Someone at the NYT Games Department was reviewing this puzzle and looked at a certain entry and decided: WORDLE! If you know, you know...
@Steve L Perhaps the most obscure Wordle yet...?
@Steve L Yes, it simply cannot be a coincidence that the two times in my life I can recall seeing that word were both today.
@Michael Weiland I’m still going with Agora for that one
@Steve L Seriously though. I only got that word because I had already found all five letters and they couldn’t go in any other order.
@Steve L I had four letters, in place. All but the middle letter. The bot said later there was only one possible solution left. It took me three more tries.
@Steve L I was about to make a very similar comment… It took me 5 tries to get LORIS today. Wordlebot said I should have had it at 3, but Wordlebot did not consider the fact that I’ve never seen this word before. And now I’ve seen it twice. I feel trolled.
@Heidi Wordlebot is ridiculous. It can instantly recall all the five-letter words in the English language. I, on the other hand, have human intelligence with all its quirks. After a trial period, I decided that I didn't need a know-it-all in my life. I ignore Wordlebot.
@Steve L I’m beginning to think that NYT crossword puzzle solvers have an aversion to cute furry animals. There was another one a few months back that everyone complained about (I forget which). Maybe I just spend too much time at zoos but I will take a LORIS before a rap star any day of the week.
@Steve L Maybe I got lucky with my first guess. (The second was unlikely to be the answer, but at the time, I couldn’t think of anything else.) Wordle 1,490 3/6* 🟩⬛⬛🟨⬛ 🟩⬛⬛⬛🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 I believe that Wordle has a rules that a word ending in S cannot be the answer if it’s simply a plural or a verb that would otherwise be four letters. That didn’t leave many options, and I eventually thought of the little primate.
Archive July 18, 2025 Wordle 1490 6/6 ⬛⬛🟨⬛⬛ 🟨⬛🟨🟨⬛ ⬛🟨🟨🟨🟨 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 ⬛🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 I was trying most likely letters there, not knowing the meaning of any of the resulting words 😂 And the bot... It's so rude! On some days it really ticks me off 🤪
@Steve LI was very surprised to see that so many people had trouble with that. Who doesn't like a slow loris, a bush baby, or a pygmy marmoset? I really thought they were in common knowledge.
@Steve L I was very slow to get that one. I stared at it for about half an hour, then just started putting random stuff in.
@Steve L, I honestly thought it was a Seussian creature. Then remembered the Lorax.
@Steve That Wordle answer is the only reason I got this clue right away haha
Ahh, just what I needed, an Eric Agard Saturday. Can we have more of these? BOO crossing CBS. How appropriate.
@Nancy J. Appropriate, but beyond sad and infuriating.
@Nancy J. <a href="https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/07/want-to-fight-fascism-cancel-your-disney-paramount-streaming-subscriptions-letter-from-the-editor.html" target="_blank">https://www.cleveland.com/news/2025/07/want-to-fight-fascism-cancel-your-disney-paramount-streaming-subscriptions-letter-from-the-editor.html</a>
"You went to the cat café without me??" "It was a purr-of-the-moment decision." ("I'm not sure how I'm feline about that.")
@Mike I predict there will be a clowder of catty comments.
@Mike Manx a lot for the punny fun. Think I'll have a whisker sour nightcap now. Abyssinian you later.
@Mike I’ve always said your puns require vetting!
@Mike I think we have to keep your comments apart from all others-- in a special cat-egory, as it were.
@Mike Did they have a drink named for the famous actor Cat Puccino? (I"ll bet that will get a latte groans.)
Great to do an Erik Agard Saturday. So grateful for crossword puzzles, both from new constructors and “old” pros like Erik. And treasuring Will Shortz even more than I did before his recent absence. Loved the symmetrical pair of FREEDOM RIDES and CORETTA SCOTT King.
@Puzzlemucker Scary to think there was a time in this country when you could be arrested without cause, right? Miss you.
