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Symbolic hand gesture in Hinduism / FRI 10-28-22 / Ecologist Leopold who advocated thinking like a mountain / Means of making untraceable social media posts / Aristocratic type in British slang / Carl who pioneered modern taxonomy
Friday, October 28, 2022
Constructor: Will Nediger
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: MUDRA (16A: Symbolic hand gesture in Hinduism) —
A mudra [...]; Sanskrit: मुद्रा, IAST: mudrā, "seal", "mark", or "gesture"; Tibetan: ཕྱག་རྒྱ་, THL: chakgya,) is a symbolic or ritual gesture or pose in Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism. While some mudras involve the entire body, most are performed with the hands and fingers.
As well as being spiritual gestures employed in the iconography and spiritual practice of Indian religions, mudras have meaning in many forms of Indian dance, and yoga. The range of mudras used in each field (and religion) differs, but with some overlap. In addition, many of the Buddhist mudras are used outside South Asia, and have developed different local forms elsewhere. (wikipedia)
• • •
Remarkable moments along the way ... Well, I actually remembered LINNAEUS's name, which was a high point for me, a (historically) scientifically-challenged individual. I'm not so much surprised that Courtney Cox didn't win an EMMY as I am surprised that all the others did. I always thought of "Friends" as a show that did huge numbers, audience-wise, but didn't get much respect as far as awards were concerned. 2022 me thinks Joey was the best Friend; 1995 me is like "that guy!? No way." That show ran a long time and, yeah, basically Joey won. Improbable, but true. Speaking of friends (things you might shout at them), I liked the clue on "GUYS!" a lot. Very creative but also accurate. I didn't even see TOFF until just now (must've got it entirely from crosses) (48A: Aristocratic type, in British slang). Never saw DUCT TAPE's clue because I had the middle letters and I could just tell what it was (dangerous no-look move, but it worked out today). As for 51A: Subject of a houseguest's query, this will tell you what kind of "houseguest" I am:
Other things:
- 33A: Something a veteran won't make (ROOKIE MISTAKE) — well this is absolutely wrong. Veteran's definitely do make ROOKIE MISTAKEs. In fact, they audibly beat themselves up about having made ROOKIE MISTAKE. The whole point is "how did I do something so fundamentally stupid, something only a person with no experience would do." Sports blooper reels are full of veterans making ROOKIE MISTAKEs. [Something veterans hate to make], [Something veterans rarely make], either of those might've been better.
- 37A: Stocks (BROTHS) — renewing my confusion as to the difference between these two words...
- 53A: Gender-affirming treatment, in brief (HRT) — hormone-replacement therapy. I don't know that I love this abbr. more than I like any other abbr., but I do like gender-affirming-affirming clues, so I'll take this. The very mention of the phrase "gender-affirming" means I'm gonna hear from a BIGOT or two today, by email or in the comments section. Worth it.
- 55A: Broods (STEWS) — I had SULKS. In the same section, I also wrote in and tore out and then wrote in again ELENA. I don't really ... Disney. I pick stuff up as it floats around the culture. Which is why I "knew" ELENA but then doubted that I "knew" ELENA only to discover that I did, in fact, "know" ELENA.
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100 comments:
I loved this puzzle, and no one is more surprised about that than I because I started with a pretty typical almost-blank grid (the NW did not reveal itself as easily to me as it did to Rex), and I thought it was going to be much tougher than it was. I had OHMS, BAT, and DOWEL. Some fine long downs showed me the way in--DISCO ANTHEM, DUCT TAPE (great clue!), BIOLOGIST, CORRIDOR. And then CINNAMON TOAST really blew it open.
As Fridays go, this one was a lesson in how to make a Friday puzzle: Go easy on the junk fill and pop culture refs (ELENA? Who?) and insert as many truly clever clues as possible--like those for I DIG, GREY (I wanted "norm" but there was no "the"), and SCENE. AMATEUR NIGHT was also a goody; I kept trying to figure out how to insert "slam" in that long one.
Terrific! FUN!
I respect the ability to construct a crossword puzzle. This one was not great for me but I enjoyed it enough to finish. Very trivia dependent grid. I'll give it a 50A. I'm glad @rex had a good time with it.
My experience closely followed OFL's. ALDO at 15A and MUDRA at 16A were WOEs but fairly crossed, as was ELENA. I managed to dredge LINNAEUS from the depths of the synapses and got 21D from crosses. Fun Friday!
No mention of CODSWALLOP? I'd like to see THAT in the puzzle, with "rubbish" as the clue!!
Well, MUDRA was my first gimme; I had to memorize all symbolic hand gestures in Hinduism back in the fifth grade. Snort.
Rex – I’m with you on the greatness of the GUYS clue.
“Head” before HANS. Bet I’m not alone.
And “tall”/“dull” before TO GO/SOSO. Well-played, Will.
My tender LOIN was a tender “foot” for a bit. Speaking of which, I liked ROOKIE MISTAKE crossing AMATEUR NIGHT. And OH GOD/I CAN’T LOOK. I have to leave the room when Olympics figure skating or balance beam events are airing. I’m devastated if someone falls, and the residual freak-out lasts for hours.
Initial thought for the sommelier’s adjective was “oily,” but I had viognier on the brain, obviously a bit oily; its high viscosity coupled with its full-bodied floral aromatics serve up a terrific “mouthfeel” if you’re into a subtle tangerine/bergamot creamsicle kind of experience. (Calm down. I just googled whether or not wine could be oily and found out it can indeed. I know nothing about any of this.)
CINNAMON TOAST – my son, in his toddlehood, used to wake me up at like TWO in the morning and ask for a midnight snack. Cinnamon toast was my go-to offering. We’d sit at the table marveling that we were the only people on the planet who were awake. He was thrilled. Me, not so much. Still, I’m glad I never said no.
Here’s where I ran into a bit of trouble: the clues for ONYX and RUBBISH:
1. “Chalcedony” looks too much like parsimony or sanctimony, so I was looking for a state or quality of being, something like I was horrified at the level of chalcedony and vitriol he displayed throughout the debate. Ya feel me? I bet I could add that into the rotation, and no one would be the wiser. (I realize the suffix is -mony , but still. . .)
