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Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: BREAD AND ROSES (32A: Old political slogan of the women's suffrage and labor movements) —
"Bread and Roses" is a political slogan associated with women's suffrage and the labor movement, as well as an associated poem and song. It originated in a speech given by American women's suffrage activist Helen Todd; a line in that speech about "bread for all, and roses too" inspired the title of the poem "Bread and Roses" by James Oppenheim. The poem was first published in The American Magazine in December 1911, with the attribution line "'Bread for all, and Roses, too'—a slogan of the women in the West." The poem has been translated into other languages and has been set to music by at least three composers.The phrase is commonly associated with the textile strike in Lawrence, Massachusetts, between January and March 1912, now often referred to as the "Bread and Roses strike." The slogan pairing bread and roses, appealing for both fair wages and dignified working conditions, found resonance as transcending the "sometimes tedious struggles for marginal economic advances" in the "light of labor struggles as based on striving for dignity and respect", as American sociologist and activist Robert J. S. Ross wrote in 2013. (wikipedia)
• • •
[17A: Movie trailer narrator's first words, often]
Also, this party had food! Like, a lot of food! Before I'd even circulated very much, I'd had SESAME OIL on NAAN and some LABNEH (which I managed to spell correctly on the first try, [fist pump]!) (20D: Mideast yogurt dip eaten with pita), and then I chased it all down with a couple of PROTEIN SHAKES, which was kind of gross, but, you know, culinarily creative. After that, cleanse the palate with a little BREAD (AND ROSES ... were the roses edible? I hope so. Too late to ask that now), and then a full DINNER (something out of the OVEN BAGS, whatever those are), and then, to round the evening off, you could choose between SCOTCH and PROSECCO. Nice. Oh, and the TINS of popcorn, forgot about them. Thought they were BINS at first, but the puzzle corrected me (53D: Popcorn holders). Overall, an enjoyable eating experience. Probably wouldn't voluntarily drink the PROTEIN SHAKES again, but the rest of it, mwah, delicious. In addition to the people and the food, there were beautiful word installations. Creamy stacks in the NW and SE, crunch colonnades in the NE and SW. I was genuinely sad to hear "PLAYTIME'S OVER!" because I was having such a good time. This grid is polished in ways that so many these days are not. Whatever common / crosswordy stuff you find is small and marginal. Scattered. Inconsequential. This means I can whoosh around the grid without wincing (my preferred way of whooshing: winceless). IN A WORLD overrun by awkward abbreviations and word parts and laugh syllables and archaic phrases no one actually says, this puzzle comes along and it feeds and it entertains, with a great sense of play and humor. I had fun. Turns out this is all I really Really want from a puzzle. SWAMP RAT! Now I remember! That's what was in the OVEN BAGS (it's an acquired taste, I'll admit, but don't knock it etc.).
Puzzle felt easyish from the start despite my muffing not one but two answers in the NW (I had us riding on the Flying RUPEE (2D: Flying ___ (train between Mumbai and Surat) (RANEE)), and I thought the warning sign said DO NOT ENTER (3D: DO NOT ___ (ERASE))). After that, no real missteps, except when I tried to spell the Japanese island HONCHU (60A: Osaka's land) and ended up with someone named AUNT C at 42D: High-ranking women in "The Handmaid's Tale" (AUNTS). I always forget the word DEMUR exists, mainly because I never quite know what it means and (therefore) would never use it myself. It has killed me more than a few times when I'm playing Quordle or Octordle—even when I have most of the letters, I can never make anything out of them until suddenly (if I'm lucky) I remember that the word DEMUR exists (50A: Express misgivings). I think one of the things that confuses me about DEMUR is its near-identical cousin, DEMURE. That's an adjective, and that one, I know.
Bullets:
- 1A: Man's name that, like Otto, is also an Italian number (TRE) — I guess TRE was at the party too. Left his name off the guest list. Sorry, TRE. This was a great clue. Had me running through my Italian numbers real awkwardly (the only way I can run through Italian numbers, since I don't speak Italian and know the numbers only from crosswords). The coffee place I go to nearly every day, the one where I buy all my beans (because the roaster really knows his craft), is called Otto (the Italian number, not the man's name).
- 29A: "French" or "sliced" haircut (BOB) — got this off the "B"; otherwise, no clue. "French or sliced?" sounds like something someone would ask you at the sandwich counter.
- 57A: Gathering with grills and grilles (TAILGATE) — nice clue. Grills (barbecue) and grilles (front ends of automobiles).
- 12D: Semi professional? (TEAMSTER) — made me laugh. Professional semi (truck) drivers are TEAMSTERs.
- 28D: Like Cheerios vis-à-vis Lucky Charms, say (OATIER) — this also made me laugh. I'm gonna need to see some data here. What oatiness metric are we using here? Is it just the addition of marshmallows that make Lucky Charms (pound for pound) less oaty? Because the non-marshmallow part of Lucky Charms consists of (I'm told) "shaped pulverized oat" (wikipedia). Lucky Charms is just Doing More. OATIER sounds like something out of Cheerios PR. I can see how they'd prefer that term to BORINGER.
