17A: Deeply shocked at the misspelling of William S. Burroughs's name. It will take a while for the NYT to atone for that one.
6D: "___ double" (answer: stunt) could have been "on the" or "daily" (if no crosses yet). Enjoyed the surely inadvertent timeliness of this one as two days later, Brad Pitt won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for playing Leonardo diCaprio's stunt double in "Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood."
1A: I have never been a fan of puzzles' using "and" between two letter abbreviations: S and P, R and R. Always an ampersand there, and in my view, cheating. S&P; R&R. M&Ms. &c.
22D: What are the "two different senses" of "press release" for "P.R."?
Deb, I too could have DEFAULTER printed on my business cards. Funny.
1
It is burroughs not burrows
It's only just that EQUABLY should occupy the center of the grid.
1
Definitely easier than yesterday’s.
1
For a little fun with data, here’s how search results for “SLOL” have trended over the last few days.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%207-d&geo=US&q=Slol
6
I love how our thinking and puzzle solving
peccadilloes
hew together, our little grey
cels, like the big grey
trains, which slosh us all together,
siphoned into a didactic maze and
maybe stealing a clue from
the rider next over
3
This was a lent puzzle (fast Friday).
2
So many complaints - understandably so - about "equably"!
equally = in a manner of sameness, especially of degree, size, amount, etc. In an equal manner, with equality.
"Two for you, two for me."
equitably = in a manner of fairness, of impartiality, of even-handedness, etc. In a fair manner, with equity.
"You worked the hours, here's your promised wages."
equably = in a manner of evenness, calm, tranquility, regularity, consistency, etc. In a level manner, with equability.
"I will not let this puzzle unnerve me."
Today's clue was spot on. Most of us, including myself, fell for the L where the B belonged. But the clue was spot on.
A consideration of the root meanings of the root word (Latin aequare) as listed here:
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/aequo#Latin
will show how the various English descendants take up different aspects of the same idea.
2
... with equanimity...
.... in an equanimous manner...
Or the opposite, as demonstrated in the hyper reaction to today’s misspelling
When I can solve a Friday, I know that I am indeed the Master of the Universe! until Saturday anyway.
Such a clever, fun puzzle! It had a spirit that made me want to stick with it, whereas many Fridays find me getting bored and grumpy.
6
For anyone who didn't see it, Will Shortz replied to a comment below in regard to the 'Burrows/Burroughs' issue. Here's his response:
"For the record, here's what happened: When the puzzle was originally typeset, the name had a typo -- "Boroughs." One of the test-solvers, by phone, alerted me to the error, saying the name started with "Burr-," so I "corrected" it to "Burrows." Argh!
There was a big missed chance to fix this, too: I used the puzzle as the playoff at the annual Westport (CT) Library Crossword Contest last Saturday, which 130-some people attended -- and no one said anything about the misspelling!
My deep apologies. The mistake been corrected for online and syndication, but nothing can be done about it for print."
6
Rich,
That's a better clue for I BLAME MYSELF.
2
Alway have trouble with things like SANDP. Yes its "S & P" but no one ever writes in as SANDP except Crossword puzzle writers. Something (and AANDP is almost ss bad) to be given a long long rest
6
Ok, my modest streak lives another day. But I almost gave up because of the god-awful answer for 24 down.
Were any of you equably frustrated?
3
I sure was
2
As my solution started in 1A and wrapped around, I ended up with part of 46A filled in as _ _ _ _MEMYSELF. I was slowed down finishing in the SW corner as I was thinking Me, Myself were the end of a sequence (as in Me, Myself, and I). "It's on" didn't fit. I even tried "I BAD" (which miraculously gave the right "IB" beginning. No joke: sfter s few frustrated moments my inner voice whined "this is LAME" and I BLAME MYSELF was it!
I had filled in from crosses 11D as: "Au Tow Orker" without looking at its clue and tried to guess what the clue would be that had a strange French answer. . . and had a laugh when I un-DOOK'd it. (OT: Will UNC Un-Dook Duke tomorrow?)
Non Seq....I miss Calvin and Hobbes.
3
40A 5 letter plural word Swine that I tried to make work for awhile.
3
When I have my naked lunch, my coworkers break fast.
(But I'm delivering no-clothes-ing arguments.)
7
8A ought to have been plural IMO. It’s weird to flex half of one’s chest
1
If you’re ever down to the last couple (as I was today) and P_ _ just wasn’t screaming POX to you, a useful tool is a regexp dictionary. It lets you search for things like P_ _ and it will return and three letter words that start with P. The syntax is a bit funky but not impossible. One I use is here:
https://visca.com/regexdict
pmb
I was in the Navy for 8 years, and my father was a career Navy man before me. I have never heard of the word "tar" being used to refer to a sailor. Perhaps, because I live in North Carolina, I associate tar with the people who made Naval stores. that's where the praise Tarheel State originated, supposedly.
7
B.C.,
Was your great-great grandfather in the Navy? I'm sure he would have heard "tar."
2
noun Informal.
a sailor.
ORIGIN OF TAR2
First recorded in 1740–50; perhaps short for tarpaulin
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/tar
@Barry Ancona
Where a "tarpaulin" in this case referred to a sailor's "tarred or oilskin hat"...
PADMA was a gimme for me, as I’m a big Top Chef fan. EQUABLY not so much, so like many others have noted, I was bogged down looking for obscure pig terminology.
