Having read the comments, I’ll add this: How do you get from Michael Lieberman’s [brass] to GALL? Practice, practice, practice. Many Saturday puzzles may seem impossible to newer—or even intermediate—solvers, but take it from those of us that have done a few hundred of them by now: They eventually become pure bliss to solve. Puzzle solving is like yoga. Your first class is pure torture. You stand there in (your pitiful version of) the warrior pose, feeling as awkward as you know you look, your quad burning so badly that you think it just might pop right out of your thigh, and you want to wipe that gentle smile of your instructor’s face as she’s telling you to feel oneness with your breath or what-the-heck-ever. A couple of years later, that class and the quad-bursting asanas are the best part of your week. Stick with the Saturday puzzles, folks. Your mental quads will get there.
@Sam Lyons - No place like the nyt crossword comments section for lectures & boasting. Thank you so much.
@Sam Lyons Agree. A year ago, I could never get more than a few words on Saturdays. I remember ten hits being a thrill. Now it's still a bit up and down, but I'd say solving 2/3s with no lookups is average for me. It's like grandma's baking: You get better with time although it's hard to explain exactly how.
@Sam Lyons, agree completely. This was tough, I couldn't get a toehold, and then I really didn't think I would finish. After maybe a dozen shameless google queries, I got it. And enjoyed (almost) every minute of it.
@Sam Lyons I appreciate the good words but I am suspicious. I have been doing these in earnest for a couple of years now, and I still found today's skin-of-my-teeth tough to complete. (I did, and enjoyed the ride.) I fully expect it would be just as hard for me two years hence. That's not a bad thing - I'm just saying I bet we all have our limits. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Sam Lyons Yes Sam, after 50+ years solving NYT Xwords, this one was "pure bliss" for me. It was exactly what I was looking for.
@Sam Lyons I agree that solving difficult puzzles can be exciting and satisfying, but levels of education, experience, training, exposure to myriad fields of knowledge, the willingness, know-how and access to use outside resources, and an innate understanding of how the magic of language works are not universal, and "practice, practice, practice" isn't always the solution to solving. I know some very bright people who have had demanding, complex careers and still have a blind spot where crossword puzzles are concerned. Insisting that that they just need more practice to whiz through them while chuckling with delight is insensitive and borders on insulting. You can practice all the plies and Jetés and pirouettes ever done, and still never be a great dancer.
More fun for the constructor than the solver.
@Lorne Eckersley YMMV... I had plenty of fun with this one.
@Lorne Eckersley Personally I really enjoyed this chewy solve!
@Lorne Eckersley exactly this. I loved novocaine and didn’t mind armresthog but the general knowledge ones were so obscure that it was difficult to get enough crosses to access the wordplay. I solved it but not without resorting to Google more than once.
@Lorne Eckersley I know you wrote "the," but I think you meant "this"?
I saw a grid that I thought was pointing to an easy Saturday, but I was (gladly) wrong. The clueing had me *just* off balance, looking for wordplay where there was none, and vice versa. That's just good construction. I'm always puzzled when crosswords like this get labeled a 'slog' - yes, I was way over my average solve, but I was having fun the whole time.
Now *that* was a Saturday puzzle. I decided to take pictures of my favorite puzzles so when it's time to vote next year, I'll have something to refresh my memory. This is the first one in my 2025 folder. [Holders of orbs] for EYE SOCKETS and [Body shops?] for MORTUARIES gave me a laugh and the many misdirects made for a welcome challenge. I hope to see more themeless puzzles from Michael. This one really hit the SPOT.
@Nancy J., Really a hard puzzle today. I was stuck many times. Lots of misdirects, which made solving it that much sweeter. For [Body shops?], my first answer was STRIPCLUBS.
"Why am I here again?" "You're waiting on tech support to show up." "Oh, I see IT now." ("Yeah. Just remember to pay them in cache.")
@Mike They might appreciate a few cookies, too.
Oh my... Oh, oh my... After being subscribed to the NYT Crossword Puzzle for almost 7 years, today marks the first Saturday I ever solved on my own! I have been having some stressful days and the solving sound just made me smile for the first time in a while! I loved it. The clues were so clever. Thanks so much, I am over the moon!
@Anna Since the professional consensus is that this one was "very hard" (someone posted an XwordStats stat) you should be especially proud. Most other Saturdays are not this hard! ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Insanely clever. Really enjoyed the light bulb moments.
