Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle: Discontinued Mitsubishi sports sedan, informally / SAT 3-2-24 / Currency in the Legend of Zelda / Event of 1/31/2020 / Performance featuring masklike kumadori makeup / Rapper/singer with the 2005 hit "Temperature" / Comedian who played Louie the Lilac on "Batman" / Cute images with captions like "If it fits, I sits"

Discontinued Mitsubishi sports sedan, informally / SAT 3-2-24 / Currency in the Legend of Zelda / Event of 1/31/2020 / Performance featuring masklike kumadori makeup / Rapper/singer with the 2005 hit "Temperature" / Comedian who played Louie the Lilac on "Batman" / Cute images with captions like "If it fits, I sits"

Saturday, March 2, 2024

Constructor: Natan Last

Relative difficulty: Easy-Challenging (80% cake ... and then the southeast corner)

THEME: none

Word of the Day: ALLIE B. Latimer (2D: ___ B. Latimer, civil rights activist in the National Women's Hall of Fame) —

Allie B. Latimer (born February 16, 1928, in Coraopolis, Pennsylvania) was the first woman and the first African American to serve as General Counsel of a major United States federal agency. In her work to bring the government into compliance with the Civil Rights Act, she founded and developed Federally Employed Women (FEW) and worked to end gender discrimination in public sector jobs throughout her 40+ year career. According to the National Women's Hall of Fame, “FEW’s many accomplishments and activities have impacted the federal workplace and contributed to improved working conditions for all.” [...]

• • •

[Don't look at me, Alfie, you're
on your own]

WEDDING RINGS—that's it. That's the story of this puzzle in two words. The tragic story of this puzzle. And things were going so well for me! I was having a delightful spin around the grid, pointing in recognition at so many things I love. "Hey there, poetry! How ya doin'?! Baseball! My man, what is up? Ooh, look, STUNT DOGS, hello buddies! And .. wait ... holy cow, is that ... are those cats!? Sitting in boxes! Oh my god I gotta go say hi to them!" Just enjoying the hell out of myself, frankly. So pleased, so ... well, confident. Once I got a little bit into that fat middle section, I dropped WEDDING RINGS like it was nothing, casually. I didn't even bother following it down to the bottom of the grid to check crosses because, I mean, WEDDING RINGS, what else was it gonna be? (18D: Altar exchange). It was like I put a stake in the SE corner and thought "I'll be back to finish you off later." And so the middle went down and the SW went down and finally I headed over to the SE corner to close things out ... and promptly got flattened. Now, if I'd, say, paid attention to the informal names of bygone sedans (?) or played Zelda, ever (ha) (39D: Currency in The Legend of Zelda = RUPEE), or could've pulled the name of the artist on a two-decade-old rap song out of my hat (I had a different SEAN in my head the whole time, ugh), I might have realized the RINGS problem more quickly, and made a reasonably expeditious if not terribly graceful exit from this puzzle. But no. Instead I invented an informal name for the bygone sedan (the EXO!) (46D: Discontinued Mitsubishi sports sedan, informally), convinced myself that an English word means something it does not mean (EXIGENT!) (48A: Clear), and ... and ... and ... sputtered.

It seems hard to believe that I could get so far into the puzzle and not just ... close it out! It's not like I had nothing down there. I was able to guess DORSET (50A: ___ Horn (British sheep breed)) and drive TENANT through that section (35D: Lease signatory) and from there pick up TSK and TATA and KATY and STIHL!!! (32D: Big name in power tools)

But so intractable did the resulting rat's nest of letters prove that I knew I had something wrong. The problem was, I had no idea what, and so, masterfully, I pulled out ... STIHL! [Exceedingly deep sigh]. If only I could've seen TAX CUT!!! (31D: Stereotypical campaign promise). But that was not to be. At some point ... no idea how long it took me ... I started to pull things back to the studs (keep in mind—I thought RINGS *was* a stud). Out went the "X" in EXO/EXIGENT and then by some miracle EVIDENT sprang to mind for [Clear] and I thought, but it can't be, that would mean RINGS is ... wr- ... RING is wr- ... wrong!? EVIDENT to ***BANDS*** to all the dominoes falling in quick succession, the end.

My main issue with the "spare tire" thing was I didn't really think they were going to make a fat joke. So even though fat-around-the-gut was the first thing I thought of for "spare tire," I kept retreating back to literal, boot-of-the-car spare tire in my mind. But the real problem all along was RINGS. I could blame the rapper or the video game, but all that stuff fell into place when I made the simple (yet nearly impossible) move from RINGS to BANDS. The rest of the puzzle? My joyful romp? It's a misty memory now. Not a false memory, though. It was definitely a good time while it lasted.

[aka Civilization and Its Discontents]

It did take a little pushing to get into that fat center of the grid. I wasn't entirely sure about INSTANT WIN, given how the clue was phrased (didn't seem like a "yield" to me, exactly) (6D: Yield of some scratch-off tickets), and so I kinda held back there. I also had BLOOD VESSELS in there before the obvious "MAD" forced me to reconsider (37A: "We're all ___ here. I'm ___. You're ___": Cheshire Cat). I had some trouble getting all those long central Acrosses from their back ends, but once the STREAMS part of BLOODSTREAMS and the WEDDING part of WEDDING RINGS (argh) went in, I got SOUND BITE and the center toppled over easily. NUNHOOD! Can't decide if that's terrible or my favorite thing in the grid! If you can have PRIESTHOOD, why not NUNHOOD!?

