Word of the Day: SHINTO (25A: Literally, "way of the gods") —
Shinto (Japanese: 神道, romanized: Shintō) is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners Shintoists, although adherents rarely use that term themselves. There is no central authority in control of Shinto, with much diversity of belief and practice evident among practitioners.
A polytheistic and animistic religion, Shinto revolves around supernatural entities called the kami(神). The kami are believed to inhabit all things, including forces of nature and prominent landscape locations. The kami are worshipped at kamidana household shrines, family shrines, and jinja public shrines. The latter are staffed by priests, known as kannushi, who oversee offerings of food and drink to the specific kami enshrined at that location. This is done to cultivate harmony between humans and kami and to solicit the latter's blessing. Other common rituals include the kagura dances, rites of passage, and seasonal festivals. Public shrines facilitate forms of divination and supply religious objects, such as amulets, to the religion's adherents. Shinto places a major conceptual focus on ensuring purity, largely by cleaning practices such as ritual washing and bathing, especially before worship. Little emphasis is placed on specific moral codes or particular afterlife beliefs, although the dead are deemed capable of becoming kami. The religion has no single creator or specific doctrine, and instead exists in a diverse range of local and regional forms. (wikipedia)
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Well I don't think this was QUITE BAD, or bad at all, but I did think "ARE YOU HIGH?" and "I GOT NOTHIN'" many, many times. For the most part, this puzzle wasn't for me, though I did appreciate the fact that it was properly Saturday-tough. The whole early part of the solve was just a disaster. I had CATS and ARIA up there and not a lot else. MEMPHIS BBQ was nearly impossible to parse (3D: Some slow-cooked southern fare). CAMEL HUMPS involved some bit of common ignorance that never would've occurred to me (1A: These don't hold water). TIME OF YEAR had an exceedingly vague clue (17A: Season). So I just got roasted up there. PGA COURSE feels so ... roll-your-own (9D: Pebble Beach or Quail Hollow, e.g.). Like, yes, but also no. GOLF COURSE was what I wanted, but it didn't fit. PGA COURSE. Uh, sure (not UH, YES, which feels like another doubtful thing). Just because the play says she's a "Shrew" doesn't mean she is, indeed SHREWISH (10D: Like Shakespeare's Katherina). That clue felt ... bad. Not sure when any of it finally began to come together with any certainty. I had ventured to other sections of the puzzle and come back to the NW before I finally got a grip. No hope in the NE at first. STAKE before PURSE (32A: Prizewinner's winnings). Never even heard of JESSE (38A: Biblical father of David). I think SCRAP got me going, which is hilarious, since SCRAP is wrong (it's SCRUB). I got COSMO from there, and then maybe OTO- (?) and SHINTO. "EYES ON ME" was probably the first time I felt like "OK, I've got something solid going here," and that moment came very late. I was almost a quarter into the puzzle before I felt like I'd really got my footing.
No idea about "BEING ALIVE," and I've seen the documentary about the making of the soundtrack for "Company" (just forgot the song titles, I guess) (28D: Song from "Company" that marks the show's climax). No idea about MANGOS, just ... yeah, literally nothing about that clue meant anything to me (42A: Foods that can be prepared "hedgehog-style," so-named for the crisscross patterns of cuts). I had NACHOS in there at one point. BANK CARDs are not "precious," so no idea what that clue is trying to do (36D: Precious plastic). OXEN pull ... "weight?" Shrug. I just don't know. MONIST? (42D: Philosophical denier of duality). Sigh. HUFFPO is semi-unreadable, so I try never to think about it. Clickbait for liberals. Not my thing. I liked seeing QR CODE. I've been seeing them A Lot on this trip. I don't love them as a phenomenon, but the answer looks cool in the grid. Maybe that's the problem—not much looks cool in the grid. I'll grant that MEMPHIS BBQ has a certain something. And maybe "ARE YOU HIGH?" can pass for cute. But PEST STRIP is not cute. Neither is FILE SERVER. I kinda like the clue on SPORTS DESK (58A: Purveyor of game pieces), but I'm kind of indifferent toward the answer itself. Anyway, I'll just say "I appreciate the workout," and move on. Hope this gave you more pleasure than it gave me.
Oh my god my friend Shaun is trying to explain "JESSE stem" and "JESSE tree" to me and it has something to do with Advent and this is what happens when you lack a religious background: you tell your Christian friends you're baffled by some bit of biblical trivia and they just look at you like "ARE YOU HIGH?JESSE is important. David is a shoot from the stump of JESSE. It's all tree imagery. He's also referred to as the root of JESSE's stem. Do you know that song...?" "No, stop, I do not know any bible songs, you lost me at 'stump'" "Jesus is the rod of JESSE" "Seriously please stop." "O come o rod of JESSE's stem..." "You're singing now!? What the hell?" And so forth.
Explainers:
11A: Canal implement (Q-TIP) — so, the canal of your ear
33A: Delivery room offering, informally (EPI) — short for "epidural"
2D: Song in mariachi? (ARIA) — the letters "ARIA" appear in the word "mariachi"
Yes...I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before: Sam and I live on different islands. Mine is void of viral videos, download sources, purveyors of game pieces and elements of modern ads. And that's just one coconut on my island! Why do I feel I should twitter and Tik Tok and become savvily perspicacious to finish one of his puzzles without feeling like a RUBE.....Should I? I'm eating a MANGO and I look at 1D and wonder why CATS? Do dogs count? Oh, wait....Can 1A be CAMEL HUMPS? But I had Bumps....Why? you may inquire...I thought maybe the Daily Beast was up against Buzz feed. How do you shorten that one....You can't...It's a HUFF PO. Here we go with PO again. I really want to know why a BANK CARD is precious. That's QUITE BAD. Song from company? ....BEING ALIVE. I'm already dead. JESSE? I thought I knew my Bible. MAXI PADS? I demand a JOCK STRAP. I GOT NOTHIN. Yes, my friends. That's me.
OK I want to be the first to say it, after yd's comments: MAXI, PADS! Feminine hygiene, tautologically(?) clued, for the second straight day!
Aside from that, almost all of what Rex said. Just a long slog. For 9 down had GOLF----- and could only think of GOLF LINKS. For "Precious plastic" had GOLD CARD which is wayyyy better than BANK CARD, right? And goofiest of all, had SHIP before Q-TIP for "Canal implement".
HUFF PO, just NO. OAHU before HILO, COINS before DISCS, and HONDA before TONKA since it fit with GOLD CARD, see above.
Hard then easy-medium. All I had was CATS and LOO in the NW for quite a while. Me too for Golf COURSE not fitting and then ProCOURSE didn’t work so...PGA. QUITE BAD and FENCE POSTS finally opened it up. The bottom half was much easier. The long downs were fun, liked it.
I just did this on my phone ( which is what I'm commenting on) so I'll. have to recall it by memory. S. olving on your phone sucks but I waited for the paper yesterday and as often happens by the time I solve there's more comments than I really have time to read and I wind up not commenting because it's so late when I catch up.
Even on paper this would have been a challenging solve but I did get the congrats on the last entry so there is that instant gratification of knowing your grid is clean.
My solving experience was not dissimilar to what our host described ARIA and LOO had no company for a long time. I could see CATS, SAPS and EYES something (LEFT?) But my guess for the absurd phrase was AREYOUNUTS supported by GUFF for attitude. Funny as the double F showed up later at HUFFPO.
The real filling started with APBIO and went clockwise from there.
Apparently it's feminine hygiene weekend. When all I had was the AD of what turned out to be PADS I thought they might be going with LADY JAYS which you can look up for yourself.
This was an enjoyable Saturday. MONIST I completely made up I've never seen it before. Lots of other entries I had no idea on so a good hour and a half of smoking things out. I really can't ask for more.
I'm like chatty Cathy but this is probably it for this week's comments.
SB update, I didn't get around to last Monday but everything else since last Sat has been -0 so it's pretty much a two week streak. So far I'm not losing interest.
Challenging for me. I never got into a pattern, just filled in an odd word here and there, eventually got a few connected, got stuck, went elsewhere, more connections, more than a little help from Sergey & Larry and I was actually surprised when I filled in ARE YOU HIGH and the happy music played. Too many overwrites to list, but my favorite was getting the right idea for the Canal implement at 11A and confidently filling in swab.
Nice to see a word that I learned from EAP “Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he; But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—”
Overall enjoyed an appropriately challenging Saturday and a lot of the fill. Should have trusted my instincts on PGACOURSE when Golf fifth fit but didn’t. That’s on me. Enjoyed MEMPHISBBQ as well. Wanted INIT to be ATTIT which didn’t help. Only gripe is that you are not supposed to put a QTIP in your ear canal. The only thing you are supposed to put in your ear is your elbow. According to an old QTI P commercial/
Not only is it feminine hygiene weekend, it's also Memphis weekend, with Marc Cohn walking around the city yesterday and apparently stopping for some BBQ today.
(Which reminds me: today is National Chicken Wing Day. Make sure you indulge.)
I ended up having to look up Southern Methodist University because I was stuck in that corner. TAOS would never have occurred to me for the answer. One thing holding me up was that I noticed that 25 letters of the alphabet had been used, and assumed the absent Z would be in that area somewhere. But it never showed. And by the way, you are not supposed to insert a Q-TIP into your ear canal. It's for external cleaning.
Still the precocious cluing from Sam - there’s nothing wrong with it but requires you to really buy in to get moving on a grid. The misdirects and informally clues abound - many answers teeter on the marginal edge.
I liked the FILE SERVER - SPORTS DESK stack. Love me some MEMPHIS BBQ - double down with Marc COHN from yesterday. RUBE is semi off-putting. The Q’s just seem to be there to be there. Is denim the material in a JEAN jacket?
I’m assuming PGA COURSE refers to the PGA Championship being played at each of the COURSEs? Have never read the HUFFPO. I guess I should know Company?
A decent challenge that eased up when I stopped trying to fight the obtuse cluing. I’ll take Matt Sewell’s Stumper over this today.
BEFORE. When I come into a Sam E. Saturday, I close the door to any distractions, and know I will be facing a polished grid, one in which every square has been wrestled over. I’ll be facing clever/tough cluing, and my best strategy for confronting it is to go on high alert – be suspicious of everything – yet be relaxed, allow my brain to play and figure things out in the background.
I know that there will be deep toil throughout, and deep satisfaction at every square filled, so I enter the puzzle girded, grateful for the challenge, and excited to see how I’ll do.
AFTER. Prime Ezersky. High resistance through vagueness and misdirects; an absolutely junk-free, OMG-spotless grid. Some answers come on the third-or-higher visit, thanks to my brain working on them behind the scenes. Two minor splat-fills that feel divine.
[Stakes in the grass?] – a lovely play on “snakes in the grass”. [They’re up before anyone else] has me thinking “opening acts” before LEADOFFS, but knowing Sam, I know it has nothing to do with early risers. Glad I get ARIA at 2D before coming to [Met highlight] at 46D. Answers I love: UPTICK, ARE YOU HIGH, BEQUEATH, and EYES ON ME. The twelve NYT answer debuts – twelve! – give the puzzle vibrant freshness.
Overall, a most proper Saturday by a pro’s pro. A Saturday Ezersky has a feel of its own, and for me, is a Crosslandia event not to be missed. Sam, thank you for another terrific outing – I loved this!
I don’t know, there’s a lot here not to like. Is KATHERINA a SHREW or is she just SHREWISH ? Please don’t tell me that she is in fact the SHREW to be tamed (never read the play), but is somehow just SHREWISH. Ugh. Similarly, I’ll bet good money that Quail Hollow and Pebble Beach are private clubs and not “PGA COURSES”. They are PGA tour stops or PGA events, but that clue is a stretch, even for a Saturday.
The puzzle just gives off an “in your face” kind of vibe - for example, the clues for CAMEL HUMP and QTIP are defendable, but they are consistent with an “I don’t care if you solve this or not” attitude toward the solver. Ditto for JESSE as clued. Maybe the hard core solvers craving for a challenge will find this one witty and clever - @Lewis is hardcore, let’s see if he rates it superior or just very good.
