Saturday, May 18, 2024

Crowd energizer at a hip-hop concert / SAT 5-18-24 / Sobriquet behind 154 sonnets / Blacksmith-turned-agricultural magnate of the 19th century / Start of a 1950s political slogan / Where Steve Jobs first worked after college / Singer Brendon who fronted Panic! at the Disco / Its wool is the world' rarest natural fiber / Spanish opposite of "pobre"

Constructor: Adrian Johnson

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Nicolas ROEG (26D: "The Man Who Fell to Earth" director) —

Nicolas Jack Roeg CBE BSC (/ˈrɡ/ ROHG; 15 August 1928 – 23 November 2018) was an English film director and cinematographer, best known for directing Performance (1970), Walkabout (1971), Don't Look Now (1973), The Man Who Fell to Earth (1976), Bad Timing (1980) and The Witches (1990).

Making his directorial debut 23 years after his entry into the film business, Roeg quickly became known for an idiosyncratic visual and narrative style, characterised by the use of disjointed and disorienting editing. For this reason, he is considered a highly influential filmmaker, cited as an inspiration by such directors as Steven SoderberghChristopher Nolan and Danny Boyle.

In 1999, the British Film Institute acknowledged Roeg's importance in the British film industry by naming Don't Look Now and Performance the 8th- and 48th-greatest British films of all time in its Top 100 British films poll. (wikipedia)

• • •

Mother-in-law is in town, which is to say in my house, which is making for slightly tighter quarters and slightly more hilarious conversations, in that she asks about why I get up every morning at 3:45am and I explain what I do (i.e. this blog) and she says "oh you still do that, do you? now what is it you do, exactly? ... and people read that, do they? and it's cryptics, then? no? what are American crosswords, then? just little quizzes?" It's lovely that she's curious, but also there is a reason I never talk to anyone about this part of my life when asked "what do you do?" I should have some kind of card printed out that I can just hand people, a dead-tree FAQ that spares me the time and energy and bemused stares and awkward silences. Anyway, I slept terribly and the cats are being Extra annoying. Usually I wake up and feed them and then they sleep while I write, but this morning they're just milling and occasionally meowing, like "why is that door shut that door is never shut open that door meow meow [sound of cat wrestling]." The dawn chorus has started, though, and I'm done with this (mostly) lovely puzzle, so I feel like the morning's energy is turning in a good direction. 


I said this puzzle was "Easy-Medium," but it's really "Easy." I just got stubbornly bogged down in the NW, which is to say everywhere around URIE, which is one of those "how the hell should I know?" non-inferrable pop culture names designed to drive me batty (18A: Singer Brendon who fronted Panic! at the Disco). I also got ridiculously hung up on the Steve Jobs answer. Where did he work right out of college? Uh ... let's see -T-R- ... hmm ... STORE? That seems ... vague. AT ... something? AT LAW? AT I.R.S.? These seem implausible. Etc. Getting ATARI was one of the D'oh-iest moments I've had of late. So weird to call CELIBACY [Nun's habit?] since it's the opposite of a habit. It's not doing something. It's just not there. Also, no offense, but not all nuns. I mean, if Paul Verhoeven has taught me anything ...


I tried ALPACA at first for 1D: Its wool is the world' rarest natural fiber, but that left me with C-- for the U.S. state with the only unicameral legislature, and I knew that wasn't CAL or COL but NEB. I then immediately wanted VICUÑA, but the improbability of someone whose four-letter last name started UR- had me hesitating. Sigh. Thank god IMARETS was a gimme (2D: Turkish inns). Once I finally acceded to VICUÑA, I saw CALL ON THE CARPET (or what I hoped was CALL ON THE CARPET), and once crosses confirmed it (SIC!) the puzzle really sped up. Really really. I don't remember much of anything south of ATARI. Answers just seemed to fill themselves in. I got "THERE ARE NO WORDS" without ever looking at the clue at all. A textbook example of how the hardest part of most themelesses is getting initial traction. Struggle struggle whoooosh. That is a fairly typical pattern.

[VICUÑA fawn in the Atacama Desert]

This puzzle was way way nameier than yesterday's puzzle, which was conspicuous (in a good way) in its lack of reliance on proper noun trivia. Names are fine, but this one gets dense at times, with DEERE ROEG SAURON all coming on successive Acrosses, and URIE and EMEKA representing what I would consider reasonably obscure names. I mean, if you follow those things (PATD, '00s NBA), then you luck out, but non-fans don't have easy access to those niche names. But no matter. That's crosswords! If the crosses are fair, then no foul. I really really liked the long stacks up top and down below ("I MEAN IT THIS TIME!" and SAVE-THE-DATE CARD are particularly vivid), and when the marquee stuff is great, the rest of the grid just has to be solid and keep from buckling. This grid more than held up its end of the bargain. It's actually very clean, stray bits of crosswordese notwithstanding. My only real gripe today is the clue on MALES (27A: 76% of U.S. governors in 2024, a record low). Human beings are men / women. Livestock are MALES / females. I cringe every single time some guy refers to adult human women as "females," and it turns out I don't like "males" any better for adult human men. 


Once again, I had a clue-reading problem today, where I read 1-Across as [Where you might stop for the sheer fun of it?] and I thought the answer was going to be a hair salon or sheep station (wrong "sheer"), or else ... I don't know, a roadside inn at the top of a cliff somewhere. I'd stop there. But no, it's "shop," and it's VICTORIA'S SECRET, which sells "sheer" undergarments. Surprised (mildly) that LIFT UP wasn't tied to VICTORIA'S SECRET. Real missed opportunity there. 

