This fell flat for me. I do get the meta element but we see repeat clues in normal circumstances so often that this didn't have much effect. Perhaps if the second answers had been able to stand alone as viable words/ phrases without the "feeling" and with the "feeling" as well, now that would have been something. I do appreciate constructors put their heart and soul into these and I can't create puzzle for the life of me, so I try to be slow to criticize. But as a Sunday NYT theme this seems a bit thin.
Isn't it a SNOOZE *button* that would be pressed on an ALARM?
@Adam YES!! I feel the editor should’ve caught this
@Adam It’s also known as snooze alarm. I had no problem filling it in.
@Adam Funnily enough, people I grew up with do (or at least used to) also say "snooze alarm" as well as "snooze button", and the expression was one of my brother's pet peeves. He would always ask, "What's a snoozle arm?" :-D
It’s weird how some puzzles dazzle, while others leave you cold. This was the latter for me. The clues and answers and the theme today felt forced. UPPISH? Yuckish. At least TIL the name of a tribe I wasn’t aware of. Also, the revealer is the title of the best Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode (IMHO). Oh, well.
Granted I'm fairly new to crosswords, but I found this to be the most difficult Sunday NYT puzzle I've ever encountered. A Sunday-sized puzzle with Saturday-level difficulty. My issue with the puzzle wasn't the theme, or difficult-to-decipher puns. It was the sheer number of obscure answers that I'd never heard of, many in close proximity to each other, rending whole sections of the grid impossible for me to complete. Pewit? Uppish? Catsear? Arum? Acela? Arikara? This wasn't like some challenging Friday or Saturday puzzles where I could work at it and reason my way to solutions that depend on idioms, puns, or clever word constructions. It was more like an obscure vocabulary test that covers a whole lot of words I've never encountered before, and probably never will again, even in the crosswords.
@Mitchell You should try the very first puzzle the times created. Talk about obscure clues and answers. I thought it would be fun to try it, nope.
@Mitchell Arikara was new to me as well, but don’t forget Acela - it shows up pretty often. I guess it’s the East Coast bias. Thanks to crosswords, I’m probably one of few Californians who knows the name of that train.
@Mitchell I love these puzzles not for what I know, but rather but for what I learn.
I must have stepped in quicksand. I just have a sinking feeling about this. (These puns have sedimental value.)
@Mike Hope you're not bogged down. Let me bayou a drink.
Completely irrelevant to solving this puzzle, but "Once More with Feeling" was a musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer that is generally considered one of the best in that series and simply a great use of musical influences in an otherwise non-musical show. Also - I was so stuck on PRAGENCIES; looked it up twice thinking it was somehow related to "emergencies"....
@Derek Parks Oh, me, too! Once I filled that in, I was certain there would be some Buffy references, but alas, ‘‘twas not to be. And it took me a lot of looking to decipher PR AGENCIES from PRAGENCIES. I wanted to make it PREGNANCIES, but that didn’t fit and made no sense. “Once More With Feeling” is one of the best musical episodes of all time. 🎶 They got the mustard out! 🎶 If you know, you know.
My brain was definitely not in the GODDESS mode for this puzzle. Many struggles, despite nearly wrecking my arm from patting myself on the back when I wasn't fooled by some tricky clues, but I know GEN-Z, so why was I sliding over GENERATIONs while I was doing all that flyspecking? I've heard uppity, as in "Don't get uppity," for as long as I can remember. So what is UPPISH? Does it mean you're kind of uppity? For a minute FLUSTRAIN seemed like it might be a bit off-color because I don't think of flu as the target of an ad campaign. It's the vaccine they're selling, not the flu. Grousing aside, I loved this puzzle. A challenge on a Sunday is good, and if others found it too hard or too easy, I thought it was just right. Michael Schlossberg does not disappoint. Thank you, Mr. S. I had a really good time with this one.
@dutchiris And those vaccines they're marketing would be to fight off the flu *virus*....so a "viral marketing campaign".
Very odd experience for me. I’m in Atlantic City for poker tournament tomorrow. Not my usual milieu. Played some tonight to warm up. Did first half of puzzle on phone while waiting to be called to a table and second half on phone after playing (a modest win which would have been better if my pocket aces were not rudely cracked). Well, this story is frankly going nowhere. I’ve lost my train of thought and should be asleep by now. Casinos are weird places. Like visiting an alien planet. But I really enjoyed this puzzle. I did not struggle as much as some others. I thought the prevailing sentiment might be “too easy” and “not tricksy” enough. In any event, it was comforting to have the Sunday NYT crossword along in this alien place. Like Linus’ blanket. Hope all stay warm, safe and dry through this winter storm.
