No one considered Certs candy.
@Pendant Certs was a candy mint, Certs was a breath mint.
@Pendant <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7MziVYtAgY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7MziVYtAgY</a>
Pendant, When I was young, if it was sweet and didn’t grow on a tree and you got to put it in your mouth, it was candy.
@Ed Hey! Calm down, you two! It's a floor wax _and_ a dessert topping! <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zOlhHakrKeE" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zOlhHakrKeE</a>
@Pendant No one considers a jar of jam candy but some people eat it like it is.
@Pendant and NECCO wafers also went out of business in 2018. A red herring for me 🤣
This wasn’t so terribly hard, exactly, although it was one of those puzzles where solving one area didn’t really help with the rest, I almost felt like I was solving 4 puzzles. And the fill was great, I just felt like many clues were just a little…off. Yes pirates lack VITAMIN C but so did all seaman, it just seems like an overly misdirection even for a Saturday. Same with whalers and their CATCH—nothing special about whales. Some KOI are gold but they can be other colors too so maybe it should have been “Some gold fish?” CERTS is certainly a breath mint not a candy. You can be guilt-RIDDEN but have you ever seen that as a word by itself not hyphenated? And lastly while I love the clue for INSULATIONS it just doesn’t seem like a real word. I can’t use it in a sentence. If I want to buy insulation for several attics, I would still buy “insulation” or at most different “types of insulation”. I got through all of them eventually, and any one by itself I would have ignored, but so many of them just seems…unsettling.
To me, weird to call lacking vitamin C a “stereotype” of pirates
@Jin Shengtan maybe reference to the teeth?
@SP He was ridden with guilt...works for me! I, too, can't see insulations as a thing. Insulation looks like a collective noun to me. Was I the only one who thought of snapchat before snapshot? Great crossword, thank you.
@Gary Arrrrr, ya scurvy dog! Now walk the plank!
@SP I got really caught up thinking the pirate one would be both eyes or both feet or both legs.
The problem with “insulations” could have been easily resolved by deleting the ‘s’ to make the across word “cuttle” and delete the “c” from vitamin. This was an editing error more than a constructor error.
@Bill B what does "ONTRARIAN" mean though? (the result of removing the C from VITAMINC)
Fun etymology fact: The other name for VITAMIN C is ascorbic acid, derived from the Latin for “without scurvy.”
@Pheo Thank you for this 🙂. I've been seeing "kwas askorbinowy" (your ascorbic acid) on labels all my life but I never stopped to think where that name for the humble vitamin C came from. Good to know it makes sense, even if not at first glance 😉
@Pheo "without scurvy": that would have been a better clue!
Well, there's a lot going on here. First of all, yay to David P. Williams. I'll never understand the reference to the poem, but I know a good puzzle when I see one. I saw his name, and my heart skipped a beat. Wonderful, as usual. Next, this is about a black bird but not a blackbird, but how can I not think of it when I see AUGHT? 16 Shells From a Thirty-Ought-Six <a href="https://youtu.be/qwRkBTG17vk?si=YQUozYKdJE3cTC7s" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/qwRkBTG17vk?si=YQUozYKdJE3cTC7s</a> As for CERTS, I admit I was doubtful that it was ever considered to be candy, but a post-solve check-in with wikipedia enlightened me. "In 1999, the United States Customs Service classified Certs as a candy mint for tariff purposes, since candy was taxed differently from oral hygiene products. In the ensuing suit before the United States Court of International Trade, Cadbury introduced expert testimony that Certs stimulate the flow of saliva, thus flushing bad odors from the mouth, and that its flavors and oils mask bad breath. But the court ruled that, since Certs did not contain anti-bacterial ingredients, they were, indeed, simply a candy mint. This ruling was, however, overturned at the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, making Certs legally a breath mint.[15]" That is all.......
Nancy J., Thanks for giving us the hole story. Certs: Candy-Breath-Tariff-Loopholes :)
"Look! I have more calamine than you!" "Don't rub it in." (I had the itch to post this.)
