Not sure if the Top Gun references were a very last minute homage or a happy coincidence, but either way, RIP Ice Man.
@Jeff Great catch. I hope it was intentional. Good on the NYT editorial team, if so. That man was a true *star*. Deserved an Oscar for his Doc Holliday.
@Jeff Oh no! I didn't catch that before... 😞 I first adored him in Real Genius!
@Jeff My understanding is that the crosswords are usually ready to go many days in advance. Given the recent passing I doubt that the editorial team would change the crossword so quickly. But I could very much be wrong, in which case it is a nice last minute homage!
I love learning useful things from crosswords. I never knew the band NSYNC was actually *NSYNC. Thank you, Hanh. You're a STAR.
@Barry Ancona I had it as N*SYNC and got really stuck in that corner!
@Barry Ancona There are 88 bonafide constellations named after mystical creatures, animals and objects - the Big Dipper and N⭐️SYNC* are not on that list. *Adios, gold star (sigh)
@Barry Ancona I had I there for a while then finally got the rebus. But *useful*? Was that jokey?
@Barry Ancona High praise from you, Barry. Hats off to the constructor.
"Did you win the astronomy competition?" "No. Just got a constellation prize." (These puns provide cosmic relief.)
Wow, what a uniquely clever and fun puzzle! Hands down my favorite Thursday so far this year. I’m thrilled that the greatest TV series of all-time, M*A*S*H, finally appears as an entry with the title accurately represented. Well done! The Q crossing was tricky. Thankfully I pulled BARQ’S from the dark recesses of my brain, since I'm unfamiliar with Q*BERT. I can see where that could be troublesome for some solvers. Congratulations, Hanh. You are a *.
@Anita Boy, you nailed my problem. I'd never heard of BARQS. My best guess was BARtS.
@Anita I am sure regular crossword entries ALAN ALDA and Loretta SWIT Were quite pleased
@Anita Q*Bert was the clue that broke open the puzzle for me. Spent many hours playing it on the Atari my parents bought us for Christmas in 1984. Good times!
@Anita This was a gimme for me. I knew it had to be BARQS or AANDW. 1D gave me the answer. My husband is a big root beer fan, so something I buy regularly.
It's nice to be nice to the nice.... (Frank Burns) and this was very nice!! Super duper fast, more than a few SECs but not a whole lot more, but it was really fun and I enjoyed it the theme a lot! Kind of wish it would have taken me a little longer, because it was that nice. And I don't speed solve anything, it just went fast. Two of my favorites showed up: *RYNIGHT and M*A*S*H, which was my dead giveaway. Although, when it obviously didn't fit, I wondered if something had replaced it in all these years... Seinfeld!? Nope! Came back to it after rereading the revealer, which I normally don't pay attention to until I've done I go through of all acrosses and downs first to fill in what I can immediately and got it at that point. Imagine if he could have added *TREK. I'd be over the moon and dancing among the ******!
That was ★tlingly good, especially the virtuoso use of M★A★S★H. I'm one of those misguided ba★ds who never cared for that show, never got its appeal until too late. Don't ★e at me like that! We all can't cut the mu★d like you do! I did watch the final episode of the Sopranos, though, and loved that show, not only for its ★s but even more for all the bit players just ★ting their careers. There you go again. THE Starry Night. THE Mona Lisa. I'm never ★ved for things that get me ★ted these days. Might as well add this to the list. Pour moi, there ain't no the there. But panning out for the big picture, you really think Van Gogh was a ★k raving lunatic? A professor here in town spent years researching a particular form of epilepsy and its effects on vision and perspective. He partly convinced me that Van Gogh's medical condition caused those crazy skies and off-kilter chairs & tables. And I was like, yeah, but there's only one Van Gogh. Now, if you'll excuse me I'm going to have a piece of my wife★te au pomme.
I was naticked by E_T crossing _AR_S, and that in turn crossing _[STAR]BERT. I have no idea what EBT is, I've never heard of BARQS (those random letter salad American brands are impossible to guess if you simply dont know them), and Q*BERT was another mystery to me - I may be a gamer, and I've played hundreds of games over nearly 40 years, but not this one. I only managed to get out of this bind by looking up that brand name... That's a shame, because other than that I found this to be an enjoyable puzzle with a clever yet gettable theme. I did not know E_TRADE and _NSYNC featured stars in their names, and I was unfamiliar with M*A*S*H statistics, but unlike the natick described above, I was able to figure these entries out.
