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Small stretches, perhaps / FRI 1-3-25 / Woody's crush in "Toy Story" / Motif in 1995's "Se7en" / Simple question on a high schooler's hand-drawn poster / Subpar dining hall food / Common nap times, in brief / Much-sought-after commodity in "Dune" / Dutch constituent in the Caribbean / Area between the ribs and the round
Friday, January 3, 2025
Constructor: Colin Adams
Relative difficulty: Easy or Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: PROMposal (48D: Simple question on a high schooler's hand-drawn poster = PROM) —
The teenage rite of passage known as prom (short for promenade meaning "a ceremonious opening of a formal ball consisting of a grand march of all the guests") began in the late 1800's as a formal dinner held by American colleges and universities in the northeast to teach the graduating class etiquette before students set off into the world. Some high schools began to adopt the tradition around the turn of the century, and by 1950 it was the norm in American high schools. These days the prom has become somewhat of a competitive sport with students and even schools competing to have the best venue, attire, transportation, and, in recent years, the best invitation. // Asking someone to prom is almost as old as prom itself, but as the act of asking grows more and more elaborate the phrase "asking someone to prom" is no longer sufficient. The portmanteau from prom and proposal is a fairly recent creation apparently only dating back to 2011, and it's a fun new word used to refer to the surprising ways people are asking dates to prom. [...] So what makes asking someone to prom a promposal? You can ask someone to prom by presenting them with flowers and saying "Will you go to prom with me?" but a promposal often involves a little something more, and usually includes a special or elaborate act or presentation that took some thought and time to prepare. A promposal can be as simple as giving your intended date a giant cookie that reads "Prom?" or as over-the-top as jumping out of a plane holding a sign that reads "I'm Falling 4 U, PROM?" (merriam hyphen webster dot com)
• • •
Actually, my finish today was marred by tragedy, but it wasn't the puzzle's fault. Not exactly. I had gotten sloppy on the way down and ended up leaving an obviously wrong letter in one of the squares (one of the hardest squares in the puzzle, I think). I went past 45A: Small stretches, perhaps when I had only --BS because I had no idea. When I picked up the "I" (for "-IBS"), rather than relooking at the "-IBS" clue, I went by memory ... and misremembered it as a different clue that asked for a part (or "stretch"???) of the body ... so I wrote in RIBS. Turns out, I was thinking of the LOIN clue (22A: Area between the ribs and round). Which, I see now, actually has "RIBS" in it (!?!?! editor / test-solver / proofreader should've caught that). Anyway, I was just SLOPpy. Or GLOPpy. One of those. Thankfully, RISTS is not a word, and so my mistake was easy to find (45D: Hitmakers? = FISTS). Crossing that very deceptive FIBS clue with a "?" clue made that single square oddly treacherous, at least to me. But there was nothing treacherous at all about the rest of the grid. Breezy Friday, on the whole.
Bullets:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
Millie Bean and Tula will do anything (apparently) for Christmas treats...
Knope seems unsure what the fuss is all about. "Is this bed?" That's really the only question that matters, and if you're a cat, the answer is always "yup."
This is Bulldog. He's actually a standard poodle working undercover. Here he is in one of his many disguises, posing as a harmless family pet named "Santa Baby"
Finally today we have Casey, who always loved stocking time. RIP, Casey, what a good dog.
See you next time.
Still, there were a few slow points. Weird that so many A- words fit the clue at 1A: Out of whack. Well, there's ASKEW and AMISS. There's also AWRY, though that "fits" only at the level of sense (not letter count). That wasn't a slow point, actually, just a bumpy point. I got slowed down significantly only in trying to get in and out of the middle. Specifically, I couldn't fill out the phrase "DON'T ___" at 8D: Command to stay. Without the second part of that answer, I had no access to the center. "DON'T" is contained entirely in that upper-left quadrant. One more letter would've given me at least a little light. But nope. "LEAVE" seems straightforward now, but my only thought was "BUDGE," and when that didn't work ... stuckness. I got at the center from the west, using "SAY CHEESE" to pry my way in, but it didn't help much with the center, and also left me with the same word-break problem at LOGIC PUZZLE that I had with "DON'T LEAVE," i.e. I got the first word and had no idea about the second. LOGIC .... shrug. I work off crosses from start to finish when I solve, jumping around *only* when that method breaks down. It was in danger of breaking down today, but then, from just "-ECI-" I got PRECISELY, and I was back in business. PRECISELY to PERCH to LOGIC PUZZLE took care of the SW, and PRECISELY to REV to LEAVE to PRANK CALL took care of the middle and got me access to the east. No problems after that.
