Saturday, July 5, 2025
HomePuzzleThe "p" in Paddington Station? / FRI 7-4-25 / What comes earlier...

The “p” in Paddington Station? / FRI 7-4-25 / What comes earlier than B? / Gossip, informally / Rapper who gained his first Grammy with “King’s Illness” / Hefty herbivore / RIghtmost column on the periodic desk / Tree goop / Put a pilot again into motion? / Nickname for basketball’s Mike Krzyzewski


Constructor: Colin Adams

Relative issue: Simple 

THEME: none 

Phrase of the Day: CHIN (50D: Gossip, informally) —

intransitive verb

slang to speak idly (merriam-webster.com)

• • •

Received off on the unsuitable foot with this one, because it needed not one however two popular culture names from me proper off the bat, earlier than I ever acquired out of the NW. That is dangerous modifying. It is dangerous when a single part will get too (TOO!) dense with anyone form of correct noun. Since NAS cannot very nicely be modified, then ELLE needs to be. Scads of different methods to clue ELLE. SLEWs, even. To be hit with a 2014 track title and a 2020 album title throughout the first ten seconds of the clear up … disagreeable. I do know that ELLE King exists, and that is about all I learn about ELLE King. And I definitely had no concept NAS did something in 2020, not to mention something Grammy-winning. So earlier than I even acquired began, my feeling towards this one was “bah.” However no less than I knew NAS and knew that ELLE King was a musical title of observe, and that latter bit of data ultimately acquired me straight up there, however nonetheless—inhospitable opening. I am professional popular culture in puzzles, simply … unfold it out. Fortunately, the puzzle didn’t proceed on this irksome vogue. There are solely a handful of names in your complete remainder of the puzzle, which is (for probably the most half) stable and properly assorted when it comes to its body of reference. Some may say it is a bit of too sportsy (COACH Okay, SHOHEI OHTANI, BATTER’S BOX, that clue on SERVE (44D: Begin to rally, perhaps)), or a bit of too CORPORATE (shilling, unnecessarily, for UBER and ORAL-B). Rely me among the many latter group. However there have been sufficient good marquee solutions right here to maintain me comparatively pleased. The primary time the puzzle tilted my emotions from unfavorable to optimistic was with “THIS OLD THING?” a solution I might see materializing earlier than I ever appeared on the clue (such is the ability of quick crosses). Nice colloquial phrase. Pair it with the best participant within the historical past of Main League Baseball (sorry, Babe Ruth), and you have got two highly effective pillars to construct your grid round. This ended up being an pleasant expertise general, even when it ended considerably because it started, with a disappointing small nook, this time within the SE. The UBER advert + OXES (?) = no. Put these OXES in an UBER and get them out of my sight.

[TONI!]

Aside from the very starting, there weren’t many locations on this grid the place I wasn’t flying. Ceaselessly felt like I used to be fixing a Tuesday-level puzzle. By far the toughest half, the stickiest space, was the “GOD” a part of “GOD, YES,” ugh (42D: “Abso-freakin’-lutely!”). As with the “UH” in “UH, OK” (12D: “Tremendous, I suppose”), I had no concept what the puzzle was going to do with the primary half of the reply. Appeared fully arbitrary. I had “-O-, YES” and was form of alternating between “WOW, YES!” and “BOY, YES!” (kinda like “BOY, BYE”* however extra optimistic). Now, I might’ve wiggled my means out of this deadlock if I might solely remembered that the rightmost column on the periodic desk was GASES, however the one factor my mind might bear in mind was INERT … as a result of that is what these GASES are. Extra generally known as the Noble GASES now, they have been def referred to as “inert GASES” after I took chemistry in highschool (“traditionally,” wikipedia tells me—thanks for that, wikipedia). Remembered the INERT half however forgot the GASES half, that’s simply so usually me. So anyway, GOD/GASES was my hang-up. Did not assist that these solutions have been proper on high of MEDIA SHY, which was additionally robust for me to get from the clue (51A: Avoiding protection, in a means). However that was it for me, difficulty-wise. All the things else was slam-bang quick. 