@Mr Mark yes, thank you. It's the light bulb moments that bring me joy, and this puzzle had many of them ! I used to be an elementary teacher, and with the littles, their light bulb moments are usually quite expressive, which for the teacher is more rewarding than gold !
Oh, there were glimmers of beauty in the box (THRALL, X FACTOR, GESTALT, STREWS), and many thorny areas to happify the brain, but to me, the star was the cluing, rife as it was with wordplay. OMG, I marked 15 wordplay clues that sparked joy when the answer pinged. Fifteen! Usually there are less than you can count on one hand. Such clues hit my happy button, and today I felt like a kid in a playground. Freshness abounded in the cluing. Even that fabulous clue for NOVOCAINE, where yes, “number” has been used before to describe it, Michael took it one step farther with the “filling station” angle. Chef’s kiss! I like the grid design – one never used before in a Times puzzle -- with 16 longs (answers of eight letters or more), bringing the fun and thrill of getting long answers with as few crosses as possible. I love ARMREST HOG, a true debut answer, never having appeared in any of Crosslandia’s major venues. I don’t remember hearing this term before, but it’s perfect and now firmly ensconced in my lexicon. Michael, you satisfied my brain’s work ethic and entertained me to no end today. Thank you for a stellar outing!
@Lewis I plunked in ARMREST HOG immediately and thought that I would sail through the puzzle. It turned out that I was quicker than my all-time Saturday average, but almost five minutes slower than my rolling Saturday average for the last 60 days. I agree there were a lot of fun clues here.
Obscure trivia is not my favorite, but when you can solve it with the crosses (and maybe a guessed letter or two), it's fine; and when those crosses are also clever wordplay, it more than makes up for it. Crunchy, but in a good way. Took about 50% longer than my (recent) Saturday average. Fitting, I think, that my 1000th in a row should be a little tougher than expected :)
@Georgie Boy Congrats on hitting 1,000 in a row!
@Georgie Boy Thumbs up on 1000!
@Georgie Boy What a coincidence, my 1000th also. I commented elsewhere already. Congrats!
Too obscure at every turn to be any fun.
@Alan This is a Saturday puzzle. It's supposed to be work. The fun only comes when you finish it successfully. Xwstats.com calls it "Very Hard", based on their members' times. I agree. I liked it, though. I think one's opinion of puzzles like this one changes with one's increased experience and proficiency. I didn't find anything too obscure, but maybe that's because I've been doing this a long time. I knew, for example, that "Swiss banks" could mean a river, and that Melville's OMOO is always the "classic novel of the South Seas". Anyway, good luck in the future!
The *perfect* Saturday crossword, and now I have my research lined up for the rest of the weekend: check out ORESTEIA (which I initially thought was an ingredient in fat-free potato chips), OMOO (following yesterday's COWSHED, nice one, Will!), to say nothing of MYRNA and ZADIE and ELFHATS (???). Thanks, Michael, and I can't wait for your next oeuvre!
I figured it out with crosses and three years of high school French, but citing the sixth verse of La Marseillaise in a clue is a bit obscure.
@Jamie I don't think you were really meant to know the sixth verse of the song - that's a misdirection of sorts. Basically the idea is the clue tells you it's a word in French, and you figure out the rest from the crossings.
@Jamie I'm impressed that you knew (or took the trouble to research) that the Marseillaise has 6 verses. Did your 3rd-year French teacher have the class sing it? I THINK I still remember the FIRST verse (from the custom of singing along every time one went to see Casablanca as a break during final exam week).
This was a tough one but hit my 1,000 day streak on it!! WHEW!!
@Timothy Teasdale I can't imagine a more appropriate final boss. This one was a great solve.
Names should not intersect with names. 0/10
George, The only Name x Name I saw was 3D x 19A. Even if you didn't know either answer from the clue, how many letters would work for the cross?
Kudos to Mr. Lieberman. This was an excellent and very fair test for me -- took longer than my average, but this was a creative puzzle and a fun challenge. Well done.
A challenging puzzle, which normally I love, but this one just didn't spark joy for me.
This was a very challenging, very good puzzle. I stared at it for so long, it eventually got up, came over and slapped me.
I went to the dentist this morning for a crown (sadly not the fun kind), so novocaine was quickly entered. Lots of playful misdirection and just the right amount of resistance for an enjoyable Saturday solve. Congratulations to Mr. Lieberman for publishing a grid for every day of the week -- quite the accomplishment.
