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Relative difficulty: MEDIUM
Word of the Day: AMAHL (2D: Title hero of a Menotti opera) —
Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer.[1] It was commissioned by NBC and first performed by the NBC Opera Theatre on December 24, 1951, in New York City at NBC Studio 8H in Rockefeller Center, where it was broadcast live on television from that venue as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall of Fame. It was the first opera specifically composed for television in the United States.[2]
• • •
Hello Crossworld! Rex is back on vacation so you've got Eli again, today and tomorrow, then more Rexplacements the rest of the week. I'm not sure if it's because I was paying extra attention knowing I had today's blog, but the puzzle played a little harder than usual for me. I fumbled around quite a bit before getting a toehold on this one. Fittingly, that toehold came with ON LITTLE CAT FEET (57D: Virtually silently, in a classic poem). I was able to drop it in off of just a couple of crosses, but I imagine if you're not familiar with Robert Frost's poem Fog, this one will play even harder for you.
Even though I made it my word of the day, AMAHL was pretty much the only thing I was able to put in confidently in the north of the puzzle my first pass through, along with the crossing LYNX (21A: Minnesota W.N.B.A. team). I couldn't remember if a Buckwheat noodle (9D) was UDON or SOBA, so I needed some crosses that just weren't coming. I got a little bit of traction on ST. TROPEZ (31A: French resort town) entirely because of personal history. St. Tropez is the setting for the musical La Cage Aux Folles (which is also the basis of the movie The Birdcage), which I acted in after college. Drag performing was a unique experience for a cisgender straight man, but I had a blast. Drag is not a crime.
 |
| Ever lift a grown man on to your shoulders in 3 inch heels? I have. |
Thankfully, my poetry brain kicked in and got me 57A and I was off and running. Looking at the grid as a whole, the only long across that doesn't really do much for me is ACCESS TIME (5A: Retrieval speed of a computer). I spend a lot of time on computers, and this wasn't a phrase I knew off-hand. It's legit, but it's a bit of a snooze as answers go. I liked the cluing on PIANO TUNER (16A: Professional pitcher?), and it made me put "AD" (as in "Ad Executive") in for way too long. CARE TO ELABORATE (17A: Request for details) is snappy and very natural language, and both I DON'T GET IT (60A: [shrug]) and LONGEST DAY (62A: 1962 war epic loaded with A-listers, with "The") are both solid entries.
On the whole, I liked the puzzle. Pretty straightforward, not too flashy, but solid.
Stray thoughts:
Signed, Eli Selzer, False Dauphin of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Stray thoughts:
- 40A: Home run, informally (DINGER) — If you've been paying attention to my write-ups, it will come as no surprise that the first thing this makes me think of is a Simpsons reference.
- 27D: Sticks figure (YOKEL) — Sigh. Do I have a choice?
- 51D: Drinks mistakenly invented by a Dairy Queen owner in 1958 (ICEES) — I liked this trivia! It's mostly surprising to me because it feels like an Icee, which is just syrup and crushed ice, would pre-date Dairy Queen. I feel like a Blizzard is a modern smartphone to the Icee's fax machine.
- 22A: Cousin voiced by Snoop Dogg in two films (ITT) — The original Addams Family TV show is well before my time, but I don't remember Cousin Itt speaking in it. Didn't he just kind of chirp or something? I guess he talks now, and he apparently talks like Snoop.
Enjoy your Saturday, and I'll see you all again tomorrow!
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
Easy and easier than yesterday’s. No WOEs and knowing the 57a poem and the Menotti title were very helpful.
ReplyDeleteYesterday I had slew before SCAD and today it’s the clue for SCAD.
Very smooth and solid but not quite as sparkly as yesterday’s, liked it.
@Eli - Carl Sandburg wrote Fog. Robert Frost not so much.
ReplyDeleteEasy-Medium. I had trouble getting traction in the NW, but once I set that aside for later I pretty much whooshed through the rest, and then had very little trouble when I returned to the NW. I always misplace the "H" in AMAHL (2D), but this time somehow I got it right. @Eli udon before SOBA at 9D, quickly corrected by CARESS (20A). I didn't know (7D) CAL's mascot's name, the Minnesota WNBA team (21A) or the last syllable (53A), but they were easy to get from crosses.
