On Saturday, I want resistance. I want the puzzlemaker(s) to throw obstacles in my path, to entice me onto roads to nowhere, to cause me to forage for long-sleeping knowledge in my brain. I appreciate on Saturday a scattering of fairly crossed no-knows, but mainly I want tough figure-outs – knotty riddles – and vagueness that makes me wait for confirmation. I want that precious feeling of knowing that my brain is working on something but the light bulb hasn’t arrived yet, but also knowing it will if I take my attention elsewhere and let the brain keep working on its own. I want a fill-in that’s earned, that’s sparked by a staccato of ahas, that I leave walking a little taller. “Check!” on all that today. This was a beaut of a Saturday. It was brightened by seven first-time answers in the NYT puzzle, including the how-has-this-never-appeared-before BRAIN SURGERY, and the lovely UNDYING. I loved the palindromic pair of OMEN and NEMO, and the neighboring Scandinavian NILS and backward SAAB. Above all, I loved coursing through the Saturday experience I hope for and treasure. Congratulations, Carolyn, on your debut, and I bow to you, Jeff, not only for your skill, but for passing it on to others. Thank you both for a terrific outing!
"Fairly crossed no-knows" vs. "tough figure-outs". Thank you, Lewis, for capturing in a nutshell the big difference between a really wonderful puzzle and a much less wonderful one. It's all about what the solver's BRAIN is required to do -- or conversely, what the solver's BRAIN has no opportunity at all to do. And you make the excitement of the former palpable. I wish every constructor would study this instructive 2nd paragraph of yours today.
Nice - I did not need autocheck today, which is rare on a Saturday, and I only had to look up four trivia clues. I actually realized Panthers related to a sports team, and given how long the answer was, and with no indication that it would be an acronym or familiar name, I guessed it would be just a regular state or city name, rather than some college, so I waited for a few crosses, and I got CAROLINA. That was quite an achievement for me, since American sports clues are usually the hardest ones for me in these puzzles. To not have to look one up feels great 🤩. I ended up looking up ELKS LODGE - I got Lodge from crosses, but I had no idea what EL_S could be, and here the cross was not helping me. I also googled the composer, King Lear's daughter (Shakespeare is largely not included in highschool curricula over here - we only studied Macbeth and Hamlet, in Polish, obviously - and I am not a theatre afficionado) and TBS - I have never watched any American tv channels (I had better things to do when I was in the US on holiday, and most US tv channels are not available in Europe), and even though TBS often features in NYT puzzles, I have no idea what kind of channel it is. I enjoyed the clueing, which was inventive and misleading enough without being obnoxiously arcane, and the fact trivia was limited to an absolute minimum. A brilliant puzzle, one of the most enjoyable Saturdays I have ever solved 👍🏾.
@Andrzej Those of us, on this side of the pond, that follow your posts, are in awe of your dedication to solve, Kudos!
Not fair. I don’t need another word game. Warning: Don’t click on the Squeezy link. I repeat, whatever you do, don’t click on the Jeff’s “new invention” link. Who wants yet another addictive word game with a really cool concept, fun graphics and the satisfaction of Wordle and Connections combined upon completion. Sure, Jeff’s a nice guy and all and he deserves a cool mil or two from the NYT for the rights to his *highly addictive* new game. But don’t say you weren’t warned. Puzzle was a delight. For me, a lot like yesterday. Felt harder than it ended up being. Had to flyspeck because I carelessly filled in ASCENd instead of ASCENT and DEE (as in defense) seemed plausible, if awkward, for “Ball holder.” Given Jeff’s antics in a puzzle a few years ago (hiding “orgasm” in a diagonal string and then feigning innocence), once I had the SM at the end of what turned out to be CUBISM, I had to wonder if somehow “Angular movement” could describe that other . . . . SM. Was a little disappointed that I could not. Spectacular way to COME IN HOT, Carolyn. Great debut!
