Relative difficulty: EASY (at least that's how it felt after Thanksgiving dinner and a few glasses of wine)
THEME: THEMELESS FRIDAY!
Word of the Day: SRO (Kind of housing aimed at low-income residents, in brief) —
Single room occupancy (more commonly abbreviated to SRO) is a form of housing that is typically aimed at residents with low or minimal incomes, or single adults who like a minimalist lifestyle, who rent small, furnished single rooms with a bed, chair, and sometimes a small desk.[1] SRO units are rented out as permanent residence and/or primary residence [2] to individuals, within a multi-tenant building where tenants share a kitchen, toilets or bathrooms. SRO units range from 7 to 13 square metres (80 to 140 sq ft).[3][1] In some instances, contemporary units may have a small refrigerator, microwave, or sink.[1]
• • •
Hello, it's Eli once again! Did everyone who celebrates have a nice Thanksgiving? See some family and friends, eat and drink too much, and solve and blog about the NY Times Crossword? Just me?
So, yesterday Rafa left you by saying he hoped that today's puzzle kept up the good streak. Well, surprise! HE CONSTRUCTED TODAY'S PUZZLE! I promise I won't let today's write-up be influenced by the fact that we are both members of the Rex Parker fill-in squad (The Rexplacements?).
I like a good themeless puzzle, and this one really fit the bill. Not a ton of proper nouns or excess obscure trivia, a nice clean grid; smooth sailing from start to finish. Granted, if you put NERD FESTS (17A - Hackathons and "Star Trek"conventions, say) and DRAMA CLUBS (53A - Kids acting out?) into a puzzle, you're aiming straight for Eli. My only real hangup was putting in HUM instead of HUP for 46A (Drill sound) and questioning what a HELMLINE was and why a counselor would be involved. My head went to sailing for some reason until I got to the end and didn't get the happy message. I finally saw what 46A was going for and that HELP LINE (36D - A counselor may be at the end of one) made a lot more sense.
I also thought there might be a bit of a mini theme between LAST PAGE (6D - Where a whodunit may reveal "who done it" - fun clue, btw) and CLOUSEAU (35D - Fictional detective first seen in a 1964 film). Then I realized my brain was thinking of Poirot, not Clouseau, which also explained my confusion about why an Agatha Christie character could first appear in a 1964 film.
These are the same picture, right?
All in all, a good end to the week. I feel like the central entry CHANGE OF PLANS (35A - "Actually, this is what we're doing now...") was a nice and lively Clue/Answer pairing to anchor the whole thing. Maybe I'm just in a good mood from a nice dinner with friends (not to mention the wine), but I was smiling the whole time I solved. Maybe not the flashiest puzzle I've seen, but it was well-made and well-appreciated.
FAKE MEAT (37D - Option for a vegetarian) — I hope that any vegetarians celebrating Thanksgiving were able to get a meal that worked for them, whether they wanted Tofurkey (or another fake meat) or they would rather not pretend to have meat in the first place.
SEIKO (55A - Omega alternative) — I watched a bit of the dog show after the parade (I missed the COLLIES (40A - Some "bearded" dogs), and it felt like every other commercial was for a luxury watch. I guess the dog show/luxury watch Venn Diagram is more of a single circle than I had imagined.
VIGGO (32A - Actor Mortensen) — I wish Vigo the Carpathian from Ghostbusters 2 spelled his name the same way so he could split crossword clues with Mortensen.
Vigo!
Ok, I've started pulling out Ghostbusters 2 references. I think it's time to start getting ready for bed. Thanks for having me! Enjoy your Friday, and don't give go buying things just because commercials say you're supposed to!
Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld
[Follow Eli on Twitter (probably not for much longer) and BlueSky (eliselzer.bsky.social)]
Sideburns before SOUL PATCH at 25D (never heard of "mouche") Elitist before EGGHEAD for the ivory tower type at 29D RialTO before ROBOTO at 44D (I'm not someone who "Styx" the landing) HUt before HUP for the drill sound at 46A DRAMA CLasS before CLUBS at 53A EYE SHADes before SHADOW at 57A
31D V-DAY was something of a WOE. I know VE-Day and VJ-Day but not an unadorned V-Day.
I knew MR ROBOTO, but otherewise I made all the same initial mistakes as @Conrad. I found the NE really difficult to get a foothold in--I kept wanting love to be BLIND, but that didn't fit.
Quite possibly a wheelhouse effect, but this one seemed to rely more on the esoterica than our guest blogger is acknowledging. There’s a whole bunch of stuff like ALIG, PROVISO, VIGGO, HARPY, TAXON, ROBOTO, et c that adds up to a fair amount of real estate that is not exactly “mainstream” (add in the churchyard elegy and Mufasa the lion as well).
Nice seeing Chief Inspector Clouseau make an appearance - my favorite gag was the “Does your dog bite?” riff they did in one of the later installments. Good stuff.
The strained NE nearly pushed this to the negative - but overall easy and smooth. Some choppiness to the grid in the center stack - liked CHANGE OF PLANS, SCREEN TEST and Mr. ROBOTO. Side eye to FAKE MEAT?, MANED and EGGHEAD. Agree with @Conrad that the V needs further definition.
I found this a medium.ALIG inda house is not something I recall. Sticking OR in front of NURSES threw me.SOUL PATCH is absolutely something I’ve never encountered. ISLE of Dogs is not in my wheelhouse.PAYEE didn’t seem part of a check list even with the question mark.FAKE MEAT sounds contrived. Double texted for NUDGED was obscure.Thank goodness I’m old enough to know CLOUSEAU and love LOTR so knew VIGGO.
Hard to crack SE corner for me. Got really held back in DRAMA CLASS to the point where nothing to give off from BYGONE ERA until esoteric TAXON since I thought a Class or Order could be TAkeN. Finally dropped DRAMACLasS and joined the CLUB. Didn’t help that I’m not a Styx fan
This puzzle has pop. Not only freshness with eight NYT answer debuts, but a good number of long answers (eight letters or more), with 13, most of them humming with spark.
Those debut answers include DRAMA CLUBS, FAKE MEAT, HELP LINE, STAR SIGN, and the terrific FEELING IT and CHANGE OF PLANS. All so lovely, and buttressed by non-debut SCHISMS, NUDGED, PROVISO, EXUDED, HARPY, SOUL PATCH, and the fun-to-look-at-and-say VIGGO.
I love when a puzzle feels vibrant, as this does, when it glistens, when it jumps off of the page.
