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Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: STIMMING (3D: Repetition of self-calming movements, such as finger-tapping or hair-twirling) —
Self-stimulatory behavior, also known as "stimming" and self-stimulation, is the repetition of physical movements, sounds, words, moving objects, or other behaviors. Such behaviors (also scientifically known as "stereotypies") are found to some degree in all people, especially those with developmental disabilities such as ADHD, as well as autistic people. People diagnosed with sensory processing disorder are also known to potentially exhibit stimming behaviors.
Stimming has been interpreted as a protective response to overstimulation, in which people calm themselves by blocking less predictable environmental stimuli, to which they have a heightened sensitivity. A further explanation views stimming as a way to relieve anxiety and other negative or heightened emotions. (wikipedia)
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| [56A: Bends down] |
The fill seemed solid and even original at times today, but it wasn't terribly exciting to me. SWIFTIES is apparently a debut, but we've been getting lots and lots of Swift content of late, so it didn't feel new. No idea about the "CHA CHA" part of CHA CHA SLIDE (19D: Wedding staple with the line "Take it back now, y'all"). The only slide I've ever heard of is the Electric Slide. But then I haven't been to a wedding for over a decade, and before that, I think the last wedding I went to was my own (2003). This is what much of this puzzle was like for me—the answers seem fine, they just missed me on some fundamental level. STIMMING is original, but didn't come easily, as it's a term of recent coinage (i.e. I didn't grow up with it—first known use = 1983, but popularized only much more recently), and it's strongly associated with autism and other forms of neurodivergence (context that the clue could've used, I think). SOLAR NEBULA seems great, but I also don't really know what that is and just inferred words I'd heard before after getting a few crosses (34A: Gaseous cloud in which suns and planets form). Took a while to get INTRACTABLY, in part because I was expecting a multiword phrase (usually works the other way around—you expect the answer to be one solid word but it comes in pieces), and in part because I cannot spell and so ended up (for a bit) with INTRACTIBLY! Correcting that answer led to the nicest, whooshiest, happiest moment of the solve: uncovering TWICE AS NICE, which has a pleasing lilting rhyming quality to it (14D: Doubly better). Wish there'd been more of those moments for me. I hope there were for you.
Spanish trouble today, in that I had ESTA- and no idea what the last letter was going to be (I know enough crossword Spanish to know that ESTAN ESTAR and ESTAS are all things, but not enough actual Spanish to know what the hell I am talking about). Again, a normal sort of crossword frustration, but then that frustration got rekindled when the puzzle decided it also wanted to throw ERES at me. I got ERES much more easily, but now I kinda resented the puzzle on laziness grounds. Doubling the clue (["You are," en español]), doesn't make your overreliance on Spanish forms of the verb "to be" any more enjoyable. WAITERS bring a lot to tables, plural, over the course of a shift, maybe, but if I just order drinks, or an appetizer, then the waiter does not, in fact, bring a lot to the table (47A: They bring a lot to the table). They bring a little to the table. I see that you are trying to make a cute little misdirection here, trying to get us to think metaphorically while you go literally, but once again, the vagueness, the -ish-iness, the failure to stick the landing on some of these clues was kind of deflating.
Bullet points:
- 25A: ___ Garibaldi, revolutionary sometimes called the "mother of Italy" (ANITA) — first I'm hearing of it. Luckily her name is a common name shared by women I have heard of. Seems like ANITA Garibaldi is more famous as a revolutionary in her native Brazil (first sentence of her wikipedia page calls her a "Brazilian republican revolutionary," full stop). There is a statue of her in Rome (erected by Mussolini!) and another in Laguna, Brazil. She wasn't in Italy all that long. She went with her Italian husband (considered Italy's greatest national hero) to fight in the Revolutions of 1848 (against the Austrian Empire) and died in 1849.
- 7D: Part of a clutch (CHICK) — kept trying to think of different parts of a handbag. Then thought of eggs ... so close.
- 43A: Hit, as the lights (FLICK) — really thought this was about driving. Like ... all greens, no reds, all go, no stop, that kind of hitting the lights. Again, the equivalency here is rough. You FLICK the light *switch*. You've got a metaphorical clue for a literal answer, boo.
- 49A: Lacking, for short: Abbr. (SYN) — an old and cheap trick that apparently I still can't see straight through. "Lacking" and "short" are (in sommmmme contexts) SYNonyms. But since "for short" is common crossword clue language, indicating abbreviation, you probably read the clue wrong, initially (the addition of "Abbr." to the clue should probably have tipped me off that "for short" was not an "Abbr." indicator, but alas, my brain was not up to that kind of logic this morning)
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I enjoyed this one more than @Rex did. The long downs were all lovely and fell relatively easily for me--I've been to any number of weddings and bar mitzvahs and other happy ritual parties where they've played the CHA CHA SLIDE--given that the lyrics are the instructions I can actually perform that dance. :) I also loved TWICE AS NICE and STARTER KITS, which gave me a nice foothold for most of the puzzle, and there were enough gimmes (TAHOE, SUITES, etc.) that I finished this well short of my Friday average--I'd say it was easy-medium. A nice way to start a long weekend . . . except I have to get through the workday first. Ah, well.
ReplyDeletei had almost the exact opposite experience as rex. i thought the cluing of spoken phrases really worked (but i felt the same as him about "i'll count us in"), i liked the double spanish-to be, and overall, i thought this puzzle was one of the better ones i've done recently.
