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Kyrgyz city on the ancient Silk Road / FRI 9-5-25 / Slugger Scott with eight Gold Gloves / Game with a 32-card deck / Sliding screen in a Japanese tearoom / Small semiaquatic mammal with 22 tentacles on its snout / Money wasted on poor decision-making, jocularly / Belle ___, real-life celebrity outlaw celebrated in film and TV
Friday, September 5, 2025
Constructor: Bryan Cheong
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: Greg EGAN (18A: Greg ___, author of the 1994 science fiction novel "Permutation City") —
Greg Egan (born 20 August 1961) is an Australian science fiction writer and mathematician, best known for his works of hard science fiction. Egan has won multiple awards including the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, the Hugo Award, and the Locus Award. [...] He published his first work in 1983. He specialises in hard science fiction stories with mathematical and quantum ontology themes, including the nature of consciousness. Other themes include genetics, simulated reality, posthumanism, mind uploading, sexuality, artificial intelligence, and the superiority of rational naturalism to religion. He often deals with complex technical material, like new physics and epistemology. He is a Hugo Award winner (with eight other works shortlisted for the Hugos) and has also won the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for Best Science Fiction Novel. His early stories feature strong elements of supernatural horror. [...] Egan does not attend science fiction conventions, does not sign books, and has stated that he appears in no photographs on the web, though both SF fan sites and Google Search have at times mistakenly identified him as the subject of photos of other people with the same name. (wikipedia) // Permutation City is a 1994 science-fiction novel by Greg Egan that explores many concepts, including quantum ontology, through various philosophical aspects of artificial life and simulated reality. Sections of the story were adapted from Egan's 1992 short story "Dust", which dealt with many of the same philosophical themes. Permutation City won the John W. Campbell Award for the best science-fiction novel of the year in 1995 and was nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award the same year. (wikipedia)
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• • •
 |
| [31A: Small semiaquatic mammal with 22 tentacles on its snout] |
So that's how it ended. The rest of it was hit-and-miss, with a bit more "???" than I'm used to encountering in Friday puzzles (esp. of late). That's what got this one up off of "Easy" to "Easy-Medium," stuff like SHOJI (which I've probably seen but forgot) (9D: Sliding screen in a Japanese tearoom) and MIOSIS (?) (20D: Constriction of the pupils) and OSH (?!) (39A: Kyrgyz city on the ancient Silk Road) and Greg EGAN—I thought there was a scifi writer called Greg BEAR ... hey, there is! Or was—he died in 2022. Bear is the better known (and more award-winning) four-letter scifi Greg. He won five Nebulas, two Hugos, and was the co-founder of San Diego Comic-Con (!). Alas, he's not in this puzzle. Greg EGAN is. The other big "???" for me was STAR-NOSED MOLE, which I can kinda sorta picture. That was my favorite of the unknowns today, by far. Marquee-worthy, for sure. Sadly, it was one of the few truly marquee-worthy answers in the grid. I really liked TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE as a central grid-spanner, and TERIYAKI SAUCE is also nice, but the rest of the long answers today didn't have a lot of juice. DYNAMITE STICK sounds strange to me ("stick of dynamite" sounds more natural). IDIOT TAX feels made-up (never heard anyone say this, jocularly or otherwise). The pairing of SEÑORITAS and MUCHACHAS is cute, in its way, but neither answer on its own is any great shakes. The rest of the 8+ stuff is middling. Oh, "FINE, BE MAD!" is alright. I like that. But overall, the marquee fill on this one felt so-so.
There were other trivia answers that were familiar to me, but which seemed like they might not be familiar to most people. Scott ROLEN is kind of a deep cut if you're not a baseball fan (47D: Slugger Scott with eight Gold Gloves). This is his third NYTXW appearance, but his first since 2004 (when he was actually still playing—he retired in 2012). He's a Hall-of-Famer, though (as of 2023), so it might be helpful to remember his name. Belle STARR is another proper noun that seems like potential trouble (6D: Belle ___, real-life celebrity outlaw celebrated in film and TV). I got STARR fairly easily, but then realized I'd confused Belle STARR with Brenda STARR. I mean, whatever works, right? I have heard of the "outlaw" in question, but not often.
