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Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: FAILLE (40A: Ribbed silk material) —
Faille is a type of cloth with flat ribs, often made in silk. It has a softer texture than grosgrain, with heavier and wider cords or ribs. Weft yarns are heavier than warp, and it is manufactured in plain weaving. It was especially popular in the 19th century. // Faille was primarily made with silk, variations with cotton and wool were also there. A French silk variant was called ''Faille Francaise.'' The similar grosgrain has been described as a "firm, stiff, closely woven, corded fabric. The cords are heavier and closer than those in poplin, more round than those in faille." (wikipedia)
• • •
I do wish the marquee answers were a little more colorful overall, though. With the exception of TRILOBITES (17A: Ancient creepy-crawlies) and maybe GENTLE GIANT, the long stuff felt a little flat to me today. I also found a couple of the answers weirdly elusive because of that flatness, or vagueness. Could not find the handle on the ends of either BRING TO LIFE or BOOK REPORT. Had the BRING and ... nothing. Had the BOOK and ... nothing. For me to arrive at BOOK REPORT, something in the clue would've had to have suggested grammar school, or school in some way, because I've never heard of a "reader" writing a BOOK REPORT in any other context. As for the BRING answer ... BRING ABOUT, BRING TO PASS (?), BRING THE HEAT, BRING IT ON, BRING THE NOISE ... lots of BRING phrases were firing around in my head, but BRING TO LIFE was not one of them. That whole TO LIFE section was an ungentle giant of a mess for me. The clue for JOINED really really wants to be JOINTLY (31A: In tandem). "In tandem" feels like an adverb, JOINED an adjective. So that was weird. I've never started an email "HI, ALL," but then I try to avoid writing emails at all costs, especially "mass" ones. And FAILLE. Yeah, I "failled" to get that answer for sure. It's nearly impossible for me to keep all the crossword fabrics straight without constructors going and throwing another one on the PYRE. FAILLE hasn't made an NYTXW appearance since '07, my second year writing this blog, so clearly I have seen it before, but ... I forgive myself for forgetting it in the intervening 18 years. (Wow, that 2007 puzzle had "RETROCEDE" and "ARSENICAL" in it (alongside each other!), and took me something like a half hour to do!!)
Had pockets of trouble all over, including in the NW corner, where I did not recognize the "double" as baseball-related, and I could not get myself to accept SAND as an "it" (13D: It might be picked up from a trip to the beach), and the R&J quotation just wouldn't come. And then even more trouble around the REPORT part of BOOK REPORT and the adjacent SOTTO (29D: Lower than, on a score). I know the phrase "SOTTO voce," but that has nothing to do with "scores," at least in terms of how I've heard it used colloquially. I was not expecting an Italian word there. On the other side of the grid, something about the way IN ON was clue made it hard for me to get (30A: With (it)) that "biker role" from Rocky Horror seems ... niche (34A: Biker role in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show"). I've never seen Rocky Horror, which seems bizarre considering how many damn movies I watch, but ... I dunno. No interest, despite my generally liking Susan Sarandon and Tim Curry. The only character I really know from that movie is JANET.
[OK, now I also know BRAD]
- 23A: One of four for a bat or a cat (FANG) — I would not have thought of cats as having FANGs ... until I acquired this giant Italian movie poster at auction and then had it framed and hung it above my desk here in my office just last week. As you can clearly see: FANGs!
- 14A: Fly me to the moon! (LUNAR PROBE) — cute clue. ("!" clues are meant to be taken very literally)
- 24A: "Moulin Rouge" co-star, 1952 (GABOR) — another movie puzzler for this movie fan. I know the stars of this century's' Moulin Rouge, but 1952!?!? That is not a famous movie. I'm stunned to find out it's a John Huston movie. I can name a bunch of John Huston movies. This is not one of them. I don't even know which GABOR we're dealing with here. I'm guessing ZSAx2 ... yes!
- 15D: Classic lunchbox staple, informally (PB AND J) — a great-looking answer; a fine addition to any grid. Crazy consonant juxtapositions. Love it.
- 1D: Lead-in to stratus or cumulus (ALTO-) — after CUMULO- I'm out. Not up on my cloud prefixes.
- 63A: According to experiments, they can't "sleep" in space (YO-YOS) — not up on my yo-yo lingo either. I feel like I learned everything I learned about YO-YOS during some brief weird fad in the '70s when I was in elementary school. And then I never thought about YO-YOS again. "Walk the dog" is a trick, I think. Maybe ... "around the world?" I kinda remember "sleep," I guess.
- 8D: Fin (ABE) — that is, a five-dollar bill. "Fin" was very popular, very common 20c. slang for a fiver. ABE ... wasn't. I've never seen a five-dollar bill called an ABE anywhere outside of crosswords.
That's it, see you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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ReplyDeleteMedium Friday.
