"Are you still dating that algebra teacher?" "No, she's my x." ("Can I find out y?")
@Mike She broke up with me for some unknown reason. Couldn’t solve our constant problems, and I wasn’t very-able to do anything about it. Cest le vie, as the expression goes…
@Mike Can you be more graphic? Maybe the relationship was too linear -- in need of some parabola.
@Mike Never could find the root of the problem, eh? Oh well, relationships often lead to slippery slopes.
@Mike Lemma see, looks like you got her number. No.?
@Mike "She didn't like my natural log." (This pun is a little naughty, so the emus might not allow it furlong."
@Mike maybe you were just too square? the age difference a factor? ab-serd relationship from the start? maybe because you were so insistent in restaurants that she binomial?
@Mike i keep going for the ones with the cute figures, and asking for their numbers, and even though i have tried this multiple times, the response is always… zero. Do they see nothing in me? Do i not count? I’d like to think I’m a prime, though some may disagree. Is it because i am too noughty?
@Mike Perhaps it was her variable personality.
@Mike "Was her name Polly Nomial?" ("She wouldn't let me remove her brackets")
Given the ELAND just beneath it, could they have gotten away with cluing RECOIL as “spring bok?”
@Cat Lady Margaret We love you, Cat Lady! Your wit makes up for the brevity of the puzzle. (Charlotte the Kitty sensed your presence and has joined me in the chair....)
Got the gold star in 12:22 to extend my streak to 365 days!
@Hugh Respect. Nothing but respect.
@Hugh Congratulations on your cruciverbal orbit around the sun!
@Hugh Congrats. I solved in about 15 minutes minus the NE corner. Then that took another 15. Then it took me another 20 to replace lung with lunk and solve the vowel situation in the SE for Serapes and Desica :/
@Hugh Awesome! Congratulations!!! 🥳
Hello! This is my first time posting, but I’m a years-long lover of NYT crosswords! They bring me so much joy. I immediately thought of Marilyn Monroe’s excellent role as LORELEI Lee in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and her song “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend.”
@Sweet Amanda Now that you are here don’t be a stranger. For me it will always be Carol Channing’s voice I hear singing that song.
@Sweet Amanda Hope you post again! We are (mostly) harmless. Nerds, for the most part. Barry has some gansta in him, but he's harmless, too. Mostly. (N. B. This was meant as humorous. I'd be my luck that he was connected and I got a another contract put out on me.)
@Sweet Amanda Different cultural touchstone here, as my mind went straight to Lorelei Gilmore! Love those fast-talking Gilmore Girls.
@Sweet Amanda "But square cut or pear shaped, these ROCKS won't lose their shape"
@Sweet Amanda That was my thought too. I've seen the other Lorelei and heard the story,
Polished, oh so polished, this grid! An uber-low 62 words, chunks o’ white aplenty, not only packed with a cluster of varied and interesting answers, but void of clunkers anywhere. Simply gorgeous. Ryan likes this grid design – he used it in January. In that puzzle, tough for me, I went from headstrong, to humble, to hope, to happy – one sweet solve. Today, therefore, I started humble, and as a result, every answer I filled in felt like a happy surprise. Being pummeled by happy surprises, hey, that is a sweet solve as well. And then FLOUNCE, a word that brightens my day every time it crosses my path. Today it triggered the image of an ostrich doing ballet. I also loved [Focus of an airplane battle] for ARMREST, not to mention the PuzzPair© of DADS TO BE and BABY STEPS. Ryan, you are one of the kings of Saturday, and I never know what to expect, except gladness for having done them. Thank you for your humor and mastery, and for a splendid outing today!
@Lewis I read up a little on YREKA, not to be confused with Eureka, after solving. YREKAbakery is a palindrome.
@Lewis, I just couldn’t resist. <a href="https://youtu.be/J6OsaYz-jpY?feature=shared" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/J6OsaYz-jpY?feature=shared</a>
@NYC Traveler -- Hah! Thanks for that!
At 40.6% faster than my Sat. average, this was one of the easiest Saturdays for me in ages.
No percentages to report, but I don't remember an easier Saturday.
@Steve L seems I’m in the minority for not breezing through this one. I enjoyed it and thought it was fitting for a Saturday.
