANGE ROVERS (guesses like FOUR SEATERS...) before caving and looking up what these cars I had never heard of were. Two calendar abbr's in one section felt rather cruel, too. AMOUR PROPRE is also new to me, but I am young so I'll accept it. MINT COIN SET struck a sour ending note. Would've been a contender for most fun Sunday puzzle in awhile if not for that corner, imo.
Lhotse is the fourth highest peak after the other three in the clue. It's asking you to continue the list.
Also, I'll gladly take overpriced Range Rovers over the army of full-sized garage queen pickups currently blighting the roads.
Lhotse is the fourth highest mountain in the world after the Everest, K2 and Kanchenjunga. It sits right next to Everest.
Mint Coin Set is legit. The US Mint every year produces and sells sets of the year's coinage. They come in two types: Mint Coin Sets and Proof Coin Sets. I do, however concede that they are usually described as simply Mint Sets and Proof Sets.
Finally a Saturday puzzle PROPRE. Rex, Loren, and Lewis were worth the price of admission. Speaking of which, Rex should put this blog post up when asking for his annual donations to remind me how wonderful he can be. That last paragraph about humility and human ignorance, mwah!
Just watched Last of the Mohicans with Daniel Day Lewis and Wes Studi this week. I didn't make the connection that it was Wes in Reservation Dogs also. Big seconding hand up for that show, including some beautifully moving slice-of-life episodes, particularly in season 2. First episode okay, but doesn't really get to what is wonderful about it, so stick with it and you'll be rewarded.
I thought google would definitely be required today, but kept hacking away and eventually got there. Amazing how one letter or 3 letter word can open up a whole world of answers sometimes.
After dispatching LEN BARRY (what in hell is a "jukebox crooner"?) this looked like it was going to be hard, but it actually started falling in fairly quickly. The three middle downs came next, then the whole right side and then the top left. Only the middle/bottom left was looking like one giant natick.
I saw the potential for OPRAH but my brain wouldn't put her in the 1970's for some reason. I never thought of a YEOMAN as a servant, but apparently it was part of the job description. The TC I had in 20d made me want CLUTCH PURSE for that answer. ("Case" in that clue annoys me; the "set" is the collection of coins, not the thing that they're placed in.)
I don't remember a Mt. LHOTSE from my atlas-geek days; I think it must have had another name on maps circa 1965, but I don't know what. (In my college days I was briefly acquainted with an artist named Tina L'Hotsky – she was the friend of a friend, and became big in the downtown scene. She was hilarious to hang around with.)
A splendid Saturday puzzle. Any difficult spots were inferable, so no complaints.
@Son Volt stole my song, so I'm forced to play this instead.
Agree. This one was not for me. Glad other people liked it.
Haul Ass. Not a prude. Honest. But that's really a juvenile low for the NYT. Grow up already.
So there was this one pesky Naticky letter and I ran the alphabet:
Is there such a thing as an IDEAL GAB LAW? If there isn't, there should be, that's what I say. Sometimes people just yak on and on and on.
An IDEAL GAP LAW? Again, there should be. When the gap between the subway platform and the train is too wide, people can fall onto the tracks and die.
An IDEAL GAY LAW? There are no "ideal" gay laws, right?
An IDEAL GAG LAW? There shouldn't be any gag laws at all.
Aha! An IDEAL GAS LAW. The equation didn't mean anything to me, but I'm sure it meant something to many other people with more science background and aptitude than I have. And it's obviously a lot more critical to the future of the planet than the names of rappers and the casts of TV sitcoms. Anyway, in it went and I finished the puzzle.
I liked this puzzle a lot. The cluing was tricky and the fill was interesting. Being an Equal Opportunity Pop Culture Disliker, I never heard of LEN BARRY or the song "1-2-3" even though it's from my own era. But happily there wasn't too much of that here. I found it a welcome change from yesterday's trivia-fest.
Just listened to 1-2-3 by LEN BARRY snd wondering if the puzzle constructor is taunting us a bit with lyrics like “it’s easy… like taking candy …from a baby”.
Murderous.
An ACES rating for this puzzle, which for me was three-quarters medium and one quarter nigh-on impossible (the NE). And totally satisfying to be able to finish.
First not in: ASS, rejected with "They won't go there."
First actual in: SUITOR, followed by, "Okay, then, ASS it is."