Bullet points:
  • 20A: Start of a 1950s political slogan ("I LIKE") — Ike (as in Dwight D. Eisenhower) is who they like. Good ol' DDE. One of many many many gimmes in today's puzzle for me (ROEG, IMARETS, ESAI, ONO, SAURON, OPRAH, HOLI, THE BARD, etc.)
  • 33A: Many a character in the 2018 animated film "Smallfoot" (YETI) — never heard of this film. Keeping up with children's fare is Ex-Haus-Ting. But I got this off the YE- without much trouble. Instantly, in fact. What other "character" could possibly start YE-? The fact that the movie title appears to be playing on "Bigfoot" also helped.
  • 55A: Andre Agassi, e.g. (IRANIAN-AMERICAN) — if you thought maybe ITALIAN-AMERICAN, you are forgiven, I'd say. Not that *I* did that. No, not me, I would never [whistles idly and innocently]. But I can see how one might.
  • 34A: Make toast? (RUIN) — if you're "toast," you're done for, over, RUINed. Now that I think about it, it's a terrible metaphor. Toast is delicious. I have peanut butter on toast every morning. Decidedly not ruined.
  • 38D: Crowd energizer at a hip-hop concert (HYPE MAN) — love it. Favorite non-long answer of the day, for sure. Unsurprisingly, it's a debut.  
  • 41D: Cross state lines? (TIRADE) — so good, this clue. I had TIR- and no idea. Or, rather, I thought "I can't even think of a six-letter word that starts TIR- except TIRADE, but that makes no ... oh." A TIRADE is a barrage of "lines" you might deliver if you are in a "cross state" (i.e. angry).
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. today's constructor, Adrian Johnson, is one of the editors behind "Puzzles for Palestine" (a benefit collection featuring lots of big crossword names, which you can read about here), and he asked that I share a link to gazafunds.com, "a project that connects people to crowdfunding campaigns for individuals and families from Gaza." You can hear Adrian, as well as Rachel Fabi (“These Puzzles Fund Abortion”), Juliana Pache (BlackCrossword.com) & Erik Agard, talk about their innovative crossword work on the latest episode of  “The Allusionist” podcast (Allusionist 194: Good Grids)

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

101 comments:

  1. Wanderlust6:25 AM

    THERE ARE NO WORDS: What many commenters on this blog might say about puzzles too heavy on proper names. This one was pretty heavy on them but I am in the minority of commenters who don’t object to them. Today I knew all but the same two Rex called out - URIE and EMEKA. The last A of the latter was my last square, and I had to guess between PTA and PTO. I guessed correctly, thinking that PTA is more common.

    Very easy for a Saturday for me (after a very easy Friday) but I LIKEd it. Great long acrosses and some nice clues, especially (as Rex said) the one for TIRADE.

    The bottom just flew by. I knew HOLI right away, which gave me HOIST, OPRAH and INNER. With three of the four starting letters of those long acrosses, they all fell quickly. The R and the N gave me IRAN, so I didn’t make Rex’s mistake on Agassi, and I vaguely remembered that his dad was Iranian anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love the tri-stacks. When those longs - or at least sections of those longs go in directly from the clue the real estate gets filled quickly. “sheer” automatically gives you 1a. CALL ON THE CARPET and THERE ARE NO WORDS are fantastic and I’m staring at SAVE THE DATE magnet on my fridge as I type.

    She’s just a girl

    I thought Agassi was Armenian. IMARETS is crossword royalty. URIE is obscure trivia. Two consecutive days of keyboard shortcuts and second appearance of OPRAH this week. Flava is so cool and the ultimate HYPE MAN. Most of my Indian friends are from Kerala - I don’t know HOLI.

    DREW Holcomb covering Waits

    Highly enjoyable Saturday morning solve. Ben Zimmer’s Stumper is something different altogether - good luck.

    Love and Rockets

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:17 PM

      Son Volt
      Save the date magnet on my refrigerator too

      Delete
  3. Wrote a whole long comment that vanished. Oh, well. Easy medium sums it up. The Man Who Fell to Earth was seriously my favorite movie for years, but decades later when I watched it with my teens, it fell flat. Sigh.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Andy Freude6:55 AM

    Hand up for URIE and EMEKA. And in the universe of words I know only from crosswords, for some reason I have a mental block for that Turkish inn. I seem to be slowly learning it one letter at a time. Today I confidently dropped in IMA-, then thought I’d let the crosses take care of the rest. But my new friend URIE stopped me cold. Finished by going back and taking a lucky guess on that crossing R. Phew!

    ReplyDelete
  5. "Human beings are men / women. Livestock are MALES / females." This explains why livestock have an easier time completing M/F checkboxes on forms than humans do.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:06 AM

      As adjectives, male/female are appropriate for humans.

      Delete
    2. They ARE males-in medical records and reports and police reports and verbal descriptions…

      Delete
    3. Druid & Anonymous
      Puzzled me why Rex complained about MALES.
      People do use males to refer to men on occasion. I guess he doesn’t like the way female is used referring to women, so he dislikes both referring to people, but it is not wrong Didn’t bother me.

      Delete
  6. FWIT…we all know what you do (I.e. this blog) and we appreciate it very much

    ReplyDelete
  7. I looked at the layout and was worried about the longs, but looking at the clue for 1A immediately wrote in the correct answer.
    I had Steve Jobs working at A TAco for a bit, but corrected it fairly quickly.
    Definitely easy today.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:48 AM

      Hah!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous3:16 PM

      That was Steve McJobs

      Delete
  8. One of those stairway solves, down, the across, then down, and so on. IMARETS led to SCOFFS led to FILET led to TOPPLE (wrong), but SAURON fixed TOPPLE and on I went, finishing pretty quickly for a Saturday.

    Didn't remember HOLI right away, did remember ROEG somehow, any woman's name in a crossword ending in AH is OPRAH, and EMEKA was familiar, but not the spelling. And URIE? Really? The clue was absolutely no help either. An all-crosses special.

    Today's highlight is of course IMARETS, one of those crossword answers you tuck away, like saving something in the garage because "you might need it some day", and then that day comes and you go find it and congratulate yourself for your foresight. Hello old friend. You sure came in handy today.

    Great Saturday, AJ. A Job well done. Love me a bunch of triple stacks like this, and thanks for all the fun.

