In the great Vu grid there was an I-Phone and a red amaretto and a picture of -- an iguana jumping over my toe and one little stoner sitting shiva and two little manatees saying their ABCs and Malia in the White House (the no-show's a mouse) and a cab with Tolentino and Yoko Ono and a quiet old iguana who was whispering, "Slo." Goodnight, Vu. Goodnight, baby moon and the iguana jumping over my toe Goodnight ryes and the red amaretto Goodnight Malia Goodnight Italia Goodnight en pointe-less toe Goodnight mouse, you old no-show Opossums goodnight Same for you Wanda Sykes Goodnight, I-Phone and goodnight, Siri Goodnight, soiree and goodnight Emmys Goodnight yes we can Goodnight yes I do Goodnight baby moon in orbit thanks to Hoang-Kim Vu and goodnight to the old iguana whispering "Slo."
@john ezra Well done, you! I could envisage the drawings along with your prose.
@john ezra Goodnight Moon was the daily bedtime story for ages when my oldest was little. Always enjoy your writing but doubly appreciate tonight for the memories!
@john ezra “one little stoner sitting shiva” 😂😂😂😂😂😂 What an imagination!! And what an image! Thank you for putting a smile on my face!
As a retired person, I had to chuckle at the vibe of those three long down answers - wow, that’s a rough day at work: THIS IS POINTLESS ABOVE MY PAYGRADE TOOK IT ON THE CHIN I hope the next day went better for them!
@Cat Lady Margaret Not to mention JUST A MOMENT and PLAY CATCHUP which are just as apposite to us retired folk.
How is it that even after a PLETHORA of years doing crosswords, I come to a new NYT puzzle excited, not blasé, and eager, not feeling ho-hum? Because of puzzles like today’s. To wit: • OMG, 15 longs, and look at them: BABYMOON, EASY MODE, ENAMORED, PLETHORA, TRUE LOVE, JUST A MOMENT, PLAY CATCH-UP, ABOVE MY PAYGRADE, TOOK IT ON THE CHIN! Vibrant and colorful words and phrases that beautify the tour through the box. • Beauty in the grid design itself, pleasing and calming, before filling in the first square. • Wit and delight in the cluing, such as [“That’s why you get the big bucks and not me”], the sterling clue that the sterling ABOVE MY PAY GRADE deserves. Such as [Who might mistakenly respond to a statement beginning “Seriously…”] for SIRI, an out-of-left field, out-of-the-park clue to bring verve to an everyday answer. I learned and love BABYMOON. I had clicks of glee at figuring out riddles like [Stream, e.g.]. When gazing at the answers afterward, I smiled at the serendipity of all the final-schwa answers: SHIVA, IGUANA, SENTRA, MALIA, PLETHORA, JIA, LISA, ITALIA. So involving and entertaining! It happens again and again in these puzzles, and thus, even after so many years, I still enter them excited and eager. Thank you so much for a prime outing, Hoang-Kim!
@Lewis My thoughts exactly! Your well expressed comment deserves kudos of its own! Yours was the comment on top of the list. Now I'm going to scroll down and see what others thought. It's hard to imagine anyone not liking the puzzle, although somebody is probably going to complain about BABYMOON. Or give us an alternative definition?
@Lewis this is the energy I love in the comments!
Really easy for a Saturday. Personal best Saturday time.
@John - agreed, not worthy of a Saturday.
@John Same here. Flowed really well. Was done in no time. 🍈🍉🍊🍇
@John Same, took me a bit more than 1/3 average solve time. Nicely clued and clever, just on the wrong day.
Easy for a Saturday, but *so* well constructed. Beautiful long fills, clues that perfectly mixed trivia, wordplay, and some solid crossword puzzling. On top of that, there was nothing overly obtuse or dubious. Everything felt like it flowed so well up and down the puzzle and all the crosses were well placed. Anyway, I really enjoyed it—a good puzzle from a talented constructor.
