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Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
Word of the Day: REMY Ma (55A: Rap artist ___ Ma) —
Reminisce Mackie (née Smith; born May 30, 1980), known professionally as Remy Ma, is an American rapper. Discovered by Big Pun, she came to prominence for her work as a member of Fat Joe's group, Terror Squad. In 2006, she released her debut studio album There's Something About Remy: Based on a True Story, which became a modest success, peaking at number 33 on the Billboard 200 chart. Ma's most commercially successful songs include "Whuteva", "Ante Up (Remix)", "Lean Back", "Conceited", and "All the Way Up".
She is one of only four multiple winners of the BET Award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, which she won in 2005 and 2017. Ma is the recipient of two Vibe awards, two Source awards, and has been nominated for three Grammy awards. Since 2015, she has starred on VH1's reality series Love & Hip Hop: New York, alongside her husband Papoose. (wikipedia)
• • •
Sometimes "?" clues work. I liked [Pop tribute?] for SODA TAX because it's on the money, and the answer itself is interesting. The clue looks like one (real) thing, but ends up being another (real) thing. Unexpected, clever, good. But the BEAR MARKET clue, eerrrrgughwoof, ouch (19A: Bad time to take stock?). I had the BEAR and no idea because I could not get BEAR to square with "time." BEAR ... SEASON? That's a time. A hunting time. But I could not think of any "times" that started with BEAR. The whole idea of "time" = MARKET, my grammatically sensitive brain just could not process. Markets exist in time, but I don't think of them *as* times. This is where "?" clues get irritating: when they're hard ... and then the reveal leaves you feeling "what? come on..." rather than "oh, yeah, good one." SODA TAX = "oh, yeah, good one." BEAR MARKET, yeesh. Worse, far worse was the "?" clue on WEST (34A: What was once due to American pioneers?). So "due" is an oft-played with word in crossword clues, esp. when it's the Italian word for "two" in disguise, as exemplified in the classic crossword clue, [It's past due] for TRE. But I can't make the Italian work in today's clue. I get it down to -EST, still no idea. As you can see (in the grid screenshot, above), I basically end the puzzle at this square, getting the "W" in WEST from WAY AHEAD (34D: Unlikely to be caught). But WEST, man, I can't tell you how groany that is—worse, it's just ... arbitrary and weird. Pioneers headed west, sure, but "due" West? West is not "due" to the pioneers any more than it is to anyone standing on the globe. Also, the grammar is preposterous. Due west is due west no matter who you are or what you're doing. It's due no more to the pioneers than to you or me. "Once due?" Why would due west stop being due west? You can make this due pun some other way, some way that makes some kind of sense and is not an elaborate, jury-rigged, duct-taped fantasia of a clue. [Ye old name?] = WEST. There. You can have that one for free.
VUVUZELAS feels like an answer that thinks it's being current but is actually being very 2010 or whenever that word entered the general lexicon as a result of fan's blowing them at one of the World Cups, I forget which (oh, look, South Africa, 2010! Nailed it). I've seen the answer a number of times and it was a gimme; it's basically lost any freshness or luster it might've had. It had its moment, the moment passed. I realize I am basically describing half of the answers in any given crossword, but somehow, VUVUZELAS seems frozen in a very particular moment in time. Apparently they can cause serious hearing damage. Just FYI. Hardest thing about the puzzle ended up being the fact that there were So Many answers where I would get the first word and have no idea what was supposed to follow. Here's the grid, at peak "What Is The Next Word!?!?"
[CLU GULAGER! LEE MARVIN! JOHN CASSAVETES! ANGIE DICKINSON!]
Gonna go have coffee with my cat now. She has "cushions" galore to choose from, but she doesn't use them. She's more a couch / floor / lap / paper bag kind of gal. See you tomorrow.
@Rex, I had ___CUSHION and had trouble getting PET. The WEST clue didn't vex me but it took a while for the AHA to come. I liked the puzzle overall but could do without ZHUZH and VUVUZELAS. I call those cat entries, meaning they look like my cat walked across the keyboard.
ReplyDeleteI hate intentionally obtuse puzzles, and this one was the poster child of intentionally obtuse puzzles. So many answers that I was like “I don’t know if this is right … but … maybe?”
ReplyDeletePOPBY or THIS
ReplyDelete😂
DeleteIt was a tale of two solves, for me, joyously leaping, bounding, and zipping the top half, then seemingly passing through a nuh-uh portal to a “I dare you to get me” bottom half. That is, it zhuzhed and it pushed. Oh, I love both. This was a best of times, best of times fill-in.
ReplyDeleteThere were clues that brought inner laughs and others that brought a wrinkled brow. And there were so many connections! To wit:
• BEET near REDD.
• RINGO near STAR.
• RINGO crossing a star (POLARIS).
• DOOR and WHO’S THERE.
• DARK balancing off SUNBURST.
• POLAR and BEAR.
Then there were seven NYT debuts, six of which are worthy additions to the oeuvre: DARK ALES, DOOR PRIZE, DRUMS OUT, PET CUSHION, WAY AHEAD, and ZHUZH.
Speaking of the latter, ZHUZH is why I love words and why I love crosswords. Awesome in awesome's truest sense. Silly, classy, and reminding us that there will always be new things in our lives. Bless you, ZHUZH.
Kyle, this puzzle presented me with a rich pastiche of emotions and satisfactions. It was silver and gold, IMO. Thank you so much, and please, please, POP BY anytime!
I didn't love the BEAR MARKET clue for a different reason. I was ok thinking of it in terms of time, since BEAR MARKET is by definition a time-slice of a market.
ReplyDeleteHere's what bugged me about the clue: that kind of stock (i.e., stock market stock) is not generally something you "take." Unless maybe you want to call it that if you are gifted or compensated with stock. But if that's the case, then a BEAR MARKET is an excellent time to take stock!
My most embarrassingly obviously wrong first guess was BOOHOO WHO for "Second line to a child's joke." It did occur to me both that that would never be the second line of that joke and that you say BOO WHO not BOOHOO WHO. And then my brain decided not to pursue that line of questioning to ask "Well, does the usual second line fit?" My brain, she is an odd duck.
Viper warning along the Nile-ASP PSA.
ReplyDeleteLong-term investors know that a bear market is a good time to “take” (I.e., buy) stock. The clue has it backward.
ReplyDeleteKnock knock.
ReplyDeleteWHO'S THERE?
LULU.
Lulu who?
Lulu Sockdolager.
Well, go away. I don't recognize you now and I won't recognize you if you return.
BEAR MARKET came easily but I needed your help for SEA NETTLE. WEST and SOCKDALAGER are awful indeed,but willing to forgive those because I learned how to spel ZHUZH!!!… and maybe some of its history.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed this puzzle and it’s ambiguities, but maybe that’s because for me (unlike Rex) it came easily to me today.
ReplyDeleteFWIW, a BEAR MARKET is actually an excellent time to buy stock, if you’re in it for the long term.