I like the O-enders: KENO, RETRO, MANO, VIGGO, SEIKO, PROVISO, and sure, wannabe CLOUSEAU. I like the mini-tale of one partaking in DRAMA CLUBS, then taking a SCREEN TEST, then becoming famous and the subject of much GOSSIP. Finally, I just love the generic feel of having ANSWER as an answer.
Rafa, the holiday of gratitude continues. Thank you for this buoyant, effervescent outing!
Mostly very easy, with that weird Eastern section taking more than half the solve time. - Clues for NUDGED and PROVISO meant nothing to me - I don’t know SRO. - Never heard for V-DAY without an E or a J in there (hi, @Conrad). - No idea what a ‘mouche’ is (hi, @Conrad).
And while I'm 'hi, @Conrad'-ing, Elitist before EGGHEAD.
Hey All ! Hopefully some people are napping now, after a day full of shopping like maniacs to get some deals out there. I've never been, nor plan to be, a Black Fridayer. Sounds terrifying. Side note: One year I did go to a sale at Sears, although it was about 9AM, to get a long wool coat. Ghost town. Apparently, all the craziness takes place in the wee hours. Worked for me.
Nice easy post-Thanksgiving puz, for those of us who weren't shopping, and recovering from food/drink/football overload. In other words, FEELING IT. The ole brain always appreciates an easy Themeless!
5A is ALI G, btw, fictional character named thusly. It's not one name, just in case you cared. 😁
Well, Rafa DID say he'd see us tomorrow. Well, he was right! What an EGGHEAD! (Said with love. Har.)
Friday, Black or otherwise, I still have to go to work. Ah, me.,.
Nice and whooshy Friday. Like Eli, I remembered that Rafa closed his post yesterday by saying that he hoped Friday would continue a good week of puzzles. I wondered if he didn’t know his puzzle would run today, or if he was just being sly and hoping we would think his puzzle was good. If so, no worries, I was FEELING IT.
A few really nice clues, which may or may not be original (Lewis will know): “bad lighting” for ARSON and “present-day vehicle” for SLEIGH. And “trial that might involve a monologue” had me thinking of Portia’s in “The Merchant of Venice,” so nice misdirect for SCREEN TEST.
My only error (I think) was green before PRIUS.
I actually would have liked to go shopping today because I have the day off, I need a few things, and I try to avoid Amazon and keep brick-and-mortar places in business. But CHANGE OF PLANS, I am not going near any stores on Black Friday. I’ll go for a hike instead.
I was zooming through this one counter-clockwise until I hit the NE, which bogged me down almost entirely for a while. The BAR/ARM conundrum was finally solved and NOTGOOD replaced _____BAD and that was that, finally.
Have no interest in fancy wristwatches so SEIKO took a while, couldn't remember TAXON, and had the HUT HUM problem. Also remembered Mr. ROBOTO but whoever performed it is news to me.
Nice to see VIGGO Mortensen, as he and Kirk Douglas are either the most famous or the only famous alumni of my little university in far Upstate NY.
Very nice Fridectio, RM. Roo Might disagree, as he was missing, but I thought this was just-right whooshy. Thanks for all the fun.
Some of the clues in the NE were just ridiculously obtuse, ie for REED, SRO, ORNURSES. They can be obtuse if they’re clever but these are not. I see the Rex habit of not being objective when it comes to friend constructors is true for the subs as well.
Got everything except the SOULPATCH crosses, and had "Saxon" instead of TAXON. I thought the puzzle was easy otherwise.
The clue for TURNPRO is very misleading, because most ballplayers who "go to the majors" are already professionals in the minor leagues. A minor-league ballplayer is a professional, because he's paid a salary.
@wanderlust -- [Bad lighting] has been used before for ARSON, and while [Present day vehicle] has never been used for SLEIGH. "Present day" as a misdirect for "Christmas" has been used before in other clues for other answers.
Great puzzle! Terrific sparkle (27 red plus signs in my margins), single digit threes, learned a couple of things (double-texting), pleased to bump into my old friend CLOUSEAU.
I needed a cheat (ALIG). Didn't like the clue for GOSSIP.
I thought it was a lovely puzzle with fun clues and answers and an acceptable amount of crosswordese. Though I expect the proper nouns will come most easily to those of us who are Gen X.
can someone please explain EGGHEAD for ivory tower, I dont really get that. Had alpha before SEIKO . PROVISO/VDAY cross was tough for me - for some reason I had dDAY .
Don’t like the cluing on HELPLINE. I suppose I think of a help line as a number you dial for assistance with software or a newly home appliance, and a counselor as someone you’d speak with of you call some sort of crisis intervention line or whatever. The clue just seems to miss the mark for me.
I'd make a lousy QB. Never mind what Eli actually said -- I've always heard it as HUT and that's the way I always say it.
(Well, there are actually other reasons why I'd make a lousy QB. Like "hearing footsteps", for instance).
But moving right along to ?ELtLINE -- what on earth is that? I ran the alphabet and the closest I could get to a Thing was BELTLINE. Aha! Mountain climbing, I thought. But CbANGE is not a Thing.
Oh, so it must be HUP.
My other write-overs were:
DRAMA CLasS before DRAMA CLUBS.
Either BSA or GSA before KOA. KOA is what?
Nits: "Whoa" does not equal OOH. It just doesn't. And it's either VE DAY or VJ DAY but it's not VDAY.
I've never heard of "double texted". But if I ever do it to you, it will probably be a Luddite-type error on my part and not a NUDGE.
Despite ALIG -- a weird assortment of letters I've seen before but not with this clue -- I found the top pretty easy, but the puzzle got harder and harder as I went along. I'm happy to have figured everything out eventually with no cheats.
I had HELPLINE before HUP so the HUm/HUP conundrum didn't affect me. I am mildly annoyed at the EXUDED/TAXON cross when ELUDED/TALON would have worked just as well, but I guess it was already pretty easy for a Friday so the X had to spice it up a bit.
Medium and lots to like, especially the parallel FEELING IT and SOUL PATCH as well as STAR SIGN and HELP LINE, both offering a sort of guidance. About the NE: I lucked out by thinking first of ARM x RETRO, was more held up by the center chunk with ALIG.
Do-overs: Omg before OOH, DRAMA CLasS. No idea: ALI G, TAXON. Help from previous puzzles: ROBOTO, and thank goodness for it; otherwise I think the cross with TAXON might have sunk me.
An "ivory tower" is a metaphor for a university, so the implication is that the "sort" who works in a university, like a professor, is an EGGHEAD. (I've worked in higher education for 27 years so I'm always a bit offended by that allegation.)
