Monday, April 28, 2025

Lovely puzzle and a good worldplay column and constructor's notes: the analogy to winning a golf tournament as well as the other golf connections was very apt and amusing. May the LPGA never play at Turnberry again, and I hope the LIV guys leave your tour alone, too. Had no idea that the mako shark could go faster than my Saab 900! I purchased it when it was only a five-year-old in 1990 from my know-it-all mother-in-law, who wanted a newer sedan. At first, I thought, "Awesome!" but before I had traveled the span of one mile, I started thinking "Does this car even have a pulse?" And my mother-in-law had split with my money like she was on the lam: took the US Air flight direct to Honolulu, sent us a postcard of her in a tutu on the beach, her red-nosed visage very merry from all the mojitos she had consumed. "Aloha all my Steeler fans back home!" she had written on the back. In time the car became my hated nemesis, and I was like a walking ATM for the jack-of-all-trades who worked on it. We still occasionally get a postcard from my dear mother-in-law from the yurt she's living in, where it's never nippy, never like being in a toaster, the moon never wanes, there's no wifi, so you can't do any ego-surfing but plenty of other kinds. If she ever invites us out there, which is doubtful, I'm there. And that's my Saab story.

"Are you still reading that book on punctuation?" "No, hyphenished it." ("I'll wait for the movie. I hear it'll be a comma-dy.")

My five favorite original clues from last week (in order of appearance): 1. Hold close to the heart (3) 2. Things feared in the 80s and 90s? (5)(5) 3. They're grated outdoors (6) 4. Words on a statue honoring Washington (4)(5) 5. Show that, uh, didn't win 43 of its 54 Emmy nominations (4) HUG SPEED TRAPS DRAINS BEST ACTOR LOST

How is it that MULTI-HYPHENATE has only one hyphen? Thanks for the fun puzzle, Ms Fracker! I’m impressed that you construct using paper and pencil. Not many people do that anymore.

Sometimes when a puzzle's too easy One wants one a little more teasy But this Sunday I'm drowsy (Well, I truly feel lousy) Did you write this escape just to please me? Thank you, Sue Fracker This one is a cracker!

An off-the-cuff, cut-and-dried, blow-by-blow, play-by-play. “In-your-face, puzzle!”, I thought, during my tête-à-tête with the grid. “Honest-to-goodness, today’s the day. It’s do-or-die, puzzle; I’m going to guess your reveal. It’s one-on-one and I’m going to rope-a-dope you! An open-and-shut case! Dog-eat-dog! Life-or-death! In-your-face!" There was no back-and-forth. I filled in all but the reveal in short order, give-or-take, and began my trial-and-error. I thought, “I’ll have this filled coast-to-coast in no time.” But it was hit-and-miss, hunt-and-peck, touch-and-go. I tried to see the what connected the theme answers – first words, last words, word initials – to no avail; it was wall-to-wall perplexion. I seem to have a blind spot for hyphens. Dear reader, honest-to-goodness, there are many things I’m not, including hard-to-please, know-it-all, or stick-in-the-mud -- and many things I am, including left-of-center, occasionally tongue-in-cheek, and, I’d like to think, up-and-coming. And yes, weak at guessing revealers, to be matter-of-fact. But it’s open-and-shut that I shall fight on, and one day my post will be a show-and-tell of a larger-than-life reveal-guessing success! I will join the rank-and-file of reveal conquerers! Sue, point-of-fact, your puzzle was the perfect blend of fun and challenge – made-to-order for me, and I loved it – thank you!

I done did this puzz

Always happy when SALT-N-PEPA comes up in any context. Here I go, here I go, here I go again…

Congratulations on your second-published-hopefully-with-more-to-come grid, Ms. Fracker. AWESOMEly done! It was a pleasure to solve this MULTI-HYPHENATED puzzle. The themed revealer came as a delicious surprise; try as I might to figure out the theme, I didn't see it coming. Here's Stevie Wonder with his not-so-complimentary NOD to a KNOW-IT-ALL. <a href="https://youtu.be/uivvYGyQiow?si=9isPpN8-S5ZRfVLG" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/uivvYGyQiow?si=9isPpN8-S5ZRfVLG</a> ("Take my word, please beware Of a man that just don't give a care, no He's Misstra Know-It-All.")

Nipped right through that. I was a little confused on breadbox being toaster as I’m familiar with the old fashioned actual breadbox. Aloha all.

Super fun puzzle this morning by a great constructor. Can't wait to see more from Sue. Multi-hyphenates is such a lovely word that's not used enough in everyday conversations. Maybe this puzzle will change that among at least a select crew of NYT crossword aficionados 😉. It occurs to me that as we go through life we become multi-hyphenates as a kind of beautiful rite of passage. Some are by necessity: we learn to tie our shoes, drive a car, cook... And some are because of life circumstances: we learn to soothe a crying baby, read a bedtime story (often reading upside down), comfort a hurting friend... And others are by choice: learning to sew or knit, mastering a golf swing, playing an instrument... There are so many talents that we take for granted in ourselves and others. This puzzle made me slow down for a minute and appreciate that fact. What a nice start to a Monday!

