Of the Wordplay clue and answer mentions, only Roget tripped me up. The others I knew or figured out with crosses. But Roget? An author? He’s a lexicographer.
Alta is a ski resort in the Wasatch mountains of Utah, not the Rockies!
Matt,
The Wasatch Range is part of the Rocky Mountains.
Ever skied Mount Dora?
4
@ Matt
Where to start, where to start: a geography lesson? A geology one?
Actually, Barry Ancona covered that in his reply. So I’ll leave you with this: ALTA is not a “resort” to us native Utahns. It’s a religion.
9
I was going to declare this one of the best puzzles ever, but um... no! Other than that it was great.
5
Carlos,
Great material, work on the delivery.
Try: "...one of the best puzzles ever, but UMNO."
2
@Barry Ancona,
Um... I don't kNOw.
I think maybe some of us got it without the shouting.
GalvaniZing
2
Leapy,
This from someone who "capped" the answers in her post right before this one? WAYTOGO.
I thought the SW cleverly ALIGNed MANBUN and MONKS, thinking Japanese, but the Japanese 'chonmage' is traditional going back to the Edo period, and is linked to samurai, not MONKS, and more recently to sumo wrestlers. It is the Chinese 'touji' that is still worn by Taoist priests and was widely traditional through the end of the Ming period. I spose the long-hair MANBUN thing might have some Samsonite association, as it's found in the Sikh, Maori, Korean, Ukrainian cultures (among others). You might say 'hirsute' does "him suit". grass and busy streets notwithstanding.
Speaking of Thesauri: I've often used the thesaurus to find some new phrasing for a word that's come up too often in something I'm writing, but the time came quite a few years ago that I actually looked up the section headings in the front of the book, and realized that PETER ROGET had aimed for a framework that included everything real or conceivable, anything that had been observed, experienced or conceptualized.... and then to gather and categorize every possible way to describe each thing verbally. Blew me away.... If the OED deserved The Professor and the Madman, I'd surely love to see a parallel work about ROGET and the Saurus.
My main and persistent attraction from today's puzzle:
JESUS
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death
-- e. e. cummings
10
@Leapfinger
I was (am) unaware of ROGET's framework. I want to know more, and intend to do some searching.
And I really, really, second your thought about a parallel work to "The Professor and the Madman." Even if there's not any real madman.
1
I used to read Roget’s Thesaurus for fun. There, I said it out loud. Okay, okay, fine: I still read it for fun, especially when my creativity needs a good kickstart. Nothing computational linguistics has put forth in the last 60 years has come close to replacing it.
@Deadline Maybe you and @Leapfinger would be interested in this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/books/review/Mallon-t.html
TOOL before AMMO, ASSAYS before TASTES, ALTOS before GATOS, FOURS before PAIRS ... the NE corner and the SW corner had me stretched thin, even after connecting the ascending PARAGON, PGRATING and PAROLEE with their crossing clues.
LADMAG was a stretch but essentially anything with that much cleavage and cologne qualifies so LARA CROFT leading it seemed appropriate.
I finally had a look at “2016 movies” and was happy I didn’t try to fit MANCHESTER BY THE SEA into 42-Down, which assisted the SW corner.
Loved TALON, MANBUN, MOANA, INKING and CANNIBAL ... very tribal.
Quite a bit slower than my average, with an assist.
Cheers!
3
I had a really hard time with this one—went way over my average. I was thrown by LADMAG, and spent a lot of time second-guessing my other answers. I thought it was pretty iffy—too British—but was mollified when I looked up the history of Maxim and discovered that it was originally published in the UK in 1995. However, it moved to NY a mere 2 years later. Sooooooooooooooo...
Pip pip, cheerio, and tata for now :)
5
@Ms. Cat
Or, I’d like to add, as the the late Queen Mother used to say...
“Tinkety tonk old fruit & down with the Nazis.”
(One of my favourite Britishisms ever!)
7
@Ms. Cat
That's great! Lifted my tired spirits for sure.
@Ms. Cat - sounds like the Queen Mum's salute to her G&T.
HAIL before GRAB A CAB. PERFECT before PARAGON. SNOT before SNIP.
Had a bit of a rough start in NW, with the cab misstep and not knowing the ski resort or the car. For a while wondered if Ben (or Jerry) STILLER had produced and done cameos in those flicks I hadn't seen.
But that was all quickly and satisfactorily fixed. Surprised myself by getting REDDIT without much fuss; I think I must have learned somewhere that that "r/" beginning was something on that site. I've never been there or to INSTAGRAM, but I got the FILTER part of that entry with just a couple of letters and was able to figure the whole thing out.
Is a DOOR DIE a pattern for cutting out entryways?
What are P GRATINGS? Can you clean them up with a GLUE STICK?
I once got an email ad or something with a link to something purporting to show how to make a MAN BUN. I wondered how it could be different from the way we women make them, so I looked both up and compared. Yes, the techniques are identical.
