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Adoration of the Kardashians / SAT 8-5-23 / One aboard the Tiangong space station / Iranian sage who inspired Nietzsche / Eatery with a 1950s vibe say / Giraffe tallest land mammal on earth
Saturday, August 5, 2023
Constructor: John Guzzetta
Relative difficulty: Extremely Easy except for two answers, one in particular
Word of the Day: TAIKONAUT (47A: One aboard the Tiangong space station) —
The name used in the west for a Chinese astronaut. It comes from the Chinese word ‘taikong’ meaning space or cosmos. The official Chinese name is yuhangyuan, meaning ‘travellers of the Universe’. (Oxford Reference)
• • •
I suspected, from the moment they just handed me SHIVA (1D: Jewish mourning period), that this one was gonna skew Easy, and then I went SHIVA ADDLE OGLED DOG ERA IRA VEES IDLEGOSSIP with almost no hesitation, and those initial suspicions were confirmed.
Hardly anything unfamiliar in the grid, everything clued simply ... except for The Aforementioned Two. So that was my only truly Saturday experience: two answers. Like I said, at least the rest of the grid was (largely) clean and crisp and well put-together. Just wish it had been a little more memorable, and a little thornier.
[Crossword content! I repeat, crossword content! Unexpected!]
No idea who LILA Kedrova is (38D: ___ Kedrova, Oscar-winning actress for "Zorba the Greek"). The only LILA I know is LILA Crane, Marion's sister in "Psycho" (played by Vera Miles) (how is she not listed among the fictional LILAs on the "LILA" wikipedia page!? Somebody fix that!). That clue was Saturday-level, I guess, though somehow "random woman's name" is the kind of thing I fight through all the time, and so didn't trouble me nearly as much as The Aforementioned Two. The highlight of the grid was "IT'S A FREE COUNTRY"—a great 15-letter colloquial expressions, and (as I say) a thrilling whoosh-whoosh plummeting ride to the bottom of the grid. All the longer answers in this one are strong. SKYBOX SEAT felt a little iffy to me at first. SKYBOX, definitely a thing, SKYBOX SEAT ... I mean, yes, there are seats there, but the phrase doesn't exactly snap. I think of Skyboxes more as enclosed suites that you have to be invited to, or completely rent out. I dunno. Something just feels a little wobbly. But SKYBOX SEATs definitely exist, so probably not as wobbly as it sounds to my specific ears. Worse for me was ALPHA NERDS, a phrase I don't think exists at all, and especially not as clued (29D: Group members who are the most tech-savvy). "Tech-savvy" is not not not not "nerdy." Not! Stop it. Geeky, maybe. Maybe. But nerds ... OK, nerds are (conventionally) hardcore math/science types, and even when "nerd" is applied to other realms, "nerd" should always refer to people who are absolutely unfashionably into the things they're into. The mainstreaming of that word to mean any kind of enthusiast, including tech bros ... bah. No.
 |
| [Vera Miles as LILA Crane in "Psycho"] |
SWORDSMITH was probably the hardest answer to get at besides The Aforementioned Two, primarily because of that "?" clue (1A: Expert with a temper?), but at least "temper" gave me some idea that it would have to do with metal somehow, and at least SWORDSMITH is a thing I've actually heard of, so that was just regular themeless stuff. Not sure how well "a temper" works with the answer (I think of "temper"as exclusively a verb), but it's a "?" clue, so ... horseshoes, hand grenades, close enough. We've had both "EID Mubarak" and DAX Shepard recently, so even if the latter might've given me trouble at some point in my solving career, no trouble today. I had to work backward to ZOROASTER from the more familiar "Zoroastrian," but that wasn't too hard (32D: Iranian sage who inspired Nietzsche). Wrapped things up in that corner with TERP, URSA, STU, all Monday-level short stuff. Would love the difficulty of a Saturday to be more ... even and consistently spread out, but I didn't find this one unpleasant at all. A few strong entries, a couple of "??????"s ... I learned something, I laughed, I cried, I thought about nerds ... it was an experience. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
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93 comments:
Felt like a good solve for me, given the number of unfamiliar things (HAGIOLATRY, TAIKONAUT, DEROGATIVE, LILA, DAX, NUEVA).
On the other hand, I'm completely embarrassed at how long it took me to get COSTA RICA. Wieth the ARI in place, I confidently put in san mARIno. Then when the CA came in, I had ____ARICA, and was dying trying to think of a one-word country ending that way. It was not until the final letter, the C from SCAM, filled in that I understood it was two words.
Row five – ADDLE IF YOU DARE – that’s exactly my attitude as I come to the Saturday puzzle. I want to be confused, misdirected, vagued-out, and be given unknowns, all of which I hope to conquer.
Today I was certainly given unknowns, with the HAGIO and TAIKO answers, but they were balanced by more fill-ins in my first pass than usual for a Saturday. Oh, I needed to exert – this is Saturday after all – so my addle requirement was fulfilled, to my brain’s delight, but I had the sweet feeling throughout that everything was eventually going to fall into place.
That twinkle in John’s eyes was evident, with the “Hah!”-producing puns on “all-in”, “pick-up”, “clutch”, and “play group”. I liked seeing DOG in the same puzzle with PETS, and what a glorious feeling to swoop down the grid with IT’S A FREE COUNTRY off the first two letters (Hi,@Rex!).
This, John, for me, was feel-good from the get-go to the let-go. Primo! It was great to see you here after a year and a half, and thank you so much for a superb outing!
Any time I finish a Saturday, I come here to see you pronounce it easy!
There are sea mammals on the planet Earth. Some are pretty tall. Well, long, anyhow.
