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Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: TERI GARR (6D: She played Sandy Lester in "Tootsie") —
Terry Ann "Teri" Garr (December 11, 1944 – October 29, 2024) was an American actress, comedienne and dancer. Known for her comedic roles in film and television in the 1970s and 1980s, she often played women struggling to cope with the life-changing experiences of their husbands, children or boyfriends. She received nominations for an Academy Award and a British Academy Film Award for her performance in Tootsie (1982), playing a struggling actress who loses the soap opera role of a female hospital administrator to her male friend and acting coach.
Garr was raised primarily in North Hollywood, California. She was the third child of a comedic-actor father and a studio costumier mother. In her youth, Garr trained in ballet and other forms of dance. She began her career as a teenager with small roles in television and film in the early 1960s, including appearances as a dancer in nine Elvis Presley musicals. After spending two years attending college, Garr left Los Angeles and studied acting at the Lee Strasberg Institute in New York City. She had her breakthrough appearing in the episode "Assignment: Earth" of Star Trek in 1968.
After gaining attention for her 1974 roles in Francis Ford Coppola's thriller The Conversation and Mel Brooks's comedy horror Young Frankenstein, Garr became increasingly successful with major roles in Carl Reiner's comedy Oh, God! and Steven Spielberg's science fiction film Close Encounters of the Third Kind (both 1977) and The Black Stallion (1979). In the 1980s, she was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her comedic role as an acting student in Sydney Pollack's romantic comedy Tootsie, and enjoyed leading roles in Coppola's musical drama One from the Heart (1982), Mr. Mom (1983), and Firstborn (1984). She later acted in films such as Martin Scorsese's black comedy After Hours (1985), Let It Ride (1989), Dumb and Dumber (1994), Prêt-à-Porter (1994), Michael (1996), and Ghost World (2001).
Garr's quick wit and charming banter made her a sought-after guest on late-night shows such as The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. On television, she took a guest role as Phoebe Abbott in the sitcom Friends (1997–98). (wikipedia)
Bullets:
- 11A: Set of 24 for a box jellyfish (EYES) — interesting fact, but kind of an unforced error, duping BOX like that (see 4D: Analytical graphic that divides data into quartiles = BOX PLOT)
- 15A: "Hello?" follower ("ANYONE HOME?") — because "IS IT ME YOU'RE LOOKING FOR?" would not fit.
- 11D: Volume control device? (E-READER) — I do not like E-READERs (as fill, or irl), but I love this clue. Answer redeemed!
- 28D: Dipped (out) (SNUCK) — recentish expression for leaving (abruptly, and maybe inconspicuously). I knew "dip" meant "leave," I didn't know it carried a connotation of sneakiness.
- 37D: I, O, U and Y, but not A or E (ELEMENTS) — I like this clue because it reminds me of this insane '80s song:
- 55D: Greenish plum variety (GAGE) — whoa, never saw this clue. I would not have known this answer.
- 33D: Iconic hairstyle of Jane Fonda and Stevie Nicks (SHAG) — I just wanted to play some Stevie to close things out.
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- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
ReplyDeleteEasy. Too easy for a Saturday. After I got 1A with no crosses, I got the other three long answers in that corner without reading the clues. Not a bad puzzle, but downgraded due to the lack of "crunch" (which is an issue with the scheduling, not the construction).
* * _ _ _
Overwrites:
My 11A box jellyfish had 24 armS before he (she?) had 24 EYES.
At 16A I had nEAt for straight-up before REAL.
For dipped (out) I had SNUff before SNUCK (28D).
hmm before UHH for the thinking sound at 38A.
WOEs:
The stimulating Mideast shrub QAT at 34A.
GAGE as a green plum (55D).
I don't understand how you got 4 long answers in the NW and only read one clue. I needed crosses.
Deleteit’s like absolutely not true that he did this lol
DeleteIt's like actually perfectly possible that he did this. He's saying that he got RABBIT STEW, then was able to get enough of the downs (using their clues) that he could then fill in the other acrosses in that stack without reading THEIR clues. It's not that crazy.
DeleteI think they mixed up Friday/Saturday! Took half the time of yesterday.
ReplyDeleteI feel the same way. An enjoyable puzzle, nevertheless.🎈🎈🎊🎊
DeleteExactly my thought
DeleteFelt more like a Wednesday or a Thursday.
DeleteEasy except for the NE, where I needed one look-up, for ESTA(noche). I also had "neat" before REAL and didn't know EREADER.
ReplyDeleteDidn't know QAT either. Has it ever appeared in a NYTXW before?
