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Pile of texts? / FRI 10-14-22 / Nasdaq's home informally / Half-blood wizard of fiction / Most prolific author of children's horror fiction per Guinness / Discipline with tantric Buddhist origins / Indonesian province with a Hindu majority / Something that's cracked and gross / 14-time NBA All Star Nowitzki / Instrument created by Hermes from a Tortoise shell
Friday, October 14, 2022
Constructor: David Steinberg
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: YAW (39D: Turn in the air, say) —
verb
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Speaking of "?" clues, that was the only part of this puzzle that made me go "please stop." There were eight of them, about twice my comfort level. But my aversion wasn't too heavily triggered today since most of said clues were innocuous, and three of them actually landed. And the ones that landed ended up being on marquee answers (an ideal place to show off a great "?" clue). In addition to [Pile of texts?] (mwah!), I liked 17A: Cramming together? (STUDY DATE), and 33D: Big matter of concern for senior management? (PROM NIGHT). All three of the answers to the winning "?" clues today skew young, but not in an exclusionary way. I know exactly what all these phenomena are even if, in the case of studying and prom, it's been a while (jk I never went to prom or out of the house ever except to go to school or get McNuggets). This is a fine example of how a puzzle with a specific cultural / generational center of gravity, a specific voice, can still be for everyone.
I flew through this puzzle, for the most part. I got ILHAN OMAR with only like two letters in place (15A: Congresswoman who wrote "This Is What America Looks Like"), and I absolutely no-looked HANK AARON (60A: "Hammer with a bat")—the crosses just came so fast and thick down there that the longer Acrosses ended up being obvious. There was exactly one semi-sticky part of the grid for me, and that was the JOKE part of DIRTY JOKE (38A: Something that's cracked and gross). Would've appreciated a "?" clue there, but the clue is actually quite literal, despite being misdirective, so no need for the "?" It's a great clue, but man it stumped me, which meant my entry into the center of the grid was not as smooth (or quick) as it might've / could've been. Picking up JOKE was made much harder by my least favorite answer in the whole grid: PJTOP (36D: Half of an evening outfit, informally). Both PJS and PAJAMA TOP sound great to me, but PJTOP (a debut, no surprise) feels forced. I only got that "J" after arriving all the way at DIRTY-OKE. Along the way, I had occasion to wonder if there was such a thing as a DIRTY CAKE (besides the pornographic kind). I know there's a NAKED CAKE, so why not? (never seen NAKED CAKE in a puzzle ... consider that a challenge). Loved the symmetry of DIRTY JOKE and POOP EMOJI, which feels pointed (!). Also loved the colloquial energy of "C'MERE" (59A: Informal summons)—thought I had an error and the answer was gonna be "SEE ME!" but was happy to find both that I did not have an error and that the actual answer was far better than the crosswordese I had imagined.
That'll do it for me today. Enjoy your day. I gotta work til about noon, but then I'm just gonna spend the day hiking and eating and drinking with my wife, whose BDAY it is. Happy birthday, honey.
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103 comments:
I found it a lot more challenging than @Rex did, but eventually I fell into the groove. This puzzle was definitely one to GROW ON me.
So on a scale of easy-medium-hard I would have rated yesterday’s as painful and todays as Fridays are Mondays at the NYT. Only stumble I had was BIDINGTIME vs BUYING TIME. Unlike Rex even the clueing could not get me to warm up to POOPEMOJI. I rather prefer we stick to the breakfast rule.
Very satisfying to finish, given all the missteps I had:
Like Rex, I was thinking “see me” before C’MERE (C’M’ERE?)
“Worm” before GERM - defensible
“Plans” before PLOYS
“Sick” before BENT
And then I have to add two word-pairs for Rex’s kealoa list: LYRE/lute and SODA/cola.
I liked the clue for 1D. How ‘bout a place that sounds like its last two letters – inn. Query that sounds like its last letter – why? (I previously did pronoun that sounds like its last letter – you. I'll wait while you get all this down.)
“Big matter of concern for senior management?” First four letters of 33A. This is absolutely A Thing.
Rex – I wholeheartedly agree with you on the clue for POOP EMOJI. Hall-of-famer, that one. (Oh? And David? You’ve arrived – you’re "the Leif Erikson of crossword poop.” High praise, indeed. (Sorry, @Phillyrad1999.)
I’ve learned from the Birkin-wielding Real Housewives that PJ is also an abbreviation for “private Jet.”
As regards a PJ TOP, do you know how hard it is to find the perfect pair of bridesmaids pajamas? That’s all I wear, and I’m on the constant look-out for ones that aren’t too short. Honestly, they’re the unicorn of the PJ world.
What with the two goose clues, my first thought for the most prolific author of children’s fiction was Mother Goose.
I kept going back and looking at the Janus-esque definition of the clue “healthy slice.” A healthy slice of B DAY cake could be just a sliver (‘cause it’s so bad for you) or a SLAB (‘cause you don’t give a damn.) (I recently saw this cake-cutting/eating hack on TikTok that I’m dying to spearhead at my next party. Genius.)
