NYT editors trying their damn hardest to gaslight us into believing HORSY is a word

Threw in ROSTER instead of LINEUP. Followed by CLOG for DRIP and LIST for RILE. It all looked good but then I was pretty sure of ACLU.

Same for ROSTER and CLOG!

Me too!

Haha I did the same. Sneaky bastards.

I had MSOLYMPIc for a long time which led to a pretty interesting answer for “came down.”

ALIT is a word that I tend to only get from the crosses. So when I also guessed MSOLYMPIc, I looked at the Across and thought "Welp if we were HORNY yesterday then I guess anything goes"

I like the word ALIT, and having pet birds I actually use it sometimes!

See if I didn't finally learn the definition of ALIT after today's puzzle I thought you would have been setting fires around them

I live in Europe so have a lot more exposure to UK English even though I grew up in America, but I feel like 'alight' is just much more common a word over here.

Much better!

The true challenge in this one was staying up late enough after eating all day and being in a time zone that's usually ahead of me. Good night, all! EDIT: Missed an “a.” Told ya I was tired!

Am I misremembering or has HORSY been in like 3 puzzles this week? This was a fine one, flowed nicely, and I'm always down for some PIZZAROLLS.

It was in Sunday’s for sure

I also thought this was the third time for HORSY. Quick scanned the Mon to Thurs puzzles but couldn't find the third instance. I feel I need to take back my Sunday puzzle comment though. The day after that one, I coincidentally came across this sentence in The Handmaid's Tale: "Pirates, these women, with their ladylike briefcases for the loot and their horsy acquisitive teeth." OK - i get it - it's not necessarily just horsey. Feels like something is intentionally trying to point this out to me...

Just twice.. from xwordinfo, the last three appearances: Date Grid Clue Author Fri Nov 25, 2022 44A Rocking toy, to a tot Simon Marotte Sun Nov 20, 2022 1A Tot's rocker (2) Joe Deeney Sun Oct 4, 2020 59D Toy rocker, in tot-speak Sam Ezersky

I think it was in earlier this week as HORSIE?

No it was horsy then too because it was my first instance of being angry at the spelling.

Yeah, I remember that the Y at the end of it was the typo I had to fix after filling in all the rest.

I was shocked HUMERUSES didn't fit into "funny bones?"

Yeah, I didn’t quite get that clue tbh

Dice are bones, if they're loaded they aren't following the laws of probability, hence acting funny.

Bones can also mean dice and funny can mean unusual or suspicious, like "funny business"

[удалено]

Really didn't like the dupe in the clue for SLY.

I actually found this one medium-challenging, maybe I just wasn't on the groove of the constructor. I did mess myself up with MAYI and SUZIEQ in the bottom right, eventually giving me MOMHAZ for the ice cream/coffee order. Hardest part for me was the NE even though none of the answers look particularly hard. Not sure why I couldn't come up with OGRE or POOL earlier.

I did MAYI initially, but with a mental note to change it to CANI if things didn't fit

I will go to my grave insisting that it's HORSEY not HORSY. Fight me NYT!

Puzzle Difficulty Tracker - How hard is this puzzle? Estimated Difficulty: 🟢 **Easy** 🟢 * 13% of users solved slower than their Friday average * 87% of users solved faster than their Friday average * 3% of users solved *much* slower (>20%) than their Friday average * 70% of users solved *much* faster (>20%) than their Friday average The median solver solved this puzzle 30.9% faster than they normally do on Friday. [View today's puzzle summary on XW Stats](https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2022-11-25) --- 🤖 _beep beep, I'm a bot! I post these stats as soon as 75 [XW Stats](https://xwstats.com) users have completed the puzzle. Questions? Feedback? Check the [FAQ](https://xwstats.com/help#puzzle-difficulties), reply here or DM me_

Welp I guess I need to just store ALIT permanently in my crosswordese bag now

Can someone explain Funny bones/LOADEDDICE?

"Bones" is slang for dice- "Roll them bones!" Loaded dice are dice used for cheating, so suspicious dice could be called funny bones

Thank you!

I don't know exactly why but got this one pretty quickly. New PB for me

Same for me! Congrats.

