My brother!! The most deserving human of this incredible moment. He spends HOURS and HOURS a day making puzzles. I am sitting here reading these comments and crying because I could not be a prouder sister. He works so hard and this is just so amazing!!
@Eleanor tell him it was a fun puzzle. Good job!
@Eleanor I’ve worked thousands of puzzles and this was truly great. You can be very proud of your bro!
@Eleanor You got a rock star for a brother! Awesome!
@Eleanor Tell your brother this was an awesome puzzle and we look forward to many more puzzles from him! I enjoyed the variety of clues and didn't have to cheat (much) for a Saturday! It flowed well.
@Eleanor It's a great achievement and you should be proud of him. Even as one of the crankier people here I found it beautifully done and a fine Saturday level challenge! :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Eleanor I am so proud of Owen for all the hard work He has put into puzzle making and so proud of all of his accomplishments. With much love from Omi.
@Eleanor He did a great job!
Owen, I hope this fine puzzle is just one of the good things to come out of your dark time, and that better times will bring you even more good things, for yourself and to share. And let's hear it for CASTPARTIES!
I know Owen personally (not very well, but still). Even when solving other puzzles he's constructed, it's never crossed my mind how much a constructor's character influences the puzzle. I guess this is because I regularly do the New York Times crossword, and where his crosswords have been published in other places those are not crosswords I usually do so I expect to see Owen there. The point is: crossword-constructing is an art, and one can see the artist in it as much as any other art form.
"Are you still dating the astronomer?" "Oh, yeah. Things are pretty Sirius." ("You going to propose?" "Well, I have to planet.")
@Mike Once again, you are the star. It seems it's either you Orion the hook to come up with Aquila entry. All we Canopus some others will join in. I was going to make this a bit Vega, but the emus might misunderstand.
@Mike Is that Lucy in the sky with a diamond? Holy cow, you must be over the moon!
I found several of the clues diabolically clever, and never would have imagined the puzzle came from one so young - or that his constructor’s note would make me cry. I’m constantly touched by the stories expressing how much the crossword community means to so many.
Embarrassing how late into the puzzle I got BISMARCKND given that I'm literally wearing a shirt right now that says Bismarck North Dakota. BSA/AMALA tripped me up, as did CASTPARTIES. I had eRE and was too focused on trying to figure out the crossing with ELLERBEE to realize it was actually PRE.
@Steven M. LOLing about the BISMARCKND t-shirt comment 🤣🤣🤣
@Steven M. I'm equally embarrassed, as a geography teacher in the Upper Midwest who had "...SD" there instead of "...ND" for far too long.
@Steven M. I tried to come up with a post election celebration, moved on to Wrap Party, finally saw CATTY, and of course had to change the fill resulting from the C replacement. Doh!
Wow, Owen. Just…wow. I love so much about this puzzle, but your note got me good. Keep doing this. You’re fantastic at it. And please don’t stop representing your authentic, brilliant self. How lucky we all are to have an Owen in our word world! 👏👏👏👏👏
Owen, Thanks for an excellent puzzle. Many of us have been helped through difficult times by crossword puzzles. They were there when I lost my parents, pets and other loved ones, when I struggled through bouts of depression, when I felt overwhelmed by personal turmoil. They are there now as I try to keep my hope alive for this country. They can be a balm and uplift, and this certainly fit the bill, from its clever cluing to its crunchy fill, along with those crossword standbys which I always find comforting, like OLES and ANI (even when DiFranco-less). Thanks, too, for including Linda ELLERBEE. I’ve always been a fan and for a while last year she popped up regularly on our local NPR radio station’s morning roundtable show. She remains as sharp as ever and is an under-recognized national treasure. Here’s one of my favorites from ANI, another treasure: “Joyful Girl”: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS_b_ExBfWI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS_b_ExBfWI</a>
@Puzzlemucker Loved Ellerbee back on (frantic Wikipediaing) "Weekend" and/or NBC News Overnight. She was a hoot. I really don't think any "real" news sources have kept up the witty-but -straight style they used. It felt... dangerous or something. :) Pretty amazing she's being cited by a puzzle constructor born 40-50 years later. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Is there an award for Constructor Notes of the Year? If so, this is my nominee. (I seem to have something in my eye.) Also an excellent, if difficult, puzzle. Thanks, Owen!