Came here to brag about setting my Saturday record … guess everyone else did too! Did seem a little easy. A couple places I thought “That’s not a Saturday clue.”
Speaking of Hoang-Kim’s 9/11/23 fantastic STILL I RISE Monday puzzle, it’s a finalist for Mon-Wed Puzzle of the Year (POY)! Thanks Caitlin for the lead-in. You can find links for all of the POY finalists here: <a href="https://nyti.ms/48wtV9Z#permid=130402896" target="_blank">https://nyti.ms/48wtV9Z#permid=130402896</a> If you haven’t voted yet (by Recommending), please consider doing so. Voting ends by 10:30 a.m. ET on Sunday and winners will be announced at 11:00 a.m. ET. As for this Saturday, I think Caitlin nailed it: smooth and understated. The long entries were significant footholds for me and made this enjoyable outing more of a Vespa ride than my usual Saturday tricycle.
ONCE MORE, for me, this Saturday was on EASY MODE. I found a PLETHORA of answers in JUST A MOMENT. I don't solve for time, but no need to PLAY CATCH UP. etc., etc. emu, emu you too?
This is what eminently fair and accurate equivalent phrase cluing looks like. I would urge any puzzle constructors who are planning to put a lot of vernacular phrases into their puzzles to look at how well THIS IS POINTLESS, ABOVE MY PAYGRADE and TOOK IT ON THE CHIN are clued. I also applaud how deeply embedded in the language these phrases are. No text-y, ephemeral JUST A MOMENT phrases that will be gone by breakfast tomorrow. But because of a really stupid idee fixe of mine, I was forced to PLAY CATCH-UP in the NE. I had written in AmC for the TV channel without a second thought -- forgetting that ABC exists and is about 563,000 times as popular. So what was BAMYMOON? I questioned everything else: RYES and AMARETTO and MANATEES. I simply couldn't go on any longer without first typing BAMYMOON into Google. And Google said "poor thing" and gave me BABYMOON. Needless to say, I had never heard of BABYMOON. But AMC in preference to ABC is truly unforgiveable. So I didn't win the $100,000 First Prize today due to my idiocy. But I enjoyed the puzzle.
It's 10:12 and I'm here, and finished. Either I was on fire or that was a very easy Saturday.
I'm right here with you. Not my fastest time, but close.
@Randy Stern agreed. Almost disappointing, especially as people who track their record solve times!
@Randy Stern Was my best Saurday at 9:14. Nice puzzle, but honestly, felt like it was Wednesday.
I think for the first time ever, my longest solve time of the week (so far) was … Wednesday. Maybe it’s good for us to have our expectations unsettled!
@Jannicut My time for Wednesday was a few seconds longer than my Friday time. And Saturday’s time was faster than either.
A relatively smooth and fast Saturday like this one always triggers an avalanche of posts saying how, back in the day, crosswords were a real challenge and how have been dumbed down, etc., etc. The evidence trotted out is almost always of the form “it used to take me X minutes but these days it only takes me X/2 minutes!” The obvious alternative explanation is that solving crosswords is a learned skill, and that we can improve with practice. Like others I often go back to the archives, especially on a day like today when I am still itching for a challenge. If I look back on my Saturday times (at least over the 220 or so Saturday puzzles for which I have data) I don’t see an inverse relationship between the publication date and my solving time (which is what the “puzzles were so much harder in the good old days” crowd is suggesting). Rather I see an inverse relationship between when *I* solved it and the solving time (which is consistent with the “practice makes perfect” hypothesis). (Now, I am only going back to 2019. It may well be that in some bygone era decades ago, when giants walked the earth, puzzles were a minefield of highbrow literary references and obscure geographical trivia — but even if so that doesn’t sound all that fun!) I also find my take a much more appealing explanation. Isn’t it not only more plausible but also more hopeful to think we are all getting better at this rather than that the editors are just dumbing things down?
