Barbara and I took our time with this one. It turns out we have that in common, especially with the cluing. We let the cluing marinate. Barbara is remarkably sharp, astute, and witty. Our goal was to create a Saturday-worthy puzzle, that is, one that in a pleasurable way, activates the minds of experienced solvers. Grateful for all the feedback, which helps me hone my craft. And grateful to this commenting community (and its bloggers) – a treasured hangout. Thank you all!
@Lewis I often find Saturdays hard in an unpleasant way - yours and Barbaras puzzle was difficult yet also very enjoyable. I had to look up some of the proper names, but mostly because I'm not American, which I don't expect any reasonable NYT constructor to take into account. Thank you both for creating this challenging and fun grid 🙂
@Lewis The time and care you put into it is apparent. I really enjoyed taking my time solving this puzzle. It was just the right level of difficulty and, although tempted to come here for hints earlier, I’m glad I persevered and managed to solve without lookups today. Thank you to you and Barbara for this satisfying and clever puzzle! What a bright start to the weekend.
@Lewis Tricky and fun! Perfect for a Saturday. Lots of moments of confusion; many tentative tries ("Could it be...?) and many a-ha moments. Many thanks to you and Ms Lin!
@Lewis Really fantastic work by both of you. Congratulations & I hope to see your bylines again!!
@Lewis I loved it objectively before I even knew it was yours - you and your partner achieved the goals you aimed for. Lovely, challenging, fun Saturday crossword. Thank you! ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Lewis Hats off to you both. I know you as a very enjoyable commentator, Lewis. Now I see that puzzle-making is your superpower. This was challenging, in the best way. It took me a while, but finally slayed the Jabberwock. Feeling beamish. Send us another one soon.
@Lewis Between this one and the recent LA Times puzzle you’re having a moment! I found both to be challenging but in a good way, and I wanted to persevere in each case as a tribute to you, who brings so much knowledge, wit and especially positivity to this forum. Congratulations to you and your co-constructors Mss. Fabi and Lin!
Just gorgeous. Thanks Lewis and Barbara. Your warm, smart selves shone throughout this puzzle.
It's not fair!!! Since Lewis is the co-constructor, not one of the many excellent clues will end up on his weekly list. I hereby nominate [Bed hogs, at times] for WEEDS and [Shifty little sucker?] for BENDY STRAW. For me, this is what a Saturday puzzle is at its best. Some challenge, some humor, with a bonus of numerous lovely debut entries. Thank you, Barbara and Lewis, for a perfect offering.
@Nancy J. - My nomination is [It’s a little shady] for BONSAI TREE
A Saturday-worthy Saturday! Thanks, Barbara and Lewis. Love all those long ones. And the short ones too!
I found this one delightfully tough. Practically nothing filled in on the first pass through, but things slowly fell into place. This took me about 50% longer than my average Saturday.
Whew! I also collaborated — with Google and Caitlin’s column. ‘Twas a humbling experience, and a reminder that I have quite a way to go before I’m a seasoned cruciverbalist. It’s Saturday, amigos! I got COLLEGEGRAD, TITOPUENTE and ORIONNEBULA first, which helped verify some of my inklings on acrosses. Still, I ultimately had to reach for help, which Deb says isn’t cheating 🙇🏽♀️. I did get the majority on my own, which is something of a victory! @Lewis, congratulations on your and Barbara’s success!!
I am unashamedly here to spread the smug. This was the hardest puzzle I've encountered in recent memory (which, at my age, isn't entirely reliable). I do the crosswords around 3:30AM every morning, as one does, and this is the first time it's taken me to late morning to actually finish it. More to the point, I almost gave up several times, also highly unusual for un castor comme moi. Seriously though besides the smug, I also came here to marvel at that extraordinary property of time wherein answers that were impossible at one point suddenly jump to mind at another. It's why I rarely give up. Though I almost did today. Something will deflate my head soon enough, but for the moment, I am basking.
@AudreyLM I almost did too, but my experience with these says don't ever give up. I had NOTHING for three or four passes but just started trying things, then walked away. 2 hours later, Happy Crossword music!
