as a (non-Māori) new zealander, i think it's tacky to clue FACE TAT as that. tā moko is an art form that has a lot of cultural significance (they're unique and specifically designed to tell the story of the wearer's heritage/whakapapa–they don't even necessarily always denote rank???) and I found it jarring to see a casual phrase like that slapped onto something we grow up with knowing is sacred and extremely meaningful. don't wish to be a bleeding heart (and again, I myself am not Māori) but just something to think about.
@Sylvie I just don't understand your objection at all. How is it disrespectful or tacky? Just because it's an abbreviation? (The clue is clear that the answer is phrased "informally".) Would "face tattoo" have been better? Other religious or social adornments and clothing appear in the puzzle all the time. Not seeing your point.
@Sylvie I mean, it is a FACE TAT(TOO) after all? Good clue for that entry, could have been something less interesting/unique for international audiences. I don't think that simplification of definition undermines its tapu in Te Ao Māori. Pretty cool to have it feature in NYT crossword - and hopefully lead people here to learn about it's complexity!
@Sylvie agreed. Unpleasant and culturally inaccurate
@Sylvie I’m with you… know what you’re doing before your clueing! “Post Malone and Jelly Roll’s artistic expression”, or “Mark of a felon” or “Brow blading?” All say face tat to me. “Sacred visual Māori ancestry, identity” ? Maybe, but using the Maori word moko would’ve been so much better (respectful and a learning op!)
@Sylvie yes. Insensitive and reeking of colonialism
@Sylvie I’m not a New Zealander, much less a Māori, and that clue struck me as a bit insensitive.
@Sylvie I’d love to hear from a Māori—I don’t want to speak for them. But I will say I would appreciate the opportunity for others to learn about my culture, and I don’t think just shortening it to TAT is necessarily disrespectful. For example, as a Jewish person I consider the Brit (or Bris as it is more commonly known) to be sacred but it wouldn’t bother me if it were clued informally, even in a jokey way (“Religious rite where the officiant always takes tips?”) I don’t even mind YAHWEH as an entry—it’s really more of an Anglicized academic representation of the concept, and I’ve seen it used freely by many Jewish scholars in that setting. Of course every culture and individual is different. I just wonder if trying to defend other cultures when we’re not in their shoes is sometimes as demeaning as the supposed insensitivity. All I know is, I learned something about the Māori culture today, it led me to read more about it and I appreciate everyone’s expansion on the topic, and I now have more respect for the culture and the practice, not less—which should be a good thing?
@Sylvie It is a puzzle with puns. Cultures and religions that can't take a joke are sorta la-di-da.
@Sylvie it's just a crossword clue. Puns, abbreviations and wordplay are part of the gig. There have been many other cultures referenced. It's not that serious.
@Sylvie “I found it jarring to see a casual phrase like that slapped onto something we grow up with knowing is sacred and extremely meaningful.” Sorry, but nothing is “sacred” as far as I’m concerned. You may disagree, but it’s unreasonable for you to expect the puzzles here to reflect your own sense of the sacredness of this or that cultural artifact. This clue and answer are fine.
@Sylvie Can’t understand what the fuss is about.
For @Sylvie, other NZers and nonNZers who have shared your thoughts~ As an American, I feel grateful to learn so much each day from our inclusive family of crossword commenters who span the globe (which includes all of us). While I won't venture into this friendly(ish) TAFFY PULL of a debate, I appreciate hearing others' tactful perspectives, especially during a time when respectful dialogue is needed most. Samuel, thank you for constructing a particularly clever grid that took me much longer than my usual Saturday (even as I was struggling to HAve GAME). I loved the sweet shout out you gave to your mom and wondered if her name might by LAURA or ELSIE? I trust she was more than pleasantly surprised to see your byline. :) Happy Saturday, everyone, and thanks for always enriching my own thinking.
Sylvie — I found it a bit jarring myself, because of the conflict between the ancient Maori culture and modern casual slang. Nevertheless I see no disrespect of any kind here.
