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Mother's mother, in Cantonese / FRI 3-7-25 / Service for someone who needs support? / Seat of power in Westeros / Razzle-dazzle of the film industry, so to speak / Leaves for dinner? / Creatures that take over Earth in a 1968 film / Buttery topping for paratha / Admin for an online forum
Friday, March 7, 2025
Constructor: Malaika Handa
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium to Medium
Word of the Day: STADT (47A: German city) —
There is no distinction between town and city in Germany; a Stadt is an independent municipality (see Municipalities of Germany) that has been given the right to use that title. In contrast, the generally smaller German municipalities that do not use this title, and are thus not included here, are usually just called Gemeinden. Historically, the title Stadt was associated with town privileges, but today it is a mere honorific title. The title can be bestowed to a municipality by its respective state government and is generally given to such municipalities that have either had historic town rights or have attained considerable size and importance more recently. Towns with over 100,000 inhabitants are called Großstadt, a statistical notion sometimes translated as "city", but having no effect on their administrative status. (wikipedia)
• • •
["We come to this place ... for magic"]
MOVIE MAGIC sounds like something the industry said to hype itself in, like, the '50s or something (when attendance started to decline precipitously thanks to TV). Whatever the origins, I like the phrase's energy. I wouldn't drink APPLETINIS if you paid me, but I don't mind them as crossword fill (55A: Fruity green cocktails). I like BRA FITTING (10D: Service for someone who needs support?) paired with BLIND DATES (27D: Some romantic setups), as it's at least plausible that you might get one before going on the other. There were some gunky bits along the way. Why does DEG seem today like the ugliest abbr. I've ever seen? (5D: Listing next to one's name, at times: Abbr.). We haven't seen it for a calendar year, and I hope our reprieve is at least that long this next time. Then there's ESS RSS CMS RPM PBR ... speaking of that last one ... I've been aware of PBR (Pabst Blue Ribbon) for a long time. It's an iconic beer. And still ... I can imagine those letters feeling completely arbitrary to someone who isn't familiar (the way the "N.C." in NCWYETH felt completely arbitrary the first time I saw them), so the crosses, the crosses ... REESE would be fine if you went via the candy magnate or the Witherspoon, but putting a WNBA player *there* feels like it might result in a few people crashing out (46D: The W.N.B.A.'s Angel ___). Again, this is all about keeping an eye on your names (esp. when the involved letters are initials!) and crossing them as fairly as possible. I would've gone with a different, more universally familiar REESE, solely because of the PBR cross (though in the end, I think the "R" is pretty inferrable ... I mean, MEESE is a name, I guess, but if you have to guess there, you're gonna guess REESE ... probably).
Mistakes? Here and there. LATE STAGE just sounded better than LAST STAGE (11D: Final phase). I had to get almost every letter of CAROLED before I saw it, and even when I had it down to a single letter, my brain went "CAROMED?" (15D: Went door to door, in a way). Went looking for an actual, specific German city, of course, but instead got what turns out to the be the word for "city" (and not "state," which is what like it *seems* like it should mean). I also thought that TV's Laura Ingalls might've said that HOPE is the "nicest word there is," but that didn't last long. No idea about POPO (48D: Mother's mother, in Cantonese). Real trouble parsing NO WISER (25A: Still confused). Needed many crosses to see PALETTES (which I mainly associate with painting). So I had to wrestle with this one a little. But just a little. Which is about as much wrestling as I want to do on a Friday. I prefer the whoosh-whoosh, zoom-zoom, and this one did a pretty good job of delivering.
- 49A: Buttery topping for paratha (GHEE) — "Buttery" threw me a little, as GHEE ... *is* butter? Right? Clarified butter? Not sure I'd call butter "buttery," but I guess I can't say it's inaccurate.
- 29A: Stretch of land between two hills (DALE) — ah, the DALE/VALE kealoa*. Left VALE off of my list of "mistakes," above.
- 56A: Creatures that take over Earth in a 1968 film (APES) —
- 57A: Glam rock? (MOONSTONE) — is MOONSTONE glittery? I don't really know my lapidary too well. "The name moonstone derives from the stone's characteristic visual effect, called adularescence (or schiller), which produces a milky, bluish interior light" (wikipedia).
- 8D: World Central Kitchen and CARE, in brief (NGOS) — first thing in the grid. Weirdly, I think I learned the abbr. NGOS from crosswords, though now I see / hear it so often, I can't imagine how that's possible. Anyway, proud to be a WCK supporter.
- 25D: Discontinued music players that weigh just over one ounce (NANOS) — Took one look at [Discontinued music players...] and thought, "... all of them?" MINIS and (less likely) ZUNES also fit here. Remember ZUNES!? No? Me either. Well, barely. I never actually saw one in the wild.
- 19A: Leaves for dinner? (KALE)— this is the oldest "?" clue in the book. Genuinely made me laugh, it's so old. Like a vaudeville act. Quaint. It's more typically a clue for SALAD, I think, but you see that "leaves" misdirection for all kinds of things. Tea. Pages in a book. Etc. A classic.
