A native of upstate New York, Parker practiced law in Kingston, New York, before being appointed to the New York Supreme Court and elected to the New York Court of Appeals. He served as Chief Judge of the latter from 1898 to 1904, when he resigned to run for president. In 1904, he defeated liberal publisher William Randolph Hearst for the Democratic Party nomination for President of the United States. In the general election, Parker opposed popular incumbent Republican President Theodore Roosevelt. After a disorganized and ineffective campaign, Parker was defeated by 336 electoral votes to 140, carrying only the traditionally Democratic Solid South. He then returned to practicing law. He managed John A. Dix's successful 1910 campaign for Governor of New York and served as prosecution counsel for the 1913 impeachment of Dix's successor, Governor William Sulzer. (wikipedia)
• • •
Sunday SCARIES? That is some infantilizing dopey terminology right there (112A: Sunday ___ (end-of-week anxiety, casually)).
That is what I wrote last year when I first saw this term. I have not seen, or heard, this term since then, until today, and so even though people last year told me it was a thing, my overall opinion has not shifted one bit. Also, last year's appearance of this term really took the novelty wind out of SUNDAY SCARIES's sails today (13D: Feeling of dread before the start of the workweek, in slang). I looked at the clue, had the SUND-, wrote in SUNDAY and thought "oh this is that dumb thing that was just in the puzzle ... SUNDAY .... SCARIES? No, that's too dumb ... [writes in SCARIES] ... well, it fits ... [starts checking crosses] ... well, what do you know! SCARIES! I managed to remember something! Wish it weren't this dumb phrase, but still, woo hoo!" Deeply ambivalent about getting my first whoosh-whoosh feeling of the day from so dumb an answer (dumb!), but whoosh is whoosh and you take it where you can get it, I guess. Anyway, here's what SUNDAY SCARIES did for me:
Straight down the grid, confirmed by SIKHS etc. After this, I was very much in business. I had that "didn't I just see this?" feeling again, not long after SUNDAY SCARIES, with RENT STRIKE. Wasn't this part of a recent theme? Maybe something to do with "X"s? Yes—just fifteen days ago! There, it was rendered as RENTX (with the "X" repping "strike"), but it's the same idea. Again, so glad my brain is actually retaining little bits of information from all these puzzles I do. Mostly everything seems a blur. But as I was saying, the novelty winds were blunted today by things my brain registered as duplicates of recent answers. I think I actually liked the less visually flashy NW and SE corners better than the gaudier pillars of long answers that run through the SW and NE. "MOONSHINE? .... I SHOULDN'T ..." is a miniature drama unto itself, and the SORE LOSER / FRENEMIES pairing seems tight as well. You can imagine your frenemy being a sore loser when they lose to you. For sure.
The NE corner is solid enough. Possibly unlikely fact about me—I love me a SCENTED CANDLE ... though depending on the scent, I also hate me a SCENTED CANDLE (14D: Source of a burning odor?). I've got "Orchard Citrus" sitting here next to my desk. It's got three wicks, for a more even burn (I think). It's pretty nice.
I got it in Beacon, on the way back from the City. I could go on about candles, but this is not (yet) a candle blog, so let's deal with the rest of the NE. I think I'm bored of POT DEALERS and just pot answers in general and all the marijuordplay that comes with them (puns on "joint" and "blunt" and "high" etc.) (15D: Blunt salespeople). Also, do dealers sell blunts? Having never purchased any drug (besides prescriptions, and alcohol), I thought dealers sold pot by the ounce (or fractions of an ounce), and then you rolled the blunt yourself. I'm so pot-ignorant that I only just now (literally) learned the difference between a blunt and a joint. In case you didn't know, here you go:
A blunt is a roll of cannabis inside a cigar or blunt wrap. These wraps are made out of tobacco, which adds a buzz and energy to your cannabis high. Typically, they’re bigger than joints and spliffs and last a lot longer.
Blunt wraps are often sold at corner or grocery stores and come in 1- and 2-packs. They are often flavored. You can also cut open a cigar, empty it, and use the wrapping for a blunt. Cigarillos, such as a Swisher Sweets, Phillies, or Dark & Milds, are also great for blunts. (leafly dot com)
Would you call the corner grocery store a "dealer"? If they sell blunts, then they do "deal" in pot, so ... OK, fine. I have friends who smoke, and they'd be laughing at me right now if they read me, which they mostly don't, god bless them.
The NE corner was toughest for me not for any pot reason, but because it had the greatest concentration of Nuisance Names—those little names of unknown-to-you actors and models and what not that can clog up a grid like hair in a drain, and can (like hair in a drain, I guess) kinda hinder the flow. For me, today, these were ALICE AVA NESS TESS ALTON. The crosses were easy enough, and they were all name-like enough, that I could power through most of them no problem, but TESS and ALTON occupied the same general space, and then the GETS part of GETS INSIDE was not at all clear to me (I had GOES and considered RUNS), and *then* the clue on GAP was mysterious to me until the very end (I guess I don't recognize "Tube" as "The London Underground" without the "The" in front of it) (9A: Tube feature, with "the").
I also absolutely misread the "ranch dressing" clue up there, which is to say I missed the "?" (20A: Brand of ranch dressing?), and so sincerely thought STETSON was a brand of salad dressing until I was going over the grid post-solve. But no, it's ranch dressing question mark. As in what one might wear on a ranch ... therefore STETSON (the hat). The biggest help to me up there in that section was, strangely, COTTA, which I just know ... from crosswords. I really (really) like that a word meaning "baked" is crossing POT DEALERS. Extremely nice, extremely subtle touch.
Good work overall here, even with the Nuisance Names and the sense of extreme déjà vu on a couple of the longer answers. See you tomorrow.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
P.S. speaking of MOONSHINE there's a really good movie playing on Criterion Channel right now called The Last American Hero, starring Jeff Bridges, with Gary Busey, Ned Beatty, and Valerie Perrine (1973, d. Lamont Johnson). It's mostly about stock-car racing, but it takes place in North Carolina (I think) and the main character's dad is an old-time, oft-imprisoned MOONSHINEr. Lots of MOONSHINE content. Based on a 1965 Tom Wolfe essay for Esquire (!?). Very entertaining.
“Sunday Scaries” is absolutely a thing. I hear it frequently among 30-somethings and younger folks. It may not be your favorite phrase, but it is definitely in the language. I’m surprised you, Rex, aren’t more all about it.
It's Malaika's 4th NYT since her debut on March 2, 2023! I'm not a fan of name-heavy crosswords, but this one was quite diverse, which I can appreciate. Well done overall, and congrats to Malaika!
Oh, very lively puzzle. Fresh. Like a just-picked cherry tomato or perfect strawberry.
Much newness here. NYT debut answers: GETS INSIDE, I SHOULDN’T, OH LORD, OUTSCORES, SCENTED CANDLE, SUNDAY SCARIES. Answers used only once in the NYT puzzle: CODE-SWITCH, WET SEASON, POTDEALERS.
It’s not only fun to see words showing up for the first time, but their clues will be new as well, giving the puzzle spark, giving the brain novel riddles to crack.
Malaika, your puzzles have personality, and they shine. This is plain to see, IMO, after but four NYT puzzles. I loved today’s opus, which pulsed with energy. Thank you so much for making it!
Side note: I rarely watch network shows, but I do tune into Abbot Elementary, and the main reason is Janelle James, who plays AVA Coleman. Janelle is a hoot; she has incredible comic timing. She’s a one-of-a-kind, one of the special ones.
Finished it without cheating once (unusual for a Friday). As a student of political history I knew ALTON B. Parker, which made the NE fairly easy for me.
Plenty of clever misdirects in this one, but none were unfair. ARSE for "bum" was the cleverest, I'd say.
