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E-card site with a reduplicative name / FRI 3-27-26 / Reductive neologism for a strong female lead / Epithet for Bill Clinton / George's computer friend on "The Jetsons" / PB&J, e.g., informally / Dish whose name means "barley" in Italian / Direction in many a spaghetti western / Figure in Greek mythology who was brought up by a bear / Like 97% of the United States, per the Census Bureau / Dwarf planet in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter / Affliction known as "cold neuralgia" / Tahoe runner
Friday, March 27, 2026
Constructor: Zachary David Levy
Relative difficulty: Medium
Word of the Day: R.U.D.I. (53D: George's computer friend on "The Jetsons") —
R.U.D.I. (voiced by Don Messick) is George's work computer as well as his best friend in the workplace. R.U.D.I. is sentient, free thinking and openly fond of George, recognizing his value as an employee and friend. His name is an acronym for Referential Universal Digital Indexer. He has a human personality and is a member of the Society Preventing Cruelty to Humans. Though capable and loyal, R.U.D.I. is implied to be antiquated technology, as George mentions his model is no longer made.
In the episode "Family Fallout", the Jetsons are up against the Spacelys on a game show. The last question to come up was "what does R.U.D.I. stand for?" George's response was Referential Universal Differential Indexer – this was accepted by the game show host as the correct answer, even though earlier episodes had it as Digital instead of Differential. (wikipedia)
• • •
I had trouble getting started with this one, and then some trouble down below (where so many of the proper nouns are), and otherwise not much trouble at all. Worked my way into the NW corner via FEN / OFFS / SANYO / STENO (crosswordese to the rescue!), but I doubted FEN because it gave me what seemed like awkward letter sequences ("EF" "NF"). And so I put BOG in that position for a bit (resulting in "OF" instead of "EF" in 15-Across ... "OF" is of course a standalone word, so I was like "that's probably it, it's probably BOG / ...OF..." No). The clue on RURAL took me every single cross (7D: Like 97% of the United States, per the Census Bureau)—like, I was looking at -URAL going "... AURAL?" The clue is talking about the U.S. as a geographical entity; when you put "Census Bureau" in the clue, I assume you are talking about people. Yeesh. Saying the U.S. is 97% rural sounds like some right-wing propaganda, like when they show you how much of the country voted "red" using a physical map instead of numbers of people (when land, of course, doesn't vote; people do). So bah to that clue for sure. I wrote in FARO (!?) before ORZO at 10D: Dish whose name means "barley" in Italian, which was dumb—I think it's FARRO with two "R"s, anyway. But after a lot of flailing, I got that corner sorted and ... moved on.
Why am I still writing? I need to go be on the couch with a mug of hot water watching old movies until I pass out. I'll end by saying I think the stack in the NW corner is great, and THATAWAY made me smile (maybe I'll watch an old western today...) (33D: Direction in many a spaghetti western). I do not believe in the phrase "ALL OK?" (22A: "Do we have a problem here?"). Like, at all. Cannot hear it. "YOU OK?" I can def hear. "ALL GOOD?" I can kinda hear. "EVERYTHING OK?," sure. "ALL OK?," no. No. The one other answer that made me shake my head impatiently was ARGUED A CASE, which is as paradigmatic an EAT A SANDWICH answer as you're ever going to see ... but then I laughed out loud when that answer actually crossed SAMMICH (!), so maybe the puzzle is doing some kind of meta performance art there. Points for making it weird, puzzle.
Bullets:
- 24A: L.A. subdivision? (LOS) — self-referential. The clue is referring to "L.A." One "subdivision" is LOS, the other is ANGELES.
- 13D: Reductive neologism for a strong female lead (GIRL BOSS) — oof. This concept. The clue seems to know that it's "reductive" so why is it in the grid at all? GIRL BOSS feminism reinforces gender stereotypes and perpetuates a toxic hustle culture, ugh. The very idea that it's remarkable for a "girl" to be a "boss" is also ... I dunno. A problem, I'd say. Many feminists have written articles critiquing the #GirlBoss phenomenon in the 15 or so years since it first blew up. But the critique isn't only coming from feminists: "In our pursuit of progress and equality, it's vital to understand that the core of our conversations should transcend gendered limitations. The goal isn’t to shift from one catchy hashtag to another, but to reframe our collective mindset, ensuring that aspirations and trends truly represent and resonate with all" (that's Forbes for god's sake).
- 40D: PB&J, e.g., informally (SAMMICH) — me: "so PB&J ... is formal now?" Also me: "... SAMMIES?" (I hear sandwiches called "sammies" way more often than I hear them called "SAMMICHes").
- 23D: "Squid Game" and "The Red Sleeve" for two (K-DRAMAS) — these are just Korean dramas. Pretty straightforward.
- 29A: One whose work is barely seen? (EROTIC ARTIST)—not really sure what this is. Is it a stripper? A painter? Cartoonist? I got the EROTIC part easily enough, but the ARTIST was less intuitive.
