Stunt puzzles can often pit a constructor's ambition against the solvers' patience, but I found today's to be quite enjoyable with the natural clueing and fill, and the wide open spaces to lob (and miss) a few Hail Mary answers. Congrats on the feat Gene!
Okay, here’s something amazing – those triple stacks flanking the east and west? All six of those long answers are NYT debuts, including the gorgeous BEAR THAT IN MIND, CORPORATE GREED, and GET THE MEMO. Those six answers are all touched by ONE OF EVERYTHING, another gorgeous answer (and NYT debut). ONE OF EVERYTHING, as the revealer, had to be in the grid. So those six triple-stack answers of which I speak had to accommodate that revealer’s letters. Thus, not only did Gene manage to do that cleanly -- a very difficult task -- but he did it so gorgeously. Absolutely amazing. Did the grid suffer from this feat? No, it did not. Au contraire, it sung because of it, sung with spark and beauty. This is not a “clever-by-half” feat; it is pure artistry. What a lovely Saturday, with wit and guile. Saturday clues like [Order at a restaurant], for HAVE, where “order” can be a verb or noun, and whichever it is, there are still multiple answer possibilities. I want muddy clues like this on Saturday. I want my HAVE to HAVE to HAVE crosses. An uber-low 62-worder so beautifully filled and satisfying to fill in. Masterful, Gene. An accomplishment that pays off for the solver. I. Absolutely. Loved. This. Thank you!
@Lewis I knew "irrational exuberance" was never going to fit in 10D, not on a Saturday. For those of you who didn't study economics, that's FOMO.
Oh fun indeed. What a brilliant accomplishment, answers ranging in length from 3 to 15 squares, that's what I'm talking about when we look for possible POYs (Puzzle of the Year). Surely one like this has to be among the best of the year, at least in the Sheer Chutzpah category! Kind of like a pangram for a puzzle using every letter in the alphabet...Omniverbalongitudo? (Words of every length?) (As in my previous post on THE GRIDDIES (Award for POY), please post as REPLIIES to this any nominations from 2025 for Puzzle of the Year. All you need to put down is date of puzzle and name of constructor. All are welcome!) I like the bad restaurant experience reported in this puzzle; surely ordering the curried crab some food additive had turned hot pink might have caused the bad breath that led your date to wrinkle her nose and gasp, "Aw man!" The evening got even worse back at the hotel when all the bidets in the building began flooding (corporate greed had compelled management to not do their regular order of Drano). When she emerged from the bathroom looking like she'd been snorkeling, she did not exactly greet you with open arms, and something in her mien told you a tirade was coming. She'd had it. Well, it's only a date. Bear that in mind for next time: take her to your old favorite, Thora's Ragin' Cajun Hoagies in Acton, up Rt. 126 from Natick! No student loans needed, no fashion icons to be seen. "Lettuce tomato onion?" "Yeah. One of everything!"
@john ezra. Laughing very hard, thanks.
@john ezra I’ll be posting my nominations for early week puzzles and Thursdays below. It’s my first time nominating. I found this a fulfilling but difficult task since I love so many puzzles. Also, there a three major components to a good puzzle—theme, fill and clues—and the last two are harder to review retrospectively, but I did my best. Thursdays were even harder because the themes are more unique and it such a matter of taste and preference. I got 13 early week nominations, all in chronological order except the first which was my clear favorite; and five Thursdays in chronological order; not sure about my favorite yet.
@john ezra 8/27 Zhou Zhang “Ups/Downs” The top early week puzzle this year in my opinion, and second isn’t even close. It doesn’t hurt that it had a Thursday vibe and I would probably vote for it as the best on that day as well. This was a Schroedinger rebus with 8(!) themed elements that were clued so that the rebus could contain either UP or DOWN, and there was room for UPS and DOWNS clued separately as revealers. And despite all that, the rest of the fill and clues were darn good as well. A masterpiece. 2/25 Greg Snitkin “Not on my Watch” Not the splashiest theme in the world, with the ends of all the themers items that wouldn’t be on digital watches, but I really liked the sly pun of the revealer, all the theme entries were pretty fresh, and the fill was extremely well executed for a Tuesday AND was a pangram to boot. 3/5 Rebecca Goldstein “Haunted Mansion” A really unusual grid design that accommodate 4 “haunted” rooms in a house that were all interesting and fresh, with the revealer HAUNTED MANSION stacked in the bottom; and a lot of fun accessory fill including two other long entries. Very impressive 3/11 Jared Cappel “Acupuncture” Again, not the splashiest theme, but 3 solid themers that all were phrases related to what you would do for ACUPUNCTURE, all in order, and the rest of the grid was good enough to be a light themeless puzzle.
