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Battleship corner / FRI 9-20-24 / Lawbreakers, informally / Four-year-old in pig tales? / Apt name for a successful crypto investor? / Philosophy influenced by Aristotle's concept of the Unmoved Mover / Plural form decried by staunch "Star Wars" fans / Windy flight?
Friday, September 20, 2024
Constructor: Jackson Matz
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: Bella THORNE (53A: Actress Bella of Disney's "Shake It Up") —
Annabella Avery Thorne (born October 8, 1997) is an American actress, singer, and writer. She first received recognition for her roles as Margaux Darling in the series Dirty Sexy Money (2007–2008) and as Ruthy Spivey in the drama series My Own Worst Enemy (2009), the latter of which earned her a Young Artist Award.Thorne gained prominence for her role as CeCe Jones on the Disney Channel series Shake It Up (2010–2013), for which she received several awards and nominations, including winning an Imagen Award. Thorne has since appeared in numerous feature films, including Blended (2014), Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip (2015), The Babysitter film series (2017–2020). She received praise for her roles in The DUFF (2015), Amityville: The Awakening (2017), and Infamous (2020). Thorne also led the drama series Famous in Love (2017–2018), for which she received nominations from the Teen Choice Awards.
Outside of acting, Thorne has ventured into music; she released her debut single, "Watch Me" in 2011, which charted at 86 on the US Billboard Hot 100. She has since released the EP Made in Japan in 2012 and the EP Jersey in 2014. She made her directorial debut in 2019, directing the adult film Her & Him, which garnered positive reviews and won a Pornhub Visionary Award. (wikipedia)
• • •
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| [24A: Gunty who wrote "The Rabbit Hutch," winner of the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction] |
More things:
["This is a school, not a bordello"—RIP Martin Mull]
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
- 7A: Four-year-old in pig tales? (PEPPA) — fictional pigs ... I got Wilbur ... I got, I dunno, Piglet? And then I'm out. PEPPA Pig is a phenomenon that I just missed. My daughter would've been about the right age for it when it first hit the States ('05), but she generally did not watch commercial children's TV. She didn't watch TV much at all, though she did have a semi-hilarious addiction to watching DVDs of Sabrina the Teenage Witch (the series starring Melissa Joan Hart that ran '96-'03—which was, to our credit as parents, a very good show). But PEPPA Pig, no. So I needed some crosses to get PEPPA.
- 15A: Members of the family Passeridae (SPARROWS) — knew this was a bird family, and guessed SPARROWS correctly, but I was very aware, as I was writing it in, that SWALLOWS also fit.
- 23A: Pilot productions? (PENS) — Pilot is a company that makes PENS, so that's what that's about.
- 27A: Industry that emerged in the 1970s (GAMING) — wow, "industry" had me thinking something more ... industrial. Interesting / toughish clue.
- 30A: Windy flight? (SPIRAL STAIRCASE) — kind of meh as an answer, but the misdirective clue is kind of fun (not windy like Chicago, but win- (rhymes with "vine") -dy like a winding ... staircase, actually; or a long and winding road, if that's more your thing)
- 34A: Option for a backpacker (HOSTEL) — had the "H" and wanted HIKING. "Option" is not a great option here, as OPT is already in the grid (19D: Elect).
- 35A: Apt name for a successful crypto investor? (ERICH) — unless he pronounces his name E-RICH (like he's a rapper or something), then no, unapt, boo to this clue. It's only "apt" if it sounds right, and this doesn't sound right.
- 51A: Unwelcome sight in musical stairs (NO SEATS) — very frowny face drawn next to this answer on my print-out. Not a phrase that's strong enough to stand alone.
- 28D: Kind of number represented by the equation M = v/c (MACH) — so ... kind of number represented by "M." So ... "M" ... it's just "M." That's what the "M" stands for. The "M" stands for MACH. Clue could've just been [M, in aeronautics]. (MACH 1 = the speed of sound, represented by the "c" in today's "equation")
- 30A: A "whole" thing (SHEBANG) — Ugh to "A" here. There is no "shebang" that is not preceded by "the" and "whole," so "A" is an absurdity. A SHEBANG implies multiple SHEBANGS, and ... no. Unless you mean this SHEBANGS:
- 32D: Battleship corner (A-ONE) — despite thinking of the "Battleship" game almost immediately, I didn't get this one until I had it down to A-NE, and even then I was like "... who's ANNE and what is she doing in the corner of a battleship?" I haven't looked at a "Battleship" board in forever, so I assume that A1 is somehow a ... corner of that board. OK, yeah, here we go:
Hope this puzzle didn't havoc you (am I saying that right?). See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
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96 comments:
Musical Chairs, not Stairs (51A)
Easy-Medium for me too.
