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Exhibiting a green face, stereotypically / FRI 6-12-26 / Half ass reply? / Obstacle for Odysseus / Children's book title character in a green suit / Home of the world's largest independently owned bookstore (spanning an entire city block) / Cab alternative / Style with spotty coverage? / Pastry with Austrian origins, despite its name
Friday, June 12, 2026
Constructor: Amanda Winters
Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium
THEME: none
Word of the Day: Empire of the ANTS (19A: "Empire of the ___" (1977 sci-fi film with an approval rating of 5% on Rotten Tomatoes)) —
Empire of the Ants is a 1977 science fiction horror film co-written and directed by Bert I. Gordon. Based very loosely on the 1905 short story "Empire of the Ants" by H. G. Wells, the film involves a group of prospective land buyers led by a land developer, pitted against large mutated ants.
[Joan Collins!] It is the third and last film released in A.I.P.'s H.G. Wells film cycle, which include The Food of the Gods (1976) and The Island of Dr. Moreau (1977). // The opening narration notes how ants use pheromones to communicate and how this causes an obligatory response. As the opening credits roll, barrels sporting radioactive waste decals are dumped off a boat into the ocean. One of the barrels washes onto a beach and leaks a silvery goo onto the sand.
Meanwhile, shady land developer Marilyn Fryser takes prospective clients on a boat trip to view a beachfront land development in the area of the waste dump. Unbeknownst to the visitors, ants are writhing in the radioactive goo from the leaky barrel. The visitors question the value of the land, but the trip is cut short when some of them are attacked by giant mutated ants. The ants destroy their boat and chase the group through woods. After losing some of their party along the way, the survivors discover a town and gain a promise of help from the local sheriff. Their sense of safety is short-lived as they discover that the queen ant, using pheromones, has put the townsfolk under her control and is making them provide her colony with sugar from the local sugar plant. Joe Morrison, one of the prospective land buyers, kills the queen ant in an explosion, enabling the remaining survivors to escape the area in a speedboat. (wikipedia)
• • •
I found this puzzle a little dull for a Friday. Something about the shape of it meant that the longer answers were cut off from each other and everything around them was kinda short. It's a very choppy grid that appears to have very little to offer in the way of marquee fill, though there are six long answers, which is ... reasonable, I guess. I'd like something closer to ten or even a dozen, but six isn't terrible, I suppose. Very few of those answers seemed particularly marquee-worthy. I can see someone liking GENETIC LOTTERY, I guess, but as we've established, I did not. I do love ICE CREAM PARLORs, and BEST-KEPT SECRET is a plucky phrase, but the others are just OK. Not bad. But lacking the kind of zing and oomph that makes for a really bright Friday. The parts I enjoyed most were, again, ICE CREAM PARLOR, and then PORTLAND, OREGON, largely because of the clue (58A: Home of the world's largest independently owned bookstore (spanning an entire city block)) The bookstore in question is Powell's ... I guess putting the name in the clue would've made it too easy? But if you know Powell's, then the clue is already easy, so why not just name the bookstore? You do all this free advertising for Apple and Oreo, you can name an independent bookstore, New York Times, it won't hurt you.
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| [my Tuesday mug, but maybe I'll break it out today in honor of the puzzle ... oh who am I kidding, I will not do that, the mug schedule is the mug schedule and it changes for no one!] |
Nothing particularly tricky in the grid today, that I can see. I laughed at the clue on ATTIC (7D: Ghost story?). It's almost certainly not original, but it's funny and vivid and clever and everything a "?" should be. I also liked that there was both a "cup" clue (44A: Big name in cups = SOLO) and a "cone" clue (63A: Cone holders = RETINAS) in a puzzle that also contained ICE CREAM PARLOR. Big day for ice cream, at least in my head.
Bullets:
- 1A: Get-up (DUDS) — so, "get-up" as in "clothing." I was thinking "get-up" as in "pep," "vim," "vigor," but maybe that's "get-up-and-go"
- 20A: Velociraptor, e.g., informally (DINO) — yesterday was the 33rd anniversary of the release of Jurassic Park. Spielberg's got a new one in theaters this weekend, Disclosure Day, which sounds ... good, actually. Or promising. The trailers make it seem a little somber / humorless, which has never been true of his great blockbusters (E.T., Close Encounters, Jurassic Park, etc.). But maybe that won't be true. I'm going to see it no matter what, per the Josh O'Connor Rule (which is the rule that says I will see any movie starring Josh O'Connor):
- 29A: Half ass reply? (HEE) — cute. I had HAW at first.
- 35D: Baseball trio (OUTS) — you know you've been doing crossword puzzles way, way too long when you see [Baseball trio] and the letters "OU" and your first thought is ALOUS (brothers Felipe, Matty, and Jesus all played in the Majors, and at one point (1963) made up the entirety of the Giants' outfield)
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| [Baseball trio] |
- 49D: Do business? (SALON) — "Do" as in "hairdo"; I was just just grateful the answer wasn't urination- or defecation-related.
- 51D: Obstacle for Odysseus (SIREN) — there were a lot of obstacles! Scylla Charybdis Cyclops Circe on and on. But of those, only CIRCE fit, and I must've had other letters in place because I never considered her. Odysseus makes his men tie him to the mast when they pass the SIRENs so he can hear their call without being tempted (to his death?) by it. His men plug their ears.
