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Relative difficulty: Easy
 |
| [33D: Actor who plays the title role on TV's "Andor"] |
Word of the Day: Moe Berg (59A: W.W. II-era occupation for baseball's Moe Berg, following his playing career = SPY) —
Morris Berg (May 3, 1902 – May 29, 1972) was an American professional baseball catcher and coach in Major League Baseball who later served as a spy for the Office of Strategic Services during World War II. He played 15 seasons in the major leagues, almost entirely for four American League teams, though he was never more than an average player and was better known for being "the brainiest guy in baseball." Casey Stengel once described Berg as "the strangest man ever to play baseball."Berg was a graduate of Princeton University and Columbia Law School, spoke several languages, and regularly read ten newspapers a day. His reputation as an intellectual was fueled by his successful appearances as a contestant on the radio quiz show Information Please, in which he answered questions about the etymology of words and names from Greek and Latin, historical events in Europe and the Far East, and ongoing international conferences.
As a spy working for the government of the United States, Berg traveled to Yugoslavia to gather intelligence on resistance groups which the U.S. government was considering supporting. He was sent on a mission to Italy, where he interviewed various physicists concerning the German nuclear weapons program. After the war, Berg was occasionally employed by the Central Intelligence Agency, successor to the Office of Strategic Services. (wikipedia)
• • •
 |
| [20D: Gustav Klimt masterpiece] |
It wasn't a long journey today, from start to finish, but it was ... a journey. Please, come along with me, won't you, as I retrace my eventful and occasionally hilarious path to puzzle completion. Let's start in the NW corner, where we usually start, and where I made my first and possibly only outright mistake. And what a mistake it was. A gift from the gods! How often are mistakes gifts? Well, OOXTEPLERNON (the god of short bad fill, hallowed be his name) was uncharacteristically playful and generous today. He offered me a regrettable French possessive as my opening toehold (14D: "Bonjour, ___ amis!" = MES). Not an auspicious beginning, but what followed was ... epic. Historic. I was so proud that I remembered the [Nairobi-based collection of NGOs] (OXFAM). That "X" gave me "EXCUSE ME" (2D: "Um ... what?!") and so I was off and running ... or so I thought. My next move, however ... fatal. Silent, but deadly, you might say. You see, I crossed the "E" in MES not with SCORE (the correct answer) but with SCALE (17A: Conductor's reference). In retrospect, SCORE is soooo much better, but my brain was like "music, five letters, ends in "E" ... [pictures sheet music ... a progression of notes] ... SCALE! By dumb luck, SCALE and SCORE end up sharing 60% of the same letter DNA. So I "confirm" SCALE with TO SPARE, so now SCALE is really locked in ... which sets the stage for perhaps the greatest wrong answer I've ever entered into a grid—any grid, ever. Now, I don't know much about Latin legal terms, but I was pretty sure that this ... was wrong:
Another great thing about the FARTIRIORI error is that I was able to catch it immediately, so it didn't bog me down. A lot easier to laugh at your mistakes when you catch them quickly. With the NW fixed, I zoomed into the center of the grid, for the first big whoosh of the day. I briefly considered EMOJIKEPEDIA (?) for 30A: Smartphone feature that debuted worldwide in 2011, but then ... success.
At this point, I had a toehold in the NE, and pretty good prospects for getting down into the SW and across the grid to the SE. This was the point at which the good answers felt like they started popping off like popcorn, in all directions. "I JUST WORK HERE," STUDY DATE, WIDE BERTH, etc. Not that there weren't some hiccups along the way. I misread "Zocdoc" (?) as "Zodiac" and so really really didn't understand when MDS ended up being the answer to 16D: Figures listed on Zocdoc, for short. I saw the -B-RT pattern at 26A and instinctively wrote in EBERT before deciding maybe I should actually read the clue and discovering that it was actually Q*BERT (26A: Orange video game character who appears in "Wreck-It-Ralph"). You ever watch the cartoon "Letterman" on the Electric Company back in the day? (this was the '70s, so you pretty much have to be over 50 for this). He was a superhero figure who would save the day by changing a letter in the name of something scary or bad, thereby rendering it harmless. Like turning a "gun" into "gum" or something. Anyway, I'm imagining Letterman changing EBERT into Q*BERT and it's making me happy.
Bullets:
- 31D: Cosmetic additive that comes from the Southwest (JOJOBA OIL) — I took one look at JOJO-, before looking at the clue, and the only thing I could imagine was JOJO DANCER (Your Life Is Calling). Luckily, I remembered JOJOBA OIL from ... I wanna say '70s shampoo commercials?
