Titular elementary school on TV / FRI 5-31-24 / Clementine lookalikes / Prized mushroom / Female flying group in W.W. II / Disrupt with technology, as an existing industry / Name meaning "father of many" / When repeated, informal term for supper / Musical originally released as a French concept album, for short / Built-in Windows application with a palette logo, familiarly / Holmes founder of the website Jezebel

Friday, May 31, 2024

Constructor: Aidan Deshong

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: WASPS (49D: Female flying group in W.W. II) —
In the 
United StatesWhite Anglo-Saxon Protestants (WASP) is a sociological term which is often used to describe white Protestant Americans of Northwestern European descent, who are generally part of the white dominant culture or upper-class and historically often the Mainline Protestant elite. Historically or most consistently, WASPs are of British descent, though the definition of WASP varies in this respect. WASPs have dominated American society, culture, and politics for most of the history of the United States. Critics have disparaged them as "The Establishment". Although the social influence of wealthy WASPs has declined since the 1960s, the group continues to play a central role in American finance, politics, and philanthropy. (wikipedia) [... whoops, sorry, wrong WASPS ... here we go]The Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) (also Women's Army Service Pilots or Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots) was a civilian women pilots' organization, whose members were United States federal civil service employees. Members of WASP became trained pilots who tested aircraft, ferried aircraft and trained other pilots. Their purpose was to free male pilots for combat roles during World War II. Despite various members of the armed forces being involved in the creation of the program, the WASP and its members had no military standing. (wikipedia)
• • •

Haven't found a late-week themeless puzzle this unpleasant in quite a while. First off, it's got that super-segmented, every-corner-a-separate-puzzle design that tends to impeded flow and generally feel sloggier than other grids. But many puzzles have gone that route and still been enjoyable. This one just missed me in terms of its overall sensibility, that sensibility being that of the techbro / biznessspeak / "apps will make it better" / wealth extraction culture that makes so much of modern life so grim. "Convince me you're not a robot!" This was not the future I was promised. Robots asking me to prove I'm not a robot so that I can, what, download an app that mines my data or fill out some survey that is also a game that is also an ad. Ugh, "disruption" culture, so grim, esp. from a labor standpoint. I can't think of an uglier word than "UBERIZE" (17A: Disrupt with technology, as an existing industry), unless that word is "SYNERGY," are people still saying that? (65A: What might cause 1 + 1 > 2). Can someone disrupt "SYNERGY," please? Can someone UBERIZE "SYNERGY"? GAMIFY is what the NYT is doing to the crossword, as the puzzles get easier and more like Candy Crush ("look at the post-solve animation!"). More phone-friendly, but not necessarily (or at all) better, as puzzles. I know I'm going full "Old Man Yells at Cloud" today but kindly shoot UBERIZE and GAMIFY and DATAMINE and SYNERGY into the sun. And while you're at it, throw NUNHOOD in there too, what the hell? (59A: Sisters are a part of it). When the answer wasn't NUNNERY I thought "what is it? NUNDOM?" "He's entered the priesthood," yes. "She's entered the NUNHOOD?" That sounds like she has donned a very large hooded nun garment, or else has moved to a neighborhood made up exclusively of nuns. Also, LES MIZ has a "Z" (43A: Musical originally released as a French concept album, for short = LES MIS). Just take the "Z" from UBERIZE—he won't be needing it where he's going (i.e. the sun). It's not that the fill is A MESS (although A MESS is not great), it's that the fill is so personally off-putting that I just couldn't get into it. It has some nice answers, but the funk of late-stage capitalism was just too much for me today.

["It takes a very STEADY hand ..."]

The three long answers through the center are solid enough, but not exactly exciting. The best answers in the grid are oddly symmetrical—"NO IT'S NOT" has both snappy colloquial energy and a fun hard-to-parse quality that made it fun to figure out (39D: "Nuh-uh!"). Side note: NUH-UH! has appeared twice in the NYTXW, and I wouldn't mind seeing it more. So hard to make five-letter answers interesting. The letters in NUH-UH! are not exactly grid-friendly, which may account for why we haven't seen it that much. But back to the puzzle. I also liked "NO IT'S NOT"'s counterpart, FIENDING (12D: Hankering, slangily). It's not a word I'd use (I'm still an old-fashioned JONESING guy...), but it's got a spicy slanginess that makes it more interesting than most answers today. 