ALIG?! VIGGO?! ROBOTO?! PRIUS?! The SW, with two pop-culture trivia answers and a brand name?! NUDGED for "double-texted" (whatever the hell that means)?!
Finished the puzzle - but puzzled over clue for 30 Across - finally hit me 10 minutes later - oh, THAT meaning of “contracted.” Was thinking of the rail yard getting smaller, or high school attendance shrinking.
Slowdown at the end - had OMG for 33 Down, even though the clue didn’t suggest an abbreviation. Crossed that with CHANGE my instead of CHANGE OF - and was somehow trying to force yAK’s Milk down 37D’s throat. Oh, and DRAMA CLasS instead of DRAMA CLUBS.
Back to Proviso - just learned that Proviso Township is named for the Wilmot Proviso from the 1840s. Oh, and on Thursday most - perhaps all - of the Pink Panther movies were on a cable channel. Was working, so didn’t see them. One was probably on while I was doing the puzzle at around 2a after work. Does your dog bite? Oh, you want a room. That’s what I have been saying, you fool (last word pronounced like an exaggerated first syllable of rheumatism).
Do Rex & co. ever consider any puzzle to be anything but easy? It seems every single day is just "easy easy easy!". Why even bother ranking the difficulty? I've never heard of Clouseau, so I had no chance whatsoever on the SW corner. Hup??? HUP? WTF are they even talking about? And Isle of Dogs? Do the constructors of puzzles understand that most solvers are adults? I don't watch animated movies because I am not a kid. Frustrating.
My grid look like two different puzzles with the West filled in completely and the EAST practically blank. Things I either didn’t know or didn’t get today: REED as clued, ALIG, NSW, HUP, TAXON - and SOUL PATCH? What on earth is that? That whole NE corner especially was NOT GOOD for me. Not even close to a failure though because the parts that did work were way better than average. Really loved NERD FESTS over SCREEN TEST since I had just seen parts of Revenge of the Nerds the other day - a surprisingly entertaining movie. And then DRAMA CLUBS between TAUPE and EYE SHADOW was another nice offsetting visual. Thanks Rafa, overall a very nice Friday.
Nice way to start the long weekend today. Rafael’s clues were fun with those goat kids … and sippy cups didn’t fit. Our progress through the solve was smooth until the counter-clockwise NE where NOT GOOD seemed approximately placed. Artist wife felt TAUPE was a cheat on her color wheel, but DRAMA CLUBS & SLEIGH misdirection more than compensated.
Thanks always for Eli and the other Rexplacements whose contributions are always refreshingly varied; I’ve enjoyed them all over the years (even that drunken rant that offended many) because they bring that waft of enthusiasm from their unique perspectives.
I started out strong then completely lost it. I know the actor VIGGO so why couldn't I think of it? Had "fess up" for GOSSIP so I couldn't get PRIUS. "HARPY?"
But it was nice for see INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU make, what I think, is his debut.
Just a tad easier than medium but the turkey coma may have impeded my progress. I was not familiar with TAXON…it took me several nanoseconds to remember that EmittED is spelled with two Ts…I needed a mulligan to spell VIGGO correctly…oh, and me too for Elitist and HUt…but the rest of it was mostly cake.
Very solid with a smattering of sparkle, liked it.
I'm told that the celebration of VE Day in Louisville was so raucous that I burst into tears (I was just over 1.5 years old at the time); throughout my youth there were references to VE Day and VJ Day--but I never, ever heard anyone mention "V Day." Otherwise, a fine puzzle!
For those puzzled by TAXON, it's a generic term for any subdivision of all living things, as devised by Linnaeus in the 19th century and periodically revised (much to the consternation of birders, for example) ever since. I think it goes kingdom>order>family>genus>species. The whole thing is called a taxonomy.
Easy going for the most part, except for the parts that were hard. lol
The toughies were: PRIUS; SRO; PROVISO; NUDGED; HARPY; TAXON; SOUL PATCH; ROBOTO; STAR SIGN & TAUPE.
Fun solve; very satisfying result, considering all I didn't know. And, kudos to Rafa for fair crosses:) ___ Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
actually its ivory tower - like tow truck. and 'egghead' is a term used to describe someone who smuggles ivory. the phrase is well understood to both the inuit and the maasai .
Nice smooth puzzle with respectable long answers. Hands up for never having heard V-DAY (VE-DAY and VJ-DAY only). And one too many brand names: PRIUS, SEIKO, ALAMO (at least ROBOTO wasn't ROOMBA or something).
I put in OR NURSES, then much later scanning for errors I saw it and thought: that's not how you spell ONRUSHES!
A good place to find an EGGHEAD might be at some NERD FESTS. The term EGGHEAD goes back to the 1950s and became part of the general lexicon when vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon referred to the Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson (image) as one. (ADLAI also became a regular in the NYTXW and has appeared 156 times from 1952 to 2022.)
I always thought it was Stevenson who serve as the model for Peter Sellers' role of President Merkin Muffley (image) in the movie "Dr. Strangelove". If you click on that image, you will also see the other two parts he played in that movie, Royal Air Force Captain Lionel Mandrake and German scientist Dr. Strangelove. Perhaps Sellers best known role was as Inspector CLOUSEAU (35D) in the "Pink Panther" movies.
Everything there is pretty mainstream, relative to the breadth of knowledge required to finish a Friday or Saturday crossword. I didn’t get ALIG or PROVISO until late, but they Mae sense. My performance on a Fri/Sat is largely a measure of how much if my wheelhouse can be put to use.
TAXON is Biology 101; you learn it when you learn about the five kingdoms of life (animal, plant, fungus, protist, bacteria). After kingdom, the taxa are divided by phylum, class, order, family, genus and lastly, the best known TAXON, species. Now you may have forgotten this -- as I did for more than a hot second -- but it is hardly esoteric. No bells rung until I had TA_ON.
Another clue here is that "taxidermy" shares a common etymology.
Having solve that problem, since when do drills make the same sound as the UNIX kill-process signal?
I thought of drill sergeant immediately. Didn’t think of drill at all fortunately. This shows if you hit on a good answer which is wrong, it can block out the right one.
Now that Japan has long since been an ally, saying VJ Day is considered in poor taste. Hence Victory Day. ( I have read the term but never heard anyone actually anyone in person say it.) Since shortly after WW II VJ Day has been a state holiday in Rhode Island, the only state that currently celebrates it. Attempts to get rid of the holiday for the above reason have repeatedly failed. I think state officials do tend to refer to it as Victory Day. But most in Little Rhody still call it VJ Day. (It is great to have an extra chance to go to the beach in August. That’s the real reason the holiday persists.) V Day is definitely not in the language around here.