Bullet points:

7A: Dock ___, pitcher who claimed to have thrown a no-hitter on LSD in 1970 (ELLIS) — there's an entertaining documentary about this on Netflix. Or there was. Looks like it's not there anymore. You can watch it free (with ads) on Tubi. It's called "No No: A Dockumentary." Recommended.
23A: Talk trashed? (SLUR) — really thought this clue was insulting people with speech impediments ("you talk like trash, loser!") but then realized that "trashed" here meant "drunk"; when you're drunk you might SLUR your words. Fair enough.
38A: Event of 1/31/2020 (BREXIT) — I remember the vote. That happened in the summer some time (2016, I think). The actual Day Of ... total unknown to me. Jan. 31, 2020, you say? I believe you.
14D: Comedian who played Louie the Lilac on "Batman" (BERLE) — wow, reaching back for this one. I had no idea Milton BERLE was ever on the Adam West "Batman" TV show! That is the "Batman" we're talking about, right? They didn't bring BERLE back in hologram form for the 2022 "Batman" movie, did they!?

12A: Place for some nonstarters (BULLPEN) — in baseball, relief pitchers (i.e. non-starters) come out of the BULLPEN (a kind of holding room typically found beyond the outfield, behind the wall)
13A: Currency that replaced the British West African pound (LEONE) — Crosswordese to the rescue! I have no idea where, exactly, this is a currency, but I know that it *is* a currency because ... crosswords! (It will perhaps shock you, as it did me, to learn that the LEONE is the currency of ... Sierra LEONE)

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

101 comments:

Conrad 6:08 AM: Medium for a Saturday.

ALice before ALLIE for Ms. Latimer at 2D
NUNnery before NUNHOOD at 21D
@Rex BLOOD vesselS before STREAMS at 3D
Incorrect SkIlL before STIHL at 32D (the tool manufacturer is Skil)

Wanted WEDDING vows for 18D but it didn't fit so I left everything south of WEDDING blank. That helped a lot. If I'd plugged in riNgS I would've been lost.

LEONE (13A), SEAN PAUL (45A) and EVO (46D) were WOEs
IB 6:15 AM: Had the same problem in the SE. knowing the rapper actually did not help. It was only after rupee was in that the crosses were obviously wrong
Anonymous 6:56 AM: I did you one worse: I channeled my childhood which on Sundays meant going to Mass. The church published a weekly bulletin containing, among other things, a list of newly married couples under the heading “Wedding Banns.”
It’s a thing:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banns_of_marriage
Gary Jugert 7:11 AM: Definitely too obscure for me. A parade of proper nouns (13) and foreignisms (5). Let's call it: Lazy constructioneering.

Umm, 🦖... you might want to re-consider the phrase "boot-of-the-car" (no matter how cute it seems) since this is America where we have trunks and we don't have tyres and the last thing we need here is another anglophile college professor saying things like "I'll have a room temperature beer that tastes like soot," and "soccer is great," and "there's this really good show on PBS..."

Tee-Hee: It's gotten to the point I actually get angry when they drop another obsessive ASS on us yet again. Yes, a good butt is how you make the first cut out of the slush pile, but it's more laziness. Our NYTXW editors are capable of finding advanced pull-my-fingerisms in your grid, so reach deeply into your bag of tee-hee-isms for more than a little ASS.

Uniclues:

1 An interview with a happy fan after a night at the stadium with those big plastic cups of beer.
2 Lassie's body doubles in the 60s.
3 Result of the open buffet on Noah's ship.
4 Name of the band that only writes songs about the odors wafting from bread bakeries.
5 What cement-mixer trucks are good for.
6 Doing a great job of enjoying music in London.
7 When a first date goes better than expected.
8 Government relief for humorous felines.
9 Punny slogan for chainsaw manufacturer.

1 SLUR SOUNDBITE
2 HEP STUNT DOGS
3 PAUNCHY ARK ASS (~)
4 EVIDENT DOUGH (~)
5 MAZDA MASH (~)
6 BANG UP ROCK OUT
7 INSTANT WIN PAIR
8 LOL CATS TAX CUT
9 STIHL IN LOVE

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Princess's body art depicting her prince's home town. LILY PADS TATTOO.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Son Volt 7:29 AM: Wonderful puzzle - love the massive 5-stack center. It paid to know some trivia here - ELLIS, PAUL and BERLE especially. The cluing on the NUNHOOD x STUNT DOGS cross is wonderful. My sticky point was FORTHWITH.

Lake Street knows WEDDING BAND

Overall this played slick and quick. Backed into DORSET but loved the other British shout out to MGS. Still not a fan of LOL CATS - we’ve seen it a few times now. Hamish Henderson was a highly interesting character.

Highly enjoyable - rainy Saturday morning solve. Warning - Stella has a Stumper today.

ALLIE
DarienSteve 7:31 AM: old enough to remember Dock Ellis, pitched for the Pirates and then a shorter career with the Yankees. Also old enough to have seen Milton Berle on Batman but did not remember the character name. Too old to know Temperature. Not may favorite Saturday crossword puzzle.
PSS Old enough that Band of Gold by Freda Payne was the first record I ever bought- a "45"
Anonymous 7:32 AM: I thought defining SLUR as “trashed talk” meant that you trashed your talk by expressing an ethnic slur rather than by slurring your speech, but that seems like a reach now
Rick 7:32 AM: pretty sure no one has ever used the "word" "nunhood"
SouthsideJohnny 7:39 AM: Similar to yesterday, I thought the center section was the star of the show with the grid spanners that are stacked and fairly crossed with a welcome absence of PPP and other gunk - very nicely done there.

