Duck lookalike / FRI 7-8-16 / Oz salutation / Ilmenite is chief one / Discoverer of New Zealand / 1995 Emmy winner Sofer / European city whose name means eat

Friday, July 8, 2016

Constructor: Barry C. Silk

Relative difficulty: Easy-Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Kirmans (7D: Kirmans, e.g.) —
Kerman carpets (sometimes "Kirman") are one of the traditional classifications of Persian carpets. They are named after Kerman, which is both a city and a province located in south central Iran, though, as with other such designations the term describes a type which may have been manufactured somewhere else. Kerman has been a major center for the production of high quality carpets since at least the 15th century. In the 18th century, some authors considered the carpets from the province of Kerman, especially at Siftan, to be the finest of all Persian carpets, partly because of the high quality of the wool from the region, known as Carmania wool. (wikipedia)
• • •


Weirdly insulted by the inclusion of "on the calendar" in the clues at 1A: Preceder of 64-Across (BLACK FRIDAY) and 64A: Follower of 1-Across on the calendar (CYBER MONDAY). It's a Friday, no need to condescend with the additional information. My first impulse would've been a date anyway (I was thinking CHRISTMAS EVE / NEW YEAR'S DAY ... those didn't pan out). The puzzle was reasonably enjoyable overall, though the cross-references were a little out of control—two sets of cross-referenced pairs, and then two more clues that require you to look elsewhere in the grid for the information. Nuisance cluing. You can have one or two cross-references, but six? Come on. Also, duplicate clues? Not that exciting, and again, today we get an overdose (2xWord of Warcraft figure, 2xCivil War battle site). Overall, the grid was pretty smooth, if overly reliant on overly familiar stuff. Nothing about the grid really stands out, but it was pleasant to solve.


The only thing that was interesting from a personal solving standpoint was that in both the north and the south I could not parse one of the Acrosses until I got to its very last square, and the squares in question are perfectly symmetrical. I had TITANI_MORE ... then had an ultra-brief moment of "who's TITANIA MORE?" and then I figured it out. (This is where knowing what Kirmans are would've come in handy (7D)). Then on the other side of the grid, right at the end of the solve, I completely missed the twist on the meaning of "port" (59A: Port authority?) took "Port authority" literally, and wondered what kind of Native American word I was looking at that started WINE.. (which I was mentally pronouncing "win-uh"). So the "S" in what turned out to be STEWARD was my last letter in the grid. I didn't know a SAWYER was a lumber mill employee. Without that "Y" there I was thinking "Are there two ... "W"s ... in SAWWER? One who saws is a SAWWER?" I don't know any Sawyers except Tom and Diane. Turns out a sawyer *is* actually "one who saws," though not a "sawer" (or "sawwer," probably).


Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

P.S. woke up to find my wife had insomniacally solved the puzzle in the middle of the night. She, a kiwi, is none too happy about the TASMAN clue (20A: Discoverer of New Zealand). I'll let the first line of "The History of New Zealand" wikipedia page tell you why: "The history of New Zealand dates back at least 700 years to when it was discovered and settled by Polynesians, who developed a distinct Māori culture centred on kinship links and land." I hate it when facts are so PC! What's happening to this country!?

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

78 comments:

jae 12:04 AM  

Easy-medium for me too. Did not know RENA or the TITANIUM ORE clue but the rest was pretty straight forward. TAKES a HIKE before LEAVE was my only major erasure.

Nice bookends, a smattering of zip, reasonable fill...liked it but not much of a wow factor.

Anonymous 1:05 AM  

Gee, Rex. It's simple:

Christmas in July!

Good puzzle!

Marty Van B 1:05 AM  

This may have been my fastest Friday solve to date. Kicked it off with 1 Down and every consecutive answer fell from there. Late week puzzles usually take two to three beachheads around the grid that eventually fill in to meet each other. The only hold ups for me were the spelling of DuRAG and ANTIETuM but those were pretty quickly corrected. Thought this was fun but over far too fast.

Larry Gilstrap 2:05 AM  

I am in the tedious process of moving from syndi lurker to real time commenter. So, I am about half way through the five weeks of doing, for example, 7-8 at night and 6-3 the next morning. It was so much calmer back there. Anyway, if I go lo-pro I will post as Dr. Bunger, because I love Moby Dick. I am a birder, so when I threw in GoosE I flinched and was so happy to see a GREBE pop up to the surface. Currently, baseball has a plethora of very talented young ballplayers, both AT BAT and on the mound. My young wife was for many years a STEWARDess. I call her my "little Cabin Hostess," which she seems to enjoy in small doses. HARD looks good anytime he raises his ugly head.

manitou 4:12 AM  

"Discoverer of New Zealand" is objectionable, especially In light of various recent insensitivities in the puzzle. More correctly, Tasman was the first known European to arrive there (and he was unwelcome by the Māori who "discovered" the place before him).

I don't know if DO RAG is offensive to anyone... but it seems that DOS at 63-Across is the same word.

Otherwise, a fun, snazzy puzzle.