@Puzzlemucker Hope you are having good luck/skill in the tournament! I enjoyed the puzzle,too! I like the theme - even though I didn't fully understand it until I read Wordplay and the comments here.
I did it! I never do Sunday because it's such a slog but I got it in under a hour! wooo hoooo!!! something something emu something....
More of a slog for me than most Sundays. SE corner bogged down a bit, as did the vicinity of PRAGENCIES.
Just looked up CATSEAR. I was very happy to learn it parses to CAT’S EAR and I no longer have to worry that one day Señor Gato may get out of the house in one of his mad dashes for the unknown outside world, stumble into a false dandelion, and be tragically SEARed. Phew.
@Sam Lyons same here. First I tried to make it Cat Seer - as in feline psychic.
This was a really really excruciating experience. I hope to never repeat such an abysmal failure again. This wretched puzzle will live forever in the annals of my soul as its dreariest, dismalest hour and ten minutes. Good luck to your hereby accursed soul
@cmon my nomination for comment of the decade.
Solved it, probably my longest time ever. I hated this puzzle. Creators like this are trying to prove they are above the other creators or they are scouring the web for the most obscure words possible… Waaaaaaaay too many obscure clues intersecting making it nearly impossible to luckily get the word with crosses. As another person wrote:: Pewit, Uppish, Catsear, Arum, Arikara - and I am American Indian living in Minnesota - never heard of this tribe. If creating an impossible puzzle was your plan, you failed. You just made a frustrating puzzle that no one enjoyed.
Darren, You didn't enjoy the puzzle. You are not the only commenter who did not enjoy the puzzle. Lots of people *did* enjoy the puzzle. I hope you will enjoy another puzzle soon. P.S You haven't the faintest idea of the constructor's intent ... and you are ignoring the role of the editors.
@Darren I can understand that you did not enjoy this puzzle, but if you read any of the comments you surely would have noticed that a lot of people, myself included, enjoyed it quite a bit. There are a lot of puzzles that I find difficult, but it never occurs to emerge to launch a personal attack on the constructor because of that. Save your hatred for more important things than a crossword puzzle.
It's one thing to criticize the puzzle (that's more than fine!), but I'm not a fan of criticizing what you guess are the intentions of the creator. Reading the quotes from them, I don't think they were trying to prove their cleverness or create an impossible puzzle. Pretty much every creator is trying to creating a fun game for all of us. Sometimes it will hit with you, and sometimes it won't. C’est la vie!
This was a very poorly constructed puzzle
@Sam I did the same puzzle as you, and I didn't see anything poor about the puzzle's construction. I did find (as I related separately) that the SE was very difficult, but that doesn't make the construction poor. It's not helpful if you just leave a drive-by comment like yours without explanation. What did you think was poor about this puzzle's construction?
@Sam I’ll counter with more than a vague insult, which I consider a “poorly constructed comment.” This puzzle was enjoyable, with a consistent, interesting theme that was both helpful for those who needed to understand it to get the crosses, but not so weighted that the puzzle could not be completed without focusing on the theme. (I may have just countered with a quadruple negative. Now THAT is poor construction.) Also, I learned a few things, finished without look-ups, and enjoyed some fresh fill! (PETRICHOR, MUDSEASON, THECURSE…) I did not find it SOSO, MEH or DREADful. That’s my take.
This one was no fun at all. Some of the words are completely out of use and in other cases the clues were too obscure to even be clever. WS should have sent this one back. Totally out of character for a Sunday NYT puzzle. Big thumbs down.
This crossword awakened a special kind of rage in me. I don't care so much about the highly contested answers like UPPISH, but to have this many "know it or you don't" kind of clues, and then to put them in little clusters that are impossible to solve- infuriating! I don't want puzzles to be too easy, but this was maddening!
Hard puzzles are hard. emu block emu block
Not a fan of Sundays. Such a big grid. Too much time. Too hard to do on phones. But a harder Sunday. I am sure many appreciate, but not me. That said. A solid puzzle. Appreciated the double clues. More than the shaded trick. Made me work. Thank you. Maybe create something like this for a 15x15? But gotta say. Petrichor. What a great word. Very relatable for Californians. Some people I know really like the smell of gasoline. Is there a word for that. Other than weird?
