.png)
Chicken soup and eucalyptus oil, for two / SAT 7-22-2023 / Long shot in sports / One who usually works an evening shift / Red dot in the middle of the forehead / Court in a courtyard, perhaps
Saturday, July 22, 2023
Constructor: Robert Logan
Relative difficulty: Hard
(Showing you the grid in my handwriting, eraser marks and all!)
THEME: None
Word of the Day: LIAR'S DICE (9D: Game with rolling and bluffing) —
Hi all, it's Rafa back again for another guest blog post. I'll be here again tomorrow, so I hope you're not tired of me just yet.
THEME: None
Word of the Day: LIAR'S DICE (9D: Game with rolling and bluffing) —
Liar's dice is a class of dice games for two or more players requiring the ability to deceive and to detect an opponent's deception. In "single hand" liar's dice games, each player has a set of dice, all players roll once, and the bids relate to the dice each player can see (their hand) plus all the concealed dice (the other players' hands). In "common hand" games, there is one set of dice which is passed from player to player. The bids relate to the dice as they are in front of the bidder after selected dice have been re-rolled. Originating during the 15th century, the game subsequently spread to Latin American and European countries. In 1993, a variant, Call My Bluff, won the Spiel des Jahres.
• • •
I found this puzzle to be very hard! I printed a PDF and solved on paper instead of my usual in-app solving, so I wonder how much that contributed. I always feel like I'm slower on paper, floundering around looking for the clues I want. The zippy experience of a digital solve feels nicer to me, but sometimes a change of pace is nice.
Onto the puzzle. I thought I'd make quick work of this (hubris!) after plopping in HOME REMEDIES with no crosses, but things slowed down after that! Eventually the top left fell (DEGAS was somehow my toehold, though art history is certainly not my forte), and the top half came decently easy. DOUBLE DOG DARE was totally new to me (have I been living under a rock?!) and my friend who was with me while I solved said TRIPLE DOG DARE felt a lot more familiar to her. Do we agree? Dissent? Let me know in the comments. LIAR'S DICE was also new to me (the rock over my home must be very large), but was easy to infer.
 |
| This is "L'Absinthe" by DEGAS |
I wasn't really getting anywhere in the middle, so I went to the bottom. Here, I *desperately* wanted ARTS AND SCIENCES. I wanted it so bad that I convinced myself that ARTS AND SCIENCE might be a thing (it is not) ... but eventually I accepted that it would be ARTS AND something else. I thought I was being so smart putting in ANTE for [What goes to pot?] (I was not) ... thankfully I was decently sure about BINDI and LATKES so things came together eventually.
 |
| I thought the clue was about this kind of seal, but it was not |
The center was brutal for me. I could not see HANG GLIDERS (beautiful clue, though!) ... and convinced myself that WIND GLIDERS or HAND GLIDERS might be the answer? My brain was in a weird place solving this. SIGNETS being totally unfamiliar to me and a devilish clue on VAIN did not make things easier. Also, and this is very specific to me, but Spanish in crosswords very often trips me up. I'm a native Portuguese speaker and the vocabulary is similar enough that I almost always just assume the words are the same. Glass in Portuguese is "copo" not "vaso" ... so that slowed me down a lot. Eventually SUSAN RICE came to the rescue.
 |
| Is a DOUBLE DOG DARE when two cute dogs make you do something? |
Anyhoo ... we got there eventually! This is a very impressive construction, at just 62 (!) words. (Themeless puzzles can go up to 72 words. In general, having more words (and words here mean total entries in the puzzle, not individual words) makes the grid more flexible and easier to fill.) There are a handful of compromises but really it's just ATWT, and maybe LETT and EDDA that gave me any pause. Plus there's a lot to love in the long stuff ... I MET SOMEONE and CARTWHEELS being highlights for me.
Bullets:
- 22A SNAFU: [Military acronym first used in W.W. II] — Surprised they chose to highlight the fact this is an acronym since the F stands for F%@&#D!
- 34D RIDERS: [Parts of some contracts] — Apparently a "rider" is a legal term referring to additions made at the end of an article. I had no idea. *Rock I live under grows*
- 27D HUSTLES UP: [Finds, and fast] — Is this a thing? I have never heard of this usage before. *Rock I live under grows even more and crushes me under its immense weight*
- 33D BONKERS: [Nuts or bananas] — Fun clue, and I immediately went to listen to Hollaback Girl after solving this puzzle.
Save And Share :
118 comments:
Rafa: re 24D: COPA would have been a valid Spanish answer
Very tough puzzle. Went with COL for inflation, rustled up, never heard of putting a dog in a double dare, etc. Corners came together but the middle was baffling. Had Cubano rather than Panama. Stuck with it a long time.
LIARSDICE brings back memories of the bar we used to go to in college. If you ordered a drink and said "Shake for it?", the bartender would bring out the dice boxes. We would usually play LIARSDICE with aces wild, sometimes Boss Dice. To give you and idea of what year this was, a bourbon and seven was fifty cents.
I remembered Condoleezza Rice, not SUSANRICE.
Very nice puzzle. Good crunch, good sparkle. Great clue for the wonderful BONKERS.
Nice writeup, Rafa, thanks! Next December when it's on TV, be sure to watch A Christmas Story. You will understand the Code Duello of dares.
My Spanish is rusty (ie, nonexistent), so my 24D beer glass was tAzO (cup) before it was VASO.
Because of the "bar" connection, I wanted 27A to be (something)GLassES
30A: you owe ME ONE -- which fit the space but not the clue -- before I MET SOMEONE.
My NBC correspondent (30D) was Richard iNGEL before he was ENGEL
Put me in difficult rating group for this puzzle. I did it over night instead of sleeping. Mind you this is after driving back all day from my uncles memorial service in PA and then staying up to get a Q B on the Fri SB. Even in the morning after sleep I think this would have been tough.
