MAZY - Argh. I looked at that which came at the very end through a cross and said "ugh, no way"!
I got TOM for cartoon cat right away because he was the only cartoon cat I could think of. Clueless about Eglin and had to wait for crosses to fill that in.
Not a bad puzzle over all!
SOGOOD! My trouble was in the SE, where WRITLARGE did not come to mind, nor NASTYFALL. Wanted KARMA for the longest time, and I am a DHARMA bum! 1A was FEAR for too long...very satisfying puzzle.
1
Chiming in late to say I don't think the DRAGON EGGs are purely a gaming trope: Plenty of protagonists in fictional fantasy of the novelistic and popcorn varieties are on a quest to find and/or protect a dragon egg or two. Surely I'm not the only one here who has read the Dragonriders of Pern and suchlike?
3
This looked like it would be devilish at the beginning and was largely blank until the middle. From there down filled in fast and then upward I flew. I was a bit surprised to finish well under average.
3
NW corner was the last to fall for me, completely empty for a long time. And then, finally, I had TOP/PCAT, which looked perfectly fine to me, until, in desperation, I changed the P to M.
3
@Peter C Agreed. There were several pairs that would work for 1A/1D. I was still clinging to DRED and DRESS until the very end.
But overall an enjoyable solve.
@Peter C
NW was hard but doable, but SW, I went so wrong! I finally muddled through but only after putting down my pencil and taking a long break.
in answer to Caitlin's query - I was around during the 60's, and I can attest that "mazy" was not commonly used then. Or ever...
4
Carolina jessamine,
MAZY dates from 1500, but I wasn't around to attest to its frequency of use then. Didn't hear it in the 1960's either.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/mazy
1
@Carolina jessamine
Same here. But having recently visited one for the first time, I would have clued it: IKEA
13
@Carolina Jessamine
MAZY run is still used by rugby commentators to describe a fleet footed back spectacularly feinting and sidestepping several defensive players and gaining significant yardage before being tackled or scoring.
5
Anyone else appreciate how the TOMCAT slinks around the corner the way a real one might?
5
Oddly enough, Cartoon Cat could have been answered TOP, making MCAT into PCAT which still would have been a valid answer. PCAT is for pharmacists.
9
@Larry - I was stuck on that for a long time, for the same reason. I finally changed P to M, and I got the happy music.
I felt like a "DHARMA Bum" after finishing this puzzle. My MAZY existence, WRIT LARGE for all to see, is destined for a NASTY FALL.....give me EXTRA LIFE!!
4
Not to be sophomoric, though I am highly prone to it, but aren’t we going to at least mention 28 Across? So artfully done.
6
@Ananda
I never scoff at sophomoric, but the answer as clued referred to any number of anatomical varieties of a pigmented circular structure, such as the iris or, say, Lyme disease bull’s eye rash.
5
@Ananda
Hey... How 'bout that 28A, huh?!
😀
5
Enjoyable and challenging, as befits a Friday puzzle. I too had the most difficulty with the NW, even though St. Basil was a gimme for me and that was a good start there. Also LEITMOTIV instead of leitmotif gave me trouble but looked it up later and see that they are both used. Thanks Mr. Guzzetta, for a good morning mental workout to get me started with my challenging day. I’m dealing with a back injury as well as repeated Planned Power Outages in the California foothills because of fire danger. 😳
1
@Shari Coats, aside from the good mental workout to start the day, not an enviable position. I spose the PPOs fall in the grin-and-bear-it category, and I hope the other doesn't. If the musculo-skeletal fates are kind, it'll responds to modified activity, weight loss and a dedicated program of PT exercise to strengthen the core. Hang in there and Nil desperandum!
No real problems noticed from NE down across the middle to SW. NW and SE proved impossible. I gave up the "honest" part of my new short streak and asked Caitlin. I changed GLADto in the SE and added WHOCANSAY and NIM(?!) up NW as a result, finally piecing the rest together. Then the usual "at least one booboo," and "follower of John" finally made sense when I tried changing AREOLe to what is was supposed to be.
2
LEITMOTIV didn't bother me. MAZY, on the other hand, *still* looks wrong.
8
@Dick Muldoon
MAZY dotes on dozied oats.
Hope that helps. ;D
6
@Leapfinger And little lamzy divy.
