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Network debut of 1981 / FRI 9-11-26 / ___ Ann (classic Lily Tomlin character) / U.S. senators Warnock and Duckworth, for two / Film composer Silvestri / Chip source, informally / Jazz Age Disney princess / Guard at the gates of Mordor / Blue ___ (coral reef swimmers like Pixar's Dory) / Assessment of something enjoyed ironically
Friday, September 11, 2026
Constructor: Robyn Weintraub
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: ALAN Silvestri (46D: Film composer Silvestri) —
Alan Anthony Silvestri (born March 26, 1950) is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator and music producer of film scores. He has received two Grammy Awards and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards.He has been associated with director Robert Zemeckis since 1984, composing music for nearly all of his feature films, including the Back to the Future film series (1985–1990), Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), Death Becomes Her (1992), Forrest Gump (1994), Contact (1997), What Lies Beneath (2000), Cast Away (2000), The Polar Express (2004), Beowulf (2007), Flight (2012) and The Walk (2015).
Silvestri also scored many other popular movies, including Predator (1987), The Abyss (1989), Father of the Bride (1991), The Bodyguard (1992), Eraser (1996), The Parent Trap (1998), Practical Magic (1998), Stuart Little (1999), The Mummy Returns (2001), Lilo & Stitch (2002), Van Helsing (2004), the first three Night at the Museum films, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), The A-Team (2010), Ready Player One (2018), and five Marvel Cinematic Universe films: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), The Avengers (2012), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Avengers: Endgame (2019) and Avengers: Doomsday (2026). (wikipedia)
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| [God-tier candy] |
Though the puzzle played pretty easy overall (those whooshes really did their job, whooshing me from one section to the next), I did spin my wheels and make a mistake or two, here and there. As I said (above, re: SKA, DESK, EDITH), getting off the ground involved a little effort, and then after a lot of whooshing, on the other side of the grid, after correcting GLITTER GUN to GLITTER PEN (had the GLIT- in place, missed the "prose" part of the clue), I hit 43A: Comforts, and off the "SO-" I wrote in .... SOLACES. Then off that "S" (the second one), I looked at 44D: Lavender or lilac and wrote in SHADE. Wrong-wrong combo! That's never good. I was lucky that my wrong answers absolutely ground me to a halt—wouldn't work with any crosses whatsoever—so I pulled myself out of that mess reasonably quickly, starting with the obvious SEEN (54A: How one might feel at a support group meeting), which changed SHADE to SCENT. The "T" from HASN'T eventually killed SOLACES and got me to SOOTHES, and then I was back on track.
After fixing SOLACES / SHADE, everything went fine until the very end—the hardest part of the grid, for me—the far north. Three little answers would not allow me to move from the NW into the N. The real killer was PHDS (20A: U.S. senators Warnock and Duckworth, for two). PALS!? No idea. That "H" in PHDS stayed a mystery because ITCHED (5D: Had a hankering?)? No idea! I ITCHED for several days last week but that's because I got triple-stung by a wasp, not because I had a hankering. The fact that the clue on nearby EARS (7D: Sound wave amplifiers) was also inscrutable to me meant that I was essentially in an "Access Denied" situation vis-a-vis the NE, so I ended up having to come at it from the other side, up from below. Luckily, not that hard. Big "D'oh!" when P-DS ended up being PHDS. Tough (for me), but fair. The "U.S." in the clue does fairly signal that the answer will be an abbr. Fridays should involve at least a little struggle. Not enough struggle to make this anything but "Easy," but still, enough crunch to keep the puzzle from being boring-easy.
Bullets:
- 19A: Singer/actress Carrere (TIA) — a name I associate almost exclusively with Wayne's World (1992) but I just looked her up and she has worked constantly in both film and television for the past three decades. Plus she won two Grammys for Best Hawaiian Music Album (!!). TIA is usually clued as Spanish for "aunt," or via the coffee liqueur TIA Maria, but every five years or so, you get Ms. Carrere (her last name has also appeared in the NYTXW, three times, though her full name, never).
- 31A: Drives for money? (TELETHON) — had me wondering if there was such a thing as a GOLF(A)THON.
