Easy but good fun. And this came out in The Onion just yesterday so absolutely perfect timing for 7D- <a href="https://theonion.com/rita-oras-agent-scores-singer-another-prime-crossword-puzzle-placement" target="_blank">https://theonion.com/rita-oras-agent-scores-singer-another-prime-crossword-puzzle-placement</a>/
@Rahul Easy??? Are you being funny? I had to cheat, for my sanity
@Rahul love The Onion. That's pretty funny. Thx.
@Rahul And Brian Eno is breathing a sigh of relief!
That one answer you finally see, with maybe one or two crosses, that breaks open an entire section. But until that moment, crickets, opaqueness due to vague clues and no-knows. First, you’re chipping away at a massive stone, and suddenly you hit the magic spot, the stone cracks open, and you’re surfing a wave… until the crickets return. On easier days, such surfing feels good but doesn’t mean as much. On Saturday, when it happens, you feel, “Now THAT was good.” And when It happens several times, you feel, “That was a proper Saturday.” Creating a puzzle that does this is an art. Today, for me, the box exuded this artistry. Furthermore, every clue felt well thought out. There was wordplay and humor. And beauty, especially hard to place in an uber-low 64 word grid: MASHUPS, MOONSHOTS, NO PEEKING, SO ANYWAYS, ON AND ON, TEMPORARY TATTOO, BAMBINA, and the marvelously clued MASHUPS. This was a proper Saturday, Hannah. I got my Saturday and my soul is happy. Thank you!
Administrative note: I shall be away one-to-two weeks – ish – as I will be undergoing some big-time surgery (spine). I believe I’ll be able to scooch in my Favorite Clues list during this period. I‘ll miss you, gang, and I wish all at least one happy surprise in the interim!
@Lewis because we can't say it too many times, all the sunshine wishes! Looking forward to seeing your lovely commentaries back here again.
Lewis, You be well, and we'll be looking for your "surprise." We can DISCuss everything later. Barry
@Lewis Here's wishing you a successful surgery, and a speedy and full recovery. 💕 Please be BACK soon!
@Lewis Best of luck! Wishing you a speedy recovery.
@Lewis Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
We couldn't decide what to eat for dessert. It was a banana split decision. (We'll take it to a court of a-peels.)
@Mike Would that court be decided by a fudge’s ruling or by a cherry of one’s peers? (Either way one hopes the defendants get their just desserts).
@Mike with my current diet, deciding what to eat for dessert is no trifle! Unfortunately, my determination is prone to crumble…
@Mike Any way you slice it, you need to get the scoops and top it with the evidence: marshmallow, strawberries, chocolate and pineapple? Alibi it.
Polonius: What do you enter into this puzzle, my lord? Hamlet: Words, words, words. I see here that “Mulan” uses PUNS as antagonists. Also, they do call it a DOOK when one writes GOB ANANAS. I wonder what is behind that arras? NO PEEKING! Polonius: Though this be madness, yet there is method in it.
Giraffes are very social animals. They just want to belong.
I knew CELESTA for one reason and one reason only. When I was very young, there was a record and a book called "Sparky's Magic Baton". The baton is magic because it makes musical instruments speak. You played the record and paged through the books on cue from the record. For some reason, they had a celesta in the book, and it made the most magical sound. I've never seen or heard one since. Sometimes I almost thought I'd imagined it. Wow, that's following memory threads almost back to the beginning.
@Francis You may have heard the ethereal sound of the celesta other times without realizing it, notably in Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy in Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker" ballet score, Hedwig's Theme in the Harry Potter movies, or in the Mercury and Neptune movements of Holst's "The Planets", to name a few.
@Francis You’ve taken me right back. I don’t remember the baton, but i remember Sparky’s magic piano, which poignantly refused to play at one crucial moment of the plot. I too remember the ethereal, entrancing sound, echoing through half a century of life…
This is the Saturday I’ve been waiting for. Tough all around, but especially the NW corner. I thought for a minute that I might have to call a crossword HOTLINE, but eventually I eked out the solve. What a delight.