@Andrzej You haven't lived if you haven't screamed as you tapped your QBert the wrong way and watched it jump obediently off a pyramid and into an endless void. I haven't played video games since then either. ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)
@B Before Guitar Hero, my experience with video games was a garage sale Pong and a refurbished Colecovision. (Looking at you, Crazy Eddie!). Q*Bert was way more fun than Zaxxon, despite the despair of watching our hero plummet into oblivion due to an errant toggle.
@Andrzej my favorite memory of playing Q*Bert in the arcade was they put a speaker in the bottom of the cabinet so when your Q*Bert jumped off to his death you would hear him plop onto the bottom of the cabinet. I always found it funny. Sorry you missed it. It was a great game.
@Andrzej We seem to often get hung up in the same parts of puzzles. I, too, really struggled with Q*BERT AND BARQS. As you know I am not a gamer, although I'm not going to make a big deal out of it. This time. So Q*BERT was completely missing from my quill.
@Andrzej Had an almost identical experience!! Zipped through the puzzle quite smoothly for a Thursday, no look ups, and loved the STAR trick once i figured it out, but got stuck in the end with the natick and had to Google my way out.
@Andrzej Electronic balance transfer. When you oay at the supermarket with your government benefits card.
Newsflash: Rebuses are painless Through early solving DAZE I see Visions of squished-in words to be Heaven's vaults ONTAP for me I realize and I can see... That rebuses are painless They bring on kooky changes And you can N⭐️SYNC those stars if you please Sometimes crosswords are hard to play My streak has STRAYED, but that's OK I'm Q⭐️BERT with no grawlix today Just REBOOT that grid and play away! Cause rebuses are painless Unlike if SUMOS rearranged us And I can take or leave that if I please. Sussing BAHRAIN made my head spin So here's a tip in one PAREN... (Autocheck is not a sin, it's a CO⭐️ to help you win) Rebuses are painless I'll chug Sarsaparilla 'cause it's nameless and I can take or leave brands if I please. My tired spouse asks how can it be A Thursday grid BUTTSIN on sleep "So you didn't win, just let it be" and I replied, "It ⭐️CROSSED ME!"
Nice!! <a href="https://pin.it/71RYUH6Nh" target="_blank">https://pin.it/71RYUH6Nh</a>
@Whoa Nellie I'm not a fan (at all) of rebus puzzles, so I totally appreciate the "rebuses = su*cide" in your lyrics.
@Whoa Nellie Well done! Or in the words of Hawkeye “finest kind”.
Cute. But a Corner piece is a rook, not a castle. Castle is a chess term but it’s not the name of a piece.
@David Meyers Probably technically true but I always called them castles. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@David Meyers If you pan in, you’ll see it looks just like a castle.
Nice concept but the EBT- BARQS-Q*BERT crossings were absolutely brutal, especially for non-American audiences.
@Rahul yeah, I have no idea what any of those words mean
@Rahul Indeed. I think it’s areas like that that really stymie we none-Americans. I try to retain US specific info, but more often that not all I get is tumbleweed (the irony of the American symbolism).
@Rahul This North American did not get the Q in the BARQS/QBERT cross. I may have heard of them before, but not that I could recall.
Really enjoyed it and set a Thursday PR, maybe because I’m just the right age for Q*bert, *Nsync, and Rambo.
I *ted to figure it out as soon as QBERT didn't fit properly. Relatively easy once you figure out the rebus.
(Second attempt...) What a stellar M*A*S*H up of fill and rebuses! And, frankly, any puzzle that has that brilliant series in it wins my heart. Add to it Van Gogh's The Starry Night, and I'm ooh-ing and aah-ing. (In honor of the latter, here's Don McLean with "Vincent," emoting the lyrics with all his soul, very much more seasoned in 1999 than he was in 1972: <a href="https://youtu.be/XDfgBEB-qEk?si=IG8akUL318XZm4rN" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/XDfgBEB-qEk?si=IG8akUL318XZm4rN</a>) Come Thursdays, it's like I have a solving sky inside of me that gets colored by golden sunrises and sunsets, but today it went even farther and got lit up with splendid stars. Thank you, Mr. Huynh!
