Difficult. My poor spelling ability had me scanning the filled in grid for quite a while, til I figured out civit is spelled civet. Kept my personal streak going tho. I don't necessarily solve the same day, but I don't look anything up, except rarely how spell a word. My last streak ended when I couldn't get tref/flecks. Stuck on specks. Had to finally check Rex Parker's site. If only I had held out a little longer.....
2
God TIED YE over, Gentlemen,
Lest N-TESTS ye dismay!
I thought that Mr UnIVERSE
Had ONE SOCK to MISLAY
His WIIITIS had got so BAD
It COST U MEn your pay
And your BALI NESE can SQUAT LESS every day
LESS every day
And your BALI NESE can SQUAT LESS every day!
I've been SKALDed before
But seldom have found PENSivE so EXPENSivE.
Was thrown by the Easter Island MOAI, for investigating their connection to the MOA I know to be unique to NZealand Islands. A half dozen species of these giant ratites were reported to have been hunted to extinction about 300 years ago by the Maori, but I suspect now that the Maori drove them to Easter Island, as punishment for their participation in the Great Vowel Shift.
Interestingly, some of those ratites have long loopy tracheas, which permits them to make those loud booming cries like swans and such, that carry for great distances. Very similar to DavidC's Alpenstock.
Had my biggest comeuppants in the SE corner, for unfamiliarity with NISSANS. Also didn't think a REINVEST makes as much sense as a REINCOAT. When I finally corrected MrUniverse to MULTIVERSE, I did wonder whether Noyes' The Highwayman qualifies as a MULTIVERSE, with 17 stanzas. If anyone out there knows the qualifications, do let me know, please.
Thanks for a lovely time, Mr Quigley. Just please don't give me any more 20thC Brians unless they;re ENO or PICCOLO.
9
Very late comment from West Coast. This puzzle had some very unique clues, even by crossword standards. I wonder how Brendan Emmett Quigley came up with them. Never heard of SKALDS before - always learning something new here. And I don't think there was a theme, right? Just making sure I didn't miss anything.
@Chat Cannelle,
Correct. No theme.
Skalds can be contrasted with another Norse poetic tradition, the Eddas. Whereas the Eddas can be likened to a grand poetic tapestry that has been woven by many hands, the Skalds are associated with specific bards, who may have competed for the King's patronage.
1
MISLAYER is really a stretch. I originally has MISTILER which wasn’t any worse.
4
AVAILED is the new BEST/WORST. I was stuck on the TAKEONE / AKAILED. For the life of me, I considered AVAILED over and over but just didn't think it fit the clue. Still don't see it.
3
Pretty sure MISLAYERS is the one Mr Quigley got away with this time around. That’s more of a stretch than me (at 5’8”) trying to dunk a basketball.
@Barb
My understanding from reading the Constructor Notes is that he was referring to JUVENTUS.
1
I don't solve for speed (as will become obvious), and I don't usually pay attention to the timer, but today I was struck by the fact that my time was 1:11:11. Yes that is exactly one hour, eleven minutes and eleven seconds. While it was not the eleventh day of the month, it was in fact the 22nd, so that must count for something.
9
@Andrew Do not go watch Jordan Peele’s “Us” that premieres today!
Deb (tho you are busy at the convention): Thinking of Your class again—this is a good example of new stuff meeting old stuff. I loved wiiitis and cardi b which are maybe unfamiliar to some, but the 60s producer and 80s nfler are totally unknown to me. Only got on crosses. Meanwhile at my tender age ace Ventura is right in the sweet spot of nostalgia and newness. Anyway off to read up on the names I didn’t know so I can deepen my knowledge. That’s what it’s all about.
12
For bailors, I was thrown by the “helps”. Since bailors is plural, would it be more correct to use “help”?
@Eric Torng Think of "help" and "bailor" both as nouns. "Helps" is plural, and so is "bailors."
Me? I was busy looking for "files baked in a cake."
3
dlr,
Files come in packages of ground beef these days, or so I heard from Dannemora.
1
@dlr
Maybe I’m just tired but wouldn’t you write “bailors help” or a “bailor helps”?
Saints and Rappers! Ah me.
I thought this one was particularly rough. Took awhile to get going. My first fill was OINK. Thought that was an indication of ease to come...wrong!
Mr. Quigley’s puzzle just about ate my lunch, but the PIE ALA MODE was saved by CARLO PONTI, and things began to fall into place. Got ALIMONY and MULTIVERSE and ACE VENTURA and NISSANS actually helped a bit as well.
Very Friday appropriate.
:-)
3
Can someone please explain why [mic drop] means DONE?
1
@Darcy
Nothing more to say, really - DONE ;-)
3
@Darcy
Toastmasters might not concur with this maneuver but it is trendy body-lingo for voilá. Usually, but not exclusively, a mic drop signals a sign-off from the emcee or an orator, vis-a-vis we’re DONE here.