Had a good time working this one through. There were a couple of gimmes which helped - but the grid was loaded with longs that were splashy and took some effort. Liked BROKE OPEN and SEA NETTLE. Needed crosses for RENE RUSSO and ARAB LEAGUE.
ReplyDeleteI was introduced to ZHUZH years ago by an older gay architect I used to work with. It’s a neat word - but not often heard. I could imagine Tom WAITS warbling it
Same take on PET CUSHION as the big guy - we have a dog bed. Not sure when they originated but I can remember BACOS in the early 70s - my mother wouldn’t buy them. Interesting to learn today that they were meatless.
Miracle Legion is on my Mt. Rushmore of bands - I include POLARIS in their discography
Enjoyable Saturday solve. Matt Sewell’s Stumper today has a uniquely different take on the center diagonal pattern.
Perfect Saturday level of resistance. Nice one, Kyle.
ReplyDeleteI despise BEETs. Period.
@Lewis – most excellent cross catches.
I had a swell time wrestling this one to the ground. The big sockdolager for me was learning how to spell ZHUZH. I like to zhuzh up my room with palindromes. Zhuzhed, zhuzhing, zhuzhable. . . Cool.
“Still life” has the same number of letters as DOOR PRIZE. Just sayin. I never, ever win the DOOR PRIZE, but I’m beyond thrilled when the hygienist gives me my little gift bag. No, really. It’s ridiculous how happy I am with that damn thing.
“Creed” before CREDO. Well, yeah. Duh.
PORTER and DARK ALES. I got ahold of some (like, 4 gallons) of bock beer once on the border of Germany and then Czechoslovakia and man oh man. . . yikes.
I’m the second employee to get to work (custodian has to be first so he can let me in). So we both have our own “personal parking space(s).” The one or two times a year I can’t get there that early and have to park in a different spot, I’m beyond discombobulated. And there have been many times that I considered running to the bank or store during my planning but opted not to specifically ‘cause I couldn’t abide the thought of returning and seeing someone else’s car in My Spot.
“It fills the seat at an office” – TEMP AGENCY. Three teachers called in sick yesterday. We’re a very small school and are already down several teachers. There is zero wiggle room, so when teachers don’t show up, the coverage for us stalwart employees is brutal. Someone said yesterday she counted and all in, we’re down sixteen (!) staff and teacher positions. Obviously I’m not there for the money, but Jeez Louise, they should pay alternative school people more. I earn the exact salary as someone with my same credentials teaching AP Lit in some calm, reasonable, regular school. That teacher spots a metal rat-tail comb on someone’s desk, and it might not register. I spot it and go cold inside. How did that make it through search? Who in this class is here for attacking a teacher? What about the five extra kids I don’t know who’ve been dispersed to my room? Any of them likely to go off? How can I take it without drawing attention to it? Are there any security guys near my room, or are they all still on the other side of the building dealing with a huge fight? (This happened to me last Thursday.) It’s absolutely not surprising that we can’t fill our vacancies, not when they can make the same money at a less-challenging school. Watch for us on the news again soon.
WHO’S THERE is timely. One bonus of having a revolving door of students is that I can recycle jokes unimpugned. So yesterday I did the Knock Knock dealie with Kenchaun. WHO was THERE? Well, I eat mop was there. When he said, I eat mop who, his buddy doubled over and started laughing, and I started laughing, and after a minute Kenchaun heard it and acted all mad and stuff, but we’re still good; he’s a sweetie. [Note to self: next time check that there are no rat-tail combs in sight, just in case.]
While teachers of all stripes are grossly underpaid people are lining up to pay $2' million plus for Aaron Judges 62nd home run ball !!!! scary times
DeleteZHUZH? SHEESH!
ReplyDeleteShould enter the Rexicon (a la Natick) for “a word that doesn’t actual exist, could never exist and/or should never exist”.
LULU of a Loser!
Agreed, & to make it the centerpiece of the puzzle? Really?
DeletePerhaps ZHUZH is a regionalism. My southern mother-in-law routinely talks about ways to "zhuzh up a meal" by adding some spice. Gifts and parties and clothes can also be zhuzhed up, though with different kinds of spice. It's actually been bounding around my head the last few weeks for some reason.
DeleteI agree..zhuzh? Huh and never heard of vuvuzelas. Must admit liked these puzzles more years ago when they drew more on classical literary knowledge rather than on Medicare pop culture and these outlandish words Noone can ever know. Guess I'm an old fogey
DeleteThanks for the explication of "34A: What was once due to American pioneers?" I'd thought it was an allusion to manifest destiny, with the question mark telling us "...even though they were wrong." I said to myself, "What a terrible clue," and moved on. I like the directional take much better.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I was stumped on the other side of one of the entries. I had _E_CUSHION and nothing came to mind for the longest time.
”Silver and gold” orES nearly did me in. I couldn’t come up with TV SET. TO_, can they really be looking for TOT with that push-around clue? VUVUZELAS was that “oh, those green things whose name I can never remember” and one more damn college abbr. “As shown” is the classic vague Saturday clue that will hold you up until the DAUNTs come home.
ReplyDeleteZHUZH, I've been waiting for you to show up to the grid. I hear it all the time on HGTV and looked up its spelling for just this moment.
Gotta agree with Rex on Sockdolager and the clue for WEST which I couldn’t get until it was crossing _AY AHEAD.
Kyle Dolan, you gave me the Saturday workout I needed, thanks!
The WEST is due to the pioneers, I believe, because it was supposedly their manifest destiny.
ReplyDelete"Alto" really did my head in. After that many cutesy ? clues, I assumed the ? on this one meant that it wouldn't be straightforward. And yet it was. There was no need for a ? This made me very cross. Meanwhile, zhuzh and sockdolager, whatevs.
ReplyDeletePlease include your cats in more posts. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteDNF because because of the Zero/Zhuzh crossing and the VuV/UVA crossing.
ReplyDelete"Did you like the restaurant? No, I rated it Zero Star. I mean I gave it Zero Star. I mean no stars."
For Zhuzh, I was fixated on _huzh having some relation to Chutzpah and wanted it to start with a C. Turns out it first appeared "in the mid-1960s in gay communities in the U.K." My yoga instructor says "if you want to Zhuzh it up" but I didn't relate it to that because I've assumed she was saying Shoosh it up.
No excuse for Vuvuzelas. Seeing it now I remember hearing it years ago and I even think I got it in the NYT puzz when it was first used.
FH
ReplyDeleteOnly a professional grouch could dislike BEAR MARKET. What a clever clue.
"Bad time to take stock?" OK, a bear market is something that exists for a period of time. No need to parse this too strictly. There is a question mark, after all. And a bear market IS a bad time to "take stock". So Mr. Dolan saw the opportunity to use the common expression "take stock" to mean "take" in the sense of "buy" or "receive". Come on grouches. This puzzle was tough. But though cruel, it was fair.
Never heard of zhuzh. Neither had my wife. Its origins are "in the British gay community"? Who knew?
Found this one easier and more enjoyable than Friday but was still equally surprised when the app music played. Neither Sockdolager nor LULU made a lick of sense to me.
