Two constructor names I have come to look forward to individually ... together on one byline. Nice. This is a very well-made puzzle, which I mostly enjoyed. The parts I didn't enjoy had very little to do with grid or clue quality and everything to do with the fact that I have a deep and admittedly only semi-rational aversion to Millennialspeak. Not to Millennials, per se, whom I tend to think of as ... well, just people. Dividing people by generation doesn't do most of us any good, so I try not to think that way. And yet. Yet. When it comes to certain expressions, slang, etc., there's no question that generational divides exist, and I guarantee you no one my age ever called their kid a THREENAGER (16A: Portmanteau for a moody and strong-willed toddler). What a ridiculous, unnecessary word. You already have "toddler," why did you need this other thing? Are you so portmanteau-deprived? I am admittedly not searching too hard, but the earliest references I see are circa 2016. Help me, OED! (Sorry, OED has only SCREENAGER (which was my first thought, actually) and TWEENAGER (which obviously couldn't be true, given the age restrictions)). The term THREENAGER also seems to be playing on negative stereotypes of actual teenagers, i.e. defiant, strong-willed, etc. so boo to that. The whole thing seems like a marketing gimmick. "We invented a new kind of toddler, buy this thing, take this advice, worry more than you already are!" The kid is three. Soon he'll be four. Come on.
After THREENAGER came STRUGGLE BUS, another term I never heard until I was well into middle age (10D: Something the floundering are said to be on). I never liked it because initially I thought it was playing on the term "short bus," the term for the bus used to transport kids with mental or physical disabilities to school. So STRUGGLE BUS seemed inherently offensive. The term appears to be of uncertain, early 21st-century origin (online OED's got nothing), and I doubt it's actually offensive, but even if I wanted to use it now (and I don't), I just can't. It's ruined for me. And then, after those answers, after THREENAGER, andSTRUGGLE BUS, after I already thought to myself "this is a heavily Millennialspeak puzzle...," came the Millennialspeak term I hate most of all: ADULTING (19A: Making a car payment, dusting the living room, scheduling a doctor's appointment, etc.). There's something so whinily self-infantilizing about it. Nothing makes me want to shout "Grow up!" more than someone talking about ADULTING. It's not cosplay! You get old. Then you die. Childhood is meant to be left behind and fondly remembered. Aging isn't bad—desperately clinging to youth is. Look, I'm just being honest about the gut reactions of the cranky old man who lives inside me. I believe only good and kind and warm things about Millennials as human beings, and I love everything about them, except for their invented vocabulary, which is frequently embarrassing. Avocado toast, however—delicious.
But less about getting off my lawn and more about how generally beautiful this puzzle is. It's full of freshness and surprises, and I suspect that even the slang that made me wince will give others great joy. I CAN TAKE IT! In fact, I'll take any puzzle that puts PANDA CAM alongside ALOO GOBI. Imagine eating delicious Indian food while watching adorable pandas (I am imagining it right now, and it's great). The NE corner is only so-so, but every other corner is bursting with life (or bursting with blood, in the case of the NOSEBLEEDS)). NOSEBLEEDSwould be better at the top of the grid, but I like that CRAWL SPACE is down low where it belongs (I also love the clue: 54A: Very short story?). There's a clunky answer or two, here and there. KNEELAT, for instance, is a bit ungainly, and NOVATE ... well, I don't know what that is, but "legalese" is not exactly rich ground for fun fill (44D: Replace with a new contract in legalese). But this puzzle made me remember ICHIRO (good) and Ed "TOO TALL" Jones (good) and—once again, for the second time this week—Agnès Varda! (18A: Domaine d'Agnès Varda). So glad to see the NYTXW finally coming around on her. It's the Age of Varda! I hope my gushing about her at every opportunity helped you piece together CINÉ (the French word for "cinema") today.
It's note time:
11A: Plant also known as Pisum sativum (PEA) — I want at least one of you to have written in POT ("sativa" is a strain of cannabis).
17A: Actress Shawkat who played Maeby on "Arrested Development" (ALIA) — first thing I wrote in the grid. She's this century's EERO, or ELIA, or ENYA (technically ENYA is this century's ENYA, but you get my point). Straight-up crosswordese. And you no longer have to go to the Latin phrase "inter ALIA" to clue ALIA, hurray. I last saw ALIA Shawkat in Blink Twice (2024), where she plays Jess, a woman whose bright yellow lighter (with her name on it) becomes an important recurring object in the film.
1D: Ride arranged on one's own (KIT CAR) — this is a car you assemble yourself. So "arranged" as in "physically put together," not "ordered (like an Uber)."
47A: Accomplish with precision (DOTOAT) — allow me to parse this for you: it's "DO TO A 'T'." Four words. I know, it's awful, let's not think about it. (Or, you can have fun pronouncing it "doe tote," as I'm doing in my head currently)
34A: Get hot and bothered (SWELTER) — first thought: "STEAM UP." The clue wanted me to think about sex so I thought about sex, what can I say?
48A: Purchase on an island? (GAS) — those little areas where you pump your GAS are sometimes called "islands." Hope you didn't write in LEI here.
53A: Falsify, in a way (COOK) — as in "COOK the books" (i.e. falsify financial records). I had -OOK and wrote in ROOK. So I was in the Fraud ballpark, but just ... off.
2D: Mononymous baseball star who played 28 seasons (ICHIRO) — I don't think of anyone whose last name is well known and frequently used as "mononymous." But yes, he's commonly referred to by ICHIRO ... so I guess it's OK. Is SHOHEI mononymous too now? PELE, now he's mononymous, as I cannot tell you any other part of his name. See also, once again, ENYA. (the "e" key just went out on my wireless keyboard, R.I.P. little keyboard, hello new tech expenditure)
51D: Musical counterpart of pizzicato (ARCO) — ARCO = played with the bow (pizzicato = plucked with the fingers)
41A: Like i, say (NONREAL) — very proud of getting this one fairly quickly, of the -EAL. I know "i" as the square root of "-1"—thus, a NONREAL number. Here's a more technical definition. Mathematicians will no doubt chime in in the comments. They tend to be big chimers when their field is at issue ("As a mathematician, ...”).
56D: Shot one waits to knock back (LOB) — alcoholic misdirection, my favorite kind of misdirection. Obviously the real context is tennis.
Gonna go knock back several shots of coffee now. Not gonna wait. Take care, see you next time.
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
***
Important Note:
As of Monday, 11/4/24, the NYT Tech Guild is on strike.
The Guild is asking that readers honor their picket line by boycotting the Times’ selection of games, including Wordle and the daily digital crossword, and to avoid other digital extensions such as the Cooking app.
Annie Shields, a campaign lead for the News Guild of New York, encouraged people to sacrifice their streaks in the wildly popular Wordle and Connections games in order to support the strike.
There were some anti-union talking points being credulously repeated in the comments recently, so just to be clear (per Vanity Fair): "The union said Tech Guild workers' main concerns that remain unresolved are: remote/hybrid work protections; “just cause” job protections, which “the newsroom union has had for decades”; limits on subcontracting; and pay equity/fair pay."
Since the picket line is "digital," it would appear to apply only to Games solved in the NYT digital environment—basically anything you solve on your phone or on the NYT website per se. If you get the puzzle in an actual dead-tree newspaper, or if you solve it outside the NYT's proprietary environment (via a third-party app, as I do), then technically you're not crossing the picket line by solving. You can honor the digital picket line by not using the Games app (or the Cooking app) at all until the strike is resolved. No Spelling Bee, no Connections ... none of it. My morning Wordle ritual is was very important to me, but ... I'll survive, I assume.
Q: What's the Web address for Cheerios? A: Cheerios DOT OAT (47A)
Overwrites: Several trigonometric functions before TAN at 6D ChestY before CROAKY at 38D
WOEs: STRUGGLEBUS at 10D ALIA Shawkat at 17A Tyronn LUE at 20D The GOBI part of 32D Legalese NOVATE at 44D lei before GAS for the island purchase at 48A (D'oh!)
A very enjoyable Friday-level puzzle for me, until I hit two terms I’ve never heard: PANDA CAM and RENT ROLL.
Is a PANDA CAM just a…camera for pandas? Why not BEAR CAM or DEER CAM or DOLPHIN CAM? I had PANDA pAw (cause of the “footage” part of the clue) and couldn’t see any other possible angle.
Then RENT ROLL? Like taking roll in class? Is it a physical thing? Never heard this term before, but it was the only option that felt like it *could* be a thing given the crosses.