I had KAT for QAT, which made me remove BBQ until the end. I’ve seen KHAT and KAT before, but never KAT.
ReplyDeleteQAT has come to the rescue of many a Scrabble player stuck with a Q and no U.
DeleteAs far as a three-letter crosswordese necessity, QAT is rather good.
DeleteWonderful - attractive grid with those huge quad stacks and limited 3s. I wouldn’t call it easy but it played more like a midweek puzzle. The cluing for FETA CHEESE is outstanding and the highlight for me.
ReplyDeleteBANANA PanCAKEs
Knew hasenpfeffer from the old VW commercials so that went right in. ANYONE HOME, WHITE TIGER, DONT STRESS are all top notch - the longs in general hit. Needed the crosses for DESI, QAT and GAGE. E READER was unfortunate in an otherwise beautifully filled grid.
KID
Highly enjoyable Saturday morning solve. Ben Zimmer’s Stumper today offers a quite different grid layout with a couple of spanners - little more of a test than this one.
SHEL
Loved this puzzle, starting at 1-Across. As with so much in my life, Warner Brothers cartoons taught me that hasenpfeffer is RABBITSTEW. Yosemite Sam is the hard-working, unappreciated chef for an obnoxious king who channels Henry VIII. At one serving, the king looks upon the sumptuous feast Sam has prepared, angrily kicks it away and utters one of my all- time favorite lines: “Every day, the same thing — variety!” He then orders Sam to make him hasenpfeffer, whereupon Sam trudges out into the woods with his rifle and finds Bugs Bunny minding his own business. The usual shenanigans ensue.
ReplyDeleteI too did the entire puzzle with Yosemite Sam's less-than-dulcet tones ringing in my ears, with an EBN OZN chaser. Easy Saturday (5 minutes faster than average for me according to the app) but fun all the way through!
DeleteI just love this.
DeleteThis is how I got 1A right off the bat as well. Love those cartooons.
DeleteTerrific grid design – a NYT debut design, by the way – that allowed for those two four-stacks and ten ten-letter answers, all colorful. When you pack the box with loveliness like that, you give the solver beauty and enrichment on top of riddle-ment, deepening the joy.
ReplyDeleteCertainly for me. This was a gift.
My favorite answer: KEEP IT PG. My favorite clue: A tie between [Success in another’s field, say] for ROAD WIN, and [Volume control device?] for E-READER.
I love the German “pf”, as in pfeffer or kopf. It’s pfun to say.
And what a terrific RABBIThole I went through upon seeing UPSTART, when I realized you could reverse it to “startup”. Words like that, I learned, are called reverse compound words. They are legion in our language, i.e., breakout, boathouse, oversleep, lookout, holdup, takeover, and trackside.
Bounty in the box today. Thank you, Adrian. I loved this!
Fun! Too easy for Saturday, tho. Fave clue "Tidbit of Greek culture". 1a is easy if you know hasen, probaly not easy otherwise (qua @Rex), but here it started the solve off with a whoosh.
ReplyDeleteLoved the long answers and the relative lack of xwordese. Thx, Adrian!
The clue is "tidbitS" answer ought to be "cheeseS"
DeleteAnonymous 9:56?AM
DeleteFETACHEESE answer is fine. The tidbits are bits of feta cheese. Cheese is rarely plural-except sometimes when talking about say a cheese board)
Hey All !
ReplyDeleteSwapped Themeless puzs again. Today's was Friday, YesterPuz was Saturday. Sure, got bogged down in some spots, but was able to infer everything without needing to Goog. Not so with the impossible puz yesterday.
Nice fill, helped by 4 Cheater Squares. But that's OK, it leads to cleaner fill. Nice to see four-stacks (even nicer to be able to solve them!)
Randomness:
Wanted PINEAPPLE CAKE for the BANANA, obvs too long. Had UHH as HMM, then UMM. Heard of QAT (good Scrabble word), but didn't know it was a shrub (wasn't sure what I thought it was.) arms before jellyfish EYES. INTalks before INTOUCH. Neat clue on ROADWIN (Success inn another's field, say.)
Good SatPuz. Unsure if it warrants 4 1/2 RexStars, but still nicely done.
Hope y'all have a great Saturday!
No F's - GROSS!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Roo
DeleteYou mentioned earlier this week you do acrosses first. I have been doing the Times puzzle for fifty years that way. Happy I am not the only one!
