I do not think of BANC as a "Chaise alternative". This is because Chaise is my BANC. (Ducks and runs for cover.) !!!! !!!! !!!!
@Steve L Now Munster Mike has to come up with a new comment for this puzzle
I was not sure of many of my fills, but the app says I’m done, and who am I to question it.
Good puzzle. Seemed impossible at first.
Oh, the longs today, the luscious longs! There are 14 of them – answers eight letters or more – every single one of them pleasing. Oh, lovely shorts too – ON ICE, MOXIE, ESPRIT, ENOKI, HENNA. All smoothly woven into a low-count 70-word grid. It takes great skill to pull this off – the first-rate assembly and the beauty – without a hitch. Then, for icing, there’s the freshness. Six NYT debut answers that are so, so good: ALL OPPOSED, COMMIT TO THE BIT, CREEPY CRAWLIES, GO OBSOLETE, SILENT DISCO, and SPY SHIP. Wow! And the Goldstein wit, cluing UNO as the last countdown word before “Feliz año nueve!” – chef’s kiss! Not to mention, a sweet serendipitous cluster: That O-sash from the NW corner to the last letter of ANNO, crossing the marvelous dook GOOBSOLETE. All these were my highlights today. Rebecca. Seeing your name atop a puzzle always sets off a spontaneous cheer inside, where I actually smile. What stole my heart about your puzzle today was its shimmering answer set. Brava and thank you!
@Lewis. you said it all for me. Those long entries show a fabulous breadth of linguistic knowledge together with a great sense of humor. Some of them must be first uses in puzzles I bet. Many thanks for a lovely experience!
@Lewis Like you, I’m always happy to see Rebecca Goldstein’s byline. In just a few short years, she’s become one of my favorite constructors. Her “Fake Meat” puzzle for AVXC last year was one of my favorite themed puzzles of 2023. I’m not sure if it’s available for purchase, but it’s worth looking for.
I’m afraid this fails my test, formulated when I was doing cryptic puzzles: you should know when you’ve got the answer right. APPLYTO? PLOYS? This puzzle had some tenuous linkages between clues and answer, in my view.
@Petrol The cryptic puzzles I’ve seen have far fewer crossings that allow you to determine whether an answer is correct. Isn’t part of the point of an American-style crossword is that there could be more than one answer to a clue?
Hello out there! Today’s talk, sponsored by TEDX, is how to go from a nearly blank grid to a full one. You start with a puzzle by Rebecca Goldstein. Then you close your eyes and turn the clue around five ways. Maybe add an OHM (not of the electrical kind). Finally, in tres, dos, UNO you’re solving! That ☝🏾 didn’t work for you? What can I say? I decided to COMMITTOTHEBIT 🤷🏽♀️ PS: NOTIP or NOTIPs? Thoughts?
@Pani Korunova No tips are allowed, so it's a no-tip policy. (And I guess these days The hyphen is optional.)
@Pani Korunova I've said this before in this space, but I think it bears repeating. We usually put modifiers in singular form, even if they represent a plural idea, so it's a NO-TIP policy, despite one's saying "No tips!" If this weren't the case, everyone would be brushing with teethpaste.
Re the column: GI doctors, or GIS, are indeed gastroenterologists. However, that's not what GI stands for. GI stands for gastro-intestinal, meaning the digestive tract. It's what the gastroenterologist specializes in, but since we're talking about the equivalencies of abbreviations, it should be pointed out what's being abbreviated.
@Steve L Among the hospital staff, we'd commonly call the department "GI" and talk of referring someone to GI. Talking to patients, we'd tell most of them they needed to see the "stomach doctors" and give them the name of the group, since we had one group of GI guys at the time. The plural is a bit awkward, though.
@Steve L I worked with GIs while in the army. They had a lot of guts but none of them were doctors.
@Steve L No, just no. People will say, “when I finished my residency I did a GI fellowship” but never has anyone ever uttered the term GIS in reference to gastroenterologists. There is a reason that of the 166 appearances of this answer it has only today been clued like this. Finally, I get to use this expression and really mean it: “NYT, do better!” — — — — — — — —
With this Friday debut Rebecca has now hit for the cycle, having a puzzle published each day of the week. And what a great one she constructed for the milestone. It sparkles with such fresh entries as CREEPY CRAWLIES, GO OBSOLETE, SILENT DISCO and COMMIT TO THE BIT and clever wordplay like “They bring up the rear” for CABOOSES . But my *most* favorite clue by far is “Reader, I married him” for JANE EYRE. Congratulations, Rebecca! Excellent puzzle. Good luck at ACPT.
