I had the whole puzzle otherwise done for about 9 minutes before I corrected "NOT I" to "NOR I." I knew that's where the error almost certainly was, but I just couldn't get past the obvious correctness of "NOT I." Crosswords really force you to confront how easy it is to cling to a mistake, even when you know darn well that it's wrong.
@DYT Yup. For me, in this puzzle, it was being sure about SODAS (turned out it was COLAS), while wondering "who is this intelligent fictional character named HODMES?"
@DYT, same. And it was completely plausible in my (stubborn) mind that actes were part of the National Mall.
@DYT Even after I found the solution, it took some time for it to sink in. I was thinking, isn't NORI the seaweed used for sushi rolls? Could it be an acronym for a movement opposite to "Me Too" that I somehow never heard of? /Facepalm
@DYT Thanks you answered my question. I had the same problem.
What a rude comment about poor old Jabba. He might be a perfectly healthy weight for his species.
@Seb Oh, yeah, another place I very confidently entered an error. I started with alien. I totally agree that we can't really be sure Jabba is obese. Would we call the average hippo obese? The average blob fish? <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-ugliest-animal-blobfish-6676336" target="_blank">https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/worlds-ugliest-animal-blobfish-6676336</a>/
@Seb My thoughts exactly! Who are we to judge a Hutt on its BMI? 😂
@Seb Good point!!! I don’t have a growth chart or BMI standards for Hutts. A non PC clue both for body negativity and rank specie-ism. ; )
@Seb There was recently another NYT XWord I did that had a similar clue for OBESE. The subject wasn't Jabba but a person, I believe, and I definitely thought that one was rude. Let me see if I can find it... Oh yes, it was from the Sun Dec 11, 2022 puzzle, and the clue was, "Like sumo wrestlers, medically speaking." But this article explains why, despite their size, most Sumo wrestlers don't suffer from obesity-related illnesses, so I think the clue is not great. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/sumo-wrestlers-obesity-diet-calories-exercise-symptoms-2019-3" target="_blank">https://www.businessinsider.com/sumo-wrestlers-obesity-diet-calories-exercise-symptoms-2019-3</a>
@Seb Also Jeremy Allen White will be playing Jabba’s son in the Mandelorian movie, wonder if he has anything to say about it..
@Seb This is just all so much Jabba. Hutt's not about fat, it's about why.
As long as we are extolling Dolly Parton, I wanted to point out as a pediatrician she is a strong reading advocate and founded the Imagination Library. I work at a community clinic and all our low income families can sign up and get free books monthly for all their kids from birth to age 5 . She really is a national treasure.
@SP She's one of the very few long standing celebrities of whom I've never heard a bad word. She seems like the real deal. The only thing I hold against her is the type of music she makes. Apologies to you country fans out there, but other than a slight dalliance with country in the early 90s, I just can't listen to it. Especially these days. When I was a kid Parton had a TV show with Porter Wagoner. It only came on on Saturday afternoons. I never minded her, but Porter wore the most amazingly repulsive suits--all sequins and fancy stitching.
@SP I think she is very sweet!
Dolly Parton was asked if she was bothered by "dumb blonde" jokes. She replied "No, because I know I'm not dumb... and I know I'm not blonde." :-)
Let’s all send some healing energy Dolly’s way. So much more than a BLONDE — she’s a national treasure. Get well soon, Dolly!
@Striker She posted a video earlier today saying that she's doing fine, she's having some medical procedures done but it's nothing serious or life-threatening.
Such an enjoyable puzzle that I could find nothing opposable in it. Et tu, emu.
@Lewis I'ma tellin' on you to Mike!
"Let's make the state capital Augusta." "Works for ME!" (Going there is the Maine event.)
when in order to get fill you have to physically twiddle your thumbs with a stupid grin on your face after futilely trying to rotate them around each other like tiny sausage heavenly bodies managing only half orbits you know youre standing in the shadow of a fine puzzle.
@Matt Are you James Joyce reincarnate?
@Francis I've been laughing out loud at your comment for a bit now
@Matt Glad I'm not the only one who did this!
I am a geezer but not a fogy. Just sayin’.
What an inspired and original idea! What a huge "Aha Moment it gave me when I got to the revealer! Without the revealer, I wonder if anyone would get the theme? Certainly I wouldn't have. But then the scales fell from my eyes and everything fell into place. I never cease to be amazed at the inventive ideas constructors manage to come up with. As I've said before, every time I think there's no new idea under the sun, someone proves me wrong. This idea -- so simple, so smooth, so seemingly effortless -- seems absolutely genius to me. I love this puzzle, Freddie!