Clouseau is not esoterica but Mustafa is? That is a perfect example of the wheelhouse effect. Mustafa is from a movie and Broadway musical from that obscure company called Disney. The Lion King to be exact, Both the movie and the Broadway musical have been hugely successful. The latter is still on Broadway after many years. Most children of several generations have seen the movie at least and many parents etc along with them. BTW I have never seen the Lion King - movie or show. Clouseau from the Pink Panther first appearance in the 1960’s was very famous and still well known but nowhere near the level of the Lion King, Mustafa and Nala. Using your terminology, the Pink Panther is more niche than mainstream these days. I challenge anyone to name a more mainstream movie than the Lion King. Me. Roboto is at least as well known as Clouseau if not more so The others mentioned are perfectly reasonable for a Friday.
This one and I had a wonderful tête-à-tête until the northeast when it started talking nonsense. REED? V(E)DAY? SRO? PROVISO? Not great as clued. Oh well. Tomorrow's puzzle will probably be worse, so I am 7/8ths happy today.
Hope everyone had a memorable Thanksgiving.
Tee-Hee: "ERECTS"
Uniclues:
1 When one said "gamers." 2 Hallucinogenic they must give to audiences beta-testing pre-release movies hoping they'll like it despite it being the dumbest thing ever. 3 Orc's recollection of battle. 4 Rudolph's man-bird teammate. 5 That time at the RV park when one pup ended up off-leash. 6 The lunch table in the cafeteria with no cool kids. 7 Those who think the Wizard of Oz is overrated versus normal people. 8 Piques Frenchman's interest. 9 Phone service for hair splitters. 10 Poem about pawing. 11 One suspiciously eager to lead the prayer. 12 Right wingers' conspiracy theories on the Impossible Burger. 13 Pit hair. 14 Acted like a Libra. 15 How a crossword constructor makes a living according to detractors.
1 MEANT NERDFESTS (~) 2 SCREEN TEST DRUG 3 VIGGO NUDGED 4 SLEIGH HARPY 5 COLLIE'S KOA ERA 6 DRAMA CLUB'S ISLE (~) 7 KANSAN SCHISMS 8 ERECTS CLOUSEAU 9 NARROW HELP LINE 10 FEELING IT ODE 11 AMEN EGGHEAD 12 FAKE MEAT GOSSIP (~) 13 ARM SOUL PATCH 14 EXUDED STAR SIGN (~) 15 NOT GOOD ANSWER
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Viking helmet-wearing grandchild of the protagonist in a 1970 song by The Kinks. HORNY LOLA III.
SRO is another wheelhouse issue. It is not at all obscure , though since gentrification has been strong many SRO buildings have disappeared. New York used to be full of them. This is the NEW YORK Times and most people there would know the term. OR and OR NURSES appear frequently in the Times puzzle. As I have learned, just because I don’t know something, doesn’t mean it is obscure or inappropriate.
Hup 2, 3, 4 as in drill sergeant. It’s a tricky clue. Interesting that Southside Johnnie complained about esoterica but loved mainstream stuff like Clouseau. Depends on your point of view. I do agree it wasn’t easy for me but a huge % of the population knows the Lion King , including people like me who have never seen it, because it is so ubiquitous. Also many adults saw it with their kids. Don’t see anything wrong with it
Thanks. Saved me the burden of looking it up And I said d’oh (head slap) when you mentioned taxonomy which I did know. I just never saw the shorter word before and didn’t make the connection while doing the puzzle I thought I dnf’d.
See wheelhouse effect Gregmark Taxon was very hard for me ( I knew taxonomy but never saw taxon and didn’t make the connection. Biology 101 was my only science class in college and 53 years ago) But you didn’t get the trick at drill so you are criticize it just after saying how easy taxon was. Drill as in drill sergeant. Hup 2, 3,4. It is very easy IF you get the trick.
I find it fascinating how the discussion on this puzzle compared to most others exposes the vast generational gaps in knowledge. As a Millennial, I am frequently stumped by the proper nouns in most other puzzles and can feel “uncultured” when the commenters here describe with what ease they evoke such solutions. Today’s puzzle is the first time that I have been on the other side of this dilemma, whooshing through those proper nouns and truly shocked to discover the difficulty that many solvers had. I don’t know who Rafa is but it is clear from this dichotomy that he must be a younger constructor. I imagine as I get older the tables will surely turn and younger solvers will balk at questions about the lion king once again.
You text someone once. They don’t respond. You text them again to ‘nudge’ them to respond. You’ve “double-texted” them. Texted is a past tense verb in the clue.
Mainstream movies...? In keeping with the Christmas season: Elf Home Alone A Christmas Story A Christmas Carol It's a Wonderful Life add in The Wizard of Oz Just saying...
A funny thing happened in my syndicated crossword. NW went down easy and I had a good number of really solid acrosses elsewhere that I was really happy with: SLEIGH, KOA, TEAT, YETI, ODOR, but they were not working with the downs at all. And downs that I felt confident of were the wrong length. Finally I realized that the clues for 11D was written:
11. Something a 12. birthdate determines
And all the subsequent down clues were off by one. Oops!
At the upper limits of the Friday difficulty range, but still solvable. Never heard of SOULPATCH or TAXON and that made solving the SE corner difficult. HARPY finally came to me and the rest fell into place. I don’t get SRO clued this way. ORNURSES is NOTGOOD but overall it was a fun solve, or as ALI G would say “Respek!”
Easy, he says. Well, the NW was, and then SW, but breaking through to the east was another story. I had STAR___N for 11d and still couldn't finish it. STARSIGN. I guess that's an astrology term. Another phony science. Finally got it on crosses.
Thanks for the twin gimmes of ROBOTO and ANSWER, which restarted me in the SE. Some foggy cluing still made the east difficult, but I eventually got it.
ISLE of Dogs was a "hit?" Never heard of it. Everything seems good except EKED, an automatic stroke off. Par.
A soul patch is a small patch of hair just beneath the lower lip. They were very very big in the beatnik and hippie eras. They have come back off and on as a retro look. The most famous person with one on TV was probably Maynard G. Krebs on the Dobie Gillis Show. But the only time I've heard the word mouche, and had no idea what it was referring to, was in Queen's song Bohemian Rhapsody. You may now do the fandango!
