I feel bad about crossing a digital picket line, but I so badly need puzzle therapy right now that I can’t even conceive of stepping away. I’ve done so many (archive) crosswords in the last few days that I can’t even keep count. I crave the sense of logic, reason, and creativity they provide, and when so much in the world makes no sense, at least I know I can find some here. So while I deeply apologize to the staffers I am offending by my presence here, I hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me. I enjoyed this puzzle, even if my own stubbornness kept me from solving it more quickly than I should have. I was sure that the answer to “French bread” should be “pain”, and likewise held on to “peers at” instead of PERUSES for far too long. But I got there, and without any lookups. So maybe the puzzles are also teaching me about open-mindedness. That’s something I will really need to embrace in the months ahead.
16D was a delightful gimme for me. PAOLO is a relative of mine!
This puzzle gave me a lovely mix of work and play. The play came in the form of several splat-fills – bam bam bams – which always feel like a thrilling sled ride. The work came from answers out of my everyday rotation (CULTRAL ATTACHE, TOMFOOLS), and answers totally out of my wheelhouse (ELLIOT PAGE and TRES LECHES). I adore the labor involved in conquering the unfamiliar. This is a beautifully designed grid – never seen in the Times before – with lots of flow, that is, no almost-fully-detached islands. It accommodates a generous 14 long answers (eight letters or more), and the longs today, IMO, overall have zing. Speaking of zing, there are eight NYT answer debuts. One of them – BIG BREAK – I can’t believe has never appeared before in the 80+ years of the Times puzzle. One more note: [Eyeball] for OGLE came off to me as a misdirect, because it’s so often clued in a way that refers to its creepy vibe. Work and play in the same box, bringing the sweet gifts of satisfaction and “Whee!”, well, that makes me a happy solver. Thank you so much for this, Evans!
Sitting next to our dog and saying "Wok! Walk! EnTREATies!" made us suspicious that he played a role in creating this puzzle...
I liked this puzzle a lot. Just the right crunch - finished a bit below Friday average. There’s a difference (er… diff’rence?) between “easy for a Friday” and “too easy for a Friday”. In my opinion this puzzle is definitely the former, which is just fine by me once in a while. Great job, Evans Clinchy!
Just came by to say, with the strike and all, I'm leaving for a while. Be well, friends, good friends, and Barry.
@Francis - Come back soon, Francis -- I hope the strike is resolved to everyones satisfaction fairly quickly.
For a brief moment this morning I thought it was Tuesday, and the last few days were just a bad dream. Then I realized it really was Friday and I was a victim of wishful thinking. Oh well, nice puzzle anyhow.
ZEALOTRY indeed. We got it done. However, we will be hiding in a corner for the next four years or watching the original Godzilla with crabcakes. Thank you Evans, a really good puzzle.
@dk On the other hand, if the prediction that Guv Tater will be tapped for a Cabinet position turns out to be true, it would mean Delbert H. would become the governor and we might see this state creep into 49th place....
@dk Those first four years I had The Big Lebowski playing on a loop.
So nobody uses a wok for potstickers. You know pot stickers are flat-bottomed right. Believe it or not, flat bottomed pans also exist in China
@Amanda I always boil potstickers! Good point
@Amanda Exactly. My favorite dumpling place (in Chongqing) had big flat-bottomed pans capable of turning out fifty guo tie at a time. And stacks of bamboo steamer trays for the jiaozi.
@Amanda I don’t use a wok for potstickers either but many woks have flat bottoms. The sides are bowl shaped.
Am I the only one who is tired of using bread as a stand in for money?
@Danny Sprung I got tired of it about 60 years ago.
Despite some mildly misleading clues, and a little bit of a slow down in the lower third, I finished this one in reasonable time. I fell right into the pain (rather than EURO) trap for French bread and briefly puzzled over “Man for one” before coming up with ISLE. and, although not misleading per se, I tried Ralph before PIGGY. The Lord Of The Flies reference brought back memories of junior high and high school where LOTF was featured in 3 different (not DIFFRENT) English classes, which I thought showed a lack of imagination on the part of the English department. My father, a college professor and former high school principal, went to parent teacher night the third time it showed up on my reading list, and accosted the teacher who had assigned it. In consequence, those in the class who were bored of the Flies, were instead allowed to read On The Beach, a similarly apocalyptic story. The unintended consequence of my father’s action was that I got the lowest grade in that class that I received in my high school career, retribution from the assuredly irritated teacher. Seeing GIL Scott-Heron cheered me up a bit. I was reminded that: “The revolution will not be televised. It will not be brought to you by Xerox in four parts without commercial interruptions.” And thinking of his other most famous piece, which I won’t name here for fear of running afoul of the emus, put me in mind of how to contextualize those who are obsessed with colonizing Mars.
