Stovetop convenience / SAT 6-22-24 / Some theatrical transitions / Fermented mixture in Japanese cooking / Handheld object used to release excess energy / Cuban instrument that ironically has six strings

Saturday, June 22, 2024

Constructor: Hoang-Kim Vu

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: FRAPPÉS (36D: Ballet exercises done at a barre) —

Literally, struck beating. From the sur la cou-de-pied position (working foot cupped around the ankle of the supporting foot), thrust the working foot forcefully outward to an extended position, a few inches above the floor, devant (in front), à la seconde (to the second position) or derriere (in back), with the ball of the foot brushing on the floor as it moves outward. (Fundamentals of Ballet, Dance 10AB, Professor Sheree King, Long Beach City College)


• • •

["... come on, pretty mama"] 
A textbook Saturday, by which I mean something close to a perfect Saturday. Felt very hard, and yet after the typical early flailing, once I got a toehold, I kept making steady progress and never got what you'd call Stuck -stuck. Even places that initially felt intractable (once again, for me, the NW) eventually opened up once I was able to give them a proper shove, coming at them from a different angle. That's one of the other things that's nice about this grid—you have four discrete corners, but you can come at them all from two different directions, so while you may get slowed down, you're never likely to feel cornered. But being appropriately difficult is not the primary thing that makes this puzzle great. As always, it's the quality of the fill that matters most. I think my standards are higher for Fridays than for Saturdays—what I want out of Fridays are scads of colorful marquee answers whooshing across the grid, whereas what I want out of Saturdays is a fight. A fun, fair fight, but a fight. So I'm always happy when Saturdays are not just hard, but bring some brightness and originality in the fill as well. There's not a ton of room for sparkle in those banks of 7s in the NE or SW, but out of those corners come DEATH SPIRAL and PLANT SITTER, two gorgeous, fresh answers. MISO PASTE (1A: Fermented mixture in Japanese cooking) and SPOON REST (17A: Stovetop convenience) also make a gorgeous pair in the NW, with the devilish / hard-to-parse ENTR'ACTES in between (15A: Some theatrical transitions)—love when old crosswordese gets dressed up in its full-phrase regalia. You used to see ENTR' as a standalone entry back in the day, kids; the good old days weren't always good ... oh, damn, looks like we *still* see ENTR' from time to time, though things aren't nearly as bad as they were:

[from xwordinfo ... oof, poor 2005 (eight ENTR's!)]


Then you've got your HOT DATE with your SWEET PEA(S) at the TROPICANA down there in the SE. It's always nice when the puzzle makes your work but makes you feel like the work was worthwhile. I got frustrated a bunch, but I never groaned or eyerolled. I honestly can't ask much more from a Saturday. This is Hoang-Kim Vu's third puzzle of the year. His January 13 themeless was a Puzzle of the Month for me. Wouldn't be surprised if this puzzle finds itself in the same category for June.


The trick with these toughies is getting started. I tend to work short stuff first, so I had ORO and ACRE ... but then not a lot else. Plus I doubted ORO (since there was no Spanish *language* indication in the clue) (4D: What the Royal Crown of Spain is plated with). Oh, I knew ESTHER and guessed MEET, but still, I couldn't gather enough short answers together to get things really moving, so I jumped to the NE where I tried STAT at 10D: "Now!" (ASAP) but then, from the gods of cheesy late-80s pop music came a golden life preserver, thrown just for me, a cheesy late-80s pop connoisseur. I cannot believe that, after 35 years, having the lyrics to "Kokomo" permanently embedded in my head finally paid off. But if you know the song then ARUBA is probably the very first thing that popped into your head at 10A: Locale named in the Beach Boys' "Kokomo." I would sing the chorus for you, but it has the phrase "come on, pretty mama" in it, and so I just can't. Too unbecoming. Oh, what the hell. ARUBA, Jamaica, oooh I'm gonna take ya / Bermuda, Bahama, [whispers] comeonprettymama / Key Largo, Montego, baby why don't we go etc." My wife and I (and maybe our friend Lena) once made up a version of this chorus, but with central New York cities instead of tropical islands. "Elmira, Owego, don't forget Oswego / Deposit, and Conklin, come on Oneonta" etc. Try it with the towns in your area! Anyway, how do you not love a corner that's giving you ARUBA ADUBA (18A: Emmy winner Uzo). Shooby dooby doo. Amazing.

[WARNING: Ear Worm levels = toxic]

The NE corner filled itself in and I was off ... not exactly "to the races," but I was off. Toughest part of the puzzle, for me, after I got moving, was the STIMTOY / ATRA crossing. I did not know what -DAY was allegedly a [Dreaded time for many], so the MON- part wasn't there. I think I had PEER AT before PEER IN (27A: Go window shopping, perhaps). So the missing MON- and errant AT were already gunking that section up. Then, after I accepted that the puzzle was not going to be a rebus and thus STRESS (BALL) couldn't be right, I thought I'd hit gold (ORO!) with STIMMER. I thought that was the general name of the [Handheld object used to release excess energy] (We had STIMMING in a recent puzzle, so the concept should be familiar to most of you by now if it wasn't already). But the STIMMER is the person STIMMING—a STIM TOY is what they're STIMMING with. As for ATRA, ugh, not good fill, ever (big crosswordese), and the clue did nothing to endear it to me. If it weren't in this crucial position, I wouldn't have cared, but here, ugh. My one "ugh" for this puzzle (35A: ___Plus (pharmacy brand)). Nothing else in the grid really held me up once I got going. Lucked out guessing PÈRES (instead of MÈRES) at 23D: French family members and then lucked out again guessing KAPPA off that "P" (22A: 10th in a series) (once I get past Epsilon, I have no idea what Greek letter goes where). Those answers and ICEE gave me the NW. The SE was easy. The SW felt treacherous (ballet moves! Mysterious Cuban instruments!?). But I had the FESS of FESS UP and the PLANT of PLANT SITTER (51A: Temporary water provider) in place, and I knew who Arundhati ROY was (43A: Arundhati ___, Booker Prize-winning author), so that corner wasn't so tough after all. 