Then there's ÉCARTÉ, a card game I know of solely because of crosswords (like OMBRE and EUCHRE and FARO) (56A: Game with a 32-card deck). If you had a little trouble in that SW corner because of ECARTE / REB, I'm not terribly surprised. My only real trouble came from trying to parse STAR-NOSED MOLE, which happened to run through MIOSIS, which as I've said, I didn't know. I know MEIOSIS and MITOSIS from biology class. I know MYOPIA and MYOPIC. But MIOSIS ... ya got me. This is its 5th NYTXW appearance, but only the second since I've been blogging—so, I've seen it once, and that was fourteen years ago.
 |
| [2D: Water brand whose logo shows the Alps] |
More:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
- 1A: One who tries to make a good impression (DENTIST) — when ETCHER wouldn't fit, I thought DENTIST, but waited for crosses to confirm it.
- 25A: Pro whose work might be shocking (EMT) — grim. Not a big fan of cutesy wordplay surrounding human suffering. Death can be funny in the abstract, but somehow a heart attack victim needing a defibrillator ... isn't. (It's possible that I'm hypersensitized from watching too much of The Pitt, but I think I'd feel this way about this clue regardless)
- 57A: Refreshers that can be served with green wedges (LIMEADES) — weird in the plural, and ... "green wedges"??? ... also weird. You mean lime wedges, I assume. I know you can't say "lime" in the clue for LIMEADES, but still ... "green wedges?" You could just say [Green refreshers] and leave it at that. See how concise! And no bizarre phrases!
- 4D: Need for a demo, maybe (TNT) — today I (re-?) learned that TNT and DYNAMITE (STICK) are different explosives. Dynamite is more powerful, but TNT is more stable, and thus easier to handle and control.
- 14A: It has its X's and O's (LOVE NOTE) — "X's" for kisses, "O's" for hugs
- 44D: Obama family member with credits as a TV writer (MALIA) — come on, if you're gonna use this clue, you gotta say the show. Don't make people (i.e. me) look it up. Sigh, hang on ... looks like she wrote for a limited series called Swarm (Amazon Prime): "Swarm is an American satirical black comedy television miniseries created by Janine Nabers and Donald Glover. It follows Dre (Dominique Fishback), a young woman whose obsession with a pop star takes a dark turn." (wikipedia)
That's all for today. See you next time.
P.S. yesterday I got an advance copy of Across the Universe: The Past, Present, and Future of the Crossword Puzzle by Natan Last (out Nov. 25). I'll promote it closer to the release date, but since pre-orders are important to writers, I thought I may as well tell you about it now, since you're probably gonna want a copy. The book is really comprehensive in its scope, but its focus is primarily on crossword-related developments (both technical and philosophical) that happen in this century, particularly the last 10-15 years or so. It covers the crossword world far beyond the NYTXW. You all (i.e. people who read crossword blogs) are kind of the ideal audience for this thing. I've only just started reading it, but I'm mentioned at least twice, so ... thumbs up! (it has almost nothing to do with me, don't worry!). Pre-order here.
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85 comments:
I came hoping for a rant against the SW corner. Oh well! REB crossing ECARTE was bad but I also struggled since I put in Rated E (for Explicit) 🤷🏽♂️ confirmed by BEER over BREW. Took as long to untangle that mess as the rest of the puzzle which was fairly decent IMHO.
As much as I hate emojis, 23A kind of sums up my feeling for this puzzle. This is not my idea of a NYT Friday. ‘Nuff said.
On the easy side but not whooshy. STAR NOSED and MIOSIS were WOEs for me too which TERIYAKI SAUCE and DYNAMITE STICK helped sort out. ROLEN and EGAN were also WOEs (where is The Goon Squad author when I need her).
Low on junk with a bit of sparkle, liked it a bit more than @Rex did.
Medium for me, an old-fashioned Friday.
Overwrites:
so SAD before I'M SAD at 23A
Beer before BREW at 50D
REp before REB for the 53D honorific
WOEs:
Japanese screen SHOJI at 9D
Greg EGAn at 18A
The Kyrgyz city OSH at 39A
Didn't remember slugger Scott ROLEN at 47D
Card game ECARTE, which I should have remembered from crosswords
I liked this more than @Rex did as well - Greg Egan was a gimme for me and the I got rest of the unknowns (ecarte and Rolen) using the crosses. I was surprised by TNT and dynamite stick in the same puzzle. Not crazy about "eases on" - ease down in my head. Still, an easy Friday.