3
I watched the Darth Vader at work youtube video. I didn't find it funny. I normally would let it go if it was even just a little bit funny. But this was one of the least funny intended-to-be-funny videos I've seen. I even tolerated a second viewing to see if I missed something. I think the humor went well above my head.
5
@Wen
You piqued my interest, so I gave it a view. I think it's not terribly funny because it's essentially a one joke bit. Vader uses the telekinetic power of "the force" to make stuff happen. I chuckled a couple of times, but no guffaws for sure...🙂
1
@Wen Agree, big buildup for a small and beat into the ground punchline. It did, however, bring to mind the VW commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1n6hf3adNqk
which was the right length and clever.
That would be a great brunch in the SW corner: Poached DRAGON EGG with YOGURT, and FROSTED flakes, and as noon approaches a TACO SALAD. With some BASIL on top of the SOUPS!
7
Good puzzle, but oh my ... for me, that southeast corner had some brutal clue / answer combos. Example: I'd never heard of Eglin. A university somewhere in Canada? A town in Scotland? An author? Famous psychiatrist? Kind of potato salad? Ugh. Finally had to ask Google. Also spent a good chunk of time with WRITTEN which ruined the "Painfully obvious" solve. "Two under" and "Kind of cross" - frustratingly vague clues also.
But I have to give props for a nice construct that used words and phrases and didn't lean heavily on celebrities, Latin, or obscura.
2
E.W. Swan,
Re: AFB clues
I gather travels to Florida, if any, have not taken you to either Tampa or Fort Walton Beach.
2
@E.W. Swan I’m similarly deciphering what Elgin might be: a watch, county in Scotland? Sadly your comment shed no light except that I should google for myself.
Anyone else always associate "WHO CAN SAY" with AbFab's Bubble? :)
4
As with so many other puzzles, the NW corner tried to convince me that I could never solve this one. My strategy has evolved. I ignore the NW corner and start with the bottom row and try the SW and SE corners. That usually gives me a solid base upon which to build. SW gave me a good start today.
3
I got 12D right away because I still have most of "Kubla Khan' memorized and I still resent my 10th grade english teacher because, when read the poem aloud to us she stopped at each word she wanted us to write down and define. I was reading ahead to myself but her voice and the sound of the chalk on the chalkboard (how quaint!) was most disruptive. Terrible way to read a poem!
5
WHAT GIFES?!
OK, I changed it but under duress having to change that F to a V.
Regardless, there was a ton to love here and a challenging Friday solve to struggle through and truly appreciate in the end.
Thank you, John Guzzetta!
7
@Johanna
“WHAT GIFES?! I didn’t send any GIFES!” Protested the spelling-challenged, butt-texting teen after accidentally forwarding to grandma the ‘Southpark’ meme his best friend had sent him earlier.
2
I'm sure everyone here is familiar with LEITMOTIV. We just choose to call it "happy music".
8
@Andrew Or as Anna Russell called it in her monologue about Wagner's Ring Cycle, a "signature tune."
1
This was a pretty challenging on. Even after sleeping on it, I still struggled with it this morning, GLASSED EYED. Mostly, I completed the SW and NE and continued working on the NW and SE.
I'm a bit hazy on MAZY. Call me crazy but I thought maybe here, Mr. Guzzetta was being a bit lazy. (j/k).
Struggled with LEITMOTIF vs LEITMOTIV, I thought, "WHAT GIVES?!" Thinking that languages often interchangeably use the B/F/V sound, I was willing to believe in the unfamiliar.
Hung on to ____TOHELL for too long. Had GLAD TO before GLADLY like Caitlin. Had D-DAY before DAWN. Mistakenly spelled it STILLETO before STILETTO for a while.
EXTRA LIFE - I quibble a bit with this one. 1-up is generally a single coin/token credit, which usually comes with multiple lives. EXTRA LIFE is not the same as 1-up. But then, I haven't played coin arcades in a long time now, and my memory may be rusty.
I thought F-BOMB and then I thought maybe it's M-BOMB (you know, marriage, though I've never heard of it) before ending with L-BOMB (which I've also never heard of).
Even with the little quirks that I have some quibbles with, the puzzle was still SO GOOD.
