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Relative difficulty: Challenging (for a Tuesday)
Theme answers:
- SAVE THE DAY (17A: Find a way to avert disaster)
- SPEND THE NIGHT (38A: Have a sleepover)
Sha'Carri Richardson (/ʃəˈkæriː/ shə-KERREE; born March 25, 2000) is an American track and field sprinter who competes in the 100 metres and 200 metres. Richardson rose to fame in 2019 as a freshman at Louisiana State University, running 10.75 seconds to break the 100 m collegiate record at the NCAA Division I Championships. This winning time made her one of the ten fastest women in history at 19 years old. [...] In July 2023, she became the US national champion in the women's 100 metres at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships, running 10.82 seconds. // Richardson won gold in the 100 m at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, beating Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in a new championships record time of 10.65 seconds. On the penultimate day of the 2023 World Championships, she also won gold as part of Team USA in the women's 4 × 100m relay final with a championship record of 41.03 seconds.[11] On June 22, 2024, Richardson defended her title as the US national champion in the 100-metre sprint event by winning the women's 100m final in 10.71 seconds (WL), qualifying for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, where she won the silver medal in the 100m and gold in the 4×100 relay.
• • •
This puzzle played hard for me, but not for the reasons you might think, i.e. not because the grid was absolutely swamped with names. I knew all the names, except SHA'CARRI, which I knew—had seen, had heard of, could picture—but couldn't spell. Actually, besides SHA'CARRI, one name did give me trouble, but it's not because I didn't know it. It's because I thought it was a different name entirely. In fact, I was sure it was a different name entirely. I had M- at 22D: First name in civil rights history and without hesitation wrote in MEDGAR (Evers). Bypassing the most famous first name in American Civil Rights history—the most famous M-name for sure—that was probably not the smartest move. But MARTIN never occurred to me because it seemed too obvious. The way the clue is worded, I figured it was something less common. A deeper cut. So in went MEDGAR and screech went my solve, for a bit. Brittney GRINER got me out of the MEDGAR mess, but I still didn't see MARTIN for some time. It just wasn't computing. The Most Obvious Answer was not computing. Me: "MARVIN ... someone?" Oy. But that didn't mess me up nearly as bad as one seemingly insignificant square in the NE. I took one look at 19A: "Who ___?" and, with the "T" in place, wrote in "IS IT." "Who IS IT?" Seemed legit. Very legit. And the crosses check out, except ... why couldn't I make *any* sense out of 12D: "Don't bother with that"??? IGIOREIT!? I tore that "word" apart and tried parsing and reparsing it all kinds of ways: nothing. I could see that it was a phrase that probably ended in IT, but still, IGIO- ... IGIO- ... nothing starts with IGIO-!!! (unless Armani has written a memoir called I, GIORGIO that I'm unaware of). I checked every cross multiple times before finally realizing that it was "Who ISN'T?," not "Who IS IT?" So ... "IGNORE IT!" GAH, for sure. Many GAHs.
The other (lesser) slow spot in the grid for me came (unsurprisingly) in the initially empty BUDGET section of the grid. I did not know that SHAH was anything but a former ruler of Iran (46A: Common surname in Pakistan), and (worse) I thought that the "low tie" at 58A: Low tie score (ONE ALL) was ONE ONE (ONE ONE having been a "low tie" thirty-two times before in NYTXW history). So not only was BUDGET unknown to me, but the surrounding fill locked up on me, so I really did fizzle toward the finish. Not entirely satisfying. But again, as far as the theme goes, I'm willing to admit that the problem is mine, not the puzzle's. I *want* to be the person for whom TIME BUDGET meant something, who wrote in TIME BUDGET and thought "damn, that's good." But I wasn't.