Excellent, excellent, excellent. Went very quickly for me because of several hooks which happened to be gimmes for me, but what fantastic wordplay. The clues for NOVOCAINE and STRESS ATE alone were worth the price of admission, and the felt in ELF HATS was such a clever misdirect. The perfect Saturday puzzle.
Sam, Very quick too, and a bit easy for my Saturday taste (more gimmes?),but definitely clever and fun.
I’m the type of person who sticks with something until it’s done, no matter how difficult or frustrating. Sometimes this reaps great benefits, like the time I ended up with a beautiful self-tiled bathroom floor. But other times, it means I work and re-work a crossword puzzle far past the point of having any fun. It’s not the constructor’s fault as there was nothing unfair about it, but I should have let this one go.
@Heidi I was feeling that way too, right up until the point that I finished it. :) I was then happy. (Unlike when I reached the same solving point on the infamous "art heist" puzzle. When I finally finished that one, all I had was rage at having had my time wasted on something so insipid and poorly constructed.) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Remember folks, a puzzle is supposed to be puzzling, and this one is truly that. I solved it with no look-ups, but it took me 1 hour and 24 minbutes to do so. This is exactly what I needed amidst all the horrible things that are going on. Thank you for the respite.
Excellent puzzle, and memorable to me because my streak just hit 1000. I read the Oresteia trilogy for "Masterpieces of Western Literature," which I took as freshman in 1976. "Omoo" was one we read for a course on Melville and Twain. Neither of those stumped me (and both are much worth reading), but I kept thinking "stressate" was one word, not "stress ate." Very pleasantly surprised to get the happy music on the first try.
@DYT Pretty good streak you got there. (As we are both Minnesotans, I though you might enjoy the "pretty good", which in Minnesotan might mean "spectacular".)
@DYT, Congratulations on reaching 1000!
Holy crunch, Batman! Mr Lieberman, I dub thee Captain Crunch. Upsides were many. No idea what it did to my solving time average, except it did *not* get lower. And hubby, though slightly disgruntled, had to help. A bunch. He was so chuffed for knowing SALT TAX, it almost made him less angry when I had to tell him the one he was struggling with was AMPERSAND. Apparently, that is *exactly* why he hates puzzles. It may be near lunchtime, but the streak stands. (And I’m putting ALAI range in my pocket. No gimme “Jai __” this morn!) Have a lovely day all! Go Bills!
Whew! That was difficult. Took a nap after I stalled out in the upper middle. Rhine before Rhone. Theif before heist. GMs before VPs. Something octane? No idea about the Greek? Or the trees. Or the mart. Erased all the guess work and it finally came together on crosses. This was my 2000th solve and I'm intentionally ending the steak at 1000. It's been a mostly fun ride and this puzzle was a fun exclamation point for the streak.
@TMD A trip to Lyon helped me research and remember the Rhône. Otherwise, it would have been Rhine all the way!
@TMD "Rhine before Rhone. Theif before heist." I before E. ;) Seriously I had thief there for a long time myself. Congratulations on the streak. (Or, as autocorrect insisted, converting the steak.) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
I live in France, and even I have to say that using a word ("avec") buried in the SIXTH verse of the Marseillaise is close to unreasonably obscure. I mean, I don't know a single French native who would know that reference, and it's their anthem for crying out loud! Having said that, I was stumped, completely, at about halfway. Then, once I pulled the reveal lever, I thoroughly enjoyed the various wordplays and cleverness. I love the fact that sometimes it's not solving it but appreciating the creator's skill that's the point. Great time!
@ExpatByChoice Yes. I can give you the first verse and chorus, but the "Marseillaise" aspect of the clue was useless to me. Solved on the phrasal context and a couple of crosses.
@ExpatByChoice It seems to happen often, that the answer to a difficult Saturday clue will be a relatively common word. So earlier in the week you might get [German: mit :: French: ____] or [What's with that French guy?] I just looked up the US national anthem and it's no wonder we don't know the other verses either :)
I feel very satisfied after completing this beautifully clued puzzle.