The north and south sections on the other hand were more like preparing for a Latin test in school. Yea, we remember KULTUR and the ALLIE lady, ditto for whoever LEONE is and whatever a MILLE is. Of course, don’t forget to memorize your DORSET, your STIHL, and of course make sure you bone up on the requisite rap “artists” - reminded me of all that stuff we had to memorize so that we could regurgitate it for an hour then forget about until you see it in a Crossword Puzzle like 50 years later.

I’m starting to think that ASS has overstayed its welcome - it was good fun for a long time, but I suspect it’s about time for another hee-hee word.
Lewis 7:40 AM: This is a grid with pop.

That was my initial impression – “Wow, nothing rusty here, what interesting entries everywhere!”

But let me back it up – and pardon the cross-nerd in me – after looking at some data on XwordInfo. It turns out that a quarter of this grid’s answers have been used less than five times in the 80-year Times crossword history. That’s one out of four answers! That’s serious zing.

Then there’s the beauty. Look at that five-answer center stack, including prime answers SOUND BITE, FORTHWITH, and MOVE ALONG, not to mention four stellar clues among the five.

There are gorgeous answers elsewhere as well: PAUNCHY, KABUKI, MAROON, and BANGUP. And lovely clues, including my favorite, [Unusual change] with no question mark, for RARE COINS. All in a grid stiffened with plenty of bite.

And bonuses:
• BITE over DOGS.
• Four double-L’s in the first three rows.
• The PuzzPair© of ARK and PAIR.
• NUNHOOD, which immediately brought to mind an outstanding feature of certain “Handmaid’s Tale” costumes.

Standout Saturday, Natan, popping with energy and lit up with sparks. Bravo, sir, and thank you!
JC 7:52 AM: Love all the British English references in both clues and fill! And with two consecutive baseball references. A jolly jaunt!
Anonymous 7:57 AM: Oy. I only had a couple of the crosses (apparently I had skipped over the easiest answer in the grid, TWO) and marriagevows fit the couple crosses I had. Then everything else didn’t fit and i went with WEDDINGrings like (almost) everyone else. Time-wise this played like a “hard” for me.
Burghman 8:07 AM: Different but same experience for me - got the SE first, but that NE killed me. I was positive about shY (not COY) - like Rex was positive about ringS - so I couldn’t see LOLCATS, INLOVE, and therefore couldn’t get enough pieces of LEONE, MILLE, or HAVA.
mmorgan 8:09 AM: I struggled but made steady progress throughout… until I too hit a giant wall in the SE with, of course, WEDDING rings. Also, OUTCLASSEs didn’t help either.
Anonymous 8:24 AM: Also confidently put in RINGS and struggled in the SE, but then TAX CUT led to BREXIT led to BANDS and I finished with a better time than yesterday.
kitshef 8:32 AM: Found this pretty tough, especially in the SW where we have two car clues that needed all the crosses. I have learned to fill in LOLCATS, though I remain mystified by what specifically makes something a LOLCAT.

There is a third car clue that needed all the crosses in the SE. Ugh just too much car crap. But the rest of that section did not cause any trouble.

mikado before KABUKI, 'confirmed' by anew before UPON got me off to a bad start. Lots of half-answers. NUN___, OUT___, WEDDING___, INSTANT___ made getting into the bottom half tough.
pabloinnh 8:37 AM: Yep, the dreaded SE. Had LINK for PAIR forever, which didn't help, and eventually came up with EVIDENT, which should have been, well, EVIDENT. I then reluctantly erased RINGS, which I had finally come up with and was mightily pleased with myself for doing so. Pride goeth, and all that. I mentally guessed the E of EVO crossing SEAN and gave myself the happy music when I saw that I had guessed right. Phew.

This one had a lot of "oh yeah, that" like BREXIT and SLUR and even MILLE, for which I wanted some form of "molto". Nope. In Spanish it goes before-mil gracias-so that was no help.

I'm familiar with Mr. Last's work from the New Yorker and his puzzles are always a workout, mostly because of the vast differences in our ages. I guess if he knows something about Dock ELLis I should know something about SEANPAUL, but I don't.

Almost got me again, NL. Nearly Left the SE without finishing this one, but the satisfaction was worth the struggle. Thanks for all the fun.
Megafrim 8:38 AM: I avoided Rex's problem quadrant by getting "Brexit" early on.

@Anonymous 6:56 AM: Whenever I see "banns", which is not often, I recall that this was the competition-ending word in the Scripps National Spelling Bee from several years ago.
Bob Mills 8:48 AM: Finished it after long trial-and-error in the NW, because I didn't know KABUKI. I guessed KULTUR because of the language factor, but SLUR didn't seem right at first and I had to decide between HEP and "hip."