@john ezra (M-W continued) 5/6 Enrique Henestroza Anguiano “Cotton Candy” Just points for this year’s most tortuous theme—COTT on top of C and Y, and extra points for level of difficulty, with decent fill as well 7/28 Brian Callahan “Open Seas” Probably the best Monday of the year, with multiword themes that started with C and the extra bonus of every clue starting with C (!)—and great interesting fill for a Monday 8/20 Victor Schmitt “Roll the Die” I think this was controversial, but I loved it—shaded squares with O’s resembling the pips on each side of a die, AND no other O’s in the grid. Definitely high on my list 8/26 Kevin Curry “Asymmetry” This was fabulously clever, an Asymmetric grid which nevertheless had the letter A in a large A-symmetric pattern made up of A’s and no other A’s in the puzzle. This was one of the best solving weeks of the year and came right before his wife Zhou’s puzzle the next day that I nominated first (and the infamous comment war between them). What a great pairing. Kevin, I hope this makes up for being less than enthusiastic about your last puzzle.
@john ezra (M-W continued) 12/2 Jonathon Baude “Raising Capital” A debut for someone who was trying to get a puzzle published all his life, and worth the wait. 4 good theme entries with state capitals backwards (RAISING in the themes), not an easy feat both finding these theme entries and fitting them into a decently filled grid. Jonathon, I hope this adds a cherry on top to your already exciting debut.
@john ezra Thursday nominations: 3/20 Daniel Ginsberg Schroedinger puzzle Sneaky Schroedinger puzzle, exquisitely executed! Enough said. 5/22 David J. Kahn “Money Changes Everything” Unreal how much theme material David stuffed into this clever theme, replacing the word ALL with foreign money, and doing it ALL very smoothly. Maybe the money part of it wasn’t quite as accessible to everyone, which perhaps hurt the solve, but the artistry and execution of this theme was immaculate. 5/29 John Kuhlman “Tease Up” Hard to explain this one without seeing it, so go back to it if you don’t remember. But a really unique, creative theme that was executed in a very engaging way, with three very fun themed entries. 7/3 Adam Wagner “Blinkers” Mind blowing, multilayered theme with a spectacular visual element at the end. 9/2 Aiden Deshong “Minesweeper” Just a really fun twist on a rebus theme that makes up in verve, execution and nostalgia what it lacks in difficulty.
@john ezra Your hilarious reply was "fun indeed"! Talk about a "brilliant accomplishment"! You lettuce all have a good laugh!
@SP Do you keep notes during the solving year? I mean, I can't remember the puzzles I solved last week, let alone a month or ten ago. Being a rather negative person, the only puzzles I tend to remember are the ones I hated 🤣
@john ezra Resubmitting because you asked for constructors' names: SUNDAY Jan. 5, Kareem Ayas (All Things Change) March 16, Paul Coulter (Have It Both Ways) March 23, Andrew Colin Kirk (Where'd You Go?) March 30, Simeon Seigel (Mark My Words) May 4, Brandon Koppy (Force Play) May 25, Dylan Schiff (Travel Bug) July 6, Zhou Zhang and Kevin Curry (Escape Room) MONDAY November 17 TUESDAY Jan. 7, Dana Edwards Sept. 9, Marshal Herrmann Nov. 11, Christina Iverson and Scott Hogan WEDNESDAY Jan. 29, Sophia Maymudes Feb. 26, Dan Caprera March 26, Nathan Hale April 9, Aidan Deshong and Oren Hartstein Aug. 27, Zhou Zhang Nov. 12, Brad Wiegmann and Nicole Wiegmann THURSDAY Jan. 2, Robert Charlton Jan. 30, Joe Marquez March 20, Daniel Grinberg April 3, Hanh Huynh May 22, David J. Kahn July 17, Sam Brody Aug. 28, Joel Woodford Oct. 2, Aidan Deshong Oct. 16, Kareem Ayas Nov. 13, Kyle Perkins FRIDAY Jan. 10, Robert Logan Jan. 17, Willa Angel Chen Miller Jan. 31, Adrian Johnson Oct. 24, Kelvin Zhou SATURDAY Jan. 11, Ryan McCarty Jan. 18, Scott McMahon Feb. 1, Kate Chin Park and Rafael Musa March 22, Katie Hoody April 12, Jesse Cohn May 10, Shaun Phillips July 19, Erik Agard Aug. 2, Robert Logan Sept. 20, Katie Hoody Oct. 11, Sam Ezersky
@john ezra I nominate this for comment of the year! (Better than curried emu)
@john ezra this has to be among the best of the year, at least in the Sheer Chutzpah category! Ditto, and Wow, what a post!
