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Wide-reaching green light / WED 2-19-25 / Dewy-eyed heroine / Synergy-seeking move / Small British hunting dog / End-of-level enemies in video games / Onetime place to shop while high? / Destination of a walk / Something good for an angler, bad for a dog trainer / French pointillism pioneer / Biological bags / Programming conditionals
Wednesday, February 19, 2025
Constructor: Joe Deeney
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
The theme is OK, I guess, but solving this was something less than a joy because the fill was wall-to-wall blah—and frequently downright bad. I actually stopped in disbelief at the godawfulness that is TSK-TSKED. I mean, TSKED is bad enough—you see it from time to time in the grid because it's five letters and it's got an odd letter combination—but TSKED is short gunk and you can ignore it pretty easily, especially if the rest of the puzzle is OK. But TSKTSKED?! (5D: Orally admonished). Aside from something that's said by precisely no one, it's a complete waste of a longer answer. It's crosswordese on steroids (speaking of steroids ... see Robinson CANÓ, above!). Here's me catching my breath and bracing for the worst, after starting superfast and reasonably optimistic:
- BLOCKBUSTER (17A: Film megahit)
- BLANKET APPROVAL (29A: Wide-reaching green light)
- BORDER TERRIER (34A: Small British hunting dog)
- BATTING PRACTICE (44A: Slugger's pregame warm-up)
Robinson José Canó Mercedes (Spanish pronunciation: [ka'no]; born October 22, 1982) is a Dominican-American professional baseball second baseman for the Diablos Rojos del México of the Mexican League; he also captains the Estrellas Orientales of the Dominican Professional Baseball League. He has previously played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees, Seattle Mariners, New York Mets, San Diego Padres, and Atlanta Braves.A native of San Pedro de Macorís, Dominican Republic, Canó signed with the Yankees organization as an amateur free agent in 2001. He played for the Yankees from 2005 to 2013, also winning the 2009 World Series over the Philadelphia Phillies. In December 2013, Canó signed a 10-year, $240 million contract with the Mariners and he played for them from 2014 to 2018, when he was traded to the Mets. Canó recorded 1,695 hits in the 2010s, the most of any major league player during that decade. He is an eight-time MLB All-Star, a five-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and a two-time Gold Glove Award winner. Canó is also the 2017 All-Star Game MVP and the 2011 Home Run Derby winner.
Canó has tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs twice. In 2018, Canó was suspended from MLB for 80 games for violating the league's joint drug agreement by using furosemide. Canó was also suspended for the entire 2021 season after testing positive for stanozolol. (wikipedia)
• • •
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| [6D: French pointillism pioneer] |
IVANIV and SEAEEL are a grim pair of 6s to put in one corner, in a grid that needs all the solid and interesting fill it can get. ABA EMO ERN RICA ASONE TIETO ÉTÉ SIA ... this was very easy and very unfun. The theme answers were interesting as standalone answers, but they were the only thing that was interesting. This puzzle really really needed that revealer to land, and ... shrug. I guess those are, in fact, quilting terms. You piece together quilts out of BLOCKs, you use quilts as BLANKETs (this one seems kinda weak), you sew BORDERs onto quilts, and you fill them with BATTING. All quilts, all "B" ("Bee")s. Adequate revealer, reasonable theme, but it can't make up for the truly listless grid today. The solving experience was less than enjoyable, the grid definitely subPAR (so annoying that "subpar" means "below average" but if you shoot below PAR in golf, that's above average—truly one of the stupidest mutations in the English language).
