This puzzle definitely put up a fight. I had to hang onto toeholds for dear life. Exactly the sort of challenge I want from a Saturday puzzle. More of this, please. "Spin right round" was a particularly enjoyable clue, even if it triggers an inevitable earworm.
This one's a bit much. Gave up and checked puzzle to find less than ten answers were even right. I suppose you gotta have a super-hard one once in a while, but this might be the toughest one in four years of doing this. Nothing clicked, no trivia I knew, no clever aha pun moments. Oof.
My wife and I really gave this puzzle our all - but it was nowhere near enough to solve it. On my first pass I had three entries. My wife added several more. Then I looked up the trivia, and was still hopelessly lost. The next step - autocheck - helped, a little, but the grid is still largely empty, and I don't feel like going back to it. Personally I find it just too hard to be fun, so I'll leave the puzzle unsolved, without regrets. This has only happened two or three times in the 17 or 18 months I've been doing these puzzles.
@Andrzej This was one of the toughest for me in a long long while too. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get a foothold. Finally solved it but it must have taken divine revelation. If I recall you are a native Polish speaker so I have no idea how you solve most difficult NYT puzzles so kudos to you.
@Andrzej That occurred to me as I was breezing through this puzzle. It's not "on you" that you could not solve this one; it is really quite 'ethno-specific' (if that's a word) and also has catch-phrases that are gimmes to those of us who have reached a certain age. Fret thee not. Tomorrow is another day.
@Andrzej Just thought I’d chime in that today I also turned on Autocheck, which I do not believe I have ever done before other than while working on some late-week puzzles in the archives. I just wasn’t having fun and I was making such slow progress, I just gave up. That said, once in the Autocheck mode things came pretty easily and I enjoyed the puzzle in the end. I thought of you this morning as there is a piece in the NYT reviewing a new movie, “A Real Pain”, starring writer and director Jesse Eisenberg. It involves the protagonist’s trip to Poland. I suggest you look into it, and please give us all here feedback if you ever see it!
@Andrzej I found the same. For me, too much that was totally unfamiliar as I'm not from the US. Fair enough, but not fun. Onward.
Wow that was a toughie. The sign of a well (perhaps devilishly so) clued puzzle is that the clues seem opaque, but the answer (when eventually found) elicits an “of course, how could I not have seen that” response. This puzzle had many such clues, and I came close to putting it down and heading to bed at several points, but sheer stubbornness kept me at it until it grudgingly relented. The only thing that saved me was my love of music. I am an aficionado of guitar music of all sorts, and the CLASSICALGUITAR of Andres Segovia was the first long answer to come to me. And one of the very few gimmes I had on a first pass was Billy BRAGG, although I would quibble with the characterization folk singer. To me, he’s a singer/songwriter with a punk ethos and a political bent. He doesn’t dabble too much in traditional material. I’ve seen him in a very small venue and he’s thoughtful and articulate about social justice and political issues in speech as well as song. His album Workers Playtime is a perennial favorite of mine, especially the song Waiting For The Great Leap Forwards, which takes the Maoist slogan and applies it wryly to the struggles of the musician striving to mix pop and politics: “Join the struggle while you may, the revolution is just a tee shirt away.” He writes fine, sophisticated love songs too, e.g. The Only One.
@Marshall Walthew Seeing Andrea Segovia perform, in Chicago, just before he died, was one of the most thrilling experiences of my life. I was trying to learn classical guitar, and he made it look absolutely effortless, which it was anything but. An extraordinary guitar player.
@Marshall Walthew I still play Segovia. Well said.
@Marshall Walthew Segovia was my first answer. Also lived LEGGS - used to wear those. Good clues. Still have a problem but will find it...
When I show you my new spatula, you'll flip! (But my last kitchen utensil purchase was a whisk-y investment.)
@Mike I was briefly confused why alcohol would count as a utensil purchase, before I reread.
@Mike There's nothing so foolish as a beslotted spooner.
Mike, That one did go over easy. (After your high risk investment, I bet you ladle owe.)
