Always found this piece of trivia interesting (probably more interesting for those of us who know Hindi/Urdu/Persian)- Seersucker comes from the Persian words shir and shakar, literally meaning "milk and sugar", from the gritty texture ("sugar") on the otherwise smooth ("milk") cloth.
@Rahul well TIL! I have a seersucker shirt I adore during the summer & get lots of compliments on - cue me sharing this tidbit all summer with friends!
Felt more like a Thurs than a Wednesday. Cute theme
That was fun. Side question: Did someone spike my drink, or is this a Thursday puzzle?
Am I upset that we got a Thursday type puzzle on Wednesday? Not by a sshhoott Congratulations, Dan, on the long-awaited publication of this fun puzzle. It gave me a long-lasting smile.
I zeroed in on the "Why the long face" quip easy enough. It even filled in the number of letters top to bottom, but I was stumped trying to figure why the crosses wouldn't work. Finally the light went on. Duh... Yes, definitely leaning toward a Thursday. Nicely constructed!
@Schroedman That was me exactly. Diabolical that the number of letters was the same.
Preparing for a marathon won't help you today, but it will in the long run. (I'll have to pace myself with these puns.)
@Mike You missed a layup - rruunn (long run).
@Mike So relieved to hear that you are taking steps to finish each pun a line at a time, but do be careful not to jump the gun. 👣 👣 👣 👣 👣 👣 👣 👣 👣
Neat theme, but awful cluing around it ruined the fun for me.
Pardon me, but which clues were awful?
@Jamie yes, I'm curious too. I thought "Competitive poker" was brilliant and many others a ton of fun.
@Jamie Agreed. Nothing about this made me think there was a theme since "Why the Long Face" just actually fit
To name a few off the top of my head: - 28D: No one’s used “engender” to mean that for centuries. - 33D: Isn’t that the concern of the property owner more than the bank? - 37A: A mix-up and a wild brawl are nowhere near the same thing. - 41A: Munchkin doesn’t have any magical properties - Generally more fill in the blank and quote phrases than normal. I don’t think all the clues were bad but this puzzle was too clever by half.
@Jamie In my house, we can’t make sense of “air” for “tune”. Would someone be kind enough to explain?
@352nightowl whoops, never mind, I just read the column 😊
@Barry Ancona Why do you feel that it's OK to insult their intelligence? Why is it that whenever someone posts a negative comment about a puzzle, you go on the offensive and take them down? I get that bad takes are exhausting to read but that doesn't give you the right to bully people in the comments.
@Caroline Kearney It got deleted but I was responding to a comment that insinuated the puzzle was beyond the commentator because they weren't smart enough.
There was so much stuff I did not know in this otherwise quite simple puzzle - including place names and brands - that I broke down and looked that restaurant up... And that spoiled the theme for me. I know and understand that's on Polish and very un-American me, but I can't say I particularly enjoy when that happens. The trick was quite cool - I would ideally prefer if gimmicks were limited to Thursdays, but I can appreciate a good one on Wednesday, too. Still, how things developed for me because of a brand lookup has me a bit sore... So, this was probably a nice puzzle and I suffered simply because I wasn't really its intended solver. I'm trying to channel some of Lewis's positivity here 😜
@Andrzej I’d vote for just forbidding brand names altogether.
@Andrzej Next time, try just going to the other end of the puzzle for a bit. Worked for me. This was chock-full of stuff I still do not understand/know/get. Hope that helps.
@Andrzej I thought about you when I got to UTICA in the southwest corner. A very very New York clue/answer.
This one was really good. I was going to say how impressively chewy it was for a Tuesday and then checked again. :) Nice theme and well executed. Competitive poker has got to be the BEST clue for our tired and ubiquitous old pointy stick that I've seen. Long story short, fun puzzle. Weird they held on to it 2 years, but maybe that's the normal queue. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B The ÉPÉE clue is really good.
@B I thought that was a great clue as well, but it has been used once before by none other than Dan Caprera in his 9/21/23 puzzle.
