I’ll start with the lovely bones. What a gorgeous looking grid, with its pairs of diagonal blocks and opposing stairsteps. A design never been done before in the Times, and one that allows for flow, with no near-detached islands. The bones include how the grid is filled. This is an uber-low 66-word grid, with hardly a whiff of junk, a most difficult task beautifully pulled off. And such variety in the answers – sports, history, arts, colloquialisms, geography, and more. And what fleshes out these bones? Freshness, for one. Pop. The answer set has eight debuts, including the lovely ANYTOWN USA, CHOCOLATE MALT, DITCH DAY, IT’S A DONE DEAL, and SMALL CRAFT. How fresh overall? Get this – one out of four answers have been used less than five times in the Times puzzle’s 80 year history! And cluing. OMG, what stellar/devilish cluing today. I was won over by three of her original clues, those for SIXTIES, RENEE, and the marvelous [Job that anyone could see themselves doing?] for WINDOW WASHER. All these elements clicked together just right, Christina. Your puzzle was top quality, and, for me, an A-1 experience, including the grit and play my brain loves. Thank you so much for your talent and for making this!
Speaking of Christina’s cluing, here’s one I’m still smiling at from February: [Wind up alone?]. FLUTE SOLO Et tu, emu.
@Lewis we always knew it by the alliterative phrase, " Senior Skip Day."
"I had to wash all those windows of the fishing lodge." "Sounds like a reel pane." (I'm so sill-y.)
Mike, I rated your pun on the Hilarity Windex, and it truly is in a glass by itself.
@Mike It a piers that a different career choice might have been better. You know the line about the rod not taken.
That was tough. I basically worked from the bottom up, and eventually got through the NE corner. So many things I did not know. And Caitlin is right; that 1913 front page has some dreadful stories on it. Not recommended for people who'd like to feel happy at Christmas time.
@Liz B "Is the Tango Harmful to Middle-aged Dancers?"
@C-64 Haha! I had a LOTTA lookups on this one! My last to fall was the northwest. Never would have gotten PHANATIC without the crosses. Kept trying to fit the Red Sox’s Wally the Green Monster. I got about 50/50 without help!
Cute clue for MAMA (what else could it be, right?) It made me think back to this probably best clue ever for MAMA : “Left tributary of the Vitim River in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia” (See puzzle of 4/1/20 in case you don’t remember.) Don’t we have fun here?!
@Cat Lady Margaret That was the best puzzle ever!
@Cat Lady Margaret Well you certainly have a great memory! For any of you who might be a bit puzzled (!) by CLM’s post ,don’t bother to run to xwordinfo looking for previous clues for MAMA. Rather look at Steve L’s comment that day, or just go to see Jeff Chen’s column for the date. That was a real classic with a few Easter Eggs….. — — — — — — — —
Cat Lady Margaret, I hope I’ll be at least having a tiny twinge of déjà vu when I finally get to that clue in that puzzle in the archives. (writing from southwest of the East Branch of the Upper-northwest Miramichi)
I recall fondly those years when I was slowly climbing the mountain from Monday, through the week, all the way to that happy day when I finally conquered Saturdays. But now, with the early onset of Alzheimer's complicating my brain, I find myself sliding slowly in the opposite direction. These days the Saturday puzzles are often too much for me. Or is it just that I am totally out of touch with popular culture? Either way, I still enjoy the effort.
@archaeoprof Boy, do I feel the same way. Fortunately I don't have any evidence of early onset Alzheimers (it's really not that early for me), but I do feel myself slipping, physically and mentally. Right now I feel I've devolved to my rebellious teen years, even though I didn't actually rebel all that much on the way up.
"Either way, I still enjoy the effort." archaeoprof, Glad to hear that. ###
@archaeoprof I think everybody has good weeks and bad weeks, just like in physical exercise, it’s not a straight line upwards. Also, for me, the pop culture ones make it much harder. I have to get those from the crosses.
Very well done! Top notch puzzle.
@Rodzu You have got to be kidding. It’s not even a valid puzzle because SANTA was reused in the clues and answers.
@Daryl It’s been said before but I’ll say it again. The prohibition is on the repetition of a word from a clue to the answer for that clue. There never has been any constraint on words from other clues.
Best Saturday puzzle in a long time! And it was the final part of a Christina Iverson triple header (after doing strands and the mini). I knew I was in for a good time when I saw her name on the xword.
