.png)
Pink-headed mushroom in Mario games / SAT 2-24-24 / Hybrid fruit akin to an aprium / Sight on a Hawaiian lava flow / Cousin of a mariposa lily / Period before sunset with ideal lighting for photography / Perfume named after a pop star / The cab's here! / Its influences include the Cuban mambo and Jamaican mento / Basketball player's cry while being fouled on the shot
Saturday, February 24, 2024
Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: ANAIS Mitchell (64A: Tony and Grammy winner Mitchell) —
Anaïs Mitchell (/əˈneɪ.ɪs/; born March 26, 1981) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright. Mitchell has released eight studio albums, including Hadestown (2010), Young Man in America (2012), Child Ballads (2013), and Anaïs Mitchell (2022).
[Bonny Light Horseman (2020)] She developed her album Hadestown into a stage musical (together with director Rachel Chavkin), which received its US debut at New York Theatre Workshop in summer 2016, and its Canadian debut at the Citadel Theatre, Edmonton the following year. The show opened at London's National Theatre in November 2018 and then on Broadway on April 17, 2019, at the Walter Kerr Theatre. The Broadway production of Hadestown won eight Tony Awards in 2019 including the Tony Award for Best Musical. Mitchell received the Tony Award for Best Original Score; she was also nominated for Best Book of a Musical. The Broadway cast album of the show took home the Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album in 2020. Mitchell's first book, Working on a Song: The Lyrics of Hadestown, was published by Plume Books on October 6, 2020. Mitchell was included in Time's 100 Most Influential People of 2020.
Mitchell is a member of the band Bonny Light Horseman, whose self-titled debut was released in 2020. The band's second album, "Golden Rolling Holy", was released in 2022. (wikipedia)
• • •
There were other fairly contemporary names in the puzzle as well, but these were mostly recognizable as normal human names (LARA, ANAIS, NANCY). Then there's actor John CENA, whom you should just commit to memory, just like actor Michael CERA, who doesn't appear today, but will appear again, someday (it's hilarious that I confuse these two, because if you saw them side by side ... they do not seem confusable). But the lovely thing about this puzzle is that the non-TOADETTE names in this puzzle are actually short and few in number. What shines forth is the marquee stuff, which is what marquees are supposed to do: shine. GOLDEN HOUR! Literally shining! RUNS POINT, "OH GOD, YES!," RENT STRIKE—all strong. My favorite answer of the day, though, is "I HATE TO ASK..." which I had as "I HAVE TO ASK..." until (completely ironically) TOADETTE came to the rescue! (I didn't know TOADETTE, but figured TOADEVTE had to be wrong).
The puzzle is fun in part because it's drawing from so many cultural spheres, and seems to take a real delight in language. From the two funky portmanteaus (PLUOT, TIGONS) to the "go to waste" wordplay in the COMPOST BIN clue (62A: What may go to waste? No! What waste may go to), to some of the clever short clues (22A: The cab is here!, or 50D: Who says?), this puzzle had a playful energy that I really liked. It also has a relatively wide-open and flowing grid, which allowed for a lot of zoom-zooming and not a lot of stuck slogging in dreary sequestered corners. Plus, it had colloquial sass: "AW, GEE!" "COME NOW" ... it has the pronoun "I" in it three times, but I ... yeah, I'm pretty sure I don't care. Put as many "I"s in your grid as you want, I won't stop you.
Notes:
- 2D: State (AVOW) — classic kealoa*. I was definitely Team AVER today.
- 41A: Love scene? (TENNIS) — "Love" is just a possible TENNIS score, so the "scene" where such a "love" is found ... is TENNIS.
- 10A: Perfume named after a pop star (RIRI) — this is Rihanna
- 22A: The cab's here! (NAPA) — wanted CURB. Wrong kind of cab! ("cab" here = "cabernet")
- 4D: Basketball player's cry while being fouled on the shot ("AND ONE!") — only if they make the shot. If you're fouled on the shot, it's one free throw if you made the shot, two if you missed it (assuming it's not a three-point shot, in which case you get three free throws).
- 36A: Historic husband of Claudia Octavia (NERO) — "Historic husband" is awkward. Like ... he was historically great at being a husband? Or ... he just ... existed ... in history? You can lose "Historic" and the clue works Just Fine.
- 8D: Hybrid fruit akin to an aprium (PLUOT) — I thought the word was PLUCOT, but hybrids (and their names) have apparently run amok, so PLUOT and PLUCOT are both things, but somehow ... different. I saw one of these hybrids in the grid several years ago and was like "WTF is that?" and then went to Wegmans and found out WTF that was, namely, delicious.
- 21D: Person who's left, for short? (DEM) — Lotta leftists I know are shaking their heads at this one, but yeah, OK, generally, Democrats are left of center (wherever that is) on the political spectrum.
