Agree this was on the easier side, since once you get one row in a stack the rest fall pretty quickly. And the top row was a gimme for me. But c’mon folks it’s still enjoyable, and incredibly smooth fill for nine fifteen letter spanners. And in a debut? This is a tour de force and absolutely a worthy Saturday
I'll crack one yolk about omelettes for free, but the rest will cost eggstra. (Besides, my brain is fried.)
Strangely, A MAN A PLAN A HOSTILE TAKEOVER didn't fit. (Going out on a flag-pole here.)
@Bill Good one. Isn’t it funny how the dude who wants to take over Greenland can’t make a speech outdoors in Washington in 25 degree weather?
@Steve L He must have been thinking of the outgoing president’s health.
Even after all my years of solving, there’s still something magical to me when I’m looking at a long answer with a paucity of crosses, and with a huge KAPOW the answer hits me. That flash of seeing -- it’s one of my favorite Crosslandia moments. Today that happened a good number of times, and when a solve is stuffed with that much giddiness, well, I spontaneously feel buoyant and grateful, and I don’t care what the day is, the puzzle did its job. CARE TO ELABORATE, OSCAR NOMINATION, SPANISH OMELETTE, ITALIAN AMERICAN, and TESTED THE WATERS are lovely spanners, bringing beauty to the box. Plus, more loveliness from a couple of clues that misdirected me in [Chest beating sort] and [Cry after a close shave], not to mention a pair of sweet crosses (mentioned by other posters here) in MUM / MIME, and CAN / CANT. It’s so very hard to create a triple stack whose crossing answers have hardly a whiff of junk, much less *three* triple stacks, and, IMO, that’s just what Scott did – in his debut puzzle. Wow! You rule today, Scott. Congratulations and enjoy your Debut Day. Thank you for a splendid outing, and please, don’t be a stranger!
A bit of context regarding spanner stacks, should you be interested. Over the years in the Times crossword there have been: • 13 quadruple double-stacks. • 23 triple triple-stacks. • 21 single quad-stacks. • 13 double quad-stacks. • 1 quintuple-stack – Joe Krozel, 12/29/12 (in an asymmetric grid). You’re welcome.
Caitlin calls this one "spectacular but solvable." I agree. Very clean, and an impressive debut. Great job, Scott! IMO this was a great Friday puzzle. And yes, I know what day it is.
@Barry Ancona At least you're not trying to claim it was a "Wednesday" puzzle, like another solver did. I was very frustrated at first, needed many cheats, but I got all the long answers on my own. A decent Saturday (not as 'evil' hard as some).
@Barry Ancona I agree on all counts! Almost my exact thoughts while solving.
This puzzle was a triple treat for sure. Three grid spanning stacks with a funky looking grid that virtually isolated the three sections made it seem almost like three separate puzzles. I got the middle section first by knowing about Katherine Hepburn’s OSCARNOMINATIONS and about SPANISHOMELETTEs. I got the bottom section almost as easily by knowing HOTELCALIFORNIA, which gave me enough letters to get enough downs to see the other spanners (although I did try to find a way to work Yankees into the Berra DiMaggio clue before ITALIANAMERICANS came to me). But I whiffed badly on the top section. All I could think of for 1A was ablewasiereisawelba, which made no sense for the downs and caused me no end of grief. For some reason the equally well known AMANAPLANACANALpanama would not come to me, until I started over, got NARC and guessed that ACCRA was the African art center. Lovely puzzle. I’m a big admirer of Katherine Hepburn, but perhaps her biggest fan was my first wife. Like Hepburn, my wife was a Bryn Mawrter, and she got to meet her idol once at a college function. In the course of the evening, Hepburn handed my wife an empty, clear plastic cup that had contained the beverage she was drinking. Rather than disposing of the cup, as had been expected, she kept the cup and it stayed with us through several moves, as if it were a holy grail, until it finally cracked and fell apart. Now that’s fandom.