Super easy but so good
ReplyDeleteT.A.M.I. Show is a brilliant concert movie from 1964 with an insane lineup including James Brown, The Beach Boys, The Rolling Stones–among others–and, for that year, the biggest name in the show, Lesley Gore. If you keep an eye out, you'll catch our Teri as one of the go-go dancers.
ReplyDeleteI have a VCR tape of James Brown on the T.A.M.I. Show that I have watched for years and years.
DeleteThe full show is really good and worth a watch. It's out on DVD; my local public library has a copy.
DeleteSHAG could also be clued as retro pop artist Josh Agle
ReplyDeleteCould also be clued as "British bonking"
DeleteMs. Garr is becoming crosswordese - a word that doesn’t appear anywhere in the wild. She’s certainly the most frequently appearing crossword actress.
ReplyDeleteMaybe so, but I'm with Rex; never dislike seeing her (name or picture).
DeleteI love it when she APPEARS! Coincidentally Assignment Earth Star Trek aired just last night, watched it despite having seen it, several times!!!
DeleteAgree with DavinHop
DeleteAs Rex noted, full name is not that common. The crosswordese is her first name or last name alone. AND for people in in movies, she is still part of the cultural landscape.
HASSENPFEFFER was either a gimme or a stumper. The former for me, but also because my father grew up speaking German at home because his immigrant mother didn't know English. So the puaale seemed easy for awhile, but then turned tricky. nEAt didn't help--it suggested STEW ar 14-D which would have been a dupe.
ReplyDelete@Rex, the clue for 12-D suggests the redundancy, I thought.
Knew 1A and some other tidbits like BIFOCALS and the long answers were fun but like some others I want more of a challenge on Saturday. I did learn another meaning of "dipped" (oh you kids) and needed to be reminded of QAT, which I haven't seen in a long time, but everything else, even the names, was familiar. Except GAGE, which strikes me as pure crosswordese with a clue to match. Almost forgot BOXPLOT. Huh?
ReplyDeleteI don't think I've ever seen a BANANCAKE or heard anyone say MINICAR, but there they are.
OK Saturdecito, AJ. Adequate Joy, for which thanks.
I did not know Ebn Ozn and now I do and my life is complete.
ReplyDeleteI agree this was a little easier than yesterday.... I knew RABBITSTEW right away, anytime we saw bunnies in the yard when I was growing up, my dad would say "shall we shoot it and make some hassenpfeffer?" It was just a joke he had, we never did it.... though we did shoot the occasional squirrel when they were eating our corn. I was just on this puzzle's wavelength. Saw right through that nasty misdirect with the plural clue for FETACHEESE.... Definitely had "nEAt" before REAL for straight-up but I knew that the fish taco topping was SLAW.... I wasn't sure what the last two letters of KEEPIT were going to be.... ?PC? but PG was just right. Thought maybe the icebreaker was a SkIt???? before realizing it was a ship. Terrific puzzle all around! Thanks, Adrian! : )
ReplyDeleteOh.... and just realized the joke on the EREADER clue.... wow, that took me a while. Volume as in book, not loudness. nice.
ReplyDeleteThank you for explaining that, because I didn't get it!
Delete[Rex, et al., if you haven’t seen it yet, check out Roz Chast’s “A Crossword Odyssey” in the Aug 24/31 New Yorker. One of her bestest! Enjoy!]
ReplyDeleteAny puzzle that includes boxplot as an answer is this data scientist’s dream!9
ReplyDeleteAnd this artist/farmer's nightmare.
DeleteWe went to a party last night. After we'd EATEN all the SLAW we SNUCK out without saying our BYES, other than to our BFFs, the Focals. We said BIFOCALS.
ReplyDeleteEgs: You know that slutty woman who delivers our packages in a brown uniform?
Mrs. Egs: The UPSTART?
Egs; Yes. Well it seems she's been axed for hatching a BOXPLOT wherein she'd steal packages on her ROUTE. Then they'd get SOLDON e-Bay.
I agree with @Rex on the nice vibe of this puzzle, but it was awfully easy for a Saturday. But lotso fun. Thanks, Adrian Johnson.
OFL did a good job of capturing the essence of this one, and contrasting it with yesterday’s trivia test. The nits are few, and unobtrusive - this constructor knows what he is doing. I had ANNO, ESTA, QAT, and maybe DREW which took me a long time to figure out what the clue was getting at (I settled on the chess/sporting event/game angle - let me know if I missed something).
ReplyDeleteDESI Lydic is famous (and funny) enough for me - so totally a wheelhouse situation there. Rex has his film directors, I have my female comedians . . . Speaking of which - I am 100% onboard with Rex giving an extra one half star bonus due to the presence of the lovely and talented Ms. TERI GARR. Welcome back, it seems like it’s been quite a while since you last stopped by - don’t be such a stranger.
