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Contralto singer known as the "First Lady of Radio" / SAT 1-11-25 / River featured in the Rig Veda / First of four emperors in the "Year of the Four Emperors" / Note extender, in sheet music / Common format for an essay, informally / Professional squatters? / Taiwanese electronics brand / Pride parade participant? / Simple house style with gables / Some sweet pick-me-ups / Jester named in a Shakespeare soliloquy
Saturday, January 11, 2025
Constructor: Ryan McCarty
Relative difficulty: Medium to Medium-Challenging
Word of the Day: Rig Veda (23A: River featured in the Rig Veda = INDUS) —
The Rigveda or Rig Veda (Sanskrit: ऋग्वेद, IAST: ṛgveda, from ऋच्, "praise" and वेद, "knowledge") is an ancient Indian collection of Vedic Sanskrit hymns (sūktas). It is one of the four sacred canonical Hindu texts (śruti) known as the Vedas. Only one Shakha of the many survive today, namely the Śakalya Shakha. Much of the contents contained in the remaining Shakhas are now lost or are not available in the public forum.The Rigveda is the oldest known Vedic Sanskrit text. Its early layers are among the oldest extant texts in any Indo-European language. The sounds and texts of the Rigveda have been orally transmitted since the 2nd millennium BCE. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the bulk of the Rigveda Samhita was composed in the northwestern region of the Indian subcontinent (see Rigvedic rivers), most likely between c. 1500 and 1000 BCE, although a wider approximation of c. 1900–1200 BCE has also been given. (wikipedia)
• • •
And this was yesterday, same time:
Those pictures are from two different days, I swear. And I'm guessing when I go downstairs this morning, I'll find much the same thing. They are beautiful creatures, but they cannot solve or type or bring me warm beverages. When it comes to blogging, I'm on my own. And look, I'm not asking for pity. The truth is, I love my life (and my cats), but the truth *also* is that writing this blog involves a lot of work. I get up and I solve and I write, hoping each day to give you all some idea of what that experience was like for me, as well as some insight into the puzzle's finer (or less fine) qualities—the intricacies of its design, the trickiness of its clues, etc. The real value of the blog, though, is that it offers a sort of commiseration. While I like to think my writing is (at its best) entertaining, I know that sometimes all people need is someone who shares their joy or feels their pain. If you hate a clue, or get stuck and struggle, or otherwise want to throw the puzzle across the room, you know I'm here for you, and that even if my experience is not identical to yours, I Understand! I understand that even though "it's just a puzzle," it's also a friend and a constant companion and a ritual and sometimes a Betrayer! I don't give you objective commentary—I give you my sincere (if occasionally hyperbolic) feelings about the puzzle, what it felt like to solve it. I can dress those feelings up in analytical clothes, sure, but still, ultimately, I'm just one human being out here feeling my puzzle feelings. And hopefully that makes you feel something too—ideally, something good, but hey I'm not picky. Whatever keeps you coming back! Hate-readers are readers too!
How much should you give? Whatever you think the blog is worth to you on a yearly basis. Whatever that amount is is fantastic. Some people refuse to pay for what they can get for free. Others just don't have money to spare. All are welcome to read the blog—the site will always be open and free. But if you are able to express your appreciation monetarily, here are three options. First, a Paypal button (which you can also find in the blog sidebar on the homepage):
Second, a mailing address (checks can be made out to "Michael Sharp" or "Rex Parker"):
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
Rex Parker c/o Michael Sharp
54 Matthews St
Binghamton, NY 13905
The third, increasingly popular option is Venmo; if that's your preferred way of moving money around, my handle is @MichaelDavidSharp (the last four digits of my phone are 4878, in case Venmo asks you, which I guess it does sometimes, when it's not trying to push crypto on you, what the hell?!)
• • •
The trick today was to throw something, anything (well, anything correct), into that giant gulf in the center of the puzzle. After a fairly typical, not particularly hard NW corner, I was all set to plunge down into the heart of this thing, but nope (next Down) nope (next Down) ... nope? Front ends of three long Downs and: nothing. I had nothing:
There aren't actually a ton of names in this puzzle, but it *felt* like there were because several of them just stopped me cold, including two in that massive middle section. I know the name KATE SMITH (this helped eventually), but could tell you nothing about her. I hear a woman singing "You're a Grand Old Flag," is that her? Hmm, not seeing that. Just "God Bless America." She was tremendously popular during World War II. In my head, I get her confused with Ethel Merman (who, among other things, played Gopher's mom on The Love Boat). Both have big voices, but Merman was known more for musical theater (not radio). JAMES ROSS I got easily once I got into the middle (the Ross Sea shows up in crosswords a lot), but that JAKOB guy, yeeeeeow, oof, no (29D: Track star Ingebrigtsen who, at age 16, became the youngest person in history to run a sub-four-minute mile). I had the "K" and when OSKAR didn't work, I was like [shrug]. I also had a lot of trouble with GALBA, but again, as with KATE SMITH, at least I'd *heard* of GALBA, and so could infer it when I had enough crosses. Couldn't tell you a thing about GALBA (he succeeded Nero and ruled for seven months), but the name is there in my brain, for some reason. All the other names (CONAN, YODA, YORICK, RBG) were superfamiliar, even if the CONAN clue was no real help to me (38A: Television star who went on the "Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour" in 2010). I thought it was going to be one of these guys who makes money making "jokes" about cancel culture or whatever. But 2010 was about when CONAN lost his Tonight Show gig to Leno, so that must be the context.
I forgot to wonder whether I liked this puzzle or not. Hmm. I didn't dislike it, because I don't remember having any "ugh, come on!" reactions, except to SURE CURE, which is not a phrase I know (47A: Well, that works!). I know about sure things and sure bets, but I had SURE ___ and no idea what was supposed to follow. I had this same problem with DESK ___ (49A: Certain workplace protection?), and ___ PRESS (9D: Extractor used on some seeds and nuts), and GAME ___ (37A: Setting for balloon darts or a ringtoss). But no, there didn't seem to be anything wrong with the puzzle. Maybe a little trivia heavy for me, but overall it felt like a solid, sufficiently tough Saturday effort.
