Friday, November 8, 2024

Windows forerunner, in brief / FRI 11-8-24 / Spoken-word performer Scott-Heron / Pricey flight options / Turn upside down, as a Monopoly deed / Cinematic friend of Scuttle, Flounder and Sebastian / Co-star of Netflix's "The Umbrella Academy" / Sitcom that popularized the phrase "What'choo talkin' 'bout, Willis?" / "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious ___": Arthur Conan Doyle

Constructor: Evans Clinchy

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: guitarrón (35D: Style of music with a vihuela and guitarrón = MARIACHI) —
The 
guitarrón mexicano (Spanish for "big Mexican guitar", the suffix -ón being a Spanish augmentative) or Mexican guitarrón is a very large, deep-bodied Mexican six-string acoustic bass guitar played traditionally in Mariachi groups. Although similar to the guitar, it is not a derivative of that instrument, but was independently developed from the sixteenth-century Spanish bajo de uña ("fingernail[-plucked] bass"). Because its great size gives it volume, it does not require electric amplification for performances in small venues. The guitarrón is fretless with heavy gauge strings, most commonly nylon for the high three and wound metal for the low three. [...] The guitarrón is used in Mexican Mariachi groups, which usually consist of at least two violins, two trumpets, one Spanish guitar, a vihuela (a high-pitched, five-string guitar-type instrument), and the guitarrón. A strap is usually used to keep the instrument up and playable. The guitarrón is the principal rhythm instrument in the mariachi group, and it serves as the bass instrument, playing deep pitches. The rhythmic propulsion of the basslines played on it help to keep the other instruments together. It is unusual for a group to have more than one guitarrón player. (wikipedia)
• • •

There is nothing more deceptive than a fill-in-the-blank quotation clue, apparently. There are only two reasons why I rated this puzzle "Easy-Medium" as opposed to just "Easy," and one of them was right there waiting to greet me at the door: 1A: "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious ___": Arthur Conan Doyle. I took one look at that clue and thought, "I dunno ..." Then I got the "F" from FEED and thought, "There is nothing more deceptive than an obvious ... FAKE?" And then I tested the crosses and bam, the "A" was right, and I was like "yessss, nailed it." But then came the last two crosses. EURO and EDAM were undeniable, and their letters were making FAKE impossible. Could not get 3D: Pricey flight options, perhaps from KRAF- and couldn't come close to 4D: Doofuses from EOMF-. In fact, I couldn't come close to 4D: Doofuses even without the "E" there. -OMF- was just ??? All I could think was this was some form of "dummkopfs?" Is that how you spell it? But without the -KE from FAKE, I couldn't think of anything that worked. I mean, I just couldn't see FACT. I had DRAFT BEERS in there for a bit and thought, "those ... aren't particularly 'pricey,' are they?" I really should've seen FACT, but also, TOMFOOLS is a truly awful answer. TOMFOOLERY is an absolutely acceptable term that I have heard and seen in the wild. But TOMFOOLS is some awful junk no one says. Pointing at the dictionary and saying "see!" isn't gonna help you hear, counselor. TOMFOOLS is junk. Not as disqualifying as IRES, which makes TOMFOOLS look commonplace, but pretty bad nonetheless. Mad at myself for not getting the -CT in FACT, but mad at the puzzle for the "only in crosswords" garbage that is TOMFOOLS and IRES. I don't know how constructors tolerate this stuff. TOMFOOL me once, shame on Tom; TOMFOOL me twice ... also shame on Tom, what is his problem?


The other trouble spot for me was the front end of *everything* down below—the long Acrosses, anyway. I came at that section from the back end, so I was staring at -ATTACHÉ and -CAKE and -ATIES like "???" Some kind of ATTACHÉ. Some kind of CAKE. Some word ending -ATIES. Making matters worse was 37D: Examines closely (PERUSES), which I had as ZOOMS IN or ZEROS IN because I had the ["Lord of the Flies" boy] as ZIGGY (haven't read LOTF since high school). Short downs in the SW weren't helping much either. Wanted "AS IF" for (the now dreadfully common and always ambiguous) "UH, NO" (the hesitancy of "UH" kind of contradicts the exclamation point of "Dream on!" there, though I guess you can say "UH, NO" with all kinds of different inflections, including semi-sarcastically, with an implied "!" on the end). CCED was unclear (44D: Kept up to speed, in a way). DOS ... I know only from MS/DOS, so I couldn't get that either (55A: Windows forerunner, in brief). Of course now, looking over my finished puzzle, obviously it's PIGGY and CULTURAL ATTACHÉ and CHEESECAKE. And I probably didn't spend that much time working all this out. But compared to the rest of the puzzle, this section (along with the TOMFOOLS section, ugh) was a significant slow patch.