My goodness. I had no chance with this. Literally did not know a single answer. Then I discover the constructor is a mere babe in arms. I’m going to gather the tattered shreds of my dignity, blame it on my inflamed sinuses and rock bottom energy levels and congratulate Mr Bergstein on a stupendous debut. Off to lie down for a while now.
Congratulations on your first NYT puzzle, Owen! Very creative and fun. Your constructing helped you out of a dark place and surely brought joy to many solvers. A win-win! Hope to see more from you in the future.
I appreciate that a young constructor can poke at older folk with newer pop-culture references like Doja Cat. However, I beg the puzzle editors to keep in mind that you've got an international user base for which an answer like "EZPASSTAGS" is just too local, unless there is some contextualizing clue, e.g., "They really take a toll on the GWB". Asking about E-Z Pass is like expecting people in California to know the name of the restaurant where you hang out with your friends after school.
@Martin Benjamin The logo is so distinctive for this non-American that LEAF & EXCUSEZ-MOI made 6-Down EZ for me!
@Martin Benjamin I wholeheartedly agree with you. And I am a former born and bred New Yorker who had an E-Z Pass transponder in my car to cross the Verrazano Bridge to go to work in Staten Island, the "other" borough. While I had no trouble getting that answer, I thought it was way too obscure for all the non-east coasters and international solvers. Simply unfair, even for a Saturday.
@Times Rita EZ Pass works in the Midwest, too.
@Martin Benjamin this is a puzzle constructed by an American that is published in an American publication. The vast majority of people who will do this crossword, as well as those who comment here, are American. That is, this is literally a puzzle by Americans for Americans published in America. If that isn’t ok with you, I recommend that you do Swiss crosswords.
@Martin Benjamin Given the title of the publication, I usually have a good clue about the right area in clues that might have a regional bent, and said area is quite well represented in novels, TV shows, and so forth consumed nationally and internationally. I’ve heard of E-Z Passes enough to get the answer to the clue readily (and thus helpfully fix a mistake from forgetting the correct verb form in EXCUSEZ MOI) even though I grew up in the Pacific Northwest, have lived exclusively abroad since 2007, and didn’t even get a driver’s license until my late twenties. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@Times Rita, E-Zpass tolling extends to the Midwest and parts of the South, is currently negotiating with other toll authorities to make it the country wide standard. L
This would be an impressive crossword debut at any age, but for someone still in high school? Just… wow. Congratulations, Owen. I bow to your intellect and creativity (not to mention your sly sense of humor). I was happy for the inclusion of Linda Ellerbee, an amazing journalist who has been absent from our airwaves for far too long. We could use a few more Ellerbees these days. A few lookups were required for some unfamiliar pop culture, i.e. CEREBRO and AMALA. Never heard of COTTAGE CORE but I got it through the crosses. Not to be all CATTY about it, but I’m glad to be someone who embraces the evolution of cultural institutions (including crosswords) and wish everyone would do the same. A lookup or two never hurt anyone.
@Heidi, spot on commentary! I get tired of crabby folks who want the puzzles to remain "the way they should be", whatever that means. I'm an older solver (64), and I love the new things I learn from today's puzzles. The fact that I haven't heard of something or someone doesn't make it irrelevant or worse, an awful puzzle as one commenter flung out there today. Kudos to Owen for an amazing debut. I look forward to many more puzzles from this amazing young adult!
I was so amazed when I read your comments. I thought that you had to be at least in your twenties. You are an extremely talented young person! It’s great to see that you’re so accomplished! And you have the rest of your life to excel even more. Your family must be tremendously proud of you! Keep doing what you’re doing, I look forward to doing many more of your crosswords
I am astounded that a high school junior crafted this puzzle. Use your powers for good, my friend!