Finally, NYT, may I offer my services as a top-notch DEFAULTER?
1
57D made me think of this excellent riff on the answer:
https://teamcoco.com/video/ismo-01-22-18
3
@KarenW
Good link Karen!
While I am glad to see my weapon featured, instead of the ubiquitous "epee," it is correctly spelled "sabre" (the Olympic fencing weapon--I realize that normal American orthography spells an edged cavalry sword SABER).
VEX before POX, EXECS before SUITS, SWINE before SLOBS, EQUALLY before EQUABLY. I think I fell into every trap on offer today. All resolved. A fair and enjoyable TEST, I mean, EXAM.
9
No need to go find kids to find an answer. Just Google it.
3
The one answer that really made me think is 59-across, “Ring bearers.” Toes? Not even on my radar!
1
You don't know the right hippie women.
3
A bit easier for me than yesterday’s puzzle—if a late week puzzle can ever be called “easy”. Took me a long time to get SLOBS, as I kept wallowing 🤣in the world of swine. That bottom center area was the last to come together for me. POX also had me stumped for quite awhile. I did have to look up PADMA LAKSHMI, as I don’t know anything about cooking shows. Somewhat like Deb, I knew about KATANAS from my 7 and 9 year old grandsons. I was playing an alphabet memory game with them while driving them home recently and katana was the K-word they came up with. Very enjoyable Friday puzzle, so thanks Ms. Guizzo and Mr. Agard.
3
today’s puzzle was funny, for me. i zoomed through most of it (i mean, comparatively, for a friday) and thought i might beat my record. but then i got stuck right at the seeming-end, with 43A and esp. 40A. i’d first entered SWINE (thought i was clever, not getting hung up trying to figure out a 4-letter pluralized word for pigs!) and while i figured out that it should be S___S in a decent amount of time, getting all the way to SLOBS was a bit of a SLOg.
but i made it, and then — still something’s wrong?! combed through my grid, and came upon SEAMON. sounded questionable, but maybe it’s something about the SEAM ON something, made of tar? and all the downs seemed to work. i finally gave up, read deb’s column, and finished. i appreciate how 10D, “Miss”, could have conceivably been answered either with LOSS (as i’d incorrectly had it) or LASS.
SPELLING BEE
What's the matter with CHIRAL?
5
@Michael
What's the matter with CHARIVARI (especially since TANTARA was perfectly fine).
2
@Patti B
Nothing! And another perfectly fine word is ACHIRAL.
Does the Beekeeper read these comments?
1
Strong Friday construction. Nearly threw in the towel at 54A as POX was one of my first entries. When I finally accepted that the ring bearers* couldn't be "boys," PEA fit nicely and voila, APPALACHIA! Likewise at 63A, where I had to finally accept that "bails" wouldn't work as EFFACED (nice) was needed at 42D; EDITS came quickly.
*TOES? Really?
2
Perhaps a play on the “Rings on your/her fingers, bells on your/toes” ditty?
1
I believe your business card should read, "Default Specialist."
TIL that a male pig is called a SLOL. Oh, nevermind!
18
Me, too. Never occurred to me that EQUALLY might be wrong. Pride goeth before a fall!
2
Friday should be difficult but ultimately satisfying. I found this to be the former but not the latter. Of course I had to look up PADMA LAKSHMI --- I hope I never watch so much TV that an answer like that just pops up in my head. However, it was good to see my old pal CALVIN make an appearance.
4
My time today was both STANDARD AND POOR. I am not a speed solver.
I wanted BOARS for sty occupants. EQUABLY gave way to EQUIBLY, (you say KATANA, and I say KATINA). Both EQUABLY and EQUIBLY are equally quibbly if you LAKSHMI.
Speaking of which, my decision to stand by GORDON RAMSAY (the only chef I know of), was somewhat rash, but really the food product at 10D was even RASHER. I thought that might be something an ALIENATE for breakfast.
JAPE, AVEDA, QUIERO, nope, nope, nope...
If I BLAME MYSELF, does that make me a MASTERBLAMER?
I won't mention the nearby appearances of NAKED LUNCH, SEAMAN, and JEWELS in this context. (Oops, I just did.)
Thanks Mary Lou and Erik. Today you definitely kept me on my ring bearers.
11
I usually do the puzzle after it comes out in the evening, but yesterday I was distracted and finally remembered it as I was going to bed. Since I wasn't THAT tired, I decided to start on the puzzle, knowing that Fridays are usually difficult. So, using the phone, I managed to decipher about half the clues and get answers entered (which surprisingly were all correct in the morning). So, after I got up I went back to work on the puzzle and managed to complete it in a fairly decent time for me - just a little less than my average.
This was filled with a lot of AHAS, as I would get a few entries in and then crossing answers would suddenly reveal themselves (usually with a "so THAT's what they meant" thought), particularly with 1A, 5D, 20A and 54A. I've been to the Field and seen SUE, so that was a gimme; knew RASHER, and had the initial A so immediately guessed AUTO WORKER. A few other entries also came fairly easily. Final entry was the B in SLOBS/EQUABLY.
1
EQUABLY got me thinking rebus late in the game because I don’t know that word but do know “equitably”. I don’t approve of this word.