Explainers:
  • 44A: One in the last line of defense, typically (SAFETY) — important defensive position in (American) football
  • 5D: It's black and white (or sometimes red) (PANDA) — gah! Such a good clue. Totally stumped me. I was considering PRADA at one point, thinking "well, that's a weird way to come at handbags, but OK!")
  • 12D: Went from 0 to 180, say (U-TURNED) — degrees on a circle. Some math nerd will chime in on whether this is a valid clue or not. Felt fine to me. You do a 180, you go in the opposite direction ... yep, checks out.
  • 52D: Cuban instrument that ironically has six strings (TRES) — excellent clue, since I had No Hope of inferring it without the number nudge (TRES = "three" in Spanish, of course). Looks like a guitar, but instead of six equally spaced strings, it's got three groupings of two strings each. This video gives you a good idea:

It's cooling down here in the NE, so I can finally start to *enjoy* summer. Off to Ithaca today. Hope you've got something fun planned. Or nothing at all planned—sometimes that's the most fun. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

82 comments:

Son Volt 6:38 AM  

Decent enough - but didn’t get the same joy as the big guy. Too much contrived trivia - especially the shorts. ARUBA did go right in. Didn’t love the ROY double.

Liked MISO PASTE and HERES A TIP. SPOON REST doesn’t excite me and U TURNED, STIM TOY and EONLINE don’t belong.

A somewhat pleasant Saturday morning solve. Stella’s Stumper shines over this one today.

El cuarto de Tula

Georgia 6:41 AM  

It bothers me when "ASAP" is the answer for the clue Now! It's "as soon as possible," which in business-speak means, "make this a priority" but not "DROP EVERYTHING ELSE!" A better answer to that clue is always "STAT!" as in medical-speak, ie "Now!"

Natasha 6:53 AM  

The R in ROY was the last thing I had left. I thought FRAPPES was more likely than FlAPPES, but tried it because "Roy" was in the clue for TROPICANA. Though I have noticed there are fewer dupes than there were for a while.

SouthsideJohnny 7:02 AM  

I liked 36A which looks like it’s a quintessential Saturday clue/answer combination. The clue is “Cop” which sure opens up a lot, but doesn’t give you really anything to work with (ambiguity is a constructor’s best friend on a Saturday) and FESS UP works as an answer, but just barely (on a Weds we might get “Cop to” as a clue instead). I would put “hunters” for TERRIERS in that same category.

Rex rated it medium, which means I’m eventually going to end up in a DEATH SPIRAL somewhere, and that was the case today. I have very little success with things like ENTRACTS, STIMTOY, FRAPPES, etc simply because I’ve never seen them before and lack confidence in the crosses (or just don’t know the crosses like ROY, ANNO and ATRA) so it becomes a bit of a roller coaster ride. Fortunately, I got the happy music because tracking down a typo (or a flat out mistake) in a grid full of words I don’t really recognize could have been brutal.

Sorry to all of you die-hards, but this was enough to tide me over for the week, so I’m hoping that the trend of “more accessible” Sundays continues tomorrow so that I have a fighting chance (and yes, I like the way I used “more accessible” instead of just saying easy, lol - it sounds more inclusive that way, which is a good thing).

Anonymous 7:05 AM  

between all the references and “plant sitter” i dnf the SW

Andrew Z. 7:05 AM  

ROY was both an answer and a clue. Surprised Rex didn’t bring that up.

Anonymous 7:12 AM  

My favorite Saturday in ages and ages. Fresh clues, a grid that doesn't impede your progress but actually helps it--loved everything about it. Favorite clue: "Trading card enthusiasts."

Thanks, Hoang-Kim Vu. Hope to see much more of you.

Conrad 7:12 AM  


My solving experience closely paralleled @Rex's. Nice puzzle, lots of good stuff and about Medium for a Saturday. And Sergey and Larry got to stay idle instead of HOSED.

Overwrites:

1D: tEntKIT before MESS KIT
8D: Wanted some sort of ...pEtS before TESTEES
20A: Wanted DEep {some euphemism for doo-doo} before DEATH SPIRAL
39D: Wanted fESToon before BESTREW
50A: has To before GOT To before GOTTA. The clue should have said "informally" or some such

WOEs:
18A: Uzo ADUBA (I wasn't even sure which part was the surname)
21D STIMTOY
43A Arundhati ROY
46A HOSE as clued
52D TRES as a Cuban instrument
54A DOM from the F&F franchise

I didn't know that the Constitution was signed in SEP (19A) until I got two of the letters, but at least I didn't fall into the jul trap.

kitshef 7:47 AM  

Similar experience to yesterday, where I flew through 2/3 of the puzzle then struggled to finish.

