.png)
Watered-down espresso, essentially / FRI 4-18-25 / 1960s-'80s singer/TV host Marilyn / Home of the first hippopotamus in Europe since the Roman Empire / Trend that involves pink accessories and decor / Three-part event, informally / Its flag includes a coconut tree and a sailboard / Social movement introduced in 2006 / Who "can't buy you love" in an Elton John hit / Some Elomi products / Trashy TV character?
Friday, April 18, 2025
Constructor: Greg Snitkin and Glenn Davis
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: Naomi KLEIN (10D: Naomi ___, author of 2007's "The Shock Doctrine") —
Naomi Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses; support of ecofeminism, organized labour, and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism and capitalism. In 2021, Klein took up the UBC Professorship in Climate Justice, joining the University of British Columbia's Department of Geography. She has been the co-director of the newly launched Centre for Climate Justice since 2021.Klein first became known internationally for her alter-globalization book No Logo (1999). The Take (2004), a documentary film about Argentine workers' self-managed factories, written by her and directed by her husband Avi Lewis, further increased her profile. The Shock Doctrine (2007), a critical analysis of the history of neoliberal economics, solidified her standing as a prominent activist on the international stage and was adapted into a six-minute companion film by Alfonso and Jonás Cuarón, as well as a feature-length documentary by Michael Winterbottom. Klein's This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate (2014) was a New York Times nonfiction bestseller and the winner of the Hilary Weston Writers' Trust Prize for Nonfiction. (wikipedia)
• • •
[Marilyn MCCOO! #1 the day I was born]
However ... this puzzle is loaded with other marquee answers, such that I forgot about BARBIECORE very quickly. "DIAL IT BACK!," yes! Great opener. "DIAL IT BACK!" is possibly something you've said to me before, possibly while reading the previous paragraph. It's a nice, polite alternative to "omg would you shut the f*** up." Perfectly in-the-language and colloquial and zingy. See also PLAY IT COOL and "SURE, WHY NOT?" Bullseye, bullseye. I love a good AMERICANO, so when I read the clue (13D: Watered-down espresso, essentially), I laughed out loud, like "fair, fair." You can see why coffee shops went with AMERICANO. "Can I get a large watered-down espresso, please?" Doesn't exactly roll off the tongue, or prime your palate. But the description is not INAPT. And the hits kept coming: ROCK BOTTOM, FIGHTS DIRTY, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, LONDON ZOO (32D: Home of the first hippopotamus in Europe since the Roman Empire). How many puzzles have Roman hippos!? Very few, I'd venture to guess.
I can count on one hand the answers that gave me any trouble at all today, and they are all five letters or fewer. Totally blanked on the Elton John song, despite knowing and liking the Elton John song (which is how I feel about most Elton John songs). The only thing I could think of that "can't buy me love" was MONEY, but it wouldn't fit. Wrong word, wrong song, wrong number of letters. "MAMA Can't Buy You Love" (1979) was not one of John's major hits (#9 would be major for anyone else—not for John). Still, mad at myself for forgetting. I hate WRAPS (why would you ruin delicious sandwich ingredients by wrapping them in a clammy flavorless conveyance that you have to eat in order to get at the delicious sandwich ingredients?! Why would you waste so many calories on so little joy?!) (47D: Deli purchases). When I think of "delis," I think of real sandwiches. So WRAPS was a no-go, and I don't wear bras, and though there are BRAS in my house (53A: Some Elomi products), I don't think any of them are Elomi, so that was also a no-go (if Elomi is so well known, how in the world has it never been a NYTXW answer!?!? It's perfectly designed for grid stardom). Anyway, when two no-gos (WRAPS/BRAS) cross each other at a tiny puzzle passageway ... grinding halt. But the puzzle was so easy today that I just leaped over the WRAPS/BRAS problem, plunked down OSCAR at 48D: Trashy TV character?, and kept going. I had some trouble coming up with "AGAIN?" (very ambiguously clued) (50D: Reply of shocked annoyance). And I did not know they put TALC in chewing gum (28A: Common additive in chewing gum). But that's it for solving trouble. Had a couple of odd missteps along the way (ZINC for DISC at 30A: Throat lozenge, often; TIBET (!?) for TIGER at 55A: Its stripes represent wisdom in Buddhism). But otherwise, this was an easy ride. Not once did I cry "NO FAIR!"
More:
- 22A: Three-part event, informally (TRI) — as in a TRIathlon.
- 37A: Its flag includes a coconut tree and a sailboard (GUAM) — had the "M" and almost wrote in SIAM here. Almost.
- 64A: It's OK (SO-SO) — gratuitous "It's" in the clue. Not a fan.
- 2D: Not quite right (INAPT) — not a fan of this either. The "quite" implies that it's close to right, but INAPT is just "wrong"—nothing about it suggests degree of wrongness.
- 51D: Social movement introduced in 2006 (#METOO) — got this easily enough, but assumed the clue had a typo. Surely it was 2016, not 2006 ... but then I looked it up and sure enough, it was 2006. But it was 2006 on MySpace, so it didn't exactly go worldwide. Then in 2017, it became a hashtag (#metoo) in an era when social media was much more prevalent in the culture (and MySpace a forgotten relic), and at that point, the #METOO movement really took off.