- 14D: Figure in Greek mythology who was brought up by a bear (ATALANTA) — I know her name because it appears in a Donne poem ("Elegy XIX: To His Mistress Going to Bed"), but otherwise, I honestly know very little about her. She was a "swift-footed huntress" who as a child had been left to die by her father but was "suckled by a she-bear," as was the style of the time. She offered to marry whoever could beat her in a foot race and so Hippomenes got some golden apples from Aphrodite and threw them on the ground, and ATALANTA stopped mid-race to pick them up, and so Hippomenes won the race. "Atalanta and her husband, overcome with passion, made love in a shrine of the goddess Cybele (or of Zeus), for which they were turned into lions" (Britannica). So she had a colorful life.
That's all. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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135 comments:
sorry about the shot! medium? but this was genuinely challenging at every level. Not enough proper nouns to get a start with, and lots of vague phrases.
Nice challenging Friday. I had "bunk" before BULL, so I needed one cheat to get ATALANTA. Alphabet runs gave me the MANGA/MAC cross (I thought "Tahoe" referred to Lake Tahoe or skiing). Got GIRLBOSS via trial-and-error after remembering BUBBA was Bill Clinton's nickname.
Easy-Medium. Decent Friday.
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
OuZO before ORZO for the barley dish at 10D. I always confuse those two.
My 16A coded E was a DoT before it was a DIT
I probably would have put appS for JOBS as the 19A computer runs but too of the word much was unassailable. Do we still refer to computer "jobs"?
I thought gmC made the Tahoe SUV (47A) but no, it's a MAC that runs the Tahoe OS. Chevy makes the Tahoe.
WOEs:
Never heard of the 41A ARM BAR restraining move in Judo, but it was inferable.
Totally forgot R.U.D.I. the Jetsons computer (53D).
I was already complaining about SAMMIES, which is an abomination, but then it got worse! SAMMICH?!?! Ugh!
The shingles vaccine is no joke, was caught unawares as someone who did fine with all my covid vaccines. Made me want to be a shingles denier...
This puzzle was just off!
Very tough Friday, especially in the SE, so disagree Rex about that. Even with SAMM in place sammich never occurred to me, because no one (that I know) says or would say that. They would say sammy or sammie, but really they would just say sandwich, which is also just two syllables so you save nothing with your informality.
I have no idea what Squid Game or The Reed Sleeve are (I've heard of the former but assumed it was a game show). RUDI was a WoE. JIB JAB was a WoE. At one point I had the MOME in the middle of 38A and thought it was going to be a jabberwocky reference.
Hard for me, is what I'm saying.
First shingles shot made me feel weird for about a day. It is the only vaccination I've had a strong reaction to. I often joke (?) that they are giving me the placebo when I get a COVID shot because there is never any reaction at all.
This is Zachary’s first themeless puzzle out of ten in the Times, and I hope it’s not his last.
It gave me the perfect mix of whoosh, slow motion, and in-between. I had fun, my brain got its workout, and there were sweet periods of even-ness to amplify the extemes.
What a gorgeous black square grid design, looking like two hooks, or maybe two J’s. I’ll go with the latter, since the puzzle begins with the sing-song JIBJAB.
A sweet moment: Being stumped by [Totally missing the big picture?], then after getting NEARSIGHTED through crosses, with a big “Hah!,” grokking that clue and bowing down to its cleverness.
Lovely answers in DON’T RUB IT IN (a debut), THATAWAY, and SAMMICH. Lots of zing, with all six triple-stack answers in the SE and NW having appeared in the 80 years of Times puzzles but four times or less. Wow!
The uber-low number of black squares (28, ten less than a typical Monday) allows for a sea of white, and Zachary filled it with interest and junk-be-gone.
Man, Zachary, you hit my sweet spot with this. Thank you, and more please!
TOOT AT? As in, a car horn?
What is the Tahoe runner? I don’t get it…
Hey All !
A toughie for me today. Looks like the NYT heard y'all's plea for a Tough FriPuz. Had to cheat a couple of times to be able to finish. Such is life ...
Liked it overall. Liked the F bunch in NW. Couple of B bunches in NW and NE.
Gotta let the ole brain cool down now. 😁
Have a great Friday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Oy, hope you're feeling better RP. Maybe you shouldn't have gone to JIBJAB for your vaccine.
When my cousin got shingles, he didn't know whether to go to a doctor or a roofer.
Whoever said "laughter is the best medicine" didn't have very good insurance.
Also, I think that's on the list of "famous last words," along with "I wonder where the mother bear is," and "Watch this!"
I went to the doctor recently and he said "Okay, take off all your clothes and go stand by the window." I said "What for?" and he said "I'm mad at my neighbor."
OK, I think I've done enough damage -- feel better.
The shingles vax is truly nasty, and the bummer is that it comes in two doses. But trust me, getting shingles is far worse. Two days of misery in your life is worth it! You have my full sympathy.
You’re clearly in the wrong house. In my house it’s definitely SAMMICH (sammie??? I’ve never heard that) and ALLOK. Maybe at one point we said “all good?” But that went out the window when the only appropriate response became “Saul Goodman.”
Still no clue what MAC means??
@jberg here--can't login for some reason. It is a game show, but they kill you if you lose, I think--never watched it myself.
My mother still sends me ecards on my birthday each year, and I find it incredibly sweet. Maybe you’d feel different, Rex, if someone dear to you sent one to you.
