As Vaer and some of you others say, I’ll say any puzzle with Sojourner Truth in it is okay by me. “You need not be afraid to give us our rights”, wow, and we’re still struggling with that. I had my usual few dorky jokey moments ( like thinking a GUITAR would be a likely place to lose some dried beans, the way you can lose a pick), …but I think I’ll spend some more time wondering exactly what [they] are so afraid of.
@Cat Lady Margaret Sojourner Truth is the very epitome of speaking truth to power.
This was a perfectly fine puzzle, but it offered very little resistance for a Saturday.
@Marshall Walthew Gives extra time to re-read "Ain't I A Woman?". Plenty of "resistance" (in a difference sense), in that speech.
Wow I finished that in record speed (literally smashed my record) But I wonder: why do I do that? Rush through a puzzle when I think I'll beat my best time. That whole timer thing is kind of silly really. I need to stop caring about it, or at least trying to beat my best times. It robs me of the enjoyment of the puzzle. And anyway there are outlier easy puzzles which set the bar so high (or low) I'll never break them. Been solving for 5 years now and going forward I'm going to try to forget about the timer. Emphasis on try! That's my musing for the day. (Many of you got there way before I did!)
@Lpr I turned the timer off a couple years ago and I’ll never go back. I can actually savor the puzzles now!
@Lpr Yes, the outliers mean than beating your best time is only really exciting on a Monday, when it genuinely means that your brain is working super-fast. On any other day, I concentrate on gradually bringing my average time down, which is more than satisfying enough.
@Lpr I disabled the running timer from the puzzle page which helps me relax and enjoy the process of solving. I wish I could also remove the time and time comparisons from the Congratulations! page. Even here, I tend to skip comments that focus on completion time. It just doesn't interest me.
Crossword Revolution D11: AIN’T I A WOMAN Sojourner Truth (who was born into slavery a few miles from where I live) didn’t endure brutal living living conditions, have most of her children taken from her and sold to Southern slave-holders, finally escape bondage with her infant daughter at the age of 30, and then go on to become one of the most powerful American orators ever, for nothing. A Crosswords Saved the Day ™ production.
@Puzzlemucker That book would be AR'N'T I A WOMAN, by Deborah Gray White. I keep waiting for that to be the answer, but somehow it never is.
When sonneteers watch the lunar cycle, they wax poetic. (Iamb over the moon about it.)
@Mike You're making me SEA STARS! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
@Mike Gibbous a break! I thought you might enter a new phase, but there's nothing new here; you've come full circle.
@Mike My love for your puns waxes, never wanes, Iamb in awe at how you do not fail To find puns that elude our tired brains, And with your wit those tired brains regale. Oh, how I’ve wished your secret I could crack: I’ve tried for mini—oops, that’s many!— moons, And yet each day when I keep coming back, I find another gem! And, oh, what boons! For while some puzzlers like to whine and kvetch, (Yes, all too many here have kvetched and whined!) Some others seem to revel when they catch, Some small alleged error! I don’t mind: For even if the puzzle I dislike, I know I’ll find a pun from Munster Mike! **************************************** Here’s this sonneteers feeble ( but sincere) effort! ❤️❤️❤️
@Mike Lamb over the moon, Mike? Now that’s lamè.
A welcome MINI vacation from the bruising news of the day (I have to stop watching, reading, listening to it—it's literally making me ill, like a very bad ACID TRIP). I have a passion for tools and gadgets of all kinds (it's genetic) so LOUPES was an early fill, and there were other ODDS AND ENDS that were also appreciated, mostly because the puzzle was WIDE OPEN for CRACKing, but not mindless or inane. It was clever and a pleasure to solve, and I was sorry when it was ALL DONE. Kate Chin Park and Rafael Musa, the inclusion of Sojourner Truth's piercing, timeless, heroic accusation was especially appreciated at a time like this. Thank you for that, and thank you for the puzzle.
@dutchiris My feelings exactly—normally I might be a little grouchy about such an easy Saturday but honestly this week it felt like a little bit of respite from the horrors and I was grateful. And I too was pleased to see Sojourner Truth, and Nella Larsen as well, here at the start of Black History Month.