@AudreyLM yes! I was so stuck at 3 pm. Had most of the puzzle, but SE corner was almost blank.... Then had a bunch of other things to do. After 8 pm came back. Realized REMuTE was funny. Saw REMOTE. That gave me BONSAI, and I was off to the acrosses....
Wow, I call this the everything puzzle. Four sets of triple stacks and two spanners! A remarkable eleven debut entries! One sparkling clue after another! My favorites being “It’s a little shady” for BONSAI TREE, “Shifty little sucker" for BENDY STRAW and “Runs off at the mouth” for DROOLS. And, two of our favorite constructors. Thank you, Barbara and Lewis, for creating a tough but fun challenge. It should be added to our POY list.
@Anita If you are nominating it, please confirm and we'll add it to the list of POY nominees. Agree with all you said about this!
"We're out of slender drinking tubes again." "This is the last straw!" ("Should we get some more?" "It's sip to you.")
@Mike I guess it's like PT Barnum said, There's a sucker born every minute.
(My morning) Woke up stressed (today is gonna be a *whopper*). Opened up the puzzle, saw the constructors, my day *instantly* brightened! Dove in like a kid on Christmas morning. Ooh. Tough one…must…conquer… But how? Keep Lewis’ voice in my head. Hear the way he marvels at clever and humorous wording, the way he finds beauty in the words and the ways they bounce off each other… …stay in that zone… It unfolded so elegantly, and with so very many grins. Felt like a poem that was written in code, and I could hear a *voice* guiding me to read the clues as they were crafted. It glided its way to completion. Not gonna list clever clues and answers cuz y’all just did the puzzle. And it was chock full. Thank you Barbara and Lewis. This one’s a framer.
@CCNY Thanks for sharing this lovely poem. May your day land gently.
@CCNY I was hoping someone would respond to the puzzle the way Lewis himself so often does, with clarity and deep appreciation. You've done it. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Just great, Lewis!! What a wonderful themeless puzzle on every level!!! I always know with a Lewis puzzle that the cluing will be devious, challenging, and highly original. There were a lot of initial puzzlements leading to "Aha"s here: most notably WEEDS, which gave me fits when I'd wanted spouses or pets for the bed hogs. But also DROOLS, BRR, NOBLY, and the trickiest clue for TATS I've yet seen. The grid is gorgeous too. Lots of interesting long answers, smoothly assembled with almost no glue. Very few names. No crosswordese except for TATS -- and when you clue it that beautifully, who cares? If I've singled out Lewis, Barbara, it's only because I've known him for a long time, even collaborated with him, but I think he's got himself a dandy collaborator in you and that you two should create more puzzles together in the future. A terrific, just-about-flawless Saturday that I thoroughly enjoyed.
@Nancy ecig is 100% crosswordese, but tats isn’t — I hear that in common usage.
Just for the ornithological record, woodpeckers do not, for the most part, feast on tree sap. Typical species of woodpeckers you might commonly see (or hear) like downys are eating the bugs in the wood. Only a subset of woodpeckers species, the sapsuckers, as the name implies, go for the sap.
Was anyone else taken in by the clever misdirect of the "Vineyard eponym" clue? I spent a long time trying to think of famous wine-makers and vintners. Gallo? Mondavi? Coppola? Moet? MARTHA??? Sorry, I'm not familiar with her wine. Oh! Now I get it! The capital-V!
@The X-Phile, Great example of what we each bring to a puzzle. As a longtime New Englander I got that one *immediately* …
@The X-Phile I got that one off the --HA. One of the few laughs during this Fail. (I have at least 2 wrong letters, I calculate.) I also wanted MIMSY raths, so this whole thing was a disappointment.
@The X-Phile Hooray! I got that straight away!
@The X-Phile Yep. I kept trying stuff like Maibec, Malbec, Merlot. Sheesh...
@The X-Phile I didn't get it right away; does MARTHA Stewart have a wine brand? Probably. I'm more of a Cape Cod guy.
@The X-Phile I had both MERLOT and MALBEC there for a time. Another very clever clue today!
@The X-Phile There is actually a quite well-known vineyard in Napa Valley called Martha’s, made famous by Heitz Cellars.