@Marshall Walthew Question: Did you ever eke things out before you started solving crosswords?
@Marshall Walthew That was also my Bloc of Doom. 10A and 15A had numerous alternative answers, and 18A and 20A were both completely opaque. Took a lot of building up and tearing down to hack my way out of that jungle.
I think my DNF today might amuse you. (I didn't know it was a DNF until I checked the blog). After cheating on DANNY and after very belatedly changing GO BONKERS to GO BANANAS, the SE that was giving me such a headache finally seemed solved. (It was a headache because two names I didn't know, RIAN and DANNY, were right next to each other and BONKERS made my grid an ungettable mess). But, Aha!, finally I had it!!! The film director was gIAN and the "buck-a-shuck" establishment was a GAY BAR. A place where attractive young bucks shuck their clothes, right? And this gave me BOY SAW. Admittedly I've never heard of a BOY SAW, but then I've never heard of a BOW SAW either. Why a BOY SAW? I tried to imagine those young bucks in the GAY BAR with their clothes shucked. Or as Gilda Radner would have said: "Never mind."
Nancy, Amusing indeed. I didn't know DANNY or RIAN either, but I've been to many a RAW BAR, and often when discounts were offered. In any case, from this copy editor's view, a gAy BAR would have a "shuck-a-buck" not a "buck-a-shuck" promotion.
@Nancy I didn't watch "Full House" all that much, but I remembered that Jesse was the uncle, not the father. Never watched "Sabrina," though. And we have an antique BOW SAW hanging on the wall of our cabin. (And a modern one for pruning limbs.)
@Nancy looking up proper nouns because you don't watch children's television is NOT cheating.
Awesome awesome Saturday. That’s how you do it. Almost no gimmes even on some of the easier entries. I loved that getting any corner still didn’t give you an in on the others so it was push and shove all the way. I had a lot of misdirections—was hoping “lifeless” would be DEAD (what a great double misdirection that would be). I thought some sort of disloyal FAN would be gone tomorrow which led me to guess IRON for the anniversary present. I love YORK peppermint patties (the perfect end for a Skyline chili lunch) but just couldn’t pull it out right away, and since RESHARE was the last to drop I was debating whether giraffes had ossicones instead of CORNS on their feet (ridiculous notion, they have hooves ANYWAYS). Lots of fun clues but my favorite was MASHUPS. Even though I guessed “disappearing ink” would have to do with TATTOOS it wasn’t immediately obvious what that would be. Happy to say I did get ATMINSIDE with no crosses, proud of that one, and CELESTA helped too, but despite all my Shakespeare knowledge WORDS also eluded me at first. Lastly, I too have fond memories of COLORWARS, a summer camp staple (although even there I had COLORDAYS first, it’s certainly been awhile…)
@SP Oh and of course I also had KEBOB before DONER and luckily didn’t have to guess how to spell it, ultimately.
@SP Agreed. Great puzzle. Very solvable for us non US folk as well. I’ve never heard of COLORWARS, but using tugofWARS at first got me there in the end. I liked DOMED for ‘rounded up’. Slight concern I cheated a bit as OUTINLA is visible from my seat along with my other Chilli Pepper CDs, but I’m going to assume the crossword gods planned that serendipity.
@SP Indeed! And so nice after yesterday’s disappointment.
@SP I, too, got ATMINSIDE immediately, with no crosses. But just now, reading it in your post, I tried to remember what ATMIN SIDE was supposed to be the answer for. Talk about a DOOK. I think I need some sleep. It's past 5 a.m. here!
@SP with you! Putting IRON in there convinced me that maybe YroK was a US-only mint candy brand... Much head smackage when commonly available YORK emerged 😄
I love the CELESTA. It is perfectly suited to experimental genres, art pop, and post rock. All classical iterations of it are beautiful, from the hauntingly dark timbres of Shostakovich to the soaring, celestial melodies of Holst. However, the brightness of it loves up the Stones’ “She’s a Rainbow” so perfectly, it’s celesta gold. BOA clue was fab! Giraffe baby and mum so sweet! 🧡 As ever, go Gunners! 🏆🏆
@Becky Always just sounded like a xylophone to me...