ReplyDeleteThere was a long discussion in the household about how we might spell ZHUZH and couldn’t come up with a better answer.
Had wavelength trouble on the DRUMSOUT, ARMS, DAUNT crosses but got the two part clues in that section easily enough as opposed to the SW where it took some real patience (cat, dog, or pet cushion?).
The multiple crossing ? clues were the last squares to fill for me where I finally had enough crosses to figure out what was going on.
Hadn’t thought about how much I dislike crossing ? clues before but they can get natick-adjacent-feeling.
You can fix that DRY MOUTH with any of a number of drinks today: DARK ALES, PORTER,nsocktoLAGER, SODA or POP.
ReplyDeleteAs predicted yesterday, Saturday was significantly easier than Friday. ZHUZH was a complete mystery and needed every cross. Ditto REMY. Other than that, though, there were no speed bumps.
I thought that BEARMARKET and WEST were two of the cleverer answers in this challenging puz.
ReplyDeleteWhich tells me that a person's reaction to a particular word perhaps says more about them than it does about the puzzle itself.
I was not as enamored of SODATAX, but then, I'm not a real soda drinker. It just sort of felt like a made-up phrase.
ZHUZH????!!!! Give me a break.
ReplyDelete"Sockdolager"????!!!! Give me a break.
Actually I got both of these, though through gritted teeth. To me there is nothing uglier than the NYT trying to be cool and "with it" in such a quasi-literate way. Maybe even subliterate.
But where I struck out was the far West from TV SET (which I couldn't parse) down. I didn't know the horns at 28D nor the jellyfish at 29D. I didn't know the meatless food brand at 39D. I had already cheated on REMY (it took 10 minutes to find that rapper on Google!) and I didn't see anywhere else to cheat.
Interestingly, I had many answers in my head that would have been right if I'd filled them in -- like adding PET to the CUSHION I already had. I thought of GALS too. But that was going to give me PAGE as the answer to "Citation information" at 46D -- which made no bleeping sense to me at all.
It still doesn't.
So I didn't finish. There was much I did like in this puzzle, all of it far, far away from the SW. LOCAL COLOR; BEAR MARKET; I'M A REAL BOY; TEMP AGENCY; and DRY MOUTH were especially nice.
But the aforementioned things that I really didn't like were ZERO STAR for me. They definitely managed to spoil the puzzle.
The clue for ZHUZH is simply wrong. It's a verb. The clue asks for a noun. You don't have a ZHUZH--you ZHUZH something. First heard many years ago on "Project Runway," used by Tim Gunn to tell a contestant to do something a bit more with a design, but the word has been around much longer. If the clue had read "Add a dash of panache," it would have been fine. But it wasn't.
ReplyDeleteI'm with many other posters here. "Zhuzh" is NOT a real word! Sorry, never heard it, don't like it and don't ever want to see it again. OTOH, I did like vuvuzela. Re: Sockdolager; the only time I ever heard that word was in reference to Abraham Lincoln's assasination. The story I've read is that in "Our American Cousin" (the play he went to see at Ford's Theater) the line containing "sockdalagizing" was Booth's "cue" to shoot Lincoln. No sir, no "zhuzh" in this puzzle for me. Just a slog.
ReplyDeleteAt 10:15 PM on April 15 1865 Harry Hawk, on stage playing the lead in the play Our American Cousin, spoke the following line...“Don’t know the manners of good society, eh? Well I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal — you sockdologizing old man-trap!”
ReplyDeleteAnd those were the last words President Abraham Lincoln ever heard. The line was meant for an audience laugh and John Wilkes Booth knew it and timed his shot for that moment.
I laughed when I saw the clue but did not know the definition. I had LU so went with LUSH first but later corrected it to LULU.
While it is an old fashioned word it is worth remembering for its historical significance.
Sockdolager has a connection to American history. When John Wilkes Booth was about to assassinate Abraham Lincoln during a performance of “Our American Cousin” at Ford’s Theatre, he waited for the delivery of what he knew was the funniest line in the show, “Don't know the manners of good society, eh? Well, I guess I know enough to turn you inside out, old gal – you sockdologizing old man-trap!” During the ensuing burst of laughter from the audience, Booth entered Lincoln’s box and shot him.
ReplyDeleteI remembered this because, when recounting the story of Lincoln’s death in her excellent book “Assassination Vacation,” Sarah Vowell dryly commented that funny dialogue was different in those days. I am not sure that sockdolager otherwise made it out of the nineteenth century, except in this puzzle.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteWho is SEAN ETTLE? (A joke... I know that's not how it's parsed)
I got a kick out of the WEST clue. Dang Rex, just chuckle at the wordplay. You don't have to over analyze it. You clue was cute, but who here (or elsewhere in Crossworld) knows (or cares) that Kanye West is now called Ye?
That mid-center-west area was tough. TVSET hidden, as was THUS. UVA was unknown as clued (I do know UVA), and ZEALOT was clued strangely. Add in the heard -of-but-not-remembered VUVUZELAS, and that crazy SEA NETTLE. Dang. Led to my downfall of Check Puzzle and Googing. (Jumping into the DNF fray from the other day, anytime I either Goog for an answer, or hit Reveal Letter or Word, I count that as a personal DNF. Yes, I do finish the puz, but I took help. Someone Once suggested FWE - Finished With Errors, I propose FWH - Finished With Help.)(Or maybe TANW - Threw At Nancy's Wall)
ZHUZH was a Huhz? Har. Where in the wide world of sports did that come from? (Certain aged folks should get that reference.)
ZEALOTS had a strange clue. Or I'm mistakenly thinking the Evangelistic has a different meaning. (Bet on the latter.)
Anyway, nice SatPuz. A few surviving brain cells hanging on.
No F'S (PSA - Add some F's!) 😁
RooMonster
DarrinV
ReplyDeleteI used Google so much that on my 50th (or 500th) search it said, "You again?!?"
The Rex slump continues. Dull, dull,dull and long, long, long.
ReplyDeleteRENERUSSO. I've seen In the Line of Fire many times. What an onscreen pair: Rene and Clint.
Eighteen longs, the most in a long time. Bravo!
I must live in a cocoon.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never seen or heard of the word ZHUZH! (Perhaps I have HEARD it but thought the speaker was clearing their throat)
Doesn’t look like a word. Can’t imagine anyone deciding it should be one for any definition.
But…. What a great Scrabble word … if Scrabble will accept it.
There’s only one Z in a scrabble game.
DeleteThere are also two blanks.
DeleteSockdolager?
ReplyDeletecovfefe!
A lot of clues that really escaped me as well - SODA TAX, for example - how is TAX a tribute? The clue for WEST was pretty horrific - kudos to Rex for at least attempting to lawyer it into legitimacy. Some of the other stuff seemed to be intentionally one step removed from popular culture and into the arcane - Proto-Algonquin languages, the cast of Thor(?), the name of a star on a state flag, meat substitute brand names, the perfunctory rap “artist”. Maybe they should have stopped after the stinging jellyfish.
