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Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
It is currently the night of my wedding anniversary (i.e. Saturday night), so I have had a little to drink and a Lot to eat and am maybe not in the writingest headspace right now, but I'll do my best. Gonna keep it short. I think. This theme is silly and I kind of love it for that reason. I'm also slightly impressed by the title of the puzzle—which I rarely am on Sundays (the only day with an official title). I mean, it's very on the money. "Perk" is another word for "benefit," obviously, and Central Perk was the name of the coffee shop that functioned as the social hub of the Friends universe. There's a joke, many years into the show, where PHOEBE is talking to someone about "having picnics in Central Park" and "coffee at Central Perk," at which point she realizes that the coffee shop name is a pun: "Oh my god, I just got that." I'm pretty sure that was when *I* first got it too. I never really thought about the name. Anyway, I watched every episode of that show (a lot of it during its original run, and then all of it a few years back), and I literally just finished watching the second episode of the new season of The Morning Show, which is also set in NYC and also stars Jennifer Aniston. None of this is particularly relevant, just Friends-adjacent. I really wanted the crosses of the Friends and the benefits to be meaningful. That is, I wanted those letters to spell something out, but all I'm getting is CEANOS, which anagrams to OCEANS ... is that something? OCEAN is in the puzzle (64A: Where a hurricane forms). And there's a WALRUS in the OCEAN (or just under it). And the WALRUS was Paul, right? ... I don't see an EGGMAN, though. I'm gonna say the letters in the Friends/benefits crosses are meaningless. Sadly. Would've been supercool if those letters had been relevant in any way. But I still like the basic concept.
- RACHEL / DAYCARE (10D: Mother of Joseph and Benjamin, in the Bible / 24A: Alternative to a nanny)
- PHOEBE / HEALTH (3D: Fly-catching bird with a name derived from Greek / 39A: Class that might cause some high schoolers to blush)
- MONICA / DENTAL (17D: Santa ___ / 41A: Like some bridges)
- CHANDLER / BONUS (51D: City SE of Phoenix / 73A: Extra)
- JOEY / VACATION (86A: Outback baby / 47D: Time out, perhaps)
- ROSS / WELLNESS (90A: Sewer in American history / 56D: Holistic contentment)
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in an integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empirical relationship. It is an experience curve effect, a type of observation quantifying efficiency gains from learned experience in production.The observation is named after Gordon Moore, the co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel and former CEO of the latter, who in 1965 noted that the number of components per integrated circuit had been doubling every year,[a] and projected this rate of growth would continue for at least another decade. In 1975, looking forward to the next decade, he revised the forecast to doubling every two years, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 41%. Moore's empirical evidence did not directly imply that the historical trend would continue; nevertheless, his prediction has held since 1975 and has since become known as a law. (wikipedia)
• • •
 |
| [PHOEBE] |
If you're not a Friends fan, I don't know if you'll be as well disposed toward the theme as I am. There's other stuff to admire, for sure, though not a lot of long stuff—with 12 theme answers, half running Across and half Down, there's considerable pressure on the grid, and that pressure has been handled by building a grid that is quite heavy on the short stuff (though mercifully not heavy on outright gunk). I was not always enamored with the fill. I shouted "EAT A SANDWICH!" when I got SEND A CARD and then reshouted it at HAS A SIP (I've only had one cocktail, I swear). But there wasn't much else that made me flinch. There are a helllll of a lot of first person pronouns in this puzzle, though. Like "I" "I" "I" they just keep coming. IDK x/w I HEAR, then I'LL SEE, I'M THERE, I'LL ASK, I RAIL ... ok that last one doesn't involve a pronoun, but it's pretty bad as [letter]-[word] answers go. I've heard of IBEAM and IBAR, but not IRAIL, which sounds like an iPhone app if we lived in the USA timeline that has highspeed rail. But no, we live in this incredibly shitty timeline where the federal government is using the military to attack its own cities, its own people. This could be us ... but no:
Thanks to my making that ORTON wrestler guy my Word of the Day yesterday, I had WWE right at the top of my brain, so I actually remembered a wrestling initialism, yay me (116D: Org. that merged with the U.F.C. in 2023). I had SEETHES before SEES RED (an amazing, horrible letter-sharing coincidence) (92D: Boils with rage). I had to think for a minute about EMMA v. EYRE (1D: Title heroine described as "handsome, clever and rich, with a comfortable home and happy disposition"). Actually, maybe not a minute. Probably closer to a second. That description couldn't be less apt for Jane EYRE if it tried. So EMMA it was. We're currently in the middle of Mansfield Park. It is really pretty bad. We've been in the middle of it for a while now, since we only listen to it when we take trips out of town, usually up to Ithaca. Which means we'll listen to it today (i.e. Sunday), since we're going up to Cinemapolis to see Robert Redford in The Natural tomorrow. Maybe Mansfield Park will pick up? It's hard to see how the heroine is ever going to find a personality, but, to borrow a phrase from a puzzle earlier in the week: FINGERS CROSSED.
Bullets:
- 33A: Remove surgically, as tissue (ABLATE) — I had: ABRADE. I think (skin) tissue is abraded during certain (surgical?) procedures. That is my defense of my answer.