- 5D: Challenge to an intruder ("WHO GOES THERE?") — if you're the watchman in Hamlet, sure. Actually, I have misremembered this—the opening question of Hamlet is "Who's there?" I blame The Brady Bunch (Peter played a watchman in a play (maybe Hamlet??) and he had only one line, as I remember):
- 10A: What a bodybuilder builds during a bulk cycle (MASS) — "This meeting could've been an email" is how I think of clues like this, only what I mean is "This long clue could've been reduced to just one of the words in the clue": Today, [Bulk]. Just "bulk." That would do it.
- 20A: Basis of some admissions (GUILT) — tricky. Sounds like it wants something to do with college admissions (to my ears, anyway)
- 23A: Heaps of dressing? (LAUNDRY) — When I had "DON'T BUDGE" in place (at 8D: Command to stay), I wanted this to be BEDDING. So close!
- 47A: Much-sought-after commodity in "Dune" (SPICE) — since our last Dune clue a month ago ([Spice planet in the "Dune" universe] => ARRAKIS), I have watched a Dune—the first part of the newer Dune starring Timothée Chaladune and Dunedaya. I also watched the first half hour or so of David Lynch's Dune, which I really should finish, as I prefer its Lynchian bizarreness to the slick humorless spectacle of NuDune. Anyway, you don't have to watch much of any version of Dune to know SPICE is involved. It's the first order of business and main topic.
- 54D: Motif in 1995's "Se7en" (SIN) — true enough, though "motif" makes it sound almost ... decorative. Which it's not. Unless you decorate in gore. By the way, happy 30th birthday to this movie. I wish I could give the movie a present, just so the movie could ask me...
We're down to the last of the Holiday Pet Pics (no more please!)
Here's Curly. He came with the name "Squirrel" but then one day he chased a squirrel in the park and his owner was shouting "squirrel!" and it was all a little too ridiculous
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| [Thanks, Karl] |
Millie Bean and Tula will do anything (apparently) for Christmas treats...
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| [Thanks, Patrick] |
Knope seems unsure what the fuss is all about. "Is this bed?" That's really the only question that matters, and if you're a cat, the answer is always "yup."
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| [Thanks, Allison] |
This is Bulldog. He's actually a standard poodle working undercover. Here he is in one of his many disguises, posing as a harmless family pet named "Santa Baby"
 |
| [Thanks, Karen and Joe] |
Finally today we have Casey, who always loved stocking time. RIP, Casey, what a good dog.
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| [Thanks, Tom] |
See you next time.
*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] => ATON or ALOT, ["Git!"] => "SHOO" or "SCAT," etc.
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71 comments:
Easy-Medium. One overwrite, SO am I before SO DO I at 36A, and only one WOE: KAMA at 3D. I liked it more than @Rex, primarily because of the WHO GOES THERE (5D) / SUCKS TO BE YOU (21D) pair and the clue for FIBS (45A).
Pretty easy for me. Alter before AMEND; I got traction in the NE and got the whole right side of the puzzle before coming up from the SW to the NW corner to finish--and I didn't mind AFTS as much as @Rex did, not after WHO GOES THERE. rAMA before KAMA, but ___EW had to be ASKEW and that was that. A nice Friday, and I enjoyed it more than OFL did.
Don’t want to be too critical because, overall, I enjoyed this Friday. But starting with AFTS, particularly when clued as short for Afternoons, is just bad. I get a “backs of boats/planes” variant is prob too easy for a Friday, but yeesh. Think it’s the plural that’s grating to me. “Have a good aft” I’ve heard. Have never heard AFTS, in any context, to reference afternoons.