I had "wedding rings" at first, too...but BREXIT required WEDDINGBANDS. And I guessed right on SEANPAUL. A tough struggle, but worth it.
Dr.A 8:48 AM: I found all the names tough, I figured out RINGS was wrong and took it out so that corner shaped up eventually. I had the most trouble in the top left, I guess that’s NW corner. I kept putting MENTION in and taking it back ou because BAN didn’t ring any bells for me. BANG UP and HEP seemed old fashioned for this current puzzle but definitely did thing Put Forth was ARGUED. I had ISSUED, and that held me up for a bit, but Talk Trashed really bugged me. That sounds like a heckler or a pan not a SLUR, that would be Talked Trash. Hello! Grammar! But overall like @Rex said, a fun romp!! Oh and BLOOD VESSELS before BLOOD STREAMS, Omg, that definitely felt right to me too.
frankbirthdaycake 8:48 AM: Challenging puzzle for me, as I pieced it together slowly. The NW was a real slog, for some reason, even though it should have been easy. Some of the fill was a little obscure for my taste, but I enjoyed it on the whole.
Anonymous 8:49 AM: Super Saturday puzzle, thanks to Natan and NYT.! Medium solve for me with over average time
Different experience than OFL. Big center gaped starting out , but corners filled in steadily (except NW), and inevitably started getting long answers. Went SW, NE, SE, then back to NW but now with assistance of INSTANTWIN and BLOODSTREAM. Only had BULLPEN and BANGUP at first, hit on ARGUED and the rest filled in, ending with KABUKI/KULTUR which were new to me.

Nothing in puzzle super challenging but nothing easy either. That's what I'm hoping for and got a nice package today
Randy 8:49 AM: Nobody's talking about KULTUR?! That was a killer for me.
Anonymous 9:05 AM: Also a cool song about Dock Ellis: Americas favorite pastime, by Todd Snider
Jack Stefano 9:10 AM: What a great little puzzle for a Saturday.
Anonymous 9:16 AM: That Anglophile professor would call it football - never soccer.
Anonymous 9:21 AM: Same! Total Catholic flashback.
puzzlehoarder 9:23 AM: Same time as yesterday so this average Saturday felt easier than it would have otherwise. There was no Saturday uptick in difficulty this week.

Every section had easy material in it to jump start the solve.

NUNHOOD is an SB classic speaking of which....

yd -0, QB34
RooMonster 9:29 AM: Hey All !
Nothing was coming FORTHWITH to me for a bit at first. I think I had three entries after the first initial pass-through. Thought "Holy Moly, this is gonna be tough!", but started getting a bit in the SW, and the solve grew out from there.

Got stuck in NW corner, couldn't get the ole brain to think of a comedian from BE___. Had to Goog. Aha, says I, once I saw it, good ole Miltie (Milton Berle). Then stuck in SE corner, with four names (SEAN PAUL, KATY, STIHL, EVO), a Sheep Breed, and a Mario money unit. Yikes. Goog down there for RUPEE, and looked up Sheep breeds to discover that there are a million different kinds! Who knew? Wikipedia "List of sheep breeds" yields 385 different types. Wowsers.

Got yer closed off NW/SE corners, just a single space (twice, does that count as a double?) to get into them.

Of course, got an ASS. The SLUR that keeps on giving.

Have a Happy Saturday, All !

One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
burtonkd 9:30 AM: Great blog, today, RP!

I was all happy to see a clue for altar exchanges that wasn't the -ese-y IDOS, but a long answer! How my fortunes turned with the RINGS problem. No other easy way in there with a rapper, foreign sheep breed, and vague "clear" approaching from the West; OUTCLASSED took lots of crosses to see.

Then, TSK which I entered and cleared many times, didn't know KATY, needed a headstart for STIHL, "later" could be ciao, ciya, etc., "renter" and "client" > TENANT. I should have seen PAIR sooner; ditto TAXCUT.
TAXCUT finally gave me BREXIT, which lead to my D'oh moment of WEDDINGBANDS, and finally the dominoes fell.

The videogame currency was at least a recognizable one. Going from SW to SE, I got 3 car clues in a row, and heard a thud on a wall from somewhere south of here - Hi, Nancy!

29Down, I had __VE for pet, and thought they already had LOVE in the puzzle. Remembered it was Natan Last, who wouldn't do such an obvious dupe and moved on.

I like that CATS and DOGS are crossing today peacefully.

I just now figured out the book title - the insect, KATYDID!

I thought AFT was too easy for a late-week "not forward", but sometimes they put in a blindingly obvious clue to throw you off. Alas, COY is a better Saturday answer.

Thanks for the challenge, Natan!
Nancy 9:35 AM: Sometimes you have to bail to save your sanity. But you won't know, until you check the answers, whether you made the right decision or not. Will you discover that with just a little more grit, just a little more stubbornness, just a little more determination, you could have solved the darned thing?

Well, in this case, a resounding no, and my sanity is thanking me.

I'm too shell-shocked from wrestling with this to expend the energy it would take to list my wrong answers and the answers that were completely unknown to me. Suffice it to say that I successfully filled in the NW corner and the SW corner and nothing else. I did have WEDDING RINGS running down the center-right of the grid...but it was wrong.

A struggle that I abandoned because it really wasn't fun for me at all. I applaud those of you who solved it with no cheats -- I'd say that's a really impressive accomplishment.
David Grenier 9:37 AM: Challenging for me, PAUNCHY took forever. I kept wanting it to be a person with a spare tire, not another word for having a spare tire.

Put KABUKI in early but couldn’t build anything off of it. The K down felt especially wrong so I erased it and convinced myself that it couldn’t be KABUKI. so it took me forever to get anything in that northeast.