And I really expected to finish with an error as FRAPPES/ROY seemed likely to be wrong.

Nice clues for PLANT SITTER and ART STORE.

MEal KIT before MESS KIT and IN tEArs before IN PEACE were the only overwrites.

Anonymous 8:05 AM  

The DOM / SEAMAPS cross got me. Had DOc / SEAcAPS which I thought could be a thing , like skycaps , the porters who help at an airport.

Mack 8:05 AM  

This was certainly a very good puzzle, but... a fight? There was no fight in this. My phone tellse it took less than half my average Saturday time.
The NW went in so quickly I thought I might achieve a Monday time, but I did slow down a bit near the middle and SW.
I really dislike "nth in a series" clues and there's no way I'm counting out ten of every list I can think of, so KAPPA sat empty until I had at least three letters.
TERRIERS had a similarly vague clue and started to make me feel like I was solving a Shortz puzzle from the early 2000's, but ultimately I didn't hate the answer.

Otherwise, lots of nice fill and decent clues. Generally a good time all around.

pabloinnh 8:05 AM  

A flying start again today with MISOPASTE off the O in ORO, knew ENTRACTES and that there are also red PANDAS, MESSKIT a gimme from Boy Scout days. In short. lots of traction, and didn't really slow down until GOTTO blocked the SEAMAPS. nor did I know DOM, but that became at least logical if not obvious. I wanted to rob PETER (my brother) to pay PAUL (me), a saying I have always enjoyed, but PIPER showed up instead, and the SW finally fell into place.

If you want ice cream in your milkshake in some placers around here, you have to ask for a FRAPPE, which I found out the hard way.

Back to unknown names again today. Hello to ADUBA and ROY and DOM as clued. Nice to meet you all, I'm sure.

Wicked good Saturday with a very nice mix of whoosh and head scratching. Well done you, HKV. I Honestly Knew Virtually all the trivia, which made me feel smarter than I am, and thanks for all the fun.

Anonymous 8:19 AM  

FH
A very good Saturday; not too hard, not too easy. Took me a bit under 25 minutes. Had MISO SAUCE at first. Was it PEER-IN/NORA, or PEERED/DORA? Was it RAO, RAY or ROY? Yeah; a satisfying challenge.

Anonymous 8:22 AM  

I'm not antirely sure whether the puzzle was actually harder than the last few Saturdays, or it just felt that way due to a few wrong answers I stuck with for a while. I had SPOON RACK, which is most likely not a thing, and only after I saw "stovetop" in the clue did I remember that SPOON REST is a thing. I knew about STIMming, but like Rex I also had STIMMER. And then there's PIPER, which I confidently had as PETER at first. Except it's "rob PETER to pay Paul" so Paul is the payee there.

EasyEd 8:23 AM  

I got DEATHSPIRAL very quickly and have to FESSUP that that about describes the rest of my experience with this puzzle. Learned some stuff but going was tough…

andrew 9:01 AM  

I too had PETER - as in the proverbial tale of Mary (Travers) robbin’ Peter (Yarrow) to pay Paul (Stookey).

Seriously, Mary was the only one with access and motive to rob Peter to pay Paul for all the Magic Dragon she was PUFFin’, all their concert money just disaPEERIN’ in the wind…

Mr. Grumpypants 9:02 AM  

Horrible puzzle replete with trivia.

Greater Fall River Committee for Peace & Justice 9:04 AM  

In the SE I started by confidently dropping in fESToon, sAIntS, GRain and GrapA (which I knew was missing a 'p' but heck...). That would be for BESTREW, FAITHS, GRIST and GOTTA.With that all in place nothing else would fall. I kept trying to put snowpeas in at the bottom but needed an invisible letter. Finally gave up. Never been to Vegas.

alexscott68 9:10 AM  

Are we not going to talk about BESTREW?

I actually found this to be a much easier than usual Saturday, despite the above “word” and struggling to finish up at NORA / ATRA / STIMTOY. I suppose the finish left a bad taste in my mouth, but overall a good puzzle, with DEATH SPIRAL the highlight for me.

SusanA 9:16 AM  

Had so many wrong answers in the SW.
NYTOPED seemed likely, so I completely missed SYNAPSE. (Which is more like an intersection of pieces than an actual THINK PIECE itself, just sayin)
Had OWNSUP for COP, and couldn't see anything else.
Had to come here to get the ballet move and the online gossip site.
So even with my PLANTSITTER watering away to the soft sounds of a TRES while reading some ROY, and the PIPER all paid up, I still had a DNF because of the SW.

But still enjoyed the rest of the puzzle.
hat tip for the cluing on PANDA and ARTSTORE (a place I frequent) which had me going a good long while.

RooMonster 9:23 AM  

Hey All !
I need to FESS UP. Had to run to Goog for ROY. No hope down in the SW corner sans cheating. Tried to cheat for ANNO, but never did find out what it was supposed to be. Interesting history on the founding of Rome, however.

So after getting ROY, was able to parse things together down there, and finish to Happy Music.

Liked the ARUBA ADUBA pair in NE. Only things I had there at first. Solve went NE, SE, NW, SW. East side clocking in as easier compared (or vis-a-vis, if you will) to the West side.