2. @Ellen - despite my many years of solving, I still see “codswallop” as a verb. Something Mom would have yelled at my sisters and me during the brutal 10-hour drive from Chattanooga to Myrtle Beach. I’ma codswallop all three of you if you don’t stop your bickering! This accompanied by her arm reaching back and swatting blindly at whosever legs she could reach.
PS - @jberg from yesterday. Fascinating little tidbit about the washing machine. The idea of a sock coming alive and climbing up out of the water is chilling.
Courteney Cox was the only one to not get an EMMY *nomination*. Only Jennifer Aniston actually won. Stuck on that clue - thought it was Razzy.
Not easy for me, more like a perfect Friday "medium," but I definitely agree with @Rex on the FUN. What an array of winners: BLOW A FUSE, DISCO ANTHEM, AMATEUR NIGHT, LINNAEUS, and CINNAMON TOAST!
First in: ALDO, as he lived just a county away from where I am. The ALDO Leopold Foundation is currently hosting viewings of "crane congregations", as many thousands of migrating sandhill cranes swoop in in the evenings to roost on sandbars in the Wisconsin River. In 1937, Leopold warned of the impending extinction of the species in the state, as there were then only 25 breeding pairs; his essay publicizing their plight was instrumental in spurring conservation efforts leading to their recovery.
Do-over: I see. No idea: MUDRA, ELENA.
CODSWALLOP is delicious; tunaswallop, otoh, is kinda bland.
Was totally ATSEA until SE corner. The one certainty I had was soul for James Brown but FUNK works (though I think of that more as 70s soul).
No idea on MUDRA and improbably recalled LINNAEUS (must be the weird spelling). And somehow all the letters eventually came, no cheating necessary,
Challenging, fun morning exercise - an excellent Friday!
Sooo many clever clues (for DREAM, AMATEUR NIGHT and TOOLSET just to pick some from the top) and crafty misdirects (such as HEEL, SCENE and CORRIDOR). Loved this one.
It was a bit of a stop-and-go solve for me. I got only a few small things in the top, then the middle stack of three all came pretty easily. Then I whooshed for a while and got stopped in the SW, where only BIGOT came easily. I think I guessed BROTHS from the HS and the the rest fell. Yeah, Rex, I too have wondered what the difference between a broth and a stock is, and whether they are interchangeable.
I felt bad for two people in this puzzle - Courtney Cox and whoever wrote Beowulf. I’m not a huge Friends fan but I did like the cast’s chemistry on the show and, apparently, in real life. So it seems like they should all have Emmys. And jeez, I’d be up in heaven holding an eternity-long grudge if I’d written Beowulf and nobody down on Earth knew my name. God would be like, “Get over it, Ethelred of Brineywiggle! Maybe taking up the harp will get your mind off this.” Forgetting to scrawl your name at the top of your manuscript — ROOKIE MISTAKE.
No zooming or whooshing -- to claim so would be an exaggeration -- but swimming as in swimmingly throughout this puzzle. It was like butter, this puzzle, like Barbra Streisand's voice per Linda Richman, or like CINNAMON TOAST with just a hint of crunch.
I entered DUCT TAPE, seeing that the k in DUCk TAPE wouldn't fit, but thought smugly to myself that the original term actually is "duck tape", because it was originally made with cotton duck fabric. Go ahead and look it up; I'll give you a minute. It sounds as if it ought to be DUCT TAPE because one does after all apply this stuff to ducts, and one might naively suppose that "duck" arose as a common mishearing of "duct", what a child hears when an adult says, but nope.
I first put in "sUre" instead of GUYS, but of course GUYS fits better.
Instant reaction to 21D was DISCO [something], but since I'm too much a ROOKIE still compared to Rex's veteran, didn't get ANTHEMS whooshing into my brain, and then paused to wonder whether it was Donna Summers instead. Of course that'd be RUBBISH; it's Donna Summer dummy. ROOKIE MISTAKE that would have been.
The other day we were talking about Fargo and touched upon the scene where Marge meets her old high school friend Mike Yanagita at the Radisson, and this caused me to look into the actor playing him, Steve Park. Turns out he wrote a mission statement addressing the routine and widespread racist treatment of Asian actors in the industry, mentioning his experiences on the set of the EMMY award-winning sitcom Friends. You can read it here. "These people, by virtue of their status, money and power, are among the most privileged people walking the face of the earth, yet they behaved as if they were bankrupt in spirit and incapable of expressing simple human kindness." Honestly, I'm not surprised.
No idea that HANS is a German form of John. I knew Sean is an Irish form of John, and that's what almost went in.
The thing that people would make with their fingers, making O's with thumbs and forefingers as they sit cross-legged and close their eyes, to suggest "meditate" in a game of Charades: that would be a MUDRA. I've never seen Eat, Pray, Love, and plan never to, but I'd bet a buck and a beer you see Julia Roberts doing that MUDRA thing.
Okay, enough from me. Happy Friday, everyone!
Very much on Rex’s wavelength today. Thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle but did feel it was too easy. Appreciated all the long answers he mentions, but my splatzed-in long acrosses didn’t include BURNER ACCOUNT, which I had a little trouble seeing, but CINNAMON TOAST (once the word CINNAMON even started to form it was unmistakable) and then, with a few more crosses, ROOKIE MISTAKE (although at one point I had KIEMI and nothing else and for a split second thought what the hell?). Absolutely loved I CANT LOOK. It put me in mind of my 12-year-old self watching scary movies on TV with my mother, hiding behind a magazine and stage-whispering over the nerve-jangly music, “what’s going on?” She was an enabler, though, and always told me. She probably should have said, “For heaven’s sake, look for yourself!”
I enjoyed seeing Carl LINNAEUS, ALDO Leopold and BIOLOGIST sharing a puzzle. Liked DUCTTAPE crossing LIFE HACKS. "Codswallop" made me think of Col. Potter on M*A*S*H. Did a deep dive into MUDRAs and spent the last half-hour twisting my hands into ever more complex pretzel-like forms. Very much like the word TOFF and am always trying to insert it into the Spelling Bee where it’s consistently rejected.