Fun and easy til the SW. Got ALOO- and RENT- easily, but crossing with NONREAL (still no idea what this means - is I short for imaginary numbers?) and DOTOAT made it very difficult, especially since MIL and COOK were not no-brainers.
I expect and want to be put through paces on Saturday and I certainly was today. I expect and want, on Saturday, to have those ringing-with-joy moments when an elusive answer finally hits me after dodging me many times, and they were there in force today.
But what makes a Saturday special, is when, on top of these fine qualities, the puzzle is rich with rewards – beauty, wit, and the stamp of quality. And, for me, today’s was special: • Lovely, lovely answers – I CAN TAKE IT, NOSEBLEEDS (as clued), I DO WHAT I CAN, ADULTING, SWELTER, ALOO GOBI, EMINENCE. These add sheen, make the tour through the box anything but pedestrian. • Fun answers I’ve never heard of (THREENAGER, STRUGGLEBUS) that are clever and smile-producing. • Clever clues that amaze and happify, such as [Purchase on an island?] for GAS, [Very short story?] for CRAWL SPACE, [Get hot and bothered] for SWELTER, and … • A world-class clue/answer that is so good, so elating, that you instantly love this puzzle forever, and if there were any nits, they have disappeared forever: [Producer of black-and-white footage?] for PANDACAM. Game over. Day made.
Yes, this was one of the special ones. Chandi and Hoang-Kim, after this, your first collaboration, how about some more – please? I loved this., Thank you so much!
Icing for nerdy me were a couple of serendipities – Row seven (TOO TALL and ECCE) with its three double letters and palindrome, and the answer GNATS, because that word backward, cutely tells what those gnats did.
Man - I had the same wtf with the brutal tri-cross of THREENAGER x STRUGGLE BUS x ADULTING. All that real estate wasted - I wasn’t able to come back off of that - even with some other nice entries.
I did like ALOO GOBI - we make it once a week in the colder months. NOSE BLEEDS, KICK STARTS etc all solid. Other than ALIA - the trivia was pretty straightforward.
Don’t see how you can praise this one after rightfully killing those three awful longs. I’ll take the wicked center 5 stack in Stella’s Stumper today.
Easy-medium here. Medium mainly due to the SW, mainly due to DOTOAT and NONREAL not clicking, even with ALOOGOBI and RENTROLL in place.
Overall though, a really splendid puzzle and while the same age as Rex, I didn’t have any old man yells at clouds thoughts on the millennial-ese (which makes me think of a nice Steak or Chicken Milanese).
Also, seems like we’ve had a run on “TO A T” and variants. Maybe including some other outlets too, but just seems like we’ve had 3 or 4 of these recently.
zIpCAR at 1D before KIT
Loved the clues for GUTTER (place for a mind or ball) and CRAWLSPACE (Very short story?)
The i in NONREAL refers to the square root of negative one, which is classified as an “imaginary“ number as opposed to a REAL number. However, somewhat ironically, REAL numbers are no more or less imaginary than any other numbers.
I was actually chuckling as I TITT on the SW section . There was no way I was going to bumble by way onto PANDA CAM alongside ALOO GOBI (especially with AGRARIAN as a cross). I’m the guy the editors were snickering at when they concocted that section.
I think the clue for ICHIRO goes too far. Rex goes with close enough but I think it steps over the line into bogus territory. MADONNA is mononymous, ICHIRO is just the first name of Mr. Suzuki.
Enjoyable puzzle that put me on the STRUGGLEBUS from the start. Looking back afterward, the answers didn't seem that difficult, but in the moment I had to pick it apart section by section.
The virtues of this puzzle were admirably laid out by RP and Lewis. My favorite clue was for CRAWLSPACE (very short story?) and I admired how the SW was put together
Havent heard ADULTING in a while - definitely a 20-something term that Gen Z hasn't used as much
RP, thanks for the tip on the NYT guild job action. Will have to go to the paper till resolved
Once again I was one letter off and couldn't figure out what the problem was. It made me realize something. For years I solved on paper. Who knows how many of those puzzles had one wrong letter? I was perfectly satisfied once the grid was filled in.
Wouldn't call this easy. There is nothing quite as unsatisfying as jotting in answers to terms you've never heard of before; THREENAGER, STRUGGLEBUS, PANDACAM, ALOOGOBI.... (add disappointed shrug). And while well aware of Ichiro Suzuki's illustrious baseball career, I had no idea he had dropped the Suzuki. I suppose it's fair as pictures on Google search have ICHIRO on the back of his jersey.
DNF at CItE/CARtAL Despite Rex's best efforts, I had no idea who Agnes Varda is, and I rationalized 'cartal' as related to 'cartel', which is a 'body' in the same sense as 'legislative body'.
Never heard STRUGGLE BUS nor THREENAGER, but well acquainted with ADULTING, which has penetrated pop culture enough that even I know of it. THREENAGER seems like a particularly useless coinage.
I liked this muchly but the SW was a nightmare. No idea on NONREAL for i (and running the alphabet didn’t help). I thought there might be a PAstACAM but I couldn’t quite accept it. And why shouldn’t it be a RENTbook? So there was trouble down there.
ALIA Shawkat was great in Search Party and she’s amazing in The Old Man.
Thank you for your comments regarding 19A -- a word I despise so much that I won't type it here, and that I refused to fill in while solving. I find it appalling that there is a group of people out there who are so ill-equipped to function in society that they require a special term of praise to describe the performance of everyday tasks that, for generations, people have been doing as part of the routine of living. (Rex, I have living inside me a man who is crankier and older than the one living inside you...)
As for PANDACAM, I believe the National Zoo in Washington livestreams the pandas, and that they call it the "Pandacam," but I could be wrong.
I have never heard STRUGGLEBUS in my life, did not know Tyronn Lue (I don't watch the NBA much at all, never mind the Clippers), or Agnes Varda or a MIL or a THREENAGER. I would never use AGRARIAN as 'of the land' or talk about an EMINENCE when referring to a promontory. Similary, I would never say an OVAL is 'nearly round'. Some of the trivia here, the fill and the cluing are just ridiculous. I love that you think it is 'easy', Rex and that somehow this puzzle is 'well-made'. I cannot agree.
Usually my own sense of a grid’s difficulty (although for sure not my “time to completion”) is similar to Rex’s. But I have to say I did not find this grid Easy; took me much longer than a typical Saturday. Looking at it now, though, I’m not sure why. That’s all.
The SW corner was totally blank for me. Never heard of: Alec Guinness, panda cam, or Rent roll. I guess we can just pick any zoo animal, throw in a "cam", and turn it into a crossword answer. Cool. DO TO A T is an embarrassment and should be banned from future crosswords. Ditto for CROAKY. Both answers feel forced and fake. I've heard of aloo Gobi but I can't keep all the dishes on an Indian menu straight in my brain. On a positive note, none of this actually matters, as we are about to be plunged into a dystopian fascist nightmare, so who really cares about failing miserably in a crossword puzzle?
Loved this one, though this aging boomer's kids are millenials and i never heard any of those terms. LOL, tho i suppose no kid would tell their Dad they're adulting. My kids call that stuff 'admin'. Still this was elegant, challenging, and full of those aha moments, and of course I'm thrilled at being able to appreciate a Saturday.
My tough spot was the NE, where of course altitude just would not give way to EMINENCE, but my first thought on those cats had been TOMS, and when I finally shrugged and tried that I finally closed that section out.
I generally don't like lots of names in these, but today's were great. Don't really think of ICHIRO as mononymous - certainly known as that but his full name is far from unfamiliar. TOOTALL was great, tho enjoyed seeing him more for links to an NFL era I followed closely, not being much of a Cowboys fan.
I'll agree with “easy for a Saturday” but that doesn’t mean it went fast. It was fun though. I got a great rush when I thought of CRAWL SPACE with only the CR and S in place though it meant that my guesses of frogs or flies for plague animals were wrong.
PANDA CAM - my thought of black-and-white went to squad cars. Badge CAM? That SW section was the hardest for me. When I finally bowed to the obvious and threw in GNATS, then AGRARIAN fell into place and opened up the SW.
I still had to run the alphabet on the cross of GA_ and STRUGGLE BU_. Not sure why that was so hard but it was.
One write-over - Ergo before ECCE. POLITICO cured that.
Usually just pop in here to lurk but had to comment today on this lovely puzzle. I enjoyed every minute of it. Maybe being the parent of 1 millennial and 1 Gen Zer helped but almost none of the millennial speak was unfamiliar to me. Also helps that partner was on hand for sports trivia. Somehow “Do to a T” fell right into place for me and my daughter often orders aloo gobi so that was familiar too. Adored crawl space and panda cam, and really just the whole thing.
