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Fashion retailer headquartered in Spain / TUE 9-2-25 / Core-strengthening exercise / Chain with in-store salons / Travel blogger's gadget / Número to tango / Certain parent overseeing a child's career, in showbiz lingo / Khan of Khan Academy
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
Constructor: Rena Cohen
Relative difficulty: Medium (normal Tuesday)
Theme answers:
- TITANIUM ROD (18A: Surgical implant)
- TEETHING RING (24A: Soother for sore gums)
- RUSSIAN TWIST (52A: Core-strengthening exercise)
- SELFIE STICK (61A: Travel blogger's gadget)
Zara (/ˈzɑːrə/; Spanish: [ˈθaɾa]) is a fast fashion retail subsidiary of the Spanish multinational fashion design, manufacturing, and retailing group Inditex. Zara sells clothing, accessories, beauty products and perfumes. The head office is located at Arteixo in the province of A Coruña, Spain. In 2020 alone, it launched over twenty new product lines. // Zara was established by Amancio Ortega Gaona and Rosalía Mera Goyenechea in 1975. Their first shop was in central A Coruña, in Galicia, Spain, where the company is still based. They initially called it 'Zorba' after the classic 1964 film Zorba the Greek, but after learning there was a bar with the same name two blocks away, rearranged the letters to read 'Zara'. It is believed the extra 'a' came from an additional set of letters that had been made for the company. It sold low-priced lookalike products of popular, higher-end clothing fashions. They subsequently opened more shops in Spain. (wikipedia)
• • •
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| [named after a row in the Oct. 30, 2009 puzzle] |
I also had no idea who NEAL Shusterman was, so there's another proper noun that was slowing me down today (the puzzle is mostly very easy, but it only takes a few "???" answers to significantly slow things down. I should also say that I have no idea what a RUSSIAN TWIST is. I don't know how Russians twist? Is it different from how other people twist. I do all kinds of twists at the gym, I wonder if any of them are Russian. Here's a description, and yeah, I've done these. No one ever told me they were Russian:
Do people really say "MOMAGER"?? (10D: Certain parent overseeing a child's career, in showbiz lingo) Like "manager," but with "MOM" in front? It's just such an ugly word. Bad mouth feel. Sounds ridiculous. Seems like people would ask you to repeat yourself. "Sorry, did you say 'monitor'? 'dowager'? 'Papa Johns'?" All I saw was "MOM-AGER" (a variant on "teenager"). Like, maybe the "mom" was trying to live vicariously through her teenage child. SELFIE STICK feels depressingly like something someone would've put in the puzzle 10-15 years ago in an attempt to be "current." Those sticks had a media moment and then ... I haven't thought about them at all in years. Years and years. They feel bygone. Anyway, this puzzle's idea of "fun fill" just isn't mine today. I really liked DUKES IT OUT (30D: Fights), and the first couple themers are nice, but otherwise this one had a kind of dull, paint-by-numbers quality, with an unfortunate glut of overfamiliar short stuff.To perform the Russian twist one sits on the floor and bends both knees while feet are kept together and held slightly above the ground (or put under a stable surface). Ideally, the torso is kept straight with the back kept off the ground at a 45-degree angle with arms held together away from the body in a straight fashion and hands kept locked together like a ball or one can hold a weight to increase the difficulty. Next, the arms should be swung from one side to another in a twisting motion, with each swing to a side counting as one repetition. The slower one moves the arms from side to side, the harder the exercise becomes, working the abdomen that much better. When moving one's arms during the exercise, it is crucial to not stop between repetitions or else one will lose the effect of working the abdomen. As with all exercise, consistent breathing in and out during the exercise is important as one must ensure proper oxygen flow.
Other things:
- 64D: Org. that requires polygraph tests for all applicants (CIA) — I cannot take polygraphs seriously now that I know the test was pioneered by a bondage fetishist (who also happened to be the creator of Wonder Woman). I mean, no shame in bondage fetishism, but the polygraph's origins really put the whole "strapping someone down and making them tell the truth" thing into a different light. It all looks like kink play to me now.
- 1A: Número to tango (DOS) — Spanish for "two." It takes DOS to tango.