There were moments I loved in this puzzle, like spelling DIFF'RENT STROKES correctly on the first try (19A: Sitcom that popularized the phrase "What'choo talkin' 'bout , Willis?"). I know there was an elision in there somewhere, and that first "E" seemed most likely, so I went for it, and nailed it! Right in my childhood TV-watching wheelhouse. DIFF'RENT STROKES was also the very first thing I saw on French television when I arrived there for the first time. Well, that and advertisements for shampoo where you could see women's naked breasts. Or did my 17yo brain fever-dream that? Well, the DIFF'RENT STROKES part was real, at any rate. The culture shock of being overseas for the first time was fun. Riding the Metro. Discovering how lousy my straight-A French was. Eating pain au everything—all the pain. Really wish I were back watching DIFF'RENT STROKES in a French hotel room right now ... good times (which is an entirely different sitcom; not sure if the French got that one). Anyway, "Il faut de tout pour faire un monde..." still lives in my brain.

["De quoi tu parles, Willis?"]

I also loved TRES LECHES (27D: Dairy-heavy dessert popular throughout Latin America), primarily because I actually love TRES LECHES, especially as prepared by my chef friend Ely. She does pop-up sales of Mexican food from time to time, out of her home (this was especially welcome during COVID shutdown times), and, well, good Mexican food is hard to get around here, so I ate a Lot of her food, including the TRES LECHESTRES LECHES next to MARIACHI is especially nice. Culturally coherent. Complementary. I don't like ZEALOTRY irl but I love it in the grid. It ZINGS. All in all, a hit-and-miss kind of day. If I could kill one crosswordese word, it would be IRES. Never, no one, no-how, no. Not said. Drive a stake through its miserable little heart. Only TOMFOOLS use IRES. Down with IRES, up with CHEESECAKE, that's my motto.


Notes and explainers:
  • 23A: Big brothers? (ABBOTS) — "brothers" being members of a fraternal order (monks), ABBOTS being the leaders (the "big" members) of said orders—the heads of abbeys, which are types of monasteries.
  • 56A: Lowdown (SKINNY) — tough one, particularly if you are a non-native speaker of English. "Lowdown" looks like it means "cruel, mean, base, rotten," etc. But here it means "news, gossip, intel, inside info, dope." Extra-confusingly, SKINNY (which typically means "thin") also means "news, gossip, intel, inside info, dope." "What's the SKINNY?" or "to get the SKINNY" is some old-tymey idiom. "SKINNY: Information or gossip from a reliable source" (Collins Dictionary). Not sure why I know it. But there it is. English is weird, man.
  • 3D: Pricey flight options, perhaps (CRAFT BEERS) — so ... not DRAFT BEERS. A "flight" is a kind of sampler that you might order at a bar with fancy beer (or wine, or bourbon, or cheese, or whatever). 
  • 9D: Turn upside down, as a Monopoly deed card (MORTGAGE) — haven't played this boring game since about the last time I read Lord of the Flies, but the answer wasn't hard to infer.
  • 16D: ___ Banchero, 2023 N.B.A. Rookie of the Year (PAOLO) — no idea, but got it off the "-AO-" What other name has that vowel combo?
  • 49D: It comes down hard (HAIL) — a very old clue pun. Not "it comes down with great force" but "it comes down in solid, as opposed to liquid, form."
  • 50D: "Sommes" and "serai" are forms of it (ÊTRE) — First we get French bread (EURO), then we get French ... non-bread. French irregular verb. Seven years of French really coming in handy today. Also, ÊTRE gives us the rarely seen double diacritical square! We get É in the Across (CULTURAL ATTACHÉ) and Ê in the Down (ÊTRE). 
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.

You can read more about the strike here (nyguild.org).

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.  

