19-Across brought to mind the summer of 1971 when I worked in a physiology lab at Berkeley whose research focus was the pituitary hormone prolactin. For months, they had sacrificed pigeons for their pituitaries, and squab had been a staple of the grad students' dinners. One of the postdocs told me that the saddest day of her life was when she found out that lobsters don't have pituitary glands.
Fact Boy, How many did she have to check to come to that conclusion?
@Fact Boy I was a neuroscience major in college back in the seventies and I”ll never forget the neurobiology lab where we performed measurements of action potentials in the tails of lobsters. To the shock of many (and to some, delight), at the end of the lab the professor steamed our subjects and served them up with melted butter. 🦞
Saturdays can come through, it can happen to you: Just fill in "YOUNG AT HEART" It's not hard, you needn't fear, just fill in Garson Greer (knowing her name means you're only young at heart). You can make us all swoon with impossible clues Turn off Dana Bash, smoke some grass, drink some booze And wish for the return of Shortz après each passing day Got served crab by Jose Andres, with just a dab of Old Bay! No sir no! I told the yes men, read the op-ed by Masha Gessen if you're young at heart But it's hard to be woke when we elected a bloke who ain't all that young at heart And you can survive, bypass Project 2025, think of the joy you'll derive, just from being alive! But here is the best part, Friday night's a head start and you can complete this puzzle if you're young at heart!
@john ezra BRAVO! Crossword poet laureate!
For "activity requiring a map", I confidently filled in ORIENTEERING, which fits the space and crosses with AGARS and GREER, which I already had. Of course, every other letter is wrong...
I came through the brain fog after hip surgery only to fall to Covid and a new but shorter round of brain fog. So this was my first Saturday completion, and it was a thrill to be back in the saddle again. Unlike the reviewer when I saw Garson, I knew immediately that it was Greer. I guess age has its advantage. I’ve made it to 84, and the little gray cells still seem to be working.
@SteveG_VA Not to be too 'Real-Life'y here, but if you don't mind my asking, did you perhaps get CoVid in the hospital? Which is as I understand it not that uncommon? It's not what one wants to take home from the hospital
"I forgot how to play pool!" "Just use some cue cards!" ("Okay! Otherwise, I'd rack my brain.")
@Mike I felt for a moment that you would make a massé of this pun, but now I rack it up to your vast experience.
@Mike You'll soon earn your stripes. If you hustle, you might pocket some scratch.
@Mike You're so good with English! We can always bank on that! I've always felt that your witty puns are right in the pocket. Always nice to visit your corner of Comments. Solid.
Fun finds: • Rare-in-crosswords six-letter semordnilap (RECAPS). • EARN IT anagrams to TIN EAR in a cool way: Read it backwards for three letters, then read it forward for three letters. • SCRUFFY, GLOSSY, THIRSTY, FROSTY, GUTSY – Sounds like the B-TIER of Snow White’s retinue. • The cross of two very lovely words (ROBUST, SCRUFFY). Once again, Ryan’s grid-building talent shines. Here’s an ultra-low-word-count grid (66) -- free of clunky answers. Look at the huge chunks of white in the grid and how so smoothly the letters fit in! This is craft and art. Ryan makes it look easy in his 24 Saturday puzzles, but trust me, it’s a mountain few can climb. It’s fun to look at a long answer with just a few crosses and suddenly realize what it is. It’s also fun to take a stab at an answer from a vague clue and have it turn out right. I had a good number of these moments today, so lots of “Whee!” Correctly filling in a puzzle is a happy ending, and better yet is when that happy ending is accompanied by a happy DURING, that is, many buoyant pings throughout the fill-in. You once again gave me one of those, Ryan. I had a great time with this, and thank you!
@Lewis I gave style points for the apt crosses of; SHOTS/POOL TUNA/MAKI PAGAN/SAGAS
@Lewis "EARN IT anagrams to TIN EAR in a cool way: Read it backwards for three letters, then read it forward for three letters." I believe words and phrases like that are what most people refer to as trivicetriversasemisemordnilaps. Just rolls off the tongue, doesn't it?