In honor of ALDO Leopold, I’ll revert to what used to be my permanent state: quotation mode.
“Thinking like a Mountain”
We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes. I realized then, and have known ever since, that there was something new to me in those eyes - something known only to her and to the mountain. I was young then, and full of trigger-itch; I thought that because fewer wolves meant more deer, that no wolves would mean hunters' paradise. But after seeing the green fire die, I sensed that neither the wolf nor the mountain agreed with such a view.…I now suspect that just as a deer herd lives in mortal fear of its wolves, so does a mountain live in mortal fear of its deer. And perhaps with better cause, for while a buck pulled down by wolves can be replaced in two or three years, a range pulled down by too many deer may fail of replacement in as many decades. So also with cows. The cowman who cleans his range of wolves does not realize that he is taking over the wolf's job of trimming the herd to fit the range. He has not learned to think like a mountain. Hence we have dustbowls, and rivers washing the future into the sea.”
― Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac
[SB: @okanaganer (from yesterday): In mentioning our reversing pattern of success (when you’re doing well, I’m not, and vice versa), you’ve hit on one of the fundamental laws of the universe: The Law of Conservation of Spelling Bee Frustration, which states that in the closed system of Spelling Bee solving, the amount of frustration must remain constant over time, so quantity can neither be added nor be removed, although it may be rearranged in space. However, I also got 0 yesterday, so I guess that means another couple of schmucks were stymied. I feel for them.]
Briefly had OK NOW instead of I KNOW. Those Baby Sots just didn’t feel right though.
I agree this was truly wonderful. I had a hard time getting started, but once I got my first few clues it took off. Perfect level for me,
Fun working this one. I figured the segmented grid would result in more work but it had good flow all around. Weirdly ADHERENT stuck out to me. The SE gave the most pushback ELENA and ONYX only went in with crosses - another obscure Disney animation that no one watched makes it way into the puzzle.
All cats are GREY. Had the same delay as Rex with CINNAMON ____ - wanted rolls or buns first. Was tricked with “Tender ending” also thinking it was looking for ness or similar. Learned MUDRA.
MINOR Threat
Enjoyable Friday solve.
Struggled a lot more than the rest of you on this puzzle. Took a while to find an edge in and then it opened up quickly from there. I was totally deadended in the SE corner though.
Wow, I need to take back the nice things I said about the Friends cast in the previous post. He doesn’t name names but sounds like there were definitely some BIGOTs in that cast and/or crew.
If you are going to have DUCT TAPE in a puzzle, there is no excuse - none - for not including WD40 in your TOOL SET.
Without WD40, all LIFE HACKS are doomed to failure.
I'd like to chalk this up to being a ROOKIE MISTAKE, but Will has been around the block a few times and should know enough not to make the puzzle look like AMATEUR NIGHT.
Otherwise, loved the puzzle. Great Friday. And, comments above not withstanding, there isn't a single flaw that a little WD40 and DUCT TAPE couldn't easily fix.
This kept pushing my happy button. Some easyish competence-affirming areas, other places with bite to satisfy my brain’s work ethic, and a parade of lovely clues and stellar answers.
Every corner I turned there were better-than-average answers, such as I CAN’T LOOK, LINNAEUS, BLOW A FUSE, and MUDRA, and then came the exceptional boosts from stellar answers: ROOKIE MISTAKE / LIFE HACKS, AMATEUR NIGHT / DISCO ANTHEMS. Three of those four, by the way, are NYT answer debuts.
These were augmented by riddle clues like [It’s raised by a wedge] for HEEL, and [It goes door to door] for CORRIDOR, that made me work, then get, then celebrate.
Then there were the quirky perks. I CAN’T LOOK crossing OH GOD. The sweet PuzzPair© of DUCT TAPE and ADHERENT. The echo strings of IFFY / EMMY / ROOKIE / ANY, and ALDO / NOHO / SOHO. Even the kealoa of TOOL _ _ _ -- is it KIT, BOX, or SET?
What an entertaining outing! Will N. has had 44 puzzles in the NYT and many more elsewhere, but not a hint of staleness throughout his oeuvre. You are a pro, sir, a Crosslandia boon. You don’t settle; your puzzles feel fresh. Like today’s, they leave me with a happy buzz. Thank you!
Got 95% of the puzzle, but a DNF because of the AFFIX/LIFEHACKS cross. Does anyone actually use the term LIFEHACKS? I had ADDTO for "tack on," so I had no chance.
I was under the impression that “an afternoon hour in Quebec” would be quinze, not TROIS. French speakers typically use the 24-hour clock. Any Quebecois around to confirm?
What a great puzzle! I didn’t find it as easy as Rex did. I got hung up in the NW because I was so sure of myself with my answer of OPEN MIC NIGHT, was unfamiliar with MUDRA, and because I spent an embarrassingly long time assuming Kia Cadenza was some pop singer of whom I’d never heard.
Love the verticals in the SE and NW corners: RUBBISH, CORRIDOR, BIOLOGIST and BLOW A FUSE, ADHERENT, TOOLSET. The one answer I didn’t love was DISCO ANTHEMS, but that’s because I (perhaps wrongly) associate anthems with stadium rock or prog rock, but not disco.
Great Friday fun!
For freinds of accurracy, HRT is the medical acronym for Hormone Replacemnt Therapy, typically used in the treatment of post menopausal symptoms. Gender affirming hormone therapy is referred to as GAHT or GHT.
Had most of CINNAMON, and couldn’t get the ending…donut? Are donuts buttery? And then my brain took off on a rant about how much it dislikes that one doughnut chain from the northeast that has not only ruined the spelling of doughnut but, more critically, has murdered so many independent shops that make delicious doughnuts instead of tasteless horrors. By the time I got my brain back to the subject, it had planned a trip out to Glendora to The Donut [eek] Man, even though it isn’t strawberry season.
My brain has a mind of its own, and it wants doughnuts.
