Friday, August 9, 2024

Replacement for the Spanish colonial real / FRI 8-9-2024 / Animals that appear in the fossil record before trees / Stigmatize sexual preferences, in modern lingo

Constructor: Hemant Mehta

Relative difficulty: Medium (9:07)


THEME: Themeless

Word of the Day: TELEX (Email ancestor) —
Telex is a telecommunication service that provides text-based message exchange over the circuits of the public switched telephone network or by private lines. The technology operates on switched station-to-station basis with teleprinter devices at the receiving and sending locations. Telex was a major method of sending text messages electronically between businesses in the post–World War II period. Its usage went into decline as the fax machine grew in popularity in the 1980s.
• • •

Hey friends, it's Malaika! I solved this puzzle while listening to Orville Peck's new album, which is called Stampede. I think my favorite song off it is Chemical Sunset. I simply adore a country song with a little harmonizing!!

Easy themeless puzzles are my fave, and this one rocked. Such a blast! This grid shape seems to lend itself to Really Good Friday Puzzles; at one point it was used on a Friday three weeks in a row. When I make a themeless puzzle, I start with one entry locked into place, and then construct everything else around it. I know others who do the same, and I like to guess what the Inciting Entry was. Here, I'd expect it to be KINK SHAME.

I'm really stunned at how many of the long answers were delightful. INDIE BANDS / GO OUT ON TOP was an awesome way to begin the puzzle, and the little column of LET ME EXPLAIN / BREATH MINTS / ALMOST DONE was also very fun. I particularly liked that last entry which sounded so conversational. I say ALMOST DONE way more than I ever say "I'm almost done." (I will say that I found the clue for BREATH MINTS (Apt anagram of TINS BEAR THEM, minus an E) difficult to parse, and not particularly interesting or fun. I feel like we've been getting more of this type of clue since Joel took over for Will-- is that true, or am I totally off-base here?) 


On the right side of the puzzle, I liked MUSEUM TOURS with it's clue, [Journeys into the past?]. Although that is making me realize how few wordplay clues we got here. That was one of just three in the whole puzzle. One reason for this is that it's tough (though not IMPOSSIBLE hehehe) to clue conversational phrases like I MISSED YOU with a pun. But I think GLASS TUMBLER and BARREL RACE definitely could have had some punny options.

I know a couple people who don't like to include weapons or violent entries in their puzzles, but it doesn't bother me (as a constructor or as a solver). I thought it was nice to get a Godzilla mention in reference to H BOMB-- it reminded me of how the production team of the most recent Godzilla movie wore matching shoes to the Oscars.

And they won!! Best Visual Effects on a budget of $15 million

As a final note... what do you guys think about how he stacked A PLUSES atop B TEAMS? Do you think it was on purpose, or a happy coincidence?

Bullets:
  • [Wedding planning website, with "the"] for KNOT — This site is ubiquitous amongst thirty-somethings in NYC. I've gotten three wedding invites on it so far, and there are always ads on the subway for it.
  • [Where you can find ME] for US MAP — The "ME" in the clue is referring to an abbreviation for Maine
  • [Line drawn after an early wrong guess in hangman] for TORSO — This puzzle may not have had a lot of punnery, but this was some nice imagery
xoxo Malaika

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

79 comments:

  1. Easy-medium for me, although I got off to a slow start when SKILL didn’t seem to work..LIU and KNOT were WOEs and SIGH wasn’t obvious. So I did this from the middle out and whooshiness ensued.

    I’m with @Malaika, plenty of sparkle, liked it a bunch!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Fairly straightforward apart from that NW corner… I had “vows” in pretty early (“I dos”? Meh) and not being a 30-something or a New Yorker (or even American) I’d never heard of that website, which was the very last clue I filled (crossed with “hts” which I also thought was pretty weak)
    Enjoyed the other 90% though!

    ReplyDelete

  3. I enjoyed the puzzle but it was more a themeless Wednesday than a Friday. No WOEs, and my only overwrite was at 45A, a-BOMB before H-BOMB. I'm not sure I agree with Malaika that GLASS TUMBLER (21D) and BARREL RACE (51A) are enough in-the-language to qualify for wordplay clues, but the lack of wordplay in the puzzle didn't bother me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I agree, a Wednesday level puzzle.

      Delete
  4. Pretty easy! Halfway between my average and my best. Loved FOOTLONGS.

