Carpels' counterparts / SAT 12-3-22 / Brain-tingly feeling that may come from hearing whispering or crinkling, in brief / Inefficient confetti-making tool / That's on me slangily / Alternative to a blind in poker
Constructor: Kate Hawkins
Relative difficulty: Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: ASMR (25A: Brain-tingly feeling that may come from hearing whispering or crinkling, in brief) —
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia and may overlap with frisson.
ASMR signifies the subjective experience of "low-grade euphoria" characterized by "a combination of positive feelings and a distinct static-like tingling sensation on the skin." It is most commonly triggered by specific auditory or visual stimuli, and less commonly by intentional attention control. A genre of videos intended to induce ASMR has emerged, over 25 million of which had been published on YouTube by 2022 and a dedicated category of live ASMR streams on Twitch. (wikipedia)
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I don't know if this was a proper Saturday or if it just feels like a proper Saturday because yesterday's puzzle was a Monday, but either way, I appreciated the fact that it put up a fight. The puzzle is doing its best to skew younger today, with three short answers in (or near) the NW corner that are likely to make a lot of solvers cock their heads questioningly (or some more extreme reaction). The first of these was MOTO, which ... a phone ad campaign from, what, the aughts? (3D: "Hello ___" (classic ringtone)). When was that? I had zero idea that "Hello, MOTO" was actually a "ringtone"—I can remember ads that started "Hello, MOTO" or something like that; I assume they were ads for ... a phone ... maybe a Motorola ... something or other? Razr, is that a phone? Anyway, the "Hello, MOTO" voice always creeped me out because it sounded artificial / put-on, and kinda reminded me of someone evoking the yellowface portrayal of Mr. MOTO in old detective films (he was played by Peter Lorre, doing basically the same voice he uses for Joel Cairo in The Maltese Falcon... I thought MOTO was played by Warner Oland, but that was another yellowface detective performance: Charlie Chan ... but I (seriously) digress...). But if you got a cell phone when you were a young person in the aughts, then this "ringtone" is likely Superfamiliar to you (and has zero associations with the Japanese detective). This video has over 3 million views wtf!
So that answer seems aimed at Millennials (who are now actually middle-aged, I guess) and younger folk, as does "MY B" (for "my bad!") and ASMR, which I had never heard of until some time in the last decade. How did the term (an initialism where most people including me don't know what the letters even stand for) go mainstream? Well, I direct your attention to the last sentence of the "Word of the Day" wikipedia quotation, above: "A genre of videos intended to induce ASMR has emerged, over 25 million of which had been published on YouTube by 2022 and a dedicated category of live ASMR streams on Twitch." I'm so out of touch I thought ASMR stood for the actual sounds, not the feeling they induced. Anyway, people soothe themselves with YouTube and Twitch. I will never get it, but there you are. It's very very much a thing. But if those three answers skewed young, it's not like there weren't Golden Oldies to offset them: even in the 20th century, I couldn't accept that anyone had ever TOPEd or been IN A PET, and I certainly can't accept it any more now, but boy are those familiar crossword terms of yore. So overall the puzzle has a nice range, covering lots of topics, varied in its generational familiarity. It's also chock full of vibrant longer answers, the best of which came right up front:
APOLOGY TOUR over "NO TAKEBACKS" is a beautiful two-stack (14A: Guilt trip? / 17A: "Too late to change your mind now!"), and the other three such pairings in the grid aren't bad either. Not EVEN A LITTLE bad. I like MARASCHINO / OVER THE TOP because you might put a MARASCHINO cherry OVER THE TOP of your sundae, or even your cocktail, but For God's Sake don't use those cheap-ass pinkish garbage cherries you get at most ice cream parlors (or in the sundae fixins' aisle of the supermarket). It's Luxardo or get out!
I also liked HEE HEE over JOLLITY (for hopefully obvious reasons), and, well, there's not a lot I didn't like. I didn't like the metaphorical VIRGINS clue (34A: Newbies), which ... I mean, I don't know that I'd like the literal VIRGINS clue either, but something about snickering about a "newbie" being a "virgin" is ... unnecessarily sexualizing or something. It's just a metaphor that I wouldn't use. It's normal and fine. It just always gives me bad vibes is all.
I had some trouble moving between the N and W half of this puzzle into the S and E half, but I ended up throwing a weird word-rope into the void, and the rope kept going, and it got weirdly long, and I figured some of it must be wrong, but it wasn't (!?).
So I linked JIBS to "COULD IT BE?" and just kept building, and somehow all the answers stuck. Not sure why I got stuck on the back half of HOLE PUNCH (28A: Inefficient confetti-making tool) (funny clue btw). It's a perfectly normal "tool." I have one sitting here within arm's reach, but all I could think was "HOLE ... maker?" Bizarre. MY B! I also had some trouble getting the back end of PHONE CALL (I figured the "phone" itself had a "ring to it," so what else was needed, I didn't know). Also couldn't get TREATY ("Compact" means sooooo many thing), STAMENS (I thought maybe "tunnels"?) (38D: Carpels' counterparts), or IN A PET, so the SE was briefly elusive, but then PATSY Cline came riding to the rescue, bringing the PEP I needed to finish things off. Overall, a delightful romp, this one, with a little youthful flavor here and there ... you know, for kids!
@Rex, does it provide you any solace to know that "Newbies" is not a metaphorical definition? As per M-W, a virgin is: "a person who is inexperienced in a usually specified sphere of activity"
Unaware of the wiles of the snake in the grass Or the fate of the maiden who TOPEs, She lowered her standards by raising her glass, Her courage, her eyes, and his hopes. -- Flanders & Swann, "Madeira M'Dear"
What a great morning! Really nice puzzle, blueberry pancakes, and a score of 3 in a certain game. I'll be at the shelter later cleaning for the kitties.
I'm in a paddle club. We do mostly rivers in NW lower Michigan. There is one, the Sturgeon, which can be quite challenging. No whitewater but fast with tight turns. If someone is doing it for the first time they are known as a Sturgeon VIRGIN.
Millennial here and I found this easier than yesterday’s! Outside of TOPE these were all in my wheelhouse. Loved SWITCHEROO and HOLEPUNCH. MARASCHINO cherries are godly. Happy Saturday all! -Brando
Maybe I have never had a real Maraschino cherry, but even when I was 6 years old and drinking a Roy Rogers at the Hampshire House bar with my dad, I could not stand them
I was certain that 38D was TARSALS, and when that didn’t fit, I bitterly thought, please tell me it’s not TUNNELS?? Then I looked closer and saw that it was spelled carpEL like the flower part and not carpAL, like the bones. FYI!
So many yummy answers. I think my favorite two are NO TAKEBACKS and JOLLITY. Speaking of which, I love HEE HEE abutting JOLLITY abutting HOLEPUNCH, because I found it very funny imagining making confetti with the latter. Extreeeemly funny.
I don’t think I’d heard of APOLOGY TOUR, but what a great phrase to describe something not only well-known people do, but also us everyday people do when the need arises. I certainly hadn’t heard ASMR before, but after reading about it, I’ve certainly felt it and I’m glad that there’s a term for it, rather than it just be a thing that people describe as, “You know that feeling, when…”.
At one point (9D), I sat pondering whether great apes were extinct. “I don’t think so, but… but COULD IT BE???”
There was enough rub to satisfy my brain’s work ethic, and there were some lovely serendipities: ‘NOR on the grid’s East Coast, a five-letter palindrome for the second day in a row (MADAM) buttressed by SOS and AVA, a backward MAD crossing IN A PET, and a backward AVID abutting PEP.
This one plucked plenty of pleasure points – a gratifying gift. Thank you so much, Kate!
Weird solve today. Felt very hard, but was over strangely quickly.
Who knew Rex was a cherry snob?
Hope is the Thing with Feathers is a book by Christopher Cokinos that talks about the extinction of the great AUKS (among other things). Highly recommended for the nature-lover on your holiday gift list.
This felt just like yesterday in that I started at the bottom and finished in the NW, which as OFL points out, was full of huh?'s for me. PATSY Cline (great voice) led to PIPECLEANER and up I went, with not too many snags.
Haven't seen the word JOLLITY in forever, although I approve of its practice, wanted HELL when I read the Frost quote, and was gratified to see it appear, MYB made sense MOTO was on a back shelf in the brain attic somewhere, and I learned ASMR. Thank goodness for PLANAR or I'd still be trying to guess the last letter of that one.