So fun, thanks Christina. So many favorites, hard to pick one, so I think I'll go with CHER near the ELEPHANTS, as she's been involved in rescuing at least one from a terrible life in captivity. And loved the pic of the ELEPHANTS residing in the meat'packing district district, Caitlin. I hope everyone who can goes to see them. Can Christina do all the Saturdays? No? Guess I'm living in my own Private IDAHO. <a href="https://youtu.be/Bvp97GWeLoc?si=y3sPTu9ehjIdK8Q3" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Bvp97GWeLoc?si=y3sPTu9ehjIdK8Q3</a>
Too many US trivia for my liking, but the clues for IDES and ELEPHANTS were a delight. Golden rule: obscure 5-letter location somewhere in the US is in IDAHO 90% of the time. Also, sometimes it pays out to be Greek, got POLYMATHS from the HS. Certainly tough for non-Americans.
Despite the fact that many things in this puzzle were in my wheelhouse, I found it to be a stiff challenge. I knew the Phillies mascot (the PHANATIC), but I suspect that will pose some unfair problems for non sports fans and non US puzzlers, especially with the idiosyncratic spelling making it a little harder to intuit. I was also familiar with LOTTA Sea Lice, because Kurt Vile is a local artist who I’ve gone to see a couple of times, thus giving the NW a distinctly Philly flavor and me a gimme. But there were plenty of tricky clues and general knowledge questions that were unfamiliar to me, so I had work pretty hard to get it all. I found trailer homes for THEATERS and the clue for WINDOWWASHERS particularly piquant (I loved the double Ws). And I enjoyed POLYMATHS just for its own sake. I’ll be interested to see the response to this one.
@Marshall Walthew trailer homes had me stuck for SO LONG
@Marshall Walthew I know you must be a baseball fan from your contributions to that interesting thread with Steve L and others yesterday on ERAs. I don’t know if you saw the kinda late post by Mr Dave from SoCal who commented, “Wow, I can’t wait til a puzzle has ‘infield fly rule’ in it.” Cute! FWIW, Monday 8/20//2018 by Peter Gordon,[Pop-up that results in the batter being called out even if the ball isn’t caught].🤗
@Hardroch Thanks for pointing that out. I am a baseball fan and I did miss that late comment. While on the subject of the infield fly rule, there’s a satirical University of Pennsylvania law review article on the subject: The Common Law Origins Of The Infield Fly Rule.
I greatly enjoyed this puzzle! However it was quite the emotional rollercoaster between the satisfaction of immediately recognising the trick of 18A, the frustration when struggling with the Down clues that crossed it, and the brutal realisation that the woman in ‘dire need’ was not, in fact, IRENE. Sneaky stuff, Christina!
My kids would say that posting a comment on a crossword article after completing said crossword is SO EXTRA. I love Christina Iverson's puzzles. I was excited to see her name pop up and this one didn't disappoint! I always feel like I'm on the wavelength and the PHANATIC was the first in a series of great answers. I was slighty hesitant to enter SANTAHATS after seeing Santa in a clue but that's what helped the NE come together for me. SOEXTRA, despite being something I've heard a ton, was the last to fall because I had STAr instead of STAX for way too long. Well done! Fun and quick Saturday.
I was clapping myself on the back for getting IRENE immediately (I'm a big fan of Cryptic crosswords) for "woman in dire need" -- and I never realized that there was a big fat trap I had just fallen into. IRENE instead of RENEE kept me from making the mistake of thinking 3/15 was a DATE or ODDS -- but it also kept me from seeing IDES...and IDAHO...and FIR. (I had LEI where FIR should have been. Do you trim a LEI? I don't know -- I've never had a LEI.) So well done on IRENE/RENEE, Christine. But can there be any excuse for crossing the actress with the record label with the teletubby with the modern lingo? Did you really think that I would be able to finish the NE corner? Did you care? In fact, did you think about me at all, Christine? Also: WINDOW WASHER seems oddly clued. To "see yourself", I think you'd have to be cleaning a MIRROR. And "metaphorically speaking", ELEPHANTS are only hard to ignore when they're IN THE ROOM. Yes? A really hard Saturday -- sometimes in a very good and interesting way and sometimes not so much.
@Nancy glad I wasn’t the only one trying to make IRENE work for the longest time!