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| [Kwilt Kitties!] |
No real resistance today. This should've been yesterday's puzzle. And I wish it had been more like yesterday, at least in terms of inventiveness and overall personality. I'll take "flashy but with three names I've never heard of" over "zzzzzzzzzzz" any day. Can't believe I didn't like a puzzle with this much baseball content (three answers!) and this much dog content (three answers!). Started quick by getting FIRST easily (the first of the baseball clues) (1A: Destination of a walk), and then all the Downs crossing first, the last of which was ... well, we already covered the TSKTSKED debacle, no need to revisit. After that, the only hesitations I had were, which IVAN is it (II or IV?), and then SPELLING and even KNITTING before QUILTING, strangely ("strangely" because my mother's side of the family were big quilters and there are quilts on her walls, quilts in our bedroom, in our daughter's old bedroom, etc.). SEWING BEE also came to mind, but obviously it didn't fit *and* "sewing" was in the clue, so that was out. Still, it's not like any of this cost me much time, as no other answer in the grid held me up (slight hesitation at BOSSES, maybe, but I've heard the term "boss level" so much that even that one just rolled over) (44D: End-of-level enemies in video games).
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| [Mom's house] |
- 21A: Dewy-eyed heroine (INGENUE) — I like this term. It's weirdly dated and kinda ... infantilizing? Sexist? But it's a term that reminds me of old Hollywood, which is where I like to spend a lot of my time (calming my brain in order to remain functional in The Real World, whatever that is).
- 54A: Onetime place to shop while high? (SKYMALL) — huh, SKYMALL is bygone? I missed that. Maybe because I never made an in-air purchase in my life (I don't even buy the food you can eat right then and there unless I'm truly desperate). Anyway, not getting on any plane for another six months, thank god ... although why do I expect the air traffic control situation to be any better by then? MACA! (Make Airplanes Crash Again! It's a more honest slogan)
- 32A: Birchbark, e.g. (CANOE) — last night, I solved a variety puzzle from Joon Pahk's "Outside the Box" puzzles (highly recommended), and it had this exact clue / answer pairing. The puzzle was trickier than a straight crossword, but solving it involved knowing that one thing meant the other thing, so it was deja-vuish to see this clue/answer today. I like the CANÓ / CANOE crossing for ... well, if you were alive in the '80s, maybe you know:
- 4D: Biological bags (SACS) — if ever a clue made me go "ew," this one did
- 45D: World capital said to have been founded by King Midas (ANKARA) — ooh, did not know that. I wanted this to have something to do with Crete ... but that's Minos, not Midas.
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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76 comments:
Mostly very easy. I had "skimall" instead of SKYMALL, because I didn't know how to spell Taylor Swift's nickname at first. I used an alphabet run to get SIA, because I'd never heard of GASTAPS. The theme was very minimal, and I only considered it in retrospect.
Easy. Tuesday-on-Wednesday easy. Same overwrites as OFL: wrong Ivan at 11D and wrong BEE at 59A. No WOEs, but I did hesitate at 27D, GAS TAPS, because I wanted something like GAS lines, which didn't fit.
In addition to TSKTSKED, GASTTAP and TAYTAY pissed me off
I’ve seen QUILTING BEE in two or three other grids and I keep forgetting that it’s actually a thing that has a name. I also have trouble visualizing how it would work - seems like it would be a bunch of people sitting around knitting. Come to think of it, I don’t know how a “book club” would work either . . . maybe everyone gets together to talk about a specific chapter ? Ah, life’s little mysteries .
had SKYMArt before SKYMALL. agree with Rex on TSKTSKED... c'mon. Did not really pay attention to the theme . so so puzzle, on to Thursday which are my favorites of the week.
We say tsk tsk around here and not tsk. So tsk tsked makes more sense than a single tsked.
For a non-American, NSC crossing Cano is a pretty bad Natick.
I had "gas tips," and had to stare at the puzzle for a while when I didn't get the music. I know the actor's name is Rea, but whether that last letter is "a", "i", or "y" seemingly won't stick in my memory.
Way too easy. Boring
Easy enough and got QUILTINGBEE right away but had to go back and read past the B to see the QUILTING connection. Speed often means you miss the big picture, which I sure did today.