@Nat K I think it's a both-and. Solvers improve, but I do feel like older puzzles (even just 10 years ago) are much more difficult, and not just because the references aren't as fresh. Feels like older puzzles were more trivia-ish, and there has been a notable effort to move away from crossword-ese over the years. I think modern puzzles are both better and easier for that shift in emphasis.
@Nat K Thank you for this post. I wanted to write something similar but now I don't have to. Just let me tell you about my own example. In June 2023 I could only solve Monday puzzles, and very slowly, too. These days I sometimes complete weekend puzzles without looking anything up. It may well be that puzzles are getting easier, but even if that is the case, they are not as much easier as one may personally perceive it, given one's own experience.
@Nat K I’d like to agree with your explanation, but my experience with the archive tells me otherwise. Check out a few puzzles from 2015 and see what you think. These older puzzles are more challenging, but, in my opinion, not satisfyingly so. There are many more times I’m annoyed by an obtuse clue/answer, rather than being pleased with the aha moment of discovery. The inverse is true of the newer puzzles, and they’re more fun for it.
Wow, completed in 17 minutes, a new Saturday record for me! Nevermind the fact it's gone 3am. Maybe I should do these in the dead of night more often...
@Daniel Had a similar experience, though not as late at night. Congrats on the record and hope you got some sleep afterward!
Zipped through this one but it still made me think. I enjoyed it; nice job, constructor.
Thank you, Mr. Vu, for this deliciously charming puzzle! It was for me a wish come true for a smooth and doable Saturday puzzle that wouldn't trigger hair-pulling nor frustration. ONCE MORE you show us that you've got the chops, giving us a PLETHORA (gosh I love that word!) of interesting fill, less passing the muster and more flying high. Kudos! Speaking of flying... I misread the clue "Coming out phrase" as "Coming out *phase*" and filled in IMago, convinced that gay people had an insider lingo for different phases of coming out. I stopped for a moment to take in the magnificence of IMago as the last step, past any guilt or fear they might be made to feel, when they can be liberated to fly free. Perhaps they should adopt the word, evoking the beauty of the butterfly, finally taking wings and at last being able to be who they are. Lou Rawls said it best when he said "You've got one life to live So live it in peace Live it in truth Live it in love." May all those who are gay be able to do just that -- imago! -- encountering respect from all others and equality of rights with all others, being able to live their life in peace, in truth, in love. <a href="https://youtu.be/xXkrZ-TNsas?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/xXkrZ-TNsas?feature=shared</a>
@sotto voce As one who spread his wings some forty years ago, I have to say how delighted and touched I am by your metaphor!
Woah! A chorus of “easiest Saturday ever”! I also shade a surprisingly quick solve, but would argue that it was more “smooth” than “easy.” Maybe I just want to feel smart. I probably just want to feel smart. Especially because I got the “grrr…at least one letter is off…” and found OPpSSUM crossing with SpIREE and apparently, I was cool with those. I am clearly a rocket surgeon.
@CC Interestingly, I also had OPPSSUMS and SPIREE, though I spotted and fixed it on my own before finishing. Probably read "Big do" and thought hairstyle, and SPIREE seemed just fine at that instant. One must ask oneself which is curiouser, the opossum or the emu.
@CC “More smooth than easy” is a good way of putting it. But it’s also not wrong to say “easy for a Saturday,” which seems objectively true here. Certainly though, for a beginner this would still be very challenging. I like a tough Saturday but I also like degrees of difficulty to fall in a broad range: it helps people advance their skills, I think.
Well, I was going to say this seemed a bit easier than yesterday, but I wasn’t expecting to hear from everyone that it was the easiest Saturday since Times began. I guess I’ll have to TAKE IT ON THE CHIN. I did enjoy the spanners especially. Thanks Hoang-Kim
Fun puzzle, but way too simple for a Saturday, imho.
