Ym!€zhj
1
Hulkj
I loved the clue “Pass on” as it had my mind going in wildly different directions. Passing on information is quite different from passing on Aunt Marge’s fruitcake. Had a great “Oh, dear...” moment when PERISH revealed to me the clue’s actual direction!
1
I was killed, rather dramatically, by my certainty that STAGECOACHES was a punny key to the top left. I tried changing every answer in that quadrant except that one. I knew that entry had to be right. Of course, it wasn't, and there went my modest streak.
Life's Number One lesson: Never assume.
1
Wacka... wacka... wacka...
2
There was a lot of fairly direct clue/fill going on in this puzzle, e.g., stock owner/RANCHER, squad on a slope/SKI TEAM, Cowboys or Vikings/NFC TEAM, Uranus or Neptune/ICE GIANT, Cubic ___/ZIRCONIA, and several more.
Nonetheless, I thought there were enough clever clues to make the solve satisfying. I particularly enjoyed the cluing for PEP BANDS, MR RIGHT, PUT ON A CLINIC, GLANDS, SONG, and a couple of others.
Thank you Mr. Trabuco for a pleasant Saturday solve.
:-)
2
Sorry, I meant to thank Mr. Trabucco without misspelling his name.
Thank you!
1
Like all of Sam Trabucco’s offerings, this puzzle was clever, challenging, and mostly doable. In the end only the NW defeated me: POGS, BRITPOP and PEPBANDS are way outside my wheelhouse and no doubt will remain there. I enjoyed the cluing for MRRIGHT, and especially liked its crossing with LOTHARIO. (Might the one in some circumstances actually be the other?) Ditto DRAMACOACH crossing IMSPEECHLESS and LISP. The repetition of ICE and TEAM struck me as odd. Yes, I’m (FAINTly) aware the professional hockey season's in full swing, but is there something else at play here?
1
Saturday satisfactory.
Had Ali vs Frazier before realizing it was the wrong arena.
1
Solid puzzle. I had STAGECOACH for DRAMA COACH for a while until I remembered that stagecoaches are actually wagons, not people.
6
This one filled in super fast for me, except for the Northwest corner. Still it was 12 minutes under my Saturday average, nearly half off. Saturday is the new Wednesday today for me.
Secretariat was some kinda horse. I used to visit him when he stood at stud at Claiborne Farm in the Bluegrass. He loved visitors, and would take a victory romp around the paddock before posing regally for photographs. Our most recent Triple Crown winner, Justify, seems to have the same sense of grandeur.
10
A very satisfying solve.
Challenging without being frustrating.
I'm sure it has to do with my being on the constructor's wavelength somehow, so your mileage may vary.
Every corner (and the middle!) took work to fell.
Nicely, nicely balanced.
1
After setting us up with a ‘soft’ Friday, Will and Sam provided a nice Saturday challenge! Agree?
For me the NW took some monkeying around with caps and Pop music. Rest of the puzzle went smoothly except when I entered BRITCHES for BREECHES - that was the last
to fall, when the acrosses were fixed.
2
@Xwordsolver I also had BRITCHES which crossed fine with HOMECART and ARII which seemed an odd nickname. Took a while to sort that out.
2
@Xwordsolver I had JODHPURS. It took some work to get out of that.
@Jennifer
...and that was my iimpulse, but I resisted and was rewarded. Nowadays, with the new fabrics, breeches are more usual.
While I thoroughly enjoyed this puzzle, I always hate being double-TEAMed, so you can understand while I felt unfairly slowed down today, for just a bit. But when answers just have to be right, they just have to be right. As a bonus, TIL I learned what lictors were, and what pogs were, and what Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia was.
1
Tough one for me today despite all of the sports references which are one of my strengths. Started in the NE and worked down through center, SE, and SW. It was the NW that gave the most trouble, followed by a seemingly interminable search for the last letter. Tomorrow is another day,
While I'm in a bad mood: Did anyone else react to the somewhat sneering reference to "Cold War gravitas" and "rah, rah, USA patriotism" re the MIRACLEONICE?
@Al in Pittsburgh I miss the cold war, and I've been saying that for at least 20 years.
Why? Because it appears that large numbers of people need an identifiable enemy/threat, and I'd rather have that be a vague threat from somewhere on the other side of the planet than, say, somebody right next door.