I did a double-take when I saw Rex’s rating and that on xwordstats. This puzzle flew by for me. Not sure if that makes me ABITODD, but I’m okay with it!
This was hard hard hard but I enjoyed it. Thank goodness for CERES because I still don't understand how MAC is a "Tahoe runner." What the hell does that even mean? Usually I can reverse figure it out, but not here. Can some one help me?
@jberg, can't login today: Challenging but enjoyable-- I had to bounce all over the grid to get a toehold, not once but about 5 times. Favorite wrong answer: tattoo ARTIST. No idea about JIBJAB, but the clue says 'reduplicative,' and JIB JiB didn't work.
I didn't know about the bear, but ATALANTA -- we learned that golden apple bit in junior high. And Mary Tyler Moore does a non-sexist version in "Free to Be You and Me." They both end up running off together stride by stride; I can't remember what happens to the apples.
One of my first thoughts today was "Clinton has an epithet? When did he die?" So I looked up epithet to make sure I wasn't confusing it with "epitaph." (I was.) It's defined as "an adjective expressing a quality characteristic of the person mentioned." And the example given for it was: "Old men are often unfairly awarded the epithet 'dirty.'" (I'm not kidding.) It's certainly not "unfairly" in my case.
Speaking of which, if you're driving down the street and see some nice inkwork on a fair maiden's bod, might you TOOT AT her tattoo?
For Clinton, anyone else put down "slick" before BUBBA? As in "Slick Willie."
Many years ago I saw a documentary on ARTUR Rubinstein called "Love of Life." It (and he) was beautiful. I remember two things from it. He said he could be flying over the ocean to somewhere and look out the window and see a small island below, and he'd think, "I can imagine the world without that island -- but I cannot imagine the world without Mozart." And he said there are some pieces of music that he cannot play because they are too beautiful and he is overwhelmed. Then he started playing but stopped after a few notes, closed his eyes, shook his head, and said "It's unbearable."
Yes it’s a shame no one loves Rex enough to send him a glorified email 🙄
I believe this refers to the operating system "Tahoe," which is "run" on Mac computers
Maybe the day you learn not to scoff at other people’s joy will be the day you muster the bravery to not be anonymous. And maybe the day your mother sends you an ecard.
I found the northern hemisphere much more conducive to my wheelhouse than south of the equator. My nits would be the usual ones - especially the propers.
I pretty much crossed the singularity going west to east when I hit the triple PPP-stack of ARTUR, CERES and RUDI. I was totally spaghettified as I passed SAMMICH and of course by then I was toast (unfortunately, not a wormhole to be found - I’ll have to chat with Dr. Cox about that).
The NE wasn’t very enjoyable either - OFL beat up on GIRL BOSS, which probably deserved it, and ATALANTA doesn’t mean a thing to me (I suspect that I am not alone, even if I am in the minority).
Anyway, nothing much atypical for the Times, so it is what it is. @Rex - I didn’t have any fun the weekend after my shingles shot, so I empathize with you - I hope you feel better soon.
When I saw 34 Down , I knew it would be a fun puzzle.Even though I had 2 Naticks in the top northeast, everything was 22 Across.Very enjoyable.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Some problems getting started but got enough to suss out JUSTFORSHOW, nice toeholds there, but in no way led to JIBJAB, a total WTF. On to the NE, where IDOUBTIT was most helpful. Eventually remembered BUBBA after rejecting Slick Willie. Only knew that "Squid Game" Was Korean, so K-something, which turned out to be DRAMA. Liked THATAWAY, but the "spaghetti" in the clue was unnecessary.
No idea about Hackman's costar or RUIDI or the IGA slogan, but that's what crosses are for. Boo to the juvenile SAMMICH but at least it was not the infantile SAMMIE. And I had most of the letters for ATALANTA and filled it in, because I know it as an Italian Serie A soccer team, and today I learned the mythological background. Cool.
Nice Friday, ZDL. Some problems connecting with your cluing wavelength so Zigzagging Did Lots of work for me. Thanks for all the fun.
OFL--Shingles shots are no fun whatsoever but infinitely better than the disease, from which my mother suffered. Nasty stuff. Hope you're feeling better.
This was my feeling too! Except for the grid initially. I (like Rex) don’t like blocked corners, but the puzzle was so fun for me I forgave it.
I’ve been NEARSIGHTED with glasses since I was 3 and that clue still stumped me until I got the D in DAN lol. For the life of me I could not think of a word shorter than short to go there lol.
My favorite clue was (firs and beeches, but not furs and beaches) for TREES!
I only know ATALANTA because of the album Free to Be You and Me - literally didn't know about the bear or the apples - or that the song misled me into thinking she didn't get married!
MAC computers run OS Tahoe.
Tahoe is an operating system for Mac computers
Apple names its OSX operating system versions after California locations. The current one is Tahoe.
It’s an operating system for Macs.
Apple Mac operating system. We’re apparently supposed to memorize the soon to be dozens of nicknames that apple gives their frequently updated software. Boooo!
It’s the Mac computer. It runs a version of MacOS named “Tahoe”. This one killed me - I had “ski” in there forever.
Should the brunch clue have included a hint that the answer would not use the standard American english spelling for omelet?