Ahh, the beauty of and skill behind this grid, this sweet looking grid with its chunky white spaces. It’s a grid design never seen in the Times before and has a most lovely flowy feel. It’s so skillfully filled, with gorgeous answers such as AIN’T I A WOMAN, HIT PIECES (a debut answer), GO DUTCH, MINIMOON, and ODDS AND ENDS. Plus, with very low word and block counts, it’s so cleanly filled in. Looking over the grid, and channeling Jon Stewart: “Here it is, my moment of wow.” My best experience of the solve – a rare and wonderful Saturday megasplat: I had only a smattering of answers in the top half – one of them was AND DONE for [Finish line?]. Nothing seemed to be working up there so I changed it to ALL DONE and suddenly – and I mean suddenly, BOOM! That two-letter change triggered a staccato of slapdowns – ka-BAM kaBAM, kaBAM – and in one mad dash splash, the top half was filled in. Oh, man. That’s a thrill when it happens, no? Thank you for that, Kate and Rafael, and for a splendid outing through a beautiful, skillfully made, and fun puzzle!
New personal best for a Saturday at just over 9 mins. Is is just me or was that easy for a Saturday?
@Selective Walrus Yes. 33% of average Sat time here. Including the delay running the alphabet at square 9.
@Selective Walrus I thought it was easy (and quick) for a Saturday but I enjoyed it.
@Selective Walrus Yes, I didn’t beat my personal best, but it took about half of my usual Saturday time.
New personal best for me too, and about half my average time for a Saturday. Came here to see if others agreed, or if I was just on some secret solving wavelength. I agree it was unusually unchallenging, but I enjoyed doing it!
@Tim P Record time here too. Although that does not mean much as this was only the third Saturday puzzle I've completed without lookups or help. So just happy to finish it and now I have a good start for streak record attempt. Previous is seven days. I consider streak broken if I have to google something.
@Tim P I found is somewhat challenging but with determination I was able to successfully complete with a time well under my Saturday average. BTW - greetings from another “Tim P” on the east coast.
I kind of went around and around with this one, having started with ERIK LARSON in my brain... Was anyone else entertained by the presence of MOOS and APPLE TART? The gentle cow all red and white, I love with all my heart. She gives me milk with all her might, and cream for APPLE TART! RLS, please forgive me any misquotes in there; it's been a long time since I was in The Child's Garden of Verses. I got LOUPE at once, but CLASSMATES? and STAG! were difficult... I wasn't fooled by NEPALIS, but NELLA? Who? Some CRACK and an ACID TRIP might help us through coming days.... I'm off to a gathering of Southern Fiber Artists. Adieu, mes Amis!
@Mean Old Lady Nella Larsen’s book, Passing, is a classic novel of American literature and a staple on syllabi for courses on the Harlem Renaissance. It was adapted into a movie a few years ago ago with Ruth Negga, Tessa Thompson and Alexander Skarsgard—so, a parade of beautiful people, essentially.
@Mean Old Lady Nella Larson. Really good author. Love the "Gentle cow all red and white... "
Very nice Friday puzzle. No Saturday puzzle this week. I did enjoy the ODDS AND ENDS in this one, and these are two CRACK constructors, but I was ALL DONE much too soon.
TIL that starfish are just a bunch of floating heads! I find that both awesome and creepy. While many of you may have found this puzzle to be a mere MINIMOON, I thought it was quite satisfying, with just the right amount of frunch. I’ve decided to stop caring what day of the week a puzzle should belong to— if it’s good, it’s good. This one was good.
A very quick Sat for me. But my daughter did it 4 minutes faster - the old man is slipping.
SEA STARS is a technically preferable term for what we used to call, sloppily, 'starfish' - which are just not fish. Fish are vertebrates subdivided into teleosts (cod and the like - 96% of extant fish species) and elasmobranchs (sharks and rays which have cartilaginous skeletons). Sea stars - of which many have more than five arms - are invertebrates. I knew those marine biology courses I did would come in handy one day.
@Andrew I suspect that astronomers might argue that those creatures are no more stars than they are fish. Six of one, half a dozen of the other?
