Lost several minutes in the bottom right because I had DONNY instead of DARKO. I don’t like the use of “rite” in an answer if you aren’t clueing it with something signifying you’re using slang or online speak.
@Jared That is a good point. However, I wonder what the rules are when the clue is in quotes, which I understand to mean "something spoken that is equivalent to this"? I feel like I've seen slang and abbreviations without warning in clues like that in the past.
@Jared … “amirite” is actually written out as one word in practice. Still slangy, but different from “am I rite”.
@Jared I agree, that is what brought me to Comments today, but otherwise enjoyed the puzzle, my thanks to the constructor !
@Jared I also had Donny for the longest time, despite thinking (correctly, it turns out) that it should be Donnie. But not indicating slang in the clue is par for the course in a Saturday crossword. AMIRITE?
@Jared I agree but, then, I'm a bit of a purist on spelling. I found it meaningful that this word crossed with "I'm doomed," emphasis on the second word.
@Jared - I figured because they used Jake's surname in the clue that the answer would likewise be a surname.
@Jared not indicating it’s slang is what makes it a Saturday clue.
Feels so good, feels so sad. I used to love spinning Chuck Mangione records. And for a guy who just died last week at 84, his work spanned so many styles that it seemed he lived a lot longer-- starting off with big bands, then in the sixties playing trumpet in Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers, and then his own great work as composer, soloist, band leader. Listening to his live performance at Montreux in 1972 is a revelation. Just a consummate musician, a maestro. "Feels So Good" I must have overplayed, overlistened to, until I got a little sick of it, especially since "smooth jazz" and me don't get along real well: I'm more a Monk-Trane guy. Then when he died, I put it on the record player (old school!) once again and remembered all the great things about it that made it a hit, its warmth, catchy melody, the beauty of the flugelhorn's sound, that it really does make you feel good when you hear it. One moment please. I'm getting a little verklempt.
@john ezra <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7dg8vRDM68&list=RDV7dg8vRDM68&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7dg8vRDM68&list=RDV7dg8vRDM68&start_radio=1</a>
Ewe know I'm feeling sheepish about ovine-related puns, but enough about my baaaad jokes. (This post was shear pleasure.)
@Mike Wool forgive you this time, so don't sweater it. (You're such a card.)
@Mike We're heading to the herding exhibition, A crooked politician is issuing dog whistles to his flock. I think we're gonna get fleeced,
@Mike I replied a couple of hours ago. Time now 2am EDT. It mentioned sheep herding via dog-whistles and crooks. Guess the emus think it was political.
@Mike You'd better take it on the lam after that one.
I’m not a fan of AMIRITE but I love “ What goes on goes here” clue for CLOSET.
@Elizabeth Connors AMIRITE is out of bounds IMHO.
@Elizabeth Connors Not a fan is putting it mildly. I actually had it early, but didn’t fill it in in hopes that it would be something better. Where’s the indicator that it’s in this slang spelling Shortz obviously likes, the quotation marks? Lame.
@Elizabeth Connors hmm had no problem with that one, must be the millennial in me, AMIRITE?! 🤓
@Elizabeth Connors I had the L and the O. but FLOOR didn't fit.
Another easy one. Which I loved. But I’m sure many will be sad that the weekend came and went without putting up much of a fight. Maybe we’re all just getting *really* good? I’ll go with that.
@Striker How many elite solvers does it take to do a NYT Saturday puzzle? Six. One to do the puzzle in their head while factoring large prime products, and the others to point out how it's not like the old puzzles.
@Striker As much as you’re being lighthearted with your point, I genuinely think this is the point that these “groaners” miss - if you feel the crosswords are getting easier, this is likely because you’re getting better and better at solving them. My average time will generally reduce every week, because I’m a better solver than I was when I started. That’s something to enjoy, not to moan about.
@Striker Might again I point out that the puzzle is generally easier than it used to be?
@Dan I don't mind a variation in difficulty, with some weekends being easier than others. What I do mind are two things: That we almost never see the kind of cluing I came to love in decades past, the kind described by Tex; That when a puzzle with difficulty even approaching those occasionally appears, the kind I find challenging, there are massive indignant complaints about how such a puzzle should never be allowed. Let's keep the variation!