Overwrites:
MOoN before MORN at 18A
anNE before JANE at 20A
EjectS before EXPELS at 42D
WOEs:
Not familiar enough with music scores to know SOTTO (29D)
I've seen RHPS but didn't remember EDDIE the biker at 34A
Not familiar with FAILLE material (40A)
Never heard of WEIRD FLEX BUT OK (44A). Thanks for the background, @Rex
Tennis player SLOANE Stephens a 49A
A couple of Friday-level difficulty multipliers like magniloquence,TRILOBITES, FAILLE, MAUS and “DURA mater” to spice this one up - along with a few things to keep it lively.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed seeing old friend OONA again, which seems crosswordese from yesteryear, and I did remember The Loaf as EDDIE in Rocky Horror. And to me the highlight was the clue “Ordered clubs, for example” for ROYAL FLUSH, which to my ear sounded wonderfully Robynesque.
A mixture of fun stuff and some Friday crunch - a thumbs up for me.
Another great review. Loved WEIRD FLEX BUT OK. Have been a silent reader from the UK for years and I must say you and your blog gives me some hope despite the dark moment the US is in. Fantastic cat poster!
ReplyDeleteCareful. I would not be surprised at all if the government now tried to do away with your blog and imprison you for your statement about the all powerful and fair minded Kennedy. You are spreading false news about this expert on all things related to health.
ReplyDeleteI, for one, welcome our moronic overlords
DeleteAmen
ReplyDeleteWorkmanlike late week puzzle. Agree with the big guy on the lack of anything overly snazzy - but it’s generally clean and slick. I liked LUNAR PROBE, BEHIND THE TIMES and TURNS LOOSE. Overall fill is scrabbly - I think a Q and Z away from a pangram.
ReplyDeletePantagruel’s Nativity
Rex - you’re really not missing much with Rocky Horror. I never liked it but had friends who would go to the midnight show on Friday’s and participate.
A lot of the trivia here I had to back into. GABOR, SLOANE, EFRON are all known to me but I needed sufficient crosses to get them. GESTATE is awkward here - like the TROJAN trivia.
Sitting plush with a ROYAL FLUSH
Enjoyable Friday morning solve.
Ray LaMontagne
RHPS is awesome
ReplyDeleteOn the Rockford Files once Jim was basically asking how much of a bribe would be enough. His first (low) offer was a Lincoln, which is the other half of ABE. The counter was a Jackson; they settled on a Hamilton.
ReplyDeletequite challenging.
ReplyDeleteSeemed easy at first, but then reality hit. Never heard of TRILOBITES, or WEIRDFLEX, or FAILLE, or the book MAUS. I've had cats all my life, but never saw one with a FANG. Just too hard, so I cheated (a lot) to finish it.
ReplyDeleteBob, you should read MAUS. Oddly, I got it from library after seeing it mentioned in a past NYT puzzle (more than 10 years ago). It’s a graphic novel, but fabulous. Also it’s based in truth.
DeleteMAUS is a haunting, deeply moving work. Whether or not you're a fan of "graphic novels" as they've evolved over time, that one is more than worth reading and reading again -- especially in the times we live in now, if you get my drift.
DeleteSurprised that OFL didn't comment on MAUS
DeleteBob Mills and others
DeleteMaus is devastating. Actually 2 parts. Maus II continues the story
Art Spiegelman’s parents survived the Holocaust but they were both grievously affected by what they went through. Spiegelman was a well known graphic artist and cartoonist before Maus. One of the reasons he wrote and drew it was to deal with his own resulting traumas. (The impact onto the next generation). Maus (and later Maus II) helped establish graphic books as a serious medium.
Weitdflexbutok? Never heard that one. Never heard of cat fangs either. Didn’t enjoy this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI agree with SouthsideJohnny: "A mixture of fun stuff and some Friday crunch," plus I learned "magniloquence" (can't wait to brag about knowing what that means) and "faille" and why yoyos can't sleep in space. It's because they need gravity to "fall" to the end of the string. In space's microgravity, there's no force to pull the yo-yo to the string's end and keep it spinning.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. And loved the mini dupe of high minded bragging (magniloquence) and pop cultural dismissal of dumb bragging (WEIRDFLEXBUTOK). Plus I fell into a fake out dupe where I could not get out of my head reading Fin (8D) as the French “the end” rather than a reference to a fiver. So I really got confused when I got to Done Fr. (23D). But to me fun stuff. Funny how different puzzle constructors may or may not BRING(you)TOLIFE.
DeleteCrossword superstar Paolo Pasco Jeopardy watch, day seven ...
ReplyDeleteVictory number seven for Paolo, who pulled away from the other players with a strong second half. Could not be caught in Final Jeopardy, in which the clue was "He became the first person to win both an Olympic medal and an Academy Award thanks to a short film he made about his sport". (Answer in reply.)