@Steve L This was quick (less than half my all-time Saturday average), but Maddy Ziegler’s 8/30/25 puzzle took me a minute less.
Less than a third of my Saturday average, and just a hair above my Tuesday average. Some lovely clueing though.
@Steve L At first I was all proud of myself for my fastest Saturday solve this year. Then I got deflated when XW Stats said it was "Very Easy" and the median solve time was 60% of mine. Now I feel a bit better as the median has inched up and I'm now within 2 minutes of it (it's rare I'm that close to the median on any puzzle). @Eric Hougland Maddy's took me almost 8 minutes longer than today!
@Steve L Maybe if we use a little ALGEBRA on all these comments, we could determine the unknown solving times of all the responders.
@Steve L Same here, less than half of my Sat average, barely off my personal Sat best, right at my Wednesday average. Perfectly nice puzzle, but I always feel a little robbed of the Saturday challenge with a puzzle like this. But! Thanks to you I continue to get a challenge and then some with the archive puzzles. I started with the earliest ones and I'm up to August 1994, only solving Thursday-Sunday. Talk about tough puzzles. Thanks again for the tip a few months ago.
Re. the age-old airplane battle (great clue, by the way): It has always been my personal philosophy that the armrests belong to the person in the middle seat. Those beside the aisle and window already have the advantage of better seats, so why not show some mercy to the ham in that unholy sandwich? As an occasional middle-seater who has been elbowed in both sides more times than I can count, I humbly ask your indulgence on my next flight. And when I’m in bread position, I promise to keep my arms to myself.
@Heidi Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You see, it is at all times imperative to make sure you are expanding your boundaries as far as you like, as long as you are powerful enough to do so. Everything in life is a show of strength or weakness. That's Privilege 101. Kidding. Mostly.
@Heidi I always try to get a window seat, and I keep to myself. I like looking out the window and I avoid people climbing over me. There are advantages to being short and small these days.
@Francis Center occupant should absolutely get both armrests! Would that more of world thought like you. 😉 @Margaret Same! I'm more than happy to concede the armrest while I contort myself as close to the window as possible in an effort to forget about the hundreds of other people in my flying tin can. Also, I love clouds.
I loved the look of this puzzle’s grid and enjoyed the solve. To my surprise I finished well below my usual Saturday time. ARMEST for “subject of an airplane battle” and LORELEI for “famous rock singer” were nifty clues. And the puzzle had lots of fun answers, such as ROADRASH (anyone who has ridden a bike or watched the Tour De France knows about this), DIVVIEDUP, FLOUNCE, and HUMIDOR.
@Marshall Walthew I can't explain it, your name... I see Marshall Mathers, a.k.a. Eminem. There, I'm done, never to bring it up again. "I'll just move over here." - Jay London
I had just attended a public event in Bonn at which French President Charles De Gaulle delivered a speech — two weeks after a failed OAS attempt on his life — and, weary of pedaling upstream, took my bicycle aboard a boat bound for Koblenz. About halfway there, a middle-aged American couple approached me, and speaking slowly, carefully, and LOUDLY — to help me understand their English — asked me to point out the Lorelei. I had no idea but scanned the horizon for a likely-looking rock. Having found one, in the best Cherman ekzent I could fake, I pointed it out to them. They rewarded me for my assistance with a chocolate bar — they had brought a bagful to tip the locals, apparently thinking that it was still late 1945.
@Fact Boy, maybe if you tried that trick with Herr H you would've had more chocolate bars growing up. You're welcome, anyway.
@Fact Boy My mom, of Dutch origin, came to visit us in Germany in ‘82, or so. We took her to the old country to take in the culture. She grew up speaking (whatever bastardized version of) Dutch her mom and aunts taught her. So, in her mind, she was a true Hollander. You see, if you forget the actual Dutch word, just say it in English, but with a Dutch accent. It's not rocket science. So, that version of the language became her vernacular. So, we’re in a nice park in Zaanse Schans, viewing the windmills, when she spots a Hollander about her age sitting by himself on a bench. She decides to go converse with the ol’ boy in her best Dutch. I warned her several times, “Mom, these people are native Hollanders and they speak fluently. You may wish to reconsider.” “Ach, ver sonder” (or thereabouts) was her reply. “Fine, I warned you,” says I. She sits by him and starts rattling off her absolute best Dutch ever. After the best 3-minute dissertation of her life, he says to her in somewhat broken English, “Why don't you just speak in English? I have no idea what you're saying.”
