Nosh is the worst word EVER. Just say eat. Or snack.
Had me Googling DA SHIT, thinking the NY Times had found a new low in vulgarity. Relieved to find out it is DASH IT. Although it's 1. British and 2. old fashioned per Merriam-Webster, making it a total DAD joke, aka a groaner. And not to be outdone by all things Harry Potter (SNAPE). As a non 10 year old I proudly haven't read a word of that DRIVEL.
2
Way overdue, but I need to disencumber.
Was so pleased with 1D=BLASE, and tried both PART and ROLE, never ambitious enough for LEAD. 'Book of stars' was OBviously MOVIEMAGAZINE, else why would it fit so nicely? EDGEIN rather than RUSHIN, and I figured something 'off' would SMELL, even in biblical lands, so why think of SMITE. Plainly, I went astray all over the grid, so it wasn't only in the NE that DASHIT all hit this fan.
Did have some phenomenal help in filling cross letters in patterns that suggested the fill. That was a saving grace with CHRISTIAN MINGLE, whose TVADS I've seen. Same with C__________TT; I had no idea of which two actress were involved, till that pattern appeared. So... a lot of luck in the sequencing.
Dishonorable Mention for Deviousness Award goes to clue 20A... That +H had me wracking brains for PLUSH establishments, not a trace of DELISH DELIS in the lot.
Honorable Mention for Cultural Connectivity goes to MIDRASH sharing gridspace with [C]HEDER. As good a reason as any for a little'kametz alef oh':
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUF-jHyEuNg
Biggest solving high came with Saturday brain jumping directly to CINEASTE, which I think was my only great gimme that didn't implode. The numerous great/devilish clues have (i think) all been mentioned.
I just kept thinking that Paolo P's too young a sprout to assemble a Saturday this good. ARG.
1
What a great, Saturday-worthy puzzle! I hope Mr. Pasco will continue to challenge us as he did today. Thank you!
1
A really difficult one for me but satisfying when done.
Not enough love bein given to DELIS(H). Took me forever to figure out even after I had all the letters but when the light finally dawned—wow! Ditto for HAWAIIANSHIRT. LINGERIE was easier because I was on the right track early but couldn’t fit in BRA.
Could have lived without TROU and Fever is a lame clue for MANIA.
2
Very late today, so probably talking to myself (especially considering it is Saturday and the Sunday puzzle is already out).
Anyway, Paolo, if you're listening, I loved it. The central stack was terrific, and the vertical spanner terrific.
I made some missteps, with incorrect entries. To me, that's often the measure of a cleverly challenging puzzle.
4
@Deadline - I hear you. If I ever bump into Paolo, and I have no reason to think I will, I'll let him know. I didn't happen to misstep in this puzzle, except for FAST READ quickly corrected after the G in LINGERIE. I will say that names come slower to me as I age -- I generally need about five minutes for a name in ordinary conversation -- and that was a factor. It would be nice if the puzzle app offered a handicap based on the number of proper nouns.
1
@Andrew
or our age!
1
I learned some new things today! Very interesting fact about CATE BLANCHETT.
I enjoyed the clues for MICHELIN GUIDE, LINGERIE, and DELIS.
Enjoyable and very difficult puzzle!
2
@Phil
Thanks. I see what you mean.
More coffee next time. I was determined to find a solution at all. Thus does quality get sacrificed.
Cheers.
When I lived in Des Moines, I was treasurer of the charity organization Variety Club of Iowa. In 1975, they started doing a Memorial Day telethon which is still ongoing to this day. BEA Arthur appeared on the telethon numerous times, paying her own way to DM and making contributions to the charity. (It has raised over $100 million over the years)
4
Is there any way to stop that 'cheery' little tune when the puzzle is finished?
2
@Judith Fraser
I usually accomplish that by having numerous errors.
In any case, there si a way to do that. It probably differs on the various devices. On a desktop computer, on the page showing the solution, there is a "gear" icon. Clicking on the gear lets you set preferences, including turning off happy music.
5
@ColoradoZ
"there is a way" not "there si a way"
@Judith Fraser
Try holding your phone underwater for five minutes. That fixed it for me!
9
I was surprised about 9 across, the clue being Yucky and the answer being Dashit. I would call that a curse wird. NYT so naughty.
SHELLY,
The 9A answer is "dash it;" anything naughty here is in the eye of the beholder.
7
@Barry Ancona
Speaking of DOOK, UVA beat Duke in Lacrosse in double overtime. Next up: Yale vs. Penn St.
2
@SHELLY
My clue read “Phooey!” not “Yucky”.
DASH IT happens.
3
I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Started out with gimmes which left me a very thin spiderweb of answers across the grid.
Had to walk the dog back on a couple of things. I took great pride at being able to answer a popular movie clue with CATEBLANCHARD,
The S in ESC/SWEETS was the last to fall. I didn't think to look at my keyboard, and felt it was completely logical that Willie Wonka had a candy named TWEETS.....
Again, I thought this was a good, fair challenge. I was able to work though some of the more challenging corners through a bit of hit or miss and fly-specking.....
A final thought on solving --if you look at MIDR_SH and _SHMAN, it has to be clear that the missing letter is a vowel--there are only seven of them.....
Good day, sir.