@Becky One of the best known uses of the celesta is in "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" from Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker.
@Becky Nice call-out to the celesta on She’s a Rainbow. That’s Nicky Hopkins on celesta (and piano and harpsichord). A great session keyboardist who contributed his excellence to many bands (including the Kinks, The Who, etc. etc.) and is responsible for many iconic keyboard riffs of the 60s and 70s that people recognize, if not his name. Died in the 90s, I think.
Are we having “anyways” my fellow solvers? Surely not.
@Jonathan unless it's a direct quote, like Ross from Friends, ANYWAYS is a big no from me
@Jonathan The Spoken Language IS The Language. (somw think so, at any rate)
@Jonathan My personal Rubicon is 'Amirite', especially because it is always accompanied by an obnoxious supercilious need to reinforce the question. But I can live with 'anyways'. It's not proper English (yes, I am a Prescriptivist) but the added S is a common form of faux-ruralization. No worse than anyhoo.
Good mix of challenging and easy. Too many names though.
I don't worry about my solving speed. I don't even mind if it takes me a long time to solve (or if I forget to close the puzzle and it stays open all night). That makes it easier for me to beat MY average solve time. Like the Rhino, I just PLOD along.
Very nice puzzle! Thank you, Hannah! My insecurity led me to once again hit "check puzzle" halfway through. And yet again, all was right. Oh well. I don't keep streaks, but this bad habit of mine deprives me of the deliciously smug smile that accompanies a GOLD STAR. I adore giraffes but just learned about ossicones. I used to play the piano but just learned about CELESTAS. In other words, my solve today was a very fruitful TIL experience in addition to having been delightful. Wrapping it up, here's a shout-out to the Red Hot Chili Peppers with a song I love: <a href="https://youtu.be/j9qfClVvfIw?si=QMmAfI-jsTC8EUFC" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/j9qfClVvfIw?si=QMmAfI-jsTC8EUFC</a> Have a wonderful weekend, everyone, and a glorious month of May!
@sotto voce - Thanks for the song link. A nonsense song full of words, words, words but a lovely sound.
@sotto voce I posted it elsewhere, but Hedwig's Theme from the Potter films is a CELESTA feature.
WORDSWORDSWORDS I can deal with. Names, names, names not so much. It all came together in the end, but it felt like a MOONSHOT until it finally took off.
Now THAT was a Saturday… thank you. I was definitely going nowhere for a good 15 minutes… so satisfying to trawl through it in the end. I had ALLOW for the second part of ‘put up with’ n was stuck trying to think of an opposite for DISALLOW… Anyway… loved it and a nice way to start the weekend.
The CELESTA was invented in 1886 by the French reed-organ-builder, Auguste Mustel. Tchaikovsky first saw/heard one five years later, when he was stopping in Paris, on his way to America. Tch. immediately said "Aha! This will wow them in St. Petersburg! But I better get my hands on it, before that sneaky Rimsky-Korsakov, or that hack, Glazunov, beats me to the punch!" So, Tch. arranged for his publisher, Pyotr Jurgenson, to purchase one (for 1200 francs), and have it shipped to Russia, secretly, lest Nikolai or Alexander should find out. Mustel's firm continued in the celesta-business until 1975, when it closed; since then the only two manufacturers of celestas are Yamaha (which makes everything), and the German firm Schiedmayer. Schiedmayer, however, claims that only theirs is a *real* celesta! <a href="https://www.classicalcalifornia.org/articles/tchaikovsky-nutcracker" target="_blank">https://www.classicalcalifornia.org/articles/tchaikovsky-nutcracker</a>
So was this one of those cross promotional deals with The Onion? Rita Ora’s Agent Scores Singer Another Prime Crossword Puzzle Placement <a href="https://theonion.com/rita-oras-agent-scores-singer-another-prime-crossword-puzzle-placement" target="_blank">https://theonion.com/rita-oras-agent-scores-singer-another-prime-crossword-puzzle-placement</a>/
@Bill Prada SZA and SIA would like a word with their agents.