2
@Darcy
For a famous one, just search youtube for "Obama mic drop"
1
Known as IBARS or HBARS to crossword constructors, they are IBEAMS or HBEAMS to the entire rest of the world; i.e. people who make, sell, buy, design, install, or in any other way make use of such shapes.
8
@bill
Erick AYBAR, however, is a baseball player:
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/aybarer01.shtml
Late, later, latest! This puzzle looked totally impossible at first. The PIE ALA MODE and the OINK gave me a toehold, and even though you can't spot a TOP MAST peeking over the horizon, a SAIL is another matter. Hmph, BEQ!
AH ME before SODOM led me astray.
BAILORS still looks wrong.
I used to make COQ au vin often, back when you could get a decent chicken weighing 3 lbs. instead of the current behemoths that weigh in at 5 lbs. plus! (Fume.) I should have raised chickens! Ah, well. Too late!
9
Mean Old Lady,
SODOM led a lot of people astray …
4
"...even though you can't spot a TOP MAST peeking over the horizon, a SAIL is another matter. Hmph, BEQ!"
Avast, MOL! Of course you'll make out sail before mast on a sailing ship, but you *can* see the masts of a motor vessel when it's hull down.
1
Wiiitis made me chuckle. Worth the price of admission just for that. I’ll take a smile anywhere I can, these days.
6
Deb thought Cardi B might have been a debut, but I remember reading the blog comments from the previous puzzle; there was a lot of "you got your Natick in my Cardib!" flying around.
1
Ugh ... I made very little progress with my first three or four passes, finally working into a grind after settling on MULTIVERSE. Eventually I got the NE corner and washed out into the corner obscurities I exhausted my time and patience guessing at.
Maybe it is more to say the representation of know things, posited obscurely, makes them obscure.
MAGNUM PI, ALSATIAN, RAKES, YNES, ETON, CARLI B, et cetera. Like I said I got the NE corner and even Juventus before proofing my work.
Cheers
2
The thing about WIIITIS is that we're already two generations past the WII so I question it as a word that will stand any test of time.
3
@Oswald At first I thought you meant human generations, and I wondered how 13 years (since the introduction of the WII) could be so described. Then I thought you must mean something to do with versions of the software/hardware/whatever. And to that I offer this, from Wikipedia: "As of the first quarter of 2016, the Wii led its generation over the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in worldwide sales".
Apparently still viable.
3
@Diana
OR wiiable.
5
@Steve L
OR, as another poster would put it, vviiable.
4
About 3 times more difficult than usual. Kept me on my toes. And it's one by BEQ! One of my 3 favorite Contstructors, maybe of all time. i Had to resort to pathing thru this grid. Last clue in Across vvas first. Had to break off several times over but still able to do this all by myself. My standards, same as the ACPT's. i Dedicate Foreigner's HEAD GAMES to all involved in this. As for me, i have to do this in one mean streak. i have a dearth of patience vvithin me. Thinking of taping myself doing the vvhole shebang (coming in around 2 hours, 15 minute, no breaks). i vvant to send some applause and a salute to all vets and military playing in this or along. i Feel so utterly solitary in this regard. (4 years in the US Army). Thank you for abiding this all.
6
James,
You are not the solitary veteran in these comments.
(1 yr, 8 mos, 6 days; US Army)
4
@Barry Ancona Did you extend your tour? Or did you just not get shipped over right after training?
Or is it the other reason.
Supercalifragilistic crunchy Friday. Took more time than usual. Amazed that my brain reached back for Carlo Ponti after I had "ont". I always thought of him as Mr. Sophia Loren. I knew the rapper was a C, but struggled for a bit. Bede was a guess for me, once I had the "d" from the down clue. My entry was admittedly based more on the novel Adam Bede (blech), which was British enough to try as a name. Then CardiB popped.
Luck works sometimes.
2
A tough puzzle that taught me MOAI and JUVENTIS, after I finally got the cross MENTAL. If I say "That guy is MENTAL," am I giving him the compliment that he is rational?
1
@Babel64 I had your spelling for JUVENTUS for much too long.
1
A tough Friday but very satisfying. Had to have a little help from my son’s girlfriend for CardiB! Tried to forget the fall of Saigon. Ace Ventura came late, as I tried Steve and Magnum.
More please maybe on a Saturday!
I do a lot of yoga. This puzzle felt like a tough yoga practice. Lots of stretching and feeling uncomfortable.
There was a little too much odd filler for me. SIPE, for example, is apparently also the groove in a tire or an acronym for Swimming Induced Pulmonary Edema, but we went with Brian. For some reason though, I couldn't remember the name of the NFL MVP a few months after I was born.
1
This was tricky--I found that as I solved a quadrant, it did not help me solve the adjoining ones. Also, I spent forever visualizing Tom Selleck in a Hawaiian shirt and searching my memory for his character's name (Thomas Magnum of Magnum P.I.), only to finally realize, after PEDALS and COQ gave me something to work with, that I should have been picturing Jim Carrey.