All in all a challenging, fun solve.
Teleiotes 9:38 AM: Can anyone explain how "Action toys, perhaps?" is STUNTDOGS? Are "stunt dogs" a brand name or category name for some kind of toy, or is there some second meaning here? When I Google "stunt dogs" I'm only getting results for actual dogs who perform actual stunts like in dog shows.
Teedmn 9:41 AM: Sure, WEDDING riNgs caused a slight pause in the swooshing (I saw TAX CUT with less trouble than Rex describes so BREXIT broke the logjam in the SE) but it was the NW that turned my solve into a typical Saturday time. I eventually got BULLPEN and chipped away at the rest of that sector FORTHWITH (gotta love that 29A!)

Thanks, Natan Last.
pabloinnh 10:01 AM: Stumplers-

For whatever reason I found today's Stumper much easier than today's NYT.

YMMV.
Niallhost 10:02 AM: I could not get out of my own way at the end, thinking BULLPEN was BaLLPEN and not having any idea what KULTUR was. But once that U went in, made complete sense as is often the case. Finished in a little over 30 with that one mistake. Just the right amount of challenge for a Saturday. Didn't struggle in the SE anymore than anywhere else.

@Teleiotes - "toys" are referring to toy poodles.
Gary Jugert 10:05 AM: @Anonymous9:16 AM
Haha! Good point. And they would pronounce it "fütbahl."
Anonymous 10:08 AM: Can anyone explain KEN for Scope? I got it with the crosses but I still don't understand it.
kitshef 10:12 AM: What I love about today is that every quadrant has been singled out as the toughest:
SE REx, IB, and others
NE Burghman
SW kitshef
NW Bob Mills, frankbirthdaycake, and others
Visho 10:16 AM: Struggled mightily, but loved it! Put in KABUKI, but couldn't seem to make it work except for the BLOOD... part so did one Google "cheat" to make sure it was correct. Does that count against a perfect solve to you purists? The kind of Saturday I really enjoy. Thanks, Mr. Last.
burtonkd 10:16 AM: @Teleiotes: Toy is a group of dog breeds that are typically under 15 pounds.
Nancy 10:17 AM: @Haha, @burtonkd! Thanks for the shoutout. Great pickup, to coin a phrase. But actually I had two of the three cars, MAZDA and MGS -- from the crosses mostly. I didn't have a clue as to the third one at 46D -- and boy, did I need it there! But the SPLAT!!! you heard from a great distance came more from the insects book, the Bluetooth clue, the fake online followers, the Legend of Zelda, the circulation clue (I had BLOODSystems), the "unusual change" (I wanted something like metamorphosis or digression). And don't even get me started on STUNT DOGS.

I'm always amazed at how many people solve puzzles I find impossible.
Teleiotes 10:30 AM: @burtonkd Thank you!!
Anonymous 10:36 AM: Only got KEN through crosses. Don’t know how “scope” gets to KEN
Eh Steve! 10:43 AM: I found this one tougher than usual and couldn't really get a toe hold anywhere. NE went first, then SE. Ended up finishing in the NW.

But got Naticked with EVe and DeRSET. I guess I just don't know old Mitsubishi sedans or English sheep breeds well enough. And I'm OK with that.
egsforbreakfast 10:46 AM: @Lewis. Did you miss a PuzzPair with MAZDA crossing ZOOMS? "Zoom Zoom" is Mazda's global marketing slogan and was used in their U.S. TV ads for years.

Is SEANPAUL related to Pope John Paul?

Did you hear about the landlord who called in an exterminator because he had TENANTs living in his building? Me neither.

Marge: Homer, did you stop and get me something from the ATM?
Homer: DOUGH!

Not being one to buck a trend, I had the rings/BANDS snafu that everyone else did. I STIHL solved the whole thing quickly for a Saturday, and enjoyed it a lot. Thanks, Natan Last.
Joe Dipinto 11:04 AM: If you've heard the expression "beyond my ken", it means outside my scope of knowledge or understanding.
GILL I. 11:05 AM: Good gravy! This tries so hard to be hard that I simply melted. Or as @Nancy might say "SPLAT."
Where to even start:
KABUKI..wow, I got a 1A on a Saturday. Now try to figure out what Mr. Freud though civilization would be....
I guess KOOKOO is a made up word?
On to the east side of town. Cheat on ELLIS. Damn! Oh, wait! Your cheat led me to several happy dance partners. I knew LEONE, (not sure why...) and remembered LOL CATS, (not sure why...) and then tried some new dance steps all over the dance floor. Egads...!!!! .Will I ever be able to finish or even get one of the longies right?
I did and I didn't.
KULTUR? Is that really you? BLOOD STREAM are you really in circulation? I got STUNT DOGS and I have absolutely no idea what you are. Oh wait! NAE is the Mair of whatever? Robert Frost's first words are TWO?
Let the ASS begin.
I had no trouble with WEDDING BANDS other than It took me forever. Why? you ask...BREXIT, that's why. I got you off of the TAX CUT, that's why.
ANTSY DORSET...You were my last fandango tango. I left SEAN PAUL on the floor somewhere ... he was a bit too PAUNCHY for my liking.
Conclusion: NUNHOOD you look so lonely.
Anonymous 11:35 AM: “Temperature” is not a rap song, just for the record. It’s a dancehall song. Different genre, rooted in reggae. Great song! :)
LenFuego 11:44 AM: I had WEDDINGRINGS first too, but that did not hold me up much and the SE was actually the first thing I completed. This one seemed super difficult on my first pass through, but all those difficulties melted away one by one and I actually had a pretty fast time for me.
Anonymous 11:53 AM: BLOODSTREAMS are not IN circulation. They ARE the circulation. Blood cells, however…
Masked and Anonymous 11:59 AM: I think all U nice foks in the Comment Gallery have already covered mosta my solvequest problem points with this stunt dog. All them yelps made m&e feel right at home.

