There is a bug in the way the win streaks are calculated. I have to complete the current puzzle before the next puzzle is released, otherwise the streak is broken regardless. Since I am in the Pacific time zone, this means the deadline is 3 or 4pm. So even though I finished Saturday's puzzle without assists at 5:30pm, it was treated as a streak-breaker since the Sunday puzzle had been released. This is annoying since my streak should be 13 instead of 0.
I assume this is even worse for other time zones.
The proper logic for streaks should not involve anything other than whether the sequentially previous puzzle was solved without assists. This would also calculate the streaks for solving archival puzzles correctly.
I am guessing that the original rationale was that the answers for the previous puzzle are published in the print edition. But I think it would be beyond silly for someone to cheat in that way for something that has no official value. And the effect is to deprive me of the satisfaction of building it up and diminish the value of the subscription.
In terms of cheating - the answer to the puzzle is published at the same time as the puzzle nowadays for subscribers and for nonsubscribers, it's at other places, like xwordinfo.com. So there really isn't any reason as you cited anymore.
The NYT used to be stricter about that when people's times were ranked and compared. Nowadays, that competitive aspect has been removed (for the better, IMO) and everyone just solve and compare against themselves and help themselves to a variety of tools and tools or the full solution if they choose. It goes with the "it's your puzzle, solve it the way you want" credo.
The streak is probably the only thing that is still something of a competitive feature. I think most streaky solvers discipline themselves to solving as quickly as possible so they don't run into the same issue. Heck, most of us start at 10pm ET, when the puzzles are published, and many come here to post a comment before midnight after they'd solved the puzzle. Of course, not everyone has the time or willingness to do that.
@cmd
This doesn’t help you any, but I’m on iOS 12.0.1, and 2.16 of the NYT Crossword app, am solving in EST, and the issue you describe doesn’t happen to me. For example, I finished today’s crossword around 1:20 AM, 7+ hours after Sunday’s puzzle was released, and it still incremented my streak by one.
@Jamie Gruener
Good to know, I might try switching from the web page to using the app instead.
Deb, love your description of what would precede a parachute jump for you. I am entirely with you except that I would add "wildly screaming NO! NO!"
Not all of us were meant for that sort of thing.
1
@GreaterMetropolitanArea
I initially focussed on a phrase including PRAYER. Seriously!
1
Stuck in the NE for a long time (CHUPACABRA, HENRI, and ROOK were no-knows) and then ending with paralysis in the SE Had aDDRess instead of CDDRIVE fot too long. Even though I had SOCCERTEAM correct, I didn't trust AQUA at 59A nor MIST at 61A because of the QI end of 47D. Tried "SOCCERclub," then "SOCCERcrew" with "ecru" (a favorite) at 59A, before flashing on EXPAT at 49D. That illicited the eventual conquering of the SE.
Gotta say how impressed I am with a constructor that can come up with two 10-cell stacks of four with reasonable downs (except perhaps ATTA and ULEE?). Also, such wide-ranging entries such as HERTZ (in my wheelhouse), CHUTZPAH (my favorite), HENRI (who knew!), CHUPACABRA and ZAMBEZI (both no-knows), PSI (in my wheelhouse), SITNSPIN (a no-know), RENTACOP, SONAR, CDDRIVE, TRIX, etc. As usual, kudos Erik!
PBR got me thinking of rebusses. Wasn't one inside the cap for awhile in the 80's, or was that another brand? Searching my memory now for the game show of yore that used them.
@Patrick Rebuses were under the caps of Ballantine's India Pale Ale in the 80's. I enjoyed solving them as well as drinking the beer.
Where are our avatars?
1
re: 4D
Here is Lin-Manuel Miranda's brilliant depiction of a jealous rant by Burr, Jefferson, and Madison, united against Hamilton, and yes, it features MUST BE NICE!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9014vq1lqXM
2
@Chungclan
Thank you!
1
ARRGH! Finished with an Error at 1A, since I thought JUST BE NICE was an admonishment to the braggart....and HAM-J? Why not?
I tried to make a compound word from German for Siegen- (goat) but ran aground trying to come up with 'sucker'....which is guess is just as well, since it was the Mother of All Miscues. Actually, HENRI and the PIED PIPER saved me.