Couple writeovers, GRain-GRIST, atPEACE-INPEACE, aeon-EONS, jul-SEP, even though I figured it wasn't jul, put it in anyway!

So a good SatPuz that I was one answer away from finishing cheat-free. Oh well. Ya GOOTA do what ya GOTTA do. So I did, and that WAS that.

UTURNED TESTEES sounds like trying to get people purposefully lost.

HERES A TIP, have a great Saturday! 😁

Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Dr.A 9:24 AM  

Loved this one too! Joining a sorority in college had one big advantage when it comes to crosswords- I had to memorize the Greek alphabet with a catchy little tune that I have never forgotten! I use it often with the NYT Xword. Challenging, but do-able and rewarding!

mmorgan 9:34 AM  

Tough, fun, terrific puzzle. The T cross of ATRA and STIMTOY was a Natick for me as I knew neither, and thought there was a good chance it was called a STIMbOY. Nope, it wasn’t. Numerous times, the correct answer for something popped into my head but I thought, nah, that can’t be right, only to find out later that, yup, it was! An excellent solving experience.

Dan A 9:34 AM  

Nice!

Nancy 9:40 AM  

My rule of thumb in allowing myself to cheat on a puzzle: I'm having a good, challenging time -- only now I'm stuck and can't go on. And I also have reason to believe that this one teensy cheat might unlock the puzzle for me.

"Okay, Arundhati," I said to 43A, "you'd better clear up the mystery of the 'temporary water provider' that's some sort of SITTER -- that's all I have to say to you!"

And you did!!!

Every time I'd hit on an answer that I hadn't been able to figure out previously, I thought I'd cracked the puzzle. First, DEATH SPIRAL. Then MISO PASTE and MESS KIT. Then PEN PALS. But even after finally remembering that it's the PIPER you pay, there was still that pesky SW corner to complete. So thank you, ROY!

Thought for the Day: How have I managed to feed myself for lo these many years without even knowing what a SPOON REST is, much less having one? Oh, that's right: I don't cook; I order in.

A very challenging and rewarding puzzle that I enjoyed.

Anonymous 9:44 AM  

Could someone please explain the “or sometimes red” part of the clue for PANDA? My wife thinks it is referring to Red China. I’m hoping someone has an alternative (better) explanation.

Anonymous 9:58 AM  

Red panda is a species of small mammal, though not a bear and not closely related to panda bears.

Gary Jugert 10:02 AM  

Ah, a perfectly fine and basically breezy offering, except we're back to the C-listers to toughen up the grid. Yawn.

Okay, here we go. What I like:

TERRIERS (I like their scruffiness.)

Things I don't like:

Its Saturday, there's no theme, it's not funny (except for PLANT SITTER) and five other times, there's no sizzling longer answers (except DEATH SPIRAL and PEN PALS, pen pals from ESTONIA sizzle), and it opens with an Asian cooking ingredient. I should add anything to do with recipes onto my gunk counts. Is there any conceivable reason we should still be talking about the Beach Boys? I think they mainly play at Chuck E. Cheeses near hospitals now. There's a crosswordese Emmy winner and I think I might have an Emmy around here somewhere. They give those suckers out to everybody. A SPOON REST might appear just about anywhere, so why are we limiting it to the stove top? Why are we talking about it at all? AEON is the rudely spelled eternity and it SAT ON those squares until I threw up (threw up) my hands in disgust and switched to the plural EONS. I think one EON is an eternity too. And then, out of everything on every shelf in Walgreens I'm responsible for the ATRA Plus. It's a razor, right? ROY (unknown writer to me since my ROY is Rogers) on top of Latin phrase for "this is when Rome was founded, but not really," crossing a ballet cum frozen coffee move. Celebrity gossip, ugh. The existence of Bung and it's unsavory association with the Gray Lady's favorite body part. Three courses of doubled strings is just not enough. BESTREW is exactly the same thing as strew except bestrewers have read Shakespeare and use the word BROACHES instead of "in your face." It's the ART STORE version of strewing. Oh, animal abuse on Guinea pigs. AARGH. Have you seen Guinea pigs? They're cute as heck, and somebody said, "Let's see if this rouge made with child labor and asbestos makes Guinea pigs go blind." STIM TOY seems like a thing people with peanut allergies need. Back in the day, we just sat quietly and hoped to avoid a whoopin'. NORA NORA NORA, you're Scandinavian, so whatevs, and the writer of ESTHER was dishwater dull. Have you read it? I did. In the wacko church I grew up in, we only cared about the new testament, since Jesus was in it, ya know, except for the old testament condemnation stuff like eating shrimp. I really really really wanted SEA MAPS to be SEXTANT, but they went with the SPOON REST of navigation tools instead, and I figured those might've been SEA CAPS if Vin was known as DOC, a way better nickname than DOM. And finally, back to ESTONIA. Yeeshk. Seems like a country you need to go outside to appreciate. I think they play a two string instrument there called a NEIN which means "whaddaya gonna do about it, eh?"

Propers: 4
Places: 3
Products: 8
Partials: 4
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 24 (35%)
Funnyisms: 6 😅

Tee-Hee: HOT DATE (and the aforementioned Bung).