A little extra stuff that I'll kick in with:

1. This SatPuz had SOUND BITE, with 4 Jaws of Themelessness.
2. Really really was rootin for 8-D's {Accessory with a scent} to be LOO.
3. STUNTDOGS/NUNHOOD? day-um. and har
4. This puz was WEDDING CATS & DOGS.

staff weeject pick: EVO. no-know wheels, runnin over no-know sheep. Guessed EVU (got greedy).

Thanx, Mr. Last dude. TATA and SEEYA. HAVA HIGH day.

Masked & Anonymo9Us

**gruntz**
beverly c 12:17 PM: E x a c t l y the same experience in the SE corner as Rex. Except I'm sure it took me five times as long to finally work it out - but I did! This is the challenge I was missing this week.

The rest also was a test. I wrote KABUKI and BALLOONS right in - and removed them after getting no crosses. STUNTDOGS gets a WITW?? Are there bungee jumping chihuahuas now? And NUNHOOD? Okaaaay.

Proud of myself for seeing FORTHWITH. RARECOINS is nice. Embarrassing how long it took to see STREAMS even having the R_A_S. I don’t know my Wonderland well enough - I had big instead of MAD for quite a while…

My time was 42:20 - which reminds me more of working the (Sunday) puzzle when I was a kid.
Newboy 12:24 PM: When I saw Natan as construction boss, I knew it was going to be tough. Like @Pablo, I struggle through his New Yorker grids each week in lieu of the fill in the blanks offered for Monday and Tuesday. Tried the down clue only solving recommendation, but I found less joy than some other folks; rationalized that just the TH-F-Sa solving gives me 150+ grids for my games subscription—and I get to play Connections as well ;^)

BREXIT is etched in our KULTUR and Batman apparently will live forever in Crosslandia at least. Many missteps (few ZOOMS) along this LAST path as commentariat note above, but it was an enjoyable trip so it’s time to MOVEALONG, TATA.
foxaroni 12:27 PM: Enjoyed the puzzle. Same difficulties as most of you.For the Bluetooth clue tried SYNC and LINK before PAIR. About 1956 I owned a paperback collection of short stories titled "Beyond Human Ken." That usage of "ken" has stayed with me all these years. @Gary Jugert, your uniclue for "Mazda Mash" immediately made me think it could be made into a parody of Bobby "Boris" Pickett's "Monster Mash." "I was working in the lab late one night, when my ears received a scary fright. The sounds began to build and roar on the highway outside my door. The cement trucks, to my surprise, were grinding the Mazdas down to size.They did the Mash, they did the Mazda Mash. It made lots of junkyard trash. It happened in just a flash. They did the Mazda Mash." (Send all royalty proceeds to foxaroni. You're welcome, lol.)
Tom T 12:41 PM: Medium, leaning towards challenging time wise--challenging turning into utter dnf because of the dreaded double Natick, which for me is a Natick in two completely separated areas of the puzzle.

Natick #1 LEiNE/LiLCATS (I'm sure that I might have come up with the lol part if I had known I had a mistake there.)

But there was the big Natick #2 S_EANPAUL/_VO, which given the unpredictable names of rappers and the wide open possibilities of answers with initials, could have been almost any letter.

If you have to run the 5 vowels in one Natick and the entire alphabet in the other one, I'm not taking the time for that.

Like Rex and I'm sure many others, I fell for the WEDDING ringS trick and spent much of my time staring at the SE corner. But I persevered until the rapper and his discontinued sports sedan spoiled the fun.
Anonymous 12:41 PM: I had rings before BANDS, like so many others.

@Megafrim- Comment about banns: I was also reminded of the Scripps spelling bee, and specifically the documentary where one adorable kid was very confused as to what the judges had said, and thought it was “bands”.

When I read the clue re 1/31/2020, I first thought it had something to do with COVID, or Trump’s first impeachment trial. Finally got to BREXIT via crosses.
jae 12:42 PM: Medium-tough. Finally a puzzle with some teeth this week. The NE and SW were on the easy side and the SW was medium for me (I put in BREXIT early so rings never occurred to me) but the NW was tough. I had tip top before BANG UP, was not sure on spelling KABUKI, plus BERLE was on the Batman series over 50 years ago and was a minor villain at that, MASH could have been MuSH, KULTUR was a major WOE…tough corner for me!

Excellent center stack, no dreck, lotsa crunch, liked it a bunch!
jb129 12:50 PM: I'll start on an up note - I enjoyed your write-up today, Rex.

KULTUR? Really? Natan's puzzles are always difficult for me even in the NYer without the JASA group.

Congrats to all those who solved it without cheating & enjoyed it. What I enjoyed was how doable it was once I cheated.
okanaganer 12:56 PM: Hands up for WEDDING RINGS but it didn't hang me up that long. I started slow but finished strong in about 14 minutes; nice Saturday. Love those 3 stair stacks!

Natick at SEAN PAUL crossing EVO at the E. STAN? SWAN? SIAN? SXAN(Chinese?)?