BURNERACCOUNT atop CINNAMONTOAST atop ROOKIEMISTAKE. It wasn’t barf but it did not Float.My.Boat. It’s a good example IMHO of what is called “green paint” in these parts. Just not on my wave length and definitely not easy. I’m happy for everybody here who enjoyed the puzzle. The only sizzle answers: FUNK and DISCOANTHEMS. Granted, there was some exceptional oblique clueing but none that made me smile or chuckle or whisper “aha” once I grokked the answers. Oh well, on to Saturday.
Sorry to pick nits, but what is so "afternoon" about the hours of TWO or TROIS? The hour hands on my analog clocks go around twice each day (except for the one that we don't wind because it ticks too loudly, but that is beside the point).
I feel like I'm taking crazy pills because the EMMY clue is absolutely incorrect. Courteney Cox is the only "Friends" star without an acting *nomination* for the series, not without a win. Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow were the only two to win the award for their roles. While the three men were all nominated, they never won (for their "Friends" roles or any others, for that matter), and in fact all six actors were nominated for an Outstanding Variety Special (Pre-Recorded) Emmy for the reunion show in 2021. This seems like a pretty glaring error, no?
Stock is made with bones, broth with meat and/or vegetables. The former is fattier from the marrow, the latter thinner with usually a lighter flavor.
Today's puzzle was a gem, with a real fresh feeling. While I didn't get much traction the first time around (James Brown's FUNK was the first gimme), I picked up steam as I progressed.
I loved that the three long entries all had a set of double letters.
DISCOANTHEMS was a winner.
Just in the last week, during some down time in the afternoons, I found myself watching old episodes of Friends. I never watched it during its heyday. I know it was super popular, but I honestly can't see what the fuss was about: the acting seems stilted,and the lines aren't all that funny. What was the appeal? Or maybe that was just the state of network sitcoms back then? Was it really considered a great show? I guess so, if the actors were getting Emmys.
While today's music pales compared to what I grew up with, I have to say that today's TV (The Sopranos; The Wire; Breaking Bad; Better Call Saul; Atlanta; Better Things; PEN15; the list goes on . . . .) is just light years beyond what I was exposed to in my youth (Happy Days; Welcome Back Kotter; you get the drift. ugh so terrible)
Diego,
It's fine that you didn't enjoy the center stack of long answers, but it's absolutely incorrect to characterize any of them as "green paint." Green paint is a self-referential term that refers to phrases that one might use in real life but that do not seem to have enough strength to stand on their own in a crossword grid. OLD FURNITURE, for example. Yes, I understand what OLD FURNITURE is, but ... is that really a Thing? ANTIQUE FURNITURE, sure. But just OLD? Not really. Anyway, none of the center answers is green paint. You may not like any of them, but they are all very much real Things.
RP
Hey Donna Summer, could you put those backup singers farther away? 🤷♂️
YESTERDAY THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27
Wordle 495 4/6*
🟨🟩⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟨R 🟩A⬜I ⬜S⬜E
⬜M🟩A⬜J⬜O🟨R
⬜P 🟩A🟩R⬜T🟩Y
🟩C 🟩A🟩R🟩R🟩Y
DUCT TAPE is certainly a roll with many functions, but one of them - surprisingly, but most decidedly - is not sealing ducts. The adhesive quickly breaks down with fluctuations in heat, breaking any seal, and making the tape useless for this purpose.
On the other hand, the most effective use and primary purpose of Q-Tips - sticking it in your ear canal to clean out wax and gunk - is precisely and definitively the use that the package instructions uncompromisingly state that it should never be used for.
Such is the state of marketing.
Lost my comment, looks like, sigh.
Anyway, liked it, maybe a little easy for Friday but some small crunchy pieces. Surprised to see @Rex liked it, too.
Had _ _ G _ _ at 43A and really, really wanted it to be MAGAS but needed a singular answer. Although BIGOT is pretty APT.
Coincidentally, last night did Will's "challenging puzzle " in the 10/31 New Yorker and really enjoyed it (although no one to discuss with post-solve).
This was so hard! I really wanted LURKER ACCOUNT for BURNER ACCOUNT. But yeah, overall it was pretty hard for me!
Hooray for a wheelhouse puzz that had enough whoosh factor to soothe the beating my ego took from yesterday's debacle. MUDRA and HRT were the only real unknowns in this one and virtually everything else was smooth as a smelt. Whew.
TOOLBOX before TOOLSET. I would not throw a wrench into a TOOLSET, and I'm not sure how to do that. TOOLSET to me implies order. I have often thrown (well, dropped, really) a wrench into a tool box though. This is probably why the tool you are looking for in a tool box is always under all the other tools.
ROCK before FUNK, fixed by the yummy CINNAMONTOAST and ADDTO for AFFIX corrected by ONYX, and that was that.
And knowing LINNAEUS and ALDO right away was an appreciated feel good moment.
Terrific Friday, WN. I Wanna 'Nother one right now, and thanks for all the fun.
Hey All !
Didn't find it easy ala Rex, but little by little each section filled in. Didn't know LINNAEUS or EID, but threw in the I on faith. EID looked to be the best option.
After putting in last letter, got the Almost There! message. Argh!! Figuring I had multiple mistakes, I hit Check Puzzle, only to find a one-letter DNF. Argh!! again. Had nOGO for TOGO, although I knew BROnHS couldn't possibly be correct. I did start to run the alphabet for a better _OGO fit, but just couldn't see it. Dang. I let out a "BROTHS! TOGO! Dang, Roo, what a ROOKIE MISTAKE!" Ya DIG, GUYS?
Nice F fest in South Center. I CAN LOOK at that. Har.
@Nancy
Your puz partner done good. Nice themeless.
Have a FUN weekend, y'all.
Six F'S
RooMonster
DarrinV
Will Nediger is one of the great modern constructors. l love the sheer creativity of his cluing, much of which reflects his erudition as a trained linguist. He’s also one of the most generous with his time, having provided many others, including myself, with valuable assistance in our own constructing efforts.
Thx, Will; lots to chew on. Good one! :)
Sat+. difficulty.
Spinning wheels everywhere; just not on Will's wavelength. :(
TOOLbox/kiT before SET; Add to before AFFIX; sOHO before NOHO.
ROOKIE MISTAKE was a huge help.