Some say “easy,” some say “hard.” Not easy for me (51 minutes) but I managed a gold star. I don’t know how some of you just race through these puzzles. :-)
I predict an uptick in REI's business. Spending more time outdoors is healing. It's better than a CHEESECAKE BINGE washed down with CRAFT BEERS.
Again! This week my son decided to make his TRES LECHES cake. He insists on making it entirely from scratch, and doesn’t have all the equipment, so he comes over, three (tres) days in a row to use our kitchen. We not only get the most delicious treat, but three days of chats with our boy! He’ll finish it today, but as I solved, I thought about that sweet masterpiece sitting in my fridge. And then, there it was. A sign I could take a *little* bite for breakfast..? I can’t think of any other reasonable explanation. Very nice Friday. Thank you Evans!
First time through I confidently entered "gear" for "word before or after head." All four letters wrong, but I eventually got it. I liked the right answer even better.
Two 15 letter answers and six 10 letter answers, and of all of those, only... CHEESECAKE ever appeared in another Shortz era puzzle and only ENTREATIES even appeared in a pre-Shortz puzzle. All the others were debuts. But... only TRESLECHES was completely unfamiliar to me. That's pretty impressive, but also made for a heck of a challenge for me and I had to cheat some to get through this one. That's all on me. Unusual puzzle find today - a Tuesday from January 26, 2016 by Sam Ezersky. The 'reveal' referenced two clues: 35a -"With 43-Across, singer of the lyric formed by the first parts of 20-, 24-, 40-, 51- and 58-Across :" DAVID and 43a was: BOWIE And then those 5 referenced answers: 20a - GROUNDOUTS 24a - CONTROLFREAK 40a - TOTASTE 51a - MAJORPROBLEM 58a - TOMFOOLERY Don't recall seeing anything like that before. Just amazing. I'll shut up now. ..
" My original clue for 15-Across was, [He wrote in his 2023 memoir, “The movement for trans liberation affects us all”]. Poignant words, especially at times like these." Poignant words that got rejected for a clue and replaced with a basic imdb reference.Too bad !
@Cam Really?! And the new clue is just bad: even if you know the series (which I don't), you can't know the answer without crosses. Crosses would probably have allowed me to solve the original clue, given what an icon of trans rights Elliot Page is. With the generic clue I just googled it because I saw no way of getting it, for its vagueness and my lack of knowledge of the series.
I had the high road up on a mountain RANGE. That little tangle was the last to fall, after I gave up BACON (which I never put on pizza). SIMON before PIGGY IRKS before the unforgiveable IRES 23D ???ARIEL ?? "Flounder" made me think of "Animal House" so I was really far afield. Still don't "get it." ?Disney movie? Ick. Okay, our son says the NYT administrators walked out Sunday and assures me the angels are on the side of the Tech Folk. I'll come back to Comments when this mess is cleared up. Sigh. I will send $$ to their fund to atone for being here... Catch you on the other side of the Great Rift.
I would like to introduce a superstition/folkway into our collective crossword culture: When in the course of beginning a puzzle, you say to yourself "Oh, this one is going to be easy" the answers will immediately dry up. Never do that! Wait until the end to decide whether or not it's easy or hard!
A very satisfying puzzle! I especially enjoyed the Arthur Conan Doyle quote. It’s very apt in today’s climate.
