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Ruined city in Jordan / FRI 5-19-23 / Subject of the first YouTube video to reach 10 billion views (2022) / One-handed put-back shot / Enemy of Lord Farquaad in film / Its offerings end around 2 p.m. / Something parents might give a teenager, colloquially
Friday, May 19, 2023
Constructor: David Distenfeld
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: Benjamin HICK (6D: English inventor Benjamin) —
Benjamin Hick (1 August 1790 – 9 September 1842) was an English civil and mechanical engineer, art collector and patron; his improvements to the steam engine and invention of scientific tools were held in high esteem by the engineering profession, some of Hick's improvements became public property without claiming the patent rights he was entitled to. [...] According to the records of Charles Beyer and an appraisal by John Farey, Hick was apparently responsible for pioneering the use of high-pressure and compound steam engines in textile mills, following the designs of Arthur Woolf. Hick's engines should probably be considered best practice for the time c.1841. // Locomotives built by Hick were of the best quality, Edward Bury considered them "extremely well made" and they were used by the London and Birmingham Railway for the very first scheme of standardisation of parts. (wikipedia)
• • •
The only thing that made me go "no no bad stop" was seemingly the 21st appearance of SUH-WEET in the grid this year. OK, it's actually just the third, but the third in two months, and it's such a conspicuous seven-letter word that when it repeats, you notice, and when it double repeats, you just wish it would go away for a while. PUH-LEASE go away! But that's really it as far as strong negative responses to this one. Very low REPULSE Factor. The grid is clean as all git out. IS IT OK? It is more than OK. No cringing, lots of long, colorful answers, and a grid design that gave the solving experience that ineffable thing I love: flow. Even the "quaint" answer was pleasing to me—I find quaintisms very tolerable if they are also Mr. Burnsisms:
After the NW, not much struggle to be found. I think I had the most difficulty with ... TOLD (?!) (51D: Related). I was very confident in TIED. I was less confident in the resulting alt-spelling of BISIN (55A: Bearded bovine), so TIED became TOED, which also seemed very wrong. And then ADELE came to the rescue (fun fact: I used almost this exact clue for ADELE on the crossword I made for my annual financial contributor thank-you postcards this year ... if ever have to put ADKINS in your grid, now you know how to clue it)
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| [___ Laurie Blue Adkins ("one-named" singer of "Skyfall" and "Hello"] |
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88 comments:
19A Autobahn abbr.: definitely not KPH--that is not the German abbreviation for kilometers per hour.
Fastest Friday ever!
I didn’t understand what RESHaPS was with the perfectly good TAPIN crossing it. Oh well. Otherwise very easy.
I think the clue for KPH is a bit of a stretch. You won’t see that on the Autobahn (possibly km/h). However, the clue does say “Autobahn abbr.” and the speed limit (in sections where there is one) would in fact translate to KPH, so I’ll go with close enough for CrossWorld. If the clue were “Autobahn sign abbr.”, that would be out of bounds in my book.
Nice to see my pal SHREK clued realistically instead of being referenced as that usual four-letter pejorative that shall remain unmentioned.
Between TapIN and KMl (thinking of an equivalent for “mpg,” doh), I had RESlaPS and was stuck in that spot for the longest time.
Very whoosh-whoosh zoom-zoom for me too, except the brutal NW, where most of the downs felt ungettable to me. I often say that PPP helps me, unlike most commenters, but ARTIE, HICK and KAT were unknowns, though the last was inferrable with crosses. Meanwhile, the clues for BE ALL, ADOPT and RESHIPS were super-hard. And I have never heard it called YANKEE SWAP - it’s White Elephant where I grew up (Midwest) and where I live (mid-Atlantic). Agree with earlier poster about KPH - unless the German words for per and hour also begin with p and h? And I had TaP IN instead of TIP IN.
So anyway, I had to look up the Stern guy to finish, which made me kinda grumpy. But otherwise, I loved it. Two fabulous clues - “what often comes with a spoiler alert” for MILK and especially “result of getting side-swiped, perhaps” for DATE. I also loved the US EMBASSY clue - I was trying to think of something that would make sense to be in the capital but that we put in Peoria for some reason. Or something like “defense HQ” since the Pentagon is not actually in Washington. Definitely groaned (in a good way) when I got it.
How many of you actually got THE TALK from your parents? I never did. Learned it all on the street. And all I remember from sex-ed class in school was the teacher telling us about the importance of scrubbing our elbows when we bathe because crusty elbows are disgusting, causing us all to examine said joints and realize he was right. I woulda made the HONOR ROLL but I failed sex-ed
I once took a visiting friend to the Museum of Natural History here in DC. At one display, I said, “I love these kitschy DIORAMAs.” She said, “Which animal is that?”
