Like Miss Piggy and Captain Kirk, by birth / FRI 10-3-25 / Service to foster parents? / Professional juggling act? / One end of a lap / Something raised during Oktoberfest / Not listen to, as on Spotify / When repeated, a nonverbal "Can you hear me?" / Graduates in green-and-black regalia, in brief

Friday, October 3, 2025

Constructor: Rebecca Goldstein and Rafael Musa

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: Taylor Swift new release day! — jk, there's no theme (Life of a Show Girl does come out today, though)

Word of the Day: Alfresco (43A: Alfresco dining spot = TERRACE) —
taking place or located in the open air outdooroutdoors 

In addition to describing a type of dining, alfresco can also describe a kind of painting. The word fresco, which comes from the Italian adjective fresco, meaning "fresh," refers to a method of painting on fresh plaster. Although the "outdoors" sense of alfresco is by far the most common in current use, the term is sometimes used to describe painting done in the fresco manner—that is, on fresh plaster. (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Lord help me, my first answer was IOWAN (16A: Like Miss Piggy and Captain Kirk, by birth). That's one of those bits of trivia that I feel guilty for knowing. I don't even know *how* I know Kirk is IOWAN, but it's not the kind of "knowledge" I'm exactly proud of. Felt a bit like cheating. If it hadn't been my first answer, if I hadn't whiffed on the first few clues I looked at, I wouldn't have found my knowing the answer so (semi-)embarrassing. But because it's the answer that gave me my first push, I felt like I'd accidentally discovered Easy mode, like the puzzle was stooping to my HALFASS level just to give me a chance. But once IOWAN went in, then bam, it's SKIP (and not MUTE) (1D: Not listen to, as on Spotify) and bam, it's SANDS, which is what I wanted initially but couldn't confirm (1A: Smooths out some rough edges), and bam, it's KNEES (cute; 14A: One end of a lap). And I never struggled again. All 'cause I know where some fictional characters were "born." In the olden days, IOWAN would've been clued via M*A*S*H's Radar O'Reilly (born in Ottumwa). . . actually, I'm not seeing him in any of the clues for IOWAN (or IOWA, for that. matter). How strange. He was iconically from Iowa. Wait, was Hawkeye also from Iowa. Because Hawkeyes are Iowans the way Sooners are Oklahomans, so ... was that entire M*A*S*H unit from Iowa!? No, Klinger was from Toledo, for sure. Oh, and it turns out Hawkeye was, bizarrely, from Crabapple Cove, ME. For future reference, the people used in NYTXW clues for IOWAN include Grant Wood, Herbert Hoover, Buffalo Bill, John Wayne, and Johnny Carson, as well as (back in the day) a senator named Hickenlooper and a VP named Wallace (the very first IOWAN clue, 1944)


After Miss Piggy and Captain Kirk came to my rescue, I was fine. Nothing more than minor hiccups the rest of the way, and even an occasional feeling of whoosh-whoosh zoom-zoom. Like here, for instance:


Those three Downs in the NW did not exactly come charging out of the gates, but once they went in, whoosh, there went WORK-LIFE BALANCE, and the whole grid opened up (33A: Professional juggling act?). Overall, the puzzle felt solid and smooth, if not as spicy as I tend to expect from these (accomplished) constructors. "PLEASE BE PATIENT" is a very real phrase, but it reminds me of being on hold, and of computer voices pretending to care about me or my time or my struggle to talk to a human representative, so I don't like it at all. I do, however, like CRYBABIES and "ASK ANYONE!"—that SW corner is nice. The rest of the long answers are OK, but lacking something in the zing department. The one thing that slowed me down at all today was the compound nature of so many of the answers. I'd get one part of an answer, but somehow the next part of the answer wouldn't come. Had ANOTHER and no idea about ONE (2D: "Apparently we weren't done with these"), DEAD and no idea about LINKS (4D: Bad internet connections?) (I was thinking [Bad internet connections?] had to do with DEAD LINES). Then TAX and no idea about LAWYER (32D: One skilled at withholding details), and GET but no idea about ANGRY (23D: Lose it) (this one really should've come to me right away, but somehow GET AGGRO (!?) was running interference). Otherwise, the only things that made me hesitate today in any significant way were the MDS / DOCUSERIES crossing (27A: Graduates in green-and-black regalia, in brief / 28D: Reality shows?) (didn't know about the colors of the former, and the clue on DOCUSERIES was just too vauge for me to get without that initial "D" ... I wanted FOCUS-something-something). Oh, and I wrote in COLT before FOAL (22D: One under a mare's care). Not thrilled about the two "ONE"s in the grid, though one of the ONEs is part of ANYONE, so it probably gets a pass. Also, two ASSes? One American, one British? (HALFASS, ARSE). I can't say I'm mad about that, but I did notice.