@Mike If the urge to scratch should follow shun it. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Well, in my book, David P hit the golden trifecta today – skill, wit, and beauty. This was, to me, a dazzler. SKILL. It’s an uber-low 66-word grid and where is the junk? Okay, maybe ESS? Where else? Look at this grid! A set of white-glove clean and interesting answers covering a wide palette of knowledge, highlighted by crossing three-stacks. Try making one of these sometime! Skill indeed. WIT. A cluing clinic imbued with shrewdness. Misdirects such as [Salty drink] for SEA. Vague clues such as [Place for subs] for BENCH in a world where "sub" has multiple meanings. Riddles such as the magnificent [It may go across the board], for QUEEN. It feels to me as if David did not mail it in on a single clue here. BEAUTY. Okay -- NO SPIN, SCUTTLE, NONCHALANCE, DON’T RUB IT IN, BET THE RANCH, CONTRARIANS, UNDER THE SUN, AUGHTS. Top notch. High quality. Stunning Saturday. Seven more puzzles in this series, David? I am all in. Thank you for a sterling outing!
Side notes: • This gorgeous grid design first showed up in the times in 2022 (Kameron Austin Collins). • I gave a side-eye to INSULATIONS, but there *are* different types, and I don’t care anyway, because David won me over with [They cover top stories].
@Lewis I quite liked this puzzle! Even though, or probably because, I got suckered into a few of the traps. I may be late to the game, but what is the whole series thing? I've only started reading wordplay recently.
@Lewis Interesting! Any theories flying around? Without much to go on, I thought maybe VI of the poem would be related to the crossword today. I couldn't spot anything though...
@Lewis I work in the trades, I have purchased, installed, removed plenty of insulation over the years, have never heard it pluralised before today.
Maybe an unpopular opinion, but I do not like David P. Williams or his puzzles, no matter what the nebulous 'series' may be. CERTS (in the real world) are not candy, INSULATIONS is the clunkiest plural I've ever seen and I've never heard of BETTHERANCH. Whenever I see David P. Williams' name on the byline, I know it's going to be a middling, 'trying to be clever' grid with little to no fun. Today was no exception. Sigh.
@David O Selznick CERTS annoyed me, too. It wasn't candy.
@David O Selznick I'm in total agreement with you. I finished the puzzle without having to look anything up, but it was a complete slog, and I don't get the meaning of this series, or care a whit about it, either.
Great Saturday. Love the long entries, including the obvious crowd-pleaser (CONTRARIANS, of course). Just saying that to be one. I hope CLOUD OF SMUG appears in a Saturday puzzle some day. Crossword Revolution Day 25: NOBLY Sure, lawyers alone can’t save the day. But nice to see some acting NOBLY. A Crosswords Saved the Day ™ production.
Must credit @AudreyLM for the wonderful “cloud of smug.” Maybe sometime she’ll reprieve her 7 stages of solving a Saturday puzzle for newer Wordplayers.
Felt like a proper Saturday. Seemed hard the whole time but everything fell into place piece by piece. Had "sell the farm" at first for 32A, which slowed me down a bit. Feel like I've got my NERD CRED for the day.
@MikeW I thought "sell the farm" was a little more dire than making an audacious bet...
@MikeW And at the start I kept thinking Gold Star because it fit.
1 hr and 8 mins slower than my usual solve time. My kind of Saturday puzzle 😆
@Kachi heck yeah haha way to persevere. I lack the patience to thoroughly check for errors these days
@Adin thanks! I'm 22 days away from my first 100-day streak. I would've stuck with it for 6 hours if I had to haha
For a long while, for 29A I held onto nEcco (wafers), which were also discontinued, also in 2018--much to the consternation of patissiers everywhere, as they made the best INSULATIONS for the roofs of gingerbread houses. When it was first announced, I considered stockpiling them for future construction projects. But, as it happened, the New England Confectionery Company sold the brand and production equipment to the Spangler Candy Company (of Byron, Ohio), and supply returned in 2020, thus ensuring the continued domestic warmth of the cookie populace.
@Bill yeah…I wanted to put Necco…but I knew they came back so they didn’t completely fit the answer.
@Bill, This cries out for a long range study: The edibility of stockpiled Necco wafers as the months…years…decades go by. The emus didn’t take my comment from last night - let’s see if they accept this shade being thrown at neccos.