I vaguely remembered TAIKONAUTS, but HAGIOLATRY was a total mystery. I almost gave up on the NW because I had switched the E and I in RIESLINGS, leading me to HAGE…something and IDLI…something. (I also didn’t have SLOB or MASAI at that point.) Once I switched those vowels, I saw the IDLE GOSSIP and finished wondering what the hell HAGIOLATRY was. I didn’t know that HAGIO refers to saints - I just thought a hagiography was a cloyingly positive bio of anyone. But reading the definition Rex found, it does seem like a nice portmanteau for the Kardashians and their ilk.
Rex, one more LILA you should get to know is LILA Downs, a Mexican singer-songwriter who works in English and Spanish. I think you would like her. (Your PS today was brilliant, by the way. You could have added “land” to your unnecessary words in that clue - are there taller mammals in the ocean or the sky? Wait a minute, how tall is a blue whale? (Looks it up.) Whew, shorter than a MASAI giraffe.)
Nice clues for SLOB, HYPNOTISTS and TAX AUDITs. I have never been hypnotized or audited. I hope I never have to go through the latter, but I am dying to be hypnotized. I’m not entirely sure it would work on me because I don’t think I could stop myself from resisting it. But I’d still like to try. Can anyone recommend a good hypnotist?
@Rex’s writeup reflected my experience perfectly. I didn’t know about MASAI giraffes (I need to spend more time at the zoo), I misspelled RIESLINGS (I need to spend more time at the wine bar) and I had DAn Shepard before DAX at 61D (I need to watch more sci-fi). But overall a very pleasant, approachable Saturday.
I also fell victim to the HAGIOLATRY / TAIKONAUT dyad. For a moment there, it felt like I was being interviewed for the ALPHA NERDS club (a suspicion which was confirmed when I eyed the SIA / EID PPP cross).
Would like to give a big shout out to BIG SCREENS - yes, you are a truly AWFUL clue for TAX AUDITS, and we all appreciate the effort, but unfortunately, nothing is going to come close to yesterday’s JUNIOR MINT for the worst clue of the week, month, or mostly likely, all of 2023.
Thx, John, for EMITTING this TRES CHIC production; you're a fine WORDSMITH! 😊
Easy-med.
Pretty smooth, with the exception of two scary crosses: HAGIOL_GY / M_SAI & DEROG_TIVE / D_X. Guessed right in both cases.
The first part of TAIKONAUT needed fair crosses. Phew!
The fam rented a luxury suite (with SKYBOX SEATing) at Bank One Ballpark in Phoenix for Dad's 80th B.D. in '03.
Fun solve; enjoyed every bit of this one! :)
___
On to Lester Ruff's Sat. Stumper. 🤞
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Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude ~ Serendipity ~ & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
I got TAIKONAUT by the crosses, but how was I to solve the crossing of SINGER WITH 2014 ALBUM and ---MUBARAK, HOLIDAY GREETING IN ISLAM? IYKYK, but I didn't (and still don't) know.
Easier than most Saturdays, even though I had to cheat once to resolve the ZOROASTER/TAIKONAUT cross. I also had "char" instead of CHOP until the end.
Just curious..if the word ALPHANERDS refers to tech-savvy individuals, what are "betanerds"?????
Hah - finally my odd attraction to All Things Considered becomes useful - earlier this week they did a story on TAIKONAUTS and no the term has nothing to do with Japanese drums.
Not a Stumper but I really liked this puzzle - it did lean to the easy side but has fresh entries and just enough pushback. FREE COUNTRY, ADHERENTS, ONE LINERS, RETRO DINER all top notch - and I loved the “temper” misdirect at 1a.
EGGS and SLOB are expert level clued.
Forgot NOLTE and probably like most needed crosses for HAGIOLATRY. Low points were the kiddie lit reference and PLEAS dead center.
Pleasant Saturday solve. @bocamp - the Stumper is more complex but definitely gettable. You will encounter a few head scratchers.
Loan Me a Dime
Stopped reading the NW clues too soon, it turns out, as it wasn't as bad as it looked at first glance. Started instead in the NE with steady progress. Knew about COSTARICA which was helpful, but got slowed down by DSIMIGSSIVE for DEROGATIVE and DOYOUDARE for IFYOUDARE. The latter made the FREE of FREECOUNTRY hard to see, but it resolved itself soon enough.
Glad there's a word for this celebrity-worship thing, but the HAGIO part needs a prefix indicating "false", as few of these people are saints.
Remembered LILA right away, yay me. And the end of the NAUT answer was obvious enough, but like OFL needed the K from KAPPA to finish that one.
I believe Inigo Montoya had to consult with a master SWORDSMITH to fashion his six-fingered model.
Saw Barbie on the BIGSCREEN yesterday. Highly recommended.
What a swell Saturday, JG. Just Great. Learned some stuff, remembered some stuff, and enough crunch to satisfy. Thanks for all the fun.
Very, very easy. Finished in 1/3 of my average Saturday time.
SWORDSMITH was an instant fill, but naticked at SHIVA/HAGIO.
TAIKONAUT was a gimme.
Only other issue was SE corner because I kept misreading "Everglades predator" as "Everglades protector". I couldn't think of any govt agency that would fit, so it seemed like it had to be "gator". That threw things off for a little while until it became obviously wrong.
Only eyebrow raisers (besides HAGIOLATRY): ALPHA NERDS and TEXAS-sized. Uh... sure. If you say so.
