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Shade akin to peridot / FRI 3-1-24 / First syllable of a rhyming film genre / Arpad ___ creator of an eponymous chess rating system / Of all the noises known to man, it is the most expensive, per an old quip / Challenge for some funny video compilations
Friday, March 1, 2024
Constructor: Julian Xiao
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: Arpad ELO (22A: Arpad ELO, creator of an eponymous chess rating system) —
Arpad Emmerich Elo (né Élő Árpád Imre; August 25, 1903 – November 5, 1992) was an American-Hungarian physics professor who created the Elo rating system for two-player games such as chess.
Born in Egyházaskesző, Kingdom of Hungary, he moved to the United States with his parents in 1913. He was a professor of physics at Marquette University in Milwaukee and a chess master. By the 1930s he was the strongest chess player in Milwaukee, at the time one of the nation's leading chess cities. He won the Wisconsin State Championship eight times, and was the 11th person inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame. (wikipedia)
• • •
The reason I am focused upon this dumb c(l)uing minutiae today is there's not much to focus on in the marquee stuff, which just isn't marquee enough. The long Downs are all adequate, but not bringing much heat. I guess maybe golfers might chuckle knowingly at THREE-PUTT (12D: What might turn you red on a green). Who knows what golfers will do? I don't care about the game at all, and still that was the most interesting of the Downs for me. As for the long Acrosses, the 8s in the corners are very ho-hum, and then you've got the triple-stack across the middle. "THEM'S THE FACTS" has its charm, I guess, if you like faux-folksiness (fauxksiness!), and "ARE WE THERE YET?" is certainly an old (certainly clichéd) backseat refrain, but what the hell is TRY NOT TO LAUGH??? A "challenge"? Maybe, *maybe* if you'd clued this as an introduction to the revelation of an embarrassing fact, it would be OK. But as clued, it's awful. NOT LAUGHING is (maybe) the "challenge," but "TRY NOT TO LAUGH" is an impossible-to-imagine dare. It's a spoken phrase that needs a darer. Is someone saying this to me as they hand me their phone to show me a blooper reel, or cat videos? Bizarre. Not a phrase that stands alone well at all, and certainly not with this clue.*
Aside from the initial CIRCUITS / CUING awkwardness, there was only one part of the grid that offered any pushback, and (tragically) it involves some of the grid's weakest fill—GOSEE x/w ADSPOT. ADSPOT is on-its-face bad, a commercial redundancy that only biznessspeak speakers could love (50A: Social media post labeled "Sponsored," e.g.). I thought the clue was gonna point to some neologism along the lines of SPONCON ("sponsored content"), but all I got was ADSPOT, blech. As for GOSEE ... "modeling lingo"? I had no idea there was such a thing (44D: Open call, in modeling lingo). I believe the clue—that it's a real thing. And the clue is at least trying to make GOSEE interesting. But in general I'm not a fan of deliberately adding difficulty to the parts of the grid that are least attractive. You want people to linger on the Good stuff, not the bad (in this case, more mediocre than truly bad, to be fair). I think most of what I'm annoyed about today falls under the category of bad editing, not bad constructing (I have to finish editing a puzzle for the forthcoming These Puzzles Fund Abortion 4 benefit collection today, so I maybe jinxing myself here ... or just pre-yelling at myself)
[Saw this same song—with this same clue—in another puzzle this past week, which is the only reason I knew it (59A: 2019 #1 hit by Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello). I remembered it because in the other puzzle I had it as "SEDORITA" and wondered what that might mean ... turns out I had SHAVED where I should've had SHAVEN; the one upside of screwing up is the answers involved tend to stick your brain]
Other things:
- 38A: Shade akin to peridot (LIME) — I could've told you that peridot was a color, but apparently I could not have told you what that color was, or was akin to. I wrote ROSE here at first :(
- 3D: Nina of fashion (RICCI) — my first answer in the grid. Do you ever feel like your vast storehouse of crosswordese is a form of cheating? That's how it felt to get my first toehold in the puzzle with Nina RICCI, about whom I know nothing.
- 8D: One who has ways of making you talk ... (SPEECH THERAPIST) —again, what is going on with the cluing? What is that mysterious ellipsis doing there at the end (...) and why (dear god) would you evoke torture in your clue? Even cartoonish, TV-and-movie-bad-guy torture?
