"Want to hear an unfounded story?" "I canardly wait!" (Pardon my sense of rumor.)
@Mike “Quick. Call for the defibrillator!”
@Mike We can discuss it over dinner, maybe? We're having CANARD a la Oránge.
@Mike You better duck for cover after that one.
I enjoyed this one. I know I'm probably in the minority, but I actually like when the puzzles take me longer. I like to actually puzzle over a puzzle. This one was chewy enough to feel satisfying when I finished.
@D I agree I like to feel I’m getting my money’s worth
I’m with you 100% on wanting to be challenged (and occasionally stumped) by crunchy late-week puzzles…but we’re seemingly on the opposite side of the wavelength equation regarding today’s puzzle, which I found to be annoyingly breezy.
Formed in Pittsburgh? Piece of cake: ME! But John Ezra was one letter short, so I filled in Ohio River and was off to the races. The two rivers that form the Ohio are the Allegheny and the Monongahela. Ohio comes from the Iroquois for "great river;" Monongahela from the Unami for "falling banks" -- and some translate it as meaning, "muddy mess of a bloody polluted yuck river. We call it "The Mon" for short. At one point I told my friend Amy to call me Don Juan of the Mon, but she demurred. Allegheny is from the Lenape for "best flowing river" or simply "beautiful river." It is. Canoeing down it on the upper parts is a dream. In 1748, a party of French came down the Allegheny from New York and put leaden plaques, huge things, above the banks of the river, claiming the land for France. A priest who came along, Pere Celeron, kept a journal, in which he recounted dining with an Indian queen, Aliquippa, with her retinue and his companions, numbering 27 people in all, inside a hollowed out tree. You can take a riverboat from here to Cincinnati. And I believe you can gamble if you want while you're wending your way west. It takes nine days. Cost? $4110-5725, depending on the package. Plus tips.
john ezra, Waiting for you to lead us in singing "Monongahela Sal."
@Barry, Ha! Haven't sung that one in years. But there is this one by Bob Schmertz, with some slight historical inaccuracies, about Celeron: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p17MfgAAfD0&list=RDp17MfgAAfD0&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p17MfgAAfD0&list=RDp17MfgAAfD0&start_radio=1</a> It is a catchy tune. I'll be humming it all day. Speaking of inaccuracies, I've learned that we cannot gamble on the Pittsburgh--Cincinatti riverboats.
@john ezra Isn't it amazing that Europeans coming to this continent thought that they could appropriate the land simply by declaring, "This land is MINE!" And isn't it even more amazing that some people accepted such claims!
Also, I always assumed "Monongahela Sal" was by Pete Seeger, but it turns out it too is by Robert Schmertz, written in 1947 and covered by Seeger. The chorus Schmertz wrote is a quatrain that begins, "Roll on, roll on Monongahela..." The last such chorus in Seeger's version seems to be his alone: Roll on, roll on Monongahela Where the catfish and the carp left long ago You used to be so pure but now you're just a sewer Messing up the Gulf of Mexico <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN0d_CO9544&list=RDZN0d_CO9544&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZN0d_CO9544&list=RDZN0d_CO9544&start_radio=1</a>
@The X-Phile I found it interesting when I read that the Conquistadors edited the information they sent back to Europe because they knew the general population would not support what they were doing. I haven't read corroboration of this, but given more recent history, it seems believable.
A dog walk did it for me. Floundered before, zoomed around like a pacman after. Something about fresh air and saying “drop that” several times apparently makes me a lot smarter. Crosswords are good for evoking memories. Tonight, I remembered EDWIN, a suite-mate my freshman year of college. He was a 5’2”, 120 pound Puerto Rican intellectual conservative who enjoyed listening to march songs at a piercingly loud volume, was a wizard at chess, and was always up for a late-night discussion of politics, philosophy or pretty much anything else. Alas, he dropped out after our first year. If he were 18 today, I’m sure he would have moved out to Silicon Valley after dropping out and invented the next AI. Hope the last 40+ years have been good to him.
There was a definite eastern flavor to this puzzle with REIKI, COBRAPOSE, YOGIS, DALAILAMAS, and NEPAL. Many unknowns for me although I did know that the OHIORIVER is formed in Pittsburgh at the confluence of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers (I just couldn’t resist the opportunity to use the word confluence in a sentence). I wonder has there ever been an EVILGENIUS who loves VEGANBACON?