Good guess at the EID / LINNAEUS cross for the win.
Unknowns: MUDRA; BAT; ALDO; DINARS; BURNER ACCOUNT; TOFF; ELENA; HRT; FUNK; LINNAEUS; EID; DISCO THEMES.
DUCT TAPE holding up LIFE HACKS was APT.
A welcome Fri. challenge! :)
@Barbara S. 👍 for your recent SB QBs! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
EASY????!!!!! Easy is making a croquembouche and spelling it correctly. This was a pyramid of disasters for me.
Where to even begin.....My know-it-all friend got tired of me calling asking for a spelling... some dude who is a taxonomy pioneer...explaining what a BURNER ACCOUNT is...an EID here, a MUDRA there some chaos everywhere.
The BAT in the BELFRY flew the coop and the GREY cells needed reinforcement from some sort of BIOLOGIST.
I got exactly one long answer without having to breath hard: ROOKIE MISTAKE.
So you all knew MUDRA right off the BAT, yes? A show of hands, please.
I had FUN written in, of course. But then there was the pop music category clue and I've heard of PUNK, but not FUNK. So I changed FUN to PUN -- which "tomfoolery" really isn't, of course. Stupid me.
I live in NYC but, geography not being my strong suit, I never can exactly place either SOHO or NOHO. I simply write in OHO and wait.
LIFE HACKS is one of those terms I've never used, much less connected with any particular activity, but it's in the ether and I got it off of just the IFE.
"Buttery" to me is avocado TOAST not CINNAMON TOAST, which is kind of grainy. And for a while I thought it was going to be something ON TOAST.
The triple stack -- especially ROOKIE MISTAKE and BURNER ACCOUNT -- is fabulous.
I needed to cheat on Carl LIN----- by typing him into Google. But since I already had the LIN, it was only a little cheat. At least that's what I'm telling my guilt-ridden self.
I found this hard, engrossing, extremely well-clued, and with very interesting and colorful fill. An excellent Friday challenge. Kudos to my sometime collaborator Will for his (as always) expertly crafted puzzle.
Sept 5, 2012: The day Rex wrote about just learning what green paint is in crossworld.
Great puzzle!
Not an easy one for me, but an enjoyable test with a lot of fun clues and answers. Biggest struggles in North Central and SE. Had ICANTdoit (dumb mistake, which definitely slowed things down. Also had ELisA before ELENA, and when I didn't get the Happy Music, realized that I corrected the N when IKNOW fell in place, but overlooked the I.
TOOLbox for TOOLSET, soul for FUNK, Addto for AFFIX took less time to fix (FIX).
Overall a Medium-Challenging Friday for this @Rex ADHERENT.
Tough but fair and a solid Friday. No surprise then to see that the constructor was none other than young Mr. Nediger, one of those gifted crossword builders who never makes a ROOKIE MISTAKE.
So not the case for me however. I tried TOOL BOX before SET, BLEW APART before A FUSE, CROISSANT before CINNAMON, and IZED my tender before LOIN. Couldn’t help but notice the large geographical area referenced in small section of the crosses - a Hindu gesture, a New York City neighborhood, a Chinese number, a Ramadan festival, and a Jordanian currency – all within the space of eight clues. That’s a lot of ground to cover even for a non-rookie solver. Frustrated me a bit but I took a deep breath, counted TWO TROIS TEN, called it a TRUCE and soldierd on.
Book Recommendation: The Real Mrs. Tobias, a novel I enjoyed about the family dynamics between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, told from the point of view of three generations. If you have one or are one, you can probably relate but doubtful it would hold much appeal for fathers/sons.
Ah, yes ! I feel like @Lewis today. (Which is good".) Finished this one with a big smile on my face. Mr. Nediger seems to always come through. It seems that I can even detect in the comments today that the majority of us had a pleasant time. No rants, pleasant memories.
Had a roommate after college who always woke up in the middle of the night for a snack. Years later, I spent a night in the guest room at his home. About 3 AM I heard all this conversation in the kitchen and found my friend eating cereal accompanied by his 3 boys, ages 7,5 and 3.
Happy Friday, y'all.
Easy-medium. MUDRA, LINNAEUS, and ELENA (as clued) were WOEs but now that I’ve typed it LINNAEUS looks very vaguely familiar. Solid with some sparkle and a bit of resistance, liked it.
@Whatsername 10:49.....I just placed my order for "The Real Mrs. Tobias." I was looking for something for my step-mom and this book sound perfect!
Gracias.....
@Rex 9:11,
I appreciate your response to my use of green paint, even though I’d say “old furniture” is a real thing whether in the real or crossword world. But (I think) I get it. I shoulda just described it as “flat” as in paint or whatever. They are not “things” that enliven the puzzle for me. I agree this is a sound, workmanlike construction but it wasn’t amusing. We’ve had a series of dazzlers lately and this didn’t measure up, fun-wise, IMO. I’m obviously in a small minority here and have no problem with that.
Would someone please explain the clue for GUYS? Also, is TOOLSET “green paint?” Thanks
Nice. Long list of things I didn't know. Typical for Friday. I doubt I will ever understand the fun of Fridays and Saturdays.
Turns out the Carl known for taxonomy has a fellow Carl known for taxidermy and you can imagine what I looked up first.
Apparently there's a bunch of mudras and chakras and there's plenty of hand-shape charts to learn them. Seems like the kind of unnecessary info I'd go down the rabbit hole to learn.
It's difficult to describe the joy I feel when I see a Disney clue. I know it's going to be a great day on the blog.
IFFY and RUBBISH are favorite words. DUCT TAPE is always welcome.
Just got my Covid and flu shot in my left arm. Planning on being even more worthless than usual this weekend.
Uniclues:
1 Listen to the orange man. Parrot him around people who know better.
2 What RWNJs are incapable of doing.
3 Waiting for the elevator with a stranger and silently agreeing my gross little mutt can sniff and lick them.
4 When you write DUCK knowing full well it's wrong and waiting for the first know-it-all to correct you, or when you need to sell something and you can hide the do-it-yourself repair.