We know Malaika’s voice well from her guest blogging - that helps with some of the nuanced cluing this morning. It is trivia heavy - but also some nice colloquial entries for balance. Liked POT DEALERS and SORE LOSER.
My mother was from Beacon Rex - thanks for the shout out. My oldest son’s wife uses SUNDAY SCARIES often - I tell her to suck it up and get ready to go to work like the rest of us. Liked the adjectival CADENT. ARLO and ALTON get more obscure treatment today - had to back into both.
I liked this one a lot. Did not have any more issues with Sunday Scaries than all the other clues/answers I’ve ever encountered. Never heard it but was able to figure it out. Never heard Code switch either which made that the hardest part for me but you know, eventually got it!
Just back from London, where I took THE tube a lot. Took ‘til near the end and a lot of crosses through the name-heavy NE to catch it. Must be JET-lagged (I am a frequent flyer!). Couldn’t recall the term Sunday Scaries, but I used to have them before I retired and could spend each morning doing the puzzle! Thanks Malaika for a nice Friday,
Finance professional in the final decade of my career (I hope!) here to report that the Sunday scaries is definitely a Thing in the private sector (as opposed to, e.g., the groves of academe).
A near perfect Friday and what a relief not to have a theme to deal with today. There was a bit of a challenge but not too much, some proper names but not too many, and a number of what seemed like debut entries - which I see @Lewis has thoughtfully verified. CODE SWITCH made sense but was unfamiliar, and my slangy dread of the work week started out as MONDAY MOANING, kind of a more adult version of SCARIES maybe. 15D made me wonder if the POT stores which are becoming ever more commonplace are making old fashioned DEALERS obsolete. I imagine not.
I liked your fourth offering a lot, Malaika. A very pleasant start to the weekend.
Picky, but 'cotta' in Italian really means 'cooked'. Baked is 'al forno'. But if it was is a reference to the potdealer, then you'd say 'sono sballo'. I'm baked...
@Tom 8:05 - before they played in Long Island, they played in New Jersey as the New Jersey Americans. Although the name changed, it is still the same franchise.
Hey All ! SORE LOSER. Har. I did that once (many moons ago), playing a friend in Scrabble, losing, promptly taking the board and flinging it. Tiles strewn everywhere. Drinking was involved...
This was a sort of tough, sort of easy puz, in that it felt like I was often stuck, but answers kept filling, and my timer says 19 and a half minutes. Interesting. Finished error free! DID SO!
Is this our Malaika? I can't seem to remember (shocker, that) her last name. Also haven't read the comments yet.
Agree NE corner toughest section. Finished up there. Had the GoeSINSIDE mucking things up a bit. A TESS and a NESS, but still not a mess. 😁
@pablo Har, from YesterComments, I had meant "a half point", apparently missing typing the O. But hey, if a half pint works also, then have at it!
You have the SUNDAYSCARIES? Is toilet training on the schedule this week? More than anything else that one entry really brought this puzzle down. The lameness of POTDEALER was a close second but that baby talk phrase took the cake. GETSINSIDE is an EATACAKE phrase of convenience that took third place for making this solve seem low brow.
I got a respectable amount of solving from the puzzle. GAP went in from the crosses. I've never heard the term " high TEA." ALTON, TESS and ALICE were all unknowns. AVA would have been another but I never read the clue for that or ORA thanks to the SE being the easiest section.
My NINO/PASO write over momentarily stalled my progress in the SW. Most of the resistance today came from the names. MAEWEST and AUSTEN are of course familiar but I was slow catching on to them from the clues. CODESWITCH is an unfamiliar phrase so that added to the late week feel as well.
Unlike @Bob Mills, I had to cheat in order to get ALTON at the intersection of 10D and 1904. The only Hollidays I knew were Doc and Billie, but now I’ve added TESS (21D). I didn’t know ALICE (51A) and I didn’t remember CODE SWITCH (22D), but both were inferrable.
This started out as an "oh oh" but some of the longer answers provided toeholds. Thanks SORELOSER and MAEWEST, and then things were slow and steady but not impossible.
Had one of those misreading moment with "bum" which I was reading as "burn". This m for rn happens all the time, so I should be more aware of it. Spent too much time wondering how an ARSE could be a burn. Turns out it can't.
Major roadblock in the NE as I refused to let go of GOESINSIDE. GETS eventually led to some obvious answers. Not you, ALTON. You should be ALTON Brown.
Overall a very nice Friday with a lot of freshness. My Happiness increased as I went on, so thanks for that, MH. And thanks for all the fun.
My husband attended Alton B Parker Elementary School in Cortland, NY. Except for musicians Cortland has few native sons (or daughters) with any claim to fame. I would bet that maybe 10 people in the city know who Parker was.
I have to assume I'm the only one who wrote down "branded cattle" before "scented candle". I knew it seemed a bit dark for "source of a burning odor". Kept me in trouble in the NE for some time though.
A lot of fun stuff in this puzzle. Love the clue/answer for SORE LOSER and the words MOONSHINE and FRENEMIES. I was flummoxed for a long time by the wonderful clue for STETSON.
This is a very "high" puzzle, what with MOONSHINE and POT DEALERS. I knew MOONSHINE immediately, whereas POT DEALERS was a big "Huh?" even when I already had DEALERS. They say that people with a taste for liquor aren't tempted by pot and vice-versa. In my case that's certainly true.
I don't have a special "phone voice." I just have...a voice. And trust me -- I wouldn't dream of CODESWITCHing them, whatever that means. This was a baffling answer.
Today's Tip for Solvers: If there's a quote containing a sexual innuendo that's a little bit naughty, but far from X-rated, and it's all about being bad, and the answer is seven letters, look no further: It was said by MAE WEST.
Easy for me except for the NE where I had quite a bit of trouble. I did have to wait a bit in the SW to see if the answer to "does a better job than in making points" would be OUTSCORES or OUTARGUES.
Just what felt like a continuous barrage of PPP, and yes, some of them Nuissance Names. It just seemed like every other clue was “who said this?”, “Who wrote that,?” “who played this character?”, “what character was played by?” Obviously oncentrated in NE but littered throughout as well.
Also agree with Rex on the longer acrosses in NW and SE outshining the long down pillars. OHLORD I’ll always appreciate solely because it can convey so many different emotions with changes in inflection, pauses, etc. and was basically what I used every time I hit another trivia clue - “OHLOoooRD, the 1904 loser candidate?”
Faster than avg solve by a good margin and decent enough stuff, just would have liked less people. And as alluded, 3rd consecutive puzzle with ELPASO in the grid (2 full ELPASOs and today PASO, clued as EL_____). Maybe we’ll get a Marty Robbins clue tomorrow (“out in the West Texas town of ______”).
Second Rex's recommendation of "Last American Hero" - which happens to be on Saturday on FXM at 11:20a ET. Based on the life of Junior Johnson, as told by Wolfe's essay.
Had Oh dear instead of OH LORD, and Didn't before DID SO, which slowed me in that area. Figured May to November, in Central America, was going to be something in Spanish, so ignored it until crosses made it plain.
Tee-Hee-sie: Dooood, totally rad puzz. They put POT DEALERS in with SCENTED CANDLES! OMG! Gotcher MOONSHINE, ah yeah, I mean I SHOULDN'T, but shoo-ee a SOLID DOSE'll do ya. It CARESSES yer will to become FRENEMIES with a TRANS. Oh, and RARER ARSE GAPES are def NSFW, ew.
Didn't know ARLO or ALTON. Everyone with an A-name is forgettable apparently.
I've never seen CADENT in that form, but I guess it makes sense. And it reminds me of the misty musical unJoy of yesterday's puzzle.
Cute: Ranch dressing = STETSON. It's also an Indiana roof.