This was also a quick Saturday for me. Hopefully no one has to take the suggestion at 63A to ask for Christina Iverson to create an EASY MODE version. Hoang-Kim's grid has lots to love. In addition to the wonderful down spanners and the temporal pairs at 28A and 45A, I see: (1) The rotationally symmetric pairing of SOIREE with NO SHOW (so disappointing!) (2) The rotationally symmetric pairing of LISTENED with BABY MOON (ultrasound, anyone?) (3) In the North, we spot two sets of swamp creatures -- OPOSSUMS and MANATEES (4) In the South, ENAMORED matches up with TRUE LOVE. SIRI, where's my IPHONE?
@Henry Su Mr. Kim's puzzle was all the more delightful because I had just been struggling with a Thursday rebus puzzle by Patrick Berry (10/20/11). As far as I could tell, there was only one (yup, one) acceptable way to enter the rebuses using the app on my Android phone. I finally waved the white flag and asked for a reveal of one of the squares. Tech issues ....
A very clean run with fills that went down the puzzle like slaloms on a snowy slope, pushing off at the top with OPOSSUMS! I remembered that they pass out cold when they get nervous, and I was off and running. It was so nice to work this lively warm puzzle on this chilly night, while I was listening to the red hot Warriors playing a game in frozen Chicago (they won, at last). Hoang-Kim Vu, you constructed a honey of a puzzle—just right for this Saturday, after such a raucous week. Thank you.
Nice puzzle. Had to laugh at a couple of my ridiculous mis-stabs. Bathroom and babyroom (??) before BABYMOON, despite having taken one - to sweltering Andalusia in August, where I was enlisted for locomotive duty, boosting my wife and mini-me-to-be up Frigiliana's many Seussian/Escherian staircases. Then absinthe and anisette - neither of which sounded like half a palatable whiskey cocktail, but hey - before AMARETTO.
@Charles Anderson Yes, I like whiskey and whisky and AMARETTO, but I definitely don’t want them in the same glass.
@Charles Anderson Andalusia in August 😯 We visited in February once and it was already warm enough to walk around in t-shirt and shorts. I can't imagine what summer must feel like there.
Well - I didn't find this terribly easy, but... a fairly smooth solve and I did come in well under my Saturday average. Enjoyed it. Was surprised to see that some quite familiar phrases were debuts (at least in the Shortz era): JUSTAMOMENT, PLAYCATCHUP and even the three 15 letter down answers. Of those three - TOOKITONTHECHIN was in one pre-Shortz puzzle. That one had a couple of other nice 15 letter theme answers. A Wednesday puzzle by Jeanette K. Brill. The other two themers; GOTTHEWORSTOFIT METONESWATERLOO All of those were debut answers. And... a quite remarkable puzzle find today that I'll put in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday puzzle from April 24, 1983 by Alfio Micci, with the title "A spell of letters." Some clue/answer samples: "Party giver's req." ARESSVEEPEE "Youth org." WYEEMCEEA "Rights org." ENDOUBLEACEEPEE "Mil. truant." ADOUBLEUOEL "Workers' org." AEFFOFELCEEIO Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/24/1983&g=34&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=4/24/1983&g=34&d=A</a> ..
I was overwhelmed with nostalgia while completing this puzzle: TOR and EWER as answers in the same puzzle??? In this day and age??? Hello, my old friends! (Say, have you seen ITER or ADIT lately?) On a different level, STONER used to be pretty common in everyday parlance. That and "pothead" seem to have disappeared and been replaced with... what?
@Lorel At least here in New York, the current term is “consumer.” !!! !!! !!!
@Lorel I like when EWER pops up. And ogee. They were my first real crossword words. lol. Such nostalgia.
Wow, this might be my best Saturday. I was able to do it with no lookups. Enjoyed the puzzle. Loved the cross of baby moon and onesie.
@Erick Same! I had a record Saturday time by quite a bit. Fun!
