To my great surprise after the first casual check, I had a personal Friday best on this one, at 21:30. For some reason my crosses were spaced just right for me to “see” the likely answer before I even read the clues for the long words; other than TRIBUNAL, the southeast and northwest practically filled themselves in. Loved the Curie clue... I’ve been listening to a history podcast where they feature prominently in the race to the A-bomb.
After a year or so of doing these every day, I feel like I’m starting to sense words coming; probably it has something to do with the repetition of crosswordese and unconscious pattern recognition.
Fun puzzle! Thank you!
4
@Michael R
Congrats! And you are correct, the more you do the crosswords, the easier they tend to be (with exceptions, of course!).
2
@Leanne, you could hardly find a better place for a WordPlayer to live than the near-oxymoronic 'Normal, ILL'!!
2
The clue for 1D is sort of silly. All saddle horses are SHOD, or should be. It’s sort of like saying, “You, when you go outdoors, generally.”
Also, DETESTED for infamous? That’s little strong, don’t you think? Maybe disreputable, but it necessarily hated.
2
Spelling Bee: Not FRITILLARY? But it's such a lovely pangram!
3
@Christine, that annoyed me, too. One of the earliest words I found.
Only four guesses on my first across pass, RYE and GLEN correct, "tides" for SWELL and "film buff" for MOVIEFAN, had me pretty discouraged.
Slightly better going down. EARN, DNA, thought maybe UHS or "ers" but only typed the S and changed "tides" to SWELL, ZENITH, TILL, BAG, REP. Still not very hopeful. I could see 11 unknown personal names coming, although TUPAC I was familiar enough with to get with crosses. Other first-time words, TWITTERATI, ATHLEISURE. Not sure what SPEED DATES means.
Ended up referencing "senator chandler," "enrique nieto," "mack trucks" (Five-letter-word ending in O made me think VOLVO but chickened out), "adison lurie," "waldheim."
Filled in last square about 10 minutes past bed time. Told I had at least one square wrong, I decided to wait until morning, when I fixed LEaCH and got the chimes.
1
After a first look through, I never thought I'd be able to finish without lookups. And even doubted finishing with lookups. But it worked out happily. Very nice puzzle, stacks, clues, all. Thanks! But, I am somewhat dreading tomorrow. Might be time for a break.
1
Today's mini.
Why use a regional business in a national puzzle? No one here ever heard of Tates. And the cross "youtu" ????
Dubious , both.
Thanks for the opportunity to kvetch.
George Hebben
Cooper Township
Michigan
....
2
@George Hebben
YOUTU makes a UTURN to meld UBER becoming YOUTUBER which is the hint.
1
@Robert Michael Panoff
Except it doesn’t fully complete the u-turn? seems to just turn right.
1
Allison,
There are two earlier threads that will explain why "u" is fine. Or not.
2
If I had to PIC A RESQUE for a Fri puzzle, this would be the one HEAVENSENT. Slippery in 18 different ways, ultimately came home to Momma everytime. At least 18 instances of "Oh, *that's* what the clue's about!" when the dim bulb finally glowed. At least 18 instances of feeling SWELL.
erm, I guess GLITTERATI is a generation before TWITTERATI, and I just invented MOVIEMAN. Too many PEAKS and GLENs in this solve for me to remember; I started out positive about some matchmaking term for 1A, then en route put my money on SLEEPDATEAS. You may say 'Bunkum' but it could've cot on.
Loved finding the SHARPEIS! Great little dogs, and I don't know how they convinced all of them to be wearing dog-suits three sizes too large. Maybe they're thrifty, and figured they'd grow into them. Sometimes people confuse SHARPEIS with SHARPIES, especially if they've been put in a pen, so just remember if it doesn't have wrinkles, it's a SHARPIE. Don't try to put a SHARPEI in your pocket, as it's awfully hard to find pocket protectors that size.
About CHEAPSEATS, right? Wrong. They haven't been, not for ages.