@Sylvie @Hannah Good to hear from an actual "Māori". All your points taken into account. But, all the people using that precise term, while at the same time referring to others as "new zealanders" with no caps smacks of OTT political correctness, which in my eyes only isolates maori people and divides them from other new zealanders. I would say just use "maori" and "new zealanders" together. As a looong-established Europe -> New World immigrant myself, who has lived and assimilated in a foreign country for ages, I know that this kind of differentiation, while being well-intentioned, can actually create an idea that the "native" people need special treatment while newer immigrants are "normal" and can be talked about without defference. I honestly feel awful if I'm treated differently from every-day peruanos. We're all "normal" in our weird ways. Can't a normal maori have a normal face tat? I would have liked to have had some extra info about the custom like @Hannah suggests, but I don't think it's a travesty that it wasn't included in this NYT crossword clue. I hope I've explained my POV in a respectful way, as a sincere lover of both traditional and newly-created culture.
I love taffy but my wife doesn't. It's pulling us apart. (Well, that's kind of a stretch.)
@Mike They're right; your avatar does bob up and down!
@Mike I'd give my eye teeth for some right now, but I'm trying to keep up appearances. No point in widening the gap.
@Mike "Blessed are the flexible for they shall not get bent out of shape!" - Robert Ludlum 😉
@Mike Aw, and she was your high school sweetheart. Sad to hear the relationship's turned sour.
@Mike Definitely a Saturday-worthy Saturday.
@MikeW can't remember being more proud of finishing a puzzle without cheating and without trial and error! Really had to circle around a million times to get there. Took me nearly an hour. Very satisfying to finally beat.
As someone who has purchased quite a lot of bread in the UK, I don't think I've ever heard the term "pan loaf" before
@Jack I knew nothing of it (despite being a Bakeoff viewer) but apparently it's Northern Irish and Scottish. But what's more interesting to me is its "plain loaf" counterpart that is apparently baked like giant monkey bread or biscuit clusters, resulting in no side browning. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_loaf" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_loaf</a>
@Jack It's well used in Scotland, maybe less now because there are so many different types of loaf made now, but when I was a child pan or plain loaves were the only available. There was a "Vienna" loaf - shaped like a fatter baguette with a crusty top, which we had occasionally as a treat. We sang: "Oh, you'll never get to heaven In a baker's van Cos the Lord don't take No plain nor pan."
@Jack Have you come across 'tin loaf'? That's what they're called in my neck of the woods.
Samuel wowed me with his debut puzzle in 2023, made at age 16, that seemed like the work of a talented pro. I was hoping it wasn’t a one-off, that its quality would be just as good up the road. Today’s puzzle answered my hopes with a resounding yes. Not only is this uber-low 64-worder scrubbed of junk, it’s uber-fresh, with 13 NYT debut answers, giving us not only answers but clues we’ve never seen before – the opposite of same-old same-old. That middle five-stack, for instance? Three debuts and two once-befores, and all beautifully crossed. Wow! There were, for me, only a few no-knows, yet this fought me tooth and nail. Battling me were vague clues with many answer possibilities, making confidently putting answers down rare and wonderful. There’s an art to having just enough cracks in the grid to let the light in. And that art – at Saturday level – was in full display today. Bravo Samuel and editors! I loved the debut YES CHEF, as I’m a fan of “The Bear”, in which that phrase is rife. My brain loved having its workout ethic well satisfied, and I’m thrilled by your presence in Crosslandia, Samuel. Encores, please, and thank you!
@Lewis Nice coincidence in our comments - both made within a few minutes of each other. Maybe I should buy a lottery ticket today. ...
Jeez, BWANA crossing NEMEA left me guessing consonants - at least now I’ve got two more answers in my pocket for next time. Tough one for sure!
@Mos For some reason, BWANA eventually crawled out of somewhere in the recesses of my memory with just the ‘W’ from WIG, even though I still couldn’t tell you where I’d ever heard or seen it before, and even though NEMEA (gotten purely through crosses) should theoretically be a smidge closer to my wheelhouse, given that my sister-in-law is Greek.
Brit here. Struggled in SE corner. NEVER EVER heard of PANLOAF. Not a thing. Sorry.
@Petrol - It's supposed to be British, according to my google search. Huh?
@Petrol I live in Scotland for a few years and never heard of PANLOAF either.