As for the names, it's almost comical how aggressively namey this puzzle is. I spent all weekend complaining about the puzzle steering so hard into proper noun trivia of late, it was like this puzzle was giving me the middle finger, LOL. The one reason I'm not as mad at this puzzle for its names as I am at some other recent offerings is that the names in this grid feel like they're making a collective statement, a statement about Black representation in the crossword puzzle. That is to say, this is the Blackest puzzle I've ever seen. Especially for a puzzle where Blackness is not part of the theme. Pound for pound, square for square, you'd be hard pressed to find a Blacker puzzle. VIVICA Fox and Brittney GRINER and MARTIN Luther King and SHA'CARRI Richardson and OCTAVIA Butler and SIMONE Biles and STELLA (from How STELLA Got Her Groove Back by Terry McMillan)? Seven Black names, all in a grid where Blackness isn't the theme!? That is impressive. Also impressive: a puzzle without white people. Not a one. Feels like a point is (low-key) being made—after all, there have been hundreds and hundreds of puzzles without Black people, so ... what if we tried it this way? I have to respect the puzzle's defiant commitment to Black visibility (and shout-out to today's honorary Black people, CARLOS Santana and YODA) (43A: Guitarist Santana + 15A: Saga sage since 1980).
Bullets:
- 6D: Hue granter? (DYE) — OK so there's one white person in the puzzle ... kinda
- 20A: Like content that causes secondhand embarrassment (CRINGE) — love the modern clue on this one. CRINGE as adjective. Nice.
- 69A: Express contempt (SNEER) — ah, the SNEER/SNORT kealoa*! I wrote in SNEER but all the while thinking "it's gonna be SNORT." But I lucked out.
- 51D: Quintet found in a supervocalic word (AEIOU) — I follow enough word nerds on social media that I know what supervocalics are—words that contain all the (non-Y) vowels. FACETIOUS, for instance, contains them all in order. There's probably a special word for that: Superdupervocalic or some such nonsense.
- 49D: Half of a rhyming synonym of "haphazard" (HELTER) — the other half is SKELTER. Some warped part of my brain is connecting this clue to HOT (23A: Sweltering) via Don McLean
NOTE: the tenth annual edition of the NYT's Puzzle Mania comes out on December 1. If you're not a dead-tree newspaper subscriber, you can now pre-order a copy of the puzzle extravaganza for yourself (for $7 + shipping). This is the holiday supplement that has tons of different puzzles in it, including (in previous years) a truly giant crossword puzzle, which you have to put on a large table or the floor to solve. Anyway, it's an event. And now you know how to get it if you want it.
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]
ReplyDeleteMedium for a Tuesday.
Overwrites:
11D: Rosh HASHoNna before HASHANAH
31A: GAa before GAH
41D: SCOrnED before SCOFFED
58A: @Rex ONE-one before ONE ALL
WOEs:
I knew SHA'CARRI Richardson, but like @Rex, tripped up on the spelling
OCTAVIA Butler at 50A
Such a good puzzle today! Yes, TIME BUDGET was odd, and lots of names… but (for me at least) it was fun and felt very fresh & clean, ERRS and OLES aside.
ReplyDeleteI really can't express how happy I would be if one day I'd read a headline that states "Erik Agard appointed new NYT Crossword Editor". It would also be real nice if this news was announced at the 2025 ACPT...
ReplyDeleteAgree. One of the things I admire about his puzzles is the exquisite clueing.
DeleteTOTALLY AGREE! "Erik Agard appointed new NYT Crossword Editor"
DeleteWith Robyn Weintraub co-editor?
Crossing SHA‘CARRI and OCTAVIA at that „c“ does not seem like a good idea. I did know Ms. Richardson, but was by no means sure as to how to spell her first name. Never read anything by Ms. Butler, so decided for „c“ (and against „k“) based solely on „Butler“ being an English-sounding name. Is that an almost-Natick?
ReplyDeleteEric bringing the early week heat - fantastic. Simple but nuanced theme with a nifty revealer. I see nothing odd with TIME BUDGET. Agree that the grid is loaded with trivia - no idea on SHACARRI but the crosses were fair.
ReplyDeleteMARTIN’s Song
IN LOVE, PARTNERS, SIXTHS etc. are all top notch. Didn’t really notice the background color of the fill - doesn’t move the needle for me either way.
Enjoyable Tuesday morning solve.
STELLA by Starlight
SO ENJOYABLE!!
DeleteAnother example of my being out of sync- the last few weeks the "easy" ones have trippped me up while the challenging ones, super easy.