I was speechless when the answer to [It’s the word] hit me. Et tu, emu.
@Lewis I was a little bummed that Grease did not fit there.
@Lewis The bird is the word. <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=5WFBppsP9C8" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=5WFBppsP9C8</a> Especially for you, emu.
Great fun. I got all of the long ones easily, and had near my best time for a Saturday. Trivia: Port MAHON is the origin of Mayonnaise. It also features prominently in the “Master and Commander” series of 20 novels by Patrick O’Brian. L
@LarryF I got that answer immediately. That's one series I re-read every 2 or 3 years, and I believe it's better referred to as the Aubrey/Maturin series.
@LarryF big O’Brian fan here, that one made me smile.
@LarryF Well, that's a TIL for this food professional, and thank you for it!
Just as smooth as Hotel California -- which is probably not the song people want on the radio right now in southern Cali (it's really horrifyingly unimaginable...those videos, those flames, those drone's eye views of the Palisades and Altadena, there really are no words to give understanding or meaning to the experience of those who are enduring it --) and I love the grid design, those two horizontal...pulse rates? Seismographs? Post-modern musical score? Results of a polygraph test? Sneaky touch, having "McMahon" almost spelled out in the first two downs: A M C A C H R O A N And the MUM/MIME intersection. Silent applause for that one! Relax, said the nightman, we are programmed to receive: you can check out any time, but you can never leave...
@john ezra I don’t make it to the Comment section much these days, but I’m interested in the Best of 2024 that I believe you and others have organized - would you point me to where I’d find the lists, voting, etc.? Thank you!
@john ezra Thanks! You made me go back and look at the grid design. Cool. Hotel California is such an ear worm. The LA fires are heart-breaking. But news coverage is already starting to slack off. Recovery is tough, and I don't expect the incoming administration to be very helpful. Some areas are probably toxic enough to be treated like a Super-Fund site.
Jim Horne notes on xwordinfo.com that this is the first triple triple (three stacks of three spanners each) in ten years. Triple stacks can be daunting upon first glance, but if the long answers come easily, the puzzle can open up very quickly. All three in the top group opened up really fast after some of the gimme crosses were in place: NEIN, ATS, etc. In the second stack, OSCAR NOMINATION seemed like a good guess, and some gimmes on the crosses not only confirmed it, but opened it up for the other two spanners. In the last group, HOTEL CALIFORNIA was a gimme off just a few crosses, ITALIAN AMERICAN was easy at that point to fill in, too, and by the time I got to TESTED THE WATERS, I already had at least half the letters already in place. I moved through this puzzle surprised that for a Saturday, it offered little resistance. I'm going to guess that even those who struggle with Saturday puzzles are going to struggle less than usual with this one.
@Steve L that said I kept stumbling over CAN clued as [throne]. Yes, eventually I knew what it was but it took me busting a heck of a lot of rust off my brain to get it. Sort of a 1950s-ish kind of humor. Yes I know everyone says 'can' even in these wink-wink-nudge-nudge-say-no-more kind of days, but it smacks of humor said to get past the censors and I had to really dig for that dated meaning for throne. Or maybe in New York golden ones are common fodder. What do I know?
An unusually enjoyable theme-less puzzle. One thing I had noted recently was that it seemed like there were relatively few grid-spanning entries in recent puzzles and... here we have three triple stacks of 15's. Wow. Of course had to cheat a bit on some down answers but then just lots of nice 'aha' moments when the long across answers finally dawned on me. And... seeing Jimmy Carter mentioned was just one more nice addition. Might do some answer history searches later. Maybe. ...
Noticed someone completed today's puzzle in just over four minutes. Even if I knew all the answers beforehand, I'm not sure I could plug them in that fast.
@redweather Right? My Monday best is 6 minutes, and it felt like I could not type any faster.
@redweather Would the emus allow me express polite skepticism of these posters who occasionally pipe up to claim such incomprehensibly fast times?
