The trick was easy to spot, but I’m shocked everyone is saying this was too easy. The crossing of SCARP with R MONTHS, SLID with LATH, and ICHING with GEOS nearly broke me! Closest a non-weekend puzzle has come to breaking my gold star streak in ages.
Those were the last 3 squares I filled in too.
@Stephen. But well in my wheelhouse
TIL that POTATO SKIN and strip tease have the same number of letters.
@Marie-France I like the strip tease option better!
I am very glad that the constructor put the O in the line over where the H's are, rather than H-O-H. Most of you probably know this, but the bond angle of the H-O-H bond is about 105 degrees. Not quite the right angle suggested here, but close. That makes all the difference. If the angle were 180 degree, as H-O-H suggest, water would have no dipole moment. It acts like it has a positive and a negative end. No dipole moment would have enormous effects. Water is incredibly unusual in that: 1) it has a *much* higher boiling point that it "should" compared o H-S-H and H-Se-H, so it is liquid at relatively high temperatures, 2) water can settle into a liquid packed just a bit more tightly than in solid ice. A given volume of ice weighs less than the same volume of liquid water. This means water freezes from the top, and the underlying layer remains at 0 C. Aquatic life can survive winter, if it doesn't get too cold. 3) water needs a *lot* of energy to change from solid to liquid, and even more to change from liquid to gas. Evaporating water gets cooler, and helps to keep us cool in hot climates. It's also why steam burns are so serious--not only is the water vapor hot, but it releases a huge amount of energy when it condenses into a liquid. Water has so many anomalous properties, if it weren't so common (and if life were even possible without so much of it) we'd consider it a laboratory oddity.
@Francis "Most of you probably know this, but the bond angle of the H-O-H bond is about 105 degrees." 🤣😄🤣😄🤣
@Francis Noticed the theme, immediately thought of you. Don’t read my recent comment. You’ll realize I’m not cool enough to hang with you and the Polish professor…
@Francis And all of these properties (plus others, like surface tension) are due to the transient hydrogen bonding made possible by the dipole. Amazing stuff, water.
This puzzle had some good elements.
Fluid construction and a theme that holds water. I’m usually opposed to circles, but in this case I like how they visually represent the molecule. Nicely done, Simeon.
I thought I watered my garden successfully, but I mist a spot. (We don't know why that could happen, dewy?)
@Mike Just drop it already.
@Mike Hose to say? Let spray that it doesn't happen again. Hydrate that a high priority.
@Mike All you hoed to do is ask, weed help.
Mike, I find that really irrigating.
Our constructor writes: "The original submission didn’t have the circles." Simeon, It's tricky. Without the circles, this would have been an actual old time Thursday puzzle. But without the circles, there would be more complaints about, say HMARK. Can't win. Puzzles are often not perfect but still fun. I had fun. Thanks.
@Barry Ancona It would be nice if we could have an option to disable the circles. Maybe question marks, too. I don’t get that “aha!” moment when the discovery is spoon fed to me like this.
@Barry Ancona Removing the circles certainly would have presented more of a challenge, and I understand why many solvers might prefer that. In many cases, I would agree. But in this puzzle, I think the circles and lines were an important part of creating the picture rebus. Without those, we would have had a bunch of disconnected Hs and Os rather than representations of water molecules. As I see it, the images were needed in order for the puzzle to make sense.
@Barry Ancona I wonder whether on certain days (especially Thursday, but perhaps Thursday through Sunday), the editors could give the on-line solver the option of "tricky" vs. "less tricky". Then, after making your choice, the solver would get circles (or not), or the warning ("Rebuses ahead!). They're already giving this option with cluing, no? Doesn't seem like it would be too difficult.
@Barry Ancona You're leaving out that in addition to the circles there are short lines connecting them which makes a cute little picture of a water molecule. I like that visual especially since a water molecule has that angle to it (as Simeon said), so I'm on Team Circle.
@Barry Ancona oh, there were lines? I solved with overlays off, so no lines, but I did get the circles (which, like shaded squares, are not classified as “overlays”, not sure why). I think having the circles (or some visual indicator of the water molecule) was the right aesthetic choice for this puzzle. YMMV.
I'm sure there will be comments complaining that the circles make it too easy, but I'm glad they were there. It still requires understanding the trick, but there's a hint as to where that trick lives. Without the circles, not only do the answers look wrong, but it would have been hard to figure out the meaning of H.