ReplyDeleteI see your point about some of your criticism, but the North Star aka Polaris appearing on Alaska's flag is quite guessable. I would think. It ain't Florida after all. Also one of the meanings of "tribute" is a tax.
DeleteChallenging for me, and lots of fun to solve. My way in was through CREE x CARTS, which allowed me to back into BEAR MARKET. Elsewhere, I got help from the children's corner with I'M A REAL BOY and WHO'S THERE, which provided enough crosses for me to piece the grid together patchwork-style. My favorite "didn't see it coming" entry was WAY AHEAD; I was sure it was going to be a verb form; my only "got it right away" answer to a tricky clue was WEST.
ReplyDeleteDo-overs: orES before HUES (hi, @Teedman, except I made it worse by crossing it with "tromboneS"); Sierra "madrE"; quorn before BACOS. New to me: ZHUZH, SEA NETTLE, REMY. SUNBURST, sockdolager (Thank you, @Epicurus and @Robert, for explaining its significance)..
@Lewis, thank you for pointing out those bonus grid pleasures.
@JD, I thought of a "C" for a "chutzpah" offshoot, too.
As Warren Buffett taught a BEAR MARKET is the best time to take (buy) stock.
ReplyDeleteMedium-challenging?? Just this morning I did a Tuesday from the archives that -- no joke -- took longer this one.
ReplyDeleteMy only hangup was the awful nonword sound ZHUZH. I was prepared to come here and complain about the NYTXW once again using regionally-specific made up dialect that no one outside of New York actually uses. But it seems a lot of commenters seem to believe it really exists, so whatever... I guess I can concede.
Instead, my righteous indignation is transferred to the next worst thing in this puzzle: the clue for BEAR MARKET, which is literally the opposite of the correct answer. As already pointed out by others, a BEAR MARKET is an excellent time to acquire stock. They may as well just have had an answer of GREEN with the clue "Color that means 'stop'."
I'll ask for a consolation prize. Did 90% but couldn't figure the SW. Had no idea about either the horns or the stinging jellyfish, and I had CATCUSHION instead of PETCUSHION. I thought show runner had something to do with finishing third in a horse race.
ReplyDeleteLiked it more than Rex did. Then again, I really don't mind old-timey words and expressions; I think they can be kind of fun. Don't know sockdolager? It means about what it sounds like it means. Just go with that. And you'll know LULU if you've listened to enough Bugs Bunny: Watch out for that first step, Mac! It's a LULU! (Bugs Bunny may be old-timey as well, but he never gets old.)
ReplyDeleteI also think Rex is off in his grammatical nits. Substitutability (wait, you sure that's not a word, spelling checker?) is a more trustworthy gauge of XW fairness: think if there's a plausible sentence in which the answer can be substituted for the clue. "It's a bad time to take stock." "Why?" "It's a BEAR MARKET." The same "it's a", so BEAR MARKET can substitute for "bad time to take stock".
ZHUZH I didn't know. But I like it. As with "sockdolager", half the meaning is in the sound.
"Never would've called BACOS a "meat substitute" (I might've thought it was actually bacon)." Why wouldn't you? And, did you or didn't you?
(I think it's TVP (textured vegetable protein) with a good dash of sodium. I also don't think you're supposed to cook with it. (All that food coloring leaching out, yuck, like BEET coloring.) In fact I came to this conclusion a few years ago after trying BACOS as a bacon substitute for a vegetarian friend. I think you're just supposed to sprinkle it on. Never tasted much like bacon to me in the first place.)
Anyhow, the puzzle put in some Saturday-worthy stiff resistance. Especially in the SE: I was off to a bad start by putting in ZERO Shot, and then wondered where the puzzle was going with hEMP something-or-other as something to fill seats with. Then, "bio" before GEO. POP in before POP BY. Trickiness abounds. Do we want to go with LEONE or "madre"?
Hm, it's an acrostic weekend, isn't it? But first: to the Spelling Bee. I wonder if LULU is going to be there.
@RooMonster and I had very similar solve experiences and have identical criteria for defining a personal dnf. This puzzle was an absolute dnf.
ReplyDeleteAnd the comments today really illustrate how differently puzzles and clues are perceived by the universe of solvers. I breezed through the tangle of ? clues; thought the clues for BEAR MARKET and WEST were easily grasped; found the Friday puzzle easy and the Saturday unsolvable; etc.
That's why I enjoy coming to RexWorld each day. If I had known VUVUZELAS and had one at this moment, I would blow that sucker loudly in honor of our diverse personas!
I think @Rex kinda burst my bubble. Am I going to be an outlier today and confess that I thought this was enjoyable? It was!
ReplyDeleteDOOR PRIZE first in....ZERO STAR last in.
I don't mind the ? after a clue. It reminds me of all the people who answer a question with that up-talk thing that Valley GALS started using. Is the answer supposed to be factual..or are you questioning my sanity...
Food for thought....just leave the BACOS at the door.
I've never heard the word sockdolager but it sounded like a LULU, and so it was. I had to look up TV SET at 27A (another ?) I'm gad I did. It gave me the abominable VUVUZELAS.
Back upstairs to finish the DRY MOUTH section. Finished the north. On to the south.
I needed to stare a bit. I left that unheard of ZHUZH word and went about my business with the rest. Nothing really gave me pause other than trying to figure out what was "Awful or worse." What could it be. I had a lot of the across letters filled in and I just stared some more. Could it be ZERO STAR? I think so. I thought that was the best entry yet. I looked up ZHUZH to make sure that it might be right....It was!
Happy feet...Happy dance.
"... who can remember any individual Marvel movie?"
ReplyDeleteLots of people, Rex, even if they don't care for many of them.
For 50A "It fills seats at an office" I had _ _MPA_ _ _ _ _ and filled in caMPAign ad.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else?
@Southside Johnny
ReplyDeleteRe "tribute": I'd say look it up; the tax meaning is there and I think it's pretty well known.
For me the association is with the biblical passage where Jesus says, "Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's". The context was whether the Jews should pay taxes (or tribute [money]) to Caesar, i.e., to the secular government. At the top of the Wikipedia article on this passage, you'll see an image of a Titian painting, The Tribute Money. Anyhow, this biblical story may be how I first learned this meaning of tribute, even though my Episcopalian education isn't impressive.
In my book about the Lincoln assassination, "It Didn't Happen the Way You Think," I referred to "...you sockdologizing old mantrap" as Booth's cue to shoot Lincoln. As an actor who knew the plot of "Our American Cousin," he knew it would get a laugh (don't ask my why). What most historians fail to understand is that Booth's timing depended on his being able to enter Lincoln's box at the precise moment that Harry Hawk (as Asa Trenchard) uttered the line.' He knew the laugh line would facilitate his escape. It did.
ReplyDeleteIF JOHN F. PARKER, Lincoln's guard, had been at his post, Booth's timing would have been thrown off. His pistol had only one bullet. It's clear that Booth knew in advance that the guard would be absent. How did he know this? it was no accident, folks.