@Bill I had NERDS in there early on, as I vaguely recall the Wonka brand being sold a while ago. Then I got my knickers in a twist when NERDCRED filled in. Not so big on Italian PMs, more likely to know football managers...like Antonio CONTE.
@Bill @Cat Lady Margaret Necco wafers as INSULATIONS or roofing tiles? Either way, I agree with Cat Lady Margaret about the longevity of Necco wafers. Even fresh, they taste like they're 20 years old.
Wowza. Um, where was the fill? A brilliant puzzle that challenged my streak, and then some. But, oh, that feeling when the center opens up like a Jack-in-the-Box! Hubby asked if I was talking to the puzzle. Uh, yeah. It’s a conversation. A debate, actually. And I *just* got my hooks in and took the lead! Mr. Williams, you nearly defeated me. Not today David! Not. Today!
I’ll admit I needed to do a lot of… research for this. But [Swallows] for ABIDES? That seems a bit of a stretch for me. When you abide by something you heed or follow it. Swallows implies gullibility. Am I missing something?
@Mike It also means to tolerate something, as in "I can't abide his puzzles." I agree that "swallows" is a stretch. To me, that means "to accept."
That took me a while but it was time well spent. Although INSULATIONS will not go down in crossword history as a great answer.
A tough puzzle, but worth every second. Fills kept slipping away and I couldn't make them settle down and sort out, and trite as it may seem, BANAL was one of the words I could not catch (it kept swimming around in my head, elusive as a KOI). Then I was focused on "feeling bad as it is," and when I finally got it that it was indeed the right sentiment, but wrong fill, I had to tell myself DONTRUBITIN. David, I solved your puzzle while I was also watching "A Room with a View," which I have already seen 40 or 50 times (in addition to beautiful performances, beautiful photography, beautiful music— <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrqYQoAIj_0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrqYQoAIj_0</a> — and remembering Julian Sands, who died two years ago this January), the puzzle was also a beautiful construction, I thorough enjoyed spending time with both. Thank you.
Ok as a Brit I’m usually mindful that language differences occur across the pond and they’re interesting to learn about and I keep an open mind - none of this ‘it’s our language’ nonsense from me - language evolves constantly, everywhere. But. We call them storeys over here precisely to avoid this sort of clever wordplay in our crosswords. And naught means naught and aught means anything but naught, except, apparently in the US, I learn, where it means naught again, as well as, from what I can glean, also not naught. How does anything work?
@Phil another Brit here undone by storeys. I mean I got the word from the crossed but was baffled by the clue.
@Phil Don’t know why, but the decades immediately after the new century are called the aughts. In other words, the eighties, the nineties, the aughts…never heard it any other context
@Phil You've sent me back down a fun rabbit hole about migrating Ns: a naught -> an aught, and a norange -> an orange [turns out that one's mostly not true: the fruit lost its N in France]. In the other direction we have nickname and newt. TIL "rebracketing". We may need a numpire. <a href="https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2013" target="_blank">https://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=2013</a># <a href="https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-norange.html" target="_blank">https://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/a-norange.html</a> <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/e/numpire-ewt-common" target="_blank">https://www.dictionary.com/e/numpire-ewt-common</a>/ btw nickname started as "ekename", starring that crossword stalwart "eke". "It was originally ekename, from eke, a Middle English word meaning “a little extra.” (We still use eke today: to eke out a win, an income, or a little more toothpaste from the tube.)"
@Phil I believe this is not the first time we've referred to a decade as "the aughts". I believe the catridge and rifle written as "30.06" pronounced "thirty aught-six" is so-called because it's .30 of an inch, introduced in '06 (1906). Also in Shawshank Redemption the older prisoner talks of having arrived in "aught-four or aught-eight".
Just hard enough, I thought. I was stuck for a while wondering what is SASTA -- some celebrity whose last name is Ribbons? Turns out 100% isn't SURE (as in a "sure thing" or a "sure bet"). No, it's PURE.
@John Didn’t happen to me but perfectly understandable. In fact I think it’s a better answer. I put PURE even before I got PASTA, maybe because I live in Cincinnati where P&G is, and I couldn’t get the original tagline for Ivory Soap out of my mind—100% PURE.