I get the impression that several posters missed the literal “they (cabooses) bring up the rear.” The caboose is (now mostly obsolete, having faded from use) the rearmost car of a train. Caboose comes last for several reasons. The crew is quartered there, and usually have a stove for warmth and cooking. From a raised box on the roof with windows on all sides, they can look out over the train and check for problems. From an open platform on the back they can signal to the rear. They have braking capability in order to assist with sudden stops. The slang use for caboose to mean rear end is a simple adoption of the name of the car that literally brings up the rear. The clue is simply factual. Icons in Eastern churches are more than pictures, more than referring to saints and holy things. They are taken to be embodiments of those things, as such the icons themselves are objects of worship along with that which they embody. The word “iconic” is not meant to say “like a cute little picture on a computer screen”, but more “full of powerful presence.”
@David Connell Not to mention that the CABOOSE allowed for speechifying during a 'whistle-stop tour' in a campaign... And I've heard the term 'CABOOSE-baby' for a much-younger child in a family was conceived perhaps during peri-menopause, when ovulation is unpredictable and mates maybe less cautious. The cathedral (Dom) in Fulda has quite a few relics (in jeweled reliquaries_--especially from St. Boniface,) but I do not recall any ICONs; just as you indicate, I think Eastern Orthodox churches would be the place to look for those. (I seem to recall the bone of a forefinger preserved in one silver casket...)
Thank you, David. I knew you would take care of the CABOOSE if I was busy. They were fun to ride. MOL, "whistle-stop" speeches were made from the open [rear] platform of an observation car, a passenger car, not from a [freight train] CABOOSE.
I wonder if anyone remembers The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eight Dimension or John Lithgow’s great line: “Laugh while you can, monkey boy! I’ve been doing the NYT crossword for about 40 years and I’m no longer able to solve them the way I once did. So, as a sort of memento mori postcard I say to all of you at the top of your game, with affection, laugh while you can monkey boy! I keep playing anyway.
@Val No matter where you go, there you are.
I stared at this one in dismay for 5 minutes, thinking my streak was in real danger. The northeast finally broke for me and things began to click into place, and I actually lopped 2 minutes off my average. Good clues, fun puzzle!
@Dave S Yes! So many Fridays and Saturdays I think I'm done for, but if I can just get a toehold and keep chipping away it somehow comes together. I don't fret out loud about it anymore, because my family rolls their eyes.
Loved how this puzzle threw me around. Or maybe I threw myself around. "They bring up the rear" did have me thinking caboose at first, but I was thrown by feeling that cabooses bring up TO the rear, and I felt obliged to search for answers that might better match the cluing. Like girdles bring up the rear. A letter too short. Knickers works. Or maybe it's something like botox, way too short, but perhaps botoxins. Then there's silicons, which fits. The problem is they tend to bring OUT the rear, rather than UP. Or maybe it's people who bring up "the rear" in conversation. Horses rear, so possibly an equestrian or a rodeo clown. Or a proctologist. Or those stripmall "doctors" who'll give you a Brazilian lift. They might bring it up in conversation. As would artisanal piano bench makers in Williamsburg. Oh well, go with caboose, what can you lose? Jane Eyre, what a novel. What a role model in her way. And to have LEO in the puzzle, summoning his Anna Karenina, boy, if the two of them were in a room together Etna would look like your local steam room at the YMCA. I can just imagine Vronsky's version: "Reader, I married her. And that was my first and greatest mistake." Puzzle Haiku Cardigan you knit for our bed in disarray, yours the lion's share. Swanky Jake goes bananas at the silent disco, voice on ice.
20 years ago, my husband and I visited London. One afternoon, we were the only people on a group tour of St. Paul’s Cathedral other than the enthusiastic and knowledgeable tour guide. I think our tour lasted twice as long as it was scheduled for and included some places most tours don’t reach. Thanks for the memory, Ms. Goldstein! And thanks for another fun puzzle! Congratulations on completing the cycle—and in less than three years!
I have finally found a way to finish these things about as quickly as I used to up until a few years ago: Start with Autocheck. Just barely broke an hour. It's still just as much fun.
Bart, It's good to see you posting, and it's great to see you're having fun with the crosswords. .....