@Newbie Petrichor is one of my favorite words. And also one of my favorite smells. It’s an interesting phenomenon. It only happens when it hasn’t rained in a while. And the rain has to come down at the proper velocity, because what actually makes the smell are bubbles that capture molecules in the soil and carry them up into the air. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/yarwk6wr" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/yarwk6wr</a>
@Newbie Petrichor - Joy Bear was the Aussie scientist who first described the term. Love than smell. Also SWIM SHIRT is IMHO very prim :) We have ‘Rashies’ - tough lightweight UV protection, wont see (m)any kids or sensible adults beaching without wearing them here.
@Eric Hougland And if you get a lot of rain, petrichor turns into the smell of worms. Petrichor is far superior to worms.
This solve was, for me, part whoosh, part trek, and part rote, and I like all three. Yes, I even like rote – the normal, usual filling in of the grid that constitutes most solving time, that sets the scene for the exciting, funny, and knotty parts. It’s so much of the special feel of being in crossword time. Michael has an affinity for Sundays – this is his fourth in less than a year – and today he laid out a course with varying terrain, including what to me is a very impressive theme. I love how he played on the different meanings of “press”, of “spin”, of “passages”, and of “viral”, and that he found such good answers that met the length requirements of symmetry, not to mention have those “feelings” embedded, well, wow! A couple of lovely serendipities: SNOOZE ALARM abutting HEAR ME, and four A-bookends (AROMA, ACELA, ALBERTA, AGRA) in the space of five columns (I felt for poor ARIKARA on the other side of the grid). Thank you, Michael, for a splendid solve. You’ve got the chops, and I eagerly await your next!
Regarding enjoyment of the rote, I'd like to share this from Andy Rooney: "For most of life, nothing wonderful happens. If you don't enjoy getting up and working and finishing your work and sitting down to a meal with family or friends, then the chances are you're not going to be very happy. "If someone bases his [or her] happiness on major events like a great job, huge amounts of money, a flawlessly happy marriage or a trip to Paris, that person isn't going to be happy much of the time. "If, on the other hand, happiness depends on a good breakfast, flowers in the yard, a drink or a nap, then we are more likely to live with quite a bit of happiness."
This felt like I expect (hope) a Sunday to feel. I want to be tempted to look up answers…but push myself a bit further and watch them appear. I want to suss out the theme, and see it well-constructed, and with a couple layers, to keep things interesting. I want it to be solvable, but I don’t want to spend an hour laboring over it. And I want to learn a few things. Nailed it, Mr Schlossberg. Thank you, thank you (with feeling).
I really didnt care for the clues in this puzzle and some of the words. For some reason certain puzzle makers cater to the part of my brain that can solve a lot of puzzles, this author is not one of them. My usual pet peeves are present, which I absolutely detest, being a person’s name and clues requiring knowledge of another language. I have never understood why these are included in NYT puzzles, they drive me nuts!!
niche trivia is never good. worse it isn't inclusive as it panders to specific groups. I should not have to read books or see plays I have zero interest in or have never heard of to do a crossword puzzle. It is supposed to be about language and solving. It isn't a clever puzzle if it relies on this.
Mike, I think they are included in NYT puzzles because the NYT puzzle editors have always expected NYT readers to have some familiarity with people and to know a few common words from other languages. The "problem" today -- IMO -- is that many NYT puzzle solvers are not NYT readers. or emus
@Lauren Clearly the NYT puzzle including niche words from all areas of culture and demographics past and present is not for you. For myself, I'm interested in expanding my knowledge, and it's ok for me to learn something new.
I'm a relatively old man, but I've never, ever, not once ever, heard someone described as "uppish". I don't really know how crosswords are constructed, but if the author was looking for a definition to fit a sequence of letters, they missed.
@Daniel Had you grown up in Maine, UPPISH would not be unknown.
Daniel, I've heard UPPIty more than UPPISH, but this is supposed to be a puzzle, and I don't expect the more usual word (except on Mondays). Or have you not heard either?
@Daniel It was uppity in my neck of the woods, but I've heard uppish from time to time. Then again, I'm old!
Uppish?!?! Puhleeze….
@John McGuinness Plenty of garbage fill in this one.
