HI-HOS on Friday after H(EI)GH HOS on Thursday. What will the Seven Dwarves say on Saturday??
@Calvin came here to recommend the first comment I saw that mentioned this!!!!
@Calvin It’s ____ ____ ____ we go. HOMEFROMWORK
@Calvin - I'm holding out for a good old-fashioned Cab Calloway Hi-De-Ho.
Not sure how I feel about Ares being hinted with Marvel. Marvel has very famous and prominent deities with 4 letter names - Thor, Odin, Loki - all appearing across several movies and TV shows. Ares only appears in the comics. And Ares appears in DC movies, in probably their biggest hit at that, Wonder Woman. I don't think he ever makes an appearance in a Marvel movie. His presence is much more prominent in the DC universe, and predates the Marvel Ares by over 2 decades. Yes, on a technicality, Ares is in the Marvel Universe, but unless this was a deliberate choice to mislead, it should either be DC Universe, or at the very least, both the Marvel and DC Universes.
@Ayush I'm pretty sure it was a deliberate choice to mislead. I wrote in "Thor" first. There are many ways to clue ARES, this is the most obscure one I've seen. ..................................................
@Ayush I don't care for Marvel or DC, and I thought the answer may be Thor (that much I do know about the comics/films), but I also considered that would be too easy for Friday. When crosses gave me _R_S, I entered ARES, because it fit, and it worked. I was a bit surprised as I was expecting some Norse deity, but in the end I did not find the clue especially difficult or tricky.
@Ayush I would imagine that Marvel is a bigger NYT advertiser than DC, so it makes sense to me they'd clue with Marvel here.
"Galactic scale?" giving LIBRA is wonderful, an absolute highlight of this crossword for me. The ensuing cry that accompanied my forehead slap was somewhat less polite than DUH though...
Very smooth. Very approachable. Weintraubian. This puzzle filled itself in. I kinda wished someone who was new to xwords was watching me, so I could impress them with my incredible solving skills. I'm conditioned to enter DoH over DUH. And first put HoHOS (shoutout Santa), over HIHOS. END.OF.RANT and STAYCATION were the highlights for me. This puzzle was so nice, I have nothing else to say. I'm satisfied. Thank you, Jacob.
Deb, money well spent. The Overstory is a fine novel, and very affecting; there is quite a bit of sadness in its leaves, be forewarned, and while trees tie the book together, it is the varied stories of the humans that is most captivating. I hope you like it! Liked the AHA MOMENT followed by SAY AH and that I was tempted to put ALCOHOL (same number of letters) as being responsible for making a drink alcoholic (and for that matter, making an alcoholic drink), like it was so obvious that maybe I was overthinking the overstory here. Like "DIJH." But in the end the music played without so much as a slur. I'm a little tired of ERTE being the only Deco artist permitted in these puzzles (perhaps CASSANDRE, LALIQUE or the sometimes used ICART), yet ERTES over TREES is so fetching an anagram that it was a beaut. And steep, soak, in hot water. Cuppa tea, Mr. Hyde? I had to laugh seeing MAGE as answer to "good speller," mainly because Puzzlemucker tinkered with that one a few days ago when the puzzle had all those wonderful --ER misdirects and puns. If I remember, PM's was "bad speller" ... Crazy how that happens! The stores analogy seems a little outdated. I would say Chain Store:: David; AMAZON:: Goliath would be more truthful. 1990's calling: they want their clue back. Say, ah...I should let it ride. This one definitely passes the smell test, and I'm a guy who gags around oinks and mulch. Anyway this was double OK by me, nothing kinda sorta about it. Plus, tatertots!
@john ezra 1990s calling: they want their Sears back before it was wantonly stolen by a greedy CEO. It could have easily been Amazon's rival with a bit of chutzpah.
@john ezra 1990s calling: Sears could have been a solid rival had it not been subverted by a greedy CEO of limited vision. If only....
@john ezra You've got to remember, it's the NEW YORK Times. NYC has had a long-standing tradition of mom-and-pop stores, which is to this day still holding up to a greater extent against the big chains. To date, there isn't a single Walmart in NYC.
How many people had "doh" instend of "duh" initially? I really enjoy this kind of thinking. But now...I am out of exuses to avoid working.
When actors play cards, they get a movie deal. (This pun just suits me.)
@Mike Was that one of your finnessed puns?
@Mike Just agentle reminder that they have help (that they pay for). I bid for no emus.
@Mike Auntie Em, says, " Feed the pot."