Fun fact: TONYSTARK and BABYSHARK share a lot of letters, and I had those letters in crosses, and decided that a clip from the latest Avengers movie was the most viewed thing! :)
For those complaining about KPH:
I mostly agree, and thought the same thing. "That's not what would be on the sign!"
But the clue was effective in that it pointed the solver toward metric speed measurement in a very brief way. We all know the Autobahn is for driving on, and speed there is not going to be in MPH, soooooooo...
A tale of two puzzles for me today: Everything but the NW, then the NW.
The first three-quarters of the grid went like this: A few gimmee answers filled in, followed by a massive splat-fill. Truly, the boxes filled in in a single thrilling bam-bam-bam slam. The crosses triggered answers at what seemed like an exponential rate.
But in that NW, where I didn’t know BABY SHARK (related to You Tube), HICK, ARTIE, YANKEE SWAP (nope, never heard of it), and KAT, and where BE ALL and MILK cagily eluded my best efforts – everything ground to a halt.
So, the puzzle was a bit like speeding on the autobahn in a whirl of glory, only to get a flat tire, and have to stop the car, get the tools, jack the car up, unscrew the bolts, etc. But at the same time, my brain, which has a high work ethic, was revelling to that NW challenge.
The thrill of the whoosh plus the satisfaction and drama of a rewarding grind. This puzzle covered a large happiness range, bolstered by some lovely cluing (i.e., for US EMBASSY, STY and DATE) and answers (i.e. SIDE EYE and POSTHASTE). And as a bonus, there was the lovely dookness of BEALL.
A sweet outing indeed, for which I’m very grateful. This one left me full and happy. Thank you, DD!
My experience exactly mimicked yours. Looking back, I have little idea how I finally gained any purchase in the NW. But, somehow, it fell.
@Anon 5:52AM and @Anon 6:46AM: Are you two related? :)
Medium for a Friday. Benjamin HICK at 6D was a total WOE. AT ANY rate before COST at 16A. @Anon6:46 TaP IN before TIP IN at 23A.
But what really hurt was EMPTiNESs before EMPTY NEST at 59A. I don't know how a DiE might address a gray area, and that was the letter that prevented the happy tune.
Wasn't as enthusiastic as Rex. Never seen or heard of a "Use PED signal" anywhere. I am enthusiastic--probably much more than Rex--about Christmas and was born and raised on the East Coast and have never heard of a YANKEE SWAP.
But the clue for US EMBASSY belongs in the Cluing Hall of Fame.
GREAT cluing and fun to solve. I was able to sail through this puzzle and feel like some sort of crossword stud (after flailing miserably yesterday and feeling like a total dope!).
No sex, thank God, at the Yankee Swaps I’ve been to with my husband’s relatives in Massachusetts. It’s a gift exchange game.
Speed limit signs in Europe just have a number inside a circle - no abbreviations, as the entire world uses kilometers/hr, except the US,the UK, and a few other outliers. It's understood to be in kilometers per hour. And when abbreviated in English, it's almost always km/h, not kph.
Never heard of YANKEESWAP. White elephant, yes. Also didn't know HICK and had trouble parsing BEALL as two words, and had LEFTSHARK at 1A forever, so the NW took nearly as long as the rest of puzzle
I wondered if @Rex's word of the day would be Benjamin HICK or the BABY SHARK, the crossing H of which was my last square, in that brutal NE corner. Actually, I found the whole puzzle hard: no whooshing for me today, just a sprinkling of answers in each quadrant that accreted additional letters very slowly. So, I had plenty of time to enjoy the challenge and the fun. My favorite moment: getting BE ALL.
Help from previous puzzles: SUHWEET, spelled as such. Thank you, geography, for giving me at least something to go on: SONOMA, PETRA, MALI. No idea: ARTIE, HICK, YANKEE SWAP, ELISE.
@Wanderlust 7:22 - I never got THE TALK either. My eyes were opened (wide!) by a scene in John O'Hara's From the Terrace the summer after high school.
Not easy for me. Did find the SE to be quite easy and that encouraged me to press on. Was able to finish in more than half-hour. Don't get the KPH in Germany. Thought it was MoNET until MANET became necessary. Agree with everyone who thought that 12D US EMBASSY was a HoF clue. Very fine puzzle.