@Mike I have a slotted spatula but use tongs so much more. Hmm.
Ah, a capital-P Puzzle, with much floundering for me – a good thing, because unraveling the floundering brings moments of triumph. Those moments on Saturday can be thrilling, and for me, there were many. A plenty-of-pushback with just-enough-yield Saturday. Spectacular grid design. Saturdays have the lowest word and black square count of the week, averaging 69 and 31. Today’s grid is much tougher to make, at 55 and 26 – look at all that white! Yet it is cleanly filled and contains a sky-high 16 longs (answers of eight letters or more), including six spanners, five of which are NYT answer debuts. Wow! And today a cluing feast. Lovely misdirects – I held on to STANDS instead of the correct SPEEDS for a long time for [Fan settings], and [Outspoken parenting critic, maybe] for TEENAGER had me trying to come up with a name. Lovely wordplay, i.e. [Fly traps?] for MITTS, [Spin right around?] for ROTATE CLOCKWISE, and [Galley command] for STET. For icing, serendipities: A very-rare-in-crosswords six letter semordnilap (DERATS), and the crossing PuzzPair© of CLASSROOM and a backward STEM. Bite and beauty in the box today. This was a gem – thank you for making it, Blake!
BTW, Blake has made gorgeous designs before – one of my favorites of the past couple of years is worth a look: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2023/03/24" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2023/03/24</a> . How often do you see a grid like that? Et tu, emu.
Oops! In my main comment, change that 55 words in the grid to 66 (still very low!). Et tu, emu.
Now that was a Saturday worthy of a Saturday. Took me a while to catch the tone of the clues, but then I was fine. Lots of cues from crosses of course, but this is a crossword. 15A: harDbALL? Nope. Nice one, Blake.
@Barry Ancona And my stats show that this one was on the easy side for a Saturday for me. It took me a little bit more than a half of my average Saturday time—not close to a Saturday record, but still quite easy for a Saturday.
Oof, what a beast. Nice puzzle Blake. I had a typo that took a while to find, turns out SETLUSTS aren't a thing.
@Dave S Wondering what they'd be if they were.....
Today’s Amusing Wrong Answer: Socializes = MINES rather than MIXES. You go to a party - you mine each conversation for something actually interesting - you mine the snack table for something worth tasting - you mine the host’s bookshelves for something you could take off into a quiet corner. Can you tell how social I am?!
Cat Lady Margaret, You lost me at “You go to a party..” (though next time I have to, I will definitely wear my headlamp)
I think I’ll change my Comments handle to “retired, with DE-RATters”. 😹
I enjoyed this. It was one of those puzzles where after the first pass of Across Clues I had maybe three fills. Thought ‘there goes the streak’. And then slowly, inch by inch, it starts to come together. At the 3/4 mark I thought, ‘How did I get this far?’. And then it was done. Quite satisfying.
Excellent Saturday challenge. As soon as I solved 'derats', I knew the comments section was going to be entertaining. I got a number of things, like 'plosives', very quickly, but got bogged down in the south west - but it didn't feel like a slog, just clever clueing slightly out of reach until it all snapped together. Overall a lot of nifty wordplay and *just enough* crosswordese.
@Withnail You and me both regarding DERATS. I gave that one some side-eye but did get it after all, from only a couple of letters. For those who think this puzzle skewed young, I was happy with Segovia and Fearles Leader, the latter of which goes back to my childhood in the early '60s. Some nice specialist words too, like PLOSIVES. Overall a great puzzle, a real Saturday challenge!
Just no. Slogged through every single clue and left in a bad mood. Nothing witty or fun about this one.
In general, the puzzles edited by Joel Fagliano have just a little too much punning/obscure clueing for me. If that’s your jam, more power to you, but for how my brain works I prefer Will’s puzzles. Will’s clever clues depend more on a good knowledge of literature. Joel’s seem to depend more on reading his mind, which I don’t do very well. At any rate I hope Mr. Shortz is getting better.