11D (Change) was another “A” starting letter. AMEND, Alter, Adjust (too long).
Last letter was the “F” cross Rex mentioned at 45A/D. Basically just ran consonants. wasn’t seeing anything.
Had one typo. ADeE for ADUE. Had Duet at one point and overlooked fixing the “E”.
I enjoyed this one quite a bit despite the off-putting start.
Nice Friday - although it was hit and miss with the “?” clues. I thought “Heaps of dressing?” for LAUNDRY tried too hard for example. I rarely get any of the musical references so ADUE was a new one for me. I wonder why I don’t pick up on some of them just from doing Xwords - perhaps because they just don’t sound like anything - I doubt I will remember ADUE if I see a similar clue even a week from now.
I must live in an alternate universe from Rex - I don’t know anything about Dune, so SPICE and the weird planet name that we had recently were both out of my wheelhouse. In fact I thought DUNE was the name of the planet. I was in college circa 50 years ago and I remember a bunch of the English majors were into Science Fiction in general, and DUNE in particular. I remember that one of them had a weekly newsletter (or something similar) that they would send out, sort of like a blog these days. I forget what the hard copy versions were called. Anyway, that’s about the extent of my exposure to DUNE, even though I have been aware of it for about a half-century.
I didn't even realize, Will has been back in the editor's chair all week! Welcome back, Will. This was easy for me, 12 and 1/2 minutes, which is pretty fast for me solving by myself. Lot's of whoosh whoosh in this one, the long answers falling in so nicely--from WHOGOESTHERE to SUCKSTOBEYOU, to LOGICPUZZLE. Agree with Rex about being stuck at DONT_______ for a while. really nice puzzle, thanks for the fun, Colin! and happy new year to everybody : )
Right after filling in LOGIC PUZZLE, I hit the clue "On the ___", and with the F in place I went with Fritz, and "confirmed" it with 'liz' Taylor, and I thought there was going to be a sub-theme of tons of Zs in the puzzle.
That Fritz/liz crossing messed up that whole section for a while, so a puzzle that began with AFTS ended with SODOI. Not a great first or last impression.
Two things I will never accept: MITER (brain wants mitre) and BICEP.
I am a gullible and trusting person, and as a result, misdirecting clues often fool me. But over time they’ve fooled me less and less. While filling in the box, I’ve grown more cynical and suspicious.
Today this helped me slap in FIBS for [Small stretches, perhaps], and LAUNDRY for [Heaps of dressing?]. So, yay for that! But Colin still got me for far too long with [Words before someone finally snaps]. Small steps.
Funny moment: For the photo op between two opposing players, for a bit I had myself believing KELSEY SWAP was a thing.
That southeast quadrant shimmers with pop, with three NYT answer debuts (PRANK CALL, PRECISELY, JERSEY SWAP) – (I’m amazed that the first two have never previously appeared in the Times puzzle) – and two answers used only once before (PLOT POINTS, SUCKS TO BE YOU).
A sextet of lovely homophone-able answers: GUILT, PRIZE, ABEL, TARE, KAMA, APSE. And a terrific riddle clue in [Items harmed when they’re scratched, but not when they’re burned].
With a mix of splat-fills and fits-and-starts – and I love both – this had lots of SPICE for me, Colin. Thank you for a sweet first Friday of the year!
Decent Friday. It's a good puzzle but the bar has been set higher on Friday. On the East side but lots to like
I remember KAMA as God of love by remembering the Kama Sutra
I thought the post- game photo op would be related to the QB hug/handshake which has become as much a tradition as the coin toss
Didn't watch too much football past few days, but appreciated a quiet moment of sportsmanship after Ohio State game. The OSU quarterback tore up Oregon's defense, just made them look bad. The media were interviewing him on the field afterword, and an Oregon defensive player waited patiently off to the side until the hubbub was over. Then approached the QB and said, in effect, "you're the real deal ,man, and I wish you the best". Just don't see that happen much in sports (or in life for that matter)
I got bogged down in the SW. I'm certain MITER is spelled Mitre.