Was the analogy format weird to anybody else? Normally you put things that are directly related to each other on one side, and then the analogous pair on the other- so more like: Goliath : David :: ________ : Mom-and-pop shop There's no particular relationship between mom-and-pop shops and the name David. I got what they were going for, but it just didn't seem to be formatted properly.
@Dave something was nagging at me about that. You put your finger on it.
Dave, Deb was told there would be no math. She was told there would be emus, but in those days the emus had other functions.
@Dave My hangup with that one was that David beat Goliath by being nimble and clever. That occasionally works in the business world, but it's usually the other way around. I miss my local hardware store.
Due to mistakenly typing a Z in the first square for 66A, I was all ready to answer "breakout group" with ZITS. Future constructors, you may have that clue if you like.
@Teresa When I read the clue, my first thought was ACNE.
One of the rare occurrences where world capital is an actual location and not a currency
@REM215 ...and the 15 people so far who have recommended their comment: Actually, of the 100 clues in the Shortz era containing the phrase "world capital" (verbatim), NONE of the answers had anything to do with currency. Source: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/SearchClues" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/SearchClues</a> Common answers were DOHA, OSLO, ROME, HANOI, and several others. Almost all the answers were the capital cities themselves, with just a few like "'World Capitals' for 200, ___" (ALEX) and "Govt. facility in most world capitals except Washington" (USEMBASSY). What you're conflating it with are clues like "Capital of Italy" (EURO), "Capital of Washington" (ONES), etc. And even those are exceedingly rare, with most answers to such clues just what you'd think they would be (there have been five normal answers since the last currency one, and 15 between that one and the one before it). The trick is that it's so rare that it throws you when it appears. Not trying to burst your bubble, but it may help solvers on future puzzles to realize this.
Felt KINDASORTA like a Wednesday. Galactic scale is a brilliant clue and made me guffaw when I got it. But When you want to keep a bet going, you LET IT RIDE. When you're not bothered by something you LET IT slide. END OF RANT. I don't want to get IN HOT WATER.
@MikeW I think you've been unaware that LET IT RIDE is used the way the clue says: <a href="http://tinyurl.com/3tad8pru" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/3tad8pru</a> But I'll LET IT RIDE.
Please go down to the busiest intersection in your city with a pen and paper and ask 1000 random people if they know what an "Eli" is, and afterwards, when literally not one person has said yes and probably 970 of them have just stared at you in bemusement, please consider not using this alleged word in crosswords anymore.
@Wr yeah, it’s stupid, along with “tec” for detective, which nobody ever said in anything remotely resembling real life. It’s a crossword word. Fortunately this puzzle has a minimum of them.
@Wr Eli, referring to a Yale student, has probably been in the puzzle 100 times. Besides, don’t you like to learn something?
@Wr Technically, we are called "sons of Eli", outside of crossword puzzles.
Personally, as a foreigner solving an American puzzle, I can't imagine a worse clue/answer combo than Bladderball players, historically: ELIS 🤣. That hit me below the belt, many times and in especially cruel ways. Alas, such are the consequences of being me and doing NYT crosswords. But dang, I am impressed by how totally arcane that thing was for me. Bladderball, ELIS... The only Elis I know is the ancient Greek city that for centuries organised the games at Olympia, and that did not help here, at all. I would have preferred a question about the city 😃. That being said, this was a nice puzzle. I enjoyed the clueing, even if I did have to turn on Autocheck to efficiently deal with some alphabet runs.
Oh, could somebody please explain SLUR as clued? I got it from crosses but I would like to understand what was going on there. . . . . Do emus slur?
I guess I’m the odd one out because I stumbled a bit with this puzzle (although I still enjoyed the challenge). I think these subzero temps this week have frozen my brain.
@Jen You’re not alone — the NW corner confounded me! Until eventually I had my own AHAMOMENT and unraveled it, but well past my usual time. I’m down to blame it on the freezing temps too :)
Interesting about UPS drivers. ELKS sounds a little funny to me but it is valid. The plural can be ELKS or ELK and I’m used to the latter. Gold star for me, which is unusual for a Friday, but still a good brain teaser. Nice puzzle.
I spent most of the puzzle feeing like I was completely stuck and like I was flailing with my guesses, but still ended up finishing below my average time. I guess I must have had an aha moment at some point. Something I really liked about this puzzle: it uses a lot of phrases, expressions, etc., which can sometimes be an issue. These all felt idiomatic and well clued, though, which meant that when they clicked, they clicked.