On first pass the majority of these clues gave me nothing. DEGAS and GALES sat by their little lonesome. I could see EEG, EDDA and SERENADE but had no way to support them.
LON and BINDI were gimmes but I can never remember if it's LETT or LaTT. LATKES I couldn't be sure of.
The center was my best shot. PANAMAS, ATWT, SSN, INGROWN and LINT all went right in but I was convinced the top of that stair stsck was PINTGLASSES. Whoda thunk you could make a kea/loa out of that and HANGGLIDERS but that's how devious that clue was. Eventually I erased the ASSES and SNAFU and SUDS came to the rescue. From that point on it all came smoothly but it was a long time coming.
Great Saturday puzzle.
yd -0
Double dog dare most commonly associated with Ralphie in a Christmas Story. That’s what prompted him to lick the lamppost and get his tongue iced on
As I was whizzing through this puzzle, I thought about all the people who complained that yesterday’s puzzle was too easy, and wondering how they’d feel about today’s much easier one. A couple of minutes faster than yesterday, for me.
Biggest holdup was having ARTS AND ... what? Crafts? No. Sciences? No. Had I just worked the short downs, LON would have made LETTERS come through. Instead I headed further east where BATHE/BINDE gave me a start to the SE and came at LETTERS from the end.
BONKERS is a fun word, and seeing it in the puzzle made me wonder about the etymology. I was surprised to find out that it is a very recent word (first uses are in the mid to late nineteen-forties), and of unknown origin.
Rafa, I totally agree about HUSTLES UP, so shrink that rock a bit. I had RUSTLES UP, but RANG GLIDERS didn't work, and eventually I figured it out. That R to H was my last square. HOME REMEDIES went in for me as well--it was my first answer--but the rest of the puzzle played tough. Loved the clues on I MET SOMEONE and CADET. Overall tough but fair--as you say, a beautiful puzzle.
"Double dog dare", IMO the best answer in this grid, is certainly recognizable as one step in the escalating sequence of intensity: "I dare you. I double dare you. I double dog dare you. I triple dare you. I TRIPLE DOG dare you." In this clip from A Christmas Story , the narrator comments on the breach of schoolyard etiquette in skipping the unqualified "triple dare" step.
Handsome - ultra low word count grid. I liked it - misdirects were fun and limited glue.
My SERENADE is a SOUL SERENADE
The center was the dark spot - INGROWN x SUSAN RICE glommed up that entire space - add the unfortunate AT. WT. + SSN stack and it gets ugly. Got a kick out of ARTS AND LETTERS crossing BONKERS. HOMAGE clue was pretty neat.
Enjoyable Saturday solve. Check out the center spanner in Stella’s Stumper today.
PANAMA Red
The "f" in snafu is "fouled" in some cases.
I think Rex would have termed this "easy medium", I had little difficulty and it was fun
FH
Clue for VAIN was a trifle unfair. 'Inflated'? It really needed something more like 'Inflated ego?' Liked the puzzle except for that area: PSI, VAIN, SIGNETS, INGROWN all a bit weak. A Natick of intersecting weaknesses. Liked the rest; thought it a fair challenge.
I was curious as to what LETT means, so I conferred with ChatGPT, which offered the following:
“The term "lett" is an archaic and sometimes derogatory term that was historically used to refer to the Latvian people. It was more commonly used in the past, particularly during periods of foreign occupation or when Latvians were subject to discrimination or prejudice.
However, it's essential to understand that using outdated or derogatory terms to refer to a group of people is not appropriate or respectful. The correct and respectful term to refer to the people of Latvia is "Latvians." Language evolves, and it's crucial to use contemporary and respectful language when addressing or talking about different ethnic or national groups.”
Interesting - I’m guessing that there is something more nuanced about LETT than just the pejorative interpretation, as I doubt the NYT would let something like that slip by - but who knows. Remember when Rex went BONKERS (rightfully so, btw) about an inadvertent derogatory term a couple of years ago?
Ugh. Where to start?
Yes it was a bit challenging -- and I finished -- but it left me confused and annoyed instead of satisfied.
Right away, having two fill-in-the-blanks drops this to gas station magazine levels of quality. Then there are a few bad clues: who refers to SUDS as "heady"? Weirdos. And if you're talking about the stuff on top of beer, that's not suds. Foam or maybe bubbles, but not suds. And before anyone says it, no, nobody calls beer itself "suds." It's not a thing outside of poorly acted b-movies from the 70s and 80s.
HUSTLE UP to find something? What? The correct answer to that is RUSTLE UP. There's no arguing that one. Hustle up means hurry up.
Who uses "inflated" to mean VAIN? You're so inflated you probably think this song is about you.... That deserves mockery.
The other annoyances might be acceptable in some universe, but I don't understand them. What do CARTWHEELS have to do with football? SOUL BROTHERS are part of your chosen family? Racist undertones aside, that doesn't even make sense. If I introduced my friends as my soul brothers I would be laughed at, and rightly so. I don't know why a COUPLET needs to be heroic. I'm pretty sure I could write a couple about a supervillain. No idea what a TREY is outside of unused terminology in playing cards. Never heard of LIARS DICE or ICED games.
Overall a terrible start to my morning. But venting helps.
The fact that the reference point for DOUBLE DOG DARE is a 40-year-old movie about events from 40 years earlier says all you need to know about its relevance today.
Ah, the Saturday wall. Where I come in with the great hope of heroically slicing through the resistance to a triumphant finish, only to be thwarted, turn after turn, and left standing, dazed, like a cartoon character surrounded by question marks and with a dark cloud overhead. Where my zealous quest morphs into me facing an iceberg with a small hammer and chisel.