Oh. and by the way. . . no matter what’s happening, no matter where, no matter who, *everything* goes into slow-motion when you have to sing the Happy B DAY song. Jeez Louise. Haaaapppy biiiiiiiirthdaaaaay toooooo yooouuu… The requisite slow speed is mystifying. Can’t someone pass a law that it be sung fast like We Wish You a Merry Christmas? Then the hapless honoree would just have to keep that frozen smile on for maybe only 7 seconds rather than the agonizing 30+ seconds. And any singer who tries soldier on with the next verse May your dreams all come true . . . or How old are you now? should be chased out of the party with a baseball bat.
I get a DNF because I had ARCH instead of ARCS and didn't know SERIF. My own fault, because "parentheses" is a plural noun and I read it as "parenthesis." Should have worn my glasses.
POOPEMOJI is both crude and childish. The constructor could have used POOREMOJI and clued it as "inept sign online?"
Welcome to Wednesday. Not clear what was intended to be hard here – even the ‘?’ clues were telegraphed.
Beautifully filled grid, though.
I rarely, if ever, complete a Friday with no help. Not even a "check". Today I did. But easy? No. 55 minutes and every second was a pleasure. Hard to pick a favorite clue but I'll go with PROM NIGHT. I considered Senior as elder, briefly, before "aha".
One of my favorite constructors - but didn’t like it as much as the big guy. The cluing was a little smarmy - tried too hard in places. There are actually ten ?s in the grid - two are legitimate questions but the appearance felt overwhelming.
Once I settled into the jam - this went fairly quickly. The two long downs that tie each corner into the center were straightforward - ARE WE DONE, OBSESS OVER etc - those were all really nice entries and aided the solve.
A very funny DIRTY JOKE courtesy of Super Dave
Today they double down on two of my NYTXW peeves - YOGA and the kid lit stuff - they don’t help this grid. Add CMERE, PJ TOP and BDAY and things get ugly.
Down the RIVER
This one didn’t hit for me.
Flew through this one, and no, Fridays aren't harder than Thursdays. Nothing to OBSESSOVER today at all. Agree there were some great clues and answers, and there was lots to enjoy, but not a hard nut to crack.
I wouldn't have said dirty jokes were gross and don't think that clue/answer worked well. Jokes about POOP might be gross, but not dirty. Jokes about sex might be dirty but not gross. Lol @lms, nodding my head at PoOpNIGHT.
Also didn't like CMERE. I get it, but just looks, well, cracked and dirty.
Oh, c'mon: POOPEMOJI is very much an in-the-language thing these days and is totally harmless. A standalone POOP clued in reference to bathrooms or toilets would be childish and dumb, but that seems very different to me.
My only complaints about the puzzle are that this was the only answer I found at all interesting and it was way too easy for a Friday. I flew through this like a Monday without any real gripes, but also without much joy.
I didn’t finish because of the DIRTY JOKE and PJTOP cross. And I’d never heard of YAW, from which I conclude that I need more friends with yachts.
I guess since I didn’t know Hank Aaron’s nickname or how to spell Ilhan it was harder for me but I loved it. And Poop Emjoi is not really poop, it’s sort of a cute and adorable phenomenon now. My daughter has a poop emjoi pillow and squishy toy. Kids love poop.
What do I think of POOP EMOJI as an answer in a NYTXW? Why, oh why do I find myself having to answer one of the fundamental questions of human existence at 7:30 in the morning when I’m barely awake? Well, I don’t want the puzzle to go hog-wild and descend into the scatological on a daily basis. But I agree that this clue was particularly clever (which justifies a lot) and the answer did refer to an EMOJI rather than to POOP itself (which I find a distinction worth considering). In short, I’m fine with this answer, but check back with me if things escalate from here. POOP as a noun also means “information” and as a verb “to exhaust,” and I’m fine with those usages any time.
This was a looks-can-be-deceptive puzzle for me. I started out getting nothing and fearing the worst, but then established beachheads here and there that rapidly grew into beaches and then into the whole landscape. This Canadian always forgets ILHAN OMAR’s name, although I’m aware of her existence – I suspect that answer was a gimme for many. But I didn’t get anything until ROBOT, then got GERM, then got STEM, and so established a nicely expanding oasis in the NE. On the west coast, got TADA then TUBAS (didn’t we have a very similar clue/answer quite recently?), AYES, AND, which gave me the two adjacent long answers, BUYING TIME and UBER DRIVER, and allowed me to complete the whole the SW. I knew STINE from my bookstore days (although his books always looked to me like junk), got HONKS, LYRE, ALOE and BENT, which put me in good position for conquering the SE and then, knitting these areas together, the whole puzzle. So it was perhaps too easy for a Friday, although I’m not sure I’d call it Wednesday level, but definitely Friday-lite.
Check out this tortoiseshell LYRE. Scroll down to “Replica Lyre” and click on it for more information, including reference to Hermes’ initial LYRE-making effort. By the way, if you have trouble confusing LYRE and lute, here’s a mnemonic: Lutes sort of look like guitars, in that they have a body and a neck along which the strings run and tuning pegs at the end. Lute and guitar both contain the letter U (hi, @M&A!), while LYRE (which looks quite different) does not.
