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Ancient Peruvian geoglyphs / SAT 9-27-25 / African capital whose name translates to "ants" / Contempt, in slang / Period that begins on July 23 / Alternative to a crib / They arose from Ra's tears, according to Egyptian mythology
Saturday, September 27, 2025
Constructor: Adrian Johnson and Christina Iverson
Relative difficulty: Medium (1/2 Easy, 1/2 ... less easy)
Word of the Day: Randy ORTON (52A: WWE star Randy ___) —
Randal Keith Orton (born April 1, 1980) is an American professional wrestler. Since 2000, he is signed to WWE, where he performs on the SmackDown brand. Widely regarded as one of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, Orton has the tied-third most world championship reigns in the company's history, and a career spanning over 20 years.Orton is a third-generation professional wrestler; his grandfather Bob Orton, father Bob Orton Jr., and uncle Barry Orton were all wrestlers. [...]
[...] Orton has held the WWE Championship 10 times and the World Heavyweight Championship four times. He was the final holder of the World Heavyweight Championship, which he unified with the WWE Championship to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion in 2013. Orton is recognized by WWE as having the third-most world championship victories in history at 14, only behind John Cena (17) and Ric Flair (16) and tied with Triple H (also 14). In total, he has won 20 championships in WWE.
A prominent wrestler throughout his time in WWE, Orton has also won the Royal Rumble twice (2009 and 2017), and the Money in the Bank ladder match once in 2013. He is the 17th Triple Crown and 18th overall Grand Slam Champion, and has headlined numerous major WWE events, including their flagship annual event, WrestleMania, twice (25 and 30). Since 2021, he holds the record of most pay-per-view (PPV) matches in WWE.
• • •
Worse, the "L" from ONE LINE (ugh) made it look like [Enterprise enterprise] was going to be LEND-A-CAR, which felt wrong but also had this unfortunate and eerie air of plausibility. Worse, that corner had many things I just didn't know. Let's start with NAZCA, a name I've seen once and forgot (I knew I'd made it Word of the Day some time last year and I still forgot it) (48D: ___ Lines (ancient Peruvian geoglyphs)). Then there's LASER MAZE, a term I'm seeing for the first time today (54A: Part of a high-tech security system). Is a LASER MAZE those crisscrossing laser beams that you see in movies that protect, like, the Crown Jewel Of Some Imagined Country, or museum relics or whatever? Where if an intruder breaks one of the beams, an alarm system goes off?? But why "Maze?" Mazes involve continuous movement through a series of interconnected passages, not random crisscrossing lines. Weird. Is the idea that you (the burglar?) are the one who has to move through the laser obstacles as if it were a maze?? Probably. Shrug to that answer, and an even bigger shrug to BONUS ENTRY (23D: Kind of contest with multiple chances to participate). What is a BONUS ENTRY contest? Like ... a raffle? Searching [Define "bonus entry"] is not helping at all. It appears to be some promotional deal where people get more "entries" to some contest if they do actions like share a company's post on social media or something. The clue doesn't really get at the promotional nature of these "contests" at all. Stuff I'm seeing related to BONUS ENTRY contests looks like this ...
Not too many words uglier than "Incentivizing." Just glad that wasn't in the grid. So the entire SE was a grind and a bust. Lots of work, no joy. The NE was a little better but still, some off cluing and several things I didn't (or didn't really) know. I know what co-sleeping is, but I did not know that the thing that attaches to the mother's bed, the mini bed (?), was called a CO-SLEEPER (11D: Alternative to a crib). Also, what exactly is a RUNESTONE (12D: Classic rock?)? Just a stone with runes on it? Well, yes, it appears so:
A runestone is typically a raised stone with a runic inscription, but the term can also be applied to inscriptions on boulders and on bedrock. The tradition of erecting runestones as a memorial to dead men began in the 4th century and lasted into the 12th century, but the majority of the extant runestones date from the late Viking Age. While most of these are located in Scandinavia, particularly Sweden, there are also scattered runestones in locations that were visited by Norsemen. Runestones were usually brightly coloured when erected, though this is no longer evident as the colour has worn off. (wikipedia)
Notes:
- 1D: Contempt, in slang (SHADE) — "Shade" pun in yesterday's puzzle, which led to me defining "Shade," which led to ... this moment. If you didn't get this, well, you can't say I didn't do all I could to prepare you.
- 4D: Punk (PSYCH OUT) — had the "PSYCH" part and still wondered what the hell was going on. Turns out "Punk" is a verb. If you "Punk" someone ... actually, I always thought that meant "played a trick on" (as in Ashton Kutcher's Punk'd TV series), but apparently it also means to PSYCH someone OUT. As you can see, I didn't love the clue. But it's a great answer, for sure.