See you next time.
P.S. shout-out to KIEV, sorry our president is a disgusting tyrant-loving baby.
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110 comments:
I had a Zune – red, actually. Two in fact: I left the first one behind in a cab in Manhattan and replaced it with another one. Old habits die hard. Thanks for the reminder.
Really loved this puzzle, in no small part because I finished in under 7 minutes (my typical time being anywhere between maybe twelve minutes up to the low twenties). It would have bee 6:19, close to a PB, but I had a typo wayyyy up at the beginning of the puzzle G instead of D for ORANGESODA/SID) that I spent 40 seconds looking for. Regardless, everything felt in-the-language and interesting. Love OLIVIARODRIGO for a marquis answer!
Easy medium? I cheated, and still couldn't finish it.
Easy but fun. Nice job, Malaika!
Overwrites:
tea DRESS before SUN for the summer attire at 39A
Left square 29 blank until I got 29D because of the v/D quandary at 29A
WOEs:
48D POPO as the Cantonese word for grandmother
Didn't really know 50D CHA but I got it from crosses before I read the clue
@Rex IRON THRONE at 51A but it went in so easily it didn't even register as a WOE until I came here
lOvE before HOME for the nicest word at 54A
NITs (ie, 37A's):
I resisted LAST STAGE at 11D because it's just Final = LAST and phase = STAGE. I felt there should be more wordplay
The clue for 44D should have indicated Abbrev.
"Stat for a D.J." should not be RPM; it's beat PM. It's all about beats, not how many times the record spins a full turn.
Felt very easy for a Friday. I really only had hiccups in the NE with NOWHERE before NO WISER, and wanting PALE to be its own word in 28A. I also had FIT for RIG at 41A, a FITTING mistake since BRA FITTING appears in the grid.
PBR GHEE x PHONO BENIN REESE seems troublesome. Maybe not for Friday solvers.
Unless you try to play a 45 at 33 1/3. DJs definitely have to consider RPM if they’re working with wax.
Watched season 2 of Mad Men on a Nano.
I’m with Dale on that one, @Anonymous 5:56. BPM is a huge part of DJing; RPM hardly a thing.
Right before I started the puzzle, Mrs. Freude was commenting that bras are still an item not to buy online. That made 10D a snap.
Saw that door-to-door clue, had the first letter, and couldn’t figure out why CAnvassED wouldn’t fit.
Just yesterday I moaned about how hard athletes’ names are for us non-sporty types, but today Angel REESE dropped right in without a moment’s hesitation. And I don’t follow basketball of any gender. So much of this stuff we pick up by osmosis, I guess. Like IRON THRONE for all of us who couldn’t be bothered by GOT.
Naticked on the CHIT/CHA cross. Never heard either word before.
A DJ cares far more about BPM than RPM. I've never watched GOT and have somehow avoided learning most of its lore, so IB_NTHRONE was a WOE for me. It took me a long time to realize that the mistake was in the B and not the vowel (I ran all 6 of them and still didn't get the happy music). But I debated RPM/bPM at first and confidently put in BPM. *sigh*
LAST STAtE before LAST STAGE. BLIND DATES was a gimme, and except for the south this didn't play too hard, but man that cross really killed me. Loved the clue for BRA FITTING. Decent Friday.
Agree with RP. 46 down had no idea and stupidly, automatically, used PBJ for across instead of PBR and ended up with JEESE. Seemed a reasonable pairing to me even when I checked the whole puzzle.
I flipped between ORANGECOLA and ORANGESODA couple of times — the regionalism there, I’m probably not the only one
Fun Friday solve. Is this Malaika the super sub for RP?!
Besides BLIND DATES, no whooshes, which I liked- had to stop and think a lot . But fill was easy overall so never felt like hard work.
NE was least favorite section, but I admired BRAFITTING crossing with PALETTES --answers that might be more difficult for non-married or gay men!
I had a feeling this one would be on my wavelength when I saw the constructor's name, and sure enough! The opening SHOWDOWNS / MOVIE MAGIC / ORANGESODA stack felt fresh and fun and put me in a rather chipper mood right away. Loved SUNDRESS and the SE corner too (though I did get REESE through crosses and I'm not tooootally sold on PHONO). I also just enjoyed the tone of the cluing, and I agree with Rex, the whole thing had a colorful, rather springy vibe. (I live in Florida so luckily had little winter suffering, but still--I loved this breezy, fun Friday.)
Easy Friday, much to my surprise. Malaika's puzzles usually have a few unknown pop culture names. Today my only issues were POPO and MOONSTONE. I know what a MOONSTONE is, I just don't see how the clue applies.
Rex's Planet of the APES clip is from my favorite episode of The Simpsons.
Seemed like a very reasonable Friday, with not too many clues and answers that try too hard or are intended to deceive (which is a step over the line from misdirect). Showing my age as MOVIE MAGIC dropped right in. And of course, even after filling in her entire name, I have never heard of OLIVIA RODRIGO. I’m sure she has a shelf full of Grammys and a wall full of gold records - just another example of what a black hole PPP is for me.
