One of the hardest Saturdays I can remember. So few gimmes. Satisfying to finally finish, with some clever cluing, but felt like passing a kidney stone.
Tony, How did you like the Friday puzzle?
@Tony I passed a 4mm kidney stone a couple months ago and was in so much pain I vomited.
@Tony I feel like this was much easier than yesterday's
I was going to post a triangle pun, but I'm scalene back on those. (This is acute comment.)
Mike, Hypotenuse paper to solve the puzzle. (sin off)
@Mike -- "scalene" -- Hah! @Barry -- "hypotenuse" -- Hah!
@Mike I was trying to come up with something using "I saw sew-Lee's" but I just couldn't manage to find an angle or an opunning....
@Mike This one is outside my sphere of exper-tease.
I would like to personally thank Will Shortz for giving us both a Friday and a Saturday puzzle this week that were worthy of their placement at the end of the week.
@Steve L I hope it's the beginning of a trend.
@Steve L Agreed. Aimee Lucido’s Thursday puzzle (PICKLEBALL) was fun, but in a perfect world, it would have been a Wednesday. I would go so far as to say that this entire week’s worth of puzzles has been impressive and enjoyable. That’s including Sunday’s Schrödinger grid. (My Fiend review of that one was a bit sour, but the difficulty I had with it was totally my fault.) If tomorrow’s puzzle blows me away, I reserve the right to declare that the puzzle week is Monday to Sunday.
This is definitely a legit Saturday puzzle, the kind where you think that there is no hope at the outset, scramble for a foothold, and wrestle your way to the happy music with persistence and some opportune guesses (after abandoning some bad ones). Paired with yesterday’s surprisingly chewy puzzle, this is shaping up to be the toughest weekend of the year for me. Let’s see what Sunday has in store…
Solid, solid Saturday workout and a perfect example of the 'Tough But Fair' category of puzzles.
One of those puzzles where I had absolutely nothing on the first pass Across the top, thought I had maybe a Down or two, and then started connecting, half wondering where I knew some of the words from, but then wondering why they had come so hard at the start. For me, that's a fine Saturday puzzle, but not 16D. Thanks, Byron.
@Barry Ancona No walk in the park, but easier than the Friday puzzle for me.
@Barry Ancona Same experience despite knowing PHILO Farnsworth. Finally got a few hits in the lower right then filled in the bottom. (First thought of the Yukon, but once I entered TERRITORY it worked itself out.) Working upward left and center, things came together and I finished in the NW corner. 30 percent above average versus +50 percent yesterday. I enjoyed both puzzles and feel proud of myself for sticking with them even when prospects looked dim.
I done did this puzz....(and I really dint expect to finish, but I did! Quality ThFS's are back it seems! 🥳)
It must be some puzz, for Eddie to go beyond his normal 5 words!
@Eddie You done made me laugh out loud!
Just as with yesterday’s puzzle, I look at the finished grid and there are hardly any answers I haven’t heard of, but to get from the blank grid to that finished grid, I had to break through a barricade of riddles. But there is a difference. Yesterday, with its effervescent wordplay, felt like a party. Today felt like scratch and claw. And I like both. Today for me had a Rollercoaster Moment, where you’ve been fussing and laboring, grinding like a rollercoaster climbing its initial huge hill, then it reaches the apex and is motionless for a precious instant, and then comes the “Wheeee!” Suddenly, in the puzzle, you fill something in, and from the crosses it produces, the curtains fall, and bam bam bam what was opaque is suddenly obvious, and for a bit, answers cascade in a begat-fest. Heaven. The grid has the fine Walden trademarks – answers from a wide range of fields, uber-vague clues buttressed by some uber-witty wordplay clues, and a remarkably junk-free grid. All melding into the experience I hope for on Saturday. Byron, your puzzles after 24 years in the Times, are sharp as ever. You are a treasure. Thank you for another splendid outing!
p.s. – As usual in Byron’s puzzles, there is remarkable freshness. Today, nine NYT debut answers. Debut answers aren’t always good, but this set is, IMO: BAD MOJO, BETTER THAN SEX, BIDEN PRESIDENCY, I CAN’T TALK, I HAVE TO BE HONEST, JUNIOR EXECUTIVE, OREGON TERRITORY, RIB SHOT, TAX FILER.
@Lewis You characterized my experience with both puzzles perfectly
@Eric -- Agree. I believe it's the weakest answer, but that the set overall is strong.