3
Doing these puzzles is helping me with recall but I'm still having a lot of trouble with the Something _______? clues like Crown_____? I had ROYALE until the gimme EVER and JEWELS was one of the last fill-ins. My formerly sharp 83 year old mother is having cognitive issues from aging, it's not Dementia, more like no short term memory and problems with long term memory. She was the Boggle Queen years ago, she used to crush all of us. Recently, before I was awate of her problem, and we played Boggle with my kids and we all got 10 words and she got 1. It's heartbreaking. She gets days and times mixed up and forgets details. I hope this doesnt happen to me. I'm 60 now and I wonder if crosswords help. Thanks for letting me vent.
7
@Rigoletto
My mother was also very sharp, (historian and author), and developed dementia in her late 70s. It was very sad to see her decline. By the time she passed away in her late 80s, she had lost just about all of her awareness. I'm 63 and have occasional minor forgetfulness. I am hoping that crosswords will help me, as some experts claim.
I was struck by your user name, and hope you appreciated seeing "Celeste" AIDA in the puzzle today!
4
@Rigoletto i don't know if the crosswords help, but at least we can have fun doing them as we age.
6
@Andrew I'm sorry to hear about your mother. It is so very sad. Somehow after 3 years of widowhood, at age 82, my mother found a lovely man to marry. He was aware of her "memory issues" when he proposed. He is helping her to keep everything straight. My mother has been at the same level of problem for 5 years so I don't think it's Alzheimers or going to turn into it based on what I've read. Some connections in her brain are missing though.
I do love opera and I'm very excited that the Atlanta Opera will perform La Boheme and Il Barbiere di Siviglia this season, two of my favorites.
The Burroughs misspelling is the worst editing error I have ever seen in the NYTimes crossword.
3
Laurence,
Defaults?
2
I don’t understand. It was spelled correctly as Burroughs in my puzzle. Was it different in the print version?
1
Shari,
It was Burrows. I gather you're solving on a NYT online puzzle that has now been fixed, as has -- I note -- the PDF of the newspaper version.
I love the name (and the actress) PADMA LAKSHMI, but I was drawn into the imaginary realm of parody cooking shows:
"NAKED LUNCH 2 1⁄2: The Smell of Schmear"
I blame myself.
7
I’d say that Naked Lunch: The Cooking Show would be a Burroughsian bacchanal of Heroin and fine dining and the like. RIP WSB.
1
A right stout Friday workout! Somehow finished w/o any writeovers, but there were several answers I did not know, and had to get on crosses. Became so absorbed in the puzzle, I was late to class this morning: I BLAME MYSELF.
TIL: Pittsburgh is in APPALACHIA. My father grew up in Logan County WV, so I have always thought of Appalachia as mountainous and sparsely populated.
6
The Appalachian Regional Commission has a map here: https://www.arc.gov/appalachian_region/MapofAppalachia.asp
1
@Trish Thank you! Very informative. Today I Learned!
1
Trish,
I'm waiting for the Appalachian peoples of the Poconos and the Southern Tier to meet up with the Appalachian peoples of northern Alabama and Mississippi.
Vertex needs a skip tutorial button and it needs to work. I've been doing this puzzle since it started but today it wants me to go through the tutorial again (3rd time). There is no change to my location or computer. A Skip Tutorial button appeared but it only took me to the 2nd tutorial screen. Please add a Skip button that works.
6
@Louise - Oh, I'm so glad I'm not the only one! How very, very, very frustrating to be led through those tutorials for no reason at all, and with no way to just "get on with it." I think the software must have been done by Shadow, Inc.
I won't touch Vertex if I have to do this again!
3
@David Connell Agreed on that last thought
@Louise and David: I also noticed a little “timer” icon for the first time today. It didn’t seem to do anything (and why does everything have to be timed anyway?), but maybe its addition reset the puzzle.
Pretty easy for me, and I liked the defaults/ EDITS. A lot of nice fill. Never heard of P-L but those are two standard Indian names. Don’t really like tacking -s on Japanese words, but at this point it just raises a sigh. Ring bearers was good, but I would be gobsmacked if 0.05 percent of the people doing the puzzle actually had toe rings on.
And careful now!
@Frances
Don’t fall into the tamale trap!
This one was within my wheelhouse. 23:41, no research, 4 minutes off my Friday best. Stuck on the Samurai sword, and then I remembered the Walking Dead, which I haven't watched in years. That was all I needed to finish it up. Thanks Michonne!
1
Great Friday. Seemed tough but fair, reviewing after the solve.
Never heard the word EQUABLY. In fact, I'd probably laugh if someone said it, 'cause I'd be the dope that says "it's EQUALLY, you rube"
APPALACHIA gave me fits cause I just couldn't figure it out despite having so many crosses. I figured the answer was some Middle Eastern area of old like Mesopotamia for something.
PR was probably very easy for most, but I got hung up with PR being Personal Record (personalbest for the fill), which is a term for your best time in a race (e.g. 5K, Marathon, Triathlon)
Does Agard have another job? This dude makes serious coin from NYT, as far as I can tell.
2
@Newbie If he gets one puzzle sold every 2 weeks, that's $750 x2 per month, not close to wealth.
1
@Rigoletto -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_oVnrq-6GnY
that's wealth in most of the world
that's doing pretty good in most of the USA
@Newbie Erik just became the editor of the USA Today Crossword.
6
William S. Burrows is a mole.
I spelled UHURu wrong and parsed it PuDMAL AKSHMI. Who?