I agree with Rex on this one. As soon as I saw Sam's name, I thought that I'd probably dislike it. He seems very impressed with himself as this one added to that thought. Glad I finished it, not totally sure how I did, and glad I can put it in the past.
More than medium challenging for me. But I pushed through. @Conrad, I confidently put in swab for QTIP, leading to wAco for TAOS. That was where I finished, reluctantly ripping those two answers out, seeing QR CODE and it was over. (I liked “arrangement for a prom” for COIF. I wanted limo there, but it didn’t work with wAco.) Oh, and by the way, don’t use Q TIPS to clean your ears. Any ENT will tell you they do more harm than good.
Great clues at the beginning and the end for CAMEL HUMPS and SPORTS DESK. I’ve ridden on a camel hump and worked on a sports desk. Similarly bone-jarring experiences. The guys on the sports desk were always the oddest people in the newsroom, but good to argue with and drink with. I didn’t last there long.
Is JEAN really a material? I think of denim as the material. Yes, JEAN jacket is a thing but it feels like that just came about because the jacket is made if the same thing as jeans - denim.
For some reason, I loved TONKA when I got it. I was thinking of something like Mack - a maker of semis, and I told myself, no it can just be Ford or Toyota or something like that - a maker of pickups. Definitely wasn’t thinking toys.
I would like to have an occasion to say EYES ON ME just once before I die.
Unusually easy puz coming from S.E.; most often not at all on his wavelength.
What one HUMP said to the other: ARE YOU HIGH?
Just happen to own a FRIGIDAIRE.
I think I got more pleasure playing HOOPS on the driveway than on the 'court'.
Got my new BANK CARD the other day. Good 'til '29, so after notifying creditors, won't have to make all those calls again for another six years.
Had a listen to Peter PAN recently; always like to revisit Neverland from TIME to TIME.
Fun trip today; enjoying BEING ALIVE! :) ___ Now on to Matthew Sewell's Sat. Stumper. 🤞 ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Well, I found this to be good, clean Saturday fun, medium-ish. Some tough nuts to crack, but that’s how I can tell it’s Saturday. And thanks, Son, for that excellent Jim and JESSE song.
Re JESSE: I get it about not having had a religious upbringing, but when you say stuff along the lines of "Eh, I just don't get any of that stuff" it makes me scratch my head. I mean, you're teaching, what is it, medieval/early-modern English lit? Cuz you might have noticed some Bible 'n' religion bits in there. Isn't that something you need to know about for your job? Prolly you can get away without too much of it in Mallory, I mean, the Grail thing is more legend than doctrine and the rest is all adultery and jousting, but Milton, Donne?
Speaking as someone who used to do that job too....
Mien was my first fill and while typing it, I thought "this will not stand." It was only upon reading your comment that I realized it ended up being correct.
And that's the only enjoyment I got out of this puzzle.
This one played squarely medium for me. It put up a bit of a fight to begin with but once I started working the shorter words, I was able to get there eventually. I agree that some of the answers were a teensy bit clunky.
Embarrassingly, while at first I correctly thought “Year of the ____” had to refer to animals, I soon decided that 34 across *had* to be Chevy. This meant that 2022 was the Year of the CIGAR for longer than I care to divulge; I thought to myself “weird misdirect, but ok, it’s Sam.”
I honestly loved yesterday’s PAD/TAMPON cluing; I don’t know anyone currently using PADS who includes the MAXI part. By the by, most folks I know call them menstrual products. Lots of masculine/butch women use them, and so do many trans men and non-binary folks. I prefer menstrual products for the umbrella term, not just for gender inclusivity but also because I think something feels off about euphemizing something that’s such a regular biological occurrence in so many people’s lives.
Anyway, on to a day full of puttering around the yard and tinkering around the house. I hope folks have good weekends ahead of them!
Started off with "bad excuses" for 1A, didn't really believe it would survive but ARIA came along to support it. Couldn't deny LOO though, so "bad excuses" got excused. Moved on to "lock" for the canal implement, before deciding that calling a canal lock an "implement" is a stretch even for Sam. Replaced that with SWAB which was pretty obviously correct. Ohio seemed a reasonably likely locale for an SMU satellite campus. Loti is an African currency that is divided into "sente" which is derived from cents, and, well, it's Saturday. And "loti" comes before RAND in Wikipedia's alphabetical listing of African currencies, so in it went. Prom arrangement = limo. Still fighting = at it. That 4x4 section of the NE corner was a personal disaster and accounted for a huge fraction of my solve time, is what I'm saying.
Never heard of "Company," and had no idea there were any Jesses in the Bible. Hedgehog style? That's new to me. One site instructs me to start by removing the mango's cheeks. I'll end with that.
Q-Tips; a product with an explicit label warning - “Do not insert swab into ear canal” - against using it for precisely the purpose people buy the product.
What in the heck were these clues??? They were so clue-adjacent that the reveal was often like, ugh, I guess that makes sense? Lame? I guess you can say that a file server is a download source, but really, who ever really says that??? Sure, thunder does clap, but do we ever really use it in the nominal form on its own to talk about a storm warning? "Oh, I heard such a great clap, what a storm is brewing!" I can tolerate that kind of stuff in some measure in a harder puzzle like Saturday, but when nearly EVERY SINGLE CLUE was either that or some obscure trivia, what a soggy mess that was impossible to get any decent foothold in. Why yes, who hasn't heard of SMU's satellite campus in Taos, I was just discussing that with my friend Royce yesterday. And the works of Alec Waugh, why who hasn't spent a whole weekend by the fire with Alec! I'm convinced that Sam Ezersky does not do the whole language thing like the rest of us, give how his spelling bee is often filled with a few extremely obscure words, but he then neglects basic animal vocabulary a kid with a Zoobooks subscription would know. This puzzle was not for me, what a tragic start to a Saturday.
This was a long slog. It must have taken 5 minutes to get anything, and mostly those first entries were wrong: annul for scrub, naif for rube. Finally - mangos and monist and it flowed from there. I then had to respond to a bereavement, and, that included this was a 50 min puzzle, about twice my normal Saturday. Difficult is one thing but there's some clunkers here. I'd never heard of Memphis BBQ. Do people really say "I'm a lead off?" Pest strip? I'm going to the hardware store to get a pest strip? Are you high? Well make sure you take one of your very precious bank cards. Didn't anyone tell you that sticking Q-Tips in your canal is dangerous? Uh, yes. Get some maxi pads while you're out, would you? Ok. Glad you don't have the clap. I got plenty o nuttin.
Probably the toughest puzzle in a couple of years.
In an echo from yesterday, my entry was MAXI. Meaning I went through 27 clues without being able to fill in so much as a guess. Well, not quite true. I put in EPI, but took it out when no crosses came to me.
Highly irresponsible to suggest that Q-Tips are to be used in your ear canal.
UH YES is pretty awful as fill, and the clue doesn’t work at all for me. But really that’s my only beef with the puzzle. Basically, hard but fair. But no surprise that I’m not on Sam Ezersky’s wavelength, given that his ridiculous word list is what drove me away from Spelling Bee.
Hello, fellow QTIP=SWAB friends. Finished there, but what a struggle, mostly because I had CODE and kept thinking, now what the hell kind of CODE is that? Stuff I should know.
As for things that don't hold water, I wanted some kind of PUMPS. Mostly right, and it took forever to come up with HUFFPO, which I do look at every day. Come on man. Also had ___ISBBQ staring at me for a long time and could not think of a suitable beginning. Overlooked the obvious CATS and the hidden ARIA forever. And previous discussion about DOH vs. DUH kept me from seeing plain old YES. That kind of a morning.
My first long and helpful entry was BEINGALIVE, and I do know about JESSE, so some minor triumphs.
Some devilish clues, SE, and your wavelength Still Eludes me, but thanks for some tough fun.
PS-Please start accepting DOBRO and DADO in SB. Thank you.
Agreed. I think I did two passes through the puzzle clues with almost nothing to show for it and then checked the puzzle credits. Ohhh, it’s him again, i said to myself. Then proceeded to cheat on about 1/3 of the puzzle.
It’s fine if you hated this puzzle but you all should stop talking ignorant shit about Sam, personally, since he’s the sweetest person you’re likely to meet in puzzle world and I guarantee he’s smarter than you ✌️ ~RP
"Any idea what the percentage is of Q-tip purchasers who still use them in the ear canal?"
"As an AI language model, I don't have access to real-time data or specific statistics on consumer behavior like Q-tip purchases and usage. The use of Q-tips in the ear canal has been a subject of concern among healthcare professionals, as using them incorrectly can potentially lead to earwax impaction or damage to the ear canal.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) advises against using Q-tips or any other objects to clean the ear canal, as it can push earwax deeper, leading to impaction. They recommend cleaning the outer ear with a cloth or tissue and allowing the ear's natural cleaning process to remove excess earwax.
While it is difficult to determine the exact percentage of Q-tip purchasers who still use them in the ear canal, it is essential for individuals to be aware of the potential risks and follow safe ear cleaning practices recommended by medical professionals.
If you have concerns about earwax or ear health, it is best to consult a healthcare professional or an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist for proper guidance and care."
A search on Google seems to indicate ChatGPT is right on.
@Weezie (8:38 AM) re: your 'menstrual products' para
Well said! :) ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I got everything in the lower half, but the clues in the NW and NE were beyond me. CAMELHUMPS is one example. It isn't really a legit phrase (panel's humps would be), but the temptation to use "pumps" (relating to water) is strong.
I even had AREYOUHIGH at one point, then dismissed it because it didn't fit the crosses.
Spot on Gil. I would guess you are more my vintage(age77). Been doing the NYT puzzles for over 50 years and some of the new nuance just makes a Saturday much harder for me. Need Weng and Maleska straight forward knowledge.
I always love a musical theater gimme for me that I know will be lost on Rex (only fair for the sports clues that are the opposite). One small correction for the (fantastic) documentary referenced here. It captures the making of the Original Cast Recording, not the soundtrack. Soundtracks are for movies, and you’ll catch a lot of grief from the theater crowd when you call an OCR a “soundtrack.”
Hey All ! Here is a proper tough SatPuz for y'all screaming in the streets that the NYT puzs have gone soft. Well, at least for me it was a toughie! Commenced the Googing not right away, but pretty much after staring at too much white for a while. I'll say 10-ish minutes in. I'm not the type of solver who enjoys ferreting out unknown things, I get angst/agita if I read the same clues over and over, and know the answers will never come.
Trying to keep my streak of successful solves on the app going, for no real reason. Ergo, I didn't hit Check Puzzle to find my wrongness, which probably wouldn't have helped on this puz anyway. Too many PPP unknown. The app doesn't know you Googed!
NE, unknowns TAOS and RAND, and even after cheating on both of those, still had trouble in that corner. porChPOSTS before FENCEPOSTS gnarling up the NW. JESus-JESSE adding confusion as well. Got both Q answers quite quickly in succession, once I erased the US of JESUS. Finished up in NW.
Yes, puz kicked me in the CAMEL HUMP. Time to tend to my wounds. Happy weekend!
I have a bone to pick about the PGA course answer. The PGA and PGA Tour are separate entities. Both of those courses are played yearly on the PGA Tour. The PGA hosts only one championship a year. It had used both courses in the clue, but it last went to pebble beach in 1977. There are any number of courses you could pick instead, but they went with those 2. I realize that I’m being a pedant and only a few other people solving this would see this issue, but it bugged me.
Otherwise, I loved this puzzle. It was tough but doable. I like Saturdays like this. Makes it feel like an accomplishment to finish.
Tampons yesterday. Maxipads today. What in tar-hooties is going down at the factory? I swear to good golly, if there is one thing made out of cotton tomorrow, I am going to lose my ever-lovin' mind.