Best part: After sadly ending 9D with -O, as it has been for puzzles immemorial, I find an OVERT "O YOU of little faith" smiling at me. Now I ESCU, anyone with the least drop of Roumanian blood, if we should not Book a Rest in some deluxe retreat to celebrate the full-throated ENESCU of the day? It's a great day when Martin doesn't have to show Laszlo the ENESCO tombstone in Paris.
Loved it!
8
Did I speak too soon? Or too late? Now I ESCU, indeed...
Built-in Cheats:
We had a Grundig radio in the '50s, replaced by a ZENITH in the '60s. My mother still had that Zenith among her effects, still working, in 2001.
When I still smoked, I'd make a V-sign when I bought cigarettes and say "TUPAC". The young guy who manned the kiosk was always tickled that Little Grandma Lady knew of Tupac Shakur
Knew that Marie and Pierre, as well as daughter (Irene?) all were awarded Nobel prizes.TIL there was another daughter lacking same. Must have been the last straw when her husband bailed on her also.
3
In case this was not stated earlier, the number of possible configurations for spelling bee is 4604600 (roughly 4.6 million) - will last for 12615 years and a few more days.
3
It’s funny then, that we’ve had so many overlapping letter combinations of late. 🤔
I don't remember combinatorics - does that include duplicate letters? The bee doesn't. Also, probably not all combinations will yield a pangram - I doubt JQVWXYZ does. So maybe shave off half a million or so. :-)
2
The Bee doesn't use S,
wishes to have at least one, sometimes two, but only rarely more than that, pangrams,
wishes to find a sweet spot for the number of accepted words (neither too many nor too few).
Those considerations will definitely shave off a good part of the list of potential ("good") hives.
Challenge to puzzle-minded folks: can you assemble a hive where nearly all of the points come from pangrams? Is it possible to construct a hive where 6-letter words or longer constitute a majority of the accepted words (as opposed to the 4- and 5- swamp)?
Fine Friday Fare – thank goodness, not a movie/TV trivia General Knowledge job.
I did so much want 37D to be SHARPIES, the pens favored by the Twitterato-in-Chief, one of which added a rather large wrinkle to a certain weather map recently.
See my notes about SLADE below – I may be one of the few solvers to have BEEN THERE.
I also thought the AWRY, RYE, -ARIAH set sprinkled down the right side was quite wry.
3
Wow ... respect to those who waltz through these and comment on the fluidity of their solve. This took me almost two hours and my only consolation is I didn't use google or peek at the blog.
SHAR-PEI was my last entry, but the NW corner had me stumped at the on hour point, my modest weekend goal.
Cheers.
7
@Michael, no waltzing in this neck of woods; more of a marathon, even with hours of sleep between start and finish.
4
@Michael Bravo! Your experience is an excellent illustration of the power of persistence so often lauded on this blog. We know so much more than we think we know!
7
A nice aspect of this perfect Friday puzzle was that while some of the proper name clues were for people that would be obscure to some of us (like 30D & 43D for me), but who had relatively common first names that could be figured out with the crosses.
Alternate 1A clue for the Mini:
Oh ____ ! (what Mrs. Potato Head might say to a teasing Mr. Potato Head).
2
Not done yet by any means, but this challenging puzzle is giving me an 8D.
3
El picaro is a buffoon, a prankster, someone like Till Eulenspiegel. Was Mr. Vaughn thinking of Don Quixote? Cervantes's masterpiece is sometimes called PICARESQUE for good reason.
Also any one who manages to put CHEAP SEATS in a crossword puzzle is OK in my book. Thank You!
5
@Manuel Pagan
‘Don Quixote” certainly gallops along with a topsy-turvy story arc worthy of the picaresque genre (or any contemporary prime time TV show) and if it were televised today, I’m sure it would come with a laugh track. Having said that, the character of Don Quixote is no picaro in the literary sense: his idealism and his aristocratic roots are the polar opposite of what ‘roman picaresque’ was coined to describe. Heck, he’s the archetype of the opposite of the low-born but cunning picaro whose wits get results his station in life would not have not afforded him otherwise.
When I think of picaresque, I see ‘Gil
Blas.’
2
@Sam Lyons
It has been suggested that context will determine the circumstance in which low-born cunning will trump high-born cunning. Discuss.