This is the first Saturday I was able to solve using just the hints (and one or two lookups) without resorting to the answer key for the last couple of clues Pretty proud of myself! Now the next hurdle is to solve a Saturday without the hints at all…
Well this is something I thought I’d never see — a new personal best on a Saturday. Less than 25% of my average time. I don’t want you to get the idea that I am a fast solver because I am not. I’ve spent more than two hours on a Saturday on several occasions (I don’t like to give up) and my average is probably three times that of the fastest solvers, but today I am celebrating my 18:50 solve time.
That crag belongs in the personal Xword glossary, aside the high grade sushi tuna and the matador. TOR, toro, TORERO. I came, I saw, I solved.
I came here feeling pleased with myself for finishing the Saturday crossword fairly easily, with only a few snags. Thanks to the posters for deflating my ego with comments on how this was one of the easiest Saturdays in a while. 😄 I did enjoy the clue "Take a round trip" for ORBIT, though it is so clever I'm sure it's been used before.
@Janine I’m with you! I made it to the fb group I’m part of to kick off their spoiler thread telling everyone that I got a pr and to hush about it being “easy”. Just let me have this! Dang! 😆
Even though it took me half a beat: It was a great day for CLEveland when they sent Chief Wahoo back down to the minors, and changed the name of the MLB team to the Guardians. The name was chosen to honor, and logos designed to reflect, the Guardians of Traffic, eight monumental Art Deco sculptures which decorate the pylons at either end of the Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland. Each Guardian protectively cradles a different mode of transportation againt his bared bosom: hay wagon, stagecoach, automobile, truck. Desgned by architect Frank Walker and sculptor Henry Hering, and built in 1932, the Hope Memorial Bridge spans the Cuyahoga River and has its eastern terminus near the (MLB) Guardians' home Progressive Field. Formerly, and more functionally, named the Lorain-Carnegie Bridge, in 1983 the bridge was renamed to honor Harry Hope--father of Comedian Bob--a local stone-mason who worked on the bridge, and, presumably, all the other construction workers as well. But they didn't have famous sons. For those with an eye for bizarre detail, the aureolas on the sculptures' chests are designed to resemble little wheels. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Memorial_Bridge#/media/File:Guardian_of_Traffic_(cropped).jpg" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Memorial_Bridge#/media/File:Guardian_of_Traffic_(cropped).jpg</a>
@Bill Cincinnati's wonderful mosaics--homage to the workers--which were moved from Union Station to the airport a few decades back, are even more amazing examples of the works of art commissioned during The Great Depression. Just sayin'....
@Bill Grew up in CLE loving the Indians. Rocky Colavito was my hero. Sorry, I’ll never get Chief Wahoo out of my brain.
In 1936, the playwright Maxwell Anderson wrote *High Tor*, a romantic drama set in the Catskills; its plot basically rips off Irving's "Rip Van Winkle," and will be ripped off by Lerner's *Brigadoon*. Echoing my previous post, the play premiered in Cleveland, OH (at the Palace)-- like Detroit, MI (the Fisher), a popular city in which to test run productions--before moving to Broadway, where it played 171 performances, and won a NY Drama Critics' Circle award. Nineteen(!) years later, in 1955, Anderson adapted it as a made-for-TV movie musical (perhaps the first); here's Bing Crosby serenading an ingenue Julie Andrews: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrPwK1wXMA" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CFrPwK1wXMA</a>. All but forgotten now, Anderson was a playwright whose output spanned a wide variety of styles, from popular musicals to historical dramas written in iambic pentameter.
@Bill High Tor (both the play and the place it was named for) is in Haverstraw (Rockland County), known for its brick making, not the Catskills, which are about an hour north. Quarrying the mountain, which is still an industry in the area, was a theme of the play. My village, Chestnut Ridge, is in southern Rockland County, about 20 minutes south of High Tor, which is the tallest peak of the Palisades. Its companion peak, Little Tor, is just a little shorter. But no one ever wrote a play about it. TOR is always a gimme for me.