- 46A: Made a sound with a flute (CLINKED) — the "flute" is a champagne glass.
- 50D: Who says? (SIMON) — Who says? SIMON Says. Per the game of the same name.
- 35D: Adjective that, when its lone vowel is doubled, becomes an advocacy organization (GLAD) — the advocacy org. is GLAAD (Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation). I once (long ago, in the twentieth century) wrote an article about Braveheart and the widely divergent responses it occasioned from two organizations in particular—the SNP (Scottish National Party) on the one hand, and GLAAD on the other. And ... yeah, that is the story of how I know GLAAD and what it stands for. Good day!
P.S. just noticed the ONE dupe (AND ONE / ONES). Not ideal. But they’re on opposite sides of the grid, and I didn’t notice at first, so not a catastrophic misstep
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Save And Share :
97 comments:
Liked the longer answers today, GOLDEN HOUR, COMPOST BIN, EVENTUALLY. Etc. the short stuff killed me. Pretty much every name and reference was outside of my wheelhouse. I guess I’ve heard of John Cena but didn’t know he was in the Fast and the Furious movies. BORG, ANAIS, NANCY, LARA, PLUOT, nope. No clue.
Also, Democrats are not the left. In any other country it’s clear the Democrats are a center-right party and the GOP is a far right party. Even politicians who are seen as “far left” here like Bernie Sanders or AOC would be centrists almost anywhere else. I’d rather see TRUMP in my puzzle every day for the rest of my life than see DEM clued as Left.
@Rex I HAvE TO ASK before I HATE TO ASK (11D). I'm not familiar with the Mario games, so TOADEvTE seemed possible.
OH yes YES before OH GOD YES at 37D made me temporarily remove RETORTS at 48A
rAMA before LAMA at 53D
TUGS at before TUGS ON at 54A
glut before SATE at 65A
AND ONE (4D) was a WOE
When you fire or lay someone off you let them go. The clue “let go of” just wrong
Should just be “ Let go”. Am I wrong??
Rex summed it up pretty nicely with his comments about TOADETTE. I’d include items such as RIRI, PLUOT, TIGONS and CENA that also have a pretty niche constituency in that same category. I guess it’s a matter of degree - a little is ok, cross the line and you can quickly find yourself lost in slog-city.
My favorite clue/answer combo for today was CLINKED for the flute - I kept thinking “How/why would a musician want to make a sound like that?” as it zoomed right over my head - they got me hook, line and sinker with that one.
We also have an “all-crossword” quad stack today with EPA, NERO, ANKH and SEGO - all legitimate and all readily available in the wild, but they are kindred spirits in that they pretty much appear in a CrossWorld puzzle somewhere on a daily basis. Nice to see them stacked like that - almost like Fagliano stuck a mini in the big boys’ grid today.
Solid Gen Xer checking in to give TOADETTE some love. I’ve been playing Mario kart with my kids for years. Fun Saturday.
Sad for all of yall who don't know what Wegmans is.
Not the OH GOD YES take that Rex had but a nice late week romp. Follows the recent trend of friendlier Saturdays - purposeful or not the segmented grid is built to allow access to each section. RUNS POINT and STILETTOS are good examples of easy longs that open up the grid.
EVENTUALLY
Liked the TENNIS - BORG pair. Side eye to the TUG ON x ON IT cross. SMART PHONE and COMPOST BIN may win the award for most pedestrian stack of the year. Backed into ANAIS and LARA.
Pleasant Saturday morning solve. Mossberg’s Stumper has more edge today.
RIP Shane
Not my type of puzzle. Much of the colloquial stuff didn't match for me.
But ... we have TENNIS crossing NANCY, so that's pretty cool.
The world NENE population was once down as low as 30. It is a success story for captive breeding and reintroduction.
@Anonymous I'd usually say "we had to let Teddy go", but saying "we had to let go of Teddy" would sound fine to me too. The clue is acceptable to me.
A great Friday puzzle, come on a Saturday. So much to love, but my favorite was the crossing of a very good opera, TOSCA, with the amazing ANAIS Mitchell. So happy to see both ladies in the puzzle!
@David Grenier Like you say, "in any other country". But in the US the Dems are considered unambiguously left and this is in a US newspaper.
Saturday puzzle cluing often is often heavy on vagueness and esoterica, but light on wordplay. What a treat, then, for wordplay clues to shine today, among the vague and esoteric. How lovely to have such cluing spark in addition to plenty of bite – riddles galore – so what R&R came up with, for me, was a rich, rich Saturday.
Speaking of rich, 14 bigs (answers of eight letters or more), which are always fun to try to get with as few crosses as possible. Lovely NYT answer debuts as well – CLINKED, GOLDEN HOUR, MARKET RATE, and RUNS POINT. Sweet down-to-earths in OH GOD YES and I HATE TO ASK.