- 58D: Chain with in-store salons (ULTA) — puzzle's really leaning into fashion brand names today, but unlike ZARA, ULTA (a beauty store—makeup and what not) is a very common crossword answer and even if you've never set foot in one, you. should know the name by now.
 |
| [we don't have a ZARA in these parts, but we definitely have an ULTA] |
That's all. See you next time.
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72 comments:
I had "titanium hip" at first, and was struggling to imagine a hip-shaped pretzel.
Easy-Medium. I left the Z_RAxS_L cross (40Dx45A) until the end and got an A on my second attempt. Didn't know MOMAGER (10D)) or INUK (56A).
My only overwrite was RAMADA at 8A. I slapped that in with no crosses, then got ABOARD at 16A and then decided that the 8D granola morsel had to be OAt bIt or something else oat-ish. Quickly corrected back to RAMADA.
PRETZEL RODs are longer (usually about 5-7") and thicker; PRETZEL STICKs are usually shorter (2-4") and much thinner. When I was a kid the candy store in my neighborhood (which also sold the daily newspapers and had a soda bar where I used to get egg creams . . . good times) had a glass jar on the counter full of pretzel rods; I think they were 10 cents each or three for a quarter. Brings back memories. And PRETZEL RINGs are a thing, they're just the least common of the bunch. I disliked the puzzle less than @Rex did, but agree with most of what he wrote.
Zara - huge store in Manhattan, so easy fill. Pretzel Rods are long and thick (like a breadstick), while pretzel sticks are short and skinny. The clue for selfie stick made the answer absolutely current. ‘Influencers’ are obnoxious travelers, who block traffic on streets and in restaurants with their selfie sticks and tripods. What ‘they’ look like is more important than what they are supposedly showing the influenced. Horrible, inspired by the internet, societal phenomenon.
I laughed when I saw ICER next to NENE and was sure Rex would have something to say about tired fill. I also paused a second at the SAL/ZARA crossing, and the last letter in was the U in INUK/ULTA. Small-town Vermont is not the place to look for either a ZARA or an ULTA. The latter is slowly working its way into my crossword vocabulary (alongside BOGO), but ZARA? Pfft.
I felt Rex was spot-on in his very well-illustrated comments this morning. Except for one point that pertains to me! I did not know either of the fashion stores, so fell flat on both SAL/ZARA and INUK/ULTA. Gotta get OUT more. PRETZELS are too salty for me these days, but thought the theme well done.
Rex, Zara is an incredibly popular and common store. It has been around in the west for decades. It definitely meets the “well-known proper noun” criteria.
I’m surprised I was able to piece enough crosses together to finish this without a cheat or a typo. The longer answers (including the themers) were all very pedestrian - SECRET PLAN, TITANIUM ROD, TEETHING RING, RUSSIAN TWIST, DUKES IT OUT - they just aren’t phrases that pop up a lot in real life - so for me at least, it took quite a few crosses to suss those out.
Add to the mix a few things I’ve never heard of like MOMAGER, MATCHA tea, NEAL whoever and ZARA whatever and it was really nip and tuck there for a while. It’s only Tuesday, so I suspect that I’m an outlier - it will be interesting to see if anyone else struggled with this one.
I would say that SAL/ZARA and ULTA/INUK were both unfair crossings *for a Tuesday*. I had the entirely reasonable SoL/ZoRA, ran the vowels at _LTA/IN_K, and had to chase down my other error before running the vowels again. One of those would get some serious side-eye (again, *on a Tuesday*), both is NG.
Random thoughts:
• Three palindromes in the box (LIL, EKE, TET), plus a semordnilap pair (ONE/ENO), not to mention a pair of opposites (DROP/ASCEND).
• I guessed at ZARA / SAL (inferred correctly), but would have preferred ZOLA / SOL.
• Never heard of MOMAGER, but its wordplay brought out a big “Hah!”
• A backward IRON crossing TITANIUM made me wonder which is stronger, and a bit of research revealed it’s the latter, no contest.
• The first three theme answers – TITAINIUM ROD, TEETHING RING, and RUSSIAN TWIST – not only have terrific pop, but are also NYT answer debuts. Brava, Rena!
• “Bravarena” sounds like a party dance.
• SOARED plopped at the bottom next to LEAD made me think of “lead balloon”. Another "Hah!"