Uniclues:

1 Where Uzo keeps her silver one since the fortunes from the Emmy started rolling in.
2 The day they return to dragging rats out of holes.
3 Vin on the vine.
4 One addicted to crack and orange juice.
5 Frozen coffee delights for warriors on a break.
6 Alcohol.
7 I explained the status of my income.

1 ADUBA SPOON REST
2 TERRIERS' MONDAY
3 PLANT SITTER DOM
4 TROPICANA PIPER
5 MESS KIT FRAPPES
6 SYNAPSE STOPPER
7 U-TURNED HOT DATE

My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Small person strapped to your noggin in case a piano falls from the 5th floor. CRASH HELMET HUMAN.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

SusanA 10:03 AM  

Some pandas are red.

Anonymous 10:06 AM  

There are giant pandas, which are black and white, and there are red pandas, which are red.

Diane Joan 10:10 AM  

It’s a small panda with red-orange fur that is native to parts of China and the Himalayas. You can see one in various zoos in the US. I saw one in the Bronx Zoos years ago.

Burtonkd 10:10 AM  

Nothing more satisfying than a come from behind victory. This one made me feel defeated with very little going in just from the clues, but evenly around the grid steady progress led to very Happy Music!

Loved PENPALS, DEATHSPIRAL, PLANTSITTER. Think piece? For SYNAPSE is terrific! Ditto “creative outlet?” for ARTSTORE.

Nice to see a legal, proper UTURN instead of some variety of UEY.

ENTR’ACTES are a given for pit musicians - our moment to shine.

Nice to know STIMTOYS exist for those who need them. Fidget spinners were used for that purpose until they became a banned fad in schools.

In the teehee department, I confess that I only know “bung” as in bunghole for anus. I see how that works as the “last line of defense” for our digestive system. Funny how physical objects become anatomized- see also ramrod.

I had very little confidence in BESTREW or BROACHES, but both panned out.

Nancy 10:14 AM  

@Anon 9:44 -- Just as cute, but red. See for yourself

Joe from Lethbridge 10:17 AM  

I have been experimenting with Japanese cooking, so I immediately got Miso paste. Other than that, my experience mirrored Rex's. A bonus in his blog: a link to Kokomo. I forgot just how good the Beachboys actually were; thanks for the reminder. Best Saturday in a long time for me.

Mickey Bell 10:18 AM  

But… BUNG.

Just BUNG in the northwest. BUNG is an arrester of progress. My vocabulary just increased by one word.

JT 10:18 AM  

Evidently there is a red panda native to the Himalayas.

JT 10:22 AM  

Had PERUSE crossing TESTERS instead of PEEK IN and TESTEES, and that hung me up for a while. But I kept chip-chip-chipping away, and letter by letter got it all eventually. A challenge, but satisfying.

Jason Isbell’s Ghost 10:35 AM  

There are a different animal called a red panda. It is much smaller with red fur but just as cute

dragoo 10:42 AM  

RIP The Tropicana

Tempora labuntur, tacitisque senescimus annis.

PHV 10:46 AM  

Sea maps are not a thing.

JNKMD 10:50 AM  

Red Panda
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_panda

Whatsername 10:50 AM  

Not hard so much as the trivia was hard and plenty of it. Agree with Rex, a proper Saturday which wore my eraser down to a nib. So many do overs* plus foreign [to me] terms like STIM TOY and BESTREW further muddied the water, and I thought FRAPPE was something you bought at Starbucks. Since clearly I was headed for a DEATH SPIRAL after the first run through, I decided to just FESS UP to my shortcomings and google some of the names. Quite a workout.

* ENTRANCES/ETRACTES, LADY/LASS, BRINGS UP/BROACHES, GRAIN/GRIST, MOSCATO/BOBA TEA, STAT/ASAP, WANTING/IN PEACE, TAX DAY/DOG DAY, ISAIAH/ESTHER, AEON/EONS, HEAR ME OUT/HERE’S A TIP.



egsforbreakfast 10:54 AM  

When your male friend is hurting, your BROACHES.

For those needing help with the red PANDA reference, it's a panda that is red.

I didn't know I was in a DEATHSPIRAL until my TESTEES dropped.

A proper good workout of a puzzle. Thanks, Hoang-Kim Vu.

Anonymous 11:00 AM  

There's a raccoon-like animal called a red panda

Anonymous 11:04 AM  

Two answers, one a real animal common to the Himalayas. More recently, Turning Red was a recent Pixar movie where a girl would turn into a giant red panda when she got angry.

jberg 11:05 AM  

Quite a struggle for me, but an enjoyable one. The only Kokomo I knew was the one in Indiana (I think there is a song about Kokomo, Kankakee, and Kakauna, but I can't remember how it goes); so I needed three crosses to see ARUBA--which is about as many as I needed to remember Uzo ADUBA. She has already made several puzzle appearances, so I ought to work on it.

Speaking on songs, @Dr. A, any chance you could record that Greek-letter number and put in on YouTube? The Times seems determined to make me remember them all in alphabetical order, which I can do only as far as delta.

I was going to complain about EONS and EON LINE in the same puzzle, but fortunately I looked it up. Apparently it's E! ONLINE, so that's OK.