- 45D: Perpetual homebody? (SNAIL) — just a great clue. Smiled when I figured it out. (the SNAIL of course carries its "home" (shell) around with it at all times)
- 59A: Part of a cabinet that's made overseas (MINISTER) — if you live overseas, this one might've been confusing. The president's "cabinet" in the U.S. is made of "Secretaries" (no MINISTERs) but overseas (UK, India, maybe elsewhere?) you get Cabinet MINISTERs.
- 31A: Music recording space, informally (STU) — again, I laughed. Mainly at how dumb this sounds. I was like "'recording space' ... do they mean like the studio ... oh, noooo is it STU!?!?!" LOL, yes. At least the clue is original. Not just another [Disco ___] or [Poker great ___ Ungar].
- 32D: Color effect of a lunar eclipse (BLOOD MOON) — a great answer—the anchor of a really terrific corner. The PRUDISH PROSECCO BLOOD MOON! ICONIC! Best observed while sipping SCOTCH in HONCHU (helps if you're RICH). Not sure what more you can ask from a Saturday corner. Just lovely.
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ReplyDeleteEasy-Medium. Lots of fun cluing, exactly what I'd expect from these constructors.
* * * * _
Overwrites:
I thought oShA might include the Forest Service before (duh!) it was the USDA.
At 58A, Islay and Speyside sounded Welsh to me, so I thought maybe thaTCH before I realized it was (and they were) SCOTCH.
GET it before ME at 44D.
TubS before TINS for the 53D popcorn holders. Thinking movie theaters.
WOEs:
Golfer LYDIA Ko at 7D.
I've never heard of TRE as a man's name. TREy, yes, but it didn't fit (1A).
Now, STU (31A) I've heard of as a man's name. But not as an abbrev. for STUdio.
The Mideast dip LABNEH at 20D. Sounds yummy though.
Singer Jessie REYEZ at 27D.
I've heard of Ms. Briggs-MYERS (49D) but it was buried too deep in the synapses.
Yeah, 1-A is a tough clue. There are also men named Uno and Due, as well as TRE--which according to the web peaked in 1993 with 538 baby boys. Could've clued it "Italian number."
DeleteI think TRE is in The Californians. "TRE, is that yew?"
DeleteKnew when I saw Malaika and Erik in the byline that this would be a treat, and it surely turned out to be! Still, was a bit surprised to see what I believe is OFL’s highest star rating ever. Agree about the Friday level difficulty—my time was exactly 3 seconds less than my Friday average.
ReplyDeletewebwinger
I finished this in under my usual Wednesday time, and I was stuck up north for awhile. The CH_ / HONSH_ cross was totally a guess, but I guessed right the first time, and I never heard of the train, and have only seen TRE spelled with a Y , but what else could it be? Otherwise yeah, I never heard of most of the names and some of the things, but all were fairly crossed. I guess I'll dig into the archives to spend more of my Saturday morning being lazy with xwords
ReplyDeleteHONSHU is the largest and most important Japanese island. Surprising that so many seem to have found it obscure!
Delete28 minutes for me this morning, so I found it a lot more challenging than @OFL. My initial traction came from LABNEH/NODSAT/BROKE, DINNER and AMS, culminating in OATIER. Eventually got PLAYTIMESOVER. (Had PROSECCO already so that gave me the P). Totally agree about the confusion between DEMURe and DEMUR.... I thought DEMUR was to decline, to refuse. Enjoyed learning about RENTPARTies.... had GETIT and THEN before GETME and ELSE.... All these years and I never knew a PLIE was a bend.... silly me! SNAIL rescued me there. I agree with @REX this morning, terrific and fun puzzle! Glad it wasn't any tougher than it was!!! Thanks, Malaika and Erik!!!!!! : )
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle. My only gripe is labneh as a dip...it can be used as a dip, but it's not inherently a dip.
ReplyDeleteA fun trivia fest I guess? Suited more for a late week USA Today or TV Guide. Nice to see our blog pal Malaika in the byline. Rex counted the names - I’ll believe him but it didn’t end there - each quadrant is loaded with incidental propers.
ReplyDeleteSlaid Cleaves
The highlight is the PRUDISH x DEMUR - ICONIC cross. The center stack doesn’t hit - I liked PLAYTIMES over but PROTEIN SHAKE is rough and BREAD AND ROSES comes off as gratuitous so soon after Mamdani’s inauguration.
Donald and LYDIA
The highly segmented grid doesn’t help matters - leaves a bunch of 3s and 4s that glom up the flow. OATIER is brutal.
Margo Price
The trivia was overwhelming but at least inspired in places. David P. Williams’ Stumper provides slightly more challenging wordplay today but is lacking also.