It’s a Macintosh operating system.
Definitely played hard for me (122% of my average Friday time).
Also just not my favorite—many clues/answers clunked for me (aside from some that Rex and/or earlier posters already called out, THISONE for 'nearest item to pick' and 'Drop-OFFS' were not my favorite and HAMOMELETTES seemed oddly off somehow (either just make it OMELETTES or somehow justify the HAM part of it [and the clue also seems to imply that someone wouldn't eat a HAMOMELETTE for breakfast, only for brunch????]). On a good note, I did love the 'direction in a Western'/THATAWAY clue/answer pair!
This could have been a good puzzle. It was ugly and the difficulty was raised not in a clever (Oh, I see now) way, but apparently by looking for really obscure references. Contrived. The south central was especially awful. MANGA? MAC? no clue (so to speak)
Is it just me or is the grid too restrictive? Only a single two-square entry from the bottom to the top.
😂
Wow! This was an experience… I was ALLOK as I cruised through the NW, middle, and into the SW corner of this thing. But then I got to the NE and hit a BRAINFREEZE! I had HUtTON and had no clue, at first, what hitting 22 was about. Thought maybe it was pUtT? Thought that E was a DoT. Couldn’t think of GIRLBOSS for the longest time. D’oh. And the SE gave me trouble too. 30 minutes for me all together. DONTRUBITIN…. Had _iceR before PARER, and I know nothing about the Apple ecosystem so had no idea about Tahoe…. Was thinking of wildlife, or gmC???? ATALANTA and SAMMICH saved me and anchored me as I tried all the options. Finished in the NE, when I took some stuff out, put back in the G in IGA, and saw it had to be GIRLBOSS. Then saw that it was BULL, and finally figured out it was HUSTON, not HUtTON. Happy music at last! Anyhoo, yes I’m still in Liberia, enjoying a little early AM puzzling and prayer time before starting the day…. Hopefully getting our brakes repaired today and then heading back to the capital over some bumpy and muddy dirt roads tomorrow. Fly out Sunday, God willing.
Just asking...Why does a computer company's operating system need a name like Tahoe? Why can't it just be (Apple's) system? Do we have a choice between Tahoe and some other operating system at Apple?
This was a challenging late week puzzle. I was robbed of a clean finish by 23A. Originally I had EXOTICDANCER which changed to EXOTICARTIST after I'd hammered out the NE. I've never heard the term KDRAMAS but after a long search over a seemingly complete puzzle I finally spotted it.
Is a French film that fails at the box office an FBOMB? I dropped a few of them solving this puzzle.
From a doc. I've had shingles, 5 years later I got the 2 shot Shingrix vaccine, as shingles can recur. There is absolutely no comparison. The shingles (Herpes zoster) is weeks or even months of torture.; sometimes even years of post-herpetic neuralgia The Shingrix vaccine is safe and effective, and worth every bit of discomfort. Repeat: No comparison.
My Mom called it a SAMMICH with a big smile so enough authority for me. But at first was pretty sure I’d never get that far in this puzzle. Was thankful for the SE where things flowed easily while wondering what to do with the rest of the open grid…then I looked at FEN, OFFS, STENO, and WEE, filled in with relief JUSTFORSHOW, and worked slowly but surely down the grid. Loved THATAWAY and ONATIP, and suffered like many associating TAHOE for too long with the lake.
Rex, congrats on getting the shingles shots! But yes, almost everyone I know had a bad 2nd shot reaction. But considering what shingles can do to a person, I think it was worth it.
A hard Friday. I had a tough time breaking into the NW due to thinking 6D would be drop-KICK and then 20A would be KODAK and then nothing made sense. Happily, I didn't actually write any of that in so STENO rode to my rescue (they went THAT-AWAY, yes that was fun).
BRAIN FREEZE brings back the memory of anxiety before a ChemE exam. The J. Geils Band's hit "Freeze Frame" was being played on the radio constantly and, while waiting for the classroom to become available, one of my fellow students would break out singing the intro and then shout FREEZE BRAIN. I don't think it really eased our nerves but it did get a laugh.
57D was a write-over - while the clue didn't specify how timely the slang was, I was expecting something newer than BAG and wrote jAm at first, but NEARSIGHTED fixed that.
Zachary David Levy, thank you for the tough Friday many of us have been longing for!
Other than the NE corner, a very fun and challenging puzzle. The top right was a nightmare and should not have been published. Foh
RP: I’m sorry, feel better. At least it’s only temporary. 😵💫
I would not call it difficult or even challenging but I did have several WOEs that slowed me down: KDRAMAS, MANGA, CERES, RUDI, MAC as clued ( I had SKI). WTH? And finally, ATALANTA which looks suspiciously like Atlanta, and I couldn’t help noticing the irony of it crossing TSA.
Is 97% of the USA truly RURAL? That seems high, particularly when you look at the urban sprawl of most cities. I didn’t know JIBJAB made greeting cards. To me, it is best known for the hilarious video of George Bush and John Kerry during the 2004 presidential election campaign which juxtaposes the two of them singing This Land Is Your Land. One of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, totally worth the watch. We could use humor like that in our politics these days, that’s for certain.