Uniclues:
1 Implement used to clean the animals and haze the new drivers. 2 Natural reaction to every word out of Texas senator's face. 3 Property boundary for unpopular farmer. 4 Hand down stone fruits in a deadly legal proceeding. 5 Monthly dump truck need? 6 What the Times would do if the same powerful anonymous complainer against CROSS DRESS called to grumble about cricket coverage. 7 Song sung by drunken gramma. 8 What happens at theater camp as the week wears on and the thespians become more unruly.
1 CAMEL HUMP Q-TIP 2 ARE YOU HIGH RAND? 3 SAP'S FENCE POSTS 4 BEQUEATH MANGOS 5 TONKA PADS (~) 6 YANK SPORTS DESK 7 HOUSE GALA ARIA (~) 8 "EYES ON ME" UPTICK
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Carry out a vendetta against flip-flop purveyors. MACE SHOE STORES.
I saw Barbie last night and enjoyed it a lot. Also noticed in the credits that Michael Sharp is the Unit Production Manager. I guess he wears a lot of hats (blogmeister, professor, feeder of CATS). And now I realize that he can really manage a unit’s production.
@Southside Johnny. WhileQuail Hollow is very private, Pebble Beach is open to the public. Perennially rated the top public course in the universe.
I’ve tried a few CAMELHUMPS and IGOTNOTHIN but CLAP.
Inside tip: Take the over/under on HILO.
I’m with @Lewis all the way on this one. A joyful experience in the end, achieved by virtue of vicious combat throughout. Thanks for the wonderful puzzle, Sam Ezersky.
Near perfect puzzle! Sparkle (15 red plus signs in the margins, way above average). Crunch (16 mysteries, close to my limit of 20). Only 6 Terrible Threes, the fewest for some time. 18 long entries, the most for some time. Almost completely junk-free (UHYES). Smart cluing. Word play. Did I leave anything out?
We didn't study the Old Testament much in the Catholic schools I went to but I thought that I had heard of the major characters there. But not JESSE.
SHREWISH? That comes from an old joke, doesn't it?
Like some stakes ... OWED? How are stakes owed? Canal implement ... QTIP? It says right on the packaging not to insert these into your ear canal Truck maker since 1947 ... TONKA? They make toys that look like trucks, not actual trucks
I think the constructor shoe-horned some really bad clues in this puzzle just to make all the "Q" answers work out.
Previous comments posted. Then taken down by the Mighty Rex after I suggested he needed a PESTSTRIP for the Lake Superior insect that is persistently invading (maybe try a QTIP in THAT hole?)
The man can giveth but sure can’t taketh!
(On the odd chance this is allowed up, I’ll say again: thanks Sam!)
A reasonably doable Saturday today. I can't say I ever thought I’d get my start to a puzzle with looky-LOO and HUFF PO side by side. Only the SE really gave me trouble because I was thinking music for 35D so I wanted LEAD acts. I know nothing about the musical, “Company”, hedgehogged MANGOes, and the wonky clue for SPORTSDESK left me hanging down there for a while. When I GOT NOTHIN' filled in from the west, it ironically gave me the opening I needed.
QUITE BAD could have been QUITE low, I thought, another hold-up from getting into the SE. and I'm still not quite catching on to BINS = the question-marked clue, “Lobster catchers?”
FENCE POSTS went in fairly easily. My husband just finished rebuilding our wooden fence, making it 8 feet high so as to block our view of the auto recycler shop next door. He had some help from friends with the slats but he poured the sixteen footings for the posts all by himself, using up thirty-six 50 lb bags of cement! What an undertaking.
I'm with Rex on my ignorance of JESSE. I had a Christian upbringing but there were no Jesse songs sung or Jesse trees discussed in my parochial grade school.
First of all: To answer @GILL's "should I?" query at the top of the comments: The answer is most definitely "No." You don't need to know any of those particular Sam-subjects; your own sphere of knowledge seems to me to be considerably more broad-based and important in the great scheme of things.
Nevertheless, I didn't have any of @GILL's woes today -- finding everything I didn't know crossed in a way that made it gettable. TIME OF YEAR went in immediately and later on so did BEING ALIVE, the 11 o'clock number from "Company". Everyone who's seen "Company" will probably know that answer. Once I had the "S" from the 1A plural which I didn't yet know, SHREWISH went in right away too.
Good grief, not two days in a row!!! MAXI PADS???!!!! What is this: menstruation month at the NYT?
I thought that CAMELs were especially good at holding water. But their HUMPS don't? I'll go back, read the blog and find out. I'll also try to find out why I've never heard of JESSE. That answer came as the biggest surprise to me in the puzzle. I thought the answer would be Saul or Solomon or someone like that.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Enough challenge to keep the juices flowing, but certainly not as hard as many other Saturdays.
UH YES Sam, we did enjoy your puzzle. I must have been in Rex’s Sunday school class when they were giving JESSE and other old genealogy lessons. QUITE BAD too for having been raised on a farm where chickens were the predawn early risers and all that before I got to the intentional clueing cuteness. It was a longish morning, but certainly worth the struggle to stay IN IT. And revamping my CAMEL HUMPS misconception was alone worth the price of admission.
Having had both I can say an “epi” is an Epi-pen, not an epidural. Who still says maxi pads? And I don’t need misogynistic words on my xw in the morning, even from Shakespeare.
Finally, A true Saturday level challenge….no bs, no tic tok, no bizarre language….like you’re told your first day at Stanford “Don’t ever think you’re the smartest person in this class, you’re not” Sam managed to bring back old school crossword. A hot puzzle on a boiling weekend, I’m now ready for the pool
I enjoyed this workout, and was pleased to solve everything except the NE corner. I had no clue for QTIP and RAND. “Implement “ really had me stumped after lock didn’t work. PDF and docs went in and out. Convinced INIT was the perennial atit and that was probably my downfall. Also assuming Q was followed by U. No idea about TAOS. Wondered if it could be Laos, but for the U …. A relief to see COIF!
Delightful puzzle. Just needed a theme! But there was a bit of humor - the HUMPS at least. I’m with you on JESSE, except I recognized it as a biblical name. And I went back and forth guessing on the spelling of IGOTNOTHIN, because if you’re going for that sort of thing, are you going all the way to I got nuttin?
I, too, frequently complain about Sam's Spelling Bee choices, but once in a while I actually do some research. Yesterday for instance, I wanted TAPPET because everyone knows about tappets and tappet wrenches, but Sam said NO! I was surprised when it accepted TIPPET because that's just not a word I, nor anyone else born within the past 100 years had used or heard of. Then to the research, put the two terms into NGRAMS, and for the past 3 decades, TIPPET has appeared in print at 2-3 times the rate as has TAPPET.
So maybe, just maybe, my knowledge base is idiosyncratic rather than universal, and Sam does actual research in making his decisions? So maybe, just maybe, those words you know are not as common as you think?
The tree of Jesse is an important metaphor in Christology. The entire opening to the Gospel of St. Matthew is devoted to Christ’s genealogy, specifically as a descendant of King David— and necessarily his father Jesse. What’s more the tree of Jesse was an important subject in art for the entirety of the Middle Ages and parts of the Renaissance. If you’ve been to the Cathedral at Chartres and weren’t closing your eyes you saw the Jesse tree window.
The Scheenberg Psalter has a lovely tree of Jesse which included s the Madonna.
Flemish master Jn Wierex has a famous engraving of the Jesse Tree. If you prefer a more modern sensibility Sister Ansgar Holmberg has a lovely interpretation in her O Antiphons series.
GOLFLINKS instead of PGACOURSE, PEERTOPEER instead of FILESERVER, CARROT instead of MANGOS, OAFs instead of SAPs ... everything I tried failed, then for the rest I had nothin' for a long time. On the fine line between "fun challenge" and "miserable slog", this puzzle was on the slog side for me.
OK. I’ve been in thousands of delivery rooms and nobody calls an epidural an “epi”. “Epi” is epinephrine and nothing else. I couldn’t understand why that was the ”correct” answer until Rex “explained” it.
Harder than camel snot, at our house. Turned M&A into a devout moanist.
Weren't actually a whole mess of no-knows, tho. Only mysterious visitors were: JESSE. ALEC. DES. QRCODE. BEINGALIVE song. Howsoever, the feisty clues managed to generate many additional mysteries.
staff weeject pick, from a mere six choices: LOO. Enjoyed the whole image of some overcurious sort lookyin in at people on the loo.
some faves: QUITEBAD + YANK's {QUITE a jerk} clue … a quite nice double-dip. BEQUEATH. IGOTNOTHIN [wanted NUTHIN, tho]. AREYOUHIGH. ARIA clue [very runtpuz double ?-marker-esque].
best Ow de Speration moment: HUFFPO + UHYES combo.
Thanx for a looong [but interestin] solvequest, Mr. Ezersky dude. Top of the SatPuz toughness heap? -- UH huh hell YES.
Re Spelling Bee arbitrariness: @pabloinnh and @Pete, here is a Google Ngram of some words. Note all the ones in the middle and top (which means they're actually used somewhat regularly) are NOT accepted in SB. And all the ones way down at the bottom (basically never used) are accepted.
@puzzlehoarder-I've never seen Dobro used as a proper noun and a little research was very interesting as to its origin. Wiki, at least, says it can also be used as a generic term, which is the way I'm used to using it. My singing partner plays a mean dobro, or Dobro.
I was really really hoping for DIVA CUPS. MAXI PADS sounds so staid to my ears…at this point, aren’t they just pads? I had issues alllllllll over the grid, but this one is sticking with me. Ha, sticking.
Hard one! Yeesh. I had to look up Jesse and I have a moderately religious background (Jewish but still, David was in our purview) so don’t feel too too bad about that. Lots of problems probably stemmed from putting SWAB instead of QTIP, then realizing, BDF is not a thing and on and on. SHREWISH didn’t seem very nice to me either, and TAOS is not in Texas, right? Idk, I don’t think it is . Anyhoo, hard, but not too fun.
Very smooth Acrostic in tomorrow's magazine. I like this duo David Balton & Jane Stewart, who've done a few of them since Cox/Rathvon left. I hope they get slotted in permanently.
I love this level of difficulty. At first appears impossible… Then slowly the pieces fall into place. My first real answer was Frigidaire. My last ones were Q-tip, rand and coif. I once to sang a hymn with the lyric “from Jessie‘s route, ascending“ and the memory of that helped.
Ultimately, hung up in the NE. Had swab, at it, Waco, and limo. Had fence posts right away, so kept noodling how to turn that s into an o. I thought it was Rand, but wouldn't mesh with anything I had. Getting Taos (SMU branch in Taos? Really?) and then coif did the trick. More time spent in that darn corner than on the rest of the puzzle. Finally a challenging Saturday!
If any thread on the internet deserves an “Ok, boomer” this is it. Also, file servers have been around for at least 30 years; sports desks at newspapers for at least a hundred more, so I’m not sure what TikTok and Twitter have to do with being able to get these clues.
To be honest I wouldn't know a Dobro if I fell over one. I tried putting it in an SB list once and figured it was just one of those random S.E. oversights because I assumed it was a common noun. However it's not in my 6th edition Scrabble dictionary either and when I brought this up at my weekly Scrabble club a professional musician in attendance informed me that it is actually a kind of brand name. I then looked it up in my 1989 Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and discovered that it's capitalized and designated as a trademark. English being what it is maybe if enough people use it as an common noun it will become one.
For Christians who don't remember Jesse, I bet you may have sung "O Come, O Come Emanuel" or "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming". Both beautiful hymns sung in the Advent/Xmas season. Perhaps we all fall asleep for anything but the first verse...@anon 2:54, that would be "Jesse's ROOT", lol.
I was struggling mightily today, and had guesses that were all 2 or 3 letters too long or short. I did all acrosses and all downs, filling in guesses where I had them. With nothing confident, I hit check puzzle and got so many red slashes that I just decided to work with autocheck - amazing how that helps so much. I finished with nary a visit to Google and really enjoyed it. I think if I had put it away and solved in a less groggy and more patient state, I might have gotten there eventually.