- 23A: They arose from Ra's tears, according to Egyptian mythology (BEES) — had the "B," and I'm just saying, BATS is a cooler answer.
- 19A: Parent whose child is taking steps to improve? (DANCE MOM) — That "?" made all the difference. It signaled to me that at least one of the words in the clue was being used in an unexpected way, and obviously that word was "steps," and so ... the child is probably taking dance, and the parent of a dance student ... DANCE MOM. Helps that there was a TV show or movie with this title, I think ... yeah, here we go. What did I say yesterday about reality TV being a scourge? If you like child exploitation, you'll love ... DANCE MOMs!
- 28A: It might be living on the edge (SHRUB) — ??? I guess shrubs might line your property? Another clue I didn't love.
- 43A: Period that begins on July 23 (LEO) — Zodiac sign = "period"? All this awkward cluing wording is defensible, I guess, but it's not particularly enjoyable.
- 3D: Tends to some pressing matters (IRONS) — much easier than yesterday's ironing-based wordplay ([In need of an evening out] = CREASED)
- 27D: Is on the bottom? (SITS) — as in, "Is (rests) on one's bottom." A good enough answer, but not one that should appear in a puzzle that already has SAT ON in it (6D: Kept hidden, as information)
- 31D: "Love Story" author Erich (SEGAL) — never sure of the vowels in S-G-L. The actor is George SEGAL. The other actor is Jason SEGEL. The other other actor is Katey SAGAL. And then along comes Erich SEGAL and I'm supposed to know which variant he is? No such luck.
P.S. Happy 22nd anniversary, honey :)
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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86 comments:
Easy-Medium. Solving I thought it was more Medium-ish, but "On further review ..."
Overwrites:
My 1D contemptuous slang was SHAmE before it was SHADE
spare ME before LIE TO ME at 33A
WOEs:
My kids are of an age that I missed the whole CO-SLEEPER thing (11D)
NAZCA lines (48D)
Randy ORTON at 52A
I am one of those SnOwbiRdS that @Rex mentions, and if it had occurred to me I'd have been so sure of it that I'd have DNF'd, or spent the rest of the day on it.
A mostly easy solve with the exception of the NE corner. ACCRA and ATTA should have gone in reflexively but doing only Fridays and Saturdays my crosswordese is getting rusty. I was finishing up in that section and so mainly back filling. Off ASH I had SPEAK and HASNT. Those were supported by SANDSTONE for the "classic rock" clue. Thinking about all those classic buildings made of SANDSTONE had me committed to it. It took a long time for the capital and the flour to come back to me.
Inthe SE I avoided the SNOWBIRD rabbit hole because I'm familiar with NAZCA. One of my youthful interests was archeology.
I really got stuck in the NE and it probably doubled my time.
Agree with the big guy - kind of a disjoint puzzle. Some of it went in with no real thought - other stuff I had no clue on and needed full crosses. HIT S NERVE, REC CENTER and STORY ARCS are all top notch.
There’s A Riot Goin’ On
Absolutely no idea on some of the obscure trivia - ORTON and NAZCA. COSLEEPER, ACCRA, LASER MAZE all took time to parse. The misdirect for EMERY BOARD was fantastic.
Bleeker Street
Enjoyable enough Saturday morning solve. David P. Williams built today’s Stumper - he’s new to me but the puzzle is wonderful.
Nina Simone
medium-challenging. very hard to get a foothold anywhere
Some buildings are brick and mortar. We walk by these in cities, etc. Other buildings are those our children etc. build out of Lego sets.
18 and a half minutes for me, so medium for Saturday. Interesting, because had the opposite experience--as someone who is more ignorant of pop culture than OFL, I cruised right down the east side of this thing, but had lotsa trouble getting the NW corner. I got HORSERACE right away, but couldn't get anything else. The LT at the end of 7 down made me write in "saLT" there and that held me up for a while. Moved down to see if I could get a foothold in the SE and that whole section seemed easy--LEMON.... would it be zest, or peel, or RIND?--, RENTACAR, DENS, SEAS. DRESS told me it would be RIND, and then I remembered the NAZCA lines. I went to Brown, so Yale fell right in quickly at 50 down.... so that was another stumble on the W side of this. Enjoyed the clue for EMERYBOARD, and LiETOME. ORTON was a WOE. Thanks, Adrian and Christina, for a terrific workout for my brain which didn't CHAFE a bit! : )
I spend half my week trying to partner with parents to assure them that prophylactic Vitamin K and childhood immunizations are safe and life-savingly effective and now my one refuge, the NYTXW, is repping co-sleepers as alternatives to cribs?! I am exhausted trying to re-adjudicate basic interventions that have been proven for decades. CO-SLEEPING IS NOT SAFE! God help us.