- 43A: Digs up by the roots (GRUBS) — this ... is not a word I know. I think of GRUBS as larvae.
- 46D: Bygone recorders (TIVOS) — Today I learned that TIVOS are "bygone," LOL, wow, when did that happen. I rely on crosswords for all my TIVO-related information, so this is the first I'm hearing of it.
- 57A: What might add a bit of flavor to a salsa? (BONGO) — since I was having trouble coming up with EMBRYOS (39D: Items frozen in cryopreservation), I didn't have the final "O" here and thought that maybe people were livening up their salsa dancing by taking hits off of BONGS. Really adds flavor, they say!
That's all for today. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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I contain EMOJI KEYBOARD, the little glowing alphabet of the age; I contain THE KISS, gold and human and forever held in the moment; I contain DIEGO LUNA, Q*BERT, BLUEY, LOLA, MARIO, and JOJOBA OIL—the actor, the game, the cartoon, the song, the plumber, the plant.
ReplyDeleteI contain STUDY DATE, where two minds sit together over the page. I contain I JUST WORK HERE, the modest declaration of the worker amid the enormous machinery of the world. I contain AUTOSAVES, the quiet mercy that remembers when we forget. I contain TOSPARE, and AFORTIORI, and WIDEBERTH, strange passengers in the language, each with a place in the great procession.
I contain SWISS, the fondue and the mountains; SITAR, the strings; STENT, the little scaffold within the body; CREME EGG, sweet and enclosed; EMBRYOS, beginnings not yet arrived; TIVOS, relics of an earlier domestic age; FAE, SKY, STY.
I contain TEAM and ELF and OXFAM. I contain TERMLIMIT, PURIST, SIS, STRIKEOUT, BONGO, SEALY, SPY, NAGS.
I contain all these things, and more.
I contain the Saturday grid, broad and patient, admitting the famous and the obscure, the modern and the ancient, the useful and the ridiculous. I contain the answer that arrives at once and the answer that waits until the final crossing. I contain the solver, standing before the completed puzzle, seeing that no single thing explains the whole of it.
I am large.
I contain multitudes.
Beautiful 💕
DeleteWow, what a GEM! EXCUSE ME, but we have MARIOs and QBERTs and Andor Actors TOSPARE! (Yes, that does knock our SW counter back to 0). The EGG and the EMBRYOS side by side. An Austrian painter, an Australian dog, a SWISS fondue! Very cosmopolitan. Can’t wait to see @REX’s WRITEUP on this one… I wonder how many EMOJIs he’ll use. For me this was definitely 👏👏😎😎👍👍🤣🤣👌👌💕💕🎶🎶😁😁! Thanks, Ryan, for a really fun, medium-challenging (25 min) Saturday puzzle : ) [now I've read @REX.... definitely played harder for me than for him!!!]
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteEasy-Medium. Typical for a recent Saturday. Most of my difficulty was in the SE. TALON (47D) and BLUEY (55A) were the keys that ultimately gave me the corner.
* * * _ _
Overwrites:
At 11D, my 45 degree instrument was a vIola before it was a SITAR.
My 12D inner tube was an aorta before it was a STENT.
Those two led me to remove Jennifer EGAN at 22A and substitute Jennifer holt (an actress, not an author). Quickly changed her back.
ace before GEM for the brilliant example at 42A.
My transaction side was sElLER before it was DEALER (50A).
lie before EBB for fall back at 51D.
WOEs:
A FORTIORI at 3D. Legalese is worse than crosswordese.
I didn't know that Q-BERT (26A) appeared in Wreck-It Ralph. If I did I might have gone to the movie.
No clue about DIEGO LUNA (33D) or the TV show Andor. I didn't even know it was part of the Star Wars "universe".
@Rex GRUBS as clued at 43A.
I know you’re not a Star Wars fan, but you should nevertheless seriously consider giving Andor a watch. Andor is Tony Gilroy doing what he does well, merely using the Star Wars universe as a backdrop for the type of story he wanted to tell. In this case, the story he wanted to tell was about how fascism asserts itself, and how people fall into either supporting it or fighting it (and wrecking their lives in either case). It’s a stark counterpoint to the space opera presented by the rest of the franchise, and it’s kind of wild Disney even allowed it to be made.
ReplyDeleteI wholeheartedly agree! Andor, and the earlier-made but later-in-story Rogue One, are phenomenal examples of serious storytelling that just happen to be set in the star wars universe. I can't recommend it enough.
DeleteJust wanted to second, or third, this. The first season of Andor was great, but the second was one of the best seasons of TV I’ve seen — not something I thought I’d say about a Star Wars show. There’s a line in it about the Empire that I think about all the time (for some reason): “They don’t even bother to lie badly anymore. I suppose that’s the final humiliation.”
