Lost it with PAH. Tripe. Could be BAH, NAH, GAH. Take your pick.
@Ernest Not unless you can read balms, nalms, or galms.
@Ernest: You passed up a great opportunity to start your comment by saying “Pah!!”
@Ernest Well they could have clued it as, say, environmental hazard that is a product of incomplete combustion. Heh heh heh. "Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are a group of organic compounds made up of multiple aromatic rings. They are primarily formed during the incomplete combustion of organic materials, such as coal, oil, gas, and even food, and can be found in the environment as well as in various products." In the environmental business, PAH is a commonly used abbreviation, due to its ubiquity. I like this puzzle's clue better. Took me a good long time to get, though! "Oh, PALMS!" Forehead slap.
PAH isn’t in my dictionary — but I’m here to complain specifically about ANNE (MEARA), who you’ve either heard of or you haven’t (I haven’t) crossing TENREC, an obscure term you can’t deduce from the clue if you don’t happen to know it. Obscure fill is something you expect when puzzling; it can even be fun when you can lean on knowledge of word roots, etc., to suss out. A construction that uses proper names and obscure fill as answers to matter-of-fact clues that cross like this isn’t a puzzle, tho’. That’s a quiz, and a clear sign the author painted themselves into a corner that the editor couldn’t get them out of.
@Ken W. Stiller and Meara were very well known back in the day, so the clue of classic comedy duo is apt. These were the first fills for me in a very tough, but fair, puzzle.
@Ken W. Well it is a Saturday. Anne Meara is pretty famous and tenrec, while uncommon, is a pretty legit animal. I don’t think it’s unfair.
@Ken W.have you heard of Ben Stiller? It’s his mother.
@Ken W. I thought this was a fun puzzle, but TENREC and ANNE were my last cross too. (I had Aye-Aye there originally, which is not at all hedgehog-like, but their faces look a lot like mine did when I finally got that cross.)
@Ken W. I filled in MEARA pretty early. But misread the clue, looking for the other half of the comedy duo (instead of the first name of the same half). Stiller just wouldn’t wedge in there. TENREC is what made me realize my mistake.
@Ken W. I agree that you either have or haven’t heard of ANNE (MEARA). But if you're looking for a name - anybody's name - with the letters A_NE, ANNE has to be the obvious first choice. How likely are the other options? ACNE? AONE? ARNE?
@Ken W. : "That isn't a puzzle; that's a quiz." Good one. I'll remember that.
Yikes. Maybe I’m too young, or too non-American, but this was a chore for me. GOTCHADAY… have adopted a number of pets, and never heard this phrase. Nor do I ever want to again lol. PAH, ERST, REC, MPS. Hated these. GALUMPHED? Awful. Also, TREETOAD???? Is this an American thing? Even Google corrects it to Tree Frog because u know, that’s their name… Anyway. Just a slog. Not fun. Glad it’s over.
@Sam That's a really good point about TREETOAD. I gave up TREEfrog because of the crosses. But I don't think I've ever heard or seen it. Of course, I've never heard or seen a whole lot of what's in these puzzles.
@Sam <a href="https://wildexplained.com/animal-encyclopedia/the-african-tree-toad-an-overview" target="_blank">https://wildexplained.com/animal-encyclopedia/the-african-tree-toad-an-overview</a>/ <a href="https://curacao-nature.com/tree-toad" target="_blank">https://curacao-nature.com/tree-toad</a>/ Not that I had ever heard of it, but there you go. "Tree toads are commonly found in lush and diverse environments across the globe. From the tropical rainforests of South America to the dense woodlands of North America, these agile creatures thrive in varying habitats. They are often spotted on tree trunks, branches, or even leaves. The availability of water sources, such as ponds or streams, is crucial for their survival."
@Sam I met a group of very nice Aussies at a house concert last night. 😁 Young ones who were even willing to chat with a fossil like me. As far as I know, the word GALUMPHING comes from the wonderful poem "Jabberwocky" and is therefore made up. (I know, all words are made up.) So it is strange to see it used in the past tense, and with a presumed meaning even. Because who really knows what "he went galumphing back" actually means? Though I concede it sounds like the constructor's definition.