So. Many. Proper. Nouns that I just did not know. Sports, sports, actors, sports. I had a lot of trouble parsing names like Alia that could be Ilia or Ellie or anything really. I have watched Arrested, I even know most of the main starts, but did not know that name at all. Anyhoo, the NONREAL i also was new to me, the legalese etc. Enjoyed all the “Millenial” terms that you balked at though! LOL. I think THREENAGER is a perfect term to sum up my own daughter. In fact we already went through the teen years back then and now that she is 15 we are good friends and having a blast. It really worked for us. And I’m … NOT a Millenial obviously. So this one has been around at least since 2012 when most Millenials were not yet having babies. I think it may be more of a Gen X word but who cares, it’s awesome!
Hey All ! Easy????? SW corner nigh impossible. Almost every answer there was an unknown. Goodness. Only three other unknowns after that brutal SW, WIE, CORA, NOVATE. Managed to get everything else, which was also not easy.
While I tend to agree the mononymous part is a bit of a stretch, I think the clue overall is close enough by including the “28 professional seasons” qualification. That narrows it down quite a bit.
I think Ichiro does merit the label mononymous. I never ever hear him referred to by Suzuki (where as shohei is often referred to as ohtani), it’s always Ichiro and maybe the last name unnecessarily added to the end.
I think calling Ichiro “mononymous” is fair. He wanted (wants) to be called only by his given name, and I believe he’s the only MLBer to have used his given name on his jersey. Not sure how that’s too different from Cher or Madonna, who both obviously have last names they don’t want to use.
Tough puzzle for me but ultimately doable with minimal Googling for ALOOGOBI and ARCO and of all things PEA. Other tricky stuff fell to crosses and guesses. In SE had hANDiCAM to start and was happy to see PANDACAM emerge. Also enjoyed NOSEBLEEDS after thinking hard about a more technical answer. THREENAGER is new to me, ADULTING not so much. GNATS beat frogS as soon as crosses emerged. Struggled with Mr.Jones until I realized we were talking NFL and not NBA where Mr. LUE had taken my mind.
I've been on the STRUGGLE BUS this morning -- and I ended up DNFing in the NW corner. I didn't know ICHARO and I didn't know KIT CAR (would I have known that if I drove?) and I couldn't figure out the portmanteau from the REENAGER that I had. CAREENAGER (as in running into everything?) SCREENAGER (as in overly dramatic?) I never know the latest portmanteaus, so I have to try to make them up myself. Sometimes I succeed, but today was not that day.
Oh dear. Would the answer to "Producer of black-and-white footage" be GANGRENE? I fervently hoped that the grisly pun would not make its way into the grid, even though the A was in the right place. But then the lightbulb lit up as I suddenly realized that the "hole thing" was PAR. Whew! Not GANGRENE. PANDA!!! Panda what? PANDA PAW? No, pOOK is not a thing. PANDA CAM? Is that a thing? Is there a special CAM for PANDAs?
I eventually finished everything but five letters in the NW -- and I had a very entertaining and absorbing time. Because this was a puzzle predicated on puzzling things out rather than coughing up a lot of extraneous trivia. An excellent and crunchy Saturday.
Yeah, the SW was a desert for a while, which seems fitting. I finally remembered what "i' was numerically, and wrote in NOTREAL, which threw more sand in the gears. Thought of CROAKY but dismissed it as an "i" word, and then back it came. Very satisfying to eventually sort everything out and get 'er done.
TIL THREENAGER, STRUGGLEBUS, NOVATE, and RENTROLL, and relearned ALIA and ALOOGOBI, which I recognized as recurring crossword fare but never remember. I knew coach Tyronn but spelled his last name LIU, Not helpful.
Today's Old Friend has to be ECCE. Welcome back. Almost never see you without "homo".
Very nice Saturday indeed, CD and HKV I didn't even realize how isolated the corners were until I hit the dreaded SW, shich Could've Doomed me if I Hadn't Known Various answers like ALEC and MIL. Well done you, and thanks for all the fun.
Having sat through (and sometimes even enjoyed) dozens of Passover Seders, I know that the third plague was LICE. So many times, I have spilled a drop of wine for “kinim”—the Hebrew word for LICE. There are no GNATS among any of the ten plagues. That basic and so readily verifiable error totally ruined the puzzle for me.
Your honor, it is undeniable that the defendant is guilty of sexual abuse. We have proven that he stalks ladies of the night, harasses sex workers and KICKSTARTS. We rest our case.
With only the "S" in place, I almost convinced myself that 46D ("__________ Lot"). was SPAMMA.
At dinner just yesterday, Mrs. Egs said "Egs, don't eat too much TACOPIE or you'll TOOTALL night."
I wish @LMS were here to comment on @Rex's abhorance for evolution in the language. STRUGGLEBUS is a gem! Liked this puzzle a lot. Thanks, Chandi Deitmer and Hoang-Kim Vu.
One fun fact about Pelé is that his mononym is not a component of his legal name. He was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento. Per Wikipedia: "In his autobiography released in 2006, Pelé stated he had no idea what the name means, nor did his old friends, and the word has no meaning in Portuguese."
Easy and easier than yesterday’s. NOVATE, WIE, THREENAGER, and LUE were my only WOEs and Agenda ITEM before ACTION was it for erasures which wouldn’t have happened if I had checked the crosses. Serves me right for whooshing.
It helped that I’m old enough to know who TOO TALL Jones is.
Solid with some fun clueing and a modicum of sparkle, liked it.
Mostly liked this. I agree with Rex that THREENAGER is unnecessary in the language and STRUGGLEBUS is just stupid. I also object to NOSEBLEEDS in the plural as an answer to the clue. One says “We had seats in the NOSEBLEED section. “
with this new guy, puzzles seem just a tad easier. I seldom finish a Saturday, and this was no exception, but I generally get through the rest of the week. Saturdays are mostly finished. really PPP usually end up on Saturday.
Easy, except I DNF, as my grid included a PANDA CAt, its "footage" being the cute pawprints it would leave. A fun one to solve. I especially liked the contrast between CRAWL SPACE and NOSEBLEEDS, and ALOO GOBI + TACO PIE, with ROLAIDS to the rescue.
Do-over: flusTER before SWELTER. Help from hearing a family member use the term: STRUGGLE BUS. Help from previous puzzles: ADULTING. No idea: LUE, NOVATE.
Thanks for the explanation of KITCAR. I thought it was a reference to the self driving, intelligent car called Kit in the old Knight Rider show. Left it to the end to fill in because it didn't work well
68-worder SatPuz. Many of the words were in a dialect that M&A weren't real fluent in... * staff weeject pick: LUE. The only total-no-know of the 17 runtwords. * Lotsa sorta-no-knows, made up mostly of known words: STRUGGLEBUS. ADULTING. RENTROLL. THREENAGER. KITCAR. TACOPIE. PANDACAM. CINE's clue words. * pure-no-knows: ALIA. ALOOGOBI. ICHIRO. NOVATE.
fave stuff included: NONREAL. PAR clue. STRUGGLEBUS [apt description of this puz rodeo, at our house]. NONREAL a la i has special meanins to the M&A. Was takin a grad-level math class all about imaginary numbers, when I got drafted into the army. Almost everybody in the class called both that class and my bein yanked out of it like that "unreal". Prof gave m&e an honorary "B" in the class, even tho I had to check out early.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Deitmer darlin & Mr. Hoang-Kim dude. Tougher than snot, but ok by m&e.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
contains no spam. honest. just runtified xword dessert meat: **gruntz**
Just a nice Saturday difficulty for me, not easy! Good puzzle except marred by Too Many Names as so often happens. Like @kitshef, I finished with that same square wrong but I had CARPAL instead of CARNAL. Carpal sounded... um... something to do with body ailments; close enough for my brain.
For "i", I wanted IMAGINARY and had to get to NON REAL from crosses. I did a lotta math in my B.Sc. and I guess I do have vague memories of using that phrase. Also struggled with "Of the land"... GEOGRAPHIC didn't fit; GEOLOGIC did but not with the crosses. My landlord had a RENT BILL for a while.
As soon as I saw ADULTING I thought: Rex really hates that word. And he does!
I too loved the clues for CRAWLSPACE and LOB; also nice tricky clue at "Purchase on an island?" (GAS)
This was on ok crossword for me but I want to pick up the repetition of Agnès Varda in a matter of days. Unlike Rex, I don’t think this is good. I think it’s a sign of editing not doing its job. I’ve previously noticed similar clues or similar solves in short succession. This should be picked up at the editing stage.