2
@Sam Lyons
Gil Blas? Now there was a first baseman!
(It’s late in the comments session so please excuse my sillines).
Leapy, your “Tupac” comment/story elsewhere was quite funny, even if true.
I’ve well exceeded 3 comments today, so I’m jamming any remaining comments I might make into this one. Is it too late to link to “American Pie”? Where the good old boys were drinking whiskey and RYE, singing this’ll be be the day that I die?
Over.
1
So I like TWITTERATI; I do. I can appreciate the skill a Twitteratus must possess to deliver a PICARESQUE saLVO in 140 characters or less. I don’t think I could. Brevity is not my strong suit.
I’m content being one of the puzzlerati, a fearsome species that can launch a swift, EVISCERATing ASSAULT on a 68-clue grid till the latter cries OOF in dulcet, ALTO tunes. Veritable velociraptors, we are. TWITERRATI ain’t got nuthin’ on this bunch.
3
Can somebody help me out with “shade at the beach”. How is the answer to that “aqua”?
@David Belz
"Aqua" is a shade of blue associated with the beach. That's my guess!
1
@David Belz shade as in shade of blue. That one got me too
1
AQUA is Latin for water, making it a good shade of blue to be seen at the beach.
"Like show horses" is a *very* Friday clue, as the answer is true but not definitive of or exclusive to show horses! And Southern California to this easterner seems a strange place for skiing until the memory of the accessible mountains pops to mind. And I could go on as to how "Friday" the Friday puzzle is. Thanks!!
2
@Robert Michael Panoff
Doesn't it half-way imply that SHOD is the past tense of 'show'?
Luke es muy picaro.
1
I thought I was headed for a DNF when I started this grid. Two passes and all the clues seemed too ambiguous to figure out. So I put it down, took the dog out for an early morning walk in the brisk New England air to clear my head, then returned to fill it in and get the happy music 10 minutes under Friday average.
This is why I'm hooked on crosswords!
On to Saturday!
6
@Steve Faiella
I sure am glad it’s fall already. The air was brisk here this morning, too. I had my coffee on the balcony, with a blanket over my lap to ward off that 82°F nip.
1
@Sam Lyons
When my daughter visits CO from Phoenix, she puts on a winter coat when the temp drops below 85°
1
@Sam Lyons
It was 43 degrees here yesterday morning, but it's heading up into the 80s this weekend. But to be technical, it isn't actually fall until Monday.
I put SWIPEDLEFT for 1A and it held me up for a bit, but I'm not complaining. Very fun long crosses and I absolutely loved the cluing.
My compliments on the adorable mini today, as well.
It's wonderful that 7 of 10 doctors agree with me, nothing beats the weekend puzzle to celebrate the weekend. The puzzle, first done alone, and then with this blog, is a relaxing joy.
10
Very tough for me and I ended up in the bottom left corner quite stuck. I needed a look-up or two to get unstuck.
TWITTERERS before TWITTERATI, ICE HOT before ICY HOT, and RAPID DATES before SPEED DATES. At least I had the right ideas on those, but it didn't help my solve time.
As I answered to Martin, I considered both O and U for ENESCU. My understanding is that he approved the change to ENESCO because in France "CU" sounds exactly like a very rude word indeed.
1
My mom used to say that, no matter what awful things you were going through, each day needed to have an "oasis of fun" -- which we turned into the acronym OOF.
This puzzle was an OOF in both senses of the term: tough, but an oasis of fun, nonetheless.
7
@dlr
What a lovely anecdote. I hope you don't mind if I adopt your mom’s idea for myself – an OOF a day.
5
A Friday feast -- _very_ challenging, but oh so worth it when at last the answer appeared.
Literally solved it from the CHEAP SEATS, as 61A was my first entry.
And you know it's a challenging Friday puzzle when there's a TENSIONHEADACHE running right down the middle of it.
5
I kept trying to rebus in Quiet Riot!!!!! Stop rewriting my childhood with all these facts!!!!!
So, yeah ... 35 seconds behind my Friday average.