@redweather Some solve separately on paper and then enter solutions online so as to join the party here, which would easily account for the time stamp you note, given that this fine puzzle challenges the half hour mark. I would not make much of it, as it is simply a different practice within the cruciverbalist community.
@redweather Just for kicks, I keyed in a Monday puzzle I had just finished on paper. Knowing all the answers, it took me 1:09. It would probably be faster if i could touch-type and had someone reading me the answers.
@redweather As far as not being sure I could do that...there's no doubt in my mind that I couldn't. I don't know if I could complete a puzzle in four minutes if I knew all the answers and were shouting them to a competition-winning speed typist. My best time for a Monday puzzle was over seven minutes. But I try not to let it bother me anymore. People are going to make those claims, and who knows, maybe they're actually doing that. It's not worth letting it bother me. The next four years are going to give me plenty of stress fodder as it is.
@redweather The Mini today took me 4:25. I’m highly skeptical.
A fun romp, over too quickly! I was able to guess about two-thirds of the long answers from only 2 or 3 letters. The others (CARE TO ELABORATE?) only a little more slowly. Still, it was a nice debut and I look forward to more from Scott.
As glad as I always am to see 15-letter answers in a puzzle, and as much as I respect the construction of this one, it was much, much too easy for a Saturday, bordering on Wednesday-level toughness. Disappointing. 5/10
@George I needed thirteen cheats, I didn't find this one easy. It was a rather standard Saturday. Which opinion is in the majority? Who cares? Tomorrow is another day and another puzzle.
@George For me it was impossibly hard. Disappointing.
@George Personally, I did solve this puzzle over three minutes faster than I did this week’s Wednesday, making this my Saturday PB. Obviously, difficulty is going to vary with the individual solver’s areas of familiarity, though, and the clueing style and was definitely more Saturday-ish than Wednesday-ish.
CAN and CANT MIMEs keep MUM A 'famous' BRIT is Rita ORA LEO and Kate WINSLET OSCARNOMINATIONS for LEO, WINSLET, Citizen KANE and GORILLAs in the Mist LEO could be the name of a big KAT CATE is another spelling of Kate (WINSLET) or even KAT If you're SANE, you're TUNEDIN And Scott McMahon having MAHON as an answer. Priceless. I might be seeing what I wanna see, but I'm glad I'm seeing it - Sebastian in London, 2025
@Sebastian You can say that again!.....apparently.
Usually, I move on quickly to Spelling Bee after completing the Crossword, but not today. I'm lingering in admiration. What a joy to solve!
@Irma Pellei The Bee drops at 2 a.m. CST.... (3 a.m. New York)..... you can learn to wake up right in time for it, get to Genius Plus, and then go back to sleep. Or move on to the Wordle....
I enjoyed solving this. Nice work out. What a feat of construction! Congrats constructor - nice one.
Outstanding Saturday I loved the three levels of long crosses. I worked my way down. Top two thirds were done very quickly for me for a Saturday. That last level. Yikes. Like 30 minutes alone. But once I gave up on par as a golfers concern, for LIE. The bottom third fell in lies than a minute. The showed respect clue that needed an entry that started with a K confounded me to no end. I can’t imagine how hard it was to put this kind of grid together. I really appreciated solving it. Thank you Scott McMahon
Anyone think 7D “I can handle this!” is a little too formal for LEMME? “Yeah I can do it!” might have been better. I mention it because the T in my original LETME threw me for a while.
@Robert Schwartz yeah, I too had LEtME for a while. Eds could have thrown in a "C'mon," at the beginning. Or something.
This grid breaks down into three barely-related mini-puzzles, which is a form that I generally don't like. But when each "mini" contains a triple stack of spanners, all I can say is: Lovely puzzle! Brilliant debut, Scott McMahon! And I agree with you @Caitlin, the inclusion of the obscure town of MAHON can't be mere coincidence.