- 24D: Make amends? (ALTER) — the question mark in the clue told me the clue was not meant to be taken literally, and yet, with the answer at five letters and starting with "A," I was powerless to resist writing in ATONE. "Why am I doing this when I know it's wrong!!!" I cried (silently).
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
Save And Share :
123 comments:
Tuesday level easy. Embarrassing. Where does one go these days to find challenging crosswords? Because NYT has given up on that concept.
We call them Canadianos up here in the True North.
I didn't find it as easy as @Rex or the early posters did. More like
Medium for me. But the bottom half was quite easy.
Overwrites:
DIAL IT down before BACK at 1A
gpt before IMO for the 11D chat qualifier
My 31D Droid was a bot before it was a PDA
At 35D, "well pitched" was tunEd before it was ONKEY
WOEs:
Naomi Klein at 10D
I was familiar with the Arabic name YASIR (14D), but I didn't know it meant wealthy.
I only knew Marilyn McCoo (25D) because I'd recently encountered her in another crossword
Seemed hard at first glance in the NW, but the SW proved to be easy, and combined with LIBERTYBELL (almost a giveaway) made for a quick solve. I'd say it was like a typical Wednesday.
Big guy has been spot on all week. Little pushback here and the app stats are telling me today’s time is approaching a best. DOUBLE OR NOTHING is a sweet spanner.
Scruffy the Cat
ANTISOCIAL, PLAY ACTION, DIAL IT BACK are all top notch. Never heard BARBIECORE but was inferable. Learned KLEIN. It’s an AMERICANO because they ordered a watered down espresso. TONI x Maya is a nice touch.
UFO
Enjoyable Friday morning solve.
Los LOBOS
Liked the puzzle. But was surprised how many gimmes there were. I resisted entering LIBERTYBELL because it seemed too obvious and straightforward for a Friday. Same with AMERICANO.
Rexey did not address play action, which is a pretty good answer, other than “play” already showed up in the puzzle-play it cool. Easy but fun.
Second very easy Friday in a row, a direction I don't like. Only one overwrite: Atone - ALTER.
Help from previous puzzles: BARBIECORE, AMERICANO.
In 1980(?) I was in London with friends (adolescent males). We planned to go to the LONDON ZOO, but even though it was only about twenty minutes from closing time we would still have had to pay full price. We wound up jumping the fence instead. In 1997 when my grandfather died I went back to London to help clean out his house, and I was reminded of - and ashamed of - my youthful crime. I wound up making an anonymous donation well above the ticket cost, so I guess in the long run the zoo was OK.
And then there is this story, from The Zoo: A History of London Zoo, about a chimpanzee named Cholmondley:
"One one occasion, while temporarily in the Zoo hospital, he managed to escape: he got out of the Zoo, walked across the corner of Regent's Park, and hailed a bus in Albany Street."
This, to me, was about the bigs, those answers of eight letters or more. Oh, how they shined today. That shine is what vivifies a puzzle, makes it compelling, enthralls, excites. This grid design (never before seen in the Times puzzle) allowed for a soaring 15 bigs.
Look at them! My favorites? DIAL IT BACK, PLAY IT COOL, DOUBLE OR NOTHING, ROCK BOTTOM, PLAY ACTION, SURE WHY NOT, AMERICANO, FIGHTS DIRTY.
All these in one box! And they are placed in a solid, clean, wince-free set of answers.
Plus, sweet serendipities. A no-vowel palindrome (MGM) in the box with an all-vowel palindrome (EYE). COO crossing COO in the middle. Four double-O’s. LOB and LOBOS.
Greg, high props on your grid design and fill-in, which you created, according to the constructor notes. Glenn, congratulations on your debut and the role you played in the delightful cluing. Thank you both for this spirited endeavor -- what a springboard for the day!
@Rex, congrats on choosing a day to be born in which such a good song was #1. Not all of us were so lucky. Number one when I came into the world? Mitch Miller, “The Yellow Rose of Texas”—a terrible record (though I was born in Texas, so not entirely INAPT).
A quick search can turn up this info for anyone. I’m curious to know if anyone else here was born on a day with a #1 song that resonates for them.
to drink with your Timbits?
I guess I don’t like it as much as everyone else, way too easy, PLAY is used twice, the clue for OYS did not make sense in the usage of the word, WRAPS are not what I think of as Deli fare, and ANTISOCIAL really means hostile to the rules of society, whereas ASOCIAL means solitary. It’s become common to use ANTISOCIAL this way but I’m a physician and it’s a personality disorder, so that rankled. Anyhoo, didn’t hate BARBIECORE that much, thought it was cute and liked DIAL IT BACK and SURE WHY NOT But didn’t even need ore than one or two crosses to get them.
Fridays are Tuesdays at Carvells and at the NYT apparently. I think I would like to take a vacation in any country whose flag has a coconut tree and a sailboat on it though.
I was sure it was DIAL IT down but that didn’t hold me up for very long.
What are you going on about bro…
Go play cryptics then, this was a fun puzzle and I will not tolerate such slander
Hey All !
Nice FriPuz. Quick here. Some writeovers, SANTAhats-SANTASUIT, DIALITdown-DIALITBACK, bot-PDA, siAM-GUAM.
MCCOO a name hasn't been heard in quite some time. Almost older than me (well, maybe it is.)
NO FAIR crossing FIGHTSDIRTY. Nice
Not very verbose today.
