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Seafarer's device / FRI 1-24-25 / Some stripes on drapeaux français / Green-skinned god of the afterlife / English translation of a paradoxical line in a Magritte painting / Fall forecasting aids / Greek goddess sleeping near the river Oceanus / Media outlet with a Francophone counterpart / Best-selling American car of the 1990s
Friday, January 24, 2025
Constructor: Ernest Lim
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: The Treachery of Images (9D: English translation of a paradoxical line in a Magritte painting) —
The Treachery of Images (French: La Trahison des images) is a 1929 painting by Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte. It is also known as This Is Not a Pipe, Ceci n'est pas une pipe and The Wind and the Song. It is on display at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.
The painting shows an image of a pipe. Below it, Magritte painted, "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" (pronounced [sə.si ne paz‿yn pip], French for "This is not a pipe".)
The theme of pipes with the text "Ceci n'est pas une pipe" is extended in Les Mots et Les Images, La Clé des Songes, Ceci n'est pas une pipe (L'air et la chanson), The Tune and Also the Words, Ceci n’est pas une pomme, and Les Deux Mystères. [...]
On December 15, 1929, Paul Éluard and André Breton published an essay about poetry in La Révolution surréaliste (The Surrealist Revolution) as a reaction to the publication by poet Paul Valéry "Notes sur la poésie" in Les Nouvelles littéraires of September 28, 1929. When Valéry wrote "Poetry is a survival", Breton and Éluard made fun of it and wrote "Poetry is a pipe", as a reference to Magritte's painting.
In the same edition of La Révolution surréaliste, Magritte published "Les mots et les images" (his founding text which illustrated where words play with images), his answer to the survey on love, and Je ne vois pas la [femme] cachée dans la forêt, a painting tableau surrounded by photos of sixteen surrealists with their eyes closed, including Magritte himself.
• • •
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| [Coincidentally, I taught Scott McCloud's Understanding Comics just yesterday] |
I also dug STATE PEN, though I don't understand why there was no abbrev indicator in the clue (4D: Sing Sing, e.g.) [my bad: Sing Sing *is* an abbr., slang for Ossining State Penitentiary]. COLMAN Domingo was nominated for a Best Actor Academy Award yesterday for his performance in Sing Sing (2024). If he wins, then expect to see COLMAN in the grid more often (he has so far appeared once, as [___ Domingo, Best Actor nominee for 2023's "Rustin"]. At that point, I hadn't heard of Domingo or Rustin. I'm up to speed now).
My disappointment today wasn't just rooted in bland marquees. There were several moments where the fill made me wince, or in the case of CEDAR WOOD, laugh outright. Oh, CEDAR WOOD, you say? As opposed to what, CEDAR METAL? CEDAR PLASTIC? CEDAR MARBLE? CEDAR PASTE? What are we doing here? Then there's RETINT and COTENANT, who are fighting the Battle of Who Can Be The Worst Prefixed Answer. Or so says my SEXTANT (40D: Seafarer's device). That's quite a trio, RETINT COTENANT and SEXTANT. The -NT Boys! Why would you put a cutesy "?" clue on possibly the worst answer in your grid (10D: Change one's tone again?). I have never understood constructors/editors wanting to call attention to bad fill this way. Then we've got some absurd plurals—a cadre of KATES and a bunch of ... BLEUS? Do I have that right? (31D: Some stripes on drapeaux français). Yee + ikes. That bit of French hasn't seen the light of day (crosswordwise) since Nineteen Hundred and Sixty-Three, where it was clued [Cordons ___]. No editor after Farrar would touch BLEUS. Until today. So it's a historic moment ... in the history of desperate fill. Not the way I'd choose to make history, but different strokes etc. BLEUS was about the only answer I had any trouble with, due solely to the fact that I forgot "drapeaux" meant "flags"—I (perhaps unsurprisingly) translated it as "drapes." I was like "How the hell should I know what French interior decorators get up to??"