Ouch. The fact that the themed entries all had 4-letter words elongated, so fitted fine as the normal phrase with 'long'... Plus no revealer or clue? Very devious indeed, and possibly illegal on a Wednesday - I'm consulting my lawyers. I spent 90% of the solve time in a state of confusion and distress, but when the penny dropped and everything fell into place it was one of the most satisfying endings to a crossword I can remember! Many thanks for a superb puzzle!
@Alex I think the main reason to consider this a Wednesday and not a Thursday is that once you crack one of the downs, you've cracked them all. Thursday rebuses usually have a little meat left on the bones even after digging into one of the weird spots. Still, it took me 50% more time than average for a Wednesday, so certainly on the harder end.
@Alex I was solving mainly the acrosses and started to see a lot of doubled letters. By the time I got to the downs the theme was mostly revealed. Agreed though that the number of doubled letters also allowing a straightforward long to be entered would have been challenging if I'd started with the Ds.
@Alex Same here. I had too many double letters on the crosses and then it hit me hard, but it took so LLOONNGG!
Lovely oho and smiles when the theme became clear, and when it did, the solve sped up. Before that moment, though, I did run into sticky spots, as there were answers I couldn’t immediately slap down, due to oblique clues. This was a good thing; it gave my brain something to do, which brings it to its happy place. Very nice touch having the double-letter theme words be the same length and symmetrical. I liked the serendipities: • Cross of OSCAR and CINE. • The parade of schwa-tails with DIDJA, SERA, AGRA, COMA, UTICA, OKRA, INCA and wannabe IGUANAS. • Grid contrariness, with MAJOR / MINOR and FINE / BLAH. • That little three-word sentence that can be made from column two’s IMIN OMAN. Your puzzle, Dan, got me in a good mood, which I’m hoping lasts all DDAAYY. Thank you for this!
My interest was GGOONNEE by the end. Tough and unrewarding imo
@Poopoo Head The theme actually made it rewarding for me but I had to hit recommend on your comment because it really cracked me up lol.
Harder than most recent Thursday puzzles.
A Thursday puzzle on a Wednesday? Yes, please! Thursdays are my favorite day of the (puzzle) week. I'd take one every day. I especially enjoyed the feeling that "Something's wrong here: Why does this word begin with a double-T? How come DADDY [LONG] LEGS isn't fitting with the crosses?" When the penny finally drops, it's all the more satisfying.
As your resident alphadoppeltotter, a role I’ve inexplicably taken in the past seven years, it is my duty to inform you that this puzzle has an unusually high number of double letters, at 24, where unusual is 20 or more. This is the first time this year that this has happened. However, as this is theme related, it comes with an asterisk. The last non-asterisk unusually high grid appeared on 1/31/24. I remain your humble servant, ever on the alert.
The comments on here always feel like people want to be so blindly positive they give no real criticism. This was a really bad puzzle because of how there was no hint there was even a theme to be cracked, especially since 15D looks actually solvable with "Why The Long Face", I had no reason to assume to do something silly for it until I cracked from how 4D was making no sense and I came here. The theme could have been cute but since there was nothing to indicate it was there it was just a very frustrating puzzle for a Wednesday
@Shawn Gotta disagree. This was a fine puzzle precisely because it was ... puzzling!
@Shawn The big twist was that ALL FOUR were solvable using the commonly known phrases. Fun challenge but definitely a tad underhanded.
@Shawn If this is the one corner of the internet with a positivity bias, count me in.
Shawn, While I do see in some commenters here a trend towards the positive and away from negative, I don’t think of it as blindness. Most of the always-sunny-reviewers are among the longest and most-expert here, and could critique a puzzle construction to within an inch of its life. It is instead (I think) an eyes-wide-open decision to look on the bright side of a fun distraction. Anyone who solved today’s puzzle can handle some pretty good misdirects and hidden tricks. For me, how I feel about a puzzle is more about the mood of my day, not the puzzle. And some people are better at choosing their mood! Just my thoughts :)
@Shawn - The J followed by a J on the first down themer gave the whole game away within a minute of opening the puzzle. It’s not rosy positivity, it is having a half of a brain in your head. JJOOHHNN gave the whole thing away in seconds. It is a crossword puzzle; use the crosses. Monday solve time for anybody with an open brain.
@Shawn it’s true, sometimes I wish the comments on here were a little more realistic. It wasn’t as great a puzzle as everyone here is saying. A lot of it is showboating I think.