@PC Although I was a bit confused by 35A after getting it from crosses. Are hihos used as a greeting very much? No doubt one of the crossword lore masters knows how and where. I can’t find much usage beyond references to heigh-ho, which isn’t a greeting. I guess if you saw a group…never mind.
So, as an Eli who was at Yale during bladderball days ... it was crazy! The bladderball was huge, I don't know where it was stored but once a year they would inflate it and roll it out onto the Old Campus a huge green in a quadrangle surrounded by freshmen dorms. All Yale undergrads were affiliated with one of the (then) twelve residential colleges, and there were some rivalries. So the actual bladderball event basically consisted of masses of people, some in t-shirts affiliated with their colleges, shoving this massive ball around. I think the eventual goal was to roll it all the way to the President's house, about 1/2 mile away. In my time there was a rivalry between my college (Saybrook) and the next college over (Branford) in which, on bladderball weekend during brunch, some Branford students sneaked into our dining hall and opened the windows looking out onto the Branford green, where Branford students with fire extinguishers filled with fish juice were waiting to spray the concoction into the dining hall. I remember our Master and Dean and several other people got splashed. I got fish juice on my favorite winter coat! The following year, a group of 12 Saybrook students took revenge, but they went way over the line (I'll spare you the details); I think all were suspended, a couple had lawyer parents and sued, and it was a big mess. That was around 1977. So, not the proximate cause of Bladderball being canceled in 1982, I don't think. "Fun" memories!
I was definitely not on the constructor’s wavelength tonight. After trying the acrosses, I was nearly blinded by the glare from the remaining white squares, but I kept ATIT and had my flash of inspiration, or AHAMOMENT, if you will, and the puzzle came together nicely. I’ve obviously absorbed too much Simpsons-speak because I immediately entered doh instead of DUH, which kept me from identifying MULCH as the bed material in question. Ultimately the gardener in me prevailed, and those answers unlocked the SE and finished the job. I think the latest cold snap accompanied by our first measurable snow in quite some time will spell the end for the brave daffodil that bloomed just before Christmas and persisted into the new year. It’s not unusual for daffodils to be poking slightly above ground this time of year, but this is the first time in 30 years in Ardmore that one has actually bloomed before late February. A small collateral benefit of climate change I guess. I wonder if it will survive to next year without the benefit post bloom recuperation time.
@Marshall Walthew My kids and my nephew live in Philadelphia proper, and I'm amazed at how many times we've been there in the winter to see trees and such blooming in the winter (usually late in December or early in February). You might see the occasional misfire around here (northern NYC suburbs), but not the way I've noticed in Philly. Next thing you know, people will be attending playoff games in Buffalo in shorts and tees.
@Marshall Walthew Your post reminded me of something I loved at my old home in Milwaukee: daffodils right next to the house poking up little green shoots in February, in the worst of winter. I’ll plant some here for next year.
Sweet question-mark clues, my two favorites being [Break-in?] for STAYCATION and [Galactic scale?] for LIBRA Sweet first-time NYT answers, bringing freshness, my three favorites being HOME AT LAST, LOOKIE HERE, and MOVIE DEAL. Sweet veteran answers: SAY AH, LET IT RIDE, STAYCATION, KINDA SORTA, HIT A SNAG, IN HOT WATER, END OF RANT, THEOREMS, BALSAM. Sweet book, “The Overstory” – a rich slice of life and the world, beautifully written. Sweet solve for me, a lovely mix of pauses and Mazda moments (Zoom-Zoom). A puzzle I left with an “Ahh” and a contented smile, that is, a splendid outing. Thank you for this, Jacob.
@Lewis I always appreciate your comments. I've been solving NYT Xwords for so long that i've come to enjoy each one's personality.
Welp, my Comment has been flagged for a little scenario about our breakfast-table conversation. I used creative/innocuous spellings of two naughty words, and apparently the Emu Patrol caught on. My first entry was EEK! But after that I whipped through the puzzle despite so many Unknowns. Had a good time. Told that funny true story and am now sitting in the corner with my face to the wall contemplating my life of crime. I hope to atone for my manifest misdemeanors and be readmitted to the company of the righteous after I've served my sentence.
@Mean Old Lady Oh, wait! There is it, down below. (Maybe Emus know how to laugh?) Out of the corner and off to do the breakfast dishes!
The plural of “elk” is “elk.” The fraternal order would be a better clue for ELKS.
Mitch, If ELKS is not a valid plural, are you going to mention to them that they really should be the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elk? BPO Emu or Emus?