So, many happy pings for me in your savory concoction, Rena. Thank you so much for making this!
You can look up and down the Comments *already* (725am) and see that ZARA is not the universally known thing you think it is.
Hey All !
First off, there's an S in the Spelling Bee! Is that a first ever? Shocking, I say. Shocking!
Nice puz, although I agree that a PRETZEL RING does not exist. TWISTs, yes, RODs, yes, STICKS, yes, Nuggets, yes, those ones that look like Hashtags, yes. But RINGS? No. (Just Googed 'em, and whaddya know, a company named Unique Snacks does indeed make PRETZEL RINGs. How do you like them apples? Or in this case, PRETZELs.)(Heck, they even have a picture of Snyder's RINGs, where have these been? Haven't seen them in any stores I've been in. I guess I'm shopping at the wrong places.)
How about for the center, SUB, with Downs ZUPA, EBON, and ROSES becomes POSES? Yes, no?
A TuesPuz that Tuezs.
And there's an S in SB! (Have I mentioned that?)
OK BYE
Have a great Tuesday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
I don’t like PRETZELs. One of the bad things about airplane travel for me is that the snacks they give out are so often PRETZELs. Such a disappointment on top of the cramped seats, etc.
ZARA is a well-known sight in malls, especially in Europe, but also here.
I really liked the puzzle and, while I like pretzels, I don’t eat them often…but I didn’t think the theme was as “mundane” as Rex. Yesterday Rex said Lynn L’s puzzle was “simple yet elegant”, so I have to believe he saw a lack of elegance due to certain fill that was unfamiliar to him.
So far (I think) the commenters unfamiliar with ZARA are men, so I guess it might fall into the OPI/Essie nail polish knowledge (maybe women as opposed to men) and counter-balances some of the sports stats/celebs that many women are unfamiliar with (but generally don’t carp about). At any rate, ZARA started in Spain. There are ZARAs in my region of fly-over country.
MOMAGER. Didn’t this used to be “stage mother”? Well, I thought about MOMAGER, and I can see WHY it exists…someone like Kris Kardashian seems emblematic, in that she has overseen the careers of her daughters, who, while very attractive, have no discernible talent…well, not in the old “traditional” sense. They do, heaven help us, have a talent for “influencing.”
"These pretzels are making me thirsty!" (Great Seinfeld episode bit). Also, thanks for Mr. Parker's Band. Throwback good vibes song for me...like almost any track on any Steely Dan album.
Just two days ago, I saw (or noticed) an ULTA store that looks very much like the one in Rex’s photo. I’m sure it’s been there for a while but I’d never seen it before and wasn’t sure what it was. Synchronicity! The ZARA/SAL cross was also a mystery to me, but “A” seemed reasonable, and was my last letter.
Ditto to Anon6:14, exactly what I’d say, thanks!
"These pretzels are making me thirsty!" (Great Seinfeld bit). Also, thanks for Mr. Parker's Band. Great throwback vibes, like almost any track on any Steely Dan album.
Nice vanilla Tuesday, liked, with a few rough spots as (perhaps overly) stressed by RP. Theme brought back memories of pretzels I loved in my youth, and still do. Alas, I now have to brush all the salt off to satisfy my cardiologist!
The variety of the theme answers was enjoyable, although I would have guessed RUSSIANTWIST was a hairstyle
Some good downs and overall a lively feel to the answers with easy cluing . DUKESITOUT my favorite.
Finished with a smile
Nice vanilla Tuesday, liked, with a few rough spots as (perhaps overly) stressed by RP. Theme brought back memories of pretzels I loved in my youth, and still do. Alas, I now have to brush all the salt off to satisfy my cardiologist!
The variety of the theme answers was enjoyable, although I would have guessed RUSSIANTWIST was a hairstyle
Some good downs and overall a lively feel to the answers with easy cluing . DUKESITOUT my favorite.
Finished with a smile
I got naticked at ZARA/SAL as predicted. Didn't help that I named the school next to it EtON (I blame my general aversion to the name Elon), leaving me a man's first name spelled S_T.
I also invented DUKE 'EM OUTS for 30D. Good times.
second time in spelling bee. once as an homage to a round number of puzzles there , i think today as back to school...
Laughed out loud (for real) reading Rex’s response to Momager. I just rewatched Postcards from the Edge so couldn’t help thinking of Shirley MacLaine’s character.