ReplyDeleteMy experience was similar to Adam’s, and I liked the puzzle a lot!
ReplyDeleteThis was a mixed bag resistance wise. The upper tier was easy but but STIMMING and the Itl. revolutionary were blocking the front end of the center stack and I had difficulty backfilling them..
ReplyDeleteThe clue for ORIENT is flat out wrong. That and a FLAG/CARD write over slowed rounding that SW corner but not too bad.
The hold out was the SE corner. I had a NEBULI/NEBULA write over blocking the AGE phrase. PLEASEDO and TAHOES sat all alone for a long time. Even when I dropped in KRAFT I was still stalled. FRIDGE finally came to me to break the dam but my time was significantly increased.
I fell so hard for that SYN clue that didn't understand it until I read our host's explanation....sheesh!
Awesome core today. All 6 of those center 11s are debuts!
yd -0. QB40
Pleasant, tough, fun with a ton of interesting answers. Great puzzle.
DeleteMy fastest Friday ever. 40% below my average. It was ok, but went by too fast, without any challenge.
ReplyDeleteSame, this was my fastest Friday ever!
DeleteSame, super breezy Friday.
DeleteRex was INTRACTABLY hard on this one, which I enjoyed a lot. Yes, there are circumstances in which a WAITER might bring a little to the table, but usually they are serving whole meals. Come on. And AT MY AGE works perfectly for “when you get to be this old” to my aged mind.
ReplyDeleteRex was thinking of handbag for clutch. I was thinking shifting gears. I had pedal first, then stICK, which sure seemed right. When THE TURN and CRISCO became apparent, it took me a while to realize “Oh a clutch of baby chickens!” Nice.
Spanish has two forms of “to be,” one that expresses a more or less permanent state and one that is more temporary. “Estás perezoso” means you are lazy - right now, today, “Eres perezoso” means you are a lazy person, it is your defining characteristic. Guilty of the latter. Interesting that ARE was in the puzzle too.
Your point about waiters is spot-on.
DeleteFantastic puzzle. Handsome grid gives us those crossing tri-stacks. I loved INTRACTABLY and TWICE AS NICE. Learned the early history of CRISCO.
ReplyDeleteWeather Report SUITE
Tend to agree with the big guy - some of the colloquial clues were slightly off. Don’t know Hold ‘Em terms. Fill has a clean city flow with METROS, FARES and BUSES - although I’m sure @Anoa Bob will discuss the plurals later especially the rarely seen STETS.
Enjoyable Friday morning solve and kick-off to summer.
And all the world is football shaped
stets is a verb, not a plural
Deletestets is a verb, not a plural
DeleteDidn’t share Rex’s experience or thoughts on this one either… almost as fast as last week’s personal best Friday, and didn’t have the clueing issues that Rex did (though I probably rely on crosses MUCH more than him in general - I’m sure he’s got a crossword answer encyclopedia in his mind that puts my mini one to shame and can more easily drop in correct answers while I need crosses galore).
ReplyDeleteSurprisingly easy for me on a Friday. Re CLUTCH I was thinking the manual gear shift mechanism, and took a good few ticks to figure out why the answer was CHICK.
ReplyDeleteSame here re: manual transmission. Except I have never heard of a clutch of baby chickens, so had to come here to understand what the puzzle what talking about.
DeleteI enjoyed this puzzle a lot. It never felt too easy, but I finished 9:30 faster than my average without having to Google ANITA or AENEAS (that E being my last fill.) Maybe it was too easy for a Friday for some of you crossword pros.
There’s plenty in this one to cause you to struggle if things don’t register, and Rex pointed out most of them. I would add AENEAS to the list and if you don’t play the card game, I imagine THE TURN may be another tough one. I thought the clue for ON THREE was a huge swing and miss, but at least you can make a case for it after the fact. Had STARTER sets instead of KITS as well.
ReplyDelete@southside Johnny - "sets" was in the clue so could never be in the answer. Xwords 101
DeleteThis is the best Friday time I’ve ever had - thought it was incredibly easy and flowed extremely well. Really enjoyed the solve!
ReplyDeleteFinally, a chance to put our encyclopediac knowledge of Old Norse to use.
ReplyDeleteTop two-thirds very easy, bottom stiffened up a little. CHA CHA SLIDE??!!?? I've been to a lot of weddings, but never heard of that. Electric slide, yes. Toosie slide, you bet (although not at weddings). CHA CHA SLIDE? Well, I'm from Utica and I've never heard anyone use the phrase ‘Cha cha slide’.
Also baffled by SYN for quite a while, but the penny eventually dropped.
I'm shocked you've never heard of the cha cha slide if you've been to weddings recently. Every single wedding I've ever been to in the past decade feature it, it's a staple.
Delete
ReplyDeleteMy experience paralleled that of everyone who had posted by the time I'm composing this. I liked it, and I certainly liked it a lot more than OFL did.
I found it Medium for a traditional Friday, Easy-Medium for recent Fridays, which have often been harder than Saturdays.
Overwrites:
14D: TWICE AS good before NICE
19D: Wanted @Rex Electric Slide but it didn't fit. I need to go to more weddings.
20A: ear before TOE for the location of the phalanx bone
40A: STayS before STETS
43A: bLInK before FLICK. This mistake wasn't all bad, since it's what inspired me to revisit 14D
50A: RED flagS before CARDS, since I'm more of a football fan than soccer.