12
Solving this puzzle with my long haired, sapphire-eyed Himalayan cat on my lap...32D was particularly tough for me (not least because Himalayan doesn’t fit).
3
No mic drop moment as I got SQuigleyed today; a fate not unlike a good Nothnagling...If your BALINESE is up a tree, everyone knows the go to guy is 50a. That’s a hysterical film that sits right up there on my comedy movie Mt. Rushmore...It wasn’t a fast solve nor a slow solve........you know the rest of that one-liner...I got more but the commitments of the day beckon...Wish I could be with the Tourney this weekend; one of these Springs...I am out the door. But not before I share a Weird “ALIMONY” beaut with the PANEL.
https://youtu.be/0GedwTGjqdg
With Thoughts Of Stamford,
Bru
2
Cracking good puzzle Mr. Quigley. You made Friday proud.
1
I had fun with this BEQ. Well balanced, and challenging from the first square to the last.
OINK, ALIMONY, MULTIVERSE and JUVENTUS dropped right in at first pass., but had no idea who SIPE or CARDIB was.
- I liked the three consecutive I's in WIIITIS.
- Does PIEALAMODE come with rum raisin or rocky road?
MISLAYER - Really? Maybe a clumsy hen who drops eggs on a hard floor.
MI SLAYER - Fa that killed the note below.
CAR DIB -"Shotgun!" e.g.
CARLO PONTI - Luckiest man on earth.
Happy Friday all.
10
Nearly faked out looking for a theme that wasn't there. When I filled in the III in WIIITIS, I was thinking that was so weird I should look for other triple letters. But in a Friday themeless? Then maybe it was, I thought, 3 vowels (pIEAlamode, thIEU) came up a couple of times nearby. Then my eye was distracted by a word filled from crosses, thinking the clue should be RASTA MORMON but it was Scandinavian poets?
Finally I got out of the NW corner and proceded themelessly. I was stuck a bit at the CARLO/CARDI cross (is that a NIXON? 2 unknown names crossing?) with REAPED before REINED. And finally got the hawaiian shirt detective from crosses, as Magnum didn't work, and McGarrett and Danno always wore suits.
A good workout for a Friday. Waiting for March to go out like a lamb.
5
@Robert Michael Panoff Please explain your RASTA MORMON reference. I poked about online and found a band called Skald, but they are French/Swedish and call their work "folk metal" or "blackened metal", so....probably not what you had in mind.
I am most curious.
@Diana
SKA LDS. Ska from the RASTA music, and LDS as no-longer-preferred short hand for Mormon. I know the answer was SKALDS but by eye/brin dysfunction kept seeing SKA LDS.
4
While solving g I started to panic that I hadn't everything I need for our Saturday dinner tonight. Oh, wait! It's Friday.
I limped along to victory.
The NE corner was the toughest. Full disclosure, I got the P in SIPES from my husband.
I always thought a MISLAYER was a chicken who mislaid their eggs.
When done I really feel like I accomplished something. Thank you BEQ!
8
@Johanna
A Cleveland Brown fan requested a couple of his favorite players as pall bearers when he passed; so The Browns could let him down one last time. Brian SIPE, a SDSU Aztec Alum played for The NJ Generals one year, a league that lasted a meager four seasons. This timespan just might be a predictor; we all know who the chief cook and bottle washer of that organization was, yes?
2
Engineer here. H-bar is a real term in quantum mechanics, a term for angular momentum called the reduced Planck's constant. That might seem obscure but at least it exists, as opposed to an imaginary term for a structural element (thanks @Benjamin Teral below).
5
I love BEQ! It’s great that we’re getting lots of new constructors from different backgrounds so we can mix up the puzzle more, but that’s why he’s great, he’s been mixing it up from the beginning.
Scraped in right under my average which was fun not having it over in ten minutes.
1
I love that WIIITIS is actually a thing, since I was tickled pink when it emerged for me at the end of that corner.
"Bailee" is a common word in insurance, so BAILOR seemed fair to me.
I did not know MOAI, and I don't see MENTAL as meaning rational, but clearly dENTAL or rENTAL would not fit either. Other than that, a very good Friday puzzle!
5
Did the puzzle this morning. I have anxiety about doing late week puzzles in the morning for fear of not being able to complete them (work and kids take up the rest of the day). Still finished with a lot of head scratches.
Thank goodness THIEU came up as a president and Vietnam not that long ago. WIIITIS was a bit of a killer, but OINK and PIE A LA MODE were right, and I had misgivings about MISLAYER, but WII and ITIS had to come together.
Had TAKE ONE but then AVAILED make it HAVE ONE.
The aloha shirt-clad detective I thought of first was of course Thomas Magnum, but no way to fit that or Magnum PI.
Had no idea our favorite crossword eye part (next to iris), UVEA, was also a Pacific island. The J was the last to fall.
CNN!