Of course I BLAME MYSELF. I was satisfied to get all the rest.
Thanks Mary Lou and Erik!
5
I enjoyed this puzzle’s twists and turns but was totally thrown by toes for ring bearers. Too funny
1
At first I thought SAND P 500 might be a grade of sandpaper reserved for the OWNAGE of rough wood on VERANDAED mansions. Then I realized I was confusing two different puzzles. I BLAME MYSELF.
8
@Jamestown Ararat so happy I wasn't the only one who thought that for 1A :)
2
Pittsburgh is indeed part of Appalachia, even linguistically. The area’s signature second-person plural pronoun, “yinz“ (= you’uns, you ones) is also a feature of the speech of the western North Carolina and east Tennessee mountains.
2
@Dave S
I’d love to see “yinz” as a crossword answer! Likewise “youse” which is Philadelphian for “yinz”.
1
@Linda Kirwan I recently retired as a high-school German teacher. I had many fun moments in class explaining to students what the German second-person plural pronoun (ihr) translates to: y’all, yinz, youse, you guys, etc. BTW, northeastern US “youse” is also a regular everyday feature of Scottish English.
@Dave S - your list omits my native Philadelphian version:
yiz (singular)
yiz guyz (plural)
"Where are yiz goin'?"
"Where are yiz guyz goin'?"
(nobody I knew said "youse" unless they were imitating those . . . Noo Yawkers)
I remember the moment of confusion when, in summer camp at Penn State, my roommate from Altoona used "yinz" instead. I'd never heard it before.
His favver worked in the stiww miwws, too. And he played the satsaphone.
“Down with this sort of thing”
“Careful now”
Forgot to say in my previous comment how much I LOVE that there are more women and other underrepresented folks getting puzzles published. THANK YOU to the mentors for helping and to the mentees for taking the leap. These puzzles are *so much more interesting* than those of the prior era! (I've done some archived puzzles. Believe me.) More lively, more creative.... just better.
On the Myer Briggs I'm an N (Intuitive), rather than an S (Sensing) so the big picture is more interesting to me than the details. I know details are precious to some folks, and that's a good thing (like how things are spelled, or whether a clue is technically accurate). We need Ss in the world. But thanks so much for including more for the Ns.
18
Well said, @Merry!
3
@Merry FYI, Myer Briggs has been shown to be bogus.
2
@Dave, yours is an S response. What resonates with me is just that people are different, however you describe those differences. And one of those differences is how personally important the details are. I'm *glad* someone is fact checking and correcting. Meanwhile I'm really enjoying the lateral ride!
8
It’s Friday - so I managed only a “Completion”. No “research” but had to engage the services of Mr. Auto Check to point out the error of my ways - with ESTEE, SAILOR, DELTA, ATWIRL, TRAP, BRASS, BMW and some others.
TOES are “Ring bearers”?? I thought it went, “Rings on her fingers and BELLS on her toes.” (Where did that come from??)
I REALLY MISS Calvin and Hobbes!! . . . And “The Wild Side”. (Guess I’ll have to get out my books and re-read some of those.)
Even with Deb’s explanation, I thought the clue for EDIT was about as LAME as you can get.
I think @Deb is trying to convey a message to someone. She explained part of her reason for a smaller house just a few columns ago - and, today, we have a message about “... find a job”? My brother just set a firm DEADLINE to “encourage” my oldest nephew. It worked.
3
PeterW,
The only reference I see in the column to finding a job is in the Constructor Notes, where Mary Lou congratulates Erik. That's not Deb. Deb does say: "I am fortunate to have two anime-loving young adults in my household..." (although since she refers to Skype, she is not restricting household to residents!).
3
@Barry Ancona Still ...
2
Deb,
We never had a large house to downsize from, so as the children got bigger, even before they went to college, they figured out they were no longer fitting well in the space.
1
Nice puzzle. I was slowed down at the end in the NW what with Uhura crossing Padma Lakshmi — two names I've seen but couldn't've identified, and somehow had slols for sty occupants until searching for my error.
2
Also, did not notice the misspelling of Burroughs until a friend mentioned it after my solve. (Naked Lunch was whispered about in my H.S. AP English class ('63-'64), when one or another of us would take out the town library's only copy of the book.
4
Also had SLOLS - because EQUALLY instead of EQUABLY.
2
@Midd American
Same here! Even worse, I started out with SWINE in the across.
2
I started solving fairly regularly a couple of years ago and Fridays are finally fun for me! Especially since I don't mind looking up stuff I don't yet know, and therefore get to learn something new. For example, I learned today about William S Burroughs and his book Naked Lunch, which I've never read. I went to Goodreads and read the summary. So I also learned I'm never likely to read it! I count that a productive morning.
22
NAKEDLUNCH was an early confidence booster. Actually was listening to Steely Dan on the way home last night and this morning as well. Very appropriate.
Not sure about SANDP for 1A... Is this like a grade of common sandpaper? Also have no idea about Top Chef, and RASHER was pretty novel as well. The rest was fantastic.
2
S AND P 500
1
RASHER of bacon - which I've never used in real life but have definitely read. Feels British to me.
2
@Andrew In case Chris's response is still not ringing the bell for you, Standard and Poor's 500, a US stock market index, used as a general bellweather of stock market status.
