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Defeater of Jörmungandr / FRI 7-21-23 / Boundary for first and goal plays / Heroine of novels set at Lilac Inn, Shadow Ranch and Red Gate Farm / Towers from which muezzins announce calls to prayer / Group cultivated by a recruiter
Friday, July 21, 2023
Constructor: Robyn Weintraub
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: Big SUR (22A: Big part of California?) —
Big Sur (/ˈsɜːr/) is a rugged and mountainous section of the Central Coast of the U.S. state of California, between Carmel and San Simeon, where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. It is frequently praised for its dramatic scenery. Big Sur has been called the "longest and most scenic stretch of undeveloped coastline in the contiguous United States", a sublime "national treasure that demands extraordinary procedures to protect it from development", and "one of the most beautiful coastlines anywhere in the world, an isolated stretch of road, mythic in reputation". The views, redwood forests, hiking, beaches, and other recreational opportunities have made Big Sur a popular destination for visitors from across the world. With 4.5 to 7 million visitors annually, it is among the top tourist destinations in the United States, comparable to Yosemite National Park, but with considerably fewer services, and less parking, roads, and related infrastructure. (wikipedia)
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| [ARAKI—another director whose name would look good in the grid] |
"?" clues are generally less transparent and harder to solve than straightforward clues, but despite having many of them thrown at me today, I barely batted an eye. Both long Acrosses up top have them, but I'd already hit the short Down crosses before ever looking at the Across clues, so both of them went straight in—they're both cute, but they impeded progress not at all. Similar things happened with the "?" clues on SLEEPWALKER (22D: One who's out and about?) and PLAY PHONE TAG (21D: Exchange rings?). The clue on NAVY SEALS (33D: Highly trained body) is actually tougher than any of the "?" clues, but even there, I had the "VYS" in place before I ever saw the clue, so the answer went right in. The hardest clue for me today was (hilariously, improbably) the one on ABS (9D: Core group). Seems like it should have a "?" on it. In fact, this may be the only time I've said this, but I think a "?" would've made the clue *easier*. Usually when the surface meaning of the clue is a very familiar thing, when the clue itself is a familiar phrase, but it's being used in an unfamiliar / wordplay-type way, you get a "?", but not today. There's no real consistency to the way question marks are deployed in clues, just as there's no real consistency to the way abbrevs. are indicated (or whether they're indicated at all) (see yesterday for a good example of the abbrev. issue). You just have to keep your wits about you, and this gets truer the later you go into the solving week.
I thought 1A: "Don't be ___" (SILLY) was something like "A FOOL" but SAFE took care of that (1D: Call upon arriving home, maybe). I also wrote in GAPES before GASPS (25D: Amazed reactions) and LITHO (!) before LOTTO (27D: Kind of drawing). It took me a bit to come up with the DAYS part of SNOW DAYS, mostly because nothing in the clue indicated a plural (40A: Possible result of a major fall). SNOW DAYS are, collectively, a result (singular) of a snow ... fall. Got it! What else? Oh, I had ONE YARD LINE at 10D: Boundary for "first and goal" plays (TEN YARD LINE). I just wasn't processing what "boundary" meant. I think I was thinking of the "yard line" that was closest to the end zone (the most significant "boundary" on a football field). But no. It's just that any first down that starts inside the (boundary of) TEN YARD LINE puts you in a "first and goal" situation. You probably don't have to be NANCY DREW to figure that out, but I thought I'd (try to) explain it anyway. Talk to you again soon.
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98 comments:
Smooth and wonderful, like all of Robyn's work. Lots of creative wordplay and wonderful clues/answers. I fell for the @Rex afool before SILLY, but that was about my only overwrite. Great way to start a Friday!
Robyn, Robyn, Robyn. I don’t know how you do it. Your Fridays are the living END. Period. So much to love here. The clue for SLEEPWALKER belongs in the hall of fame. I agree with Rex and @Conrad; this was ultra smooth.
I also liked the clue for PLAN A – an opening gambit. I think my life PLAN A was to marry James Arness and be an astronaut. Then I discovered NANCY DREW books and shifted to PLAN B: become a famous sleuth -dye my hair titian and drive a blue roadster – and marry Bobby Sherman. PLAN C was to be a ballerina, PLAN D, to major in music and become a concert pianist. I guess I’ve blown through most of the alphabet with my life plans. Right now, if I win the LOTTO, my PLAN (R?) is to join a Masters swim team and enroll in UNCC to repeat the entire undergrad curriculum. I want to take biology, world history, algebra. . . and this time really enjoy the content rather than memorize stuff for that all-important grade. I think I’ll major in anthropology.
Those cheesy dinner parties? When Little Gardiner was in fourth grade, I had the swell idea to do a fondue party for him and eleven of his fourth-grade buddies. The realization that I was offering pots of boiling oil and sharp forks to jacked up 9-year-olds didn’t hit until it was too late. Happily no one was seriously injured.