- 45A: Fairly low-risk investment (AA BOND) — by far my least favorite thing in the grid. Let us not speak of it again.
- 29D: Trial that an attorney may not remember fondly? (LSAT) — don't really get this. I mean, you're an attorney. It's just a reading comprehension and logic test. You must've done OK. Isn't the bar the really grueling "trial"?
- 31D: Blue ___ (coral reef swimmers like Pixar's Dory) (TANGS) — I never knew "tang" was a fish until I started seeing TANG clued that way in puzzles (which the NYTXW didn't do until 2024!?).
- 49A: Guard at the gates of Mordor (ORC) — ENTs are good and Mordor is bad so I went with the other three-letter creature from LOTR. A note for those who are occasionally confused: ENDOR is the forest moon where the Ewoks live (Star Wars); MORDOR is the realm of the dark lord Sauron (Lord of the Rings). Hope this helps.
That's all for today. See you next time.
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P.S. a little Paul Simon for you today ... just because ❤️
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110 comments:
Easy. I enjoyed this puzzle a lot, as I do most of Robyn's efforts, but it was too easy for a Friday. This would have been a wonderful Wednesday themeless.
* * * * _
Only one overwrite:
My 14A anchor's spot was a (ship) DEcK before it was a (news) DESK.
WOEs:
Singer/actress TIA Carrere at 19A, but I had it entered from crosses before I read the clue.
I didn't know that Dory & family are blue TANGS (31D).
Composer ALAN Silvestri at 46D.
Very clean and wonderful long answers but overall too easy for a Friday , so I guess I fault the clueing. Would have solved in near record Friday time but for the top center; too many three-letter tv acronyms at 8 down, had EASYDOESIT at 15 across, POLS at 20 across. Took probably a third of my total solve time to untangle that little rats nest.
Suffering from insomnia this morning. So unfortunately I did the puzzle at 2am but I enjoyed it. The flow was a bit weird for me. I found zero success in the circumference of the puzzle. Instead I made quick work in the center and expanded outwards, finishing in the northeast. It was fun. (But completion did not bring sleep, sadly.)
This morning I’m feeling especially grateful for Robyn, for Rex, and for this community of crossword-loving commenters. Thank you, all.
Great puzzle but the flying was too easy for a Friday! Wanted more fight out of a Friday
Awesome puzzle, thanks to RW, again!!! My only real writeovers were in that same pair of words as @REX. Had HASNo before HASNT, and so when I looked at the comforts word I had SOOO..... figured that was wrong, replaced the o with a T for SOOTHES, dropped Shade right in. Sorted it all out eventually. Under 10 minutes for me which is close to a PB for a Friday. Since 1 across was plural, dropped SKA right in. SW corner was my favorite with GLITTERPEN and RANAGROUND.... Thanks for a terrific, if slightly too brief, Friday puz, Robin!!!! : )
I always check who the constructor is prior to starting - today I knew once I settled into RWs cluing voice it would be a joy and it was. Whoosh is an understatement - a late week puzzle full of colloquialisms and sophisticated full that is overwhelmingly solvable.
Winter Hours
PLEASE DON’T GO, SO BAD ITS GOOD, RAN AGROUND - the grid is loaded with near perfect fill. I don’t really know what a GLITTER PEN is but the crosses were fine and indeed my wife showed me one in the kitchen craft drawer.
Modest Mouse
Highly enjoyable Friday morning solve.
DON’T GO
Well, not so easy for me because I could not get started in the top center and NE—got particularly hung up on not knowing PHDS and the brain insisting on “ampS” instead of EARS. So was stuck with a lopsided result, the left half filled in, the right half mostly empty. Finally looked up PHDS and the rest fell in place. Robyn has a great reputation and deservedly so.
This is not puzzle related, but I know many of us play Wordle and I had to share. I use several different opening words but there is one that is my favorite (I won’t reveal it). I used it today and amazingly, it was the word! I’ve played Wordle over 1100 times but this was my first hole-in-one. I always thought it would be impossible to guess the word, but if you used the same word every day it would only be a matter of time to get it. And today was the day. So I celebrate myself.
Hey All !