The one downer for me was thinking “I hope this isn’t another stupid GoT reference” as I was parsing together IRON THRONE. Other than that, I would gladly take a Friday grid like this one every week.
A zing-fest:
• That vertical three-stack in the NE – BRA FITTING, LAST STAGE, and OH I SEE NOW. All are NYT answer debuts. Debuts aren’t automatically good, but these are.
• Malaika’s puzzles always feel contemporary, and there’s brio in that.
• This NYT debut grid design allows for a colossal 15 longs, many of which shimmered.
A pair of lovely serendipities:
• The contradictory cross of OH I SEE NOW and NO WISER.
• A backward NONA to go with NANO.
And a heart-warming reminder of World Central Kitchen (in the clue for NGOS). This group set up here in Asheville immediately after Helene and was all over the place feeding those in need, with local chefs jumping right in. Then there they were in California right after the fires. They are wonder-workers.
All this brightness in the box, for which I’m immensely grateful. Thank you, Malaika!
Couple of nice entries but underwhelming in general. Really liked the entire SE quadrant and things like ALONE TIME and BLIND DATES.
Never a fan of using so much prime real estate on anyone’s full given name. WASPY was ROTTEN and others have already chimed in about the nuance of RPM.
50-50 on this one but pleasant enough Friday morning solve.
Ben Kweller
Record time. Under 7 mins and I am not a speed solver by any stretch of the imagination. Usually about 15 minutes on Friday. The puzzle seems to fill itself.
You and I had the same solving experience! Couldn't get CAnvassED out of my head until the R got there from the cross.... then I saw it! REESE was a gimme. IRONTHRONE took me almost till the end... got throne but the prefix was a WOE. 13 minutes for me which is definitely in "Easy" territory for me, and no googles! (except in the clues). I always think of MENLO park in association with Edison, good to learn a new fact about the MENLO park on the other coast : ). Loved all the longer answers, wonderful puzzle. Thanks, Malaika! : )
Soooo easy. This may have been a record Friday time for me (I don't keep track, but the app tells how far off my average each puzzle is). In fact, I just checked and I solved today's faster than any other puzzle this week. Seriously -- this should have run in a Monday or Tuesday. Sure, there we questions about the names (I don't know REESE nor OLIVIA RODRIGO) but the crosses were obvious. I also always assumed SID was spelled Syd. Huh.
Not much to say about the fill. I'm surprised RPM wasn't clued along with LPS and PHONO.
I'm also amazed KALE was reasonably clued instead of as some unused slang for money. *Looks again* Yep, it's still Shortz editing. I just did a 2005 puzzle yesterday that had KALE clued as "moolah". What a pleasant surprise to see that just maybe we've dropped that ridiculous garbage. Now to do the same with cabbage, lettuce, salad, chard, and *shudder* ...do-re-mi.
Nice puzzle. Is the author the Malaika who writes here occasionally?
I felt like this puzzle was meant for me! I knew *almost* every name (ok didn’t know REESE but I did know PBR). My BFF is named DALE so that was delightful to see. I’ve definitely heard MOVIE MAGIC. Probably via the industry but nevertheless. I have even been taking German on Duolingo so STADT was a gimme!! Whoosh whoosh whoosh. My only delay was the C in CHA and CHIT but it didn’t take “long” just a slight delay. Love it Malaika!
Malaika magic! So fresh and fun.
It’s a Malaika M’Friday – yay! I had no trouble with this one and managed to do a fair amount of whooshing once I got going, but getting a toehold was oddly hard. Didn’t get any acrosses till KALE and LPS, 19 and 20A (and, thinking it over, LPS could have been ePS, so dodged a theoretical bullet there), and unhelpfully accompanied my diary with a pEn. I found I was getting more traction down south, so filled in the lower half before returning to the NW. All in all, a shaky start, but a confident finish with 1D’s SMOKE [Fire sign?] being my last word.
I didn’t know OLIVIA RODRIGO but did the same thing with both her first and last name – I had the beginning and end: OL__IA and ROD__GO, and I filled in letters which seemed like logical choices and they proved to be correct. In the entertaining error category, my stereotypically upper-class people were WimPY. Take that, you twitty aristocrats! BRA FITTING and SUNDRESS in the same grid reminded me of a terrific yellow SUNDRESS with a built-in BRA that I had in my 20s – I lived in that garment from June to August!
I put on my MOONSTONE ring in honor of the puzzle. It's not nearly as blue as the MOONSTONEs in @Rex's photograph, but there is a pale blue light that seems to move around within the stone as you manipulate your hand. I guess that's pretty GLAMorous.
IRON THRONE and APPLETINIS as next-door neighbors was an amusing picture: you would definitely NOT languidly sip APPLETINIS while sitting on the IRON THRONE. You’d be more likely to order someone’s execution or rally the assembly to start another war. Yes, I watched GOT from beginning to end and read all the books: it’s a strange and inexplicable obsession once you get hooked. It’s now been so long since George R.R. Martin published the last book – 14 years – that I’m completely over my addiction. I don’t know if I’d even bother to read the next book, in the unlikely event that it gets released during my lifetime. (Oh, who am I kidding? Of course, I’d read it. If nothing else, my curiosity would overcome my good sense.)