This was a very "talkative" puzzle. And by that I mean, it's packed with spoken phrases and sayings -- words that should be set apart by quotation marks: TMI HOME AT LAST I'M IN IN HOT WATER END OF RANT LOOKIE HERE SAY AH DUH HI HOS LET IT RIDE HOLD ON A SEC ACK I'M SET TSKS KINDA SORTA HIT A SNAG Maybe even AHA MOMENT. By contrast, there's very little culture -- ARES, ERTES, UTA, SNL, SEA, THY -- and the clues are pretty tame IMHO. Example: ARES - pretty much any god appears in the Marvel (or DC) universe; both comic book publishers like working in the pantheons as super-powered beings. Now they're just waiting for their MOVIE DEAL in the equivalent cinematic universe. A breezy Friday.
As a current ELI, I had never heard of bladderball. Filled it in with crosses, then had a huge DUH, AHA MOMENT! Read a fascinating wikipedia article on the subject (including failed attempts to resurrect the tradition): <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladderball" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bladderball</a> LOOKIE HERE, I'm graduating this May and even after 6 years at Yale, I'm still learning new things about its history. Pretty cool! Thanks Jacob for an excellent Friday. It was KINDASORTA brilliant!
@Another Eli Q: How do you know someone went to Yale? A: They'll tell you
@Another Eli As an old-time Eli I was there when bladderball was still around, but looked at the same Wikipedia article and was surprised to find that it had been canceled and also that students had stealthily tried to bring it back but were foiled by the New Haven PD. I mean, they should try doing it on another weekend, not the traditional one! But that reminds me of another event, Burning Man, which started on a beach here in San Francisco. I don't know which beach but when I found out about it, it was at Baker Beach (on the ocean side of the city) which is controlled by the National Park Service, and the Park Police don't play! The organizers of Burning Man thought that by having it early that year they could have the burn on the beach and the police wouldn't know about it. But ... they showed up, AFTER the structure had been doused in flammable fluid, and put a stop to the burn. One fanatic attendee tried to run forward and set it on fire but was tackled IIRC. Anyway I always wondered about the advisability of hauling away a ton of fuel-soaked wood, wouldn't it have been safer to just burn it? They moved to the Nevada desert after that, and Burning Man as most of America knows it, was reinvented and endures.
Good puzzle, but yes, by a reasonable standard, Ares is not in the Marvel Universe.
@Roy Yes, he is, since 1966. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ares_</a>%28Marvel_Comics%29
@Roy Ares is in the Marvel Universe; I remember him “replacing” Thor in the Dark Avengers storyline, post Secret Invasion.. But there are SO many gods from literature that exist, it makes NO sense to have used Ares for Marvel, rather than DC, because he’s much more prominent in DC. The answer to that clue should have been The One Above All.
Two wrongs don’t make a right, but three lefts do.
I was taught in a driving test I took in California many years ago that there were far more serious accidents turning left than right so best avoided if possible. Oh, the puzzle. My usual comment, found it even more difficult than usual for a Friday. I won’t rant about it however.
@suejean I had a work colleague/friend who avoided left turns at all costs and we used to discuss it. Her husband thought she was being silly. But I would avoid lefts when driving her, and came to see the benefits, especially here in S.F. I now also avoid lefts whenever possible. Btw, Yesterday evening about 7:30pm my time, I said 15A. :-)
@suejean my brother-in-law’s Dad had macular degeneration in his left eye…. At one point he drove from upstate NY to Miami only turning right. They took away his car soon after that
Deb, the wee pup BB notes with an ARF that all sports make up the rules as play proceeds, e.g. The NFL, MLB, Olympics, FIFA, etc., whose Byzantine rules she can't begin to follow, as she is far too busy marshalling the backyard squirrels. She also notes with pleasure the particularly clever clues in today's puzzle, which must have occasioned many EVIL LAUGHS among the puzzle team. Well done, and... Thanks for the fun.
Please tell me I wasn’t the only one who spent way too much time wondering what the OREMS are (5D), and why people cared if they were true. I did eventually have my 32A.
@G. L. Dryfoos you are most definitely not the only one. I stared and stared at it. Doh/Duh!