I think we can safely blame Rex's shingles shot for his neglecting to rant about MAC, clued as a Tahoe runner. At least that's my call.
How is it Artur and not Arthur?
DAN did rattle around in my brain when I saw QUINN. You must not be wasting enough time watching football on Sundays, RP. He's not a run-of-the-mill NFL coach, historically. He was the head coach of the Falcons in Super Bowl LI when they held a 28-3 lead over the Pats in the third quarter and still managed to lose (in OT). For Atlantans, it's a close call between that game and the Civil War.
This was almost two puzzles for me. I cruised through 3/4 of it in about 5 minutes, and spent about 15 minutes pecking away at the SE. Just had a heck of a time getting an in down there. Had GMC for the Tahoe clue since I think they have that as a model, TOOTLE for TOOTAT, SAMMIES for SAMMICH, so yeah.
JIB JAB website was famous for its parody of the Bush vs Kerry election lead-up, hilariously (IMO) set to the melody of "This Land Is Your Land". I highly recommend anyone who is unfamiliar with it to give it a view. Warning: it will make you long for the days when a song can be written so light-heartedly about presidential politics.
Not sure I ever missed a Jetson's episode, but I have no recollection of R.U.D.I. Rosie, yes. Maybe a better clue, recognizing that baseball season just began, would have been "A's outfielder Joe whose trade to the Red Sox was voided by MLB". (Look it up.) Similarly obscure, perhaps.
Challenging for me, with the outlook bleak as I faced a NW with only STENO and WEE and a SE with only ARTUR, SMORE and MOAN. What saved me: first, remembering that a friend once sent me a goofy e-card from JIB JAB, which got me JUST FOR SHOW and the rest of that corner; and second, getting ON A TIP and its crossing Downs, enough to let me see DON'T RUB IT IN and the rest. What I liked, besides being able to finish: the fun of THATAWAY and THIS ONE, and learning that ATALANTA, whose name I knew from the "apples" race, was raised by a bear.
Hackmans co-star is Anjelica Huston. You should do deep dive, she’s totally worth it!
I thought Tahoe runner was a good “misdirection”.
The piece of paper on which I solve did not let me know I had a mistake, thought a Tahoe needed GAS to "run" and gANGA and sERES looked plausible, rats!
Medium for me. I did this one from the middle out after initially not getting much in the NW. It was fairly whooshy once I got started.
WOE - RUDI
Costly erasures - pinES before TREES and me too for SAMMIes before SAMMICH.
I agree with @Rex on ALL OK
Not much junk, a fair amount of sparkle, liked it.
Bosh -> BUsh -> BUnk -> BULL
All of the MAC questions seem to indicate how many people actually use them.
Liveprof at 8.46, thanks for the Rubinstein story. There was one particular piece he used to practice every day (can anyone here identify?) One day, around his 90th birthday, he was as usual practicing this piece, when he heard his wife's voice: "Now Artur, now you've got it!" And Rex, I know the shingles vaccine sucks, but trust me, shingles sucks so much worse!
It was a series about a “deadly serious” “game” that was televised to the populace. @kitshef, the newer “Shingrix” vaccine is TWO shots taken a few months apart. Usually the first shot is “meh” but the second shot…gah.
@Bob…good question but in someways it could be preferable to a number, like A23. As the OS “improves” it is updated (until it finally cannot). Some of the myriad past names I believe include Monterrey, Sequoia, and Big Sur.
Question Dr J…once everyone “passes away” who got chickenpox (like born before around 1995) will the ones inoculated for chicken pox need shingles shots? My “not a doctor” theory is that shingles is more prevalent today because we don’t get exposed to chicken pox (pretty much yearly) and the past exposures were kind of like a “vaccine” or booster.
Very similar here, I was definitely lucky that the C from mistakenly putting GMC gave me Ceres and R unlocked "rub it in".
Hands up for slick...
Not too hard, but didn’t find this one enjoyable.
Danny is in fact anonymous.
Cher is not anonymous.
Elvis and Charlemagne were not anonymous.
Danny is not a first-name-only an idenifier.
@Danny: That really is sweet and being e-cards, you can save them forever. My dear mother sent handwritten letters every week, even though I called her regularly. I didn’t save them all, but the ones I did keep are very precious to me now.
Long before I’d ever heard of the metaphysical poets I’d heard of Atlalanta.
Her story of the race and the golden apples was on the seminal children’s album Free to Be you and Me. It’s right in Rex’s wheelhouse age wise and politics/world view wise (Marlo Thomas was the prime mover behind the project)
Rudi is obscure. His mustache was very famous.
Thank you for that. I still haven’t gotten one although I know I should, and testimonies like yours are very convincing.
That’s how I best remember JIBJAB too. See the link in my comment above at 10:48.
Or Hard Knocks In Season.
As head coach of the Washington Commanders he was all over that series every Tuesday night fir two months.
Great post @Danny.
All I can print for Anonymous is ⁉️
I was moving swiftly along until I got an email from American Express which I confirmed was SPAM. Be careful, everyone.
I think I was enjoying this puzzle up until then.
Hope you feel better soon, Rex & thanks reviewing this am in spite of feeling poorly.
Artur in his native country, Poland. Both spellings are well attested.