Over/under on how many months until NYT buys Squeezy, which all kidding aside is a great word game - as Caitlin wrote, “light and bright but challenging”? 4 months I’m going with the under. Hold out for $2M Jeff.
@Puzzlemucker I played a few rounds of Squeezy yesterday. It seemed a sort of cross between Wordle and a simple meta crossword.
It's so obvious I like watching neurosurgeons perform, that's brain to see. (But I keep a lobe profile.)
@Mike I like the way you always have a follow-up to your first pun. I guess when neuron a roll, you keep going. I would like to put an axon the emus.
@Mike You deserve some synapse for this one. 👏 👏 👏 👏
Mike, Your puns, they’re many wondrous and provocative things. And my take on today’s? Well it is certainly not chopped liver.
Did the constructors mean to hot box that south east corner? DAB KUSH in a CLOUD BANK? STOKED, speechless, IDLY watching reruns on TBS? Brought me right back to SDSU with my ROOMIEs. Challenging puzzle for me but very fun. Thanks, Carolyn Davies Lynch and, as always, Jeff Chen
A puzzle so hard it requires ROCKET SCIENCE and BRAIN SURGERY to solve? As always, it pays to START OUT SMALL.
For a puzzle that's essentially themeless, this has one of the great themes of all time: ROCKET SCIENCE crossing BRAIN SURGERY -- both clued as "What it's not, in a saying." Normally I'm not wild about super-vague clues, but this one works splendidly here. And the cluing is delicious: SHYNESS; ASCENT; CUBISM; TUMBLE; TSA. Delicious answers too: BS METER; CARNALLY; HAIL MARY. And I see only one name: WAYANS. And only one stupid car -- at least that's what I think it is: KIA RIO. Wow! Why can't everyone do that. My only nit: MEH as the answer to "whatevs". I would never say "whatevs" for MEH. But then I would never say "whatevs" for anything. A lovely puzzle that I found highly enjoyable.
@Nancy I immediately thought of meh but did actually fill it in until the very end. (I forgot to pad a comment yesterday, and the hungry emus pounced on it. Not making that mistake today. I hope this is enough to convince the emus that “these are not the droids you’re looking for”.)
"And I see only one name: WAYANS." Nancy, I gather RAE and SOLTI didn't register when you filled them from crosses? And I assume you were not counting names from literature. But I do agree with you: it was an enjoyable puzzle.
@Nancy can you explain TSA i don't get it
I hope a house falls on that Wicked Witch of the Southeast. cc: emu handler
@Steven yeah…that was the last area I beat…had a lucky aha moment with tirade and then everything fell into place.
@Steven You got that right. I was’t particularly fast today, but as I plodded along slowly I was pretty sure things were falling correctly into place. When I got to the Wicked Southeast, the last empty square was the _USH/_IARIO crossing. Somehow my brain wasn’t recognizing the car model and I’d never run across the Cannabis term, so I did the “alphabet run” for my first time ever. On my 18th letter entry I got the music. Fun way to end a puzzle, but a DOH moment!
Congratulations on a fine NYT debut, Ms Lynch! Like Caitlin, I found this one easy to get started, but more challenging towards the end. The SE corner in particular seemed to resist everything I tried there, even though my early guesses of DAB ON and IDLY turned out to be correct. Eventually, that odd-looking -IA- gave me KIA RIO, which led to KUSH (which I know only by name) and a splat of final answers. I enjoyed the pairing of ROCKET SCIENCE and BRAIN SURGERY. Those were once would-be theme entries in a puzzle I never made because I couldn’t think of any similar metaphors for smarts. Thanks for the fun, y’all!
I had to come here to say how much I liked ‘shear terror’ (BAAS). But ROCKET SCIENCE and BRAIN SURGERY were pretty cute too.
A really sharp, complex and impressive puzzle that was fun and challenging. A first timer gives us a Saturday?? Wowwwww.