    ReplyDelete
  9. It was nice that VICTORIA’S SECRET came to me quickly, which opened things up a bit and saved me from fluttering around the grid like a lost butterfly trying to find a toehold somewhere. I’ll need to (hopefully) commit VICUÑA and IMARETS to memory as I rarely encounter them IRL (although I recall the latter from grids of yore).

    I personally disagree with where Rex is ending up with the Males v.v. Men vs. Humans etc. That whole gender/pronoun situation is one big fluid quagmire that will probably take another decade for society to settle on some sort of new normal that everyone tacitly agrees to - I’ll probably be dirt-napping by then, so I definitely don’t have a dog in that hunt.

    Like many I’m sure, URIE and AMEKA were tough. I’m guessing that, unlike many, I was also completely oblivious to SAURON - absolutely no clue on that one (except of course from the crosses - so I guess I did have a few clues since I finished the grid). It will be interesting to see where the Gunk Gauge ends up today - I thought it was on the light side yesterday, but it drifted up a bit. I suspect we will be in similar territory today.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Much harder time than Rex. Didn’t know the director, PATD last name, Turkish inns, and more (though I knew EMEKA, I had aMEKA initially). Dropped OPRAH in right away and the R led me to pRotenNisplayer for Agassi. Not helpful.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Deloris7:43 AM

    If you think of CELIBACY in the sense they never marry then yes, all nuns, even Benedetta Carlini, are celibate.

    ReplyDelete
  12. What a thing of beauty! That gorgeous grid design, for one thing, balanced and uncomplicated, without a mess of scattershot black squares. My heart went “Ahh!” when I saw the empty grid.

    And then the beauty of the filled-in grid. A mere 66 words strewn with long answers (eight letters and more), not only those six spanners, but there are 18 longs IN ADDITION to those spanners. And yet hardly a whiff of junk – the skill that this takes! My heart goes “Ahh!” when I look at the full grid.

    That loveliness is bolstered by freshness. None of the six spanning answers has appeared in the 80-year-old Times puzzle more than three times, and two of them are debut answers.

    But most importantly, how was the solve? For me, in this stubborn puzzle, time after time, I experienced one of Crosslandia’s sweetest moments: When, with few crosses, a vexing long answer suddenly hits, an explosion of “Hah!” and “Aha!”, chased by the thrill of filling in a string of white, spurring an eagerness to pounce on what I just filled in, and a burst of confidence and hope that I’ll crack this beast yet. Thus, a terrific filled-with-pings-of-delight solve.

    Thank you, Adrian. This was a jewel!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:13 PM

      You put into words how I felt about today's puzzle. Feelings of "I don't think I can solve this," followed by sparks of puzzle joy. Challenging but not a slog.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous7:51 AM

    Confidently wrote in VICTORIA'S SECRET, then off to the races, missed PR for Saturday by 4 seconds!
    As someone who traveled the 4H circuit with llamas when my daughter's were young, VICUNA was a gimme
    Not the first puzzle this week with easy long answers and interesting fill-ins we've been seeing more of them.
    LAT has nice challenge today

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous7:51 AM

    Always thought Agassi was Greek...

    ReplyDelete
  15. I always check the puzzle's rating on the blog before I do it. Nothing else. But today I read your hilarious opening. Thanks for the laugh, Rex :)
    See you later.

    ReplyDelete
  16. AlanB7:59 AM

    URIE was the first thing I confidently wrote in haha, helps if you have kids who listen to panic at the disco. Fortunately EMEKA was easy to get from crosses as I would not have known which if any of those letters were wrong. Otherwise easy peasy. Happy belated HOLI!

    ReplyDelete
  17. A lovely, whooshy Saturday. I really enjoyed all the long acrosses. @Andy 6:55, I also can never remember IMARETS although I’ve seen it a bunch of times and actually have a friend who’s family owns one. A mental block indeed. Maybe this time it will stick.

    There were lots of proper names, but they came clear from crosses. stabs in the dark that turned out to be right: OPRAH, ATHENA, DEERE, LIMA. Conversation with computer scientist husband - Me: any idea where Steve Jobs worked after college? Him: Steve Jobs didn’t finish college. Me: well, after he left college then? Him: I don’t know. Maybe XEROX? No, maybe ATARI. Try that.

    Speaking of conversations, I loved yours with your mother-in-law, Rex. I could have had a similar convo with my own son-in-law, as I have a very vague idea of what he does.

    ReplyDelete


  18. Fairly Easy for a Saturday; easier than yesterday.

    Overwrites:
    1D: Wanted alpacA before VICUÑA, but figured (correctly) that would be too easy.
    13D: tag It before RIP IT
    33A: ogre before YETI, since I'd never heard of "Smallfoot"
    44D: bOoST before HOIST

    WOEs:
    14D: EMEKA Okafor
    18A: URIE of Panic! at the Disco

    ReplyDelete
  19. Anonymous8:21 AM

    Not a fan of Emeka crossing PTAs, since PTO (Parent-Teacher Organization) is very common and Emeko seems as likely as Emeka if you don’t know it. So I disagree that the cross is fair. And I think vicuña crossing Urie is similar, in that any vowel seems possible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:44 PM

      Anonymous 8:21 AM
      PTo is a possibility at the cross but as said above, PTA is much more common. I put in the A for that reason. ( also as an answer in the Times puzzle PTA is much more common than PTo). As it is, the cross is fair. If the letter was o, that is another question.
      VICUÑA is not an obscure word, especially if you have all but one letter. Just because I have no clue about a word, doesn’t mean I call it too obscure for Saturday especially. It in no way compares to EMEKA.

      Delete
  20. Easy except for the crosses at VICUNA, URIE, and CALL ON… (an expression I’ve never heard, but I pulled VICUNA out of nowhere (really not sure when I’ve ever heard of these creatures) to finish.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous8:31 AM

    My fastest Saturday yet! Until I got to the natick of VICUÑA/CALL ON THE CARPET. I’ve never heard of a vicuña and “call on the carpet” is a completely new phrase to me, and I wasn’t really able to infer it. I guess it means “you’re in trouble so come…over here and stand on this carpet?” I ran through every possible word: wall, fall, tall, ball, mall, y’all, gall, hall…then finally got to CALL. Frustrating end to an otherwise fun wooshy puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:06 PM

      Here's a nice origin story of call on the carpet https://grammarist.com/idiom/call-on-the-carpet/#:~:text=Then%2C%20early%20in%20the%201800,for%20a%20mistake%20or%20infraction.