Wanted Joe Biden for 1A but it didn't fit :)
Carl Sandburg, not Robert Frost.
ReplyDeleteRight! And probably Sandberg’s most regrettable image.
DeletePardon typo.
Deletethat’s right. sandberg.
DeleteIt is Sandburg
DeleteDid anyone else try KOOLAIDMAN for Professional Pitcher?
ReplyDelete@beageal No!
DeleteLol
DeleteI was very disappointed when that turned out to be wrong.
DeleteSome oddball fill here and there but mostly smooth and slick. Didn’t take as long as usual and wasn’t as fun as yesterday. I like the grid with the two spanners emanating from the long corner stacks. Liked CARE TO ELABORATE, DINGER and I DON’T GET IT. Side eye to SKEDS, ANTI FLU and the brutal start with PACS.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyable Saturday morning solve. Check out the diagonal long stack in Anna Stiga’s Stumper today.
The Del Fuegos
Medium-Hard. Puzzle felt a bit stale, but still perfectly cromulent. Thanks for the write-up, Eli (and the Simpsons references).
ReplyDeleteFog
By Carl Sandburg
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.
Only two overwrites, faiRY before STORY and nAncY before CAREY, but still took me a while to finish.
ReplyDeleteWhy not tell us in the clue that the poet was Carl Sandburg? It wouldn't give anything away, really, but would give credit where it is due. And prevent errors like Eli’s.
Liked this much more than yesterday's. The short glue is generally less objectionable (CIE being a major exception), and the longs were really worthwhile (ACCESS TIME being a major exception).
Not easy, just a good Saturday. But easier than Friday this week... woof, yesterday hurt my heart.
ReplyDeleteI had UDON up there for the noodles for too long, causing no end of pain, plus EACH instead of APOP meant I wasn't getting anything done across the top until I filled the bottom of the grid, worked my way back up, and took out the non-crossed stuff. EACH looked good, because I thought AD_... something for "Professional pitcher."
Knew Bitte from the movie The Longest Day. It's in a scene where two German soldiers are trying to surrender to two American soldiers. And I probably saw that movie sometime in the '60s.
ReplyDeleteRich is the King of NYT Saturdays, having published more by far than any other constructor, 120. (Number two is Byron Walden, with 69.)
ReplyDeleteHe is as skilled and tricky as ever. This puzzle had a bounty of clues that could beget several or many answers, thus delaying fill-ins without crosses. I love puzzles like this, because when you do get one of those answers correctly, it comes with an “Ah!” and sometimes even an “Aha!”
But it’s a delicate dance, making a puzzle like this, because you need just the right amount of toeholds. Too many, and the puzzle loses its Saturday toughness. Too few, and the puzzle becomes no-fun-frustrating.
For me, Rich and the editors nailed it. So many times, I went from being stalled, to having an answer ping out in my brain, which led to a mini-splat-fill, followed by another stall. As more filled in, the answering pace quickened, leading to a marvelous crescendo to the finish.
Just what I want on Saturday.
This puzzle was never boring. It brought me into the zone where the world disappears except for the box and I’m in that place I love, chipping away and uncovering – ECSTACY. Thank you so much for making this, Rich!
Thanks, Lewis! Very kind and thorough comments. Glad you enjoyed the puzzle.
DeleteVery smooth especially for a Rich Norris Saturday...except the SW with all the US-based answers I didn't know. DINGER, AFB, TEN GALLON (can anyone explain the clue there?) and especially ON LITTLE CAT FEET which I couldn't make sense of because I thought "going concern" was UTI, which prompted me to guess ___DESTINY at 62A which got me nowhere. Also, I thought "vet" was a verb in the 44A clue.
ReplyDeleteA ten-gallon hat is a certain type of cowboy hat, but apparently its true volume is roughly 3/4 of a quart (rather than 10 gallons). Weirdly, this was one of the first answers I put in today—it just clicked, unlike most of the other clues. Finished, though! On with the streak!
