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Egg-shaped brain structures / SAT 3-23-24 / 2022 rom-com with a predominantly L.G.B.T.Q. cast / cat holiday creature in Icelandic folklore / Activist born at 375 p.p.m. per her social media bio / Hill-adjacent field in brief / Fabric named for a Mideast capital / City of 1+ million near the Russia/Kazakhstan border / Fathers, in Hebrew
Saturday, March 23, 2024
Constructor: Sam Ezersky
Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging
Word of the Day: THALAMI (20D: Egg-shaped brain structures) —
The thalamus (pl.: thalami; from Greek θάλαμος, "chamber") is a large mass of gray matter on the lateral walls of the third ventricle forming the dorsal part of the diencephalon (a division of the forebrain). Nerve fibers project out of the thalamus to the cerebral cortex in all directions, known as the thalamocortical radiations, allowing hub-like exchanges of information. It has several functions, such as the relaying of sensory and motor signals to the cerebral cortex and the regulation of consciousness, sleep, and alertness. // Anatomically, it is a paramedian symmetrical structure of two halves (left and right), within the vertebrate brain, situated between the cerebral cortex and the midbrain. It forms during embryonic development as the main product of the diencephalon, as first recognized by the Swiss embryologist and anatomist Wilhelm His Sr. in 1893. (wikipedia)
• • •
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| ["Please don't steal me!"] |
When you have to provide an anagram for your "Veteran N.F.L. quarterback," then your "Veteran N.F.L. quarterback" is not famous enough to be in the puzzle (50A: Veteran N.F.L. quarterback whose name anagrams to SOMETHING). Commit to GENO SMITH! That clue is insulting. The rest of the puzzle is trying so hard to be hard, and then along comes this condescending "here, just rearrange the letters" clue? On a Saturday? smh. But I can't say that I didn't find a lot of the (occasionally weird-ass) clues fun to work through. Lots and lots and lots of misdirection today. I got 1A: They're seen around diners (BIBS) right away—so proud!—but I struggled (appropriately for a Saturday) with a lot of the other ambiguous stuff.
Ambiguous stuff:
While I didn't love this one so much, it did give me a proper Saturday workout. It tried me and tested me, and not always in annoying ways. So despite my earlier griping, I'm reasonably satisfied with the effort. See you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Ambiguous stuff:
- 15A: Worrisome word from a barber ("UH OH") — thank god for BIBS, because I'd've written "OOPS" in here without hesitation otherwise (BIBS made OOPS untenable). "OOPS" has the advantage of actually being one "word" (although I guess you hyphenate "UH-OH," so ... OK).
- 30A: [Smacks forehead] ("GAH!") — thank god for "I HEAR YA," because I'd've written "D'OH!" in here without hesitation otherwise ("I HEAR YA" made "D'OH!" untenable).
- 43A: Way up in the mountains (GONDOLA) — I was thinking CHAIRLIFT, T-BAR, etc. but my "etc." didn't extend to GONDOLA as quickly as it should have. I started thinking maybe "Way up" was "Very far up." I had the -ON- and sincerely considered some form of YONDER ... YON HILL (!?).
- 5D: Bring around (SWAY) — I was thinking the smelling salts kind of "bring around"
- 4D: Like Beth among the March sisters (SHYEST) — when YOUNGEST (wrong, that's Amy) and SICKEST (grim!) didn't fit, I was out of answers. But I got SEXY fast (17A: Sizzling), and that "Y" gave me SHYEST.
- 39D: Legit (ALL THAT) — these are both slang for "great" "the real deal" "a wonderful example of its kind" etc.
- 13D: Trace of music (ADKINS) — this wasn't actually that ambiguous to me. I don't know anything about this guy, but I know his name. Sadly, I spelled his name like the diet guy's name (ATKINS). But that wasn't too hard to fix.
- 32D: Cleveland, e.g.: Abbr. (DEM) — LOL at the idea I know the party affiliation of pre-20th-century presidents (except Lincoln). But I had the "D" and after running through all the Clevelands I know (the city ... that character from Family Guy ...), I figured I was dealing with Grover and tried DEM. Success!
- 34D: Turkey bacon? (LIRA) — took one look at this clue, knew it was trying to misdirect me with both words, and just walked away. Not today, goofy clue. I'm gonna let crosses take care of you. And they did (Turkey is the country, "bacon" (slang for "money") is the currency: LIRA).
- 38D: Hill-adjacent field, in brief (POLI-SCI) — As in "Capitol Hill." I went all over hill and gone to find the right hill (actual hill? Anita Hill?), but the terminal "I" (from KITS) settled things pretty conclusively. "POLI-SCI! Oh ... that Hill."
- 40D: Plates for nuts (WASHERS) — at this point there'd been so much misdirection that I really didn't want to venture a guess as to what "nuts" might mean here. Both "plates" and "nuts" are ambiguous here, but you end up with ... hardware.
While I didn't love this one so much, it did give me a proper Saturday workout. It tried me and tested me, and not always in annoying ways. So despite my earlier griping, I'm reasonably satisfied with the effort. See you next time.
P.S. I'll be reminding you all week that These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 is now available. Here is my description of the details (from this past Sunday's write-up):
These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 (four!) just dropped this past week—over 20 original puzzles from top constructors and editors—and you can get the collection now (right now) for a minimum donation of $20 (donations split evenly among five different abortion funds—details here). You can check out a detailed description of the collection and a list of all the talent involved here. I not only guest-edited a puzzle, I also test-solved puzzles. I have now seen the finished collection, and it's really lovely, across the board. General editors Rachel Fabi and Brooke Husic and C.L. Rimkus put in a tremendous amount of work ensuring that it would be. The attention to detail—test-solving, fact-checking, etc.—was really impressive. Anyway, donate generously (assuming you are able) and enjoy the puzzle bounty!