Who knew that an ALLIGATOR could regrow so many teeth? Jeez. I used to say that one of the most disturbing things to see where it does not belong is water. Like, coming out of a wall, seeping into a carpet. Dripping from the ceiling light fixture. Soaking the car floor mat. But I’ve decided that there’s something far more disturbing to see where it doesn’t belong: a tooth. I don’t mean like a shark tooth on the beach. I mean a human tooth where you’re not expecting it. That scene in My Big Fat Greek Wedding when the aunt tells Toula’s future in-laws about the lump on her neck that had a teeth and a spinal column in it is at once chilling and hysterical. Recently I was eating a salad and bit down on a morsel decidedly not saladsome. Hmm. I surreptitiously removed it for a furtive look-see. To my horror, it was a big part of a tooth. My companion, unaware, continued talking while I frantically shoved my tongue around to figure out which tooth had broken. Nodded, smiled close-mouthed, kept probing. When I got home, I flew to the bathroom mirror to check things out and my horror quadrupled; it was not my tooth. So someone else’s tooth had been in my salad.
On that note, Happy Weintraub Friday, everyone!
It felt like I was struggling in places but the clock says otherwise, and that's with the extra bit of time it took me to put in TADA off the final A and then DATAMINES off the D, only to erase them because -AB looked... wrong? Maybe some sort of CLUB? I totally wasn't expecting the clue to go THAT way (I thought the misdirection was "dying" as in DYE-ing, so something clothing-related).
At first I thought the clue for TENOR was a bit of a stretch but "fixture" can also mean "staple". Nice.
I finished with DDE x ELSA because speedsolving brain is like "could be ELSA or ILSA" and "how am I supposed to know 3 random initials?" and completely glosses over the "run for president" part of the clue. (I'm non-American but I've seen IKE and DDE in so many puzzles, I have no excuses.)
Would someone please explain ‘Billboard number, maybe’ being exit?
This was like a pre-Monday level puzzle.
Billboards along Highway will tell you EXIT you need to take to find … whatever the billboard is advertising
I LOVE Robyn's puzzles, and I loved this one, too, but it played almost like a Tuesday for me. I had basically no pauses all the way through. When an answer didn't come right to mind, I kept moving, and it always fell pretty quickly.
That said, both the cluing and the answers were spot on - exactly what I expect from Robyn. I especially liked SLEEPWALKER and SNOWDAYS.
Thank you.
Jesus I could not for the life of me figure that out. Now it seems so obvious.
I know there will be complaints that this should be a Tuesday or Wednesday puzzle, but I'll take anything that makes me smile this much any day of the week. The cluing was clever and the puzzle smooth. I had some write-overs like LITHO instead of LOTTO and CACTI instead of ALOES.
I have been feeling like a SLEEPWALKER for most of July because the pollen is killing me this year. Someone recently gave me a sticker that says "Dopnt follow in my steps - I walk into walls". Yup.
Just magnificent. So clean and funny and interesting, not a single nit from me. PLAY PHONE TAG was absolutely magnificent. “Place to find a hammer and an anvil” was the last to fall because I had AI_S and just wasn’t catching which meaning of runs they were looking for, and I felt absolute joy at dropping in that R for EAR, finally. Even SWANS was so cleverly cued. What a breezy, fun Friday.
And honestly I don’t feel like it could be an early week puzzle, not because it was hard or but because there are enough non-beginner words and sooo many misdirects that were it to run on a Monday or Tuesday, all the impatient newbies might cry foul. Like, put ERATO crossed with NANCYDREW on a Tuesday and you’re going to have some very grumpy Zoomers (Gen Z’ers). I feel like this puzzle obeys all the rules of a Friday without being sadistically difficult, and I’m just happy to bask in the easeful glow.
Typically nice grid for RW. Some cluing seemed a bit off today, though. Clue for TEN YARD LINE seemed off. Ditto PET PEEVES. I'll also renew my objection to the assumption that we know every reporter from every cable network (REID).
Really only one thing in the grid bothered me. YOU GUESSED IT feels ridiculous and forced, and I can't imagine anyone saying it.
[post Rex note: I see Rex has called YOU GUESSED IT 'an absolute gem', which is inconceivable.]
Another typical RW puzzle zzzzzzzz......
I did do last Sundays puzzle but I didn't comment on it. SB update
Sat-Thu -0
GASPS!!!!
Very, very easy. The app says less than half the time as my Friday average. But I solve on my phone, so who knows how accurate that is, what with multitasking, stopping to talk to people, and occasionally trying to solve those awful early Shortz-era puzzles in the archive.
Anyway, I'm not sure I'm ready to gush over this as much as some of you because, like @Rex, I didn't feel like I earned any of it. Nevertheless I certainly did enjoy it. I'm glad for the very limited PPP (Don't know of this Greta person and frankly, I didn't even know there was a Barbie movie until about a week ago...)
My biggest disagreement with @Rex is YOU GUESSED IT is not at all a gem. It's generic and uninteresting and the clue gives no suggestion that *this* is the phrase in question. It could've been any of a number of "that's correct"-style phrases. YOU GUESSED IT just got a "Oh, that's the one you picked. Ok whatever.". It was like playing a random guessing game with my kids -- "I'm thinking of a number between 1 and 100..."
