Re 39D, sorry for the spoiler, but the whole point of Jane Eyre is that Mr. Rochester is not in fact a widower!
5
Thanks NYTimes puzzle people. My mother was an avid pencil person, clipboard on lap (several left there in the end). I could never get past 30 seconds. But I was drawn to it this year as a focusing technique & alternative to the headlines. Now, skipping through the early week, & sloshing through end of week!! Words are so fascinating, especially when we live “in a world” where they are misused so regularly. And to all a good night!
Waaaaaay too many proper nouns in this puzzle. Just embarrassingly poor fill. I think on occasion Will and company allow frequent contributors like Mr. Collins far too much leeway. VAI crossing SEAVER crossing ENSOR with UREY waiting in the wings? Just sloppy. A poor showing all around.
6
Now this was a puzzle. I liked the no theme theme. Interesting juxtapositions with BEARSKIN and BAREBACK, GREEN and GREY, LIONSGATE and LIEON, and TIGERSHARK and TIBER.
Most BORing clue and answer (IMO) shot and INOCULATION.
Love OH MY DARLING. Poor Clementine. This puzzle, in a way, is like the song. There’s quite a lot of humor if you can get past the tragedy of themelessness.
I liked it.
:-)
1
This holiday season as I have been sharing the gift of music, I have also been passing along the Hans Christian Anderson quote. It made my day to have it appear in the NYTimes puzzle that I love so much. Thanks to Mr. Collins and Mr. Shortz, "Where words fail, music speaks"
1
Two things that amused me today: I’ve heard dozens of marching bands play “Hang On, SLOOPY” without ever once realizing the character was a girl. Also, I tried “bigamist” at first on the Mr. Rochester clue. It was too many letters, which saved me a lot of heartache.
1
Several people have mentioned the Winter Solstice and I can't wait to shed a little light on the subject.
Any ideas on how to make the longest night of the year feel like the longest night of the year?
How about tracking the shenanigans inter pols in DC with regarding to 'shutting down' government? With background music from "Mattis der Maler"? Shall let the American Eagle duke it out with the RUSSIAN BEAR'S KINS...
Moi, I'm going to see if I can find WHERE'S WALDO in BOOKS ON TAPE.
"Where did you go?"
"Out"
"What did you do?"
"NOTCHING"
3
Conceptually pleasing how SNEERs from two directions meet at G-ED to yield [RED- and ] GREEN-BACKS.
WHERE'S WALDO in BOOKS ON TAPE... Get it?
SUCCOUR punch.
2
My one complaint was the French Open clue which should have been "Mai" not May which lead me to think, I have danced to it many times but never recalling having seen it written that the singer might have been asking "Sloopi" to hang on. Hated the twist of giving a French clue with an English answer. Had to look Sloopy up for nostalgia reason, ergo getting my puzzle filled correctly
@mike went from 3 minutes faster than average to almost 3 slower for that same reason
I'm new here. I didn't see this "dedication to Dorothy" that you all are talking about. Not that it matters I guess but where was that? (I think it's funny that Italian and Russian are the same number of letters and Nolan Ryan was the only pitcher I could think of until it didn't work. But again, the same number of letters. Crazy.)
1
@Jackson
Read the constructor’s note in the column.
@Steve L Ohhhh, but by doing so you have to go down and find it. And you're bound to see some answers then. That's not good. But oh well, thanks for letting me know where to find it.
@Jackson
I don't quite understand your logic. It sounds like you have read through the comments. Did you not see any answers that way?
As usual for Friday, a tough one, but not extraordinarily so. I'm impressed by those that caught the "theme." Very clever!
Oy! OYS, and ATTA, again.
Very obtuse clues (IMHO) for LAITY and its interesting cross LAIR. Another crosss sharing first three letters: GREEN/GREY. (Close was LIEON/LION....)
Favorite clue/entry: Keystone enforcer/KOP. Second place: (opening to "Misty")/IMAS
Nice one, Mr. Collins!
Best part of this puzzle? You have to LIE on a mattress. Thank you crossword puzzle editors! Merry Christmas from Canada!
3
I came in just a hair below my average on this one. The first 100% confident entry I had was ENSOR, courtesy of They Might Be Giants song "Meet James Ensor".
Meet James Ensor
Belgium's famous painter
Dig him up and shake his hand
Appreciate the man
Once I got a toehold, I was able to run through this one with a bit of head-scratching. I didn't notice the mini-theme at all. D'oh!
3
he lived with his mother and the torments of Christ
1
@Wen, re your response to me about the Mt St Helen's eruption
Go back to the late end of yesterblog and see what I found. I was wearing socks, and they were blown off.
Dedication...
3
Thanks! That was an amazing story and dedication to his craft. Now I know!
2
I had much more trouble in the East than the West and the puzzle ended up being harder than I first thought it would be. Writeovers included REMAILS before RESHIPS; POLAND before POLSKA and HAR before HEH (damn, I hate those stupid laugh syllables.) But there were some very good clues, including BEARSKINS (14D); WORDS (39A) and HELEN KELLER (57A). On the latter, I thought the person on the Alabama state quarter was going to be a 'Bama football star, so good for you, Alabama, for honoring someone truly worth honoring.