I breezed through the top of this one, a brief stop to change ERIE to CREE and RENERUSSO was a mystery as clued, but I had BEAR and with "stock" in the clue, what else could it be?
ReplyDeleteThings slowed down after that, but I knew POLARIS and RINGO, big helps in the SE. The west coast was blank space until I remembered VUVUZELAS from the last World Coup. I wonder if they'll reappear this fall? PETCUSHION? Our cats have recliners, unless they're occupied, in which case they have laps.
I did know "sockadolager", or at least a did after "Sierra ____" had to be LEONE and not MADRE, plus I had the U from cushion, et voila.
Did not know ZHUZH but it's not a word I'm likely to forget. What a beauty.
Very nice Saturday indeed, KD. Just the right amount of crunch to have me Keep Digging until all was revealed. Thanks for all the fun.
Just curious: Has anyone ever used or seen the term ZEROSTAR ? Maybe “Is it a one-star restaurant?” “Nope. It’s a zero-star.”??
ReplyDeleteSockdolager? Zhuzh? The first word is a clue and the second word is an answer (to different parts of the puzzle); neither of which I've heard before, ever. That's okay, I expect arcana on a Saturday NYT puzzle.
ReplyDeleteWhat really got me was 19 Across (Bad time to take stock?), where I confidently filled in BULLMARKET with no crosses whatsoever. A bull market, after all, is when stocks are at a high value and why would anyone take stock when the price is high? When you take aspirin, you're getting aspirin. When you take a bus, you're getting (on) a bus. When you take stock - not the phrase meaning to reflect on something - you're getting stock, and a bad time to take stock - to buy stock - is when prices are high. If the clue had been Bad Time To Take Stock Dividends, then Bear Market would've made sense; then you're taking money, not stock, and a bad time to take money out of your stocks is when prices are low. I can't believe the clue was so wrong on this one ...
Easy-medium with the top half very easy and the bottom about twice as tough. CREed before CREDO and madrE before LEONE were it for erasures. Very smooth and solid with a tinge of ZHUZH, liked it.
ReplyDeleteZHUZH? ZEROSTAR "ESE". LOL
ReplyDeleteRex's review proves yet again the most obvious point ever: these puzzles are never objectively anything.
-- Him: Challenging. Me: Easy.
-- Him: Annoying "?" clues. Me: "?" clues are the puzzle's best feature.
-- Him: BEARMARKET clue especially hard/annoying. ME: Awesome clue, quite easy.
-- Him: Constructor wants VUVUZELAS to feel current. Me: Huh?
-- Him: PET before ???. Me: CUSHION after ???
-- Him: Nothing too exciting in the grid. Me: Agreed.
-- Him: "Ye old name" is better for WEST. Me: Yes, times a jillion -- brilliant on Rex's part!
DNF for me because I just got tired of the struggle. Ultimately it was VUVUZELAS and ZHUZH that did me in. Oh, and the rap star, bane of my crossword existence. All were hopeless so I found no point in prolonging the drama. But at least I learned some stuff.
ReplyDeleteThe rest I liked a lot and didn’t have much trouble with. Good long crosses that were gettable and classic sneaky cluing. Unfortunately I knew BEAR MARKET instantly because just yesterday I got a newsletter from my broker saying [praying] that things are beginning to PERK up and maybe we’ll see the BULL back in the headlines soon. I certainly hope so because I’m to the point where I don’t even want to look at the balance any more.
If you come to my house, no need to go looking for a PET CUSHION to find fur. Just pick a spot and remember, you are a guest - they live here. Thanks to Rex for sharing the picture of the beautiful Miss Olive.
I dislike Pecos inte
Never heard the “word” ZHUZH. In my ear ZEROSTAR is plural ZEROStars. I had dayAHEAD. Glad to read Rex's explanation for due, and agree with the dog/cat/pet bed before cushion. I also wondered - before any crosses) if it could have been garbage can? Groomer mat? Intake vent? Sofa pillow? Black pants?
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'll be sharper next Saturday.
This puzzle is so smart it hurts. Deliberately obtuse, a previous commenter called it. Amen to that.
ReplyDeleteBut one answer that vexes other made me smile: Due West. I’ve long known it as the name of a college town in South Carolina, and always thought the name was hilariously funny. Why such specificity? West is west, no? It’s as if Horace Greeley said, “Go due west, young man. Not the least bit northwest or southwest, but due west!” If you followed that advice from Chicago, you’d end up somewhere near the border between California and Oregon. Well, maybe that’s where Greeley wanted those stinky pioneer lads to go.
Vuvuzela: Ugh. Always unpleasant to encounter in stadiums and Xwords.
Zhuzh: Huh? Never heard of it. Was that a fad word in some short-lived 1970s sitcom that I missed?
When I was finally finishing this puzzle I had some negative feelings about it with PETCUSHION being one (insert eyeroll emoji). I confess I had to cheat a cupla times to officially fill in my finished DNF. Interesting because I virtually romped through yesterday’s puzzle but I worked it so late in the day no time to comment. Anyway, I decided that just because the puzzle was a bit of a slog for me, it was quite a themeless feat for the constructor.
ReplyDelete@Joaquin…🤣🤣. My sentiments eggzactly! Every time I see something like “sockdolager” I wonder if I’ve been living on a different planet than the rest of us for 67 years.
@LMS…I use the term ZHUZH too but had never seen it written. When I Googled after the solve I found it has many incarnations such as zoosh and jooj. I think my brain kind of thought of it as jooj before today. Also, your parking story cracked me up because I also used to consider whether I would go “out” for lunch based on my probability of having a crummy parking spot if I left.
Finally, I admire you SO much for the work you do. I’ve never been a teacher but I’ve always wondered why teachers who are primarily teaching students that just need a “presentation” (due to their background) are paid the same as teachers like you who are in the trenches teaching many different levels learning within ONE classroom. Not to mention lack of hazard pay. For anyone who taught higher level students PLEASE don’t take my “presentation” term too much to heart because I admire ALL teachers!
@LMS The goody bag my hygienist gives me contains a tiny "travel-size" thingie of floss, about the size of a medium-sized button. It's adorable, but I'm pretty sure I've never had trouble fitting regular-sized floss into my bag for trips. I showed it to my wife, and, since then, every time I'm packing for a trip I yell out to her, "I'm not sure I'm going to be able to floss while we're away -- I can't seem to cram the floss into my bag -- do you have one of those travel size flosses?" G-d bless America!
ReplyDeleteKnock knock. ZHUZH there?
ReplyDeleteRINGO and ZEROSTAR had me looking for Brenda Starr, Reporter. And, of course, you Manhattanites will be wondering whether Sierra is related to Mama LEONE.
Woodcutter #1: Why’d you take your tool to the sharpener?
Woodcutter #2: SODATAX would cut better.
I like to watch cult classics on my CABAL TVSET.
I thought this puzzle played about right for a Saturday. I don’t agree with any of Rex’s gripes, which seem to amount to the fact that some answers weren’t gimmes. Thanks for a swell Saturday, Kyle Dolan.