4
A very easy, smooth fill for me. Only needed to go hunting for hints a few times. A very satisfying Saturday puzzle!
3
It seemed like this was loaded with proper names and pop culture while I was doing it, but then, when I finally finished my long struggle and looked it over, I realized it wasn't as bad as I thought. And the non-GORILLAZ, non-LARA, non-MSPACMAN, ETCETERA stuff was terrific.
What a fabulous clue for MR RIGHT (18A), my favorite clue in the puzzle. And the GLAND (52A) and HOME CARE (23A) clues are great too. My favorite answer: PUT ON A CLINIC (27A). Some other thoughts:
Re BENETS (16A): Not all that "classic".
Re CCUP (48D): Not all that "Medium". To me, it's "Large." Or at least it used to be -- before the days of implants.
Re I'M SPEECHLESS (34A) -- Why "ironic"? DRAT -- we live in an age where everything is ironic. A little too much irony, if you ask me.
A really challenging puzzle -- very Saturday-worthy. I enjoyed it, the proper names notwithstanding.
4
@Nancy
Because you can't say "I'M SPEECHLESS" (or anything else) if you are actually speechless.
7
@Nancy
I was actually expecting more controversy today concerning CCUP after yesterday's disapproval of the mere mention of SPORTS BRA. In today's explicitly sexual world, CCUP has been casually termed "medium". What's next? NINE INCHES clued as "Medium length"?
10
No, only female private parts that are allowed in our favorite puzzle. Bleh!
Caitlyn--
Thank you for the 1973 Belmont Stakes video. It's one of my favorites, in part because of the announcer (Chic Anderson), who in some ways had a very tough job. Secretariat was a huge favorite going into that race, and he won it easily. Normally that doesn't make for a lot of drama.
But Anderson manages to convey his absolute astonishment at Secretariat's performance, emphatically and in real time. You get the sense that he literally can't quite believe what he is seeing.
Great puzzle too. I may have initially entered more wrong answers that I was sure were right than I have ever done before (OVERRODE, VELA, GORILLAS, BRITCHES, SCATCHI, DRAW, NFL TEAM, TIC, ). One-by-one I recognized and corrected them, but it was a struggle. Bravo, Sam Trabucco!
8
Started doing the Letter Box a few days ago. Wasn’t really “feeling it” until today, when I did it in three. Much more fun when you try to be minimalist about it.
@Mr. Mark
I managed to do today's in three as well (two different ways). What I don't know is whether there is always a solution in two words to which one should aspire. I don't want to waste energy on trying if it is not necessarily possible...
@Andrew & @Mr. Mark
I finally managed today's in 2 words. So the answer to your question is "Yes, so far".
My solution was:
DATUM-MORPHINE
2
@NICE CUPPA
Congrats! The only way I think that this game will catch on is if it is explicitly stated that there are solutions possible from two words. And perhaps to caress our egos there could be something like the "amazing, genius, etc." labels documenting our solutions. And if we come up with the ultimate solution we could be deemed "letter box wizards".
I knew of Stephen Vincent Benet from "John Brown's Body" but nothing about his life. I always thought he had written this Civil War poem during the war. When it was noted the writer of "Benet's Reader's Encyclopedia" was written by his older brother in 1948, I thought William Rose Benet must have been the oldest writer in history.
I guess at 80 years old, it isn't too late to get a little learnin'
3
The NW corner was the death of me. Having no idea what POGS or GORILLAZ were, and having a solver's block on PEPBAND was a bad start, but what I couldn't accept was that SKI TEAM would appear in the same puzzle as NFC TEAM. Isn't this against the law? I guess in our post-law world Margaret Farrar's rules count for naught.
I had SKI to start, and sat on it for a good half hour when impatience got the better of me and I plugged in TEAM, which finally brought this frustrating experience to a close.
Then there was JER, LICTER, BENETS, ARIE and SCACCHI. Oof.
Otherwise this one could have been a contender.
7
Now _that_ was fun. Dazzling array of content in there: science, ancient history (Latin!), pop culture, geography, sports, and the long entries are all deep "in the language." Thank you, Mr. Sam!
3
Comments would not come up on the iPad. AND it's raining. Again.
Wow, I know I've been in a tussle! Very few gimmes.
We stopped at Ft. ORD on one of our cross-country relocation drives; it is famous for requiring winter uniforms year-round, due to the climate (cold, gray, wet, wintry.)