@John glad I wasn’t the only one who got stuck on Sasta! Wasted a few minutes and was so sure about Sure that I had to look up the answer key (D’oh!). Still came in under my average, though not without earlier lookups for a couple of proper names so don’t know if it counts…
@kkseattle True dat. But if it were 100% it would be completely pure so it still came to mind.
My thoughts on Stanza VI of the Stevens poem: The opening "Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass." evokes stained glass and a primitive expression of religious belief. The Blackbird crossing to and fro suggests the many different expressions of belief in human history. "An indecipherable cause." reflects the eternal debate over the existence of gods and their concern for humanity." I don't think that 1d DIVINE is a coincidence. The central stacks can represent three approaches to all that: 29a Avoid parochial bigotry. DONTRUBITIN 31a Pretend it doesn't matter. NONCHALANCE 32a Apply Pascal's wager. BETTHERANCH The three vertical stacks also can be made to fit this theme. (UNDERTHESUN, CONTRARIANS, INSULATIONS)
@Al in Pittsburgh I’m in the 13 ways of filling an identical grid camp, but salute your erudition and nimble mind and appreciate the food for thought as well as the reminder to revisit the poem. Another meta connection to the poem is that by linking Stevens’ poem to his puzzles, David gives us Thirteen Ways of looking at Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.
Confidently filled in NERDCRED off the bat but sadly didn’t earn it. Needed too much help with this one. Brutal!
@Emilie Confidently filling in NERDCRED gives you NERDCRED in my book. I had (unconfidently filled in) woRDCRED and hung on to it for the longest time, doing me no favors trying to get a toe hold in what was for me an extremely difficult middle section!
@Emilie I racked up twenty cheats. "Nerdcred" was among them. I found it brutal, too. Perhaps the Sunday puzzle will be more to our liking. (I loved the Friday puzzle.)
IDEAMEN for thoughtful types? Really NYT? It's 2025 not 1950.
@Kim Isn't it 1950 though? More so than last year.
@CaptainQuahog I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday. The new age of robber barons. Let's get rid of OSHA and bring back child labor for nostalgia.
@Kim I appreciate you calling this out
@Kim came to the comments to see if anyone else thought this. I was delayed in completing that corner because I thought the NYT wouldn’t be so backwards and sloppy, especially considering the male answer is for a non-gendered clue. Disappointed there aren’t more comments to this.
If you happen to know that NECCO were discontinued in 2018 it makes filling in the center of the puzzle difficult.
@Frank yup had NECCO in immediately - finally figured out it was wrong but had to look it up
@Frank - Yup -- that delayed me quite a bit.
@Frank They were? I can still buy them in every convenience store just about, here in Oregon
@Frank Oh WOW! THAT'S what I was trying to remember. NECCO. Glad it never dawned on me, because I would have poisoned my puzzle for a long time with that one.
Regarding INSULATIONS: I agree with others that it sounds clunky and wrong in the context of top floors. But I searched Meriam-Webster and of course found the entry for 'insulation' (no 's'). They don't list a plural, but in their example sentences, they cite this quote [I changed the answer word to all-caps]: So I'll admit that there are different kinds of INSULATIONS, making it a valid crossword answer. But it's still an awkward clue...