Last in: INKY x BONED UP.
Most "Saturday" clue: Not one of the play-on-words ones but the simple "Jet." For me, it was that sort of clue that defined a Saturday puzzle when I first dared to try them - a one-word clue that could be different parts of speech and could leave you completely at sea. Here, I only thought of "jet" as a noun or verb....had forgotten it's also an adjective, until the last square. Great clue.
Do-overs: A-one before ACES, "What's the Prob?" before PLAN, mOn before NOV.
No idea: LEN BARRY, SISTA, WES, LHOTSE and the never-heard phrases MINT COIN SET and IDEAL GAS LAW.
The W and SW were just impossible. And if you TUG ON something, it isn't a gentle pull. Bad clue. Hardest puzzle in a long while.
A decently difficult Saturday for a change. Some great cluing in general with the exception of et al instead of inter alia and the coin set - which comes in a case but isn’t one.
I don’t think Odysseus would be amused with Penelope weaving for Laertes. 😀
Anonymous 7:24: Nice one.
Made good time through northwest, northeast, down the middle, into the southeast....then deflated by the section topped by 20A. After way too many minutes with LARGE.....at 22D, and a couple of the short acrosses entered, plus SPECIALS and TESLAS, paused it went to Spelling Bee. Came back to...empty grid! Three minutes and a mint set later, back to where I was. Finally realized it was RANGE ROVERS, and finished it off.
Nice puzzle, even if I thought I'd never finish.
Hey All !
Ended up bruised from this puz fightierasedng me, I did get a few good licks in myself. Got three Long Downs on my first pass-through, thinking it might not be that tough of a puz. Hoo-boy, wrong. Ducking punches in all areas, but got smacked with a DNF.
I actually call Shenanigans! on my DNF spot. I had IsAY for IMAY, as to my ear, either one fits the clue. Actually, I think I sAY fits better, I MAY sounds hesitant, not a "qualified yes". Granted, now that I see AMOUR, it looks more like a word/French thing than AsOUR, but what do I know of French phrases? (Not much, apparently.) My Shenanigans call holds. 😁
INKY for Jet is a stretch. Someone had to say it. Did like the wacky looking grid. Surprised Rex didn't say anything about the large swaths of basically closed off areas. "Normally", you'd have an "out" on top of the left side squiggly line of Blockers, not be closed off completely. (Bottom of right side squiggle for symmetry.)
But, fill was good, tasked the ole brain today. I didn't Go-ogle, so that's something.
Some writeovers I remember, CREam-CREMA, PRESSkit-PRESSBOX, CiLIAC-CELIAC, actsaS-MIMICS, TAos-TAZO.
The "What's the ___?" clue could be a number of things, DEAL, IDEA, PLAY, WORD, HELL (Tehee on that, remember WHAT IN HELL?) Had INAT in, but couldn't get anything to work with the AT, so erased it, then it turned out to be correct. Sometimes it seems easier to figure out an answer without the correct letters in. Weird.
So a good, tough, brain using puz. I SAY.
Har
No F's (BLANKed)
RooMonster
DarrinV
@Joe D -- I just read your post-midnight reply last night to @albatross's Phrazle poser and it absolutely cracked me up!!! @albatross -- make sure not to miss it! And, yes, if you award colors to Joe's first guess, maybe one of the two of us (probably him) will be able to figure it out.
Actually, I'm going out into the beautiful weather now and will get home just in time to watch the women's tennis final live. So I won't be able to attack your challenge for many, many hours.
Now THAT was a workout!
Thought I was defeated from the start, getting only ATE up and CAL for sure on first pass.
Guessed Sarah Monica Parker (maybe she was a SISTA to S. Jessica P?) which showed my level of desperation.
But then little by little, the words started - and kept - coming. And the answers - and cluing - were fresh and fun. A lot of AHAs and OHOs on this one.
No Googling, no “Checking Chen Cheats”, a clean win that I felt good about. Having Rex rate this as Challenging made my rare Saturday success that much sweeter.
Thank you Kameron for a doable but appropriately difficult Saturday!
From a suburban Philly teen growing up in the '60s, major props to Kameron for Len Barry. Before he went out on his own, he fronted the Dovells who recorded the hits "You Can't Sit Down" and "The Bristol Stomp," a paean to weekend dances help at Edgely Fire Hall No. 2 in Bristol, a few miles from my house in Levittown. Great songs, great voice, great clue.