I agree this was on the easy side for a Saturday, but it still took me way longer than any Tuesday does so I wouldn't go that far! I loved 'it's a free country'--and I can't understand how it took me so long to see costa rica....oh well
Maybe not Tuesday easy but not Saturday challenging for me either. Would be happy to not see any Kardashian references before breakfast and I would like to say Booo or maybe BAA to ALPHANERDS. Did appreciate the new vocabulary though.
Rex, hagio- means 'holy' or 'sacred'. In usage, it comes to be the equivalent of 'saint'. The -latry comes from Greek latreia, service or worship, via Latin.. Ridiculous word that no one says . . . and I am a Classicist. REALLY random trivia in this puzzle. For us mere mortals, this wasn't entirely easy. Never knew there were kinds of giraffes. Had BLACKSMITH at first, though SHiVA let me know I was wrong about that. Movies like Affliction and Zathura? Never seen them.
Definitely not a Tuesday level for me. Not at all. Lots of things I didn’t know, couldn’t guess and had to really pick at one letter at a time. Did not like ALPHA NERDS boo! So weird. And there were just a lot of weird words. But ok, at least it was a challenge. For me.
It was easy except as Rex says. Everything else I could say has already been said. And so has my first comment.
@pablo Inigo Montoya had the same amount of fingers as most people. Count Rugen, who killed his father, however, had more.
Yesterday the Boston Globe ran a picture of a baby MASAI giraffe that was just born at the Franklin Park Zoo--good news, as the species is endangered. That really helped with this puzzle, as until then I hadn't known that there was more than one kind of giraffe.
Curiously, I got the back parts of many answers first: some kind of GOSSIP, some kind of DINER, some kind of SEAT, some kind of NAUT,all from the clues, then LATRY, SMITH from crosses (fortunately I had RIESLING already, or I'd have gone right for blackSMITH).
I was thinking HAGIOLATRY might be a pun, then started to wonder whether hag and hagio- might come from the same root. They don't; the witch is Germanic, the saint Greek.
So, yeah, it was easy, but I enjoyed it more than Rex.
But DEROGATIVE??? I looked it up, it's a word, but it means 'derogatory' which is what people actually say. Luckily for me, this was another case where I got the back part of the answer first.
I’ve spent a lot of time in Latin America, which usually helps a lot with these puzzles, but I think it got my way today. Spent wayyyy too much time trying to think of volcanoes in both Nicaragua and COSTA RICA because they both fit, and I knew it was one or the other. Now that I’m awake, I realize that a) Nicaragua definitely has more than 6 active volcanoes and b) the straightforward crosses made my volcano counting completely unnecessary.
Mostly easy with the pitfalls Rex mentioned.
Grokked HAGIOLATRY, never heard of TAIKONAUT and guessed ZOROASTER from vaguely remembering Roxy Music’s Mother of Pearl lyrics.
Only to find the lines were:
Thus even ZARATHUSTRA
Another time loser
Could believe in you…
Garbled memory of the same Iranian prophet going by a different name FTW!
Meant DISMISSIVE. Sheesh.
@irene Sia the singer has been in the NYTXW 26 times and was already clued with the same song earlier this year. That and Eid (the answer for any three-letter clue involving Muslim, Arabic, or holiday) are common enough to be crosswordese at this point.
The word HAGIOLATRY is new to me and as much as I dislike the Kardashian clan it seemed a tad mean. I was assuming it meant something along the lines of "worshipping hags". After looking it up it now seems too nice. Oh well ...
Finished in just about average Saturday time, despite HAGIOLATRY and TAIKONAUT (having heard of neither), and with only five or six answers dropping in on each of my first passes across/down. Things filled in bit by bit and I was able to parse those unheard-of answers via crosses. Maybe those crosses needed to be easy to make the puzzle play fair. In any case, I suppose my reaction is similar to Rex’s re: the difficult being concentrated primarily around two answers, but the rest of the grid didn’t fall for me quite as easily, so overall still a fairly satisfying Saturday solve. Could maybe use a little more bite.
Got off on the wrong foot with “piano tuner” for one across.
re HAGIOLATRY - What's the big deal? The requirement of being dead to be a saint has never been fully enforced, and who can dispute that the Kardashians are the modern day exemplars of "a life of heroic virtue", one and all? You can throw in the Jenner clan as well.
In other earth shattering news, the Pumpkin Spice* coffee urns made their appearance in the local WAWAs/7-Elevens/Quik Cheks on Aug 1, as expected. Also, the Halloween decorations made it to the local big-box hardware stores in late July. Just in case any of you were temporarily housebound and worried about such things.
*Even if you can get past the fact that it's a blight on humanity, can you least (properly) call it Pumpkin Pie Spice? All that crap is what you add to the baked pumpkin when you make a pie, not when you're otherwise cooking it as just another squash.
This is one of those puzzle-review combos that makes me glad I do look at my solve times. My *experience* of the solve didn’t feel easy (and definitely wouldn’t classify it as extremely easy). But my time suggests that yes, despite my befuddlement, it was largely easy for a Saturday.
This was also one of those times where my having been a religious studies major actually worked against me for a bit. I resisted HAGIOLATRY for longer than was wise precisely because of that false aspect that you mentioned @pabloinnh. I’d never heard of it being used to refer to idol worship. On the other hand, that experience coupled with my having read *way* too much Nietzsche in high school, ZOROASTER dropped right in. I liked actually that today managed to bring Jewish, Muslim, and Zoroastrian answers all in one puzzle. I also agree with Rex re ALPHA NERDS. And +1 to @Wanderlusts’s suggestion of LILA Downs as a Lila worth knowing of.