@andrew: I don't think Rex is doing any of the moderation on a regular basis, and would bet on him not doing it while enjoying the '80s hits on his lakefront vacation:)
I did a traveling revue-type show, and Being Alive was in regular rotation, so played it hundreds of times, but could my brain parse it this morning????
Wailuku river is in Wailuku the capital of MAUI. Not sure if there is a park there but probably is. Anyway that was a big backdown I had to make. Other workouts FILEStReam for FILESERVER CALM before the storm with the M giving me MRES for free lunches.
The following is a fairly well known Christmas hymn, though more popular in German than in English.
Villager
Lo, how a rose e'er blooming, From tender stem hath sprung. Of Jesse's lineage coming, As men of old have sung; It came, a flow'ret bright, Amid the cold of winter, When half spent was the night.
Isaiah 'twas foretold it, The Rose I have in mind, With Mary we behold it, The virgin mother kind; To show God's love aright, She bore to men a Savior, When half spent was the night.
O Flower, whose fragrance tender With sweetness fills the air, Dispel with glorious splendour The darkness everywhere; True man, yet very God, From Sin and death now save us, And share our every load.
In German:
Es ist ein Ros entsprungen Aus einer Wurzel zart Aus uns die Alten sungen Von Jesse kam die Art Und hat ein Blümlein bracht Mitten im kalten Winter Wohl zu der halben Nacht Das Röslein, das ich meine Davon Jesaia sagt Hat uns gebracht alleine Marie, die reine Magd Aus Gottes ew'gem Rat Hat sie ein Kind geboren Welches uns selig macht O Jesu, bis zum Scheiden Aus diesem Jammertal Lass dein Hilf uns geleiten Hin in den Freudensaal In deines Vaters Reich Da wir dich ewig loben O Gott, uns das verleih
I don’t know about that OFL. I’m sure Sam (and Will) are very nice people as you have attested to (at least for Sam). As for being smart, you would think that with all of the experience, resources and alleged knowledge that you indicate, they would be able to do better than propagating a common misconception about shoving things into one’s ear canal. That’s an inexcusable and irresponsible foul up for an item published by a news organization. Maybe the editors should stick to fact checking and editing, and the constructors could also be more cautious.
@puzzlehoarder-Totally agree on the evolutionary process and dobro. See also Kleenex and Bandaid and Xerox and probably lots of others I either don't know or can't think of.
A dobro makes a very nice addition to lots of folk songs, that I do know.
I liked this puzzle before I even looked at the first clue. Twenty-eight black squares leaves plenty of space for longer fill, always a good thing in any puzzle . The upper right and lower left sections are a bit closed off but the rest of the grid has a nice open flow to it that means filled in answers in one area will provide help solving adjacent areas.
Seems like a bit of a religious/philosophical theme with the likes of SHINTO, JESSE, MONIST, Year of the TIGER, and the Ancient Greek gods ARES and PAN.
I thought everyone knew that CAMEL HUMPS don't really hold water.
Again a reminder to those folks commenting yea or nay on the constructor's clues. Clueing is where editors are most likely to make changes so without direct knowledge we can't be sure who is responsible for any given clue. If I'm making a comment about clueing, I just give credit or blame to "the puzzle".
@Weezie -- The year of the CIGAR! Hah! I laughed out loud because it caught me by such surprise, and was very funny to imagine, as a Chinese New Year. Thanks for that!
So JESSE and BEING ALIVE were eventual gimmes. But when I started it was ARIA and LOO and weirdly TIME OF YEAR off just those two, and then nothing! Went for a long walk (still early, not soooo hot yet) and had breakfast and later when I went back to the puzzle the answers just kept... appearing in my brain...? I wish I knew how that happens. It's like the pangram in SB, I don't actively try to construct a word, it just... appears.
Liked ARE YOU HIGH and MEMPHIS BBQ. stake before PURSE. Took awhile for that LEASH to appear, too.
If you don't know the Company story it's worth learning. BEING ALIVE on the album makes me cry! Mainly for the backstory, not so much for its [down autocorrect! Off with your apostrophes] role in the musical...
OK, it's very late, I've only read half the comments, but have to go out soon -- we're spending the weekend in Williamstown, spent the day at the Clark Institute, so only just got to the super-tough puzzle, which took 42 minutes online.
I shared the shock of Rex's friends re: not knowing Jesse, but many others didn't either, apparently. I did go to Sunday school, back there in the 50s, and I guess a little of it stuck. And I went to church at one point, enough to know the hymn Rex is misquoting. But it's nice to be reminded that others have different experiences.
My favorite writeover: Oman before TAOS.
One thing to admire: of the 4 words with Qs, only one has QU. That's impressive.
To me a RUBE is more a hick than a simpleton, but OK, it's a clue.
As for Q-TIPS, they were too soft for my mother -- she used the round ends of bobby pins to clean our ears. In her defense, she could see what she was doing -- unlike sticking something in your own ear, when you have to go by feel.
OK, enough out of me. Solving this on my computer was bad enough, I'm definitely not going to try Sunday--so see you all on Monday.
What’s wrong with the answer camel humps? The posters didn’t say. I heard what Rex called a common misconception when I was a kid. I thought it was clever.
@Anony 3:16. I'm assuming you're referring to my Twitter and Tik Tok reference. I mentioned Sam and I live on different islands. Mine doesn't involve much social media. And no...I'm not 77 years old. Sam throws out some mighty strange nuggets of information and cluing on most of his puzzles. I wasn't just referring to sports desks and file servers, I was referring to social media terms that appear often that I know nada about. I know Twitter has been around for many years and is considered a high tech newswire that I don't bother to participate in....Microblogging? TikTok uses a ton of slang words that appear often. I wonder if I'll ever see ByteDance in one of his crossword....Probably. Oh...I learned from my daughter that GYAT is short for goddam. So there's that. I learn all kinds of stuff everyday that I do a puzzle. And then, of course, there's this blog. It's a fountain of information from some pretty smart cookies. I'm out of coconuts.
@okanaganer - Yeah, I know. I still swear at Sam when inline, tuple, dado and dozen of others aren't accepted, and your list makes a valid point about some (many) things. That doesn't mean that every time I swear at Sam I am in the right.
That being said, I don't know if there is a more thankless job, one more given to second guessing, than what Sam is doing on Spelling Bee. I just wish he agreed with me more often.
Many here have mentioned the packaging and the professional advice not to insert Q-Tips in ears. Okay. But it isn’t grounds for objecting to the answer. The Times puzzle isn’t an advice column. At least when I was a kid, Q-Tips were routinely used that way- with no warning on the packaging I bet. The relationship has stayed part of common knowledge. I bet every single person commenting is aware of the association of Q-Tips and ears. The clue/answer combo is perfectly valid. (Using a common expression here, also I think it’s a stretch to say the answer encourages people to use Q-Tips improperly!).
In case anyone is still reading the comments at this hour, I’ve noticed that, in the SpellingBee, Sam E. eschews words that were originally brand names, no matter how thoroughly they are now embedded in generic form in the language. My best example is “yoyo”, which we all spent time commenting on just yesterday with regard to YOYODIET. No one said anything about the brand name. But yoyo is a nono in SB.
Quick post today before I go pass out from the effort of lugging dead papers to my car to be taken to the industrial shredder. Wow, in the last 25 years, I have killed way too many trees, but at least 75% fewer than before the legal profession tried to go “paperless” which just won’t happen until all of rural America has access to necessary technology. A problem that’s plagued my clients in rural Oklahoma counties, both of which just finished installing high speed internet throughout their county courthouses with ARPA funds. Sad. Anyway, I’ve been on the couch enjoying the solve.
This experience mirrored my solve yesterday. Some spots were nearly impossible and others were super easy. The NW, for example gave me CATS a d ARIA immediately. Soon thereafter TIME OF YEAR seemed like a good guess and that was enough to get the remainder of the NW.
Loved seeing MEMPHIS BBQ. Any time I think ribs I’m on Memphis with my husband during our undergrad days playing on weekends with the Memphis Symphony. A very doable road trip from Champaign-Urbana all paid for by the generous (to us poor students) Memphis folks. A nice hotel weekend, three concerts and such fun people. And The Rendesvous BBQ. Best ribs I have ever eaten anywhere still. Dry ribs down there with sauce on the side (if you must). Just divine. And of course the company was perfect. A couple carloads of us from Illinois; students and faculty. Some of our fondest memories-including the MEMPHIS BBQ!
After the NW, nothing seemed to want to reveal itself until the middle diagonal running NE-SW direction. PURSE, LEASH, JESSE and BEQUEATH and for the second day running(!!??!!) feminine hygiene products?! Really? Nobody, including (especially?) women wants to spend more time than necessary thinking about much less doing a crossword containing anything related to our periods! Yuk! Along with the NW, the bottom 25% all the way across starting at ON TOP fell easily as well. I easily spent about three times as long with the remainder of the puzzle as with the NW and the bottom. Go figure. It felt like Sam E turned off my wavelength receiver and revoked my visa to his mindset instantly. Ugh.
Same experience Friday and today. Not impossible and easy some spots but otherwise not as snappy as many a Sam E offering - and he is a favorite of mine. Mr. E, you don’t need to show me how hip to women you are - I believe you appreciate all of humanity. I just don’t need to see everything “female” in my daily puzzle.
Most dictionaries (including Scrabble dicts) have it hyphenated: (here) and (here). ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@dgd 7:52 pm – it's grounds for calling out the clue, which is a stupid feeble attempt at misdirection that gets the function of the implement wrong in the process.
As someone who grew up 50 Km from the torii shown in this blog, I appreciated the clue for SHINTO (Literally, "way of the gods"). It was much more Saturday-worthy than the generic "Japanese religion" clue that could have been used. What perplexes me, though is that SENSEI was clued yesterday (7/28/2023) similarly as "Literally, 'teacher' or 'master'". Why was the word "literally" used there? If you want to be literal, SENSEI means "born before". I actually wanted to put in SENSEI initially, but didn't, because what was given was the common meaning of the word, not the "literal" one.
I didn’t mind the tampon/pad combo but ‘maxi pad’ is just ugh. Less menstrual products in my crossword please. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of menstruation and it’s accoutrements, just don’t want periods to occupy more of my life than they already do.
Loved the challenge this puzzle gave me. I went through all of the Acrosses and the only one I immediately knew was JESSE. I had to build off of that answer, and it was slow going. Everything eventually fell into place. I am happy to take a hit to my average Saturday solve times for a challenge like that. Thank you Sam!
Thought this one was the most challenging puzzle in weeks. DNF due to the NE corner could not parse QRCODE, RAND, COIF, etc. The whole thing. Anyway, nice to have a challenge even if I didn’t finish. The puzzle has been way too easy.
Yes! Thank you, looking for a comment that explained my feelings so I didn't have to and this was pretty much prefect. This was just way too much. Would have loved a few of these, but almost every clue meant there was almost no way to get a foothold.
The clue for TAOS was exceedingly terrible. I need to know every satellite campus for all of the top 200 colleges in the US, wtf? A better clue would have been 'city in the US.' Just way too much was like... okay, I guess, and not spot on once you finally did wrestle them out. I appreciate injecting some difficulty again, but this type of obtuse cluing and this much of it was just not for me.
As a boomer, I’d have to agree with you. I don’t like the stuck in the past, everything should stay as it used to be mentality. That’s why no one over 65 should be able to run for office, or vote.
Very challenging. Solve after solve I kept saying under my breath: “What an @sshole!” Still, it was enjoyable solve - in spite of the brain bleed it gave me.
@D,LIW - yes, the breakfast test has been challenged a bit too much, IMO. The S and E were a large trouble spot, until mazdA turned into TONKA, turning goldCARD into BANKCARD. Wordle birdie, but potential for higher scores.
This puzzle was definitely harder than snot for me, and I thought I'd never finish, but I persevered and did. My bank card is definitely a piece of precious plastic. If I lost it and someone found it and figured out my pin, they'd be about $25,000 richer. Shhhh, don't tell anybody!!!