Points, in bullet form:
- 26A: Pride parade participant? (LION) — good one. Loved it. Don't know whether LIONs actually "parade," but it hardly matters. They walk, sometimes together, so that's close enough.
- 40A: Note extender, in sheet music (DOT) — been so long since I looked at sheet music that I forgot this. "In Western musical notation, a dotted note is a note with a small dot written after it.[a] In modern practice, the first dot increases the duration of the basic note by half (the original note with an extra beam) of its original value." (wikipedia)
- 41A: Lothlórien in "The Lord of the Rings" (FOREST) — absolutely no idea. Never could get through those books, and those movies ... well, I got through them, but all they made me was sleepy. Peter Jackson peaked at Heavenly Creatures.
- 2D: Locale of Niue and the Pitcairn Islands (OCEANIA) — I (bizarrely) had RAPA NUI here because I had CRANK UP instead of POWER UP at 1A: Get an engine going. Btw there are two "UP"s in this grid, but since they are about as far away from one another as possible, I doubt anyone but me will notice. No foul.
- 6D: Professional squatters? (UMPS) — excellent. Second thing I got today after PIE (7D: Bit of "Sweeney Todd" fare).
- 10D: Their petals are used to make a traditional Korean wine called "dugyeonju" (AZALEAS) — weird. I thought they were poisonous. I had the -LEAS part and wanted DAHLIAS (figuring maybe DATE BREAD was wrong somehow) (24A: Fruit-filled loaf).
- 35D: Small juice container? (AA CELL) — we call them "double A batteries," but yeah, this works. "Juice" = power.
This week I'm highlighting the best puzzles of 2024 by focusing on one day at a time. I kept a spreadsheet of every puzzle I solved last year, complete with ratings from 0-100 (with 50 being my idea of an "average" NYTXW) (They really did average out to around 50, with Saturday being my fav day (avg 57.7), and Sunday (obviously) being my least fav (avg 42.9).
Here are my Top Three Saturday Puzzles of 2024. (I'm not ranking them; it's nicer that way)
- Oliver Goodridge and Juan Garavito (Saturday, 11/30/24) — "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?," "THIS ISN'T WORKING," "HEY, BATTER BATTER!"
- Hoang-Kim Vu (Saturday, 1/13/24) — "THIS IS POINTLESS," TOOK IT ON THE CHIN, ABOVE MY PAY GRADE, PLAY CATCH-UP
- Carly Schuna (Saturday, 3/16/24) — SHOOT YOUR SHOT, ADOPT DON'T SHOP, DEEP FAKE, NO ONE CARES
That's it, see you next time. Tomorrow, best Sundays of the year and Constructor of the Year for 2024!
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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120 comments:
I somehow (probably from crosswords) vaguely knew KATESMITH but I really hesitated because right nearby, "Kate McKinnon" is in a clue. It's a fun way to clue RBG (and a good misdirect, at least for me, as I wanted HRC up until almost the end), but there are a lot of other options there that don't lead to a glaring dupe.
Proper Saturday for me, where I come in full of vinegar, grind to a halt, shift to zen mode, where I stop thinking hard, give the brain legroom to make connections, and wait for things to pop out, and spread. Where I go from headstrong to humble to hope to happy.
A clue set rich with vagueness, a McCarty specialty, plus, six no-knows for me, creating a worthy climb. A hard workout with tangly riddles, which my brain hungers for on Saturday.
The star to me was that stagger-stack of seven nine-letter horizontal answers staring out from the middle. It is so difficult just to fill a chunk like this, trust me, but here it’s loaded with beautiful never- or hardly-ever used NYT answers such as GAME BOOTH, NAKED LIES, LAPEL MICS, COMECLEAN, DATE BREAD, CARAMEL LATTES, and KATE SMITH.
That is art and that is wow.
I loved PANTSED, which I’ve never heard of, but I simply love that it exists in our so-interesting and unpredictable language. And nerdy me was pleased to see a rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap (STEED).
Thank you, Ryan, for once again presenting a thorny jewel to conquer, for getting my synapses firing full tilt. This was one terrific beast.
Memorable moment: Filling in KATE SMITH and hearing her voice crystal clear in my head for the first time in, I'm guessing, decades. Yes, she was singing "God Bless America". Reprises like this are one of Crosslandia's great gifts.
In a fortuitous-seeming puzzle crossover, I learned NUMETAL for the first time this week from Connections. It was used in the link between LINCOLN, BISCUIT, CORN, and STAINED. I did have these as last four words, but puzzled over the connection a good while until I gave up. On revealing I realized I *have* heard of Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit and Korn, but never Staynd. Also didn't know the genre label, nor that they all were examples of it.
do you take Zelle for payment. I won't go near PayPal and don't have Venmo
quite challenging, esp. with poor clues like 'Monarchs, e.g.' giving AUTOCRATS. For most of medieval history kings were hardly autocrats.
Great Puzzle! Thanks, Ryan. Took me a long time, but I did finally get the happy music after searching for my mistake. I had no idea SURECURE was a thing... especially with that vague clue. I knew it should be YORICK but I had YORIsK and SUREsURE at first. Finally just tried the C and bang, done. Loved all the longer answers... AUTOCRATS getting PANTSED so that they're telling loud NAKED LIES over the PA on their LAPELMICS while they drink CARAMELLATTES and eat some DATE BREAD! Fantastic, loved it : ) 35 minutes for me... but no cheating, so not bad.
Medium-Challenging for me. I’m in a hotel in the middle of a two-day road trip whose first leg ended with a “wintry mix.” I needed an easy Saturday. Nope. I used Sergey and Larry for the 29D JAKOB guy, 31D NUMETAL and 41A FOREST.
I didn’t know the trivia about 37D GALBA but I recognized the name as Roman because in Mrs. McDermott’s 8th grade Latin class we put on a play for parents and that was my character’s name.
I remember KATE SMITH fondly. When I was little (maybe three or four), she had a daytime variety show on TV that I used to watch religiously. Her theme song was not God Bless America, but When the Moon Comes Over the Mountain. I heard the lyric “Every dream brings a dream, dear, of you” as “Every dream brings a dreamdeer in view,” which sounded fine to me because if there could be reindeer there could be dreamdeer.