@Nick Roumel My junior year of high school is when I began *completing* the New York Times crossword, and Owen is already BUILDING it! Just amazing!
I constructed an acrostic puzzle when I was your age, Owen, which I was quite proud of at the time… but had no idea what to do with it; nobody I knew was interested in even attempting to solve it! So I am very grateful that you have gained an audience for your delightful puzzle, both for our sake and yours. And just as its construction helped you through tough times, you have helped many of us, I’m sure, who are experiencing personal challenges. Thank you, and best wishes.
That was a slog. Made it in extra time. Had to dig deep to not look up or give up. As opposed to many here I didn’t find much of it clever. I guess not my day. Completed without a sense of achievement. The USeteric stuff were mostly a cultural reference too far for me. Glad others liked it. As an aside: Non GMO is not organic. It’s not GMO.
@Ιασων I've had an experience very similar to yours.
@Ιασων Agree. Gave up on this one. It's fabulous that such a young person is able to construct crosswords and get them accepted by NYT but I could only solve the clues that were not trivia - which I define as proper names and references to places and things only applicable in USA. The clues about tea, Scouting, graders, ENDO, ANI (still don't know!) seeds on bagels, colleges in New Hampshire, toll roads, car models, mid-west cities, tartare sauce goes with fish but why is it rare? Sorry, maybe next one.
@Ιασων I felt the same. This was too US centric for me, even after revealing the puzzle I just went 'huh?' rather then 'oh, I see!'. Looks like we're in the minority today, though.
Weirdly, it wouldn't let me post my original comment until I broke it into separate posts. Didn't change any of the words either - well, apart from this intro! :) Part 2: As a fellow queer person, I was pleased to see GAYMARRIAGE sprawled across the centre. I'm also a big theatre geek but I still haven't been invited to any CASTPARTIES. And who else got excited when they saw INSYNC, realised it wasn't what they'd hoped for, but didn't care anyway? "It's gotta be may!"
@Sebastian Part 3: It was a lovely puzzle, not too difficult and some of the clues were very clever indeed. Will we be seeing you again? I certainly HOPESO. Wishing you all the best from across the pond.
@Sebastian Part 1: EXCUSEZMOI, Owen Bergstein. A debut in the NYT and on a Saturday and you're a high school junior. I'm hella impressed, you put me to shame. Post credits scene: Apologies to everyone reading my comments in the wrong order. You must feel like you're watching Memento again. I blame the 'moderating algorithm'
I would rather bail on a 100 puzzles in a row then be forced to Google, in no particular order, the boy band, the Mexican pop, the Brainwave-amplifying headpiece, the country singer, Doja Cat's real first name, and Oh's title role. I won't -- and you can't make me. Sorry, but you just can't. My niece just sent me a Christmas present of 4 Will Shortz puzzle compilation books that I don't already have. Taken together, they comprise 650 puzzles!!!! Wow! She said I don't have to wait for Christmas to open the package or to start. So I won't. I'll start today. And because these are compilations meant to stand the test of time and timeliness, I am unlikely to find the kind of ephemeral, forgettable, beyond trivial pop culture nonsense that permeates this puzzle and impels me to subject it to a very loud... SPLAT!!!!!!
@Nancy Could not agree more. It's an absolutely awful puzzle. The editing has slipped several notches since Will departed
Hi Nancy, Why am I not surprised that you want the kids to get off your lawn (which is funny, since you don't have a lawn)? Quite a few of us olds had a great time with this puzzle (without consulting our Funk & Wagnalls). Sorry you couldn't join us.