I lived in Texas for 58 years and have eaten (quite possibly literally) a ton of TexMex food, but I’ve never encountered a “taco pie.” Generally, the term for a Mexican casserole is “Mexican casserole.” Also, re 41 across, shouldn’t the “i” be italicized since it’s being used in a mathematical context?
Struggle struggle struggle. A sea of white staring at me screaming 'CAN YOU AT LEAST FIND SOMETHING??????". Oh, wait....I see ALEC Guinness way down in the south. What's pitiful is that I wanted 1A to be moves along.
So my first cheat turns out to be that mononymous (I don't even know what that means) person. So ICHIRO it is. But here's the thing....with just the I I got KICK START. Dance the fandango tango.
ROLAIDS....is that you? Tis. And so THREENAGER coming at me slowly. Take a break.
The top left is finished but I checked many times to see if my guesses were correct. They were. Now to tackle the top right. TOMS. Thank you...you gave me POLITCO PEA. Have STRUGGLE in place and ended it with a BUG. Wrongy dongy....You know what made me correct it? GAS. I saw right through GAS. I'm brilliant!
The middle is done. I cheated on TOO TALL. Move on, there's more to fill in and perhaps cheat.
I cheated on CORA. Damnation. I hate names I don't know or can never get. I mean I got AGE LINE so why can't I get names you throw at me hither and yon. [sigh]. move on.
I did.
Another cheat with PANDA CAM. I could not come up with anything. I stared for an eternity. I want to finish this one. Well, I did. I was so happy to get DOT OAT and CRAWL SPACE. I'm brilliant.
Four cheats and many look ups for me. A lovely Saturday. I'm happy with myself. I hope new solvers aren't totally scared to try a Saturday and give up. I remember tackling them and crying with frustration....Eventually I got the courage and little by little it paid off. I wonder what others have gone through....trying their first Friday/Saturday and how they finally solved. I had a puzzle dictionary that I used until all the pages fell out. It helped me a lot ad I began remembering things that would appear frequently. I also began to see through thorny cluing (which is my favorite)....
@Rex please delete my previous comment, I accidentally submitted it while typing it.
Math major here. NONREAL is mystifying to non-math people and eyeroll-inducing to me (and many mathematicians, I'd say). TAN was a gimme.
I had SCREENAGER @Rex and proceeded smoothly through the NW until I saw KISCA- and ICCIR-. I didn't know KITCAR but I've seen ICHIRO in crosswords, and that helped me get THREENAGER. Also, I've seen STRUGGLE BUS in crossword... comments. Several people on the LA Times Crossword Corner, or maybe even this very blog, might say they "rode the struggle bus" on a tough Saturday puzzle.
I got DOTOAT off of DO-O--, but I've never seen this answer with the DO in front. Someone make a DOT OAT website about lactose-free milk.
PANDA CAM was new to me but I guessed PANDA off of PA- and then CAM with the A in place.
Maybe I misread it, but I was utterly flummoxed by "musical counterpart of pizzicato." "Pizzicato" **IS** a musical term, so how can it have a musical "counterpart"? And even on its own terms, since ARCO is basically the opposite of Pizzicato (it means "bowed," where Pizzicato means "plucked,") I didn't/ don't see how the two can be "counterparts." Doesn't "counterpart" usually refer to a twin, a doppelganger, or something else similar?
I feel your pain. Ritual texts become deeply embedded in our psyches, and to see or hear them differently than we've experienced them can be jarring.
But old translations of ancient texts were often made on thin evidence, and current scholarly consensus has trended away from translating "kinnim" as "lice". The English translation "gnats" is now much more common. Along the way, various translators and faith traditions have also used "flies", "sand flies" and "mosquitos".
But if this were a Jeopardy clue, the correct answer would defrinitely be "lice" because that's the translation used in the King James Version, which they specify as their standard reference.
A STEAL? Please. If they had one more space to fit 24A, would A GUTTER have been appropriate? Evidently, since DO TO A T passed Fagliano's blue pencil. Much to dislike today, especially in the unpopular SW, but I DO WHAT I CAN.
I am a Millennial and have a child who is 20. Granted I am an older Millennial (generally cited range is those born 1981-1996), but my peers were hitting their 30s and definitely having babies before 2012. Of course, again, my peers and I are the Old Millennials LOL.
I had the exact same experience with the proper nouns. Sometimes I think 90% of my pop culture and sports knowledge derives directly from crossword puzzles.
I have to agree with @Anon 12:27 PM. Sting and Enya also come to mind as legitimately mononymous. But I don't know anyone who follows baseball at all closely who couldn't tell you that Ichiro's family name is Suzuki.
I worked it all out but it wasn't easy. Didn't know threenager, alia, nonreal, etc. Have not heard the term "age line." And can someone explain how the plural NOSEBLEEDS is an apt answer for the singular "stadium section"? I think the answer should be just NOSEBLEED, singluar, i.e., the nosebleed section. ???
I am also so baffled by this. Was hoping someone in the comments would explain.
I could understand if the clue was "third creatures in God's plagues on Exodus" as then it would go [blood], frogs, lice, flies*, etc. but that's definitely the 4th plague. Alas.
*according to some interpretations, according to Wikipedia, and even then flies to gnats seems a stretch?
@Anon12.59 PM: Yes, absolutely, and that tripped me up for the longest time. The standard notation for the "imaginary unit" is i, always in italic font.
Looking it up, pizzicato is evidently Italian for "pinched". Visiting Italy, it's interesting how many words with musical meanings in English are common Italian words: opera (work, or construction), piano (floor), piccolo (small).
I’m sorry. This puzzle was not easy. It was not medium. It was hard. Who are you people? My stat line says I’ve completed 3387 NYT puzzles. I’m not stupid. When I struggle with a puzzle and I read the blog and inevitably it says EASY it just frustrates me. What does it take for someone catch up with you puzzle wizards? Obviously I don’t have it. Granted I’ve never read Harry Potter, studied Spanish memorized the Greek alphabet or Roman numerals and can’t say I’ve ever watched the Simpsons. I know that puts me at a disadvantage but come on now.
Noni I do the puzzle on paper still ( don’t like the app. ) I sometimes “finish “ the puzzle and find an error on this blog. Even after looking at the finished puzzle I occasionally find an error by reading the comments. Finding an error like that in either case I consider a dnf. Beside the fact I hate the app, if I used it , it would increase my dnfs. I can fill all the block then change my mind at the last minute on paper. But the app tells me I made a mistake. Can’t undo the knowledge.
I agree that 'counterpart' is incorrect in the clue to 51down: arco (played with the bow) is the opposite of pizzicato (plucked), not similar or analogous to it (i.e., its counterpart).
Anonymous 8:17:AM My fears for the same as yours But you reminded me of my age (older boomer) ! Alec Guinness is classic crosswordese. He was a famous star most of his long life. He appeared in a major role as an older Obi Ean Kenobe in the Star Wars original trilogy. Not in the least obscure but his name evidently has dropped out of the consciousness of younger people not into Star Wars nor movie buff. I assure you that was a gimme for most solvers So not unfair at all. The panda cam is a thing. Because over the years pandas have become the most popular animal in a zoo lucky enough to have one. Pandas are obsessed over. Thus panda cam as an expression. Croaky is used here to solve a problem. The editors at the Times accept words rarely in print and not often spoken either at times like croaky if they like the puzzle otherwise. Just the way it is TOATEE appears in the Times ALOT. I hear the expression all the time. Nothing wrong with it as far as I can see
If you're using LaTeX to typeset mathematics, as basically everyone does these days, then the imaginary unit i would be put in math mode and the result would come out looking italicized. So certainly that is what one would expect to see in any modern text. The texts you consulted sound like they're from a different era and they do not reflect modern-day customs.
Adulting is what adults gotta do to pay the bar tab. And not so ironically the only time I hear it is in the company of 40+ ers - at the bar - poking fun at the sacrifices that must be made to get by like normies. I ran straight over here to catch Rex setting flame to it and wasn't disappointed! Great blog and don't understand why some people have to get all prickly about it.
I had PANDA pAw too -- but that was because I didn't check the crosses. A PANDA CAM is a camera in a zoo that focuses on one or more pandas, and posts the streaming video on the Internet. Here's an osprey cam for example. There are owl cams, eagle cams, dolphin cams--probably even eel cams, especially for the crossword community.
I knew two of those four--but more to the point, you have a choice of how to react: "nothing quite as unsatisfying," or "Oh boy! I learned something new!"