I’m speechless on the grid, but enjoyed Rex’s PET CUSHION (and that movie clip?? WOE). Thanks to @Lewis for the usual upbeat PSA and hopes that a TEMP AGENCY can at least keep @LMS uncombed for the semester.
ReplyDelete@Nancy, Citation as in citing a reference. PAGE number
ReplyDeleteBan the "?"!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteIf folks thought this puzzle was too hard, I'd suggest going into the NYTXW archives and picking a puzzle from say 20 years ago.
ReplyDeleteToday's puzzles are miles easier than back in the "good old days."
I have mixed feelings about that.
On the one hand, it makes me feel much smarter.
OTOH, it feels like just one more example of the dumbing down of America.
FWIW, I thought this puzzle was remarkably free of junk fill.
@Liveprof. Too funny!
ReplyDeleteThx, Kyle, for an excellent Sat. challenge! :)
ReplyDeleteMed+
Got off to a great start in the top 1/3, but slowed considerably on the way down.
Wanted caT or dog before PET.
POPin before POP BY obscured ARAB LEAGUE, etal in that area.
New: ZHUZH; REMY; BACOS; DARK ALES; SEA NETTLE; 'Animal Crossing'; 'Sockdolager'.
Attended a REDD Fox stand-up performance (I think in HonoLULU) in the early '60s. Afterwards, he accidentally stepped on my foot, then offered the most sincere apology. I was very touched by his warmth.
Appreciated the good workout, as always on a Sat. morn xword! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
When I think of brews Belgium is famous for
ReplyDeleteLambic Ales are what comes to mind.
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ReplyDelete34A clue for WEST is just word play with "due to". It doesn't mean "caused by" or "owed to". What was once due to American pioneers? WEST was. As in due WEST. Not literally, of course. They also went WSW, WNW, SSW, and NNW.
ReplyDelete@TT - thanks, you got me again on a failure to look something up. Still a tough clue/answer combination, but pretty much spot on for a Saturday.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking as a constrictor who has an upcoming NYT puzzle … I have to say that it is immensely frustrating when the editorial team takes their sometimes sorry hand to your cluing and destroys the tone and flavor you worked so hard to create. I’ve fought with them before through the years (going back over 6 years now) but they have an increasing knack for really f’ing up this aspect inexplicably. I wish it were known when this aspect was the fault of the editors vs the constructor.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous for this, for obvious reasons.
Weirdly, I enjoyed this puzzle because it reminded me of Saturday NYT crosswords when I was in college in the early to mid 80s. I thought I was good at solving crosswords, but most Saturdays made me feel like they'd put a vise on my brain. The clues always seemed to lead in some direction other than the first or even third logical association. They had no theme that might have helped. They ALWAYS seemed tortuous. Once it took me a week to solve one - I kept at it a little each day. Keep in mind, I didn't have a copy of the answers, there was no Google, I had no Internet access anyway, and pride prevented me resorting to any reference books.
ReplyDeleteI think now, that was probably the point: no pain, no gain. And at that age, it was also a good lesson in humility.
This puzzle, thankfully, didn't take a week, only 23 minutes. But I actually enjoyed feeling briefly baffled, to the point of blocked, several times. The NYT crosswords have all felt too easy over the past couple of years. It's been disappointing.
Though admittedly, I might have gotten better at them over the decades :-)
Interesting and heretofore unknown to me was the sockdolager connection to Abraham Lincoln. Thanks to those who pointed that OUT.
ReplyDelete@Nancy (9:20) I took the clue “citation” for PAGE to mean as in a published work or legal paper, where the author is citing a source. Originally it threw me because I was thinking in terms of being cited for a traffic violation.
@mathgent (10:02) My favorite RENEE RUSSO role was in The Thomas Crown Affair with Pierce Brosnan. If you have not seen that one, I highly recommend it.
I can’t disagree more strongly with Jim mcdoudal.
ReplyDeleteI’m certain that Judge’s 62nd home run ball is world’s more valuable than teachers.
And I’m not alone. That ball will command market price — millions.
Teachers also command market price- $25 to 150 K.
Thanks The Joker! I'll be high for six hours from your accolade. That's how shallow I am.
ReplyDeleteZHUZH -- Picture one of those kids in a black and white movie wearing a newsboy hat, suspenders, and shorts selling this puzzle on the corner yelling, "Hot off the presses, git yer ZHUZH puzzle." That kid's eating at the soup kitchen tonight.
ReplyDeleteOK, as dumb as the clue was, I like the idea we've been canoe-ing since ancient times. I've never been in a canoe because I saw Titanic and I know how these foolish decisions end. I hope the member of our beloved Anonym-oti whose fashioned himself as our great white hope for understanding theology, Red-eyed Vireos, and what time @Pete went boating 50 years ago, you know, our genius ZEALOT IMAM, I hope he pipes in on our latest CANOE appearance. I'll sit here with legs criss-crossed and my chin in my palms waiting anxiously. We don't have enough historic canoe-ing experts around here.
I did not know the north star is called POLARIS. I used to live for a few years in the New Mexico mountains where you can see the stars at night and murdered bodies dumped in Barcaloungers in the daytime. I miss the Milky Way. I live in a city now and you can only see a few stars, but you can definitely feel yourself dying moment by moment.
Show runner as TV SET. Sheez. The clue writer probably celebrated that one with cocktails and friends. His werd-nerd friends slapped him on the back and said, "And let's not forget 'What was once due to American pioneers!' as WEST. Then they ordered another round of $25 drinks served in complicated glasses. Then our editor went home alone.
It took less time to build Monticello than it took our clue writer to figure out how to obscure it. I've been to lots of UNESCO sites and some are pretty lame. Did you know they aren't funded? It's just a fun title.
I worked for a TEMP AGENCY once, and my job was to figure out the +4 on all the zip codes for Pitney-Bowes sales areas. At lunch I would play harmonica behind the building for the road runners that congregated there. Those birds were experts on "You are My Sunshine."
I probably say this every weekend, but this was a wonderful opportunity to learn Go-ogle.
Southeast was pure torture. VUVUZELAS I love you.
Ug:
RETT for REDD even though I know better. ROGER for the much better ROMEO.
ALTOS aren't really mid-range, but they're not high-range, so I guess it's close enough for a Saturday.
The post office can't deliver an ECARD. ZERO STARS isn't possible. ROLEX is still a thing for the tasteless and self-centered. DRY MOUTH is exactly what I want in a great puzzle. Gad gad gad gad.
I guess now that I think about it, SODA TAX is a thing, but I couldn't see it.
RENE RUSSO'S performance in Tin Cup was so brutal it BROKE OPEN my head like a piñata, so I suppose I should give her a second chance and see Thor.
Yay:
I'M A REAL BOY is super cute and a legitimate phrase in a gender fluid society.
LULU and BACOS!
Love "WHO'S THERE," and if you think knock-knock jokes are just for kids you've given up on your comedy career.