@Grumpy I don't know what the EMUs did with the citation, but on checking this mornung, it seems to be blank space. So I'll try again, but pasting as plain text (fingers crossed): "Best are synthetic fabrics and insulations like polyester and nylon, which only absorb around 0.4 to four percent of their weight in water, respectively.—Wes Siler, Outside Online, 29 Jan. 2025"
I got through this one, relatively slowly, without realizing that it was part of that poem homage series about which I have absolutely zero interest in. As a standalone puzzle, it was a perfectly good one, so that helped, but I remain steadfast about not caring in the slightest about this poem or how the puzzle relates to it. I had a bit of backtracking to do; I had put NERTS in for CERTS (weren't they a breath mint??), CREAMY for CREOLE, SIMS for SYMS, PSYCHO for MARNIE, UNDER THE SKY for UNDER THE SUN. Although these required revision, I didn't find the puzzle inscrutable. But I found IDEA MEN uncharacteristically gendered for the clue ([Thoughtful types]). I ideated that perhaps "some" should have been in the clue. I was going to put in VITAMINS for the pirate's lack, but figured it out just in time. INSULATIONS looks like an odd plural, but I guess good enough for crosswords. I DUNNO. Who says "Levant" anymore? And isn't any photo a SNAPSHOT these days? Anyway, here's a little musical interlude from a little album that dropped last year: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/58phtrh7" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/58phtrh7</a>
@Steve L I read a lot about ancient Mediterranean history so I encounter Levant all the time. Few people say it outside academia, probably, but at least I know what it means, unlike the weird "comestible" I had to look up. I also disliked IDEA MEN, especially at a time when some of the most exposed men seem to be having - and acting upon! - the worst ideas... I never read the column (I just check it for explanations of clues or themes, when necessary) or the author notes, so I was spared the irrelevant info about the puzzle being part of some series 🤣
@Steve L I love Wallace Stevens and I love the poem, but I confess that I'm at a real loss for how these puzzles are supposed to relate to it. Maybe I'm being too literal, but the sixth stanza (the sixth "way" of looking at the blackbird) is the following section, which doesn't seem to have much bearing on today's grid. VI Icicles filled the long window With barbaric glass. The shadow of the blackbird Crossed it, to and fro. The mood Traced in the shadow An indecipherable cause. Maybe I'm missing something.
@Steve L I did know Levant but you’re right it is an odd choice. In my later comment I mentioned some other clues I found unsettling in addition to yours. Also I forgot to mention I’ve never heard BET THE RANCH just BET THE FARM. It’s almost like the clues were written by an AI (and no that’s not a conspiracy, I really don’t think that). But if it were a Turing test I wouldn’t pass it.
@J.S. I agree. I love Stevens and this is one of my favorite poems, but I can’t make a connection with this puzzle—or with the last one related to the poem. I would like an explication. Is one planned at some point? I enjoyed the puzzle, though.
@Steve L @JS I've given my thoughts on the poem in a separate note posted about midnight EST. The entry at 1d DIVINE is a big hint.
@Steve L (and others), So much for advertising! The whole point of Certs is that it was "two, two, two mints in one". Agreed on INSULATIONS. I'm very sure it's not a countable noun. As far as I know, the expression is UNDERTHESUN and only that. Agreed on IDEAMEN. To me that's as dated as "yes men". Much as I also find the whole blackbird thing opaque, what the heck? Let the constructor have his fun.
@Steve L Remember when some political leaders were trying to decide whether to call the terrorist organization ISIS or ISIL? I believe that “L” stood for Levant.
@Steve L Didn't realize it was the poem guy again. Impressive how good a constructor he is even with that pointless overarching theme carried on his back. This was a very good puzzle. The poem stuff is just kind of creepy... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Oof. I started out good, with several answers filled in, then hit a wall. Psycho instead of MARNIE threw me for a while, and I had ovary instead of QUAIL. I loved having to work for it, though! And the center stack was super fun, though I would bet the farm, not the ranch.
@Katie Those were good answers! I never even thought of PSYCHO....or my OVARies, which actually are, well, decommissioned. Agree about the RANCH
@Katie I'm on team farm, but i checked ngram and they're both out there, with farm in the lead. Perhaps RANCH is regional in the west, where the farmer and the cowman should be friends. ;)
First time I saw the clue, I confidently put in HEADACHE as a reward for solving Saturday puzzle. I managed to complete it, but I cannot claim NERDCRED since I got some help with names along the way. Did end up with a slight HEADACHE!
@Andy K 😀 We *all* end up with headaches, amigo.
That was brutal yet fair for a Saturday, since the sky’s the limit for today’s difficulty, I guess. I did, however, attain my best streak of 10. I read somewhere in these pages long ago that your puzzle is yours to solve in whichever way you’d like. After over a thousand of puzzles solved on Autocheck, I’ve finally thrown off the training wheels to go unaided. I kinda see the whole autocheck period as the part in the story arc in a movie where the character goes through an intense period of training and failing before (hopefully) triumphing. There still will be failures along the way to be sure; today was one of those days that came very close to failure with my finger hovering over the life ring on many occasions. But, it worked out and the time was brutal on the average. Then again, I feign NONCHALANCE at that stat these days. The solve is the prize, right? That’s what I’m telling myself. P.S. minor quibble: isn’t INSULATION already plural? That threw me off for a bit. ~*
@Loopy congrats on ditching the training wheels!