Friday fun!! The NW was very slow for me to get through until I had my AHA MOMENT and realized it was OK OK instead of OKay. I also kept trying to make 1D end with RAge instead of RANT. But I more than KINDA SORTA liked this puzzle! I desperately wanted Breakout group to be zits. I was quickly disabused of that idea but it did make me SAD to give it up. Similarly, yesterday, I desperately wanted Black and white dangers to be Oreos! Not much more dangerous than an open carton... unless it's tater tots! Here in MN, they've made an art form of tater tots as a crucial part of a main dish! My DUH moment was with Hog calls. I kept thinking of whinnies but that doesn't work. And for good reason! Ironically, I just got our granddaughter a Farm Sounds book this past weekend—where you look at the animal and press the corresponding sound button. I teased my husband for how much he liked going through the book but I probably should have followed his lead and brushed up on my farm animal sounds! DoH!! My favorite was Good speller! It took me a while because I immediately started thinking of Harry Potter references that would work so at least I was on the right track.
If you did not enjoy today's crossword, then you don't enjoy crosswords. Also, let me be the first (today) to ask, "When will the PuzzleMania winners be announced?" (or did I miss it?)
@Timothy One should win $1,000 just for finding it. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/crosswords/here-are-the-winners-of-the-2023-super-mega-contest.html?smid=nytcore-android-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/18/crosswords/here-are-the-winners-of-the-2023-super-mega-contest.html?smid=nytcore-android-share</a>
@Timothy Thanks for characterizing my antipathy towards this puzzle. I guess I just have to stop doing puzzles. And to think that for all of these years I thought I was enjoying it.
@Timothy Here's a link provided in a reply to my query to the Games folks. The game instructions had said the winners would be announced in WordPlay on 1/15, so I guess they had a change of plans: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/crosswords/puzzle-mania-faq.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/13/crosswords/puzzle-mania-faq.html</a>
That might be the hardest puzzle I ever solved without cheating. Diznang!
No rebuses. The comments should be quieter today. emus can rest
@Barry Ancona One presumes you had intended to write "rebi." : -) Fun puzzle today! Loved Galactic scale.
Was pretty stumped by the Marvel god reference for Ares. I guess he technically exists as all the pagan gods do but he's not very important
@Leah I was stumped, too. I'd associate Ares more with the DC Universe (Wonder Woman) than Marvel.
I predict this ends a streak of Fridays being harder than Saturdays
It took me a minute of two to get on Jacob's wavelength, but once I did, I flew through the grid. While I was puzzled at first, I found there really were no tricky clues. Lots of phrases, few proper nouns, KINDASORTA easy; definitely passes the SMELLTEST. ENDOFRANT
Jacob McDermott has provided us with a breezy, entertaining puzzle. 5-Down, viz. "They're proven to be true", whose answer was THEOREMS, got me thinking. Of course, the answer is correctly clued, but until 1993 there was a famous "theorem", Fermat's last theorem, (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_Last_Theorem" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermat's_Last_Theorem</a>) which defied proof since it was proposed about 358 years ago. Yet people continued to refer to this, once unproved statement, as a "theorem" because they were so sure that it was a true statement and, indeed, Andrew Wiles finally proved it circa 1994. One other somewhat related thought, very roughly speaking, there are true mathematical statements which provably "cannot be proved" in a very well-defined sense. Such statements are referred to as "undecidable statements (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G</a>%C3%B6del%27s_incompleteness_theorems)." So, in a very rough sense, these are "theorems" which cannot be proved.
@Neil Bellinson - as my math teacher colleague says at the end of his lecture on the topic: “Thus we see that it can be proved that it can’t be proved the it can be proved that 2+2 does not equal 5.”
I was steaming right along until I hit the southeast corner. Got hung up forever on SUPERSTORE and HANGONASEC.
I found this super easy for a Friday! I finished in just over 11 minutes. I felt like there must be a catch. Definitely felt more like a Wednesday. I usually count on Fridays to keep me busy longer. (Not a serious gripe, just very mild disappointment!)
This puzzle totally clicked for me - after a first pass through that yielded not so much, all those beautiful long answers just popped into my mind one after one, like they were already there. Then I HITASNAG, with my silly little 50A and 44D crossings all wrong, and my brain went out of sync. Fortunately it was just a couple of letters to sort out, and on my way to a nice clean solve, half my Friday average. Nice confidence restorer after a bit of a rough Thursday for me.
Really enjoyed this and it just flew by! Some fantastic clueing and some really enjoyable, silly answers. KINDASORTA HOLDONASEC CHAINSTORE Happy Friday all!