Another fun Erik Agard puzzle! This fell into place quite quickly for me, even if I was a bit worried on my first pass. A long quote and two Hollywood father and child clues… It could have gotten tricky for me, but the crosses were quite lenient for me. And naturally I gotta acknowledge 15D. Suomi mainittu, torille! (=Finland mentioned, to the market place!) Finns, stereotypically at least, gather to the market place to celebrate winning the ice hockey championship or other such things, so “torille” has become kind of a funny meme people say when something remarkable happens. In Helsinki the gathering place is the statue of Havis Amanda, and after the statue was restored, the city built a mobile wall to place around the statue. The wall is brought out when it looks like Finland might win in ice hockey, because people used to climb the statue and swim in the fountain.
@Anna We lost contact over the years but I once had a Finnish friend who educated me about Finnish culture and lifestyle. It feels great to reconnect to those days thanks to your post 🙂 Thank you 😃
@Anna In my puzzle-solving rule book I'm allowed to look up the definition of words I don't know. TIL Suomi.
@Anna Thank you for the wonderful post and glimpse into Finlandia... and here we thought that Finns were solemn and sedate!
I am stunned that I was able to get all those exceedingly long entries. Generally, I need a a few of crosses for anything over six or eight letters. DAPS? Another new one for me, which is surprising given how street I am. And...last but definitely not least, 20A is definitely on my short boycott list for firing Colbert.
@Francis On the contrary, I’m not bothered at all and I actually think all these topical late night shows have been a complete disaster. Hear me out. - They have not made anything better and the backlash to them probably helped make things worse. - The topical parts are not really funny. Colbert was hilarious doing a blowhard parody on Comedy Central. On CBS it seemed like he wanted to be the next Dick Cavett. - Is this really what we need to be hearing and thinking about right before bed? Is this going to help people sleep well and feel rested the next day, or just feed even more anxiety and rage into them? Some of these shows (particularly John Oliver and Samantha Bee) have been like televised doomscrolling. - Since we’re all permanently screwed, I don’t see any point following politics and current events anymore, and I’m sure a lot of other formerly engaged people feel the same. I bet Colbert’s ratings lately are terrible.
@Francis I have no idea where the "I'll try to evade" post above came from. What I wrote is this: Regardless of the backlash, regardless of rating, we can't have the "small government" people dictating who is and who isn't on TV. We may in fact be permanently helically impaled, but we have to do what we can, when we can, for who we can.
@Francis I have never known anyone more street than you, my friend. I heard that law and order is going to do a Grand Marais edition so they can capitalize on your street antics. I can't wait to watch it!! Wonder who they'll get to play you though? Has to have abs of steel, obviously... I agree with you completely about Colbert! Colbert and John Stewart are like the only things that are getting me through. I'd rather laugh than weep or maybe both, but laughing definitely helps!
@Francis I lol'd at you calling yourself "street" so thank you for that ❤️
I appreciated the mini civil rights theme todaywith FREEDOMRIDES, CORETTASCOTT, and DEANSPADE. I also appreciated the plethora of grid spanners and other longish entries. As long as I’ve been doing puzzles I still get a little charge and a feeling of pride when a stack of grid spanners comes into focus like today’s middle section. For me this was a slow, steady solve that stopped just short of frustrating me. Just my kind of solve. I tried hash instead of WEED as the brownie ingredient. Alice B. Toklas I ain’t.
@Marshall Walthew I first put in CHIP -- as adding chocolate chips to brownies makes them extra delicious. Not ever having done weed or hash, it didn't occur to me until I had _EED.
My Trans Agenda for the day - Check email - Do Wordle - Do Mini - Do Crossword - Note gratefully that top Reader Picks are take-downs of predictable anti-trans comments - Play Tetris
Forgot one: - Do Spelling Bee (throughout the day)
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen: Don’t forget lunch!