DeleteI recall Michael doing a really tiresome rant on "AMAHL" a few years ago, offended that he would be expected to know such a thing. Glad I didn't have to see it repeated today.
ReplyDeleteThank god for small favors, right?
DeleteI enjoyed the puzzle overall, but boy was it tough to break out of that tiny NW corner - you have a Latin word, an Opera character, a comedian , a Shakespeare quote and a sports team all crammed into that one little section. So, right from the start there was no need to check the calendar to determine what day it is.
ReplyDeleteYOKEL and its childish cluing are on the low end of acceptable, but really - the NYT can, and should aspire to do better than that.
Another Meryl Streep movie reference today, which is pretty cool. I wish they would have celebrated the ‘69 Knicks instead of the direction they went - missed opportunity to honor Clyde and the rest of the crew.
I agree that ACCESS TIME is very niche, but hey, it’s Saturday.
THE LONGEST DAY was topped a couple years later by The Greatest Story Ever Told, a film that jammed in almost every A-Lister in Hollywood (and a lot of B-Plussers, as well), many of whom had just a line or two. The most notable of these was John Wayne, who made a blink-of-the-eye appearance as the centurion at the crucifixion with a single line of dialogue, evoking the universal response "wait, was that just John Wayne?" The film was a veritable feast for celebrity spotters. And I must say that I still have a soft spot for Pat Boone as the angel at the tomb. ;)
ReplyDeleteEli, you’re already getting roasted for Frost/Sandburg, but a big huzzah to you for posting your drag performance pic - ooh la la! - and for “drag is not a crime.” Amen and hard to believe this is actually an issue. My drag name, if I ever did it, was going to be TUREENa Vichysoisse.
ReplyDeleteEnjoyable and pretty quick puzzle for me. My time was one second slower than yesterday’s. Shared Eli’s confusion about Snoop playing a character I don’t remember ever speaking, and I was delighted to learn that TEN GALLON hats hold much less liquid. Made me wonder how a real ten gallon would look on someone.
I’ve never seen THE LONGEST DAY. Worth seeing?
Wanderlust
DeleteThe Longest Day
It was based on Cornelius Ryan’s book. A huge project ( TWO directors & several screenwriters. It was really a product of both the producer Zanuck and Ryan ). Lots of stars and not a few serious factual errors. But not bad for a war movie of that era. Saving Private Ryan-a fictional piece with a very realistic first half hour made no sense at the end, to me. At least the Longest Day - though it couldn’t be as realistic made sense throughout.
First time in months that I've solved Friday and Saturday without cheating. I first had AUCTIONEER, then ADVERTISER, never dreaming that pitch suggested music instead of sales, so PIANOTUNER came very late.
ReplyDeleteI also had EACH instead of APOP, because the A in EACH matched both AUCTIONEER and ADVERTISER. Tough puzzle, but fair. I compliment the constructor.
Most of it was great, but I absolutely couldn't not get EXGI or AFB. Had to use the cheats today. Ah well.
ReplyDeleteA fun, satisfying puzzle with some excellent clues (professional pitcher!). Loved foggy/ in a stupor being in there with the fog on little cat feet. Commenters should check to make sure they’ve got their poets straight, though ;-)
ReplyDeleteConfidently dropped in BIARRITZ at 31A off of the R and Z.....whooops.
ReplyDelete+1 for biaRritZ
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteJeez, how many vacations does Rex take? 😁
Found this one tough, but seemed slightly easier than YesterPuz. Still had to Goog twice, however.
Thought the Minnesota WNBA was the Wild, but they are the NHL team. Changed it to Wyld for a minute after getting CAREY. (Which, in case you can't parse the clue, Drew CAREY hosted the American version of the TV show "Whose Line Is It Anyway")
So, a few times I was IN A STUPOR, saying I DONT GET IT, but stayed STERNER and end up with a puz TKO. I beat THE RAP. Har.
