Before pivoting my career to manufacturing life-sized cardboard cutouts of Ted Danson, I worked in a LEATHER BAR briefly after college. It was an edifying experience for two reasons: 1) the owner kept a 26 volume set of the Encyclopedia Britannica behind the bar which I read avidly in my spare time, and 2) I was listening to an audio CD of lectures on the Civil War that summer. The one thing I never understood was why General Grant failed to entrench his troops prior to the surprise attack at the Battle of Shiloh. It seems to me that a wartime leader and strategist of his intellect and experience would have had the foresight to avoid such a costly blunder. It’s salient questions like this about our nation’s darkest era, which will always remind me of the smell of leather and the sound of The Village People blaring through a PA system.
@Ace That paragraph may be the longest and most fascinating verbal journey I've ever read. Ted Danson, to leather, to Shiloh, back to leather, and finally to the Village People.
@Ace This somehow just has to be a reference to the famous Three Men and a Baby ghost story? <a href="https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/truth-behind-apos-3-men-184756642.html" target="_blank">https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/truth-behind-apos-3-men-184756642.html</a>
@Ace That has to be one of the best posts on this board, ever. There was this tiny kebab bar around the corner from the main gate to Warsaw University's central campus. It was nothing special, really, but I really liked the place with its cozy atmosphere, super friendly African owner and his cute Ukrainian wife. I ate there often in my law school days. In fact, I liked it so much I occasionally drove there all the way across Warsaw to have lunch. So one day I'm on my way for my fave kebab, negotiating the capital's chaotic traffic in my beat-up Daewoo Lanos, going way too fast, pop music blaring on the radio. Suddenly the music stops. It's not time for the news but the news people are on. Their voices tremble. "There had just been a horrific attack in New York". It was September 11, 2001. The date always reminds me of my fave kebab place. Ain't it funny how our heads work?
@Andrzej One of the...I don't know...perks?...of old age is that you collect a growing list of "everyone knows where they were moments". I guess my earliest was the Kennedy assassination. The Challenger disaster. 9/11, of course. I'll risk censure to suggest that Nov. 5, 2024 was a day like that in my mind. So many other contenders: the MLK, RFK assassinations. Three Mile Island. Chernobyl.
@Ace Yes. This is why I read these comments on crossword puzzles.
@Ace -- I loved your ramble. More like this, please!
@Ace These are the kinds of comments I live for.
@Fleur Anne 😂😂😂 @Ace like Anndrej said, this if a hall of fame post. 👏🏻
Please allow me the reverie of taking a mind's eye trip to NAIAD, the tiny moon of Neptune which is barreling along just barely over the top of Neptune's clouds. Naiad is only about 30,000 miles from Neptune (compare the 240,000 mile distance between the earth and the moon), and the view of the planet from it must be one of the most awe-inspiring views in the entire solar system.The massive and gorgeous blue Neptune taking up a stunning amount of Naiad's sky. I hope to visit there one day.
@Francis this one crosswords
@Francis But wouldn't it be really twilighty and dreary and poorly lit, being so far from the sun? Asking for a friend.
@Francis I'm willing to wait for a VR headset and AI videos fed on NASA probe data. Not sure how tides work in that situation, Heck we don't even have colonies on our moon. After Apollo, I'd have bet that that would happen by 2000, Space is too big for humans. Those Ancient Aliens must be something else. 👽
@Francis Our solar system is the best one, other stars think they have it but nobody has more soul than our Sol. 💙🩵
@Francis Thank you for this beautiful and soulful comment! Here's a soundtrack for your trip: <a href="https://youtu.be/oFMXNUHuWug?si=_msCVNtoOFFe7wJf" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/oFMXNUHuWug?si=_msCVNtoOFFe7wJf</a> My fellow Finn, amazing Susanna Mälkki conducting BBC Symphony Orchestra and Elysian Singers.
@Francis When the moon hits your eye like a huge Costco pizza, that's NAIAD.