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133 comments:
I had a lot of trouble with this one, hitting most of the same snags as OFL. I got absolutely nowhere in the NW, primarily because I thought BUSSING (1D) referred to kissing and the act of clearing tables in a restaurant was a one-S BUSING. Apparently, it can go either way but the one-S version is preferred.
Also had trouble in the SE, where PAW, POLI SCI and WASHER didn't come to me from the clues. It didn't help that I confused GENO SMITH with GENO Stone and the much older GiNO Marchetti, who lent his name to a chain of fast food burger places. There was one near where I lived at the time.
Never commented before. HATED THIS ONE.! No fun. Too many, many, many, lookups to figure answers. The QB clue was the worst.
Agree completely, challenging only due to so many clumsy clues. And Geno Smith???? Puhleez!
Random thoughts:
• Sam’s name atop a Saturday evokes an inward “Eek!”, immediately countered by excitement, knowing that there will be beauty, wit, and care saturating the puzzle.
• I know there will be sweet ahas and a few awe-jaw-drops. I know the puzzle will be uber-scoured, that the cluing will be fair and often brilliant.
• Looking at the grid afterward, only a few no-knows, and yet it was chip, chip, chip, from beginning to end, due to devilish cluing. Much time spent waiting for my brain to make the right connection, and fist pumps when it did. Footholds were precious.
• OMG, the freshness! That SW stack is all NYT answer debuts. That NE stack has one debut and two answers that have only appeared once in the NYT puzzle. Five debuts elsewhere in the puzzle and many, many hardly-used answers to boot. This puzzle pops!
• Lovely answers all over: WHY SHOULD I, SAFETY NET, ANGEL FALLS, STOLE A PEEK, KISSY, ELOCUTE, BE GENTLE, TORPOR, LET IT GO.
• Deep bow at [Take, as a pointer] for DOGNAP.
Another classic Sam Saturday. They come about a couple of times a year, and they are a solving day like no other. Crossword holidays, to me. Thank you for your talent, and for making this, Sam!
Fantastic workout. Definitely need to get in the same voice on any Sam puzzle - once you realize nearly everything is a play they tend to fall in nicely. Rex highlights the LIRA clue as a perfect example. Just enough easy ones to help the foothold. - STRIP STEAK, GENO and the great AUDIO BOOKS.
SWAY
Greta is becoming the Ono and Oreo of activists - a gimme. UH OH is either two words or a simple expression. Doh before GAH. ELOCUTE and TORPOR keep it Buckleyish.
Highly enjoyable Saturday morning solve. Matt Sewell’s Stumper is also wonderful today - a rare day where the NYTXW keeps up with Stan.
Ironically - this year’s BEALE St fest was cancelled. My brother and I heard this gem at the ‘92 show
Methinks someone who'd call a washer a "plate" has no hand callouses.
Uh oh is not a singular word - ridiculous cluing.
Strained my brain. The only enjoyment was in completing it
Terrible clues, obscure trivia, infuriating solve.
I agree with Rex on GAH - DOH is the quintessential "facepalm" sound, "GAH" feels more like a [Frustrated cry]-type answer.
I managed to fill the NW, but then I got nowhere in the NE except for CIS and the pair of plausible-but-wrong answers TONKA and POI. I thought 18A would be related to tone of voice (volume) but I still really liked the clue-answer pair. WHY SHOULD I is great fill too.
The SE was the easiest corner, PAW went right in followed by ASHE (a reasonable guess that actually paid off) then DAMASK, SCAR, and KI_S (didn't want to commit right away to either KIDS or KITS but that still got me POLISCI)
I eventually got that 52A was BITCOIN-something but I've never heard of a BITCOIN ATM. I made the pointer-dog connection, but I was thinking "take" as in "adopt", DOGNAP didn't cross my mind at all.
As a non-American I've learned from crosswords that a Benjamin is a $100 bill (correct me if I'm wrong) but I don't think I've seen "Grant", I'm assuming that's a 20? Still, LARGE BILL isn't the most exciting answer to have in the middle of the grid.
I know that Rex likes cryptics so I'll just say that the 50A clue/answer pairing is something wild to put in a puzzle. At least it helped. I knew the name GENO only from Super Mario RPG.
[Like a passionate lover's fits?] KISSY
[Deli meat choice for Daffy Duck?] THALAMI
...I'll see myself out.
Spent some time wondering if "POLISCI" was some Italian geographical term unknown to me... And having "WORD" (as in "My word!") instead of "LORD" threw me at the end. I guess I needed to to thaw my thalamus.
Also played OOPS and DOH, which feels appropriate in both cases.
The only two answers in the NW I had after the first pass were OOPS for 15A and DOH for 30A, which obviously didn’t bode well since both were wrong. It was the crosswordese lifeline ASHE that finally got me a foothold.
GAH crossing IHEARYA? Why use real words? EEW or EWW or AHA or OHO or GAC or GAH - Anything works in the shortcut world of Joel’s we accept anything NYTXW.
Even with Autocheck ON, this was obscure, slow and unfun. Clever cluing should be safe, legal and rare, as the Clintons said on some topic that escapes me now.
I can name every starting QB on every NFL team - even with the current post-season, pre-draft shuffle - but while I got GENOSMITH, thought he was an unfair answer for the 90% less addicted to the game.
And THALAMI sounds like what Daffy Duck would order at an Italian deli. Will take a THUNaBERGer to go too - please BOXFISH up for me.
I can appreciate the high count of seven to ten-letter words, but it did feel like a trivia test, as Rex said. Felt difficult, plugging in answers without any certainty (THUNBERG, ALTA, KITS), but finished around average time. Not everyone will know who GENOSMITH is, so I liked the anagram clue; if it were clued any differently, it would have felt like more trivia.
There's a burger/sushi restaurant in my area called The Cowfish. They have an aquarium with a longhorn cowfish, aka horned boxfish (not for eating!) Alien cousin of the boxfish, but very cool-looking. That's all, BAI
I think that there was a little bit of trying too hard today (and some missteps - as many people may consider UH OH two words for example). GAH is just linguistic sewage - they basically could have put any three random letters there with that cop-out of a clue.