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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80 comments:
I also struggled with HUM/HUP
Sideburns before SOUL PATCH at 25D (never heard of "mouche")
Elitist before EGGHEAD for the ivory tower type at 29D
RialTO before ROBOTO at 44D (I'm not someone who "Styx" the landing)
HUt before HUP for the drill sound at 46A
DRAMA CLasS before CLUBS at 53A
EYE SHADes before SHADOW at 57A
31D V-DAY was something of a WOE. I know VE-Day and VJ-Day but not an unadorned V-Day.
Confidently entered “bar” for “spot for a shot“ which barred progress for a while in the NE.
Eli, want to help a struggling puzzler escape X? Invite me at @calamititis.
I knew MR ROBOTO, but otherewise I made all the same initial mistakes as @Conrad. I found the NE really difficult to get a foothold in--I kept wanting love to be BLIND, but that didn't fit.
A nice Friday morning puzzle.
HUM/HUP seems to be the common hangup; otherwise, a nice, breezy Friday. On the easy side but well-constructed and enjoyable!
Quite possibly a wheelhouse effect, but this one seemed to rely more on the esoterica than our guest blogger is acknowledging. There’s a whole bunch of stuff like ALIG, PROVISO, VIGGO, HARPY, TAXON, ROBOTO, et c that adds up to a fair amount of real estate that is not exactly “mainstream” (add in the churchyard elegy and Mufasa the lion as well).
Nice seeing Chief Inspector Clouseau make an appearance - my favorite gag was the “Does your dog bite?” riff they did in one of the later installments. Good stuff.
The strained NE nearly pushed this to the negative - but overall easy and smooth. Some choppiness to the grid in the center stack - liked CHANGE OF PLANS, SCREEN TEST and Mr. ROBOTO. Side eye to FAKE MEAT?, MANED and EGGHEAD. Agree with @Conrad that the V needs further definition.
Pleasant enough Friday morning solve
OOH La La
I found this a medium.ALIG inda house is not something I recall. Sticking OR in front of NURSES threw me.SOUL PATCH is absolutely something I’ve never encountered. ISLE of Dogs is not in my wheelhouse.PAYEE didn’t seem part of a check list even with the question mark.FAKE MEAT sounds contrived. Double texted for NUDGED was obscure.Thank goodness I’m old enough to know CLOUSEAU and love LOTR so knew VIGGO.
Definitely a medium puzzle.
Hey ! A Friday for Dummies ! Cool.
Hard to crack SE corner for me. Got really held back in DRAMA CLASS to the point where nothing to give off from BYGONE ERA until esoteric TAXON since I thought a Class or Order could be TAkeN. Finally dropped DRAMACLasS and joined the CLUB. Didn’t help that I’m not a Styx fan
This puzzle has pop. Not only freshness with eight NYT answer debuts, but a good number of long answers (eight letters or more), with 13, most of them humming with spark.
Those debut answers include DRAMA CLUBS, FAKE MEAT, HELP LINE, STAR SIGN, and the terrific FEELING IT and CHANGE OF PLANS. All so lovely, and buttressed by non-debut SCHISMS, NUDGED, PROVISO, EXUDED, HARPY, SOUL PATCH, and the fun-to-look-at-and-say VIGGO.
I love when a puzzle feels vibrant, as this does, when it glistens, when it jumps off of the page.
I like the O-enders: KENO, RETRO, MANO, VIGGO, SEIKO, PROVISO, and sure, wannabe CLOUSEAU. I like the mini-tale of one partaking in DRAMA CLUBS, then taking a SCREEN TEST, then becoming famous and the subject of much GOSSIP. Finally, I just love the generic feel of having ANSWER as an answer.
Rafa, the holiday of gratitude continues. Thank you for this buoyant, effervescent outing!
Why is Hum a drill sound?
Mostly very easy, with that weird Eastern section taking more than half the solve time.
- Clues for NUDGED and PROVISO meant nothing to me
- I don’t know SRO.
- Never heard for V-DAY without an E or a J in there (hi, @Conrad).
- No idea what a ‘mouche’ is (hi, @Conrad).
And while I'm 'hi, @Conrad'-ing, Elitist before EGGHEAD.
Found it on YouTube...HAR!!!!
I generally love Rafa’s puzzles, definitely. A nice morning surprise! Loved it.
That’s proper too, but it’s acceptable because you know it?
Hey All !
Hopefully some people are napping now, after a day full of shopping like maniacs to get some deals out there. I've never been, nor plan to be, a Black Fridayer. Sounds terrifying. Side note: One year I did go to a sale at Sears, although it was about 9AM, to get a long wool coat. Ghost town. Apparently, all the craziness takes place in the wee hours. Worked for me.
Nice easy post-Thanksgiving puz, for those of us who weren't shopping, and recovering from food/drink/football overload. In other words, FEELING IT. The ole brain always appreciates an easy Themeless!
5A is ALI G, btw, fictional character named thusly. It's not one name, just in case you cared. 😁
Well, Rafa DID say he'd see us tomorrow. Well, he was right! What an EGGHEAD! (Said with love. Har.)
Friday, Black or otherwise, I still have to go to work. Ah, me.,.
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Nice and whooshy Friday. Like Eli, I remembered that Rafa closed his post yesterday by saying that he hoped Friday would continue a good week of puzzles. I wondered if he didn’t know his puzzle would run today, or if he was just being sly and hoping we would think his puzzle was good. If so, no worries, I was FEELING IT.
A few really nice clues, which may or may not be original (Lewis will know): “bad lighting” for ARSON and “present-day vehicle” for SLEIGH. And “trial that might involve a monologue” had me thinking of Portia’s in “The Merchant of Venice,” so nice misdirect for SCREEN TEST.
My only error (I think) was green before PRIUS.
I actually would have liked to go shopping today because I have the day off, I need a few things, and I try to avoid Amazon and keep brick-and-mortar places in business. But CHANGE OF PLANS, I am not going near any stores on Black Friday. I’ll go for a hike instead.
I was zooming through this one counter-clockwise until I hit the NE, which bogged me down almost entirely for a while. The BAR/ARM conundrum was finally solved and NOTGOOD replaced _____BAD and that was that, finally.
Have no interest in fancy wristwatches so SEIKO took a while, couldn't remember TAXON, and had the HUT HUM problem. Also remembered Mr. ROBOTO but whoever performed it is news to me.
Nice to see VIGGO Mortensen, as he and Kirk Douglas are either the most famous or the only famous alumni of my little university in far Upstate NY.
Very nice Fridectio, RM. Roo Might disagree, as he was missing, but I thought this was just-right whooshy. Thanks for all the fun.