@Francis Just made a quick calculation. If you were standing on Naiad looking at Neptune, the planet from edge to edge would spanabout 60 degrees. If you hold your hand at arm's length, and splay it as much as possible, the angle formed by your eye, your thumb, and your little finger, would cover about 20-25 degrees. So if you put your other hand touching that hand, and splay that hand out, you'd about 40-50 degrees. In other works you hands could not hide Neptune at arms length using both your hands. By comparison, our son and moon is hidden just by a thumb's width at arm's length.
@Francis I vaguely remember a delightful article by Asimov in which he did the calculations to establish the dize and brightness of the view that each planet's satellites would have of the planet they orbited. Simultaneously amazing and creepy!
I finished this one fairly quickly, although it never felt easy. As an LOTR nerd, I was surprised to be puzzled by ringbearer. I tried Samwise and then Baggins and then Isildur, before letting the crosses lead me to SMÉAGOL. Only at the end did I catch the little joke that the next across clue was “precious person.” For the non-LOTR crowd, SMÉAGOL always referred to the ring as his precioussss. REEFS for school rooms was a nice touch.
@Marshall Walthew my first thought was Samwise and yes, I smiled at the clue with precious.
@Marshall Walthew I initially had FRATS for School houses. Surprised to be so "close".
@Marshall Walthew Here's where being a LOTR movie watcher, but not fan girl, came in handy. When Frodo didn't fit, i couldn't think of anything else, so I moved on. The answer became clear with the easy downs.
@Marshall Walthew. I had Gandalf, bearer of Narya, the ring of fire, and feather boa for quite a while. Inhibited the NW for me quite a bit. I kinda thought Sméagol was more obscure, given his transformation after hundreds of years under the Misty Mountains into Gollum. I found that a proper Saturday level misdirect.
@Marshall Walthew -- Fantastic catch on the "precioussss" connection!
@Marshall Walthew Same here. I had Isildur first and was so annoyed with myself, as a massive LOTR nerd, that it took me so long to fill in SMEAGOL! Tricksy constructorses!
"Do you walk all that way for pancakes?" "No, IHOP!" ("Batter get moving then!")
@Mike Didn't you check for pancakes at the other place? "They haven't Denny."
@Mike You hop? I crepe!
Mike, Be sure to wear long pants - I hear they have shorts tax.
@Mike I flip over your punniness....espatula the ones about food.
Who knew feather bars weren't a thing? I guess I need to get out more.
@Kevin Yes!!! FEATHER BARS! Boas everywhere! Fabulous!!!
Lovely puzzle. Solid clues. Breezy for a Saturday, but I really enjoyed it.
Want some Saturday wordplay? Here's some, it seems el presidente is "bored of peace".
I'm thrilled to hit a one year streak today! Ive been solving for years, but inevitably blow the streak occasionally, not by using the check function but by messing up on timing when traveling. 🤷🏼♀️🤣 Now I will diligently endeavor to do it for another year! Today's puzzle was a gem; it was a pleasure to meet this milestone on such a clever puzzle.
@Susan E, Congratulations on reaching a full year’s worth of puzzles! Yay!!! 🎈🍾🎉
@Susan E That’s so good. In the late week I usually check something in the end.
@Susan E. That must be real satisfying. I always blow it when away on a trip. Way to go!
Slightly embarrassed Tolkien fan who mentally ran the gamut from Nazgûl to Samwise and Baggins to frodo and even came up with Gollum before remembering Gollum’s original name SMEAGOL. Otherwise fun puzzle
@Megan I had heard it but didn’t know how to spell it until I got LEATHER BAR. So yes a very good puzzle. I only checked one word to be sure CURLY BRACES was right and then I saw that it was ERASER PEN and not PiN. Perfect for me. Thanks!
I had LeoTardBAR before shortly correcting it due to the crosses. Now I wish they were an actual thing, would be fun to see!
@T Maybe, but you'd have to dress appropriately to get in. Some of us would have GIRTH issues.