3
@Puzzledog - You remind me that the song in "Chitty-chitty bang-bang" is "Toot sweet" IIRC.
1
@Puzzledog
7 vowels, after the Great Vowel Movement
;D
Advice to people who don’t like Saturday puzzles: Go back thru the archives and do as many as you can, no matter how long it takes. Stay with them. Forget the clock. Forget whether you are smart enough or the clues are too dense or just plain stupid. Just hang in there. Try to avoid resorting to the internet or other outside sources. Force yourself to try to work through as much as you can. Let your brain stretch. Give that a week or two or three or four or twenty.
As Caitlin and Deb and others have said, anyone who can solve early week puzzles can ultimately solve Saturday puzzles. Perhaps not every one successfully (myself included) and perhaps not very quickly, but you can do it. There’s no better Xword feeling than completing a tough Saturday puzzle, which I thought this one was.
My .02.
20
I totally agree. I have a half dozen puzzles in the archives in various stages of completion. I go back to them from time to time (usually early in the week) to try to make progress with them. I also agree that it's possible to progress from Mon-Wed solver to every day solver. I subscribed over a year ago, and proceeded to work backward through a couple years of Mon-Wed before venturing into the rest of the week. Now I have a nice little streak going. (Disclosure: I allow myself unlimited Google searches as long as I stay away from the crossword clue sites.)
3
@Puzzlemucker - Indeed, if there is anyone you would like to be rid of for an extended period, get them a subscription and send them to the puzzle archive.
1
another google puzzle loaded with actor's names and forgotten book titles. better suited for people magazine, perhaps.
1
@david g sutliff
Or to those of us with near infinite capacity to remember useless information and to parse out answers when our near infinite memories fail us.
I thought this was a super puzzle.
8
@Puzzledog
I wish I had the same capacity for useful info as I have for OTIOSE info
5
@david g sutliff: I must have missed the forgotten book titles.
I think Paolo Pasco must have been having some fun at our expense in that Northeast corner. I had OLD joke and LAMANI Collection, and the Pirate said HAR!! I knew that result couldn't be right and was tearing my hair out for a while. Finally figured it out. Great puzzle.
4
Lots of fun! Great clues, and I particularly loved HACKATHON and CHRISTIAN MINGLE.
2
That was fun. You know, with the language that's appeared on the front page of the NYT recently, DASH IT could have been clued very differently. But Will's not that much of a wildman, is he?
1
Finished in 33 minutes. Tough one.
Finished in 1:29. Yes, it was.
@Petaltown Took us a bit longer--the day was so nice we stopped for lunch at Brewsters.
Loving the female references lately. LINGERIE had a great clue.
5
Wow! Another good Saturday. Two in a row. Keep it up, folks. This was a good puzzle, and tough and everything a Saturday should be, including themeless. Thanks.
3
So close! And in honor of my misfortune, I would like to publicly call on Cate Planchett to change her name to Kate, so that KINEASTES everywhere can celebrate :-)
In my defense, a kineograph is a thing, related to animation, so it *seemed* plausible.
Oh well, there's always Sunday ...
6
@Michael Rogers
She might also want to change her last name to Blanchette.
This was my downfall too. Kino is the German and Russian word for cinema, and the root of the word cinema is “kinema”, the Greek word for movement. So I thought it would be perfectly acceptable to be a “kineaste”, especially if you were “Kate” Blanchett.
Don't -- whatever you do -- miss @Laura Rodrigues in London's hilarious link -- a wonderful send-up of the audition process. Thanks, @Laura!
6
@Nancy
I did, thanks to your suggestion. Definitely worth the look-see.
1
I'm a paper and pencil solver. I had no idea there even was a tilde key until I got out my laptop to read Wordplay. Also had the hardest time with 16A, 10D, and 14D, which were so obvious when the clues finally clicked.
@retired, with cat
At first, I was really at a loss to come up with what might be found ABOVE a tilde.
7
@Steve L. Same!
1
@Ann
@Steve L
(2D) Mañana, mañana, I love ya, mañana...
1
Well done Paolo Pasco, skilful and funny. Thank you Debie, you give the best pep talks.
As for the puzzle: great clues! my favorites were
drawing power as ANIMATOR,
top of Pacific island for HAWAIIAN SHIRT ,
book of stars for MICHELIN GUIDE, and push ups for LINGERIE .
I always used CINEASTE for a v individual director or producer, like Kirosawa, or Goddard; and for a moment there thought the half blood prince was Valdemort not SNAPE.
Good puzzle!
3
(Caitlin is no slouch)
5
,@HAPPYCAT. i am assuming what you did not like was the puzzle not the commedy shorts link?
I absolutely loved seeing Howard Ashman and Jim Henson both make an appearance so close to each other in today's puzzle! Ashman was an incredible person who poured his soul into the songs he wrote. If you don't know much about him, I really recommend reading about his life--he's an amazing person. And Henson is a personal hero of mine and the Muppets have shaped my life. Seeing them both here made me smile this morning :)
8
Fantastic and challenging Saturday. Bravo, Mr. Pasco.
And special thanks for including the wonderful Howard Ashman, lyricist for Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, the Little Mermaid, and Little Shop of Horrors.
It is clues like this that help keep the memories alive of so many artists. Might be obscure for some solvers, but fair game on a Saturday!