@Petrol Because you haven't heard of it you assume they made it up? I think you'll find commenters that disagree.
Well, that one really worked me over good, it was a credit to its sender, it put me through some changes, lord, WELLSORTA like a Waring blender. (Apologies to Warren Zevon). I was definitely not on the constructor’s wave length on this one. After half an hour I had nothing but scraps. I was ready to pack it in and hope a night’s sleep would work its magic, but I finally got going with helpdesks. Even though that wasn’t the right answer, the help part was, well, helpful, and I gradually picked up steam after that. Pulling TAFFYPULLS from the deepest recesses of my mind really gave me some momentum. The NW was the last to fall. I got UFOLOGY and LAURA only at the very end. In retrospect there were a few clues that I should probably have gotten sooner, but this was a real old fashioned toughie.
@Marshall Walthew One of the many dead ends I went down, I was thinking along the lines of "kissing booths" for 5D, and had something-STALLS, which fit at the time.
@Marshall Walthew Play it all night long is my response whenever anyone offers a Warren Zevon reference.
@Marshall Walthew Any Warren Zevon quote (even slightly twisted) is fine by me. TAFFY PULLS inevitably reminds me of a song by Victoria Williams (who’s brilliant but a bit of an acquired taste), “Summer of Drugs,” that was later covered by Soul Asylum. If you go to any lyrics website, the odds are good that “kitchen taffy pull” is transcribed as “kitchen tap appall.” A perfect example of why one should be skeptical about anything one sees on the internet.
My RADIO SETS must be broken, because I was definitely not catching any waves. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I needed so many HELP LINES. I have nothing to complain about, this one just wasn’t for me. But I hope Samuel’s mom is proud. (As she should be.)
Meh. I prefer it when the main challenge is reading the clues the right way, not guessing (or happening to know) some obscure borderline non-word words.
@Mike Huh? I thought the challenge in this puzzle was in the cluing. Yesterday's had more unknowns for me.
This constructor is trying way too hard. Puzzles are fun when they are challenging but this one was an interminable slog. "Fun but fair!" My eye.
@John But you are aware, are you not, that you are not the only person in the world doing this poem. Surly you can appreciate the fact that a puzzle that you think is just right will have a lot of people complaining it was too easy. You really can't please all the people all the time. And how do you know the constructor "tried too hard"?
@John I enjoyed solving it! I thought the constructor nailed the execution of a certain type of puzzle, in which there’s not much trivia, and lots (most?) of the clueing is ambiguous, with the effect of forcing the solver to use crosses to build up answers in pairs/groups. Fun and fair :)
Came here to peek at comments after my big self-congratulatory “I have arrived” moment. After utter despair—and then a break of several hours—I came back and finished this challenge. More than a little proud. Anyway, when I saw negative comments, I wanted to make sure to post my 👍. Difficult but lots of fun, and I hope the mom reveal was as fun as anticipated.
Looks like my experience once again differed from the rest of the commenters.’ It’s that rock I live under, I swear; it’s as magical as Fangorn Forest Ents. It throws a veil over my eyes when CharliXCXs and Miis pop up, but has a whole bunch of Nemeas, bwanas, Maltas, and Māori face tattoos right up its sleeve. And it’s a mixture of my rock’s wizardry and my having done all the archive puzzles that sees me, a person singularly uninvested in all matters piscine, confidently fill in neon tetras from having just the ‘a’ in from the crosses. I’m tellin’ ya: magic. Which is not to say I did not enjoy the puzzle, because I did—a lot. Samuel Smalley is a master of his craft. It’s not his fault that apparently a whole school of neon tetras wouldn’t stop me dead in my tracks if I stood chest-high in the Amazon. (Or would they? Any relation to piranhas? If ever there was a reason to visit Wikipedia…) All in all, a really fresh and interesting Saturday puzzle. Samuel, I hope you’ll grace us with another one soon. I’ll be here under my rock, waiting. With bells on.
Wow. I'm going to bed and hope my brain will be working tomorrow because right now, I'm not getting any kind of foothold on this thing. It may be the first puzzle since my streak started in January that I can't complete without lookups, but honestly, there's not even that much I can look up. Maybe I'm just tired.