Some of the clues in the NE were just ridiculously obtuse, ie for REED, SRO, ORNURSES. They can be obtuse if they’re clever but these are not. I see the Rex habit of not being objective when it comes to friend constructors is true for the subs as well.
Got everything except the SOULPATCH crosses, and had "Saxon" instead of TAXON. I thought the puzzle was easy otherwise.
The clue for TURNPRO is very misleading, because most ballplayers who "go to the majors" are already professionals in the minor leagues. A minor-league ballplayer is a professional, because he's paid a salary.
Not understanding TAXON.
@wanderlust -- [Bad lighting] has been used before for ARSON, and while [Present day vehicle] has never been used for SLEIGH. "Present day" as a misdirect for "Christmas" has been used before in other clues for other answers.
Great puzzle! Terrific sparkle (27 red plus signs in my margins), single digit threes, learned a couple of things (double-texting), pleased to bump into my old friend CLOUSEAU.
I needed a cheat (ALIG). Didn't like the clue for GOSSIP.
I thought it was a lovely puzzle with fun clues and answers and an acceptable amount of crosswordese. Though I expect the proper nouns will come most easily to those of us who are Gen X.
can someone please explain EGGHEAD for ivory tower, I dont really get that. Had alpha before SEIKO . PROVISO/VDAY cross was tough for me - for some reason I had dDAY .
Very easy
Don’t like the cluing on HELPLINE. I suppose I think of a help line as a number you dial for assistance with software or a newly home appliance, and a counselor as someone you’d speak with of you call some sort of crisis intervention line or whatever. The clue just seems to miss the mark for me.
I'd make a lousy QB. Never mind what Eli actually said -- I've always heard it as HUT and that's the way I always say it.
(Well, there are actually other reasons why I'd make a lousy QB. Like "hearing footsteps", for instance).
But moving right along to ?ELtLINE -- what on earth is that? I ran the alphabet and the closest I could get to a Thing was BELTLINE. Aha! Mountain climbing, I thought. But CbANGE is not a Thing.
Oh, so it must be HUP.
My other write-overs were:
DRAMA CLasS before DRAMA CLUBS.
Either BSA or GSA before KOA. KOA is what?
Nits: "Whoa" does not equal OOH. It just doesn't. And it's either VE DAY or VJ DAY but it's not VDAY.
I've never heard of "double texted". But if I ever do it to you, it will probably be a Luddite-type error on my part and not a NUDGE.
Despite ALIG -- a weird assortment of letters I've seen before but not with this clue -- I found the top pretty easy, but the puzzle got harder and harder as I went along. I'm happy to have figured everything out eventually with no cheats.
I had HELPLINE before HUP so the HUm/HUP conundrum didn't affect me. I am mildly annoyed at the EXUDED/TAXON cross when ELUDED/TALON would have worked just as well, but I guess it was already pretty easy for a Friday so the X had to spice it up a bit.
Medium and lots to like, especially the parallel FEELING IT and SOUL PATCH as well as STAR SIGN and HELP LINE, both offering a sort of guidance. About the NE: I lucked out by thinking first of ARM x RETRO, was more held up by the center chunk with ALIG.
Do-overs: Omg before OOH, DRAMA CLasS. No idea: ALI G, TAXON. Help from previous puzzles: ROBOTO, and thank goodness for it; otherwise I think the cross with TAXON might have sunk me.
An "ivory tower" is a metaphor for a university, so the implication is that the "sort" who works in a university, like a professor, is an EGGHEAD. (I've worked in higher education for 27 years so I'm always a bit offended by that allegation.)
Turns out that too much social media time can suck your soul right out of you. In response, Apple has introduced a SOULPATCH in iOS17.2.
Of all the letters, I like good OLDEN (or 14 as we call him in the theater) the best.
I'm often unimpressed with Santa's performance, but last Christmas he really SLEIGHed.
I knew that Texas was pretty friendly to their cattle industry, but they may have gone too far with their new TAXON FAKEMEAT.
Hope you all enjoy your Black Fried Egg! Thanks for a very fun puzzle, Rafa.
ALIG?! VIGGO?! ROBOTO?! PRIUS?! The SW, with two pop-culture trivia answers and a brand name?! NUDGED for "double-texted" (whatever the hell that means)?!
"Easy"? 'Fraid not.
Finished the puzzle - but puzzled over clue for 30 Across - finally hit me 10 minutes later - oh, THAT meaning of “contracted.” Was thinking of the rail yard getting smaller, or high school attendance shrinking.
Slowdown at the end - had OMG for 33 Down, even though the clue didn’t suggest an abbreviation. Crossed that with CHANGE my instead of CHANGE OF - and was somehow trying to force yAK’s Milk down 37D’s throat. Oh, and DRAMA CLasS instead of DRAMA CLUBS.
Back to Proviso - just learned that Proviso Township is named for the Wilmot Proviso from the 1840s. Oh, and on Thursday most - perhaps all - of the Pink Panther movies were on a cable channel. Was working, so didn’t see them. One was probably on while I was doing the puzzle at around 2a after work. Does your dog bite? Oh, you want a room. That’s what I have been saying, you fool (last word pronounced like an exaggerated first syllable of rheumatism).
Easy but enjoyable Friday.
. . . and let's not forget YETI (clued as a brand name rather than a mythical beast) . . .
Do Rex & co. ever consider any puzzle to be anything but easy? It seems every single day is just "easy easy easy!". Why even bother ranking the difficulty? I've never heard of Clouseau, so I had no chance whatsoever on the SW corner. Hup??? HUP? WTF are they even talking about? And Isle of Dogs? Do the constructors of puzzles understand that most solvers are adults? I don't watch animated movies because I am not a kid. Frustrating.
My grid look like two different puzzles with the West filled in completely and the EAST practically blank. Things I either didn’t know or didn’t get today: REED as clued, ALIG, NSW, HUP, TAXON - and SOUL PATCH? What on earth is that? That whole NE corner especially was NOT GOOD for me. Not even close to a failure though because the parts that did work were way better than average. Really loved NERD FESTS over SCREEN TEST since I had just seen parts of Revenge of the Nerds the other day - a surprisingly entertaining movie. And then DRAMA CLUBS between TAUPE and EYE SHADOW was another nice offsetting visual. Thanks Rafa, overall a very nice Friday.
Nice way to start the long weekend today. Rafael’s clues were fun with those goat kids … and sippy cups didn’t fit. Our progress through the solve was smooth until the counter-clockwise NE where NOT GOOD seemed approximately placed. Artist wife felt TAUPE was a cheat on her color wheel, but DRAMA CLUBS & SLEIGH misdirection more than compensated.