Prairie Fire That Wanders About
Agree with the rating. Seven names actually is about average for a themeless. I think Friday had about 10.
ReplyDeletePopcorn comes in TUBS. Catfood comes in TINS. This crossword was OK but I wouldn't get carried away just coz I know the constructors.
ReplyDeletethink delicious tall 3 flavor divided holiday present...cheese, carmel, and regular.
DeletePretty good overall, a few too many names, though. Naticked on HONSHU/CHU and had BOON/NYERS. Otherwise very good all around.
ReplyDeleteextremely challenging. DNF
ReplyDeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteNice weekend Themeless puzs yesterday and today. Finished YesterPuz correctly, but had a one-letter DNF today. Had an O for the U of HONSHU/CHU cross. Dang.
Caught a really bad cold somewhere, went to Walgreens to get a Covid/Flu test kit, as this seemed like more than a regular cold. Did tests twice, both times negative. So it's just a nasty sore throat, cough, achy cold variant. Shouldn't we have cures for all this by now? (I guess we will when flying cars become a thing.)
Update to taking points for ROOs, I had said only Rooster related things, as opposed to Kangaroo related things, however (😁), when it's a stand alone ROO as an answer, welp, gotta do it. So, one point for me! That gets me to 7 on the year.
Liked the puz, nice to see our @Malaika as a co-constructor.
Hope y'all have a great Saturday!
No F's - I'm DEMUR about that. 😁
RooMonster
DarrinV
I know Quintana ROO and it was inevitable that it would show up some day. If you don't get in with Pooh, you get in with Mexico. Hard to compete with that.
DeleteWell, if all those names are not familiar to you, it's harder than a typical Friday.
ReplyDeleteThings got off to a bad start with that clue for TRE. 1A is not the place for that kind of clue. Just clue it as drummer Cool and move on.
Then the brilliant triple stack in the middle of the grid his held together by some iffy fill ... REYEZ, OATIER, AMS, NODS AT.
So ... a good puzzle. And for me perfect on a Saturday.
I don't like the clue on TRE. This is a man's name? isn't the name Trey? This is not an Italian name. Is it an American name?
ReplyDeleteIn italiano the 3rd born is Terzo but I digress.
Needed some coffee and a break to come back and finish the NW and SE corners today. Good challenge!
ReplyDeleteI’ve solved enough solo and collaborative puzzles by Erik Agard to say:
ReplyDelete• Junk in the grid will be rare or nonexistent.
• There will be wit and humor.
• The puns will be the good kind that make you nod with respect.
• There will be recognition of minority groups.
• The construction will be seamless.
• There will be over-arching quality, the kind that makes you feel, “Dang, he’s good!”
Grateful to you, Erik! Your 83 Times puzzles (and puzzles elsewhere) consistently showcase the art and science of crosswords.
Malaika, your puzzles shine too – you are off to a terrific start in your nine Times creations, with your skilled grids that gleam with personality.
Today’s puzzle was rife with colorful answers, clever clues, and sweet areas of bite – and I knew it would be a highlight of my day when I saw the names atop it. Of course, it delivered. Thank you, Erik and Malaika!
Haven't read or seen Handmaids' Tale, and I had _UNTS. I was sooo tempted...
ReplyDeleteYes, precisely!
DeleteAware of Handmaid's Tale and recalled one of the _UNTS was Lydia (not 7 down, LYDIA KO, FWIW)
DeleteRex loved it, but I’ve grown fatigued with being quizzed on items such as the names of Olympic medalists, SNL cast members, individual NEOPETS, as well as singers, actors and directors that I will only know from crosswords, etc. Today we even have the name of a train (seriously) between two countries that I would be lucky to place in their proper continent.
ReplyDeleteI forget what all seven of the stages are - try as I might to make peace with the fact that day-in and day-out about one third of the answers are going to be gunk, I think I am finally in the “acceptance” stage. I don’t like it, but there is nothing I can do about it.
That's a lot of pearl clutching!
DeleteMumbai and Serat in the same country.
Delete@SouthsideJohnny 8:06 AM
DeleteWhen you add in all the food, half of the answers today are gunk. Every other word. If you know the trivia or have a fondness for the two constructors, it's a delightful romp. If you dont, it's an exercise in acceptance and a pleasant reminder Sunday is tomorrow and it will almost certainly be another disappointment. 🤓
Finished it with one cheat (to get REYEZ) and several lucky guesses. Average Saturday difficulty, well constructed.
ReplyDeleteTwo nits...I've never heard of anyone named TRE (nickname for Trevor?), and when has popcorn ever been held in TINS? One semi-nit...is STU really short for "studio"?)
Bob, during the holiday season, often round “birthday cake” size (?) decorated tins filled with popcorn (and often caramel coated popcorn) are often given as gifts to people that you want to acknowledge but you don’t really know what to give them. Haha…the last part is my take.