@Beth in Greenbelt Keep going. There are a lot of inroads here you will get inspiration!
@Beth in Greenbelt Get rest. Everything will look differently in the morning. There is no rush.
@Beth in Greenbelt I found the top part impenetrable at first, so I moved to the lower half. I found some footholds there and was able to slowly work my way back up the grid. There’s really not much there that you probably haven’t seen before, but the clueing is pretty tough. Good luck!
@Beth in Greenbelt You're a smarter solver than me! This one dragged me out of bed, and with a small *tweak* to FACETAT, got there in the end. Good luck!
@Beth in Greenbelt I completed around half of it before going to bed- my internet went down at the same time so it was a sign. The next morning I made much quicker progress and managed to complete it.
@Beth in Greenbelt Finally! Got it done tonight. It wasn't easy, but it also wasn't as hard as it seemed last night.
Yikes. At first, I was in complete despair and thought I would never ever complete this. I pressed on and can now declare victory. This is the kind of challenge I like in a Saturday puzzle.
This was way too difficult for me to finish without lookups and reveals. Some things I simply didn't know, like TAFFYPULLS, some I either never knew or have forgotten (LAURA... Bush?), others I was familiar with but did not understand the clue (as with RNA). The level of difficulty of the Saturday grids presents me with a langauge and cultural barrier that I usually can't deal with on my own. But that's fine. It would be super weird if being who I am I could solve the hardest NYT puzzle of the week unaided. It does happen, albeit very rarely.
@Andrzej not sure if you still dont get the rna clue, but i wanna help a brother out: in a regretablet example of wittgensteinian misunderstanding (my opinion), mRNA (messenger RNA) is said by biologists to be "translated" by ribosomes into proteins.
@Matt I have a basic understanding of biology and genetics, but it's not enough to grasp what you wrote. I think I once knew what ribosomes were, but not any more. I just remember the word always made me laugh, because in Polish "ryba" means "fish", and rybosom (our word for ribosome) simply sounds a bit silly :D. Also, the word "ryba" sounds funny in itself, especially when pronounced in certain ways. I can't recall if it was on Mr Bean or elsewhere, but Rowan Atkinson once did a whole scene revolving around pronouncing the name Bob. You could do the same with "ryba" in Polish. I appreciate your effort to explain things to me though, thank you :)
@Andrzej Currently on the train to Krakow and working on a few Polish phrases (and pronunciations). Dzien dobry Prosze Dziekuje Tak? Nie! Przepraszam. Please feel free to make suggestions.
@Matt Yes, "regretablet" was a hard pill to swallow.
@Matt ribosomes are also made up of RNA (rRNA) (and protein), and the molecules that carry the amino acids to the mRNA-rRNA complex to be linked together to make the protein are transfer RNA (tRNA). So RNA has several roles in translation.
@Andrzej yes, LAURA Bush. Took me a while to remember her first name, too. My brain couldn’t get off of Barbara even though I knew it was wrong. Had to be Bush II because none of the other 21st century First Ladies’ names fit.
I was briefly stuck on UFOLOGY. I had put UROLOGY, for which I thought “Crank cases” was an awesome clue. Disappointed when I saw the error.
Took longer than my usual, a lot of taking out and putting back in. But I knew when something was finally right, even when it was completely unexpected. Such as the responders to cruise ships and what is pulled in car chases. Who knew there are no less than three women's names that fit the clue for E_ _ IE? I thought this was masterful cluing. Every quadrant was incremental but eventually approachable and I, like other commenters, found it tough but was able to complete with no help. May nominate it for Saturday POY. Later. Gotta go wave a sign.
Some Saturday puzzles are fun and some are not. This one was a turn off for me. Obviously meant for pros. I needed a lot of help to finish it. Some of the entries were completely strange to me. Looking forward to next Saturday.
Nope. Nope. All the nopes in nopedom. Ew. Sorry. Not for me today.
@Rebecca Root Yup. A joyless slog.
@Rebecca Root Nopedom's an OK place to visit for a day, but I wouldn't want to make my home there.