This is THE Lewis? I'm so happy to come in saying (a) I had no idea and (b) I REALLY enjoyed this tough but delightful and fair puzzle. The last two days have been challenging and fun. I was held up at a few points but was able to get through. I was glad to know mome wraths immediately (they're not as slithy as toves). "Form letters" is simply great and I hope it's original. "Little shady" was cute and Latin for trumpet was interesting to learn. The last thing to hold me up, that led to flyspecking, was having CTO for way too long. Orton Nebula seemed perfectly cromulent! Glad to know I was prepared to make these comments long before I read Wordplay and realized the co-constructor. I knew Lewis was a fine and uplifting poster here but now I know he's a top notch puzzle constructor too. Yeah yeah, late to the party I'm sure, so sue me. :) Thanks for the work. Very much enjoyed. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B Who are you and what you done to the grumpy B we know? 🤣
Could not get on the same page at all with this puzzle. Waved the flag
A lot of long fills can peke my deep-seated fear of hard clues, but I reacted nobly and waded into the top of the puzzle with no foot-tapping antsiness. It almost filled itself! I thought, Pooh, that's not bad—it can't hurt to try some more, so I gave the lower forty-eight + squares a try. Brr. They were tough. I was afraid I might blow a gasket, so I admit that I let Dr. Google run interference on the Lewis Carroll—but the rest of the fills were mo' me than he! Barbara Lin and Lewis Rothlein, thank you for a solid Saturday puzzle. No bobbles, or wobbles or creaky fills—it was all just the rite stuff, and a fund of pleasure.
It took me ages, but I got this one without a single fly to speck—so the woodpeckers will have to eat SAP (TIL)! The gold star landed on the last letter I entered. I can’t remember the last time that happened on a Saturday. The SW was the last section to fall for me. Although, with those long entries, I suppose it’s better described as the West, since they essentially filled the whole left side of the puzzle. I really liked this one, mainly because I found it very difficult, yet, in the end, it was all within the realm of what’s knowable for me. On some Saturdays, when I struggle, I look back at the puzzle and it’s clear why—entries that are completely foreign to me or clued so “cleverly” that I doubt I could ever get them. None of that tonight. This one was a true battle, and I emerged victorious. The best kind of Saturday.
I thought this puzzle was very fresh and reasonably challenging with a nice variety of clues and answers. There was plenty I didn’t know (e.g., TUBA is Latin for trumpet), but I was helped by several bird and music related clues that were in my sweet spot. The superb bandleader/percussionist, TITOPUENTE, helped me unlock the NW, as did knowing Madrid’s Teatro Real was an OPERA HOUSE. I only got stuck when I thought it was worse to be stuck in the mud than a RUT. Luckily, despite getting momentarily stuck, I didn’t end up with any TATS. I enjoyed seeing ALMA Mahler pop up, who reminded me of Tom Lehrer’s witty song about her. Though cited here as a composer (true that), she’s more famous for her tempestuous personal life which found her romantically entangled with a host of famous artists in a variety of fields. Many thanks to the poet laureate of crossword analysis, our very own Lewis, and his collaborator Barbara, for an all around joyful solve.
@Marshall Walthew I shoulda read your comment first, Marshall, before posting mine, which echoes almost to a word what you said about Alma Mahler. I kept thinking of Real Madrid, the football club, and it took a while for me to bendy straw my mind to accepting Teatro Real was not a soccer stadium somehow smooshed into that place.
@Marshall Walthew Yeah, when GUSTAV didn't fit, I immediately went for ALMA. In fact, I first learned about Gustav Mahler (and Walter Gropius (and the Bauhaus School) and Franz Werfel) from that song when I was a kid.
Terrific puzzling experience and Caitlin described it well, that extra little tilt of the mind it takes to complete this grid. Lots of white but a remarkable number of short words to get people started. Bed hogs was the tiltiest of the clue-answer combos. But here I am, done, so it works, a bendy straw of a puzzle. And each time Tito Puente appears, I get a little kick out of it. Him and Alma Mahler, who is better known for her love life than her music, maybe to our detriment. The first one she married was Mahler Whose buddies all knew him as Gustav And each time he saw her he'd holler: "Ach, that is the fräulein I must have!" Their marriage, however, was murdah He'd scream to the heavens above: "I'm writing Das Lied von der Erde Und she only wants to make love!" (one of the verses from Tom Lehrer's terrifically funny song about Alma Mahler) Here it is on youtube (there are probably more visually interesting ones than this): <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL6KgbrGSKQ" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QL6KgbrGSKQ</a>
@john ezra had I not seen "Tar" last year, I would have put down "Anna" I also had no idea until I saw the film that she ran off with Walter Gropius. Therefore, she became an indispensable link that helped me coordinate timelines of music history and architectural history.