@Bill Prada - Rita uses the same agent as Yoko Ono and Brian Eno
@Bill Prada Along with directors Ari Aster and Ang Lee!
Just what Saturday ought to be. Precious few toeholds and yet somehow arriving at the summit. Thank you, setidors.
First, I don't understand the title on the Comments...I get it, but I don't see why it's there. Distraction? SO, ANYWAYS (which I entered with a pained expression) ...I was SO disappointed that 40D was not SCYTHE that I left it in there for a ridiculously long time, trying to make it work. Sigh. Srsly, Hannah, wasn't this a Missed Opportunity?? Apparently there is no end to the TV shows/actors/film directors/ and athletic teams that are unseen/uncelebrated/unknown to the MOL! It makes me wonder what on Earth I've been doing with my time... Hope to check in later --after the Southern Fiber Artists mtg, but before The Kentucky Derby.
@Mean Old Lady Maybe you missed the tic Tac TOE clue because you got it on crosses?
@Mean Old Lady The title on the comments is the title on the puzzle and the title on the Wordplay column. As it is every day. Could be you just never noticed before.
Marlene, Only the Sunday Crossword has a title, which is almost always the headline of that day's Wordplay column. Monday through Saturday, the columnists write their own headlines referencing anything they wish; today, it was the 39A clue.
Very, very chewy. Far too much white space for far too long had me scratching my head, I had to fight for almost every answer. As usual, once filled it all looks so straightforward, why did it feel so tricky? The hardest to parse was ATM INSIDE. I had TM..S..E for so long and couldn’t make head nor tail of it. I kept thinking opening times. A real workout Saturday, thank you. Sitting inside listening to the lovely Spring rain greening up the garden. Shame I have to go out and poo pick. That’ll teach me for not doing it this morning.
@Helen Wright I know this one; an ATM in the UK is called a "cash point."
Haven't read all comments yet. Because I complained about yesterday's lovely-but-wrong-day puzzle, I want to say that I liked this one a lot. It felt like a proper Saturday. My solve time was about 70% of my Saturday average, but it didn't feel easy when I was in the middle of my solve. Several wrong guesses kept me putting things in and ripping them out--deAd before FLAT (10A), rENterS before TENANTS (13D), chAracter before STAGENAME (17A), and MedleyS before MASHUPS (1D). Loved the clues for SWEAT (I got misdirected to running for office), HORNS, BOA, and DOMED. I was sure 8D [Disappearing ink?] was related to the death of print media. Just a class act all around. Thanks, Ms. Slovut-Einertson. As for 49A... If you're local you know about the "Vessel" at Hudson Yards. I once heard it referred to dismissively as the DONER, and now I can't call it anything else. ;) Lastly... if you like epic MASHUPS, check out DJ Earworm. He usually does at least one a year, and if you know your popular music you'll be impressed. Here's an older one, but it's Annie Lennox so I was familiar with a lot of the songs. <a href="https://youtu.be/akE0VnS6N88" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/akE0VnS6N88</a>
Remarkable puzzle find. A Sunday from January 18, 1998 by Ed Early and Bob Klahn with the title "Prophecy." The length of the theme answers is quite remarkable, especially since it is a very famous quote from Martin Luther King Jr. I'll put the length at the end of each answer: IHAVEADREAMTHATONEDAYON (23) THEREDHILLSOFGEORGIATHE(23) SONSOFFORMERSSLAVESAND(21) THESONSOF(9) FORMERSLAVEOWNERSWILL(21) BEABLETOSITDOWNTOGETHER(23) ATTHETABLEOFBROTHERHOOD(23) Wow. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/18/1998&g=37&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/18/1998&g=37&d=A</a> Might repost this tomorrow. ....