Ah, Robyn. How she gets so many cool words to cross each other and have no dreck to be found is a mystery. Look at THATDOESIT on top of CURVEBALLS crossed by SOBADITSGOOD.
Started tough, but ended up a smooth, fairly quick solve, although it didn't seem like I was racing through. Good cluing along the way.
My silly computer just decided to auto-restart. Debating whether to get another one or not. I'm still on Windows 10, I extended the support last October by one year, it's coming up. Unsure what will happen then. Will it just go "poof"? Or will nothing happen, like the big Y2K thing? (Remember that?)
Anyway, nice to get a RW FriPuz. LET ME KNOW, Robyn, if you'd like to add some F's next puz. 😁
Hope y'all have a great Friday!
No F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
Confidently writing in afteR PARTY for 3D slowed me down in the NW. Otherwise pretty easy, but typically delightful from Robyn.
I love Robyn’s puzzles.🎈🎈🎊🎊
Like Rex, I had GLITTER guN at first--if you're going to do it, why not overdo it? SPUN fixed that, though. Toughest thing for me was the Ptolemy III clue. And one point I had IO_A_ and thought "IOwAn?" Maybe Ptolemy III was a famous pig? I finally got IOTAS from the crosses, and still didn't understand it until I read Wordplay. I knew the Ptolemys were of Greek origin, but since they were also Pharaohs of Egypt, I tend to forget that. (Nice to quote Cleopatra, another Ptolemy, in the same puzzle).
The Warnock/Duckworth link was hard for me because a) I didn't know they were both PhDs, and b) Warnock is famous for being a REV, and Duckworth for being a VET, either of which would have fit, and for all I knew either could have been correct.
I was mildly unhappy about both TIANA and TANG, both from animated cartoons, in the same grid. I guess they're well known if your kids are a certain age, but mine are too old for that.
Extraordinarily easy. I slammed in answer after answer and hardly slowed down. I was totally on Robyn's wavelength, I guess. Very good grid!
I had a pretty smooth start and I wondered if the constructor was "that really good woman that people like...oh yeah, Robyn". I enjoyed realizing that. This was thoroughly delightful and I was pleased to solve it with no "help".
Punishment for pitcher found to be on steroids: MOUNDS bar.
Foodie Ina's better half: KINDER Gartner
Batter's adjuration upon challenging the ump's strike call: BELOW
Palindromic Hannah who sent Robert into the fabric caves was pleased with the DENIM Bob mined.
Brutus: Julie-babes, I can't remember the name of that site that sells handcrafted goods. Can you take a stab?
Caesar: ETSY, Bruté?
Amen.
amp was in the clue
Eerily similar to the OFL experience (I knew EDITH right away though) down to the SOLACES/SHADES thing, having trouble with the NE, and looking for the constructor after finishing and thinking, yep, that figures. Two names again that were unfamiliar, ALAN--don't know my BOND ratings either-- and TIA,, which should be "hermana de la madre", but easy from crosses.
BUYS before BIDS, IMAGE before SWIPE, which messed things up nicely, and AMPS before EARS were my potholes in the NE. Everything else was so whooshy that it was nice to have to do some rethinking to complete things.
Another Real Winner, RW. Sorry when it was over (too soon) and thanks for all the fun.
Looking back on it there are some very nice marquee answers but overall it ws way too easy for a Friday.
I had the same issue with Desk/Soothes. I had deck. But, ideally, who keeps an anchor on a deck where you can trip over it? It gives me solace to know I wasn't the only one.
I usually check my stats and compare them to average. Tue-Fri have all been extremely quick for me. I've saved about 10 minutes or 20% over the 4 days. Whoopee.
Just went on-line & opened the puzzle. I haven't even done it yet but it's going to be a good day.
Nothing else to say but thank God or, in this case, Will.
Missed you Robyn!
Love, your biggest fan :)
Congratulations!
I got in 2 with all the letters correct in 1. I'm waiting for my hole in one
For me, this was a vanishing average Friday. Most Fridays this year have either been way harder than average or way easier than average - an inverted bell curve, if you were to plot them.
noun before ITEM, LEes before LEVI, moviE before SWIPE were the only overwrites, though.