Have a great Saturday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
With great confidence, I plugged in 'on little cat PAWS' and then spent the next several minutes extricating myself from the litter box mess I created.[forehead smack]
ReplyDeleteTwo questions:
ReplyDeleteWhere is Loren Muse Smith (LMS)?, I miss her wit. Also, do we think Rex/OFL ever has to resort to Google to get an answer?
You've seen all those "childish retort" crossword clues. Well, I have a really apt childish retort for you today:
ReplyDelete"I am not playing a bleeping TREE in your stupid play! Just try and make me!"
Why, I CAN'T EVEN. Look, I am about as untalented an actress as any school anywhere has ever laid eyes on, but no one has been rude enough to suggest that I play a TREE. The very idea! I had the TR?? and was saying to myself: You'd better not be TREE! You'd better not be!
As for the rest of the puzzle: Harder for me at the bottom than at the top. I was helped by knowing two quotes. STERNER was a gimme for me and I got ONLITTLECATFEET from just the ONL.
One big write-over: I had the Z and quickly wrote in BIARRITZ (possibly misspelled) before ST TROPEZ. That loused me up and left me with much to UNDO. (Always check crosses, Nancy, especially on a Saturday!! Always!!)
Enough challenge for the end of the week, I suppose, but not much sparkle or excitement.
I came to post that this was more like a Friday and yesterday’s was more like a Saturday, and see that I’m not alone.
ReplyDeleteA local tv channel would air AMAHL and the Night Visitors on Christmas Eve. It was a family tradition to skip it every year.
ReplyDeleteThat's the word for today's puzzle. Solid.
I liked this puzzle very much, though the fact that I did it on my phone, in bed, means it was definitely on the easy side for a Saturday! I finished it quickly, came downstairs and had coffee, and then proceeded to take another look at Friday's puzzle, on which I made very little progress late last night when tired. (It came much easier this morning, after coffee). Anyway, Saturday's puzzle was fun and whooshy and I'm surprised at the comments saying it had no sparkle. I loved that IN A STUPOR (answer to the clue FOGGY) was right in there with the FOG coming in on little cat feet. Loved the professional pitcher clue also. CARE TO ELABORATE and I DON'T GET IT were so natural and breezy. A fun puzzle that started my Saturday off right!
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard Carl Sandburg mentioned for at least 15 years, so I wondered if people were still familiar with that poem--but it seems to have been a gimme for everyone else here, as well. But then, most of us are probably old enough to have learned it in school, along with the one about the city of big shoulders.
ReplyDeleteSo that helped, but what really messed me up was Elysium before ECSTASY (with "Ode to Joy" running through my brain). And even more seriously jAM before DAM. I actually never corrected that, but didn't notice I hadn't.
So this one was a struggle, and I didn't struggle quite long enough.
Some of you may find this interesting...
ReplyDeleteXwordInfo, the site crammed with facts, figures, and more regarding the NYT crossword, announced today that it has a new page -- Oldest Known NYT Constructors -- based on their ages when they made their last puzzles.
(The site has long had a page based on the youngest constructors.)
The oldest constructor on this new page is Bernice Gordon, who, in 2014, collaborated on a puzzle at age 100. Her collaborator? David Steinberg, who was 17 at the time.
Should you be interested in taking a look-see at this new page, here's the link: https://www.xwordinfo.com/Oldest .
Hidden Diagonal Word (HDW) clues:
ReplyDelete1. Dynamite!
2. Burden
3. Related
Much easier for me than yesterday; finished closer to the "easy" side of my normal Saturday time-to-solve range. Spent my last couple of minutes running the alphabet in an effort to come up with fill for my final empty space at the LE_A/SKE_S cross. Still no idea. Decided to make D my first guess ON SPEC and Happy Music ensued.
Got off to a good start by knowing AMAHL and STERNER--nice to have the theatre background pay off.
Answers to the HDW clues:
1. TNT (Begin with the T in 11D; the exclamation point in my clue was less about the answer and more about having my initials in the grid)
2. TAX (off the T in 53A, ULTIMA; a partial dupe of 18D, TAXCODE)
3. KIN (KIN appears twice, each beginning with one of the Ks in KNICKS, 55A, making a dandy little "A-frame" in the SE)
N
I I
K n i c K s
Fun!