Dolgo 5:07 AM  

A great challenge with a lot of very clever cluing. Just what I like to see in Fridays!

Loren Muse Smith 6:05 AM  

This wasn't easy-medium for me at all. In fact, I came very close to throwing in the towel because of a mess I had in the southeast with "creed" firmly in place and with whichever misspelled version of ANTIETAM I had. (Antidiem, Antiedem, Antiedam first) And my go-to fill-in-the-blank spot took forever to see. GEEZ – WE'RE live was tough.

The clue for SUBLET 31A was terrific. "Release?" It's fun to take a second look at some re-initial words and repurpose them…

restrain – try one more time to move the &^%$ behemoth of a couch away from the wall to access the &^%$ modem plug while the tech guy waits patiently on the phone in the Philippines.
repose – go adjust that ridiculous hat on your dog and shift him to the right for a better picture
resign – what I had to do once, over and over, when trying to show off my ASL skills to someone
resting – what a honeybee cannot do

The other big goof that mucked things up 'til the end was 50A "pair" for PALS. I was able to correct "gong" for BUZZ pretty early.

I was surprised that they chose to clue DOS as the DO in DO RAGS and not a computer or Spanish number clue.

Hey, @Tita – my daughter et al attended a port tasting in Lisbon. Up until then, I had never realized that it's the "port" in Portugal. Cool.

So, Barry – it was a treat see BED AND BREAKFAST laid out in its full glory. Too bad R AND B spelled out is just a fourteen. Anyway, this puzzle was a hard-won victory, but I'll take it.

Trombone Tom 7:00 AM  

As usual I enjoyed a Barry Silk puzzle very much (think of "smooth as . . ."). It was easier than most of his and on the easy side for a Friday.

Agree with OFL that the inclusion of "on the calendar" took away a little snap. I am not familiar with RENA SOFER so learned something there. Impressed by the triple-11 stacks and the BED AND BREAKFAST in the middle which was not clear to me until nearly complete.

I really liked the misleading clues for WINE STEWARD and GDAY. And as one who got a degree in metallurgy I liked seeing TITANIUM ORE.

You doesn't see the vocational name of SAWYER much these days unless, of course, you happen to work in a lumber mill.

Glimmerglass 7:34 AM  

I had CR--- for 49D and thought, "Well, it can't be creed or credo. That's a belief, not a philosophy." Then the long crosses proved me wrong. I guess my rejection of CREDO as a philosophy reflects my secularism. Good puzzle, Mr. Silk. Nice mix of different fields of knowledge. I'd call it medium difficulty, but not easy.

kitshef 8:31 AM  

Ya oughtn't have DOS and DORAG in the same puzzle, sez I.

Other than that, a very impressive puzzle. The longs range from OK (TAKES LEAVE, WAITING AREA) to beautiful (ANDREA DORIA, CYBERMONDAY). Great clue for WINE STEWARD.

smokING AREA slowed me down a bit - are elK stealthy? or yAKs?

Slapped mAoris right in there for 20A (still not liking the terminal 's'). I'm OK with TASMAN as 'discoverer' in the same sense that once upon a time I discovered this blog - that just means I found it, not that I was the first to find it.

Charles Flaster 8:38 AM  

Very easy but very smooth and enjoyable.Favorite cluing was for FINAGLED and AT BAT.
CROSSWORDease--SEGO and YSER.
Always enjoy B C S puzzles. Keep 'em common'.

kitshef 8:51 AM  

React – Matt Damon is back as Jason Bourne
Really – befriend anew
Represent – how you get rid of that tacky serving bowl that was NOT on the registry

Hartley70 9:08 AM  

This was a very quick smooth solve and I'm always happy to see some stacks in the grid. My last letter to go in was the T in TAB. I'm not sure how a TAB justifies anything. I think of a TAB as attached to a file folder. Now RENA was a piece of cake. Go figure!

Otherwise Barry Silk and I were in sync. I had BLACKFRIDAY as my first entry and took off from there. His puzzles are always dependably first class, and unlike my dressy outfit this weekend, you never look at the TAB expecting SILK, only to discover that you're dealing with polyester.

Steve M 9:24 AM  

Creed credo hang up caused delay but good Friday puzzle

jberg 9:42 AM  

Only 168 shopping days until Christmas! (Except I'm leaving out Thanksgiving, and probably you can shop then too, if you really want to.) I'm finding myself annoyed by the untimeliness, but then I'm even more annoyed by the whole concept of 'black Friday,' 'cyber Monday,' etc., and by the whole idea that it's our duty to buy stuff in order to keep the economy going.

And where are all these TRANSEPTS coming from? Yesterday a clue, today an answer. Why not just fill in the letters for us in advance? Come on, give us a few days to forget it before using it again.

The paper version of the puzzle uses a sans serif font in which Ilmenite looks just like Limenite. It took me a few moments to realize that it was capitalized. I still had no idea, but it had to be an ORE of some kind, and TIT was enough to get it from the crosses. 17A was harder -- I had WAITING room and forgot to check the crosses at 7,8, and 9 down, leaving myself wondering what an ARoN__ was. Finally it all fell into place.