I just watched a video of a kid doing that mango hedgehog thingie. I've seen it done on cooking shows, but don't recall it being called that. Awesome sauce! I like when you fill in an answer on the puzzle, but think what in the heck is that, and then it turns out you do know what the heck that is. You just didn't know the term for it.
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
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125 comments:
Yes...I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before: Sam and I live on different islands. Mine is void of viral videos, download sources, purveyors of game pieces and elements of modern ads. And that's just one coconut on my island! Why do I feel I should twitter and Tik Tok and become savvily perspicacious to finish one of his puzzles without feeling like a RUBE.....Should I?
I'm eating a MANGO and I look at 1D and wonder why CATS? Do dogs count? Oh, wait....Can 1A be CAMEL HUMPS? But I had Bumps....Why? you may inquire...I thought maybe the Daily Beast was up against Buzz feed. How do you shorten that one....You can't...It's a HUFF PO. Here we go with PO again.
I really want to know why a BANK CARD is precious. That's QUITE BAD.
Song from company? ....BEING ALIVE. I'm already dead.
JESSE? I thought I knew my Bible.
MAXI PADS? I demand a JOCK STRAP.
I GOT NOTHIN. Yes, my friends. That's me.
OK I want to be the first to say it, after yd's comments: MAXI, PADS! Feminine hygiene, tautologically(?) clued, for the second straight day!
Aside from that, almost all of what Rex said. Just a long slog. For 9 down had GOLF----- and could only think of GOLF LINKS. For "Precious plastic" had GOLD CARD which is wayyyy better than BANK CARD, right? And goofiest of all, had SHIP before Q-TIP for "Canal implement".
HUFF PO, just NO. OAHU before HILO, COINS before DISCS, and HONDA before TONKA since it fit with GOLD CARD, see above.
[Spelling Bee: Fri currently -1, missing a 6er.]
Hard then easy-medium. All I had was CATS and LOO in the NW for quite a while. Me too for Golf COURSE not fitting and then ProCOURSE didn’t work so...PGA. QUITE BAD and FENCE POSTS finally opened it up. The bottom half was much easier. The long downs were fun, liked it.
I just did this on my phone ( which is what I'm commenting on) so I'll.
have to recall it by memory. S. olving on your phone sucks but I waited for the paper yesterday and as often happens by the time I solve there's more comments than I really have time to read and I wind up not commenting because it's so late when I catch up.
Even on paper this would have been a challenging solve but I did get the congrats on the last entry so there is that instant gratification of knowing your grid is clean.
My solving experience was not dissimilar to what our host described ARIA and LOO had no company for a long time. I could see CATS, SAPS and EYES something (LEFT?) But my guess for the absurd phrase was AREYOUNUTS supported by GUFF for attitude. Funny as the double F showed up later at HUFFPO.
The real filling started with APBIO and went clockwise from there.
Apparently it's feminine hygiene weekend. When all I had was the AD of what turned out to be PADS I thought they might be going with LADY JAYS which you can look up for yourself.
This was an enjoyable Saturday. MONIST I completely made up I've never seen it before. Lots of other entries I had no idea on so a good hour and a half of smoking things out. I really can't ask for more.
I'm like chatty Cathy but this is probably it for this week's comments.
SB update, I didn't get around to last Monday but everything else since last Sat has been -0 so it's pretty much a two week streak. So far I'm not losing interest.
I had BAKELITE at 36D for a bit. Wonder if any of y'all tried that. 🙃
Update 11:35pm PDT: [Spelling Bee: Fri 0, last word this 6er.]
A good, tough one.
Hard to get a toe hold and slow going for me even after that. Cleaver clueing. Took me a while but I finished. A satisfying struggle.
Thanks!.
Challenging for me. I never got into a pattern, just filled in an odd word here and there, eventually got a few connected, got stuck, went elsewhere, more connections, more than a little help from Sergey & Larry and I was actually surprised when I filled in ARE YOU HIGH and the happy music played. Too many overwrites to list, but my favorite was getting the right idea for the Canal implement at 11A and confidently filling in swab.
@ breakfast tester: Hand up for bakelite. Thought I was so clever 🤣
Hated this puzzle. Camel humps, seriously? Ugh. Also ugh to maxi pads.
Nice to see a word that I learned from EAP
“Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;
But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door—”
Overall enjoyed an appropriately challenging Saturday and a lot of the fill. Should have trusted my instincts on PGACOURSE when Golf fifth fit but didn’t. That’s on me. Enjoyed MEMPHISBBQ as well. Wanted INIT to be ATTIT which didn’t help. Only gripe is that you are not supposed to put a QTIP in your ear canal. The only thing you are supposed to put in your ear is your elbow. According to an old QTI P commercial/
Not only is it feminine hygiene weekend, it's also Memphis weekend, with Marc Cohn walking around the city yesterday and apparently stopping for some BBQ today.
(Which reminds me: today is National Chicken Wing Day. Make sure you indulge.)
I ended up having to look up Southern Methodist University because I was stuck in that corner. TAOS would never have occurred to me for the answer. One thing holding me up was that I noticed that 25 letters of the alphabet had been used, and assumed the absent Z would be in that area somewhere. But it never showed. And by the way, you are not supposed to insert a Q-TIP into your ear canal. It's for external cleaning.
Grand Central Carly
Still the precocious cluing from Sam - there’s nothing wrong with it but requires you to really buy in to get moving on a grid. The misdirects and informally clues abound - many answers teeter on the marginal edge.
I liked the FILE SERVER - SPORTS DESK stack. Love me some MEMPHIS BBQ - double down with Marc COHN from yesterday. RUBE is semi off-putting. The Q’s just seem to be there to be there. Is denim the material in a JEAN jacket?
I’m assuming PGA COURSE refers to the PGA Championship being played at each of the COURSEs? Have never read the HUFFPO. I guess I should know Company?
A decent challenge that eased up when I stopped trying to fight the obtuse cluing. I’ll take Matt Sewell’s Stumper over this today.
Jim and JESSE
BEFORE. When I come into a Sam E. Saturday, I close the door to any distractions, and know I will be facing a polished grid, one in which every square has been wrestled over. I’ll be facing clever/tough cluing, and my best strategy for confronting it is to go on high alert – be suspicious of everything – yet be relaxed, allow my brain to play and figure things out in the background.
I know that there will be deep toil throughout, and deep satisfaction at every square filled, so I enter the puzzle girded, grateful for the challenge, and excited to see how I’ll do.
AFTER. Prime Ezersky. High resistance through vagueness and misdirects; an absolutely junk-free, OMG-spotless grid. Some answers come on the third-or-higher visit, thanks to my brain working on them behind the scenes. Two minor splat-fills that feel divine.
[Stakes in the grass?] – a lovely play on “snakes in the grass”. [They’re up before anyone else] has me thinking “opening acts” before LEADOFFS, but knowing Sam, I know it has nothing to do with early risers. Glad I get ARIA at 2D before coming to [Met highlight] at 46D. Answers I love: UPTICK, ARE YOU HIGH, BEQUEATH, and EYES ON ME. The twelve NYT answer debuts – twelve! – give the puzzle vibrant freshness.
Overall, a most proper Saturday by a pro’s pro. A Saturday Ezersky has a feel of its own, and for me, is a Crosslandia event not to be missed. Sam, thank you for another terrific outing – I loved this!
I don’t know, there’s a lot here not to like. Is KATHERINA a SHREW or is she just SHREWISH ? Please don’t tell me that she is in fact the SHREW to be tamed (never read the play), but is somehow just SHREWISH. Ugh. Similarly, I’ll bet good money that Quail Hollow and Pebble Beach are private clubs and not “PGA COURSES”. They are PGA tour stops or PGA events, but that clue is a stretch, even for a Saturday.
The puzzle just gives off an “in your face” kind of vibe - for example, the clues for CAMEL HUMP and QTIP are defendable, but they are consistent with an “I don’t care if you solve this or not” attitude toward the solver. Ditto for JESSE as clued. Maybe the hard core solvers craving for a challenge will find this one witty and clever - @Lewis is hardcore, let’s see if he rates it superior or just very good.
I agree with Rex on this one. As soon as I saw Sam's name, I thought that I'd probably dislike it. He seems very impressed with himself as this one added to that thought. Glad I finished it, not totally sure how I did, and glad I can put it in the past.
More than medium challenging for me. But I pushed through. @Conrad, I confidently put in swab for QTIP, leading to wAco for TAOS. That was where I finished, reluctantly ripping those two answers out, seeing QR CODE and it was over. (I liked “arrangement for a prom” for COIF. I wanted limo there, but it didn’t work with wAco.) Oh, and by the way, don’t use Q TIPS to clean your ears. Any ENT will tell you they do more harm than good.
Great clues at the beginning and the end for CAMEL HUMPS and SPORTS DESK. I’ve ridden on a camel hump and worked on a sports desk. Similarly bone-jarring experiences. The guys on the sports desk were always the oddest people in the newsroom, but good to argue with and drink with. I didn’t last there long.
Is JEAN really a material? I think of denim as the material. Yes, JEAN jacket is a thing but it feels like that just came about because the jacket is made if the same thing as jeans - denim.
For some reason, I loved TONKA when I got it. I was thinking of something like Mack - a maker of semis, and I told myself, no it can just be Ford or Toyota or something like that - a maker of pickups. Definitely wasn’t thinking toys.
I would like to have an occasion to say EYES ON ME just once before I die.
Thx, Sam; excellent production! 😊
Easy/med.
Unusually easy puz coming from S.E.; most often not at all on his wavelength.
What one HUMP said to the other: ARE YOU HIGH?
Just happen to own a FRIGIDAIRE.
I think I got more pleasure playing HOOPS on the driveway than on the 'court'.
Got my new BANK CARD the other day. Good 'til '29, so after notifying creditors, won't have to make all those calls again for another six years.
Had a listen to Peter PAN recently; always like to revisit Neverland from TIME to TIME.
Fun trip today; enjoying BEING ALIVE! :)
___
Now on to Matthew Sewell's Sat. Stumper. 🤞
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Challenging, fun, and a rewarding solve. Nice toothsome Saturday. Well done!
Well, I found this to be good, clean Saturday fun, medium-ish. Some tough nuts to crack, but that’s how I can tell it’s Saturday. And thanks, Son, for that excellent Jim and JESSE song.
Re JESSE: I get it about not having had a religious upbringing, but when you say stuff along the lines of "Eh, I just don't get any of that stuff" it makes me scratch my head. I mean, you're teaching, what is it, medieval/early-modern English lit? Cuz you might have noticed some Bible 'n' religion bits in there. Isn't that something you need to know about for your job? Prolly you can get away without too much of it in Mallory, I mean, the Grail thing is more legend than doctrine and the rest is all adultery and jousting, but Milton, Donne?
Speaking as someone who used to do that job too....
Mien was my first fill and while typing it, I thought "this will not stand." It was only upon reading your comment that I realized it ended up being correct.
And that's the only enjoyment I got out of this puzzle.
This one played squarely medium for me. It put up a bit of a fight to begin with but once I started working the shorter words, I was able to get there eventually. I agree that some of the answers were a teensy bit clunky.
Embarrassingly, while at first I correctly thought “Year of the ____” had to refer to animals, I soon decided that 34 across *had* to be Chevy. This meant that 2022 was the Year of the CIGAR for longer than I care to divulge; I thought to myself “weird misdirect, but ok, it’s Sam.”
I honestly loved yesterday’s PAD/TAMPON cluing; I don’t know anyone currently using PADS who includes the MAXI part. By the by, most folks I know call them menstrual products. Lots of masculine/butch women use them, and so do many trans men and non-binary folks. I prefer menstrual products for the umbrella term, not just for gender inclusivity but also because I think something feels off about euphemizing something that’s such a regular biological occurrence in so many people’s lives.
Anyway, on to a day full of puttering around the yard and tinkering around the house. I hope folks have good weekends ahead of them!