And so today I, brimming with enthusiasm, face that gorgeous-looking empty grid, and soon enough, there’s that fiendish wall, and I realize I’ll be chip, chip, chipping away.
But today, for some reason, rather than aargh, I AMBLE. Let the chips fall where they may. Stroll rather than a struggle. Let answers come popping out rather than trying to rip them out from where they’re hidden. Throw the clock away.
My relaxed brain responds, sees answers previously opaque; over time, it hands me a progression of ahas, ohos, and I-sees to the finish. Sometimes this happens, where I sip rather than gulp and gag. And today it gave me what Saturday is meant to be, a deeply satisfying solve. BLISS.
Now, looking at the puzzle afterward, I admire its lovely answer set, its scrubbed-clean grid, and I praise the care taken to keep those well-crafted Saturday-tough clues fair. That is, the guts of this puzzle are as gorgeous as the grid design itself.
Thank you, Robert, for this most lovely creation, and for a very sweet outing today!
There is a version of LIAR’S DICE that you can play with dollar bills, using the serial numbers. Played in a bar if you don’t have dice handy. I wonder if it is dying out since most of us don’t carry cash anymore. I guess you could play with the numbers on a credit card, but only with people you know are not memorizing everyone’s card numbers for future larceny. Even THAT might die out soon as people move to paying for everything with their phones, and then with an iris scan or whatever.
This was very hard for me but appropriately so for a Saturday. Great feeling of accomplishment when I finished without cheats. Unlike for others, it seems, the bottom was easier for me. The middle wasn’t too hard (hand up for rUSTLES UP first, but HUSTLES UP is definitely a thing). Took forever to get traction on the top, slowed by sticking with lolLED instead of AMBLED for far too long. The clue for HOMAGE was devilish but great when I finally got it. I had the WHEELS part of 1 across and could not figure out how wheels get on a football field. Monster truck rally? When CART finally came, I thought it was a stretch - maaaaaybe a player might unintentionally do a cartwheel after getting hit. Then I thought, oh, cheerleaders, and all was right again. Dug up before DATED for archeological finds was another SNAFU. (@Gunner - “fouled” might be the preferred f-word for chaplains but probably not for anyone else in the military.) I still don’t quite see how a COUPLET is a heroic piece of writing.
Thanks for the guest blog, Rafa!
Nobody has ever used HUSTLESUP in that context ever in the history of the English Language. So you can remove that from your rock.
Thx, Robert; lots of SOUL in this one BROTHER! 😊
Hi Rafa, good to see you again; thx for your write-up! 😊
On the easy side of med., and SNAFU free. (hi @Gunner (7:13 AM))
Very much on the right wavelength today; unusual for a Sat. puz.
Granddaughters are ace CARTWHEELerS, something I could never master.
Hands up for 'A Christmas Story', and thx to @Anders (6:45 AM) for the link to the DOUBLE DOG DARE and Schwartz's ultimate triple DOG DARE. 🇺🇸
Very enjoyable solve! :)
___
On to Stella Zawistowski's Sat. Stumper. Looking forward to that spanner. 🤞 (hi @Son Volt (7:00 AM))
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Here's a link to the DOUBLEDOGDARE scene in A Christmas Story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mc6pk2FRhbA
Correct, except it was Flick who got his tongue stuck to the lamppost.
Never heard of ‘double dog dare’. Not a fun or pleasant solve.
I worked my way around getting nowhere, and then, PSI and Panamas, and then nothing again until bindi, brb, bathe, bliss, riders (I knew that law degree would come in useful one day - 50 years later). I then worked my way back around to the top left. Having spent the first 5 minutes with nothing, 21 minutes was not a bad time for a Saturday for me. Very good puzzle.
Great writeup Rafa! I think triple would've been acceptable, but DOUBLE DOG DARE is better (at least I went immediately to it when I figured it out from the back).
Puzzle was wonderfully challenging except for the middle which was just brutal. Culminating in what seemed like three unfair squares to me. It's rUSTLES UP. I don't care what the dictionary or anyone says. That was a fantastically terrible clue for HUSTLES UP. (Is this a local dialect thing?)
Then riNG GLIDERS are a thing you can google it. And I shouldn't have to be fluent in Spanish and that inscrutable clue on VAIN left me with *iSO and *AIN. Something felt wrong, but I wasn't changing rustles to hustles for anything, because nobody I have ever spoken to would use that, ever.
Terrific puzzle overall, great job, Robert. But, man, that clue on hustle really ruined it for me. That would suck if it was an editorial change.
Vain = inflated ?
I was thrown by “hustles” up. I always thought it was “rustles” up, with an ‘r’. And I thought vain=inflated was a stretch
Starcanating in the SE, which I left in a hurry (fairly easy, also too hot, politics) and went left, up, across, and up, ending in the NW, where DEGAS and GALES finally opened up the long horizontals.
Hand up for the RUSTLED/HUSTLED correction. Also CALLED before DIALED. I thought DIALED had died a digital death. Guess not.
My first thought for a beer glass was a "cana" (tilde over the n), which is how I used to order a draft in Spain. Thought it was a little obscure and VASO was so obvious it took a while to to occur to me. Duh.
Thought this was a properly chewy Saturday with just the right amount of misdirection in the clues. Nicley done, RL. I Really Liked your offering, and thanks for all the fun.
On to the Stumper, since my morning is free.
Hey All !
That NW corner was my sinking spot. It DOUBLE DOG DAREd me not to cheat, but alas, I went to Goog to look up stuff. Couldn't get DEGAS (unsophistication strikes again!), plus the TREY and RELOS clues were not getting figured out. (TREY as clued? Somebody explain?)
Also, one-letter DNF at gAIN/gASO. VAIN didn't occur to me. Trying to keep the ole brain functional. Seems to be getting tougher. Especially in the SB, man, just keep missing easy words. I mean, easy words, like cocoa.