Too much KUSH and all your GNOSIS is,,,,,,, My cousin, works for NASA, has a tee shirt that reads: "actually I am a Rocket Scientist." Nice one Carolyn and whats his name.
@dk I toured NASA, and regret not buying the tee that read "Actually, it IS rocket science". another good one was "Come to the dork side. We have pi."
Woah. One of the most clever, smoothest, challenging, and somehow…effortless…(?) Saturday puzzles I can recall. How? How was I squinching my nose, furrowing my brow, but just plopping in letters like it was full of easy fill, when there was almost no fill to find? Pucker precipitators at a pub Cries of shear terror Like zombies and some love… Come. On. I’m calling this one “silky smooth.” I flew through it like sledding down a hill. And I’m no rocket surgeon. 👏 👏 👏
I wanted 36A to be SET THE BAR LOW (my personal motto for 2021) but it’s a letter short. But I knew this puzzle was talking right to me when, (in addition to the plethora of pot references: “HAIL MARY Jane” indeed🤣), “Plan” turned out to be DIET. My 2023 resolution was to lose one pound a week—and not exceed that goal. I gave up gluttony, being sedentary, and eating fast. And gained 52 pounds of lightness. Word play helps me. WASTE excess food, don’t WAIST it. It’s ridiculous, but sitting in hunger for an hour (hadn’t felt that since about 1975) made me realize every tummy rumble isn’t a starvation alert. I don’t over eat now because I might get hungry later. Pot has fewer calories than alcohol, so I relabeled “the munchies” as something else. I have a glass of wine, but not three Manhattans. No tricks, no draconian prohibitions. Eat anything, but not everything at once. After four decades of failing at every diet plan on the market, I had a little win, week after 52 weeks, and I feel like a big winner. This year’s goal is a pound per month. Eat a little less and move a little more = gain lightness.
@Jennifer Love it! Yay, you! I feel like normalizing my relationship with food has been integral to all kinds of positive changes for me in recent years. Emus, you should be more discriminating in your appetites as well!
@Jennifer Congratulations!! It's amazing how we can shift our thinking, even after decades of ingrained diet aphorisms and resulting habits (that should have set off the BSMETER-!). For me, part of it has been finding the things that move me, literally -- what doesn't feel like an exercise *chore* but rather contributes to joy... Its own kind of "lightness"! It became especially important once I was no longer commuting; even those subway stairs 10x a week can be something when compared to the couch! I love the wordplay you've incorporated. And I'm so curious what "the munchies" transformed to!
Glad to see another new constructor. Looking forward to more from Ms. Lynch. As to my solve - will just say that sometimes it's better to be lucky than good. Just made my best guess in more than a few places and was surprised to finish successfully. That's all on me - very nice puzzle. First side note: COMEINHOT has a somewhat different meaning in the military. In my case it meant arriving on a helicopter while under fire. And... I'm sure some will be surprised to know that if you have to jump out of a chopper before it actually touches down in those circumstances, you get an air medal. Sorry for the drift. Some rather surprising 15 letter finds today; I'll put all that in a reply. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: Answer history search today was inspired by UNICORN and an old song (not sure if it will be familiar to the younger generation). Anyway... much to my surprise, all of the following are 15 letters: GREENALLIGATORS LONGNECKEDGEESE HUMPYBACKCAMELS SOMECHIMPANZEES And then... based on another line in the song, I wondered about YOUAINT. And, the only appearance of that string in any puzzle was a 21 letter answer in a 1992 Sunday puzzle: YOUAINTHEARDNOTHINYET I wonder how many will remember any of that. I'll shut up now. ..
Good morning Rich, I saw COMEINHOT last night (and Caitlin's take on it), but I waited for you to comment since you had more experience than I did with hot LZs.