You're welcome. 😁
Have a great Friday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Guam is part of the US. A possession, not a country.
I liked this one. A little something for everyone and thankfully, not a lot of trivia to slog through ! I think BARBIECORE tries a little too hard to be hip and trendy - but then I’m sure there are people who are half my age (and that’s still pretty old) who don’t recognize Marilyn MCCOO (or possibly even the Fifth Dimension!).
Similarly, I don’t go to Starbucks, or anywhere else that they sell AMERICANOs (I’m assuming that’s a real thing and not just a put down for watery coffee), but I do know what a PLAY ACTION pass is (and yes, that one is a real thing).
Cute clues for AUTO LOAN and SANTA SUIT also kept this one kind of light and breezy. The Spanish test probably even meets the NYT’s rarely enforced “common usage” guideline. Kind of a bizarre day - but I for one wish this were the rule rather than the exception.
This puzzle reinforced my Friday opinion that I'd rather have it fun than tough. This one and an AMERICANO should get you feeling good going into the weekend. Fun long answers, a general cool spring breeze ambience; one might hire these guys to cater their next patio evening neighborhood crosswordthon
My immigrant friends have always told me they learned American English by watching TV - the phrases in this puzzle could teach a class in itself!
MAMA answer and clue sidetracked me into one of my old favorites, "You Can't Hurry Love", which I used to play for my daughters when they reached the late stages of getting over teen heartache.
Rex , would quibble with you over INAPT- I'd argue the word itself does suggest a degree of wrongness- an inapt word or action is inappropriate or inaccurate, but not necessarily totally wrong
Also as a grandfather of young girls, BARBIECORE has faded but is not gone
Bring on Saturday!
d r, if u r this jacked at 6am I can't imagine you at 9
Is no one else concerned about Talc in chewing gum??
To begin, I was shut out of the NW, so moved to the NE and got traction. Got I SAY, then AMERICANO off the A (despite not realizing that it’s [Watered-down espresso, essentially] – poor AMERICANO – that really sounds like an insult). Filled in everything in that skinny vertical bit of real estate down the NE coast, finishing with TOM (and nothing else) at the end of the answer to [Lowest of the low]. So promptly filled in “peeping TOM,” which fit perfectly. Well, honestly, as misdemeanors go, surely voyeuristic behavior is at the very BOTTOM of the barrel. But I started checking crosses and clearly there was an ORC in there, so “peeping” had to go. Alas.
Once I had my NE stronghold, I found the puzzle straightforward and enjoyable. @Rex is right about the colorful colloquialisms – I loved them all. With the exception of BARBIECORE, a concept that must have completely passed me by. I presumably encountered it in its previous puzzle appearance, but didn’t retain it and don’t wish to. I, also, was amazed by the timing of METOO as stated in the clue: thanks to @Rex for explaining.
I saw the LIBERTY BELL when I was in Philadelphia for a conference. I visited it with a group of American friends, who were from scattered places around the U.S. As we looked, a couple of slaphappy teenagers came in and started dissing the bell – “What’s the big whoop with this old broken thing?” My hitherto mild-mannered colleagues rose up as one and treated the newcomers to a lesson in history and symbology which I, as a Canadian, found quite useful. But it was striking to me how meaningful this icon of Independence was to the group, and how quickly, vehemently and knowledgeably they came to its defense.
DABS of cream – My mother, sister, sister’s partner and another friend took a leisurely drive through the Cotswolds for a couple of weeks in the mid-‘70s. My mother made the momentous discovery of clotted or Devonshire cream, clearly a match made in heaven. They’d stop for afternoon tea in whatever village they’d reached, and my mother would stride into the tea shop and ask, “What do you have with cream?” It was mostly scones, of course, but I think she was ready to try anything as long as it came with that divine accompaniment. She told me later she was somewhat relieved when the trip ended. She said that in another month, she’d have had the dimensions of a whale, as ceasing to order clotted cream was simply out of the question. That was also the trip on which my mother discovered the efficacy of wrapping her head in toilet paper overnight to preserve her hairdo. She normally had her hair done once a week, but that was impossible when travelling. Well, you know what they say about necessity and invention: apparently T.P. doubles as the perfect coiffure-conserver. Ah yes, that was my mother – and I miss her.
Thanks to Greg and Glenn for an entertaining ride.
Congrats to all you whooshy people. I was doing fine and enjoying the ride but for reasons unclear to myself, BARBIECORE was a serious WOE. I had BARBIE, but then what? Lots of four-letter words occurred to me but I couldn't get past LOOK, which seemed the most satisfactory. Eventually remembered BCC which broke the dam but what a struggle.
The rest was smooth enough sailing. Learned about YASIR and that they put TALC in chewing gum, something I'd rather not know. Remembered Marilyn MCCOO because it's such a great name, found out what Elomi makes, and had the customary giggle at thinking about a happy new ANO.
Nice Friday, GS and GD. Good Stuff, a Genuine Delight (mostly), and thanks for all the fun.
"Heartaches", by Ted Weems and his orchestra. What? Who?
Probably my fastest Friday puzzle ever. I enjoyed it and appreciated its whooshiness, but I wish it had had more teeth and challenged me a bit more. I agree with those who said it felt more like a Wednesday puzzle.
I liked this puzzle, probably because it was easy for a Friday and I love Marilyn McCoo and the Fifth Dimension. But I think DIAL IT DOWN sounds more normal than DIAL IT BACK.