As of now I do. Email = msharp at Binghamton dot edu. That should be all the info u need. Let’s see if it works lol! ~RP
Just about right for a Saturday. Couldn’t commit to PANTSED but it made me laugh. Weird to see KATESMITH in this puzzle. As a huge Kate McKinnon fan I have no recollection of her as RBG. The Korean wine clue probably a little over the esoteric line for me. Otherwise no complaints.
I thought JAKOB was JACOB so then it must be a bold FACEDLIE which of course left me with FUMETAL which was exactly my feeling about this genera.
It’s STAIND. I needed Spotify to figure that out ;-)
Fiendishly fun workout a little name heavy but definitely a challenge. The center block is where all the action takes place - a few of those gave me the foothold - CARAMEL LATTES fell quick.
Bruce Cockburn
Go to a Flyers game and you’ll know who KATE SMITH is. Totally down with Rex’s take on NU METAL. GALBA was rough. Learned a neat bit trivia with AZALEAS. Liked the PANTSED clue.
CURE x FOREST
Enjoyable Saturday morning solve. Matt Sewell’s Stumper is a different affair altogether today with completely different grid layout.
Old CAPE COD
It was actually kind of neat that they went all-in on the trivia. Today’s the day to do it, so they may as well have fun. I’m obviously toast with a puzzle like this, but I don’t mind hanging around as an interested bystander (heck, I’m a person who has heard the word OCEANIA my entire life, but just realized today that it’s an actual place).
So I learned BIZET in the NE, INDUS in the NW, GALBA in the SW, and the quad of YORICK, Baby YODA (Star Wars?), ADASTRA and PANTSED in the SE.
There was also some good trivia-fish biting in that large pond in the center. I’m sure JAMES ROSS is crossword-worthy, but it’s also no surprise that I’ve never heard of him. KATE SMITH was a nice catch, she may be the lady I remember screaming “God Bless America” at the old Yankee Stadium when I was a kid.
I respect and congratulate the JAKOB dude on his achievement, but a maybe you can do something so it doesn’t take half a phonebook for your clue.
I also had an opportunity to wax philosophical at one point. I believe in the radical notion that women are people. Does that make me a feminist? What does that word even mean anymore? I believe Billie Jean King has been at the forefront of the feminist movement for like 50 years now. It would be interesting to get her take on how the movement (and that word) has evolved over the years - is Terry Gross in the house ? Any interview recordings or podcasts hanging around that you can share with us?
Nice mondegreen!
Love it....could it be BABY YODA?? yes!....SURE CURE was my final fill in...loved LION
@Conrad, thanks for reminding me of Smith’s “When the Moon Comes over the Mountain,” which I haven’t thought about in decades. And thanks as well for sharing one the best mondegreens I’ve ever encountered! Dreamdeer!
Like Anders I was introduced (or reintroduced) to NU METAL by Connections, although I was trying to put an E in there (I think “neu” is German for new?) so I wasn’t able to put it in right away.
Very strange...I'm good enough at crosswords but I often find them a notch or two more difficult than many here. And yet today's puzzle felt easy-medium for me. Very enjoyable. Took me a while to land a single entry in the grid. but the sections fell one by one with more than a modicum of whoosh whoosh. Loved the fill and the clueing. Before I even had any crosses I was hoping for "Keely Smith," so it was a huh! moment when it turned out to be KATE SMITH, which of course. "Hard hats" before DESK PAD. "Confess to" before COME CLEAN. "Jete" before PLIE. But other than that, no overwrites and no struggles.
Yesterday's Connections puzzle ALSO featured nu metal. Must be a thing in the games room at NYT haha
Impossible for me in the NW, SW, and SE. Is a GAMEBOOTH a real place? Is PANTSED a word? Had no idea about GALBA or NUMETAL.
Like Rex, "NUMETAL" was key to my solve. Unlike Rex, I have been a long-time fan of Limp Bizkit, so it was awesome to see them in the puzzle today. I would have preferred seeing Korn as their clue companion, but beggars can't be choosers!
The RBG character appeared largely, if not exclusively, as a Weekend Update correspondent.
Wanted Small juice container to be JAIL CELL
Funny if embarrassing mistake… BIdET instead of BIZET. I know him, just got it wrong. Also messed up the jester - had SUREsURE and YORIsK seemed just fine to me. Now that I see YORICK, I remember the name. Fun puzzle regardless of my goofs.
Kate Smith was the favorite singer of my grandma Katie. They even looked alike and were about the same age. Grandma Katie would gladly have played Kate Smith in a biopic, but alas Katie was not a good singer.
Thanks for the memory!
Me too!!! I wonder if it’s a coincidence So funny!
Well said. I was a member of the "4H" club today too.
I liked everything except the SE corner and that I heartily disliked. PANTSED? Hmm. Is that something anyone has ever heard? I have not. So many names YODA, CONAN, YORICK, that I could not get a good toehold there. Well I googled the tour and got Conan and then the rest kind of worked itself out. But DESK PAD? SURE CURE? What are we doing here? I did not feel that those were “familiar phrases” . Liked everything else. I was trying to fit Butterfly in for AUTOCRAT at one point, kind of an over reach? Generally look forward to Ryan’s puzzles, and as I said overall, a great one.
I also felt sheepish even backing into NUMETAL. It's like having to explain why you browser autocompletes a professional wrestling porn site.
One question: shouldn't UMPS have been clued consistent with a shortened word, like "pro squatter" or "in short" or something? Or is UMP a whole word?
This brought to mind that wonderful Nutcracker puzzle of 2024, a tough one to crack. But oh what a beautiful grid, both empty and filled. There was YORICK in the FOREST and KATE SMITH at CAPE COD. I learned NUMETAL and NERDSPEAK, met a new emperor, and discovered I could make wine out of my AZALEAS. Clearly constructed by a pro and one who specializes in Saturdays from the looks of his NYTX history. Thanks Ryan, this was a treat.