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

63 comments:


  1. Easy-Medium for me too.

    Overwrites:
    clue before FACT at 1A
    pan before WOK at 11A
    sexY before EDGY at 26D
    leDGE before RIDGE at 31A
    The ever-popular oslo before RIGA at 31D
    IRkS before IRES at 34A
    CUTseY before CUTESY at 41D

    WOEs:
    ELLIOT PAGE at 15A
    GIL Scott-Heron at 22A

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had to look it up, and I'm still not sure, but I don't think Oslo is on the Baltic.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:23 PM

      Jberg
      Oslo is on a fjord of the North Sea.
      Norway

      Delete
  2. Anonymous6:25 AM

    Totally agree with OFL. This puzzles IRES me, because the constructor must think we’re TOMFOOLS.

    And I hope this comment is accepted, because one I made yesterday was mildly critical of OFL’s opinion, and it wasn’t published.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous6:25 AM

    Totally agree with OFL. This puzzles IRES me, because the constructor must think we’re TOMFOOLS.

    And I hope this comment is accepted, because one I made yesterday was mildly critical of OFL’s opinion, and it wasn’t published.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous6:36 AM

      People shout dumb stuff at Rex every day. I doubt he’s bothered by some rando anonymouse. You probably just screwed up your post.

      Delete
  4. Liked it for the most part. Rex highlights some of the awkward entries but overall fun and satisfying. Added the extra E for 19a also. Have never liked CHEESECAKE and didn’t know ELLIOT.

    SKINNY Puppy

    I liked TOMFOOLS and the misdirect on CRAFT BEERS. Nice cross at ZEALOTRY x ZINGS. ENTREATIES, BIG BREAK, CULTURAL ATTACHÉ are all top notch.

    Big man - PIG man

    Enjoyable Friday morning solve.

    I hear MARIACHI static on my radio

    ReplyDelete
  5. Andy Freude6:55 AM

    Any morning with MARIACHI is a good morning.
    It’s come up a couple of times recently, so I’m wondering: any string players here who see [fix a bow] and think “rehair”?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:37 AM

      Yes

      Delete
    2. Anonymous12:49 AM

      I took it to mean a bow in someone’s hair or a on a gift.

      Delete
  6. Anonymous7:00 AM

    Just me smiling about everybody’s favorite lovable loser in the funny pages, Ziggy, going wild on the island with the other boys. Maybe that’s where he picked up the habit of not wearing pants.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Not knowing anything about ELLIOT PAGE, DIFFRENT STROKES and clueless about what a CULTURAL ATTACHÉ is or TRES LECHES are left just too much real estate open for me to parse together with Friday-level cluing all around.

    So above my pay grade today and Rex is flirting with giving it an EASY rating. Gotta love it !

    ReplyDelete
  8. Anonymous7:08 AM

    _AO__ could’ve also been Naomi (if it was WNBA, at least). Or Laoma, like in King of the Hill. Or Raoul, as in Raoul’s. Or Laozi, the title for legendary Taoist philosopher Li Er. Or something else completely unreasonable, perhaps.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:42 PM

      Anonymous 7:08
      Don’t get your point
      Rex was reacting to the clue NBA so Naomi is irrelevant. A well known philosopher’s name would have caused a big stir and not many Chinese players anyway.
      The only tricky part is both Raoul
      and Paulo aren’t standard Spanish’s spellings (Paolo is Italian)

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:49 AM

      It was a joke. Joke funny haha. Silly boom boom bang boom.

      Delete
  9. I really enjoyed this one! 12:30 almost a record for me! While I fell on my face a few times (confidently through in clue and thought "How cute" at one across..... but then, it really looked like 1 down should be FEED.... so took me a while to grok that). Loved this puzzle, I guess I just made most of the right guesses today, and was lucky to know TRESLECHES and guessed the proper misspelling of DIFFRENTSTROKES pretty quickly. THANKS, EVANS!!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Very easy. ABBOTS gave me some trouble, and of course TOMFOOLS, and the PAOLO/GIL cross was based on faith. But basically DIFFRENT STROKES broke the whole puzzle open very early.

    ReplyDelete
  11. This puzzle gave me a lovely mix of work and play.

    The play came in the form of several splat-fills – bam bam bams – which always feel like a thrilling sled ride. The work came from answers out of my everyday rotation (CULTRAL ATTACHE, TOMFOOLS), and answers totally out of my wheelhouse (ELLIOT PAGE, PAOLO, TRES LECHES). I adore the labor involved in conquering the unfamiliar.