NO ONE slices eggs on the long axis (making ovals). Egg slices are circles.
Anyone else have MOOdSTONE at 57a?
Hey All !
Took the DNF today. Had Movie music in. Drat. The resulting Downs ended up as WuSPY and NsOS. My incorrect WuSPY gets a chuckle.
Is this our substitute blogger Malaika? Nice MFriPuz. The North sections were my sticklers. Went quick through the South and Centers parts.
POPO clued as not a slang term for Police. Although last time it was clued that way, lots of people said they had never heard it used that way. Common for me. To each their own know-ness, I suppose.
Liked it.
Happy Friday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
Today's "maybe I'm not so dumb after all" moment was having had CAROMED before CAROLED ala OFL. Fortunately, PALLETTES is a word, and PAMETTES is not, so fixed that. Other "nope, not that" moments included CELL for the "red or white" thing and TEA before CHA, which muddied the SW corner for various nanoseconds.
Definitely medium here, seemed like it was going to be hard but went fairly smoothly. I know the name OLIVIARODRIGO but couldn't name any of her albums, haven't seen GOT but knew of IRONTHRONE, don't follow the WNBA but knew REESE, that kind of day. Oh, and no idea of either POPO or RSS. Crosses to the rescue.
Nice Saturday indeed, MH. Many Happy moments while solving, and thanks for all the fun.
Just ran this AM with my nano and listened to my CD player in my car. Get off my lawn! (Shaking cane)
Lively, enjoyable themeless with some great clues. BRA FITTING fooled me completely; I had BRAF??T?N? and was wondering what kind of a supportive sTaNd it could possibly be? Good clues also for DONUT SHOP, ANON, and CAROLED (though in NYC, carolers don't go door to door; the doormen wouldn't let them).
I was very relieved when the big clashes weren't world wars. I l can never tell DALE and VALE apart. I love the word WASPY -- which went in right away. So did RAHM -- a name I was happy to know. Not so with OLIVIA RODRIGO, but miraculously I didn't have to look her up. She was fairly crossed. A perfect Friday -- not too easy, not too hard, and lively.
A Malaika Friday, what a treat! Smooth as silk with just a little bit of struggle on the Propers but the opposite of RP, with SID and REESE going in automatically and no idea on OLIVIA. I found a lot to like in this grid: NO WISER crossing OH I SEE, ATE DIRT in a SUN DRESS, future lice (ick!!) as NITS ANEW, and BLIND DATE beside ALONE TIME - something you might find yourself needing after a particularly bad one.
The constructor is a woman of many talents. She can write an interesting blog, create a killer crossword puzzle, tell you where to find the best chocolate cake and grow her own tomatoes, all while quoting the latest soccer stats. Thanks Malaika. You scored a big goal with me today.
Hello, Malaika!
My younger son begged for a NANO, so we got him a gold one with his name engraved on it. Probably the most kid-spoiling thing ever. And where is it now...? Bygone, for sure.
I'm laughing about OLIVIA RODRIGO because we only know her from some commercial that played incessantly on one of the streaming services, so I know that one song and what she looks like.
Also, my father used to have "hot CHA" with his otherwise very European lunches. Not sure where that came from since his army service was learning Japanese (they scooped up all the bilingual dudes they could find, and in many cases, like his, gave them citizenship - which led to a lifelong worry that it would be taken away and a desire to see me become a DAR thru my mother, which I refused, and I'm soooo glad he died even before Dumpster the first because he would be crazed by now with worry that he and his descendants would lose their citizenship).
Anyway, easy-medium. Nothing I didn't know, but a little resistance putting it together (10 min), thanks Mwahlaika!
I wasn’t familiar with the KALE clue, took me longer than it should. And guess what I had for dinner last night? Yep, KALE salad. It’s quite good, you just have to mince the leaves well.
Malaika, I was so excited when I saw you were the constructor. You did not disappoint! At first, I struggled a bit but then it all fall. Loved those longs! Great Friday puzzle.
No way! Ovals are used for salads all the time. Makes for the best distribution of yolk in every slice.
Fun but decidedly easy for a Friday--more like Monday level for me. 9:06. Might have been harder but it's funny how so much of difficulty has to do with the route you take. I didn't see any immediate footholds in the NW so went clockwise to the NE and just followed whatever answer gave me a cross I could pick off and that took me around the periphery, avoiding most of the middle until those became obvious. I had no idea from OLIVIARODRIGO but just kept going past it clockwise (mostly). Gimmes for me: PBR, IRONTHRONE, APES, STADT, SUNDRESS, ANON, etc. Thought PATROLED for 15D which would be a fun answer for "Went door to door" but it didn't fit, so CAROLED gave me the C and A, which provided _____MAGIC and ______SODA and that was pretty much it.