While I wouldn't say I GALUMPHED through this one, it was not EASYPEASY. Nice one, Barbara.
@Barry Ancona Oh I galumphed. Then I galumphed again. I re-galumphed. Had I done this on paper the entire puzzle would be erased through. There would just be a big square in the paper.
As children, we used GALUMPH as as verb to describe the most efficient way of moving down a Welsh hillside covered in heather. Clumsy, but speedy.
What I want in my Saturday puzzle is a riddle fest – misdirects, vagueness, unknowns, lesser-knowns, and wicked wordplay. And from this soup let there be a few – but only a few – footholds, just enough to get the ball rolling. Where a cross triggers a pop, which may trigger a couple more, and where suddenly a smallish area of the puzzle becomes a beget-fest. But let there also be areas of stuckness, where you have to dig deep, places you return to again and again in hopes of a revelation ping. These are things I want on Saturday, and here they were today, bringing brain sweat, and reward. Adding newness to the fray were eight answers never seen in the Times puzzle before. Barbara, you found that perfect Saturday line beyond a trot and short of a trudge, and I loved this – thank you!
That was brutal. 36 minute slog, but I got my gold star. Had to brute force for the REC/HYACINTHS crossing. Still don't understand why that's right. Obviously HYACINTHS is what it is, but REV or REF made more sense to me for the crossing. NE corner slowed me down a lot, and I needed all six crossings for TENREC. Had smuCKERS in there for a while, but SPEEDu not being a thing made my realize my mistake. Also, about 23D, obviously it's a valid clue and answer, but I found it very jarring. SAUNAs aren't exactly associated with Iceland. Using Finnish for the clue would have been much better clueing. If a misdirect was intended, it's a very bizarre one. Misdirects are good when they are clever or words with multiple meanings/senses. The hot spot part was good, the Iceland part was not
@Steven M. For REC, think "letter of recommendation".
@Steven M. REC for recommendation.
@Steven M. Perhaps Iceland was used as a misdirect given that country’s many volcanoes. Still, I’m inclined to agree with you.
@Steven M. I agree that SAUNA was a tough misdirect, but I did fill it in quickly based on crosses. And then glowered a bit. I've been to Iceland. Of all the hot things it's known for, a SAUNA is not it. People bathe in hot pools every day, plus then there are the volcanoes, geothermal heat, mantle hot spot, and mid-Atlantic ridge. All hot.
Seeing 35D (DIETS) as an entry brings to mind the quip: "I've been meaning to go on a diet, but I have too much on my plate right now."
@RichardZ I'm on two diets at the moment. You simply don't get enough to eat with just one.
"When you divide an odd number by an even number, there's always something left over." "Oh, yeah! Thanks for the friendly remainder." (I've seen multiple puns like this. I can only recall a fraction of them.)
@Mike Although you said there wouldn't be any, math always adds something, don't you think?
Mike, Do you mean an integer remainder? I guess I don’t see your point. ( I’m slow at math, but I’ll ratio to the decimal expansion. :)
@Mike Reading the comments always pays a dividend.
Lords are not MPS. MPS sit in the commons. Lords don’t and can’t. The Houses of Parliament are two. Not sure how BATS swat crickets. I just hope this isn’t some reference to the sport. That would be an insult. The top right was very much not fun for me. While TENREC could be regarded as esoteric general knowledge, crossing it with ANNE Meara and whatever CROCKER was supposed to signify was just making things harder. Got there in the end but it took a while. Thanks
@Ιασων Good to know about MPs. I had a feeling something was a bit amiss there, in that I had usually seen Member of Parliament used for the House of Commons. (On the other hand I know nothing at all about the House of Lords. What have they done in the past century? Anything?) Anyway, my question is this: Did MPS pop into your mind when you read the clue? What I mean is, did the clue get you to think the right answer even if it wasn't really right? Anyway, I love these...what...near hits? Makes for great subject matter in the comments.