I cringe to hear anyone use the word UPPITY or describe it as a fun word. It was used by white people in the Jim Crow era to describe Black people who weren't subservient. It's also all over Gone With the Wind. I'm glad to spread the news here that it can be quite the racist word.
This one was an average-buster for me, and all the trouble was in the SE corner, where I initially had BCC for FWD and ATM for URN, and then took out ATM to put in COST instead of DENT. I had no idea what was for me "random East Asian surname" and could neither see what kind of STRAIN nor what emotion --ST could be, even though both should have come easily (especially the STRAIN, because I did notice "viral" in the clue, but I kept thinking of Covid). I didn't know what went before SAVED either, and tried some weird stuff--CITY while BCC was still in there, LIFE once I was sure of SET, etc. The bottom line is that when you get into an area like this, you have to realize that the instincts that got you through 95% of the puzzle have failed you here, and you have to rip it all out. Luckily, FLU finally came to me. (Who thought I'd ever write that sentence.) I realized that BCC had to be FWD, and COST was actually DENT. With those in place, WE'RE became clear, and at that point, Bob was my uncle. (Actually, he's my brother-in-law.) I assume Min Jin LEE is more famous than I realize. (Why not Ang, Spike or Robert E.?) In retrospect, none of it was that hard to come up with, and I should have gotten all of it much faster. The worst part was it came at the end, so I had nothing to move to and come back later. All in all, the SE corner took me about as long as the rest of the puzzle combined. Kind of shows you that you never know.
@Steve L I had the same thing going on in the SE--I had BCC and ATM and nothing was working. I took them our and saw that the feeling had to be L_ST, which meant it had to be LUST, and that was the key to solving it. I had read Min Jin LEE's Pachinko (a very good book) so I knew her name, but I'm also thinking that LEE would be a good guess no matter what. And I really like not having LEE refer to the same old same old people over and over again.
@Steve L Definitely famous enough. Plus the Korean first /middle name really only gives you Kim or Lee as plausible three letter answers. Sure there are more three letter surnames. But not as common. I had much more issue with TACITUS, if we are talking authors. Was Agricola ever adapted to an HBO miniseries? Case closed. Min Jin wins.
46A caused my head to hurt twice. I only got it exclusively through crosses. Even after finishing it made my head hurt trying to make sense of PRAGENCIES. Then I smacked myself when after 5 minutes P.R. AGENCIES finally dawned on me. Go Bills.
@JPT I thought the gray letters might be "RAVE" (a place with spinners, i.e., DJs) which made that spot on the board doubly painful. (Even after reading this review/summary of the puzzle, I'm still a bit underwhelmed by the role of 68A and the grey words. The author should have at least gone with his initial title idea.)
@JPT I never did figure that out until I started reading the comments. Even the column didn't help. That area was my last to be completed. RIM cycle didn't seem too logical. Without the G of RAGE I couldn't get GODDESS. Tough corner....
this was thoroughly not enjoyable. theme was weak, there was no problem solving to work through, just way, way too many obscure clues clustered together. several i looked up i still don't understand. really felt like the creator was trying to prove something that none of us are privy to. Pewit, Uppish, Catsear, Arum, Arikara, Vellum, Errata, Ohm, 1978 movies i've never heard of... also, skorts aren't really worn leisurely. it's really athletic attire only. no one wears skorts outside of the activity.
@Charles dude, you're so wrong. I live in skorts all spring, summer and fall
"also, skorts aren't really worn leisurely. it's really athletic attire only. no one wears skorts outside of the activity." Charles, I'll take your word that you don't wear a SKORT except for athletic activity. I don't wear a SKORT at any time. We have had several people attest to the acceptability of the clue based on their use of the answer.
So I finished (finally) but no happy music. Ah, POkERSUIT was wrong! Yes, but still no music. Ah, TAiBO was wrong! Yes, but still no music. Ah, MiDSEASON was wrong! Yes, but still no music. Was UPPIty wrong? Yes, but UPPISH?? Too many Naticks and a lame theme, IMHO. ⭐️⭐️
@Ron Uppish = terrible. Easy to get from crosses, but still...
Not the puzzle for me! Clueing was terrible and some of the answers are infuriatingly obtuse. SNOOZEALARM??! nah! OHM for piece de resistance? Huh??? It’s a game so it should be a bit fun…
@Erica I got those two right away. Maybe because I'm really good at snoozing my alarm, and my elec eng husband confirmed my idea that OHMs are units of resistence. Remember the OHM answer. It shows up in puzzles regularly.