Fun fact: how many know that PBR, the designated beer of the Indy/Punk era won the Blue Ribbon at the Columbian Exposition of 1893 (a.k.a. Chicago Worlds Fair), hence the name? For me growing up as a prog-rock guitar shredder in the 70s/80s the designated beer was Rolling Rock, but by the time I was doing my degree at Harvard in the 80s-90s PRB was the exclusive tipple of the Alston-Brighton indy-punk scene. An indelible association, quite nostalgic for me now....
Agree, RPM as clued seemed like it wanted to be BPM
C’mon. As far as sports go the Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark rivalry is for women’s basketball what Bird and Magic were for the NBA. Very mainstream at this point.
brief moment where I had _HIT on 50A, and I thought, there's no way...
"Is butter buttery" has the same energy as "Is water wet?"
Cool - a Malaika M’Friday! (Hi, Barbara S!) Apparently for some of us it could have been a Malaika M’Wednesday. Maybe that was her intent?
Not a pushover for me but no real BLOCkades, either, though I did walk right into the cup of tea ambush. Also tried NpOS (nonprofit organizations) but couldn’t leave MOVIE MApIC AS IS.
Fun combos:
SUNDRESS, MOONSTONE
ORANGE SODA, APPLETINIS
SHOW DOWNS, MOVIE MAGIC
I agree MOVIE MAGIC feels familiar - isn’t Disney MAGIC a thing?
I’ll take the ALONE TIME - you can keep your BLIND DATES.
Did Laura Ingles never hear of a DONUT SHOP?
Ha - just noticed the RAFT/B’RAFT’ITTING cross!
Now to go find my MOONSTONE necklace. Had a good time with this one -Thanks, Malaika!
Yes ROTTED crossing MOODSTONE. Never heard of moonstone and figured a MOODSTONE might be the stone in a mood ring or something.
Not a Natick since neither was a proper noun (though a Chinese word is close to one for many English speakers). You can flip through a limited set of plausible sounding words, but names like MFUME and CAOIMHE… you see? Took me a while to get the distinction too.
No luck entering my outstanding comments from yesterday, computer stuff, and I tried once today so I'll try again. The short version is I liked this one a lot and had the happy coincidence of entering CAROMED, as did OFL. Some no-knows fixed by crosses and I see that no one else made th delightful mistake of entering CELLS for thing that could be red or white but not blue.
Very nice Saturday, MH. Many Happy moments while solving, and thanks for all the fun.
Trying again (crosses fingers).
Absolutely delightful Malaika Friday! This one whooshed for me and sparked joy, especially one of my faves OLIVIA RODRIGO front and center.
Rex's gripe with Angel Reese bothered me as sexist. WNBA players are not obscure! And especially not Angel Reese! She is not some "random" WNBA player. Even aside from her basketball accomplishments (National champion with LSU, WNBA All Star, owns WNBA record for rebounds in a season) she's HUGE ... on the 2025 Met Gala host committee and was on the cover of Vogue in January. So please get outta here with the "putting a WNBA player there..." comment. And support your local women's sports teams!!!!
Great puzzle, Malaika! It's bright. It's bold. And the experience of solving captured the much sought-after *whoosh whoosh* feeling.
With all due respect to the king, a few of the comments in the write up feel a little uninformed and borderline sexist.
Angel Reese isn't some obscure WNBA player. Look her up, Rex: She is a huge part of our culture, has deals with some of the biggest brands in the world, and she will be joining LeBron as a member of the host committee in this year's Met Gala.
Also: People with breasts don't go to bra fittings to impress their dates. Finding the right bra is an important element of good health. The right one can fix spine problems, improve posture, and alleviate back pain.
Both answers work. If working with vinyl you have to increase or decrease the RPM to get the BPM you want.
Unsurprisingly, Malaika and I are on the same wavelength. I didn’t find a single name difficult. Angel Reese isn’t someone I follow, but I had some crosses, and it sounded right, so I’ve probably heard her name before without registering.
As a frequent moviegoer, I would appreciate a trigger warning before having to see that image of Nicole Kidman. I used to enjoy a lot of her work, but after sitting through that tedious 'magic of the movies' speech of hers at least twenty times I can't watch her in anything.
Easy-medium. I tried world wars for 1a and pact for 10a with no crosses and immediate erased both when HORAS and RAHM wouldn’t work. After that it went pretty smoothly with the top half a tad whooshier than the bottom.
PALETTES, REESE, POPO, and BENIN were WOEs.
Smooth with more than a bit of sparkle, nice one Malaika, liked it!
¡Oh! ¡Ahora lo veo!
Well thank goodness for GHEE or I'd've been in a pickle. These words you learn only from crosswords you think are dumb turn out to be the cornerstone of your future success.
I had PAROLED instead of CAROLED. I had every letter except the first one and it seemed pretty legit to go through all the doors in a prison, a door in a car, and the door of your old gangster friend's lair. Carolers wander the sidewalks, so in terms of actual door to dooring, my answer is mo' bettah.
Added STADT to our German word cruciverbalist's dictionary. We're up to 8 words now.