8
@Wen EXTRALIVEs in games aren't married to arcade coins or tokens. One up, x1, or similar used to appear on screen when you earned an extra life in the game. Maybe it still does.
I didn't mind LEITMOTIV (not my first spelling THO) having only really learned about them through Wagner.
2
@Wen
“I love you.” “I love you, too.” YICK!
1
@Ma AM - re: 1-UP, I concede that EXTRA LIFE seems to be the prevailing meaning. Maybe I just had the misconception all along.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/how-1up-went-from-pinball-to-gamer-speak
My final act was to change RULE to RUNE. Otherwise, this puzzle pretty much solved itself.
Well, except that F-- for 41D's "Descriptive of some flakes and hair" made me enter FLY-AWAY (my life-long cross to bear,) even though flakes maybe didn't work. I had to revise it at once. L WORD before L BOMB.
I would say at least as many Bio majors as Chem majors take the MCAT.
Now, about the Big Bee....Last week's list did not include BOMBE, BROMO, BOOBIE (as in the blue-footed), BEROBE, COMBER (as a wave), or BOBBER (that little red-and-white device you use when fishing with a worm, to keep the bait at the desired depth.) Frank Longo never includes that one. I had Genius without any of those excluded words, but c'mon!
2
Hand up here for RULE before RUNE.
13
@Mean Old Lady; It's the Blue-footed BOOBY.
1
@Robert Nailling
Yeah, I know, but Var. sp.
2
NILE three times this week, dam it. WHAT GIVES?
Caitlin, TIL what I always thought to be bath balms are actually bath bombs! I've never seen nor used one, but I would have thought a bath bomb might cause a mini-tsunami.
As I stated earlier, LEITMOTIf was a gimme for musicians. The unusual "v" was a bit of a surprise, but checks out as 100% acceptable.
Like most others the NW was the big challenge area today. I had GASP before GULP, but SBOMB sounded totally inappropriate to me. I had trouble uncovering the secret of NIM, and UNHIT seemed a bit arbitrary.
Still it posed the usual Friday challenge, and my "official" time including falling asleep unfinished, keeping the app open while getting coffee, etc. was - wait for it - 1:22:40. A little better than my average, apparently!
9
@Andrew I'm just here to support your secret of NIM bit.
5
@Andrew
I’m here to support you on your Nile damming. I’m hopeful that there is still enough time for others to step up to support you on the remainder of your comment.
3
@Puzzlemucker I'll support Andrew on the LEITMOTIf portion of his comment.
That NW corner, THO...
Made me want to shout, "Grab your STILETTO; we're having DUELS at DAWN!"
Good times...
9
@Roger GULP!
2
@Roger, STILETTOs at 40 paces?
Rapier wit ;)
6
I couldn't get a toehold until I was all the way down at the ITSY (30D)/TARA (36A) cross. Clues that I considered VAGUE gave me trouble with ON BALANCE; WHO CAN SAY; and especially WHAT GIVES as an equivalent of "Seriously?" Don't know about you, but when I say "Seriously?" I mean something altogether different from WHAT GIVES. Therefore I find puzzles of this sort troublesome, if colorful, because the idiomatic expressions seem so arbitrary.
Add to that the answers I plain didn't know like NIM; EXTRA LIFE and DRAGON EGG. And I'm also wondering and wondering: What on earth is an "L BOMB"??? Now that I know I'm glad that I didn't know. What a truly cynical coinage.
But some great clues for ALEXA; TAN LINES and FROSTED. I'd say that ON BALANCE, I enjoyed this puzzle a lot and had an entertaining tussle with it.
4
Agree, a terrific Friday puzzle, and the NW sure was a killer! It was very satisfying to work it out. But the happy music played for me when I changed TOp cat (remember him?) to TOM. We have a friend named Tom C. and my husband calls him Top Cat, keeping that cartoon cat neurally accessible to me. Meow.
My great-grandmother, Mazie Belle, would get irrational If anyone spelled her name MAZY!
2
Ann,
Topcat posts here periodically, but he is not cartoonish. Perhaps he'll take the cue and check in today.
2
@Ann
Haven't thought about Top Cat in decades. And my recollection is pretty hAZY. Not sure if you could say his theme song had a LEITMOTIV, but it certainly is an earworm, which now I can't get rid of. :)
1
I liked this puzzle a lot, because of its interesting and tricky fill, its almost complete absence of pop culture trivia and brand names, and the fact I was able to finish it sooner than I expected to.