According to Google, ZARA has 99 stores nationwide in the US. Most appear be on the east and west coasts with a handful scattered throughout the rest of the country. I’d never heard of it before, most likely because the nearest store is hundreds of miles away.
Re ZARA, depends on where your “here” is. I’ve never seen a store and never heard of it before this puzzle.
Then there are the drones buzzing around ruining any natural beauty and hordes of the “influenced” that descend upon the same place.
This would be only the second time for an S in Spelling Bee, I think. About time.
Don't like pretzels. Didn't like this puzzle. Never heard of titanium rods, Russian twists, or momagers (which spellcheck tried to replace with the equally unlikely homagers). This was an unenetrtaing hard grind for a Tuesday for me. I'm obviously not a pretentious pretzel puzzle person.
Now that peanuts are verboten, the pretzel is the go to…
I'm confused about 29A.
Mostly easy, except I had "sol/zora" before SAL/ZARA. Didn't pay attention to the theme, but did see the PRETZEL/TWIST connection.
I’m not a big fan of the PRETZEL, but I liked this puzzle. It actually had a few areas of bite which required a TRACE of effort. Knew there was a STICK and today learned there is also a ROD and there’s a difference in the two. My first answer for 7D was DRAWL, more commonly associated with the south than TWANG which seems like more of a Midwestern thing.
I’m afraid if I tried to do a RUSSIAN TWIST, I’d end up with a doctor telling me I NEED a TITANIUM ROD in my spine.
These pretzels are making me thirsty.
RP - you said it yourself correctly with moms living vicariously through their teenagers. If that’s what the term calls to mind, it did its job well.
We have ZARO’S bakeries here in the NYC area, so it was the 2nd vowel for me that was in question.
I found it interesting that the most iconic pretzel shape, bow or ring, was not included. I don’t much care for any of the pretzels listed - only the big German beer hall type or peanut butter filled ones for me, thanks.
Rex’s Wonder Woman/Polygraph test connection is worth the price of admission to this blog! Endlessly engaging
Not a PRETZEL-eater, but enjoyed this one anyway. On completion, my first thought was what the heck do you call the classic PRETZEL shape – round with those symmetrical curlicues on either side. Apparently that’s the TWIST, also known as the knot or loop. Also, where does the name PRETZEL come from? (From the German brezel, in turn derived from the Latin bracellus or brachiola, meaning "bracelet" or "little arms," respectively.) Here’s another oddity: the deep brown color of PRETZELs comes from giving them a brief dip in boiling lye, a strong alkaline solution, before baking. OK, I think all of that happily qualifies as more than you ever wanted to know.
As for the two potential naticks, I was briefly arrested by the SAL/ZARA cross, but managed to dredge up SAL Khan from some dark recess. I knew the term INUK, so no problem with INUK/ULTA, but I’ve been very slow to commit ULTA to memory, even though it crops up a lot. MOMAGER was a complete unknown.
I’m also slow to realize that a four-letter NC university is not necessarily DUKE, although I appreciate the effort to clue ELON with something other than the Muskman. I filled in DUKE for the university today, before I got to DUKES IT OUT. But even without discovering the duplication (DUKE-lication?), I swiftly realized that DUKE was wrong, as the Valentine flowers had to be ROSES not some obscure bloom with K as its second letter.
Funny how wrong-headed you can be at times. [“All ______!” (conductor’s call)] made me think of an orchestra conductor, and I wanted something like “All together!” But that was too long so I thought “All At Once!”?? But, geez, surely no orchestra leader would say that. D’oh! Also tried drAwl for TWANG, but ANEW put a stop to that.
Thanks, Rena Cohen, for an entertaining Tuesday!
Pretzels! How thrilling!
Don't like 'em, don't eat 'em, don't know or care about their shapes. ZARA rang enough of a vague bell that I was able to get the SAL cross. Never heard of a RUSSIAN TWIST. Liked MOMAGER, even though I've never heard of it either. And beware the SELFIE STICK -- in a museum it might put your eye out. Some of the long answers here were nice, but I thought the short fill was pretty clunky.