I watched one of those Dune movies and had to stop after about 10-15 minutes. Not for me. On the other hand, “Jodorowsky’s Dune” is a masterpiece.
Good Friday puzzle, nice combo of good and hard and gettable.
The planet in DUNE is named Arrakis, yes, but it's ALSO called "Dune" in the books/movies, hence the title.
It me. I wrote in MIT and left the last two blank until I could cross up, because I know what I don't know. :D
Convinced myself that "Hitmakers" would be LISTS, like top-10 lists, and so got hung up as well until the end. Saved AFTS for almost last because I could both see that it might be but hoped that it wasn't. The longs were pretty gettable with surprisingly few crosses (for me).
Peter and Jan were Palace Guards in Romeo and Juliet. According to Alice, the saddest part of the play was when Jan said "Who goes there" before Peter said "Hark."
Crank/PRANK was my Loa/Kea today. Either way, thought of Bart calling Moe, asking for Amanda Hugandkiss. (“Why can’t I find Amanda Hugandkiss?”)
Had Fritz as well (maybe thinking of an anti-Jimmy Carter/“Fritz” Mondale sign I saw in 1976 - “Gritz and Fritz Make Me SHITZ!”)
Hard to tell what triggers the synapses in the graveyard of my aging and dead brain cells. If only the NYTimes had a LOGICPUZZLE exploring Connections!
Hey All !
SW corner surprisingly tricky for me. Had the LOGICPU___, and just could not come up with anything. Dang. I had ADORE in for PRIZE laughing at me, and wrecking my chances of figuring out the Downs. The ole brain was only coming up with JETE and AXEL for the skating move clue. Amazingly, I said, "What other skating move is four letters?", and I thought of LUTZ. Looked to the end of the word, saw that the Z would make my LOGICPU____ into LOGICPUZZLE, let out an Aha!, and quickly saw PRIZE, SPLAT, TARE. Finished to Happy Music.
Rest of puz flowed rather nicely and quickly. One thing holding me up, had cRANKCALL in for PRANKCALL. And the having-to-wait for the ASAMI, SOAMI, SODOI, SOAMI whatsit. Already had the I, so couldn't have been ARESO or METOO.
A nice FriPuz with good entries. The Long Downs are nice, SUCKSTOBEYOU got a chuckle.
Happy Friday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Fwiw, the second installment of Villeneuve’s Dune is not entirely humorless thanks to an excellent turn from Javier Bardem, and it picks up steam until what I think is a pretty chilling crescendo. Give it a watch.
Mostly fairly easy. The SE was impossible. I've never seen a JERSEYSWAP, unless the constructor was talking about a meaningless game between kids. No pro athletes would do such a thing without offending their teammates.
A left-hand side whoosh, right side more challenging but more rewarding. I'm thinking that KAMA is the KAMA of KAMA Sutra, so learned something there. Wanted CRASH before SPLAT, but easily fixed. 1A had to be ASKEW to get the W for a question word. Very helpful, that.
MASS and LAUNDRY were both first guesses and I remembered Rita ORA after seeing her in numerous other crosswords. I would have finished much sooner if I knew anything about the connection between PING and a JPG, but I don't. Hand up for the alphabet run to see the FIBS/FISTS duo.
Overall a very nice Fridecito, CA. Charming, Amusing, and some cool misdirects. Thanks for all the fun.
Happens all the time in pro football.
Players swapping jerseys is a pretty regular occurrence in soccer and American football
One highlight of my chemistry teaching career occurred when some of my honors chem students asked if they could do a prom proposal in the lab. Very sweet and the kind of gesture that an old sentimental nerd like me appreciated! Thank goodness the answer was yes!
Wow. This puzzle must have been in my wheelhouse because I duplicated (to the second) my best Friday time. Agree with many of Rex’s nits (ex. AFTS) but by and large found this enjoyable. I took most of my time sorting out the southeast with LISP, BOPEEP, BICEP, and JPG, which ultimately taught me that there is a thing called a JERSEYSWAP. Huh. Seems like I watch enough pro football and basketball to have witnessed one of these, but apparently not.