I wonder if fantasy writers ever get sick of their own tropes. I cobbled together IRON THRONE and thought, "Yeah, that seems like a thing somebody would dream up." Thrones are just chairs. Making them out of iron is a problem for the cleaning people. Moving them out of the way for the bacchanalia seems an unreasonable burden. When all the good tables at a restaurant are taken they put you at the high tops where you lord over the dining room with your feet flopping about. You feel like you're better than the booth people. When I write my next fantasy, it'll be a wooden stool of power not an iron throne.
Three names slowed me down, but otherwise wooshy. WASPY is still happening? Malaika is young and cool, so she prolly knows. You get a lot better ALONE TIME when you have a cold. Off to snuggle up with my DayQuil bottle.
People: 4
Places: 2
Products: 1
Partials: 11 {On a themeless? ... just no.}
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 21 of 72 (29%)
Funnyisms: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: STROKE ... will it be PET or PAT or the kind that kills you or the kind leading to a police RAID? It's our giggly-est kealoa. In my whole life, 60 years on this planet squandering opportunity after opportunity, I have never once been invited to a BRA FITTING and I blame Canada.
Uniclues:
1 Ones and zeros, why would you need more?
2 What each day among the Rex Parker commentariat brings.
3 Prep for a wardrobe malfunction in June.
4 My belly.
5 Oil up the anonymous.
6 When eggs catch a headwind.
7 Noeled off key while on eggnog.
8 Sand paper used to make Bs As?
1 BIT PALETTES
2 ANON NITS ANEW
3 RIG SUNDRESS (~)
4 APPLETINIS HOME (~)
5 WINE BLIND DATES
6 OMELET INERTIA
7 CAROLED ROTTEN
8 BRA FITTING GRIT
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Post-dinnertime duty in a Mormon household. SORT WIVES.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Loved it, as I knew I would when seeing Maliaka’s name! Great long answers - movie magic, show downs, alone time, appletinis. Really had that whoosh feeling that Rex talks about on Fridays.
I also disagree with the criticism about putting Angel Reese at that spot. She’s one of the most famous women’s basketball players right now. And she has crossover appeal - she’s on cereal boxes and been on the cover of Vogue. I don’t follow women’s basketball that much, but that was a gimme to me.
Harry and David (who were John Birchers BTW and shouldn't be patronized) report that the APPLETINIS their best seller. And speaking of apples, don't expect them to get much done. You should rely instead on donuts. I mean, while an Apple fritters, DONUTSHOP.
The LASTSTAGE of Mrs. Egs' preparation for a soirée: Oh, Egs! Tell me, how is the WAIST on my SUNDRESS and is my BRAFITTING?
Everything seems brighter when Malaika's around, even the MOONSTONE. I always feel slightly more "with it". Of course, using the term "with it" gives me away as a codger, but I really mean it. Thanks for a fun Friday, Malaika.
Here in Asheville? Didn’t know you were also a resident here
Most of you seem not to know Olivia Rodrigo. You should give her a listen. She’s very is really good.
Mostly easy for me, and what a lot of fun to solve. I loved the sunny vibe, and the little SHOPping expedition with its BRA FITTING, PALETTE selection, WAIST measurement, and SUNDRESS, which you might need to IRON once home. I also mulled the possible connection between BLIND DATE and NO WISER. SHOWDOWNS and MOVIE MAGIC were also a treat. Thank you, @Malaika!
I tripped over that IRON THRONE--thanks a lot GoT for wrecking my modest streak at 19. Had IRaN THRONE, which is ridiculous, but I couldn't figure that out.
I had a Zune too. It was brown. Ugly as heck, but I loved it. I ended up dropping it and breaking it. While it lasted, it was great.
Colas aren't orange.
I'm pretty sure single and gay men are aware of bra fittings and makeup. Getting married to a woman shouldn't be the first anyone hears of these terms.
My egg slicer pretty much requires slicing on the long axis. But make your declarations, John.
You monster
A fun Friday :). I was stumped on IRON THRONE, DEG, NGO, POPO.
I really liked WASPY & BRA FITTING. Thank you, Malaika, always a pleasure :)
I too had two Zunes, both blue, and have never owned an Apple product. I guess everything happens on our phones now (Google Pixel for me.)
Malaika returns ... as she kinda hinted at, in her recent blog write-up.
Pretty good themeless fare, with 5 longball debut entries.
Was a pretty frisky solvequest, at our house. The SE was kinda brutal for m&e, as it was pretty much No-know City. Figured it all out, mountains of precious nanoseconds later, tho. [i.e., ATEDIRT, but OHISEENOW.]
staff weeject pick: RSS. Excellent right edge letter fare, for supportin the constructioneerin effort. [See also: RRS, SSR, & SSS.]
some of the faves: MOVIEMAGIC [aka Schlock Flicks tonite]. ORANGESODA [Easy one -- got er off the E & endin DA.] DONUTSHOP. INERTIA. BRAFITTING & its clue [any openins for a retired techie, in this field? Would be willin to work part-time, for peanuts (or cinnamon rolls).] The seven ?-marker clues [bring it, Shortzmeister!]