- 37A: Beethoven symphony originally intended to honor Napoleon (EROICA) — Ooh, the latest "Sticky Notes" podcast is all about what difference a conductor makes to the performance (and recording) of a piece of music, and EROICA is the piece of music being used as an example. Comparative EROICAs! I've only listened to the first ten minutes so far, but I'm eager to get back into it. If you like classical music, "Sticky Notes" is a really fine podcast.
- 63A: ___Guessr, hit online game whose players deduce locations from Google Street View images (GEO) — the phrase "hit online game" makes me laugh. Yeah, I'm not going to know that, I can guarantee you. Getting GEO was not hard to guess given that (long) clue, but LOL no idea. It does appear to be A Whole Thing...
- 77A: ___ Day, Billie Holiday's portrayer in "The United States vs. Billie Holiday" (ANDRA) — as with yesterday's NAZCA, I remember making ANDRA Word of the Day at some point in the recent past, but that did Not help me remember her today.
- 82A: He was né Clay (ALI) — omg I have never seen masculine "né" it looks cursed.
- 50D: Clown around with food? (McDONALD) — as in Ronald, truly the scariest-looking clown there is. That "It" clown? Trying too hard. This is the real nightmare fuel:
90A: Sewer in American history (ROSS) —just in case you couldn't figure out how "Sewer" = ROSS, think Betsy. "One who sews," not "waste management system."
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary, @Rex!! Enjoy the movie!
Easy, even though I'm not a big fan of Friends.
Overwrites:
My 20A Arizona county was Mojave before it was MOHAVE
I had AGE Limit(?) before LEVEL for the game box info at 48D
My rap battle (50A) involved djS before MCs, but the real DJS showed up later, at 79D
77A: ANDRA Day, née AuDRA
For X at 80A, chi before TEN
@Rex SEEthes before SEES RED for the rage at 92D
It took three tries to get the puzzle-preferred spelling for LITCHI at 97D
T-noteS before T-BillS before T-BONDS at 99D
WOEs:
The game GEO Guessr (63A)
Retailer WEST ELM (120A)
Always enjoy your comments. What does WOE stand for?
Delete@anon 10:04…What On Earth
DeleteHad SEETHES before SEESRED. And RESECT before ABLATE. Both messed me up for a while especially since I do the puzzle in pen.
ReplyDeleteSEETHES and EXCISE here.
DeleteI have never watched an episode of Friends in my life. I know some of the names through the zeitgeist, but the puzzle did nothing for me. Thankfully, it was easy.
ReplyDeleteAgreed.
DeleteMe too. Finished without any idea of how the theme works.
DeleteDitto me. Rarely watched
Deletethe show, but knew the names of the characters. Even so, didn’t see the theme until I read Rex’s comments.
Double Natick at 120A? W_STEL_. Never heard of a HEN party, and SYMS was well outside my service area. Not knowing WEST ELM was extra punitive.
ReplyDelete+1 on Syms. Been listening to jazz for 60+ years, was a DJ on a local jazz station and never heard of her until today. That is definitely Natick territory.
DeleteAnonymous 6:55 AM
DeleteLikes & dislikes are a matter of taste but to call something punitive seems over the top here. HEN party especially. It may be an age thing. Hen party is an expression almost universally known by older people. ( It has a sexist tone to it so it may be dying out). If a large % of people know the term it is not a natick or punitive. You may just be in the wrong age group, like I am for say some pop or rap or gen Z slang.
West Elm I have never been in a store but I have heard of it. West and Elm are actual simple words and a common street name so it’s easier to figure out than say Zara which people complained about a while back. Likewise Syms is a common English origin last name. I had no clue as to the name before I got the answer BTW.
Sometimes I just can’t figure something out but I try not to take it out on the constructor
Triple natick for me... I've never heard of "TAKEI" either... why do we have to go through this every Sunday?
DeleteNo friend of Friends, so the theme was lost on me, not that it mattered. A festival of short fill, largely due to the odd grid. Why that cutoff central space?
ReplyDeleteMaybe that central space is supposed to represent Central Park?
DeleteYou got it! I wondered same thing but I'm sure that you're right- another level of cleverness added. This guy is good!
DeleteOr is it the couch from the coffee shop?
DeleteFun fact - I’ve never watched or had the desire to watch an episode of Friends. It’s ubiquitous at this point - and my wife watches reruns all the time so I was able to INFER most of the trivia here. When the tribute has absolutely no interest to a solver - it makes for a long slog.
ReplyDeleteFEMME Fatale
Rex highlights the highs and lows - I really dig it when he states the write up will be short and then goes off on a Tolstoy-like tear - outstanding. The cocktails usually dictate.
The Star Room Boys
Thankfully this was TV Guide LEVEL easy. One full pass and a few fill-ins and done. The grid art or whatever that is in the center doesn’t help matters - a lot of that fill is grid restricted.
Mere Pseud Mag Ed
Huge pass on this one.
The WHISKEY Makes You Sweeter
Probably posting the obvious but Ronald McDonald was none other than Willard Scott, later the Today show weatherman.
ReplyDeleteThis is was a very easy and not very pleasurable solve. I’ve never seen a single episode of that show so those character names were totally meaningless to me, and I was left pondering what on earth the non-word CEANOS might have to do with the phrase “Central Perk.” I like puzzles where the theme helps the solve. Maybe this did for some, but definitely not me.