Had the usual bout of single-square confusion. Always unsure of EMEND v. AMEND. "THESE Men" before "THOSE" (56A: "___ Magnificent Men and Their Flying Machines" (1965 film)). ELOTA before ELOTE (truly dumb mistake, I've eaten ELOTE and seen it in puzzles and everything). Had "Give it a READ!" before "Give it a REST!" LOL, I like my wrong answer. Someone pushing a book recommendation on you is nicer than someone telling you to shut up, I think. Briefly thought the 1845 immigrants were IRANI (true crossword brain there) (28D: Like many immigrants to the U.S. beginning in 1845). All those mistakes were my fault. My bad. On me. But there was one "mistake" which I want to go back and put in the grid as an act of protest and defiance. That is, I want to reinstate OPEN-ENDED, which is the only acceptable answer to 55A: Type of question not asked in 20 Questions. I plunked in OPEN-ENDED so fast, and that had to wonder who was attending commencement with a letter pattern like -DS (53D: Commencement attendees). For a brief, harrowing moment, I thought they were going to try to make me believe that GDS was an acceptable abbr. for "grads." But no. Worse (or almost worse), they are trying to make me believe that an OPEN-ENDER is a thing. Look, I get not wanting to use SDS, it's crosswordese of a decidedly bygone variety, but this "solution" to the SDS problem only makes matters worse. People ask OPEN-ENDED questions, they do not as OPEN-ENDERs. SRS is better than SDS, yes, somewhat, but OPEN-ENDED is better than OPEN-ENDER by an amount that is near-infinite. So suck up SDS or else rewrite that corner entirely.
Bullets:
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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| [Students for a Democratic Society] |
Bullets:
- 20A: Green-skinned god of the afterlife (OSIRIS) — got this off the "O." I forgot he was green-skinned. I just remember he looks like ... a dog, right? No, damn, that's ANUBIS (who is, in my defense, the "god of funerary rites, protector of graves, and guide to the underworld" (wikipedia). Man, those Egyptians were death-obsessed.
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| [OSIRIS] |
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| [Anubis] |
- 35A: Florida city with the U.S.'s largest equestrian center (OCALA) — this was "Florida city..." and then the voice of the teacher in the "Peanuts" cartoons. I wrote in OCALA real easy. More of that old-school crosswordese.
- 45D: Give a run for your honey? (ELOPE) — oof, even the "?" clues are tired today. This is a really awkward variation on [Take the honey and run?], which is a classic (i.e. already-been-done, don't-do-it-again) ELOPE clue. The clue on UTERI (49A: Development sites?) falls into the same category—tired wordplay. Seen it before. 14 different uses of "development" in UTERI clues in the Shortz Era. This very clue has been used four times now (two have "?" and two don't ... so there's literally no logic to the "?"). Gotta be more creative with your cutesy cluing of crosswordese (did you know: UTERI appeared just once in pre-Shortz puzzles, but has appeared 37 times under his leadership?; also, did you know: UTERUS did not appear in the grid at all until 2007?; also, did you know: UTERUS is an anagram of SUTURE ... I'm learning so much today).
- 38A: TV family you "meet" in the show's theme song (FLINTSTONES) — You know: "Meet Fred Flintstone .... His pet, Dino ... Daughter Pebbles ... Wilma, his wife!" No, wait ...
- 41A: Temperature gauges, sometimes (TOES) — I liked this one. Had no idea, needed all the crosses, then thought "ah, good one." That's how a tricky clue is supposed to go.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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76 comments:
Medium. I struggled a lot more than I should have. My mistake was trying to solve without reading the clues for the long acrosses; they were all very straightforward and easy to get with just a few crosses.
Overwrites:
1D: abs before bod before PEC
5D: COW barn before SHED
32D: My drones were mAles before they were a CASTE
55A: @Rex OPEN ENDEd before ENDER (this almost cost me my streak)
No real WOEs but I didn't remember ELOTE at 6D and needed every cross.
CEDAR OIL... CEDAR TREE...CEDAR BARK
STATEPEN and OPENENDERS were truly bad answers, the former as clued, the latter as nonsense
flew through it for some reason. nearly a Fridat record
I definitely wrote in THE JETSONS on my first pass through, but it was one letter too short, as was BRADY BUNCH. When I got FLINSTONES off of crosses, it took me a minute to remember the song, "FLINSTONES, meet the FLINSTONES, they're a modern stone age family..."