I had that "oh oh" feeling after reading an opening clue involving a You Tube video, and some other stuff in the NW was no help, so I started with MASSEUSES and filled this one up from the bottom, which was medium whooshy. Some slow downs, wanted LUNCHMENU, which didn't fit, and ENDOW before ALLOW and the TAPIN/TIPIN dilemma, but mostly a smooth ride.
Back to the NW, where YANKEESWAP finally showed itself and made me feel a bit thick-headed, because our family has done a YANKEESWAP at Christmas for years. Also, and, adding to the "why didn't I think of that" theme for the NW, grandson Jack has one of those kid's books where you turn the page and press a button and it sings to you, and what does it sing? BABYSHARK, of course, in various iterations, and I've heard it over and over for weeks now. And of course, now I've got an earworm. Curse you, BABYSHARK.
Great Friday, DD with Decidedly Delightful clues and answers. Sorry when it was done, and thanks for all the fun.
Thx, David; nicely done! 😊
Med+ (closer to Sat. time).
Fairly normal, except for a brutal NW, where it seemed very possible that I'd dnf. Finally twigged on BE ALL, and Bob was my uncle.
Had the usual prob with the 'H' in SUHWEET.
TIP INs were my specialty 🏀, as were RBIs; always hit better with runners on. ⚾️
All in all, a wonderful puz; enjoyed the challenge! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness & Freudenfreude to all 🙏
Never heard of Yankee Swap. We do White Elephant at our house. Easy Friday though. POSTHASTE was another, not sure but inferable. We like Adele, my daughter did this song with me for Fathers Day last year https://youtu.be/4Dv6KvVdK88
Generally enjoyed the puzzle, including its sharp cluing. Similar to several of you including OFL, the rest of the puzzle was whooshy after a bit of resistance, totally appropriate for a Friday and full of clean fill. Fun fact about BISON (well, fun fa ct for huge nerds like me): the Latin name for the Plains bison is Bison bison bison.
But oy gevalt, that northwest corner. That was *hard* and I feel like maybe a bit Naticky, given that I appear to be far from the only one who’s never heard of a YANKEE SWAP. I was raised atheist and culturally Jewish in NYC, but my mother was raised midwestern Catholic and her love of Christmas meant we got to have both a menorah and a Christmas tree, and I’ve never heard of it. It’s a white elephant party in my world.
Speaking of unorthodox childhoods, re: @Wanderlust’s question, I think I must have gotten THETALK but I would have been too young to remember it. Lots I would do differently as a parent, but they were always forthcoming about the “taboo” subjects, so I don’t remember ever not knowing about sex, death, drugs, depression, LGBTQ folks, etc. I’m grateful to have been raised in a sex-positive home before that was a commonly accepted practice.
(Also, a belated chime-in - I liked yesterday quite a bit, and found it easy, but that was very much a wheelhouse thing - I think I had the same experience with the constructor’s last puzzle.)
Woosh, yes!!
I love the Mr Burns quaint-isms also. I'm convinced they came from Conan O'Brien in the writers room. Listening to the "Conan Needs a Friend" podcast, I hear him spout 19th century-isms frequently. That episode pictured is a heart-breaker with Marge trying to fit in with high society via the designer dress she got on sale.
Did RP go to the urban dictionary first? "The Office" had an episode based on YANKEESWAP.
I liked the MILK spoiler alert:)
Feeling old alert: never heard of BABYSHARK, leftSHARK yes for the free-styling at the Superbowl with Katie Perry.
I can't remember if the NYT prefers tip in or tap in. I usually hear tip in from broadcasters, but seem to recall a lot of tap ins here. TIPTAPALOA it is!
Sure, easy up until the NW, where I ended up googling a bunch of stuff that I knew was right, like Benjamin HICK, because I could not get the "Sends on" clue to work out and thought it had to be something wrong with the "Autobahn" clue, and was doubting everything, only to find out that what I didn't know was "Use PED signal", a sign which I have never seen anywhere in all my 51 years. They must have those in New York but they don't anywhere I've lived. I thought surely it had to be "red" signal, which is also not a sign I have seen, though I have seen lots of cyclists run red lights so I thought they might have a sign for that. So yeah, 6 minutes to get to that point, 30 plus google cheating to actually finish. Blah.
Hey All !
Fairly quick for me today. All the missteps y'all mention. Managed to change the TaPIN to TIPIN after realizing RESHIPS was the answer to 8D. YAY ME! 😁
HAW got a "haw" from me as clued. Had UnEMBASSY first, thinking what a smug country are we to not have a UN Embassy. Har. Once CHOSE became apparent, got a chuckle, saying, "Of course the US doesn't have a US EMBASSY!"