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Looks like the comment you were referring to was taken down, to my great relief. And yet, nothing was really accomplished. No minds were changed, no hearts softened, no compromise or resolution or agreement reached, no reduction in the hatred, on my part or on the part of those who hate me. I've been rightly accused of being a pessimist. But I would define a pessimist as a broken-hearted idealist. My idealism started young, in my very, very patriotic youth, when I was taught to believe in idealism--Washington's refusal to lie over a chopped-down tree, the bravery of the men at Valley Forge, the wisdom of the Constitution. The broken-heart came when I learned, way after elementary school, about the 3/5 rule which simultaneously de-humanized enslaved people *and their children* (they didn't even "own" their own children, can you imagine?), and gave their owners more power. I don't want to be the way I am. I don't want the country to be the way it is.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen Sounds very diabolical.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen A worthy Saturday agenda. Looks like the anti-trans comment and ensuing replies have been pulled. I did read it earlier. Funny how both sides on any "woke" issue will accuse the NYT of bias and pushing an agenda. Too woke, and not woke enough. Me, I like diversity, I learn more. Guess I am least partially awake.
@Pax Ahimsa Gethen What kind of world are we living in when you forget to list -Cocktails...???
Holy Moly !! I finished it! No mistakes, no typos! Am I chuffed! So many baffling clues, but the sinking feeling when I looked at all those unfilled squares lifted a bit each time I looked away and looked back at the puzzle, and bingo, one of the long fills was suddenly clear. It was delicious, especially those brownies. And the colors? I even tried to picture what they could possibly be, thinking maybe iridescent, but that didn't fit. An impossibly clever clue!! Mr. Agard, I finished your New Yorker puzzle last night all too quickly, but this one was quite another story. Thank you. It's a terrific puzzle!
I’m accustomed to seeing the occasional Erik Agard puzzle in The New Yorker, but it’s been a while since I’ve seen one here. This one was a gem. I especially enjoyed FREEDOM RIDES, CORETTA SCOTT King,TITILLATE, DON’T GET ANY IDEAS, MASCOT RACE and IMPOSSIBLE COLOR. The last three days have all had excellent puzzles. Thanks to the constructors and editors.
@Eric Hougland I liked Erik's collaboration in today's LA Times as well. Seemed harder than this one to me. Responding to what you said in a previous thread that is now big enough to be seen from outer space: "Wordle works from two wordlists. The list of possible answers is only about 2,000 or 3,000 words. There’s a considerably larger list of words that it will accept but that aren’t likely to ever be the answer." I'm fine with certain words being deemed unsuitable as answers, but I wish that only words that are eligible to be answers would be allowed during the game. And while I understand that there are times it makes strategic sense to guess a word that wouldn't ever be an answer, I hate debating if I should waste a turn on a word that might be unacceptable. The latter outweighs the former, imo.
@Ad Absurdum I play hard mode, which in some ways I find easier, and sometimes I'll choose a word that I know it can't be, but that will move letters around to get them in the right spot.
@Eric Hougland The pillars of green(I like that term) make being in hard mode a big liability. @Vaer Could you give an example, please? I don't understand your example.
a.a., Thanks for the tip on the LAT puzzle. I enjoyed it, and whether it was harder or not, it took me more time than the NYT puzzle.
When I see this constructor’s name I pause, take a deep dorky breath, anticipate, get my geeky groove on, and open up the grid like it’s a word-nerd present with a bow on top. I’m never disappointed. Having owned a CREAMERY for 12 years (hubby made the *most* decadent ice cream I’ve ever encountered), knowing Vince’s quote via the memes, getting lucky guessing the terrier, and knowing my color wheel, this one was like a waterslide on a hot day. …when I was young, not afraid of pulling a muscle, or of public pools of shared “water,” or wearing a bathing suit in public, or… You get my drift. It was fun. I’m old. Thank you Erik! Have a delightful day all!
Welp, if you haven't done Friday's Wordle yet, here's your chance for Wordle in one.
This was very difficult for me, and I needed a few helps from Caitlin. That’s ok— while I’ve been improving steadily over the last couple of years, I still struggle with many of the Friday and Saturday puzzles. Sometimes I’m on the wavelength, sometimes I’m not. But I always finish, and therefore I always learn. Today I learned about LORIS. Twice. Grrr.
@Heidi Seems like a conspiracy, doesn't it?
@Heidi You may be mad at the puzzle makers, but watch a video, and you'll see that it's hard to get mad at a LORIS!
I like to see at least three impossible colours before breakfast every day, just because I can. Yesterday and today: two excellent puzzles, I thought. Has the puzzle spigot got one more in it?