This one may be on the easy side for a Friday, as I had an unusually good run through most of the Southern Hemisphere and even back up the west coast. Unfortunately, I am not familiar with either HATHA YOGA or ILHAN OMAR (both Friday-level appropriate), so that NW section was pretty much over for me before it started. Agree with Rex that the constructor’s wit and experience shows through on many of the clues.
👍👍 or, better yet, 💩💩
Yes, kinda “easy for a Friday,” but oh, so smooth and sweet and sharp! POOP EMOJI was like a mega-lightbulb going off. Sure, I guess the word “poop” is showing up more in all kinds of popular culture, but it’s the POOP EMOJI itself that seems to be going mainstream, becoming a kind of everyday cultural icon. Maybe. And sure, I’ve never heard of a PJTOP but it made sense and there was a helluva lot to admire here.
Wordle 482 4/6*
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onelook.com script: ?lo??,//r????-aisewdgy
WordleBot
Skill 85/99
Luck 52/99
Fairly or not, I assess DS's themeless puzzles with the same absurdly high bar I use for Patrick Berry and Robyn Weintraub. If just about ANY other constructor had made this, I would be singing its praises; for David Steinberg, it's just OK.
For starters, it just didn't provide much resistance. I'm not kidding when I say I spent half my solving time on exactly two squares -- the Y and J in DIRTYJOKE.
Beyond that, Lobster11 nails it when he bemoans the lack of interesting answers beyond POOPEMOJI. YOUREAJERK and HADABLAST are a little too green-painty. LONGU, PJTOP and CMERE -- yuck. The rest...just kinda boring.
On the plus side, POOPEMOJI and its clue made me laugh harder than any other crossword entry in quite a while. And BACNE a couple weeks back was a million times worse in terms of the breakfast test.
Lizard Breadth, you actually need more friends with planes. Yaw is one of three axises a plane moves in. The other two being pitch and roll.
Seeing David’s name atop the puzzle, I knew I was entering a realm of quality, because that’s what David hammers out. He sets his bar high and has the chops to clear it, as he’s demonstrated more than a hundred times in the NYT.
Quality? That means a grid with a paucity of tired answers, with cluing spark, and always, always, a well-designed grid. Today’s puzzle was no exception. For me, it played relatively easy for a Friday, but no matter. When I tread through quality, I come out feeling better for it.
I loved seeing ADO along with a backward ADOS, and the PuzzPairs© of HATHAYOGA / BENT, and AVERT / STEM. I liked the BOO (in BOOKS) in a puzzle with HISS. I liked the answers that have body parts: BOOKS with spines, the SHOE with a tongue, and that LYRE that has a neck (so I’ve learned through some post-solve reading, though I’m not sure that all lyres have them). And ENDUSE looks to me like it should be a verb.
Once again, David, you’ve brightened my day. I’m grateful for you, and thank you for this lovely puzzle!
How often do you hear me complain about tasteless or offensive fill? Just about never. But 33A epitomizes to me proof positive that this country is going to hell in a handbasket. And for two reasons. 1)That such an "emoji" exists in the first place and 2) that it is to be found today in the pages of The New York Times.
And to think I was actually enjoying this puzzle before I stumbled across it. Shame on David and shame on WS.
I don’t know if you can end up with much more than editorial discretion when addressing the salty or questionable language issue, because any attempt at “protocol” or “rules” just gets bogged down and circular. Is POOP DECK an acceptable answer? How about PISS - can you use “I’m PISSED at you”, but not “I’m PISSED at you because you PISSED on me”? So you see what kind of nonsense we get ourselves into when we venture down that slippery slope (btw, thanks to the late great George Carlin who was way ahead of his time on this issue).
In the video shown on TV last night, Nancy Pelosi , knowing she was being filmed, referred to “poo poo” on the floor of the Capitol..
I see nothing gross, vulgar, or such about such or “poop..” Better than lots of other words for feces.
@SouthsideJohnny @Barbara S
This is what being "woke" means to those that rail against such behavior. Where does it end? Who decides if POOP DECK is offensive because of POOP? It's a real thing. Remember the kerfuffle over SLOPE a while back? It was innocuously clued, and everyone here last their minds about it being offensive.
Relax people, you don't have to rail against every single little thing. It's too exhausting.
I knew that Aaron was referred to as "Hammer'n Hank" but have never seen him called "The Hammer."
Hey All !
Not watching news, or paying attention to anything political (well, trying not to pay attention to it), I couldn't come up with OMAR's first name. Had eliAN. Close, but no cigar. Had to Goog for her name. Last section to fall, that NW.
No prob with POOP EMOJI, only thing I debated with that was POOP or POOh (although, in hindsight, I suppose a POOH EMOJI would be Winnie the Pooh). The plush POOP EMOJIs are all over (Walmart, et.al.), and have turned into a fun thing, no grossness involved. Try to think outside the box
Some "third-definition" clues today, what I call clues that stretch the meaning of the answer. Sat for Didn't sell, for one. Also some clever clues, NOAH one for example.
Just checked out xwordinfo, this is David's 106th published puz in the NYT. Dang. First one in 2011, when he was a wee lad. I can remember his Collab with the 100+ year old lady (whose name, of course, I don't remember) when he was 16, I believe. Seems like yesterday. Time needs to slow down. I don't need someone to invent a time machine, but a time-slowing machine. David, get on that! 😁
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Am I the only person who had no clue about HATHAYOGA? Well, I had the clue, just no answer.