But there were some good phrases, some interesting trivia, some solid misdirects. I know there was some pretty intense variation in difficulty, but on the whole I think it averaged out to a pleasant Saturday solve with enough bite that I’m not feeling cheated, but not so much that I’m tearing my hair out. I’ll take it!
I’m pulling out and saving pea and coriander seed today, cleaning and hanging garlic to cure, going after some grubs, and mowing the lawn. A good day on the mountaintop as I start to shift my focus towards fall crops. I hope folks have a lovely weekend whatever you get up to.
Oh, wow. I didn’t find this one easy at all. Reporting very challenging from beautiful downtown Denver, NC. Holey Moley. I can’t be the only one who had a confident “tempo” before THROB. And “Do YOU DARE” before IF YOU DARE. Oh, and “whip” before CHOP. This was the perfect level of difficulty for a Saturday. Nice job, John.
@jberg - I thought DEROGATIVE would get more push-back. I rather like being startled by an unexpected suffix. ‘Cause then I get to sit and ponder different suffixes and how they feel. Derogatistic, derogatant, derogatesque, derogatitious. . .cool beans.
@mack – right? EGRET took forever to see because such a pretty bird doesn’t seem predatory. Predative.
Choosing Kim Kardashian for the HAGIOLATRY clue was genius. One just doesn’t hear HAG in the same sentence as a Kardashian, does one? What a funny word. Rex’s online investigation went just like mine: Most online definitions just say it’s the worship of saints, but there is one place where it says it can mean the undue worship of a famous person. I was like, Therrrrre it is. I guess we have a crap ton of actively-practicing hagiologists right now. Boy howdy do they have their work cut out for them.
IDLE GOSSIP. I wish I were someone who avoided gossip and yip-yapping about someone else, but I tell ya, when I’m in Ms. Walker’s room eating lunch, and another teacher comes in with The Look on her face, quietly closing the door behind her. . . I’m dizzy with anticipation for the dirt I’m about to hear.
It’s ridiculous how often I think about the Masai. No, really. I’ll trip and almost fall, then check make sure no one saw me. Then I wonder if a Masai woman would have the same almost-fall-down insecurity. Does she scurry over to her neighbor’s enkaji, look around furtively, then go in to share some IDLE GOSSIP? I really need to live with them for a few weeks to see what’s up.
Since I insulted some Brits and Canadians yesterday with my take on Americans using British spellings (for me, this presents as really ostentatious, the written equivalent of effecting a British accent in a non-ironic way), I’ll lean in and insult me some NERDS now. Just this: couldn’t you argue that ALPHANERD is an oxymoron? By my senior year in high school, I had eschewed the “cool kids” for my chess team buddies, and we most certainly were not part of the ALPHAs in that school. I’m not sure how you’d define ALPHAs in a high school, but I can guarantee you that Not being on the chess team was number one on the list of obligative criteria for attaining alpha status.
If the mystery clue/entries are comfortably under twenty, I can usually solve without much struggle. Like today. 13 mysteries.
A big plus for today is the 18 long entries.
Smart cluing with just one piece of junk (EEK). Good puzzle.
Clearly, the constructor is a friend of Rex. Otherwise, this puzzle would be bashed.
Looking back Rex’s write-ups at the constructors older puzzles, Rex holds back criticism.
I'm with Rex. The clues were either extremely easy or I had no idea. Interesting that the no ideas were both paired as crosses (HAGIOLATRY/MASAI, TAIKONAUT/LILA). The latter could be guessed easily. The former could have easily been HAGIOLOTRY/MOSAI. In any case, it was mostly easy and good fun.
The Kardashians have been canonized???!!! Really? I looked up the root HAGIO to make sure and, yes, it does mean "saint" -- just as I thought. Or maybe the -OLATRY part comes from IDOLATRY and means the worship of false saints? But that there is anyone in the entire world who participates in the "adoration" of the Kardashians is beyond astonishing. Sheesh.
A show of hands, please, for everyone who knew TAIKONAUT. No hands? Quelle surprise.
Terrific clues for SWORDSMITH; HYPNOTISTS; TAX AUDITS; TEXAS; and EGGS. Loved the answers IDLE GOSSIP and IT'S A FREE COUNTRY. Should have seen REISLINGS off just the SL -- but didn't.
I grew up back to the days when being called a NERD was a huge insult. Your ambition is to be considered an ALPHA NERD? Really? It's all yours, sweetie-pie.
Speaking of insults, I thought "insulting" would be the answer to "'Yo mama' jokes, often".
A nice, crunchy, well-clued puzzle. It would have been even better with fewer pop culture clues, but it's not nearly as bad as yesterday's on that score.
Nice Saturday sprinkles on a clean and enjoyable grid 👍👍
Hey All !
Dang, Rex, rating it Extremely Easy. Man, the brain cell count must really be diminishing!
I thought it a bit of a toughie.
Resorted to Check Puzzle once I got stuck, and amazingly, nothing got crossed out! Neat, but unhelpful. Had to Goog for LILA Kedrova, which got me going again in that area. Kept up the Check feature, after filling in "maybes" around the grid. Hit Reveal Word for DOG, as I was getting flustered at not being able to think of that. With those two cheats, and a few Check Puzzles, was able to wrestle this puz into a submission.
Having __R__STER in for 32D, was thing MR ROOSTER. Har. A TOIKONAUT is as good as a TAIKONAUT. SONG had quite a deceitful clue!
Writeovers I can remember, lOcAL-ZONAL, PLoyS-PLEAS, irsAUDITS-TAXAUDITS, sAnAI-MASAI, asAp-STAT, stir-CHOP, moo-BAA.
Missing the J and Q for the 'gram.
