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Havanese greeting / FRI 1-2-26 / German stock market index / Night of lawlessness in a long-running horror franchise / Attraction on the western side of Carson Range / Capotes are flapped at them / Word from the Lakota for "they dwell" / Tolstoy book whose title asks a question
Friday, January 2, 2026
Constructor: Adam Wagner and Rafael Musa
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
Word of the Day: XYLEM (46D: Stem component) —
Xylem is one of the two types of transport tissue in vascular plants, the other being phloem; both of these are part of the vascular bundle. The basic function of the xylem is to transport water upward from the roots to parts of the plants such as stems and leaves, but it also transports nutrients. The word xylem is derived from the Ancient Greek word ξύλον (xúlon), meaning "wood"; the best-known xylem tissue is wood, though it is found throughout a plant. The term was introduced by Carl Nägeli in 1858.
• • •
And everything that long answer drove through—that whole SW area—ended up being great. THEY SAY you shouldn't put VEGENAISE on your ENERGY BAR, and I say they're right, most of the time, but in the case of this crossword, I'm gonna make an exception. Many AIR KISSES for this culinarily suspect section (51A: Exchanges blows?). I especially like the defiant CLUNKY, like, "go ahead and call this section 'CLUNKY', I dare ya!" The puzzle does that thing I often don't like, where it turns a perfectly good ordinary word (in this case, PURGE) into a pop culture term (42D: Night of lawlessness in a long-running horror franchise, with "the"), but today I didn't mind, mostly because the very idea of The PURGE makes me laugh, particularly the idea that it's a series now. Like ... how much mileage can you get out of this concept? (a lot, apparently). My students tried to explain the various PURGEs to me one day in class. Pretty sure I just smiled and nodded. Still, the concept (one night of lawlessness where people go around murdering each other or whatever) amuses me. And aptly named. And hey, if nothing else, it's not a Star Wars reference (two whole days now without a reference! still waiting on our first Star Wars clue of the new year!).
[Ethan Hawke! Is there anything he can't / won't do!?]
The end of the puzzle was less pleasant for me. First, there was the Scrabble-f***ing in the SE corner. [German stock market index]!?!? Just so we can get an "X" in the grid? Yeesh. I never took A.P. BIO (17A: H.S. class for tough life lessons?); I took a regular-ass bio class in 10th grade, and another general biology class in college to satisfy one of my science requirements, but whatever I learned about plants, most of it has blown clean out of my head. Still, I was able to recognize that -YLEM had to be XYLEM, so clearly the ghost of the concept is still clunking around my head somewhere. Still, not a real fan of the forced "X." But that's minor. More significant was the relative ugliness of the fill in the NE. Tolstoy is a great writer (gotta reread Anna Karenina soon—only read it once, but loved it). WHAT IS ART? is not a top-of-the-brain or particularly popular Tolstoy title, so that got a shrug from me (4A: Tolstoy book whose title asks a question). "I CAN'T LOOK!" is delightful, but much of the other stuff in there is less than lovely. Plural TSKS. Crosswordese AROAR (Spelling Bee won't even accept this word—that's how you know it's Real Crosswordese). BORER was boring. ABA, same. SELF-ESTEEM is solid but mostly just a bunch of common letters. The whole section is merely OK, not as exciting or clean as other parts of the puzzle. But I do want to give flowers to INTERNET FAMOUS and its clue (8D: Extremely well-liked?)—great (and to me, funny) phrase, perfectly clued (the "liked" part of "well-liked" referring to the social media action "like," not necessarily actual belikedness (why is there "beloved" and not "beliked"?)).
The only actual tough spot for me today was "DAMN!" (41A: "Oof!"). As someone who says "Oof!" a lot, this was, I assume, some kind of comeuppance from OOXTEPLERNON, the god of bad short fill, punishing me for my hubris and disrespect. I started out with "DANG!" and then eventually changed to "DARN!" You can see that SELF-ESTEEM is the last thing I got today (that's what the position of the cursor in the grid picture always indicates—where I finished). That's because of "DAMN!"—or, rather, because of "DARN!," which made the end of 9D: Personal opinion? look like -STEER. I thought "OK, so, if I give my opinion, I "steer" someone in a certain direction ... huh, I don't get it." And then I got it. Not "DARN!" (which was always a bad answer for that clue), but "DAMN!" Which reminds me of the one ugly thing about that NE corner that I forgot to mention—DEFATS. My brain would never accede to the reality of DEFATS. Only the indisputable rightness of SELF-ESTEEM could force me to finish filling in DEFATS. "Hey, you misspelled 'defeats'" is my general reaction to DEFATS. If you were to defat this grid, that answer would go first. Right off the top.