Felt really good about myself after Thursday’s record finish time. Friday and Saturday… not so much!
Started off with "bad excuses" for 1A, didn't really believe it would survive but ARIA came along to support it. Couldn't deny LOO though, so "bad excuses" got excused. Moved on to "lock" for the canal implement, before deciding that calling a canal lock an "implement" is a stretch even for Sam. Replaced that with SWAB which was pretty obviously correct. Ohio seemed a reasonably likely locale for an SMU satellite campus. Loti is an African currency that is divided into "sente" which is derived from cents, and, well, it's Saturday. And "loti" comes before RAND in Wikipedia's alphabetical listing of African currencies, so in it went. Prom arrangement = limo. Still fighting = at it. That 4x4 section of the NE corner was a personal disaster and accounted for a huge fraction of my solve time, is what I'm saying.
Never heard of "Company," and had no idea there were any Jesses in the Bible. Hedgehog style? That's new to me. One site instructs me to start by removing the mango's cheeks. I'll end with that.
Q-Tips; a product with an explicit label warning - “Do not insert swab into ear canal” - against using it for precisely the purpose people buy the product.
What in the heck were these clues??? They were so clue-adjacent that the reveal was often like, ugh, I guess that makes sense? Lame? I guess you can say that a file server is a download source, but really, who ever really says that??? Sure, thunder does clap, but do we ever really use it in the nominal form on its own to talk about a storm warning? "Oh, I heard such a great clap, what a storm is brewing!" I can tolerate that kind of stuff in some measure in a harder puzzle like Saturday, but when nearly EVERY SINGLE CLUE was either that or some obscure trivia, what a soggy mess that was impossible to get any decent foothold in. Why yes, who hasn't heard of SMU's satellite campus in Taos, I was just discussing that with my friend Royce yesterday. And the works of Alec Waugh, why who hasn't spent a whole weekend by the fire with Alec! I'm convinced that Sam Ezersky does not do the whole language thing like the rest of us, give how his spelling bee is often filled with a few extremely obscure words, but he then neglects basic animal vocabulary a kid with a Zoobooks subscription would know. This puzzle was not for me, what a tragic start to a Saturday.
This was a long slog. It must have taken 5 minutes to get anything, and mostly those first entries were wrong: annul for scrub, naif for rube. Finally - mangos and monist and it flowed from there. I then had to respond to a bereavement, and, that included this was a 50 min puzzle, about twice my normal Saturday. Difficult is one thing but there's some clunkers here. I'd never heard of Memphis BBQ. Do people really say "I'm a lead off?" Pest strip? I'm going to the hardware store to get a pest strip? Are you high? Well make sure you take one of your very precious bank cards. Didn't anyone tell you that sticking Q-Tips in your canal is dangerous? Uh, yes. Get some maxi pads while you're out, would you? Ok. Glad you don't have the clap. I got plenty o nuttin.
Thanks for making me feel better about a puzzle that took twice as long as normal and left no sense of victory at the end.
Probably the toughest puzzle in a couple of years.
In an echo from yesterday, my entry was MAXI. Meaning I went through 27 clues without being able to fill in so much as a guess. Well, not quite true. I put in EPI, but took it out when no crosses came to me.
Highly irresponsible to suggest that Q-Tips are to be used in your ear canal.
UH YES is pretty awful as fill, and the clue doesn’t work at all for me. But really that’s my only beef with the puzzle. Basically, hard but fair. But no surprise that I’m not on Sam Ezersky’s wavelength, given that his ridiculous word list is what drove me away from Spelling Bee.
Hello, fellow QTIP=SWAB friends. Finished there, but what a struggle, mostly because I had CODE and kept thinking, now what the hell kind of CODE is that? Stuff I should know.
As for things that don't hold water, I wanted some kind of PUMPS. Mostly right, and it took forever to come up with HUFFPO, which I do look at every day. Come on man. Also had ___ISBBQ staring at me for a long time and could not think of a suitable beginning. Overlooked the obvious CATS and the hidden ARIA forever. And previous discussion about DOH vs. DUH kept me from seeing plain old YES. That kind of a morning.
My first long and helpful entry was BEINGALIVE, and I do know about JESSE, so some minor triumphs.
Some devilish clues, SE, and your wavelength Still Eludes me, but thanks for some tough fun.
PS-Please start accepting DOBRO and DADO in SB. Thank you.
Agreed. I think I did two passes through the puzzle clues with almost nothing to show for it and then checked the puzzle credits. Ohhh, it’s him again, i said to myself. Then proceeded to cheat on about 1/3 of the puzzle.
It’s fine if you hated this puzzle but you all should stop talking ignorant shit about Sam, personally, since he’s the sweetest person you’re likely to meet in puzzle world and I guarantee he’s smarter than you ✌️ ~RP
Tough but gettable. And good. Thanks for the workout!
Re: Q-TIPs (courtesy of ChatGPT):
User:
"Any idea what the percentage is of Q-tip purchasers who still use them in the ear canal?"
"As an AI language model, I don't have access to real-time data or specific statistics on consumer behavior like Q-tip purchases and usage. The use of Q-tips in the ear canal has been a subject of concern among healthcare professionals, as using them incorrectly can potentially lead to earwax impaction or damage to the ear canal.
The American Academy of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) advises against using Q-tips or any other objects to clean the ear canal, as it can push earwax deeper, leading to impaction. They recommend cleaning the outer ear with a cloth or tissue and allowing the ear's natural cleaning process to remove excess earwax.
While it is difficult to determine the exact percentage of Q-tip purchasers who still use them in the ear canal, it is essential for individuals to be aware of the potential risks and follow safe ear cleaning practices recommended by medical professionals.
If you have concerns about earwax or ear health, it is best to consult a healthcare professional or an ear, nose, and throat (ENT) specialist for proper guidance and care."
A search on Google seems to indicate ChatGPT is right on.
@Weezie (8:38 AM) re: your 'menstrual products' para
Well said! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I got everything in the lower half, but the clues in the NW and NE were beyond me. CAMELHUMPS is one example. It isn't really a legit phrase (panel's humps would be), but the temptation to use "pumps" (relating to water) is strong.
I even had AREYOUHIGH at one point, then dismissed it because it didn't fit the crosses.
Spot on Gil. I would guess you are more my vintage(age77). Been doing the NYT puzzles for over 50 years and some of the new nuance just makes a Saturday much harder for me. Need Weng and Maleska straight forward knowledge.
LOL’ed at MAXI PADS after yesterday. WS says they’re totally random, the consecutive strings of rare words…
Anyway at least the NYT said feminine hygiene this time. Progress!
Great
I always love a musical theater gimme for me that I know will be lost on Rex (only fair for the sports clues that are the opposite). One small correction for the (fantastic) documentary referenced here. It captures the making of the Original Cast Recording, not the soundtrack. Soundtracks are for movies, and you’ll catch a lot of grief from the theater crowd when you call an OCR a “soundtrack.”
Hey All !
Here is a proper tough SatPuz for y'all screaming in the streets that the NYT puzs have gone soft. Well, at least for me it was a toughie! Commenced the Googing not right away, but pretty much after staring at too much white for a while. I'll say 10-ish minutes in. I'm not the type of solver who enjoys ferreting out unknown things, I get angst/agita if I read the same clues over and over, and know the answers will never come.
Trying to keep my streak of successful solves on the app going, for no real reason. Ergo, I didn't hit Check Puzzle to find my wrongness, which probably wouldn't have helped on this puz anyway. Too many PPP unknown. The app doesn't know you Googed!
NE, unknowns TAOS and RAND, and even after cheating on both of those, still had trouble in that corner. porChPOSTS before FENCEPOSTS gnarling up the NW. JESus-JESSE adding confusion as well. Got both Q answers quite quickly in succession, once I erased the US of JESUS. Finished up in NW.
Yes, puz kicked me in the CAMEL HUMP. Time to tend to my wounds. Happy weekend!
Five F's (QUITE good!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
I absolutely agree. I had to resort to check letter way too early. Just no fun.
I have a bone to pick about the PGA course answer. The PGA and PGA Tour are separate entities. Both of those courses are played yearly on the PGA Tour. The PGA hosts only one championship a year. It had used both courses in the clue, but it last went to pebble beach in 1977. There are any number of courses you could pick instead, but they went with those 2. I realize that I’m being a pedant and only a few other people solving this would see this issue, but it bugged me.
Otherwise, I loved this puzzle. It was tough but doable. I like Saturdays like this. Makes it feel like an accomplishment to finish.
Tampons yesterday. Maxipads today. What in tar-hooties is going down at the factory? I swear to good golly, if there is one thing made out of cotton tomorrow, I am going to lose my ever-lovin' mind.
Uniclues:
1 Implement used to clean the animals and haze the new drivers.
2 Natural reaction to every word out of Texas senator's face.
3 Property boundary for unpopular farmer.
4 Hand down stone fruits in a deadly legal proceeding.
5 Monthly dump truck need?
6 What the Times would do if the same powerful anonymous complainer against CROSS DRESS called to grumble about cricket coverage.
7 Song sung by drunken gramma.
8 What happens at theater camp as the week wears on and the thespians become more unruly.
1 CAMEL HUMP Q-TIP
2 ARE YOU HIGH RAND?
3 SAP'S FENCE POSTS
4 BEQUEATH MANGOS
5 TONKA PADS (~)
6 YANK SPORTS DESK
7 HOUSE GALA ARIA (~)
8 "EYES ON ME" UPTICK
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Carry out a vendetta against flip-flop purveyors. MACE SHOE STORES.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Is this Feminine Care Products month?
I saw Barbie last night and enjoyed it a lot. Also noticed in the credits that Michael Sharp is the Unit Production Manager. I guess he wears a lot of hats (blogmeister, professor, feeder of CATS). And now I realize that he can really manage a unit’s production.
@Southside Johnny. WhileQuail Hollow is very private, Pebble Beach is open to the public. Perennially rated the top public course in the universe.
I’ve tried a few CAMELHUMPS and IGOTNOTHIN but CLAP.
Inside tip: Take the over/under on HILO.
I’m with @Lewis all the way on this one. A joyful experience in the end, achieved by virtue of vicious combat throughout. Thanks for the wonderful puzzle, Sam Ezersky.
Near perfect puzzle! Sparkle (15 red plus signs in the margins, way above average). Crunch (16 mysteries, close to my limit of 20). Only 6 Terrible Threes, the fewest for some time. 18 long entries, the most for some time. Almost completely junk-free (UHYES). Smart cluing. Word play. Did I leave anything out?
We didn't study the Old Testament much in the Catholic schools I went to but I thought that I had heard of the major characters there. But not JESSE.
SHREWISH? That comes from an old joke, doesn't it?
Love a tough puzzle and Sam definitely delivers! Thought this one was a Gem. Off to learn about Jesse.
Like some stakes ... OWED? How are stakes owed?
Canal implement ... QTIP? It says right on the packaging not to insert these into your ear canal
Truck maker since 1947 ... TONKA? They make toys that look like trucks, not actual trucks
I think the constructor shoe-horned some really bad clues in this puzzle just to make all the "Q" answers work out.
Ha! (Or LOL, as you kids mignt (not) say).
Previous comments posted. Then taken down by the Mighty Rex after I suggested he needed a PESTSTRIP for the Lake Superior insect that is persistently invading (maybe try a QTIP in THAT hole?)
The man can giveth but sure can’t taketh!
(On the odd chance this is allowed up, I’ll say again: thanks Sam!)
A reasonably doable Saturday today. I can't say I ever thought I’d get my start to a puzzle with looky-LOO and HUFF PO side by side. Only the SE really gave me trouble because I was thinking music for 35D so I wanted LEAD acts. I know nothing about the musical, “Company”, hedgehogged MANGOes, and the wonky clue for SPORTSDESK left me hanging down there for a while. When I GOT NOTHIN' filled in from the west, it ironically gave me the opening I needed.