STIMMING (3D) was a WOE, as was ANITA Garibaldi (25A)
This was a weird one. My time was several minutes faster than my average. I filled the grid at a decent pace, but I often felt lack of confidence in my answers. When I put that T crossing MATTES (??) and STIMMING (????) I was shocked to learn I was done. So many places the cluing was so oblique — I’d call this medium too even though my time was on the easy side. Weird puzzle.
ReplyDeleteON THREE and its clue are very familiar to musicians but might be tough for anyone else.
ReplyDeleteGreat Friday puzzle!
I came here to say the same thing. I’m a drummer so have used some variation of the phrase so often I (obviously incorrectly) assumed it was part of the common lexicon.
DeleteWell, two puzzles into the Times, Carolyn has shown, IMO, that she has the Knack – the talent to craft a high-level, satisfying-to-complete puzzle.
ReplyDeleteTime and again, in this puzzle, I had to do what my brain loves to do – guess. One example: In the NW, I had the MM of STIMMING (which I got from LIMA and ATM), so I guessed that it ended in ING, given its clue. That G, made me think GET for [Score a journalistic coup], which spontaneously begat GET THE SCOOP in an explosion of rapture.
Pings like that are among the highest delicacies in Crosswords.
All in a setting of spark. This puzzle pulsed with spark, with 12 answers never seen in the Times before, including – get this – all six answers of the crossing triples stacks! Wow!
Original and devilish clues as well. Example: ATM has been in the major outlets more than 500 times, but never clued using “pressed for cash” in its clue. Example: [Lacking, for short: Abbr.] for SYN. Hah!
Throw in lovely serendipities, such as a backward ERA and an anagrammed ERAS (from SERA) in the puzzle with SWIFTIES, and the rare-in-crosswords five-letter palindrome (STETS), and this creation was simply a pastiche of pleasure.
Thank you, Carolyn for a splendid outing. What a beauty! Please, please, don’t be a stranger!
Tough clues in this one, plus Spanish lesson. Was relatively quick (for me) but needed every cross. Like @Wanderlust, wandered from StiCK to CHICK. Completely fooled by SYN, thanks @Rex for explanation. ONTHREE made some sense in hindsight but the clue was no help at all. Got THETURN from occasionally seeing poker games on TV. The substance of CRISCO came right to mind but initially could not remember the name until crosses came to help, and so on…overall a fun solve, learned some things…
ReplyDeleteFH
ReplyDeleteAnyone else try to make MAUVES work (for MATTES)?
Not at all easy.....
Started with Almays ....
DeleteNW was toughest for me. First entered SUUURE in 1 across, mirroring the RIIIGHT clue. When finally figured out STIMMING, then changed to 1 across to OHSURE. Before eventually seeing IMSURE
ReplyDeleteI had TATTES ( plural of tattoos) for a while
ReplyDeletePlayed like a Wednesday for me - 20:30 faster than my usual Friday time!! (Yes I’m still fairly new to crosswords but this was a big win for me!)
ReplyDeleteLots of whoosh for me; my only complaint is that a SOLAR NEBULA isn’t really a thing. Planets and stars are created in NEBULAS. That’s the name of the gaseous cloud, it’s a NEBULA. This for me is akin to saying “ATM Machine”. But anyway, that aside, found this to be really fun. Was especially happy to see STIMMING.
@Rex: You've never heard CHA CHA SLIDE? Consider yourself lucky. I'm constantly baffled by the poor choices people make when picking music and DJs at weddings. I consider it a bad omen if the playlist contains the Chicken Dance, Sweet Caroline, Cotton Eyed Joe, Blurred Lines, etc.
ReplyDeleteMaybe that's why this country has such a high divorce rate.
I mostly agree about the clue issues, but not quite to the same extent. I think AT MY AGE works the best of the ones Rex mentioned; I still don't quite understand what his problem is with it.
Are only some eye shadows MATTES? I thought they all were. Do people wear glossy eye shadow?
A decent puzzle in general. There's a few things I'd change, but not deal breakers
On the east side for a Friday puzzle, I thought. Like others (I'm sure) I had "apple" instead of KRAFT for the mac maker. Never heard of STIMMING, but the crosses made it work.
ReplyDeleteCompared to yesterday's debacle, this was a joy to solve.
I was a wedding photographer for the first decade of the 2000s, so I am *very* familiar with the CHA CHA SLIDE. (everybody clap your hands!).
ReplyDeleteHowever, I played myself with APPLE for KRAFT and THE FLOP for THE TURN.
I liked some of the longer answers but my favorite thing in this puzzle is learning that SKI is an old norse word for 'stick of wood'.
I've watched that John Mulaney and Ego Nwodim SNL skit where they do the Cha Cha slide about 100 times, it's so funny. Sorry can't hyperlink.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/MC6xjO1JoR8?si=D8PjGqCmlk7jW8in
Astrophysicist here (member of the research staff of the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at UChicago ("link in bio", for verification purposes)) -- SOLAR NEBULA is definitely wrong. Our star, the Sun, is the only sol (or Sol) out there, and as such is the host of the only SOLAR system, and as such is the product of the only SOLAR NEBULA ever to have formed. There are and there have been, of course, many stellar nebulae, which would have been the correct answer.
ReplyDeleteFun but slightly too easy Friday puzzle. Didn’t share Rex’s complaints about cluing of spoken phrases. Things felt pretty breezy and natural over here. I do agree with the FLICK the lights gripe though. One does not FLICK the lights.