9
Had DARN IT and DANG IT before DASH IT . TIL that CINEASTE is a thing- really just wanted cinephile or some alternate spelling like CINEFILE , till I realized it was Howard ASHMAN .
In response to the writer that thought ASHMAN was too vague , he is probably one of the best known lyricists of the current Broadway/ Disney musical genre .
Still , all in all , loved the middle of the grid - esp HAWAIIAN SHIRT
Keep 'em coming - number 204 in a row for me !
5
Alternate clue for 9A: What sometimes hits da fan.
I always find Saturdays difficult and this one was no more so than usual. I have a three-part approach to these puzzles. I start at bedtime and usually fall asleep with five or six words filled in. The middle of the night sees the most progress and usually the dregs of the puzzle are left for my fresh morning mind. This one followed that pattern pretty closely.
I tried so hard, (squinting, mis-spelling, re-counting) to make CAROL BURNETT fit into one square too many. Fortunately, I eventually remembered that unique spelling of CATE and that entry opened up the middle for me. LAPTOP PC before LAPEL MIC. WILDE before PAINE, (although how he was a patriot was beyond me). PENNED IN before ON A LEASH. EARNS before REAPS. RATE before RATA. GEEKATHON before HACKATHON. And I have never heard of drop TROU. Loved the clues for LINGERIE and MICHELIN GUIDE.
14
@Andrew
I’m a fan of “da fan”. You hit it.
8
Drop TROUsers - moon someone
2
Exceptional Saturday puzzle, thank you Paolo Pasco! You have great skills.
Unlike Napoleon Dynamite who once said, "I don't even have any good skills. You know like nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills!"
Why I bet even CATE BLANCHETT would be impressed!
7
Oh, my goodness. How did I do this? Bring on Sunday!
7
LETTER BOXED THREAD
Going way long today. So many possibilities for commentary on current events but I’ll pass.
I have
M-N(8),N-Y(12).
I will try for 13, fully expecting @Phil to beat me to the punch!
@Kevin Sparks
No 13 for me. I started out with a 10-12, and then realized it could be pared down to V-E(4) E-C(10)
@Kevin Sparks
I tried finding your solution, but if I've got your M-N correct, then your N-Y could be a 7.
@Kevin Sparks
I went long as well M-C(5), C-Y(12).
No surprise that I found this very difficult, loved reading the comments about lots of look ups, same for me and needed to check a lot of my guesses. At least there were a couple of satisfying solves, MICHELIN GUIDE with just the H and last I and a bit later HAWAIIAN SHIRT with a few more letters.
I didn't get it until almost completely filled in, but am familiar with CINEASTE as clued. My American Heritage Dictionary defines it as a motion picture enthusiast.
I liked seeing MALIA. I'm reading "Becoming" and loving it. A while back a commenter said I had a treat in store and that was absolutely right.
6
@suejean
I'm always a bit cranky when a clue referencing an Obama is one of the sisters, but I get over it, put the As where they belong and see what else transpires to know if it's Sasha or Malia.
5
They are the Loa and the Kea of sisters.
19
@vaer That's hilarious!
1
This was part scratch-and-claw, part treasure hunt (as it was clear early on that there would be many clues that were delicious riddles), and part test of faith (that the grid would fill in), a trio of puzzle responses that I love, and thus, Pablo, you made for me an extraordinary solving experience.
So many clues to relish -- RIME, LINGERIE, DELIS, ESE, HAWAIIAN SHIRT, SMITE. And the Libra in me found balance and peace in the parallel MALIA and MANIA. I had CHRISTIAN sINGLE, making for TEAs at 39A, which just in no way fit [A's, e.g. ... or a word following "A"], and seeing, finally, that it was MINGLE tripped off an explosive "Aha!" -- the perfect exclamation point to end the puzzle on.
What a pleasure crossword puzzles can be at times, and today's was the perfect illustration of that. Bravo, Pablo!
9
Pirates say ARR??? That's it? You'll have to do better than that, Pirates. You don't scare me in the least.
I really, really, really wanted MIXED METAPHOR for "Not the sharpest crayon in the box." What it should be is "Not the sharpest knife in the drawer." Knives are a better metaphor for sharpness. If you want to talk about crayons, maybe brightness? "Not the brightest crayon in the box"? Of course bulbs are even better for brightness: "Not the brightest bulb in the house."
Is it in good taste to cross CHRISTIAN with dropped TROU? Just asking.
What an easy week this has been. Yesterday was pretty easy for a Friday and today was VERY easy for a Saturday. Maybe Will S. wants to leave us plenty of extra time for Memorial Day Weekend's almost certain STOP/GO traffic.
1
Nancy,
Your childhood may have varied, but I used a crayon sharpener before I was permitted access to the sharp knife drawer (and the same held true for my children). No MIXED METAPHOR here.
4
@Barry Ancona
But even if the crayon is an absolute nub it can still produce a bright colour. I agree with Nancy, but the metaphor I like is “a few sandwiches short of a picnic”.
1
@Barry Ancona -- My childhood did vary, evidently. I've never used -- or even seen -- a crayon sharpener. Only a pencil sharpener. I think that the crayons in my crayon box started out sort of rounded, not pointed at all. They then proceeded to become even rounder and flatter as I used them. But since I was not one of kindergarten's most prolific colorers, they lasted longer than they had any right to.