Also, a non-pun reply in remembrance of Chuck Mangione. "Feels So Good" (amongst others of his) is an absolute gem, and my heart is warmed every time I hear it.
@Mike Hi Mike! Love your work, work ethic, and restraint.
@Mike As soon as I filled that entry in I played the song. Timeless. RIP Mangione
@Mike Thanks for that. I too loved Chuck Mangione. Back in the day I played the flugelhorn in the Wisconsin Marching Band as I didn't want to carry a French horn which was my serious instrument at the time. For the many who asked me "what's a flugelhorn?" my go-to reply was "the horn that Chuck Mangione plays," which brought instant recognition as he was big in popular music at the time. The flugelhorn plays the same range and fingerings as the B flat trumpet, but its notably mellower tone comes from the fact that the bore of the instrument increases steadily from the valves to the bell, whereas the trumpet has a bore which remains more or less the same diameter from the mouthpiece to the point at which the bell's flare begins.
Anyone else get stuck with “datted” for a minute there?
@pmom yes I assumed it must be a technical sewing term!
@pmom I was so sure that AMIRITE had to be incorrect, because I was so sure it couldn't be slang. I tried every series of letters meanwhile that D was quietly taunting me in the corner.
I always dread Fridays and Saturdays most of all. If I'm making no progress, I dread failing to solve it. If I am making progress, I dread the comments on how easy it was. I'm not sure which I dread more. Obviously, I could just not read the comments, but c'mon. I thought it was a fine puzzle, not the hardest I've ever done, but I for one had to work for it. I really like HAIR for Eyebrow makeup, although I didn't get it right away. And I liked the clue for CLOSET. I got 18A with no crosses just by being me. And finally, Barry, talk to us.
I'm privileged to have filled in 18A. Chuck Mangione’s style of jazz was so cutting edge, it stood neck in neck with the best of 1970’s rock, whether it be folk, hard, acid, psychedelic, early funk, Latin, you name it. His band members always were and still are the best in the business, alongside the likes of George Benson, Tom Brown the late(s) George Duke, Eddie Palmieri and Al Jarreau. Next time you play “Feels So Good,” pay particular attention to the guitar work of Grant Geissman and be amazed. Thank you Chuck for your uplifting music, for the artists you influenced and for the lives you made better.
@Jerry His brother Gap, a pianist, played at the Woocliff hotel lounge, near Rochester NY, for decades. He too was a great guy and Chuck would occasionally appear as a treat. One lonely night on a business trip as I sat at the bar chatting with Gap he asked for my card. A week later a box was delivered containing every one of his albums. Great family!
Not a bad puzzle but AARGH! dADJOKES had to have been right? Right? Right?! It was only when I could not make any sense of dATTED (in fact, dAT_ED, for most of my solve) baseballs and eyelashes that I realized the mistake. I had to look up DRE_EL. DREXEL looks super weird to my Polish eyes (much weirder than, say, rzeżączka 🤷). At that stage for Beyonce and Selena I only had _E_AN. No connection between the two artist I could think of went with those letters, and I had no idea where they came from/lived, of course. My other lookups: MANGIONE (I've only heard of one guy of that name, and you probably know who... It was not a flugelhorn that put him on the news), CIO, and DARKO. Strangely, I came up with ST BARTS, KIX, and TATER TOTS on my own. The latter I only know from the American internet. In the days when I browsed memes on Imgur daily, tater tots often came up as one of Americans' favorite foods. They are completely unknown here. Polish food culture revolves around potatoes, and we eat them boiled whole, mashed, baked, or cut into discs or diced and then fried (usually when we need to warm up leftover potatoes, boiled the previous day). Some people like white, chalky potatoes, but I much prefer the firmer, denser yellow variety. Yellow potatoes were traditionally used exclusively to feed pigs, and only the poorest Poles ate them - my dad tells me his mother in a northern Mazovia village would never serve yellow potatoes to her family.