1
It only took me about 12 minutes to finish but it took me another 10 to figure out my one error—I had equally instead of EQUABLY. I stared as the resultant ‘slols’ for ages knowing that’s where my mistake lay before eventually figuring it out. Enjoyable Friday.
11
@Katie Wow. 12 minutes is very impressive. I'd barely be able to enter random letters at that speed.
3
@Katie Wow! I was twice that counting the time spent trying to figure out the same error! I was convinced there was some obscure pig term...
It took me 39 minutes but I solved this one without help. But that's not the only reason I loved this puzzle! Nearly every clue was difficult, and all of them felt very satisfying to figure out. I was especially pleased with 54a. I had only the 'h-i' and the answer just came to me. What fun!
10
The cliche’ crossword-ese “epee” is avoided but we are treated to SABER and KATANAS.
"Defaults" seems off the mark to me as a clue for EDITS. I get it. De-faults. But I groaned a bit.
I still don't understand TOES as "ring bearers” despite it’s being the headline of Wordplay. Can someone clarify?
Three answers I got on crosses that left me thinking, "What? Is that a word?"
JAPE
RASHER
EQUABLY
Multiple words I was unsure of, but I still got the happy music...
6
@Brian Drumm some people wear rings on their toes as well as their fingers, I believe. I think the headline is a misdirect.
1
Brian Drumm, to be exact, the clue was "Defaults?", with the "?" alerting the solver to a likely pun.
@Andrew
I did NOT know about “toe rings.”
I have a phobia of most kinds of jewelry stemming from an accident I witnessed As a teen that resulted in a fireman placing a severed finger in a ziplock bag on ice so it could *hopefully* be re-attached. A man’s ring had gotten caught on protruding metal as he was grasping for something to break his fall from a ladder.
The Burrows misspelling led me down the rabbit hole of internet searching after bringing to mind Abe Burrows. Author, playwright, humorist, director, game show panelist
3
Thanks, @coloradoz and all who commented on the misspelling. I've alerted the editors.
6
Deb,
I suspect Mary Lou reached them already...
2
@Deb Amlen
So they can DEFAULT??
2
For me, The biggest single solving obstacle in nearly all NYT puzzles is not having read or watched Star Trek. Thus top left corner
was problematic to the end. I finally guessed UHURA but had to look it up to see what it is. I also had trouble with Naked Lunch owing to misspelling. I would like to see a mea culpa from the DEFAULTERS. Thanks for a mind-stretching and amusing puzzle.
2
I will also admit that I stupidly read Super Bowl LIII (53) as XIII (13), and guessed PACK which also threw me for a while. So not only did I have the wrong Super Bowl, but I also had the wrong winner (which was actually Pittsburgh) for my wrong Super Bowl.
Some clues need to wait until I'm fully awake!
3
I love it when answers (or variations thereof) that were questioned for being “obscure references” on recent puzzles reappear on another puzzle shortly thereafter. Almost like a “Take that!” Is that mean of me? Idk... In any case, welcome back, CALVIN! There were also some clever clues that made me chuckle once I got the answer, like EXAM (been a while since I’ve had to face that particular obstacle). Overall, a fun solve!
1
Curse my ham handed typing! Plied Tom porcinely.
Somehow the B in slob became a T and I did not see it.
Must move down espresso machine this fall.
Thak you
1
Well, hello Mary Lou. I'm sure I'm joined by everyone here (and Ricky Nelson, of course) in welcoming you to Wordplay. I was kind of stunned by the error in that clue when I read it, but even more so after you noted that it was spelled correctly in your submission. I really hope that we'll hear from someone on the editorial team to explain how in the world that happened. I mean... how long does it take to do a search on 'Naked Lunch?'
Anyway - the puzzle. Not a success for me, but Fridays rarely are. Had to look up a few things (and a bit of other cheating) but still had an enjoyable time as various answers finally dawned on me from the crosses.
Today's answer history search was for KIA. Did not expect to find what led me there (and didn't), but it does have an unusual history for any useful 3-letter sequence. It's been in 65 Shortz era puzzles, always clued to the car company, but only once before that - in a 1991 puzzle, clued as "___ ora (N.Z. toast)."
That led me to wonder about WIA (once - in a 1973 puzzle - clued as "Military abbr.", and lastly MIA. That, of course is very common (285 appearances) and does get the military related clue with some frequency, but NEVER prior to the Shortz era. Perhaps a bit more sensitivity back then.
4
@Rich in Atlanta For the record, here's what happened: When the puzzle was originally typeset, the name had a typo -- "Boroughs." One of the test-solvers, by phone, alerted me to the error, saying the name started with "Burr-," so I "corrected" it to "Burrows." Argh!
There was a big missed chance to fix this, too: I used the puzzle as the playoff at the annual Westport (CT) Library Crossword Contest last Saturday, which 130-some people attended -- and no one said anything about the misspelling!
My deep apologies. The mistake been corrected for online and syndication, but nothing can be done about it for print.
10
@Will Shortz I was there at the Westport event. Since all of us missed it, don't feel too bad. Meanwhile, can you explain the "2 senses" of PR? I know "press release," as in "pitching an upcoming event or something similar," but what else?
1
@Dan Woog
Public relations is the common meaning of PR.
1
Challenging Friday puzzle, but not a killer.
Thanks @Deb for explaining the "tricky clues" that I also found tricky, which doesn't always happen.