On a side note - if @CDilly52 stops by today - I like the way you called out the constructor yesterday for resorting to a “lazy dictionary trick” regarding the “jejune”/ARID situation. I’m wondering, with your voluminous solving experience, have you accumulated others as well? It would be great to see a small volume of “CDILLY’s Stupid Constructor Tricks” (picking up in CrossWorld where Letterman left off in late night TV). If it’s not on the list already I would nominate the unfortunate situation where a constructor turns ordinary vocabulary into some type of annoying trivia (such as cluing HAM as the son of Noah or a radio operator). That’s got to be fertile ground to be explored, especially for someone who has pretty much “seen it all” here in CrossWorld.
Johnny
DeleteI see the point that a rarely used meaning can be annoying ( personally I think they are acceptable late week ) but I strongly disagree about the rest of your comment. The Biblical Ham and the radio operator are the opposite of obscure. To me tricks like that are part of the fun of crosswords, taking advantage of the quirks of the English language.
Would suggest 40D should be on or at another’s field
ReplyDelete@tavara, agree that "on" or "at" another's field would be technically better prepositions. Our last entry was the W in ROADWIN x DREW. Needed to stare at it for a bit before realizing that they were both sports-related!
DeleteBut the puzzle was easy enough, so as Rex would say, "we allowed it".
This was a first for me, a delightful Saturday puzzle and a delightful review from Rex. Perfect symmetry, Aaahh! Yes, the puzzle played faster than any Saturday I can remember, but it was fun and accessible and gave me some stacks. I don’t speak or eat German, but the first three downs gave me RAB and I was off to the races!
ReplyDeleteInteresting experience with this week’s puzzles. My times for Wed-Sat all fell within a 3-minute range, between my Wed and Thu averages. (It helped that I made liberal use of Google to fill Friday’s name-laden grid.) My fastest time was Tuesday’s, slightly better than average; slowest time of the entire week was Monday’s downs-only solve.
ReplyDeleteToday’s outing played very easy for me, until I got hung up on a few short answers toward the end, notably in the SW and NE. Many of the longer entries dropped right in.
Go figure…
webwinger
I haven't seen Rex this cheerful about a puzzle in a long while. Though easy for a Saturday, it was lots of fun. Knew hasenpfeffer right away. NW corner gave some mild resistance. Very enjoyable. Thanks Adrian!
ReplyDeleteI only know HASSENPFEFFER because Yosemite Sam needed to cook it once! Bugs was not cooperative.
ReplyDeleteShiskabugs! Debuted on the Feast of The Immaculate Conception 1962.
DeleteSame. I'd like to say this was a gimme because my wife is German, but, no, it was growing up on a steady diet of Warner Brothers cartoons.
Deletehttps://youtu.be/r0OtBL2hYP8?feature=shared
Not sure I ever saw Lionel Richie's "Hello" video before, but wow! That is the creepiest thing I've seen in a long time! High school teacher stalking his blind student?! Will never hear that song the same way again. Yeesh.
ReplyDeleteProbably the easiest Saturday I can remember but what a joy! I knew @Rex would like it as TERIGARR makes an appearance. I agree, thinking of her in *anything* she's done induces ear-to-ear smiles. I recently re-watched Young Frankenstein, mostly for her 😊
ReplyDeleteI liked this for all the reasons already pointed out. Those NW and SE stacks of four are very, very good and I had an extremely rare Saturday whoosh experience for most of them. That was very satisfying.
Anything I had no knowledge of like QAT were very inferable with the crosses and nothing at all made me wince.
Like @Rex, YESNODOUBT took my brain some time to get into focus. 38A could have been any number of things so the correct UHH didn't hit me right away. Even though I cannot now think of any word other than DOUBT that ends with BT (there very well may be others...) my incorrect sHH was enough to throw me off. Even with YESNODOsBT, I couldn't see it and it took me way too long to fix it. But it was fun trying. Funny the way my brain fails me sometimes.
Nice cluing on EREADER and ODDS and once again I appreciate the food vibe with BANANACAKE, SLAW, BBQS, WESSON, FETACHEESE and EATEN... I need some breakfast...
My only nit is that it was all over too soon. Adrian, this was one of my favorite Saturdays in a long time. Thank you!
Much easier for me than yesterday but I really liked it. It was hard eniugh to be a fun Saturday. I had the most trouble in the SW. i’ve never heard the term ROADWIN, and DREW as clued still doesn’t make much sense to me.