ReplyDeleteWell, wasn’t that creative, Rich coming across the phrase FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, and picturing a puzzle hooking up the friends from the show with work benefits. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteAnd wasn’t that remarkable, actually pulling this theme off IRL, having it fit symmetry, and decently filling in the grid, given the constraints of six crossed answers plus a 19-letter revealer. Wow!
Because I didn’t watch the show – maybe saw an episode or two – my biggest aha was that moment I thought, “I bet these were the characters on ‘Friends’!”
Best memory trigger was UNUM, which shot me right back to the first time I heard the phrase “e pluribus unum” in the Wizard of Oz, when I was a wee kid. (It’s when the Wizard is handing out a diploma to the Scarecrow). It sounded so silly to me I never forgot it.
Lovely serendipities: The rare-in-crosswords five-letter semordnilap PEETS, and the pair of T-starters (TBONDS and TBAR).
A fun and satisfying solve on top of an impressive theme and grid-build. Rich, Sunday in the box with you was a start-to-finish treat – thank you!
People love to brag that they have never watched Friends. 🙄
ReplyDeleteYeah. It’s very impressive.
DeleteNot so much a brag (why would that be bragging?) as a statement of fact.
DeleteYes, and you are correct thatmost are smug about it. Ah well, their loss!
DeleteNot a brag - just a show that defined the uniformed privilege of the 90s. A copycat of Living Single and created by Clinton besties - absolutely void of any diversity or originality. It should have been called Wealthy, White, Straight Friends.
DeleteThey just keep coming. I’ve never seen people virtue-signal so hard over a simple TV show. Textbook conformist opinion on Friends. Clinton? Lol. Your white leftist friends must be so proud.
DeleteFor me it was just an expression of frustration and bewilderment. Sorry if it came off as a brag. We all have stuff we know that others don’t and vice versa.
DeleteFunnily enough, as I already had worked out the theme, I was just “huh, I guess there’s a ROSS Sewer in American history, Rex will probably let me know what he’s famous for later..”
ReplyDelete@Anonymous 8:00AM https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betsy_Ross :)
DeleteAm I the only person who has never heard or seen the word “redound” before?
ReplyDeleteNope
DeleteHad to look it up. Too boring to be "word of the day" Now I'll have to use it in conversation this week
DeleteNope!
Deleteuntil today, no.
DeleteI never heard of redound either.
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteThe ICEMAN cometh. Har.
Silly brain never got the fact of them being the friends of "Friends". How is that possible? Especially with CHANDLER and PHOEBE. My goodness. So, of course, never got the fact that the crossers were "benefits", ala from work. Man, I told you the ole brain is fastly petering out.
Cool puz after the Rexplanation, thanks for telling it to me like a 5 year old. I know it was quite difficult to fill cleanly with all that Theme running about. Good job, Rich.
Already had MCS in at 50A, but did that stop me from putting it in at 79D? It did not. Managed to change it to the correct DJS.
Lots to like in this puz. Very well made, left/right symmetry, good fill. BONUS points for you, Rich!
Have a great Sunday!
Five F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Déjame comprobarlo. Les preguntaré.
ReplyDeleteSomeone who lives in my house enjoys Friends and so we have watched all 236 episodes multiple times and I have never once laughed out loud, except for the "PIVOT!" scene. I suppose privileged white people who drink wine and have struggles is not my genre. So I turned to the benefits here and phew those are struggling even worse. Way to ruin the idea of friends with benefits.
More importantly, REDOUND? Do you serve it with LITCHI on a SYMS with a heapin' helpin' of EMPTOR mixed with ABLATE at a HEN party? I dunno. Just love a gunky Sunday puzzle angst-athon.
I am suspicious an entire country's spice palette comes down to PAPRIKA. And, in the other problematic spice clue, our pantry has all kinds of wonderful smells in it.
I confuse expiating with spitting. Dunno why. I am a fan of walruses. And I have been asleep many times without LAIN-ing as I love to sleep at my desk. [Sun bloc?] is a delightful clue. I found out today SEETHES and SEES RED unfortunately have the same number of letters.
I'm a LEFTIST, but I have plenty of less-than-liberal leanings too. I guess I can be an INTHEMIDDLEIST sometimes.
ASTRAL is on my favorite word list between ERUDITE and ANALOG.
People: 18
Places: 5
Products: 14
Partials: 9
Foreignisms: 6
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 52 of 140 (37%)
Funny Factor: 6 😐
Uniclues:
1 Why the Indian oral surgeon drives a Lamborghini.
2 Extra art holder-uppers under the sea for the mustachioed.
3 The SSRs whether they liked it or not.
4 Bleeding Visa cards on a girls' weekend away.
5 The scent of a happy galaxy.
1 DELHI DENTAL HEALTH (~)
2 WALRUS BONUS EASELS
3 LEONID TRIBES
4 FEMME VACATION MOOLAH
5 ASTRAL WELLNESS SMELL
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: The museum of arsery on 🦖. BLOG'S RUMP BLAB.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I'm glad you went there, Gary, to give some of the same reasons I have for not liking Friends. I think maybe I have laughed twice at something in there, one more than you.
DeleteNow that you've provided me a permission structure, I'll say that the show often felt to me as if written by a committee with a bead on what was trending for a certain class of white people in the 90s. And also that it adhered to a very traditional comedy formula, consisting of a series of set-ups for one-liners and zingers. Finally, too many hugs, too much learning.