I lit up when I saw the names atop this puzzle, founts of cleverness and zing. This is Rafael’s fourth puzzle in three months – a wow these days – and Rebecca, you are a Friday short of the cycle (a NYT puzzle for every day of the week), and how can that be? You are made for Fridays – get on it!
A sea of white in my initial pass, but then STILLETOS broke open the southeast, and answers bled out from there, until, when the last square was filled in, I felt like standing and bowing to the makers of such a pleasurable outing for my brain and my love of beautiful words, love of spark, and love of witty thinking.
Thank you greatly, Rebecca and Rafael. This was prime!
TOSCA premiered in 1900, presumably before even all of the older solvers were born. I think it’s more analogous to NERO than to BORG, who many older solvers remember seeing live, if not in person then on television.
Easy? I don't think so, Rex. How could a puzzle with PLUOT and SYRAH next to each other, crossing TOADETTE, be easy?
One sticky point from a one-time semi-pro ballplayer..."Flycatcher" would be a "glove," not a MITT. Only the catcher uses a MITT, and he doesn't shag flies. Everyone else uses a fielder's glove.
So very true, coming from the home of the Mothership on Monroe Avenue in Rochester
Enjoyed puzzle, easy medium due to TOADETTE and the NE slowing me down. Clever rather than evil cluing. Nice one
I could tell with the first clue that it was a more contemporary puzzle and probably by one (or more) of my current favorite constructors! Yay! I did not know many of the names, but I DID know Toadette, ironically. I’m the same age pretty much as @Rex but I’ve got a gaming child and we play Mario Kart frequently and saw the very recent Mario Bros movie!
I did get thrown by the two “one”s in the puzzle and for that reason I did not put ANDONE for a while but finally just knew it had to be NAPA. LOVE this puzzle except for the double ONEs. Even though I did not know LARA or ANAIS. Also enjoyed the TENNIS clue. Very good time!
@David Grenier: II think Javier Milei and Viktor Orbán would disagree.
This was a perfectly average Saturday. There were some sticky spots that put it up to the usual time.
I had a RAH/AAH write over. That wasn't hard to correct. The cross of PLUOT with the unknown TOADETTE put up some fight.
Believe it or not I had a hard time settling on the last letter of BORG. Of course GLAaD just happened to be an unknown for me. Maybe it's that J of Bjorn that makes the G look too plain.
The biggest hold up was my TENENT/TENANT write over. With all the SB playing I've done that shouldn't happen but with the words TENET and TENEMENT getting in the way it still does.
All was straightened out before the last letter for a clean solve.
yd -0 QB27, BTW Woodlark ? WTF SMH
this was not easy; never heard of many of the names :-(
Names, names, names. A horrible piece of trivial crap that should never have seen the light of day.
My usual starting point in the NW filled in in a jiffy, but then I ran into the TOADETTE (?) PLUON (?) SYRAH (?) intersection and tried my luck elsewhere. Knew enough of this and that to have this be a fairly speedy Saturday solve that I liked very much.
There's old friend NENE again and the delightful CRASH of rhinos. I think I've heard of "ligers" but TIGONS, uh no. And how do you do, Ms. Mitchell? Nice to meet you. Also was reminded of the WC Fields quote about how he liked children-HARDBOILed!, said the old curmudgeon.
Very nice Saturday indeed, RG and RM Really GLAD to Remember Most of the trivia-type answers, and thanks for all the fun.
@Bob Mills 8:22 - first basemen also wear mitts, and could chase down a shallow fly ball.
Hey All !
@NANCY crossing TENNIS, how apropos.
No HARDBOILed RETORTS today. I HATE TO ASK, but friends I SAY? 😁
Started out typical "Uh-oh, this is gonna be tough! I only have three answers!" Then somehow the ole brain switched into a higher gear, and I started filling in sections. Before I knew it, I had three corners and the middle done. Timer said 14 minutes. I was like, "Holy moly! Look at me zip through this puz!"
But, the hammer came down in the NE corner. Oof. Has MAAD in for GLAD, the answer being reversed from what the clue said. Also THEgoat for THE BEST, and not knowing the grape. So, after 5-6 minutes of rereading clues and nothing happening, went to good ole Goog. Looked up the grape, looked up BORG, just could not think of another TENNIS players name.
BORG (could've been clued via Star Trek) got me GLAD, which ended up getting me the rest of the corner
So, on another mini-Streak, but again, this one comes with an asterisk. Streak* at 4 days.
Ligers and TIGONS and NENEs, oh my!
Happy Saturday, y'all.