I was really really slow to pick up on the answer to 33A. I finished the puzzle and looked it over, thinking “Now why is that right?” Poope?
The rest of the puzzle was enjoyable, with a little resistance.
Anonymous 9:26. You mean the 'bunny slope' puzzle from August 30 - about which not a single person complained on the blog or in the comments about the word slope?
Tough, but fair. I really did giggle upon solving "pile of texts"; quite a clever clue. Enjoyed this one.
Looked at 1A and thought "oh oh", so move over to the NE, where ROBOT was a gimme, which led to the whole corner, went due S, and things filled in more or less clockwise until I got back home and there was HATHAYOGA, maybe no that hard after all.
As for POOPEMOJI, it's now ubiquitous for good or ill. I had the _OJI at the end, which could only be some kind of EMOJI, and it turned out to be the only one I could name, not being an EMOJI user. See also SNAPE, one of the few HP characters I'm familiar with.
Highlight for me was HANKAARON, The Hammer, Hammerin' Hank, who was my favorite player when I first fell in love with baseball. The Milwaukee Braves may seem like an unlikely team for an Upstate NY kid to root for, but root I did. I could still name their starting lineup, and a few pitchers and subs. Who else ever had a team with two catchers named Del? Nobody, that's who.
Maybe a little too easy for a Friday, but still lots of fun clues and answers. Thought it was a Darn Shame when it was over, DS, because I was having such a good time. Thanks for all the fun.
Was on Steinberg's wavelength today. Several long answers, such as UBERDRIVER, BUYINGTIME and AREWEDONE went in with no crosses. Usually that creates some issues down the line, but not today. Finished in under 9 minutes, which is about half my usual Friday time.
David Steinberg never fails to challenge in the ways I enjoy being challenged and today he did it beautifully. The ?s were a joy. 33D MWAH. The NW corner, making Hatha Yoga and Ilhan Omar gettable, wow.
Anyone offended by Poop Emoji, google the urban definition of jerk wad (yeah, I'm not letting it go). The low was reached weeks ago and today is not even close. It's quaint by comparison.
The pair of pajama tops I will never forget were worn by the beautiful Barbara Feldon, who played Agent 99 opposite Don Adams (Agent 86) in the old comedy Get Smart. For some reason, she had to stay over at Max’s apartment one night and he told her she could have the bedroom and that there were pajamas she could use in the dresser. A short while later, she came out wearing only pajama tops, with her lovely legs in full display. She said she could only find pajama tops in the dresser, and he said “Sorry about that. I hope it’s not a problem,” and she said, “It’s fine. I’ll manage.”
A few minutes later, she says, “Max, it’s time to call the chief with the secret code,” and he says, “Okay, I’ll go get them from my safe.” She says, “I didn’t know you had a safe. What do you keep in it?” And he answers, “Only two things: the secret code, and my pajama bottoms.”
Loved the puzzle, including the poop emoji. After yesterday's slog, which I gave up on, this one felt like a romp. Thank you, David
@Southside. If Carlin was still with us and made a current list, it would be very short. (words you can't say on television)
Wordle 482 3/6
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I feel redemption after my flame out yesterday.
Thx, David; just right for a Fri. puz! :)
Med.
Pretty much on the right wavelength for this one.
Knew HATHA from SB, so that was a big help in the NW.
ILHAN OMAR was a gimme.
Loved the clue for PROM NIGHT.
The SE was the chewiest section.
Enjoyed the solve. :)
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Said the Lute, "I told the truth. I am not a Lyre"!
I pretty much agree with everything @Rex said about this puzzle including the difficulty level. At one point I felt a bit stuck in the DIRTYJOKE/PJTOP vicinity but that was because I could not get DIRT-biKES out of my head plus I was thinking of “formal” wear. I guess I was surprised that POOPEMOJI appeared but I was unable to muster up any negative feelings about it. The fact that I knew HATHAYOGA and ILHANOMAR sure helped my Friday solve confidence early on.
@LMS…TIL the term Bridesmaid pajamas due to you! Now I can search it! In the winter I switch to small, soft tshirt and MEN’s size small, cotton pj bottoms. Go figure…but it’s hard to find cotton pjs in ladies wear PLUS the men’s have POCKETS. There IS one thing they often have that I don’t need but I can work around THAT. I know. Sexy as hell.
One small nit (or maybe it’s a question)…Is Wall Street called THESTREET? I googled that before I came to the blog and see there IS a website now called THESTREET but couldn’t seem to find anything that indicated the nickname otherwise. I’m willing to put it in my pipe and smoke it but just wondered if that term threw anyone else…cuz I looked at squares and wallSTREET didn’t fit. I got it through crosses so no biggie.
Just for the record, Henry Aaron hated being called HANK AARON. His basic theory was that his mother and father named him Henry, and no one had the right to change it. But yeah, go on calling him Hank.
CMERE was introduced last November and seems just as invalid (not used in an ableist way!) the second time around.
