I could write several GRAPHS-GRAPHS on how I missed this theme! After reading Sam explain it in the column I watched my ego SHOOT-SHOOT to the earth, and believe me, it's not going to SALE-SALE up to my previously self-contented state any time soon. But MOUNT-MOUNT to anything else, even getting the theme, is that it was fun, clever and wicked. Oops, it's raining outside here in the burgh, and I forgot my SOL-SOL. There's probably a Biblical BULL-BULL about being caught out in the rain...
@john ezra Same. Solved it without "getting it." Still, a fun cup of coffee.
@john ezra and @Andy Yep, I got the puzzle quickly but had to come here to get the theme. And I don't agree with Sam that it's "pair o." Just say "para" before each pair.
"I saw my optometrist and cardiologist at the same time!" "You can't! That's a pair o' docs!" (Eye heart these puns.)
@Mike That was spectacular. Aorta congratulate you on your your double double, but you never cava, even under all kinds of pressure.
@Mike “Doctor, Doctor, I feel funny!” “Let me see your humerus” “You think something is doing me ‘arm?” “No, I think it’s your gag reflex.” “Doctor, you think I’m choking?!” “You just need a little heir, so let’s give the leg a see” “How did you know I’m going to be a father?” “It’s apparent! You just need some mirth control.”
@Mike When I was going to the store the other day, I metaphysician. He and his partner keep kosher -- they're orthodox.
@Mike Masterful puns today, Mike! You outdid yourself.
Ruined a long Tuesday streak for me unfortunately. Never heard of GELID, and I had MEALS for the wheels rhyme. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Surely we could have put a fraction more effort into the clue for DEALS beyond a rhyme? I had to hunt for that first letter after mEALS didn't work, which is a rhyme that makes sense to me. The cross was no help either.
I went for MEALS initially too... I hope there's some link between DEALS and wheels that we're missing? Bc GELID was very much a new word for me lol
@Shrike that was my oner (😃) too, and my dad was a car salesman!
@Shrike I'm reading Hyperion by Dan Simmons, and your name unnerves me. Anyway, I knew it couldn't have been meals, because Meals on Wheels is capitalized, and the wheels in the clue wasn't. I thought it was a decent clue for a Tuesday: wheels and DEALS.
@Shrike Clues asking for a partner are usually looking for a phrase of the form “[clue] _and_ ANSWER”. “Meals _on_ Wheels” doesn’t fit, whereas “wheels _and_ deals” does. And, as Katie points out, “wheels” wasn’t capitalised as it would need to be for Meals on Wheels
@Katie Hyperion is actually the source of my name!
The theme was more opaque to me than on many a Thursday. I stared at its entries and the "revealer" and understood nothing. I needed the column to grasp what was going on. *Of course* there was an abstract and phonetic element - my two nemeses rolled into one. Ouch. The fill the would have completely defeated me two years ago - so much of it were words and names I have learned here over 24 months, including REBA, SSNS, OLA[F] (I can never remember if it's a v or an F), HAR, Alley OOP, and ESAU. Strangely, I filled the grid quite fast for a Tuesday, without lookups, despite being clueless about the theme. Without previous NYT crossword puzzle experience I would have been completely stumped. I can't say I personally enjoyed the experience. For crossword veterans with better IQs than mine this must have been quite nice, I suppose. Newcomers, especially from outside the US, probably have no chance of solving this.
@Andrzej You can’t remember whether it’s OLAF/V because it could be either. You have to get it from the crossing. There’s a number of words with alternate spellings that pop up. You have to hope the crossings are kind :-) As other commenters have said, many of us who are monolingual are in awe of those who can do word puzzles in second languages, let alone in other cultures!
@Sara W That's not true. The snowman from Frozen is not either/or. He's most definitely OLAF.
Lovely side road moment #1: Realizing that the theme is even cleverer than simply the PARA angle, because homophones are involved – DOCKS represents “dox”, FRAYS represents “phrase”, etc. Thus, a number of the alternative theme answers in the comments wouldn’t make it in the box today. And props to Ingrid! Lovely side road moment #2: Finding alternative theme answers: SIGHTSSIGHTS, DIMESDIMES, LACKSLACKS, TROUPESTROUPES, BULLSBULLS, SALESSALES, SHOOTSSHOOTS (on those last three – Hi, @John Ezra!). Beauty in the box moments: SCRUM, GELID, BUNGLE, SCOFF. Remarkable moment: I’m in the midst of writing lyrics to a song. One of the lines includes the word BUNGLE, and I’ve been unsure if it’s the best choice. Then here it pops up in the grid – for the first time in 64 years in a Times puzzle! – filling me with the feeling that the universe is applauding my choice. Add fun moments, and this turns out to be a momentous puzzle. Thank you, Ingrid, congratulations on your debut, and I’m eager to see what you come up with next!