Overall, a nice puzzle. I had almost nothing on the first pass, and guessed wrongly a number of times along the way, which slowed me down a bit. But despite all the good things in this puzzle, I have to complain about 30D and 46A. What has how a SASH fits got to do with Royalty outside of beauty pagents, which tend to be contests for those to whom the gendered term "King" doesn't apply? And while "Consumed" is perfectly valid for ATE, I don't see how "with grief" is supposed to lead us to STRESS. I eventually got it from the crosses, but the clue makes no sense to me - question mark or not. (As an aside, years and years ago I got curious about this OMOO novel that kept showing up in crosswords I was doing, so I requested it from the library. I can't remember if it was Wikipedia or the preface to that novel that told me it was a sequel, but also ended up reading Typee. My point is that if it wasn't for crosswords, I never would've know anything about Melville aside from Moby Dick).
@Grumpy , Agreed, stress and grief are two very different things! All I can think with SASH is prom king and queen. Maybe?
@Grumpy. To stress eat is to eat unnecessarily as a result of your emotional state, particularly but not necessarily, stress. Grief is one such trigger b
@Grumpy Kings that are rulers wear sashes as part of the regalia. Look for photos of King Charles, sashes a-plenty. Every uniform he wears includes a sash. And grief is one source of stress, I thought the clue was fair for a Saturday.
@Nora My take on STRESS ATE was that one feels grief afterwards for having done it. Don’t we all do it sometimes? Don’t we feel bad about it afterwards?
@Grumpy I'm having a hard time understanding how grief ISN'T stress, for anyone. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Grumpy I've slept on it, and read the replies from others, but still don't like the clues, because I think they're too generic to lead to the expected answers. Yes, some Kings wear sashes, sometimes. But so do many Presidents, military officers, municipal officials, and others. Wikipedia lists literally *dozens* of sash wearers, including Scouts and diplomats. The royal use of sashes is a small minority. (The sashes you see King Charles wearing are to denote his membership in certain Honors, like the Order of the Garter, which 23 other people are also allowed to wear. For axample, Prince William and Princess Anne wore that sash at the Coronation, so def not just for Kings!) And yes, I agree that grief is stressful. It could also be described as *a* STRESS. But going from the specific to the generic is - IM[not so humble ]O - an unfair trick. Using that logic, I could clue the word STRESS with almost anything: gridlock; job interview; proposing marriage birth of your child; being fired... anything that causes STRESS. My point being that there's no specific connection from the clue to the answer. Once you have the answer from the crosses you can find a way to link them, but the connection is quite a stretch.
@Grumpy you must be one of those people for whom stress suppresses hunger. There is another group, me included, for whom stress makes us want to do nothing but eat. That is the definition of STRESS EAT and as others have pointed out grief is a stressor. If I didn’t STRESS EAT I’d probably weigh 20 pounds less.
ISEEITNOW! Thought that often today. This one was a workout for me. Solved it unaided, but took me just shy of an hour. Didn't know ZADIE, and the the Z was my last entry. Felt that ZIG/ZADIE were just a bit more likely than JIG/JADIE. Entered MARRIED right away for "Joined a union"---and then it took me way too long to recognize the correct SAIDIDO. In retrospect, I'm amazed I solved this one. ORESTEIA, GESTALT, XFACTOR, ELFHATS, DIRK, ALAI. Remarkable all the odd stuff crammed in the dark corners of my brain. Equally remarkable that I can (once in a while) even drag it out when needed. Great Saturday puzzle!
@Xword Junkie I got the DIRK instantly....all Midshipmen were to wear one as part of the uniform in the British Navy. Just ask Captain Aubrey. Very few gimmes!
I zagged where I should’ve zigged. Quite the challenge.
Slow but steady for me. Periods of blankness, followed by inspiration, followed by an outburst of solving, followed by a period of blankness. Repeat. Hugely enjoyed this one for its clever cryptic cluing combined with proper nouns that were actually in my cultural wheelhouse. Was there a single clue relating to American sport, education or chain restaurant food (my usual downfalls)? Can't think of one. NOVOCAINE is an American trade name but very familiar in the UK. Not sure if Miracle-GRO is sold over here, but I seemed to know it once I got a cross. Applause.
@Oikofuge Much the same for me, only tricky brand HMART, which has been in before. Miracle GRO has been definitely been on sale in UK for decades, but I’m a gardener.
That was a slog for me. Whew! I liked ISEEITNOW because I saw it then. Fun moment! MYRNA Loy in old movies — sheer joy! I especially love the *Thin Man* series. HMART was fun because I read the book *Crying in H-Mart* by Michelle Zauner. I tried to get my daughter to read it and she resisted. I worked some magic in the universe and — viola! — suddenly it was her book club’s next selection 😉. Many difficult entries for me, though. Got ‘er done even if it was tough.