Overwrites:
21A: OScAR before OSKAR
29A: LOvE IT before LOSE IT
41D: ewokS before JawaS before JEDIS
52A: pairS before itemS before DYADS
WOEs:
TESS Gunty at 24A
@Rex HAVOCS as a verb in 33A
Bella THORNE of "Shake It Up" at 53A
I respectfully disagree with OFL about ERICH at 35A. I generally dislike "Apt name for ..." clues but I smiled at this one.
Lovely puzzle - Rex must not have slept well. Four interconnected spanners that all hit nicely - MISSING THE POINT x SPIRAL STAIRCASE in the center is fantastic.
SHE Bop
I agree that HAVOCS is funky - took me some time to trust putting that in. Didn’t know THORNE, OSKAR or TESS but crosses were fair enough. SENSATE and INITIATE were oddly satisfying.
Hail ATLANTIS
Highly enjoyable Friday morning solve.
This MORTAL Coil
Threw in greenbaypackers right away before THANKSGIVINGDAY. For some reason, put in SPIRALSpaghetti (not a thing - spiral pasta, yes) first. Typical Friday time for me but those alternate longs that fit were definitely time wasters.
Chiming in on the awfulness of HAVOCS. Nouns that are used as verbs are generally one of my pet peeves, a horrid modern trend (like gifts as a verb - the word is gives, okay??) that I realize is probably here to stay at least for awhile.
The NW, as usual for some reason, was hardest for me; no idea on Aristotle’s ideas on THEISM, did not know the family Passeridae, and THANKSGIVINGDAY didn’t come easily because I’m not a football person. I don’t really think AILS is a synonym of bothers. So I found the puzzle challenging but that’s good on a Friday. I did know PEPPA pig!
Havoc as a verb is not good. It is legit, but archaic.
I remember another clue for SPIRALSTAIRCASE “It may turn into a different story” or something along those lines
I proudly and confidently put JTEN in for the Battleship clue, because I like to over complicate things I guess.
Played very hard for me - harder than most Saturdays. That despite THANKSGIVING DAY and SPIRAL STAIRCASE going in very quickly.
Very hard getting started, as I could not fill anything in until I go to 25A, where I put Alum, but quickly changed to AUNT thanks to OPT.
Nothing specifically slowing me down other than the unknown proper name stack of OSKAR and TESS; just constantly not on the cluing wavelenth.
Am I the only one who can't access the puzzle?
I enjoyed the long downs and the grid spanner more than OFL, but took the collar on the propers - OSKAR, TESS, VASCO, GIANNI, THORNE, and even PEPPA, which I vaguely remember from a crossword grid from days gone by. Sometimes I think they could put the four dudes from Mt. Rushmore in a grid and I would still draw a blank.
Personally, I don’t care if all of the wannabe JEDIS in the crowd do or don’t like the word, but I do wish they would keep it out of my crossword grids.
HAVOCS is typical NYT fare - defensible, groan-inducing, not terribly well-received, but deemed acceptable (or perhaps even desirable) by both the current and previous editorial regime. I’ve come to grudgingly accept that sort of thing, since it is ingrained in their DNA and a wholesale regime change would be required to banish that type of silliness once and for all.
I tried greenbaypackers at first, too. Realized that didn't work
Interesting puzzle with odd usages like HAVOCS and SOPS. Got THANKSGIVINGDAY right away because we watched the game on an old black and white TV with lots of “snow” (sometimes real) at my aunts home where we spent that holiday each year for over a decade. Brought back memories of delicious turkey, mashed potatoes, apple pie, and pumpkin pie, coming attractions for November. But had to look up OSKAR to confirm. The rest filled in steadily until the NE where I got hung up on PRIMEREAL, first trying PRIMary, then PRIMordial, all of which got nixed by the crossings. LOSEIT was the last answer to fall.
Gorgeous design – never appearing before in a Times puzzle. No wayward black squares, a pair of scrapbook photo corners, lovely diagonals. I feel peace just gazing at the empty grid.