Thanks always for Eli and the other Rexplacements whose contributions are always refreshingly varied; I’ve enjoyed them all over the years (even that drunken rant that offended many) because they bring that waft of enthusiasm from their unique perspectives.
I started out strong then completely lost it. I know the actor VIGGO so why couldn't I think of it? Had "fess up" for GOSSIP so I couldn't get PRIUS. "HARPY?"
But it was nice for see INSPECTOR CLOUSEAU make, what I think, is his debut.
Just a tad easier than medium but the turkey coma may have impeded my progress. I was not familiar with TAXON…it took me several nanoseconds to remember that EmittED is spelled with two Ts…I needed a mulligan to spell VIGGO correctly…oh, and me too for Elitist and HUt…but the rest of it was mostly cake.
Very solid with a smattering of sparkle, liked it.
I'm told that the celebration of VE Day in Louisville was so raucous that I burst into tears (I was just over 1.5 years old at the time); throughout my youth there were references to VE Day and VJ Day--but I never, ever heard anyone mention "V Day." Otherwise, a fine puzzle!
For those puzzled by TAXON, it's a generic term for any subdivision of all living things, as devised by Linnaeus in the 19th century and periodically revised (much to the consternation of birders, for example) ever since. I think it goes kingdom>order>family>genus>species. The whole thing is called a taxonomy.
OK, that was enough NERDFEST.
A drill hums...
Thx, Rafa; nicely done! 😊
Hi again Eli; always good to see you! 😊
Med (bang on avg time).
Easy going for the most part, except for the parts that were hard. lol
The toughies were: PRIUS; SRO; PROVISO; NUDGED; HARPY; TAXON; SOUL PATCH; ROBOTO; STAR SIGN & TAUPE.
Fun solve; very satisfying result, considering all I didn't know. And, kudos to Rafa for fair crosses:)
___
Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness ~ Freudenfreude & a DAP to all 👊 🙏
actually its ivory tower - like tow truck. and 'egghead' is a term used to describe someone who smuggles ivory. the phrase is well understood to both the inuit and the maasai .
Nice smooth puzzle with respectable long answers. Hands up for never having heard V-DAY (VE-DAY and VJ-DAY only). And one too many brand names: PRIUS, SEIKO, ALAMO (at least ROBOTO wasn't ROOMBA or something).
I put in OR NURSES, then much later scanning for errors I saw it and thought: that's not how you spell ONRUSHES!
[Spelling Bee: Thu -2, that was a lotta words!!]
A good place to find an EGGHEAD might be at some NERD FESTS. The term EGGHEAD goes back to the 1950s and became part of the general lexicon when vice-presidential candidate Richard Nixon referred to the Democratic presidential nominee Adlai Stevenson (image) as one. (ADLAI also became a regular in the NYTXW and has appeared 156 times from 1952 to 2022.)
I always thought it was Stevenson who serve as the model for Peter Sellers' role of President Merkin Muffley (image) in the movie "Dr. Strangelove". If you click on that image, you will also see the other two parts he played in that movie, Royal Air Force Captain Lionel Mandrake and German scientist Dr. Strangelove. Perhaps Sellers best known role was as Inspector CLOUSEAU (35D) in the "Pink Panther" movies.
What's esoterica for some is wheelhouse for others! That's what makes for a challenge!
Lucky you, never seeing a soul patch ... right up there with a mullet or a bald head/full beard as a stupid choice for a hairstyle for ANY man.
Agreed Conrad
Favorite Viggo movie: History of Violence. Wow.
As anyone who went through basic training or who was an army "drill" instructor would tell you, "hup, 2, 3, 4"...etc.
This didn’t feel easy at all.
Everything there is pretty mainstream, relative to the breadth of knowledge required to finish a Friday or Saturday crossword. I didn’t get ALIG or PROVISO until late, but they Mae sense. My performance on a Fri/Sat is largely a measure of how much if my wheelhouse can be put to use.
TAXON is Biology 101; you learn it when you learn about the five kingdoms of life (animal, plant, fungus, protist, bacteria). After kingdom, the taxa are divided by phylum, class, order, family, genus and lastly, the best known TAXON, species. Now you may have forgotten this -- as I did for more than a hot second -- but it is hardly esoteric. No bells rung until I had TA_ON.
Another clue here is that "taxidermy" shares a common etymology.
Having solve that problem, since when do drills make the same sound as the UNIX kill-process signal?
I thought of drill sergeant immediately. Didn’t think of drill at all fortunately. This shows if you hit on a good answer which is wrong, it can block out the right one.
Now that Japan has long since been an ally, saying VJ Day is considered in poor taste. Hence Victory Day. ( I have read the term but never heard anyone actually anyone in person say it.)
Since shortly after WW II VJ Day has been a state holiday in Rhode Island, the only state that currently celebrates it. Attempts to get rid of the holiday for the above reason have repeatedly failed. I think state officials do tend to refer to it as Victory Day. But most in Little Rhody still call it VJ Day. (It is great to have an extra chance to go to the beach in August. That’s the real reason the holiday persists.)
V Day is definitely not in the language around here.
Clouseau is not esoterica but Mustafa is? That is a perfect example of the wheelhouse effect. Mustafa is from a movie and Broadway musical from that obscure company called Disney. The Lion King to be exact, Both the movie and the Broadway musical have been hugely successful. The latter is still on Broadway after many years. Most children of several generations have seen the movie at least and many parents etc along with them. BTW I have never seen the Lion King - movie or show.
Clouseau from the Pink Panther first appearance in the 1960’s was very famous and still well known but nowhere near the level of the Lion King, Mustafa and Nala. Using your terminology, the Pink Panther is more niche than mainstream these days. I challenge anyone to name a more mainstream movie than the Lion King.
Me. Roboto is at least as well known as Clouseau if not more so
The others mentioned are perfectly reasonable for a Friday.
This one and I had a wonderful tête-à-tête until the northeast when it started talking nonsense. REED? V(E)DAY? SRO? PROVISO? Not great as clued. Oh well. Tomorrow's puzzle will probably be worse, so I am 7/8ths happy today.
Hope everyone had a memorable Thanksgiving.
Tee-Hee: "ERECTS"
Uniclues:
1 When one said "gamers."
2 Hallucinogenic they must give to audiences beta-testing pre-release movies hoping they'll like it despite it being the dumbest thing ever.