What a difference a day can make. BRINGIT would be an apt title for this puzzle. After clawing my way to a clean grid my faith in KAC was restored. Ever since his tirade at xwordinfo it's felt like he's been holding back on the quality of what he's been sending to the NYT. However if my time to solve was any indication I'd have to count this as his best to date.
That SW stack of 11s was the closest I've come to being frozen out of an entire section in longer than I can remember. My diphthong dyslexia kept YOEMAN in for way too long. I was so convinced I was right and that made an entry as simple as TUGON hard to see. Why I was so slow on IRON is beyond me. CROSSOVERS is a letter short for 22D but I still found it hard to unsee. OPRAH seemed too good to be true but I couldn't think of anyone else that would ould fit.
Going from yesterday's marshmallow to this gem was quite a learning curve but nonetheless a welcome one.
MIMICS in its singular form is an SB classic. So is CELIAC.
yd -0
Saturday morning crunch time but other than a few mandatory lookups like GAS LAW and AMOUR PROPRE (impossible for this non-French speaking, math and science challenged human), it was entirely doable. BORED TO DEATH before TEARS. Great start with 1A and 7A, then sly deceit that got me good in BANANA CLUES and LAMAZE CLASS.
Not so great was the 4D clue “among others” for ET AL - the Latin term meaning and others. Insert answer for 45 Down HERE.
boned up = crammed as in studying for an exam
One of my least favorite KAC puzzles (which, like PB before him, still means better than 90% of all puzzles) because too much of the struggle was PPP induced. I could picture an EVOQUE but the image didn’t evoke a make. I was actually thinking larGER or bigGER for a long time. And then the “19 options” clue for MAR and NOV, ugh. And TESLAS as the cars always make me snarl because I really prefer not to think about racist sexist man-boys over my puzzles. Then we get LHOTSE… if second place is first loser what does that make fourth? And really, it’s all in how you look at things. Looking forward to a “tallest” clue for our favorite kealoa.
Shocked to learn that I know the song in the clue for LEN BARRY. I had LEN BAR from the crosses so the RY was a reasonable guess, but not a name I ever knew. Just a song that was background noise in pre-adolescent Z’s life.
Otherwise, my solve matched Rex’s, even though it probably took me five times as long. @burtonkd - Yep. I think most of the regulars here share that sentiment but that to new people it may seem like we don’t, so it was nice to see Rex put it right out there as a reminder to everyone.
@RL Mills - TUG ON can be gentle or hard.
@Anon 9:36 - 🤣😂🤣 - Nice catch
@Muse - CELIAC’s IDEAL GAS LAW - 😂🤣😂
@Anon8:57 - “And others” and “among others” - Hmm, yep, basically the same thing in the wish-washy English language. Certainly close enough for a Saturday Xword clue.
None of you mentioned the pleasure of SNOBALL after struggling with SNOB—-
DNF today. Had Lin barry, rolie (not rolex) egames. Ciliac, abD. Dista as the blues singer. Thought press ban worked great, til it didn't. But a ban is a block, right?!
Sista Monica was a fine singer, but outside the blues community she was hardly a household name, and she died in 2014. I could understand it if folks thought that including both her AND Len Berry in the same puzzle was a bit much. And with the addition of AMOURPROPRE (whatever the hell that is), LHOTSE, and TAZO, we seem stranded somewhere between Natick, Name-Brand Purgatory, and "GOTCHA!" Hell.
Yes, tough! I guessed my way through this one and got lucky. I mean IDEAL GAS LAW, LHOTSE, LEN BARRY, AMOUR PROPRE...lucky. Fortunately, the center stack was pretty easy but, because of the closed off grid, it wasn’t much help with the corners.
Nice to have a challenge, liked it a bunch.
I just gave up on this one very early. I have always loved tough but fair puzzles but I just couldn't get up for this one. I think my confidence in NYT crossword quality is at such an all time low that I just didn't accept this challenge. Judging from the opinions here from people I have come to respect, I guess I just missed out on a satisfying solve. Oh well...
ETAL is an abbreviation, which requires a clue such as "briefly among others". Yet it did provide the fill I needed for the NW corner.
Otherwise, this was Google time for all but the vertical center. No fun at all.
Wanted THREAD and then DO-OVER for "One of many for Penelope".