@Marshall Walthew Everyone who ever watched a broadcast from Three Rivers Stadium has been told about said confluence. (The new stadium is named after a bank, but not a river bank, and is located near the same confluence.)
@Marshall Walthew I can’t even think of another example of how to use confluence. I’ve only ever heard it in the context of three river stadium /Pittsburgh. And I live in the west coast. Of course. There must be other confluences out there. But I ain’t never heard of any other.
@Marshall Walthew To your excellent EVILGENIUS / VEGANBACON question… TIL that vegetarian geniuses include Newton, DaVinci, Tesla, Edison, and Einstein. Fortunately they all were on the side of good. From a different angle… Kevin Bacon is also vegetarian, and vegetarian Bacon is certainly loved by his wife, Kyra Sedgewick. Reading her bio, she is definitely also on the side of good.
@Marshall Walthew I can’t help but remember the episode of “The Mary Tyler Moore” show in which Mary and Rhoda have had a falling out over some minor thing. The somewhat ditzy Georgette tries to mend the rift by saying that Mary and Rhoda are “like Pittsburgh” in the sense that that’s where the Ohio River — greater than the sum of its parts — begins.
My guess is EEG was AED? So RAG was RAD, NEPAL was NATAL, CARPE was CARTE
@AS The EKG or the EEG (and occasionally the ECG) is always one of those "fill in two letters and wait" moments. So I had E_G for just a brief time...
@AS i also thought that, but i was thinking NAVAL and CARVE
Had ChurnS for CRANKS for the longest time, only giving it up when 28A (which I had to look up)) meant 24D would have to start nn. Good puzzle. And my RESCUECAT sends a demand for attention.
@Isabeau. I had to unwind “STAMPS” and “KNOCKS”, I guessed KEVIN for Diaz, TRACK for DANCE, BET for BAR, TABLEPOSE for COBRAPOSE… nw was a challenge for me this time.
At first I thought I would never finish this one, but chipped away with trying vowels and guesses and hey presto it all came together. Working continuously, it took me 44 minutes. That's a good time for me, a non-American, who is unfamiliar with many terms and expressions,(NOME, KOOL AID, OHIO RIVER, OMAHA, ESPN RADIO, SAM, STANS) and who knows no popular culture (FIONA, YEUN), sport (EDWIN) or video games (MYST), although I did recall that last one once I had M. I think I did pretty well!
I almost got done in the second Saturday in a row; how I got through the upper left is beyond me. Had LOS before RIO so was guessing TABLE pose but I suppose that would be more of a downward dog if that exists at all— then ZEBRA pose before landing on COBRA. Had MARCH before DANCE, couldn’t pull CANARD out of my noggin, have heard of LILNAS thanks to crosswords but not just NAS, certainly didn’t know EDWIN Diaz and couldn’t get the Buddhist line out of my head as some sort of saying and even when I got LAMAS thought it was some sort of ritual arrangement of them not the line throughout generations. Somehow I CRANKED it out. Everything else was hunky dory, the KOOLAID and EDAM clues were worth the price of admission. Caitlin thanks for the video and the shout out to the Reds and the late great Pete Rose, who did wrong no doubt but didn’t deserve the life long disparagement he got compared to so many more despicable athletes today (my opinion). Great puzzle all in all and IMHO shows how despite a Naticky corner (for me, at least) you can still use guesswork, letter patterns and patience to persevere.
@SP Sounds like you and I had a similar puzzling experience this Saturday. It was a stumper, but once solved, I thought the Buddhism clue was great!
@SP Lil Nas X named himself after Nas.
I got a NIKON camera I love to take a photograph So Mama don’t take my Kodachrome away …
I'm not gonna say this was an easy puzzle to solve, but I will say it was on the kinder, gentler side of a Saturday puzzle, because I was able to solve it without too much pain. I'd like to thank EDDIE Munster for helping me know that Drew Cary was referring to EDAM, not Brie. (Hey look, Munster, another cheese.) I also liked the clue for Nepal.
There's something about Nepal and aviation. The airport at Lukla (Tenzing-Hillary, LUA) is the only airport in the world perfectly suited for taxiing: it's 1729 feet in length.
@Fact Boy Surely you jest? It is considered the most dangerous airport in the world, not only because of its short runway, but also due to a drop-off at the end of it, along with high probability of inclement weather.