Story of my life: When most are grousing, I’m frequently celebrating personal bests; when y’all (mc)fly through a puzzle, it’s a tougher one for me. Not knowing MRS. MAISEL (or was it MR. SMAISEL?) or Lily GLADSTONE was bad enough. But then there was the NE corner, oof. I have never watched Back to the Future or any of its sequels from start to finish, and the bits that I did see—unavoidably, mostly at slumber parties—were under duress and quickly forgotten. We all come across those movies we can’t stand for reasons that are hard to explain, right? Just like we may get obsessed with a rerun of a complete unknown we happen to bump into while surfing through channels in a bout of insomnia? Yeah, Back to the Future is the former for me. As for Lonnie Johnson? God bless the man, the genius who brought father-daughter bonding to a new level—not to mention the register of my mother’s voice. Had Super Soaker never come into our local Fred Meyer and subsequently our lives, we may never have known mom to be capable of hitting the high C with so many decibels. I do owe it to Mr. Johnson to remember his first name in the future. Other than that the puzzle was pretty straightforward, but somehow—very likeable. Fun entries, if not too esoterically clued. Almost no glue, which always gets high marks. I had fun. Thanks, Ryan.
@Sam Lyons Could not agree more about the NE corner. I practically wore a hole in my screen staring at that corner.
@Sam Lyons -- Feels like it's been a while since you've been here, and it's terrific to hear your voice!
@Sam Lyons Always glad to see you back here. The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel has gotten enough positive reviews that Rachel Brosnahan’s name got cemented in my mind, even though I never saw that show. (I did see Brosnahan in the American version of House of Cards, where she had a small but critical role in the first few seasons.) Killers of the Flower Moon is very good.
@Sam Lyons Sam! Very happy to see you 'round these parts! Missed your humor and pet-parlance
Assertion: the person sitting in the middle seat on an airplane should be granted control of both of their ARMRESTS.
@Carmen W 99% of the world agrees with you. Yet I invariably find myself seated between two people holding the minority opinion.
@Carmen W I've sat next to people who physically *must* have the armrest do to their dimensions.
Very enjoyable and pretty smooth sailing for me. Curious to see what others thought, it seemed like a lot was in my wheelhouse. I see a few other early responders but that’s to be expected. Worked the NW then SE then SW which all fell like dominos. Then HESAIDSHESAID and the middle. Finally the NW and almost the last entry for me which should have been a gimme, MCFLY, one of my favorite movies! So, fast but definitely enjoyable. Loved ARMREST and LORELEI and stayed fun from then on even if it was quick—no complaints here. And a very eye-catching grid with that beautifully stacked center.
@SP For me, it didn't flow very well. I had to put it down and come back to it with fresh eyes. It was a struggle, but it eventually "fell like dominoes." The grid is eye-catching, but I prefer beautifully stacked tops. 😉
Was so surprised to finish this one rather quickly after big struggles at first. BABY STEPS! SE - SW - NE - NW Definitely not a typical progression for me. I haven’t checked in for a while and I hope all my friends are doing great! The crazy tough puzzle two or three Saturdays ago was a streak breaker for me so I took the opportunity to change my solving routine up a bit. Back on schedule now. Have a great weekend!
Quite an easy Saturday. The Springbok clue was helped by the fact that I’m driving through Etosha in Namibia right now and they’re everywhere! 😍
@Gareth I was there two weeks ago. Incredible place. Saw a cheetah with two cubs.
Traveling from the coastal town of Eureka, CA to the mountain town of Yreka, on CA-299 and CA-96, will take you through the villages of Veereka, Double Eureka, and Exreka. (Actually, I made that up, but it will take you through the village of Happy Camp, CA, where a couple of friends of mine lived for a year. They were not happy campers.)
@Bill, your trip may have been from eUREKA, hence the strange sights.