Seems a (long) stretch to say that opera lovers are SERENADED. By ... the people on stage? The recording on their home stereo? I thought "serenading" was when someone sang *to* you, not *at* you or *near* you. Also, "Like many opera lovers"? Which? And which ones aren't being SERENADED? I'm so confused. [NOTE: I have apparently misread the clue—see below] Not much else was genuinely confusing today. I hadn't heard of the WASPS (or had heard, and then forgot), so that took some work. Also, I haven't bowled in quite a while so that "/" clue had me needing four crosses before I got it ("/" indicates a SPARE in bowling scoring) (32D: What "/" can mean). I knew ALONSO (or rather, I was able to remember it from the -SO ending) so that helped a lot with getting into the NE, which was the last section to fall. I'm normally put off by all the corny punning that tends to happen around cannabis cluing, but the clue on STONERS today is actually pretty good (16D: Ones dealing with joint inflammation?). As someone dealing with (minor) joint inflammation in his wrist, maybe I should try a ... new remedy? (jk, smoking is very much Not For Me, I'll stick with drinking my problems away, thank you very much) (jk, I never have more than one drink, except for last night—sometimes you just gotta celebrate life's small wins).


Happy last day of May. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

UPDATE:

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

99 comments:

Natalie in Boston 5:39 AM  

I thought the opera lovers clue meant the lovers in the opera (i.e. the characters) were serenaded, no?

Conrad 5:54 AM  


I agree with Easy-Medium.

Not a lot of overwrites today. The only ones I can think of are LES MIz before LES MIZ at 43A and OkOk before OHOH at 52D. I misread the 4D clue as "Dessert that really lives up to its name" but got TART anyway from crosses.

New to me: GAMIFY (8A), FIENDING (12D), UBERIZE (17A), WASPS (49D), NUNHOOD (59A)

Anonymous 5:55 AM  

I agree with Rex on all the modern tech slang.
The ones being serenaded are not the audience, but characters in the opera who are lovers of each other.

Anonymous 6:00 AM  

The opera lovers are characters who are lovers in the opera, not fans of opera

Adam 6:23 AM  

FIENDING was completely new to me, but I get it--unlike NUNHOOD, which was also new to me and which I hope never to see again. I didn't mind the tech-bro vibe, though, as much as @Rex did. And thank you to Anonymous, Anonymous and Natalie in Boston--like @Rex, I had no idea why opera lovers would be SERENDADED--it didn't occur to me to parse the clue differently.

Very easy for a Friday--my time was well below my average, and other than SERENDADED I hit very few snags. A nice way to end a short workweek and begin the weekend.

Evan Harrel 6:29 AM  

Yes, there is a drama geek thread to debate this. https://www.vulture.com/2012/12/is-it-spelled-les-mis-or-les-miz.html#

Iris 6:39 AM  

Nunhood is not a thing. It’s monks who wear hoods. Get thee to a dictionary.

Anonymous 6:58 AM  

Either way, the SERENADED clue is a dud. And NUNHOOD should be convicted of 34 felonies and consigned to the trash heap of crosswordese.

Anonymous 6:58 AM  

Get thyself out of thy rut and join the solverhood of those who correctly parsed the thing.

Gary Jugert 7:04 AM  

I thought 34 Down was going to be GUILTY VERDICTS.

So you write a themeless. You have no constraints on the content. And your marquee answer is MANDARIN ORANGES?! Whose that gonna CAPTCHA? No amount of GAMIFYING and UBERIZING will evoke FIENDING for NUNHOOD. We're trying way too hard today to be hep cats and I'd send a MAILER to complain, but I doubt they own LETTER OPENERS.

I like SPOILER ALERT and SERENADED, but outside of those two answers, I'm with 🦖 on the unpleasantness of today's excursion. It's not "old man yelling at clouds" when it's "totes unadorbsy bruh."

I did find this super easy for a Friday even with so many clanks. The ALONSO / ANNA cross stopped me the longest even though The Tempest is one of my favorite plays.

Propers: 4
Places: 1
Products: 4
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 13 (19%) very nice

Tee-Hee: We've talked about it many times, but here you go: Wanna publish a mediocre puzzle? Our slush pile guru is looking for STONERS and DOPE, the silly TART. We don't know what xi's doing after hours, but it seems to involve NOIT SNOT.

Uniclues:

1 Baby Lincoln's signature jammies.
2 Water colors by a colonizer.
3 Sexy cop at Halloween.
4 My thoughts at finding a coworker's lunch in the company fridge.
5 Ganja girl.

1 ABRAHAM ONESIES
2 ANT DEW ART (~)
3 PRETEND TROOPER (~)
4 SPARE MEAL! AMEN. (~)
5 STONER'S STEADY

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Reason #1 for throwing a hula themed party at the university. STRAW COED TOP.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anonymous 7:10 AM  

Is Venus not a god? I suppose the distinction here is that she is a goddess, but that seems a little unhip to me. I think bar would have been a better answer.

SouthsideJohnny 7:14 AM  

I loved NUNHOOD. I don’t know (or care) if it’s a real thing - it’s just so New York Time-sy.

I figured Rex would find this one too easy and leave it at that. Was a little surprised that he went after it with all of the big guns and the depth charges as well (he basically blew it out of the water and demolished it). Personally, I liked the three grid-spanners in the center, which I thought set a pleasant tone.