Never seen an entire Smore on fire-on it’s way to being one, yes
Took me a while to parse the crossing of 21D with 28A, tricky. As for 53D, perhaps RUDI Dornbusch will someday appear in a clue.
Never seen an entire Smore on fire-just the marshmallow part
Mac computer - one of the operating systems is code named Tahoe
He was Polish by birth
I also had jAm before BAG.
Tahoe is a version name for the Mac operating system.
Saturday level for me, especially in the SE where I just couldn't put things together. I had CASE at the bottom, and tried a bunch of things - pled the CASE, made the CASE etc before realizing that maybe the Forte clue wasn't about music. I thought the "not seeing the big picture" clue ended in SIGHTED but NEAR SIGHTED seemed more about your literal vision than how you view the world. Wanted short SIGHTED but of course didn't fit. Tried BAG for forte and eventually came up with ARGUED A CASE which freed things up to finally see DONT RUB IT IN and then guessed correctly at the rest.
Put me in the "SMOREs don't catch on fire" camp. Marshmallows catch on fire, which are then used in SMOREs. Put SMORE down at first only to delete it because I didn't think the constructor/editor would be that careless, only to reluctantly realize when all the crosses worked that they were that careless. Surprising. 39:30 - way above average time today.
Anon, are you confusing Joe Rudi with Rollie Fingers? Both A's; the latter had a distinctive (curled) 'stache.
Whats, great minds think alike. 😂😂
To Beezer: Interesting question. But as an 84 year old rettred cardiologist I wouldn't have the temerity to even take a stab at answering it.
Also in the JAM before BAG crowd.
Nope. Charlie O. Finley paid his players to grow facial hair. Fingers, Gene Tennace, and Sal Bando became known as the Mustache Gang. I think maybe you’re not up to speed.
And of course Rudi…
Fairly challenging for me, and I really got hung up in that darned upper right corner with several wrong guesses. And it has one of my least favorite types of clues, a company clued by their slogan: "Local equals fresh sloganeer". Jeez I really hate that... some American company I've never heard of...
So I eventually get that it is IGA! And here's the thing: I live 2 blocks from an IGA store. I buy most of my groceries there; it's a 5 minute walk. And I have never ever heard of that slogan! Evidently it is not used in Canada.
Several unknowns: I've heard of K-Pop, but not K-DRAMA. JIBJAB: no. However I did think of SAMMICH at 40 down, but I thought "that's not a thing" so replaced it with SAMMIES. But my funniest typeover was 34 down, where looking at M----AGE, I had Zsa Zsa entering nine times into MIDDLE AGE but it didn't fit.
I liked the Gene Hackman clue mainly because he's the only Hollywood star I've ever had a conversation with, after running into him (literally) in the doorway of a bookstore in Vancouver in 1990. But the weirdest thing was, I thought: I know him... who the heck is he... a past client? A consulting engineer? So I asked him vague questions like "Are you working on a project in town?" To which he would answer: "Yeah, I'm workin' on a project." Period. Several minutes later I go "Doh! That was Gene Hackman."
Thanks for replying Dr. J! I just find it very compelling that shingles seemed to have a huge uptick in younger populations in the last, (don’t hold me to it) 20-25 years. I am totally NOT an antivaxxer. I KNOW there must have been chickenpox deaths which initiated the vaccine. I guess my position is…I’ll take the Shingrix bullet if I think Zoster is eventually wiped out, but this is the only vaccine (chickenpox) where I kind of had what you would call…second thoughts about.
This was tough for me and I didn't finish. First time in a long while that I didn't finish the Friday puzzle. Some of the cluing seemed off; for instance, in America we know ORZO as a small, ricelike pasta, so that doesn't seem like a "dish." The clue should just have referred to "Pasta whose name means 'barley' in Italian." And how does "Spread" mean UNROLL? Other things I didn't know...IGA, DIT, DAN, ARMBAR...ugh, just a slog. Not fun.
Good point. Gotta say…I reluctantly shifted to a MacBook Air in 2017. My prior “PC’s” seemed to only last a few years (I’d detail the problems but boring). The MacBook has lasted nine, and I’m only NOW looking to replace due to inability to update for “security patches.” Actually cheaper in long run (in my mind, but others can differ). And…I KNOW that many others can’t afford the “upfront” cost…which is sad.
@jrstocker. I made the same mistake with Tahoe even though I have been a Mac user since day one. Seems I've just gotten lazy and haven't bothered to update to Tahoe. But my GMC answer was wrong in more than one way. Seems the Tahoe is a Chevrolet. The GMC version, which is almost identical to the Chevy, is called the Yukon. Unlike most people commenting here, I'm kind of a car guy, but if you parked a Yukon and a Tahoe side by side with badges removed, I doubt I could tell them apart. Why do they do that?
But it was all irrelevant because it was really a computer clue. Not lakes, not skiing, not General Motors SUVs, but computers. Sigh.
Omg. Now that I’m officially retired, I feel like my full-time job is deleting phishing expeditions! I really WOULD be interested in how much bs is sent to young people. Not to mention phone calls (of which I’ve gotten used to NOT answering). I feel lucky I was still in work-force when I had to watch, and get tested on mandatory security videos!