@Lewis Keep BUNGLE. As in the following ( citation needed); I give you now Professor Twist, The conscientious scientists. His bosses said "He never bungles" And sent him off to distant jungles. While camped beside a river side, One day he missed his charming wife. She had, the guide informed him later, Been eaten by an alligator. Professor Twist could not but smile. "You mean", he said,"a crocodile."
@Lewis Re: "One of the lines includes the word BUNGLE," gosh, I hope it doesn't appear at the end of a phrase. I'd hate to have to find a rhyme for that. Jethro Tull already took Jungle, so good luck, my friend!
@Jerry -- Nah, it's midline. And "fungal" isn't terribly appetizing.
This was so smooth it was eerie.. you could even say normalnormal! In a lellel universe I might have BUNGLEd it, but not this one. Nice debut!
Relieved to see I’m not the only one who needed Sam’s explanation of the theme, but appreciated the cleverness once it was pointed out. The doubled words clearly stood for something, but I would never have got there on my own. Genuinely shocked to read @Sotto Voce’s explanation of New Hampshire State law re 21A. Call me an old fuddy duddy, but I can’t understand why any sentient being would rather choose an esoteric idea of ‘freedom’ over simple safety. TBF this is a personal trigger for me. I lost my best friend when her Mum’s car was hit; with no seatbelts, both she and her sister, aged 12 and 14, were thrown out of the car. This was 1972. UK seatbelt law has been mandatory since the Eighties. Oof. My post has taken a dark turn. Still, a great debut. Well done.
@Helen Wright I’m sorry to hear about your friend. I know it’s been a while, but that kind of thing stays with you forever, doesn’t it? (I woke up about 1 AM inexplicably thinking about how my younger sister was killed; she was hit by a car while crossing a street at night.)
@Helen Wright In this "Live Free or Die" state, motorcycle helmets aren't required either. When I moved here 35 years ago, I asked if I could get a license plate without "Live Free or Die" on it and was told I could not. So much for the "Live Free" part. Don't get me started on the book ban that recently passed the Senate.
Outstanding! Like so many others, I had no idea why the doubled words worked until explained. I'm both embarrassed I didn't catch it and impressed by the puzzler's skills. Thanks very much!
Ian is the Scottish form of John, but in the English language. The Scottish (Gaelic) form is Iain. 😍
33D: Icy cold . . . "Gelid" (apparently pronounced "Jellied") . . . I did well on the SAT, but this word was new to me. Am I the only one? Or it perhaps a regional term?
@Andrew Kennelly Although I'm sure you aren't the only one unfamiliar with the word, it's pronounced with a short i, two words stuck together, GEL and LID. Cool word, huh? Pun intended.
@Andrew Kennelly The word was familiar to me but I always thought it to mean “frozen” (like a dessert) and not icy cold (like weather), but I had enough crosses that it came easily to me anyway.
@Andrew Kennelly I've seen gelid, but never used the word.
@Andrew Kennelly Merriam-Webster tells us that "gelid" comes from the Latin adjective "gelidus" which in turn comes from the Latin noun "gelu" meaning frost or cold.
@Andrew Kennelly I know it, so it’s um unlikely to be a regional US thing 😉
@Andrew Kennelly, I "learned" GELID long ago from a science fiction novel, West of Eden, that was clearly using it to mean "gelatinous"... oops. Apparently it took 30 years and a crossword puzzle for me to learn better.
@Andrew Kennelly I learned gelid in the NYT Spelling Bee. Surprised that I remembered it.
Awful theme. As an attorney PARA is pronounced with a short A. To make the theme work, you would need to pronounce it with a long A. Easy solve but poor theme. C'mon NYT, do better.
@Allen I’m a retired attorney. The agency I worked for always had a few paralegals on staff. We never called them PARAS, but to me, the first A in paralegal sounds closer to a long A than a short one. Interestingly, I consulted two dictionaries while writing this comment. Neither one purports to have an opinion on how the prefix/combining form PARA- should be pronounced.
