from a far away country with no Spanish knowledge or geographical knowledge of the western world, and I completed this with no lookups and a gold star at 25mins. The long clues weren't difficult to me, and I felt like I was on the same wavelength as the constructor it's crazy. Haven't seen STIMMING before but love it's inclusion here. Overall, didn't know a good fraction of the words here but hella clever clueing allowed me to suss them out with the crosses!
@Tristan Old Special Ed Teacher here.... some children with autism engage in 'self-stimulation' such as flapping their hands or twirling... and in the lingo it was described as STIMMING...but I hadn't heard the term in forever when it came up in this puzzle. Had kind of a "shock of recognition." Also, it really did not manifest as "self-calming" in the settings where I worked with youngsters who were "on the spectrum."
Well, two puzzles into the Times, Carolyn has shown, IMO, that she has the Knack – the talent to craft a high-level, satisfying-to-complete puzzle. Time and again, in this puzzle, I had to do what my brain loves to do – guess. One example: In the NW, I had the MM of STIMMING (which I got from LIMA and ATM), so I guessed that it ended in ING, given its clue. That G, made me think GET for [Score a journalistic coup], which spontaneously begat GET THE SCOOP in an explosion of rapture. Pings like that are among the highest delicacies in Crosswords. All in a setting of spark. This puzzle pulsed with spark, with 12 answers never seen in the Times before, including – get this – all six answers of the crossing triples stacks! Wow! Original and devilish clues as well. Example: ATM has been in the major outlets more than 500 times, but never clued using “pressed for cash” in its clue. Example: [Lacking, for short: Abbr.] for SYN. Hah! Throw in lovely serendipities, such as a backward ERA and an anagrammed ERAS (from SERA) in the puzzle with SWIFTIES, and the rare-in-crosswords five-letter palindrome (STETS), and this creation was simply a pastiche of pleasure. Thank you, Carolyn for a splendid outing. What a beauty! Please, please, don’t be a stranger!
Also, Carolyn, thank you for your very kind words re my commenting in your notes. While I don't love all crossword puzzles, I do love the Times puzzle, with its creativity, wit, and polish. I know the care, dedication, and labor the editors put into finishing these puzzles. In my NYT puzzles, I've experienced their enthusiasm, smarts, and how exacting they can be to make a puzzle shine. I love the energy and talent of the constructors, day after day. I come to the puzzle like a kid entering a candy shop, and almost always leave with the feeling that I've completed a crossword exemplar. And so, sunshine enters my comments. Along with gratitude. Nothing artificial about it; it's earned.
Well said, Lewis. Well done, Carolyn. Wanted to post the latter here last night (as I noted then in the Thursday puzzle comments).
Given that this column appeared in the wee hours, by an author who doesn’t usually write about Friday puzzles, and with a hastier feel than we are used to seeing from Sam Corbin, I just want to say that I hope that Deb Amlen is all right.
Jannicut, I wondered about Deb too. I learned she took a (scheduled) day off. Sam may be a bit under the weather...
A great variety of entries and fun clues. My favorite was 47A, (possibly because I got it straight away. ) I also liked the nice comment that Carolyn made about Lewis who always writes such an excellent comment.
@suejean 47A is a great clue. I wish I could say I got it quickly, but in truth, I needed a few crosses to see the answer.
"You know any good ice cream shops?" "Oh, I got the scoop." (Just thought I'd sprinkle that in.)
@Mike Looks like you were soda egging him on. (Oh, I thought you said nice cream shops) 🥤 This one's on me, Emu
Solved SYN on the crosses but couldn't understand it until I read the explanation. Fiendish but fun!
@David Wilcoxen I'm so glad you posted this. I wondered why it was SYN at the time, but forgot that I had a question about it and never read the full column post solve. What a great clue!
@David Wilcoxen I put in SIN (more Spanish) but of course had to reconsider at once.... and wait for the nickel to drop... How are y'all doin' there? Getting many refugees from Houston?
@David Wilcoxen Got it on the crosses and never thought twice about it. Had to look back at the puzzle but it made sense to me.
Congratulations on your solo debut, Carolyn. With very little glue and many debuts, it felt super fresh. The crossword staple STETs was very cleverly clued [Doesn't strike out, say] and it was nice to see great words like INTRACTABLY and SOLAR NEBULA make their first appearances. Come back soon!
Haven't posted since two of my posts were removed several weeks ago. Returning simply to say---I got Wordle on the first try today!