DeleteThis puzzle was almost too RICH. Every time I turned around I drank some SCOTCH ORATE some LABNEH. And that's not even mentioning the appetizer as it was a NAAN starter in my puzzle. Any more food and drink and I would have had to RENTPARTY accessories. By the end I had the PROTEINSHAKES!
ReplyDeleteMrs. Egs says I'm having a midlife crisis. Just cuz I got a NEOPET and a NEWCAR with a TAILGATE. I'm still thinking about a name for the pet. I think he's either ATOM ORLON.
Did you see where Ms. GARTEN is opening a food-themed park called INAWORLD?
I suppose I've WORE out my welcome, so I OTTER go. This puzzle was a TEN in my book. Thanks, Malaika Handa and Erik Agard.
Very tough for me -- I had to look up SESAME OIL, as I thought the dip was something like taboulEH, which didn't fit but I still put the T in, and sat there wondering what food ended in OIt. I also looked up LYDIA Ko after I got her name from crosses, because she was giving me that same impossible ending for a Taiwanese food item. But aside from that it was a fine experience, with lots of thinking involved.
ReplyDeleteI thought BREAD AND ROSES originated with the Lawrence strike, so the women's suffrage reference seemed wrong. But I'm also happy to learn something.
I did like the clue about grills and grilles, but you can't think about it too much or you start to wonder--isn't the grille at the other end of the car when you are standing at the TAILGATE? But I've never been to a tailgate party, so I'm probably being too literal about it.
I'd forgotten all about OVEN BAGS; I had OVEN from the V and left it sitting there for a long time while I worked around to the G.
My last entry was the Z. You can make a case for ZEN being peaceful, but wasn't it popular among Samurai, who were anything but? I almost put in S because REYEs seemed so much more likely. I wonder if there is anyone named TRE REYEZ.
The only thing that really slowed me down was "ovenpans" before "ovenbags". I guess if you really want to ensure you get your RDA of microplastics...
ReplyDeleteThis was an average Saturday solve which strangely came across as easy. This is probably due to the above average resistance of the recent late week puzzles. Today's solve was 11 minutes faster than yesterday's. I did find yesterday's solve to be more challenging than most people did so the reversal of the difficulty gradient may be due to that. A very enjoyable solve. INAWORLD and PROTEINSHAKES were particularly easy to recognize.
ReplyDelete4-1/2 stars (tied with others for the highest award in the Rating Era) seemed (as it did to @Anon 6:20) a bit generous at first, but after reading Rex's unfettered joy describing his puzzle adventure, it now seems warranted.
ReplyDeleteThis one definitely had some Saturday bite to it. But it also had plenty of long answers where we were remarkably in sync with the constructors. My wife suggested IN A WORLD sans crosses; it survived! Ditto my suggestion for PROTEIN SHAHES. And AP CLASSES and TEAMSTER (both masterfully clued) fell with just a few crosses in place. In all, significantly below our average time.
Only two main islands of Japan, so HONSHU was a gimme for a geography nerd. Italian sparkling wine couldn't be ASTIxxxx, so PROSECCO, fittingly, went down easier.
We stalled a bit before writing in TRE; then I thought "oh, as in Tre Crowder" (The Liberal Redneck), except he's Trae.
All in all, and I suppose in light of our average time underrun, this was so enjoyable it left us wanting more. Kudos to the fantastic constructors.
I ended up with ROYES crossing BROAD AND ROSES. Kinda liked that better. I should be a sloganeer.
ReplyDeletePerfect Friday. bINS before TINS. GET it before GET ME. WORn before WORE. ace before PRO. 15:50
ReplyDeleteIconic constructors and great puzzle! Thank you Malaika and Erik.
ReplyDeleteHard for me. After solving the upper part of the puzzle, encountering Roti, Naan, Zen, Flying Ranee, Mumbai, Surat…I had to double check that I wasn’t doing the Hindustan Times crossword. All in all, positive experience.
ReplyDeleteThe Teamsters are America’s largest, most diverse union. In 1903, the Teamsters started as a merger of the two leading team driver associations. These drivers were the backbone of America’s robust economic growth, but they needed to organize to wrest their fair share from greedy corporations. Today, the union’s task is exactly the same.
ReplyDeleteThe Teamsters are known as the champion of freight drivers and warehouse workers, but have organized workers in virtually every occupation imaginable, both professional and non-professional, private sector and public sector.
Our 1.3 million members are public defenders in Minnesota; vegetable workers in California; sanitation workers in New York; brewers in St. Louis; newspaper workers in Seattle; construction workers in Las Vegas; zoo keepers in Pennsylvania; health care workers in Rhode Island; bakery workers in Maine; airline pilots, secretaries and police officers. Name the occupation and chances are we represent those workers somewhere.
Was delighted by “Evening call to kids playing in the yard” crossing “Playtimes over”. Nifty little compact story there, although I felt sad for the kids (particularly if they were having that oven-bag swamp rat).