      Delete
  22. Anonymous8:47 AM

    This one would have been simpler if IMARETS would stick in my head.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Had CELEBACY at first, because nuns are *famously known* for being celibates. Celebaties?

    Gimmes: IMARETS, Nicolas ROEG, and Crosswordese Hall of Famer ESAI Morales. Thanks, ESAI, for being the only Morales in existence.

    Half my average time. It's an architectural feat to make a triple stack (x2) grid so easy, without an overwhelming amount of obscure fill. Hats off to Adrian Johnson for the construction. Fun while it lasted!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Well, we may not all love rebuses and we may not all love clues that have been diabolically changed (I love both) but all of us do love long stacks, I'm pretty sure. Don't we? As THE BARD might have said:

    My heart leaps up when I behold
    White space!

    When VICTORIA'S SECRET came in I fairly leapt up with excitement. SECRET came in first -- situated in the place where I had expected to find a STORE of some kind.

    I also loved SAVE THE DATE CARD and its clue.

    I must go read the blog and find out what on earth HOLI (44A) is. And my one big nit: the clue for TIRADE (41D) makes no grammatical sense and is trying much too hard to be clever.

    A word on our favorite crossword gal, if not our favorite singer (5D). Love is blind, John. ONO was hardly "unknown". Neither was she an "artist".

    Liked this lively puzzle a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hey All !
    Did go Goog to keep puz flowing, as the things I didn't know were never going to expose themselves (@Gary -TeeHee!) seeing as how I couldn't get the crossers. I looked up fout things, EMEKA, YETI, SAURON (never did see any of the LOTR movies, shocking, I know 😁) and what sobriquet meant, to get THEBARD. Sobriquet is a word I've seen and know of, but can never remember what it means.

    Nice StackerPuz. Very large @M&A's Jaws there. Fairly easy, as Stackers go. Of course, my cheats helped move it along!

    In my limo driving days, I drove Andre Agassi and wife Steffi Graf, along with their kids, a couple of times. Very nice people. Agassi has a school out here in Las Vegas. Not too far from my house. By Downtown.

    Anyway, nice SatPuz. Hope y'all have a wonderful day!

    Two F's
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  26. Some synchronicity here: Ike's Chief of Staff, Sherman Adam's, resigned because he accepted a vicuna coat.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous9:47 AM

    Joining those who struggled with the EMEKA—PTAS crossing. A potential kealoa natick! I guessed right, based in part on some vague intuition about Nigerian names.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Bob Mills9:49 AM

    Finished it without cheating after a long struggle. When the music sounded, I was amazed.

    I didn't know SAURON, so I needed every cross. I can't believe LIMA Peru is larger than Los Angeles; did anyone else question this? What does "larger" mean except population? Land area?

    Took me a lot longer in the lower part, especially coming uo with SAVETHEDATECARD. I've never received one, or heard about one.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:43 AM

      Los Angeles population in 2024 just under 4 million. Lima Peru over 10 million.

      Delete
    2. LIMA is larger than LA in both population and land area. LA is larger in terms of its greater metropolitan area, but in terms of the city itself, LIMA has it beat.

      Delete
  29. Too many PROPER NAMES that I’ll never remember. When EMEKA OKAFOR and his 12.0 pts per game are NYT crossword worthy, I know that I have other things to do on a Saturday

    ReplyDelete
  30. I too enjoyed the stacks today, but there weren't many other longs to make this puzzle pop. Lewis above (7:49 a.m.) said there were 18 longs (8 letters or more) in addition to the stacks... In actuality, there were only 2.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous10:24 AM

    Fastest Saturday puzzle I can remember - had it done in 15 minutes.

    ReplyDelete
  32. I think VICTORIASSECRET was my first answer (although I might have dropped in ONO first) which led to a very brisk (for moi) top half of the puzzle. But I didn't have as much luck with a spanner in the south, so overall my time was above average. On the other hand, I was watching TV during the solve, so who knows how it might have gone if I had LEANED into it with more focus.

    With CELIBACY and IMARETS in place, I thought Mr. Jobs might have started his career in iTAly.

    SAURON came to me from I don't know where, not being a LotR fan (but my wife is). I would have tried Gollum, except I couldn't remember that name until I googled it post-solve.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Medium up top, sticky through the middle, an easy glide to the finish - and fun to solve. I got a smile right at the start from my first-in IMARETS, such a crossword classic, and it always reminds me of Douglas Fairbanks in the wonderful 1924 Thief of Baghdad, where the inn is, admittedly, called a caravanserai, but still. More to like: I MEAN IT THIS TIME, the HERMIT and PARDNER, and the tough-to-parse clues (thank you to @Rex for explaining TIRADES). This was one where names helped me a lot: ATHENA, ONO, ESAI, ATARI, HOLI, DEERE, SAURON.

    Do-overs: lIngeRie...[something} before VICTORIA'S SECRET, SEAr before SEAL, Gosh before GULP, SCOrn before SCOFF, IT TEchS before TEAMS. No idea: EMEKA, URIE, NITRO CAR, HYPE MAN

    ReplyDelete
  34. Had a couple of hangups. Souvide is one of the greatest gifts to canrivore-kind, and LIMA is pretty obvious but for some reason I got hung up on SEAR rather than SEAL, which was really annoying to me because SEAR is what you do after souvide-ing not before, which had me griping at the puzzle for a stupid long time before LIMA finally became obvious. Other gimmes that shoulda been but weren't included SAURON, because my brain went into another glitch and got stuck on SARUMAN which not only didn't fit but I knew was wrong; it just sat there blocking the synapse with SAURON behind it, the way my aging-aphasias all seem to work these days.