@john ezra LOVE Tom Lehrer. LOL when I saw that answer that was the first thing I thought of too. This time of year everyone should check out his Christmas Carol. It’s been in my head all month <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZR3lJobjw" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=DtZR3lJobjw</a>
@john ezra singing..."Alma tell us. All modern women are jealous. Which of your magical wands got you Gustav and Walter and Franz?"
This one was rough, requiring all my fallbacks. First I went to Google, which gave me a few answers and at least one mistake. (It said the King of Mambo was Perez Prado, which fit but was not right. I was able to correct with TITO PUENTE, a name I actually knew, in a later pass. Don’t believe everything you read on the internet, kids.) Still stuck, I consulted the Wordplay column for a little more help. The answers I got there were less “oh, of course!” than “eh, ok.” Filled in some more, but had to resort to a puzzle check to find the places where I had still gone wrong. Kept going and finally got my blue star. I won’t say this was a bad puzzle, because if it works and it’s better than I could have constructed, then it’s a fine achievement. But this one just wasn’t on my wavelength. C’est la vie.
NORI is iron backwards. That's so Lewis!* I would be remiss if I didn't mention the semordnilaps STAT, HOOP, ABUT and ARAM. And look how close we came to the extremely rare(in crosswords as in life) nine-letter semordnilap ARENA GEAR! Great puzzle! Loved it. I think [What some people display after getting stuck] would have been a fun clue for SOS, given that it intersects TATS. *That's So Lewis was the criminally underrated spinoff of That's So Raven. I so wish there had been a second season, but I understand why some people think the series jumped the shark when Lewis constructed a sudoku.
Took a while to get going! I always read the Wordplay after my first pass on Saturday — not ashamed. Took about an hour of simultaneously solving and *ahem* “learning” on this one before things began to come into clear enough view to really get rolling. Saturdays are always good for a humbling experience! Enjoyed this one nonetheless.
So much good stuff here, it's impossible for me to single anything out. I'm waffling. Fell asleep while solving, so have a 6-1/2 hour solve time, but when I woke up a lot of things magically became clear. Terrific fun, thanks Barbara and Lewis.
Just a great Saturday. Some of the cleverest cluing I can recall, along with some wonderful long entries. Caitlin nailed it when she wrote “Many entries in this grid aren’t notably difficult, but their clues have a subtle enough twist to look impermeable — until you tilt your angle of thought just a smidgen.” This felt like it might never come together until it did — in what turned out to be under my average time. Thanks so much to Barbara and Lewis!
Lewis and Barbara deliver with all that Lewis claims to value in his frequent posts in this forum. A superb challenge in every way.
I was so excited when I opened the puzzle last night and saw Lewis was one of the constructors! This was just beautifully crafted and such a wonderful collaboration with Barbara 😍 I always start Saturday puzzles on Friday nights and go through the clues at least three times across and down to see what I can figure out before putting it away for the night. The clues germinate in my brain overnight and when I open the puzzle on Saturday morning, the answers seem to leap off the page. This one was no exception. BONSAI TREE was one of those answers that I couldn’t see last night, but seemed so obvious this morning. Same with BLOW A GASKET. I also loved seeing rows like ANGIE REBA and MARA grouped together! The LOWER FORTY EIGHT was one that I figured out last night but on my final pass. So many spanners in this one! Thank you, Barbara and Lewis, for creating a perfect Saturday worthy puzzle. I truly enjoyed the solve 🤩
@Jacqui J “so many spanners” is two 🤦🏼♀️ What I meant was so many long entries!… It pays to proofread before hitting enter 😜
Woah! It's "our" Lewis!! I don't always notice constructor names before I start. It was the Wordplay column that clued (pun!) me in to the fact that one of the constructors was Lewis from Asheville! I started in my usual way: a couple of passes across and down before bed. I had very few answers! College grad, PBS for two. This morning,I was back at it. I loved the clever cluing! Some of of my early guesses were actually correct: Reagan Era, Reba and refs. Plenty were wrong. Loved the journey! Thanks to both constructors!