- 35D: Simple bucket (LAY-UP) — they got me here. Was really looking for a bucket-shaped bucket here, not slang for a made shot in basketball.
- 18D: Luxury brand ... or a non-luxury option (COACH) — my favorite wrong answer of the day. I had C--CH and decided to go with the non-luxury sleeping option: COUCH. "Hmm, I'm not familiar with the COUCH luxury brand. Do they make handbags? Scarves? Funny that their name is so close to ... hey!" There should be an anti-luxury brand called COUCH. A perfume that smells like NACHO chips, something along those lines.
End of February. There were four 4️⃣ solo woman constructors this month! Four more than last month! Hurray?! 2024 totals now
— Rex Parker 🐈🐾☕️🐾🐈 (@rexparker) February 29, 2024
Women 4
Men … 41
🎉😕
15 collabs so far this year;those skew M as well, but not nearly as bad, obvs
M/W: 8
M/M: 5
W/W: 2
It's the end of February, so it's time for my Puzzles of the Month feature: three of the best NYTXW I solved this month: two themed, one themeless
February 2024 Puzzles of the Month:
Themed:
- Sam Donaldson, "OPPOSITES ATTRACT" (Thursday, Feb. 8, 2024)
- Teddy Katz and Rich Katz, "DOUBLE OR NOTHING" (Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024)
Themeless:
- Carolyn Davies Lynch and Jeff Chen (ROCKET SCIENCE / BRAIN SURGERY) (Saturday, Feb. 3, 2024)
Save And Share :
71 comments:
I agree with Easy-Medium, although I didn't dislike the puzzle as much as OFL did.
Unbelievably, I too had rose before LIME for the peridot relative at 38A, but I have an excuse: I'm color blind
Other overwrites:
maSkS before TESTS for the COVID purchases at 7D
UNIONist before UNION REP at 13A
CLERgy before CLERIC at 17A
snog before NECK for the canoodling at 19A
Thought briefly about RAp before RAG at 43A. Rap songs have tempos, right?
WOEs:
ELO (22A), but the crosses were fair.
The Mendez/Cabello hit at 59A was also a WOE, but I had enough of the word before I read the clue that it had to be SENORITA.
GOSEE as clued at 44D
I liked the clue for THEME PARK (33D)
I found it more difficult, and more entertaining, than Rex did. “Try not to laugh” is a whole genre of videos on YouTube.
I disagree with OFL. I thought this was a sparkler, with lots of interesting answers that kept me meandering around the grid. Nothing too challenging, but most of the long entries took some thinking.
One mistake...had "rap/posee" instead of RAG/GOSEE. Several issues for me...ONCE doesn't really suggest "never again." and THEMSTHEFACTS should be clued as casual speech. I also had "masks" instead of TESTS until the end.
I'm curious as to how yesterday's puzzle was done by so many people. My system shut it down all day long.
Agree with OFL that the forced (tortured even) cluing at 1A and 1D was a bit of a buzz-kill. I thought the puzzle at least rebounded a bit in the center, with three acceptable grid-spanners along with fair crosses and a noticeable lack of PPP, trivia, esoterica, etc which can really kill a Friday when they go that route to amp up the difficulty in lieu of more difficult or creative cluing. So I’ll go a little easier on this one than Rex (not that he pummeled it - but he didn’t seem to enjoy it, and I thought that it had its moments).
Funny I also had heard of peridot but had no idea what color it was, but I thought it might be a shade of blue. I was checking crosses to see whether aqua or teal would appear, and when I saw TRIPOLI, I was befuddled. Looked it up and it is indeed LIME green. BTW, TRIPOLI reminds me of the card and chips game we played endlessly as kids with the green plastic faux poker table. Wonder if they still make it.
I liked this much more than Rex did. I thought a lot of the long answers were fun and loved some of the cluing, especially for ARE WE THERE YET and SPEECH THERAPIST. C’mon, Rex, are you seriously thinking of a brutal torture session when you see “ways of making you talk”? It’s totally a comic line now, and a clever clue for someone whose job is to find ways of making people talk (better).
I also got slowed down in the GOSEE section, but it was because I had put RAp for the “tune often in 2/4 time,” even though that seemed off for the usually not very tuneful genre. But pOSEE seemed plausible for something about modeling. I looked at RAp again to see if I was missing something and RAG came to me. And then, of course, I remembered GOSEE from my years as a supermodel. Ha. I do think I’ve heard of it.