@Rex, I hope your “Chaladune” reference isn’t too dismissive because I’m pretty sure he is stacking up to be one of the finest male actors in his generation.
Fun puzzle with lots of misdirect clues, but crashed on MOOGS and PROM, and stuck too long with cRANKCALLS. The NE went quickly along with the two long down “quotes”, but the rest for some reason was like pulling teeth. Hey, there’s a phrase for a future puzzle…
I did pretty well with this after reading through the first 16 or so across clues and getting virtually nothing -- only MOOGS, and the notion that the Power-Up-Tour people might be ACDC. Four-letter rock groups are almost always ACDC or ABBA, and "Power Up" sounds like electrical current to me.
After this unproductive beginning, I started to look at the downs and did much better, although made a whopper with KAli for KAMA -- oops, I just made the destroyer goddess into the love god. In the early going (and thanks to not reading the clue carefully), I was sure that 10D's oldest band was going to be a rock group -- guess I was still under the influence of ACDC. But neither The Rolling Stones nor The Beach Boys would fit, and anyway l was sure that Closing on Sundays? had to be AMEN. Later on, I got most of CORPS through crosses and the scales fell from my eyes! (I love that expression.)
Another silly lapse involved getting the middle part of WHO GOES THERE, I.e. GOEST and thinking this was going to be a phrase in archaic language. After I'd filled in WHO, I thought surely they're not looking for WHO GOEST HERE. Oy! I think I must have been momentarily possessed by the wandering spirit of @egsforbreakfast.
But aside from my foolishness, I enjoyed the puzzle. All the long answers were winners -- I even liked PLOT POINTS, although that had arguably less character than the others. Like @Rex, I held out for DONT budgE initially. I thought Mulligan was a stew, so learned something there. A weirdly long clue for our friends, the EMUS -- glad they survived the EMUcide. MITER spelled like this looks bizarre to me. I'd say I always use the RE ending but then, when do I ever have occasion to write about bishops' headgear in any spelling? Still, ER looks wrong. I started watching World Cup soccer when I took up with my honey. The first time I saw a JERSEY SWAP after a championship game, I stared at the TV and shouted at my sweetie, "Hey! Why are all the players suddenly ripping off their clothes!?!?"
@okanaganer, @Gary Jugert - thanks for the friendly greetings in response to my recent random appearances.
The second puzzle this week with ASKEW in the 1A position. Between that and the F1 clue, which were coincidentally the first two things I entered, I had an intense sense of Deja vu and briefly wondered whether they had accidentally republished a recent puzzle.
In my day it was "the" Prom, but today everyone omits the "the." That doesn't make sense to me. I get that the original meaning was "to promenade" but the event itself (the thing one is attending) in which one dines, dances, etc. is most definitely a noun requiring an article.
It’s not unusual in soccer.
Long associated only with soccer, jersey swapping has become common as dirt in (professional) American football recently.
Yep, exact same thing happened to me!
NW, very easy. Remainder, easy. The errant stabs - 'tinnitus,' 30a, patently not going to work; [For two..], 31d, drew a couple guesses; and MITre at first vs. MITER, for some reason.. local corp., mayhap that swayed me. Nearly beat Fri best time.
Also, more fluid, error-free play (all but E/SE, quick) in the 2022-08-05 (Fri) weekly freebie - copacetic for 'Challenging' assessment and 7 DNFs in the comments.
The "apple a day keeps the.." as it might apply, refashioned, to the gaming, seeming to deliver. But while some may've wrapped today's in 8 min or well under.. and still sized it a 'Medium,' I'm far from that. The speed, my dead weight.
Good game, thumb up. (SUCKS TO BE YOU, soo salty.. plus one more thumb up for that.)
Easy Puzzle for a Friday . Didnt we have ASKEW in the same spot not too long ago? Loved the LAUNDRY clue. Rex, please stop - if I see one more dog in a Santa hat I'm calling the ASPCA :)
Mostly easy.