An enjoyable Saturday for me, so likely too easy for others, but I really enjoyed the “Focus of an airplane battle, maybe” clue for ARMRESTS.
Oh, noooo.... they're going to take away my Gen X card for the unforgivably long time it took me to think of MCFLY in the upper right. Bad Gen Xer, bad!!! If not for that corner, this would have been a easily a personal best. I just couldn't see FLOUNCE and MCFLY or YREKA for the life of me, even with good crossings. I mean, I eventually did, but it did keep me from a personal best by a few minutes. Oh well! It was fun, and you know Gen X girls just want to have fun, that's all we were ever really want.. We just want, we just wanna have fun. (I'm trying to earn some Gen X cred back!! Fingers crossed that it's working!)
@HeathieJ It's working. I see your true colors shining through.
@HeathieJ I had MARTY there for the longest time.
Thank you, Ryan McCarty. Despite the world, there is simple joy in solving a crossword puzzle. Unblemished, innocent joy! Thankful for the peace and pleasure of puzzles. As for the rest, this too, shall pass.
I was very amused to see 12D given that I'm heading to Yreka later this morning! (No, not from Phoenix; I'm currently a lot closer to Yreka than that.)
@Wendy I love when those strange coincidences happen during the solve ☺️
I had the (somewhat) good fortune of living within an hour's drive or so of the Lorelei in the mid-80s, while stationed in West Germany with the US Air Force. The promontory is located on one of the more beautiful and scenic sections of the Rhein (or Rhine) with views of several castles. And just a couple years ago, we cruised the Rhein and Mosel (Moselle), once again (safely) passing by the Lorelei.
Very fun and friictionless for a Saturday
I really hate it when people grouse about how easy a puzzle was when I thought it was my own personal genius that got me though it pretty fast, with no serious stumbles and no look-ups. Now look what you've done. I kept turning an image of a dogfight between a Spitfire and a Messerschmidt over and over in my head, trying to picture how something, anything in it would fit 1D. Now if Ryan had said. "Focus in the middle of an airplane fight" . . . . Well, it probably still would have been my last fill. (Brilliant clue!) The puzzle was imaginative and fun, Ryan. We're dealing with a bunch of elite, super-solvers here, and if you had crushed them, they would have complained that the puzzle was too hard. I say Bravo!, and do come back soon.
@Vito I think you are being a bit tongue in cheek, but in any case it appears even those of use who found it easy enjoyed it, I don’t see much grousing—and I never complain about too hard a puzzle. Please, bumfuzzle me all you want (I just learned that phrase).
@Vito ARMREST was a great answer to a great clue. I don't think any puzzle would be too hard for the hard-core solvers here. I admire them when I'm not jealous of them.
16 minutes for a Saturday puzzle! I know that's no big deal for many of you folks, but for me, that's astounding. (I attribute this to the puzzle's construction and clues, not to anything about me.)
@John, take some credit! That's amazing! I was just shy of 14 minutes, which is nearly 5 less than my average. I'm proud of my solve!
@John 14:46 here! I got bogged down by having MARTY instead of MCFLY. Fun puzzle!
@John your hometown reminds me of a funny story. When we first moved to Wisconsin, we didn’t know a soul living there. We met our neighbors who became fast friends. Our son played lacrosse and joined a team right away. We became close with one of the families and decided to have Thanksgiving dinner together. Our neighbors knew that we had no family nearby, so they invited us to join them. We thanked them and said we already had plans with our friends from lacrosse. They looked puzzled and asked how we knew anyone from La Crosse?!?! We looked puzzled at their question and said that we spend hours a week with these families… That’s when the hammer dropped and we all cracked up at each other 🤣🤣🤣
@John It would be a big deal for me—my Saturday average is double that! And today took me a little more than average, lots of references I wasn’t familiar with. Congrats on your speedy solve today!
Nice walk down memory lane as I recalled the red envelopes that DVDS from Netflix used to come in. Amazing to think that was still an option until 2023. I came across one of those old envelopes a decade ago, and it made me smile thinking of days long gone by. I remember when the company first came into existence and thinking, "Why would anyone wait for a DVD in the mail when Blockbuster is just around the corner?" Now I had to Google "DVD chain store" to remember the name Blockbuster!