@Fact Boy Dude. Wow, that was an unexpected rabbit hole.
@Fact Boy Perfect Sat morning diversion. I’ve heard the story of Ta(2) before and have seen YouTube videos of the Lukla airport, but would never have connected the two. Thanks for this one. Interesting tour of the place: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/mtya66as" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/mtya66as</a>
It is kind of amazing that 10^3 + 9^3 = 12^3 + 1^3.
@Fact Boy Thanks for that; I was just wondering if Nepal even had an airport, given the extreme topography.
@Fact Boy Srinivasa approves. (although Nepal uses the metric system)
EVIL GENIUS wedded to RESCUE CAT made me think of Blofeld, enemy of James Bond, who was always sitting with and stroking his white, blue-eyed Persian cat. I like the mini-conversatioin: “YEA OR NAY?” “PLEASE DO” I like being fooled, and when I saw [Something that can be raised or passed], I slapped down BID without hesitation, and it stayed for way too long. Well played, Ryan! I love the clue for DALAI LAMAS – [Noted line in Buddhism], and it tripped off a favorite saying of mine by the current Dalai Lama: “Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” I happily welcome answer debuts COBRA POSE and RESCUE CAT, which both spark joy in my life. As did your puzzle, Ryan. With enough bite to satisfy my brain’s work ethic, plenty of interesting longs (15!), and answers that tripped off adjunct pleasures, this was a splendid outing. Thank you!
@Barry -- Hah! I skipped right over the photo and went to the text. Honored to have been on the same wavelength as Caitlin!
@Lewis Not being a fan of James Bond movies or Austin Powers movies, I never realized that Powers's Dr. Evil was a parody of a Bond enemy until I saw that picture today.
@Lewis Wouldn't it be funny to see today's photo with the slogan "Adopt, Don't Shop"? N.B. Some people think you should use "rescue" instead of "adopt". While I can think of good reasons to use "adopt", one argument against is that some adopted children could be confused or hurt by being compared to a pet. That argument eclipses any others, imo. Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes. I'm a hypocrite.)
My husband brings decades of poker playing to the table, and he has a quibble with TAPOUT. We had TAPPED in the spot until cross clues made it obvious that it was TAPOUT. He maintains that if you "have no more money to bet" (as the clue is worded), you are TAPPED, or TAPPED OUT. When you are tapped out, you can TAP OUT to indicate that you're out of money. So TAPPED is the state of having no more money to bet, and TAPOUT refers to the action you take when you're in that state. I consider myself blessed to be married to someone whose level of pedantry is perfectly aligned with my own.
@Bee Winberg I had tapped initially, but realized it wasn't going to work and changed it to TAPOUT, noting that TAPOUT seemed less appropriate, but moved on as I tend to do once I get the answer (even if technically wrong) that the puzzle is looking for.
I enjoyed this puzzle especially for a Saturday! The hint for 30 across should have been, “The current president has a fragile one”, the hint for 62 across should have been, “the current president of the United States is considered one”, the hint for 31 across should have been, “the Maga Cult gulps it”, and the hint for 32 down should have been, “it was raised so VP Vance could have a better time”. I apologize in advance for offending you but remember that it’s a “YOU issue” and not mine. Hopefully all my fellow NYTers are having a Spectacular Saturday and Namaste!!
I have no issue, Lady, but this is a Wendy's.
@Lady Morgan Kelly Diana I’m not sure if anyone who considers the guy the first half of 62A think he’s the second half (or vice versa). Unfortunately, we have recently discontinued our Flame-Grilled Henry Kissen-burger. However, since this Wendy’s has accidentally received a delivery intended for one of our Montreal locations, may I interest you in an order of Vladimir Poutine?
Very well constructed. EEG instead of AED is where I would guess that change occurred. Not sure if it was fully solvable without some odds and ends knowledge. That said, it was a true solvers puzzle and I personally enjoyed sussing it.
@Red Carpet Yeah that would make it RAD, NATAL and CARTE I think. Good choice.
Okay. It’s slang. Okay. I’m old. But STANS used like a verb? I say nay. You can be a stan (noun), but verb…yuk. “I am staning this jethro tull” this makes my ears hurt. Not talking about the music. Anyone under 35 care to chime in?