Some thoughts based on yesterday's comments: 1. Lately, there have been quite a few people counting and criticizing the number of proper names in the puzzle. Crosswords always have had proper names in them, and the ratio of proper names to other entries has never been lower. In fact, in the olden days, many of those proper names were obscure rivers and other geographic features, names of species of plants and animals, etc. Modern crosswords rely on more current proper names, and perhaps that's some people's problem. They don't know them, and they'd rather have the obscure rivers, which they don't think of as proper names, since what they really mean is pop culture names. (See clue 1A, Day 1. Then see 113A, 84D, 137D and 141D.) <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/15/1942" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=2/15/1942</a> ). I guarantee you, most people wouldn't. 2. Someone wisely said yesterday that "What I know < what I don't know". However: You can get to the point where what you know that will help you solve a crossword will be more than the number of answers you flat-out don't know until you get a slew of crosses. For example, I flat-out didn't know SUNK COST FALLACY yesterday (although it seemed many others did). But I did know enough cross answers that it all fell into place. The puzzle favors the knowledgeable, but even the less knowledgeable can get there with enough practice. But if you didn't know DOC MARTENS, TUCSON, TOTO and a few others because of your aversion to proper nouns, you won't get there.
@Steve L I didn’t see yesterday’s comments. And I don’t tend to comment on the content of puzzles…because at heart I want to believe that all words are fair game. And I certainly have minimal beef with any proper nouns. However….it seems to me that there have been some pretty obscure proper nouns recently. I realize that there can be a debate about what obscure means…AND sometimes I wonder if it’s just me getting older and missing things that a younger generation might know easily….But even with that I still feel that there may be some pretty obscure names coming from one of the multitudes of entertainment channels which now exists. Just because a proper noun has appeared on a program on a streaming service…or a tv show…It doesn’t mean that it’s widespread enough that it rates being a clue in the puzzle.
@Steve L You also have to accept that people may justifiably not like something that is not objectively wrong. I know it is virtually impossible to construct an American-style crossword without any trivia (the need to check all squares often necessitates the use of some weird letter combinations, which do not occur in natural language) - I know this, but I don't have to like it, and I don't. And, in fact, if we do have to have trivia clues, I would prefer geographical names to obscure entertainment and cultural references I will never care about some person who does something I don't care about, either, but a river is a river, it has been there for millenia and will remain there, and I may even see it one day, so why not learn the name people currently know it by? I have to google obscure trivia, anyway, so why not google something I care about? I have already forgotten the name of the composer I googled today. If Chicago had a river and I learned it name today, I would be much more inclined to remember it for longer.
This puzzle solved faster than Friday. But I still ran into a snag in the NE where I had GDP for 10A, PAEDIA for 12D, and DNA___ for 11D. A lesson that is oft repeated here? Dump the entries you have and start over if the crosses aren't coming together. Finally I saw CAROLINA and TRIAL RUNS, and then UNICORN and MODULE. Happy music! Like many Saturdays, sometimes you START OUT SMALL, but eventually there is an ASCENT and you COME IN HOT. Maybe it's not ROCKET SCIENCE or BRAIN SURGERY after all.
@Henry Su My time was about two-thirds of my Friday time. I don’t much follow sports, but CAROLINA was one of the first entries I got, and it really pulled the NE corner together. I know GNOSIS mainly from “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,’’ in which one of Hedwig’s protégés has the stage name “Tommy Gnosis.” By one of those weird crossword coincidences, I ran across some variation of GNOSIS in another puzzle that I solved today.
@Eric Hougland Yeah, GNOSIS seems straightforward (see pro- and dia-) but not when you're seeing GDP for 10A. PAEDIA is a close cousin -- not" knowledge" in the pure sense but "education." Bit that's what Saturdays are for.
When I rocketed down the grid from top to bottom, with maybe three small fills, I thought, aha, one of those puzzles where I'd just START OUT SMALL, spend a couple of minutes to get my bearings, and I'd be up and away. Uh, no. Talk about tough—this one I needed pitons, crampons, wedges, whatever gear I could find to claw my way to the top of this craggy devil. I TUMBLEd down myriad pitfalls and slippery slopes, all of which left me sprawled in the SE corner, but finally, when I dusted myself off and managed to summit the sucker, the climb was worth it. Thank you, Jeff Chen, for guiding Carolyn Davies Lynch up the path to a terrific construction, and thank you Ms. Davies, for your eagerness to take the journey. I'm glad you're hooked. It means we'll see more.