Beautiful grid and nice puzzle with both crunch and some breezy flow! Years ago, I found the *most* fascinating thing about learning about synesthesia is that not everyone sees numbers and letters as colors, and not everyone sees color with music and certain sounds. I didn’t know I was experiencing the world in a somewhat unique way, because I’d never seen it any differently! It fascinated me. Still does. How do you remember a phone number if it’s not a colorful picture? How do you listen to a song without seeing it? Baffling! Happy Friday!
@CCNY Days of the week and certain numbers do have colors. You're not alone. :)
@CCNY How interesting.... I have no clue how that would work! And... You mean that numbers (the concept) are not beautifull enough without coloration? Synesthesia is my new word, apparently. Must read up.
@CCNY Do you ever play Sudoku using colors instead of numbers? But seriously, the whole concept of synesthesia fascinates me because as a non-synesthete, I can't, er, picture it...
This crossword was so much fun! I’m pretty new to these. I love WORDLE and SPELLING BEE but I had always been intimidated by the NYT crosswords. Anyway, it’s been a year now and I’m beginning to find my groove. My husband suggested I start by doing the daily minis and then attempt the full-size Monday crosswords, which he said were the easiest, and I’ve gotten good at solving those. So today I decided to be brave and tackle this Friday crossword, and I’m amazed because I was actually able to figure out most of it without a lot of help. I had to look up some clues of course, and I still don’t know what THETURN means, but I feel I’m beginning to go up a level and this crossword was really encouraging.
@Sharee Congratulations on finishing your first Friday puzzle! I’m sure it’s just the first of many!
@Eric Hougland Thank you! They’re no longer daunting. I look forward to the challenges. :)
Sharee, If you want to learn about THETURN as clued in today's puzzle... <a href="https://www.dummies.com/article/home-auto-hobbies/games/card-games/poker/flop-turn-river-cards-texas-holdem-232914" target="_blank">https://www.dummies.com/article/home-auto-hobbies/games/card-games/poker/flop-turn-river-cards-texas-holdem-232914</a>/ Do emus draw to an inside straight?
My experience with this puzzle is that it is beautiful. The black squares form 2 sets of 4 like items, symmetrically placed. Very pleasing to look at. And once completed, even more so. The shape supports the experience of viewing the interconnectedness of words that should have nothing in common, but somehow blend together gently and naturally. Nothing seems forced. There is a flow to it. With some groups and communities of people, I have experienced the same. Reading the constructor’s thoughtful comments, it is no surprise that she can offer this experience of interconnectedness and flow in her creation.
I thought for sure that "With mulish resolve" was gonna be "ASSertively." Also, in the version of the Iliad I have here, under orders from Zeus, Apollo goads Aeneas into fighting Achilles. This is late in the book and Achilles has been knocking down Trojans like they are so many bowling pins. Aeneas starts losing badly and earns a RED CARD by trying to stamp on Achilles' heel and is tossed out of the game by Poseidon. (Actually, Achilles' fatal weakness -- his heel -- which was because that was where his mother held him when she dipped him into the River Styx, rendering him invulnerable except for that one spot -- is never mentioned in The Iliad - fun fact!) (Also, the sun god Apollo was born in circumstances metaphorically like a solar nebula: on the "floating island" of Delos in the middle of the sea -- Hera's curse prevented Apollo's mother -- one of Zeus's flings -- from giving birth "on earth" and Delos was the perfect loophole. After Apollo and Artemis were born, the gods attached Delos to the bottom of the sea.) I agree with others about the "flow" of this grid, one of those ineffable qualities that only the best puzzles have.
I went through the puzzle and did not know a single answer until Cousin ITT, and that's only because I'm part of the syndication generation (Gen-X). But I feel that sitting for hours on end memorizing lines from "The Addams Family" and "Gilligan's Island" has served me well in life. Even easy mode took me 15 minutes. But it was fun, just hard. Kudos to the author on writing quite a challenge! Be sure to tell your family and friends that you love them. And remember to be groovy. Peace
@Alan Parker I’m from the first year of the Baby Boom, approve this comment & totally relate. The theme songs are now pleasant ear-worms.
I really loved this puzzle. It had great flow and fresh clues and answers. Maybe, maybe a tad easy for a Friday but I thoroughly enjoyed my short time spent with it. Congrats on your solo debut Carolyn!
I really enjoyed this one, I liked seeing STIMMING in the NYT crossword as a small sign of progress in normalizing neurodiversity.