    This is a beautifully designed grid – never seen in the Times before – with lots of flow, that is, no almost-fully-detached islands. It accommodates a generous 14 long answers (eight letters or more), and the longs today, IMO, overall have zing.

    Speaking of zing, there are eight NYT answer debuts. One of them – BIG BREAK – I can’t believe has never appeared before in the 80+ years of the Times puzzle.

    One more note: [Eyeball] for OGLE came off to me as a misdirect, because it’s so often clued in a way that refers to its creepy vibe.

    Work and play in the same box, bringing the sweet gifts of satisfaction and “Whee!”, well, that makes me a happy solver. Thank you so much for this, Evans!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Unlike Rex, FACT was first thing that popped in my head (didn’t know the quote, just made sense), so was off and running, and really didn’t hit many trouble spots anywhere. Just one of those days where I effectively batted a 1,000 sussing tricky vs literal clues, and the trivia clues were in my wheelhouse or easily inferrable. So overall, played easy for me. Wouldn’t say I loved it though. Decent enough, just too little Friday sizzle.

    Since I got the NW right away, TOM- was there early, tried FOOLery, which obviously didn’t fit (the clue or the space) and sighed when FOOLS became obvious. So awkward in a person noun form.

    ReplyDelete
  13. My medium/hard is an easy for most here, but i enjoyed the twists and turns. Oh, THAT flight. Oh, THAT bread. Oh, THAT brother. Oh, THOSE burns. On and on. My biggest mess was right there in the middle because in my head PERUSES is more like skimming through (wrong) and I thought the LOTF boy was Ralph or Roger so had rEReadS there for a long time. Also think of ENTREATIES as being more like earnest deeply felt pleas rather than humble requests (also on me), so had the same problem as Rex with what attache, what cake, and what -ties (but that's always somewhat reassuring).

    And yes, TOMFOOLS and IRES (that's a verb? Had IRkS...) are awful, but this was a perfect Friday for me - hard but solveable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. thfenn
      I think I learned on this blog that peruse has 2 almost opposite meanings. Reading quickly , the (much) more well known meaning was used last time and a lively discussion ensued But you were not wrong They just went for the more obscure meaning being Friday.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous8:02 AM

    Had DIFeRENTSTROKES for a while, and FACe, took me a couple of minutes to see TOMFOOLS as a potential word.

    ReplyDelete
  15. IRES as a transitive verb is disgusting, and mark me down on Team Did Not Know How to Spell DIFFRENT STROKES. Otherwise extremely easy for a Friday.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Druid8:18 AM

    Why do constructors and editors insist that ire means irk?! Ire is a perfectly fine word if defined correctly.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I filled in most of the top half very quickly, and then just stared at the blank bottom half for a long time. But one word led to another (and MARIACHI led to a bunch) and ding there it was, with correct guesses on unknowns such as PIGGY and PAOLO. I’m also never a fan of IRES but TOMFOOLS was so unusual and wacky that I liked it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous8:24 AM

    Sadly this puzzle just did not do it for me. I kept thinking, "Really? This is a Friday?" Also the clues just weren't that engaging or clever to me in a very noticeable way, with the exception of DIFFRENTSTROKES.

    I hadn't heard about the strike so that was helpful to learn.

    ReplyDelete
  19. I would like to thank Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek for introducing me to Gil Scott-Heron as a child.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Very nice description of a MARIACHI band and a guitarron. None of the Mexican restaurants in our area have one any more. The last time I went to the Mission district, they stole my car.

    A little grit, very little sparkle, but single-digit threes. Very good.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:34 AM

      The MARIACHIS stole your car? Maybe you should have tipped them better!

      Sorry, that was too good to resist.

      Delete
  21. Jack M.8:52 AM

    One of those days where I worked on the puzzle for ten minutes or so , got stuck in one quadrant, put down the puzzle for a bit, came back and it filled itself in. Crazy how often that happens late in week for me. Re strike: The Washington Post announced yesterday that starting June 1, all employees will be required to work out of newspaper’s offices five days a week. That remote/hybrid work demand by the Times Guild isn’t going to happen. The world is getting back to normal.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Today I learned that Different Strokes is spelled DIFFRENT STROKES in TV land. Another contemporary nail in the coffin of people learning/knowing how to spell correctly.

    OMG. Considering the staggering cost of First Class, Business Class, or even a seat with extra legroom in Economy, plus all the extra charges for luggage, I should worry about how "pricey" a CRAFT BEER is? I might as well order two.