Nice SatPuz, John. Wasn't extremely easy for us mortal solvers. 😁
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Taikonaut is a word I am willing to learn. Hagiolatry, not.
Below average resistance for a Saturday but what was difficult about it seemed to compensate. My last word in yesterday's SB showed up in its not conjugated form.
yd -0
I have, as far as I know, never met today’s constructor. —RP
Anon 8:18,
Hagiography is used. all the time by critics dismissing movies, articles, books etc that are little more than Valentines to their subject. The fact that it combines Greek nd Latin hardly makes the word ridiculous.
@Anon. 8:35, Thanks for the correction. I do not think the swordsman I was thinking of was the swordsman I was thinking of.
Stumplers-This one took a while and I still have one blank space, which will not cause me undue pain. Enjoyed it.
Anon 8:18,
Yeah, hybrid words combing Greek no Latin aren’t useful at all.
I mean who needs antacid, asexual,chloroform, bigamy, Beatnik, biathlon, dysfunction, eLectrocution, genocide, heterosexual, hyperactive, liposuction,Minneapolis, petroleum, sociology,television or even vexillology?
Yep, easy. The hardest section was NW where HAGIOLATRY and MASAI were WOEs. The easiest was SE where SKY BOX SEATS, EID, NHL, DAX, DUANE, ARNIE, and NUEVA were gimmes. TAIKONAUT was also a WOE. Knowing ZOROASTER was helpful. Solid and smooth, liked it (or what @Rex said).
Nice Rex write up today & except for the rating I had a similar solver. SWORD SMITH was my final entry though that NW corner did contain a half dozen gimme fills as OFL observed. Loved the clues for 2d & 6d as I got underway, but was Saturday flummoxed by many that followed (giant, econo, TEXAS for instance) to get my weekend plateful of crow from Guzzetta’s lovely RETRODINER. And any day that calls my attention to HAGIOLATRY, TAIKONAUT via ZOROASTER has to get both thumbs way up as Elbert would have said. The balcony is indeed closed.
Closer to a medium/average Saturday for me, although it felt more like challenging while I was in the process. It didn't help that I dropped in "I am not your slave" (8D, "You can't tell me what to do") Then it became clear that I was off-base thanks to NHL (55A, Senator's org.), at which point I confidently changed it to "I am not listeNing." So I spent most of the puzzle trying to atone for that mess and suffer through Rex's "Aforementioned Two."
All in all, an enjoyable Saturday effort.
Loved the P.S.
The front-page story in today's SF Chronicle is about Andrea Carla Michaels. She lives in an apartment in our Nob Hill neighborhood. She is known as the Pizza Lady because she collects unused pizzas from restaurants near her and gives slices to the homeless. The article is about her new project. She finds discarded backpacks, purses, clothing, etc., on the street and goes to extraordinary lengths to find the owner and return them. The article mentions that she is a Harvard grad who designs crosswords for the NYT.
I really feel like if you’re going to make this type of unkind, groundless claim you should at least have the courage to sign your name to it, aka, as we say in Brooklyn, say it with your full chest. Rex will often go in on the puzzles but rarely goes after the constructors; I wish that folks would afford OFL the same courtesy and stay away from this kind of claim. It’s just mean, especially to someone who freely provides all of us a forum to NERD out about crosswords together.
Oh, I forgot to ask this morning, did anyone else think 1A would have something to do with chocolate? Maybe I watch too much Bake Off, but I *really* wanted chocolatier to fit.
According to my spouse, any biography can be an example of HAGIOLATRY if it's fawning enough. So, it is a known usage here in the Pacific Northwest. Not a big sample size, I admit.
I had DEROGATIng and also misread EGRET's clue as protector instead of predator, so had a big double-take when I caught that. I kept trying to come up with some government acronym… Hi @ Mack!
Exciting Saturday splat fill when I sorted out the NW - correcting the ei in RIESLING. Smiled at ALPHANERD and SWORDSMITH. And another enjoyable moment when I finally saw TEXAS and got TAX AUDITS. Lots of rewarding moments, but not a Tuesday puzzle for me.
I’m familiar with “hagiography” in the sense of a flattering, uncritical book or article about someone who is less than perfect. The opposite of a hatchet job. “The official campaign biography is a shameless hagiography that skips over the candidate’s propensity for devouring well-done puppies slathered in ketchup.”
It’s recommended that one be very polite during one’s arraignment. Only PLEAS and thank yous. We’ll see if ITSAFREECOUNTRY once the orange buffoon’s PLEAS are tried.
In looking at the finished puzzle, I was struck by SWORDSMITH and wordsmith differing by just one letter, while likely occupying opposite ends of the Myers-Briggs spectrum. Speaking of which, Zadie (Word) Smith had an amusing essay in the recent New Yorker Fiction issue called “On Killing Charles Dickens”. Seems that in writing her new book, Fraud, she couldn’t get away from the ghost of Dickens no matter where she went or how she tried. A good, short read. The new book, I’m confident, will also be good.
TRESCHIC and TEXAS in the same row? My uncle in Abilene thinks TRES CHIC refers to three young ladies.
I saw DUANE sitting atop DRUG and wondered what happened to Reade.
I thought this was easy, but very enjoyable cluing. Thanks, John Guzzetta.
Well...temper to me had to do with gently incorporating some EGGS into your sweet cuisine. SO...without so much as a blink of an eye, I penned in BAKERY CHEF. Then I looked at the downs and sighed. Nothing fit. What a surprise. Erase, erase.
SHIVA...Thank you for the S. WADED, thank you for the W. DOG and SLOB, thank you for the DS. A SWORDSMITH indeed.