@Isabeau I thought of the circles more as parts of a picture of a water molecule than the usual circle use. It was very clever.
Isabeau — sometimes circle do seem to make things too easy. In this puzzle they seemed entirely appropriate.
@Isabeau, Not The Meaning of O? 😄
I really liked this puzzle! And I needed to fully get the gimmick in order to finish it — something that I especially appreciate. And finally. it was all about my favorite polar molecule!
N.B. I'm glad to know the constructor is a professional architect. Don't want those amateur architects around here.
@Barry Ancona Don't worry. They're all down in D.C. making a mess of everything.
@Barry Ancona Agreed! I am aware you're being funny, but as a professional geologist, I know what that means: he has letters after his name and a stamp.
"Gal Friday" refers back to Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. Crusoe meets a native on the island, names him Friday, and Friday does a lot of varying tasks for him. "Friday" or "Man Friday" became a term for a versatile and capable servant or worker. "Gal Friday" followed as the female version.
@Gary Correct, and Crusoe met him on a Friday, which is why he called him that. Personally I find the term GAL Friday outdated (last seen when I was a university graduate seeking menial office jobs in the 1970s) and sexist because it unabashedly seeks women for those lowly jobs. Presumably the EEOC has legislated it out of existence by now. Could have been clued better, IMO.
@Gary Even as as a kid in the sixties it bothered me that when Crusoe meets a native, instead of viewing him as a fellow human being and an equal he turns him into a cheerful, obedient servant (or, more accurately, Damiel Defoe does). Yes, the author was a product of his era, and yes, I'm sure most of us have similar flaws that are as invisible to us as the existance of water is to a fish...but still.
This probably was the first Simeon Seigel puzzle I managed to complete without reveals, puzzle checks and any sort of outside help. I got the theme surprisingly quickly, but then I struggled for another 20 minutes with the fill, as it was full of unknowns - being able to deal with it, in the end, felt quite satisfying. I still don't get why a peeled POTATO SKIN is supposed to be "appealing" - any help?
@Andrzej it’s a common appetiser - usually with cheese, bacon etc
@Andrzej The clue is a bit of a false flag. The appetizer uses much more of the potato than just the skin. Or peel. There's a hefty amount of flesh incuded which is left lining the skin/peel and even more mashed up with a variety of artery-imperiling goodies like butter, sour cream, chives, bacon bits. There are scores of variations. Here's a classic. Notice how the (forgivable) inaccuracy of the clue is demonstrated by the thickness of the flesh. <a href="https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012831-serious-potato-skins" target="_blank">https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012831-serious-potato-skins</a>
@Matt Thank you. The inaccuracy of the clue bothered me, but I was to lazy to explain why.
@Andrzej It’s not appealing if you peel it off in a strip, as you would with skins you plan to discard. But if you bake the potato and then remove the flesh, leaving only the crispy outer skins, you can either eat them alone or buttered, or stuff them with cheese, bacon, sour cream, some of the mashed-up potato, whatever you want. Terribly unhealthy, but delicious.
Thank you all. I can't recall ever seeing such an appetiser. Apparently it's largely unknown over here, and if I have ever seen it abroad, it did not register. Over here potato skins are always discarded, and we only ever eat them on young spuds.
@Andrzej Poland in particular may eschew such foods because of the history of partisans and prisoners often subsisting on discarded potato peels during WWII. In our humanistic Jewish Seders, we would often include a potato peel on the Seder plate in commemoration.
Simeon, I, for one, would have loved having the grid circle-less. I respect those who feel differently, but here are my reasons: • The puzzle would have had Thursday-worthy riddles to crack that it doesn’t have now. My brain would have savored figuring out what was going on, including finding the H-O-H clusters and figuring out that they were rebuses representing “water”. These revelations would have been aha-producing. • None of this riddle-cracking happened with today’s grid configuration. Seeing the first H-O-H cluster gave away the rest, including the water connection. • After that, the reveal WATER just, IMO, fell flat, didn’t feel needed or revelatory. Without the circles, it would have been clued something like [Caret-shaped compound depicted four times in this puzzle], and had I not figured out what was going on, it would have set me on an aha-filled journey, ending in a cloud of wow. Without the circles, the reveal is perfect. Just one solver’s opinion, Simeon. I was happy to learn you turned this puzzle in without the circles. That version made this puzzle consistent with the sterling quality of all your others.