On the other hand, I had the good fortune to grow up in Sturgeon Bay, where the formally independent section of the city on the west side of the bay was known as SAWYER, because there had once been a lumber mill there. So that one was easy for me. I think they put the Y in because it's hard to say saw-er as one word.

@Loren, you can add 43D, RE-SIN-Y, sort of like committing adultery for the second time.

As Rex and others said, TASMAN didn't discover New Zealand, just as Columbus didn't discover America. The Kiwis, unlike us, have recognized that from early on, with the Treaty of Waitangi.

As for DOS and DO-RAG, my guess is that the puzzle staff didn't understand why the latter is called what it is.

Given all that, it was an enjoyable, challenging puzzle.

Teedmn 9:44 AM  

Fun Friday, though I did wrinkle my nose at the clue for TASMAN.

My first entry was "end" at 12A but KHZ led to BUZZ led to the old typewriter TAB key function.

I had the EPT of 34A which made me think it would end in dEPTh. With h_ _O at 36D would there be a "halO" for the LDS? I didn't really think so :-).

44A let me consider the difference between POTs and pans. Is it just a matter of dEPTh?

Anonymous 9:52 AM  

I thought it was really easy. Just thought you all should know that.

Z 9:53 AM  

Did RENA Sofer's parents name her just to make her useful in crosswords? Inquiring minds want to know. Spent a long time wondering if TETRe could possibly be correct.

Air Traffic Controllers work in RADio towers, right? Did it take me long to fix that? Probably no longer than two Monday puzzles.

Back when home hi-speed internet access was relatively rare people would do lots of On-Line shopping at work on the Monday after Thanksgiving. Is that still a thing?

I've been wearing "DO-RAGs" to play ultimate for 30+ years. Of course, I call it a bandana. I still have and use a couple I bought in the 80's at an Army Surplus store, both with some weird, probably inappropriate, Japanese writing and symbols on them. Hairstyles having changed, I don't think they are much of a thing, anymore. Even when they were, I didn't especially associate them with Rappers. No more than I associate my bandana with Rambo. Curiosity about the etymology of the term did lead me here. I wonder how many rappers buy their "motorcycle doo rags" at The Bald Head Store on CYBER MONDAY.

I'm not a Kiwi and I had the same thought as Rex's spouse. My second thought was to wonder how many people would take umbrage when it was pointed out that someone else "discovered" New Zealand before Europeans. I put the over/under at 5.

Anyone else feel the testosterone in this puzzle? Three battle sites, two WoW clues, Akbar the Great and his narcissistic mausoleum, Abel TASMAN, ANDREA DORIA (named after an admiral). Maybe it's just me, but this one seems a little too blood-soaked.

Z 9:59 AM  

@kitshef - ...that just means I found it, not that I was the first to find it. I'd be fine with this meaning, but do you really think that is what is meant and understood most of the time? "Discover" always has some sort of implied "first" that is mostly generalized to my ear.

G.Harris 10:04 AM  

I was going great guns until I wrote resins and WAA which prevented a hard won triumph and turned today into a Black Friday.

AliasZ 10:05 AM  


Lively and fair review, @Rex. Thank you. I especially liked your New Zealand comment.

I agree with the annoying cross reference pairs, only of which (HARD WON) being right next to each other visible on the screen at the same time.

I have no problem with a single theme pair sneaking into a themeless on occasion, just as long as it doesn't become a habit. Today we have the two calendar events plus two Civil War battles.

Getting the ___ORE part from ilmenite was easy, because names if ores end in -ite. The TITANUM part took a few crosses. I liked WINE STEWARD, TRANSEPTS, ANDREA DORIA, RADAR BLIPS and FINAGLED.

I didn't like BED AND BREAKFAST that much, it seemed to echo RANDB. DO RAG and DOS is also an echoing pair, in this case I would've preferred a Spanish clue for the latter. B-TWO is never seen in the wild. It is always B₂ [subscript 2].

Otherwise it was an enjoyable, Silk-y smooth, clean puzzle. Thank you Barry.

Let's close the work week with the CREDO movement from the CREDO Mass, K.257 by Mozart.

TGIF!

GILL I. 10:13 AM  

Yes...nuisance cluing gets me in a bad puzzle mood. Still, I kept plodding along and suddenly things began to open up.
I only know two Civil War battle sites and both were in there. Scratch head or toss a coin to see which one goes in first. Ah...ANTIETAM was first because the only thing I had in that section was POT. MANASSAS had to be the other. Those two answers opened up all kinds of things and I started to get the happy feet syndrome.
Hardest for me was TITANIUMORE but it all came together.
WAITING AREA was just great. Last night, we were watching the last season of "Damages" and Glenn Close and GDAY actress Rose Byrne are waiting for a plane. Glenn is doing her stare down, I dare you bit and Rose is matching her eye to eye and wit to wit. They are alone in the WAITING AREA and some of the best dialogue happens right there.
I finished the puzzle sans errors and only used Google to verify some answers. They were correct. Yay me!