Sweet story!
Hey guys, how long has Will Shortz been back? I just noticed. Thanks.
Kate Smith is an icon among Philadelphia Flyers fans of a certain age. Her rendition of God Bless America opened many hockey games. She even performed it in person at several key playoff games during the Broad Street Bullies era.
As someone who evacuated in Los Angeles, not the best time for a a punny fire answer and clue.
Perfectly challenging Saturday. Lots of wrong answers/letters before the right ones revealed themselves. ROSES and UMPS got me through the NW. Was trying to remember the name of the Kate McKinnon character who got abducted but no go. MEDIAN, PLIE, STEED and knowing that BREAD was the likely end to the loaf got me through the NE. I tried "...rap" for the Limp Bizkit clue but got nowhere. Thought that maybe fAcED LIES were a thing - like a shortening of bald faced lies? Eventually got the 'N' which gave me NAKED LIES and then the NU METAL revealed itself. Never heard of JAMES ROSS or GALBA. DOMED ROOF and CAPE COD helped me get the rest. Figured it was Baby YODA which helped with AD ASTRA (thought originally was AL ASTRA). Was sure that TAb was correct for "open for drinks" clue which made me think that bare-assed must fit and yet it didn't. Took me a while on that one. FEMINISTS and YORICK saved me there. Fun way to spend 35:32
Hey All !
Lots of names, all unknown! Goodness. Had to Goog in every section to keep the solve alive. How many Googs? Well, I looked up for INDUS, OCEANIA, KATESMITH, RBG, GALBA, BIZET, FOREST, ADASTRA. Does that meke me unintelligent? Or just my typical unsophistication? I'll let y'all decide. 😁
Tough SatPuz, is what I'm sayin'. Interesting grid design. Still a four-block to get to NW/SE corners, but they still seem isolated. (If there is only one white square to get you into a corner, I call that isolated. If there is what I just called a four -block, as in four white squares, then technically it's not isolated.) However, there's no other way in/out, either. Again, discuss.
Or is that too much puz NERDSPEAK?
So, typical toughie. Brain draining. Can't afford to waste the valuable cells that are left up there. At least they have room to ROAM. Har.
Happy Saturday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
If you’re going to have a non-phrase (certainly not common in my world, anyway) answer like SURECURE, there ought to be a more descriptive clue, such as “Definite fix.” “Well, that works!” sounds serendipitous, as if “gee whiz, who’da thought?” Had SURESURE in for a long time before I found it.
“A ruler with absolute power” is certainly the way they are generally depicted. I was trying to fit butterflies in there somehow for the longest time.
Didn’t love this one, mainly because LAPEL MICS are more accurately called lavalier mics or “lavaliers,” which fit and obviously did not help. Also had HRC instead of RGB for a long time. Tried James Cook before JAMES ROSS. I guess if there had been better marquee answers I’d have liked this more, despite the struggles. CARAMEL LATTES was the best one, but the rest were meh.
Terrific Saturday outing that had me twitching for but not ultimately going to google for a couple of proper names (looking at you JAKOB). Every time I thought I was completely stuck, something would click in the far reaches of the puzzle and open it up.
@Rick, hands up for SURESURE
@RP, you’ve trained me well enough to have noticed the double UPs. Not sure if I should be thanking you for this:)
I had your Dahlia also since it is a common tea in China.
My professional squatters were URLS, bc people register domain names of big businesses in hopes of charging them for the rights.
Some entertaining first guesses, Had the K from NERDSPEAK, saw "contralto" in the clue, thought of Kiri Te Kanawa, and went elsewhere. Too bad because KATESMITH was a gimme, legend has it that her version of "God Bless America" was the inspiration for "This Land Is Your Land", but that may be just legend.
Down to the SW. GALBA a complete WTF, but the L from ALLOW gave me some kind of METAL. Eventually got to __UMETAL, and my original FAKEDLIES, which didn't sound great, gave me FU METAL, which sounded angry enough to be plausible. Did change it to the much better NAKEDLIES. A SURECURE there.
My lack of experience with cell phones had me running the alphabet to find out what may incur an extra service charge, and made me wonder how that could be FOAMS. Got all the way to R before the light came on. Come on man.
Found out Mr. ROSS's first name and was introduced to JAKOB. How do you do?
A just-right Saturday, IMHO, RMC. A Rare Medium Challenging offering, and thanks for all the fun.
What does “fly sac” mean?
Ryan McCarty is back in top form today proving once again why he's my favorite constructor. This has 10 debuts an amazing stair stack and no glue. Best of all it was challenging.
After a very slow first pass all I had was SAC and YEW. I could see GLADE, PLIE, COMECLEAN and ACER but without support I just left them blank.
The SE was my last hope to get momentum and luckily my LOTR chops came through on FOREST. ADASTRA was a gimme and that gave me the leverage I needed to start filling.
I did this on my phone last night and ironically when I did it by memory in the paper this morning the SE was the one section I had to struggle to remember.
I can't agree with Rex on the NW being of typical difficulty - I left right after filling in PIE. Couldn't come up with a professional squatter starting with U and thought the clue for 26A made an answer of LION too cute so I didn't put it in.
It was the SW that got me going, with YEW (and mightily hoping Robin Hood hadn't gone with an oak bow). GALBA, nope, NU METAL, nope; no, I got AA CELL, LATER BRO and ALLOW which allowed me to fill in that sector.
LAPEL MICS gave me a start in that desert of a central grid. I did have a mental DOOK momentarily when I looked at DOME DRO__ and thought DOME DROOp? Ah, the second D goes with the first word, har.
Back to the NW to finish, last letter in was the D of CADRES. Definitely a sense of accomplishment after such an unpromising start. Thanks, Ryan McCarty!
My daughter is a professional editor, but I think the casual title should be WORDDOC.
What did Ms. Fossey say when she first met a gorilla? MEDIAN.
Mrs. Egs: What did you have for dinner while I was out with my fellow CADRES of FEMINISTS, and why are you wearing no clothes?
Egs: I just ate bread.
Mrs. Egs: DATEBREAD?