@Weak Yeah, I didn't get that either... got it from the crosses and got the music so, well, ok.
@Weak I'm in my mid fifties and know it can be used as a verb, meaning acting like an over the top superfan, to the point of obsession. It comes from the Eminem song "Stan"
@Weak In English, one can always verb a noun.
@Weak to stan, in the sense of obsess appreciatively over something, has been in widespread use for close to a decade, if not more.
@Weak I can echo Alex T that using stan as a verb is pretty widespread among fan communities. Moreso now than it was a decade ago to be sure, but all of my (~30 year old) peers would recognize the use as a verb. And to think it all started as an Eminem song.
@Weak Equally ancient type of person here but I've seen it used far more often as a verb than a noun, in the same way as "shipping" two people.
@Weak "under 35" That's practically nobody here. But you got responses. 🤔
Interesting TIL that the Iditarod only started in 1973. I'd always thought it began much closer to the incident that inspired it. Wikipedia article on that incident is worth reading. And we need all the reminders we can get about the necessity for vaccines.
@RozzieGrandma TIL that the annual Ironman Triathlon started in 1978. And yes, Oahu was my first guess there.
This was a breezy Saturday to balance what was for me a crunchy Friday. My job here is done.
@Neal S. Based on my solve times, Friday could have been Saturday and vice-versa. This took me less than half of my average Saturday solve time.
@Neal S. I had a fairly breezy time with this one. And it seems that the subscribers of xwstats.com agree: 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Very Easy Median Solve Time 11:39 Median Solver 32% faster ⚡89% of users solved faster than their Saturday average. 78% solved much faster (>20%) than their Saturday average. 🐢11% of users solved slower than their Saturday average. 4% solved much slower (>20%) than their Saturday average.
@Neal S. It was breezy for me too, but based on comments I'm reading, I think maybe a lot of it was in my very specific wheelhouse.
Probably the easiest Saturday ever. I had to check and make sure it really was Saturday. But I don't know if it was simply easy for me because so much was in my wheelhouse. Entered COBRAPOSE immediately, even though I've never seen an upward dog. But I know what a downward dog looks like, and the COBRA is kind of the opposite. Loved MYST when it first appeared in 1993. I finished it in 3 days of eating, drinking, and breathing nothing else . And then what? Bragging rights. I beat my dad's time by a week! I have opinions about the CPAs that work for Intuit, but I'll keep them to myself. Minari was a really beautiful movie, and good for Steven YEUN after what happened to his character in The Walking Dead. Can't unsee it. As a little kid in the 70s, I thought TRICIA Nixon was the prettiest girl I'd ever seen. I still remember her on the cover of one of my grandma's magazines wearing a ruffly blue dress. (Ha! Google found it for me: <a href="https://ebay.us/m/xQLHSt" target="_blank">https://ebay.us/m/xQLHSt</a> ) And FIONA! So many friends in this puzzle. I thought the answer was going to be a Disney princess and was glad when instead it was my second favorite green badass woman! Even EDDIE Munster was a gimme since the show aired as reruns in the 70s.
@Beth in Greenbelt Super fast for me too! Let me add a bit of nostalgia.... Casey Kasem's TOPFORTY! A regular in my life, with my tape recorder handy to tape the best songs off the radio. Ahhh! "Keep your feet on the ground, and keep reaching for the stars."
@Beth in Greenbelt I have to ask? Who is your favorite (bad…) woman? Is it obvious? And I just don’t get it? Also. How did that word get past the emu? The witch from defying gravity? The navi girl? @HeathieJ you just took me back. That little jingle. “American top 40!” “Lucy in Missoula, here’s your long distance dedication” [fade in “love lift us up where we belong”]
UMM ....okay, where did you hide the *real* Saturday puzzle?? Charlotte the Kitty (our RESCUE CAT) was here helping me for a few minutes, but then I wanted both hands to open up the iPad, so she left in a huff. It pains me to say she has a criminal record, but she is a shop-lifter. "CARPE trinkets" is her motto. Ear infections! PhysicsDaughter had them frequently, so I acquired my own OTOscope. It was a relief when she was old enough to say, "Ear hurt!" Instead of just screaming or spiking a fever. VEGAN BACON? Why bother? (I betcha I can make just about anything sizzle, so why use that as part of the clue?) I liked the vocab in this puzzle! CANARD! OLD SAW! BOK choi! I am trying to think what a COBRA POSE would look like...whether it would involve swaying and fangs.... Welp...MY JOB HERE IS DONE!