Uniclues:
1 Time period between "I'll try a sip," and waking up in an alley in Toledo with no pants and a bowling ball. 2 Housekeeper throwing the Connect Four in Marsha's face. 3 Christian missionaries. 4 Crosses a bridge in Istanbul and other romantic adventures.
1 MOONSHINE SPELL 2 SORE LOSER ALICE (~) 3 SIKHS' FRENEMIES 4 GETS INSIDE ASIA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Greatest gift a uniclue writer could receive, or a religious leader with a spiffy name makes introductions. I AM IMAM SNAZZ.
As a 30-something, I first heard SUNDAYSCARIES a couple of years ago. While I would *never* speak it aloud – "I really have the Sunday Scaries today...", yuck – I do find it useful to have a label for end-of-weekend anxiety. It's similar to when I'm irritable after having not eaten for awhile, and telling myself "oh right, I'm 'hangry'" can help me snap out of it. (For those of you who look forward to Mondays, just imagine "last day of vacation" anxiety.)
CODESWITCH is definitely a thing – there's an entire podcast named after it! My interpretation of the clue is that someone might try to use a "General American English" accent on the phone to get better service from a business (say, a hotel), when their usual speaking voice has an accent that the other person might be prejudiced against.
Medium for me, and a mix of the very pleasurable (clever clues, unexpected entries), the unknown, and the "Oh, no, not another name!" My favorite cross: Jane AUSTEN meets MAE WEST. I bet they could have had a good conversation. Also liked the stack "MOONSHINE? I SHOULDN'T."
Do-overs: GoeS INSIDE, Act before ADD, POT sElLERS. No idea: ALTON, TESS, ALICE, SUNDAY SCARIES. Closest thing to moment of triumph: STETSON from the S.
Malaika had me aGAPE with her trippy grid, minding the GAP on the way to high TEA. OH LORD I thought as ODE, ODDS & OWE slotted into place. No swooshing today’s puzzle, but a SWARM of head scratcher clues & a nice collection of women from AUSTEN, AVA & ALICE to MAE WEST.who would no doubt bring MOONSHINE to the TEA party. Fun Friday indeed.
I was a little buzzed last night...Friends came over and we all dipped into the Talisker. Friends left and I download the puzzle. First entry MOONSHINE !!! Although it was a dark and stormy night, the SUNDAY SCARIES SHOULDN'T bother me because we're talking Friday. I'll start by saying that I really liked this. There were corners that baffled and clues that mislead. Drink some water, it should help. WET SEASON. I wanted some kind of winter or fall. The WORM MAE WEST entry set me back on course. Next! NAMES!!! I just don't know names. NESS and his Queer Eye. ARLO and his BEAU Janis. ALTON running for president in 1904. TESS and her Holliday Model. The good news: I was able to piece them together...except ALTON. I don't even think my grandmother was around at that time. If she was, she would've voted Republican! So I stared and stared at 45D. El____what. I had JEFE. I wanted JEFE. PASO paved the way. D LINE? I can't envision a QB doing that. Does the OUTSCORES come into play? Drinking water helps. I finished. I really smiled at the clue for STETSON. I make my own dressing with honey and dijon. I will call it mommies STETSON. I also liked finishing with a WART ARSE GAPE. I could have fun with this....
like rex, the NW was tricky. and starting there, and then going through all the across clues, i felt a bit doomed in the early moments with a lot of blank space. but then i knew like...almost all the long answers without crosses? which was a very strange feeling. i guess i got to feel like a crossword whiz for a day! that was fun :) only a few seconds off my PB. POT DEALERS held me up, only because i had _ _ _ D and thought the first part would be WEED. thought "weed tender" (confusing it with bud tender) but it didn't fit, then perhaps weedtailer like e-tailer or some such...finally i realized it was all quite a lot more simple than i was making it.
my wORD before OH LORD also held me up just slightly.
i think the thing about not "hearing" some of these phrases like SUNDAY SCARIES is because a lot of slang is used almost solely online, and you don't say it in meatspace. i always hated that phrase, though, for the same reasons others have mentioned. also - CODESWITCHing - this is usually used to describe phenomenon in the black community, esp among black women. and all the racially informed reasons that go along with it. that said, my mom (who is white) can switch up her demeanor and voice on a dime to take a phonecall. it's part funny, part unnerving.
and now, a few words on scented candles. trim your wicks! trimming wicks makes for a cleaner burn. and don't burn them for too long in one go - this creates tunneling. (where you end up with wax all up the sides and a big hole down the middle, creating a wax pool that can eventually snuff out the flame, not to mention all the wasted wax on the sides.) i find soy wax is best for a pleasant scent that doesn't give you a headache or overwhelm, but ymmv. i also prefer wax to candles - it's the same scented wax used in making candles, but it just comes loose. no jar, no wicks. so what do you do with it? melt it in a wax melter. it works like a teeny hot plate, basically. no flame to worry about, can disperse scent for a day or so. plus, wax is cheap, so you can try out say, an ounce of a scent instead of having to commit to a $10-30+ candle. and you can mix and match scents by putting a little of this, a little of that in a melter. columbiacandlesupply on etsy is my favorite. i'll stop now, except to say a friend of mine owns a candle shop in salem, MA. now, i don't recommend visiting salem in october unless you're a masochist, but do stop by another time. it's called witch city wicks. (her wax and candles are both excellent!)
Still not sure if the answer to 22-Down (phone voice) is CODE SWITCH or CODES WITCH. Neither one makes sense. The term SUNDAY SCARIES does seem like an expression millennials would use but, then again, they seem afraid of everything so what's the significance of Sunday? This was fairly easy for a Friday except for that completely esoteric "phone voice" answer. It reminded me of the voices employed by Japanese elevator women (yes, they still have them!), who usher you into an elevator and ask you, in the voice of a five year-old girl, what floor you'd like.
Malaika, nice puzzle! Rex, lighten up, Man! As to the possibly dubious slang of “Sunday Scaries”, I would say the spirit and glory of the NYTXW is not that we are challenged on things and terms and facts we already know, but we know how to figure them out! And if we can figure out real slang in the wild, that’s a nice payoff. Are we not Puzzle Solvers!
I enjoyed the brutally tough (and Friday-appropriate) clue for STETSON. That one is so good that it is almost Robyn-esque. The tough one for me is CODE SWITCH ? A quick consultation with Uncle Google indicates that it refers to subtle changes that people make to their spoken word (depending on the group or context?) - I’m still not sure if I said that right. Definitely above my pay grade.
I’m much more at home with Blunt salespeople leading me to POT DEALERS. Rex may not care for it, but weed puns are many steps above GoT, Star Wars, Hobbits, Hogwarts and all of the other nonsense we are bludgeoned with on a daily basis.
Congrats to Malaika and thanks for a tough but fair Friday (and you kind of righted the ship, which had definitely been experiencing some stormy weather this week).
ALICE AVA NESS TESS ALTON. Have to agree with Rex. It’s Friday, so make it difficult by being clever? No, just use obscure names. It’s intellectual laziness. Or maybe lack of imagination.
Mediumish. There was q fair amount of of stuff I didn’t know including a couple of long downs...SUNDAY SCARIES and CODESWITCH....so this was a skosh tougher than the typical Friday for me. Smooth with some clever cluing and a bit of sparkle, liked it.
This puzzle was a lot of fun, but it was a slow start for me. I knew ODIN (center of a religion that did not start in ASIA, or New Jersey either), and COTTA, and then the quip about marriage was bound to be by Dorothy Parker, right? And right under that I thought it was the dry SEASON, due to my limited knowledge of Central America.
The funniest part: I've ridden the Tube many times, and always minded the GAP -- but still interpreted the clue as saying that The Gap would be a good place to buy a tube top. In my defense, the capitalization of Tube was disguised by making it the first word in the clue.
Most embarrassing part: as a political science professor (Ret.) I once memorized all the major-party nominees for president, but I couldn't dredge up ALTON for the life of me.