ReplyDeleteThanks to @Wanderlust for the concise explanation of SER vs. ESTAR. As a retired Spanish teacher, I can tell you that it sounds easy, but is a source of consternation for any number of students. See also POR vs. PARA.
ReplyDeleteNo real hang ups in this one. Learned about the CHACHASLIDE, STIMMING, and met ANITA as clued. Also found out what a SOLARNEBULA is, although it was easy enough to infer. I thought WAITERS had been replaced by SERVERS, as that's all I hear these days.
Don't get OFL's confusion over ATMYAGE, which went in instantly. I suspect this will become clearer to him as time passes.
Thought this was a vry nice Friday indeed, CDL. Clever, Diverting, and Learned a few things. Thanks for all the fun.
Wow, I had the opposite reaction to @Rex today so my feeling of whoosh resulted in one of my fastest Fridays but I figure it’s all about wheelhouse. Like @Wanderlust, I had zero problem with the clues for WAITER and ATMYAGE. …C’mon @Rex, those are some pretty fine nits to pick!
ReplyDeleteI made myself chuckle when I figured out that Wyoming did NOT have an Equal Rights lOTTO. However, I’ve decided that I might actually BUY a ticket in an Equal Rights Lotto.
Today I learned (but not surprising ) that CRISCO was developed for making soap. Interesting how icky things seem to be associated with soap…here’s looking at you lye.
Not a bad puzzle, but I kept thinking"I wonder how Will Shortz is doing."
ReplyDeleteCHA CHA SLIDE came out in 2000 and was impossible to avoid if you attended any weddings or big parties with DJs anytime after that, at least in the Chicago area, where the artist was from. I could never stand it. If you’ve never heard of it, count yourself lucky. Also, this puzzle was a total breeze, a nice easy themeless to prepare for Saturday.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything Rex said in his first paragraph, except they were all misdirect features that worked, instead of bugs. I plowed through this one very quickly, dare I say whoosh!?
ReplyDeleteImagine you and 3 friends moving a couch. ONTHREE - “1,2,3 lift”
45A Doesn’t strike out: started with baseball, then leaving home, then finally editing. Bravo!
At my age: Hilarious that RP wants a number. Don’t ever put a number on a “woman of a certain age.” Or the MOTTO of this blog, “At my age, I don’t want to learn any rappers’ names”.
I know the CHA CHA and The Electric SLIDE, but not the ELECTRICSLIDE. Whenever I am at a wedding or other social occasion where dancing is involved, I wonder what I’ve been doing with my life that I don’t know any of the dances; and when exactly does everyone else learn these? Is there a class? A YouTube wedding prep series? Is that what people are doing while I’m reading or watching TV?
…and thank you Rex for SYN. No idea; I thought it was related to “sin” meaning without in Romance languages.
ReplyDeleteI'm enough of a science geek to be offended by SOLAR NEBULA being used to refer to generic "suns.". SOLAR refers specifically to our sun, whose name is SOL (after the Roman god) and not to any other suns or stars.
ReplyDeleteStellar NEBULA would have been more correct.
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteAmazingly my solve pretty much echoed Rex's solve and feeling. Usually I lean more towards liking the puz more overall. Didn't dislike this, but felt melancholy towards it. Weird.
Some writeovers, TWICEASgood, GETTHEStOry, STARTERsetS (no nevermind that Sets was in the clue), Illbet-IMSURE, meTHREE, taxis-BUSES.
Is the CHACHASLIDE the one that goes, "Slide to the left, slide to the right, take it back y'all"?
Both lower F's got me going from being stuck on the bottom of puz. Yay F's!
Didn't take too much time, nice open center, light to no junk. Good one, Carolyn.
Happy Friday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Utterly dire. It took all my mulish resolve to slog through it.
ReplyDeleteRichard Thompson debut in a Rex review! I think? Anyway he's brilliant on so many levels, a huge musical hero of mine, and it was quite a kick seeing that great tune in your review today. "Slander is a loving tongue"--brilliant lyrics, kickass guitar, what's not to love?
ReplyDeleteScience geek anonymous @ 9:06--me too! I so wanted ORION NEBULA for that clue. "The nebula is only 1,500 light-years away, making it the closest large star-forming region to Earth" per NASA. It's a great target for backyard star gazing, decent pair of binoculars will do.
ReplyDeleteScience geek anonymous @ 9:06--me too! I so wanted ORION NEBULA for that clue. "The nebula is only 1,500 light-years away, making it the closest large star-forming region to Earth" per NASA. It's a great target for backyard star gazing, decent pair of binoculars will do.
ReplyDeleteSo wanted Mutara Nebula, but it didn't fit.
DeleteDefinitely on my wavelength and enjoyable. Really loved the sense of humor and the long center crosses.
ReplyDeleteSTETS is terrible. Never heard of STIMMING.
Propers: 5
Places: 1
Products: 3
Partials: 4
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 18 (27%)
Tee-Hee: Honeymoon cottages: PLEASE DO SUITES.
Uniclues:
1 Fearless fathers.
2 Cash withdrawal procedures for the armless.
3 Gives credit to Aphrodite's son at Target.
4 Line up the remaining salt.
1 PRIEST SWIFTIES
2 ATM TOE TACTICS (~)
3 REDCARDS AENEAS
4 ORIENT MARTINI (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Emergency exclamation to hit the power button when you hear Belafonte's first syllable. DAY-O SAFE WORD.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I agree with Natasha. I thought the clueing was done well; "at my age," "please do," and others came easily to me. And I thought "they bring a lot to the table" was very cute for "waiters," as was "part of a clutch" for "chick." Rex just seemed to be in the mood for quibbling today. I enjoyed the puzzle...many whoosh moments for me!