Excellent comment this one.
I think that they call the winning entry in the Peach State cabbage salad contest the IDEAL GA SLAW
NODUH and DUH can be used interchangeably. I can almost imagine an Abbot and Costello routine branching out from that fact.
I would expand the Recommended labor practice (16D) to: Haul ASS to LAMAZECLASS.
In school, WES Studi until we’s BONEDUP.
XGAMES could be Tic-Tac-Toe, making a mini theme with XOXO. I’ve certainly never been drug tested before such .games.
Nice write-up by Rex today, other than the gossip-inducing Laertes shocker. The puzzle was gnarly, vicious and an utter joy to solve. Thanks tons, KAC.
Still?
Yep, damned tough. Kicked my ASS to the curb. E.g., LHOTSE, LOL, no idea. I needed LHOTSE crosses before AMOUR-PROPRE emerged into view. Also, I'm not sufficiently BONED UP on my car knowledge to have RANGE ROVERS to hand. (Incidentally, agree with @LMS that 14 Across seems to miss. "Boning up" to me means simply refurbishing knowledge, not necessarily with the urgency of CURTAIN TIME. Joaquin's LAW only extends so far with me, I guess is what I'm saying.)
You need Friday to get you in the right mindset for Saturday
My ASS you do. LOOK HERE, that's just ridiculous, I'm sorry. Friday is a tiny speck you can barely make out in your rear-view mirror, if you're even looking back there. As relevant to today as last NOV. Admit it, you're just finding a way to still belly-ache about yesterday.
Kind of agree with you though about MINT COIN SET. Brother...
LOOK HERE was tough for me to see because that "dang" had me looking for some countrified formulation, maybe "Lemme..." something or other.
Also tough: LEN BARRY (sorry, who?), SISTA, and OPRAH. OPRAH, who? Seriously: no idea she was on TV in the 70's. She only CAME into my consciousness with The Color Purple. I did know WES Studi, as I think he's kind of impressive. You might know him for example from The Last of the Mohicans, where he played that fierce Mohawk war captain, Magua.
Wish I could find a link to the scene from Woody Allen's Sleeper, where he slips over and over on a mutantly large
BANANA PEEL.
Re Nancy's wonderful IDEAL GAB LAW, there is an organization for people who can't help talking too much. It's ON AND ON ANON.
All the references to Reservation Dogs brought to mind the deliciously lurid Reservoir Dogs from way back in 1992. And I remember roaring after watching Michael Madson as the sadistic monster in it, and then seeing him shortly thereafter as the smiley suburban dad in Free Willy.
This was a very good puzzle. Enjoyed the struggle.
Some great clues and good answers in this 🧩
And some unfair, unclever clues. (IMHO)
🤪🦖🦖🦖🤗
ROLEX, RANGE ROVERS & KAMERON AUSTIN COLLINS are all above the pay grade of Idaho’s retirement plan, so today I needed a couple loans from rich uncle Google for Lotsa LHOTSE. “1-2-3” spun in my head while visually seeing a vastly outa sync Michael Jackson dance across mental neurons…sigh! Really glad that Rex didn’t find it easy as I feared he might. This puzzle pattern seemed bizarre and flow was totally nonexistent as I trampolined desperately from section to section. In spite of the above, I really enjoyed the struggle and admired the sheer audacity in constructing & clueing.
All I can say is "Thank God for DUO;" otherwise I'd have put in Tigray instead of SOMALI, and stuck with it. It was tough enough as it was -- my only entry points were SUITOR, CREMA, and AEGIS. I even had gET before NET.
But what's with those curvy sets of blocks on the sides? For a while I thought they were supposed to be BANANA PEELS, but they don't quite work for that.
I knew about the shroud, but no idea that it was for Laertes; when Rex mentioned him I wondered what Hamlet had to do with Odysseus. You learn something new every day!
. . . to say nothing of RANGERIVERS, (Hostess) SNOBALLS. . . I never thought solving a crossword puzzle would require BONING UP on "Consumer Culture 101".
Oof, not written for me.
Really shoulda quit after yesterday.
