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Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: Frito PIE (23A: Frito ___ (Tex-Mex dish)) —
Frito pie is a dish popular in the Midwestern, Southeastern, and Southwestern United States, whose basic ingredients are chili, cheese, and corn chips (traditionally Fritos, hence the name). Additions can include salsa, refried beans, sour cream, onion, rice, or jalapeños. There are many variations and alternative names used by region. Frito pie can be prepared in a casserole dish, but an alternative preparation can be in a single-serve Fritos-type corn chip bag with various ingredients as toppings. (wikipedia)
• • •
[I once nearly got beat up for making a crack about MR. MISTER which honestly would've been the funniest reason anyone ever got their ass kicked—I would've had to take ... my broken legs ... and learn to walk again, learn to walk so free; thankfully the kid in the MR. MISTER muscle TEE managed to calm down]
I will say that BOOGIE DOWN BRONX absolutely rules. One full star added to the rating for that answer alone.
["'Cause we roll with a posse / From Strong Long to Canarsie / QBC, BOOGIE DOWN BRONX, back to Marcy ..."]
Bullets:
Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld
*this is not, in fact, a fact, fun or otherwise
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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Bullets:
- 1A: Artist whose first two initials stand for "Maurits Cornelis" (ESCHER) — too easy, come on. MC ... who else is it gonna be? (Note: If you wrote in HAMMER here, god bless you, that's amazing):
- 20A: Peak overlooking the Grindelwald Valley (EIGER) — an ALP. Forgot it existed. Crosses bailed me out.
- 44A: Round and round and round? (BOXING MATCH) — Pretty short match but OK.
- 50A: Determine the going price? (SET BAIL) — as today's "?" clues go, this was one of the better ones. I was a little worried this clue was gonna have something to do with pay toilets, but thankfully no.
- 59A: Animated character with a signature quiff hairstyle (TINTIN) — more of a comics / cartoon character than an "animated" character, although I guess he was, technically, "animated" at some point. The Adventures of TINTIN is a long-running series by pioneering artist Hergé, master of the ligne claire style. Comfort reading for me. The stories themselves don't matter much—I just want to live in the beautiful worlds he creates (also, they are just at my level of French literacy—so all those years of high school and college French weren't for nought).
- 9D: Sports figure who traditionally wears an orange armband, in brief (NHL REF) — I was not aware the NHL had "traditions." Do the refs perform various rituals, hand down lore, etc.? I assume there are rules and regulations. Looks like the orange armband has been standard NHL REF gear for a while now (since the '69-'70 season, best I can tell).
- 24D: Like a sketchy person (SUS) — short for "suspicious." First appeared in 2024 and has come on like gangbusters since, that's right I said "gangbusters!" (this is the 9th appearance). There were 21 pre-Shortz SUSes ("susses?"), but they were all [Swine genus]. Fun fact*: SUS is actually a contraction of "Swine genUS"
That's all for today. See you next time.
*this is not, in fact, a fact, fun or otherwise
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
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- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
I did not understand the clue for RECEIPTS (Gate)…?
ReplyDelete“Gate” is the term for the $$$ take at a concert or other event.
DeleteGate refers to how much a venue might make based on crowd size and ticket prices.
DeleteIsn’t that also called the “take”?
DeleteThanks for asking, came here to find out
Delete"Gate receipts", accounting-wise. Slang single words either Gate or Take, usually preceded by "The".
DeleteThe 47A/49D cross was ridiculous. The latter could so easily have been clued to something within common knowledge.
ReplyDeleteIt's Saturday Norm. The clues aren't supposed to be giveaways
DeleteTo Rex: so without BOGGIEDOWNBRONX, the puzzle would have been one star?
Agree @Norm, but the whole corner is fouled by its totality (HOY, AH OK, HAHAS, HAD A SOLO). As for "ARE YOU IN?"; I guess that works, although it's a stretch...such a polite croupier. And thankfully Catherine (O'HARA) wasn't clued in this dreadful area.
DeleteGrowing up, my brothers and I loved YODELs. If they still make them, I'm not aware.
Yet, the constructor went a different direction. Perhaps you need to bone up on your common knowledge Spanish.
DeleteCommon knowledge is pretty subjective and as others are saying, a Saturday should be a bit uncommon anyway. To me these were gimmes but I wouldn’t say that makes them objectively common knowledge or niche, I just happened to know them.