Knew the ZAMBEZI and Cape BRETON.
Feeling smart goeth before a fall.
Maybe tomorrow.
I loved 'ULEE's Gold' but had no idea it was a nickname. Who does that to a child, though?
Oh, I did get Genius + on the Wee Bee, including the pangram, but still without enlightenment on the Big Bee's secret seed word.
2
@Mean Old Lady
re: big bee pangram - I had hinted yesterday - sounds like a big crunch - it has to do with memory.
I knew what a CHUPACABRA is, and what (vaguely) what he/she/it looks like, and that it started with a C and had a B and an R and P somewhere in it. The P was easy because PIED PIPER. But the rest? CsomethingBARA?
Took a lot of thinking and a lot of toggling to get the correct spelling and the rest of NE.
Heard of ULEE from XWPs but never saw the flick so didn't put it together with Ulysses. I was left wondering if he addressed his wife as "Penny."
Post-solve Google of SIT-N-SPIN explained why my unfamiliarity. Hope I never run into one in real life.
Not savvy enough to have a problem with CD DRIVE.
Didn't know the Jackson 5/Mariah Carey song or "RENT-A-COP" (movie? TV show?). I think I recall that "MR. MOM" was a flick. Have no idea what the RENO-set TV cop show in 30D is supposed to be.
CRAW before CLAW gave me PORK for the acupuncture thing, which seriously doesn't work. D'UH before D'OH.
I was looking for a locale where Cubans *made* CIGARs, not sold or bought them.
Nice puzzle, Erik. Thanks to all concerned.
3
I was left wondering if he addressed his wife as "Penny."
Brava!
Correctly pronounced, "Polk" rhymes with "yolk," not "yoke." But it's no joke to say there are lots of folks who mispronounce it.
3
The Merriam-Webster website has the first pronunciation as 'yōk', and the pronunciation of 'poke' is listed as 'pōk', which makes it look like they rhyme.
'yelk', 'yōlk', 'yȯlk', 'yälk' and 'yəlk' are also listed, but 'yōk' appears to be the preferred pronunciation.
Regarding CHUTZPAH, a commenter on another blog mentioned Leo Rosten's definition: "That quality enshrined in a man who, having killed his mother and father, throws himself on the mercy of the court because he is an orphan."
6
Another wonderful puzzle. Solvable with mostly words, and few rapper names, etc.
2
Abraham's pleading to spare the City took a Lot of chutzpah.
2
Chutzpah was always negative where I grew up. Some nerve! It takes a lot of gall...! What chutzpah!
TIL there is another, more positive usage. Arguing with god, in defense of what is just and moral, takes courage. Chutzpah to be admired, not scorned. Who knew?
I was so proud of remembering Earl KLUGH as a jazz musician - except it was wrong for this puzzle... (also started with BEAK for the cardinal point after rejecting compass directions)
2
@Mid America
I also thoiught of Klugh, but abandoned it quickly. I'm actually surprised I came up with HINES, since I'm so used to hearing him referred to as Earl "Fatha" Hines.
ha. like NYT'ers know what a "PBR" is :)
(must admit I did not recognize the abbrev.)
2
@A NANAVATY
Actually it appeared in a NYT puzzle not that long ago.
If you are going to stack CHUPACABRA(?) over three other, vaguely clued, ten letter words, then the crosses need to be sporting, but only 5, 8 and 10 down had specific answers; the others could have multiple acceptable fills. I finally got it done, but found GOOSE, CDDRIVE and CLAW to be particularly bad cluing for a constructor who is so clever.
1
@Babel64 - It’s a Saturday. So it should be tricky. The clues were spot on, I thought. It took me a couple minutes to get a toehold in the puzzle with SONAR and GARLICKY. After that, the answers began to come to me. Very nice puzzle!
@Donna
You are entitled to your opinion but so am I. Not sure what motivates you to correct me. Rex Parker agrees with me...
I must call a foul on HERTZ. As a technical guy this threw me because HERTZ has nothing to do with measuring bandwidth.
It's a measure of how many times something moves in a second, or frequency.