Never remember how to spell MASSEUSE. I got the MASS part, the EU tends to trip me up.
akin for TOLD in SW holding me up a bit. 38D, Some nursery buys, couldn't get Baby-related things out of the ole brain. Was saying, "who buys POTS for babies?" Good stuff.
Nice FriPuz. No THUDs.
No F's (Argh! There's a THUD!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
NW was brutal. Never heard of BABYSHARK or YANKEESWAP!
I must be older than my birth certificate indicates (81). Even if SUHWEET is a legitimate word, which of course it isn't, how does that relate to the clue "amazing"? "Sweet" doesn't suggest unusual, does it? If something amazes me, do I consider it sweet?
How does a DATE result from getting side-swiped? Is "side-swiped" millennial talk for "bumped into"?
For the sake of us old folks, I'd love to see one NY Times puzzle that uses the English language throughout. I'll send the constructor a bottle of his favorite beverage. Is that a "suhweet" offer?
inANYCase before ATANYCOST.
I've heard the term YANKEE SWAP [hazy mental image of some farmer's market type thing where Yankees swap home made honey for hand knitted sweaters, ETC] but didn't know it meant White Elephant, which is how we do our book exchange at my book club's holiday party (fun!!).
Funny to see TODAY ONLY so soon after Act Fast.
No idea on TIPIN, as usual, some sports thing, tried to make 8D RESHare but POSTHASTE made it clear that was wrong. So that section was a mess!
I'll post a speed limit sign if I see one while we're in Germany (but typically we don't bother with cars, just love public trans).
Thx for a fun Friday!
Delightful. So many great phrases.
Uniclues:
1 Sound of my brain every time I hear the first nine notes.
2 Auction attendee goal.
3 When an EMT is successful.
4 One in a steakhouse willing to give it a try.
5 Clarinet players.
6 Local establishment offering warmed up fish that seems like it might be ready to turn.
7 Like finally get it.
8 What my college girlfriends went on due to my house keeping skills.
9 Replaces the dingy with the Black Pearl at the museum.
10 Cats.
11 Those bumper stickers.
12 Prison uniforms for lads.
1 BABYSHARK THUD
2 MANET AT ANY COST (~)
3 SUHWEET RE-PULSE
4 BISON DAREDEVIL
5 REED MASSEUSES
6 B-GAME SUSHI BAR
7 BE ALL "OH NOW I SEE"
8 A-ONE STY DATE
9 RE-SHIPS DIORAMA
10 SIDE EYE PETS
11 HONOR ROLL RAVES
12 DETAINEE KILTS
Bob - The clue wasn't "Amazing," it was "Ah-may-zing!" Current slang is "Suhweet," for good/cool/terrific, nothing to do with sugar. Swiping right could lead to a date on the Tinder app. Swiping left, uh, no. I think we old folks (70 here) get plenty of clues from past decades. "Post haste" dropped right in there for me. Fair play.
Recall my husband telling me how fast he rode his motorcycle on the Autobahn when he was stationed in Germany because it had no speed limit. So no signs where he was and he was practically flying at a three digit number.
Bad guesses that fit at least for a while, In Any Case, With Haste, OK Now I see, Cabal (for Atoll, dumb), Tap In (dumber).
Worked this from the SE corner, north and west. NW corner was almost fatal, all I could remember was the dancing baby. We were easily amused then. Didn't know what that Swap game was called. Suffered through a few of them.
Now that I've retired to my home state just north of the South, Hick, I know a few.
@Bib Mills
I'm no millennial, but SUHWEET is a response to an unexpected and wonderful announcement ("I got the job after all, so I don't have to sleep on your couch!" "SUHWEET!")
The swiping thing refers to a dating app. You may have heard, " I swiped right". Never used one, but there are many, and it's been pretty common for awhile.
Pretty much look @wanderlust’s comments and that is me except the DIORAMA anecdote at end. Hand up for the brutality of the NW mainly due to YANKEESWAP. @burtonkd I must have missed that episode of The Office or the term flew right out of my head. I’ve only heard White Elephant and, um, my SIL says Dirty Santa but I’ve not heard another soul use THAT term.
@Bob Mills…hey…you have to work HARD these days to keep up with the lingo AND references. The “side swipe” refers to the Tindr dating app. Don’t ask me which is which but you swipe your phone one way to “reject” prospective date and another to “accept.”