@Scott Same. I don't mind a little obscurity, but puns ....
@Scott Wow, yes! Couldn't of put this any better.
@Scott And i am extremely grateful that the puzzles no longer rely so much on knowledge of literature.
I thought I was so clever and on my way to a speedy solve when my very first entry was SHORT ORDER COOKS Got there eventually!
Since Blake mentions a sports undercurrent, I love the crossing of METS and MITTS. I certainly was thinking of food for a "Certain Thanksgiving dish". Excellent misdirect. Six great spanners in an all-around enjoyable puzzle.
My first thought was that outfielders use gloves, not mitts. Then I realized that catchers, who do use mitts, sometimes catch pop-up flies near home plate. All good!
Boy, did that one kick my onager. Started with a lot of wrong answers. Sort of remembered Segovia associated with guitar, but not with Spain. So I came up with aruSSIansGUITAR for 3D. (Doh!) Had MeetS before MIXES, puLLUP before ROLLUP, erte before IVES. I was a hot mess. Took me just under an hour, but I finished. Truly a worthy adversary. Thank you, Mr. Slonecker!
Favorite clue of the year: Outspoken parenting critic, maybe Took me back to those shocking days when I was informed of my incompetence frequently. Mark Twain said it best: “When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.”
Plosives? Nah. Classical crossing with class room? Never. Derats? No such word. Bad stuff
@Charles Anderson How do you feel about fricatives? 👄 (Speak the speech, I pray you, as I pronounc'd it to you, trippingly on the tongue. . . . )
@dutchiris As gently put as possible, does each remark require a response. I too learned of the plosive today but learned from others not to ever say much about a given word in any game. Spelling Bee is a trap for the unwary, crosswords seemed sedate. Apologies if inaccurate.
@Kroobey Does each response require a response?
Fun one! Love Billy BRAGG! When our kids were little, we rarely went anywhere without them. But once, they stayed with my mom, and we drove to Toronto to see Lucinda Williams. It was in a cool old building, but no seats, just an open floor. So we got there 3 hours early to stand in line. By the time we got in we were best friends with all the folks who we’d been hanging out with for the entire afternoon. The doors opened and we all raced to the stage. Opening act came on, and hours later Lucinda. (By this point, we all knew each other’s names and swore we’d keep in touch.) After every song, I’d yell “Side of the Road”! Eventually all of my new friends did the same. For me! Her *third* and final encore, she came out alone, no band, and played “Side of the Road.” With my elbows on the stage, I was emotional. I felt my shoulders and head getting patted by people I’d met that day. We all sang so loud and so happily with her. When she was done, she ripped the SETLIST off the floor and handed it to me. A very, very good day. Thank you Blake!
@CCNY Great story, thanks! I always loved LW, regret I have yet to see her in concert. Maybe you were at the old Phoenix Concert Theatre in Dec., 2001. Can’t find the SETLIST(S) from that one. Here’s my favorite about her home town in west LA, live from Austin, without Moonlights. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/2xt36jbh" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/2xt36jbh</a> — — — —
Approximately two dozen possibilities, versions, synonyms for each clue, but hey, who's complaining? A very satisfying puzzle when you get them all to match up and you're done. I wanted something like this to really absorb my attention and keep me from thinking EVERMORE about the FEARLESSLEADERS facing off day after day. Let us hope that the outcome of all that is not a COLDCALL and that the BRAGGart doesn't prevail.
I love puzzles like this, where you start off with no hope, then slowly get a foothold and piece it together. This one was a journey! Really original clues, and I love the constructor’s baseball history. As a 7-year-old on the West Coast in the days of the Bash Brothers I was on the other side of the Bay, but that was a fun rivalry. Very sad what’s happened to the A’s. Actually very sad how greed and the ultra rich control baseball altogether now. The Dodgers just purchased a World Series title, for example.