5
@Dmisita
LOL I had the same "I *know* it's Quiet Riot! I know it!" moment. TIL that it was a remake. That's great future trivia fodder! 😀
I saw "Plays with matches" at 1A and immediately began checking some crosses for SPEED DATES. Have I been solving crosswords for too long or what?
Despite several rappers and a Romanian composer I felt I should have known, but didn't, I loved this puzzle. The long answers were HEAVEN SENT and the clues, while not especially tricky, often piqued my curiosity. I never heard of EVE CURIE, but once I had EVEC, I knew there were a lot of Nobel winners in the CURIE family. So I patted myself on the back as I wrote it in. And what kind of name is Run-DMC? Is there some sort of rule that you can't be a rapper (or a band, for that matter) without a ridiculous, counterintuitive "name"? Still, TUPAC was rolling around somewhere in my subconscious -- even though I wouldn't recognize him if I fell over him.
I also learned that EVISCERATE means "remove the contents of". I always thought it meant to destroy the whole darn thing.
Lots here that was fun and engrossing.
4
"TUPAC was rolling around somewhere in my subconscious -- even though I wouldn't recognize him if I fell over him."
Nancy,
Neither would I at this point; he died in 1996.
7
@Nancy Eviscerate literally remove the viscera (guts) of. Common in medicaleze.
3
@Nancy Let's see:
Back in the 60's we had ZZ Top, Procol Harum, MC5, The Troggs, Led Zeppelin, The Bee Gees and.... well, the list goes on.
Some bands have been taking odd names for a long time; I'm not sure why Rap should be singled out.
12
STUB and the TWIT of 12D were the hardest, I thought. Very nice puzzle, very nicely clued - I love it when the clues make sense and aren't arcane!
This has been such a good week of puzzles! Including the Mini, which always impresses me with how much fun it can pack into a tiny grid.
6
SPEED DATES? Here are two clips that perfectly embody the concept.
https://youtu.be/YrWPHvBKBDA
https://youtu.be/zrxmUjHmIDU
4
@brutus
That ad always cracks me up! The actress who plays Flo (Stephanie Courtney) has a big career outside of her Progressive gig, but you wouldn't recognize her outside of the Flo persona. According to a you tube video about her, she's doing quite well financially and is well known in the biz.
You go, Stephanie!
2
Holy smokes, I solved a Friday without using the check puzzle feature! TIL that Quiet Riot didn't write that song! And now I wonder if the Slade that did the song 'Run, Runaway' is the same Slade referenced in the puzzle. I mistranslated the clue for 24A as 'palindromic' and that seriously messed with my mind until I reread the clue. I felt very proud for remembering the word 'picaresque' and that gave me a good boost for the se corner. What a fun solve!
8
Well done! It was my first Friday solve without having to check my answers too!
4
@Daniel Iezzi @Megan
Good for you! Congrats.
2
@Megan
It seems I may be one of the few solvers with the right ethnicity and age to immediately know the answer was SLADE (released early 70s in UK), and never to have heard the cover version by Quiet Riot released more than a decade later. And, yes, it is the same SLADE who did "Run, Runaway", with the same iconic leader/lead singer, Noddy Holder. Below is a link to the original 1973 release, sadly without video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTEGxVDHpGU
However, their most famous and long-lasting song is "Merry Christmas Everybody", which still enters the charts most years (counting downloads) in the UK. Here is video from their 1973 appearance on Top of the Pops:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BpfHSqLXePI
2
Toughie! Enjoyed 1A, and 59A (since that’s my daughter's focus in art school).
Good puzzle.
1
so sure am I that his name is spelled "Tupak" that I am confident the times has changed all entries on the internet to make this puzzle correct. #fakespelling
12
@Patrick
I hate when the internet lies!
(Had TWITTERATS before TWITTERATI, which I find somewhat more aporopos)
5
Patrick,
At the next rap concert, you'll be in the kheap seats.
6
@Chungclan i love Twitterats!