Not out of high school, this is Jackson’s third NYT puzzle. His first puzzle had a clue I adore: [Needle on a thread] for TROLL. To me, that’s punny, but not in an eyerolling way.
Today, more smile-producing punny clues – [A lot to like] for PRIME REAL ESTATE, [Safe place] for BANK, [Windy flight] for SPIRAL STAIRCASE – plus Beauty In Answer with SHEBANG and PESCETARIAN.
Speaking of cluing, AONE, which has appeared in the major outlets more than 600 times, is almost always clued something like [Top notch], so I loved seeing that Battleship clue today.
And here’s a puzzle-inspired riddle: What (not-in-the-puzzle) word relates to both MORTAL and SPIRAL STAIRCASE?*
Jackson, I hope you continue to construct. There’s a chance, says my intuition, that you are like the young David Steinberg, who started good, and just got better, with a continuously rising arc, moving into the top tier. Please? More puzzles? And thank you for a most enjoyable outing today!
* coil
The Chicago Bears has the same amount of letters as Thanksgiving Day. Huh…
musical chairs not stairs.
I think the "no contact rule" means you shouldn't be in touch with your ex once you're in a new relationship!
Also, SOP is only for bread and pasta sauce :-)
Tuesday easy but still enjoyable
Hey All !
Succumbed to a one-letter DNF today. Argh! Went over puz several times trying to find my ERROR, but finally gave up and hit Check Puzzle. I had GIANaI/LEaD. The clue for LEND could definitely also be LEAD as its answer, so I'm complaining to whomever is listening! GIANAI, GIANNI, tomayto-tomahto.
Puz started off as a typical tough Friday, but was actually able to move through it rather quickly. Finished in about 20 minutes, with 3 more searching for my mistake.
Funny how former Disney actresses go all wild after their Disney stint, look at Miley Cyrus, but the ones from Nickelodeon don't go all wacky. The risquest one I can think of is Ariana Grande, and that's the skimpy outfits she dons while in concert. Just sayin'.
Anyway, made it to Friday. Have a good one!
No F's (MAN!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
Very similar experience to OFL today, even using ISM to get IPOS and SEW and seeing MISSINGTHEPOINT instantly. The ___OWS did lead to SWALLOWS, but THANKSGIVINGDAY fixed that. Knew PEPPA (granddaughters) which led to PERPS which took care of the NE. And so on. What looked really challenging turned out to be fairly whooshy, OK by me.
Glad so many others were put off by HAVOCS. Ugh.
Propers were at least somewhat familiar today, except for TESS and THORNE. How do you do? I follow a lot of international soccer but VASCO? News to me.
Favorite clue today has to be the "windy flight". Nice one.
All in all enjoyed this one very much, JM. Just Might be my favorite this week, and thanks for all the fun.
Surprised nobody has mentioned it yet, but c is the mathematical constant for the speed of light (not sound, as Rex said). The speed of sound is not a constant, as it varies depending on the medium the sound wave is traveling through. The equation M = v/c is the formula for calculating the Mach number, where M is the Mach number, v is the velocity of the object, and c is speed of light.
Hi Rex, I wanted to clear up the “no contact” rule. For those of us out in the dating world, the “no contact” rule is a widely known approach to dealing with a breakup or ending of another difficult relationship, where you cut off contact with your ex for a predetermined period of time to help get over them. Here is an explanation from verywellhealth:
“As the phrase implies, the ‘no contact’ rule entails cutting off all communications with your ex following a breakup. This includes not engaging in phone calls, texting, direct messages and ‘likes’ on social media, and in-person meetups. Some even argue that looking at their social media posts is considered off limits.”
If you Google “no contact,” these are the kinds of results you will get.
The idea of a domestic violence order didn’t even cross my mind because I am so familiar with the “no contact” rule, but I can see how you could think that if you weren’t familiar with the current discourse around breakups.
I prefer the William Hung version of SHEBANGS
This had to be super easy. I not only finished it, but in 36 minutes!
Yeah, HAVOCS, oof. You know an answer is bad when you see it from the crosses, get all ready to fill it in, and hesitate before filling because, "oh, it can't be [______], can it? That'd be terrible." And then it is. Havocs the English language, it does.
M actually is often referred to as the “Mach number”…it’s common in fluid dynamics for dimensionless numbers to be referred to this way (dimensionless because this is a speed divided by another speed, and so the units cancel out and you’re left with the ratio between them). So the clue on that one was fine for me as written.