Thinking back now on my rounded crayons, I realize I might have had a deprived childhood :)
2
Still on it but just sharing that I filled ROLE for LEAD ( aren’t you ambitious?), but since it’s the LEAD, I am sharing this BBC short comedies about auditioning for the “leading lady part”. Crtitical and funny IMO.
https://youtu.be/fpDHNbjGivo
8
@Laura Rodrigues In London
Funny, sad, brilliantly done. (I just wish a man had posted. You know, would have been cleverer . . .).
1
@pezzlemaker
Thank you. Would any of the men like to post it? :)
1
@Laura Rodrigues in London
It was eye opening even for a self-proclaimed male feminist.
1
Didn't like it. Also, how is Christian Mingle a relative of JDate? More like the opposite.
1
They're both religious dating services. That makes them related.
2
HappyCat,
I would suggest they are relatives because they are both online services for people who want to date people of their own religious persuasion.
4
Both are part of the brand portfolio operated by Spark Networks SE, the global dating company. The company is publicly listed on the NYSE American LLC exchange under the ticker symbol “LOV.”
9
Was lucky enough to know MIDRASH having read M. R. James’ ghost story, “The Tractate Middoth” several times along with the notes attached. Love M. R. James can’t recommend him highly enough. Fun puzzle.
2
My very first thought for the clue "Drop ____" was TROU, but I dismissed it immediately because hey, this is the NYT! So glad that they let their hair down a bit and allowed this fun clue/answer pair!
Very fun Saturday. Lots of clues that made me smile or even LOL, and *not* a walk in the park. Loved the stacked 13s! Do it again, Paolo! :)
4
@Steve Faiella
Did not know drop TROU (ser) ,only debag. I take it that difference is agency? You drop trou, he debags you....
2
@Laura Rodrigues In London
LOL! I had to Google debag. I'm glad I did, as my mind was going to a different place in interpreting its meaning.. :)
2
@Steve Faiella & Laura - the standard American for "to debag someone" is "to pants someone."
1
If Will Shortz is still "editing" the crossword, then isn't it his responsibility as editor to detect and resolve such Naticks as in the SW quadrant. I enjoy a challenge as much as the next solver, but such clusters just leave me irritated, even if I am able to eventually guess the right answer. The proper name of a random person who I will never care about, crossed with a transliteration of Hebrew and an alleged synonym for cinephile that has never been used in English outside of a three-square-block section of New York City? Why not just publish an entire puzzle where ever answer is clued as, "Someone who I once thought about in my kitchen"?
10
Gary,
A few other posters reported having difficulty with the SW (and other areas of this Saturday puzzle). I believe you are the first to blame the editor. Congratulations.
5
@Gary
Welcome to Saturday, Gary.
It's not Will's fault that you don't know Howard Ashman. The Little Mermaid score holds up very well next to nearly anything that was on Broadway at the time; I remember thinking while watching it with my children that the Disney people had actually created a Broadway-musical-as-full-length-animated-movie. Of course, so did the Disney people, who made it an actual Broadway show a couple of decades later (along with several other of their properties that were animated movies first.)
The A in MIDRASH that crosses ASHMAN cannot be transliterated with any other letter, so it comes down to you just didn't know either one. CINEASTE was familiar to me, and I don't live in New York City.
Saturdays are hard. You have to know a lot of things. Try one from the Maleska eighties and see how it stacks up.
7
@Gary
"It's the Saturday New York Times Crossword! It's *supposed* to be hard."
-- KATEPLANCHETT
6
I loved solving this puzzle, just loved it. Only two scars, & one is almost invisible. I had kATE instead of cATE at 36A & fASt READ at 62A (which became a real logjam later!), but happily an F becomes an E easily (this is on paper in pen) & a T becomes a Y without leaving too bad a scar.
The SE corner was a bear for me. When I finally figured out 45A RIME (btw, HA!!!!), I thought the rest would finally flow easily, but no. CHRISTIAN something, but I still stubbornly held onto fASt READ. ARR!!
At long last I heeded a rule that I tend to forget: if a pocket is resisting all efforts to get any entries beyond one that hangs out into space all alone, then that entry is wrong, no matter much it seems to fit. You’ve fallen into a trap.
And so. EASY READ, though not at all an easy solve, then logjam broken & finally done. What a workout!
Many standout clues that I drew smileys next to:
30A—I always smile at innocent references to mooning & such ;-c)€
33A (What I eventually figured out was that no Times editor, including Mr Shortz, would ever permit “top” to be a geographical equivalent to “northernmost”.)
37A
39A
45A (Ha!!!)
61A awww
11D (Ha!!!)
Thanks so much, Mr Pasco! What a great way to begin a Saturday morning! (Now I’m off to watch my students graduate!)
Happy Memorial Day weekend, Everyone!
:-c)€
5
@Floyd
Back at ya, Floyd! :)
@Floyd
I inevitably have to correct KATE to CATE every time this clue appears.
"Happy Memorial Day weekend, Everyone!"
Floyd,
I've always appreciated three-day weekends, but this one, for me, is not a happy one. Peace.
5
I was guessing at 54A (CINEASTE is a thing?) but most of it was pretty simple.