I like how Paolo stays cool even when he's behind. I also like how well he represents our glorious pastime. His winnings are now $195,717. Go Paolo!
Final Jeopardy answer: "Who is Kobe Bryant?"
DeleteI've really enjoyed Paolo's performance at Jeopardy--so calm. Nice to know him from solving his puzzles too... makes us feel like his secret fan club, right?
DeleteYes! It's been fun cheering him on. I hope they run one of his puzzles soon!
DeleteI knew that line but I had no idea it had come from Sarah Schauer: you learn something every day.
ReplyDeleteLots of the same sticking points as Rex, but some were not hard to guess, like GABOR and MAUS, FANGS. I had a lot of trouble with SOTTO, because my mind was stuck on game scores, not musical scores. Have never heard the phrase WEIRDFLEXBUTOK, glad to learn it!
ReplyDeleteI write HIALL to group emails all the time! And I’m pretty amazed Rex has never watched Rocky Horror. No dressing up at midnight and yelling lines at the screen? I even saw it on stage in London once.
SOTTO (29D: Lower than, on a score) - as in lower than on a MUSIC score
ReplyDeleteps Rock Horror is worth it for Tim Curry alone. He is extraordinary.
I agree on Tim Curry!
DeleteReally well done puzzle. Would love to see more from this constructor.
ReplyDeleteGood, tough Friday, like we used to get before the war.
ReplyDeleteAs is often the case, Rex's favorite thing (WEIRD FLEX BUT OK) is my least favorite. I vaguely knew the phrase; I just don't like it. Meanwhile, ALTO and YOYOS were gimmes.
Clue for ROYAL FLUSH was a hall of famer. I just wish my brain had not been primed to think of cards by I RAISE, which made it easier than it should have been.
EDDIE's "Hot Patootie" is one of several surprisingly good songs in Rocky Horror.
Kitshef
DeleteAbout Rocky Horror Picture Show
I have never been go to a screening at midnight fan of it but like you, I find the music surprisingly good. The movie was preceded by a NYC musical.
25 minutes for me, so that puts it up into Medium-Challenging for me on a friday. Had to parse out the woe "WEIRDFLEXBUTOK", which was great. Enjoyed the repeat clues about being out of it. Also loved LUNARPROBE and GENTLEGIANT. Same experience as @REX on the ends of BRINGTO... and BOOKRE.... (had REview before REPORT). SLOANE was a complete woe, so had to parse it together from the crosses. Figured MArS was the novel but that really messed up the end of the WEIRDFLEX.... was thinking about BRO... or something. Couldn't remember if it was SOTTO or SOTTe. Eventually tried a bunch of different things and remembered the book MAUS and --ding--happy music. Thanks, Erica, for a fun and different (and pretty challenging) Friday! : )
ReplyDeleteOne of the pleasures of crosswords is how the answers ping different areas of the brain, bringing it to life.
ReplyDeleteToday it pinged history, sports, arts, biology, cards, food. It also triggered images and memories – GABOR, sleeping YOYOS, school DESKs of my youth, the taste of PB&J’s, and beautiful swirly SARIs.
My TIL was learning STEAM is the familiar term STEM to which “arts” has been added.
Especially lovely today were the serendipitous PuzzPairs©:
• RAISE / ROYAL FLUSH
• BRAG / WEIRD FLEX BUT OK
• SARI / backward GARB
• FLUSH crossing LOO
May I add that gorgeous answers BRING TO LIFE, TRILOBITES, and GENTLE GIANT are NYT debuts?
And props to Erica for keeping the number of three-letter answers -- which are usually uninteresting -- to single digits.
A quality feel throughout. A themeless puzzle with an underlying theme of pleasure, starting my day with an ahhh. I loved this. Thank you, Erica!
My first encounter with WEIRD FLEX . . . and more than grateful for Rex’s explication de texte. Ha!
ReplyDelete“SOTTO voce” is a term sometimes seen in music scores.
Ditto Southside Johnny: fun and crunchy puzzle. Loved it.
HI ALL !
ReplyDeletePut up resistance, but was able to finish with no cheats. I had @Anonymous from YesterComments on the ole brain when I got stuck in the Center-East. Was about to Goog an answer, but persevered and fettered everything out.
Misdirectional clue for ROYAL FLUSH, thinking the clue, Ordered clubs, meant ordering lunch (club sandwiches), or buying golf clubs online, or something. Ordered, as in - in order. Nice.
Wanted BRAFF before EFRON, but BRAFF is a Zack, not a Zac. There's also Zach Galifianakis, but his name was a touch too long. 😁
Well, enough HODGEPODGE outta me.