@Mean Old Lady Oh, I bet you can make anything sizzle, MOL. You'd even make the cobra pose sizzle with the swaying and fangs.
Appropriate photo. Evil genius with a rescue cat. Good puzzle Ryan Judge.
❤️Rescue a kitty. ❤️Rescue a pup. Yes please!
I could not for the life of me find my mistake. It turned out to be ALDI, not ALDa, and [Remain untouched] was SIT, not SaT. Yeah, "remain" is present, not past tense. Grrrr... I'm not happy with myself that I couldn't do it, but at least it wasn't the spanking I got last Saturday.
@Francis Oh for an alternate clue for ALDA, I loved MASH but the dude gets way too much free publicity.
@Francis Glad I wasn't the only one!
@Francis I'm guessing you don't have an ALDI up your way but I have one within 10 minutes any which way I travel, which is nice. It's such a great store! Good stuff, except for a few things we prefer the name brand for. My husband is a bit of a Jif peanut butter snob but otherwise we're huge fans! Groceries are still affordable there!
@Francis That was me too! It took me like 84 years to find it and get the happy music.
@Francis Just saw ALDI here less than a month ago, think it’s the third time this year. AHOLD (parent to Stop&Shop) has also appeared 13 times, though never clued to the grocery chain. This from an old Albert Heijn regular.
This was indeed a themed puzzle: Google. I went through it three times and got about six letters, but little by little, I pried it out and my last guess was MYST. Not at all an easy one for me, but I liked the TAKE NO PRISONERS approach! (Oh no, wait — that was the Friday puzzle.) You do a mean construction, Ryan, and you never fail to impress—a worthy Saturday, and that seems to be your specialty. Thank you for giving us a party worth going to. Bedtime now. (MY JOB HERE IS DONE.)
I held on to churns instead of CRANKS for far too long, which messed up that corner. Otherwise a good, straightforward Saturday grid. I must admit it took a couple of passes to get anything significant down. Always a sign of a good, crunchy puzzle.
A moderately challenging Saturday that I pretty much solved bottom to top since it took a bit to find a toehold but once I managed I went through it steadily, solving around 25 percent under my average time, and without assistance. Quite a few clues that tickled my brain: 14A, Noted line in Buddhism for DALAI LAMAS. 16A, Galaxy program, e.g., for ANDROID APP. 31A, Product pitched by a pitcher for KOOLAID. One byproduct of the CW that I enjoy is the trivia I learn. For example, the literal meaning of ALIAS.
To Lady MKD Why are you so special that you can wreck the vibe of this comment section and I have to put up with it?
Wondering if it’s just me or do others always struggle with the NW corners of these puzzles?
@Steve Sometimes yes sometimes no. I made a comment last week that I appreciate when that corner is trickier because I find when it’s too easy it makes the rest of the puzzle less challenging, but when it’s trickier the rest is more challenging (think because it’s harder to work backwards that forwards on a word). So if I were designing a puzzle I’d clue to a bit harder. I also noticed as a constructor sometimes I get a little tired at the end of my clueing so maybe put a bit more effort on the first half—but I think that’s a mirage, the editors would try to balance it out if that were the only factor.
@Steve NW almost killed me until I figure out Android. I was thinking some kind of night sky app. 🙄
@Steve I always do!
@Scott I had Samsung for a while before ANDROID.
@Steve I think constructors of Friday and Saturday puzzles, knowing that there is a natural tendency to start in the NW, make that area especially difficult in order to make the puzzle more challenging. I often find on these days that I work up from the bottom, and it felt like there were a couple of gimmes (for me, at least) in the SE today.
@Steve I am convinced that 1A is a jinxed spot, and I almost never start a puzzle solve at the top! It just doesn't work for me, and it casts a pall of gloom and doom over the puzzle! Ordinarily I'm not superstitious, but....
The NW corner (upper left) is where many people start their solve (since it's easiest to make progress if you have the first letters of stuff). For that reason I suspect many constructors (of a Friday or Saturday puzzle) ensure that a solver can't too easily go to town in that corner.