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126 comments:
I quite liked the puzzle overall but some clues sounded a bit off to me. Especially 46A where I really wanted EMAIL, but also a plural answer. Imagine coming across a clue like [Contents of a winter storm] and then finding out that the answer is just singular HAILSTONE. (I also thought the "coverage" in the 34A clue referred to clothing, but the clue there works just fine).
Easy. Good Wednesday level of difficulty. Not a bad puzzle, just too easy for a Friday.
* * _ _ _
Overwrites:
garb before DUDS for the 1A get-up.
My 23D Olympics local was Asia before it was the ALPS.
My ex- was erST before it was PAST (43A).
WOEs:
The movie Empire of the ANTS at 19A.
I may have heard of DANA Point CA, but it took every cross (55D).
Easy for me except for the NW, where "well-kept secret" wouldn't fly.
Easy for me except for the NW, where "well-kept secret" wouldn't fly. I guessed at DUDS, which made UBER and DANISH obvious...then I was home. Very nice Friday with clever but reasonable cluing.
Tend to agree with the big guy here - there were some good things here but for every POINTILLISM and ANEMONE we get the full flatness of PORTLAND OREGON and ICE CREAM PARLOR.
Southside
I liked the SEASICK - ATTACHE pair. CONEY ISLAND dead center is fine but a long gimme. BEST KEPT SECRET is the highlight long. Like the Les Mis lyric.
MEAT Is Murder
Yup - maybe a little too straightforward and staid but a pleasant enough Friday morning solve.
Plateau
12 minutes for me last night, so yeah, easy medium. Loved this grid structure--4 fourteens around the edges, crossing elevens in the middle (so each of the elevens has to work with 2 fourteens and the other eleven). PORTLANDOREGON (while a boring answer) and ICECREAMPARLOR whooshed me right around this grid! CONEYISLAND was pretty easy, POINTILLISM took a bit longer. Thanks, @REX, for pointing out the CUP and the CONE. MAGGIE Smith was a WOE and had to wait for crosses.... very little junk in this puzzle, thanks for a fun Friday, Amanda!!!! : )
but what if the answer to the winter storm clue were "SNOW"..... I think of EMAIL more like SNOW (you get buried by lots of little tiny items all adding up!!! :)
I was stymied by "Deuce follower" crossing "____ Point, Calif." I neither do enough crossword puzzles nor play enough tennis to have internalized AD IN, and for me DANA Point is far more obscure than Natick. D was a logical guess, but it still left me muttering, "Deuce a din? Deuceadin?!"
I had the P for 34A and confidently put in POLKA DOTTED. Then none of the downs worked so out it came. Jealous, also tried nauseous and nauseated but none of that worked, finally got SEASICK. I found this more on the medium side. Agree about GENETIC LOTTERY. But overall I enjoyed it.
I got stuck in the SE, where I had confidently entered MEAn for “central point” and could not figure out what someone named ANnE Cost had to do with a hand…
I’ve heard the term GENETIC LOTTERY a lot, and I think it’s usually in the context not of a long and happy life, but good looks. As in, “Damn, girl won the GENETIC LOTTERY.”
So, no problem in the NE, and really, no problem at all except at the end, when I thought I was going to Natick on A-IN and -ANA. No idea about the California town, and of course I was looking for something like “trey” for “Deuce follower.” Didn’t have to run the alphabet too far to get the tennis reference.
Lots of good misdirect clues, such as for SALMON, POINTILLISM, OTC and MEAT, but none held me up for long.
I still don’t know what “adin” has to do with deuce and I’d never heard of Dana Point.
Surely we all fell into the JEALOUS/SEASICK trap? But like for Rex a very short hang-up. Otherwise really no obstacles at all - almost. All the long answers were either gimmes (PORTLANDOREGON, CONEYISLAND), POINTILLISM) or obvious from the crosses (BESTKEPTSECRET, ICECREAMPARLOR). Zipped right through the rest until 54A where I had confidently entered TREY to follow DEUCE, which clearly didn’t work with the SALON and OPINES crosses. That left me with A_IN and _ANA down. Started to run the alphabet until my Doh moment. Pretty sure I saw a tennis court when I was in Dana Point a couple of years ago.
It's to do with tennis. AD IN means the server is up by one point and can win the game (in a set) by winning the next point. But just before AD IN is Deuce, which is a tie situation.
Hegseth and Trump don't seem to appreciate that info on upcoming military operations is BESTKEPTSECRET.
Brutus: Love the new DUDS, Julie. What do you call that collar?
Caesar: ETON, Brutè.
For someone pushing nuclear energy, DATA on Three Mile Island is TMI.
In addition to the usual acrosses and downs, this puzzle has its INNS and OUTS.
Not too surprised to find SEASICK after yesterday's puzzle.
To convert your mail from postal to electronic, just ATTACHE.
Sorry to see that poor COW at 18D become MEAT by 57D.
Ready for the trip?
Yes, IMPACT.
Good, IMGLAD.