@Shawn The "hint there was a theme" and the "reason to do something silly" was because the across answers couldn't be completed and wouldn't make sense without doing so. It's a crossword puzzle. People aren't being blindly positive at all (I'm typically a fairly critical crank) - it's that this particular puzzle really is that good. And honestly it wasn't very hard at all; my experience was quite quick and there were a lot of gimmes. Sorry you didn't enjoy it but I believe your criticism is just misplaced... ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Shawn Not every theme has a revealer but every Wednesday has a theme. Friday and Saturday and every now and then a Sunday will be themeless. I would have been disappointed if there was a revealer or a hint. Maybe they should have added one since it is a Wednesday.
@Shawn I think quite a lot of people enjoy the solving-the-puzzle part of solving a puzzle, and frustrating puzzles are often the most satisfying once you solve them. Perhaps the positivity is coming from those who stuck at it and solved their way to satisfaction.
Sam Corbin: "62A. This [Competitive poker?] is an object that pokes, not a card game. The answer is ÉPÉE, which is a lance used in fencing." When I fenced in high school and college, we never referred to an epee (nor foil nor saber) as a "lance." To cite Google's AI, which I think is correct in this specific case: "No, an epee is not a lance; an epee is a fencing sword with a large guard, used for thrusting attacks in the sport of fencing, while a lance is a long, pointed spear typically used by cavalry on horseback in warfare, making them very different weapons with distinct purposes and designs." Further: "The word "epee" comes from the French word épée, which means "sword". The word "lance" comes from the Roman word lancea, which means "javelin"."
@Edward Rice I've always thought of "lance" as more of a catch-all term for long, pointy weapons — but you're quite right that it's distinct. That's been corrected in the article, and thanks for catching it!
My neurodivergent brain has enough trouble remembering what day of the week it is without having a Thursday phzzle thrown at it on Tuesday. I lost a whole day for a while there.
@Julia wait til you find out it’s Wednesday …
Meh. I would rather have a slightly easy Thursday than a slightly gimmicky Wednesday.
Finishing this one seemed like a SSHHOOTT for awhile… not because of the trick (which I caught on to once I had J O H N in every other square), but because of the many obscure clues. At least, they were unfamiliar to me. SERA? AIR? ELIS? FINE? C’mon, the short words are supposed to be easy! They put OYSTERS in a po’ boy? Ew, no thanks. SNES? I gotta learn those gaming consoles! Is a munchkin really an ELF? I was proud to get EPEE right away… but probably only because I see it all the time. Still, the fun of figuring out the trick went a WWAAYY toward easing my minor frustrations. It was a satisfying one to finish.
@Heidi Are we sharing a brain cell? Shrimp is most definitely the standard for a po’ boy. AIR still makes zero sense to me as a correct response for that clue. The less said about SERA the better.
@Heidi get thee to Galveston for an OYSTER po' boy, STAT! I'm jonesing for one now. Last one I ate there had four tiny pearls in it.
@Heidi oysters in a po' boy are usually fried.
@Heidi I had no clue about the gaming console either but it was filled in by crosses.
This puzzle is gimmickry squared. I loathe gimmickry.
@Michael It's sort of the same as using language in a slangy or idiomatic way, such emphasizing something by calling it "squared". Detestable. :) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@Michael "squared" Length squared is not a super long length. It's an area. And squaring something doesn't make it bigger. 1/4 squared is 1/16.
Took me a "long" time to figure out the joke
I don't have time to read through the comments, but has eggplant EMOJI over D to F been pointed out yet? Make no mistake, it's no mistake. Bro culture indeed! Nice tricky Wed. Thanks Dan!
@Jay My EMOJI game is pretty weak, so I had to look that one up for context. Oh my! I did know about the peach...
@Jay Ha!! I totally missed "D to F" Thanks for pointing it out!