Bullets:
- 36A: Word from the Lakota for "they dwell" (TEPEE) — hey, a good TEPEE clue! I used to object to the spelling of TEPEE (I grew up with TEE-PEE). Then I learned apparently TIPI is the preferred/technical term (the main spelling on the wikipedia page). Now I don't have any feelings at all about spellings. Sometimes you can just not have feelings about things. It's great.
 |
| [from the "old roadside pics" Blue Sky account] |
- 40A: Attraction on the western side of Carson Range (TAHOE) — we had our annual family reunion vacation in TAHOE about a decade ago. Beautiful place. Still, I didn't get this right away. "Attraction" was way too vague, and I honestly wasn't sure where the "Carson Range" was.
- 14D: Main ingredient in an aviation cocktail (GIN) — always gonna tip my hat in respectful acknowledgment of a cocktail clue. Difford's has the Aviation as 1 3/4 oz. GIN, 1/2 oz. Maraschino, 1/2 oz. lemon juice, and 1/4 ounce of the definitive ingredient—crème de violette, which gives the drink its distinctive lavender hue.
- 30D: Capotes are flapped at them (TOROS) — this is a bullfighting clue. My brain nearly broke imagining multiple Truman Capotes. One was plenty.
- 1A: Havanese greeting (ARF!) — this made me smile. Nice way to start off—being greeted by a cute puppy.
Elektra, looking about as noble as any dog ever looked. What a beauty. Apparently her human has just said "where's the deer!?" Elektra: "on the roof! let's go!"
 |
| [Thanks, Jessica!] |
Here's Chloe, reluctantly playing the Christmas Kool-Aid Man. "Oh yeah!" (I assume they didn't just smash the dog face-first through the paper, that would be mean)
 |
| [Thanks, Carolyn!] |
Nebula says you are getting very sleepy, look into my eyes, sleepy, sleepy ... now you want to give me treats ... treats ... that's right ...
 |
| [Thanks, Amy!] |
Bernie doesn't see the resemblance. Not impressed, not amused.
 |
| [Thanks, David!] |
Crammed with ornaments, slightly lopsided—that is the kind of Christmas tree I grew up with. I only wish I had also grown up with Melo. We had dogs and eventually a cat or two, but no creature so noble and smushable as Melo.
 |
| [Thanks, Chiara!] |
They made Spenser wear a bib even though he has been working very hard on being a more tidy eater and drinker and not drooling quite so much. I assume this is a picture of Santa granting Spenser's wish of bib-removal.
 |
| [Thanks, Aaron!] |
That's all for today. We'll close out Holiday Pet Pics tomorrow. See you then (or whenever).
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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88 comments:
Easy-Medium. My main problem was misunderstanding the 31D clue, "Let's go, sleepyhead!" as being addressed to someone (me) who fell asleep in front of the TV and was being urged to go to bed. I wanted something like "Let's get you upstairs."
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
1A: Interpreted "Havanese" as "someone from Havana." When "hola" didn't fit wanted "oye". But it turns out that Havanese is a dog that says "ARF."
Didn't recognize the quote at 1D but when I read the clue I thought, "That sounds like something John Adams would say" and it was.
lOOtS before BOONS for the 27A windfalls
TAX REfUnd before RETURN for the "pay back" at 30A
CedE before CAVE for "Capitulate" at 47D
I usually spell the word for Cumbrous at 47A as kLUNKY rather than CLUNKY. It may not be correct but to me it looks "klunkier".
WOEs:
Didn't know that Tolstoy wrote something called WHAT IS ART? (4A)
The 28D phrase "On the REG"
The horror franchise The PURGE at 42D
VEGENAISE at 54A
20 minutes for me today, which I think is medium-challenging on a Friday. This played more like a saturday for me. Really wanted "Musictomyears" for 15D, but thank God it didn't fit! NE took me a long time, couldn't see SELFESTEEM or INTERNETFAMOUS. Saw the _ _ TER and figured "well" was a reference to waTER, so wanted 8D to start with waTER.... Had roAST before FEAST, and @REX couldn't be sure if 41A was going to be DRAT or DARN so was waiting for the crosses there. All the long downs were great, loved seeing XYLEM in the grid, MONOGAMY is great (40 years, going on 41, for my wife and I!). For some reason GUILTTRIP took me all the crosses to see, but it's a great clue/answer pair. Clue for ROOT was terrific!! So many possible meanings for that clue.... Thank you, Adam and Rafael for a great puzzle! The A&R mission (my dad used to send me on those as a kid... Ascertain and Report!).