We have a lot of memories of AMARILLO and Route 66, too.....Life before interstates and air-conditioned automobiles. The Scotch Bucket full of ice was essential.
There were just enough helpers to float me over the many Impossibles (sports, bands, etc.)
HAM and pineapple on a pizza are just Wrong.
LONE and SOLO before SONG at 54A.
I have a silk scarf over my NAPE right now--it's amazingly helpful for staying warm.
I used to play in a HS PEP BAND at basketball games, but then the trumpet players started getting paying gigs and that was that.
Today's Wee Bee was unusually difficult, and I really, really question the pangram! Genius Plus will have to do.
2
I agree about the pangram. It’s not a word I’ve ever seen used, yet there is a word that means what I suppose the beekeeper intends this nonword to connote.
1
"HAM and pineapple on a pizza are just Wrong."
MOL,
HAM -- the entry - might well be found on a pizza in Italy. As for pineapple, we're not in Italy. ALOHA.
1
@Susan
Having reached Queen Bee, she smiled ___________.
3
About a minute better than my Saturday average.
MIRACLEONICE broke this open for me. When I had the initial M, I thought it was going to have to do with Muhammad Ali though there didn’t appear to be enough room for anything related. But I soon got it and that gave me enough to get this done.
I thought HOMECARE was going to be HOMEMAID. I don’t think the former really merits a question mark in the clue; it’s a pretty straight up answer. I thought a play on homemade might have merited the question mark.
1
Mr. Mark,
The question mark for the clue in question alerted me that "In-house service" would not refer to a business function for which an outside vendor was not utilized. I appreciated it. Also see yesterday's GIG economy.
1
Yes but there was no wordplay or misdirection involved. HOMECARE is a literal solution to in-house service. Not the only literal solution, as you point out, but straightforward nonetheless.
1
Mr. Mark,
It is "literally" true, but I'm not familiar with use of the term "in-house" for residential services. In home, at home, for the home or just plain home, but not in-house.
Some truly wonderful clues. Particularly enjoyed 19A and 52A. Great solve
2
Hi Wordplayers.
I've been absent for a while and have some catching up to do. Just wanted to check in and say hello and that I'll be coming back soon and hope to be more of a regular again.
Best to all, and see ya later.
13
@Deadline
So glad you checked in!!
2
Deadline,
Looking forward to your thoughts and Jessica's thoughts on Monday's PET CAT.
1
@Deadline
So good to hear from you!
Key answers here and there made most of this workable (though not easy) for me. Sometimes they just happen to pop up in the right place.
Was thinking one of the Ali-Frazier fights for 18d, but nothing fit. Even after I had ONICE at the end it took a long moment for that to emerge from the back of my brain. In the end I was left staring at a block of 12 squares in the NW - bordered by SKITEAM and ABLE (and I wasn't all that sure about ABLE). And I stared and pondered for a good long time.
Finally thought of EVOKE, which led to a guess at OVER(bore). Another very long pause. Then PERISH finally dawned on me and that gave everything else away (with some guesses) even though I've never heard of POGS.
Played in a PEPBAND one year in high school; a small group that sat in a section of the stands at basketball games. For football games it was the whole marching band.
Crossword solvers should always remember that there's no 'I' in team. Of course there's no 'U' in team either, so who's going to be on this team?
2
In high school and college, I played in the marching band during football season, and I played in the basketball pep band two years in college.
At football games, the full marching band plays in the stands during the game and then performs on the field during halftime. Sometimes for away games, schools will only send a small subset of the band instead of the full band. That group is also called a pep band; they play in the stands during the game but they don’t march on the field during halftime. The use of smaller pep bands like this vs. the full marching band depends on a school’s travel budget and/or school breaks.
In the lead photo of today’s column, I see the bass drum section of a marching band. Although, they do look like they have a lot of pep.
2
Sushi bar last night had a thank you letter from Peter Tork by the door to the mens. Everything is connected!
PUTON..... was new to me and PEP... took a while.
Given I just returned from NOLA: a gimmie.
Pretty zippy for a Saturday.
Thank you Sam
A lot of empty space after going through the As, but the SE corner did fall after a couple of gimmes NFCTEAM and ZIRCONIA. I did start with NFL...but changed to NFC... because of 48D, CCUP. That led me to MIRACLEONICE
VILA and VANILLI were gimmes, but for some reason I had trouble digging LOTHARIO out of the recesses of my mind. I knew the term just couldn't bring out until a few more crosses were filled.