Strange that Rex didn't hit on the biggest issue in the puzzle: TYPEFACE being referred to as "Bold choice"... bold is a font choice, not a typeface choice, so I had the unlikely "TYPEFONT" for a good long time messing up the SW - that and BEER instead of BREW meant big issues. The "Bold" clue took liberties it shouldn't have, IMO. Pretty quick otherwise - love STAR NOSED MOLEs!!
16 minutes here, so medium for me on a Friday. Finished filling it in but no happy music.... Down in the SW, I figured ReB was short for RaBbi but then I had to run through the vowels there, and when I tried the E got the happy song. No idea about either REB or ECARTE. But other than that, it wasn't bad, I was able to hack away at every area gradually and get on to the next. As a Dr., MIOSIS was a gimme, so that helped. Gotta love that STARNOSEDMOLE, huh? I think I want one.... ROLEN, EGAN, SHOJI were all woes but fairly crossed. Have a great weekend, everyone, and thank you, Bryan, for a fun puzzle!
Finished it with a look-up for MUCHACHAS, a word I didn't know. The SE was hard for me because I had "bride" instead of FRODO as the ring bearer, not expecting yet another Tolkien character to appear (enough!). Finally remembered Scott Rolen, who was a superb infielder but not really a slugger, to finish off that section. Took a while to get TNT, since I took "demo" to mean "demonstration," not "demolition." Not my favorite Friday puzzle.
I kind of enjoyed it, although Sriracha SAUCE before TERIYAKI SAUCE threw me in the middle of the grid. TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE set me straight, and other than the challenges OFL noted (Greg EGAN, Scott ROLEN, EASES ON) I found it easier than Fridays of yore (I came in well below my average time for a Friday--it was easier for a Friday, based on my history on the site, than yesterday's or Wednesday's puzzles were for their day of the week).
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past eight years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle has an unusually low number of double letters, at four, where unusual is any number less than five. This is the third time this year that this has happened.
I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.
Yeah, SW corner confounded me for a long time. BEER instead of BREW threw me, and I'm not familiar with ECARTE or Jewish honorifics. I also had TYPEFONT instead of TYPEFACE, so I was lost for entirely too long.
Wow, is today Wednesday? I often find puzzles harder than Rex and other commenters, but I thought this one was easy for a Friday.
I agree with others about EASESON, super awkward in the plural especially, but no one would say it. “Easy on the pedal!”, maybe. Or “I’m going easy on the pedal.”
And ‘bold’ is a font TYPE, not a TYPEFACE.
Oh, by the way, this constructor is 14 years old.
ECARTE is going out of fashion. It has appeared 117 times in the NYTXW, but only four times since 2015, so Will seems to be phasing it out.
REB has appeared 221 times, but the vast majority with US Civil War references. The Jewish honorific angle has appeared sporadically over the years, about once a decade, but this is the fourth time since 2023, so Will seems to be phasing that in.
Easy Friday. Maybe harder if you don't know SENORITAS/MUCHACHAS.
MIOSIS and SHOJI both WoEs; fortunately, ART MAJORS was gettable.
Phrasing on that FINE BE MAD clue is about as awkward as it gets.
I had a hard time in both the SW and NE (Spanish and Japanese items side-by-side). It had a good mixture of things I’ll characterize as “normal” (because it’s early and I can’t think of a better word) like TEXT BOOK EXAMPLE and even NEON TETRA - to go with the semi-aquatic MOLE, MIOSIS, MUCHACHAS, ECARTE and the like.
The book that Rex linked to looks interesting. I don’t remember the exact forum, it may have been an op ed piece or a stand-up bit, but it was pretty recent - someone was lamenting the use of words that aren’t (or perhaps shouldn’t be) real words, and one of the examples they cited was PREORDER, which kind of makes sense to me - either you are going to the link to order it or you aren’t - pretty fair point.
When, as with today’s puzzle, a solve becomes a rich event-filled journey:
• Stop and thinks.
• Headslaps.
• Gusts of amazement when it turns out you know something you had no idea you knew.
• Nods of respect at seeing a triple-stack with nary a dud in the crosses.