I admired the nice exacta of ALTA hovering over BAI - both appropriately obscure words that nobody cares about - so by default they are NYT-worthy - CLASSIC !
Similarly, I would enjoy more clues like “declaim” for ELOCUTE and leave the stuff like BEALE crossing GENO SMITH for TV Guide or USA Today.
I'm usually here for Rex's puzzle dissing, and some of Sam's have been annoying clunkers in the past, but I loved this one. Diabolical in the best way. A good challenge.
I had this one filled, but at least one box was still amiss. It turned out to be the 38a/40d cross. For "Print source" I had PAD, which gave me "Dashers" for "Plates for nuts", and dashers are a kind of plate. Grrr...
Two days of awfulness in a row.
This puzzle murdered me but Rex’s “ Not today, goofy clue.” brought me back from the dead.
Trivia that was way way too trivial everywhere.
Terrible.
For some reason I decided not to give up, but it took over three hours to finish (no cheating, hurray for me). I had "audiotapes." then "audiodiscs" before finding AUDIOBOOKS. I had "eldest" instead of SHYEST for the sister, and didn't commit to UHOH because it looked like two words (OK, one hyphenated word). Never heard of BOXFISH, so I went through "codfish'" and "cowfish" before realizing that "sizzling" meant SEXY. My other sticking point was finding PAW as a "print source," because all along I assumed it had to do with writing (pen, pad, etc.). I finally got GENOSMITH after first assuming he had a nine-letter surname.
What a grind. Can someone explain how ALLTHAT is an answer for "legit"??
BIBS right away, followed by OOPS. Knew one of them had to be wrong. Also had DOH in that corner and EASTERN for the Troy thing (as in "short for Eastern Daylight/Standard Time," consistent with usual xword interpretation of "setting." That's a pretty deep hole I dug in that corner, and taking out BIBS+OOPS to try ELDEST for the March sister helped not a bit. DNF here, in fact D N even close to F.
Never have I ever heard of GENO SMITH, nor TRACE ADKINS, nor any show called BROS, nor Li Mu BAI, nor BOXFISH, nor "Ambassador cut." OMSK, maybe. Hill-adjacent? Way too stretchy. LARGE BILL == Green paint.
Things I liked: plates for nuts (Anon@7:52, I don't understand your gripe. It's a two-dimensional thingy, plate seems like an apt descriptor), Turkey bacon, BIBS clue.
No fun at all, and I got Geno Smith pretty quickly. Not like it helped.
Hard but gettable
I had to look up YULE cat because I had POLE Cat stuck in my brain and I knew it was wrong but sometimes it just wants to stay! SWAY was very weird, WASHERS was very weird (Kept trying to find a word for a jock strap) but overall, I liked it.
I went to college at RPI. In Troy, NY. (Often clued in NYT using that pairing).
4 years.
And I confidently wrote in UPSTATE.
That is a brutal answer that is going to flummox 99% of solvers.
I have been doing the puzzle reading this blog for years - love you, Loren Muse Smith, wherever you are - and have never commented before. This was so infuriately obtuse I am writing to support those who have already made that point. Get better fast, Will!
I hated this one. The clues just annoyed and frustrated me. But maybe I’m off my game… the past several puzzles have felt like a blend of irritating, trying too hard for cleverness, and “look at this random obscure trivia!”. Is it the new editor? Is it just me? Either way, I’ve been slogging through and eagerly await the return of a more enjoyable feeling to the puzzles.
Saw the ANGELFALLS clue, started there, whipped through the SW and slogged through the rest. I don't mind misdirection, but just wrong is just wrong. Others have mentioned the ones I found the worst, namely UHOH as a "word" and WASHERS being "plates". Come on man.
Thought "Ambassador" might have been an album I had never heard of and the "cut" referred to a song from that, so a major roadblock there. Didn't know Mr. ADKINS, CABS before BIBS. as in truck CABS. BYLINES before RULINGS--that kind of a day.
And a technical DNF because I had PAD for a print maker, as in an ink pad, and DASHERS made as much sense to me as WASHERS would have. My printed copy never says "almost there", so I left it.
@Roo-there's a PALL. Whaddaya think?
I'm assuming you had fun with your wacky clues ,SE, (YULE cat? Icelandic folklore?) but I found them Simply Exhausting. I had lots of fun, just not with this one.
Way too hard for me. THALMI, BEALE, POLISCI, ADKINS. And AYFKM a GENO SMITH anagram.
UHOH is now a single word eh? Remember LET IT GO from Frozen. That was a two-year earworm. Every time OMSK shows up in a puzzle I look at the Google photos and want to visit, but then I remember what a crummy country Russia will always be so I'll never go.
Tee-Hee: IS IT OK? BE GENTLE. SEXY. STOLE A PEEK. KISSY. I hope you raise a glass to the eagle-eyed romantic slush pile editor finding these lovey-dovey gems written by smooshy-wooshy writers.
Uniclues:
1 In no particular order, my favorite dances, my favorite patio furniture, my favorite evening wear.
2 Purple prose podcasts.
3 The entire structure of civilization to avoid complicated pronouns.
4 Measly McCartys.
5 The length of time one spends riding in a bubble.
6 What cliff divers are sure to acquire in Venezuela.
7 Stalker starter set.
8 It's official, they're butt heads.
9 What my sleeves become after Aunt Edna lays one on me.
1 STRIPS. TEAK. BIBS.
2 SEXY AUDIO BOOKS
3 CIS SAFETY NET (~)
4 PUNY IRISH BROS (~)
5 GONDOLA PERIOD (~)
6 ANGEL FALLS SCAR
7 "STOLE A PEEK" KITS
8 S.O.B. RULINGS
9 KISSY WASHERS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What a cheerleader is for? A-TEAM LAUD.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I've been on board with moving past Shortz for a while now but if this past week is any indication of what we're due for once he's retired, we're in trouble. What is going on at the NYT that they put out puzzles this bad over and over? I just cannot imagine what leads someone to decide that crossing a Hebrew word with a character from a decades old movie is acceptable, to make one of the issues that Rex didn't bring up. Can we please get an editor who actually cares about the solving experience and making polished puzzles? Is that really so much to ask?