@T I had sEeTHruBAR at first— that dress code would be even more fun!
@T Actually, it might be tutu much.
Oh how I loooooaaaaatttthhhhhhe the phrase at 35 down. Ugh! I refused to fill in until I absolutely had to. I cringe every time anyone says it! Usually on online comment boards, in my life anyhow. First appearance, and hopefully the last! Otherwise pleasant enough though very fast. I filled out all the corners first and then the middle, but I did have one error.... Turns out I don't know Lord of the Rings or gay night life spots well enough because SMEAGOf and fEATHERBARS seemed okay. I guess I thought of the f because of Gandalf ending in f. He and frodo are really the only character names I ever remember. Or maybe I was thinking of Smirnoff. 🍸 🤷♀️ 🍸 Anyhow, happy weekend!!
@HeathieJ Feather Bars! In my "before times," I have been to many a gay nightlife spot, where steerhide may have been the dress code, and yet the atmosphere was definitely "feather bar"! Thank you for making my day!
@HeathieJ And now my bucket list includes an evening whiled away in appropriate attire at a feather bar.
@HeathieJ completely agree wrt 35 down. The system has not designed to post any of my comments pointing out the disingenuousness of their originality argument (very easy to think of other words that started as something innocent but today are utterly verboten), and I think less of everybody involved for both the fill and the refusal to post my complaint and thus, I must assume, others' complaints.
@HeathieJ I'm surprised, as I think of you and I as usually being on the same page/wavelength. I got a real kick out of that phrase the first time I heard it--I thought it nicely filled a spot in the language for a particular
@HeathieJ ack. decided to cancel halfway through typing and accidentally slipped and hit the submit button. I just thought it concisely conveyed a certain kind of performative childish over-reaction to a perceived slight. I did get a kick out of seeing it in the grid, and I'm sorry you did not.
Did anyone else find this easy for a Saturday? I finished it in 10 minutes and 54 seconds on two glasses of wine, demolishing my Saturday record by well over a minute. (My average hovers around 30 minutes for Sat.) Maybe I just got lucky with the clues this time?
@Brendan Yes, I finished it in 9 minutes and 59 seconds. But I'm still gonna brag to my friends and family 💅🏼
@Brendan 8:58 for me. Just way too easy for a Saturday.
@Brendan My Saturday best is 12 minutes (achieved on an archived puzzle from 2021 or 2022), and this took me twice as long. Apparently being Polish makes some puzzles much harder than they seem to Americans 🤣
@Brendan either my brain is is slow to start today, or the trivia was just not for me. I finished the Thursday and Friday this week, and found the NE corner pretty easy today, but then had to give up on this one. I *never* would have gotten: Naiad Nemean Curly braces Nerfs Neopets Smeagol And remain confused by “eraser pen”, “air horn”, and others.
I think I accidentally stumbled on a way to make any puzzle much, much harder. You can do it by entering things like Bff for 20A, which poisoned two long downs for way too long. You can do it by putting "hojo" in for 48, forgetting orange was their color (wasn't it?), hopelessly complicating the lower left. On the other hand, I utterly surprised myself by coming up with 35D [Acting like a sore loser, informally]. How did both the actual answer and a similar ending in "sore" get into my brain? 49A, NTH, is exactly the kind of answer that used to utterly topple me. Now I enter it without giving it much thought.
@Francis I started with "sore" there, too. Great buττs ache alike?
Francis — HoJo'ses were orange and blue, as I recall. I profoundly regret that I can't go to a HoJo's anymore and order their indian pudding, which was scrumptious.
Sméagol was tough but it pales In comparison to aave, yesand & curlybraces. Guess I’m acting butt hurt 😜
What made me feel old? Great question. I'd love to tell you. This puzzle. What made it sting less? *Another* great question. Seeing the gold star pop up and getting that *same* feeling I got in second grade when a spelling test came back with the tiny plastic version about 117 years ago.