Sorry Rex, DATA MINING is a thing, and it’s pretty common (ditto for SYNERGY which is appropriately clued as well). I understand your frustration with UBERIZE - but you of all people should know that this is the NEW YORK TIMES (see NUNHOOD, above).

kitshef 7:15 AM  

Very different feeling to Rex's. I thought NO ITS NOT and FIENDING were the worst things in the grid.

SYNERGY goes back over four-hundred years, so hardly tech-speak.

And it had a bit more bite than we’ve been getting on recent Fridays. I’m hoping this is a trend.

Disturbing how long it took me to get the first three letters given ___DARIN ORANGES.

Anonymous 7:23 AM  

As someone who works in tech, I hear the word synergy constantly but I've never heard someone say uberize

Burghman 7:36 AM  

At one point, I had M__D_R__ORANGES and I thought “are murderer oranges a thing?”

D 7:38 AM  

Oh, just chill out about “technology” in crosswords. The more modern aspects are certainly here to stay (or most of them, until they become outdated). Unless we want to receive Rex’s daily updates via carrier pigeon or Pony Express, I’d say everyone better just acclimate.

Plus, when a puzzle *doesn’t* contain more up-to-date answers (which is often tech or tech-related), the puzzle is deemed as “not fresh” or “not in the language.” Do we not also want younger solvers to find crosswords appealing? Let them have aha moments, too, and just simmer down.

PH 7:39 AM  

Old Man Yells at Cloud is exactly what I thought during the solve, haha. I certainly prefer modern slang over Shakespeare lines in clues. "Prithee, no more: thou ___ talk nothing to me." - ALONSO (Answer: dost)

(Since it's the marquee answer...) A mandarin was a high public official in Imperial China, and MANDARINORANGES were given the name because the officials wore robes of a similar color. Mandarin etymology: from Sanskrit/Hindi mantri, meaning counselor. Bonus fun fact: the color orange was named after the fruit.

Thought the puzzle was "freshhh"... Congrats on the debut, Aidan Deshong, and good luck on your endeavors at Harvey Mudd!

Anonymous 7:42 AM  

I normally don’t complain about answers being “boring,” but, wow. Just typing the LETTEROPENER MANDARINORANGES SPOILERALERT stack makes me want to go back to bed.

Son Volt 7:45 AM  

Restrictive grid layout and overall flat fill. I have no issue with what Rex refers to as the techy slant - they’re things but just boring things - why waste white space on them? SW was hardest to parse for me - MS PAINT went right in but the double D’s and O’s got me.

I’m A MESS

It’s a beautiful Friday morning at least.

Mandolin ORANGE

Lewis 7:47 AM  

Random thoughts:
• NUNHOOD brought to mind images from “The Handmaid’s Tale”.
• Lovely to have that answer share the grid with the homophone of “abbot”.
• MATE makes me think of the chess term, which echoes yesterday’s chess term TRAPS.
• Very nice that IT’S ODD is answer 51A.
• I love FIENDING. I will try to use it until it’s part of my rotation.
• A couple of words that I love showed up in the clues: “hankering” and “skitterer”.
• I loved the subtlety of the clue [Like many opera lovers] for SERENADED, where “lovers” refers to opera characters rather than the audience.

This grid, one never used in a Times puzzle before, just has the look and feel of a Friday grid, with its 68 words, chunky corners and spanner across the middle. It gave me spots I had to return to, pleasing my work-loving brain greatly.

And oh, the potential shown by this puzzle that feels like it was made by a long-time pro, actually made by one who will be graduating high school next week. My fingers are crossed, Aidan, that we see more from you. Congratulations on your NYT debut, and thank you for a most splendid outing!

Lewis 7:49 AM  

Administrative note: I will be away, back on Monday, due to a family event. Wishing all a terrific weekend!

Merriam-Webster 7:50 AM  

nunhood
noun
nun·​hood ˈnənˌhu̇d
plural-s
: the status or calling of a nun

Rug Crazy 7:57 AM  

AWFUL!

Anonymous 7:58 AM  

For the record, HAZE is a terrible reason to turn on your headlights. The light will reflect off the haze particles and obscure the stuff that you actually need to see.

Dr.A 8:18 AM  

ETHERS plural? no, just no.

Anonymous 8:22 AM  

Thank you, Iris, this made me laugh out loud!

Marissa 8:28 AM  

“MurdererOranges” gave me a laugh. For some reason, I immediately pictured Danny Torrance asking for one, using his Redrum finger.

Iydianblues 8:35 AM  

I always thought “synergy” was a good word! Two people who work together well can develop a “synergy” between them, for example…

Niallhost 8:35 AM  

Sped through this puzzle in record time until I hit the NE and SE corners. Just couldn't get a foothold until I changed SERENADEs to SERENADED which got me DATA MINE and then everything fell into place. In NE it took realizing that a genealogist's tool was not going to be a word with a vowel after the "D" and then everything fell there. Took long enough. Enjoyed the struggle.