@sotto voce I had the rebi(?) figured out but hit a snag trying to make Starry Starry Night fit in the NW corner. TIL it's not the title of the painting. Or the song.
@sotto voce It took me awhile to realize my error and rip out *RY*RYNIGHT. Thanks a lot Don McClean.
@sotto voce Yep. I withheld posting a link to that song until I got through the comments. Knowing your artistic and musical interests, I thought “I’m sure Sotto has it covered.” Listening to Don McLean and going to see The Starry Night for the first time happened at about the same time in my life. Both now stamped indelibly on my brain. Elvis Costello: “Who put these fingerprints on my imagination?”
Alway enjoy a rebus puzzle, and this puzzle also had my favorite painting. When I lived in New York I often went to the MoMA to gaze at The Starry Night. Great Thursday puzzle, Hanh.
Wow!!! Major overreaction by the markets to a rebus!
@ad absurdum Shhh! It's quite likely the NYT will, in some corners of the body politic, be blamed for the market.
Thank you for a super fun Thursday! Very reluctant to let go of “Waterlilies” for 17 across. Loved the M*A*S*H reference—must see TV with Mum growing up.
I enjoyed this puzzle overall and found it pretty intuitive, so it's a shame that the last word I completed and thus the final impression I was left with was the truly awful PARENS.
@Shrike I’m not a fan of that either.
Gosh, EBT crossing BARQS crossing QBERT was a complete Natick for me. Not familiar with BARQS. Now that I see QBERT it’s possibly a word I’ve heard but I couldn’t have told you what it is. I had EFT (electronic funds transfer) for 1D until I also had to enter it for the newt clue. Having googled EBT I suppose it’s electronic *benefits* transfer? Though that’s not even the first result that comes up (for me). Shame because I thought the theme for this puzzle was a great idea! Especially enjoyed finding MASH down the middle containing *three* of the theme boxes all in one entry.
@Alexis Your experience was almost exactly the same as mine!
And nor have I heard of a soft drink called Mug, for that matter!
@Alexis I had heard of Barq's root beer (but never heard of Mug) but thought it was Bark's, so yeah this took a while. I was a regular in '80's and '90's arcades and never heard of Q*BERT - was I living under a rock?
Time to complete 99% of puzzle correctly: 20 minutes Time to pore over the puzzle three times, have a gnawing feeling that CUTLETS is wrong, give up, and read this article: 12 additional minutes
@Lex ugh! The worst! I tacked an additional few min flyspecking too. Still a very fast Thursday
I liked this one, I finished it very quickly, or so I thought. I couldn’t get it to solve. I was convinced that OMELETE was the correct spelling and that somehow there were 24 Canadian provinces, number 23 of which was PEI. That seemed like a lot of provinces but in the throes of desperation, I was convinced I was right. Canada has been in the news a lot and I figured this was topical. I never read the column before the solve, but in this case I had to look it up and to my chagrin it was the Greek letter PSI, not Prince Edward Island. This puzzle reminded me of the STAR puzzle from 3/19 where LOST ARTS and REST AREA played a role. Seemed a little too soon to do a puzzle so similar. But I still had fun with this!
@Charles Nelson Reilly Hoping for a post from Charles Emerson Winchester III today.
I was too young to understand M*A*S*H when it started and grumbled when Dad commandeered the TV to watch it every week. The show lasted long enough for me to grow up and get the amazing commentary it made. I laughed and bawled through the final episode sitting beside my Dad. When MASH didn’t fit 25D, I couldn’t come up with a show finale good enough to replace MASH’s last episode. Hmm. Then RE(STAR)EA hit me. What a fun way to start my day! Word play and memories of my Dad, a guy also fun of a little word play.
@Rose Grumbine Your experience almost completely echoes mine, concerning M*A*S*H watching as a kid. At first it seems like torture... Yet now it remains one of my top favorite shows of all times. ☺️
Great puzzle! I don’t believe in coincidences, so I loved seeing the Top Gun reference - you a * now among the **** Val Kilmer!
Very fun theme, although I was thrown off by the NE corner because I would've sworn that the band was N*SYNC, and only learned otherwise when I was forced into it to complete the puzzle. Berenstain'd again!