FH
Some marginal clues there. And why did SCAR need LASTIN' and not just LASTING? The apostrophe is totally misleading.
Great puzzle, just what I want/like for a Saturday. Tough but solvable, clever clues. Not for newbies though. Disagree with RP regarding his carps
ANGELFALLS is on my very short bucket list, along with South Island of New Zealand, Northern Scotland, St Petersburg, and Kenya
Hey All !
Wow, what a fight! It was looking grim for a bit, but persevered and came out a winner! With no cheats! Streak currently at 8!
As I was (slowly) filling the grid, I marvelled at how it wasn't getting easier with getting more answers. Usually when getting answers, I could use pattern recognition, or other ways of getting unknowns. But today, the unknowns kept coming. I had to try to get the ole brain to cooperate for once!
Did get the Almost There! message upon completion. Argh! I said. Hmm. Not wanting to ruin my streak, I STOLE A PEEK at the whole puz, but decided the SE corner (which was the last section filled) didn't jive well with my PAd/dASHERS answers. PAD I could've lived with, but dASHErS was nagging me. Did an alphabet run in the head, got to W, and saw PAW and the clever WASHERS. Threw in the W, and Happy Music filled the room, as I fist pumped the air. 😁
For those still asking "How is WASHERS the answer?" Think nuts and bolts. Sometimes you need a spacer, a thin disk, to go with said but and bolt. Those are called WASHERS.
So a good workout, took me quite a bit, almost 52 minutes, but came out victorious!
Writeovers aplenty, oops-UHOH, doH-GAH, eaSTnys(!)-NYSTATE (actually thought of eaSTryE for a minute), tonka-RYDER, atmmachine-BITCOINATM, ALLTrue-ALLTHAT.
Happy Saturday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I just started doing crosswords a couple of months ago, and this one has to be the hardest one I've tried. I got about 5 (and 2 were wrong) before I started looking up answers lol.
Gotta come up with a complimentary clue on Geno Smith. Relying on an anagram is insulting. Puzzle was a f***ING chore.
Punitively hard. I almost rage quit, but had to look up a couple of clues to finish. Hated this one.
Good lord Sam. I've enjoyed a couple of his puzzles in the past, but this one just was not for me. Waaaay too many uses of misdirection in the clues without enough footholds to get anywhere.
Clues I loathed the most:
Cleveland, e.g. - DEM, oh yeah, we often remember old Grover for his party affiliation when he's barely a blip in most people's minds any longer
ABBAS/BAI cross - Good frickin luck if you aren't familiar with either Hebrew or a guy from a 20 year old movie you probably haven't watched in 20 damn years
GENOSMITH - Why? Why would you make us puzzle this out? Just a dumb clue. He had a good season or two recently, why not highlight that instead of a damn anagram?
YULE - Come on. So many better options to give people a toehold other than Icelandic folklore.
NYSTATE - I CANNOT STAND NEW YORK CLUES. I get it, it's the NYT, but please, spare the rest of us clues about your colleges, counties that people go to do apple picking, or places famed for who cares. Just stop. Keep it up and I'll figure out how to make one of these puzzles and torture you with obscure references to college towns in the rural midwest. STOP
BIBS - No, there are no diners frequently sporting bibs, maybe you could've considered more common bib usage than the average person getting a patty melt? For the love of god what was this. How about people eating ribs, or having a lobster dinner?
ALTA - I propose we ban reference to this elitist shithole until they allow snowboarding. You want Alta, you're gonna have to reference the county in Norway. No more ski resort for rich dbags.
IRISH - Limerick group? What? No, that's terrible. The Irish are not a "group" FFS. I get the misdirection, but it's a terrible reveal.
FWIW I did like the "Turkey Bacon" clue for Lira. Dumb but fun.
Oh, and Sam: put CARACARA and CARACAL in the spelling bee already. We suffer with that damn NENE all the time. at least include some animals that any kid with a Zoobooks subscription could identify in under 1 second.
What the ever loving #€(&@ was this. 2x usual Saturday time. Very tough for me and the missus. Now I'm over caffeinated from slurping down coffee to turbo charge the solving efforts. I think I'll go paint the house now.
"Yo, hey, Eater. Hand me that plate there, will you please, while I get the nut ready." I don't see you hunting for a washer.
Loved, loved the challenge! This is what I want from a Saturday. Not certain of much right off the bat ( Yule cat and Thunberg), but, by continually chipping away, it eventually fell. Stop hating a puzzle just because you find it difficult. Jeez.
Amen! I hated it so much.
@Aaron 9:46 AM
Epic post. Love this.
@Visho 9:56 AM
People aren't hating it because it's difficult. They hate it because it's bad. All of the early morning commenters are highly capable solvers and they know the difference between tough and stupid.
Medium for me and fun to solve. I managed it top to bottom, at a slow but steady pace. BIBS x SHYEST got me off to a good start, and across the way, PHO was enough to suggest AUDIOBOOKS. THUNBERG led me down to LARGE BILL, and I followed the apt TORPOR x LIMP into the SW. Hardest for me was the SE, but thankfully a guess at KITS gave me DAMASK and the rest. I enjoyed the tricky clues, deserving of eye rolls though some might have been.
Challenging for me. Much harder for me than recent Saturday puzzles. Enjoyed the challenge.
No No No No No!!!!!
The Hebrew for Father is ABBA
The Hebrew for Fathers is AVOT.
You do not make a Hebrew noun plural by adding an "S" to it.