@Allen Your comment did not resonate with me at all. I thought the theme completely worked .
@Allen Gee, I know a number of people who pronounce it with a long A sound. Maybe you need to get out a little more.
@Allen As an attorney, I pronounce the first syllable of “paralegal” as “pair.” So the theme worked perfectly for me. Cast your mind back to law school when we were taught to consider different points of view.
@Allen As an attorney, I thought this was an excellent theme.
@Allen the only way I could sympathize with the tone and severity of your comment is is “paralegals” didn’t sound like “pair o’legals” *at all*. I shouldn’t think of the latter when I heard the former unless so prompted. While they don’t sound *exactly* alike —and happily for this crossword— they do sound close enough to one another to be evocative without prompting. If you don’t hear it, then you’re going out of your way to find fault with things.
@Allen as non-attorney, I really dislike lazy replies such as “C'mon NYT, do better” when someone is trying to sound superior. Yawn. Not impressed.
This was a very relaxing puzzle, so my SYMPATHETICSYMPATHETIC nervous system was able to put on a great performance as I solved. I loved the constructor's creative IDEA and had fun piecing together the themers. Thank you, Ms. Steffensen, and congratulations on a clever debut! Of course Foreigner's "Double Vision" would have been a perfect soundtrack for this puzzle ( <a href="https://youtu.be/dD-SpHH7qDA?si=OO68smhp_HhJOJDm" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/dD-SpHH7qDA?si=OO68smhp_HhJOJDm</a>) but what I really want to leave you with is a treasure from the Carol Burnett show, featuring The Jackson 5 and ABC: <a href="https://youtu.be/64n-t9Sw7F0?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/64n-t9Sw7F0?feature=shared</a> Enjoy!:-)
@sotto voce 😂 Carol Burnett. I never got tired of watching Carol Burnett.
@sotto voce What a great clip from Carol Burnett! Early in the skit, the camera shakes, and Carol says "the earth just moved." Wait, was that an actual earthquake ? Yep. I found a clip of her talking about it. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B2zIpZGWe7Y" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/shorts/B2zIpZGWe7Y</a> My word, she was good.
@sotto voce Loved it! Thank you for sharing!
Clever theme, kudos to the constructor. No trouble completing. But maybe I’m just slow tonight — I needed to read the explainer before understanding the theme.
I wouldn’t mind being a little more GELID right now!
Maybe it's just my accent but para and pair of sound nothing alike to me. Easy enough solve anyway
@James I would hazard that they both approximate to “perra” with a New York twang. As an ex-pat Scot I vividly remember an elementary teacher telling me my pronunciation of “of” was misleading my children.
Was really thrown off by GELID. Never heard that before. Odd since I live in a frozen state 8 months of the year…
@Darren That one threw me too, especially since 55A could've been clued better. My mind went to "Meals on Wheels" before it went to "wheelin' and dealin'.
To paraFRAYS Gilbert and Sullivan: How quaint the ways of paraDOCKS, for me this puzzle really rocks. For fans of covers that reinvent the original song, Patti Smith’s cover of SMELLS Like Teen Spirit is interesting.
@Marshall Walthew Thanks for the recommendation! I like both Nirvana and Patti Smith, but I don't think I've heard that. I have a vague memory of Tori Amos covering that song. But having looked it up on secondhandsongs.com, I kinda wonder who *hasn't* covered it?
What a fun one and a debut to boot! I was zipping through and did not really try to grasp what was going on until I hit the reveal/hint at PARAS. Had a good laugh there so thanks for that. However, my ear worm now, with a hat tip to Yip Harburg, is . . . . . . "Brother, can you paradigm?" Well done and thanks.
@John Carson this is hilarious!!! 😂 Thanks for this.
Glad of the explanation of the theme. Very clever. Nice to see my name make a crossword appearance. That’s a first
The parents of a friend in college were both doctors. I took inordinate delight in reminding him they were a pair a' docs.