@Loopy Congratulations on ditching Autocheck! I started solving the NYT crossword back when the only way to do it was on paper, so I have never used Autocheck. But it seems to me that by telling you (sometimes immediately) that your guess is wrong, Autocheck robs you of the opportunity to learn the crucial crossword-solving skill of knowing when to abandon that answer that you’re sure is correct but that really isn’t.
@Loopy Add my congrats to the mix. It's kind of nice to be facing the full force of the puzzle, even if one doesn't always triumph.
@Loopy Congratulations on your freedom from Autocheck. I’ve never used it but my own personal rules is that I do occasionally look things up. I call it Research, and there was a fair amount of research involved in my solve today.
@Loopy Yeah, I didn't want to type out my own quibble, but now I'm compelled to second yours whole-heartedly. Insulation is up there with smoke, fog, lemonade and so many other things, measured in amount, not countable items.
@Loopy, Congratulations! This was one very hard puzzle, more than most Saturdays. Choosing to forego using Autocheck is a testament to your perseverance.
@all who commented: Thanks for all of the kind words and amens! I’d promised myself that if I got to 10 in a row, I’d write something about it. To be sure, I have nothing against Autocheck, if that’s what’s fun for you, you do you. After all, I did it for over a thousand of them! Maybe it got a little boring actually, and doing it without it has made it so much more fun.
[What you might say at a fancy dinner] HELLO DOILY
Proper Saturday. I agree with the sentiment about CERTS. I tried it a few times and said, “No, that’s a breath mint.” I think subbing “mint” for “candy” would have still been nearly as challenging. I would have BETTHERANCH 44A was Psycho. I would have lost the ranch. ONEIDA was the brand of flatware that we always used during my childhood. Now, I use Ikea. The set comes with little spoons that I thought I would never use. They are perfect, though, for stirring *bica* ☕️ or dipping *mel* 🍯. Oh, and Paul RUDD is adorable. See ya’!
@Pani Korunova I’m old enough to remember Psycho was earlier than 1964. (1960) Agree on Paul RUDD: I’m old, but I’m not dead! 😉
@Pani Korunova I remember the old commercials: It’s a breath mint! No, it’s a candy mint! Certs is two, two mints in one! Or something like that.
@Wayne Harrison Yes! and I don't think that ad convinced anyone of the candy angle. >:D Certs, "with a tiny drop of Retsyn" [ting!]
Typical Saturday for me… slow, steady with a few lookups required for showbiz clues, but I managed to get through this relatively unscathed. UNDER THE Sky needed a revision, of course, but that opened up a few other answers when corrected. DON'T RUB IT IN was cute, and CONTRARIANS was also appreciated. Nice puzzle, David, and thanks.
Typical tough Saturday workout for me, and had to cheat a bit to get going in a couple of places, but just ended up being a nice long workout, with things finally dawning on me with enough crosses. Thumbs up for this one. I'll put my puzzle find for today in a reply. ...
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from August 12, 2012 by Patrick Berry with the title "The meaning of it." This one was all about 'it' and all in the clues. Some them clue and answer examples: "Talking isn't going to reseal that wine bottle!" PUTACORKINIT "Quit trying to make a paper doll by ripping the paper!" CUTITOUT "I can see why shoppers avoid this off-brand white bread!" ITSNOWONDER "I already know my homemade cold cream is useless!" DONTRUBITIN "So you finally got the gist of that Stephen Hawking book!" ITSABOUTTIME "Of course this car isn't voice-controlled!" ITGOESWITHOUTSAYING And there were more. I thought that was quite clever. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/12/2012&g=36&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/12/2012&g=36&d=A</a> ....