We just saw Captain von Trapp's given name in a recent NYT puzzle. But I can always be counted on to forget, so I needed lots of crosses. I've heard of several of the Manhattan Project scientists, but not this one. Nor did I know the VAI guy or the ENSOR guy. But TOM SEAVER goes back to the days when I still watched baseball. That was back in the era when a game took two hours, not four hours, to play.
I also remember SLOOPY. "Hang on, SLOOPY, hang on./Hang on, SLOOPY, hang on" is what I remember. She was a girl? Does she sound like a girl? It never once crossed my mind that she was a girl!
A pleasant Friday, but not one of the really memorable ones.
3
Nancy,
She was a girl.
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on
Sloopy lives in a very bad part of town
And everybody yeah, tries to put my sloopy down
Well Sloopy I don't care what your daddy do
Cause' you know Sloopy girl I'm in love with you
And so I say now
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on
Sloopy let your hair down girl let it hang down on me
Sloopy let your hair down girl let it hang down on me
Come on Sloopy, Come on Sloopy
Come on Sloopy, Come on Sloopy
Well it feels so good
You know it feels so good
Shake it, Shake it, Shake it Sloopy
Shake it, Shake it, Shake it Yeah
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on
Hang on Sloopy, Sloopy hang on
Songwriters: Wes Farrell / Bert Russell
Hang on Sloopy lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Downtown Music Publishing, Kobalt Music Publishing Ltd., Morris Music, Inc
6
@Barry Ancona --
All I can say, Barry, is that if you're a girl with the unfortunate name of SLOOPY, it's a good thing that you at least have nice hair.
7
@Barry Ancona, thanks for posting the lyrics. I love that song and was pleased to see Sloopy make her appearance in the puzzle.
1
As too often happens in this era of difficulty-without-purpose, we have a tough puzzle that is not worth the effort. Where's the fun in that? We are not humorless drones.
Nevertheless, Merry Christmas to all, and Happy Solstice. Remember that shot of the rising earth sent to us by Lovell 50 years ago today?
7
@Foster
Sorry you found it not worth the perceived difficulty. Others of us relished the puzzle, or nearly all of it (that pesky Hullo/Urey natick was the exception for me).
As to "purpose," I do crosswords to solely to entertain and challenge myself. This did that well enough for me. Perhaps that is why I find the late week puzzles so satisfying and the early week ones like typing speed tests that simply warm up my fingers but not so much my mind.
I found sufficient humor in the Lion/Tiger/Bear sequence. Would I have preferred "coverage options, briefly" to be BVDs not HMOs? Sure. This certainly wasn't a "ha-ha" puzzle or "aha" puzzle, but humorless? A tad harsh, I feel.
In any event, we can agree to disagree. Happy Holidays and happier solving days ahead to you.
7
Hullo / Urey was the one that got me too. I had hallo / arey knowing it was likely incorrect, but it took me a while to try the u.
1
Filled in the grid in close to my Friday average. Received the dreaded "close but no cigar" notice. Scanned my entries for obvious typos or questionable choices. (Could it be NEATSKINS instead of BEARSKINS?) Finally gave up and asked for the reveal, (yesterday's nine-hour drive probably affecting my patience today). What did me in was MAI/SLOOPI instead of MAY/SLOOPY. Should have caught the language of the French Open clue, especially after the Polish example in this very puzzle. Argh!
1
@Al in Pittsburgh, me too.
As a few have mentioned, I was looking for a wild animal on every side, so my SE solve was slow. . .I had Lions, and Tigers, and Bears. . . . (wait for it) then, Oh my!
I thought it was greaaaaaat!
3
The most joyless slog of recent NYT crossword outings.
5
@Rooney Papa
If you are going to disparage a puzzle that many of us found very enjoyable, it might be useful (to Deb and the editors among others) if you outlined the reasons for your dissatisfaction.
Otherwise, one is reminded vaguely of another Bear friend, who said: "We can’t all and some of us don’t. That’s all there is to it."
10
But why? Too many names? The entries not fun? The cluing not clever? Too clever? Don't like Wizard of Oz?
4
@Wen & Puzzledog - please take a moment to read the line underneath "Rooney Papa" - it explains all.
All.
3
HULLO, we were puzzled as many by MAY for the month of the FRENCH Open, and also had HALLO (possibly because of some 30 years spent in Germany, where one says HALLO, not HULLO).
Liked TIGERSHARKS, WHERESWALDO and the clever cluing for HELENKELLER, TUB and BEARSKINS.
In general, despite quibbles, thought this was an amusing and clever puzzle.
4
@Puzzledog i agree. If I hadn't know Sloopy she'd be Sloopi and my sister who spent several years in Britain went with HALLO. Whaddyacallit when two words cross that require special knowledge?