O NYT XW, must you keep reminding me about work? In *the Baker's Manual* (fifth edition, 2002), pastry chef Joe Amendola discusses cheesecake under the chapter on custards, and I tend to agree: desserts or dessert components in which the primary binding is gently cooked eggs. Along with pots de crème, lemon curd, and crème anglaise, etc. In that work, Mr. Amendola doesn't mention tres leches at all. *The Baker's Manual* is one of the few cookbooks I would actually recommend, for professional or home use. *** Well, I guess I've crossed the digital picket line. If I may opine all curmudgeonly for a minute, one of the strikers' demands bothers me as egregious overreach--and I'm not talking about "pet bereavement." I have little sympathy with employees who demand that they be able to "work from home," and complain when they are required to be present bodily in the office. (And better quit now, lest I say something that many would take as truly insensitive.) But of course, "work from home" has never been an option for me: it's rather difficult to fax a cheesecake or tres leches into the hotel from home. And FWIW, I *have* stood on a picket line, for a month in late fall. One of the hardest things I've ever done, even harder that work, but one which, should the situation demand, I'd do again. Luckily, we recently signed a new contract. So a stupidly broken streak--now back to finish Tues.-Thurs.; did I miss much? But I did discover that the WSJ puzzle is quite good.
@Bill I'm a retiree who worked from home on a per session (basically freelance) basis for eight years after retirement for my previously full-time employer, a NYC public school. Pre-pandemic, I came into my school to do various office tasks once or twice a week, and seasonally, more often, when required. I created the master schedule for the school, programmed the students individually, handled all the duties of the testing coordinator, such as ordering state tests and standardized tests such as the SAT and PSAT and setting up proctoring and student scheduling, and several other data-related jobs. I worked at the pleasure of the principal, and did tasks no one else in the school was trained to do. When the pandemic hit, there was nothing for me to do for a couple of months, and then, when schools reopened, I was given the option to work from home. Even the teachers were working remotely at first; later, they came in and students had the option of learning remotely. There was nothing I did that couldn't be done from home except on the day of and right before the exams, when I had to prepare the rooms and administer the exams. Once school started up in the normal sense that fall, I was the only one who could do his job from home. I'm not sure some of my colleagues didn't resent the fact that I was doing so, but clearly, their work could not be done from home (and neither could mine back when I was a pre-retirement full-time teacher). (continued)
@Bill (Part 2) Eventually, the principal decided I needed to come into the school a little more often. He didn't articulate a legitimate reason; I suspect his higher-ups were generally frowning upon this practice because it may have been abused. But I had solid reasons for not coming in. When I was there in person, I often was sitting around waiting to be handed tasks to do. When I worked at home, I only worked when there was something for me to do, and as a result, I could sometimes work one hour one day and five the next. I could work any day of the week, since it took no effort to get started; my computer was already on, even. I didn't have to wait until there was enough work requested to make coming in worth it. I could schedule appointments whenever I wanted, since I could work any time of day, even evenings or the middle of the night. I didn't have to drive two hours a day just to do (and get paid for) three hours of work. After the pandemic, everyone in the Bronx bought a car, and it took half an hour just to get to the bridge, a distance of maybe five miles. I didn't have to waste time waiting for a clarification. If I didn't get an answer quickly, I just got up and did other stuff, and went back to it later. This pressure to come back to the workplace was eventually one of the factors that made me tell them I was going to stop working altogether, so they could find others to learn the various tasks I did. I miss the extra money, but not that much.
@Bill I'm really grateful I don't have to demand to work from home. I was never interested remote working until I was forced to by COVID but I learned how to prosper in it and now I'm glad that I can still be remote 2 days a week, or as needed. I can tell you that I get way more done in my home office than in the work office with far fewer distractions, but I also love being in the office and connecting with my colleagues. I also know from working at an office for 25 or so years where working remotely wasn't an option, it did not mean people were doing their work. There was a whole lot of game playing and shopping and whatever else people felt like doing instead of work. Sitting in an office in a building is not the same as producing good outcomes. There are definite benefits to working from home for both employers and employees. Of course, I could definitely tell you what I do for a living without using any abstract terms.
In the early nineties I worked for a government agency represented by a white collar union. I was elected to represent our bargaining unit in contract negotiations twice. To me, it was never a matter of union: good/management: bad. We were representing the interests of different parties. Our side was fighting tooth and nail to maintain benefits that, even then, almost no one in the private sector enjoyed: retirement after 20 years of service and free health, vision and dental insurance for life for ourselves and families. Management was adamant that the cost was unsustainable without tax increases, which was a dealbreaker from their perspective. When I first learned about the dispute I read what I could find with the idea that I would suspend my account for the duration. But based on what I found, I can’t say that I understand enough to form an opinion. Frankly, if one doesn’t have a seat at the table, it’s pretty difficult to really understand what the stakes are. I completely respect the decisions others have made to support the guild. I just don’t feel anyone should feel pressured to take a side without understanding the issues. I’ve paid for my subscription and these games have gotten me through a lot over the past few years. That being said, if I can find more clear information I will reconsider.