    A lovely putdown of LAS VEGAS. I saw it at the young, impressionable age of 16 and was thoroughly unimpressed. I've never had the slightest desire to go back.

    This was like two puzzles: the section that had ELLIOT PAGE, GIL and PAOLO (whoever they all are) crossing each other and the sections that didn't. Does anyone in editorial keep an eye on criss-crossing names anymore? There is SO much of it now. Every. Single. Day. Because I solved the puzzle without looking any of them up, I suppose it means the puzzle was fairer than it seemed while I was solving it. But once again my teeth were gritted. As for the "friend of Scuttle, Flounder and Sebastian" -- what drivel. But at least the answer sat in a corner of the puzzle far, far away from the rest of the PPP.

    Best clues: ABBOTS (got it immediately); FACT; CULTURAL ATTACHE and BERRA. Berra's quotes are usually the high point of any puzzle. Unfathomable clue for ZINGS. I guess both "sick" and "burns" are being used in slang-y ways I don't really understand.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:24 AM

      You know nancy, people have different areas of knowledge. Some of this is known to a large section of the public.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:54 AM

      You wear your stodginess with such pride!

      Delete
    3. Anonymous11:25 PM

      You know, everyone is entitled their opinion/feelings/impressions wrt the puzzle. When someone expresses same in a non-confrontational way there really is no need to confront them.

      Delete
  23. So I've never watched that series and never knew it used a DIFFRENT spelling, but fortunately I had enough crosses to be fairly confident-- it could have been diffrent, too, but SEWERS was obvious. And any puzzle with CULTURAL ATTACHE in it is all right with me. LAId before LAIN, no idea about ENTREATIES, and I was weak on my foods today -- Bacon (with a shudder) before BASIL, and trying to fit dolce de leche (yes, I misspelled it) in for TRES LECHES.

    But it all came together--ZEALOTRY helped a lot (though it was more harmful on Tuesday, IMO).

    I also disproved my common assertion that I don't remember the names of fictional characters by getting PIGGY off the P.

    ReplyDelete
  24. I'd be happy to vote for IRES as topping the list of most-annoying no-human-ever-said-this crosswordisms of all time, but given my recent voting record it would probably come up short, despite how reprehensible it is. The worst ding against it is that it displaces "irk," a venerable word still in common usage that takes us all the way back past Chaucer into Old English and even Old Norse. "I am irk of it," says one of the wicked characters in the morality play Mankind, which I studied for my dissertation, and I still say it!

    More to the point, very easy--too easy for a Friday methinks. Lots of gimmes for me. I'm always happy to see Gil Scott-Heron name checked in a puzzle even if it's only because it's a handy three-letter combination, but unlike IRE, one that actually leads somewhere. Everyone should know his work. Most famously, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised. Or as I like to say, "The television will not be revolutionized."

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yeah, I'd forgotten about IRES until reading Rex just now. I just held my nose, put it in, and immediately repressed the memory. But I can imagine some old pro saying to an over-eager apprentice, "Don't be a TOMFOOL" or maybe TOM FOOL, so adding the S isn't too much of a stretch.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Ineresting ... my NW went exactly as yours, with FAKE, settling later on DRAFT BEERS, same confusion with 4D, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  27. I don’t normally get into whooshing but if I did, this one would come very close. Very pleasant with the exception of needing to look up a couple of names in order to finish, and I agree with @Nancy about the names crossing. My downfall was PAGE/PAOLO/GIL. no clue on the dairy heavy dessert at 27D either but I did manage to get the crosses there.

    ReplyDelete
  28. My Good Old Best Friend introduced me to the saying "There's nothing more annoying than an obvious truth", so that led to FACT, and I went speeding off. The only real snag today was ISTITREALLY for WAITREALLY. Seems that other potential sticking points were things I knew, like PAOLO, or things I knew about, like DIFFRENTSTROKES.

    I remember very well the scene in LOTF in which PIGGY is killed. It is a very vivid and graphic description and upset me when I read it-yeah, high school-and I still would rather not think about it.

    Lots of good stuff-SKINNY as clued, MARIACHI, TRESLECHES, and remembering some forms of ETRE from French class long ago. @Nancy--I did study French before starting Spanish in college, very helpful for things like conjugating verbs and subject/verb agreement. Also handy for crosswords.