I liked it a lot but SURE started myself out with a tangled mess in the NW. I had everything wrong: TSPS of cream, AORTI/AORTA in the heart, a ring in the EAR, a RATE for a charge, a TIN roof and PESTO sauce. That was a battle to the bitter end. Thank goodness for erasers.
Had no problem with BARBIE CORE, seems very much of the current vernacular to me. Kinda like it in fact but did not like PLAY ACTION on its own for what is commonly called a play action pass or play action fake. It may be technically correct but sounds awkward to me.
Completely agree with RP on WRAPS and why, when most places specializing in sandwiches offer a choice of wonderful breads, including healthy whole-grain options. Nothing wrong with a flat flour tortilla but they should be used for tacos and such, the way God intended. And if you check the nutritional value, they're nearly always higher than bread in calories and carbs.
Not completely easy for me. I had to backfill the NW to finish. Partly this was due to how easy it was to get into the rest of the puzzle working off of LIBERTYBELL. The two pairs of vertical 9s keep the NE and SW corners from being shut off. This was an interesting enough solve to be worth commenting on which is more than I can say about the previous two Fridays. The NYT does seem to have given up on Fridays being challenging.
Can someone explain "charge" as a clue for CARE? I get that a charge is someone you CARE for, but one is a noun and one is a verb (in that usage). I would never say "Oh no, I lost my CARE at the playground."
A NYC deli will frequently have a glass case full of WRAPS, so the clue works, but I agree 100% with Rex about the wraps themselves - my last one will be my last.
Other countries don’t do drip coffee nearly as much, so to please the palate of Americans, they came up with the AMERICANO, the closest approximation you can get out of a nice espresso machine. Along is also adding extra water, but by continuing running it through the grinds after the expresso proportions have been reached.
Hah, the #1 hit the day I was born was "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polkadot Bikini". Good grief!
My write-over of the day was bot before PDA. I didn't have a PDA back in the day as I was never in a position to be paged for any reason.
Talc in chewing gum sounds bad; Google searches claim it's safe. I'm just glad I almost never chew gum anymore unless I'm going out on a boat or a carnival ride. It really helps me with motion sickness.
Thanks, Greg and Glenn, nice Friday puzzle (but PLAY twice in the grid?)
Enjoyed the Whoosh story
“Allonge” - not along, thanks auto-corrupt
I’m with Adrienne here. Can someone explain? Bueller? Bueller?
Vaya Con Dios (May God Be With You)" by Les Paul and Mary Ford.
One who is being cared for (someone else's "charge") becomes that person's "care." Adrienne is right, it's not correct...but it's a case of Friday-esque cluing.
There were enough gimmes to keep this crossword newbie engaged. Quite a pleasant puzzle even if i had a few writeovers
“Hit the Road Jack”, Ray Charles
There wasn't much resistance in this one, though there were answers I needed to think about or even change. TI-E- at first gave me TIBET, rather than TIGER for the stripes in Buddhism clue. I had FACES for "They can obscure the truth." FACTS??!! I guess not so bad when a poet says it, but pretty bloody awful when a president says it.
I'm not a Barbie person and I've never heard of BARBIE CORE. "Charge" for CARE was so devious at the Barbie cross, that when I had CA-E, I had to run the alphabet for the "R". And, OMG, the unexpected stuff they put in chewing gum. I had TAro first. Doesn't TALC cause cancer?
But mostly an easy and lively solve. I enjoyed it.
My granddaughter's into BARBIECORE, but I'm more taken with the trend where everything is oily and smells like fish. It's called albaCORE.
When Dr. Doom slugged Ben Grimm (the Thing) in the ass, he hit ROCKBOTTOM.
Did you see where Trump negotiated a deal whereby Starbucks is allowed to continue their leases in federal buildings if they rename one of their drinks? From now on it'll be the AMERICAyes! Tim Hortons, on the other hand, can't keep up with the demand for the AMERICANO.
And then there was the Arab named YASIR who moved to the U.S. He got tired of telling people that his name meant "wealthy" so he took to introducing himself as "YASIR, but you can call me Rich."
@Barbara S. Your mother's toilet paper hack reminded me of several very cringe-funny episodes while traveling with my mother-in-law, who also absolutely had to have her hair done once/week. I don't miss her at all.
Easy and fun. Thanks, Greg Snitkin and Glenn Davis.
Someone needs to weave double double into a grid.
After many several days of not doing crosswords, I felt sure I would forget how to do them. May I say that this was my first Good Friday whoosh? It was. I did, though, take a break when I came upon TALC. I think of baby powder when I see TALC. I don't want baby powder in my chewing gum.
It looks like my #1 hit was "Twelfth Street Rag" by Pee Wee Hunt or maybe it was Dinah Shore's "Button and Bows." I'll add a good grief after @Teedmn.
@Barbara S. DABS of cream and your MAMA wrapping her head in toilet paper made my day. Well, @kitshef and his chimpanzee named Cholmondley did as well.... The only strange London story I have is going to the movies by myself to watch "To Sir With Love" and have this bloke sit next to me in a practically empty theater and try to hold my hand. I think it was my hand! I certainly didn't PLAY IT COOL....ACCELARATE out to grab a pint in a nice pub that has a DAB of some clotted cream.
I might say both, “They’re in my charge” or “in my care.” Both nouns.