5
ITSY, TARA, SCARF, and YOGURT started this one off for me. NIM ended it. Liked the 10 or so phrases here. But as a chemist myself, not all of us took the MCAT. 😉
3
@Paladin Somehow my last words were STABLED/BRAT. I held on to stalled and the non-word lrat until the very end.
1
@Ma AM We must have been sharing a brain!
1
@MichelleB Maybe an LRAT is related to an LBOMB.
According to Google Trends, the US metro area with the most searches/greatest interest since 2004-present in LEITMOTIF is Lafayette, Indiana — which can claim Purdue. Vermont, home of Karme Choling, and Idaho vie for the greatest search and trend volume for DHARMA.
2
@Ananda Interesting!
Close, but no cigar. No look-ups or reveals but I did have some failed checks along the way. Might have avoided them with a bit more patience, but not sure about that. Still a nice workout and mostly good puzzle. I think WRITLARGE was my favorite answer though I still don't quite get the use of 'Painfully' as the word of emphasis in the clue.
Sort of OT regarding 48d. I'm aware that 'attack at dawn' is a common phrase, but in my experience (in the jungle, I should note), DAWN was the one time when we absolutely, 100% for sure were NOT going to be attacked. We might run into an ambush while on the move during the day, but if we were attacked in place, it was ALWAYS going to be in the middle of the night or in the pre-dawn hours. I loved having the last guard duty of the night, because of the feeling of relief when dawn finally broke. Heat up a cup of coffee, instant, type 2, light a cigarette and know that I could relax at least for a while.
I'm still always up before the dawn and always try to be outside on the back porch as it begins to get light. It remains my favorite time of day.
Apologies to any for whom this may have been TMI.
31
"It remains my favorite time of day."
Rich,
There it is.
(It's good to have a bit of post-traumatic pleasure.)
6
@Rich in Atlanta
Mine, too. Great time to be in the garden, or walking, or just enjoying the colors. Well, not today--yet another storm!
1
@Rich, not TMI in the least, and I’m just glad that you’re here all these years later to sit out on the porch and welcome the dawn with a feeling of peace.
Your post made me think, too, of the horror of guerrilla warfare — and modern terrorism, and modern warfare in general. Not that war ever had positive connotations, but somehow the “classic” meeting of two armies at dawn on an open battlefield seems more civilized, despite the carnage that followed. I was reading recently about the 1410 Battle of Grunwald, prior to which the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights sent out two messengers bearing a “gift” of swords for the King of Poland and the Grand Duke of Lithuania in order to “psych them out,” as the kids say. Again, not that I harbor any romantic illusions about the butchery that followed, claiming 10,000 lives in a matter of hours, the fact is that those messengers rode into the enemy camp with a mission to insult said enemy, and returned unharmed. Would that happen today, in our ever-so-much-more-enlightened times?
5
A right stout Friday workout, especially the upper half. At 32D, I wondered if there might be such a thing as an aRAGON EGG. It sounds rather exotic.
1
@archaeoprof
Perhaps Henry VIII's first wife Catherine can enlighten you...
2
Like others here, I found this surprisingly challenging. I really enjoyed it!
Because of SOUP'S on, I had it stuck in my head that 6d referred to food. I assume that was intentional on someone's part. Does anyone else find "Get it while it's hot" a bit off as a clue for ON SALE NOW?
1
@ad absurdum
Stretchy, perhaps; a lot of this Friday puzzle is stretchy. "They usually come with bikinis" for TAN LINES had me scratching my head as well, since TAN LINES come with many (or any) item(s) of clothing. I get TAN LINES all the time, and I never wear a bikini.
I understand that the clue/entry can be interpreted as "Bikinis usually cause TAN LINES" as well as "TAN LINES are usually caused by bikinis," which clearly are not the same thing. But I read it as the latter, which seemed a stretch to me (the clue, not the bikini).
A GULP as a reaction to being sent to the principal's office seemed stretchy to me, also; WHAT GIVES for "Seriously?" gave me pause, too. These two are usually sequential in nature, not synonymous.
Two gaming clues (EXTRA LIFE; DRAGON EGG) were new to me; LEITMOTIV with a V was as well, but the dictionary allows it. MAZY seemed odd; sounds rather like that girl from Game of Thrones.