You could interpret that Mae West quote as saying she plans to GET SINSIDE.
I thought the puzzle was pretty hard. In the old days ALTON Parker would have gone right in but as I age, my trivia memory is in decay. Now I have been in London often enough to remember the signs, and more recently, PA announcements that tell you, "Mind the GAP!" At some Tube stations, the platform is on a curve, and you could easily get your foot mangled if you stepped in the CAP the curve causes.
I for one cannot think of EL PASO without thinking of Rosie's Cantina and the wicked but alluring Felina.
My almost downfall was wanting hot instead of WET season. Plus confidently putting in steps before STIRS. Wanted Otos instead of UTES but that did not last.
@Roo-Hey, I knew you meant "point", as I'm an occasional typo guy myself. I was just being my usual hilarious self and reminding you that should the occasion present itself, I really do prefer a full pint.
MOONSHINE & POTDEALERS. I SHOULDNT. But, hey -- light the SCENTEDCANDLEs … there's yer party.
staff weeject pick: GAP. sooo … is a "tube" some article of clothin sold at The GAP? Best M&A could do, in understandin that clue. Have heard tell of tube socks, I reckon.
Some extra-cool clues, for: MAEWEST. STETSON. ODDS. SPELL. POTDEALERS.
no-knows CODESWITCH & SUNDAYSCARIES crossin ALICE was the biggest nanosecond gobbler, at our house. Everything else was pretty smooth sailin. Altho … DLINE -- har.
Geez, Rex, could you have tried - even a little - to appreciate her efforts? Especially since your primary rant against the Sunday Scaries was childish, at best. It was a fair and decent clue/answer.
I winced at all the dreaded unknown names NESS ARLO ALTON ALICE AVA, but somehow they didn't slow me down much and this went quick. The only real typeover was GOES INSIDE before GETS INSIDE, what with ALTON and COTTA helping confuse things.
Nice to learn new things like CODE SWITCH. Nice to be reminded to Mind The GAP when in London! (Also "Look Right" on the street curbs.) Nice to be reminded of Terra COTTA from my architecture days. I invented a great phrase to describe modern architecture: "Not a lotta terra cotta".
[Spelling Bee: Thu 0, my last word this classic SB 6er. My last 11 days were 0, except for -1 on Monday when I somehow missed this. @puzzlehoarder, that was a seesaw week for you!]
@d-kat (11:35) Bacon Fries. Now that would be a good scent for a candle. 😄
@Meanderathal (12:38) I had never heard of scented candles being dangerous for cats but apparently they can be. Thanks for sharing that. Scented oils and diffusers I’ve also heard can be bad for them.
Stetson and Tess not a good cross for me…just no context for either unfortunately. Rather than type every letter of the alphabet in I just came to Rex and whoosh, at least I had the rest right.
Amen @Lewis (re Abbott Elementary). Anyone who is a teacher, knows a teacher, or ever went to elementary school will appreciate the show, the writing and the comic prowess of the cast.
My husband was a junior high music and math teacher. Every episode I am reminded of his stories and escapades. He had former students keeping in touch long after he left the classroom. I always enjoyed seeing some of the favorites as adults with kids of their own.
I quit burning incense and SCENTED CANDLEs long ago when it finally dawned on me that burning anything inside is not a good idea. There's even been some recent news about the harmful effects of cooking with gas. Open flames or embers produce a toxic brew of particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other potentially poisonous gases. Over time exposure to these can lead to respiratory, cardio-vascular and maybe even brain function damage. Okay, that's my PSA (Public Service Announcement) for today.
When I was growing up in Tennessee many, many moons ago, one of our neighbors had a bunch of rocks laying out by the road. If they were in a neat, cone-shaped pile, it meant that he had some MOONSHINE for sale. If they were just scattered about, he was in between batches.
A copper kettle is central to the MOONSHINE distilling process.
Copper Kettle by Bob Dylan
Get you a copper kettle Get you a copper coil Fill it with new made corn mash And never more you'll toil We'll just lay there by the juniper While the moon is bright Watch them jugs a-filling In the pale moonlight
Build you a fire with hickory Hickory, ash and oak Don't use no green or rotten wood They'll get you by the smoke We'll just lay there by the juniper While the moon is bright Watch them jugs a-filling In the pale moonlight
My daddy he made whiskey My granddaddy he did too We ain't paid no whiskey tax Since 1792 We'll just lay there by the juniper While the moon is bright Watch them jugs a-filling In the pale moonlight
A bit twitched at COTTA but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. Cookes, baked COTTA al forno, who cares, just serve me more Italian food please!
I’m officially a Malaika fan. She has consistently been a constructor with whose wavelength I connect. Thankfully. Even when her frame of reference and mine are decades and life experiences apart, I can usually at least find the right ballpark.
Learned some new things today. I have never in my life heard if the SUNDAY SCARIES, which is not to say that it isn’t of the language. Age and geography often make all the difference. My guess wanted to be Slump, but alas.
Next surprise was CODESWITCHES. That sounded line a computer programmer thing but again, completely outside my ken. Thanks to the fair yet slightly pithy crosses, success!
I adored the clue fir POT DEALERS. Whenever I find true gold in a misdirect, I am delighted. Several today, thanks very much.
Just a little something for everyone today. Props, Malaika; I have enjoyed all of your work, love your blog posts and look forward to the next one.
"You're not a sore loser, Jack. You're just a loser." – Jill St. John to Robert Wagner in the TV movie "How I Spent My Summer Vacation", 1967
SUNDAY SCARIES – I assume these are experienced by ostensibly full-grown members of society who also use terms like "adulting".
Overall the puzzle was okay. Nothing very difficult about it. COTTO/A can mean either cooked or baked; mostly it signifies "not raw".
WET SEASON arrived in Brooklyn today, with a vengeance. Lots of flooding in the streets. Luckily my block was not affected, but it's been hours of barely-crawling traffic and honking horns outside.
I know some Italian and I just thought cotta (as in panna)fit well and was close enough. For some reason the Times crossword prefers the feminine version of Italian and Spanish adjectives so I put in the a. In the Times puzzle, the clues are hints and don’t have to be exactly right. It can actually slow you down if you know too much! Liked the puzzle though a bit too name heavy b
Exactly the same mistake seeing burn instead of bum! After I realized my mistake, I was puzzled a bit by the Britishism but got over it. MY excuse is that I will probably have cataract surgery in the next 6 months.
Aw, I'm posting much too late for anyone to see it, but Joe D's Bob Dylan citation reminds me that this is almost certainly the best MOONSHINE song ever written. And if you're someone who loves to sing yourself, I can't think of any song I know that's more fun to sing. Just throw your head back and...
I loved this puzzle, it was right in my wheelhouse. I hate getting the Sunday Scaries, but enjoy the term (which is also a popular Instagram account, just like Code Switch is a popular podcast).
I never heard the term “Sunday scaries” but certainly have experienced it. I usually think of it as that lying awake Sunday night with existential dread — but that is too long for the crossword.
OHLORD, won'tcha buy me a Mercedes-Benz...and there's Janis, in the clue for ARLO! Mini-theme! (You for sure can include POTDEALERS in that!)
NE was a bear. Did not know COTTA, and nobody knew ALTON. That cross was a guess, but T seemed most likely. What tube feature has to do with GAP, only Malaika knows. I was thrown off by GETSINSIDE, an awkward phrase I never hear. Goes, sure. GETS...nah.
Did not know SUNDAYSCARIES. As I was approaching from the SW, I filled in __NDAYSCARIES and waited for SU or MO. Coulda been either. Either one sounds childish, too immature for one holding down a job.
Some clever cluing, some fun entries; a mixed bag. Par.
Wordle par, again with an either/or for the bird. Putts just ain't dropping right now.