EasyEd 8:40 AM  

Without this blog I’d still be wondering why SERENADED was a good answer. The cross of GAMIFY and FIENDING
was tough—one a kind of made-up word and the other totally new to me. Drew an initial blank on CAPTCHA and so wound up starting in the middle at SPOILERALERT, which I thought was fun.

Bob Mills 8:42 AM  

Finished it without cheating thanks to some fortuitous guesswork in the NE. GAMIFY and FIENDING are words I've never seen or heard, but once I hit on ONESIES (after first thinking "ovaries") they were the only possibilities.

ALONSO looked wrong as a Shakespearean king because of its Hispanic identification. Is there a modern version of "The Tempest" that isn't from Shakespeare?

Iydianblues 8:42 AM  

Also, from some random source on the internet: SYNERGY - mid 17th century (denoting cooperation): from modern Latin synergia cooperation, from Greek sunergia, from sunergos ‘working together’, from sun- ‘together’ + ergon ‘work’.

It;s not synergy’s fault that the modern tech industry has co-opted it!

Anonymous 8:47 AM  

The only person who used DIN DIN to describe supper was my dear mother who passed away in 1985 so that clue made me smile.

Nancy 8:52 AM  

This gave me the kind of challenge I like in a Friday puzzle, so that even though I have some real quibbles, I still enjoyed it a lot.

The hardest section for me was the SE. I didn't know WASPS, I only knew WACS and WAVES (I think). I didn't know there were INNINGS in horseshoes, didn't know SYNERGY; and kept saying to myself: "Not DATA SURF. DATA what???" Finally came up with DATA MINE.

I'm so proud of myself on CAPTCHA. I've never seen a CAPTCHA like that, but I asked myself: "Who or what are they testing with that question?" Aha, I thought -- they want to know if you're a robot! And that kind of test is called a...CAPTCHA!!!

NUNnery before NUNHOOD. You, too, right?

Quibbles: Here's a puzzle that verbizes everything. GAMIFY. UBERIZE. The mind boggles.

ETHERS takes its place today right next to yesterday's ALCOHOLS.

It's LES MIZ, not LES MIS. SERENADED opera lovers may not know that -- but musical theater buffs will.

An entertaining puzzle, nonetheless, despite its flaws.

RooMonster 9:07 AM  

Hey All !
ITS ODD, the puz started nigh impossible, thinking why was this run on Friday and not Saturday? But, started getting an answer here, an answer there, and all of it sudden, Bam! Done error free in 25 minutes. That's DOPE!

Weirdly cut off NE/SW corners. I'm sure that helped with my solve, though. NW last to fall, the UBERIZE/ABBOTT cross was a bit tough. CAUSES nicely hiding from me also.

I had a buddy in high school who used to say to me, MAN DARrIN, ORANGES are good!

Anyway, have a great Friday!

Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Alice Pollard 9:38 AM  

My dad said DIN DIN all the time, so yeah... NUNHOOD really needed a question mark or something to indicate its' idiocy

Anonymous 9:43 AM  

How is Venus not a GOD? She is the god of love. I had Bar and couldn’t figure out that corner.

Anonymous 9:44 AM  

And how is “I know, I know” OH OH. That makes zero sense.

puzzlehoarder 9:46 AM  

For the most part this was a record setting-ly easy solve with the exception of the NE. That was the only section that had any late week resistance and it put the puzzle back into the normal easy range.

Mostly I just do the SB these days. From that perspective three words stood out today.

NUNHOOD is an SB classic. It's clue made me think of it immediately but since this is a crossword I tried to make NUNNERY work first. A quick check of those double Ns made it obvious that this puzzle was going with NUNHOOD.

CAPTCHA isn't exactly a classic but I recall being surprised that it showed up in the SB. I just thought it was a trade marked internet term.

GAMIFY looks like it should be an SB classic but as far as I can tell it's never appeared. MAGNIFY is the only pamgram that could make it possible but my guess is that GAMIFY is one of those words that wouldn't make the list.

I thought this was an impressive debut for an 18 year old even if the solve was a pushover.

yd -0. QB47

pabloinnh 9:48 AM  

Haven't done a CAPTCHA since I went blue on this blog, which had the benefit of hearing from some very nice people. This may be an indication of how much I use the internet for stuff.

Today's vocabulary lesson: GAMIFY, FIENDINGS, UBERIZE, MSPAINT.

Words I won't be using for anything: GAMIFY, FIENDINGS, UBERIZE, MSPAINT.

I've done a fair amount of bowling in my life and know the SPARE sign very well, which is a /. The one in the clue looks like an italicized I and boy did that slow things down.