Perhaps a tricky clue would be "Heinrich's Rented Car
4
@Ray Salemi Another possible clue could have been "Mega finisher."
2
Ray,
Technical guys frequently gripe about the accuracy of technical clues and entries, but in this case, the clue didn't say *measuring* bandwidth, and this "lay" definition of bandwidth seems to include frequency:
1 : a range within a band of wavelengths, frequencies, or energies
especially : a range of radio frequencies which is occupied by a modulated carrier wave, which is assigned to a service, or over which a device can operate
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bandwidth
1
@Barry Ancona But the lay definition you just quoted has nothing to do with bandwidth.
It's not a technical nit as a completely different definition of what the word means.
4
Deb, the CHUPACABRA is from Puerto Rico? That will be a surprise to all the people who have spotted him in the southwest. I think I saw one once when we lived in New Mexico. But it was pretty dark.
Years ago we spent a few months on Chiloe, in southern Chile, and heard about this guy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trauco
We never encountered him, thank goodness.
Wags,
I've twice tried to post a response with a wiki cite that the "name" was created in Puerto Rico (and it is now used all over the Americas).
Wags,
They've been popping up everywhere, but the *name* seems to have come from Puerto Rico.
Chupacabras can be literally translated as "goat-sucker", from chupar ("to suck") and cabra ("goat"). It is known as both chupacabras and chupacabra throughout the Americas, with the former being the original word,[4] and the latter a regularization of it. The name is attributed to Puerto Rican comedian Silverio Pérez, who coined the label in 1995 while commenting on the attacks as a San Juan radio deejay.[5][6]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chupacabra
As most of our current diplomats, I had trouble with the Mid-East. I don't think of cardinals as having CLAWS and the acupuncture clue was a real stretch. I guess cats and presidents are too easy for the weekend. Adding to my misery was this unknown thing called SITNSPIN. Otherwise, it was a good Saturday workout.
1
@Dag Ryen: I agree. Some birds can fairly be said to have CLAWs (e.g., birds of prey with talons). However, I have never heard a birder refer to a cardinal's having CLAWs. Toes, digits, or dactyls would be more appropriate.
TIL about the CHUPACABRA, and so did my house guests as I read nearly the whole Wikipedia page to them. A forehead slap when I found CASTING by looking up this monster - the only look-up today. Coulda had a no-looking day!
This week I learned (TWIL? Is that a Thing?) that the CHUPACABRA would be considered a “cryptid”.
TIL also that “ULEE” really is a thing and not a cheap clue from Mr. Agard, who is certainly not known for cheap clues, and who certainly doesn’t need them to complete his creative puzzles.
There is no end to what one can learn from the NYT XWord Puzzle and Team Wordplay!
6
re: 20A
Someone missed that day of instruction at Wharton.
3
Noel,
As opposed to which days not missed?
2
@Barry Ancona
Narcissism 101
2
There seems to be a ginormous hole in my knowledge, and it's spelled CHUPACABRA. I was going to chastise Eric for this answer, but many people here seem to have heard of it. As for me, I have no idea what he/she/it is.
SITNSPIN was one giant "Huh?" for me. I know nothing about Operation Red Dawn and don't want to. The #1 hit was unknown. It sat in the worst possible place: right above the "tailgater's tote", where I had confidently written in WINE COOLER instead of BEER COOLER. This kept me from seeing "some family folks, informally", at 50D. First I had --WS and wondered: could it be LAWS? Then when SUPPRESSED came in, I had S-WS. Surely it couldn't be SOWS, could it? As in family of pigs?
Another Agard pop trivia-fest that I DNF and DNC. I live in constant terror that, when Will Shortz retires, Agard will inherit his mantle and that every future puzzle will be exactly like this one.
4
@Nancy
Interestingly, I thought of WINE COOLER before BEER COOLER as well. However I realized that a WINE COOLER is a single drink, while a BEER COOLER holds multiple drinks. Couldn't quite imagine a tailgater showing up with one drink, let alone a WINE COOLER!
2
@Andrew
I filled in COOLER right away, but debated BEER, wine, soda, and food. The downs were obscure enough (to me) to be not much help at all.