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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94 comments:
“Sunday Scaries” is absolutely a thing. I hear it frequently among 30-somethings and younger folks. It may not be your favorite phrase, but it is definitely in the language. I’m surprised you, Rex, aren’t more all about it.
It’s the insipid baby talk of it that I don’t like. I’m around young people all the time and never hear it. Oh well.~RP
Speaking of deja vu, haven't we seen EL PASO several times this week?
It's Malaika's 4th NYT since her debut on March 2, 2023! I'm not a fan of name-heavy crosswords, but this one was quite diverse, which I can appreciate. Well done overall, and congrats to Malaika!
Oh, very lively puzzle. Fresh. Like a just-picked cherry tomato or perfect strawberry.
Much newness here. NYT debut answers: GETS INSIDE, I SHOULDN’T, OH LORD, OUTSCORES, SCENTED CANDLE, SUNDAY SCARIES. Answers used only once in the NYT puzzle: CODE-SWITCH, WET SEASON, POTDEALERS.
It’s not only fun to see words showing up for the first time, but their clues will be new as well, giving the puzzle spark, giving the brain novel riddles to crack.
I liked the little British vibe, with ABROAD, GAP, and ARSE. Also, I liked the PuzzPair© of WET SEASON and GETS INSIDE. And oh, not to mention the long-O mini-theme, as starters (ODIN, OWE, ODE, OH LORD, OMIT, OMG) and enders (DID SO, OR SO, PASO, SNO, ARLO, and wannabe BEAU).
Malaika, your puzzles have personality, and they shine. This is plain to see, IMO, after but four NYT puzzles. I loved today’s opus, which pulsed with energy. Thank you so much for making it!
Side note: I rarely watch network shows, but I do tune into Abbot Elementary, and the main reason is Janelle James, who plays AVA Coleman. Janelle is a hoot; she has incredible comic timing. She’s a one-of-a-kind, one of the special ones.
Easy (for a Friday), breezy, and a lot of fun (except for that Alton dude). Nice work, Malaika! Mwah!
Finally, a good puzzle in a week that has been dismal.
Knew neither TESS nor NESS, but crosses were fair.
Love the clue for MOONSHINE.
Biggest worry was deciding between PLat or PLot and COTTa or COTTo, until STETSON came in and helped out.
Thx, Malaika; you SCOREd on this one. Way to SHINE! 🌟
Easy-med.
Pretty much on M.H.'s wavelength all the way.
All the best to the SIKHS! 🙏
Fun adventure; loved it! :)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness, Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
Finished it without cheating once (unusual for a Friday). As a student of political history I knew ALTON B. Parker, which made the NE fairly easy for me.
Plenty of clever misdirects in this one, but none were unfair. ARSE for "bum" was the cleverest, I'd say.
We know Malaika’s voice well from her guest blogging - that helps with some of the nuanced cluing this morning. It is trivia heavy - but also some nice colloquial entries for balance. Liked POT DEALERS and SORE LOSER.
I see my pretty ALICE in every headlight
My mother was from Beacon Rex - thanks for the shout out. My oldest son’s wife uses SUNDAY SCARIES often - I tell her to suck it up and get ready to go to work like the rest of us. Liked the adjectival CADENT. ARLO and ALTON get more obscure treatment today - had to back into both.
Pleasant enough Friday solve.
Screamin’ Jay
I liked this one a lot. Did not have any more issues with Sunday Scaries than all the other clues/answers I’ve ever encountered. Never heard it but was able to figure it out. Never heard Code switch either which made that the hardest part for me but you know, eventually got it!
The Nets are not originally from NJ. They originally played on Long Island then moved to NJ.
I see a theme clue and I want it Painted Black.
No letters anymore
just boxes painted black…
(Oh, wait. That was yesterday. Who wants Yesterday’s Papers? Those of us who use the NYTXW iPhone app, that’s who!)
Hey, have a new term for the dread of Thursday puzzle art not showing up - the Wednesday Worries!
Today’s puzzle was relatively easy but now I’m consumed with the dread that Saturday’s puz will be a DNF. The Friday Fretties!
Who says we can’t dread every tomorrow? Infinite Infantilization Indefinitely, baby!
i had "bud tender" before "pot dealer" and yes, you can generally buy blunts at a legal dispensary from a bud tender.
Just back from London, where I took THE tube a lot. Took ‘til near the end and a lot of crosses through the name-heavy NE to catch it. Must be JET-lagged (I am a frequent flyer!). Couldn’t recall the term Sunday Scaries, but I used to have them before I retired and could spend each morning doing the puzzle! Thanks Malaika for a nice Friday,
Right! They were the New York Nets in the ABA.
Finance professional in the final decade of my career (I hope!) here to report that the Sunday scaries is definitely a Thing in the private sector (as opposed to, e.g., the groves of academe).
Thanks to my new swimming carpool buddy I found Rex Parker only yesterday. What a delight. Thank you.
A near perfect Friday and what a relief not to have a theme to deal with today. There was a bit of a challenge but not too much, some proper names but not too many, and a number of what seemed like debut entries - which I see @Lewis has thoughtfully verified. CODE SWITCH made sense but was unfamiliar, and my slangy dread of the work week started out as MONDAY MOANING, kind of a more adult version of SCARIES maybe. 15D made me wonder if the POT stores which are becoming ever more commonplace are making old fashioned DEALERS obsolete. I imagine not.
I liked your fourth offering a lot, Malaika. A very pleasant start to the weekend.
Picky, but 'cotta' in Italian really means 'cooked'. Baked is 'al forno'. But if it was is a reference to the potdealer, then you'd say 'sono sballo'. I'm baked...
I know ABROAD who has ALICE infestation on her ARSE. OMG!
Nice, fresh feel to this, Malaika. Mwah!
@Tom 8:05 - before they played in Long Island, they played in New Jersey as the New Jersey Americans. Although the name changed, it is still the same franchise.
Hey All !
SORE LOSER. Har. I did that once (many moons ago), playing a friend in Scrabble, losing, promptly taking the board and flinging it. Tiles strewn everywhere. Drinking was involved...
This was a sort of tough, sort of easy puz, in that it felt like I was often stuck, but answers kept filling, and my timer says 19 and a half minutes. Interesting. Finished error free! DID SO!
Is this our Malaika? I can't seem to remember (shocker, that) her last name. Also haven't read the comments yet.
Agree NE corner toughest section. Finished up there. Had the GoeSINSIDE mucking things up a bit. A TESS and a NESS, but still not a mess. 😁
@pablo
Har, from YesterComments, I had meant "a half point", apparently missing typing the O. But hey, if a half pint works also, then have at it!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
You have the SUNDAYSCARIES? Is toilet training on the schedule this week? More than anything else that one entry really brought this puzzle down. The lameness of POTDEALER was a close second but that baby talk phrase took the cake. GETSINSIDE is an EATACAKE phrase of convenience that took third place for making this solve seem low brow.
I got a respectable amount of solving from the puzzle. GAP went in from the crosses. I've never heard the term " high TEA." ALTON, TESS and ALICE were all unknowns. AVA would have been another but I never read the clue for that or ORA thanks to the SE being the easiest section.
My NINO/PASO write over momentarily stalled my progress in the SW. Most of the resistance today came from the names. MAEWEST and AUSTEN are of course familiar but I was slow catching on to them from the clues. CODESWITCH is an unfamiliar phrase so that added to the late week feel as well.
yd -0, dbyd -0, Tu pg -4!, Mo -0, Su pg-3, Sa -0
Unlike @Bob Mills, I had to cheat in order to get ALTON at the intersection of 10D and 1904. The only Hollidays I knew were Doc and Billie, but now I’ve added TESS (21D). I didn’t know ALICE (51A) and I didn’t remember CODE SWITCH (22D), but both were inferrable.