It's such a great feeling to go from zero (and blank stares) to a filled-in grid and no recollection of how it happened, only disbelief that it actually did. But that's the sign of a great constructor, as RG is – someone whose execution of the puzzle makes the solve seem insurmountable at first, but then allows for it to all fall into place with no suffering, just a lot of smiles and ahas. Thank you, Rebecca, for gracing us with your absurd talent and expertise! The only thing I'm not thankful for, however, is the DISCO rabbit hole I ended up going down. Why would I do that to myself? Sure I had some fun back then, and there were even a few songs I liked (like this one: <a href="https://youtu.be/fT42ocqmI9s?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/fT42ocqmI9s?feature=shared</a>) but boy was I glad when the 80's came along with New Wave. But going down the DISCO rabbit hole is all on me and turned out to be a good reminder – I didn't love it then, and I still don't love it now. To Rebecca, best of luck in the tournament. And to Deb, thank you for the hilarious picture!
I wasted a long, long time trying to figure out how I ended up with the nonsense word SLUE. Ah well.
@N.E. Body Not nonsense. Saving Barry a post. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slue" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/slue</a>
I feel like there should be more comments on SLUE. I got it with crosses after abandoning SPIN, and it just didn't look right, but I left it and carried on in the NW. Even when I got the jingle signifying a successful completion, it still didn't look like a real word to me. But it was. I looked it up and found that SLUE is indeed defined as a sudden violent turning often about an axis. I infer it is a sailing term because one definition refers to a mast as a specific example. I don't sail much, and never in such rough weather that my mast SLUEs. But the nautical lexicon is bottomless compared with my limited vocabulary. I also found some talk about whether it should be spelled "slew" or even "slough" but those are other words entirely so I think those are just the usual confusion you find in Reddit discussions. So TIL'd something! That means I can slack off for the rest of the day!
@RDJ There is a “slew” that means the same thing as SLUE.
@RDJ I too had SPIN as the obvious answer to "turn on an axis," and, at the beginning of this difficult puzzle, it was one of the few answers I felt sure of. Could reactions to a GIF be PDFs? No, that didn't make much sense. It was only when I put in LOLS as the correct "reaction" that I was able to correct my error. But has anyone used SLUE in this sense...outside of a crossword puzzle?
Slow beginning, and never thought I'd complete it. Finally got to the SE, and that was my sticking point. I knew that somewhere in the recesses of my brain was the answer to “Reader, I married him," even though I never read the book. And then it popped into my head. But I had no knowledge of anything relating to Game of Thrones, though in retrospect, after getting ARYA from the crosses, I know it's appeared before. And I never think of NAAN as a side. Rice is a side. Veggies are a side. But NAAN is bread, not a side, IMO! However, the big kick for me is this story: My best friend when I was 5 years old was also a good friend by the time we reached our 20s. And that's when our lives did a 180. She became Ultra Orthodox after no religious upbringing, and I went the other way from one that was very religious. We lost contact over the ensuing decades, but reconnected on FB a couple of years ago. Just two weeks ago her adult daughter put a photo of her business card on her mom's FB page.It showed a woman's arm covered in a beautiful HENNA design, and I couldn't figure out why this Orthodox (but not Sephardic) young woman would be involved with HENNA. So when I read the clue for 61A, the lightbulb went off, and I was able to finish the puzzle! This was one tough puzzle, but ultimately do-able and satisfying. Thanks, Rebecca, and good luck at the tournament, which I proudly attended for 10 years.
Yay! A Rebecca Goldstein Friday! How does she know me so well? Rebecca always has a ton of stuff I'm not familiar with, but somehow knows when to throw me a lifeline. For every LIED, ANNO, ARYA, RYDER, SILENT DISCO, etc. there are great crosses to point the way. Just as I think I'm a goner, she comes to the rescue with long fill I can figure out, such as LOCAL COLOR, BANNER YEAR, GO OBSOLETE, POINT BLANK, etc. I thought this was a perfect Friday. Thanks, Rebecca, and I hope you enjoy the tournament. Anyone else have twerkerS for CABOOSES? I put that in with no crosses and felt so proud for a minute.
