So... you've been complaining that the puzzles are getting too easy? HA!
@Wes I have one definite answer so far. One. 😳
@Wes Yes, a pleasant change from the past few days. A Natick or two, but still enjoyable.
iHAdABLAST at first—but I prevailed at last! Fun puzzle. Very challenging. And I learned a few things.
An awesome grid that really stacked up. I truly felt a sense of accomplishment upon completion. “Adjunct faculty” for SIXTH SENSE is genius. IN SUM, a great puzzle.
@Mimi I just couldn’t get at least a third of this. Tough going.
Oh my. Here it is. Beauty, humor, wit, and skill at the top level in the box today. The art and science of the crossword puzzle paradigmed for our viewing and solving pleasure. Even before filling in the first square, that gorgeous grid. It reminds me of those fireworks that transform through various colors, and end with a matrix of popping dot-like flashes. There’s that matrix centering the grid. Those black squares are not random, as this grid has both 90- and 180-degree symmetry. So, Katie started with the grid design rather than let it change during the grid build. That can be constricting, but this answer set shows no strain, no hints of desperation. No, it shines and shimmers with beauty, unblemished. Look at those triple-stack 10s! Every one of them interesting, adding spark. Six of them have never graced the Times puzzle before – GO EASY ON ME, GOLDEN GOAL, HOME BREWER, OBOE SONATA, ROBO DIALER, WHAT A BLAST. And the cluing! A clinic. Not only searing wordplay and wit – [Adjunct faculty?] for SIXTH SENSE, are you kidding me? – but even mini clue themes, like three involving the word “spot”. Misdirects, sparkling riddles, clues that yield several answers, like [Zip] – is it meaning “nothing” or “spark”? I came in with great hope, as your last puzzle had me singing high praises, Katie, and my hope was more than met. Thank you for a marvelous outing. You can be sure that your next one is EAGERLY AWAITED. Bring it on!
@Lewis thank you for articulating why this puzzle was so great. You nailed it.
@Lewis While you are nearly always effusive in your evaluations, I think this time at least most of us will heartily agree. This is a great puzzle. You speak eloquently on our behalfs. :)
@Lewis This is the first time I've ever commented on a puzzle. I realize that not many people care much about the aesthetics of a grid, but I care a lot, and I react to the block patterns immediately when I first open puzzles up. This one had the most spectacular look to it; the block placement was gorgeous. It put me in a good mood throughout the solve. (Which, btw, was really fortunate, since damn it was hard.) Katie I am a big fan of this one.
@R -- I loved the design of Katie's last puzzle as well -- <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/22/2025" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/22/2025</a> .
WHATABLAST! It's nice to have a Saturday puzzle for a change. I love the stacks in the pinwheels. Some clever clues and interesting answers. And fair crosses. Thanks, Katie!
@Barry Ancona At least for now, xwstats.com rates this puzzle as Very Hard. I was watching the ballgame and solving at first, and had to walk away from the game for a bit in order to finish. My slowest solve in a good long time. I'm a bit tired, but I'm glad to see it's the puzzle, and not me. I agree, though, that a proper workout is welcome on a Saturday.
My jokes about beer are a real brew-haha. (They're the cure for what ales you.)
@Mike You're always ahead of the game. Never have to tap out.
@Mike Sometimes it pays to keep things bottled up. It helps if the bathtub's in the kitchen.
@Mike Consider me one of your strong sup-porters.
@Mike I'm curious. Was the pun you posted today your first draft?
See, this is what happens when you poke the puzzle gods! “Sooo… you think we’ve been too easy on you? Okay, how about THIS?” I hope you’re happy.
Heidi, We were ready. Katie was nice.
Hated every minute of this. It felt more like a pub quizz filled with trivia (proper noun, proper noun, proper noun) than a difficult Saturday crossword. Any good and challenging clue was drowned in a sea of names. I have to question why, considering how many proper nouns were used, 23D has to be clued as a name rather than the word's general meaning. Compare this puzzle to anything by Robyn Weintraub to see how you can create a challenging crossword that's not exclusive.
@Celine I didn’t think it was more overstuffed with proper nouns than the average Saturday. Diana RIGG is pretty famous, INGE is standard crossword fare, CLAIRE at least is a common name. BRUNSON was obscure to me but had fairly reasonable crosses. SULU definitely gave me pause but nice to see something other than the usual Star Trek cluing, Trekkie though I am. Did I miss any?