No F's (COME on NOW!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
I was absolutely sure that “Cook for Easter, maybe” was going to be about Captain Cook and Easter Island. Tried to think of some way to get “discoverer” or some synonym to fit. Of course, it would be offensive to imply he discovered it when people were already there. And after looking it up, I “discovered” that he wasn’t even the first European to get there, although he did visit it.
Loved a lot of the cluing and struggled through to the end but man was I not on the same wavelength as this puzzle. Don't think it's a boomer problem, I'm just always going to be at a disadvantage when things get sports-heavy, have video-game references with unguessable crosses (PLUOT???), or nicknames for pop singers I don't care about (RIRI). Not calling foul, just takes a lot of the fun out of it when you do finally struggle through to an answer that's not an "Aha!" but a "Meh." Plenty of really good, witty cluing but the meh density detracted from the fun for me.
Rex - Every great shooter thinks their shot is going in. Hence the cry “ and one” upon release.
I also resisted putting ANDONE, both for the same reason that the “and one” is only if the shot goes in for the 2 (or 3) points, which the clue does not indicate; but more so because I have NEVER heard the fouled player scoring the basket shout this, and I have watched a lot of basketball on TV. Who does shout this often are the announcers calling the game, and ME sitting at home yelling at the screen.
@Wanderlust, I also was positive that Cook for Easter was about Captain Cook and Easter Island! So that slowed me down, but in general I found the puzzle to be a normal Saturday with just one big problem - the ANDONE, NAPA, RUNSPOINT situation. This basketball term (and most others) was unknown to me, and I was positive the tAtA was the answer for “cab’s here!”, also RUNSPOINT is not a phrase I’ve heard. So, Natick there for me.
A non-Nin Anais! Wow! Should we remember her for the future, fellow solvers? OH GOD, YES! Only I won't, of course.
There's a clue for YETI that has nothing to do with the Abominable Snowman? Should we remember it for the future, fellow solvers? OH GOD, YES! Only I won't of course.
There's a pop star named RIRI? Poor thing! How can parents be so cruel? Will I remember her perfume? Don't hold your breath.
I resisted CLINKED as "made a sound with a flute", thinking why would you let that flautist anywhere near an orchestra? But EVENTUALLY my own name in the grid forced me to write it in. Now I'm thinking: "Oh THAT kind of flute!!!" Best clue in the puzzle.
"So exciting!" is AAH??? Do you say that when you're excited? I sure don't. Worst clue in the puzzle.
This puzzle had some nice moments, but not all of it was part of a GOLDEN HOUR for me. Can we please lose all the Mario game references? Please? RUNS POINT sounds, I don't know, slightly illiterate. And I'M SET seems like such a rude response to someone offering you more food. Nothing at all like the quite polite response of "I couldn't eat another bite."
Many too many pop culture names for me
Had HONK for “The cab’s here!” because of Leaving on a Jet Plane. (Speaking of oldsters.)
I learned about a Mario character named Toad during the whole Stormy Daniels brouhaha, so I could at least see it was going to be something Toad-related. TOADETTE was easy enough to infer from there.
When you put in Sega for SEGO, art for ORB, you spend ten minutes puzzling over "hard toil" and trying to relate that to explorer COOK and Easter Island
GOLDENHOUR is a favorite all-time entry. Excellent wordplay, names that are inferable if initially unknown, entries from a wide variety. All reasons I subscribe to the puzzle in the first place. AND RP's write-up an example of why I donated this year realizing coming here is an integral part of my enjoyment, whether I agree with him or not, on a given day.
BORG vs McEnroe is a recent documentary about their legendary battles in tennis. (Spoiler for 50 year old tennis stuff:) Borg known for his exploits, particularly on grass at Wimbledon, and as a heart-throb, then becoming an overnight recluse from the LOVE scene essentially still at the top of his game.
Easy up top, a struggle below. For every instant I HATE TO ASK or CLINKED, there was an impossible-to-see-through HARD-BOIL or NAPA, and for every familiar TOSCA or BORG there were any number of unknowns. I was happy to be able to finish. On the enjoyment front, I appreciated the wit of the cluing but couldn't work up a lot of delight for entries like TOADETTE, RUNS POINT, and RIRI. @DrBB 9:29, you said it better!
Help from previous puzzles: TIGON. No idea: LARA, AND ONE, RUNS POINT, TOADETTE, CENA, NANCY, ANAIS.
We need Wegmans to open a store in Charleston, SC!
What's the second meaning on SMARTPHONE? Is it just that you have to pay for your phone plan or data plan? (battery charge meaning is obvious)
Pickup basketball players actually will shout ANDONE before they know if the shot is good — despite the fact that no one shoots free throws in pickup ball. It’s kind of a trash-talking/jokey thing.