Seems we've a lot of the Elks lately--soon the Lions, Moose, Eagles, Rotarians, and Freemasons will be clamoring for equal airtime. Not to mention the (Royal Antediluvian Order of) Buffaloes, over where they work cryptics whilst listening to their BBC programmes. Hi Caitlin! I connect the term "Hail Mary pass" with the Notre Dame Fighting Irish (whose players were more likely to go on to join the K of C), and apparently it does stem from the 1930's. although, per Wikipedia, the first published use is in reference to a game between the OSU Buckeyes and the (Jesuit) Georgetown Hoyas. Still, that's a lot of Latin to mutter under your breath, in not very much time. Sophia before Gnosis--but just knowing things doesn't make one wise. Living in Detroit with a Partner who's a car nut, no deke on 46D--other than trying Sonata (Accent would work as well) before realizing the answer was both *make and* [model]. Normally, puzzles will bring to mind music, Popular or Classical. Today's evoked an image: an Old Friend from the Cleveland Museum of Art, whom I visit every time I return. <a href="https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.60" target="_blank">https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1943.60</a>
@Bill Thanks for linking to that beautiful painting.
@Bill One of my father's favorite paintings--grew up with a reproduction of it on our walls. Never knew the title or artist until now!
@Bill Thank you for sharing this beautiful painting. It looks almost exactly like the intersection down the road from my family’s farm.
Nice smooth solve for my 54th birthday :-) My no-lookups, no-hints streak is now up to 171; hope to make it to (at least) 365! I plan to try creating crosswords myself someday, but for now I'm just enjoying my daily solving habit.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Happy birthday! Give construction a try. It can be frustrating, but it’s a great feeling when an editor accepts your puzzle. Good luck!
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Congratulations and happy birthday!! .
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Please do, Pax. I bet your puzzles will be fab. and Happy Birthday! -- cue emu chorus --
Cries of shear terror? Made me sheepishly grin.
I do sincerely hope that this crossing of BRAIN SURGERY and ROCKET SCIENCE is a nod to the fantastic Mitchell and Webb skit of similar theme. Fun side tangent: my father was often fond of the Spoonerism “it’s not exactly rocket surgery,” an aphorism that I couldn’t help but use myself.
@Edward -- The skit's hilarious. I went to YouTube to find it and I'm posting it here for everyone to enjoy: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THNPmhBl-8I</a>
Today's puzzle brought to you by Cheech and Chong
As a sweeping generalization, I'm finding Saturdays are usually my least enjoyable puzzle day, though I still like to do with them because I want to keep getting better all around. It's just that I like themes and I like fun tricks so sometimes Saturday with their increased difficulty and lack of theme and tricks, often just feel sloggy to me. This one felt different to me! It felt more light-hearted! Maybe I just jived with it a little bit more, I'm not sure, but I enjoyed the clues and the spanners a lot! It felt very clean and light -- and approachable, despite its difficulty. Once I finally gave up on sleeper in the NW, I had only the SE, which was definitely a big struggle! I had ids instead of OKS, I regret to say that I've never heard of KUSH, had sedona instead of KIA RIO, tried pat on, rub in, etc... pretty much everything except DAB ON. Curses and swears instead of TIRADE. Yeah, it might not have been ROCKET SCIENCE or BRAIN SURGERY but that was a tough little corner for me! Still, I have zero cross words to say about it! Thanks for a fun puzzle - a favorite Saturday!
@HeathieJ I feel like I could have written this comment - same sentiments here. :) That SE corner was tough. Got the rest of it and then got hung up there.