Tiptoed into this one, not armed for battle but prepared to LIMP to the finish line after the beating. Yesterday I thought the proper names were difficult. Little did I know. If I could’ve STOLE A PEEK at what today had in store, I might’ve LET IT GO as being not ALL THAT bad. GAH indeed.
I’m with Rex, don’t be putting any reference to something so despicable as a DOGNAP in my puzzle. Unless, of course, you’re cluing it as a DOG NAP which is so much nicer. I don’t read those books either and I don’t watch those movies or TV shows because WHY SHOULD I?
Agree! Tough but fair today, I thought
SE took me forever. Washers?? Poli-sci? Take, as a pointer?? Wow. Crazy hard.
LORD, what a struggle! SOB! Should I go on? WHY SHOULD I? It's time to LET IT GO. PERIOD. GAH.
But I'm nothing if not stubborn. I resolved to SAY I DO in the face of almost certain doom. And ultimately -- very, very ultimately -- I finished the whole thing. Without cheating, even once. OLE for me!
Do I feel smart? Or do I feel crushed and PUNY? Hard to say. I struggled so hard and suffered so much. Especially in the NE and the SW. I thought her name was grUNBERG instead of THUNBERG. Don't ask. I thought of THALMUS immediately, but what are THALAMI?
Fabulous clues for DOGNAP and AUDIOBOOKS. Both flummoxed me for, like, forever. But I do have some PLAINTS.
PLAINTS:
UH OH is two words from a barber, not one.
How can "legit" possibly mean ALL THAT?
I majored in POLISCI, but have never worked on the Hill. And some people who have worked on the Hill never majored in POLISCI. This clue/answer isn't only one of the DOOKiest I've ever seen -- it's also too cute by half.
Note to self: Go find out why WASHERS are "plates for nuts". Never heard of such a thing.
Bottom line: If I were heavily into suffering, I would have found this quite a delicious puzzle. But at least I'm proud of myself for finishing it with no cheats.
Really not fun. Tortured cluing and puns. I just don't think of waterfalls as landmarks. To call poltical science 'hill adjacent' is ridiculous. Why would I know there is a music festival on Beale Street in Memphis? Is it really that famous? Too much trivia, and bad trivia at that. I love Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but who remembers his full name? i'm sure this is written in the spirit of 'something for everyone', but it is so obscure it leaves just about everyone out. Sam is very idiosyncratic and I think he is too young to understand that, or maybe he does and does not care.
I could write about my battle in the NE and the final faceoff with PAW and WASHERS, but I'll just point out that my favorite comment is Arysta's. It reminded me of being totally baffled by cryptic crosswords in GAMES Magazine decades ago till I decided to just try and chip away at them.
Not sure why it's so hard for me to remember the lesson that everything begins with small steps, but it is and Arysta's comment is a good reminder.
@Andrew (8:34) You can name every starting QB in the league? Impressive. I could probably get most of them in the AFC but I wouldn’t have known GINO SMITH even if he’d been clued with the Seahawks. But then I would’ve easily gotten his infamous predecessor who played until recently for the Chiefs’ nemesis Broncos. Your wordplay on THALAMI gave me a giggle, much needed after the epic struggle this morning. Thanks!
Dear God.
I love and relish difficult. This was just bad.
I'm the proud owner of a GENO SMITH t-shirt (with his famous quote - "They wrote me off; I ain't write back though") -- and I'm kind of embarrassed that I didn't get that one right away.
Correct!!! That should never have slid by.
ABBAS/BAI was a ludicrous natick crossing, I figured that would lead off Rex's review
The plural of father in Hebrew is Avot, or Avos.
Exact same finish as @Roo--mentally running the alphabet to get PAW/WASHER--but about 10 minutes later than @roo.
I'm on the "this was a genuine Saturday struggle and I liked it" team.
I took longer than I might have to unravel the veteran quarterback word scramble. Looking back, it amuses me that the surname is SMITH. (Nothing so very hard about that!)
Took so long and required crosses to figure out MEDI (medical prefix); I considered MEga and MEla and even MEta and Mala. A weird kealoa,
A good lawn furniture refinisher STRIPSTEAK before applying the new finish.
Reaction of Seahawks fans after their current quarterback gets traded: GENOSMITH?
Mrs. egsforbreakfast cuts my hair (with dog clippers!) and the worrisome word from her is "shit!"
To get the right answer to 26A (Troy setting, for short) you can't choose just aNYSTATE.
Amazing that we've had two presidents with the nickname LARGE BILL. Of course Harry Truman, that giant of a man, liked to go by just his middle initial when bestowing gifts. Largesse, they called him. When FDR asked Truman whether he thought Congress would approve billions for his new Bonneville Power Administration, Truman opined, "That's a big DAMASK."
I've gotta call this one a very good mental workout. Thanks, Sam Ezersky.
I *am* a political scientist (was a prof for a decade) and “Hill-adjacent field” was a stumper even for me. I never even thought of Capitol Hill.
If only I had known what "declaim" means.
@Anon 7:39 yesterday, thanks for the Ms. Malaprop literary reference. It makes the crossword term a bilingual play on a play on words. MALAPOP, as used here, is an incorrect answer that turns out to be a correct answer somewhere else in the puzzle.
Per yesterday's discussion started by Rex, I don't think it has to be a binary "use current clues for younger people" or use "timeless Maleskian trivia". Both or neither can be used effectively with fair crossing. I like patting myself on the back for completing a late-week puzzle, and also like learning about new things I haven't managed to run across before or be reminded of - looking at you SANAA. I like RETTA and saw every episode of Parks and Rec, but never heard or saw her name (pretty sure the character was Donna). Feels like forced currentness and inclusion.
upSTATE>NYSTATE Next to KARATS, I was thinking troy ounces and some kind of ring setting. Not sure what looks so bad about NYSTATE...
hands up for OOPS and DOH
Trouble finishing the North, so channeled my inner Andrew and turned on Auto-check. That little boost of confidence helps you race through the rest. In hindsight, the NE looks great!