Count me as one who appreciated the revealer. I knew to double the theme answers but needed the revealer to understand why :-)
I don't understand all the complaints here about how PARA and "pair of" don't sound the same to them. I don't pronounce them the same either, and I don't know any/many people who do, but they're close enough that I can certainly see the similarity and get the joke. I'm reminded of the Marx Brothers' famous routine "Why a Duck?" It's probably a small percentage of the population that pronounce viaduct and "why a duck?" the same, but, thankfully, most of us get the joke. Here's a short clip of the scene: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHMrLpDHXc0" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHMrLpDHXc0</a> and for true fans, here's a longer version: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om45xUUVYGw" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=om45xUUVYGw</a>
@The X-Phile For me, they're a lo-o-o-ng way apart, and the joke was utterly impenetrable. After reading the explanation in the blog, I've been repeating it in various accents, but still no DICE. No great loss, since I'm not a fan of that sort of pun, and I solved without needing to know it, despite a thicket of unknowns in the upper half.
@The X-Phile Man, they get a LOT of mileage out of a joke! (And a hard boiled egg.)
@Oikofuge I'm not foolish enough to argue with a Scotsman about English pronunciation.
@The X-Phile In spoken, conversational English in the North East of the USA, I would say they can be pronounced the same. The O of "of" reduces to a schwa and the F of "of" drops off, just as many consonants do at the end of words or phrases. So while a person may enunciate carefully and pronounce "lieslies" as "a pair of lies," in a conversation it could easily reduce to "a pair uh lies," which sounds just like "paralyze" to me. It's kind of like "what are you eating?" reducing to "Whatcha eatin?"
@The X-Phile The Marx Brothers were masters of mispronunciations and misunderstood phrases. Since much lot of their routines were ad lib, it was even more gut-busting funny. Genius of you to reference the viaduct skit!
“It’s so hot, you might need to double your intake of icy treats” according to a paradocsicles’ opinions. Parafrays made me think of Daisy Dukes. Nice puzzle!
Easy peasy, with nothing sleazy or cheesy. Congratulations, Ingrid, and welcome to the Times!(Repetition that makes sense is a lot harder than words that rhyme.)
Love this trick—when I got “para” and looked back at the double clues, I cracked up. Good job! I also learned something today. I recently ended a 50 some year career in music, and I always thought of “Assai” as “enough”. Just like French “assez “, right? “Molto ” was the fastest possible, “assai” a little slower. I never bothered to look it up. It took retirement and this puzzle to put things straight—maybe I’ll go back and look at all those Mozart and Beethoven finales! (Of course for a violist, it’s kind of a moot point—we’re always playing as fast as we can!)
@Judith Nelson I'm with you on the "MOLTO" and "assai." I was forced to learn the violin at the age of 8, and learned all the music theory I could stand. After 5 years of it, I put it aside, later teaching myself rock and roll guitar. This was circa 1971, and I still have my violin and play it once in a while. I still have an autographed black and white of Isaac Stern hanging up in my studio downstairs! There's nothing like rocking out to Bob Seger's "Sunspot Baby" or Billy Squier's "Lonely is the Night" under Isaac's watchful eye. 😉 Thanks for bringing back those memories!
The arcane GELID crossed with a clue that doesn’t pair “wheels” with MEALS was too much for a Tuesday. When I came across 55A I naturally assumed, without any other context provided, the clue referenced the massive, international “Meals on Wheels” charity program, rather than a seemingly random other word that happens to rhyme with wheels. I’m sure “deals on wheels” has been used in many advertisements for car sales, and was apparently the title of a British television program that ran for a few years in the late 90s, but I had absolutely no way to figure out this was the “rhyming partner” in question. When there is another, much more famous “partner” around, more context ought to be given in the clue.
@MRR, the phrase is "wheels and deals", as in, spins and ducks and dodges on the way to striking a deal. I'm sure you're right about "deals on wheels" for car sales pitches!
This was so much fun. I actually had solved the entire puzzle before I figured what was going on. That took me maybe half a minute to figure out. Cute and clever. Wordplay.
I loved the theme today and thought it was very clever. My one and only complaint is the pairing of an extremely obscure adjective (GELID) with a “rhymes with” cross. I had “GELIM” for a long time because my mind went to “meals” on “wheels”. And lest anyone say “gelid” isn’t obscure, according to Google Books Ngram viewer, its usage peaked in 1834.
@Nathan This was my only issue too. I did eventually get it by deducing my error had to be there, but I’d say “Meals on Wheels” is much more of a partnering phrase than “Deals” — at least in my head. So was tough to convince myself to try a different option!
@Nathan An interesting puzzle. Why was GELID so obvious to me? 1834 was 101 years ahead of my first exposure to English.
Bart, You have read. It helps.