ReplyDelete@JJK, it took me a while to figure out DREW. I believe it's referring to any game that has a tie score, also referred to as a "draw". So past tense, All tied up with = DREW... Maybe I'm wrong but I'm sure someone will correct me...
DeleteJust wanted to say I knew about green GAGE plums, from years of poring over nursery catalogs dreaming of having a fruit-producing orchard in my smallish backyard, You not only have to find room for the trees, but you have to find pollinator trees for them. And they have to be immune to blister rust. Sigh. Never ate a green GAGE plum, but I bet it would tase way better, picked ripe off my tree, than any of the picked-green-and-sprayed-with-chemicals-to-make-them-look-ripe things you can buy in the supermarket.
ReplyDeleteOMG. Yes, way too easy for a Saturday, but a complete whoosh-fest, 180-degree upgrade from yesterday's namey slog. Loved seeing 4-1/2 stars and enjoyed the write-up.
ReplyDeleteThe dual cherries on this sundae were DESI (Lydic, not Arnaz) and the incomparable, fully-named TERI (not Hatcher) GARR (RIP).
Garr was so frequently on Late Night with David Letterman; their comedic chemistry was amazing (well, hers was with any co-star) and when I knew she was his guest it was must-see-tv.
One time he talked her into taking a shower on camera. She hesitated with her trademark "I'm not sure of this" facial expression, but ultimately played along. There was sufficient opaqueness, and you heard her still sort of objecting while Dave was cracking up. Hilarious; a bit risqué; sexy without being vulgar.
Thanks, Rex for the "Remembering Teri Garr" video. ❤️❤️❤️
Hablemos de ello después.
ReplyDeleteDidn't love this one, but it was an exhausting week, so maybe a me thing. We've had a zillion 95°+ days this summer and I am a little tired of it. The puzzle was a little faster than usual, but not by much. I guess I'm just not that enchanted by the longer stacks today.
Life on the weekend 🦖 blog: Too many obscure names make it too hard so we bitch. Not enough obscure names make it too easy so we bitch.
Jellyfish are wonderful in pictures and horrible in real life. Warming water temperatures are causing them to overpopulate in some places.
The clue for IN EXTREMIS having no indication it's answer will be in Urdu is rude.
The majority of ROUTES I've used in life have no stations, but perhaps rich people's routes have them?
When you finally decide you need some ukulele in your life, I recommend you also buy a SNARK tuner to go along with it. They're rechargeable, accurate, readily available, not too pricey, and have a nice big colorful screen.
NET is an alternative to GROSS the same way a pickle is an alternative to a locomotive. And speaking of finances, giving the contract to the LOW BID is a highly questionable idea.
Just now learning there's a banana upside-down cake. Pineapple, yes, and could it be better than that? No.
Is "iconic hairstyle" a euphemism for "bad hairstyle?" A hairstyle for arrivistes?
MINICARS are what children use in the driveway. They're very very subcompact.
Gunkometer--
People: 7
Places: 2
Products: 3
Partials: 2
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 17 of 68 (25%)
Funny Factor: 4 🙂
🔥 Ooh-la-la! 🔥 Tied up with.
Uniclues:
1 Question in a robot house.
2 Likes the big guy.
3 What turning 40 means.
4 Messy monastic men.
1 ANYONE HOME REAL?
2 SOLD ON LUG (~)
3 NEED BIFOCALS (~)
4 GROSS BRETHREN (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Unhelpful recommendation to one sitting in a ditch. TRY UNDEVIATING.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Got a SNARK tuner for my guitar, second the recommendation.
DeleteFor Ooh-la-la, it looks like you settled on a passionate, complicated relationship (I love relationships that involve ropes). I’m surprised that there wasn’t time to include an afternoon SHAG.
DeleteGary
DeleteDon’t know about US routes in New Mexico but on US Route 1 along the whole East Coast there are ALOT of (gas) stations. (Not to mention rest area stations on many interstates.
They bombed in the US but there is a category of small car called a mini car. I still see them occasionally in the NE anyway .
I had ANYONE HOME in place at 15A. At 9D, with _M____ in place, I amused myself by imagining the Kuwaiti royals were aMish.
ReplyDeleteQAT, a very useful word for Scrabble, if you can persuade your opponent that it's legitimate.
TIL SNUCK = Dipped (out).
Adrian Johnson, this was a very nice puzzle, just not Saturday difficult.