@JohnWM Probably. Especially if you don't SIPHON off the inspiration before it can work its magic....
@JohnWM For me, we’ve had a three-day run of excellent puzzles. I thought the MATRYOSHKA DOLLS was a great concept and filled with excellent theme answers. Here’s hoping that Sunday’s puzzle continues that streak.
We meet again, LORIS! 🐒 The puzzle was impossibly hard for me, which probably means it was a proper Saturday grid 🤣. I have used this many reveals and checks before, but I can't recall when 😆 I had so many problems and unknows I don't even feel like describing any of them 😂. Just one example: apparently I'm unfamiliar with not one but two Hollywood men named REINER 🤪
@Andrzej Don't know if you care, but Carl Reiner was an early television comedy creator. His son, Rob Reiner, has followed in his footsteps. Maybe Carl Reiner's biggest success was "The Dick Van Dyke Show", but he did a *lot* of stuff. And Rob Reiner's first obit line may be that he directed "The Princess Bride", and that he acted in a landmark situation comedy "All in the Family". He also directed "This is Spinal Tap".
@Andrzej Loris would have been especially hard were it not for the fact that it was a Wordle answer a few days back
@Andrzej Same for me. Lots of clues I just didn't know including the crossers, especially the names, except for MATTHEW. Sigh.
@Andrzej Francis left out two of the phrases I most like on his list. My Westley will come for me. As you wish. And William Goldman should be acknowledged as author of the book and adapter of the screenplay. The movie was just on BBCA a week or so ago, so it's fresh in my mind.
@Andrzej If you want a hoot, one of the funniest series of comedy bits ever was Carl Reiner and Mel Brooks doing The Two Thousand Year Old Man. Take a listen: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7wDpBRqjo&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RI7wDpBRqjo&pp=0gcJCfwAo7VqN5tD</a>
My wife and I just watched "The Princess Bride". My wife really liked it. I found it OK. I would have liked it better had Mel Brooks directed it 🤪. Also, had I seen it when it was released and I was 7, I would have surely loved it today.
@Sue It's available on Disney+ if that helps in any way.
This construction features a very rare quadruple stack, made possible by the 15x16 grid. I thought the spacious middle was intimidating, but by dissecting a few key phrases, I managed and enjoyed it. Thanks Erik!
Another incredible puzzle from Erik Agard, who has the knack of creating puzzles that seem impossible at first glance and then magically solve with help from the crosses, including a few gimmes like 49 D, and a bit of imagination to find the unexpected answer in the wordplay (31D was the last to fall...). I am always grateful for the new (to me) cultural references Erik brings, esp. Dean Spade in this one. Love that I can enjoy solving a crossword and learn new things at the same time. Many thanks.
What!?! The LORIS strikes again! I was pretty mad about that this morning. I dont care how cute they are, I'm still grumpy about it!
@Lpr Glad to hear that someone else was miffed at that choice this morning. Seemed atypically unfair.
@Lpr my opening guess is STORE. Next was ROSIN. Then all I had to do was guess the L. Viola.
Loris having his Andy Warhol moment.
@LBG "His"? I haven't done much field research on this, but I'm betting that roughly 50% of the LORIS population is female.
Re 6D: What are the chances that the Wordle Editor didn't see this puzzle several days ahead of time and put one of its answers to good (or not-so-good) use? I'd say zero to none. But it was very helpful to me. I neglected to look at the byline until I was about halfway through. I was surprised indeed to see it was by Erik Agard -- and I mean that as a big plus. Almost no trivia and really wonderful stacks. I can't remember Agard as being especially noted for long stacks in the past. I was completely caught up in this puzzle, but never suffered. My big coup was getting SPUR OF THE MOMENT off just the H and the second M. Biggest surprise: I had IMPOSS and said to myself "Is this going to be IMPOSSIBLE COLOR?" I have no idea what an impossible color is, exactly. This was a very colorful puzzle, clued colorfully and not impossibly. Loved it!
XXX This Week Best Average Mon 8.28. 5.42 11.26 Tues 9.31. 6.44 13.06 Wed 9.31. 8.16. 14.47 Thurs. 11.16. 9.58. 20.47 Fri. 16.21. 10.43. 20.49 Sat. 14.37. 10.57. 23.22 5899 puzzles solved 100% solve rate 730 current streak 730 longest streak Celebrating our 2 yr streak.