DeleteYes.
DeleteCommitting the faux pas of replying to my own comment to add this excellent one-paragraph description from a snarky blogger I follow:
Delete“As I said before, most Star Wars TV media follows the pattern of, "What if these two action figures I owned when I was a child fought." And then Andor comes out of the gate with, "The only rational response to fascism is violent insurrection." And it doubles down on that at every opportunity. ("Oh, here are three episodes about Privatized Prison Slavery and the fundamental weakness of the Panopticon! Buy some toys!")”
Dr Fancypants. I hate space operas and super hero movies. I hate anything where the whole costume budget is wasted on spandex. But I'm going to give Andor a look.
Deletewhat cANDOR !
DeleteSoooo much better than yesterday’s snoozefest. A proper Friday, come on a Saturday.
ReplyDeleteRex, when you add BONGs to salsa it turns into reggae.
Anyone else notice a mini-theme with SKY, SPY, SLY, STY, (LETS)FLY?
ReplyDeleteMarry, 6:50AM, yes! So much so, that I spent a couple seconds looking at the grid for a reveal spot and then checking to make sure it was really Saturday and not Monday! And that wasn’t the only thing that had me down the wrong rabbit hole.
DeleteThis one was kind of a dichotomy for me, as it was for the most part enjoyable to work my way through, but the items I didn’t recognize were pretty brutal.
ReplyDeleteI don’t think I’ve ever run into a bunch of those long downs before (DIEGO LUNA, JOJOBA OIL, AFORTIORI). That’s a lot of empty space to rely on the crosses for, especially when the answers are totally foreign to the solver. So pretty much a typical Saturday (in the good sense). I suspect this one will be pretty well received. The big three that I referenced above are tough though.
Oh, it’s that sweet Saturday combination – a box awash in lovely answers that you have to conquer barriers to get to.
ReplyDeleteIt makes the brain happy; it makes the aesthetic sensibilities happy. A GEM of an answer set infused with SLY cluing.
Some of those lovely answers:
• Top tier – PURIST, WIDE BERTH, LETS FLY, I JUST WORK HERE.
• Not far behind – STUDY DATE, HEFT, BONGO, TO SPARE, THE KISS.
Many answers that required crosses to make the clue click, i.e., [Left] for TO SPARE and [Line holders] for RODS. But when the clue clicked, it was very sweet, and what ensued was a staccato of happy-pings that lit up the box like a Christmas tree.
More pings came from word-playing riddle clues – such as [Dead center?] for TOMB, and [Overtook?] for HOARDED.
My kind of Saturday – work and the FRUIT of work. I left the puzzle with a lit-up serene brain, and that’s a gift. High respect for what you did here, Ryan, and much gratitude. More please!
Well said - as usual, Lewis.
DeleteZocdoc crossing the Kardashians got me-- I put in SIb for the latter, and had no idea that MDb was wrong. I got the grid filled in (only by looking up DIEGO LUNA, tbh) and learned that something was amiss. It probably took me 3 minutes to realize that SIS would work. From hindsight, I should have realized that MDS were plural, to match the clue, but I wasn't parsing "figures" as being people.
ReplyDeleteI'd somehow heard of QBERT--wasn't that an early video game?--but didn't know it was orange, and never heard of Wreck-it Ralph.
I used to read ingredients lists on shampoo bottles, for some reason, which helped remember JOJOBA, which gave me EMOJI over emoticon, and for some reason thought of KEYBOARD, but I don't really understand it. It's not an actual keyboard, is it? More like a character map, I think. But I guess that's what it's called, so OK.
I sound like I'm carping, but really I enjoyed this one a lot, especially for the tricky cluing. And now I know about Zocdoc!
iOS let’s you select between different keyboards to type in different languages. When emoji support was launched worldwide in 2011, you had to “switch keyboard” to Emoji to use them. The interface works a little differently now.
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteApparently not knowledgeable about Nairobi NGOs, as OXFAM is a whatsitnow? Did have MARIO in first, so didn't fall victim to Rex's SCalE trap.
Puz started off like a typical SatPuz, just a few answers scattered about the grid. But, started to get a cross here, a cross there, and had a fairly steady solve to the finish. Timer says 24 minutes, albeit I had two errors. Had OXpAM/ApORTIORI (Isn't that something in music?) and HOARDEs/sEALER, although now I see the S makes no sense.
Just a Z short of the Pangram. We do get many S_Y words, SLY, SKY, STY, SPY.