@Andrzej I always enjoy your comments; they're an interestng look into your culture. And it's also fun to see the American things you think are odd. It makes me look at my own culture differently.
Tiny, young potatoes baked whole in skins, as a side dish to fried sandacz (zander/pike perch in English, apparently), served on a bed of garlic spinach, with aioli and watercress, at the legendary, Mazovian restaurant "Złoty Lin" (Golden Tench) in Serock: <a href="https://imgur.com/a/6cuF7Ww" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/6cuF7Ww</a>
@Andrzej you've pretty much described a tater tot in your list of potato preparations. 😀 They're easy enough to make at home: shred some potato (your preferred yellow ones work well), squeeze into a small rectangle shape, then deep fry, then roast in the oven. But there's something about the saltiness, crispness, yet chewiness of an Ore Ida tot that can't be replicated. Home made isn't always better.
@Andrzej, I really enjoyed your background on yellow potatoes in Poland - and, actually, while I'm here, all your comments! Here in Canada, the yellow ones are called Yukon gold potatoes, and they're kind of fancy 😃
@Andrzej I'm not much of a potato fan - to me, they're mainly a vehicle for salt and butter or ketchup - but I'm enjoying the discussion you've started. I'll never forget the meal in Ireland that came with two vegetables: they turned out to be two different forms of potatoes. You've inspired me to see if the bag of mixed-colors potatoes from Trader Joes in the back of my fridge is still any good, and if so to make something with them tonight.
@Andrzej I came here looking for somebody else who had Dad jokes as well and yes, I was trying to understand why one across was DATTED! Thank you for being in the same boat with me!
@Andrzej I'm with you on dATTED, and now I'm hungry for my mom's home fries and kielbasa!
@Andrzej We got into TATERTOTs last spring because the grandson of the inventor, Richie Saunders, plays college basketball for BYU. When they made the NCAA tournament you could register on the TATERTOTS instagram and get a free bag if BYU won! Then the last game, you could get one even if they lost -- because they were expected to lose. The other players on the the team started calling Saunders "King Tot." But, he got a big pay day for doing ads and endorsements for TATERTOTs.
@Andrzej Last night, my husband was suggesting all sorts of things for dinner, to which every single time I responded with, "Baked potato.... no, no, no.... baked potato." He really enjoys baked potatoes too, but he was just not feeling it last night and I was feeling it for both of us. 😆 Being the ever so evolved and loving couple we are, we ended up with baked chicken legs and a baked potato for me and macaroni and cheese for him, which I normally like more than he does. 🤷♀️ It was dinner perfection!!
@Andrzej such a missed opportunity to show doubters the proper use of AMIRITE. AMIRITE? 😉
@Andrzej - new potatoes and freshest milk - *so* glorious! We had milk fresh from the cow on one holiday too, in the Orkneys off the north coast of Scotland (11ish, in the mid-70s, just before we emigrated to Canada) - we'd ride our bikes from our cottage to the farm to buy milk and eggs. There were no potatoes there, but so many mushrooms, sheep, and seals...
SWIMS is so good I’m tumbleturning in delight. Kudos!
@Petrol I once read about a pool sign that could be read the same whether standing upright or doing a handstand on the diving board: “NOW NO SWIMS ON MON”
Today’s puzzle felt like I got a Saturday grid, Saturday answers, and Saturday fill, with Wednesday clues. I’ve heard (here) that there is a set of gentle clues for newer solvers for late-week puzzles? Could it be that there is simply a crunchier, more challenging clue list for veteran solvers who want to break a sweat and spend a long morning wrestling with wordplay and sweating it out? Anybody else feel you’d opt for the crunchier clue set?
@CCNY Sign me up! I had high hopes when "Easy Mode Friday" was introduced. It took it as a sign that regular Friday puzzles would become challenging again. Unfortunately, it didn't work out that way. I've found other venues to scratch my itch for a challenge, but I miss the days of tougher NYT puzzles.
@CCNY all the people whining about the cluing for AMIRITE would disagree. AMIRITE?