Uniclues:
1 Crossword puzzle-ly.
2 He Googled her.
3 OHO! Media mogul.
4 Only place Colorado Rockies reporters don't need to be, in short.
5 Fell in love with fried chicken and mashed potatoes.
6 Picking up a Starbucks and a Tesla.
7 Affixes colorful treat inside one's face.
8 Intro to chemistry professor's ennui.
1 MIMICS ADVERB (~)
2 SUITOR BONED UP
3 OPRAH PLAN CAME
4 NOV. PRESS BOX
5 SPECIALS ADORED
6 LUXURY ERRANDS (~)
7 MOORS SNO-BALL
8 IDEAL GAS LAW RUT
I was thrilled to get the long center downs, and filled in the entire east with bated breath. Delightful to see RANGEROVERS, and have it confirm my across guesses. But I didn’t remember Penelope, so today’s solve required a little research. I don’t feel too badly about it - not that long ago a Saturday like this would have had me looking for more than one answer. And it’s often pointless to look because it's the clue that's tricky - the answer is usually familiar.
@Beezer from yesterday- my last comment was perhaps not complete enough. I can’t immerse myself even in an otherwise addictive game if I have to endure an advertisement after every play. I've played an assortment of video games. There are times I've found them useful. Like when waiting in a hospital for a loved one to get out of surgery, when you've been virtually sleepless for weeks and can’t concentrate to read anymore. My rx for that is Ganz Shön Clever.
Developing quick thinking and spatial imaging skills with game play is great. And the world is full of awesome things I will never have time to do, see, or learn.
yep. Definitely had some rough bark on it.
Had the normal Jaws of Themelessness, but also had the unusual Snakes of Themelessness, for its only only other two black box puzgrid structures.
Knew: LENBARRY. Got it offa nuthin.
Knew not: CELIAC/SISTA/AEGIS. WES. AMOURPROPRE. TAZO.
staff weeject pick: ASS. Its primo/aces clue totally hauled itself.
Nice weeject stacks, in the NW & SE, btw.
fave word: IDEALGASLAW. Mostly on account of @Muse darlin's revised clue for it.
fave clue: The LAMAZECLASS one.
Thanx for the workout, Mr. KAC dude. What was the theme? … Or at least the seed entries?
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
May I be the first to congratulate myself for taking off my Friday Dunce Hat...? Yesterday was FIZZ, today was ASS kicking good. I'll take a NO DUH bow.
This one screams for a story but I won't BORE TO TEARS all you erudite, scholarly, highbrows. I am merely a YEOMAN doing a squires job.
Loved this to bits and pieces. I had to stab my steak a few times making sure it was done. It was perfect. My only problems were a few of the side dishes.... How to taste AMOUR PROPRE the proper way. Was PV part of this menu? What kind of GAS might it give me.... I left it BLANK and went on about my tipping toe through the tulips of my strange mind.
KAK gave me a few uncooked potatoes. I brushed aside the MAR NOV. They tasted MEH. However, the SPECIALS shined. I was able to finish my delightful meal. LEN BERRY and SISTA were my waiters and they suggested I check up on who they are. I did. They were dessert, after all, and I wanted to finish with a flair. I did...I left a large little tip.
Admittedly I haven't read through all of the comments, but how do you include a bio of Len Barry, and not mention his work as lead singer of the Dovells?
Thx, Kameron; PROPREly AMOURed this Sat. gem! :)
Very tough; nearly 2x avg.
Got the NW right off, but the remainder was a battle. The center and East Coast were hard enuf, but Cali nearly did me in (very Croce-like).
Had dEAth before TEARS.
PV = nRT was new; needed all the crosses.
Didn't know LEN B(A)RRY and wasn't sure of the 'A' in L(A)MAZE (could easily have been an 'e', but guessed right).
'Taken care of business' was especially hard to parse; great clue!
Same goes for 'They're not usually offered'; seems like SPECIALS are quite 'usual', and one or more are almost always 'offered'. Altho, on a product by product basis, a SPECIAL would not be the norm, so I guess this one works, in the end.
Wanted 'sand' & 'eveN' before IRON.
Was looking at MINT, but took forever to see COIN SET, which finally broke open the whole Cali section.
A LUXURY puz, indeed; enjoyed this challenge immensely! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Can someone please explain ERRANDS for TAKEN CARE OF BUSINESS?
My jaw drops a tad by how much my SW solve paralleled Rex's, though CREMA was a long time coming to help open that area. Also, AMOUR PROPRE is no old friend of mine.
With SET in place down there, I actually wrote in cloSET, thinking that could contain material for a significant “change”. MINT COIN SET left me with the same feeling Rex had, kind of MEH.