@Ιασων hear hear! However, I raised this Lords/MPs thing before and I got swatted. It’s just not cricket! 🏏
@Ιασων Betty Crocker is my guess. Not obvious to me. No idea about the crossing animal. A natick for sure.
@Ιασων Aren't BATS used in cricket to swat the ball? I felt pretty confident that I knew cricket bat. Please explain how that's insulting. Not a sportsball person.
Babe Ruth, the Sultan of Swat.
@Ιασων Ah yes, the good old “Lords aren’t MPs” nit. That objection just doesn’t even begin to hold up — “MP” is a word that is used much more generically, by people all around the world, than simply “a member of the British House of Commons”.
@Ιασων Oh, and of course BATS as “cricket swatters” is a reference to the sport, but it’s not an insult, just wordplay — “swat” is just a synonym for “hit”, and cricket is a sport in which bats are used to hit things (i.e. as “hitters”). The clue is deliberately constructed to be grammatically ambiguous (it could also be parsed as “things that swat crickets”). But it’s Saturday…
@Ιασων Agreed. I looked this up to be sure but I think you are right. It’s like Congessman and Senator here. They are both in the Congress but it’s understood that congressman means House of Representatives. If you call a senator a congressman you’ll get a nasty look. Similarly although both are part of Parliament but appears only members of the Commons would be called MP.
@Ιασων I don’t agree about the cricket clue though. It just means something that swats things in the game of cricket. I may be a baseball fan, but that doesn’t mean I collect the balls or appreciate how they are made, it just means l like the game.
Saunas are from Finland. Yes you can say they have them in Iceland but the. You may as well have said “hot spots in Canada” if that’s the logic.
@Mika Well, this amateur geologist really liked the choice of Iceland: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_hotspot" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceland_hotspot</a>
This puzzle was far too easy for a seasoned solver like me. As a native of Madagascar, I got TENREC right away. I also happen to work at a grocery store. CROCKER was an easy hint to solve. Nice try Barbara. Better luck next time stumping the best crossword solver on the island.
So the seed entry is 16 letters across. That explains why my time was as slow as it was. That, and the fact that I was watching the tail end of an unusually long (and exasperating, as it was a loss) Mets game. And the fact that this was a relatively hard puzzle, at least according to xwstats.com, which describes it as Very Hard, with the mean solving time at 20:37, with the median solver 26% slower than usual (and these numbers will rise as more stats come in, as the earliest solves are usually be very experienced solvers). 80% solved slower than usual, and 60% solved much slower (that is more than 20% slower) than their average. Today, DIANE was not a steak. MORAYs are eels, not social constructs. and BETTE is sitting right beside ASSES. TENREC for me was a train wreck. PAH is not a word I use. Which meant 1A was the last headscratcher. I, not big on mythology, was starting to doubt that LEDA was correct, but it was. And I had to realize the party was TURNT and not burnt before I could see TUNIS (but not from my house). And the Intel asset wasn't a spy. Enough of my RANTS. Happy weekend, everyone.
@Steve L I don't know how to feel about my time being six times longer than mean. Well, I may be slow, but I sure do mess up a lot.
@Francis I think xwstats is very skewed towards fast solvers. They are proud to post; slow solvers not so much.
@Steve L I kept wanting to put "spy" in there too but resisted because the clue said, "for short." This puzzle took me an hour and a half with no lookups. Hard but satisfying. It took my husband 22 minutes (he's been solving for decades), and he also felt it was hard.
@Steve L TUNIS was the first thing I thought of, but doubted it slightly once I got to TURNT. I can't imagine using that word outside of Crosslandia. And why is a CPU an asset? Isn't it a necessity, assuming Intel is a computer reference?
@Steve L Doesn't the time of posting depend on your time zone? Or do you mean something different? I usually solve in the morning (UK time), although I often comment much later.
@Steve L Yeah I intentionally didn't say brag. Many are proud of themselves. I don't look at the site much - I come here to get a rough idea of puzzle difficulty.