Ugh.
I always enjoy when Robyn comes up with bonkers clues like people are dying to get into ANATOMY LAB and PET PEEVES are “little buggers”. Definitely keeps you on your toes. It’s also nice when the crosses are fair so,I don’t get knocked silly by stuff like MUEZZINS, XERISCAPE and THEREMIN, lol.
Take a moment to compare and contrast today’s effort with yesterday’s, since they seem to me to pretty much represent opposite ends of the spectrum - today we had an elegant, witty, well-constructed Crossword Puzzle and yesterday we had what seemed like an experiment from a mad scientist who’s good with words.
If there is such a thing as too smooth, this is that thing, but what a delight!
I know it’s a little blasphemous around here but these sugar-easy RW Fridays are starting to make me a little squeamish. Obviously a conscious direction from the editing team to dummy down the end of the week.
Liked MINARETS and SNOW DAYS. The GAMMA clue is awkwardly dim as is PYLON.
I don’t know.
Santo and his Fender
I'm with @Joe Dipinto 6:19.
FH
We can pretend because we're never supposed to criticize the sainted Robyn, but this crossword was way to easy for a Friday. It was more like a Wednesday. I enjoyed doing it but it was over way too fast - - 10 minutes, including two interruptions.
Lovely!
I’m in the minority today because I didn’t like this puzzle at all. I think she tries to be too cute sometimes with her clues.
‘Tis a glorious day when Ms. Weintraub comes bob, bob, bobyn along. There will be a playground of wordplay, a scrubbed grid, a sparkling answer set, and above all, uplifting happiness afterward. It’s a rare and wonderful combo, and, to me, a RW Friday feels like a Crosslandia holiday.
On a typical Friday, I may mark three or four clues as special. Today I had four before I left the NW, and a sky-high 15 by puzzle’s end. Glorious clues like [Highly trained body] for NAVY SEALS, [Core group] for ABS, [Exchange rings] for PLAY PHONE TAG..
Glorious answers as well (I marked a dozen) including NYT answer debuts PLAY PHONE TAG, TALENT POOL, and YOU GUESSED IT.
I liked that near MILA, the name that becomes a country when you switch vowels, is NEMO, the name that becomes a city when you switch vowels. I also liked the PuzzPair© of TADA and YOU GUESSED IT.
Good vibes all around. Robyn, you are in my constructor Pantheon. I adore your puzzles, today’s included, and your glorious roll continues. Thank you for your talent, work ethic, and that twinkle in your eye!
Oh for God sake.
Since Rex seems to be campaigning for GRETA to be clued as “Actress Lee”, here’s the Wiki for the 95% of us who haven’t heard of her.
Ladies and Gentlemen (and Enbys) - the Great GRETA LEE! TADA!
Garbo. Thunberg. Gerwig.
No, it must be Lee. The Mighty Rex has SPOKEN!
ps. Fun puzzle but NW was way too easy…
Liked this puzzle a lot. It was quite easy for a Friday, but it had all these lovely clues that made it a treat to solve. Thank you Robyn and Will.
Fun puzzle. And Mila is my granddaughter and never saw her name in a puzzle before❤️
Thx, Robyn; was very FOND of this one! 😊
On the easy side of med.
Much to like; fairly smooth solve.
Mild objection to 'Boundary'. Typically, 'first and ten plays' occur somewhere between the goal line and the TEN YARD LINE (in this case the so-called 'Boundary'), but when the offense commits an infraction on first down which results in a repeat of first down, with penalty yards being tacked on, there is no boundary. Theoretically, a team could continue committing infractions on first down and end up on their own goal line (which would definitely be a 'boundary'; apologies to Zeno) with a 'first and one hundred play'. If someone can come up with an interpretation of 'Boundary' that I'm missing, I'll be happy to take the L. Otherwise, I'll bow to "Joaquin's Dictum":
"Clues" are just that - clues. They are not definitions, they are not synonyms. They are hints. And we are solving a crossword 'puzzle', not a cross-Thesaurus."
Climbing down from soap box, and apologizing for my SILLiness, I'll just say: wonderful Fri. adventure! :)
[NOTE: ok, read @Rex's explanation for 'Boundary': seems reasonable. 🤔]
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Lovely puzzle, with some great clues. Yes it was fairly easy but partly because it was so smooth. Delightful.
What a pleasure after yesterday's debacle.
Robyn's puzzles are about pleasing us (too easy schmeasy) not "look how smart I am" like some other constructors.
What an adventure to wake up to.
Now if only Erik A. would come back.
Easy breezy on a rainy Friday and fine by me. Strangely enough, I have just run into SNOWDAYS in a Sunday NYT, I think, and PETPEEVES, maybe in a NYer? I think I'm doing too many crosswords.
Wanted to start with ANASS, just because, but SAFE at home begat both SILLY AND FONDUEPOETS and away I went.
Didn't recognize the NANCYDREW references. As a young man, it was only proper to read The Hardy Boys.