    I liked your Fridecito very much, EC. Some Excellent Choices for the longer answers, and thanks for all the fun.

    ReplyDelete
  29. The one time I heard an authentic mariachi band was at my nephew’s wedding in Laredo. His co-workers chipped in for it as a wedding gift and they suddenly appeared out of nowhere in all their glory. They were fantastic.

    (New topic)

    The hotel we stayed at in Killarney was right across from the Killarney Brewery’s pub. Our tour guide said it was the one place we could tell the missus we were going to for a Killarney Blonde. Anyway, I was going to order a flight so I could sample a few of their ales. But I misunderstood the waitress’s explanation of how much came in each glass and ended up with 6 half pints --- way too much for me. I did my best but was bummed out at the thought that a lot would go to waste. So I brought two untouched glasses to the gents at a nearby table, explained my situation, and offered them to them, you know, as a gift. One of them looked at me like I was bothering him and waved me away, but the other lit up with a big smile, accepted the offer, and said Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  30. Wordplay. When my kids were little, I would make silly words up and they’d laugh and I explained that words can be like toys – you can play with them. I like the word tomfoolery, so I’m not bothered by TOMFOOLS. The constructor was just playing.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous10:54 AM

    Sick burns? Are you kidding me? That doesn't IRE me, though, because I f***ing don't get IREd. I damn well get IRKed, though.

    ReplyDelete
  32. As Mr. T might say while observing the inane mating behavior of male turkeys, "I pity the TOMFOOLS".

    The life force of Ms. Callas would be her MARIACHI.

    I would put this in the "easy but very fun" category. Thanks, Evans Clinchy.

    ReplyDelete
  33. This one turned out to be not as brutal as some puzzles of late (for me anyway) & certainly not for a Friday. Pretty doable. Didn't know TOMFOOLS & the cluing for OUTIE 43A was weird. Speaking of "weird" I'm going to say that perhaps the reason I found this enjoyable is that I stopped reading & obsessing about what I tried to but couldn't change - by voting - the election :(
    Thank, Evans :)

    ReplyDelete
  34. Challenging! At least for a while. My mind and the grid were both blank until I got to ZEALOTRY. From there I was able to work my way around through the delights of TRES LECHES and ENTREATIES, BIG BREAK and TOM FOOLS to my final square at SPASMS x MORTGAGE. I really enjoyed the wealth of unusual entries and the twisty clues. A top-notch Friday for me.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Anonymous11:23 AM

    Struggled on that one until I guessed Elliot Page. Then it all slowly fell into place. Having pain for french bread didn't help either

    ReplyDelete
  36. Constant Reader11:33 AM

    If it’s good enough for Robert Louis Stevenson and Anthony Trollope, it’s good enough for me.

    From RLS’s novel The Wrecker: “What made you do it, you tomfool?”

    And from Trollope’s novel The Last Chronicle of Barset: “Dalrymple really meant what he had said, and would stick to it, and she need not mind being called a tomfool by her mother.”

    ReplyDelete
  37. ELLIOTPAGE crossing PAOLO crossing GIL was a lot of people I've never heard of crossing each other...

    ReplyDelete
  38. Medium. I had quite a few erasures: PEers at before PERUSES, sexy before EDGY, RanGE before RIDGE, idolaTRY before ZEALOTRY, as if before UH NO, plus I did not know PAOLO and ELLIOT PAGE (as clued)…so medium for me. Looking back over it, it seems easier than I made it. I did have the some of the same problems as @Rex in the NW…TOMFOOLS took some work

    Not too much junk (@Rex hit the highlights) and a fair amount of sparkle, liked it.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Anonymous11:52 AM

    Really wanted “Big brothers” to be KELCES.

    ReplyDelete
  40. old timer11:58 AM

    I feel like an idiot for not getting BERRA at once. In fact I am about irked at myself, though I would not in a million years be IRED. Worst word ever, and should be forever banned. My favorite Yogiism, which applies to most places I like to eat at: "Nobody goes there anymore. It's too crowded." ZEALOTRY went in with just a few crosses, and really, the only total guess was PAOLO, crossed by a PAGE I have never read before.

    I have no problem with TOMFOOLS, because when I do something gauche or stupid, I often say of myself, "More know TOM FOOL than TOM FOOL knows." And folks, there are a lot of TOM FOOLs out there, though I will not provoke Rexian IRE by naming anybody.