Freshness in the box today. Not just the obvious freshness of answer debuts, but also many answers I’ve heard of and like but don’t think about often. The grid, to me, seemed like it was popping with zing. I loved the main bones – the vertical and horizontal stagger-stacks that centered the grid. There was the lovely ring of CURLY BRACES, and when I looked it up, I remembered seeing them in the past, and I smiled. I pictured that LEATHER BAR and that ERASER PEN. I loved the misdirect of [Pressure gauge], where I was foraging for a name for the little pen-sized tool that measures tire pressure. And, speaking of NYT answer debuts, five of the six answers of those stacks are just that, and the sixth (INSTANT TAN) only appeared once before in the history of the Times puzzle. The box, on the whole, just had a feeling of newness from start to finish, that I found rare and wonderful, Adam. It radiated personality and made for a splendid outing. Thank you so much for making this!
We now have the mini, the midi, the (mici) crossword. I propose an additional puzzle - the mega. A deviously difficult daily grid for advanced solvers. Alas, one can dream.
@Becky Or they could bring back the acrostic.
@Becky You're going for Mini Midi Mici! I came, I solved, I conquered!
@Becky They have that at the end of the year. It only comes out in paper form, which is why I don’t do it.
This would have been one of my quicker times if I hadn’t misspelled NEMiAN. Spent forever not seeing my error. SMÉAGOL a gimme for this LOTR fanatic, the rest was a little hit and miss. Blue roofed restaurant? Grover Cleveland? Allan express? Oof. Thank goodness I could make an educated guess with the crossings. LEATHER BAR reminded me of my first bar job as a young, impressionable thing. An eye opener and a half, with not a single story that would pass the emu cordon. Sweet memories of dancing on the bar in wildly inappropriate clothing every time a specific song came on, whose title would also not pass the cordon. A job requirement I should stress, not from too much sampling of the beverages (which would have got me fired). Happy days. My aging bones wouldn’t let me hop up there now.
@Helen Wright, Do the alpacas know about this? 😄
I sensed lots of niche clueing today, some of which I knew from experience (YESAND), some which I knew vicariously (DND), and some of which were totally foreign to me (SMEAGOL, BUTTHURT, LEATHERBAR). However, I still found it to be an enjoyable puzzle to solve, and I learned stuff. That’s why we solve them, right? To relax and become more enlightened? And if certain clues aren’t to your liking, repeat our mantra from St Deb: “Your mileage may vary” and move on with your day. Have a lovely day, be kind, and give yourselves — and one another — grace.
I don’t have much energy to rail about difficulty level again, really, so let’s just frame this as a puzzle of missed opportunities. If as Caitlin says the six long entries are nearly all fresh and debuts, then why not clue them in a fresh amusing way? Of the six the only one that’s even remotely imaginative was the clue for STRESSLEVEL, which I liked, but by that time I had so many crosses I didn’t even have to puzzle that one out. Really, there were no possibilities of any misdirecting or clever clues for INSTANTTAN, ERASERPEN, LEATHERBAR? That’s a shame because this was an artfully constructed grid with a lot of potential. Like others it did take me awhile to suss out SMÉAGOL especially since I had FEATHERBAR first, but really isn’t this another missed opportunity? You have “Precious person” as a clue right across from it, how do you not clue that one as “‘Precious’ person?” Meanwhile there’s the litany of gimmes on a Saturday again. NEMEAN? SERB for Tesla? ARIEL? LICE? I guess I do have a little energy to complain about difficulty. Oh well. I did get to hear Francis’s reverie about NAIAD which perked me up, and I learned a fun fact about FDR.