Of course my favorite answer in this one was TENOR, even if it was linked with "barbershop". Not my favorite genre.
I think LMS has supplied the answer to "What's worse than finding half a worm in your apple?" question, which has to be "finding a tooth not your own in your salad". Yuck.
Very much liked your smooth-as-a-smelt Friday, RW. Another Real Winner. I'll take feeling smart, even when I don't deserve it, and thanks for all the fun.
Should have guessed it was Robyn, so incredibly smooth, therefore forgiven for being the easiest of the week (the website says I did it in 3:28, but no, I'm not that fast, definitely over 10 min. Happens a lot, the shortening of time [butter? lard?]).
Anyway, I *loved* 22D!! Favorite clue in a long time. Only error was ike before DDE. He was prez when I was born.
@LMS we had that water-dripping-from-the-light-fixture in our old house. Took the guys a long time to find the source. Amd what a horrible tooth story!!
The only thing as smooth and entertaining as a Robyn Weintraub puzzle is commentary from Loren Muse Smith. Thank you both.
I love, love, love the clue for SLEEPWALKER! I love the answer, PLAY PHONE TAG, -- and the clue for that is pretty nifty too. Other great clues are for SNOW DAYS and PET PEEVES. The clue for ANATOMY LAB is quite funny, if a bit macabre. And once again Robyn's grid is smoother than smooth.
It's strange how things can lodge in the unconscious and then stir up something vaguely resembling a memory. I was really young when I read all the NANCY DREW books and I remember nothing about them -- not even the titles, much less the plots. And yet when I saw those long-ago titles, I immediately knew it was NANCY DREW -- even without looking at the grid and seeing the crosses I already had.
That crazy ALLIGATORS tooth thing? Evolution has obviously made a Big Mistake -- that's all I have to say!
After yesterdays brutal puzzle this was a nice relief even if easy for a Friday.
Happy National Junk Food Day. (I know it’s a guilty pleasure, but should we really be celebrating this?)
Whee! – blew through my previous Friday record with this one. I did, however, have trouble getting started. My first entry was in answer to 15D [Preceder of Christmas], for which I confidently put in “white.” But I knew GRETA Gerwig, even before this week’s B*****mania, so removed it right away. My first long answer was MINARETS, a lovely word for lovely structures, delicate, soaring and and sometimes vividly-colored. In the SE, I had a laugh thinking about ALLIGATORS swimming around the TALENT POOL. Hah, those sought-after overachievers don’t stand a chance. Or maybe it’s the ALLIGATORS themselves who are the TALENT. All those razor-sharp, self-generating chompers are pretty impressive.
Loved the clue on SLEEPWALKER – “out and about” indeed! Also, [Class some people are dying to get into?] for ANATOMY LAB was pretty good in a dark-humored way. I was mildly surprised to see “buggers” in a clue in The New York Times (37A), less so when I saw the answer was PET PEEVES. (Buggers = things that bug you.) Startled my sports-ignorant self by getting TEN YARD LINE with only one cross. I guess I must have learned the odd thing from all those Sunday afternoons when my parents watched football on TV, and I seemingly ignored the whole thing and spread out all my paper dolls on the floor.
Wow, a quad AXEL! That’s been the holy grail in figure skating forever. Here it is: it comes at the 0:23 mark. The AXEL is particularly hard because unlike other quad jumps which require 4 revolutions in the air, the quad AXEL requires four and a half. At one time, there was much debate around whether it was even possible to achieve, although in recent years I’m sure lots of skaters were landing them in practice sessions before Malinin did so in competition.
[SB: Wed and Thu, both 0. So I have a streak of 3 – if that’s long enough to qualify for streakness. Yesterday, at the end, I was missing a 4er and a 5er, and was in semi-despair about finding them. Until I realized that, oddly, they were the same word in a 4-letter and a 5-letter guise. Isn’t language fascinating? @okanaganer, congrats on your 6-day streak. And, BTW, we ended Wed. with the same goofy word.]
Brava Robyn! So many clever original clues, it's impossible to pick a favorite. Thank you for a fun Friday!
Hey All !
Robyn does FriPuzs as effortless as MonPuzs. Amazing.
Had a good romp through this puz. Got stuck in SW corner, though. Of course, didn't know the characters of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and I call Shenanigans! on the clue for MUCH. Stretched a tad too much. I Googled for the MND characters, first one I saw was niCK, so threw that in. But ACHE had to be, even though SniT got in for SPAT. Ended up a FWE, went back to the MND Goog page I had opened, and saw "PUCK". Let out an utterance that rhymed with him!
Had the CYDR string in at NANCY DREW before anything else, kind of a neat consonant run.
Nice FriPuz, Robyn.
Congrats to the Billion dollar LOTTO winner. Alas, it wasn't me. 😁
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
So maybe Wed level or easier for experienced folks but clues and answers were fun—a good time all ‘round even for those of us who had to work things out more slowly. And elicited some fun comments from @lms and @bocamp. Good start to an overcast day here in NY.
Hilarious and horrifying
Adorable little puzzle. Nothing much to add since it was all good, ya know, for a Friday.
