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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: EID AL-ADHA (13A: Islam's feast of sacrifice) —
Eid al-Adha (Arabic: عيد الأضحى, romanized: ʿĪd al-ʾAḍḥā, EED əl AD-hə; IPA: [ˈʕiːd alˈʔadˤħaː]), commonly translated as the Feast of Sacrifice and also known as Yawm an-Nahr (Arabic: يوم النحر, romanized: Yawm al-Naḥr), is the second of the two main Islamic holidays alongside Eid al-Fitr. In the Islamic calendar, Eid al-Adha falls on the 10th day of the twelfth and final month of Dhu al-Hijja, and celebrations and observances are generally carried forward to the three following days, known as the Tashreeq days.
As with Eid al-Fitr, the Eid prayer is performed on the morning of Eid al-Adha, after which udhiyah, or the ritual sacrifice of sheep, may be performed. In Islamic tradition, it honours the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God's command. Depending on the narrative, either Ishmael or Isaac are referred to with the honorific title "Sacrifice of God". Pilgrims performing the Hajj typically perform the tawaf and saee of Hajj on Eid al-Adha, along with the ritual stoning of the devil on the Eid day and the following days.
Eid al-Adha is also sometimes called the "Greater Eid" (Arabic: العيد الكبير, romanized: al-ʿĪd al-Kabīr). In India it is also called Bakra-Id. (wikipedia)
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Back to the elation. Nice to have a big fat gimme at 1-Across today (1A: Sound from a kid = MAA). Gave me all the first letters in a bank of 6-letter answers, hurray. ADORED and AIN'T SO to POD and MESS UP and bam, the whole far NW is set before I have a chance to think. But now I've got EID ... and, uh ... if the next bit is not MUBARAK!, I confess, I give up. I *should've* known EID AL-FITR (which would've fit ... r), since that's the EID I know—the feast celebrating the end of Ramadan. But I didn't even have that in my arsenal. And EID AL-ADHA—totally new to me today. But if it's one of the two main Islamic holidays, I can't exactly complain it's obscure, now can I? I enjoyed learning that there's more than one EID, and I especially enjoyed that I was able to learn this without my grid absolutely blowing up—all crosses fair! And I'm grateful that EID AL-ADHA introduced a little struggle into my solve (which needed it). My main experience of the NW was not the struggle caused by EID AL-ADHA but the explosion of great answers that started here and then shot across the grid in all directions. STRESS EAT (19A: Down during difficult times?) and SNOW ANGEL (17A: Something that's made lying down) into THEATER DISTRICT (getting DISTRICT was my first big whoosh) (6D: Play area), and then onto the UNEVEN BARS and getting down with the BOSSA NOVA, with very little trouble. And the hits kept coming: "I WON'T BITE"! RUSSIAN SPY! (great clue) (36A: Red plant?). RIB TIPS! (29A: Chewy barbecue bits). And "JUST FYI," so good, so colloquially on-the-nose (33A: "In case it's of interest ..."). I had just the terminal "I" and thought "what the hell!?!?" So nice to go from "what the hell!?!?" to "Oh, wow, yes, that's it. Seemed impossible, but ... there it is!"
I think I've covered my only real sticking points today. I absolutely botched AKON by totally misreading the clue. I kept thinking the last letter was moved to the front instead of the front to the back, so even after I'd finished the puzzle, I was wondering where the Hell NAKO, Hawaii was. You have no idea how many four-letter singers I tried in there. "ENYA? ... BONO? ... CHER? ... NE-YO? ... come on, one of you gotta have a Hawaiian name in you somewhere!" AKON => KONA. That was the key.
- 24A: Exploding part of a touch-me-not (POD) — no idea what this is. Looks like it's a plant that recoils from touch, also called a "touch-and-die" and "shameplant," wow. In addition to recoiling, they have seed pods that "explode," it seems. In addition to never having heard of this, I misread the clue (again!) as "Exploring part ..." and so was looking for "tendril" or ... I don't know, something, "reach-out-and-touch"-y like that. "Touch-me-not" apparently has (human) sexual meaning as well as botanical meaning. I'll leave you to explore (!) that meaning for yourself. [UPDATE: apparently "touch me not" is the name for "two unrelated groups of plants" (!?) and wikipedia gave me the "wrong" one. Sigh. Here's the "right" one (a variety of impatiens)]:
- 27A: Online chatter? (BOT) — chatBOTs are a pretty common (and horrible) feature of online life, especially if you're trying to deal with, say, your local internet service provider or the power company or whatever.