@SP I get you - you make a few good points. At the same time, however, I must admit I quite enjoyed the puzzle and found it challenging - it was not properly Saturday-hard, maybe, but it definitely made me sweat in places, especially in the SW. Granted, most of my difficulties, as usual, were down to not knowing stuff: I had to rely on crosses for the lentil stew, musical title, ARIEL, LOLA and ETHAN, among other things. Also, I wouldn't be caught dead in a chain eatery, and I know very little about American ones, but if it's a chain in America and starts with an I, it's gotta be IHOP. And so on. So I guess what I liked today was how the arcana were crossed gently enough to not be unsolvable - unlike yesterday, when proper names and abbreviations crossed in several places, forcing me into lookups and puzzle checks. Had I known the trivia, I would probably have had a Wednesday solving experience, as I guess you did, and you felt cheated. NEMEAN was an enjoyable gimme. My wife and I visited Nemea on our spring trip to Greece a few years ago and we were enchanted by it. It is located where the mountains of the Peloponnese give way to hills stretching to the Gulf of Corinth. In ancient times, there was no city here, only a sanctuary of Zeus with a nearby stadium, used exclusively in the summer. Today, it is a rural landscape, completely idyllic, full of olive and orange groves, cypress trees, meadows, and fields. The local agiorgitiko wine was quite nice, too.
@SP never heard of an eraserpen or a leather bar so if the trivia is on your wavelength it was easy but I found it impenetrable
Happy Tolkien fan here. Precioussssss. I saw that LESBIANBAR fit and was mad about the dress code hint. Lesbians don’t have to wear… oh … LEATHERBAR is the answer. And, THANK YOU FOR THE MIDI! I love having more crossword puzzles to do.
Fun and engaging, enjoyed fully! (Deity of Choice) knows we need the distraction from the noise of the distraction covering the other distraction of the main distraction. Good luck all.
@G @B @Andrzej @Grumpy UPDATE: @G suggested I send an email about the new comments format and said they would, too. @Barry thought it might need to go to the publisher. First, I sent a query to <a href="mailto:nytgames@nytimes.com">nytgames@nytimes.com</a> asking where I should send this kind of feedback. My comment was forwarded to a Virtual Assistant. Which referred me back to <a href="mailto:nytgames@nytimes.com">nytgames@nytimes.com</a>. I pointed out to the assistant that it was sending me in a loop and it replied with deep apologies worthy of ChatGPT: "I understand the frustration you're experiencing with the feedback loop. To ensure your feedback reaches the appropriate team, you can use the Contact Us page to report a correction or share feedback directly with our editors. This page provides a direct channel for submitting detailed feedback and suggestions, which may be more effective in reaching the team responsible for the comments section format. Thank you for your patience and dedication to improving the community experience." It even provided a link to the "Contact Us" page, which is, unfortunately, for feedback to the newsroom. In fact, you must select one of three newsroom-related topics. There is no option for "Other." I was going to try the nytgames address again, but it is no longer at the top of the comments section. The new message says there is a "Contact Us" link. There is not. Was this new message also generated by the Virtual Assistant? Did DOGE take over customer support?
@Lynn Thank you for taking the hit(s). I've a decades long dread of all forms of customer support, and clammy glad-handed chatbots and autoresponders are but the newest wrinkle. The address should still be <a href="mailto:NYTGames@NYTimes.com">NYTGames@NYTimes.com</a> They seem to play hide and seek here as to when it appears in the forum. It would be fascinating to hear if you ever get a substantive human response. I'm not holdingy breath.
@B OK, I'll give it another go. Takes energy to temporarily suspend my disbelief that anything will come of it.
@Lynn Way to take one for the team!! ☺️
Filled and clued like Highlights magazine. Since this is the Saturday standard now, not really seeing any point in renewing a very long subscription
@a I'm still renewing, but the Saturday puzzles are much easier than they used to be. I learned a lot by working on tricky Saturday puzzles. Nowadays, I don't feel that same kind of challenge, and I don't feel like I'm getting much better.
Being BUTT HURT about the crossword’s difficulty is definitely a FIRST WORLD PROBLEM (has that ever been in a Sunday puzzle?). In addition to SMÉAGOL/Precious one, I like the crosses of THATSME/IMHERE and LETFLY/SATBY.