Uniclues:
1 Where to stack the non-interesting parts.
2 Dr. Mom's solution after the sleuthing led outside without a hat or sunscreen.
3 What Rex Parker did.
4 Hockey players aswim.
5 The raw feeling in his heart when he accepted he wouldn't be a ballerina.
6 Buoyant.
1 ANATOMY LAB EXIT
2 ALOES NANCY DREW
3 HIT ON PET PEEVES (~)
4 PUCK TALENT POOL
5 ALLIGATOR'S ACHE (~)
6 NAVY SEALS TYPE (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The astonishingly affective ability of a nice pair of legs to stop others in their tracks (tee hee). THIGH VETO POWER.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Loved the puzzle but is Lima a country?
Sorry I'm late, but from yesterday, POT might be called The Devil's Lettuce because it is easily confused with a plant that it looks like called Amsinckia tessellata, a species of fiddleneck which has several nicknames including devil's lettuce.
In any event, let's be careful not to confuse it with Trey Cabbage, a ballplayer with the Angels who was called up to the majors this year.
This was such a joyful ride, especially after yesterday's slog. Thanks, Robyn!
One of my favorites, ever! Great cluing!
Thanks Robyn, this was smooth and alot came to me despite some tricky clues. I did have a problem w TENOR, it is not really a fixture at a barbershop, but rather a barbershop quartet. I thought that was a bit of a stretch. Never heard of MINARETS . have a nice weekend all.
It took some trial and error, but I finished it without cheating. For some reason I had a hard time coming up with LIMO, probably because I was thinking of specific car models and because I was sure the Latin name was "Nero" instead of NEMO. I agree with the crowd that Ms. Weintraub's puzzles are very enjoyable...hard enough to make you happy you finished them, but never unfair.
Never knew anyone named MILA, but the only other possibility was "Bila," and that couldn't be right.
I let out an AAH, OOH, AHH, AHA and OHO when I saw I was in for a RW Friday, and was not disappointed other than, like Rex, it was over too soon.
This despite 1A. With the "" marks, it implied a title to me. So DONT BE cruel went in assuredly. Easily replaced by the crosses. Why did this need quotation marks?
Only complaint is the wording of the boundary line, which most logically has to be the end zone as clued. Otherwise, I have to think "the boundary which is the yard line, beyond which the next play is first and goal if the previous play results in having advanced past the 10 yard first down marker (pylon), or if a penalty is called, the result of which is a half the distance to the goal, or interference call which results in the ball being spotted within the ten yard line. Or if pass interference is called in the end zone, in which case the ball is spotted at the 2 yard line for first down."
Otherwise, smooth sailing with smiles all along at the varied topics, well clued.
If a team has first and goal from the 7 yard line, for example, then commits a holding penalty, the next play is first and goal from the 17 yard line. Just sayin ...
Lol, this might of been one of the first times I mostly experienced that "easy, breezy" feeling Rex so often talks about on Fridays.
Liked it, but don't know if it was easy or I am just almost always Robyn's wavelength. (Got PLAY PHONE TAG off just the g. I feel like often I just know what she's going for with ? clues. Sometimes I don't even really pay attention to ? because some clues I think should have them don't and, less often, vice versa.) Judging from the comments I think it might be a little of both.
I actually finished the puzzle and was like wow, that was clean, let me check the constructor, I wonder if it's... It IS Robyn, I knew it! 😂 Robyn is the queen of no naticky squares. Thanks again, Robyn!
Who counted the alligator teeth?
I was pretty sure we’d get this video today
https://youtu.be/MpAkMzWjM5I
For @burtonkd (from yesterday). Who asked...
"Speaking of Nancy, maybe she can weigh in on whether RAPPERS and other lyricists are POETS."
It's subjective, @burtonkd, and it depends. When the lyric is "She loves you, yeah, yeah, yeah", my answer is an emphatic "No!". But here are some lyrics I would describe as pure poetry:
"Hello darkness, my old friend,
I've come to talk to you again..."
"I've gotta get ready before she comes,
I've gotta make certain that she
Won't be dragged up in slums
With a lot of bums
Like me..."
"It's the fragment, not the day.
It's the pebble, not the stream.
It's the ripple not the sea.
Not the building, but the beam..."
"Oh the history books tell it,
They tell it so well.
The cavalries charged.
The Indians fell.
The cavalries charged.
The Indians died.
Oh the country was young
With God on its side."
"Now I hear there was a secret chord
That David played and it pleased the Lord,
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this, the fourth, the fifth,
The minor falls, the major lifts,
The baffled King composing Hallelujah..."
It's not only that I think that Hammerstein and Sondheim, Paul Simon, Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen are poets -- it's that I think they might have made careers as poets as well as lyricists if the utterly misguided arbiters and gatekeepers of modern poetry hadn't taken away all the fun and all the challenge. And, I would argue, all the beauty.
First, these poohbahs took away the rhyme. And as Frost said: "Writing poems that don't rhyme is like playing tennis with no net."