ReplyDeleteI didn't notice that but love it now that you pointed it out. Very nostalgic for us fifties kids!
DeleteMy first entry was for 15D "Rodent that lives in South American marshes". It's the CAPYBARA. Fit right in. Until it didn't. SWAMP RAT?! WTF. That put a damper on my enthusiasm for this solve that never recovered.
ReplyDeleteYep. Deleting CAPYBARA made me sad and nothing quite sparkled as much afterwards.
DeleteThis puzzle was easy-medium? My aunt Tilly! It was hard for me but I was happy to solve it.🎈🎈🎊🎊
ReplyDeleteWow…just wow. I was excited to see Malaika AND Erik, and they did not disappoint! To make this short…more of a challenge to ME than Rex but the puzzle skewed a bit younger in places (which I liked)…but my timer showed a minute over my average time. AND…I didn’t cheat but in my usual “good Saturday puzzle” mindset thought I’d have to cheat almost the whole solve (you know, to get on with the other things in my life). Anyway, Rex pointed out all the fun, so “what Rex said” on that.
ReplyDeleteI will say…(not really a negative) that, until it was obvious, I was reluctant to put in PRUDISH for “pearl clutching.” I tend to think of PRUDISH as a more self-directed sexual modesty and pearl clutching as kind of a faux exhibition of moral outrage. However, I accept that many PRUDISH people are pearl clutchers.
A few delightful spots in this puzzle, for sure, but also a lot of names and trivia. Liked it, but not nearly as much as Rex. Faster for me than either yesterday or the day before; I finished squarely in between my Wednesday and Thursday average times (knew a lot of the names and trivia, which didn't make the puzzle very interesting). The constructor's notes say that the editorial team changed 2/3 of the clues. I always wonder how different it would have been in the original form.
ReplyDeleteNot as hard as I was expecting it to be. The grid was pleasant and smooth, but I wasn't dazzled to the same extent as Rex. BREAD AND ROSES is very nice; even better is PLAYTIME'S OVER. On the other hand, we have STU and OATIER. Re the latter, let me just say to Rex that it just doesn't get any OATIER than Cheerios. There is no contest between that and Lucky Charms. (Not my bowl-a.)
ReplyDeleteAren't TRE and STU names from The Californians? (I'm being slightly facetious, but I'm thinking of the characters played by Bill Hader and Fred Armisen, who have names not far from those. Really it's STUart, but the other might as well be "TRE".)
Had TubS before TINS. I can't make much sense of TINS unless we're talking about containers for uncooked popcorn, which might often be tins for all I know. Orville's comes in jars. My memory for Jiffy Pop is something like an aluminum foil tray. Now, there does seem to be some perennial confusion between tin foil and aluminum foil, so maybe that's a connection??? Talk amongst yourselves.
Speaking of retro food preparation and quick DINNER ideas, OVEN BAGS reminds me of SHAKE 'N Bake (by no means the same). I just learned they got rid of the plastic bags, citing cutting down on plastic waste as the reason. But then what is the shake part? I don't think they thought that one through completely.
Note to Rex: you write HONcHU although you know it's not a "c" there. Do they produce SCOTCH in (on?) HONSHU? I've never tried Japanese SCOTCH, although I know they make it, and very well at that if my information is correct. Anyway, crossing that is AUNTS, which (hat tip to @DJ above) reminds me of a STORY line from Curb Your Enthusiasm, where Larry volunteers to write an obituary for AUNT so-and-so, but the text in the newspaper reads "... devoted sister, beloved (-)UNT, ..." and now everyone in Cheryl's family wants Larry's head on a pike.
IN A WORLD is elegantly clued.
Classy production overall, Malaika and Erik. Proving that you can make it classy without making it ass-y. I really appreciate it!
Se acabaron los juegos.
ReplyDeleteFun puzzle and too tough for me to finish unaided, but still mostly enjoyed learning a few things. Ended on HONSHU with three dubious crossings. ALAS.
Now, after reading 🦖 and his exuberant impression of the puzzle, you might be thinking, "Hm, it seemed a little gunky to me." Rest assured you aren't losing your mind. There are actually nine names you need to negotiate as some are in the clues, and this is definitely on the high end of typical. There's a bunch of food I don't track, there's six partials which is typical, and seven products you may or may not know. Taken as a group, the gunk AMASSES to 40 percent which is high and forces it into "maybe in your wheelhouse, maybe not" territory.
I don't cook or have any meaningful interest in food so there's a lot of mean real estate wasted on me: SESAME OIL, NAAN, LABNEH, OVEN BAGS (I was sure it had to be pans!), and PROSECCO.
Been in lots of music studios and this is the first I'm hearing they're called STU.
In the "OK, if you say so" department: BREAD AND ROSES, RANEE, ROO and RENT PARTY.
❤️ IN A WORLD. Grills and grilles. SWAMP RAT. BLOOD MOON.