This puzzle is an extraordinary achievement and just the right mix of hard and fair. Outstanding for any constructor, never mind a debut effort. Well done!
Absolutely loved this grid! Looked intimidating at first but fell into place fairly quickly
I am absolutely in awe over this puzzle. The ability to stack even two fifteen letter fills is incredibly hard, but three sets of three! A spectacular achievement, Scott!
I won't be KOI, I'll just come right out and say, great debut! Initially intimidated, when I got to the second stack I said, LEMME at it! Well done and thanks.
That. Was. Brilliant. One of the most fiendish but enjoyable puzzles I’ve ever done. The first glance at all that white space was terrifying. First pass was no better. No clue as to the palindrome, or indeed to any of the long spans. Filled in a few of the little ones; TIL, KOI, MUM but still so much open grid. Very, very slowly I filled in a few gaps. ITALIAN AMERICAN was my eventual way in. I was so pleased with myself for getting it. Sports! US sportsmen! It felt truly thrilling as I managed to see each long span (I know, I should get out more). I needed Caitlin’s help to finally get 1A, never having heard it before. Once I had the completed grid I could see that none of the spans were obscure for me, other than 1A, but they were the very devil to fill. Laughed out loud at 38A. Was thinking surfers. My only odd moment was 53A. I did a rare google search as I had absolutely nothing. The Grammy award for best record 1976 came up as Captain and Teneille’s Love Will Keep Us Together. What the? To cap this off I then discover this is a debut. Bravo Mr McMahon, bravo.
Helen Wright, Read the 53A clue again, carefully. If that doesn't help, scroll down for an explanation.
@Helen Wright I’ll point out (as purely an aside) that the fact you mentioned about the 1976 Grammy is proof that the Grammys are prone to being profoundly wrong. (And this has happened often.) (Everyone who disputes awards and their dates have done so as a result of a Google search.)
Turned out this was not all that difficult, despite the intimidating grid! I did go down a few garden paths (ABLE WAS I ERE I SAW... SPEAR before LANCE, UTILITY INFIELDERoops, BASEBALL ALL STARrats, RAT before CAD...Adult before ANIME, and SELAH before SALAH. Whatever--it was good clean fun, and it took less than my cup of coffee, time-wise. This is the second WHIT in the span of a few days...ditto WREN. Putting the final borders on two quilts today!
@Mean Old Lady I am in awe of quilting. I'm blessed to have an absolutely gorgeous, intricate quilt from the mid-1800s (with provenance) that was made by a relative. I also inherited two fully pieced quilt tops that need to be finished. At some point I will find an expert fo do them up.
I loved the stacks! As the kids these days say, "If it it ain't got stacks, don't even aks!" The kerfuffle du jour inspired me to find that "Love Will Keep Us Together" by Captain & Tennille was the 1976 Record of the Year(which I then saw Helen Wright mention). Did you know that-according to Wikipedia-early in her career Toni Tennille toured with the Beach Boys and "has since been known as the Beach Boys' one and only 'Beach Girl'"? And how incredible is it that they've been awarding Grammys since 1959 and in all that time, objectively speaking, they've never made a mistake?!?! You rock, Grammys!!
@ad absurdum I'm guessing that Record of the Year is the award for a single, as opposed to the Album of the Year? "Title track" in the clue muddied the waters for me.
2D was instant if you've read the Aubrey-Maturin series. I re-read it this past year to avoid political news. In that vein, the next few days make ___ Pro Noblis appropriate.
Wow, without 31 across - easy for a movie buff - I’m not sure I would have found a way in! Respectable-for-me 1:13:37 with breaks to assist my husband who brought home a new hip today!
The intersection of CAN and CANT delights me to no end.
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Mr. McMahon! The three triple stacks made the grid seem daunting at first, but once I had a few answers in the grid, the rest came quickly. Thanks!