Here in San Francisco, my wife's book club does that gift thing but she's never heard it called YANKEESWAP.
I also derailed in the NW, but that's not why I don't think much of the puzzle. Wednesday-level sparkle.
Jeff Chen explains the clue for DATE.
So while 10 billion people were watching BABY SHARK, whatever that is, I was doing...something else.
But while I was cursing and blaming the pop names in the NW corner where I crashed and burned today, my problems stemmed from some errors that had nothing to do with the PPP. IN ANY CASE instead of AT ANY COST paired with ADaPT rather than ADOPT (really bad, Nancy!) made it impossible for me to get to B GAME which I wanted. I also wanted EELED (what else could it be?) but what was "entire essence" ending in an "L"? I had no idea -- all I could think of was BEING. And of course I didn't know the Howard Stern person or the Beyonce song. Also I've heard of Secret Santa but not of YANKEE SWAP. What's that? (I did guess it, btw.)
Once I left the NW, I enjoyed this puzzle a lot. And it has one of the best clues ever: "Result of getting side-swiped, perhaps?" I had the "D" and waited to see if it would be DENT or DING. When the "A" came in from EAT, I was so frustrated. What on earth? And then...Aha! DATE!! What a brilliant clue. The fact that the right answer also begins with a "D" is a stroke of genius.
Also loved THE TALK.
But oh that NW corner. Pure misery for me. Probably not for you.
Back in the day, someone was bragging to me that their new server had one terabyte (an impossibly large amount at the time) of storage. I responded that there wasn't a terabyte of useful information in the world, a statement at which he laughed. Youtube's 300 petabytes of videos kind of leans into his assessment. I counter with this statement: That of the 300,000 terabytes of "Useful information", BABYSHARK's share has a place in the record book as most accessed? Nope, < 1 terabye of useful information in the world, hence in youtube. Except for the videos that enable me to make the repairs I need to make. Or the music I need to listen to. Or other instructions I find useful.
Also, a YANKEE SWAP appealing to Cashman would be John Carlos Stanton for anyone, anything.
SUHWEET? C’MON!
Just remember "LEFT" is "gauche" right is right.
To Georgia and Smith...Thanks for the feedback. I also had INANYCASE instead of ATANYCOST at first.
It strikes me that the language used on dating apps ("swiping" on a Tinder?) is relevant to a relatively small segment of the population (unmarried folks who favor the latest technology). Maybe that's a demographic group that the Times is appealing to at this time in history.
Easy except for putting in cTEAM for 1d which made the NW tougher than it should have been. Also YANKEE SWAP was a WOE.
Solid and smooth with a tinge of sparkle and some entertaining cluing, liked it.
Me too for TieD before TOLD.
Had BABYSKUNK, for way too long. Really fought for that extra U. Several nanoseconds were sacrificed.
staff weeject pick: KPH. No real big reason, but it seems to have evoked the most discussion, Comment Gallery-wise.
The long stacks in all 4 corners were certainly extra-clean. Liked, despite some crossin no-knows.
Thanks for the skunk-less fun, Mr. Distenfeld dude. Nice themeless job.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
p.s. Thanx for publishin yer runtpuz, @RP.
**gruntz**
Lewis: "My brain, which has a high work ethic, was revelling to that NW challenge."
While Lewis and I tend to enjoy the same kinds of wordplay-driven puzzles, our solving experiences are not always all that similar. He's a better, more versatile solver than I am, if the truth be told. But today our solving experiences -- NW corner vs everything else -- seem to have been very similar and it was our emotional responses to that experience that varied. His brain "reveled". My brain came close to bursting into tears. O my brain -- does that mean that your work ethic is not as high as Lewis's brain's is??
Uniclues:
1) What the billionaire thinks to himself at the art auction
2) "Damn! That's one really sharp thorn!"
3) "Therapy" porcupines and giraffes on a plane
4) Where I developed a bad case of salmonella
5) We normally treat hips and knees, but...
1) AT ALL COST MANET
2) POSTHASTE ROSE
3) SIDE-EYE PETS
4) B-GAME SUSHI BAR
5) ULNA TODAY ONLY
@jberg here. Back in the 70s thr West German government tried to install a speed limit on the autobahn, to deal with the gas shortage. That government fell. But as @Southside pointed out, the clue doesn’t mention a sign, so good enough.
I’ll come back later to discuss YANKEE SWAP, THE TALK, and dating apps.