Great clueing for BABYMOON…it actually was an easy fill for me because I learned about the idea too late to take advantage of it — I would never have guessed it had been in circulation before maybe 10 years ago. And, yay, a new personal best by far for a Saturday 😊. My carpal tunnel says — more easily — two thumbs up!
For me a challenge, but ultimately solvable step by step, across here, down there, building slowly, just the way I like it! Really enjoyed this one. Thanks!
Wow, that was amazing! I actually started at 1A because LOTTOS are certainly getting a lot of attention these days. I'd TRUly LOVE to win one, but it seems the odds are very poor as I have never bought a ticket. Oh, well. Back to the bottom of the puzzle where the VASE was prominent in the still-life...CLV didn't fly, so it was Back to the Drawing Board. You don't see lovely little words like PLETHORA and IMPUTE every day of the week! Love the lovely gimmes. The SAYINGS suggest that Hoang-Kim Vu is not newly-arrived on our shores. Great clues. And who doesn't love any puzzle with a 'POSSUM? I don't care what you say; they are among the cuter animals on the planet.
LOL! I started to writing something using the E word even though I hate when people say that when the comment section started closing on its own every time I tried to continue. I'll take that as a sign and move on to this was indeed a super smooth solve. I did have to do a little fixing on AMARETTO because I had __A__T__ and I decided to try blAckTea. That didn't last long though before I realized the error. These words I got using crosses were new to me and nice to learn: BENTS EWER IMPUTE TORERO
@Joya Interestingly enough, I also did not know the English word IMPUTE, yet there is an archaic, Polish term with the same meaning that looks and sounds much like impute - "imputować." Latin etymology from imputo/imputere must be the explanation. The Polish word is much too old (I think its origins go back some 500 years, and surely no less than 350) to have originated from English influences.
I found this the easiest puzzle this week since Monday. Granted, I had to turn on Autocheck to complete it in reasonable time, mostly for alphabet runs in unknown trivia, but Tuesday thru Friday I resorted to revealing answers on top of autochecking. TOR, BABYMOON and SIT SHIVA were completely new to me. Yet again I was amazed by the American tendency to abbreviate everything. Do you really use ATTN to call attention to something? Would the full word not do the trick better? I mean, it is much more poignant than some abbreviation. Such shorthand is very rarely used in Polish, and after over 6 months of doing these puzzles I am still surprised by how often things get abbreviated in the US. I do not understand why Caped crusader? works as a clue for TORERO. Could somebody please explain?
@Andrzej Attn.: (as an abbreviation for attention) is a very common usage in American business correspondence. And a torero is a Spanish bullfighter, traditionally outfitted with a cape.
Loved those long phrases. It’s so nice when they come to me and turn out to be right, and help with so many crosses. Thanks for a lovely puzzle, Hoang-Kim Vu.
Fun, but felt more like a Friday… or even a Wednesday!
Also. There's only one thing I think of when I come across the word PLETHORA: El Guapo : Jefe, what is a plethora? Jefe : Why, El Guapo? El Guapo : Well, you told me I have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to think that a person would tell someone he has a plethora, and then find out that that person has *no idea* what it means to have a plethora. Jefe : Forgive me, El Guapo. I know that I, Jefe, do not have your superior intellect and education. But could it be that once again, you are angry at something else, and are looking to take it out on me?
My personal best for Saturday. Saturday that feels like Wednesday would normally be a terrible day but not so today! I am ENAMORED with today’s puzzle. Clean, yet fun.
Very clean. Very thoughtful puzzle. I liked the three down spanners. It was so smooth, that is maybe why so many people got through this so quickly. This is what I aspire my regular Saturday solve to be like. Hoang-Kim Vu clearly got good constricting skills. Yesterday was all about”hooking up”.SHAG, BOOTYCALL. Today was all about what happens if it aren’t careful. ONESIE, BABYMOON, So IPHONE makes it as an entry. But not a device used to test the crossword app…
Inspired me look up the difference between IMPUGN and IMPUTE. I'd challenge myself to trot out these words at the bar tonight if there wasn't two feet of snow blocking my front door. I guess my cats will have to be the ones questioned and blamed (in a classy way this time which they just might appreciate).