I'd swear when I was in Italy it was MILLE GRAZIE not GRAZIE MILLE. "Thousand thanks" is common: tausend dank (German), tusen tack (Swedish).

[Spelling Bee: yd currently -1 missing a 7er. @puzzlehoarder way to go; dunno how you do it!]
Dan P 1:05 PM: Toughest in a while for me. Even with KABUKI and KEN coming to mind immediately, could not make NW work until I finally parsed INSTANTWIN from below. First thought for end of 18D was vows, which didn't fit, so I didn't get biased by a wrong guess. I'd never heard of EVO Mitsubishi; would have much preferred a visit from his Bolivian brother Morales.
Anonymous 1:30 PM: Schmuck is obscene. Doesn't Will know that? Didn't care. It fits, so NYT printed it.
johnk 1:47 PM: First DNF in some time, now. Solved all corners and center without too much pain, but I was not IN LOVE with the NE. It didn't help that I confidently entered MOLTO instead of MILLE and AFT for COY. Forgot ELLIS, never knew LEONE, and I purposely don't remember LOL CATS.
Joe Dipinto 1:48 PM: I had WEDDING RINGS briefly at first too, but "stereotypical campaign promise" screamed TAX-something, and the X screamed BREXIT. So that whole corner fell in easily for me. Like @David Grenier, I put in KABUKI early but took it out later; I can't remember why, but I think because I had decided to put in DONE in for "Over". The whole thing progressed steadily if a bit slowly at times. I liked it, ultimately.

wedding band
Ray Yuen 2:13 PM: Natan Last puzzles are fetid piles of camel turds. I hate his puzzles and it my disappointment is profound every time I see his name come up in a New Yorker Monday credit. That's my favourite puzzle of the week but I don't bother to open it when I see Last's name.

Making a hard puzzle is great. Using words that no one speaking the English language knows? What's the point?

I look forward to the NYT Saturday crossword as well, even if it's not in the same league as the New Yorker. I opened the puzzle today, read the first clue, and thought to myself, "well that's an awful start." I scrolled up and saw Natan Lousy Last as the creator. I didn't bother to read the second clue and shut it down.

Reading some of the comments here, it doesn't look as heinous as his usual puzzles but my patience with his tripe is wiped. Natan Last: please just go away.
Anonymous 2:24 PM: My favorite puzzle in quite a while. Many clever clues, and just the right amount of challenge for me. Meaning I had to go back to it several times.
Floridamam 3:05 PM: I got the Southeast quickly because I entered STIHL right away and then the TSK cross. SEAN PAUL was the only one I struggled with.
Anonymous 3:07 PM: First MARRIAGEVOWS, while the grid was mostly empty, then WEDDINGRINGS, and finally *BANDS. That much churn, combined with not knowing KABUKI or KULTUR, made for an overall challenging solve. For me, this was by far the hardest Saturday NYT of the year so far. No complaint though, sometimes a puzzle will push back at you a lot, like this one did.
egsforbreakfast 3:08 PM: @Ray Yuen. Did Natan Last by any chance steal your girl, kill your dog and short your company's stock?
Katie Sievers 3:28 PM: SE stank. Crossing the rapper and the car and zelda cash and...was rude!

Also, had to chuck Library books AND Blood vessels before getting to Blood streams. Oof. It's helpful to know words associated with kabuki, I guess...
Anonymous 3:29 PM: https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/toy/
Anonymous 3:36 PM: MARRIAGE VOWS also works in that pesky area and the G falls eight letters in, just is it does in WEDDING.
andrew 3:51 PM: I knowingly gave up a lengthy winning streak by checking the “Turn ON Autocheck” option (why is ON in caps? Why is there no hyphen in Autocheck?)

Cuts the time - and frustration level - way down!

Still a good mental workout. And encourages me to guess on things I’m not sure of - more often than not, instinct was right but confidence was lacking.

To hell with the KEA/LOAs - nice to know one or the other, In the week I’ve made the switch, less focused on “this was an unfair clue!” Rex-is-vexed type opinions and more in just appreciating a puzzle’s uniqueness. And getting on with my day.

Especially helpful if you’re newly wading into Friday/Saturday difficulty - instant grading can help ease the sea of white spaces facing you!
Sam 4:26 PM: Also had WEDDING RINGS before BANDS. Knowing SEAN PAUL and EVO saved me.
Anonymous 4:46 PM: "Toys" here refers to the category of real dogs who are very small -- "toy poodle," e.g.

So "Action toys" are tiny dogs that may be involved in stunt tricks or are animal talent in film and TV.
Tallulah 4:59 PM: “Keep going” rather than “ move along” messed with me a bit. But got a kick out of Kultur and Bull Pen. Scope = Ken?
Anonymous 5:18 PM: Laughing because I had the same errors as Rex, with RINGS, EXO, EXIGENT, etc. I was pretty proud of myself for not having to resort to Google at all. Early 2020? Um, Covid and, um…
jae 5:26 PM: That should be SE was medium...
Kelly 5:43 PM: I’m with Ray Yuen. Natan Last represents all that is evil.
Anonymous 5:57 PM: In one‘a Ken. Scope of knowledge.
dgd 6:01 PM: I agree with Bob Mills. NW last quadrant. To me the bottom was fairly easy. Lucky I waited until I got a few crosses before I filled in after wedding.
Anonymous 6:44 PM: Possibly my least favorite puzzle of 2024 so far, I hated it. The names felt obscure, there was a ton of phrases in other languages that I wasn't aware of (and MILLE instead of MOLTO really screwed me up), and so many awkward fills. I had to come here to check some answers because I was barely making any headway. Didn't enjoy this one at all, huge miss for me.
Gary Jugert 7:10 PM: @foxaroni 12:27 PM
Love it. I did think of Monster Mash, but didn't see a way to make it work and here you smashed it out of the park.
Anonymous 8:35 PM: I served in Peace Corps in Sierra Leone, so LEONE was a warm fuzzy gimme. But I thought it was MOLTO grazie, so had a bit of trouble in the NE anyway.
Joe Dipinto 8:55 PM: Judging from the late comments, perhaps the puzzle's byline would have best been given in clue form:
"Constructor whose first initial should be replaced with the penultimate letter of his surname"