Deb will be pleased to see how many people are very carefully reading the column..
@Barry Ancona That's why she intentionally put it in there. My lawyer does the same thing when he wants to make sure I read a contract. He fills it with misspellings, other people's names, bad addresses, and so on. Smart woman, our Deb!
On one thumb, I am happy that they clued APE in a non offensive way to apes for a change! On the other thumb, I'd have preferred NORI clued as it normally is to sushi. I know my thumb and I are not alone in that... Or probably in wondering too long what on earth ACtE is. On a third thumb, who is CHEt and why was his hair so popular back in the day. Har! It sounded very '70s to me and I hadn't particularly heard of Cher hair. I wore my hair more like Scooby-Doo in the '70s. With clothing that looked like Laura Ingalls Wilder would have worn. My parents really should have been arrested for crimes against humanity. Wonder if there's a statute of limitations on that...? I have the photographic proof to hold my mom accountable. And now, I'm all out of thumbs.... I'm so lost without them, I know they were right believing for so long. I'm all out of thumbs and have NOTHINGTODO... And I NEEDARIDE but I'm all out of thumbs. MAN, this comment is spiraling downhill at ULTRA sonic speeds. I'll see myself out!
@HeathieJ Oh, great. Now I have to go to bed with Air Supply in my head! Quick! Give me another ear worm to replace it with!
@HeathieJ Oh my goodness, I totally meant my hair looked like Shaggy's, not Scooby-Doo!! 😂
@HeathieJ so you’re saying you looked like Holly Hobby? 🤪 I’m pretty sure I have pics of me looking the same 😝
@HeathieJ Thanks for making me fell better about being confused by ACtE 😃 My mom also insisted on my having weird hair as a kid...
@HeathieJ What ship and where? We just got off the Brilliant Lady. Lots of tattoos and piercings on the staff, and clearly no pressure to hide them
Hi all, Thanks for reporting my good. The answer to 28D is ROAD, not PATH. I've corrected it in the column.
@Deb Amlen You mean "my gooF"? I'm guessing this is one of those days for you.
@Deb Amlen If it’s any consolation, I had “path” first, too. Great minds..?
@Heidi not a big deal, but the correction says it is for 28 ACROSS, not DOWN.
Could not figure out for the life of me what 300 ACtEs on the National Mall could be 😢
@alan Hi! Welcome to the club! Several have already been seated below. Let me know if I can get you anything.
Who didn't get the theme until after she completed the crossword? (Two back)!
Ok, I know I write too much. But I have to tell you my thumb story. I hope you'll stick with me, but I forgive you if you don't. In math and physics, there is something called "the Right Hand Rule". It involves something called the cross product of two vectors. I know, I know, I said no math, but just bear with me. It involves the right hand. You imagine using the fingers of your right hand to mentally push one vector into another, and the direction of your answer is the way your thumb is pointing. Again, just trust me. So the Right Hand Rule is used to predict the direction of the cross product, and we can make that simple: it's either up, or down, depending on which way the thumb of your right hand points. I had a physics problem which had the answer in the back of the book. I got everything right about the problem except I had the direction wrong. I thought it was "down", and the answer in the back of the book was "up". I struggled for hours with that problem, bashing the door frame in my mother's house with my right fist as I often did in the testosterone fueled days of academic competition. I finally realized my error. I was using my left hand, because my pencil was in my right hand. If you've read this far, congratulations.
@Francis Reminds me of the professor's admonition that there 'is no left-hand rule'. Fun story!
@Francis I read it all… but does it count if I don’t understand it? 😵💫 PS- You could never write too much.
@Francis That thumb thing was one of the many things I never managed to understand in my math and physics courses at school 🤣
@Francis. I read your posts and enjoy them! And… there are left hand rules… <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleming%27s_left-hand_rule_for_motors" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fleming%27s_left-hand_rule_for_motors</a>
@Francis I had THE best math teacher--in college--who changed my fear and hate into pure joy. He told me I should be majoring in Math; (I wish I'd listened.) I took only enough to sidestep the foreign language requirement --a nice nod to the students pursuing a BS--and loved every minute. But I never encountered what your were describing. And I have never been quite clear on which is Left, which is Right. One can't have everything.
@Francis I’ll geek out with you. I remember something similar for determining the chirality of a partical or molecule.
@Francis Stereoisomers needs to be a seed entry.