As a newer solver (past few months) this was a monumental puzzle. This was the first time I was able to complete a Saturday puzzle - with help of the checker but still a huge milestone for me! Agreeing with the other comments, I would say this puzzle is a bit easier than other Saturdays. The first half of the puzzle was a slow burn until I got in some longer central words- then the puzzle really started to fall into place. Great set, thank you Ryan!
@Jenn It feels great to do your first Saturday, doesn't it? 🤩 Huge congrats! 🥳💃🏾🕺🏾 Btw, for me this was not an easy Saturday, so in my book your success is even greater than you give yourself credit for 👍🏾
@Jenn Don't sell yourself short. What is easy for you is not necessarily easy to everyone. This puzzle might just have had some entries that you just happened to know, and they might have been spread out in a way that made it easy for you to figure out the rest. That doesn't mean everyone had the same experience. For my part, this was a typical Saturday puzzle. Not especially tough or especially easy.
@Jenn Hats off to you! I’m still not there yet.
After more than a year solving crosswords daily, this is the first Saturday crossword I could solve solely on my own without googling references or trivia or whatnot. And I was even 8 minutes faster than my average time! A day to remember.
@Irene Congratulations! That’s a nice feeling, isn’t it?
Certainly Zeus, Odin or the Dagda were not "pagan" in their times. I wish I could live long enough only to see the Judeo-Christian god referred to as "pagan."
@Super8ing There are varying definitions of what is considered PAGAN, but mostly they have nothing to do with what is the "one true religion". <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pagan" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/pagan</a> As you can see, PAGAN can be descriptive of anyone who historically followed a non-monotheistic religion (thus, the clue qualifies) or was a believer in a god other than the the Abrahamic one that Jews, Muslims and Christians believe in. Other than to describe neo-PAGAN religions like Wicca, the term PAGAN is largely outdated and should only be used historically. Certainly, it can be an offensive and dismissive word. I wouldn't advise, for example, referring to Hindus as PAGANS. However, I don't think the clue is incorrect for the entry. If that is indeed what you're implying.
@Super8ing "Pagan" traditionally means "not Christian," so it wouldn't make sense to refer to the Abrahamic God as "pagan." Specifically, "pagan" has been used to refer to the European belief systems that predated Christianity. Its original meaning was "rural" or "rustic," the sort of people who were out of touch with the new religion. And yes, Zeus was in fact considered pagan in his time--the rise of Christianity overlapped with worship of the old Greco-Roman gods.
@Super8ing i thought the exact same thing. May that day come sooner than later!
After Friday’s puzzle came dangerously close to ending my streak, and took me much longer than I would ever dare to admit, I sailed through this Saturday puzzle with very little trouble. I’ll join those who believe the puzzle orders were reversed. TIBERIUS was the middle name of Starship Enterprise Captain James Kirk, played by Montreal native William Shatner. Just a little Trekkie trivia!
Any puzzle that mentions Chef José Andrés and by extension his World Central Kitchen is more than okay by me. I didn't find this puzzle overly difficult, nor any other puzzle this week. Can't really judge by just one week. Will have see going forward whether this trend continues or not.
@Vaer -- World Central Kitchen had a huge helpful presence here in Asheville, after Helene. Local chefs joined in their work. The organization stayed after many news organizations left. It's the real deal, and to me, and I'm sure many others, it will be remembered fondly for a long time.
@Vaer AArggh! I finished with a wrong letter! Apparently my spotless youthful years served me ill. I had GROSS for "Ganja" ....which I guess I mixed up with GONZO (as in Gonzo Journalism) and never looked at the crossing. So, Ganja is yet another name for Pot, GRASS, or "Mary Jane" if you used to read old mysteries.... sigh.
@Lewis I am a supporter of Habitat for Humanity of the Charlottesville [VA] Area, and through them I found Asheville’s Habitat for Humanity. They identified worthy organizations in Asheville to which I donated. Here in Charlottesville we’ve got your backs.
You had to earn it, but it was a joy to solve. None of the usual suspects, though. So I’ll have to go off and get my own Oreo. I imagine constructors often feel like donning battlesuits to deal with some of the comments they get. It sometimes feels like a snake pit around here. But if, and that’s a big if, no one objects, I’d just like to say I love you, all of you, for making this such a lively place to spend a little time. Have a great day and don’t let the emus bite.