@Dave I got Berenstained in the exact same way, I could not figure it out!
@Dave same. That one absolutely sent me to Google.
@Dave Oh my gosh, I wasn't sure what you meant by Berenstain'd again, so I gave it a Goog... I had no idea that this was a thing but I do know I have always spelled it with the a. 🤯🤯🤯🤯 Thanks for blowing my mind today!!
It took me way too long as a millennial to realize it's *NSYNC and not N*SYNC. CON sort of seemed to work so that left me very confused about who the _ustar could be.
Gold ⭐️ and two thumbs up 👍🏼👍🏼 for this one. I had a couple of wrong turns here to start. I chose A AND W before BARQS and N*SYNC before *NSYNC. The placement of that * really matters 😆🤦🏼♀️ My final correction came at the end…hAZE to DAZE and voila! Gold ⭐️😮💨😅 Fun puzzle today!!
What does one call a sound that is both a laugh and a gasp? That's what happened when I filled in 25D (having figured out the trick, after a long struggle, with 17A). Really nicely done! And today my streak is at 100, having sacrificed my previous 1500+ streak to the week-long boycott in support of the NYT tech staff union of a few months ago. Nice to break into triple digits once again.
@David Reiffel That’s called a chuckle-breath. Or is it a breath-chuckle..? A bruckle. You bruckled.
@David Reiffel Good for you. And good for you for donating your streak during the strike! Here's to 2000!
Is that bottled water really "sourced from the Alps"? If it is, you're paying for water to be shipped 4,000 miles. If it isn't, you're just a sucker. Not to mention the plastic that ends up in some landfill. Is it any better for you than water you get from the TAP? As Garrison Keillor sagely noted, "EVIAN is just naive spelled backwards."
@The X-Phile it is. What about Fiji water that is shipped from Fiji. Not to mention perrier San pelegrino etc
@The X-Phile LOL. When bottled water became a thing when I was in high school in the 80s (if memory serves) I remember thinking "who the he** is going to pay for water in a bottle when it's basically available for free from the tap?" And here we are. And I have to admit I do buy water in a bottle now and then when I'm out somewhere and get thirsty. My kids have grown up with either cold, filtered water from the fridge or bottled water when out so they actually turn their noses up at mere tap water.
@The X-Phile I stayed at a hotel with mud baths in the town of Calistoga back in the 2010s. They had vending machines in the courtyard selling bottles of, you guessed it, Calistoga water. So was this what my room faucet had too?
@The X-Phile I won't buy bottled water and try not to drink it even if someone else bought it. We have way too much waste plastic in the world! And I'm spoiled to be living in a place with delicious tap water. Our water comes through a 250 mile long tunnel from the Hetch-Hetch reservoir next to Yosemite in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Freshly melted snow all year round. San Francisco built the water system after they ran out of water and couldn't fight the 1906 earthquake fires. We still benefit today. But I read today that India is requiring plastic bottles to be 30% recycled material soon, and 60% recycled in a few years. That should be a little progress.
This is a rebus I can get behind. What fun it was at discovering M*A*S*H...I think I gasped a little and then smiled broadly the remainder of the puzzle fill. As someone "newish" that rarely does Thursday puzzles, this was a highlight today. Thank you!
This is the most enjoyable Thursday I’ve done in awhile! Thanks so much for such a cute puzzle. PS my fellow Americans need to get on the Barq’s train. I don’t know what you’re getting at the movie theaters, but when I see that Coke Freestyle machine I am READY. Barq’s vanilla crème soda + Barq’s vanilla root beer mixed together for me. I don’t drink soda or go to the theater that often, so this is my special concoction for a special occasion. I give it *****!
I took a bit of a rest because I was *ting to feel like the first person who had a go at yesterday's puzzle, entering almost right, possibly right, not right fills. I'm back now. Only two flat-out mistakes, a couple of demystifications from Deb (thank you!), and one look-up (never played video games) and it's done. Thank you for this astral trip Hanh Huynh! A beauty of a puzzle, once the scales dropped from my eyes and I saw *****.