Bullets:
  • 14A: One end of a lap (KNEES) — the other end is your hips, or the tops of your thighs, to be more specific. This is the "lap" you make when you sit.
  • 19A: "Bygones will be bygone, ___ fadin' into gray" (Taylor Swift lyric) ("ERAS") — you don't have to know the lyric, really. If you have been solving puzzles at all for the last couple years, you know Taylor Swift had a huge ERAS Tour. This is the ninth (!) time that ERAS has gotten a Swift-related clue. Today is the release date of Taylor Swift's much-anticipated new album, The Life of a Showgirl. And so ... a new "era" has begun. The reviews seem good. I haven't heard a note. Let's listen.
[this song namechecks the Plaza Athenée in the first line—I spent one night there in 1987; my first night in Paris, and I spent it at the most expensive and beautiful hotel I've ever been in, before or since. You see, my father had made a huge mistake with the hotel booking—what he thought was the weekly rate was actually the *nightly* rate. So we were out of there the next day, off to some hotel with Eiffel Towers for key rings, LOL. But that one night has stayed with me. Step out onto wrought-iron balcony of your room and hello Eiffel Tower. The robes! The wallpaper! The jet lag! What a time!]
  • 37A: When repeated, a nonverbal "Can you hear me?" ([TAP]) — without any "mic" context, this was toughish. Also, you usually follow the [TAP] [TAP] with something verbal, don't you? "Testing" or some such? 
  • 56A: Something raised during Oktoberfest (BEER TENT) — not a term I know, though one I can certainly visualize. I wanted some kind of STEIN, of course.
That's all for today. See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. tomorrow is the Midwest Crossword Tournament in Chicago. Registration has closed for both in-person and online solvers, but you can preorder the puzzle packs here. Good luck to everyone participating!

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22 comments:

Conrad 5:58 AM  


Medium, but the difficulty stemmed from the clues. Same problem as @Rex with MDS (27A) crossing DOCUSERIES (28D). No WOEs, only one overwrites, my 4D bad internet connections were @Rex again DEADLINeS(?) before they were DEAD LINKS.

Anonymous 6:26 AM  

To GET ANGRY is not losing it. Anger is a normal and appropriate emotion and reaction to certain circumstances. It is uncontrolled or inappropriately channeled anger that is losing it.

puzzlehoarder 6:41 AM  

More like a Saturday than a Friday for me. I had to backfill the NW to finish so obviously I wasted some time up there initially. For one thing I have no familiarity with th term DEADLINK. Even knowing that 1A was SANDS or EDITS. The only down I could drop in was SSN which was truly of no help. Nice resistance but still an uninspiring solve.

Yesterday's SB should have included LATINIZING. It's would have been a third pangram.

Anonymous 6:41 AM  

“Get Angry” really sounds like it could be an Elvis Costello album, but it’s not.

Wanderlust 6:44 AM  

I was going to say the same thing. You get angry at listening to that computer hold voice telling you to PLEASE BE PATIENT. You lose it when you’ve been on hold for half an hour and just when a real person comes on, you get cut off and have to start over.

Adam T 6:53 AM  

Your memory of Paris woke some similar memories of peak experiences in me, so thank you for that this morning.

Rick Sacra 6:55 AM  

agreed!

Rick Sacra 6:59 AM  

16 minutes for me, so that's medium. Unlike @REX took me a while to see IOWAN.... had SANDS, SKIP, SSN, figured it was "ANOTHER" something... and finally parsed IOWAN. (I knew they weren't IncAN, right????). Got PLEASEBEPATIENT before WORKLIFEBALANCE. Also like @OFL had DEADLINeS before LINKS and so couldn't quite see what the long across grid-spanner was going to be. Enjoyed the pairing of my TAXLAWYER gambling at MONTECARLO! Great puzzle, thanks to you, Rebecca and Rafael! : )

JJK 7:02 AM  

I had a very similar solving experience as Rex, same spots of momentary stuckness, with TAX______?, GETAN_RY. Somehow could simply not parse that for the longest time. LEAR, MONTECARLO, and STEP were all in there but everything else was guesswork. But it’s Friday, right?