Also @Deb, I immediately thought of a four letter pluralized answer for "sty occupants": BOARS. And let me tell you, that really messed up my fill for a long time as I stubbornly stuck to it!
2
@Rob Yes boars are hogs, but AFAIK they are wild animals and do not typically live in sties. So that might be too far afield from the truth, even for a crossword clue. :)
@Jim
A boar is a male pig, whether it's wild or not.
JayTee,
Right, "boar" is male (in wild or domesticated swine) but just for confusion, a "wild boar" (undomesticated) may be a boar or a sow.
This was a great puzzle. That is all.
7
I kept looking for Easter eggs: animals that live in burrows...
2
17A could avoided the spelling error if clued as "eatery inside MOM's Organic Market." No, really.
1
I loved that the puzzle slowed me to a crawl, yet kept me going toward the light of completion. That resistance is what I crave on Friday and Saturday, as its overcoming is especially sweet.
The puzzle, to me, presented a clinic in vague and misdirection cluing. Was it fair? For me, yes, except at the chef/samurai-sword cross, where I had to guess. I don't know if this was a Natick for many, though. Maybe yes, as a couple of commenters have already brought it up (Hi, @Jim and @NickS!).
I loved NAKED LUNCH, I BLAME MYSELF, WE'RE ALL SET, the clue that lifted AUTO WORKER out of the ordinary -- [Bodybuilder?], and the clue for SUN that made me laugh [Tanning agent]. Muchas gracias, Erik and Mary, for this solid and satisfying offering!
12
Done in by EQUABLY. Too focused on pig names to even see SLOBS. Good Friday!
8
It was a fairly tough one, but ultimately fell in near personal best time after having had a good night's sleep.
A few passes through and only had a few short ones - RAPS, RAE, ERE, KIA, PATS, PLEATS, SUN, AHAS, AIDA, EASY. Eventually, after three passes, worked my way in from the edges into the middle.
Liked the clues for EDITS, EXAM, EXHIBIT A, AUTOWORKER and of course, CALVIN.
I never heard of PADMA LAKSHIMI. Didn't remember which museum the T REX named Sue was (only vaguely remembered there was one named Sue), and Burrows, Burroughs...I got the gist and got the answer in spite of the faulty defaulters. I don't let accuracy get in the way of the solve.
5
@Wen
“Faulty defaulters”
Brilliant! Could be a puzzle theme, with every entry misspelled. Would make for some great post-puzzle comments: “I demand a refunned!”
4
Puzzlemucker, do you mean entry or clue?
@polymath
I see what you mean, as Burrows was a clue not an entry, though it has burroughed its way into my mind this morning as all caps BURROWS.
But actually, I just meant to convey that I found Wen’s “faulty defaulters” quite clever, as is Wen’s wont.
2
Tough Friday -- lots of things I didn't know. I was pretty stuck a third of the way but all of sudden NAKED LUNCH came into focus and I was ALL SET!
1
LETTER BOXED THREAD
Feb 7th MMXX
V - O (7), O - Y (8)
YESTERDAY:
UNCLOGS SUBPART
CONGRATS SUBPOLAR
PONGS SUBCULTURAL
4
@Mari
Yesterday LABCOATS SPRUNG.
Today I gave up.
3
@Andrew
Think of a Spanish/Mexican cowboy.
1
@Mari
Would never have gotten it without these hints. Thanks!
As a Brit, let me answer two questions posed by other commentators about UK English. a) A rasher is a single slice of bacon - I never knew this wasn’t also a US term; b) While one would surely get away with ‘swines’ at scrabble, ‘swine’ is normal usage, both for singular and plural.
5
Rasher is used in the US also. It may be regional.
@Cooofnj - interesting. where in the US have you heard it used? I don't think I've heard it before.
@Rupert Raynor Occasionally I have come across the term "rasher of bacon" on some restaurant menus in SE US, and it has always meant a serving of bacon, usually two or three strips. Usage must vary by geography; I live in North Carolina. I have never heard the term in conversation other than for someone to comment on the menu: "What the hell is a 'rasher' of bacon?"
3
SPELLING BEE GRID
Feb 7th MMXX
H A C I L R V
WORDS: 24, POINTS: 118, PANGRAMS: 3
Starting Letters-Frequencies:
A x 4
C x 11
H x 7
L x 1
R x 1
Word Lengths -Frequencies:
4L x 10
5L x 7
6L x 2
7L x 2
8L x 1
9L x 2
Grid:
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
A 1 - - 1 1 1 4
C 4 4 1 1 - 1 11
H 4 2 1 - - - 7
L - 1 - - - - 1
R 1 - - - - - 1
Tot 10 7 2 2 1 2 24
(Y-Axis: Starting Letters, X-Axis: Word Lengths, X/Y Co-ordinates: Frequency/Number of Words for that letter and length)
57
@Mari Obscure word hints:
Shape like an upside-down U
Old, out of use
Historical collection adj., pangram
Chief opponent, pangram (add a letter to above word)
Indian milky sweet spiced tea
Jewish Sabbath bread
Southwestern mint plant or trendy “pet”
Fashionable
Spanish, girl
Over-elaborate
Hot, spicy pepper
Gallant knight adj., pangram
Summon a taxi or frozen rain
Akin to kosher in Islamic tradition
Mideast honey & flour dessert, 2 spellings
Tree similar to tamarack
27
@Mari First 2 letters:
AR-4
CH-11
HA-6 HI-1
LA-1
RI-1
25
@Mari, @Kevin @Jodie TFTG TGIF
Well that was a quick one. 39 points in the first 4 words, and could have had 55 in 5 but the C9 was the last to fall.