Overall nice SatPuz. Keeps the ole brain functioning.
Hope y'all have a great Saturday!
Four F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Honestly the only time ever LOLed at one of these blogs. I keep picturing John Cleese in medieval garb yelling “A FARTIORI in your general direction!”
ReplyDeleteAhem. I don't think you can rank a puzzle EASY when it includes A FORTIORI and JOJOBA OIL and a lot of trivia and proper nouns and such. That there is a MEDIUM, sir.
ReplyDeleteAgree. Hard to determine with the crosses if you have no clue in a foreign language or knowledge of law.
DeleteTwo different puzzles, with the SE being a Saturday and the other quadrants being Wednesday-ish. Not knowing the unusual spelling of CREME caused a lot of problems for me.
ReplyDeleteBenbini
DeleteFWIW
I learned from crosswords that in English the French spelling of cream ,crème, is usually used to refer to something that is sweet and white
Not easy for me. Had in re for as to and ent for elf which was a bad start. Hoarded and quacks were not obvious. Didn’t know fae or oxfam. Took a looong time. The f in fae finally clinched it.
ReplyDeleteNo. I bet, if they're being honest, most regular puzzlers would not say that was easy.
ReplyDeleteIt depends a lot on whether you can get on the constructor's wavelength, especially on Fridays and Saturdays. I struggled with the top stack yesterday, and had missteps such as SNARE for SETUP, but today's grid offered virtually no resistance. Wednesday time on a Saturday.
DeleteFound it a lot tougher than Rex did. After my first pass in the NE, I had REI and that’s it. Took a long while to get a foothold anywhere. My big mistakes were lEAsER for DEALER and neT for FIT.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone else wondering, yes, that was Joan Rivers narrating Letterman.
Definitely not easy. Needed two cheats...for the OXFAM/AFORTIORI cross and to look up DIEGOLUNA. Also took me forever to get TOSPARE, because I was sure the answer to "left" was "liberal" or a verb ending in "ed" 9(exited?).
ReplyDeleteMost people are embarrassed to pass gas in public. I'm not. I guess that makes me a frankfarter.
It was so close to un doable I invented a word for it
DeleteThis was very challenging for me. If you divided the grid SW to NE it was like two different puzzles. The NW half was normal Saturday but the SE half was oof. It didn't help that EGAN, QBERT, FAE and DIEGOLUNA were all unknowns but I also struggled with the more common answers.
ReplyDeleteThe fist sign of trouble was when STUDYHALL did not work with TERMLIMIT. That HALL became an HOUR before it turned to DATE. I was very slow on BOARD, SAVE, TIVO, RODS, EMBRYOS, QUACKS and HOARDED. You'd think that last one would be reflexive but it was like my brain had just quit.
Getting QUACKS was the big break through. Suddenly WIDEBERTH became obvious but I still had the NE corner to knock off. That required fixing a SWEET/SWISS write over.
My one other write over was WEB/FIT. While they never rose to the point of a write overs I wanted IJUST to be followed by CANTEVEN and when EMBRYOS and CREMEEGG killed that I tried working with DONTCARE.
This just goes to show you shouldn't fall asleep on the sofa then wake up after midnight and try the Saturday puzzle on your phone. When I got done I had a sneaking suspicion that our host would find it easy and of course he did.
For a lot of younger people not knowing QBERT is probably like not knowing who Donald Duck is.
Easy? I think I’m the only one on the blog who found the puzzle to be undoable. No 🎈for me.
ReplyDeleteI also at first wrote in SCALE at 17A and got A FART I OR I? But also quickly realized it should be SCORE. But throwing in LINK at 1A (instead of TEAM) caused some delay in the NW corner. Overall, really liked this one after Friday’s was sooo easy. Love Andor and DIEGO LUNA, so don’t mind the Star Wars reference. Also loved seeing A WIDE BERTH, as it reminds me of a Bill Murray line in King Pin.
ReplyDeleteThe NW defeated me. OXFAM, AFORTIORI. Never came across them before. I had also previously cheated to get DIEGOLUNA. It was way above my paygrade.
ReplyDeleteToo hard and not much sparkle. Thumbs down.
Totally agree.
DeleteNot easy, but easier (for me) than most Saturdays and I LOVED IT. Especially BONGO.
ReplyDeleteWOES = OXFAM, QBERT, JOJOBA OIL took a while but a great Saturday & thank you, Ryan :)
A tough one for me, so not with Rex on this one—loaded with long trivia. Saved in the NE by Super Mario, basically a crossword standby. FAE not so much a standby. Nor DIEGOLUNA or QBERT or JOJOBAOIL or….On the other hand, still found this puzzle to be fun to solve, if only because of the exotic references. Really wanted Peeps instead of EGGS, but they were never going to fly…
ReplyDeletefae? c'mon. how about we make that bae/bit instead of fae/fit.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you have against fae?