Only 13 minutes… only 13 minutes over one hour, that is. Just about zero crosswordese… maybe ENT and PDF. Got that good old feeling 30 minutes in of only having 5 words entered. Then somehow the southeast came together. Then slow difficult progress with… a surprising number of wild guesses being right, and weird memories like BWANA from some old movie that I can’t remember anything else about rising out of nowhere into my consciousness. Northwest was last, again, couldn’t believe my desperate guesses turned out to be correct sometimes. But as often wrong. One thing I’ve learned is to erase aggressively when no confirming cross comes pretty quickly. Well a terrific exemplar of the best in crosswording, for me, anyway. A repudiation of quick, obvious, impatient, flip, shallow. An antidote to contemporary instant gratification. But I love instant gratification too on Mondays. Breadth is worthy.
Count me with the positive reviews! Just the right amount of challenge for my taste on a Saturday. In the end I did have to run the alphabet on the BWANA / NEMEA cross, so a possible asterisk to my solve credit, depending on your crossword ethics. But I do love the feeling when something that seemed impossible 5 minutes ago suddenly begins revealing itself when I relax and learn to ADAPT, and this puzzle was full of those magic moments. Bonus — now I know that the enormous shiny disc I saw from the plane last summer was a HELIOSTAT array, and not an inter dimensional portal, as I previously determined.
I for one thought this was Saturday worthy. Other than PDF and, weirdly, NEONTETRAS, I don't think I made a single correct entry without a cross. Most of the longer ones I got were only partial, like I had something-BOATS for [Responders to cruise ship emergencies], but took a while to get to FIREBOATS. As much time as I spend fearing TORNADOES, I still laughed when I got 48A. 2D gives me kind of a tingly hurt. I thought it was a tight, challenging puzzle.
@Francis Ouch. Really disgusting.
@Francis FIREBOATS was almost my downfall.
@Francis I've seen tetra and neon tetra countless times in these puzzles, yet both always get me. I just can't remember any but the few very basic fish names in English. Also, in Polish "tetra" is the material multiple use baby diapers are made from...
A very tough puzzle. I gave up maybe seven or eight times, then some word(s) would bubble up and I pressed on. ROSA Bonheur was there when I needed her, and pieces of fills made it look like I was making progress, so I didn't throw in the towel and do a look-up until the NW corner was hopelessly scrambled. CISCO was the key, and I could finally stop taking LAURA out and just leave her in. Whew. Grueling as it was, I thoroughly enjoyed the challenge. Thank you, Sam Smalley. When I found that the answers were not justbsome cobbled up goofiness, I was more than ready to say YES CHEF!! Note: I was sorry that "Spaniards roll them" was only four squares. I wanted the fill to be "Ojos."
@dutchiris I had to look up ROSA. It might have been a lost cause without that. Great Saturday puzzle!
@dutchiris I meant to say the Spaniards got only THREE squares, but it was late, I was sleepy, and simultaneously trying to keep track of an on going conversation.
Today's to-do list: 1. Admire the finished puzzle ✅ 2. Boast about today's finished puzzle ✅ 3. Wander about, looking to find someone else to boast about today's finished puzzle to 🔲 4. Praise the author of today's *amazing, amazing, amazing* Saturday crossword ✅ 5. Record a podcast about it 🔲 😉
@MP Rogers Interesting list. Mine differs somewhat....
Super tough one for me. Lots of clever misdirection and no real groaners. Double my average time. A+.
Now that’s what I come here for on Saturday! Hard, but fun and fabulously constructed. Thank you!
Author/editor too much of a "try-hard," as the kids say. Really poor puzzle. I haven't commented on here in ages. Today I was compelled by the hope that my small voice would add to the pile asking the editors to give extra scrutiny to this person's future submissions. This is customer feedback. You don't have to like it, or agree with it, or even "print" it.
@Walter Burton I mean, I don't really agree with your assessment, but if you really want to give customer feedback, this is not going to get you there... You'd have to write in to the NYT games team. Also, it's okay to sometimes just not like a puzzle. It doesn't mean the constructor is bad.
I liked it. Difficult, different, not too much trivia. Plus I like most puzzles I solve. The ones I can’t solve are often unfair. Funny how that works 😉
I really liked this puzzle. The twisty cluing somehow hauled my “taffyass” over the finish line. Stretched, but smiling.