So I can drink milk here in stl right?. I was doomscrolling through Facebook and it had a pic of an alchemy goddess, and her breasts were wheat that looked like a mushroom and grapes. Noble middle is fine by me. I take it something might have happened? Now what? Wondering when I can leave to go sit in Flagstaff? I have no clue when to use the one in Georgia...and I am so incredibly dense now
Delete🙄 not liking Friends is not a personality. Also, watching every episode of a 200+ episode comedy you don’t think is funny = a choice. The phrase WEIRD FLEX BUT OK comes to mind.
DeleteHaha…in an effort to defend the fact that this 70 year old really liked Friends I will say this: Monica had managed to get that extremely nice (and spacious) apartment when her grandmother died. Phoebe pretty much didn’t have a pot to piss in, but benefited by her friendship with Monica and was her roommate. Chandler had a very well-paid job that nobody really knew what it was, and Joey was an unemployed/underemployed actor (Until he got a break well in) and also didn’t have a pot to piss in, but Chandler gave HIM a break and let him be roommate. Ross was a paleontologist. He had a nice apartment. Likewise, jilting bride Rachel had no job at first and benefitted from the Monica apartment. With that said, sitcoms are not everyone’s cuppa, and most aren’t for me, but I truly think it had great writers and good actors that made you believe they were friends.
DeleteI don’t think it’s bragging if I say I never watched Friends. I think Beezer put it right. Some people like sitcoms some don’t. I actually tend not to watch comic TV shows of whatever type That’s just me. Not a criticism of others I also can’t stand shows with ads. That’s also me. I have read criticism of Friends and though I never saw it I think some of it also sounds over the top. Beezer refuted the criticism about too fancy apartments vs income criticism. On the other hand tht noted that the show wasn’t very innovative. But I am sure it clearly created a world that many got attached to.
DeletePeople have friends or significant others who watch it and may watch it for that reason and/ or curiosity That is not a weird flex.
What's your genre, Gary?
DeleteA weird solving experience for me today. I dropped in the revealer just off of the F in FEMME, finished the grid, stared at the theme entries for a while, and nothing. I doubt I had much of a chance since I’ve never seen an episode of Friends. From CrossWorld, I usually recognize the names from the Seinfeld and occasionally the Cheers shows, and I need to be reminded that JA was on Friends - but that’s pretty much the extent of what I have to draw on there.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of it was a pretty enjoyable excursion. I haven’t read the comments yet, but I’m guessing that a few personal records will fall today - which worked out fine for me as I could progress through the grid pretty much oblivious to the presence of the theme.
Did it in the magazine for a change. Easier than most Sundays, but I had a problem in the NW because I had "relocates" and "relegates" before RESETTLES. I also had "seethes" before SEESRED. Didn't understand all the italicized clues and answers, because I have never watched "Friends." (There! I said it!)
ReplyDeleteOnce again a disappointingly easy Sunday. I remember when this puzzle used to take me a week to do, and now I blast through it under 30 minutes. 25 today. I guess because I'm much better at it, or I'm old enough to get more cultural references, but still disappointed when my fun is over so quickly. Got the gimmick kind of mid-way through, but it's another one of those themes where you don't need to figure out the theme to solve the puzzle which always bums me out.
ReplyDeleteHiccuped at the very end with REDOUND - a word I didn't know. I had REmOUND because mENTAL seemed plausible but once I fixed the EyrE/EMMA mix-up and finally got OVERALL then it was a matter of figuring out what other letter besides "M" might work and voila. My coffee is still hot, which means the puzzle went too fast. I guess that's the norm now.
Also just noticed that BONUS is in the very center of the puzzle. So it's a "Central Perk" which is impressive.
ReplyDeleteThis puzzle was pathetically, fill-in-the-blanks easy; a rote exercise. It did not dispose me to it (since Rex asked). In fact I thought that RP was going to SET UPON it, lay waste to it, in view of how simplistic it was OVERALL, that with the extra "BONUS" of eat-a-sandwich vibe that was so evident and on such Central display. Perhaps I should have known better. Perhaps I should have remembered how Friends is a SEWER (sic -- I'm deliberately punning) of division between those who love it and those who feel contempt for it -- and I am decidedly in the latter camp.
ReplyDelete(I hasten to add that I don't feel contempt for the people who love it, by any means. My brother for instance, whom I love like a brother -- he and his whole family are absolutely devoted to it. And there are some good moments, that I grant. Tempted though I am, I shan't detail the reasons why I think it's not a great show that also hasn't aged very well.)
I don't know why I thought at first that it was MojAVE, but PHOEBE of all people set me straight. One glance at the puzzle title and I knew she'd be in there -- that was an easy INFERENCE.
Structurally, the puzzle did have a pleasing symmetry in the placement of the principals' names. So that's a plus, I guess. I admit I overlooked the perky aspect of the puzzle (like HEALTH, which they say causes some high-schoolers to blush), because really I wanted to get the puzzle over with. In retrospect, I grant that was another plus (or perk if you will), how those were also placed symmetrically with respect to the center line. So in that respect, I SEE better why Rex was so appreciative, and additional kudos are due to Rich Katz for his construction.
I meant to say that I was glad the answer was SADE, because I knew there was some other Nigerian-connected mononymic singer with a four-letter name, but which the old brain could only find post-solve by googling "Kiss From a Rose". SEAL.