So there are basically two kinds of questions, right? Yes-or-no and open-ended. If the latter can be renamed an OPENENDER then the former must also be called a yesornoer. But wait, that’s nonsense.
The SDS is dated, yes, but still of some historical relevance, I hope. (Do college students today learn about the SDS?) Whereas SRS is just typical ugly crossword fill. Like Rex’s “Give it a REad,” this is a place where the wrong answer is better than the right one.
And thanks to Rex for a perfect description of the way I got to OCALA.
A very typical, but enjoyable Friday for me. Agree that OPEN ENDER is a dud, but as far as NYT self-inflicted wounds go, that’s about as bad as stubbing their TOES. And of course the usual cast of characters that many of us know only from XWorld (or have never heard of) like ELOTE, LLOSA, OSIRIS, ENERO and BLEUS) - the fact that the crosses are fair on those puppies makes, in my opinion, the difference between a fair, challenging Friday and a slogfest. Fortunately, today we got the former.
Definite side-eye at OPENENDER. As an ESL teacher one gets to teach *everything* (math, history/social studies, science, art, etc) and ask many, many OPENENDEd questions in the process, but not once did any admin inquire, "Are you asking lots of OPENENDERs?"
Otherwise the puzzle was fine. Agreed on the long ones, it seemed like a newspaper theme for a while there. Also weird how they plunked in off just a few letters, so not as crunchy as may be expected for Friday.
I wonder if Rex likes any of the puzzles, or just enjoys ranting about them. He's pretty much always negative and overly critical on something in the reviews. Some are super clever, some not, some make me roll my eyes, but these are supposed to be fun, and I think most are.
Ernest, who lives in Singapore, says in his notes that he’s not familiar with most of the sports or cultural references “that are oh-so-common in The Times”.
I found the lack of these references refreshing in today’s grid. Oh, there were cultural references, but ones that have stood the test of time: FLINTSTONES, ROSA PARKS, LLOSA, the Magritte painting, the Egyptian god – answers that gave the puzzle a solid feel that I found comforting.
This is not to disparage the verve that comes from the au courant, which raises my pulse in a lovely way. There are all kinds of good that puzzles can furnish, and today it was “solid” and “comforting”.
I liked the international flair in the box, with answers relating to France, Italy, Mexicao, Latin America, and Ireland. I loved uncovering beauty: BEAR THE EXPENSE, PRESSED FOR TIME, MELEE, BOTCH, CANON, STATE PEN, DRIFT, SCRUM. I liked seeing ELOTE sharing the grid with ELOPE, as well as the PuzzPairs© of CELL/STATE PEN and AXE/HEWED.
Just a heap of loveliness to start the day, and that is a gift I never take for granted. Congratulations on your NYT debut, Ernest, and thank you!
Hand up for putting in OPENENDEd, and then spending time wondering what sort of commencement attendees could be referred to as SDS. Some higher degree I haven’t heard of? OPENENDER is not a descriptor of any type of question.
Wanted BRADYBUNCH for the family, but of course it didn’t fit. It was a nice blast from the past to remember the FLINTSTONES.
Colman Domingo did not win the golden globe...Adrien Brody did
Disappointingly easy. I expect a nice challenge on Friday and this took me only 10 minutes as opposed to the usual 30 to 40. Only slowdown was in the southeast. Oh, well. Hope Saturday is something I can sink my teeth into.
Not sure my first comment published...too, too easy. Hope tomorrow is more of a challenge.
I think it's unfair to consider Mario Vargas Llosa as crosswordese. He is a Nobel Prize winner, one of the most famous Latin American authors of all time, etc.
Isn’t e.g. the abbreviation indicator for STATEPEN?
Who the heck is proud of one pec? (1D)
Thought this was going to be done in record or near-record Friday time - flying along until the SE. That section slowed me to medium overall.
Slowdowns - didn't think of CBC for 30A. Knew I should know 35A, but couldn't come up with it. 38A went right in, though. Back half of 43A (BEAR THE ....) was a mystery. Had gulp instead of BELT at 57A. Agree with others on OPEN-ENDER.