I wasn’t a fan of “epic beginning” as the clue for PART ONE, which seems overly generic. Do all epics consist of “parts” in addition to chapters? What about an introduction - is that verboten if you desire to pen an epic tale ? Close enough for CrossWorld, I suppose, but it seemed off to me.
That ANTS film sounds like it is so bad that it good be good. I wonder how primitive or prevalent the special effects were. Did they use mechanical ants ? How big were they ? Inquiring minds want to know.
I am astonished that Rex didn’t mention the abutting UP’s in the SW
I don't solve early week puzzles just to avoid wasting my time on effortless solves like what we got today. The NW set the tone for the entire solve. DUDS was a bit of a mystery but UBER, DATED and SRI all dropped right in and DUDS became just as obvious. The B of UBER gave me BABAR(we had BABAR just last week.) This was one of those puzzles where it's hard to concentrate on one section because the consonants of one answer give away the next answer and you can stair step right across the grid. It was just one softball clue after another. A few things like LOTTERY and SALMON were late week but when the majority of the puzzle is this porous it makes no difference.
I read a quote from the editor once where he explained the weekly progression as simply making each day harder than the last. The bar has been set low for tomorrow.
Quickest Friday in some months. Enjoyable. POINTILLISM is a word I think of often when I do crosswords, because so often my grid near the beginning of the solve will look like pointillist art, a dot here, a dot there, as I scan for things I can fill in immediately. I'm not one of these (to me somewhat amazing) people who can just start in the NW and then methodically and implacably fill in from left to right and down, with these impregnable forTRESSes of letters. It's usually a bit more haphazard as I wait for things to come together. But it came together rather quickly today.
There was an upbeat feeling of spring in the air, with ICE CREAM PARLOR, and places to sight-see like CONEY ISLAND and PORTLAND OREGON, harboring their well- or even BEST-KEPT SECRETS. Oh, and I almost overlooked KEY WEST, which is where we spent part of our honeymoon. I liked the little touches like ANEMONE and SIKHS (how many of you out there know about Guru Nanak? you might have heard of him if you've seen Bend It Like Beckham, since his portrait is on the wall of Jess's home [as it is in many SIKH homes), and she has to solemnly promise by swearing on Guru Nanak's name).
This puzzle was more than UP TO PAR, and I'M GLAD. Thank you Amanda Winters, and have a very pleasant day, everyone!
TIL that both SEASICK and JEALOUS have the same number of letters as ENVIOUS, which obviously should have been the correct answer.
Last letter in: the D in ADIN/DANA. From the depths of memory came a tidbit about someplace in California being named after Richard Henry Dana, author of Two Years before the Mast, a book I’ve never read. Figured ADIN is probably some sportball term. Took a lucky guess.
Retired pharmacist here. Re OTC. We always referred to a prescription as a “scrip”, not script.
Ad-In: This occurs when the serving player wins the point after deuce (advantage to the server).
AD IN (advantage to the server) follows deuce (tie score) in tennis.
Ad-in, short for advantage in. It’s a tennis term, as opposed to ad-out.
Amanda’s first Times puzzle (4/15/24), a Monday, had a theme that radiated elegance, and I marked her name as one to watch.
Her next, today’s, exuded that quality, IMO, in answers such as ATTACHE, GENETIC LOTTERY, POINTILLISM, and in clues such as [Contents of a modern flood] for EMAIL, [Needing no script] for OTC.
The grid design itself is elegant with those stair-step corners, and quartet of lovely black square patterns dominating the center.
An air of elegance is rare and wonderful in a puzzle.
This was all bolstered by happy memories of CONEY ISLAND and that powerful Les Mis song. And by a very funny moment, where I had AN_S for “Empire of the ___” (that badly-rated movie), and wondered if my missing letter was a U.
I loved coming across the bouncy sing-song words ANEMONE, “tzatziki” and “Nanak”.
Feel-good from start to finish, Amanda. I greatly look forward to your next. Bring it on, and thank you!
They are tennis terms. Duece and advantage
I felt like this puzzle was flirting with a Star Wars demerit in a few places.. SOLO... "1977 sci-fi movie".. and directly under that I blanked with SI_H_ so I literally wrote in SItHs! haha
Hey All !
If you take out @M&A's Jaws of Themlessness, you end up with only 24 Blockers. Not too shabby. Some fun clues mixed in to liven things up.
Satisfactorily easy for a FriPuz. (That one was for you, @Gary!) Was stuck a couple of times, but nothing hair-tearingly tough to get out of. Timer says one second short of 18 minutes, so this goes into the Easy category, albeit on the edge of easy-medium.
Liked all the crossing Longs. Central 11's, with four 14's in a pinwheel. Open corners, even with the Jaw Blockers.
Nice puz, Amanda. I give it three HEEs. 😁
Hope y'all have a great Friday!
No F's - Might have to take a HEE back.
RooMonster
DarrinV
And “ENVYING”.
Ah, Powell's! I used to buy all my books from them, just to spite Amazon, but my vision has worsened and I can read more easily on Kindle. Which is also the reason I didn't see the hyphen in the clue for 1-A, Get-up, and put in RISE. Then I checked ETON collar to confirm that 5-A was not envious, so it has to be jEAlous, right? After that, the rest was a walk in the park, maybe on La Grande Jatte.