An altogether enjoyable Saturday, KH. I kept Having little HEEHEE moments all the way through, and thanks for all the fun.
Nice puzzle - grid looks more like a Friday with the black diagonal in the center which limits the longs. Liked NO TAKE BACKS, SWITCHEROO and OVER THE TOP. Yes - the JOLLITY/HEE HEE block is fun. I’m sure one day we’ll see WEST on an APOLOGY TOUR. PATSY
Crossing PLANAR with plane in the clue for 22a casts a shadow here. TOPE leans slightly Victorian - I’m assuming that was a bail out for the constructor. Katrina and the WAVES
Unlike Rex - I thought this trended older - NONET, GRUEL, EYRE, MARASCHINO etc. - nothing wrong with it. Liked the clue for FASTS. No clue on ASMR.
Can someone explain to me how “Compact” is a TREATY? a Pact is a treaty? I don’t see that definition for Compact? And since I never heard the term Tope in many decades of NYT puzzles, I was a bit stumped but it fit so I put it in. Compact does not seem to equal Pact to me. I don’t get it.
The one I'm most familiar with is the Mayflower Compact, the document signed by passengers on the Mayflower laying out the system of governance they would establish when they eventually landed in Massachusetts.
Significantly easier for me than the 20th century PPP onslaught yesterday (especially in yesterday’s top half). The degree to which perceived difficulty seems to correlate with solver’s age for these seems a good argument to avoid PPP as much as possible.
It’s funny how you can be in synch with a puzzle maker - or not. I really enjoyed this puzzle - breezed through it in less than half my (reported average) time. (Which is misleading since I thin the average is killed by some real stinkers…) Anyway, I found yesterday to be at least a medium, and downright hard in the NW corner. Was a little embarrassed to see it defined as VERY easy. Then today is the opposite! My first guess turned out to be right most of the time, and the clues and answers made me chuckle. Fun solve.
Finished this is about the same time as yesterday. So I was surprised Rex didn't label it super easy. Only think that hung me up was jollity which I have never seen and Eyre wasn't jumping out. He is spot on about Luxardo cherries. Perfect in Manhattans. They also make a Maraschino liquor which is an ingredient in a Last Word. Of the great 4 ingredient cocktails. A small amount in a Manhattan is nice if you like them a little sweet.
We enjoyed this puzzle! Thanks Kate, agree with Rex on all the good pairs, it took us (Father/Son team) about 18 minutes, which seemed on the straightforward side for us--that's good, I hate it when Saturdays take us more than 1/2 hour. Great Puzzle! Loved "EVENALITTLE" and "APOLOGYTOUR" and "NOTAKEBACKS". THanks! --Rick
Got it done by cheating. First I had PLANED, then PLANAL, finally PLANAR for "Like a flat surface." I cheated by looking up ESTRAL on-line, only to find ASTRAL
Good puzzle. Typical Saturday difficulty, with questionable words like jOLLITY and TAKEBACKS. I'd love to see a puzzle prepared by someone my own age (81) for a change.
I am a bit miffed, in a snit you might say, about IN A PET. Has anyone said that ever? Aside from that, nice puzzle. But I mainly came to say YES to LUXARDO CHERRIES!! Though my wife and I have an addiction to the things that has become rather costly.
Warner Oland portrayed Charlie Chan, who was a detective. Though also played by Warner Oland (a few times, several actors portrayed hmi), Dr. Fu Manchu was a villain, an embodiment of the racist fears of the "Yellow Peril".
But I’m still INAPET about this morbid teen song about Laurie.
"You're wrong, son You weren't with my daughter How can you be so cruel To come to me this way? My Laurie left this world on her birthday She died a year ago today"
The only decent response to this odd twist? Johnny says “MYB!” and runs off to her grave to retrieve his sweater.
Strange things happen in this world (like this maudlin song becoming a minor hit)…
Wait, whaaa? A Saturday that wasn't horrible? Sweet. Oh wait, I know, it was too easy, right?
Here's what's great:
It took a reasonable amount of minutes. I only needed a couple of research projects despite knowing nothing about JIBS, TOPE, Miles Davis (jazz, blech), IN A PET???, or AUKS.
I do not think the cherry liqueur clue is fair, since we all think of those little MARASCHINO cherries as the MARASCHINO, and the internet is very unclear on the exact names of cherry liqueurs, and none of the Go-ogle results on the first page mention MARASCHINO. Nevertheless, I'd like to eat three MARASCHINOS right now. I like those and those little mandarin oranges. Maybe I like all M foods as long as they're small, colored in some hue not found in nature, and floating in syrup.
Apparently there is a difference between a KEY and a CAY. Who knows this stuff?
I also like all the long answers.
Uniclues:
1 DuVernay tells everyone she's sorry she can't make a funnier movie than Caddy Shack. 2 Holy man saying "enough is enough -- forgiveness is for suckers." 3 How a music man starts a solo career. 4 Eating plans out of this world. 5 The sensual tingles one feels on the back of your neck when thinking about quality office supplies. 6 The happy feeling of knowing your first child isn't on the way. 7 Say, "It's just left turns." 8 Understudy delighted the star just got hit by a bus. 9 Agreement to replace the faux wooden walls in the basement next spring. 10 Proper procedure for handling queso.
1 AVA APOLOGY TOUR (~) 2 NO TAKE BACKS REV 3 PARE HIS NONET (~) 4 ASTRAL FASTS and PLANAR GRUEL 5 HOLE PUNCH ASMR 6 VIRGIN'S JOLLITY 7 SHRED NASCAR 8 GET-THE-NOD DIVA 9 PANEL TREATY 10 MELT OVER THE TOP (~)
I didn't know that Maraschino was also a liqueur, which Rex could have pictured, but I got to learn about Luxardo brand, which I'll look for in both forms, and informative Todd also seems to have missed. I'm sure they are much better than the cherries in fruit cocktail, which are sometimes just peeled grapes dyed red or pink.
I figured I would get no happy music with TOPED and INAPET being my best guesses - it seems the crosses were fair.
For some reason, I parsed a "couple of laughs as yukyuk rather than the more obvious HEEHEE. Glad it wasn't tehees, Rexrant averted:)
antsY before JUMPY
I went over 6D twice, literally said "hmm, MYBad doesn't fit". @Joaquin, Interestingly, at least to me, I think it actually takes longer to say MYB - delivery a little lazier, and the need to linger on the final vowel. My bad is more clipped. My mom used to choose times on the microwave like 22, or 44 to save time from moving her finger over to another digit on the screen. She does get a lot done in life, but I had to laugh at this one.
I wonder if @Lewis has a puzzpair kind of term for the ANTE/BLIND thing that has happened where each is used as a clue for the other in one week. It was a help to have learned specifically what a "blind" is recently. Didn't we just have AUKS or maybe emus recently also?
Loved SWITCHEROO! Could have been clued with "The old ____". APOLOGYTOUR with the understood response NOTAKEBACKS is as good as an 11 stack gets.
I really enjoyed this one. It played fairly easy but had enough challenges and clever clues to make it feel just right. The long phrases are real and natural sounding, and the puzzle is filled with positive energy--PEP, JOLLITY, HEEHEE, confetti (by SHRED or HOLEPUNCH). This one made me want to crank some Miles Davis NONET and PATSY Cline on the STEREO and sip a glass of MARASCHINO. Most fun I've had with a NYTXW in a while.
Good start in the NW, except PLANAl for PLANAR. Learning ASMR.
Otherwise, smooth sailing all the way.
Liked it! :)
On to Steve Mossberg's Sat. Stumper (hi @Son Volt, pablo, etal). The Acrostic is on deck for the morrow. ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Maraschino is a liqueur made from the marasca cherry, which grows on the Croatian coast. If you bring an empty bottle you can have it filled at the local distillery. Yum!
This went slowly and deliciously -- with parts that were quite easy and areas that presented more of a challenge. I loved the clue/answer for APOLOGY TOUR and the clue/answer for SWITCHEROO. I spent what felt like days wondering what Miss Piggy and Bette Midler had in common. Somehow it didn't seem like the divine Miss M would be thrilled by the comparison.
When DIVA came in, I laughed.
I loved the quotation clue for HELL. 42D reminded me how many different meanings there are for "compact". ASMR was one big "Huh?" for me -- just as I imagine it was for you.