@Celine I agree this horrible, slog. Can the tricky clues section be extended to identify all the tedious trivia for those of us who hate it. Rigg should be clued as an Avenger as that is what she's famous for. The rest of them I've never heard of. For those claiming you can get them from the crossings...no I need these to get the other clues. Niche Trivia is just lazy cluing. If you don't care who produces or directs or haven't seen the movie, play or read the book it's meaningless.
@Celine There are lots of things in the world that are exclusive. For me, it’s aged cheese, wearing off-white, spike heels, mulberry trees in blossom, and a penthouse suite at the Waldorf-Astoria. That’s not a reason for these things not to exist so that others may enjoy them.
@Celine I look up almost any trivia I see in a crossword and today was incredibly challenging for me. I do not think it's just about trivia at all. It's just difficult.
@Celine I didn't have fun with this one either. Sometimes that happens.
🥵 phew! Feel like I climbed a mountain with my brain! Definitely got my money's worth! Hard and fun. Great puzzle.
This was a tough one for me! Lots of tough things in it. But I really like the challenge. Please keep having tough Saturday puzzles!
@Liz B Yes! A throwback to the days when Saturdays were difficult by design! I thought they were gone for good!
If I loved this puzzle any more I’d need a cigarette.
@CCNY Too FAR!! It really is a humdinger.
I really enjoyed this one! Finally a nice engaging puzzle. I got/guessed 1 across immediately, but it took me about half way through the rest of the grid before I could fill in the rest of that corner. (I still have reservations about "whop".) The clue for speed chess was pretty wonderful. Loved seeing iconoclast as a word, and the accompanying clever misdirection of juxtaposing convention challenger with the political clue above it. This was good.
I started slow - on my own I was able to get some entries all over the grid, but only the NE quadrant was (almost) complete (how I remembered INGE and that SOONER is a sports thing is anybody's guess). To be able to progress further I looked up unknown names and trivia: HOBO, AMOS, the EL of ELLIES, the BRU of BRUNSON, DEM, CLAIRE, SULU, and YALE. That generated crosses which allowed me to nearly complete the puzzle. However, 45 minutes into the solve, with almost the whole grid filled in, I gave up and turned on autocheck to deal with the NW quadrant. The problem was my being 100% confident about iHAdABLAST. I understand WHOP but it's not a word that comes to me naturally, and I have no idea why "Youth baseball supporters" solves to TEES (any help, please? It's not covered by the column). Also, SETS confused me when I finally got it with autocheck on. To me, a set is not an area, but the stuff that gets set up on the area that is a stage... With the error in 1A, I didn't have enough crosses on the downs to solve HOME BREWER. I did get OBOE SONATA though. Is that a thing or a cutesy, crosswordese nod to our favorite instrument, the oboe? BTW, I was quite proud that in the end I remember the use of spot as lend - I learned it from the NYT. Overall I feel this was a worthy Saturday puzzle for its intended, American audience. For me personally it was too hard to complete without outside help, but I can't say I didn't like it, which is high praise from a Polish curmudgeon 🤣.
@Andrzej Tees as in Tee Ball where the young players don’t face a batter but hit the ball off a support at about waist height.
@Andrzej TEE ball is a baseball game for very young players where the ball is placed on a TEE so they don’t have to be pitched. I had MOMS as a first guess
@Andrzej It's common for young kids to play teeball, where they hit a stationary baseball placed on a tee instead of having it pitched to them by another little kid who is going to miss the strike zone on most of their pitches. It eliminates a lot of frustration.
@Andrzej I thought the Poles got a good musical education even in elementary school. An OBOE SONATA is most definitely a thing. An oboe plus another instrument, typically a piano, playing a work of usually three movements (sections). Sonatas can also be written for a solo instrument, though that's less common.
@Andrzej With you for all of that. It was a very hard grid for those of us outside the US. Glad you asked the question re TEES. Thanks all for answering.
@Andrzej Oboe used ot be called "hautboys" which is an anglicisation of "haut bois". So literally "high wind". And, of course, classical works such as sonatas and symphonies typically consist of a few movements which in this case are "high wind movements".
@Andrzej I am right now listening to poulenc's final composition, an oboe sonata dedicated to the memory of prokofiev.