ReplyDeleteThought puzzle was fun and super easy. But love Matt’s take on wedding music!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@RP talked about "wavelength" … and this FriPuz was definitely eerily fine-tuned right on M&A's wavelength. Immediately splatzed in IMSURE. ATTESTS ARTOO. ATL. GETTHESCOOP. SHACK. THETURN. SWIFTIES. CHICK. TWICEASNICE. Just kept nailin entries off very few letters. Fun time, but weirdly easier than snot.
ReplyDeleteDid go for SOLARPLASMA, before SOLARNEBULA. And INTRACTABLE before INTRACTABLY.
staff weeject pick: ARE. Another get offa nuthin.
Four Jaws of Themelessness! thUmbsUp.
Thanx for thinkin like M&A, Ms. Lynch darlin. [U might wanna get that looked at, tho.]
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
Fastest Friday ever. I wrote Crisco because it fit. Ended up being right. Same story on most of this puzzle. They all just came to me.
ReplyDeleteStrategy and tactics (18 across) are NOT the same thing. Strategy is identification of a goal; tactics are the steps to get there.
ReplyDelete@Wanderlust gave a great example of the difference between ESTAS and ERES, and as they said, these are not two forms of the verb "to be" but two different verbs. One great thing about learning other languages (obviously) is how much light they shed on our own! Knowing this about Spanish helps us to see that our verb "to be" means more than one thing (and as it turns out, many many more).
ReplyDeleteA good way to remember the two Spanish verbs is to recognize that ESTAS is cognate with the English words "stand" and "status". So when you're asking how someone is (today), you say Como estas? since you're asking something like "How does it stand with you?" or "What's your status (right now)?"
If you're asking about someone and you use the verb ERES, you're asking something more like "What kind of person are you?" Using "lazy" as an example was perfect. Thanks Wanderlust.
"Estar" is the verb, "estás"" is the second person singular and "estan" is third person plural. Tough puzzle, but I finished without help.
ReplyDeleteLiked it. Some crunch, some sparkle, no junk.
ReplyDeleteDon't buy Rex's explanation of the clue for SYN. They make a lot of movies in Atlanta?
Lots of financial incentive to shoot in Georgia. Look at filming locations for Walking Dead.
DeleteYes! It's huge industry here. They get tax breaks, Ozark was filmed entirely in Georgia. The crew states it has so many diverse places and landscapes. That's not Lake of the Ozarks, its Lake Lanier and Lake Alatoona. Many movies made here: 310 movies in Atlanta alone
Deletehttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Films_shot_in_Atlanta
I was surprised by the speed rating and by Rex's assessment. This was a PR Friday for me; not only that, I completed it faster than any *Thursday* I've done over the past several years. I didn't experience any of the problems OFL had and just wonder what it was that made my brain work so fast this morning. Maybe I should go play the lottery...
ReplyDeleteNot as hard as some Friday puzzles. Never heard of CHA CHA SLIDE. Haven’t been to wedding in awhile. Ironically I am attending one this evening. It’s my Pastor’s daughter so I don’t expect to experience it at this one. As a retired automotive engineer, I had difficulty divorcing myself from the parts of a manual transmission on the clue Clutch.
ReplyDeleteIt should be noted that TACTICS and STRATEGIES are not the same thing, but are often confused, or mistakenly considered synonymous. Anyone working in the military or corporate planning would know the difference. Strategies are broad action plans, tactics are specific steps to get there. Nevertheless, I understand that it confuses some people and was able to get the fill. I would just think the NYT would know better and provide more correct clueing.
ReplyDeleteA tough, well-clued "keep the faith" puzzle that I solved slowly and INTRACTABLY -- i.e. "with mulish resolve." I couldn't for the life of me gain entry to the NW and was tempted to cheat on Mrs. Garibaldi -- but overcame the impulse. I finished with no cheats, and in what I imagine was a slow-ish time, though I never keep track of such things.
ReplyDeleteMy entry points were all the way over on the right: my only-from-crosswords-friend, Cousin ITT and BUSES-to-BLOBS. From this paltry beginning, a solve did I make.
I guessed that the drink it "up" clue at 2D would be an alcoholic drink of some kind -- but the cutesy clue is wrong. The First Rule of ordering a drink is to make sure nothing can go wrong -- not from the bartender and not from your host. Your job is to be very clear about what you'd like. And the correct term for a drink with no ice is "straight up". Some drink preparers may understand "up" used alone and some may not. Why take the chance that your drink might be watered down?
As your hostess, I would check to make sure. "You did mean straight up, right?" But at a very busy bar, you can't be too careful.
Two answers that were complete Greek to me: STIMMING and CHACHASLIDE. But everything else was quite familiar -- its difficulty level derived from tough cluing rather than arcane fill. I thought this was an excellent puzzle.
When I order a martini, I specify that I want it "on the rocks." Otherwise, it will usually be served "up" (in a martini glass). Same with my manhattans. "Straight up" is not the same thing. That's for when I want my bourbon or scotch without ice. Clue was fine.