DeleteThou darest to taketh away an F? Zounds!
DeleteRoo
Qbert refers to the 80’s video game of the same name. Sad looking fellow with a tube for a nose that you have to make hop around an isometric pyramid with a joystick. You might need to be over 60 to know this.
ReplyDeleteNope! I’m a spry 47 and I loved Qbert when I was a kid, and never miss an opportunity to play the pinball game based on his video game whenever I visit Las Vegas’s wonderful Pinball Hall of Fame.
DeleteMedium for me and a lot of fun to solve. My entry point was SWISS x SLY, which got me a solid chunk of the right corner; only at EMOJI KEYBOARD was I able to back my way to the left and finish up the NW. After that, the road to the finish was smoother.
ReplyDeleteI appreciated GEM parked as a comment under I JUST WORK HERE and smiled at SPY x STY: I've been advising my still fairly novice-level spouse on three-letter crossword "glue," where you don't really need to think about the answer - profession = SPY, location = SPA or STY, cheer=OLE; aquatic creature=EEL, "Black" or "Psy" = OPS, et cetera.
For me, this was the hardest Saturday in years. Having no idea what Elio is about meant I could put "orc" in at 5A and "child" for the FRUIT of one's labors (and a mental "ugh" for that clue and answer which was luckily wrong and got crossed out later.) I had a DNF on my guess for the OX_AM/A_ORTIORI cross - I put in a p based on the A priori phrase and I don't care - it doesn't wreck my day.
ReplyDeleteBut knowing EGAN, having heard of BLUEY, and thanks to my friend Carol's obsession with THE KISS, I managed to finish, albeit in 30 minutes, about 5 minutes longer than a really hard Saturday usually takes. Since I love hard themeless puzzles, this was a plus for me.
Thanks for the challenge, Ryan Judge!
"Easy"? QBERT? REI? EGAN (as clued)? MDS (as clued -- what the hell's a ZOCDOC?!)? SEALY? DIEGOLUNA (never heard of or saw "Andor")? BLUEY? More like The Gunk-Fest That Would not Die.
ReplyDeleteLiterally all of the answers you cite were gimmes. That’s a hell of a bubble you’re living in. Pulitzer-winning novelists are gunk now? Ok.
DeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
DeleteOkay, I'll confess to an egregious brain-fart for not remembering that very important cultural reference. The rest, though -- cartoon characters, brand names, technogarble trivia, etc. -- I will unabashedly consign to the "Gunk" bin.
Delete@Anonymous 11:43 AM
DeleteYes, prize winning anybody or anything is gunk. Pure random trivia. You either know it or you don't. Prizes are a committee decision. There are more than 100 Pulitzer prize winners for novels. And there are probably dozens more groups handing out awards for books they like. The book is what matters. The content matters. Hell, even sales matter. The prize is a reason to put on a bow tie and eat a chicken dinner. It's nice, I guess.
I found this to be about the same difficulty as yesterday and liked it equally as much - that is, a lot! A variety of interesting entries plus clues that took a little sorting out made for a fun solve. Thanks, Ryan Judge!
ReplyDeleteA MALIO FARTIORI!! I probably woke up Mr. A laughing at that. Marvelous stuff, @Rex!
Like Rex, my first entry was MES but, other than the too-obvious-to-fill-in SCORE, that was all I could do in the NW in my pre-coffee state. Skipped around and proceeded to whoosh. I was briefly held up by the orc/ent/ELF choice and also needed WIDEBERTH to see the end of STUDY****.
Didn’t know the Andor actor but DIEGO LUNA is a cool name.
I have a small bottle of JOJOBA OIL - it’s a great one-ingredient moisturizer.
Once the rest was done, I went back and was able to see EXCUSE ME and the rest of the NW - until the OX*AM/A*ORTIORI cross. Took a minute, but OXFAM sounded slightly familiar, and the “strong” part of the law clue fits with FORT. And FORTe in music is literally “strong” although it’s typically used to mean “loud.” Latin etymology to the rescue!