@D M Mojo Do your streaks represent puzzles solved with no lookups?
@Laura Stratton why does it matter? I feel like you have asked this before. Streaks are personal and we all have our own rules. If someone is proud we just let them be proud. Fini
@D M Mojo Impressive! Congrats.
Hey Laura, How about "I know it's your puzzle, and you can solve it any way you want, but to avoid confusing apples and oranges, it's nice to know what assistance, if any, was used for the solves in a streak."
@Laura Stratton that may be your opinion but I dont think this friendly comments community needs or appreciates someone acting as the self- appointed "streak police" and quizzing people on whether they "cheated" when they post their streaks. Just my opinion from being here for a while. But you do you.
Erik Agard's reputation precedes him and this puzzle demonstrates why. It often seems like the puzzle is going to be more difficult than it is -- perhaps sometimes it really is difficult -- but today my time was 26% below average. What his puzzles are is fresh and fun.
This was one that I did not think I would finish until I did. Appreciated the civil rights entries, having just recently watched several episodes of the PBS documentary “Eyes on the Prize”.
Excellent Saturday puzzle. Quite difficult, but not overly esoteric, and impressive to behold when finished.
Amazing coincidence. Yesterday's (5/16) Wordle answer was LORIS, a word I had never encountered, but I was able to solve it in 5 because of the way the other guesses had eliminated any other possibility. And today (7/19) was doing the puzzle when I encountered 6 down, "Large-eyed primate," which filled in as, guess what, loris! Two days in a row. Wow. David R.
@David It's not coincidence. The Lorisians are taking over the world 🌍🛸🐒☠️
@David. i too have learned this week that lorises are a thing. i only knew the word as a person’s name (someone I worked with years ago named Loris - I wonder if his parents knew he was named after a cute primate).
@David I don't believe in this kind of coincidence, any NYT mods care to comment?
@David happens too often to be a coincidence
I saw the 1A clue and Kapow! Knew the entry...so I kept working and in a trice I had the whole upper quarter filled. This promoted a false sense of confidence as I reached the central tier. But then, AHA! 37A is something I've heard more than once. (Ever notice how many spoil-sports there are?) And how many parent + offspring Hollywood pairs there are? Aaaand 53A... you've just never been around students beginning to work in oils. LOL 57A was a mystery; will have to look up... And the New Testament has a long list of pariahs who were scorned until a Certain Someone started hanging out with them, so that one slowed me down. Eric Agard is always a MASTER OF Crossworld! (Hey.... if my undergrad degree was a BSEd, why wasn't my MEd also considered 'scientific'? Because there IS a lot to know about perception, learning, behavior, and so on. Whatever. Everyone knows just anybody can teach, right?)
@Mean Old Lady arts and sciences are kind of like fruits and vegetables.... If music isn't mathematical then I don't know what is!
@Mean Old Lady Saw Steve L's reference to Clotbur and thought of you and a few others. That Bee was way back on June 30, 2018.
Some EMOTIONAL comments here re CBS, BOODOG, DEAN SPADE. I'm not going to wade into any of those discussions, it's all been SAID. SPUR OF THE MOMENT must've inspired the Phillies' MASCOT improv last night. That was a cold play. Great puzzle, Erik.
This one felt personal, between the MASTEROFSCIENCE and FINN though I’m not officially a Finn quite yet, but hopefully soon! It’s a race between getting my Finnish citizenship and my PhD so place your bets.
@Sonja I understand that the Finnish government gives you a sword if you complete a PhD.... <a href="https://www.discoverphds.com/blog/finlands-phd-sword-and-hat-tradition" target="_blank">https://www.discoverphds.com/blog/finlands-phd-sword-and-hat-tradition</a>
@Sonja good luck and congratulations on your accomplishments so far!
@Sonja So you're russian to get that citizenship? Hope you get it soon. You'll be happy when your finnished. ...
Very hard, very fun, very satisfying to finish… the perfect Saturday!