Average Friday difficulty, I thought. Needed one cheat, for the ARF/FIBONACCI cross (didn't know a Havanese was a dog...thought they were looking for some kind of Cuban greeting). Got HABANEROS and WHATISART with guesswork. Well constructed puzzle; bottom half was easier, and was my starting point.
Rough start - assumed Havanese was an unfamiliar label for certain Cubans so went with OLA or OLE at 1A, which of course meant OBAMA for 1D even though the quote sounded a bit off, and it worked perfectly with 17A and 19A. But FIBONACCI and NOWWERETALKING came to the rescue and off we went, with the only other hiccup being the aforementioned CEDE/CAVE question at 47D. Lovely way to start a Friday.
This was smooth but I got stuck at the end with PALEr crossing TOROr. I think my brain read torpor, which sort of made sense - flapping a Capote in a southern summer.
Otherwise... 13 minutes solving on a cell phone felt quick.
Rafa had a real banger of Stumper last weekend - he has a gift for the emphatic colloquial words and phrases. Today follows suit - MOON WALK, WHAT IS ART, HABANEROS, NOW WE’RE TALKING etc are all top notch. Discernible but tricky enough to require work.
Drive Like Jehu
I’ll give AP BIO and XYLEM a pass - the crosses were fair enough for XYLEM. Learned capotes. FIBONACCI was a nice long gimme.
Pop Will Eat Itself
Highly enjoyable Friday morning solve. I’d like to be hanging with Spenser and Melo today.
Guided By Voices
One wonders if Tolstoy's "War and Peace" would have been as highly acclaimed had it been published under its original title "War (What is it Good For?)"
Has anyone else had issues with the NYT app recording times correctly? Today was 16.5 minutes that's being shown on the stats as 21 something.
Hey All !
TAX RETURN. On Jan 2. Yi(k)(p)es! Give me til the end of the month to fret over that!
Easy FriPuz over here. Had Count BASIl in first, you know, the pianist who loved the green stuff. Got a chuckle out of myself once realized BASIE. uSc first, changed to aSU, finally OSU after not getting Happy Music. TOROS tough as clued. Capotes as a cloak a new one here.
Liked the quadruple W splotch in NW. ICANTeven before I CANT LOOK. Got a laugh out of AROAR. Ezersky, you listening? Make this a legal SB word! Put in the DA_N, waited for the cross for DARN or DAMN. DAX? Could've used Actor Shepard as a clue.
Enough GUILT TRIPping outta me. Puz not too CLUNKY. Almost time to get UP AND AT EM, and get ready for work
Have a great Friday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Similar start here, though I couldn’t figure out why Obama would be using such old-fashioned language. But FIBONACCI came to the rescue, then the marvelous NOWWERETALKING. A fun Friday!
I initially thought XYLEM looked pretty cool, and then Rex started beating up on it, and now I’m not so sure. I wonder if I will remember what it means if I ever see it again. BOXED UP contains an X, so I’m not even sure what Rex is getting at there. I kind of feel sorry for XYLEM though.
I’ll welcome VEGENAISE (or VEGaNAISE) even though it sounds like a marketing term for purely pragmatic reasons, as the world probably does need a word for a non-dairy type of spread like that.
I didn’t realize until post-solve that I don’t really know what POSER means. I always interpreted it has something like a human fraud and I assumed it was pejorative. From what I’ve been able to dig up thus far, that doesn’t sound too far off.
Oh, the box was full of wit and humor today. It’s a cliché, but I mean it: I didn’t want this to end.
Words that are normally dully clued were given spark, such as [Havenese greeting] for ARF, [Part of an underground network] for ROOT, and [Make some introductions, say] for EMCEE.
Lovely answers to beautify the journey: DEIGN, GUILT TRIP, PURGE, UP AND AT ‘EM, I CAN’T LOOK, NOW WE’RE TALKING, CLUNKY, and INTERNET FAMOUS (these last three are NYT answer debuts).
And wit? The “liked” in [Extemely liked?] for INTERNET FAMOUS, as in the “like” you press on some social media sites? Mwah! (Thank you, @Rex, for pointing this out.)
Enough bite to satisfy my brain's workout ethic, but also plenty of whee!-splats – fun and satisfying.
I even liked the mini-story of SELF ESTEEM going downward and landing in a mild epithet.
In short, Adam and Rafael, a FEAST. The synergy of your first themeless collab is marvelous. More please, and thank you for a splendid outing!
We don’t have a TANDOOR in our house. All of ours are white.
I'm gonna go out on a limb here, but this was easily one of the two best New York Times crossword puzzles of the year so far.
Very hard for me. I will be shocked if Saturday is harder than this.