• Joybursts when answers to tricky clues hits you.
• Joybursts that come that moment your brain fills in those spaces between the crosses in a long answer.
• Didn’t-knows you are glad you learned.
• Wows at cleverness.
• Heartmelt moments when beautiful words emerge in the grid.
• Smiles at answers with zing.
Plus, the thrill at hearing a new and promising Crosslandia voice. Congratulations on your debut, Bryan, and thank you for a splendid outing!
Bob Dylan mentions Belle Starr not once but twice in his songs:
Tombstone Blues: "The ghost of Belle Starr, she hands down her wits".
Seeing the Real You at Last:"You could ride like Annie Oakley, you could shoot like Belle Starr."
No, it’s a good and useful word that describes a very specific situation—ordering a product before (“pre”) it’s available. The order actually goes through at a later date. It’s concise and everyone understands it. Plus it’s a specific metric in publishing that affects how many copies booksellers stock.
ROLEN was a gimme for me, but have the advantage of being a life-long STL’n and a Cardinals fan almost that long. I had XRATED in for RATEDR, but when no downs worked I took it out and left it blank for a lot longer than I should have.
I got REB right away, fwiw. One of the very few…
Liked this one despite the REB/ECARTE tangle in the SW. FINEBEMAD is a good comeback to me for that corner. My family was big on EuchrE but test did’n fly. Got STAR——-MOLE right away from nature readings as a kid, but had to use crosses to decide between facED and NOSED.
Vamos, solo una vez. Inténtalo.
TYPEFONT instead of FACE next to yet another unknown honorific in REB both crossing something called ÉCARTÉ doomed me in the southwest. Otherwise, I had a typical Friday of filling in unrelated and underwhelming words in typical time so I guess my 15¢ was well spent.
I have my manscaping day coming up. I'll let you know how it goes.
My whole life feels like an IDIOT TAX. Why didn't I buy that $400 VW bus and stick to the original plan? I never imagined living a life where ceiling fans would play such an important role.
That STAR NOSED MOLE is a beauty, eh?
I used to write for the newspaper in Los Alamos, New Mexico, and on a clean-up day in town some volunteers found old DYNAMITE STICKS alongside the main road up from Española. That got exciting real fast and meant I had the front page news covered for a couple of days. Add TNT into this puzzle and we be bangin'.
❤️ FINE, BE MAD.
😩 OSH.
People: 6
Places: 1
Products: 2
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 5
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 66 (35%)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Tee-Hee: I could write a more interesting clue for ESCORT if I were sitting in a hotel lobby, or the back seat of a Ford sedan, or on a motorcycle in a funeral procession, but mostly in a hotel lobby.
Uniclues:
1 Why the guy who works on my teeth has a big smile.
2 Rather than getting a Brazilian, she gets a heart.
3 What happened to the formerly great country known as the United States of America.
4 When the gratuitous sex scene plays no role in advancing the central drama.
5 Cowboy cursive.
6 Girls carrying water bottles in Oaxaca.
7 Why were having a colorful funeral next to the toilet.
8 What happens when you try to teach little girls flamenco dancing.
9 Result of believing in your heart and on your wholesale order that Lord of the Rings will be more popular than it is.
1 DENTIST ESCORT
2 SHAVES LOVE NOTE (~)
3 IDIOT TAX TORE UP
4 RATED R PLOT HOLE
5 DODGE TYPE FACE
6 EVIAN SENORITAS
7 NEON TETRA INERT
8 MUCHACHAS CAROM (~)
9 OVER STOCK FRODO
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: AI powered clay. SMART PLAYDOH.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Relatively easy here. I've actually seen a STARNOSEDMOLE, but had no idea they were "semiaquatic". Really? Otherwise same familiar WOES--EGAN, OSH, ECARTE (which I do remember seeing) and MIOSIS. Due to retinal surgery I have one pupil that no longer constricts, so now I have a name for that, or the lack of that anyway.
MUCHACHAS y SENORITAS? ESTA bien! I was thinking of Scott as a last name which led me to George Scott of the Red Sox, a slugger but the furthest thing imaginable from a Gold Glover. I believe his nickname was "Stonefingers".
First we had a Nuisance Tax and now we have an IDIOTTAX. Cousins at least, I'm thinking.