The name for Crisco, the original seed oil, was derived from "crystalized cottonseed oil." (Today its main ingredient is soybean oil.) It was pitched as a healthier alternative to lard, as most other seed oils are today. As 7A advises, Crisco was initially created for soap making.
A tough, well-clued "keep the faith" puzzle that I solved slowly and INTRACTABLY -- i.e. "with mulish resolve." I couldn't for the life of me gain entry to the NW and was tempted to cheat on Mrs. Garibaldi -- but overcame the impulse. I finished with no cheats, and in what I imagine was a slow-ish time, though I never keep track of such things. My entry points were all the way over on the right: my only-from-crosswords-friend, Cousin ITT and BUSES-to-BLOBS. From this paltry beginning, a solve did I make. I guessed that the drink it "up" clue at 2D would be an alcoholic drink of some kind -- but the cutesy clue is wrong. The First Rule of ordering a drink is to make sure nothing can go wrong -- not from the bartender and not from your host. Your job is to be very clear about what you'd like. And the correct term for a drink with no ice is "straight up". Some drink preparers may understand "up" used alone and some may not. Why take the chance that your drink might be watered down? As your hostess, I would check to make sure. "You did mean straight up, right?" But at a very busy bar, you can't be too careful. Two answers that were complete Greek to me: STIMMING and CHACHASLIDE. But everything else was quite familiar -- its difficulty level derived from tough cluing rather than arcane fill. I thought this was an excellent puzzle.
@Nancy STIMMING (behavior that stimulates) was very familiar to me. My wife is a retired special ed teacher (for vision) and a lot of her students, as well as a lot of other students, often did self-stimming. This could be anything from flicking fingers, flapping hands, rocking back and forth, or occasionally actions that were socially unacceptable. It was rather quickly observed that one had to be careful about trying to eliminate these behaviors, as they often were replaced by ones that were worse. What actually worked best was to keep the students busy and active at something that didn't give them opportunity to practice and reinforce the stimming behaviors. One of the most famous people to demonstrate stimming is Stevie Wonder, whose stimming behavior was rocking forward and back as he played. He eventually got so that it was timed with the music, so he was rocking while rocking!
@Nancy I love the “straight up” connection, but I think it’s actually referring to a drink served “up” as in a tall, stemmed glass (aka a martini glass) vs a short tumbler. A cocktail drinker’s preference.
@Nancy The unequivocal way to ask for "no ice" (or any other ingredient) is "neat". "Up"and "straight up" both unequivocally mean "shaken or stirred with ice and then strained and served without ice". "Straight" is the most problematic, since it can mean "neat" or "straight up". I guess context matters, as straight whiskey is neat, and a straight MARTINI is up. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartending_terminology" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartending_terminology</a> (Don't complain that it's Wikipedia; many distillery and other alcohol-related sites say basically the same thing.) If you're ordering a MARTINI, it's going to be watered down because it's made with ice that's removed before serving. I know, you're just riffing.
I'm trying to use other puzzle adjectives that aren't "fantastic," "smooth," "clever," but oh, why bother, when they are so spot on for this grid. I love a puzzle that resists me at the start, then finds me somewhere to break into it (the NE in this case,) and offers up perfect flow from there on, despite the challenges that continue throughout. I love a puzzle with, to me, unknowables – TILS like STIMMING–, that the crosses come to stitch together seamlessly. And I absolutely love a puzzle that points out my cultural black holes (AENEAS), deflating me, but then rewards me when the light easily FLICKS on (ANITA Garibaldi,) letting me feel, for a second, oh-so-proud. And so, yes, I loved this puzzle. Thank you, Ms. Davies Lynch, for a deeply satisfying puzzle. And congratulations on a praise-worthy solo debut! (Please don't hold back from those wonderful feelings of accomplishment. They're well deserved.)
I wish I'd known the term STIMMING a couple of weeks ago. I was showing my brother an online Douglas Murray interview and, as we both sat there, watching intently, I became aware of a movement to my left where my brother was. I peeked over and saw him, with fingers clasped, but for the thumbs that rolled around each other continuously. "What on earth are you doing?" "Oh," he answered, "it's just something that calms me down." Now I know. He was STIMMING!
I enjoyed today’s puzzle, but there is one clue/answer pair that doesn’t make sense. 18A “Strategies” - the answer is TACTICS, but those are two different things. Tactics are the details of implementing a particular strategy - the terms aren’t analogous.