A developer put together a bunch of stores in one location and advertised that they were open 9:00 to 5:00. The place didn't do well until they expanded their hours to midnight. Turned out that success required a mall and the night visitors.
ReplyDeleteAfter belting down a few Jack Daniel's the other night I went to a local noodle shop.
Egs: I'll have some buckwheat noodles.
Waiter: SOBA?
Egs: A bit tipsy, but not INASTUPOR. Now just give me the damn noodles or I'll go to the Vietnamese place.
Waiter: It's always crowded there. You'll probably find a big PHO queue.
Excellent puzzle. Thanks, Rich Norris.
PHO queue might be the funniest thing I’ve read in the too many years I’ve been reading this blog. Thank you - now I gotta go clean up the coffee I spit out laughing.
DeleteChallenging for me. Starting up top, I only had the Downs Ahmal, STERNER, each, STORY, and ERE to work with....and zero Acrosses. That sent me on a grid circuit seeking something, anything, that could give me a foothold....and found only a couple of NUNS, a DAM, a TKO, and a HOE, along with a misguided detour to (me, too) Biarritz. Only at STAR x USSR did I get a grip and start the crawl back up to the top. Loved the struggle and the reward of the snappy answers. I like the idea of TEN GALLON TUREENS.
ReplyDeleteDo-overs: Ahmal, each, Biarritz. No idea: LYNX, ACCESS TIME, DINGER. Biggest help: correcting Biarritz to ST TROPEZ. Longest dunce-cap moment: having ON LITTLE CA...T and still not knowing what it was (@kitchef, for me "Sandburg" in the clue would have (hopefully!) let me get it much earlier - so I liked the Saturday "mystery").
@Illya Kuryakin - Now I want to see "The Greatest Story Ever Told"!
I had a good time doing this one even with a few of the names giving me trouble; made up for it though, with a few lucky guesses. Just the feeling of an all-around fine Friday. I was not familiar with the poem but I believe I need to investigate Mr. Sandberg. Anyone who thinks in terms of CAT FEET and haunches is sure to appeal to a miserable childless cat lady like me.
ReplyDeleteEli, I’m glad you’re here. So that’s you in the pic? Stunning outfit! I never watched The Simpsons, but that appears to be Mark McGwire who I did watch back in his day. In fact, I got to see him hit two DINGERS at the old Busch Stadium in 1998. And where on earth did you find Cletus? I haven’t seen him in ages even though I’m occasionally surrounded by slack-jawed yokels. No, really. It’s called Walmart.
I think Friday and Saturday got mixed up again, and I found this one way wooshier than yesterday's puzzle - even though I'm in the camp of not knowing anything about this AMAHL guy. I finished ten minutes faster than yesterday, well below average time.
ReplyDeleteThe blog comment section didn't like my attempt to create my A-frame KIN?KIN.
ReplyDeleteHere's one more try:
_ _ N _ _
_ I _ I _
K n i c K s
I had so much trouble with the top left (NW) corner. I just did not know the trivia! That was my last area to fill in. The NE was not easy either Basically the whole top third gave me issues. Not easy for me at all.
ReplyDelete@Lewis - thank you for the link https://www.xwordinfo.com/Oldest!! (God bless Bernice Gordon :)
ReplyDeleteAnd youngest!
My favorite Friday puzzle constructor, when I first started doing them, was Manny Nosowsky. I missed him for a long time before I realized he wasn't coming back :(
Now if only they would re-print the puzzles so we could do them - again, thank you, Lewis.
BTW - I'm still doing today's but my head's not into it so I'll probably just cheat & go on to Wordle.
Be well :)
Will I CARE TO ELABORATE ON LITTLE CAT FEET? Well yes, I will.....The two longest answers and, by gum, I decided I was no YOKEL. But then.....You gave me a WNBA, NBA and MLB teams. Some computerese stuff, some PACS, a PACT and whatever you use ACCESS TIME during your MTGS. Those ugh parts felt like my lemonade needed more squeeze and less sugar. Other than that?