All four of SAL/ZARA and INUK/ULTA were completely new to me. As far as I know I haven’t been living under a rock and I’ve been solving this puzzle daily for over 10 years. SAL is the only one of those four that looked familiar. ULTA is “very common” in past puzzles??? I don’t ever remember seeing this before in any context, but I abhor malls, so maybe I am living under a rock. In any case, putting one Natick in a Tuesday is tough. Two seems unreasonable and good reason for revising the puzzle.
An “S” in the 🐝 is tedious.
29A....WTF?
Some of these awful Instagram ego fests are the SELFIESTICK I've ever seen.
I recently allowed my granddaughter to win at checkers by moving a black SOARED could jump it.
At a recent demonstration in Durham a guy got arrested for fighting. The headline read: Man DUKESITOUT at DUKESITin.
Didn't 007 order his vodka martinis with a RUSSIANTWIST?
I'm not sure that NEAL Shusterman qualifies as a young adult [Young adult novelist Shusterman]. Wikipedia pegs him at 53.
With all of the current controversy about TZEL, I long for the PRETZEL days.
I'm just fine with PRETZELs in any shape, but make mine an Auntie Anne's. Don't let these salty, twisted commenters get to you, Rena Cohen. Your puzzle was tasty.
29A....Nevermind
The theme was OK, although it was annoying to have the revealer pop up so soon. I'm a bit dubious about the surgical implant, though. My wife has a titanium brace in her tibia, and I'm sure there are other sorts of implants -- but a simple ROD? Where do they put it, and what does it do? I went with "rib," but that was soon ruled out.
On the plus side, it was appropriate for the CIA to be gathering INTEL from those twisty RUSSIANs down there, even if they didn't get far enough to unearth the SECRET PLAN. And I did like the ELIS-ELIE-ELON trio as well as the IBIS-ISIS pair.
As for ANI, I'll take the blackbird every time.
ZARA/SAL was a sheer guess, and perhaps an incorrect one, as it could just as well be ZORA/SOL. I'll go check now.
No ZARAs or ULTAs around here either. I don't miss them.
zera/sel, zira/sil, zora/sol, zura/sul, zyra/syl can all be pretty readily ruled out event if you don't know zara/sal. sel or sil would have other clues and don't sound like an arabic name. sol would have some kind of sun clue.
Yes! I guessed it right--SAL and ZARA.
Everyone else seemed to take TITANIUM ROD in stride, so I tried an Internet search-- there are plenty of them for sale, but they seem too big to be used for implants of the surgical kind. My thinking is that if you are going to run the risk of cutting somebody open to implant it, you want a piece of titanium that's precisely shaped for what you want it to do, not just a ROD. But no doubt there are surgeons reading this who will correct me.
I absolutely read the clue as Mom-Ager, as in mom living vicariously through her teen, and thought it was a ridiculous made up word to fill a grid. Then I read your comment about momager/manager and realized my mistake. Now I think it’s a ridiculous made up word to fill a grid.
So many unknowns on a Tuesday (others have mentioned them often) that I wondered if my long experience in solving had gone for naught. Crosses to the rescue, except for the heinous ZARA SAL thing. Ugh.
I find that a PRETZEL as a snack is improved significantly if one has a cold IPA as an accompaniment. I'll have a big classic Snyder's please, with lots of salt, and a Lawson's Sip of Sunshine. Mmmmm.
Not my favorite Tuesday ever, RC, too many potholes in this Race Course for my liking. Everything was salvaged by the OTTER though, so thanks for that.
I struggled and had to cheat. SAL/ZARA isn’t a natick imo, not by itself, but it can act like one with a secondary cross like SAL/ELON and another tricky cross to consider like INUK/ULTA. That’s what killed me. But even without that, it played slow for me.
Kind of a tough one, downs-only-wise. About half an hour, but not the most exciting half an hour even though I love pretzels. Well, I love salt and don’t seem to have the high blood pressure problems others apparently have because of it. Bread and salt, how simple and delicious does it get? I’ll eat twists or sticks and have to wonder what the difference is between sticks and rods? Never bought a package labeled rods.
Some real hold-ups. I had drawl at 7D instead of TWANG and MOMAGER (really?!) was a desperate guess at 10D. Also initially had Does battle instead of DUKES IT OUT at 30D.