@Eric I can't tell if you're playing on the meanings of "return".
Nine debut entries, including four excellent spanners, along with fabulous clues like “46 years" and “Green Suit” made this one of my favorite themeless puzzles. I HAVE TO BE HONEST and say it was not BETTER THAN SEX, but darn satisfying, nevertheless. That episode of M*A*S*H (Adam’s Ribs) is one of my favorites.. Alan Alda’s “liver or fish" rant is classic. Great to have a Saturday offering from a veteran constructor. A perfect follow-up to yesterday’s impressive debut. Thanks, Byron.
@Anita I don’t recall the Adam’s Ribs episode of M*A*S*H, though I was a devoted watcher of that show for years. Remember how, in the early years of the show’s run, its time slot kept changing? Eventually, though, I got a little tired of either Alan Alda’s performance or the character of Hawkeye Pierce. Such an all-knowing _____. I don’t think that stopped me from watching the show, but it did diminish my enjoyment of it.
My that was hard. "Smooth and fairly navigable"? I don't think so! I had pretty much nothing (besides a growing terror) until I gave in and completed the lower right ahead of schedule. Unlike yesterday's hard and rewarding debut masterpiece, I can't say I really enjoyed this one at all. The answers were just there for the sake of being there and fitting the space, like Greg Brady just fitting the suit. Even rescanning it now I don't see anything clever or fun. It was just a hard puzzle. So it has that going for it. Which is nice.
@B Solving must be a more personal thing than I’ve realized. My experience with the two puzzles was the exact opposite of your’s.
@B. I agree. A grind, not fun. Too much of trivia crossing trivia. But there's always Sunday.
@B I hope you're as ashamed of the comparison "like Greg Brady just fitting the suit" as I am for understanding it! Bravo, Johnny Bravo!
Loved, loved, loved this one. Hardest Saturday in a while for me, and that’s exactly why it was so much fun. To solvers complaining the clues were too vague, the words were too long, there were too many obscure proper nouns — *please* see this as the type of Saturday puzzle you aspire to solve someday, rather than criticizing the constructor. Or if you don’t want this level of challenge — which is fine! — just leave the Saturdays for those of us who like a challenge and are up to it, and stick to the earlier days of the week. Thanks Byron and thanks Will. More like this, please!
@Nat K Me, three! This was great, perfect Saturday challenge.
Oof. I confidently filled in RAMADAN at 1A, but things went very quickly downhill. My first pass left me with about three answers filled in. Things got a bit DICEY in the center-west, but I'm one of those DAMES who never gives up. In the end I RASSLED the puzzle into submission. FYI, I've had BETTER THAN SEX cake, and it's not.
This felt like the Everest of crosswords. One day I hope to reach a peak like this on my own intelligence...for today I relied on the Sherpas of the Wordplay column and Google.
Hopelessly puzzled; TINKERER to the rescue! Eastern lines - get it?
@Cat Lady Margaret Working the times late In bed with hot earl grey tea Is better than sex
@Cat Lady Margaret 🫶🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
Solved this unaided, but quite a workout. Took me almost twice as long as yesterday's puzzle. Perhaps the two most challenging back-to-back puzzles in a long time. Much appreciated! As a mathematician, I got SCALENE quickly. But was then completely misdirected by "Combinations with numbers and sets" for BANDS. Well played there. Excellent Saturday puzzle!
@Xword Junkie I was proud of myself for getting scalene. I just finished a trigonometry course (yes I am just now getting a college degree at 40) so it was fresh in my mind.
@Xword Junkie -- "Well played there" -- Hah! I saw what you did there...
@Xword Junkie Same here. I was convinced the answer was hands, as in card games. You have numbers, and sets (suits).
Harder than yesterday by about 20 minutes. Alternative clue for 7D: "The forensic detectives found no blood ___ _____."
@Bill in Yokohama Took a minute to drop but then pow!
@Bill in Yokohama Well, really! 😮 Funny though 🤣🤣🤣
@Bill in Yokohama Noice! Change your “no” to “neither.” That sounds more natural.
@Bill in Yokohama I am reminded of the older SNL celebrity Jeopardy sketches with “Sean Connery” always misreading one of the categories such as “catch these men” 😉
That was really hard. When I first noticed how hard it was, I came here and read the comments about people finishing it very slowly and I was saying to myself "yeah but you don't understand this is so hard that I'm not going to be able to finish" and now I finished it in one hour and 34 minutes and I'm really happy about it. Very hard.