Weirdly easy except for the excruciating proper nouns. I kept running into them everywhere and they ensured a dismal experience. LARA, RIRI, TOADETTE, TIGONS, BORG, NERO, SEGO, ANAIS, CENA, TOSCA, SIMON, PLUOT, NANCY (and come now, the only Nancy worth knowing is Stark), SYRAH, SOBA, GLAAD, NENE. 17! That's too many. Constructors, once you've hit 9 proper nouns, throw the puzzle away and start over.
Laughed at MITT after requiring all four crosses. Why is working nights any tougher than any other schedule? I loved it back in the day. Now I don't like working period.
Phrases only PBS watchers use: COME NOW, I SAY.
Tee-Hee: This is an unapologetically smutty puzz. TUGS ON. AAH. OH GOD YES. And no, I am not falling for our slush pile editor's dare to find the hidden uniclue for a "command to an amorous Utahan." Unlike xi, I have limits and many more pearls to clutch.
@MJB 12:48 PM yd
Thanks for the shout out. As in real life, friends on the Internet seem to come and go. At least we'll always have their daily mockery in our hearts to carry us forward.
Uniclues:
1 Dr. Zhivago heroine's dying words describing how she wants to smell in her coffin.
2 Nagging in my noggin while in line at the coffee shop.
3 Beer.
4 Mushroom makes it to the floor, kerwhump.
5 Yes I am real, no I don't put the star on top of the tree, and no the cooler company did not ask permission.
6 My opinion on what's ruining (running) our world?
7 "You stink."
8 What at least one candidate intends to do with democracy.
9 Cozy up behind a dumpster 'cuz the rent is too damn high.
10 Shoe wear for fashionable grape stompers.
11 How I got dis six pack.
1 LARA RASPS, "RIRI."
2 EVENTUALLY, AHEM
3 GOLDEN HOUR CANS
4 TOADETTE SWOONS (~)
5 YETI RETORTS (~)
6 I SAY SMARTPHONE
7 COMPOST BIN NOTE (~)
8 AVOW OPEN SEASON
9 MARKET RATE RELO (~)
10 SYRAH STILETTOS
11 DEM SIT-UPS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Question and answer I can't say yet, but I keep hoping the day will come if I keep singing show tunes and wearing jewelry. GAY ICON? I SURE AM!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
A minor correction to the analysis of “AND ONE.” A basketball player calls out “AND ONE” the second they feel they are fouled during a shot. It is important to call it out before the ball goes through the hoop to indicate that you feel confidence the shot will go in in spite of the foul. When you’re playing pickup basketball, calling a “Foul” is considered lame and typically stops the flow of play immediately. Calling “AND ONE” in a pickup game is a sign of bravado and strength and doesn’t stop play unless the shot is missed, at which point the shooter can demand to get the ball back (no free throws in pickup ball).
Excellent puzzle and an equally fine response from OFL. Highlights of today’s solve were the ? Clues leading to multiple giggles 🤭
You don’t have to be young to know Toadette. I’m a senior citizen and yet I have a little game which features Toadette right here in my living room. No more complaints will come from this corner about my grandchildren’s toys left in my house! Enjoyed this fun puzzle although I had some missteps at first also.
I'm uncultured, but I would've had a DNF of not for cheating. Never heard of TOSCA, ANAIS Mitchell, NANCY Lieberman, "To All the Boys I've Loved Before". Even after some googling, the entire center was empty for me.
Granted, not coming up with RUNSPOINT is on me, but ANDONE didn't make sense to me, as I was trying to determine what one may say while being fouled not the two or three steps after and only under a certain circumstance. I maybe have heard of TIGONS, but LIGERS is forever entrenched in my brain from that awful movie (that being said, didn't even think of that either.) I legit cheated and came here before finished. Once NAPA got filled, I was able to finish. I even knew they were referring to wine, but NA__ was not enough for me.
After a few weeks of being impressed with my solving skill, it's frustrating to come across a puzzle that killed me only to see it was classified easy.
@TimG - AND ONE is definitely called by the shooter. You hear it all the time in gyms and on playgrounds. NBA games don't tend to mic the players, probably because the bleep button would get worn out in the first quarter. I heard "and one" on TV recently and was surprised that it made it through the telecast. btw - it is very difficult to write about basketball action without sounding like a total dork:)
Wonderful puzzle, but there were some questionable clues. Besides the ones mentioned above, "Sight on a Hawaiian lava flow" for NENE. They are the state bird, but ...
Tough going in a slog of very tough trivia, made more challenging by some of THE BEST clueing we’ve seen in a while. I finally gave in and googled in order to at least fill some of the blank space and get a start. Wanted fandango tango as the mambo/mento influence but it wouldn’t fit. No idea what either a PLUOT or an aprium consists of, both might be part SYRAH grape for all I know. My first try was PLEAR, thinking a cross between plum and pear.