Thanx for the workout, Ms. Malaika Wednesday darlin. Nice job. Except maybe for that there U count, of course.
Masked & Anonymo1U [s]
.... apt follow-up to a Jaws of Themelessness runt, maybe? ...
"Shark Attack!" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Well this was a perfectly fine puzzle, by a perfectly fine constructor/blogger, which was ruined by the hideous CMS right off the bat. The plural of "cm" is "cm". There is no such thing as "cms". And it could have been so easily avoided: CMA crossing ASIA. The abbrev for Country Music Awards is not great but it wouldn't have bothered me nearly as much.
I'm dead serious about this. Any constructor or editor who's reading: please please stop using these horrible nonsensical metric manglings like CMS, KGS, KPH. They are just the worst type of festering turd which will spoil your puzzle. Please.
Yes! And Since ROTTED works, I couldn't find my error. Mood stones are a thing, so technically that cross is a second solution to the puzzle. https://www.kendrascott.com/about-mood-stones.html
RPM is a speed, not a statistic.
Just look up "statistic". I could paste a definition here, but no. Just look it up yourselves, constuctor and editor, before publishing it. There are actually good clues for RPM, like simply "45 or 78, e.g."
This is lousy editing of an otherwise decent puzzle.
And that was me posting above as an anonymous. Oops.
just seconds off my PB. you ever feel like a puzzle is on your wavelength, but eerily so?
before today, although i certainly know who OLIVIA RODRIGO is, i never would have been able to fill in that clue without crosses. but today? no problem, because last night i finished watching apple cider vinegar, and paused at the music credits screen and saw her name, and then googled some songs. and then, angel REESE? never heard of them...except last night my partner brought home mcdonalds - something i almost never eat but he needed something quick to eat before a gaming date with friends - and so i looked at the menu and, of all the collabs...the angel REESE special was right there. i didn't order it, but checked it out.
i knew PALETTES immediately but struggled because i can never remember which variation is which or how to spell any of them so i had to wait for some crosses. also my folded fare was a walLET which held me up significantly in the NW where i couldn't get much traction for awhile. bPM before RPM - because DJs actually care about BPM - was my only other sticking point, but thankfully i know my GoT. [not really in a prideful way though, i honestly wish i could go back in time and watch something else.]
-stephanie.
ps, also made indian food for dinner wednesday night, so GHEE was right there, and been re-watching house, md for the zillionth time so POPO also right at the top of the brain. go figure.
-s.
if you think gay men don't know anything about makeup i just...must be a very cozy rock you're under ;)
-s.
@dale i agree with you and others further down, as clued it should be BPM. yes, it's true you can't use the same setting for a 45 vs an LP, but very few DJs spin actual records, and of those that do, i have never seen one that brought both sizes to a gig.
-s.
Yes, me too! I was thinking of the stone in the mood rings we wore as kids. With ROTTEd, I couldn’t figure out where my error in the puzzle was hiding….
This got off to an inauspicious start for me. So many entries in the top section needed help from the plural of convenience (POC) to get the job done, to wit SHOWDOWN, HORA, OVAL, NGO, LP, CM, and RAFT. This continued when NANO, PALETTE, PART, TAN, NIT and APE all joined the POC fest. Along with the aforementioned SHOWDOWN, two other longer marquee entries, BLIND DATE and APPLETINI also came up a letter short of their respective slots. POC to the rescue.
The POC Committee was divided over whether to give this grid a POC Assisted or a POC Marked rating.
It isn't sexist to not be familiar with the names of sports figures. I can't name a single current male basketball player -- and that's not hyperbole. I've heard of LeBron James but just assume he doesn't play anymore. Maybe he does? I honestly don't know. I guess that makes me sexist towards men.
If Rex had said, "Reese is a bad answer because the only basketball players worth knowing are men" then yes, it would be sexist. But he didn't say that. He didn't even use the words "obscure" or "random". He just suggested using a name more people might be familiar with.
Three things a lot of people here probably don't care about: basketball, the Met Gala, and anything in Vogue.
Great puzzle Malaika, thanks. Rex thanks for the wonderful clip of Fairport Convention, Richard Thompson guitarist/songwriter is probably one of the greatest rock guitarists that nobody has heard of. Instead of using GOT refer to it as ASOIAF (a song of ice and fire) as Martin originally titled his saga.
Late comment as much is going on. This played Saturday tough for me. Mostly this was due to a TEAM/BLOC write over. AHISEE and EASYSTAGE are perfectly plausible. AWE gave me NOWISER and broke the log jam. No idea on RODRIGO. That and it's crosses had to come out of the fog simultaneously.
You want to remember STADT, Gary J? Here's the most infectious drinking song ever written: more jubilant and full-throated than the drinking song from "The Student Prince" and more tuneful and fun to sing than "The Maine Stein Song."
It was written out phonetically for me by a classmate and housemate at Smith College who was studying German. A group of us, more than a little inebriated, were scampering down the steep hill from Rahar's -- the only drinking spot near the campus, even though their drinks tasted like nail polish. Jill started singing the song in German at the top of her lungs and I wanted to sing it too. She later wrote it out for me phonetically. I can still sing it to this day. Begin listening 54 seconds in. I don't think you'll be able to watch without suddenly feeling quite improbably happy.