4
Bold of Will to publish such a puzzle the day before meeting many of face to face. You will have to defend WIIITIS in person, Mr. Shortz!
7
As soon as I saw it was a BEQ puzzle I knew it would be extra challenging but also very satisfying when (if) I could complete it. I was not disappointed!
2
Okay my streak is at 139 but I thought this was crunchy and hard .
Thanks to my love of all things Italian Carlo Ponti came to mind as did the word Juven for youth - but not being a soccer fan I looked up JuvenTUS . Also had never heard of Uvea island -but guessed right as the only body U body parts this doc knows are ULNA and UVEA .
Wiiitis is a thing , but fairly uncommon as Fortnite has really dominated the gaming scheme in my adolescent patients - many of them have anxiety, insomnia and gaming thumb . TGIF !
5
Uvula?
Tom,
I'm quite sure 'the doc" meant *four-letter* body parts beginning with U.
3
thank you, Mr. Quigley, again, for a great puzzle.
My favorite entries in this puzzle were CIVETS and MULTIVERSE, and my favorite clues were 1D (“Something sailors may see over the horizon”) and 50A (“Detective in an aloha shirt”), which for a while got me trying to remember the Hawaii Five-O guys’ names. But unusually, most of this puzzle just didn’t grab me. No clues made me smile, and several entries made me frown (especially MISLAYER). I think mostly my problem was that this puzzle just happened to hit on a number of things that were unknown to me, and that I couldn’t fill with crossings. This was especially true in the SW corner, with CARDIB, INES, BEDE, and BALINESE all bunching together… and I had to wrack my brain to recall CARLO PONTI. Although normally I’d have liked the very ambiguous clue at 43A (“Served”), it made the SW corner so tough for me that I finally had to look up the cat and the Grammy winner.
But it’s clear from these postings that many people thoroughly enjoyed the crunchy entries and the misleading clues, and I’ve certainly enjoyed many of Mr Quigley’s previous puzzles. This one just wasn’t in my wheelhouse. (I first learned that word on this blog… I hope I’m using it correctly.)
Happy Friday, Everyone!
:-c)€
5
@Floyd - I guess my experience backs "mislayer" up as a thing:
Our office's production room got a new linoleum floor, and the tiles were laid out from the walls to the center, so, when the job was finished, all of the "straight" lines met at odd angles with strange bits of tile squares right in plain sight. The whole job had to be redone, by a "non-mislayer" this time!
2
@David Connell
That's too bad about your floor. I certainly don't doubt that there are lousy floor contractors, and even that they may be legitimately called MISLAYERS. I just have never heard the term and to me it sounded a bit like just tacking -ER at the end of a verb, a la "misunderstander" or "mistaker". But given my unfamiliarity with many other evidently legit terms and names in this grid, I consider this also just something well outside my wheelhouse. Thanks for the reply, David.
:-c)€
@David Connell Wow, that's impressive. My husband and I once laid a tile floor in our kitchen, without any previous experience. This was before YouTube, but we did find sources of advice at the library, and *all* of them started with the strong recommendation to start at the middle and work toward the edge. I recall being glad of the advice, realizing I probably wouldn't have thought of it until too late. Floor turned out just fine, btw.
Today's 'old puzzle' comment. For those who have Xword Info - Sunday November 25, 1962. Title: Numerology.
This is by far the most bizarre puzzle I've encountered in the course of my review. It is not uncommon to see letters represent numbers in these older puzzle, but that is typically limited to 'I' meaning 1 and 'O' meaning zero. This one goes way, way beyond that and not in what appears to be a consistent manner.
You can try to solve it if you want to, but just looking at the solution will be quite an exercise. I've been able to decipher most of the answers, but the one that still has me baffled is this one:
1a. Clue: "Number, police HQ, N.Y.C." Answer: SPSTIOO.
If somebody can figure that one out, you'll have my internal, external and fraternal gratitude.
1
@Rich in Atlanta,
My best guess is that SPST100 stands for Sector, Precinct, Station 100th.
@Rich in Atlanta
The NYPD’s phone number was SPring-7-3100. Not sure where the T comes from in the puzzle’s clue:
https://ephemeralnewyork.wordpress.com/2014/08/25/what-was-the-nypd-phone-number-before-911/
(See comments)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_3100
2
@Henry Su - that puzzle had some weird usages - the letters such as S and T could represent first letter of the number word.
S LEAGUE BOOTS is presumably SEVEN LEAGUE BOOTS.
Walter Pitkin book - Life BEGINS AT FO (40?)
In position for crawling - ON ALL FS (fours)
Then you get:
Columbus Day was OCT ITTH? No idea how ITTH gets to 14TH (does the T resemble 4?)
in 1962, 1PP wasn't constructed yet. But I wouldn't have put the SPSTIOO as a straight up abbreviation for the first part. But I don't have a better explanation either.
Very difficult. This was harder for me than most Saturdays.