I was worried that Rex would call SOLO a disguised Star Wars clue, but I'M GLAD he didn't. Those cups are crossworthy in their own right.
I never heard of DANA Point, but it has a population of 33,000+ making it roughly 10 times as big as ELY NV, which we had recently.
RP: I love that you have a mug schedule. And what a great idea, eliminating the daily angst over which one to use. Enjoy that ICE CREAM. I plan to dish up some myself on Sunday for an early Father’s Day celebration.
I liked this pleasant Friday and got great satisfaction from finishing it. I agree with the easy-medium rating, probably a bit more medium for me. I call a puzzle like this one a chipper. If I get totally stuck, I can usually chip away at it square by square and eventually Lewis’s theory of the splat fill will emerge. This happened today in the NW corner. I had an error with WELL KEPT SECRET instead of BEST which was leaving much of that section open. At last I saw the HEE in half “ass” - very clever BTW, Amanda. That gave me GENIE, then GENETIC, and the crosses started falling as I coasted to the finish line.
I knew Powell’s books from ordering with them through Amazon. Quite a place apparently. And I unfortunately knew the feeling of SEASICK, although I recall my face was more of a purple shade at the time. It was my first cruise in the days before ships became floating resorts. The weather was a bit rough, and I had no clue how to cope with the pitching and heaving. But a shot of something from the ship’s doctor put me right back onto the party deck drinking strawberry margaritas in no time.
Splat fill = that moment when one entry or maybe even one square breaks everything open and all of a sudden your empty space is complete.
Surely we did not. I came up to that corner from the SE, so the I in SEASICK was already in place.
Second fastest Friday on the books for me! A very smooth Friday.
If the standard is simply that tomorrow’s be harder than today’s, that doesn’t indicate how much harder. Could be stunningly difficult and still fit the criterium.
Do you ever solve downs-only? I do that with easy puzzles (e.g., early week Newsday, all Universal puzzles) to toughen ‘em up.
Frustrating morning when neither “envious” nor jealous would work and I didn’t follow my instinct to over-ride “garb” with UBER. Wound up having to Google KEYWEST to get things securely underway. Good memories of CONEYISLAND where a friend worked at Nathan’s. Interesting that global warming has put both land and sea ANEMONEs under pressure to survive. With hate to see little Nemo’s home go extinct.
I loved this puzzle. Seasick crossing ice cream parlor was a hoot. The long fill ins were impressive.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Purity Ice Cream?! Best sugar free ice cream anywhere!
good puzzle. got stuck on a few. should have gotten seasick off the bat as someone who gets violently seasick. but had jealous there first...jealous of people who don't get seasick i guess!
@SSJ, re "epic beginning", you make a good point (you should take up POINTILLISM). For a Friday puzzle, why not just clue as "Beginning"?
And re the ANTS flick, it starred Joan Collins, who must be the shady land developer Marilyn Fryser. Had it been animated, she likely would have been cast as the voice of the queen ant. Going to Google the movie.
There was plenty of colorful stuff in the puzzle but, like Rex and others, we found the cluing too easy for a Friday.
Thanks tht, came here for this explanation
The Wikipedia article about Empire of the Ants says it was narrated by Marvin Miller. I clicked on the name, wondering whether it was the legendary agent who advised Curt Flood, and helped break major league baseball's "reserve clause" (essentially that players were property, owned by their teams).
Nope, not that Marvin Miller. But this one also voiced Robby the Robot in what's now a cult classic, Forbidden Planet.
I thought this one was enjoyable. But Fridays really should be a tad harder.
On GENETIC LOTTERY: I've seen this most often in connection with good looks. Attractive women, or men, are said to have won a genetic lottery, especially when they are the offspring of known beautiful parents. Like Cindy Crawford/Kaia Gerber?
It's really not a eugenics play. But yes, we don't need to go there as one of our major political parties used to be rather gung-ho for eugenics back in the day.
Shout out to my local ice cream parlor, Licks
I got hung up in the southeast corner when I had “TITUS” instead of “TITAN” and accidentally misspelled “ANTE” with “ANTI”. Eventually I fixed those and finished the puzzle correctly. I especially liked the reference to “The Empire of the Ants” as my husband and his brother are fans of those kinds of science fiction movies.
Rex, I completely understand the mug rotation. I’m attached to my Jerry Garcia mug. If I have to use a different one I feel like I’m cheating somehow. Then I replace it with another one that has sentimental value to me. Crazy, I know!
Have a nice weekend all!
I really want to know more about the mug schedule
A solid and enjoyable Medium for me. The only long answer I could write right in was ICE-CREAM PARLOR - and I managed to go quite wrong on the roller coaster: from the CO I confidently went with CONnecticut. And drew a blank on KEY WEST and DESIRE. So, a slow pace and fun to see answers materialize. I especially enjoyed seeing ATTIC and POINTILLISM come into view.
@Rex, I join you in having a mug schedule. I especially look forward to Sundays when I get to use my mug from the Lake Superior Railroad Museum.
Agreed! There are a lot of consonants that sound plausible at that crossing.
If you want to be an NBA player it helps to have parents who played: watching the wonderful Devin Harper on the Spurs (dad is Ron Harper of Bulls with Michael Jordan fame). He won the GENETICLOTTERY - and put in the work and benefitted from the experiences and knowledge passed down as well...Many other examples in professional sports.