Tenrec? TENREC?? T E N R E C ??? When I saw it, I forgave myself for having to consult Prof. Google for some Madagascar fauna to find it. Everything else was done except two letters, which didn't seem to add up to a word. But otherwise, I'd say this puppy was TURNT, because I GOTCHA, Barbara Lin, and I had a lot of fun with your puzzle. Thank you!
I'm angry with myself for misreading the clues for "half of a classic comedy duo." I could see that "Meara" would fit for one of the entries, but I disregarded that because I thought it was asking for two separate people (like Abbott and Costello). Pooh.
@HEK I don't think that was a "misreading", but an intentional (and clever) misdirect. I, too, hesitated to put in MEARA, seeing that Stiller wouldn't fit in 11-Down, but then the penny dropped -- thankfully, because ANNE was my only toehold in the NE for a long time!
@HEK Yeah...I tried to shoehorn PEALE and KEYE in there (I know, I know.)
Hamlet says "PAH" over Yorick's skull; admittedly not meaning [as if] but more like [Yuck]. Uh-oh: did I just suggest another misdirect to the constructors and editors? This was my first-ever time doing a puzzle on the night before and I was surprised to find it fairly easy for a Saturday. I did have HAH for a long time but couldn't find a way to make 1A right no matter how many alphabet runs I tried. Like many others, I thought the comedy duo would be 2 different people. But eventually it really did have to be ANNE and then her last name popped out of that mysterious amalgam of synapses to which others have alluded. Hoping that it rains REALLY HARD in DC today
I thought this was delightful. Clue after clue with wonderful misdirects but none I could really complain about. Certainly not EASYPEASY but an enjoyable challenge.
So earlier today, I woke up and read news that hits very close to home here in Minnesota. And I decided I didn't want to be awake anymore. But one can only be not awake for so long. 😭😭😭 So I'm up again and I just wanted to say thank you so much to those of you who had well wishes and advice for me about the dizziness and fall I experienced earlier this week. Looking up the realigning of crystals led me to some acupressure point exercises that seem to really be helping. I basically just haven't been dizzy anymore after doing them, and that's been a first time for not being dizzy in weeks! Thank you!!!
@HeathieJ Dang, had no idea. I hope you continue to get better.
@HeathieJ I'm glad something is helping. I had the same reaction to the "local" news today. I now feel like you and I and everyone else who isn't asleep are open murder targets. Probably expecting a pardon even if things go badly. And one side doesn't even care.
@HeathieJ Good news about the dizziness. Bad news everywhere else. I'm still in shock. I (skeptically) hope this is a wake up call.
@HeathieJ Sincerely we are all affected by the losses that you in MInnesota experienced today. In NYC, No Kings participants walked down Fifth Avenue peaceably and purposefully. May we all find ways to interact and grow better together than at odds or in grief.
Maybe crosswords aren't for me, this one felt like obscurity laced with eye-rolls. I've never heard someone say they "Hung a TV Set" for instance.
@J Walker People hang flat screen tvs on walls all the time.
@J Walker Saturdays are cruel level. It’s for those who have both the arcane knowledge of facts and polysimnsy down pat. General rule of thumb for Saturday is the answer “could work somewhere.” One of the Saturday clues was a meta clue to what Saturday puzzles give, the answer was “nerd cred”. That is true. Keep at it. It’s your puzzle. Solve it as you see fit. Some of the tricks seem unfair. But someone somewhere can solve it. Which means I am not that smart either.
With the maybe in the clue and on a Saturday, it seemed fair game to me. It didn't come easily, but I snickered when it did.
@J Walker If a TV SET somewhere can be said to be hanging on a wall, well, that’s good enough in a Saturday puzzle. (I got it…but only thanks to crosses.)
@J Walker I would be very hesitant to use this one to determine if "crosswords are for you". I would guess that even some of the elite solvers here actually had to dig a bit for this one.
"Pah"? Really. Pah. Ooooooookay there NYT whatever you say.
@LJADZYes, I do not RECommend they use that clue/answer again.
oh how I wish they could all be this good thanks Barbara!