Rex, you missed one of the repeated clues - there were actually FOUR! The other was “shortening that omits gram” for INSTA and KILO. I was neither thrilled nor IRKED at these repetitions, but four is a lot.
I also has rap/posee. Models pose so it seemed reasonable or at least as reasonable as gosee.
Respectfully disagree with Rex on this one. I kinda enjoyed the referential cluing, added some fun to my solve. I agree with everything Rex said, but my feeling as I solved was much more positive.
Good solid Friday. Central stack are all good, as is the long down. On the other hand, I did not like even one "contains another word backwards" clue, let alone two.
I've spent my whole life assuming that the ELO in ELO system was some kind of acronym. Completely surprised to find out it's named after a person.
Did anyone else have "RAP/POSEE"? Models "pose" right?
Thank you America’s Next Top Model, for teaching me what a go see was. I got this immediately! And they say terrible reality TV rots your brain!
The best thing about this puzzle: it inspired my new favorite word. Fauxksiness! Darn tootin’, Rexie boy!
I liked it more than Rex, I just rolled my eyes at 1A and moved on, the rest was fine.
Always happy to see REM’s greatest album. The soundtrack to some of my happiest memories - brilliant even without my nostalgia.
With three-putt up top, a nice little misdirect with non-golf TEED OFF at 58A.
Unlike OFL, I enjoyed this. Found it to be a solid Medium Difficulty with several/plenty of good/interesting answers, some of which required the crosses to solve. Enjoyable. — SoCal CP
Medium for me, and while I ultimately ended up liking it more than @Rex, I was also IRKED by the double clues, the backwards word in a word clues and the film genre clues. ROM and TUNA at the bottom got back to back eye rolls.
I think the long answers are good, and the TRYNOTOLAUGH compilations are definitely a thing - perfectly fine.
SAKES could have been clued better to me - just didn’t fit with the voice. Or maybe I just want some sushi and sake tonight.
Overall a decent Friday effort.
This one tested my resolve again and again, and each time I refused to buckle. Let me tell you, when that last square filled in, I felt proud and satisfied. So, as a puzzle itself – before even considering other factors, such as answer and clue quality – this, for me, was top notch.
Those other factors ended up enhancing the experience. A grid design that elicits a peaceful feeling. Six NYT debut answers, all longer than eight letters, my favorites being THEM’S THE FACTS and TRY NOT TO LAUGH, both in that center stack, a thing of beauty. Smart cluing, from the lovely [They who shall not be named] for OTHERS, to the simple yet marvelous misdirect [Simple bucket] for layup.
Not to mention an uber-low 66-word grid whose answer set is smooth as velvet.
I love the backstory, where Julian let his brain work on the cluing for a full year – a full year! –marinating that paid sweet dividends, IMO.
A jewel of a puzzle that had me pumping my fists at the end. More, please, Julian, and thank you so much for making this!
Why try to be so cute with the twin clues - they made this pretty ugly. The rest of it was fine - slightly dated but fine. SPEECH THERAPIST went right in without deep thought. Liked THREE PUTT.
Make a CIRCUIT with me
Rex highlights the groaners here - there are a bunch. The LIME - RUM pair was neat and I’ll second the SKI Vermont slogan.
Less than ideal for a Friday morning solve.
NRBQ
Go to YouTube and search TRY NOT TO LAUGH CHALLENGE. My 15 y o could have solved that one instantly.
For Wanderlust: The game we played as kids was spelled TRIPOLEY, as I remember it. Never understood what the word meant.
Good call on the “gram” clues.
Nice medium puzzle for a Friday, I actually liked the cluing. Knowing RICCI would have made NW much easier - I started with GUCCI
Like @bobmills and a few others, I had RAP instead of RAG, took me a minute or two to find that. No idea what GOSEE even refers to - does anyone know?
NW was going nowhere so I started in the SW and made steady progress, ending, of course in the NW with the oddly clued double conductor stuff, which elicited an "oh". Hand up for the RAP /RAG confusion, although I didn't really want RAP as the clue contained the word "tune", which for me would exclude RAP.
One of my favorite old cartoons shows an alien in the desert pointing his ray gun at a cactus who stands with upraised arms and saying "We have ways of making you talk, earthling". SPEECHTHERAPIST clue was good for something.