So many fresh answers. So many delightful clues. "Cyllindrical grain holders"? It got me wondering whether SILI might be an acceptable plural for silo. (No, this isn't an OCTOPI allusion.) IN SUM, WHAT A BLAST! Thanks, Katie Hoody!
@The X-Phile Yes, I too considered SILI. Only long enough to realize it was ridiculous!
Now that was the very definition of Saturday tough. So many great clues, like the ones for SIXTHSENSE, OBOESONATA, and HOMEBREWER. Knowing GOLDENGOAL and having read all of Paul Theroux’s TRAVELOGUEs is the only thing that gave me enough hope to be able to finish the puzzle. Theroux is perhaps the most acerbic travel writer ever, but at least you know you’re not getting an idealized, sugar coated picture of the places he’s describing. His The Great Railway Bazaar turned me on to the joys of travel writing and I’ve followed him around the world ever since. I had nicu instead of NEST for a while, thinking back to the stressful two and a half weeks my grandson spent in the nicu after being born with a fractured skull. Nicu nurses and doctors, but especially the nurses, are true heroes. Caring for infants in distress and managing the hopes and expectations of families during a time of maximum emotional dislocation takes great skill and compassion.
@Marshall Walthew NICU for me too, but I learned (with some help from Barry A.) from my mistake (IVS) yesterday.
I have to say, that was by far the hardest puzzle on NYT I have ever actually completed without help. It was a real challenge, thanks.
Super disliking the new histogram. Please put it back the way it was! I want to see my current, average, and best Wednesday all in one. I don’t need to know whether me Wednesday to Sunday time ratio is different from my average… I just don’t get why this change was made!
@Chuck Berger I was coming here to say this! I hate it so much!
@Chuck Berger I agree. Or at least show the average as grey/ghosted overlay on top of this week and best, for visual comparison.
@Chuck Berger Just awful. Who was complaining that they wanted to see less info without clicking? I’m also glad they have the resources for this, but couldn’t maintain the on-line acrostic. If they want to fix something, add an option to show only the last X weeks, so we can see if we’re improving or not.
Now *that* was a proper Saturday puzzle! I put in WHAT A BLAST immediately with no crosses and thought this was going to be a romp, but that was the last answer I had such confidence in for a while. Fits and starts got it done, and every step was a pleasure.
Are Katie Hoody and EARL Sweatshirt related?
Whew. And Wow! Really tough workout for me, but an amazing piece of construction and some really clever clues. Had to look some things up, but then there were just a lot of nice 'aha' moments when something finally dawned on me from the crosses. Eight debut answers but none of those were particularly strange or anything. Need to go back and look at Ms. Hoody's previous puzzles. And.. puzzle finds today, of course. I'll put those in replies. ..
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened - first a Sunday from August 12, 2001 by Nancy Nicholson Joline with the title "In crowd." This was pretty amazing. 22 rebus squares - all of them the letters 'IN'. Some sample theme answers: ICHB(IN)E(IN)BERL(IN)ER STR(IN)GBIK(IN)IS SP(IN)ET(IN)GL(IN)G THERA(IN)(IN)SPA(IN) AFTERD(IN)NERM(IN)TS (IN)SIDERTRAD(IN)G MART(IN)IDR(IN)KER And there were more. Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/12/2001&g=99&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/12/2001&g=99&d=A</a> ...
Yes! Excellent, excellent puzzle. TIL it’s called the GOLDEN GOAL, after having to go back to that corner a few times, looking at _ OL_ _NGOAL and just not seeing it. Then my brain finally dredged up Diana RIGG. She was hiding behind one neuron without a face or a movie title to go with her name, but there she was anyway. SPEED CHESS and SIXTH SENSE clues were brilliant, as was having the clue for ICONOCLAST seem election-themed: With its placement right below ROBODIALER, it made for an ingenious misdirect. I am a bit surprised, though, that xwordinfo has the puzzle as “very hard.” I thought it was beautifully clued and the fill was very fresh but maybe midrange difficulty for a Saturday? Then again, I was very rested, already after 2 cups of coffee and a sugar bomb courtesy of my husband, and I was wearing this new invention on my nose I’ve been getting harangued to use for a year now; it’s called reading glasses. Did y’all know that text can be un-smeared with those? A-goshdarn-mazing. Have a good weekend, everyone, and thanks for a great puzzle, Katie.