Agree with OFL on some junky fill, but at least crosswords have taught me SIA and REA. BOSSES may be next . LUNA for me is a moth and hand up for SKYMART but no other real problems. My first thought for a "walk destination" was ALTAR, because it fit. FIRST is much better and is a baseball clue, which has been on my mind a lot lately because go Sox.
OK theme, JD. Just Didn't see it when I should have, my fault. Thanks for a medium amount of fun.
An unexciting solve
I just finished a jigsaw puzzle titled Kleo Kats. Your photo titled Kwilt Kitties would be fun as a puzzle.
Random thoughts:
• I love the cooperative nature of a QUILTING BEE, where a group works together to make a single quilt. MERGER in the grid struck me as a lovely echo of the theme.
• Sweet to see FIRST located at 1-across.
• I smiled when I filled TSK-TSKED in, playful as it is, and, IMO, a more effective verb than simply “tsked”.
• Apt cross of ON AIR and SKY MALL.
• Beautiful words, INGENUE and REGALING.
• Is it too soon to give INNIE a “Severance” clue?
• FIBULA and LIE in the box got me thinking. A fib is typically an unimportant lie; I’d like to propose FIBULA as being an unimportant fib.
So, Joe, on top of a pleasurable theme, your puzzle tripped off lots of lovely sparks, and set me off into the day in a splendid state of mind. Thank you!
Personal record … couldn’t type in the answers fast enough. Always liked ingenue as well.
I had GASToPS and REo, since the first answer could work and I’ve never heard of this actor. I had to hit the check puzzle button to finish.
I was so reluctant to put in TSKTSKED that I needed most of the crosses to believe it could be the right answer. Not a great start. SIC EM is horrid and should be banned from puzzles. Boo. And yes the news today is that hundreds more were fired from the already stretched extremely thin Air Traffic Controllers department. I’ve never been scared to fly before,
Is it Monday already?
NSC / CANO was a Natick for me, which feels rude on a Wednesday, though I do like the CANO / CANOE cross. I have certainly heard of the National Security Council but as an acronym, it does not come rapidly (that is, ever) to mind. Oh well!
Hey All !
Finally, an F right in the first block! Been F Lite for a few puzs now.
Interesting Theme. Didn't realize QUILTING had so many B starting words. Have to agree with Rex on some of the iffy fill, but hey, ya do what ya gotta do to get your puz to work.
SKYMALL had some quite interesting things for sale. I used to take a magazine home, always intending to buy something, but never ended up getting anything. Haven't flown anywhere in a number of years, so unsure if it's still out of there. A lot of stuff you don't need, but then again, there were a lot of useful things too.
Hope y'all have a great Wednesday Hump Day!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Quilting bees actually have a great history- quilts are very labor intensive and were often “pieced” by an individual (piecing is sewing the different pieces of cloth together), then people would come together in a “bee” to do the quilting collectively. Quilting is when the stitches you can see on the front and back of the finished quilt are created to hold the pieced top to the batting (stuffing) and the backing. To do this, people actually do sit in a circle and all do stitch work on the same quilt- it is a beautiful (and very practical) community activity!
Knitting in groups also allows for great organic exchange of craft knowledge, but knitted objects are almost always made by just one person.
These (historically feminine) activities are not frivolous or ancillary to our culture, they’re fundamental and profound!
Border Terrier rightfully intersects cutie pie!
agreed! total Natick for me!
Why my preferred pronouns are ME/EM - to match my preferred philosophical declaratives of BITE ME and SIC ‘EM! (Even as I get TSKTSKED for simply stating my truths…)
I finished with an error -- the unknown-tp-me baseball player crossing the small hunting dog. At first I was mad, but on further reflection I should hve had it--my problem was that I filled in BiRD from the B_RD, thinking "bird dog" and never corrected that. If I had left that square blank, I would have probably thought of BORDER by analogy with border collie. Darn!
Great theme, and especially great revealer--I noticed that the theme answers all started with B, and that the first two also had K as the fifth letter--but that didn't last, so I was thinking, that's it? Long terms starting with B? I wouldn't have notice the QUILTING terms in a hundred years, so when I saw the revealer it was one of those exciting revelatory experiences. Nice work, Mr. Deeney!