And the SKI Vermont clue made me think of a bumper sticker that is seen in these parts for a SKI area that has a single chair lift and does not groom its trails- "Mad River Glen, SKI it if you can".
RICCI and ELO, eh? Always thought ELO was the Electric Light Orchestra, so some more handy crosswordese to remember.
I liked your Friday offering just fine, JX. Just X-wordy enough for me, and thanks for all the fun,
Hey All !
Bah! My Streak (7 days, I think it was?) has ended at a silly cross. I had RAp/pOSEE. Now, for all intents and purposes, a POSEE sounds 1000 times better as clued than a GOSEE. Models POSE, do they not? A POSEE. Nothing further, your honor.
Got held up in a couple of spots, but ended up on the easy spectrum. Liked the Stacked center.
Discovered a new Kealoa, piG/HOG.
Had ROM first where SCI went. Found ROM later down below.
Never 100% sure if it's BALOO or BALOu.
guCCI first for RICCI.
Have a friend whose wife was a SPEECHTHERAPIST at a County school system.
Happy Friday.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I’m surprised Rex disliked this one as much as he did, although he doesn’t seem aware that TRY NOT TO LAUGH is a whole subset of social media videos, so maybe that affects his opinion. I thought a lot of the cluing was clever, like for SPEECH THERAPIST. While there was a bit of bad fill, there really wasn’t much. And I liked trying to make the bad fill a bit more interesting by tying them together!
Agree, though, that RAG/GO SEE was too rough a cross, and like a lot of others, I had RAP/POSEE and had a rough time figuring out where my error was. At the very least, rag could have had an easier clue.
I also dislike the twin clues. The challenge in a double meaning is in finding out which one is being used. With the doubles you know both will be there. Contributes to the puzzle being too easy. Disappointed this week - yesterday was such a letdown for a Thursday I didn’t even care to post about it…
Each week I look forward to the Thursday Friday Saturday puzzles. What kind of challenge will I face? Will I be up to it? Will I be surprised and made to laugh? Will I wrack my brain and be humbled, or feel pleased with a job well done?
Maybe tomorrow?
Thrice! He sayeth.
I TRY TO be objective but find myself mostly on board with Rex again today. I don’t ever care for duplicates, in the clues or in the answers, so those grated a little. However, I SURE CAN appreciate the low level of proper names and admire that gorgeous long stack in the middle. Not what I’d call sparkly but unquestionably a worthy Friday. Thank you Julian, I enjoyed your puzzle and that’s what matters.
When I worked for the Labor Board years ago, I handled a lot of paperwork addressed to UNION REPS. Light years before today’s cut, paste and click to print an envelope, each one had to be manually typed. And with many of the mailings being legal documents, abbreviations were to be kept to a minimum. I have never forgotten the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Chauffeurs, Warehousemen and Helpers of America. Wish I had a dollar for every time I typed that. And for every time I drove by their headquarters building which just had TEAMSTERS in massive block letters over the front door, and still stands today. It’s every bit as imposing as the group’s reputation was in those turbulent days of Jimmy Hoffa’s iron grip.
Well, with all the cutesy-poo slang we have these days, why wouldn't an "open call in modeling lingo" be called a POSEE? That's what came in when I had RAp for the "tune often in 2/4 time".
I was annoyed with the clue because one of the things that I most dislike about RAP is that it's considered "music" and yet it doesn't have any tunes. but I never questioned either of my two wrong answers.
But I like POSEE much more than GOSEE for an open modeling call, so I don't mind my DNF at all. Who knows? Maybe I've created a new word in the modeling biz.
The puzzle was on the easy side for a Friday, but I enjoyed it a lot anyway. The more white space, the more stacks, the happier I am.
As a retired speech pathologist, let me assure you that the very tongue-in-cheek “We have ways of making you talk” is very popular on bumper stickers, t-shirts, mugs, etc.
This is why I post my first comment before reading anyone else. Five (5!!!!) people had POSEE/RAP ahead of me and all five of them didn't question it any more than I did.
I guess it takes a village to create a new word. Alas, I didn't do it alone, models everywhere, but consider the Rexblog today a groundswell of support for POSEE as the new way of describing an open call in your industry.
(Overheard at a Trump rally)
"That SPEECHTHERAPIST gave was so incoherent and ignorant that my date and I have both peed our pants. Now we AREWETHEREYET somehow we feel dry and cleansed."