NIM has appeared 46 times in crosswords, but for me, never in real life. Rich has already touched on dawn as not-the-time for attacks, and I did a whole monograph earlier on SPANGLISH, which those lyrics aren't.
All that being said, I completed the puzzle in a bit under my average time. That's what most Friday puzzles are like!
5
@Steve L
If ever you did wear a bikini, I’d bet your TAN LINES would be that much more interesting.
5
@Leapfinger
Ah, the summers of yore... My dad would inevitably fall asleep with his beach read over his face. My mom and I never failed to put a bikini top over his chest as soon as he was out. The sound of the surf drowned out our giggles.
4
Another day, another hanging matter. In keeping with my week-long theme, yet another corner of the grid provided all the disaffection and today it was WRIT LARGE in the NW. Cue the swallowing hard sound effect!...You’re a very strange and “STRAY
(TOM)
C
A
T Blues.”
https://youtu.be/oOSYB38y2xA
BYE(S) ALL,
Bru
4
Never heard of an LBOMB, however, reminiscing about old GFs and TANLINES....... never mind. The mind doth wander.
GOWNS plural elicited a wince, waxed TOM woefully. How many can one wear at a time: WHOCANSAY?
Senior prom date slyly asked me to help her off with her gown. I almost fainted till I realized she only meant the top two or three buttons on the back. She, as was her wont, made me the butt of several jokes as the evening wore on. The life of a nerd is not an easy road.
Thanks John
6
Is it just my imagination, or has the rate of these infernal "conversational phrases" been increasing, and not simply because it's a Friday puzzle? I find them annoying, and take so much joy out of doing the puzzle. They aren't diversionary and don't require thinking outside the box. Even though eventually I get them from the crossings, there's no satisfaction; most of the time the answers are not even things I would say or hear. I didn't like this puzzle.
18
I agree! For someone outside the USA, most of these phrases are alien/have no meaningful context.
5
@Times Rita
The cruciverbal uptick of these slangy linguistic circumventions that you speak of is, for my dime, neither dope nor phat. The annoyances that I occasionally sustain when seeing the modern, THO rarely perverse, truncations has not ballooned to the point of joy infringement. That is not to say that I can get cranky when said wordplay waxes from sublime to ridiculous. Please accept this recco (sorry) for your thoughts. 🙂
10
@Times Rita I prefer them to clues of the “Supporting actor from an obscure late night sitcom of the 1980s” variety.
14
Not much went in at first pass. It was what I call a faith puzzle, where I have faith that if I stick with it and let it marinate in the brain, it will eventually fill in. And it did, but not without jousts right up to the end.
I love this kind of solve. My brain settles into a relaxed place and yet is hyper ALERT, almost to where the hairs on my arm stand on end. I love conquering the gauntlet. And in this puzzle, I loved the tricky cluing, the clever cluing (NASTY FALL, TAN LINES), and, especially, those lovely lovely long answers: WHAT GIVES, NASTY FALL, ON SALE NOW, SPANGLISH, STILETTO, IT DEPENDS, and especially WRIT LARGE and LEITMOTIV.
Had a laugh on 3D -- [Something that might be dropped prematurely in a relationship, in slang] -- where my brain filled in TROU before I realized it wouldn't fit.
Nothing but gratitude for this glorious solve, John!
11
Wow! Longest ever Friday, double my average time. The NW corner took me three sittings and a lot of revision. LWORD for LBOMB messes me up for a while. As close to a streak buster as I have seen.
2
@Mr. Mark
Steve L educated us earlier to the difference between LWORD and LBOMB. The LWORD in a relationship is probably better dropped sooner than later.
LETTER BOXED
F-E(7), E-W(6)
2
@Mari
C-S (7) S-T (7).
Between chainsaws buzzing all day and the stomach bug that took me down with a fever, I couldn't come up with anything yesterday or even try that hard. Thought it would go the same way today, but a last late look gave me something. Just hope fever is gone for good!
@Liane
Hope you feel better soon!
I’m curious if an eponym can include an honorific, as in the case here of St. Basil. You wouldn’t say Disneyland was named after Mr. Disney.
2
Wasn’t it?