    Malaika solved this in 9 minutes and genuinely thinks commercial aircraft have buttons that pilots can push to somehow eject them out of the plane. Wow, there is hope for us all!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:53 AM

      Ah, always hope.

      But, I have a 4yo, who reminds me daily with a George Carlin-esque question to not get too haughty about knowledge.

      I wonder what your most naive question was?

      Delete
    2. Anonymous8:37 AM

      Bruh 😂

      Delete
    3. Anonymous2:35 PM

      Not a fan of shaming Malaika, which seems like Ben’s intent if I’m reading it right. She gets a lot of hostility here and it’s not kind or appropriate. She’s a brilliant constructor and a great contributor to this blog.

      Delete
  5. Bob Mills5:34 AM

    Guess I'm on a roll today, because I became a Queen Bee and solved a Friday without cheating before breakfast.
    I didn't know INDIEBANDS or KINKSHAME, but a couple of lucky guesses got me there. I thought the puzzle was easy by Friday standards, except for the Spanish currency clue (I had "" at first, instead of PESO, because I didn't read he clue carefully enough).

    ReplyDelete
  6. Wonderful puzzle -my app stats is telling me it’s nearly a Friday record time so I’m assuming most will find it easier. Malaika highlights all the golden stuff. Love the grid layout with the crossing longs.

    Alec BERG

    Didn’t love the A PLUSES - B TEAMS adjacency. Learned that the cookie name doesn’t have two F’s.

    Enjoyable Friday morning solve.

    Buffalo Tom

    ReplyDelete
  7. So far it sounds like I wasn’t the only one who had a hard time breaking out of the NW. Fortunately there were enough places to grab a toehold here and there that I was able to get some momentum going, and the long downs were all pretty fair.

    I of course needed all of the crosses for the KNOT, but I was a bit proud of myself for dropping in KINK SHAME (not because I had ever heard the phrase, but it just seemed to make sense).

    I wonder if we will have the Les Mis’ers sniping at Les MIZ today, or if we have beaten that horse beyond recognition.

    UDON definitely seems to be gaining the upper hand over SOBA as the Japanese noodle of choice recently.

    Nice job by Double STUF - I was afraid that the grid was going to start trembling and shaking if it didn’t get an OREO hit soon - we need to keep the DTs at bay.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't care much for anagram clues, but there is nothing worse in all of Puzzledom than an almost-an-anagram clue. Easy and breezy otherwise.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Agree! This will lead inevitably to a "Name almost found in …" clue.

      Delete
    2. Yep, once you start dropping or adding letters it ceases to be an anagram.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous7:43 AM

    Mostly enjoyable, but an apt anagram that isn’t an anagram isn’t very apt of an anagram, is it?

    ReplyDelete
  10. I quite liked A PLUSES right above B TEAMS. And H BOMB is in the right row relative to the A and B words.

    An enjoyable solve overall. But a Hall of Shameworthy clue for BREATH MINTS.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous7:48 AM

    The HBOMB is a fusion bomb which was in the mid-1950s.

    The ABOMB is a fission bomb developed in the 1940s, like the one used on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

    It was my understanding that Godzilla would have been awoken by the latter, not the former, based on that timing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:08 PM

      A hydrogen bomb awoke Godzilla.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:54 PM

      The original film Godzilla came out and was set in 1954. Canonically it was awoken by an HBomb test.

      Delete
  12. Hemant is on my can’t-miss list of constructors, and this after only his eighth NYT puzzle.

    One reason is his craftsmanship. Today, for instance, we have a 70-word, 30-block grid, meaning seas of white, and where is the ugliness? Where? This is extraordinarily difficult to bring off, and he does it every time.

    He does this not by focusing on time-worn words that are friendly to constructors but boring to solvers, but rather on words that have never showed up in puzzles before, which pays off so wonderfully for solvers.

    Hemant specializes in this. He averages a bit over eight Times answer debuts per puzzle. Today he had 10, including such lovely additions to the oeuvre as GO OUT ON TOP, I MISSED YOU, KINKSHAME, and LET ME EXPLAIN.

    In addition, he has the cluing knack, peppering his puzzles with original beauties. Today, for instance, he took an answer that has appeared in puzzles well more than a thousand times – ANTE – and gave it a no-one-has-ever-come-up-with-anything-like-this clue: [Entry fee for some clubs?].

    So, when his name appears atop a puzzle, I am there.