I hereby give Lewis permission to put "It's a little shady" on the list of clever clues, especially if it was one of Barbara's contributions. Thoroughly enjoyed the puzzle, even the YAPPY PEKE, unless it DROOLS on the carpet. Papa loves mambo.
This one took me 50% longer than my average time, but I loved it anyway - very satisfying once I finally solved it!
BENDY STRAW is my porn name: FYI and Gross or TMI. Had deep states for some reason. And, you mean to say that nice comments can get you a collaboration..... Nice one Barb and Lewis
@dk Mine is COMES ASHORE, maybe.
I haven't previously commented but every day read what folks say and love the back and forth, comradery, and community. I had to write today because of the juxtaposition of this puzzle (which was absolutely delightful and one of my all time favorites) and last Sunday's (which was the opposite, to say the least - I'm trying to be diplomatic here. Okay, I'll just say it because it still rankles - it was truly the worst and I still can't believe it got by the editors). I agree with what so many have already said: This epitomizes what a Saturday puzzle should be. "Shifty little sucker" and "It's a little shady" should be memorialized. They put a smile on my face and a lilt in my step. Thank you Barb and Lewis!
@Shauron Thanks for bringing that up. Some mean people keep telling us to shut up about that awful puzzle but it's worth remembering that a relatively hard puzzle can be beautifully crafted and presented, like today's, or... not. Quality matters. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
A very Saturday-like Saturday, if I may say so with a huge grin. I really wanted [like a sole-source contract] to be ‘fishy’ and ‘[bad place to be stuck] to be ‘arm,’ but alas. DEEPSEATED rather than ‘sub-ocEAnic’ slowed me down, too, and so the SE was a bit slow to fall for me. Which of course added to the fun of solving on what is my favorite day of the week. Hello again to [confirmation], this tine as a RITE, not ritual.
@Sam Lyons I spent some time trying VOTE for confirmation 😃 which gave VHFS for the whistlers. I was pleased with those until they had to go … Indeed a noonish Saturday puzzle.
What to do when the chances of cracking a Saturday seem REMOTE? DON'T BLOW A GASKET! WRITE in a few guesses here and there ... IT CAN'T HURT. Can't claim that the solve time was LOWER than FORTY EIGHT minutes, but THAT'S NOT SO BAD. Is it?
I see there are Tom Lehrer fans in the house. In November 2022, he relinquished the rights to all of his lyrics and music, making them available to the public for free. It may not be there forever, but right now you can download what you want at: <a href="https://tomlehrersongs.com" target="_blank">https://tomlehrersongs.com</a>/
@Nancy J. Thank you for providing the link! I’ve spent my morning delving into it. All of the Electric Company songs brought a smile to my face ☺️
@Nancy J. All this time and I didn't know Lehrer wrote both Silent E and "L-Y" . Thanks! ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Wicked hard but very satisfying. No look ups, which was a shock. I spent the first half hour looking at a mostly empty grid thinking I was toast.
A perfect Saturday - very few fill-ins at first pass, some long entries that I got relatively quickly, some that were straightforward but with enough possible alternatives that I really couldn't decide at first, and some that I just didn't know without a lot of crosses (and the crosses all came in a similar range of challenge level!) Thought I was doing great when I took the NE down, only to have misdirects in every other section take me down for awhile. Did more backspacing on this puzzle than I have for any other in a very long time, and enjoyed every tap. Thank you to Barbara and Lewis, and maybe especially to you, Lewis, because of the reminder that I so appreciate not only your kind and thoughtful comments in the discussion but your outstanding constructions as well! Know that your time and effort is widely appreciated.