We are really supposed to know the educational credentials of random senators?
I really resisted OSCAR PARTY, which I think of as taking place during the broadcast.
Nice! I haven't done that yet. Rarer than a blue moon. (I always choose my starter from that day's crossword. I scored a 3 today)
So good. Robyn is the best. Whoosh whoosh whoosh.
Robyn is absolutely my favorite constructor. I wish she would make a video teaching how to create crossword puzzles that are fun and enjoyable.
Agreeing with those who found this FAR too easy. I kept waiting to get tricked or stuck, and other than the N/NE, where I got mucked up briefly thinking 15A, where I had something -----OE-IT and decided it was TIME TO EXIT (so relieved it wasn't that...yikes), none of the tricky/misdirect-y stuff tricked me at all. Maybe I had a Robyn mind meld? Can think of far worse minds to meld, but would've like to actually need to dig in a bit to get through this.
in case you were wondering:
From space.com
There are two types of Blue Moons but unfortunately, neither has anything to do with color.
A seasonal Blue Moon is the traditional definition of a Blue Moon and refers to the third full moon in a season that has four full moons according to NASA. The second definition — which arose from a misunderstanding of the original — is the monthly Blue Moon, referring to the second full moon in a single calendar month. Today, this monthly Blue Moon is accepted as an alternative definition rather than a mistake.
When I see Robyn's name, I know it will be an A+ puzzle. The marquee answer--"so bad it's good." With Robyn it's so good it's the best. Shana Tova!
Yeah, my first thought upon finishing, “Would've been a great for a Wednesday.”
Similar to OFL, it took me a while to build some momentum, but once I got started it was pretty much an enjoyable journey around the grid. So, as is usually the case, Robyn delivered a winner.
The trouble spot for me was down in the SW corner where I had to deal with AGRA, ALAN and whatever (apparently it’s a whoever ?) a Ptolemy is. I saw that we weren’t dealing with Treasuries as the safe investments, but I didn’t want to guess between U.S. BONDS or AA BONDS - so Robyn got me pretty good there.
It’s nice to see that Rex bombed in with the 4 1/2 stars. It’s no surprise that Robyn delivered another stellar effort, and remains as the Queen of Fridays.
Por favor, no te vayas.
Flowy, smooth and fast. Almost half my usual time. What I most want on a Friday is for it to be over by having as few D-listers as possible. This ticked the boxes. And it's pretty funny.
❤️ GLITTER PEN.
Gunkometer--
People: 8
Places: 1
Products: 7
Partials: 2
Foreignisms: 1
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 19 of 72 (26%)
Funny Factor: 5 😄
Uniclues:
1 One way to raise funds for de-frog-ination surgery.
2 Zip-tie used by my dominatrix to lash me to a post while she sips champagne and repeats, "So you really really like me?"
3 Dots on a dot.
4 Best place to run aground.
5 Big pharma's solution for de-rascalization.
1 TIANA TELETHONS
2 OSCAR PARTY BIND
3 ISLE DONUT HOLES
4 DONUT HOLES ISLE (~)
5 PILL ANTI-HEROES
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: One with a cracked skull in need of all the outlaw horses and all the outlaw men to remedy the situation. BADLANDS HUMPTY DUMPTY.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ptolemy III/Iotas???
Ptolemy III/ Iotas?? I don’t get it.
When I print my puzzle, the first thing I do is examine the grid, the general flow, the longer entries, and a quick look to see if there’s any potential grid art. The very first thing I check is whose name is at the top. This occasionally elicits a groan, or like yesterday with Simeon, a pleasant smile. But very few trigger the joyful anticipation of seeing today’s constructor. There’s not a more welcome crossword sight to me than a Weintraub Friday.
I could add my individual analysis, but I’ll let RP speak for me since he’s already said it quite well. I was tripped up a few times, RUM for SKA, AFTER PARTY vs. OSCAR PARTY, SMELL for SCENT. The SE was the toughest because I had no idea on DONUT HOLES. Thanks for the fun Robyn. PLEASE DON’T GO away for so long next time.
Rex, along with Endor and Mordor, don't forget Andor, which is also a Star Wars name (and TV show).