1
@Deadline
Similar debates about the cooler, DL, and likewise about the downs.
Well, most of this crossword felt like a Saturday, but for me the northeast corner felt like some day of the week that hasn't been invented yet but will probably appear in a future puzzle written by Erik, so let's just agree to call it an Agarday :-)
I was totally stuck, because a) I was certain that 5D had to be NOTAGOODIDEA, and our local Jimmy Johns has a sign, MAMAAPPROVED, and I could not shake that, either.
Finally, after enough of a hint from my SO that I consider this a streakbreaker ("you should know this", followed by "what does it take to argue with God"), the rest fell into place.
Now, on to Wikipedia and research CHUPACABRA, which also sounds like it could be the answer to 16A, as in, the thing you yell before you jump out of an airplane :-)
9
MUST BE NICE to be able to solve late week puzzles with no assistance, but I'm far from there. I did keep coming back to this which helped, but I still had a lot of blank spaces.
I was pleased with getting ZAMBEZI, GARLICKY but I quite liked 'beak' for the cardinal clue. Also as an EXPAT living near the Leeds UNITED football team home grounds, I was glad for that answer.
As usual looking forward to themes which always ( well almost always) help me.
7
What CHUTZPAH, insinuating a CHUPACABRA into my puzzle, Eric A. That really got my goat!
6
A very challenging Saturday for me, with progress low and slow from the bottom up. Finally reached the top line and found myself at a mega-Natick where CHUPA*ABRA crossed *ASTING. Never heard of that particular monster, and "Assigning stars to" sounded like a restaurant or wine review to me, so I went with CHUPAtABRA/tASTING. What a fine puzzle!
2
That was my last square too. I also had tASTING as a first guess but a quick trip though the alphabet led me directly to C.
Thank goodness for Cape BRETON Island! This was one of the only gimmes and got me started on a very long solve. If you have never been, it is certainly worth the trip!
https://www.cbisland.com/cabot-trail/
Deb, loved your pre-parachute description: "for me it would be preceded by running to the back of the plane, ugly crying and wrapping myself around anything the jump instructors couldn’t pry me off." I had the feeling that item might have been one of the jump instructors! Also for "Cardinal point" while you thought geography, I thought baseball and spent way too long trying to find a four-letter term for "run".
I was one of the few today to see no problem with CD DRIVE. Some knowledge of Italian helped with the agliata sauce, while knowledge of French hindered as I tried to create a folklore monster by the name of CHEVRESUCE. (Fail...)
EL GRECO brought back wonderful memories of visiting Toledo, (Spain not Ohio), many years ago, and taking in the incredible collection of EL GRECO masterpieces.
I really didn't think that I would finish this one unaided, but somehow managed. On to Sunday!
5
@Andrew My first effort for the parachute clue was GERONIMOOO
9
@Liane
HAHA! Good one!
Liane,
I recall that a cow jumped over the moon, but I didn't realize it was Airborne.
3
Mono is not a virus. Mononucleosis is a disease cause by a viral infection. The virus is called EBV. Epstein-Barr Virus.
6
Echoes of yesterday's airport name v. airport code discussion. Does anyone outside the medical industrial complex refer to the VIRUS as E-B-V rather than mono?
4
I agree. Just a bad clue. I’m a pediatrician, and the clue immediately brought infectious mononucleosis to mind, but that is not a VIRUS.
2
TIL--ULEE is short for Ulysses. My long-time next-door neighbor was named Ulysses (I only knew this from the occasional piece of mail put into my mailbox by mistake; he never called himself that) and everyone called him Bubba. (Yes, in Chestnut Ridge, NY.)
From crosswords, I have known about the beekeeper movie for years. but have never seen it, and therefore knew pretty much nothing else about it. But it was of course easily inferable, which means it was probably not really a Saturday clue (especially when the answer is a shortened form of the clue word).
What I also learned, if I can make the obvious assumption, is that the character's name was pronounced "yoo-lee". Not realizing the connection to Ulysses, I had always assumed it was pronounce "oo-lee".
@Steve L
First had NEMO as the nickname for Ulysses; epic fail.