I didn't understand the clue for INTERNET FAMOUS until well after finishing, and have never heard of VEGENAISE (but it sounds delicious).
There are a lot of really good clues today. One of the best assemblages of clues I've ever seen.
It’s nice to be in alignment with OFL today. Especially since I loved the puzzle and got a new PB for a Friday.
Very daring, Cliff!😄
Bullfighting? F*** this puzzle.
Absolutely nothin', ha!
A: You can't miss my house. It's the one with an oven right out front by the light brown entrance.
B: OK. A TANDOOR by a TANDOOR. Got it.
Odd to have WWE crossing WWE. Maybe there should be a rule: NO WWE RETALKING.
Trump: Hey, where are those HABANEROS? I told Bondi to guard them.
Vance: Er, um, Mr. President, I think the AG might have consumed them.
Trump: Tell me what you know right now, you Hillbilly.
Vance: That DAMN PAM just UPANDATEM!
Really enjoyable puzzle. Wonderful cluing. Thanks, Adam Wagner and Rafael Musa.
No, you're basically right. A POSER is someone who tries to appear more impressive than they actually are. They're trying too hard (and we see right through them). "Try-hard".
I also that that Rex’s hostility toward DEFATS was misguided. Hopefully he doesn’t do much of the holiday cooking over at his place. I can only imagine the greasy, heavy and potentially broken pan-sauce that he might try to pass off as gravy. At least DEFAT the drippings and use the lipid as the base for your roux - it only takes a matter of minutes and your guests will be most appreciative.
Tolstoy book whose title asks a question: "War AND Peace? In this economy?" Alas, it didn't fit.
Would someone explain REPOS to me as the answer for “Default outcomes, perhaps”?
Seventeen mysteries for me, solidly in very-tough territory.
I've read all of Hemingway on bullfighting but don't recall having seen "capote" before.
Very nice puzzle.
In the end liked this puzzle a lot as the long answers developed, but could not get a real foothold anywhere. Wound up Googling three answers: GIN, TOROS, and XYLEM, then the rest fell in place. My introduction to HABENEROS was in Yucatán when we arrived very late at a restaurant after being lost for a while and I hungrily grabbed a tortilla-full of the salsa at the table setting my mouth on fire inside and out. Our waiter saw my distress and raced to the bar, grabbed two fresh bottles of beer from in front of two surprised patrons who had just been served, and handed them to me. Had the whole restaurant laughing.
Sometimes seems strange how much solving experiences can differ. This I just flew right through. Easiest Friday in some time. Notably faster than yesterday's.
I often pause when spelling words deriving from Italian, particularly where a consonant gets doubled. Is it "broccoli" or "brocolli"? The sequence 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, ... is well familiar to me by name, but I still pause over whether it's two Ns and one C, or one N and two Cs. A FEW provided a handy cross-check.
Some slight slow-up where I had CedE before CAVE. But the deal was sealed with AIR KISSES (which gave TANKER and not Trucks coming down). VEGENAISE is new to me. Over on the other side, I dissent from Rex over the X; I think XYLEM is an excellent use made of an X; it's DAX that is more of a nose-wrinkler to me. But that was easy enough to get from crosses.
Speaking of nose-wrinklers: did anyone else look askance at TSKS? I'm not so worried about the POC; it's the cluing "Pithy put-downs" that seemed off. I think of TSKS as notes of disapproval, not exactly the same as a put-down.
Yeah, an omission of a familiar word from SB is not a litmus test for being true crosswordese (AROAR). It's just Sam Ezersky being his usual weird unaccountable self. Here's one: he doesn't like AROAR, but Abed? Completely fine!
UP AND AT 'EM reminds me of the difficulties some native German speakers face in pronouncing English fluidly.
I also dissent from Rex over DEFATS. It makes me wonder how much time he spends in the kitchen (when he's not making an Aviator GIN cocktail, which sounds pretty good btw -- NOW WE'RE TALKING!). It's a pretty familiar term -- and I thought there was some other term with essentially the same meaning, but if so, I couldn't skim it off the top of my brain.
Looking forward to discussion over TEPEE. Spelling Bee accepts all three: TEEPEE, TEPEE, TIPI. I sometimes wonder how people settle on "preferred spellings" when transliterating from Arabic or Lakota or whatever, when the writing system is completely different (or even non-existent). This looks like an interesting and contentious ongoing discussion about the Lakota language.
Needed all the crosses for that "Capotes" thing (TOROS). Oof, DAMN. I wouldn't think Truman would stand that treatment for long.
At first I didn't understand why a FEAST has to include meat, but here I think "meaty" is supposed to mean "substantial", and that saves it.