A good description of a GAL who is quite proper before tossing down a couple of brewskis might be PRIM ERE ALE STATE. Just sayin'.
And, of course, prisoner coifs can only be CONDOS.
WTF is going on at the Grey Lady? SHEBANG has appeared 10 times in the Shortz/ Fagliano era, while HEBANG has never been seen. I'd like a little more bang for the bucks!
@Rex starting out with _ _ _ ISM means that he must have been wondering, "What is THE ISM that was influenced by Aristotle's concept of the Unmoved Mover?" Personally, I picture an Allied Van Lines employee who shrugs at the end of Old Yeller when I hear Unmoved Mover.
As George Strait might have said after solving yesterday's puzzle, "All my EXES live in AESTX."
I enjoyed this a lot. Thanks, Jackson Matz.
Medium but it felt tougher, so not very whooshy. I did not know THEISM, SPARROWS, OSKAR, TESS, VASCO, THORNE…hence it seemed tough. I also had Loan before LEND, SENSing before SENSATE, hero before TEMP, and MammAL before MORTAL..which added to the perception of tough. That said, on the plus side 2 of the 3 long downs went in with almost no crosses and the third was pretty easy.
Mostly solid (with the possible exception of HAVOCS) but not particularly colorful (or what @Rex said). Liked it.
@Nancy - I really enjoyed both your puzzles. The LAT was amusing and the WSJ was a. bit of a challenge.
Yeah, I knew Porky had to be more than four years old
Lots of Kealoas today. J - - - for JAPE or Jest, - E - - for TEMP or Hero, plus Sparrows / Swallows could be one depending on how it’s clued.
I appreciate this comment, thx ~RP
Finished it, but after fixing ERRORs:
SWALLOWS to SPARROWS
LEAP AT to LOSE IT
MUTUAL to MORTAL
ALUM to AUNT
Sops as in getting sopped or sopping wet when caught in a downpour
@pabloinnh, further to the shorthand reference to Brazil's Vasco da Gama football team, there is the old, beloved Chilean team named for Magellan. CD Magallanes was the first (1897) team established in what became Chile's first division, taking the first three consecutive league championships. Magallanes, nicknamed La Academia, has been relegated, promoted, re-relegated, but is considered Chile's most successful (biz-wise) team.
Atte.,
JimG
Easiest ever Friday puzz for me. Put in the ISM, knocked out THANKSGIVING DAY having seen the game over decades, and then MISSING THE POINT immediately followed. With those two taken care of everything fell into place.
The OED last cites havoc as a verb in 1796 and 1884. That is a TERRIBLE answer. Is PEPPA really only four? GIANNI is short for Giovanni which is really John in Italian, though I suppose one could argue they are both short forms. MORTAL as the answer for 'you and me' is rubbish, not that there is anything wrong with either answer or clue per se, but that combination just fell totally flat. I do think the quality of the puzzles has improved under Joel Fagliano, but the editing needs to get better.
Easy here, thanks to having grown up in a household that worshiped Vince Lombardi and Bart Starr. I wrote in THANKSGIVING DAY first thing, with memories of dinner-scheduling negotiations between the aunts (in the kitchen) and the uncles (in front of the TV), and then from the Y's DYADS, I climbed up to the level of the SPIRAL STAIRCASE which gave me access to the rest. A fun puzzle to solve.
Your George Strait line made me choke on my coffee! 👍🏼
@Nancy
Hey, I just did both of your puzzles on paper with a pencil -- like a heathen -- and had such a lovely time. The Wall Street Journal puzzle was rather challenging for me. The LA Times was a hoot. Congrats on both puzzles. Two on the same day should feel great.
Well, this one had a lot of that Friday whooshiness Rex goes on about. I got all the down 15s with only a cross or two -- in the case of 1-D, with none at all. I even got HARD And fast, which helped until it didn't. And when I misread the clue number and put the passerine birds in at 16 instead of 15, RobIns--I still got two correct letters. But when they go in that easily, it's hard to be sure of them, which made me hesitate over some of the acrosses.
I thought the windy flight might be an outdoor STAIRCASE, which was close enough for me to see SPIRAL, although I didn't notice until later that it was a pun. I didn't know TESS, but TESn didn't seem right, and the rest of AS A ROCK gradually emerged.. Then I only had to figure out if Bella was THORpE or THORNE, and that the minifigure maker was LEGO, not LalO (I was thinking of Lladro there, but misremembered it).