- 31A: 1990 civil rights legislation, for short (ADA) — Americans with Disabilities Act
- 2D: "You're lyin'!" ("AIN'T SO!") — after "ARE NOT!" wouldn't fit ... "AIN'T SO!" didn't take too long. I had yokel-speak on the brain because we're in the middle of a two-part Love Boat episode where Donny Osmond is an aspiring singer about to get his big break (singing on a cruise!?) but his "mountain folk" family has decided to show up and see him and he's embarrassed by their country ways so I'm sure he's gonna learn some kind of lesson about being yourself and loving your family blah blah blah. Anyway, his mom is played by Marion ("Mrs. C") Ross and his dad by Slim Pickens and his sister by Loni "I used to be in crosswords more" Anderson, who they've got done up as a pure "hillbilly" caricature, from the look to the accent. Kind of a cross between Ellie Mae (Beverly Hillbillies) and Daisy Mae (L'il Abner). Loni's engaged to some farmer guy but now that she's on this cruise, she's seeing what the big wide world has to offer, and this includes the notoriously sexy Rich Little yes that Rich Little no I am not making this up. Rich Little is the record producer or agent or I forget what but he's the guy who's gonna "discover" Donny Osmond ... but now he's hitting on Donny's sister Loni ... who is already engaged. What will Mrs. C think!? I'll be sure to let you know how it turns out once I watch Part 2. I forget why I started telling you all this in the first place.
- 10D: Modern medium for jotting things down (NOTES APP) — not an exciting answer, but original, probably, and very real. I use a NOTES APP all the time when I've got text I want to retain or ideas I need to dump and I don't know what to do with them just yet.
- 31D: Robbins who co-wrote the "Rocky" theme "Gonna Fly Now" (AYN) — the kind of ridiculous trivia you resort to when you Know your puzzle is gonna play too easy. If it ain't Rand, then I AYN't gonna know what you're talking about.
- 48D: Make rent (RIP) — "rent" = "torn" here.
- 54A: Something seen in a demo, for short (TNT) — "demo" = demolition. So I just learned that "dynamite" and TNT are not the same thing, and that where demolition is concerned "The industry’s material of choice remains dynamite, especially in concrete demolition and large, complex applications." (on-sitemag.com). Here's more, from wikipedia:
Trinitrotoluene (TNT) is often assumed to be the same as (or confused for) dynamite largely because of the ubiquity of both explosives during the 20th century. This incorrect connection between TNT and dynamite was enhanced by cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, where animators labeled any kind of bomb (ranging from sticks of dynamite to kegs of black powder) as TNT [...] Aside from both being high explosives, TNT and dynamite have little in common. [...] TNT has never been popular or widespread in civilian earthmoving, as it is considerably more expensive and less powerful by weight than dynamite, as well as being slower to mix and pack into boreholes. TNT's primary asset is its remarkable insensitivity and stability: it is waterproof and incapable of detonating without the extreme shock and heat provided by a blasting cap (or a sympathetic detonation) (my emph.)
I'm obviously out of my depth here, but I'm now weirdly wondering if TNT is, in fact, used for "a demo" (in the controlled, industrial sense). I can't say that I care, but I am wondering. OK bye.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
This week, I got two Friday-easy themelesses back to back, though today's grid has more fun fill (SNOW ANGEL, I WON'T BITE, BOSSA NOVA). I started with MAA ADORED MESSUP and then thought un- something for 21A, so I couldn't see AINTSO right away. I also had a massive overthinking moment at 19A when I had STRESS, I thought the answer would be some STRESS BALL-adjacent toy that's fluffy and made of down... yep. I had no other major trouble spots or write-over moments except "big KAHUNA" instead of "big PHARMA" from the terminal A.
ReplyDeleteRex killing it today. Nice puzzle with enough footholds to make it smooth. Like the two vertical stair stacks especially I WON’T BITE and PUSHOVER. THEATRE DISTRICT was easy enough and provided the center leverage.