My 2nd Saturday completion and it makes my first ever 6 day streak. I dont think ive ever felt so much glory before in my life (minus meeting my wife)
@hz Without indication of slanginess in the clue it sure does.
@hz AMEN. That one made me annoyed.
@hz But it isn't. It's well established slang. I see it all the time. It's in the dictionary.
My best Saturday time yet! Quite fun as a person who is newer to being able to do every day’s puzzle without search engine help. It’s also hard to top my weekend times because they were originally WITH lookup help, so besting my Saturday time is deeply satisfying.
"AM I RITE"? OMG! Looks like an ad for RITE AID. Totally unacceptable, IMHO. AGREED? Am I RIGHT?
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight Absolutely agree. But for the SMS-addicted it makes sense. Totally.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight I've been seeing AMIRITE in slang for at least 20 years. It's not uncommon or niche. It was a fine entry. As for me, I should not have confidently entered SOITGOES for the statement of resignation; unfortunately it crosses CLOWNS (some circus performers) quite nicely. Lots of confusion in the NE as I untangled all of that.
@Ms. Billie M. Spaight Why would a term that's in the dictionary and well established in modern usage be unacceptable?
Now 5 out of the last 6 days this week I've been faster than average. Either I suddenly got smarter, or the puzzles this week have been a bit on the easy side.
@Dave K. I had a notably faster time than average for each day this week except for Monday. My time today was about 30% faster than my Friday time, when usually it's the other way around. I think part of what made this puzzle easier than many Saturdays is that the 4 grid-spanning answers were all made up of pretty ordinary words in phrases that are pretty clearly in the lexicon. No obscure words today.
@Dave K. According to xwordstats.com: Friday, Saturday--Very Easy Thursday--Easy Tuesday, Wednesday--Average Monday--Hard Sunday--Easy Each puzzle's difficulty in comparison with typical for that day.
Brahma said: "Four heads are better than one!" and "Forewarned is four-armed!" and "What did the mortal say when they couldn't find their soul? ... 'Atman, where you at, man?'" And that's why all the other gods called him "BAD JOKES" BRAHMA. Those had to have been the constructor's seed entries. Amirong?
Nice grid and long entries. Still too easy for a Saturday. 7/10
Was slightly disappointed to realize that "statement of resignation" was IMDOOMED instead of okbOOMEr. 🤣
@Persephone Glad it wasn't! As a 'Boomer' who's been through much, including, at this age, loss and the numerous challenges of aging, I really dislike that phrase. I feels disrespectful, and I'm tired of hearing it. And, yes, I realize I may be leaving myself open to a roasting for stating this opinion. Actually, I had 'I'm cooked' at first for that clue!
Nice one! Finally finished when I went back to 1D and changed it to BADJOKES and not the more obvious “Dad Jokes.”
@Marty Same here. As an official Dad, it was the obvious answer.
@Marty I also had DADJOKES and I was sad to have to change it.
Got tied up in the NW corner. Started with dADJOKES for 1D, felt right. Then with ERiS for 6D, my Spanish is rudimentary, crosses gave me DRE_IL for 17A. Left me wondering how Austin Powers’ nemesis could have a university named after him
No shade on Chuck MANGIONE, who also gave me fond memories growing up, but I’m waiting for a puzzle with a clue that will allow me to give a shout out to Tom Lehrer who also passed away recently and whose songs are etched in my memory. (Waiting for another SILENT E clue for example, or any difficult ELEMENT). This is a pretty roundabout excuse but I am taking it none the less.
@SP Let's look for the clue: 'What Tom famously Poisoned in the Park.'
@SP He had me hooked when he rhymed "Akron, Ohio", with "A-F-L CIO"
@SP Did you happened to see this weeks’ news clip? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/01/briefing/quiz-tsunami-nyc-shooting-tariffs.html" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/08/01/briefing/quiz-tsunami-nyc-shooting-tariffs.html</a>
@SP Actually, there was a clue awhile back where the answer was ALMA Mahler. That prompted a bit of a discussion about Tom Lehrer. Hearing of his passing, I was surprised that he was still alive this year, as I hadn’t heard anything about him since the 60s.
dAD JOKES was the first answer I put in, and it just silently and patiently lay in wait until the very end... I knew dATTED was dodgy, but it took me ages to see the right answer since I don't know much about either baseballs or eyelashes. BATTED was good though, so a satisfying finale and at least it wasn't a case of pouring through the whole grid looking for a typo. Nice puzzle, thanks Robert!