@Cyndie You describe my thinking. I spent years as a home health aide and felt strongly that we needed to unionize. I am generally on the side of unions, exceptions mostly being when I felt pressured to take some stand. In this case, I received the request to participate too late to read up on the issues, and on a day when I sorely needed a political-free distraction and a news source I trusted. Like you, I completely respect the decisions others have made, and if I get more information, like you, I will reconsider.
Pretty straightforward but the clue for 38D was gold.
@MikeW agree about the (lack of) difficulty and the clue. 49D was my favourite. I don't know if it's a novel clue, but I can't remember seeing it before and thought it was clever.
Oops - just read about the strike. Sorry, tech workers. Stepping back away from the line. . .Heading over to WaPo with Bezos?Nah. Time for my favorite media giants to do the right thing(s).
@ChaCha Thank you for this comment! I didn't even know about the strike until I saw it. No more crossword for me for a while...
Sorry to say I just read all about the strike on Salon. Everyone here should go have a look. This will set a precedent for the tech industry. We will have to go dark for a while; go back to copying the puzzles at our library for a while. But today's puzzle was right up our alley, loved the cluing and all the alternative cultural references. Made us smile. A lot. Thanks, Evans
@M&M Shoulder to shoulder, if a bit belated. See you later.
Yeah, well, I got, and with no help. Took a hour. Really, I thought it was a hard rain's a gonna fall and not hail. A hard reign did in fact fall a few days ago. but it's like the man says: Don't take life too seriously; you'll never get out of it alive.
@JB Your time and experience matched mine. I think the hard reign is only about to start, though. The comments about "the last time you'll ever need to vote" are comcerning.
Did anyone else put IRKS for "33A Makes angry" instead of IRES ? That cost me some time, and I question the use of the latter.
@BW It’s easy to put one for the other, since the words are so close, both in spelling and in meaning. But between base forms and forms with S, these two have appeared thousands of times in the puzzle. IRK(S) means annoys; IRES means angers. The noun IRE means anger. Hope this helps!
@BW Yeah, that really ired me. I mean, not really "really", but it makes the point, I think.
Always fun to see a Yogi Berra quote. One of the best gifts I ever got my dad was a book of Yogi-isms, which I think was called When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It, which is also one of my favorite Yogi sayings.
@Vaer Whoops, not the name of the book. <a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0761154434/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr" target="_blank">https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0761154434/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?ie=UTF8&qid=&sr</a>=
@Vaer I recommend "It Ain't Over" on Netflix. He was quite a guy! It's amazing how much truth is in a lot of his quotes.
Yogi said a lot of things he didn’t say.
Today I learned that Different Strokes is spelled DIFFRENT STROKES in TV land. Another contemporary nail in the coffin of people learning/knowing how to spell correctly. OMG. Considering the staggering cost of First Class, Business Class, or even a seat with extra legroom in Economy, plus all the extra charges for luggage, I should worry about how "pricey" a CRAFT BEER is? I might as well order two. A lovely putdown of LAS VEGAS. I saw it at the young, impressionable age of 16 and was thoroughly unimpressed. I've never had the slightest desire to go back. This was like two puzzles: the section that had ELLIOT PAGE, GIL and PAOLO (whoever they all are) crossing each other and the sections that didn't. Does anyone in editorial keep an eye on criss-crossing names anymore? There is SO much of it now. Every. Single. Day. Because I solved the puzzle without looking any of them up, I suppose it means the puzzle was fairer than it seemed while I was solving it. But once again my teeth were gritted. As for the "friend of Scuttle, Flounder and Sebastian" -- what drivel. But at least the answer sat in a corner of the puzzle far, far away from the rest of the PPP. Best clues: ABBOTS (got it immediately); FACT; CULTURAL ATTACHE and BERRA. Berra's quotes are usually the high point of any puzzle. Unfathomable clue for ZINGS. I guess both "sick" and "burns" are being used in slang-y ways I don't really understand.
@Nancy The clue refers to a flight of beers, not an airline flight.
@Nancy I agree with you about LASVEGAS, but not so much DIFFRENTSTROKES, which had an apostrophe to observe the missing "e" and therefore did a pretty good job of balancing the spoken sound of the word with using Standard Written English in the title.