The NE fell fairly easily because the IDEAL GAS LAW is indeed an old friend. But the SE gave a bit more of a challenge since I thought 44D was BeAms. Like the average carpenter has a few beams on hand, NO DUH! Really made PRESS BOX hard to see. LHOTSE, new to me, fun!
KAC, as usual, you gave me quite a workout, as a Saturday should be, thanks.
I was a speed skater for 20 years, and I had a typo there. It said SPEEDAKATES and I had AEGIA which looked right to me. Otherwise I would have finished it in one hour. Took 30 more minutes to find that.
Can anyone explain the clue for ERRANDS?
LEN BARRY? Didn't he write the song "Just One Cheat"? Because he was that for me. Without the cheat, I was lost. With it, the rest fell in place. The mountain I did not know at all, but when I found it, it looked right, and it was right.
AMOUR PROPRE was easy to anyone who has read widely in French. SUITOR was the first thing that leapt to mind, for anyone who has read The Odyssey, and if you haven't, start now. What a great story.
I had cupcakes before SNOBALLS, and was brought back to the summer when my aunt and uncle stayed in Carpinteria, near Santa Barbara, and my favorite cousin and I would walk down the tracks, hoping to see a steam engine (there were a few still), and go into the little store to buy Hostess treats. By then, the beautiful Daylight train had already passed on its way north, and the southbound would be heard, but rarely seen, just about supper time. One way or another, we got enough exercise to be hungry at meal times, despite the SNOBALLs.
Highly recommend today's Saturday Stumper for all you struggle lovers.
Took me even longer than today's NYT offering, but ultimately doable.
Yes this was tough! Over 40 minutes, the longest in quite a while. That lower left was mostly white for ages. I was waylaid by several wrongs: STEEL SKATES (well the clue did say "blades"), FEDEX for the sport sponsor (recently watched the Fedex Cup golf, is why), ZIP for VIM. For AMOUR PROPRE at first I had SAVOIR FAIRE which is kinda similar in meaning.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0; no weird words!]
Hot garbage, terrible cluing.
Very Saturday Worthy Indeed. My thanks to Doc Solomon who drilled the IDEAL GAS CONSTANT equation in freshman chemistry (1980). Enjoyed the long downs especially BANANA PEELS. Would have helped to know how to spell LAMAZE.
Moet Chandon fit as 20 down (Case made for significant change?) in otherwise empty SW and threw me off the scent. Still like that better.
ASS was the first word I thought of but couldn't bring myself to put it in because I thought No Way the NYT would allow that
There is literally no way a MINT COIN can be change. Absolute bs clue. And RANGE ROVERS and TESLAS crossing got my class hackles up
@Rex, ETAL
Thx for the WES Studi 'Reservation Dogs' recs. Got it teed up on Disney+. :)
@Anonymous (7:24 AM) 😂
@burtonkd (9:23 AM) / @ TTrimble (11:49 AM)
Thx for the reminder re: WES Studi in 'The Last of the Mohicans'; will rewatch later today. :)
@puzzlehoarder (10:39 AM)
Yes, knowing CELIAC from the SB was helpful; left no doubt re: SISTA.
@pabloinnh (1:21 PM)
Thx for the 'Saturday Stumper' prompt; haven't done one recently, so will enjoy the challenge this PM. :)
____
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Pretty proud of myself for remembering GAS LAW some 33 yrs out of engineering (thanks to my physics major son for reminding me of the IDEAL part)
And for this parent, BRIO will always be the wooden train track toy set. Hours spent laying on the floor with my kids, driving Thomas around the tracks!
@albatross -- Joe's first attempt was THE PIZZA IS NOT FOR ME. Therefore your second word is one letter short. It needs to be 5 letters.
No, I didn't see your answer yet. I just got home. And before the start of the women's final at 4 p.m. where (a rarity for me, surprisingly) I really, really care about who wins, I have to first make a salad and wash my hair.
If you update your color chart, I'll try to get to trying to solve it after the tennis match or perhaps much later tonight.
Oh man, gratifying to not see "Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium" after this beast. Might have gone with "Demonic" myself, but yeah.
@TT
HERE'S THE WOODY ALLEN BANANA PEEL LINK
Hated. It.
Yeah, this was a Hard Saturday puzzle. But there were too many wonky clues to call it a Good Saturday puzzle.