@Nancy I went for IRENE first too. I also had NYp in the place of NYT, and enjoyed what I thought was an expert piece of snark at the competition. I guess I was wrong in supposing The Gray Lady would never do something so mean.
@Nancy The R in FIR and RENEE was my final square, with me thinking, "Well, that must be it." So, help me please: Who is Renee? ..and while we're at it, who is Irene?
Even I was not in my wheelhouse with this one, because I couldn't find it. Until I filled in CRU, the puzzle was empty. Nevertheless, coming up from the bottom, I struggled up the first third, then it finally started to turn into a fun solve. That is, until the NE corner, where I couldn't seem to get a grip. In sheer frustration I came to the column hoping Caitlin would throw me a lifesaver and I was saved. Dropped in the remaining fills and puzzle done. Fingernails unchewed, hair untorn, streak intact, off to bed. Thank you, Christina Iverson. I wouldn't say it was cozy, but it was very clean. See you again!
I love the clue for ELEPHANTS, and add my enthusiasm for The Great Elephant Migration currently on display in NYC (migrating soon to Miami, Browning, MT and Los Angeles). The sculptures are gorgeous and raise awareness of the efforts to protect migratory animals and promote the peaceful coexistence of humans and wildlife . The story of how the sculptures are made is fascinating. I learned that elephants are uniquely identifiable by their ear shape, and only some male Asian elephants have tusks, while both male and female African elephants grow tusks. Also, they are either left- or right-tusked, and the dominant tusk is generally smaller because of wear and tear from frequent use.. Such majestic animals! An enjoyable puzzle, thanks Christina.
@Anita Terrific S/O for The Great Elephant Migration, a 'must see' if you live in NYC. Previous stop was right here in Newport RI. What an amazing exhibit.
Gave a cursory ear to the “LOTTA Sea Lice” title; those artists rate. And their vibe FITS, IN a kinda sorta Lucinda Williams-esque style. Baseball clues are always a sight for sore eyes during my solving. Today’s was a good one. On the diamond, the PHANATIC is the gold standard of mascots. DITCH DAY I’ll always recall was when 6 classmates & myself cut out from McCarter THEATER’S Shakespearean show, A Midsummers Night’s Dream. In lieu of the show, we went bowling on Nassau Street. good abandonment deserves another, and we were deserted by the return bus. Left to find our way home, a 40/50 mi. excursion, a not too pleased parent retrieved the seven of us. ASHAMEDly we were marched to the principal’s office the next morning to pay our dues. Deets of the punishment I have long since forgotten.
For those who are familiar with the Phillies Phanatic, I’ll share a story from my working days. I had a colleague from Scotland at one point. When his parents came to visit him, he and took them to a Phillies game. A Though the parents didn’t know much about baseball they were curious to learn and were definitely puzzled by the antics of the large fuzzy mascot cavorting on the field during warm ups. My friend’s mom asked me (in a heavy Scottish accent) “What’s with the great green beastie?” I’m not sure my explanation did much to make sense of his presence.
@Marshall Walthew Apologies for the many typos. Failure to proofread. If only the emus could proofread.
@Marshall Walthew I got the PHANATIC right off the bat, and immediately thought, "Well, at least Walter will get that one."
@Grant I hope the PHANATIC was a gimme for Walter! Just kidding. I’m very accustomed to people confusing my first and last names. I’ve been called Matthew Walters, Walter Matthews, Walter Matthau, Matthew Waldrop, and for some inexplicable reason Russell and Rusty. As the old saying goes, just don’t call me late for dinner.
I was cruising along in near record time and then ran up against the northeast. It killed me for a while, until I got 10D and then it all filled in nicely, but added an extra 50% to my time. Really liked 18A, 27A (got it with only the middle two letters) and 57A from my childhood. Good puzzle.
@John H. That NE was basically blank for me until the end. I got 10D first also, and had to trial and error my way through the rest piece by piece. Snuck in only 2 mins below my average overall even though the rest of the puzzle was much quicker!
I don't know about ANYTOWNUSA, but will this puzzle play in Peoria? SOEXTRA is not in my active vocabulary, but I have a number of STAX 45s, so the cross was with me. YAY. OHCOOL. Thank you, Christina. Say hi to the South Skunk River for me.