5 Nightly activity between spouses.
6 Ace Hardware employees.
1 BIGOT LIFE HACKS
2 ADMIT RUBBISH
3 CORRIDOR TRUCE (~)
4 SLY "DUCT TAPE"
5 BLOW A FUSE SCENE
6 TOOL SET TSARS
@Whats, Gill
Just requested "The Real Mrs. Tobias" from library, thanks, Whats, for the recommendation. Also ISO a book for book club gift swap in Dec, altho 2 if our members are men...
Liked the Jaws of Themelessness chewin dead-center on some CINNAMONTOAST. But overall, I think it was slightly feisty for a FriPuz, at our house. Many no-knows and several sneaky clues really dined on my solvequest nanoseconds. But, hey -- bring it, Shortzmeister. At least DUCTTAPE helped M&A repair his flailin solvequest.
staff weeject pick: HRT. debut abreve of mystery.
no-knows: ALDO. MUDRA. EID. HRT. BURNERACCOUNT. LIFEHACKS. TOFF. ELENA. LINNAEUS.
faves: GUYS clue. RUBBISH clue. BLOWAFUSE. DUCTTAPE. AMATEURNIGHT & its clue. ROOKIEMISTAKE. CINNAMONTOAST. FUN.
Thanx for it all, Mr. Nediger dude. A glorious adventure and learned a lot. Sooo... no symbolic hand jestures to the puz, from this here humble solver.
Masked & Anonym007Us
Halloween fix duct tape:
**gruntz**
I was more in the mood for a warm croissant than cinnamon toast.
im trans and i use HRT. so does every other trans person i know 💜
Will Nediger might be my all time favorite Friday constructor. Today was a total delight, and in my wheelhouse but with some speed bumps. What fun. Even though I fell into every single trap laid.
Had open mic NIGHT and thought I was being darn clever. Not. Tender foot before LOIN, Head before HANS, and the really, really, really bad one, kings before TSARS. GUYS, GUYS, GUYS, can you believe that?!?! A rhetorical “of course we can,” is entirely appropriate here my friends.
I think Will set us up with AT SEA. As I worked through this beauty, I actually chuckled to Self, thinking how clever he was to drop such a dud smack dab at 1A to start us grumbling and lower our expectations. In fact, I had a momentary WTF moment thinking (nearly out loud, I was so irked), “Will, what have you done? You’re so much better than this!” And thereafter nothing but wonderful. I could clearly hear his “Gotcha!”
I also liked the little British mini-theme with GREY, RUBBISH and TOFF. No idea GREY spelt with an E is British because it’s the way I have spelt it my entire life. Could be that Gran taught mento spell that one. Growing up in Germany, her English language skills followed more a British than American bent that occasionally led me to disagreements with (especially my primary school) teachers.!! I still insist on GREY. And RUBBISH, a favorite is an extremely APT replacement for BS. One can deliver it in so many ways.
As for TOFF, my fondness for that one comes from my time spent working in London with some very lovely folks who teased me mercilessly for trying to assimilate, be very respectful of customs and culture of the locals and not be the proverbial “ugly American.” We worked in very posh conditions (the British and much more refined version of a US “blue chip” or “silk stocking” law firm). I loved the environment and the people. Wasn’t long before they accused me (facetiously) of “becoming quite the TOFF.” I assure you being a TOFF is not a compliment.
In fact, my efforts to fit in led to a surprise for our Londoners and for me as it turns out. After our first full on evidentiary hearing (which didn’t occur until we had been working with our London team for quite a while) in which I was lead counsel, one of the fellows afterward said “Blimey, I thought you didn’t have it in you for a brawl; well done!” My cover was blown.
Today’s puzzle and the solve were the absolute antithesis of RUBBISH. Thanks, Will! More, please.
Joey was the best. And Ross was the worst, right?
Funny!
There are several commenters who hate every puzzle and swear that each will be their last. Since none of them seems to have appeared today, perhaps they were true to their word.
When I got down to the frozen grapes/paper clips clue, I had only the H and figured it would be _ _ _ _ HintS, like in Hints From Heloise. Most “LIFEHACKS” seem like just Heloise type stuff to me. Turns out that Heloise’s daughter is still writing the column and hasn’t changed it to LIFEHACKS from Heloise. LIFEHACK: One can AFFIX ONYX to a DOWEL using DUCTTAPE as an ADHERENT.
Kind of an @Lewis type Puzz Pair of battling critiques where IDIG sits atop SOSO.
Wonderful puzzle, as I’ve come to expect when I see Will Nediger’s banner.
P.S. No ASS or AE (Ass Equivalent).
Thank you for posting this! I did not know the reference to the author or the work, but I love it.
You've got to 1a: The man could write a lyric.
I'm relieved to find out that the "Friends" clue is a mistake, since I couldn't believe any of the other five would have won either. I agree with @Rex– Joey was kind of dopey but at least he wasn't insufferably neurotic.
The puzzle is fine, I generally liked it, though I thought it was a little too easy and just a wee bit bland. At least we got a break today from the cutesy cluing.
There were voices down the corridor...
Her mind is oaky and at sea
She got the Kia Cadenz(-a)
She got a lot of pretty guys guys guys
That she calls "Friends"(-a)
None of them won an Emmy
So they're all in a funk
Some dance to disco anthems
Some rock out to punk
Stews and broths served with heros
Frozen grapes used as ice, and she said
'We are all just cinnamon toast
of our own device'
He said 'The Wi-Fi is iffy'
That's when I blew a fuse
'Bring my tool set and the duct tape
There's a wrench I can use'
Oh God, this is a disaster
It's too painful to watch
(I have no idea where this is going so I'll stop on that cliffhanger...)
To the bitter end I though the clue for 3D was "KID Cadenza" and thought it was some sort of rapper genre...UGH!
I was very confident about OPEN MIC NIGHT instead of AMATEUR NIGHT and it threw me off for a long time.
This one made me feel smart … until I get to the bottom right corner. Even with LIFEHACKS, I was stuck. But, other than that, very enjoyable. I knew ALDO, having read and enjoyed A Sand County Almanac, years ago. Nice to be reminded of it.
James Brown was the Father of Soul not the Father of Funk.