@ TTrimble - superb post today!
Wow just wow. Had a very late start on working the puzzle and found this a mighty challenge all the way. For some reason RANGER-OVERS came to mind fairly early on…it’s not like I knew the models which might be what helped me. I’m embarrassed to say that th Hostess Company did not occur to me until it was obvious and, in fact, I kept suspecting this might be a rebus puzzle and I had to cram “cheese” into 3 small squares for cheeseBALL. Also, while I didn’t Google I cheated by asking my husband 59A and good golly he knew it!
@Nancy, while yesterday’s theme WAS PPP, it seemed to me that this puzzle might have had a higher percentage of PPP than yesterday.
@beverly c…I am in complete agreement with you! I cannot abide playing any otherwise enjoyable game with ads!
I’ll second @pablo’s Stumper recommendation. More complex grid layout and a tricky central spanner.
I've been watching Reservation Dogs as well and it's fantastic. I started it because I'll watch anything Taika Waititi is involved in (except the Thor movies). I love What We Do in the Shadows (movie and TV show), Our Flag Means Death, JoJo Rabbit, Flight of the Conchords is a total riot.
@Nancy – this is how it stacks up:
THE PIZZA IS NOT FOR ME
PxP xPxxx Gx PGP xYP xP
G= green (correct)
Y= yellow (same word, different spot)
P= purple (in a different word)
x= not there
@JT - I ran ERRANDS. Now I have taken care of business. Anyone got a better explanation?
Great!
So sick of ASS. It's like the NYT finally allows the word and expects us all to giggle like Beavis & Butthead: "huh-huh-huh-huh... he said 'ass'".
Srsly, was just happy to have successfully finished this one, even if 30 minutes over my Sat avg…
@pabloinnh (1:21 PM)
Finished the 'Saturday Stumper) by Matthew Sewell. Same level of difficulty as today's NYT. All areas were tough, but none as hard as the NYT' Cali section. I love these 'Stumpers'; just keep forgetting to do them, as they're not on my regular list of xwords. Will ask my asst. (Siri) to set a weekly Sat. morning reminder. :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
@TWIMC: ERRANDS are things ("business" as in TCOB) that are taken care of. Brilliant clue.
Thanks Joe.
@Nancy
Trust in Joe.
Who did you want to win and why?
@RobertBerardi 5:04
You might be projecting. I haven't heard anyone else chortle.
I loved this puzzle in terms of toughness, but a few too many proper nouns for my taste. Otherwise, all good! SNOBALLS was super. I had no issue with MINTCOINSET. PRESSBOX was another winner.
@Robert 5:04 - I’ve only been married for 36 years - I bow down to @pablo and others here but I can truly say I still love ASS.
@Zed
Yep. Completed ERRANDS but why the"?"? And shouldn't the ran done or completed be part of the answer? Even if ERRAND is made into a verb it should be ERRANDED.
On the other hand it is a lot less confusing to me than hearing and deciphering Aretha's TCB in Respect. That took a couple decades. I always heard take out TCP which left me with RESE. TCB in the era before the internet and texting. What in Hell... as we now say here.
@Joe, @albatross -- Can't do it in two. Maybe in three if I had a 2nd guess and maybe not. That final two-letter word is a real stumbling block. Anyway, I'd love the answer. Thanks!
@Gio, yeah the last Thor movie had me praying he hadn't lost his Midas touch.
@Nancy – I made a mistake in my 3:36 post, the last word ME should be marked xx instead of xP.
In any case, I wouldn't have guessed the answer because the way I usually hear the phrase is slightly different from the way Albatross Shell posted it.
@Albatross –"Taken-care-of business?" is supposed to be a pun on "Takin' Care Of Business", hence the ? —It's a terrible clue.
@albatross -- I've been rooting hard for Jabeur since the first round, and I even emailed @mathgent that she was the one player I might root for if she ultimately faced Serena in a later round. Why? you might ask.
Although she didn't show any of her guile and finesse today -- her game was way, way off and she was so thoroughly outplayed -- this is a player who has what McEnroe had: the ability to completely surprise me in the choice of shot. The variety of shots, the combination of shots, the creativity of shots. Compared to Jabeur, so many players in this power era seem to be right out of the cookie cutter. They're mostly all brilliant, of course: they hit very, very hard -- much harder than the women of past eras. They run very, very fast -- they have to because the ball is coming at them so much harder -- and they can make incredible shots on the dead run...and yet there's a sameness to so many of them. Sometimes I can only tell one opponent from another by the color of their shirt. If they're both wearing all-white, I'm in trouble.