@Barry Ancona If you want to add to your Stax-Volt collection, I highly recommend: <a href="https://www.discogs.com/release/2674388-Various-The-Complete-Stax-Volt-Singles-1959-1968" target="_blank">https://www.discogs.com/release/2674388-Various-The-Complete-Stax-Volt-Singles-1959-1968</a>
I found the puzzle much harder than the previous two Saturdays. Last week and the week before that I just needed several lookups to fill the grid. Today it took 10 or 15 lookups of unknown trivia and autocheck on top of that. I enjoyed some of the clues (the Apollo one was brilliant), but overall I personally found the puzzle impossibly hard because of the amount of proper names and Americana (DITCH DAY?).
@Andrzej Yup, I thought of you during the puzzle, especially with respect to the Phillies mascot. I always admire your participation. I have only heard "ditch day" anecdotally. I think my school just called it "senior cut day". ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade
@Andrzej DITCH DAY, in case you coukdn't get it from context, is a day towards the end of the term when students in their final year of public school don't show up for their classes. To "ditch" something in American slang means dispose of it, hence "ditching class" means not showing up, generally to allow you to go sonewhere with your friends and have fun, with the added thrill of getting away with doing something forbidden.
I liked this puzzle, and didn't think it was too hard. Of course, I was won over by the Stax clue. I drove my family crazy playing Booker T and the MGs on repeat, <a href="https://shorturl.at/MrRtt" target="_blank">https://shorturl.at/MrRtt</a>. But then, I am a resident of the Republic of Slowjamistan.
scanning across that nyt front page gave me chills when i reached the last column. woody guthrie wrote this tragic ballad in 1941, and i’ve been listening to either him or ramblin’ jack elliott sing it since the 50s. <a href="https://youtu.be/oz7oguguIZE?si=6k5rhmGb48_i3FVd" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/oz7oguguIZE?si=6k5rhmGb48_i3FVd</a>
@Laurence of Bessarabia Thanks for this link, I wasn’t familiar with this Guthrie song. If anyone wants a little more background there is actually a Wiki entry on , “The Italian Hall disaster”. A dark day indeed. See: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/3h3pkc9h" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/3h3pkc9h</a> — — — — — — — —
@Laurence of Bessarabia Glad I wasn’t the only one remembering the Rambling Jack Elliott cover of this Woodie Guthrie song!
welp....I feel awful. Did a poor job on the Wordle. Got the Connections and Strands. Saved the puzzle for dawn and the printer. CHEX are in Puppy Chow? Srsly? The SIXTIES were tamer times for me (8-12th in HS, 1960-65) and I wouldn't have dreamt of DITCHing classes, even the ones I loathed. TOGA! TOGA! Oh well.
@Mean Old Lady I too had "Toga!" for too long, and was initially as surprised as you were about puppy chow before remembering that it's a name for a Midwestern party snack. (I'd never heard of it until my 30s, when a colleague mentioned that was their contribution to a potluck, and couldn't fathom why they were bringing dog food until I saw the dish itself.) My brain/trivia archive just wasn't in the space for this one, but there's always another crossword tomorrow!
@Mean Old Lady Same here, I got CHEX from crosswords and never heard of "Chex Mix" referred to as Puppy Chow. But I like the name!
I would just like to point out (even though someone likely already has) that "root beer float" nestles perfectly in 14D 😋. That said, this was a fun and challenging Saturday. I thought I would need to look something up to crack the NW but perserverence paid.
@momonjava Root beer float was the first thing I tried as well!
@momonjava I would have had a PB on this puzzle if I hadn't tried to make root beer float work for so long!
I try to be positive about the crossword…don’t mind a challenge, but this one just had too many obscure pop culture references for me. Takes away some of the fun IMO. Still under my average time but just no warm fuzzies for finishing. But I did like the clues for TREEFORT and SIXTIES.
Not sure what all the IRENE RENEE fuss is about. I too had IRENE first, but it became clear pretty quickly that it didn't work with the crosses. Side note; I found myself standing next to Courtney Barnett in the checkout line at Powell's Books in Portland a couple of weeks ago, but since no one else was bothering her, I didn't talk to her. I didn't want to be "that guy." But I do enjoy her music.
I knew this would be my kind of puzzle as soon as I saw Christina Iverson's name. One of the top constructors, in my opinion. She always offers a LOTTA humor and music as well as a nice challenge.