@john ezra -- Paragraph four, signature Ezra, signature remarkably funny. Oh, I love when you do this! One of your best.
@john ezra -- 2/2/25 (Sunday), Derrick Niederman (Two-for-one special) with rebus answers that could be clued with an everyday phrase, like SLIM/SWIM clued [Skinny/dip]. 2/23 (Sunday) – Rafael Musa and Daniel Grinberg. “In the rear view”. Couplets where synonyms for “do an about face” are played on. 3/8 (Saturday) – Joe Deeney. Nine out of 10 squares belong to answers that have appeared 5 times or less in the Times, in a grid that allowed for a spectacular 24 longs. 3/19 (Wednesday) – Jeffrey Martinovic and Evan Park. A visual of a supernova exploding. 4/1 – (Tuesday) Puzzle represented a partially filled in In-Flight magazine crossword, with gray guesses already filled in. 7/1 – (Saturday) Katie Hoody – Cluing clinic, perfect Saturday difficulty. 8/26 (Tuesday) – Kevin Curry. Asymmetrical grid with a symmetrical huge letter A made up of the only A’s in the grid. 8/27 (Wednesday) – Zhou Zhang. Schrodinger/rebus puzzle in which the answers could be UP or DOWN. 9/20 – Katie Hoody – Cluing clinic, i.e. [New customs might incite them] for TRADE WARS, also, lovely longs 10/7 (Tuesday) – Corry Cropper – the story of Icarus, using everyday phrases. 10/24 – (Friday) – Kelvin Zhou -- Debut, filled with marvelous wordplay clues. Not much trivia in the answers. 12/13 – (Saturday) -- Gene Louise De Vera 00 With ONE OF EVERYTHING as a theme. A constructor’s feat combined with a solver’s delight.
@john ezra I was laughing so hard out loud when my husband walked into the room and wondered what in the world?? I had to read him the whole story. Wonderful.
"Here's the hoagie you wanted." "You're my hero!" (This pun is sub-par.)
@Mike My dominatrix likes her subs Italian.
@Mike Oh dear, looks like you're taken now, po'boy, a punishing state of affairs for your other admirers, unless you could sandwich in another without getting into a jam and toasted.
@Mike I like my sandwich fillings the way I like my Hapsburg royals: inbred
I know I can be guilty of too much name-dropping(Thora Birch, Latto and Princess Di have all teased me about it), but I had to share that I met Medusa once. I think. I can't be sure because I was stoned.
a a, Sorry I mythed that meeting.
When I read the clue for 27A, I instantly thought of the title of Paul Simon’s 1965 song, “A Simple Desultory Philippic (or How I Was Robert McNamara'd into Submission).” It showed up on Simon and Garfunkel’s third album. I was in the seventh grade and learning to play guitar. I was just about to be old enough to understand much of Paul’s sarcastic TIRADE, and I find little phrases from that song popping into my head 60 years later. Funny how the memory works.
@Dave S Love that song! Tons of great phrases that would fit nicely into a grid.
@Dave S Got my year wrong. The 1965 version was on a British record I wouldn’t have had access to in rural North Carolina. I must have heard it in 1966. Seventh or eighth grade in school, trying to figure out how to become a folk-rock star.
@Dave S You and me both. That song is where I learned that word, at the same age you did.
@Dave S That was my experience too, as soon as I read the clue!
54A: [Weapon that killed Medusa, in myth] Is there a weapon that killed Medusa outside of myth?
@Steve That's the purpose of the comma. It means "addittional information," not "disambiguating information," which would be the case had there not been a comma.
@Steve Hmmm . . .Ray Harryhausen might know.