@Mitch Elinson
Some call it a “Natick”. Rex Parker coined it a while back and it stuck. He was exasperated by two crossing words that formed a NW corner in a particular puzzle - the town of Natick (MA) and the name N C Wyeth. Thus a Natick...
1
Trump’s fault . . . or a “Natick,” after a town in Massachusetts.
Got hung up 'cause I had the refrain "Hang on, Snoopy" running through my head.
6
Striped sea predators. Hmm something SHARK. What is striped and a predator... kinda like a..... TIGER. Reason number 78 for avoiding speed solving contests, muttered Tom moronically.
I will not be in Alabama but perhaps Louisiana and Ole Miss can help with 57A.
Tomorrows solve will be a challenge as I recover from French 75s (Arnaud's) and oysters (Acme). NOLA temps will near 70 as I solve in the paper, with ink. Ahh, ERE electronic NYT editions - The good old days.
Thanks Peter.
1
@dk
Voulez les bons temps roulez!
1
Breezed through this one until I hit the SE corner, where "bridge position" led to ST, which obviously signaled "Stop!" Very enjoyable straightforward puzzle. Fun to hang on with SLOOPY and end with dreadful sorrow that it was over.
1
The Peter Collins dedication to Dorothy immediately brought me to the right Dorothy. But - I didn't notice her companions circling the puzzle until coming here. That's one of the joys I find in Wordplay and the ingenuity of the constructors.
9
Good puz
What I *meant* to write... was good puzzle overall, but I got frustrated by some of the name crossings. 12D/21A and 12D/33A in particular stymied me for a while.
I was also expecting 26A to be the French spelling (MAI) and was ambivalent on how to spell SLOOPY/SLOOPI.
2
Oh, I don 't know, didn't this puzzle have a certain, "Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore" quality about it? Peter! So whimsical and incredibly well done!
My mom's mom was named Clementine, so that resonated with me.
And our youngest played his drum in "Hang on Sloopy," his first ever marching band number. Another fun memory.
It's so seldom we get a Friday puzzle with a such a sense of humor. Thank you, Peter Collins, for your cruciverbalist wit!
6
I knew one of the clues on account of this great scene from Seinfeld.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gq-tvB9DIIM
2
@Luke M
Thanks for sharing that! What I liked about this entry was that although it was unfamiliar to me, I knew the word "bellicose" (thank you Miss Lucas!) and so had a leg up.
(Miss Lucas was my 6th grade English teacher, who introduced us to one new vocabulary word per day. I still remember that that's where I learned bellicose, as well as mnemonic, bazaar, jocular, and dozens of others! We put each word on an index card and kept them in a little box, and they were our "filebox words".)
:-c)€
4
@Luke M
It's just a Latin phrase, it does not mean anything!
And anyway, why must you always be the center of attention? ;-)
1
LIONS and TIGERS and BEARS, oh my! I am OVER THE RAINBOW pleased with this puzzle.
Thank you, thank you, Mr. Collins, for a worthy Friday trip down the YELLOW BRICK ROAD! Crosses were essential to getting to OZ. This is what I want the end of the week to bring. Misdirections were plentiful (those darn FLYING MONKEYS), but eventually I got HOME.
The puzzle came together slowly, surely and with due struggle. No TORNADO speeds were reached today, a minute over average.
Nota bene: UREY was an outlier, but was also an obvious point of change to other vowels after May for Mai didn't do the "puzzle completed" trick online. That said, if I'd been solving in print, I'd have stopped at AREY, having no reason to know otherwise, nor realistically expecting to know that name. Even my Physics (and Math) majoring son who read the tome "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" only got UREY through crosses.
4
@Liane, replying to your last post yesterday, you'll have to give me the name of your favorite Szechuan place in Atlanta so I can try it out. And, yes, my recent trips to IAD to pick up my son have been similarly challenging because of traffic and weather. If my itinerary permits, I always take MARTA from ATL rather than renting a car.
@Henry Su It’s more like several restaurants because I have yet to find one great for everything. Great dry fried eggplant at Gu’s Kitchen on Buford Highway. I’d forgotten how good that is having had less well seasoned versions for years since they'd abandoned the neighborhood. Their dumplings are not returned to former glory sadly. Let me know what you like and when you’re coming!
Terrific! Just like TOM [SEAVER]. The hidden theme is amazing and PAC's dedication was perfect. I am starting my rainy Friday with a huge smile on my face. The LION portrayer came close to making an appearance with LAIR and the H (from Lahr) just to the left.
I strangely almost entered WHERE"S WALDO before BOOKS ON TAPE. When it filled in later, I almost fell off my stool.
I was a little surprised to see IN ONE and ONE in the same grid. And I fell for the traps -- MAi and 'west' before HELM.
Happy weekend. And thank you to PAC and Deb and all the Wordplay community for making my mornings fun and interesting.
2
Got SW pretty quickly with LIONSGATE and EASTCOAST as gimmes. The rest of that section fell from there.