Small NW and SE corners were pretty sad with DOS, EKE, ABC and ONE, USA, and TET, but, okay, that happens.
Nice to run into INUK in the SW corner, even though I had to dig really deep to dredge up ULTA, a cosmetics company, I think, from the depths of my crossword memory to cross it. Netflix is streaming a show called North of North about a young INUK woman in Canada’s Arctic. Charming and funny. Highly recommended.
Thanks, Rena Cohen. I had to wrestle with it but wrestling’s kind of good exercise sometimes.
11:30 pm Monday and I’m listening to a forgotten playlist on my ancient iPod called “Amy Imelda Adele”. I’m sure you’ve all heard of Adele and the late, great Amy Winehouse but you should also acquaint yourselves with Imelda May, especially her earlier albums, “Love Tattoo”, 2008 and “Mayhem”, 2010. Irish rockabilly at its absolute best.
I enjoyed this ode to the PRETZEL, one of my favorite salty snacks - at the "cannot have in house or will eat entire bag" level. I did miss my favorite shape, however - the nugget. So satisfying to bite down in that little divot. Anyway. Also liked SECRET PLAN and DUKES IT OUT; IBIS + ISIS as possible hieroglyphic neighbors; and ICER and NENE crossing ENO as a fine example of crossword "glue."
Help from previous puzzles: SAL New to me: RUSSIAN TWIST, INUK, NEAL Shusterman.
Medium.
No costly erasures but me too for RUSSIAN TWIST, NEAL, and ZARA being WOES.
A crunchy theme with a couple of fine long downs, liked it more than @Rex did.
Right guess for SAL SARA but INAK ALTA not so much. Crossing two proper names ought to mean that one of them is almost universally known IMO. Enjoyed the puzzle in any case.
As a not-that-young ‘younger’ puzzler (I’m on the end of the millennials), I have to politely disagree with Rex’s take today — the proper nouns in the fill were much easier for me than the usual fare, excluding RAMADA and SAL. ULTA and ZARA both felt extremely fair game (and I have shopped at neither). Also as someone who is only medium into pretzels, pretzel rings are definitely a thing, and rods/sticks are quite different. ‘Snaps’ or ‘nibblers’ are also fairly commonly sold shapes, but those would perhaps have gotten more grumbles. (Am I more of a pretzel enjoyer than I thought?) I thought the theme was clean (no contrived phrases) and it made me smile. I loved DUKES IT OUT in the fill. Also sadly yes, MOMAGER’s are real, although it’s a bit old as a word, and I hope child acting / pageants / internet content regulation steps up so that they become obsolete.
This puzzle was okay for a Tuesday.
Nothing really stood out for me except for the theme, PRETZEL, which my father sold in his 'Candy/Stationary Store where my Mother made the best egg creams at the counter - which had stools! - you could get a 'newspaper' (of all things) at the newsstand outside & even a greeting card - all of which Anonymous@6:14 (thank you :) mentioned & all a part of my childhood,
Back to the present, I do yoga but never heard of the RUSSIAN TWIST, but then I'm new to it.
Thank you, Rena :)
Thank you for the walk down memory lane. I commented just now but I'm not sure it you come back to read the comments (mine @11:06) - all part of my childhood :)
I was hoping to find a SOFT PRETZEL, the only good kind, but alas all we were TREATed to was the tasteless dry ones.
The curious thing for me was all the NE words: NEAL SINE NEWT NESS ONE NEMO ANEW and of course NENE. Is it some SECRET code reference to Nebraska or neon? Is it an OMEN? Also EN’s abounded - what’s up rENa cohEN? INEED to know. And why only ONE ENO? Maybe @Lewis can tell us.
I solved on paper so had no opportunity to correct my SoL/ZoRA cross. If I’d cared to spend the time I might’ve questioned why SoL/ZoRA would be clued as they were and tried different vowels - never heard of ZARA but SAL surely makes more SENSE. Oh well.
Was the RUSSIAN TWIST a 1920’s dance craze? If so, it could be The Beatles song that was a hit before your mother was born. Sorry, for some reason that song is playing in my head this morning, but I could only remember the LYRICs to one verse. Then I checked and there is only ONE, repeated over and over, with ONE word changing the last time. Far from their best effort, but at least there’s this zany video (notice the ROSES).