Like others here, I had very little first pass. What I did have I quickly erased as wrong; apex for NOON, even so for YES BUT etc. a couple of gimmes with ONYX and LIED helped to fill that corner, the rest fell slowly but satisfyingly surely. TIL JAKE and Cody are diminutives of the same name, but what? I’m guessing Jacob? For some inexplicable reason I found the clue and answer to 33A slightly squirmy. I can’t explain it; absolutely nothing wrong with either, but associating a toilet with one of our most beloved buildings left me uncomfortable, even though I know they have them (I’ve even visited them!). I’m not religious so it isn’t a ‘holy ground’ thing. I mention it only because I’m thrown by my own reaction. To be clear; nothing wrong with the clue, a purely personal response that I can’t fathom🤷♀️ Anyhoo, a thoroughly enjoyable, chewy outing.
@Helen Wright It's COBY in the clue, not CODY. I have NEVER heard/seen Coby as a diminutive or nickname for a Jacob. And I had a lot of Jacobs come through classrooms where I taught...
Started out with WASCALLY WABBIT in 9 down, and was quite pleased with myself. Such is life.
Definitely more doable than last Saturday’s puzzle, but I got the same vibe from this one with several iffy clues and a lot of obscure fill.
It feels like a very good Friday indeed when "I can't possibly fill this grid" becomes "I did it!" This felt just right for a Friday. "Resistance figure" OHM became cHe and then back to OHM. GOES BonkerS became GOES BANANAS. And CREEPY CRAWLerS became CREEPY CRAWLIES. Spin becoming SpUn and then SLUE really made me question if I could fill the entire grid on my own. It felt wonderful to actually do so.
@Gregg We made many of the same mistakes! Didn't think of cHe for OHM, clever!
This was fun. That shared-wavelength-vibing kind of fun. NW scared me, but suddenly LIONSSHARE SILENTDISCO JANEEYRE… and the whole think just busted wide open. Lovely!
What language is GOOBS OLETE?? (I jest!) No blue skies for me today! This is one of those puzzles that makes me humbly remember that I've got a verrrrry long way to go before I'm actually good at doing crosswords. All I can say for myself is that I immediately knew SILENT DISCO. They had one at a gala I attended a few years ago. I didn't feel the need to participate but it was memorable sight to behold. I also immediately had UNO, JANE EYRE, and TIMOR, the latter of which I'm proud of because I know it from my geography game. I'd be way worse at the crosswords if I hadn't been doing that game for a year before trying out the crosswords. I waited on the always delicious NAAN because I sometimes get fooled with roti. Everything else I had on the first go was just wrong. If this puzzle was trying to stump this chump, it sure COMMIT(ted) TO THE BIT! 😏 Hopefully I'll remember some of the things I learned today, though, including the names of Game of Thrones characters, as one of the few people who took no interest in the books or show. Somehow, I made it through with four lookups and turning on check puzzle at about halfway. Cheers to the weekend!!
@HeathieJ Every time my eyes glanced by that line, I saw GOOB SOLETE. If you can only remember one Stark, make it ARYA.
Welp, with my brain already in DISARRAY thanks to the Marathon Spelling Bee, I skimmed the puzzle clues and had that feeling of impending doom... or maybe it was a case of the CREEPY CRAWLIES. I chipped away bravely, hoping not to GO BONKERS (erase, erase) and wishing I could fly away to TONGA or SAMOA (erase, erase)...WHO'D blame me? AAaaaand I finished with one wrong letter because I just did not feel like running the alphabet. "Das LIEB der Deutschen" sounded like a nice anthem... OOh, well. To all who are gathering in Stamford for the ACPT, best of luck! Wish I could have joined you when my brain was at peak performance level!
@Mean Old Lady I should have rethought it....that's misspelled. I hate when I *start* the day all tired out....
The apex/axis cross that was actually NOON/ANNO was absolutely devilish. And brilliant. Fridays are now my happy place, and this was no exception. Particularly enjoyed 14D. Fun! Thank you, Rebecca Goldstein & eds.
I really thought I was not going to make it here - just far too many unknowns. But some of my early guesses that I mentally penciled in - e.g., BANC - survived to the end. That was the only French word I could think of with four letters that was chair-ish, so I put it in fully expecting it to be eventually erased. And then the SW corner slowly came into focus. WHOD seemed like a possibility; a neuron stirred and gave me WEBB for the telescope; BRER came from nowhere; and of course Ralphie and his Red RYDER BB gun was there all along. I had one tiny stepping stone to the other side and I made it under my average. An excellent Friday-level puzzle and well worth the effort.
Really liked this! It felt like a fair Friday - appeared obtuse at first, but after cracking a few, solvable through working at it. The top left quadrant had me stuck for a long time until I hazarded the guess of OLGA, which got the rest open for me. I genuinely enjoyed doing it and the two long fills (COMMIT TO THE BIT and CREEPY CRAWLIES) were both wonderful.