Not very fun for me. The theming felt weak, and lots of unhelpful clues and obscure entries. I also found Wordplay a bit lacking - I feel it should have covered more tricky entries today. I was left feeling puzzled with some of the answers.
Jurga, Please list the answers that are still puzzling to you and folks will be happy to clue you in! Even emus will help
I solved this puzzle without the help of the revealer or the title. For some reason, the hints didn't click with me. (1) I'm used to seeing clues repeated in puzzles for different entries. So my reaction here to the identically clued pairs was "ha, pretty cool," never once connecting them with "Gimme a Second!" (2) Yeah, I saw the shaded letters spell words like ZEAL and RAGE ("ok, that's nice"), never once connecting them with 68A. Maybe because I didn't understand the title to begin with, I didn't understand what could be an alternative title either. The one themer that gave me a little trouble was PR AGENCIES. Like DR FREUD yesterday, I wasn't seeing the PR and instead was trying to make out a word that began with PRA_. Also, I wanted Idling rather than IN IDLE. Anyway, this was wonderfully executed, Michael. And I love the explanation ("100 theme letters, give or take").
@Henry Su I thought IN IDLE was the most inelegant answer.
The fun themers cry out for my usual game: Before donning their POWER SUIT, the new employee hit their SNOOZE ALARM with great ZEAL. Several times. The chief resident of the SPIDER WEBS was in a RAGE at all the PR AGENCIES spreading slander that her kind were gross and creepy. The SEA CAPTAIN felt DREAD to notice what an AVID READER the bosun was - no good could come of that. Members of GENERATION Z experienced a LUST to figure out what the heck a “FLUSTRAIN” is… Eventually one of them dooked it correctly.
@Cat Lady Margaret And I'm sure they were quite FLUSTRATED. This probably won't get past the emus, which will make me emustrated. ..
I was all set to complain that MIDSEASON was absolutely wrong as clued! And I have 3 dogs... sigh. Shoulda been a gimme. Finished with the error, and feel I owe Michael an apology for THE CURSEs I was hoping to sneak past the emus.
@Suzy M. and I got hung up on BUDSEASON which seemed logical to me (even though REB cycle did not!).
I enjoyed this puzzle - just challenging enough not to get frustrating. The tough ones for me were having a more general idea of a target market, i.e. GENERATIONS not GENERATIONZ and trying to figure out an athleisure portmanteau ending in U because I was sure a lift type was UBER and I couldn’t get HERON because I had UPPITY not UPPISH. It’s all connected, isn’t it? It sorted itself out eventually and was rewarding to finish.
Quite a bit slower than average for me! Wasn't really able to get into a flow on this one. The whole area around PRAGENCIES especially ground my solve to a halt. Also, seemed like a high density of niche/unfamiliar author names in the grid. One or two can be fun, because I solve the crosses and then learn about someone new. But these just felt like friction/grid-glue to me. Still, the repeated cluing was very enjoyable wordplay. Hope to see more puzzles from this constructor, just with slightly crunchier fill!
Way too many proper nouns and deliberately obscure clueing yet again. Totally lame puzzle.
I had a heck of a time with the southeast corner but finally got it. This was one of those where on the first run through I barely had anything to hang my word-hat on.
A bit tedious for me, I’m afraid. The theme was great, but the rest felt like a slog.
The puzzle was fun but tracking down my error of MiDSEASON instead of MUDSEASON, not so much. Clever theme. Love the inspirational ONCE MORE WITH FEELING. BRAVO, Michael. I’m looking forward to RESULTS of the POY voting.
@Anita thanks, I was stuck, and all I could think was that "REb cycle" must be wrong, but what else could BUD SEASON be?
Show of hands, who had MiDSEASON?
@Holland Oats Nobody who has lived in The Snow Belt (found in more than a few states) was misled. Emus wouldn't know, though. Emus are flat-landers and savannah-lovers.
@Holland Oats and given that I don't know an Abi from an ABU, this was the Natick for me in the puzzle.
As we had to get our septic system replaced this fall, just after there was any possibility of sowing grass seed, we are living in one jumbo MUD SEASON, so pretty surprising that didn’t come to me right away. Resident canine has been remarkably decent about digging, so it’s mostly been dog towels versus baths, and now we have a six (or so) inch snow barrier on top of it… I found this pretty challenging for a Sunday. The theme mostly helped, but I just couldn’t *see* PR AGENCIES for the longest time and was preparing to register my outRAGE (“what on earth is a pragency???” 🤦♀️) until the sinuses cleared (the excuse I’m running with), and I began to think clearly again.