Also a Hemingway house in Havana, but that didn't quite fit.
Mug schedule is hilarious, and possibly a little disturbing. I tend to use the same one or two over and over until it chips or I take a fancy to a new one.
I thought the same as the pharmacist above and resisted SCRIP with the superfluous T.
I thought RP might not be enamoured with this since the long answers were not zippy colloquial phrases. Some people used to dislike those, but we all seem to be won over. However, today's were all fresh, pleasant things I don't think of that often and the clues all around were clever.
I thought I might have seen Empire of the Ants on MST3K, but it was just familiar to other Bert I. Gordon movies they did. I still hear them chanting "Spider, spider" along to the movie score whenever I see one.
Nobody goes to Coney Island to sight see. They go for the beach, rides and the boardwalk.
There’s a terrific book called Amusing the Millions written in the 70s or 80s that details how seminal Coney Island was in shaping American leisure.
Loved your puzzle, Amanda! Especially ATTIC. Struggled a bit with GENETIC LOTTERY otherwise it was a whoosh. More, please :)
I love the mug schedule too! My husband and I are the opposite, we use the same mugs every morning and even pack them for trips (a little extreme perhaps)
RP: Pat Mitchell's closed? Say it ain't so.
Adding to the chorus who would love more details (and photos) of the mug schedules.
I used to use a different color ink pen, based on the day of the week. Quirky, maybe a bit OCD (maybe???). And I endured a lot of eye rolls. But once it came in handy when it was important to know when I had written something. I looked at the ink color and declared "it's red; I wrote that on a Monday", which was all the info I needed.
Thank you! I really wasn’t sure but scrip is how I’ve always referred to it, so I’m happy to get that confirmation.
I interpret OTC as “off the cuff,” which is unscripted. So the clue works. … I’m not a pharmacist.
Easy-for-a-Friday here, but whoosy enough to be fun. Agree with OFL that GENETICLOTTERY took some thought. Disagree that everyone knows the book store in PORTLANDOREGON. I sure didn't. Also no trouble with SEASICK, first thing I thought of and I already had the K from KEYWEST.
No other problems except the blind spot on ADIN, took way too long to see the deuce-tennis connection. I thought of POINTILLISM but didn't think it would fit until I needed two L's. Live and learn. And I was looking for an ex-something and not a synonym, so that took an extra beat.
Liked your Friday just fine,, AW. The long answers were familiar and added to the whoosh factor. The whole thing was A Winner, and thanks for all the fun.
I live there so was thrilled to plunk KETCHUM in... then get stuck...
There’s no such abbr for “off the cuff,” whereas OTC is standard abbr for “over the counter,” which is surely what’s intended here
Seems like a lot of solvers had trouble getting SEASICK. Seems like an odd complaint.
The Tzatziki ingredient reminded me that an accompaniment for Trump Steaks and Trump Wine is coming out soon. They claim it is a ready-to-bake bread dough with a pronounced DILL flavor. It will be sold in huge containers that say: New from Trump! The Country's Biggest DILL Dough!
I'm not a great golfer. In fact I'm usually UPTOPAR before I'm even on the green.
Someone telling falsehoods about fragrant garlands would be spreading LEIS LieS.
I thought a lot of the cluing was fun, some of it great fun. Judging by the puzzle, I'm guessing that the constructor lives in PORTLANDOREGON, but that Amanda Winters in DANA Point. Thanks, Amanda.
Me alegra oír eso.
Happy to have a solid do-able Friday. This thing was like butter for me. Fun to write in CONEY ISLAND as the first answer with no crosses, just wish I had spelled it correctly.
I'm strongly pro-ICE CREAM PARLOR.
I've been to Powell's bookstore in Portland a few times. It is big. There's not much else to be said about it.
People: 4
Places: 6
Products: 6
Partials: 5
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 23 of 70 (33%)
Funny Factor: 5 😄
Tee-Hee: HEE.
Uniclues:
1 Yearn for a moon jumper.
2 When you dominate the 100-yarder.
3 You'd think it would be your first wish, but it's actually rubbing the lamp.
4 Alarm blast when the pickles are ready in England.
5 Ganja guru.
1 DESIRE OMNICOW
2 DASH UP TO PAR
3 GENIE PART ONE
4 ETON DILL SIREN
5 CHRONIC TITAN
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Red light districts. LEERY NEON MECCAS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Yeah, the pluralization of Lego, fish versus fishes, pea/peas/pease... always fun to figure out if logical/historical or arbitrary. (P.S. hail is a summer phenomenon, not just another Inuit variation on flake, grapple, flurry etc.)
I had Alta for ALPS, while thinking, Gosh Alta is great but that seems like an awful lot for one US resort
Yeah, plausible deniability for that being a Star Wars reference but I'm on the fence
I take exception to your precious Powell's. I was so stymied trying to fit in East Village, Broadway, is it Lafayette on the other side? I thought this might be the word of the day because The Strand (in NYC), According to my research, has more than twice as many books as Powell's And also spends a city block. Apparently it's the actual floor space that makes Powell's bigger. Or does it also include airspace? The Strand's books go up to the ceiling and out onto the sidewalk. I'm still unwilling to give up my East Coast centricity
Good Friday!