DeleteStill making Yodels….Ring Dings too
DeleteNorm
DeleteIt happens
You run into a cross you know nothing about. But it doesn’t mean it’s ridiculous. It just means, bad luck. I don’t assume a cross is obscure just because I don’t know it. Believe me, Yodel was lazy being a product, but not ridiculous or obscure. It might be a generational thing. I do concede a tricky Saturday clue for the sound yodel would have been more interesting. But then people would complain about that.
I liked the duplicative TIN TIN crossing the semi-duplicative MR MISTER.
ReplyDeleteA little straightforward for late week but I liked this one far more than the big guy. I agree the OH cross is rough but most of the cluing critiques are a reach. ESCHER - O’HARA and BOOGIE DOWN dropped right in and cover some real estate. I would recommend watching Wild Style to help better understand the origin of the BOOGIE DOWN term.
ReplyDeleteHumble PIE
TCM showed BUtterfield over the summer - Liz Taylor’s Oscar but not my favorite O’HARA. THIRSTED, TRUCK STOP, TO THE SIDE are all solid. NHL REF was a no brainer as was its cross SIMILES. Learned EPCOT - don’t care. I don’t love chocolate like most so the YODEL was never my snack of choice.
Day of the EAGLE
Enjoyable enough Saturday morning solve. Frank Longo’s Stumper will test you more than this - odd grid with a wonderful Kant referenced spanner.
YODEL
One of Liz's Oscars. Also Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolfe
Delete*Woolf
DeleteI enjoyed BOOGIEDOWNBRONX. Other than that I have little to add to @rex. I saw the rant coming as soon as I got to OH crossing OH. To which I immediately thought UH OH!. I would have to say the funniest part of his rant was seeing the words MR. Mister muscle tee all in a row. Too funny.
ReplyDeleteoH OK (better answer) before AH OK. Other than that no trouble. Loved BOOGIE DOWN BRONX, but agree with @Rex about the rest. At least it was easy.
ReplyDeleteYeah strangely it was the dupes that made this anywhere close to challenging. Surely they wouldn’t have two OHs plus an AH and both WORKOUT AND XEDOUT? OHWELL, OHHELLNO, AHOK, they did.
DeleteGrateful for the word of the day today, since I didn’t see the Frito PIE clue while solving but remember that favorite dish growing up in Texas in the sixties. I never thought of it as Tex-Mex, but I suppose it is, emphasis on the Tex. It’s gotta be Wolf brand chili if it’s gonna be the real thing. I still remember the iconic TV commercials:
ReplyDelete“How long has it been since you had a big, thick, steaming bowl of Wolf brand chili? . . . Well, that’s too long.”
Call me Mr. Misdirected today. I opened with HAMMER for the M.C. person, was totally thinking along the lines of breaking the ice with a person for [Get to know a little better, say], was thinking “auction” at [It’s a lot for one person to take] … and more.
ReplyDeletePlus, I’ve never heard of BOOGIE DOWN BRONX, nor ISSA Dee, nor NOTTE, and several others.
Thus, just what I want on Saturday – a hill to climb.
And as things filled in, delights lit up the path. Reminders of several who brighten my soul, Muhammad Ali, Danny Kaye, ESCHER and TINTIN. Lovely answers THIRSTED, ARE YOU IN, CRATERING, BONE UP ON. And sweet images – baby owls in a nest, Jane Fonda leading a group in a workout, and even, at CRATERING, Wile E. Coyote free-falling down the canyon, landing in a poof and a puff of dust.
I loved learning BOOGIE DOWN BRONX, because how colorful, how sing-song sensational, is that?
Happy brain, happy soul, happy solve. Thank you for a splendid outing, David!
It's been a consistent late week so far. Yesterday's solve was a little above average and so was today's. I actually thought of HAMMER before ESCHER . EPI was initially the only gimme for downs in the NW. However TRAGIC gave me CRATERING and that put me on the track for remembering ESCHER. In spite of the bad fill I quite enjoyed this solve.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a consistent late week so far. Yesterday's solve was a little above average and so was today's. I actually thought of HAMMER before ESCHER . EPI was initially the only gimme for downs in the NW. However TRAGIC gave me CRATERING and that put me on the track for remembering ESCHER. In spite of the bad fill I quite enjoyed this solve.
ReplyDeleteYes, I started with HAMMER, so thank you for the blessing.