Greetings and kudos from an impressed solver, down US-12! Just in case anyone hasn't watched the last *two* times it's been shared on wordplay: <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=BXbW42uTKYo" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=BXbW42uTKYo</a> "There's life after default, dahling." "When I look at you, A., I see a chubby, user-friendly me." I cry Natick at the crossing of the writer/philosopher and the rapper--after all, it could be any number of two letters!
@Bill WRT the Natick, I put the rappers name without a thought. The song was a crossover hit on alternative and adult radio when it came out, and is really good. It samples the best parts of The Clash's Straight to Heck (Emu edit). Not saying you should know it, but it's pretty good: <a href="https://youtu.be/ewRjZoRtu0Y?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/ewRjZoRtu0Y?feature=shared</a> PS - everybody knows that the bird is the word. <a href="https://youtu.be/2WNrx2jq184?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/2WNrx2jq184?feature=shared</a>
@Bill Bah, just realized you were being sarcastic in calling a Natick. I did think it out of character for you. Wit takes me a bit longer to process on Saturday mornings 😅 I stand by my video recommendations though. Both primo content.
This is a superb Saturday puzzle... you learn a lot, which is the purpose of crossword puzzles... and it is logical and fun at the same time. It also does not rely on gimmicks, thank God.
Alan, Thank Will Shortz. He, not God, decided that Friday and Saturday NYT crosswords should usually be themeless.
@Alan Hey, Alan, how do you really feel about gimmicks? It’s so hard to tell…
Wow, this was great! I always start Saturday puzzles filled with trepidation, knowing that I will soon have to either give up entirely or resort to "autocorrect." A good omen for me is the existence of 15-letter blank rows. One below another is awe-inspiring, but a three row stack borders on being mind-blowing. So, THREE TRIPLE STACKS? REALLY? (Sounds like the words on a pancake restaurant gift card.) My journey today resembles Ms. Lovinger's: awed, deceived, misdirected-- but occasionally successful. And, I am proud to say, ultimately I completed it with no outside help or lookups. Thanks for this puzzle. Best mental push-up I'm likely to find today. Can't wait for others from Mr. McMahon.
A minor-and-admittedly-incorrect snit-fit; while the album "HOTEL CALIFORNIA" was technically released in 1976, it was in December, and didn't hit number one until 1977, and didn't win the Grammy until 1978 so I was busy trying to fit in something from Captain and Tenille into 53A. Sigh. Still, I'm very impressed with the triple-triple stack!
@Elle While all you say about that album may be correct, none of it affects the correctness of the clue. The album wasn't "technically released in 1976"; it was released in 1976. December 8, 1976, to be exact, which is part of 1976 and of no other year. That makes it a "1976 album" and not a 1977 album or a 1978 album. I know you realize your nit is incorrect, but I'm elaborating because others may have followed the same reasoning.
@Steve L Elle did not say the clue was incorrect. Elle was explaining why it took awhile to get it right. Chill. Out.
@Elle Hey, those of us born in December resent that "technically" part! (It's a joke!!)
This was my favorite Wednesday in a while! Oh wait...
Wow. The skill to create this just astounds me. Triple triple stack spanners?!?! 🤯 Color me impressed with this debut. I solved the middle stack first, the bottom stack next once I let go of par for LIE, but I really struggled with the top stack. I knew NEIN, ATS, and ARIAL were correct, so it couldn’t be Elba… I wasn’t familiar with the palindrome in this case, so I had to use the crosses. Ended up 8 minutes over my average, so definitely not the same easy solve experience others had. Still enjoyed it. Thank you, Scott.
Brilliant debut. Those spanner stacks flowed like a waterfall… Thank you Scott, for this gem! *Chef’s kiss*
Hmmmm. I suppose MAHON is obscure, unless you're a fan of the writings of Patrick O'Brian, or otherwise interest in the18th-century exploits of the Royal Navy. Port Mahon was an important British naval dockyard in the Med, before it was reluctantly ceded to Spain. An early gimme, for me.