Like any GOFER, I'm IRKED when I THREEPUTT.
What does a baker do if his weed brownies aren't working? ADSPOT.
Pretty easy overall, but I liked some of the cluing, in particular "One who has ways of making you talk...." for SPEECHTHERAPIST. Thanks, for sticking with this one through high school and into college, Julian Xiang. (See constructor notes).
My time for this one (even after correcting the pOSEE/GOSEE cross fell into the easy range. Looking back, the bottom half of the puzzle (esp. the SE) played medium and the top half played (like all the other puzzles this week) super easy. So it averaged out to easy. (Keep in mind,"easy" with my skill level is under 28 minutes!)
I'm embarrassed to say that in choosing between RAp and RAG, I went for the P because I misread the down as POSsE and a posse is a group of people (like models) ... wow, I can be dense! When the Happy Music didn't come, I hip-hopped from rap to rag and I was dancin', yeah.
Come on... That was an excellent center stack! Especially THEMSTHEFACTS.
How often do you get a totally legitimate, in-the-language phrase with such egregious grammar? I mean, sure, "ain't" is in a lot of phrases. But, "them's" is in a category by itself. So fun to have that front and center.
And the whole TRYNOTTOLAUGH thing is kinda brilliant. Because it's such a self-fulfilling dare. The very act of trying not to laugh can be funny.
I liked this puzzle much more than OFL did, although RAp/pOSEE got me too. Good one for reaching 1,200 on my streak (and I had a 700+ before missing one stinking day in November 2020, so I really should be approaching 2,000) and a near-PR time for a Friday after setting a new Thursday PR yesterday. Good way to start the month.
ILO VERMONT before SKI VERMONT.
I’ve definitely seen I LOVERMONT T-shirts and such and thought I was so clever seeing this as an answer. How else would you clue ILO?
There were actually FOUR doubled clues. You didn’t mention the two that say “Shortening that omits “gram””.
The grid is mostly fine, it's the cluage that relentlessly clanks. I actually guessed LIME for 38a, because I used to confuse the gem peridot with the gem citrine, which I thought *should* be lime-colored ("citric") but is actually amber-colored. At some point my brain sorted the two of them out.
INNER citric, I mean city, blues
Great FriPuz. Lotsa good fillins*, and has the official Jaws of Themelessness.
* some faves: CIRCUITS & clue. SPEECHTHERAPIST. THREEPUTT & clue [it would take 4, to annoy the semi-semi-pro golfer M&A, tho]. TRYNOTTOLAUGH. THEMSTHEFACTS. AREWETHEREYET. ISURECAN. PEACEMAKERS [forever a fave]. ALASKA. THYME. NECK & KISS. INSTA & KILO clues.
But, about TUNA … ANUT ain't quite a match, food-list-wise. I enjoy its attempt at wonkiness, tho. Sooo … then, obvs … name a music(al) instrument that's a state governor in reverse!** har
staff weeject picks: Gotta go with the ROM & SCI half-genres. Am somehow then oddly drawn to honrable mention RUM & SKI.
Thanx for the neat FriPuz, Mr. Xiao dude -- U Weekend Warrior, U.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
p.s.
** = TUBA.
**gruntz**
Easy-medium seems right with the NW the toughest part. CIRCUITS did not come easily given the clue (hi @Rex)
Erasure: tip in before LAY UP which RUM fixed.
No idea about GOSEE.
Solid with a bit of sparkle, liked it more than @Rex did.
I comment only two or three times a week but the last two times, including this morning, my post didn't appear. I wrote "I didn't learn a single thing from Rex's space-filler this morning" and then went on to praise the puzzle. The other recent non-starter had a similar knock on Rex. I'm beginning to feel censored.
Guilty of the RAp/pOSEE answer, but I’m in such good company that it makes me proud. And I too remember the alien quizzing the cactus—good UFO cartoon fodder. RICCI reminded me of Rikki-Tikki-Tavi who inhabited same jungle as BALOO.
TRY NOT TO LAUGH is in the title of the YouTube videos
Filled with names and naticks. WTF is a "GOSEE"?
I had g--ee and STILL had major problems with 44D. I know that most rags are in 2/4. It was no help. I never heard of a GOSEE. What a stupid thing to put in a puzzle.