However, I must ask: does anyone actually go about saying, "DASH IT!"?
Wanted HOT ROD but got TIN CAN.
SPRING before SPRANG
Blanked for a while on Jim HENSON's name, may he rest in peace.
Finally able to print up and solve last Sunday's tour de force...and I must say, Natan made a LASTing impression! That was wonderful! The experience of going from bafflement to the AHA moment was delicious, and I enjoyed sussing out the theme entries. COD was an early entry, and the fish were easy to get from just one letter; it definitely aided the solve. I don't want to say that a mind capable of conceiving this puzzle is possibly unhinged....but it's certainly not ordinary. (Get Help.)
5
@Mean Old Lady
Re: DASH IT- probably not outside P.G. Wodehouse.
4
@Frances
Or what editors told wannabe mystery writers back in the 1930s. (See Thin Man, Maltese Falcon, etc.)
2
@Mean Old Lady
Maybe a better clue for DASH IT would be "Way to sprinkle salt"? Or would that be verbing?
:-c)€
4
I felt good about this one at first because I got several of what I thought were difficult clues, but the proper nouns got me; lots of them today! I also got my first direction question because I've driven from H'burg to Allentown. Nice clueing, but I had to look up most of the names.
1
How do I err? Let me count the ways.
Smote - nope
Langerie - nope
Telex - nope
Those of you that found this easy and fast - see 1D
Thanks Paolo, well done.
3
@dk
Hand up for TELEX first.
2
For those of us who consider television a communications medium, the "bygone" part of the clue for CABLE is incorrect.
1
@Deadline: I assumed CABLE referred to the former means of transoceanic (undersea) communications.
1
Count me among those who finished in close to record Saturday time. Part before LEAD slowed me down initially. Having MIDRASH right away helped with the thornier SW. Overall, a very good puzzle with some great cluing.
3
It's always interesting to see what some people cite as gimmes and what they struggle with. I found the puzzle medium tough, although I did not have to resort to outside help. It took me a while to get on Paolo's wavelength.
CATE was my second gimme after BEA. I remember it being a big deal about her winning an Oscar for playing Kate, another Oscar winner.
It was bittersweet to see Howard Ashman in the puzzle. Along with his creative partner Alan Menken, he was in large part responsible for the revival of Disney's animated movie musicals in the late 80s/early 90s. The Little Mermaid was the first, then Beauty and the Beast, and he also worked on Aladdin before his death from AIDS at 40.
And let's not forget Ashman and Menken's pre-Disney Little Shop of Horrors.
11
@vaer
Thanks for the education. Blissfully ignorant of Menken and ASHMAN’s Little Shop of Horrors’ authorship (not the right word I know but the right word isn’t coming) and ASHMAN’s sad fate. And yes to The Little Mermaid and Beauty and the Beast as pulling Disney back into the musical light. This is yet another reason I love Wordplay.
3
@Puzzlemucker
In my research to make sure I didn't get anything terribly wrong in my post, I learned there is a documentary called Howard about him that was released last year. Will have to see if I can find it streaming somewhere, preferably with a service I'm already paying for.
2
No luck on the streaming front, but here is a short clip with Jerry Orbach and Angela Lansbury recording Be Our Guest.
https://youtu.be/OLVXTKfU1V0
3
What a breeze! I completely agree with @Colorado Z - great puzzle and so easy, once I looked up over half the answers! Echoing another comment below, are "ILIADS" a thing? I know, Saturday. On another topic, but linked to today's puzzle at A1: a small rant that has nothing to do with actual crossword solving, rather it's that abbreviation of "microphone" that is always printed "mic" - when it is pronounced "mike".... So: you put your pikes on Instagram, you write with a bike pen, and an eye muscle that twitches all the time is a tike, eh? If we have pic, bic, tic, then why do we have "mic [sic]" (pronounced with a short "i") instead of "mike"? The answer is NOT the pronunciation: "micro" is always pronounced "my-crow", as we all know. Now I am going to go join my murder of crows so they can tell me they CARE. :)
4
Oops, I am DIM today, pushed "Submit" too soon, it should have been: "if we have pic, bic, tic (pronounced with a short "i"), then why do we have "mic [sic]" (pronounced with a long "i") instead of "mike"? "
1
Echoing another comment below, are "ILIADS" a thing?
JF,
See my reply to that earlier comment (below if going from newest to oldest; otherwise above).
@Jeremiahfrog
I feel your PAYNE. As an example of 9D, what do you call two crows in a tree?
That’s right, attempted murder.
6
Favorite clue: Push-ups, e.g. for LINGERIE. And an alternate clue for RUSH IN: What Fools Do (or would that be too easy?)
Very enjoyable Saturday, not as sadistic as I generally hope for on a Saturday, but yesterday made up for that.
Good to be home after a week away.
3
@AudreyLM
“What fools do in song” would be a nice clue earlier in the week.
:-c)
4
SPELLING BEE
44 words, 192 points, 2 pangrams, bingo
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
E 2 2 1 1 3 - 9
G 3 2 3 1 - - 9
H 3 4 - - 1 - 8
L 1 1 - - - - 2
O 3 - - - - - 3
T 4 2 3 - 1 1 11
Y 2 - - - - - 2
Tot 18 11 7 2 5 1 44
33
@x --
Thanks for posting the grid! Still need seven words (including the second pangram), now I know where to focus.