Wanted to see CHIRAL and LAHAR.
10
I thought this was a great puzzle and much easier than many Friday puzzles. I whizzed through in 34 minutes which for me is pretty good time. Fun and not all that challenging.
3
I agree. I thought it was fairly easy for a Friday. But my Friday solve times average a little lower than Thursdays’
1
@Lin Kaatz Chary I would've probably agreed with you except for that damn PADMA/KATANAS crossing. Grumble....
Sue Hendrickson went to the first two years of high school with my sister, then left and became a diver, shipwreck explorer and, finally, a dinosaur hunter. If Munster, Indiana wasn't such a boring suburb, possibly none of this would have happened!
4
@PaulSFO
Thanks, Paul. Your comment led me to click on the article at the link for SUE that Deb provided. Great link with a photo of Sue Hendrickson at the dig site. Given that Munster has become associated on here with puns, it is only fitting that SUE the dinosaur is referred to as “pun loving” in the linked article.
1
One hour, 15 minutes and eight seconds later, a desperate alphabet run revealed KATANAS/ PADMALAKSHMI. I'm sure I won't remember her the next time she appears as a clue, but I was very happy to make her acquaintance tonight.
1
It might help to look up her photo. She’s an ex-model who dated Salmon Rushdie.
@Doug
More than that, they were married between 2004-2007.
Doug, I looked her up and yes, now I recognize her. (My wife is a Top Chef fan.)
I had SLO(L)S for so long, knowing it wasn't right, but the only letter I was convinced belonged there was the L in EQUA(L)LY. In fact, TIL EQUABLY is a word at all. Should have studied more for the vocab EXAMs. I BLAME MYSELF.
I wasn't the only one who noticed a "seminal" novel - NAKED LUNCH - placed right above SEAMAN, right? Or am I just twelve years old at heart?
33
right I had that for the longest time too... but a fun solve nonetheless. fun and clever misdirects galore
2
@Ian Carrillo same on EQUALLY
Lots of research got it mostly filled in, but still had to get AUTO(WORKER) from Deb. Finally had _APS for the mimicry. Had to be R, but what in the world is a RASHER?
An S on the end of KATANA? Like maybe all "samurais" carried them?
2
@kilaueabart
A slice of bacon is called a rasher
@D. Madfes
I may be wrong but I think a rasher is actually the whole hunk of bacon, like the whole slab you get in the package before you peel off each slice. I believe a rasher refers to a slab of bacon before it is even sliced. Anyone know for sure? It is definitely British in origin.
@Lin Kaatz Chary
Back in the day you ordered a "rasher" of bacon Zeke usually three slices, to accompany your eggs and buttered toast. That was before the switch to chia-seed-and-acai-and-spirulina-and-hemp-milk smoothies to start the day right.
and Elke
I BLAME MYSELF that I found this puzzle not EASY, because
too many unknowns which should be knowns ( note to self- read "Naked Lunch" and wonder whether it's a good thing that ICE UP is far down in the grid ).
Noticed that today we have a real SUN- so no FAKE TAN necessary.
Did know that a "tar" is a SEAMAN right above MAST---.
Laughing at a picture of seeing TOErings exchanged at a wedding. Somebody DREAMED that up, I'm sure.
Good night.
1
LOL at the A F comment, Deb. Didn't see that one coming.
9
I guessed wrong on the 5D/36A intersection as I’d not heard of either.
@Jim
I didn't know 5D either, but there are eight proper nouns (some in clues) crossing it. My scoring system is pretty lenient when that happens. I hate naticks.
@Kiki Rijkstra - I suspect you are using "proper nouns" when you mean "common nouns" or "regular words" - there are eight common nouns (non-names) crossing 5D, along with four proper nouns (names).
For some reason my trouble crossing was Padmi/Mister Brewers!
2
I had the exact same problem at that crossing. Because of that, I missed the solve by one letter. Phooey.
More help is available for Friday puzzles in the blog than any other days because of its themelessness; Now I get it.
1
I had 11D AUTOWALKER instead of AUTOWORKER thinking it was some sort of gym thing. I always have to rely on the crosses to get actors and the like, and my Spanish isn't what it was 65 years ago. Apart from that, an easy-ish ride.
I'm ashamed to admit that I did not see the Burrows error.
Otherwise I would claim a hindrance and request a let for 11D.
1
I got MASTER BREWER, I BLAME MYSELF, and APPALACHIA pretty fast, but was nearly done in by the teensy little fill of "Ring bearer." I guess people put rings on their toes, eh? Okaaaay.
3
@Millie in some countries (eg. india, 1/5-1/4 the world’s population) it’s a common thing. just because you personally aren’t aware of it doesn’t make it invalid
@a.
The fact that I was not aware of it was kind of the point of my comment. Never said it was invalid, just that it was news to me.
40A I had SWINE for a little bit. I still think it's a good Friday-ish answer for "Sty occupants" since the singular and plural are the same. (At least in the US? Oxford English Dict. gives "swines" as plural, which I've never heard.)
1
@Adina
You make a good point, but I think SLOBS is funnier and therefore superior :)
4
@Adina
The OED lists SWINES as being a nonstandard plural, other than in the derogatory sense of men with some of the less savoury characteristics of pigs.