@HeathieJ I feel the same way about Saturday puzzles…like taking medicine but certainly no fun, and I agree that this one was much less of a slog. The SE corner was the last to fall for me as well.
No question this is the best so far this year, and maybe last year. I got almost nothing at the beginning. When I completed it, I realized how much fun it is when the pace accelerates to lightning speed at the end. Some VERY clever cluing.
I’m heartened to know that many of the evening solvers found the SE corner troublesome. I stumbled by trying pat on rather than DABON and, although I got the KIA, I had no idea it was a RIO. Thank heaven for crosses! That was quite a collection of Ks (KIARIO, STOKES, ELKSLODGE) but in the end I was OK with it.
The keyboard in the app wouldn’t let me key in γνῶσις. I think this is going to end my streak. . . [emu scrap here]
@Sam Lyons: Well, one time I switched my phone language to Greek (wanted to type one word), and then was in a pickle because all the apps and everything were Greek! It was all Greek. Including the steps needed to get it back to normal. So beware, although since you know Greek maybe you’d enjoy it?
@Cat Lady Margaret You don’t have to change your entire phone’s operating system language to Greek to add Greek as an available keyboard.
I can't use the saying "It's not BRAIN SURGERY" with my brother, the neurologist. I'm met with a roll of the eyes and a snarky "You'd be amazed how easy BRAIN SURGERY actually is." Having learned my lesson at long last, I now say "It's not ROCKET SCIENCE" and am now met with an entertained smile. As for the puzzle, it felt like ROCKET SCIENCE in the NW, my last quadrant to fall, until ART came to me and I scrapped "hanS" as the common Scandinavian name. After that, it all fell into place, easy as BRAIN SURGERY. Congrats, Ms. Davies Lynch (on your debut) and Jeff Chen, both, on a really wonderful puzzle that kept me on my toes all the way through, with a perfect balance of challenging and satisfying. Thank you!
@sotto voce That’s a funny story about your brother the neurologist. However, I’m utterly amazed he would say such a thing. There’s a heck of a lot more involved in neurosurgery than neurology and the training period is almost twice as long, even without a fellowship. It sounds cute, but he’s not being realistic.
@sotto voce Whenever I hear “brain surgeon,” I think of ex presidential candidate Ben Carson. Some people can be good at one thing, and yet…
Terrific debut, Carolyn! If Jeff had to step away from xwordifo to mentor people like you (and to work on his new game), I guess I can accept that loss. For me, this wasn't quite as tough as Fridays, but it still put up a good struggle. My insistence on idS over OKS at 39 A made the SE harder than it needed to be. Once I gave up on that, things moved along. I loved the duplicate clues and crossing of BRAIN SURGERY and ROCKET SCIENCE. "Victor's crow" had me wondering if there was a literary character with a crow I was supposed to know, so when I got it, it felt like I WON. Sadly, no ICE HUTs around here this year.......
Wow. Very good puzzle - difficult because of the wordplay, not because of artificial esoterica. Thought the lower right corner was going to do in my streak, but finally got it. Congratulations on an excellent debut.
Haley's Comet, to some: TYPO.
@Mr Mark It's Halley's in the app (correct spelling). Did the print edition have Haley's? ... ... Extra words.
@Mr Mark I have a comment that is currently being held up by the emus expressing the fact that I didn't get your joke. When it comes though, ignore it. I get it now, and it was very funny. Thanks.
Wow, was this one in my wheelhouse; sub 30 minutes, despite watching Premiere League at the same time. "Angular movement" for CUBISM was my favorite, after the 2 crossers everyone else mentioned. Fun stuff: Georg SOLTI had the record for the most Grammys, with 31. Beyonce just passed him (last week?) with 32. Interesting that those two entries crossed. I dare say, this was an art-full puzzle.