Have a great Friday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Loved the clue on ROYALFLUSH, threw me for a second before it clicked. WEIRDFLEXBUTOK felt very fresh, in general the cluing for this puzzle was very much on my wavelength! Breezy Friday with a few snags (had never heard of FAILLE but the crosses were all doable)
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteFLEX?? WTF is FLEX?
Picture of person flexing their muscles, as a way to show off to others.
DeleteThanks, Anonymous 8:21, for asking about FLEX. And many thanks to Stillwell for the helpful answer.
DeleteUhhh go watch RHPS right now
ReplyDeleteNo
DeleteWell, now, I wouldn't really recommend watching it on TV at home. It should be the much more immersive experience of watching in a movie theater, with a savvy crowd of people who know all the callback lines and dances and songs, and have the good sense and taste not to completely drown out the dialogue. Dressing up is all part of the scene. It was loads of fun back in the late 70s and early 80s.
DeleteIt's in the National Film Registry. A sophisticated cinephile like Rex should probably see it at least once, in its proper cult context. So kitschy, so campy, so amusing.
Agreed. Don't watch on TV, it's an ok-ish movie, but the audience participation is what makes it worthwhile and fun. If you go don't forget your squirtgun, toast, poncho,..... Liked this puzzle a lot, some tough clues, not much junk and I got Gentlegiant just from the first e (crossword joy).
DeleteI stopped doing the puzzle for years and recently came back to it but had totally forgotten about this site (which I used to visit regularly when I did the puzzle regularly years ago) until today when I thought to myself, “This puzzle was a pure joy, I wonder what Rex thought of it.” Great puzzle by Erica and great commentary by Rex as usual. “Ordered clubs, for example” was a chef’s kiss of a clue for me.
ReplyDeleteToday's was about 6 million times more satisfying than yesterday's.
ReplyDelete100%. So interesting the difference when something is hard but you give many a side eye (yesterday) versus hard and satisfying (today).
DeleteI actually know, and like, the phrase "weird flex but ok". But when you squeeze the words together like this, it seems to say "weird flex, buttock" to me. As if I had a butt spasm going. (Checks) Blimey. I do!
ReplyDeleteA nice clue for BEHINDTHETIMES would have been [Sulzberger family].
I forget, how many megabytes are in a TRILOBYTE?
Tricycle accidents almost always ENDOW.
What did the fetus say when offered a PBANDJ? No thanks, I GESTATE.
Wasn't Phyllis Diller's husband FANG?
This was a real pleasure to solve. Great clues, little goo. A bunch of crunch. Thanks, Erica Hsiung Wojcik.
Lol to all 😜
DeleteHaha on the buttock, and I agree! And yes…FANG was Phyllis Diller’s husband. (Or a caricature of a husband)
DeleteNot a criticism of this perfectly good Friday but a tough one for me, more like a medium slog. Not the puzzle’s fault, I just never could get any momentum anywhere. But at least RP didn’t call it easy. Unlike him, 44A was not something I enjoyed seeing. In fact, if I was starting a WOE Hall of Fame, it would be my first nomination. Sounds like a pop culture version of the time-honored “bless your heart.”
ReplyDelete"Bless your heart" as kind of a sideways dig? Is that a midwestern thing?
Delete@Anonymous: More of a southern thing and far more prevalent among women. Delivered with an innocent smile, it’s a polite way of saying “You need to stop talking now honey, before you embarrass yourself any further.”
Delete"Bless your heart" is more Southern, and yes, it can be used as something like a sideways dig, or condescension, or an eye-roll. Wikipedia explains it fairly well, here.
Delete@Whatsername. I love your explanation of "bless your heart". The inclusion of "honey" is perfect.
Delete"Bless your heart" is definitely Southern; if it's said the right way (with the appropriate irony-dripping smile and purring tone of voice), you'll know you've been laid out by an expert, even if you don't know exactly what you said or did to deserve it. At its most lethal, it'll leave you shuddering for days.
DeleteSpeaking of FLEX, this felt like a Saturday. Very much agree about the cluing for JOINED. Really liked the clue/answer for BARFLY!
ReplyDeleteAs a musician, got the score angle right away, but have never know SOTTO to be "lower than". It is usually (always?) paired with "voce" to mean "in a low or soft voice". I see that sotto by itself can mean under, below, beneath - so technically correct, but referencing in a score is misleading.
ReplyDeleteI read Reader's Digest as the publication, but now see the small d in digest. I wanted some kind of summary or recap. Nice misdirect, I guess.
Faille crossing Hiall is interesting visually.
Funny that I remember when Michael got the Gato poster - he got that framed up way faster than it would happen in our household. Come to think of it, we have zero framed movie posters, only original art - just unintentionally went from WEIRDFLEX to HUMBLEBRAG
and then back to weird flex.