The K and P are ok for Autobahn clue but not the H . Should be KPS if anything at all. ( not sure but doubt there would be such a sign .)
Nice Friday xword.
No real purchase in NW at first, but strong anchors in NE, then clockwise flow from there. Got back around to NW and able to complete with crosses for HICK.
Agree with general assessment of strong clueing and flowy fill. Fun solve.
Left the “I”/“A” square blank until obvious on TIPIN.
No idea in the NW for a while, but I got a start in the SE and built from there.
I never heard of YANKEESWAP either, and had to accept DATE without knowing why, though I did speculate in the right direction.
Now BEALL. I've heard “Be all end all” as more or less the ultimate example of a (desirable) thing. BEALL by itself? New to me, if it’s a phrase.
The thing for me is I like to find humor in the puzzle, either in theme or cluing. Still looking.
Watched BABY SHARK for the first time and am now one of the 12 billion people on the planet suffering from a doo-doo-doo-doo-doo-doo earworm. Watch this video at your own risk.
Great puzzle. Struggled like many others in the NW. My final downfall was 8D since I thought that the put-back shot was a tap-in and that the signal for bikes was red. That left me with a hopeless reshars. Bzzt.
The rest of this puzzle flowed like a river through paradise. Loved the clue for US EMBASSY and many of the entries, such as BRUNCH MENU, TODAY ONLY, and THE TALK.
It’s too bad that SUH WEET had to rear it’s ugly head again in this otherwise lovely grid.
Anon5:52, Gained purchase? I've run across that phrase but just looked it up. What an awesome clue/answer that would be.
"Easy" only if you knew ARTIE, HICK, KAT, and a German abbreviation.
. . . and what the hell is a PED SIGNAL??!!
Well I didn't exactly whoosh, but I sure did a fandango tango. I happily danced to the very end and only a few toes were stepped on.
Lets see...
A small whoosh through the fart right. SONOMA and its fine wines paved my entry. USEM BASSY was next. Hah! Finished up that little corner. Go back to the start. OK, so it's BGAME for 1D. That YouTube thingie starts with B. Oh, wait...I see SHARK and I add its BABY. This came from watching my Hadley Rose dance to it.
I danced all over the place and my favorite song was from the South. It was there that I did whoosh. I even spelled SUHWEET correctly and my favorite SUSHI BAR gave me all the acrosses. (is that word?)...
Back up to the main menu. AH...YANKEE SWAP. Yes. My friend and I play it every year although we never called it that. It was always "bring your little $10.00 gift time so that we can SWAP". "While you're at it, please refresh my eggnog."
Then we come to ThE tALK. I never really got one. My Mom figured that I probably knew it "all"....
So...We had horses on our small finca in Cuba. Stallions and mares. When you want to have a little foal to romp around, then they must do what they must do. At first, I almost fell out of our mango tree watching Dad's favorite stallion, Cebu, do his amorous dance with Mom's favorite Mare, Reina. They were both thoroughbreds and we wanted more horses. Anyway.. Cebu had the biggest largest you know what and he needed help from my Dad and his pals to put it where it was supposed to be put. My eyeballs flew out of my head. I was hiding in the tree and I think I stayed there till dinner time. Well, that's how I learned about THE TALK. After that little episode, I decided I wanted to become a Nun.
Fun puzzle and I did it all on my own....
Thank you. I love these. Especially “cats.”
Ed From Hackensack - that was a cute video of you and your daughter! Listened to the whole thing, very nice.
Loved the clue for DATE, and the clue for HONORROLL. both great misdirects. And MILK made me chuckle
Yeah, we do the White Elephant but YANKEESWAP was easy enough from the crosses. BABYSHARK? I remember left SHARK.
Easy Friday - was fun. But can we do away with SUHWEET. just kinda dumb
Same NW hassle. YANKEESWAP and HICK = WOES. Had to drag ARTIE out of the very hazy past.
For me, TIP IN is basketball (fits the clue) and TAP IN is golf.
Please make that the FAR right. Thank you.
Although I might agree with my first assessment.
“The fart right”? What is this, a new euphemism for the Q-anon folk?
I can’t figure out how the REM song/video (Talk About the Passion) ties into this puzzle. Great song, though; I enjoyed hearing it again.
Me too. I even had YANKEESWAP with no crossings, too, and RESHIPS. Flew through everything else, record time, then ... blam. Hit a wall in the NW. I think what really threw me off, though, is that I had IN ANY CASE, which I eventually changed to AT ANY RATE before finally getting it to AT ANY COST. Some bad luck combined with a some unknown PPP added up to big pain.