Now that was hard! In the end I managed to complete the puzzle in reasonable time (24-ish minutes) with just a few lookups - not many were needed as the constructor managed to keep trivia content to a minimum. The clues seemed very tricky to start with but I figured them out, and I'm quite proud of it 🤩. I found yesterday's puzzle much more difficult - I needed multiple lookups and autocheck on Friday, and today I could keep outside help to an absolute minimum.
@Andrzej I was feeling good about MY time (just under 24 minutes) until I read this. Wow! Recommend @Andrzej's post if he beat your time.
When I entered SWOONS for “Reacts like a superfan”, I immediately thought of The Beatles. so I smiled when I saw today’s photo. I like the crossing triple stacks. especially POOL HUSTER and USUAL SUSPECTS. Great clues for both. Was there ever a film with so many memorable quotes as Casablanca? "We'll always have Paris" is my favorite. When GREER Garson starred in a film with Clark Gable he quipped “I put the arson in Garson” and she countered with “I put the able in Gable”. Talk about wordplay!
@Anita And now it's time for another viewing of Casablanca! Favorite quote that I've found useful many times: "Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of your life..."
Thinking back to my first job and my disappointment upon learning that I had not in fact been hired as a bussboy.
Here's my uninformed take on the puzzle (uninformed in that I've not yet read the Wordplay column or any comments, but I promise I will): Fun. Challenging at first; I couldn't find a toehold until 19A SQUAB. Once I got rolling, though, it turned easy and the other answers filled in quickly. It's actually my 10th fastest Saturday ever. A big thumbs down on the clueing of 25A [Alert to prejudice] WOKE. In my experience, the only people who use WOKE that way use it to belittle people who have more respect for people unlike themselves than the people calling them WOKE have. It's the new "politically correct." I did like the clue for 44A [Spot-checked?] DOG-SAT (even though I got it quickly).
@Eric Hougland Thanks to Caitlin Lovinger for calling out 1A [In need of a trim, say] SCRUFFY. That's definitely been my preferred look for the last several years.
@Eric Hougland I don't see the problem with the 'Alert to prejudice' cluing. To me, it means the same thing as 'aware of prejudice.' In other words, one has opened ones eyes enough to see the prejudice around them.
@Eric Hougland it did begin with progressives though? "stay woke" etc.
@Eric Hougland For the back history: <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woke</a> The term has been co-opted by many, but perhaps by no one more than the current Florida governor.
@Eric Hougland This is just the latest example of a term that started as a positive descriptor, was co-opted as a negative, and now has little meaning beyond its use as a political slur. Apparently those who utter it find more merit in being asleep.
@Eric Hougland I was Today Years Old when I learned that you are a member of Team Fiend. <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/meet-team-fiend" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/meet-team-fiend</a>/ Always enjoy your comments and agree that the use WOKE is typically pejorative.
@Eric Hougland I hear you on WOKE, but I actually liked the clueing for that one, along with the clueing for CLIQUE — I took both of those entries to involve a bit of deliberate misdirection, by pairing answers that have strongly negative connotations with clues that point away from those connotations, while still being totally fair.
@Eric Hougland I have to admit your comment wrong-footed me to begin with - I've not seen conservatives offer much of a definition of "woke", but definitely not "alert to prejudice", which they would argue they are (while brushing aside most examples, and insisting on some imaginary ones) So my immediate reading was "In my experience, the only people who use WOKE that way (progressives) use it to belittle people (conservatives) who have more respect for people unlike themselves than the people calling them WOKE (progressives) have." - the old "you say you want diversity, but what about diversity of opinions?"
I would argue that dad jokes are not stale; they are classic. I might lose that argument.
@John I put in "corny" at first until it didn't work. But corn is a beautiful thing. When you try it with butter, everything changes <a href="https://youtu.be/1VbZE6YhjKk?si=jYlXs2fY3uBB5SXt" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/1VbZE6YhjKk?si=jYlXs2fY3uBB5SXt</a>
@Becca I tried punny before corny
@John - I was a little miffed that BRILLIANT didn't fit. But then, I'm a dad.