Agree with easy, and lots of fun to fill in. I especially liked the first line, imagining the old chap snapping, "Dial it back, I say!" and the brief, sad gambling story told by DOUBLE OR NOTHING...ANTE...ROCK BOTTOM. I almost went wrong at the start with 1 Down, as for me (Dairy Stater) "cream" means "heavy cream" and I began to write in "tbsp", ran out of room for the plural and refused to countenance mere "tsps" as an amount anyone would actually restrict themselves to. So, okay, that kind of cream and its DABS.
Too easy. They're almost always too easy nowadays. So either I'm getting better or something is changing. Breezed through this like I breeze through a Tuesday or Wednesday. Saturdays don't inspire fear of not finishing like they used to. Sundays are just bigger Tuesdays. My brain doesn't hurt anymore. I want my brain to hurt.
Easy and whooshy.
I did not know YASIR, BRAS, TALC, GUAM, and LONDON ZOO but all were easily inferable.
Costly erasures - Me too Atone before ALTER and DoSe before DISC.
Smooth with a quite a bit of sparkle, liked it.
Thought this was a fun puzzle. Not so easy for me as there were some total blanks in my knowledge such as MCCOO and Elomi. I thought there were some lively clues and answers to make moving down the grid interesting. But learning that that gritty stuff on the outside of unchewed gum is probably talc, yuck! My birthdate #1 song was A-Tisket A Taskit by the Chuck Webb Orchestra with vocals by Ella Fitzgerald. I think Rex and blog members would say that’s trending old! But Ella is still crossworthy IMHO.
Apparently, my song was "If," by Perry Como, not Rudyard Kipling. It had an interesting run at #1 that began the week of March 3, 1951, fell out of first place the week of March 10, then returned to #1 for 5 (FIVE!) more weeks, March 17 thru April 20. I was born on March 18.
"In my charge" and "In my CARE"
I loathe chewing gum and always have. I've never heard of it for motion sickness, but it's absolutely essential for me on airplanes. I get horrible pain in my ears during the descent and have to chew and chew and chew as though my life depended on it. I can go through two packs of gum during a 15-minute descent: Once the flavor has gone, the gum becomes really repellant to me. And while gum helps, it's no panacea. I also need to take a decongestant an hour before the pilot starts his descent. This ear ailment, inherited from my father, makes flying exceedingly unpleasant for me.
You can say “I left (someone/thing) in your charge”
Don’t blame you for getting the heck out of that movie theater. Yikes! But I do hope you got to see the entirety of To Sir With Love at some point. It’s one of my favorite movies of all time.
The #1 hit on the day I was born was Bing Crosby singing "White Christmas." Which seems very odd to me, since I was born in June.
Imagine -- I have gone my entire life without knowing that.
Elomi, based in Europe, is one of the very few companies that makes excellent bras for very chesty women. I know the brand well.
The Cholmondley story made me laugh out loud!
I was in your boat for not being familiar with BARBIE CORE (if I was doing puzzles last time it came up, I was too new for it to sink in, but I’m gonna go with I’ve never seen it before). And yes, CARE as clued was devious—didn’t understand it even when I entered it. But I saved that square for last managed to guess the R correctly on my first try after much pondering.
Even in modern usage, I'd say anti-social is used to mean "wanting to be solitary," not actually being solitary. That one bugged me too.
To be fair, maybe Phillyrad doesn't want to vacation in Guam... only in a country whose flag has a coconut and a sailboat on it.
Yes, but it is also used in many pills and I think ingesting it is harmless. However, inhalation (talcum powder) is NOT a good thing.
I was delighted with METOO as clued, because it highlights that it was not originally a viral social media movement. It began as a youth program for minority students, addressing sexual violence, a good decade before it got brought into the broader media culture. Rex, look up Tarana Burke—you’d love her, and her first name seems pretty crossworthy!
Following up on my last comment, this puzzle brings in TONI Morrison, Maya Angelou, and (implicitly by the correct date for MeToo) Tarana Burke, so it’s pretty powerful-voices-of-black-women heavy. Lovely surprise for a Friday morning.
Yes! They even replaced talc with cornstarch in baby powder because of its negative effects... Imagine what it's doing if you ingest it!
Oh “happy day(s)”…the #1 hit on my birthday was Rock Around the Clock by Bill Haley and the Comets.
Well. That explains why I’ve never heard of it!
The #1 song in Canada on my birthday is thought to be "Sincerely" by The McGuire Sisters. I say "thought" because it seems separate records weren't kept for Canada at the time. The lyrics are pretty sappy -- I'll do anything for you if you'll only requite my love -- but The McGuires' harmonies are wonderful.
This was great. After spending too much time yesterday doubting myself (Trees) & then looking for my typo, I was apprehensive. But what a nice surprise :). Although I struggled with INAPT, DISC & CORE (BARBIE ___), I liked it a lot. Felt kind of "Robynesque" which it always good in my book.
Thank you, Glen & Greg for an enjoyable Friday :)
Fairly easy FriPuz solvequest, at our house, also. BARBIECORE, KLEIN & CARE tried to slow things down, early on.
staff weeject pick: TOE. As in "toe ring"? Yecch. I'd have that looked at, if I were U.
some faves: PLAYTHING & PLAYACTION [DOUBLEORNOTHING PLAY-THINGS!]. LIBERTYBELL [Nice nostalgia for past times of true democracy]. Devious CARE clue [which M&A finally figured out as "in the CARE/CHARGE of ..."].