ALDI? Really? News to me.

This played pretty easy in spite of all that whippersnapper textspeak, and like many others I wanted to get me to a NUNNERY, but no real sangs that weren't quickly resolved.

OK Friday, AD. Astutely Done. Congrats on the debut and thanks for a fair amount of fun.

Anonymous 9:56 AM  

Rex, noted. he made a mistake on the serenade thing. he said he asterisked it, but didn't follow

Beezer 9:57 AM  

My take on the puzzle was essentially a combination of @Rex, @Nancy, and @Gary J’s observations…ending up with “I enjoyed the puzzle, warts and all.”

And speaking of a wart. Prior to the musical, did ANYONE ever say “I just read Les Mis”? This leads me to a confession. I read the book in my early 20s and it is STILL on my list of top 5 books I’ve ever read. For THIS reason, I have never ever had a desire to see a condensed musical version, ala Les Miz. I just know that I would be disappointed to see so much wonderful book left out. Yeah, possibly a curse. On the other hand, I saw the movie Camelot when I was 11…thank goodness! I could watch it with pure enjoyment, ignorant of the King Arthur lore that was left out and was covered very nicely by TH White’s (loose translation of Mallory) in the Book of Merlin and The Once and Future King. Anyway, I wonder if anyone else refuses to watch (even a well-done) condensed version of extremely good literature.

Anonymous 9:57 AM  

I have a question. Why Rex Parker? is he really good at parking?

Gary Jugert 10:40 AM  

Gary's Grid Gunk Guide Wrap-Up for May

Current Price Per Puzzle 15¢

Total answers I bought: 2534

People: 255

Places: 87

Products:132

Partial Words and Initialisms: 206

Foreignisms: 84

Most Gunky Puzzle: 43% on 5/26

Least Gunky Puzzle: 18% on 5/4

Average Monthly Gunkiness: 30%

Money I spent on gunk each day: 4.5¢

Averages by Day:

M: 27%

T: 28%

W: 31%

R: 33%

F: 28%

S: 28%

U: 33%

Things I learned this month: When somebody says "sparkling clean grid," they're almost inevitably going off an emotional wheelhouse. When we say a puzzle is good or bad, it typically has little to do with its gunkiness percentage. Oddly, Mondays (with themes) are cleaner than Fridays and Saturdays (without themes). No wonder some people hate Sundays with the highest gunkiness and the most words.

johnk 10:42 AM  

@Dr.A 8:18 AM. I concur. So tired of these inappropriate pluralizations. Yesterday it was ALCOHOLS. What will tomorrow bring? Clue: Things to breathe. Answer: AIRS. I can't wait.

Gary Jugert 10:46 AM  

@Beezer 9:57 AM
The stage show is pretty disappointing, but the original cast recording is magnificent. I don't listen to much music, but holy moly was that a great album.

Tom T 10:51 AM  

An "Easy" Friday for me is in the 25 to 30 minute range. This one done in 21 minutes. So, I'm feeling good to see an "Easy/Medium" rating from OFL today. Guess I had some great SYNERGY going. lol

jae 10:55 AM  

Medium. The spelling of CAPTCHA continues to elude me so I had problems in the NW. Also NUNnery before NUNHOOD, mdS before DRS, and odd stuff like GAMIFY and FIENDING (a WOE that spell check is not happy with) detracted from any possible whooshiness. That said, SE was pretty whooshy.

I’m with @Rex on this one, a little bit of sparkle but more than a bit of clunky/boring stuff, didn’t hate it.

egsforbreakfast 10:58 AM  

Hey what about that woman gangster who took her vows? A real NUNHOOD. Of course this was after she won the Sherwin Williams beauty contest and was named MSPAINT.

Is a guy who's cutting up limes, zesting lemons, checking on liquor stock, etc. before the bar opens PRETENDing?

Venus may not be a GOD, but her sister was often SERENADED for a SERENADEeD.

For a great Tech Bro experience, you should DATAMINE on keTAMINE.

I'd call this a hel of a swel puzzle, but I need MOREL. Thanks and congrats on the debut, Aidan Deshong. Go, Muddhens!

johnk 10:59 AM  

Plenty to criticize today, e.g. GOD(ess), MIS, HAZE and ETHERS. And, of course, the ubersegmentation of the grid that Rex carps about.
But I enjoyed solving the long answers that created the segments, just as I coincidentally enjoyed eating the MANDARIN ORANGE segments for breakfast this morning. A bite of SYNERGY there.

Anonymous 10:59 AM  

Can someone please explain how Les Mis was originally a French concept album? Isn’t it originally a novel by Victor Hugo? And isn’t a concept album an album such as Tommy by the Who? I must be missing something. Thank you!

Whatsername 11:04 AM  

An enjoyable Friday with a pleasantly low number of proper nouns and trivia entries. Sincere congratulations to Aiden on an impressive debut!