@Nancy So let me get this straight. You couldn’t get EVE a common girl’s name (whether you knew the acclaimed show or not) even with a gimme cross of CLOVER? You couldn’t get LOS just as an article even if you haven’t heard of the band? I don’t follow BTS and couldn’t come up with it immediately but it has been in a bijillion crosswords in the last few years and is internationally famous. And somehow you don’t know TANYA Tucker an immensely well known singer but don’t complain about Linda ELLERBEE who is much less famous but apparently is in your old-school wheelhouse? And agreed most folks won’t get CEREBRO on first pass but you ought to be able to suss it out on crosses and etymology, this is a Saturday after all. That leaves Doja Cats real name—sure, that’s not my background either, but I got it on crosses and if not so what, thats the only really obscure piece of trivia in my opinion. So lighten up!
Hey, you know what has the same number of letters as GAY MARRIAGE, shares a couple of crosses, and makes you think of the whatstheirnames couple, formerly of an English palace, now from LA? heY MAgazinE. (It’s a testament to how natural a right GAY MARRIAGE is that it feels like it’s been a lot longer than a mere 11 years since it was legalized; it’s a reminder of how long we as a society had resisted a basic right that it’s been a mere 11 years since it was legalized.) Ditto for pASTa bingES for post-run celebrations. (Had one just this morning.) And there are suNflowers organically popping up all over the place, aren’t there? Even if you don’t plug the wrong guesses in and just juggle them in your head with other possible crosses, it’s like they sky-write themselves into the squares. For a couple of minutes you can’t see past them. It was definitely a two-coffee Saturday workout par excellence, worthy of a writeup in the Hey Magazine, should the Whatstheirnames found it. (No post-workout pasta binge needed.)
"... it feels like it’s been a lot longer than a mere 11 years since it was legalized..." Sam, It hasn't been 11 years yet. U.S. v. Windsor (2013) recognized existing same-sex marriages. Obergefell v. Hodges (2015) found all state bans on same-sex marriages to be illegal.
@Sam Lyons Getting almost nothing on my first pass through, but I quickly wrote in "VictoryLaps" for the post-run celebrations. Didn't help at all....
Great puzzle, Owen! I’m also a lover of queer theory. And I lived in Waltham when same sex marriage was legalized in Mass in 2004 (before you were born) and was thrilled to witness some of my friends get married!
@Manda Adams And as a PASTOR, I loved 34A!
@Manda Adams Love this. I remember asking my law school dean if it would be permissible to have Evan Wolfson, who was in town and was a friend of a friend, give a talk on how the Hawaii Supreme Court had found a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. Our dean was known as a conservative, but he was really a libertarian, and he said that of course we should. So we did. In 1993. (Baehr v. Lewin)
Such a fantastic (CEREBRO) and inspiring (GAYMARRIAGE) and intriguing (NONGMOCROP) and funny (EXCUSEZMOI) puzzle. Could not figure out if the constructor was old ( ELLERBEE) or young (COTTAGE CORE). Congratulations Owen you should be very proud.
@JT LOL Linda ELLERBEE's book was a great read... A lot of us early Boomer Women were not sufficiently "deferential to men" in the Bad Ole Days...which are not necessarily bygone. Still waiting for the ERA..... (the real one)
You had me at 10D I had the great privilege of starting my broadcast career by working with Linda on NBC News Over Night News. I stood by watching each night as Linda and Lloyd Dobyns (and later Bill Schechner) worked to find just the right turn of phrase and calculated smirk, to comment on the evening's news. I didn't realize until much later that she had instilled in me a healthy skepticism of how we present news and entertainment to a mass audience. This has served me well for all these years. And so it goes
@M&M I miss Linda Ellerbee and Lloyd Dobyns, too. Great show.