    Hemant, you are a talented craftsperson and entertainer. I am so grateful that your path led to making crosswords. Thank you for another sparkling jewel today!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:05 AM

      I agree !

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:55 AM

      Nice commentary. I will look for his name in future.

      Delete
  13. This is a great puzzle. All the long answers sparkle, and those 10-11-12 vertical stacks are absolutely gorgeous.

    KINKSHAME is awesome. [Anything]shame has become pretty common language these days, but I'd never known this particular term until this morning. There's a special "aha" moment that comes from learning a new term that makes you think, "Of course!"

    I'm sure we could have a long debate about what groups are really INDIEBANDS -- SPIN probably has its own definition -- but those two work well enough. I initially thought the answers would be something related to guitar-drum duos.

    Erratum: IDOLizErs >> IDOLAToRS >> IDOLATERS

    Clueage:
    -- Enjoyed the "Sub" and "Subway" usage.
    -- The one for TULSA was SOBERing. The folks of Black Wall Street were subject to the worst DURESS imaginable.
    -- George Carlin? You sold me.
    -- I'm with Malaika in disliking the one for BREATHMINTS -- and this from someone who loves cryptics. Please keep these clues where they belong; unlike the kind in TULSA, sometimes segregation is appropriate

    ReplyDelete
  14. I agree with Malaika, this one rocked the Friday themeless vibe quite nicely. Some lovely entries and smooth sailing except for slow going around the SE. That was primarily because GLASS TUMBLER didn’t light right up, and I had no idea about KINK SHAME. Never heard of that one. Does it involve a BARREL RACE? Could I get a DEMO? On second thought, probably best if I just let the clue speak for itself and leave it at that.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:23 PM

      Glass tumbler is like green paint.

      Delete
  15. Hey All !
    Easy FriPuz. I felt like one of those speed solvers we were talking about YesterComments. One thing, though, for some reason, took me forever to see the D of BID/DEMO (insert sad trombone music here). Had BIm/mEMO, tried BIo/oEMO (har on both of those), finally had to run the alphabet after going over the puz not finding any typos or any other mistakes. Got to the D, Aha, says I, what a dummy.

    First answer in was GO OUT ON TOP. Look at me go! If read as one word, it sounds German. Took the crazy brain too long to convert the Subway clue from an actual subway, to the sandwich place. Even after having FOOT in, it hadn't dawned on me. Silly brain. IDOLizERS first for IDOLATERS. Had UpMAP in for USMAP. Thank the Crossword Gods that was incorrect!

    G
    Nice, easy FriPuz. Keeps the few remaining brain cells intact.

    Happy Friday!

    One F
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  16. Dang, this puzzle was terrible.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous8:49 AM

    Just a strange gift for Malaika...here's the album cover location for Stampede; I used to drive by it all the time--https://www.google.com/maps/@34.1725436,-118.3702666,3a,51.1y,139.69h,79.46t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sAzcOiswZzNiEy0HESkaGQg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?coh=205409&entry=ttu

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous8:53 AM

    Perfectly acceptable Friday after a week of very easy puzzles. Finished with a DNF with T-Mobil, Wanba, and Anti. But don’t mind missing some proper name.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Irene8:59 AM

    I don't get BERGS. How do they fall off a shelf?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Icebergs are formed when they fall from an ice shelf

      Delete
    2. Anonymous9:11 AM

      Icebergs! Off an ice shelf. Took me a while too!

      Delete
  20. Today I met WANDA, hello. Have to say I am unfamiliar with all the Maximoffs. Apparently there are more Marvels in the world than are dreamt of in my philosophy. Also, KNOT? Not.

    Only other side eye would be for GLASSTUMBLER. I guess this is as opposed to "acrobatic TUMBLER" but it seems a little forced.

    I enjoyed this one very much, great long answers and just enough crunch to make it a satisfying if speedy Friday. I am thrilled to learn KINKSHAME and will try to find a suitable target for this delightful concept ASAP.