I had a good time with your Friday offering, BC. Whooshy, Bright, Cheery, and thanks for all the fun.
Twangster, thanks for mentioning these two instances of Dylan’s encyclopedic knowledge of colorful Americana. Starr is definitely one of those figures, a notorious frontier outlaw. I was kind of hoping she would be Rex’s word of the day. She’s an important part of the history of Fort Smith, Arkansas, whose 19th-century nickname was Hell on the Border for its high level of lawlessness. That despite the presence of lawmen such as Bass Reeves, who escaped slavery and became a deputy U.S. Marshall, and Isaac Parker, the “Hanging Judge” who sent to the gallows many of the outlaws captured by Reeves and others. Fort Smith has an interesting and colorful history, though the present-day city is neither, frankly.
STARR could have been clued as Ringo, of course, just as EGAN could have been clued as Jennifer. I suppose going with the less familiar options was a NYT decision to make the puzzle a little more Fridayish. But I would prefer more clever wordplay over obscure PPP.
This puzzle was okay but conformed to the recent trend of much easier Fridays which I define as <75% of my Friday average of 16.48. More Wednesdayish. Thursdays, especially if there's a rebus, have been taking longer.
Here to pile on the SW corner for all the aforementioned reasons. It’s a pretty messy corner with an inaccurate clue, a 2nd (obscure?) honorific clue, a poor misdirection with beer/brew, and even the innocuous FINEBEMAD is gonna be about the last “Fine [blank]” saying, if you’d even call it a saying. But whatever, won’t be first, or last, poorly edited NYTXW section.
EASES UP was my guess and feels more in the language.
The SW corner was rough, compounded by my guess of BEER for BREW.
Hey All !
Played as a tougher FriPuz for me, but yet my time has it fall into the Easy spectrum. Nice that it fought back a bit. Odd how it solved quick with the resistance.
Did you know ECARTE and EUCHRE have the same amount of letters? As does BRIDGE, but that uses a regular 52 card deck. See also: SPADES, HEARTS, and others I'm probably missing.
The ole Q and Z away from the Pangram. A few writeovers, MyOpIc-MIOSIS, had a V as second letter of 1D, for either EVADE or AVOID, had RATEDR in as one of my first gets, but took it out, as I couldn't get the Downs to play nicely. Then saw it was correct, BeEr, BREW.
Hope y'all have a great Friday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Thank you for reminding me what failures my children have been.
Today's REB (53D) is clearly a reference to the great Talmudic scholar REB MILCKCOR of Gdansk who appeared in yesterday's grid.
So, Max was the world's biggest loser. All he ever had was bad luck; nothing ever went his way. But one morning he was having breakfast, and he dropped his toast and it landed butter side up. He was stunned and immediately called his rabbi, the great REB Isaac of Minsk. He told the rabbi what happened and asked him: "Does this mean my luck has changed? That I'm no longer a pathetic loser?"
Reb Isaac said, "I don't know. The question has never arisen before. But I am attending a conference of rabbis this week, I will pose your question at the conference.
After a few days, Reb Isaac called Max back and said: "Nothing has changed. You are still a pathetic loser." Max said, "But how do they explain what happened with the toast?" And the rabbi said, "The consensus was you buttered the wrong side."
Some of my friends who read sci-fi rave about Greg EGAN's work, and he's also an excellent amateur mathematician which is how I know about him. Based on what I hear, I think he's crossword-worthy. (And yes, good luck finding a photo of him.)
This puzzle went slow and steady for me; it felt like pointillist art. But nothing aside from the misspelling aVIAN held me up for a very long time, despite some answers being new to my ears (OSH, MIOSIS, ROLEN). I was able to get MUCHACHAS by remembering the Soup Nazi episode of Seinfeld, where a customer orders a soup "por favor" and adds that he said that because he's Hispanic, only to be curtly dismissed by the imperious Soup Nazi: "Adios, muchacho!"
Liked it better than Rex. The constructor is 14 years old, you say?
No one, I mean NO ONE uses “sent” to mean “made happy” any more. It is 100% crosswordese. I don’t think it’s been in use since the 1950s (ie “You Send Me”) — I grew up in the 1970s/80s and even then it was obsolete. At this point it’s just lazy construction.