@Etaoin Shrdlu, I too was thinking of the Odyssey and not the movie when I first read the clue. NEMO is not a bad guess!
1
College teams from Hamline are known as the PIEDPIPERs. When I transferred in I asked: Why would one name a college after a town where the Burgermeisters' cheated a rat catcher known as the PIEDPIPER who eventually stole away all their children?
We have named the bear who visits the neighborhood bird feeders each spring and fall: The CHUPACABRA.
LOL moment was filling in PBR, son's favorite adult beverage.
In short, fun puzzle ***** (four stars). Thanks Erik!
@dk
You have 5 stars there. But 4 stars...out of how many?
@Wen
I would give five stars for the puzzle, but 1/2 star for me because it was TOO hard! And that's a caps from emphasis, not a clue answer. Very clever puzzle, requiring a clever-er brain.
1
Mixed feelings about today's puzzle.
It looked like it would be hard, yet came in 10 minutes under average, perhaps because I got HAMM, PIEDPIPER, GARLICKY, etc. off the bat. After meeting resistance in NE, I worked down, across and back up.
My love of goat cheese and a closer look at crosses finally gave me "CABRA", which then was an "aha" moment. First I had to get over finding a Greek mythology figure (goat/men not goat eaters). Had I gotten CHUPACABRA earlier, the puzzle would have felt like a Wednesday.
I disliked the retro clues, even though I got them faster than I expected thanks to cluing giving big tips to parts of the answers and crosses. MR MOM, RENT-A-COP, SITNSPIN, CDDRIVE. These are all things that could be forgotten yesterday with no one caring much.
3
Cardinal point is crest or tuft, rather than claw.
3
@Andrew
I had TUFT first. BEAK could have worked though I didn't think of that when solving.
I ran through all of the different cardinals (bird, church, sports) and also the cardinal points. But in the end, it was for naught. What's the point!?
Only got to CLAW after the crossings made it clear.
@Andrew
Unless he lands on your arm and hooks in with his claws?
I didn't love the clue either, but it was a typical Saturday misdirection.
Now I am reminded to clean the mirrors on my fence. In winter, my resident male cardinals (Claudio and Scarlatti) spend endless hours looking and pecking at themselves in the mirrors, giving Narcissus a run for his money! I've never seen a female cardinal do it, however.
2
@Liane I was told they think it's another male and are defending their territory; happens with windows too.
1
Woohoo!! A bar in Charleston sells more PBR cans than anywhere in the world: https://charleston.eater.com/2018/1/30/16950120/recovery-room-pbr
CDDRIVE=Program Opening??? That’s a stretch . Lame
Never heard of CHUPACABRA, so relied on the down clues. Fortunately there were no naticks. Lots of cool cluing in this puzzle. Didn't remember ZAMBEZI until I got ZAM from the down crosses.
Good Saturday puzzle.
Wow, a (relatively) painless Saturday thanks to a recent trip to Victoria Falls and the fact that my odd uncle used to call my sister a CHUPACABRA as a term of affection.
2
I started out with the wrong animal, but at least I was in the right part of the world. I confidently keyed in cappybarra for the goat sucker (the spelling did seem wrong, but hey.. it's Saturday). The good news, I later discovered, was that there were enough letters in common at the end of my wrong answer and the correct answer that I was able to get several of the crosses, and as I filled in more and more, my mistake showed itself. Luckily, I had also heard of the CHUPACABRA, and even know it meant goat sucker... So I went from a real creature misspelled to the legendary creature spelled correctly. So goes a Saturday solve. The rest of the puzzle was a perfect Saturday. It required some work and creative clue interpretation, but wasn't natick filled. Thank you Mr. Agard and Mr. Shortz!
3
Yikes, the NE humbled me. I sashayed through the rest of the puzzle fairly easily and came back a few times but nope. Finally gave up and reveal which I haven't done in a while. Wasn't CHUPACABRA was one of Paris Hilton's little dogs?
Deb, will we strictly online puzzlers get to see the Puzzle Mania section or is that only for print subscribers? If so, I will buy a physical paper for first time in many moons.