@Rich in Atlanta Please do repost tomorrow! This is phenomenal.
@Rich in Atlanta I just recently did this puzzle in the archives. I'm working my way forward in time, doing Thursdays-Sundays. It was very cool.
@Rich in Atlanta And I'll just mention that I am currently residing at a Veterans home in Milledgeville, Georgia. In about a half an hour we will all sit down together for dinner, and... that group will be just about half white and half African-American. ...
@Rich in Atlanta I hope you do repost That puzzle made me weep, and I just now wept again. Again! How long, O Lord?
The concrete that is filling my head makes it impossible for me to tell anymore whether a puzzle is easy or hard. I started off great with this one, filling in 1A without any crosses. I got the NW corner quickly, then bogged down to a crawl. Over and over and over I looked at the empty spaces and thought, "This one's got ya, old man". And then I'd get another couple of letters, and I'd think I'd broken it open and I'm coasting to the end. Then stuck again. Deja vu. RESHARE was REtweet for a long time, so that was problematic. And with AUNATURaL, I poisoned myself on the long down entry. At various times giraffes were sans wings and hands before they didn't have HORNS. What in the world are COLORWARS? Something the US is about to engage in?
@Francis Also, "ragazza" has the same number of letters as BAMBINA.
@Francis Color War is (was?) a savage rite of upstate New York summer camps in the 60's and 70's (and I can only suppose other locales and eras) wherein the entire camp is divided into two (colored) teams at the end of the summer dividing bunkmates, friends and even counselor couples and for a week or so quotidian life is slavishly and entirely randomly transformed into days and evenings filled with athletic and artistic battles between the two sides. Every skirmish had a winner and a loser with points determining the difference and the ultimate winner of the war was determined by total points accrued at the end of hostilities. A hatched was buried and often real tears exchanged at war's end and a gaudy plaque was fashioned celebrating that year's winner with the names of principal officers and heroic soldiers and hung on the rafters of the mess hall, like sports banners adorning arenas, for subsequent summers' campers and counselors to see and remember. This disturbing ritual often devolved into the basest of William-Golding level humiliations but also featured moments of profound personal and team glory. As with most enterprises involving humans in competition, the former vastly outnumbered the latter. Having endured a number of these I can safely say these experiences were rather appropriate training for the workplace competitions of adult life.
Lovely Saturday work-out! The kind of exercise I like on a Saturday morning. Normally I'm one to complain about a grid that feels like four Midi's jammed together, but this one didn't fell like that to me, for whatever reasons. Nothing was coming in the North of the puzzle, and I remembered with tough puzzles it's a good idea to work your way up from the bottom. But there were few gimmes in the South, as well. Today was the rarity where I started in the middle and worked my way outwards. I began with NANO and CAR, and thanked the Gods that I remembered the celestial CELESTA. So, it was slow -- fast -- and then slow again, as I tried to puzzle out the top and bottom. But I got my GOLD STAR and a happy ending. Yay, me! And big thanks to Hannah Slovut-Einertson for an excellent puzzling puzzle.
Tough puzzle. Really enjoyable solve. Kudos to the author
Convenient store sign? I'll give you some. No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service No Public Restrooms No Cash Overnight No Loitering No Clerk Access to Safe Camera on Premise ATM inside (Pay No Attention To Those Lurkers) Why are they convenient again? Ah, Keystone Beer and Lotto tickets🤣😛
if you're performing au naturel, you may want to use a stage name or request "no peeking"
Think I'll get a TEMPORARYTATTOO of some [ossicones] for the next time in OUTINLA and there are TENANTS in my FLAT. ILLSTART the LATESTFAD. See you at the RAWBAR. WORDS. Thank you, Hannah.
@Barry Ancona you seem to be more than a fixture here. Maybe you can tell me. This one stretched me and I got it with no help. It took me 28+ and I feel excellent. I just don’t know how much faster I can get and I think I’m pretty good at these. When I see the times of people who are not using help, for instance, Thursday and Friday this week, I am truly humbled. How do you guys get them done so much faster than me?