Hey All !
Good SatPuz. Was tough in spots, but managed to stay the course to a correct, cheat-free finish!
Had NesCA Lines first, maybe thinking of Nescafe coffee? Know (well, not know know ) of those Lines. Over Peru? is it? Drawings on the ground only the Gods can see. You can't tell anything is there at ground level, you have to be flying over them to see.
Had boSON for MESON, so my RENTACAR started as RONTACER, and seeing Enterprise in the clue, the ole brain went straight to Star Trek. Wondering how I missed what a Rontacer was. But, got LASER MAZE, which changed my S to a Z, and then I erased the A of incorrect NesCA, and all became clear.
Not a brain frazzle puz, but still had me thinking and sweating at times. Good stuff.
Not the BEES! Har
Well, hope y'all have a great Saturday!
Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
What a diverse collection of answers in the box today.
• People types -- POET, SLOB, DANCE MOM, LONERS.
• Places to go – DENS, REC CENTERs, SEAS.
• Animals – BEES, FLEAs, BACTRIAN camels, LEOs with dens, HORSEs racing.
• Tastes – POI, LEMON RIND, ATTA.
• Utterances – AS IF, AHOY MATEY, LIE TO ME, I CARE.
• Things from the past – RUNESTONE, NAZCA lines, ARGOS.
Each of these triggered images and memories, which brought brain pings – pinpoints of light where the mind was sleeping, -- and what started out as riddle cracking became an outing as well.
And what’s an outing without a funny moment? Mine was when I convinced myself that there was such a thing as a Mondrian camel.
Sure, this was a solve, Christina and Adrian. But it was a happening, a rich experience as well. Thank you both!
For the first time ever, and probably the last, I seem to have found the puzzle easier than Rex did. It just seemed to be on my wavelength, unfamiliar wrestler guy notwithstanding. Loved the clever clues for EMERY BOARD and SHRUB.
The east was definitely harder for me. Hand up for ONE LINE, and my guess on the crib alternative was BASSINET.
Ultimately though it was a spot in the west that prevented the happy music. All I could see at 33A (“Please avoid brutal honesty!”) was LIE SOME, which sounded awful and created the nonsense PSYCHOUS, but I just couldn’t break it down to three words.
I started with LASERMACE and when that didn't work ran all the letters. It's a weird feeling for that to work with the very last letter of the alphabet ... was pretty sure my problem was somewhere else on the grid.
Mondrian camels eat Mandarin oranges.
😁
Roo
Like Rex, I very confidently threw in SNOWBIRDS, and didn't consider erasing it until I came to a screeching half in the SE. OY!
Quite the workout! As I was progressing north to south, it seemed like there were a lot of the clues with question marks - which I’m guessing were difficult for me because I need to rely more on the crosses which can be tough to come by on a Saturday. I was determined not to give in and felt a sense of accomplishment when I parsed together DANCE MOM (although, the fact that it exists as a stand alone phrase is a little disconcerting, no?).
I also tussled back and forth quite a bit with the unknown contest type which, when landing, felt like the CrossWorld equivalent of reeling in a Yellowfin Tuna
Rex, the whole point of phone plans is to take the simplest of concepts and make it as confusing as possible. No doubt in my mind that even a ONE RATE plan will be anything but !
I think Ra was onto something. I’ve been trying to determine where the next great civilization will come from after humanity destroys mankind. I’ve been waffling between the BEES and the ants, but Rex’s bats will probably go off at short odds as well.
There were (as usual) quite a few things that I’ve never even heard of while OFL drops them in as if he were doing a Monday downs-only solve, such as RUNESTONE, NAZCA, MESON, BACTRIAN (nice, answer, btw - why don’t I recall us meeting in a bygone grid sometime ?), and ORTON.
I thought it was a cool clue for REC CENTER even though I sensed the misdirection immediately. I know that LSD is pretty much standard crosswordese, but still feel a little sad that it no longer warrants an abbreviation in the clue.
I’m kinda freaked out at how Rex‘s experience, mimics mine almost to the word, Same errors, same thinking.
What a trivia fest!
At first I thought Enterprise enterprise was Star Trek. I am sorry it isn’t. I had fun solving this one.
As a myrmecologist by trade, I cannot help but love ACCRA (translates to "ants") crossing ATTA (major leaf-cutter ant genus)! Plus, ATTA crosses FLEA, which finds itself above BEES. An entomological delight!