ReplyDeleteEasy Saturday to follow an Easy Friday. I beliveve this puzzle was originally submitted in 1984, and it just took a while to get published (Danny KAYE, MR MISTER, John OHARA, MC ESCHER, DARNS, TINTIN, BOOGIE DOWN BRONX).
ORAL-B changed their floss formula, and while it is now free of PFAs, I hate it.
5D and 10D columns are doozies: EPISUSEOSSOS, EESSIAKALINE.
Alternative clue for 43D: With 60D, Tigers' great Al.
@kitshef - I agree about the floss, having tight teeth. Try the improbably named "Floss is Super Deer" floss - it's the same as the old Oral-B. Picksters Gorilla Floss is different, but incredibly strong.
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteDidn't hate it as much as Rex (Hi Rex 😁). Sure, some dreck floating about, but hey, it happens. I do agree about the crowing of the OH crossers, however. And XEDOUT seems sketchy.
Got a big chuckle out of Rex's "(Note: if you wrote in HAMMER here, god bless you, that's amazing)" Har! Didn't even think of Hammer(time)! Stop!
wentSOLO-diDASOLO-HADASOLO. Another chuckle about eating all the sandwiches !
Decent WORKOUT. Was thankfully easier than YesterPuz. I'm APT TO like it
Hope y'all have a great Saturday!
One F - Finally, an F on a Themeless!
RooMonster
DarrinV
Commented anonymously earlier in week. Directed by Roo to get a blog name, so here I am back again, doing as told.
DeleteI decided a long time ago without knowing who any constructors were sometimes one's on the same wavelength sometimes, you're not. Knew Escher, never considered Hammer, knew Kaye. Never heard of Mr. Mister but reading comments I feel my demographic skews to the very senior group of commenter. When asked my d/o/b often give month, date and finish with " I came in at same time as Ike and QE II, and they're both dead so go figure."
Had a number of one word partials of muti-word answers. Owl, solo, Bronx, also knew Frito Pie from cooking show.
All in all puzzle was okay but bit of a struggle for me. Enjoyable still. Have a glorious Saturday.
Gee, didn't know I had that much away!
DeleteAlways nice to welcome a new Blogger who fits "our" sense of humor. 😁
Roo
I came here expecting a Joe ROGAN gripe, but that MR. MISTER anecdote more than made up for it. That made my day, and it's not even 8 a.m.
ReplyDeleteUnrelated: should I memorize all the alps?
“Beyond the alps lie more alps, and lower alps those that alps themselves”
DeleteGroucho.
I was looking forward to seeing Lewis’ hearty take today :)
ReplyDeleteThis puz was basically frito-pie level of nutrition.
I wrote HAMMER right out of the gate, but with significant side-eye as I did so. I was NOT terribly surprised when it refused to cross. :D I accept my blessing.
ReplyDeleteJust a bit easier than yesterday but still strenuous. I, too, had HAMMER first. After a couple of iced mocha sips, the dam started breaking, starting with BONEUPON, which was a sweet surprise. I enjoyed the puzzle.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised Rex chose to take umbrage at Mr. Mister, but left the a*hole Joe Rogan stand unchallenged.
ReplyDeleteSeems the inclusion of that a*shole was the subtext of the whole writeup. Certainly the first paragraph.
DeleteThe electrical engineers from Cal Tech and MIT fight over who are the greatest of EEs.
ReplyDeleteWith KAYE, TEE, KEW, two OHs, those EEs, that STRAIGHTA, and ORALB, this puzzle is a real alphABET soup.
Did you bring the money?
What money?
Why are you wearing a sailor suit?
Your message said something about setting sail.
No, you idiot -- I said the judge SETBAIL.
D'oh!
When I told the arm surgeon to BONEUPON the ULNA before my operation, he gave me the finger.
Is KAL in his dressing room? No, he's ONSET.
So you're telling me your female sibling, Susan, was just crying wolf?
Yes. My sis Sue's SOS is SUS.
Where you'll find my grandson Isaac's broccoli: TOTHESIDE, if not on the floor.
That NW was a particular challenge for me. I begrudgingly filled in STRIPE, CRATERING and RECEIPTS as the only possible real words that physically fit.. but had NO idea why they worked with those clues!! It's fun to learn new words, I've just literally never heard of those usages before looking them up today. (And it's possible I invented my own new word usages during the initial shouting fit..)