Before I looked at the clue, I thought that the entry starting CANNIB ... was going to be about those oils and stuff that people keep trying to sell me via email.
My cracking of NCAA was identical to Deb's.
No major no-knows, even with people's names; I've heard of both Phoebe CATES and Jackie JOYNER-Kersee (although I wouldn't recognize iether if I tripped over them).
That was a jolly good, satisfying puzzle. Thanks to all. Looking forward to Saturday.
5
@Deadline
I shared your confusion until I figured it was not:
DOOR DIE but DO OR DIE
P GRATINGS but PG RATINGS
Cheers!
Well, I did get this, but LAD MAG remains a mystery.
BEER KEGS reminded me of the Supreme Court, so that grated.
No clue about INSTAGRAM but we use coffee FILTERs every day.
Was not on a first-name basis with the famous ROGET.
Cenobites! Wow. Will be looking it up.
3
@Mean Old Lady - LAD is a British term for an immature man. MAG is short for magazine. Maxim is just that.
I try to get through without googling, and then, when I must, I try only to Google my candidate answers, rather than googling the clues. Today, I was majorly stuck in the SW corner, and only got through it by looking up 'cenobites', and 'Wrigley Brands'.
1
I also had to look up cenobites or wouldn’t have solved SW corner. I guess from your city you had no problem with Los Gatos.
I haven’t verified it but expect cenobite has same root as connubial, living together.
1
@ Don Brearley
Yes and no: Ceno- in cenobite and con- in connubial have a common Proto-Indo-European ancestor in ‘ḱóm’ but while ḱóm gave rise to the Latin ‘with’ — ‘cum’ and subsequently the prefix ‘con-‘ — in Greek it only survived as ‘koinē’ or ‘common’ (‘me’ is ‘with’ in Greek). While both the Latin ‘cum’/‘con-‘ and the Greek ’koinē’ share the sense of joining together, the Romans imported ‘coenobite’ from the Greek “koinbion’ wholesale as a term for monastery.
Ironically, ‘koinbion’ was originally coined by the Greeks as a direct antonym of ‘monasterios’ when monks began living as a community as opposed to the older practice of hermeticism.
3
Fun puzzle, the center gave me fits at the end after the corners fell somewhat smoothly for a Friday. I had "top" instead of TEN for a while, and I was unfamiliar with SNIP as a informal noun. As a defense attorney I should've gotten PAROLEE quicker, though I'm only involved in the court process rather than post conviction release.
On to Saturday!
2
"One with more than two billion followers"
Had to decide between JESUS and TRUMP (according to some reports...)
I will be gone for the rest of the day...
@Andrew
I thought Trump for a second too, then I imagined the uproar in our normally civil comments board.
2
@Andrew
One has two billion followers. The other says he has two billion followers.
John Lennon said the Beatles were more popular than Jesus. Go figure.
1
@Steve L
He might have been right, but it doesn't change anything...
ALOE! ALOE!! Is anybody home?? Nice singsongy start in the NW with GRABACAB TALLTALE TIPTOE, and I think the whole grid kept this up with a nice rhythm that was easy to DANSE to.
Despite some appearances to the contrary, it wasn't all NASTy, though I suspect the 37A clue of premeditation: figuring there'd be lots of commas in long sentences, who better than JAMES_JOYCE? A proper fit and THUSLY a well-laid trap in today's grid.
Never in a million years would I have thought UM_NO for "That's...never gonna happen", were it not for getting the U from running the alphabet to see GL_E turn to GLUE, with the added benefit of wINK(l)ING out the redunDANSE of GLUE/STICK. Always nice to get an unexpected two-fer.
Some clues earn a perfect TEN, with ATM for short people and that CANNIBAL getting you in hot water. If some folks would rather be lightly steamed than boiled, the incomparable CANNIBAL Adderley might show some Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4rXEKtC8iY
Insufficient time to consider how ABLE an ABUELA MEDEA might have been had things worked out differently, or how to gently ALIGN LARACROFT with the LADMAG MALEEGO. That NE corner is just too fraught for words. The SW isn't far behind either: I just hope every time we see an old DOORDIE, that a new window is born.
Hoping nobody found this PARAGON PuzzleGRATING today.
Enjoyed it, Ori. Glad to have you shine your light on me.
14
@ Leapfinger
You had me at ALOE :D
I really have to never look at this comment section while drinking coffee over my laptop...
5
@Sam the Coeur de Lyons, on the upside,you probably can save a pretty penny on Neti Pots...
1
@Leapfinger
James Joyce was my first thought as well, I see I was not alone!
2
Well, I got everything but one letter. Not being familiar with Instagram, and guessing that ALMS would help those who are short, I entered INSTAGRAM FILLER. I guessed at several other entries and checked online to learn that I had guessed correctly. DO OR DIE was a last minute suss. And that gave me DUNE instead of LANE. WHEW!