ReplyDeleteThe Stone Roses
Knew AL ADHA and AIR CANADA. Totally backed into THRASHER and BRYANT - the R cross is the ugliest part of the grid. Don’t eat pork much anymore but RIB TIPS are delicious. Red plant is a wonderful misdirect. Most road blasting I’ve done used ammonium nitrate - oil mix.
Enjoyable Saturday morning solve. Matt Sewell’s Stumper gives us three tough spanners today - really nice puzzle.
Ela É Carioca
Two great junk art areas in Detroit. Heidelberg and the area near the Bead Museum.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely loved this gem. So smooth.
ReplyDeleteThe Love Boat theme song lives rent free in my head. Guess i need to watch an episode.
I had no idea on the Islamic Holiday or the THRASHER mag, so was going to need all of the help from the crosses I could get. Didn’t get the clue for STRESS EAT until well after solve - I’m guessing that the down was as in “scarf down” which gave me a nice aha moment.
ReplyDeleteAt this point it seems like almost any semi-common first or last name can be associated with an SNL cast member, but no complaints because that is so much better than the steady diet of Star Wars, Game of Thrones, Hobbit, etc clues that have become so ubiquitous.
Pretty cool when the grid-spanning marquee answer of the day (THEATER DISTRICT) also has my favorite clue of the day “Play area” - simple, straightforward and accurate !
I like it. But I was sad when I had to delete "dye factory."
ReplyDeleteI had a very similar solving experience as Rex today, with one exception: AYN being clued in a way that does not reference AYN Rand at all is an AYN I'm grateful for.
ReplyDeleteToo easy for a Saturday, but the following was great so I have no real complaints. No idea who this AYN is, but anyone different than Rand is welcome in my crosswords.
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteMedium for a Saturday, with the top half easier than the bottom. Needed Sergey & Larry a few times. I had particular trouble decoding the clues for BOT x OPTIN x POP (27A x 28D x 30A).
Overwrites:
5D EasE IN before EDGE IN
9D: I dON'T BITE before WON'T
13A: EID AL fitr before ADHA
29A: RIBletS before RIB TIPS (I need to stay out of Applebee's)
31A: AcA (Affordable Care Act) before ADA until I realized the date was wrong
47A: enjOy before SAVOR
WOEs:
31D: AYN Robbins. I guess if you're not going to go with Rand, this is the only other AYN.
39D: move ON before READ ON
42A: THRASHER
43D: ALAN Parsons
45A: Never heard of the singer AKON, but I did know Kona, and crosses made AKON inevitable because Oahu and Maui didn't work
48D: Didn't get the Rent/RIP connection until I came here.
@SouthsideJohnny: May I add Harry Potter to your list of ubiquitous clue sources?
This one went NW-easy, NE-not bad, SW-medium crunch, SE-train wreck for far too long. Didn't know BRYANT at all (tried WAYANS when I had the YA), no B meant no ORB, so OHWAIT could have been UH or AH or whatever, finally remembered the ALAN Parsons Project and THRASHER made a certain amount of sense, saw ORB but never changed TNS to TNT so a technical DNF. Oh well. Also totally agree with OFL on TRAILAWAY. Ugh.
ReplyDeleteMet AKON and AYN as clued. A happy wrong guess gave me the P for PINTA- I wanted PETER from Peter Paul and Mary.
I remember learning the technical term for TNT from my father, who gave me everything but the first syllable and told me to guess it. I said I couldn't and he said "Just try" and I said no and he said "try". This went on for far too long until "tri" finally kicked in. A Dad joke before Dad jokes were a thing.
Nice enough Saturday, AJ and RM. Although Just Really Made me frustrated in the SE, which is not my favorite part of the country anyway. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.
FThat bitch.
ReplyDeleteI agree with @Son Volt: the ugliest part of the puzzle was the cross between a magazine I never heard of and an SNL member I also never heard of. That was my last letter in. Otherwise, an excellent puzzle, in a week when I didn’t mind a Friday-ish Saturday.
ReplyDeleteAnd now I have a second Islamic holiday to add to my very limited repertoire.
A classic, classic write-up today, Rex. Thanks for explaining the “make rent” entry and for Loni Mae.