ReplyDeleteToo half was unSaturday easy. Saw the clue " " at the top of the Acrosses column on my pirntout and thought sabado? Nah, only three letters, so HOY, por supuewsto.
ReplyDeleteSW corner very easy, some snags due to ISSA and KAL, also TO ONE SIDE and SET OUT for XEDOUT. Didn't help that I had no idea about BOOGIEDOWNBRONX, although the X from TAX made the BRONX part pretty obvious.
The oeuvre of MRMISTER has escaped my notice somehow.
Always nice to see some old friends,,, today's are EOS and especially ESTOP. How have you been?
OK Saturday, DLW. Mostly stuff I knew right away or not at all. Didn't Love Whizzing through this so quickly on a Saturday, but thanks for a fair amount of fun.
Of course I put in aH WELL, because I had the OH already. But I was solving online, so the app told me it was wrong. That little incident did make me like the puzzle a lot less.
ReplyDeleteI got off to a good start with ESCHER (c'mon, "Maurits Cornelis" Hammer?) and then somehow guessing RECEIPTS, putting it in just to get myself started, and then being amazed to watch the crosses confirm it. Unfortunately, that method did not work so well with "lunchroom" before TRUCK STOP.
"Off-puttingly cacophonous" is worth the price of admission.
I liked this puzzle much more than Rex did. I had to change on the side to to the side 33 Down. That was all.Very enjoyable.🎈🎈🎊🎊
ReplyDeleteOH HELL NO, I wasn't signed in. I'll at least repeat one point: "Off-puttingly cacophonous" was worth the price of admission.
ReplyDeleteI liked BOOGIEDOWNBRONX, even though the nickname is more commonly “the Boogie Down” without Bronx.
ReplyDeleteIn total agreement with Rex today. Just bleah, ew, what?, all through the solve. What a disappointment for a Saturday.
ReplyDeleteSaved by The Eiger Sanction!
ReplyDeleteBorn and raised in the Bronx….in the 80’s. 7D was a gimme for me…went in with no crosses. Loved it! Great way to start a Saturday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteOne of life’s guilty pleasures is finishing a poorly made NYT Xword and then coming here to read Rex tear it apart. This one deserved it. I did appreciate BOOGIE DOWN BRONX, but I couldn’t remember it without the crosses (I just knew rap began in the Bronx). Otherwise very little reward for crossing OHs, AHOK, HAD A SOLO, and bringing up a certain moronic podcaster. I did enjoy recalling time spent in the Grindelwald region when I was 18, though. Wanted Schilthorn at first but that didn’t fit and then remembered EIGER, mainly because I’d learned they filmed the movie The Eiger Sanction there.
ReplyDeleteI thought rap began in LA (because I know nothing about rap)and had BOOGIE but it wasn't until I got that final X that I could piece together an answer.
DeleteSam to Pippin as Frodo and Bilbo sailed from the Grey Havens: I didn't want to go anyway. That GROUPSELFIE.
ReplyDeleteI think AHOK is when you produce a loogie.
If he's STRAIGHTA high school senior might get accepted to Oral Roberts.
Napoleon: Mom, I don't have time to review all of these war plans.
Mom: Well, Napoleon, BONEUPON part.
Good to be reminded today of that beloved pair of Scotsmen, MC Hammer and MC ESCHER.
This has been the fastest Friday/Saturday pair I can remember (which means in the last week). But I did enjoy it. Thanks, David Levinson Wilk.
Sorry to correct you, but messrs. McHammer and McEscher are Irish, not Scottish. You may be thinking of the Scottish luminary rapper MacKlemore.
DeleteI had all the same reactions Rex had to this puzzle, except that I sort of liked the clue for ABET (Do a bad job of helping?). But the slangy clue for the rather formal answer APT TO was so bad, as was the off-the-mark clue for OH WELL. I don't usually feel as critical of the editors as others do, but this morning I'm with you all—very lazy editing.
ReplyDeleteAll that said, I still get satisfaction from successfully completing a Saturday puzzle, even if it takes me an hour. It was the NW corner that took the most time, as ESCHER didn't come easily to me, nor did HIGH or ESTOP. Luckily when I pondered the ending GHTA on STRAIGHTA, that got me rolling. And I do like the clue "Kind" for STRIPE—that was a highlight.