3
Alms/Filler got me too and ended my streak.
1
...ALMS would help those who are short...
SteveG,
It was pointed out earlier that the clue reads "...for short people, for short," a clear hint that the answer will be an abbreviation.
- Look at STAN LEE, PARO LEE and their mother, MA LEE GO!
- DOOR DIE - source of "dead as a door nail" perhaps?
- IN KING - a very popular monarch.
- Best thing about a BLIND DATE is that you don't need to shave or dress nicely.
Fun Friday!
9
@LaszloML, I'm trying to think of a muted reply to your BLIND DATE but it would probably fall on deaf ears.
Resigned to a figment of August after some partly dooMed Jooly dates... Best to just stuff it, eh?
3
All I got on my first pass across was 1A (TAKE)A(BUS), 15A (FOLK)TALE, 16A ABUELA, 46A (TWO) capitals? (ONE)? 55A INKING, and 57A TASTES, all hopeful guesses.
Then 3D ALTA and 7D ALOE seemed to confirm (FO)L(K)TALE, except I had to change 1A to ??A?ACAB. A few easy downs, 10D, 13D 25D 49D WANES, but:
No idea what an INSTAGRAMFILTER is, when in desparation I got this from Deb's column. I probably played Old Maid as recently as 70 years ago, but don't remember discarding anything. Four letters means it has to be (KING), (JACK), or (TREY), if only I can get one of the crosses (finally got two of them, for PAIR!). Unfortunately 9D, 22D, and 27D suggest nothing. 20D might be (PERFECT) but it doesn't look good. Mho Scale A = xxT? I don't think so. How many people would know something weird like 53A "Faddish hairstyle of the mid-2010s"? Egads! 33D "Link on a restaurant's Yelp page"? I can't imagine many people look at restaurant's Yelp pages, let alone remember what links it has. Biggest baffler: what the heck does 30A "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, for one" mean? Isn't Kevin Bacon a movie star or singer or something? Crosses are forcing LADMAG for 9A "Maxim." I must have something wrong.
Finally had to give up and google a crossword answer site for MANBUN (I've seen the word, but...). Finally filled all the squares but not a true solve.
2
@kilaueabart
I love discovereing new restaurants and frequently Google them to get an idea of fare, prices, ambience, etc. Along with their own sites, I tend to look at the images and even sometimes the Yelp page. I wouldn't trust the reviews, ever, but they can make quite amusing reading. So odd what some people look for, or like or dislike, in restaurants.
1
@kilaueabart
1. " I can't imagine many people look at restaurant's Yelp pages, let alone remember what links it has."
You would be wrong. Yelp is a major website people use to decide on a restaurant, often when they're in a strange place, but often at home. What helps them decide is the link to the menu. When the restaurant doesn't provide one, often there are photographs of the menu taken by contributors. There are literally thousands upon thousands of contributors; probably hundreds of thousands of users.
2. Kevin Bacon is an actor. Google "Six degrees of separation" for 1) the general concept; 2) the play of the same name (capitalized, though) and 3) the connection to Kevin Bacon.
3. "How many people would know something weird like 53A "Faddish hairstyle of the mid-2010s"?"
Sheesh, that was like, what, two, three years ago? I didn't get it without a couple of crosses, but I've heard of the name of that awful look.
4. LAD MAG isn't wrong. It's a thing. Google it.
7
Tough, but fun! I like Fridays when a wild guess can be accurate (ON TIPTOE), and other clues take longer but seem obvious upon solving (BLIND DATE, DUNE). Some head scratchers still (DOOR DIE?), but otherwise lots of fun!
3
@Matthew Harris
As mentioned below, DOORDIE is a "DOOK" where you split up the word: DO OR DIE
6
It took me a while to un-dook DOOR DIE.
I thought this was a rare themed Friday, with PAIRS as the revealer. my "evidence":
Across: LL DD EE EE AA RR MM OO NN EE
Down: DD EE
6
It's interesting that so many people felt this puzzle was really difficult. I remember thinking that it was hard while I was doing it, but when I finished, I saw that I'd done it in about 2/3 of my average Friday time. The NW filled in immediately (except for GRAB A CAB, which took the crosses) and I had words in all the other areas to build from. I was pleased that I remembered what cenobites were, and that I got ABUELA with a few crosses, and that most of the other tricky clues became clear with a couple of the letters in place. PETER Mark ROGET is how I think of him; I was surprised to see that despite his surname, he was English (and a physician). UM NO was my last fill.
6
@Liz B
If you know a lot of "trivia," its easier to solve. Those people that know lots of names, definitions, geography, sports, repeatedly used words, etc., get a quicker solve.
Those that know just some of all that have to spend a lot more time experimenting, reasoning, etc.
Those that know very little and dont know how to attack the puzzle end up googling...
Tricky, but I managed to finish in 49:08. Won't be winning any competitions with that time. But hey, I didn't cheat at all. We'll see if I can do something unprecedented: complete both a Friday and Saturday in the same week without any cheating whatsoever
5
@Julian
Go for it! Let us know how you do!!