They also -- and don't get me started on this -- took away almost all of the form and the structure and the sound as well. I. CAN'T. EVEN.
So that the people with the best poetic ears aren't writing poetry anymore. They're writing song lyrics.
As for rap, I don't know it well enough to have an opinion -- other than the fact that I don't like the term "slant rhyme" which makes a virtue (so creative!!!! so imaginative!!!! so blissfully freed from the over-familiar!!!!) out of a fault: It doesn't bloody rhyme!!! I call it what they would have called it in the BMI Composers and Lyricists Workshop: not "slant rhyme" but "imperfect rhyme".
That said, Lin Manuel is a genius. Certainly an exception to my objections and maybe there are many others too whom I don't know. There's probably poetry in "Hamilton", but I'd have to go through the lyrics carefully to see where it is. What I do know of the lyrics is that they're clever as hell. And that Lin Manuel "slants" his rhymes in a way that's terribly exciting and innovative. But I wouldn't want just anyone doing it.
And that, @burtonkd, is my longwinded answer to yesterday's query.
I had a whole list of my favorite clues and my favorite entries and guess what . . . I ran out of room on the page. So instead of recapping the details, I will just say that a crossword by Robyn is like a fine piece of art hanging in a gallery. Some days I just sit and stare at the finished puzzle, trying to analyze either what I was missing or what it was that made it special. But when it’s yet another masterpiece from a renowned artist, you just gaze at it with admiration and respect and awe at the sheer TALENT of the creator. It’s a Weintraub. Really no need to elaborate beyond that.
I somehow thought of exit polls, so maybe a billboard records number....oh never mind. Didn't really enjoy it
Smoooth fillins, several funny/clever clues. My kinda FriPuz. Solvequest did get a bit easy-ish, at times … Robyn said [at xwordinfo.chen] that they lightened up on some of her clues, to make the puz a bit easier.
staff weeject pick: SUR. Nice example of one of them clever clues.
ANATOMYLAB clue was downright horror-film-schlocky. Liked. Alas -- No FriNite Schlockfest flicks tonite, for M&A … bro-in-law is currently on a road trip.
Also enjoyed the symmetric(al) ALLIGATORS clue. One wonders what makes 50 their magic number, tho. Can't have no 51st regrows? Bummer.
Lucky for them alligators that they don't eat a lotta restaurant-served salads, huh @Muse darlin? M&A once got pieces of glass served up in a salad. PuzEatinSpouse got served up bugs in her salad, once. Worst of all, M&A once found olives *and* beets in a salad … and it was supposed to have apples, strawberries, and walnuts instead -- but they ran out of em, or somesuch. Did have a lotta eerily long and floppy arugula in it, tho.
some other faves: Clues for ANATOMYLAB, FONDUEPOTS, END, MILA, ACE, PLANA, PETPEEVES, SNOWDAYS, AIRS, ALLIGATORS, SAFE, ALIEN, SLEEPWALKER, MERRY, PLAYPHONETAG, TENOR, DORM. … And musta been more, before they changed her clues!
Thanx for the fun, Ms. Weintraub darlin. Desperate now to know what yer original TENYARDLINE clue was…
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s. {Long row of well-manicured lawns?} = TENYARDLINE? -- Yeah … didn't think so.
**gruntz**
@jberg here—. I guess it was easy, but hard to get started. If I hadn’t known NEMO from The Odyssey, I might still be flailing around. But I was able to work the crosses from there. Many of the clues gave me that “It could be anything!” feeling, and even one cross narrowed them down.
Never having read the books, I was proud of myself for getting NANCY DREW off the D. The clue did say heroine, and the locales sounded like old-timey mystery novels.
Sometimes I need a Friday Weintraub just to make me feel smart.
I wasn't smart with 1A but I had fun. Let's see..."Don't be____". An Ass? No. Wimpy? No. A jerk? No. What's that call you say when you arrive home? Oh...it's one of those baseball things and not your kids yelling when they enter the door. So 1A is SILLY and 1D is SAFE. SAFE and SILLY. I felt that way.
FONDUE POTS opened some bodacious doors. I still have mine. I use it for meat. Heat up some good olive oil and then spear your stick with filet mignon bites. Make about 5 or 9 dipping sauces. Have a chunk of a baguette in your left hand then chew your meat and mop up with sauce.
Right under the POTS we have GRETA Gerwig and Barbie. I really don't watch much TV but my husband does. We have three TV's and sometimes all of them are on at the same time. Just picture Barbie coming at you three ways. It's painfully pink.
NEMO and MILA were the only ones giving me trouble. I thinks of NEMO as a little blowfish lost in the vast ocean, not a "no one" in Latin. I've never heard anyone named MILA but I do know a MALI.
Nice Friday with terrific cluing (as usual)....
it seems that some people come here just to hate on Rex. It gets tiresome.
Did DDR retire from the military to run for office? (50A). I thought he was already retired by then
Still enjoy the occasional NANCY DREW book.