Still obsessed by whether my reaction is in sync (or not) with Rex's rating, I wondered whether BOOGIE DOWN BRONX could itself salvage a respectable star count, it otherwise being such a sludge-fest (almost all detailed in the write-up's first paragraph). Two stars, net of one added for BDB, so I got that right.
ReplyDeleteAssuming Rex purged enough negativity to not feel the need to mention the contemptible windbag ROGAN.
We toggled between Did versus HAD A SOLO, knowing both would elicit an "Eat a sandwich" comparison. Settled on the right answer while muttering "HAHAS?...really?" Loved that "it ate *all* the sandwiches".
Hard for me to believe this puzzle was published, on a Saturday, no less. It seems likely that the constructor fell in love with 7D and threw spaghetti against the wall for the rest. That's the best you got, NYT? Favorite part of today's experience, by far, was the MC Hammer video; what a production!
Did I sleep through the weekend and pick Monday’s paper off the stoop? Crikey. Unless the theme was “ you’ll have to think three times about every answer because it seems way too easy for Saturday.”
ReplyDeleteVery easy, tho it didn't seem like it while solving. I somehow just flowed from one section to the next.
ReplyDeleteThe highlight was 7D, an audacious and surprising entry to my eyes. Afterwards I kept looking at this totally unknown name and trying to figure out how each of the 3 parts "BOOGIE", "DOWN", and "BRONX" fit together into a meaningful location.
Guess I'll read OFL now and see what light he sheds on it.
Mixed blessing for an 80s kid today. Made MRMISTER easy, but also led me into the hammer trap. Struggled in the NW for a while because of the hammer mistake, and only escaped after realizing that the type of student must be STRAIGHTA. I was imagining all sorts of neighborhoods in the Bronx, and tried a bunch of combinations until I played out the alphabet for EIGER and it finally made sense. GROUP SELFIE took way too long to figure out, and RECEIPTS was tricky. Seems fairly straightforward in retrospect, even though my time suggested it was an average Saturday. Enjoyed it. 27:14
ReplyDeletePara mí no más, gracias.
ReplyDeleteYesterday's Gunkorama is backed up by even more of the same. If you love a random list of trivia and glue holding it all together, this is the weekend for you.
[Determine the going rate] is a first class clue.
❤️ Not today Satan.
Had another massive hot air balloon launch this morning, and I'm fighting through my covid and flu vaccines so a yin-yang kinda morning.
Gunkometer--
People: 10 {again?}
Places: 5
Products: 8
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 3
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 32 of 70 (45%)
{Sporting his top hat and tails Mayor Gunk opened the weekend Gunkfest by welcoming all the little Gunk monsters and having the Gunkettes perform a high stepping homage during the Gunk Anthem. Everyone from Gunkville showed up glad handing each other before a day of eating Gunk legs, fried Gunk cake, and downing Gunk Grog from plastic mugs with the phrase "I survived the Gunkicane from the second weekend in October 2026!" Everyone spoke wistfully of the possibility the editors continuing commitment to spread gunk into Sunday for a Gunkapalooza trifecta.}
Funny Factor: 4 🙂
🔥 Ooh-la-la! 🔥 BONE UP ON. OH HELL NO.
Uniclues:
1 Where no one gives a hoot.
2 How predators stay fit.
3 Why Republicans weep.
4 Circle K.
1 TRAGIC OWL'S NEST
2 EAGLE WORKOUTS
3 SALES TAX REAPED
4 PLEBS' TRUCK STOP
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Tossed tanner in the tank. SEIZED BEACH BUM.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Please keep counting the gunk Gary. Maybe it will help keep us to keep the crossword and resist the trend towards trivia competitions.
DeleteHat off to the Gunk homage—thought I fell into a Seuss hole
DeleteIs Drake's an east coast thing? I had never heard of Yodel. We have Little Debbie and Hostess here in Wisconsin but Drake's is something I only ever heard of on Seinfeld.
ReplyDeleteIf you never had Drake's then you missed DEVIL DOGS...as I miss them now.
DeleteWe have those as well, readily available at Publix
DeleteKinda with Rex on this one with the added problem that I didn’t know ESCHER or much of the other trivia in this puzzle that he knew well. Loved the BRONX description, but got stuck on BOrINGMATCH vs BOXINGMATCH. In retrospect seems like a decent puzzle, just not in my wheelhouse.