I could never really call a NYT Saturday crossword “easy”, but this one was relatively quick and fun. It felt more playful to me than most late-week puzzles. Ryan McCarty is amazing. Regarding LORELEI, I’m not sure I should admit this but I thought of Lorelei Lee in Gentleman Prefer Blondes (played by Marilyn Monroe in the classic 1953 movie version). She famously sang about “rocks” too, Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend got me the right answer, but imagine my surprise when I was reminded here of the other classic LORELEI. Then I thought: Oh, her!
Sooooooo....late yesterday the overly-vigilant emus released my (completely harmless) Comment, along with several others that had been held up. You'd think they'd want to make it up to us with a humdinger of a Saturday puzzle...and the Wide Open Spaces of the grid, at first, seemed daunting... ....but instead, Hippity-Hop from the SE corner--could scarcely write fast enough!--up and down, around and around, and Pfft. Over Too Soon! And who says C STORE? Nobody. Folks manage to pronounce 'convenience' without too much of a struggle. Sheesh. Now what am I supposed to do? The Bonus Puzzle isn't even by Fred Piscop. No offense, Chandi, congrats and all, but we had a tradition ....or so we thought.
@Mean Old Lady You stopped doing the Saturday Stumper? I give you all the credit in the world for solving that. Way above my paygrade.
@Mean Old Lady “[W]ho says C STORE? Nobody.” I don’t use C STORE (and try to avoid convenience stores unless I’m on a car trip). But I don’t get the urge to say, “Nobody says ______.” Constructors don’t make that sort of thing up. I am sure that somewhere in this big country of ours, someone is too lazy to say “convenience.”
MOL, Folks in or following retail use C STORE.
@Mean Old Lady We had CSTORES on the military bases I lived on. I don't think I've personally seen the term anywhere else though.
On the one hand, fastest Saturday ever (right after the longest Friday ever) On the other hand, way too many proper nouns and names to make this enjoyable. This should be a crossword puzzle not a trivia contest. Also come and see Banff National Park if you haven't already! Canada's first national park. The Icefields parkway between Jasper and Banff is a gorgeous drive, and it's worth the stopover at the Columbia Icefields. Better yet, if you can, do a Heli tour of the mountains! It gives you a whole other perspective of the mountains. I've just been spoiled living here my whole life and taking the majesty of the Rockies for granted. (I can post pics of me and the pups doing the Icefields parkway drive upon request. The day the new Alberta superchargers opened, I did a round trip through Alberta in a day to prove that it could be done in an EV (Edmonton - Jasper - Banff - Calgary - Edmonton))
@DocP Hello from Paris, we would love to see the pups! Never been over to Banff ourselves, hope to go one day.
@DocP Banff is on my skiing bucket list, right after Jackson Hole. I have been to CFB Edmonton though, for a joint training exercise. I earned my Canadian parachute wings as well.
@Grant Sunshine is too busy. Lake Louise is one of the most beautiful ski runs I've ever done.
@Arden Pour vous, mon ami. <a href="https://imgur.com/a/Llosi3p" target="_blank">https://imgur.com/a/Llosi3p</a>
@DocP "This should be a crossword puzzle not a trivia contest." You do know that it's through "trivia" that we get to know about things like Banff. It's all trivia until we see the importance of it.
@Francis Banff is about as trivial as Yellowstone.There is a difference between trivia and ignorance. A person doing the NYT crossword should have a baseline knowledge. I.e. Even if you don't know sports, you still should have heard about Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretzky, Tiger Woods, Serena Williams, etc. OTOH, LUCE, LORELEI and DESICA definitely count as trivia
@DocP I'm happy to hear nice things about an EV (as long as it's not the one by the Large Evil One), but as one who has visited your lovely province twice, I ask why anyone should be encouraged to see it all in one day.
@DocPYes. Fast solves, in fact, to me are less enjoyable than brain testers, especially on Saturday. This one was not for me, although I solved it in half my average time. This is happening too often, NYT puzzle editors! The NYT Saturday was once the exemplar of a tough puzzle -- not so much these days.