My first pass through this puzzle (reading every single clue) got me almost nothing. I felt defeated, but went back to 1A and started again. Suddenly I found myself on the puzzles wavelength and things started to make sense. I managed to finish slightly under my average time. My only hangup was the cross of TEDX and LIED, but I guessed a few letters and got it right, so I didn't have to do any lookups today. After reading the comments, I see many had the same experience as I did, very tough at first but soon gently giving way.
I feel like this week's puzzles have largely been uncommonly challenging. Not a complaint, just an observation-- I actually had a lot of fun pick, pick, picking away at this one. Still and all, I'm starting to wonder: are these puzzles tough, or am I getting dumber?
Started with creepy crawlers -- how many of you old-timers cooked those up in the 60s? Once that was fixed, the SE finally opened up. Really dug this one. Rebecca is truly a puzzling ICON.
@LBG My sister got the Creepy Crawlers for Christmas. I got the Fun Flowers. The bugs were definitely more fun. 🐛🐜🪲🐞🦗🕷🪳 ******************
The wordplay column seems proud of the clue “volleyball doubles”, but I hated it. The Times seems to have more such clues lately, but to me they are like cryptic clues and should have no place in a crossword puzzle.
@MarkN Personally, I really liked that clue. It was one of the very few answers I was able to fill in on my first pass. But I tend to enjoy twisty wordplay tricks like that so it was right up my alley.
@MarkN I'm glad you said "to me", since it's a personal opinion! But I don't think you get how cryptic puzzles are clued. They're much more complicated than that. Here's an example: Here is an example (taken from The Guardian crossword of 6 August 2002, set by "Shed"). 15D Very sad unfinished story about rising smoke (8) is a clue for TRAGICAL. This breaks down as follows. 15D indicates the location and direction (down) of the solution in the grid "Very sad" is the definition "unfinished story" gives "tal" ("tale" with one letter missing; i.e., unfinished) "rising smoke" gives "ragic" (a "cigar" is a smoke and this is a down clue so "rising" indicates that "cigar" should be written up the page; i.e., backwards) "about" means that the letters of "tal" should be put either side of "ragic", giving "tragical" "(8)" says that the answer is a single word of eight letters. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/3nm5v47w" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/3nm5v47w</a> I personally don't like cryptic puzzles, although I've done a few to completion just to prove to myself I'm up to the task. But I've walked away from them because I just don't enjoy the process.
Well - to err is human*, and I guess I confirmed my humanity today. I just couldn't get anywhere with this one - might have had about a third of it filled in when I finally gave up. Even with some googles I just couldn't get there. Not a complaint - that's all on me. I see that most everyone else got through this pretty smoothly. *and... fifteen letter answer that dawned on me this morning: TOFORGIVEDIVINE Was an answer in only one puzzle. ..
Very, very hard and no fun at all -- though I did finish it without cheats. First you start me off with that who-she? OLGA woman and the strange clue for BOLO -- now a knife and not a tie. There's the DOOK-y GOOBSOLETE, fairly dripping with green paint. But the worst thing up there is BANC. "Chaise alternative"? You're kidding right? Chaise is to BANC as silk is to sandpaper. As filet mignon is to MREs. As First Class is to steerage. A chaise is soft, inviting, padded and comfy. A banc is hard and unforgiving. The clue is completely off. In the absence of Will Shortz, I sort of feel like a trapeze artist who's lost her partner. The new guy may be a good aerialist, but will he really be able to catch me when the chips are down? It's like my security blanket has been snatched away. I don't feel the same level of confidence attacking the NYTXW as I did only a few months ago. It could just be me -- but somehow, I sort of doubt it. Puzzle Department: In WS's absence, your "test solvers" are more important than ever before. Use the same ones you've always used and pay careful attention to whatever they tell you.
@Nancy I agree that it was pretty hard, but pretty clever too. I try to not be too critical of the NY puzzles because they really bring me great joy. I have been skunked plenty by Thursday rebuses but then I just give thanks that there are so many smart people out there willing to construct games to entertain us.
@Nancy I agree. It was a slog to get through and I was angry by the end of it. Several unintiuitive clues and seemingly made-up phrases made this the least fun crossword for me in a long time. I rarely read the comments section, but I wanted to know if others felt the same way, and it seems I'm not alone here.