@Grant The CUBISM clue/answer was my favorite, too. But just wow for your factoid bit there. Makes me very glad to have continued to scroll past marijuana bickering and everything else to get here (and more than 6 hours after you posted, to boot). It's the kind of xword serendipity that gives me goosebumps! Thanks!! Hopefully that's enough to get past the emus...
I never get the Saturday puzzle. Today I got the Saturday puzzle. Either I'm getting smarter or this one was easier than usual. I suspect the latter. But thanks anyhow. It made my day.
@Phil I think you're getting better. This was not one of the easy ones as far as I'm concerned. Congratulations - I'm sure you'll have many more Saturday successes.
@Phil nope. You're getting better. My usual solve time for Saturday is around 45 minutes. Today it was over an hour.
"I built a scaffold of entries pretty easily, but took a long time to fill in all the empty patches." I find that most crossword hurdles are difficult to describe succinctly with maximum vocabulary accessibility (to wit: the fullness of the sentence proper avec parenthetical). Deftly described and economized, Caitlin.
What a great puzzle! Sailed through in Wednesday-level time much to my surprise. Looked impenetrable at first, but once I got a smattering of crosses the whole thing flowed together. Amazing that a debut constructor came in hot🔥with a Saturday puzzle. Congratulations!
@momonjava I liked it too. But as so often happens I was my own worst enemy, keying 'shynees' by accident. It cost me five minutes of search since it was in the lower right.
Loved this puzzle and found it more "doable" than yesterday's. I did have trouble getting into the NW and SE corners though... had to take more than one break. Loved the two "What it's not, in a saying" words! Both were kind of obvious. Anyway, good day. Thanks, Carolyn and Jeff!
Nice puzzle today - SE corner was a little rough, taking about a third of my solving time, but I'm not complaining. I really liked the twin clues - very fun solve. A note, for those who don't know and may care. KUSH is a strain, and it has middle-high levels of THC if grown to maximize it, but can be found with a wide range of THC levels. KUSH doesn't mean high THC. An alternate, accurate answer with that "k" would be Kine or Kind, which specifically means strong cannabis. All that said, I figured the constructors wanted KUSH and put it in with no qualms. As people say, it's a clue, not a definition.
Another excellent (semi-) debut. Like many others, I put IDS in 39A, and twisted myself in knots for a good long while before I gave it up for OKS, after which the SE relented fairly quickly. "Pass on a wing and a prayer" (54A) was a particularly delicious clue, but the whole puzzle was a winner, IMNSHO. Great debut, Ms. Lynch--thanks for your perseverance--you created a gem. And thanks as always to the estimable Mr. Chen, both for his contributions to this puzzle and to his continuing generosity to the puzzling community by helping to develop new stars.
Excellent puzzle. Challenging but solvable.
Unfortunately, I lack the persistence of our debut co-constructor and threw in the towel in the SE corner. Just too many other tasks tugging at the brain so pulled up the solution page and kinda glad I did. Don't want to fall victim to the SUNK COST FALLACY :) Terrific puzzle and many thanks.
This was --for me-worlds easier and more accessible and fun compared to yesterday's. (I also got some real sleep and feel the tiniest bit better despite trying to cough up my socks.) LOVED the (not new but never old) 'sayings' --in many iterations, often used in our house, which is populated by aging folk who were once smarter than a bag of hammers. It's discouraging to find the level of dumbth getting ever deeper. Fave entry: CLOUD BANK.... for whatever reason, the CLOUDs wherever I've lived have been a fascination. Which reminds me..._CLOUD Atlas _ was a wonderful and unique read .Highly recommended.
@Mean Old Lady Glad you are feeling better. Cloud Atlas is wonderful, I agree. Did you see the film as well?
This puzzle EMBEDded the classic advice for all us NYT xword solvers: START OUT SMALL with the Monday puzzles, and soon enough you'll be doing ROCKET SCIENCE and BRAIN SURGERY in the latter part of the week. Thanks, Carolyn, and Jeff. Adopt some SHYNESS, emus.