Surely all is forgiven. <a href="https://www.lvzoo.org/animals/lesser-madagascar-hedgehog-tenrec" target="_blank">https://www.lvzoo.org/animals/lesser-madagascar-hedgehog-tenrec</a>/
@dutchiris How could anyone not love a face like that?
@dutchiris Wish I could ten-rec your post!
A smooth and polished grid chock-full of interesting answers plus some really fiendish cluing. This extremely entertaining puzzle makes a strong case for more themeless puzzles in the NYT. When you don't have to accommodate a theme, you can -- especially if you're as talented a grid-maker as Barbara Lin -- avoid all the short junky crosswordese that clutters up so many puzzles and focus on the quality of your fill. What wonderful clues for READ PALMS; DECATHLETE; HIBERNATE; STAINS; SNAKE EYES; TV SET and VET. I found this on the hard side throughout -- and very hard in the SW where I didn't know FALCONS, LUGE as clued and CPU as clued. Couldn't remember what instrument was played in the AIR -- and STAINS baffled me because I had written in ?EINS thinking that the instrument would end in ER. A real joy to solve. Very Saturday-worthy, but without any suffering involved.
@Nancy I agree wholeheartedly. I actually prefer themeless puzzles because I don't usually rely on themes to solve, and a lot of them go right over my head anyway.
First it was awful, and then it wasn't. FINALLY got a toehold after many frustratingly empty squares. The back-stretch went surprisingly quickly. Loved this challenging Saturday puzzle.
Hard to choose the most sly, tricky, misleading, and evil part of this puzzle.... Not TENREC, because who would (a) know that, or (b) believe it? Not PAH (instead of HAH) because that was a Fake Word. Runner-Up: the 8D/11D combo clue And ....Wiener and Champeen! Is 42A because I didn't believe it until I got halfway through my protestation, "They don't use ESTS for Ball Game statis...Oh. Oh, you devils!" I've never heard of GOTCHA DAY. Will check with Charlotte the Kitty and see what she calls it (or if she remembers turning herself inside out greeting us through the PetCo plastic window... Irresistible. )
Late to the party today: first work got in the way (but managed to chip away at the puzzle during my lunch break), then met up with my Partner at an out-doors party, with six thousand of my best friends. But I wanted to stop in and share a favorite poem, by Edna St. Vincent Millay: I am in love with him to whom a hyacinth is dearer Than I shall ever be dear. On nights when the field-mice are abroad he cannot sleep: He hears their narrow teeth at the bulbs of his hyacinths. But the gnawing at my heart he does not hear.
"...with six thousand of my best friends." Bill, Amen.
"Gee, you want me to turn right? Haw!! I turned left!"
Lordamercy had to call uncle for the first time in a long time. TENREC? What in the… Not knowing ANNE MEARA and hanging onto Smucker for too long, I just gave up. Enjoyed some of the clues (DECATHLETE and READPALMS) but who cares how often Ozempic is taken? You stumped me, Barbara! Think I’ll go do some Mondays to soothe my ego.
I escaped by the skin of my teeth. I think that may have been the hardest I've worked for a gold star, but I was engrossed the whole time (a little over two hours, if you must know). The answers seemed so tantalizingly out of my reach, and often I found the answer I was grasping for was wrong. I did myself no favor by spelling AIRES AriES. And having sexorgies instead of GROUPDATE was also a bit of a barrier, if not an amusing one. 62A [Small Roll] literally took me an eternity. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but I timed it. An Eternity. Maybe more. One thing, though, and I'm sure I'll be educated about this from one of the dear people on this forum, but I was dead set on 36D being Detroit. The Lions. Maybe because they won a championship or two before the Super Bowl Era? I suspect I'm going over a lot of material that's already been commented on, or will be commented on. But, this was fun. In my heart of hearts I thought I was going to be calling on the cheats with not even half the puzzle finished.
@Francis I wonder if I would have managed to complete the puzzle unaided in 2 hours. I filled in most of it in 45 minutes, but then I finally had to deal with the NE corner I have just described in my post above. There were so many unknowns there I gave them several minutes, but then looked them up. I just don't enjoy poring over names and trivia, as they are my least favorite part of any puzzle. This was a great grid though, slightly marred for me by that trivia-heavy corner.