Mom used to have 'Barbershop' quartets over, and would play individual parts on the piano for them when requested. I got my first experience in singing barbershop when a shipmate, who worked in the same office, invited me to attend a chorus rehearsal in Long Beach, CA. He was a TENOR, so that's how I became one, even tho my natural voice is more baritone/bass. Went on to sing with the Walla Walla chorus, then formed a quartet at college in Cheney, Wa.
"Tenor is the highest part, harmonizing above the Lead. Notated in the top stave, Tenor stems always point up. Tenor singers should have a light, lyric vocal quality. Male tenors usually sing this part in falsetto, and should be approximately 10% of the sound. This is radically different than most musical performance styles, because the melody is NOT in this top voice." (barbershop.org)
Fun coincidence from my CNN's '5 Things' email today re: GRETA:
"The day that movie fans have been fervently anticipating is finally here. Greta Gerwig's "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" both roll out in US theaters today — an ultimate double feature that could give the movie business a much-needed boost. Already, more than 40,000 people have bought tickets to see the two films today back-to-back, according to America's largest movie chain AMC."
@EasyEd (9:22 AM) 😊
@Liveprof (10:02 AM) 🤣
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
All time great digression LMS!
@Barbara S (9:09) Thanks for the tip about national junk food day. Now that you’ve given me a perfectly justifiable excuse, it’ll be my pleasure to show my support. 😋
@Nancy (10:49) You inspired me to think back of memorable song lyrics and particularly those which touched my life or stayed with me in some way. If I had to choose one in particular, it would be “You’ll Never Walk Alone” from the Rogers & Hammerstein musical Carousel. Performed by many since 1945 but regardless of artistic interpretation, the lyrics always were and still remain as inspiring to me as the first time I ever heard it:
When you walk through a storm hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark
Walk on through the wind
Walk on through the rain
Though your dreams be tossed and blown
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never, ever walk alone
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone
You'll never, ever walk alone
LIMA is the capital city of Peru; it's not a "country."
Another easy breezy Friday from Robyn with plenty of sparkle. Liked it, but I agree with @Rex about not feeling like I earned it.
@Metro
As pointed out above, the country is MALI.
Wow, it almost feels like I had different puzzles than everyone. I struggled a lot with this one, and found yesterday to be one of the easiest Thursday puzzles in a long time. It seemed like most of the clues went in alright for me once I got started in a section, which I struggled with in almost every corner. There were a few crossings with short words where I need every single letter to fill in, like HITON with ERATO and SWANS, and PUCK and ACHE with SPAT and MUCH. Yeesh.
It meant Mali.
A lovely Wednesday level puzzle.
Superb clueing. Rather easy for a Friday, but Weintraub smooth. I’ll take it, gladly.
Like Rex, it just flowed fast... a bit too fast. I can't even recall any memorable typeovers. Many of the clues were clever, but didn't slow it down at all.
[Spelling Bee: Thu 0, my last two words were so similar and obscure. 7 day QB streak!, like @puzzlehoarder except I skipped Sun and Mon. But @barbara S, I don't think your final 2 words yd mean the same?]
Robyn for President, or Crossword Editor.
DDE didn't retire from the Military to RUN for President.
He retired to BECOME the President... of Columbia University, thus becoming only the second person to be both President of the U.S. and an Ivy League University
Wow! Busy day and JUST worked the puzzle/read comments…
How do I love thee RW?
1. You allow me to feel clever
2. You allow me to feel clever
3. Your puzzles are FUN! (And clever)
Ditto to about every positive thing people have said then, in addition a question:
Somehow I KNEW “Gerwig” was Greta. I did NOT know she is the Barbie director…so my question is…Is this movie for children or is it a parody for adults as to the ridiculous world of Barbie?
Don’t get me wrong. I LOVED “playing Barbie” as a little girl. In retrospect the whole thing seems so…um…plugging a vapid lifestyle with girls “thinking” that ideally they would have Barbie’s body? Harumph! I’m slender but it took me most my life to realize that only about 1% of females can be both slender AND voluptuous like Barbie (um, without “help”). Otherwise, you were called skinny, lanky, and rangy. Oh yeah…women will say…but you can wear ANYTHING. (As long as it’s not low cut…lol)
As Rosanne Rosannadana would say…NEVER mind. I googled the Barbie movie. Still not sold on it but at least it’s not really for kids.
@okanaganer (1:40 PM)
No, indeed. Different definitions as we use them today, but both derive from the same French root word with this English meaning. You can see how the French root applies to both the words I mentioned from yd's SB. In the case of the 5er, it's in a very physical sense (see M-W verb, #3a) and in the case of the 4er, it's more metaphorical (M-W verb, #4).
There was a theme of sorts if you squint your eyes real hard while listening to Leon Theremin playing his own instrument. Here are the theme entries:
PET PEEVE ALLIGATOR
SNOW DAY SWAN
NAVY SEAL MINARET
DATA MINE DONOR SITE
ALOE AB FONDUE POT
MACE AIR GASP
I'll check back later to see if any of YOU GUESSED IT.
A billboard is an advertising sign, not a traffic sign. The clue misdirects you, but then it’s a hint, not a synonym.