Thanx for gangin up on us without makin it hard, Mr. Snitkin & Davis dudes. And congratz to Glenn Davis on his half-debut.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
... and, unlike the above, for demo purposes, the themeless puz below has the traditional "Jaws" of black squares ...
"Jaws of Themelessness #19" - 9x7 12 min. themeless runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
A little bit too easy for a Friday but the really good fill makes up for that, plus I go into the weekend with a smile on my face. No real complaints but will note that, like Rex, I simply cannot understand why many people actually CHOOSE to eat a WRAP…especially at a deli where you can pretty much count on good bread. I did kind of chuckle at Rex’s self-awareness on his semi-rant about BARBIECORE because while reading I was thinking something along the lines of “Good grief, DIALITBACK.” C’mon Rex, you mention the 23-24 biz, but it’s still the first half of 2025. Any adult women who actually “outfitted” their apartment ala BARBIECORE would still be livin’ it, unless they are wealthy.
Speaking of Barbie…I’m old enough/young enough to be in the Barbie cohort. Not old enough to have the original, but possibly the second or third iteration…my Barbie had the “bubble” hairdo rather than a ponytail. I had NO Ken, no Midge, no Skipper or well, anything but Barbie. My mother always said how expensive the Barbie clothes were, but she was an excellent seamstress and one Christmas I got a package of (many) Barbie dresses that she had made. My friends with multiple Barbies, or a Dreamhouse, etc. would beg me to let them try MY Barbie clothes on their dolls. She was a wonderful mother.
The Young Ones, by Cliff Richard
I can’t be the only one distracted by this; what casino game involves a cry of “double or nothing “? I’ve said it countless times informally betting between friends but not on a casino floor
METOO
Fortunately, I've seen CORE used in the sense of style before, though I still don't understand why -- so I knew not to put in BARBIE CHIC without a cross for one of those three last letters. Aside from that, my only problem was tunEd before ON KEY. I'd think it should be iN KEY, but we do say off-key, so I guess on is logical. And I don't know why the clue for OYS suggest French. And I think of DOUBLE OR NOTHING as something you say after losing a private bet, not something you call in a casino, but so what.
I was glad to learn about the hippo in the LONDON ZOO, though. I've walked past that zoo many times, but never gone inside. Also glad to what Elomi makes; I guesses Maidenform product would have been too easy.
A couple years ago everyone was demanding that TALC be removed from baby powder; now you're telling me that it's in my chewing gum? Kind of alarming.
I feel like using a word twice in the grid is treated like a felony around here sometimes.
No comment at all on that, the double PLAY?
Welcome back, Gill! We've missed you.
My #1 was "Paper Doll" by the Mills Brothers.
I posted a comment about 20 minutes ago, then noticed that I was not logged in -- to if you read some anon complaining about "faux" in the clue for OY, that was me.
The hardest puzzles I do are the Saturday Stumper and the Boswords Spring and Fall Leagues, at the Stormy level. I've been doing abysmally on the Boswords Spring League this year and I love it anyway.
Got MCCOO off a few crosses but couldn't figure out why. Name just seemed familiar so I was glad Rex included the video. It was fun and I think the Fifth Dimension version of the song is maybe as good as Laura Nyro's,
I'm somewhat embarrassed to take the bait on this one, and even more embarrassed to find that "Here in My Heart" by Al Martino with Orchestra under the direction of Monty Kelly is the answer.
Looks like they figured out that the tilde-less ANO in Spanish means "anus" but in Portuguese means "year" so today they gave the 52 Across clue a Portuguese spin with "Feliz ___ Novo". One clue for the Spanish version of ANO a few years back that made me wonder "Did they do that on purpose?" was "Julio is in it".
BARBIE CORE? Why CORE? I would have gone with BARBIE QUEUE. Snappier, no?
Yeah, NYTXWs have been toned down over the last decade or two, most likely to appeal to a wider audience. One of the perks of having a subscription to the NYT Games is access to the Crossword Archive going back to 1993, the first year of the Shortz era. If you are looking for more challenging Friday and Saturday puzzles, try some of those earlier ones. If you dare.
Of note for the plural of convenience (POC) aficionado is one of the rarer two-for-one POCs where the single shared S occurs at the end of one entry but is embedded within the other entry. See it?
SouthsideJohnny. It's real, and not limited to Starbucks, and it is probably a kind of a put-down. It seems that when Americans started travelling more in Europe, post WWII, they found espresso too strong for their Maxwell House taste buds and asked to have it watered down. Thus was born the Americano.
Happy to read the last two bullet points … exactly my thoughts, phrased much better.
Oh yeah, I should add that when I offer to make espresso for guests at my house there is usually at least one request for an Americano. That's fine by me. It's easy to make. At least they don't ask for a half-caf mocha latte with oat milk. Sheesh!
Folks seem to be assuming that "No. 1 song" must refer to the pop charts. In fact, the R&B charts, which meant/mean a lot more to quite a few people, had Etta James" "I Don't Know" as No. 1 on the day I was born, which ain't too shabby.
No clue about (and even less interest in) anything called "BARBIECORE," and not enough of a chi-chi/bougie Euro-cuisine foodie to have ever heard of AIOLI, so I guess I fail the "cool-and-trendy" test along with tanking the NW corner.