Tried roommate before CO-TENANT at 36D. Brush before EASEL as Pollock's rarely used accessory.
Glad to have finished.
@Rex wrote "I also dug STATE PEN, though I don't understand why there was no abbrev indicator in the clue (4D: Sing Sing, e.g.)."
Sing Sing is an abbreviation, or more properly I guess a slang term, for Ossining, I thought? Looking it up now, the reality is more muddy... the prison is really now named Sing Sing, but it was Ossining Correctional Facility for a while. Thus the abbreviation seemed implied.
openender? uh. no.
Is there a part of the country where the word OLEO is used outside of xword puzzles? If so, I haven't been there.
I felt vindicated by the ‘openender’ comment. That final ‘R’ ended up being the trigger for the “Dang, you’re one off, loser” message. I’d found it easier to believe that somewhere out there somebody thought ‘SDS’ was an acceptable abbreviation of ‘students’ than to believe an ‘openender’ was an actual term. ;)
Hey All !
Stuck, but then steady flow. I like FriPuzs like that.
Took a while to tack on the S of MAKES HEADLINES. Had MAKES__DL___ for a while, and trying to come up with something to fill S__DL____. Was thinking MAKESHIFTsomething.
Vishnu first for OSIRIS. I don't think Vishnu is green? Or maybe it (he/she?) is.
Ford TAURUS. I have one! It's my daily driver. And the SHO version. A 1994, with 218,000-plus miles. Runs great! 5 speed, I don't drive it easy, either, I drive it like it was meant to be driven.
Welp, since Rex said it, someone pushing a book recommendation on you ...
I wrote one! "Changing Times". Search my name, Darrin Vail at Amazon or barnesandnoble.com to find it! You can read the quick back cover blurb to get a rough idea of the story. Y'all can recommend it to the NYT's Book people. Har.
Happy Friday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I found it easier than most Fridays, maybe because of a relative absence of misdirects in the cluing (thanks, Will Shortz). Didn't need to cheat, but had brief problems in the MELEE/EOS area because I was sure "iOS" was right. I did guess right on OSIRIS from the "O," so maybe things are becoming more Greek to me (double meaning intended).
From the town of Bedrock they’re a page right out of history.
@Rex: Sing Sing is the “nickname” for Ossining prison, thus the abbreviated form of Ossining prison.
From the web:
Sing Sing's name comes from the Indian phrase sin sinck. It means stone on stone. In 1901, three years after Edison introduced the electric chair at Sing Sing, the town changed its name to Ossining so people wouldn't confuse it with the jail. Edison's dynamos ran on direct current
Rhetorical
I actually convinced myself that sds was a valid abbr for students. openender is no good. even autocorrect doesn't accept it.
Me too. Easiest Friday ever. Liked it more than Rex did.
Loved 41A TOES as it made me think: Good one! Just the image of a person dipping toes into water is funny. But then groaned big time over OPENENDER, just couldn't believe it was allowed to be.
I also wanted it to be the Jetsons. That song was playing in my head when I saw the clue.
I like @lewis’s description of this as a comfort puzzle. With a few crosses things just kinda fell into place, except for the unfortunate OPENENDER on which we have an unusual degree of agreement among commentators today—a different kind of group comfort. And sports were not completely left out—we did have SCRUM to consider, which is a kind of MELEE.
Let's ride with the family down the street
Through the courtesy of Fred's two feet
So many clues where the misdirection was more of a “eh, that kind of means that” rather than an a-ha!
Just feels lame when the slant feels like an obligation and not an actual interesting/witty/fun take on things. When the answer is a small piece that fits into a large container rather than the clue being a precise description from an unseen angle.
Let's ride, with the family down the street. Through the, cour-te-sy of Fred's two feet. When you're, with the Flinstones, have a Yabba Dabba Doo time, a Dabba doo time, you'll have a gay - old - time!
RP said “ I also dug STATE PEN, though I don't understand why there was no abbrev indicator in the clue (4D: Sing Sing, e.g.) “ What am I missing isn’t e.g. an abbrev indicator ?
Additionally and/or alternatively; manufactured wood, treated wood, rosewood, etc etc. my brain went to different types of woods, rather than other items following cedar. But agree- OP got caught on that one erroneously. Happens!