I confidently wrote in All sAIntS for 45-A, even while muttering that all the All Saints churches I've heard of are Episcopal; it made it too hard to see SAFETY, but eventually TROPICANA bubbled up in my awareness. I'm wondering if anyone was actually helped by the clue -- well, @Roo, I guess you would have known that, but I sure didn't.

So, a proper Saturday, with one major complaint. Oceanographers may use SEA MAPS in their research, but not to navigate with; they do that with charts.

p.s. Interesting Wit Twister today, with all the anagrams crammed into one line.

Tom T 11:08 AM  

Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clues of the day (answers below):

1. Not this! (4 letters)

2. Augur (4 letters)

3. Key for getting out? (3 letters)

4. Fanny (4 letters)

Yesterday I wrote about my three typical outcomes with Friday and Saturday solves. Today was definitely option #2: "those that look hopeless at first and lead to a long slow grind, ending in a hard fought victory." In fact, I started last night, got about two thirds of it done, gave up, then completed it this morning--total time around 55 minutes.

Breakthrough answers included BROACHES, BESTREW, and PLANT SITTER. Didn't get the Happy Music, but quickly realized that 50A, Just must, was not GOT To (I originally typed in "has To"), but the more casual GOTTA. Which made SEA MAPS make sense.

Answers to the HDW clues:
1. THAT (begins with the 1st T in 50A, GOTTA, moves to the NW)
2. SEER (start with the S in 21D; "Augur" is a fitting Saturday clue; Prophetess or Prognosticator would be better in an early week puzzle)
3. ESC (begins with 2nd E in 61A, SWEETPEAS; a mild attempt at misdirection)
4. REAR (start at the R in 9D, ESTHER; there's also a Hidden Diagonal ASS, which ends with the S in 9D, ESTHER. A couple of Gary Jugert tee-hees)

GOTTA go--have a HOTDATE in ARUBA.

Anonymous 11:09 AM  

I'm with Rex, this puzzle was just the right balance between frustration and joy, absolutely worth the finish. Even masterpieces have their flaws and I hate, hate, hated BESTREW. Didn't like the clue (straightforward) or the answer. Had a stuffy, condescending feel for some reason, when the rest of the puzzle was so fresh. Like so many here, that T in STIMTOY/ATRA was the last to fall for me. STIMTOY is a fine clue, but I'm not a fan of the objects at all. Way overused when there are a small contingent of those who truly need them. The rest just think they are cool, when they are just annoying (sorry for the get off my lawn dad rant).

Great puzzle.

Ride the Reading 11:21 AM  

Blogger wiped out my first post, so trying again. Red panda has been answered.

Found this to be a Saturday-level medium from a few years ago. A few entries here and there, lots of things I didn't know or care to blindly guess. But kept plugging away, and the aha moments came. Never heard of STIM TOY - had PEER at for a while in the cross. Loved the clue for PLANT SITTER.

Little bits of personal connection with answers - TERRIERS was the sports mascot in high school. A decade later, driving for work with a colleague from Indianapolis to South Bend on U.S. 31, we'd skirt KOKOMO. And pass what was then Grissom Air Force Base.

U-TURNED just seems...off. Made a U-TURN. Or a bootleg turn (as practiced by Jim Rockford).

Thanks, Hoang-Kim Vu.

Teedmn 11:22 AM  

I agree with Rex's assessment of this puzzle's difficulty. While it took a bit longer than Saturdays have recently, it wasn't into hard territory (for me, hard is +26 minutes. I can spend hours on a Stumper sometimes.)

ASAP RADIO ARUBA was my start also. The SE was fairly easy - I'm not sure why I was so set on making BESTREW work (with no crosses) but it sure helped me see SWEETPEAS. The corps-à-corps in 53D's clue certainly helped me with EPEE.

ATRA, yes, why is that a pharmacy brand? I know, I know, crossword clues, but pharmacy in the clue kept me from plopping it down earlier. I guess that misdirection worked then.

Silliest SYNAPSE lapse of the day - with _P_ON REST in place, I briefly put in aPrON REST and wondered mightily what that might look like on a stovetop. (I also briefly wondered if "Stovetop convenience" was referring to the stuffing brand.)

Thanks, Hoang-Kim Vu, nice Saturday puzzle!

Carola 11:26 AM  

Challenging for me, and an enjoyable struggle that I was happy to finish. My problem area was the SE, where I had "sAIntS" instead of FAITHS and "toP" instead of CAP, which made TROPICANA and HERE'S A TIP impossible for me to parse. I also lacked ART STORE and its crucial SAFETY-ATRA-STIMTOY nexus. I finally erased "fAIthS," saw TROPICANA, and that was enough to sort it all out. Whew! Most fun along the way PLANT SITTER (payoff after almost every single cross) and PIPER (instant delight).

Another do-over: stAt before ASAP (hi @Georgia 6:41). Help from previous puzzles: HOSE, STIM..something, SEAMAPS. Help from having two on my stove: SPOON REST. Three women who really helped: ADUBA, NORA, LASS. No help from the tub in my fridge: MISO PASTE - took me forever to see it. No idea: FRAPPES.

Thank you, @Hoang-Kim Vu for this whiz-bang Saturday.

jae 11:32 AM  

A skosh on the easy side of medium.

I had quite a few WOEs: ROY, FRAPPES, DOM (I’ve never seen a Fast and Furious movie nor am I planning to), ESTONIA, STIM TOY, LASS, TRES, SEP…

I did know ARUBA and ADUBA (I have seen Orange is the New Black)…

Solid with a hint of sparkle, a fine workout, liked it.