2
Thanks for the grid. I'm down to a final H5 that is really eluding me.
@David Connell - as usual - I found it immediately by retyping a word I'm sure I already had on the list...but there was a reason...
4
Very sharp and clever clue-ing. I really liked Book of Stars!
5
I knew Ashman right away. Guess I’m a Disney fan. I also knew Midrash with some hints as I’m Jewish.
3
Kevin,
Not to pry, but if you needed some hints, may I assume you are not terribly observant?
1
@Kevin Davis
Isn't MIDRASH a symptom of shingles?
8
@Kevin Davis I am surprised that a lot of people don't know Ashman; I guess I had my kids at the perfect time to know him. I also knew midrash easily, because I'm a nontheist Quaker Catholic who is obsessed with Judaica.
4
Kudos to those who found this to be an easy puzzle; I did not. It was so far out of my wheelhouse I couldn’t find the wheel or the house. Glad to see that a few others found the puzzle very difficult; misery loves company.
Struggled home in twice my average Saturday time, mentally bruised and bleeding, but with my streak barely intact.
And now for my helping of humble pie...
14
@Ron O.
I kept looking up answers thinking that the next one would give me the insight to finally cross the finish line. No such luck.
2
@Ron O. Oh well Sweetie, I’m not as smart as you and I finished in 7 hours and 58 seconds.
10
@Puzzlemucker
👌
3
Thanks for two good ones in a row, satisfying albeit of differing difficulty.
1
Easy for a Saturday, hard for a Wednesday, good for any day.
5
I find it interesting that a number of people found this easy. I did also. I just had to type in the answer to the 20 answers I had to look up, making it easy.
29
@ColoradoZ
Truman Capote's critique of Kerouac - "That's not writing, it's typewriting."
My riff on my attempt--That's not solving, that's typing
10
@ColoradoZ
You made us laugh out loud.
Some, I'm sure, will ARRgue that today was a slog. But for me, it was just an honest Saturday puzzle. That is, "puzzle" in the sense of staring at a few black squares, a few scattered entries, and oodles of empty white squares wondering how to move forward. STOP/GO all the way, as it turned out.
My assiduous CABLE TV research paid off with an early guess at CHRISTIAN MINGLE, which gave me a ray of hope (that I might be able to solve this thing, not get a date). Mostly, though, it was just a series of those little insights, more than usual, that turn a puzzle into a trophy.
Tough gets included CINEASTE, MIDRASH, ASHMAN and ILIADS (didn't know there was more than one). Had codeATHON before HACKATHON. Great clues for ESC, ANIMATOR, HAWIIAN SHIRT, AND LINGERIE.
Does a pirate really say ARR? I've never met one, so I can't say he doesn't.
A very worthy Saturday offering from Paolo Pasco. Thank you, sir.
5
@Mike R
Pirates pretty much say whatever the constructor needs them to say. 🦜
14
Mike,
There is only one Iliad; there may be multiple iliads.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/iliad
1
@Mike R
Statistical pirates program in a language called R.
Some programmers use this keyboard:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bobbybaker/155412642/
5
New Haven is credited with being America's first planned city, laid out in a grid of nine squares, with the central square being the common land (the Green) that provided grazing for livestock, space for the churches, and burial plots. It got the name "The Elm City" from the rows of tall, graceful elm trees that lined the eight streets - wider than was usual for the time - that defined the grid.
https://tinyurl.com/ElmCity
https://tinyurl.com/Elms-and-Yale-Fence
Disgruntled colonists with religious differences broke away from the Massachusetts Bay colony to found New Haven; not much later, disgruntled New Haveners broke away to found Milford, Connecticut. Not long after that, disgruntled Milfordites broke away to found...Newark, New Jersey.
As to Caitlin's comment about Midrash being specific - yes and no. A midrash is the writing of a specific rabbi about a specific scripture, so, yes, that's pretty specific. But Midrash as a collective noun refers to the whole body of rabbinical interpretation over many centuries, and constitutes a major part of Jewish religious understanding.
Since the puzzle contrasted JDate with Christian Mingle, I'll add that the Roman Catholic version of the tradition of interpretation corresponding to Midrash is Magisterium, but with a very important difference - Catholicism insists on internal consistency or harmony among the endorsed interpretations, while Judaism not only does not, but celebrates the variety.
15
@David Connell
I had ELI before ELM thinking "of or pertaining to Yale."
6
@Robert Michael Panoff - Well, the students and faculty at Albertus Magnus, Southern Connecticut, University of New Haven, Quinnipiac and others would probably complain about a nickname like "The Eli City" for New Haven.
OTOH - Yale secretly owns about half of the city.
https://www.governing.com/topics/education/gov-university-college-towns.html
3
@David Connell
Sounds like Duke's status in Durham.
OT: Both Duke and Yale are in the lacrosse NCAA semi-finals today.
2
Naticked in the SW. Also I had BAD joke at 9A, resulting in the new swear word BASHIT, which sounded perfectly reasonable, brah.
11
Same here; I figured it had to be wrong and kept picking at it until I happened on DAD instead and got the victory pane.