Loved this puzzle, even if it tested my brain a bit. This one took me a cup and a half of coffee to complete, which is my completely unscientific metric. My streak will end in two days, when we go camping up north in a place with (gasp!) no cell service. (I printed out a set of puzzles from the archive so I can still get my fix.) Also loved the commentary on The Princess Bride, which is my favorite movie. Its brilliance lies in how seriously the actors play their roles.
@J Thank you for giving your rationale for the movie's brilliance. I have often wondered what the draw is for that movie. The raves about it sometimes make me feel like an alien!
@Man and 2 dogs I was 30 when the movie came out and I saw it in a theater. I had no trouble appreciating it. In fact, I think there's a lot of stuff in the movie that would go right over a kid's head.
@Eric Hougland Peter Falk's last words, which i won't spoil in case Andrzej is lurking, get me every time. Cary Elwes wrote a book about his experience making the movie, which is a very light,entertaining read. Not sure if I could come up with a personal top 10
Whew. And Wow! Typical tough Saturday workout for me, but just one amazing piece of construction. Can't even imagine what it takes to work out a quadruple stack of grid-spanners across the middle. Anyway... just a lot of things that weren't coming to me from the clues, but finally dawned on me with some crosses. Two thumbs up for this one. And.. puzzle find today. Don't recall another one like this. A Monday from January 17, 2011 by Elizabeth C. Gorski. No 'reveal' in that one, but four long across answers in order from top to bottom: MARTINSHORT LUTHERVANDROSS KINGTUTEXHIBIT DAYDREAMERS Here's the Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/17/2011&g=26&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/17/2011&g=26&d=A</a> I'm done. ...
An interesting week for many reasons. One of the most benign was that my streak was stuck on 1776 from last Wednesday until this one, when Puzzle Care fixed it. I found that poignant and thought provoking each day I saw it. Quick one for me today, with fill that was fresh and fun. For some reason I really like the word DAP. Watching new words emerge is something I find fascinating, and the ones that take root often have a musicality about them. People complain about new words emerging, but what annoys me is when some single word, often an old one, begins to replace all adjectives. I'll never forget when my minister father gave me a cussing lesson when I turned 18. He said I should never rely on a curse word to the extent that it depleted my vocabulary, but to be sure that when I cursed, I did so creatively. He then gave me a few examples. I won't repeat them here, but they were definitely creative.
It's a pleasure to have an Erik Agard Saturday. Was this one a trifle easy (for an Erik Agard Saturday), or was I on the frequency? If you're new to NYT crosswords, try Erik's last Saturday, co-constructed with Caitlin Reid, on 10/16/21.
@Barry Ancona Agree. Came here expecting a litany of complaints about the puzzle being too easy… Half my average, nearly a PB.
@Barry Ancona If this was easy then I'm a LORIS 😆
@Barry Ancona "Median solve time 16:41." Not for me. Not by a very long shot. I can't even imagine doing this puzzle that quickly. And that was the MEDIAN time? I'm going to go outside now, put both hands in my pockets, and take a long slow walk with my head down.
Cul de Sac, the fabulous comic strip by the late Richard Thompson, is pertinent again! Petey is at cartoon camp this week with LORIS, a large-eyed and hyper little girl. The Wordle and of course 6D came to me easily in part because of the comic. Someone else here (Nancy?) appreciates that. Although I stand by my assertion that NYT is pushing their LORIS agenda again, and I'm outraged. (See much earlier comment about LGBT agenda.)
@Nora Yes, Cul de Sac was my first thought as I filled in LORIS.
@Nora Agreed. I can't believe NYT is acknowledging the existence of lorises. What's next?! Lemurs?!? Where do they draw the line??
I, like others, was glad to use my Wordle experience from yesterday to get 6D. I think I was one of many who got the right answer yesterday only by guessing. Rest assured, I'm unlikely to forget that particular primate any time soon!