@Andrew Marine biology? You mean this could have been you? <a href="https://youtu.be/0u8KUgUqprw?si=2tzztGMjAGGpbkd5" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/0u8KUgUqprw?si=2tzztGMjAGGpbkd5</a>
Where’s our CQ when we really need him?
i find it rather amusing when people comment on how easy or hard a puzzle is, when it's not really about the puzzle but about what you bring to it. i felt a playful kindness emanating from today's puzzle, so i didn't spend much time thinking about whether it should be a saturday or a wednesday; i am just grateful that i got to solve it--so thanks to you, kate and rafael! my son and i were especially cheered to see the answer for 45A, LOUPES. my father, who died over 20 years ago when my son was just six-months-old, was a master jeweler and watchmaker, and we have a few of his old loupes around our apartment. seeing that word in the puzzle felt like a little hello from him. (he was not much of a puzzler, but he was an excellent scrabble player!)
Congratulations * 52 Saturdays In A Row I fail on 5 to 10 puzzles a year and don’t get to another 20 or so. But late last year I realized I was on a long streak of Saturdays (of all days!) I have been working on it to get to this one.
@C Congratulations! A year of Saturdays! I'm trying to get to a yearlong streak myself. Currently up to 202 days.
@C Well done! The last time I had a monthlong streak was January 2024. Missed one day last month, but I’m hoping I can pull it off now since February is shorter heh
@Ami Good luck. My best daily streak is around 50.
@Jay Thanks so much. I have 2 separate all gold star months. Maybe I’ll try February this year also. At least I’ve got a good start
@C, A year of Saturdays is no small feat! Congratulations! 🎉🍾
Well that was lovely. Some of the clues made me smile with delight; WAXING, MINIMOON, CLASSMATE. I naturally panicked at the mention of maths, so the answer was a joy. 12D was a gimme thanks to my Japanese fluent son. I watched in awe as he chatted away in an undecipherable (to me) language when we visited him in Kobe. Any puzzle that references Sojourner Truth is alright by me. Especially in these troubled days.
At some point, I found myself fretting this was going to be a fast sprint to the finish line. But I didn't want it to end so soon, nor did i want to let the speediness of the solve frazzle me into trying to go faster just because it seemed I could. So I deliberately slowed down, breathed slowly, stretched out time, and let it all become a sedate journey through the grid. DOLCE... The serenity was interrupted briefly by laughing out loud at [What might check your id] for EGO. Brilliant. I raised my eyebrow a bit at SUS. I imagined Elvis singing SUS Minds instead of Suspicious Minds. Something would have been missing...ah, yes, a few syllables. But that was just a fleeting thought and not the soundtrack of the puzzle for me. That came from WIDE OPEN: Creed - "Arms Wide Open" <a href="https://youtu.be/99j0zLuNhi8?si=UQ13M9wVyUoE305p" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/99j0zLuNhi8?si=UQ13M9wVyUoE305p</a> All in all, a terrific puzzle, one with no glitches and that I was able to really savor, softly and sweetly. DOLCE... Thank you, Kate and Rafa. This was a wonderful collaboration.
@sotto voce sadly I raced through it. Happily I smashed my best time. Sadly I don't know if best times are really worth it anymore 😔 Happily I can go back and enjoy it later
@sotto voce For me, it was "Into the Great WIDE OPEN" by Tom Petty. <a href="https://youtube.com/watch?v=xqmFxgEGKH0" target="_blank">https://youtube.com/watch?v=xqmFxgEGKH0</a>
C'mon-give us some tougher puzzles so we can complain about how bad they are and be thankful for some easy ones once in a while and then start the cycle all over
I found the main puzzle wasn't a particular challenge, but struggled much more than usual on the Mini. I've never seen the Today show, have never read The Hungry Caterpillar, have no clue about US college sports fandom, and have never heard of that magazine. All of which turned the crossing of the proper name CARSON with the 3 proper names CARLE, ESSENCE, and KANSAS, into a lot of time consuming guesswork.
@Grumpy How can anyone living in Canada be grumpy, when they see what's going on south of the border?