@Barry Ancona When my eyes scanned across your name just now, I read it as "anaconda." I suspect 35A had something to do with that. Cheers
Was scratching my head at TOE for [Winning X or O] until I wrote it here as a question just now. Aha! The penny drops. Nice.
Typical tough Saturday for me. More than a couple of complete unknowns (PERMABAN, DONER) and of course a lot of others that were never going to dawn on me without some crosses. No complaints - just made for a nice long workout. And... first puzzle find today - a Wednesday from August 3, 2011 by Paul Guttormsson. Every single clue in the puzzle started with a 'T', and... every answer contained at least one T, though many of them had a lot more. Some examples: TEMPORARYTATTOO TENNESSEETITANS TEETERTOTTERING HTTP ATTA Amazing work of construction, and there were no answers appearing for the only time. Can't imagine what it would take to work out something like that. Might put another puzzle find in a reply. ....
@Rich in Atlanta As threatened: A Sunday from April 21, 2019 by Grant Thackray with the title "The Inside Story." Not easy to describe this one. A couple of sample theme clues and answers. In the puzzle some internal string of letters was 'shaded'. I'll put those strings in parentheses. Here we go. "Who has trouble reaching as windshield to place a ticket? (1989), (1982)" THELITTLEM(ET)ERMAID - so the implied pair of answers are: THELITTLEMERMAID and ET. Some other examples: "Traitor who gets on ones nerves? (2006, 2002) BO(THERING)RAT - so... BORAT THERING "Selection of billfolds for medical professionals? (2016, 2008) DOCTORS(WALLE)TRANGE - so... DOCTORSTRANGE WALLE And some other sample answers: STAR(TED)WARS PET(IT)ERPAN GET(SCREAM)OUT Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/21/2019&g=24&d=A" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/21/2019&g=24&d=A</a> ....
I usually allow an hour for Saturdays; this one took 46 minutes. I'm sure that's much slower than many of you out there. I found it quite challenging but was lucky with my guesses on a few of the long ones.
Anyway, only middle schoolers say ANYWAYS.
Okay, learning about ossicones made my morning 😊 ... and the concept of "informal" hand grenades is something I want out of my head. (I know, it's the clue format, but ugh.)
I feel you. [... for short] might have been more tactful. In any case, the answer is "short for" fragmentation grenades (hand or other), not for hand grenades. I will now pop smoke.
This was an excellent puzzle! A perfect Saturday difficulty, and full of fun stuff: AU NATUREL, PERMABAN, BAMBINA, CELESTA. It's definitely a puzzle to GO BANANAS over! Those two giraffes in the picture are too cute. I am going to think about smooching giraffes whenever I need to be cheered up.
When I solve a Saturday puzzle and it’s still relatively early in the day I always expect to see comments about the puzzle being too easy. Not so today…so my day is off to a great start! By my standards…an excellent puzzle.
This was a delightfully difficult Saturday for me. Phew! About halfway through I had holes in every section, but perseverance paid off, and the NW corner finally fell at the end. I've never heard of COLORWARS, but the crosses worked so I went with it. And TIL CELESTA, BAMBINA, a fun fact about giraffes, and that DONER is Turkish in origin! Thanks for a fantastic Saturday workout.
What a delight! The northern half was as tough and unrelenting as any I've done for ages. Very difficult to start a wedge anywhere. The south fell into place much better, and I surprisingly bested my Friday average. Not that I cared. Just finishing a gem like this is its own satisfaction.
Who knows what the mob will say. I made zero headway the first pass. But I locked onto the RIAN/RAWBAR cross in the SE. and I was off to the races. I think this was Saturday material. Maybe Saturday- I spent too much time trying to figure out my mistake when I finished. Thankfully, finally thought to spell the name GENA instead of GiNA. I ain’t ever heard of no CELESTA. speaking of which. I guess that one long time contributor from Connecticut? who was a pipe organist? Doesn’t post anymore. He was a moody dude. But generally had interesting things to say. Iirc, he did have some health issues tho. Hope all is well with him.