My first reaction was, this is the Friday puzzle we didn't get a few days ago. Played quite tough, but I came close to perfection in the end. Close, because I forgot the Khan guy is SAL, not SOL. Since Khan Academy is for know-itall types, I figured his name ought to be Solomon, who was very much a wise guy, so the story goes.
And I did finish off my uneaten PRETZEL rod as I solved. I'm addicted to them. The little sticks are useless, and I guess rings exist, but not in my world. As a boy at prep school, I was given those thick twists when we met with our dorm master and his wife, so I remember them well. A special treat came in the fall, when they were served up with cider from the local cider mill.
I find people with selfie sticks the SELFIEST ICKS around. And yes, that's how I cannot help but read it.
I feel like pretzel rings usually show up in Chex mix rather than as a standalone.
As someone who likes shopping and does not like sports, the proper names gave me no trouble today, and the puzzle played easier than your average puzzle which almost always features sports trivia.
Splatz m&e in the pretzels-not-for-me column. Pretzel shapes are no-knows, at our house. Soooo ... it'd be real apt, if ZARA & ULTA sell pretzels.
Solvequest was pretty smoooth, except for nanosecond-eatin ZARA, ULTA & MATCHA [Primo solvequest witch names]. Enjoyed almost everything except the pretzel payoff.
staff weeject pick: ANI. Nice ?-marker gimme clue.
some fave stuff: DUKESITOUT. MOMAGER [no-know, but kinda funny]. OKBYE.
Thanx, Ms. Cohen darlin. Liked the themers despite them pretzel lurkers.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
... an easy-ish runtpuz, for a change ...
"Drawing a Blanks" - 7x7 themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I agree completely with Rex'x write-up today.; this felt like a lot of tired old fill with a theme that had no pizzazz. ZARA/SAL or ZORA/SOL...who knows? And who knows Shusterman? Not much to care about today.
SAL is a double natick with ZARA and ELON both. I'm sure ELON is a perfectly respectable little university but I'm confident an international audience would be more familiar with. ZARA, maybe even with SAL.
Also, while selfie sticks had their "media moment" a good while back like Rex said, they're absolutely still used, and often. Go anywhere tourist-y and you'll see those sticks around. Acting like they're not really out there anymore is just plain wrong.
I first had " MOMOTER" (MOM and PROMOTER). Have l invented a neologism?
pretzel rods with a Genesee Cream Ale were a crossword staple at der Rathskeller - you gotta dunk it in the ale
The theme was fine enough if unexciting. But the awful cluster of Unknown Names around square 41: ZARA ELON SAL NEAL. All except ZARA could have been clued way more easily; it is Tuesday after all.
Just back from Labor Day weekend at the cabin. Saturday was super busy with the beach packed with families, and the lake packed with boats everywhere. Sunday, everyone seemed to pack up and go home! Then Monday was eerily quiet. Does everyone need to be home on Monday to get ready for school?
BOHR, ENO, GARR, ORR and OTT all graduated from ELON
Yikes. This was me above. Just when I think I’m ALWAYS paying attention to whether my avatar is showing instead of an anonymous silhouette….
So many things pair well with a Sip of Sunshine. My favorite is another Sip of Sunshine.
As am I. Anybody want to help a confused solver
Absolutely agree with Rex re "momager" Sounds awful feels awful. Also it seems too clunky for anyone in show biz to use. Did anyone ever actually say it?
Another who has never heard of Zara. But then I haven't been out of Alaska for years, so... Unfortunately I have heard of Sephora, which I think we saw recently. It has appeared as a department n several stores here. Made the whole place a stinking headache causing nightmare.
This puzzle played a bit hard for a Tuesday for me. Due mainly to names I did not know. But also due to a stubborn insistence on reading 29A as "...more than I want" instead of "a want" .
Never heard of a Russian twist ( and reading the description I'd guess I was never able to do one - not even 50 years ago) but it went right in with crosses.
I’m partial to a nice soft pretzel - freshly baked, right out of the oven, slathered with so much mustard that you can barely see the pretzel, accompanied by an ice cold beer of your choice.
Anonymous 9:09 am... yes SB is tedious with the S. I have found 38 words, and so far, all but 3 of them are or have S appended plurals. About as tedious as when both ED and ING are present.
Ha!
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