I was adopted. No idea who my daddy was.
Nice post, as usual. It's easy to fall for clotted cream. But the part that piqued my interest was your bit about the peeping TOM at the bottom of the barrel. When we were in our early twenties my wife and I rented a small, soon to be condemned house in a run down part of a suburb of Vancouver. Our back yard abutted a peer parlour parking lot and we subsidized our utility bills with all the beer cans and bottles we daily collected from our scrubby lawn.
One night, while preparing for bed, I realized that the living room light was still on and when I went to turn it off I saw a face pressed against the window. In shock, I headed straight to the front door and out and began chasing him, screaming that he was a f**king bottom feeder. But I couldn't catch him and I have no idea what I would have done had I been successful. Instead, I found myself standing in the street yelling in vain at his disappearing figure.
That's when a car with the passenger window open slowed down and a voice called out, "Nice outfit, man," and I realized I was standing on a main street barefoot and clad only in my underwear. Needless to say, I had trouble sleeping that night.
Given the language, I’m guessing Dash isn’t in a US time zone.
My mother was a seamstress, too. She eventually specialized in jockey silks cuz she liked all the bright colours and fancy patterns. I asked her to teach me to sew because I wanted to wear stylish clothes that I couldn't otherwise afford but the price I had to pay for those lessons was that I had to help her hem up Barbie skirts for my little sister.
Medical literature seems somewhat in disagreement on safety of talc but majority seems to say not proof that it is dangerous. Talc miners seem to be of normal health. The baby powder cancer link was alleged to be caused by asbestos contaminated talc not the actual talc. For "Great Mother" clue (5D) I put in GAIA, took a few minutes to recover from that
Held up by the shorter stuff today. Some really ambiguous and dumb-ass clues. "Leave it to beaver" for DAM. C'mon, we're grown-ups here. "Let go to pot" for ANTE. Yeah, okay, if you must, but it just sounds dumb. I like DABS of clotted cream but I didn't think it was an American thing so I didn't enter it in the quintessential American puzzle. TRI is an awful answer. A bunch of my nephews are, or have been, triathletes. I have attended their events, cheered them on, and discussed with them and their parents their travails post race. Nobody I know has ever called it a TRI. It's a triathlon.
Nice clues at 7D BCC and 21D SOD. Nice try at 33D. Sex toy is way too short and vibrators, well ... I was tempted. Nice misdirection.
If we can have Normcore, why not BARBIECORE? I assume they both derive from hardcore.
Decent Friday, but not a fave.
Oh ¿qué es lo peor que podría pasar?
Until you've worn pink. Until you've worn glittery lip balm. Until you've oriented your ponytail just so. Until you've borne a ring on your toe. Until you've put a lamp with frilly baubles next to your bed. Until you have a pink fluffy steering wheel cover. And certainly until you've actually seen the movie causing your contemptuousness to ooze forth, perhaps we'll classify the antibarbiecoreisms as "privileged old white man left alone with the internet." Until you've walked to the mall in my flip-flops, your judgmentalism sounds soo OK, boomer. Barbie was, Barbie is, and Barbie will be long after the last Barbie has melted into the sun.
This puzzle seemed terribly hard while I was doing it, but once I finally beat it, the timer says it was relatively easy. Funny and gunk-light is a rare breed. I haven't read everybody yet, but I'm assuming it will have resulted in a bit of weeping ala "Where's my Friday?!" As if Google has been rendered speechless on the subject of difficult independent puzzles.
Despite being themeless and rather challenging, I had a good time with this one. All the longer answers except ACCELERATE were fun to dig out. If you see red and blue behind you, that's a great reason to accelerate, especially if the Barbie police are out to get you.
First college mascot I've ever been able to write in without crosses
❤️ FIGHTS DIRTY.
People: 5
Places: 3
Products: 4
Partials: 4
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 18 of 72 (25%)
Funnyisms: 6 😅
Tee-Hee: They help you get off a lot.
Uniclues:
1 How to fight dirty with robo-calls.
2 Private procreator.
3 Those quiet salad-moments before you feel the splat.
4 How long you'll be grumbling about Barbiecore.
5 Feline feminist.
6 Result of daring to try oat milk.
7 Academy award for celebrity underworld chef.
8 Axe murderers fashion choice in Christmas horror movie sequel.
1 DIAL IT BACK, I SAY
2 ANTISOCIAL MAMA
3 ANTE-ROCK BOTTOM
4 DOLL EONS
5 A NO BRAS TIGER
6 SOSO SURE WHY NOT
7 AIOLI ORC OSCAR
8 SANTA SUIT AGAIN
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: What happens when you try to bathe kitties. CATS SUE.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yes, it bothered me also.
@Les S. More 1:46 PM
Have you tried a half-caf mocha latte with oat milk? They're yummy.
Anonymous 7:09 Am
I did the same thing about Liberty Bell. I kept in Liberty erased Bell thinking maybe another attraction? Covered a lot of squares.
My birthday number one song
Auf Wiedeseh’n , Sweetheart sung . by Vera Lynn. Never mind never heard the song, I never heard the title!
Tom T you provided the number one song for my brother’s birthday at the end of that March. I never heard of that song or title either.