@M&M Here Linda discusses how they got to make the news show they had always wanted to make: <a href="https://youtu.be/yFTw6LFuclE" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/yFTw6LFuclE</a>
A high school junior? Wow; just - WOW! Congratulations on your debut; I suspect you're going to become a quite familiar name around here in the not too distant future. Anyway... ...tough one for me and had to cheat in more than a couple of places, but that's just me. Eight debut answers - that's pretty amazing also. And, of course I had a puzzle find today. A Sunday from March 25, 2007 by Fred Piscop with the title: "?OOH!?" Some sample clues and answers: "Cuddly sheep? :" EMBRACEABLEEWE* "Conservatives waiting in line? :" RIGHTONQUEUE "Hillbillies' coif? :" MOUNTAINDO "What van Gogh said regarding ears? :" IDONTHAVETWO "Sitting Bull being evasive? :" RUNAROUNDSIOUX And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/25/2007&g=94&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/25/2007&g=94&d=A</a> *And... EMBRACEABLEEWE had appeared in a previous puzzle from September 25, 1994 by Nancy Nicholson Joline with the title: "Beastly puns." Some theme answers in that one: MISSINGLYNX BEARESSENTIALS EMBRACEABLEEWE FOWLLLANGUAGE BADGNUS GORILLATACTICS Here's that Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/25/1994&g=18&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/25/1994&g=18&d=D</a> I'm done. See you tomorrow. ....
It’s funny how you can be completely stuck, take a five minute break, and suddenly everything makes sense. Had a lot of fun with this one.
TIL that “cast parties” has the same number of letters as “victory laps” — and this knowledge was hard earned. Great puzzle!! One of those satisfying ones where I got close to nothing on my first pass and struggled for quite a while until suddenly it started to click. Bravo!
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Owen Bergstein! I hope we’ll see you back here soon.
Congratulations, Owen, on your debut NYT crossword puzzle - on a Saturday!
Considering the creator’s age, the original clues, and it being a Saturday, I suggest this is in the running for POY. Solving this puzzle was a true delight once again reaffirming the pre-eminent position of the NYT in crossword land.
@Norman I hope someone (maybe you) will nominate this puzzle for a POY the next time John Ezra solicits nominations. I would add it to the list now, but I don’t want to risk missing other one-off nominations. I am saving links to John’s nomination solicitations so that I can easily find them all. Thanks!
I loved this puzzle, but I think I love the creator’s notes more. What a wonderful, thoughtful and creative young person.
Am I the only one?? For the longest time I thought the answer for 24A [Grp. whose first letter is now outdated] was USA.
This was a fun and challenging puzzle for me. When I saw your age in the notes, I was amazed! Really great work. Looking forward to solving more of your puzzles in the future!
Tremendous achievement for this young constructor. A nice challenge, and an interesting introduction to the way this intelligent teen thinks. Very enjoyable solve. I found SESAME an adorable answer. I am embarrassed that I spent so long wondering what a NONGMO might be… some kind of exotic grain? When NON-GMO finally smacked me in the face, I had to laugh out loud. I will always quibble over PANINI, because that word is the plural of the Italian word PANINO. If you have PANINI on your plate, you are looking at no fewer than two MELTS. Yes, I know that, in common usage in English, the plural word indicates only one sandwich, and that the linguistically inexcusable PANINIS has been employed to signify more than one. I have to accept that. But I don’t have to like it, right?
@MoriokaBoy Yeah, and also cannoli, which is plural. I didn’t know,why this keeps happening to Italian words. Very annoying to have in the puzzle.
This was a hard puzzle for me to get into, and some of the fills seemed off. Caitlin cleared up the SESAME question, explaining that the [Bit] was a seed on an everything bagel, but I still insist that a panini is a panini, not a MELT. I can't believe how long it took me to come up with NONGMOCROPS. In the summer of 2000 my husband and I sent letters to every Senator in Congress, supporting Barbara Lee's GMO Food Safety and Consumers' Right to Know Acts. Out of the more than 400 letters we sent, we had only a dozen responses. Most were in support of the acts, usually guardedly, but one was in opposition, a letter from Jesse Helms, which had the line "The European Union has continued to raise phony photosanitary barriers in order to prevent the importation of American products," which we puzzled over, until we realized he meant "phytosanitary," a word we didn't know until we looked it up (in a dictionary—those were the days!). For a very long time we didn't see much progress, but we were glad we sent the letters anyway. Debuting on a Saturday is an accomplishment to be proud of. Congratulations, Owen Bergstein. I trust this is the beginning of many more puzzles for us to solve. Thank you!