Speaking of etymology, here’s some GRUBbiness:
verb - c. 1300, "dig in the ground," from hypothetical Old English *grybban, *grubbian, from West Germanic *grubbjan (source also of Middle Dutch grobben, Old High German grubilon "to dig, search," German grübeln "to meditate, ponder"), from PIE *ghrebh- (2) "to dig, bury, scratch" (see grave (n.)). Transitive sense "dig up by the roots" is from 1550s. Related: Grubbed; grubbing.
noun” - larva of an insect," early 15c., perhaps from grub (v.) on the notion of "digging insect," or from the possibly unrelated Middle English grub "dwarfish fellow" (c. 1400). Meaning "dull drudge" is 1650s. The slang sense of "food" is first recorded 1650s, said to be from birds eating grubs, but also often linked with bub "drink."
Mimi L
Easy-medium except for the NW where I had a very costly erasure that I held on to for way too long….Mon before MES amis. I also had inre before ASTO for longer than I should have. Plus, AFORTIORI was a major WOE. Tough section for me but mostly my fault for not catching the French plural.
ReplyDeleteJOJOBA OIL wad also a WOE.
I did know BLUEY.
No junk, a modicum of sparkle, liked it.
Exactly the same struggles in the NW.
DeleteLiked it a lot, too.
Had to look up the legalese, bit of a slog otherwise but solvable. Def not easy for me
ReplyDeleteSince we've descended to bathroom humor today (not complaining), here's an oldie:
ReplyDeleteWhat's the difference between a tavern and an elephant passing wind?
One's a barroom, and one's a bar-ROOM!
I get excited when I see Ryan Judge’s name. His puzzles are pure delight. As is Rex’s write-up. As are some of the comments. I will check out Andor!!
ReplyDeleteRaise your hand if you tried (or seriously considered) OUIJIKEYBOARD.
ReplyDeleteNot easy here but rewarding. NW gave me SCORE and MES for starters and then nada. NE easy, I have read Ms. EGAN's A Visit from the Goon Squad which is,um , different, but enjoyable. SE not bad, thanks be to grandkids for BLUEY, STRIKESOUT was the key to the SW.
ReplyDeleteSnags: the EMOJIKEYBOARD is a really? for me. Didn't know DIEGOLUNA or the mysterious AFORTIORI. Spelled it CREAM, uh no. Technical DNF as I wrote in TEVOS which led to NET which was fine with me for "mesh". Oh, and I read "overtook" as "overlook" forever. Try getting HOARDED out of that.
A proper Saturday here, RJ. Really Just about right, and thanks for some thorny fun.
For some reason I thought OXFAM was headquartered in England (presumably Oxford?).
ReplyDeleteI remember Letterman (I, too, am old). Check out the voice cast! (via Wikipedia):
Narrator (voiced by Joan Rivers)
Letterman (voiced by Gene Wilder) — A a super-powered man wearing a varsity sweater, football helmet, and football socks and shoes. He can run very fast, jump very high and he can fly.
Spell Binder (voiced by Zero Mostel) — arch-enemy, dressed in a white coat and turban. He keeps a magic wand beneath his turban.
A fortiori arguments are a cornedtone of every major religion’s understanding of morals. The most familar example in the New Testament is Mark chapter 2.: Christ’s healing of the paralytic.
ReplyDeleteUgh. I knew you were going to say this was easy, because after I finally figured the NW out, it WAS easy if you guessed correctly. Not if you had mEet, before link for 1 across, which suggested kal el for the Super man clue and Mon Amis, instead of MES suggested PedanT instead of PURIST, and something prIORI instead of AFORTIORI, which suggested in re instead of AS TO.
ReplyDeleteYou'd think that would be it for the bad choices, but NO. I had fIrE instead of TIME, and neT instead of FIT which made that section impossible until AUTO SAVES became clear, which took way longer than it should have.
So, happy (not happy) for all you lucky eff-ers who didn't fall into EVERY. SINGLE. TRAP. Had to saw my arm off to escape. Bloody and beaten up here.
Seeing as I’m only in my 40s, I had never heard of Letterman and had to check out the clip. Wow. I’m trying to imagine the adult person thinking this was a good idea (“Hear me out…”). Y’all watched some pretty strange stuff back in the 70s! Granted, I guess we had PeeWee Herman in the 80s, so I can’t really talk.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this puzzle for teaching me what OXFAM actually is—I knew them only as the charity shops all over the British Isles, but hadn’t ever paid attention to what charity I was actually supporting. Turns out many!
Knew OXFAM, but I have to admit I hadn't realized it was based in Nairobi.
ReplyDeleteNo reason, really, to know that Oxfam is now in Nairobi. As you correctly deduced, it was created in Oxford, England.
DeleteBut now that you know, know this too. Their HQ is about 5 miles away from the famous restaurant Carnivore. Touristy? Of course but a real blast. Much more fun than Oxfam.