9A is just ridiculous. I grew up around Modesto. The clue is not a "modest home." It's a detached cottage on the grounds of a home and some of them are very very fancy. This smacks just a bit of cutsey-pie with a half teaspoon of shall we say "ethnic" assumptions about the population of Modesto. There is a well-known travel trailer of this name which would have been a much more useful and better clue. After the jokes at the expense of women this week (a group of us are still disgusted with "overflowing cups" and "eggs-terminators,") this one just threw off the entire solving experience. I'll slog through for my streak, but, Do Better, Editors . . .
Modest plays on Modesto. Modest can mean small. CASITA is a smaller casa. Have a tamal. Or a tamale. I'm treating, so it's not at anyone else's expense. Say hi to Toto.
@TLC agree - in Texas a casita is generally used for a smaller guest house next to a really big house.
May have been easy for some, hard for others, but for me, this was one of those ones where, first pass Im all "this one's impossible" but then eventually I got it!!! Whoop Whoop!
@Eddie As Merlin put it... <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wuTviZDhXEE" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wuTviZDhXEE</a>
Fiendishly difficult for me -- and yet without a single clue or answer that I thought was either arcane or unfair. Well done, Blake! Don't ask me how, but I finished it with no cheats. Steely determination was the reason. I have had a rather dismal week on the whole -- perhaps the worst week I have had since I began blogging about the puzzle (who can remember anything before that?) -- and I was determined to put up a good fight. And, because of the refreshing lack of proper names, this would have been a hard puzzle to cheat on in any case. All the difficulty was in the cluing: CLASSROOM ROSTER (last answer in); ROTATE CLOCKWISE (lovely!). I was pretty sure that gOAT was not a Thanksgiving dish, but until I had filled in ?RAGG, I would never have come up with BOAT. (GRAGG didn't look right.) I guess a BOAT is made with turkey? With sweet potatoes? With cranberry sauce? Whatever it is, I got it. Hard as the puzzle was, there were a few answers I got immediately. LOSE-LOSE. REDS (I was watching baseball back when they called themselves the Redlegs). MITTS (I saw the wordplay immediately). IVES. MAR. SUSS. LEGGS. TOATEE. Some sort of LEADERS and some sort of SPATULAS. EVERMORE. This was a "keep the faith" puzzle for me -- and it lasted longer than any sermon, that much I can tell you. Engrossing to work on and highly satisfying to solve -- a terrific Saturday.
Absurdly long spans of arbitrary answers. If I wanted puzzles that took forever, I would do Sudoku. Hated it.
Anyone else think PANTS is a perfectly reasonable answer for "Fly traps?" That hung me up for a long time.
@Tara for the longest time I couldn't get plants out of my head. At least pants fit
Difficult and the quality seemed uneven (as mentioned earlier, "derats"? Yes, in hindsight it is workable- with crossovers, not epiphanies). Also agree that it simply wasn't witty or much fun.
Good golly, that was hard. I wanted 55A to be DERATS so badly, and I was overjoyed when it turned out to be correct.
Perfect Saturday puzzle! Barely got anything on my first pass through the grid, but with persistence was able to slowly fill it in. Lots of "oh, yes, DUH" moments when I cracked a tricky clue, and fairly light on the obscure trivia. Thank you, Blake, and more Saturdays like this, please, NYT!
Tough one, and I was a little surprised when it solved. I had lots of trouble in the NW and NE and ran the alphabet in several places to come up with likely words. ARC LAMPS and CASITAS were problems, as was ROSTER. But they all appeared eventually. I knew the name Billy BRAGG, but absolutely nothing about him, so I was pleased when he turned out to be correct. Glad I made it through this one!