ReplyDeleteI was disappointed to see that the hit parade continues - especially with VIVICA, SHACARRI and OCTAVIA. After such a cruddy weekend, this just felt like piling on (or as Rex put it, just giving us the middle finger). The NYT puzzles are becoming no fun to solve anymore.
ReplyDeleteBTW, Sid Sivakumar is making this year's Super Mega crossword in this year's NYT Puzzle Mania edition.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the AEIOU quintet the shortest word with all five is SEQUOIA. Great scrabble word, too!
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty obscure, but eunoia is a word.
DeleteRunning into the person you have a debt with. Ah. Eh. I owe you. (Aeiou)
DeleteFacetiously has all six, in order, but I was taught that W could also be one. Anyone else?
DeleteOnce I tried to construct the shortest sentence using each vowel (including Y) only once, and in alphabetical order. The best I could do was:
DeleteA lei?..o, buy!
Rex, it’s not just you re: TIME BUDGET. I Googled and yes, ok, it’s a thing, but it didn’t resonate with me either.
ReplyDeleteOne of my slower Tuesdays in a while. I was glad to learn a couple of unfamiliar names, but SHA’CARRI felt a little obscure for a Tuesday, along with OCTAVIA as clued (when Oscar-winning Octavia Spencer is right there). The ISiT/ISNT kealoa also got me and seemed unnecessarily tricky this early in the week.
Two (2) themers. A revealer that doesn't land at all. More names than a megachurch raffle box. The 'repeat a clue' thing not once but twice. I really believe that if the name on this puzzle isn't Agard it gets rejected faster than a Sha'Carri Richardson 100m.
ReplyDeleteAgree. The SAVE/SPEND theme couplet is kinda cute, but not cute enough to salvage this mess.
DeleteSHACARRI looked wrong without the apostrophe. There’s been some discussion lately about misleading answers that ignore diacritics. The same things true for apostrophes, isnt it?
ReplyDeleteHad HEHIS for HEHIM and SOP for MOP
ReplyDeleteSame here. Dictionary.com, Collins Dictionary, and Wiktionary’s have definitions for the noun SOP along the lines of “something entirely soaked,” which would fit the clue, but some of the others (e.g. M-W) only have it as specifically a piece of food dipped in liquid (in addition to the “conciliatory gesture” other meaning of the word).
DeleteTwo words with AEIOU in order are FACETIOUS and ABSTEMIOUS
ReplyDeleteThe only two, no?
Delete“The only two,” he said half-seriously.
DeleteUsing only 33 squares for the entire theme gave Erik space to employ his remarkable talents on the rest of the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteToday he used that to showcase notable people of color, yet there is nothing in his notes about that, making his point: Well, why should there be anything in my notes about that?
Meanwhile, as with all Erik’s puzzles, this one is so clean, dust free. And, as with all his puzzles, no matter what the day, clued just right. I just finished his most recent New Yorker puzzle, one labeled “challenging”, and there it was, once again, dust free and clued just right. I can’t stress highly enough how gifted Erik is.
What an elegant theme today! So simple. Two phrases that mirror each other in a lovely way, capped with the perfect revealer that ties them together. Props to Erik on this find.
I smiled at the pair of clues that play off of popular names: [Game of throws] and [Hue granter]. And I enjoyed the neighboring PuzzPair© of ODD and EVEN.
Most of all, I loved the quality of the puzzle, that Agard feel. I’ve grown to expect this from you, Erik, and I feel privileged to be able to do your puzzles and bathe in your skill, sensibility, and wit. Thank you, sir!
Finished it without cheating, despite the unfamiliar names, particularly SHACARRI. When the music sounded I was surprised.
ReplyDeletefinished 10 minutes flat. a bit slow. the ISiT/ISNT got me. Never heard of SHACARRI?? GRINER came to me immediately - she was in the news all the time last year.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many puzzles that I struggle and strain and sweat over and often find impossible to solve, and then Rex (deflatingly) classifies them as Easy… so I greatly enjoyed the fact that I found this one easy and he said Challenging. Sweet! Thanks, Medgar and Marvin!
ReplyDeleteAlso got stuck on ISIT. Didn’t notice all the names, which were easy ones for once, were black people until you pointed it out. That’s a good thing I think.