The NW corner was the last to go. It was challenging but satisfying since I was able to finish without Google or Puzzle check.
It was nice to see ELMIRA clued correctly.
Wed Mar 16, 2016
1A Upstate New York city where Mark Twain was born
3
I MIGHT want to differ on the frequency of VANILLI appearing in the puzzle.
I distinctly remember MILLI and/or VANILLI showing up at least three times in the last few months. Or - it is possible - I may have come across it in the last few months with my occasional dabbling in the Archives.
I’ll have to learn how to research these things.
2
@PeterW
Yes, MILLI was in a few days ago.
@PeterW
Vanilli was in a Mini puzzle recently!
I'm so glad I slept on this one after squinting at the mostly empty grid after a couple of passes last night with my sleepy eyes. I'll not say I'M SPEECHLESS because that will obviously not be true (see below).
The gimmes were VILA and VANILLI (as was the case for others), LARA, and then LOTHARIO (which I learned from crosswords many years ago), and ZIRCONIA.
So many things were unknown to me. GORILLAZ, ARIE, MIRACLE ON ICE (I was a bit young to remember that one), LICTORS, BENETS, PUT ON A CLINIC.
In the 80's, however, I did spent many hours (and quarters) playing MS PACMAN. PEP BANDS I didn't understand until I looked at Caitlin's explanation.
I liked the crossing of BEN(ETS) and JER - mm....ice cream. That, with ICE GIANT, SKI TEAM, and MIRACLE ON ICE, they obviously EVOKE a winter team sport feel. Also liked the clues for ESP, GLAND, and ZIT. TIL the airport code for O'Hare was once a California fort.
Had NECK before NAPE, CATTLER before RANCHER, ITHACA before ELMIRA, DAMN, DARN, and DANG, ET CETERA, before DRAT (gosh!).
1
Thinking of Ithaca as west of Binghamton reminds me of a good trivia question. How many state capitols are west of Los Angeles?
@Mr. Mark - six?
Wen,
With you on six.
Lucked out today! Lots of gimmes (for me, anyway). This is definitely one of my favorite things about XWPs... One man's meat...
2
I also found it strange for the answer to include the article, "The," for "THE ESPYS." I don't know if I've ever seen that before.
@Ryan It does happen fairly often. When the article is left out, the clue will usually add "(with The)" as an indication.
Ryan,
You may not have seen an entry including the article THE, but there have been more than a thousand such entries in Shortz era puzzles. Do an answer search for THE*** on xwordinfo to see them.
2
I right away thought the answer to this was the Espys, but for some reason I thought it would be spelled the espies, and it didn’t fit. Eventually cake back to it with the crosses.
Quicker than my average Saturday solve, but I know that's because of the heavy sports referencing (which is often frowned upon, it seems).
Count me among those surprised at "TEAM" showing multiple times.
3
I was rocking this puzzle, but then spent forever debugging. I had BRITCHES instead of BREECHES. I thought there must have been some famous Adrianus that went by ARI I or AR II. HOME CART did not seem that much worse an answer than HOME CARE. You can buy a home cart online and have it be a little bar you roll around the house.
4
@Isaac Rischall Same exact final snag for me as well.
1
I had OVERLORD until I figured out PEPBANDS. Also got hung up on ICEGIANTS. Good Saturday puz, tho.
A steady drizzle of ahas requiring multiple revisits of areas, with the fill-ins steering the way to an eventual Filled In. Persistence leading to permeation leading to perfecto. So satisfying and enjoyable. I'll take a cup o' Sam anytime. Thank you, sir!
3
I'm afraid I'm in the minority here. There were more "no knows" for me than I can remember, would probably go over my allotted words if I attempted to list them, so will just look forward to Sunday.
I do remember Joe Namath in Super Bowl III mentioned by Mo.
6
That was a really fun one.
3
Lara Croft is a protagonist in video games, not comic books.
7
@Chris
Apparently both.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_Raider_(comics)
1
Most commonly known for videogames, though. It's like calling Jim Carrey a TV star.