Note for Sam Ezersky (Spelling Bee): For the umpteenth time the word ANNUITANT (recipient of an annuity, e.g., Social Security allowance) was disallowed. What's the point of "Suggest a Word" if a suggestion is ignored?
ReplyDeleteOmg, Bob - that may not be a tap-in, but it’s not much more than a two or three foot putt. I doubt the crew at the NYT even bothers reading our suggestions. That one is on Ezersky - I don’t know what his handicap is, but he choked like a dog on that one.
Delete@Bob Mills and Southside... over the years, I have suggested many words in Spelling Bee, and the only one that has ever been accepted is TIPI. Here's when it happened, according to Spelling Bee Solver: July 2024.
Delete@oka - that’s interesting. I’m glad you shared that - at least there is some modicum of hope when we point out a common one that they don’t accept. I’d love to hear from Ezersky as to why he thinks ANNUITANT is flawed or unworthy in some regard.
DeleteI’d like to know why NUTRIA was rejected today. Large cuddly rats of the world unite!!
DeleteFinally! This is the Saturday - or ANY DAY lately - I've been waiting for (are you listening NYT puzzle editors?)
ReplyDeleteA couple of WOES - GAGE, BOX PLOT, QAT but I totally enjoyed the journey. Not to mention the best hairdo of my life - my SHAG (yes, I'm dating myself :(
Thank you Adrian :)
Oh yes - and the appearance of TERI GARR once again - RIP wonderful Teri.
ReplyDeleteNice Wednesday.
ReplyDeleteWay way too easy for a Saturday but I agree that it is a nice puzzle.
ReplyDelete[Thought bubble: "Hmmm, why did I find it harder than everybody else?"] After an easy NW, things slowed down below the BRETHERN row, and then, trying to finish in the NE, I had the hardest time with the "Volume control device." I really wanted it to be "ExpANDER," which obviously presented problems with the crosses. Parsing EREADER took me an embarrassingly long time. But the pleasures in the clues and entries far outweighed the struggles; I especially enjoyed the light-bulb moment of getting ROAD WIN and writing in UPSTART.
ReplyDeleteI don't know if this was my fastest Saturday solve, but I can't remember ever running into less resistance from a Saturday puzzle. A nice cruise after yesterday's name tsunami!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Kurosawa clip.
ReplyDeleteHe wanted to be a painter, and as the man says, "every frame is a painting."
Yep, easy.
ReplyDeleteI did not know EYES and GAGE.
Costly erasure - DONT obcESS before STRESS.
Tricky clue that required some staring - “Tied up with” for DREW.
Solid with a smattering of sparkle and a lot less PPP (and a lot easier) than yesterday’s, liked it.
One of the things that motivates me to do the late-week puzzles is to prove to myself that I belong in this group of elite solvers. I'm in the left side of the BOXPLOT of you all. I solved it clean but didn't find it easy.
ReplyDeleteLovely puzzle. Squeaky clean and lots of sparkle.
Anyone see the News that The Times just lost a defamation suit?
ReplyDelete$9 mill in damages.
The minute I dropped in TERI GARR I knew Rex would love it.
ReplyDeleteAnd (plate of shrimp) KUROSAWA’s appearance yesterday had me thinking about Ozu’s bizarre absence. In fact, I almost commented on it here yesterday, but didn’t know if Ozu had recently popped up and I’d just missed him.
Loved it too! Thanks for the Garr appreciation post!
ReplyDeleteEveryone's calling this easy? Well it wasn't challenging but it didn't seem too easy to me. I finished clean in 17.5 minutes, which is not bad but nowhere near record territory. But it was nice and smooth, with a lot of great answers.
ReplyDeleteI have to apologize to Rex and TERI GARR: with the first two letters in place, I plopped in TEA LEONI, who lasted way too long before the crosses made me pull her out. But I can't complain about "too many names" today; DESI was the only Unknown for me.
Re 42 across: there's also my "alma mater", the University of British COLUMBIA. And the one in New York. There's probably a lot of them.
The two universities cited are in Columbia, South Carolina and Columbia, Missouri. The two schools you cited don’t fit the clue.
DeleteIN EXTREMIS is Latin, not Urdu.
ReplyDeleteI strongly suspect that he was being tongue in cheek.
Delete@Anonymous 1:01 PM
DeleteIt's Urdu.
The lower left corner brought me to a full stop, and took nearly as long as the rest of the puzzle. Unfortunately I didn’t know DESI. My brain did a total sports freeze and I didn’t understand ROADWIN (hilarious miss on my part) until the end, and DREW I didn’t understand until halfway through reading these comments! Rewarding and a good laugh - then the pleasure of the 4 1/2 star review, the great list of reversing compound words from Lewis, and all the kudos to Bugs Bunny - I suspected he had something to do with why RABBIT went in easily for me. Thanks everyone!