Typically I detest GIFs, whether pronounced with a hard G or a soft one, whether animated or live-action, whether funny or not. Maybe it’s because they keep going in an endless loop and I usually find repetition annoying. But I guess I’m just prurient enough to be interested in 29A. Can anyone point me to a short, simple visual (NSFW is OK) about which one would say THAT’S A BI GIF?
@Eric Hougland can't tell if that's a funny joke or a Fruedian slip. But you misbracketed the last word. It's "if".
@Eric Hougland Stevie, David, and I are happy to oblige: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/yeymnxjy" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/yeymnxjy</a> (Hopefully your computer won't explode when you open this link.)
@Eric Scroll down; thank me later <a href="http://mlwiki.org/index.php/Binomial_Distribution" target="_blank">http://mlwiki.org/index.php/Binomial_Distribution</a>
@Caitlin It's a good thing you qualified "*most* of our lifetimes" as being post-1980s or I would have said, "Whatchoo talkin' 'bout, Caitlin?" There are quite a few of us out here creaky enough to have GREER be a gimme. So here's a dad joke from my childhood, only I told it *to* my dad. (Important to note here, circa 1964.) "Daddy, what do you get when you put your finger in the president's ear?" Answer: "Johnson's Wax!" Only my dad had a dry wit. To my question, he said, "Hm ... 30 days?"
Immensely enjoyable. This was filled with clues that sparked real curiosity before I got the answer and provided nice Aha Moments once I did. Some of my favorite clue-answers: POOL HUSTLER; YOUNG AT HEART; SAGAS; and DOGSAT. USUAL SUSPECTS provoked a lot of curiosity in me since I couldn't come up with it, but afterwards I had the strong feeling: "Shoulda known it!!" I see only now that I had a DNF. NUTSy instead of NUTSO (who says that?) gave me LE?Y for the Mark Twain prize winner. All I could think of was one of the LEVYs in "Schitt's Creek", and I know they're Canadian (!) -- but even so, they're really, really funny. I wanted ANDRES, not AvDRES for the restaurant guy, but who is LENY? I know LENNY, but not LENY. Shoulda seen my mistake, but it was yet again another idee fixe that I failed to correct. Doesn't matter. I had so much fun with this that I was truly sorry when it was over.
Half my average Saturday time but I loved every minute. Really delightful! Always nice to ponder two great films. “Private rejection?” was a favorite clue, but top marks for the clearest and most succinct definition of WOKE. How can anyone be offended by alertness to prejudice? Bravo, and may the emus and pagan gods approve.
@Emilie It’s not “alertness to prejudice” that offends me. That’s an admirable trait. I am offended by the way that right wingers have co-opted the word WOKE and use it to belittle people who believe that prejudice still exists in our society and who try to do something about it.
I was looking on YouTube for a clip of the Roches' wonderful rendition of "Frosty the Snowman," but instead I found this one: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXfDBH2bij4" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXfDBH2bij4</a> Wintry images like these fill me with melancholy: for the passing of my youth, and for the passing of winter conditions such as these, which, with global warming, are becoming less and less common (outside of Hallmark Channel Christmas movies, that is.) Although I've traded my Flexible Flyer for a pair of Karhu X-C skis, I still love playing in snow. Why? I guess, even in my sixties, I'm still Y . . . . "Oh C'mon Bill! Stop being so WOKE! Just think of all that new waterfront property!"
@Bill I don't want to sully @john ezra's wonderful bit of doggerel, below, with a reply, so I'll sully my own: The actress is Greer Garson; although had je written " . . . Garson, Greer," it would have still scanned and rhymed.
@Bill Thanks for that great link. I used to love the “Christmas Island” album. Those black and white winter scenes were right out of my childhood as well. Made me remember that LR voiced Leon the Snowman in the movie, “Elf”.
@Bill Stop the music at your opening sentence. The Roches Christmas album is my favorite in a large collection of holiday music. John Denver and the Muppets is a very close second. I am not allowed to play Christmas music until Thanksgiving. Otherwise it would be on all year. Five days to go…..