My comment from last night never appeared, so here’s another version. Having Hires instead of BARQS, starrynight instead of THE*RYNIGHT, and never having heard of Q*BERT made the NW a mess to decipher. Then when I “finished” I got the pesky something’s amiss message. Try as I might I couldn’t find my mistake, so I changed all the rebuses from STAR to *. Still no luck. Eventually, I changed haze to DAZE and voila! I enjoyed every minute of this one, even the final frustration. I go to MOMA once a year, drawn by THESTARRYNIGHT (and Three Musicians and The Persistence Of Memory). This year I went with my art conservator daughter, who had gotten us tickets to the special exhibition, a showing of Christian Marclay’s The Clock. It’s a 24 hour film that plays continuously and is composed of brief clips of other films or tv shows that feature clocks showing the time. It’s synchronized so that the time showing corresponds to the local time where you are watching. We watched for about an hour and a half and it was mesmerizing.
@Marshall Walthew I was mesmerized just by your description of The Clock. We get to NYC only once or twice a year for work, but we always try to reserve a day for museums, Central Park, sights, a favorite restaurant, etc. MOMA is a fixture on our list. We were there in January but missed The Clock AND The Starry Night. Not to worry! A visit to MOMA never disappoints, and I am grateful for it every time.
Finished wayyyy over whatever my average time may be. Not because the puzzle was unfair. Or because of the rebus. It’s because printers hate me. To be fair, they also hate my family. Our system is to- purchase a printer, get it working, print something, feel *cautiously* optimistic, try to print something else a few days later, spend 3 hours taking turns trouble shooting, another hour taking turns cursing and sobbing, print *nothing*, go to Staples and get our print, toss our printer, wait a year, repeat. So hPI, DPI, DAZE/hAZE took forrrreverrrr to find. Closest I’ve gotten to breaking my no-lookup streak yet. Loved the puzzle. Loved M*A*S*H, and remember that episode well. Hate printers.
@CCNY until I retire, my printer system is print-to-PDF save in cloud go to work
@CCNY Yes, but now we have wireless printers, so the wires don’t get in the way when the printers don’t work. Progress.
@CCNY Epson is the answer! Struggled with HPs for way too long… Emus are also black and white;-).
@CCNY Last line is very relatable. I am going to take my printer out into a field and smash it with a baseball bat.
Cool theme! Had hAZE instead of DAZE at first which slowed me down a bit
I don't know why I thought HPI for printing instead of DPI and HAZE fit as a crossing instead of DAZE. Finally had to check it so blew my streak. Side note: My dad would have appreciated the Barq's reference. To him, it was the BEST root beer, and as a teen, he worked at their bottling plant in Greenville, MS.
I posted earlier but it never showed up. Anyway -clever puzzle and a fun solve. Took me a bit to catch on, but then just had a good time filling it all in. And... puzzle find today: A Sunday from March 29, 1992 by Ernst Theimer with the title "Symbols." Never seen another one like this. Some crossing clue/answer examples: 13d."WHY SHE CANNOT MAKE ZWIEBACK" HERTOASTERISKAPUT crossing.. 39a:"LUCKY FIDO, ABOUT HIS OWNER" NOMASTERISKINDER Except - those were actually entered as: HERTO*APUT and NOM*INDER Some other theme answers: ASA(PARENTHESES)TIMABLE ASA()TIMABLE crossing ITSAPPARENTHESESKIMO ITAP()KIMO And lots more. Hard to describe beyond that. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/29/1992&g=39&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=3/29/1992&g=39&d=A</a> ...
Loved this puzzle. Loved the gimmick. Loved the whole thing. Nice job. Please do another Thursday sometime!
You can really tell the boomers, gen x, and millennials, based on the gambit-revealing clue - MASH, QBERT or NSYNC.
Neat construction. But. But: I went through the clues after I finished just to confirm my initial impression, and yes: You can complete this puzzle having never read a single book. And yes, I may be crabby because I got stuck in the NW after entering EdD for 1D. My 4am brain stared at the dAR_S / _*BERT cross and said, “I got nuthin.’” I know, I know. EBT and BARQS should fill in without a second thought because we all go to the grocery store, but I live inside my head and the only time I come alive when I’m buying food is in the produce section. Okay, and maybe the beer cooler… I haven’t thought about BARQS—or QBERT—since I was a kid. Those neurons have since atrophied. It took me a long time to flyspeck and realize I confused the EBT label at the checkout stand with the ubiquitous EDT signs on people’s lawns. Sigh. So yes, I appreciate the Thursdayness of the puzzle; I just wasn’t blown away by the fill. And now I’m going back to bed. Happy Thursday, everyone.