Since the printed paper doesn't give me any music, I am just assuming that 33-A is HOSTEL, though if you look up PESCETARIAN you get PEScaTARIAN all the way down.
But the hardest part of this puzzle for me was accepting that HAVOCS could be a verb. It turns out to be legit, though.
Boy, what a struggle -- but I felt at every point that it was an educational one with grown-up fill and good cluing. Lots of write-overs: RAPS before RIPS; ALUM before AUNT; and bRiCK at the end of the "extremely solid" clue instead of ROCK, with no lead-in words. That really threw me off in the West.
Great clues for PARANOID; MORTAL and SPIRAL STAIRCASE. Why can't I remember my diets? If only PESCETARIAN had come in sooner, it would have saved me a lot of struggle. OTOH, I who remember nothing somehow remembered that it's the SHARPEI that has a blue tongue -- although I did first confirm the answer with IPOS.
This is exactly the sort of puzzle I hope for on a Friday. Chewy, interesting, and fair.
PS -- Thanks to everyone who said such nice things about my two puzzles on yesterday's blog and today's.
There's nothing quite like pencil and paper!! Nice to see you back to posting.
I'm perhaps being over-sensitive, but there were two nearby words whose clues rubbed me the wrong way. I dislike the euphemistic renaming that some businesses use, and near the top of the list is gambling being re-branded as GAMING (27-A). The marketers of this "industry" don't want people to think of something that might have negative connotations so they give it a fun, innocuous name. Also ERICH (35-A) is clued (poorly) using cryptocurrencies, whose creation involves completely pointless environmental destruction.
No idea about VASCO either, but I figured it must be a Portuguese explorer, and VASCO da Gama was the only one I could think of.
NW the only difficulty, had to Google passeridae (should have known, backyard birder) to get a toehold. Oh well
Classic stuff, egs! Especially THE ISM and George Strait.
So Mach 1 means you're traveling at the speed of light?
JJK
Not knocking your dislike of nouns turning into verbs , but you are wrong to say that it is in any way shape or form a modern trend. It has been happening in English since well before Shakespeare’s time. As it happens , Shakespeare is a major source of first sightings of new ways to use words, so the OED frequently cites him as the first known use of a noun as a verb.
The point is lots of our verbs were created from nouns which we are not aware of because they happened before our time.
On the other hand, not all attempts to extend nouns to verbs succeed. Some that Shakespeare used never lasted. Rex’s criticism is that while havoc may be in dictionaries, it is failing. being rarely if ever used these days. He hates words like that.
Enjoyed this - backed into PEPPA....clever, but fair cluing.
68-worder with crossin puzgrid-spanners. Lively. But solvable without google search parties.
Several no-know names, but they were all Across stuff, sooo ... ok.
staff weeject pick (of only 8 choices): NOH. Gimme for M&A, but suspect that newer solvers might nat-tick on NOH/THORNE.
some fave stuff: SHARPEI. MISSINGTHEPOINT. ATLANTIS. PRIMEREALESTATE and its clue.
HAVOCS? har
Thanx, Mr. Matz dude. Does ERICH signal yer luv of bitcoinage?
Masked & Anonymo1U [s]
**gruntz**
Green Bay Packers before Thanksgiving Day
I am an old New York Football Giants fan, and I remember well the defensive back ERICH Barnes, whose first name was, indeed, pronounced E-rich.
Like Rex, I guessed the ISM. Like Rex, I wrote in THANKSGIVING DAY with no crosses. Who knew, I thought, that Aristotle influenced TaoISM. Oops.
This fell neatly into the first of my standard Friday/Saturday solve categories: "easy" (26-30 minutes) as opposed to "challenging" (53-59 minutes) or "fuhgetaboutit" ("Reveal Puzzle"). There seems to be no "medium."
This grid's DNA is all over the SW corner, where 47D, DNA, is joined by a Hidden Diagonal DNA (off the D in 41D, JEDIS--sorry, Star Wars fans, lol) and several Boggle DNAs. Looking at that corner (everything from BANK, 40A, to the bottom of the grid) over half of the 24 letters are D's, N's, or A's.