@Jeff Wilson, a couple years ago, a wordplayer shared how one of his military instructors kept talking about “tattics” and “stragedies”. I’ve used “stragedy” jokingly ever since.
@Jeff Wilson I agree...my Army officer husband talked about the difference all the time...also that people didn't understand the difference..
@Jeff Wilson Sounds like another case of Too Close Syndrome, or TCS. If you are involved in the military or any other organization where a distinction is made between an overall strategy and the TACTICS employed to carry it out, you cannot see that in common parlance, the two words are basically synonyms. In fact, if you Google "tactic definition", you get this: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/46hm7hey" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/46hm7hey</a> Crossword clues are not exact definitions anyway. They are designed to point you in the direction of the answer. Perhaps the plural TACTICS should have been clued with the singular "strategy", but then some solvers would have complained that it violated the plural agreement rule.
WowieZowie! This was a real challenge. I helped Ms. Lynch by making it more difficult than it needed to be: IN MY DAY SOLAR NEBULI (plural) And then there was You (familiar) and You (formal)... and the clues were No Help! Wedding staple? I DO and a fancy tiered cake... I've never heard (or heard of) this song/dance/thing. I am sure it's a credit to the steroids that I was able to walk 2 miles in awful humid heat and then finish the puzzle on only 1/2 cup of coffee. (Yesterday I washed all the exterior windows, trimmed back the vines climbing on the house, and continued the Battle Against Nutsedge after dead-heading the roses. I'm going to miss these little pills when they're gone....)
@Mean Old Lady The distinction between ESTÁS and ERES has nothing to do with familiar vs. formal; both are used with "tú". The former is a form of the verb ESTAR, which for the most part covers states of being and the progressive tenses, while the latter comes from SER, which is mostly used for permanent characteristics. Tú ERES bella. = You're beautiful. (You're naturally beautiful.) Tú ESTÁS bella. = You look beautiful today!
Loved this fresh, fun solo debut and the heartfelt constructor notes. The puzzle, the history, and Lewis! I’ve mentioned before the idea that, for me, the quality and solving experience of special puzzles (including constructor notes) leave an afterglow. Today was the whole package. Many thanks and congratulations to Carolyn!
The way 34a is clued, the answer should be STELLAR NEBULA. "Solar" refers specifically to our sun.
@Brien Surely you would grant that the nebula responsible for own Sol created other suns as well, right? The clue seems fine to me.
@Brien You are correct. A specific example would be "solar neutrinos". Although many stars emit neutrinos, solar neutrinos are specifically emitted by nuclear reactions that take place within the core of our Sun. I had thought to post a comment earlier but decided to let it go. Glad to see someone else picked up on it.
Another very enjoyable puzzle day! Solved at just a bit under my Friday average but without any lookups or other helps, though I came close a couple of times. My resolve to solve more and more without any help (including end of week) is semi-mulish, I suppose. Super proud of myself for figuring out STETS. Not right away, I first thought of baseball or asking for a date or some such but then I remembered STET as another word I learned through crosswords. It feels good to be picking up more and more of these!! Huzzah!! Favorite clues/entries: the aforementioned STETS, pressed for cash for ATM, kept in the loop for BELT, Mac maker for KRAFT, part of a clutch for CHICK (new one for me!), They bring a lot to the table for waiters... but really, I liked it all! Felt fun and fresh! I desperately wanted SCOOP du jour for 32A, even though it didn't make sense with the clue. I didn't understand SYN until Sam explained, which puts it in with my list of favorite clues. I love good tricky word play like that! Full disclosure: Kraft mac is my primary comfort food guilty pleasure from childhood. Sometimes I want mac and cheese.. maybe with lobster or gourmet cheese, etc., and sometimes only KRAFT and it's weird orange powdery stuff will do! Lastly, PLEASE DO make me a MARTINI—up with a twist (don't even think about olives while shaking it)... I'M SURE it's 5 o'clock somewhere! (Actually, I think it is just about five for many of you, so get yourself shaking!!) 🍸Cheers, all!🍸
@HeathieJ After SO many hours (yeah, basically all day) between when I solved this puzzle and when I was able to read the comments, it's so nice to see yours towards the top of the "pile"! My favorite moment was getting TWICEASNICE with only the last CE filled in. Huzzah! I loved the wordplay on the ones you mentioned -- and while the Mac answer wasn't "wordplay" per se, I was ecstatic it wasn't computer related!! FWIW, my comfort-food-guilty-pleasure from childhood is also noodle based. And probably something that gets written up in those bad nutrition articles I never click on. (Though the similarity basically ends there...) Campbell's chicken noodle soup. The very basic, nary a vegetable, forget about the sodium one! There are so many delicious chicken noodle soups out there, but sometimes only that wan broth and monochromatic morsels will do! CHEERS to Friday, and a long weekend!! I promise I won't get my dirty martini anywhere near your time zone. ;)
An easy Friday but enjoyable.One of the clues was especially easy for me as I’m actually in Lima Peru on vacation right now.