A combination of scrupulously fair and accurate cluing that avoided vagueness, combined with a refreshing minimum of names, made this one of the easier Friday puzzles in a while. I was a little careless in not reading the 8D clue carefully and writing in ESP before LSD. I also thought that the question type was OPEN ENDED, not an OPEN ENDER -- but both mistakes were corrected quickly. A nice grid -- though I do think the clues could have benefited from a bit more playfulness. Liked the ROSA PARKS clue.
The careless texter wanted to ELOPE, but his girlfriend showed up on his doorstep with a steaming Mexican grilled corn dish.
How many Spice Girls are there? The other day we had MELC and today we're already up to MELEE.
Facing the double barrels of her father's shotgun, he felt he had no choice. After asking OSIRIS this really necessary, HEWED.
For 28D (Like many immigrants to the U.S. beginning in 1845) I tried to squeeze in "criminals, rapists, mentally ill", but it wouldn't fit. I'm sure the orange buffoon could make it fit with his famous hurricane sharpie.
ELAPSE sounds like an on-line faux pas. If you commit one, you'd best EMEND your ways.
Mrs. Egs and I once owned a popular Ford car, but we spent so much time arguing about who got to drive that it about TAURUS apart. Then, once we got going and everyone settled into a game of 20 Questions, she'd ask an unfair one, I'd take my eyes off the road to argue, and next thing you know..... an OPENENDER fender bender. So now we drive two mopeds.
I liked this fine, but basically agree with the gist of @Rex's criticisms. Anyhoo, thanks, Ernest Lim.
I have old recipes that call for oleo.
I had a relatively easy time for a Friday (on my standards) but I had an error I could not find for the longest time. I had OPENENDED instead of OPENENDER and couldn't recognize the I BOTCHed the stupid crosswordese SRS instead of SDS, which I assumed was an abbreviation for students I don't usually see.
This was such an apparent gotcha clue to try to get you to get screwed up on ABS for a while
The occasional easy Friday that's just fine with me. Highlight was reading the Magritte clue and writing in the answer, rare enough to be thoroughly enjoyable.
Wanted "pressure-treated lumber" for the deck material but it was way too long. I'm with OFL in that CEDARWOOD is redundant.
The TAURUS was that popular? Who knew?
The FLINTSTONES answer made me think of the scene in "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" when our heroes finally get a ride on a bus and someone suggests they all sing something. Nerdy Steve Martin tries "Three Coins in a Fountain", which goes nowhere, but everyman John Candy saves the day with "Flintstones, Meet the Flintstones". Great stuff.
Nice Fridecito, EL. Enjoyed Learning some things, like the popularity of the TAURUS and the color of OSIRIS's skink, and thanks for all the fun.
And Canada too with the CBC, Je me souviens.
BLEUS is what the French call their World Cup national team, so it’s current and valid. “Allez Les Bleus!”
Bleus could actually be a fun answer if it was clued better — the French national soccer team is known as Les Bleus. That might be a bit hard for non sports people, but I think it at least would be a real world usage.
And then there is @Lewis who never met a crossword he couldn't gush over...at least I can't remember seeing one.
My doctor says I am pre-diabetic and I should stop reading @Lewis.
This is really blah for a Friday. I guess they can't all be zingers. Just felt like way too much effort for such dull answers. Seemed like a medium-hard Saturday to me.
Interesting fill with nice long answers, especially THIS IS NOT A PIPE, PRESSED FOR TIME. The long acrosses weren't bad, either, but the downs were tops.
A few things seemed a bit off -- who ways CEDAR WOOD? It's just CEDAR. And having grown up with dairy farms all over the place, COWSHED was strange. I guess you have one if you are just starting off and can't afford a barn -- or maybe in the South you don't need a barn, what do I know? They exist, though, so that's OK. EXIT POLLS are OK too, but they are more for explanation than for forecasting -- you're polling people who have voted already, so there isn't much to forecast there.
As for sub stations -- I guess you can get a sub in a DELI, but that's like going to a sub shop and asking for a Reuben. You just wouldn't do it, and if it did you wouldn't expect it to be very good.