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  41. I put in DIFFERENT STROKE and there was no room for the S. It was ages ago but eventually figured it out. The apostrophes in the clue were a nice touch.

    I finished with an embarrassing error at TRES VECHES crossing CURVED. Then amazingly, after finishing the puzzle I fired up season 2 episode 1 of Cobra Kai, and they sit down for: Tres Veches. "It means 3 milks!", she explains.

    Typeover: for "Dream on!", AS IF before UH NO. I like mine better.

    I had quite a crush on Ellen Page years ago. Then she became ELLIOT. Modern life!

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    Replies
    1. mhoonchild3:33 PM

      Hi @okanaganer - First of all, thanks the explanation on how to do puzzles offline on a Windows machine! It took a bit to figure out, but I like it. Secondly, I also forgot about the missing 'e' in "Diff'rent Strokes", which was puzzling for a bit. I forget what I had for UH NO, but it very well could have been AS IF, which is definitely better.

      Delete
  42. M and A12:55 PM

    FriPuzzly themeless. Even tho there's no theme, there's surely some "seed" entries, that the constructioneer thought would be neat to include in his puz. Sooo ... that's what M&A is always interested in lookin for, with yer themeless puzs. And...
    Not at all sure what the seeds were, in this case. Maybe the dude really likes spendin time in LASVEGAS, dinin on CRAFTBEERS, CHEESECAKE, and TRESLECHES? Maybe playin Monopoly at a casino?

    staff weeject pick: [of only 6 choices] GIL. No-know name that's in a double-cross of no-know names with ELLIOTPAGE and PAOLO.

    fave thing: BUTT clue.

    Thanx, Mr. Clinchy dude.

    Masked & Anonymo6Us

    not spam. just a challengin little hunk of word...
    **gruntz**

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  43. Rex could’ve been sitting on my lap. His write up spoke virtually my exact words. dRAFT instead of CRAFT, ?OMFOOLS just didn’t resonate, and why I didn’t get to FACT, I’ll never know. A good fight elsewhere and an enjoyable Friday overall. PAOLO resembles Ray Allen. May he have Ray’s success.

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  44. On track to massively crush Fri best, then CULTURALA__ACHE and cuddn't cough up the tees plus four letters just above for what seemed an eternity, so finished some seconds over. Phooey, fo shizzle. Facepalm.

    Separately, me an' the missus jaunted out the 31st to catch festivity to the south (this random-search YT link seems to capture essence of the Mardi Gras-esque scene; bigly underrated city - the Lewis Ginter, the VMFA, and so much more), and Rip was unable to completely suss that Thurs until the next day, which kiboshed the hundred and small change streak. Blessing mayhaps, as game-free Fri/Sat/Sun refocused attention 169% to micro-vacay.

    Resumed Monday to find a bizarre entreaty to not participate in the gaming through certain input methods. Confusing, half-baked and flaccid. "I'm asking you to not play over the site app or URL but you can play on paper or third party app. I won't critique this Monday, but I will on Tuesday." Whaat ?

    What is all this pussyfooting, empty talk to no end. "Solidarity." Solidarity, for what purpose? Other than to make yourselves feel good. And seriously, the player with a 3-billion eleventy-four streak, unbroken even while lives recently lost and homes washed away not far from him, asks, "hmm.. me too? It'll be hard, but okay.." Riiight. What a load of nonsense.

    Effective disobedience stems from a position of power and/or leverage. Not from disingenuous prattle while hiding behind your cats.

    Lifelong independent, I'm not a general supporter of unions, certainly not across the board, and particularly not in the service industry (a union for "baristas" [quoted for the glorification]? please..) I could discuss why, including why I support single-payer healthcare, increasing minimum wages (which I vote for at every opportunity), better pay for teachers, and much more, but debate for another occasion.

    This blog clearly has a point of view. The very aforementioned underscores this. To wince, to bristle, then to grouse.. endlessly, when a name such as Bush or similar pops up, then to extinguish similar commenter commentary (I included a link to a Jimmy Kimmel monologue some weeks ago--the post was 90% anodyne assistance for a couple commenters having difficulty with resolving their monikers--it was approved and visible and later deleted, no other possible culprit but the link, I just re-read the purged post) regarding the election winner is.. feeble, feckless. Spineless.