6
On further reflection, the cathedral’s name includes Saint so it is appropriate as an eponym. We do not call it Mr. Disneyland.
1
@James Hamje
An eponym is the person something was named after, or the thing that was named for said person. The word works both ways. That having been said, even if the church were called Basilland, its eponym would still be St. Basil.
2
Shattered my Friday record by over 15 minutes! WHO CAN SAY whether this will continue.
And without my pumpkin spice, it's going to be a NASTY FALL. (I love it a latte.)
3
Went to bed with the NW corner unfinished. At 3:15 my dog, Asta, woke me with her tummy upset and needing to go out. After accomplishing that task I thought I'd try the puzzle again. I had entered "rule" instead of "rune". Some things are carved in stone. Now for some sleep.
9
@Wezilsnout
I love it! Only a crossword junkie would name their dog Asta(except perhaps a fan of the book or movies--a Hammetthead). It would be great if we could introduce Asta to my pup, Etui.
10
@ad absurdum
You did not really name your dog Etui, did you??? Fabulous! Your next pet can be OLIO (or OLEO, if you like), or OREO, or ETNA, or... The list goes on...
😜
3
@Ms. Cat
No, not really. Would I do that to my sweet Aare? Or her brothers nnw and pss?
7
Can someone explain why some fool decided dharma gets an h, but karma doesn’t? I didn’t even know dharma was a word. I only heard of the “dharma initiative” from that crazy TV show, Lost. Presumably both came from the same language origin. Why people gotta mess around like that?
Also, are there other AREOLAS on a body, other than, well, you know. I’m afraid to google this. Lol
2
Dharma and karma are Hindi words and ka and kha are different consonants as are da and dha, the same as t and th are different consonants in English.
15
James Hamje,
I'm guessing you also know what a BYE week is?
3
E A G L E S!
4
SPELLING BEE GRID
Oct 25th 2019
B A I L N R T
Words: 33, Points: 149, Pangrams: 1
A x 2
B x 21
L x 3
R x 3
T x 4
4L x 12
5L x 9
6L x 6
7L x 2
8L x 1
9L x 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
A - 1 - 1 - - 2
B 12 4 1 1 1 2 21
L - 1 1 - - 1 3
R - 1 2 - - - 3
T - 2 2 - - - 4
Tot 12 9 6 2 1 3 33
49
@Mari Easy and quick today - no weird words. Latin lips feature in 3 words, a latin table, a leg bone and Eastern European mini-pancakes, singular and plural.
9
@Mari missing the A7 I’ll keep trying. The Latin table is absolutely an Indian drum.
4
@Kevin Davis Nevermind, figures it would be a sports term. It’s two common words combined.
3
The perfect Friday puzzle: a challenge, fun, and lots of smiles as the answers fell in. Nothing controversial, no stacked cookies, no palindromic consorts of Fab Four members, no hockey or baseball legends. Pure freshness and brilliance.
To folks who find a nit to pick, I may just have to say, “ You’ve got OPTIC!”
9
@Sam Lyons
Having the TIC already, I briefly put ANTIC in for "some nerve," reasoning that anything like that would take working up some nerve to do.
Crosses quickly dissuaded me of that idea, and OPTIC soon followed.
2
NW corner was a killer for me as well, but the intersection of 54A and 55D was the last box for me. I was sure that sheltered stock was "in an ira" but could not figure out an angel's opposite. I'm currently bingeing Lucifer on Netflix and got stuck on "demon". I realized I was being too literal, and STA(L)LED horses finally became STABLED horses and a BRAT. Awesome Friday workout!
4
What is BYES for weeks off? Thanks.
3
@sawsan
“In sports that are played weekly, especially gridiron football, a team that does not play at all during a given week is said to be on its bye week.”
From Wikipedia
7
Thank you.
2
It’s so funny to me how very common terms to ‘average’ people throw off the literati. Nothing personal, just an observation. Anyone who follows football/sports knows BYE week. You ask the same people what WRITLARGE means...crickets. I’m definitely in the former camp.
8
and Elke
This Friday puzzle was mmmm SO GOOD.
Did note that we had recently (Sept. 26) the word THO-it seems to have become a LEITMOTIV for some other than musical situations... Will it lead to a NASTY FALL? WHO CAN SAY ?