@Pani Korunova Nora Charles is the most charming crime solver ever, and The Thin Man includes one of crosswordland’s favorite canines — Asta. Myrna Loy worked with the Red Cross during WWII and was so ardently antifascist that Hitler banned her movies in Germany. After the war she devoted her non theatrical energies to combatting discrimination in housing.
Excellent Saturday, which required two passes, separated by sleep, for me. *Crossword Revolution D4: MORTUARIES I felt a Funeral, in my Brain, And Mourners to and fro Kept treading - treading - till it seemed That Sense was breaking through - - E. Dickinson (Poem No. 340, 1st stanza) * This is a Crosswords Saved the Day ™ production. All rights reserved.
In the spirit of our old Canadian friend Roger (Wheelock, if I recall correctly), who used to give us occasional column clues: 1D. “Answer to question, ‘Why was your colonoscopy canceled?’” / AW MAN, STRESS ATE 5D. “First sign of a marriage for the birds?” / EMU SAID I DO 12D. “Unimpressed critic’s epithet for author of ‘White Teeth’?” / NOVOCAINE ZADIE 14D. “Title poem of a look back on poet’s awkward middle school years?” / PE CLASSES GASES
@Puzzlemucker I, too, find sleep is often an effective crossword 'solvent'
Loved this! I felt challenged, and had to dig deep for more than half the answers. But it never felt impossible. An excellent Saturday puzzle, with lots of answers that were unusual and creative. Bravo! And thank you to the powers that be for choosing this one!
Not sure how I managed to solve this one, but once I got the southeast corner filled in other stuff started to fall into place. A rewarding adventure.
Again, puzzles like this make the NYT xword the cream of the crop
Enjoyed it..enough of a stretch but not so much that I couldn’t get it.
This one initially struck me as really hard. I started out with only two acrosses. Luckily the downs offered a little purchase and it came to together after that. Remembering how to spell ORESTEIA helped a bit. I loved ARMRESTHOG, having encountered a few in my time, it was good to put a name to them. I chuckled at AWMAN, but only because my five year old grandson has taken to saying that. ELFHAT for felt in the Christmas spirit was one of several clever clues. I bogged down a bit in the SW because I tried low and ebb tides before RIPTIDES. I also faltered a bit because I thought that a sty was the place with an appropriate final vowel sound
@Marshall Walthew I had misremembered it as "Orestiad", so that slowed me down a short while around that area. Add to that the fact that ELF HATS seemed a little green painty, and it was a bit crunchy there. But figuring out VITAMINS (at first, I was thinking music notes) helped straighten that part out.
@Marshall Walthew Yes! I was quite sure it had to be "sty" for a long time. And it's a nicer cleverer pairing with the clue in my opinion. (Both are severely overused crosswordese but I think I'll take sty / stye over spa most days.) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Absolutely destroyed my Saturday average clocking in at 104 minutes, but I got there with looking anything up so am very happy. NW consumed all that time. Had silk tax as the Great Wall financer and aislepacer for undesirable airplane seat mate, even though an aisle pacer wouldn't annoy me at all.
Wowie-Zowie, Herr Lieberman. My cup of coffee got cold; after I whipped through the NW corner I hit a Jam, what with "La Marseillaise" and the Asian grocery store. I felt very smug, knowing OMOO and the ORESTEIA, but I put a DISH before the king (four-and-twenty blackbirds!) ....I didn't know whether to ZIG or ZAG. ALAI clued as Mountains? "Photomontage art" for DADA? AW, MAN! I did complete the solve without help, but not without pain. Might be time to update the dartboard!
riptIDes tour guIDes saID I Do This was the IDEST puzzle ever! Confidential to Sam Lyons: You are a wordsmith extraordinaire, appreciated and beloved by (almost)everyone here. I hope you won't be consumed with grief just because somebody lacks basic reading comprehension skills.
Tip of the cap to the constructor. Very difficult but very fair puzzle that took up a longer chunk of my day than expected!
Agree with most commenters on how challenging this puzzle was! I needed some help from the column and your comments - finished about 5 minutes over my average. Just wanted to share that I confidently entered CRYINGBABY at 1A -- thought I was so clever! But proud that I got GESTALT on my own, and gladly let go of that crying baby going forward! Love this daily pastime that I began in earnest during the pandemic, and this forum, which brightens my day, every day!