Lewis, 1. Good to see you posting this morning. 2. Amen.
This just tickled me no end for no identifiable reason. Clever gimmick. Slightly out of phase clueing like 24D which initially had me objecting, "No! You can't use the comparative ODDER to fill 'Relatively unusual' because the clue doesn't call for a comparative." until I realized that in the hypothetical sentence: "One of the relatively unusual uses of the KITHARA is bonking people on the head." you can take out "relatively unusual" and replace it with "ODDER." Vibes like this for me at several turns. And how about EKING? First time use as a gerund? Probably not, but first time for me, I think. Grand! And it's not a complete late-weeker for this solver if there's no TIL. And today it was SCARP. "SCARP?" I says to myself. "SCARP?" Surely Shortz has had a short. But then I immediately countered this with "but oh...escarpment." and this "No, duh!" moment led me right to the dictionary for my TIL moment. Thank you Mr. Seigel. I hope your structural designs are much less wrong footing than you cruciverbal creations but just as "hey....what?...ohhh!...{smile}" inducing.
As a former chem major, one look at the blank puzzle screamed "water molecule" with the bonds and angles correct. I was happy that was the case. A touch of nostalgia for this retiree.
@Frank Did you renounce your chem majorship? I mean, marines are always marines. Not so with chem majors?😋
...and not a drop to drink.
@Barry Ancona What's the word for quotes that are almost always misquoted?
@Barry Ancona *nor any drop to drink
And to think my brother-in-law's dissertation was on Coleridge.
This one was a miss for me. If yall liked it, hooray for you, but it left me feeling unsatisfied.
I'm puzzled in more ways than one by this one. I thought of water immediately when I saw those circles and those lines. I would be really, really embarrassed as a so-called chemist, had I not. I thought I gotten past the big hurdle. But no, I can't make any sense of anything in numerous parts of the puzzle. Finally seeing that adding water to the answer made so much more sense, so, surely it's just a victory march to the end, right? Nope. Am I, Dr. Francis, going to succumb to a puzzle whose theme is H2O? Felt fuzzy in the head the whole puzzle, and with each realization I wasn't done yet, I got fuzzier. "taTtoOskin", "ERIcA", "rEaDmeASAP" So I struggled with it, and not all that shocked to see that I might be in a minority in not thinking this one was all that easy. Anyway, long live H2O. Because pure ethanol tastes terrible.
@Francis I was stuck in the mud for some time with "STAgnaNt H2O", so I'll be the last to throw any shade your way for struggling.
@Francis Yep. That settles it. It's Dr. Francis from here on in.
@Francis Lath? Kithara? Scarp? This puzzle definitely had some wha-? words, to me at least. But my dumbest move was at first thinking that every water molecule should have H and two Os. I don’t know why, because I certainly know better. Once I realized my mistake and smacked myself in the head a few times, I was able to finish the puzzle. The point being, even the most brilliant among us have our moments. (Please don’t tell anyone about this. It’s embarrassing.)
@Francis Dr. Francis was a chemist but he's one no more, for what he thought was H2O was H2SO4.
As kids, we would go into the local diner on hot days and the friendly owners would give us a pitcher of water, with refills, for free. But when we turned 16, they told us we had reached our age-to-owe limit. (Water you groaning for?)
In the "Yeah, so that happened..." category, in my work team meeting today, I was mildly perusing these comments and I flipped back to my solved puzzle to remind myself of a clue—and, wouldn'tcha just know it, the happy music played. Out loud. Really loud. I'd have sworn my mute was on.... Whoops!! What!? I'm totally paying attention to this very stimulating information. 😇🤣😇
Any puzzle with molecular pictures is fine with this science geek. Thanks, Simeon.
I appreciated the graphic representation of the water molecule.
I liked the theme today, some satisfying "AHA" moments. Trying to figure out how an N could possibly go next to an H before figuring it out. Overall I think the cluing was strong. SHARENTING was a nice figureoutable even never having heard of the term. Biggest trouble square for me was SCARP/RMONTHS. A term SCARP I'd never heard of, crossed with a letter that goes before MONTHS and could be literally any letter. But the biggest trouble area was south. ICHING was an absolute Natick, and since for a while for the long lunch I had HOUR instead of HERO it was hard to puzzle out GEOS or IHEARTRADIO. So very good puzzle overall, just a couple very Naticky areas at the end.