JUST FYI: The POD referred to (“Exploding part of a touch-me-not”) is not the “shameplant” aka Mimosa pudica, in which the leaves fold up (no “explosion” whatsoever!) when touched. It actually refers to varieties of Impatiens, in which the seed PODs “explode” when pressed. Examples are yellow jewelweed (really common in the northeast—invasive, I believe) or the garden snapdragon. https://thelifeofyourtime.wordpress.com/2012/09/23/this-is-why-its-called-touch-me-not/
ReplyDeleteThank you ~ RP
Delete46A: What a speaker might do if nobody is listening to them
ReplyDeleteNot only is "trail away" not a real phrase, but the plural pronoun "them" in the clue made me think this was some sort of misdirection, and that the answer would be a plural noun, not a verbal phrase.
Alas, it was merely politically correct grammar.
Actually, the snapdragon is something different. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteTNT… it’s dynamite!
ReplyDeleteAre you saying AC/DC lied to us?
Easy for a Saturday and interesting fill. Like ofl, if it’s not Rand, I do not know any other Ayn. I had to come here to understand rip. Thrasher was my highlight for today. The dynamite v tnt blew me away. I was always certain that they were the same. Thank you hugs bunny.
ReplyDeleteNice to learn another (the other main) Islamic holiday. (Fitr, happier, more productive.) THRASHER went right in, but obv it's obscure unless you skate (or used to skate). A few people didn't know Tony Hawk last time he was in a puzzle, which is fine. Solid Sat from Adrian and Rafael (I like these guys.)
ReplyDeleteSound from a kid: Stewie from Family Guy
Good puzzle! Hard, for me at least, but do-able, so very satisfying. THRASHER was a WoE, but luckily my husband (we did most of the puzzle together) figured this was talking about skateboarding, not ice skating, and knew that THRASHing is a skateboard term.
ReplyDeleteThe NW was the hardest for me, but that was my fault because I confidently threw in bAA, thinking “kid” = young sheep, and realizing only much later that, duh, a kid is a young goat. Also, I had no idea on the ALADHA part of EID, also didn’t know that EID means feast and that there’s more than one. But am happy to learn all that. STRESSEAT was hard to come by for some reason. So that corner was rough.
Nice way to go into the weekend…
Flew through the North half but had to resort to Googling SNL cast lists to get a foothold in the South. I spent some time trying to get some version of TRAIL “off” to work because a) that is the more familiar phrase and b) I had an F from “REform” (39D, Turn the page, say).
ReplyDeleteDefinitely fun even with all the things I did not know. I figured them all out, no checking, so it was not too hard for me. also my time was good for me, so I knew Rex would call it easy, but I opted more toward Medium. Anyway, Rafa strikes again, always a good constructor and works with a lot of other people as well. I’m guessing he teaches or trains or helps other constructors. Nice work!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great clue for RIP
ReplyDeleteThere's no way to see THEATER DISTRICT when you have JUST FOR instead of JUST FYI at 33A.. But FYI means "for your interest" and the clue reads "In case it's of interest" -- so I cry foul over the repeat. What I then had at 6D was THEATER?RS????T and it was indecipherable.
ReplyDeleteSTRESS EAT made complete sense once it came in since I know many people eat when they're stressed, but I've never heard the term. When I'm stressed, btw, I lose my appetite completely.
My worst problems were in the SE. I didn't know ALAN, didn't know BRYANT, and the completely "Huh?" THRASHER magazine sounds like a magazine that should be furtively hidden in a plain brown wrapper.
I'm not quite sure how you TRAIL AWAY when you're speaking. I mean when you stop talking, you stop talking. And that's certainly what you should do if no one's listening. Why cast pearls among swine -- that's what I say.
Favorite clues: RUSSIAN SPY; FAD; SNOW ANGEL. Favorite answers: PUSHOVER; I WON'T BITE; and MCMANSION.
FYI = For Your Information.
DeleteFor Your Information
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteJUST FYI, I had a DNF with TvME/vIRCANADA. Harrumph. Plus, I had to Goog some stuff. Oh well, SatPuz and all that.
Some pretty good fill. I never understand how the process works when a Themeless puz is a collaboration. Themed I can see.
Good puz that had me stuck pretty much everywhere, hence the running to Goog from getting ANTSY. But with the various look-ups, finished in a decent time.