@Joy I erred the same way with CRYINGBABY. Glad to know it wasn’t just me!
Having extensively studied early Chinese history, the SALTTAX clue is not particularly accurate. I hope the constructor didn’t just base the answer off of that slate article!
@Harmon If you think the clue is inaccurate, you should explain why instead of just saying it's wrong.
"Admire your puzzle"??? How about my puzzle admiring me? Against all odds, I solved it, despite still being at sea about some clue/fill match-ups. I looked at NOVOCAINE, got the filling station connection, but number? EYESOCKET was an early fill, but I found it so creepy I was prepared to take it out asap, and "Body shops" didn't exactly cheer me up, since I'm coming down with something (tested for COVID, but the revised test expir. date was a week ago, so who knows). I'll admit that your imposing offense had some style, Michael Lieberman (I felt quite smug about the ORESTEIA and OMOO, and I'm always happy to see ELFHATS —they remind me of David Sedaris' stint at Macy"s), but now I think I'll take my VITAMINS, go to bed, and hope for a better tomorrow. Thank you, Michael. It's just the whatever-it-is talking, which isn't your fault (but I regret not even feeling up to a little STRESS eating.
@dutchiris The Sedaris elf story was hilarious! It’s a holiday tradition around here. I remember discovering David Sedaris when I ran across *Me Talk Pretty One Day* while in Borders (that gives you the timeframe). I laughed hysterically while in the store. I bought the book and, over time, everything else he’s had published. David encouraged my writing during a book signing before his show in Princeton, NJ several years ago (still no manuscript finished from me). I’m sure he’d appreciate the ELFHATS clue!
@dutchiris The clue about NOVOCAINE, "number" is "more numb".
@dutchiris I agree that the admiration should be reciprocal.
My goodness, that was a beast. I can look back now it’s solved and appreciate the work that went into it. Not going to lie though, it was so hard for me that it left enjoyment far behind. So many unknowns, so few that I could take a stab at with a few crosses. Ironically EMUS about my only gimme today. The stack of AVEC, NOEL, CIA helped a little, but not that much as I hadn’t come across the numbing agent before. I’m going to chalk this one up as a miss, glad that a lot of you have had fun with it.
@Helen Wright I was reluctant about 26A because I didn't know if the moovie was set in WWI, WWII, or some other conflict! OSS? NSA? CIA? PBS? Ha ha just kidding on that last one....
Thanks Michael for reviving the classics with ORESTEIA.
Sometimes the comments and quibbles are more interesting that the actual puzzle. I thought this was a puzzle that had great fill for the most part and was challenging but chewy and fun, but there were a couple of spots (for me, DIRK crossing DADA and ZADIE was the worst offender) with really questionable fill. A bit crossword has a lot of pieces, and I don't think it's uncommon for there to be some parts that are stronger than others, but some extra editing for the SE and SW quadrants would have really elevated this puzzle, because there are some genuinely brilliant clues in the rest of it.
@J.S. I am surprised at the number of people who were unfamiliar with Zadie Smith. She has won a number (there's that word again!) of awards, and if my memory serves me, her first novel, "White Teeth" was a best seller and was adapted for television.
I'm with you Caitlin!! I was stuck at the gas station for awhile!! Fun puzzle, definitely made me think!!
@Schroedman Me too! I think that tempting but elusive ___OCtaNE was why the nice original clue was jettisoned for this one, which did make me chuckle when I finally caught on. But why is it that when I am facing daunting upcoming dental work 😬 that I keep encountering this kind of reference? I just wanna forget for a couple more weeks….
At first glance, this one seemed as if it might be impossible, but while I’m not going to be bragging about my time 😉, I did finish a fair bit below average for me, to my surprise. The gimmes of MYRNA and EMU made the NW corner fill in with not too much trouble, and that increased my confidence that the entire grid would be doable… which, happily for me, it was! In addition to the aforementioned MYRNA, NOEL, GRETA, and OMOO were also quick fills that aided me in the solve. I think, as much as some folks like to complain about proper nouns as fill, it is often those there-can-only-be-one-answer clues that serve to open up a tough puzzle. Of course, it can be frustrating when you are unfamiliar with a crucial reference, but some fact-based questions have always been a part of puzzles… and often are extremely helpful!
@Darcey O’D I also appreciate the certainty that knowing a proper name provides and am willing to accept a dose of unfamiliar names to go with them.