Umm, I don’t think it’s affection that THIRSTY are desperate for 👀
Oops, they switched the Friday and Saturday puzzles. 11:42, no mistakes, a Saturday personal best and less than a third of the time Friday took me
Steven, A fair number of folks thought the Wednesday and Thursday puzzles got switched, so why not Friday and Saturday too? My water clock is not precise, but this one seemed to me to go faster than yesterday's too.
@Steven M. I think they switched the Saturday and Wednesday puzzles. Like you said, a really quick one. All you needed was a few crosses to get the long ones.
@Steven M. Everyone has their personal strong and weak spots, but for me, things were normal with these past two puzzles. Friday's took me just about two minutes faster than Saturday's.
@Steven M. It can be crazy some weeks, but different strokes for different folks. My fastest to slowest this week has gone Monday, Wednesday, Tuesday, Saturday, Friday, Thursday (with Sunday yet to come). Really, how often does a week ever go in a "clean" order?
I enjoyed this one, and was helped immeasurably by the bird clues. Anyone who has heard the cry of the BARNOWL in the dead of night won’t soon forget it. I screwed myself up royally by having speakon instead of SPEAKOF, which in turn made the intersection if 29A and 30D impossible to fill. Eventually I knew I had to look elsewhere and saw my mistake. I might have had a really good (for me)/Saturday time, but for that hiccup.
@Marshall Walthew I also had SPEAK ON and could not see my way clear to the BIG IF.
@Marshall Walthew "Distinctive screech" does not even begin to describe the blood curdling sound. I welcome all other animals to my neighborhood, but I'm glad BARN OWLs just pass through occasionally. Being lulled to sleep by some BARRED OWLS is more my speed.
Good Xword Tips for Noobs: a) Learn the Greek alphabet; b) read both Robt Graves' _I, Claudius_ and _Claudius the God_; c) bone up on myths and legends (if you weren't addicted in childhood), especially noting the antics of PAGAN GODS. As a P.S., I'd say, "Don't get too fancy." I wanted 21D's "Activity requiring a map" to be ORIENTEERING (which, alas, fit.) For 7D I started with YOUTHFUL...um, something. Oh well. BARN OWLS-- beautiful birds! But screech owls got their name honestly. Maybe we could arrange a contest....? I thought you just put OLD BAY in the pot of water and then heartlessly dropped the crabs in... I'm allergic, so I skip over all RECIPEs involving crab. "Theater kids" form a CLIQUE? Hmm. Our son (computer engineering major) had a large number of buddies in the Theater department, so... not all that exclusive. Maybe it was all the puns.. Nice puzzle, Ryan McCarty. Reall enjoyed it.
@Mean Old Lady I wanted it to be orienteering too, having just read about the sport in a Louise Penny novel. Sadly, reading about a quaint Quebec murder-village has not made me any better at French, and I completely blanked on APRES.
@MOL I'd recommend anyone, not just N00bs, read the Graves novels, and failing that, watch the classic BBC miniseries. His poetry is pretty good, too. I draw the line at *The White Goddess*, his hare-brained analysis of PAGAN GOD(desses). IMHO. ("don't touch the figs.")
Pretty friendly for a Saturday. Had SPEAKON instead of SPEAKOF, which made THATSABIGIF take too long. Didn't understand "Anchor, e.g." for RACER until I scanned the column, but REAR was the only "Seat filler" I could muster. Knew TIBERIUS only from James T. Kirk. Sad to admit this.
@Xword Junkie my initial seat filler after starting with R was “Rump” which I changed due to my guess of FROSTY
It must indeed have been an easy puzzle. Even I (someone who has deteriorated enough to answer "octopus" instead or "waterfall" for "might freeze in cold weather" in a Japanese crossword yesterday with the first square of two, TA, given! Then I made exactly the same pronunciation mistake for today's "sushi roll"!) finished before bedtime (in 29:36) using Autocheck. I could probably have done as well without Autocheck when I was 84.
@kilaueabart I really admire you for hanging in there with the rest of us and always appreciate what you add in addition to the commentary just about the puzzle.
Bart, I'm sure you still fare better than most of us here doing Japanese crosswords. Happy Saturday!
A note on UVEAS. Every solver brings a unique life experience to the table. One solver’s Natick is another’s gimme. For reasons too long to list, I took a full semester three unit course called Structure and Function of the Eye at the tail end of a Liberal Arts degree. How weird is that?