Moderate difficulty. Utterly humorless. Not a fan. I guess we're to be impressed by the "spanners" in both directions. But none had even a whiff of wit. They just sat there like limp rote offerings from a disinterested cat. The upper left gave me some trouble but I worked through it. Several answers seemed pretty awkward and stuffed into place. Don't care about the author's sports fetishes either, although they weren't noticeable or difficult. (Just evident in the notes.) I would like to see better puzzles than this one, especially on the harder days. /opinions are like emus /everyone has one and they all stink ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (I do this instead of emuing)
@B what makes you think the “spanners” are supposed to have “impressed” anyone? I always find it strange when critical commenters impute a desire to “impress” or be seen as “clever” to constructors whose puzzles they didn’t enjoy. And what do you mean by saying that the constructor’s “sports fetishes”, which you didn’t care for, “weren’t noticeable”? Seems like you noticed them. (But as with any time you critique a puzzle: duly noted, you did NOT find it difficult.) As for humorless: for my money, TEENAGER, CORED, BOAT, ALBS, and MITTS all had pretty fun clues (though that last one is sports-themed, so I guess that doesn’t count).
@B In what world do cats make "limp rote offerings"? And when my cat made "an offering" she was anything but disinterested.
This one was hard for me but enjoyable. Glad I am seeing that it was hard for others too. I had to do some look ups but that’s okay. Really enjoyed this one. Thanks.
I happened upon this magazine in doctors office—-Will Shortz on the cover! www.brainandlife.org He is amazing.
This was easier for me compared to Friday's for whatever reason. ASA Hutchinson, Mike Huckabee, and now Sarah Huckabee Sanders....wow, can we pick 'em in Arkansas, or what? So, when we moved to Mississippi, here was 'Tater' ....a blood brother. And I look bad in Red nowadays; it clashes with the pink/magenta of the rosacea. But y'all didnt come here for the INTMATE DETAILS of my wardrobe; it's not lavish--I need the closet space for my fabric. It's the CLASS ROLL...oh, what fun we had exchanging names for the Sub and pretending not to "get it" in Geometry, so the Sub had to repeatedly demonstrate dropping a perpendicular for a 90 degree angle. (Miss Battley gave us stern looks when she came back from her sick day.) ASSAULTS before ASSAILED because I did not read carefully. Anybody else still have a gravy BOAT and a small ladle for the Feast?
@Mean Old Lady Read my reply to our German friend @iason, below My mother had large sets of both Royal Currier and Ives, and Theodor Haviland Limoges (Azay-le-Rideau pattern, which it appears was heavily marketed to Hungarian immigrant ladies, of which my great-grandmother was one). There was also a set of Stangl ("Magnolia") from my Godmother. All had gravy boats. The Currier and Ives and the Stangl are gone, but I still have the Haviland packes away in the basement storage locker. So out-of-place with our mid-century modern lifestyle:-( So now, we usually just use a cream pitcher, or a small soup bowl for the task.
@Mean Old Lady Definitely sauce boats. With ladles.
MOL, My sister took the BOAT, which was fine with me. My children became vegetarians and my wife developed Celiac, so no gravy for our Feasts.
@Mean Old Lady There were two gravy boats in the set of dishes we inherited from my mother, but they went to Goodwill before we moved. We had another gravy boat that was basic white china, but I think we got rid of it, too. I thought that was a great clue. I definitely thought of food before dishes.
@Bill A few of our family feasts see great-grandma’s porcelain hauled out of STORAGE, sauce BOAT and all. This is a win-win, and not a LOSELOSE situation, in that it allows a TEENAGER to ACCESS memories of past family members. The kids may emit a few JEERS, but they know that sometimes, it is not enough to simply ROLLUP to the table MITTS washed, or not SPIT. The learning curve has not been STEEP, they do not need to be COAXED or ASSAILED, but feel the TRUE love and care which ARRANGES such a meal. Knowing that fine wine does not come with a can OPENER, or that the port needs to ROTATE CLOCKWISE around a table may be arcane knowledge. But we have never FALTERED in our attempt to share the values which are at our CORES and will continue to do so EVERMORE. Gracious is as gracious does. But enough of the INTIMATE DETAILS of our family life. We all live at such high SPEEDS. Sometimes, it’s good to take time out to smell the roses before they, too, ARE gone.
Very fun one! My personal favorite entry: TEENAGERS 👌 Also: CORERS and BOAT. I could get used to Saturdays (or better yet, Fridays) like this — eminently approachable, but with just enough resistance to provide a good workout. Thank you, Blake and Joel!