In terms of other Hidden Diagonals, there's an EAST in the SE, and MARS (see 28D) and TARS (1A). There's also a singular marshmallow chick--PEEP, a palindrome that begins with the P in 18A, SOPS, or the 3rd P in PEPPA.
Good stuff. Thanks.
I think you are the only one making this point because it is incorrect. In this context c refers to the speed of sound in the medium through which the object is moving (such as air). You are right that c depends on the medium. But this has nothing to do with the speed of light.
Although c often stands for the speed of light, in the formula for Mach number it represents the speed of sound in the given medium. Also, the speed of light is not constant either, and also depends on the medium through which it travels.
Despite a start very similar to our host's this wound up being a challenging solve. Mainly it was the result of write overs: COOPTS/CONDOS, SENSING/SENSATE, INDUCTEE/INITIATE, LOAN/LEND. HERO/TEMP wasn't one of them but I did waste time considering HERO.
One D was the only grid spanner that required a lot of crosses. The puzzle was an interesting mix of the easy and the baffling. I was very slow on AONE and JAPE. This made JEDIS difficult as well. HAVOCS and MACH were worse ending up as my final entries.
The Spelling Bee helped with DYAD and INITIATE. I used to think there was a word "initiant" but recent SBs disabused me of this. That only took 67 years. Just one more example of the fog I have to solve through.
yd -0. Qb1, on Wednesday I choked on CHUPPAH ending my latest QB streak at 24
The clue on pescetarian threw me off, because it suggests people that will eat fish but not meat (what a pescetarian is) must eat so much fish that they get large amounts of omega 3s. But that really depends on how much fish they eat. You can be pescetarian but still only eat fish once a month
Fun to solve and my favorite was Shebang!
Well it wasn't a Robyn W. Friday (hardly is anymore unless you go to the NYer) but although I had to cheat on PESCETARIAN, VASCO, didn't know HAVOC could have an S at the end, had Jibe for JAPE & Alum for AUNT, I did like PRIME REAL ESTATE & LEGO. All in all, a learning experience & one for which I thank you, Jackson :)
Sure agree re: havocs. It immediately brought to mind a history professor I had who would dock an essay if impact was used as a verb. It set my prejudice in stone.
And SCALLOPS for SPARROWS didn't help the NW corner.
Feel the need to point out that both pescAtarian and hostAl are both valid spellings of their respective words, which makes that A/E choice technically unsolvable.
After major difficulty Thursday, this was pretty straightforward. The Unknown Names were all gotten through crosses. The only real typeover was INITIANT before INITIATE because I forgot the latter can be a noun.
@puzzlehoarder, me too exactly on Wednesday; ended my streak at 17. Pretty sure I've ever seen or heard that word.
Well, it's not a Robyn Friday (who only appears at the NYer these days) but this was pretty okay, if tricky for me. I had to cheat for PESCETARIAN. I didn't know THORNE, VASCO. Had Alum for AUNT, Jibe for JAPE & I didn't know HAVOC could have an "S" at the end. But I did like PRIME REAL ESTATE & LEGO. I learned a few things so a decent Friday. Thank you, Jackson :)
Can someone please explain why a reunion attends is an aunt? Thanks.
The alternate spelling for pescatarian (my only known version) threw me off. So I spent way too long with that letter blank suspecting a rebus might be needed to make hostel work. Finally gave in and entered the E, with a wince, to get the completed puzzle. I suspect it's one of those Commonwealth vs USA issues in spelling as Australia, the UK and Canada all use pescatarian. As does Merriam Webster as the primary spelling.
Tough but fair dot and I nailed it as opposed to Thursday’s
Medium-challenging for me. Had no idea about 1D because I am not an NFL fan and thought that they were referring to a day in honour of some famous Detroit player or coach. Made the NW tougher than it should have been.
Strangely, I found the long downs to be the easiest way to get into the puzzle with PESCaTARIAN dropping in with no crosses. (Fixed the spelling pretty quickly.) PRIMEREALESTATE fell shortly thereafter. I live in an area that is obsessed with real estate. Attend a dinner party at a friend’s place and there is sure to be a realtor parked next to you. Might be a real realtor, or a dabbler, or a flipper, or just someone who wants to steer the conversation around to how much their property has appreciated. I am not as mad about property and money as most of them so when they ask how much my farm has appreciated, I just tell them, “I’m sure you know how to look that up”. Then I turn the person on my other side, hoping she’s not also into real estate. When the whole place has reached peak real estate mode, I just excuse myself and go out to the back yard for a cigar.