Nice puzzle, Adam and Rafael, you dynamic duo! Enjoyed it a bunch.
Among the many who really enjoyed this, although it timed out a bit easier than your average Friday for me. Particularly enjoyed the cluing on several of the long answers (as well as the answers themselves); unlike the cluing in so many recent puzzles, this confidently and perfectly walks the fine line between twee and obscurantism. Nicely done!
Had to run the alphabet to get the X. Oof!
I don't think of TSKS as pithy putdowns...more like mild shows of disapproval. And on the REG seems completely made up. Otherwise, the cluing was quite good. But I didn't know the German stock market or XYLEM so had to cheat.
Probably one of the few people who started with TOROS today,. I abhor bullfighting but I do know what "capotes" are. Like many I had no idea what a "havanese" is, but I did know it is not someone from Havana. And so off to look for other footholds--the S of SSN led to ADAMS and its D led to DEIGN and that N begat NOWWERETALKING and away we go. Nice and steady after that with lots of smiles. I knew XYLEM would come in handy some day.
VEGENAISE? I guess. ROAST seemed meatier than FEAST but an easy fix. Agree with OFL that the clue for PURGE was unnecessary, and hello to AROAR, pseudo word that you may be.
Really enjoyed your Friday offering, AW and RM. A Worthy opponent that Really Made me think Thanks for all the fun.
I had a hard time with FEAST as meaty meal. Is that a requirement?
Like vtspeedy 6:57, typed in OLA, read the first word for 1 Down and typed OBAMA. When FIBONACCI nixed that (nerd alert), I read the entire 1D clue. Then the brain realized "ohhh, a Havanese is a dog", etc.
Surprisingly no vitriol from Rex for WWE, although happily the constructors omitted mention of some (unnamed here) MAGA creeps.
Not wild at all about REG and RES, but on the whole a fun outing.
Default on your car loan and expect a visit from REPO man
So Rex feels great about not feeling - seems kind of meta :-).
Ola crossing OBAMA was an unfortunate start for me (and makes no sense for 1D), especially since it would be hola in Havana. FIBONACCI led me out of that pit. I've been acquainted with the cutest Havanese puppy ever. Its owner wanted to name it Bildo but decided yelling out the door for Bildo would be misinterpreted by the neighbors so she settled on Frodo.
I don't know why but I really wanted CLaNKY instead of CLUNKY; who ever says CLaNKY?
My neighbor can't stand to be within nose-shot of mayoNnAISE so his live-in girlfriend tried to make a vegan version with cashews but it was too grainy so she gave it to us - it was okay. And yes, a tad grainy.
This was a nice Friday puzzle, thanks Adam and Rafael!
Crossing XYLEM and DAX (I also ran the alphabet there) was a bit much. It’s not even scrabble fcuking since we had the X from BOXUP already. Just two esoteric nouns crossing.
Had a good feeling about this one right off the bat. Adam and Rafael thought they could fool me with the Havanese-greeting-is-probably-Ola thing. Little did they know that my dog, Pablo, is an 18 pound Havanese with the classic crossword vocalization - ARF! Not yip. Not ruff. Not woof. He uses repeated sharp ARFs to harass his good buddy Fred (a 120 pound Great Pyrenees who does say woof) and a single clear one to let me know he wants me to open the door. Always nice to start on a good note. I’m already loving this puzzle.
And there was more fun stuff to follow. Tolstoy wrote a book called WHATIS ART? Why wasn’t I advised? We’ve already made and consumed the turkey soup so DEFAT(S)ing the stock was a gimme. And while we’re talking about food, we had a lovely New Year’s Day FEAST with our oldest son, daughter-in-law and grandson, visiting from Australia as well as our youngest son and his wife who live on the farm with us. Soo, Korean born, Canadian raised and now a permanent resident down under, set up the menu at a local Korean restaurant that I didn’t even know existed. It was wonderful.
This was a delightful puzzle. Almost all the long downs were great. FIBONACCI, INTERNET FAMOUS, NOW WE’RE TALKING, and UP AND AT ‘EM. Wow! But my fave entry might just be 47A CLUNKY, a word I use often because it is so wonderfully self-descriptive.
Thanks Adam and Rafael. Loved this.
Well, thank you for the GUILT TRIP, President Adams... I shall now exercise the right to free speech by commenting on today's word-box game.
Really nice puzzle from Adam Wagner and Rafa. Nice FEAST of food-related answers. Odd clue for DAX instead of going with DAX Shepard, but XYLEM is my favorite word. My 3rd grade science project: cut a carnation stem in half (lengthwise), place one half in red water, the other in blue water (using food coloring). Result: Half the carnation will be red, the other blue (instead of all purple). XYLEM are like tiny straws that don't intertwine.