SE took a while because I had POLAND instead of POLSKA. Shoulda known. Also knew HELENKELLER somewhere in the recesses of my mind but it didn't ring a bell. I also knew Harold UREY but it wasn't registering either. Bad day for mental cobwebs. Finally slogged through it and enjoyed it.
My self-misdirections (some original, some dupes, as I recall earlier comments):
MAI before MAY (did not hang on very long)
WAX before PIX (insert unPC Polish joke?)
SPA before TUB (Tom saved me)
EAST or WEST before HELM (double or jibe!)
49A is clearly in Eastern Massachusetts, not Britain, with its cross of 50D forming a classic Natick (the exceptions who knew Urey proving the rule).
My maternal grandmother, Dorothy, would have enjoyed this crossword.
7
@Barry Ancona
I had WEST before HELM as I had already filled EAST COAST in the Southwest.
1
@Barry Ancona We are (or were) of one mind, ye and I.
@Barry Ancona, @Andrew, @Puzzledog
Looks like we have a full table. Somebody deal the cards.
I very much enjoyed this puzzle and had both smileys (clues I liked) and scars (corrections in ink).
My favorite clue may have been the simple 12A "Whirlpool site" because even though it was Friday, I inked in SPA and then I paused... it could be *SEA*, I thought oh-so-cleverly. I noted that the clue with the SPA/SEA pair could possibly be used in a Schrodinger puzzle! Unhappily it of course was TUB. (Actually, I was happy to have been wrong. That's a lot of the fun!)
POLAND turned out to be POLSKA (scar!) and 49D ("Bridge position") didn't end in ST after all (EAST or WEST). (scar! And another trap I fell into!)
Smileys at 13D ("Labor party member's holding?") and 7D ("They operate around the clock").
I was a little disappointed that 12D was for me an unknowable proper noun that crossed with two others at 21A and 33A, leaving me with two holes I filled only with internet help. (I'm lousy with most names.) But despite that I really liked this morning's puzzle. Thank you Mr Collins! Dorothy is well honored.
Happy Solstice, everyone! Tonight is the longest night of the year.
:-c)€
4
One of the many, many things I love about crossword puzzles and this Wordplay community is that at age 47 I am still a kid. Happy Friday to all!
5
.... and I still fee that way at seventy-six!!
We ARE as young as we think and feel - - I hope(?)
OH my Goodness!
OH my Heavens!
OH my Stars!
OMG!
The song refrain referred to is, properly, “OH my darlin’”. NO “g”.
The dedication to Dorothy was extraordinarily clever and amusing!
And I had “MAS” for 56A - - and didn’t know LIONSGATE from LIONSGAME - - so I had to resort to the dreaded CHECK PUZZLE button. GRRRR!!
PeterW,
The song refrain is rendered "properly" with or without the "g" depending upon the arranger and/or source.
https://genius.com/Traditional-oh-my-darling-clementine-lyrics
2
I’ll agree with you - - - but only if you can find ONE person who sings “OH, my darlING” for every hundred I can find that sing “OH, my darlin’”.
It WAS “tongue-in-cheek”. And it IS only a crossword puzzle!
I’m continually surprised by the number of people who get their shorts in a wad over violations of esoteric “rules”!
Typical tough Friday for me, I'm so glad I don't mind looking up things, must be the librarian in me.
Just to add to the HULLO discussion---
In my small paperback Oxford English Dictionary both Hallo and HULLO are defined as a variant of Hello. The entry for "hello" says "(also hallo or hullo) exclaim, used as a greeting".
However my friend with whom I just had coffee says HULLO is a nonsense.
I liked the puzzle and loved the added Dorothy bit and am very impressed by those who figured it out. What fun!
6
@suejean - HULLO from another librarian across the pond. My profession got in the way today, trying to think of a truly literary children’s title for 53A, a Newbery or Carnegie medal winner, maybe. It took me way too long to come up with the non-literary, but surely popular, WHERESWALDO.
3
@Connie I did the same thing, racking my brain to come up with 53A. I was a school librarian in 1987 (retired now); how could I forget the important titles? It really had me stuck in the SE. Lesson learned!
1
@OTquilter and Connie, Exactly, I kept thinking "I should know this"
1
Re: the constructor notes. Not all that mysterious. Dorothy said: "Lions and tigers and bears, oh my !" Look at the corner answers.
13
@Bruce Campbell That is some great detective work, Bruce! What a brilliant "trick" Peter Collins pulls on us... a Friday puzzle with a "hidden" theme!
1
@Bruce Campbell That is some great detective work, Bruce! What a brilliant "trick" Peter Collins pulls on us... a Friday puzzle with a "hidden" theme!
P.S. You're secret is safe with me, Ash...
1
@Steve Faiella OK, clearly I need to have more coffee before posting. Not only did I misspell Your, but somehow I posted the comment twice, once with an added line at the end.
My apologies... LOL
1
Nice long workout for me. Not a complete success with a couple (okay, maybe more than a couple) of failed checks and one look-up along the way, but that's typical for me on a Friday. Agree there was some kind of overly tough fill, but I still enjoyed this for the part.