ReplyDeleteCRINGy
ReplyDeleteSmall point: To qualify as a supervocalic, the word must contain each of the five non-Y vowels only once. My favorite is cauliflower. And here's a very bad joke: What did the cruciverbalist experience after eating some cauliflower? -- A vowel movement.
ReplyDeleteI fell into a lot of the same traps but knowing Erik is tricky made me a little wary. Once I saw that GIO combo I took out the I and waited for the cross to help me out. I didn’t put MARTIN in right away but I didn’t put anything else so again, waited for the crosses. And YES on the black women particularly. Love Sha’Carri. What a star. And Love Erik’s puzzles. Thank you for the gift recommendation, I just bought my puzzle loving family a bunch of stuff! Great gifts for the holidays.
ReplyDeleteI'm with @Andy Freude in lamenting the lack of an apostrophe in SHACARRI . In fact, I left a blank square in my puzzle just for that but of course, the cross didn't work.
ReplyDeleteHa ha, just kidding. I had no idea about Ms. SHA'CARRI and the OCTAVIA cross was no help. Got them filled in but they go in the TIL file. Add VIVICA too.
I missed the memo about CRINGE being and adjective but CRINGY didn't work. And GAH usually needs crosses, today being no exception.
TIMEBUDGET ?? OK, I guess. My favorite time-related expression that I've heard lately was the band sign off at a Halloween party. "Good night folks. If we don't see you in the future, we'll see you in the pasture." Liked that one.
Top notch stuff as usual, EA. Everything Always comes together in your offerings, and thanks for all the fun.
I watch the Olympics to help with my puzzle solving! (Not completely but it definitely helps a lot! )
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteIs this Joel's "Back to sparse Themers" era? Only two plus a Revealer here. Is it a Theme BUDGET?
Good for a TuesPuz. Like how both sides of Themers work. SAVE and SPEND, DAY and NIGHT.
Had the ONEone in. Didn't take too long to see the ERRor. Another ID clue! ODD.
Welp, have a great Tuesday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I’m all for modern slang in puzzles but the CRINGE answer gave me pause, as there’s no indication of modernity or slanginess. CRINGy is the actual grammatical correct answer there, so that lingered for a long time before I finally realized “oh they ARE looking for CRINGE!” Enjoyed the answer, but can see how it could trip up some folks
ReplyDeleteNever heard of a TIME BUDGET, and HE/HIs and sOP should've worked fine, but enjoyed the puzzle despite spending more time hunting for that square than solving the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteBudgeting time is a favorite concept in essays about improving the quality of one’s life, so this was a relatively easy revealer to get, but agree it is not normally used as a noun this way, at least in my experience limited as that may be. Got the names via crosses (well, didn’t need them for GRINER) and appreciate @Lewis’s catch of that mini-theme.
ReplyDeletePretty bold theme -- two answers and a revealer. I think it works, although I was looking tor "time is money" instead of TIME BUDGET. I thought the duplicate clues worked out well, as well, and I'm always happy to see OCTAVIA Butler. I needed all the crosses for VIVICA and SHACARRI, but they were there.
ReplyDeleteBut with SCOFFED, SNUBS, and SNEER, I wonder if the constructor has a CHIP on his shoulder. (Just kidding).
As for OLE, I'm sure it's a common cheer if you are watching the Americas Cup--but what about when Arsenal plays Manchester United? Maybe they do I don't know.
I like TIME IS MONEY -- a real phrase! -- much better.
DeleteI was kind of thrown by the reference to “soccer” rather than “football.”
DeleteShould have just gone all-in and clued CHIP, GAGA, TRAIN (the band), and anything else that could pass as PPP. A lot of respect for Erik, and while I don’t think this puzzle was awful, I kinda agree with a @Kitshef that the byline is definitely buying a good dose of gratuity here.
ReplyDelete8D The ID misdirection twice within three days? Doesn't someone (an editor) keep an eye out for that sort of thing? It doesn't take much for something clever, fresh and fun to lose its cleverness, freshness and fun - but close proximate reuse is one of them.