Even if you mumble, it’s still Come here. Just like the “Come here, Rouge” in Cambodia. Maybe Pol Pot was trying to summon a redhead and thinks went south from there.
Less offended by emojis than the influx of texting shortcuts. TTYL, TTFN, BRB - SRSLY? Sorry, these are POOP!
David says elsewhere that the puzzle he edits is normally at the NYT Tuesday level and he believes his tough cluing skills have suffered as a result. This would explain some of the reactions to this puzzle.
And I would agree (vehemently) with Nancy. I don't think I share woke preferences, but enough is enough. I know I disagree with Sharp (by a lot) on this.
But nevertheless, I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. Maybe the most of any of David's puzzles. Despite some of my problems with it. So I would give the puzzle a thumbs up. Way thumbs up for this constructor.
Easy except for maybe the NW where I made a “faint memory trace” guess and got it right. Smooth with plenty of sparkle, liked it a bunch!
Great time doing this one. Had a smile on my face from the get-go.
@Live prof, thanks for the Get Smart memory. Ah, Barbara Feldon. Yum.
@Nancy, yikes. I'm staying off your lawn.
Can someone translate for me ? "jk,I never went to prom" etc.
A crossword puzzle with POOP in it. Isn’t that lovely. I’d say it’s a step up from ASS but well, obviously not. Some wonderful fill and nice misdirects too. A few missteps here and there, - HIJ/PRE, SEAT/GATE, IRANI/OMANI, PLOTS/PLOYS - but my only real stumbling block was in the NW. Note to constructors: I really appreciate something I can work with at 1A/1D, especially on a Friday or Saturday. HATHAYOGA and ILHANOMAR don’t exactly get the average solver off to a running start.
The clue for 46D made me wonder why on earth anyone would write horror fiction for children. I remember having a book of fairytales when I was a child and I had read that book backwards and forwards by the time I outgrew it. I suppose those stories about monsters and big bad wolves and such would constitute horror but it didn’t seem that way at the time.
Just yesterday I read this article about UBER DRIVERS who refuse to pick up orders if there is not a big enough tip attached. Apparently deadbeats can get quite hungry before ever getting their food delivered.
I would not be surprised if there is a significant generational component to the POOP reactions. For much of the 20th century, the ultimate in ‘bad words’ were those referring to body parts and functions. Today, kids grow up reading Everybody Poops, a movie with five Oscar nominations, The Wolf of Wall Street, uses ‘fuck’, on average, once every nineteen seconds (I looked it up), and ‘ass’ is common even on network TV.
To someone of David Steinberg’s age, words that would once have shocked are maybe a little salty, but that’s all.
I'm not suggesting this is a complete explanation for various reactions, but I think it's a contributing factor.
Excellent Friday puzzle which I enjoyed in spite of a DNF. Due to my resistance to Harry Potter trivia, I was willing to accept that the half-blood wizard could be named SNAHE and that’s how ended up with a POOH EMOJI.
I tend to judge grids by how many yoga references they contain. A grid with three or four is great, but even HATHAYOGA is better than none.
According to Jessie and Ross Trudeau’s clue five days ago, TUBA is “Latin for trumpet.” Todays 32A TUBAS is clued: Literally, “trumpets”. Does putting “trumpets” in quotation marks alert you that it’s not literally in English or something?
@Pablo. There was a shout-out to your two Milwaukee Braves catchers at 6D. YODEL. (I remember Crandall. Can’t think of the other one).
STEM seems appropriate as the Mets fortunes have been reversed.
I’m on board with the POOPEMOJI. Wish you dissenters would cut out all the crap.
Wonderful puzzle, easy for a Friday. Thanks, David Steinberg.
Nice puzzle! While I didn't fly through it, as some did, I did finish it in one sitting, didn't need to put it down and return later, as often happens for me on Fridays and Saturdays. So, I'd call it a challenging Wednesday. Never heard of poopemojis (and as I type this I see that my auto-complete doesn't know about it either); not offensive to me, but certainty surprising.
Gee, I liked seeing HATHA YOGA in the grid, especially as clued -- too often yoga gets treated as something people wear funny clothes for, rather that as a spiritual discipline. I thought it added some depth -- but I realize you have to be into yoga at least a little to get it.
Other than that, I found it tough, even though I put a GOOSE in the oven every Christmas, and my son teaches PRE-K. Tough but enjoyable.
And Happy Birthday to Penelope~
Sorry, I forgot about the puzzle. I found it an excellent Friday, with the exception of the pair of BDAY & CMERE. I can abide the mushing of two words into one abomination of just a string of letters once per puzzle, but not twice.
I envy all who have nothing worse to worry about than the appearance of the phrase POOPEMOJI in a crossword puzzle.
Also, reCAPTCHA aside: Is an overpass really a bridge?
"Congrats to David Steinberg: the Leif Erikson of crossword poop" just made my day. After the hostility I felt toward yesterday's puzzle, this one was a breath of fresh air. Certainly easy for a Friday, but that's just what I needed.
@TJS…jk means “just kidding.” @Rex is being self-effacing in that he is saying he never had a STUDYDATE or was at PROMNIGHT back in high school.
@egs-Nice catch on the YODEl. The other one was Del Rice.