HACK has and will always continue to have negative connotations for me, as in a sharp, nasty cough, a crude chopping action or someone who claims to be an expert but is actually a ROOKIE or AMATEUR who does shoddy, inferior work. Well, I guess using frozen grapes for ice cubes or binder clips for cable organizers is kind of crude and AMATEURish, so maybe LIFE HACK is apropos.
I agree with TTrimble @7:44 that it was originally DUCK TAPE. There's even a brand of the stuff by that name. In my experience, using it should be a desperate act of last resort. Left on for more than a few hours guarantees there will be sticky residue from hell left when it is removed. Left on for more than a few days and it will start to come off by itself, leaving behind an even more hellish mess, making it, per Red Uction @9:36, the absolute worst option for DUCT TAPing. If I see DUCT TAPE in someone's TOOL SET, I suspect that it belongs to an AMATEUR.
Even the top flight constructors need a little help from time to time as happens today when DISCO ANTHEM, LIFE HACK, TSAR and STEW aren't up to the task of filling their designated slots. Plural of convenience (POC) please report to the lower right corner!
This was a nice Friday puzzle but in no way was it the easy-breezy confection Rex experienced. I considered SEDAN and EARN in the NW but couldn't commit so I wandered east where ANON got my start.
Some hangups in the SW when "I see" didn't work at 47A but I wandered into the CORRIDOR and fixed that. Next up, the SE with Addon, Addto, AFFIX causing a SCENE down there. Speaking of which, I was sure SCENE must be a math term I didn't know, nearly threw in plaNE but ELaNA made me rethink it (plus "baby pIT and house pIT, nah).
Lots of stuff to like here, thanks, Will Nediger!
I had the same thought.
I thought that this was pretty challenging, but it was what a Friday should be. I had to cherry pick in order to get traction, but the fill came pretty easily once I got a few filled in. And I finished without any mistakes.
Took a lot of tweaking after the grid was filled:
IDID before IDIG (TODO down seemed at least a word)
OKNOW before IKNOW
PUN before FUN (although why I continued to abide James Brown as "punk" is beyond me)
Linnaeus crossing EID required letter by letter...
@Nancy
If you mean: knew to put in MUDRA as soon as the clue was read (right off the BAT), then my hand is down. If you mean: knew MUDRA and its definition already without looking it up, then hand up.
---
Although there are funny moments scattered across the Friends corpus, I think it was mostly a crap show. It hasn't aged too well, IMO, because it always felt like the writers wrote with a view of what white people in the 90's would find funny or topical, like a committee trying to identify the current trends and pulse. To the extent they tried to endow the characters with personalities that people could identify with or care about, it's wretched*.
My god, I watch this program Good Morning America**, and this morning they just went on and on and on, it felt like for about 25 minutes, with Matthew Perry talking about his addiction problems, that he apparently suffered from during the run of the show. Do tune in tonight at 8pm Eastern on ABC TV to watch Diane Sawyer's exclusive interview with him, about that period of his life, and be sure to buy his soon to be released book. You don't have anything better to do, do you?
*On a plus side, a friend of ours born in mainland China has very fond memories of the show, because there he learned a lot of idiomatic English in a context of harmless humor that you didn't have to think too hard about. So there's that.
**Being very wary to switch off or away as soon as I sense the looming threat of Lara Spencer about to appear. I have many triggers, you see. Similarly, local NY "meterologist" Sam Champion and his outsized BRAYing laugh -- [shudder]. Goddammit, where's the remote with the mute button!?
Rex, how can you ask for more resistance than OHMS law?
My solve was most like @Barbara S’s (hi!). I knew Sand County Almanac, so ALDO went right in (appreciated the excerpt; can be in quote mode myself), and LINNAEUS, and loved seeing BIOLOGIST, that being my premed college major, having always wanted to be a veterinarian but forgoing another 4 years of school for a job in publishing right after graduation (my English, art, literature minor).
@Rex, mine was a bit like your solve as well. I too hate the word hack for “tip” or “suggestion,” and agree about “life hack,” so it got in the grid by entering the crosses only. Hand up for easy and great fun.
@Whatsername 10:49 am – Yes! TOOL box before SET. The heating technician was here doing the annual furnace maintenance and who better to ask? (His wife loves crosswords.) He says, yes, they might throw it back in a tool set, because stores sell wrenches in tool sets. Agree with @pabloinnh (9:41 am), though, that you’d probably be throwing (er, dropping) that wrench into your toolbox. At least my late husband did; if it ever was part of a set, that set had been dispersed long before. Sadly, there will be no heat today because the "roll-out" switch broke and will need 3 to 5 days to arrive. Thankfully this is southern Arizona so the 42-degree low this morning isn't a dire need for a furnace.
Learned MUDRA and TOFF, knew “chalcedony” but not that ONYX was a type. Always mix up where NOHO and SOHO are with respect to the Bowery because even though I lived in Manhattan at the upper edge of the East Village for years, my geographical locating can be SOSO. At least I can always confidently insert the OHO (OMG, hi @Nancy 10:26 am).
Codswallop, nice to see and fun to say!
CINNAMON TOAST – As girls, did anyone have home ec in grade school and learn how to make this even though you really didn’t need a recipe? We also started class with finger exercises (no idea why) and were taught sewing, though my mom was expert and I already knew.
Thanks, Will Nediger, for a very enjoyable start to Friday!
And such a relief with no gimmicks or rebus crap
THIS!!!!
Not knowing Aldo leopold’s works is one reason this country is going to hell.
@anon 12:48 PM. Ditto.
Guy Ritchie, whose best films are about idiotic British hooligans, made a film called Toff Guys that was renamed The Gentlemen before it was released. His company is called Toff Guy Productions.
I also had the DOOK oKNOW before IKNOW. Really slowed down to a crawl in the SE.
@GILL (11:26) That’s great! I hope she likes it. It’s been several days since I’ve finished it but it’s still lingering in my thoughts.