DeleteFair enough:)
DeleteWEIRD....BUT OK sat in my grid unfinished because I couldn't cough up the EX part of EXPELS and didn't know FAILLE (and I thought I knew most types of fabric so humph.) Plus I've never heard the 44A phrase before.
ReplyDeleteSilly error of the day, ADVERbS before ADVERTS with much head-scratching as to how "spots" becomes adverbial.
YOYOS, sleep, space, these words don't belong in one sentence in my world. Still ignorant on that one even after Googling, post-solve.
All in all, a tough Friday for me, which is a nice change. Thanks, Erica Hsiung Wojcik!
My experience: it was quite challenging, the hardest Friday I've seen in quite some time. The marquee answer WEIRD FLEX, BUT OK: first time seeing it, and it was hard putting all that together. Lots of misdirection, ROYAL FLUSH being a prime example. Another was POD for "way out in space", with "way" being a noun, not an adverb (so in other words, a way to get out in space, and still POD isn't the first word that comes immediately to my mind). YOYOS came from somewhere way out in space as well, almost the last thing I would associate with sleep (although I get it, thanks). Had to get it from crosses. I was slow assembling the vowels in BUOY. I was trying to think of something acne-related for those British spots. FAILLE, new to me as well. MOoN before MORN (I mean, why not?). I also had a tough time seeing BRING TO LIFE. Next to it, P B AND J, four short words in six letters, also tough to see at first. GABOR -- I'll take your word for it. (Was thinking maybe cABOt, as in Sebastian.) I only know the Moulin Rouge with Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman. I don't watch as much TCM as some of y'all.
ReplyDeleteThe relatively mild reaction to the level of difficulty of today's makes me think I'm an outlier here. But solving it felt like a real victory, so thanks for the workout, Erica Hsiung Wojcik (quite the intriguing and hard-to-spell name!). The puzzle was well-executed. Just hard, is all.
Thank you! I’m right “out” there with you on the difficulty level. Just couldn’t get a foothold anywhere.
DeleteI enjoyed this puzzle: the fill was interesting but not as obscure as yesterday, with very little junk. Got a toehold in the NW once I got JOINED and then PBANDJ, which led to TROJAN, LUNAR PROBE, and all the rest.
ReplyDeleteReally wanted "Ordered clubs, for example" to have something to do with eating sandwiches, but it didn't! Clever misdirect.
I like thinking about sleeping YOYOS. Like the word HODGEPODGE. Want to go read some BORGES. Très bien, Erica! A very nice Friday puzzle.
My first date. I took the lovely Karen to the Alexandria theater on Geary Street to see Moulin Rouge. Zsa Zsa played one of the girls Toulouse painted. She was great.
ReplyDeleteThat's me.
DeleteAnd now the Alexandria Theater sits rotting for decades, while plan after plan for fixing it up falls through.
DeleteYou've never seen The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Weird flex and not OK.
ReplyDeleteFumbled and stumbled my way through this thing but ended up liking it in the end. My first misstep, minor but still annoying, was BRAy for BRAG at 6A, which killed all the joy I felt at finally guessing right at the classic bud - Mac - PAL toss-up. And then there was LUNAR PROBE at 14A which had one of those exclamatory clues that I hate and which is quite confusing. I’ve always thought those probes were uncrewed and if I’m right about that, who is the “me” in the clue ordering the flight? I may have this wrong and if I do I’m sure someone will tell me.
ReplyDeleteI’ve been doing these puzzles for about 15 years or so, and I thought I’d encountered all the exotic fabrics in Crosslandia. How could I have FAILLEd to notice the one at 40A?
While I really disliked some clues, I loved others: “Let it all out, in a way” for that old chestnut EMOTE (37A), “Reader’s digest” for BOOK REPORT (11D), and the one about YOYOS in space at 63A. Who knew?
Lots of nice long fill and one exceptionally WEIRD - but more than just OK - one at 44A.
Nice job Erica. Took me longer than normal, but I enjoyed the ride.
Les, you have to imagine that the PROBE is talking to you.
DeleteThanks jberg. I missed that. Does it make it better? Not sure, but I'll think about it a bit if I can clear my head of this Frank Sinatra earworm.
DeleteMedium but it seemed tougher.
ReplyDeleteWOEs - FAILLE, GABOR, and TRILOBITES
Costly erasures - DiRE before PYRE which gave me dock before PIER, coOPT before ADOPT, and bucO before OSSO.
Solid with a fair bit of sparkle, liked it.
I thought I was going to have to make a trip across town, order stronger lenses for my reading glasses, and wait for them to come in, at a cost of probably $500. But yesterday I had a better idea--print the puzzle out in large type. Now I have to put the page of clues next to the page with the grid, but I can read everything! It's great.