@Chris I guess the definition of NATICK keeps getting broader and broader.
@Chris The hint with the RMONTHS is that, I think, you're not supposed to eat raw shellfish in the R months, or not in the R months. I don't know which. This is not medical or nutritional advice. Someone will correct me.
@Chris. The R months advice precedes refrigeration. In the Northern hemisphere months without R tend to be hotter and oyster can spoil rapidly. The effects of a bad oyster can be very unpleasant.
@Chris I got SCARP only because I lived for 15 years in Ontario, near Toronto, and in two homes, one on either side of the Escarpment.
@Chris I mean, IHEARTRADIO is not a "broadcaster" as the clue suggests, it's a radio station aggregator app. So it's not as if you can be blamed.
What took you so long, CC? Great question. I’d love to tell you. While solving yet another brilliant Simeon Siegel puzzle, I caught on to the theme, *but* (remember how yesterday I was all smarty pants-y with guessing “quart”) *this* genius thought H, two O. Do I know it’s H2 O? Yup! Did I still attempt to solve with H, two O? Yup! CC’s ego? Checked. For the bazillionth time. ( Now to see what Francis has to say about about molecules )
If you let go of the day-of-the-week expected difficulty level, you'll find a very clever and enjoyable puzzle. Great job!
Please. Stop. Calling. Every. Trick. A. REBUS.
@Steve L The definition of rebus is "a representation of words or syllables by pictures of objects or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound". The molecule is a symbol that represents water. It's a rebus.
@Steve L But this is a rebus. A rebus is when something stands in for something else, like a picture of an eye for the word "I." It doesn't necessarily mean putting more than one letter into a square.
@Steve L I agree with you. To the others: yes, a rebus can have other meanings; but there’s a rebus button on the app for this purpose, and I think if you don’t specifically need that button to solve (apart from the shortcut of using just the first letter, which is just a technical compromise) then let’s not call it a rebus in a crossword context. As you say it is confusing for newer solvers, who may think they need to use the rebus button to enter “water” or something like that. So many newer solvers have complained when they thought something was a rebus, and wasn’t, that I do think we need to be more rigorous about that.
@Steve L But. This. Is. A. Rebus! Should it annoy that the word has more than one meaning? I think that's true about a whole lot of words. Might this confuse some people? Perhaps, but hopefully they'll learn.
@Steve L I suppose It might confuse a few people but so be it. I think you picked the wrong hill to die on.
@Steve L Rebus rebuttals rebound. :D
Once I saw water flowing over the black squares I knew this would be a rapid solve.
Little known fact: the correct plural of WATERCANNON is WATERCANNON.
@Teresa Sorry but both cannon and cannons are in common use as plural these days, as recognized by dictionaries.
How can you tell when there's a kitharist in the room? Ηε’ll Τξll Ψσμ
I liked this one a lot, Simeon. Nice job and great work coming up with the before and after words for the H2O clues.
Coincidentally, I solved this one while both liquid and solid H2O was pouring down in Yokohama.
Well... not all that easy for me, of course. And I remained appropriately puzzled for quite a while. But... finally catching on to the trick was a huge turning point and that's always a nice touch. Appropriate puzzle find today - a Wednesday from April 4, 2007 by Betty Sue Cohen. The 'reveal' in that puzzle was a 3 square down answer in the very middle of the puzzle. that answer... H2O. And some theme answers: CLAUDERAINS ETHELWATERS BILLYOCEAN JOANRIVERS Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/4/2007&g=36&d=D" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=4/4/2007&g=36&d=D</a> See you tomorrow. ....
Took me almost 20 minutes to get the gimmick and then it actually helped. Fun twist, nice Thursday.
18 across once again confuses Confucius with Lao Tzu. Taoism and Confucianism arose during the same historical period, but are in many ways opposites (or complements). Please stop cluing TAO as a part of Confucianism.
@Lazarus Long Came here to say this or upvote it.
Once I figured out the theme, it was all water under the bridge. A pleasant puzzle for this retired chemist!