3 Orc's recollection of battle.
4 Rudolph's man-bird teammate.
5 That time at the RV park when one pup ended up off-leash.
6 The lunch table in the cafeteria with no cool kids.
7 Those who think the Wizard of Oz is overrated versus normal people.
8 Piques Frenchman's interest.
9 Phone service for hair splitters.
10 Poem about pawing.
11 One suspiciously eager to lead the prayer.
12 Right wingers' conspiracy theories on the Impossible Burger.
13 Pit hair.
14 Acted like a Libra.
15 How a crossword constructor makes a living according to detractors.
1 MEANT NERDFESTS (~)
2 SCREEN TEST DRUG
3 VIGGO NUDGED
4 SLEIGH HARPY
5 COLLIE'S KOA ERA
6 DRAMA CLUB'S ISLE (~)
7 KANSAN SCHISMS
8 ERECTS CLOUSEAU
9 NARROW HELP LINE
10 FEELING IT ODE
11 AMEN EGGHEAD
12 FAKE MEAT GOSSIP (~)
13 ARM SOUL PATCH
14 EXUDED STAR SIGN (~)
15 NOT GOOD ANSWER
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Viking helmet-wearing grandchild of the protagonist in a 1970 song by The Kinks. HORNY LOLA III.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
SRO is another wheelhouse issue. It is not at all obscure , though since gentrification has been strong many SRO buildings have disappeared. New York used to be full of them. This is the NEW YORK Times and most people there would know the term.
OR and OR NURSES appear frequently in the Times puzzle.
As I have learned, just because I don’t know something, doesn’t mean it is obscure or inappropriate.
Hup 2, 3, 4 as in drill sergeant.
It’s a tricky clue.
Interesting that Southside Johnnie complained about esoterica but loved mainstream stuff like Clouseau. Depends on your point of view.
I do agree it wasn’t easy for me but a huge % of the population knows the Lion King , including people like me who have never seen it, because it is so ubiquitous. Also many adults saw it with their kids.
Don’t see anything wrong with it
Thanks. Saved me the burden of looking it up And I said d’oh (head slap) when you mentioned taxonomy which I did know. I just never saw the shorter word before and didn’t make the connection while doing the puzzle I thought I dnf’d.
See wheelhouse effect Gregmark Taxon was very hard for me ( I knew taxonomy but never saw taxon and didn’t make the connection. Biology 101 was my only science class in college and 53 years ago)
But you didn’t get the trick at drill so you are criticize it just after saying how easy taxon was.
Drill as in drill sergeant. Hup 2, 3,4. It is very easy IF you get the trick.
He is vigo!
I find it fascinating how the discussion on this puzzle compared to most others exposes the vast generational gaps in knowledge. As a Millennial, I am frequently stumped by the proper nouns in most other puzzles and can feel “uncultured” when the commenters here describe with what ease they evoke such solutions. Today’s puzzle is the first time that I have been on the other side of this dilemma, whooshing through those proper nouns and truly shocked to discover the difficulty that many solvers had. I don’t know who Rafa is but it is clear from this dichotomy that he must be a younger constructor. I imagine as I get older the tables will surely turn and younger solvers will balk at questions about the lion king once again.
You mean Mufasa. Mustafa is a character in L’Italiana in Algeri of Rossini.
The pro minor leaguer issue bothered me as well.
You text someone once. They don’t respond. You text them again to ‘nudge’ them to respond. You’ve “double-texted” them. Texted is a past tense verb in the clue.
Isle of Dogs was a very notable Wes Anderson movie. One of the major filmmakers of the last 30 years. The animated medium doesn’t diminish its value.
When you don't know a single VIGGO, much less a specific one
and HARPY might as well be a sting of random letters
and you'd never find yourself using "Whoa!" and OOH interchangeably
You just stare at the center of the grid and sorta wish you hadn't bothered with the rest.
Mainstream movies...?
In keeping with the Christmas season:
Elf
Home Alone
A Christmas Story
A Christmas Carol
It's a Wonderful Life
add in
The Wizard of Oz
Just saying...
A funny thing happened in my syndicated crossword. NW went down easy and I had a good number of really solid acrosses elsewhere that I was really happy with: SLEIGH, KOA, TEAT, YETI, ODOR, but they were not working with the downs at all. And downs that I felt confident of were the wrong length. Finally I realized that the clues for 11D was written:
11. Something a
12. birthdate determines
And all the subsequent down clues were off by one. Oops!
Had an ANSWER of ALAF (5A) crossing FESSUP (8D) - NOTGOOD! So DNFed as PRIUS became my ALAMO. Shoulda called a HELPLINE.
At the upper limits of the Friday difficulty range, but still solvable. Never heard of SOULPATCH or TAXON and that made solving the SE corner difficult. HARPY finally came to me and the rest fell into place. I don’t get SRO clued this way. ORNURSES is NOTGOOD but overall it was a fun solve, or as ALI G would say “Respek!”
Another puzzle that I thought I would never, ever get, and then...bingo! Or is it KENO!
Other than looking up Mortensen, I had no help. Or maybe a little - don't remember, but I sure had many writeovers. Good thing I own a pencil!
Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords
Easy, he says. Well, the NW was, and then SW, but breaking through to the east was another story. I had STAR___N for 11d and still couldn't finish it. STARSIGN. I guess that's an astrology term. Another phony science. Finally got it on crosses.
Thanks for the twin gimmes of ROBOTO and ANSWER, which restarted me in the SE. Some foggy cluing still made the east difficult, but I eventually got it.
ISLE of Dogs was a "hit?" Never heard of it. Everything seems good except EKED, an automatic stroke off. Par.
Wordle birdie.
RETRO FEELING
A CHANGEOFPLANS AT some NERDFESTS:
NURSES SCREENed each DAY they could.
IT MEANT those EGGHEADs took DRUG TESTs,
and the ANSWER is NOTGOOD.
--- REED CLOUSEAU
A soul patch is a small patch of hair just beneath the lower lip. They were very very big in the beatnik and hippie eras. They have come back off and on as a retro look. The most famous person with one on TV was probably Maynard G. Krebs on the Dobie Gillis Show. But the only time I've heard the word mouche, and had no idea what it was referring to, was in Queen's song Bohemian Rhapsody. You may now do the fandango!
I see a little silhouetto of a man
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Kinda easy for a Fri-puz. Hardest in the ENE.
Time for a long weekend.
Wordle par.
THANK YOU! Saw that but didn’t make the connection…had lots of answers but in the wrong places…thought it might be themed so I gave up! 🤷 #BLNT
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