@Alex i was sad that DAD JOKE wasn't the answer. I wasted a chuckle
@Alex I started out with dADJOKES and when it became obvious that wouldn't work I tried mADJOKES for some stupid reason. It took way too long for BATTED & BADJOKES to dawn on me. I'll blame the hangover.
A fast Saturday for me. Don't know if it was deliberate or serendipitous, but it was nice to see MANGIONE as an answer so soon after his death. I had a few missteps that threatened to get me off track, but then I would find a gimme or at least a logical alternative and that would get things corrected. It's not just Silicon Valley's holy grail: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvvZaYzhjYE" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvvZaYzhjYE</a>
Am I rite? C'mon, that's just annoyingly silly.
Chuck Mangione (and his brother Gap) are from my neck of the woods and I had the privilege of having them perform around the corner for years. Such a cool family history of great musicians invited to their home for an Italian Mangione meal. To be a fly on that wall…
On the positive side: Gorgeous grid Nice spanners: original, but not obscure A couple of brilliant clues: "It's most beautiful when broken"; "Fry alternative" It was nice to honor Chuck MANGIONE just a week after his passing. Cons: Too many easy clues "'Way in' can't be ENTRANCE on a Saturday, can it?" I thought to myself. TREES, KILTS, HAIRS, EMO, DOLE, ACH? I mean, C'MON man! Nit: I don't mind AMIRITE being part of the puzzle, but it needs to be tagged as slang. Am I right, or AMIRITE?
Got stuck with DAD JOKES for 1 down and couldn't bear to let go of it. Thought AM I RITE might have been clued different so indicate the slangy spelling of RIGHT? Happened that a couple of the long ones feel into my lap, and that moved things along. Fun Saturday puzzle. Hurrah!
@Jim in Forest Hills Just FYI - the only time DADJOKES was an answer it was clued as: "Pop corn?" And DADJOKE in the singular was clued that way once as well. ...
Fast and no lookups for me. Immensely enjoyable though. Whether it should be ranked as a Saturday puzzle really doesn’t matter to me in the context of making me smile between cinnamon roll bites and sips of cortado at my local coffee shop. A smile, a cinnamon roll, and a good coffee seem like the perfect Saturday morning to me.
Enjoyable puzzle, although I wasn’t a fan of AMIRITE. DREXEL was a gimme for me, though I suspect less well known elsewhere. MANGIONE was also a gimme, particularly in light of his recent passing. R.I.P. Chuck. He was not a favorite of mine, but I enjoyed his music when I heard it on the radio.
@Marshall Walthew I agree AMIRITE is a bizarre twisting of AM I RIGHT... or am I missing something?
@Marshall Walthew Whenever I see AMIRITE, I think it looks like the name of some kind of ore.
"Am I rite?" could be a church-lawn sign that echoes a theater's "Showing tonite". Then one might read the clue as "A creed?"
@Marshall Walthew I don’t like the clue, but AMIRITE itself is so common it’s used in parodies of textspeak. It’ll be in the dictionary soon.
@PhilO It’s almost like a meme. People use amirite in an ironic way, to be funny. It’s never used seriously.
@Marshall Walthew It's as bad as "alot", which sadly will enter dictionaries soon.
RIP Chuck Mangione Part of my youth as Feel So Good was the signal music for my favorite FM radio show in my high school days. Brings me back whenever I hear it
Had “dadjokes” instead of “badjokes” that it pushed me by my average time. Oh, well. I loved the long clues/answers. Enjoyed this one a lot. Thanks!!
My last keystroke was changing DADJOKES into BADJOKES. Really the same thing, AMIRITE?