Minor quibble about "rouse" used to cue STIR--in common usage, the clue is transitive, the answer is intransitive. I see the dictionary gives the intransitive as the second definition, but I've never heard it used that way. As I said, minor.
It was also bad for this American! That C was my last letter, and I was prepared to just alphabet run it after A didn't work, and I was pleasantly surprised to be "right" just two letters later.
I can take this one. In a book club, people read a book and then talk about it.
I was annoyed that a puzzle this easy gave me so much trouble for my still-nascent crosswordese vocabulary. Got QUILTINGBEE right away with no crosses, and yet got held up by things like ABA and REA and NSC and FAB (as clued). Most of my struggles with longer words (INGENUE—a word I’m glad to learn as a literary critic) and more clever clues (FIRST and CANOE) felt fair on a Wednesday, but with the horrendous TSKTSKED taking up so much real estate, some of the gunk killed me as a newish solver, which irked me since I could nevertheless tell that this was an easy puzzle.
Huh, I found this harder than usual for a Wednesday and thought there were some really fun words inside. How can you be mad at a puzzle that makes you write CUTIE PIE?
Re TSK TSKED, I don’t exactly use it every day but it’s 100% in the language and means exactly what the clue says. Maybe, just maybe, different people have different experiences.
Felt this was a reasonable straightforward puzzle with a merciful minimum of proper names so that answers could be developed from context rather than pulled from sheer memory. Didn’t mind TSKTSKED and liked the old Hollywood vibe of INGENUE. Have a niece and a friend who are great quilters so like Rex have some immersion in that craft.
Same as Anon @8:22, baseballer crossing govt acronym was a Natick for sure , for all I know at this point a one-time cold war relic of a govt agency, are we keeping that one? I also had SIe/PeR at first, but scanning the grid found PAR before giving up
For an American too it’s a Natick.
What do IVANIV, 10 minus two and last night's dinner have in common? (I'll leave this to see who solves it)
I'd like to pick a bone (or at least a nit) about whether an ANVIL could properly ever be called Wile E's "undoing". It's always a setback, but he's never undone by merely being flattened by an anvil. Keep it up, Wile E! You're sure to get that bird some day.
Nice clue on SKYMALL as a onetime place to shop while high. I was trying to make "Store" work, but that may simply reflect how actively involved in the contraband scene I was at one time. Now that I'm thinking about it, surely there was a rock group called the Contra Band back in the Reagan ERA. Post a link if possible. Where's @Joe DiPinto when we need him?
You know what they call it when they take a rest at a QUILTINGBEE? A speLlINGBEE.
Dismissive critique of pointillism: sewer rot.
Did you see the BLOCKBUSTER starring Mahershala ALIAS a guy fighting EVIL BOSSES? Me neither.
Got to say that I got a weird kick out of seeing an 8 letter word with 7 vowels (TSKTSKED) that I could imagine someone using.
This puzzle was way too easy for a Wednesday, but I thought there was some nice fill and some good cluing to go with a decent theme. Thanks, Joe Deeney
Wish there was a “like button” for several of these comments. I especially liked two by someone(s) named “anonymous”, one conflating border collie with cutie pie and one giving a great history and defense of quilting bees and other textile skills. Art museums have made textile art hot & trendy and make fascinating exhibits of old American quilts.
Lewis, I also prefer TSKTSKED to just plain tsked, much more emphatic & fun.
If you didn’t know GAS TAPS you obviously didn’t get kicked out of a 7th grade chemistry class and sent to the headmaster for lighting one instead attaching it to a bunsen burner 🤣
Well, I liked this puzzle a lot more than Rex and some others, but geez it would be hard for a constructor to have a puzzle come out the day following an Agard puzzle. I thought for a “terrible three” that the clue for NBC as “Peacock’s parent” was very clever.