I also think they had the first all-black outfield in MLB-The Hammer, Billy Bruton, Wes Covington, but I've never done enough cross-checking to be absolutely certain.
@ kitshef 10:06. Not that one. Find the other one.
I thought the puzzle was less than perfect but still good, and the long Downs were just excellent.
As the father of three daughters, I have no complaint about POOP. It's an Early Word for my children (and grandchildren, now). Sometimes the noun (but never the verb) was shortened to POO. Piss, however, was always changed to pee. Of course those children grew up and went to their PROM NIGHTs. One of the most amazing sights was to see my eldest, who biked or walked to school her whole life, and whose entire clothes collection could be described as gear, looking lovely in a handsome dress.
Hands up for writing in "worm" before GERM. And kudos to Ogden Nash, who once wrote, "If called by a panther, don't anther."
Nice puzzle today, David Steinberg! It wasn't Weintraub smooth because I felt held up in a couple of places (SW and 33A) but I finished in easy Friday time so it ended well.
33A, had PEMOJI in place and because my brain was adding an extra E, I threw in GRAPEMOJI and left it in long enough to wonder if a bunch of grapes equaled a "pile". BOOKS and ARE WE DONE shooed that error away.
@Lewis, I haven't looked at today's puzzle yet, but wanted to comment on the yesterday puzzle. I was thrilled to solve it without an error and no help, but it did take a) a lot longer than usual and b) several wild guesses at the end to get the N central and SW and S central complete (specifically the OED/BEEB; NSFW/WDS; and PREP/ELAINE--thought it could be aLAINE--crosses).
But also had a very funny time with PROVOLONE. I read the clue, saw the UT, and without a second thought was looking for a familiar town in Tennessee (think University of Tennessee, UT)! When I was describing the puzzle and that clue to my "hook 'em horns" wife, she without a second thought figured the state involved was Texas (UT--Univ. of ... you get the point). That provided the laugh I needed to go with the joy of successfully negotiating through your brilliant Thursday puzzle.
M&A is pro-POOP.
staff weeject pick: YAW. Better clue: {Way back??}. Clearly it woulda been a perfect time to premiere the double-?-marker clue in a NYTPuz.
faves: LONGU. POOPEMOJI. POOPNIGHT. GOINPOOOP. POOPYJOKE. BUYINGTIME. AREWEDONE. PJOOP. CMERE.
Kinda averager than snot solvequest time, at our house. Some extra-smoooth fill combined with some semi-feisty clues. Definitely didn't poop m&e out.
Thanx for the themeless emoji-fest, Mr. Steinberg dood [feel free to re-orient the d's, to taste].
( ! )
o
ooo
har. Is that ever a raised-by-wolves typed-out poop-emoji attempt. Downright poopy.
Masked & Anonymo5Us [goin for the new poop-word count record in a single blog comment]
**gruntz**
p.s.
Just to pad my count a little, the word POOP by itself has been used 66 times in NYTPuzs, but only 22 times durin the Shortzmeister Era.
Other poop-ish variations used in the NYTPuz:
POOPED.
PARTYPOOPER.
NINCOMPOOP.
POOPEMOJI [twice, now! Erik Agard gets the "initial dump" credit, back in 2019.]
POOPEDOUT.
POOPOUT.
POOPER.
POOPS.
OOHPOOPPAHDOO.
POOPDECK.
SUPERDOOPERPARTYPOOPER.
M&A Ew-News Desk
p.p.s.s.
Time now to cut out the poop, and wish Missus Sharp/Parker darlin a very very happy B-DAY.
Enjoy an extra-great edition of yer special day, dear lady. And have a good hike.
M&Also
After all this discussion about POOP, I actually had POOH EMOJI until I was saved by SNAHE, which even thought it was an unknown name just looked too wrong.
I too got HANK AARON immediately upon seeing the words "Hammer" and "bat". I remember following his home run record quest in my early teen years.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, my last word. QB streak at 1 day.]
I liked this puzzle, and I generally agreed with Rex. My one issue is the definition of "long u". I was taught that a long vowel sounded like it's pronounced as a letter. Thus "cube" has a long vowel, and is pronounced kūb or Kyoob, whereas "crude" is pronounced "crood", and would be considered a long "o͞o". Pluto is pronounced "plooto", not "plyooto". I had the same issue with a "Jeopardy!" category recently, so maybe they've loosened the definition of a long "u". It seems like that can cause confusion if two different vowel sounds use the same name, though... that would mean that the word of the day "poop" also has a long U sound.
@Anon 1:06. I can find six appearances of 'Slope' in the NYT puzzle in the last five years:
Tue Aug 30, 2022
Sun May 1, 2022
Tue Feb 8, 2022 4D
Fri May 3, 2019 28D
Sun Nov 4, 2018 78D
Fri Jan 19, 2018
Not once has Rex or anyone in the blog comments objected to it.
I've long been interested in the various kinds of meditative practices so any puzzle that comes out of the gate with 1A HATHA YOGA has already won me over.
Cluing 17A STUDY DATE as "Cramming together" had me wondering what exactly is being crammed together. Maybe that could be the punch line of a DIRTY JOKE.