3
Fantastic stacks in the SE and NW and great long answers: HEAVEN SENT, ON RETAINER, OVER TO YOU, ZACHARIA, PICARESQUE, CHEAP SEATS, ATHLEISURE, LARGESSE, and EVISCERATE. That last word opened the puzzle up for me, as I was thinking MOVIE-something for one of its crosses, which gave me the V, and the word popped in.
Every quadrant was aha-laden, and my heart did SWELL at completion. For me a perfect Friday, just what it should be, and a big bravo and bow of thanks from me, Luke. You nailed it.
10
A record for me today, but that record is the number of times I resorted to google. I remembered the rappers, guessed CHEAPSEATS and then managed to work out a little chunk in the south. The only real highlight for me was getting PICARESQUE with just a few crosses. But then I was just completely stuck elsewhere without a large number of look-ups.
I do now recall TWITTERATI in a recent puzzle, but I think I made every effort to remove that from my memory and evidently it worked. I may now add ATHLEISURE to that list.
I liked the clues for PHD and SHARPEIS.
8
@Rich in Atlanta it was a hard puzzle.
@Rich in Atlanta I also recalled the recent TWITTERATI answer, the only reason I was able to get it here.
1
@RiA, not sure why, but I thought the portmanteau would be ATHventURE.
1
On the mini puzzle, the hint to the incomplete 1A is UTURN, but it’s actually a right turn.
3
@Kevin Davis
See earlier comments from Sue Koehler and David Connell. How do you completely solve 1A? yoU TURN. It’s actually a very clever clue.
3
it slowed me down...just like a u-turn...I'll see myself out
4
@Patrick
From the original texter, Prince, I Would Die 4 U:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SVEFRQavTNI
1
LETTER BOXED
First attempt:
T-R (8), R-S (7)
2
@Mari
My first:
V-S(6), S-K(10)
@Phil P
That was my first and last!
@Mari
O-S(10), S-K(4).
It seems that the 4-letter O prefix works with just about everything today...
I thought SPEED DATES and EVISCERATE could have been clued better. Not sure why speed dating is playing with matches any more than any other kind of dating. I also felt "Remove the contents of" was far too general for eviscerate, which has a very specific meaning that is contained within it (viscera). My cranky $.02. Other than that, a pretty good puzzle.
6
Puzzledog,
Better clues?
*Speed* dating, unlike other forms of dating, is *playing* with matches because there is no date.
What more specific clue (not definition) would you suggest for EVISCERATE that would not be a gimme?
3
Ah Barry, I knew you wouldn't be able to resist quibbling. if there are no"dates" in speed-dating, why is it called "speed-dating"? Some of us are quicker, without necessarily playing with marches. "Gut" is a better clue for "EVISCERATE" and there are other, wittier options.
1
Is your objection because of the "you might get burned" connotation of playing with matches? That's not how I interpreted the clue. I've never been to a speed dating event but imagine it kind of like a big game, musical chairs almost. So there are potential matches, and you're playing a big game.
1
SPELLING BEE
L A F I R T Y
Words: 60, Points 237, Pangrams: 1, Perfect: 1
A x 10
F x 24
I x 1
L x 8
R x 7
T x 10
4L x 24
5L x 19
6L x 10
7L x 5
8L x 2
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
A 3 3 2 2 - 10
F 6 9 5 2 2 24
I 1 - - - - 1
L 6 1 1 - - 8
R 3 2 1 1 - 7
T 5 4 1 - - 10
Tot 24 19 10 5 2 60
43
@Mari With 5 letters in common with yesterday's Bee, this one came quickly. I regret the omission of FRITILLARY, one of my favorite flowers.
A strange inclusion is a T4, meaning the plural (in the Latin form) of an ankle-bone. Not a word in common use, but seen in the Bee before.
13
Fritillary and fritillaria are perpetually snubbed. Very annoying!
7
thanks for the grid! Much respect to anyone that completes these things with this many words. I have a soft rule that if it's more than 120 points to QB i quit after I get the pangram(s).
turns out I'm really lazy. I never should have doubted all those teachers.
13
VOLVO, huh! TIL.
Caitlin, I feel squeamish about EVISCERATE, too, but it's better than disembowel, which I briefly considered.
Good workout!