Wish more people knew how to play EUCHRE. I'm stuck playing robots on a silly app on my phone. It's...like bridge but easier? Am I selling it?
Interesting. I think of every font choice (even if not designated as “bold”) as capable of being “bolded” by use of the bold button. I will say the term TYPEFACE does stymie me a bit, but I plunked it in with just a few crosses.
Wow. I looked up TYPEFACE. I stand corrected (and educated)! So…my question is this to ANYONE who sees this…did you learn this in “keyboarding”? If not, how?
Welcome to the land of the STARNOPEDMOLE. Or the STARNOPEDMOLY -- I hadn't made up my mind. I had MIOPIA in mind for the eye thing; then did have to change to MIOPIS to take care of the STICK in DYNAMITE STICK, but never thought to change the P. An idee fixe -- whereby I didn't see NOSED-anything. I could blame my idiocy on the aftermath of Covid and its attendant breathing problems -- even though my pulmonologist-internist says that the tests show my pulmonary function is superlative. But I'm still quite miserable. Should I have seen my mistake? Of course.
In the dead tree edition, 23A is an illegible blur. It was absolutely ungettable and my last answer in. This has happened before with illegible clue illustrations and I find it completely unforgiveable. Are you listening, NYT?
SENORITAS (31D) is one of the best clues I've ever seen. World-class.
Rex, super surprised you don't/didn't play euchre during your time in Michigan...it's super big up there. And, with your crew doing the 'Lakes' tour...seems perfectly appropriate. May be worth learning, old dog!
And what a failure I have been in not getting a puz published!
Roo
Absolutely loved seeing STAR NOSED MOLE
How can you not like a puzzle that has NEON TETRAS and STAR-NOSED MOLES in it? Seems like a TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE of Friday fun. Thanks, Bryan Cheong!
I can't believe I pulled SHOJI from the recesses of my memory to cross ART MAJORS and gain traction in the NW.
Didn't know ROLEN, EGAN, or DAE but got them from the crosses. Had BE THAT WAY before FINE BE MAD.
I do think there might have been a better clue for EASES ON than "Gently presses, as a gas pedal." Maybe "Gently slides atop, as an injured patient"? Except that seems to call for "onto" instead of "on"....
@tht 8:39
And other readers who like Sci-Fi
I have a book out called Changing Times. Look for it on Amazon or barnesandnoble.com under Darrin Vail. Time travel-type with suspense, and an error that I'm thinking of offering a contest(prize) to people who find it and let me know.
Roo
I'll give them some slack on EASESON, the rest was so good!
The _RATED or RATED_ dilemma is annoying since unlike the kealoa you have to change every letter.
Going with “Asian fusion” for a sauce implies something more modern, or combinatory than good old Japanese restaurant Teriyaki. I was looking for sriracha or wasabi to be used.
I enjoyed the workout medium and thought this had good wordplay and interesting answers.
I found a dead STAR NOSED MOLE once 40 or so years ago while walking in the New England woods in wintertime. I brought it home to key out, it was tiny and astonishing. I am trying to remember whether it was near a stream; I did not remember that it was semiaquatic. I do remember that it needed the nose appendages to find prey because its eyes are no good for anything.
And I did know ECARTE because my parents owned a book called something like Charles Goren's Rules for Games, and I was the kind of kid who read everything I could get my hands on. I never managed to talk my friends into playing any of those obsolete games, they stuck with Go Fish and Gin Rummy.
It's made a comeback among Gen Z. Given that apparently the constructor is 14 years old, using it in that fashion makes sense.
We can nit pick this one all different ways, because some TYPEFACES have an inherently bold look. But the main tihng is, for the most part the terms are used interchangeably, even by experienced design professionals.And in crosswordland, clues often require a little "squinting"!
A better clue for IDIOTTAX would be [Tariff].
The difference between dynamites and overs is that DYNAMITESTICK and OVERSTOCK.
Scott Rolen had 1287 career RBIs, though I doubt that any came on squeeze bunts. Also, 316 HRs, so he definitely was a "Big Stick" if not a DYNAMITESTICK.
I could imagine a smooth operator, sort of a 007 type, who manscapes himself and then EASESON his TUX.
I thought this was a delightful puzzle that required some wrestling along the way. And constructed by a 14 year old! Wowzers! Thanks and congrats, Bryan Cheong.