@Infidel Well, yeah - but that was a bit early. You should have waited until about... tooth hurty. ...
@Infidel I had OLD JOKES... is that the same thiing?
Very happy to see Chuck MANGIONE, who just recently passed, in this puzzle. Check out Feels So Good if you haven’t. Fun song for a Saturday morning.
I met my husband, Tim, in the mid-'90s while working in the University of Maryland music library. One of the highlights of Tim's experience at the university (other than meeting me, of course 😉) was studying jazz performance with Chris Vadala, the sax player on "Feels So Good."
Hmm, no outrage over Sanford DOLE's questionable history with Hawaii? You know, overthrowing the monarchy and all? I suppose it's still very early in the morning on the islands. Nice to see a tribute to the late Chuck MANGIONE. Not surprised that Caitlin didn't know the song by name, as it's an instrumental, like all of his work, but I assume most will know it when they hear it. See also; Beethoven's Eroica.
@Grant It's funny that you mock people for being outraged in the same post you mention Eroica. Beethoven famously dedicated that symphony to Napoleon. When Napoleon declared himself an emperor, Beethoven was so outraged he tore the symphony in half and threw it on the floor. It's been Eroica, not Bonaparte, ever since.
@Katie Where do you see mocking? I was totally serious about the DOLEs in Hawaii, but left the door open to native Hawaiians to go into detail. And then we can talk about United Fruit (Chiquita Bananas) driving interventionist US policy in Central America. Happy now?
I shoulda "no"ed better, but I thought, what if I can add one more to my "streak." By the time I needed to give up for the night I didn't have a big hunk of the grid filled, like the over half on Friday, but I did have quite a bit that I thought might be right. KIX, KILTS, ENTRANCE, GEODE in a group starting at 25A. SWIMS, OPT, ROTI, THESE, and DOLE starting at 37A. Lonely LARIAT at 47A. ERES and DEL 56D. NGOS and C_O at 10&11D. RADII for 29D, TAKEI at 40D. But I had a bunch of incorrect fill botching things up as well. This morning I started figuring out ways to look things up, and got some crosses that led to surprising ideas, most of which turned out to be right. Like unknown lookup results filling in 17A ____EL and 19A J___S were big starts to getting the downs that ran through them. I, unlike many in this group, never see things where I feel that the constructor was off. 7D AMIRITE may be the first ever. But the clue is "Agreed?" in quotes, so I feel the answer should be quotable as well, but can anybody say "rite" when they mean "right"?
@kilaueabart My daughter texts me AMIRITE all the time, so I figured it must be a thing. But yes, you can always *say* rite when you mean right and I bet no one will call you on it 😉
@kilaueabart Think texting. Typed as a single word.
"Forget your perfect offering, there is a crack, a crack in everything... That's how the light gets in." <a href="https://youtu.be/c8-BT6y_wYg?si=PWsepMrb5Q-k1AAs" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/c8-BT6y_wYg?si=PWsepMrb5Q-k1AAs</a> The clue for GEODE from 30A made me think of it. It was a beautiful clue in a fine, fast, and fun puzzle. Even though I first put ADROPINTHEwater before OCEAN, that entry also reminded me of a saying that my old boss used to frequently say, "You can't boil the ocean." I always liked that. Especially when I get a little overwhelmed about things. Hope you're all having a lovely weekend! My husband often works away from home on weekends but he's home this weekend so I was actually grateful for a much faster than normal Saturday puzzle for once. I'm not much of a morning person but a late breakfast together on the garden balcony in the respite from the heat was a total joy. Lucky him, he got to listen to me go on for just a bit about Thursday's cute puzzle and the TENANTS and my praise of rebus puzzles! Hee!
@HeathieJ Are you a Leonard Cohen fan? I had literally never heard of him, but saw a movie called "Exotica". Though the title suggests at least soft core porn, it is actually a remarkable movie, with Bruce Greenwood and Elias Koteas. Very mysterious and ephemeral, with an Atom Egoyan gut punch at the end. Anyway, that movie used Cohen's song "Everybody Knows", and I was transfixed by it. The words so dark and mysterious and poetic, with a voice that rumbled so beautifully. I mentioned it to a friend who knew about popular culture, and he said it was Leonard Cohen. I bought my first CD of his the next day, and have never looked back. "Democracy" is one of the most astonishing songs I've ever heard.