ReplyDeleteI thought this was one of the most refreshing Tuesday puzzles in a long time. I had all three initial mistakes that Rex mentioned (Medgar, ISiT, [forget third]) and I guess that makes it challenging for a Tuesday? I was familiar with about every name in the puzzle BUT also had NO clue how to spell SHACARRI. Still…probably too many names for most peoples taste. But! I love Agard’s clever clueing!
ReplyDeletei like that the whitest person ever is also not in the puzzle.....hugh grant.
ReplyDeleteWorking the crosses, I came at ONE ALL from the LLs, so the only question was ONE or two. Also, "Saga sage" made my day. And I think Khan is an even more common Pakistani surname; fortunately, I waited to check the crosses, or it might have held me up.
ReplyDelete@jberg you just solved something that was driving me nuts. i wanted to know why nobody was talking about the yoda clue "saga since 1980" as "yoda" is not the name of any of the movies or shows. i swear i read the clue over and over trying to figure out what it really meant. i even googled "yoda saga" thinking it was a person, lol! when i read your comment, i thought, oh man did my puzzle have an error? turns out no, it was a trick of the eyes/mind where i must have seen "sage" as a duplicate "saga" and read right past it. what a forehead slap 😂
Delete-stephanie.
As for commonality in the names, my only thought was that three of the women were high profile athletes. Beyond that, my experience was closely in line with RP’s, right down to IS IT/IGIO. Had the same sense of puzzlement about the revealer - huh? - and idly wondered whether it was really a thing or just a crossword invention.
ReplyDeleteThinking I might be missing something, I checked Wordplay where I found praise for the clever reveal and economy of the theme, with one commenter relating the two TIME answers to a mathematical formula which thereby equates to a BUDGET. *Sigh* My reaction was more … I did this for two themers and an ODD revealer? Ah well, I bow to the superior wisdom of my fellow solvers whose insight never fails to enlighten me.
People are defending the phrase TIME BUDGET based on budgeting time being a thing. But that doesn't mean TIME BUDGET (as opposed to "budgeting one's time") is in the language enough to be the basis for a whole puzzle. It feels like it doesn't resonate with enough people that it might not be.
ReplyDeleteMy enjoyment of this puzzle is at ODDs with my appraisal of it. I enjoyed it quite a lot as Tuesdays go, appreciating its relative crunchiness and the attempt to find off-beat clues -- some admittedly more successful than others.
ReplyDeleteBut TIME BUDGET is not exactly an in-the-language phrase. I fed TIME BU into Google and TIME BUDDY came up first. That's not exactly an in-the language phrase either. TIME BUDGET came in fourth, I think.
And then -- isn't there sort of an unwritten rule that you have to have either four theme answers or three theme answers and a revealer in a themed 15x15 puzzle? The theme is awfully thin here and I found myself looking at the Downs to see if Erik had slipped in one more themer there.
None of this in any way diminished my enjoyment of the puzzle -- and if I weren't on a puzzle blog, I probably wouldn't have paid attention to any of it. Very pleasant Tuesday.
Anonymous @8:58 I started with CRINGy but I’m familiar with CRINGE as an adjective. I’ve seen CRINGEY as well.
ReplyDeleteMARTIN was easy enough but the [First name in X] kind of clue feels more late week-ish to me. It’s a common way to mask crosswordese names.
Got stuck because I made the same mistake Rex did with "oneone," but since I had the N in Martin got by that one easily. Got stuck, too, by putting in LEAK instead of DRIP in the north.
ReplyDeleteOther than Martin, which came a lot easier, my solving experience and assessment of the puzzle's difficulty level was identical to Rex's except Martin.
ReplyDeleteI did the same thing, dropped MEDGAR right in.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the head up on the giant puzzle. It is really fun to leave it in the kitchen table in my office and see what people gravitate in.
Name heavy, for sure, but the names were fair - with the possible exception of Vivica, the names have been in the news fairly recently - Brittany Griner was held in Russia, Sha’Carri Richardson was excluded from the 2020 Olympics for cannabis use, and Simone Biles is … Simone Biles. Octavia Butler seems to have been in the general discourse lately, though I admit that she hails from my hometown, so it’s possible that that influences my perception of her cultural impact (shoutout to Octavia E Butler middle school) but they did make a TV series from Kindred, one of her novels, in 2022. As someone who hasn’t memorized every baseball and basketball player for the past 50 years, these names felt much more fresh and relevant to me than Tyron Lue and Ichiro and Alou and Orr and Ott.