Anyway, cool whirli-que Blockers. HANG GLIDERS quite a stretch of a clue. ARTS AND LETTERS new here. coldREMEDIES before HOME. earlEsS before SIGNETS.
SNAFU and FUBAR are closely related...
EEG, sneaky! Wanted ESP there.
Happy Saturday!
One F (in for a naughty word!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Might be a personal record for the LONGEST time it’s taken me to solve a Saturday, but I felt good when I finished. :) The grid design made it hard, and the clueing was really tough. LOVED soul brothers, I met someone and doubled dog dares (I’ve definitely heard “I double dog dare you”). Best Saturday puzzle in a long time.
For those who are curious, a heroic couplet is a thing—it’s a couplet written in iambic pentameter.
Is the grid a soccer ball? If not at least my mind wanted it to be...thanks to many hours of viewing the Women's world cup. Go USA!!
Was just reading through the comments, and noticed that I began mine with "starcanating". I would explain that, except I have no idea what I wanted there. I'm guessing "starting", but I kind of like "starcanating", and will try to find an opportunity to use it again.
If Lewis @ 8:01 is thwarted, do I dare?
Wow, a tough Saturday! Most of the answers made sense and brought a smile when I finally got them, esp. HANGGLIDERS. I ran the alphabet twice at _AIN/_ASO, then finally gave up and hit reveal letter and slapped my head bc they were both ultimately inferable vaso is only one letter off from vase, which is the same shape and material as something to serve beer in. VAIN doesn't seem to match grammatically, but I see the connection. If I don't get the answer by letter P in an alphabet run, I think I panic.
Speaking of VAIN, I'm not sure I'm allowed to use Lewis' TM puzzpair, but I think the clue was there because of the measure of inflation for PSI just above.
I agree with Mack and call a penalty on including "football" in the field. Field with turnover in itself would imply sports as a misdirection, but by adding football, it needs to have something to do with that specific sport; which it does not, unless something has gone horribly wrong - SNAFU.
DICEPOKER fit so nicely for 9D, that it mucked things up for a while.
My 1787 compromise was with the SENeca tribe, which at least gave me 3 correct letters - we still need a name for that, I believe.
Of all the things _____ hair could be, INGROWN was not in my top at 25, ingrown is for toenails, unless growing a beard.
There ya go. Finish up the week with a good one-two punch of themeless beauties. Normally I dread the Friday and Saturday slog, but these two were fun.
I read every clue and only had EDDA and STEEL TOE so I looked up SUSAN RICE and then almost everything dropped into place.
For the life of me, I get waylaid by BINDI every time. I didn't know the wrinkle on the EDGAR award. I associate absinthe with Toulouse Lautrec and had never seen the DEGAS. LETT/LATT how do you know? LIARS DICE wha? Thanks to Rafa for the WOTD.
Fun long entries. Cool grid. Not as tough as many Saturdays so I'll celebrate with coffee cup number 2.
Uniclues:
1 Taylor Swift childhood goal.
2 Note from delusional companion unlikely to return anytime soon.
3 Anything Guy Fieri is in.
4 Succeeds in real estate.
5 Perform basement pre-bedtime musical.
6 Mythical beasts who whack politicians on the head when they say something stupid.
7 Those on the penny ponies outside the grocery store.
1 EMPLOY ARENAS
2 I MET SOMEONE. BRB.
3 MANIA HOMAGE (~)
4 HUSTLES UP RELOS (~)
5 SERENADE SITTER
6 SENATE BONKERS
7 SAFER RIDERS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Semi-useful command when the cheese acts up. LISTEN TO ME FETA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
VAIN is NOT a synonym for "inflated." "Rustles up" fits the clue, NOT HUSTLES UP. I get the connection between "drafts" and the wind needed to hang glide, but where does "bar" fit in?
I think this puzzle included deliberate attempts to mislead solvers.
Loved the writeup, Rafa!
A TREY is a three-pointer - a long shot - in basketball
You sent me to the dictionary on that one! I like it too but you have to come up with a definition for it. Metaphorically navigating by the stars? “I was really starcanating today in the NW - pretty much sailing blind” ?
I think the clue for cartwheels is defensible, when you consider that it's something cheerleaders would do during football games, as opposed to other sports.
I really don't like VAIN=inflated so all the reasons outlined above.
Oh, also to those asking about COUPLET... You aren't wrong, the clue is. A couplet is just a couplet. A couplet written in iambic pentameter is a heroic couplet. So, great clue for IAMBIC PENTAMETER COUPLET (or something to that effect). Completely inaccurate clue in this context.
The answers actually hint at two EDGARS: Edgar DEGAS, and, obliquely by way of SUSAN, Edgar RICE Burroughs.
This was a nifty challenge. I impulsively entered COMFORT FOODS for 11a, knowing it was most likely wrong (oil is not a "food") but I put in AMBLED off the M; then DEGAS was a gimme, but so much for the upper half. So I shifted down below. Had better luck with the SE corner then worked my way around the lower half and back upward. Like everyone else I had to change RUSTLES to HUSTLES (which I do recognize as a phrase). The very top was the last to fall in, once I saw HOME REMEDIES.
I rarely drool over clues, but those for SERENADE and HOMAGE were good. Finally, a weekend puzzle I really enjoyed solving.
@Wanderlust, I've played the dollar bill serial number bar game, we called it Liar's Poker.
"Yeah I did, but lemme tell you what happened..."
Yup, rAN_GL at 27A was worrying since I expected the GL to lead into GLasses and that would cause a dupe with 24D's clue. Luckily LIAR'S DICE was easily gotten from its ending CE so I could rest easy that no dupe was in store and it helped me get the HUSTLE from my rUSTLE.