3
Being a short person I got all excited to discover what might help me at 32D. ATMS, hah! Great misdirect there!
I can't stop staring at DOORDIE.
LAD MAG sounds British to me.
Thank you, Ori Brian, for this perfectly pitched Friday!
One last observation: MAN BUN? UM, NO.
6
@Johanna
Lad Mag I only heard across the pond. But then we had some Spanish (ABUELA, DOS), German (DAS), and French (SANS, DANSE) so let's through in a 'Britishism'! Brett hasn't happened yet! :)
3
@Robert Michael Panoff
a) through in the above should be "throw"
b) Brett in the above should be BREXIT,
I should proof my posts better!
@Robert Michael Panoff, np, I totally understood what you meant.
2
¡Bienvenido de nuevo ABUELA! Not sure if it was planned or just serendipity but I like that the '74 version had the exact same clue.
2
54A: Gristly
Q. When wouldn't you boil a missionary?
A. When he's a friar.
18
Hard but fun with a lot of obscure cluing. I prefer puzzles like this with little or no sports or pop culture answers but with a lot of wordplay. ATMS for short people, I love that.
6
I had never come across the term "Lad Mag", and I rushed to the blog to accuse the creator of inventing a nonsense term just to have something in that northeast corner.
After Googling, turns out... It's a real thing out there.
4
Had Vail before ALTA. I will probably be decitizenized by Colorado but ALTA is my favorite place to ski. If you are a snow boarder, be aware you can't ride at ALTA.
TIL that the Wasatch Range is a part of the Rocky Mountains. Always thought it was a range unto itself.
4
@ ColoradoZ
With those words you’ve just become an honorary Utahn. If Colorado ousts you, we’ll take you! I learned to ski at Alta, roughly right about the time I learned to walk. My life evolved around good snow days till I went away to grad school. I miss home...
3
I loved the puzzle until I got stuck in the SW and looked up cenobites. I got a lot of information about the movie Hellraiser that I would have been happier not knowing! But who knows it could come in handy later! Though really I hope not. Otherwise some really clever cluing.
2
@ Laura A
No no nooo, don’t let Hellraiser spoil the idea of a cenobite for you. They were early monks who built the most beautiful monasteries. Google cenobitic monasteries in Meteora, Greece, instead. I visited there when I was a kid and it was otherworldly.
@Sam Lyons Thank you. They are awe-inspiringly beautiful.
2
For some reason, I've been walking around all morning thinking that it was Saturday. This puzzle did nothing to disabuse me of that notion. It was *hard*! :)
Struggled for a while with the middle - Had EgOS instead of EROS for "Freudian Focus" (34D), and ALMS for "Help for short people - for short" instead of ATMS at 32D. Right wordplay, wrong answer (and as far as I know ALMS isn't short for anything, so that one's on me.
Finally plowed through just a tad (a bit over a minute) above Friday average.
That was one mental workout, Ori ! Great job!
3
Steve,
Based on other solving experiences reported today, your calendar and crossword challenges may be linked.
2
Never heard of Phoebe CATES and have not used INSTAGRAM - - let alone its FILTERs. “Research” was necessary for the former and Deb’s WoW filled me in on the second.
The rest I pried out of my storage banks - even Mesdames CROFT and JOYNER - or eked out with crosses.
Did have GO VIA CAB and GO IN A CAB for a long time - and EGOS instead of EROS - and PERFECT for PARAGON. But those all “self-corrected” eventually.
I think I can chalk this one up as “Solved” - not merely “completed” - without damage to my ego.
For some reason - - I had no difficulty with Roget’s first name😉
3
@PeterW
Phoebe Cates is married to Kevin Kline, not that I've ever seen it come up in crosswords, but you never know when a little factoid will come in handy.
"Never heard of Phoebe CATES..."
PeterW,
I believe you once taught high school. Must have been slow times.
9
@ PeterW
I read Jim Horne’s “The Rush of the ‘Crossword Puzzle Moment” essay in the NYT archives last night. Check it out. He writes about encountering a clue for a 6-letter character from Seinfeld. He’d never seen a single Seinfeld episode, but as soon as a cross revealed the sixth letter to be an ‘e’ Elaine popped into his mind out of nowhere. That’s how I got CATES and CROFT and INSTAGRAM FILTER. That’s how I get most of the sports clues.
5
Sayyyy?? What’s with the concentration on BALLET pictures the last few days??
(I’m not complaining though. I’d rather look at well-trained bodies than some other things I can think of.)
Did you ever notice how much more ON TIPTOE the ballerina’s are than the “whatever-you-call-male-ballet-dancers”?