ReplyDeleteBut QAT isn't a mideastern shrub, NYTimes... It's an African shrub. A quick glance at the wikipedia article would make clear that the only middle eastern country where it sees use is Yemen (and in Yemeni diaspora) and that the plant itself originates in Africa. I mean, I know in principle that the clue was going to be a layup if you knew and inferred if you didn't, but this landed as sloppy. Also, is Banana Upside Down Cake a thing? Is it common? When I do the Google on it, most of those cakes look pretty right side up to me. So maybe there was a hidden mini theme today: "close enough." Bananas... pineapples... Middle East... East Africa... same difference.
ReplyDeleteRex, regarding Teri Garr: The feeling is moochal.
ReplyDeleteSchlemiel, Schlimazel, HASENPFEFFER Incorporated! (Schlemiel: klutz who drops a bowl of soup. Schlimazel: unlucky person the soup lands on.)
ReplyDeleteHalf of yesterday's time, but very fun. Had no idea TERI GARR was in Dumb & Dumber (she played the step-mother of the rich woman from Aspen.) Added Tootsie to the watch-list. Finally saw Citizen Kane in its entirety, but I already knew what "Rosebud" was, from a crossword. Doesn't matter if the movie is +80 yrs old: NO SPOILERS!
I've seen GAGE in the SB but understood the definition as something deposited as a guarantee of good faith, or collateral. Segue into... Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont Spelling Bee (comedy panel show that popped up in my YouTube recs). You might recognize some of the comedians from AUS/NZ Taskmaster.
Job guessing game, answers must be spelled out:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KCfw0NBg08
@PH 2:02 PM
DeleteCitizen Kane spoiler alert. After it's over, be prepared to ask anybody in the room if they know why so many cinephiles think it's the greatest movie ever, and be prepared for a shrug and a "dunno." Then be prepared for the sinking feeling you've been played and just lost two hours of your life.
Agree @Gary. And to me, the greatest movie ever is Casablanca.
DeleteWell, I have very little Bugs Bunny memorized, but I know enough German to know “pfeffer” means pepper. That did not help. I thought maybe the dish was “vegetarian” but refrained from writing it in. Crosses quickly confirmed the wisdom of that restraint.
ReplyDeleteNever heard of BANANA CAKE - have to look that up.
Had ——CAL- for the Franklin invention and wondered how you’d make robocalls in 1780.
@Gary is right about the pickle and the locomotive.
RABBIT ANNO WESSON GARR BBQS NEED GROSS UHH KEEP ODDS SEEN STRESS CHEESE SPREE. 14 entries with double-letters - is that more than usual?
Had SmAcK before SNAcK. YES, really. I finished without any SNARK. Wondered what’s so irreverent about a SNAcK - maybe since after snacking you won’t appreciate the meal your husband cooked? Don’t even ask how I lawyered cO AD WIN. ANYONE HOME?
MINIMART yesterday, MINICAR today. Will Shortz sport a MINIskirt tomorrow? Only the SHADOW knows.
I dont understand the definition for road win?!
ReplyDeleteIt's a win not played on the home field. The winning team is "on the road."
DeleteAway from their home stadium (on the road)
DeleteSo much to write about this one, but I don’t want to make it a grad school length essay. So, let me start by saying I don’t do “times”, I do “how does this feel?” And this felt tough.
ReplyDeleteRight out of the gate I was befuddled because something about that clue seemed familiar but, like @Hartley70, “I don’t speak or eat German”. I did not know that hasen meant hare, one of my fave small animals. But, even then, the answer cites rabbits, a completely different beast. Dumb bunnies, so to speak. Hares, on the other hand, are smart and athletic. In my five years on this little farm I have picked up at least six rabbit corpses - a couple killed by my llamas and the others apparently coyote dinners. Though I have seen them in the pastures, I have never found a dead hare. So, rabbits and hares, both Leporidae, but the former cuddly and dumb and the latter wiry and smart. BTW, I walk with a cane and at he top end of that cane is a chrome-plated brass casting of a hare’s head.
Almost that dreaded essay already, so let me try to do this in point form:
• KEEP IT PG. Never said this. Never heard it. Had to look up PG post solve. I mean I knew it meant somehow restricted, but I didn’t know what the capitalized letters actually stood for.