@Sam Lyons completely agree, though the nw corner did take me a ridiculously long time to crack. cannot believe the kvetching and moaning interspersed among the comments. keep ‘em comin’, katie, this was a lulu. and thanks for recommending drug store specs, sl; i’d thought double cataract surgery would keep the small print from swimming around like tiny tadpoles, but no such luck.
@Sam Lyons I didn't even think of the ICONOCLAST clue as being election-themed, which is odd since a too-large portion of my brain thinks about politics constantly. My take was that it was a person who challenges that which is conventional.
@Sam Lyons How very strange. There was a reply here from @Andrzej, to which I then replied, and now they’ve both vanished. Both were as vanilla as you can get—about wearing reading glasses? What the…, emus?
The best Saturday puzzle in recent memory. Excellent, challenging, clever cluing. Lots of word play. Absolutely loved it!
I managed to cheat my way to a hollow victory.
Had "i HAd A BLAST" for 1A. Took, like, at least 20 minutes to sort out. At least that's how it felt.
@Anonymous Same here. Didn’t like WHOP much but it sure made a hell of a lot more sense than IHOP.
@Anonymous I also did that. This puzzle took me over an hour in part because of things like that where I had partially correct answers.
This is the most painful crossword I can remember, outside of published Sunday NYT Crossword compilations purchased from bookstores. Way too obscure and random. And as a semi-professional musician, ‘oboe sonata’ is not a thing.
I'm not even a semi-pro, but... <a href="https://imslp.org/wiki/Oboe_Sonata_in_C_minor,_HWV_366_(Handel,_George_Frideric" target="_blank">https://imslp.org/wiki/Oboe_Sonata_in_C_minor,_HWV_366_(Handel,_George_Frideric</a>)
Skimmed through the puzzle and immediately got TRAVELOGUE and ICONOCLAST, so I was ready to roll, right? RIGAMAROLE was more like it. Got lucky with guess fills like INGE and GUAM, which I didn't really know (Kansas?), and sometimes a beautiful light went on (SPEED CHESS!!), and I was making some headway, but ground to a full stop and finally went for a look-up (I did need some CLAIRE-ity) but I finished it up, expecting the EAGERLY AWAITED Congratulations!! But no. After scouring the whole puzzle 80 or 90 times, I took the peek offer (groan), and got it done. But right or wrong, "I had A BLAST" anyway! Katie, your clues, fills, all of it was inspired, and your puzzle was a joy to work. The OBOE SONATA! The SIXTH SENSE! The NEST! Thank you for this puzzle that was so worth the trouble.
INSUM and WHOPS ..... I absolutely hated this puzzle.
@Cat I agree WHOPS is a pretty stretchy entry, but what’s wrong with INSUM? Pretty commonly used phrase, although a little formal…
Cat, IN SUM, you were WHOPped by this puzzle. Phrases in sum : in short : briefly <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insum" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/insum</a> <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/whop" target="_blank">https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/dictionary/english/whop</a> <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whop" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whop</a>
Hi Chet, Cat hated the puzzle. I said it whopped Cat. I didn't say Cat didn't solve it.
Wow. I think that was the hardest puzzle I ever successfully solved. A little bit too much trivia for my taste, but an excellent puzzle nevertheless. The streak is intact! 500 beckons!
I had totally given up, but decided to go to the Farmers Market to see if walking away and coming back gave me new insight to the lower left. and it worked!
@Suzanne Taking a break is good strategy. I believe the sub-conscious continues to work on the puzzle while you're doing other things.
This is what the commentariat get after complaining about easy puzzles! Tough but fair. What a doozy — er, LULU
Important law school class: ETHICS. Hmm? Who knew?
@Marshall Walthew Most law schools call it Professional Responsibility, I believe. Licensed attorneys need annual credits in Ethics education. I guess ‘close enough’ for a crossword clue.
@Marshall Walthew It was not taught in Polish Law School when I studied 25 years ago, so there.
@Marshall Walthew I guess we know who-all skipped class a lot!
A hard puzzle, except for one clue: 51 Across. As it happens, I worked with Claire Smith at the Philadelphia Inquirer. I was delighted to see her included in the puzzle. It was the first time I've ever personally known someone who was the answer to a NYT clue. Claire is a marvelous baseball writer and an even better person.