“Butthurt” is an inappropriate phrase which is a gay derogatory put down. Please do better. It is offensive
So not my wavelength - lookup puzzle. Hopefully Sunday is a good one.
I entered JIVE because, well, Mrs. Cleaver in Airplane. BRO because, well, I still don't understand BAE. BATTER over STEREO was painfull. MERCURLEVEL was just dumb on my part. TOPHAT over FEDORA was a palm-plant. Tough. Nice job, creator. I have multiple handprints on my forehead, but I guess that's what Saturdays are for.
Joe, <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bae" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bae</a>
Well... actually a bitzer prized to see that so many found this one unusually easy. Typical tough Saturday workout for me, but was still an enjoyable solve. Just a lot of working the crosses until something dawned on me. And... one answer history search today was for HUE. Wondered about the clue. Well... 114 appearances in the Shortz era and... was clued with a reference to Vietnam... twice. 142 appearances in the pre-Shortz era and was clued to Vietnam (or Annam) 21 times. Hmmm.. And... my puzzle find today. A Wednesday from May 24, 2006 by Adam G. Perl. Three theme answers in that one: First clue was: "Start of a sign in a costume store," and the others clued as "Part 2 of the sign" and "End of the sign." Those answers: PIRATEEARRINGS TWODOLLARSAPAIR ONLYABUCKANEAR Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/24/2006&g=50&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=5/24/2006&g=50&d=A</a> ....
For whatever reason I initially filled in AUTOPSY rather than AUTOPAY on the basis that there was no other possible option! Going for a walk now!
@LAM Does your bank offer drive-thru autopsies, or do you have to go inside? Har! Super funny initial answer!!
I don’t ever want to see 35D in a NYT puzzle ever again. What a juvenile, crass phrase, and unworthy of inclusion in the NYT crossword.
@Kristin thank you for such a helpful illustration of the clue! One of my favourite things about the NYT crossword is that you never know quite what you're going to get – some entries reference 1950s television, others are internet neologisms, and yet others draw from French, Russian, or Chinese. Some are serious staples of crossword history; some are tongue-in-cheek, irreverent debuts. In a puzzle whose catalogue includes BOOBOOs and ORGYs, I have to ask: what do you believe to be the standard of worthiness for inclusion here?
Saturdays are back !!! That was a slog for all the right reasons
Trilby, not FEDORA for the Blues Brothers! Smaller brim that turns up in the back. Popular choice of Frank Sinatra.
I really thought butt hurt was an offensive term - glad it means something different to most people according to Google.
@Mark i mean, i think it's still offensive
I'm pretty sure most people assume it means what you and I assume it means... And if that's the common understanding, then *that's* *what* *it* *means*. I've posted other comments on this, but oddly the emus have dined to their heart's content today. But the moderator's disregard for these comments does not make them less true.
@Mark It is offensive, with either connotation. Even if it’s referring to the experience of a child who’s been spanked, it still indicates making fun of someone for overreacting to BEING HIT.
So ea_y. We're back to this no_se_se on Saturdays, after a very respectable and redeeming Thursday and Friday? Please st_p. Edito_s, please. You're pol_uti_g your own product. I didn't even like the fill here. F_h. (3rd round past the emu, which seems to prefer ransom notes)
@B I tried making a joke that puzzle constructors were now always cru_cifiedverbalists I’m this comment board, but that didn’t go through.
@B Two hours after release and XWStats has this listed as "Very Easy". The Times Crossword is engaged in an act of slow public self-immolation. It. Is. Saturday. :(
Rebound week spoiled by an utterly mediocre Saturday. As usual, kudos to the setter and catcalls to the editors. Had i been presented with the completed puzzle and asked for my thoughts, I'd have replied: Dang that's some chewy fill. Now let's design some worthy clues. What went through these editors' heads, I wonder.
Some clues were too obscure for me like slang for rap pioneers.
@Laura I still don't get it; the crosses were a significant help with this puzzle.