ReplyDeleteI’ve never heard time budget either, though.
The Rex, just cannot bring yourself to stamp Hard, for a Tuesday.. lest we subject Ourself to reading all the "Easy"/"Easy medium" gallery banter. The shame. So we get "Challenging ('and, guise, don't forget, I mean..' for a Tuesday)".. what is that, is that somewhere between Medium and the mythical Hard? Or a pussyfooting euphemism.
ReplyDeleteFor the rest of you, how did Easy/Easy Medium translate in the final number? For The Rex, we can assume 4 vs. 3.. we dunno, but faster than any of you. The grade should be through the eyes of a neophyte or newly-weaned, not a 30-yr daily gamer ("OOoo the Groce #7819922 today, so UUNNNNnnnngggg... yuo too? and whaddabout the China Daily, 我喜欢它宝贝across x 我也是down, did yuo see that ? Wow, with a capital W!!").
Has there ever been a Hard Tuesday, for a Tuesday? If so, which date? Last ten years, be reasonable. If not, then scale is rubbish. Recalibrate.
Rip scanned one reported ten, and for me too, the higher-than-avg finish.. what made the game.. em, "Challenging...(for a Tuesday)".. centered on the skipping and returning to of several clues, incl. the IGi vs. IGN, 12d, start. A Tuesday should involve smooth sussing, any direction, with some additional thought over a Monday. It's not complicated.
The game - liked the SAVE THE DAY, SPEND THE NIGHT contrasting imperatives. Beyond those, dry, forgettable.
Has anyone mentioned that supervocalic is itself supervocalic?
ReplyDeleteWhat did the frustrated bidder at the auction run by the female lead in the remake of "A Star is Born" say when she wouldn't end the bidding? GAH GAGA, GAVEL!
Do grads-to-be typically use a Supplemental Restraint System?
Like @Rex and others, I had the low tie score as ONEone, but it made the crosses seem HEeTER-Skeeter.
I spent from the time I got up until noon yesterday unsuccessfully attempting to make a TIMEBUDGET. What a way to waste the morning. Maybe I'll invest an evening in trying it again.
Superb puzzle, as I've come to expect from Erik Agard. Thanks.
I see the term WOE used often in the comments section. I assume it's an acronym. Can someone enlighten me as to it's meaning?
ReplyDelete@MiJ. WOE = What On Earth
Delete@Made in Japan it means "what on earth" :)
Delete-stephanie.
My solve for today’s puzzle followed Rex’s so closely. I, too, didn’t immediately drop in MARTIN at 22D off the M, thinking it wouldn’t be that super-famous and tried to fit in Malcolm, though that’s certainly well known. I remember my first Erik Agard puzzle where the long name was unknown to me and took all the crosses to get: Ama Ata Aidoo, a Ghanaian author, poet, and playwright. Such a cool name I’ve never forgotten it and am always ready to learn new names in an Agard crossword. @Lewis 7:51 – I thought the puzzle with Aidoo was NYT, but Crossword Fiend has it as being the 12 January 2022 New Yorker’s.
ReplyDeleteAt the 62A revealer had the TIME and the BU and could not come up with a thing, either to finish the phrase or to fill in any of the three downs in the SE corner, not knowing that SHAH was also a surname and never having heard of a TIME BUDGET. I noticed the singsong-y opposites SAVE-SPEND and DAY-NIGHT, but, nope, nothing till I got EDEN and then HELTER off its own clever clue. That area was the last bit in and it took many minutes to get there.
Also had “is it” off IS_T until I found IGNORE IT. Had Gone before GAGA. Liked learning AEIOU is supervocalic and that “facetious” has them all in order. @Rex, big smile for your “superdupervocalic”; want to append “-expialidocious”! Googled and saw that “sequoia” is generally considered the shortest supervocalic word in English, though not in alphabetic order. Hi, @Barry 6:44, who mentions this and points out it’s a great Scrabble word (if those seven tiles ever show up in my tile rack I’d hope for a free “s” on the board and go buy a lottery ticket).