@Rich in Atlanta, to reply a post you made late in the day yesterday: I remember that you grew up in Iron Mountain, and out of deference for Yoopers, I usually specify that our place is in Northern Lower Michigan (which isn't all that far north, really). The town is Lewiston, which is about 30 miles SE of Gaylord. A land of small, inland lakes--the glaciers certainly did a job on this area! Our place sits on one of about 90 acres--in summer, I can swim across it. We don't get the lake effect snows that you do in the UP, or the areas closer to Lake Michigan, but just now we have about 14" on the ground, and more to come today and tomorrow.
Thanks to everyone who responded to my question about solve time (below). To be honest, although I try to do the right thing generally, this was not a moral issue but more an analytic question, something like "In that circumstance, what is my true solve time?" And Oikofuge... the button to hide comments about streaks is right next to the button to hide puzzles with rebuses. Haven't you seen it?
Couldn't recall the Italian P.M., and convinced myself that NERTS was once a candy. Quickly made that CERTS/CONTE, but another fail for me. Lovely fill in this puzzle, except for INSULATIONS, which even the NYT spell-checker has underlined in red. Sadly, it seems neither the constructor nor the editorial team could SCUTTLE that stinker. Well, best if I DONTRUBITIN, since I couldn't even solve the puzzle properly. All in all, a fine Saturday challenge.
Nice to have a Saturday puzzle. Thanks, David. My CAMO SNAPSHOT? BET THE RANCH; don't buy the farm.
Who else had trouble putting 24 and 27 both A & D together. 24: Wanted subs for "lunch", and "Lenny" was not farfetched as a name for an Abba musician I didn't know. 27: Given "lunch", a candy ending with "urts" also seemed possible. And do I follow Italian politics? No! (Monte, Bonte, Ponte?? LOL) Looked up Mr. Andersson, and it all fell into place. Funny, I used to love cinnamon CERTS.
@Amy I had the same problem (although it's hard to construe luNCH as a "place"). But then I remembered that ABBA got its name from the first letters of the four singers' names and realized that it had to be BENNY. From there it wasn't far to the gold star.
@Amy The B was the only letter I was sure of! I knew it was Benny or Bjorn but had no idea what their surnames were. Luckily 7D provided the answer.
For those of us who think of CERTS primarily as a breath mint and not "candy", Remember: "It's two, two, two mints in one! The breath mint that's also a candy mint!" <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7MziVYtAgY" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X7MziVYtAgY</a>
@The X-Phile They're also a floor polish. And a dessert topping. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
Very crunchy and satisfying, as befits a Saturday puzzle. I'll accept my NERDCRED, thanks.
I feel sufficiently challenged. I feel my nerdcred has been tested and has survived, nay, dare I say triumphed. I feel exhilarated, like I want to find some lively pub where the beer is cheap and the women are...wonderful companionship. But, half my time was between my penultimate entry and changing NOBLe/BENNe to NOBLY/BENNY. So part of my exhilaration mentioned above may be disorientation from having head-slapped myself so hard.
What with the rising price of eggs we may look to QUAIL to feed us. This one, as noted, required some research and tough thought. Excellent Saturday fun and NERDCRED. Thank you, David
@dk My sister's neighbor has chickens and a few QUAIL in her backyard pen. My nieces love the cute little eggs. Hopefully the birds stay healthy.
I bet the HOUSE and looked under the SKY and looked for a TINGE of hope
So, my original Comment was nixed. Pfft. METRO is NOT correct. In London, it is The Underground or The TUBE. Paris has a METRO. NYC has a SUBWAY. They may be similar but they're not the same. INSULATIONS was not acceptable. Others have noted that ir's the FARM, not the RANCH. Oh, and Marnie was not a thriller; it wasn't even interesting. I got the puzzle, all my entries were correct, but I've been black-balled.
@Mean Old Lady When it opened, the London Underground was actually the original "Metro"---the Metropolitan Line. So by referencing the date the Metropolitan Line opened, in 1863, the clue gets away with it.