@kitshef. I had to ask my wife, "Have I had the shingles vaccine?" She nodded, yes. Asked my doctor. She confirmed it. I can't recall it. It couldn't have been that bad. Covid and flu vaccines: easy peasy. Perhaps I'm just insensitive. Imagine that!
Ditto on thinking jam before BAG. The clue was obviously NOT my jam!
Gotta say…NYT has had both omelet and OMELETTE. That tripped me up, but I think I’ve seen it spelled both ways on menus in “God’s country” (um…the USA Midwest)
I was at the fancy schmansy pre-fight party the night George Foreman fought Evander Holyfield. It was pretty crowded so he was stuck in a crush of people right next to me. I was dying to talk to him, but didn’t. What could I say?
I was maybe 24 and a singleton (HBO who was televised ngbthe fight, gave our outfit only one ticket/party invite. Senior staff were not going to go to AC w/out their wife, which is how I came bybthe ticket).
Anyway, the Hackman moment passed, I sat down on something —- I dont think it was a chair. Maybe the pedastol of a statue? — and who sits down next to me? Jennifer Tilley. We exchanged disappointed grunts. Or at least I was disappointed.
I spent my working life around pro athletes, and that night, when Muhammed Ali shuffled in w his entourage was the only time the hair on the back of my neck stood straight up.
Hope you're well soon, Rex.
@Jnlzbeth…I getcha. But as a an old (very old) past Girl Scout…spreading out your sleeping bag was UNROLLing it. So…while not obvious, I somehow “got it.”
Agreed. The shingles was the 2nd worse vaccine reaction for me. Worst was my first COVID shot. Puzzle was OK some clues just seemed to be overly obscure.
Shingrix has been in the news lately because there is some evidence it might also decrease your chances of heart attack or stroke. Yay Shingrix!
Same. I had SAMMIES and hated it and could not get any purchase on the long acrosses, even with (I thought) the ends in place, and didn't know any of the proper nouns. Only when I tried SAMMICH could I see NEARSIGHTED and that eventually gave me enough of a hold to get the south. But ick.
That was a tough one for me after yesterday was so easy. They were a ton of dead ends which made it harder getting a foothold anywhere. (I also foolishly put in sammies instead of sammich which hindered me there)
It was early so the ”dd” that ended odd completely threw me off. I toyed with escape artist for awhile until I committed to the “ite” down
I actually thought this was going to end my streak at points
Okanaganer…you cracked me up on your IGA biz! Haha…when I’ve been in Canada…same thing…we have a rental and have a rental car…we approach a complex…I THINK that’s a grocery! (Yay!) Then I also see things we have in common. Well. We have a LOT in common except the orange guy. Still trying to wrap my brain on THAT.
Yeah. Worked the puzzle early EDT. Mixed feelings but on balance liked it. Had time to intermittently comment on OTHER folks “blood, sweat, and tears.” Hey. I had to cheat at one point, but given its hours later…don’t know where. I don’t hold it against a Friday puzzle if I have to cheat. Probably for MANY of us it’s just….”I only have so much time in one day…and right now…I have no time.” This is why I keep a “paper puzzle” book. I can come back a few days later and have a eureka. Yeah. It harkens back to a simpler time. I try to embrace the “now” but still look back and love the “slower times.”
Found this to be a tough Friday. Stumbled from the beginning when I entered hypothermia instead of brain freeze
Agreed on that shot. My first one laid me low for 24 hours. I felt like I’d been hit by a truck. The second one on the other hand didn’t have any side effects.
@ Les. I have officially now had THREE shingles shots. Not exactly sure when FIRST one was…but we will say somewhere around age 60. When my doc said I needed the shingles shot and I said…had it, she said no…that isn’t as effective…you need the new “two shot” vax. So. Just make sure you aren’t like me in terms of your vax sked. And yes. My EARLY shingles shot was “easy peasy.” I said in a comment (somewhere) that the FIRST Shingrix (TM) shot was “meh.” The second…not so much. Not HORRIBLE, but, um, memorable for side effects. (And I also had no probs with CoVid, etc). It’s kinda like…make sure you have ONE day to feel…”couch surfing shitty.”
ditto
Wow. Neither @egs nor I survived the hook today. Nevertheless...
@🦖 Congrats on shingling it up. You'll be done soon. Last time I took the vaccine I reacted so violently I seriously thought about going to the hospital, but I lived. I've had shingles on my face, and I have had the vaccine twice since then as I am willing to do anything to never have the real deal again.
@Anon 11;12 & @Beezer. I have beern a Mac afficionado since 1984. Acquired my first one in late '84, maybe early '85. The second edition, fondly refered to as the Fat Mac because it had … wait for it … 512k of memory. Impressive, right? But the user interface was good, easy to use, and it was a GUI; a GRAPHIC User Interface. And I am a studio artist who, at that time was trying to pay the bills by working as a graphic artist. This thing was brilliant. So brilliant that I carted it in to the newsroom one night and demonstrated to the graphics editor how I could, in 20 minutes, produce a weather map that would, using tech pens, stencils, tapes, and amberlith, take me about 2 hours. He dismissed it as a "toy" and the next day I submitted my resignation.