@Kate It took me way too long to see that one as well. I have no excuse, just a senior 10 minutes 🤣
The SF MOMA is surely a full-fledged museum, not a “gallery.” My provincial feathers got ruffled by this clue.
Liz, I believe "gallery" was used in the clue not to slight the institution but because one of the M's in the answer is "museum." M as in emu
I stuttered and stammered through this puzzle last night, but I'm blaming it on the Brazilian feijoada I ate just beforehand. It has a way of sitting in your belly with the weight of an elephant and turning you to mush. It would have been wise for me to avoid that "GIMME A SECOND helping of it!" At that point, I could have been in a scientific study and used as proof of how digestion interferes with thinking clearly. I couldn't make sense of UPPISH instead of UPPIty and much less so of SNOOZE ALARM. To me what's pressed is the ALARM SNOOZE (button), but what do I know after eating feijoada... But any puzzle with CHRIS Stapleton and PETRICHOR in it is fine by me. And I got a hearty laugh out of ONCE MORE WITH FEELING as the emotions were revealed in the grey squares. The brilliance of having those feelings tucked in the answers is in its apparent simplicity, masterfully not betraying what was most certainly was a beast to create. Thank you for your talent and creativity, Mr. Schlossberg. And for putting so much love of the game into it. It really shows that you've done it ONCE MORE, WITH FEELING, as you always do!
@sotto voce One of my favorite languages to overhear when I’m out and about is Portuguese. Specially Brazilians speaking it. For whatever reason, it’s my favorite ‘sounding’ European language. Hearing them say their national dish, feijoada, is like ASMR to me.
Well this one was a real slog for me. Took me nearly 2 hours… The main areas of confusion might be because my clothing terminology is based on my UK locale... SKORT - certainly heard of this as athletic wear. Do people also wear them for leisure? SWIMSHIRT - is this a rash guard? I've not heard this term used before. ANORAK - in the UK this is a lightweight waterproof. Not particularly "warm". A couple of others: I've heard of page or site scraping, but not a DATASCRAPER And I agree with the comment regarding snooze button rather than SNOOZEALARM Many of the other areas were enjoyable, but the items above really held me back.
@Richard in my youth in the UK our anoraks were warm jackets with a fake fur lined hood. Inspired, I think, by the Eskimos. Has this changed?
@Roger I think those are more commonly known as Parkas. But there’s certainly plenty of regional variations even within the UK - so who knows!
@Richard it wasn’t just you — and I’m in California, where skorts are typically for “ath,” and snooze buttons are hit (sometimes more than once) when the alarm goes off.
Annoying, not witty, a real slog.
I’m a bit surprised that (unless I missed it at this hour when the cobwebs — SPIDERWEBS? — are just starting to leave my brain) no-one has so far claimed to have got hung up by being certain that 46A must be ADAGENCIES. Of course, had I cottoned — not VELLUM — onto the feelings highlighted in grey, I would have spotted my mistake easily, but the crosses at 37D and 47D stymied me, so I could not see the ILLOGIC of my thinking. All in all, an enjoyable Sunday puzzle for the first in 2024.
Strudel Dad, Re: 46A I had the PR in place from EPA and REM. so AD never crossed my mind, but "spin" is in the domain of public relations, not advertising. (My father worked for decades at 261 Madison Ave.)
Huh? Those grey squares totally threw me off. That puzzle took forever even with help. Definitely NOT a fun puzzle.
To say SFMOMA is just a Bay Area gallery is something I understand, but is also practically wrong.
When I saw Michael Schlossberg's name this morning, it made me happy. I like his style. Double clues are fun, and I don't remember seeing them with such long answers before. Getting those FEELINGs in there was a bonus. BRAVO Michael, and thanks for another great puzzle. I recently learned UPful from another vendors puzzle (where it gave me great agita), so UPPISH went in without a qualm. The mere mention of petrichor evokes that wonderful aroma. I woke up to about a foot of snow with 6-10" more on the way, so not much to smell out there right now, but it sure looks nice.
Didn't love this one. Some of the answers seemed contorted to fit - UPPISH instead of uppity? SNOOZE ALARM instead of snooze button? And who's "marketing" a FLU STRAIN, anyway?