13D is something you tell the restaurant server when your meal is served and you’re asked if there’s anything else you need. “No, thanks, I’M SET.” But if it’s a buffet, and you couldn’t possibly eat another SOBA noodle, “I’m stuffed” would be more accurate IMHO.
Very tough Saturday for me, but I learned a lot of new names. Now if I could just remember them for the next time.
Easy. No erasures and NANCY, ANAIS, and TOADETTE were it for WOEs. That said I did need to track down a typo and the NE took a little staring.
Solid and smooth with a hint of sparkle, liked it.
Loved seeing Anais in the puzzle… loved seeing her as the Word of the Day… love seeing the Bonny Light Horsman album cover at the top of the blog.
Thanks for your shoutouts, @kitshef and @Roo.
@MJB from yesterday: Like you, I’ve wondered about fellow bloggers who’ve disappeared from the commentariat. It’s a unique relationship we have with one another but one that is somehow especially meaningful too.
@Gary J from yesterday: It was late so I didn’t post, but wanted to tell you I got a good laugh out of yours yesterday. My favorite line was . . . “I've got one foot in the grave anyway, so why not savor every possible moment of wasting my final days on Earth doing a puzzle?” My sentiments exactly.
I got the Friday vibe too when I began (especially when I saw who the constructors were) - I was determined not to cheat. But I didn't know RUNS POINT, NANCY Liebman (not up on sports), RACE BIBS. And PLUOT, TOADETTE? (omg)
So much for not cheating. Taking into consideration what I did know, it was a great Saturday puzzle, Rafa & Rebecca!
Totally agree. The ‘of’ doesn’t make sense.
Ran the vowels at ANAIS/RPI - never seen that name clued other than Nin it seems.
I didn't like the clues on the ANDONE/NAPA cross. I'm not a big basketball fan, but I resisted ANDONE for the same reason as TimG 9:41 AM. Who shouts this as they're getting fouled?
Similar to Rex's aversion to the use of "one's" in place of "your" in common expressions, my pet peeve is exclamation points (just like Elaine's one-time boyfriend Jake in "Seinfeld"). Why does "The cab's here!" warrant an explanation point when referring to NAPA?
Not easy from here. There were obstacles here and there but the NE was the toughest for this non-Mario puzzler.
I didn't know RIRI either, or BORG though he sounds familiar now. Also not up on basketball shouts so had to guess from LAR?.
I was delighted to see GOLDENHOUR quite early, but when the cab is here, I'd say “tata!” It took me nearly to the end to get POINT.
The clue for CLINKED - Yay!
Also a shout-out for the clues to HARDBOIL and SIMON. Nice!
I was thrilled to actually know NERO was married to Claudia. I think you could apply the adjective historic to NERO. As a husband he was historically bad. First, he was her brother….
Although I Naticked where PLUOT (!) crossed TOADETTE !) I don't really care. I could try out a bunch of letters for that O square, but that feels beneath me somehow. No need to hear the victory music if it means wasting time to suss out a single letter. Still a win in my book. Fresh puzzle, lots of great answers and wordplay. I loved ANDONE because that's really in the BBall vernacular. Not easy over here, more medium, but enjoyable for sure...
Another vote for easy (for a Saturday). Slight slowdowns: didn't catch the meaning of "cab" for a while. PLUOT a WOE. Had glut, then thought about slew, before getting SATE. OPEN SEASON - could almost be brought into the tennis clues.
At about 3a, went back into the archive to do a Friday from 1996. More of a challenge than recent Fridays or Saturdays.
@krickstein - a great match with Jimmy Connors at the U.S. Open in 1991.
@Made in Japan -- Consider exclamation points a Shortzian signal to the solving community: "Take this particular clue literally!"
So "the cab's here!" means that this is where the cab is located. In this case NAPA. Similarly:
"Step on it" means better move quickly. "Step on it!" means look for what it is you step on. That's usually a RUG.
"Beat it" means Scram. "Beat it!" is DRUM.
Consider it a kindly, helpful hint from the NYT.
Boy did I work hard on this. Yes, the cluing was really good and you got me really good. Everywhere!
Where to even begin.....
I always try to fill in the 1A's for my starting point. The first answer gives me a vibe. Will I like this? Will it kill me? Should I just give up without trying? So you give me a name I didn't know. First little black mark. Move on to the rest of that cold northern section. I got your RASPS...move on over one more and stare at the perfume name. Is it DIOR? OH GOD no....it's something called RIRI. I'm imagining a woman, all dolled up, getting into the elevator as wafts of a sickly sweet odor floats all around us and we can't escape and we're gasping for fresh air and I ask "WHAT'S THAT SMELL" ad she smiles at me with her ruby red lips and coos "It's my RIRI!"