    Excellent work, HM. High Marks for this one, and thanks for all the fun.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anyone have Nbomb kinks name

    ReplyDelete
  22. Medium, and fun to figure out. My way in was via KNOT, whose helpful K got me SKILL and the start of a trip down the left side. On the right, I had to start with in the opposite corner witih MIZ x ZEUS and work my way back up. Last in: UM NO, which is how I feel about the raft of UH etc. answers we've seen recently. Really enjoyed the level of brain-racking needed, more like a vigorous massage.
    Do-overs: vaR before IRR, a-BOMB, LIn. No idea: KINK SHAME. Small moment of triumph: LET ME EXPLAIN from the L. Cease and desist request: 11-letter anagrams.
    @Lewis, thank you for your appreciation of Hemant Mehta's SKILL.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Anonymous9:23 AM

    Having constructed some themeless puzzles with Jeff Chen, it’s interesting to see what puzzles get accepted that he would expect to be rejected due to glue. In this case, HTS, TSP, IRR, ERES, RDA and HBOMB together would be ‘puzzle killers’. “Try again”, he’d say!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Alice Pollard9:39 AM

    I liked Unlit ? = SOBER. so simple, but took me awhile. I have been sober 3 years now, not that I really had a problem. Just to feel better. I tell my kids that alcohol is overrated.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I found this easy and fun! I did use the KNOT and was delighted to see it in a puzzle. The long clues were very do-able! I agree, the BREATH MINTS clue was odd but overall just a cool ‘Wednesday level Friday” for me!

    ReplyDelete
  26. HDW* Clues for today:

    1. Communion wafer

    2. RPM gauge, informally

    3. The IOC named him Athlete of the Century in 1999

    (Answers below)

    Another hand up for a fun and, as it turned out after a slow start, easy Friday. I probably would do well to simply look to the SE as the starting point on the theme-less puzzles. Today, a mostly blank grid found MIZ, ICON, ZEUS, MAYI, RDA, BID, BARREL RACE, etc., leading to what I would describe as an upside down whoosh.
    Malaika says this grid shape lends itself to really good puzzles; this one also lent itself with all that white space to really good Hidden Diagonal Word content: TOIL, TEEM/MEET, LEER/REEL, SOLS (lots of G's?), LOSE, INN (twice), SUE (twice), many more.
    And I shared the grid with all my namesakes at 43A, TOMS!

    Answers to the HDW* Clues:
    1. HOST
    2. TACH
    3. PELE

    WAIT! ALMOST DONE!! UM,NO ... DONE.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I'm thinking, therefore IMPOSSIBLE.

    Some people do "ta tas" when leaving. Some do "see yas". IDOLATERS.

    Sweet whooshy Friday. Thanks, Hemant Mehta

    ReplyDelete
  28. Anonymous10:36 AM

    6:01 - this one flew by and I obliterated my previous Friday record. Definitely more of a Tuesday/Wednesday feel.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Anonymous10:41 AM

    No cocktail is served in a tumbler.’

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous10:42 AM

    Cocktails are not served in tumblers

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:06 PM

      Depends on the definition of cocktail. Some definitions include drinks such as the Tom Collins and Highball.

      Delete
  31. For a themeless, this was a delight. The longer phrases are wonderful. The medium length ones are all right too.

    I don't list skills on my resumé because I don't have any, but I do use big fonts. Doesn't a SIGH do the heaving, not the other way around? Anagrams with seventy-hundred letters minus one is a long way to go for an Altoid.

    @Malaika On humor: Why aren't these puzzles funnier? Seriously, you've met the constructors, and I'd guess most are pretty funny, so it must get beaten out of them at the editorial level. They're obviously not spending time researching how to tie up a boat, so what are they doing? And humor is a lot broader than puns. This puzzle has a joyful amusement peeking out here and there, but only little glimpses. It's oddly rare when more than five entries invoke a smile. Having read this blog for a few years, I know there's a sizable portion of solvers without a sense of humor, but we can help them ... save them from a lifetime of literalism and "well actuallys." Spare them from NPR and PBS and British "comedy." I was the forth owner of a Border collie once and you talk about a dog with no sense of humor. It took some doing, but even she lightened up with a bit of butt pinching.

    @Nancy didn't comment yesterday. This is not good. Hopefully not another casualty of the Blogger platform's suckiness.

    Propers: 4
    Places: 2
    Products: 4
    Partials: 6
    Foreignisms: 4
    --
    Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 20 of 70 (29%)

    Funnyisms: 6 😅

    Tee-Hee: KINK SHAME. So who goes around talking about their kinks in the first place? Shall I share mine? How does this work?