Gotta get going, and that's no LYE.
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
"LAST" AND "FAST" both make sense to me as answers for "have legs" so I had to cycle through that intersection with unknown-to-me EIDALADHA, but otherwise yes on the easy side w/ some enjoyable clueing.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed most of this but the bottom right (SE) was a complete wipe-out for me. I knew absolutely nothing e except ETAL and LYRICAL and nothing else was inferable for me. Even looking at the answers, they mean nothing to me. Ah well!
ReplyDeleteMostly a nice smooth solve, particularly enjoyable on this cool, rainy Saturday morning but look out later. Current humidity is 87%, forecast high 95°. Hello sauna. Only place I was completely stumped was EIDELADHA which finally appeared, but it took the longest time. At first glance, I thought I might’ve found an application for my newly acquired knowledge of the diaereses, but no.
ReplyDelete@Rony Vardi (7:11) Back when The Love Boat was prime time, I used to gross people out by switching the lyrics “It’s an open smile on a friendly shore” to “it’s a friendly smile on an open sore.” Of course, I was much younger then and not nearly as refined as I am today. Yes well, I’ll just see myself out.
Easier than yesterday’s for me. The NW was both the most challenging and least satisfying for me. Too many pronouns and prepositions gunking it up: mess UP, ain’t SO, used TO IT, pans OUT, edge IN. On top of that, EID AL ADHA was a random string of characters only gotten from crosses.
ReplyDeleteThe clue for BRYANT could just have been “The last name I’m thinking of” — many more famous Bryants to be clued cleverly here.
I meant "before swine".
ReplyDeleteRex....you can absolutely, 100% complain that eid al adha is obscure. It IS obscure. What, just because it's a 'main' Islamic holiday, you should know it? Do you know the two main traditions of kwanzaa? The two main feasts of bahai? What are the two main tenets of rastafari?
ReplyDeleteI'd guarantee you know none of them. And: THAT'S OK.
This took longer than it needed to because Rex's “what the hell” re: the terminal I of 33A kept me from putting in DISTRICT. It was only when I could make no progress in the SE that I mentally put in DISTRICT and stuff started filling in. I figured the I would work out somehow after the SE was complete and it did indeed.
ReplyDeleteI've been wrestling with my guitar STRAP the last few days, finding it hard to be comfortable, so 52A was my first into the SW.
Thanks, Adrian and Rafael!
Yesterday's puzzle was so riddled with juvenalia in place of quality my "tee-hee" was five sentences long and meant 🦖 gave me the hook again. Hopefully you feel protected from my menacing ways. Today, we have a more grown up puzzle, well, we have a one-word puzzle, and then a fill in the blank adventure taking a third of my usual time. On balance, give me the tee-hees and the axe, over this blahfest.
ReplyDeleteSo EIDALADHA eh? AMIRITE?
A public service announcement from your friendly condominium president of 12 years, ANY dog can be called a "service dog" with five minutes on the internet, and condo boards and management are not legally allowed to question it. Iguanas however are still against the rules by god.
❤️: SNOW ANGEL, RUSSIAN SPY, MCMANSION, I WON'T BITE.
Propers: 7
Places: 1
Products: 3
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 19 (29%)
Funnyisms: 2 😕
Tee-Hee: You're safe from my pearl-clutching ways today.
Uniclues:
1 Down clown with a frown.
2 The machine causing all those pop-up ads on recipe websites when you only want to know how to make murder more savory.
3 Emergency skateboarder.
4 Listen to the RIB TIPS BOTS.
5 Doted on dolt.
6 When the PHAT sweatshirt was of such quality it's still in my closet in 2024.
7 Sodium costing $2500 a dose, or $3 if you have insurance, or free if you've met your annual deductible, or if you qualify for certain federally subsidized programs. See website for details.