Egs: No, pain a LORANGE, and, if you must know, I got PANTSED.
Mrs. Egs: More NAKEDLIES.
Two different responses to AUTOCRATS in days of yore: YEW bow.
Why is the director of a community trash pick up day like an interrogator? They both invite you to COMECLEAN.
I found this to be hard, fun and fair. Thanks, Ryan McCarty.
Initially struck out in the NW. NUMETAL, LATER BRO, and FEMINISTS were the footholds that got me going. The long answers i the middle opened up, leading to the NE, and then finished in the NW.
Also - RP with the very spicy takes on LOTR
Kind of a frustrating puzzle. First, there's the shape of the grid -- several different sections where, if you can't get started, you are done for -- there aren't any crosses coming along to help you out. And then there are some really weak, or perhaps I should say really convoluted answers. You know, like the DOMED ROOF on the US Capitol, which everyone knows as the DOME, full stop. Similarly with the GAME BOOTH; I was ready to go with "fAir BOOTH, i.e. a booth at a fair, had I not known about Emperor GALBA. CARAMEL LATTES was OK.
Then there was that JAMES/JAKOB crossing. Thank God they are both plausible names, which is the only way I got them (assuming I did--I haven's looked at the answers yet, so for all I know if might be Zames Ross crossing Zakob Ingebrigtsen. I'll find out in a minute.
Fortunately I knew BIZET and YORICK (poor fellow) cold, and was able to remember that Lothlorien was a FOREST. I'm still trying to figure out what NU METAL is (if I've parsed that right). Did both bands start at Northeastern University?
Los nerds dicen mentiras descaradas.
The only name I knew was YORICK, so the other seven made the puzzle undoable for me.
Last night I went to learn about dugyeonju wine and for the first time in decades a Google search returned zero results after checking the spelling three times, so it seems the NYTXW team was truly inventing words. But this morning, search results are normal, so I think I broke the internet and somebody took the battery out and put it back in.
The clue for FIRE is unfortunately timed tone deafness.
Propers: 8
Places: 3
Products: 1
Partials: 1
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 14 of 62 (23%)
Funnyisms: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: PANTSED. NAKED LIE.
Uniclues:
1 The Rex Parker forum.
2 The president-elect's face.
3 TV advertising by big pharma.
1 NERD SPEAK GLADE
2 NAKED LIES TAP
3 SURE CURE BLARE (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Why they hired Tom Cruise. THE SHOW MUST GOON.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I spent a while gazing dumbly at the clues on the printed page, pretty sure this was going to be one of those Saturdays that are just too vague for me to penetrate. I eventually put in my first answer, YORICK, confirmed by Baby YODA. From there is was (very) slow but steady, going counterclockwise from SE to NE to NW to the middle and finally the SW. When I finally finished, an hour plus had gone by and I still had no idea if GALBA, my last entry, was correct. Lovely Saturday challenge.
thinking of you -- I had the same reaction.
Do you POWERUP an engine? As far as I've ever heard spoken, combustible engines "fire-up", not power-up, right? You power-up a computer, because it runs on electrical power. I suppose you could say that a "search" engine powers-up with enough lawyering skills, but I'm not buying it-- unless I'm missing something obvious.
Cluing on 1A aside, it was a fun challenging puzzle!
Similar experience to Rex's, especially the wide-open dessert of the center. I had guesses but couldn't get any confirmation from the crosses to make me brave enough to enter them until I had no choice but to make the leap. One such was KATESMITH, right from early on. Contralto, radio era, the sobriquet, plus unless the constructor is being really mean it pretty much had to be someone recognizable. At some point I saw LAPELMICS and that gave me the M for SMITH and that became my foothold in the center. Still a fight to get the rest, but it does help when you feel really sure about an answer. Except when you're wrong.
All I actually know about GALBA is that Gibbon says he was exceptionally cruel; but that was enough to give me his name.
For those who struggled with AZALEAS-- ignore all the trivia in the clue and work the crosses; that will give you BIZET, and what other flower has a Z there? Here's Maria Callas singing Habanera for you. L'amour est un oiseau rebelle....
I lived in a CAPE COD style house for 20 years, during which time no one ever called it anything but a "Cape." I had to come back to that one a second time to see the COD part.
So if I am PANTSED, does that mean I am wearing pants? Or does it mean someone came up behind me and pulled my pants down in a sudden jerk? Only the latter would fit the clue, so I guess that's it.
For those who asked after my comment yesterday--the doc says we're fine, don't have Covid, flu, or pneumonia--just have to wait it out till we stop coughing.
PANTSED wouldn't draw a blank if you went to a private boy's school in the 60s.Just sayin. Me: Blake School in Hopkins MN--Al Franken also a graduate!
Cool word! Mondegreen! It’s new to me.😜
Welcome back! Missed the tunes.
It’s a baseball term for sacrifice fly ball. SAC FLY is how you’d show it if you were keeping score.
I had the advantage of immediately knowing KATE SMITH and YORICK and of immediately thinking of PENCILS. Other than that, I felt behind the 8-ball the whole time. All that white space cascading up from the SW corner meant an awful lot of Googling would be needed to do an END RUN around the puzzle and somehow it didn't feel worth it today. I wasn't having nearly enough fun. When I came here to see what I'd missed, I was gratified to see that every letter I'd written in was right. There just weren't enough of them.
My poor neighbor just got out of the hospital with the flu and can hardly speak a sentence without a convulsive cough. Take care and get better soon.
@Anon 10:16 -- sacrifice fly (from baseball).
The difference between a man and a woman: If it came down to a choice between catching a fly ball and saving the life of a baby, a woman would go for the baby without even considering if there were men on base.
Since December 30.
I can't tell you that here in mixed company, but a SAC fly (gotta read the clue correctly) is a baseball out that advances a runner or runners.
I was going for something to do with a car. I think a monarch was a car model at some point.
That is too funny, @Liveprof. Is that original with you or is that an old joke?
PANTSED is definitely a thing, At least it was growing up in L.A. in the 1950s.