This puzzle was awful. (Still solved tho). You picked some obscure band NO ONE has ever heard of? LATS are muscles used for pull ups. Rows are primarily rhomboids (true rowers will argue quadriceps though). RENEE was just awful. Have a teenager in the house....Never heard SO EXTRA.
@Weinie... Hand up for Courtney Barnett and Kurt Vile. This collaboration is more than the sum of the of its already awesome indie parts.
@Weinie I’ll never understand complaints about the presence of some amount of deliberately obscure trivia and/or vocab in a puzzle, especially later in the week. TBH I actually have no idea how obscure that particular entry is for the wider group, but I’ve personally never heard of Courtney Barnett or Kurt Vile, so it was totally opaque to me. As were SAMARA Weaving, LAALAA, and ELIZA. But why stop there? Plenty of people have probably never heard of the Philly Phanatic, and I’m sure a non-trivial cohort of solvers won’t immediately associate FINCH with To Kill a Mockingbird. I had also never heard the expression “so extra”. But you’re going to call this an awful puzzle because you haven’t heard of a music group in one of the clues and because LATS aren’t the primary muscle exercised in rows?
I've never heard of the LOTTA Sea Lice band myself, but that doesn't mean I assume no one's heard of it. If that were really the case, the editors wouldn't have accepted that clue for the puzzle. Same with SO EXTRA. I didn't understand RENEE until after solving and looking more closely at the clue, then I thought it was clever. It's Saturday; I expect - and enjoy solving - a tough puzzle.
It’s a royal shame the NYT does not recognize a proper noun, even when it’s the name of a neighborhood in its hometown. The Great Elephant Migration, featured in the lead photo of this write up, is at home in the Meatpacking District. Imagine referring to a story taking place in times square or the upper west side or red hook. In fact, you cannot, because they could only take place in Times Square, the Upper West Side, Red Hook, and accordingly, the Meatpacking District.
Jeffrey, When copy editors are replaced with emus, it happens. The cutline may or may not be corrected later today. #####
Okay. Today was odd. Puzzle, lovely. Fun answers, interesting clueing… Finished so quickly, I looked at my stats and today was 2 seconds quicker than my Tuesday time! Didn’t *feel* like a Tuesday. But, anyone else? Just wavelength? Loved it, just a wee bit confused by the ease…
@CCNY Well, for one thing, it didn’t have a theme. I did the puzzle in a car with someone who occasionally was making conversation, so neither my time nor my experience is an indication of how hard it was.
CCNY, Longest solve of the week so far for me, but still well below my Saturday average. So, yes, once I brought it home, it seemed like the time had been mysteriously trimmed. Funny when a puzzle is like that: what it [comes to] [doesn’t stick out].
very enjoyable! two separate SANTA-related clues, though... we haven't even gotten to halloween yet!
I had ASHAMED right off the bat, but after several passes through the NW with only that and ESSO to go on I erased it. Finally looked up the mascot and the sea lice, and lo and behold my initial word came back like the Phoenix rising! Now if only I could have figured out FIR, FISTS and RENEE.
@Bruce Love "like the Phoenix rising"! Ever since I stopped playing for speed, I wait for crosses before filling in words that aren't locks, and love finding out that my first guess was correct.
Not quite my best Saturday time, but close. After the last couple dastardly Saturdays where I made liberal use of Check Answer, I was very much on the same wavelength as the constrictor today. PHANATIC and POLYMATHS came immediately, followed by CHOCOLATEMALT, WINDOWWASHER and ANYTOWNUSA, and I was off to the races. Not going to happen all the time, but it was nice to feel extra clever today and get my Saturday confidence back up :)
I enjoyed this puzzle even though I had a few more look ups than I usually allow myself on a Saturday! Thanks! After doing all the puzzles I usually do (still working on the Bee), I went to the Archives. I recently started at the beginning. I try to do a couple a day. Even if reach that goal, it’s gonna take me a while to catch up to when I started doing the main crossword in July 2022! Strange coincidence: today, I worked to finish the crossword from 4/7/1994. There was a clue [Temper] and I had A_N___. After today’s puzzle, I dropped ANNEAL right in! Also, there’s a clue about Apollo and it relates to NASA’s program! Fun!
@SuzyQ I started a similar trek through the archives about four years ago. I don’t do as many now as when I first started (I shifted to solving contemporary puzzles from other outlets), but I have made it all the way to 2007.