@RozzieGrandma Oh no one should ever be encouraged to see it in a day. You just can't. I just wanted to prove that the drive could be done. During the pandemic, we took both puppies and took 2 weeks to go to Jasper, Lake Louise and Drumheller. We took a day to do the scenic drive back from Calgary to Edmonton, stopping along some ghost towns along way.
@Francis Ugh. You and me both. I moved to Alberta when I was 2 and have been here ever since. I was once a proud Canadian. But the atrocities committed against the indigenous peoples, as well as being the Texas of Canada make me question things a lot. Wifey and I are considering retiring in Europe. No offense but all of the USA is a tire fire, so that's a no go. That said, please do visit. There is a ton of natural beauty here. The sunsets are the best I have ever seen. The mountains are gorgeous. The badlands showcase 200M years of history. The people are very welcoming and friendly (far better than NYC and LA). Ironically, I am reading a novel set in Texas and they are describing a lifted truck with truck nuts, and I was totally like, yup that's Alberta.
Up in the air Elbows full square Nudge on the rest? Don't even dare. Clear to see That we all agree Clue of the year (So far) One D!
I laughed out loud at 1 down, must confess to doing my best to grab the ARMREST when ever I flew. Fun Saturday puzzle.
@suejean me too, especially if I’m in a middle seat! I feel it’s my due for being boxed in
"Focus of an airplane battle" HAHAHAHA! Nice work.
Uncharacteristic for me to start a Saturday puzzle in the NW, but ALGEBRA, ARMREST and LORELEI had me grinning. I thought for sure I'd breeze through the rest of it. And for the most part I did, though the SE took a bit of time. I never heard of them referred to as CSTORES, but once I had STORES, it became obvious. I got through the middle fairly easily, thanks to HE SAID SHE SAID coming right to mind. But then then that darned NE. Stumped, even though CAR LOANS was my immediate entry there. The rest of that corner dogged me to the very end, and I nearly gave up. But then I had a thought: What if 18A, Facedown, wasn't one word, but the two words I always thought it was? That's when I got PRONE, and that made me think of MVP, which gave me MC, remembered MCFLY, then was able to get FLOUNCE, YREKA, and finally, LONNIE. Whew! The easy puzzle turned into quite a workout, but persistence sure paid off. I really enjoyed this puzzle!
@Times Rita I had a very similar experience. I thought about PRONE, but didn't have faith in it until I put in MVP, which seemed almost too easy to be right.
Many commenters have mentioned modern songs and TV shows that include a LORELEI, but I haven't seen anyone quote the original poem by Heinrich Heine. Here is its tragic conclusion, in German. Die schönste Jungfrau sitzet Dort oben wunderbar, Ihr goldenes Geschmeide blitzet, Sie kämmt ihr goldenes Haar. Sie kämmt es mit goldenem Kamme Und singt ein Lied dabei; Das hat eine wundersame, Gewaltige Melodei. Den Schiffer im kleinen Schiffe Ergreift es mit wildem Weh; Er schaut nicht die Felsenriffe, Er schat nur hinauf in die Höh. Ich glaube, die Welllen verschlingen Am Ende Schiffer und Kahn; Und das hat mit ihrem Singen Die Lorelei getan.
And its somewhat less lovely English translation: The loveliest young maiden sits So beautifully up there, Her golden jewelry gleams and glints, She combs her golden hair, She combs it with a golden brush And while she combs she sings; The tune is both miraculous And overpowering. It grips the sailor in the ship With a wild and aching woe; His eyes are only looking up, Not at the rocks below. I believe that in the end the waves Devoured ship and boy, And that is what the Lorelei Accomplished with her voice. <a href="https://www.classicalpoets.org/2020/01/the-lorelei-by-heinrich-heine" target="_blank">https://www.classicalpoets.org/2020/01/the-lorelei-by-heinrich-heine</a>/
@The X-Phile I actually know the German original by heart. Also Goethe's Erlenkönig. In the version I know, the third line from the bottom goes: Am Ende noch Schiffer und Kahn
@The X-Phile Here's the setting of Heine's poem, by Friedrich Silcher: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L254Y0ni_A0&list=RDL254Y0ni_A0&start_radio=1" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L254Y0ni_A0&list=RDL254Y0ni_A0&start_radio=1</a> (Many people assume it is a "folk song," but it was composed in 1837. The text was also set by Franz Liszt and Clara Schumann, among others.)