Costly erasures: cRANK before PRANK and as DO I before SO DO I.
I did not know BOPEEP.
Smooth and solid with some fine long downs, liked it.
I must’ve missed your earlier random appearances because I have become somewhat sporadic with my own presence here recently. Anyway, nice to see you again and I hope all is well in your world.
I remember that one of them had a weekly newsletter (or something similar) that they would send out, sort of like a blog these days. I forget what the hard copy versions were called..
LISTSERV.
O, em.. 50 yrs. Mimeograph. Either that or Gutenberg press.
- Dash Riprock, ready with the assist for you wizened geezers
Same goes for “University”.The article has been dropped. Drives me crazy!
I thought this was a perfectly nice Friday. No big FLASH but just right for the more subdued second half of the holidays. I’m afraid I did cringe at AFTS but it wasn’t long before 17A cheered me up with a pleasant reminiscence. My brother-in-law was in the Air Force at the time I turned 21, and I really thought I was somebody drinking my TOM COLLINS at his NCO Club.
On the other hand, my PROM was pretty boring compared to what they are now. The venue was the school gymnasium and there were no limos or champagne or fancy dinners. The boys didn’t even wear tuxedos back then, and they sure as heck didn’t present you with some sort of elaborate proposal. In fact, it was considered proper protocol if the invitation was conveyed by a note passed in class, and a girl was thankful if her date arrived in a clean pickup truck and remembered to bring her a corsage.
Ivana Tinkle and Seymour Butts!
Medium, and satisfying. WHO GOES THERE? won me over early, and like @Rex, I thought JERSEY SWAP made a nice finish to the solving game. One head-scratcher area: for the curling target I could think only of ice rinks or hairdos , so BICEP was both a nice surprise and a help with getting FIB.
Forgive me if this is a second posting, but I sent this almost an hour ago:
Two big early mistakes made this a slow solve. First of all, I had the first L from FLASH FLOOD, and wanted the fearless casino bettor to be FLUSH, rather than ALL IN. If you don't have a lot of money, how can you be fearless in a casino, much less go ALL IN? But I guess that's just me.
I've never forgotten my two forays into the casino world at a young, impressionable age -- one on the Vegas strip and maybe five years later one in that big casino in Monte Carlo. The bettors in Vegas, even when they only had $50 on the table, were sweaty and FLUSHed and beyond angsty. They bet as though their futures depended on that bet -- and looking at them, I guessed that in some cases it might have. The well-heeled, well-dressed bettors in Monte Carlo might have had $1,000 on the table (this was the 1960s and that was real money back then) looked bored and blase. They could well afford to lose it.
My other mistake, though I didn't write any more in than SUCh was the dismissive "that's rather unfortunate response. I had SUC, I needed a T for TRUSS, and SUCH A TRAGEDY fit perfectly. Who would have guessed that the much, much nastier SUCKS TO BE YOU was the answer?
Does anyone know people who say things like that to them??? If someone said that to me, I not only wouldn't be willing to have them as a friend or even a casual acquaintance. I wouldn't even be willing to have them as an enemy. What gratuitous snark. And because we can't UNSEE it, I don't think the NYT should be giving a phrase like this the time of day.
Some good clues and some colorful fill like the unknown-to-me JERSEY SWAP. But once again, too much pop culture. Why clue SPICE that way if you don't have to?
Started slowly as usual in the NW--will I ever learn to just skip that part and begin somewhere else? But then I popped over to the NE, which filled in like a Tuesday, whooshed down through the SE and across to the SW and solved the NW from below.
Overall a very easy Friday for me, near record time. The only hang ups once I got going were "DO Not moVE" for "DONT LEAVE" and "get out of HERE" for WHO GOES THERE, but fortunately I worked both out from crosses fairly quickly.
Also happens with great frequency in the NBA.
Jersey swaps, all the rage.
Why is splat bad to hear near a kitchen counter in particular? You could drop something anywhere.