I just want to point out that if you don't get the theme, then obviously you are pronouncing these words incorrectly. I'll see myself ooot now.
Great theme! I can't believe that no one mentioned the Allan Sherman song "One Hippopotami" <a href="https://youtu.be/FVekfpXJGBc?si=hNqpFsncp1QA9BMJ" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/FVekfpXJGBc?si=hNqpFsncp1QA9BMJ</a>
@Mark Thank you for sharing “One Hippopotami.” That made my day!
@Mark I couldn't resist the urge to tack that on to my Diary of a Crossword Fiend review. My parents had that album when I was in grade school. I think my sibs and I listened to it more than they did.
Easy solve, thanks to the repetitive theme answers. But like many, I didn't get the theme until I read the column. And that's because I would never pronounce PARA and Pair o' the same way. So I remain underwhelmed.
@Times Rita The columnist's explanation was strange. "Pair a" and "para" are pronounced the same in my neck of the woods. "Pair o" has a long O to me, but she was spelling, I think, a way to indicate leaving the F off of "of". And I realize she has only 24 hours to write a column. A few of the columns would be improved with having more time or a second set of eyes.
Fun! I liked the clever punny theme idea-made me laugh. I got it by the 2nd theme answer -- I like this kind of pun/wordplay. Nice debut! More please!
Didn't understand the theme until I read the column. Pronouncing Paras as Pair o's doesn't come naturally to me so missed this one.
@Joe I would pronounce "pair of" casually as "pair a", not "pair o". The columnist went Scottish, for some reason.
I had never heard of GELID before, and therefore nothing tipped me that I was wrong when I thought of MEALS on wheels rather than wheeling and DEALing. I feel bashful admitting that I needed the answer key on a Tuesday!
@Jay Thanks for mentioning Meals on Wheels (a useful program). I knew GELID, so DEALS was obviously correct. But having reread the clue, I can see where mEALS made sense.
Before it was a global insurance giant, LLOYD'S was a coffee shop where merchants and ship captains would meet to do business. I think it's cool that they kept the name.
@Grant Good discussion of that (and so much more!) in Tom Standage's *A History of the World in 6 Glasses* (in the chapter on "coffee,* natch.)
@Bill I've been watching a show, I mean programme, called "Britain's Most Historic Towns" which highlight a specific city as representing an historical era. The London episode was about the Restoration, but also the coffee craze of 1652.
Maybe it’s thanks to a good night’s sleep, but this went lightning-fast for me despite solving with down clues only. Having finished, however, I sat back to suss out the theme and found it quite novel and interesting. Congrats to the constructor on a clever idea and execution.
Clever and fun. Great start, Ingrid! Hope to see more puzzles from you.
In her constructor's notes, Ms. Steffensen writes "I realized that it worked much better if the constituent parts were both plurals." Perhaps it's so obvious it doesn't warrant mentioning, but part of the elegance lies in the fact that the resulting words are either singular nouns (paradox, paradise) or verbs (paralyze, paraphrase). *** *** I don't get this "para" vs. "pair o' " kerfuffle, but then, I wasn't all that merry when Mary got married. *** *** ASSAI threw me off--I think of "Allegro assai" meaning "quite fast," as opposed to "Allegro molto" which means "very fast." Google Translate and the Harvard Dictionary of Music both tell me I'm wrong, but the HDoM admits that "assai" isn't as "very" as "very." But (Italian) musical terminology is full of these ambiguities--"Andante" would mean "(at a leisurely) walking (pace)," but then, what does "più andante" mean? Do you walk faster, or slower? *** *** "Gelidus/-a/-um" is a good Latin adjective, but the Romans (or at least Catullus) also had "egelidus," which means "no longer frosty cold"--useful when you're writing "Now is the month of Maying"-type poems.
@Bill For me, merry, Mary and married have completely different vowel sounds. Is that what you mean?
@Bill Great. now I have Long Duk Dong from "16 Candles" stuck in my head. "She getting married to oily bohunk." ...because he doesn't pronounce it like merry, which is how I say it. More like the ma in matrimony.
I had to smile at this theme. My British RP accent was established before moving to California many years ago. A couple of friends of mine, both doctors, went in together on a small boat and named it Paradox. They were so pleased with how clever the name was but I just didn’t get it! I had a similar dullness to the joke name Harry Balls. My Californian offspring pronounce Marry, Mary, Merry as homophones much to the surprise of their grandparents.