I Did get POLSKA right away and that helped a lot in eventually recalling HELENKELLER which was key in filling out that section.
A couple of interesting (for me) ambiguities on a couple of down answers. For 12d, I was first considering 3 other pitchers as likely answers, and... couldn't remember any of their names. Turns out neither Koufax nor Drysdale would have fit anyway, but BOBGIBSON would have. Eventually worked that out from the crosses.
Then for 6d, I had the S, one of the O's and the Y in place. Two other sixties songs would have fit: STORMY and SPOOKY, and I considered both of those first, though it dawned on me afterwards that SPOOKY was not actually the girl's name. Still an odd coincidence that I'd never noticed before.
Since the Y in that answer was a bit controversial, let's just drop it and go with this old favorite:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWJXTdCVsKI
..
NOLANRYAN was the pitcher I first tried, then BOBFELLER. Startling how many great pitchers have 9 letters in their name.
3
@Julia LaBua
Hand up for Bob Feller as my first thought
3
@Rich in Atlanta
I wonder who's been singing Hang on STORMY...
2
The SE was rough going for me. Had to step away twice before completing. My sexism, or perhaps my northern snobbism, got in my way with HELENKELLER, as I kept trying to come up with a man’s name that started with H. Strangely enough, a phrase I didn’t know that I knew until I knew it (casus BELLI) saved me from myself and finally and slowly the SE blanks began to fill in.
I didn’t see the puzzle’s tribute to “Dorothy” until I read the comments. Ingenious. Kudos to those who saw it.
2
Well, here's the explanation to sneaky Peter's cryptic puzzle note, pointed out by Jeff Chen as well as our former commenter Loren (who posts on Rex): Look at the first words to these answers, in this order: 29D, 1A, 14D, and 59A.
This was a bit of a thrill ride for me, with those near-islands in the NW and SE and much vague cluing. I engaged in some hard brain scouring offset by joyous pings when an elusive answer hit, and wows at some wickedly clever clues (i.e. those for HANDS and BEARSKINS). I ended with an ALL IN ONE feeling of satisfaction. Bravo, sir Peter!
My well-scattered family is gloriously reuning, and I shall return to posting the end of next week. Happy holidays!
9
Oh! I got it at last. Thanks!!!
Now as I read the comments more closely, Peter's puzzle note was first explained here earlier by @SteveL -- I'm sorry for not crediting you, Steve!
2
Not sure why all the hullabaloo about HULLO. I recall seeing this in Agatha Christie mysteries I read as a child. Poirot had a British police sidekick who used to say it regularly. I interpreted it to be an interjection more than a greeting, because it was not said upon first meeting, but rather on some sudden realization. I likely also came across it in those delightful P. G. Wodehouse stories mentioned by Steve L. (I learned countless odd British expressions there, most notably "the eel's eyebrows" essentially the same meaning as "the bee's knees".) And then there is Winnie-the-Pooh. And Pooh did not call an elephant a heffalump. I believe that a heffalump was an imaginary creature that he and Piglet went off in pursuit of.
I had GLORIA before SHERRY before SLOOPY. Lots of six-letter girls' name song titles in the 60s.
4
@Andrew
Re: HULLO. Because it's obsolete. And there's no marker of that. And because HALLO is another obsolete spelling that had to be considered. As is HOLLO. And because most people wouldn't know Harold UREY, so there's no help there.
4
@Steve L
I'm not sure that I would term HULLO obsolete, and dictionaries certainly don't. I would consider it a variant, appearing in a good amount of English Literature.
On the subject of obsolescence however, BOOKS ON TAPE could sure use an update.
8
@Steve L and @Andrew,
In puzzling over HULLO vs. HALLO vs. HELLO in light of the comment traffic, I came across this web page, https://notoneoffbritishisms.com/2014/08/29/hullo/, and its use of the Google NGram Viewer to see whether a particular term (in this case, "hullo") has fallen into disuse. Try it yourself -- enter the three words in the viewer, https://books.google.com/ngrams, separated by commas; select a time period to chart; and choose "American English" or "British English." Very interesting results.
A good tough Friday.
Loved the long stacks, though a little iffy on the crossings. I'M AS was the one I liked the least.
A WHO'S WHO of no-knows. ECK, UREY, SLOOPY, ENSOR. GEORG almost made it if not for recent appearance, and even then, it took some CSI prop to remind me of it.
Some very straightforward cluing for the long entries except 13D and 14D, but not that tricky. Some tricky location based spelling variation - HULLO, POLSKA, GREY. Like some others, I thought MAI at first (actually thought ETE before that).
Thank goodness I knew TOM SEAVER and Steve VAI.
BARE BACK on BEARSKINS in a cabin? OH MY DARLING? I'm YOUR MAN? Sounds like someone's been listening to Harlequin romance BOOKS ON TAPE. HEH HEH.
11
I would imagine that, from Bertha's perspective, Mr. Rochester was only an actual widower for a fraction of the novel.
Great satisfying Friday of a puzzle.