Sad to see Holiday Pet Pics ending so soon... thoroughly enjoyed all the pics & captions. Carol/CDilly52's Pip from yesterday looks just like my Cici. Always fun to see doppelganger pets. And speaking of OSU... go IU! (Hi @Beezer) It's been a good week. :D
If you default on your auto loan they REPOssess your car
If you default on the bank loan for your car, the bank will REPOssess it.
@Southside. Hear! Hear!
Say it again.
If you default on your car loan, your vehicle may get repossessed (repo’d for short)
Haha Lewis! You come up with some great @egsian quips!
I put roAST there at first. But FEAST works if you think of meaty as meaning 'substantial'.
I think Havanese are adorable and because my neighbor has one of those adorable pups…ARF went right in!
Omg. I could simply not believe the 38-3 last night! Those guys are just…unflappable…and you can feel that the team…well….ACTS like a team.
I meant "Bilbo", not Bildo, oops.
Have been doing NYT crosswords for almost 55 years. This one should have been classified as Medium if not higher.
I've finally given up on AROAR ever appearing in SB. Sam is, however, particularly fond of ANAL ???
If you default on a debt, the item you owe for could be repossessed
I getcha! The O was the last thing to go in for me because I don’t know all the “team names” and had “blank”SU then determined they probably don’t flap capotes at TaRO(s). All I know was a mistake was made when 4 couples in their early 30s went to Puerta Vallerta and decided to go to the bullfights. We walked out and all of us were stunned at our ignorance at that time. Um…eight people with pretty much no clue.
Yup. I don’t see how the X is in any way inferable if you don’t know XYLEM.
Mostly enjoyed this with a few quibbles. First, Havanese shouldn't be in a clue when HABANERO is an answer, IMO. Both (roughly) mean "from Havana." I initially put jalapeño, specially because the clue on 1 across made me think HABANERO had to be wrong.
Apparently VEGENAISE really is spelled that way, but I find it extremely bizarre that it doesn't take the "A" from "vegan" or the "O" from mayonnaise. Instead it conjures an "E" from nowhere and makes a spelling that looks like "VEDGE-A-NAYS."
Annoyed by that X in XYLEM. remembered the sound of the term but couldn't remember if it was an X or a Z, and German stock markets are utterly meaningless to me. I tried Z and then X, and got the notification that I was done, which is good, because if I'd mis-typed elsewhere, I'm not sure I would have thought to look for it.
Those nits aside, I enjoyed this one.
@tht, re TIPI in Spelling Bee... a couple of years ago it wasn't accepted; I sent in a comment to the NYT that it should be, but I never heard anything. Then about a year later I tried it one day... success!
Easy-medium works for me. I did not know VEGENAISE and WHAT IS ART and, ola (Cuban?) before ARF and me too for DArN before DAMN were it for costly erasures.
Solid with quite a bit of sparkle especially the long downs, liked it a bunch!
I think the assumption is that no true FEAST could exclude meat. It's debatable, especially if you consider that fish, shellfish, poultry, pasta, potatoes, salad, vegetables, and any rich dessert could satisfy even the hungriest gourmand.
This was a harder than normal Friday for me; it took just under 15 hours. Of course that involved getting bogged down last night, then going off to watch some golf, falling asleep...
Like others I had DARN at 41 across, and wondered how the heck SELF ESTEER could mean "personal opinion". The good news is: not very many names! The bad news: there's also ABA OSU DAX GNC. I'll be interested to see what Gary's Gunk Gauge says.
Forgot to make ADAMS all caps.
I was born in Chicago (thus a Bears fan) but lived in Bloomington, IN for most of my teenage years. IU is the alma mater of my 2 older brothers (and Will Shortz). What an incredible year of football. Actually starting to get a little stressful, hah.
ANAL, and more cringily, ANALLY. And also DILDO. (Which someone on this blog once said is also a kind of cactus!)
Well, that second E is as in "vegetable", so not really from nowhere. Seems more or less okay to me.
There is a gizmo, doohickey, thingamajig called a "defatter", a tea pot looking doodad with the spout attached at the bottom, the fat rises and the au jus can be poured from the bottom...yum
@Lewis. Sorry to seem to have stolen your TANDOOR joke. I submitted mine before yours had appeared.
I've always used "poseur" (from the French) to mean someone who acts more important than they are. POSER *can* mean the same thing, but more often means a conundrum or an artist's model.
@egs -- Hah! Always happy to be on the same page as you.