Liked ST BASIL . It is that fancy church in Moscow's Red Square : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Basil's_Cathedral
Interesting puzzle.
4
I like the preamble to the daily puzzle.......what I don't like is the fact that YOU GIVE AWAY SOME OF THE ANSWERS !!! You then proceed to show us all just how smart and witty you are with your explanation.
Just give me the set-up to the puzzle....without giving the answers !!!
@Phil Reichert
It’s intended to be a postamble.
32
@ puzzlemucker
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t Deb’s column always give many of the answers and their meanings as well as discuss the theme?
That’s why I never read it until I’ve solved the entire xword. (Just sticking up for the daily column!)
23
@Phil Reichert
Are you encouraging Deb and Caitlin to write a column that’s neither smart or witty?
Will we have to rename it WordClay, should they oblige?
9
As both a professional musician (classical music is one of the principal users of the term) and a German-as-second-language speaker, I have to lodge an agreement with Caitlin, that Leitmotiv was an oddity today. Leitmotif is the English term and the "v" was unprepared and unexpected.
"It depends" gave me a frisson. I routinely teach my students that this is the correct answer to any serious question. At the same time, I teach them that you're just being a jerk if you say "it depends" and can't go on to detail _what_ "it depends" upon, and _how_ it matters.
15
I’ll second your observation; I learnt it with an ‘f’ as an English Lit major
2
"Leitmotif is the English term and the "v" was unprepared and unexpected."
David,
That was my reaction too, but M-W says "v" is OK:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/leitmotif
@David Connell
Glad to hear it from you. I got mighty stuck there on the "F!"
1
Great Friday puzzle! I had a feeling it would turn out okay when my gut said STBASIL, which turned out to be correct. My kids speak SPANGLISH at home to annoy me (college French) and my husband (various Slavic languages), but it’s backfired! I usually can decipher their conversations through cognates, so ha ha, TOTs!
As a person with Multiple Sclerosis, OPTIC was easy (OPTIC neuritis is fairly common for people with MS), and I’ve had my fair share of NASTYFALLs. Getting back up is the key, however inelegantly!
WHATGIVES with MAZY and GLASSEDIN? I don’t buy the 1960s popularity — it was probably a construction issue, which is as good a reason as any. Here in the south we have either screened in porches or Carolina rooms.
Will Saturday be as enjoyable? WHOCANSAY ? 🤷🏽♀️
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@Pani Korunova
To increase the usage of a porch, a fair number in the northern US are of the GLASSED IN variety in order to be used in the cooler spring and fall seasons as well as during the warmer summers.
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Thanks! I just haven’t heard that term, but now I have and, thanks to you, I get it now!
@Pani Korunova
Our GLASSED in porch is now “the sun room.”
We make it a point to have a leisurely breakfast there every Sunday morning.
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Felt like a fresh solve, full of little AHA’s and clever clueing. This has been a great crossword week!
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WHATGIVES? WHOCANSAY when the last time a Friday puzzle fell pleasantly for me. ITDEPENDS whether you like harder Friday challenges, but every now and then a confidence builder is nice for rookies like me out here. ONBALANCE I liked the puzzle, though I barely dodged a NASTYFALL in the NW corner. Thank you, WRITLARGE.
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I did really enjoy this puzzle. I'm glad to know the hardest part for me (NW) was hard for others too. I had PAC right away, then outsmarted myself, took it out and ended up with a facepalm when it finally filled with crosses. DUH.
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Surprisingly straightforward for a Friday puzzle. Only in retrospect did I realize that a BYE in the National Football League is a week off.
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@RAH
Thank you-I didn’t understand that answer at all
I kept looking at the photo of the colorful sheep wondering what it had to do with the puzzle. The sheep were STABLED. Head slap.
I thought this was a perfect Friday puzzle. :-\
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@Just Carol
The sheep's lodging had me STALLED for quite a while.
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@Al in Pittsburgh
My sheep were STALLED for awhile, too. But they EYED me ALL funny till I CAVED.
What a fantastic Friday treat.
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@Al in Pittsburgh
I’m in favor of replacing BRATs with LRATs. “Stop being a little LRAT.” Kinder, gentler, fewer years of therapy for the little LRAT in adulthood.