Per Wikipedia, they were in NJ first for a year as the New Jersey Americans, then moved to Long Island, then back to Jersey, then to Brooklyn.
This started out as an "oh oh" but some of the longer answers provided toeholds. Thanks SORELOSER and MAEWEST, and then things were slow and steady but not impossible.
Had one of those misreading moment with "bum" which I was reading as "burn". This m for rn happens all the time, so I should be more aware of it. Spent too much time wondering how an ARSE could be a burn. Turns out it can't.
Major roadblock in the NE as I refused to let go of GOESINSIDE. GETS eventually led to some obvious answers. Not you, ALTON. You should be ALTON Brown.
Overall a very nice Friday with a lot of freshness. My Happiness increased as I went on, so thanks for that, MH. And thanks for all the fun.
My husband attended Alton B Parker Elementary School in Cortland, NY. Except for musicians Cortland has few native sons (or daughters) with any claim to fame. I would bet that maybe 10 people in the city know who Parker was.
Hi there! 👋 Thanks for the kind words. And please thank your carpool buddy for me! ~RP
I have to assume I'm the only one who wrote down "branded cattle" before "scented candle". I knew it seemed a bit dark for "source of a burning odor". Kept me in trouble in the NE for some time though.
Yes! Westernmost city in Texas, and connected to Juarez via the bridge of americas. I feel like I've learned a lot about el paso this week.
A lot of fun stuff in this puzzle. Love the clue/answer for SORE LOSER and the words MOONSHINE and FRENEMIES. I was flummoxed for a long time by the wonderful clue for STETSON.
This is a very "high" puzzle, what with MOONSHINE and POT DEALERS. I knew MOONSHINE immediately, whereas POT DEALERS was a big "Huh?" even when I already had DEALERS. They say that people with a taste for liquor aren't tempted by pot and vice-versa. In my case that's certainly true.
I don't have a special "phone voice." I just have...a voice. And trust me -- I wouldn't dream of CODESWITCHing them, whatever that means. This was a baffling answer.
Today's Tip for Solvers: If there's a quote containing a sexual innuendo that's a little bit naughty, but far from X-rated, and it's all about being bad, and the answer is seven letters, look no further: It was said by MAE WEST.
Easy for me except for the NE where I had quite a bit of trouble. I did have to wait a bit in the SW to see if the answer to "does a better job than in making points" would be OUTSCORES or OUTARGUES.
Enjoyed this puzzle quite a bit.
Just what felt like a continuous barrage of PPP, and yes, some of them Nuissance Names. It just seemed like every other clue was “who said this?”, “Who wrote that,?” “who played this character?”, “what character was played by?” Obviously oncentrated in NE but littered throughout as well.
Also agree with Rex on the longer acrosses in NW and SE outshining the long down pillars. OHLORD I’ll always appreciate solely because it can convey so many different emotions with changes in inflection, pauses, etc. and was basically what I used every time I hit another trivia clue - “OHLOoooRD, the 1904 loser candidate?”
Faster than avg solve by a good margin and decent enough stuff, just would have liked less people. And as alluded, 3rd consecutive puzzle with ELPASO in the grid (2 full ELPASOs and today PASO, clued as EL_____). Maybe we’ll get a Marty Robbins clue tomorrow (“out in the West Texas town of ______”).
Second Rex's recommendation of "Last American Hero" - which happens to be on Saturday on FXM at 11:20a ET. Based on the life of Junior Johnson, as told by Wolfe's essay.
Had Oh dear instead of OH LORD, and Didn't before DID SO, which slowed me in that area. Figured May to November, in Central America, was going to be something in Spanish, so ignored it until crosses made it plain.
Agreed on easy-medium rating. Nice puzzle
I literally LOLed
Zip zip zip. Totally in my wheelhouse because...
Tee-Hee-sie: Dooood, totally rad puzz. They put POT DEALERS in with SCENTED CANDLES! OMG! Gotcher MOONSHINE, ah yeah, I mean I SHOULDN'T, but shoo-ee a SOLID DOSE'll do ya. It CARESSES yer will to become FRENEMIES with a TRANS. Oh, and RARER ARSE GAPES are def NSFW, ew.
Didn't know ARLO or ALTON. Everyone with an A-name is forgettable apparently.
I've never seen CADENT in that form, but I guess it makes sense. And it reminds me of the misty musical unJoy of yesterday's puzzle.
Cute: Ranch dressing = STETSON. It's also an Indiana roof.
Uniclues:
1 Time period between "I'll try a sip," and waking up in an alley in Toledo with no pants and a bowling ball.
2 Housekeeper throwing the Connect Four in Marsha's face.
3 Christian missionaries.
4 Crosses a bridge in Istanbul and other romantic adventures.
1 MOONSHINE SPELL
2 SORE LOSER ALICE (~)
3 SIKHS' FRENEMIES
4 GETS INSIDE ASIA
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Greatest gift a uniclue writer could receive, or a religious leader with a spiffy name makes introductions. I AM IMAM SNAZZ.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
PPP was unbearable today. Not one of them being in my wheelhouse.
True!
As a 30-something, I first heard SUNDAYSCARIES a couple of years ago. While I would *never* speak it aloud – "I really have the Sunday Scaries today...", yuck – I do find it useful to have a label for end-of-weekend anxiety. It's similar to when I'm irritable after having not eaten for awhile, and telling myself "oh right, I'm 'hangry'" can help me snap out of it. (For those of you who look forward to Mondays, just imagine "last day of vacation" anxiety.)
CODESWITCH is definitely a thing – there's an entire podcast named after it! My interpretation of the clue is that someone might try to use a "General American English" accent on the phone to get better service from a business (say, a hotel), when their usual speaking voice has an accent that the other person might be prejudiced against.
Fun puzzle! Thanks for the Jam video Rex, what an amazing band they were.
Threw me off as well, especially as I went with goes inside & didn't know Alton. Easy otherwise
Medium for me, and a mix of the very pleasurable (clever clues, unexpected entries), the unknown, and the "Oh, no, not another name!" My favorite cross: Jane AUSTEN meets MAE WEST. I bet they could have had a good conversation. Also liked the stack "MOONSHINE? I SHOULDN'T."
Do-overs: GoeS INSIDE, Act before ADD, POT sElLERS. No idea: ALTON, TESS, ALICE, SUNDAY SCARIES. Closest thing to moment of triumph: STETSON from the S.
Malaika had me aGAPE with her trippy grid, minding the GAP on the way to high TEA. OH LORD I thought as ODE, ODDS & OWE slotted into place. No swooshing today’s puzzle, but a SWARM of head scratcher clues & a nice collection of women from AUSTEN, AVA & ALICE to MAE WEST.who would no doubt bring MOONSHINE to the TEA party. Fun Friday indeed.
I was a little buzzed last night...Friends came over and we all dipped into the Talisker. Friends left and I download the puzzle. First entry MOONSHINE !!!
Although it was a dark and stormy night, the SUNDAY SCARIES SHOULDN'T bother me because we're talking Friday.
I'll start by saying that I really liked this. There were corners that baffled and clues that mislead. Drink some water, it should help. WET SEASON. I wanted some kind of winter or fall. The WORM MAE WEST entry set me back on course.
Next!
NAMES!!! I just don't know names. NESS and his Queer Eye. ARLO and his BEAU Janis. ALTON running for president in 1904. TESS and her Holliday Model. The good news: I was able to piece them together...except ALTON. I don't even think my grandmother was around at that time. If she was, she would've voted Republican!
So I stared and stared at 45D. El____what. I had JEFE. I wanted JEFE. PASO paved the way.
D LINE? I can't envision a QB doing that. Does the OUTSCORES come into play?
Drinking water helps.
I finished. I really smiled at the clue for STETSON. I make my own dressing with honey and dijon. I will call it mommies STETSON.