DeleteLots of swoosh on this one for me; it felt more like a Wednesday than a Friday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteEasy. pin before ATM, EsaS before ERES (which held me up in the SW and which I should have known was wrong) and STayS before STETS were it for erasures. I did not know CHA CHA SLIDE, ANITA, and MATTES.
ReplyDeleteVery smooth with quite a bit of sparkle, liked it. Nothing really “clanked” for me except for maybe “count us in”.
Random observation - LIMA, Ohio - Home of Glee.
Learned something new - CRISCO origins.
Tahoe is an SUV made by Hyundai not Chevrolet!
ReplyDeleteNo it's not. Tahoe is a Chevy SUV.
DeleteSo now I learned (and will most likely forget) that Many Eras Tour attendees are SWIFTIES....You can find a phalanx bone on your TOE...A wedding staple with y'all is a CHI. CHI SLIDE and that INTRACTABLY (a word I've never ever said out loud) is a mulish resolve....And last but not least, that Wyoming has a MOTTO for squeal rights.
ReplyDeleteThe cluing today was not of my wavelength. I'm more on the @Rex side. The first "You are" in Spanish, ESTAS threw my off. Spanish... my first language. Que pasa here. ESTAS needs an accent on the A. Estas equivocada I mused. Of course I wanted ERES and lookie here! You popped up again....
I managed to get the longies and that made it TWICE AS NICE (favorite answer)....I learned that I will never ever use CRISCO again because it might taste like soap and that that my presidential answer was ROYALS not SUITES and that some eye shadows are MATTES.
Does TIN really cry when you bend it? Pero que che.....
Had some NICE whooshy runs with this one, but also a couple of full stops. First one was my fault with OH SURE at 1-A and HARD ALE at 2-D. Then the SW was a challenge because I have no idea what a RED CARD means and the clue for ON THREE made no SENSE. The biggest blank I drew was CHA CHA SLIDE. Apparently it’s some kind of dance? But the clue had me thinking a line from a movie.
ReplyDeleteGood puzzle overall, though with some very nice entries. STARTER KITS and TWICE AS NICE helped to make up for my stumbles.
This wasn't as brutal as I thought it would be. I didn't have a clue of what CHA CHA SLIDE was (& glad I never went to a wedding where I had to do it), I learned STIMMING (now I know what my neighbor is always doing) & who says
ReplyDeletePLEASE DO? But I did like 43A ON THREE.
Have a good day :)
@Lewis, did you notice that the constructor gave you a shout-out in her Constructor Notes on Gameplay? She appreciates and looks forward to your positive takes on almost all puzzles. I'm sure she loved your review of her solo debut today. :)
ReplyDelete@RooMonster : Yup, that's Cha Cha Slide. People love following simple instructions.
ReplyDeleteIt's even more ubiquitous at sporting events now - they use the "everybody clap your hands" snippet everywhere.
Did not like. :( TWICEASNICE could also have been TWICEASGOOD, IMSURE could have been UMSURE or OKSURE, and ONTHREE could have been ANDAONE (which I think would’ve been better! “And a one, and a two, and…”).
ReplyDeleteI echo those who thought this was a nice, breezy Friday workout. There were a few bumpy spots here and there including some entries I've never heard of.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't familiar with SOLAR NEBULA so glad that some knowledgeable commenters set that straight. Cousin Googs list 16 types of NEBULAE---including an Eskimo NEBULA---but SOLAR isn't one of them.
Long retired now but when I was still in the business, STIMMING was not part of the psychological/psychiatric lexicon. I tried some form of STEREOTYPE there until lack of space and crosses crossed that out.
I like going to weddings about as much as funerals. (Total respect and admiration for those who make marriage work.) So I had CHA CHAS LINE for awhile.
MATTES and SWIFTIES in the top had my POC (plural of convenience) antennas on high alert. And there was a whole bunch of those grid fill short cuts throughout the rest of the puzz, including the odd sounding STETS (hi @Son Volt).
For those of you working on your POC Merit Badge, there are six of the ultra-helpful cheater square equivalent two for one POCs where a Down and an Across both get a letter count boost by sharing a final S. One lands where a two-fer is most likely to occur, in the lower, rightmost square. Find the other five and send your results in to POC Headquarters to earn points toward your Badge.
I'm with the many here who had the opposite reaction to @Rex's take on the puzzle - I was happy to come here and find so many who enjoyed it as much as I did. The easy-to-get nexus of 6 long answers in the center was a big help in building out to some of the tougher entries on the edges. For me, a nice combination of whooshing and untying. knots.
ReplyDeleteDo-overs: I guess before I'M SURE, pidgen before CREOLE. Help from previous puzzles: SWIFTIES. New to me: CHA CHA SLIDE, THE TURN. One degree of separation: I've visited ANITA Garabaldi's statue in Rome. Small moment of triumph: catching on to how the SYN clue worked.
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ReplyDeletePretty zippy solve. Had REDCARDS right away but ended up in the SW last. Thought there might be some wedding dance called the CHApelSLIDE, so SCOOP and NEBULA sat there by themselves for a bit. Also wanted my clutch to engage and disengage my gears, and thought I should CLICK the lights, but otherwise moved right along and enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteWould've said ordering a martini "up" was redundant, but apparently there's room for debate.
How many college teams are named Cougars? I guessed ELI for UTE, which lead me to carelessly enter PREIST for PRIEST. Not having a clue as to MATTE eye shadow didn't help, I'M SURE. Then I patted myself on the back for quickly getting INTRACTABLE, GET THE SCOOP and SOLAR NEBULA. So what the hell are BUEOUTS? Fortunately, those errors were quickly fixed.