Uniclues:
1 You don't have to retire!
2 Decides text auto-fill allows you to write "laughing" like a normal human being.
3 Electric guitar.
4 Every sailor ever prior to the 20th century.
5 Rare birds.
6 Boomboxes on your shoulders under a window in a movie about suburban teenage angst.
7 Me.
1 BEAR MARKET PERK (~)
2 DRUMS OUT "LOL"
3 SUN BURST TOY
4 POLARIS ZEALOT (~)
5 ARAB LEAGUE GALS (~)
6 ROMEO VUVUZELAS
7 POP BY DOOR PRIZE (~)
For me, BEAR MARKET was a “oh, yeah, good one.”
ReplyDeleteLotsa FOXXY clues, in this rodeo. Six ?-markers, plus about a dozen more that mightaswella been.
ReplyDeletePrecious nanoseconds were lost, unmercifully.
Kinda like ZHUZH, tho. Solvequest had ???ZH in 33-Across at one point, and M&A just flat out assumed that he had an error. Juxtapose that with his 19-Across answer of BEARWITHME, after readin the wrong (10-Across) clue for it. Sheesh.*
@Muse: yep. BEETs are not for M&A, either. They are might easy to beet. See also: Kale.
M&A did eat at his first Tapos Bar last night, tho. Thought it was superb, and where had it been all my life? Giganto beans! Who knew?
staff weeject pick: TOT. Admired its sado-maso ?-marker clue.
faves peppered with zhuzhs of U: ZHUHZ [not Official M&A Help Desk Dictionary-worthy, btw]. LULU. VUVUZELAS. DRUMSOUT. SUNBURST.
Thanx for the zhuzhy puz, Mr. Dolan dude. It TOT-ally pushed m&e around.
Masked & Anonymo9Us
* p.s. Is there some term for an answer placed into the grid, based on readin the wrong clue? Like, it seems to fit there, even tho the clue was for a different answer. Is it a "Malaplop"? "Dissplatzment?"
Any one know if there's already an established puzzler term for that phenomenon, so I can stop makin up weird-ass definitions?
**gruntz**
I loved sockdolager. I miss when the Times puzzle used to include way offbeat words regularly. English is such a rich, colorful, mishmash of a language, it's a shame that crossword vocabulary has gotten so much blander over the years. Also that apparently people aren't reading as much, or reading as widely, or reading some older literary and poetic classics anymore. So they aren't encountering that lovely wider range of words. It's sad, for example, that so many commenters recently were flabbergasted and annoyed at the answer "fictive". It's not even that obscure a word.
ReplyDeleteDamn. I really have become an old fart 🧐
This was a fabulous puzzle. Like yesterday's, today's was replete with clues that are the essence of crossword-puzzle wit. Yeah, [Bad time to take stock?] might be backwards on the financial advice, but it gets the point across and evokes that special kind of smile-groan that crosswords are supposed to deliver. Same for [Pop tribute?], [Show runner?], etc. Too many to list. Like the grid, too. Nice balance between long and short, with a tolerable proportion of 3-letter entries.
ReplyDeleteLiked ZHUZH. Hard to believe this is its first time in a NYTXW. I'd caution against being too down on it, lest it cause one to be viewed as too prescriptivist to be of any use to the linguistic community.
ReplyDeleteBEARMARKET didn't give me much trouble. I think Rex fixated on the wrong part. With a ? clue, you have to think about what's making it punny. And in this case, that's not going to be in the "bad time" part, but rather obviously the "take stock" part. At one point, I had B___MARKET, then decided on BEAR over bull simply because it had more amenable vowels. I'm not into the stock market and didn't realize the goof until I read the comments.
WEST was fine. It's only "due" west when you're traveling (or pointing) that way. Once, the pioneers were moving that direction; now, they're not. Best not to overthink that one. I don't think manifest destiny ever enters into it.
Why was 49A a ? clue? That's exactly what an ALTO is.
Also had orES in 32A at first. That was a bit mean.
Worst clue by far was sockdolager. Needed all the crosses and barely understood what they had to do with each other even after looking up what it meant on Google. If it wasn't for the Bugs Bunny mention a few comments up, I'd have trouble believing anyone had used either one in the last 100 years.
I also don't love 54A, but at least they didn't do an "Opposite of WNW" on it.
Epicurus: Thank you for the Lincoln connection. I knew the word but didn't know why. Well it so happens that I was in the Broadway play "The Lincoln Mask" at the Plymouth Theater. Fred Gwynn played Lincoln and I was his understudy. I also appeared in the Box at Ford's Theatre as Lincoln and at the cue fired a blank pistol. That's why I know Sockdologizer! That was my cue. Thanks for the memory. I did another play at Ford's Theater sat in Lincoln's chair in the actual box.
ReplyDeleteThe Best time to 'take stock' is during a BEAR MARKET, i.e. when 'stock' is CHEAP. Now, of course, at the start of a bear market is a bad call. But if you took stock in March 2009 you might have gotten to about 10 times the value in a few years. As the olde saying goes, "buy low, sell high". Bear market is the only way to nearly guarantee that. Love that real estate market!!
ReplyDeletere:ZHUZH, just because you've never heard of something that doesn't mean it's not real. discovering new words, learning something new or interesting about familiar words, wrangling and wrestling with words with slippery or multiple meanings - these are the essential joys of solving crosswords! yeah, it's frustrating when a puzzle(maker) stumps you, but that is the peculiar joy and prerogative of a saturday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteand anyway, as is rather common, the nyt rewards solvers who are also regular readers of its other pages: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/31/style/jeuje-zhoosh-zhuzh.html
Recommending today's Saturday Stumper for those who practie.
ReplyDeleteThought this was much easier than yesterday’s puzzle...until a certain segment in the SW. After fairly zipping along (rare for me on a Saturday) it took 10 minutes to rearrange letters over there for a clean finish. Hi, @kitshef 9:10 am – I remember your prediction from yesterday and should have believed.
ReplyDeleteBefores:
35A, rio
29D, the whimsical and dangerous-sounding stinging lioNEaTer
46A, tEaCUSHION, whatever that could possibly be
Finally the Z part at the end of the name of those horns and the singsong V part at the beginning floated up, like in those Magic 8-Ball toys, and getting VUVUZELAS helped me get TV SET and UVA and correct whimsy to the merely descriptive SEA NETTLE, which caused the remaining squares to fall.
Best part: ZHUZH, which I learned from crosswords and was gleeful to have remembered right off how to spell correctly. It’s great fun to say, even though I’ve never said it to anyone and no one has ever said it to me.
Laughed with Rex at his description of the PET CUSHION. Gotta be a woebegone marketing ploy. In my house there’s a 12-inch-tall circular carpeted tube form with a round opening at the front and a recessed, kind of sunken living room deal at top that was sold as a “cat condo,” and how it is a “condo” in any way escapes me. But one of my two cats loves to curl herself up against the ledge at top, completely ignoring the hidey-hole below.
@Conrad 10:01 am – LOL
@Gill I 10:36 am – That’s how I responded to the unknown “sockdolager” too. I had LU_ _ and the clue sounded like a LULU so I went with it.