Came here to comment on VIM and VIGOR, my future new kittens. Have been away for a while. I hope that by the time you read this, power will have been restored throughout Portugal and Spain. People are stuck on metro trains between stops. I bet it’s quite hot by now since it’s been over two hours. Silver lining: I’m going to start some prepping for real after this 😳

It was such a beautiful puzzle, very fitting for a Monday. Not too hard and not too easy. I look forward to Sue's third crossword!

Toaster for “bread box?” made me smile today

That was the best set of constructor notes I believe I've ever seen. Great job Sue!

I was so proud of myself for immediately getting JACKOFALLTRADES as the revealer at 58A with no other entries filled in: I'm brilliant! Imagine my surprise to learn that 17A was the exact same answer.... Hmm. D'oh! Guess it's true that pride goeth before the fall. 😂 Smooth and fun solve otherwise. Interesting to learn about LAM. I didn't fill it in right away because I hadn't heard of it other than "on the lam," as Sam writes about.

Is it still EGOSURFing if you only Google your own name to check that there are still no photographs of you on-line? Or is that NEGOSURFing?

Fastest Monday so far. Cute theme, but I was about to comment that it's too bad we can't enter the hyphens in a crossword about multi-hyphenates when low and behold, there they were! I guess having us add the hyphens would make the puzzle way more difficult to construct because the hyphens would have to make sense in the crosses as well. I enjoyed this puzzle.

A fun start to the week, glad that Sue doesn’t consider herself a one hit wonder as we can hopefully look forward to more from her.

Great theme, slightly challenging for a Monday. Please please please - could there be at least a temporary moratorium on all things "spa"? I'm so sick of seeing it used as both an answer and a clue. Not only is it trite, it's largely unrelatable for many. Come back, Oreos (TM) - all is forgiven. ;) ____________________ Jesse Goldberg 8/28/2024 for Puzzle of the Decade (emu filler)

This was a good, easy Monday! Thanks!

This was nice and breezy. And last week was the week for Ayo Edebiri!

Was on track for a record time, but got hung up on thinking of a dictionary as REFerence material, and not knowing my 1980s skaters too well. As ever, thank you for the puzzle!

Congratulations on no.2, Sue. A lot of fun. Looking forward to no.3.

Ooh, Monday magic. Make sure Show Overlays is turned on, kids, if solving on-line.

What a fun and breezy puzzle! I dashed my way through it 😉 This was number 1,360 in a row for me, so only 100 more to hit my 4 year streak!! Well done, Sue! I’m looking forward to seeing more from you soon.

Unfamiliar with MULTIHYPHENATES as a reference to "Ones with many talents." So I learned something new today. Can't say I found the theme or the thematic entries AWESOME. Was amazed as I effortlessly entered names like SETH, LETO, PEPA, OTERI, DEBI, EMMA and LOEW. Normally these slow me down, but today they just flew into the grid. No idea how or why---and likely not repeatable. Demonic possession?

As I read this and finished the puzzle, the LPGA is in the first ever 5 way sudden death. I thought it was funny, as the constructor of the puzzle, works with Professional Golfers and is probably at the tournament.

Quicker-than-usual...not a one-hit-wonder to be sure! A great way to sweep out the cobwebs from the oft-used-x- word closet. But hey, that's not a problem for this master-of-none solver!! You know texting multi-hyphenated words can be so time consuming, but it's so much fun to get to use them! Thanks for a fun start to the week!

MITTS! Oven MITTS. I got stuck on the rubber gloves, or the non-latex 'surgical' gloves I put on to handle chicken (because the least little nick in a finger gets infected at once regardless of brisk washing.) TRIVETS? No, too long, and besides, more likely to be seen on the dining-room table. Finally I just moved on, reminding myself that starting at 1A Never Works for MOL! Rudolph's RED NOSE is a sore point. The sycophantic herd of reindeer shunned him until they saw a personal advantage, after which they faked approval and acceptance like the hypocrites they were (and no doubt remained....as soon as the fog lifted, Rudy was non grata again.) I hated that song from the first time I heard it at age FIVE or six... Goodness, it sounds like I woke up at 5 a.m. and read substack/email, wrote to both Senators and the Representative from Mississippi, and fretted over how many books to take on our 4-day trip to visit friends in Arkansas (minimum of 2, but what if I want to abandon one and find myself Without A Book? And don't say I can read one on my iPad--too heavy.) If it sounds like I'm taking steroids, it's because I am. Hand settling down nicely now; no idea what I did to get it so aggravated.... well, maybe I do know but don't want to admit it.