Yup, I thought there would be a lot of comments, and that is why I popped in. This was tough. Those double letters made me very nervous for a long time, and I unentered a number of correct answers because of them. But having some experience here, I was on the look out for a revealer or some other clue that there was a trick. Also, I have heard a bunch of times here that when things just won't fit, look for something, like a rebus maybe. It took me a long time to catch on. But after seeing a large number of double letters in a variety of places, I started to look at that angle, and sure enough, it all fell into place. My time was 57:50. I am a mid-tier solver here, I believe. Many of my recent Thursday puzzle solves have been in the mid-30-minute range. Oh yeah. I thought this was a very good puzzle, but I understand how some of the newer solvers found it to be over the top. Still, I don't think the constructor was showing off. I think they were just practicing their craft, and boy are they good at it.
@Renegator - it was a Monday-level solve for anybody who isn’t frozen into their own needs. It came in at my Monday average time; the trick was obvious from JJ on. Will Shortz devised the “scheme of the week” and I am among those who are as happy as can be to see him dismantling it.
Jeff, a semicolon, and an Oxford-induced comma walk into a bar. They both have a good time. (Reprinted from the net without permission)
@ad absurdum I have no problem naming my colon, but I draw the line at naming my semicolons.
@ad absurdum - you have successfully illustrated why I detest the lunatic idea that the Oxford-nonsense comma automatically resolves all ambiguities. I detest the waste of ink that is the Oxford-nonsense comma.
@ad absurdum A man walks into a bar where he's the only person besides the bartender. As he's drinking, he hears someone whisper that they love his haircut, his tie looks nice, he has a great suit...Finally, he yells out to the bartender, "where's this coming from? I keep hearing this voice telling me nice things about how I look?" The bartender says, "oh, it's the nuts. They're complimentary." Ba-dum-bump.
@ad absurdum Serially? ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
A priest, a minister, and a rabbit walk into a bar. The rabbit says, “I think I might be a typo.”
One of my favorite recent puzzles! When you come up with two of the same letters in a row that you are sure of from the crosses, you know trickery is afoot. The horse in a bar clue cinched it for me. As someone else alluded to, the graphic accompanying the solve was a very nice touch at the end. Very much fun.
I’m fairly new here. Is it common for a gimmick to be unannounced? I would have thought the clue to 15D would read — “What a stereotypical bartender asks after a horse walks into a bar (and a clue to solving…)” and then those connected by the theme are highlighted, as I’ve seen in other puzzles. Not this time. I found the this frustratingly not enjoyable at all because I didn’t know I was supposed to be figuring out the trick. And I really don’t think “IMS” is a thing anymore. “Instant message” is what we used to do on AOL twenty five years ago. These days any message in Slack, Instagram, WhatsApp, literally any modern app, is always called “DMS” for direct messages.
@puzzle.noob In answer to your question, yes, it is common for a theme to be unannounced. We've all gone through it. Perhaps I'm just feeling perfectly OK with today's theme (once it finally occurred to me) because I've just spent a thoroughly enjoyable two weeks in Boca Raton. Perhaps I'll feel less accommodating when I get back to Toronto's 2-feet plus of snow tomorrow.
@puzzle.noob IM is a much more useful term. It distinguishes between the instantaneousness of a text message and the lagginess of e-mail and other communication. The term "direct" messaging is neither helpful nor true (all services have intermediaries) and exists only in a world ("social media") where group messaging is considered the norm rather than an exception. It's really just the equivalent of an e-mail message. That's not what an IM is. Both terms have some value. Slack doesn't even use the term DM here: <a href="https://slack.com/blog/collaboration/instant-messaging-guide" target="_blank">https://slack.com/blog/collaboration/instant-messaging-guide</a>
It's not that the gimmick is too hard. It's that it doesn't match my expectations. A basketball defender does not expect the player with the ball to shove them out of bounds as hard as possible, even though that would gain advantage and is quite legal in sumo. The gimmick was too hard relative to expectations. It's a Wednesday. I'm in pajamas. Gimme some idea that something fishy is going on. Usually there's an across supporting hint.
@Asher B. - There were two J’s provided by acrosses immediately. It is a CROSSword puzzle. JJ as the obvious start of a down fill… what more do people want?
"The gimmick was too hard relative to expectations." Asher B., These are puzzles. Part of puzzling is encountering things that do not meet your expectations. Going forward, expect that (as it were).
Fun -- LLIIVVE wordplay! Et tu, emu.