Then I got to the Kardashians and wondered if a Brazilian butt lift had some other name. HAGIOL? What are you! Oh, that one! A divine epiphany ensued. Why are they Saints? I suppose some people see them in Sainthood attire. So I got it and moved along.
IF YOU DARE handed me ITS A FREE COUNTY. Boy, that was fun. Will I actually finish this without a Saturday cheat? I might.
This wasn't exactly a whiz bang; I had to think, stop, and think some more.
I bounced around. TEXAS TRES CHIC was my middle doings. Move close to the bottom. Hmmm, 35D? What do big screens have to do with TAX something or other. Leave blank...concentrate on the left coast. Stare at Tiangong. Your ending seems to be an ONAUT but what's your beginning?
It's getting late and my five year old princess is spending the night with us. I have to read and sing to her before she'll sleep. I do. It's fun. My mind is elsewhere so I'll try this in the morning.
I'm up early and Hadley Rose is still asleep. Let me tackle the ending.
I do.
I had to look up TAIKONAUT. Wasn't sure about KAPPA. Wasn't sure about my spelling of ZOROASTUR or if that was really a thing. It was.
TAX AUDITS had to be. Still don't understand why you are big screens.
SKY BOX SEAT. My ending.
Now to prepare some bacon and EGGS for the love of my life. It smells good...Everyone's happy and now it's pool time!
Enjoyable outing.
Here’s a tip for those of us challenged by “i-e” and “e-i” in words of German origin. Pronunciation takes the long vowel sound of the second letter in the combination. So, REES-ling is spelled Riesling. And, we all know how to say Einstein.
Saints only? Really? You've never heard anyone, or read anyone, refer to some biography of a politician or famous person as "hagiographic"?
Anyway, I guess anyone who would give "the Kardashians" more than a passing thought might think a "free country" means "you can't tell me what to do!". I did love hagiolatry being followed by "idle gossip," another hallmark of shallow thought. Then rounded out by a reference to the master codifier of selfishness himself! Altogether really quite brilliant, this is.
I rather liked this puzzle.
Yes, LILA Downs is amazing.
Also very worthwhile mentioning is LILA Wallace, whose eponymous foundation has funded so many arts and education efforts.
Swordsmith as an opening word & Hagiolatry?
Oh please.
Kinda nifty for a themeless.
S-WORD SMITH: Dude who knows everything about 1/26th of the dictionary.
I've never heard of HAGIOLATRY (and neither has my spell check), but I have heard of Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kylie, Kris, and Kendall. And I haven't read the comments yet, but I am confident someone will say they don't know anything about the Kardashians and don't want to know anything about them, and that'll be the person who knows everything about the plural of GENIE. Among billionaires, those women are an impressive group and while "saint worship" is a ridiculous clue, they do kick ASS.
Not only did I need to research TAIKONAUT, it came as news to me the Chinese have their own space station. It's not surprising they do, but surprising I've never heard a word about it.
HP#1! Go SNAPE!
I've been in a dozen 50s themed restaurants and never once got a meal worth eating. Style over substance I suppose. RETRO DINER seems like a fake term.
IT'S A FREE COUNTRY is a phrase only 80-year-old white men say when they're pissed off that the county assessor says their house is worth $700,000 when they paid $12 for it in 1947. It's a gross phrase favored by those with ungrounded axes.
I am off to read the Wikipedia page on ZOROASTER.
Tee-Hee: THROB.
Uniclues:
1 Organized effort to increase the use of fancy stabbers on charcuterie boards.
2 Doberman owner's warning.
3 Fancy cowboy boots zone.
4 Little dipper lounge.
5 Mouse keeping score at a funeral.
6 What dad did in preparation for the dinner party with your new boyfriend.
7 Dungeon and dragons aficionados who don't clean up after the dragon.
8 😵💫
1 SWORDSMITH SCAM
2 ADDLE, IF YOU DARE
3 TRÈS CHIC TEXAS
4 URSA SKY BOX SEAT
5 SHIVA STAT STU
6 OGLED ONE-LINERS
7 SLOB ALPHANERDS
8 HYPNOTIST'S LOGO
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Potato feet fancy. LATKE STILETTOS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Well, I got the tough Saturday I look forward to: this one put up a real fight for me, and I enjoyed subduing it. Starting out in the NW, the Downs didn't give me enough to get 1A, but in the line below, I filled in ???dOLATRY - close, but wrong enough to mask RIESLING. Also, the Y gave me the brain wave for HYPotheses, which I felt so proud of getting (the "compelling suggestions"), but whose crosses really fouled me up... like "econo" where TEXAS belonged. Anyway. I finally worked it all out. Final assessment: Fun!
Do-overs: MAlAy giraffe (I know); HYPotheses, DEROGATory. Help from previous puzzles: SIA. No idea: HAGIOLATRY, LILA, TAIKONAUT. Oh, please: ALPHA NERDS. Never so happy to see: ARNIE, who rescued me in the SE.
About average feistiness for a SatPuz, at our house.
Got a kick out of learnin about the two meanins of HAGIOLATRY…
"hagiolatry |ˌhagēˈälətrē, ˌhāgē-|
noun
the worship of saints.
• derogatory undue veneration of a famous person."
This kinda gives the Kardashians clue a cool double-edge to it. Double haginess, as it were.
staff weeject pick: No contest. DAX. Clued with a schlock flick title. Really like.