Why are there two “thats” in the clue for FIBONACCI? No one is mentioning this, so maybe it’s not a typo? It sure seems like one to me!
@Pondie How are you sure of the "more often"?
I have that happen all the DAMN time. But the number under your personal stats should be correct.
I think @kitshef has it right.
No one has mentioned this, so maybe I'm missing something. But isn't the repetition "that that" in the FIBONACCI clue a rare typo?
@Gary & @Beezer
I really understand your objection to bull fighting but that’s not going to stop me from this: While tooling around in the south of France in a tiny rented Renault Cinq, three recently minted BFAs (two in art, one in theatre) landed in Arles for a few days. We saw a poster for a bullfight and, feeling all Hemingwayesque, (well, me and my art school buddy, but not my wife, she’s not a fan of all that macho shit, but she’s a good sport) we decided to go.
We were surprised to find that there were no matadors with capes, at least for the first part of the show. We were treated, instead, to a Course Camarguaise, a non-lethal competition where the bull is decked out with small prizes on his head and horns and, if I remember correctly, a group of three men, all dressed in white, attempted to relieve him of those trinkets. Two of the guys were kind of like rodeo clowns without the gaudy clown costumes and big red noses and their job was to distract and annoy the bull while the star of the show, the raseteur, swooped in and collected the prizes. No swords unsheathed. Once the prizes were collected or the raseteur was felled, the bull was led out of the arena, pissed off, no doubt, but physically unharmed. Psychologically harmed, maybe, because it was explained to me later that those two tassels hanging from his horns represented his missing testicles. So, yes, still somewhat barbarian.
Because this happened to be a feast day, they added a corridas style contest with brightly costumed matador and cape and swords and it was a bit ugly. I’ve seen it once and once was enough.
Saturday level Friday for me. I had the OBAMA/ADAMS write over to start. It worked for both APBIO and MOONWALK so easily cleared up.
I had a FIBONNACI/FIBONACCI write over next. From doing the SB I've learned that if there's a doubled letter in an Italian word it's good to go with the C but I always forget.
My brain was not working well when I did this on my phone last night. I'd just choked on cantata on Thursdays' SB it's a word I've remembered with no problem on countless days but last night it was as if I'd never seen it before. That brain fart state carried over to the puzzle. I was slow on TOROS slow on WHILE and based on SELFESTEEM I considered ohMy before DAMN.
That SE corner was the worst. I confused the phrase "May day" with May Fair and couldn't imagine a particular group for that holiday. No idea on the last letter of the German exchange so I had to wait for XYLEM to lift the fog.
Still a good year so far.
@ok…I’m guessing that Gary’s understandable distaste of bull fighting (see above) means there will be no Gunk Gauge. And THAT’S okay. (I think you would agree).
Yep Seth…I see where you’re coming from since many vegetarians eat eggs, but…it doesn’t come “from nowhere.”
PH…it’s good to know there is someone on blog that KNOWS the “weirdness” of Indiana. Don’t know how old you are, but I had a job at The Book Corner (on “the square”…at THAT time, same owner had The Book Nook (closer to campus)... Mr. Spannuth paid us peanuts! (I got a lot of “townies” at “the Corner) I say the “weirdness” of Indiana generally…but Bloomington…loved it! Unfortunately the university (learning part) has totally changed (um, in last year or so with free speech). I HOPE it gets back to what it used to be.
Since you brought her up. . . I was surprised to learn recently that Pam Bondi is 60 years old. Maybe she can quit DOJ and sell elixirs of youth. One can hope.
@puzzlehoarder, re yesterday's SB; I was down to one word left for half the day, when I finally realized it was titan. I had both the longer words that are built from it, which is really baffling... how does that happen?
Yes, a rare-in-crosswords 4 letter double typo.
What a joy this was! For all the same reasons everyone mentioned. All the long Downs and Acrosses shine like gold and the cluing was absolutely stellar. Like others have said, when ho-hum crosswordese is clued in new and exciting ways, that is pure happiness - I'm looking at you ARF, APBIO and REPOS - and all in the NW where it all starts!! Add to that NOWWERETALKING, and this is what makes the crossword heart sing!
Unlike @Rex, the NE did not bother me at all. Sure, some fill is a bit more tame than the rest of the grid but INTERNETFAMOUS and its cluing made up for any weakness. I didn't know WHATISART - maybe not the most exciting nugget to learn, but I'll take it. I'm sure it'll impress somebody, someday.
Like many, I Naticked on DAX/XYLEM but went through the alphabet (yes, all the way to X) and XYLEM looked remotely familiar. So plugged that in and that finished up the SE.
This was a FEAST of all good crossword things - thank you Adam and Rafael!