I got the theme rather quickly with daddy being filled early and a couple double letters in long John silvers. Between the two it clicked and the others fell quickly. I thought the fill was hard for a Wednesday though and struggled with a few empty squares
@Greg similar here; I had WHY THE long facE and wondered why the crosses weren't working, then I saw some of the double letters in JJOOHHNNSILVER and the penny dropped. about 7-8 minutes slower than avg.
I didn’t have a LONG FACE when I finished this very enjoyable Wednesday puzzle. Looking forward to more from Dan.
I very much disliked this one. I think the flaw was that LONG FACE fits in the same gap and is a very correct answer, which left me very confused and frustrated. Some kind of hint to the theme was very much required. It also felt quite US-trivia heavy, and the use of "crawler" instead of "crawly" threw me too. The perils of living across the pond!
@Steve - It’s a crossword puzzle. The crosses gave it away on every single theme clue. It was transparent, obvious, simple. Use the crosses.
Steve, "Flaw?" That's what makes a puzzle a puzzle!
@Barry Ancona yes. I was grappling with the long (lol) entries and started going for the “i “ for some hints when I remembered it is Wednesday and I shouldn’t need help with this! Stuck with it and finally the theme clicked. Tenacity was rewarded.
Was mildly annoyed when I realized I was gonna have to put on my thinking cap to complete this puzzle. And then laughed out loud upon completion as the beautiful long letters draped down the screen of my laptop. Bravo!
Symmetry fans will appreciate that the LLOONNGG parts of the themers appear symmetrically. And then there are the music theory fans. Favorite minor third? Let’s see, the very start of Monteverdi’s Si dolce è’l tormento. Other nominees?
@Cat Lady Margaret What's funny is that I originally entered "modulation" (same number of letters, same initial letter) and thought to myself, "A much more common modulation would be d to F rather than D to F." Then I started thinking about early Romantic composers like Schubert who loved doing that very thing, and then of course I eventually realized my error. To answer your question, not sure if this technically qualifies, but the opening chord of Bach's B minor mass, with the soprano singing the (minor) third of the chord, is an early indicator that the piece is going to be a doozy.
@Cat Lady Margaret <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=Monteverdi" target="_blank">https://www.google.com/search?q=Monteverdi</a>%E2%80%99s+Si+dolce+%C3%A8%E2%80%99l+tormento&sca_esv=0e6145799fa1b528&ei=y5O-Z9GkI8iq0PEPrY_S8QI&ved=0ahUKEwiRtrTVu-CLAxVIFTQIHa2HNC4Q4dUDCBA&uact=5&oq=Monteverdi%E2%80%99s+Si+dolce+%C3%A8%E2%80%99l+tormento&gs_lp=Egxnd3Mtd2l6LXNlcnAiJ01vbnRldmVyZGnigJlzIFNpIGRvbGNlIMOo4oCZbCB0b3JtZW50bzIGEAAYFhgeMgYQABgWGB4yBhAAGBYYHjIGEAAYFhgeMggQABiABBiiBDIFEAAY7wUyCBAAGIAEGKIEMgUQABjvBUigGlDpDFjpDHABeAGQAQCYAVWgAVWqAQExuAEDyAEA-AEC-AEBmAICoAJnwgIKEAAYsAMY1gQYR8ICDRAAGIAEGLADGEMYigXCAg4QABiwAxjkAhjWBNgBAcICExAuGIAEGLADGEMYyAMYigXYAQHCAhwQLhiABBiwAxjRAxhDGNQCGMcBGMgDGIoF2AEBmAMAiAYBkAYTugYGCAEQARgJkgcBMqAH-gg&sclient=gws-wiz-serp#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:45087fbd,vid:S42A5swnR6s,st:0
@Cat Lady Margaret @dutchiris Thanks for the reference and the link. I knew the name Apollosfire and have probably heard some of their work on my classical FM station, but seeing them in live performance was captivating and I've spent a good hour chasing down their videos. Their repertory is extensive. The conductor/keyboardist is compelling and joyful. The playing is exceptional. Like one of my TV idols, Inspector Morse, I have a weakness for women who can sing and I loved the soprano soloists. The tenors were good too.
@Cat Lady Margaret -- Hey Jude, Greensleeves, Brahm's Lullaby, Georgia On My Mind, So Long Farewell (Sound of Music), and This Old Man.