A smooth one but also had a bit of a rockY time in the NE. At [Water cooler?] I thought, "I hope it's not, oh it is ICECUBE" which prompted the lookup: ICECUBE: 15 previous instances but the only other Saturday was [Producer of a chilling effect] (not bad). My favorite however is [Die of cold?] from a variety puzzle 1/13/2002. Nice puzzle. Thanks.
TIL there's a magazine called "Time, Life and Sports Illustrated". Sounds like a children's version of "Life, The Universe and Everything". (Deep Thoughts!)(42!)
@ad absurdum Let's hear it for the Oxford comma!
I must be getting better bc idk how I did that
Puzzle difficulty can be so subjective and I find some days treacherous that others fly through. Ones like this, when I'm one of those flying through, make me appreciate all those other times when it seems like the editors matched the challenge level just right with the day of the week. For me, this played too fast - a Saturday best five seconds slower than my Monday average - and I'd love a bit more crunchiness in future editions. Now perhaps we'll get a Sunday that'll send me spinning futile wheels for ages....
@BC Five seconds slower than your *Monday* average! I think you're at the point at which answers come to you within a few milliseconds whether a Monday or a Friday. Those that don't get quickly solved with a cross or two. I suspect a good portion of the time you're spending is simply doing the mechanics. Jeez, that's impressive.
I sped through this puzzle at an uncharacteristically fast pace! Must have been on the same wavelength as the constructor!
I was sailing along quite nicely until I hit the iceberg. I was thinking this was quite easy, then. I had gotten three of the long down answers with little effort. Finished up the SE and I realized the NE wasn't done. Those half dozen squares took me the most of the time. Most of it was caused by thinking [Muttonhead] was Lamb. I just couldn't come up with anything better, and that made 10D, 11D and 12D very challenging. I knew there was a poison word in there, but could not decide which one it was. When I finally tried LUNK, I didn't have much confidence (I rarely went to movies in the 80s, so a lead role with MC... was virtually impossible). But that turned out to unlock that corner. I was really on the point of giving. Close one. So I agree with the "easy" crowd for 95% of the puzzle. If you, like me struggle and then find that others did not, try to take it in stride (something I'm still working on). I would hazard a guess that some of the most talented crossword solvers in the world are posting here.
@Francis LUNK filled in completely from the crosses for me. I thought it might be goat (only because sheep wouldn’t fit), but I left it blank.
@Francis Glad you persisted, it was definitely the last to fall for me too. I first filled in SWAGGER before FLOUNCE and tried OGRE before LUNK although I doubted it was right, and then moved to the other corners. Got CARLOANS and PATAGONIA later which deep sixed those, but still resisted FLOUNCE for a long while because I couldn’t parse -CF—. Not sure what opened it up for me, I think getting PRONE.
@Francis And then there was me, utterly confused and defeated by the NW, NE and SE corners. I actually used some reveals in the NW, and lookups in the other two corners.
@Francis. I finished the puzzle in great time, very happy. Except it was incorrect 🫢. Spent the rest of the morning learning to spell humIdor. 🤬. Byebye good time.
@Francis SP mentioned PATAGONIA as a word they got only later on. For me, it was an educated guess that worked out. I’m sure that helped me with the whole NE quadrant. I’ve found that answers like that can make a huge difference in how easily you can solve a puzzle. Keep solving and having fun.
Hi folks, nice to see you. I solved this puzzle and I liked it a lot it but it was oddly quick—it took me just slightly more than half the time of yesterday’s. I didn’t know the LORELEI story and just kept thinking of Steven Universe, which sort of worked anyway. And I had a real dook with DADSTOBE. I kept deleting the B, saying to myself, “dad stobe can’t be a thing.”
@Noemi Maybe folks though of SIREN? (Too short) MÄDCHEN? At least it's German, like the fatal Rhine maiden...? And weren't there more than just the one?
I just noticed this—usually the columnists are pretty careful not to put spoilers in the column headline or the photo, yet this one is entitled Baby Steps. Just politely pointing it out for future reference if Caitlin is reading this.