@Suzy M. - From REBUTS the other day I was thinking of words with a dropped T (not a dropped TROU) for REBUS, and BASH IT also results from dropping a T. Or as someone else said, A TEAS.
2
@Suzy M.
Did the same! LOL
When I figured out it was DAD, though, it made for an amusing DOOK. I don't know if this is acceptable slang these days, but when something is really good, it may be referred to as DA S**T. :)
2
Count me in among those who thought this was a relatively easy Saturday--about half my average time and almost beat my Thursday time this week.
My only real slowdown was in the NE where I've never heard of DASH IT, had BAD before DAD, and admired the clever cluing for SMITE.
In the SW I hadn't heard of MIDRASH or CINEASTE but the crossings gave me the certainty I needed.
Mr. Pasco, I'm suitably impressed by and very much enjoyed the triple stack of horizontal 13's -- it looks like the recipe for a fun night out with your significant other -- put on your favorite HAWAIIAN SHIRT, have dinner at a restaurant listed in the MICHELIN GUIDE, and take in the latest CATE BLANCHETT movie.
6
@Henry Su
Nice Mini Theme! :)
2
BLACK PEOPLE MEET and CHRISTIAN MINGLE each have the same number of letters. Guess which one I wrote in first? It was soon erased, but I like to go for the big answers out of the gate even if they turn out to be a red herring.
4
@Dave
These "targeted" dating sites were really big for a while... we used to see constant ads for CHRISTIAN MINGLE, JDate, Our Time (folks over 50), and my personal favorite, FarmersOnly.com. The last one always made me chuckle, wondering if there was a process to weed out fake profiles by asking questions about crop rotation and animal husbandry.
4
@Steve Faiella
A buncha years ago, someone I worked with was interested in setting up a dating site for people with HIV and wanted to explore funding opportunities. This meant that I had to visit a whoooole lotta dating sites, targeted and otherwise.
My overall takeaway is that people who set up targeted dating sites can't spell.
2
@Brian @Tyler and other "numbers people"
Here is an attempt to calculate my par times for each day of the week. I computed the average of the best 10 of the last twenty weeks much the same as the method for golf handicaps. (I did it by hand to avoid data entry, conversion, and sorting details in setting up a spreadsheet.)
This has the advantage of reflecting current form and eliminating outliers at the high end.
I have NORMALIZED them using MON par as 1.00 to protect my ego and to show the gradient over the week. eg, A sunday puzzle usually takes me four times as long as a Monday, so we can compare our experience that way for each day of the week. (btw, Last Sunday worked out to about 8 on this scale.)
MON TUE WED THU FRI SAT SUN
1.00 1.29 1.46 2.34 2.65 3.02 4.09
Ratio of NYT data for my Best times to these par times:
0.77 0.84 0.75 0.67 0.64 0.68 0.72
6
I’m always leery of throwing away outliers. All data is important.
1
@Brian Agree re: outliers; I recall that's what Theranos did with their Edison results and it didn't end well for them (thank goodness).
1
@Al in Pittsburgh
I like it. You may need to remind us of your “pars” each time you post your daily score. Far too complicated for me to try to do but I might try nonetheless should I find myself with a spare four hours.
I worked at a company which has a yearly hackathon accompanied with, of course, a t-shirt. One year the shirt had four words, one on each line: Code / Eat / Sleep / Repeat. However, "Sleep" was crossed out.
8
@PaulSFO
I sometimes miss my days as a code monkey. It was the best career I could have imagined, even when I stopped coding day to day and joined the ranks of management.
2
@Steve Faiella
I started as a developer but have mostly done testing. The main appeal for me (besides being something at which I could earn a living) has been the relative autonomy. Managers don't have the time (or, in many cases, the ability) to micromanage. ;)
3
Struggled with that one, cuz I got stuck on GEEKATHON. Which doesn't make sense.
TIL that if you have _ICHELINGUI__ staring you in the face, you might think up bogus phrases like NICHE LINGUINE.
27
Yep, I had MICHELINGUInE for a good long time!
1
@Morgan
You must have been thinking of NIETZSCHE’S LINGUINI, his whimsical cookbook that followed on the heels of Beyond Good and Evil.
8
@Puzzlemucker: LOL!
1
I absolutely loved this one — and now even more so knowing that Cate Blanchett was the seed clue! I very much share Mr. Pasco’s admiration for her immense talent. (Not to mention her appeal as a fashion icon!)
Many delightful clues. MICHELIN GUIDE and HAWAIIAN SHIRT were lovely aha moments. LINGERIE made me guffaw!
4
@Irene
We had similar experiences. & I was surprised to learn that the central entries were newly introduced.
:-c)€
1
I was enjoying this puzzle mucho until I hit the nest of naticks in the SW, but I now find from Caitlin that I was in good company. Not quite finishing did not detract from the pleasure.
1
Interesting week. Had my worst Friday time ever followed by my best Saturday time. Both fun puzzles though. M
Howard Ashman was one of my gimmes. I’ve seen Little Mermaid — the animated version, the Broadway touring version, the playlet at Disney World, in-the-round dinner theater version, “Jr”version with child actors —more times than I can count. My adult daughter is a totally Disney freak, and especially loves villains. We often attend together in costume. I was the Genie today, and she dressed as Jafar for the opening of the Aladdin live action movie.