Anyone here old enough to remember those Maidenform "I dreamed..." ads? The sins of Madison Ave., long before the NOBRADAYS <a href="https://share.google/mme0t2zXYFNoCZv84" target="_blank">https://share.google/mme0t2zXYFNoCZv84</a> They say the French have a word [phrase?] for it, and I think "ni moi non plus" wins for NOR_I... It's a LOKI way to make clear it supports of an already-expressed disagreement. Sorry for the re-hash. Just SOYA know: whenever I see SPRIG, I remember TJ who commented briefly on WordPlay decades ago. He allowed as how his paycheck had arrived graced with a SPRIG of parsley... His wages had been garnished. Still makes me smile. You can put THUMBtips together to make the bottom of a heart, but too complicated to bring in the two index fingers On The Other Hand--- Jerk one back over the shoulder: GET_OUTTA_HERE!! Have a lovely Thursday, all y;all!!
Good to see you leaping, Leapy!
@Leapy -- Your posts are priceless. Breath of fresh air. The play's the thing and you do it so well.
Little Jack Horner called to say he was plum stuck on this theme for the longest time. Me? I figured that, sooner or later, I'd find THUMBthing to thay about this. [groaning with pleasure]
@Leapfinger well, i guess thumbody had to thay it.
Kudos to those solvers who could fill the themers from the crosses without catching the overall direction. I needed to dive down to the reveal's friendly clue to figure out what was going on. Managed to come up for air after that. I did stumble at the ACtE/NOtI cross but manage to get out of the weeds there in the end. Nice one and thanks.
@John Carson That was my downfall today, and I missed it in reviewing my work before finally checking the puzzle and revealing my error. No star for me today. Sad face.
A capital-R Riddle puzzle. Where I’m hopelessly stymied as to why NO WAY JOSE is the answer to [Two down], not to mention the other theme clue/answers, and then finally I uncover the revealer and the heavens part. (Hi, @Deb!) Those are the best riddles. The ones that get you good. This puzzle was a fun, smart, and engaging. Enough bite to satisfy my brain’s workout ethic. Lovely misdirect for me in [Infantry arm]. Lovely wordplay in [Break the Hippocratic oath, say]. And something I’ve never done before while solving a puzzle: maneuver my hands into various thumb-centric positions. Then pure joy at remembering “twiddle”, a Hall Of Fame word I haven’t thought about in ages. Icing on the cake was the glorious PuzzPair© of APE and a backward KOKO. Came into the box hoping for a day brightener and left it buoyant. Bravo and thank you, Freddie. I loved this!
@Lewis NO WAY JOSE coupled with two thumbs down was hilarious. Anyone who got that without at least two crosses gets full props from me.
@Lewis NORI was one of the DWARFS in Thorin's Company, in "The Hobbit." (Yes, I know that Tolkien spelt it "Dwarves.")
Nice childhood memories today, of the sweet smell of Mom’s freshly baked ginger-snaps, the anticipation waiting for them to cool enough, and the warm feeling of them in my hand just before the first bite after she finally said “Enable”. Fun puzzle.
'Two up': ELAINEBENES 'Two up': THEFONZ
@Dave K. I'm not sure I get the joke about Elaine. Is it because she stuck her thumbs out when she "danced"*, or went into a fully body spasm, or whatever? *I'd like to say parenthetically that I didn't find her dance all that awful. I am a terrible judge of dancers, because I'm barely coordinated enough to walk, even when not chewing gum.
@Heidi The Brooklyn Cyclones recently hosted an Elaine Benes dance contest. A woman from Greenpoint won. <a href="https://share.google/CWKLFYsuzpz8BFAPj" target="_blank">https://share.google/CWKLFYsuzpz8BFAPj</a>
This was an interesting experience. I got the theme quite quickly, but one of the themed entries had me confused. I may have heard the expression "Twiddling one's thumbs", but I'm really not sure I have, and I certainly didn't know what it meant. Thus, the entry stumped me. I had some problems with the crosses around there (for example, even though a GRAM is very familiar to me as our basic unit of weight, I know almost nothing about carats), but in the end they gave me the answer. Having NOt I rather than NOR I required a lookup in the end. NOt I looked so obviously good I was not bothered by the weird ACtE, of which there are 300 on the National Mall. When I did not get my gold star, I went back to the mysterious spots, and the National Mall clue was the first one I googled. ACRE... Ok. Imperial units are just not something I ever think of, even if I know their names. I have not heard of NO BRA DAY as a breast cancer awareness observance. It has no entry in Polish on Wikipedia. Breast cancer awareness is a huge thing over here though. Women are encouraged to get mammograms, and they can do so for free, not only at publicly funded healthcare facilities, but also at specially equipped, government-funded buses ("mammobus") that tour the country, getting to places where there may be no local doctor's office.