ReplyDeleteI hated the clue for ON THREE. "Musical cue" would be far less obtuse.
Gary Jugert:
ReplyDeleteI've enjoyed reading your analyses and Grid Gunk Gauge on these puzzles in recent weeks. I was wondering if you ever consider something like plurals as part of the GGG? While I think Friday's puzzle is indeed a good one, I always feel cheated a bit when a constructor includes so many words that end with "S" because it helps fill out the puzzle.
I counted 15 in today's 66-word puzzle, meaning the "S" at the end of these words account for one entire role/column. (And if you add in two verbs with "S" endings, the total is 17.)
Among the intersections alone in today's puzzle:
ONSETS/BUSES
SENSES/TAHOES
FARES/STOOPS
What do you think?
@Rick K 12:43 PM
DeleteIt turns out we already have a plurals of convenience (POC) guru in @Anoa Bob. I will refer you to his expertise as they don't really bug me. I rather enjoy people losing their minds over octopuses.
I finished. 100%. Wow for me. Then I read the comments. Easy, they say. Oh well.
ReplyDelete@Nancy from Chicago -- I did see Carolyn's notes where she mentioned my commenting with very kind words -- and I responded to her in a comment on WordPlay. Thank you, though, for bringing it up in the event that I hadn't seen it!
ReplyDeletei had same experience as Rex. i finished but i thought the cluing really sucked.
ReplyDeleteI agreed with Rex regarding this puzzle. Cluing was good in areas and poor in others.
ReplyDeleteI think the clue for 49A is my favorite clue in a while because instead of cliched wordplay it plays on crossword conventions themselves, and in a way that is completely explicit about the form the trick takes while still fooling many solvers.
ReplyDeletewhat does WOE mean?
ReplyDeleteSometimes there are clues that stump me so much until I remind myself I'm doing the New York Times crossword. Solved downs first and had "tolls" for 43D for the longest time, because in Texas tolls are really the only "commuter" costs besides gas! Felt silly once I remembered public transportation exists
ReplyDeleteI think of the CHA-CHA SLIDE as a club staple, not a "wedding" staple, but that's probably because I go to a lot of clubs but can't remember the last time I attended a wedding or a wedding party.
ReplyDeleteThe age clue was completely fine, no trouble parsing it. No clue what Rex was on about.
ReplyDeleteHaving a MARTINI "up" is neat. Otherwise, things can get rocky. I think ANITA drink or two. ONTHREE I'll pass out. Afterward, I'll disguise the alcohol on my breath through various ways of eating mints. They're my TicTacs TACTICS.
ReplyDeleteWhoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Fun puzzle, Carolyn Davies Lynch.
No. "Neat" just means straight from the bottle. Pour some gin into a glass and it's neat (btw, yuck). Add ice or mix it with anything (such as vermouth) and it is no longer neat, no matter how it is served.
DeleteI thought 7-A might be Canola, so I checked a few crosses, saw the cross-ref to 50-A, and put in REFS and RED CARDS just because they fit. I was off and running, but couldn't decide between STARTER and STARTup, had no idea about the CHACHA SLIDE, and couldn't figure out what kind of NEBULA it might be, so I slowed down right there.
ReplyDeleteThe grid was fine. And most of Rex's complaints don't seem valid to me--part of what makes a hard puzzle hard is that you have to figure out which of several meanings a clue may have, as with the clues for CHICK and STETS. As for the latter, stet is in imperative mode, so it doesn't have a plural. However, this is English, so we do stuff like that all the time, as in "Dear editor, thanks for sending my copy-edited manuscript. I am returning it to you with a lot of STETS where you changed something that was correct to something that is not."
Some clues were just wrong, though. I won't pile on re: SOLAR NEBULA, but you can't pair A.D. with B.C.E., only with B.C., as those are the specifically Christian terms (In the Year of Our Lord and Before Christ). B.C.E. goes with C.E. (Common Era).
TAHOES are indeed Chevrolets. Search for "Hyundai Tahoe" and you will get the Chevy Tahoe instead.
I had SYN and couldn't understand it; I went so far as to look it up in the dictionary, which told me it was a prefix meaning "with." I had to read Rex to understand how it worked.
I didn't find this quite as easy as many commenters; just over 17 minutes. Several typeovers, including THE FLOP for the Texas Hold'em card. Turn, Flop, River.
ReplyDeleteDespite being an astronomy buff I didn't notice the wrongness of SOLAR. But I did get hung up wanting GET A SCOOP just above it... the clue uses "a" so it seemed wrong to have THE in the answer.
[Spelling Bee: Thu 0, streak 12. Congrats puzzlehoarder on 40! That must be a record.]
One of the downsides of commenting here - YouTube keeps inundating me with ALOERTER recommended videos!
ReplyDeleteMakes me think of Moe Howard raising a fist: “Why, al oerter…”
I must be a dyed-in-the-wool quibbler.
ReplyDeleteEspañol's two "to be" verbs are Ser and Estar, a salient point for beginners to learn. Ser is what you can't change; Estar is a matter of choice or action or happenstance.
Strategies are the overall approaches to be decided by the strategos general or a board of directors, while tactics are the actions to be chosen by the people who can touch the enemy or problem, in pursuit of the strategic objective. Biden is driven by strategy while Netanyahu is focused on tactics.
I was hung up on the idea of a fleet of taxies, still have trouble getting my mind around a bus fleet.