Oops, make that CORES. And while I’m responding to my own comment: MITTS was also great!
Ouch. There are times when I finish a puzzle with auto check enabled and end up disappointed in myself for not trying harder. This. Was. Not. One. Of. Those. Times. Ouch.
Sigh, how I love Billy BRAGG. I saw him open for Echo & the Bunnymen when I was 14—my first real concert. He was beautifully gritty and soulful, and I was fully crushing by the end of his set. Thanks for a happy soak in the hot tub time machine.
I *love* it when I have to work hard in every single corner and the pieces gradually fall... easier ones go too quickly and then the fun is over for the day! Very happy the answer was indeed DERATS, even though I had to tap that in one uncertain letter at a time, and loved the spanners - totally in line with their clues but open (and long) enough to need some crosses to get going in the right direction. Thanks for the fun, Mr. Slonecker!
Caitlin says: 7D. This clue appears nonsensical at first — [P, B, D, T, K and G]. This one was a fill-it-in-as-fast-as-I-could-type gimme for me. As it probably is for anyone who took basic linguistics or phonetics in college.
@Steve L Good on you. That was the last entry for me, solved only by crosses.
@Steve L My first thought was that the letters were atomic symbols, even though a couple did not seem right. (But I know the periodic table has grown since I last studied it.) A few crosses got me PLOSIVES. Having never studied basic linguistics or phonetics after grade school, I was glad to have a general idea of what a plosive is.
Came close to ruining my streak but some perseverance finally paid off. The difficulty level felt a lot like pre - 2020 Fri/Sat puzzles. More of these please!
My "fearless leader" always will be Boris Badenov. Oh the joys of "Rocky & Bullwinkle!" Thoughts of those wonderful characters & good-humored satire offer an escape from the news. Happy weekend & may the puzzles be with you.
@Min I was talking just yesterday with a friend about the wonderful jokes in Rocky and Bullwinkle that we didn't get as kids. Example: Our amazement when we found out that there was an actual opera entitled "Boris Godunov". Did they get that from R&B, we wondered?
Impressive puzzle. Tough, but if you look at the grid there are few unusual words or names. Most of the toughness came from the clues.
@Mr Dave 22-across was a tough one for me (to “suss” out?). I only got it by solving the down clues.
holy moly a tough one today 😭 i confidently put "ALL" for 19A thinking i was so clever lol. 24A was my fave clue!
This was a satisfying solve for me. A good sign for a tough puzzle is when I have only half the grid filled in when my average Saturday time rolls around, yet the clues don’t feel too unfair. I barely grasped a hold on the answers, finally running the alphabet with the PLOSIVES/IVES natick. Thanks for the challenge!
Went around the board a few times getting things here and there but SUSSing things out began to feel like a chore so I headed to the Wordplay column for a little inspiration. I shouldn’t have needed the photo there but getting SETLISTS to final were also chores before [band aids] for me so my brain didn’t catch on. The zestier puzzles are more my vibe and this one had less than I like, but I did love the [juicy stuff]/INTIMATEDETAILS pairing. And [arrive curbside]/puLLUP/ROLLUP. The clues for SPEEDS and ERASER felt like little helps from a friend. And finally, yesterday I was telling some friends about how my dad would take me and my sisters to METS games and taught us boxing until our brothers came along and relieved us of those duties. It didn’t (and still doesn’t!) relieve us from having to listen to games when we’re riding around with him. lol!
Can I say I hope we have FEARLESS LEADERS this time next week?
I enjoyed the cross between FEARLESS and EVERMORE, iykyk 🫶
You red a slightly tortured poetic association into that crossing (not to besmirch your reputation)
@Olivia So, are the last two TVs coming out together soon? Tortured Swifties want to know. (Didn't notice the cross, though.) !!!!
Even with the CLASSICAL GUITAR head start, this was an ideally challenging Saturday, following an ideal Friday. Same thing last week. Thanks constructors and Joel!