I'm sorry, who is supposed to know this trivia? Zero foothold to be had for your average human. Some Saturdays are doable but this isn't one of them.
@M That's why I have no qualms about looking up trivia. Nobody will ever convince me knowing Belgian TV channels, actors from when my now septuagenarian father was a toddler, brands or DC characters has any appreciable worth. We all learn some names in our complex lives, but who says knowing a particular set of them is better or worse than another one? Somebody may be familiar with MEL Ferrer, and I know the protagonist of the brilliant game Ghost of Yotei is called Atsu 🤷🏽
@M It's often the case that you might know the answer perfectly well but just not with that clue. For me one of those was RAMADAN. And that's the fun of a hard puzzle. PS: I do know Mel Ferrer, septuagenarian that I am. And I could guess the title of a musical called DAMES, which it wouldn't be nowadays.
@M It’s such a huge misconception about crossword puzzles that solvers are supposed to be able to get most of the answers from their individual clues, and thus are “supposed to know this trivia”. I had 3 entries on my first pass (AHITUNA, HINDUGOD, NOOB), yet ultimately found this puzzle to be eminently “doable”. It’s all about the crossings!
What an interesting experience! My first across and down pass yielded almost nothing. The second pass changed little. I felt dejected. There's no way I will ever be able to complete this, I thought. Could this possibly be the hardest puzzle I have ever seen at the NYT? So I did what I usually do in such cases - I looked up most of the trivia and other arcana: RAMADAN (doh! Of course I knew it, but not as clued...), SAL, DAMES, CARET, SANKA, MEL, MADAMEX, PHILO, UNE, SCALENE, and SUNRA. With those mysteries out of the way, I was able to deal with the grid very quickly, and I enjoyed it very much. The clueing was possibly NOT BETTER THAN S3X, but it wasn't half bad at all. I was proud of myself for figuring out OREGON TERRITORY with just a few crosses. I've never heard of beaver coins, but the name sounds so siIIy that I love it 🤪
Actually, I found this easier than yesterday's monster of a puzzle. On Friday I needed not only lookups of trivia but also reveals of some squares. I never google anything other than names, brands, etc. If I fail to solve a non-trivia clue I reveal the entry or its individual letters. I also generally don't seek aid with spanners.
My wife did the puzzle without lookups. She just asked me for two or three hints. Dang!
@Andrzej I doubt most Americans know about beaver coins either. I certainly didn’t. But Oregon’s nickname is the Beaver State and Oregon State University sports teams are known as the Beavers. American geeks would know the former, American sports fans would know the latter, and that covers a lot of bases (thus reinforcing your baseball education).
35 mins slower than my average is the kind of pain I want to feel when doing a Saturday puzzle. Easily one of the most satisfying puzzles of the year. Amirite?
I’m in Natick (!) for the day at a speedcubing competition with my son, and while the kids are solving one set of cubic puzzle, I’m working on another. Thanks for a fine Saturday morning, Byron Walden.
@Dolley Just looked it up it’s called “Naticube” competition. If that isn’t a Natick on top of a Natick for a future puzzle entry I don’t know what is!!!
Cannot believe I managed this one - one of my most proud solves, especially as a relatively younger solver. I didn't know any of the trivia but SUNRA fell into place once I had S_NRA. Hard but fair, an hour of my Saturday morning that I don't regret!
This is a bad puzzle. Saturdays are supposed to be hard, sure. But the volume of esoteric trivia involved here really just means that the puzzle is borderline impossible without looking things up. Even after filling the tricky clues, there were probably 5-10 crossed naticks that require random knowledge. A puzzle like this needs to have a theme or some other mechanism so that the solver can reason out the clues without resorting to looking things up. It's really just not fun.
@Jordan This is actually a GREAT puzzle. I had as much trouble as you did, but on tough Saturdays like this one, I accept the fact that I'll have to look things up. And for me it's fun to look things up, and then fill in what I can. What's great about this puzzle is that almost everything makes great sense. 9D and 11D were unfamiliar, and I didn't know 29D or 43D either, but all of the long answers were gettable with just a few crosses.
@Jordan Agree with twoberry. You're just not there yet. Hope you get there some day.