Top pop song, "I've Got Spurs That Jingle, Jangle, Jingle". Not a song I ever would enjoy. The Harlem Hit Parade R & B songs were not compiled until two months after my birthday. the list is funky, though. It includes "White Christmas" by Bing crosby. Is that anyone's idea of R & B?
Easy-ish. Not record setting for me because of the NW, at least the Across ones. Took me a bit to suss those out so I moved on. Got my “whoosh” on (hi @Dash Riprock 6:02AM - great whoosh story!) at PLAY IT COOL. That answer opened up the whole center and even led me back up to the NE.
I really enjoyed this solve. The snags for me up top gave it a touch of Friday pushback and the colloquial longer answers were all spot on. So very well done.
Two issues. First, the “double PLAY,” if you will. Sure, PLAY-ACTION is typically hyphenated but I’ve seen it as two separate words as well. Either way, I call foul on a dupe. Did it ruin my day? Heck no! Still a fun solve of a well executed puzzle. Second, both BARBIE CORE and BARBIE COdE have been of the language, (and as OFL mentioned are trés old hat these days) both are not self explanatory, and either (according to the various definitions and explanations available) could actually be correct here. This is made more difficult by the equally (IMO) squishy clue “charge” for CARE. Editors, where were you?
Some clever clues that contributed to solving enjoyment. Let go to pot? for the popular ANTE, ring bearer for TOE, pre-smash hit for LOB, and the one that made me laugh, bad thing to do when you see red for ACCELERATE.
Cleverness, balance, few names, and superb longer and very au courant entries. Fun, fast, Friday.
For all who celebrate, Happy Easter; for those who don’t, Happy Weekend! Fabulous comments this week, neighbors.
Gotta agree with Rex about wraps!
Anonymous 1:51 PM
Your comment about aioli was a bit over the top The are lots of foreign words in these puzzles.
AIOLI appears fairly often in the NYT puzzle, enough to be crosswordese. So it would pay to remember it because of the convenient letters. You don’t have to lower yourself learning about French cooking.
Humblebrag…;)
I liked the puzzle as usual , despite going out of my way to make it harder.
I had the utterly wrong AortA way too long in my head which really delayed what should have been a gimme. Things like that happened elsewhere too.
I had no clue of the Fifth Dimension singers though I couldn’t miss the group or their songs of course (Boomer here)
What added a lot of time was the TALC.
cross. Can’t be as many have. So it wasn’t a DNF!
TRI
. Have no clue about the lingo of that sport but I do know that this is a very big country with lots of people who participate. And it’s been around long enough. The more people the more time and the love of shortening words. TRI was almost inevitable . That’s language
Of course the word may be annoying but just because you hate it and/ or never heard it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Loved the discussion about No 1 song on birth dates.
I was so happy mine wasn’t “How Much Is that Doggy in the Window “ A song by Vera Lynn I never heard of is vastly better.
.
"I'll Never Smile Again," Tommy Dorsey and Band, number 1 on week of my birthday and of the year.
Trash. Indefensibly easy. But I guess this is what Friday/Saturday puzzles are now
"I Can't Stop Loving You" by Ray Charles was no. 1 in the UK and Canada, but I'm in the US where it was "The Stripper", an instrumental recorded 4 years earlier by David Rose. Think Noxzema shaving cream.
"Happy Together" by the Turtles
Cue about the hippo is wrong. Cosimo III had a hippo in the Giardino di boboli in the 17th century. After it died it was stuffed and you can see it in the adjacent museum.
Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay
“Singing the Blues,” by Guy Mitchell - and it has been a life-long favorite!
Nancy, don't fly
Hey egs, I’m Vaya Con Dios too! Were you born 9/3/1953??
Jump by Van Halen xD (1984)
“A Tisket a Tasket” Ella Fitzgerald with Chick Webb Orchestra 1938
Easy but for one square, which I regard as a natick: the intersection of 17a and 9d. I've never heard of the BARBIE thing; could it be CODE? No idea. And then CA_E for "charge." CASE? Nothing worked. I did finally try R, which turned out right. But how do you morph from "charge" to CARE? That clue is NOFAIR!
The rest of it was a cakewalk. Lots of fun entries, so birdie.
Wordle par.
A good puzzle albeit a bit easy for a Friday.
44 down: Pre-smash hit = lob??? Please explain.
DAM PDA
“SURE,WHYNOT?”, OR SO ISAY,
when BARBIE DOLL wants TOO PLAY,
but the A.C.L.U.
SAYs ,”FOLLOW METOO,
PLAYITCOOL when she needs A LEI.”
--- OSCAR KLEIN
Since so many are including the #1 song on day-of-birth, These are mine:
Pop/Rock: "Rock Around the Clock" Bill Hailey & Comets
R & B: "Maybelline" Chuck Berry
UK: "Rose Marie" Slim Whitman (really???)
Country: "I Don't Care" Webb Pierce
Nice puz, though for 1a I had DIALITdown.
My number one pop song also was pretty IFfy, but my R&B song was Sixty Minute Man by the Dominoes.
My country song was Shotgun Boogie by Tennessee Ernie Ford.
Loved him!
@anon 11:56 - when playing tennis, if someone returns your volley with a LOB shot, it is the perfect set-up to smash it for a point.
This was Easy? DIAL IT BACK, says no one ever. BARBICORE? 33 D should have been VIAGRA. UNPLEASANT SOLVE
Post a Comment