"Pseudoscientific bodily emanations" reminded me of a museum I once visited in Rangley Maine (we were at the state park and it was cold and rainy, so why not). It's at the home of Wilhelm Reich, inventor of the orgone energy accumulator, which was the inspiration for the orgasmatron in the movie Sleeper. There's an accumulator on site, though unfortunately it wasn't available for use. The museum guides take the subject matter very seriously, but even if you don't buy the theory, Reich's story is relevant to our times. Read about it here: <a href="https://downeast.com/history/orgone-but-not-forgotten" target="_blank">https://downeast.com/history/orgone-but-not-forgotten</a>/ Fun puzzle ! Lots of orgone energy.
Esmerelda, Fascinating! I haven't been back to Rangeley since Orgonon became a museum. (I can look out the window and see the New School, where Reich first taught when he came to the U.S.)
@Esmerelda That’s a beautiful spot. Here’s some views of the place…the clip is a little too long, but good if you skip through it. I spent a lot of summers up on Rangely Lake years ago. <a href="https://tinyurl.com/mpmv34dk" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/mpmv34dk</a>
My fastest Saturday ever at 6:56. :) Agree that it was quite a bit on the easier side, at least for me, but not a bad puzzle. (I've been playing some of the older Saturday puzzles from 2006-7 or so from the archives, so I did get a bit of whiplash working on an older Saturday that took me over an hour and then doing this one in under ten minutes. Maybe I'm just not as attuned to the zeitgeist from back then anymore.)
@J.S. There were some comments yesterday about the difficulty of contemporary NYT Friday and Saturdays to those from 20 or so years ago. I've done lots of those puzzles, from November, 1993, to October, 2007. There's more to those puzzles' difficulty than just the trivia that isn't so fresh anymore. I think if you could automagically replace the old trivia with new trivia, and leave the non-trivia answers alone, most of us would still find them harder than something like today's puzzle or yesterday's.
Caitlin calls Kate Chin Park "a relative newbie", which is technically true for the NYT, but Kate is a frequent contributor to the New Yorker puzzle, and is in no way an inexperienced constructor.
@Steve L My rough count of the puzzles tagged to Kate Chin Park over at Diary of a Crossword Fiend is 30, going back to 2022. (My fellow Fiend contributors and I cover the puzzles from the NYT, LAT, WaPo, WSJ, and New Yorker plus half a dozen independently-published ones.) I'd consider Ms Park a "newbie" relative only to someone like Patrick Berry or Robyn Weintraub.
@Steve L -- Yes, she's one of The New Yorker's puzzle editors.
I liked this puzzle, but why was it chosen for a Saturday? It was too easy. I like my Saturday puzzles to take longer because I have more time to linger over them.
@Ruby Vroom Sadly, there's no home for perfectly nice but easy themeless puzzles. I've seen calls for occasional themeless Wednesdays, but right now, they end up on Friday or Saturday.
Fact: Sojourner Truth actually spoke Dutch and delivered her speech in Dutch and the speech is translated. The famous version was translated by a white woman who chose to translate it to sound like someone from the South (even though Sojourner was from New York) and also added some.... interesting parts. <a href="https://thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches" target="_blank">https://thesojournertruthproject.com/compare-the-speeches</a> An alternate translation published in 1851 translated it as "I am a woman’s rights. I have as much muscle as any man, and can do as much work as any man. I have plowed and reaped and husked and chopped and mowed, and can any man do more than that? I have heard much about the sexes being equal; I can carry as much as any man, and can eat as much too, if I can get it." Not sure what the real title should be but it feels like calling it "Ain't I A Woman" just doesn't work anymore
@Leah I was thinking about that on this clue too.
@Leah While Sojourner Truth apparently spoke Dutch as a child, there is no suggestion at that website that this speech was given in Dutch. Rather, it was transcribed i.e. written down multiple times: first (presumably) relatively faithfully in 1851, then again in a pseudo-Black-southern voice in 1863.
Sometimes when I'm solving a Friday/Saturday puzzle, and it's going rather well, and I feel good about myself, I remember all I'll have to do is read the comments to find out how easy it was and how much harder they were in the good old days. So much for improved self-image.
@Francis The comments can feel a little diminishing sometimes. The times some people post are just insane to me. Some people have Saturday highs that are my Monday personal bests. I try to just skim past them because I know that's a different level and time matters to them. It's hard sometimes though. I really try to remember in puzzles and in life that what matters most (to me, anyhow) is progress. I feel good when I see that I'm improving. It's long been a struggle for me but I try to remember that my self image is not determined by anyone else's opinion of me or my puzzle times, etc.