1
Didn't do very well on this one. Managed to work out the bottom half with a couple of failed checks but was demolished in the top half. Couldn't remember the ZAMBEZI or CHUPACABRA and those turned out to be (very) key answers. I had issues with some of the clues, but they've all been discussed below. However...
I can't say I really had an 'issue' with the clue for HESITATION; just thought it was an odd choice. In a military jump, you absolutely can not hesitate. When they say 'go' you better go. And on that note, a very OT story about my father.
When he was in pilot training during WW II, they went through parachute training: Jumping off a platform to practice the 'roll' on landing; another platform with harness to simulate the 'jerk' when the chute opened. After the training was complete one of the soldiers asked the instructor, "don't we get a practice jump?" He replied, "No point. You either get it right the first time or you don't."
Then when his plane was shot down over Germany, most of the crew bailed out. He said he turned to his co-pilot and said, "I'm not jumping out of this thing," and managed to crash land it in a potato field.
19
Rich,
I salute your father. He stretched to the max what we often said: "Why would anyone want to jump out of a perfectly sound aircraft?
(On rappel)
4
@Barry Ancona
Yes - went through that training (in country), but never used it. It was actually kind of fun. Wish I could have had the opportunity to try it again. Way too old now.
..
2
@Rich in Atlanta, great story - thanks!
1
This was a solid Saturday solving trek, which should, and did, include GRRs, CLAWing, D'OHs, and some sitting and spinning, balanced by a host of ATTAs. Kudos to Erik for smoothly pulling off the pair of quad stacks.
I did like the contrasting cross of CHUTZPAH and HESITATION. Kind of how I feel as I approach a Saturday puzzle.
5
QB
25/90
1 Pangram and a bingo
A - 1x5
D - 6 - 1x4, 4x5, 1x6
K - 2 - 1x4, 1x5
L - 6 - 6x4
O - 1x4
R - 1x4
W - 8 - 3x4, 1x5,1x6,1x7,2x8
All I can say is, "When downunder, global permissions lead to overtime disussions of much sadness".
11
Grateful for the shorter puzzles lately.
Was really stuck on the non-pangram 8 letter W, trying all sorts of compound words to no avail. Finally had to look that one up using an anagrammer resource-had never heard of this animal before!
4
@Healthy Nurse - that was my last find, too - found by accident and surprised when it went through!
1
@Healthy Nurse
Thanks for the clue!
3
Easy and breezy SB today.
25 words for 90 points
1 Pangram
Bingo
A (1): 5L-1
D (6): 4L-1; 5L-4; 6L-1
K (2): 4L-1; 5L-1
L (6): 4L-6
O (1): 4L-1
R (1): 4L-1
W (8): 4L-3; 5L-1; 6L-1; 7L-1; 8L-2
It's not a full menagerie, but a nice little start.
9
@Michael O
You're up later than me!
1
@Michael O and @BarbJ,
Thanks for staying up late and/or waking up early.
Notably missing is WOLD, which I spotted early on. Disappointing.
I mean, come on beekeepers. I know it's a very British word, and more common in poetry, but still.
Now I'm going to take an early morning walk across the wold behind my home here in the hills of western CT.
3
If you watch Rachel Maddow, you might have recently met our cryptid this way:
https://www.ispot.tv/ad/d3QZ/zenni-optical-chupacabra
(I knew I'd seen a recent reference but couldn't remember where. It finally came to me.)
2
@Martin
Cute commercial. But I don't recall having seen it on TRMS, recently or otherwise, and she's not in the clip you linked to.
I'd think she'd have something to say about it!
I agree the clue for CDDRIVE was bad. I've certainly never heard anyone referring to putting a "program" into the CD drive. They might refer to the "CD" or maybe the " disk" (eg, "Insert the Excel disk into the CD drive") but (in 40 years in the industry, btw) I've never heard or read someone referring to the disk as the program.
4
@PaulSFO (replying to myself) Also, I think it's been a decade or more since I've heard of anyone keeping a program on a CD. You might install it from a CD (rarely, nowdays) but the idea of inserting a CD when you want to run a program is way obsolete.