HAVOCS really sucks.
I like the fact that INITIATES can mean two different things, depending on how you pronounce it.
Quite liked the puzzle. Some nice stuff in there.
Oh yeah, SPARROWS. Passeridae rang bell somehow. I do my solving on a bench outside the cottage and occasionally turn on the Merlin app on my phone to identify an unknown bird call. I knew I had read the term Passeridae in reference to a nearby bird, but which one was it? Sandhill cranes?Great blue herons? Various thrushes? My faves, the little Nuthatches? Maybe one of the chickadees? Or a Flicker? None of the above clicked. What else has Merlin identified for me? Just then a few little SPARROWS alit about ten feet from me and began searching the ground for seeds. Nice. Makes my day.
Sorry for the duplicate comment 😳
The puzzle was ok, imo. First answer I wrote in was THANKSGIVINGDAY. Unfortunately, the rest wasn’t as easy for me. Never heard of Bella Thorne either.
Yikes, I didn't even get out of the upper section before noticing multiple appearances of the plural of convenience (POC), especially the two-for-one kind where a Down and an Across both get a grid fill, letter count boost by sharing a final S. The two fers started with IPO/CONDO and continued with EXE/SOP, PERP/RIP, AIL/HAVOC(!), JEDI/DYAD and finished at MCAT/NO SEAT.
Each of those six POCifying Ss could be changed to a black square, the clue slightly tweaked and nothing much of interest or value would be lost. That's a lot of PRIME REAL ESTATE taken up by non-nutritive filler, so to speak. The POC Committee was divided between giving the grid a POC Assisted vs a POC Marked rating.
Pretty sure GAMING refers to computer games which came about in the '70s, concurrently with the popularity of home computers, and unrelated to 'gaming commission' of gambling (the Nevada gaming commission was created in 1955)
Wow, excellent responses, thank you all. I certainly wasn't thinking that through, was I? Mea culpa.
Made in Japan
The reason why the crypto clue and Erich is the pun e-rich.
Whether that makes it even more annoying, is another question. I didn’t get the joke until after I came here and read some comments above.
To those who have mentioned not seeing Robyn's puzzles appearing on Fridays in the NYT of late, I would take every cent I have in the bank and bet that, even though I don't know Robyn personally and have never corresponded with her, I can guess the reason:
I read at some point in the last year or two that the NYT has initiated an "Easy Mode" Friday solve for solvers who click on the option. Evidently the NYT editors change the clues that the constructor has worked so hard to come up with -- dumbing them down for those that want an easier solve.
As a Friday specialist, Robyn would have suffered more from this policy than most other constructors. I suspect she wasn't asked for permission, I suspect she wasn't consulted on the changes, and I suspect the changes would not have been acceptable to her. FWIW, they certainly wouldn't be acceptable to me. So if she has decided to vote on the new policy with her feet, I don't blame her in the least. But it is definitely our loss.
Wrong re HOSTAL for sure, look it up
Agree with you, Nancy, thanks :)
Tres late to this party...2 year old grandson needed all of my attention....he even doodled on my unfinished puzzle. Nap time beckons so here I am with the final product.
I stared at 1D and did my uh oh dance. If it's not the Niners, then I don't know anything. I even had trouble with VASCO and I do like soccer... but again, if it's not Atletico Madrid or Liverpool then I don't know what you are. I digress. On to the rest.
My first longie: HARD AS A ROCK. My second longie: PRIME REAL ESTATE. Like @Rex, I had an ISM staring at me at first but the H for HARD gave me my entry. On to the Pig. So many pigs. Which pig to pick. AHA...PERPS gave me the P and off to PEPPA I went.
The rest: Hard but doable. SPIRAL STAIRCASE...nice cluing there! On to the diet. Was I the only one who Mediterranian? Of course not because any MORTAL here knows how to spell. I don't. OK, so I remembered Pilot does PENS and SERTA is something you sleep on so.....A PESCETARIAN....but how do I spell it! Hope all the crosses help...they did!
Come to the end. How to spell GIANNI; what are DYADS and who's this Bella person named THORNE. Hey I actually got it without help.
Back to figuring out what the Detroit Lions are up to. I thought maybe there was a THANK God involved. That whole western section was creating some HAVOCS (Ughish) and I had to cheat on OSKAR so I had the letters I needed for GIVING DAY. Por fin!