OK. So I see from comments that it's a gimmie for some, but would a kind American solver care to explain to us in the rest of the world how the (bleep) EBT is an answer?
@Grumpy (Also, UMM is wholey unsatisfying).
@Grumpy Electronic Benefits Transfer. It’s an updated version of “food stamps” on a plastic card
@Grumpy Stock market: earnings before taxes
@Grumpy it's an acronym for a payment form of government assistance for groceries, basically a debit card that works like food stamps. electronic benefits transfer. so cash/credit/ebt
@Jeanne I know it as "Electronic Bank Transfer." It's what I'm going to do tomorrow to pay my California property taxes online. If you pay with a credit card they add on another 3.5% in fees. If you do EBT or E-check, there are no extra fees. I'm a cheapskate when it comes to fees!
One of my first Halloween costumes as a kid was Q*BERT! Love seeing it here!
Good one. Really, really wanted the computer issue to be RE(star)t__. Letting go of that fixation took me to about double my usual Thursday time. You got me fair and square, Huynh!
Also everyone mentioning the song "Vincent" because of Starry Starry Night..... I am going to be vulnerable here, I didn't know that the NOFX version was a cover 🤣 I was surprised that the NYT commentariat were quoting a 00s punk song until I looked it up and saw Don McLean sang it originally. The crossword teaches me something new everyday!
@Cathy Vulnerable here too, amongst many very knowledgeable musical people out here, I knew the lovely refrain of starry starry night in the Don McLean song, but i didn't know it was called Vincent... and had never really listened to all the lyrics before, until today. I am grateful to have learned this today too, and have now given the song the attention it's due. What a heartbreakingly gorgeous tribute!
@Cathy The NYTs crossword can be very serendipitous. It's what I like about it best. In Wednesday's puzzle, I was wondering how many people knew Tulsi is another name for Holy Basil, or how many people even know what Holy Basil is, hopefully they do now. I myself only learned about a year ago, growing it for use in Thai cooking. I was unaware of the medicinal uses. I think Vincent was an inspirational gift to Don McLean and it all came cascading down at once even though he sang it differently almost every time he performed it. I remember hearing it for the first time and immediately knowing it was special.
@Cathy Huh. I didn't know anyone covered it, so thanks for that info on NOFX!
@Cathy Thanks, maybe, for that. The vocals don't do much for me, but the guitars aren't bad.
This was a lot of fun. Like, a LOT of fun. It took me a minute to figure out the hook. Even then, I thought the highlighted answer was Friends. Then I started seeing STARs! With the mentions of Van Gogh, I would be remiss to not recommend the movie Loving Vincent, a film about the end of the artist's life entirely painted in oils, frame by frame.
@Coco Took me forever to figure the puzzle out, but I did it! Maybe the Van Gogh clue gave me that extra push. I love Van Gogh and cried (a bit embarrassing considering the crowds at the time) when I saw 'Vase With Twelve Sunflowers' in Philly. So beautiful. And it was right in front of me. Amazing. Anyway, the Perspective channel on YouTube has a very good documentary on Van Gogh's life. I've watched it a few times, maybe it's time to watch it again. Have a good day everyone, hang in there, focus on something, or someone, you love.
Finally E*TRADE gets spelled correctly in a crossword! And M*A*S*H! So great! This was a super fun puzzle, thank you!
I, too, fell for the cUTLET trap. At least I'm in good company... (Also had altho before PAREN, and n*SYNC, so that corner was awkward.) My first thought for 28A didn't fit, and I couldn't think of a 5-letter equivalent, but when the same thing happened at 36A (less certainly) and 48A, it occurred to me to check the day. That it was a Thursday puzzle reassured me. By Q*BERT I was confident enough to fill in the letters (leaving a space), and once I got M*A*S*H I went back to fill in the asterisk. Fun puzzle. I approve!
Clever, witty, fun, I had a blast. Buuuttt, I did need to run the alphabet with the cross at 12A and 13D. I had no clue for either entry. Naticked my behind off. But I enjoyed myself, start to finish. And I can't ask for more than that.