This was a nice challenging Saturday... 21 minutes for me. VUVUZELAS and sockdolager especially.
ReplyDeleteLike @JD, I had CHUZH before ZHUZH for the CHUTZPAH reason. I've heard people say it but thought it was "juge", the French word for "judge"... "Judge it up!" has a ring to it.
And @JC66, hands up for wanting CAMPAIGN AD.
I hate random letter college abbrevs, but got UVA mainly because I've visited. Also Monticello.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, 8 day QB streak, and 23 of last 24 days. @Eniale yesterday, I'm not sure whey I'm suddenly getting these streaks... maybe Sam is throwing fewer unknown words at us! Know that it's only because I keep trying all day... 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there, until I get QB or run out of time or patience.]
"What was once due to pioneers" is clearly a reference to manifest destiny -- they believed the west was their "due," i.e., that they had some divine right to it. Has nothing to do with "due West."
ReplyDeleteJust scanning these comments - so the last word Lincoln heard was ZHUZH? Or VUVUZELA?
ReplyDeleteAs Mary Todd said, outside of the sockolager, Abie, how
Ah, Manifest Destiny had/has not a thing to do with "Go west, young man!!" (Horace Greeley). Manifest Destiny (caps required) is the 'other' name for the Monroe Doctrine which stated/s that the entire Western Hemisphere was/is the USofA's right to exploit exclusively, i.e. no European countries need apply.
ReplyDeleteMy extremely wrong answer I entered early in the solve for “Where fur might collect indoors” was COATCLOSET, and I stand by that as a great answer.
ReplyDeleteZHUZH? Just no. I got a clean grid on this puzzle but it was in spite of this non-entry and the deliberately wrong clue for BEAR MARKET. This was a tough Saturday but for all the wrong reasons.
ReplyDeleteMy wife, who's never done a single crossword puzzle, gave me the correct pronunciation for ZHUZH and as others have pointed out "jooj" or "jeuje" would be more phonetically correct. At first she didn't even recognize it until I spelled it out since I couldn't pronounce it correctly based on this alleged spelling. The point is it doesn't have a spelling and therefore shouldn't be in a crossword puzzle.
Sockdolager while being somewhat archaic is a real word. It was still a Saturday level of work to get to LULU but at least it was legitimate work. The connection to the Lincoln assassination is something I never learned until today.
I solved this puzzle but the experience was not enjoyable.
Biggest surprise today is seeing that two respected members of the commentariat both despise beets. This seems impossible.
ReplyDeleteIf you have several interpretations of a clue with none clearly better than any other, it's a bad clue (WEST).
How does Redd have anything to do with animal crossing?
ReplyDeleteThis grid flirts with a POC (plural of convenience) assisted rating. There's a bunch of them on display including one of the marquee longs where 28D VUVUZELA comes up short of the mark for its slot. There are also four of the two-for-one variety where a Down and an Across get a letter count, grid filling boost from a single, shared S, including one where they most often occur, the lower, rightmost square. There is also the rare stealth or hidden two-for-one where both 15D CART and 25A DRUM OUT get boosted from an interior S.
ReplyDeleteMy go to clue for 55 Across would be REMY Martin VSOP cognac. Good stuff.
9 Down reminds me of a line from George Thorogood's "One Bourbon, One Scotch and One Beer" "You know when your MOUTH a-getting DRY, you're plenty high".
I struggled mightily with this but didn’t get my usual feeling of satisfaction from the struggle. Call it wavelength, probably. I’d rather that than claim the clues were mis-edited or the craft was faulty. Yep, clues were vague and some were nearly indecipherable- but that’s Saturday for you.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite part was the VUVUZELA. That silly word absolutely tickled my daughter - fully adult and teaching heard the word a d the obnoxious instruments at the 2009 or 2010 (?) World Cup. She invented silly words as a precocious child and recognized instantly that the word sounded like something she would have invented. For most of the exciting World Cup, we were distracted by continuing to invent words.
Anyway, that was the high point among all the difficult and confusing ? Clues. I also have a cat (down to one now since the loss if my sweet avatar cat) who owns every soft space in the house. Took me forever to get the PET part of PRE CUSHION because I was so damn sure jt was a cat CUSHION. And the T being correct, there I was hung out. Even after getting the E from the VUVUZELA, I still had enormous difficulty seeing the P.
Oh well, Saturday done.
This otherwise excellent puzzle is marred by the repetitive I'M A REAL BOY and I'M A M. How could the editors allow that?
ReplyDeleteA two-fer from uptop.
[No Spoilers, No Worries!] I'm often wrong about this but something tells me Rex will strongly dislike the Sunday puzzle. We'll see!
ReplyDelete@fiddelneck:
ReplyDeleteLast name Foxx, which is an animal with two 'crosses'.
Way too obscure. Did not like. ZHUZH? VUVUZELAS? SEA NETTLE? RENERUSSO? C'mon. Much too much for one puzzle, as much the editors' fault as the drafters.
ReplyDeleteDon't be a bad sport, Rex. This puzzle had all kinds of daunting posers that needn't stir our wrath. Why not also rage against "Cairo-based group" for being a fever you can attack with a plough? (I have in mind ARABLE AGUE, a.k.a. ARAB LEAGUE.)
ReplyDeleteDon't be a bad sport, Rex. This puzzle had all kinds of daunting posers that needn't stir our wrath. Why not also rage against a "Cairo-based group" for being a fever you can attack with a plough? (I have in mind ARABLE AGUE, a.k.a. ARAB LEAGUE.)
ReplyDelete[P. S.: If this failed to transmit, just use the one above, dated 4:53 PM. Sorry--I got a bit confused by the "preview/publish" instructions today--I'm a bit sleep-deprived. --J. R.]
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ReplyDeleteHard, but ultimately doable. Gimme VUVUZELAS was a tremendous way in; still it took a while to finish off. Biggest WOE was ZHUZH. Gotta remember that one for Scrabble.
ReplyDeleteA fully named RENERUSSO is the best DOD of the week. Nice of her to POPBY. Tons of triumph points: eagle.
Wordle birdie.
A good solid Saturday non-themer. I did not know a tribute could also be a TAX. ZHUZH was a new one for me. I also did not know about REDD Foxx’s comedy album You Gotta Wash Your Ass. I assume the photo on the album cover is a gag with REDD pointing at a donkey who badly needs a bath. That’s why I come here. To learn new things.
ReplyDeleteOne little nit. The clue for 10A should have included “in a text message” or something similar. Better yet, use a real word instead.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePET WHO'STHERE
ReplyDeleteGALS, the DOORPRIZE A WAITS,
I'MAREAL LOCAL BOY,
OPEN ARMS, THUS on dates
I'MA ROMEO TOY.
--- COL. PORTER
No write-overs but a little time-consuming. The compleat RENERUSSO, yeah baby.
ReplyDeleteWordle par.
Took a while to finish this. But several of the "misdirects" really made me smile. :-)
ReplyDeleteDiana, LIW