9
SPELLING BEE THREAD
21 words 85 points 1 pangram
M-6 3x4L, 2x5L, 1x8L
N-2 2x 4L
O-1 1x4L
P-7 2x4L, 1x5L, 2x6L, 1x7L, 1x10L
T-5 3x4L, 1x7L, 1x8L
You will either see the pangram fast or not. Quick Bee since I did. This comment took longer (darn phone typing).
Prince, Cher, Sting and Madonna are still not welcome at the party. Grrr.
HINT: two words will especially annoy those who wanted our friends above to visit, although I would say both forms are more in the common vernacular.
8
@Liane - a gentle hint to that 5-letter P would get me a crown...
@Liane
Yes, I sometimes see the pangram immediately. Such as today, as you did.
I like to make that my game within the game: enter the pangram first. If I don't see it right away, I work on it until I do. There are days when that can take some time depending on how my brain is working.
From there I work to avoid the 4 letter words as long as possible. Makes for a more interesting solve, at least for me.
5
@David Connell The 5 letter P word is a variant of one of the 4 letter P words . . . don't be blue . . .
2
QB
We got what we wished for, shorter….but not necessarily easier!
21/85 1 Pangram, no bingo
M - 6 - 3x4, 2x5, 1x8
N - 2 - 2x4
O - 1 - 1x4
P - 7 - 2x4, 1x5, 2x6, 1x7, 1x10
T - 5 - 3x4, 1x7, 1x8
Geographically speaking, don’t ‘overlook’ the obvious. If you hurry up at midday to the ‘in’ spot on the local barge, you just might see something rising in the sky. Some might think you an idiot if you constantly repeat yourself ;)
And our power is back on…yippee!
4
@BarbJ
Thanks for the grid (and @Liane too!)
Three new words today.
Since no letter set has ever been repeated yet (regardless of arrangement), there has always been at least one new word each day - the pangram(s).
Yesterday's new words: ARCHIVAL, ARCHRIVAL, CHIVALRIC, LARCH
Today's puzzle is most similar to these two in the past, having 6 letters in common:
2018-06-12 KNPRTY-O
2018-08-14 LMOPTY-R
2018-12-21 MOPRTY-N
However, similarity doesn't mean same words are in both. Namely, there no words that are common between today's puzzle and 2018-08-14 because today's center letter - N, doesn't appear in that puzzle. There were 11 words in common between today's and the puzzle on 2018-06-12.
2
i felt like a real stupid head when i finally got the last M
2
@BarbJ Sorry for the duplication. My bleary eyes didn't see yours when I scrolled through at 3:30 am. I try to keep a blurry view so I don't see XW revealers. Usually the grid pops right out at me, much like the pangram.
1
Having the answer to the time of the French Open be "May" rather than "Mai" was ... strange. If it wasn't going to be the French word for May ... why make it the FRENCH open?
Even for a Friday this was deliberately misleading, and not in a good way.
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Because May is when the French Open starts?
Have been without power for the last 10 hours due to a huge wind storm (100 km/h winds), but luckily the cell tower near us has stood the test. Cosy in front of the gas fireplace with candles lit and a glass of wine in hand. Was able to get my beloved NYTXP while hubby listened to the Canucks hockey game using my cell phone as a hot spot. Power is now running low on my iPad, so hope I can make it to midnight to do the bee.
Started out with almost all pencil (not much at that) with the exception of TIBER and BERN (even though it’s not in the mountains I understood the intent) so had to build from there. Lively clueing with my favourite being ‘Hides in a cabin, perhaps’/ BEARSKINS.
Had ?MOS for ages but as we don’t have them here I didn’t twig until later, nor honouree on the third Friday of Sept. HaLLO before HULLO, natick at SEAVER/VAI and ENSOR so eventually had to look that up (@HALinNY can tell you I’m terrible at sports stuff ;)
Wasn’t sure about business END - of a measuring tape?
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@BarbJ
No power on Cortes Island, either, but only for about 4 hours, most unusually, as it normally takes much longer to be restored. But it is a common November, December happening, a routine part of island living.
I didn't understand end, either.
@Peter Jackel
Glad you have your power back - ours came back on 15 minutes ago. Very unusual in our neighbourhood as all our services are underground. Lots of siren activity.
Interested to hear what explanations we get for the END!
The business end - the part that does the work, as in “ hit with the business end of the stick”.
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Feeling pretty smug, I moved smoothly through today's puzzle. Until arriving in the SE, HEH HEH.
Now I would wager that 95+ percent of the time "Bridge position" 49d will be either east or west, and entered as __st POLand looked pretty good for 42d, and WIlliam 39d mostly because it fit. All of which left a HULL Of a mess to unravel.
Giving up on WIlliam eventually got me to 44a BODYcAm, 44d BLEND, and 39d WIDOWER, again, because it fit. Then, most unexpectedly, 53a WHERES WALDO arrived in the nick of time to save the day. Well, the day had already been trashed, but that's another story. But the puzzle, at least, unwound pretty quickly from there.