@SP My guess is that Caitlin misremembered and thought BABY STEPS was a clue. Having reviewed many crosswords myself, I can easily imagine doing that.
@Eric Hougland You're being diplomatic or maybe you've just never realized that Caitlin's posts, which I love, do frequently have spoilery pictures and headlines. I can't see them in the phone app and never go to the Wordplay column before finishing so it doesn't bother me, but I think they are visible if you're on a desktop/laptop and possibly if you're on a tablet.
@SP The NYT web team really needs to find a way to hide the column on the solving page. Doesn't seem like it would be that difficult!
I was so lost at one point that 35D ["Are you done guessing?"] seemed like a trash talk.
@Francis, HAHA! I can almost imagine the constructor having this look on their face
Seeing that Ryan McCarty was the constructor initially set off alarm bells for me, but I thought this wound up being a puzzle with kinder, gentler cluing than the typical Saturday. Most chuffed (Hi, Sue Jean) in dredging Henry LUCE of Time/Life from the depths of memory with no crosses. And especially loved the clue for LORELEI. In addition to those Gilmore Girls, the name summons up this from the Tom Tom Club. <a href="https://youtu.be/82dgacjmP4k?si=rzjpp-gFw60osKR9" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/82dgacjmP4k?si=rzjpp-gFw60osKR9</a>
@Vaer I recently mentioned that I knew a bit about Friends because my daughter was into that show. She also was big on Gilmore Girls. It is for that reason that I know that the protagonist's name was spelled Lorelai. Her daughter, Rory, was also officially named Lorelai, although I joked to my daughter that it was actually Rorerai. (Probably named by Scooby-Doo.)
@Steve L Ruh-roh. I never realized that about the spelling. Of course if you only watch the show and don't read anything about the characters it's possible not to know how names are spelled unless it's brought up in the show somehow. And at this point in time, I definitely have no recollection if it was. And now I have to go check and see how the Tom Tom Club spells it.
@Vaer, Chuffed to be in your comment.
Great puzzle. On the easier side for me, but full of twisty fill. 1D had me trying to fit in Dogfight for ages.
@Helen Wright that was another great clue!!! I definitely chuckled when I realized it was ARMREST.
@Helen Wright We're heading across the lake to watch a Portuguese Water Dogs competition. We see the rowboats getting into position now, so we're off. It has nothing to do with anything Somerset-related, so maybe "dogfight" jilted my subconscious. Just thought I'd try to direct your focus away from your pseudo-ruminant friends. 😁
Finally solved this one when I realized 8A was MCFLY not “McFry.” The 80s were a strange time for movies, but no, there was no Hamburglar movie I forgot about.
@Marty "McFry" would be the Mr. Miaggi pronunciation, you were on the right track.
@Marty, Exactly this. RONNIE seemed so spot on…
Where was I in 1985? That was my first thought! Give the question some context. After a bit, ah yes, Back To The Future. I had MARTY at first. It became clear that was incorrect as I worked out the puzzle. I doubt I would have remembered MCFLY on my own, but at least I was zeroed in on the right character. This is the first Saturday I've finished in quite a few weeks, and this was not accomplished in record time lol, but it was very satisfying to achieve the Gold Star. Have a good one everybody, cooler, more comfortable days are upon us, thank goodness, pumpkin spice lattes all around!
@Lily, I was satisfied with MCFRY before I recalled B2TF. RONNIE seemed just as feasible, if not more so than LONNIE
Fun puzzle. Was cruising along until that bottom left. Still about half my normal Saturday time.
I bow to anyone who knew LONNIE without the crosses.
@Mr Dave At one point I had Tonmie. :) Seemed perfectly cromulent at the time.
@Mr Dave I had a L and N and I have no idea why my brain knew this nugget of info
@Mr Dave I knew it! I used to work as a school librarian and there is a fun picture book about him I liked to read to the kids. It’s a great story about perseverance!
@Mr Dave might as well just clue it as “Man’s first name”.
I really enjoyed the last couple of days. Themeless puzzles are my favorite and yesterday’s was a classic. Today’s was also a lot of fun and rhe clueing must have been right in my wheelhouse as I got my first PB in quite a while with a time a minute and a half faster than my Wednesday time this week. Thanks for the fun!