I join the chorus of those encountering a few enlightening answers today. UBERIZE, FIENDING, NUNHOOD AND SPARE/? But Fridays and Saturdays are always good for improving one’s crossword vocabulary.

I’m not convinced that HAZE is a good reason to turn on your lights. I suppose it is but newer vehicles are so automated now the lights go on and off without being told to. One doesn’t even need to think about it anymore. The other day I turned on my iPad and a message told me I need to change the oil in my new vehicle. The uberizing, it’s scary sometimes.

Tom P 11:06 AM  

I was pleased to finish this puzzle significantly faster than my average Friday time, but instead of triumphant, I felt a bit uneasy. And when I read Rex's review, I knew why: way too much of the tech-speak that's turning us into mindless, soulless cyberbots.

Benbini 11:12 AM  

Well at least it was somewhat harder than yesterday's? I still find exclamation answers like OHOH extremely obnoxious (why couldn't you say "OOH pick me!" or even "AHHH pick me!" or "MMMM pick me!")

jberg 11:17 AM  

I had the L from ALDI, read ""It might raise a flap," and confidently wrote in Landing plane, thinking that here was some of that zoom Rex goes on about. But then there was MOREL, and I saw that 20-D could be either SERENADEr or SERENADED, so eventually I found my way to LETTER OPENER. (Now that think about it more carefully, I realize that landing planes lower their flaps, but at the time it seemed like a good answer).

I was once on a plane from DC to Boston when the captain announced that the flaps wouldn't go down. He said we shouldn't worry, they had a procedure for that: A no-flaps landing! It was successful, but I couldn't help noticing the row of firetrucks parked along the side of the runway as we came in.

@Bob Mills -- Spanish would be ALONzO; the characters in "The Tempest" are Italian, like many of Shakespeare's plays. I couldn't remember him until I had several crosses, but at least knew he ended in O. I guess he's important to the play's back story, but not all that important to the action.

Yeah, ETHERS. Next will be "stuff we breathe" cluing OXYGENS.

@Anon -- the stereotype is the smart eager schoolkid who knows the answer and wants to be called on, so raises his or her hand and goes 'OH! OH! in excitement.

Anonymous 11:32 AM  

If there's a priesthood, and there is, then nunhood is perfectly valid.

Clever, fresh puzzle.

Carola 11:41 AM  

I'm glad @Rex did the yelling at the cloud about the tech speak so that I don't have to. On the plus side, I liked SERENADED next to CAROL, thinking of the groups that go a-CAROLING door to door; also, APERTURE, NO IT'S NOT, and the clue for LETTER OPENER.

Do-overs: Pursue before PREFER, LES MIz. New to me: UBERIZE, GAMIFY, FIENDING, NUNHOOD (suitably placed under IT'S ODD).

Opera lover here who misinterpreted the clue - D'oh! For any other opera fans out there....is it generally a lover who is being SERENADED, or is the serenade a means of seduction of a not-yet-lover....as here, where Don Giovanni does his seductive coaxing with "Oh, come to the window, my treasure...."

jb129 11:52 AM  

I think "unpleasant" is an understatement to describe this puzzle. I don't mind learning new phases. But UBERIZE, NUNHOOD (isn't it Nunnery?), LES MIS for LES MIZ?
I don't know what JF was thinking. A very disappointing Friday. It just didn't happen for me. I read the comments by the constructor on Wordplay (which I rarely do) & I see he's new to this. Very admirable being a senior in high school, Aidan, & I congratulate you on your debut. But this puzzle just was not for me :(

Masked and Anonymous 12:39 PM  

Very classy themeless 68-worder.

Nice selection of longballs across the middle: LETTEROPENER. MANDARINORANGES. SPOILERALERT. Crosser SERENADED with its outstandinly cryptic clue, too boot.
When I first, right outta the chute, read the CAPTCHA clue, I thought it was a Mensa IQ test question. har

Unlike @RP, M&A does not consider these puzgrid corners as "super-segmented". At least two routes into each of em.
Will admit that LESMIS don't quite look right, I'd grant -- but I tend to have that problem with a lotta French phrases. Young M&A shoulda taken a French class, along with them Latin, German, and Russian classes, I reckon.

Rest of the fillins were darn smooth and fun to solverize, at our house.

staff weeject pick: SEC. Brutally simplistic(al) clue of {One ___ …}. Lost more than one precious nanoSEConds.

Thanx for the fun, young high-schooler Mr. Deshong dude. Primo debut. Consider yerself duly graduated, xword-wise.

Masked & Anonymo2Us


**gruntz**

Anonymous 12:48 PM  

Childhood is a thing because children wear hoodies.