We're going to see the Spielberg movie today. Happy to learn from Rex that Josh O'Connor is in it. He's terrific. The Durrells, The Crown.
I guess it skewed old. This geezer zipped right through.
My hold-up today was, like Rex's, in the NE, for a completely different reason. My first entry into the grid was CARNE asada. I read the clue for 7D and couldn't imagine any answer for that clue would end in C so I decided "pollo" asada was a thing and it gave me the chance to throw in Oslo at 23D. But the ICE CREAM PARLOR saved me, as is their wont.
COW or ewe, COW or ewe? COWs in the grid two days in a row, nice!
I've been reading reviews of "Disclosure Day". The NYT review by Manohla Dargis says there is humor in the movie. I've put that movie on my must-see list but not because I need a break from heat and humidity. We had plenty of that last week and now the weather pattern has broken and we're back to normal June temps in the 70s, which is fine but a bit chilly.
Amanda Winters, thanks for a fun, well-clued Friday puzzle!
Personally I came with SEASICK right off the cuff with no crosses, but that may say something about the number of cartoons I've watched in my life, where a character with a green face is definitely a shorthand for being motion sick...
Ditto!
Me too!
Same. This is the NEW YORK Times, after all.
The next time you happen to visit KEY WEST and walk through the front door of the Hemingway house, take an immediate right into the living room/parlor featuring the fellow who originally owned the residence, my ancestor Asa Tift. Then move on to all "the importance of being Ernest" memorabilia.
Easy.
I did not know DESIRE and DANISH (as clued).
Costly erasure - IMPort before PACT.
I bought a paperback copy of “Stranger In A Strange Land” at Powell’s so that was a gimme.
Solid grid, very little junk, and @Rex “a little dull”, liked it.
Yes, very enjoyable, but a little too easy.
Regarding genetic lottery, being in medicine I see it used a lot to describe either being lucky (long and healthy life), or unlucky (a genetic disease that causes much suffering).
But, I would argue that it is not a eugenics sort of concept. Indeed, what you are born with is indeed a lottery. Eugenics occurs when the lottery aspect of it is removed, and someone is dealing from the bottom of the deck. Tempting, but, at least now, frightening.
I started with envious, but KEY WEST immediately nullified it.
ROFL!
Yeah I also got stuck there. Can anyone explain the ADIN answer to me?
I dropped SICK in right away but it took a while to get SEA. I thought it would be a three letter word meaning “looks” or “feels”.
Doesn’t UPturn and UPtopar violate some sort of unwritten rule? Even more so if they cross?
Would TRESS count as an SOC (Singular Of Convenience)? Should this now be a new category?
Yes, it's from tennis. When a player blows a tough match, he often makes A DIN in the locker room.
Natick'd on ADIN ("Deuce follower" --- Huh??!) / DANA (who??!)
I think they both did, at different times.
"Mug Schedule" -- I'll grimmace on Monday, scowl on Tuesday, smile on Wednesday, do a "doofus" bug-eyed grin on Thursday . . . hope I don't run out of mugs before the week is up.
"Stop! That! Train!" looks like a roller-coaster ride, yet no Rex-love for CONEY ISLAND?
Mr. Tift was such an inveterate rebel that although The Union held Key West, Tift refused to fuel a US ship.
He was expelled from the city.
And Totonno’s—though it’s not as good since the fire.
RIP to World's Biggest Bookstore in Toronto, who had the sense to put the claim right in its name, in case the title was lost or disputed. Best part of this puzzle was Rex posting a video in which a doctor from the UCLA School of Public Health endorses eating more cheese. I mean, it is lunch--who am I to argue with medicine?
So true @anonymous you went to Coney Island for Nathan's, the beach, the Cyclone all the rides and Cotton Candy!
Loved the clue for POINTILLISM. That really made the puzzle for me. And Rex didn’t even mention it!
Close Encounters of the Third Kind feels like it should be a summer movie, doesn't it? But it was released in November 1977 in NYC and LA and nationwide in mid-December. I remember my older brother (in his 20s) coming home for Christmas trying to work out the 5 note communication theme on the piano (he wasn't musically-inclined in the slightest).
Typical FriPuz themeless difficulty, at our house. A few no-knows helped scarf down the nanoseconds, most of all includin the location of that real big bookstore.
staff weeject pick, of only 8 choices: ORA crossin OREGON. honrable mentions to COW and the HEE clue, tho.
fave stuff included: The Jaws of Themelessness. POINTILLISM & its clue. BESTKEPTSECRET. ICECREAMPARLOR. UPTURN. Schlocky ATTIC clue.
Speakin of "Disclosure Day" ... this is our 50th Wedding Anniversary today, sooo ... we're gonna eat out at a fave restaurant and attend that there flick [we bought the tickets ahead of time].
Thanx for the DANISH & ICECREAM, Ms. Winters darlin. Enjoyed the criss-crossin almost-gridspanners.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle, say?:
**gruntz**
M&A
Asia before ALPS
jEAlous before SEASICK
trey before ADIN
Thought the "Cab Alternative" clue was going to be some kind of wine as UBER seemed too easy, but then DUDS fit.