That was amazing. Beautiful grid, and 48 across is absolutely true.
Excellent workout, very Saturday-worthy. Gene Louise de Vera, your puzzle rocks. OK, now, I think I’ve earned a trip to an all-you-can-eat Indian buffet, where I’ll have ONE OF EVERYTHING of the veggie options, especially if they’re CURRIED. (Is it wrong to have these thoughts at 4am?)
P.S. The clue for CORPORATE GREED was fantastic. I stared at the _R_E_ portion of it for the longest time (maybe because our doorbell is a horror-movie shriek instead of a DONG), and it was the best aha moment when the penny (insert groan) dropped.
This was about as hard as a Saturday can be without my needing to look stuff up. I made very slow progress at first but I kept at it and managed to fill the grid without outside help. Well, almost. When I entered the final letter at the crossing of L(A)TTO and (A)WMAN (not my favorite kind of cross in an otherwise fine puzzle) I got the dreaded "So close" popup... The grid looked fine though. I ended up consulting the answer key. My error was CORPORATE [c]REED crossing with EC[c]. I'm hopeless with medical abbreviations, especially in English. The Polish equivalent is EKG. And corporate creed was not non5en5ical, which prevented me from spotting the error. I liked the clueing in this puzzle. It was misleading but in a cool way. The trivia was also kept to a minimum, which is always welcome (albeit I've never heard of that rapper). I also got the impression there was great variety in the entries, which made the puzzle feel fresh. I found some entries arcane because I'm Polish. For example, our heating systems never involve OIL TANKS. Most of us in cities get our heat from heating plants, and outside cities people use either electricity or gas for heating. Sadly, coal is also still in use, albeit to a much lesser extent than only a decade or two ago.
Oh, I forgot. I had no idea what the "theme" was about. Only @B's post below reminded me of it. So there were answers of every length between 3 and 15 letters? Ok... But... Why? This is the sort of meta thing that will never get me excited. It has zero bearing on my solving experience. I guess I have to be happy striving for this "feat" did not result in the constructor making a bad puzzle... My wife used to watch American football on ESPN. The commentators kept talking about extremely niche statistics. I found it very weird. "This is only the third time in the last 37,45 years that a dewback ran 7 yards on the left foot only while blinking his right eye three and a half times and thinking of his mother". This is exactly how these meta "themes" feel to me. Who cares? Other constructors do, maybe, but shouldn't the puzzle be made for solvers?
@Andrzej EKG is also used in English as an alternative to the version with a ‘C.’ I think it dates back to when Germany was at the forefront of medicine, since it’s “Elektrokardiogramm“ auf Deutsch.
Wow, wow, wow! Thank you for this challenging puzzle. I was telling a (relatively new) friend this week that I do the crossword puzzle everyday. She was surprised I could do Fridays and Saturdays. Well, it took me years to get to the point where I could do every day of the week - and now I appreciate the challenge of a puzzle like this. It's beautiful! And the revealer reminds me of the Buddhist's pizza order: make me one with everything. Happy Saturday, everyone!
"So let it be written; so let it be done," growled Yul Brynner (Rameses II) in the 1956 film The Ten Commandments: 10. Forget the clock, the news, and check your troubles at the door. 9. Give the grid your first round efforts. 8. Trust those instincts - if it feels like it fits, fill it in! 7. Lucky you, if those initial guesses make it past your next go round. 6. Getting serious now, gotta separate the soft whir of supposition from the roar of ignorance. 5. Half-done OR half-cooked? It's all a state of mind (and white grid space). 4. Time for forgiveness - ease up on the "What was I thinking, 'food coloring!'" moment. 3. Keep trying. Every round of across and down is a chance to scratch and claw out a few letters or word. 2. Enjoy that AHA! The penny drops! That decoder ring in your head finally calibrates with the constructor. 1. Lean back, take a deep breath. You did your best. A fine Saturday puzle. Best of all, they'll be another one tomorrow! Happy weekend solving, everyone.
@Whoa Nellie Great list! It matched my solving experience for sure!