Maybe I'm just upset with the current political situation but I didn't find this such a fun puzzle.
@NobodyThree You're upset with a puzzle because the Ukraine war may be coming to a close?
@NobodyThree What is the point of comments like these? They aren’t helpful to the constructor or other puzzle solvers and they just make everyone else have to think about the current political situation now, too. Can I not get respite in my crossword column?
Nice one, interesting how much mileage a puzzle can get themed around just one word. Enjoyed it!
Well... that was different. Really slow start for me, but finally tumbled to the trick with some crosses on 15d. Still took a fair amount of pondering to figure out exactly how it was working with the other theme answers, but in the end just made for a nice challenge. Agree that it seems more like a Thursday, but... maybe that was just one more part of the trick. A couple of somewhat appropriate puzzle finds today. I'll put those in replies. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened. First a Sunday from July 21, 2013 by Tracy Bennett with the title "Artful thinking." A couple of theme clue/answer examples: "Christmas song line from an artist?" TISTHECEZANNE "Artist's expression for "Such is life"? :" QUESERASEURAT "How the expert artist passed her exam?:" WITHFLYINGKAHLOS And a couple of other theme answer examples: ONETOOMANET SMOKEANDMIROS Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/21/2013&g=89&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/21/2013&g=89&d=A</a> ...
I’m such a sucker for an Aha! followed by a fun graphic! A double-whammy. Thank you Dan!
It took me a ttiimmee but was great fun.
What an absolute unrewarding and self indulgent puzzle. Zero stars. It’s bad enough when yall do this crap on Thursday.
@Chet Now the puzzle is self-indulgent. Others say it didn't want to be solved. There's some real anthropomorphizing here.
That was a pretty cool puzzle today. I liked it when the puzzle changed when I finished it, that was pretty neat.
A rather impossible theme to figure out and the crosses were pretty challenging as well. For me, this puzzle was one big nattick from top to bottom. Not an enjoyable fill. Let's not have more like this. especially on a Wednesday. Thanks.
This puzzle definitely belonged on a Thursday. I say this in deference to those among us who skip Thursdays because they don't appreciate the "gimmicks"; publishing a puzzle like this on a supposedly straightforward day may have been a little stressful for them 😉. That said, I love an outside-the-box puzzle any day of the week so I was happy.
@momonjava no day is supposedly straightforward. Rebuses and other tricks have shown up on every day of the week. Glad you liked this one!
I can understand that this was a great and perhaps even an easy puzzle for some people. Alas, I am too slow in the uptake and too ignorant of popular culture to get a buzz from this one. For example, the real “daddylonglegs” fit perfectly so I assumed the few crosses that I had entered were wrong. I had to consult the Wordplay column to figure out what was going on quite early in my attempted solve.
@Trish Yeah. "why the long face" also fit perfectly. I put that in early and it was hard to believe that wasn't correct.
I think the long clues should have had question marks. Without any hint at the wordplay it was way too difficult for a Wednesday puzzle.
I was not exactly a fan of this type of puzzle, but when all was said and done and I saw the visual transformation of the completed puzzle, I remembered the days I used to solve on paper and that's exactly how I used to enter answers to this type of themed clues. I now have renewed appreciation and I will adapt. 13A: Is it just me or do I have a dirty mind?
@Heidi It's become a dirty emoji. Wash your produce before eating.
Having “WHY THE LONG FACE” perfectly fit for 15D was a devilish misdirection that (combined with the day of the week) screwed me up for a long time today. It was amusing to see how many potential crosses seemed off vertically by one letter (“It has to be AGRA, right? MERIT would make sense. Surely it’s SEERSUCKER…”) before the light eventually switched. Not to mention the number of answers I ruled out in the NW because I knew you wouldn’t have two consecutive I’s, J’s etc. So close to the right answer, and yet so far! All that to say, I can’t fault the constructor! This was a nice one, even if I suffered more than I expected on a Tuesday night. I echo the other commenter who said this was harder than most recent Thursdays.
@Stephen I had the same experience, right down to knowing it had to be AGRA. That's when the lightbulb came on. Definitely don't mind a little extra in a mid-week puzzle.