Very easy for a Friday. But crank call before prank call
Thanks, @Whatsername and, yes, everything's as it should be. I haven't read the blog much during my long silence and I'm saddened to return and not find a lot of people who used to be regulars -- I hope they're just away for the holidays. So it's delightful to see that you're still here, enlivening the discussion.
Not quite that far back, @rip. In fact I was already programming in COBOL by high school, at the tail end of the punch card era. I do remember the smell of mimeograph from grade school though.
LOL, @AP. I don't know which has been more entertaining, all the holiday pet photos (including the one I sent in) or, after three plus weeks of relentless cuteness, your comment! I really did guffaw aloud.
JERSEY SWAPs are all well and good, but in college rowing it’s a little harsher. The loser forfeits his/her shirt to the winner. You can tell a good college rower by the size of his/her shirt collection.
A splat in the kitchen means food on the floor... a splat in the dining room means food in someone's lap
Pretty darn friendly FriPuz solvequest. Only real no-know was KAMA without the endin -LA.
The SNOWY clue seemed a little "off", tho -- snowed the M&A, for some precious nanoseconds.
staff weeject pick: JPG. Abbreve clued with another mysterious weeject abbreve.
some fave stuff: WHOGOESTHERE. SAYCHEESE. SAMURAI. [C/P]RANKCALL [M&A guessed right, initially].
best laugher: SUCKSTOBEYOU.
Thanx, Mr. Adams dude. Nice job of avoidin a puztheme. And nice job.
Masked & Anonym007Us
... connected to ...
"Clean Connection" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Maybe because something dropped in the kitchen has a greater chance of being really messy? A raw egg in particular comes to mind.
I liked this a lot (could I owe this to Will' s return??)
The only thing I didn't get was AFTS - that's a stretch dontcha think? Really liked SAY CHEESE, SUCKS TO BE YOU, FIBS, nice to see LOLA leave the Copa to make an appearance here. I also had Crank for Prank (call) & didn't know SPICE. A fun Friday & thank you, Colin :)
(I'll miss the Pet Parade - loved them all)
p.s.
re: LISP …
First reaction on what Aristotle spoke with was some sorta financial investment consultant, but couldn’t think up a floatable 4-letter answer.
M&Also
Qué lástima ser tú.
I enjoyed working this one. When AFTS is the only terrible thing, and the grid is so polished, and it's rolling in hilarious clues, you chalk this into the winners column.
Bo Peep whooped me because I kept trying to remember the cowgirl from Toy Story 2. Turns out she's Jessie.
Propers: 4
Places: 3
Products: 6
Partials: 1
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 15 of 72 (21%)
Funnyisms: 9 🤣
Uniclues:
1 Wacky sermon at the holy church of Those About to Rock.
2 Why I woke up in the dog house.
3 Basket full of underwear.
4 Result of the synthesizers becoming sentient, rising up, and doing comedy.
5 "It's just a flesh wound," and others.
6 Where knock-outs come from.
1 ASKEW AC/DC MASS (AMEN)
2 TOM COLLINS REDO
3 LOIN LAUNDRY
4 MOOG'S PRANK CALL
5 SAMURAI FIBS
6 DON'T LEAVE FISTS
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Pet name for mom's sister with a Napoleon complex. AUNT MACBETH.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Why is the nytx so bad with cocktails? The French 75 is exactly *not* a Tom Collins with champagne instead of soda. Glassware, ice, and garnishes constitute a different drink class entirely, and no bartender would ever conceive of these drinks as being somehow one ingredient different from each other.
I just tore through this one, and by about 7 minutes had everything filled in except the lower right corner. Woo hoo, record time here I come! But no... I ran into square 47 staring at Rex's -IBS / -ISTS crossing and had no idea. I have somehow avoided ever reading or seeing Dune and thought I might be wrong about SPICE so I changed it to SPACE (which actually makes a lot more sense to someone who knows nothing about Dune). Yeesh... after 12.5 minutes of running the alphabet finally saw that F worked.
Welcome back barbara S!
@Barbara S, yes a lot of regulars have gone missing: Loren Muse Smith, Casco Kid, bocamp...