1
@PaulSFO
Admittedly it's more likely a DVD drive now, but I think inserting a disk to install a program justifies the clue "Program opening?" on a weekend. It even has a bit of "surface" sense in that you're opening a new software chapter on that machine. The clue certainly doesn't imply the disk is inserted every time you want to run the software.
On the other hand, I wrote software for the first generation of personal computers, with no hard drive and only a floppy disc drive. Everything had to fit on a 128K disk. Luckily the computer only had 48K of RAM, so that wasn't much of a challenge.
But that was still pretty amazing since in the '60s I programmed machines with 131K 60-bit words of memory that sold for $13 million. And that's when $13 million was a lot of money.
4
CHUPACABRA was my first entry; it's one of the more "cryptic" cryptids that I thought should have been featured in last Sunday's puzzle. But HESITATION appeared only from the crosses; it was very good cluing and elicited a "why didn't I think of that?"
As others have already noted, other clues seemed forced to me, however: CHUTZPAH (until I had RENTACOP, I was looking for a philosophical --ISM), CD DRIVE (yes, it open programs loaded on CD-ROMs but it also does other things like playing music CDs), and CLAW (again, I get it (sort of) but what about the BEAK?).
Like Deb, I remained puzzled by 53D until I had solved the crosses including the related BEER COOLER; my original pencil entry was BBQS because it crossed with I'LL BE THERE (a gimme).
Thank you for the challenging puzzle, Mr. Agard. All in all, I still came in more than ten minutes under my Saturday average, with no lookups.
1
Oh, and I have a quibble about 27D. My late father practiced acupuncture as part of his pain management practice. Having grown up around those needles, I would describe them more as "pricks" than "pokes." Accordingly, 27D might have been better clued as "apt surname for a cow hand?" IMHO.
The emus are maturing, it seems.
4
Henry,
IMO, the "?" in the clue covered not only the mispronunciation but also the humorously(?) inaccurate term.
1
Nice chewy Saturday puzzle... good mix of obscurity and pop clues that were gettable via crosses.
Nice juxtaposition of Cubans and Trade Talks!
GRR, CDDRIVE was a terrible entry, I think! I, too, had “address” and spent ages wondering what sort of esoteric IRAQI guard name Erik had up his sleeve before divining that he just had an esoteric name for an almost-obsolete bit of technology up his sleeve. (I’ve always called those things “disc drives.”)
Otherwise a fine fill for a Saturday, with CHUCAPABRA actually being a gimme.
1
CHUPACABRA was entirely from crosses for me. Never heard of it. Didn’t watch a single episode of X-Files, which I gather would have familiarized me with it. ON ICE was tricky for me for the simple reason that I always make the mistake of interpreting “put” as present tense, forgetting that its past tense is the same. Despite a slow start, I finished in 75% of Saturday average. Didn’t love the clue for AQUA, as I think of it as greenish blue or bluish green while I think of cerulean as just a particular shade of blue. Only reason ULEE came to me was because of his gold in the title of a movie I’ve never seen. I assume the character’s name was Ulysses then?
@David Meyers - the gold in the title of "Ulee's Gold" refers to the tupelo honey that he makes as a beekeeper, btw.
Ulee was a great role for Peter Fonda.
2
"Widowed beekeeper and Vietnam veteran Ulysses "Ulee" Jackson (Peter Fonda)..."
2
That took a while. 10 minutes faster than my woeful Saturday average, so it was a tough one. Didn't help that I was falling asleep.
ECRU returns after ceding the neutral-tone throne to GRAY for a day. MR MOM is better than TV MOM, because...it's a movie? But at least ACURA and MR MOM were gimmes.
Clue for ESP and POLK were pretty good. Good to see EL GRECO again - I forgot his name again, after having been schooled by WPers some months bacl. SOCCER TEAM was ok-ish.
Mentions of TRADE TALKS to remove barriers in these times?! The CHUTZPAH! Actually, I didn't like CHUTZPAH clued that way. I think people argue with God all the time.
The one I had most problem with is CD DRIVE. Ok as an entry, but not the clue. I can't make it work and would like to see someone explain it more clearly (sorry Deb, your attempt was a little weak or I just didn't get it).
EST for Attendance abbr? Didn't understand that at all either. GRR.