ReplyDeleteI've never heard or seen WEIRD FLEX BUT OK, but I assume that I am just BEHIND THE TIMES. I mean, I can even remember when newsstands (clue for 57-D) were common. And I don't know Spanish that well, so I'll accept that you can say BIEN instead of bueno. A fine puzzle, tough but fair.
And this time I noticed that I was not signed in BEFORE posting the comment!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeletePuzzlehoarder here, this was 80% pushover easy and 20% intractable Saturday difficult. The star of the show was WEIRDFLEXBUTOK. The letters D and F were missing and REFLEX wouldn't work. No sentence could start with WE followed by I. This added 10 minutes to the solve going over the surrounding correct answers searching for the mistake. The dam broke when I figured out the British slang for spots.
ReplyDeleteThe SE corner was tricky too but it only required one revisit to figure out.
Quite a struggle for me. Especially WEIRD FLEX BUT OK which I don't think I've heard. It’s a colorful answer - I like it. But it wasn't working with the end of BOOKt (the t partly because I failed to read the clue year closely) - I took a stab at MAaS, and Asia instead of ARTS, which prolonged my squirming around in that section. The final letter I filled in - the first O in SOTTO earned me a Doh! Headslap. Also POD! Very nice. As was YOYOS - eventually.
ReplyDeleteI’m the only one that confidently entered “co-opt” (sans hyphen) for “take over” at 1 across? I never questioned it, making it impossible to see “alto” and “dura,” so dnf.
ReplyDeleteExactly! Co-opt is a much more solid entry.
DeleteI saw the clue for a kind of fabric and said to myself, 'well, there's tulle, and toile--both too short. Maybe it's really toille?' I needed all the crosses to get FAILLE, though.
ReplyDeleteThe problem with the ROYAL FLUSH clue is the "for example" part. A ROYAL FLUSH is an example of a straight flush ('ordered clubs,'). I guess a royal flush in clubs is also an example of a ROYAL FLUSH, so maybe adding "or the other way around" to the clue would do the trick.
WEIRD FLEX ......new to me
ReplyDeleteEveryone liked the clue for ROYALFLUSH. Clever, yes...but also misleading. Any five clubs in a row would be "ordered" (in order), but only A-K-Q-J-10 would constitute a royal flush. The others would form straight flushes.
ReplyDeleteRemember Joaquin's Dictum? Clues are clues, not definitions.
DeleteThat’s also why the clue includes “for example”.
DeleteOn the tough side for me, very welcome on a Friday. My one small moment of triumph was getting TRILOBITES from the B and T; otherwise it was mostly a square-by-square securing of territory, loving the moments when the twisty clues became clear. Me, too, for my favorites being those for POD, BARFLY, ADVERTS and ROYAL FLUSH. Also enjoyed learning exactly what sort of fabric FAILLE is.
ReplyDeleteDo-over: cArOn before GABOR. No idea: EDDIE, SLOANE, WEIRD FLEX BUT OK.
I just watched Rocky Horror last night! What a weird coincidence!
ReplyDeleteBravo! Fun, challenging Friday that kept both me and me wife entertained. Rex’s excellent commentary today was an added fun touch. And who doesn’t love a young sassy Zsa Zsa?!
ReplyDeleteI've always considered Zsa Zsa the poster girl for "Famous for being Famous," one of the ones who paved the way for Paris Hilton, the Kardashians, and the rest of the Whole Sick[ening] Crew. Sister Eva, though, proved herself to be a delightful (and subversively witty) comic actress with her portrayal of Lisa Douglas in "Green Acres," for which I remain very thankful.
DeleteI enjoyed it myself: a lot of crunchiness that had me stumped, with “aha” moments when they finally came to me. BOOK REPORT is boring as an answer, but as clued I enjoyed the process of slowly sussing it out. I guessed MOoN right off the cuff with no crosses for the R&J quote, which was “confirmed” by crosses for far too long. GENTLE GIANT was my favorite answer—actually smiled as I wrote it in thinking of people I’ve known who fit the description.
ReplyDeleteThough WEIRD FLEX BUT OK took me quite a while since I’ve never heard it before, I enjoyed learning it. It was actually only last week that I learned this definition of the word “flex,” when a student in my poetics course raved about how Alexander Pope’s *Essay on Criticism* was the biggest flex he had ever seen in poetry. Bringing up that memory was another pleasant addition to my Friday.
Had to look up a couple things that I’d have needed all/most crosses for (GABOR, FAILLE, SLOANE) in order to get the traction to figure the rest out, but I expect that on a Friday. All-told, this two-year-old solver appreciated this Friday puzzle.
Dear Rex, I beg to differ. That Moulin Rouge is a famous movie. Though I needed crosses to come up with Gabor. I only remembered Mel Ferrer.
ReplyDeleteThe later Moulin Rouge with Nicole Kidman made little sense to me - perhaps because I was expecting the earlier Moulin Rouge story.