Opposite of Rex today, with the East pretty easy but the West - specifically the SW - slower.
ScRUB instead of SHRUB made getting into the SW corner tough, and I've never heard of ORTON, and PENN was not indicated as an abbreviation (fair on a Saturday, but kept me from seeing that easily). Didn't know the protest anthem. So I had basically REC CENTER and nothing else until I finally took another look at ScRUB and made that change, which unlocked that area.
Besides writing the novel, SEGAL also wrote the movie. Ali McGraw was never better. Lovely, bright, charming.
My hold-up wasn't in the SE but with my mis-remembering 55A as "Lift up thY Voice and Sing" which fit perfectly with NYE but nothing else. Finally deciding that Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye might be TExans, I crossed out everything except the Y, saw NEED and the rest down from SHRUB (terrible clue) fell into place. I did already have BACTRIAN in place so that helped.
I have twice seen RUNESTONEs. One was just next to the sidewalk in a suburb of Stockholm. You could touch it or climb on it, no barriers to this ancient relic. The other one was in a museum in Alexandria, Minnesota. Known as the Kensington Runestone, it purportedly indicates that Norsemen made it all the way to Minnesota long before Columbus made it to the Western Hemisphere. This is also considered a hoax perpetrated by a Swedish farmer who claimed he found it on his land. Every few years, someone tries to prove it as either a hoax or as genuine. It's still up in the air.
Clue of the day is 28A's "One who's slow to pick things up" for SLOB. Very clever.
Thanks, Adrian and Christina, nice Saturday puzzle!
I am Rex today, apparently. As a huge Lego nut haaaaaated that clue because it is flat-out wrong, but Rex detailed that already. Made the exact same one-line to snowbirds error, but was saved by actually remembering the NAZCA lines. I was in Peru last year and while we didn't visit the lines they came up a few times, maybe that saved me.
At least you can't say that Saturday was too easy, played at almost exactly my historical average.
I pretty much agree with everything Rex said positive and negative about answers/cluing today. While the designation “dromedary” is in my vocabulary, I can never remember how many humps, and for some reason BACTRIAN did not get in my mental file cabinet.
I “get” Rex’s beef on LEGOSETS. I’m sure there are LEGOSETS that focus primarily on a building, but as a previous buyer and watcher of LEGO construction, often the Legos go into a common Lego container AFTER the “set” project is completed…and will be used for random creative buildings that come from the constructor’s own creative juices. Anyway, I get what Rex is saying, but I’m still ok with the clue.
Also, wonder about Rex’s “sigh” in conjunction with “snowbirds.” My husband and I are NOT the definition of snowbirds, but we HAVE thought about renting somewhere warm for a few months. It’s something that you can’t understand until you’ve had a two to three week back ache from shoveling snow OR slipped on ice at, um, 65 plus. And Rex, it’s not just the NE. It’s the Midwest, Great Plains, and Canada. The only difference is which destination is the most economical. Oh, and yes…that was a great misdirect on STORYARCS.
Short TON ORTON, it's still 2000 pounds.
You know a guys a sicko when he tucks a double sawbuck into his mother's garter belt and SHOUTs DANCEMOM!
The simplest possible phone plan might be a burner phone.
When they found ancient beer containers strewn around the area of the mysterious lines in the Peruvian dessert they knew it was a clue to identifying the original NAZCA race.
My solve was eerily similar to @Rex's. Nice 1/2 tough puzzle, Adrian Johnson and Christina Iverson.
So by this logic the ones we walk by would be built out of construction sets? Brick sets? All you’ve done is shown how this clue/answer doesn’t work.
completely disagree... our home is full of constructions crafted from lego sets. it is those sets that have afforded us an actual quarter of a million lego bricks and such to make up OHMYLORD HELP US ! TOO MANY LEGO ! HEELLLP
I agree with Rex. This was part breeze and part drudgery but overall actually an enjoyable Saturday. My slog was the NE where I didn’t know ATTA or ACCRA, never heard of COSLEEPER OR RHUNESTONE, and the Saturday level clue for BEES kept that space empty for a very long time. Couldn’t even get the B thanks to BONUS ENTRY. I understand what it means but am not familiar with a specific “kind of contest” by that name. The crosses were all fairly easy though. Otherwise NAZCA and BACTRIAN were my only stumbles.
If you want to see a movie featuring a LASER MAZE, watch 1999’s Entrapment starring Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta-Jones. The film is pretty good, but the performances of those two gorgeous actors make it memorable.