Will....(and Sam)....c'mon. You can do better. This might be the most poorly clued crossword I've seen from NYT. Remember when Saturday crosswords were fun? Yeah, it's been a while.
@Ben Blackwell Wow. Why the shade? Hope the rest of your day goes well. Don’t STAY-MAD, kindness is the LATEST FAD!
@Ben Blackwell This wasn't as evil as some Saturday puzzles. I needed eighteen cheats, which is about par. I do remember a Saturday that required 31 cheats. Some of those who complain/brag about puzzle even found it hard.
@Ben Blackwell In my view, this is a puzzle that was deliberately constructed to require an incremental solving approach, kind of like putting together a…puzzle. That is, there was very little trivia (though not none — I won’t soon forget BWANA and NEMEA) but a ton of fill that was under-specified at the level of individual entries, and thus required usage of crosses all over the place. And bootstrapping those crosses was pretty tough in a few spots, at least for me. I personally like this kind of puzzle, but I’d agree with you that it’s not a very “fun” grid.
@Ben Blackwell I thought the cluing in this puzzle was masterful. As Anonymous says, it was constructed so that very few individual entries could be sussed out, but each time through the grid, a few more were approachable. And the difficulty was evenly spread through the grid, so that every quadrant took multiple visits.
Ben, This *was* a fun Saturday puzzle .. for those of us who have fun being puzzled by crosswords. I had more fun today than I've had on most recent Saturdays. Yeah, it's been a while.
@Ben Blackwell If over the past dozen Saturdays you haven't found one that was "fun", then you're not cut out for Saturday crosswords. As far as I'm concerned, Saturday's recently have run the gambit from arguably way too easy to monsters that some of the best solvers don't get. If *none* of them worked for you, I doubt any others will either.
Like so many others have said, one of the worst (if not the worst) puzzles ever. Come on Times staff. Do better. So many one or two clues, clues using phrases no one uses- ever: Drug Den? And I don’t know about you but when I walk in buildings I often noticed that they are ducted. And let’s not forget the fire boats! We hear about them as often as we hear about a good radio set …. Good god… Did anyone review this puzzle? Answer: WELLSORTA
Darren, I'm glad you enjoyed yesterday's puzzle. Sorry this one did float your [fire]boat.
@Darren Nice touch with the “many people are saying” framing. In fact, I’d say the reception to this puzzle has been surprisingly positive considering the level of challenge it presents…consider me positively surprised!
@Darren Okay, "drug dens" is a bit quaint, a throwback to old newspaper headlines, like a politician caught with a mistress in a "love nest." Do they still have "vice squads," or are they all task forces now? But there is no select committee that deletes things like RADIO SETS after a certain time period of disuse. My grandmother's house had a steam boiler in the basement, and radiators in the rooms, but no A/C, so not DUCTED at all.
Almost lost my streak to this one - can’t say it was fun. Never heard of a heliostat, a fire boat, taffy pulls, a pan loaf … I’ll stop there. This felt more like ‘eat your Brussels sprouts’ because it’s good for you, and not ‘this is fun’
Too clever for its own good, resulting in a not fun puzzle. Major eye rolling throughout.
A lot of howling over this one. I have been a howler in the past when Saturdays stung this hard. But I gotta tell you, when it comes your turn to get one of these monsters, it feels great. So take what you can in terms of experience, and hope for better in the future. BUT IT'S NOT THE CONSTRUCTOR'S AND CLUER EDITORS' FAULT!!!!!!!
@Francis I finally finished!!! It wasn't the constructor's fault or the editors' fault or the pilot's fault; it was the asphalt! (Sorry, that last bit came via a Southwest Airlines flight attendant, and I couldn't resist.)
@Francis J'accuse my parental units!!
@Francis I won't howl. There was no foul. All fair play But turned me gray!
Challenging but fair in my book. Loved the way it slowly came together. Like @ George Stepney I only had two answers the first cut through, but one of them was wrong! Great cluing. Congrats to the constructor!