This one fought me every inch of the way and only gave up its secrets grudgingly. I’m a conservative solver who likes to be very confident before I enter an answer, but tonight I had to take a lot more fliers than I usually do, sometimes with poor results. I was so desperate that I tried ORIGINALSINS for things that can be forgiven, even though it made no sense as original sin is a singular concept, and that long wrong down proved unhelpful. Eventually I broke through with FASHIONICONS and BEARTHATINMIND. there were many lovely, off kilter clues, my favorite of which was school viewing for SNORKELING. A fitting and much appreciated Saturday challenge for me.
@Marshall Walthew People complaining all week about the ease are now gonna cry about the difficulty. This puzzle was a nerds puzzle.
Tremendous puzzle. I confess the clever trick passed me by (as I’m sure is the case for most solvers) and I’m glad it didn’t detract from the overall end result. What really fixed me was the TIARA. In my mind, a tiara is a delicate, graceful, bejewelled, glittering, feminine accessory, normally twinned with an artfully admirable hair arrangement. It commands you to admire the wearer’s rank and beauty, and it makes an unmissable declaration of entitlement, while coyly pretending to be understated because - crucially - it is not a crown. Why on earth would a Pope be wearing one of those? Well, today I learned of the “papal tiara”, last used by Paul VI. It’s nothing delicate or understated. It’s more like an oil drum made of gold, or an inflated Christmas cake. Actually, its tiered structure reminds me of the Tower of Babel. What a monstrosity! No wonder it was abandoned. And how fitting, perhaps, that it now lives in Washington DC. (I hope a certain resident of that town never finds out about it - I think it would complete his “look”, not to mention his ego!) For a picture of the tiara: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_tiara" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Papal_tiara</a>
@Petrol Interesting! I wondered the same, thanks for the link. Did you notice the papier mâché tiara "Made for the coronation of Pope Pius VII in exile in Venice following the seizure or destruction of papal tiaras by the French troops that invaded Rome in 1798"? Yikes. But that was followed by the heaviest, made by Napoleon. Gold crowns were symbols of wealth and power for centuries, as seen in just about any European museum. The crowns get larger and gaudier, until they are followed by a bloody revolution. Seems like the Vatican didn't catch on to that until the 1960s. The current occupant at Pennsylvania Ave seems to be easily satisfied with gold-colored trinkets, like his spray painted fleur-de-lis and "peace prize" trophy.
I really enjoyed this one. So many clever clues that both furrowed my brow and made me smile. (“School viewing” was a favorite.) I also came >thisclose< to completing my first Saturday puzzle without a single lookup, but with a block of unknowns in the lower right (and an error in PiCO), I eventually gave in and learned about YAW. The rest fell in place after that. Oh, well. I’m still proud of myself.
What a fabulous achievement, never even considered that this was a feat. I echo Lewis’ comments about the astonishment of 6 long debut entries stacked with a revealer of sorts. The grid design was eye catching. I thought the difficulty bead just about right—I had nothing in the top half, had to work from the bottom up and enjoyed every minute of it. The constructor’s note about the FASHIONICON clue is telling. Why on earth wouldn’t you use his clue unless you were trying to decrease the level of difficulty? Unless you want to argue that Michelle OBAMA was no less a fashion icon than any other First Lady (certainly Jackie Kennedy is unarguable), or they didn’t want to put a political tinge on it. But I think whichever side of the aisle you are on you have to admit that she has influenced fashion more than most in a significant way, and the sly nod to feminism (not every Kennedy or Obama has to be a president!) would have been a fun misdirect.
@SP Is your indication that this was a telltale symptom of the overall lessening of NYT puzzle difficulty via editorial guidance? I thought that's where your comment was going for a minute but it doesn't actually say that. :)
@SP (Snide comment about pantsuits deleted.)
Today's 48A begs the question: Can you have a revealer without a theme?
@Steve L By "begs" the question, do you mean "raises" the question or "ignores" the question?
@Steve L The underlying question there is whether or not this puzzle has a theme…which begs the question: what exactly *is* a theme? It’s not the kind of question that can be answered authoritatively…but it occurs to me I don’t even have an approximate/working definition for “puzzle theme” in my head. What I do have is more of an unexamined Justice Stewart-style classifier…and today’s puzzle has broken it.
I cringe when anyone says "begs the question." I was taught the proper use in high school. I just use "raises the question" to avoid doubt about my English competency. Also, my head literally explodes when I hear "literally" misused.