Somehow I knew Belle STARR without any crosses. Not sure how. It's funny how the mind works
I always thought that a font was the little bitty metal piece selected by the person who was the type setter (way back a long time ago). As in, for example, the type setter placed the Times Roman font for a letter or a symbol in the correct place. No?
OK, let me start with 23-A. In the printed paper it's a gray circle, hard to interpret. Once I got the IMSA, crossing a random middle name, I guessed there was a sad face behind the gray, so that it was an I'M SAD emoji. I'll look in a few minutes to see if I was right.
I also had to look up ROLEN; if I followed baseball, maybe -- but I confused the Gold Gloves with the Golden Gloves, an award for amateur boxers that was big in Wisconsin while I was growing up. It was crossing EASES ON, which to my ear doesn't fit the clue, although I guess you can make a cse for it.
TIL how many tentacles a STAR-NOSED MOLE has, so that's something.
I'd forgotten that the clue called Mr. ROLEN a "slugger;" nice misdirect, which I fell for, to the Golden Gloves.
Treat yourself to a glass of DOM Perignon, it will cheer you up!
Hearts has the same ART string, as well. I almost convinced myself that you play it with 32 cards.
No pictures? Doesn't appear in person? Sounds like James Tiptree, who turned out to be female but used a male name to get published more easily. Makes me wonder.
Me too for 23-A.
ART MAJORS create art for a living; art history majors curate art for a living. Of course there are art major who work in museums, but that's usually because their own art didn't sell.
Doesn't James Bond play ECARTE when he goes to Monte Carlo? I've certainly encountered the game in literature, and I think maybe it was there.
There were some things I didn't know-
MIOSIS, ROLEN, FRODO. So I began my comment with the bad stuff (for me).
For you - Congratulations on an impressive debut - on a Friday, Bryan! at 14??? WOW!
Excellent alternative clue for IDIOT TAX!
I saw ECARTE right away. Weird because I know of it solely from the NYT crossword, the only one I do. Never seen it played or talked about. And it hasn't been in much.
I thought the same thing, but he went there for grad school. If he had been there for undergrad I think he would know it (more free time, more parties). I agree it's worth learning for leasurely vacations. I taught it to my family and another who joined us on a lazy vacation in Mexico, and it was a hit. It's just complex enough to be interesting, but really not that hard. The boys were only 11 and picked it up easily. We adults could play regardless of the number of margaritas we had. The biggest challenge was keeping the cards dry, with those icy margarita glasses sweating on the table. Good times!
Greg Bear crossing fIbs threw me off in the NW today. I have a couple of Bear books, none by Greg EGAN. My local library has only a couple of Egan books, all ebooks. I haven't downloaded a library ebook yet - I prefer paper books so I am reluctant to read library books on my iPad for some reason. Perhaps because I associate libraries with real books?
My other hold-up today was Beer briefly in the SW instead of BREW but RATED R fixed that and made BESTOW clear. E__TE is obviously ECARTE, famous in crosswords but never seen by me in real life.
I have seen pictures of STAR-NOSED MOLEs but didn't know they were semi-aquatic. My cousins' mother was from Colombia and they all spoke Spanish, as did their dad, my Dad's brother. When they would come to visit, he would address them as muchachas and muchachas so I knew 31A was a mole, not a vole due to that cross.
Thanks, Bryan Cheong, for a fun Friday puzzle.
I'd say Bridge is the Saturday NYTXW and EUCHRE is the Monday mini. The same concepts are at play, but it's much easier and faster paced.
I remember the STAR-NOSED MOLE mainly because I used to think that it was a made-up animal that appeared only in a Phineas & Ferb episode. An episode where Dr. Doofenshmirtz has the brilliant idea to literally make mountains out of molehills.
Nope. Each little piece of movable type is called a sort.
Rated E is for ‘everyone’ in video games, which helped with the beer/brew conundrum. As a Jewish person I can honestly say that the only way I got ‘Reb’ was from my familiarity with Fiddler on the Roof. I am also a Bway musical person.
I thought this was a very good Friday puzzle and a stellar debut. Congratulations, @Bryan Cheong!
A solid and enjoyable "medium" for me, concluding with an almost-sank-me SW corner. Loved the pairing of SENORITAS and MUCHCHAS and appreciated STAR-NOSED MOLE crossing NATURE in its infinite variety.