7
BEQ! I wish I had noticed the constructor before I began. Solving Mr. Q’s puzzles often require a shift to a parallel universe.
Not sure about BAILORS... but then I am not BEQ.
Snailly slept in.
Thank you to the hardest working man in the puzzle biz.
3
Wow. I'm still not sure I know exactly what is meant by "chewy" and "crunchy" puzzles, but this one felt downright gristly. Too tough for me! First pass gave me virtually nothing. Eventually got going and slowly filled in a lot, but couldn't finish without looking a few (maybe quite a few) things up. And I didn't even do that right! I thought I'd feel less guilty if I just took the briefest peek at my google results, which led me to confidently type in AHUS for MOAI. Next time I will cheat more carefully.
19
@FrankieHeck said,
"Next time I will cheat more carefully."
This should be on a T-shirt.
7
@Alan J
As long as you don't wear the T-shirt around your wife....
2
@Andrew
The tee would have to be size 4xl. (-;}
Many comments already (not surprising with a BEQ Friday), so to be brief:
Entered a few gimmes, stared at crosses, often laughed but sometimes groaned while entering cross words, finished. Happy to have the challenge. Water clock says it took a bit longer than other recent Fridays, but a BEQ is always faster and certainly more enjoyable than the BQE.
9
@Barry Ancona
Fortunately I lived in NYC just long enough to understand your last sentence!
2
Barry,
I got that one too!
LETTER BOX
It looks like there could be a lot of solutions today. I came up with several while trying to find a minimal. I didn't find it, or even a 14 total, so I'll just give my first find: A-M(5), M-T(11).
HINT:
The music is superb.
@Phil P One of those days where the two word solution dropped quickly (so terribly rare for me). I got your second word M-T (11) then T-L (5).
I went maximal today.
I-E (10), E-G (9)
I know I could do better but no time.
Lots of possibilities today.
I am at F-E(8), E-T(8).
Far from minimal but I’m off to catch a flight home.
Good words to you!
SPELLING BEE
Eghlnty
46 words, 186 points, 1 perfect pangram, bingo
E x 8, G x 11, H x 2, L x 5, N x 4, T x 13, Y x 3
4L x 20, 5L x 10, 6L x 8, 7L x 4, 8L x 3, 9L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
E 2 2 1 1 2 - 8
G 6 1 2 1 - 1 11
H 2 - - - - - 2
L 1 1 1 1 1 - 5
N 1 1 2 - - - 4
T 6 4 2 1 - - 13
Y 2 1 - - - - 3
Tot 20 10 8 4 3 1 46
Pts 20 50 48 28 24 9 +7 = 186
A few hints: know your adverbs and otherwise draw out your words; you might give them to be able to do something well; a tasty wobbly dish; a clear alternative in Middle Eastern and South Asian cooking; why babies might cry; how to talk on LANs; one too busy with matches; slangy safecracker
20
@Henry Su - Thanks for the grid!
The clear alternative in Middle Eastern and South Asian cooking is finally accepted. Previously it hadn't been accepted. We all aghreed it was an eghreghious oversight.
PuzzleDate Letters
2018-06-02 ACGHNX-E
2019-02-04 CEGLOW-H
@David Connell - yesterday you asked how often a puzzle with specific criteria occurred -
1. Has only one pangram
2. Pangram is perfect (7 letters)
3. All other words were 6 letters or less.
PuzzleDate Letters Word
2018-05-31 EHKLMO-C HEMLOCK
2018-06-03 DIOPRY-G PRODIGY
2018-06-20 EFKMNO-L MENFOLK
2018-07-10 ACDNOW-H COWHAND
2018-07-27 AFHKOY-R HAYFORK
2018-09-11 BCEHTW-I BEWITCH
2019-03-20 BGIOTY-R BIGOTRY
5
great grid, thanks!
I was surprised it accepted one of the 6 letter t's! i tried it in desperation and thanks to your clue!
@Wen - Thanks for the research! I had hoped you were on the case. I'm frankly surprised, having solved all of those others, that this quality hadn't struck me before, given that is has come up seven times now.
Seeing who the constructor is -- master of vague cluing and placer of words that I don't know around the grid -- on top of seeing those big islands in the NW and SE, meant going to my closet and pulling out that extra special aluminum foil thinking cap, the one that shuts out the rest of the world and amplifies whatever powers my brain possesses, then hunkering down. This solve was not a mosey, rather a crawl and scrape, and square by well earned square, with occasional squeals of glee, the white filled in. Oh, how I loved this. Thank you, Sir BEQ.
5
@Lewis,
Where can I order one of those caps? Lots of static and noise where I live.
2
I am skeptical of the AUCTOR ESSE clue. “AUCTOR” means an actor in the legal sense of a person with the legal capacity to act. “ESSE” what is the infinitive of the verb “to be“. A Google search does turn up an sourced definition of the phrase to mean “authorize“, but that appears nowhere else on the Internet. The two words do turn up together in the Institutes of Justinian, but as a phrase, not meaning “to authorize”. In 40 years practicing war I have never seen the phrase; if anyone else has, please enlighten me.