Is it famous? Google seems to think so, but I haven't heard a thing about it since its year of fame.
The Mel Ferrer film was huge in its day and I did hear about it for years after.
Yeah, for the record, Moulin Rouge -- biography of Toulouse Lautrec -- may not be as remembered as Huston's Maltese Falcon, Treasure of Sierra Madre, or African Queen, but it came during that same rough period (1952), and was nominated in all major categories at the Oscars -- Best Picture, Actor, Supporting Actress, Director -- winning for its sets and costumes.
DeleteGABOR was not the supporting actress nominee, but I figured she had to be the answer, since the lady who was (Colette Marchand) has been pretty much forgotten.
We saw it at a drive-in. I still rembrr the haunting scene where he falls down the stairs. By all accounts the movie was an artistic and financial success.
DeleteGood solid hard Friday.
WEIRDFLEXBUTOK was my favorite Times debut answer in... I don't know, a very long time.
ReplyDeleteI found this puzzle to be rather easy and rather uneventful, but that one moment was all I needed.
Still don't like RBIS as a plural -- RBI means "Runs Batted In;" it's already a plural. No such thing as "Run Batted Ins."
ReplyDeleteThis rant reminds me of the classic Onion article "William Safire Orders Two Whoppers Junior."
Delete@Anonymous 12:59 pm... "Judge had three RBIs in leading the Yankees to victory". That's how most people would say or write it.
DeletePronounced “ribbies ”
DeleteOr “rib eyes” :)
DeleteSOTTO for a musical score is fine. I needed a cross or two before my brain switched from sports to music, but then it was pretty obvious, part of standard musician's Italian vocabulary. Harder if you don't read scores as part of your day job, but there are other things I don't know. So possibly fair.
ReplyDeleteYOYOS came to me because my granddaughter (4yo) recently got her first one and I was trying to remember what little technique I ever knew to show her. Getting the toy to "sleep" (spin near the floor for a few seconds before giving it a nudge to roll back up) is basic enough even I can do it, and (without knowing the experiments) I can well believe that some gravity is needed to for the trick to work. Needed 46 and 54D crosses before that was going to dawn on me, though.
Well, "sotto voce" is also pretty common theatrical lingo for something murmured "under one's breath" or said very softly, so we probably don't have to be Italian musicians (or musicians at all) to have heard of it.
DeleteEgs, You had me literally LOloudly
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed lunarprobe and trilobites (a commenter had never heard of them??) behindthetimes, bringtolife - and bookreport because: I Could Not get it, and then "Oh, of course"
Did not like weirdflexbutok and had to come here to learn how it could possible be the right answer. Now I sort of get it and don't dislike it, but...
Wow, a few Complete Unknowns, but not too many Unknown Names so it was satisfying rather than annoying. WEIRD FLEX, FAILLE, SLOANE, EDDIE.
ReplyDeleteFor that saying I've never heard of, I thought it must be something like WEIRD TELL BUT OK. FLEX is not on the list of words I might put in there if I were coining a phrase! And with FAILLE right above it, like Rex the last word of BRING TO LIFE took a while.
Recently we dealt with Ludovico Einaudi, and people suggested using "ein Audi" to remember his last name. Well: yesterday we had EIN, and today, there it is: AUDI! Meant to be.
A bit of a space theme today with LUNAR PROBE, POD, and the bizarre but fun clue for YOYOS.
Absolutely could not parse WEIRD FLEX ("FLEX"??!!) BUT OK; never heard of FAILLE, didn't know who SLOANE and EFRON were.
ReplyDeleteSuper puzzle, easy medium (RP's favorite line under FAILLE slowed me down). Great clues as well.
ReplyDeleteWent to two RHPS showings back in the '80s but didn't make it through to the end either time. Seems like the friends I went with dropped out of my life shortly thereafter...
"WEIRD FLEXBUTOK." Never in my life have I heard that expression. got the "weird flex bu," then also thought it was "buddy." A struggle to get it. Don't know if I should be grateful for learning a new expression that I have never heard and will never use, or just annoyed. I'm going with annoyed.
ReplyDeleteHow did Oona Chaplin pronounce her name, anyway? "Oooh-nuh"? "Ooo-OH-nuh?" I know that Oona Mitchell, granddaughter of legendary Memphis record producer Willie Mitchell, pronounces her first name "AW-nuh." Maybe Ms. Chaplin did the same?
ReplyDeleteooooh-nuh, accent on first syllable. Named after her grandmother who was the daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill and Charlie Chaplin's fourth and last wife. Their daughter Geraldine is mother of Oona, an Irish name.
Delete"Sleep" is the very first trick you learn when yo-yo-ing. You throw the yo-yo down with a flick of the wrist so that it stays down but still spins ("sleeps"). Then you do your walk the dog or whatever, flip your wrist up, and the yo-yo returns to hand.