Didn’t get the theme until I read the write up. Just went with the first word repeated in each entry and it worked. I knew muffins was mess up and once I had a few filled in got bungle quickly. Started out with face instead of mano and hah instead of Har. But did 4 minutes better than my average. Nice puzzle
This took me on a BOLICBOLIC ride. I wasn’t really sure what was going on until I did. Congratulations on your debut, Ingrid. Looking forward to your next one!
I'm even farther gone than I thought. Last night I was down to a few spaces in the SE, but figured I had something wrong. No English name would start "LL..." So I turned off the computer and got up to go to bed but I hadn't taken two steps when the obvious finally hit me. My GRAM, not DRAM, at 67A hadn't helped. Some lookups. I needed the third letter of LE_A Dunham to know what _ANNYCAMS were. I thought maybe the musical "very" at 41D might end with I (I looked at a lot of music pages as a kid) but looking up ASSAI suggested it was just a store name. (I didn't finish RIOTER until LLOYDS this morning). And I was very slow to catch on to the significance of 54D, even after mentally filling in all those PARAs. But I'm still sort of able to do a Tuesday without Autocheck. How much longer?
Bart, You're doing fine. NANNYCAMS weren't around when your children were babies. Neither was LENA Dunham.
@kilaueabart Just a propos of nothing much, Lloyd is originally Welsh, the even more daunting Llwyd. Lots of double l's in Welsh, indicating a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative. (Though the English name "Lloyd" is just pronounced with a simple "L" sound.)
I absolutely LOVED this puzzle. I was very frustrated at first. I got the double word answers pretty quickly but how is DICEDICE heaven?? Then I got it...paradise... Like with Sue from Pittsburgh, the aha moment made me laugh out loud. Thank you!! It helped me keep my mind off this heat for a half hour!
@Camille Guigliano I kept thinking the the ICE repeated in DICEDICE was a way to beat the heat, which would be heavenly.
I learned that an APOGEE can just be an apex, and is not necessarily the highest point of an *orbit*.
When I got the theme (from reading Wordplay, actually), I actually chuckled out loud. A very neat Tuesday puzzle!
Congratulations on a fun NYT debut, Ms Steffensen! My review at Diary of a Crossword Fiend: <a href="https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/06/23/tuesday-june-24-2025/#ny" target="_blank">https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/06/23/tuesday-june-24-2025/#ny</a>
@Eric Hougland Great song choices! And I agree that GELID is a nice word and underused. As for New Hampshire not requiring seat belts for adults over 18 in the front seats, I'm so surprised! I went down the rabbit hole and this is the explanation I found: "New Hampshire does not have a seatbelt law for adults because the state prioritizes individual freedoms over government intervention in personal safety choices. The state's motto, "Live Free or Die," reflects this sentiment. While there are seatbelt laws for children, many residents believe a law for adults would be an infringement on personal liberty."
HI, @Eric! At your suggestion, I did the BEQ puzzle yesterday. I only do NYT and Mondays' (and occasionally Tuesdays') NYers; any more would become an obsession, and my Partner would probably leave me (he gets this weird look any time I mention Wordplay) Hitting the BEQ after work, I struggled before nap/coffee/workout/dinner, then returned after nap/coffee/workout/dinner and solved it, but still not easily--just not used to a "foreign" puzzle mindset? But mainly, I wanted to Thank You, on your write-up, for the inclusion of a youtube to a number from my favorite of the Nyman/Greenaway scores!!!
Like so often recently I found this fairly difficult for it’s day, but as usual don’t mind using help and enjoyed the solve. I also enjoyed reading Ingrid's notes and look forward to more.
@suejean You did have an advantage, though, by defaulting to "disc" rather than "disk," which is the preferred English spelling in many (but not all) circumstances. This was one of those circumstances where, once again, I was forced to realize again how much consciousness consists of many different concurrent processes rather than a single linear progression of thoughts. I filled in DISk first. That gave me, when I came to it later, kASK. I was hurrying through that section, so kASK seemed when I glanced at it gave me a sense of unease, but the part of me that was shouting about the misspelling just didn't make it to the head of the queue. I've had times when, after I'd been struggling for the answer to a clue, I found what I'd been looking for, and simultaneously realized that at a slightly subconscious level part of me had been repeating the correct answer, over and over, like a digital loop.