@Weak I think his name was David Cornell? Also. What happened to puzzlemucker? The guy with the penguin profile pick. He was a stalwart.
@Weak Yeah, it's been a long while since I've seen anything from David Connell. I really used to enjoy his posts. Really miss them. Maybe someone else here has some information.
@Weak I’m guessing the mob will have mixed reactions on this one. Personally, I’d file it as an easy Friday or a tough Wednesday…in terms of “the good old days”, that is. That said, I’m not complaining — for me, it was a fun puzzle with basically zero filler/crosswordese. And it had a few entries that cost me a few extra minutes (mainly: COLORWARS, WOOD, CELESTA, GENA).
@Weak You may not have heard of the CELESTA, but you've likely heard it. It looks like a piano, but the sound is produced by hammers hitting metal plates rather than strings. [btw it's also often spelled CELESTe, and that tripped me up for quite a while.] As the column mentions, The Sugar Plum Fairy is one of the best-known uses, but I just realized that John Williams used it for Hedwig's Theme in the Harry Potter films. Here's a youth orchestra playing a suite from Sorcerer's Stone; in the first minute it's just about the only instrument playing, and you can see a young woman at the keyboard. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XfGVYbNCvM" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XfGVYbNCvM</a>
Oof! Toughest puzzle I've seen in a while. Lately I get the Fri and Sat with no lookups, but the best I could do here is 2/3 complete before using several Wordplay hints and a few Comments hints. I hope the "too easy" camp is happy today. Not complaining though - I see lots of people got it no problem so it's a me problem.
@MC It's not just you. I had trouble with this puzzle, too, requiring a whopping twenty five cheats. I was thrilled to be able to solve the Friday without cheats, though.
@MC not just you. Took me 30% longer than average. I found RAWBAR and RIAN both outside my usual vocabulary. COLORWARS was a complete unknown. All in all a tough Saturday.
Well... Clocked in with a 44 min solve time, several minutes slower than my already plodding Saturday average. At least I didn't have to use any lookups as I lumbered along channeling my inner rhino. This was one of those that looked pretty hopeless after the first pass (thought briefly about bailing and calling it a night) but ever so gradually began to take shape. A bit surprised I got the happy music without having to hunt for mistakes.
Ugh. I’m afraid my mileage varied on this one! When I spend half as much time in Wordplay as I do in the grid, I’m not a happy bunny. (Don’t get me wrong: I love Wordplay, but usually as dessert, not a main course.) Still marveling at the clever people who make these puzzles for my enjoying. Y’all take care and be kind!
One of my favorite Saturday puzzles in a while. It had some bite but the excellent grid made it more than worth the effort. As an added bonus, the constructor is from MN. Well done Hannah!
Way too many proper nouns and obscure trivia. In other words, awesome Saturday.
I love the NYT Crossword because once in a while I am taught something new. I will never forget my beautiful discovery today. Thanks to Hannah Slovut-Einertson I learned about The Celesta.
Whew! Nice workout. It gave me that thrill that I might not get it. Thank you. Great construction and clues and everything.
This one flew by, but what fun! Felt similar to yesterday’s for me. Kind of filled itself in and my only nit is that it was over too quick. No. My true nit is the word ANYWAYS. Typing it just hurt my fingers.
Good hard puzzle. Solved in about 2/3 of my average time. I did a Saturday puzzle from 2015 recently. Took about three times longer than today’s puzzle but I finally got it. There were no crossing nouns that had to be guessed. Just very difficult but solvable clues. I enjoyed both puzzles. Just enjoyed one a lot longer. That made it more satisfying.
Terrific Saturday work out -- after this, the rest of the day should be a breeze!
GOLDSTARS to Hannah, and I got mine, too. Lovely Saturday workout. I didn't know most of the names, and other things, too. Persevered through intuition, and refused to pull up Wikipedia. Got my 5 mile walk in before any drizzle started. Time for housework. Have a great day.