Don't forget to latch the YURT before you saddke up . . . Hyphenation, where the words come apartin' from their pairs, Where Sue Fracker sounds, Still sound compond, But the dash fell out between the squares! Hyphenation, every night my little grid and I, Hope WIFI don't stall, Cause this KNOWITALL Won't SEE a gold star in the sky We know today's hyohens were banned And IMTHERE to OPTIN on Sue's plan And when I SAYS, hey! MOTHERINLAW dont stay I'm lettin' five REDNOSE MOHITOS astray FIVEYEAROLD brain, (INEBRIATION?), HY-PH-E-NA-TI-O-N, HYPHENATION!

Just the breezy Monday I needed. Thank you Sue Fracker for this delight!

Nice puzzle, Sue! Hopefully we'll see you back soon.

Fun Monday puzzle. Had to work the crosses a bit all over the place before something dawned on me but that just made for a nice workout. And... the reveal was actually the last thing I worked out. That just made for a great finishing touch. Puzzle find today - a Wednesday from March 28, 2007 by Burton Clemans. Five 15 letter grid-spanning theme answers. One clue/answer example: "Harvests more Anjous than needed?" REAPSSPAREPEARS And the other theme answers: RATESARTESTEARS LARGEREGALGLARE TIMESEMITSMITES LEASTSTALETALES Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/28/2007&g=17&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/28/2007&g=17&d=A</a> And... that trick had been done once before. A Wednesday from June 21, 2000. That one had four 15 letter grid-spanning theme answers. A couple of examples: NEPALPLANEPANEL PAPERCAPERRECAP Here's the Xword Info link for that one: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/21/2000&g=44&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=6/21/2000&g=44&d=A</a> I'll shut up now. ...

well now i desperately want to get a pair of cats called vim and vigor

A lovely Monday puzzle for a lovely Monday in the UK. The sun is out (where have you been?) and allegedly will stay out all week. Kindergarten age fooled me a tad. Kids start primary school at four here. This has restored my faith in my ability to complete/vaguely understand a crossword, after yesterday’s (for me) debacle.

Well sure, HPS can be printers and PCs, but also calculators. Mine is a 12C (financial) and it says 5318008. Can emus read upside-down?

An off-the-cuff, cut-and-dried, blow-by-blow, play-by-play. “In-your-face, puzzle!”, I thought, during my tête-à-tête with the grid. “Honest-to-goodness, today’s the day. It’s do-or-die, puzzle; I’m going to guess your reveal. It’s one-on-one and I’m going to rope-a-dope you! An open-and-shut case! Dog-eat-dog! Life-or-death! In-your-face!" There was no back-and-forth. I filled in all but the reveal in short order, give-or-take, and began my trial-and-error. I thought, “I’ll have this filled coast-to-coast in no time.” But it was hit-and-miss, hunt-and-peck, touch-and-go. I tried to see the what connected the theme answers – first words, last words, word initials – to no avail; it was wall-to-wall perplexion. I seem to have a blind spot for hyphens. Dear reader, honest-to-goodness, there are many things I’m not, including hard-to-please, know-it-all, or stick-in-the-mud -- and many things I am, including left-of-center, occasionally tongue-in-cheek, and, I’d like to think, up-and-coming. And yes, weak at guessing revealers, to be matter-of-fact. But it’s open-and-shut that I shall fight on, and one day my post will be a show-and-tell of a larger-than-life reveal-guessing success! I will join the rank-and-file of reveal conquerers! Sue, point-of-fact, your puzzle was the perfect blend of fun and challenge – made-to-order for me, and I loved it – thank you!

Before I got to the revealer I thought the theme was going in the direction of "unsolicited advice givers". Solid Monday puzzle, and I enjoyed the constructor notes.

This is an impressive Monday. It felt like a Monday but had 15-letter crosses that would’ve been well-positioned in a Saturday. Good job!

The little grey cells were quite smug this morning telling me "we got out of bed for this easy thing?!. Well the joke's on them because they did not see the MULTIHYPHENATES theme until the very end (they did keep asking what was up). Hope they are more on the ball tomorrow morning. Like us dead tree solvers is there a subset (sub-set?) of pencil-and-paper constructors? I sure hope so. Very well done and thanks!

I was off to a strong start, so I decided to see if I could sprint to a Monday best. Unfortunately I got slowed down a bit by the bottom third of the puzzle, so I didn't quite make it -- I need to be 30 seconds faster! 4th fastest Monday since I started on XWStats about 7 months ago.

A new PB for me today! Just the pick-me-up I needed!

Might have had an all-time record time if not for a shocking number of typos. I really have to stop doing these on my phone.

Joel did brilliantly in today mini. A worthy example of the genre.

Nice Monday and no sign of a sophomore slump. Hope to see more from you in the future.

Lovely Monday! Thank you Sue. Keep ‘em coming!

Lewis, It seems your overuse of punctuation tripped the filter, but once a bird reviewed the posts, they made a Quick Escape.

Great job, Sue - a fun one for #841 on my current streak - from a friend of the Michigan Frackers ❤️

For future reference (whenever they release my already-much-earlier post), my nemesis today is an emu.