Whew. Really tough one for me. Eleven debut answers* and only a couple of them dawning on me from the clues. Probably cheated too much to count this one, but.. doesn't really matter. *Was quite surprised to see that a few of those debut answers had never appeared before, as they are quite familiar terms or phrases. e.g. LOWERFORTYEIGHT, REAGANERA, RUNINTERFERENCE, COLLEGEGRAD. Oh well. I'll put my puzzle finds in replies. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: I think I'll just leave it at one puzzle. A Wednesday from May 23, 2018 by David Steinberg. Three theme answers in that one, and no 'reveal' other than the final word in the clues. Will confess it took me a bit to grasp what was going on. Anyway, here are those clues and answers: "Forming a crust, expanded?" CALIFORNIAKING "Choose in advance, expanded?" PRESIDENTELECT "Inspiration for something, expanded?" SOUTHPARK Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/23/2018&g=11&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/23/2018&g=11&d=D</a> That's it. ...
@Rich in Atlanta I counted my cheats, and racked up twenty eight cheats. This puzzle wasn't created for the likes of me, but I know so many others will love its difficult but clever clues.
@Rich in Atlanta That is eerie—I literally did that puzzle yesterday from the archive and also struggled to understand what was going on. Only got it long after finishing.
After my initial pass, I thought, “No way!”. So I did what any good crossword cheater would do: I glanced at the answer sheet *just*long enough to read the answer for 1A. And that was enough to jump start my brain. Only one lookup, so I consider it a win.
Lewis and/or Barbara, The discussion is buried deep in the linked thread, so I'll ask you here: For 55D's ETD, did you mean [Track stat] to refer to a [railroad station] track for a Departure or to the track (trace) of a package for its Delivery? Or something else? Or did the editors write that clue, leaving you two in the dark too? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4417us?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/4417us?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
@Barry Ancona -- I don't remember if that clue was Barbara's or the Times team. I've asked Barbara via email, and if I receive an answer soon enough, I'll pass it on. Et tu, emu.
Tough puzzle. Was not expecting that Gold Star to populate after my last letter. 20 minutes flat
Thank you, Lewis and Ms Lin, for a fun Saturday challenge. I especially liked seeing IT CAN'T HURT, THAT'S NOT BAD and BLOW A GASKET in the grid.
It can hurt, and it did hurt, but I gave it my best shot. I got stuck in many ruts, but was happy that Cleo stuck around with me till the end and didn’t get bitten by an ASP for once.
Took two sittings, very tough the first time but then sailed through the second. Had to clear my head to get on the same wavelength with these truly creative and witty constructors (NYT spell check wants "constrictors," which doesn't seem entirely out of place). Just about every clue was a misdirect with a clever answer to follow. Thanks!
I got stuck a little at the end because I had BRO! Instead of BRR for exclamation with a shake. Maybe MAOTHA is a Chinese wine? Ran through the alphabet—Martha—duh!
@SP In China they do, coincidentally enough, make a style of baijiu (literally, “white liquor”) called “Maotai” (not actually named after the Chairman), which would have been close. However, baijiu is a(n extremely potent) distilled spirit made from sorghum, so it wouldn’t have really worked with the “Vineyard” part of the clue.
Lovely Saturday puzzle. Top left came last, and when I thought I'd have to look up "mambo" or "Teatro Real" (I had the OU, and was mentally stuck on the idea of "theatre in the round".), it coalesced. No look-ups and loved the cluing. It snowed jusssssst enough here in New London that I have to bundle up and salt & scrape. Out I go! "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Have a happy Saturday!
This was a perfect balance and difficulty for a Saturday. Several unknown entries, but the constructors carefully avoided entering Natick territory. Well done!
I suppose my Five Wrong Letters is my Personal Worst. Oh well. This certainly put me through my paces, and I enjoyed my Aha! Moments (even though there weren't enough of them.) Plainly I spent too much time around Academia, so a mere COLLEGE GRAD didn't hit for a longish while, partly because I had recalled Mahler's daughter ANNA, who interfered with the solve. The whole thing went like that! The Something BELT for 24D. ON MUTE for the Zoom. Instead of being pleased with my successes, I am lamenting. AUKS? Now we have to know AUKS? Auks a mercy me! I always knew Lewis was layin' for me, and now he's sprung the trap. Goodbye, cruel world! Well, until tomorrow...
Anyone else put gRR instead of BRR on their first pass? Might need to start meditating again....
@aa Yep, I did. My first image was the way a dog shakes their head while pulling on something... grrrr... :)
Yum. A true pleasure of a challenging puzzle. Thank you both, I needed that.