Unknown 10:14 AM  

GDAY, but GEEZE! My entries of FINessED* / MiNASSiS / denSER / IMAn / BAsER / ANTeEdUm sure didn't help solving this one! Spell much? However, a few cheats got me going to finish it.
* I did think FINAGLED at first (sigh)

Two World or Warcraft characters? I don't even know if it's a movie, TV show, book, board game, video game, or a description of our current American election process.

I always like Madison Square Garden. It's not on Madison Ave; it's not square; it's not a garden. However, I find the latter's origins mean enclosure and it IS currently defined as a hall for public entertainment, thus taking the 1/3 of the fun out of my parsing. Though for most folks that definition is probably not the first one to come to mind, so there's that.

I'm currently playing for The Music Man in a theater called Watts Hall. Had it been named Watts Garden I'm sure most folks would be expecting to find it populated with plants. Just sayin' :>)

Science nit-pick --

18a Radio frequency abbr. - A popular misconception.

Unit Symbols, also called Units of Measure (e.g. inch, millimeter, Hertz, gram, volt, ohm, etc.) are mathematical expressions. They are not ordinary words. In the International System of Units (SI), units of measure, such as Hertz, do not have abbreviations. They have symbols.

Thus "Hz" is the symbol for Hertz, the unit of measure for frequency. It is not an abbreviation of Hertz. It is mathematical expression = one divided by time in seconds (symbol = s). The "k" prefix is also a symbol, not an abbreviation, for "kilo" = multiply the unit of measure by 1,000 and that is also a mathematical expression.

So this was a technically incorrect clue on two counts. Just because they (k and Hz) look like abbreviations doesn't mean they are.

That said and however cavalier vis–à–vis science, it was a fair enough clue to get the answer.

BOLO is apparently more common now. As one wag put it: "I'm thinking that term [APB] got left behind with Hunter or Starsky and Hutch."

REESE, the inventor of my favorite food group - his peanut butter cups.

Like the crossing of the clue 43d hashish with the juxtaposed TERSER POT.

Cheers

skua76 10:15 AM  

GEEZ! What a way to find out I'd been spelling ANTIEnAM incorrectly all of my life. Very pleasant puzzle, thanks Barry!

Tim Pierce 10:32 AM  

"DORAG."

Sigh.

Chaos344 10:56 AM  

SILK-Y smooth but alas, over too fast. Like Rex, I had trouble parsing 15A as well. A mental vowel run gave me the U and MHP. Wanted OENOLOGIST for 59A, but one letter too short. I also dislike more than one pair of cross-referenced clues, but Barry gets a pass on that because, well, he's Barry!

Not much AMMO for the PC/SJW crowd today. We do have HAG, but no mention of the word women or female in the cluing. There is already a bit of whining about the cluing of 20A. Can't allow an "old white man" to take credit as clued, but I'm in @kitshef's camp on that one.

@LMS: Agree that it can be difficult to remember the correct spelling of ANTIETAM, especially since it isn't spelled like it is pronounced. The correct pronunciation is An-TEE-Tum, with the emphasis on the shirt. GONG was also my first choice.

Ellen S 11:02 AM  

I love it that we're able to complain about science stuff, despite Will's continued provocations.

cwf 11:02 AM  

Someone should check on @George Barany. Is he ok?

JD 11:07 AM  

Nothing. Signs away and creed were fatal missteps.Like @Loren couldn't remember how to spell antit(etc.) Probably won't next time either. Object to terser and btwo, but that may be just me and the bitter taste of failure (not really that bad but typing it made me laugh).

xyz 11:18 AM  

Non-PC is now objectionable. Really?

Was an easy Friday. -ite is ORE, one just need parse the base element.

STRIP - how risqué! Especially so close to Utah on the grid.

Anonymous 11:20 AM  

Please explain liberty = MSG. Thanks.

Hartley70 11:39 AM  

@ChuckMacGregor, wish I was there to hear you play and say hello. My dearest friends live in Cushing.

RooMonster 11:52 AM  

Hey All !
Tough for me, got uninterested quickly. Did online, Check and Reveal aplenty. Haven't read any comments yet, gonna do that now.

That's it...

TERSER
RooMonster
DarrinV

Nancy 12:04 PM  

I saw BLACK FRIDAY immediately off the BLA-, but, when you're not a shopper, 64A was not a gimme. I knew that some sort of additional shopping bargain day was offered online, but what was it called, exactly? And which day was it on? Fortunately, I got MONDAY off the M in ANTIETAM, a gimme.

I was looking for something like RADAR towers, so I liked the misdirection of RADAR BLIPS at 27D. Liked the clue for SUBLET. But, I'm sorry: "More compact" does not equal TERSER. "Compact" implies space. Physical space. I think the clue is really off.

What, pray tell, are OCBS? (29D)

And IMP is a World of Warfare figure? (61A). Really? I know nothing about the game World of Warfare, but I know more than I wish I did about real-life warfare. Wouldn't it be great if wars could be fought by IMPS? Wars would be a lot less bloody, a lot less vicious, a lot less ugly, a lot less deadly. They might even be, I don't know, mischievous?