Ah yes, the days when the airline seat pocket had not only SKYMALL but their own magazine. SKYMALL was always chock full of overpriced things that nobody really needs, but it was fun to thumb through and think, “who actually buys this stuff”?
Very easy, from the NW on. TSKTSKED fell quickly and my reaction was, "Rex is going to hate that one."
And I was amused at my FIRST impulse for 1A, "Destination of a walk." I thought, "[1st]BASE--a rebus right out of the gate on a Wednesday?!" But after ILL, RIO, & SACS fell in rapid succession, I realized the "base" part was superfluous.
Agree with Rex that BLANKET is not a strong theme word, because it is another word for quilt while the others are parts of a quilt. An anonymous commenter mentioned the word BACKING which would BEE a better BEE word. But all I can come up with for a 15 letter phrase for that would be BACKING HIS HORSE (what the cowboy is doing when facing a rattlesnake on the trail).
Is "Entertaining lavishly" really a useable clue for REGALING; I thought REGALING was simply about talking to someone in a captivating or over the top manner.
VIII, 8, ate. I ate this one up.
A wonderful explanation!
The singers of "Cheap Thrills" and "Shake it Off". (Not to mention that awful, babyish nickname.) Wile E Coyote's "undoing". Actors Stephen and Hirsch. "End of level enemies" in video games. This is not a grown-up puzzle, people.
Add to that a boring Monday-type theme that doesn't belong on a Wednesday. Clues that for the most part lack any kind of challenge or cleverness. And you have what was for me a hugely disappointing Wednesday that, had I skipped it, I wouldn't have missed at all.
Easy, some fun, liked it overall though agree too much blah fill to make the (nice) theme fit.
GASTANK and TAYLOR slowed me down but still pretty quick.
Thanks @anon 838 for the quilting lesson!
I thought it was interesting that the V for Vendetta clue actually had two viable answers - both Stepehen REA and Stephen FRY were in the movie, and have 3-letter last names! Hung me up for a second.
Congrats to @Pablo!
My mom was a big quilter so I enjoyed this puzzle's theme. She passed away last year, but was stilling quilting up to the end. She made over a hundred quilts for her family and friends. I have very fond memories of quilting bees in our home before I started school. There was nothing better than sitting underneath the quilting frame with my mom and aunts and neighbors gabbing away above. So yes, I liked the theme! I agree though that the rest of the solving experience lacked a bit. I kept getting caught in each section where I didn't know a name (e.g., CANO, TAYTAY, EMIL). Also, I had ATLAS for 14A instead of ALIAS...so RTO made no sense, but I couldn't figure out what was wrong til I came here. In any case, thanks Joe Deeney, for the puzzle and bringing up great memories.
Easy-medium for me. No costly erasures and CANO was it for WOEs. I did dither a bit about NSC…NSA and CIA seemed plausible…so that area was the toughest section for me.
I know very little about QUILTING so the theme was not much help.
Liked it but I agree with @Rex about the fill.
Lost my mom nearly 12 years ago and like yours, she had a quilt going right up to the very end. I still have the pieces she had started and thought I might finish it someday. But I don’t have her gift or patience and somehow I like having her unfinished work there, just as she left it.
Aprobación general de las chicas guapas.
A bit of a yawner theme-wise. But all is forgiven with TSKTSKED. BOSS level verbifying. As it was coming together I was positive something must be wrong.
Looks like the 🦖 mom is a BOSS-level QUILTER. I bet she'd be hilarious to have lunch with and we could talk about her son.
I rarely remember movies, but Into the Wild made a real impression on me. It's a tough story. In college I wasn't so great at getting BLANKET APPROVAL from the CUTIE PIES; I should've tried in Spanish. We had a second-hand border collie for about ten years and she was a maniac. I saw Seurat's big painting of people in the park at the Chicago museum and it's impressive. And TS (I'm a Nazi) Eliot should know about where evil comes from. I like the LIE clue.