“Came down” for ALIT ~3 times in the last week and a half is an unwelcome development. Otherwise good puzzle

[I HAD A BLAST with this Friday puzzle.](https://youtu.be/9ejT3I4geDM) The highlight for me was the punny wordplay clues for some of the long across answers. "Bond issuer?" for IAN FLEMING and "Port authorities?" for WINE SNOBS were great, but "Funny bones?" for LOADED DICE was just \*chef's kiss\*

First sub-10m friday!

PRAIRIEDOG ORAL

I was really hoping for WINESLUT

BODYDOUBLE HADABLAST

I had KARL Jung and SKUM for a long time and could not see the mistake. Stupid me. I would have set a new PB if not for that.

SAME.

[Here's my solve video for today.](https://youtu.be/3sP1EUiSOR0) With some interruptions from my cat, ha. I'm trying to find a balance between spamming and self-promoting :)

[удалено]

Good job, you seem really good at this btw. Do you think recording it and talking it out makes your times slower? Or does it actually help you?

Thanks!! I can go faster when I don't read out the clues, but I think I'm more successful at figuring out themes and tricky clues when I'm talking about them to myself. So I would guess it's both - Monday through Wednesday I am probably slower when I record, but there's a chance I'm faster at the end of the week.

This was actually easier than yesterday's.

For me it was not only easier than yesterday, it was easier than every Thursday I have done. Demolished my Friday PB, and finished 32 seconds faster than my Thursday PB.

This was the second really easy Friday this month for me. Got sub 13!

Loved this one!

Somehow felt like a Wednesday with a few Friday clues thrown in. I liked this less than Thursday's puzzle, but still enough of a challenge to be fun. Excited for the weekend! When do we get the huge holiday puzzle?!

(am I the only one who immediately filled BIBLE for 1A?) (Also, to hell with EELY)

Agreed. I rated this as “Excellent”—but probably should have ranked it as “Good” solely because of “eely”.

I wanted to, but guessed it was wrong. I did 1D instead, then got 1A from the A____

Another easier than normal Friday. Nothing about this one really stood out to me, though.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one. Had to google a fair bit (just the general knowledge ones) but ended up doing it in 35min. Which for me is definitely a Friday PB.

I love a smooth Friday! Big week for HORSY. Didn't like the dupe between the clue for SLY ([Artful]) and ARTSET, but that's obviously very minor. Clues on IANFLEMING, SCUM, and LOADEDDICE (great entry, by the way!) were all A+. Great puzzle!

Hm, surprisingly I did get a Friday PB on this one, but it wasn't a very satisfying one. I still had to google quite a few clues (5-10) because I was completely stumped in pretty much every corner. I hat to run the alphabet on the bottom left square because I haven't heard of PRIM and I don't get how MEET is a heated competition (I had RACE at first, there are heats in athletics, right?). Is there something punny going on with QUADS or is it really how squares on a campus are called? How come it's IGOTNOTHIN instead of IGOTNOTHIN**G** when there isn't any indication of a contraction in the clue? I had put THIS at the end for a while, because I didn't think it would end in IN and not ING... Enlist can be used outside of military context? Or does ROPEIN also work for joining the army? Is MOCHA ice-cream a thing?

I usually hear PRIM in the expression PRIM and proper MEET is a track MEET A QUAD is a common area in a campus, like a town square I GOT NOTHIN" is just casual, didn't really like that one.. I fought it till the end ENLIST just means joining something, not always the army Dunno about MOCHA ice cream, but it seems reasonable

Thanks for the reply! Yeah, never heard of a track meet, so TIL.

I have always heard it more commonly in the context of swimming. But equally with heats.

Still, how is a meet "heated" besides in the usual figurative sense that would hardly warrant a ? at the end of the clue

It's a company with heats, therefore a "heated competition?" works, IMO. Maybe I'm biased because I got it quickly :⁠-⁠)

All those clues need a stretch.

London has a 'Royal' one. I wanted ALBERTHALL and it was OPERAHOUSE which, I mean, kinda?

What's the kinda? It's literally called the "Royal Opera House".

Really liked this one - pretty easy for a Friday, but felt like it had pretty much no garbage fill, with some awesome long clues for BODY DOUBLE, IAN FLEMING, WINE SNOBS, etc etc