Definitely not a crowd with DIY experience here. A washer is the ring that goes over a bolt before attaching the nut so it covers more surface area.
Gary Jugert - read Lewis and tell me again that this was categorically bad. The tone here is always worse when a puzzle or clue is difficult.
I'll vote for “challenging” for today's solve, the longest Saturday for me in months. It was all fun until the right central portion just wouldn’t mesh.
Why I was so certain about BEALE, I don’t know, but that, with the obvious misdirect of Pluto's CEL gave me a great start in the SW. My aha on getting SHYEST (like Rex, my mind veered to illEST), for Beth March led to my conquering the NW. I finally settled on THUNBERG for the NE to come together which left the SE.
I really needed that anagram clue for 50A and was glad that GENO in place meant SMITH had to be his last name. DAMASK eventually gave me GONDOLA and the SE was wrapped up after I realized my guess of what hill 38D's clue referred to was correct.
But not knowing the 2022 rom-com, the __LE Icelandic folklore cat or the health product prefix had me flummoxed. “Get hitched” with _A_I_O? MEga health something? teLE cat? Finally I put my tiny brain to work on the cat. A, E, I, O or U,U,U, ding ding ding, YULE is Christmas, the end. Whew! Why was that so hard?
Tonka before RYDER, racy before SEXY.
My favorite clue was 1D's “taking off the table” since I was going for corporate speak, finally realizing the word Iwas looking for was tablING, which was negated by the clue. BUSSING, we were still in the restaurant with the bibbed diners, nice.
Thanks, Sam Ezersky!
"THALAMI sounds like what Daffy Duck would order at an Italian deli." @Andrew (8:34)
Nice one, Andrew! It's the quote of the day, so far, as far as I'm concerned. It brightened my morning just as it appears to have brightened @Whatserame's.
ps - I thought the anagram was a clever way out of using a name that would be familiar to sports fans, but not at all to others. Once SMITH (as common a name as can be, therefore inferrable) came into view, the other letters were easily arrangeable to form GENO (I get some people would prefer the whole thing to be GONE)
Mrs. egsforbreakfast cuts my hair (with dog clippers!) and the worrisome word from her is "shit!"
UH OH, Andrew. You've now got some real competition for "Comment of the Day" and it's from @egsfrbreakfast.
I love to hate Sam Ezersky’s name as the byline. He is to crossword puzzles what George Saunders is to fiction. I loathe and admire his work in bipolar delight.
Yes! Indeed!
Another single letter dnf: BAS/BAI. Today it was dyslexic reading strikes again. I read 36D as LETSGO. Maybe it's selective dyslexia . Those superfluous letters just magically dissappear. Took me another long time to find the mistake.
This one felt like 50/50 trivia and out there clues. UHOH should rightfully be clued as "words" since by the constructors own rules a hyphenated word is not a word. I'm referring to the SB of course. It GALLS me that he uses a non word like ELOCUTE. It would make a terrific Scrabble bingo and even the Scrabble dictionary doesn't include it. Crosswords are the home of artistic license and as long as it leads to a solve of today's quality all is fair. Really wish I had gotten this one.
yd -0. QB14
Your review/post was as spot on/good/well written as the puzzle was simply awful.
@burtonkd 11:19 AM
To his credit (and my skepticism) @Lewis likes every puzzle. Maybe not the most accurate yardstick.
Glad to hear Rex found this challenging because I solved this on uh hard mode and it took me a while. Had a nice laugh when I figured out the clue for DOGNAP.
BIBS clue great, IRISH clue great, YULE clue great. I did not like this puzzle but you’re overstating the case.
Vail, euro, oops, doh…
@Visho 9:56 AM Also in agreement. Difficult but gettable bit by bit.
I shall ELOCUTE that I ate some THALAMI with my LIMP BOX FISH. GAH. UH OH or oops. Both.
A mess from start to finish. Do I care that an activist was born at 375 p.p.m and her last name (which I forgot) is THUNBERG?..Or that this GENO SMITH guy (who I've never heard of) anagrams to SOMETHING? No....
I thought this might've been a fun Saturday because it started with BIBS and STRIP STEAK. May I say it was excruciating? Dare I add a word after excruciating? I slumped into a state of TORPOR and I couldn't get up. Why did you try SOOOOO hard to make this as hard and un-fun as possible? I'm sure others enjoyed this sweaty workout, I didn't.
Need I ELOCUTE any further? I'll ask POLISCI.
This is what a Saturday should look like. I want to sweat and struggle. I want to think there’s no way I’ll ever finish. Then, a half hour later I’m done.
You’re not gonna get a true Saturday without some “unfair” clues.
Thanks Sam!
Sorry to comment a third time but when when when will they break this streak of clues whose answers should obviously be DOH but are something much less apt (duh, GAH, etc.)?
Whatsername -
Actually, I got two wrong on the “if the season started today, these are the QBs” claim.
Jarrett Stidham - Broncos
Tyson Bagent (who?) - Bears
NFL QBs as of late March
In fairness, though, these are placeholders (as, hopefully, is newly-acquired Sam Darnold of my Mighty Vikings, who, like SOMETHING, underwhelmed as a Jet). Bears have 1st pick and will choose Caleb Williams, Broncs will be paying Russ megabucks for playing in Pittsburgh (what a bad deal THAT was).
Consider yourself lucky to be set with Mahomes for the next decade as your Chiefs talk about 3-peats, 4-peats, NTH-peats.
All we want in Minnesota is a one-peat, one-day, one-way-or-another! Preferably in my lifetime (my long-suffering began in 1971 when your #$*@ Chiefs upset the Vikes in the first of their string of four Super Blowouts).
IF YOU ASK WHO PITHED FOR THE BAB'E 714TH HOME RUN, THAT'S TRIVIA, IF YOU ASK WHO WAS IN CENTER FIELD, OR WHAT THE THIRD BASEMAN HAD FOR LUNCE, THAT'S NOT TRIVIA, IT'S TRIVIAL.