A big stumbling block was when I had ----INS for "newbies". All I could think of was BREAK-INS (as in trainees you're breaking in), but it was too long. I was delighted when I saw VIRGINS -- which I got with the help of more crosses. I always want to use VIRGINS in the non-sexual sense, but I'm usually too afraid of being misunderstood or opening myself up (pun intended) to ridicule or even abuse. Let me give you an example from the world of the crossword blog:
On those occasions where I've been criticized for always writing my first comment before reading anyone else's comments, what I've wanted to say in my defense is: "I like to come to this blog as a virgin." Meaning unaffected and uninfluenced by anyone else's perspective until I've revealed my own. But I've never said it. And because of perhaps too-timid people like me, VIRGIN has pretty much lost its original non-sexual meaning -- which is a shame. It's a useful word, with a certain je ne sais quoi you won't find in, say, the word "tyro".
I liked this puzzle a lot. It was an enjoyable way to spend part of a rainy Saturday morning.
Hey All ! First, thanks to everyone who wished me well YesterComments. Such a great group.
Sorta kinda toughie for me today. NE section was a doozy. JOLLITY? Yow. TOPE? Trying to spell MARAcCHINO correctly. That was my downfall spot. A one-letter DNF. Although FAcTS didn't seem to fit its clue (Takes nothing in), I could only think of one alternate, FArTS, which is funny, but actually is something coming out, not being taken in. 😜 Then again, clues Does says Takes nothing in, could be interpreted as opposite, and mean something coming out. Ok, enough potty humor...
cutup for SHRED held me up a tad in SW, ended up erasing it to start anew. Had Her for HIS, until AUKr made no sense. PIPE CLEANER tough to see. Had STAMaNS spelt thusly with that wrong A. Deciding twixt CAY or bAY. Or even maybe kAY. Considered TIRED TOT for the preschool clue. Har.
So a nice SatPuz. Made one think, but not impossible to solve. Well, unless you don't know how to spell MARASCHINO.
This was a righteous Saturday puzzle. Especially appreciated TOPE, JOLLITY and ASTRAL. Having a bit of a mental block on Do some course work and Permanent desires but filled on the crosses and guessed on the W.
I had a cellphone in the very early aughts and even before that but I never heard of Hello, MOTO, maybe because I’m not a millennial. INAPET brought back memories of first encountering that phrase in a puzzle decades ago, and I’m as baffled by it now as I was then. I know it deep in the recesses of my brain as a (fortunately) mostly-discontinued crossword answer. Has anyone ever really said that? Maybe it’s a regional thing. Having GoT THE NOD held me up for quite a while. After much pondering, many of the lovely long answers just seemed to flow out. Really nice Saturday puzzle!
Couldn't solve the ASMR/PLANAR cross, combined with uncertainty in the TOPE region, which led to the dnf. However, this was one of those late week solves in which I was past the metaphoric "Mason-Dixon" line with not EVEN A LITTLE filled in, giving me that feeling that is presumably the opposite of ASMR. Then a few items in the south began to fall and I worked my way back up the grid and finished (with the dnf, admittedly) in under half an hour.
So, an enjoyable good news/bad news Saturday puzzle!
Sorry to see about your job loss, @RooMonster. Crossword-wise you are on a two day roll with a HDW ROO (beginning with the final letter of 44A) joining the "old SWITCHE-ROO."
Challenging up top, doable from the bottom up. After MADAM and AVA, I faced a discouraging number of "no idea" rows, so I decided to test out the SE corner - and there was PIPECLEANER to get me on my way. On the ascent, the SHRED + NASCAR row provided a nice toehold and the helpful COULD IT BE just above gave me the base for GET THE NOD as a ladder to the top. So much to like! Favorites: SWITCHEROO, APOLOGY TOUR, and the joke of HOLE PUNCH - which, however, if WIELDed carelessly, can get you confetti all over your office floor.
No idea: ASMR. Couldn't believe so resisted until the end: MY B. Here to defend: IN A PET, a pet being of a lower disagreeable intensity than a snit, at least that's the feel I get from it.
@RooMonster from yesterday - Good luck with your job search!
@Conrad 6:00 - And she's soon to be a VIRGIN no more. and @Mohair Sam 8:46 - In our household, when one of the two of us is late getting ready, the standard comment is "One camel is lagging."
Among liqueurs, I would not describe MARASCHINO (at least the Luxardo version I’m familiar with) as “sweet”—except insofar as all liqueurs are sweet. That clue had me imagining something bright red and flavored like cough syrup…
Easy-medium. My biggest hang up was the NE where I went eat>sOd>MOW, which took a while. I also tried manES before SHOES and FeedS before FUELS. Solid and smooth with lotsa zip. Liked it a bunch and Jeff gave it POW!
ASMR is not really a brain tingly feeling, it’s more back of the neck. If you are one of the 20% who experiences it you know what I mean.
Odd to see IN A PET again, although its recent-ish appearance (9/9/20222) was just PET in response to the clue “snit.” Don’t have any idea why I even recalled it.
This felt so weird for a Saturday mainly because I filled in most of the NW on autopilot. I had everything through ASTRAL checking only NONET and MOTO with their Across/Down counterparts and stopped only because I suddenly got nervous, and thought “something has to be wrong because this is Saturday!
I had a bit of trouble with the ASMR/ATVS. I was today years old seeing ASMR for the first time, so that’s my official favorite part of this puzzle. New words always make my day.
Such a wide array of time and subject matter here; literally something for everyone-even the kids. Until he contracted emphysema, my dad smoked heavily and never met a tobacco product he didn’t like. We all loathed the smoke but I loved to make PIPE CLEANER sculptures. He used to get so angry when he couldn’t find any.
What impressed me the most was the breadth of subject matter. ASMR to PATSY! And zero junk. My one complete mistake was easily recognized: rind for PARE.
HOLE PUNCH made me laugh. My paternal grandfather was called “Pappy” by everyone. Pappy adored me, and I him. We shared a love of sports, and he taught me football and baseball and basketball, how to play poker and how to bet Las Vegas style. He also took me to an Ohio State game at “The Horseshoe” every year. Back then you could bring all kinds of things into the stadium, including confetti. One year I actually thought that I could substitute my usual torn newspaper variety with the “more professional” (my description) HOLE PUNCH variety. My idea lasted longer than my 10 year old hand strength. Alas.
This was pure fun today. I especially enjoyed the for me very unusual experience of being 100% on the constructor’s wavelength. Such a smooth, thoroughly enjoyable solve.
Today's puzzle felt easier than the time it took to complete it. Partly this was due to how difficult I expected it to be based on the grid and also to the contrast with how long I struggled with yesterday's NW section.
The lack of big stacks makes me think the constructor has come up with a smaller number of tough long entries which don't force them to use threadbare predictable fill. Then there was the east/ west split that's only connected by two long entries . You could fill an entire half and still be starting virtually from scratch in the other.
Neither of these things panned out. This turned out to be a Saturday which aspired to be a for fun Friday and succeeded.
That doesn't mean I was disappointed. There was just enough resistance to make it feel late week and after yesterday's marathon I needed the break.
Many, many years ago in a guided meditation class, I noticed that the leader’s soft, soothing voice caused tingles up my spine. I never forgot the sensation. Same sort of feeling as when someone gently plays with or brushes your hair. Fast forward to the present, when I realized there’s a name for that tingling sensation: ASMR. Not everyone gets it. Check out the YouTube videos sometime. Everyone’s triggers are different, but when you figure out what yours are, the right videos can be wonderfully relaxing and sleep-inducing.
I share in the praise for this puzzle. Maybe I liked it because so many of my guesses panned out. Ricky Bobby just sounded like a NASCAR name, and I somehow got EVEN A LITTLE from the E and the first T. And I'm old enough to have experienced JOLLITY, and will now go out and look for some ASMR.
Carpels really threw me, though. After a sigh of relief that it wasn't a misspelling of carpal, I just waited for crosses. I know pistil, didn't know it had component parts.
@Joaquin, @Nancy--I think it's because millennials stereotypically don't talk, they text. My son always startles me a bit by texting K instead of OK. No letter waster he! Though he may be pre-millennial, born in 1971.
@Nancy, I think EVOO has done a lot to rescue the non-sexual meaning of VIRGIN.
The Christmas season has begun -- we're about to go to the annual Christmas Market at the French Library in Boston, and taking in Messiah in livestream this evening. So Happy Holidays, everyone!