MetroGnome said...
. . . and what the hell is a PED SIGNAL??!!
I presume it refers to following the pedestrian signal when crossing the street.
I really liked Milk for spoiler alert but this was no way easy. I was relieved when I finished it.
Hands up for finding it very easy everywhere but the NW. However it was very difficult up there, as I knew none of these: BABY SHARK, ARTIE, YANKEE SWAP, HICK, or KAT.
And the reeking stinking turd that is KPH. Terrible crosswordese junk, with a completely inaccurate clue that screams "I don't give a s---; all I know is it's some metric thing, right?" Go ahead, Google for pictures of "Autobahn speed signs"... if you can find a single instance of a KPH that's actually in Germany, I'll give you a cookie. That's because a) they don't use that abbrev., and b) even if they did, they don't put it on their speed signs.
The rest of the puzzle was fine, but that KPH really spoiled it for me.
[Spelling Bee: yd 0, last word this 6er once again. QB streak 10 days!]
This was a fun, whooshy puzzle. I was only a few seconds off of my Friday best time, so if I hadn’t been slowed by the TaPIN mistake, I would’ve had it.
@Gill I. You made my day with your creative portrait of the upper right! I too thought it full of ��. And then you gave us THE TALK in a way I’ll never forget; can’t wait for what comes tomorrow ;^)
I had In Any Case also!
Tap-in is golf. Tip-in is basketball.
Well, if you east coast elites would just listen to the pundit Howard Stern you would have known his train-wreck sidekick was Artie Lange. That R got me ‘great idea’, which begat…
After finishing everywhere but the NW, and staring far too long without result, I gave in and revealed ARTIE, and that didn’t do it. Revealed the answer to Beyonce’s song and that (which I smiled and shook my head at) let me fill in the rest.
I was shopping at a thrift store in 2022 for a baby gift and saw a little beanie whose front looked like a small shark face. I wondered why, but it was so cute I bought it. Then my friend played BABY SHARK for me and that song was in my head for hours! Not sure I’d say that was a GREAT IDEA. Am assiduously trying not to recall it. Oh, okay, whew, a bit of Queen’s “Radio Ga Ga,” Live Aid version, has exorcized it.
C’MON: my go-to exasperated cry.
Favorite clue & answer: US EMBASSY. Runners-up: MILK and HAW.
Thanks, David, for an enjoyable solve!
@GILL (12:26)-- Your post is so much more fun than THE TALK. Maybe you can write (and illustrate!) a grade-school birds-and-bees book, using horses of course, that the fart right will then go on to ban.
I join those who thought this puzzle had plenty to recommend it for being an xword HONOR ROLL candidate. I'm not, however, looking for whoosh-whoosh, zing-zing, zip, pop and sparkle in the grid. I prefer interesting words and phrases crossing each other. Stuff like SIDE EYE, POSTHASTE, REPULSE, DIORAMA, EMPTY NEST and the like have me saying SUH-WEET! Casual conversational snippets like OH NOW I SEE, IS IT OK and PULL ASIDE, not so much.
Speaking of that last example, I think the grid was reasonable clean but it wasn't without a few demerits. The plural of convenience (POC) made several appearances, for example when PULL ASIDE wasn't up to the task of filling its grid slot.
One of the uber helpful two for one POCs, where a Down and an Across both get a letter count boost by sharing a final S, also shows up where a two-fer is most likely to occur, in the lower, right most square when both MASSEUSE and KILT needed a helping hand to do their job.
The letter count inflation (LCI) that got the biggest SIDE EYE was 8D RESHIPS. Adding the prefix RE- and the POCifying S gives a 75% letter count boost over the base word SHIP.
And then there's EELED.
But, again, my overall impression was that there was lots to enjoy and that this was definitely a notch above a B GAME puzzle.
Make that shopping several years before 2022, because my friend's grandchild is now three. Time certainly seems relative these days.
Pete,
Have you ever swapped aYankees stories in Great Bay with John Carlos Stanton?
Is he devoted enough to get up at 3AM to deal with dying quails? Or was it ducks?
Either way, what a feat. I know Giancarlo Stanton is still sound asleep at that hour owing as the Yankees play mostly at night.
Hi all - am I the only one missing our muse (Lauren that is). Hope she is well and just caught up in end of semester business.
So my question is, IS IT OK if this puzzle's BRUNCH MENU has POST WEET BRAN with MILK?