@Jordan And yet... Struggling with some depression these days, and ordinarily I'd just move on, but I'm moved to say that this post of yours makes me a bit sadder. If you carry on like this over a puzzle that you think is too difficult for you, how are you going to stand up to the painful surprises that life throws at everyone?
@Jordan I'm sorry you didn't enjoy the puzzle. I solved it in less than an hour (I am not a speed solver by any means) without any lookups. It's a Saturday puzzle and meant to be challenging, and it was. And where is the esoteric trivia and all these naticks that you don't like? 25A DAMES is about as esoteric as it gets. But you couldn't solve it so you blame the constructor?
@Jordan It's not fair to say you're wrong here; you wanted to enjoy the puzzle and the author wanted you to enjoy the puzzle and you didn't. But it's also kind of like saying a plate of cookies is bad because you didn't like it when you can see a bunch of other folks in the room who clearly did. I found this puzzle too hard for me to complete without help - I'm here in the comments looking for hints before I open up the answer key. But I worked on it for half an hour, got frustrated, went to bed, and made more progress when I woke up this morning - and every word I figured out this morning felt really good. This is pretty standard for me on Saturdays; Saturdays are like walnut cookies. Not as enjoyable for me as Wednesday chocolate chips, but I know what I'm getting into before I take the first bite, and sometimes they're pretty ok.
@Jordan I think your experience reflects more on you as a solver than the puzzle or the constructor. You’re not that good at crosswords. That’s totally fine. You are surely better at a lot of things. But as you will see from the comments, a large majority of those of us who *are* reasonably good at crosswords found this to be an excellent puzzle. I came up against the same challenges you did. I solved the puzzle unaided with no lookups in under half an hour — well over my average (and longer than many) but time well spent. Better luck next time.
@Jordan, What Delg said.
I loved this puzzle! Saturdays haven't been exercising my brain for a bit and this felt fair but with a little bite. Two thumbs up!
Mocap artist here with a slight technical gripe. Many—arguably most—motion capture suits do not have sensors. They have optical markers like little reflective balls, LEDs, or visual patterns. All the "sensing" is done externally, with cameras. Only a handful of systems work with IMU sensors attached to the suit itself.
@Erik I had the same impression which was why I was looking for some kind of dots
@Erik Agree, I had SPHERES for way too long for that reason. As an automotive engineer, I had a similar quibble with 36D. GEAR OIL is almost exclusively used for fixed gears like in differentials for reduced wear, not in transmissions where the actual shifting happens.
@Erik i have some experience in the field myself and i think it has to be allowed because it’s sometimes true. Not all mocap suit components, but some, and that’s enough, especially for an audience that doesn’t care about the distinction!
Yesterday and today were not good for my averages, but good for warming up my brain!
Had to dig deep on this one! Great wordplay. For new-ish solvers this is a puzzle where you might need to throw some guesses out there, try to get a cross, and give yourself a toehold. That gets easier with experience and you can spot more letter patterns quickly. As always, I can't relate to the "obnoxious" or "annoying" comments. This took me more than my average time, but at no point did I find it boring. It's the NYT Saturday puzzle, it's supposed to be a challenge, and this was a superb example!
@Withnail totally agree. It’s the hardest of the week usually and I enjoyed it. I got stuck with the month across and had January in there until finally I figured out it was Ramadan
Relieved to see that for once I'm not the only one who found this to be a tough puzzle. Long workout, and I had to look some things up. Nine debut answers - don't recall the last time I saw that; at least some of those were not terribly unfamiliar. And... my puzzle find today. A Sunday from July 11, 2021 by Ashish Vengsarkar with the title: "NO RUSE." Some theme clue and answer examples: "Onus for a magician's disappearing act?" BURDENOFPOOF "Dramatic accusation at a dentist's office?" YOUCANTHANDLETHETOOTH "Angry Wisconsin sports fans?" MILWAUKEEBOOERS "Getting "Amscray!" under control?" TAMINGOFTHESHOO "Power of a cowboy's shoe?" BOOTSTRENGTH Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/11/2021&g=40&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=7/11/2021&g=40&d=D</a> ...
"Relieved to see that for once I'm not the only one who found this to be a tough puzzle." Rich, Tough and easy always vary for all of us, but I don't recall any Wordplay comments over the years in which you were the *only* one to find a puzzle tough.