@Sam Ross--you go to your hairdresser and get a permanent because you desire WAVES in your hair.
I really felt like I was on a different wavelength than the puzzle constructor today. I disagree with Rex—other than MY B and maybe ASMR, I thought this puzzle skewed old. All of the people in this puzzle are older than my parents: Bette Midler, the actress from The Graduate, PATSY Cline, Myles Davis… Who invests in a STEREO anymore? Or makes a PHONE CALL for that matter?
INAPET has been used 5 times in the past 10 years according to Xwordinfo, although the last time before today was 2017. PET has been clued with this meaning 3 additional times, most recently in Sept 2022 as was pointed out by CDilly52. I agree with those who think it's way out of fashion and needs to be retired.
This is the 3rd appearance of TOPE in a little over a year. The priors were Oct 2021 and May 2022. It also needs to go.
This was a topsy-turvy week, with relative difficulties really off. But it was an easy week overall. I think this may be my shortest cumulative Mon-Sat time ever. I wonder if tomorrow will bring the same or if it will be a nightmare.
Add me to being naticked at the PLANAR/ASMR cross. I'm pleased to learn ASMR but even on a Saturday those two should not cross given the plausibility of ASMl/PLANAl.
Otherwise, a nice puzzle. I loved the clue paring for SWITCHEROO/MOREORLESS.
Compared to this ole fart, Rex is an absolute hipster…so in this decade with ASMR & a seminal understanding of contemporary music and culture. I am so jealous ! On the other hand, “hello MOTO” grates in my brain like a rusty SOS pad left over from the pre-Teflon era of cookery. As Mr Frost opined, we do reflect our uniquely individual wheelhouse journeys on our respective ways to Crossworld HELL. Apart from that absolutely unknown, I really enjoyed the grid and shrieked with delight as PIPE CLEANER revealed itself. Nothing amuses quite like a four-year-old’s meltdown…unless it’s your charge, of course.
Thanks Kate for a delightful diversion to start the weekend. Except for having PLANAl instead of PLANAR at 4d, all the crossing were inferable even that damnable ASM?
Now to the top to catch UPON commentariat brilliance.
PACT and COMPACT mean essentially the same thing, and can both be treaties - though a compact might indicate something with more formal/lasting agreement or solemnity.
Think "Compact of Free Association," which establishes the permanent relationship between the US and some of the countries that comprised the Trust Territory of the Pacific, specifically: the Republic of the Marshall Islands' the Federated States of Micronesia; and the Republic of Palau.
@jberg is spot on - these kids grew up texting. Two things - there’s a maximum limit on the number of characters in a text and in the early years when data usage was quantified and billed abbreviations saved money.
Thanks @Nancy for sharing your virgin conundrum as it raised an issue that troubles many. I’m often left speechless after reading all the posts and seeing how early comments have used up the clever puns already. As @lms is wont to point out, language is a living critter & y’all need to go with the flow, shame be damned. Most days I read first, but today I jumped to the comment box because I really liked Ms Hawkins work and didn’t want others to dampen my enthusiasm . PACT & COMPACT ambiguity is on the same order as whether that truck you follow on the freeway is carting FLAMMABLE or INFLAMMABLE liquid. Always had fun with those snags with ESL students.O
faves: JUMPY. JOLLITY. NOTAKEBACKS. SWITCHEROO … the last one, along with @Roo's comment, remind m&e to add my condolences, to his job-findin challenges. Hope somethin real neat turns up real quick, dude.
staff weeject pick: MYB. Must not stand for Mind Yerown Business. MYB would be a good thing to add, in parens, after certain puz clues. Examples: {Brain-tingly feeling … (MYB)} = ASMR. {"Hello ___" (classic ringtone) (MYB)} = MOTO. Alternate MYB meanin: Major Ye Blunder ( = anything that even Musk won't allow on Twitter). Nice weeject stacks, in the NE & SW, btw.
Pretty straightforward solve quest, at our house. Got NOTAKEBACKS off just the endin -KS, which helped out a lot. Did think of great APES ahead of great AUKS, tho. Also, SOD ahead of MOW, but at least M&A was on the right "course" track.
Better ATEAM clue: {Scarfed down all PM, then woke up and immediately ____ ??}
Hell dam! Thanx for the themeless fun, Ms. Hawkins darlin. Nice set of ?-marker clues, and nice smoooth fillins.
I had COULD__BE for a while because "couldn't be" worked just as well as "could it be," and there's part of me that likes to preserve that ambiguity as long as I can.
Normally too scared to try Saturday here, randomly decided too and I found this much easier than expected. Had the most trouble with TOPE, INAPET, and I still don't get WAVES even after reading the post & comments.
Surprised Rex called this Medium as I usually have ended up DNF on previous Saturday attempts. Maybe I'm just young enough to find MYB and ASMR to be freebies.
I would think MYB in a text would be taken for "mind your business" - a slightly shorter version of MYOB. I wonder how many wars have been started due to this confusion.
What a relief to have a Saturday puzzle take over 15 minutes, still below my old average of 26 but better than the overly easy past two weeks of Saturdays. That north central sector was tough - MADAM crossing MRS Potato Head was my entry but AUKS and MYB were a long time coming.
I've seen APOLOGY TOUR in a previous puzzle somewhere but today I was trying out APOLOGeTica (my R in MRS looked like an A so I misled myself). I finally got DOCILE, AUKS and resigned myself to MYB (eyeroll).
I like the FUELS GRUEL combo. WIELD is good because I love to use the word unWIELDy. My trip to Home Depot Christmas shopping led to an unwieldy package-carrying experience - no carts in sight and I had to juggle a pocket-hole jig and a grow lamp through the warehouse. I managed somehow.
Thanks, Kate Hawkins, congrats on the POW.
And @Roo, from yesterday, good luck. I hope Vegas has a booming job market like we seem to have here in MN!
Thank goodness I enjoyed today's offering and can join in with the rest of yous smart cookies out there in Commentaristan in giving this puzzle high marks. I felt rueful for not doing so yesterday (although subsequent comments indicate I wasn't the only one who got bushwhacked by that name-laden NW corner).
I've never seen ASMR used for the spine-tingling sensation we sometimes get from powerful emotional feelings. I would guess it is related to the piloerection (hair bristling) reflex seen in many species. A number of stimuli will do the job for me. The most reliable stimulus for that delicious frisson of excitement is hearing America's "Horse With No Name", especially the lyrics describing the gradual altering of consciousness that accompanies the increasing number of "Days in the desert sun". "The ocean is a desert with its life underground, And a perfect disguise above." Good stuff, right? I'm getting a little bit atingle just thinking about it.
@Roo so sorry about your job loss. Great time of year for that 😕. Our son is also struggling with online unemployment. I thought it would be easier than having to go in person, obviously not so.
Much easier for me than yesterday, when it took forever for me to think of Monster Mash as in any way morbid, and I kept running through my catalog of "teenager dies on the highway" songs with no success. Unfamiliar with "Tope" and now I feel personally attacked. Enjoyed the Guilt Trip and Pipe Cleaners clues, plus Switcheroo, but agree with Rex that Virgins comes across as a little skeevy.
Definite headscratcher on ASMR. The rest not so hard but challenging enough to have to think a bit. Wrote over JOLLIes to get JOLLITY. JOLLITY?! Near miss on a wordle eagle but got the bird when my melon turned into a lemon.
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@Rex, does it provide you any solace to know that "Newbies" is not a metaphorical definition? As per M-W, a virgin is: "a person who is inexperienced in a usually specified sphere of activity"
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteUnaware of the wiles of the snake in the grass
Or the fate of the maiden who TOPEs,
She lowered her standards by raising her glass,
Her courage, her eyes, and his hopes.
-- Flanders & Swann, "Madeira M'Dear"
Ooh - nice one
Delete“Have some Madeira, my dear”
DeleteIt’s ever so much nicer than beer!
DeleteCandy is dandy
DeleteI’ve been doing the NYT crossword for 10 years now and have never seen either TOPE or “IN A PET” before, both of which crushed me today.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Not only never seen in a puzzle, never heard of either before. Spent many a minute parsing and reparsing inapet.
DeleteMaybe you’ve seen them, but not noticed or not remembered.
DeleteLooks like “tope” has been in NYT crossword 7x in last decade, and “inapet” 5x 😊
What a great morning! Really nice puzzle, blueberry pancakes, and a score of 3 in a certain game. I'll be at the shelter later cleaning for the kitties.