@Andrzej "Twiddling one's thumbs" is a fairly common idiom for sitting around waiting for something to happen. However I had the same problem with NOt I, did not know that carats were fractions of a gram and I think had only encountered the idea of NO BRA DAY in a previous NYT xword.
@Andrzej Me, too on the NOtI. Agonized over ACtE and what 300 of them would look like. So I had that mistake when I entered the final square. It may be the primary stumbling block of the puzzle, based on other comments.
@Andrzej Sorry but you got me at mammobus. I have to use that in my political jokes. The free busses in NYC will be named Mammobuses for the Mayor.
@Andrzej And still Sam Ezersky is not accepting MAMMO in Spelling Bee. Boo!
Btw, in Polish we don't have an expression about being all thumbs. We say that somebody has two left hands - Masz dwie lewe ręce! (Not much tolerance for lefties in the days when our modern language formed)
Finished in 13:18. Slowed down by some flyspecking -- I had "NOt I" for 26d which left the headscratching "ACtE" for 32A. Otherwise, fun quick solve. No rebus squares, so the usual Thursday complainers will have a bit less to grouse about! 🤪 I did find this one Thursday-appropriate, if a bit on the light side. I enjoyed the theme in hindsight. I didn't really get a quicker solve from the theme clues, though, since I easily filled the first three theme entries on the crossings.
@Matt I had the same error, and a very similar time (13:25).
@Matt Count me as another NOt I person. I lost a few minutes finding my mistake because I ran through all the Down answers first when I was checking for my error.
I have to admit, before I read any other comments, that this puzzler *really* gave me trouble. In the end I got it, but it took forever and wasn't confident at all I would. So many places I just didn't have a clue. For example, I didn't know Soy beans were SOYA. I've never heard of SEMTEX. Not at all familiar with "Il Trovatore". Never heard of CHER hair. 40A really bothers me. It seems to clue a response *to* "Aw, Shucks", not something that occurs simultaneously with "Aw, Shucks". I made multiple errors: path before ROAD, OKay before OKOK, NOtI before NORI. breadED before DEBONED. Sheesh, I really stunk at solving this one. An ugly gold star.
@Francis Let me clarify my final sentence. I meant that I solved it in an ugly way. NOT that the puzzle was ugly. I thought the theme was very clever, and I really needed it to get the long theme answers because I wasn't getting much else.
@Francis I think you are not alone, I had some of the same issues. I think for GRIN they meant “a response that is equivalent to ‘Aw Shucks’” but that is awkwardly worded. I had OKAY first as well, LIMA and FAVA before SOYA and had to get SEMTEX on crosses. No problem on CHER hair (although I hadn’t heard it, I could guess it) and NORI is an issue for me as I have already commented.
@Francis My first thought for "iconic 70s style" was farrah, but that didn't fit. CHER wasn't hard to figure out one crossing answer. I'd never heard of SEMTEX either. SOYA was a gimme, as I used to have a soy milk maker called a SoyaJoy, and I knew soy beans have the most protein of all the beans.
@Francis Il Trovatore, The Troubadour, is a Verdi opera with a reputation of being hard to stage. Toscanini is supposed to have said [paraphrasing] "Not really. All you need is the four finest singers in the world." Here is a brief video that refers to that quote and introduces the characters and the hair-raising plot in just over three minutes. (It seems to link automatically to more detailed but equally brief additional videos, but the first one is the basic intro.) <a href="https://tinyurl.com/ycyfa6r" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/ycyfa6r</a> It's easy to find videos and audio-only versions of full performances and individual arias,including the one piece that "everybody" knows: The Anvil Chorus.
@Francis I was able to surmise SOYA, but SEMTEX was among the many obscure things within this puzzle. Despite living through the 70s, I'd never heard of CHER hair, either. All total, I needed seventeen cheats. (And I also had 'okay' before OKOK.)
The top 7 rows of the puzzle were pretty straightforward for me, and I filled in both themers with crosses. Then I didn't have much until I got to the revealer, which let me figure out the next two themers and let me finish up fairly quickly. Oh, it's DEBONED! I kept trying to figure out a 7 letter word for salmonella ridden. I did spend a few seconds making fists with my THUMBS out and pointing towards each other and orbiting my THUMBS around each other before I realized I needed to interlace my fingers and twiddle instead. I'm glad I was doing this puzzle at home and not in a public place.