@Steve L Yes. A theme, to me, means an idea or trick of cluing or solves shared across several clues. (How many is several? Is two enough? Discuss.) The 'revealer' reveals the existence of this repetitive element for those who failed to see it. That is not this puzzle. Each clue stands alone (although I haven't read Lewis's post yet, so who knows?). But there is still something additional to be disclosed to the solver -- a pattern resulting from the totality of the clues. It's not exactly visual -- or at least, it wasn't for me. But having been told, I find it adds to my admiration of the constructor's skills. The same revealer would also serve for a pangram. I love those too, even when I don't see them as I slosh through the sea of clues.
Great puzzle, but....I want to start a petition that decrees that that any clue asking for a rapper must auto fill. Really, there must be 10,000 of them out there.
@J lawrence g I suspect people who know rap music feel the same about obscure poets. What was it yesterday, some dude from Austria from the 1800s. Brutal.
@J lawrence g I have no issue with cultural references that I might not know. It’s all part of the game. But certain categories (like rappers) can be much more difficult when you don’t know them because the spellings often do not follow common historical conventions.
@J Lawrence g I'm not signing that petition and I vehemently disagree with @joepb... loving rap definitely does not mean you can't also love obscure poetry. I'm here for both! That said, the two rappers in this week's puzzle were pretty surprising to me; especially Erica Banks! She's still very up and coming.
@Lewis — I’m grateful for your perceptive comments. They really help me appreciate grids like this, which for some reason are not my cup of tea. I started grumbling at 2D and never quite got into the swing of things this morning. Well off to choir practice. We’re doing the Schubert Magnificat tomorrow. Rehearsing with orchestra this morning!
Bravo. Really nice puzzle, long entries in a mirror pattern replete with bad puns. Very nice.
I'm sure there's a subset of solvers here that knew both MATINS and LATTO. I'm not in it, though, which left me having to go ask Google...my only lookup for this puzzle.
Bruce, If you are suggesting that cross was a Natick, you don't need to know both answers, just one of them.
@Bruce That was my last square as well. Took a wild guess at T, and was rewarded .
This puzzle offered me an enjoyable mix of instantaneous fill (eg, “It’s GARY, Indiana, obviously” and EDIT IN) and real head-scratchers (MIEN? RILL? THORA? LATTO? and my favorite, CORPORATE GREED). —But this clearly reflects that I’m married to a video editor and we lived for years in Chicago, and that I’m not whatever it is that knows those other words 😂
@KRB Or that you've ever seen The Music Man: <a href="https://tinyurl.com/5n772ktc" target="_blank">https://tinyurl.com/5n772ktc</a>
One of those aha! puzzles, but it's another uh uh, continually evolving until you see what it really is. I kept trying to figure out how to get a whale into 17D, that sort of thing. It was mano a mano, top to bottom, and fun all the way. If there were any oreos, I didn't see them. A terrific puzzle, Gene Louise, and I'm EAGER for another.
Really liked this one. When there are long answers I like to chuck in initial answers and see what sticks. Only my initial 1 across worked out for me today. Also, wolverines and otters, who knew ? Well, at least I didn’t!
@John I wanted BADGER (no room at the inn) and then had to wait for the crosses, because all I had was the R... I was likewise surprised.
@John They are all mustelids: <a href="https://animalfact.com/mustelids" target="_blank">https://animalfact.com/mustelids</a>/ I only know this because as a kid, someone gave me a book called "The Fearless Family" that was all about mustelids. The book included skunks, but it's since been decided that skunks are in their own family. Interestingly, I see by googling that there's an African Striped Weasel that looks like a skunk, but actually IS a mustelid. Cool convergent evolution.
Thought this might be my fastest Saturday ever … then I hit a wall on the east side of this one. My brain just couldn’t come up with the answers. Oh well. There’s always next Saturday! I appreciated the amazing construction feat though. Very cool!😎
@Cherry, same here! Ended up taking longer than my Saturday average, but I loved it.
Thank you Brother Cadfael for MATINS, as I never would have gotten the rapper's name.
Loved it. This is the kind of puzzle that's very satisfying. Only a couple of answers on the first pass but, without too much trivia, everything is work-outable until it all just sort of falls into place. Bravo!
Difficult, fabulous, and fair. Really enjoyed it once I realized it wasn't going to slam me if I was just patient.
Yellow 5 and red 40 are food colorings, which unfortunately fits, and threw me off, otherwise a very nice puzzle.