ReplyDeleteSuggest today's LA Times (free) for more of a Saturday experience. I liked it a lot.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you! Such good cluing in that puzzle, especially for 6D and 10D. But I can imagine the SE corner was very difficult for some. I knew the 44A toy, but if I hadn't, I think getting 46A could have been quite hard.
DeleteThanks! I enjoyed it!
DeleteI started doing LAT puzzles pretty recently, and today's was a good one!
DeleteTough to get a toehold but Kew (gardens) crossing truck stop was enough to get me the lower half. Needed a cheat on Escher to crack the other. In the Hammer camp there
ReplyDeleteEnjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteBut had confidently put on HAMMER and “confirmed” it with the ER crosses so was most reluctant to give it up …
i was hoping TINTIN's appearance would result in a stephen duffy video so here's one for the fantastic "kiss me"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlH1960jTvg
i was hoping TINTIN's appearance would result in a stephen duffy video so here's one for the fantastic "kiss me"
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlH1960jTvg
For me, the sludge faded into the background against the highlights of STRIPE and RECEIPTS as clued, CRATERING, BONE UP ON, THIRSTED, the mini aviary with the EAGLE, CROW, and OWL, and the fun of parsing random letters into BOOGIE DOWN BRONX. I concede the HAD A SOLO did take some of the shine off. A solid medium for me, fun to solve.
ReplyDeleteMedium but most of it was easier than that.
ReplyDeleteVery costly erasure - The Seattle team was a WOE and I had ST_R_ and went with STaRs which took a boatload of nanoseconds to fix.
BOOGIE DOWN BRONX also took a lot of crosses and TINTIN was a WOE.
Other than those problems, pretty easy. Liked it a tad more than @Rex did but I agree with a lot of his take on this one.
Only 5 of the 15 WNBA team names end in S and many don't sound to me like team names - Sky, Storm, Mercury, etc.
DeleteAs usual, I'm with Lewis' take on today's fun puzzle. Thanks for a lovely morning mental workout, Mr Wilk!
ReplyDeleteI’m with you, Rex. And Gary - do you count the random OHs AHs HAs UHs etc in your gunk meter? If not, it might be time. Another disappointment from the NYT.
ReplyDelete@beverly c 11:46 AM
DeleteHaha! Counting all of those would be like kissing a cobra. Very sticky. I used to think all the colloquial UHS, UMS, and OHS were cute, but sometimes, phew, a little break would let us defrag our brains.
Can't read the comments because have to leave for the long weekend; the puzzle was okay except for all the names. In the bottom half alone: ORALB ETNA EAGELEOHARA KAYE SOS ITALIA EOS ROGAN MRMISTER KAL EPCOT ISSA TINTIN! yikes
ReplyDeleteHappy Canadian Thanksgiving, all!
My comment got lost in the ethernet yesterday but like Nancy (with whom I’m always proud to agree), for the second day in a row, I gave up and pitched the puzzle in favor of a beautiful Fall day and other things to do. @Gary J put it in perspective quite nicely.
ReplyDeleteHaven't grokked out the puztheme, yet. Seems to happen a lot, on Saturdays.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject picks: SOS & SUS. The pangrammer twins.
fave stuff: Managed to do the solvequest without depletin every precious nanosecond in the M&A universe. AHOK vs. OHHELLNO. GROUPSELFIE & its clue. STRAIGHTA. BONEUPON. SIMILES clue.
Thanx, Mr. Wilk dude. OHARA -- hmmm. Figurin that maybe the puztheme has somethin to do with OH's ... ?
Masked & Anonymo4Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle with a similar theme:
**gruntz**
M&A
I'm representing the late risers on the West coast here.... But I didn't see any comments about not two but three uses of the word "set": IMSET, SETBAIL and ONSET. A clear infraction, no? Where is the orange arm-banded NHLREF?
ReplyDeleteGood catch!
DeleteI, too, was surprised at the lack of mention of Rogan.
ReplyDeleteConfidently entered HAMMER for 1A. Didn't last long, though.
ReplyDeletePitch perfect write-up, Rex. It was definitely cathartic to read, and the “fun fact” at the end was a great chuckle. Thanks for redeeming the time I spent on this one!
ReplyDeleteI don’t know if it’s just me, but THIRSTED as clued—[Was hot (for)]—felt kinda ick to me, a little too much in the rapey / sexual predator neighborhood. Didn’t pass the breakfast test for me, but that might just be associations in my brain that the clue itself is innocent of.