@Mean Old Lady "METRO is NOT correct." Yes, this held me up for a while. I was trying to think of other urban conveniences of five letters. "Métro" will always mean Paris, although the Hungarians prefer the accent aigu on the "o": Budapesti metró. BTW Budapest only became Budapest in 1873--before that, they were Buda, and Pest. But it gives me a good reason to link a favorite song of my youth, which I doubt is your taste: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_l7J7aabts" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V_l7J7aabts</a>
MOL, The Metropolitan Railway, later the Metropolitan Line of the Underground, was indeed the first. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolitan_Railway</a> Mind the gap
That was a pretty nice puzzle. I needed a few lookups for the proper nouns, but I really enjoyed most of the clues: decoding them was a nice mental workout for me, if not an easy one when I woke up at 3:40 AM with a sore throat. I don't get three of the entries I got from crosses. Could the community please explain them to me? Straight-shooting: NOSPIN - is that NO SPIN? It sounds sort of familiar but I can't quite grasp it. Solid red ball: THREE - completely lost here. Is it from a sport reference? Pool, maybe? It may go across the board: QUEEN - is this a chess thing? It is, isn't it?
@Andrzej The queen is indeed the one chess piece that can cross the board in several ways. I know "no-spin" only from Bill O'Reilly (early 2000s right-wing US television personality), who nicknamed his political rant show the "No-Spin Zone."
@Andrzej THREE is indeed from pool, and dovetails nicely with uniform number SEVEN of Mickey Mantle from the Friday puzzle.
@Andrzej I’m up, too, but just because I wake up at 3 am now 🙄. I usually make it back to sleep by 5 am, but it’s not good. NOSPIN — Spin, in this usage, means tailoring a narrative to your own purposes. For instance, a kid may spin the story of the broken lamp to emphasize his sibling’s involvement. I think THREE is pool and QUEEN is chess, as you said, but I’m not 100% sure (which was my first and lucky entry for PURE), I hope you feel better soon.
@Andrzej There are seven one-color and seven striped color balls, plus the solid black eight ball. The three ball is solid red. In public relations, information about someone or something is often "spun" to make the person or idea more attractive. A "straight shooter" is one that gives an honest opinion—one with "no spin".
I loved PIZZAPIE, PASTA, and BHUTANI!
@Ames P BHUNTANI PASTA PIZZAPIE sounds like something that would pass for pizza somewhere in the US 🤣 Can you imagine the look on my face when I learned a casserole is called a pizza in Chicago?
Regarding the poem, I think we are overthinking it. The creator may just be interested in considering 13 different iterations of the same grid and the poem’s title may just be a metaphor for that. Anyway, I don’t see anything else in common with the grids either.
@SP Or maybe the author is trolling us, like that guy who taped a banana to a wall, called it art and sold it for 1 500 000 $.
@SP I skipped the column and didn't even realize it was that poem guy again... His motivation is peculiar/disturbing but his puzzles are good. No complaint. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
I call this one “Thirteen ways of polishing your NERD CRED” Or maybe “Thirteen ways of fixing a PIZZA PIE” Or maybe “Thirteen ways to avoid IDEA MEN”
Let’s now add “Thirteen ways of crafting a comment that will show up when you post it”
@Cat Lady Margaret Just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan. No need to be coy Roy. Don't listen to me. ...
A wonderful Saturday puzzle. By chance I ended at the Southwest, not even having looked at its clues earlier, and it fell in just a minute. Where do I claim my NERDCRED?
Tough but fair! Solved it in ~30, with at least 10 devoted to the NW (something about METROS and VITAMINC just eluded me for embarrassingly long, and with the spelling of DAMASK a complete guess and SYMS a crapshoot, it took a lot of staring to find an anchor.)
@Stephen, I spent my last twenty minutes in the NW, nearly doubling my time.
I am a devoted doter of granddaughters, but with the understanding that it may occasionally involve some tough dote. Nice puzzle. I note the editorial decision to both scuttle and not scuttle INSULATIONS. Fair enough, I guess: yesterday I needed to wear a hat *and* a hood.
A nice tough saturday. When I had it 3/4 solved, the puzzle went blank and the time reset to one minute, adding extra excitement to the experience. But in about 20 seconds, it refilled. Phew.
Slog all the way through and not enjoyable in the slightest. This puzzle tried too hard to be clever.
@Lake life Maybe you didn't try hard enough to be clever. (Sorry, I don't mean that to sound mean. I just thought it was a funny line. I am fully aware of what it's like to be *just* barely able to do a puzzle. It feels like self-teeth extraction some times.)