ReplyDeleteThe brain variables of all of us fascinate me. @Rex didn’t connect “score” in the clue at 29D “lower than, on a score,” evidently thinking only numerical rather than musical “score.” On the other hand, that very clever musical score related clue was a welcome gimme to get SOTTO along with ARTS (the A in STEAM). Yet, despite all that, from POD on down the SE corner, I struggled!
ReplyDeleteI’m not nearly as picky as OFL, and I liked this one a lot. Possibly, the oddly easy Fridays lately allowed me to bump up my opinion today. Whatever the impetus, my opinion of today’s puzzle started “well above average” and improved as I wended my way through the grid, stalling out and tripping occasionally. Very satisfying solve, excellent word play, tricky clues, fun Friday.
The juxtaposition of the long BEHIND THE TIMES and WEIRD FLEX BUT OK paired nicely in the center. I chuckled at myself even knowing WEIRD FLEX.
Since I have not had much recent occasion for casual interaction with folks decades younger than my 73 years, I was only aware of FLEX as slang for BRAG from a tv commercial. Couldn’t tell you what the ad was flogging, but the first time I heard the word, I remember thinking “that’s going to end up in a crossword,” and sure enough.
So, the WEIRD FLEX fell nicely. However, I had BARFLY and MAUS going down giving me BU_ _ _, and not knowing the rest of the evidently very common phrase, I left WEIRD FLEX BUddy in there until the bitter end - to my detriment, if I cared about solve times.
I had everything except for my errors in the SE: first, the incorrect BUddy and second, thinking that 11D was a BOOK REview rather than a REPORT. My brain was frozen even though it wanted to EMOTE but stuck with EMiTs to make REview work. I scoured the grey matter stacks for a NASA acronym for a space vehicle beginning with V to no avail.
Like yesterday, I took a coffee break and let the decades of crosswords perk away as my coffee had done a little earlier. Also much like yesterday, my errors were resolved in a flash of clarity that the clue for 37A did not point to a plural answer. Bingo! EMOTE gives me a D to start 33D, which gives me a space POD, leaving DES_ for 33D’s “learning center” (head smack). Oh, DESK and at last a BOOK REPORT. Happy music! So after all that, what a genius am I. WEIRD FLEX, BUT (maybe?) OK.
Have a great weekend everyone🎉
I like your style Dilly
DeleteIs Nancy OK? I miss her posts ...
ReplyDeleteVery late to the party. Can only say some Exceedingly Hard Words, EHW. Thanks for some fun. Weird flex, but OK.
ReplyDeleteI actually loved this one! The long stuff was all pretty solid, with WEIRD FLEX BUT OK carrying most of the weight for me, and honorable mention to TRILOBITES. Not sure how evolutionarily successful those guys were in their time but they seem to have won the fossil battle somehow, so props for that. Nothing really groan-worthy either (maybe OONA but it sounded familiar at least) which is just as nice. I don't remember seeing that meaning of fin at 8D in quite awhile either, but I find that one quaint and funny rather than annoying. A fun friday :)
ReplyDeleteRex, the 1952 Moulin Rouge is a famous film. Nominated for 7 Oscars, including Best Picture, and won 2. Its theme song was also #1 in the UK and the US, and it was Billboard's #1 song for all of 1953.
ReplyDeletePersonalmente, no me jactaría de eso.
ReplyDeleteA week without @Nancy is a week without sunshine.
Phew. Made it. ABE and DURA crossing whatever TRILOBITES are made for a blind finish, but thankfully those letters seemed the most likely. On reviewing the game tapes, I think I've run into trilobites somewhere else. EFRON crossing SLOANE was also rude. Tough puzzle, but typical time. Pretty good romp.
Textile trivia is as exciting as Asian cooking trivia. It's bested only by flexing random internet sayings. YOYOS trivia is always welcome.
ROYAL FLUSH was fun to grok.
❤️ HODGE PODGE. GENTLE GIANT. BAR FLY.
People: 7
Places: 0
Products: 3
Partials: 7
Foreignisms: 6
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 72 (32%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Uniclues:
1 Order a official transcript from the bursar and wait about sixteen weeks.
2 The Most Fun You Can Create with a Knife!, and What's Good for a Five Year Old is Good for You, e.g.
3 Sit quietly stewing with contempt while the drunken white guy slurs his political opinions at you.
1 PROVE GPAS
2 PB AND J ADVERTS
3 ABIDE BAR FLY
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Borg warning, in modern lingo. IT'S FUTILE MY MAN.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So true re Nancy. Really miss her this week.
DeleteThe adjacent consonants in PB AND J really threw me off, especially since I'm from more recent generations where we weren't allowed to bring peanut butter for lunch--my brain didn't go there and I assumed I had something wrong for too long!
ReplyDelete