    "Whatever logic you're twisting is irrelevant because it's my blog and I can say whatever I want and can filter/delete as easily." Okay, a bit manipulative, but I can respect that. Your authority, your power. With an effect (in this tiny dominion). Versus whatever "solidarity" balderdash and versus "let's ignore what took place Tues.. because it has nothing to do with the game, and we don't discuss issues unrelated to the game.. plus, my gracious petals, lest we offend anyone." Yes, grab your ankles, more empty blather, pet your cats.. "at least we have our games," says one commenter. Pfft.


    "TL,DR" / "Cannot apprehend this non sequitur, desultory screed", etc. Okay. Answer me this:

    1. What is the aim of not gaming via the site's clients (other than to make your priggish, self-satisfied selves feel as if you are doing something real)? Why do you think anyone will care or even notice?

    2. Clearly hundreds of thousands of union workers voted for the party about to take power and for a multi-billionaire who employs no union workers in the making of his cars. If an avalanche of union workers do not care enough to vote in favor of their own interests and for a party whose leader joined them on the picket line, why should I care.. about any union effort?

    3. If you truly care about union workers, you must also care about the writers, yes? So, money/mouth over empty prattle: can you muster it? Why not subscribe fully to the New York Times versus the piddly games-only?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. dasriprock
      Don’t agree with everything you said but I do agree that progressives do not prioritize.
      The most important goal, way above all others, should have been to defeat Trump
      But as a n example self defeating actions
      Theycouldn’t resist and spent a huge amount of effort on such things as requesting schools to disinvest in Israel. That MIGHT help their position long term but for stopping the war it is utterly useless and hurt Harris my negative association among normally Democratic voters for whom Israel is a priority
      Don’t get me started on the pro Palestinian voters who wanted to punish the Democrats by voting Republican. Meanwhile both groups totally ignored Trump who would be vastly worse for their goals
      I agree that they spend too much time on hopeless or secondary issues.
      About unions,
      for me it IS an important issue. But I am in the usual demographic which does. A left leaning person with a post graduate degree.
      I wouldn’t be surprised if 60% of the white male union member voters went for Trump
      Clearly these days solidarity is non existent among the general public. I am dubious that many people actually dropped their online puzzle subscription because of this boycott campaign. That would be the only thing that matters to the Times
      Finally, I do wish more people included the whole Times site in their subscription. It is a great paper. And the writers and editors need our support especially when Americans have elected a wannabe dictator.
      (Censorship is very easy to impose here, despite the constitution. All you have to do is eliminate protections against libel suits and pack the courts. It has already started. Trump appointees have already allowed suits which would never been accepted before)

      Delete
  45. There were some nice touches here but my ZEALOTRY was dampened by some no-know stuff like ELLIOT PAGE, PIGGY, PAOLO and ARIEL. Pieced them together with crosses but that didn't METE out much joy.

    What really caught my eye was that cascade of four two for one POCs (plural of convenience) in the upper left quadrant where PLAN/TOUR, SEWER/ABBOT, RUT/REEL and TOMFOOL/IRE all get a letter count, grid filling boost by sharing a final S. Don't recall seeing a cluster like that before.

    Each of those Ss is the equivalent of a cheater/helper square. They all could be changed to black squares, their clues slightly tweaked and nothing of interest or value would be lost. (Plus IRES would become the more in-the-language IRE.) The grid would then have a virtual black square count of 34 which is kind of high for a themeless.

    ReplyDelete
  46. I would have to argue that characterizing Gil Scott Heron as a “spoken word performer” is a bit of a stretch. He is a musical singer who occasionally will have spoken word stanzas amidst his songs. I saw him in 1978 at Cornell University along with Max Romeo and The Upsetters. Great concert!

    ReplyDelete
  47. "The Constitution was a noble piece
    of paper
    With 'free society' it struggled but
    they died in vain;
    Now Democracy goes begging on
    the corner
    Hoping for the rain . . .
    And from the robin, perched in a
    barren treetop,
    Watching last-ditch racists
    marching across the floor
    To the peace signs that melted in
    our dreams --
    Never had a chance to grow . . .
    Now it's winter, winter in America,
    All the healers have been killed or
    betrayed;
    It's winter, winter in America;
    And ain't nobody fighting, 'cause
    nobody knows what to save . . ."
    -- RIP Gil Scott-Heron (1949 -
    2011)
    RIP

    ReplyDelete
  48. Anonymous2:37 PM

    VW is the parent company of Audi and Bentley and others.

    ReplyDelete