It may be worth pointing out the parallel between
Sow + Sow = Swine
and
Cow + Cow = Kine
Both kine (alternate for "cattle" or "cows") and swine (alternate for "pigs") can be collective singular or plural. An inheritance from an earlier, more Germanic, phase of the English tongue.
Language often shows this kind of conservation of early forms when dealing with rural realities.
5
17A clue is WRONG - it’s William S. BURROUGHS, not “Burrows.” Come on.
28
@PCZ
You are correct as was our puzzle submission. I went back and checked to make sure.
3
@Lou Does this mean that the final step in the editing process involves Will shouting across the office, "Hey Siri, 17 across, Seminal William S. Burroughs novel, 1959"? :-)
Typos notwithstanding, this was an *awesome*U crossword, and went along way to expunge my encounter with VERANDAED. Thank you (and Erik) so much for making it!
6
@Michael Rogers
Well, I feel bad because I looked at a preview and missed it. Mostly just quickly scanning the clues to see how many were changed. Next time I will take longer to review in detail. Sorry about that.
Glad you enjoyed the puzzle anyway. Thanks for your kind words.
6
Well, whatever else happens this week, that puzzle *has* to be the highlight :-)
10
Though the connection is a bit tenuous, here is a clip from the UK panel shoe QI in which guest panelists Victoria Coren Mitchell describes what she had recently DREAMED, involving the March Hare and the Aztecs:
https://youtu.be/Mx5x549Vb2E
1
This was almost completely blank the first two times I went around it. Nothing fell onto place. Then a chunk here and there. Suddenly I Blame Myself materialized out of somewhere and next thing I knew I was done. I had just about decided to start googling, but a couple of clues slid horizontally in my brain and the answers came into focus. Whadayaknow.... every once in a while even a blind squirrel finds a nut.
7
William S Burrows never wrote anything... Burroughs, however
22
@Ezekiel
You are correct as was our puzzle submission.
6
@Lou
But I BLAME MYSELF as I did see a preview and didn’t catch it. Just quickly scanned it to check for clues that were changed. My apologies.
4
@Lou
Speaking on behalf of Wordplayers everywhere (we had an impromptu meeting last night), none of us blames you. Some of the more self-EFFACing among us actually blame themselves.
But I think the fault clearly resides with one person and one person only: Mr. Burroughs, who after all had much to account for beyond the spelling of his name.
This was a wonderful themeless puzzle. You and Erik make a DREAM team. Looking forward to your next solo or collaboration.
13
tut tut--surely it's William S. BURROUGHS?
25
@jjwoodacton
You are correct as was our original submission. But I BLAME MYSELF as I saw a preview and missed it. Just quickly scanned it for clue changes, My apologies.
5
Even though I am a resident of Pittsburgh, I needed many crosses before I could fill in 54A.
8
@Sue Koehler I assumed Pittsburgh had a larger population than the @300,000 Deb mentioned, but I looked it up and that's correct. It's the greater Pittsburgh area that has over two million.
Does Pittsburgh have boroughs?
3
@Wags
The distinctive feature of Pittsburgh is the array of 120+ municipalities that surround the city proper and form the statistical metropolitan area.
Some of them include the term Borough in their names, but they are truly independent.
I believe that the political subdivisions within the city limits are the Wards, but I'm not sure of that. People generally refer to neighborhood names, (Southside, Oakland, East Liberty, Squirrel Hill, . . .), rather than precise boundaries. Realtors may have a different opinion.
2
@Al in Pittsburgh
I was actually making the piccolo scherzo given tonight's controversy, but I found your comment interesting. Pittsburgh's a great town, I have family there.
2
Parts of this solved fast; parts took longer. I got NAKED LUNCH and MASTER BREWER almost immediately and got overconfident. WE'RE ALL SET and I BLAME MYSELF are the kind of answers I don't like because they're more amorphous and feel like they could turn into a variety of things. I figured AMO had to be somewhere in the Spanish words of affection, but no! At least I eventually remembered an old Jimmy Buffett song ("Yo quiero a bailar en Mexico" in Desperation Samba) and got it. So many little interesting nuggets of facts that helped this solve--the T REX, KATANAS, Muay THAI, etc. But I'm not sure I understand what the two different senses of P R are?
1
@Liz B, a press release is a PR (public relations) item, and it also has the initials P.R.
1
Circled around this puzzle, taking bites out of the corners and eating my way toward its middle, slowly, with some hiccups along the way, until it came down to the SLO_S/EQUA_LY crossing and what should have been obvious wasn’t. So, after wondering how the missing letter couldn’t be L, I did a one-letter alphabet run: B, for SLOBS/EQUABLY. Of course!
This was a self-EFFACing puzzle (“I BLAME MYSELF”) eating LUNCH NAKED while sharpening its swords (SABERs and KATANAS) while shouting “I like you.” Makes for a bad blind date but a fun puzzle.
17
@Puzzlemucker Putting in SWINE/RUINE early on did not help the middle, but I also ended at the same square: SLO_S/EQUA_LY.
Course Obstacle = (sand) TRAP was another early mistake.
I enjoyed this one - they're either getting easier or old dogs can learn new tricks.
3
Felt like a struggle, but still a touch under my average so I must be improving.
1
Woof. This took a bit of work. Time to rest. See you a.m.
6