For a brief moment I confused a palindrome with a limerick. It turns out THERE ONCE WAS A MAN has more than 15 letters.
I finished this pretty quickly and rather aggressively disliked it the entire time. It was all the obscure-to-me proper naming, which normally doesn't bother me all that much. But here it seemed particularly gratuitous, as if it were purposely hitting me over the head every other clue. I guess the puzzle was fairly constructed in the end - I solved it without much stress or drama. But I can't say I enjoyed it. Pretty looking grid though! ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Regarding 27A. Have you not heard? It was my understanding that everyone had heard.
Spanners crossed by multiple trivia entries: my least favorite grid design. I needed multiple lookups and reveals, so I did not enjoy this one at all. Also, I don't get 'Golfer's concern': LIE. Could somebody please explain? I didn't understand CANT as 'lingo,' either, but it was easy to look up.
@Andrzej LIE refers to the position of the ball on the turf. A bad lie, where the ball may be deep in the grass, or otherwise difficult to hit, is challenging at least for a duffer like me 😊 Mark
@Andrzej I thought of you with compassion as I did this one, Andrzej. I got nothing on my first run-through and then everything on my second after a flurry of down clues. But I have a major advantage on this one as an Americaine d'une certaine age :).
@Andrzej Yes, too many proper names for me and references I would never solve. CANT refers to the way a particular group of people speak, like 'jargon', although not an actual language. Often used to refer to "thieves cant", especially in the past; used so that other people don't know what you're talking about. Or 'religious cant' - sanctimonious speeches by priests etc.
I feel very fortunate to have completed this puzzle in half of my average time because when I first looked at it and saw the nine spanners, it was a little bit daunting. This was almost like working three separate puzzles. I got the middle completely done with only two answers outside the middle then I got the bottom completely done then I got the top.
@Jim Same for me. I finished the middle and bottom with no googling but the top section was hard. I started with Able was I ere I saw, which didn't help; figured out that was wrong based on a few of the short downs and took it out, then was stumped. I didn't know either of the cities at 1A and 1B. For a long time all I had up there were NEIN, ATS, NASA, ARIAL, and AT IT. Plus Cairo, Cot, Let me, and Byes, all of which were wrong. Looking up those cities broke through the fog. Now I'm off to read that Nat Geo article about ACCRA.
@Shan I had all of those same downs in the top section along with ABS. Finally saw LETS and it all came together
Fun puzzle. I especially liked "kilo finder." I was totally on the wrong track for that one.
@HEK Yeah, I was thinking of Russian Kilo-class submarines, which you might find with a sonar PING, which we just had, maybe yesterday? Yes, I've seen Red October a few times. "One ping, Vassily."
I liked this puzzle overall, but in 2025, does the clue for 19A need to specify “female” rapper? I can’t imagine “male” would be added for Kendrick or Jay Z.
@Anna Certainly in this instance, the name of her mega hit is more than sufficient! I'm trying to think of an example where the gender might be warranted... but drawing a blank lol.
@Anna a few folks have called a Natick at the cross of MIA and ALAIN, so maybe the editors were trying to throw us a bone.
@Anna I would never complain about having too much information in a clue for a rapper's name.
@Anna This made me laugh, as I have always assumed Jay Z is a woman. I guess I just threw it in the same mental category as JLo.
Loved it! I feel like it's been a while since we've had a stack-fest like this one. It looked intimidating, but turned out to be a ton of fun. I got 1A instantly. When we learned about the Panama Canal in American History in high school, our teacher taught us this palindrome, and it blew my mind. HOTEL CALIFORNIA is one of the songs I will blast at full volume in my car, with no regard for the other human beings in my vicinity. When it comes on my car radio, you are listening to the Eagles, and you will like it.
@Katie -- According to XwordInfo and @Steve L below, the last triple triple-spanner stack appeared a decade ago.