@Larry Berger That was obviously the intended effect. It's Saturday. :)
Whew. And Wow! Tough workout for me, but a truly amazing puzzle. One thing in particular - the down triple stacks on each side of the puzzle - those all being the longest down answers... ... everyone one of those is its FIRST appearance in any puzzle, though each of them is a reasonably familiar term or phrase. That's just amazing. Again - Wow. ....
@Rich in Atlanta And... now I know that not everyone reads previous comments before they post. No big deal. ....
I've never had so many wild guesses turn out to be right. Just on the perfect wavelength today. Love when that happens. Feels like having ESP.
Well, I sort of flew through this one. I'm so glad I'm done with the huge work project that came down to crunch time in the last couple of weeks because now I feel like my brain is more open again. Well and my time. Although now I have to catch up on all the work I didn't do while I was doing that work. Oh well! It helps that I really love my job!! Anyhow, I would have preferred the constructor's original cluing for 12 down, Obama and Kennedy. I think it would have made it more puzzling. Although it might have also reminded us of that scandalous tan suit!! (Har! I know it really would have referred to the fabulous Michelle and Jackie.) Isn't it funny how sometimes words just look really wrong, even though they're right? I hope that's not just me. At 36 across, I plunked in EAGER And for some reason the second E just looked so wrong to me. I was like, that's not how you spell EAGER! It's too weird! So I changed it to an a, which looked even wronger, if you will. I actually very briefly left that box blank. Crazy!! But it happens every now and then where a word I know is right just looks crazy wrong. Oh well, I did get ECG right off the bat, so at least there's that. I had to get one very recently for my annual AFib check-in, so maybe that's why it was on my mind. Happily, my ticker tape was just fine! Methinks I'm a little too uncouth to appreciate the construction feat today, but it was a fine puzzle and I am happy he also achieved his goal.
@HeathieJ Totally, except for ECG. Obviously requires ICON, but I for one have only ever heard EKG.
@HeathieJ Wow! "Sorta flew through this one." My hat if doffed. I barely EKED it out.
@HeathieJ Ha, guess what, it wasn't until I read your comment about Michelle and Jackie that I realized the constructor WASN'T talking about Barack and JFK! 😂 I was totally down with your tan suit comment! And then I read your next sentence. Oh yeah, Michelle and Jackie!
I guess this is sort of a throwaway comment, but the best part of this wasn't the theme for me. In all my years of puzzling, I have never seen one this far away from my mindset. Almost every answer was so far away from my frame of mind that when I finally got them it was with a sense of wonder - hey, that would work! Longish, difficult solve but maybe the most gratified I've felt in solving.
That was a good Saturday. As I often find them, really difficult to start but get a foot in the door and you’re off!
Extremely fun puzzle - thanks for making it!
Not particularly enjoyable for me. Some of the fill was ... well, I think it speaks for itself: ARD, NOTDO, NOI, AWMAN, OHFUN, EDITIN, ACTON, LATTO, HADIT. Did I mention ARD? The long entries were much better, but, for me, didn't compensate for the glue needed to bind them together. A feat of construction, I'm sure. Just not a very satisfying Saturday offering. Solved it without help in 23:23, with the A common to LATTO and AWMAN being my last entry. Liked the simple and clever "Sound from fans" for WHIR.
@Xword Junkie And the ORANG didn't much appreciate the RED APE business, either. That A for LATTO was my last entry as well...might've been EW or OW!
@Xword Junkie thanks. Now I don’t have to write a very similar note 🤓. Took just a little too much poor fill to complete this ambitious construction.
This is, as Caitlin notes, the constructor's second Saturday, and I enjoyed the fresh long answers and the non-theme theme. But like the earlier Saturday, I found it not Saturday challenging. The constructor note shows that one example of that today is on the editors, not the constructor. Not sure about the rest. This is what I said in May: <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/47ofkd?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/shared/comment/47ofkd?rsrc=cshare&smid=url-share</a>
got 1A (Possible turnoff on a first date) immediately and had the sinking thought: its gonna be another gimme puzzle in this week of gimmes. 40 minutes later and toweling off my cerebral hemispheres (metaphorically, not neurosurgically) i recline very much corrected. not even a nuance of a niggle here. 17D (School viewing) really floated my boat. superb saturday workout.
Whew! Finished without lookups. Tough, but fair.