Anonymous 11:35 AM  

Me too!

Anonymous 12:06 PM  

Was I the only one stuck with THEMIRAGE at 56A? I mean S&R were there for years.

jb129 12:15 PM  

A typically challenging Saturday, for me anyway. A lot I didn't know - MESS KIT, ADUBA, STIMTOY'(its second appearance - gonna try to remember it as I always wondered what my neighbor is always doing with his hands (Stim), PLANT SITTER. On the plus side I did like PIPER &
PEN PAL.
Thanks HKV - this was very 'promising' for me & looking forward to your next puzzle :)

Matt B 12:30 PM  

So much overwriting, but finally finished. A most satisfying experience. Thank you Hoang-Kim Vu.

Son Volt 12:34 PM  

@jberg 11:05a - you may be thinking of Sandburg’s Rootabaga Country -

"They are going to Kansas, to Kokomo, to Canada, to Kankakee, to Kalamazoo, to Kamchatka, to the Chattahoochee."

The great Steve Goodman also wrote about Kankakee in the City of New Orleans.

You’re on your own with Kakauna.

Bob Mills 12:52 PM  

It took forever, but I finally finished it after lunch (I started right after breakfast). I agree wholeheartedly with the criticism of ASAP for "Now!" I had "stat" for a long time. "As soon as possible" does not suggest great urgency, but "stat" does. I also had
(all)"saints"instead of (all) FAITHS until the vey end.

Never heard a STIMTOY or a PLANTSITTER, or the actor ADUBA. Very hard puzzle which I'm proud of myself for solving.

Marc Kwiatkowski 1:06 PM  

I tried sextant and sealegs before giving up and leaving it to the crosses. The navigation aids in question are called charts; SEAMAPS is not a thing. That and ATRA were the two low lights. The clue for TRES was a pleasant break from the usual.

Campesite 1:26 PM  

Oh geez, Rex’s caption under the “Kokomo” link is an understatement for me. I suffered from that song running through my head for, no lie, two decades. Sometimes it would be replaced by the theme song to Entertainment Tonight. I’ve since had a partial earwormdectomy, but existing science can’t reach The Shins “New Slang” part of the brain. I’ve mostly recovered from this affliction but the fear of “Kokomo” returning will always be there.

Sailor 1:44 PM  

I second @jberg's comment re SEAMAPS. They are a thing, but not a thing that is used for "nautical navigation." For that, you need a nautical chart.

This grates on a mariner's ears like using "oar" as a verb.

ChrisSaintH 1:54 PM  

Rex, the opening to this review is spot on and exactly my experience with this puzzle. You beautifully describe a beautiful crossword adventure!

Anoa Bob 2:03 PM  

I agree that there is lots to like in this one. One thing that especially caught my eye was the clue for 35A ATRA. Of the 118 times ATRA has made a NYTXW appearance during the Modern Era (xwordinfo.com), it has been clued as a Gillette razor brand 117 times. Today for the first time, we get "___Plus (pharmacy brand)". RIP "First razor with a pivoting head".

Wednesday we got "What's opposite Finland on the Gulf of Finland" and today we see "First country to hold elections using internet voting". Hello ESTONIA.

They are called "nautical charts". Only a landlubber would say SEA MAPS.

Did ADUBA ever make it to ARUBA?

HERE'S A TIP for aspiring constructors: If you have a really nice entry that's one letter short of its slot, just make it an oh so convenient plural of convenience (POC). There's a liberal sprinkling of them today when ENTR' ACTE, STEAMER, TESTEE, PERE, PEN PAL, TERRIER, EON, IOU, BROACH, FRAPPE, SEEP, FAITH, SEA MAP and SWEET PEA all get letter count boosted.

okanaganer 2:07 PM  

This was challengingly difficult, but I'm surprised at Rex's praise for it. So many clunky answers! BESTREW is just yucky; when it popped into my head I said out loud "please, please don't let it be BESTREW." But it was. And then there's SPOON REST... I think I've seen one, but I've never heard that term before.

Hands up for All SAINTS before FAITHS; I've heard the former about 100 times more often than the latter. And with golf on the mind, "Alternatives to irons": DRIVERS? FAIRWAY WOODS? Nothing fit.

Sam 2:25 PM  

Upper half played very easy but I got prettt bogged down in the bottom half. Needed BESTREW and ART STORE to open things up but they came slowly. Everything fell after those two.

Sam 2:34 PM  

Also - didn’t love that the word PLANT is in a clue and an answer (61A and 51A)

Anonymous 2:35 PM  

Thanks! Given all the pointless trivia I’ve learned over the last 40 years of x-word solving, not sure how I’ve managed to avoid the red panda until this morning.

Burtonkd 2:39 PM  

I considered SAINTS, but nondenominational in the clue ruled out the mostly Catholic term.

oldactor 3:03 PM  

Speaking of Plant sitters...I was one once. A neighbor whom I didn't know asked if I would mind her plants for a week or two. I agreed and she brought 3 or 4 potted plants to my apt.
At least 6 months went by with no word from her. Then one day she appeared and wanted her plants back.
I refused. They had thrived and grown many times their original size and I was very attached to them.
She was amazed that I would actually "steal" her plants. Am I the A++hole?