1
@Tim O’Brien,
I have never encountered the term in practice either.
@Tim O’Brien
"In 40 years practicing war...."
You're not THE Tim O'Brien, are you?
2
@Henry Su
Auctor ESSE was Greek to me as well. But it still came pretty easily through deduction.
In less than 40 years of practicing law I’ve also never seen the pun “practicing war” (“war room” yes, “practicing war” no). Perhaps Florida lawyers have to contend with more shark-infested waters than NY lawyers.
As an aside, my favorite Latin legal term is “nunc pro tunc”. Who doesn’t love nunc pro tunc, both in law and in life?
1
Reporting from a different universe: I was thoroughly demolished by this one. Had almost nothing on a first pass; took a break and still wasn't getting anywhere. Probably the fewest answers I've ever had before I gave up and started cheating. In retrospect, I think I made the right decision.
I read Kon-Tiki as a kid and was fascinated by it, but still couldn't remember MOAI. Carlo Ponti and Dr. Zhivago (book and film) are very familiar but I completely forgot that he directed that film. And... I won't bore you with the long list of other things I didn't know or clues I wasn't getting.
Now I'll spend the rest of the morning trying to get "Lara's Theme" out of my head.
8
@Rich in Atlanta,
Here are some cool pictures of Thor with the MOAI, https://www.kon-tiki.no/expeditions/easter-island-expedition/.
2
Carlo didn't direct. David did.
2
"Carlo Ponti and Dr. Zhivago (book and film) are very familiar but I completely forgot that he directed that film."
Rich,
You didn't forget; he didn't direct it, he produced it. Clue is correct, Deb got it wrong. David Lean directed.
3
Can’t believe 1D ended up being something other than MOONSET. In any case, that would’ve been achingly beautiful. Ah, well.
2
I had COUTURE for “it’s a put on”
3
@Doug
For a while I had “congame”
4
What’s an N test and how is it a display of power?
1
I guess N is short for nuclear. It’s a bit awkward.
2
@Doug
NTEST and it's more frequently used ATEST are classic crosswordese, and worth remembering. :)
3
@Doug
a nuclear test is a display of power by countries like the US and the USSR and North Korea to show that they have nukes and are the big kid on the block.
2
I liked the CARDI B/CARLO PONTI cross. To know or figure out both speaks to the unpredictable, multi-generational pleasures of art and the thanks we owe artists.
12
You asked, Ms. Amlen, so (I ran a small construction firm for a while): As far as I-beam v H-beam - no, they're not the same. Commonly, an I-beam is a beam with relatively small flanges (the legs of an H) compared to the web (the cross-bar of the H). I-beams also have a tapered cross-section of the flanges, per the American Standard, or S, section.
What gets called an H-beam in the crossworld I have never heard called by that name: it is always a wide-flange beam, or maybe a W-section. A wide-flange beam has wider and beefier flanges compared to the web.
In some sense, they're all I-beams. When used in load-bearing, horizontal positions, they are virtually always oriented as an I, virtually never as an H. I never installed a wide-flange beam in H orientation.
The sizes are all standardized; when you order one, you ask (for example) for a W10x22, which is a 10-inch deep beam, W section, weighing 24 lbs / foot. At that depth and weight, the flange is only about 6 inches wide, i.e. it's still more an I than an H.
25
@Benjamin Teral,
I appreciate the tutorial as well!
2
@Benjamin Teral - in a sans serif world, I beams would just be flat pieces of metal. They would all be sideways H beams.
2
Benjamin,
I've only seen an HBAR used in puzzle construction.
4
A not so difficult Friday, but I take issue with the cluing for AVAILED ... could have been better, don’t run into that usage for availed,
5
I got stuck for a while on the idea the Rogue and Armada were COUSINS in some comic strip world - the X-Men, maybe. It all worked out in the end, though.
@Benjamin Teral
That's actually the clue that got me started. After first thinking "X-Men?", the right answer just popped into my head somehow. But, this puzzle battled me every step of the way.
and Elke
Like others before me, got my start with ONE SOCK, OINK, TAXI, EXPENSE , NISSANS, and BEDE and not much else.Then UNSHOD and MUESLI got me out of a BAD START .
TIL that BALINESE cats have blue eyes (also) and there is a MULTIVERSE theory.
Once completed and mulling over all the answers, I had the feeling that BEQ was in a GLUM mood when he constructed this puzzle, to whit : there's SODOM , linked to STAYS MAD, connected to AT ODDS , close to ALIMONY, which intersects with IT'S A MESS and BAILORS. The latter is rather far from PAROLE. After a floor is MISLAYEd , REINVESTment is necessary for those UNSHOD and unSOCKed feet/foot.
Even the MOAI look dour. Do they know that SNAFU is not in the puzzle (even tho I wanted it ).