Definitely a constructor's grid, but a fun puzzle to fill also. When I got to the revealer at 48A, I stopped for a bit and thought about how unusual it is to have only one spanning entry in a puzzle. I wondered about the shape for a bit, and noticed the mirror symmetry. But that was as close as I got to figuring out the theme, because ONEOFEVERYTHING took some time to fill in. YAW helped. The clues they come up with to include combos of EEL are getting pretty weird. Pot user indeed. Made me laugh.
@Nora No, no. Definitely a solver's grid, despite the constructor's indulgence. One wonders if an eeler who uses more pots than another is eelier than them?
Had a dad named Philip; immediately thought of how it means, "lover of horses," and EAGERly ACTedON that hunch and typed in, "equine" for 27 across. AW, MAN! Apparently, I never GOTTHEMEMO about its actual meaning. I guess you *can* learn something new every day! Fun puzzle!
Starting 32a with FURNACE for “home heating component” then using that F on 32d to go with FOURBARS for “good reception” really had me stuck in the corner for way too long.
I am going to buck the general trend and admit that I disliked this puzzle and agree with another poster that there were too many regionalisms including from across the pond where I have lived and traveled extensively. Also, multiple long answers where more than one appropriate answers may fit greatly detract from the enjoyment of solving the puzzle imho. It astounds me that every puzzle gets rave reviews when the law of averages (and reality) is that they cannot all be winners. I don't want to deny or diminish the thought and effort that goes into creating a puzzle but I am sure there are more people out there of a similar opinion but who don't want to comment or are concerned about being 'crosswordsplained' if they do. Some of the posters are clearly expert crossworders and try to be encouraging but some can be dismissive to any criticism of the puzzle and attribute it to ignorance or lack of intelligence rather than just accepting that there are other valid opinions and that some puzzles are just not that great for a significant minority (possibly a silent majority) of people. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. [Stepping off my soapbox and resuming my crossword journey.]
@DP If you think that every puzzle gets rave reviews, you have not been here very long. Every time there's a truly puzzling puzzle, it gets slammed.
@DP The law of averages might apply if all puzzle submissions were tossed into a box and chosen at random. Even then I think the puzzles submitted to the Times in the first place are likely to be above average given that constructors know the long odds against any puzzle being accepted. I always learn something new about the artistry and constructing brilliance of any puzzle by reading Lewis’s analysis, which I highly recommend. Things that may seem lazy or wrong to a novice can turn out to be highly tuned misdirects that cause belly laughs for someone who knows more about the form. I always like to read what the constructors in this forum have to say. I always learn something.
That was pretty fun. Very unlike that other recent constructor's "stunt" puzzle that, from what little I recall, was a failure in every respect as an actual puzzle. This one is a nice job, thanks. Don't get me wrong - I still care not at ALL that he managed to have different length answers. That seems... entirely unremarkable really? But if it makes him happy and ALSO presents a satisfying experience for us, fine. I suppose 1 and 2 letter answers must be out of the question... But the word "everything" seemed a little pyrrhic or something like that. Ok difficulty this was only moderately hard to me, finishing pretty quickly.
@B I'm with you on the "theme." Who cares?
and ezersky again for the mini win. fiendishly clever use of "straight" and "sets." cannot be easy in such a tight space. mini of the year.
@Matt Plus I thought it was cool how it broke the "rule" and had two answers that were the same word.
LATTO was a gimme. After FASHION ICONS, shift shape had me thinking dress not MORPH. SNORKELING made me smile, anything to do with sea life will. Had DiNGS for DONGs. HOT PINK pride triangle makes an important appearance. SEA DOVES are the absolute cutest! I’m EAGER for more, give me ONE OF EVERYTHING. Annnnnnnnnd, go Gunners!
@Becky Oh thank you for that!! I had DiNGS too and came to the comment section to try and figure out why I wasn't getting the happy music!!
Clearly this was the most enlightening puzzle ever. Gene Louise De Vera made us one with everything!
Eel pot?! How on earth did I know that one?! Sometimes the puzzle delves into some very weird crevices of the brain. 🤣
@Molly in Wake Forest I'd venture from a previous puzzle.
@Molly in Wake Forest and @ Steve L I have heard of pots used to catch octopi (heh heh) in the Grecian isles--but I never knew that EELs might be attracted to those cozy corners...