I liked the puzzle, but found it easier than most Fridays.

Nancy 12:09 PM  

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I really like the clue for WINE STEWARD.

old timer 12:14 PM  

Lots of guile and misdirection in this Barry Silk gem. Now if I had known that ribovlavin was BTWO I would have raced through the puzzle. But all I knew was B-something. Came a cropper wanting ANTIETAM where MANASSAS is. Got my foothold with GDAY, ARIA, HAG, HARD etc. And had TURKS at once -- they ruled Bulgaria for centuries and left settlements in many parts of the Balkans.

I had "Iran" before AGRA, but the latter gave me GREBE, though I had thought of putting "decoy" there. And had RADAR "bases" at first. BLIPS finished the puzzle for me.

I don't understand OFL'S concept that any Friday will do. BLACKFRIDAY is of course the day after Thanksgiving, and after a while, the good folks at Amazon, etc., managed to promote the competing CYBERMONDAY. Which, it turns out, really is a major day for online Xmas shopping.

TASMAN certainly was *a* discoverer of New Zealand. Everyone knows he and his crew cannot have been the first. But than no one knows the name of the first Maori discoverer, any more than anyone knows the name of the first ARAWAK discoverer. Gotta say, the Brits were in this case a lot less deadly for the Maoris than Columbus was for the natives of Hispaniola, etc.

DORAG is not disrespectful at all. A scarf, called a "rag" used to be a standard hair covering in the South and elsewhere. It's what some black folk like to wear on their head, except on Sundays, when the church ladies wear the most amazing hats. Go to any of the nicer places in Oakland or Berkeley, the kind that have plenty of tables for large parties, you'll see. I think I've seen rappers with DORAGs, but don't watch much TV other than sports.

Dorothy Biggs 12:23 PM  

I'm guessing TASMANia was discovered by Mr. TASMAN as well?

I like how countries are "discovered." Especially countries that already have people living there. Nothing like being Euro-centric. Nothing exists, evidently, until we say so...

This was very close to my average time...so I'm going to call it "challenging." I actually did most of this puzzle in the early morning hours, went away from it for a while and finished it. When I left, I had the entire Texas area blank. I had -INESTEWARD but at 47D I had RANDr (Rock and Roll), so CYBERMONDAY was completely obscured. When I came back to puzzle a couple of hours later, I almost immediately saw that the "Port" in "Port Authority" was of the sweet Portuguese wine variety, that opened up the WAC and in turn CYBERMONDAY became clear. I had BLACKFRIDAY early on, but I was thinking about 1929's Black Friday...and so I was thinking that following Monday might have had a name too. "horoRMONDAY?" What a difference getting away from the puzzle for a couple of hours makes.

I also wondered about SAWYER. So if a "sawyer" is one who saws, does that mean a "lawyer" is one who laws?

Otherwise, no groans. I'm beginning to see a pattern...I groan most often doing puzzles that contain puns. Just sayin'.

Masked and Anonymous 12:26 PM  

Ilmenite! This is the perfect example of me not knowin anything, includin what the first two letters of the day-um clue were. But an LL- start seemed unlikely, and II- or LI- woulda surely had a dot on the second letter, so … ok … but still had no earthly metally idea what the stuff was. Is it RESINY?

Well-crafted and pleasingly feisty FriPuz. Killer clues. Some valuable nanoseconds blipped away in the GREBE/TRANSEPTS/Civil War site-that-I-couldn't-spell area.

Thanx, Mr. Silk.

Masked & Anonymo3Us



resiny, terser dessert…
**gruntz**

Masked and Anonymous 12:38 PM  

p.s.
@muse - XXX-cellent idea for a runtpuz theme. REPOSE was my fave: visualizing rat-poison dog gettin to wear funny hats.
Another nice (grid-spanner!) one: REAPING = {Like a nominee trying one more time to act presidential, despite wearing an orange rat's-nest and having no clue}.

M&Also

Carola 1:28 PM  

I never would have expected to find a Friday Barry Silk puzzle easy, but this one went very quickly, with nary a snag. Okay, one: CREed, but it didn't last long. Oh yeah, also FINessED.

G'DAY, ORT! That being one of the words my dad taught me as essential to crossword solving many years ago. TETRA I had to learn on my own. I liked RESINY x WINE, the parallel Civil War sites, with YSER as a neighbor.

Unknown 1:41 PM  

Finished the puzzle, but I still don't understand how MSG is the correct answer for Liberty's home for short?

kitshef 2:10 PM  

@Z - if crossword puzzle clues always indicated what is meant and understood most of the time, where would be the challenge? The fact that most people thought "initial discoverer" means the misdirect worked, like cluing "pee" as 'Polish capital'.

Hungry Mother 2:30 PM  

Easy Friday for me except that I had to rescan the grid to find that I had missed the U in TITANIUM.

beatrice 2:36 PM  
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tom 2:43 PM  

Looked like this one was going to be HARD WON when I perused all the clues and the only easy entry I got was ESSEN. Gott sei Dank kann ich Deutsch sprechen. Remembered the neon TETRAS in my friend's aquarium. GO BEFORE gave me the breakthrough letters for BEDANDBREAKFAST, and I was off to the races.