This old sailor knew 39D YAW as one of the six kinds of movement of vessels or craft in a fluid environment. I would list the other five but some of yous might feel some motion sickness.
I've been following the alleged cheating scandal in a HIGH STAKES POKER game (9/20/22 NYTXW "Activity for some big game hunters") and a recent LA Times article reported that the player being accused used a POOP EMOJI in a text denying the accusation. Why this false semi-decorum? Just come right out and say "Your accusation is a pile of shit"? Given the recent NYTXW trend, how long will it be until that less-varnished phrase makes an inaugural appearance? Maybe in a Sunday sized puzzle titled "PhD in Scatology. (I call dibs on that!)
Isn't a BDAY what you use to clean up after you P___?
Whew, blew through this one. After yesterday it was a relief, though I don't know why it seemed so breezy. I had, for a hot sec, bOOkEMOJI 📚 , different kind of pile, then of course BOOKS themselves pop up in the cross. Seems that's PRONE to happen.
I actually own a poop emoji pillow. I guess the only thing to do with it now is to mail it to Nancy.
@TomT -- I'm so glad you enjoyed it!
@JD -- Yes, I saw "jerk wad" last week and didn't react in the least because I had no idea what it was. I assumed it was simply an all-purpose insult -- like douchebag or sleazeball or scumbag -- only of moree recent vintage. It never occurred to me to look it up and thus I wasn't offended. (I still haven't looked it up and therefore I'm still not offended.)
What offends me about POOP EMOJI is that such a thing exists in the first place. I hate tasteless, witless sophomoric smuttiness and I can't possibly imagine what on earth would impel someone to send such a thing. It's just not amusing -- not even remotely.
Oh my god, you just made my day! 🤣
Get Smart is one of (if not THE) best and funniest shows in the history of television.
Too bad something about scat singing couldn't have been included along with the POOP answer.
. . . or, for that matter, the TV show "SCHITT'S CREEK." Of course, we could also have suggested that a depressed extinct flightless bird might be a DIRE RHEA, but that would probably be piling it on too thick.
@Anoa Bob: You gave me a chuckle with the “motion sickness” crack. My late husband was a USAF EWO on B-52s in ‘Nam and later a back-seater in F-4 Phantoms. He told me about the six kinds of movement after his initial training during his aircraft transition phase. He also learned about all the kinds and causes of motion sickness while dog fighting.
When I first saw a 33A in the emoji catalogue I wondered if it really was a pile of sh*!, and if so, why does it have googly eyes and, um, a smile? Alternate multiverse? I saw Everything Everywhere All at Once. Loved the googly eyes. Everywhere. On Googling (not to be confused with anything ocular), this link elucidates its being a thing. The image is certainly more ubiquitous than I knew.
@Rex – I see your point about the poop clue. It is good. I got it, after all. @Barbara S 8:01 am sums things up nicely in her first paragraph. @SouthsideJohnny 8:48 am too, in his post. You all remind me of what I appreciated in this puzzle: CMERE, and especially GERM, which I got right away. And looking around with better eyes (quote from The Abyss I’ve always liked), there’s STINE, HANK AARON, SERIF. TUBAS, a clue I remembered from a few days ago. I also think it was one of my fastest Fridays.
Did anyone do Monday’s Elizabeth Gorski NYer crossword? Has great grid art too.
Happy BDAY to Rex's wife!
I enjoyed the discussion about crossword standards and what kind of things can go a little too far. I'm definitely a newcomer to this world of puzzles, so I don't know much about how things were back in the day. That's why I particularly appreciate today's post. Having said that, I don't imagine many people who grew up with smartphones, apps and countless emojis being shocked at finding POOPEMOJI in their morning crossword. That generation has been desensitized to many things, IMO. Is that a good thing? I'm inclined to think that's not the case. Some things should remain private, for everyone's sanity and well being.
YOUREAJERK's clue was funny. How is that a rude response?
NOAH was very clever. That was the ultimate couples getaway. Lovely ship, might be a long trip.
Good stuff.
-Israel
How to deal with hard crosswords...
Although I do applaud the cleverness of the clue, I also find the emoji a bit beyond the pale and only hope you are not vilified for expressing an honest opinion. The open and free exchange of opinions and ideas is one of my favorite things about this blog.
Started out with KAMASUTRA at 1A… had that been correct I wouldn’t have batted an eye at POOPEMOJI.
Yeah, this one did not feel easy - my first pass through I filled in very little and what I did have filled in I did not feel all the confident about. But a few more passes kept filling in new things and opening up new answers, and before I knew it I was done with a very fast time for me, less than 3 minutes from my Friday fastest (which is 11:57).
I am someone who regrets how coarse our public language has become. Nobody ever looked smarter or won a point by inserting coarse language into their discourse ... well, ok, maybe George Carlin and a few others ... soooooo let's say *rarely* does adding coarse language augment someone's point. But poopemoji? Nah, doesn't offend me in the least.
Enjoyable puzzle.
And also get rid of a Harry Potter reference.
As someone that hates bodily function talk, I was not at all offended by poop emoji. It’s so comical to me that it’s not offensive, and it’s quite in the lexicon these days. Not that all things should be in the NYT crossword. Rex did a nice job of summing it up.