Sure I like power, but I like variety even more. Jabeur doesn't look like anyone else on the court who's playing right now.
So the match disappointed me. Jabeur was below par and there wasn't much spectacular shotmaking. In fact, two of the most spectacular shots in the match came from Iga.
But Iga certainly deserved to win. She played out of her mind -- especially for the first set and a half. It was a veritable clinic.
@Nancy -Thank you. "A Gentleman in Moscow" is a classic! Definitely a "must-read."
It is quite wonderful, isn't it! So glad you enjoyed it, @Unknown. Thanks for letting me know.
Everyone knows what a MINT COIN SET is. But the clue seems to be asking about a case made for them.
Tough fun puzzle but man did it feel dated. An Oprah show from the 1970s? Len Barry? LAMAZE class? (Nobody has taken Lamaze classes in decades...) Yuck. And ostensibly to make up for it, a barely-famous Native American guy from 2019, I guess.
Took forever but "finished" with only one Google (brio) and one wrong square. Had creme and neh rather than crema and nah.
As a mountaineer and erstwhile physicist, IDEAL GAS LAW and LHOTSE were so my jam!
The pv=nrt is just a gimme, no need for crosses or check for length, just fill it in! (FYI a correct understanding of it totally disproves “deflate gate”. Go Tom Brady! Go physics!)
LHOTSE required one cross. Let’s see, Cho Oyu, Makalu, and Lhotse fit. Annapurna, Broad, Dhaulagiri, Shishapangma, Gasherbrum I or II, Manaslu, Nanga Parbat don’t. A single cross leaves LHOTSE, just south of Everest, with its famous western face that forms part of the standard South Col route on Everest.
Is curtain time really a thing? This puzzle took me over 2 hours over 3 days well I guess more but I didn't look at it for a few days.. I had curtain and speed skates but could not go down further. And it has been about 50 years since AP chem so pv=not was familiar and I even knew it had something to do with gas but I couldn't lay anything in there til good old curtain time occurred to me... it fist with the when in the clue but really. Has anyone ever said it. Good challenging puzzle but I think that one verges on hiding the football...
I realize that I'm posting this comment really late...but hopefully it will be read and shared with everyone grunbling about the clue for MINT COIN SET.
Here's the way I read it:
"a case can be made that you'll need significant Change (money) to buy a Mint Coin Set. Especially if the coins are antiques.
Just sayin'...
I hope you are happy Kameron Austin Collings. You and Will Shortz teamed up to make a virtually unsolvable puzzle and thus frustrated millions of solvers. All we ask is that a puzzle be fair. It can be challenging but don’t make it impossible to solve please. LHOTSE was mean but getable via the crosses, (even though it was a tough slog). But IDELGASLAW is something maybe .01% of the solving audience know about. And when you made that cross with SISTA and WES you crossed the line. I gave up and wrote IDEALGAlLon thinking maybe it was a formula to convert US to British imperial gallons. Add to that the many misdirects and obtuse cluing and it all CAME across as a bit too smug, even for a Saturday.
SPECIALS XGAMES
SISTA, BRINGIT tonight, TO LAMAZECLASS,
IDEAL, SPECIAL and tight, SET BEARON your ASS.
--- CAL BRAD BARRY
TAZO made LAMAZECLASS a gimme, but RANGEROVERS and IDEALGASLAW saved me from blanking on much of the rest. Even civil engineering types have to know a little Chem and Thermodynamics; not so much with French (21d, 11 letters long). SATE yourself with corner TEAS.
OTOH, wordle DNF with 3 shots at BGGGG.
Oh yeah, COINs are change; a Case made for some MINTCOINs would usually be a SET of them. Semi-convoluted but fair enough IMO.
Sorry, was too busy rooting my Phillies into the NLCS!!!!! I finished with just three entries: TESLAS/CAL, and CAME. There's not another mark on my grid. Too many unknowns and nothing to get a toehold with.
Lucky to get a bogey with the _GGGG common configuration.
I agree with the @Fogster - simply not fair to solvers. LHOTSE indeed.
Lady Di
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