DeleteI’ve been thinking about this whole Friends thing. I THINK some of it is that it really was a long tale of the characters maturing and evolving. Albeit with wackiness in the episodes. For whatever reason (my age at the time?), I started at the beginning…and it became a habit. Not sure I’d have liked it either, if I randomly tuned in to a one episode.
DeleteStupid "theme"; horrible puzzle -- and I watched every episode of the show and loved it. This just made no sense.
ReplyDeleteWell it was shorter and less painful than watching an episode of Friends so there’s that.
ReplyDelete😂 LOL
DeleteI did not figure out the theme until after everything was filled in, which made the center island much harder. Don't know CHANDLER as clued, nor CHE, nor ANDRA. If I had known I was looking for a "Friends" character, that mystery section would have been a gimme instead.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite "Friends" episode is the one when Joey suffers a hernia.
Only in TV fantasy land does a dorky looking David Schwimmer hook up with the gorgeous Jennifer Aniston.
ReplyDeleteDon't overlook the fact that he's tall and well-proportioned.
DeleteVery funny, (honest) but I also think of all the “knockouts” that Jerry dated during Seinfeld. And I liked Seinfeld.
DeleteIt happens --- my beautiful wife married a slob like me.
DeleteAnonymous 9:14 AM
DeleteI never watched Friends but I know of Schwimmer and I don’t think he is actually dorky. But if is true that’s a common trope of sitcoms and many films. The main reason for it is that most writers, producers, show runners etc are men who don’t look like matinee idols hence wish fulfillment ensues.
Michael Che is the cohost for weekend update on SNL. I guess you’ve never seen that show.
DeleteUpbeat, witty , ok theme. Not a New Yorker and not a FRIENDS watcher but still liked this puzzle's non-slogginess.Missed the "perk" part of the theme until I read Rex's review.
ReplyDeleteSome of the nicest weddings I've been to were in late September/early October, with mild weather and early leave changes. I suspect yours was a fun one, RP, and it sounds like your wife knew what she was getting into! Here's to many more 😊
I think my biggest disappointment with this puzzle is that Rex liked it.
ReplyDeleteSame. As someone said earlier, “Friends” was a retread of the much funnier “Living Single,” just with white people.
DeleteI'm just here for the comments
ReplyDeleteThe NESSes (WELL and Van) are always welcome in a puzzle.
ReplyDeleteA guy who puts up new exterior material on his house RESIDES where he RESIDES.
Brezhnev was known to go months without bathing. Eventually his wife would sarcastically March him into the bathroom and say LEONID, meet your shower!
Hey, amigo, is that a nap you're taking?
Si está una SIESTA.
I always love a tribute to a bunch of rich cats. Thanks, Rich Katz.
@egs, you glorious bastard, you. Amazing stuff.
DeletePsst, amigo--ES una siesta. Well, it almost works.
DeleteAlthough I do know the names of some of the "Friends" characters (wouldn't have been able to come up with CHANDLER or MONICA), I did not put together the names in the grid with the series. I've never watched an episode of the show. I did get the pun of the title and that's where my theme understanding ended. No clue after I finished. I assume that the constructor had the reveal phrase in mind and made a puzzle that was related to FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS. That's cool - it just didn't work for me.
ReplyDeleteI did stay once at a hotel in Chandler, AZ so at least I knew that answer. I was trying make a phoenix out of PHOEBE for a while. I had Rex's SEEthEs and had LITCHI as Lichee for a while. (It's lychee, BTW.) This made the far SW hard to fill in. PEETS was a no-know.
I watched the first two seasons of "The Morning Show" but unless Hulu picks it up from Apple TV, I won't be watching this season because I dumped Apple TV in favor of Hulu. Hulu just had so many more series I wanted to watch.
Rich Katz, now that I understand your puzzle, I admire it. Thanks!
The crosses are the Benefits: Phooebe croses HEALTH; Rachel crosses DAY CARE; Chandler crosses BONUS; Ross crosses WELLNESS; MONICA crosses DENTAL; Joey crosses VACATION. Right???
ReplyDeleteI love Friends so I loved the puzzle. Those of you who haven't and won't watch, it's your loss. Yes, certain aspects of the show are dated, but the characters are so well developed and relatable, and the writing so sharp that there is much to love. The show has HEART, which is more than can be said for so much of the tripe on TV now.
Well said! As my reply comment indicates above, there seems that there is an idea that all the “friends” were privileged. I would say Ross, Monica (brother/sister), and Rachel grew up somewhat privileged, (and Rachel started out a spoiled “daddy’s girl) but I liked the evolution of the deep friendships and the fact that they all matured and evolved as individuals.
DeleteLotta unfunny people out here today grandstanding about not liking Friends.
Delete"Those of you who haven't and won't watch, it's your loss." <-- You did already say that earlier, with an ad hominem to boot. Just chalk it up to a difference in taste (De gustibus non est disputandum), and relax. I don't look down on people who like the show like a warm cozy blanket. There could be many reasons for why Friends endears itself.
DeleteFor example, my wife worked with a gentleman from mainland China who has a very warm place in his heart for Friends, partly for how much it helped him learn English and its nuances. My brother, whom I respect greatly, adores the show. I have my reasons for not liking it, but I don't think "smugness" is among them.