Nicely done. I was sweating a little in that NW corner. I left that to the very end. I kind of like it when the NW corner is filled with stumpers since that's where I instinctively start (guessing I'm not alone there). But it all worked out in under my average Saturday time. I was tempted to Google some of those baseball clues, but I resisted, trusting in the crossings. I don't go in for any sports, but baseball least of all. All that standing around! How do people watch it?
@Jim Well, I for one will be watching this afternoon as the Metro region LLBB team (from Fairfield, CT) vies for the U.S. championship. Their ace pitcher, Luca Pellegrini, is going today after already pitching two complete games in S. Williamsport (6 innings each with an 85 pitch count rule). He has a 0.0 ERA , allowed just three hits, and has a 17:4 strikeout to walk ratio. His catcher is one of the Taxiltaridis twins on the team who has been just outstanding defensively. Nothing boring here…
I had gu for the last two letters of Cute Sound. I thought the answer was going to be "Goo Gu"... Like they were getting cute with the spelling of Googoo. Alas, I finally got the crosses to come up with LongU. Yeah, I guess my answer was to far out there. Lol
That koolaid clue was the best! Loved this puzzle! Happy Saturday, all! Thanks, Ryan!
@Terry Agreed! Was also where I landed hunting for my mistake before getting the gold star. I had NIcON and cOOLAID. Makes me wonder who was the first to use a K instead of a C to turn a word into a product name.
I liked this puzzle because after the first few minutes my grid was still blank. That always gets me in gear.
Always happy when Omaha is an answer to a clue!
@Sara O'Bannon I'm still waiting for Carrboro. I'll be waiting a while. Like forever.
@Sara O'Bannon It's fun isn't it! ☺️ The county in Minnesota that I live in showed up I think a week or so ago, RAMSEY. Fun!
I got them steadily depressin’ low-down mind-messin’ eatin’ rags at the car wash blues. But the puzzle was fun.
Not my cup of tea. The constructor notes the lower-right as an area they're not fond of, but for me the upper-left was honestly just annoying; in the lower-right I felt that even the rather blah answers were fairly standard crosswordese with fairly standard crosswordese clues.
@Ben Agreed. With no fewer than five sports references, three random phrases, two video-game references, two movie references (one of those involving a cartoon character) and one rapper, this was simply not my thing. And the many blah answers made it hardly worth the effort. Hope for a better one tomorrow.
Wednesday took me longer than Friday or Saturday. I think I have a problem. But when you get 1A off the bat, it’s probably going to be a quicker solve. My toughest area by far was the southwest corner. YEAOR_A_. I was convinced I was doing something wrong. It looked like a Thursday weird trick themer. I kept trying to figure out alternate spellings for the Korean guy. I guess it isn’t SAM Hill. TBH. I don’t even know who that is. I just the expression “what in the Sam Hill?” whatever that means. No clue on the bird. I think after like 7 minutes (finished the rest in 15). It finally dawned on me. YEA OR _A_ I definitely would have PR’d, if I could have deciphered that down. I guess it didn’t feel like a Saturday. But definitely late week. Thanks for boosting my ‘fragile’ EGO!
@Weak The HILL part is supposed to a euphemism for HELL but who Sam is is beyond me.
@Weak I finished today’s quicker than Wednesday’s, and within a minute of Friday’s — and Thursday took me longer than Friday and Saturday combined (though most of that time was spent getting the last few squares in the bottom left corner). Interestingly, today’s puzzle seems to be giving some solvers a hard time, so I suppose there could be a significant wavelength factor involved here…but based on my own experience and xwstats, I’d say this is yet another pair of Friday and Saturday puzzles that were *way* too easy.
Fun puzzle (despite the requisite gaming questions). One quibble: are Old Saws "tired"? I think of Old Saws as warm, folky, clever, enduring, imbued with common sense. Cliches are tired.
Teddy, Another take: <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/old_saw" target="_blank">https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/old_saw</a>
@Teddy I think the key is in the metaphor. Literally an old saw is one that has a dull blade.
Extremely doable, didn't take me very long. I got stuck in the upper left for a while until I sorted things out. Not knocks out, and not Canon but Nikon. Inflates is not peps. Cobra and not asana. Omaha, not Osaka. :) My only quibble is with the spanner. I've always heard "my work here is done", not "my job". But I suppose both may be used. Reasonable cluing all considered, even around the dreaded sports clue, which was cross-fillable in the end. Too simple for a Saturday? Friday seemed much harder. Time to read the comments....