Andrew Z. 7:07 AM  

I thought this was a really fun puzzle!

Anonymous 7:14 AM  

Interestingly, the O in IOWAN (or ANOTHER, either way you look at it) was the last letter I filled in.

kitshef 7:17 AM  

Fairly hard for me, at least getting started, due to an aggressive level of youthfulness with podcasts, Spotify, push notifications, Ms. Swift, etc. And a very poor CEC clue for ANOTHER ONE.

Once I got out of that section, it was a normal and pleasant solve the rest of the way.

SouthsideJohnny 7:32 AM  

Tough but fair, with some sparkling clues and answers (with GALES being a good example). The witty question mark clues become more difficult for me to discern as we get later into the week (crosses become harder to come by). Not a surprise that these two constructors collaborated on a stellar effort.

I don’t know how you all can wrestle these weekend grids into submission in 15-20 minutes - if I ever get to that level I will be dancing in the streets.

Andy Freude 7:38 AM  

Me too!

Twangster 7:45 AM  

For anyone who enjoyed 24-across, the New Yorker recently had a Shouts and Murmurs column inspired by that quote:
href="https:// www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/22/how-other-things-end">How Other Things End

Lewis 7:45 AM  

Random thoughts:
• One way to make the solver grateful for a dull answer is with a clue that zings, and that’s just what Rebecca/Rafael made with [One skilled at withholding details] for TAX LAWYER.
• AROSE sweetly evoked Gertrude Stein.
• It is so hard to construct triple-stacks without creating clunky crosses – even harder when there are two crossing spanners, and today those four stacks are silky smooth. Mwah!
• LILY evoked an old song “Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo”, a calming influence through my childhood.
• PLEASE BE PATIENT – such good advice. Several times today I abandoned a thorny spot only to return in a bit to find it obvious.
• Verve in the cluing – humor and wordplay – in a luscious compendium of original and encore clues.
• Beauty along the way – ASK ANYONE, WORK-LIFE BALANCE, PLEASE BE PATIENT, EATS IT UP, CRYBABIES.
• When I saw ANTS touching PEDANT, my brain shouted “Red ant!”.

Lively, lovely, and satisfying. You hit the trifecta today, Rebecca and Rafael. Thank you for this!

Bob Mills 7:46 AM  

Took forever to get WORKLIFEBALANCE. It is a juggling act, but not only for professionals. "Juggling act for many?" would have been a much better clue. Another bad clue is "Lose it." I agree with Anonymous 6:26...one can get angry without losing self-control. In fact, that's what mature adults do, frequently.

Anonymous 7:55 AM  

NEXTUP and EATSITUP? Doesn’t repeating the UPs violate some unwritten constructors’ rule?

Fun Friday solve and love seeing the WORKLIFEBALANCE on my day off!

Anonymous 8:03 AM  

Another well under the average Friday. Seems to be a trend that Thursdays, especially with rebuses, have been taking longer.

RooMonster 8:03 AM  

Hey All !
SATED CRYBABIES. ASK ANYONE in the BEER TENT.

Nice FriPuz. Solved smoothly with just a couple of hold-ups. Couldn't get UP NEXT out of the ole brain, funny how it turned out to be the opposite. And had DEADLINeS in, which made the 15 Letterer WORe LIFE BALANCE. I was like, "Huh?". Revisited after getting the Almost There! prompt, and finally saw the K. Made me CRY, BABY, getting that Almost There. 😁

Do people really EEL off Maine?
Had GET crazY for GET ANGRY.
Got yer ASS and ARSE. Nice

HALF ASS is a rush/bad job. If you do a good job, is it a No-Ass job, or a Full-Ass job? Discuss.

Have a great Friday!

Two F's
RooMonster
DarrinV

Mike Herlihy 8:04 AM  

I very much enjoyed this one. Lots of overwrites (glad I wasn't solving using pen/paper!) but great satisfaction after a successful solve.

Anonymous 8:13 AM  

100%

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