    Uniclues:

    1 Question and answer about the sounds I want in my ears.
    2 Winning move on Wheel of Fortune.
    3 Sticks with starters.
    4 When he can only eat one leg.
    5 Instagram cat-moms' iPhones.
    6 Where kink shaming begins at camp.
    7 When the cake starts calling your name but it's a Catholic service and for gawd's sake people let's wrap this up.
    8 Simu's Life Savers.
    9 Offer on Ebay for Lord of the Rings memorabilia from one with a low budget.
    10 My belly, 'cuz I worship Cheetos.
    11 What Madonna has become.

    1 INDIE BANDS? UM NO.
    2 GO OUT ON TOP SPIN
    3 SPARES B-TEAMS
    4 SHARK'S DURESS
    5 TOMS' HOT MICS (~)
    6 I MISSED YOU TENT (~)
    7 I DOS ALMOST DONE
    8 LIU BREATH MINTS
    9 ORC BOOTS BID (~)
    10 IDOLATER'S TORSO
    11 SNIDE MESS ICON

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Contemporary gallery offers retractable leash to prevent disengaged family members from saying, "This stuff is hideous, I will meet you out front when you're done." MOMA STRAP PERK.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Gary - do you have averages for your PPPPF's?

      Delete
    2. @CT2Napa 11:50 AM
      Sure do:
      Funnyisms is a new metric, so the end of this month will be my first report. It's grim. 😉

      Summary for July:
      https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2024/08/stylized-name-for-caffeinated-soft.html?m=0

      Summary for June:
      https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2024/06/meat-filled-puff-sun-6-30-24-two-halves.html?m=0

      Summary for May:
      https://rexwordpuzzle.blogspot.com/2024/05/titular-elementary-school-on-tv-fri-5.html?m=0

      Delete
  32. easy - LET ME EXPLAIN

    1) I finished
    2) only minor cheats - don't consider any Marvel lookup cheating

    ReplyDelete
  33. Quickly becoming one of my favorite constructors. A fairly steady, if not blazing solve- ideal for a Friday. Loved KINK SHAME. I think 8D is a wink to those of us who know him from his other gig.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Anonymous10:53 AM

    "I'm sure we could have a long debate about what groups are really INDIEBANDS"

    Probably not two massively successful mainstream rock bands on major record labels

    ReplyDelete
  35. Very nice. Especially liked GOOUTONTOP.

    Another advantage of solving on paper. I figured out the anagram on the margin, using the letters I had previously filled in. It jumped right out.

    We're living in a world where people criticize others for their kinky sexual preferences? Really?

    Not that Mehta needs more praise after Lewis, but he only had nine threes in his grid.


    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous12:11 PM

    Bad memories of sending telexes from US to Italy in 1985 to 1990. The Italians loved Telex and didn't want to give it up. Every business card had a Telex number. I was working in US for the Italian Trade Commission, a government agency.
    The Telex was in a little tiny closet. I'd go in there and press these buttons, ok they were not like touch tone phone buttons, not like a typewriter, much bigger and very hard to press. I'd be in there sweating. It was so so hard to send a Telex.
    This seems like was my fastest Friday ever, I broke 20 minutes. 19 minutes, usually takes me 35. In fact last Friday, I'm still working on it, after 2 hours. I don't remember not completing a Friday in 2 years. Yes maybe one or 2 words, but last Friday, Ive got a whole 2 sections blank!
    I'm gonna keep trying. I actually peaked at an answer, which I never do, and it didn't help!

    ReplyDelete
  37. I really had some long pauses. I'll jump to Godzilla. I had no Idea, whatsoever, what in the world would wakes him up fro, the ocean. There are some SHARKS right above him! Oh, it's a BOMB of some sort. I didn't know what kind of bomb because I couldn't see what might stigmatize someones sexual preference. I had PINK SHAME first go-around. PEEPS TIME for that toe tapping thing didn't make sense....Erase, erase....
    Back upstairs...

    SKILL WAIT MIST...Should that be so easy? I guess it was...Stared at MUSE for 10D and had no idea what came next. TOURS of some sort. So TULSA is home to Black Wall Street? Oh....smart cap on I figured out the MUSEUM part. The right side of the puzzle done - although it took some thinking.

    LET ME EXPLAIN was my first longie. MUSEUM TOURS was my second longie and I misspelled IDOLATERS. I had an O in there. BREATH MINTS nex,t followed by FOOT LONGS and I was smiling at my BARREL RACE. Fill in the surround others and et voila...I was done.

    Perfect Friday for a lousy speller.....