I was happy along with everyone else to see Robyn's name on the puzzle, but I didn't love it quite as much as Rex did. Overall I thought it was very easy for a Friday, though the SW corner hung me up for a bit, as ALAN crossing AA BOND didn't come to me immediately, And that clue for LSAT is truly perplexing; I guess you can think of a test as a "trial," but it seemed forced. The natural-sounding long phrases were great, though. Looking forward to a challenging Saturday puzzle....
Yeah, I’ll admit to guessing AMPS at first before I noticed that it couldn’t be clued with “amplifiers.”
Yeah, that one felt awkward to me. It is a set of I’s that Ptolemy (being Greek) would use. Something about it clanked for me.
There were absolutely no offgases coming from this puzzle! ;-D A real pleasure, if too easy for a Friday.
Unlike Rex, I saw Robyn's name before beginning to solve and knew that there would be joy in cross-world today. Even for Robyn, this was easy - a minute faster than my average Friday Robyn solve. I didn't read some of the down clues and I should go back and do so to make sure I didn't miss any gems.
SOOTHEd in the wrong tense held me up momentarily when dC in at 44D didn't help at all with "lavender or lilac". DC comics, no.
My guess, to start with, for Senators Duckworth and Warnock was vetS but Warnock is not a veteran.
Robyn Weintraub, thanks again for a lovely Friday themeless.
Really loved this one. I’ve only been so living a couple years, so I feel no shame when Friday and Saturday stump me enough to look up a couple names—but this time I fought through the whole thing and experienced the beloved whoosh that Rex describes. Somehow “easy” enough for me to fight through and sparkly enough for Rex to love, so a pretty rare sweet spot on my end. Sorry to all of you who found it *too* easy, but this was a lovely Friday for me. Thanks Robyn!
This puzzles soothes me
Greek “I” is an iota.
My usual starter word was an anagram of the correct word with none of the letters in the correct position (all yellow).
Excellent choice of opening word! I may borrow it.
On Fridays don't you expect some number of esoteric clues?
I've always known I was fighting a losing battle with the current generation on this issue, but I thought maybe the NYT puzzle editors would still be on my side. However, it appears the battle is well and truly over.
GENIUS is a noun, and its adjective is INGENIOUS. Examples:
She is a GENIUS.
His GENIUS is responsible for his fame.
That is a wonderfully INGENIOUS idea! (not GENIUS IDEA)
But now that the NYT has capitulated, I guess it's time to put all of my efforts into holding off the GenZ barbarians on the invasion of BASED OFF OF into the sacred and eternal city of BASED ON. Cheers.
What a lovely puzzle for all the reasons given by Rex and the commentariat. I don’t think it was chosen on the wrong day. I was stumped on PHD, ITEM, SWIPE and got so muddled in the upper right, I had to quit and go to sleep.
Nice Paul Simon clip Rex tagged on at the end, one of my favorite Simon songs. I'd been familiar with the song since it was released in 1973, and only recently happened to hear Bach's "O Sacred Head Now Wounded" and went "HEY..."! But that's okay, as Bach had also lifted it from an older hymn.
Well said. And for Paul Simon ❤️
4-1/2 star puzzle and write-up. Only 9 three-letter words and although five "(equivalent phrases)", four of them were fabulous and "Ergo..." for AND SO was by no means awful.
Ten "?" clues (actually thought there were more), our favorite of which was the LOL-inducing "Expert..." clue for SANTA.
Only real criticism is, on first count, 19 plurals; reduced to 17 after excluding DIGS (as used here) and MOUNDS (yes, please), which Rex correctly termed God-tier candy. But a fine trade-off for the whole experience.
Knew Rex would pan AA BOND, but as a finance guy I entered it without any crosses. I guess hearing "SPEND" from one's financial planner must mean your nest egg is too big? Maybe we'll hear that advice some day.
Surprised that Rex doesn't typically check the constructor's identity before solving. Since joining this community a few years ago, I've come to do that first thing, and gotten to recognize names, often for better or worse. Seeing Robin W, and it being Friday, I said to my wife "This should be fun and probably will be hard; Rex and company always love her puzzles". Agree that it was surprisingly easier than expected, but certainly no less fun. Just like a MOUNDS bar...more, please!