ReplyDeleteI'm in a paddle club. We do mostly rivers in NW lower Michigan. There is one, the Sturgeon, which can be quite challenging. No whitewater but fast with tight turns. If someone is doing it for the first time they are known as a Sturgeon VIRGIN.
Millennial here and I found this easier than yesterday’s! Outside of TOPE these were all in my wheelhouse. Loved SWITCHEROO and HOLEPUNCH. MARASCHINO cherries are godly. Happy Saturday all!
ReplyDelete-Brando
Maybe I have never had a real Maraschino cherry, but even when I was 6 years old and drinking a Roy Rogers at the Hampshire House bar with my dad, I could not stand them
DeleteBut Luxardos are to the garden variety of maraschino as a Rolls is to a Pinto. And similarly pricey.
DeleteI was certain that 38D was TARSALS, and when that didn’t fit, I bitterly thought, please tell me it’s not TUNNELS?? Then I looked closer and saw that it was spelled carpEL like the flower part and not carpAL, like the bones. FYI!
ReplyDeleteSo many yummy answers. I think my favorite two are NO TAKEBACKS and JOLLITY. Speaking of which, I love HEE HEE abutting JOLLITY abutting HOLEPUNCH, because I found it very funny imagining making confetti with the latter. Extreeeemly funny.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I’d heard of APOLOGY TOUR, but what a great phrase to describe something not only well-known people do, but also us everyday people do when the need arises. I certainly hadn’t heard ASMR before, but after reading about it, I’ve certainly felt it and I’m glad that there’s a term for it, rather than it just be a thing that people describe as, “You know that feeling, when…”.
At one point (9D), I sat pondering whether great apes were extinct. “I don’t think so, but… but COULD IT BE???”
There was enough rub to satisfy my brain’s work ethic, and there were some lovely serendipities: ‘NOR on the grid’s East Coast, a five-letter palindrome for the second day in a row (MADAM) buttressed by SOS and AVA, a backward MAD crossing IN A PET, and a backward AVID abutting PEP.
This one plucked plenty of pleasure points – a gratifying gift. Thank you so much, Kate!
Weird solve today. Felt very hard, but was over strangely quickly.
ReplyDeleteWho knew Rex was a cherry snob?
Hope is the Thing with Feathers is a book by Christopher Cokinos that talks about the extinction of the great AUKS (among other things). Highly recommended for the nature-lover on your holiday gift list.
"Hope is a Thing With Feathers" is also a lovely lyric poem by Emily Dickenson
DeleteThis felt just like yesterday in that I started at the bottom and finished in the NW, which as OFL points out, was full of huh?'s for me. PATSY Cline (great voice) led to PIPECLEANER and up I went, with not too many snags.
ReplyDeleteHaven't seen the word JOLLITY in forever, although I approve of its practice, wanted HELL when I read the Frost quote, and was gratified to see it appear, MYB made sense MOTO was on a back shelf in the brain attic somewhere, and I learned ASMR. Thank goodness for PLANAR or I'd still be trying to guess the last letter of that one.
An altogether enjoyable Saturday, KH. I kept Having little HEEHEE moments all the way through, and thanks for all the fun.
Amy: fast and easy for me, and I'm an old. Biggest problem was No Give Backs instead of TAKE.
ReplyDeleteIN A PET needs to be retired. Nobody says that. Maybe "in a snit" today.
ReplyDeleteNice puzzle - grid looks more like a Friday with the black diagonal in the center which limits the longs. Liked NO TAKE BACKS, SWITCHEROO and OVER THE TOP. Yes - the JOLLITY/HEE HEE block is fun. I’m sure one day we’ll see WEST on an APOLOGY TOUR. PATSY
ReplyDeleteCrossing PLANAR with plane in the clue for 22a casts a shadow here. TOPE leans slightly Victorian - I’m assuming that was a bail out for the constructor. Katrina and the WAVES
Unlike Rex - I thought this trended older - NONET, GRUEL, EYRE, MARASCHINO etc. - nothing wrong with it. Liked the clue for FASTS. No clue on ASMR.
MADAMe George from ASTRAL Weeks
Enjoyable Saturday solve. @bocamp and pablo - Steve Mossberg’s Stumper offers a little more pushback than this but not much.
Thanx for VM connection. That’s a beautiful example of his imagination being given a little room.
DeleteCan someone explain to me how “Compact” is a TREATY? a Pact is a treaty? I don’t see that definition for Compact? And since I never heard the term Tope in many decades of NYT puzzles, I was a bit stumped but it fit so I put it in. Compact does not seem to equal Pact to me. I don’t get it.
ReplyDeleteThe one I'm most familiar with is the Mayflower Compact, the document signed by passengers on the Mayflower laying out the system of governance they would establish when they eventually landed in Massachusetts.
DeleteThe compact of 1802 for example.
DeleteAlso as said above, rope has been in the Times puzzle almost once a year for the past decade. It is as Rex noted very much crosswordese.
DeleteWhat do Millenials do with all the time saved by saying MY B instead of the full "My bad"?
ReplyDeleteAnd has anybody ever said JOLLITY to mean good cheer? And if so, do they have any friends left?
Significantly easier for me than the 20th century PPP onslaught yesterday (especially in yesterday’s top half). The degree to which perceived difficulty seems to correlate with solver’s age for these seems a good argument to avoid PPP as much as possible.
ReplyDeleteIt’s funny how you can be in synch with a puzzle maker - or not. I really enjoyed this puzzle - breezed through it in less than half my (reported average) time. (Which is misleading since I thin the average is killed by some real stinkers…) Anyway, I found yesterday to be at least a medium, and downright hard in the NW corner. Was a little embarrassed to see it defined as VERY easy. Then today is the opposite! My first guess turned out to be right most of the time, and the clues and answers made me chuckle. Fun solve.
ReplyDeleteYesterday was much harder than Saturday.
Delete@Conrad (6:00) - Any Flanders and Swann reference brings a huge morning smile here.
ReplyDeleteThanks - and may your hippos wallow gloriously.
Finished this is about the same time as yesterday. So I was surprised Rex didn't label it super easy. Only think that hung me up was jollity which I have never seen and Eyre wasn't jumping out. He is spot on about Luxardo cherries. Perfect in Manhattans. They also make a Maraschino liquor which is an ingredient in a Last Word. Of the great 4 ingredient cocktails. A small amount in a Manhattan is nice if you like them a little sweet.
ReplyDeleteWe enjoyed this puzzle! Thanks Kate, agree with Rex on all the good pairs, it took us (Father/Son team) about 18 minutes, which seemed on the straightforward side for us--that's good, I hate it when Saturdays take us more than 1/2 hour. Great Puzzle! Loved "EVENALITTLE" and "APOLOGYTOUR" and "NOTAKEBACKS". THanks! --Rick
ReplyDeleteGot it done by cheating. First I had PLANED, then PLANAL, finally PLANAR for "Like a flat surface." I cheated by looking up ESTRAL on-line, only to find ASTRAL
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle. Typical Saturday difficulty, with questionable words like jOLLITY and TAKEBACKS. I'd love to see a puzzle prepared by someone my own age (81) for a change.
I am a bit miffed, in a snit you might say, about IN A PET. Has anyone said that ever? Aside from that, nice puzzle. But I mainly came to say YES to LUXARDO CHERRIES!! Though my wife and I have an addiction to the things that has become rather costly.
ReplyDeleteWarner Oland portrayed Charlie Chan, who was a detective. Though also played by Warner Oland (a few times, several actors portrayed hmi), Dr. Fu Manchu was a villain, an embodiment of the racist fears of the "Yellow Peril".
ReplyDeleteEOS and SOS. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteGood, fun Saturday.
ReplyDeleteBut I’m still INAPET about this morbid teen song about Laurie.
"You're wrong, son
You weren't with my daughter
How can you be so cruel
To come to me this way?
My Laurie left this world on her birthday
She died a year ago today"
The only decent response to this odd twist? Johnny says “MYB!” and runs off to her grave to retrieve his sweater.
Strange things happen in this world (like this maudlin song becoming a minor hit)…
@ Dr.A at 8:32 am
ReplyDelete"Can someone explain to me how “Compact” is a TREATY? a Pact is a treaty? "
Think "Mayflower Compact".
Wait, whaaa? A Saturday that wasn't horrible? Sweet. Oh wait, I know, it was too easy, right?