A true Saturday Stumper. GAH-some.
Editin tip for SatPuzs: Give em an "in", here and there. Don't try to make every clue for a non-obscure entry obscure or a ?-marker.
M&A obviously struggled thru this here solvequest … I got a few things here and there, and then things just froze up like a kidnapped peke. Activist's social bio clue - gah. Egg-shaped brain stuff - gah-lactic. Iceland holiday cat - murr-ow! Bowlfuls with bean sprouts - gah-stritis. LGBTQ rom-coms - NADU NADU! etc.
(Did get KITS, down at the far SE corner, tho.)
Finally, when all I had was ????D? at 24-D, I suddenly nailed {Get hitched} = SAYIDO. And then one thing led to another. Started guessin some stuff right, once I had a letter or two to help the cause. Not at a whoosh-woosh clip, but I did start makin some steady progress. The PALL began to rise.
staff weeject pick: SOB. Mainly cuz it had an S.O.B. of a clue.
Kinda liked that I got TORPOR from its {Lassitude} clue, just offa the T?????. Had no idea what lassitude meant. But M&A reasoned "Probbly somethin like TORPOR, cuz I'm not sure what that means, either."
Thanx for the looong challenge, Mr. Sam Not-EZ dude.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
**gruntz**
I thought it was a fair challenge for a Saturday and finished in typical time.
Posting because a clue in today’s Mini puzzle infuriated me. Cluing MEASLES as “red spots on the skin” in the current environment is downright irresponsible.
Abba in English is "Dad", not "Father". Pluralizing it with an "S" makes no sense in Hebrew. Clue might have been "Dads in Hebrew" although the plurals are still screwed up.
This was the most joyless Saturday puzzle I've done.
I immediately took it to be a synonym for CATNAP. Dogs are certainly known for sleeping during the day.
I’m from Seattle and struggled with Geno!
Pretty tough for me. Got off to a slow start with oops (hi @Rex et. al.) before UHOH and oldEST before SHYEST. Then I spelled ADKINS with a t (hi again @Rex) and I didn’t know TUO, BROS, and BAI. I also had tow rope before GONDOLA.
g
Solid challenge, liked it.
GENO who? f
Hated. Hated. Hated.
p.s.
Nice Jaws of Themelessness, btw.
p.p.s.s.
fave worrisome (single) 4-letter words from a barber:
* SHIT.
* DAMN.
* LICE!
* EWWW.
* OOPS.
* JEEZ. {would also accept GEEZ or LORD]
* HELP!
* OUCH.
* FLEE!
* WHOA!
* BARF.
* RATS.
* NUTS.
* GAAH.
* NEXT! [if you were just about to sit in the barber chair]
M&Also
First of all, I agree with @Anonymous 9:34 re: Will Shortz. Wishing you well, once again, Will.
I was hopeful when I saw Sam as the constructor. I struggled mightily as I tried to solve it (is there a word in the dictionary "ELOCUTE?"), but no luck. Didn't enjoy the struggle enough to stick with it.
This from our beloved Sam, of SB, who won't allow AROAR in SB, but does allow 'POOP' ???
I have only been solving for about five years and I managed to finish this one without help. Perhaps that is why I am in the minority today and liked the puzzle. It was gettable for me after just the right amount of struggle and I don’t consider myself even remotely in the league of most of this blog’s regulars. I love wordplay and there was plenty of that to keep me happy. And to help me decipher the tough crosses. I honestly think there have been far worse offenders lately in terms of Naticks and encyclopedic trivia. Perhaps I am not yet sophisticated enough to distinguish between a hard puzzle that is good and hard puzzle that is stupid.
@Andrew 12:17. That Super Bowl was in 1970.
Shame on anyone for not knowing Trace Adkins, singer of the legendary "Honkytonk Badonkadonk."
Anyway, this is a Saturday crossword and if you're not here to do trivia I don't know why you're even playing. Angel Falls is a great clue. Sometimes when Rex criticizes the clues I think he's just lazy.
I knew ANGEL FALLS from reading the Guinness Book of World Records on the toilet as a kid. (Named for the pilot, Jimmy Angel.) That said. I was expecting some sort of structure.
Thalami - at the deli. Clever!
Tough one… but doable. didn’t know that “gah” was a thing. And uh oh seems like two words…
Hated. Reminded me of Eugene Maleska not in a good way. Anyone know how Will is doing and when he'll be back? Seems like all the clueing is off.
Isn't thalami what you get sliced for a thanwich?
Ugh. I have a major problem and a minor one:
The major is I don't see how "Way up in the mountains" can be GONDOLA. I've ridden on many gondolas, but the clue refers to a *adjectival location* whereas a gondola is just a noun. The answer could have been IN A GONDOLA, or the clue could have been "It's way up in the mountains", but what's given to us seems to be quite simply a grammatically wrong clue.
The minor one is "Hill-adjacent field, in brief" being POLI SCI. I majored in Poli Sci. But politics isn't *adjacent* to Capitol Hill, it's what happens *in* it. And if they're trying to say that political science is a field adjacent to politics, it's not. It's the field itself. It's like trying to claim that biology is adjacent to human bodies. No, it's the science *of* human bodies (and more). So "adjacent" in the clue is just conceptually wrong.
I don't mind hard puzzles, of which this is one. I mind it when when the clues for answers are just *wrong*. Because that's not something you can get better at solving. It's just frustration and nothing else.
Whoops, correction: I meant to type *adverbial* of location (aka adverbial of place), not *adjectival*. If I'm pointing out logical errors I shouldn't be committing them myself. ;)
I can't say I enjoyed this, but I was proud that I finished it. I dunno how long it took because it took so long that it got dark and I had to go close the blinds and turn on the lights so I stopped the timer and forgot to restart it. Ironic!
The cluing was so annoying that I looked up to see who the constructor was... SAM! The man I already loved to hate because of the ridiculously arbitrary Spelling Bee dictionary.