Smoother and quicker than yesterday at under 17 minutes. A lot of that time was spent in the lower right, where I have never heard of DIEGOLUNA or BLUEY, complicated by that spelling of CREME and the tricky BONGO which, before I read the clue, sounded like yet another Unknown character. Lots of new stuff that had to come from crosses: AFORTIORI, JOJOBAOIL, FAE, STUDY DATE (I first had STUDY HALL).
ReplyDeleteI couldn't remember Jennifer EGAN's last name until crosses helped.
And today's equivalent of a KeaLoa is SEALY (I first had SERTA).
okanaganer. 17 minutes! I'm impressed. Really. I have no idea what my real time was because I fell asleep last night while solving and had to pack it in and pick it up again in the morning. Timer says just over an hour. Some tough solving for me. With you on Andor and DIEGO LUNA but the show sounds interesting given the state of American politics.
DeleteBLUEY was a gimme; I have a 6 year old grandson in Australia. He reads BLUEY books, watches BLUEY TV, and wears BLUEY pajamas.
JOJOBA OIL was tough because I had the OJ and remembered that a neighbouring farmer used to have a U-pick gOJi berry crop. That screwed me up for a while. Where does the Goji berry actually originate and why does it have the same number of letters as JOJOBA OIL?
I have spent 12 years in the public school system, 4 years as an undergrad, and 2 years as a grad student and I have never had a STUDY DATE. Never even heard the term. It's one of those things like "toga party" or "panty raid". Are these things real?
You never expierenced a toga pary?
DeleteWhere did you go to schiool.
Panty raid was killed by the sexual revolution.
@Anon, Les and I went to school in Canada... I have certainly heard of a toga party (notably in the movie Animal House) but never come anywhere near one in real life.
DeleteIn what alternative universe is this an easy puzzle? I don't give a damn about "Andor" and never heard of Diego Luna, nor do ever care to know who he is. I hated this puzzle from beginning to end. Are you trying to make me feel stupid by calling this "easy"? Not nice.
ReplyDeleteAs OP ocassionally explains, the scale is meant to be tailored to the days of the week. EASY means easy for a Saturday. Saturday is the hardest day of the week, so an easy Saturday might be much tougher than a hard Monday. Some people like tougher puzzles so we regard it as a bit of a loss when late-week puzzles now are only as difficult as mid-week puzzles a decade ago.
DeleteCompletely agree. Dreadful.
DeleteHoly racism Letterman! So weird that a Zero Mostel would kinda just be expected to play that sort of caricature back then but I guess Mickey Rooney wasn't available. Nine seconds longer than yesterday so still easy but yes a delight.
ReplyDeleteEasy? har. Maybe for @RP, but not so much, at our universe. The no-knows abounded, big time. Not that M&A minds pushin "pause" to do research -- it ain't like my solvequest times are bein clocked by Guinness Book, or somesuch.
ReplyDeleteMy PuzEatinSpouse saved M&A one look-up, by knowin OXFAM. Gets a lotta "junk mail" from that outfit. She also knew JOJOBAOIL. I married a smart gal.
staff weeject picks: The S[K/L/P/T]Y mini-puztheme.
fave things: IJUSTWORKHERE. EXCUSEME. HOARDED clue. MARIO clue. And, of course, The Jaws of Themelessness.
Thanx for the educational solvequest, Mr. Judge dude. Learned lotsa new stuff. Must try that there "butterfly" variation! har2
Masked & Anonymo8Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
p.p.s.s.
Our FriNite Schlockfest yielded a couple of interestin flicks: "Osiris" and "Beyond the Black Rainbow". First one was mostly a shoot-out with aliens, but it did have the "Terminator" Linda Hamilton gal in it. Second one kinda blew our minds; it was real trippy.
Very nice Saturday puzzle hard for me but fun. The NW I found easy but after that I had to look up DIEGOLUNA , Q instead of eBERT, and EGAN.
ReplyDeleteI had can’t help before won’t help, finally landed on WORKHERE!
47 A was a disturbing clue, “dead center “ indeed. Thanks for explaining GRUB, A.
TIL about the amazing Morris Berg
Thank you!
My contribution to today’s bathroom humor:
ReplyDelete“Why do farts smell?”
“So deaf people can enjoy them too!”
My immature 10 yo self inside a 60+ yo body just giggled 🤣
DeleteOHO, looks like I've gotten the axe today. Over a BONGO joke 🦖? Sheesk. I will attempt to update y'all on the adverb hall of fame on another day. ALAS and ANON.