@Nancy I'm not sure "contemporary" applies to DIFF'RENT STROKES, as the show is nearly fifty years old. Not knowing ELLIOT PAGE, GIL Scott-Heron, or PAOLO Banchero means not watching movies, reading poetry, or enjoying basketball. Do you just sit in an empty room all day, judging people? I would suggest reading a recent op-ed by Jeff Tweedy of Wilco, a band I'm sure you've never heard of, about how he learned to stop worrying and love ABBA. It turns out, if you stop turning up your nose at everything, you actually have much more fin.
"I should worry about how 'pricey' a CRAFT BEER is? I might as well order two." Nancy, A [flight] is already well more than two.
@Nancy And the TV show title was spelled DIFF'RENT STROKES, so it really wasn't misspelled.
Gil Scott-Heron’s best known work is from the 70’s and 80’s. He was very influential in African American poetry and music, and has been dead for 13 years. Elliot Page (formerly Ellen Page before coming out as trans) is a high profile actor with a 20 year old career. This isn’t about ignorance of current pop culture, but perhaps something else? The Little Mermaid is an almost 40 year old cultural icon in children’s movies. Good grief…. I am curious what PPP stands for though.
@Nancy Why is 23D "drivel" and 24D a "best clue?" Can you see the disconnect between what you consider acceptable and unacceptable? Ariel is drivel and Berra is great. Your complaints are generational in my opinion, The Little Mermaid came out in 1989, Yogi Berra was born in 1925. I find your comments to be contradictory at times, but I enjoy reading them just for the controversy they create.
@Nancy If you haven't read any of GIL's poetry or heard his music, I recommend it. Some of it especially relevant now. I heard him live at Atlanta U and it is a powerful memory.
@Nancy I also got stuck on the crossing of the names of three people I had never heard of. The rest of the puzzle was fairly easy, but I could not finish because of the "Natick." It just seems unfair to me to insert a crossing of proper names unless they are very widely known.
@Nancy Today's Las Vegas is way different than what you saw in 1940. You probably still won't like it.
I didn’t hear about the strike until last night. I have signed out of the NYT Games and Cooking apps and will stop playing. I’m giving up my streaks in support of the NYT Tech Guild. Solidarity.
I adored the New York Yankees since I was twelve years old. Imagine how I felt when I had Yogi’s grandson, Larry, in my U.S. history class! He was very well behaved.
A Friday PB for me! On its wavelength for sure, with some cute clues. No whining, no complaining...
What Big Joe Turner was to rock&roll, Gil Scott-Heron is to rap.
Was to rap. (But he declined the honor.)
@John Dietsch So now I know who to blame.
I enjoyed your puzzle, Mr Clinchy, thank you. Perchance was your father a high school teacher in Westchester County, NY in the 1980s and '90s?
How is this a Friday puzzle? I kept looking up to check the date again and again. It first seemed like a Monday, maybe a Tuesday. The center left gave me a little pause but the whole thing went very quickly and there wasn't a whole lot of wordplay involved. Diff'rent Strokes was particularly disappointing. Just a straight up question and answer. At least the other "spanner" tried. We've had 3 stellar theme puzzles this same week. I found today's themeless disappointing. It would have been fine for a Wednesday maybe? ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B Man, I struggled more than on many a Saturday. Lookups, autocheck - and I was still lost in the bottom section. The "misspelled" sitcom was especially cruel: I missed the lack of an E when entering the solution I found in Google and I wondered if I might be dealing with a Friday rebus 🤣. I still don't get the clue for CULTURAL ATTACHE - I know what that is but I can't see how may arrive at the solution from the clue. Overall this was one of the hardest Fridays I have attempted. It is rare that I have to brute force squares with autocheck, and that is what it took in a few places today.
@B I'd like to see Wednesday alternate between themed and themeless. That would provide a better home for less challenging themeless puzzles.
@B I beat my average by 12%, but I wouldn't call this an easy puzzle. The following answers all seemed very Friday to me: CRAFTBEERS TOMFOOLS ELLIOTPAGE ZEALOTRY TRESLECHES CULTURALATTACHE
Btw, in Polish we call cheesecake "sernik", which basically translates as "cheesy thing". Yet it most definitely is considered a cake. Nobody would ever call one a pie (placek). Perhaps this is due to the fact that traditionally Polish sernik always contained flour and was always baked (and as a result rather dry). Some imported cheesecake styles are indeed tarts, but would never be called that. Interesting interaction between language and globalization, this.