@HeathieJ Reading your comment, I just realized I neglected to comment about [It's most beautiful when broken], though I had intended to! On my first pass, I thought I was very clever filling in 'smile'. Because one "breaks into a smile"... Oh well! At least I appreciate the Leonard Cohen reference -- and conversation! Did you know there is a documentary called Hallelujah that came out a few years ago? It ties together the song with various points in Cohen's life. Interesting, but a bit light on the biographical details!
Felt that the long down entries especially home made cookies and a drop in the ocean (I started with bucket and realized it was too long and not big enough, lol). Had anglaise very quickly (watch too many food shows). Adore the nod to Chuck Mangione. Rip fellow brass player. Found the western hemisphere faster than the eastern hemisphere today. Got hung up on a few clues so ended up a bit slower than average but not by much.
@Megan Same for me - crème ANGLAISE from The Great British Baking Show on PBS.
Gary Oldman is credited as saying, “Reality TV to me is the museum of social decay”. Not that I hold him in any regard outside of acting, but I just wish he'd have said that about social media. @Sam, I foresee your entire thread being deleted, as will mine, but you're spot on. I agree 150% about the observations made regarding this forum. Some of the brightest minds frequent here, and yet only a handful just cannot exercise the least amount of self-restraint. It's always the 1% (who knows, pick a percentage) that establish the least common denominator and, err… take over(?) with their incessant whining. With all the social media outlets available, none of which I'm on, Wordplay has to become a cesspool of mindless blathering. I know it will never stop, it'll only become worse. I hope I'm wrong. I, for one, like to read nostalgic, humorous, witty and informative writings by well-educated people worldwide. I scroll past the usual suspects, but some of the cleverly covert comments just seem to surface in the most benign clues. We can do better. Peace, y’all.
@Jerry I read and enjoy comments and lively repartee from many of the regulars (Lewis from Asheville, Mean Old Lady, Dutchiris, Steve L., Munster Mike, Al in Pittsburgh,Rich in Atlanta, Andrzej from Warsaw and, uh where's Barry been?) Maybe I read them through rose-colored glasses, and don't focus on the "only a handful" of whining comments. Yet with your comment there's now a bit more than a handful.
Loved the crisp vertical spanners in this breezy Saturday puzzle. Fun to be reminded of Chuck MANGIONE’s catchy hit, which was ubiquitous my first year in college. Had Temple before DREXEL, then dADJOKES, but it all filled out as smoothly as well made Crème ANGLAISE (with a hat tip to the Great British Bake Off for having that fill on my lips). Thanks to the constructor!
@Marc A. Leaf dADJOKES cost me and was my final fix—I thought dATTED must be some technical sewing term (since both baseballs and eyelashes can be sewn)? 😂
This is not a comment about the difficulty of the puzzle, because overall I thought it was about average for a Saturday, and had several clever clues—I’m a big fan of “eyebrow makeup” especially. BUT I’m always disappointed when I happen to immediately get 1 across and 1 down, which happened today. That just sets the stage for a relatively quick and less satisfying solve (although the right half was marginally chewier than the left). I much prefer being flummoxed until the bottom and gradually figuring it out. Editors, constructors, you have my permission to be more diabolical in the NW corner. I don’t mind AMIRITE but I do think the clue should signal something about informality or texting context.
@SP So if I understand your comment, you want the puzzle to challenge you more, yet want the clues to be less challenging?
I enjoyed this one. Fewer look ups than usual on a Saturday. No sports abbreviations or coaches and only one politician--thank you! International solvers might not know about the tasty tatertot. And I didn't know Kix. Americans understandably expect that the world knows their childhood treats. Thanks, Robert for a spectacularly interconnected puzzle that made for an enjoyable solve.