Took out some student loans and moved my family to Calgary to pursue a Masters degree, thinking I might be able to get a job teaching art at a post-secondary institution of some sort. When that didn’t work out I came crawling back to the newspaper looking for a job to support my family. They welcomed me back and showed me to my new desk upon which was situated … wait for it … a Mac! Yeah, really.
With two exceptions, I have worked with Macs ever since. Yes, they cost more up front but they are worth it. The two exceptions were horrendous experiences but best saved for another day, another post.
@Beezer. I have to admire your ability to cobine the crude with the comforting: couch surfing shitty, indeed!
Thank you! Wonderful.
33d - bad clue for this answer. Never heard "thataway" in any spaghetti western I've seen. In cartoons and oaters (I repeat myself), but not in any Italian western.
I was very confused about the answer to "no no" was YES- is it a double negative thing? I did not understand.
Beezer—- may i ask your age?
Im not officially retired, but so close no one would notice save 45 days in the year.
I found the cyber security tests silly. Now, I too appreciate them
Sorry to hear it.
Still don’t understand how hitting 22 can be BUST.
Feel better @Rex!
This put up a proper Friday challenge for me and there is so much to like here. First - what a cool looking grid! Then, those long stacks in NW and SE! They took forever to fall for me but what fun it was getting there! Some really hard work but i enjoyed most every minute. Time well spent!
If I'd ever heard of JIBJAB, the NW would have finished much sooner. Without it, I just couldn't get a good foot hold on that corner. But when the J's fell, I got a very satisfying and joyous whoosh experience.
I had to run the alphabet on the MAC/MANGA crossing as I just could not figure out the Tahoe clue - needed to come here for that. Also, neat little gimmick to have two computer related clues and the answers are JOBS and MAC! :o)
Other than those two beautiful long stacks, I loved THATAWAY, took me a solid New York Minute to get it but it's a great entry.
I happen to say "ALLOK?" fairly often, so I had no issue with that.
All in all, a rock solid Friday. Thank you Zachary!
I enjoyed this one. Lots of good stuff all over the place.
The grid did teeter on the edge of getting a "POC assisted" rating. Some longer entries, HAM OMELLETE, KDRAMA, and IMMERSE needed some help to fill their slots.
Then there is a two for one POC, where a Down and an Across both get POC letter count boosted by sharing a single S, that I have never seen before. 23D KDRAMA and 46A TREE are standard two -fers where the shared S is at the end of each one. The surprise for me was when the shared S came at the end of 26D BURDEN and at the start(!) of 50A MORE*. It is also a good example of how POC is a crossword term, not a grammatical one.
*MORE is the base word and unless the theme is about fireside treats, that S is there only to give MORE the needed letter count boost to do its job.
Never heard of JIBJAB or KDRAMA; totally flummox'd by the three-way brand-name mashup SANYO/HUEYS/ORZO; no idea who MAC is or why he/she is a "Tahoe runner;" utterly clueless about the names DAN (as clued) and RUDI; and what the hell is a DIT?!
The shingles shot isn’t always awful, and shingles is –much worse–, especially if you get the long-term neuropathy from it. My dad had shingles on his ear and could never sleep on that side again, and I have had numerous patients with similar stories (can’t wear a T-shirt, can’t wear a bra, had to use suspenders because a belt was intolerable, etc.)
My own experience with the current shingles shot was a nothingburger, especially since I’d had the old one, which made me itch all over for almost a week.
Geez. Ok. Relax. Mac runs Tahoe. Did not know. Sure do now.
Yeah, if it does you are doing it wrong
Anonymous 11:41 AM
Everyone is anonymous is an old excuse and wrong. True that I have never met people on this blog in person and mostly not by their legal names But people who use a UNIQUE blog name I have got to know in a way , over the years. The key is we can tell commenters apart.
On the other hand — dozens of anonymous mostly difficult to tell apart. (Eg we don’t know if you are defending yourself or someone else). It is blatantly clear that it is much easier to be insulting in these circumstances. Just human nature.
(Most of the anonymous are fine. I am not criticizing them, just the nasty ones).
This was a massive challenge from me. I needed to use all of the Times blog's "tricky clues" answers. I could not wrap my head around this one.
Orzo isn’t a brand name. Apple computers have been naming their operating systems after various California locations for several years. Tahoe is the current one. Dit is how a Morse code dot is pronounced. One dot means “e”.
I had a 98 puzzle streak without a single look up or cheat before this one. I had a bad day and couldn't get to this until late. It was 1 am before I realized I hadn't finished it.
I was stuck on several clues in the bottom middle, anchored by Tahoe/Mac at the top (and I'm in IT for 30 years, but not a current Mac user). My streak was showing as 0, and I thought I had lost it and after another 45 minutes of struggle just decided to look up some clues since I figured I had lost my streak.
However, after completing it it shows that my streak is active again?!? So I'm torn. This was clearly a hard puzzle and likely would have destroyed a fully honest streak, but now I have to either throw tomorrow's or live with this "cheat" in my streak.
Anyway, this was the hardest puzzle in over 3 months at least. I agree there were too many vague phrases and it wasn't really fun.
Blackjack
Shouldn’t Tahoe Runer have a ‘?’
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