I'm disappointed not to see people celebrating the addition of a new DOOK to the repertory. Let's hear it for DOTOAT! I found it a lot harder than Rex--maybe because I had zIp CAR before KIT CAR (something I've never heard of), and had to figure out THREENAGER to correct it. I also, for some reason, had edgar before REGAN for the Lear character/
"Sea shrunk by Soviet siphoning" was cute, but not really accurate -- it was upstream diversion of the tributary rivers that caused the Aral sea to shrink.
Greatest embarassment was finishing with pOOK, even though I couldn't figure out what it went, because I couldn't think of PANDA CAM.
Easy?? No. But I enjoyed it. STRUGGLEBUS? Ugh. Never heard of it. I finally got it but had TENTERHOOKS in there for the longest time. SHAKYGROUND also fits.
As a 50 year old native Texan, I concur. I must have eaten at 500 Tex Mex restaurants in this state and I’ve never once seen Taco Pie on a menu. That was tough, but as a life long Dallas Cowboys fan (currently on the struggle bus), TOOTALL was the easiest answer of the puzzle.
CPA here. Rent roll is a term of art in real estate rental accounting. What the revenue of a building would be if every unit was full and paying the full lease amount. Then you adjust for vacancies, collection issues, etc.
You said "crawlspace" was near the bottom where it belonged. Isn't the crawl space usually the 'short story' instead of an attic, that you access through a spot in the ceiling? So doesn't it belong near the top, not the bottom, of the grid?
A long time ago, I was solving this puzzle and got stuck at an unguessable (to me) crossing: N. C. WYETH crossing NATICK at the "N"—I knew WYETH but forgot his initials, and NATICK ... is a suburb of Boston that I had no hope of knowing. It was clued as someplace the Boston Marathon runs through (???). Anyway, NATICK— the more obscure name in that crossing—became shorthand for an unguessable cross, esp. where the cross involves two proper nouns, neither of which is exceedingly well known. NATICK took hold as crossword slang, and the term can now be both noun ("I had a NATICK in the SW corner...") or verb ("I got NATICKED by 50A / 34D!")
115 comments:
Easy-Medium for me.
Q: What's the Web address for Cheerios?
A: Cheerios DOT OAT (47A)
Overwrites:
Several trigonometric functions before TAN at 6D
ChestY before CROAKY at 38D
WOEs:
STRUGGLEBUS at 10D
ALIA Shawkat at 17A
Tyronn LUE at 20D
The GOBI part of 32D
Legalese NOVATE at 44D
lei before GAS for the island purchase at 48A (D'oh!)
A very enjoyable Friday-level puzzle for me, until I hit two terms I’ve never heard: PANDA CAM and RENT ROLL.
Is a PANDA CAM just a…camera for pandas? Why not BEAR CAM or DEER CAM or DOLPHIN CAM? I had PANDA pAw (cause of the “footage” part of the clue) and couldn’t see any other possible angle.
Then RENT ROLL? Like taking roll in class? Is it a physical thing? Never heard this term before, but it was the only option that felt like it *could* be a thing given the crosses.
Liberace and Morrissey are their surnames. I’m sure there are others but those seem like decent counterpoints
Fergie also sorta counts as her last name is ‘Ferguson’
I don't understand NONREAL (41 Across). Is it some Buddhist thing about the unreality of the ego?
Fun and easy til the SW. Got ALOO- and RENT- easily, but crossing with NONREAL (still no idea what this means - is I short for imaginary numbers?) and DOTOAT made it very difficult, especially since MIL and COOK were not no-brainers.
I expect and want to be put through paces on Saturday and I certainly was today. I expect and want, on Saturday, to have those ringing-with-joy moments when an elusive answer finally hits me after dodging me many times, and they were there in force today.
But what makes a Saturday special, is when, on top of these fine qualities, the puzzle is rich with rewards – beauty, wit, and the stamp of quality. And, for me, today’s was special:
• Lovely, lovely answers – I CAN TAKE IT, NOSEBLEEDS (as clued), I DO WHAT I CAN, ADULTING, SWELTER, ALOO GOBI, EMINENCE. These add sheen, make the tour through the box anything but pedestrian.
• Fun answers I’ve never heard of (THREENAGER, STRUGGLEBUS) that are clever and smile-producing.
• Clever clues that amaze and happify, such as [Purchase on an island?] for GAS, [Very short story?] for CRAWL SPACE, [Get hot and bothered] for SWELTER, and …
• A world-class clue/answer that is so good, so elating, that you instantly love this puzzle forever, and if there were any nits, they have disappeared forever: [Producer of black-and-white footage?] for PANDACAM. Game over. Day made.
Yes, this was one of the special ones. Chandi and Hoang-Kim, after this, your first collaboration, how about some more – please? I loved this., Thank you so much!
Icing for nerdy me were a couple of serendipities – Row seven (TOO TALL and ECCE) with its three double letters and palindrome, and the answer GNATS, because that word backward, cutely tells what those gnats did.
Man - I had the same wtf with the brutal tri-cross of THREENAGER x STRUGGLE BUS x ADULTING. All that real estate wasted - I wasn’t able to come back off of that - even with some other nice entries.
The sun shines and people forget
I did like ALOO GOBI - we make it once a week in the colder months. NOSE BLEEDS, KICK STARTS etc all solid. Other than ALIA - the trivia was pretty straightforward.
Don’t see how you can praise this one after rightfully killing those three awful longs. I’ll take the wicked center 5 stack in Stella’s Stumper today.
Jay Farrar
Easy-medium here. Medium mainly due to the SW, mainly due to DOTOAT and NONREAL not clicking, even with ALOOGOBI and RENTROLL in place.
Overall though, a really splendid puzzle and while the same age as Rex, I didn’t have any old man yells at clouds thoughts on the millennial-ese (which makes me think of a nice Steak or Chicken Milanese).
Also, seems like we’ve had a run on “TO A T” and variants. Maybe including some other outlets too, but just seems like we’ve had 3 or 4 of these recently.
zIpCAR at 1D before KIT
Loved the clues for GUTTER (place for a mind or ball) and CRAWLSPACE (Very short story?)
@anonymous 6:54. i is an imaginary number - the square root of -1
Pandas are black and white.
The i in NONREAL refers to the square root of negative one, which is classified as an “imaginary“ number as opposed to a REAL number. However, somewhat ironically, REAL numbers are no more or less imaginary than any other numbers.
I was actually chuckling as I TITT on the SW section . There was no way I was going to bumble by way onto PANDA CAM alongside ALOO GOBI (especially with AGRARIAN as a cross). I’m the guy the editors were snickering at when they concocted that section.
I think the clue for ICHIRO goes too far. Rex goes with close enough but I think it steps over the line into bogus territory. MADONNA is mononymous, ICHIRO is just the first name of Mr. Suzuki.
Had to lol at “… the cranky old man who lives inside me.” I’ve got bad news for you, Rex…
Oh, duh. Thanks, fellow anonymous.
Enjoyable puzzle that put me on the STRUGGLEBUS from the start. Looking back afterward, the answers didn't seem that difficult, but in the moment I had to pick it apart section by section.
The virtues of this puzzle were admirably laid out by RP and Lewis. My favorite clue was for CRAWLSPACE (very short story?) and I admired how the SW was put together
Havent heard ADULTING in a while - definitely a 20-something term that Gen Z hasn't used as much
RP, thanks for the tip on the NYT guild job action. Will have to go to the paper till resolved
Once again I was one letter off and couldn't figure out what the problem was. It made me realize something. For years I solved on paper. Who knows how many of those puzzles had one wrong letter? I was perfectly satisfied once the grid was filled in.
Wouldn't call this easy. There is nothing quite as unsatisfying as jotting in answers to terms you've never heard of before; THREENAGER, STRUGGLEBUS, PANDACAM, ALOOGOBI.... (add disappointed shrug). And while well aware of Ichiro Suzuki's illustrious baseball career, I had no idea he had dropped the Suzuki. I suppose it's fair as pictures on Google search have ICHIRO on the back of his jersey.
DNF at CItE/CARtAL Despite Rex's best efforts, I had no idea who Agnes Varda is, and I rationalized 'cartal' as related to 'cartel', which is a 'body' in the same sense as 'legislative body'.
Never heard STRUGGLE BUS nor THREENAGER, but well acquainted with ADULTING, which has penetrated pop culture enough that even I know of it. THREENAGER seems like a particularly useless coinage.
I liked this muchly but the SW was a nightmare. No idea on NONREAL for i (and running the alphabet didn’t help). I thought there might be a PAstACAM but I couldn’t quite accept it. And why shouldn’t it be a RENTbook? So there was trouble down there.