@Aelurus: I don’t recall CINNAMON TOAST in Home Ec class but then I did not take it until I was in high school. The snack mix with the breakfast cereal was the first thing I remember making. Then muffins and later we did some sort of fancy tea ring which my Dad said was silly because he thought we should learn to make biscuits instead. LOL. Even now I’m not very good at biscuits but you know what? Pillsbury sells some wonderful ones in the freezer section at the market. 😄
Brilliant puzzle, I agree, but for me not an easy one. First of all, there's the SLY cluing. Consider 6-A, OHM'S Law clued as a partial. All one had to go on was that it was a law with a four-letter name. OHM'S was the only one I could think of, but I didn't have the nerve to decide that there might not be another. So I left it blank and looked for crosses, and the most obvious, SLY, didn't really help. Finally I saw the Mild/MEEK possibility at 8-D and took the plunge. BAT was prety obvious, but what were we going to blow? Our tops, but that didn't fit.
But the other problem, more serious, was reading "buttery" and assuming "croissant." I couldn't think of a 4-letter croissant variety (OHM'S was already taken by that point), but it blocked my thinking of toast.
Fortunately, I'm in that part of the Venn diagram from which LINNAEUS and ALDO are gimmes (I used to teach that essay Barbara S. quoted) and it eventually all fell into place (though not without further struggles. My wedge was a golf club, lifting a balL, and I wanted a bIg baby and house.)
As for NOHO -- well, I knew it was NOrth of HOuston St., but not it was placed on the East-West axis, so I just went with 4-letter neighborhoods, and waited for the cross. No idea where the Bowery is. I made the mistake of looking it up, and was told it roughly coincided with Little Australia. I quit there.
I have to go pack for an exciting weekend in Providence; talk to you all on Monday.
This was a good workout; no so easy for me. Two great puzzles in a row!
@Anonymous 11:44 AM, hands up for WARM CROISSANT. Because the last T worked, I hung onto it for way too long. But mmm CINNAMON TOAST I miss you, it's been a while... (I gave bread up a few years ago).
[SB: @Barbara S 7:46am, your theory is quite elegant. To save space, we shall henceforth refer to it as the LOCO-SBF.
td so far pg-4, not done yet...]
@Joaquin (7:18) Tunaswallop. 🤣
@Smith (11:41) Hope you enjoy. I’m reading another good one now called Any Other Family. It’s about three sets of parents who among them adopted four biological siblings and their attempts to keep them connected as one big happy family. It might be a good book club choice - lots of moral dilemmas, etc. After a string of pretty heavy hitting books on current political events and a couple of lengthy biographies, I was in the mood for something light and entertaining. Mrs. Tobias and this one totally fit the bill.
TOOLKIT or TOOLBOX, ok. TOOLSET? Has anyone ever said or heard that expression?
Easy?!? Hardly, but a terrific Friday. I solve on paper and thanks heavens for my eraser. soul before FUNK, izer before LOIN, and many more. Thanks for the workout, Will. A ROOKIEMISTAKE or six, but better than an AMATEURNIGHT for me.
@Whatsername 3:29 pm – Your dad was probably right but I think biscuits from scratch might be harder than even fancy tea rings so were in the AP Home Ec class. And Pillsbury does have a good biscuit. Sometimes my mom would get the Pillsbury crescent rolls and let my sister and me make those wrapped-up hot dogs ‘n’ cheese for a weekend lunch.
Great puzzle. Nice to see the comments section of this blog is less contentious lately.
I guess I’m the only Québécoise? Lol In France 3 pm would be 15h but in Québec (due to the North American influence), it’s probably 50/50.
I used to work right next to a buildings named after Aldo Leopold, so that was, I think, the first clue I got today. It’s always interesting to see where folks knowledge is.
I learned about Aldo Leopold in a nature writing class at the University of New Hampshire in the very early 80s. A decade or so later, I moved to Madison Wisconsin, and there was a very occasional sand crane to be seen. Now, riding a bicycle through the UW Arboretum, or on a bike path that travels along the Arboretum, it's not uncommon to see sand cranes walking along the streams coming out of the Arboretum. They are magnificent birds, and they are not afraid of people.
Very much with Rex today; about the easiness of the puzzle, about Joey being the best Friend, and about the complete wrongness of the clue for ROOKIE MISTAKE.
I liked this one very much even though I DNF’d. I had MaDRA and TRaCE instead fo MUDRA and TRUCE. Corner squares spell out HATS - so HATS off to Will Nediger for a solid Friday offering.
Thanks for explaining HRT, Fearless One. That one was forced by crosses. This was a rather typical Friday offering, hard but gettable, so medium for the day. Brain cells were stimulated. My biggest problem was at sq. 25: was it FUN/FUNK or pUN/pUNK? Nah, gotta be F.
One thing currently that forces me to turn away saying "ICANTLOOK!": that Watchman ad with these barefoot people running across the dock with those nasty nails poking up. Shudder!
I agree the clue for 33a should read "seldom makes" rather than "won't make." But it's not the hill I want to die on.
Toughest section was south central, where it took me forever to get WIFI and AFFIX to replace AnneX. Birdie.
Wordle par.
TOAST BURNER
OH, ICAN'T SIT and LOOK ANY more,
GUYS, IKNOW this SCENE is a fright,
I SEA ROOKIEMISTAKEs by the score,
just ADMIT it's AMATEURNIGHT.
--- ALDO LINNAEUS
Good puz for the day.
Wordle birdie.
A very good Friday-level puzzle that beat me fair and square. (Yes, there were NAMES, but even w/o them I wouldn't have finished successfully.)
TGIF to all!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
For "friends" of "accuracy," those can be hard words to spell. But thank you for clarifying today's TLA debut.
PS - Had soul before FUNK.
@Bob Mills 8:45am:
Yes! There is a lifehack site, lifehack videos on You Tube, and there was a TV show called Hack My Life. Plus, I've heard them mentioned on DIY and home repair shows, and on other shows.
The godfather of soul. The hardest working man in show business. Mr. Please, Please, Please. Certainly an early practitioner of funk.
@Anonymous 8:46 AM ... having lived in Quebec for 34 years, I can confirm that we DON'T call the afternoon hour "trois". It is indeed "quinze".
Sorry about the late reply, I do the syndicated puzzle, so I'm waaaaaay too late when it comes to commenting here :)
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