QUITE BAD could have been QUITE low, I thought, another hold-up from getting into the SE. and I'm still not quite catching on to BINS = the question-marked clue, “Lobster catchers?”
FENCE POSTS went in fairly easily. My husband just finished rebuilding our wooden fence, making it 8 feet high so as to block our view of the auto recycler shop next door. He had some help from friends with the slats but he poured the sixteen footings for the posts all by himself, using up thirty-six 50 lb bags of cement! What an undertaking.
I'm with Rex on my ignorance of JESSE. I had a Christian upbringing but there were no Jesse songs sung or Jesse trees discussed in my parochial grade school.
Sam Ezersky, nice Saturday, thanks.
BANKCARD must have originally been GOLDCARD with that clue.
First of all: To answer @GILL's "should I?" query at the top of the comments: The answer is most definitely "No." You don't need to know any of those particular Sam-subjects; your own sphere of knowledge seems to me to be considerably more broad-based and important in the great scheme of things.
Nevertheless, I didn't have any of @GILL's woes today -- finding everything I didn't know crossed in a way that made it gettable. TIME OF YEAR went in immediately and later on so did BEING ALIVE, the 11 o'clock number from "Company". Everyone who's seen "Company" will probably know that answer. Once I had the "S" from the 1A plural which I didn't yet know, SHREWISH went in right away too.
Good grief, not two days in a row!!! MAXI PADS???!!!! What is this: menstruation month at the NYT?
I thought that CAMELs were especially good at holding water. But their HUMPS don't? I'll go back, read the blog and find out. I'll also try to find out why I've never heard of JESSE. That answer came as the biggest surprise to me in the puzzle. I thought the answer would be Saul or Solomon or someone like that.
I enjoyed this puzzle. Enough challenge to keep the juices flowing, but certainly not as hard as many other Saturdays.
DADO absolutely but DOBRO is a proper noun.
UH YES Sam, we did enjoy your puzzle. I must have been in Rex’s Sunday school class when they were giving JESSE and other old genealogy lessons. QUITE BAD too for having been raised on a farm where chickens were the predawn early risers and all that before I got to the intentional clueing cuteness. It was a longish morning, but certainly worth the struggle to stay IN IT. And revamping my CAMEL HUMPS misconception was alone worth the price of admission.
Having had both I can say an “epi” is an Epi-pen, not an epidural. Who still says maxi pads? And I don’t need misogynistic words on my xw in the morning, even from Shakespeare.
Finally, A true Saturday level challenge….no bs, no tic tok, no bizarre language….like you’re told your first day at Stanford “Don’t ever think you’re the smartest person in this class, you’re not” Sam managed to bring back old school crossword. A hot puzzle on a boiling weekend, I’m now ready for the pool
No mention of second consecutive day of cross-referenced feminine products?
I enjoyed this workout, and was pleased to solve everything except the NE corner. I had no clue for QTIP and RAND. “Implement “ really had me stumped after lock didn’t work. PDF and docs went in and out. Convinced INIT was the perennial atit and that was probably my downfall. Also assuming Q was followed by U. No idea about TAOS. Wondered if it could be Laos, but for the U ….
A relief to see COIF!
Delightful puzzle. Just needed a theme! But there was a bit of humor - the HUMPS at least. I’m with you on JESSE, except I recognized it as a biblical name. And I went back and forth guessing on the spelling of IGOTNOTHIN, because if you’re going for that sort of thing, are you going all the way to I got nuttin?
Funny, she doesn't look shrewish.
I, too, frequently complain about Sam's Spelling Bee choices, but once in a while I actually do some research. Yesterday for instance, I wanted TAPPET because everyone knows about tappets and tappet wrenches, but Sam said NO! I was surprised when it accepted TIPPET because that's just not a word I, nor anyone else born within the past 100 years had used or heard of. Then to the research, put the two terms into NGRAMS, and for the past 3 decades, TIPPET has appeared in print at 2-3 times the rate as has TAPPET.
So maybe, just maybe, my knowledge base is idiosyncratic rather than universal, and Sam does actual research in making his decisions? So maybe, just maybe, those words you know are not as common as you think?
Also - @Andrew you're just plain offensive.
Can we please STOP IT WITH THE PADS?! Geez.
The tree of Jesse is an important metaphor in Christology. The entire opening to the Gospel of St. Matthew is devoted to Christ’s genealogy, specifically as a descendant of King David— and necessarily his father Jesse.
What’s more the tree of Jesse was an important subject in art for the entirety of the Middle Ages and parts of the Renaissance.
If you’ve been to the Cathedral at Chartres and weren’t closing your eyes you saw the Jesse tree window.
The Scheenberg Psalter has a lovely tree of Jesse which included s the Madonna.
Flemish master Jn Wierex has a famous engraving of the Jesse Tree.
If you prefer a more modern sensibility Sister Ansgar Holmberg has a lovely interpretation in her O Antiphons series.
GOLFLINKS instead of PGACOURSE, PEERTOPEER instead of FILESERVER, CARROT instead of MANGOS, OAFs instead of SAPs ... everything I tried failed, then for the rest I had nothin' for a long time. On the fine line between "fun challenge" and "miserable slog", this puzzle was on the slog side for me.
OK. I’ve been in thousands of delivery rooms and nobody calls an epidural an “epi”. “Epi” is epinephrine and nothing else. I couldn’t understand why that was the ”correct” answer until Rex “explained” it.
Adam Driver sings a lovely version of "Being Alive" at the end of "Marriage Story," a 2019 movie from "Barbie" co-writer Noah Baumbach...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lWengrlMpok
Harder than camel snot, at our house. Turned M&A into a devout moanist.
Weren't actually a whole mess of no-knows, tho. Only mysterious visitors were: JESSE. ALEC. DES. QRCODE. BEINGALIVE song. Howsoever, the feisty clues managed to generate many additional mysteries.
staff weeject pick, from a mere six choices: LOO. Enjoyed the whole image of some overcurious sort lookyin in at people on the loo.
some faves: QUITEBAD + YANK's {QUITE a jerk} clue … a quite nice double-dip. BEQUEATH. IGOTNOTHIN [wanted NUTHIN, tho]. AREYOUHIGH. ARIA clue [very runtpuz double ?-marker-esque].
best Ow de Speration moment: HUFFPO + UHYES combo.
Thanx for a looong [but interestin] solvequest, Mr. Ezersky dude. Top of the SatPuz toughness heap? -- UH huh hell YES.
Masked & Anonym007Us
**gruntz**
Lots of mistakes:
SHARIA for SHINTO
FADS for CATS
SOLO for GALA (and I had wanted ARIA there, except for 2D)
Re Spelling Bee arbitrariness: @pabloinnh and @Pete, here is a Google Ngram of some words. Note all the ones in the middle and top (which means they're actually used somewhat regularly) are NOT accepted in SB. And all the ones way down at the bottom (basically never used) are accepted.
I had the hardest time putting in Qtip because of the label warning you reference. I only gave in when I couldn't figure any other word to fit.
@puzzlehoarder-I've never seen Dobro used as a proper noun and a little research was very interesting as to its origin. Wiki, at least, says it can also be used as a generic term, which is the way I'm used to using it. My singing partner plays a mean dobro, or Dobro.
Ad hominem attacks cast a FRIGID AIR! ~ Confucius
(as quoted by offensive Andrew)
I was really really hoping for DIVA CUPS. MAXI PADS sounds so staid to my ears…at this point, aren’t they just pads? I had issues alllllllll over the grid, but this one is sticking with me. Ha, sticking.
Hard one! Yeesh. I had to look up Jesse and I have a moderately religious background (Jewish but still, David was in our purview) so don’t feel too too bad about that.
Lots of problems probably stemmed from putting SWAB instead of QTIP, then realizing, BDF is not a thing and on and on. SHREWISH didn’t seem very nice to me either, and TAOS is not in Texas, right? Idk, I don’t think it is .
Anyhoo, hard, but not too fun.
Very smooth Acrostic in tomorrow's magazine. I like this duo David Balton & Jane Stewart, who've done a few of them since Cox/Rathvon left. I hope they get slotted in permanently.
Yes! “Epi” is not an option, it’s a drug used for cardiac arrest. Not something any delivering person would choose.
Me too…been doing these almost 60 years. I miss Margaret Farrar
Horribly vague clues guarantee a tough puzzle, that doesn’t make it a good one.
How is the word MAXI non-inclusive? Has nothing to do with femininity…
DNF. NW stumped me, and much of the rest required a reboot after checking.
I love this level of difficulty. At first appears impossible… Then slowly the pieces fall into place. My first real answer was Frigidaire. My last ones were Q-tip, rand and coif. I once to sang a hymn with the lyric “from Jessie‘s route, ascending“ and the memory of that helped.
Ultimately, hung up in the NE. Had swab, at it, Waco, and limo. Had fence posts right away, so kept noodling how to turn that s into an o. I thought it was Rand, but wouldn't mesh with anything I had.
Getting Taos (SMU branch in Taos? Really?) and then coif did the trick.
More time spent in that darn corner than on the rest of the puzzle. Finally a challenging Saturday!
If any thread on the internet deserves an “Ok, boomer” this is it. Also, file servers have been around for at least 30 years; sports desks at newspapers for at least a hundred more, so I’m not sure what TikTok and Twitter have to do with being able to get these clues.
To be honest I wouldn't know a Dobro if I fell over one. I tried putting it in an SB list once and figured it was just one of those random S.E. oversights because I assumed it was a common noun. However it's not in my 6th edition Scrabble dictionary either and when I brought this up at my weekly Scrabble club a professional musician in attendance informed me that it is actually a kind of brand name. I then looked it up in my 1989 Webster's Collegiate Dictionary and discovered that it's capitalized and designated as a trademark. English being what it is maybe if enough people use it as an common noun it will become one.
Pretty gentle overall comment from Rex on a rather shrewish puzzle.
For Christians who don't remember Jesse, I bet you may have sung "O Come, O Come Emanuel" or "Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming". Both beautiful hymns sung in the Advent/Xmas season. Perhaps we all fall asleep for anything but the first verse...@anon 2:54, that would be "Jesse's ROOT", lol.
I was struggling mightily today, and had guesses that were all 2 or 3 letters too long or short. I did all acrosses and all downs, filling in guesses where I had them. With nothing confident, I hit check puzzle and got so many red slashes that I just decided to work with autocheck - amazing how that helps so much. I finished with nary a visit to Google and really enjoyed it. I think if I had put it away and solved in a less groggy and more patient state, I might have gotten there eventually.
@andrew: I don't think Rex is doing any of the moderation on a regular basis, and would bet on him not doing it while enjoying the '80s hits on his lakefront vacation:)
I did a traveling revue-type show, and Being Alive was in regular rotation, so played it hundreds of times, but could my brain parse it this morning????
SE corner was a problem.
Wailuku river is in Wailuku the capital of MAUI. Not sure if there is a park there but probably is. Anyway that was a big backdown I had to make.
Other workouts
FILEStReam for FILESERVER
CALM before the storm with the M giving me MRES for free lunches.
Hand up!
The following is a fairly well known Christmas hymn, though more popular in German than in English.
Villager
Lo, how a rose e'er blooming,
From tender stem hath sprung.
Of Jesse's lineage coming,
As men of old have sung;
It came, a flow'ret bright,
Amid the cold of winter,
When half spent was the night.
Isaiah 'twas foretold it,
The Rose I have in mind,
With Mary we behold it,
The virgin mother kind;
To show God's love aright,
She bore to men a Savior,
When half spent was the night.
O Flower, whose fragrance tender
With sweetness fills the air,
Dispel with glorious splendour
The darkness everywhere;
True man, yet very God,
From Sin and death now save us,
And share our every load.