@Andrzej I've often wondered why sometimes I stick with it for so long, and other times I throw in the towel early. But yeah, that NE. I think I had _ _ N E _ R, and suddenly I saw VENEER, even though I was thinking along the wrong lines. [Superficial part] made me think of cameo roles in movies, or vestigial organs. VENEER came out of nowhere. In fact, that happened a lot this puzzle. Answers just exploding after complete confusion. One of the most thrilling and mysterious thing to me is to ponder what's happening in the five or ten seconds before the word appears "instantly".
While I did enjoy this puzzle for the most part, I do have a bone to pick with 37D (Some Lords, in brief) Lords are members of the House of Lords, while MPs are members of the House of Commons.
@H Welcome! Your party has already arrived and is seated below.
@H I could argue that in a loose sense some lords are members of Parliament. But that is with the lower case letters which do not legitimately abbreviate to MP. There have been a couple of Westminster MPs with the surname "Lord", one of whom lost his seat at the last general election. If there have been MPs called Lord in some other countries which use that abbreviation, then it might be the legitimate to clue MPS as "What some Lords have been."
Kudos for including GOTCHA DAY. Let's celebrate all the pet adoptions.
@Linda Jo No disrespect towards human adoptees. I've only heard of "gotcha day" from animal shelters and rescue groups.
I am learning that maybe I need to have more than one cup of coffee before attempting a Saturday. I was all but convinced that TMC was a typo, thinking that surely the clued haven could only be Turner Classic Movies, but I guess The Movie Channel exists…(I still think avid film buffs would take issue with the clue!)
@Katya TMC often appears in the puzzle, and it always confuses me. Every movie lover I know is a fan of TCM, not TMC.
Having lived in Iceland for 8 years, I object to this clue for SAUNA. Saunas are not really an Icelandic thing at all, though they have some now for tourists. I liked my answer better, ASKJA, a well known active Icelandic volcano, but alas that was wrong. Instead of EASYPEASY I had EASYASPIE for quite awhile. NOPROBLEM also fits. Luckily we lived in the UK for a while where all our kids learned to say “easy peasy lemon squeezy.” Finally, was I the only one to test out SNORTSCOKE for 1 Across? 😂
Sorry, make that SNORTCOKE
Ooohwee!! I know I'm not the first and won't be the last to say but that was so not EASYPEASY! I had to settle for a blue star today but I'm going to focus on how much of it I was able to complete on my own and still considerate a good thing, and I had fun doing it! It wasn't going fast but I was able to complete almost the whole puzzle without aides.
Ugh, my finger slipped on the submit button. Anyhow, basically from when I put hAH instead of PAH, I was doomed. Haven't heard PAH and hAH made sense, but that made me put in readhands, which, granted I've never heard of, but thought maybe it was a variation of PALMS. I've heard weirder things here in the crosswords! Hee! nED? and dEA?A were unknowns, though I know of ANNE MEARA, just not dEA?A. N didn't work. YARD is not something I've ever heard of in relation to beer. Admittedly, I'm not a beer drinker, so maybe this is a common thing, but I would never willingly go near a pint of beer, let alone three. Eventually I had to reveal two squares the A and the R in YARD But still didn't get the blue star. That's when I was able to recognize MEARA and plunk in PALMS blue star. Meanwhile, next door, I hung on to bikini too long and struggled in that area too. I was able to work it all out myself through working every crossing and wracking every little gray cell. Heavy sigh! Shaking my fist at PAH! 😉 It was fun and engaging to do though, so no complaints! Every time I don't get a gold star, which I won't allow if I use help, I choose to consider it a teachable moment. Except about beer, don't try to teach me about beer. All I need to know is that in crosswords, it's either ale or IPA. If it includes hoppy I'll go with IPA, otherwise I'll wait. But don't tell my Wisconsin roots about my disdain, please. ☺️ Cheers, all! 🍸🍸
@HeathieJ "Ooohwee!" is the catchphrase of a certain character on "Rick and Morty". Look it up and you'll know why I laughed when I saw the line in your post 😆
Congratulations on having completed the NYT weekly cycle, Ms Lin! I found this a bit crunchy, due to the witty clueing and a couple of mostly incorrect answers, especially fENnEC (which I should have remembered is a type of fox) and amaranTH. I had no doubt, though, about the wonderful NINA SIMONE. I regret we only saw her live once, when she was in her 60s. I have always loved her studio version of “I Put a Spell on You,” which has a fantastic sax solo (by Jerome Richardson, I think). <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2k52n_Bvw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua2k52n_Bvw</a>
@Eric Hougland I, too, only saw Nina Simone once in person, but got 31D instantly. I saw her in a small venue in Greenwich Village, in the early '70's. Of course, I loved her, but what I remember most about the evening was that it was winter, I was wearing a mini-skirt with tights, and the person across from me toppled a whole drink into my lap. The walk home wasn't fun!