3
SPELLING BEE
23/118 pangram and bingo
C - 9 - 1x4, 2x5, 3x6, 2x7, 1x9
E - 2 - 1x4, 1x6
L - 2 - 1x5, 1x6
N - 3 - 2x5, 1x6
O - 2 - 1x4, 1x6
T - 3 - 1x4, 1x5, 1x6
Y - 2 - 1x4, 1x5
Hint: Ten of the words have double letters and two where you might not normally look for them.
8
Any hints on the 9-letter C word? It’s my last one to get to Queen Bee.
1
@Elaine
You must feel satisfied to be so close.
1
@Elaine it's related to how you'll feel when you get QB
1
How is it that "team" and "ice" can appear twice in the same puzzle??? Have the rules changed? I need to know, please. Did not notice any of the puns, cross referencing entries or whatever the commentator was going on about. "Do horses give clinics" she asks. I have no idea what she is thinking here or elsewhere. Personally I thought the puzzle was fairly difficult and fairly boring.
3
Denice,
I will defer to old hands and constructors who may correct me, but my understanding is that (except for theme exceptions) *entries* cannot duplicate; that does not address *words* in compound word entries.
3
@Denice Cameron: I didn't even notice the ICE dupe. The TEAM dupe did jar me, as I noted in my comment. As for putting on a clinic, I speak as a person who USED to watch a lot of pro football (concussions and wife-beating finally convinced me to stop watching those who were once my heroes). Every clinic that was ever put on, in my hearing experience, was put on by a particularly effective quarterback. Never heard those words uttered by a horse race broadcaster.
@Barry Ancona thank you for the reply.. So maybe "ski-team" but "ice-giant"??? Not so sure....
I also just opened with VILA and VANILLI, and had to pause and drop by to say enough with the MILLIs, whom I also remember from a certain time. I also remember VILA from PBS's This Old House.
1
Speaking of the NFL, today is the 50th anniversary of the NY Jets 16-7 victory over the heavily favored Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. The victory by the AFL Jets led to the league's merger with the NFL and the formation of its two current conferences, the AFC and the NFC.
Yes Jet fans, it's been 50 years!
4
@Mo Sorrisi
Here's to 50 years of ineptitude!
1
I was stumped for a bit because I didn't think SKITEAM and NFCTEAM would both be allowed in the same puzzle.
9
@Ellen Me Too
I believe the “rule” is that the same ANSWER may not appear twice in the same puzzle.
A word appearing as PART of an answer is not a violation of the “rule”.
It’s curious that the same CLUE (verbatim) is often used in puzzles.
I any case, I prefer to view “rules” as “guidelines”. “Rules” are made .....
I had STAGE MANAGER for the longest time before getting DRAMA COACHES. Also had ALT ROCK instead of BRITPOP forever. Tough ones today!
One more comment.
In his constructor notes, Mr. Trabucco writes,"It took me forever to get the middle of this grid to work, to the point where I’m thrilled with how it turned out (ARIE and EERO notwithstanding)."
Actually, EERO is right where he belongs, crossing with MIRACLE ON ICE, because he designed, among other structures, the Ingalls Rink at Yale.
As for ARIE, I just think it could have clued better (who here knows an "Adrianus" from work or school?). How about "India of song" instead?
8
Edit: "As for ARIE, I just think it could have been clued better ..."
@Henry Su
According to the Wikipedia page on Adrianus, practically all of the modern-day Adrianuses (Adriani?) are Dutch or Flemish, with one Indonesian (former Dutch East Indies). Prior to 1500, there were some popes so named (also called Adrian).
Some of those Dutchmen were nicknamed ARIE.
None of which means that there's anything wrong with the clue/entry pairing, but does show that it's quite obscure and Saturday-ish.
@Henry Su For ARIE I'm waiting to see a clue about ARIE Luyendyk, the ex car racer and awful Bachelor star.
NW was impenetrable for the longest time, although the rest of the puzzle went fairly quickly. Even after I finally got that wrestled to the ground, there was still an error which took me forever to find - I had NFL instead of NFC, which looked fine until checking the crossing and realizing that I’d never yet seen an L-cup bra, and even if they do exist they’d hardly be classed as “medium.” Enjoyable Saturday!
10
I had the same problem. Not being a sports fan, I looked up the team names, and all the hits were about NFL. Can someone explain this?