JimG
I didn’t like “BCE” as the answer to “pre AD” because the correct pairing is “CE” to “BCE” and “AD” to “BC”. It’s not a mix-and-match situation.
ReplyDelete@ Kimberly, I agree with you on BCE. And I also agree with those who took exception to SOLAR NEBULA, TACTICS, and ORIENT.
ReplyDeleteMisdirects are fine, but all of these, IMO, are Just Plain Wrong.
To whom it may concern (hi there @Rick K 12:43 & @Anon 1:16), as I mentioned in my 2013 blog post "POC doc", I first realized how convenient and easy it was to help fill a grid by just adding an S (or an ES or dropping a Y and adding IES) to an entry when I tried my hand at crossword puzzle constructing back around 2008 or so. At first I called this TACTIC a "gratuitous S", meaning there was no other reason to add that S except to fill grid space.
ReplyDelete"Gratuitous S" doesn't, however, exactly roll off the tongue so I decided to call it a "plural of convenience", especially because it has a nifty acronym POC. It was meant to be a crossword puzzle term, not a grammatical one, so it doesn't matter what part of speech is involved, be it a noun or a verb, just that it gets boosted by a, well, gratuitous S. So, for example, whether STETS is clued as a verb or a noun doesn't matter, it's still a POC.
Half my average Fri time, which IMSURE is still longer than Rex's average.
ReplyDelete12 debut entries with 7 or more letters (!!) -- seems like a record, but I have no idea how to check. Quite impressed, loved the puz. (As a poker fan, THETURN was my favorite.)
CHACHASLIDE is also played during sportsball games (at least at the Minor League baseball games in my area.) It's a good way to get fans to clap in unison, which wakes up those who have fallen asleep.
Kudos, Carolyn! Nice of you to give @Lewis a shout-out :)
Wonderful Friday! Just the right amount of everything. I liked it better than Rex did, maybe because the phrases DID seem to fit for me. Well done, Carolyn!
ReplyDelete@Dorkito Supremo 3:56. I understand the actual drink terminology. Around 99.9% of my comments are plays on language. "Up" and "neat" mean similar things in the close enough sense that is the milieu of crosswords. So, you may want to take that "twist" into account on "olive" your future comments.
ReplyDeleteLOL. That was a politer, and cleverer, reply than I had in mind. Enjoying a Manhattan down, in a tumbler.
Delete@Gary 3:55, POCs don't really bug me either. I think they are like partials, abbreviations, foreign words, proper nouns, crosswordese and the like. Used sparingly to help fill the grid of an otherwise solid puzzle is fine in my book. It's the excessive use of these TACTICS that bring down the quality of a puzzle for me. Today's grid, for example, has what I consider to be an excess of POCs. And I don't, as you say, enjoy people losing their minds over anything.
ReplyDelete@Gary J-POC's really don't bug me either, which is why I never mention them.
ReplyDeleteRepetitive movements (stimming) and synesthesia in one puzzle? How neurodivergent.
ReplyDeleteI have a son on spectrum and am familiar with both.
I'll second Sam here. I'm a professional astronomer and I study the formation of stars and planets for a living. The SOLAR NEBULA is the place where our star and planets formed. Suns do not form there. "Stellar Nebula" would have been an acceptable answer.
ReplyDeleteWhat a silly diatribe against PLEASE DO for "Yes, I would love that." The phrases don't have to be replacements for each other in every instance - it is sufficient that you can find examples where they do.
ReplyDelete"May I join you at your table?"
"Can I slice you another piece of cake?"
"Shall I ask Rex to join us at the Semi-Annual Crusty Crossword Constructor Consortium?"
All those work perfectly fine (well, depending on how you feel about Rex tagging along with us, that is)
Totally different experience from RP. It was very swooshy - almost too much. I found it enjoyable, even if it offered little resistance (my time was my exact average Tuesday time). I liked Twice as Nice and Get the Scoop, and enjoyed the clues for Priests, Waiters, Crisco and Aeneas.
ReplyDeleteI found the puzzle to be on the medium/hard side, mainly because of the clueing. One beef in particular: METROS definition should include outlying suburban areas of a city, not just urban ones. (e.g. ‘greater New York City area’)
ReplyDeleteMy eyes hit on "Fourth card in Texas Hold'em" and I looked for a four-letter space for TURN; there is no other possible answer. But it was 7! Undaunted, I wrote in THETURN, and was off & running.
ReplyDeleteThe ends of the long acrosses came easier than the starts. Guess I needed a STARTERKIT. But ______SCOOP was simply GETTHE, and _____NEBULA turned out to be SOLAR. The usual phrase is stellar nebula, but I'm fine with SOLAR; after all, every star is a sun, no?
Finished in the NW, where I didn't know STIMMING, but having every letter but the second, I inferred it as a sort of slang for stimulating. Anyhoo, it worked, and another relatively easy Friday bit the dust.
Bit of trouble with ONTHREE, but it all fit. Nice, if not TWICEASNICE, swooshy offering. Birdie.
Wordle par.
Pretty good, but it could have been quite a bit better with some editing. Way too many Spanish words. And stuff like NIH, UTE, CHO SYN, ATM, ATL are just bad. So are AENEAS and SERA.
ReplyDeleteSTETS was a sneaky little answer. ATMYAGE I thought I'd seen them all. But all in all, this puzzle was a great improvement over yesterday's whatev.
ReplyDeleteLady Di