PLUOT....What are you? Will TOADETTE eat you? RUNS POINT are you friend's with ANDONE? I'm only acquainted with a liger and now they've crossbred a tiger and a lion? TIGONS...How did they do this? TIGONS and PLUOT....???? Yikes.
I get to the TENNIS and a coach known as "Lady Magic." NANCY! Yes, magic...along with your partner BORG.
I CLINKED.
Loved the clues for NAPA (you got me good, though), the HARD BOIL Easter cook, and the SIMON.
The puzzle had me working very, very hard. I wasn't enamored with all the proper nouns. Please don't start you puzzle with one of them. I had to cheat on them, and I hate when I have to. I did like your GOLDEN HOUR RACE BIBS I HATE TO ASK OPEN SEASON and OH GOD YES. Oh, and I liked that a RHINO is a crash.
No, it wasn't an easy puzzles.
This was classic hard Saturday for me. Very slow start, then spurts of progress, and finally changing CERA to CENA and thus RERO to NERO got me home.
CMON NOW sounded way better to me than COME NOW and for the "Perfume named after a pop star" thought: SIRI?
[Spelling Bee: Fri currently -1 missing an 8er. @puzzlehoarder congrats on your streak! Yes hands up for typing WOODLARK right off the bat yd, SMH indeed.]
When you say “any other country” do you only refer to Western European countries?
TOADETTE was definitely appealing to me
When this rodeo sported the mysterious LARA right outta the chute, M&A suspected he was in for a hard no-know-packed solvequest. Turned out about average for a SatPuz at our house, tho.
Had the most trouble in the PLUOT/TOADETTE/SYRAH region. no-know-o-rama, in them parts.
Best thing I learned from this puz: about mentsUyU sauce. Sounds interestin to try, someday when I get to Sobaville. Reminds m&e of last night, when the Puzeatinspouse and I attended a thanx-U art exhibit at the local museum, complete with generous amounts of all kinds of horseduvers. They served up some stuffed mushrooms there that M&A really tripped on … musta had five or six of em. Toadhead-o-rama.
staff weeject pick: AAH. It was sooo excitin. Three exclamation markers-worth. har
honrable mention to RPI, which I learned about from the "Wordplay" flick … that's where puzwhiz Tyler Hinman went to college.
Liked the SMARTPHONE, TENNIS and NAPA clues an extra lot.
Soooo … are all them lava flows caused by NENE featherbags? M&A may have learned somethin … or not.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Goldstein & Mr. Musa dude. And congratz to @Nancy, on her cameo appearance. And to all U Laras and Riris, out there.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
**gruntz**
Pleased to see at least one fellow Rochesterian in the comments. I've shopped at the Wegmans (that I assume) Rex is referring to in Binghamton.
Puzzle was a medium for me. Had PUNCTUALLY for EVENTUALLY at first, but then I realized that answer made more sense for On Time than In Time. Last letter to go in was the O in TOADETTE.
Cringed at DEM for "Person whose left" but was impressed by RENT STRIKE.
For 52a, I dropped in “bake a ham”, expecting a RexRant of “eat a sandwich” proportions! Alas, it was not to be.
@GaryJugert sir, after the out-of-court settlement we found the other day, to which your magnanimity greatly contributed ( any coffee to your satisfaction is one I am willing to offer), allow me to add two new multiclues to your list and propose a different version of another one.
01. Only reasonable reaction to the Romney candidacy
02.Open Buddhist convention instruction
6. "You say mobile, _ , let's call the whole thing off".
01. "COME NOW, MITT"
02. "SLOT OWN LAMA"
6. "I SAY SMARTPHONE"
The three stages of transport:
1. RENTSTRIKE
2. Leases Bicycle
3. Borrows Wheelchair
What do you get if you cross a TIGON with a LIGER? Just askin'.
BORG was great, but you should have seen his cousin, Cyrus. That Cy Borg was a real machine.
What did the Mexican reggae singer say when asked if he liked Bob Marley? SIMON.
Some sweet cluing today. Thanks for a fun Saturday, Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa.
Set a PR for Saturday. Only bog down was OHGODYES/SEGO/RETORTS when I briefly forgot what ripostes were and didn't want GOD in my grid
"Easy"? PLUOT?? SYRAH? TOADETTE?? ANAIS (as clued)?? RIRI?? More like an all-expenses-paid round trip to Natick.
Do first basemen have mitts?
Great selections today! Ta 😔
Easy and enjoyable for a Saturday, but hardly a romp for me. Didn't/don't know LARA, RIRI, TOADETTE, TIGONS, ANAIS or NANCY. I first entered I HAVE TO ASK, BORK, OH GEE YES, and CERA. But these gaffes didn't last but a few minutes.