I really liked the BBC brain surgery rocket science clip. Thanks.
The clue for 21 across is genius. I couldn't get it, but got all the down crossings that revealed it... I laughed out loud when I saw the answer.
I was cruising through this one until I got to the SE corner (the NW had a little bite, but not that much, mostly because I had EYE for "Ball holder" [TEE] and LARS for the Scandinavian name [NILS]). In the SE, I had IDS for OKS (Licenses, perhaps) and STUNNER for SHYNESS (It may leave you speechless). I knew KUSH, but wanted to spell it with a C, like the ancient African kingdom. I kneew 46D was going to be a car model, but I was thinking of longer make names like OPTIMA rather than KIA something. Aside from DAB ON, the other across clues were just...vague. Deciding that ELD... didn't look like the start of a club name, I reconsidered IDS, and once I realized that "licenses" in the clue was a verb, not a noun, I got OKS, and thus ELKS CLUB, and then everything else fell into place. I have some general things to say about yesterday's puzzle, too, but that'll be in a separate comment.
@Steve L I had almost the same experience. Couldn't let go of IDs for a long time. I confess to going to the wikipedia pages for both Hyundai and Kia. I can't say I remember the RIO at all. Once the grid was filled in - no music. Had to flyspeck to find NErO instead of NEMO. Good Saturday puzzle.
@Steve L I didn’t enter idS because I assumed it was bait. For some reason, with just the CL in place I got CLOUDBANK, which gave me IDLY, DABON, and—out of nowhere—KUSH (thank you, Oscar Wilde?) And yet—and yet!—it took much too long (had to come back to it) to get from debAtE to TIRADE and SlaKES to STOKES. I was convinced there had to be a three-letter KIA other than the RIO and after letting go errorS that were not only human, I just wasn’t seeing the BEINGS. I’ll take Carolyn and Jeff’s word for it that UNICORNs are graceful. I’d think with that narwhaly thing up there they’d run into a wall now and then, no? All in all, an excellent challenge with fantastic clueing.
Excellent, excellent puzzle. Thank you! The long crosses reminded me of one of the funniest comedy sketches ever - where an obnoxious brain surgeon smugly annoys everyone at a cocktail party, until a rocket scientist arrives. Worth a watch. Brain Surgeon - That Mitchell & Webb Look , Series 3 - BBC Two
@Brendan You should look at the column!
@Brendan, Thanks for this. Very funny!!
@Brendan Caitlin actually embedded that clip in the column. I had never seen it, and did enjoy it. I had never heard of the show, and when I looked it up it seems Olivia Colman was a regular (albeit not in that sketch).
Congratulations Carolyn! I loved the “what it’s not” cross through the middle. The NW really had me in a bind for the longest time. 1D- “sleeper” was my first entry which triggered a major obstacle that took quite some time to unravel. COMEINHOT was new to me and, not being a pub aficionado (I’m more of a cocktail guy), SOURBEERS just sounded like lots of green paint. And I was torn between “olaf” and “sven” (“Frozen” anyone?) NILS wasn’t even on the radar. Thank goodness for IBID and MEH. Those led me to —-FILM and I finally untangleled myself.
@James Morgan, SOUR BEER is a real thing. A whole subclass of beers with a particularly sour taste, in different flavors. Not my cup of tea.
This was tricky and I’m amazed I managed to come in under my average time. A hint to British solvers: the answer to 7 across is not what you think, and is highly offensive in US English. Language, eh?
@Jonathan Baldwin Ref #7 across: It is? Pray tell. I've rustled sheep on both sides of the big pond and have yet to get into a punch up over a CIG. Even that lexicographical cesspit Urban Dictionary did not clarify your intimation...
This was one where, on my first read through the clues, I thought I was well and truly finished, streak over! I got a little foothold in the NW corner, though, and it unfolded really beautifully from there. That's a gratifying solving experience! I'm really loving the freshness of puzzles by debut constructors. Thank you for persevering!