😫 OATIER.
And completely off topic, AOC visited the restaurant where my niece works last night and took a photo with her.
People: 9
Places: 3
Products: 7
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 27 of 68 (40%)
{The MINISTER of Gunkopolis plans on visiting a notable New England professor today and shaking his hand to thank him for his support.)
Funny Factor: 3 😐
Uniclues:
1 "So there I was, a cartoon video game star from the '90s, and I should've been allowed to retire into obscurity after six months on the market with my nine-year-old fan base," pauses to puff his cigarette, "but then the crossword people got ahold of my friendly letter string and they just can't let me go."
2 Double-sided diplomat.
3 What my aghasted tee-hee-ism represents.
4 Goal for Gru.
5 The sisters of the mothers of politicians.
6 Why you're hacking up synthetic hairballs.
7 The cutest dude who will bury you in the end zone of the Giant's stadium.
1 NEOPET WAR STORY (~)
2 SCOTCH MINISTER
3 PRUDISH TWIST (~)
4 ERASE BLOOD MOON
5 SWAMP RATS AUNTS
6 ORLON DINNER
7 TEAMSTER OTTER
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Where manly men with malicious maws stuff dollar bills. GAY BAR SWEAR JAR.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I liked it! Very little junk (AMS, maybe a couple of others), and lots of seemingly (I don't bother to look them up to confirm) fresh answers.
ReplyDeleteI had a lot of blanks after the first time through, but I still finished fairly quickly (wound up between my average times for Wednesday and Thursday).
Am I the only one who put in WHISKY instead of SCOTCH?
A couple of posters complained about popcorn TINS, and at first I was equally puzzled (plastic jar for unpopped, tub for popped) until I Googled 'popcorn tin': it's referring to the large buckets of pre-popped flavored corn (a large bucket divided in two, with half filled with cheese corn and half with caramel corn is a popular variation).
Yep, I discovered this as well, post-comment (TINS). Google is our friend. (Actually, Google wants to sell us something. So, who's in the mood for popcorn?)
DeleteGreat puzzle & totally worthy of 4 1/2 stars.
ReplyDeleteWOES = LABNEH, STU, MYERS, TAILGATE but easy to figure out.
Loved that Marilyn was in the puzzle.
Thanks to you both for a great Saturday :). You've set the bar high for the upcoming days, weeks (months?).
BTW - it wouldn't be an 'Erik' puzzle without LABNEH!
STU-schmoo. When I was in a band, we recorded 7 CDs worth of music and never once was the studio referred to as STU.
ReplyDeleteI had Rex's DO NOT Enter and that caused a lot of trouble. I'm glad Rex had no problem with the names but I'm just lucky I knew BOWEN Yang and that, having vacationed in Tulum, I had seen Quintana ROO.
I love SESAME OIL in Asian dishes - I have it in my cupboard - but put it in a grid and I have a hard time seeing it unless clued as "Open SESAME". Today I had the AM in place in the NW but had put in WORn for 5D. Confusion ensued.
tENT PARTY, anyone? For a while, with __NEt in place at 33D, I wondered if Mom was yelling out the door, "Sunset!" to herd the kids to bed. When I was a kid, the neighborhood kids stayed up really late playing outside in summer. It didn't get dark-dark until almost 11 PM so why not?
ZEN again. 39A baffled me for a long time. _EN became sEN when I went with Jessie REYEs but I caught that error.
I'm glad I couldn't make any crosses to work at 15D to induce me to splatz in capybara. (Plus, I didn't know exactly how to spell it.)
Malaika and Erik, this was the hardest Saturday I've run into in ages, thanks!
Polar opposite experience as Rex. Name-heavy and out of my wheelhouse or interest. I couldn't care less about Olympic golf, virtual pets, or just about anything from this puzzle. Blech.
ReplyDeleteI had such a different take than Rex most of you. This felt like a one and a half star puzzle even though I’m a big fan of Malaika and Eric. I’ve never heard tailgate without party attached to it… And in my 60 years as a professional musician, I’ve never heard anyone say STU instead of studio.
ReplyDeleteJust a skosh tougher than medium for me. The NE gave me the most resistance…NEO PET, BOWEN, ANN were all WOEs, NEW CAR took some staring, and I was iffy about TEES…tough corner.
ReplyDeleteBREAD AND ROSES, REYEZ, LYDIA, and LEBNEH (I found out I didn’t know how to spell tzatziki) were also WOEs.
Solid Saturday, liked it but not quite as much as @Rex did.
Names, names, names . . .
ReplyDeleteFYI tonight there will be a blue moon a micro moon farthest from Earth next blue moon 2053
ReplyDeleteIN A WORLD is a wonderful wonderful movie. Highly recommended!
ReplyDeleteI’m not as positive as Rex and a lot of you are about this one, though I have to admit there’s a lot of good stuff in it. I especially liked AT BATS for “Times up”. Lots of nice long entries. Liked 2 of the 3 long acrosses at the centre of the puzzle. PROTEIN SHAKES is a bit meh.