Do-overs: SENORInAS, BeEr. Help from previous puzzles: NEON TETRA, ECARTE. Help from reading Science Times: STAR-NOSED MOLE. No idea: IDIOT TAX, EGAN, DAE, OSH, ROLEN.
You can definitely “ease off” the gas pedal, but I’ve never heard it used as ease on.
Best use of “Belle Starr” in music: the lyrics of the first verse of Bob Dylan’s “Tombstone Blues” from the album “Highway 61 Revisited “ (1965): “The sweet pretty things are in bed now of course/The city fathers, they’re trying to endorse/ The reincarnation of Paul Revere’s horse/Bit the town has no need to be nervous/The ghost of Belle Starr, she hands down her wits/To Jezebel, a nun, who violently knits/A bald wig for Jack the Ripper, who sits/At the head of the Chamber of Commerce.”
One “eases off” the gas pedal. “Eases on” is clunky.
I started in the South and worked my way up the grid. My only overwrite was BEER before BREW. The REB quickly BESTOWed me with the fix. REB came easily due to my old friendship with a Lubavitcher, who often spoke of the REBBE. That wouldn't fit, of course, but I already had RE-.
My only nit was the emoji. I can do without little pictures and the like in my puzzles-- especially on Fridays and Saturdays. If that angers anyone, then FINE, BE MAD.
Brew/Bestow got me
Southside it may have been a link to a George Carlin skit on YouTube that I posted a few days ago. Here's a short (1:28) version."
non related fun tip Patti Varol's l.a. times puzzle today sept 5th is a GEM free to I don't subscribe pretty fun nytimes today too
The word “font” comes from the Latin “fons,” meaning a fountain or well. Just as you might go to a well for water, an old-fashioned typesetter went to the font for those little bitty metal pieces. The font was kept in a case, whose upper half held the capital letters and whose lower half held . . . That’s right, the lower-case letters.
Yes, I finished with an error. Clicked "Check all letters" and it was the A at square 56: ACARTE crossing RAB. I guess I thought it was short for RABBI? Right away realized: oh yeah, REB! I should know that.
Some fine long answers, TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE is the best. Some typeovers, like TERIYAKI SPICE before SAUCE (it didn't help that I had DIAS not DAIS). I sorta remember the Kyrgyz city from seeing it on a map, but couldn't come up with OSH.
@Liveprof: 😂
Or you can “ease up” a bit
Thanks for the tip. I absolutely loved the theme. Unfortunately, the puzzle was chock full of pop culture names that dragged the experience down.
Enjoyed the puzzle, though it was easy for a Friday. FYI the opposite of miosis (tiny little pupils) is mydriasis (great big pupils) though you're not likely to ever see it in a crossword. But BOO SW corner for all the reasons previously mentioned. And, attaboy Bryan and atta girl Malia!
Euchre is nowhere near as complex as Bridge.
Holy STAR NOSED MOLEy ... Liked it. Solved it like a Text Book Example of a Star Nosed Mole with MIOSIS, or somesuch. [i.e., slowly; cautiously; tunnelin thru the precious nanoseconds]
staff weeject pick: TNT. A DYNAMITESTICK of a runty entry.
some fave stuff: The Jaws of Themelessness. STARNOSEDMOLE. FINEBEMAD. IDIOTTAX. LIES clue. LOVENOTE clue.
Thanx for the themeless fun, Mr. Cheong dude. And congratz on yer primo debut.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
... and now, for somethin M&A definitely don't have, crossword entries-wise ...
"Toto Recall" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I am surprised Rex is not a Euchre player, it is pretty commonly played in Michigan and Rex went to U of M. It is much easier than bridge which is why we played it in college while drinking. With really good players after the first trick you can often just lay down your cards as the result of the hand is self-evident (5 card hands, 28 card deck)
Have to agree with you, @burtonkd, that a bottled sauce available in the condiments aisle of any supermarket does not merit the high-falutin' term "Asian fusion". But I disagree with your alternate choice, sriracha, which only exists to destroy every other flavour it comes in contact with.
p.s.
Speakin of the future of crosswords …
Blow yer mind, by enterin this into the Google input line:
make a crossword theme about junk
… and behold the results!
M&AI
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