@Nancy J. This comment made me laugh out loud twice.
@Nancy J. I admit I thought of "contaminated" and its synonyms first... However, I prefer to DEBONE after stewing the chicken in the crockpot; so much easier, very quick while the meat is still hot, and oh, that broth! If one DEBONED the uncooked chicken, there would have to be so much waste! And you'd miss out on the marrow that a stewed chicken's bones can yield...
[Two to oneself] I kinda regret letting my Hominidae membership lapse. THIS GUY
Because I’m such an open-minded guy I’ve been wracking my brain trying to think of a way to make NORI work despite my earlier arguments. Here’s the best I could come up with. IF you concede that METOO means “both of us are going” then NORI means “both of us aren’t going”. MAYBE that’s close enough for a crossword clue and I’ll throw that out to the folks that are defending it. I still think it’s a very imprecise and poorly designed clue, since you would never use that as a stand alone statement and since NOTI is such a clearly better answer.
@SP Sorry for the pun, but yes, agreement matters in clue-to-answer.
SP, You are an experienced crossword solver and a published constructor. I'm puzzled that you are insisting on a very narrow meaning of the word "opposite." Of course NOTI is the *first* correct answer that comes to mind; it's Thursday, and we can all use some misdirection. The National Mall gives us a fair measure of the puzzle. I say 49A on 26D. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opposite" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/opposite</a>
Twice this week ape has been nouned, rather than verbed, in an NYT crossword. If this is the new policy, I like it.
@Ed Oh, I wonder if I got it on the crosses the other time because the normal cluing as a verb really annoys and I was happy to see it clued as such today. You and I posted about the same time and I mentioned it too. I'm not that easily annoyed in crosswords, but that really grates! 🙂
@Ed Oh you gave me a new word (nouned) and used one of my coinages (verbed). I love it.
Trust me. This is safe for work: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/franksthefarside/posts/1725448914830549" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/groups/franksthefarside/posts/1725448914830549</a>/
@FiGM Funny, this puzzle suggested a Far Side cartoon to me as well: <a href="https://www.cardcow.com/images/set856/card00903_fr.jpg" target="_blank">https://www.cardcow.com/images/set856/card00903_fr.jpg</a> (But yours is funnier:-)
I haven't watched "RoboCop" in a long time, but I don't remember an UZI having any prominence in that movie. You might as well clue (insert any car here) as "Car appearing in "Bullitt."" I do remember Paul Weller's character carrying a full-auto pistol. "Terminator" would have been better in the clue, if only for the gun store scene: Clerk: Anything else? Terminator: Phased plasma rifle in the 40-watt range. Clerk: Hey, just what you see, pal! Terminator: The UZI nine millimeter. Clerk: You know your weapons, buddy. Any one of these is ideal for home defense.
@Grant I saw the movie way back when, but there was so much armament in use, the Uzi didn't really catch my eye either. The violence was so over the top, it was almost comical. I had recently watched a season of Dexter, where Paul Weller made a guest appearance as a ruthless and menacing disgraced cop. He had a similar role in Sons of Anarchy, and played both parts all too well. He met with a horrible demise in all three instances, poor guy.
@Grant I got UZI pretty quicky today. I don't remember it specifically form Robocop. However, the gun was pretty much a staple of 80s action movies, and Robocop was a typical example of one of these. Perfect clue? Nope, but not terrible.
@Me Apologies to Peter Weller for mis-remembering his name. Where's that edit button?
@Grant Somewhere in the back of your mind the Brit musician Paul Weller of Style Council and the Jam was probably lurking.
26 down. Evil. Diabolical. Who immediately got the right answer to 26D? Not I. Did you get tricked into entering what seemed to me to be the more obvious answer? Me too. I haven't read any comments yet. Deb did not mention it, so I guess she did not think it tricky. Maybe I am the only one. Not going to report my relative time.
@Jim Yep…that was the last to fall for me. Had me stuck for quite awhile.
@Jim I spent a shocking amount of time getting that “r”. Looking back, I really should have gotten it from ACRE…but yeah, 26D was diabolical.
@Jim When you read the comments you’ll see it’s a common theme, with me being possibly the most hard nosed about it (uncharacteristically)
@Jim The hint was “too,” meaning that there was someone else in the picture. “Not I” doesn’t reflect that aspect of the clue. “Nor I” alludes to the other person who is demurring.