@dutchiris I never much got the uproar about GMO foods. People will criticize someone for not getting vaccinated because “it’s science,” but then be against GMOs when that’s science too. Corporate regulation around GMOs, sure. I trust corporations as far as I can throw them. But not the concept of GMOs, surely!
@Gregory M. One issue is they're often engineered to be tolerant of pesticides and herbicides which can have many negative side effects. Another is they can lock farmers into patented seed stock reducing competition and biodiversity.
I really enjoyed this one. Finding out later that it was created by someone still in high school made it even better. [A little bit of everything?] for SESAME and [Tea supplier] for GOSSIPER were favorites. [Post-run celebrations] had me thinking of racing and elections long before plays. For some reason, I always get fooled when the state code is included at the end of a city name, as in BISMARCK ND. I kept thinking there were more letters in BISMARCK that I didn't know about, and even tried BISMARCKie for a bit before realizing I was thinking of the rapper. That was not helpful in the SE. Anyway, I had a great time with this and had to put in some effort. I can't wait to see what future puzzles Owen will come up with.
Clap for yourself, Owen. What a fantastic debut!
Excellent puzzle, beautiful constructor notes.
First: @Lynn from Massachusetts: I left a detailed how-to for grits/double boiler late last night. This puzzle was a doozie...First, we are not from "toll-road country" so nobody needs the TAGS in the puzzle. Doja Cat? Charlotte the Kitty was no help at all. Unfortunately, COUNTRY CHIC fit handily, and it took a great while to unravel that unknown concept of COTTAGECORE. SRSLY? Pfft. I can't award myself The Solve because I googled AMA?? And I didn't "get" BOY Scouts of America ( Boomers? Bass-o-matic?) or the EZ PASS--really, missing only 2 letters (the L and the Z) for all this to become clear, but it leaves my record Besmirched. Jeez Louise...KIDS these days!! On the other hand, I did get Wordle in 3 to start over.
@Mean Old Lady At one point, I had CO_____C___ I tried every possible combination of Country/Cottage Chic/Cute/Core.
@Mean Old Lady Thank you! I'll look back at it. My mother just cooked them in a sauce pan, though she had a double boiler. But now I realize she learned to make them growing up on a farm during the depression where they would have had limited cookware. On very rare occasions, she made a great cheese grits casserole with a layer of scrambled egg at the bottom. I would have skipped the egg if she'd let me.
@Mean Old Lady OK, got your recipe. Thanks! Finishing grits up over the boiling water makes sense, will save having to stir constantly.
@Mean Old Lady I had VINTAGE CHIC! This had me stuck for a minute!
Every morning, I do the crosswords with my sweet corgi curled up next to me. Today, CANNOLI would like to thank you for the shout-out. <3 Owen, you did an amazing job and I'll look forward to your next puzzle. The constructor notes made me a little teary, I'm glad crosswords brought you comfort during a difficult time, and it's beautiful that you found so many mentors in the community to help you build this. It's so exciting to meet the next generation of puzzle constructors!