“Ad hominem” wow you people also have Massive persecution complexes. If you want to go out of your way to say a show is bad, don’t get mad when others tell you your opinion stinks.
Delete🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣
Deletetht - I'd say you're the one who needs to relax. And throwing Latin around (which doesn't even apply, that I can see) doesn't make you oh so superior.
DeleteI agree that throwing Latin around does not make one superior. Yiddish, on the other hand, . . .
DeleteI’m presuming the grid is meant to represent the fountain in the opening sequence of each Friends episode.
ReplyDeleteOh wow, interesting observation! It's a little hard for me to see, but it might well be. Another point in favor of the OVERALL construction.
DeleteLast time I checked, people who sew are now sewists, not sewers.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 10:55 A
DeleteLook it up before you commit. Sewer, one who sees, is a thing. So nothing wrong with the clue answer
Watched "Friends" a few times but wasn't the fan I was of it as I was of "Seinfeld".
ReplyDeleteGotta remember RAINN 115A as it's sure to appear again. McDonald 50 D was cute. ICE MAN & WEST ELM = WOES.
Thank you for a fun Sunday, Rich :)
Maybe because its 2025, but seeing even the NYT confuse liberal (an explicitly center-right political ideology) and leftist is just...exhausting.
ReplyDeleteI've pretty much given up on most North Americans ever comprehending that one. In most European countries, U.S. "liberals" like Obama, Biden, K. Harris, et al. would, as you point out, be right-centrists. "Radicals/"Socialists" like Bernie Sanders (and now Mamdani), would be mainstream social democrats. Our entire political spectrum is so skewed to the right that it's almost impossible to compare our politics with those of most other countries.
DeleteHand up for loving the puzzle. Very clever theme. I got the fact that the Friends characters would show up in the highlighted portion once I got PHOEBE, but hadn’t bothered to make the “benefits” connection until the FRIENDSWITHBENEFITS entry, and that allowed me to begrudgingly put the D in for DENTAL/REDOUND…because well…REDOUND just didn’t “look” like a word I’d encountered.
ReplyDeleteAlso, one indication of how long I’ve read the blog was the fact that when SENDACARD became the obvious answer, I thought…I wonder if Rex will call this an “eat a sandwich” type answer!
I had two major snags in the solve, RELOCATES "confirmed" by a bunch of crossings, and REDOUND really wanting to be REDOUND but looking oh so wrong.
DeleteRELOCATES got me to think that there was some gimmick with the italicized clues, as in the answers were not supposed to be entered normally, and I kept looking for Thursday-esque trickiness until I had the VACATION/JOEY area sorted out with normal answers.
Add to that the fact that I decided "Central Perk" was a Friends pun for a non-Friends themed puzzle, and yeah, I really made this puzzle a lot harder for myself than it really was. I got the revealer with just E-EF and then I remembered MONICA, PHOEBE, JOEY... from earlier in the solve.
Just learned that MOHAVE is in Arizona, and is not the MOJAVE Desert.
ReplyDeleteFriends and Seinfeld were on in the same era, and people were often divided into camps. I couldn’t watch more than 10 minutes of Friends, but watched the whole Seinfeld series. To me, Friends is based on characters being stupid, mean to each other, live unrealistic lifestyles based on their jobs, and constant sexual innuendo and obsession. Oh, and haircuts.
At any rate, I knew the characters from the Zeitgeist and thought this was fun enough, if pedestrianly easy without knowing the theme until the end.
While traveling in countries with fabulous rail systems, I always bemoan that we can’t have nice things here.
@burtonkd…I watched both and liked both (at the time they were out) and I’d have to say the characters in Seinfeld were also stupid, mean, and lived unrealistic lifestyles. And shallow and petty. And I know all of that was hyperbole and done to make a point. But constant sexual innuendo…um, I can think of many Seinfeld episodes that were…
DeleteIt’s really whether The format/writing is one’s cup of tea. Interestingly, for me, I have watched old episodes of Seinfeld and find them annoying. And THAT realization (about me) surprised me!
Merely my opinion at the time confirmed by the few minutes I’ve seen since. The self awareness of Seinfeld set it apart, along with the tight episode structures. The genius of Larry David was later confirmed by Curb Your Enthusiasm (another divisive show).
DeletePlenty of people I respect like Friends - I’ll add you to the list.
I ignored the "theme" and plodded through the dull fill. When I finished, I read 101A, then looked at those six pairs. OK, benefits of some sort crossing names of some sort. It never occurred to me that these were from that TV show I might have watched once or twice.
ReplyDeleteCentral Perk?
Yawn.
Remember when Sunday crosswords were fun?
Easy. I didn’t make the connection to the TV series until after I’d finished because the solve was fairly whooshy and because I forgot to read the title. We are currently about halfway through rewatching the series and are really enjoying it. A very talented cast with some great writing, it definitely deserved all the Emmy nominations.
ReplyDeleteBreezy and fun, liked it a bunch!
I’m glad most everyone liked the puzzle. I’m sorry to say I didn’t. There was no challenge to solve it at all and having looked at the revealer in advance I was kind of hoping to find six squares of some sort of trickery, but no. It was basically a theme less as far as solving goes. I could actually tell where the six squares were because the two clues highlighted together in the app when you typed in one or the other. But even though I’ve seen a few episodes of Friends it took a long time for me to understand the theme. Looking for a complicated puzzle and getting something easy and basically themeless was a big disappointment.