❤️ [Dewey-eyed heroine] = INGENUE. [Terrif] = FAB. CANO / CANOE.
People: 8
Places: 4
Products: 3
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 24 of 74 (32%)
Funnyisms: 5 😄
Tee-Hee: [Shopping high]... oh the wacky NYTXW team. [Chemistry lab "hookup"] = GAS TAP is an experiment gone too far with embarrassing results.
Uniclues:
1 Forever 21, or Claire's, or Hot Topic.
2 Tina Fey and Alec Baldwin (according to themselves).
3 It's my job to take hunks to Turkey.
4 What W is famous for.
5 Doting on dot dude.
6 The orange pathways.
1 SKYMALL UNIT
2 FAB NBC BOSSES
3 I'LL SLAB ANKARA
4 TSKTSKED IRAQUIS
5 REGALING SEURAT (~)
6 CUTIE PIE ROUTES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Purple poetry. GONZO SYLLABLES.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I’m old enough to have attended many a QUILTING BEE with my grandmother at the meetings of her Ladies’ Aid Society. They’d gather in a one-room schoolhouse and have a potluck lunch before getting down to the serious business of gossiping and stitching away on someone’s hand-made creation. I never did know what sort of “aid” they provided otherwise but on those days, many problems of the world were solved.
I thought this puzzle was fine, just the right difficulty level for a Wednesday and not too many names I never heard of. It has a TERRIER, a BEE, a MALL and TAYTAY, all some of my favorite things. I did sort of raise an eyebrow at BLANKET as a themer because it seemed to not quite fit with the BLOCK and the BORDER and the BATTING. You can use a blanket instead of a quilt, but it wouldn’t normally be a part of one. Still, it was fun and triggered a reminiscence of some very happy childhood days. So thank you Joe, for the sweet memories.
@egsforbreakfast 9:53 AM
Hear, hear, on the ANVIL. Just a flesh wound.
FIRST SAY TSKTSKTAYTAY OFTEN.
My wife, who chaired a chemistry and biochemistry department, tells me they took the bunsen burners and GAS TAPS out of the labs some time ago (probably around the time Wile E. Coyote retired), and now do microlabs using much smaller quantities of chemicals -- mainly because it's cheaper, but also safer. Still a perfectly recognizable clue/answer, though.
The oft-recurrin first/last-words-connections puztheme. But this one was all about quiltin, which is a *major* cool PuzEatinSpouse pastime, sooo ... ok.
fave things: SEURAT. CANO/CANOE.
longest no-know: SKYMALL [was that a James Bond novel/flick, or somesuch?].
sorta cute stuff: CUTIEPIE. TAYTAY. GASTAPS [aka dancin with the farts].
staff weeject pick [of a mere 26 choices]: SIA. After 34 NYTPuz appearances, M&A is now pretty much in "If it's a 3-letter singer, when in doubt assume SIA" mode.
TSKTSKED: To recent-quote an accomplish crossword person: "Woo ... ow!" And har. Twas yer only debut entry, other than that RACEINTO extra bit of extra Ow de Speration.
Thanx, Mr. Deeney dude. Nice crazy quiltin.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... and now, for an easier-than-snot outin ...
"Walks in the Park" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Started late & finished fast. I was surprised at the theme. Kind of easy for a Wednesday.
In our book club of 6 "readers" someone suggests a book over dinner. About a month later we get together for another dinner and drink wine. The book usually comes up in conversation, it depends. We have been doing this for about 8 years.
Easy, downs only starting SE corner diagonally to the NW... GASTAPS gave me pause.
Overall Well Done Joe!
Absolutely the easiest NYTXW in living memory.
Doing the XW should be my morning mental pushups. I look to be challenged and at least stimulated during the process. But I filled this one in almost totally on the first run-through and hardly had to think at all.
C'mon NYT ... enough of this drivel. Dazzle me!
p.s.
Just heard a great piece of quiltin advice from Elon “The Ripper” Musk:
“Measure once — cut twice!”