Liked seeing 20A CRINGE clued that way.
@pablo 8:22 – Thanks for the fun band sign-off!
Enjoyed the longer puzzlement this Tuesday; thanks, Erik!
Medium-tough for me.
ReplyDeleteThe OCTAVIA/SHACARRI cross was a guess.
ONE one (@hi REX et.al.) before ONE ALL ate a bunch of nanoseconds.
I also did not know GRINER and SHAH
Odd theme. TIME BUDGET as a phrase was not familiar to me either.
Interesting puzzle, liked it.
Thought I'd comment while I look for my typo which I made since I whooshed through this puzzle. Who else but Erik would put SHACARRI in a puzzle? This had Erik's signature, which I obviously love, all over it. A typical "Agard" puzzle. Good to see you here, Erik, in the NYT instead of The New Yorker for a change.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, Erik Agard for Editor & perhaps
Robyn Weintraub Co-Editor?
Two themers and a revealer? Maybe the main theme was all them girls' names? Confuses the M&A.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: DYE. Cuz it had a really weird clue: {Hue granter?}. Funny, but really far out, for a TuesPuz.
some fave stuff: SIMONE & GRINER [cuz they weren't no-know names, at our house]. GAGA, overlooked as a gal's name. IDAHO clue.
Thanx, Mr. Agard dude.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
no spam. no way. just a wee lil puz:
**gruntz**
Facetiously. There you go
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I too dropped Medgar in off the M. And thought to myself that that probably wasn't fair for people born after 1970 or so. I also started with ISiT and ONEone.
ReplyDeleteI agree the themer didn’t land. But I enjoyed the puzzle. Same mistakes as Rex. Medgar before Martin, is it before isn’t and scorned before scoffed. Very happy to see Shacarri in there.
ReplyDeleteCRINGE as adjective ISN'T nice.
ReplyDeleteCRINGEY and CRINGY are nice.
CRIGE is wrong. Rex's comment about it being modern did not convince me otherwise. If it had been "cringey" or "cringe worthy"
ReplyDeletefine But cringe is not an adjective or adverb.
Also, like Rex, never heard of" time budget". Before that The phrases were out of fun together.
Save the day / spend the night.
But the revealer FAILED
Really enjoyed this puzzle, and the theme delighted me even though I likewise have never heard of a TIME BUDGET. The paralleling of the theme phrases alone sparkled for me.
ReplyDeleteI did not know at least half of the names, but eventually got their with crosses (thus it’s a good thing OCTAVIA was one of the ones I did know, otherwise that cross would have hurt), and all told I didn’t mind them nearly as much as yesterday (which I hated).
The clue on IDAHO took me a long time to figure out even after inferring the answer from crosses. It was a GAH moment that delighted me.
Isn't SPEND THE NIGHT better clued as "ATTEND' rather than "HAVE" a sleepover?
ReplyDeleteRex, thanks for the heads-up on the Super Mania Puzzle section that is coming up!
ReplyDeleteRex, when you click on the Super Mania Puzzle it just gives you the option to
Delete"Pre-Order" - I'm assuming that means I'm on a list to receive it? (DUH)
Looks like it won't even ship until 12/9/24, so I'll probably get up early Sunday and buy the paper at the local Kwik-E-Mart .
DeleteHad so much fun with all the black names & not just black names but so many incredible black women!
ReplyDeleteI really don't mind learning new names but the problem is there are so many of them and they are so in my face. VIVICA GRINER OCTAVIA SHACARRI were unknowns; CARLOS MARTIN STELLA SIMONE were knowns but that's still a lot to take.
ReplyDeleteI tried at first to solve down clues only but with those long unknowns, and completely unable to guess the revealer (the closest I came without looking at the clue was TIME FOR BED!) I gave it up.
'Key that's missing an "ape" ' really had me baffled; I was thinking maybe one of the Florida Keys?
If you're looking for whiteness in the puzzle, there is BEIGE.
Anoche sacamos a relucir las cosas navideñas.