OG means original gangsta. Original as in the first/early artists, gangsta because the genre was called gangsta rap. Here's an article with one of the OGs, Ice-T, explaining the origin: <a href="https://www.wbls.com/news/ice-t-explains-why-he-never-thought-he-would-become-a-star" target="_blank">https://www.wbls.com/news/ice-t-explains-why-he-never-thought-he-would-become-a-star</a>/ Hope that helps!
BUTTHURT is a spanking thing? That’s news to me! I thought it was kinda messed up and just another poorly aged relic of the golden age of the internet.
A fine puzzle, in my humble opinion. Well within the Goldilocks-zone for a Saturday. As I put in the last letter -- the R of AIR HORN -- I was sure I was in for the dreaded "something's amiss" message, because looking up I saw that strange UTTHU grouping of letters, and that couldn't be right, right? I was surprised to hear the joyful music, and I had to take a second to parse the word(s) at 35-Down as BUTT HURT, a phrase I've never seen before (to the best of my recollection) and couldn't quite understand. I'm tempted to do a Google search to better understand the phrase, but I'm more than a little nervous about what I might find. For now, I'll accept Caitlin's explanation of the term in the column and move on.
@The X-Phile You might say I was acting like I was buττhurt in my recent negative comments. That's the usage I've seen online.
Like Andrzej said, it really just does mean being kinda pouty after an outcome you didn't want. You shouldn't find anything bad if you Google it.
@The X-Phile I came here just to see the complaints about using an AIRHORN in the Wordplay column's header and am disappointed. Predicting complaints in the comments section is almost as fun as doing the puzzles.
@The X-Phile @Andrzej @Wyra I think I understand that one is feeling BUTT HURT after one gets "spanked" by one's opponents. It's just that it's not a phrase that I'm familiar with. And given the number of commenters who are surprise to learn its origin and who have heard it used in other contexts (perhaps at their friendly, neighborhood LEATHER BAR?), I'll allow Caitlin to satisfy my curiosity.
@The X-Phile @ Don H I have no problem with an AIR HORN being depicted in the photograph accompanying today's Wordplay column. Anyone who peeks at the column before they finish the puzzle deserves what they get. What bothered me about that entry was why anyone would "sample" an AIR HORN as a way of adding "excitement" to their musical arrangement.
Just got my personal best for a Saturday on this one. Some may say it's too easy for a Saturday, but I'm just gonna enjoy feeling good about myself for a bit. Especially since I just got destroyed by an old Sunday from the archive; very humbled by that one.
In our "before times," my friend Joe D. would regularly take weekend vacations to NYC, with his elderly, widowed mother. After a long day or sight-seeing, Mom would conk out early, and Joe would don some steer hide, and head out to ye Olde Leathere Bars. Once, on one such establishment--the Eagle?--he was refused admittance, as Jode, who otherwise looked the part, was wearing cross-trainers, and not boots. "What were you thinking?" I asked him. "Well, I didn't have enough room in my luggage for boots. They were very apologetic--you know how if you go to a fine restaurant, which requires a jacket, but you don't have one, the maitre d' will bring you a jacket to hang over the back of your chair? Well, the doorman brought me a couple pairs of boots to borrow, but none of them fit:-("
Bill, The Eagle? How about the Anvil?
Was this fresh but easy? Sassy but so-so? Was the trivia obscure enough? Were the words wordy enough? Were the clues cluey enough? I'm not sure I can tell these days. Is there no Midi for Saturday because the Mini is bigger, or was it just not there when I logged on but it's there now? Will this comment post? Do I care?
@Barry Ancona The Midi wasn’t there at first, then it was there.
@Barry Ancona OMG, Barry is getting pensive. This is more serious than I thought. We need to get this poor man a difficult puzzle, and I mean right now.