COSTUME was a gimme- saw a number of kids , size TWOS , in cute ones today.
Anyway, despite the above observations , I BET that BEQ had as much fun constructing as I had solving.
3
I have a tangential personal history with BEQ, so I have known since college to bring my A game when he's involved. This was a rare "I need to stop and do something else for a while and come back with fresh eyes" puzzle for me. When I came back, I figured out a couple of mistakes on the south side (including the popular tAkEONE) and bing bam boom done.
The lesson for newbies: take a break and come back with fresh eyes.
5
I found it very challenging. I know some of you do not like the pop up “Halfway” and other prompts but I love it particularly today. It is as though I have my very own cheer squad saying “Halfway! Keep on going, you can do it, hang in there, you got what it takes!”
11
@L.A. Sunshine
I had the same feeling as you about the halfway through cheer for this one. Definitely appreciated, and noticed, it more than usual.
L.A. Sunshine,
Just remember that the "Halfway" and other prompts only tell you how many squares you have filled in, not whether you have filled them in correctly.
4
Wii the people of Wordplay ...
Like it or not, the WII in its many incarnations is here to stay in NYT crosswords.
WII - 24 appearances I.S.E. (in the Shortz era)
WII CONSOLE - one appearance 12/19/11 ("Piece of Nintendo game equipment")
WII FIT - one appearance 10/18/10 ("Nintendo product for the gym-averse, maybe")
WIIITIS - one appearance 03/22/19
WIIMOTE - two appearances 05/03/14 ("Hand-held game device") and 07/08/11 ("Modern-day video game controller" (BEQ))
WIIMOTES - two appearances 12/07/18 ("Hand-held game devices") and 11/22/14 ("Handy things in the game world?")
WIISPORTS - one appearance 01/30/15 ("Popular video game for wannabe athletes")
WIIU - one appearance 03/25/18 ("Popular gaming console that sounds like two pronouns")
Interestingly, the case of WIIITIS that appeared in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine was a self-diagnosis by a 29-year-old medical resident and admitted couch potato who developed acute shoulder pain from playing Wii tennis.
It was apparently not the first time that Nintendo has entered the annals of medicine. In 1990 a Wisconsin doctor diagnosed a case of thumb soreness as "Nintendinitis" from repeated pressing of the controller buttons.
For further reading, see https://reut.rs/2TqX0wc.
2
@Henry Su ... quite a bit of research. Very impressive. Around here, some of us have WIIPITA from never using it but having to clean it and contend with the cables.
3
@Henry Su
Back in the early 80’s we used to suffer from Atari Thumb
@Paul,
Yep, there's general agreement that Space Invaders started our joints down this road ....
1
A tough one for me. Most of the puzzle came together OK, but the SW corner gave me fits. Had EARNED before REINED, IBAR and TBAR before HBAR. Got CARLOPONTI but wasn’t sure. Took a while to get BALINESE and BRAINED. Did not know Santa INES. Totally spaced out on [mic drop]. Put in CARLIB instead of CARDIB.
Fixing up all these errors took me 18 minutes over my average Friday time. Finally got the Happy Music but it took a lot of effort.
Still, an interesting puzzle with a lot of novel answers, and a lot of new things learned. It’s all good.
1
@Ron O. That's exactly what happened to me too, almost that exact sequence. Had tAkEONE for a long time before I saw AVAILED (even though I knew AkAILED was wrong but couldn't figure out where), which immediately gave me HBAR and the music. Definitely a harder than usual Friday, for me at least, but I'm glad I got through it.
1
I got the kind of workout I would expect from a Friday puzzle. I enjoyed the cluing for ALIMONY, COSTUME, and UNSHOD. I liked how BEQ worked JUVENTUS and ACE VENTURA into the puzzle.
I hitched in two places. I had PHIEU instead of THIEU at 15A, which only made me question the correctness of MISLA(Y)ER at 20A and SPA(Y)S ___ at 5D?
I also had TBAR instead of HBAR (along with IBAR, they're all the same to me -- just construction fill for crosswords). That left me with TA(K)E ONE at 34D and the anomalous A(K)AILED at 43A.
Needless to say, these hitches chewed up some minutes but I ultimately was rewarded with a correct solve without look-ups or checks.
2
@Henry Su
I also fell into the TBAR trap and wondered where I had gone wrong (to no akail). I eventually got there, however. Thanks for a nice Friday workout, BEQ.
1
@Henry Su
TBAR = skiing. Think the metallic piece you would sit on while being pulled up a mountain. You straddle the vertical part and sit on the perpendicular piece below it. It's shaped like an upside down T. Not a construction bar.
Steve,
Or... Ribbed, "T" shaped bars with a flat metal plate at the bottom that are driven into the earth. Normally used chain link fence poles, and to mark locations of a water meter pit.
https://www.completedesign.cc/client-resources/dictionary-of-construction-terminology/718-t-bar
(Construction, but not building construction)
BAILOR? Isn't that the team that's playing Syracuse as I'm typing this? Great puzzle, as expected from BEQ. Loved the Italian gimmies.