@Anonymous 8:46 & jae: Think :GO SEE THAT MAN ABOUT A MODELING JOB"
With the 1 Across clue pointing to a plural entry I figured that meant the first letter of the grid spanning 8 Down would be S. When I saw its clue was about ways to make you talk I immediately thought SPEECH THERAPIST and saw it had the right number of letters. I checked to see if there were any confirming crosses and 25A SCI and the crosswordese-to-the-rescue 43A AER told me my hunch was correct. Boom! I got a 15 letter entry off of the first letter only! Don't think that's ever happened before.
After that the puzzle could do no wrong. Even the four sets of the same clue for different entries and a couple of the annoying word containing another word spelled backward clues didn't dampen my solve buzz. Seemed like everywhere I looked their was tasty GRIST for my solving mill. I was not even IRKED by a character I've never heard of, BALOO, from a book I've never read, "The Jungle Book".
Plus when I asked cousin google about 18D COACH my knowledge base of high end designer handbags expanded exponentially.
THEMS THE FACTS!
Delightful excursion. Enjoyed battling this one. That center stack is wonderful.
I did not know the name Nina Ricci, but her Wikipedia page reads like her grandson wrote it. GO SEE (in sit-in-yer-La-Z-Boy lingo).
Uniclues:
1 High voltage wiring when you have a screwdriver and a yen for DIY projects.
2 Nickname for labor leader at the Dorito factory.
3 One possible solution for the world going to Hell.
4 I will NOT be bacon.
5 Northern Chamber of Commerce promotional campaign targeting people who need to disappear.
6 Understandable reaction of unsuspecting young woman on learning Pace picante sauce is made by the Campbell Soup Company in Camden, New Jersey.
7 Slather semi steerer.
8 Picking up an ukulele.
9 Where every day is Wednesday.
10 How I do it after emptying the bota bag.
11 What my glittering personality and shimmering writing does.
12 Stop by Mar-a-Lago.
13 Ditch chicken salad on rye, but just today, per George Castanza.
14 Keep fighting, or "rock" the reconcilers.
15 When the first two were embarrassingly bad.
16 How to make destroying the oceans seem like a party.
17 Ping sentry prepper.
1 OBIT CIRCUITS (~)
2 UNION REP NACHO
3 CLERIC INCREASE (~)
4 EPIC HOG CHI (~)
5 ALASKA: I SURE CAN
6 IRKED SEñORITA
7 KISS TEAMSTER
8 CUING ALOHA
9 RICCI THEME PARK
10 SKI CORK SCREWED (~)
11 TESTS OTHERS
12 GO SEE RIOTER (~)
13 GO FER TUNA ONCE (~)
14 ICE PEACE MAKERS
15 LICIT THREE PUTT (~)
16 ELATE OIL RIGS (~)
17 SONAR COACH (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: "It tastes like it's been in the back of the cupboard since the 60s," loudly. DUSTY TANG YELL.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I got a Saturday's worth of solving out of this. Much of that was due to a couple of bad spelling write overs and a couple more of the kea/loa variety.
In the NE my THREEPARS/ THREEPUTT write over led to LUAGH/LAUGH confusion. I'm almost incurably dyslexic when it comes to dipthongs. This slowed down the appearance of PEACEMAKERS.
An even worse misspelling was SPEACH/SPEECH. You wouldn't think it's possible but sometimes my brain just doesn't work right.
In the SW I had a much more understandable TRIESTE/ TRIPOLI write over supported by READS/OPEDS at 41A. I had to backfill the SW off of DADS and SAKES to straighten out that mess.
yd -0, QB33
I thought of RAP/POSEE, but know that RAGs are in 2/4 time and RAPs tend to be 4/4. The only write-over was HOG over PIG.
I didn't mind the double-clues. I did mind THEMS THE FACTS. The clue needed to be more colloquial, such as "It is what it is".
A other one for RAP/POSEE.
@Anoa
I guess POCs can have their plus sides, huh? ;-)
I didn't mind the double clues too much; it was kind of a mini theme. Somehow I knew GO SEE from some movie... it might have been the documentary "Girl Model" which was about adolescent girls from a small town in Russia. Worth seeing.
A couple of malapops: KISS before NECK and ROM before SCI. And hands up for MASKS before TESTS (I still have a couple of masks but I used my last test when I was sick in November). THREE PUTT is a nice answer if you don't hate golf like Rex.
[Spelling Bee: Wed and Thurs 0; very hit and miss lately.]