(How low can you go?)
CDilly52 12:30 AM: Funniest clue today was Action toys, perhaps? I got DOGS easily from the crosses but it took me a long time to get NUNHOOD and the STREAMS part if BLOODSTREAMS, largely because that clue seemed a bit wonky to me. Consequently, the STUNT part was tough. Until the very end of the solve when the “toys” clicked in. Just a fabulous Saturday clue.

Overall, today’s Saturday played easoer than the usual Saturday, but like @Rrex, I had fun working through it.
Anonymous 2:48 AM: Hated it. Hard because of all the obscure factoids. Prefer the joy of wrestling with wordplay to being stalled random trivia.
Anonymous 8:06 AM: Got MILLE no problem but I have a crush on Italian. Thought 1A was going to have to do with noh. Not a fan of STUNTDOGS - what?? But I got LOLCATS since my brother coded the first lolcat builder tool way back when. I think I was more stuck in the NW than SE but my final square filled in was the cross of SEANPAUL and EVO. Neither moniker looks familiar, oh well! A challenging one for me but I did finish without hints or lookups, in just under 1 hour.
Diane 11:26 AM: Came here looking for someone else who started with MARRIAGE VOWS! For me it was that first, then WEDDING RINGS and then *finally* WEDDING BANDS. That section took me forever. I finished without cheating, but my time was 30 minutes longer than my average Saturday.
Sian 12:24 PM: I stuck with Embarassed (yup, misspelling and all) for far too long for 25d. Once that cleared up the whooshing started.
Very enjoyable puzzle!
Andrew B. 11:44 PM: Cluing 27A to not exclude "hip" is inexcusable
Anonymous 8:44 PM: I thought altar exchange was brilliant if the answer was WATER FOR WINE. Sadly it was just about weddings. I had Rupee so I knew rings was wrong as was oaths. Funny thing is that I thought of BANNS but never BANDS. DUH. I followed Brexit but didn't know the date. I had the S and P for rapper and couldn't stop thinking it was Snoop Dog. ALLIE,NAE, STIHL EVO, LOLCATS and KATY made it difficult too. Friday 3/1 was much better.
Aviatrix 12:15 AM: Might have been a record Saturday for me. No Googling. One asking someone else what the currency was in Zelda, but he didn't remember, so it doesn't count. I was slow to get BALLOONS, because I thought crossword grammar required a plural clue with a plural answer. I didn't know any of the proper names, but they were guessable with crosses.
Anonymous 10:37 AM: Medium-challenging for me. Tons of misdirects. Fun to see Louie The Lilac making an appearance. All in all a BANGUP job by Natan Last.
Anonymous 10:46 AM: I had marrIagevowS before WEDDINGBANDS. Others, including Rex, had WEDDINGriNgS. It was a clever multi-pronged misdirect.
Anonymous 3:26 PM: Like a couple of others here, due to my Catholic education(K through college), I put in wedding banns, but unfortunately didn't change it to bands, because bands aren't at the altar, they're at the reception afterwards. If only I had persevered, the bells would have finally rung.
"No soup for you!!!"
krabby 5:18 PM: . . . now that he's gone . . . all that's left is a BAND of gold . . .
not a musical group
rondo 5:58 PM: I did not find this easy. Filled in around the edges before getting to the middle where I pondered, contemplated, deliberated, and considered many possibilities, which resulted in a number of smallish inkfests before eventual success.
Wordle par.
spacecraft 6:58 PM: Weird: I splatzed in the middle and then worked like crazy to get the corners. NE was last & hardest. I thought it was Grazie MoLto, or close. Didn't realize it was "A thousand thanks." Have seen LOLCATS before, but forgot them. And Gaga = INLOVE: doh!

NUNHOOD is not an accepted word in my Scrabble dictionary. Almost wrote in NUNnery. FORTHWITH is Jamie Reagan's FAVE saying on Blue Bloods. I started to write WEDDINGvows, then realized it was too short. BREXIT came to the rescue for BANDS.

Good Saturday toughness. "These aren't the droids we're looking for. MOVEALONG." Birdie.

Wordle par.
BS2 7:30 PM: RARE PAIR

We TWO were INLOVE WITH PAUL,
YA SEE, it's EVIDENT we'd BANG that guy,
PAUL never ARGUED at all,
did we MENTION we got our TENANT HIGH?

--- KATY & ALLIE DORSET
Daverino 8:23 PM: NUNHOOD was the last thing I dropped in. Still doesn’t seem like a thing! 😆

Thanks for the Freda Payne needle drop, Rex…one of my ALL TIME faves!