ReplyDeleteITT and TAZ...You were my first. Uh oh, this puzzle is gonna eat me alive. Well it did in some parts (looking at you computer) and then you give me ECSTASY and ST TROPEZ. Hah! PHO me some SOBA in TUREENS and I might eschew IN A STUPOR. BITTE? For some reason I had DANKE.
So I needed some help and I got it. I had many doovers and I won't list all of them. Biggest screw up was penning in YULE LOG instead of GIFTING. I had to UNDO and UNDO and UNDO. I got to the bottom and saw The LONGEST DAY. Sitting on top was my mistake of I DONT see IT. Erase, erase. Check! and then re check.
I saw The LONGEST DAY about 100 years ago. I just remember Sean Connery because, well, just look at his face! The movie is about the war- kinda like Guns of Navarrone-ish. It had a gazillion handsome actors in it and I don't recall any female roles [sigh] But that's what war is all about, no?
@egsfor....Bravisimo! Can you BITTE some more?
Wanted IBS (irritable bowel syndrome) for "Going concern", lol
ReplyDeleteCarl Sandberg not Robert Frost for “Fog” — and what is AFB?
ReplyDeleteEasy but for the SW, about which all I could say was I DON'T GET IT.
ReplyDeleteKATY Perry? I had COMO, thinking "The youngsters aren't going to get this."
If I hadn't decided to cheat, I'd still be having THE LONGEST DAY.
Mel chior - you must be thinking of someone else. Michael never posted any such rant.
ReplyDeleteI think that I shall never see
ReplyDeletea poem lovely as a TREE
Another thing I ne'er ere did see
A thing that cannot ever be
A thing that makes me hopping mad
Is saying there's a single SCAD
Oh, I filled it in, but still cannot believe my eyes
Dirty Dozen fit, confirmed by Biz
ReplyDeleteBobl
DeleteAbout Dirty Dozen Wrong year.
1967.
Having seen it when it came out, (yes I am old!). I didn’t even consider it.
Well that was fun, but it was over a bit too fast for a Saturday. 15 minutes! Some nice snappy long answers like CARE TO ELABORATE and I DON'T GET IT.
ReplyDeleteSeveral typeovers. Right off the bat at 3 down, I said: Rich I'm onto you, it's NANCY Drew! The A and the terminal Y worked so it took a while to see it was Drew CAREY!
And like @Neil and others, BIARRITZ before ST TROPEZ because of that Z at the end.
I'm kind of a computer guy but the phrase ACCESS TIME doesn't ring a bell. I figured it would be something LATENCY.
ReplyDeleteEli’s error of authorship and attribution should be lent some forgiveness, as he’s not the only one to have made the mistake; the website “Famous Poets and Poems” is spreading the same inaccuracy:
famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/robert_frost/poems/850
That website dates back to the aughts, proof positive that factual hallucination is a problem that precedes Artificial Intelligence.
And now I’m left chuckling at the thought that both Sandburg and Frost would chafe at the confusion. Not only would Frost have never written something so lithe and aligned with the Imagist school of poetry (and let’s leave alone how much he hated such poetry!), but Frost and Sandburg were acquainted — and famously not fond of one another: https://www.harvardmagazine.com/2000/05/good-poets-make-bad-neig-html
Mostly liked this one - so much good stuff in the grid, like the rarely seen TUREENS, a near-semordnilap of yesterday’s SNEERAT. Who doesn’t love ON LITTLE CAT FEET - if so, CARE TO ELABORATE what is wrong with you?
ReplyDeleteMTGS and EXGI did not thrill, but I liked the vagueness of the “Vet” clue.
CAT STORY: I’d have been done sooner if I hadn’t spent half of my puzzle-time herding CATs. My neighbor is the consummate CAT lady (not childless but still ready to scratch out the eyes of a certain politician). She used to feed, catch and neuter, and find homes for cats around her office. When she retired she started feeding between our houses. One had two kittens, and this morning I wanted to be sure the adults didn’t eat all the food before the kittens got some.