Also, I don't think I've seen this one commented on but I thought 42A [Ballpark nos.] was a brilliant misdirections. I had RBIs, I had ERAs, I don't know what all I had. Laughed out loud as ESTS. He really got me with a wicked curve ball.
@Francis Hah! For once my baseball ignorance paid off! I went straight to ESTS and felt somewhat confident about it.
@Francis [Ballpark fig.] for EST has appeared 20 times; [Ballpark figs.] for ESTS, 5 times. Remember it; it'll be back.
This one baffled me, and I'm from Natick.
PAH stands for Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension, which is what this puzzle gave me. I found it far from EASY PEASY, although I did manage to GALUMPH my way through. Eventually. I have never heard of GOTCHA DAY, which sounds a bit like the celebration of a prank. At my house, we observe National Roo Day, with all the pomp and doggy circumstance the little guy deserves.
@Heidi I absolutely loved “National Roo Day.” My reading your post was followed by an immediate and solemn proclamation of National Gato Day in our house—imitation being the sincerest form etc., etc.
@Heidi One will occasionally see "PAH" in a book. It's been around for a while. OED: The earliest known use of the word pah is in the late 1500s. OED's earliest evidence for pah is from 1592, in the writing of Thomas Kyd, playwright and translator.
Which bit of silliness is sillier? 'When an eel bites your thigh, and you bleed out and die, That's a MORAY." or Quote said by a lover of Japanese food, moving to a restaurant desert: "O tempura! O MORAYs!"
@The X-Phile The first is a marvel. I'm dashing away tears as I type.
@The X-Phile I've always heard that one as... When a fish bites your heel and it looks like an eel, That's a moray. ....
@The X-Phile <a href="https://youtu.be/SezOrE0zRFo?si=IopWHBXwwA_4-GMo" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/SezOrE0zRFo?si=IopWHBXwwA_4-GMo</a> Someone made a song of it a while back
Tough? Chute. This one was easy-peasy. Odiously so. Lies. All lies. But I will not apologize! Yeah I will. Sorry, but this was tough for me. Got the fun ones- BATS FRIENDLY REMINDER SKYDIVERS HIBERNATE… But, man! Those little fillers got me! MPR ESTS PAH REC slowed me down! And how! Thank you, thank you Barbara! This is why I throw my money at this subscription. This!!
Of all the 1350 puzzles in my current streak, this was my least favourite for reasons that everyone else has already mentioned. Took about 10 minutes to solve just about the whole thing and many many more to finally guess around the remaining obscure references and 5 down. Pretty Awful, Honestly.
@Moops Different strokes, etc. I could have lifted the heart of your comment without changing a word to say why I enjoyed this Saturday struggle. I wish you smoother sailing.
@Moops So, by definition, the faster you solve it, the better the puzzle is?
I'm refusing to finish this one. MPs aren't lords, ever - same way you can't simultaneously be a senator and a congressman. Saunas are Finnish - Icelanders prefer hot springs. TCM isn't also TMC. There were some fun clues and I like the setter's sense of wordplay but you'll have to read the Athletic to find worse editing in the Times. (Don't actually do that - it's bad for the digestion.)