Rex’s Word of the Day blurb from Wikipedia is telling me that Frito PIE is popular in the southeastern United States, and I’ll just say that I’m feeling let down by my Georgian and North Carolinian upbringing. I’m sure I would have loved it, and I can imagine it, but I’ve never heard of it. Dorito salad, on the other hand, is a staple at every cookout and potluck!
As a child of the Midwest, I, too, was surprised by the FRITO PIE factoid. I certainly know it exists, but I have never thought of it as "popular" except possibly among a certain subset of college-age men. As with so many things, it appears I may have been wrong about that.
DeleteI had an "aha" moment when I learned that today's constructor is the head writer of "Celebrity Jeopardy!" That would seem to explain a lot, as the puzzle is rife with that show's style of pop culture trivia, much of which is both unknown and uninteresting to me. And despite that, it was very easy for a Saturday, so rather unsatisfying all around. OH WELL.
ReplyDeleteSecond day in a row that I was very, very challenged. Appropriate for late week, but today I had a similar reaction to @Rex though I did liked it a bit more.
ReplyDeleteI love it when a puzzle puts up a good fight, but when I'm fighting over things like Isee, vs. oHOK vs. AHOK for "That makes sense now", or aHELLNO vs. OHHELLNO, and it continues on with another OH in OHWELL, WELL that can almost drive a patient guy like me over the edge!
I say "almost" as there were a few things that made me smile. Unlike @Rex, I kina liked the cluing for ABET at 22A, that may have been one of the few highlights for me. I would have really, really liked OHHELLNO if not for the other OH crossing. Usually I'm not terribly bothered by that, but this dupe really unprettied the NE corner.
A few of the long ones and their cluing hit the happy bone like OWLSNEST, BOXINGMATCH, GROUPSELFIE and TRUCKSTOP. I also liked the in-the-language quality of AREYOUIN.
I'm a sucker for a good spanner, and BOOGIEDOWNBRONX did it's job. I grew up about two miles south and east of The Bronx in the 70's and 80's (40 or so city blocks south, and a river to the east...) and I still needed the crosses for the first two words of the phrase. The BRONX part was a gimme, but I must have been living under a rock not to know this. Or, more likely, living under whatever may have been influencing me while going to Dead shows in the 80's. But I'm happy to know this now.
STRAIGHTA was also fun. That odd grouping of letters, IGHTA, threw me a bit and I love it when that happens. I'm not sure what made it click today but it was a neat workout getting that to fall.
I had the very same reaction as @Rex did to APTTO. The clue is so very slang and the answer so very not, that was another annoying fight. I side-glanced at HADASOLO as well, I had wentSOLO, didASOLO and sangSOLO. HADASOLO is my least favorite, it works, but the squeeze wasn't worth the juice.
I'm officially blessed as well as I immediately threw down *hammer* at 1A and thought I was in for a whooshy experience, boy was I wrong. I'm not familiar with ESCHER so that took every cross.
Looking back at all that I *did* like, I'm finding that it's outweighing the stuff that bothered me. So while I was irked a bit more than usual today, this was still a satisfying solve. Thanks for this one, David!
A couple of nits to pick about the clue for 41D:
ReplyDelete1. I don't believe Eos is a 'brand' of cameras. It's a line of cameras made by Canon. Saying Eos is a camera brand is like saying Milano is a brand of cookie (it's not; it's a type of cookie made by Pepperidge Farm, so the correct brand name is Pepperidge Farm, not Milano).
2. According to the Wikipedia article on "Canon EOS" (per #1, note that it's Canon EOS, not just EOS!), EOS stands for "Electro-Optical System." Neither the word "dawn" nor the word "goddess" appear anywhere in the article, so I'm pretty sure the camera line was named after its electro-optical system, not the dawn goddess Eos.
Ted Striker
DeleteI do like to check when people complain about answers. As you know already, your nit is valid. It sounds like an understandable error that got propagated all over the internet. For the hell of it I decided to check Google Gemini , which I very rarely use. It was wrong and mentioned the goddess story Maybe where the fact checker looked?
BTW a site said Canon is an anglicized version of the name for a Japanese goddess. Don’t know if that is true, but seems fitting!