Clever puzzle; strange cluing and why is GAMING an industry that emerged? Am I MISSING THE POINT?
Think family reunion.
There is an option available, I believe, only to the commenter; after the post, "Delete" in red will appear. Click on this to remove dupes.
Thank you Nancy for that inside, informed perspective. I’ve commented frequently that the NYT is becoming a niche (or to use a a NYT fav - genre) puzzle and that it is no longer one of the top five puzzles nationally, and may not even be one of the top three even in NYC.
The reasons are myriad and are expressed in this and other forums by very astute Xword solvers and fans on a daily basis. Very unfortunate that they think they are above the fray, and even sadder that those of us who remain loyal (and hope against hope that the situation will improve under the new leadership) still have to deal with shit like HAVOCS on a daily basis.
Many thanks to you and your collaborators who seek out other outlets for your stellar efforts (and for trying your best in these trying times at the Old Gray Lady).
This was one of the weirder solves in a while. I started absolutely whooshing through the grid at Tuesday speed. Then, with only a couple tough crosses left, this became the slog to end all slogs. Didn’t see MACH or ERICH and HAVOCS just seemed wrong. And MCATS is what exactly? Meanwhile I had SEND for “Advance” which left me wondering what this “SEGO” is that makes minifigures. Finally figuring out the LEND/LEGO cross completed the grid at 10 minutes over my average — after what initially looked like a personal best in the making.
Liked it a lot. Seemed impossible at first, hardly anything until it all came together in shorter than Friday time. And I didn't even know the Lions was an American football team, let alone their schedule.
NOSEATS = GREEN PAINT, right? Just getting a grasp on my Rexisms
Shebang should have been a Cyndi Lauper clue.
I started with SPIRAL STAIRCASE and then (after testing a few of the hypothetical checkers) MISSING THE POINT! So I was off to the races. The whole puzzle was very easy. I did have to change DUAD to DYAD.
"And MCATS is what exactly?"
Plural of MCAT. The Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) assesses knowledge of natural and social sciences concepts and critical thinking and scientific problem-solving skills required to begin the study of medicine.
Had to do the puzzle in the newspaper, because I couldn't access it online. Still can't as of this (Saturday) morning. I assume they're still "working on it." Tough puzzle...I agree with everyone who says HAVOCS is a horrible answer.
Only came to see Rex pick apart this delightful puzzle. Not disappointed.
DNF. Had MSATS for 38D (as in LSATS) and as for the Brazillian soccer club, VASsO sounded about right to me. So a big fat Natick ruined it for me. Too bad, other than that it was pretty good.
It's a rare Friday indeed when I can slap down a 15-letter cold gimme. What else could 1d be but THANKSGIVINGDAY? So this one played easy-medium for me. (Also followed shortly with MISSINGTHEPOINT.) Actually, all the gridspanners gave themselves up quickly. The only real trouble I had was in the SE, with the crossing of that soccer team and those exams. I assumed all those tests were [something]SATS, so was left with VASSO. Didn't look right. Then I remembered VASCO daGama, and the jig was up. So just the one-letter writeover. Hey, I'm only MORTAL.
VOTER gave me a smile, as I just yesterday became one in this election. I went with a friend who quipped "I hope T**** doesn't mind that I spelled his name H-A-R-R-I-S!" Birdie.
Wordle phew, bad first-letter guesses.
SENSATE SERTA SORT
I S’POSE TESS raised HAVOC
with THE PRIME HOSTEL gang;
TESS made SCOT HARDASAROCK
AS THE ONE who SHEBANG.
--- OSKAR THORNE
Started exactly like OFL with ISM and MISSINGTHEPOINT, with that long one providing helpful bones to spread out on. Problem in the SE having INducteE before seeing INITIATE was the new member. PARANOID coulda been clued as a Black Sabbath classic. Is Ozzy MORTAL?
Wordle eagle!!!
I think you're wrong. Your reasoning sounds very fishy to me.
SwAllOWS before SPARROWS, and couch before SERTA were my only write overs. I delved into pescEtarian vs. pescAtarian spellings. From what I could find, pescEtarian was the original primary spelling, which used the Italian word for fish: pesce. pescAtarian was the alternate. My how times have changed.
Passerine refers to the largest order of our feathered friends, more than half of all birds. "Pencil" and paper?? Man up, or them and they up, and do it in ink!
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