I also liked finishing with a WART ARSE GAPE. I could have fun with this....
like rex, the NW was tricky. and starting there, and then going through all the across clues, i felt a bit doomed in the early moments with a lot of blank space. but then i knew like...almost all the long answers without crosses? which was a very strange feeling. i guess i got to feel like a crossword whiz for a day! that was fun :) only a few seconds off my PB. POT DEALERS held me up, only because i had _ _ _ D and thought the first part would be WEED. thought "weed tender" (confusing it with bud tender) but it didn't fit, then perhaps weedtailer like e-tailer or some such...finally i realized it was all quite a lot more simple than i was making it.
my wORD before OH LORD also held me up just slightly.
i think the thing about not "hearing" some of these phrases like SUNDAY SCARIES is because a lot of slang is used almost solely online, and you don't say it in meatspace. i always hated that phrase, though, for the same reasons others have mentioned. also - CODESWITCHing - this is usually used to describe phenomenon in the black community, esp among black women. and all the racially informed reasons that go along with it. that said, my mom (who is white) can switch up her demeanor and voice on a dime to take a phonecall. it's part funny, part unnerving.
and now, a few words on scented candles. trim your wicks! trimming wicks makes for a cleaner burn. and don't burn them for too long in one go - this creates tunneling. (where you end up with wax all up the sides and a big hole down the middle, creating a wax pool that can eventually snuff out the flame, not to mention all the wasted wax on the sides.) i find soy wax is best for a pleasant scent that doesn't give you a headache or overwhelm, but ymmv. i also prefer wax to candles - it's the same scented wax used in making candles, but it just comes loose. no jar, no wicks. so what do you do with it? melt it in a wax melter. it works like a teeny hot plate, basically. no flame to worry about, can disperse scent for a day or so. plus, wax is cheap, so you can try out say, an ounce of a scent instead of having to commit to a $10-30+ candle. and you can mix and match scents by putting a little of this, a little of that in a melter. columbiacandlesupply on etsy is my favorite. i'll stop now, except to say a friend of mine owns a candle shop in salem, MA. now, i don't recommend visiting salem in october unless you're a masochist, but do stop by another time. it's called witch city wicks. (her wax and candles are both excellent!)
Still not sure if the answer to 22-Down (phone voice) is CODE SWITCH or CODES WITCH. Neither one makes sense. The term SUNDAY SCARIES does seem like an expression millennials would use but, then again, they seem afraid of everything so what's the significance of Sunday?
This was fairly easy for a Friday except for that completely esoteric "phone voice" answer. It reminded me of the voices employed by Japanese elevator women (yes, they still have them!), who usher you into an elevator and ask you, in the voice of a five year-old girl, what floor you'd like.
Malaika, nice puzzle! Rex, lighten up, Man! As to the possibly dubious slang of “Sunday Scaries”, I would say the spirit and glory of the NYTXW is not that we are challenged on things and terms and facts we already know, but we know how to figure them out! And if we can figure out real slang in the wild, that’s a nice payoff. Are we not Puzzle Solvers!
@Joe Dipinto: Thx for the note late yesterday on Beatles/Stones. If L and M are on Dandelion, you certainly can't tell from listening.
Thanks for the crisp puzzle today, Malaika!
Hard to believe OH LORD never appeared in NYTXW before.
Just here to say I initially read the Beacon Fires candle brand as "Bacon Fries" scent. That's all. Thank you, and have a good day.
Surprised that only one person mentioned "cadent" as a problem. Never heard the word in my life. Had to look it up.
I wrote that, too. Guess our minds are in the same place - out on the ranch and wearing Stetson hats!
NSFW ????
Agree with the whoosh. I didn't know DLINE but fell into place.
Had to laugh at Sunday Scaries. I always got them as a kid but didn't know what they were called - I thought it was just me.
Thank you Malaika for a great Friday solve!
I enjoyed the brutally tough (and Friday-appropriate) clue for STETSON. That one is so good that it is almost Robyn-esque. The tough one for me is CODE SWITCH ? A quick consultation with Uncle Google indicates that it refers to subtle changes that people make to their spoken word (depending on the group or context?) - I’m still not sure if I said that right. Definitely above my pay grade.
I’m much more at home with Blunt salespeople leading me to POT DEALERS. Rex may not care for it, but weed puns are many steps above GoT, Star Wars, Hobbits, Hogwarts and all of the other nonsense we are bludgeoned with on a daily basis.
Congrats to Malaika and thanks for a tough but fair Friday (and you kind of righted the ship, which had definitely been experiencing some stormy weather this week).
I read somewhere a while ago that scented candles can be very harmful for cats. Just thought you might want to look into it.
Enjoyable, although a bit easy for a Friday. NE was the last to go, but that's because I solved counter-clockwise.
ALICE AVA NESS TESS ALTON.
Have to agree with Rex. It’s Friday, so make it difficult by being clever? No, just use obscure names. It’s intellectual laziness. Or maybe lack of imagination.
Mediumish. There was q fair amount of of stuff I didn’t know including a couple of long downs...SUNDAY SCARIES and CODESWITCH....so this was a skosh tougher than the typical Friday for me. Smooth with some clever cluing and a bit of sparkle, liked it.
This puzzle was a lot of fun, but it was a slow start for me. I knew ODIN (center of a religion that did not start in ASIA, or New Jersey either), and COTTA, and then the quip about marriage was bound to be by Dorothy Parker, right? And right under that I thought it was the dry SEASON, due to my limited knowledge of Central America.
The funniest part: I've ridden the Tube many times, and always minded the GAP -- but still interpreted the clue as saying that The Gap would be a good place to buy a tube top. In my defense, the capitalization of Tube was disguised by making it the first word in the clue.
Most embarrassing part: as a political science professor (Ret.) I once memorized all the major-party nominees for president, but I couldn't dredge up ALTON for the life of me.
You could interpret that Mae West quote as saying she plans to GET SINSIDE.
I thought the puzzle was pretty hard. In the old days ALTON Parker would have gone right in but as I age, my trivia memory is in decay. Now I have been in London often enough to remember the signs, and more recently, PA announcements that tell you, "Mind the GAP!" At some Tube stations, the platform is on a curve, and you could easily get your foot mangled if you stepped in the CAP the curve causes.
I for one cannot think of EL PASO without thinking of Rosie's Cantina and the wicked but alluring Felina.
My almost downfall was wanting hot instead of WET season. Plus confidently putting in steps before STIRS. Wanted Otos instead of UTES but that did not last.
@Roo-Hey, I knew you meant "point", as I'm an occasional typo guy myself. I was just being my usual hilarious self and reminding you that should the occasion present itself, I really do prefer a full pint.
The clue at 37A (Does a better job than at making points) is a real tortured bit of language.
MOONSHINE & POTDEALERS. I SHOULDNT. But, hey -- light the SCENTEDCANDLEs … there's yer party.
staff weeject pick: GAP. sooo … is a "tube" some article of clothin sold at The GAP? Best M&A could do, in understandin that clue. Have heard tell of tube socks, I reckon.
Some extra-cool clues, for: MAEWEST. STETSON. ODDS. SPELL. POTDEALERS.
no-knows CODESWITCH & SUNDAYSCARIES crossin ALICE was the biggest nanosecond gobbler, at our house. Everything else was pretty smooth sailin. Altho … DLINE -- har.
Thanx, Malaika darlin.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
Nice puzz, Malaika!
Geez, Rex, could you have tried - even a little - to appreciate her efforts? Especially since your primary rant against the Sunday Scaries was childish, at best. It was a fair and decent clue/answer.
I winced at all the dreaded unknown names NESS ARLO ALTON ALICE AVA, but somehow they didn't slow me down much and this went quick. The only real typeover was GOES INSIDE before GETS INSIDE, what with ALTON and COTTA helping confuse things.