Thus distracted, boo-boos abounded, not the lest of which was inexplicably thinking the opera hero needed to be a female. No, A, it can't be AMAHL because he's a boy. Maybe it was some kind of subconscious trick - it's not unusual for boy roles to sung by women. Arghh.
Another problem in that corner - I saw 3Down and thought CAREY, but before I could write it in I had to put down the puzzle again to go out and shoo away the big cats. Returned to the puzzle but forgot about CAREY until CARE TO ELABORATE went in. The kitten finally did get to eat, crouching cutely ON his LITTLE CAT FEET.
Finally able to concentrate, things went more smoothly. ECHELON was fun to guess. No idea on the Bball stuff but the crosses got me in. Vaguely remembered LEDA, although SKEDS can go fly a kite with GIFTING. Also DINGER was a WOE and the memory of SADE had faded away to a dark corner of my brain, so I went with zINGER and SAzE - DNF, DNC. Enjoyed it anyway, Rich Norris.
PS. St. Tropez and Biarritz both look stunning - time for a getaway.
@jb129 (11:58) -- St. Martin's Press publishes anthologies of old NYT puzzles from the archives edited by Will Shortz. I own about 10 of these collections, only the hardest ones, and don't know how many of these are still in print -- but there are always new ones coming out. Most have 150 (!) puzzles; some have "only" 75.
ReplyDeleteSome of the book titles of the ones I have are:
Best of Thursday Crosswords
Best of Friday...
Best of Saturday...
Fascinatingly Fierce Crosswords
Cunning Crosswords
And a bunch of Sundays too, though I don't like them as much.
I never discuss them on the blog because while they give you the constructor's name, they don't give you the date of publication -- so no one would know what puzzle I'm talking about.
Try your local bookstore. Try Amazon. Maybe even call St Martin's Press directly if no one else has them. Good luck.
Was anyone else thrown off by the I.V.F. clue where the answer was not an acronym or abbreviation? I'm relatively new to crosswording so maybe I misunderstand but that really confused me.
ReplyDeleteLove 'little cat feet". Best answer in the whole puzzle.
ReplyDeleteA challenging puzzle for me, as I got really thrown by the brutal NW corner. I also didn't love the clueing -- in large part because I just couldn't get on the creator's wavelength. I have a particular complaint with the clue for SADE, because of course she was followed on the same stage a few hours later by Freddie Mercury, who was born in Stone Town, Zanzibar (now Tanzania). Depending on how you interpret "headliner" this is not an inaccurate clue, but I think it's bad form.
ReplyDeleteThe musical act was "Queen", not Freddie Mercury.
DeleteI have a bone to pick with 31Down ("Only African-born headliner at London's Live Aid in 1985"). Queen frontman Freddie Mercury (who gave one of the most memorable performances of the decade at that show at Wembley Stadium) was born in Tanzania. Can anyone help me understand whether this clue was improperly pinned or if I'm missing something? Many thanks!
ReplyDeleteWhat in the world is the meaning of SKEDS? I assume it’s short for schedules, but googling SKEDS yields nothing but a software program used for scheduling. Didn’t help that it crossed with LEDA, which could have been LETA or LERA.
ReplyDeleteSimilar issue with AMAHL crossing with AMAT, but at least those answers make sense ex post.
Not sure why anyone would claim this puzzle was just as easy or easier than yesterday’s puzzle, where unlike today’s puzzle, no answer seemed remotely like a NATICK.
Guess only us old folks had COMO for 55 Down. Hrrrmph!
ReplyDeleteAn Icee is a beverage which is frozen while being mixed, so it stays in a slushy state (insert Simpsons reference here to Squishees) with very tiny ice crystals. Syrup and crushed ice make a snow cone, which you can't drink through a straw unless it melts.
ReplyDeleteYes I would CARE TO ELABORATE a little on @Lewis 7:28 noting that this is Rich Norris' 120th (!!) Saturday puzzle; the xwordinfo site also says that he debuted 1,115 (!!!) answer words in his puzzles.