    Lots of great stuff today though. Funny how some personages achieve X-word Immortality not because of their achievements but just because of their name being so convenient for those three-space fills. ONO, ENO, CHE, MAO, CHO, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Hilarious intro 🦖. If it helps, I tell everyone what you do.

    Impressive. I could tell this would be a fun challenge the minute I opened the grid. It's pretty. Unfortunately it was a junk fest with those six spanners. Those went in straight away, but the supporting cast of names and partials, yeeschk.

    Propers: 11
    Places: 1
    Products: 3
    Partials: 7
    Foreignisms: 5
    --
    Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 27 (42%) eek

    Uniclues:

    1 Pong brothers.
    2 Bworf bworf bworf (sayeth the snarker).
    3 Build a McDonald's at basecamp.
    4 Whisky warranty words.
    5 Gets romantic with Price is Right host.
    6 Alpaca ape aloft.
    7 Get busy.
    8 Why locusts are ravaging the fields.
    9 Bullish Bethlehem bucks huckster.

    1 ATARI MALES
    2 SEAL SCOFFS (~)
    3 RUIN YETI (~)
    4 PEATY OATHS
    5 OPENS DREW ROBE
    6 VICUñA HOIST
    7 LEAVE CELIBACY (~)
    8 ATHENA TIRADE
    9 SHEKELS HYPEMAN

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Any strip joint. THE LOVE BUG MALL.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous11:09 AM

    Guessed at the names at first, and held on to URIS and ERIKA for too long.

    ReplyDelete
  37. Not an easy one for me and I needed a little help with the trivia, starting right off with VICUÑA. HOLI was new to me, and I thought the clue for TIRADE was brilliant. Noticed our old friend CTRL, but only a two-fingered salute today. I love the long stacks at top and bottom, no junk anywhere. Good one Adrian, and I love your cat. You can see my little tuxie, Madame Sassy Pants, in my avatar.

    I know someone who was once was subjected to a CALL ON THE CARPET at VICTORIA’S SECRET because he had a tendency to SEEK out some of the finer merchandise a little too enthusiastically. True story.

    As I write this, THERE there is a John DEERE tractor mowing hay in the field across the road. Looks like it will be a very good yield THIS TIME. Also a true story.

    ReplyDelete
  38. @Rick K -- You are absolutely right, and I am absolutely wrong. There ARE only two additional longs above and beyond the stacks not 18! I was looking at the chart on XwordInfo and I misread a number -- yeesh! I am sorry about my mistake there!

    ReplyDelete
  39. Thrilled anytime I can do a Saturday without cheating. And this one felt daunting at first but then slowly unraveled, a perfect lingering start to a cold wet day. Thought Agassi was Armenian, so we seem to have him all over the place here. And VICTORIAS SECRET was great, given that "sheer" works there in every sense of the word, at least here with me. Could've done without the male/female/ men/women points - too much to unpack there but someday we'll differentiate between sex and gender. Perfect Saturday.

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  40. Medium because I had a lot of erasures. The three stacks were actually pretty easy for me with one exception. I had ItalIAN before IRANIAN for Agassi (hi @Rex). I do not keep track of tennis players.

    Also:
    ITTEchs before TEAM
    dEl > NEv > NEB
    tbone before FILET

    Did not know URIE, EMEKA, HYPE MAN

    All of the above made this tougher for me than it should have been.

    Smooth with some fine long stacks, liked it.

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  41. Anonymous11:22 AM

    I’m lucky enough to have a son who loves Panic! At the Disco and also be a big NBA fan, so the two niche answers were right in my wheelhouse.
    Otherwise, I swear something is going on because the last three days have been the easiest Th - Sat stretch I’ve ever experienced. I got a PB Saturday time today and didn’t even get much of that rush of pride because it played more like a Wednesday than a Saturday for me. Even the marquee grid spanners fell right into place, starting at the very beginning with VICTORIASSECRET.

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  42. Another semi-Natick felled me and husband - we both had TALK/URIK, URIE being a total unknown and talk being an equally likely correct answer as TALE for something related …

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  43. I wanted musk ox as the rare natural fiber. You can find musk ox yarn for $70 to $100 per skein. On the other hand, I’ve never seen vicuña yarn so I guess that makes it rarer. In any case, I couldn’t think of anywhere starting with X that Steve Jobs may have worked so that nixed musk ox.

    I agree with Rex on the difficulty rating of easy. I had to start at HERMIT crossing LIMA because the top offered no toeholds beyond ESAI crossing I LIKE. WHY DO I have so much trouble remembering if the control key is CntL or CTRL?

    Nice, breezy Saturday, thanks Adrian Johnson.

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  44. I got off to a running start with meriNo, confirmed by NEB, at 1-D. I held on to it for way too long, but finally LIFT UP let me see ATARI, and I remembered Sherman Adams (Hi @Dan Sachs) and the VICUNA coat. That was why Nixon's Checkers speech emphasized that his family all had "good Republican cloth coats."

    Maybe because of that, I worked down and back up, getting VICTORIA'S SECRET from the back end. I couldn't remember what cooking sous vide was, so I went with wrAp before LEAL. And although I'm familiar with HOLI-- a local Indian restaurant included a packet of pigment with our order -- we were supposed to throw it at each other, but decided not to-- but I don't think of India as having a spring (I'm wrong of course), so hesitated.

    @Nancy, I think he meant she was famous, but not for being an artist. She was, though--here's an article about her five most famous works.

    Whether you like her art is another question, of course!

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  45. @Lewis don't beat yourself up. You do yeomanlike here on this comment board. We all make mistakes.

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  46. My daughter just turned 38, kinehora, has five children of her own (all gorgeous), and is an excellent RN in oncology. But back when she was in her nursing program there were a few rough periods, to put it mildly. During one, the State of NJ, in its wisdom, took away her driver's license. So I became her father/driver.

    I got a call from her in school one day saying she forgot her notebook on her desk at home and really needed it, so could I drive it over? She gave me the classroom location and said I should just walk in through the door and she'd see me and come get it. I found the notebook, drove to the school, and located the classroom.