@Rich in Atlanta I was happy to see you did not miss a single day during your move. And that the people are nice. I've spent the last 17 years or so spending my Georgia visits helping relatives move in and between various places in the Atlanta area and they were--variable. None stayed in a VA facility, but I used to take my dad to one near Emory to get his hearing aids serviced and everyone there was great.
A lot of the trivia is just wayyy too... obscure. This crossword is like the boss level of crosswords where years and years of solving and gaining info leads up to a final moment, answer by answer. And I am definitely not on Mr. (Lord?) Byron's wavelength. When I revealed the answer for 46 years, it was a "what the actual #&₹@" moment in all senses of the phrase. Awe, surprise, excited exclamation, frustration, anger, elation, and an increase in admiration for the answer and the setter, everything everywhere all at once. For a couple more too. Another very intresting part was that a good amount of trivia was from all around the world. Awe striking again. While I got some, like HINDUGOD (see my location, duh) immediately, I was stuck at a lot of them. But after solving or revealing, I realised that a lot of it was not ungettable. I just needed some essential crosses which I couldn't today. And yeah, a mental wavelength matching. For example, yesterday was a breeze for me because I was somehow one with the grid.
@Apurv I had a similar experience to yours. Today was just not coming, no matter how I looked at it. Yesterday just immediately clicked. Conversely, my dad said today was one of his fastest in over a month, but he took over an hour for yesterday's. Just different wavelengths indeed.
On my first pass, I had ONE, ENO and SANKA followed by AHI TUNA, MADAME X, LODE and N__B. Poke is popular with my family and prevalent in my neck of the woods. This summer we went to The Met and saw the John Singer Sargent exhibit which included the MADAME X painting. The story behind it was fascinating to me. I wasn’t able to add much more to the grid before I fell asleep. Woke up this morning and as usual, the answers started flowing. I’m still fascinated that my brain ruminates on the puzzle overnight and answers start coming to me. On a side note, I was so excited to see Will Klein pitch last night! He was the college baseball player that lived with us during the summer of 2019 when he played for the Chinooks in the Northwoods League. I couldn’t have been more proud if he was my own son 🤩
@Jacqui J I also had SCALENE on the first pass of downs. Pretty empty grid overall before sleep took me. And 3 minutes faster than yesterday, so that tracks with xwstats.
@Jacqui J SANKA was dead last for me (along with SUNRA and PANDA). That’s twice in as many weeks where another solver has called out my final entry as one of their toeholds 🤣
@Jacqui J I confidently filled in GARDNER immediately for 3D and left it there way too long. It probably added 15min to my solve time. Upper third fell into place once I fixed it.
@Jacqui J Congratulations on Will's achievements! One thing I've long noticed with almost all athletes (some monsters of ego aside) is their heartfelt acknowledgment of how much help they received from family, coaches, and even billeting families like yours, as they rode the buses through the long slog up from the minors. The bundle of children in their early 20s who play for the Jays are still fresh off those buses, with the dust of country roads in their hair. How can one /not/ root for them! ⚾️🐦⚾️🐦🐦⚾️🐦⚾️
Wowie Zowie, was that ever a hard puzzle! It's the best part of an hour that I'll never get back, but I'm feeling pretty chuffed that I solved it at all. I did quail a moment or two when I saw the constructor's by-line, and I went down a few rabbit holes, took the bait, fell for the misdirection, and failed to catch the trick-- again and again--until Voila! Finis! No old white head for your trophy wall, Byron; better luck next time! Okay, I guess that's enough. I *do* have a few other things to do today...
Not sure why, but this was the toughest grid in years for me. Totally impenetrable. Not sure if that represents praise or criticism.
It was so impenetrable for me that I had to go into the archives and do some Monday puzzles just to reassure myself that I had a brain 🤣 Just not a Saturday brain. I thought Friday was pretty easy, for me this one was not at all comparable.
Needed way too much help to say I solved it. Like if we had golf like handicap for crossword, I’d say I needed a 12 shot start. It would be like saying I swam the lake in a yacht’s jacuzzi. Like saying I beat Usain Bolt starting at the 90 meter line. Like saying I’m an investment genius in this out of whack stock market. Like I cooked a dish in microwave. Like that
A “rule” I have come to rely on is that when a clue calls for what looks like hopelessly obscure trivia for most people, the answer will be the most (or only) obvious one. For example, of the ten unmentioned months of the Islamic calendar, 1A is the one most of us know, not the nine we don’t. And the 48A beaver coin almost has to be from a North American political jurisdiction with a name 15 letters long. That almost forces it to end in TERRITORY (no one says Alberta Province). Indian could work, but not too many beavers in Oklahoma; I wanted Youkon, but the spelling was DICEY. I realize that what I’m saying is pretty obvious, but I just want to make the point that the Gray Lady tends to play fair even on Friday and Saturday. Great puzzle.