ReplyDeleteSpent the weekend forcing the artwork from our old house to fit into the new house and piling up Christmas related paraphernalia in one corner and reminiscing about my youth when I lugged beer and books around instead. I don't drink anymore, my library is in my phone, and the TIME BANDIT marches onward. That has been a more exciting reveal, even though neither fit the other theme entries.
I insisted CRINGE be CRINGY, I mean honestly the clue is screaming adverb, and that last square held HEDGED hostage until the end.
Do we know why DISC is spelled with a C? When did this word demote K? Chopping discus I suppose to be more Latin-y?
❤️ [Hue granter] is fun.
I am hoping when I read comments, some math person will be devastated and explaining how SIXTHS are not roughly 17%.
😫 Supervocalic? Who you tryna impress?
Late to the party today as I just finished at the barber and I am so beautiful.
Propers: 10 (boooo)
Places: 1
Products: 4
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 74 (%)
Funnyisms: 2 😕
Uniclues:
1 What's on the shoulder of the idiot in charge?
2 What I accidentally stepped on at a wedding once.
3 She probably will. She does everything.
4 In which an allocated nap slot is provided.
5 Vehicle component laughing at the idea of you passing the emissions check.
6 When you tolerate the way they eat cereal.
7 Joke about my brother-in-law.
8 When you show up with the wrong guitar at the bluegrass jam.
9 What's waiting in the refrigerator for the sunrise.
1 GAVEL DRIP CHIP
2 TIERED TRAIN
3 SHALL SIMONE?
4 FREE-TIME BUDGET
5 GAS CAP SCOFFED
6 LET GO IN LOVE
7 NO PROB PAYING (~)
8 MARTIN SNUBS
9 HASHANAH HOAGIE
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Finances the end of human thought. BANKROLLS GOOGLE APPS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I had a similar struggle as Rex with MLK. I had MA in place and could only come up with Malco(m?) X which didn't look correct (it's Malcolm) so I didn't put it in. Even MAR didn't kickstart my brain though when I got the T, it hit me and I had the chagrined thought, "Really, couldn't think of Martin Luther King first?"
ReplyDeleteConvinced that it was Rosh HoSHANAH, I had Gone in place for 16A but the 13D PATTERN cured that.
TIME BUDGET isn't a phrase I've heard (and TIME Bandits is a great movie!!).
Thanks, Erik Agard!
Time Budget (tīm bəjət) noun 1. a feature of a productivity app for tablets or phones, either purchased up-front or with in-app purchases (or both) to make it function. 2. a productivity tool that you pay a high-priced consultant to train you to develop, 3. A course taught in MBA programs to keep filling classroom seats with paying customers. 4. an example of back-formed business-tech jargon that insists simple human tasks are highly complex and beyond the capability of normal humans, therefore requiring the help of paid experts.
ReplyDeleteCRINGE as an adjective: Hate it.
ReplyDeleteSPEND as a noun. Detest it.
COMPUTE as a noun. Abhor it.
CLICHE as an adjective. No. Just no.
FRAUGHT without an object to be with (preferably PERIL). Perish the thaught.
I guess the new puzzles require ppp since that seems to have become the norm. God I even miss Maleska at this point.
ReplyDeleteThere was a time when a puzzle with three or four theme entries was the norm. As can be seen in today's offering, this leaves lots of space for unforced fill, you know, interesting words crossing one another. As Rex points out, even the names reflect a thoughtful PATTERN rather than get-it-filled-at-any-cost desperation.
ReplyDeleteSince I cut my teeth, so to speak, on those kind of puzzles, I've always been an advocate of fill first, theme second puzzles. The trend over the last few decades toward more and more theme heavy puzzles has left me with the impression that the fill is seen at best as perfunctory "glue", as more of an inconvenience, even a hinderance, than an opportunity for a high quality crossing words crossword puzzle. This trend has left me thinking that maybe it's time for a new genre of puzzles where theme is all and fill is dispensed with altogether.
So this puzzle was like a breath of fresh air and I wish it would become the PATTERN for more like it in the future.
I think that a few years ago I’d have balked at CRINGE as an adjective but I’ve heard Kamala Harris called CRINGE myriad times this year so I’m good with it.
ReplyDelete