Overall, this was pretty easy and smooth for a Saturday but the very top gave me fits. Since when is a COUPLET heroic? That's new to me but obviously a thing (after a post-solve Google search anyway). With aMa as Kaiser's grp. and thinking Make one might be bED, for one of those imperative clues (never mind that those are usually in the form of XXXX it! and this was missing the it and the !) I saw 4D might be TREY but what long shot was that? I wasn't thinking of basketball because I try to never think of basketball, my least favorite sport. Eventually I threw in the C and T at 1A and came up with the CARTWHEELS, something everyone associates with football, I'm sure.
Robert Logan, nice sophomore effort, thanks.
Yes, hard. And I loved it.
My biggest hangup was STEEL Tip instead of STEEL TOE -- so I really struggled in that section. And I didn't know what HUSTLES would lead to. Never thought of HUSTLES UP. If I hadn't waited for crosses, I would have had HAPPENS ON in that spot.
Would that museum be devoted to DAli or DAda?
I've heard of LIARS poker but not LIARS DICE.
"Inflated" was the hardest answer for me. I had -AIN (or -AYN) and, would you believe, I ran the alphabet to get VAIN.
I didn't know if it would be SIGNETS or CYGNETS.
Wasn't I MET SOMEONE a nice surprise when it came in?
I finished feeling very, very smart. No junk fill -- only a lot of real thinking to do. The kind of challenging puzzleI look forward to on a Saturday.
Ha ha ha laugh out loud review! Was expecting to come here and read Rex complaining about the lack of zip and zippiness.
I thought it was hard too. Finished in 56 minutes though YAY me. I'm living under a few rocks myself!
@bob Mills 10:18 I think to hang glide, you hold onto a bar thing.
What is an ICED game???
A Heroic COUPLET consists of 2 rhyming lines of iambic pentameter (“da-DUH da-DUH da-DUH da-DUH da-DUH”)
Very common in poetry from Chaucer on. “When I behold a rainbow in the sky/ I squint my eyes and wonder where it might lie” (apologies to Wordsworth—I made up the second line to show the rhyme scheme, and variation of meter in “wonder where”- a dactyl replaces the 3rd and 4th iambs)
It can get a bit monotonous if used too long; often just the 2 lines in Shakespeare: The time is out of joint, O cursed spite. That ever I was born to set it right! -Hamlet
Bob Mills (10:18). You write, "I think this puzzle included deliberate attempts to mislead the solver." You've got to be kidding.
D'oh! moment: thinking of a sand'bar' as a good place for HANG GLIDING, rather than control 'bar'. 🤣
Re: HUSTLES UP:
First thot was rUSTLES UP, but that evoked food, so the 'H' came with the cross. 'Hustle' was one of my go-to words when coaching. HUSTLES UP, in the context of the clue, required some out-of-the-box thinking. I now think I like it, esp ChatGPT's take:
User:
"Can you explain (and use), "hustles up", in the context of 'finds, and fast'?"
ChatGPT:
"In the context of "finds, and fast," "hustles up", means someone quickly finds or acquires something. The phrase suggests that the person is proactive and efficient in obtaining what they need.
Example:
Whenever we run out of office supplies, Sarah always hustles up more before anyone even notices.
In this example, Sarah is described as someone who is proactive and resourceful. When office supplies run low, she takes immediate action to find or acquire more, ensuring that the team has what they need without any delays. Her ability to "hustle up" the supplies demonstrates her efficiency and initiative in resolving the situation."
User:
"Compare and contrast "hustles up" and "rustles up"".
ChatGPT:
""Hustles up" and "rustles up" are both idiomatic expressions that involve the action of obtaining or acquiring something, but they are used in slightly different contexts and have distinct meanings:
Hustles up:
• Meaning:
To quickly find or acquire something, often through proactive and efficient efforts.
• Usage:
It is commonly used to describe someone who is resourceful, active, and skillful in obtaining what they need without delay.
Example: "Before the guests arrived, she hustled up some snacks and drinks for the party.
Rustles up:
• Meaning:
To prepare or gather something, especially food or a meal, often in a makeshift or informal manner.
• Usage:
This phrase is frequently used when someone improvises to create a meal or gather food in a simple and quick way.
• Example:
With limited ingredients in the kitchen, he managed to rustle up a delicious dinner for everyone.
In summary, "hustles up" emphasizes quick and efficient acquisition, while "rustles up" highlights resourcefulness in preparing or gathering something, particularly in the context of food or meals."
___
hustle up
phrasal verb
hustled up; hustling up; hustles up
US, informal
: to quickly get or find (something)
I'll try to hustle up some tickets to tonight's game.
Let's see if we can hustle up some lunch. M-W
Google Books Ngram Viewer has 'hustle up' far outpacing 'hustles up' and 'hustle it up', altho, the context of 'hustles up' varied widely, and AFAIK, none matched today's clue.
Bottom line for me:
I liked the clue, the answer and it's application. Learned something new! 🤔
@pabloinnh (10:06 AM)
"starcanating"; that's a beaut! Wouldn't be surprised to see it catch on. 🤣
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Paradise and bliss are also not synonymous.
Perfect Saturday puzzle. Great construction and nifty clueing.
20d had EARLESS for some seals. Got to SIGNET eventually.
13A fans of Christmas Story all know about the TRIPLE DOG DARE, so that one threw me.
Overall fun and dopamine inducing 55:25 experience.
A skosh more difficult than medium for me. It was tough getting started, I was looking at a blank grid for more than a few nanoseconds. DEGAS, EEG, HMO, and SNAFU finally got me rolling. Solid with a bit of sparkle, so just about right for a Saturday, liked it
“Heroic couplet” is a literary term
It is often outsiders who decide a term is offensives, not the members of the referenced group, who often continue to use the term among themselves.