@Francis same here - whizzed through this, felt very proud of my first Saturday with no look-ups, now, I’m not sure I’ll feel good counting it 😭😭
@Bryony you should 100 percent feel good about that. fwiw, i’ve been solving for years and *almost* made it through this one with no look-ups. I didn’t know LUMET or LAOS & couldn’t think of CLASSMATE, so after much head-scratching i googled 12 Angry Men. now i don’t feel terrible about that, but would i have been proud of myself for getting it without any look-ups? sure!
This is not a Saturday difficulty puzzle. 1/10
@George I fully understand that a lot of people want a real challenge on Saturday, but "1/10" seems pretty harsh. It was still a beautiful and charming puzzle.
Today’s (1st feb) Saturday was so frustratingly easy… I always look forward to Saturday as a challenge but now it seems to me it’s on a Wednesday/Thursday level and has been dumbing down in recent months…. Toughen it up a bit!
love to see Nella Larson and Sojourner Truth mentions! nice puzzle, a little breezy for a saturday but still enjoyable.
Sweet and breezy Saturday. Started w Ang which led to Axis which led to Waxing which led to WideOpen ...and the rest followed. Hoping for a fun Sunday....we all need some laughter and joy right now..
Alternate clue for 36A: Plumber's crack?
@Bill in Yokohama If only. "Mini" usually isn't accurate in that context.
@Bill in Yokohama I found your comment amusing, and it reminded me of what I thought was a funny story from my past. It seems the emus took issue with my response, however, since another later comment of mine has appeared, while this one has not—??? I’m gonna have to keep checking here, because while many might have found the incident recounted offensive, I cannot imagine why my recounting of it violated any guidelines. Curious, indeed!
Nice Saturday puzzle. Actually surprised to see that so many found it unusually easy. It was a typical tough workout for me and I did have to cheat a bit in a couple of places, but did manage to work it all out. That's just me. A couple of puzzle finds today. First one is one of the more unusual ones I've ever seen. Three theme answers: TABERNACLECHOIR LATTERDAYSAINTS and then the 'reveal': "University suggested by this puzzle's black squares :" UTAHSTATE And... all of the blocks of black squares in that puzzle were in the shape of the state of Utah. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/27/2015&g=47&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/27/2015&g=47&d=A</a> I'll put the other puzzle in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta And the other one: A Tuesday from April 5, 2005 by Harvey Estes. Just thought this one was kind of cute. Three theme answers, straightforwardly clued; THISINSTANT THATGOODNIGHT THEOTHERWOMAN And then the 'reveal': "Hint to the starts of 20-, 27- and 50-Across :" ODDSANDENDS Here's that Xword Info link: <a href="https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/5/2005&g=58&d=A" target="_blank">https://xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/5/2005&g=58&d=A</a> I'm done. ....
@Rich in Atlanta , Yay! Your detailed analysis is back! I know this takes a long time to put together every day, but many of us look forward to reading about what you discover from looking at puzzles from years ago and relating them to today’s. Thanks for giving us all the opportunity to learn more about how clever and fun crosswords can be. Welcome back, Rich.
@Rich in Atlanta, Yay! Your detailed analysis is back! I know this takes a long time to put together every day, but many of us look forward to reading about what you discover from looking at puzzles from years ago and relating them to today’s. Thanks for giving us all the opportunity to learn more about how clever and fun crosswords can be. Welcome back, Rich.
Never thought I'd say this, but I wish it was a little more challenging. I've grown accustomed to pain in the form of a complex puzzle that takes me at least an hour on a weekend morning. At any rate, I still enjoyed the puzzle and I'm sure tomorrow will sate my desire to perspire
I'm sure a lot of people may complain this was too easy for a Saturday, but I'm simply going to enjoy my new P.R. for the day. (Yes, it did solve more like a Wednesday, but after the week we've had, so what?)
@Steve That's a very good point. This was the third day in a row that my solve was half my running average, but this was definitely the week for that! My brain is sore and if this had been a difficult week for puzzles, it might have just cracked. All three were enjoyable and I did not feel cheated. Right now I have enough mental energy left that maybe, oh maybe, I can get some work done this afternoon. Enjoy your personal best!