@alan yeah man. When I solve the easy my colon does a little shimmy. When I solve the medium I get a little rumble in the Bronx, and when solve the hard I get a wicked case of the green apple splatters.
For whatever reason, I was absolutely positive the answer was VEGANBLOOD
Plugged along slowly but surely. Came almost right at my average. Feeling very proud that I got the spanner of MY JOB HERE IS DONE with only J and the O of DONE! Liked the top and bottom triple stacks. And the nostalgia of those “Hey, KOOLAID” commercials… <a href="https://youtu.be/_fjEViOF4JE?si=N9RBXaNboSpd4wul" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/_fjEViOF4JE?si=N9RBXaNboSpd4wul</a> Thank you, Ryan. I think you’ve found your sweet spot with Saturdays. Have a great weekend, Crosslandia
Tricky, clever, and great fun. Thank you Ryan.
This was fun. Challenging without being frustrating. My favorite clue? 35A, definitely. Maybe I should start calling OREOs crossword puzzle cookies. Moana before FIONA, cliche before OLDSAW, and my final holdup was pEERAT instead of LEER, but when I saw LONGU I was able to say MYJOBEREISDONE. Thanks!
Nice Saturday puzzle and the usual long workout for me. A bit surprised to see that so many others found this unusually easy, but... no big deal. Seven debut answers in this one, but none of them unfamiliar terms or phrases. Anyway - lots of nice aha moments when I had enough crosses for something to dawn on me. A couple of interesting puzzle finds today. Here's one. A Wednesday from December 24, 2014 by Adam G. Perl. Don't recall another one quite like this. Anyway... three theme answers in the top half, all straightforwardly clued. CRYMEARIVER PARASAIL GOBETWEEN And then... three theme answers in the bottom all placed symmetrically with those in the top half. Those three, with the clues: "11- or 12-year-old Mongolian desert dweller?" GOBITWEEN "Left Bank quaff?" PARISALE "Certain waterway to the Black Sea?" CRIMEARIVER Here's that Xword Info link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/24/2014&g=62&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/24/2014&g=62&d=A</a> I'll put the other puzzle in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from October 16, 1994 by Raymond Hamel with the title: "Out of their element." Theme answers - pretty much all straightforwardly clued: FLYINTHEOINTMENT BULLINACHINASHOP CASTLEINTHEAIR CATCHERINTHERYE BATSINTHEBELFRY DOGINTHEMANGER Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/16/1994&g=44&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=10/16/1994&g=44&d=D</a> ....
This yogi gives a big namaste to 1-across!
I only met Donny Pleasance twice, but they were both memorable occasions. The first time I was walking into Musso & Frank in the mid ‘70s and he was walking out. We sort of bumped into each other and I (rather wittily, I thought) remarked, “pardon me, Mr. Blofeld,” in my very best Elaine Stritch impression. He sort of looked back and reeled, before bending over and violently losing his lunch into the ashtray by the valet stand. The second time was years later in Gstaad, I was coming off the ski lift with my publicist’s wife when I spotted Don, just preparing to launch down the slope. I snuck up behind him and, in my very best Ludwig-van-Beethoven-doing-a-velociraptor impression, shrieked, “SPECTRE!” He sort of looked back at me, then wobbled a bit, before clumsily careening down the mountainside, leaving a trail of technicolor disgorgement in his wake. Strictly speaking, there was a third occasion as well, involving my spot-on Mary Todd Lincoln impression and a subsequent loudspeaker announcement canceling the rest of the evening’s festivities on account of a Mr. Pleasance having been taken rather suddenly and violently ill, but I don’t count that time because I had just had my eyeballs tattooed and actually thought I was talking to Empress Wu Zetian at the time.
Looks like I'm the minority in finding this hard. 22 minutes, but it's felt a lot harder than Thursday's 33 minutes. There were a lot of answers the were borderline gibberish to me, even after solving. It felt more like solving Wordle than a Crossword
@Steven M. You're not alone. I find every Saturday puzzle hard. Some are worse than others. This one required fifteen cheats, which puts it into the 'average' Saturday. I was so pleased when I figured out a long answer.
@Steven M. It wad too hard for me. Died in the NW.
@Steven M. No it was pretty hard and don’t forget you are commenting early in the evening, so most everyone early on solved it already.