So a pretty good workout it was. "Bridge position" is a great misdirection. Thanks to Peter Collins for this worthy Friday offering.
And good luck USA. Are we Great Again yet?
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@Mike R
Good job of describing your process. You left out that "Bridge positions" also could be nasal. I was holding the --BAG and opted for the polyBAG that holds evidence instead of the more grisly BODYBAG
Speaking of grisly, I need to watch less TV news.
I liked the bookends of 1A and 59A; my cats are named Tiger and Clementine.
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and Elke
OY- OY- unlike yesterday's, today's puzzle was not my finest hour .
Had 'spa'before TUB, 'salads' before GREENS,'shake' before SODAS etc etc. TIL -VAI.
Did know UREY (Nobel Prize for deuterium).
SUCCOR came with LIONSGATE , as by coincidence we were delayed this pm on the LION'S GATE BRIDGE which connects North Vancouver with the rest of the world via a causeway through Stanley Park. The WeST COAST is having a significant storm with many trees down and power outages. Two downed trees had blocked our and lots of other drivers' progress.
Wonder how Cortes Island residents fared..
Does the HELEN KELLER coin have braille on it ?
Interesting how CCS (i.e. ''carbon copies'') is used for e-mails, Xerox copies etc. Sorta ALL IN ONE, no?
TIGER SHARKS are striped and WALDO's attire has stripes.
I was not BORED, but too tired to sing about Clementine.
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@Robert
See BarbJ above.
@Robert
What do you call someone who sprinkles Yiddishisms in their speech? An Oyster.
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Yes...Helen Keller's name is spelled in proper Braille (it uses the single-cell -en and -er) on the state quarter. It's rather smaller than standard Braille, though.
I can hum the song, but had no idea SLOOPY was a girl’s name. One quibble: BERN isn’t Alpine, it’s on the plain. Contrary to popular belief, not all of Switzerland is mountainous, and not all the mountains are Alps!
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@Thomas Gray
I agree about SLOOPY. Never realized it to be a girl's name. That is why I had GLORIA and then SHERRY before finally settling on SLOOPY.
My interpretation of the BERN clue is that Switzerland is an Alpine country, and BERN is its capital.
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@Thomas Gray
I'll go a step further and admit I first wrote in SNOOPY, good grief.
re BERN, what I remember are the BEAR pits, where the BEARS could climb stripped tree trunks till they were level with the crowd.... and the small chocolate BEARS the vendors sold nearby.
Apropos of nothing but a childhood memory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQyHU2AW_yI
Hol dirri ah di hoh!!
This was a tough one to get into, with a lot of names I didn’t know, but was balanced with some great clues ("Hides in a cabin") and words that are just fun to see - SUCCOR and LAITY notably.
And Steve VAI reminded me of my middle school days when guitar gods meant those who could play as many notes as fast as possible - and VAI and Joe Satriani were the true kings. Brought me back, so thank you Mr.Collins for that.
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So many thoughts triggered by this puzzle!
I know "hullo" from Winnie the Pooh, so I think that counts as British.
The Tiger, Lion, Bear, and Shark are all gathered around...a Body Bag. Yikes!
Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia i szczęśliwego Nowego Roku!
The proper name is Rzeczpospolita Polska, but Polska will do for now. Cześć!
But Vai brings back wonderful memories of a classmate from Liberia...I'll put them in a followup post.
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I had a dorm mate who was Liberian, and one day I learned that he had a wife and children back home, which explained his lonely demeanor. I asked him to teach me some greeting in his own language so it might cheer him up. He taught me the standard exchange of pleasantries in Vai, one of the languages of Liberia.
I po'a = "how goes it?"
Kasibbe'e kama mai = "there is no rust on God"
Kama ya tu'a ma = "let God keep it that way"
Amina = "amen"
(That's how you say "hullo" in Vai!)
Vai is the only African language to have developed an alphabetic system independent of the hamito-semitic (basic European) alphabets.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vai_syllabary
It also has wonderful traditions of story telling. One favorite:
A man enters a village where they've just slaughtered a cow. He asks to buy the head of the cow, and they say, "sure, one dollar please." He takes the head to the next village, and plops it into a mud puddle. He runs into the village, saying, "Help, help, my cow is stuck in the mud!" The villagers run and pull on the head of the cow, which pops up in their hands. "Oh, my," he says, "You've killed my cow, worth twenty dollars!" So they pay him twenty dollars and he moves along.
Not exactly Aesop.
20
In my version of Winnie-The-Pooh, 50th printing 1956, Pooh does not say "hullo" but "hallo," and he also calls an elephant a "heffalump." But that does not make either of these words "English," just "Poohish."
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When Piglet tells Pooh about the heffalump trap, he says "hullo."
In fact, Milne writes "hullo" all over the books - Tolkien writes "hullo" all over the books - Woolfe writes "hullo" all over the books - Dickens writes "hullo" all over the books. (Doubters are invited to google "hullo" plus "author's name".) That ain't Poohish. That's British language, as notated by British authors. I reckon it's as good as they are, being writers and all.