    ReplyDelete
  38. Nice write-up, Malaika!
    I prefer a Medium themeless Friday, which I thought was hard, to a Thursday rebus any day. Back to today - I learned KINK SHAME (now I have to remember it) & had shaker for TUMBLER & wouldn't give it up. Really liked FOOT LONGS.
    Thanks, Hermant :)

    ReplyDelete
  39. I've made so many jokes about the NYT puzzle kink-shaming that it is a delight to see it clued.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Anonymous1:02 PM

    Today is Nagasaki day. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/godzilla-was-metaphor-hiroshima-hollywood-whitewashed-it-n1236165

    ReplyDelete
  41. Oh, Malaika, I was waiting for @Lewis to highlight the APLUSES/BTEAM thing and now you’ve gone and spoiled it for him.

    I was going to complain about GLASSTUMBLER because I serve my fave cocktail - an Old Fashioned - in, guess what, an Old Fashioned glass. My Martinis go in a Martini glass. When I think of tumblers, I see tall, sturdy glassware for serving water or lemonade or highballs. But I just looked it up and a Tom Collins, which is definitely a cocktail, is served in a tumbler, so I guess I have to concede the point. And, continuing on the alcohol theme, SOBER for unlit was good.

    Agree with others who hated the almost-an-anagram clue.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Tough, but I got it eventually. Lots of ambiguous and/or deceptive clues, so it was fun to see it all come together--very slowly. GP OUT ahead before ON TOP, aBOMB before NBOMB, vowS before ADOS--and lots of answers that were not fully idiomatic, IMO. I wanted to find ME in the US of a, wanted ERaS before ERES. And I guess TELEX is an email ancestor in some sense, but not a very direct one.

    Too long since I've been in a SUBWAY, so I didn't know they served FOOT-LONGS. And I knew those were music groups, but I'm not sure what an INDIE BAND is. One without a contract with a major label, maybe? But I sussed it out, so I'm happy.

    Good question about the sheep, I have to say.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm guessing the answer is lanolin. But funny, anyway.

      Delete
  43. Now I feel stupid; so many of you found it easy. My feeling was at least partly due to my stubborn insistence on working my way down the acrosses until I got one to start with. I think I got to 25-A before I gave up and went back to the short downs in the NW, which weren't too hard to figure out (despite the errors I mentioned in my previous comment).

    Sound like some haven't heard of BARREL RACES. They're a real rodeo event; sort of a slalom race on horseback, steering your horse through S-curves around the barrels. I think they are especially popular in teen rodeos.

    I did get H-BOMB, despite what I said before, after HOT MICS ruled out KINKynAMES.

    OK, that's it for today.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Anonymous3:43 PM

    easy, but in an enjoyable way. probably could have gotten a PB out of it, but i don't shoot for times on fridays and was just kind of wandering around the grid, probably spending too much time on certain answers that would have filled quickly with crosses. but sometimes you know you know something, and you want to remember it without help! :)

    the only nit i have, is that i must have played hangman differently from everyone else. why would you draw the torso first? it would just be a stick floating in mid air. i guess, now that i'm thinking about this, maybe people did draw a floating headless stick figure and thus he wasn't hanged until the head attached to the apparatus and he, and you, lost? [yet another childhood favorite that's actually rather grim.] but we always started with the head and worked our way down. if you had a really nice person doing the hanging, they might even draw the hanging apparatus in a few parts letting you get in some free guesses before the man began to appear.

    -stephanie.

    ReplyDelete
  45. Anonymous3:44 PM

    ...on second thought, i now see the clue says "an early wrong guess" and not "the first wrong guess" so i suppose my dissertation on hangman wasn't particularly necessary! XD

    carry on...
    -stephanie.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I can't unsee this stuff. LET ME EXPLAIN. I agree that there was some nice stuff in this one but the first thing that caught my eye was several entries right out of the gate that needed some help filling their slots. I DO, HT and INDIE BAND, for instance. POC (plural of convenience) to the rescue.

    The ones that always stand out the most for me are the two for one POCs where a Down and an Across both get a letter count, grid filling boost by sharing a single final S. I think this is especially glaring in a themeless because there are no theme related constraints to justify using this stratagem.

    Each final S in a two-fer could be changed to a black square, the clue slightly tweaked and nothing of interest or value would be lost. Those Ss are equivalent to cheater squares. They add nothing to the puzzle; they just make it easier to fill the grid. Lower degree of difficulty means lower final overall score, right?