ReplyDeleteHere's what's great:
It took a reasonable amount of minutes. I only needed a couple of research projects despite knowing nothing about JIBS, TOPE, Miles Davis (jazz, blech), IN A PET???, or AUKS.
I do not think the cherry liqueur clue is fair, since we all think of those little MARASCHINO cherries as the MARASCHINO, and the internet is very unclear on the exact names of cherry liqueurs, and none of the Go-ogle results on the first page mention MARASCHINO. Nevertheless, I'd like to eat three MARASCHINOS right now. I like those and those little mandarin oranges. Maybe I like all M foods as long as they're small, colored in some hue not found in nature, and floating in syrup.
Apparently there is a difference between a KEY and a CAY. Who knows this stuff?
I also like all the long answers.
Uniclues:
1 DuVernay tells everyone she's sorry she can't make a funnier movie than Caddy Shack.
2 Holy man saying "enough is enough -- forgiveness is for suckers."
3 How a music man starts a solo career.
4 Eating plans out of this world.
5 The sensual tingles one feels on the back of your neck when thinking about quality office supplies.
6 The happy feeling of knowing your first child isn't on the way.
7 Say, "It's just left turns."
8 Understudy delighted the star just got hit by a bus.
9 Agreement to replace the faux wooden walls in the basement next spring.
10 Proper procedure for handling queso.
1 AVA APOLOGY TOUR (~)
2 NO TAKE BACKS REV
3 PARE HIS NONET (~)
4 ASTRAL FASTS and PLANAR GRUEL
5 HOLE PUNCH ASMR
6 VIRGIN'S JOLLITY
7 SHRED NASCAR
8 GET-THE-NOD DIVA
9 PANEL TREATY
10 MELT OVER THE TOP (~)
I didn't know that Maraschino was also a liqueur, which Rex could have pictured, but I got to learn about Luxardo brand, which I'll look for in both forms, and informative Todd also seems to have missed. I'm sure they are much better than the cherries in fruit cocktail, which are sometimes just peeled grapes dyed red or pink.
ReplyDeleteI figured I would get no happy music with TOPED and INAPET being my best guesses - it seems the crosses were fair.
For some reason, I parsed a "couple of laughs as yukyuk rather than the more obvious HEEHEE. Glad it wasn't tehees, Rexrant averted:)
antsY before JUMPY
I went over 6D twice, literally said "hmm, MYBad doesn't fit". @Joaquin, Interestingly, at least to me, I think it actually takes longer to say MYB - delivery a little lazier, and the need to linger on the final vowel. My bad is more clipped. My mom used to choose times on the microwave like 22, or 44 to save time from moving her finger over to another digit on the screen. She does get a lot done in life, but I had to laugh at this one.
I wonder if @Lewis has a puzzpair kind of term for the ANTE/BLIND thing that has happened where each is used as a clue for the other in one week. It was a help to have learned specifically what a "blind" is recently. Didn't we just have AUKS or maybe emus recently also?
Loved SWITCHEROO! Could have been clued with "The old ____". APOLOGYTOUR with the understood response NOTAKEBACKS is as good as an 11 stack gets.
I really enjoyed this one. It played fairly easy but had enough challenges and clever clues to make it feel just right. The long phrases are real and natural sounding, and the puzzle is filled with positive energy--PEP, JOLLITY, HEEHEE, confetti (by SHRED or HOLEPUNCH). This one made me want to crank some Miles Davis NONET and PATSY Cline on the STEREO and sip a glass of MARASCHINO. Most fun I've had with a NYTXW in a while.
ReplyDeleteTOPE?
ReplyDeleteNope.
Elder millennial here and I crushed this. New Saturday record by over a minute.
ReplyDeleteAnother two stack is TWO over VIRGINS, the title of a John Lennon album.
ReplyDeleteThx, Kate; nice smooth Sat! :)
ReplyDeleteEasy+ (except for a minor dnf)
Good start in the NW, except PLANAl for PLANAR. Learning ASMR.
Otherwise, smooth sailing all the way.
Liked it! :)
On to Steve Mossberg's Sat. Stumper (hi @Son Volt, pablo, etal). The Acrostic is on deck for the morrow.
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏
Another two stack is TWO over VIRGINS, a John Lennon album known more for its cover than its content.
ReplyDeleteMaraschino is a liqueur made from the marasca cherry, which grows on the Croatian coast. If you bring an empty bottle you can have it filled at the local distillery. Yum!
ReplyDeleteThis went slowly and deliciously -- with parts that were quite easy and areas that presented more of a challenge. I loved the clue/answer for APOLOGY TOUR and the clue/answer for SWITCHEROO. I spent what felt like days wondering what Miss Piggy and Bette Midler had in common. Somehow it didn't seem like the divine Miss M would be thrilled by the comparison.
ReplyDeleteWhen DIVA came in, I laughed.
I loved the quotation clue for HELL. 42D reminded me how many different meanings there are for "compact". ASMR was one big "Huh?" for me -- just as I imagine it was for you.
A big stumbling block was when I had ----INS for "newbies". All I could think of was BREAK-INS (as in trainees you're breaking in), but it was too long. I was delighted when I saw VIRGINS -- which I got with the help of more crosses. I always want to use VIRGINS in the non-sexual sense, but I'm usually too afraid of being misunderstood or opening myself up (pun intended) to ridicule or even abuse. Let me give you an example from the world of the crossword blog:
On those occasions where I've been criticized for always writing my first comment before reading anyone else's comments, what I've wanted to say in my defense is: "I like to come to this blog as a virgin." Meaning unaffected and uninfluenced by anyone else's perspective until I've revealed my own. But I've never said it. And because of perhaps too-timid people like me, VIRGIN has pretty much lost its original non-sexual meaning -- which is a shame. It's a useful word, with a certain je ne sais quoi you won't find in, say, the word "tyro".
I liked this puzzle a lot. It was an enjoyable way to spend part of a rainy Saturday morning.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteFirst, thanks to everyone who wished me well YesterComments. Such a great group.
Sorta kinda toughie for me today. NE section was a doozy. JOLLITY? Yow. TOPE? Trying to spell MARAcCHINO correctly. That was my downfall spot. A one-letter DNF. Although FAcTS didn't seem to fit its clue (Takes nothing in), I could only think of one alternate, FArTS, which is funny, but actually is something coming out, not being taken in. 😜 Then again, clues Does says Takes nothing in, could be interpreted as opposite, and mean something coming out.
Ok, enough potty humor...
cutup for SHRED held me up a tad in SW, ended up erasing it to start anew. Had Her for HIS, until AUKr made no sense. PIPE CLEANER tough to see. Had STAMaNS spelt thusly with that wrong A. Deciding twixt CAY or bAY. Or even maybe kAY. Considered TIRED TOT for the preschool clue. Har.
So a nice SatPuz. Made one think, but not impossible to solve. Well, unless you don't know how to spell MARASCHINO.
My title if I worked in a train yard? SWICHEROO.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
This was a righteous Saturday puzzle. Especially appreciated TOPE, JOLLITY and ASTRAL. Having a bit of a mental block on Do some course work and Permanent desires but filled on the crosses and guessed on the W.
ReplyDeleteI had a cellphone in the very early aughts and even before that but I never heard of Hello, MOTO, maybe because I’m not a millennial. INAPET brought back memories of first encountering that phrase in a puzzle decades ago, and I’m as baffled by it now as I was then. I know it deep in the recesses of my brain as a (fortunately) mostly-discontinued crossword answer. Has anyone ever really said that? Maybe it’s a regional thing. Having GoT THE NOD held me up for quite a while. After much pondering, many of the lovely long answers just seemed to flow out. Really nice Saturday puzzle!
ReplyDeleteCan’t possibly be planar, I thought. Plane is in the clue list, and crossing no less.
ReplyDeleteThe row starting at 46A sounds like a quote from a gruff old football coach like Bobby Bowden after his guys pull off a big upset:
ReplyDeleteHELL DAM ATEAM
I also had not heard of ASMR, although I did once attend a Halloween party AS MR Magoo.
I suppose that a Veterinary X-ray Technician often sees objects INAPET.
Liked the puzzle, but I’ve got to focus on US v Netherlands right now. Thanks, Kate Hawkins.