ReplyDeleteTRE, as many of you have noted, was annoying and STU was STUpid. Who says “We gotta get into the STU and record this thing”? I had APCourSES before CLASSES. Had no idea about NEOPETs. And that’s the way my solve went; a great clue/answer combo surrounded by stuff I couldn’t fathom. Rinse and repeat. So not as much fun as many of you had. (Though that process, if you’re in the right mood, can be kind of fun. Maybe I just wasn’t in the right mood. It was late.)
I have a question about TAILGATE. Isn’t the gathering called a TAILGATE party? Do people say “We’re going to have a TAILGATE”? I’ve never been to one so I’ll have no real argument if someone tells me how wrong I am. Maybe TAILGATE is being used as a verb here. “We’re gonna TAILGATE.”
Hats off to all here who found it Friday-level or easier! For me it was the most challenging puzzle I've faced in I don't know how long. I struggled in the TAILGATE-MINISTER area longer than I'd like to admit - fortunately, the payoff there was finally understanding the delightful clues. And then, I feared I was facing a DNF in the NE, not knowing ANN or BOWEN or what Fresh Rolls are and wrestling with ???ATS for "Times up" (we'd already had BOOM, and I couldn't think of a word that meant "periods when one is not in bed"). I decided on an alphabet run for the third empty space, and luckily B comes early! After three separate sessions, I was very happy to finish this one! Full of colorful treats and a brain-racker - a terrific Saturday for me
ReplyDeleteThis here no-know fest put up a satisfactory SatPuz fight, at our house. The usual widespread nanosecond sufferin ensued.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick: CHU. And, for those stuck on the HONSH?/CH? crossin, always remember ... when in doubt, guess "U".
some fave stuff: The Jaws of Themelessness. SNAIL clue. PROSECCO spellin challenge. The seed entry of BREADANDROSES, which was a learnin experience for m&e; but sure glad to hear them women's movements didn't go with GUNSANDROSES.
Thanx for gangin up on us, Malaika darlin & Mr. Agard dude. Nice constructioneerin work -- and BOB's yer AUNTie.
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s. Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
Bang-on re: DEMUR. One often demurs by demuring which... gak. That's not good is it? Yet another fault in English caused by Norman-era derivation paths that failed to compare notes with one another.
ReplyDeleteAnd this *was* more Friday-ish in difficulty, but for the crosstown traffic befuddlement I experience via:
* LABNEH — not familiar... only white-ish condiments/dips I know from the many Med. joints in my neighborhood are tanhini and aioli.
* RANEE — not familiar... "nun" doesn't have a five-letter variant afaik.
* TWIST — sure, but not determinative
* WOR(n) instead of WORN
* ORLON.— (ny)LON, but I got off that quickly. Still didn't know ORLON. Victor... no, that' OR(b)ON and _that_ is how a well-manner authoritarian handles clear electoral defeat, everyone.
I worked out most of the above and then got stuck on LYD(I)A / SESAMEO(I)L . Couldn't be sure about the "I" on LYDIA with a surname like Ko, and I the latter just isn't obviously prominent to me, but then I'm a fine dining rube.
An otherwise good puzzle ruined for me by too many names. In yer upper right you have BOWEN SELMA NAST STU with NEOPET thrown in there; the only one I knew was NAST. In yer lower right there's MYERS, also Unknown for me. Then RANEE LYDIA REYEZ CHU, all Unknowns. Malaika and Erik: why so many? Why do you feel compelled to throw so many names in? Aargh.
ReplyDeleteMy only lucky break was OVEN BAGS... of course I threw in PANS but when that didn't work I thought: hey, just this afternoon I saw a new thing in the supermarket: OVEN BAGS!
The clue for 59 across MINISTER really threw me because we have plenty of them here in Canada; you don't have to go overseas to meet one.
"Grills and grilles" maybe suggests TAILGATE, but grille is the wrong end of the vehicle. And I don't believe anyone refers to a studio as "STU."
ReplyDeleteWow. My happiness level soared when I saw the bylines this morning and My comments are basically “What Rex said.”
ReplyDeleteAs far as the DEMUR/DEMURE issue goes, back before the “modernization” (in the early 1980s) of the rules of civil procedure and the pleading codes in much of the US (LA, CA and NY remain the states with their own procedural codes and a few others have some significant variations), a lawyer could (and would) DEMUR to just about anything. Those who lamented elimination of the practice claimed it was the only way to protect the record for appeal (not so). It was mostly just a legislated allowance of lots of time wasting and lawyerly bombast.
One of the lawyer’s favorite (and thankfully now mostly gone) tactics were the general and specific DEMURrers. To DEMURE at law simply meant “I disagree or have misgivings about what my learned opponent posits in his 50 onerous interrogatories (or whatever). Anyway, I guess I can look it up later, but I doubt we’ve had DEMUR (sounds like purr rather than pure as in demure) in the puzzle for quite a while.