Our FriNite Schlockfest flicks last night were "The Green Knight" and "The Raven", btw.
other faveioaltry: ITSAFREECOUNTRY [Got it offa ?AFRE?, so not quite as quick as @Lewis dude]. Learnin about MASAI giraffes bein TEXAS-size. IFYOUDARE [Also had DOYOUDARE, first]. HYPNOTISTS. Extra-brutal TAXAUDITS clue. SONG clue [And SOS-beware Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse -- DeSantis is gonna slit throats, if ever elected].
Thanx, Mr. Guzzetta dude. Tough but fair, IM&AHO.
Masked & Anonymo6Us
For runtonauts & especially the Shortzmeister:
**gruntz**
Lila Crane has now been added to the Lila wikipedia page. Your wish is my command!
Natick on cross of 43D and 46A. Am I the only one?
@Weezie 11:34 AM
+1 🦖 teaches us every day how to do things right.
Yes HAGIO plus oddball suffix... very tough. Hands up for DEROGATORY. I also wanted DWAYNE before DUANE.
The Penticton VEES were world champions (!!) in 1955, and BCHL champions last year with a remarkable win percentage. "If you combine the regular season and playoffs, Penticton finished with the 2022-23 season with a record of 66-4-0-1".
[Spelling Bee: Fri 0, last word this 5er.]
I assume TAIKONAUT was coined with support from the Chinese government, but it's a weird neologism since it sounds much more Japanese than Chinese. Taiko drums are pretty prominent in Japan.
Aside from the the hagiography/taikonaut issue, if you Google "Iranian philosophers", you get a list of more than fifty names, NOT one of which is "Zoroaster". It would be like clueing "One of the richest Americans", with David Green as the correct answer. Also, I always thought that Nietzsche was influenced by Zarathustra.
Got my foothold at the bottom of the grid so i wouldnt eveN TRY seemed obvious for the "You can't tell me what to do" marquis answer. Even when I knew it was off, I still thought we had the standalone word TRY and finally COUNTRY hit me over the head.
Why the "Big" in TAXAUDITS? Can't there be a small TAX AUDIT?
For which galactic traveler was this puzzle "Extremely Easy except for two answers"?
Yes, I had problems with those 2 and also... SWORDSMITH: troubled me even when "temper" took me into the vicinity. SKYBOXSEAT: having been in several, the word luxury escapes me. Better clue, "Overpriced scam where you can't follow the game". ZOROASTER: not from my neighborhood, although I wanted to know it. ALPHANERD: so not a valid word, concept, thing. But almost made me laugh (and/or spit). Didn't like how CODA was clued. Kinda liked ITSAFREECOUNTRY even though it made me think of you-know-who's followers. TRI... really?? for triathlons. Reminds me of how all the young traffic faces are referring to avenues as AVES. Good lord! But keep 'em coming !
I think of the comedian demetri Martin and his point that the only time anybody ever says it's a free country is when they're doing something really s*****.
I love the Gator egret misdirect. Mac every other day you are exactly on my wavelength. Yesterday I was ready to tell you why every single one of your five points was wrong, and today you're right in my head.
At least I knew Taiko waititi, so the prefix was familiar.
Double natick for me: M-SAI/HAGIOL-TRY (I had an O rather than an A) and T-IKONAUT/ZORO-STER (I had an E rather than an A). I solve on paper so had no idea I got these wrong until I came here… and quite frankly, I don’t care. Those answers are shit. Otherwise, as Rex said, really easy puzzle.
I had to look up the Kardashians to figure out the connection to HAGIOLATRY - a crossword stumper of the first order for me, I admit it. Not the meaning, because I had come across the word long ago, didn’t remember it other than it had something to do with adoration of idols. That made me put in IdOLatry which just made matters worse. After finishing, I (exceedingly reluctantly) went looking for a Kardashian link and apparently one of the clan had a child named Saint, ergo the definition “excessive adoration of saints” technically fits. Trying to be way too clever can be irritating to a solver. I cry foul. Just ick.
I also thought I was 100% right and being oh so smart when I wanted “chocolatier” as the “expert with a temper” and was so so SO disappointed when I was one square short. Rats! But the easy HYPNOTISTS made me realize instantly that the answer had to be some sort of SMITH. And on I went. I also thought that Supai, AZ was the confluence of the rivers but again not enough room. The Supai reservation is one of the most beautiful, serene places I have ever visited. The Havasupai people were so friendly each time we visited and shared so much about their people and history. At least I was in the right state.
Of course Taikonaut Was another toughie. My subs would have known it and his love of all things space exploration is the reason I was even familiar with the Tiangong Station. He followed that nearly two year long adventure very closely and spoke often about our (the USA’s) failure to commit fully to space exploration. He was so disappointed in what he perceived as a rather deplorable lack of foresight and curiosity.
Wouldn’t call this “Tuesday easy” as OFL, but except for the NW and the TAIKONAUT trivia quiz, the remainder was doable. I really do not care for puzzle answers that require me to know absolute trivia about famous people. Sure, big accomplishments like Oscar nominations and awards are fair game, but really . . . this gossamer thin connection to the Kardashians was making a difficult word just that much more difficult, and it detracted from solving enjoyment.
@Anon. 12:04- My go-to for that particular German pronunciation is "sieg heil", but I'm not proud of it.
I agree completely, @Lewis with the clever misdirects being a very high point today, especially in “the clutch,” a farm term I haven’t heard since I visited my family’s dairy farm outside Utica, Ohio as a child. My Great Aunt Alwena raised hens for eggs and treated “her girls” like family. She was selling “free range organic” way before it was “ thing” because “your livestock are your family,” as she often said. Every time we would visit, and the girls were not producing as well as usual and my Gran would ask if we could take eggs home, and the answer would be, “Oh Aggie we didn’t get mire than a small clutch but you can have a dozen.”