Difficult for me! Had to look up WHATISART - wanted some variant of What is to be done, what to do. Also googled TEPEE and XYLEM /DAX.
Drill before BORER. The whole right side was hard, but I can appreciate this good puzzle! Love the pets
I'm surprised to see the ADAMS/OBAMA confusion. That quote isn't close to anything Barack Obama would ever have said. It's more likely (but unlikely) to have come from John Tyler or Rutherford B. Hayes (or from John Quincy Adams) than from Obama, who was guarded in his oratory.
@Les…but that my friends and I would’ve seen THAT (partly because we wouldn’t have known about the “tassel.”) No. The most horrific and bloody thing I’ve ever witnessed in real life. After seeing the splendiferous finery and strutting of the matador and flapping of the capote….
@tht…pretend@Pondie said “I think” more often. 😉 Love ya!
I’m going to start today with a sincere apology for my THRUM rant yesterday. Even though I fault the editors, it was rude to our debut constructor, Topher Booth. His well deserved and enjoyable oeuvre did not deserve a rant. I still think the editors should have fixed it, but I was easily as over the top as is OFL - occasionally. What generated my ire was the fact that it could so easily have been fixed and would have added some additional sparkle to a very fine debut puzzle.
Today was a first class Friday. Of course with a collaboration from two such well known constructors and personalities in the crossword community, my expectations for excellence soared. After so many decades of solving, I am always excited to find a new favorites. Following their debuts in the recent decade, both of today’s stellar cruciverbalists earned spots on my “want more from” list. Wish granted twice today. As soon as I saw both Adam Wagner’s and Rafael Musa’s bylines, I couldn’t wait to dig in. I was not disappointed. Quite the opposite. I had some true angst in spots but each time I feared I might need help from the interwebs, a clue appeared somewhere to keep progress alive.
I began the NW with trepidation, fearing that they would begin with a typical Friday ploy of easy word, tough clue. They were kind, possibly to lure me into a false sense of security. I know the Havanese breed and thought either yip or arf, and set out to test.
Because of my difficulty with all things mathematical/numerical, I owe recognizing a FIBONACCI sequence to my late husband. The rest of me is a mess, but thankfully my brain still works and I haven’t forgotten all the things he taught me and all the crossword answers that are “his” or are ones I learned ages ago from Gran. (All you older folks: remember when ACER was the “EPEE” of today?) anyway, I happily started off with ARF.
My kids returned late last night from NYC. This morning, I wanted to welcome them home with warm Tan’s doughnuts (a Santa Rosa delicacy). When I asked my Grace if she wanted to go with, she just groaned her teenage “leave me alone” groan and pulled her blanket over her head and returned to ignoring us all. My retort was “What? You won’t DEIGN to appear with a grandparent now that you can navigate the subway by yourself?” The word stoop in the clue for 13A made that one a gimme.
I had no real trouble other than entering TANDOri instead of TANDOOR until 30, both A and D. I thought of the heavy, full length wool coats worn by early fur traders called capotes (from French rather than Spanish) and put in lapel because these coats do indeed have very heavy lapel “flaps.” I thought it a rather brilliant answer. I was wrong. Took me until I had to admit my error by entering the Sooners’ nemesis, the OSU Cowboys, to correct French to Spanish and remember that TOROS react to a wave of the red Cpotes.
The solve went on, whooshing interspersed with an occasional screeching halt. In the SW, CLUNKY took me too long to get, I learned that VEGANAISE is not only a word (can a word have hubris?), but also a thing. Huh. The DAX/XYLEM cross was the last to fall. I knew we were talking plants, but the only not APBIO but certainly bio word I could think of that ended YLEM was phYLum. Ended up just run ing the alphabet for DA_ until X hit and the happy music ensued.
What a satisfying, enjoyable and tricky puzzle. Thanks Adam and Rafa. Happy New Year to you all.
The foam on top of stock is not fat. It is made of proteins that will make your stock cloudy. Defats is a bad answer to the clue and a terrible made-up word. One can remove the fat or skim the fat or rend the fat but defat is lazy. The internet "The foam on top of stock, called "scum," is coagulated proteins from meat and bones”
I wondered that too. Also didn’t understand the wording with “kind of” and “proceeds”.
@tht, I'm old, and my usage is somewhat old-fashioned. But check your dictionaries--POSER as a wannabe is usually #2 or #3. Merriam-Webster has this to say: https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/poser-vs-poseur-history.
Fair points, but if the E is from vegetable then it's definitely (at least by the rules of English spelling, if not by the marketers) pronounced with a J sound and not a G sound. Which is a much worse name.
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