For anyone who wants to impress, please be sure to pronounce my last name as DE-gah and not DAY-gah. There is no accent aigu over the -e- . Merci.
Cup in Spanish is tasA
Excellent puzzle that had me taking breaks and coming back to some welcome eurekas. It’s funny how sometimes I just need to “clear the field” a bit to figure out the very clever misdirection of some clues. I really like this on a Saturday when I have time to do just that.
Within the overall excellence of the puzzle I did have some of the same “nits” as others, most notably HUSTLESUP because I’ve just never heard that used, but then again “rustles up” only seems right in MY context of saying “I’ll rustle up some grub.” In fact, I have no saying for something like this and would likely say “Hurry up and find your damned car keys or we’ll be late”! With respect to HANGGLIDERS…hmmm…perhaps a wee bit too niche in that you HAVE to know that you hold onto a bar. I KNEW that because many MANY years ago I witnessed a male friend crash one coming off of a sand DUNE (not bar).
TIL that VASO means glass in Spanish. My knowledge of “cerveza” of course comes from my favorite summer beer Corona Extra.
OK, TREY has been explained, so has CARTWHEELS (the cheerleader thing), HUSTLES UP has been defended, all that's left for me is to let @puzzlehoarder know how to remember LETTS--this heroic COUPLET from the song "Let's Do It"
"In Spain the best upper sets do it
Lithuanians and LETTS do it"
(Those lines are entirely iambic, so maybe it's not really heroic.)
Incidentally, Wiki calls the term archaic, but does not say it's derogatory. No idea, myself.
My overall experience was that the puzzle felt harder than it actually was, because of the grid design. Working the crosses from my first entry, HOME REMEDIES, I filled in the whole top and then found myself looking at
IDERS
ICE
E
It was like starting over. If I'd remembered SUSAN RICE, it would have been fine. Instead, I plunged into the blank vastness, came up with PANAMAS and SIGNETS, and could see HANG GLIDERS, though I had no idea what the bar had to do with it -- to my shame, I've never engaged in the sport. I would probably have to spend considerable time at the bar before I dared try it, I suppose.
It was a little easier to get into the bottom section, because it's easier to work from the fronts of words than from the ends -- but like everyone else I started to write in ARTS AND sciences, and just quit at the science when there was not room for the s. (I got my BA from the College of Letters and Science, for another variant.) I also had the pot bOIL, though that didn't work grammatically.
An usually large number of commenters today are complaining because some clue is not an exact definition of the answer. Remember, it's a clue! Not a definition!
Have a good weekend, all. I firmly intend not to get back here until Monday.
My first thought: Boy did Robert go out of his way to make the cluing insane.....
My beloved 1A and 1D. I left you behind...you meant nothing to me.
I had to find something I could at least dance with...There ya go! PANAMAS and VASO. By the way @Anony 5:06...Had Robert clued it as a glass for "un vinito" then COPA would have made sense. Here, he wants you to drink some beer in a VASO.
I was finally smart for a short while...Those two answers helped me to remember SUSAN RICE. The middle got done but it was like pulling teeth from an ALLIGATOR.
Then I began to get mad at some of the clues: A Musical Unit at 26A is a SET?????? Don't get me started on 27A. That is truly one of the most far out into space clues for HANG GLIDERS. Here's the thing...I actually got it. May I also mention big HUH'S? Musical unit..> SET? Fad suffix...>MANIA....Headache.
So the bottom I was able to finish easier than the top. I reluctantly climbed back up to finish. CHEAT. CART WHEELS????? you've got to be kidding...COUPLET? I'm not sure how that's a heroic piece of writing...
Bottom line: Hard Saturday that tried even harder to make this as hard as hard gets. No real fun for me. I want to dance a bit but instead I sat by myself wishing for a "copita de vino."
Real cool puzgrid design, what with the Jaws of Themelessness and them two long themeless tentacles. Catches yer attention.
Only 62 words, but 40 black squares (12 of which thanx to the Jaws). Of the 8 longest answers, 7 of em were POCs, so @AnoaBob will have words with that.
Fun themeless solve, with about medium harshness for a SatPuz, at our house. HOMEREMEDIES definitely got m&e off the ground, in the upper-third region. DOUBLEDOGDARES sounds ok to the M&A ears, btw.
staff weeject pick: EEG. Clue suckered m&e into goin with ESP briefly, but fortunately there was some HOMEREMEDIES to fix that.
No overwhelmin no-know threats, which sure helped. All I recall was: BINDI. VASO.
some faves; BONKERS. LIARSDICE. LON Chaney, for that nice hint of schlockiness.
Thanx, Mr. Logan dude. Nice job.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
I think the BAR is what one HANGs onto when one =HANG Glides.
I still use that term more for a laugh vs any real challenge…
@bocamp-I'm pretty sure my "cana" beer glass thing somehow made its way into an unwanted place. Sometimes beer will have that effect.
@EdgarD 11:59 – I had a high school art teacher who pronounced your name "Day-gar". She tacked an "r" sound on the end for some reason. She also said "Ren-wahr" for Renoir. She didn't say "Mo-nair" or "Van Gore" though.
My word of the day was BLISS - a very hard puzzle that I was able to solve. I had so few "for sures" to start - EDDA, PSI, SSN, BINDI, DRE, LETT (plus WED and BRB that I didn't trust and so erased). First step into some traction: HOME REMEDIES from EDDA, then more from PSI x PANAMA, and finally LATKES from LETT -- all together just enough to keep me fighting my way into new territories. Last in: CARTWHEELS x EEG.
The entries are so, so good, and the clues deserve their own HOMAGE. Biggest surprises for me: CARTWHEELS, HANG GLIDERS, I MET SOMEONE. A great puzzle, and all I want in a Saturday.