Knew the bookstore was in OREGON, but thought it might be outside of PORTLAND, so that was blank longer than it should have been
Otherwise pretty easy Friday, although my time suggests it was harder than I thought. 20:15
Pretty sure the “green-eyed monster” is Oblivion.
Just for future reference, if you want pollo it has to be asado. Hope this is helpful
Nor, melle, will I be giving up my West Coast centricity. I've shopped in both stores, though more often and more recently at Powell's, but my first thought was New York City, which obviously doesn't fit the space but does fit the NYT bent of making everything about The Big Apple, so PORTLAND OREGON it was. Both great, very interesting stores, but I feel like Powell's is more open and well organized. And it's closer.
@Anon 7:07 am, the UPs don't abut, they actually cross!
Oh no. Oblivion was the ‘great sized monster’. No green eyes. My bad.
Since I lived in Key West for 3 years 11 down went in immediately!
This went pretty quick for me at well under 14 minutes. Those long 14s are pretty great, especially PORTLAND OREGON because I am a huge Powell's fan. Whenever I would drive down to California, I would set aside an afternoon or evening to spend there. I spent waaaay too much money there, plus I have all these books...
Speaking of California, never heard of DANA Point. Boy, a lot of place names today!
tht. Where I live there are a lot of South Asian immigrants - some families going back many generations - and if you get invited into Sikh family's home you are quite likely to be greeted by a large portrait of Guru Nanak in the front hall. A gimme for me.
Anon 12:34
I gather you haven’t been to Coney Island in a while. Me neither.
My first visit was a genuine a thrill—- I’d beenreading about it, seei g in movies etc since I was a kid.
My guide had spent all his 20 Summers across Jamaica Bay, so it was no biggie for him. Bit it was a dream to me. Le Cirque had nothin’ on Nathan’s. And the piece de resistance ( the accents are too high falutin for Coney) was the sign at The Cyclone: “Ride Again $4)
I asked my bud about it and he look at me w/ pity and gently explained it simply meant you could stay in your seat after the ride ended hand the attendant 4 bucks and you had another go. Wow!!! So sohosticatrd to this suburbanite.
Anyone know if ride again is still policy and if so, how much?
A very pleasant solve. I don’t remember getting really stuck anywhere but there were plenty of answers I had to chip away at. A few gimmes. There’s always a feeling of relief when you bump into a few of those on a Friday But not too many, please, this is a puzzle, after all. One semi-gimme at 58A: I immediately thought of Strand Books because this is the New York Times puzzle, but it turned out that the constructor and editors are aware of Powell’s in Portland. I have a 6 foot high bookshelf right beside my desk filled mostly with art books, about 90 of them, of which probably a quarter of them are from Powell’s. Great shop. If you’re in the area, don’t pass it by.
Thanks, Amanda Winters, for a very entertaining solve. Certainly not the hardest Friday I’ve seen, but it was well constructed and well clued.
In tennis after the game is tied 40-40 the scores are then called as "ad-in" or "add‐out" (server ahead or receiver ahead respectively) and "deuce" (tie score). Where ad is short for advantage and game has to ge one by at least 2 points. The weird scoring system is generally blamed on the French, love=0 from the French word for egg (l'oeuf).
@Diane Joan, I too have a Jerry Garcia mug. I will not use anything else😊. Along those lines, I also have a Grateful Dead Yarmulke - I do switch that one up depending on the crowd..
Bing '81 - I was going to ask the same question! Bing '84 here...
After a serve in tennis if the server wins the point, he has the advantage = ad in. If his opponent wins the point, it’s ad out.
@Les: "I have a 6 foot high bookshelf right beside my desk filled mostly with art books, about 90 of them, of which probably a quarter of them are from Powell’s". Eerie... I don't have to change a single word in that sentence! Except maybe to say "art and architecture". And the other 75% are from the excellent Penticton book shop called, of course, The Book Shop. Spent a lot of time and money there too.
I really liked this one. Opening it up and seeing such an interesting and visually appealing grid was a very nice way to start.
As someone else had said, there is a nice summer vibe to this: ICECREAMPARLOR AND CONEYISLAND, *Cone* holders... the two long downs I find very pleasing, both in thought and how nice they look in the grid.
I thought all the other long ones were UPTOPAR enough to be Marquee worthy, I know @Rex had a different POV on this.
Very similar to @Rex, GENETICLOTTERY seems like something I *might* have heard at one point or other but was very far from front of brain for me - that one took the longest but the crosses were fun, so well worth the work. Cute DANISH trivia there!
For a bit, I had wellKEPTSECRET which held me up for a quick second, BABAR finally got me out of that one with the all important B.
Some very nice cluing today: SALMON, ATTIC, SEASICK, DUDS... all fun to parse as clued.
100% *Alou* for Baseball trio before OUTS.
As a Binghamton grad, I'll ask as well. @Rex - no Pat Mitchell's for ice cream???
So much to like about this Amanda! This was a fun trip - thank you!
Crackers or, if we can find it out here in the sticks, some good sourdough with cheese, and maybe some prosciutto is my go-to lunch. I make sure to add some veggies to make it healthy. Apparently that's not necessary, but a chunk of fresh tomato and some sticks of cucumber can't hurt. Neither can a small glass of white wine. No cooking required.Easy clean up and back to work.