Liked BARER about as much as I liked (not) yesterday's DIRER. More DIRE, more BARE.

Had FRIDAY and MONDAY written in, but couldn't figure out what came before until the C in CAT. I live close to Los GATOS, CA, and drive by the two tall stone CAT sculptures a couple of times a week.

Last entry was the G in 57d. Kept thinking about Dorothy, Toto, Tin Man, et.al.

Not so HARD after all. I WON.

Photomatte 2:52 PM  

My two takes from today's puzzle (7-8-16): first, a 'sawyer' is a person who cuts trees down in the forest, not a lumber mill employee. Second, and Rex already touched on this, New Zealand was not 'discovered' by Abel Tasman. A more interesting fact is this: the Polynesians who were the first to set foot on the island(s) were the first mammals to do so.

Chuck Chagrin 2:57 PM  

Knew immediately that 20 across was Tasman and called for a haka to summon up the proper Maori spirit. Fie on that construction.

OISK 2:59 PM  

Loved this smooth Friday. In fact, this has been a very pleasant week for me. Was delighted to see a G and S clue yesterday, too. (I've at length achieved a capture....this is Tessa, rapture, rapture!) The Tasman clue would probably have been better had it been something like "European often credited with "discovering" New Zealand." It didn't bother me at all, but better to be more accurate.

Titanium ore was a gimmee for a chemist, since I knew "B two" , and "Knits" - no other element would fit. (there are actually several 8 letter metallic elements beginning with the letter T ) Liked the two civil war references, the "World of Warcraft" not so much. Delighted that no one saw fit to complain about "Hag." Barry Silk found a "safe" way to clue it...

JD 3:17 PM  

P.S., Nicely done Rex.

Lurker Librarian 3:55 PM  

The World of Warcraft clues are both examples of the NYTX trying to shoehorn in a little recent pop culture *without any actual knowledge of the pop culture in question*.

IMP is barely acceptable as the occasional warlock minion, in the games though I don't remember seeing any in the movie. As for HAG, I have been playing that game on and off for ELEVEN years and couldn't think of a *single one*. I looked it up and found only a couple of extremely obscure characters one might encounter in passing. This is the equivalent of cluing PARKING LOT ATTENDANT as "Baseball figure." You might find one at a game, but not as part of the main attraction, so to speak.

That said, I guess we should all be grateful that HAG wasn't clued as "Older woman, impolitely."

beatrice 4:10 PM  


@AliasZ - thank you for the Mozart, a welcome composer and piece, today as always...

@Anonymous at 9:52 - cute!

Rex and his Kiwi wife saved several of us from quoting Wikipedia today - a pretty egregious gaffe from the reliably tone-deaf Gray Lady. Really inexcusable at this point.

I didn't know that Kiwi Dame Kiri Ke Kanawa - who was of 'both Maori and European anscestry' - was adopted, and has never reconciled with her birth family. One of countless sequelae of empire; yet it produced her, and the world as we know it, so much wondrousness as well. So many chickens coming home to roost now, in so many places.

Many years ago I saw and heard Dame Kiri in concert. I don't recall the first half at all, but the second half included a set of French art songs. Her voice seemed surprisely small for an opera diva, but it carried to the top tier of a medium sized auditorium, in a remarkably intimate, moving performance. I found some of her performance and recordings of 'melodies' on YouTube.

'Au pays où se fait la guerre' - 'To the country where war is waged' - a poem by Gautier set by Henri Duparc:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TUuDBP5wK4M

'Apres une reve' - 'After the dream', by Faure.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VD_2GOHVCjM



kitshef 4:34 PM  

@Teri Frazier et al. The New York Liberty play their home games in Madison Square Garden (MSG).

@Nancy - Oll Coints Bulletins, naturally.

Wm. C. 4:36 PM  



@Nancy12:04 -- The horizontals are LAS and TRANSEPTS, so the down in question is APBs (All Points Bulletins).

And to a couple others, the NY Liberty is a WNBA basketball team that plays in the Madison Square Garden (MSG).



Z 4:56 PM  

Even though it was answered before it was asked: The New York Liberty are a WNBA team that plays their home games at Madison Square Garden, which is oft abbreviated as MSG.

@kitshef - I'd really like to believe it was intended as a misdirect. That would make it a fine clue, IMO. Yet, I just don't see any reason based on the recent past to reach that conclusion.

@Photomatte - The definition over at Oxford does not help much, but the example sentences suggest that some SAWYERs work at lumber mills. My first guess was "planer," which would have been less debatable if it had been right.

Anonymous 5:30 PM  

@anonymous 11:20am:

MSG - Madison Square Garden
Liberty - WNBA team

G.Harris 5:32 PM  

Liberty is the WNBA basketball team that plays at Madison Square Garden (MSG)

Chaos344 6:09 PM  

Just too funny! I purposely waited until most of the eventual comments had likely been posted, before my final observations.