@Andy, nice thought, given the date.
Jb129…you might have to arm wrestle Southside for “biggest fan”…but I’m looking forward to him NOT saying the words trivia, nonsense, and bemoaning the NYT editors today.
Don't know much about Hollywood & never heard of Carrere but I do know about boats so deck it was along with the improbable occur party!
Only other stumble was with part of a key chain, took forever to sort that corner.
CNN before MTV
Take a walk around a marina, 99% will be anchors on deck
Congrats, @Barry!
Only one "hole-in-one" for me, too; in Wordle of course, not golf (sadly).
And too long a story to relate here, but my opening word (which I had been using consistently) was SYRUP.
You seem to be confusing the inclusion of a vulgarism in the crossword with some sort of grammatical or stylistic sanction. If you want to check for the latter, try to find "genius" as an adjective in an NYT article! (To be fair, you probably can do that too.)
Now this is how you do a GOOD "easy" Friday. Other than my brain not being able to parse "so bad its good" for the life of me, a really pleasant way to start the day.
I came to the puzzle ITCHing for a Friday fight, then saw Robyn Weintraub's name at the top and did a mental reset to "Prepare for fun." I loved the colloquialisms, especially THAT DOES IT. I agree that the puzzle was easy, but I have to add the qualifier, "After the top row": I didn't write in EGOS because it didn't' work with the crossing afterPARTY; couldn't make "noun" work with any crosses; and had no idea about the screen motion. First in: DESK, and things unrolled nicely from there. Smiles rather than brain-racking isn't so bad once in a Friday while.
Wonderful puz, but totally agree with this. The OSCAR PARTY is what we mere mortals throw while watching the show on TV. The afterPARTY is for the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio.
Having read the commentary so far (overwhelmingly "too easy") and in light of the recent admission by a constructor (3/4 of their submitted clues were edited), can we lay the "blame" for the overall non-Friday-level cluing of this puzzle on the NYTXW editors?
Genius is also an adjective and has been for years. Being old is not an excuse for not understanding the basics of how language evolves over time.
Very easy or about right for a Robyn puzzle.
Costly erasures - dOE before ROE and usBOND before AABOND
WOEs - TIANA, ALAN, and ALOE (as clued).
No junk and plenty of sparkle or about right for a Robyn puzzle. Liked it a bunch!
The puzzle is great and all (especially SO BAD IT'S SO GOOD) but it had one non-Robyn-like moment that stuck with me. I bet the editors are behind this and not her. How do you come up with such a lifeless clue for... SANTA? That clue sounds so... corporate to me for some reason.
"The real killer was PHDS" same here. I actually filled in ITCHED, ITEM and THUDS, but -HDS looked like nonsense and I erased everything. I thought the answer would be a plural name. (And then I made the very silly mistake of putting in AMPS for EARS when "amplifiers" was in the clue.)
At first all I could think of was OSCAR AFTER PARTY which clearly didn’t fit. AFTER PARTY seemed a little weak to me.
Loved the puzzle and the write-up. Thanks!
I had GLITTERPUN crossing SOUND and still think it works pretty well despite the collateral damage to SPUD
i changed my opening word after a few years. 3 days later my original opening word was the answer. it took me 3 guesses and i laughed maniacally for 10 minutes. true story.
A very enjoyable puzzle. I'm in the checks-constructor-first camp, so I wasn't surprised. Very quick solve for a Friday -- about the same time as Monday's puzzle (which I found difficult for a Monday), and faster than my Wednesday and Thursday times. For some reason I anticipated all the word play.
I *did* look at the byline before starting and had high hopes for the puzzle... which it far exceeded. I was smiling through the solve. Another gem from RW!
genius.
There was a period when I chose my opening word as a “tribute” to the best thing about my day so far. This particular day I had seen a film with Olivia Colman, who was spectacular as always, and wanted to commemorate her. Olivia unfortunately wouldn’t fit, so I chose Olive. And there it was: my first (and so far only) hole-in-one! Unlikely ever to be repeated.