That MUST hurt! - - and you can spot a ballerina from a block away just by looking at her calfs. (Maybe the male counterparts too - - - but I haven’t spent much time studying mens’ legs)
@PeterW
She is dancing en pointe; he is not. I think it's usually only female ballet dancers who dance en pointe, with the special shoes and lots of training. I'm no expert, though. Perhaps someone with more knowledge will chime in.
2
@Bess
Unless, of course, they are members of the fabulous Les Ballets Trockadero:
https://trockadero.org/2017/11/the-delightful-rebellious-rise-of-the-ballets-trockadero/
5
@Bess
Check out Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, an all male troupe that dance the female roles en pointe.
1
Trigram solution won't print.
1
Hi @Chico Chic, for technical issues, please send an email to [email protected].
How do I get to the Spelling Bee puzzle. I have a subscription and the app but don't see it. Thanks.
@Ed. Try googling Ny times spelling bee
Hi @Ed, The other games, like Spelling Bee and Letter Boxed, are not in the app. They are on the web, and you can bookmark them on your phone so you can easily find them.
1
@Deb Amlen - maybe the crossword app developers should add a link to Wordplay for the web-based games.
1
Saturday hard for me, way out of my wheelhouse, worked like a dog to finish it and did...almost. Was wondering what a sAD MAG was, never heard the term LAD MAG and thought LARA CROFT was sARA CROFT. WAY TO GO, Nancy.
INSTAGRAM something-or-other was a complete guess, but it opened up the puzzle for me and made finishing possible. I had put in EgOS instead of EROS for the Freudian focus at a time I had no crosses, so it was a lucky mistake that gave me 3 out of 4 correct letters.
Great clues for MALE EGO; CANNIBAL; ON SECOND; BLIND DATE; ON TIPTOE and PETER ROGET.
I "suffered" a bit too much to say I loved it, but it was highly engrossing and seemed quite original to me.
4
@Nancy You pinpointed my frustration with the puzzle. I solved everything but I didn’t know the Lara character nor had I any clue about Maxim. Otherwise I solved the rest of the puzzle and found it brilliant. Too bad about the DNF for me.
@Nancy
I guessed DADMAG, figuring Maxim might contain some Dad jokes. DARA seemed like a feasible first name to me.
1
@Andrew. That was exactly what I did.
To balance MALEEGO might we expect a similar answer regarding the female self image? Throw in LADMAG and MANBUN and it’s obvious the constructor is overwhelming influenced by the metro crowd. SMH.
@ MalcMan
But we women are right there front and center at 22D — PARAGON :D
3
We could've brought back the metro GNOME.
3
BBQ safety tip for cannibals -- Never put the grilled meat back on the same plate you brought it out on.
Oh boy. I just realized I'm gonna get a lot of angry replies arguing that "technically" that's not BBQ.
4
@ad absurdum
I will delay my ire until someone else explains this one to me.
2
@ad absurdum
I'm not sure why the cliche image of a cannibal waiting to toss someone into a boiling pot of water is so prevalent. Who likes boiled meat? Ugh. Aside from a Corned Beef Brisket who would ruin a nice cut of beef? Unless they're doing Sous Vide, but where would they get a plastic bag big enough for a person?
2
@Steve Faiella reminds me of the bbq scene in the completely un-pc movie The Naked Prey with Cornel Wild.
1
Successfully solving today's puzzle made me feel like I'm not so old after all! Thanks for all the modern references and an enjoyable Friday :)
4
So good! From the start to the end. Had me laughing and smiling the whole way. Thank you Ori. Awesome crossword. So much misdirection and trickery going on but still very achievable!
Favourites were WANE, PAROLEE, CANNIBAL, DOORDIE (the parsing has me tricked for a long while), PGRATINGS, MAILMEN, ONTIPTOES and I could go on.
5
I had 3 corners of this filled in in Wedneday-ish time - leaving just the NE corner and the middle. Had ABUELA and ABEL in that corner but was blanking on everything else. I never, ever heard of LADMAG and though I've heard of REDDIT the clue meant nothing to me and those were significant roadblocks.
Chipped away elsewhere, but ended up overly focused on 9d. I spent probably a half an hour (not all sitting at the puzzle) trying to remember 'Indiana Jones.' I've seen all those movies and it was driving me crazy. Finally remembered it, saw that it wouldn't fit and 10 seconds later thought of LARACROFT, and that's what got me the rest of the way (with one failed check and one revealed letter - about as close as I ever come on a themeless).
MALEEGO was one of the last things I filled in, and all I could think was... Seriously? I have fairly dark skin and the ONLY time I ever got sunburned was about 40 years ago. On top of my head. If thinning hair had any affect on my 'male ego' I would have been done for a long time ago. I went and looked at a photo of Will Shortz and, yeah - ok, I get it. Still dislike that clue. Get over it, Will.
4
@Rich in Atlanta
Wouldn't the fact that Will is sporting a follically challenged pate signify the opposite? That his MALE EGO is not affected by thinning hair? I would assume that the editor for the NYT XWP could certainly afford Hair Club for Men if his ego were bruised... :)
@Rich in Atlanta’s For gender balance let’s see in coming weeks “What a small chest might effect.” Dwayne Johnson, Vin Diesel, et al should sue.