I spent some time looking sideways at the clue for SYN, wondering why it had "for short" and "abbr". When I got it, such a nice aha. And, I had TWICEASgood initially. When I realized through the crosses that it had to be TWICEASNICE, I thought to myself that the rhyming answer was twice as nice as the one I had put in. I liked the puzzle. A bit on the fast side, but fresh, fun and witty cluing made it 1.26 times as good as a typical Friday, which was nice.
Great Friday puzzle. And I also enjoy Lewis' daily review of each puzzle.
Congratulations on your solo NYT debut, Ms Lynch! The puzzle was mostly a typical Friday in terms of difficulty. But then I was almost done in by the center section. 19D CHA-CHA SLIDE means nothing to me, but I haven’t been to a wedding since my own, and that was almost 10 years ago. (I see that the song is almost 25 years old, so it’s possible I would recognize it if I heard it.) And then I had STARTER seTS at 16D, making it impossible to see the logical 39A SKI (which should have been a gimme, since skiing is one of my favorite things in life). It took until this morning to understand how 54A ON THREE fits “I’ll count us in.” I love music but have no experience making it. I got ON THREE from the letter pattern, but took it out at least once because it didn’t seem to fit the clue. I’m pleased that I remembered 3D STIMMING, but chagrined that it took me as long as it did to figure out 49A SYN.
Bottom right corner gave me no end of trouble. The clue for SYN is the trickiest clue I can remember, and I had "lounge" for "a place to chill" for a long while, which puzzled me because I ended up with "please no." A challenging puzzle but mostly fair.
As a fellow (former) Ohioan, Ms. Lynch, I appreciated the shout-out to LIMA, OH. On a road-trip last weekend to Nashville, by way of Toledo, Cincinnati, and Louisville, I-75 took me just past Lima. A few freeway exits further (closer to Dayton), offered to take me east to Sydney, west to Versailles. I'll guess that the latter rhymes with "Impales." (There are two towns in Ohio, nowhere near one another, named Berlin and Berlin Heights--both accented on the first syllable. My understanding is that they were pronounced traditionally from their foundings in the 19th c., to WWI, when it was changed due to anti-German sentiment.) And I, for one, found the pairing of ESTAS and ERES a very elegant touch.
Planning to make more puzzles for us, Ms. Lynch? PLEASE DO. Methinks we need both strategies and tactics to get our posts pass the emus.
Wow great puzzle Carolyn! At first I couldn’t quite hack it but then I slowly got it and it felt so good! Congratulations. And you’re right Lewis does say nice 😊 things and as he says, deservedly so!
Terrific puzzle for any day of the week, Carolyn, with a beautiful grid. And thanks, Sam, for inserting the very funny SNL/John Mulaney CHA CHA SLIDE skit into your column. Having seen that skit is the only reason I knew that entry with no crosses. (Carolyn, it would have been extra fun if you had clued ANITA to Baker.)
Did not know the Cha Cha Slide, which apparently means I've never been to a wedding and didn't attend middle school. Explains some things.
@Lars There was no such thing as "middle school" or even "juniior high" IN MY DAY... as a student, that is. We had Elementary K-7 and then HS (subFreshman 8 thru 12th). But as a teacher I taught at a Junior High until suddenly it was a Middle School ... population shifts wreaking havoc on the small, rural district, which then went to split sessions. Still have the occasional nightmare...
@Lars Assuming that your London is the most famous one, it might be a cultural variation, as this dance is a staple of American weddings. (I also don't know whether you're British or an American abroad.) However, even though I'm quite familiar with the dance, I had no idea what its name was until eleven hours ago. Now, the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance, on the other hand, I've known by name since forever.
Congrats on your solo debut with this fine flowing Friday fare. ATMYAGE it is TWICEASNICE to start the day with such fun. Many thanks. Had no time yesterday so *thought* I had finished that one this morning too, only to find I had the trick bassackwards. Oh well, a point to me for creativity.