8 Mellifluous morass.
9 Enjoy a book while sitting on the washing machine.
1 STRESS EAT NEMO
2 RIB TIPS BOT (~)
3 ON HAND THRASHER
4 MESS UP ROASTS
5 ADORED PUSHOVER
6 FAD PANS OUT (~)
7 SALT VIA PHARMA
8 LYRICAL WEB (~)
9 READ ON TREMORS (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: That feeling you get when locked in a box buried in the ground that this might take awhile. GRAVE LATENCY.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Webster’s actually has “Trailed away/off” as its own entry:
ReplyDeletetrail away/off
phrasal verb
trailed away/off; trailing away/off; trails away/off
—used to say that someone's voice becomes softer and softer and then stops
Of course, literally every single example they then include is “trail off”…
I found the puzzle to be very Robyn-esque, thus I was delighted! It was not Saturday difficult, but it did serve up many tasty clues to SAVOR:
ReplyDeleteWEB (!), RUSSIANSPY, PUSHOVER, PINTA, MCMANSION
I suspect I wasn't the only one who couldn’t get McDonalds to fit in. Once that penny dropped, so did the clunky OHWAIT and TRAILAWAY and I was done in under an hour, which is a good Saturday time for me.
Hats off to Adrian and Rafael!
Difficulty-wise, it was an UNEVEN experience for me: partly easy (the area west of the THEATER DISTRICT) and partly brain-rackingly challenging (the rest). My woes were caused by a mix of unknowns (e.g.,THRASHER, ALAN), failure of pattern recognition (what in heck starts with UNE...??), and mistakes: wanting Lewis or Clark before PINTA, "fiB" instead of WEB, "see me" instead of A WORD, "One sec" instead of OH WAIT, and nearly fatal RIBletS instead of RIBTIPS. In terms of enjoyment - I liked it all, from PUSHOVERs like BOSSA NOVA and RUSSIAN SPY to my struggles to see TRAIL AWAY and even PHARMA to the fun of I WON'T BITE - and the satisfaction of working it all out. A happy Saturday for me.
ReplyDeleteFor those who find EID obscure - it’s temporal in the City and Long Island since it was celebrated last week and most public schools were closed.
ReplyDeleteBest part of today's write up was The Love Boat summary. Too funny. Please let us know what happens in Part II.
ReplyDeleteTHRASHER was a gimme, as was BOSSONOVA, but JUSTFYI was not. I knew it had to be something-FYI but I've always heard it said "just an FYI" or "as an FYI," so those first four letters weren't a gimme. I typed in ASANFYI and was stuck for a bit in that section. Then, of course, there's 13 Across, EIDALADHA. How are we supposed to know that? Had to get every Down answer to fill that in and it still didn't look right. Great Saturday puzzle though.
ReplyDeleteREADON, ONHAND, ADDONS? This may put the pearl clutchers in their MCMANSI-ONS on edge while they EDGEIN. And this isn't even accounting for the mystery singer AKON from Kona.
ReplyDeleteThe guy I used to work for loved small, older Chevrolets. So, to suck up to him, I got the BOSSANOVA.
@Nancy. FYI = For Your Information, FYI.
Fun puzzle with some whooshing between mud bogs. Thanks, Adrian Johnson and Rafael Musa.
Wow. Just returned to blog after long trip to Alaska (not a cruise) and getting over jet lag. I’ve traveled a lot this year and now I’ve had jet lag from BOTH directions. Fantastic trip and (hi SharonAK) Alaskans are SUPER nice! I worked puzzles at odd times (like when I actually could download…AK has a lot of SOS only phone areas). But I digress.
ReplyDeleteGreat puzzle but VERY TOUGH for me! Hmmm. Maybe I’m proud I got ALAN from remembering The Alan Parsons Project? I also used my “goats go MAA and sheep go baa” rule. I hadn’t really thought about the fact that men do NOT do the UNEVENBARS so that required some crosses. Many different things were in this puzzle that made me feel dumb AND smart…just the way I like it!
Btw…@Nancy…FYI means “for your information”…I the info MIGHT be “of interest” but it MIGHT just sound like the rambling of an insufferable know-it-all…
Reply to all: OOPS. You're right, of course. Question: Have I always known that FYI is "for your information" and just forgot today? Or did I always think it meant "for your interest"? The problem with having a fuzzy memory is that this is exactly the sort of thing you can so easily forget... :)
ReplyDelete3/4 of the puzzle was very enjoyable. Unfortunately for me, the SE was a loss. BRYANT, THRASHER, AIRCANADA, and even DISTRICT did not reveal themselves. And Gram Parsons was there blocking it all, with help from my being fairly sure 38D must be “One sec.” Sigh. Win some, lose some.