Do-overs: aMa before HMO, AREoli (I know!) before ARENAS), rUSTLED, GLasseS before GLIDERS. Help from previous puzzles: Baryshnikov's birthplace.
Starcanating from the very beginning today. Looked at the swirling grid of looonng entries and knew it was going to be a tag team Saturday. And so it evolved that coffee & a gentle breeze off the lake made for a great morning for us old folks who were familiar with the terms that caused poor Rafa to bury herself under her cairn. Today, No rappers or obscurata texting entries which cause our usual attempts to HUSTLE UP a rock for hiding under. Nice write up of a really engaging grid by Robert, so thanks to both 👍🏼
CARTWHEELS to start, HANG GLIDERS to sail down the page and EPICENTERS to end with a bang….hard to ask for more!
I don’t understand this one either. Help!
Man, this was a toughie for me, took just over 1/2 hr -- the south fell pretty easily, but the center and north took some real doing.
Having coldREMEDIES (the very first answer I typed!) tripped me up for a while, and I was convinced that the painter had to be Toulouse-Lautrec, which of course did not fit. Finally decided just to pick a five-letter French painter, and was lucky enough to choose DEGAS, which made all of its crosses fall pretty easily into place.
Only other real issue was HANGGLIDERS, which I had in for the longest time as r_n_GLasseS, convinced that the answer would be some kind of special beer glass, a la a pilsner glass or a tulip glass, that was only used for a select few drafts on tap, so that was... a very successful misdirect. SERENADES came crashing down and finally disabused me of that notion, and after I reluctantly changed rUSTLESUP to HUSTLESUP, that was the ballgame.
Iced gamw???
An nusualmoment of internet connectedness here in the smoke-laden wilds of British Columbia.
Just to avoid offending anyone, shouldn’t 45A be ARTSANDLATVIANERS?
I grew up trading DOULBLEDOGDARES with every kid I know. I still use it when the occasion demands. Which is not infrequently. Its use in A Christmas Story is effective because everyone (with the exception of all commenters on this blog) grew up using it.
I got a flat yesterday, so I had to re-VAIN my tire.
Loved the puzzle. Thanks, Robert Logan.
For Mathgent: Not kidding at all. Think of all the ways VAIN could be clued, and then explain to me how "inflated" fits in. Not even close to synonymous. RUSTLESUP is a perfect answer to "Finds, in a hurry," but HUSTLESUP isn't even a real phrase, let alone accurate.
When a false clue is used in place of a logical clue, that's deliberately misleading.
There was a lot to like in this one, but I also struggled with DOUBLE DOG DARE and LIAR'S DICE. Had never heard of either term. So at least I learned something...
Brutal; hardest in quite a while for me. Had to Google the Sue Grafton award, really: EDGARS? That's pretty tough. CPI before PSI, and EARTHQUAKE before EPICENTERS, singular notwithstanding.
[Similarly, Spelling Bee: Fri -3, 7 day QB streak crashes head on into a massive pylon. Not my day yd!]
I looked up "ICED game". There are a lot of videos that I will not watch. Ever. But apparently R Logan has. Terrible clue, but given the crosses...
Oh and @egs, you're in the wrong part of BC. Perfect crystal clear blue skies here in the Okanagan! (but hot, forecast 36C / 97F today)
A Saturday that I completed in ink fairly rapidly, with no overwrites! This, even though I never, ever, heard of DOUBLEDOGDARES, LIARSDICE or Richard ENGEL (at least I learned nothing). "Heroic" seemed not to relate to 1D, even though it had to be COUPLET. Much other challenging cluing, e.g., for RELOS, EDDA, SENATE, SUDS, HOMAGE, VAIN, SNAFU - just for beginners.
Another post claimed that this constructer clued to deliberately mislead the solver. Oh my! (wink, wink)
@Bob Mills (12:58). I get it. Most clues are misleading, but some are unfairly misleading.
EEG is NOT "mind reading." An EEG scans the brain; the brain is NOT the *mind." That's not misdirection; it's flat-out misUSE of words and terminology.
VAIN for 'inflated' was a stretch and then some: poor clue.
What 'games' are, technically, ICED? What does that mean?
Ditto Bob Mills: there is no such phrase as 'HUSTLESUP'.
For any who are not familiar with the two military based acronyms… Situation Normal: All F*****d Up = SNAFU; and the closely related FUBAR = … Beyond All Recognition
Nice writeup, Rafa! I wonder what the big guy would have said about this one. He would not have been so kind, I'm sure.
I finished this one with no lookups, and it was hard. Not as hard as yesterday's, but as I always say, Fridays are usually much harder for me than Saturdays. I was bouncing all around the grid, looking for a toehold wherever I could find one. I put in ESP instead of the far more appropriate EEG. I immediately wrote PANAMAS, then spent AGEs wondering if I was wrong, because ATWT did not come to me. My last physics class was in 1961. For some reason, I thought CADET couldn't be right -- aren't CADETs a Navy thing? Then I remembered that most generals start as CADETs at West Point.
My favorite clue: the one for IMETSOMEONE. My least, because I don't understand it at all, was for HANGGLIDERS. What is this bar they are at? The ones I have seen are on clifftops overlooking the Pacific Ocean. You'll see them at the SW corner of San Francisco, and other places with prevailing onshore winds.
About halfway through my solve, I was kinda angry at the puzzle for being so difficult, but then I kind of got the wavelength of the constructor and by the end I had kinda forgiven it. Tough but rewarding.
Probably too late for anyone else to read this but reading all the HUSTLE/rUSTLE comments reminded me of how some folks describe the Arabic “bukra” as being much the same as the Spanish “manana” but without the same sense of urgency. HUSTLE seems in some senses a hyped-up rUSTLE.
I believe it is informal for clinched. E.g. They clinched/iced the win/game. It didn't feel perfect to me, but close enough for a tough Sat clue. 🤷♂️
Two great puzzles two days in a row!