@Kevin D That does seem like an odd choice, but I’ll bet it was very interesting and you probably got UVEAS right away, whereas for me it was only towards the end, once I remembered TIBERIUS. Also had to say that I loved seeing you’re from Puyallup, which is such a great name for a city. I have relatives in Washington, on Whidbey Island, so I know about Puyallup.
After a clunky, clueless start (I entered GREER, took it out and entered Kanin, took it out and put back GREER), I kept some fills and got it going. There were fun clues that made it worth the TREASURE HUNT (DOG SIT was a honey), and I always like to see an emperor that's not tied up in a toga (penguins are cuter, though). There were only a couple of the STALE USUAL SUSPECTS, which was a relief, and I had to stop and scratch my SCRUFFY head a time or two, because I did get stuck a bit (GLitSY was my first choice for 8A), but that's what makes a puzzle worth the time to solve it. If you've done 24 Saturdays, Ryan McCarty, you obviously know your way around a grid. Thanks for keeping us entertained. I'll watch for the 25th.
What an thoroughly enjoyable and much needed diversion from the decidedly nasty beginnings from the slough of despond. Nice crossword.
@MC It was a nice diversion for me too, until I bumped into your post
Apparently, our home internet kicked out in the middle of my puzzle-solving. I only noticed it when I completed the puzzle, got a completion screen, but no Happy Music or Gold Star. I used my phone's mobile hot-spot to access wordplay. Now I see in my stats that I completed today's puzzle in 6'11"--a new personal best! I was fast, but not that fast.
@Bill Six feer, 11 inches! Wow Wink!
Not all that easy for me, of course, but managed to get through it. Guess I shouldn't be surprised that many others did find it unusually quick. Couldn't help but note the appropriate crossing of SIRNOSIR and NAM*, but I guess that's just me. *And... with 199 appearances of NAM in a puzzle this is only the second time it's been clued in reference to "Tropic Thunder." And that's a film I'm not familiar with. Had a couple of puzzle finds today. Might put those in a reply later. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened. Just a pair of 15 letter answers that dawned on me this morning for no discernible reason: CANDYISDANDYBUT LIQUORISQUICKER They've been paired in 3 different puzzles, all in the pre-Shortz era. And... don't even remember how I stumbled across this one, but... A Sunday from February 3, 1991 by Jeanne Wilson with the title: "Want Tibet? Peruve it!" Two 21 letter answers in that one, both making their one and only appearance in a puzzle: THEONELLAMAHESAPRIEST THETWOLLLAMAHESABEAST And the only other theme answers in that one were two 9 letter answers, cross-referenced with each other in opposite sections: LINESFROM OGDENNASH I'm done. ..
"And that's a film I'm not familiar with." Rich, Best to leave it that way IMO. It's not set in the 60s (or 50s or 70s).
The stifled 45D you hear? That's coming from dads everywhere reacting to 27A. The kinder "corny" was my first thought. Very quick Saturday for me. On to other endeavors.
@Nancy J. Hand up for corny. I’m not sure now which crossing word made it obviously wrong. I inherited my father’s sense of humor (punny with the occasional wry twist). But my dad’s jokes tended to be original, not STALE.
Very very easy, no Saturday by any stretch of the imagination.
@Laura Stratton I'm trying to come up with a theory as to how such an easy puzzle got assigned to a Saturday. Are they just mixing things up for variety?
Is it just me, or was that way too easy? New PB.
@Jay not just you. Less than 50% of my average time for me. Some of the cluing was nice, but this was not Saturday difficulty.
@Jay Agree...this puzzle didn't even seem to be a Friday level of difficulty.
@Jay I needed thirteen cheats, so not easy. But not the 'evil' Saturday puzzle that needs twenty six cheats. So there's that.
@Jay Agreed. 2 min off my personal best as well
@Jay It was close to being too difficult to solve for me, and I've solved some really hard Saturdays before without problems. The last thing I would call this puzzle would be "easy".
@Jay Yes I posted similarly after you did. Not a Saturday. Especially compared to last week! ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
A rather quick Saturday, like many others have said. A lot of the answers seemed familiar, and once they started falling, it completed rapidly. It's been quite a while since I've gone through a Saturday this fast, but it certainly was a fun one. Thanks, Ryan.