I had the same reaction, too. What the NYTXW needs is a "last-minute" editor to review the appropriateness of clues and fill right before the puzzle is published. I'm pretty sure, from my experience as a constructor, that both the decision to accept the puzzle and the editing of it are done months before publication. Because the Times has expanded its Puzzle Department in the last several years, there must be someone on staff who can take on this assignment. If not, hire someone. This was a really, really unfortunate clue. My heart goes out to the people of L.A. and its environs.
The southwest was the roughest patch for me, not knowing NUMETAL or GALBA - though I'm sure GALBA has appeared in the puzzle numerous times.
The “sweet pick-me-ups” gave me pause. I had the ending TTES and wondered if we were talking about Corvettes or another car. Or maybe a fancy cab?
When I had KAT I dove in with KATESMITH, even though I have no idea why those two names are linked in my brain.
SURE CURE and PANTSED are very common phrases to me, as are YORICK and AD ASTRA, so the SE filled in quickly.
At first I was convinced that I knew too few of the names and would have a DNF, but it came together after all. Yay!
Uh oh, I use Paypal a lot. Is there an issue I don’t know about…?
Glad to know you’re ok
I succumbed to too-much-I-don't-know fatigue in the SW and threw in the towel, overcome by the unknown NUMETAL (what I get for missing one day of Connections!) and incorrect aLARm. I'd have had a DNF anyway because what I had as "open for drinks" was a TAb, giving me bANTSED - made no sense, but I'd not heard of PANTSED. For that long center Down, I really wanted tiRAMisu...something.
Did the NW, quite literally in steps: SAC, then LION [har], then INDUS spellin challenge, then CADRES/PENCILS. Then the rest of the NW was pretty smoothly completed.
Then RAD, and then ... nuthin. Solvequest just fell off into the middle void. Finally tried restartin in the NE, as the answers looked nice and comparatively short.
Finished, many many nanoseconds later.
staff weeject pick: RBG. Fun SNL clue and much missed SCOTUS Justice.
some faves: COMECLEAN. DATEBREAD. LATERBRO. PENCILS clue. LION clue. Jaws of Themelessness combined with all them staircases.
Thanx for a nice, looong feisty solvequest, Mr. McCarty. Bring it, Shortzmeister.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
.... and, speakin of themelessness ...
Stumpy Stumper: "Wiener Dog Runt #71" - 16x3.5 12 min. themeless runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
p.s. @Z and his PLACEBO & TENTACLE place: Best uni-answer pub name today: The NAKEDLIES TAP.
After changing Ganga (Ganges in Hindi) to Indus the NW fell rather quickly. After that, it was a challenging but rather pleasant puzzle
Easy-medium. This looked more daunting than it turned out to be. I put in PENCILS with no crosses, finished the NW in early week time, and was off and running. Fortunately I knew a lot of the PPP (e.g. KATE SMITH, YORICK, JAMES ROSS, GALBA, CAPE COD…). I did not know JAKOB and NUMETAL. Having no costly erasures was also helpful.
Solid and very smooth, liked it.
Me too sure sure sounded good but what is an eil press
I also question POWER UP as clued. You might "power up" an electric motor, I suppose, but not a combustion engine.
Everything Rex said, especially the difficulty getting started in the center, and all the bleedin' names. JAKOB GALBA and JAMES (knew the sea) were unknowns in the answers; Habanera, Rig Veda, Lothlorien, Marie Shear, Niue, Kate McKinnon and dugyeonju in the clues. Yeesh those namey clues! Finished in 23 minutes which is just about perfect for a Saturday.
I have a master's degree in architecture, but all I could think of for "Simple house style with gables" was COTTAGE. And NUMETAL is nu to me.
@DrBB 10:58 am; one person's desert is another's dessert.
Conrad - When I was about 3 years old (1950-51) my family lived in apartment building on Montegue Street in downtown Brooklyn, and apparently (as I recall the story) so did one of the producers of The Kate Smith Show. He evidently spotted me in our apartment building with my mother and told her the show needed a “cute little boy” for an upcoming show, and I guess I was cute enough. I remember sitting on Ms. Smith’s lap during the show, perhaps for a live Gerber baby food commercial, or just to answer some questions like a 3-year old. My most vivid memory was watching a metal drum above the stage rotate and drop leaves on Ms. Smith while she sang some song about the fall (possibly “Autumn Leaves” 🍁 🍂, but I really don’t remember). Your memory brought back my memory - thank you!
Dave Barry. Citation needed (ahem).
@Nancy (11:38). Thanks! Not original -- damn good, tho, I agree,
Haven’t been PANTSED so well since Joseph Lane JrHi, but today Ryan got me good. Those CAK/FES corners almost closed the doors until YODA/YORICK and CADRES/ENDRUN emerged from the mists as beacons to light the way. Sorry to the people impacted by disasters natural or otherwise, but realistically not even Will Shortz can anticipate all possible glitches in a grid. Today’s puzzle and the insights of commentariat are such a welcome relief from the flood of NAKED LIES that plague most media that I’m happy to again tell OFL “the check’s in the mail” so keep up the good work 👏🏼
Is it a soliloquy when you are talking to someone? The quote is : ‘Alas, poor YORICK! I knew him well, Horatio.’
@Anders Me too! Today I confidently entered Nu Metal!
Agree with Nancy. Could have been fixed with the simple clue "Axe."
SW corner was tough; finally got it when I guessed "yew." A lot of names in here. I figured "Conan" but wasn't sure; I figured "RBG" but I've been a very sporadic SNL watcher (all on Sunday and Monday, streaming or YT, since I have neither broadcast nor cable TV) in recent years and did not know that Kate McKinnon, among all her other duties there, was the go-to (when she was still on SNL) for RBG impressions. Don't get me started on my rant about RBG staying too long on the court and the damage it did to all progressive causes.
As for Kate Smith, I would think twice or more about including her in any crosswords. Her politics were to the right of Attila the Hun (to use the old phrase), to put it mildly, which might not be too much to exclude her, but she was also suspected, with some credible evidence, of being racist and antisemitic (her descendants vehemently deny this). It's true she was cruelly attacked for her physical girth (she was morbidly obese most of her adult life) and this was definitely not OK. But it doesn't excuse her own prejudices.