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SPANGLISH is a hybrid version of Spanish and English spoken by people of Spanish-language descent in English speaking places. One of the languages serves as the base (usually Spanish), but words from the other are borrowed and adapted liberally. Insertion of one Spanish word into an all-English background isn't Spanglish. Good Spanish words are repurposed for an English mileu (carpeta means carpet, although it means folder in regular Spanish; frizer is used instead of congelador for "freezer" because it's shorter) and you hear things like "Engancha tu coat en el locker o el closet" for "Hang your coat (abrigo) in the locker (casillero) or the closet (armario)." Usually, the borrowed English word is shorter than the Spanish word it replaces.
According to the clue, the lyrics of Livin' La Vida Loca are an example of SPANGLISH. This gave me pause (I had BILINGUAL at first, but even that is shaky).
I'm not the biggest Ricky Martin fan, but I didn't recall any Spanglish in that song. I remembered English lyrics with a Latin sound, with one Spanish phrase, "la vida loca," mixed in. That does not constitute Spanglish. I also found that there's a Spanish version too, in which the English words "She's livin'" and "New York City" are inserted. But that doesn't make either one SPANGLISH.
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@Steve L thank you for the clear explanation. I honestly wondered what Spanglish was and now I know.
There's also a similar "hybrid" language - Franglais. The book "Let's Parler Franglais!" by Miles Kington, which contains columns which ran in the British satirical magazine Punch many years ago.
The capsule review of the book at:
-https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/3810013-let-s-parler-franglais
begins "The trouble with French is that there are far too few English words in it." ;)
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@Steve L
I agree it's a stretch. "She's livin' la vida loca" and "Se fue a New York City" are the closest I can find.
Back in the late 1970's in NYC, I shared a dorm room with a man originally from Ponce (Puerto Rico).
Long before SPANGLISH entered the lexicon, he labelled the English/Spanish hybrid found on on the North end of the #1 subway line "NewYoRican"
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I had a co-worker whose language was on the colorful side, so F-BOMB is familiar to me (and is in the Merriam-Webster dictionary), but I learned something new with 3D (L-BOMB). Probably only a matter of time before it's added as well.
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@RichardZ
The L BOMB, of course, has nothing to do with the L Word, which is something completely different:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_L_Word
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@Steve L - Even in cases where the L word does apply, one may want not to drop the L-BOMB too soon.
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It was a fun puzzle and phrases made it interesting. My only disagreement with Caitlin was about the clue for TARA being good. I've never even seen the movie and it was an instant fill-in for me.
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@ Paul
You absolutely MUST see Gone With the Wind! Immediately, if not sooner! Yes, it uses overtly racist tropes (unacceptable by today’s standards) and is overly sympathetic to the South and it’s courageous defenders over those evil, pillaging Yankees, but...Clark Gable! Vivian Leigh (gnawing on a dirty raw carrot, crying “as god is my witness, I’ll never go hungry again!) Leslie Howard (oh, Ashley!) and Olivia de Haviland (mealy-mouthed Melanie). Did I say Clark Gable? And the final scene...classic!
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@Ms. Cat
As you wish. :) I'll put it on my list. I went to it, fifty-some years ago, and walked out. But possibly I've matured enough, since then. Thanks for the nudge.
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@PaulSFO - With all deference to Ms. Cat - you could live a wonderful life by never seeing that awful film.
Summary for prospective filmgoers:
"Wasn't the world wonderful before those dang Yankees made us stop owning people?"
"Yep, it sure was."
The End.
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Like Caitlin, I thought the NW corner was going to kill me. I thought 1D had to be GOWNS (TUXES just seemed unlikely) and then WHO or WHY or WHAT at 17A. Finally I thought of ON SALE NOW, and that tipped the BALANCE and led to the rest of that area filling in. Also, thinking of RUNE helped a lot.
The rest of the puzzle had plenty of interesting stuff in it-- ST BASIL. SAGUARO. SPANGLISH. STILETTO. (Maybe I'll just cite words that start with S). Well, and DRAGON EGG. DRAGON EGGs are always cool.
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Had to change GLAD to to GLADLY to make a NASTY FALL WRIT LARGE. Lots of freshness, zippy for a Friday. I wish I had simply replied to Matt Ginsberg yesterday: crossword constructors enrich our world immensely. Thank you! John, this was a treat of a Friday. Thank you!
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