I had been out of town yesterday…worked puz early but just saw yesterday’s comments. @Gary J, let me know how double CoVid/flu shot went. I was a weenie and did flu shot last week and plan to do the CoVid tomorrow. I’ve never really gotten “sick” from either but I do seem to get a tiny bit of malaise (I hope that’s right term) the next day. Maybe next year I’ll put on my big girl pants and do them together!
For once, I concur almost exactly with everything Rex says here. The whole west side fell about as quickly as I could fill it in, then I had to chisel away at the east side. LEGOSETS really irked me for the same reason. Boo to ONERATE and BONUSENTRY. Plus, is SEEPing really "running"?
Nonsense. Cosleepers keep the baby in a separate space that reduces or eliminates the risk that a parent might roll on top of the baby. The cosleeper we used was like a small crib that securely attached to the side of the bed. The cosleeper was slightly lower than the level of the bed so the baby couldn’t roll out onto the bed. And the cosleeper was far too small for an adult to be able to roll into it and on top of the baby.
Really, really slow going at first. OYS galore. One problem is that the cluing was overly trivia-dependent, and awfully obscure trivia at that. That ORTON guy, oh ya, sure. The only professional wrestler named Randy that I'm vaguely familiar with is Randy Savage, which obviously didn't fit. That African capital. Okay, it's an African nation capital, five letters long, the only usable information from that clue ("translates to "ants" " -- don't LIE TO ME, how many of you knew that?). Those things arising from Ra's tears. AS IF I would know that, and AS IF I CARE. I put in SEAS there to start. (What's the word again, in the argot of the commentariat here, for a right answer but in the wrong place? is it "malaplop"?). The ancient Peruvian geoglyphs. Etc.
It's hilarious to think of a single MESON as a particle accelerator byproduct.
I'm very much on BOARD with Rex's comments on the clues that are bad. Especially about LEGO SETS. And BONUS ENTRY (and, incidentally, "incentivizing" -- sounds like one of the entries from that famous Orwell essay, where he complains about the sheer and avoidable ugliness of certain words, often coined by businesspeople who have no ear for language). And, incidentally, about the scourge of reality TV and other unscripted TV trash like Punk'd. Of all the punchable faces out there, Ashton Kutcher is close to the top of the list. I'm not a huge Dave Chapelle fan (not in recent years, anyway), but his Def Poetry Jam Fuck Ashton Kutcher was very much to the point about the cruelty of the "PSYCH!!!" that the show specialized in.
But I digress. Somewhere from the deep recesses of my mind, I was able to cough up SEGAL. What else did that guy write? It wasn't Jonathan Livingston Seagull, was it? Oh, no no no, as Alex Trebek might have once said. That was Richard Bach. Ha, someone named SEGAL writing about a mythical seagull, that'd be a hoot. Wouldn't be PRUDENT though.
Was there a PSYCHotropic drug that Aldous Huxley didn't try? I knew about the mescaline, but not the LSD.
Happy weekend, all!
You’re doing the tough good work so hang in there. But please be a little reassured in that a cosleeper is a piece of furniture that goes next to the bed, but not possible to roll onto baby. It’s probably good to give sleep deprived parents safe alternatives.
I just recently saw a picture of her, still lovely at age 86.
I resisted the urge to write in ONELINE, saving myself some trouble. But I had to laugh at Rex’s assertion that LEND-A-CAR has an air of plausibility. It does not. “Thanks for lending me this car!” “No problem, just bring it back whenever.” “Hey, I meant to ask, how do you guys stay in business, lending out cars?” “Volume.” I mean, don’t get me wrong, that’s a world I wanna live in, where you just go down to Enterprise Lend-a-Car and they lend you a vehicle. Pretty sweet.
"When they found ancient beer containers strewn around the area of the mysterious lines in the Peruvian dessert they knew it was a clue to identifying the original NAZCA race." <-- LOL! All of your quips are great, but I literally laughed out loud at this one. Keep producing those golden eggs, egs.
A cosleeper is basically a crib that has three sides and is level with, and gets attached to, the parents’ bed. So when baby needs feeding in the middle of the night, the sleepy parent doesn’t have to walk across the room. Just scoop the baby into bed for feeding, and then move the baby back into its own sleeping space when finished. All without having to actually get up.
For DANCEMOM, where does “to improve” fit in? I get it’s a “?” clue so it’s “tricky.” But usually the trick questions make sense on reflection and I just can’t parse this one.
Toehold Saturday, with SEGAL in the middle, LEMONRIND on the bottom, HITA NERVE on the left coast, , and the ACCRA/ATTA cross in the NE (thanks, crosswords). All these led to a pretty easy solve today, which I didn't see coming, as my usual starting point in the NW led nowhere. I eventually recognized Ms. Lohan, but I am not familiar with her oeuvre, to borrow a yesterday word.