Thank you! There is no body part called a bicep. Biceps is a singular noun. (See also: kudos, no such thing as a kudo.) How this got by an “editor” I don’t know.
I get a big kick out of mis-directs and this one had plenty that really popped for me. Fun cluing for AMEN, PRANKCALL, FIBS, FISTS, GYMS, etc... Cute that AMEN was directly under MASS.
Very much liked the long ones as well though got held up in a few spots. For 21D -SUCKSTOBEYOU - I could not get "sucks FOR you" out of my head, which is one letter short, and for the life of me couldn't get my mind around how to make that work for the longest time. The great mis-direct for FIBS finally gave me the "B" I needed to correct my train of thought. I know it's only January 3rd, but right now SUCKSTOBEYOU is my favorite crossword answer of the year.
MARINECORPS put up a fight for me as well as I had on the BENCH rather than FENCE (28D) for a couple of minutes which gave me an "H" in a strange place for the down ("MARINH" - I thought maybe a name I'm not familiar with (?)) Finally got the "F" from FRESH to get FENCE, which got rid of the "H", and all ended happily.
The last hold up was LOGICPUZZLE, I rushed to put in LOGICAL as I had no crosses yet for the last 3/4 of the answer and for whatever reason, I just could not let that go. I finally sussed out PRIZE for Cherish at 46A and the "Z" made me realize my mistake and LOGICPUZZLE fell. I've learned that most of my rushing around on these things leads to peril. I use the term "learn" loosely, as I'm going to likely rush into something tomorrow...I can't help it.
As @Rex and others said, a couple of groans in the NW where we all start - AFTS, SLOP, ESC, but all in all a happy journey on a Friday that was a tad more gentile than most Fridays.
I've been having some problems with voids in the ether lately, and somehow my lengthy earlier post vanished! Que lastima, as @Gary Jugert would say. But on reflection, the post was kinda cringeworthy, even by my truncated standards (for example, I had something about Cardi B moving to Hoboken in relation to JERSEYSWAP, which doesn't even pass the lunch test, much less breakfast). So I think I'll just forget it and try harder mañana.
I did like the puzzle and thought some of the cluing was great. Thanks, Colin Adams.
Yep, the commentariat does shift like the seasons and we all have favorites we miss. @LMS was a consistent delight and before her, I especially looked forward to @Evil Doug and some others who have found better ways of wasting time one hopes. Nice still to have the @Lewis counterpoint to OFL and @Nancy to add that urban vibe for us NW rubes. All in all, Rexblog is a good balance to the daily grind.
Today’s grid was fun for us, so I was negligent in the previous nostalgic post to not credit Colin’s fine effort. (& the myriad uniclues, M&A minis and links to the various and wonderful things that allow old brains to stay…..something or other that slips me at the moment)
Haven’t read any comments except Rex
But easiest Friday ever for me. I do it on paper so no computer record but it partially filled itself in, like a themeless Wednesday. Not bragging at all. I am a very slow solver. But as the misdirections and ?’s seemed obvious.
So it seemed a bit bland
A British bishop wears a mitre. An American bishop wears a miter. If both of the bishops decide to quit bishopping and become carpenters, then they both will use a mitre saw.
What became of Frantic Sloth ? She was a regular that posted everyday and dropped off the face of the blog. Maybe these folks changed their names or are anonymous.
where is Gill
I actually loved this one, I learned new facts and I thought a lot of the clues and answers made me smile. Who goes there, sucks to be you, prank call, laundry all good.
Some real lifting-bro energy scattered around this one.
I didn’t mind that. Did mind the fact that I initially plunked down SOAMI for 36 Across, managed to finish that area without ever looking at the downs, and then had the dread “no music; where’s the problem?”
I'd never heard of a French 75 a few days ago, but a coaster with a recipe for it showed up on my kitchen counter, and it mentioned none of the elements you do. I glanced at it, replaced champagne with soda and said, of course! A TOMCOLLINS!
Thought this puzzle was almost impeccable, zesty current and fun! Loved it.
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