Wanted SUNDBERG before THUNBERG, Beth was the SLYEST sister, RIAL before LIRA, and CASHEWS before WASHERS because they're nuts even though the clue would make no sense.
@Andrew "THALAMI sounds like what Daffy Duck would order at an Italian deli": funny.
[Spelling Bee: Fri 0; QB streak 8.]
(Red-faced/embarrassed) - oh, ELOCUTION
Second-hardest puzzle I ever attempted, right after the 1942 initial offering.
NATICKS everywhere for me.
500 GHZ off my closest bit of bandwidth.
GENO SMITH. BITCOIN KIOSK. For starters. Ugh.
Agreed with @okanaganer … not sure I can say I enjoyed it but proud of pushing on for nearly an hour, no hints, until it all fell into place.
Agreed with @Lewis and a bunch of others that there was a ton of brilliance here; I appreciated many of the clever misdirections once I fought my way through them.
Have been very much enjoying the abortion fundraiser puzzles the past couple of days (some hilarious clues, several of which would never make it through the NYT “appropriateness” filter) and going to do another now so that I can say I had at least some fun doing a xword today :)
The HALAMI clue definitely seems like it tested your mettle – who knew egg-shaped brain structures could be so tricky?
The NE corner sounds like it provided a bit of relief amidst the storm, especially with that clever AUDIOBOOKS clue – “Speaking volumes?” is quite witty! I totally agree that the balance between challenging and playful clues makes all the difference.
Surprising it took this long before someone pointed out this ROUGH natick
This was challenging for me and took a huge amount of time. Had to resort to checking entries that I’m wont to do—EVER! Missed SCAR/POLISCI and ABBAS/BAI. But eventually finished .
Grant is on the 50. I believe
This is what I want on a Saturday. Recent offerings have been too easy. Keep ones like this coming, please.
I wish Will Shortz a speedy recovery and return. The editing on this thing was way off.
LIRA was fabulous.
Guessed right with BIBS.
But I have to agree with the blogger: a lot of trivia, which made for a very challenging puzzle.
@Joe D
I think you'll like tomorrow's Acrostic.
What a slog. I’m with you guys.
Ha! Close, but the verb is thliced.
@Andrew (12:17) Your suffering began after Super Bowl IV? I guess you could say mine did too since that was the last time KC went to a Super Bowl for the next 50 years. So I do feel your pain, and yes, giving thanks to the football gods for Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid. I was hoping to see your Vikings in the playoffs last season. They looked good, but not quite good enough. Maybe next year.
@jb129
Yes! AROAR! C'mon Sam! I try it Every. Time. even though I know it won't be there. Just maybe, hopefully, one day we'll be surprised and it gets accepted.
RooMonster Aroar About AROAR Guy
@egsforbreakfast - I always enjoy your sense of humor, but today’s comments were especially well done. Thanks for giving me a good laugh every time I read the blog!
Surprised to see no one pointing out that the "cis" clue is blatantly incorrect. One would say "cis man" or "cis woman" but male and female already refer to biological sex - those terms wouldn't need to be clarified with the word "cis."
“Turkey bacon” made me LOL once I had the crosses to figure it out. Guess I’m a goofy kind of gal. Rest of puzz made me cry. A rare, unenjoyable, unsolvable one for me, sadly.
Before I got SHYEST for Beth, I thought, “please don’t let it be ILLEST.” That would have been horrid on every level, but there was enough bad stuff that I couldn’t completely rule it out.
Everyone complaining about the ABBAS/BAI crossing: knowing Hebrew only makes it harder, because the answer is complete nonsense. "Fathers in Hebrew" is AVOT. One father is ABBA, two are AVOT. You don't form a Hebrew plural by tacking an English -s on the end.
This puzzle had so much suckage, but ABBAS, BAI, BITCOINATM, and STOLEAPEEK all in the same quadrant really is a master class in how not to set a crossword.
Hated this, like many others, but want to hone in on UHOH. As many solvers have noted, calling it a single word is questionable. But the clue is meaningless: "UH-OH" would be worrisome to hear from anyone. It would be worrisome to hear from a barber, or a dentist, or a radiologist, or a nuclear physicist, or a politician, or a realtor, or an appraiser, or a teacher, or an exterminator, or a gardener, or a dry cleaner. Worry is the whole point of "UH-OH." "barber" adds absolutely nothing.
I’m late to the party, but given all the hate for this puzzle above I’d like to add a vote to the “Challenging but Great” camp. It was a fun workout with lots of aha moments. Well done Sam.
Triple hated...stole my joy of doing the puzzle.
Hated it. Worst time ever for a Saturday.
Too hard for me. I was stumoed. It happens
I do the Sunday puzzle for fun. I stopped halfway through because it wasn't fun, in fact I became irritated. Holla? not good. And the northeast corner with enpassant and pools resources is too much (not good). Too many nonsensical clues with a ? at the end. A few are ok, but this seemed like too many.
The IRS clue I'm not sure is accurate. Most of them are clerical level paper pushers just following checklists in my view. Not that there is anything wrong with that, just wondering how they determined that many are CPAS?
I return from a short trip, having missed the puzzles for several days, to this?
Lastin' line? Aw c'mon!
"Ambassador" cut? Too rare!
ALL THAT and more? Ill-legit
Enough to make me skip going back and solving the days I was away.
Rough puzzle.
Still, what’s wrong with “stole a peek”. I googled the phrase and there’s plenty of examples. Doesn’t seem worth Rex’s blanket statement it isn’t a thing.
In Hebrew, fathers would be Avot. The plural ending in Hebrew is -ot or -im, depending on the past letter/gender.
Considering how many perfectly good words Sam rejects in spelling bee, he sure puts a lot of garbage in his grid.
And yet ... I really approve of the toughening up of the Fri-Sat puzzles we've seen this week, and hope it continues. Just with less PPP.
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