I know KATE SMITH through the Flyers, and I can still give the names and jersey numbers of most of the Broad Street Bullies. When the Soviet Red Army team toured the U.S., my nine-year-old self rooted for them when they played the NY Rangers and NY Islanders.
As others did, I got NUMETAL because of the recent Connections puzzle. None in my family knew that term till yesterday, so when I got it in the puzzle today, I repeated one of my favorite movie quotes to my wife: "You have to know these when you're a king, you know."
I had tie before DOT, and thinking only of staccato notes, I was ready to be indignant about that answer. Now I'm embarrassed to have overlooked dotted eighth, quarter, and half notes etc.
According to Xwordinfo, the only other appearance of NUMETAL in a NYTXW was in the Saturday, Sept 18, 2021 puzzle by this same constructor (clued as "Genre popularized by Limp Bizkit and Korn").
I'm gonna give a big thumbs-up to all those other constructors who've abstained from using this "word" in their grids, and hope they never succumb to the temptation. I didn't remember it after that earlier appearance, and probably won't this time, either.
Same boat. This was a relatively easy Saturday for me and I normally get my butt kicked.
I learned PANTSED from John Madden.
My question is: in what sport do UMPS squat? In baseball, catchers squat and UMPS crouch.
I had HRC for a while too. Kate Smith was from Lake Placid NY where we stayed in a rental house this summer right off ‘Kate Smith Way’ which is how I remembered her name. Never know WHAT will come in handy doing crosswords.
Good point. This is one of the most-quoted lines from Shakespeare, but the relatively short monologue it opens is not generally considered to be one of the play's seven soliloquies. As you point out, Hamlet is speaking to Horatio, not speaking aloud to himself.
For every rule there’s and exception
https://youtube.com/shorts/tAjSxVFhsoM?si=OQoX_KdqU67INy3E
My solve was only a bit slower than yesterday and the puzzle felt Easy for a Saturday. The NW was probably the toughest section. The SW also put up some resistance but I pulled GALBA from some dark corner of my brain, and that made me realize that the ALARM/ALERT kealoa was actually BLARE.
With -SS at 29A, I initially filled in -----BASS. Turns out that the Bass Strait is in OCEANIA, next to Tasmania. I then remembered the ROSS Sea but didn't know that his first name was JAMES.
I can't be the only one who was expecting a butterfly misdirection with the monarch clue.
This puzzle ate me up and spit me out with some mighty force. Where to begin...Well, my experience was similar to Rex's although Rex obviously did much better!. So many doovers...so many names...so much pub trivia that I had never heard before.
I started 1A with speedUp and 1D with Seconds. Erase, erase. OK so I stared some more and POWER UP and PENCIL indeed twas you.
Names...Egads YORICK. At least I knew ye. I even figured out KATE SMITH and James ROSS.
Back up to the NW and see if I can do that one little puzzle. I did. I even figured out LION and actually loved that clue. On to the NE. That area was the ate up and spit out one. I don't know who Kate McKinnon is or what role she played in SNL. Then Georges BIZET and some sort of OIL PRESS gave me the agitas. Cheat on RBG and BIZET. Damn.
To the middle where the agitas really kicked in. So I have KAtE SMITH going down and JAMES ROSS crossing the river, just relax and try to figure out the rest of the blank. I did...but ay dios mio, who is this JAKOB dude sitting next to LATER BRO...Cheat again.
On to the bottom. Baby YODA? NUMETAL? DOT? FOREST of Lothlorien? Why aren't stacks in an Ice Cream shop OREOS? They always clue an OREO in a sneaky way. OK so we're talking CONES.... SURE CURE? What are you?
I cheated today. I usually do on Sat. I haven't read anybody else yet but I'm sure there are some Mensa's here that breezed thru. I'm not one of ye. A proper Saturday difficult-wise and I won't remember these names and I sure don't know that Limp biscuit person or why his genre is NUMETAL, and I'll forget you along with GALBA and how to spell ADASTRA. What is PANTSED at 34D? Or is that a made up word? I think NUMETAL and PANTSED should dance a fandango tango together and step on each others feet.
I was about to give up till I got to the South East bloc. Got Yorick which gave me Yoda and Conan and I flew through it. The rest was a struggle, had to cheat on Galba and Indus. Kate Smith was a gimme. I knew a theater producer who told me that when he was a kid he had stood outside NBC to get her autograph. When she came out, she brushed him off saying " I"m not Kate Smith" and got in her Limo. Years later, her Mgr. asked to book her in his theater. He told him "NEVER!" and why.
Second day in a row that I looked at the empty puzzle and thought, "man, that's a NICE grid". The latter part of this week was VERY challenging for me and this was a proper Saturday. SO much I didn't know but with that comes so much I learned, i.e. INDUS, BIZET, JAMESROSS, GALBA, etc... I very much know Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit - absolutely no clue about NUMETAL.
For the longest time (and not xword time, real, human eastern time) all I had was PIE and CONES (maybe my calorie deficit was getting to me). And I'm talking like half an hour!
Gradually, some of the cute/clever cluing started to fall - UMPS, LION (like @Rex, loved that one), PENCILS, and then DESKPAD. DESKPAD gave me YORICK which I should have had with no crossings. So the NW and SE finally came together. The other corners held out for another VERY long time.
I liked many of the longer ones - NERDSPEAK (the first to fall), NAKEDLIES, COMECLEAN, LAPELMICS, GAMEBOOTH. They all look nice in the grid and put up some good Saturday resistance.
The other few were just fine.
All in all a good late week workout. I think the puzzles have had a bit more bite since Will's return, nothing wrong with that!
Thanks Pabloinnh! It was "source unknown" to me.
More pedantry: it's "I knew him, Horatio" (no "well" in there). But I had the same reaction as you when reading the clue, namely that it isn't from a soliloquy.
Rick
Crossword clues are called that because they are not definitions but hints. The fact that many royals are not autocratic is irrelevant. Many were and many are. Jordan Kuwait Morocco Saudi Arabia to name a few current ones The answer is fine
Finished without cheating but it took me forever. I am getting very tired of the endless stream of obscure names and trivia that seem to populate the NYT puzzles these days.