OVEN BAGS supposedly aid even browning of roasted things (mainly meats) and “lock in juices.” I wouldn’t know because I have been waging a personal war on plastic my entire adult life and have never used one. I was also trained by one of the best cooks I have ever known and Gran never put oven roasted anything on the table that wasn’t perfectly browned, properly juicy and just utter perfection. She didn’t need no silly plastic bags!
What an absolute joy today! Thanks Malaika and Erik!
I spelled PROSECCO wrong and had Marilyn Monroe’s beauty mark as IRONIC which made me think—yeah, it is, kinda, no?
ReplyDeleteAll the proper nouns slowed down the pace chez @A, but I kept at it and am thrilled to have finished with only one wrong square - went with CHo/HONSHo. Thanks to @M&A’s Useful advice I’ll always remember HONSHU.
ReplyDeleteWho the heck came up with that STU clue? I don’t do much studio work but I know plenty of folks who do and have never heard STU.
Some of the clues were top-notch, though (“Perpetual homebody” is my fav), and a lot of them were mysterious until they weren’t. Had to dig way back to 1980’s Intro to Computers for ELSE. I may still have a few punch cards in a box somewhere. “Vet’s report” had me fooled - was thinking of taking a pet for a checkup.
Thanks to Malaika and Erik for the workout!
Mimi L.
@A, you bring back my memory of my first computing class in 1977; the language was PL/1. I loved the plain English logic of the IF / THEN / ELSE structure. The punch cards weren't so great though... I remember a guy dropped his stack of cards and got them mixed up, and when his program ran he set a new record for number of errors.
DeleteI still use ELSE commonly in Javascript, although the THEN keyword is not needed.
gregmark. It's funny how some answers just appear in your wheelhouse for unintended reasons. I knew ORLON instantly because, back in the 70s, when I tied all my own flies, almost exclusively from natural fibres, ORLON burst upon the scene as a wonder material for floating flies. It did not absorb water so your dry fly would not sink. You would take a piece of ORLON yarn and chop it into short lengths, muss it into a sort of fluff ball and apply it to a waxed thread and wind it on your hook to approximate an insect's body shape and it would float and glisten and look like a real insect. It was the wonder drug of fly fishing. I caught lots of fine trout on that stuff. Sadly, my bad eyes and arthritic hands now keep me from tying my own flies. I now depend on my sons to present me with a few dozen new ties on my birthday.
ReplyDeleteBut the point is that that has nothing to do with what the constuctors had in mind with their clue, but that's where I picked it up, and that kind of serendipitous connection is always kind of fun.
1. Some of you can start clutching your pearls now: "Stu" is used to mean "studio" in rap songs; see this link for some citations: https://www.rhymebook.com/dictionary/the-stu
ReplyDelete2. I've never heard of "tailgate party" it's always been something like "we're tailgaiting" or "we're going to tailgate"; the Mirriam-Webster online dictionary does define the noun form first as "tailgate party," but the example quote they provide uses "tailgates" with no mention of the word 'party' and in their "Recent Examples on the Web" section, both the sentences for the noun form just use "tailgate" with no appearance of "party"!
Late again as I had a choir practice before a memorial service this morning and now I have spent the rest of the day thinking this is Sunday.
ReplyDeleteAgree with many that this was a name fest and there were several that were unfamiliar. I think my two favorite total unknowns were Poogle and Cybunny, which led to the equally never-heard-of NEOPET. RANEE I know as a variation of "rani' which is classic crosswordese for an Indian princess. I guess there's a LYDIA Ko, but she's no LYDIA the Tattooed Lady. Don't think I've ever run into LABNEH, sounds like someone with a gag in his mouth trying to talk. Always good to learn something.
Inordinate trouble in the SE caused by having GETIT for GETME which made it too hard to see MINISTER and anything involving coding is going to take crosses, and trying to start with a T didn't help. OTOH, we did have an OTTER down there. Roo is welcome to his Quintana ROO. I'll take my OTTER.
Very nice Saturday, MH and EA. Hard but not too hard, just right. My Happiness Enlarged Astronomically as I was finishing this, and thanks for all the fun.
TRE is a relatively common name in the African-American community, although it's often actually a nickname for a male who is the son of a "Jr." (i.e., "the Third," i.e., "Tre"). It's not terribly common as an actual given name.
ReplyDeleteI 100% concur with the folks who think STU for "studio" is an ungodly stretch. I've been in and around music -- multiple genres, amateur, professional, recorded, live -- for virtually all of my life, and I've never heard that term used. Still "stew"ing over that one.
ReplyDeleteAlso -- When did it become a requirement that we memorize esoteric menus from half a dozen different countries, written in half a dozen different languages, just to complete a crossword puzzle that's (nominally) in English?
ReplyDelete