The idea of the LATE EDITION brought tears of nostalgia to my eyes. imagine a newspaper doing a new print run every few hours, just to be up to date. Today, of course, they just post and edit most stories online, which works perfectly well.
Speaking of nostalgia, I long to go back to the days when ENERO would be clued as "winter month in Jalisco," or similar. This new trend of writing a phrase (or hear, part of a phrase) in the language you are cuing is an abomination.
And to pick nits, a CANON is a lot more than a "collection of works." It's a collection of those works which it is generally agreed that everyone ought to read. So get busy!
Probably would have been a Friday personal best if not for the iOS/EOS, aMEND/EMEND, OPENENDEd hiccups. Found those issues and still finished in "Easy" time range.
Got to feel what it must be like for Bill Clinton to solve a Friday puzzle - breezed through today without hesitation. Pure coincidence that the print version appears six pages before a photograph, “This is Not a Cigarette”?
This didn't feel very fresh at all. With the exception of a Kate Upton reference, I think this puzzle could have been created in 2000.
First had BUNDT for 47A, making 47D BUST . Both legitimate!
This was an easy Friday but that's okay with me. It was kinda wonky in a bad way, though. @Rex elaborated on this problem. The PIPE thing is pretentious art nonsense. As is Warhol's soup can.
Yes, it's called "the mid-twentieth century."
@RooMonster - Loved that Yamaha V6 - third gear good for 90 mph or so. Nice to hear it's a daily driver.
OK, I finished with OPEN-ENDEd and never corrected it. I was pretty active in SDS from the anti-war march on Washington in 1965 until about 1971, and I can say that we did often attend commencement -- whenever we thought that the commencement speaker was objectionable, which was almost a given at Harvard. So I'm counting this one!
Pro tip: when faced with a clue about the biggest equestrian facility in Florida, mentally translate it to "Florida city starting with O." It's a lot easier that way.
I also thought SDS might be a strange abbreviation for students.
I'm sorry to say that this was just as easy as last week's themeless puzzles.
ELOTE is one of those words that the SB ignores. Would it kill the various game editors to get on the same page?
Between CEDARWOOD and OPENENDER I wondered if today is Fargo speak Friday.
Medium for me, and enjoyable, from the long downs to COWSHED and STATE PEN to OSIRIS and TAURUS to the TOES that TEST the temperature.
Do-over: THIS IS NOT A ciga - oops!
Accepted: CEDARWOOD, having previously dealt with oakwood and pinewood.
Always check your crosses!: OPENENDEd.
Again, too easy. Also yuck at OPEN-ENDER.
I agree that he is the weakest of my examples, however I included him as my point was that the fair crosses make a significant difference, even with the occasional famous person with a somewhat unusually spelled name.
Similarly, ELOTE is delicious and I'm never going to object to anything delicious in my grid. Could have lived without the other three, but only BLEUS is beyond the pale for me.
When I got to Rex’s post today and read through my first thought was that he got up on the wrong side of the bed today. I didn’t think the puzzle was “bland” and stating the answers as “quotidian” also seems strange, since often puzzles are criticized because answers/phrases are “not a thing” or “in the language.” Even so, I didn’t get the “quotidian” vibe, and my only nit was the fact that I (and jberg and others) got to the end with the “no go” message due to OPENENDER, and yes, I agree that I’ve never heard that word(s) spoken, but it didn’t dampen my overall solving experience. Also, big deal on CEDARWOOD. I will say that if cottonwood was actually considered a valuable (and attractive) resource…would we call it cottonwood wood? Lame add on…I know.
I don’t know about everyone else on the blog, but for some reason people tend to shorten the correctional facility to STATEPEN, but I always say “federal penitentiary” or federal prison and it just seems like I have never heard…’oh that person’s in the federal pen’.
e.g. by itself is not an abbreviation indicator (I'm guessing to save valuable cluing real estate in the print version when the alternatives are things like ("for example").
I agree - didn't feel fresh, Made me miss Robyn W. even more than usual.
Sacre BLUES.....Que fun. I feel it's incumbent upon moi to point out that I have exactly one PEC that I'm proud of. I shall put that in my PIPE and smoke it.