Really late to the table today but think this was a fun puzzle with some lively answers. My big problems were two names: Did not now OLIVIARODRIGO at all and for some reason even tho I’m a bball fan could not remember Angel’s last name. Also got badly hung up in the NE trying to suss out PALETTES. Seemed to take forever to get BLOC and CAROLS.
The puzzle was ok, a little uneven. I didn’t know any of the names, and I’ve never heard of the singer. Should’ve clued 50d (CHA) as: ___ Ching!
Dale Gribble et al.
About RPM or beats.
We aren’t talking about a technical or dictionary definition here. This is a puzzle with clues.
Clues are aimed at people in general not experts. So clearly the clue / answer is close enough for crosswords!
Anonymous 22:36 AM
There is such a thing as orange Coke, which is not orange colored but has orange flavor added. It goes back to the old soda fountains in drugstores Occasionally Coke sells a bottled version. Don’t know if Pepsi ever did.
Smith.
Your comments about your father’s concerns about losing his citizenship really caught my attention. As a third generation Italian American I never had to even think about that. I can imagine how many people are affected by the latest (of many in our history) and nasty anti immigrant movement.
Thanks for the reminder
Anonymous 9:57 AM
I am in no way complaining about REESE being in the puzzle but for someone like me who pays very little attention to sports, you don’t know how easy it is to forget names like hers. I hadn’t a clue but Reese seemed logical.
I use my Zune all the time. It's just a little over half full with nearly 60 Gig of space left. But the unsupported software is clunky and who knows how much longer it will work?
Gary Jugert
Especially liked item 2!
since I disagree with most of the complaints.
Liked the puzzle but I made it harder for myself. Like I thought the number 5 was the letter so I was confused…..
I made other stupid mistakes so I can see why some found it easy.
I remember reading an article about Olivia Rodgrigo and then listened to one or two of her songs on YouTube. Yet the clue meant nothing to me. OL got me Olivia, but I couldn’t remember her last name other than it ended in o. IPOD didn’t help. About her music. Heartfelt songs. Words of some interest to me but the music didn’t register. Oh well.
CM v CMS.
Due to stupid political games by Republicans (who else?) all efforts to increase the use of the metric system in the US ground to a halt in the Reagan administration. So we only have soda bottles. Most Americans have no clue about the finer details of the metric system. Our (former?) friends to the North will continue to see such things as CMS in our crosswords for the foreseeable future. I hope it is less upsetting than what is happening in Washington now!
Yeah “sexist” is a radically stupid accusation here
Had to come here to find out what the hell BRAFITTING meant.
They're talking about a "DJ" as in an old-school radio disk jockey (also known as a "deejay" -- not sure when one spelling is preferred over the other) who might have alternately played tracks from a 33 1/3 RPM LP and a 45 RPM single. Now that vinyl is making a comeback, I'm guessing that "RPMs" probably matter to club DJs, as well.
You put quotation marks around a word Rex didn’t even use. Dishonest.
Surprisingly easy for a Friday.
I HAD several iterations of the iPod Nano but man I wanted to make Neil Young's "Pono" fit
Completely agree!
I'm also a member of the Pono club (as in, I put that in first; never owned one, my iPod Classic is still going strong thanks to an SSD upgrade).
Not for nothing but Angel Reese has been all over the news for a couple of years now, not for her meddling abilities as a basketball player, but has the “heel” to Caitlyn Clark’s “face” in the drama that has finally created interest in the WNBA, if for the wrong reasons.
Long (as in decades) before hip-hop co-opted the term “DJ” (or “Dee Jay”if you prefer) “disc jockey” referred to radio hosts who played records (“discs”) generally of the 45 or 33 RPM variety and without regard to the concept of beats or beats per minute.
The clue refers to the original DJs who played records on the radio And would have cared very much about whether or not they were playing a 45 or 33 RPM record On the proper setting
The devil you say? :)
Generally considered good form to read the OP when replying, just saying
DNF; too tough for me. Everybody seems to know what NGOS are. So what are they? Non-gov't. orgs? That must be it. Never would've gotten WASPY. DEG next to a name for degree? That's really stretching it. Most names were no-knows. Looked up that OLIVIA chick, still NOWISER.
Wordle birdie.
I liked it. Medium-challenging for me.
For Smith@9:18 and dgd@5:45: 99% of those of us who are opposed to ILLEGAL immigration, are not fascists or racists or even anti-immigration. We just want people to knock at our door and ask permission before entering. Sneaking through a window and then squatting seems a tad brazen.
Yes, today's PPP is not for old farts like me
What the f does your One F and RooMonster comments mean???
Another great write-up, Rex!
Good Friday (or is that sacrilegious?)…some fun, some tough. Too many names (par for the course, in honor of the Masters!) and no clue on GHEE…that unlocked a particularly challenging SE corner.
What will tomorrow bring? 🤔
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