    I opened the door and stepped in. The professor stopped talking, and about 25 exquisitely beautiful 19-year-old women all turned to look at me. I became a stammering Ralph Kramden: "Homina, homina, homina," I explained. Finally, my daughter (enjoying the scene enormously) rescued me by coming over and taking the notebook. I later described the experience as stepping into the VICTORIA'S SECRET catalog.

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  47. URIE, ROEG, HYPE MAN and EMEKA...Where have you been in my grand life? I've never met you. I'm impressed that you made me stare at all of you for so long that I finally had to ask someone who you were [sigh]....

    I don't know what unicameral means so I also stared at NE something. NEV? And do tell, Jobs didn't work out of a garage? YETI? You were in "Smallfoot?" What a mess to start me off in the NW. Get up, walk away, pour myself another little Zin, come back and try again. VICTORIA SECRET! Yes! and I MEAN IT THIS TIME and CALL ON THE CARPET. Plunk, plunk and plunk. Boy did those three make me happy. And so it went.

    I finally got to Andre Agassi. So what are you other than a tennis great...Are you IRISH perhaps? AHA...You are not Iraqi, you are IRANIAN! And AMERICAN. Well good for you and for me because I figured you out and I'll remember that one if it ever pops up again. Whoosh.

    My two finally longies made me really smile. SAVE THE CARD (with just a few letters in place) and without so much as another sip of zin....THERE ARE NO WORDS. Done.

    @Rex...I kind feel the same way when people ask me "Where did you learn Spanish?" It becomes so long and convoluted that the person asking just sighs and walks away. Que RICO!

    Oh....what in the world is a NITRO CAR? Should that be something I should remember? I don't even know what NITRO is...I'll put you in the unicameral corner.....



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  48. didn't appreciate the political P.S. about the puzzle constructor. Some of your readers may have markedly different political views, may oppose the Hamas terrorists. I am one of those readers. Your crossword blog should not be a political venue!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wanderlust2:20 PM

      It can be whatever he wants it to be. You are free to stop reading it.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:11 PM

      Besides which, he made no mention of support for Hamas terrorists. The crowdfunding is for individuals and families who are facing famine and homelessness because of the war. How could anyone be against that?

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:01 AM

      There are MONSTERS on both sides.

      Delete
  49. Anonymous11:52 AM

    Very very easy — but enjoyable. The Victorias Secret/Vicuña cross was immediate. And set the stage.

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  50. But THERE ARE NO WORDS are words. Maybe a better answer for 59A, "I'm speechless," would be to leave the whole line blank? But how would the downs work? Never mind.

    Love how CELIBACY and VICTORIA'S SECRET cross. Maybe the nun is reaffirming her celibacy after a visit to the store?: I MEAN IT THIS TIME!

    Also thought Agassi was Grecian at first.

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  51. @Rex. You could refer you Kiwi-in-law to your Wikipedia page:

    Sharp began writing about the daily New York Times crossword puzzle as practice for a possible website for a comics course.[6][10] He writes under a pseudonym—Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld—that was originally a nickname invented during a family trip to Hawaii; his real-life identity was outed in 2007.[6][11] Five weeks after its debut on September 25, 2006, the blog received hundreds of views when the first puzzles he had written about were reprinted in national syndication.[4][5] Two years later, there were more than 10,000 daily readers, more than 20,000 in 2012, and 50,000 in 2021.[4][5][7] Some readers regularly participate in the blog's comment section, which forms a part of the online crossword community.[5][12]
    Sharp's reviews are characterized by use of humor and strong opinions.[9][13] He usually solves the Times puzzle in the late evening and writes posts in the morning before going to work.[10][14] Reviews express Sharp's likes or dislikes of elements of a puzzle such as its theme, clues, fill, and fairness.[4][6] Posts also include the puzzle's solution, a difficulty rating, an explanation of the theme if there is one, a "word of the day", and topical pictures and music.[6][15] In 2008, he invented the crossword term "natick" (after Natick, Massachusetts) for an "unguessable" square crossed in both directions by proper nouns considered obscure.[4][16] He has sometimes criticized the Times puzzle on issues of gender and racial representation.[13][17] Crossword editor Will Shortz has said he has "mixed feelings" about the blog, and the Times's "Wordplay" column has called it "decidedly divisive" for its occasionally caustic tone.[4][18] Sharp has framed the blog as an effort to treat an ephemeral product as a creative work worthy of criticism.[10][12]

    Of course you might want to add a sentence such as: Parker's blog has a regular group of commenters, notably one MALE who goes by the pseudonym "egsforbreakfast " whose comments are so painfully off-subject and abstruse that many other readers harbor the desire that he cease and desist.

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    Replies
    1. @egsforbreakfast 12:00 PM
      "... whose comments are so painfully off-subject and abstruse that many other readers harbor the desire that he cease and desist."

      Hold my beer.

      Delete
  52. A few I had to get by crosses, but over all, the easiest Saturday I can remember for quite a while.

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  53. Anonymous12:44 PM

    UConn men’s BB fan here. Emeka was my first answer. Amazing athlete and graduated in three years with honors.

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  54. I was taught in Catholic school that priests took a vow of celibacy, but nuns to a vow of chastity. Both mean no sex, but chastity implied a lifestyle beyond no sex or marriage...

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  55. I got URIE first because I knew it from spending a few weeks listening to Taylor Swift’s discography in an attempt to understand why my wife likes her so much (my lukewarm take is that she has a few dozen great songs and a lot of just-fine songs) and she does some duet with Brendan Urie who is notable in my mind for fronting a band with inscrutable punctuation (see also Godspeed You! Black Emperor, which, yes I know is a Japanese documentary about motorcycle gangs, but the punctuation is still inscrutable).

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  56. FUN FACT: You can get a VICUNA t-shirt from Loro Piana (the Succession character, Kendell Roy's favored designer) for just under $5000.

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  57. George of the jungle1:44 PM

    I haven't read this section, but I'll bet your gonna get roasted. Free speech? Yeah right!!