Whose clue is it? In my experience, editors will ask constructors to make revisions and resubmit rather than making changes to grid entries. They will, on the other hand, freely make changes to clues. So without direct knowledge it's impossible to assign responsibility for clueing.
Crossword constructor---and solver---extraordinaire Tyler Hinman provided a handy way for solvers to resolve this issue. If you like a clue in one of his puzzle, give him credit; if you don't, blame the editor!
Yeah, Masked One, I can't unsee this stuff. The entire upper half of the puzzle is an HOMAGE to how grid fill helpful POCs (plural of convenience) can be. They are all over the place.
For any POC scoffers out there, I DOUBLE DOG DARES you to try this demonstration. Draw up a 4X4 grid and fill it in without using any plurals. Now start over and put an S in the lower right hand square and fill again. Compare the difficulty of each. I'm betting you will have a QED experience.
@Wanderlust
(Great blogname, BTW, in case I never told you! [Which I haven't...])
Thanks for the explanation. I knew a TREY was a three-something, but couldn't wrap the silly brain around the clue. Maybe it was too busy starcanating.
RooMonster Brain Wave (Goodbye) Guy
Funny, I often find that I’m opposite of the general consensus on easy/hard. This one was very easy for me (14 minutes under my average). I guess I clicked with the constructor on the long clues — got HOME REMEDIES immediately and everything else went quickly from there.
p.s.
@AnoaBob -- Yep, that's definitely about how the POC cookies generally crumble, in Runtpuz Land.
Do find an occasion (desperate) exception, like this puppy:
**gruntz**
M&A
A game is ICED if there is not enough time remaining and the discrepancy has just been raised enough to effectively eliminate any opportunity for the losing team to come back and win. Common in Basketball. It refers to an individual match not to a type of contest or sport.
An EEG doesn't scan the brain. It measures brain activity, which one could argue IS the mind.
There are a lot of bad clues in this puzzle, but I think this one actually works.
If you’re going to correct OP, it’s actually taza
Believe cartwheels refer to how some players celebrate a touchdown
To be exact isn’t it taxable?
Fouled is a euphemism for the obscenity in question not the original expression by any means. If you knew any WW II veterans you would know the original word was an important part of their vocabulary at least while in the service. It was immediately changed to fouled by the press of the time but I am sure even then most knew what was intended.
However, by now the word is no longer connected to the original meaning. It is just a word. Many might not even know that source. It meant a f$@kup in WW II in a sarcastic way, often without abbreviation- now it is much milder. That is why it is acceptable for the puzzle.
Thanks for the discussion. Interesting.
I wouldn’t bet on that!
Inflated ego is what the clue is getting at. It is a hint NOT a definition or a synonym. And it is Saturday. Same with bliss.
Inflated ego makes me think that the clue is fair. But that’s a matter of taste.
Bocamp at 11:20 AM has a detailed explanation of why hustle up is valid ( better than rustle up which is associated with food)
That’s not a matter of taste.
Just because you haven’t heard of it etc.
There is a question mark! It warns you that the clue is playing games
Close enough for crosswords especially when you’re warned.
See Bocamp at 11:20 AM re hustle up.
Also common expression the team iced the game. Equals sewed up the game.
Your dogs are killing me with the cuteness!
Uh, just to verify, did you confirm that somewhere besides ChatGPT? ChatGPT is pretty prone to hallucinating facts; I’ve gotten it to make up fake government links before with very little prompting.
@maverick 10:36 am – but the clue just means that a "heroic couplet" is a thing. It doesn't imply that heroic describes all couplets.
My slowest time in weeks, but not unpleasant. Didn’t know many of the proper nouns, but figured out a few of the long crosses without many verticals thankfully.
Had A VISIT before homage which held me up a long time. Cubanas before panamas (I don’t know my hats). Never even heard of “Lon” being a name, let alone this specific one, and ENGEL only rang the faintest of bells. Thankfully pulled Susan Rice out of the recesses of my brain with only one or two crosses.
CPI before PSI was another Hangup. Don’t understand what’s heroic about couplets. Never heard of liars dice. Just not my day, but still enjoyed it.
coffee cup is taza, glass for something like beer is vaso, wine glass is copa
I disagree. I think for that to be true it would need a ", maybe" ", perhaps" ", sometimes" or something to that effect. As clued, for me, it clanked.
But, it's a Sat and I understand extra misdirection (adding the extra hedging would have made it so much simpler because you could have just imagined a heroic topic and not the specific form), so I won't complain about it too much. And respect if you liked it. 🤷♂️
Got stuck a long time on PPI - Producer Price Index, as the inflation measure. Since SIGNETS was not super obvious.
Hardest Saturday in a long time. Finished, but with a lot less hair on my head.
I was suprised to see the puzzle rated as hard until I saw it wasn’t Rex doing the write up. Rex rarely if ever admits a puzzle is hard even when everyone else thinks it is.
INGROWN COUPLET
IMETSOMEONE who DATED
AGED BROTHERS, a BONKERS pair,
space CADETs who SERENADEd
her to WED on a DOUBLEDOGDARE.
--- SUSAN ENGEL
One LETTER write-over; my pot went to bOIL instead of SOIL going to pot. SITTER fixed that.Another nice puz.
Wordle birdie.
Pretty hard Saturday for me. Great clues and answers. A lot of uninformed(stupid) opinions on the blog today. But after Thursday's puzzzzzzzzzzzzzzle, this was a piece of cake.
A tale of two puzzles. North: It was the best of times. South: It was the worst of times. DNF. Just could not get anything going down there.
Wordle birdie...but what was the SB pangram??
BINDI was the only one I truly didn't know. Bit by bit I got it.
Diana, LIW
Post a Comment