5
H Beam? You may see them laying around on the ground before they are hoisted into place, but for a given profile, an "H" Beam is significantly weaker than it's rotated twin, aka an "I" beam. Unless there is a very special reason to place such a structural member in such a compromised position, it isn't done.
3
OINK TAXI ALIMONY MULTIVERSE TSK BED SQUAT LESS were my first Across-pass gimmes.
MUESLI NISSANS CARDIB (Who else ends in B?) JESU we’re in on the ensuing Down pass.
So kind of a slog, though I finished just under my Friday average, but that’s slow for recent weeks.
@David Meyers I tried to think of a xxxDEB for a while.
LOVED the clues and answers for wiitis, one sock, stays mad, pie ala mode, alimony, and most of all, parole. And the beautiful and unusual word Skald. So much fun!
4
@Layla
Agree with your choices. PAROLE was particular tricky. With BAILORS, the puzzle references both pre- and post-conviction release. Per xwordinfo, ONE SOCK was last seen in 2006 and SKALDS in 2002, in puzzles by the same constructor, Rich Norris.*
* SKALD (singular) has been used a few times since 2002, including just last June. I didn’t remember it but certainly will the next time, as long as the next time is next week.
4
Jesu can’t be a figure in some hymns because “Jesu” cannot be the subject of a sentence, e.g. “Jesu is a figure in some hymns.” Latin “Jesus” has the nominative form “Jesus” (subject of sentence or predicate nominative). The accusative (direct object) is “Jesum,” and “Jesu” is the genitive (possessive), dative (indirect object) and vocative (direct address). “Jesu” as used in the familiar “Jesu, joy of man’s desiring” is addressed to Jesus; here, “Jesu” is the rough equivalent of “Hey, Jesus” — indicating to the addressee that he is the one being spoken to. Incidentally, the German text of J.S. Bach’s cantata Herz und Mund und Tat und Leben (BWV 147) does not contain the vocative “Jesu” at all, since it discusses Jesus in the third person; only “Jesus” and “Jesum” appear there. The well-known English version was written by Poet Laureate Robert S. Bridges for Dame Myra Hess’s piano transcription of BWV 147 and has textually nothing in common with the text that Bach used.
5
@Fact Boy ... er ... um ... what he said. Yeah! (I think).
4
@Fact Boy Thanks for the impressive research. As for the clue, I guess it comes down to what the definition of "figure" is.
A figure of speech?
3
Fact Boy,
"Jesu" is a remnant in modern English of the declension and use of grammatically inflected case endings with some proper nouns in Middle English, which persisted into Early Modern English to around the time of Shakespeare. The form Jesu is often a vocative, "Jesu!", but may also stand for other cases, such as genitive, as in Latin. The form "Jesu" was preserved in hymns and poetry long after it had fallen out of general use in speech, for example in poet laureate Robert Bridges' translation of Johann Schop's wording for the English translation of Johann Sebastian Bach's cantata, Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and in T. S. Colvin's hymn, Jesu, Jesu, fill us with your love, based on a song from northern Ghana.[23] During the late 19th Century, as "Jesu" was increasingly seen as antiquated, some churches attempted to update the wording of hymns containing "Jesu" to "Jesus".[24] In modernizing hymn texts the use of "Jesu" or "Jesus" could cause problems where the metre only allowed two syllables, "Je-su".[25][clarification needed]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_and_titles_of_Jesus_in_the_New_Testament#"Jesu"_forms
4
A bit above average, with roughly a third of the total spent in the SW. I even knew CARLOPONTI! Stuck with IBAR and IATEONE far too long. Finally cleared most of the area and AVAILED suddenly became a possibility. The rest followed. After the fact I realized that I had heard of CARDIB but not when she would have helped.
1
Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Start. Stop. Stop. Start. Start. Start. Stop . . . Finish.
Crunchy, sticky, (insert other pie-related descriptor for a tough puzzle). CARLO PONTI almost did me in, but somehow I knew Balinese and BRAINED finally whopped me on the head, and then the SW filled in bit by bit until CARLO PONTI took shape like Easter Island MOAI appearing through dissipating fog.
A TEN of a Friday puzzle.
8
When you see the B.E.Q. imprimatur, it's time to roll up your sleeves and hunker down for a workout. No exception today, thank goodness. And thanks NYT.
5
always like BEQ's puzzles. Also liked to see PIE ALA MODE over LAYER. HAVE ONE!
2
Crunchy indeed; nevertheless, I persisted, and finished in slightly under-average Friday time despite having almost nothing filled in after first pass. 11D in particular led me astray for longer than I care to admit! Fiendish, as one has learned to expect from Mr. Q.
3
@bratschegirl
Same here for BAILORS. NE and SW were toughest areas for me. A lot of BAD STARTS and redos in both sections.
1