I'm staying away from the OPEN ENDER CANON because I haven't a clue what 20 Questions could be. Is that a game of some sort? Should I take some time and ask Google? And why, pray tell, aren't Drone bees males....CBC is another big head scratcher. Even not knowing what these things are, I managed to pen in correct answers and dance some fandango tango.
Speaking of....ELOTE I'm sure EATen by LLOSA in perhaps ITALY while riding a horse in OCALA. I have a TAURUS as well. (Hi Roo). It's a 2004 with close to 200,000 miles and it still has a PEC or two as it drives. My fried gave me her 2002 BMW that purrs like a kitten so I can't decide whether I like me the PEC or the Purr. I'm keeping them both.
The puzzle.... I finished with some savoir faire in the skill department. I also have worldly experience. Combine the TWO and et voila....termine sin problems....(Hi Gary J). Nothing really held me up except that CBC CASTE thing. I even got the FLINTSTONES. Did anyone else have ASIAN American instead of LATIN? Of course not. Easy to fix with Magritte's PIPE. Other than those little kerfuffles, I managed to breeze through and enjoy myself.
Well, it IS Rex's Blog, after all. And I enjoy
@Lewis' cheery comments & look forward to them. He always has something nice to say ... now I know why you're 'Anonymous'
I liked seeing TAURUS hanging around the COW SHED.
I tried to make Real McCoys fit for the family you "meet" in the theme song. When that didn't work I realized it was Flintstones.
So easy, it felt like a Tuesday to me.
Easy. No costly erasures and no WOEs. This was an easy-medium Wednesday for me.
Same thoughts as @Rex about ENDERS.
Reasonably solid with a couple of nice long downs, liked it but I agree with @Rex about “adequate blandness”.
few minutes off my best. did you know composite and cedarwood have the same number of letters? yet for once, my mistake actually helped me because it got me the C which helped me open that corner and get going. cedarwood [one word] didn't phase me because as a collector of indie perfumes, i have quite a lot that contain cedarwood which is a known essential oil. don't ask me why it's not just cedar, i don't know. so i didn't think too hard about it until reading rex.
had -NDER for the already awkward 20 questions clue and filled in overuNDER.
gulp before BELT...don't really understand that one. you can belt out a song but can you belt in a beer? or does swig mean some kind of punch? whichever it's supposed to mean i've never heard it as clued, but thankfully crosses were fair.
i took a course in college called representing representation. initially i only took it because my most favorite art history prof was teaching it and i'd listen to him talk about anything, but it actually was really fun and interesting. our big project was to see how many layers back we could go in an art piece. my series was photos of neon signs, but abstracted macro shots. how many layers of representation can you have before it ceases to be one? it was an enjoyable brain workout for a semester that i still remember fondly.
finally, TIL "flinstones" is actually spelled "flintstones" [i know, i know, the rocks and everything but i honestly never realized my grokking of the spelling was off.]
-stephanie.
Wow this went fast... 10.5 minutes and I am not a fast solver. Unlike Rex, I liked the long answers a lot. THIS IS NOT A PIPE was a gimme; the most memorable text actually appearing in a print/painting.
One lonely typeover: COW BARN, then SILO (which I admit makes no sense) before SHED. LLOSA was almost a typeover because I always want to spell him LHOSA (I think because of Lhasa).
Nice to see the CBC again. Note the French network is called Radio Canada; I guess they never bothered changing the name after TV was invented.
Pretty darn good FriPuz fare. However, after finishin up most of the top halfpuz, I was a bit leery of that ELOTE-LLOSA pair. Thought maybe somethin like CELL, or another answer in that area, was wrong.
Also ... RETINT? har.
Primo weeject stacks in the NW & SE. Staff pick: SRS. Preserves the ow-so-exquisite Ow de Speration ambience of OPENENDER. har2.
some fave stuff: FLINTSTONES. THISISNOTAPIPE [a gimme, at our house]. DONUTS. ROSAPARKS. DELIS clue. TOES clue.
Thanx for a solid as CEDARWOOD FriPuz, Mr. Lim dude. And congratz on yer opendebuter.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
... the followin puz has even fewer black squares than the above one ...
"Round Trip" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
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