2
I'm glad the never-ENESCO brigade got their spelling of choice today. I've been awaiting a victory lap since I solved this a couple of weeks ago. Paging Laszlo.
I'm fine with either spelling. I figure if Enesco is good enough for his gravestone, it's good enough for me. But not the purists. Which I understand.
https://images.findagrave.com/photos/2001/222/enescogeorges.jpg
4
Martin,
Laszlo showed up a few hours before your page.
2
@Martin
Thanks for posting. I was at Père-Lachaise last summer and there was a much smaller crowd at his tomb than at Jim Morrison's!
I hesitated as to whether to put the O or the U. My understanding is that, living in France, he realized that "CU" and "CUL" (a rather rude French word), were pronounced identically, and he readily accepted the modified spelling for the French public.
5
@Martin
Present.
As someone very clever once said, the headstone was perpetrated by a French chiseler. (Hi Leapy.)
By the way, nowadays -CU(L) would not be considered rude at all, especially if your live in a cul-de-sac. Heck, it was prominently and unabashedly displayed at 1-Across in Thursday's NYT puzzle.
Cheers!
I went so far AWRY starting this puzzle that I drank a glass of RYE before returning to finish the the puzzle. I was ELATED when I was able to enter ZACHA(rye)AH and hear the happy music.
5
I had very few words after my initial pass. Funny, but the long words came easier than the short ones. How could PICARESQUE pop right out of my head but GLEN and BAG stump so frustratingly? The sw corner was the last to complete, but complete I did. Great challenge!
4
@MichelleB
I, OTH, have lived more than 80 years and didn't know there is such a thing as a PICARESQUE novel. I have lived a very sheltered life
10
@MichelleB
Same, same, and same!
6
Closer to 60, but just as sheltered! I had to turn to my (hard cover) dictionary (which my kids make fun of) for PICARESQUE.
4
I just came from a music concert and had CHEAP SEATS due to the LARGESSE of the performer, who performed for free. The performer was Peter Muller, who has had 18 Xword puzzles appear in the NYT.
12
@ColoradoZ
Pete also has a great subscription puzzle that is emailed monthly, and always has a musical theme (mostly modern music from the 60s on up). Each puzzle has a meta theme, and at the end of the year there is a "meta meta" that encompasses the entire year's worth of puzzles. Prizes are given out to a random solver who submits the meta answer each month, as well as a prize for the "meta meta". I learned about it here on Wordplay when Deb talked about it at the end of last year.
You can find it here:
https://pmxwords.com/
2
@Steve Faiella
We had a btief conversation about Xwords after the concert and he indicated he was now doing crosswords for Washington Post but didn't mention his contest puzzle
2
@Steve Faiella. Ooh, sounds interesting! Thanks for sharing.
Don't ask me to explain this but, for 44D I was trying to fit in BOAT, PRISON, ENGLAND, BEDROOM... Luckily I had my "Doh. the clue is *Frankenstein*," moment before I tried to squeeze CASTLE or TRANSYLVANIA into three letters.
2
@PaulSFO
The fog of crossword solving. Happens to me a lot, especially with late week puzzles.
3
and Elke
Fortunately,,some short answers like PHD. PHO, ICY HOT et al. . prevented a TENSION HEADACHE from taking hold.
Am wondering whether some TWITTERATI sitting in high places ( not the CHEAP SEATS) don't know how to say "I LIED". Or is that what "covfefe " means in some unknown language...
If SHAR PEIS wore ATHLEISURE, would their wrinkles be gone ??
Sitting in "LuLu Lemon" land ,not LALALand .
8
At first run-through I had only USO, ORG and GLEN across, ENESCU and KURT down. OOF! But surprisingly, the whole grid fell in place rather quickly soon thereafter, well under my average Friday time.
I enjoyed some rarely seen entries: PICARESQUE, HEAVEN SENT, EVE CURIE, EVISCERATE, LARGESSE, EMPHATIC and a few others.
And for only the second time in NYT crossword history ENESCU is spelled correctly, vs. 57 times in its Italianized (per)version which I always DETESTED. For this alone today's puzzle EARNs my top rating.