Yay for TENORS, actually did a Sam Cooke song at our retirement home gig yesterday (Wonderful World). PRUDENT reminded me of Dana Carvey doing his Bush impression. Great stuff.
Found out who ARGOS was siding with today and met Mr. ORTON. Stopped watching wrestling soon after junior high school.
Pretty sure I have the "simplest possible phone plan", which is to not have one and let my wife do all that smart phone stuff. I compensate by doing all the kitchen clean up and the long-distance driving. Works for us.
I liked your Saturday very much AJ and CI. Some sideways cluing and some esoterica OK with me. And Just for good measure, I started out sort of Completely Intimidated but ended feeling sufficiently satisfied. Thanks for all the fun.
Same here on CO-SLEEPER. When my kids born, it was frowned upon and considered “dangerous.” However, when I searched it…today they have little bed contraptions to place next to or between parents and it is deemed okay now.
That DANCEMOMs clip...YIKES!!
Yes! The ads for Entrapment very prominently showed the LASER MAZE that Zeta-Jones had to work her very shapely body through.
This whole discussion is fantasy: My memories of those years involves no sleep at all. Ever. We used to say our son kept jazz musician's hours.
Question for all you more experienced solvers - I thought 18 across was “unfair” because the answer was a contraction, but the clue was not. So I started with “has no” rather than “hasnt”. Or do I not understand NYT conventions? Thanks!
I’m sure that Rex is pulling for my Rangers to beat Cleveland today like they did last night. The Tigers’ season and their fans are very nervous this weekend!
Por favor, evite la honestidad brutal.
{It's rare when my colloquial phrase of the day is the dumbest thing in the puzzle, but there it is. In Spanish it's every bit as awkward.}
Meh. Saturday. GRR. Even though this was a humorous offering for a change, I still hope someday to enjoy the Saturday slog more. BACTRIAN and NAZCA were tough for me.
The clue for STORY ARCS is barely hanging onto truth.
Fun things to learn: ACCRA means ants. I assumed Ra's tears made the SEAS and wow did that clog up the works for awhile. And SEAS showed up for real later. I like BEES better. I met a bee expert a few years ago and he said honey bees are invasive species and compete with native bees in many cases.
Kinda bugged LEGO SETS is clued as a component, when the bricks are a component of the set, but I suppose there could be multiple buildings.
AHOY MATEY is always a fun. SHRUBS living on the edge is funny. If you need somebody to HIT A NERVE, I'm an expert. I like saying LASER MAZE and PSYCH OUT.
People: 7
Places: 3
Products: 5
Partials: 3
Foreignisms: 0
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 18 of 68 (26%)
Funny Factor: 8 🤣 {We have a winner!}
Uniclues:
1 "Ya stupid nag."
2 Beatifies buzzers.
3 Every time Lindsay opened her mouth.
4 Sound you can hear after beginning a sentence, "Do you wanna...."
1 HORSE RACE SHOUT
2 ENSHRINES BEES
3 LOHAN HIT A NERVE
4 LONER'S GRR
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Why one of the 1% can't sleep. ZILLIONAIRE PEA.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Took me an embarrassingly large amount of crosses to come up with TENORS, but when I did I was delighted that Sam Cooke and Marvin Gaye’s answer was crossing “Lift EVERY Voice and Sing.”
Travelling. Solved at the hotel late last nite. Eerily similar to Rex's solve. Same complaints, including SHRUB. They grow everywhere on my property. That's a dumb clue. The clue for STORY ARCS, on the other hand, was quite brilliant.
And that's all the notes I have. Time for breakfast and visiting all my wife's relatives and trying to remember all their kids' names. Wish me luck.
Just a skosh easier then medium. Like @Rex, west half was very easy but the rest was tougher with the SE the toughest corner.
I’ve never heard of BONUS ENTRY so that one took some staring. NAZCA, BACTRIAN, BEES, and ORTON were also WOEs.
Costly erasure - Me too for ONE linE before ONE RATE
Reasonably smooth but a tad meh, mostly liked it or what @Rex said.
NAZCA, BACTRIAN?? Never heard of a a CO-SLEEPER unless it's my husband and/or my dog. 27D SITS was more my speed today. But always good to see you Christina :)
Katey Sagal, awesome. George Segal, memorable. Jason Segel, OK. Decades ago I was passing out water to Boston Marathon runners, and along came Erich SEGAL to grab a cup from my hand.
Doh I misread or forgot the “components” wording. You and Rex are right of course.