@Paul Turner It also helps if you know that Oregon is the Beaver State.
@Paul Turner, Well said! 1A sounded like it would be impossible right off the bat. Like, how am I supposed to know the months of the Islamic calendar, anyway? Come on. But of course it was going to be the one most familiar to a majority of solvers. The Gray Lady is not a monster.
Saturdays are back, baby — that’s three great ones in a row! I was absolutely not on the constructor’s wavelength on this one and had *very* few gimmes (AHITUNA, NOOB, and HINDOGOD are the only ones I can immediately remember), but was still able to piece it together slowly but surely — the mark of a well-constructed Friday/Saturday offering.
Somewhat surprised to see so many comments on this one. I found it challenging, but not unfairly so, especially for a Saturday. I had very few answers penciled-in after a first pass, but it gradually came together, without any hints or lookups (no shame to those who choose to use them).
This was tedious. Being so clever that only the voices in your head know what you mean doesn't make you a good puzzle builder. PS - I believe it can also be two Ss in B-Plusses. PPS - DDay is not a proper word - so there could have been a clue that it would be "short for" When the majority of people don't like your puzzle - consider that you aren't doing it well. Being difficult isn't any harder than being contrary ... bad clues = bad reviews. Try harder.
Malcolm, Are you suggesting you are a majority of one? Most people posting here thought this was a great puzzle, including those who couldn't solve it. P.S. Regarding your PS and PPS, please study up a bit more on words and crosswords. You'll have more success solving if you do. Good luck!
@Malcolm Your post says more about your abilities as a solver than about the puzzle or the constructor.
DDay is not a proper word - so there could have been a clue that it would be "short for" Malcolm, DDAY has been a word for a while. It isn't short for anything. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/D-Day" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/D-Day</a>
"I believe it can also be two Ss in B-Plusses." Malcolm, Yes, it can. So what? A crossword entry is not required to be every possible answer to a clue, just one of them. BPLUSES is one of them and B-Plusses doesn't fit.
@Malcolm “Being so clever that only the voices in your head know what you mean doesn't make you a good puzzle builder.” Translation: this puzzle was beyond your (current) solving abilities; you didn’t enjoy the way that struggling with it made you feel; and you have come here to vent your frustration. Please trust me — most people reading your comment read ^that^ right away.
Late to the party today because I spent most of the day yesterday in the ER, two separate visits for unrelated issues, not getting home until 4:00 a.m. All is well, if anyone is curious. I’m especially gratified to be home and solving this delightful puzzle, although I’m not sure it’s BETTERTHANSEX, an answer that made me lol out loud. Two great long answers, BIDENPRESIDENCY and JUNIOREXECUTIVE helped me get going. The puzzle was chock full of other clever clues and answers. I was delighted to see Herman Poole Blount aka SUNRA make the puzzle. He and the Arkestra were based in Philadelphia and even once performed at my Alma mater, Haverford college. The man from Saturn’s signature song Space Is The Place is a joyous hymn to the mystic, although his avant garde work is admittedly not to everyone’s taste, and a very little goes a long way. For those that dismiss him as a crackpot, I recommend his fine album Jazz In Silhouette, released before he found his way to Afrofuturism.
Marshall, I'm glad all is well ... now; I trust the two ER visits yesterday were not sightseeing trips.
It’s EASY to make clues abstract to the point of nonexistent correlation. The art is in crafting a cute association that can be reached. Puzzles like this deploy such art with a sledgehammer.
@Thomas Another art is combining (you might even say “crossing”) deliberately abstract clues in such a way that most solvers will be required to incrementally eliminate ambiguity as they go along, by solving entries as pairs/groups (after seeding the grid with their gimmes and/or strongest initial guesses). We’ve had two Saturdays like that in a row, and I’ve personally loved them both.
So sick of puzzles like this that substitute hopelessly obscure proper nouns for clever clueing. I just google them. Why not? The constructor clearly did.