Good for all of you who had the “Rex’s Favorite Whoosh, Whoosh Friday” experience. I blame my snail-esque solve on the fact that I am still shaking off the a aesthesia and residual pain from a rather tough three level radio frequency spinal nerve ablation this morning and, as my extremely competent (and kind) physician opined (correctly, as usual) last week when he scheduled it, “this is going to be a tough one.” That’s my story and I’m stucking to it.
Anyway, my brain is broken and it took me from about 2 this afternoon to now to adjust my receiver to find even a sliver of David Distenfeld’s wavelength. And I lament my sad state because the word play and clues were clever. A few of the names were tough for me, but that’s what should happen on Friday. Now that I am at long last finished, and the happy music mercifully has played, my post-solve review says this is a beauty! Thanks, David. I look forward to your next opus and will hopefully have my aging wits about me!
The UK did switch legally to the metric system some time ago so the motorways would have those circles with the speed limit in km/h without an abbreviation like most places in the world (many older people in the UK still think in miles I am sure).
@Bob Mills 9:36. Several commenters have enlightened you as to SUHWEET dating apps. I’d like to focus on your concluding plea:
For the sake of us old folks, I'd love to see one NY Times puzzle that uses the English language throughout. I'll send the constructor a bottle of his favorite beverage. Is that a "suhweet" offer?
Well, no. It’s not SUHWEET at all to assume that any constructor capable of producing a puzzle that “uses the English language throughout” is male. I turn 70 in two weeks and am male, so don’t dismiss this criticism in a “Get off my lawn” spirit. But if you were to make any effort at all to stay informed about how our society, language and norms are evolving, none of your complaints would be necessary. Im sorry to call you out this way publicly, but your use of “his” really grated on me.
Oh. And I liked the puzzle. I think I saw Rex whoosh by me a couple of times out there.
Yankee swap is clearly regional. Northeast and especially New England I imagine. White Elephant appears to be Midwestern. Great name if you end up with something you don’t like!
I grew up (and still live) in Rhode Island.
My Italian American family did NOT do Yankee swaps and I never even knew of the concept, never mind the term. Over the many, many decades since I vaguely knew of the term but only recently have I experienced it. It is now a common term in RI used or understood by most people. Can see the complaints about kph but that was the first answer that came to me. Helped me solve the puzzle. BMW would have been a cleaner answer.
Liked the puzzles. Thought it very easy except hard NW.
Can someone explain how a DAREDEVIL is a hotdog?
Omg. @egs! I saw your last post! First.My husband and I are in Midwest but have VERY close friends in Poulsbo. Here’s the thing. I SO agree. I saw you didn’t have an email and THAT’S okay considering I’m not even BLUE. I HOPE you will know what I agree with. Peeps don’t necessarily read my stuff, but I may have made a similar remark recently…
Same here; I have never heard of Yankee Swap; Secret Santa and Dirty Santa, yes, but not this one.
First puzzle back from mini-vacation so hard to judge acccurately. Seemed like a lot of PPP that was clued as obscurely as possible (ARTIE Lange, anyone? See also ELISE, KAT, and HICK.)
Never heard of YANKEE SWAP. Googled it post solve and got completely innocent explanations, so not sure what Rex is getting.
Also, I think if your kid is a teenager, it's way too late for THE TALK.
REPULSE RAP
THETALK that ROSE and ARTIE tried
may BEALL that ARTIE gets,
“ISITOK to PULLASIDE
like your MASSEUSE when she PETS?”
--- ELISE REED
DNF: I had TaPIN instead of TIPIN and couldn’t figure out what RESHaPS meant. DOH!
Actually, the UK uses Miles and Gallons for speed and Petrol. But yes, road speeds in MPH is posted with numbers only.
Here we go again with this "easy" crap. This was not easy. The NW, as usual was "no idea" instead of GREATIDEA. I started in the SE. Yeah, built backwards, the old joke.*
I had endOW before ALLOW, and Dent before DATE. Different meaning entirely of "sideswipe." Couldn't figure out the extra square for lUNCHMENU--until the "DOH!" reaction of BRUNCHMENU. But many times, aren't brunches extended beyond 2?
ISITOK for a Friday? Sure. Hard enough--hear that, Fearless One?--and not containing any real groaners. Birdie.
Wordle par.
No, not easy. But not "super" hard. At least for this BABYSHARK. (get that song out of my head)
Yes, @Spacey, I had the endOW/ALLOW conundrum. And TOLD was another, since I had a different meaning in mind.
Diana, LIW
*"Nose runs; feet smell."
Stundenkilometer is what is Deutsch
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