Tough but fair. Names and products held me up as usual, but were whittled down eventually by the crosses. 15A could have been either sister (Soeur) or brother, as I had nothing in the crosses. Then the trivia dept in my brain reminded me of a Finnish boss I once had many years ago; an enormous bear of a man with a deep love of vodka. Sami/Suomi rose to the surface. Amazing what lurks in the cobwebby corners of my mind. I second guessed myself a few times; CLAM before corn before going back to CLAM. I guessed HURON but haven’t seen it pluralised before, so doubted myself til the end. I should trust my instincts more.
@Helen Wright Interesting that often Native American tribes are clued collectively in the plural sometime. For example I have seen CREE as the answer for the tribe or the members of the tribe )”the CREE”, and I don’t recall seeing CREES. I wonder if there is a standard for this, or if it varies by tribe, or if either is considered acceptable.
Great puzzle. Very intimidating at first with the quadruple stack in the center. ABET had my brain in knots, too. I mean, how could it not be SPOT!? Maybe IMPOSSIPLE COLOR is a thing? But ultimately, it proved to be a fairly jaunty and satisfying solve. I was surprised that I beat my average time by about 7 minutes! I could quibble about it feeling more like a Friday than a Saturday, but I won't (he said after quibbling about just that thing).
@Jim SPOT wouldn’t have needed a question mark, that’s a literal answer.
A very satisfying solve! It took me forever to get any toeholds, and when I did they were all sparsely distributed across the puzzle. It was really tough all the way through, and I quite frankly couldn't believe that I was able to solve it without Googling anything.
Done in by INTERNET AD, which I had as INTERNET ID, despite having written dozens of the things in a past life. (None for the purposes of click fraud, at least AFAIK.) Need to start studying a list of definite non-words, so I don’t again assume ORCI must be an unusual pluralisation of ORCA.
Brilliant puzzle! I didn't have much on my first pass, but I confidently filled in 16A and gained a toe hold. The northwest filled in easily after that, but I still had a long road ahead of me! This was very much a case of getting some short crosses, thereby gaining another letter in the stacked long entries. Across, down, lather, rinse, repeat. With dogged determination (perhaps inspired by the canine-related clues?), I crisscrossed my way to the end, only to receive the dreaded "almost there" comment. I quickly found my error at 58A, where I had written "is it" rather than "isn't". Happy music, and only five minutes above my Saturday average, which I see as a victory on a challenging grid such as this. Oh, and no look-ups, which is a rare Saturday occurrence! I always enjoy Mr. Agard's puzzles.
Anyone not familiar with LORIS should watch this short video: <a href="https://youtu.be/PCOWE0EiCyo?si=N5krQ34EsyEDR9rn" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/PCOWE0EiCyo?si=N5krQ34EsyEDR9rn</a> I’m pretty sure that’s a LORIS around 2:40. And if not, it’s still pretty funny.
@Eric Hougland Wasn't LORIS the answer to Wordle a few days ago?
@Eric Hougland Wonderful! Thanks
@Eric Hougland So funny, thank you! I'm sure that a slow loris was a character in a children's book I read a long time ago, possibly British, possibly Goreyesque or Edward Lear, not the Alexis Deacon one, older. No luck so far but I'll keep searching.
This one is for all of you who are complaining that the puzzles were getting “too easy” 😭😭
6D is awfully cute. Poisonous, but cute. Also going viral in the NYT Games department today.
I always appreciate an Erik Agard grid and this was no exception. I couldn’t believe the coincidence of LORIS being in this one and Wordle today either?! Seriously, what are the odds??? 🧐🤔 After looking up what in the world that was this morning, I confidently entered that with just the S at the end from CBS. The grid felt very timely IMO. Happy weekend everyone 😀
Fun puzzle today. Scary at first, but those long ones fell much more easily than I expected.
Does anyone (ELSE) here think that the appearance of BOODOG in this puzzle is evidence of an editorial agenda to encourage us to eat animals cooked in their own skin?
@The X-Phile Somehow I find this question, though provocative, not suitable for breakfast .
This may be the propaganda talking, but I'm wondering whether BOODOG could become the new BACON?
@The X-Phile LOL. In all seriousness, though, doesn’t it just depend on the thickness of the skin and therefore the size of the animal? Most fish can be eaten skin-on, same with all fowl or other birds as well as suckling pigs.
A perfectly satisfying tooth pulling exercise.