@LJADZ Maybe don’t try Saturdays? This was a brilliant puzzle imo — very much including the cluing.
Amazing, isn't it, that there were proper nouns in Times Crosswords long before there was a web or an internet. How did constructors ever manage to construct?
@LJADZ There is no shame in Googling. You can also incrementally build up names you've never heard of from the crosses, but that's totally up to you. In my experience that prolongs the fun, so I prefer it. But either way, no need to feel sick about it. Enjoy the Google!
I usually don't look up anything but I had to look up 10 facts (Wikipedia, not the meaning of the clue)! Usually I can guess the trivia by filling in the other answers, but this time I had to do the opposite. We need more Saturdays like this so we don't get complacent.
When every clue is a riddle and unable to have definitive clues to build from, it’s just not enjoyable.
On the first pass the only clues I got were ONE and ENO. Then after all the trivia lookups (they were so obscure that lookups were pretty much mandatory), I had enough to piece the rest together. It was difficult mainly because so many of the answers were so obscure, not because of the wicked wordplay of yesterday's puzzle.
@Matthew I also disliked and looked up the utterly obscure trivia (Belgian TV channel... Seriously?), yet I quite enjoyed the other clues in this one 🤷🏽
Surprised to see so many comments about how tough this one was, given I finished 5 mins under my Saturday average. I think I was just on the constructor’s wavelength for the top half of the puzzle because 1, 8, 15, and 17A were all immediate gimmes. For me, “46 years” was obvious! But maybe that’s because I think about 45/47 too much.
@abelsey it also probably helps that I ate a 2D tonight and I have 3D on my living room wall.
@abelsey At least we are still allowed to call Biden 46. I fear the day when 45-47 (…?) sues a newspaper for failing to acknowledge him as the true 46 who was fraudulently denied his rightful place in the Old White House during his second term.
@abelsey Same with 17A. Got it with just two letters.
@abelsey I was on Byron’s wavelength for the top third as well. And then either he or I changed the channel …. Still solved it without lookups and loved it. But didn’t set any speed records in the process.
I can't believe I did this without lookups. Tough puzzle, but ultimately solvable!
That was the hardest Saturday puzzle since… last Saturday! 10 minutes above my average. I didn’t find any quadrant easy, but was able to fight through it clockwise from SE to NE.
A weary huzzah!! I can't tell you how many times I thought I wouldn't be able to finish this puzzle, and certainly not without looking anything up, but I did it! Honestly it blows my mind that the median solve time was 27 minutes. I can't even imagine! I was so much slower than that but I did get there without lookups and I'm proud of it. Some of them were just stabs in the dark that worked out, but more were this before thats. And yay for crosses that got me things like UNE. I really liked all of the spanners, especially BIDENPRESIDENCY for 46 years. But wow, that was tough!! It took me almost as long as it used to in my early puzzling days, only back then I did rely on lookups and whatnot, and probably wouldn't have made it through without them, back then. Even if I am slow, it's nice to see I've come a ways. ☺️ Phew, I might need a nap now!
@HeathieJ, My time was twice that of the “median” solve!
This was one of the hardest Saturdays in a long while for me—almost double yesterday’s time, for all the talk of how difficult that was. I had almost nothing on my first, second and third passes and a lot of what I had was wrong—MOURNING for Shiva (I was thinking Jewish before Hindu, go figure), I thought about some kind of DOTS on the Mocap suit, I guessed PAUL before PIUS, CRACY before ARCHY. I think all I really had was AHITUNA, MEL Ferrer and N—B ( who knows the NOOB spelling du jour). I guess I owe Austin Powers a debt of gratitude because if BADMOJO hadn’t popped in my brain not sure how I would have broken into this grid, you never know where your inspiration will come from! Anyways that got the ball rolling and slowly but surely it filled in. Surprisingly as hard as it was there was nothing obscure to me except SUNRA (and it’s unfair to ask this Cincinnatian in P&G land to think of any coffees besides Folgers). Great spanners in this grid, all of them. At the end of the day an enjoyable challenge but I HAVETO BE HONEST not 16 D either
@SP Penn Jillette natters on endlessly about Sun Ra, whom I otherwise would be unlikely to know. So for me that was actually a rare breaking point into the puzzle! I had mood long before mojo, and I took had Cracy and was thinking of dots. One really had to luck into some of the obscurities, particularly since the "spanners" were neither readily guessable, connected, nor clever.