Couldn't solve the ASMR/PLANAR cross, combined with uncertainty in the TOPE region, which led to the dnf. However, this was one of those late week solves in which I was past the metaphoric "Mason-Dixon" line with not EVEN A LITTLE filled in, giving me that feeling that is presumably the opposite of ASMR. Then a few items in the south began to fall and I worked my way back up the grid and finished (with the dnf, admittedly) in under half an hour.
ReplyDeleteSo, an enjoyable good news/bad news Saturday puzzle!
Sorry to see about your job loss, @RooMonster. Crossword-wise you are on a two day roll with a HDW ROO (beginning with the final letter of 44A) joining the "old SWITCHE-ROO."
Challenging up top, doable from the bottom up. After MADAM and AVA, I faced a discouraging number of "no idea" rows, so I decided to test out the SE corner - and there was PIPECLEANER to get me on my way. On the ascent, the SHRED + NASCAR row provided a nice toehold and the helpful COULD IT BE just above gave me the base for GET THE NOD as a ladder to the top. So much to like! Favorites: SWITCHEROO, APOLOGY TOUR, and the joke of HOLE PUNCH - which, however, if WIELDed carelessly, can get you confetti all over your office floor.
ReplyDeleteNo idea: ASMR. Couldn't believe so resisted until the end: MY B. Here to defend: IN A PET, a pet being of a lower disagreeable intensity than a snit, at least that's the feel I get from it.
@RooMonster from yesterday - Good luck with your job search!
@Conrad 6:00 - And she's soon to be a VIRGIN no more.
and @Mohair Sam 8:46 - In our household, when one of the two of us is late getting ready, the standard comment is "One camel is lagging."
Among liqueurs, I would not describe MARASCHINO (at least the Luxardo version I’m familiar with) as “sweet”—except insofar as all liqueurs are sweet. That clue had me imagining something bright red and flavored like cough syrup…
ReplyDeleteMy favorite comment so far is @Joaquin's:
ReplyDeleteWhat do Millenials do with all the time saved by saying MY B instead of the full "My bad"?
Easy-medium. My biggest hang up was the NE where I went eat>sOd>MOW, which took a while. I also tried manES before SHOES and FeedS before FUELS. Solid and smooth with lotsa zip. Liked it a bunch and Jeff gave it POW!
ReplyDeleteASMR is not really a brain tingly feeling, it’s more back of the neck. If you are one of the 20% who experiences it you know what I mean.
JOLLITY ain’t a thing. I’ll not surrender on this.
ReplyDeleteWould someone kindly explain WAVES to me?
ReplyDeleteGetting a hair “perm” at a salon
DeleteOdd to see IN A PET again, although its recent-ish appearance (9/9/20222) was just PET in response to the clue “snit.” Don’t have any idea why I even recalled it.
ReplyDeleteThis felt so weird for a Saturday mainly because I filled in most of the NW on autopilot. I had everything through ASTRAL checking only NONET and MOTO with their Across/Down counterparts and stopped only because I suddenly got nervous, and thought “something has to be wrong because this is Saturday!
I had a bit of trouble with the ASMR/ATVS. I was today years old seeing ASMR for the first time, so that’s my official favorite part of this puzzle. New words always make my day.
Such a wide array of time and subject matter here; literally something for everyone-even the kids. Until he contracted emphysema, my dad smoked heavily and never met a tobacco product he didn’t like. We all loathed the smoke but I loved to make PIPE CLEANER sculptures. He used to get so angry when he couldn’t find any.
What impressed me the most was the breadth of subject matter. ASMR to PATSY! And zero junk. My one complete mistake was easily recognized: rind for PARE.
HOLE PUNCH made me laugh. My paternal grandfather was called “Pappy” by everyone. Pappy adored me, and I him. We shared a love of sports, and he taught me football and baseball and basketball, how to play poker and how to bet Las Vegas style. He also took me to an Ohio State game at “The Horseshoe” every year. Back then you could bring all kinds of things into the stadium, including confetti. One year I actually thought that I could substitute my usual torn newspaper variety with the “more professional” (my description) HOLE PUNCH variety. My idea lasted longer than my 10 year old hand strength. Alas.
This was pure fun today. I especially enjoyed the for me very unusual experience of being 100% on the constructor’s wavelength. Such a smooth, thoroughly enjoyable solve.
Today's puzzle felt easier than the time it took to complete it. Partly this was due to how difficult I expected it to be based on the grid and also to the contrast with how long I struggled with yesterday's NW section.
ReplyDeleteThe lack of big stacks makes me think the constructor has come up with a smaller number of tough long entries which don't force them to use threadbare predictable fill. Then there was the east/ west split that's only connected by two long entries . You could fill an entire half and still be starting virtually from scratch in the other.
Neither of these things panned out. This turned out to be a Saturday which aspired to be a for fun Friday and succeeded.
That doesn't mean I was disappointed. There was just enough resistance to make it feel late week and after yesterday's marathon I needed the break.
Many, many years ago in a guided meditation class, I noticed that the leader’s soft, soothing voice caused tingles up my spine. I never forgot the sensation. Same sort of feeling as when someone gently plays with or brushes your hair. Fast forward to the present, when I realized there’s a name for that tingling sensation: ASMR. Not everyone gets it. Check out the YouTube videos sometime. Everyone’s triggers are different, but when you figure out what yours are, the right videos can be wonderfully relaxing and sleep-inducing.
ReplyDeleteI share in the praise for this puzzle. Maybe I liked it because so many of my guesses panned out. Ricky Bobby just sounded like a NASCAR name, and I somehow got EVEN A LITTLE from the E and the first T. And I'm old enough to have experienced JOLLITY, and will now go out and look for some ASMR.
ReplyDeleteCarpels really threw me, though. After a sigh of relief that it wasn't a misspelling of carpal, I just waited for crosses. I know pistil, didn't know it had component parts.
@Joaquin, @Nancy--I think it's because millennials stereotypically don't talk, they text. My son always startles me a bit by texting K instead of OK. No letter waster he! Though he may be pre-millennial, born in 1971.
@Nancy, I think EVOO has done a lot to rescue the non-sexual meaning of VIRGIN.
The Christmas season has begun -- we're about to go to the annual Christmas Market at the French Library in Boston, and taking in Messiah in livestream this evening. So Happy Holidays, everyone!
@Sam Ross--you go to your hairdresser and get a permanent because you desire WAVES in your hair.
I really felt like I was on a different wavelength than the puzzle constructor today. I disagree with Rex—other than MY B and maybe ASMR, I thought this puzzle skewed old. All of the people in this puzzle are older than my parents: Bette Midler, the actress from The Graduate, PATSY Cline, Myles Davis… Who invests in a STEREO anymore? Or makes a PHONE CALL for that matter?
ReplyDeleteINAPET has been used 5 times in the past 10 years according to Xwordinfo, although the last time before today was 2017. PET has been clued with this meaning 3 additional times, most recently in Sept 2022 as was pointed out by CDilly52. I agree with those who think it's way out of fashion and needs to be retired.
ReplyDeleteThis is the 3rd appearance of TOPE in a little over a year. The priors were Oct 2021 and May 2022. It also needs to go.
This was a topsy-turvy week, with relative difficulties really off. But it was an easy week overall. I think this may be my shortest cumulative Mon-Sat time ever. I wonder if tomorrow will bring the same or if it will be a nightmare.
Add me to being naticked at the PLANAR/ASMR cross. I'm pleased to learn ASMR but even on a Saturday those two should not cross given the plausibility of ASMl/PLANAl.
ReplyDeleteOtherwise, a nice puzzle. I loved the clue paring for SWITCHEROO/MOREORLESS.
Compared to this ole fart, Rex is an absolute hipster…so in this decade with ASMR & a seminal understanding of contemporary music and culture. I am so jealous ! On the other hand, “hello MOTO” grates in my brain like a rusty SOS pad left over from the pre-Teflon era of cookery. As Mr Frost opined, we do reflect our uniquely individual wheelhouse journeys on our respective ways to Crossworld HELL. Apart from that absolutely unknown, I really enjoyed the grid and shrieked with delight as PIPE CLEANER revealed itself. Nothing amuses quite like a four-year-old’s meltdown…unless it’s your charge, of course.
ReplyDeleteThanks Kate for a delightful diversion to start the weekend. Except for having PLANAl instead of PLANAR at 4d, all the crossing were inferable even that damnable ASM?
Now to the top to catch UPON commentariat brilliance.