Bob Mills
Pantsed is a word. It is something young men and teenagers do to each other often after drinking.
I am old. Not an old man’s thing
Game booths at carnivals and arcades. Yes they are a thing.
Numetal refers to a type of heavy metal rock music. Gall
Sailor
Crouch vs squat
Crosswords have clues which are hints not definitions
Most definitely close enough for crosswords
The Times on Friday and Saturday does not always indicate abbreviation. That is more common early in the week. There’s no rule that requires it. In any event, ump is used more often than umpire. So a valid word on its own
Alexscott68
People would be screaming bloody murder if lavaliers was the answer. Even on a Saturday. I was a lawyer. Sometimes I know too much and it slows me down. I think it happened to you here. Don’t let expertise destroy a puzzle for you. Remember they are made for generalists (You implied that you are aware of lapel mic. So it is a thing. And a valid answer Because people say it)
I got off to such a slow start - only LION for SURE in the NW, maybe PENCILS but I wanted pacific for the islands locale so I held off both and moved east, where BIZET and PLIE paved the way. Hey, that rhymes. That type of grid always makes me leery, so I was ready for a slog and I got one. But every time an answer finally came seeping out of a dark corner of my brain, I’d think, “Well, of course it’s (let’s say) ECONOMIC, you numb nut.” Over and over again. WORD DOC, DOMED ROOF, and especially KATE SMITH. (Had the K and first thought was Kiri Te Kanawa, but not only was that too long, she’s a soprano!) Looking at the finished (no cheats) grid, I couldn’t believe I made it so hard on myself. Wonder if Mr. A is secretly using decaf for our morning pot?
Had to sense to hold off a few wrong answers - meads/ROSES, state fair/GAME BOOTH; YEW only got the gig after ash, elm and oak had auditioned (obviously had to be LET done BY Zoom). I had to physically remove a man and his Aiwa to make way for LATER BRO and ACER.
Backed into a slew of longer entries (mostly thanks to that evil grid design), ——BREAD, ——LIES, —CRATS, ——ROOF, and TTES (which I tried at first to make into some kind of somethingETTES until the CARAMELLATTES spilled all over).
I liked the clueing for LION, STEED, ROAMS, AACELL and PLIE. Not SURE about the one for SURE CURE, although the phrase is familiar.
I got a bit too literal-minded about “A bit of Sweeney Todd fare.” Just didn’t think of a PIE as a “bit.” Now an eye, an ear, a toe, those are “bits.” I suppose compared to the source of the pie’s ingredients the PIE is a “bit” of the corpse. OK, I’ll ALLOW it.
To make a long story short; it was a perfect Saturday. Thank you Ryan McCarty!
Great anecdote. Would love to hear more !
Holy Cow!! This one was tough to find a toehold. I laughed reading @Rex’s surprise (?) at finding an entry point at NUMETAL because my experience was similar except that KATE SMITH was mine. Who knows how the brain really works, but KATE SMITH led me to GAME BOOTH - game being the first easy word to fall after KATE SMITH. I had a mini-wavelength connection and the tiny little SW corner fell easily with good old GALBA being the final success.
And what of the remainder of this 5 mini-puzzle grid? Pretty much hell on earth with a few moments of relief, those few moments being the difference between a (new and unfortunately short) streak busting DNF and the happy music celebrating success.
After a very tough year with medical crises causing two lengthy gaps in my mostly continuous 50-some years of daily solving the NYTXW, I am finally “really” back. This puzzle felt like a true triumph for me. It’s the type of grid I generally dislike, and a I had a really tough time tuning in to our able constructor’s wavelength. But perseverance, coffee and my desire to get back to contributing here rather than just reading kept me going.
Happy New Year to everyone here in the neighborhood. Your daily comments and OFL’s and his guests’ analyses provided daily cheer and I am sure hastened my return. I plan to have a wonderful year and wish the same to everyone!
A hearty AMEN to your KATE SMITH comment. And as for “God Bless America,” she’s (America that is) certainly going to need all the help she can get.
None of which has anything to do with her significance / recognizability as a historical figure, hence her appropriateness for inclusion in a PUZZLE (i.e., not a pamphlet, not an ideological litmus test). Who passed this rule that only "nice" people, or people/organizations whose politics we agree with, can be referenced? (That Smith was also an extremely annoying and stentorian "singer" is likewise not enough to disqualify her.)
For me the puzzle seemed hard at first and then it became medium.
Really liked the LION clue.
Kate Smith was well known when I was young (born in the early fifties). Inescapable so not a hard answer to come up with.
She was considered a right winger. But she seemed more of a Reagan type than MAGA
Would like to not see FIRE while evacuated, that made my stomach sink.
You flew through it???!!! YOU FLEW THROUGH IT???!!!! Holy cow, Ray, that's absolutely amazing!!!! Since you've never been at all secretive on the blog either about your identity or your age, I will remind your fellow Rexites that you were, I think at last birthday, 92! And you flew through a puzzle that a LOT of people on the blog today, including me, gave up on.
I guess having a career you loved and all those wonderful theater anecdotes involving all those famous people keeps the brain youthful. Hearty congrats on solving this absolute bear of a puzzle.
@CDilly52 5:24 PM
Good to have you back. I hope those medical concerns are behind you for good.
C Dilly
great to see you back commenting again
Oh, I forgot -- something very similar once happened to me as @old actor's KATE SMITH story:
I think you all will agree that the legendary pianist, Vladimir Horowitz, didn't look like anyone else. His features were unique. So that when I saw him sitting with his wife on a bench on a side street in my neighborhood -- he lived in my neighborhood but I didn't know it at the time -- I immediately knew who it was. Tentatively I approached him and said: "Excuse me, but by any chance are you--" That was all I managed to get out of my mouth.
"No! I'm not!" he snapped back at me.
This humbled me like no other puzzle has ever done. I was pretty successful in the upper left and lower right. Then just couldn’t get any hold. Probably the first puzzle I quit in over 25 years.
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