Hullo, Polly, my love, can you hear the dumb goose-hiss of the wives as they huddle and peck or flounce at a Thomas waddle away? Who cuddled you when? Which of their gandering hubbies moaned in Milk Wood for your naughty mothering arms and body like a wardrobe, love. (Dylan Thomas, Under Milk Wood.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6qRvZe8kLQ
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Like @Liz B, UREY was a no-know for me, and HALLO should have been an acceptable answer to 49D. ENSOR was also a no-know, and so I encountered some trouble in the NE, running through the options of DEERSKIN and BUCKSKIN before settling on BEARSKIN.
Regarding whether 26A should be MAY or MAI, my take is that the clue would have read "When Roland Garros starts" if it were the latter because the tournament is not referred to as the French Open in France. Compare with 42D, which asks for "Warszawa's land" and not "Warsaw's land." Hence the answer is POLSKA and not POLAND.
5
Meant to write 49A.
I have been speaking "English" English for nearly 7 decades and I have never said "Hullo." And I have never heard anyone else in Britain say it.
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@Bruvver
Apparently, Bertie Wooster from the "Jeeves" stories, (Hi, Kids...) which were popular about 100 to 50 years ago, said it.
I'll add it was bad form to cross it with a rather obscure proper name (Oppenheimer, yes; Urey, not so much). You knew it couldn't be HELLO and EREY, but you couldn't be sure which vowel would work...and HALLO is indeed an olde-timey way to spell HELLO, too.
Maybe the clue should have been "Old-fashioned greeting in Britain."
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@Bruvver: I remember Cary Grant saying what sounded like "hullo" to me, but that's obviously not definitive. :)
1
One of my favorite childhood pranks was cutting school that day in April 1970 , taking the LIRR into Shea, and watching 12 down strike out a then record 19 San Diego Padre batters, 10 consecutively. I thought my mother was none the wiser. Decades later I realized she knew all along and let me skate.
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It’s amazing how memorable that game was. I have a similar story. That year, I was in fifth grade and because my grades were down, my parents took away watching sports in TV. So that afternoon, I went to a friend’s house and watched Seaver strikeout 10 in a row. No way my parents could’ve known that! So we both defied the authorities to see a game we’d remember 48 years later.
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Only 14k in the stands that afternoon. Too bad more people did not defy authority and see history.
Couldn't make it. I was in the state referenced in 57A, well beyond LIRR or 7 service.
Was anyone else a bit miffed about the double (or is it triple?) Natick of James ENSOR, TOM SEAVER, and Steve Vai? I was able to finish the whole puzzle except for the two crossing squares - had to look it up since there was no way I was going to guess them.
Other than that an enjoyable puzzle, one of those that seems impenetrable at first but gradually yields to solving. LIONSGATE was my way in.
14
Not I. See my comment and a find youthful memory.
@IM I too was a bit miffed; I happened to guess correctly but the answers fall in the "don 't know, don't care" category.
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@IM I won't say miffed but I definitely think they're Naticks. Those two squares really could have been any two consonants and were accordingly the last two squares that I filled in.
Crossing SLOOPY with MAY at the Y was bad form. The French Open in the clue could mean we should be writing MAI, and who knows how ol’ Sloop spelled her name? Bad misdirect.
4
If I hadn’t already entered MAI I would have seen SLOOPY and entered it correctly. I guess if Mr. Collins wanted MAI, something in the clue would have been in French, so we shouldn’t have assumed MAI.
5
My mother’s name was Dorothy but I doubt that Mr. Collins knew her, so this puzzle is probably dedicated to a different one.
My last square was to change MAI to MAY re the French Open.
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@David Meyers
I thought Peter Colllins must have been related to Dorothy Collins, of Your Hit Parade fame on 50s TV, but Jeff Chen figures out the mystery comment on XwordInfo. Quite clever, really.
@David Meyers
Reread the longer outer clues, clockwise, starting in the southwest.
It's a hidden version of the "The starts of ... or a hint to..." kind of revealer.
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Thanks, Steve!
That’s super cute!
Finished with an error, and had to hunt to find it. HALLO seemed like a good answer to me instead of HULLO, and AREY certainly seemed as likely to be a name as UREY.
I had very little to start with--ENSOR and BERN and HELEN KELLER in the Acrosses, basically. But they were spread out enough that I could build on them and expand into the rest of the puzzle. And the Downs always fill in more completely. Business END puzzled me for a while, but I eventually decided it's like 'the business end of a weapon'--if it's something else, I'm sure someone will enlighten me.
5
UREY was a gimme for me though still a guess given no crosses yet. Not sure why his name popped into my head given only Harold and four letters to fill.
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@David: Can something be *both* a gimme and a guess? :P
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@Liz B
The AREY/UREY, HALLO/HULLO cross was my final stumbling block, as well. I seem to be having the same issues as you lately (as regards the daily puzzle).
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enjoyable Friday puzzle. Pretty much worked quarter to quarter -- no SUCCOR needed!
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