Clean Fill! Nothing really weak. Haven’t seen that much quality in a while. Cluing was so so easy, maybe they could have added a little challenge? (Missed a Friday personal best by a few seconds) Still, what a grid. Huge appreciation.
Always love a Robyn puzzle and always on her wavelength. Lots of fun and a fast pace.
So it's Endor, Mordor, and/or Andor.
yep. Whenever ol M&A can solve a FriPuz or SatPuz successfully, without doin any Google research, I can confidently predict that y'all [especially @RP] will rate it "Easy". I just ain't ever gonna be much of an ACPT threat, I reckon.
staff weeject pick: TIA. She was a no-know, at our house. Ironically, so was TIA+NA, on down the OSCARPARTY road a bit.
some fave stuff: GENIUSIDEA. THATDOESIT. SOBADITSGOOD. LETMEKNOW. SANTA clue.
Thanx for the workout, Ms. Weintraub darlin. U do so-good-its-bad work.
Masked & Anonymo5Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
So, here is what's going on with the crossword these days. As the nyt increasingly relies on puzzles for revenue the baseline difficulty becomes much lower, this is obvious to everyone here.
What has been happening recently with the increasingly bizarre day to day difficulty levels is intentional. A Monday plays like a Wednesday, a Friday plays like a Tuesday, etc. The puzzles are about to get even easier - this is their way of trying to confuse people in the same way food companies redesign labels to distract from the fact that they are using cheaper ingredients and the products are worse for it.
Clearly this isn't a Friday, Will Shortz knows that as well as any of us. But you can't blame him, he legitimately has no say in the matter.
Genius comment.
Me, too! 😄
Perhaps the NYT chose this particular puzzle—by this particular constructor (love Robyn!)—on this particular day because it SOOTHES.
Yup. Nice puzzle, but sub 8 on a Friday is too easy.
Same - tried as a middle of the night insomnia cure but it didn't click, so put it aside and got to sleep. So I guess it served my intended purpose. In the morning it did indeed click and went fast and fun. Though a bit easy as others have mentioned.
I rarely look at the constructor's name, and I didn't even realize this was a Robyn puzzle until I read Rex this morning! I'll try to change that, as it would have piqued my interest to know who built this. Very smooth, if a bit too fast for Friday.
Bizarre clue for PHDS. I absolutely hate clues that start with "US senator / member of congress..." as there is little chance I have ever heard of them. Constructors / editors, please stop using nonsense clues like that!
On the other hand, loved to see 27 down DONUT HOLES clued as Timbits! A GENIUS IDEA from Tim Horton's to name them as something people want to buy.
I also had a brief bittersweet nostalgia moment at seeing MTV. Watching MuchMusic (the Canadian MTV) in the basement in the 1980s with my long gone younger brother. Those were the days.
And Paul Simon. Perfect.
I also thought this was a very fine puzzle with lots to like. SO BAD ITS GOOD was one of my favorite entries. RAN AGROUND did bring back some unhappy memories from sailing days. A euphemism for that is "touched bottom".
A little of the shine was dulled when some longs needed help doing their jobs as happens with CURVE BALL, TELETHON, DONUT HOLE and ANTIHERO. POC (plural of convenience) to the rescue. See also some two for one POCs when both a Down and an Across get a letter count boost by sharing a final S at EAR/PHD, THUD/HURDLE, WEAR/BID, LEGO/DIG, TANG/ION, and MOUND/END. Throw in an EGO here and a SOOTHE and IOTA there and the grid earns a POC Assisted rating.
"ETSY, Brute?"
Great stuff!
And if you like palindromes, check out Weird Al's video "Bob"
Roo
IT DOESN'T SUCK has the same number of letters as SO BAD IT'S GOOD, so I [heedlessly] entered it as soon as I saw the clue for 9 Down. Took me far too long to realize I'd blown it and was gonig to have to start over. (Me: SO SMART I'M STUPID!)
Most reputable grammar sources I've consulted give both BASED ON and BASED OFF (OF) as acceptable alternatives.
What's "nonsense" about "U.S. Senator / Member of Congress"? Okay, in this case I didn't realize that either one was a PhD (and Duckworth is my own state's Senator, so sharme on me!), but it's far from "nonsense" to use a reference like that, especiallly for a person who's still living and still serving.