@Michael Lords can actually be MPs---there have been a few. They just can't sit in both the House of Commons and the House of Lords simultaneously. Viscount John Thurso, for instance, a hereditary peer, and therefore addressed as "Lord Thurso", was a Member of the House of Lords, then a Member of Parliament, then a Member of the House of Lords again. He's just the most remarkable example.
Oikofuge, Don't confuse the late posters with facts; they have already made up their minds.
@Michael I know next to nothing about British government, but according to google AI: "Yes, the House of Lords is indeed part of the Parliament of the United Kingdom." Again, google finds lots and lots of hits for Finnish saunas (more than, say, Arizona). As others have said, film lovers probably like TMC (The Movie Channel.) You should have finnished :) the puzzle.
@Michael members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords are all Members of Parliament. We tend to use MP to refer to an elected representative in the House of Commons, but that is just convention, and fairly recent (in the history of the Parliament), technically they are all MPs
Many erasures today, which is a sign of a truly great Saturday puzzle. Thanks, Ms. Lin! I usually know all of the animal answers, but TENREC was new to me. The TENREC, CROCKER, TMC crossing gave me fits. With _RO_KER in place it shouldn't have taken me as long as it did to see CROCKER, but the preconceived notion that I was looking for a grocery store chain name kept getting in my way. Another FRIENDLY REMINDER to be flexible.
Whew. One of my favorite constructors but this was a really tough one for me. Relieved to see that for once I'm not the only one who struggled with it. Eight debut answers and three others that had never appeared in a Shortz era puzzle. Was a bit surprised by that as most of those were fairly familiar terms. And.. had to go look at her previous puzzles. Here's one of my favorites. A Wednesday from August 2, 2023. A couple of theme clues and answers: "Starting with an X in the corner, say?" TICTACTOETACTIC "Rocket launcher that makes a whimsical buzzing sound?" KAZOOBAZOOKA And the other two theme answers: GOFARINFARGO TORMENTEDMENTOR Pretty amazing. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/2/2023" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/2/2023</a> ....
Bah, yep; gah, okay, hah, sure. Pah? Nope.
PAH? Yep. <a href="https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pah" target="_blank">https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/pah</a>
@William Kash 100%. Dreadful fill. No surprise Barry defends it, though.
@William Kash REC was bad too.
Yes, Chet, I do defend the existence of words.
@Barry Thanks for the link. I see that PAH was quite popular in the 1830's. Shortly thereafter it was heading for (its much warranted) extinction---until the invention of the crossword puzzle in the early 20th century revived it. ;-)
Xword Junkie, I believe PAH has retained more currency on the other side of the Atlantic.
I’m astonished by those who found this easy. This took 20 minutes over my 35 minute Saturday average. Definitely a worthy challenge and no complaints except for PAH, which is absolutely absurd. I guess there are some constructors who have a cluing style that is hard for even some experienced solvers to jibe with — while other solvers just zip through quickly.
@Paul R One could publish a crossword up with both clues and answers total random gibberish, and some people would claim it was too easy.
Paul, As per xwdstats, some people found this easier than the (recent) average Sunday. I also was not one of them. Difficulty Very Hard Median Solve Time 22:36 Median Solver 32% slower ⚡14% of users solved faster than their Saturday average. 4% solved much faster (>20%) than their Saturday average. 🐢86% of users solved slower than their Saturday average. 65% solved much slower (>20%) than their Saturday average.
@LarryF people keep saying that, like Shakespeare isn't known for making up words and those words are somehow relevant today because they haven't been used in five centuries? No, they are nonce words and further out of place in a crossword than proper nouns.
Hello all-- The Durham Wordplay group has been pretty dormant recently, but we're looking at a possible lunch or brunch, most likely in July. If you're in the area and interested in meeting up with other crossword solvers, send an email to crosswordgrrl at gmail.com (notice the spelling) to be added to the distribution list.