Suspicious lack of difficulty for a Saturday, had to triple check and make sure I don't actually have to go to work later!! Delightful solve nonetheless, and now extra ready to enjoy my Saturday off :)
This one seemed reasonably challenging when I was in the thick of it (I didn’t help myself by trying Altima before SENTRA), and I was surprised to see that I’d finished pretty near a PB. I’m actually thankful that this was a relative quickie, because I was rather late to the party today. Off topic, but I saw an item in the local paper today about the hunt to capture an escaped emu named Malificent in South Jersey, complete with a picture of the rogue bird.
@Marshall Walthew Thank you for that tip! The article I read, by Alfred Lubrano (Philadelphia Inquirer) had a little bit of everything in it. including some mystery: “ Her owners, Laurie Smith, originally from Pennsauken, and her boyfriend, a fellow from Italy who didn’t want to be named, have lived in the area for four years. ” and, later in the article “ A state trooper, who asked that his name not be used, was on the road one night when, he said, “I saw a kind of animal I’d never seen before. I said, ‘What is this thing?’” I chased it off the road to be safe.” “ And adventure: “ Quite a few people contacted Andrew White, a known emu owner in the area, to see whether he’d lost one of his animal friends. ”I told them no,” said White, 31, a mechanic, who then explained that, should anyone encounter an errant emu, they’d have to get close enough to cover its eyes to calm the animal — while avoiding being kicked to death. This may have dissuaded some people from continuing their search, though White and his girlfriend (who once jumped on the back of a runaway emu to capture it) didn’t hesitate to sign on to the posse.” Well done, Alfred Lubrano of The Philadelphia Inquirer, well done. <a href="https://www.inquirer.com/identity/lost-emu-pilesgrove-salem-county-20240111.html" target="_blank">https://www.inquirer.com/identity/lost-emu-pilesgrove-salem-county-20240111.html</a>
Very unfriendly on first glance. My only gimme was (as it was for Caitlin, so I'm in good company) India for The Brahmaputra. And Judy DENCH. Once I realized that 37A had to be BENTS, that meant that the river flowed through TIBET which allowed me to have the SENTRA for the Nissan model, and I was off to the races. All in all a reasonable time after wondering if this would be another failed Saturday. Excellent.
@Andrew And I deliberately did not put IWO into 21D - Jima is just (mistransliterated) Japanese for Island and this is Saturday after all and there is no way they will fool me into putting the Monday level answer in.
I asked my friend to assess my freehand circle drawing. After five long minutes of careful study, she got up and stormed off, said, “THISISPOINTLESS!” (I’ll show myself out.) cc: emu handler
I didn’t think I would ever solve a Saturday puzzle in less than 10 minutes, but this grid came along to prove me wrong. Nevertheless, I found it quite charming and very fun to solve. I hate it when it feels like going into a Saturday I’ll have to look up 2+ ridiculous answers per puzzle, so count me in the camp not at all bothered by the “Wednesday” difficulty of this Saturday puzzle.
Very quick for a Saturday. If I hadn't written IGUANA in the boxes where SENTRA belonged and failed to notice for a bit, it probably would have been my fastest ever. TORERO brings to mind a quote I copied from a letter to the editor in a local paper over 40 years ago, and still have posted at my desk. I think it was written in regards to a circus, but it fits so many other situations. "another example of mans selfish insistence upon exploiting modified animal behavior to suit his entertainment needs" Not even close to a fair fight. TOREROs should be ashamed of themselves.
Second week in a row where it felt like Friday was tougher than Saturday.
@Steve Looking at my log, Friday's required fourteen cheats, Saturday's needed nine. Saturday's was more enjoyable for me! (Looking further back, January 5th's puzzle needed twelve cheats, where as the following day's only needed four.) So, by my records, I would agree.