@SuzyQ I'm workin gthrough the archives doing all the Thursday - Sundays. Almost done with 1995, and headed to '96. I've subscribed for years and years, but used acrosslite until they discontiued it, so it will be a long time before I stumble across my online record of completions.
Wonderful Saturday puzzle, with enough things outside my wheelhouse to make it challenging, but not enough to make it really frustrating. The song in 19A was completely unknown to me, and that plus the unknown team mascot made that NW corner the last to get filled. I got both those unknowns from Caitlin. (My puzzle, my rules 😊) Thanks Christina, and the whole team.
Annealing is not a synonym of Tempering, they are very different procedures with different, nearly opposite end results.
Woman in dire need made my head hurt. Got it, but on the cross.
After struggling with Friday, so glad to be at Saturday. Loved the long entries. APPOLLO had me guessing would it be era or a cave. And lord knows I only know the provinces of Ontario through British Colombia by auto-recall so PEI was a good reminder that there are other provinces east of Toronto. Great job!!
@Red Carpet I wouldn’t worry too much about it. Plenty of us Torontonians are wont to forget about the existence of provinces other than Ontario. :)
Too much trivia for my taste, but that's okay.
@Adina Crosswords are ALL trivia! It's not like there's a cancer cure or a Grand Unified Theory in any of them.
Oy, that upper right killed me for a long time. All I had was the bell ringers and (erroneously) "fat" as something you trim after buying. The area was so hard for me - case worker could be so many things, 3/15 was a mystery, I couldn't think of any suitable women, what kind of trailer or home - but I finally stumbled my way to the theater and the cryptic. Fair overall but this one nearly took me down. Thanks Ms. I. A tough but good time. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade
Solid Saturday. Was pretty confident even after a mostly empty first pass. And then less confident on the second pass. It all came together in the end, although the R in RENEE was a guess for the last letter. Didn’t understand the clue until after the solve
@Dave H That R was my last letter too. Most Christmas trees are FIRs, and are often trimmed a bit by the seller before the customer leaves the lot or tree farm.
Got hung up by ANNEAL (first time with that one) but interesting
@Leah ANNEAL was one of my first fills. Call it a win for weird and wacky wheelhouses. (rein in that temper, emus.)
TIL: STAX (records), LOTTA (sea lice), CHEX (Puppy Chow? Never heard of it except in its literal context. TY other commenters.), SAMARA (Weaving). RENEE: Love this. Very much a cryptic clue. I sure do miss the Cryptic being online. (Hint, hint, NYT.) Got everything from the crosses, though, with a decent time. Annnd back to my chores.
I'm always happy to see Christina Iverson's name on a puzzle, and this one did not disappoint. I'm 55, my son is almost 21, and we do the puzzle together; today's puzzle was especially fun for our various wheelhouses. This puzzle was the perfect combination of familiar and challenging, and the clever cluing made this a breezy and satisfying Saturday solve. Thank you!
Tough but enjoyable and fair for a Saturday. 18A RENEE confused me, but I understood it after solving and reading the clue more closely. I never even tried Irene (as others mentioned) because it didn't fit with the crosses; I'd gotten 9D IDES on the first pass (though the other crosses took me awhile). FWIW, I always do the Down clues first, except on Mondays which I treat like the Mini.
Wow!!!! I filled in RENEE with only the R and was fairly sure about it even though I didn’t understand why. I just read Wordplay to see if the reasoning was there and wow. I guess that one went right from my eyes to my fingers. I did have a typo in HANaI that I realized was the case because TREEs don’t FaRT (at least not as far as I know).
Good puzzle to close the week out with. Thanks, Christina…
I am below the age of 25 and have never heard the phrase 'so extra'. Fight me on this.
@Harry And you also live in Australia. Since the NYT is an American paper, are you surprised that our slang may be different from yours, mate? G’day, Harry.
@Harry I’m middle-aged and I say it. I also say, “wayyy too extra.” And “That meal was *extra* extra!” Maybe it’s a NE, US, middle aged woman thing. …
@Harry I'm in my 60's and know the phrase "so extra" from my twenty-something daughter's frequent usage.
More fun than usual for a Saturday, but still needed plenty of help. I liked learning about the OPAL at 50A, my favorite gem by far. I’m getting good a recognising clues like 18A, so got RENEE fairly quickly. Looking forward to more late week puzzles from Christina.