#1. It's very unusual that @Z and I will ever agree on anything with the exception of our love for the Detroit Tigers. We are diametrically opposed, both politically and ideologically. Having said that, I give Z a lot of credit for posting a link to DORAGS.

As someone who has been riding a Harley Davidson for over 50 years, I can attest to the fact that we use said head scarfs, and we do call them DORAGS. Hard core bikers,(those of us who might spend periods of 8 to 12 hours astride a motorcycle) don't like "Helmet Hair" any more than those who wear baseball caps like "Hat Hair."

I was positive that Rex and others would go totally bat s**t on DORAGS? Granted, it's a stretch, but what was Barry Silk insinuating here? The clever alliteration of Rapper/Wrapper as a clue not withstanding, is Barry suggesting that most "rappers" are black? That's racist! Eminem, The Beastie Boys, MGK, or Yelawolf among others, might disagree? I had absolutely no problem with the clue/answer, but it's ripe ground for the PC/SJW crowd!

Rex would have had a heart attack if 9D had been clued "Fro Cover" or something similar!

Have we thrown enough darts at Abel Tasman yet?

Michaell 7:23 PM  

I really wonder how the Tasman clue got into the puzzle. As lots of people have pointed out, it's just plain wrong.

Anonymous 7:41 PM  

woman's basketball team WNBA plays at Madison Square Garden.

Anonymous 7:56 PM  

New York Liberty WNBA team plays at Madison Square Garden.

Dr. Bunger 8:21 PM  

Revisiting the hot topic, TASMAN discovered New Zealand like I discovered, for example, tequila in college. Perhaps, because Discoverer is captitalized the clue reads like a title, but maybe he was called that in history. Glad to write it in anytime.

Alan 8:29 PM  

Looks like it's still an open question, so...

New York LIBERTY of the WNBA play their home games at MSG, Madison Square Garden.

notarysojack 8:50 PM  

For "Name that went down in history," all I could think of was MONICA LEWINSKY. Aren't I terrible?

Nettie 9:03 PM  

@Teri Frazier - The New York LIBERTY play at Madison Square Garden. They are a WNBA team.

I found this puzzle really hard! The northwest and entire south I filled in quickly, then stared and stared for a very long time until RADAR BLIPS popped into my head and it all came together.

Anonymous 10:13 PM  

For me, this was much easier than most Friday puzzles. I like to sweat a little on Friday in preparation for the full sweat on Saturday puzzles.

I also objected to the clue for Tasman. I kept trying to find a way to write in a variable spelling of Maori. It's like saying "if a tree fell in a forest and no one heard it fall, did it make a sound?" If a European went to a country where Indigenous people were living, did he "discover" it?

Information from a friend whose grandmother was an Indigenous woman in Tasmania, the British weren't so kind.

MSG is Madison Square Garden.

spacecraft 10:54 AM  

Funny, I thought it was monosodium glutamate. Or, Monsignior. Anyway, not a fan of that consonant cluster, nor of BTWO and RANDB, yet two (!) more examples of abbrs. mixed with written-out stuff. Ugh!

One more to GOBEFORE the praise: what about DORAG and DOS in the same grid? Both DOS mean the same thing! Is that not some kind of violation--or does BS1 have immunity also?

Started with ESSEN thanks to my German heritage, and REESE thanks to my birthplace, just 12 miles west of Hershey in Harrisburg. Got BEDANDBREAKFAST off just the FAS, and I was off and running. Having FINAGLED my way into the NW, I filled in CYBERMONSAY and the SE soon after. No, it was those tight little nooks in the NE and SW that had me going. How may a TAB "justify things?" Don't tell me we're using "justify" in the sense of "align." I've heard it used that way, but oh brother, what a monstrous misdirect! GEEZ! --And then there was DOS, which I "knew" couldn't be because of DORAG, yet I couldn't make anything else fit. Not a WoW player, I didn't know IMP or HAG. "Oz" salutation? Is "Oz" located in Australia? I don't think Dr. Oz is from there. The big stuff, no problem. The little WOEs tacked the "-medium" onto "easy." No grid containing RANDB can ever get better than a par, so par it is.

Those who didn't get to see Aly Raisman's farewell performance on floor exercise last night need to experience that. Brought a tear to MY eye, I can tell you. BTW, I didn't like her marks. Too low. She was perfect.

Burma Shave 11:16 AM  

FINAGLED SUBLET

He SIGNSOVER his check and TAKESLEAVE of his senses
hoping ANDREADORIA has kept TABs on her menses.
She’ll STRIP and get PAID,
go ATIT HARD to get laid,
and GOBEFORE BEDANBREAKFAST commences.

--- REESE SAWYER TASMAN

rondo 12:05 PM  

My old cast iron Dutch oven seems more like a Pan than a POT, so that’s what went in there first and that was the only w/o. The SE took some pondering before falling quickly. And I guess neither Leif Erikson nor Chris Columbus discovered North America. G’DAY TASMAN.

@Lurker librarian - the correct incorrect clue would be “ugly woman, impolitely”. There are lotsa good looking older women, he said politely.