Everyone's saying how they completed this puzzle with no lookup meanwhile I had to look up like 80% of the answers. Nothing was vibing with me, I think I only really got Cottagecore which was a nice little victory
Challenging Saturday fare with ingenious clueing. I struggled to get a firm grasp of the corners only to find a handful of natiks that required time and patience to untangle through the middle. SONGMASHUP before NONGMOCROP; GRANOLACORE, GELATTO, PANNINI, WRAPPARTIES and SATYR all found their way onto the chalkboard as well. Loved “Tea supplier” for 32-Down. Minutes and minutes beyond my average, but I solved it without any Google lookups or deferring to the Wordplay blog, so I’m counting it as a win. Cheers
Good thing I don't care about speed solving. New record for length of time for solving while sleeping of 6 hours and 33 minutes. On the plus side, when I woke up I was easily able to solve the remaining parts of the puzzle that had seemed so impossible beforehand. Music pick inspired by the puzzle. "I'm looking over a four leaf clover that I overlooked before." <a href="https://youtu.be/QhoPNq9Jcnc?si=wAmJXe_WaNEAgb4H" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/QhoPNq9Jcnc?si=wAmJXe_WaNEAgb4H</a>
@Vaer at various times, the puzzle has erased all my work after I've filled it in, telling me that I've not done the puzzle at all. I fill it in again and then it tells me that my new record time for a Saturday is the three minutes it took me to write the answers in. I've decided that the times when I fall asleep and end up with a nine or ten hour puzzle are the universe's way of balancing out the 3 minute Saturdays! Nature is healing! :D
First puzzle in a while I haven't finished, my failings, not Owen's...putting COUNTRY BOHO for COTTAGE CORE sealed my fate, since it stuck me with BURRO as a relative of a fawn, not beige. Good grief! But once I looked at the answer key, all made sense and I came to admire the puzzle, its constructor (and his gorgeous notes) and the brilliant cluing to no end. Owen's notes (and these days) reminded me of Theodore Roethke's poem on dark times, within & without: IN A DARK TIME In a dark time, the eye begins to see, I meet my shadow in the deepening shade; I hear my echo in the echoing wood— A lord of nature weeping to a tree. I live between the heron and the wren, Beasts of the hill and serpents of the den. What’s madness but nobility of soul At odds with circumstance? The day’s on fire! I know the purity of pure despair, My shadow pinned against a sweating wall. That place among the rocks—is it a cave, Or winding path? The edge is what I have. A steady storm of correspondences! A night flowing with birds, a ragged moon, And in broad day the midnight come again! A man goes far to find out what he is— Death of the self in a long, tearless night, All natural shapes blazing unnatural light. Dark, dark my light, and darker my desire. My soul, like some heat-maddened summer fly, Keeps buzzing at the sill. Which I is I? A fallen man, I climb out of my fear. The mind enters itself, and God the mind, And one is One, free in the tearing wind.
@john ezra Thank you for this!
Dreadful puzzle. Obscure proper noun hell, as usual.
@LJADZ, is that all you have, really? Did you read the constructor notes? Maybe offer support and encouragement to a teenager whose DEBUT in the NYT is a Saturday? No matter your personal reaction to the puzzle, which is pretty shallow, surely you can recognize what an accomplishment this is. Kindness matters. It lifts people up, and this young adult deserves kudos, not your curmudgeonly reaction.
@Susan E Agreed. This is a gem of a puzzle debut or not and no matter what age the constructor, so ignore the haters
Very fun Saturday! Some of the key trivia entries were brutal for me (yes, I’m talking about AMALA and COTTAGECORE), but as with any good puzzle, that did not block me from filling in the grid — it just slowed me down. In particular, I’d like to tip my hat to BISMARCKND. On the one hand, the clue basically gives you the answer (“German”), and I actually had all the crosses in that CKND suffix pretty quickly. But CKND just *looked* so wrong that I found myself looking skeptically at the K (despite some knowledge of Arabic) and N (although I loved the clue for 48A!)…and between that and the crosses for B, S, and A, that entry put up a hell of a fight!
A great puzzle! It was humbling because of the difficulty and the later knowledge that the constructor was a high school junior! I'm decades past high school but I know I couldn't have have developed anything close to this. Good luck on your journey, Owen. You're off to a great start.
Brilliant puzzle. One of the best in years. Bravo.
Adam? No. Noah? No. CAIN? Yes! (Makes sense, as, phonetically, 'cain' is Hebrew for yes.) That was the genesis of the problem in the SE. Mike from Munster is clearly better at this sort of thing, haha.
@LBG That's a very לֹא form of humor.
So fresh and filled with now in the language vibes. You're goin' places Owen Bergstein.