Proper Saturday crossword. I'm glad I did it online than pen on paper, lest the grid would end up illegible or torn.
Toughie! Loved it. More like this on Saturdays please.
You have to be IN AWE of the way Ohtani can SMASH a baseball. That dude HAS GAME. Speaking of great ... what a puzzle!
@LBG - I am a Milwaukee Brewers fan, and even I was in awe of Ohtani last night!
This one DESTROYED me! It took me over an hour! But I can't fault it. Mind bending clueing and solid fill. It was so troublesome I didn't even notice the repeated MAD.
Loved it! At last a Saturday that took me an hour and 20 minutes like it should!
I found this to be insanely hard. Twice my average. To the person who solved this in 8 minutes: chapeau but also — how? I found most of these clues to be indecipherable.
@Jeremy -I agree, many clues were indecipherable and not in a fun way. The guy who says he finished in 8 minutes is delusional.
At some point, I noticed the Saturday puzzles are more challenging because many of the answers are phrases, usually two words in length; knowing this makes the solution easier. If I counted correctly, todays puzzle has 11 phrases across and 10 down..
Pleasantly and properly challenging. A year or two ago it would have scared me more. The center and the upper right took me quite a while. I still blanch at seeing the A word used in the NYT puzzle all the time. It seems so unnecessarily coarse. I had a fun time finding out how many women's names sound like letters. First I had LN. Nope. Then LE. Nope again. LC seemed like the stretchiest but it turned out to be the winner. Not Nab? "Bag"? Okay. What kind of boat, anyway? Nut Bar or Oat Bar. Very chewy section. My final fly specking pass was for Roma instead of Rome. Some of the cluing (spirals out of control, easily removed locks) was clever. A fun time.
Wow. I just can't spend any more time on this killer puzzle. My only claim to fame is that I got everything but the NE corner. I could NOT get over LIFE BOATS (every ship I've traveled on required LIFE BOAT drills...) I had TWEAKED and HEDGE (kept taking HEDGE out and putting it back.).... ... I was never going to get OAT BARS, which I am suspicious of (as in, IS there REALLY such a thing, and if so IS IT crunchy? Maybe for the first 5 minutes; then it's not.) I was never going to tumble to RNA for the "works in translation" and I still don't get that. Into every life some rain must fall, eh? It's predicted for tonight. PhysicsDaughter will be here to watch college football with DHubby. I am digging out #2 of 3 stumps that are a nuisance, but I only last about 15 minutes at a time (wrists, hands) but still manage to get muddy. (Getting dirty is good for the soul. Samuel, I'd be happy to help you redeem your soul; stop by any time.) The Flamenco dancer who explained (in detail) the construction, care, and function of her MULTI-colored DRESSes was (as you can see) unforgettable. 1967. They weren't all RED. (She also demonstrated the castanets, while her dance partner stamped and tapped his heels. Now, those dancers HAD GAME!)
@Mean Old Lady I had LIFEBOATS for a long time too, but was suspicious because they are not “responders” to the emergency, they are on the boat itself, although I wondered if responders might send out lifeboats from their own ship sometimes.
@Mean Old Lady And for RNA the RNA molecule “translates” the genetic code to the appropriate protein, and that is the official biological term for it, but admittedly a tough sell (cell?). I got that corner from acrosses so never saw that clue.
@Mean Old Lady Ever had the classic green wrapped crunchy Nature Valley oat granola bars? Those things are so tasty but are known for being crumbled right out of the package (there are memes and even this article: <a href="https://www.gq.com/story/how-to-eat-a-nature-valley-bar-crumb" target="_blank">https://www.gq.com/story/how-to-eat-a-nature-valley-bar-crumb</a>). I laughed when I figured out that answer because I had been way off track but it made sense!
@Mean Old Lady The historic Cape Cod lifeboats have all been replaced by FIREBOATS. And those were usually going out to freighters, not cruise ships.
A quick glance around today's crossword and I knew it was going to be a challege...but then my eye caught clue 38D: East African honorific. Tuns out when I was a boy in the 60s, we had a dog my Dad named Bwana. I loved that dog...and he was the key to opening up today's puzzle. Thanks Bwana...and you too Samuel for a fun ride today!