Why am I telling you about my lunch? Because I've been doing this for many years and thinking it was unhealthy and feeling guilty and now you, @Jeremy, are giving me the green light. Thank you. ;-)
BTW, many videos that Rex posts display a black square with the message that the video is not available in my area, so I didn't actually see the doctor and can only hope you are a reliable reporter.
Glad to hear you're a fan of Powell's. I do a similar thing when I'm visiting family in Portland: "OK, gang, I know I've scheduled three days with you, but you'll only have to put up with me for two because the other one will involve me being lost in a giant bookstore. You may have to send out a search party if you want me here for dinner".
Always a great place for art and architecture books.
Thanks, @pabloinnh, you are so right and my Spanish is sloppy.
6:25 AM Anonymous
ADIN classic crosswordese but not so frequent lately. Worth remembering because it will show up again. Thanks to tht I finally have an inkling of what it means! But once I got the A I knew the answer.
I had ASIA. I haven’t counted, but maybe there have been 11 winter Olympics in Asia.
Southside Johnny
A long as some epics have a part one, the answer is not close enough for crosswords but it is fine, spot on as the British say. The clue didn’t require the answer to apply to all epics
About the coffee mug rotation thing. Are you guys nuts? A coffee cup should be chosen for its aesthetic qualities: the overall shape, the elegance that emerges when that shape is combined with a beautiful material, the lack of silly slogans screen printed on its sides. My fave cup is made of white porcelain. It’s light - hold it up to an east-facing window in the morning and you can practically see right through it. And the lip is tapered. Very fine, like an expensive wine glass. Thin at the rim. Very important. I have fished all over the western expanse of this continent and have breakfasted in many crummy little diners and have returned home thinking I never ever want to drink out of anything like those squat, thick brown (sometimes white) mugs they use.
Having said that, I only use my porcelain cup when I’m having my coffee in the house. Usually with breakfast with guests, Recently I have taken to having my coffee in the studio where I retire to read Rex and write all this silly sh*t. That requires traversing fifty feet of gravel road and getting down thirty five steps and through two gates before I open two doors to set my precious brew on my studio desk. There are often obnoxious goats involved. So I really can’t manage a delicate porcelain cup.
Solution: one of my bright kids gifted me a Yeti Rambler travel cup. Now I’m not going do a promo for Yeti here. I think they make some good products but they price them way too high. I’m glad I didn’t have to pay for this cup but it’s nicely designed and now I have two faves. Porcelain and steel and both rather elegant, as a good cup of coffee deserves.
Puzzlehoarder
I had the same reaction to the puzzle. Especially the beginning. I even immediately thought of duds. Rex didn’t understand genetic lottery so he got slowed a bit. Personally, I don’t mind easy puzzles because easy for me is a half hour but Rex would have been more critical if it weren’t for his initial wipeout in the NE
Jazzmanchgo
Great comment!
It’s so funny seeing people’s blind spots, including Rex’s. GENETICLOTTERY feels like a very common phrase to me, and agree with other commenters that it’s not about eugenics but just a way to say that someone is hot.
Meanwhile, I’m over here with MEAN as my “central point” and wondering how ANNE is the “cost of a hand” 😂
I also thought this was an easy, breezy puzzle with just the right amount of resistance to make it an enjoyable solve. I especially liked POINTILLISM across the middle with the P and M bookends provided by BESTKEPT SECRET and ICE CREAM PARLOR.
GENETIC LOTTERY also comes into play with who and who doesn't get SEA SICK. About 1 in 3 people are very susceptible to any kind of motion sickness. Most will get SEA SICK in extreme conditions. Only about 5% never get "green in the face".
I'm in the latter group. Never got it during a hitch in the NAVY, even while riding out a typhoon in the Tonkin Gulf off the coast of Vietnam. I'm very lucky. Lots of my shipmates got SEA SICK and it's horrible. The ancient Greek word for SEA SICKness was "Nausea".
Pleasant easy puzzle.
ADiN was an old friend as pabloinnh calls crosswordese. Apparently, unusually in my wheelhouse because a lot of people felt it was closer to medium.
Agree with those who noted that genetic lottery has nothing to do with eugenics, or genetic engineering for that matter. The Dr’ comment that the term can apply to say centenarians seems about right. I thought it was the best answer in the puzzle
I
Not easy for me - had to look up KEYWEST and LION. TIL ANEMONE and that SIKHS follow guru Nakan. Also sadly that Hemingway killed himself.
Very nice Friday puzzle, thank you
I got the Ns and Ms all mixed up in anemone.
Congrats on the 50th! Please celebrate accordingly (wild abandon). Our 50th came right in the middle of Covid so no chance for debauchery, except at home.
Wow, I just discovered I got lucky on assuming “Off the cuff” as well.
ATTIC was my favorite clue in a long while. I’m one of the lucky ones that locked in GENETIC LOTTERY quickly (and somehow went straight to seasick)
One of my favorite puzzles in a bit (even if the DANA/ADIN cross took a blind guess)
I had TEAMINK (whatever that is, I was thinking of face painting fans) before JEALOUS or SEASICK. That had me stuck forever 🙄
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