The PLUOT, SYRAH, RIRI, TOADETTE clump in the upper right kind of took the wind out of the SAIL and left my enthusiasm for this one kind of dragging anchor. Then along comes TOSCA, SIMON, LAMA, RPI, ANAIS, SOBA and NENE down below and my solve buzz pretty much lost headway. I think THE BEST place for most of those would be the COMPOST BIN.
I took DEM for 21D "Person who's left, for short?" to be a reference to the seating arrangement, DEMocrats on the left and Republicans on the right, during the State of the Union address, no?
Another candidate for kealoa status: Is it SLOT or SLIT for 7D "Opening"?
For what it's worth, I've always seen/heard "RIDING" point, not RUN[NING].
AMEN @David Grenier! As a lifelong centrist, compromising, problem solving regular old (emphasis on old) Democrat, I. Am. Not. “Left!”
Easier than Friday, no?
Fun puzzle…
Didn’t like tigons, cause I thought it was a liger and either way was just napoleon dynamite trivia.
“And one” does work and is very in-the-know. “And one” is indeed when you make the shot and are fouled, but a confident player commonly yells it as he’s fouled while shooting even before knowing the result of the shot.
If I may correct my own error, Mr. Fields preferred his children parboiled. HARDBOILed children are of course no use to anyone.
Definitely easier than Friday. I'm surprised the order of puzzles wasn't reversed.
I like a lot of the long answers, like GOLDENHOUR and I HAVE TO ASK. And it just felt good to type in OHGODYES!
I do see TUGS ON crossing ON IT, but the editors seem to let these things go more often these days and solvers don't seem to mind. Maybe they draw the line at two letters? So something like ON, AT or UP can be repeated but not something like YOU, TOO or NOW.
I'm a millennial who rarely plays video game. TOADETTE is in my wheelhouse for the same reason BORG is in Rex's. It's just casual exposure to the culture surrounding my generation.
I think a Star Trek clue would have been significantly more accessible, which I know isn't the point of a Saturday, but it could have been more interesting than ancient sports trivia.
@anon 1:41pm i also had bAke a ham!! then when it didn't work beyond the A, i had to pull it and thought it had to be a misdirect with a hidden proper noun in "Cook" but...wrong again :)
-stephanie
Still need Loren Muse Smith to come back. Please!
Joe Palmer
That SEGa for SEGO error caused me a dnf. I put in aRt and should have rejected HARDtOIL but didn’t. Oh well. Woulda shoulda.
And thanks for your lovely comment, Gary. I missed seeing it earlier.
Arrogant and braggadocious to call this puzzle “easy.”
Played baseball a long time. A glove is a Mitt!
I know I’m late, but just wanted to add my praise for a wonderfully Saturday appropriate puzzle. No idea what my cumulative time was over two days, but it made me work hard to de-code the intentionally ambiguous clues. Thanks, Beck & Raf!
Rihanna is one of the most famous pop stars alive today and her makeup brand is everywhere... I'd hardly call that a "niche constituency", most women under the age of 40 would be able to tell you that answer
First basemen do have mitts, and they or the catcher can catch a pop fly, so the clue is ok I think.
Thank you for this correct exegesis.
Sorry, but I think Rex was off base here. Toadette has been a character for over two decades in the most wide-spread, popular video game franchise ever. She is absolutely more widely known than Borg, who hasn't played since 30 years ago.
I am with Rex on the TOADETTE debate. Either you know it or you don’t so it’s a big WOE for non-gamers like me. I am not with Rex as far as his “easy” rating. This one was Saturday-level hard and then some. At least for me.
Wait a minute. The crosses for TOADETTE are FAIR?????? You have GOT to be kidding me. PLUOT?? SYRAH??? You call that FAIR??????????????????
Then there's RIRI. Sounds like baby talk. Why would that become a nickname, unless the pop star is an infant? RIRIdiculous.
Needless to say, DNF because of this decidedly UNfair section.
Wordle phew. The force was not with me today.
I didn't know TOADETTE, but c'mon, it's a mushroom, and it's pink. Doesn't take many crosses to figure out that it's a toadstool pun with a stereotypical feminine ending. The ones that stumped me were LAR? ?NDONE and ANA?S RP?
SAY SYRAH SYRAH
EVENTUALLY I will ASK LARA
if she's THEBEST ONE AND how
THE GOLDENHOUR AT NIGHT'S tomorrow
'cuz OHGOD, I'M gonna COMENOW.
--- SIMON "SI" BORG
I found this to be a typically hard Saturday puzzle. But at least there was stuff for the Olds and Young'ns. I'm one of the Olds, so even though I know I knew some of the answers, it's getting harder and harder to dredge them up. For instance, I am familiar with the syrah grape, but Shiraz comes to mind first for me. At least for the perfume , I had the right person in mind, but Fenty didn't fit. But I did giterdone.
Riri really I did.
Post a Comment