ALIA Shawkat was great in Search Party and she’s amazing in The Old Man.
Thank you for your comments regarding 19A -- a word I despise so much that I won't type it here, and that I refused to fill in while solving. I find it appalling that there is a group of people out there who are so ill-equipped to function in society that they require a special term of praise to describe the performance of everyday tasks that, for generations, people have been doing as part of the routine of living. (Rex, I have living inside me a man who is crankier and older than the one living inside you...)
As for PANDACAM, I believe the National Zoo in Washington livestreams the pandas, and that they call it the "Pandacam," but I could be wrong.
I have never heard STRUGGLEBUS in my life, did not know Tyronn Lue (I don't watch the NBA much at all, never mind the Clippers), or Agnes Varda or a MIL or a THREENAGER. I would never use AGRARIAN as 'of the land' or talk about an EMINENCE when referring to a promontory. Similary, I would never say an OVAL is 'nearly round'. Some of the trivia here, the fill and the cluing are just ridiculous. I love that you think it is 'easy', Rex and that somehow this puzzle is 'well-made'. I cannot agree.
Usually my own sense of a grid’s difficulty (although for sure not my “time to completion”) is similar to Rex’s. But I have to say I did not find this grid Easy; took me much longer than a typical Saturday. Looking at it now, though, I’m not sure why. That’s all.
The SW corner was totally blank for me. Never heard of: Alec Guinness, panda cam, or Rent roll. I guess we can just pick any zoo animal, throw in a "cam", and turn it into a crossword answer. Cool. DO TO A T is an embarrassment and should be banned from future crosswords. Ditto for CROAKY. Both answers feel forced and fake. I've heard of aloo Gobi but I can't keep all the dishes on an Indian menu straight in my brain. On a positive note, none of this actually matters, as we are about to be plunged into a dystopian fascist nightmare, so who really cares about failing miserably in a crossword puzzle?
Loved this one, though this aging boomer's kids are millenials and i never heard any of those terms. LOL, tho i suppose no kid would tell their Dad they're adulting. My kids call that stuff 'admin'. Still this was elegant, challenging, and full of those aha moments, and of course I'm thrilled at being able to appreciate a Saturday.
My tough spot was the NE, where of course altitude just would not give way to EMINENCE, but my first thought on those cats had been TOMS, and when I finally shrugged and tried that I finally closed that section out.
I generally don't like lots of names in these, but today's were great. Don't really think of ICHIRO as mononymous - certainly known as that but his full name is far from unfamiliar. TOOTALL was great, tho enjoyed seeing him more for links to an NFL era I followed closely, not being much of a Cowboys fan.
The imaginary unit, i, is certainly non-real, but only in a special context would it be referred to in that way.
The slash in 6D means "divided by."
Lively little thing. Quite a few mystery clue/entries.
Parent of a three year old here. I think threenager came about from wanting to make a follow up to the terrible twos
Was certain Rex would grouse re the I CAN dupe
I'll agree with “easy for a Saturday” but that doesn’t mean it went fast. It was fun though. I got a great rush when I thought of CRAWL SPACE with only the CR and S in place though it meant that my guesses of frogs or flies for plague animals were wrong.
PANDA CAM - my thought of black-and-white went to squad cars. Badge CAM? That SW section was the hardest for me. When I finally bowed to the obvious and threw in GNATS, then AGRARIAN fell into place and opened up the SW.
I still had to run the alphabet on the cross of GA_ and STRUGGLE BU_. Not sure why that was so hard but it was.
One write-over - Ergo before ECCE. POLITICO cured that.
Thanks, Chandi and Hoang-Kim!
Because “pizzicato” appears only in musical contexts, I was amused to see ARCO clued as its _musical_ counterpart. As opposed to what other kind?
@thfenn: “Admin” is such a better term that that unwelcome gerund at 19A!
Usually just pop in here to lurk but had to comment today on this lovely puzzle. I enjoyed every minute of it. Maybe being the parent of 1 millennial and 1 Gen Zer helped but almost none of the millennial speak was unfamiliar to me. Also helps that partner was on hand for sports trivia. Somehow “Do to a T” fell right into place for me and my daughter often orders aloo gobi so that was familiar too. Adored crawl space and panda cam, and really just the whole thing.
So. Many. Proper. Nouns that I just did not know. Sports, sports, actors, sports. I had a lot of trouble parsing names like Alia that could be Ilia or Ellie or anything really. I have watched Arrested, I even know most of the main starts, but did not know that name at all. Anyhoo, the NONREAL i also was new to me, the legalese etc. Enjoyed all the “Millenial” terms that you balked at though! LOL. I think THREENAGER is a perfect term to sum up my own daughter. In fact we already went through the teen years back then and now that she is 15 we are good friends and having a blast. It really worked for us. And I’m … NOT a Millenial obviously. So this one has been around at least since 2012 when most Millenials were not yet having babies. I think it may be more of a Gen X word but who cares, it’s awesome!
Hey All !
Easy????? SW corner nigh impossible. Almost every answer there was an unknown. Goodness. Only three other unknowns after that brutal SW, WIE, CORA, NOVATE. Managed to get everything else, which was also not easy.
Happy Saturday.
No F's (NO REAL!)
RooMonster
DarrinV
While I tend to agree the mononymous part is a bit of a stretch, I think the clue overall is close enough by including the “28 professional seasons” qualification. That narrows it down quite a bit.
I think Ichiro does merit the label mononymous. I never ever hear him referred to by Suzuki (where as shohei is often referred to as ohtani), it’s always Ichiro and maybe the last name unnecessarily added to the end.
I think calling Ichiro “mononymous” is fair. He wanted (wants) to be called only by his given name, and I believe he’s the only MLBer to have used his given name on his jersey. Not sure how that’s too different from Cher or Madonna, who both obviously have last names they don’t want to use.
STRUGGLEBUS is not offensive, is in common use, and is a great puzzle entry. Good to see it.
I'm glad to see the tomfoolery is continuing today at 15A: Certain cats: TOMS.
Loved this! Every struggler had that beloved touché quality once revealed.
Clean, difficult and fun - perfect Saturday!
as a non-mathematician … shouldn’t 41A have an italicized “i” ?
Had SCREENAGER before THREENAGER.
Had PANDAPAW before PANDACAM.
Tough puzzle for me but ultimately doable with minimal Googling for ALOOGOBI and ARCO and of all things PEA. Other tricky stuff fell to crosses and guesses. In SE had hANDiCAM to start and was happy to see PANDACAM emerge. Also enjoyed NOSEBLEEDS after thinking hard about a more technical answer. THREENAGER is new to me, ADULTING not so much. GNATS beat frogS as soon as crosses emerged. Struggled with Mr.Jones until I realized we were talking NFL and not NBA where Mr. LUE had taken my mind.
I've been on the STRUGGLE BUS this morning -- and I ended up DNFing in the NW corner. I didn't know ICHARO and I didn't know KIT CAR (would I have known that if I drove?) and I couldn't figure out the portmanteau from the REENAGER that I had. CAREENAGER (as in running into everything?) SCREENAGER (as in overly dramatic?) I never know the latest portmanteaus, so I have to try to make them up myself. Sometimes I succeed, but today was not that day.
Oh dear. Would the answer to "Producer of black-and-white footage" be GANGRENE? I fervently hoped that the grisly pun would not make its way into the grid, even though the A was in the right place. But then the lightbulb lit up as I suddenly realized that the "hole thing" was PAR. Whew! Not GANGRENE. PANDA!!! Panda what? PANDA PAW? No, pOOK is not a thing. PANDA CAM? Is that a thing? Is there a special CAM for PANDAs?
I eventually finished everything but five letters in the NW -- and I had a very entertaining and absorbing time. Because this was a puzzle predicated on puzzling things out rather than coughing up a lot of extraneous trivia. An excellent and crunchy Saturday.
Yeah, the SW was a desert for a while, which seems fitting. I finally remembered what "i' was numerically, and wrote in NOTREAL, which threw more sand in the gears. Thought of CROAKY but dismissed it as an "i" word, and then back it came. Very satisfying to eventually sort everything out and get 'er done.
TIL THREENAGER, STRUGGLEBUS, NOVATE, and RENTROLL, and relearned ALIA and ALOOGOBI, which I recognized as recurring crossword fare but never remember. I knew coach Tyronn but spelled his last name LIU, Not helpful.
Today's Old Friend has to be ECCE. Welcome back. Almost never see you without "homo".
Very nice Saturday indeed, CD and HKV I didn't even realize how isolated the corners were until I hit the dreaded SW, shich Could've Doomed me if I Hadn't Known Various answers like ALEC and MIL. Well done you, and thanks for all the fun.