@Dr Janelle This American is not up on cereal shapes or colors, it fortunately has heard their names. Not great clueing, I agree.
@Dr Janelle I'm not picking a fight, but sentences that state what Americans do are so tiresome. As someone who lives abroad, I do get them a lot. No, we don't expect anyone to know anything from our past. This is, however, a puzzle aimed at the New York City market. The fact that it has an international following can be secondary. I bet I would have a tough time with an Ozzie puzzle! I have this vague idea that you love nicknames for things.
@Dr Janelle Americans don’t “expect” the “world” to know anything about “our” (fill in the blank). I have no idea what a Kix is, but I do know what prawns, dingos, roos and didgeridoos are, what an knoife (knife) is, and I, too, detest Fosters. We love your actors, Keith Urban, Oasis, AC/DC and INXS. The other two commenters say it well. We live and breathe the same way you do. Yes, you have no blooming onions.
@Dr Janelle I have no expectations regarding what the world knows about my childhood treats. And furthermore I don’t care. I don’t know why international players choose the NYT puzzle and then feel the need to comment on the aspects of it that are American. It’s tiresome.
1) I don't understand the outcry against AMIRITE. It's legit (slang), and not much of a stretch. I hear it more than I see it, and the vocalization implies an alt spelling. I see no real need to identify slang in Saturday NYT crosswords. Haters gonna hate, I guess. 2) I got MANGIONE immediately, because that song is so much a part of my youth. I never listened to anything else by Chuck. I suppose I should rectify that, because Feels So Good is still playing in my head, every note, and I can see the album cover, even though I never owned it. 3) I got stuck in the northwest, because I was mired in the concept of threaded baseballs and eyebrows. Once I figured out the clue was actually "eyelashes", things broke open. 4) Time-wise, I found this puzzle to be on the easy side, about 40% faster than my average, although for me Monday-Thursday this week seemed tougher than usual, Monday particularly so, at 6% slower than my average. My averages are, admittedly, not super-fast, but they're mine, all mine!
@Steve About Mangione…I first heard him when I came on his album “Friends and Lovers” in the record library of the campus radio station where I was doing a show more than fifty years ago. One listen to “The Hill Where the Lord Hides” as enough to hook me. <a href="https://youtu.be/JWxVccIk1c0?si=YigaV5lvyNutDtVW" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/JWxVccIk1c0?si=YigaV5lvyNutDtVW</a>
@Steve You say you *hear* AMIRITE more than you see it. I'm inferring that this means that AMIRITE is pronounced differently than "Am I right?" Can you explain?
@Steve UGH! "Threaded" eyebrows....the whole thing creeps me out... Now I can't unsee that note.
I had SMILE before GEODE. Wanted UNICORNS instead of BIGTHING A quick solve for me today, wish it had put up more of a struggle. Enjoy your weekend everyone, and the end of the heat wave in the US (for now!) 🌤
@Lpr A beautiful, broken SMILE may be a little too EMO for my Saturday morning.
@Lpr Perhaps you're thinking of cracking a smile, not breaking one? Morning has broken.
Chief Technology Officer led to MANGTONE Mangtone is the musical artist name for Magnus Hammer, a Swedish artist and actor from Lund, Sweden. Alas, I always pick CTO before CIO Does a company ever need both?
@Mu typically the CIO deals with internal technology and CTO deals with customer facing technology. But truthfully…a company needs to serve its own needs and not worry too much about boxes on an org chart.
@Mu On CTO, me too. Then I sadly knew nothing about MANGIONE, and I confused the song with James Brown’s I Feel Good, and I kept thinking about names of those amazing musicians. Finally the crosses corrected me, although I had TigERS and hesitated over AMIRITE. But maybe RITE is the customary way, so works kinda. Well now I’ll go listen to some Mangione for the first time ever. Crosswords are great at expanding what I know.
The start in the NW corner suggested this was going to be an extremely difficult solve, but little by little, it came together. I absolutely loved this puzzle...one of my favorites so far this year!
13m13!! My personal best for a Saturday. Yesterday's was my best for a Friday: 11m21. I'm on a rolllllll!