I had Hammer for 1a and I nearly died on that hill. Actually I did die on that hill as I didn’t know Escher so dnf. Don’t mind that as much when the puzzle is as boring as this one was. Again. LOL to OFL for the Mr Mister demerit and the bully story. I hated that song and that vid as a kid.
ReplyDeleteI had HOODIEDOWNBRONX which could totally be a thing and the crosses made sense. HONEUPON is totally legit and EIDER could be both a pillow-filler and an Alp if you don't know Swiss geography (I have actually been to the Grindelwald Valley and still didn't know the mountain).
ReplyDeleteSame here! (Except I’ve never been to said valley) It all seemed plausible enough
DeleteJeff Chen has some fun facts about this constructor at https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/10/2026
ReplyDeleteMight have clued OHWELL as "classic Fleetwood Mac song when they were still a blues band headed by guitarist Peter Green, before they became a middle-of-the-road pop group."
ReplyDeleteMr. Mister muscle TEE story was the funniest thing I’ve read in awhile :)
ReplyDeleteExcellent song covered well by the Rockets from Detroit
ReplyDeleteJohnny Bravo had a quiff coif.
ReplyDeleteI confidently wrote in Hammer for 1A and Open up to for 2A and thought wow, I usually struggle on Saturdays but its easy this week. Turns out it ended up being relatively easy, only with those two mistakes locked in I filled in from the bottom up. Finished with 2 mistakes because I wrote in Hoodie Down Bronx which didn't look great to be honest, but I thought Hone up on did make sense, and I didn't know the ALP but thought eider sounded correct. Which it does ... as a duck clue. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI WROTE HAMMER! With fingers crossed. Hope beyond hope.
ReplyDeletequite sure most of us do other puzzles - no reason Rex and his followers (US) shouldn't chime in on good puzzles we find - good constructors are not responsible for the publications ownership or politics. it's getting a bit ridiculous judging everyone - feels to me like if the puzzle isn't 'tough enough' later in the week it suffers in star ratings by being easier. 'ah well, oh well, means ALAS which means in essence What a Pity - it's all about sighing and saying that's too bad nothing could be done to alter the outcome." sure they could have nailed Rogan in the clue as 'AHOLE PODCASTER" that would have made the puzzle 5 STARS. Rex and guests hostsplease recommend other puzzles no doubt you do them - have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteI wrote in Hammer first. Consider myself blessed.
ReplyDeleteAnyone else notice that Tintin appeared on 10/10?
ReplyDeleteI see why Rex criticized the puzzle but I liked it anyway. Second day in a row mostly in my wheelhouse. The names Maurits Cornelius . You couldn’t get more Dutch. I mean the autocorrect redlined Maurits. So ESCHER was inevitable.
ReplyDeleteThe dupes didn’t bother me. I accept that Shortz allows them all the time.
Eiger Sanction - fine Clint Eastwood action film from the '70s.
ReplyDeleteHi there @Hugh! I had the same experience. I never really got connected to the constructor’s wavelength. There were a few spots that got my whoosh revved up, but it never really got going. A little of this was way outside my wheelhouse, but mainly, the clues just didn’t land despite the fact that most answers themselves were accessible. I do like a challenge, and this felt like Saturday for a change.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone! I am a long-time reader but never comment, because I print out the puzzles and never do them in real time. Who would see my thoughts two or three or more weeks later? But today I solved the puzzle from Sep 25 and saw that it was the 20th anniversary of the blog - woohoo!
ReplyDeleteSo I was moved to write in and say thank you to everyone: I really enjoy this community, and am a little regretful that I am only an observer and not a contributor. I mentally reply to so many of you! You should know that I look forward to your witty, thoughtful, and even tender comments - and of course, Rex, thank you for carrying on with your delightful/snarky recaps.
I've been solving these puzzles since I was in high school in the 1990's; it's what I'd do as I had a snack when I got home. Now I'm a Thu/Fri/Sat solver, especially as they've gotten easier (yes, add me to that crowd) - I used to love a Sunday puzzle but now I get too bored, they just take too long but without the fun. When I mix in xwords from other sources I'm always slightly let down because there's no blog or comments to follow up.
Anyway, this is just to say* I'm glad you're here. I don't even know who will see this, since I'm in Oregon and it's already midday back east, well past solving time for many of you (though I know you're all from all over too, so who knows? A meet-up would be amazing, if complicated.). Thanks again, and carry on!
*yes, the plums were delicious
Thank you 🙏
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