Can’t believe OFL was unfamiliar with SAWYER. Gimme, and a yeah baby if clued Diane (see above comment). Of course REESE would’ve been Ms. Witherspoon in a CYBERMONDAY puz. As clued, RENA Sofer takes the yeah baby cake today.

The ampersandwich and the vitamin could BTWO of the more irritating answers today.

@spacey, you are correct re: that floor exercise. Aly was terrific.

Always love ORT. ‘Twas very popular back in the Maleska days. Enough from me. Gotta get back ATIT.

centralscrewtinizer 1:58 PM  

Did Nancy ever figure out she blew it?
Still don't get how tab may justify things.
Can't wait until some constructor does a puzzle where everything is cross-reference and consists of doubles which are all pc gaffes.
OFL will go down in history as more explosive than the Hindenburg.
Until then I will be resting while I wait for the bee to resting.

eastsacgirl 2:11 PM  

Stared at this puzzle WAAAY to long until the second cup of coffee kicked in and did have a finish. Nice and crunchy for a good Friday puzzle.

Hand up for Aly's performance last night! Really been enjoying the Olympics.

Diana,LIW 4:03 PM  

I, too, wanted Christmas and New Years Eve at first, then New Years Eve and New Years Day. Decided that had to be against the "rules."

I knew the TAB answer would have to do with margin justification, but was going for MGN or some such, and TAB showed up very late. (The TAB key can justify your left margin when you type.)

And I knew from the get go that the WINESTEWARD would be some kind of spirits taster. At least my mind is going in the right (mis)directions these days.

I've stayed at t BEDANDBREAKFAST for many years when going to the car shows in California (coming up in 2 days!), but it took me forever to see it blatantly staring me in the face. Thought WAITINGroom at first, tho I knew that had to be wrong. They exist in train and bus stations, but not airports. And got the "spots" clue for the air traffic folks. Gong before BUZZ for a moment. GEEZ.

I know Kirmans, but today that word didn't exist for me until the "duh" moment.

Toured the Hershey plant as a kid. Whole town smells like chocolate. Forgot about Mr. Reese.

Diana, Lady-in-Waiting for Crosswords

Sailor 4:10 PM  

In the days when tree fellers still used axes, the SAWYERs worked the two-man pit saws that turned logs into boards. Fellers have used saws for a very long time now, but even in these days of sawmill automation, the operator of the head saw is still called the head sawyer. The word is, as someone suggested, formed in the same way as "lawyer" with the Middle English "-yer" suffix replacing the French "-ier" (as in "clothier" for instance).

ANDREADORIA came to mind immediately for 62D, but I'll admit I smiled at @Larry's alternative, and very un-PC, suggestion. Take that, Abel TASMAN.

Sailor 4:13 PM  

ANDREADORIA was 62A, of course. Freudian slip. 8-)

rain forest 4:15 PM  

I think we can all agree that none of the "great" explorers from Europe discovered any land. People were already there. However, from the point of view of good ol' Abel et al, as far as they were concerned, they did "discover" a variety of lands, and general carnage, which still goes on today, ensued.

I like cross-referenced clues. I think the only people who dislike them are speed-solvers, and those who solve on a device. They aren't a problem for your paper and ink solver who is indifferent about their solving time.

For some reason, not only did this Canuck get ANTIETAM off the AN-, but I also knew how to spell it. Couldn't tell you where it is or how to pronounce it, though.

Thanks, @Chuck, for the mathematical lesson, but I still say that kHz is an abbreviation for kiloHertz.

@Spacey - OZ is short for Australia in some circles.

Liked this very smooth puzzle. I don't mind the letter/word/letter answers. It's what people say. They don't say "rhythm ampersand blues", do they?




leftcoastTAM 4:57 PM  

Good Barry Silk fare. Relatively easy in parts, crunchier in others.

N and S went first. Middle took longer. Middle mid-West even longer. There, the ATBAT/TERSER cross was a real puzzler.

Badly wanted dEnSER before TERSER, but that obviously conflicted with RADAR. Also thought ATBAd could be some kind of "single(s)" ad in a personals column.

Finally untangled it with a sigh, soothing my ego after getting whipped at eight-ball pool earlier today.

leftcoastTAM 5:26 PM  

@spacey, @rondo, @eastsacgirl: Couldn't agree more. Aly was excellent on the floor exercise. Would like to know the judges' explanations of the deductions.

Anonymous 1:25 AM  

I also stand with those who understand that in common parlance, "discover" does not mean you are the first person there. Yet, it is quite different from someone discovering "tequila" in college. For good or bad, these "discoverers" of various lands are famous in history for being great explorers and traveling across oceans or long distances to arrive in places new to them. Everyone knows the Maori were in New Zealand first. That doesn't mean we should take umbrage when a clue says that Tasman discovered New Zealand.
Cheers

Unknown 7:13 AM  

Black Friday started already on Amazon, they have great deals and free delivery!
Here is a link to the Black Friday deals
Black Friday

  © Free Blogger Templates Columnus by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP