Pshh, AVGAS? They should call it JETROL.
@oggy I second this comment, and will be calling it this from now on
oggy, Cute, but AVGAS is for piston-engine aircraft, not jets. (Spent time around JP-4 -- aka Jet B -- a while back.)
Classicist here. Sorry but AGORAE is absolutely not a standard plural for AGORA. It is a Greek noun of the first declension, so the plural has to be AGORAI. AGORAS is also common usage.
@Nicola Well, it did come through to us via Latin. Would you insist ‘heavenly being’ is an ‘aggel’ too?
@Clem Agora was never used in Latin by any author, unlike angelus.
@Nicola indeed “τοῖσιν δ᾿ οὔτ᾿ ἀγοραὶ βουληφόροι οὔτε θέμιστες,”
@Clem Also don’t confuse spelling with pronunciation. The double gamma in Greek was -ng-, not -gg-. Also fully agree that it was a poor answer.
Nicola, Greek and Latin have nothing to do with it ... here. The crossword answer is in English, and in English AGORA has two accepted plurals. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agora" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/agora</a> P.S. Are you in Philadelphia this weekend?
@Nicola There’s always wiggle-room when transliterating from one alphabet to another. Apparently, ἀγοραί was pronounced /a.ɡo.rǎi̯/ in Attic Greek, but the final syllable was pronounced /rɛ/ or /re/ in later forms of Ancient Greek. αι is apparently pronounced /e/ in the standard dialect of modern Greek, as well. AGORAE seems to be the better transliteration if trying to convey the actual Greek pronunciation from at least the 10th century onwards, while “agorai” conveys the original orthography better. Both transliterations seem to be in use in published books (though your preference seems to be the more common one currently). <a href="https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=agorai" target="_blank">https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=agorai</a>%2Cagorae&year_start=1800&year_end=2022&corpus=en-US&smoothing=3&case_insensitive=false
If nothing else, we can all be thankful today that we got ORANGUTAN spelled out in its entirety for once.
There is Sam, and there is everyone else. I like wordplay, and his is amazing. Like drinking through a fire hose, though. I usually forget to look at the constructor's name first, and when I get so stuck I feel my brain's gone dead, I look up to see Sam as the constructor and think "Phew. I'm OK." With everyone else, I hold myself to a "naked" solve. i.e., as if I'm in a room, naked (lest I look up something off a clothing tag out of desperation), with nothing else but a pencil and the puzzle, and had to submit it a la the computer punch-cards of yore. No music when the last cell is filled? No solve. With Sam, I give myself complete latitude to do whatever I want to solve the puzzle, and I give myself a win as long as my laptop is in 6 or fewer pieces when it is all over. (Kinda like Wordle.) I count 4 pieces today. Win!!!
"I thought you wanted to practice hurdles." "Ugh, I'm so over it." ("Yeah, that tracks.")
@Mike, Well, at least you weren’t a gate crasher.
@Mike My heart leaps up When I behold A pun up in the sky! So it was when I was a giirl; So shall it be now I'm a crone-- Yet --joy!--not a funster From Munster.
@Mike I was going to archive this one, but my discus full. (I'll pass the baton to the emus now.)
@Mike As always, out standing in your field. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
When I see Ezersky atop a Saturday puzzle, I sequester, go into a cocoon. I leave my brain alone so it can work in the background, marinate, deliver things in its own time. You can count on two things in a Saturday Ezersky. One, the grid will be spiffy clean. I never take this for granted, because, believe me, it’s so hard to pull off. Sam does it every time, and high credit to him for that. Two, the grid will be saturated in freshness, words never seen before in the Times puzzle. Ten today, my favorites being CROWDFUNDING, NPR TOTEBAG, SHOCKING, and SO OVER IT. Today’s debuts are long, too, averaging nine letters. The result is the sheen of newness. This is not just another crossword, not just a same-old, same-old. This is singular, a one-off; it makes the brain come alive. I loved two crossing faunal PuzzPairs© -- a backward BAAS and LAMB STEAK, and PIGGY crossing SLOP. I also adored the playful [Red container] for CASK and [Fudge substitute] for DARN IT. I emerged from my cocoon satisfied and grateful. Sam, you bring so much to Crosslandia. Thank you!
p.s. -- I also liked how [Red container, maybe] echoed Tuesday's [Orange box].
Hmm...my half-edited comment self-deleted itself. Put my down as not a fan. Maybe one day I will appreciate Sam's clueing but I'm certainly not there yet. I'm glad others enjoyed it, and happy that we'll not see another for some time. 🙂
@TMD Agreed! Far too many sports and entertainment clues, questionable words and things that are just not things. It felt junky and uneven, the clues vacillating between stupidly easy and such a stretch as to be idiotic. Difficult for all the wrong reasons.
@TMD "Maybe one day..." tells me that you're likely a relatively new solver, and you are aware of your inexperience and current limitations. That was me in the 80s. And probably 90s. (Although the weekly progression didn't exist when I started, some puzzles were just very hard, and others quite easy, and you never knew which one you were going to get.) I don't have that problem anymore. And you have so many tools available now to improve quickly, including this column and its comments. Plus the entire internet. All I had was the published solutions in the next day's paper, and whatever reference books I had at hand. Good luck solving and continuing to improve, and congrats for the hopeful outlook.
Well, that was a challenge! I have come to feel some amount of fear when I see Sam's byline, and this one lived up to my expectations. Luckily, I got a toehold in the south was was able to work upwards--but the NE corner was a real BEAR, and not a small cute CUB. One nit I had was that LAMB STEAK is not exactly parallel with chop and shank. But yes, I know it's a Saturday puzzle. And it was a worthy one.
@Liz B Is lamb steak even a thing? I’ve never seen such a thing on offer at the grocery store or butcher shop.
@Liz B LEGOFLAMB was my first entry there. The AZTECEMPEROR forbid it. He also imposed the proper plural of AGORA.
AZTEC EMPEROR and BECHAMEL and MOHAWK and TWANGY and a bunch of other fills were gimmes, but (GRR) I must admit that I had a SHOCKING number of look-ups. Now DARN IT on BEHALF of my husband, who keeps saying it's time to pack it in, I'm relieved that I'm finally SO OVER IT. Sam Ezersky, your name is golden in the crossword puzzle world, but it's THE WORST in mine! Of course, I'm kidding. It's the standard reaction of a solver who has had a tough time. This was a solid puzzle, and without you-know-who breathing down my neck, in time, no doubt, I could have puzzled it out on my own. (Looks over her shoulder, "OH HI.") Your reputation is well-deserved, Mr. E. Keep throwing down the glove, and we'll keep asking for more.
@dutchiris What's a gimme? I've seen lots of people write that today in their comments. 🤷🏾♂️
Twice my average time, but I have never felt so proud to have finished it without lookups! But most of all, welcome back, Will!!!
I see Ezersky’s name and my heart sinks. I battle through the jungle of impenetrable facts, sports and trivia. Finally I reach my destination of a complete grid. Then I go back and find all the errors I made until, at last, I get the gold star. Then I look back and realise it really wasn’t that bad, in fact it was downright entertaining. So then, as always, I mentally apologise to Sam, knowing full well that I will go through the same emotions the next time. Today’s grid experience. PEGG a very rare gimme along with AVGAS. DH is a pilot so I would never have lived down not getting that one. Favourite clues; 10D, 38D. Thank you Sam, once again you remind me not to freak out at a seemingly impossible grid. Won’t stop me repeating said freak out though.
I have not yet read the comments yet because I had to run here and tell you that this was my first Sam Ezerski Saturday solve without help!! Not a one!! I'm so happy I kind of want to cry a little! Or maybe a lot! I have done other perfectly clean Saturday solves, though I'm not 100% consistent with them yet, but definitely never one of Sam's! There were times I was pretty sure I couldn't do it but I was also pretty determined. It took me an obscenely long time and it is a bit over my average but I don't care! A lot of my average includes various helps so I consider it skewed. As you can see, I'm really tickled! I'm also a little afraid to read the comments and learn that maybe it was uncharacteristically easy but I'm just going to stick to my don't care attitude, because it's still in a big achievement for me! And the funny thing is, I really credit it to the fact that back in August I mentioned I could never quite remember the word for Greek marketplace or ancient marketplace etc. And a couple of my favorite commenters helped me with a REC to remember it. It's been killing me that it hasn't come up again since then but here it was today, to help me with my first Sam E. clean solve. It was the first thing I got, though granted I put an s on it at first, and was so confident that I was able to build around it. Yippppppppeeee!!! And I'll be honest, life's been a bit rough. I needed this win!! And now back to our regularly scheduled programming! Cheers! ❤️
@HeathieJ Congrats! Bask in your achievement! 🎊👏
@HeathieJ, Definitely not easy, uncharacteristically or otherwise. Quite hard, in fact. Congratulations on your big win!! 🎉🍾🥂
I'm done: I've noticed recently that I've stopped enjoying the crossword on weekends. I've been doing the NY crossword for years, and it's been one of my most enjoyable pastimes. These days, while I get the solved in the end, I find myself more aggravated than pleased with the result. When I see ", perhaps?" or ", maybe," I find myself thinking "Unnecessarily oblique or obscure, cute, precious, or indirect." I'm writing this only to say, if you're enjoying the crossword, wonderful, but if you've found yourself finding it more irritating than rewarding, no that you are not the only one.
@Hugh Mac Toirdealbhach My idea of a great puzzle is one you hate (wrestle with) right up to the minute you solve it. THEN you want to tell people about it, but find that nobody cares :)
@Hugh Mac Toirdealbhach This isn't an airport, you don't need to announce your departure.
Just imagining Will's instructions, soliciting today's puzzle: "OK, Sam, I'd like you to write a tough Wednesday crossword" 😀
@MP Rogers I think you nailed it. Sam took it easy on us.
16A - "chop" and "shank" are particular cuts not associated with a specific animal. "steak" isn't a specific cut, so IMO "lamb steak" is not an "alternative". In fact, a "chop" could *be* a "lamb steak".
@Kevin. I thought lamb steak early on but decided it was too lame.
@Kevin In a lifetime of shopping (butcher shops, groceries, in the US, Canada, and Germany) for (affordable) cuts of meat, I've not found any shanks other than LAMB... Neck, heart, liver...though I do draw the line at chicken 'paws.' I don't know why....maybe that's some of what goes into the ground meat? Maybe some others will chime in. Andrzej?
@Kevin "Lamb shank" rang a bell for me, but it also could have been veal.
@Kevin I was so annoyed by this clue too!!
@Kevin Yes, I agree. I usually think of Sam as being very precise, and this was not a precise clue at all.
Too many proper names that didn’t travel well across the Atlantic. Only MOB RULE and SAAB were gimmes. Not doable for me without ADAM SILVER. I know this is sacrilegious here but I had just gotten used to Joel and it was nice. Maybe just a bad day …
@Ιασων It's not a bad day. It's Saturday!
That was a struggle. I consider myself reasonably aware of pop and current culture (for an old fogy anyway), but I was lost at sea for most of this one and came close to packing it in. Pure stubbornness kept me at it, and with a lot of guessing, I eventually got there, thanks to ADAMSILVER and BECHAMEL, which gave me just enough to get going. The app tells me it took over three hours to solve this even though I finished before eleven. Perhaps the app has the power to reveal how long the solve felt rather than its actual length. Although I normally relish a challenge, this one felt more like work than pleasure.
This was just great. Was flummoxed until I was well into the clues but pleased to finish. I’ve been doing these puzzles for decades and so it’s actually fun when you get something challenging but solvable. Great puzzle. Thank you.
When I saw I was diving into an Ezersky, I braced myself, took a sip of tea and let ‘er rip. Unsolvable, til it wasn’t. Cryptic, til it was obvious. Daunting til it was done! Felt like allowing myself a couple look-ups would have made this a *very* speedy Sam solve, but I went slow and stuck with (reluctant yet knowledgeable) hubby and got the happy music! Am I the only one that sees loooong answers that are names of folks I simply do *not* know and think, “Ooh, you’re not taking me down today, Mr Ezersky!” Like he’s personally challenging me to use every cross, blind guess, and letter-swap I got. Loved it. Happy Saturday all!
Bechamel first appears in La Varenne's "Le cuisinier françois" in 1651, dedicated to the wealthy chief steward to Louis XIV, Louis de Bechameil, likely created by François Louis Gopaul, though some credit La Varenne. Others say Bechameil improved on La Varenne's simple "white sauce" of flour, butter & milk, with a dash of nutmeg. It wasn't until Vincent La Chapelle's "The Modern Cook" (1733) that it was called bechamel sauce. La Chapell's book first came out in English as a trial run; he didn't want it to appear in French till it was perfect. The resulting 4 volume set (1735) is the most important French 18th century culinary work. Bechamel is now considered one of five "mother sauces" of French cooking -- foundational sauces whose use and variations form the essence of French cuisine, the others being tomato, hollandaise, velouté & Espagnole. I entered bearnaise instead of bechamel, figuring it was dedicated to the Duke de Bearn. As described above, however, bearnaise's "mother" is hollandaise. It's one of two major recipes "accidentally" invented by Jean-Louis-François Collinet in the 1830s (the other being puffed potatoes) so named because it was first served in a restaurant called Le Pavilion Henri IV in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, named thus because it was in a former residence of Henri IV (from Bearn). It was common back then to dedicate recipes to wealthy patrons, just as authors, artists & composers did. And since I could use a patron, I dedicate this to Elon Musk.
@john ezra But how did you get 'bearnaise' to fit in the space??
would have been a world record for a ... marathon! But I finished with no errors, lookup or shoutouts to family. I have climbed Mount Ezersky, with the flu.
Holy oleo, that was tough. The combination of Sam Ezersky and Saturday is a deadly one. I managed to make it through, but not without a lot of doubts. With the west side mostly empty, I just kept filling in a square at a time as I could, and lo and behold, happy music. There’s a lesson there somewhere …
Development area, fudge substitute - lots of wordplay to love here. Despite getting 'bechamel' and 'adamsilver' on the first pass, I got stranded in the northeast for a looong time, then everything clicked into place. I always enjoy Sam Ezersky's puzzles, and continually feel that I'm a better solver as a result of them.
Nice Saturday puzzle. Learned what Ochlocracy meant and "substitute for fudge" brought a smile to my face. Oh, the things we said when we couldn't/shouldn't say the things we wanted to say - :)
Just chiming in to once again add that while there are plenty of people who may enjoy Sam E.’s style of cluing, I am consistently put off every time I see their name in the byline because the puzzle will almost inevitably be a slog that saps all the fun out of solving. Their puzzles tend to be chock full of obscure trivia, which is the primary source of difficulty. For those who (like me) tend not to enjoy Sam E. Saturdays, I recommend simply looking up some of the obscure references. I don’t know all the names of NBA commissioners, French stewards, or best directors. Plugging just a handful of those in using lookups made the puzzle a much more enjoyable experience. That said, AGORAE is still not a thing, and no one writes out the “10” in 10K, either.
@Edward AGORAE is certainly a thing, just look it up. Wasn’t my first guess either, but still
@Edward “[Sam E’s] puzzles tend to be chock full of obscure trivia, which is the primary source of difficulty. For those who (like me) tend not to enjoy Sam E. Saturdays, I recommend simply looking up some of the obscure references.” I’ve read several comments to this effect today, and of course, it’s your puzzle to solve however you want. But to provide an alternative perspective: I had absolutely no clue about several of the trivia entries (CHLOEZAO, EDDIEHUANG, ANNLEE, NEHRU), had to make educated guesses on a few others from crosses/context (SAAB, ROBIN, AVGAS, MOHAWK), and only knew the ADAM half of the NBA guy…and still finished this puzzle well under my Saturday average. Again, to each their own when it comes to cheating…but this puzzle was absolutely solvable without knowledge of obscure trivia.
Vcr instead of VHS and BERg instead of BERT really took me for a ride. That was the GIrg of it. Had to look up Chloe Zhao because I couldn't make anything happen in the NW. And my memory for shopping places of yore only extended to my teen days and I couldn't figure out how to make "malls" fit into six letters. I love Saturdays
@Sof Unisex to watch ski jumping years ago so I wnet for ENGELBERg, too. Knowing I was dealing with an Ezersky puzzle I kept an open mind though and was able to realize the mistake. I also looked up CHLOE ZHAO - I don't watch movies or follow awards so even though I had read about her once, her name sadly skipped my mind.
I’m inclined to be a Sam Ezersky fan because he’s a young crossword prodigy and I can appreciate that lol but I don’t love his puzzles and I’m not sure why. They’re on the more challenging end which I like and they have some cute clues (lookin’ at you, fudge substitute) but they just never feel fun for me. What is my problem here?! Also, I have never seen an Elmo Halloween costume lol that was a toughie. And I’ll join the noise and agree that I don’t find LAMBSTEAK to be parallel with chop and shank.
@Katie I completely agree. Too many clues that are written to intentionally confuse the solver (Refuse to eat?). I’m fine with one or two of those in a puzzle, but SE uses too many difficult clues. I enjoy a challenge, however this puzzle was just frustrating.
2020 was THE WORST in so many ways. By maybe July lots of us were SO OVER IT. We all tried to BE SAFE, but it was hard, DARN IT. Some tried to make the best of it all, and used the time to perfect their BECHAMEL sauce, or some other CRAZE like sourdough or Duolingo. Me: I fell for online concerts, zoom workshops, and films. When they said we could watch Nomadland via streaming, naturally we did. And that is why CHLOE ZHAO was a gimme!
Holy oleo, that west side was THEWORST. GRR. At one point, I was SOOVERIT, I had to pause for a VAPE (SHOCKING, I know). When I returned, I decided to PIGGYBACK on some Google searches (don't go all NARCO on me) which gave me the juice I needed to finish, DARNIT! Perhaps it's because I'm a medic but I thought UTERUS for Development Area was inspired. And despite my amateur dramatics, it was a rather lovely puzzle and one of my fastest Saturday solves. Thanks, Sam!
A puzzle better suited for Google than for me.
Absolutely dreadful puzzle. Stick to editing Sam.
@LJADZ, Are you Emilie, who posted just before you, by any chance relatives? (Sorry - on this subject i’ve really got to learn to hold my tongue.)
@LJADZ Scanning the comments, I think you will find that you are in the minority. I thought that this was a fine puzzle. You go, Sam!
Although this was a Sam Ezersky construction, I found it a little more approachable than some of his others. Yes, I had to look up some stuff, but I often do on Saturdays, and I only had a couple this time, so that was better than usual. Most of the other answers came after a bit of pondering and getting some of the crossings, but it came together in a fairly decent time for me. Thanks for taking it easy on us, Sam!
With lots of good clues and interesting trivia there was a lot to like here. That's not what I've usually said about Sam Ezersky puzzles but I thoroughly enjoyed this one.
Some pretty tough cluing, but had a good laugh when I finally filled in 42 A. Definitely was not thinking of that type of development. I also liked the L M N O P clue. Certainly a tough one for me but very satisfying when the music played.
Quite an amazing puzzle. Ten debut answers. Just well above my pay grade and I think I cheated too much to count this one. Oh well - I think I'll just let my streak die tomorrow. No big deal. A couple of interesting puzzle finds today. One - a Sunday from June 13, 2010 by Francis Heaney with the title "Flag day." Never seen one like this before. There were a number of 3 letter across answer squares where each square was supposed to be entered as a color rebus. And for the down answers, they were just that color spelled out. As an example: 1 down: MRBLUE 2 down: EBWHITE 3 down: TIRED But then the across answers took those three squares to be the flag of some country and that country's name was supposed to be part of the across answer. For example, the colors at the end of 1, 2 and 3 down were supposed to represent the flag of FRANCE, so the answer at the crossing 22 across was implied to be: FRANCESBACON. A couple of other across answers with the 3 colored flag squares re-interpreted as the country: ACQU(IRELAND) SAN(GUINEA)BOUT DIG(ITALY)EARBOOKS But then the crossing down answers just used the name of the color as part of the answer. e.g.: (GREEN)TEA (YELLOW)ROSE (RED)UCER LIME(GREEN) ALAN(WHITE) WEST(ORANGE) And... one crossing down answer was: BIG(YELLOW)TAXI One other across answer with the implied country: PY(ROMANIA)CS Might put another puzzle find in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Forgot to include the Xword Info link to the puzzle I mentioned above. Here it is; <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/13/2010&g=83&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/13/2010&g=83&d=D</a> And... one other puzzle: I think I'd done this one but didn't recall it. A Thursday from July 30, 2020 by... Joel Fagliano. In that one, ALL of the across answers were actually pairs of answers side by side and the clues referenced both parts of the answer. a couple of examples: 1 & 5 "Fiancée" So... 1a was WIFE and 5a was TOBE 15 & 16 "Real estate showing" So 15a was "OPEN" and 16a was "HOUSE" Some other paired across answers: BEES KNEES MEAT PIES TIRES OUT BLOWN DOWN ASPEN TREE NEST EGGS Here's the Xword Info link for that one: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/30/2020&g=21&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/30/2020&g=21&d=A</a> ....
Hard as nails, made me remember what it felt like when I was just starting this crossword hobby and I was sure Saturdays were not going to be for me. Sometimes these puzzles make me feel like I'm a genius; sometimes they remind me that I'm not...
@Delg Same here—first time in a while when I had to resort to Google, and for several answers, not just one or two!
SO OVER IT (IT being my average solve time for a Saturday). Midway, love-struck as I was piecing the entries together, I peeked to see who’d put this blissful thing together. Sam E. Duh. Sam really is my hands-down favorite Saturday constructor.
To the several commenters who have come out later in the day to vent about what a horrible, un-fun slog this puzzle was: there is a *much* steeper learning curve to crossword puzzles than most people seem to expect, and one thing I’ve learned from this comments section is that it’s very common for people to overestimate their own solving abilities (I’d hypothesize this is due to a combination of the NYT’s format, in which beginner-friendly puzzles are published > half the time, combined with a marked decrease in average puzzle difficulty in recent years). I already know this will come across as smug/self-satisfied/arrogant/etc to many readers, but I can promise you this: once your solving abilities have improved to a certain point, you will stop having intensely negative reactions to puzzles. To be sure, you’ll enjoy/appreciate some puzzles more than others; but you won’t feel *mad* about almost any of them. As long as you find yourself fuming about the occasional puzzle and itching to write comments about how it was “hard, but not in a good way”, label a constructor as “lazy”, or tell the editors to “do better”…trust me, this just means you’ve still got a lot more room to improve than you realize. Which is actually kind of a great thing, because it means you’re nowhere near hitting a point of diminishing returns with crossword-solving as a hobby!
@Hard truth sayer I have to agree. I struggled quite a bit with this one! But I think back to how much help I would need with a Monday puzzle, when they are now my “race” puzzles. Saturdays are always difficult, but there are generally one of two outcomes I enjoy. Those long entries that finally click, and the rabbit holes I go down when I have to look up an entry (currently deep into Jawaharlal NEHRU’s background). As our lovely columnists often say, “it’s your puzzle; solve it how you want” I would add “it’s your puzzle; find the enjoyment from it that you want.”
@Hard truth sayer It always amazes me that some people know "most people" well enough to know what they think and feel.
@Hard truth sayer Everyone needs to read this comment! What's the point of a Saturday crossword if not to challenge you?
@Hard truth sayer Well, you’re right about the smug and arrogant part anyway. To say that the only reason one might not like a puzzle is because they’re not good enough yet? Really? Many totally legitimate criticisms of today’s puzzle in the comments.
@Hard truth sayer, I do find it difficult to judge the quality of a puzzle I find very difficult to solve—is it me, or is it the puzzle? And yet, not all equally difficult puzzles are created equally well.
I looked up several proper names but other than that I was able to solve the puzzle on my own, and quite quickly, too. There is one thing I don't get though: I know what a VAPE is, but I don't understand how the clue '"Head shop purchase, nowadays" gets you that. Could somebody please explain?
@Andrzej A “head shop” is a place people buy marijuana and/or paraphernalia for smoking it. But vaping is a popular alternative to smoking nowadays.
@Andrzej I figured in the old days the answer would be "bong" so [nowadays] indicated a modern way of getting high. So, VAPE.
@Andrzej A “head shop” is a slang term for “a specialty shop that sells paraphernalia for use with illegal drugs” (American Heritage Dictionary). Does that help?
@Andrzej A "head shop" in the US is kind of a mix between a tobacconist and a dispensary. It leans toward the marijuana side of things but vape pens and juice are still commonly sold there.
@Andrzej You can buy cartridges of marijuana-derived oil for vaping. You can also get normal nicotine vape fluid at head shops.
@Andrzej Searching for this usage of 'head' is somewhat an inconclusive rabbit hole. There are references to pothead, dopehead, acid head that are tied to the US drug culture of the 1960's. There are also references to the Jefferson Airplane lyric "feed your head" in the song White Rabbit. The first "head shop" is also traced to the late 60's. So the origin doesn't seem exactly defined, but they all share a common thread.
The A-Team hitting on all cylinders
Maybe my brain is soft after too much holiday cheer, but I found this one impossible to solve without Google.
Just *done* with this puzzle. So over it.
Wow this was a bad comeback puzzle. Terrible cluing, clunky answers. Somehow a name combining three possible extensions doesn’t have to include any of those extensions? Bad clue. Yet another NEHRU and oh would you look at that, CDRACK, our old, old, old friend. Super disappointing from Sam Ezersky and Will Shortz
GRR this was tough… I loved it! I was just telling my daughter earlier today that I’ve learned so many facts/trivia doing the crossword over the years… tomorrow morning I can’t wait to tell her about forest people!! Thanks, Sam!! 🫡
A tough one for me. My only 2 sure things in the NW were updo for 2D and AGORAs at 18A. Oops! I finally got a foothold in the SE and was able to work myself in a backwards Z through the grid, getting stalled again in the NW. I kept trying to think of a 4 letter word for devil for 3D as I have no idea what color ELMO is. Changing AGORAs to AGORAE let me see AZTEC and finally get it done. My favorite clue was the simple [Red container, maybe]. After wondering for too long if CASKs were often red, it finally hit me. This is exactly what I love to see on Saturday, so thank you, Sam. I hope to see more like this in the new year.
crunchy in all the right ways. what a satisfying puzzle to finish!
Hated it until I loved it! Although I knew when I saw Sam Ezersky's name that he would take care of me. And I'm SO HAPPY to see Will Shortz back!! : )
Welcome back, Will....A great way to begin the New Year. Truly a Happy New Year for Puzzlers.
@Elaine W. How nice to see another "Elaine W." in the Commentariat! And we agree on this challenging but entertaining puzzle, I see.