Having sat through (and sometimes even enjoyed) dozens of Passover Seders, I know that the third plague was LICE. So many times, I have spilled a drop of wine for “kinim”—the Hebrew word for LICE. There are no GNATS among any of the ten plagues. That basic and so readily verifiable error totally ruined the puzzle for me.
Your honor, it is undeniable that the defendant is guilty of sexual abuse. We have proven that he stalks ladies of the night, harasses sex workers and KICKSTARTS. We rest our case.
With only the "S" in place, I almost convinced myself that 46D ("__________ Lot"). was SPAMMA.
At dinner just yesterday, Mrs. Egs said "Egs, don't eat too much TACOPIE or you'll TOOTALL night."
I wish @LMS were here to comment on @Rex's abhorance for evolution in the language. STRUGGLEBUS is a gem! Liked this puzzle a lot. Thanks, Chandi Deitmer and Hoang-Kim Vu.
One fun fact about Pelé is that his mononym is not a component of his legal name. He was born Edson Arantes do Nascimento.
Per Wikipedia:
"In his autobiography released in 2006, Pelé stated he had no idea what the name means, nor did his old friends, and the word has no meaning in Portuguese."
Easy and easier than yesterday’s. NOVATE, WIE, THREENAGER, and LUE were my only WOEs and Agenda ITEM before ACTION was it for erasures which wouldn’t have happened if I had checked the crosses. Serves me right for whooshing.
It helped that I’m old enough to know who TOO TALL Jones is.
Solid with some fun clueing and a modicum of sparkle, liked it.
In the spirit of Ogden Nash:
Lice
Aren't nice.
You’ve never heard of Sir Alec Guinness?
Mostly liked this. I agree with Rex that THREENAGER is unnecessary in the language and STRUGGLEBUS is just stupid. I also object to NOSEBLEEDS in the plural as an answer to the clue. One says “We had seats in the NOSEBLEED section. “
with this new guy, puzzles seem just a tad easier. I seldom finish a Saturday, and this was no exception, but I generally get through the rest of the week. Saturdays are mostly finished. really PPP usually end up on Saturday.
Easy, except I DNF, as my grid included a PANDA CAt, its "footage" being the cute pawprints it would leave. A fun one to solve. I especially liked the contrast between CRAWL SPACE and NOSEBLEEDS, and ALOO GOBI + TACO PIE, with ROLAIDS to the rescue.
Do-over: flusTER before SWELTER. Help from hearing a family member use the term: STRUGGLE BUS. Help from previous puzzles: ADULTING. No idea: LUE, NOVATE.
I was not happy with the duplicate "can": "I do what I can" and "I can take it".
Thought it was going to be SCREAMAGER
Thanks for the explanation of KITCAR. I thought it was a reference to the self driving, intelligent car called Kit in the old Knight Rider show. Left it to the end to fill in because it didn't work well
Quick, name Cher or Madonna's last name. If you can't, that's the difference.
Southwest got me as well. Non real and rent roll along with aloogobi we’re just to much funk. I had aloo but Gigi? Rex yes I had Pot for a while…
To me Ichiro is not monogamous. He has a last name. I dunno about that clue, but ichiro Suzuki was a hell of a ball player…
68-worder SatPuz. Many of the words were in a dialect that M&A weren't real fluent in...
* staff weeject pick: LUE. The only total-no-know of the 17 runtwords.
* Lotsa sorta-no-knows, made up mostly of known words: STRUGGLEBUS. ADULTING. RENTROLL. THREENAGER. KITCAR. TACOPIE. PANDACAM. CINE's clue words.
* pure-no-knows: ALIA. ALOOGOBI. ICHIRO. NOVATE.
fave stuff included: NONREAL. PAR clue. STRUGGLEBUS [apt description of this puz rodeo, at our house].
NONREAL a la i has special meanins to the M&A. Was takin a grad-level math class all about imaginary numbers, when I got drafted into the army. Almost everybody in the class called both that class and my bein yanked out of it like that "unreal". Prof gave m&e an honorary "B" in the class, even tho I had to check out early.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Ms. Deitmer darlin & Mr. Hoang-Kim dude. Tougher than snot, but ok by m&e.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
contains no spam. honest. just runtified xword dessert meat:
**gruntz**
Just a nice Saturday difficulty for me, not easy! Good puzzle except marred by Too Many Names as so often happens. Like @kitshef, I finished with that same square wrong but I had CARPAL instead of CARNAL. Carpal sounded... um... something to do with body ailments; close enough for my brain.
For "i", I wanted IMAGINARY and had to get to NON REAL from crosses. I did a lotta math in my B.Sc. and I guess I do have vague memories of using that phrase. Also struggled with "Of the land"... GEOGRAPHIC didn't fit; GEOLOGIC did but not with the crosses. My landlord had a RENT BILL for a while.
As soon as I saw ADULTING I thought: Rex really hates that word. And he does!
I too loved the clues for CRAWLSPACE and LOB; also nice tricky clue at "Purchase on an island?" (GAS)
Panda paw is a GREAT answer!! Better than “cam.”
Being a mathematical thing, shouldn’t the i be italic?
Same, SW corner murdered my solve = DNF. No idea about PANDACAM, RENTROLL, DOTOAT, NONREAL, and COOK.
This was on ok crossword for me but I want to pick up the repetition of Agnès Varda in a matter of days. Unlike Rex, I don’t think this is good. I think it’s a sign of editing not doing its job. I’ve previously noticed similar clues or similar solves in short succession. This should be picked up at the editing stage.
I lived in Texas for 58 years and have eaten (quite possibly literally) a ton of TexMex food, but I’ve never encountered a “taco pie.” Generally, the term for a Mexican casserole is “Mexican casserole.”
Also, re 41 across, shouldn’t the “i” be italicized since it’s being used in a mathematical context?
Struggle struggle struggle. A sea of white staring at me screaming 'CAN YOU AT LEAST FIND SOMETHING??????". Oh, wait....I see ALEC Guinness way down in the south. What's pitiful is that I wanted 1A to be moves along.
So my first cheat turns out to be that mononymous (I don't even know what that means) person. So ICHIRO it is. But here's the thing....with just the I I got KICK START. Dance the fandango tango.
ROLAIDS....is that you? Tis. And so THREENAGER coming at me slowly. Take a break.
The top left is finished but I checked many times to see if my guesses were correct. They were. Now to tackle the top right. TOMS. Thank you...you gave me POLITCO PEA. Have STRUGGLE in place and ended it with a BUG. Wrongy dongy....You know what made me correct it? GAS. I saw right through GAS. I'm brilliant!
The middle is done. I cheated on TOO TALL. Move on, there's more to fill in and perhaps cheat.
I cheated on CORA. Damnation. I hate names I don't know or can never get. I mean I got AGE LINE so why can't I get names you throw at me hither and yon. [sigh]. move on.
I did.
Another cheat with PANDA CAM. I could not come up with anything. I stared for an eternity. I want to finish this one. Well, I did. I was so happy to get DOT OAT and CRAWL SPACE. I'm brilliant.
Four cheats and many look ups for me. A lovely Saturday. I'm happy with myself. I hope new solvers aren't totally scared to try a Saturday and give up. I remember tackling them and crying with frustration....Eventually I got the courage and little by little it paid off. I wonder what others have gone through....trying their first Friday/Saturday and how they finally solved. I had a puzzle dictionary that I used until all the pages fell out. It helped me a lot ad I began remembering things that would appear frequently. I also began to see through thorny cluing (which is my favorite)....
Done and happy.....
@Rex please delete my previous comment, I accidentally submitted it while typing it.
Math major here. NONREAL is mystifying to non-math people and eyeroll-inducing to me (and many mathematicians, I'd say). TAN was a gimme.
I had SCREENAGER @Rex and proceeded smoothly through the NW until I saw KISCA- and ICCIR-. I didn't know KITCAR but I've seen ICHIRO in crosswords, and that helped me get THREENAGER. Also, I've seen STRUGGLE BUS in crossword... comments. Several people on the LA Times Crossword Corner, or maybe even this very blog, might say they "rode the struggle bus" on a tough Saturday puzzle.
I got DOTOAT off of DO-O--, but I've never seen this answer with the DO in front. Someone make a DOT OAT website about lactose-free milk.
PANDA CAM was new to me but I guessed PANDA off of PA- and then CAM with the A in place.
Overall a quick Saturday.
I have never identified with Rex more than when he's complaining about 'adulting'. Read Joan Didion, you little brats!