Nicely done, Luke Vaughn.
8
What does it say that I’m currently in school to get a PHD and yet I needed crosses to get that clue? Also HEAVENSENT pleasantly reminds me of the best episode of Dr. Who ever.
Anyone else saying OOF at “goes with” to mean goes out with? Something my grandfather used to say!
9
I had the same experience as many of you - after the first pass it looked bleak, but one word at a time I finished it, and in about 3/4 of my average. A nice Friday construction!
5
How embarrassing is it that I know the words to “Noize”? Of course it took me ages to remember who sang it. I was wracking my brains for all those 80s hair bands! (Twisted Sister, in da house!) Now that song has become a particularly pernicious ear worm that I can’t get rid of! Thanks for that, Constructor! (At least it’s better than being stuck with “Cotton-eyed Joe” rattling around in my head ad infinitem. Barely.)
Also, I had “digeratti” for the longest time! I guess TWITTERATIs are this decade’s digerattis. I’m so behind the times!
Overall, challenging puzzle. Great job!
4
@Ms. Cat
You may have been having trouble remembering SLADE, because Quiet Riot covered the song in 1983 and it was a much bigger hit in the US for them.
9
Who? Who??
2
At first glance, I was afraid that I’d need a lot of lookups. However in the end I only needed one (LYDIA), and everything else fell into place with cross clues. Not easy, but challenging and fun.
3
@Peter Ansoff
The No. 1 Women’s golfer right now is also named “Ko”, but her first name is Jin-Young.* No. 2 is Sung Hyun Park, No. 3 is Lexi Thompson, No. 4 is Jeongeun Lee6 (the 6 is not a typo). Which of those four is most likely to show up in a puzzle? However, No. 7 is currently Nasa Hataoka. If she moves up in the rankings, Will and co. could have an alternative way to clue NASA.
*Although it is Ko Jin-Young in S. Korea, the golfers from S. Korea on the LPGA tour use the American tradition of family name second and given name first. I have two Korean-American great-nieces and much to the dismay of their father (who was born in S. Korea and is an excellent golfer), neither has any interest in golf.
2
Oof.
That’s always a compliment, btw.
Never heard of SLADE or LYDIA Ko. The D would have been a natick but, luckily — English. I knew all the lab-dwelling Curies and Joliot-Curies but couldn’t remember EVE CURIE’s first name. I lone the “Romanian Rhapsodies” and always forget the composer’s name except that, of course, it ends in -ESCU. Wasn’t familiar with Mr. Chandler and never read Ms. Lurie. ATHLEISURE is a new one for me and I’ve only seen SPEED DATING on TV (but not while taking a cab).
Oddly enough, TENSION HEADACHE and EVISCERATE fell right in for me. I don’t care to engage in introspection regarding the latter.
5 minutes over my average, but it made for a satisfying axonal stretch before bed (no yoga gear required, either!)
Post-solve look-ups have been SLAtEd for tomorrow.
2
@Sam Lyons,
Not sure about the advisability of stretching axons; if they're low on the elasticity scale, you could end up with SHARPEI-style wrinkles in your axons starting somewhere in mid-calf. I'll bet some Schwann cells would start dropping off like roof Schingles, also.
Keep those axons short and snappy -- ax on, ax off!!
1
At first I was worried as I worked my way down the puzzle, getting to the bottom with only RYE, PHD and ORG filled in. But working the downs and the accrosses back up the puzzle, everything fell into place at an alarmingly zippy pace. I guess I was on the constructor's wave length, so I have nothing to complain about.
I particularly enjoyed the PICARESQUE/ATHLEISURE/CHEAPSEATS triple. I feel I should now go watch Vanity Fair or Tom Jones from the balcony of a revival movie house in my sweats.
Since Caitlin did the column, does that mean the weekend has started early?
6
@vaer
The downs definitely seemed more gettable today, for sure!
This weekend can't get here fast enough!
2
That wasn't easy, but wasn't impossible either. Thank goodness we had the puzzle in August that debuted TWITTERATI, though I have to agree with Caitlin about it causing 8D.