@Alan Young,
Both the Cowboys and Vikings are indeed NFL TEAMS but both also belong to the National Football Conference (NFC), as opposed to the American Football Conference (AFC). Together, the NFC and the AFC make up the NFL.
I made the same mistake as @bratschegirl but quickly adjusted the cup size.
8
@Alan Young The modern NFL is the product of a merger between an old AFL and NFL. Those organizations persist as the AFC and NFC, “conferences”. There are also regional leagues and organizational divisions within the NFL.
All this internal structure serves to provide narrative (playing the same teams every couple years on predictable schedules), some fairness, and a good TV budget.
3
This would have been a super-fast Saturday had it not been for three almost-Naticks--each involving a pesky three-letter word (SEZ, JER, and ORD). I had the grid completed but at least one of these was wrong. Now which one?
Let see, I hadn't heard of LICTORS before but I remembered enough Latin to have confidence that it was spelled with an "O." Never heard of the fort either, but check.
I didn't know JER (sorry, I never watched Seinfeld) but in the back of my mind I was pretty sure about BENET'S. Check.
That left SEZ--the cluing was stubbornly opaque for me. Finally, it dawned on me that GORILLAZ is pluralized with a "Z." Ah, SEZ you! Done.
My vote for the two clues that should be on Lewis's weekly list: "Sixth of five" (ESP) and "Something that's secretive" (GLAND).
This was fun. Play it again, Sam!
7
Good Grief!! Can’t believe how many people think ORD describes only a certain Midwest airport.
I spent what seemed like a week driving through Fort ORD on the way to San Diego one day. It is/was BIG!!
Sort of like John Denver’s line, “Saturday night in Toledo, Ohio - - I spent a week there one day.”
2
@PeterW (and @ MOL, who had the same comment about driving past the fort),
I looked Fort ORD up on Google maps and was surprised to see its location because I've made several trips down to Monterey. The only explanation I can give you is that I usually take US-1 from Castroville and never Rt. 68 from Salinas. And if I'm headed south to LA, I would have just stayed on US-101 and driven past Salinas. I will have to check out the fort (which incidentally has an entry in Atlas Obscura) next time I'm in the vicinity.
It took me a while, but I finally remembered POGS as the milk cap game. Had PERSONAS before PEP BAND. SW corner was my first break, starting with HAM, and its associated downs, which gave me the rest of the crosses there.
THE ESPYS was pretty easy, and my dad worked in a building designed by Saarinen, so once I had one letter the rest was a gimme. Milli VANILLI was a gimme along with LARA in the NE.
The rest of it filled in gradually, with some answers coming more rapidly than others, and eventually I finished in about 10 minutes less than my average.
1
I can't believe POGS made an appearance. I had filled it in half-jokingly, yet it stood up to the rest of the puzzle!
2
The puzzle has evolved over the years to include more and more words that for me fit in the category "don't know, don't care". Two or three that can be looked up in some reference, e.g., 32A and 9D, provide a starting point and are useful. Others, such as pep bands, gorillaz and brit pop, I would cheerfully do without, but I do wish they were not clustered in one corner or another.
A minor cavil, an abstract is a rather standard part of a scientific report, but I wouldn't say it was a part, i.e., section, of a journal. "Abstracts" in the plural might be OK.
8
@Backup agreed about abstracts. There were enough gimmes aroundto figure it out though.
Backup,
PEPBANDS were around before there was a puzzle in The Times. I would hardly call its appearance today the result of evolution; my surprise was that it was a debut (the singular did appear once).
I like to go back to decades-old puzzles to remind myself that there was plenty, if not much more, of "don't know, don't care" in the "good old days."
Your Memory May Vary.
P.S. While I agree ABSTRACT is not a section, a part need not *be* a section.
1
@Barry Ancona, I have a vintage bookstore edition of old Sunday NYT puzzles which I work over once in a while and I agree with you regarding don’t know, don’t care. There are many Scottish var. and archaic var. and obsolete var. whatnots there. Thankfully, don’t see many var. anymore. Maybe it’s only because they use a lot of “informal” or “familiarly” now.
4
Croft as a comic book heroine?! Not a gamer I see.
1
Ducson Nguyen,
Today the gamers are PEP BANDS.
And it's ELMIRA, not Ithaca.