A comment on- clue 21 Down “play areas that, despite their name, are actually squares” The middle school math teacher in me feels the need to clarify that geometrically all squares are diamonds by definition (definition of diamond - quadrilateral having four equal sides). Although it is true that not all diamonds are squares (as squares also need four right angles). So the infield of a baseball field is both a diamond and a square.
Very quick solve today, and it's nice to occasionally have a little respite from the grind. Was surprised to find answers dropping as fast as they did, and managed to not have any typos in the puzzle, unlike this comment. Thanks, Kate and Rafael!
ACIDTRIP, CRACK, OPIUM: BIGNONOS! Or so our PARENTS say.
I loved EPIPHANY way too long for “experience that will change your mind”. Great puzzle, thanks!
@Joe P I had HYPNOSIS on my end 😄
Whew! I don’t keep the timer on, but that flew by so fast, I checked my stats bar and I today was a Monday average time! Howe’er, I loved it! Like a DOLCE la leche morsel I savored the delicacy, and gobbled it down! I’m heading to the archives for some crunchy, sticky, ego-checking, marathon-length, butt-kickers. Thank you Kate and Rafael. Happy Saturday all!
“Figure in history and math?” deserves to be included in Lewis’ clues of the week if it is eligible. Completed this puzzle in 30% less time than average.
@Jim Great, I wrote a medium length post agreeing with you and praising the puzzle, and it's been eaten by the emus. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
I was stalled pretty early last night and needed to sleep on it. I wouldn't call it as easy as some people are saying, but I did get there in the end. I used Et VOILÀ the other day, and didn't really like AND VOILA. The WAXING clue gave me a chuckle.
Great fun! Entertaining and gentle entries - WAXING, MINIMOON, CLASSMATE, and my second personal best this week to boot. IMAFAN.
It took me realizing that RAM was not the first Chinese zodiac sign and APPLEMART was not a dessert to get the piano thing.
Too many proper nouns. It’s a puzzle, not a quiz.
Fun puzzle, although I had some trepidation coming into it, having just failed miserably at the Mini (the longer Saturday edition of which I think of the Maxi-Mini). I usually do those for speed, but I thought today's was a real bear. But maybe it was just me.
@HEK The mini was maximum difficulty for me today, but I soon saw this was going to be a thinker, not a typing race. Some balance for the easier main puzzle?
@HEK SPOILERS FOR THE MINI I came here to start a thread about the mini--i had even typed my comment--and then I thought I should see someone had beaten me to it, and you had. Here's what I was going to say: Today's was the toughest I can remember. Saturdays are bigger, but not necessarily harder. But today I read all the clues and didn't have a single answer--barely guesses even, and those were wrong. I thought Campanelle was a kind of mushroom, so I entered "fungi" there even though it was plural, and for the golf clue I entered "tees". That "S" gave me SENSED, which gave me PACMAN, which gave me ARMENIA and PASTA, and then the whole thing fell into place. but what a slow start!
Really liked WAXING MINIMOONS. Much, much too easily clued for a Saturday puzzle, e.g., "Morphine source" for OPIUM? C'mon, so many ways to make that more challenging. Solved it (incorrectly, alas) in about ten minutes. Easiest Saturday puzzle I ever managed to screw up. Had RAM instead of RAT, and never noticed the resulting APPLEMART. So a big fail for me, for want of simple checking before filling in my last box. Please, let's have more challenging Saturday puzzles.
@Xword Junkie That was my one mistake, also. But I enjoyed this Saturday a lot, even if I did figure out ACID TRIP right off the bat.
@Xword Junkie poppy, could also fit as morphine source.
Like many, my first reaction to this puzzle was that it was too easy for a Saturday. But taking a moment to reflect, it's a beautiful grid with some great fill and no ugly glue. That's no mean feat, and I raise my hat to the constructors.
@Luna Max You are so right! Not an eno, ono or Oreo to be seen! And creative clueing for ego. This is a puzzle to admire.
Woohoo just got my fastest Saturday by a mile
Nice one. Hits the difficulty sweet spot—I knew little of the trivia offhand, but could puzzle it out with crossfill. Like a steady IV drip of "aha" moments.