That SE corner was a tricky one but with AQUA (tricky!), KURT, and SEES (another tricky one), made it easier. Good thing we got a couple of bones tossed to us in the form of LA LA and REP. PICARESQUE (following the tradition of ZOLAESQUE) and ATHLEISURE came easily enough.
PEAKS and ZENITH, and Acme, oh my! Where is apex?
More product/brand placements - VOLVO, and ICY HOT? Anyone remember ZENITH TVS? Nowadays there are lots of TVS by LG, which now owns ZENITH.
Liked the clue for PHD (with pronunciation lesson about PHO, I wonder if PHD is pronounced like fffd).
Not sure what the clue for RYE means. I assume that RYE here is not the grain or the bread made from it, but relating to RYE whisky?
Had LEFT before LINE (what? It's not wrong!), FOUL before BIAS, BACK TO YOU before OVER TO YOU.
Re: SPEED DATES cluing - "Takes to see drag races."
TIL: EVE CURIE - that's some family. I find it hard to believe Caitlin didn't know PENA. Maybe she just didn't know it without the tilde in the ñ.
Nice challenging puzzle, not too hard with some lucky guesses.
3
@Wen
Fix yourself an Old-Fashioned cocktail made with RYE Whiskey and sit back and enjoy(?) Tex Ritter singing "RYE Whiskey"
https://youtu.be/sVWTeXzgkJE
1
What does it say about me that I was absolutely convinced that 55A was “life”?
19
That you are a realist?
6
@Xwordgirl
GOLF also fits and is supported by quotes from many who devoted their lives to the game:
"Golf is not, and never has been, a fair game."
= Jack Nicklaus.
"Golf is not a fair game, so why build a course fair?
= Pete Dye (course architect)
Golf is a game invented by the same people who think music comes out of a bagpipe.*
= Lee Trevino
*Don't complain to me. I enjoy hearing an occasional piobaireachd myself.
5
@Xwordgirl
That our mothers were related?
1
Felt like Saturday to me. Felt close to a pangram (looks like J, X are missing). Most of all, felt good to finish. Not quite smug, but close. Drowsily proud?
Shout out for the EVE CURIE /ALISON Lurie long down at 4D. And for PICARESQUE. And EVISCERATE. And HEAVEN SENT. And . . .
5
@Puzzlemucker I will be smug for both of us--started with nothing and suddenly, everything. Just one pass! Very unusual for me on Fridays.
No pressure in the Curie household, right? Must have been worse than the Emanuels.* I always suspected there was a fourth brother who died of fatal roughhousing during their childhood.
*Rahm, Ari, Zeke
3
@AudreyLM
First pass? Surely you jest! I was grateful for YAP and OOF and was banging the trees for other low-hanging fruit. You have well-earned smugness. Off to Duck Duck Go Zeke Emanuel.
(Not to get political but I always thought our last Pres. made an error with his choice for Chief of Staff, but then again wth do I know).
2
@Puzzlemucker Oh no no no, I misspoke! Many many passes, but just one session. Usually I need to leave the computer a few times for end week puzzles and revisit with fresh grey cells.
1
Given the sparseness of my grid after a first pass through the clues, I had no business finishing this puzzle, let alone beating my average time. But if you never stop filling in boxes, eventually you run out of boxes to fill. I have to say, the happy music was quite a surprise!
15
I had the same experience. After running once through the acrosses, it looked like this one would be a streak breaker. But I just kept going and finished in two-thirds my average time. Deceptively easy, I would say.
2
@Dave M
Similar experience here. I was sure I exceeded my Friday average, but I actually beat it! (but not by much)
1
Is it me, or is there something wrong with 1A and its related clue, 3D? I don't see any 180-degree angle there, only a 90-degree turn.
5
@Steve L
In the MINI, that is...
1
@Steve L
I think “one eighty” is simply the clue for UTURN. From that you have a clue for what to do in 1A — turn at the U.
6
@Sue Koehler - I read it as "Hint to how to solve it" = "how do u solve it? u turn."
5
I'm ELATED -- pretty much in my wheelhouse for Friday!
4