@ DR A (8:32 am)
ReplyDeletePACT and COMPACT mean essentially the same thing, and can both be treaties - though a compact might indicate something with more formal/lasting agreement or solemnity.
Think "Compact of Free Association," which establishes the permanent relationship between the US and some of the countries that comprised the Trust Territory of the Pacific, specifically: the Republic of the Marshall Islands' the Federated States of Micronesia; and the Republic of Palau.
@jberg is spot on - these kids grew up texting. Two things - there’s a maximum limit on the number of characters in a text and in the early years when data usage was quantified and billed abbreviations saved money.
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ReplyDeleteThanks @Nancy for sharing your virgin conundrum as it raised an issue that troubles many. I’m often left speechless after reading all the posts and seeing how early comments have used up the clever puns already. As @lms is wont to point out, language is a living critter & y’all need to go with the flow, shame be damned. Most days I read first, but today I jumped to the comment box because I really liked Ms Hawkins work and didn’t want others to dampen my enthusiasm . PACT & COMPACT ambiguity is on the same order as whether that truck you follow on the freeway is carting FLAMMABLE or INFLAMMABLE liquid. Always had fun with those snags with ESL students.O
faves: JUMPY. JOLLITY. NOTAKEBACKS. SWITCHEROO … the last one, along with @Roo's comment, remind m&e to add my condolences, to his job-findin challenges. Hope somethin real neat turns up real quick, dude.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: MYB. Must not stand for Mind Yerown Business. MYB would be a good thing to add, in parens, after certain puz clues. Examples: {Brain-tingly feeling … (MYB)} = ASMR. {"Hello ___" (classic ringtone) (MYB)} = MOTO.
Alternate MYB meanin: Major Ye Blunder ( = anything that even Musk won't allow on Twitter).
Nice weeject stacks, in the NE & SW, btw.
Pretty straightforward solve quest, at our house. Got NOTAKEBACKS off just the endin -KS, which helped out a lot. Did think of great APES ahead of great AUKS, tho. Also, SOD ahead of MOW, but at least M&A was on the right "course" track.
Better ATEAM clue: {Scarfed down all PM, then woke up and immediately ____ ??}
Hell dam! Thanx for the themeless fun, Ms. Hawkins darlin. Nice set of ?-marker clues, and nice smoooth fillins.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
Hey @Roo-Well, you got your SWITCHEROO today, which seems pretty timely.
ReplyDeleteMeant to say yesterday--don't forget, you can spell retired without pablo, but you can't spell OppORtunity without Roo.
Good luck, and go get 'em.
I had COULD__BE for a while because "couldn't be" worked just as well as "could it be," and there's part of me that likes to preserve that ambiguity as long as I can.
ReplyDeleteNormally too scared to try Saturday here, randomly decided too and I found this much easier than expected. Had the most trouble with TOPE, INAPET, and I still don't get WAVES even after reading the post & comments.
ReplyDeleteSurprised Rex called this Medium as I usually have ended up DNF on previous Saturday attempts. Maybe I'm just young enough to find MYB and ASMR to be freebies.
Permanent desire=Waves, as in ‘desire for a hair perm(anent) that leaves your hair in waves
Deletehttps://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VwksszrDYNw
ReplyDeleteI hope Loren Muse Smith's students haven't taken her hostage.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking the same thing!
DeleteSTAMENS threw me off. Carpals' counterparts are tarsals. Carpals in the hands or wrists, tarsals in the feet.
ReplyDeleteI never knew plants had carpals. Stamens' counterparts are pistils.
Apparently, you need a botany degree for that clue.
@Jef 3:23pm :
DeleteCarpEls not carpAls.
I would think MYB in a text would be taken for "mind your business" - a slightly shorter version of MYOB. I wonder how many wars have been started due to this confusion.
ReplyDeleteAs someone else pointed out, it’s carpEl, not carpAl.
ReplyDeleteWhat a relief to have a Saturday puzzle take over 15 minutes, still below my old average of 26 but better than the overly easy past two weeks of Saturdays. That north central sector was tough - MADAM crossing MRS Potato Head was my entry but AUKS and MYB were a long time coming.
ReplyDeleteI've seen APOLOGY TOUR in a previous puzzle somewhere but today I was trying out APOLOGeTica (my R in MRS looked like an A so I misled myself). I finally got DOCILE, AUKS and resigned myself to MYB (eyeroll).
I like the FUELS GRUEL combo. WIELD is good because I love to use the word unWIELDy. My trip to Home Depot Christmas shopping led to an unwieldy package-carrying experience - no carts in sight and I had to juggle a pocket-hole jig and a grow lamp through the warehouse. I managed somehow.
Thanks, Kate Hawkins, congrats on the POW.
And @Roo, from yesterday, good luck. I hope Vegas has a booming job market like we seem to have here in MN!
Kathryn@12:17
ReplyDeleteThere are many people older than you are that are still alive and enjoy crosswords!
Thank goodness I enjoyed today's offering and can join in with the rest of yous smart cookies out there in Commentaristan in giving this puzzle high marks. I felt rueful for not doing so yesterday (although subsequent comments indicate I wasn't the only one who got bushwhacked by that name-laden NW corner).
ReplyDeleteI've never seen ASMR used for the spine-tingling sensation we sometimes get from powerful emotional feelings. I would guess it is related to the piloerection (hair bristling) reflex seen in many species. A number of stimuli will do the job for me. The most reliable stimulus for that delicious frisson of excitement is hearing America's "Horse With No Name", especially the lyrics describing the gradual altering of consciousness that accompanies the increasing number of "Days in the desert sun". "The ocean is a desert with its life underground, And a perfect disguise above." Good stuff, right? I'm getting a little bit atingle just thinking about it.
@Roo so sorry about your job loss. Great time of year for that 😕. Our son is also struggling with online unemployment. I thought it would be easier than having to go in person, obviously not so.
ReplyDelete@Anon 4:24
ReplyDeleteYour comment can't be posted because ii's a "spoiler," but may I suggest you try again.
This is only a test.
ReplyDelete@Gary Jugert - as soon as I read HOLEPUNCH ASMR I laughed -and knew it had to be a thing. https://youtu.be/TP714M-S-q0
ReplyDeleteI did make confetti with a little single hole punch as a high schooler. 🙂
I liked SWITCHEROO and APOLOGYTOUR too.
Late to the puzzle these days due to the WC..
Much easier for me than yesterday, when it took forever for me to think of Monster Mash as in any way morbid, and I kept running through my catalog of "teenager dies on the highway" songs with no success. Unfamiliar with "Tope" and now I feel personally attacked. Enjoyed the Guilt Trip and Pipe Cleaners clues, plus Switcheroo, but agree with Rex that Virgins comes across as a little skeevy.
ReplyDeletefioricet for tooth pain
ReplyDeletePlease stop promoting Luxardo cherries. They’re already expensive enough.
ReplyDeleteChallenging as a Saturday should be. But fair. Nice and neat. Well done Kate Hawkins.
ReplyDeletePS: Alternative clue for 59A - Aliens from the Big Apple, in brief. (NYETS)
DAM SINS
ReplyDeleteWell, MADAM, NO APOLOGY,
NO DOCILE TAKEBACKS NOR requests.
HELL, for TWO VIRGINS COULDITBE
they GET ALITTLE, MOREORLESS?
--- REV. MRS. PATSY ROSS
Can't say I had NO TAKEBACKS, but I won't have to go on an APOLOGYTOUR. Didn't get JUMPY, not EVEN A LITTLE.
ReplyDeleteAs usual, I had fun with this very doable Saturday puzzle.
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Apparently APOLOGYTOUR is a thing. Let's see, how would you use it... I know! The Donald should go on one! He'd have to hit every state...
ReplyDeleteMYB and ASMR were other WOEs, 100% crossed. Fairly, thank God. Mini-theme: COUlDITBE, EVENALITTLE?
This puzzle was MOREORLESS medium. PATSY Cline GETs THE NOD for DOD, as she is the Mrs.' favorite. Birdie.
Wordle no-G birdie: YBBBY YYBBY GGGGG.
Definite headscratcher on ASMR. The rest not so hard but challenging enough to have to think a bit. Wrote over JOLLIes to get JOLLITY. JOLLITY?!
ReplyDeleteNear miss on a wordle eagle but got the bird when my melon turned into a lemon.
I'm still waiting for a tough Saturday puzzle. Can't we have one really tough puzzle, high quality puzzle each week?
ReplyDelete