OKOK ACK! DUH! HOLDONASEC KINDASORTA NONO! HITASNAG AHAMOMENT IMSET HOMEATLAST! Could well describe my usual Friday solving experience. Actually, found this one pretty easy for a Friday. Wasn't thrilled by the fill, but, as shown above, it does provide this puzzle with a "theme" of sorts. Still dislike SAYAH, and to me BALSAM is a resin, though apparently some use it to mean balsam fir, one of my favorite TREES. "Not be bothered by something" for LETITRIDE doesn't work for me, though it would be a a good clue for "let it slide." ENDOFRANT seems more of a Thursday entry---as in "I hate rebus puzzles. They're not crossword puzzles. Those who construct them are lazy. Do better, or I'll cancel my subscription! ENDOFRANT.
EEK! Was my first thought upon perusing this puzzle. Rev counter? Car models. Marvel comics. Bladderball. The Zodiac. Fried side dish (of which there are thousands....) I can't exactly put my finger on when and how it unraveled, but suddenly the whole puzzle just went PFFT and I could hardly write fast enough. That was fun! But what am I supposed to do the rest of the day? DHubby: What is this charge on the Visa? MOL: My Christmas present. DHubs: For 23 dollars? MOL: Yeah, you cheap bastidge. (I had to do my own farggin' shopping. Ha-ha. I kid. We don't really do presents these days; you want something, go get it. But it never hurts to start the day off with a Gotcha....with thanks to the MOVIE "Johnny Dangerously" for the bowdlerized cuss words.)
@Mean Old Lady I loved Johnny Dangerously! "You lousy cork-soakers. You have violated my farging rights!"
@Mean Old Lady Bowdlerized cuss words would make such an interesting crossword puzzle!
@Mean Old Lady the rest of the day? Go to the archives, January 2008 is the same dates as this year so you can do another Fri Jan 18 puzzle (also 2019).
I really struggled closing this one out because of three fills… For the clue: “Cry that might accompany a forehead slap” I had DOH it originally fit and well Homer says it all the time.. So on the cross I had MO_CH for “bed material”. Going down was my third problem. I could not figure out what the “Galactic scale” Well, let me say when I realized my mistake on the “forehead slap” I said “DUH” and everything fell into place… Duh!!!!!
@Darren I'm a Libra but that didn't help with "Galactic scale" - it was one of my last fills.
“The elks, on the other hand, live up in the hills, and in the spring they come down for their annual convention. It is very interesting to see them come to the water hole. What they’re looking for is an elkahole.” — Julius (Groucho) Marx
Re Deb's comment in the column about spending too much money and shelf space on unread books, I've solved this problem by using my local library, which has an increasing number of digital titles on offer.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen I love public libraries on principle, but I love buying books like I love breathing.
Loved it, though that is typically what I think when an end of week puzzle is this easy.
Loved KINDASORTA. Tricky without being bogusly obscure, and a minimum of pop culture references (which I invariably have to look up). Me liked!
This was a fairly easy Friday, I only had to look up one answer which was SLUR. I had it filled in already but was sure it was wrong. I learned a new musical term today. :) I particularly enjoyed "Galactic scale?" for LIBRA, and "Break in?" for STAYCATION. I still need one really tough puzzle this week, let's see if it will be Saturday's!
First answer history search today was for the two strings: BETTERTOBE and LUCKYTHANGOOD Neither of those has ever been part of any answer in a puzzle and not even in the Xword Info word lists. Anyway... that nicely describes my solve. Actually a bit surprised that so many found this one easy. Tough workout for me and there are still some clue/answer combinations that I don't completely grasp. And... more than a bit surprised when I finished it successfully. A couple of 'unusual' (to say the least) puzzle finds today. Here's one: A Sunday from June 16, 1991 by Michael J. Parris with the title: "Comments on conjugality." All of the theme clues referenced marriage in one way or another. Theme answers: THEFIRSTBONDOFSOCIETY WEMAYREPENTATLEISURE COMETOLOOKALIKEATLAST POWERTOHANGONEANOTHER SHEWHOISBORNHANDSOME EVILBUTANECESSARYEVIL Wouldn't have had a chance in heck at that one. I'll put the other puzzle in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday puzzle from March 19, 1989 by Caroline G. Fitzgerald with the title: "Doin' the twist." One clue/answer example: "Betty Botta" BITOBETTERBUTTERBUYER The other theme answers: SEASHORESHELLSELLER PECKOFPEPPERSPICKER SOLDIERSSHIRTSSEWER SIGHINGSCISSORSSEIZER THISTLESSIFTER Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/19/1989&g=79&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/19/1989&g=79&d=D</a> ..