Nice to learn new things like CODE SWITCH. Nice to be reminded to Mind The GAP when in London! (Also "Look Right" on the street curbs.) Nice to be reminded of Terra COTTA from my architecture days. I invented a great phrase to describe modern architecture: "Not a lotta terra cotta".
[Spelling Bee: Thu 0, my last word this classic SB 6er.
My last 11 days were 0, except for -1 on Monday when I somehow missed this.
@puzzlehoarder, that was a seesaw week for you!]
OH LORD won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz.
@d-kat (11:35) Bacon Fries. Now that would be a good scent for a candle. 😄
@Meanderathal (12:38) I had never heard of scented candles being dangerous for cats but apparently they can be. Thanks for sharing that. Scented oils and diffusers I’ve also heard can be bad for them.
Really liked this puzzle -- whooshy fun. (And GAPE x ARSE was quite the closing corner haha.)
My favorite Holliday was Judy. A treasure who died too soon.
I’m Italian. It would have really helped if COTTA actually, you know, meant baked as opposed to cooked. 😑
Thinking of you folks in NYC. Hope everyone is safe.
Stetson and Tess not a good cross for me…just no context for either unfortunately. Rather than type every letter of the alphabet in I just came to Rex and whoosh, at least I had the rest right.
Amen @Lewis (re Abbott Elementary). Anyone who is a teacher, knows a teacher, or ever went to elementary school will appreciate the show, the writing and the comic prowess of the cast.
My husband was a junior high music and math teacher. Every episode I am reminded of his stories and escapades. He had former students keeping in touch long after he left the classroom. I always enjoyed seeing some of the favorites as adults with kids of their own.
I quit burning incense and SCENTED CANDLEs long ago when it finally dawned on me that burning anything inside is not a good idea. There's even been some recent news about the harmful effects of cooking with gas. Open flames or embers produce a toxic brew of particulate matter, carbon monoxide and other potentially poisonous gases. Over time exposure to these can lead to respiratory, cardio-vascular and maybe even brain function damage. Okay, that's my PSA (Public Service Announcement) for today.
When I was growing up in Tennessee many, many moons ago, one of our neighbors had a bunch of rocks laying out by the road. If they were in a neat, cone-shaped pile, it meant that he had some MOONSHINE for sale. If they were just scattered about, he was in between batches.
A copper kettle is central to the MOONSHINE distilling process.
Copper Kettle by Bob Dylan
Get you a copper kettle
Get you a copper coil
Fill it with new made corn mash
And never more you'll toil
We'll just lay there by the juniper
While the moon is bright
Watch them jugs a-filling
In the pale moonlight
Build you a fire with hickory
Hickory, ash and oak
Don't use no green or rotten wood
They'll get you by the smoke
We'll just lay there by the juniper
While the moon is bright
Watch them jugs a-filling
In the pale moonlight
My daddy he made whiskey
My granddaddy he did too
We ain't paid no whiskey tax
Since 1792
We'll just lay there by the juniper
While the moon is bright
Watch them jugs a-filling
In the pale moonlight
A bit twitched at COTTA but it didn’t spoil my enjoyment. Cookes, baked COTTA al forno, who cares, just serve me more Italian food please!
I’m officially a Malaika fan. She has consistently been a constructor with whose wavelength I connect. Thankfully. Even when her frame of reference and mine are decades and life experiences apart, I can usually at least find the right ballpark.
Learned some new things today. I have never in my life heard if the SUNDAY SCARIES, which is not to say that it isn’t of the language. Age and geography often make all the difference. My guess wanted to be Slump, but alas.
Next surprise was CODESWITCHES. That sounded line a computer programmer thing but again, completely outside my ken. Thanks to the fair yet slightly pithy crosses, success!
I adored the clue fir POT DEALERS. Whenever I find true gold in a misdirect, I am delighted. Several today, thanks very much.
Just a little something for everyone today. Props, Malaika; I have enjoyed all of your work, love your blog posts and look forward to the next one.
"You're not a sore loser, Jack. You're just a loser."
– Jill St. John to Robert Wagner in the TV movie "How I Spent My Summer Vacation", 1967
SUNDAY SCARIES – I assume these are experienced by ostensibly full-grown members of society who also use terms like "adulting".
Overall the puzzle was okay. Nothing very difficult about it. COTTO/A can mean either cooked or baked; mostly it signifies "not raw".
WET SEASON arrived in Brooklyn today, with a vengeance. Lots of flooding in the streets. Luckily my block was not affected, but it's been hours of barely-crawling traffic and honking horns outside.
And, it's getting colder.
♪ One last caress,
It's time to dress for fall ♪
LOLOLOL!!
I know some Italian and I just thought cotta (as in panna)fit well and was close enough. For some reason the Times crossword prefers the feminine version of Italian and Spanish adjectives so I put in the a.
In the Times puzzle, the clues are hints and don’t have to be exactly right. It can actually slow you down if you know too much!
Liked the puzzle though a bit too name heavy b
Exactly the same mistake seeing burn instead of bum! After I realized my mistake, I was puzzled a bit by the Britishism but got over it.
MY excuse is that I will probably have cataract surgery in the next 6 months.
LOL about last sentence.
Cotto/a
Close enough for crosswords in any case!
Aw, I'm posting much too late for anyone to see it, but Joe D's Bob Dylan citation reminds me that this is almost certainly the best MOONSHINE song ever written. And if you're someone who loves to sing yourself, I can't think of any song I know that's more fun to sing. Just throw your head back and...
If you're a bit drunk, so much the better :)
I loved this puzzle, it was right in my wheelhouse. I hate getting the Sunday Scaries, but enjoy the term (which is also a popular Instagram account, just like Code Switch is a popular podcast).
@Nancy, I think you've had one too many swigs of hooch – it was @Anoa Bob who provided the Dylan lyrics.
I never heard the term “Sunday scaries” but certainly have experienced it. I usually think of it as that lying awake Sunday night with existential dread — but that is too long for the crossword.
Laughing way too hard at “marijuordplay” 🤣🤣🤣
“Baked, in Italian” is not accurate. “Cotta” means “cooked” in English. “Al forno” means “baked”.
OHLORD, won'tcha buy me a Mercedes-Benz...and there's Janis, in the clue for ARLO! Mini-theme! (You for sure can include POTDEALERS in that!)
NE was a bear. Did not know COTTA, and nobody knew ALTON. That cross was a guess, but T seemed most likely. What tube feature has to do with GAP, only Malaika knows. I was thrown off by GETSINSIDE, an awkward phrase I never hear. Goes, sure. GETS...nah.
Did not know SUNDAYSCARIES. As I was approaching from the SW, I filled in __NDAYSCARIES and waited for SU or MO. Coulda been either. Either one sounds childish, too immature for one holding down a job.
Some clever cluing, some fun entries; a mixed bag. Par.
Wordle par, again with an either/or for the bird. Putts just ain't dropping right now.
I LOVE The Jam. What a bonus to find them here. Rex’s taste in music often coincides with mine, although I’m twenty years older. Thanks friend.
Well I missed your well-known ancient God, but was proud of filling in STETSON. And ALTON was not on the tip of my tongue.
Hey @Spacey - that's what Mom sez - "GET(s)INDIDE!"
I have hears of a case of the Mondays - see the movie, Office Space.
Diana, LIW
Umm...that's INSIDE and not INDIDE. Indeed.
Lady Di
and...I've "heard" of a case of the Mondays. Not hears.
Typing with a cat on lap - not recommended for accuracy, but high enjoyment factor.
Lady Diana
ONE GETSINSIDE ABROAD
ISHOULDN'T GAPE at MAEWEST,
OHLORD, there's ONE SOLID reason,
SO she STIRS me to CARESS,
it DIDSO ENDIN a WETSEASON.
--- ALICE AVA AUSTEN
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