@Anonymous 9:27 AM
Huzzah.
Every heard of The Entertainer, Maple Leaf Rag, soundtrack to The Sting? RAGtime is a foundation of American popular music, leading to blues,jazz, gospel, pop, and one could trace a through line to RAP - which is almost invariably in 4/4, not 2/4 like the clue specified.
I liked this a lot more than Rex, big surprise...Most criticisms seemed to come from clues in areas he doesn't know or reflexively bristles at. CUING is one of the most important functions of a conductor (after fund-raising and recruitment:). 1st time for me on the OPERA quip, despite being in the field. I agree that fewer of the TUNA/NUT type clues would be fine with me. I thought the SCI/fi and ROM/com clues were kind of (meet) cute. 3PUTT and TRYNOTTOLAUGH are solid in the language phrases that seem original.
Thanks for the SENORITA video - very steamy!
I join the RAp group today. I even spent a few seconds trying to figure out why RAp would be in 2/4 time, then shrugged. I guess it's been too long since I last pulled out my piano book of RAGs from "The Sting" soundtrack.
I had trouble getting traction with this puzzle so it played tough to start but ended up being medium for a Friday. I had to get GRIST for my mill to get a foothold.
That "Senorita" song was all over the airwaves in Iceland in the fall of 2019. After I got home from that trip, I only heard it ONCE more.
Thanks, Julian Xiao.
I don't at all like faux-folksiness as a trope, but I do love "fauxksiness" as a construction. Real conundrum.
What I was going to say and does rap have a tune at all?
GO SEE is a very well-known concept in modeling. (Not that I have personal experience with it!)
@JC66, usually the POCifying S helps my solve not at all but maybe ONCE every leap year or so....
I too DNF’ed on the RAp/pOSEE cross, that was too bad. As many others here it seems, I liked the rest of the puzzle a lot more than Rex, thought both some of the short fill and most of the long fill was fun to figure out.
Bob Mills
To be fair to the constructor and/or editors. the clue for 36 Across is informal “That’s” etc. it signals that the answer is informal also. Especially towards the end of the week, I don’t see anything wrong with it. Most of the expression answers are informal in any event.
I will only tell you once—
Close enough for crosswords. (Not again might be a better clue)
I put in rap first and then thought of rag. Rag seemed better to me because rap originally meant spoken words with hip/hop referring to the beat etc.
I actually remember “rap” being used to mean a political discussion in the late ‘60’s, early’70’s.
Intentional trap for older people it seems. .
Fun_cfo
The constructor was thinking of the phrase he did it for their sakes, I think.
For me, close enough
John K
Them’s etc
To me
That’s just how it is.
IS colloquial!
It’s easy to miss but this is Friday
Too late to comment?
Thought the puzzle was easy, liked it.
Would have been ridiculously easy without the SE corner.
Remembered rag and avoided the rap trap.
The cross was obviously a nasty one for a lot of people though.
While it is valid to question the cross, go see which I had no clue about is not a bad answer. It is typical for a Friday.
@Anoa
Yeah, about once every four years or so, thinking/knowing a word begins or ends in an S helps.
The two “conductors” clues were the lamest efforts I’ve seen in a long time. This entire puzzle was straight garbage.
Agree with Rex 100%. This one was bad. Bad. Not good!
I was not flummoxed by sq. 44. pOSEE makes no sense at all, but I can imagine "GO! SEE!" BFF wannabes rooting each other along.
One who says THEMSTHEFACTS might be in need of a SPEECHTHERAPIST, or at least a grammar COACH. But fine, it's in-the-language, so pass.
Center biggies are all good, natural sayings. Like.
I don't mind the clue dupes, even if they sometimes strain a definition to the limit. I know the constructors can't help themselves.
Good, clean puzzle, medium for the day. Birdie.
Wordle bogey. (Damn THREEPUTT!)
COACH THE SENORITA
Let’s TRYNOTTO run out of THYME
TO GOSEE A THERAPIST
and MAKE our UNION more sub LIME,
AREWE ever gonna KISS?
--- CHI CHI RICCI
Hard for me. Also didn't get the G in GOSEE/RAG. I started with JIG, then RAG, then RAP, thinking that models POSE, right? I was really stuck on what else people bought in Covid besides masks. In my province the tests were free. You couldn't leave a pharmacy without having more handed to you. They wanted people testing any time, not rationing them, I guess.
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