@Barbara S, aha! I had never associated the verb #4 (your shorter one) with that French word, especially with that last letter. But it makes sense if you think about it. I need to scroll way down on the M-W definitions to reach the etymology!
For @burtonkd (from yesterday) and @Nancy from today -
I had the great pleasure to know Marie Ponsot (her first book of poetry was published by City Lights Books in 1957; she taught at Queens College, Columbia, NYU, the New School). She lived fully engaged and of this world; she wished the same for poetry. Poetry should not be a cloistered art form, but a very present part of our language.
Here is a quote from Ponsot that relates to questions re: rap and lyrics and poetry: “I had been saying for 20 years that the abolishing of rhyme and heavier rhythms in poetry has led to hip-hop. Poets aren’t allowed to do it, but it won’t go away, it’s been there for thousands of years, so it takes the form of rap. We need to get back to the joy of being a poet — not have it always be written in anguish, or have to be mean-spirited and edgy and black-browed and ominous, or “my thoughts are loftier because they’re poems.” Poetry should just be a great joy, and we should have perfect freedom to enjoy in that simpleminded way.”
Nice puzzle, but yeah, seemed way too easy for a Friday. Had my fastest Friday time ever in 6 1/2 years of doing Fridays.
Rex was unusually gentle for him but he did strongly hint it was too easy for a Friday. Definitely easy but not a record for me. To me typical Weintraub. So I didn’t have the same reaction. I liked it.
The clue for TEN YARD LINE is just plain wrong. Barring an offensive penalty, the ball is spotted somewhere between the ten yard line and the goal line when it’s first and goal. In this context, the ten yard line is not a boundary (“a line that marks the limits of an area”). The quarterback can run backwards past the ten yard line if he wants. He hasn’t crossed a “boundary” (like the sideline) if he does so. Maybe a better clue would have been something like [Usual outer limit for the starting point of “first and goal” plays] ???
You are wrong if you are saying the expression is not used. I have seen it in writing many times and heard it on occasion. Whether it is used in a game show on TV probably not. But the clue is a hint after all. Close enough.
All first downs between the 10 yd line and the goal are referred to as first and goal. Again a clue is a hint. She couldn’t use the word line so she chose boundary. Close enough.
Mali to Mila. Consonants don’t move.
To be fair, Weintraub was quoted as saying Shortz & Co made the clues easier!
Oh joyous Robyn Weintraub Friday, I praise your cleverness and your perfection, and I thank you from the very depths of my heart for this puzzle that follows yesterday’s painful and journey through a tricksy grid - while our cars were sleeping no less!
Like Mary Poppins, a RW opus is always “practically perfect in every way, but this one for me, particularly following yesterday’s example a puzzle just trying way too hard achieved absolute perfection. I have nothing I can fault. Thanks, RW!
You know what would have been a really good clue for GRETA?
"Woman's name that becomes a sewer covering when its vowels are swapped"
@Anoa Bob – well, all those answers have POCs in the grid. Not sure if there is an additional theme element in how you combined them.
a belated musical selection
"Ding, ding, ding, we have a winner!" Yea, Joe D., YOU GUESSED IT!. I tried for misdirection by putting those entries into sort of themesque groups but you saw through that subterfuge. All those words and phrases were not up to the task of filling their designated slots and needed some plural of convenience (POC) help to do their jobs. That's a lot for any puzzle, especially for a themeless, if you ask me. There were even four of uber convenient 2 for 1 variety
As per usual I found this one extremely easy because I'm the smartest person on earth, but not smart enough not to utter utter nonsense here.
Robyn Weintraub. Always an enjoyable solve
Not sure about the clue for YOUGUESSEDIT, but...OK. Not one of my PETPEEVES. Any RW puzzle is bound to be good; this is no exception. Birdie.
Wordle birdie: I'm getting better with those SITARs.
GALLEY TALE
IT's ALOT for ONE to test IT -
the PLAN that NANCYDREW -
IT's SILLY but YOUGUESSEDIT,
YOU SMELT POTS of FONDUE.
--- GRETA PUCK, NAVYSEAL
from yesterday:
ZIP IT
That OLD MAID sits to RUMINATE,
YEAH, DUDE, IT'S not being CIS,
DISMAYING, not UPFORDEBATE,
'CUZ DIANA's SLEEPING with LIZ.
--- CLAUDIUS WATSON
What a nice puz! Only if they all were such. EAST in the corners. MILA and ELLE in the yeah baby TALENTPOOL.
Wordle par.
Way up above in the comments somebody crticises Robyn Weintraub because this puzzle is “too easy” for a Friday. Not sure if that is so, but even if it wer it still is not her fault. The decision about what puzzle is printed on what day lies with the editor - Will Shortz - not the constructor.
Too easy for you? Completed it in seconds? Geez you must be reely smart! Thanks to all of you who gave us a heads up on just how smart you are, otherwise we'd never have guessed.
Back from vaca and I get to glide thru a wonderful Friday puz (we won't talk about yesterday) by Robyn. What could be better?
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
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