ReplyDeleteEasy again. No erasures and my major hiccup was taking too long to see THEATER DISTRICT partly because of EID LADHA (see WOEs).
ReplyDeleteWOEs: EIDALADHA, THRASHER, BRYANT, ALAN, AYN.
Smoother and more interesting than yesterday’s, liked it.
A 66-worder SatPuz. Impressive. Lotsa black squares, due to the Jaws of Themelessness and those little double black interlopers, in the NW and SE.
ReplyDeleteCould get rid of them double black interlopers in the NW, if U could just come up with a desperate clue for MAAJBPETS.
Not too long a no-knows list, for a SatPuz. At our house, the mysterious ones were: EIDALADHA. AKON. AYN. THRASHER.
staff weeject pick: AYN. Good to know yah, but not so sure I can remember yah.
some faves: AINTSO. IWONTBITE. PUSHOVER. RUSSIANSPY clue [which M&A nailed without any letters]. JUSTFYI [They evidently were unable to completely JUSTIFY this here entry].
Last nite's schlock moviefest was unusual. Big stars in both our flicks. Clearly their call-for-help roles. One of em starred Ethan Hawke, the other starred both Val Kilmer and Bruce Dern. (I'm sure y'all can identify these horror flicks, based on that info alone.)
Thanx for gangin up on us, Mr. Johnson & Mr. Musa dudes. M&A definitely accepts cookies, btw.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
**gruntz**
Wow. A lot I didn't know - EIDALADHA, THRASHER, MCMANSION, BRYANT, AKON. But it had enough sparkle to keep me going. Loved JUSTFYI, liked TNT & I think this was a first for BOSSA NOVA?
ReplyDeleteAn enjoyable Saturday - thanks to you both :)
@Kathy 10:25 Looking back, yes, it was Robyn-esque!
ReplyDeleteDunno about the rest of the country, but they give you a few THRASHER t-shirts when you sign a lease in Brooklyn.
ReplyDeleteFun, hard, satisfying once I finally let go of "Shredder" and opened up that corner for Thrasher .... I guess shredders are just snowboarders. And the bad guy in Teenage Mutant Turtles (I raised 2 sons in the 80's).
ReplyDeleteSolved it with one cheat (to get the ADA/AYN cross. I also had "okwait" instead of OHWAIT for a long time (never heard of the publication THRASHER.
ReplyDeleteI had "theater building" instead of THEATERDISTRICT. When I fixed that it helped in SE, which looked bleak until then.
Nice writeup Rex! And a bunch of fun tricky cluing today.
ReplyDeleteHands up for GRAM Parsons, who has only grown in fame since his death 51 years ago. I think ALAN was way more famous about 40 years ago with his eponymous Project. "I can see for miles..."
Also hands up for REFORM before READ ON. And I always thought BOSSA NOVA meant "new wave". (French for new wave: NOUVELLE VAGUE.)
SE corner was toughest for me as well, unfamiliar as I am with Ady Bryant and also flummoxed/annoyed at TRAILAWAY- you're right, this phrase does not exist; it's always "trail off." I knew Alan Parsons was considered a British classic-rock era studio whiz before he began his own recording career; anyway, Gram Parsons, pioneering country rocker, mentor to Emmylou Harris, the man who turned The Byrds from a psychedelic/folk rock outfit into Nashville-ready countrifiers (though both Jim-later-Roger McGuinn and Chris Hillman had some footing in country folk and bluegrass long before Parsons's very brief tenure with The Byrds), cofounder of The Flying Burrito Brothers (much of whose membership consisted of ex-Byrds), a man whose previous band, The International Submarine Band, appeared onscreen in the late lamented B-movie maestro Roger Corman's investigative trek into psychedelic drug movies, 1967's "The Trip" (with screenplay by Jack-Nicholson-yes-THAT-Jack-Nicholson), though the soundtrack was actually played by The Electric Flag (billed as "the American Music Band), Mike Bloomfield's post-Paul Butterfield Blues Band band, the man who hung out with Keith Richards starting in the late '60s and shared Keith's penchant for personal investigation of every mind-altering substance from acid to heroin to booze and influenced The Stones' own forays into country-inflected rock, including the song "Wild Horses," which the Burritos released on an album before the Stones did- THAT Gram Parsons was much more a Stones guy than a Beatles guy, whereas Alan Parsons worked with the Fabs but, as far as I know, never The Stones (who are the cooler band anyway, not to knock the Fabs or Alan Parsons).