Had a few bizarre moments the place it felt like this puzzle had been hanging out with me for the previous few days, because it was throwing me stuff I had simply been pondering or speaking about. I remarked the opposite day to my spouse, out of the blue (largely), that I assumed my favourite residing actress, and one that did not get almost sufficient credit score for her greatness as she ought to, was TONI Collette. And that was only one week after my finest pal requested me (throughout our lake trip) if I might ever seen Muriel’s Wedding ceremony, to which I replied as if she’d insulted me: “In fact I did. I believe I noticed it with you!” Sure, 1994, Abba, I am virtually sure we noticed it collectively throughout grad college after I put far more vitality into films and my associates than I did into my ostensible motive for being in grad college. Good occasions! Anyway, TONI has been freshly on my thoughts. And solely yesterday I used to be listening to Conan O’Brien’s latest interview with Martin Brief, through which they discuss a bunch about Brief’s being inducted into the “5 Timers Membership” on SNL (8D: Present with an illustrious “5-Timers Membership,” briefly) (a made-up “membership” for individuals who have hosted the present no less than 5 occasions).  And talking of watching films in grad college with my associates (as I used to be, simply … above [points with finger] proper there), final week on the lake we rewatched our most-watched (by far) film of the ’90s, Dazed & Confused, which opens with Aerosmith’s “Candy Emotion” enjoying over a slo-mo shot of a MUSCLE CAR (a GTO) cruising into the highschool car parking zone. So even when ELLE and NAS did nothing for me up entrance, the puzzle ultimately acquired round to issues that have been on my thoughts, and for that, I used to be grateful.

[I know I posted this opening scene very recently but it’s classic so I don’t care]

Bullet factors:

  • 16A: Hurly-burly (HOO-HA) — crossword puzzle actually loves this one. Me, not a lot. As Google’s A.I. will let you know (appropriately, it seems) should you search [hoo ha], HOO-HA is often used as slang for “vagina.” This which means has actually taken off, a lot in order that I might say it is the dominant which means for a lot of, in the event that they know the time period in any respect. I am not huge on cringey euphemisms for genitalia. Duluth Buying and selling Co. has an underwear line known as “Bullpen” (you recognize … in your balls?) and a line of denims known as “Ballroom” and I will not come wherever close to both (although I like their merchandise on the whole). As for HOO-HA, a cursory picture search yields prodigious proof of what I am speaking about:

  • 60A: To items? (ODES) — “items” of poetry which are continuously titled “To [something]”
  • 6D: Put a pilot again into motion? (REAIR) — since aviator-type pilots fly by way of the air, it looks like it could be value noting, simply in case there’s some confusion, that the “pilot” in query here’s a tv pilot.
  • 7D: Healthful smoothie ingredient (KALE) — a pair years again, my daughter designed Rex Parker thank-you playing cards with footage of my cat Alfie on them. She did 5 variations. One was of Alfie standing on his hind legs to get at some KALE:
[original photo]

That is all. Properly, not all. In honor of our nation’s birthday … this is yet one more factor from Dazed & Confused:

[“Okay guys, one more thing, this summer when you’re being inundated with all this American bicentennial Fourth Of July brouhaha, don’t forget what you’re celebrating, and that’s the fact that a bunch of slave-owning, aristocratic, white males didn’t want to pay their taxes.“]

Joyful 4th, everybody!

See you subsequent time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

*[from “16 Slang Terms You Should Know To Stay Hip With Your Kids“]: “Sure, “lady, bye” is a slang time period. Sure, you need to use “boy, bye” as nicely. And sure, they do in truth imply goodbye. Type of. Much like “bye, Felicia,” these slang phrases are supposed to specific disbelief, disagreement, or disapproval in direction of somebody or one thing. They’re typically utilized in a sassy or assertive method to precise that the speaker is uninterested, fed up, or irritated with the particular person they’re addressing. Mainly, it means the speaker is completed with the interplay and needs to maneuver on.

[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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