1
@Rich in Atlanta
I also spent quite a few seconds trying to remember Indiana Jones, and I've never seen any of those movies. Nor, for that matter, any LARA CROFT, but I think I heard of that first as a computer game.
1
I was amused by LADMAG above REDDIT and MALEEGO, and TALLTALE ONTIPTOE above STANLEE, purveyor of many modern tall tales.
The stack of MANBUN (no),and tattoo INKING (yes) above TASTES was also pretty funny.
I had PIRATE (something) before PGRATING--bit of nice misdirection, that.
In general, a lot of wit today, I thought, and an enjoyable puzzle that took me a bit longer than usual.
4
DOORDIE is a DOOK.
1
@Steve L
Actually, MALEEGO is also a DOOK.
@Steve L
Is there such a thing as an anti-DOOK? If so, I nominate PAROLEE. Thought for ages they must be an LGBTQ celebrity I didn't know. I even contemplated the nobody-doesn't-like SARA LEE.
2
LADMAG! Gimmie a break, bemoaned Tom belligerently.
Delicacy for a CANNIBAL: Long Pig.
Speedy solve. A bon mot for my MALEEGO.
Thank you Ori
2
A Friday on a Friday! Appreciated the in-season baseball clue, and the baseball misdirect, too. I don't know for sure, but I would guess that LADS aren't the only people who might feel sensitive about their thinning hair. The MALE in my house reminds us that "Grass don't grow on a busy street," so no EGO problems here.
I never thought about ROGET as a person with a first name :D. Did he author (compose,craft, create, draft, pen, scribe, write) other works? (Rhetorical; I'll look it up.)
5
@ Ann
I am so stealing “Grass don’t grow on a busy street” for the MALE in my house :) I love that!
1
WAY TO GO in the positive sense, Ori. I liked the 2 Bolivia clues, mostly because I knew one of them and the other didn't fool me.
4
PARAGON of a Friday--and I earned my cloud this morning. My much-stared at grid contained so much nothing, then a little something and then at long last, everything. Persistence is all.
FOLKLORE before FOLKTALE before TALLTALE. CANNIBAL caused beverage spewage, as did ATMS (I had anticipated comments from the vertically challenged). Also my poor social media-addled brain was calculating who could possibly have 2 billion twitter followers for far too long.
4
@AudreyLM
#funnyjesusjoke
1
@AudreyLM
I can think of someone who might *claim* to have 2 billion Twitter followers.
2
I solved the top half pretty quickly and really had to work for the bottom (particularly the SW). Great cluing really made this a lot of fun.
LETTER BOXED
I have S-M (9), M-T (6)
1
@Mari
R-S (5) S-T (9)
1
@ColoradoZ
Yes, much better!
@Mari
I went long with L-S (12), S-Y (5).
Spelling Bee
23 words, 107 points, 1 pangram, no bingo
4 5 6 7 8 9 Σ
A 2 2 - - - - 4
D - 2 - - - - 2
G 3 1 1 - - - 5
H 1 1 1 1 - 1 5
L 2 1 - 1 1 1 6
R - 1 - - - - 1
It looks like the Bee is as worn out from this week as the rest of us.
42
@Ben I tried GRAYLADY as a word - thought The Bee Keeper may have added it in homage to his Queen, but it was not to bee! 😏. Didn't enjoy this one, as I never do when there is only one vowel with a 'Y'.
7
no Lardlad?! Beekeeper is definitely not a Simpsons fan!
3
@Mari I just need the H7 - any hints?
Tomorrow I will try to get my streak to one.
I spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out what a DOORDIE is.
TIL cenobites, which is the first time it has been the clue for MONKS in NYT Xword
7
@ColoradoZ
When one door opens another DOOR DIEs.
3
Fun Friday! Because I am one of the last Instagram holdouts, I wanted to put Snapchatfilter instead of INSTAGRAMFILTER but it obviously wouldn’t fit.
Jackie JOYNER Kersee was good to see. Her talented family makes me think about the inimitable Flo Jo who left us too soon.
It was also fun for STANLEE to make another cameo, this time in the NYT Crossword puzzle. RIP!
Have a great weekend!
3
I entered “take A CAB,” “LAD MAG,” “snapchat FILTER” (or, rather, attempted to, until I saw it was a letter short), and “pony KEG” right away. I guess that puts me a quarter of the way on Ori’s wavelength?
I almost forgot that a valse is a kind of danse. Should have been more on my toes.
4
I was surprised that GRAB A CAB wasn’t clued as, say. “Eschew a zin.” It is, after all a Friday.
I got CANNIBAL right away even though I normally get slowed down by culinary clues.
Lots of other great things to say about this very enjoyable puzzle, but it’s late, so my Cheshire grin and I shall say to all, a good night.
9
with this puzzle my friday average solve time is now officially lower than my thursday average solve time. curious if there’s anybody else out there like me!
3
Hand up!
2
i’m convinced we are of a certain sort. i struggle more than most, i think, with most thursday puzzles due to their themes. and i mentally sigh with relief when i see the clear, open, themeless expanses of a friday. my timings now bear this out!
1
@a.10 minutes slower thanks to south west corner . Still have no idea what LADMAG is up north.
and Elke
Was sure that the WAY TO GO was to "hitchike" not GRAB A CAB.
But I did nail the ON TIPTOE, even though the DANSE was not nearby.
Working my way to the MALE EGO, DUDES, MAILMAN and further down the MAN BUN, MONKS and that slew of PA--s centrally, made me think we were still on the MALE engineer theme.....
Was a bit uncomfortable with the CANNIBAL so close to the BEER KEGS; yesterday it was Beef ribs--- is it a case of DO OR DIE ?
The only disappointment: as a short person I was hoping for some new invention by some short engineer, not ATMS.
A PARAGON of a puzzle. A lot of fun, ORI.
3
As some others have indicated, I achieved a Friday personal best today, which is half my Friday average (and half the time as yesterday's puzzle). It never felt easy, but I was in the zone and didn't get tripped up by any tricky clues. I started out with a feeling that we had a hidden capital clue for LAD MAG, saw that LARA CROFT fit a lot better than any version of Indiana Jones, and just kept humming along. I am fortunate that I was working my way back through early 2018 puzzles last week: PETER ROGET appeared in full on Feb 2, 2018. I didn't know M_NKS (I would have guessed MiNKS) but DO OR DIE was my last fill, so it wasn't an issue. I got a smile out of the clues for GLUE STICK, BLIND DATE, ON TIPTOE (imagining an old-timey burglar with a striped shirt and a sack labeled "$"). I also appreciated the treachery of priming us with REDDIT and INSTAGRAM FILTER before the clue about two billion followers. WAY TO GO, not sarcastically!
5
Circe before MEDEA, briefly. I was unaware that MEDEA was a sorceress and Circe her aunt, so TIL.
5
Also, other than GLUESTICK, I can't find any GLUE in this puzzle. Noice.
6
@vaer
Thanks for saving me a googling!
I average a little over 40 minutes on Friday puzzles but this one came in for me just under 18 for the first time ever. I'm going to go ahead and tell myself that I had a huge breakthrough and it wasn't at all luck...until Saturday's puzzle sets me straight.
7
I had HANNIBAL for the longest time. Sheesh
1
@Christine Peterson
Can we get you a nice Chianti, Clarice?
5
Opposites attract:
PARAGON / CANNIBAL
PG RATINGS / LAD MAGS
MONKS worshipping JESUS / DUDES worshipping BEER KEGS
“Fido” / GATOS
“Thinning hair” / MAN BUN
ADMIT / UM NO
Some things ALIGN:
MAILMEN with MALE EGOs
JOYNER + GLUE STICK = JOY STICK
SANDY DUNE
BLIND DATE PAIRS
DANSE ON TIPTOE
Puzzle had a lot of ALTAtude.
8
@Puzzlemucker
Does SANDY chase MAILMEN? (Arf)
2
@vaer
;-). Only if it’s soul singer Ben E. King singing a cover of Springsteen’s “Sandy” (aka 4th of July, Asbury Park):
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Dt9lvu4yTPs
1
@Puzzlemucker
I didn't know the Hollies also did a cover version.
Fun puzzle even though fairly quick. Hit my 300 day streak today. Onward to a year!
16
Me too! Keep up the good work!
4
If i successfully solve the Saturday puzzle, I'll have a 365-day streak tomorrow.
3
A little trouble coming up with Roget’s first name (that definition of SNIP was new to me and wasn’t sure whether it was NAST, NASH, or maybe even NASA?), but _E_ER was enough to fill in PETER and finish my fastest Friday ever, less than half my Friday average and quicker than this week’s Wednesday and Thursday.
2
@Tom Kara this is exactly what tripped me up! (i had SNIT and NASH for far too long).
2
@a. Same here...I could see ROGET, but didn’t know his first name.
1
@Dave M i was sitting there going, TEHER, TEHER... i think the vowels are right, but *what* name could possibly follow a similar letter pattern!? once i finally got PETER (which was after getting to TETER, but *still* not seeing it!) — ooh did i feel like a doof. ;-) i can say is, it’s been a long day and my brain was tired!
Notched my half-century streak today and had a fine time so doing. Hesitated at LAD MAG thinking it too Britophile. And I wonder how ABUELA feels stuck amongst that, DUDES and MALE EGO. At least the Tomb Raider is up there to cut through the bro-down. Time for the weekend festivities with the GANG. BEER KEGS may be involved, but a total MAN BUN ban.
7
@Toby Half-century? Wow, I'm impressed.
But if you started in 1969, you were doing Will Weng puzzles, and recent puzzles must seem pretty tame in comparison.
4
@Rich in Atlanta I know you are joking around, but this is very much an Aussie cricket reference. A century is when a batsman scores 100 runs, not out.
But serious props for the Will Weng reference! Those older puzzles are beasts.
4
Gary b,
"Half-century" in the U.S. is also a 50-mile (bi)cycle ride.
Yay! I did so much better on this puzzle than Thursday's. Apparently BLIND DATES, PARLOR GAMES, and BEER KEGS, not to mention CANNIBALS, MOANA, and LARA CROFT, are in my wheelhouse.
I enjoyed this one immensely! Thank you Ori Brian!
:-D
2
You can tell a constructor has done a lot of work on a puzzle often by looking at the first entry. GRAB A CAB was new, fun, creative, and fun to say. Just like the rest of the puzzle!
Bravo
5
@John S.
I think that here in New York, we CATCH A CAB.
@Steve L
Possibly, but if you're out on the street and a cab comes by, you can GRAB it.
It's been years, but my practice in Manhattan was always to HAIL it.
Thanks to ALMS for ATMS and EGOS for EROS, I got mightily messed up in the right center. But loved the puzzle. Smooth as a Berry indeed.
9
I had EGOS, too, as well as UHNO, which led to the mysterious ATHS at 32d, fixing which finally finished the puzzle after a long delay with nothing but INKING and PGRATINGS in the SW. When I finally worked my way through that corner I got the “you’re finished but not finished” message. While reviewing my fill I saw ATHS and felt sure it was wrong.
5
For a moment I thought an ATH was alternate transport for height-challenged humans.
3
@Wags
ALMS for ATMS? Did you miss "for short"?
But I briefly had EGOS for EROS, too.
1
Quite fun, though it took me a few passes through.
I don't use INSTAGRAM or its FILTERs. But I do know of them. Took a while to remember LARA CROFT (had to run the letters in my head).
Liked the clues for JESUS, CANNIBAL, ATMS, ON SECOND.
Had TAKE A CAB before GRAB A CAB. UH NO before UM NO. Saw CANNIB__ and only thought of CANNIBIS until thinking about it some more. All those cartoons featuring someone in a cauldron finally paid off. TOP briefly before TEN. SNOT before SNOB before SNIP.
Interesting pairings - ON TIPTOE (DANSE!) and ON SECOND, MEDEA and MOANA. MONKS and (are) DUDES, PAC & TEN. ALOE and OBOE. OLDS and GTOS.
2
@Steve L
You may be my brother from another mother. (Except I would go to opera if I could afford it.) (And I do follow one sport -- figure skating.)
Add "Game of Thrones" to "The Simpsons."
But I try, not always successfully, to remember the names that are out of my wheelhouse but common in crossworld. Someday I'll be able to remember the name of the golf guy with all the vowels.
@Deadline
ISAO AOKI. ISAO AOKI. ISAO AOKI.
Roughly (for mnemonics purposes only; please don't tell me it's not accurate):
I saw a Okie. (Or that it's ungrammatical.)
1
@Steve L
LOL.
But I'm unlikely to remember the mnemonic. (I think Leapy sent me one she'd made up a while back, but I've forgotten it.)
While I’m here, had to Google “LAD MAG” after the fill. Never heard that term before. Heard of Maxim, and know it’s target audience, but not the term lad mag.
- Tom
2
@Tom Martin - mainly British, most likely, as men call each other LADs like Americans call each other guys, bros, DUDES, etc.
"Lad" - someone who has "Babe Magnet" tattooed on his beer belly
4
@Bruvver for the win!
3
challenging Friday in a set of mini-puzzles in the corners and middle. One might say this is the WAY TO GO!
2
54A: Grisly yet accurate. A CANNIBAL might “get you into hot water.”
Hi Deb,
Were you going to provide a source for the accuracy? There is little evidence -- but much racist lore -- that cannibals, usually depicted as primitive islanders or Africans, boiled their victims, but there is plenty of evidence that death by boiling was practiced in sophisticated Europe and Asia.
5
@Barry Ancona We don't need historical evidence, we just go by the New Yorker cartoons we grew up with.
22
Wags,
Just to be clear, I will leave it to others -- if they wish -- to decry the clue and answer in the puzzle. I only object to calling it "accurate."
5
@Barry Ancona
Can't wait to hear the complaints re cultural appropriation.
2
Had a tough time with 14 down!
- Tom
11
I don't generally like to share my streak length, but today I reached 100 for the first time today. Going away this weekend though and might not get a chance to do Saturday's... but at least the streak would end on a high note.
28
Nice! Congrats.
1
@Tyler D.
Bravo! Today's puzzle puts me at my longest to date, 61. Next target is 66, my age. 100 sounds sweet.
2
@Tyler D.
Felicitations. It's a significant achievement.
2