M&Also
There is nothing more egalitarian or inclusive than a quilting bee ... everyone sews ... everyone participates ... everybody is welcome ... there are no outsiders.
Not a grown-up puzzle? I'm 51 years old. I listen to Sia and Taylor Swift. I watch movies with Stephen Rea (age 78) and Emile Hirsch (age 39). I watch old (and new) cartoons, and I very much enjoy video games.
Last night on Wordplay, I made exactly the same comment as Rex about PAR always being clued in a non golf sense. Neither I, nor anyone I've ever played with, would "expect" to score PAR. Only the experts would (but on a par 5 they would usually hope for a birdie). However, today we have LIE clued perfectly for golf.
Re the Oldest DNA documentary from yesterday; Barbara S's link worked great for me and I screen cast it from my phone onto my big TV. Enjoyed it!
I had that same problem only I ran the alphabet with no luck, looked up CATO, then turned on auto-correct to discover that aBC is not the "peacock parent"!
Book clubs are the equivalent of quilting bees in a modern urban setting. They’re a way of building a social connection with a community circle which is necessary for a healthy life.
Nice one, @M&A.
Jonathon Coulton has a fantastic song called SkyMall.
I'm showing my age, but for me "Cheap Thrills" will always be an album by Big Brother and the Holding Company, with Janis Joplin!
That's too bad. My undergrad degree is in Chemistry, so I spent a lot of time in labs. The danger was the fun part!
*hand up* for getting naticked here
About NSC crossing CANO Anonymous 7:17 AM et al
Rex’s definition of a natick is the crossing of 2 obscure names at an uninferable letter. He created the term after seeing the cross of a (small) town on the Boston Marathon route-Natick- and early 20th Century illustrator N.C. WYATT who is greatly less known than his famous painter son Andrew Wyatt. N is an abbreviation and thus completely uninferable.
NSC is crosswordese and fairly frequently appears in the Times puzzle. It is also in the news when a foreign crisis arises. National Security Council. Neither of these are anywhere near obscure as Rex’s example. And council is a common name for a government advisory organization The c is not uninferable.
Andrew Z
The actor was in several hit movies quite a while back. Haven’t seen his name mentioned much lately. So it is an age thing. It is fairly easy for Boomers anyway. Consider this as balancing the rappers. The only problem: is spelling I remember Issa Rae, a name that is now used OFTEN is the reverse of Stephen REA.
Tom T
I thought so too about regaling. But I looked it up. As often happens, the clue fits the SECOND definition. A common crossword trick.
The puzzle was okay by me. I do agree it was easy. But I think TSKTSKED set Rex off. Don’t understand the extreme reaction expressed by him and others. It IS used as other commenters have noted. Nothing wrong with using a in crosswords. In fact, tsk, tsk is much more common than just one syllable.
Often used in a humorous way. Agree with Lewis on it. Maybe it’s an age thing ( again ).
Didn’t know Cano but NSC was a gimme .TayTay is part of the contemporary style in social media. Most pop stars have rabid fan bases who quickly develop nicknames for their idols. Don’t find TayTay particularly infantile myself ss as a nickname. But the star I find on the bland side ( very shrewd business woman though).
Surprised that OFL (and no one else so far) complained about using czar for tsar. Many years ago they were sort of interchangeable, not now. I could forgive the use in an answer where it might be necessary, not in a clue.
If you enjoy reading, the book Into The Wild is also excellent. When it comes to telling true-life adventure stories, there’s none better than John Krakauer. He also famously wrote Into Thin Air, his own eye-witness account of the 1996 Mount Everest tragedy and on which the recent film titled “Everest” was based.
I liked how TayTay crossed Era and Say
WYETH for what it's worth
Surprised that neither Rex or anyone in the comments flagged that the crossing at 23A/23D is not allowed. NSC crosses NBC. The "N" in both acronyms stands for "National". I thought it was against NYT style guide for an answer to be repeated in the grid, even in acronym like that.
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