SusanA 1:13 PM  

Oof, I had so many overwrites today, starting with *airplane wing* where LETTER OPENER belonged, Japanese ORANGES and Oberon. LES MIS was in and out more than once.
I do have questions.
Do ants skitter? I always see them marching along with great purpose.
How are OHOH and “I know, I know” really connected? I could see OKOK…but okay.

Reading the Wiki entry on WASPS was truly an eye opener. So much sexism and racism perpetrated on these intrepid souls.

Anonymous 1:18 PM  

And your answer made me smile!

Whatsername 1:20 PM  

@Anonymous (6:58) LOL!

@Anonymous (9:44) I didn’t get it either.

@Gary J: I love your (7:04) answer for 34 down. 😄 You’re in fine form today. I’m laughing out loud at The Gunk Report.

Steve 1:22 PM  

I have nothing to say except Nunhood was a god awful answer that I hope to never see again.

DigitalDan 1:26 PM  

nunhood? Nunhood? NunHood? NUNHOOD? WTF?

okanaganer 1:40 PM  

So 15 hours after finishing, I finally understand the clue for SERENADED. Thanks anonymous and others via Rex.

Wanted the Sisters to be part of a CONVENT. Never seen/heard FIENDING before. Jonesing yes, I think I first ran into that in a puzzle.

Thanks Gary Jugert for pointing out how few names today! I definitely notice it when there are lots of them.

[Spelling Bee: Thu 0, streak 5. Meanwhile, puzzlehoarder is closing in on 50.]

Sam 1:51 PM  

Slow start but then overall pretty medium. However - UBERIZE???

Bob Mills 1:56 PM  

For jberg: Thanks for the clarification. I should be brushing up on my Shakespeare.

Anonymous 1:57 PM  

There are a lot of modernisms that catch me up ... most egregious, all modern music but esp. rap ... how are we expected to remember the downright stupid names and the nonsensical lyrics?

Rick K 2:07 PM  

Congrats to the young constructor on his debut!

But ... How do the editors let ITS ODD and NO ITS NOT cross each other?! I thought that was verboden, esp. as crosses! Come back soon, Will Shortz...

David K 2:20 PM  

We live right above Silicon Valley. (Though I assure you, I'm far too old to be a tech bro.)

The whole time I was easily dropping in these words, I was thinking "OMG, Rex is going to hate this SO MUCH!" It helped me sustain an evil little grin throughout the whole solving experience. Your write-up did not disappoint.

In fairness, I don't recall having heard "Uberize," which is indeed ugly. The canonical usage is, "[Our company] will be the Uber of [our industry]."

Anonymous 2:43 PM  

I propose a rule be introduced for this forum: thou shalt read through previous comments before adding thine own. The volume of redundant questions & answers could so easily be reduced.
As for those complaining about "LES MIS", the clue specifies "... French concept album...": that is the French spelling.

Les S. More 3:25 PM  

LES MIS?!? LES MIS? Really? The book was Les Mierables but the play, as you can plainly see from the image @Rex posted, was titled Les Miz.

NUNHOOD is apparently a word but this is the first time I've ever seen it. And the lpng crosses were, as noted above, kind of dull. MANDARINORANGES, uh, OK. And, as for LETTEROPENER, my wife has one of the type the constructor thinks people actually use. It's about 7 inches long and looks like a little sword. Do I ever use it? Of course not. I grab a razor sharp 10 inch Sabattier slicing knife, ease the point into that little unglued end of the flap and just slice the thing open.

Kinda liked GAMIFY and UBERIZE. Why not?

Ilana 4:14 PM  

Less symmetrical, but more opposite, to "No it's Not" would be "Yes, Siree!"

Doctor Work 4:16 PM  

"Arsonists" is what I first thought of for the "joint inflammation" clue. Luckily, it was too long to fit. But feel free to use that in a future puzzle, puzzlemasters. You're welcome!

Anonymous 5:06 PM  

"I know I'm going full 'Old Man Yells at Cloud' today..."

yep. i liked the puzzle just fine but i agree about the grid.

my one beef was ethers. i don't think ether is a word that is ever pluralized. "Doc give me some of those ethers" said no one ever.

Stoli 6:25 PM  

Rex, I usually love your columns but this one is a little too 'hey you kids, get off my lawn!'. The constructor is graduating from high school and is using the vocabulary of his generation. The English language is the most spoken on the planet because it evolves with the times. Oh, and if you're still using JONESING, you are a very old man. :)

P.S. There is a CAPTCHA on this comment form.

Anonymous 7:59 PM  

Anonymous 6:58 am
Well serenaded I liked a lot, once Rex explained the parsing. Before that I was “puzzled “
To each his own.
Lovers in opera are serenaded all the time. Clues like that are very common, late week. Nothing weird or unusual it

dgd 8:02 PM  

Gary Jugert
I liked the puzzle better than you or Rex.
However
I hope you enjoyed making those uniclues because they were especially good!