In German:
Es ist ein Ros entsprungen
Aus einer Wurzel zart
Aus uns die Alten sungen
Von Jesse kam die Art
Und hat ein Blümlein bracht
Mitten im kalten Winter
Wohl zu der halben Nacht
Das Röslein, das ich meine
Davon Jesaia sagt
Hat uns gebracht alleine
Marie, die reine Magd
Aus Gottes ew'gem Rat
Hat sie ein Kind geboren
Welches uns selig macht
O Jesu, bis zum Scheiden
Aus diesem Jammertal
Lass dein Hilf uns geleiten
Hin in den Freudensaal
In deines Vaters Reich
Da wir dich ewig loben
O Gott, uns das verleih
I don’t know about that OFL. I’m sure Sam (and Will) are very nice people as you have attested to (at least for Sam). As for being smart, you would think that with all of the experience, resources and alleged knowledge that you indicate, they would be able to do better than propagating a common misconception about shoving things into one’s ear canal. That’s an inexcusable and irresponsible foul up for an item published by a news organization. Maybe the editors should stick to fact checking and editing, and the constructors could also be more cautious.
I hated MAXI PAD yesterday, even more today
@puzzlehoarder-Totally agree on the evolutionary process and dobro. See also Kleenex and Bandaid and Xerox and probably lots of others I either don't know or can't think of.
A dobro makes a very nice addition to lots of folk songs, that I do know.
I liked this puzzle before I even looked at the first clue. Twenty-eight black squares leaves plenty of space for longer fill, always a good thing in any puzzle . The upper right and lower left sections are a bit closed off but the rest of the grid has a nice open flow to it that means filled in answers in one area will provide help solving adjacent areas.
Seems like a bit of a religious/philosophical theme with the likes of SHINTO, JESSE, MONIST, Year of the TIGER, and the Ancient Greek gods ARES and PAN.
I thought everyone knew that CAMEL HUMPS don't really hold water.
Again a reminder to those folks commenting yea or nay on the constructor's clues. Clueing is where editors are most likely to make changes so without direct knowledge we can't be sure who is responsible for any given clue. If I'm making a comment about clueing, I just give credit or blame to "the puzzle".
@Weezie -- The year of the CIGAR! Hah! I laughed out loud because it caught me by such surprise, and was very funny to imagine, as a Chinese New Year. Thanks for that!
Anon 4:27 beat me to the hymn....
So JESSE and BEING ALIVE were eventual gimmes. But when I started it was ARIA and LOO and weirdly TIME OF YEAR off just those two, and then nothing! Went for a long walk (still early, not soooo hot yet) and had breakfast and later when I went back to the puzzle the answers just kept... appearing in my brain...? I wish I knew how that happens. It's like the pangram in SB, I don't actively try to construct a word, it just... appears.
Liked ARE YOU HIGH and MEMPHIS BBQ. stake before PURSE. Took awhile for that LEASH to appear, too.
If you don't know the Company story it's worth learning. BEING ALIVE on the album makes me cry! Mainly for the backstory, not so much for its [down autocorrect! Off with your apostrophes] role in the musical...
OK, it's very late, I've only read half the comments, but have to go out soon -- we're spending the weekend in Williamstown, spent the day at the Clark Institute, so only just got to the super-tough puzzle, which took 42 minutes online.
I shared the shock of Rex's friends re: not knowing Jesse, but many others didn't either, apparently. I did go to Sunday school, back there in the 50s, and I guess a little of it stuck. And I went to church at one point, enough to know the hymn Rex is misquoting. But it's nice to be reminded that others have different experiences.
My favorite writeover: Oman before TAOS.
One thing to admire: of the 4 words with Qs, only one has QU. That's impressive.
To me a RUBE is more a hick than a simpleton, but OK, it's a clue.
As for Q-TIPS, they were too soft for my mother -- she used the round ends of bobby pins to clean our ears. In her defense, she could see what she was doing -- unlike sticking something in your own ear, when you have to go by feel.
OK, enough out of me. Solving this on my computer was bad enough, I'm definitely not going to try Sunday--so see you all on Monday.
What’s wrong with the answer camel humps? The posters didn’t say. I heard what Rex called a common misconception when I was a kid. I thought it was clever.
@Anony 3:16. I'm assuming you're referring to my Twitter and Tik Tok reference.
I mentioned Sam and I live on different islands. Mine doesn't involve much social media. And no...I'm not 77 years old.
Sam throws out some mighty strange nuggets of information and cluing on most of his puzzles. I wasn't just referring to sports desks and file servers, I was referring to social media terms that appear often that I know nada about.
I know Twitter has been around for many years and is considered a high tech newswire that I don't bother to participate in....Microblogging?
TikTok uses a ton of slang words that appear often. I wonder if I'll ever see ByteDance in one of his crossword....Probably.
Oh...I learned from my daughter that GYAT is short for goddam. So there's that.
I learn all kinds of stuff everyday that I do a puzzle. And then, of course, there's this blog. It's a fountain of information from some pretty smart cookies.
I'm out of coconuts.
@okanaganer - Yeah, I know. I still swear at Sam when inline, tuple, dado and dozen of others aren't accepted, and your list makes a valid point about some (many) things. That doesn't mean that every time I swear at Sam I am in the right.
That being said, I don't know if there is a more thankless job, one more given to second guessing, than what Sam is doing on Spelling Bee. I just wish he agreed with me more often.
Many here have mentioned the packaging and the professional advice not to insert Q-Tips in ears. Okay. But it isn’t grounds for objecting to the answer. The Times puzzle isn’t an advice column. At least when I was a kid, Q-Tips were routinely used that way- with no warning on the packaging I bet. The relationship has stayed part of common knowledge. I bet every single person commenting is aware of the association of Q-Tips and ears. The clue/answer combo is perfectly valid. (Using a common expression here, also I think it’s a stretch to say the answer encourages people to use Q-Tips improperly!).
Is the Times puzzle an advice column?
In case anyone is still reading the comments at this hour, I’ve noticed that, in the SpellingBee, Sam E. eschews words that were originally brand names, no matter how thoroughly they are now embedded in generic form in the language. My best example is “yoyo”, which we all spent time commenting on just yesterday with regard to YOYODIET. No one said anything about the brand name. But yoyo is a nono in SB.
Quick post today before I go pass out from the effort of lugging dead papers to my car to be taken to the industrial shredder. Wow, in the last 25 years, I have killed way too many trees, but at least 75% fewer than before the legal profession tried to go “paperless” which just won’t happen until all of rural America has access to necessary technology. A problem that’s plagued my clients in rural Oklahoma counties, both of which just finished installing high speed internet throughout their county courthouses with ARPA funds. Sad. Anyway, I’ve been on the couch enjoying the solve.
This experience mirrored my solve yesterday. Some spots were nearly impossible and others were super easy. The NW, for example gave me CATS a d ARIA immediately. Soon thereafter TIME OF YEAR seemed like a good guess and that was enough to get the remainder of the NW.
Loved seeing MEMPHIS BBQ. Any time I think ribs I’m on Memphis with my husband during our undergrad days playing on weekends with the Memphis Symphony. A very doable road trip from Champaign-Urbana all paid for by the generous (to us poor students) Memphis folks. A nice hotel weekend, three concerts and such fun people. And The Rendesvous BBQ. Best ribs I have ever eaten anywhere still. Dry ribs down there with sauce on the side (if you must). Just divine. And of course the company was perfect. A couple carloads of us from Illinois; students and faculty. Some of our fondest memories-including the MEMPHIS BBQ!
After the NW, nothing seemed to want to reveal itself until the middle diagonal running NE-SW direction. PURSE, LEASH, JESSE and BEQUEATH and for the second day running(!!??!!) feminine hygiene products?! Really? Nobody, including (especially?) women wants to spend more time than necessary thinking about much less doing a crossword containing anything related to our periods! Yuk! Along with the NW, the bottom 25% all the way across starting at ON TOP fell easily as well. I easily spent about three times as long with the remainder of the puzzle as with the NW and the bottom. Go figure. It felt like Sam E turned off my wavelength receiver and revoked my visa to his mindset instantly. Ugh.
Same experience Friday and today. Not impossible and easy some spots but otherwise not as snappy as many a Sam E offering - and he is a favorite of mine. Mr. E, you don’t need to show me how hip to women you are - I believe you appreciate all of humanity. I just don’t need to see everything “female” in my daily puzzle.
Don't be stealing my song selections.
In defense of Sam, re: YOYO:
Most dictionaries (including Scrabble dicts) have it hyphenated: (here) and (here).
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
@dgd 7:52 pm – it's grounds for calling out the clue, which is a stupid feeble attempt at misdirection that gets the function of the implement wrong in the process.
As someone who grew up 50 Km from the torii shown in this blog, I appreciated the clue for SHINTO (Literally, "way of the gods"). It was much more Saturday-worthy than the generic "Japanese religion" clue that could have been used. What perplexes me, though is that SENSEI was clued yesterday (7/28/2023) similarly as "Literally, 'teacher' or 'master'". Why was the word "literally" used there? If you want to be literal, SENSEI means "born before". I actually wanted to put in SENSEI initially, but didn't, because what was given was the common meaning of the word, not the "literal" one.
So, Mary, mother of Jesus is… Jesse’s Girl?
Grew up Catholic, got none of that “education
I didn’t mind the tampon/pad combo but ‘maxi pad’ is just ugh. Less menstrual products in my crossword please. I’m not embarrassed or ashamed of menstruation and it’s accoutrements, just don’t want periods to occupy more of my life than they already do.
"Epi" would never be used for "epidural" in a medical setting because it signifies epinephrine.
Loved the challenge this puzzle gave me. I went through all of the Acrosses and the only one I immediately knew was JESSE. I had to build off of that answer, and it was slow going. Everything eventually fell into place. I am happy to take a hit to my average Saturday solve times for a challenge like that. Thank you Sam!
Thought this one was the most challenging puzzle in weeks. DNF due to the NE corner could not parse QRCODE, RAND, COIF, etc. The whole thing. Anyway, nice to have a challenge even if I didn’t finish. The puzzle has been way too easy.
Yes! Thank you, looking for a comment that explained my feelings so I didn't have to and this was pretty much prefect. This was just way too much. Would have loved a few of these, but almost every clue meant there was almost no way to get a foothold.
The clue for TAOS was exceedingly terrible. I need to know every satellite campus for all of the top 200 colleges in the US, wtf? A better clue would have been 'city in the US.' Just way too much was like... okay, I guess, and not spot on once you finally did wrestle them out. I appreciate injecting some difficulty again, but this type of obtuse cluing and this much of it was just not for me.
I kept trying to put my ELBOW into my 11A canal, and it just wouldn't fit (which I guess is the point).
DNF and do not care. Ugh.
As a boomer, I’d have to agree with you. I don’t like the stuck in the past, everything should stay as it used to be mentality. That’s why no one over 65 should be able to run for office, or vote.
Educational - thank you
Very challenging. Solve after solve I kept saying under my breath: “What an @sshole!” Still, it was enjoyable solve - in spite of the brain bleed it gave me.
SPORTS PANIC TIME
TIGER gets OFF the PGACOURSE
and HUMPS like he's A SAP.
IT's QUITEBAD to ask, "AREYOU the source?
IGOTNOTHIN' but the CLAP."
--- JESSE JEAN RAND
I do hope the crossword gets over its monthly issue. Period.
Diana, Lady
@D,LIW - yes, the breakfast test has been challenged a bit too much, IMO. The S and E were a large trouble spot, until mazdA turned into TONKA, turning goldCARD into BANKCARD.
Wordle birdie, but potential for higher scores.
Collanders, not camelhumps.
This puzzle was definitely harder than snot for me, and I thought I'd never finish, but I persevered and did.
My bank card is definitely a piece of precious plastic. If I lost it and someone found it and figured out my pin, they'd be about $25,000 richer.
Shhhh, don't tell anybody!!!
I just watched a video of a kid doing that mango hedgehog thingie. I've seen it done on cooking shows, but don't recall it being called that.
Awesome sauce!
I like when you fill in an answer on the puzzle, but think what in the heck is that, and then it turns out you do know what the heck that is. You just didn't know the term for it.
Didn't get to the puzz, but wanted to report a Wordle eagle: BBBYG GGGGG.
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