My niece adored giraffes from a very early age and it was she at the ripe old age of 4 (I remember because she had not started public school kindergarten yet) who taught me about “Messy giraffes.” She read everything she could about them but I was confused. I asked her why they were messy and she said they were too talk to clean their rooms. Later I looked them up and found that they are Masai, but they shall forever be “Messy” giraffes.
@Bob Mills. I wanted to CHar too.
@Pablo, Rex, et al.
My feeling about HAGIOLATRY is that the -(O)LATRY is there to give you the "un" sense that Pablo is missing. Coming to us from idolatry, which, actually, is a perfectly good word to describe the typical behavior of Kardashian fans. But if you're referring to something written you need another word, and HAGIOLATRY fills that space nicely. Although I doubt that K worshippers read much about the objects of their adoration - isn't it mostly on social media?
LILA Kedrova seems to me to be on the wrong side of an obscure actress tipping point. She was the fourth-billed actress in a 59-year-old movie. Didn't even make the poster. I suspect that the vast majority of solvers would have gotten as much help from a clue like "female name" or "my neighbor's (female) cat's name". Is there a point when the editors should stop pretending that a clue is helpful, and just go with a generic? Or maybe something like "221st most popular girl's name, 2022", which would at least provide a rough sense of the level of frequency of the name.
It's a free country
@Anon 12:04 – except Anthony Weiner is pronounced "weener". And no one will ever forget that.
@NYEDMD 2:03 – Wikipedia's list of Iranian philosophers includes Zoroaster. And Zoroaster and Zarathustra are the same person.
Blues for Duane
@NYEDMD; Zoroaster and Zarathustra are two names for the same person. On your Google list of Iranian philosophers, you will see Zarathustra in about the spot you'd see Bill Gates or Mark Zuckerberg for richest Americans (after Musk, on which there seems to be agreement, different sources diverge).
Surprised you haven’t run across Texas being used that way. It was the biggest state for over a hundred years and Texans are stereotyped as bragging all the the time about how big , great endless etc etc everything in Texas is. So it wasn’t at all obscure to me. Maybe because it is less used now? Could be an age thing again. Sigh. ( I distinctly remember someone being described as having a Texas sized ambition).
On the other hand, I never saw taikonaut before.
Zarathustra and Zoroaster are variations of the same name.
I’m sorry but in what universe is this “extremely easy?” I found this incredibly hard. I got the SE corner fairly easily but everything else was almost a total dead end to me. I’ve only been doing the NYT Crossword seriously for like 6 months, so I recognize im not as experienced as most on here, but I fully expected his rating to be at least a “medium” for this. I found this one HARD.
To be fair to the puzzle, hagiolatry, as pointed out in the blog also has a negative connotation: idolizing a star too much. Rex apparently doesn’t realize this. (My guess is he had Hagia Sophia on the brain). In this context the clue has nothing to do with saints. The clue just used the Kardashians as a now classic example of the concept. I agree it is an obscure word but for me a good answer to the clue on a Saturday.
I
True And funny.
But of course American pronunciation of what once were Yiddish and/or German names have little to do with German rules of pronunciation. Of course the Germans have rules which are consistent throughout the language- very unlike English.
I googled Alpha Nerds after finishing the puzzle only to discover that it is the name of a gym in.... NATICK MASS. I shit you not.
One of the great joys in life is a terrific crossword puzzle, which is rare. Another great joy is reading Rex Parker's assessments and those are not rare, I'm happy to say. So smart, so witty.
I gleefully entered PASTRY CHEF at 1A, ever so impressed with myself for getting “Expert with a temper” so quickly.
It went downhill from there.
Disappointingly easy. Typical Saturday puzzle takes me at least 2 hours, sometimes even a couple days. This one I whipped through in about 30 mins. I look forward to the challenge of a Saturday grid, the harder it being also being the most rewarding. Can’t say I feel proud solving this Tuesday-level breeze. Yeah, the two difficult words required a bit of thought and educated guessing. But not much, with the remainder being almost childishly easy.
I can't believe we did the same puzzle.
This was was torture.
With a couple of notable exceptions mentioned numerous times in other comments, I got most of the left half with some short pauses to think, but in a good way.
Then the rest of the puzzle destroyed all of the goodwill that was previously generated.
ALPHANERDS? No.
TAIKONAUT? Hard no.
DEROGATIVE? Stop.
And then a Potterism (FOAD). Stop with the Potterisms.
And no one has ever said "RETRODINER," ever, but that didn't stop me form getting it.
Throw in some Duane and Dax on top of that... and I don't know how you'd clue NOLTE, other than "Nick ___ (actor)," the way you might have seen it in the TV Guide Crossword, in order form me to guess it.
The down crosses are fine, but actors and actresses, like artists, biographers, dancers, and individual band members whose fame is secondary to the bands in which they play (no matter how famous) almost never stick in my brain.
And who tf is Sia?
Who (tf) is Sia? Is that sarcasm?
Australian singer/songwriter with 15 songs that have been streamed more than a Billion times.
(More than anyone else) (eg Titanium, and Chandeliers)
Very interesting lady. Almost retired before having a late career resurgence.
Eschews fame and performs with her face covered by wigs/props etc.
Had blackSMITH before SWORDSMITH. HAGIOLATRY was a WOE but I got it via the crosses. Found it challenging even for a Saturday. Corners spell SMUT or TUMS or MUST or STUM (unfermented grape juice).
DNF, just too much I didn't know.
Wordle birdie.
Not a great day. DNF And had a positive Covid test - went to doc and got meds. Symptoms aren't too bad, but.............
D,LIW
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