Les S. More 3:25 PM  

Just on the easy side of medium for me. I don't use the clock to time myself because i often abandon the puzzle to do other things like make and eat breakfast, drink my coffee, feed the dog, take him for a short walk, etc. I'll often return with a clearer head and finish smoothly. Today, on a whim, I checked the clock and it read just over 56 minutes. Considering all the other things I did, I'm going to estimate a 30 minute finish. Really good for me, I think.

Loved all the long answers in the NW and SE corners. Also loved TERRIERS at 30A. Took me back to the days when I was about 11 or 12 years old and my older brother and would take our Manchester terrier and a couple of 22 calibre rifles to the dump where Toby would root out rats and toss them into the air and we would try to shoot them. Kind of a pointless exercise; they're almost impossible to hit. But quite amusing to young boys.

SPOONREST at 17A brought a small smile. I never use them. They are often adorned with homey kitchen sayings or maps of Italy, or the like. Very "grandmothery". I have an Italian-American friend who moved out here from the Bronx and she uses them to rest her spoon when she's making her mum's fabulous Pomodoro or meatballs. Many years ago I really upset her by stirring the sauce and leaving the wooden spoon in the pot. She got really angry so, of course, I kept doing it. Now it's just a game we play.

STIMTOY (21D) was new to me insofar as I had only heard of it as a STIMmie. My wife is a child psychologist and she always says stimmie not STIMTOY.

A really good Saturday puzzle. Well done Hoang-Kim Vu.

PH 3:36 PM  

Challenging! Spent half my solve time in the SE. My attempts of getting a foothold led to a death spiral. HADTO for GOTTA led to ESTONIA, so HADTO HAD TO have been right. To make the crosses fit: GOUDA/NACHO, LEGDAY/MONDAY, TOP/CAP (off), GREEN/SWEETPEAS. Irritated that I couldn't remember NORA. Threw in the crossword name TESS to match a wrong crossing. BROACHES and TROPICANA eluded me. Major misfiring of SYNAPSEs today. Eventually deleted the entire section, guessed on SEAMAPS which led to GOTTA, and that was that. Eventually. (Tragedy + excessive solving time = comedy.)

The struggle was *real*, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks, Hoang-Kim Vu.

Les S. More 3:36 PM  

Oh, yeah, one other thing ... ARTSTORE (35D). I've been a practising artist since the early seventies. When I need a tube of titanium white or Hooker's green, some new brushes, 6B pencils, etc., I go to an art supply store. Is this different from an ARTSTORE? Just what is that? Is that a store where you purchase finished works of art? I've always called that a gallery.

Anonymous 4:31 PM  

I seem to be the only one who coming from a soccer-mad country first had GOALIE for "last line of defense." Then somehow l plucked SAFETY from somewhere deep in my hypothalamus

Masked and Anonymous 4:48 PM  

68-worder Sat Puz. Well … 66-worder, plus TESTEES & BESTREW.

staff weeject pick (only 6 choices, mind U): DOM - The Fast & Furious name of mystery. Fortunately for the precious nanoseconds, it was short and had fair crosses. More than M&A can say for EONLINE & FRAPPES.

some fave stuff: DEATHSPIRAL. ANALOGY. SYNAPSE. UTURNED. PLANTSITTER clue [I think you're ok, @oldactor dude … they were pretty much abandoned goods, especially if you had given them names].

Thanx, Mr. Vu dude. Tough, but mostly fair. Thinkin of usin SPOONPASTE & MISOREST in a future runtpuz, now.

Masked & Anonymo4Us


**gruntz**

LewS 8:03 PM  

Yep. Superb Saturday …

Had SAINTS instead of FAITHS and that really screwed up TROPICANA and SAFETY. Never heard of a STIMTOY and had BREACHES instead of BROACHES.

Hard but satisfying.

Anonymous 8:14 PM  

Sea maps, just no. Charts.

Anonymous 11:28 PM  

btw - there is no such thing as a “sea map”. I spent 8 years in the Coast Guard working with Aids to Navigation and they are referred to as charts, more specifically nautical charts. Only a hopeless landlubber would say something clueless like sea map.

Anonymous 11:44 AM  

A good hard Saturday puzzle. Very good, except for TESTEE. Nobody says that.

spacecraft 7:01 PM  

...except in the plural: TESTEES. (tee hee)

Let's BESTREW the bistro with red ribbons, like they did during the opening ceremony. Egad, what a word.

Had STungun for 21d, it got to be a real MESSKIT there.

Medium-challenging on account of that area. Otherwise good. Birdie.

Wordle bogey.

Burma Shave 9:42 PM  

HOSE UP

HERE’SATIP TO end UP INPEACE –
ON A HOTDATE use your SWEETPEAS,
UTURNED the LASS ON,
don’t STOPPER ‘til dawn,
use UP the REST of your TESTEES.

--- ESTHER PIPER

Daverino 6:24 PM  

Got Naticked TWICE in this one (ADUBA/ROY)… the only FRAPPES I know are delicious ice cream drinks. Thought it was too ridiculous so went with an L…for the L. 🤷 You live, you (hopefully) learn.

Charcot 3:15 PM  

I’m a neurologist ~ patients with migraines do not get EEGs

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