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  58. It’s true that “habit” normally means something like “repeated action”, which is how Rex is taking it here, and I’d agree that it would be a stretch to associate with CELIBACY.

    But “habit” has a broader meaning that is tied to its etymology, which is the Latin “habitus” (which is related to the verb habeo, meaning “to have”. This sense includes things beyond just repetitive actions, like lifestyles, values, dispositions, etc. So CELIBACY in this sense of “habit” works fine, and makes a nice play on the “clothing” sense that we associate with nuns.

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  59. @Kath320

    Thants not quite right. In Catholicism every believer is called to a life of chastity, which means living out one’s sexuality in their particular state of life. So married people are called to chastity, which takes the form of having sexual relations only with one’s spouse, and both priests and nuns are also called to chastity, which in their vocations means having no sexual relations, and that is called celibacy.

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  60. Rosie2:10 PM

    @Blackbird: Meh it’s RP’s blog so he should make it above whatever he wants to make it about no matter how execrable his politics are.

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  61. Anonymous2:14 PM

    @Egsforbreakfast....don't stop! You delight me and my husband every day with your comments. The way you unravel DOOKs is just amazing.



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  62. Did not know VICUNA, CALL ON THE CARPET, or URIE, and because I didn't know those, the vagueness of "related thing" didn't help either. Other than that the puzzle played very easy.

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  63. Oh, easy for someone who just happens to know that Agassi's father was from Iran and who didn't enter LEADS instead of OPENS. That SW corner was spelled DNF for me. No AHA there. The rest was pretty easy for a Saturday.

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  64. One of your best write-ups of the past few years. And, as an anti-zionist Jew, glad to see the support for Palestinians.

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  65. @RooMonster (9:27 AM) Wow, very cool. To quote a line from Parasite: "They are nice because they are rich." Kidding, of course. I grew up watching Agassi and Graf. Didn't know Andre's dad was an Olympic boxer for Iran, but cool to learn.

    The name Okafor rang a bell, but EMEKA didn't. I even forgot the Charlotte Hornets changed to the Bobcats (2004-2014). I don't watch much sportsball these days, but I always watch the Finals for every major sport.

    Working back to the 2015 archives, there are so many baseball names that I simply do not know, among the plethora of PPP from old shows/movies before my time, plus archaic missing words from Shakespeare lines. Such a big gap in difficulty within a decade. Hard to complain about any PPP in the recent NYTs in comparison, so I doth try not to protesteth too muchest.

    Hope everyone's having a good weekend!

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  66. All this talk of chastity and celibacy brings up memories of law school. In a tantalizing planning move, the law school was located right next to the nursing school. Still didn't do me any good. Of course today there are as many women law students as men, if not more, and male nurses aplenty.

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  67. Eli Lake3:31 PM

    Agree with the guy who said it’s Rex’s Blog and he should write. People are free to read if they wish and free not to read it as well. It’s all good.
    @Steve Hikes-
    The AsAJew is a man wearing a tallis in a crowd of kaffiyeh-clad protestors trying to block traffic at JFK. She is the Brooklyn editor who has written a 7,000-word personal essay for her Substack on how her Birthright trip to Israel scarred her for life by forcing Zionist propaganda down her throat. Or it’s the literally bearded Rabbi Jessica Rosenberg, who confronted President Biden in Minnesota in November. To boos and hisses in the audience, Rosenberg said, “Mr. President, if you care about Jewish people, as a rabbi, I need you to call for a cease-fire right now.”

    The AsAJews get their name because they are addicted to that very phrase. We’ve heard it for years. As a Jew, I don’t think AIPAC should dominate American foreign policy. As a Jew, I stand against the illegal occupation of Palestinian lands. Now, of course, it’s fair to criticize Israel. Arguing that Israel should do more to avoid civilian casualties while also acknowledging that Hamas started a war with a grotesque act of savagery and hides among Gaza’s civilians is a criticism that has to be counted as legitimate even if you disagree. But when Jews target Israel as a moral obscenity, a singular geopolitical evil, critique curdles into defamation.

    And these new defamers are not exactly trying to persuade. They have the zeal of the convert. Many AsAJews were at one point Zionists. But over time, they “did the work,” they saw that Israel was no David. It was Goliath.

    Peter Beinart, Jewish Voice for Peace, Jessica Rosenberg, and their fellow travelers are not sending rockets to Hamas. They are not volunteering to fight the occupation in any physical way. But they are fighting on the side of those who seek to destroy Israel. They participate in this struggle with their words and not their arms, so to speak. Their boycotts, lectures, podcast appearances, and testimonial videos are part of an information war to make Israel as it currently exists a pariah. A Jewish Voice for Peace press release issued after the beginning of the trial against Israel for genocide at the International Court of Justice makes this explicit. It reads: “If the ICJ determines that Israel is committing genocide, it would help us further escalate our organizing for Palestinian liberation, giving us even greater opportunity to pressure governments around the world to end their support for the Israeli government—not only during this genocide, but for as long as the apartheid regime continues to exist.”

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  68. Urie is generational, I think. Not that obscure for people 35 and under.

    I had never in my life heard the phrase "Call on the carpet," however.

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  69. Mostly fair puzzle, though the top three grid spanners were tough to crack as I have not as yet rubbed elbows with YURI ESAI and EMEKA, nor have IMARETS VICUNA and SHEKELS factored into my casual conversations. Too many empty squares to parse the long acrosses until I relented and asked Uncle Google the first three. A decent puzzle but the names will get you every time if no one has been kind enough to introduce you.

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  70. No worries, @Lewis. And your mention of XWord info got me to look up that site... and wow, what a treasure trove for crossword puzzle lovers. Thanks!

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  71. @ anon 12:44: You beat me to it. Here in CT, many of us remember EMEKA’s time at UConn with great affection. A true scholar athlete of the highest quality.