Loved this puzzle! Pretty easy for a Friday, but the fill was so fun and original that I didn't mind. Congrats on a fantastic solo debut!
I like puzzles like this. I started out with nothing until I got about a third of the way into it, and then I had a couple of gimmes and the rest came pretty easily. A nice, if somewhat easy Friday for me, but still with a few tricks up its sleeve. Very nice solo debut, Carolyn, thanks.
@ACDC Agreed! I dislike crosswords that deliberately make distinctive words into synonyms. To me, it’s a sign of lazy construction & bad editing, & it’s much too common.
@ACDC Oxford (though not in the OED itself) defines 'tactic' : an action or strategy carefully planned to achieve a specific end. Strategies and Tactics also show up as synonyms in thesauri. (Actually, Stratagem is a synonym of Tactic and Strategy is a synonym of Tactics). I think that the problem here is that everybody feels the need to get pedantic over the difference between micro and macro if they have ever been on a war or planning council of any kind of even just played strategy or wargames.
ACDC and 5cat, Crossword clues are hints to answers, they are not required to be, and usually are not, synonyms of answers. If you've been doing The New York Times Crossword for more than a week or two, this should not be news to you.
Great thinking for a Friday. No look-ups. TIL - Crisco. Have a great day!
Very enjoyable puzzle which I finished in about half my average Friday time. A few stumbles, like CARES/CLICK for FARES/FLICK, but overall a very nice experience. To jump into the strategies/TACTICS debate -- I know it's a legitimate clue, but it feels off because the two words are usually invoked to point out the difference between them, not the similarity.
Quite tough, but fair. I had trouble sticking my toe in to open the door, but then it became easier. I had "MAUVES" for eye-shadows for a while. I, too, know the difference between strategy and tactics, but it's OK. TIL "STIMMING" and the etymology of "SKI." So a "Russki" is a Russian piece of wood.
@Alexander L and coopers made kegs with brewskis.
Loved this and was totally on the same wave as the constructor. CHACHASLIDE and TWICEASNICE were gimmies for me which worked out great. And GETTHESCOOP was my first guess for 32 across and everything just flowed in around those long stretches. The SW gave me a little trouble because of ONTHREE. I deleted and reentered so many answers in that section before settling on the set that got the music but I laughed at my brain for getting on distracted on that one instead of just letting the crosses do their job.
Congrats, Carolyn. Most enjoyable and some great clues. Never heard of 19D so delighted to get this with the crossings. Loved the symmetry of 23A and 43A. Thank you!
@SiobhanL I wasn't familiar with 19D, either, and I'd been convinced (for far too long) that it likely ended in "bride."
Unlike last Friday, this puzzle was appropriately hard. I really liked. My thanks to the editors and Ms Lynch.
I’ve never been to (ei)the(r) city, so no insult intended, but as I gaze above the solar nebula, I think I can just make out the Lima shack belt. Fun puzzle! … but suddenly overcome with a desire for an ice cream cone.
@JohnWM It's funny, but while the Peruvian city is pronounced LEE-ma and the Ohio city is pronounced LIE-ma, the eponymous bean is pronounced like the latter, but originate in Peru. Nothing to do with solar nebula, but I thought it was interesting. What's a Lima shack belt?
Fun. I'm somewhat surprised not to hear a lot of "too easy" rants but maybe the grouches are still in bed. Like @John, 35D I'll take it.
Enjoyed this puzzle a lot. I needed Sam’s help to understand SYN (nice one). The cross between MATTE and STIMMING was a total guess. I never heard of “stimming,” but boy do I do it. (Recently learned that Travis picking is a great outlet for it. If only I had learned this years ago.)
Raced through this one for the most part, but am kicking myself that I had to get SYN on crosses and had no idea what it was until reading the column. That is a terrifically tricky clue! The one spot I was stuck on was MATTES and UTE. Had no clue on the UTE, and decided the cross was some jargon I didn't know.
@Anthony Think Brigham Young University (Cougars) and Utah (Utes).
A very enjoyable, doable puzzle. Thank you for a fun Friday challenge.
I thought this was a particularly easy puzzle. Done in 12:38 - blew away my Friday record. But it doesn’t look like everyone agrees. I guess I was just vibing with this creator. I know Spanish pretty well, love poker and doing the Cha Cha Slide at weddings!
Nice puzzle. Slow to get a toehold and with a couple of entries I'd never heard. But as is the entire conceit, crosses slowly brought a successful conclusion. Very well constructed.