“Too easy!” “Too hard!” Can’t we all just get along? I thought this landed somewhere in the middle, i.e. a very reasonable Saturday. There were trivia answers I didn’t know (UVEAS, LENO), entries I guessed correctly (POOL HUSTLER, TUNA CANS), and enough accessible chew to link the two. No big aha moments here, but a perfectly satisfying solve.
A nice meaty outing. I’m impressed with those who found it easy; I still had to work at it, so felt like a decent Saturday to me. We have several OWL varieties around us, who twit away all night. The BARN variety are indeed the noisiest. I stuck with orienteering for too long at 21D which held me up a little. Love Casablanca but couldn’t think of the phrase to fit the film. I’ve actually never seen the USUAL SUSPECTS. I’ve refused to watch any films with Mr Spacey in for a long time; his reputation was revealed to us through a family member who had the misfortune to work with him.
@Helen Wright Thank you. I've been trying to think of "orienteering" for a half hour. ("Geocaching" came easily, but doesn't fit. "Spelunking" popped right up, but isn't apt. One of those senior moments.)
@Helen Wright We shd form a club.... With No Emus Allowed
@Helen Wright True story: my mother volunteers at a bird rescue/rehab center. I was over at her house doing some work, and she called out, "If you're going to use the powder room, don't open that box." There was an injured BARN OWL inside.
@Helen Wright Not hearing any owls tonight, Storm Bert is tearing through with 50mph winds. Our feathered friends are hopefully sheltering in the barn and stables.
"Nutty' rather than NUTSO had me tied up for a hot minute in the upper right. Still a good time. Too fast - out of excuses. I have to go clean. Yes, I'm OCD!
With Thursday and Friday clocking at well over average, it was nice to finish this Saturday in less than half my average time.
I found today’s puzzle fun but easy, possibly because my new routine starts with Wordle, then Connections, then the puzzle. Now I have 3 streaks to worry about! 😂
Leia: "Why, you stuck-up, half-witted, SCRUFFY-looking nerf herder!" Han: "Who's SCRUFFY-looking?" Why yes, I am a Harrison Ford superfan. Can't say I'd SWOON for him, though.
Personal best or just too easy? I finished this Saturday puzzle in less than thirty minutes. Now what am I supposed to do all weekend?!
WOKE up, was finished soon after. Everything just CLIQUEd.
I was amused by the SNAKEPIT, which of course would be a dangerous place for anyone. So then it was time to imagine different clues: “Dangerous place for Paddington Bear” “Dangerous place for Lady Macbeth” “Dangerous place for Sherlock Holmes” It’s just a weird omission that no snake pit appears in those other stories.
@Cat Lady Margaret In the movies, a running trope is Indiana's Jones' fear of snakes, and I guess you're supposed to know that; but, yes, I wouldn't want to find myself in a snake pit, either. Shameless plug: I just finished Bonnie Jo Campbell's novel *The Waters*, in which a massasauga rattlesnake features prominently.
I liked it, maybe that's because I cleared it in about 1/3 my average Sat. I'll still take it over yesterday's puzzle. Also the grid layout was very pleasing.
@Zack -- Not only was it pleasing to look at, but it was original, never seen before in the Times puzzles. Also, Ryan likes making grids with those stair-step-shaped black square groups, as 23 of his 29 NYT puzzles have them.
Other than the NE corner the chewiest for me I've not much to add to the commentary, so I'll let Frank say it. . . "Fairytales can come true, it can happen to you If you're young at heart For it's hard, you will find, to be narrow of mind If you're young at heart You can go to extremes with impossible schemes You can laugh when your dreams fall apart at the seams And life gets more exciting with each passing day And love is either in your heart, or on its way Don't you know that it's worth every treasure on earth To be young at heart For as rich as you are it's much better by far To be young at heart And if you should survive to a hundred and five Look at all you'll derive out of being alive And here is the best part, you have a head start If you are among the very young at heart"
@John Carson Jimmy Durante did a great job with this song as well. Thanks for posting the lyrics - such a nice reminder of something so important.