@Barry Ancona I'd say so. I found it to be a solid Saturday I finished well under average but felt that I had to make a lot of "educated?" guesses, (ARIEL, NAIAD, BAE, IHOP, ASHY) and knew enough about the Blues Brothers, ETHAN Allen and the Green Mountain Boys, LOTR, and gaming to get enough crosses to complete it without getting stuck for long. Loved TROY story.
@Barry Ancona The collective says "Very Easy" and this time they're right. <a href="https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-02-28" target="_blank">https://xwstats.com/puzzles/2026-02-28</a> Meanwhile the LA Times has published what should have been here. Classically tough puzzle by Zhang and Musa.
I think this is his way of saying, "Let's preview all the usual comments here."
@Barry Ancona You'll have to wait at least 17 hours to be sure. A post I entered around 5 PM Friday was vomited up at 10.12 am on Saturday. No obscenities or any other emu-nutrients involved as far as I can tell.
I can not believe BU__HURT made the puzzle. I know it refers to spanking. But I know it is used in other contexts as well. Color me shocked. I guess I found this a bit easier than I would expect for a Saturday. But not by much. As is the unexplained case for many of my solves. The symmetrical NW and SE filled themselves in, in less than 5 minutes. But NE and SW, especially NE, gave me fits. I am never going to remember AAVE. I get it’s a language model. And I definitely “don’t speak good” when with friends. But in formal settings, it’s asking for judgement. At least that’s what me and my friends be thinking.
@Weak The link in Wordplay about BUTTHURT is interesting. It starts out by examining the origin of the word, which is spanking, but then goes into an examination of the Word Police. Sometimes our minds go too quickly into the gutter when we should just stay on the sidewalk.
@Weak just so you don't feel like your comment is falling in dead ears, I have certainly commented agreement, but the comment has been moderated out of existence. You are not alone in this feeling.
An observation on varying usages. Back last millennium, when I was teaching maths, we had: parentheses - (), brackets - [], and braces - {}. All without further qualification. So I still find CURLY BRACES tautological.
@Patrick J. This made me wonder how much simpler Polish terminology is. ( ) is "nawias" and [ ] "nawias kwadratowy" (kwadratowy means square). I have no idea what the curly thing is called.
@Patrick J. When I was teaching computer science, way way back, I used exactly those three words - parentheses, brackets, and braces. What are non-curly braces be then?
@Patrick J. As an OK boomer, I found that to be generational. The GenY coders used the terms CURLY BRACES or CURLIES quite a lot. They also said SQUARE BRACKETS, also tautological. I would refer to the empty parens as "bowlegs" to tautolize them right back.
@Patrick J. Yeah, I've always found it weird. I always refer to them by their simple names as you do but coworkers definitely call them "curly braces" for some reason.
This one felt like it was made for kids. Which, ok—new market, get them on board—but why is it here on a Saturday?
"Braaaap! Pew pew pew! Enjoy this relaxing, meditative themeless puzzle." Caitlin could not have predicted how this photo caption captures the contrasts of today. I did not find this puzzle all that easy, probably a wheelhouse problem in the northeast corner, but I did finish. Not quite the Saturday-tough of before times, maybe Wednesday-plus.
A while back (not too long ago but I’ve never been good with time) this grid design elicited a comment likening the shape to a swastika. As a member of the tribe and (aspiring) reasonable person I found the comparison ridiculous and I only bring it up now to lightly paraphrase the words of a famous psychologist and fellow member: _“Sometimes a puzzle is just a puzzle”_ Let us appreciate the construction for what it is while acknowledging the limits of the art form. Who are you? Who am I? Am I rambling now? Perhaps, but it’s late and I will begrudgingly join the dark side and admit the puzzles have indeed (maybe just maybe) gotten easier. Oh well, to the first week of June of 1982 I go!
@Mishlev Agreed, why take offense if none was intended.
Set a PR with this one. I'm sure some will complain it was easy but think I was just on the same wavelength as the creator. So I enjoyed it!
Very low stress level with this one. No retyping or eraser pen needed. But def harder than beerball.