Loved the puzzle and loved Rex’s write up even more.
Loved the puzzle - just what I want in a Saturday - and loved Rex‘s write up even more.
Do you suppose maybe you could say "Someone who has achieved eminence" has reached great heights?
"Easy" - Really?
Taco pie is non-real
Absolutely clobbered in the SW. Happy for those who knew enough to make that one easy.
Maybe I misread it, but I was utterly flummoxed by "musical counterpart of pizzicato." "Pizzicato" **IS** a musical term, so how can it have a musical "counterpart"? And even on its own terms, since ARCO is basically the opposite of Pizzicato (it means "bowed," where Pizzicato means "plucked,") I didn't/ don't see how the two can be "counterparts." Doesn't "counterpart" usually refer to a twin, a doppelganger, or something else similar?
Thank you….its always an italic “i”
I feel your pain. Ritual texts become deeply embedded in our psyches, and to see or hear them differently than we've experienced them can be jarring.
But old translations of ancient texts were often made on thin evidence, and current scholarly consensus has trended away from translating "kinnim" as "lice". The English translation "gnats" is now much more common. Along the way, various translators and faith traditions have also used "flies", "sand flies" and "mosquitos".
But if this were a Jeopardy clue, the correct answer would defrinitely be "lice" because that's the translation used in the King James Version, which they specify as their standard reference.
A STEAL? Please. If they had one more space to fit 24A, would A GUTTER have been appropriate? Evidently, since DO TO A T passed Fagliano's blue pencil.
Much to dislike today, especially in the unpopular SW, but I DO WHAT I CAN.
I am a Millennial and have a child who is 20. Granted I am an older Millennial (generally cited range is those born 1981-1996), but my peers were hitting their 30s and definitely having babies before 2012. Of course, again, my peers and I are the Old Millennials LOL.
I had the exact same experience with the proper nouns. Sometimes I think 90% of my pop culture and sports knowledge derives directly from crossword puzzles.
I have to agree with @Anon 12:27 PM. Sting and Enya also come to mind as legitimately mononymous. But I don't know anyone who follows baseball at all closely who couldn't tell you that Ichiro's family name is Suzuki.
I worked it all out but it wasn't easy. Didn't know threenager, alia, nonreal, etc. Have not heard the term "age line." And can someone explain how the plural NOSEBLEEDS is an apt answer for the singular "stadium section"? I think the answer should be just NOSEBLEED, singluar, i.e., the nosebleed section. ???
I am also so baffled by this. Was hoping someone in the comments would explain.
I could understand if the clue was "third creatures in God's plagues on Exodus" as then it would go [blood], frogs, lice, flies*, etc. but that's definitely the 4th plague. Alas.
*according to some interpretations, according to Wikipedia, and even then flies to gnats seems a stretch?
@Anon12.59 PM: Yes, absolutely, and that tripped me up for the longest time. The standard notation for the "imaginary unit" is i, always in italic font.
@anonymous: instantly get Bono and Ciccone; not sure of Cher's birth surname.
Wasn’t “easy”. More like medium. The esoteric cluing was a grind.
Looking it up, pizzicato is evidently Italian for "pinched". Visiting Italy, it's interesting how many words with musical meanings in English are common Italian words: opera (work, or construction), piano (floor), piccolo (small).
That was KITT with two 't's. My name was routinely spelt wrong for a decade after that.
There's an echo in here?
I thought today’s puzzle was hideous. Action item, distort, nonreal. I’d like the author of this puzzle to get real
Also played in Being the Ricardos
I’m sorry. This puzzle was not easy. It was not medium. It was hard. Who are you people? My stat line says I’ve completed 3387 NYT puzzles. I’m not stupid. When I struggle with a puzzle and I read the blog and inevitably it says EASY it just frustrates me. What does it take for someone catch up with you puzzle wizards? Obviously I don’t have it. Granted I’ve never read Harry Potter, studied Spanish memorized the Greek alphabet or Roman numerals and can’t say I’ve ever watched the Simpsons. I know that puts me at a disadvantage but come on now.
Noni
I do the puzzle on paper still ( don’t like the app. )
I sometimes “finish “ the puzzle and find an error on this blog. Even after looking at the finished puzzle I occasionally find an error by reading the comments. Finding an error like that in either case I consider a dnf.
Beside the fact I hate the app, if I used it , it would increase my dnfs. I can fill all the block then change my mind at the last minute on paper. But the app tells me I made a mistake. Can’t undo the knowledge.
I agree that 'counterpart' is incorrect in the clue to 51down: arco (played with the bow) is the opposite of pizzicato (plucked), not similar or analogous to it (i.e., its counterpart).
Anonymous 8:17:AM
My fears for the same as yours
But you reminded me of my age (older boomer) !
Alec Guinness is classic crosswordese. He was a famous star most of his long life. He appeared in a major role as an older Obi Ean Kenobe in the Star Wars original trilogy.
Not in the least obscure but his name evidently has dropped out of the consciousness of younger people not into Star Wars nor movie buff.
I assure you that was a gimme for most solvers So not unfair at all.
The panda cam is a thing. Because over the years pandas have become the most popular animal in a zoo lucky enough to have one. Pandas are obsessed over. Thus panda cam as an expression.
Croaky is used here to solve a problem. The editors at the Times accept words rarely in print and not often spoken either at times like croaky if they like the puzzle otherwise. Just the way it is
TOATEE appears in the Times ALOT. I hear the expression all the time. Nothing wrong with it as far as I can see
@dash riprock
If you're using LaTeX to typeset mathematics, as basically everyone does these days, then the imaginary unit i would be put in math mode and the result would come out looking italicized. So certainly that is what one would expect to see in any modern text. The texts you consulted sound like they're from a different era and they do not reflect modern-day customs.
Maybe "counterpart" in the clue was supposed to have a space? Counter part. As in, counter=opposite.
RooMonster There I Go Thinking Again Guy
Adulting is what adults gotta do to pay the bar tab. And not so ironically the only time I hear it is in the company of 40+ ers - at the bar - poking fun at the sacrifices that must be made to get by like normies. I ran straight over here to catch Rex setting flame to it and wasn't disappointed! Great blog and don't understand why some people have to get all prickly about it.
I had PANDA pAw too -- but that was because I didn't check the crosses. A PANDA CAM is a camera in a zoo that focuses on one or more pandas, and posts the streaming video on the Internet. Here's an osprey cam for example. There are owl cams, eagle cams, dolphin cams--probably even eel cams, especially for the crossword community.
I knew two of those four--but more to the point, you have a choice of how to react: "nothing quite as unsatisfying," or "Oh boy! I learned something new!"
And next year you'll get the terrible fours! Get ready!
Our seats are up in the NOSEBLEEDS.
I'm disappointed not to see people celebrating the addition of a new DOOK to the repertory. Let's hear it for DOTOAT! I found it a lot harder than Rex--maybe because I had zIp CAR before KIT CAR (something I've never heard of), and had to figure out THREENAGER to correct it. I also, for some reason, had edgar before REGAN for the Lear character/
"Sea shrunk by Soviet siphoning" was cute, but not really accurate -- it was upstream diversion of the tributary rivers that caused the Aral sea to shrink.
Greatest embarassment was finishing with pOOK, even though I couldn't figure out what it went, because I couldn't think of PANDA CAM.
Easy?? No. But I enjoyed it. STRUGGLEBUS? Ugh. Never heard of it. I finally got it but had TENTERHOOKS in there for the longest time. SHAKYGROUND also fits.
Gotcha, I guess I didn’t know the exact timeframe. I think of it as being born around the turn of the century. My mistake, thanks for clarifying.
Anyone else end up with MACADAM instead of PANDACAM? Everything sorta made sense except I couldn’t figure out what “CONREAL” would have been.
As a 50 year old native Texan, I concur. I must have eaten at 500 Tex Mex restaurants in this state and I’ve never once seen Taco Pie on a menu. That was tough, but as a life long Dallas Cowboys fan (currently on the struggle bus), TOOTALL was the easiest answer of the puzzle.
Too Tall Jones played for the Cowboys 1974-1989 with a short hiatus for a boxing career. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_%22Too_Tall%22_Jones
This 100x
CPA here. Rent roll is a term of art in real estate rental accounting. What the revenue of a building would be if every unit was full and paying the full lease amount. Then you adjust for vacancies, collection issues, etc.
You said "crawlspace" was near the bottom where it belonged. Isn't the crawl space usually the 'short story' instead of an attic, that you access through a spot in the ceiling? So doesn't it belong near the top, not the bottom, of the grid?
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