@Rob me too. I knew after the first pass that I didn't stand a chance and turned on autocheck and started revealing squares (and with some of those names just revealed whole words)
I had three (count 'em, THREE) entries on my first pass....and one of them was wrong. (Parents who have had a newborn in the NICU on life support are never really "over it.") This was certainly a LULU. Did you ever trying SPEED DATES? I was grateful for my Freshman year of Old Testament...for PBS....for the Brontés.. I guess we need to watch more sitcoms? Not sure we will. Ave atque VALE.
Brutal slog of proper nouns that removed any opportunity of getting a toe hold into the puzzle to actually solve this. Another poor effort in the ongoing nytxw obsessive drive towards pub trivia.
Charles, Scroll down to read how other solvers found toeholds in the puzzle by knowing proper nouns. This one, like a true Saturday crossword of old, required knowledge of things as well as language. Some loved it, some found it too hard. It is supposed to be a puzzle.
@Charles It almost did me in, but using some linguistic knowledge and a basic understanding of a few things got me through. It was a slogan for sure. So when I had a P, i
This is the one I have been waiting for all week - great clueing in this Saturday challenge! Took me twice my average, but I was so pleased that I was able to finish without lookups. Thank you!
Toughest NYT puzzle in ages. I loved it!!!
This felt like an old-school puzzle, in a positive way. Quite difficult but not unreasonably so or Natick-y. Congratulations and thank you to Katie!
Man, what a beast! Well over an hour, one of those where I really didn’t know how I would finish. About half that time spent in the NW. So many misdirects there: NICU for newborn care OVAL for Saturn’s rings CADENT for skipping music (I was thinking jump rope) ODEA for staging areas What a mess. Anyone else have CUPS for Youth baseball supporters? Hey, I played Little League. I guess this was more like the Saturday puzzles of old. That was a doozy!
@NYC Traveler Grease quote: if you can’t be an athlete at least be an athletic supporter.
@NYC Traveler I had all of those at one point except CADENT. I didn’t have anything for that one.
Wow. Took my wife, SIL, and I 2 hours to solve with no lookups today. Really tough! Not a bad experience when you’re drinking Campari Spritzes on vacation in Milan, though :)
Huge respect for the contructor. I can't remember a puzzle where it took forever to gain a toehold and that was mostly from wild guesses. Some were correct but most were wrong. I think two or three were changed multiple times. Finally, the music sounded. This is the level of NYT crossword I remember from the past.
This was a fun solve but the south east corner was kinda brutal for me. What's really sad is that I'm an attorney and it took me forever to come up with ETHICS for 50D. Then again, I don't remember it being that important of a subject...which explains quite a bit about attorneys.
@Allen As an FYI professional ethics is a required course and you have to pass an ethics test separate from the bar exam in order to become a licensed attorney
Hmm. I'm surprised to see the complaints. I am the first to gripe (to myself; this is my first comment ever) when niche proper nouns cross, but I worked this one without any lookups at the long end of my usual Saturday range. I found the "trivia" was all gettable with fill from the crosses combined with the Times EGO/ALDA/OBOE etc. heuristic. It made for a good but challenging Saturday. My two cents. d
Lawd that was a workout. Well over my average, but that’s a gold star to be proud of
Hardest puzzle I've seen in a while. Managed to get it under an hour. By six seconds, to be exact. Nothing unfair, just a long, slow trudge until I filled in every last square. The NW was the last to fall. I had: I HADABLAST SODABREWER WOODSONATA _D_SE Hood Spider made sense. Dads support youth baseball. It took me a long time to erase half that section and start over
@Steven M. We've had the "Joro" spider grace us with its presence here since last year, so that held up progress for me. I never actually questioned his travel means, I'll have to ask next time. Actually the entirety of today's puzzle held up my progress.
Not only did this puzzle run on Saturday, it is a Saturday-like puzzle. I'm only halfway through it at this point.
@Jim Nailed it! Although it took 9% longer than average, am happy to have completed it.
I loved this puzzle! After many years of solving crossword puzzles, I rarely encounter this much resistance. I struggled, I filled in so many wrong first, second, and third guesses, and I cheated (which I refer to as "learning new things") by looking stuff up. I finished in a time that was more like what I used to experience every week in my early days of being able to solve Saturday puzzles. Thank you so much for the challenge!
So many complaints this week about puzzles not being on the appropriate day. No complaints today.