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  72. What fun! As always with a Saturday grid containing big fat spanning stacks, I shuddered and started another pot of coffee. Lo and behold though, I started out thinking VICTORIA’S SECRET? Then I told my doubting, nervous Self, “Nope. Can’t be; too obvious for Saturday and besides what could 1D possibly be starting with V?” Imagine Self’s surprise when VICUÑA was a gimme for the knitter, Self!!”

    Aside: about a decade ago when I was in trial in Federal Court for much longer than my then 2 cats thought appropriate and my husband was out of town for a few days, the two delinquents managed to climb to the top of my avatar cat’s (OC’s) bookshelf to “rescue” three skeins of $$$$$ VICUÑA wool that had been neatly rolled into balls ready to knit and hidden in a shopping bag. They lived to tell the TALE and only completely ruined one ball, but the vest became a scarf and mittens, and the cats played with “their” yarn for months. Throwing away the filthy, cat hair laden, tangled and clawed to death wad of costly yarn after a couple months of feline enjoyment hurt less and less as time passed, but I never gave them (or now the surviving Pip) another opportunity. Cats are such clever and determined creatures.

    Anyway, for the last week, I have had consecutive wavelength connections. TodayI continued the streak. Waiting for the joyful whoosh days to evaporate but I’m loving the experience while it lasts. Not that the solve was easy though; It most assuredly was not.

    The clues were clever and some of the fill completely unknown to me. However, masterful (and very fair) construction delivered lots of crunch that demanded one’s complete attention to unravel the misdirects and avoid the dreaded DNF. The perfect example of fair crosses appears early. URIE had I not been so certain of 1-4 Down. That was my first “whew!” And then I had to go to work. Two tough spots: 1) the SCOFFS/LIFT UP and 2) DREW/TIRADE crosses. Thankfully OWE TO gave me the W that cleared some fog, but even having the LI of LIFT, it took me until the very end to see SCOFFS. My foggy brain really hung onto ScOrnS too, too long!

    Both the top and bottom stacks fell into place so quickly. I am certain I will pay for my little hubris celebration today, and I i tend in no way to denigrate our constructor’s artistry. This is an absolute gem of a Saturday and I look forward to the 5th and more from Adrian Johnson.

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  73. Several people, Gabe just now, have mentioned they didn’t know the phrase
    “Call on the carpet “
    So I see that the phrase is beginning to fade away. I was a bit surprised, but I have learned from this blog that things that are gimmes to me are completely unknown to others. Yes, URIE was completely unknown to me. So that is a generational difference.
    Vicuña is another word that I know well yet many never heard of it. But Emeka , no clue
    But enough people know each of these so that they are NOT unfair.

    I thought the puzzle would be hard but eventually realized it was fairly easy. I liked it
    Personally, I thought the hard (to me) names were fairly crossed
    I liked the puzzle

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  74. Yay! Today I got to stand in the corner with all y'all who thought this was a very fine, fun to solve puzzle.

    There were some hiccups here and there, mostly with names but I think that's just the price to be paid for two lovely sets of triple-stacked grid spanners. I didn't remember 14D NBA player Okafor's first name but I did know most of the surrounding fill so was able to get EMEKA. I think that's the mark of a good puzzle when clues make it relatively easier to get the fill surrounding a potential problem entry like the first name of an NBA player who was Rookie of the Year twenty years ago.

    I know a lot of -ists such as sexist, ageist, socialist, etc., but whatever is a 44D HOIST?

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  75. Very late comment for me. We had our 3 YO grandson overnight and kept him pst noon. This puzzle was easy compared to much of this year's Saturdays. The actual time it took me was what I once considered average. That's pretty good for a puzzle with grid spanning stacks. Normally they give themselves away much more readily.

    Another notable feature of this puzzle was how cleanly the two stacks are joined. It was an entertaining solve throughout.

    yd -0. QB34

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  76. A "Jaws +" puzgrid design. Very nice.

    Been on a road trip to Santa Fe for a few days. Just got caught up, solvin all the puzs I missed out on, while gone.

    staff weeject pick: REW. Better clue: {Remote control's version of regret??}.

    Primo 15-stacks. Constructioneer clearly suffered, on this project -- unless he got tons of assistance from AI.
    fave 15-er: THEREARENOWORDS.

    Thanx, Mr. Johnson dude.

    Masked & Anonymo3Us


    **gruntz**


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  77. @anoa

    What's your obsession with "corners"?

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  78. @JC66

    It's a metaphor not an obsession.

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  79. @Anoa

    Maybe it's an obsession with a metaphor. 😂

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  80. I repeat what I said yesterday. The fun days of hard weekend puzzles we got when Joel F. took over are gone. This was laughably easy for a Friday.

    Apparently I am the opposite of Rex when it comes to male/man/female/woman.

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  81. Anonymous10:04 PM

    Agassi is Armenian and Assyrian…

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Daverini10:14 PM

      Exactly what I thought…and tried to put in first!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:15 PM

      Got NATICKED on the U in VICUÑA/URIE…can’t be the only one!

      Delete
  82. Yep, easy for a Saturday. I hardly even look at across clues for 15s; I work the downs till a pattern forms. This I did in the NE, and it just spread from there. That's the trouble with gridspanners. Once you get part of the phrase you often get the whole thing.

    Still a nice offering, and it has to be tough to get all those long guys to mesh on the downs. Good job. Birdie.

    Wordle par.

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  83. Anonymous2:39 PM

    Pretty good. But PEATY, PARDNER, CTRLP, TETES, EMEKA, ESAI, HOLI, NEB, SIC, PTA, REW and URIE were not the finest xword glue.

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  84. So I got URIE immediately, one of the first things I put in, and then was trying to shoehorn MUSKOX in where VICUNA ultimately went, and was stymied. Also had never heard CALL ON THE CARPET ever in my life. It's so funny where different people have difficulties. I was kicking myself when VICTORIAS SECRET finally fell into place. I had ORIASS and just couldn't make heads or tales of it. Didn't help that I had HEADS instead of TETES. Once I cleared that mistake, the rest of it fell into place pretty quickly. It took me a long time, but I didn't have to cheat at all, which is rare on a Saturday. Fun puzzle!

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