• Hmm, umm, umm, UHH. ’Nuff said.
• BOX PLOT is pretty esoteric info.
• 35A “It includes a series of stations” should have been “It may include …” I take many routes that include no stations at all.
• In case you think I liked nothing about this puzzle, I thought it was a great clue for BRETHREN and while everyone seemed thrilled to see TERI GARR, I was more excited to see DESI Lydic.
Les
DeletePG has been in use on movie ratings in the US for many decades. Cabana does use PG but much more recently. So much less known in Canada maybe? Anyway here it is so commonly known that it used colloquially like that expression
Found your hare v rabbit discussion interesting and funny. I get the feeling that the ideal recipe was using hare meat but based on what you said rabbits are much more available. The descriptions all say hare OR rabbit meat.
Speaking of food, your comment yesterday about meatball sandwiches made have resulted from another usage difference between the US and Canada. Italian American food is quite different from the cuisines of Italy. But when Americans say “Italian” food they are often talking about the former. And a meatball sandwich is a classic Italian American food item. So nothing to do with Italy.
Never heard of BANANA CAKE, upside down or otherwise. BANANA pudding, oh yeah! The only upside down CAKE I know of is the pineapple variety.
ReplyDeleteMost Intro Psych texts discuss the case of the railroad construction foreman Phineas GAGE (1823-1860). He survived an accident where a premature explosion drove a heavy iron dynamite tamping bar up under his left cheek bone and out the top of his head, taking a large portion of his frontal lobe with it. He lived 12 more years (!) but his friends said he was much changed and was "no longer GAGE". It became a classic case study in neuropsychology of the connection between the frontal lobes and personality.
One of our local eateries serves pizza with pesto sauce and FETA CHEESE. Delish!
put in albinolion before WHITETIGER. Wrong b/c tigers are in Asia, lions in Africa, but funny to get both sides half-right
ReplyDeleteI decided to just get over a puzzle's difficulty, whether same was appropriate for the day of the week, whether they used to be more difficult, etc. Now I just think of them as either good or bad, and very few of them are bad. A few of them are exceptionally good. Most are just good, or perhaps good enough. The same pretty much goes for individual answers and clues BTW.
ReplyDeleteNo need to pine for the old days or complain that they've changed or they're not what they used to be. That ship has sailed.
As a result I'm enjoying the puzzles more. It doesn't hurt either that I toggled the timer display switch to off.
@Anonymous 3:56 PM
DeleteThis. +1
I liked the puzzle fine, thought it was quite easy, but somehow didn't find it as sparkly as most of you did. The BANANA CAKE desciption puzzled me; since when are they baked upside down? Did the constructor just make that up? And I felt...doubtful...about YES NO DOUBT, which seems contrived. I did appreciate that, contrary to yesterday, today's names—TERI and SHEL—got me off to a smooth start in the NW corner. But for this puzzle to get the highest rating I've ever seen from Rex? think it needed something more. I
ReplyDeleteHassenpfeffer was a gimme if you grew up with this https://youtu.be/hSOcRHkII8c?si=IGd7EmoN0jDWMHi5
ReplyDeleteEasy solve.
ReplyDeleteMakhboot.
ReplyDeleteWhat a gem!! If the NYTXW editors still have a rule that “Saturdays are difficult,” this is the gold standard for the adage that rules are made to be broken. While I sincerely wish the solve had lasted longer, I’ll take a gorgeous grid full of clever and original clues and answers over the boring stodgy stuff of (for example) most of last week.
ReplyDeleteI didn't love thinking of the squishy results of using fresh fruit in a BANANA upside down CAKE, but since pineapple wouldn’t fit, maybe someone out there actually uses bananas, so whatever. Not I though.
The one answer that deserved a wince for me was DREW. So many other (and more Saturdayesque) clues exist - limned, for example. I have never heard, in response to the question “Did you win?” “Nope, we DREW.” Just ugh.
But this solve was a joy. I hope Mr. Johnson continues to focus on themeless puzzles because his continue to improve and impress. Today’s solve was salve for my brain that’s been so tired of junk, too many names and tired themes.
Managed to finish this without lookups so pleased about that - well I did need to ask about FOCAL. Some clever fun clues, some lucky guesses. Very good puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI first heard the Longfellow quote in Disneyland broadcast during a downpour. And for me AEIOU will always be the Disney Alice caterpillar song: U, who R U….?
A bit easier than yesterday, but quite reasonable for a Saturday. nEAt led to some issues in the NE. I eventually ripped the whole section out and stareted ANEW.
ReplyDelete