    This grid had more of the two-fers than I think I have ever seen in a 15X15 puzzle, themed or themeless. There are seven of them at the ends of I DO/HT, BOOT/SPARE, TONE/A PLUS, IDOLATER/FOOT LONG, MUSEUM TOUR/TOM, BERG/SHARK and BREATH MINT/ERE.

    Changing all those Ss to black squares would result in a virtual black square count of 37 which is very high for a themeless. The Committee was unanimous in giving this grid a POC Marked rating.

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  47. Anonymous4:34 PM

    If you've never had a cocktail in a tumbler you're paying too much for them. Incidentally, an old-fashioned glass is a type of tumbler.

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  48. Anonymous5:06 PM

    Thoroughly enjoyed this one, especially after the aha moments. I liked the A B stacks, the anagram was fine (picky picky people) and kinkshame was hilarious. Crosswords should be fun and this one was, even if it did take me about 15 minutes (I don’t really time myself) while listening to John Mayall (RIP).

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  49. Apt anagram of BRAIN METH + ST.

    See, I KNEW Altoids were just as bad a fentanyl.

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  50. I haven't been able to post on my phone,, though no one will see this, I am testing the computer. I do agree that the one letter short non theme anagram was annoying. Otherwise, I liked the puzzle.
    About "the Black Wall Street" that would be the Greenwood neighborhood of Tulsa. Since the story was suppressed for so long ( all references in local newspaper archives were actually removed) commenters might like to know that this community was wiped out by a heavily armed white mob in the early twenties, It is thought that hundreds of residents died. Though that the actual figure was also suppressed.

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  51. Anonymous9:34 PM

    Malaika all I want in the world is an Orville Peck cover of Pink Pony Club

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  52. Anonymous1:42 AM

    I'm really surprised that no one commented on 9D "alternative to a pinch: Abbr." TSP. If this is a cooking reference, don't call me for dinner; a pinch is at least 16 times smaller than a teaspoon! Definitely not an "alternative".

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  53. Tom T9:54 AM

    Ridiculous Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) Clue in fear of where we might be headed if we accept the BREATH MINTS clue from Friday's puzzle:

    Apt anagram of Miss. Delta, minus meads (Answer below)

    I dnf'ed this one because I either was unfamiliar with or forgot the word MATRYOSHKA (54A), even though a set of those nesting dolls sits in a prominent place in our living room. So I thought something had to be wrong there, and hit "Check Word." Hence the dnf. My mistake turned out to be that I was also unfamiliar with and/or had forgotten BEANO (42D) and EBT (44A). Oh, well, I managed a full week long Happy Music streak.

    Speaking of 44A, EBT, its first 2 letters begin side-by-side HDWs: ELM and BIO.

    Answer to the ridiculous HDW Clue:

    SILT (Did you know that the SILT of the Mississippi Delta is home to Sandpiper StILTS? Now you do.)

    Can I stop now? YOU BET I CAN

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  54. Easy for a Friday, but quite enjoyable.

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  55. Anonymous9:22 PM

    Fun puzzle. But irked by the spelling of “idolaters”.

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  56. Weirdly easy for a Friday? That was a Tuesday time for me. It helped that I slotted in KINKSHAME right away. I thought BERGS was a clever one, and the clue for BREATHMINTS was B.S.

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  57. Burma Shave12:02 PM

    HAUTE KNOT

    As A MODEL IMISSEDYOUr TORSO,
    it’s IMPOSSIBLE to GO wrong,
    LETMEEXPLAIN YOUr SKILL moreso –
    I’ve NO KINKSHAME for A FOOTLONG.

    --- WANDA LIU TOMS

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  58. I made it medium for the day. FOOTLONGS dropped right away, but I had no idea about KINKSHAME. That first K was the very last letter in. Modern slang continues to elude me.

    A generally fine puzzle. At least the two letter add-ons (ADDINS?) were together and got it over with. Birdie.

    Wordle par; no green till the answer.

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  59. rondo6:16 PM

    I solved this one counter-clockwise from the NW. So I did GOOUTONTOP in the NE. One write-over at IDOLAToRS; the E in there just doesn't seem right. KINKSHAME? If you say so.
    Wordle phew. That one was harsh.

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  60. Daverino9:18 PM

    Slow slog but got through it…not a fan of KINKSHAME in the puzzle (and certainly not in RL), tho…

    BTW Malaika (and all) Altoona is BRINGING BACK their sour mints…psyched! Tangerine is (was) my JAM!

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