The two absolute no-knows were the clue for GARLICKY and the entry SIT N SPIN. The rest were fine.
I thought the grid was fine and the cluing was a little controversial for me. But still pretty solid for Saturday.
3
@Wen. E.g., Trump’s est. of attendance at his inauguration: 2,000,000. The actual figure: 2,028.
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@Puzzlemucker
While I agree with your sentiment, I find it doesn't explain the cluing. Sorry if I'm being dense.
1
@Wen. “est. attendance was 2,000,000” may be a better example. EST (for estimate) is an abbreviation used for attendance at large events, like Trump’s inauguration, the Women’s March, Boston College football games (I lived a summer in Brookline, not far from BC).
2
I imagine I'm not the only Gen Xer who learned the meaning of CHUPACABRA from Mulder on The X-Files.
5
@AmyG. Yes! Another reason to love X-Files & Mulder forever!
1
@Amy G Me three.
1
@Amy G
Does that make me the only pre-boomer to have learned it there?
Had to guess on CHUPACABRA because I'd never heard of it, got it right more or less by accident, looked it up after the fact and was rewarded with a picture of a kitten in a chupacabra costume. https://www.flickr.com/photos/julie_coulter/281696779/in/photostream
2
Slowed myself down with understand before UNDERSTOOD; saved by the BIOL. Wanted address for the program opening despite the question mark; the god of TRIX got c for the a, and the rest came from an EXPAT IRAQI with a VIRUS.
Pleased to see HOTELBAR not clued as a butter brand nor HERTZ as a rent-a-car; enough product placement with ACURA. MRMOM, PBRS, RENTACOP and TRIX (not to mention the RUMS in the clues).
CHUPACABRA is folklore, but TRADETALKS might be a contemporary entry for goat-sucker. GRR!
Caitlin took off (MUSTBENICE); Deb said ILLBETHERE.
7
"Saved by the BIOL" -- Hah! Good one!
3
I grew up hearing a great deal of Yiddish and I think the clue for “chutzpah” is very weak.
I spent a lot of time trying to think of a different word that ended with z_ah—the letters I got first—because I was sure it couldn’t be chutzpah.
1
@Jersey Girl I also "saw" CHUTZPAH early on but didn't fill it in because the clue doesn't really work; it seems like the wrong part of speech as clued. I think it was my second-to-last word filled in, except for a stray typo or two, because it just didn't seem like the right word.
2
It takes a lot of CHUTZPAH to argue with Erik Agard.
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Puzzlemucker,
Agreed that it would take a lot, but I've never heard it *was* CHUTZPAH to do so; I agree with Tyler's "wrong part of speech." I only know it in American English: YYMV or YHMV.
2
very little on the first pass through. then got traction in SW and SE and slowly ascended finishing in the NE. Liked POLK as name for acupuncturist! kudos for creating a challenging puzzle -- MUST BE NICE! LOL
I also couldn't get anything on the eastern side until I figured that SITNSPIN was spelled like that and entered it to see where it led.
1
@LizB. I had the same experience. It was the tale of two puzzle halves for me. The west side flowed pretty easily, while the east side was a tick tick tick tick slog. Loved the northwest stacks once I got (UNDERSTOOD) them, with the exception of the CHUPAWHATEVER, which ate my goat.
1
Northeast, not west (directionally challenged).
I sort of solved this one from west to east, and for a while didn't think I was going to get much at all on the east side. A few big gimmes in the west--ZAMBEZI, EL GRECO--got me started, and then with the crosses I was able to fill in fun things like CHUTZPAH and CIGAR SHOP. PIED PIPER helped in the middle, and once I got TEAM in the SE I realized that had to be SOCCER TEAM. But still, SIT N SPIN was fairly evil and was nearly the last fill, along with CLAW. HESITATION took a long time to become apparent, as well.
But CHUPACABRA makes up for a lot!
3
Funny, SIT N SPIN is what cracked open the east side for me! :)
@Liz B
Pretty much the same here with the NE proving to be particularly problematic. Well worth sticking with it, however.
@Liz B
Got badly hung up in the southwest until finally the BEER/PBR cross broke it open. Now ... where's that COOLER ...?