(Wrong turn at Binghamton)
2
“If you ever have to motor west…“ I’ve heard the song enough times to make any “route 66” clue an instant gimme. VANILLI and SYSTOLE were also unambiguous. So 3/4 of the puzzle went down easy. That left the northwest, which stayed blank. None of those clues meant anything to me, even with the gift of NOLA.
Not my favorite Saturday.
5
@Alan Young
Only problem is that US 66 was decommissioned in 1985, so it hasn't existed in over 30 years. Since not all sections of the old Route 66 still exist, it's not a "route" per se anymore.
The clue seems to imply that Amarillo is on Route 66 in the present, but of course, that's Saturday cluing for you.
I had a grade-school kid in the '90s, so I know about POGs. These little cardboard discs started life as stiffeners for bottle caps on a beverage blend in Hawaii, named for its blend of Passion fruit, Orange and Guava juices. They came with all manner of artwork.
The kids played a game, sort of like marbles, where a metal disc called a slammer was thrown at your opponent's pile of pogs. You got to keep the ones that landed face up.
All told, healthier than Pokemon Go, in my opinion.
6
Remember Alf? He’s back, in POG form!
2
@Martin
I too raised a CA child in the 90’s who curated a healthy pile of POGS. Filled it in quickly and confidently but wondered who else would remember this fad? And it was you!
1
@L.A. Sunshine
It was one of the few gimmes for me. My son is 24 now.
I COULDN'T. But I did it. I'M SPEECHLESS!
11
Yo, Deb! You write you won't dwell on ARIE, but might you dwell in an AERIE?
Was that intentional?
@HALinNY
Hey!
Who you calling Deb? I'd say that's a cheep shot ;-)
All I could think about was Petrianus -- what a name. I'd go by Arie too.
2
@Caitlin, sorry about the Ms. Nomer.
7
Man, I couldn't figure out where I had gone wrong. I thought horses kicked with their hind feet which meant some elands had to be secretive. And maybe they are because how well do you really know elands??
16
@Jamie
It's pigeons who are secretive--plot in secrecy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xKLBne1CoI
2
@Jamie Elands pretend to be bland, but they are secretly working on plan D, their fourth scheme.
2
Happy birthday to your dad, Sam!
This puzzle EVOKEd memories of 16-year-old me, with my CUBIC ZIRCONIA studs, bemoaning (what I thought was) the decline of Oasis, and wondering what the heck GORILLAZ was all about. Never once did I imagine myself spending Friday night aside sleeping children, solving the NYT crossword on something called an iPhone (what an ABSTRACT concept that would have been), but that’s beside the point.
7
Liked this puzzle a lot, some of my initial guesses worked out (GORILLAZ, NFC TEAM, ABSTRACT). some didn’t (ELMIRA, not Ithaca). My fastest Saturday solve, in under 11 minutes; everything just clicked. Well done, Sam!
2
Nice chewy Sat puzzle....not too many first pass gimmes...the three HAM stalactites opened the southwest which allowed me to go up the diagonal to the northeast...the northwest was the last to fall...never heard of a POG(nor has my spell checker) or the new GORILLA plural...
@BK
POGs were a thing in the 1990s, maybe? Friends had an 8- to 10-year-old boy who collected them.
One summer in college I worked as a camp counselor outside Colon, Michigan (known as the Magic Capital of the World). The weekend the parents came to visit, it was expected that they would give us something. Most just gave cash, but the parents of one of my kids somehow found out I was an English major, and gave me a copy of BENET'S Readers Encyclopedia. It was one of the most thoughtful gifts I've ever received, and over the years I have browsed through it often. More than half a century later it sits on the shelf behind me as I type this.
20
BENET'S Reader's Encyclopedia! Back in the pre-internet days, that was one of my favorite reference books. You could look up anything and find out something interesting that would lead you to something else interesting that would lead you . . . well, you get the picture. Sometimes an afternoon would pass.
And LICTORS! While I never knew what lictors exactly were, I knew them from Jacques-Louis David's painting _The Lictors Bring to Brutus the Bodies of his Sons_ in the Louvre.
On the other hand, I've never heard of the GORILLAZ, and had to try a couple of times to get the right number of Cs and Hs into SCACCHI. I knew who she was, just not how to spell her.
My favorite MR RIGHT story: in Nancy Mitford's _Love in a Cold Climate_ one of the marriageable daughters of the earl says that she is not looking for Mr. Right; she's looking for the Duke of Right. (I can't remember if she found him or not).
16