ReplyDeleteIt was a pretty clever concept. Lkk I’m e Rec, I would have liked the actual crossed letters to spell something profound, but oh, well. And I know there was a lot to fit in the grid, but I think it would have been cool to somehow work I’LL BE THERE FOR YOU in there. A benefit of being a friend, for sure, and a solid tie-in to the theme song.
ReplyDeleteTo quote Son Volt, "Huge pass on this one." Have watched a few episodes of the show. Didn't stick with me. Pretty standard sitcom. I'm not a big fan of traditional comedy shows with predictable set ups for occasionally funny punchlines, followed by inane laugh tracks. And the punchline here, FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS, was pretty predictable and kind of dated.
ReplyDeleteI just scanned the completed grid to see if there was anything that really excited me and though I am somewhat distracted by all the commotion in this hotel dining room and I'm trying to type over a plate of eggs benedict, I'm coming up empty.
@Les, love your takes. I will only beg to differ on observation that Friends was “standard” sitcom. I wish I had a list of sitcoms I did NOT watch then (or reasonably near) and I don’t have a list, but it apparently “resonated” for a lot of folks. And by the time it was on…I was squarely middle-aged.
DeleteNot only didn't I understand that the names were characters on FRIENDS, I didn't even recognize many of them as people's names, given how cleverly they were clued (a bird, a city, a baby kangaroo ...). So I definitely needed the reveal to understand what was going on in the puzzle. Cute idea, nicely carried out. I enjoyed going back and reviewing all of the BENEFITS. The BONUS for me was REDOUND - don't recall it showing up in a grid before.
ReplyDeleteWe're coming up (next month) to the second anniversary of the sad passing of Matthew Perry, the fine actor who played Chandler. Perhaps that central part of the puzzle is Chandler's gravesite, which the others are visiting to honor his memory.
ReplyDeleteI had not thought of that…thanks Liveprof!
DeleteI think the middle of the puzzle is Central Park. The name Central perk comes from that.
DeleteRex
ReplyDeleteHappy Anniversary!
Nabokov’s Lectures on Literature includes Mansfield Park. These lectures were from his time at Cornell. Since you’re listening while driving to Ithaca, thought it might interest you. One of those funny coincidences. I just finished reading Mansfield Park. Sometimes a slog but worth the read.
Southwest corner with SEETHES first and LYCHEE took me a while - finally had resorted to googling alternate spellings of Lychee
ReplyDeleteI started this puzzle last evening and got fed up with all the names. This morning it greeted me like a table full of unwashed dishes; I finished it (with an error) and even thought I watched and liked a lot of "Friends" I didn't get the theme at all. At least now I know whey there were so many names.
ReplyDeleteCount me among those who liked this puzzle a lot. We (my wife, our daughter, and I) liked the series a lot. I was looking for the theme among the crossed letters themselves (C...E...A...N...O...S...???) before realizing all the Friends characters were there, along with various "benefits".
ReplyDeleteI prefer the spelling LYCHEE to LITCHI. Like some others, I also had RESECT before ABLATE; and SEETHES before SEESRED.
Thank you, Rich, for a fun and pleasant Sunday start!
I also thought about “resect”. And, gotta say…until now, I kept wondering why people were bringing up CEANOS. And, I do figure I must have skimmed over to quickly on Rex’s write-up.
DeleteVery clever - great revealer (ha!) and theme. I haven't watched every episode, but Friends was a funny show. I think we can at least all agree that it was better than Two and a Half Men.
ReplyDeleteRoss to Chandler: "The next time you take a shower, think of the last thing I wash [with the bar of soap] and the first thing you wash." I think of this scene often when showering. RIP Matthew Perry.
Well done. Thanks for a fun puzzle, Mr. Katz.
Oops, that should be Joey to Chandler. I had the scene in my head but mindlessly typed Ross.
DeleteGood post!
DeleteHaving watched every episode more than once, the title tipped me off right away. I am surprised that no one else here or anywhere else I've seen online has grumbled about 113D. Come to = ARE?? That's a real stretch for me.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteNot so. The answer to 86A is JOEY, crossing 47D VACATION.
Deletekinda got the theme after getting 4 of the 6 names. looked around for Monica and Ross , got them and completed soon thereafter. Did you know Chandler AZ has a mean high temp of 106 degrees in July ? Loved this puzzle.
ReplyDeleteRIP Matthew Perry.
ReplyDeleteI am inferring that the on line versions had some kind of bells and whistles to indicate the names crossing the benefits, but I missed that part entirely by doing it on paper. Haven't seen any of "Friends", I know, my loss, I know, so I have no opinion on its content. I just can't watch anything with a laugh track, so I've probably missed lots of good stuff, ,but that's the way it is.
ReplyDeleteTechnical DNF in the SE with the WESTELM / SYMS cross , really didn't know either one and didn't make an inspired guess.
Today's big disappointment was when the fly-catching bird starting with a P turned out to be a PHOEBE. I was really hoping for a PEWIT.
A lot of folks really liked this one, RK, and that's fine. My Rudimentary Knowledge of sitcoms meant that I couldn't appreciate it as much as some others, but thanks for some fun at least.
No bells and whistles, unfortunately.