@Nancy I get what you are suggesting about Will's absence, but do all else agree? You are very negative on our current editor, Nancy. I don't agree with you. emu food more emu food
A good Friday challenge. I didn't make too many mistakes this time (SPIN before SLUE) but I had a lot of squares that stayed blank and had me thinking I'd have to sleep on it and come back tomorrow. But then a few things solved themselves (LION'S SHARE, ALL OPPOSED, HSN, etc) and it was done. Why is JAKE a nickname alternative to COBY?
The operative word is "perhaps." Many fast food chain restaurants do not pay a living wage, and yet forbid employees to receive tips. The whole notion of tipping is fraught with inconsistencies: should one tip for take-out? At a small, family-run restaurant or business, where the cook, the waitress, the (underage) busser, and the youngster sitting under your table drawing in a coloring book are of one household? (Oh, how I miss that Thai food!) What about that swank restaurant whereat the server takes your order and brings you your check, and everything in between is done by the busser and the food-runner? Not to mention the cook, who probably makes a higher wage, but clears a lower final income (no hostility there, no not a bit!) At my hotel, the (unionized) banquet servers and bartenders do not accept tips, but in the end clear a living income (along with a healthy benefit package), but then the "gratuity" is written into the banquet contract--what does that mean? But then, we can't all be living on Annares (Hi, PAG, who might see this some ten hours hence.)
@Bill - Okay, Bill, here ya go <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e-a2iqX-ZfY&pp=ygUUcXVpemFzIHF1aXphcyBxdWl6YXM" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=e-a2iqX-ZfY&pp=ygUUcXVpemFzIHF1aXphcyBxdWl6YXM</a>%3D
Wow. Loved this one. First pass through turned up next to nothing and I thought it was going to be extra tough. But then a few key entries started seeding a few more and all of a sudden I was sailing. Nice challenge, perfect clueing, and an absolute blast.
Been off the mark the last couple of weeks, timewise, but this was a snappy grid and I got my groove back. All of the down entries of 10 letters solved without crosses. COMMITTOTHEBIT was fun. Had no idea and had to work most of it from the crosses. I had CREEPYCRAWLERS because I thought of the 1964 bug-manufacturing toy from Mattel, and I needed ENOKI and BANNERYEAR to set me straight. 14 days short of 11,111 digital NYT puzzles solved. The math doesn't quite add up, because I think there were 3 "digitally unsolvable puzzles" that we were given credit for, but then solved them anyway (with hints) and were given double credit. Sorry to be missing the fun in Stamford, but the live sessions were booked as of last month. Maybe next year.
This took a while to get started, but I finally found a few spots where I had a guess or a glimmer of the answer, and fortunately most of them turned out to be correct. I had my typical show-biz lookups, but that was it. Thanks for the workout, Rebecca!
Thank you Miss Goldstein for a great Friday puzzle. The solve was a little under my average for a Friday. I think my favorite entry was GOOBSOLETE . There was something about looking up at the grid and seeing GOOB that made me smile. Now, then – about ENOKI. Someday – someday, soon, I promise – I’m going to sit down and make a list of every Indian bread, Vietnamese soup, Thai spice, Chinese eel, Korean fermented substance, and last but not least – but especially: the wide-ranging and inscrutable Japanese fungi kingdom. Ah, those mushrooms! They get me every time. Hunting down that one square that’s denying me happy music. . . that one square where I crossed “creepycrawlees” with “enoke”. SMH
TIL "slue." Just hope I can remember it for next time.
Amazing puzzle, super challenging (no idea how I finished it tbh).
I’m glad I kept going - Solved with no lookups or hints - SLUE was last piece to fall in place, had no idea that was a word!
Nice Friday challenge Rebecca. About 40 minutes with only one correction (BANANAS not BONKERS). Arya was my favorite in GoT.
@Paladin I first thought Go Berserk
@Paladin I tried BERSERK and then BONKERS before hitting upon BANANAS.
Required thinking, but got through it. Almost had a look-up, but didn't. Didn't rock my world...that was the earthquake!!! 🤣
Rebecca Goldstein is an ICON of puzzle-constructing. I thought this puzzle was POINTBLANK brilliant, but it was anything but direct. CREEPYCRAWLerS to CREEPYCRAWLeES to CREEPYCRAWLIES--I stuck to ENOLe to the bitter end. Thanks much Ms. Goldstein, for another fabulous test.