Since I have no idea what a "timbit" is and I've never heard of Tim Horton[s?], 27 down flummox'd me completely, and I still don't understand it.
Attorneys don't take LSATS. Aspiring law school students do. The Bar is after graduating from law school.
Anoa Bob. That euphemism might have been used in a much better clue. I was thinking something like "Unwillingly came ashore".
Always makes me feel extra smart when the Word of the Day was the easiest entry for me. I guess everyone hits their niche. I've been collecting movie score albums most of my life. I just checked and I have 82 Alan Silvestri albums in my collection.
Comments about OSCARpARTY
I looked it up. The first reference is a big splash party after the Oscars broadcast. There are more than one given by producers etc. He is long dead but for years a big time agent Swifty Lazar hosted the biggest Oscar Party.
Liveprof
And/or Andor
Ha!
jnlzbth
About LSAT
At least 54 years ago when I took the LSAT a lot depended on the test. Law schools paid much attention to it because it was (is?) considered more objective than grades. A very good score got you ab inside track to a top law school and a top law school greatly increased the odds of getting a good job The competition for good jobs has gotten worse since. The test itself is in no way pleasant. The whole experience was a trial! I thought it was an excellent clue.
Okanaganer
When I visited Toronto the first time, I noticed that Tim Horton had exactly the same position there as Dunkin Donuts had in my home state ( I. e. Everywhere ) Tim Horton’s tried to make it in South Eastern Nee England and failed. Too bad DD is horrible now.
However this is an American crossword. a question about US senators was not in the least nonsense. In the US Warnock was just in the news battling with the wannabe dictator and. his minions.
If I did a Canadian puzzle, I wouldn’t think a question about the to me unknown leader of Alberta in the middle of the secession debate.
Anoa Bob
But DIG and DIGS as clued do NOT mean the same thing. That can’t be a POC.
Georgia
The clue did not say that attorneys take LSAT’s or the trial in question was undergone while they were attorneys
A trial that an attorney may not REMEMBER fondly , something in the past. It’s tricky but valid.
This shows how tastes can differ. I liked that clue precisely for the incongruity (which I thought was deliberate) of describing Santa as if he were an entity like Amazon.
@jazzmanchgo, I just meant that to me it is a nonsense clue if I've never heard of the people in it, and in this case almost certainly never will again. There must be a million different ways to clue PHDS; why they love clues like this baffles me.
@MetroGnome, ummm... a Timbit is a donut hole, cooked the same as the donout. Tim Hortons is huge in Canada but hardly so in the US, so understandable.
Maybe "BEACHED'" would work better for that euphemism. Of all the times I touched bottom, the shore was not close by.
dgd, POC is meant to be a crossword puzzle term, not a grammatical or semantic one. It just means boosting letter count by adding an -S, -ES or dropping a -Y and adding an -IES. And clues are written after words or phrases are already in the grid. More on this at the POC link in my comment above.
Trepidation. That’s what I feel when a Robyn Weintraub puzzle shows up on a Friday. I mean, maybe I shouldn’t comment because if I say anything negative I’ll be taken out to the town square and stoned to death. There are certain constructors you just don’t criticize because it’s like blasphemy.
I don’t dislike her puzzles (in fact, I admire most of them; she’s good) but she’s not perfect. Nobody, as far as I know, is.
So, having said that, let me say that RAN AGROUND, THAT DOES IT, and PLEASE DON’T GO were great entries with dull clues. ANTI-HEROES was so obvious that I didn’t need a single cross. That’s sad because the answers were pretty damn good. The best of the good answers had to be SO BAD IT’S GOOD - and not badly clued.
Clues were much better for SANTA and GLITTER PEN. Best clue in the grid was “Ptolemy III” for IOTAS. Like @jberg I was thinking of the pharaonic Ptolemys of Egypt and missed the Greek angle. Definitely my fault there.
AABOND sucked. And the two senators and their academic credentials? Please spare me.
@DAVinHOP 10:49 AM
I'd be highly surprised if they treated RW like other constructors.
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