ReplyDeleteHe was the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle editor from 1999 to 2022. In 2023 he was awarded the annual MEmoRiaL Award, named in honor of the late Merl Reagle. Here's a write up about that in the New York Times.
I had a big crush on 31D SADE. The way she can CARESS the words to a song is pure ECSTASY if you ask me. If you don't believe me, listen to her "No Ordinary Love".
Way late to the party today but the grandchildren are reunited with their parents after an overnight and an all morning session. My wife is taking a nap, the house is quiet, and all's right with the world. There are reasons we have children when we are young.
ReplyDeleteThis was about the whooshiest Saturday I can remember. I knew the long answers and it seemed that if my first guess at an answer was not correct, the next one was. This happens seldom enough to be memorable, but I'll take it.
I wonder if much poetry is still taught in high schools. Even my rural and tiny school in way Upstate NY had us reading Sandburg, and it's an image I couldn't forget, liking both poetry and cats. About the only real unknown was the origin of ECHELON, and that was cool.
Today's hit from the Crossworld Vault has to be AMAT, which was going to be either that or
AMAS. I've seen both often, just not recently.
Very nice Saturday indeed, RN. Really Nice to feel smart once in a while, and thanks for all the fun.
egsforbreakfast...you should be comedy writer if you aren't one already.
ReplyDeleteA little tough getting excited by this gunky little mess headlined by ACCESS TIME but the TEN GALLON thing is fun and I do like the LITTLE CAT FEET poem.
ReplyDeletePretty funny that TREE is a role.
There is a German word in here that's not ACH. Our crossword inspired German vocab is now at two. Ready to head to Lautzenhausen.
YOKEL is on my favorite word list between CAULDRON and EMBASSY.
Propers: 9
Places: 3
Products: 6
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 5
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Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 31 of 72 (43%) (boo)
Funnyisms: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: [Alley pickup.]
Uniclues:
1 Convent chemical consumers.
2 Went swinging.
3 What Hanukkah is known for when compared to Christmas.
4 What I post here every day.
5 Vodka infused summer treats from 7-11.
1 ECSTASY NUNS
2 PREPARED DINGER (~)
3 STERNER GIFTING
4 NO POINT STORY (~)
5 IN A STUPOR ICEES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Emulate how we did sports in the old days. RUN IN DENIM.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Nancy Hi - I responded, check your email :)
ReplyDelete@oceanjeremy 1:28. Most amusingly that same website also lists the exact same poem under Sandburg http://famouspoetsandpoems.com/poets/carl_sandburg/poems/850
ReplyDeleteThought it was easy in the beginning. That was because for me a lot of the downs were known. Then the SE
ReplyDeleteturned it into a medium. Stupid mistakes mostly. Still thought the puzzle easier than yesterday.
Knew on little cat feet immediately. Also knew it wasn’t Frost. That trivia was long ago imbedded into my brain
Surprised that the commenters who don’t like foreign language languages in the puzzle aren’t complaining about the ECHELON clue. I liked it. And it successfully tricked me because I knew the French for rung and put that in not the derivative English word we borrowed. (One of my stupid mistakes). As people have said on this blog in the past, sometimes it hurts to know too much about a subject!
The puzzles get better, the cluing gets worse. “ExGi”? Are you kidding me? “Sticks figure“ is not English.
ReplyDeleteDumbass cluing like for 27D and 42D along with junk fill like EXGI, AFB and MTGS etc. ruined it for me. I did not know Snoop Dogg voice Cousin ITT. Sad to hear about that. Wasn’t ITT silent in the original series?
ReplyDeleteERE, CAL, CIE, CIA, ETD… Ick!!!!
ReplyDeleteWay easy for a Saturday, despite the 10-10-15 stacks. I had one slight glitch, spelling SanTrope...oops, too long. The rest of it came on down like a Price is Right contestant.
ReplyDeleteRe: GIFTING: So, are we just going to shitcan "GIVING?" I hate modern slang. A toothless bogey.
Wordle birdie.
AFB = Air Force Base...Scott AFB...Belleville, Illinois
ReplyDelete