ReplyDeleteSadness
DeleteI slipped quietly in the ether as well. But the really strange thing is that shortly after I tried to post, everybody's comments started showing up in my email. WTF, I cried! Too bad because my post today was a rare GEM where, departing from my usual pathetic stabs at humor, I gave a dry rundown of my mistakes and corrections while solving. It was so good that I'll be sticking to that format from now on.
DeleteI have no idea what you’re talking about
Delete@Rex Parker 7:19 PM
DeleteHm. I guess Google ate it. I assumed I was over the line again. Thanks for clarifying.
Maybe not axed, Gary. Sometimes our posts get lost in the ether and either (whew, ether/either, say that three times really fast - in US or British English!) never arrive in CrossWorld, or arrive but get missed? I’ve had a few lately that never show up, but always assume it’s my very, very late/early morning posting time. As a super-fan of your humor, now I’m eager to see your first draft! Maybe re-send the original to OFL?
DeleteHow many Star Wars and video game references does a puzzle need? Ugh.
ReplyDelete3.14159 of course.
DeleteThe book about Mo Berg is called "The catcher was a spy"?
ReplyDeleteDid they not think of the obviously superior "Sly Catcher"???
I did find this puzzle on the hard side. But part of that was doing what pabloinnh did. Seeing overlook? instead of overtook? For quite a while I wouldn’t accept HORDER. No one mentioned it but my guess is JOJOBA OIL would more likely be known by women. I had no clue ( I needed every cross). but it’s quite fair.
ReplyDeleteRex was in no way being insulting when he called the puzzle easy. He always does the puzzle and writes HIS immediate reaction to it. His easy rating is for him alone. He even speculated that he could see why some people could have trouble with it. My phone says seventy minutes. I don’t feel insulted. I am happy I avoided a dnf.
I had to come back to this a few times today. Not easy for me but very enjoyable, a ton of stuff I didn't know that was fun to learn.
ReplyDeleteThe NW killed me, mostly because of the legal term but for whatever reason, nothing else fell easily. The (for me) very tricky cluing on 1D - Left, may have been my last entry as even AFORTIORI fell with the crosses before that. But it was a satisfying experience and TOSPARE and EXCUSEME are great side by side fill.
A great long one today with IJUSTWORKHERE. Honorable mention to TERMLIMIT and STUDYDATE. The latter of which took forever as I kept STUDYhall for way too long.
Loved @Rex's write up today. Thanks for evoking memories of The Electric Company. Morgan Freeman, Rita Moreno, great stuff. Watching it as an adult is also fun and kinda trippy, I'd recommend it.
Thank you for this Ryan, a fun workout today.
This is what I call a whiplash solve. Some breezy areas interspersed between areas filled with the sudden imagined sounds of blaring borns and squealing tires as I come to a screeching halt with nowhere to go. A whiplash solve is just my cup of tea (actually coffee) for anSaturday.
ReplyDeleteDespite the dissonant traffic noise in my head, my solving experience paralleled that of our resident Master of Kindness, in his inimitable style. Thanks Lewis.
My single yet very pleasant whooshlet stretched only from ELF down through the KEYBOARD of EMOJI KEYBOARD. Lots of other fill lay uncomfortably outside my wheelhouse.
GRUBS really surprised me. My experience with the word GRUBS instantly evokes youthful memories of helping Gran turn the earth in her flower beds every spring and finding the fragrant, loamy soil teeming with colonies of GRUBS. The thought of them both gives me full body goose bumps along with a chuckle. I always thought their bright red heads looked like they had strapped on tiny helmets as protection against injury during the eventful metamorphosis from GRUBS to beetles.
Vis the solve, it took me to the very end to get the SW corner filled. First if all, the HRUBS PROBLEM. Next, the fact that during my musician life, I was a flutist/flautist (either is correct) and singer. Partially because I had not thought of GRUBS as a verb, I also could not think of any 5 letter word related to or describing the “flute, for one,” meaning flute as a woodwind instrument. All I had was JOJOBA OIL and ROUTE going down, and I really had to work hard to remember LOLA. The last corner truly made this a proper Saturday for me.
Icing on the cake was the clue for STENT (inner tube?). Ryan Judge has again delivered a solid Saturday. Thanks Mr. Judge. Don’t stop.
Took me more than two hours on and off to solve this “easy” puzzle. A hard one will kill me.
ReplyDeleteBANJO before BONGO
ReplyDeleteI think the grubs' digs (homes) are by the roots (of grass, weeds, etc.).
ReplyDeleteout of touch puzzle it's World Cup final times editorial team knows this that's why it's a not rewarding hall and Oates classic 'You're out of Touch' as a metaphor for this out of touch puzzle - not a bad puzzle simply Out of Touch
ReplyDelete