@Andrzej, What type of cheese is used in a sernik? I doubt it is American-style cream cheese, with its high water content and lots of gum or carrageenan stabilizers. The Italians make a Torta di Ricotta, using, well, ricotta. It is usually baked in a pastry crust (sometimes even a double crust), making it definitely a "tart or pie." It, too, is rather dry compared to American cheesecake. I like it, but it is a hard sell for most American tastes.
REI IRES me every time, only because it just won’t stick in my brain. (Maybe now I’ll remember it, since “Recreational Engrams Irk”) A fairly Friday feel for me.
@JohnWM It stands for Recreational Equipment, Inc., but whatever works is good.
Surprisingly smooth given what the calendar says but still fun with [Big brothers?] the favorite. The history of the development of the craft brewery business here in NJ which was able to work around the limitations on liquor licenses to become, well, bars. You can't turn the corner without coming across a new one. Sorry but $8 for a pint is still too much no matter how crafty the brew. And what's with these cloudy beers? Also sprach the curmudgeon .
@John Carson Some craft beers are ridiculously overpriced, true. I remember seeing a four-pack that was priced at $80. Some brewers are counting on the perception that a high price implies a proportional increase in quality, the kind of thing that sells $1800 sneakers (that, plus status-signaling). But you don't have to buy the ridiculously overpriced brews, and there has been a huge increase in both quality and variety, for which I'm profoundly grateful. We have Jimmy Carter to thank for that. He made home brewing legal, then homebrewers revived interest in all the myriad ales, stouts, porters, pilsners, etc. that already existed at one time in the US, and then expanded on that list with a lot of innovation. And it was homebrewers that started the first American microbreweries. And if you still want Pabst or Budweiser or Coors, they're still available.
@John Carson I note that there are no Iron Hill Brewery locations out your way, but if you're ever in Maple Shade or Voorhees, I highly recommend a visit. (I went to business school with one of the founders...now they have 20 locations.)
For those of us who seldom conquer the Friday puzzle, the ever-present question: was this puzzle easy or was I good?
@Phil For me it was very hard, impossible without outside help, in fact, so in my eyes you were good. 👍🏾
@Phil It wasn’t the toughest Friday, but you’re good. And getting better with every solve. 👍
@Phil - For me, it was easy until I came to the SE corner. That's when I became good.
@Phil I found it on the easy side for a Friday, but I wouldn’t say it was overly easy. Maybe you’ve been getting better at the puzzles the more you’ve done them. That’s usually how it works. Maybe you’ll nail tomorrow’s as well!
@Phil Do you think it could be the case that everyone in Poland is as nice as this guy? 🤗
@Phil any Friday or Saturday solve is an accomplishment. I run around 75% and I'm still pleased by every completion. Congrats!!
@Phil it was my best time on a Friday puzzle in the last year, so apparently I found it easier than other Friday puzzles
Fair but tough one, had to resort to the hints so as not to take up my entire friday morning. My nits, PERUSES seems like a casual read rather than a close read. And I believe Bentley is owned by VW, which also owns AUDI and a million other brands.
@Wayne C PERUSE is a contronym. It has two contradictory meanings. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peruse" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/peruse</a> The clue is fine. The Bentley clue is fine, too, according to how Wikipedia explains the corporate structure involved: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bentley</a>
@Wayne C I thought the same about peruses. Apparently it can mean either - detailed or cursory review. Which is... pretty unhelpful. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
My best performance on a Friday puzzle! Of course I had a little help but I'm pleased! Thank you
In light of recent events, perhaps 40D could have been clued, “One who might stay home when they are blue?”
fell asleep last night while solving this puzzle—woke up this morning to finish it and it saved my streak 😅
Easy for a Friday, but I'll take it.
I really made this one hard for myself by misremembering the quote as "... an obvious fake". Made the whole northwest corner much more of a headscratcher than it needed to be! I do love the clueing of ELLIOT PAGE with reference to the Umbrella Academy. That show was probably the best project he could have been involved with at such a crucial moment in his life.
I finished one of Mr. Clinchy’s more interesting puzzles (March 4, 2016) last week. It’s difficult, but doable. If you enjoyed this one, it’s a good follow up.