ReplyDeleteLate commenting due to having our grandson overnight with us. I found out today you cannot solve a Saturday puzzle and engage with a three year old at the same time whatever the difficulty level.
ReplyDeleteI had to put it away until we got him back home.
This actually turned out to be an easy solve. Part of what stymied me was my NOTETAPE/NOTESAPP write over. Being an SBer I was probably thinking of NAMETAPE. Speaking of the SB that was another babysitting casualty. We had our grandson a good portion of yesterday and not only did I not do the SB I forgot all about it. No loss whatsoever.
As far as today's SB, LANGUR? LANDAU? as always WTF, SMH
Biggest hiccup for me was sHReddER before THRASHER (don’t you “shred the gnar” in skateboarding? Isn’t that a thing?), so had several “confirmations” that hung me up down there a lot. Otherwise easy breezy.
ReplyDeleteThe Alan Parson's Project?
ReplyDeleteI had done it all but the SE when my wife said she needed to get out of the house, and would take me to lunch. So off we went and I came home about 4:30 to tackle the toughest part of this puzzle. But here I am, at last.
ReplyDeleteI expected Rex to like THRASHER, but no. I mean, I didn't know it myself, but it was nice to see a little bit of skating culture in the puzzle. and it was kind of inferable from a few crosses, especially the TH. I suppose it could have been thresher, clued misdirectingly, but what else?
As for AIR CANADA, come on-- who else is going to have Maple Leaf Lounges?
I think the Islamic holidays are catching on; most people seem to have known to start with EID, which is a big help. The whole thing was there in my head somewhere, but only enough to recognize the letters as I put them in, right down to the end when I wasn't sure if it was ADHA or ADrA.
On the other hand, I had never heard of RIB TIPS. I know, it's hard to believe, but it's true. Steak tips, sure.
Satires before ROASTS, and enjOy before SAVOR, which messed up the SW but it all came right.
As for famous Jeopardy winners, remember Jooh Pahk, who use to get puzzles in the Times regularly? I haven't seen him here in awhile, but it looks like he's selling subscriptions to his variety puzzles. And I think he won quite a bit on Jeopardy. Anyway, no idea about WATSON.
Also, bAA and at HAND initially. Sigh.
Puzzle appears not to have been made by an English speaker. I base that solely on TRAIL AWAY and THEATER DISTRICT.
ReplyDeleteNOTESAPP is a handy way to jot down and remember things, so long as you remember jotting them down in the NOTESAPP…
ReplyDelete7-down: Kitchen staple that’s gone missing in the song “Margaritaville”
ReplyDeleteThe lyric is “Searchin' for my lost shaker of salt…”
The clue is a big stretch from that lyric. He’s just missing the salt shaker, it doesn’t mean he doesn’t have salt.
I have salt in my kitchen now, both in a shaker and elsewhere.
Just FYI:
ReplyDeleteMany people think skateboarding is a relatively new thing, but I am in my 70's, and I had a skateboard when I was a kid! Yep, it's true! The board was made from wood just like surfboards back then. This limited their maneuverability very much.
Thrashing = skateboarding
ReplyDeleteShredding = snowboarding
Although, I am sure there's a lot of crossover, since many summer skateboarders are winter snowboarders.
Easy schmeasy. I had NO CLUE about anything south. THEATER...what? Can't be DISTRICT, because that would make 33a end in I. And now I see it does! JUSTFYI, are you serious? Who's gonna get that? Not me. Way, WAY DNF. I couldn't get a single thong in the entire south.
ReplyDeleteWordle birdie, at least...
Nary a write-over, but took more than a half hour.
ReplyDeleteSeems of late that wordle is a killer with ??A?E. Lotsa words fit that.
If this was my first NYT XW experience I’d never pick up another one. LOADED with things I don’t know, don’t care about and virtually impossible clueing for me. Hard pass.
ReplyDeleteI don't see how anyone could solve the bottom half of this one. The top went in easily, less than 5 minutes. The bottom..... I didn't fill in a single word.
ReplyDelete