Delete"This theme is silly and I kind of love it for that reason." I couldn't agree more. It was an easy puzzle and the title made the theme obvious, but it was ridiculous and unique, and I enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteLots of nastiness today, caused by a show about friendship! I had no clue until I read Rex about where the names came from. He As I said, haven’t watched any sitcoms for fifty years. That’s me not a criticism of others!
ReplyDeleteBoth sides got very heated here but to call someone who doesn’t like Friends smug is most definitely an “ad hominem “ criticism as it is about the person not the issue. And what’s wrong with using Latin? It is used a lot in English. And the phrase is fairly well known.
I liked the puzzle. It didn’t seem unusually easy to me. Except the Friends connection I figured out there was a name and a benefit crossing after I finished the puzzle and before I read Rex. I thought it was a typical Sunday some junk but decent gimmick and some very good clues b
I guess my tacit assumption is that most people who come here will be familiar with common Latin phrases like "ad hominem"; I use it without batting an eye. But some of the reaction suggests that's a mistaken assumption.
Delete"De gustibus non est disputandum" (meaning more or less that matters of taste are not to argued against) is not as well known, but it's come up many times here, so I just sort of assumed it would be taken in stride. (I could have linked to the Wikipedia article on it, but I was being lazy.) I can see how some might view it as pompous, which I regret, but if it helps, it means I think well enough of people here that they can tolerate not only a bit of Latin, but also a difference of opinion, which is basically what the saying is getting at.
Whew! Thanks to LiveProf for adding a little levity at the end there.
For those of you who have never watched Friends, give it a try. If you're a guy, you'll love looking at Jennifer Anniston and if you're a girl, you'll just plain love the show.
ReplyDeleteHad no clue as to what the gimmick was, but solved the whole thing pretty easily except for two Naticks: SW (Brand name / Chinese word) and SE (acronym [an athletic league of some kind, I assume?] / brand name / singer's name).
ReplyDeleteI have had very little time for the puzzle these last two weeks. Had a sudden death in the extended family. I was an extra “Auntie” to the nieces and nephews of the deceased cousin of my late husband’s. So it has been a bit stressful and sad as I try to help “the kids” - now in their 40s - to begin to unravel the mysteries of what is going to be a very complicated and likely contentious resolution of the large estate due only to the very shocking and sudden death. Add to that the fact that my sweet cat had major surgery and in the process the vet discovered early stage cancer.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, that’s why I have been so hit or miss and mostly miss lately. It’s been a tough 18 months for me and probably moreso for my sweet girl, Pip. Retired, moved, built my tiny house and moved again. Too much change.
I really wish this puzzle had been more fun, and it might actually be better than it felt to me simply because of my current situation. Got the FRIENDS . . . theme at ROSS, but it came gradually as I bounced around in my solve.
Got the PHOEBE because I’m a birder. Then, having been through CHANDLER Arizona, many times in our decades of exploring the Four Corners states, I casually thought “Huh, PHOEBE and CHANDLER, wouldn’t it be funny if we had the rest of the “Friends” gang?” And at the reference to Betsy ROSS, I was pretty certain that might in fact be the theme. I had been thinking that it’s Sunday and we should have one and wondering what it might be. I never remember to read the titles on Sundays and probably would have suspected a FRIENDS theme had I seen Central perk. Mystery solved.
Since I was a fan of the show during its original run, I enjoyed the theme and the reveal. Am I correct that the show was first to air the phrase FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS or might it have been on Seinfeld, my all time favorite sitcom. I’LL ASK.
Other than the theme, the solve was quite easy for a Sunday. When I looked and looked at the words crossing the character names and could find no reason for the app to highlight both, I concluded the accentuation was simply to get us to notice the theme names. So, why highlight the other word?
We here in our cozy tiny house are exhausted. Until tomorrow, peace out.
Not a Friends watcher, but have seen enough to have gotten that part of the theme. (I've always enjoyed what I've seen of the show, just that at that time working in a midtown NYC lawfirm, Seinfeld was the thing you had to see, or else you were left out of every conversation all day Friday.) Anyhoo, got MOORE'S law right away. After the 90s worked at Intel for about a decade. Even chatted with Gordon Moore at a trade show when he came to our suite at The Wynn to see what we were trying to offer in healthcare, of all things.
ReplyDeleteHaving never watched Friends, the puzzle was not Easy but Doable. And Joyless. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteRead the name and blurb. Went straight away to 101A. Got it right. First time this ever happened to me. Have seen some of the shows. They were funny. I enjoyed them.
ReplyDeleteI confess I got pretty annoyed, having a perfect grid in ink, only to have his spelling of lychee (nut) be an alternative. Litchi... pfft.
ReplyDeleteOy. Just finished this in print over pre-Yom Kippur dinner preparing for 24 hour+ fast. This is better than last week, when I didn't get around to finishing the Sunday until Saturday. Completely lost on me. I was, for familial reasons I will not go into here, compelled to watch a few episodes of "Friends" some months back after assiduously avoiding it for decades. I realized, watching it, that my past "Friends" avoidance was justified. Did not care for the show based on the few episodes through which I was gritting my teeth in annoyance and impatience. To "Friends" fans: chacun à son goût. I deeply hope I never have to encounter it and its cloying, cutesy "humor" ever again. I will atone tonight at service for saying that. Good Yom Tov and have a significant fast and Day of Atonement to all observing.
ReplyDelete