I did not like CMERE. It’s too obtuse, even if it was in a puzzle a year ago, as pointed out above.
All told, a fun Friday, my favorite day for the puzzle, and this one was good times. Now to tell the captcha I’m not a ROBOT.
Re POOPEMOJI, the clue makes it worse. "Poop" by itself, like other childish words for bodily functions, might pass the breakfast test. But make it "pile of poop" and, — well, not with my Eggos, please.
As for the puzzle "suddenly" getting puerile and silly, Rex, Rex, Rex, where have you been? This will be remembered the defining characteristic of Will Shortz's so-called editing after NYT finally replaces him with an adult.
Might have been my personal best for a Friday, and less than half the time on yesterday's challenging entry from Lewis. But the Happy Music was mute and I spent a long time checking every answer (it's SERIF, right, not SERaF!). Finally had to give up and hit "Reveal Puzzle." And then I saw that YOGA was incorrect, because I had overshot the "O" and typed in a numerical "0"! [Insert POOP EMOJI here].
Rex was on vacation last time POOP EMOJI appeared, and we had a guest blogger. This may be why Rex appears to treat it as a debut answer. Most of the complaints that day were around the PPP level - 38%, according to Z.
Getting in under the wire today. Had to do real work and I didn't like it. I would way rather goof around on the crossword puzzle blog all day. Every day.
Luckily I didn't miss this gem with POOP EMOJI 💩, DIRTY JOKE, and THE STREET.
Oh, and HARRY POTTER IS #1!
Uniclues:
1 "It's good for you," and similar PR stunts.
2 The liberal left according to some.
3 A really stinky brass section.
4 Walk away... you know it's coming.
5 Sha-doobie-doing while trying to remember the words.
6 **CRASH**
7 Witch blows nose.
8 Uma Thurman.
9 Harpist hasta have it.
1 HATHA YOGA PLOYS
2 ILHAN OMAR ROBOT
3 POOP EMOJI TUBAS (~)
4 AVERT DIRTY JOKE (~)
5 ALTO BUYING TIME
6 UBER DRIVER THUD (~)
7 SNAPE HONKS
8 LONG U MOVIE STAR
9 OBSESSES OVER LYRE
I was far more offended by the private jet clue and answer than by the poop emoji. Private jets are cracked and gross, damaging To our environment and Grotesquely demonstrating the amazing inequality of wealth in our world
New kealoa: STEM / SEED
I apologize for bringing yesterday's discussion into today, but I'm honestly confused: By what/whose criteria can the word SLOPE possibly be offensive? Can't even begin to imagine what kind of hidden scatological/ethnic "trigger" this could cause.
Loved the clever clueing on this one.
🤗🦖🦖🦖🦖🦖🤗
There's a theme here: tell a DIRTYJOKE which might well feature a POOPEMOJI (response: THUD followed by "YOUREAJERK!"). Hardly a way to GOINSTYLE...more like THESTREET.
I had a cubed natick! In the NW (where else?), I had no clue what might go into Squares 2, 3, and the squares immediately under them. The row of letters at 15a weren't going to make any sense at all to me no matter what they were. Nor am I into YOGA at all, so: figure out the downs. I finally hit on ALTO as the middle [singing] part (?) but what of 3d? Only thing I could think of was THUD, but that would leave ILHANOMAR, to me an extremely unlikely combination. Obviously, I have never heard of the senator from--what is it? (looks it up) Oh yeah, Minnesota. Are we now supposed to memorize 100 MORE names??? In the end, I left it, but oh boy, what a brutal double-cross!
The only other thing I object to is LONGU, and all the other LONG, SHORT and SILENT letter add-ons. Stop that! Par.
Unusual path to a birdie: BBBBB, BBBBG, GGGGG.
PRE-DONE
Don’t OBSESSOVER THE DATE,
in THE END WE’re alright,
WE’ll GOINSTYLE out THE GATE,
when TIME comes ON PROMNIGHT.
--- DIRK OTERI
Not bad. Pretty good actually. But I expect just a little more from the Wunderkind. Had SNAkE before SNAPE so that held me up a bit until POOPEMOJI made an appearance - which was a bit juvenile. Like saying a DIRTYJOKE in a church. I’m a bit surprised the NYT gave it the green light. But it made the cut and some of us got a chuckle out of it. And we can all use a laugh or two nowadays can’t we?
Of course I had to look up 1/2 of one name. Then - bingo!
Diana, LIW
ILHANOMAR is a U.S. Rep from Minneapolis. I can see buildings in her district from my office window in St. Paul. Don’t blame me or most of MN for anything she might say or do. She is popular in her district but pretty much nowhere else. In DC they lump her in with AOC and a few others, which is unfair to them.
Always love to do a DS puz. He also edits (most days) the Universal Crossword which is published in the Mpls daily paper. Busy Xword guy.
I have heard many dirty jokes that were not gross, by my standards anyway. I was trying to stick Yolk in for Joke since I thought the clue was perhaps a reference to the blood spot you find once in a while in a cracked egg.
I hated CMERE. Informal or slang clues necessarily imply there is a "proper" way to spell the answer. Depending on how much you slur "Come Here", there are plenty of ways to phonetically spell it.
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