@tht 9:59 AM
Thanks for your note yesterday. I should've said I'm hate watching PARTS of Letterkenny. I have seen Jared Keeso's future in Shoresy season 4, and I wanted his early years to show the nascence of that kind of brilliance, but it's pretty rough going so far. I'm only on Season 2, and you're right, it needs to be taken in small doses. I keep waiting for his sister to have some purpose other than being pretty.
@Benjamin Blanchard...and this comment was a delight, too!
Needed a cheat to get LAZERMAZE/NAZCA cross. Never heard of BACTRAIN. Don't get the connection between LEGOSETS and brick buildings. This puzzle raised more questions than usual, as if it just had to be hard on a Saturday. Not fun at all.
My physical therapy includes a board with rockers under it for balancing, reminds me daily of the Avengers' Emma Peel going thru an obstacle course where a misstep would lead to electrocution!
I'm always happy to see Christina Iverson's name at the top of a puzzle, for the witty clues and not-your-ordinary entries. I enjoyed this one, too, which for me as well was a nice mix of easy and challenging. In the north, I had smooth sailing, after negotiating the Scylla and Charybdis of PSYCHOUT and COSLEEPER, until I got to the ARGOS level; then I ran into the shoals of LEMON peel crossing ONE linE. I was saved only by remembering NAZCA, which ruled out "peel," and from there I was able to finish. Satisfying!
Do-overs: AmArIS, ONE linE, LEMON peel. No idea: ORTON, BONUS ENTRY. Learned: a COSLEEPER isn't a person.
I fell into the same traps. ONE linE, and SnOw birdS felt like gimmes and yet spent forever trying to make sense of the rest of that corner. Thought DIORAMAS had to be right, but that didn't fit. Contemplated nOmadS for a while for the LONERS clue. Moved to SnOw tireS briefly but no help. Got BONUS but could not figure out what word came after that. Had LEMON RIND right away but kept changing it thinking there might be some exotic fruit that began with "L" that I had never heard of. Finally broke through with LEO and then LONERS fell in which confirmed RENT A CAR which got me LASER and eventually MAZE only to struggle with the very last across. STaR YARdS a thing? STORY ARmS? STORY ARtS? And then voila, after 44 minutes, finally entered the magic "C" and ended my torment. I like my Saturday struggle, and am proud of myself for figuring it out, but what a slog after a breezy first 3/4 of a the puzzle.
Definitely had ONELINE. Hard agree on the Lego answer. NE was my bugaboo. Stuck with ICESALT for a long time. Had ----CHAIR before seeing --SLEEPER.
@tht: Thanks for posting the link. I was too lazy to look for it.
On Snowbirds, Bette Midler once defined "the poor" as those "who summer where they winter."
I thought RP or Son Volt might share Glen Campbell's hit with us today: Runestone Cowboy.
Emery board was genius. Loved that one a ton.
I cried laughing!
Well, you could say " mienteme (accent on the first e), which is pretty direct.
@Anonymous 11:08 am... the rule that a contraction should be clued by a contraction used to be followed more strictly, but Will and company have gotten very lax about things like that lately.
Wow, not medium for me. At 32 minutes last evening, it was about the longest I can last without quitting and maybe trying again in the morning. But satisfying to get there!
So many things I've never heard of: COSLEEPER, BACTRIAN, ONE RATE, BONUS ENTRY, LASER MAZE. I had LASER BEAM for that last one.
Other typeovers were GRATES before CHAFES for 10 down "Rubs the wrong way, SANDSTONE before RUNESTONE, SPEAK before SHOUT for the library taboo, and MUST before NEED at 50 across.
I really hate clues like "Brown alternative" for PENN at 50 across. As a clue it is completely useless and annoying. There are so many ways to clue that, just why?
The only runestone I’ve visited is the Heavener RUNESTONE, which Viking explorers created in eastern Oklahoma. Or could it be a hoax???
The SW was rhe hard part for me, with the reat of the puzzle fairly easy. But BACTRIAN was a WoE and I still don’t know what it is, had no idea on the WWE star, and SLOB, LIETOME, and SHRUB were mysteries as clued.
I had trouble getting a short clip but DANCEMOM is a recurring character in Season 4 of Hacks, and received an Emmy nomination for the role.
@PH from yesterday inre oeuvres: There’s a reason it is hard to transcribe this into English - the “oe” vowel that appears in French and German doesn’t occur in regular English. If you stretch out the vowel in “her” and leave off the “r” sound, you get pretty close. Coeur has the same sound, and you may have heard someone pronounce this.
I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, and don’t mind the clues that push the boundaries on wordplay. I have thought of Nancy the last couple of days with her preference for tricky wordplay difficulty over having to know PPP. Hoping she is recovering well.