@Jim Same here! I could not get the refrain, "'Not I,' said the Little Red'" out of my head until the end!
There were a couple of misdirects for me. 32A I tried elms, then firs, and then finally ACRE made itself known 😅 54A started as sOdAS before COLAS (HOLMES set me straight). And I stared at the revealer once I finished and still wasn’t getting it. Walked away for a few minutes and just picked it back up. 🤦🏼♀️ Oh…I get it now. ALL THUMBS 👎🏼👎🏼 👍🏼 👉🏼👈🏼 👍🏼👍🏼
@Jacqui J I thought of trees too, but the way the clue was phrased, it had to be singular, and no four-letters trees came to mind, so I had to wait for the crosses to help, too.
I still use a Rolodex. Maybe for sentimental reasons.
@Laura They still function when the power goes out.
@Laura Me too. They are convenient, especially for changing names and addresses.
@Laura Somewhere, tucked away in a drawer, I still have an address book. It may be a relic, but that’s also why I’ll never throw it away.
Laura, I still use a Rolodex. Where else would I put the little cards?
S B M U H T Not an easy one for me, but finally catching on to the trick was a huge turning point and that's always a nice touch. Interesting puzzle find today - a Friday from March 25, 1994 by Harvey Estes. Don't recall seeing another one like this. A couple of theme clues and answers: "Fast planes from New York" JFKSSSTS "Erving's cars" DRJSBMWS And two other theme answers: WKRPSDJS NFLSMVPS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/25/1994&g=4&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=3/25/1994&g=4&d=D</a> ...
@Rich in Atlanta Oh... and one more answer search. Having been in the infantry, but not carrying a RIFLE when I was overseas, one other 15 letter answer dawned on me: GRENADELAUNCHER Nope - never been in a puzzle but at least it's in the Xword Info word lists. ...
@Rich in Atlanta I managed to tackle the puzzle of 11/14/99, the one with WESLEYSNIPERS, and the gang of "Rs". Without a doubt one of THEE most difficult and challenging puzzles I've ever done. So, thanks for that.
Shocked at how long it took to figure out my mistake in the opposite of Me Too. I knew that area wasn't right because I didn't think there were any trees in the National Mall spelled ACtE. Loved the revealer. I sat here moving my thumbs all around.
How about: Clue: Two in Answer: THISGUY As in "What has two thumbs and likes crossword puzzles?" I know - don't quit your day job.
I had a good tussle with this puzzle. I wasn’t getting the theme (which turned out to be clever), until I got the revealer, which opened up the rest of the puzzle. I did myself no favors by trying noti instead of NORI. The clue for DOHARM made me smile for some reason.
@Marshall Walthew Me too re NOHARM. It made me feel a little bad about myself but then I got over that pretty quick.
A very entertaining puzzle, with a few gimmes to point us in the right direction, but even so, I never knew quite where it was going. A lot of it was funny, and all of it had a tongue-in-cheek freshness. Most enjoyable. Thumbs up, I'd say. Thank you, Freddie, and I'm still GRINning.
Fun puzzle. 26:44 unaided. A bit fast for a Thursday, but not horribly so. I'm glad I'm not the only one who had Not I at first. That was the last to fall for me. Kept wondering what an Acte was.
@Renegator I spent way too much time wondering what an acte was as well!
Not to get too much into the (sea)weeds with NORI “ I had trouble with 26 down” “Me too!” “Nor I” ??? Who has devised a construct where it works as an opposite? Not I.
@Roger Consider this: "I love pumpkin spice lattes!" "Me too!" But: "I don't get why people love pumrkin spuice lattes." "Nor I."
Here's the Wednesday puzzle! Nice one, Freddie. 49 Across
Well, I for one felt pretty good when I caught on—the difference between starting late at night and doing it first thing in the morning. As Siskel and Ebert would have said, 👍👍
I solved 58A before any of the other themed clues and tried really hard to cram that into rebuses, to no avail. Being able to solve a Thursday without outside help is a big personal victory for me, so thanks, loved this puzzle!
@Dave Good for you. It'll happen again, and again, and again...
Perhaps not a typical Thursday puzzle, but left me feeling much better about myself than a usual Thursday, so I'll allow it. Had a lot of fun with this one!
Boring puzzle, bad cluing. Two down.
28 down is not PATH as noted in the blog! Reading that really sent me down an unnecessary review of that secrion