Enough about me. The “aha” moments in this puzzle were a blast. I thought I’d never solve it, until I did.
6
@Christine Peterson
Sounds like fun! I was thinking MENKEN for The Little Mermaid until the crosses obviated that. Glad I knew (from somewhere) MIDRASH or I might have been ASHMANed.
2
@Christine Peterson
I love The Little Mermaid too!
If you’d like a really lovely take on the fairy tale that’s thematically more true to the Hans Christian Andersen story than is the Disney version, I highly recommend the show Once On This Island.
:-c)€
1
@Floyd
Wikipedia tells me the revival closed in January. Here’s hoping it will make its way to a Milwaukee or Waukesha venue. Even a high school production. The drama kids of today are amazing.
Surprised myself with this one. Finished faster than yesterday's, in just over half of my Saturday average, and without having to look up any of the showbiz folks. Started off with the downs: LOATH, ANNIE, PAINE, and MATE, which helped me fill in the NW; got CHRISTIAN MINGLE and (of course) DAD jokes over on the NE, along with TILTS AT. Letting things settle there for a bit, and moving down, I looked at my keyboard for ESC, got BEA, then moved farther down for INK, DEALS, RATA, SNAPE, MALIA, and ASHMAN.
That got me enough to work through the remainder of the puzzle, and to appreciate some of the clue misdirects. Favorites:
11D: Off in biblical lands?
33A: Top of a Pacific island chain
45A: Cold-weather coat
2
For most of the puzzle I was thinking to myself something stronger than DASH IT. But when all was said and filled, the PAINE ENDED and I exhaled and took a look around.
What a middle: HAWAIIAN SHIRT, MICHELIN GUIDE, CATE BLANCHETT — all wonderfully clued. (I felt like I was cheating because I got CATE B without recalling who she played — KATE H (Leapy!)). CHRISTIAN SINGLE ran down through it until the flyspecking, when I wrangled MINGLE from my mangled brain, making A TEAM much more coherent than A TEAS.
This puzzle had a SWEETness to it with a bit of spice mixed in (though “dropping TROU” never sounded very sexy to me, nor MIDRASH for that matter). Although I remain very much INEXPERT, I feel a lot like Annie — smiling ear to ear and knowing the sun’ll come out, tomorrow. Bet your bottom
dollar . . .
8
@Puzzlemucker
Two similarities to your solve here:
I also had trouble getting DASH IT, but for a different reason. I started struggling when I had ??SH?T. Parsing is all.
Also wondered what on earth A-TEAS could possibly mean.
And I also thought of Leapy, especially when I saw the picture in Caitlin's column.
Clever puzzle. Liked clue for HAWAIIAN SHIRT. Had a little trouble in SE, but finally got ENDED (instead of tense) for wound up and everything became clear. Always like to hear from Mr HP, especially for the Saturday puzzle.
2
A CINEASTE in French is a filmmaker, not necessarily a film buff.
3
@Nic Terrenato
Of course, this is an English puzzle, and it can mean either in English:
https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/cineaste
1
Nic,
I can't speak to the French definition, but the clue didn't call for a French word, and in English a CINEASTE may be either involved in or a fan of film.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/cineaste
1
(At least the virtually simultaneous replies cited different dictionaries.)
2
Fun fill, clever clues, and a number of interesting facts to learn, like CATE BLANCHETT's role as Katharine Hepburn having that special distinction. Last clues to fall were TEXT for "scripture" and INEXPERT for "amateurish". Neither particularly difficult, but that's where I ended my solve.
0.6 standard deviations below my all-time Saturday average, my 19th fastest.
3
I was nearly two sigma above average. Toughest Saturday YTD.
1
Tyler and Brian,
Quite the deviation between your deviations.
4
@Tyler D. - interesting how deviations are so personal. My solve was 35% of average for a Saturday.
I wore a HAWAIIAN SHIRT to our 33rd anniversary dinner this evening — the clue jumped right out at me!
9
@Peter Ansoff
Congratulations to you both. Now that's a streak!
10
@Al in Pittsburgh
"Now that's a streak"
Oh boy, taking every ounce of my restraint not to make a BAD DAD joke about "dropping" 30A.
4
@Puzzlemucker
...Or getting lei-ed?
4
When you start out with just BEA, ENE, RATA, and HENSON, it’s not very auspicious! As usual, the Downs gave me a few more in each corner, and that gave me a good start.
ROLE before LEAD and STODGY before STOPGO. It felt like there were a lot of factual things in this one that I didn’t know and couldn’t guess—ANNIE, MATE, ASHMAN, etc—but the crosses saved me. I did really enjoy seeing words like CINEASTE (there’s a film magazine by that title that’s been around for 50 years now) and MIDRASH and HACKATHON—that was an interesting corner, and if I’d only known Howard ASHMAN it would have been even better! But again for me, the crosses worked and I was able to fill it in.
I didn’t know HEDER at all and was having trouble piecing together the long 13s in the middle—thought it might have been CRYER but that didn’t work. But then I re-parsed the clue for 33A and got HAWAIIAN SHIRT, which led to the other two 13s filling in. All in all, the words and the clueing seemed very lively.
2
Toughest Saturday so far in 2019.
4
@Brian What about May 4 for instance?
May 4 was one sigma below average. Relatively easy.