Anonymous 8:07 PM  

Anonymous 7:23 AM
My guess uberize is more business speak.
Also, it might be used less now than when Uber was growing rapidly

Teedmn 8:32 PM  

I agree with Rex on SYNERGY as annoying bizspeak - a friend of mine banned its use in meetings at his company - but I really liked the clue. Also the clue for ONESIES: “Babies snap out of them”, har!

Even though I recently read a profile of Quinta Brunson, the creator of ABBOTT Elementary, when AB filled in, I tried to fit ABc something in there. Quinta Brunson comes across in the article as simply amazing, creativity-wise.

Aidan Deshong, nice Friday puzzle.

Anonymous 8:37 PM  

Rick K
About dupes
For a long time, Shortz allowed A LOT of dupes. Joel is just following Shortz on that Don’t expect any change when he comes back!

dgd 8:54 PM  

Liked the puzzle.
Another teenager. Impressive!
Noted Pabloinnh never heard of Aldi
It is just a chain with smallish stores, cheap prices, limited options , mostly located in built up suburbs and center cities. Ver helpful for a crossword constructor!

Happy Sharon made a reference to WASPS. above
Worth reading about. Piloting planes even in the US was was dangerous work in the’40’s And they did a lot of flying in bad weather. Of the 1000 WASPS 30 died in accidents. They wore uniforms, went to boot camp and were under military discipline, but technically civilians. Thus no GI benefits Despite being highly trained pilots, ( they had to be better than the average male pilot to get accepted) none got jobs in pot war airlines.

Anonymous 9:24 PM  

I was totally thinking BAR and only went with GOD when it was obvious. BAR is way better.

Anonymous 9:27 PM  

I didn’t love the SW at all. NUNHOOD is bad and OHOH just mystifies me. Faster than my average but wasn’t thrilled.

kitshef 9:59 PM  

Just wondering ... is there a person - anywhere in the world - who got ANNA from that clue (9D: ___ Holmes, founder of the website Jezebel)?

Anonymous 11:11 PM  

It may help to know that a French version of what we call Les Miz is now playing at the Chatelet in Paris, a very major theatre. Of course the nickname there would be Les MIS, and that’s the reason the clue was so ostentatiously en francais.

dgd 12:14 AM  

Not me.

Mark 9:13 AM  

Gamification of the crossword? It is already a game.

Anonymous 1:35 PM  

That’s right. “-Hood” is an ecumenical suffix like -ish. Snakes are both serpentine and snakish! And snake-like!

Anonymous 2:45 PM  

Anyone else have NOT TODAY for 39D??? I couldn’t let it go making the southwest impossible for me…

Anonymous 12:40 PM  

As in the kid sitting in the front of class with their hand constantly up. You know like most crossword solvers were.😊

Anonymous 10:11 AM  

Am I seriously the only one who thinks the clue for LETTEROPENER is dead wrong (one person even said they loved the clue!)?

Every letter opener I'm familiar with slices through the top of the envelope, leaving the flap glued down, not raising it!

If you open a sealed envelope 'by hand' you work a finger under the sealed part of the flap and raise it, but a letter opener doesn't work that way. No flap raising at all!

Anonymous 10:35 AM  

ALDI is junk fill and completely unknown which kind of ruined an otherwise good puzzle. Toughest segment was the SE corner.

Anonymous 10:38 AM  

I agree with anonymous @10:11AM. LETTEROPENER as clued is wrong.

Anonymous 4:24 PM  

I can't believe the complaints about nunhood. That is actually the more accurate every day term. There is a priesthood, a sisterhood, and a nunhood. Nunnery is more of a literary term. And yes, there is a difference between a sister and a nun, although they are quite often used interchangeably. And by the by, my oldest sister went to a convent in 1956.

Anonymous 4:42 PM  

I was surprised when pabloinnh didn't know about Aldi, so I looked it up and there are only 3 in his state. There are 226 in my state. I can walk to the one nearest to me.

spacecraft 6:44 PM  

When the NW filled itself in faster than any Friday NW in my memory, I thought the editors were really dumbing things down for us. But then...the rest of the puzzle. The center came after some brief stewing, but oh, those corners! I agree with OFNP that they're rather isolated, especially when the outlets are foggy at best.

A bunch of brand new--to me--terms are scattered throughout. GAMIFY: wow. Have I witnessed the gamification of crosswords? Or perhaps the UBERIZation? [Yeah, Spellcheck, underline that one.] We need a new Technospeak dictionary.

I did it, but it was a slog for those three corners. For sure not my wheelhouse. Bogey.

Wordle par.

Daverino 7:51 PM  

Couldn't be more on your wavelength today, Rex, though I'm not complaining that the puzzles are (slightly) easier to solve. NUNHOOD? Blecch. Also ironic that I'm asked whether or not I'm a robot to post this...oh well...on to Saturday!

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