While “Lift Every Voice” does get sung at civil rights protests, I think of the lyrics and use of the hymn as much broader in message and more universal in spirit.
I remember seeing LASERMAZEs any number of times, but can’t specify the movies - I think they appear in a lot of Marvel offerings and any number of heist scenes.
@Gary, neither my “reply” to Conrad on COSLEEPER nor my individual comments came through today BUT my second comment was to ask how your dual shots came out (read:side-effects?) I weenied out this year and had flu last week and now plan CoVid Monday. Your reply might make next year a more efficient year for my shots!
Same here on TENORS. For some reason (maybe because I’m a music idiot) I just do not think of Marvin Gaye (or Sam Cooke) as a TENOR. I tend to think they vocally had a “wide-range.” At any rate, I could only think of RANDB although early on I saw that was a no-go.
I liked this one a lot. My experience was a bit different that @Rex's, the NE is what really killed me today. No clue on RUNESTONES, ATTA, ACCRA or COSLEEPER (but man do I wish I had one when my kids were of the age!) But all were nice, little nuggets to learn. That corner was my major hold-up.
I found much of the rest of the solve an appropriate difficulty level for a Saturday, maybe just a tad on the easier side, and pretty high on the fun factor.
Looking at the grid again, I quite liked the SE. Like @Rex and others, I had ONELINE for 39D which held me up just a bit, and was also thinking that 51A (Enterprise enterprise) might be a Start Trek type thingy of which I'm not really a fan, so I got a kick in my step when RENTACAR fell.
I wasn't crazy about the correct ONERATE but that was my only grunt during the whole solve. It crossed with STORYARCS, which was a lovely answer with lovely cluing so that took the sting away a bit.
I guess I'm not up on my camels so BACTRIAN was new to me as well, but all the crosses were very fair so not much of a slow down there.
A lot of good stuff - thanks Adrian and Christina - you taught me so cool things today and I had some fun learning!
I also had trouble in the SE, but for another reason. I had S-OR-… at 56A (They go from season to season), and confidently wrote in SPORTS———. Thinking of a sports team or league or something. Maybe even SPORTSMEN?
Ugh
Lift every voice and sing,
'Til earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on 'til victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chastening rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered,
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
'Til now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who has by Thy might
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
our hearts drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
More of an anthem than a protest song.
If you ever get the opportunity to travel to Peru, don't miss the Nazca (or Nasca, as it's spelled in Spanish) Lines. Go to the small airport there, book a ride on a small plane at a reasonable price and see them from above. On the ground, there's a museum that is a must.
Ocean’s 12 has a famous scene; also an episode of Hustle (great British con series).
“LIVEVIDEO” has the same number of letters as LASERMAZE and resulted in a DNF for me. The west was far easier…
well, at least SNOWBIRDS is a better answer than SNOWTIRES, which i entered after finally erasing the *obvious* answer to 23D ROUND ROBIN. and yes, it also led to ONELINE, which gave me an I for LIVE IMAGE. horrible mess down there.
so, very slow start but ended up finishing in near record time for saturday, which for me is like 30 minutes.
and 50A is wrong - everyone knows its UPENN :-/
@Anonymous 9:56 AM
Not too bad this time. 😃 I usually get pretty sick, but just a little soreness and that fuzzy feeling this time. Totally worth it.
@pabloinnh 1:03 PM
Thanks! That's new to me.
Pretty similar experience to Rex. Never heard of BONUSENTRY or a COSLEEPER for that matter. Just a lot of strange cluing.
Fun to see a reference to Love Story. It’s before my time, so I looked up the author. He based characters on real life people. Heroine was based on a woman who broke his heart so he gave her a tragic ending in his novel. How sweet.
Phooey. Another one of those "pretty straightforward except for one troublesome spot" puzzles. Everything went fine until the SW. Then...STORY ARTS/NAZTA? Why not. But no, should have gone with the ARCS/NAZCA option. Don't understand either of those answers. :-\
Omg. I am anon 9:56. I NOW see I had anon reply to @Conrad. Thanks Gary J. I really should’ve gotten them at same time just to get it done! Yes, soreness and “fuzzy.” It’s like, why go thru it twice? I need to get rid of ideas like “cumulative” and exponential.”
Just taking steps to improve their dancing, is how I read it. The only "tricky" part is the phrase "taking steps," which refers to dancing rather than to taking action.
The way I read it is not that the child is "taking steps" = making efforts to improve her parent, but rather the child is taking a class in the "steps to improve" = dance moves (to be improved). Maybe there's a better way to explain it, but that's the idea. A linguist might have fun diagramming that out precisely.
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