Water puzzle! Loved it, despite making so many mistakes: - I had H TWO O instead of WATER for far too long - I didn't realise that the H's were also rebuses for WATER until I got RAINH and thought about it for a second - I also thought DRACO might be PLATO (despite never hearing of him pass laws or being particularly ruthless) until I thought of the term "Draconian". Despite being a fairly big HP fan I never put that term and Malfoy's name together - if there's anything JKR loves more than TERFing, it's on-the-nose names. - I had INDIE for ODDER for a while as I assumed the "relatively" was simply nodding to a regular adjective, not a comparative form. - I also had HOLLY for ERICA (which went disastrously with the H TWO O right under it), and didn't get this one until close to the end as I assumed it was from the Italian Eroica (as in Beethoven's symphonies, meaning "heroic"). My mistake. Other thoughts: - Never heard of SHARENTING before but I instantly hate it. Thanks. - My only critique is that I didn't love the cluing for DIRE. In my book, if something is DIRE, it's already disastrous. The inclusion of "presaging" made me think of omens and foreboding right up until I got three letters, and then I had to go through the alphabet for the fourth. Overall though, a fun solve. Finishing this was like quaffing a tall glass of caret-shaped compounds after a long walk through the desert.
@Billy I was wondering about DIRE as well. Merriam-Webster’s first and third definitions reflect the meaning i’ve always known (dismal, oppressive, extreme, exciting horror, etc.), but the second definition is indeed “warning of disaster.” However, to me anyway, that is not reflected in the example they cite: “a dire forecast.” The first and third definitions apply here, but the sense of “warning” comes from “forecast,” not “dire.” One does talk about the dire news, though, or perhaps a dire tarot card reading. But again, in these cases, doesn’t the sense of “presaging disaster” come from the context alone? If, for instance, you claimed your morning coffee was dire, people would just assume you’d gone to Hardee’s for breakfast, not that your mug had been brimming with bad omens.
I thought this was a WATERed down Thursday.
A Simeon Seigel Thursday! (Licking my chops and rubbing my hands together in anticipation) But wait, what's with the circles? (Sad trombone sound) Simeon, you crafted a tricky puzzle guaranteed to twist my brain in the way a perfect Thursday puzzle should. Sadly, editing didn't trust us to figure it out. This coulda been a contender. And no, it didn't bother me in the least that there were other O's and H's in the fill. In fact, I didn't even notice.
@Nancy J. Here the circles didn't bother me, since they provided a nice "ball-and stick" depiction of a water molecule. That said, the bond angle being shown as 90 rather than 104.5 degrees really irked me. ;-)
I loved this puzzle! It wasn't easy but I got it and felt smart afterward.
How many times must I complain that Tao is not Confucianism. In fact, they are completely opposed to each other. Please stop using Confucius as a clue for Tao.
@PKC You can keep complaining but it won't make you right. Taoism and Confucianism are very different philosophic and religious systems. But Confucianism clearly contains the Tao of truth. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao#Confucianism" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tao#Confucianism</a> Now scroll down to Confucianism.
@PKC The Tao gives birth to the One. The One gives birth to the Two. The Two give birth to the Three. The Three give birth to the ten thousand things.
Well....I'm still puzzling over yesterday's photo...what WAS that on the cutting board? A tongue? A roasted pepper sans skin? Eww. And here we have SHARENTING and KITHARA. Steady solve to the finish. Do alert the NEWS TEAM ..er..CREW. I'm sure they are holding their collective breath. I HEART RADIO is actually a broadcaster? I asked DHubby, and apparently I only listen to analog FM...preferably NPR--whatever has survivied of it. I think that's different. Anyway I only HEART NPR. Our Mississippi Public Broadcasting is valiantly trying to stay on the air...clinging to a shoestring budget, but --alas-- airing "All Things Considered" starting at 6 p.m.
@Mean Old Lady I thought the picture was raw fish (on an invisible bed of rice), that is, a piece of Nigiri (tuna?), as one might be served in a Sushi restaurant. As a representation of "smooth and glossy"? A little strange, perhaps.
@Mean Old Lady I got IHEARTRADIO only because I listen to a bunch of podcasts that are under their umbrella. I didn't realize their holdings include the former giant Clear Channel and its many radio properties.
This puzzle is making me thirsty!!! I'm actually rather SMITTEN with this puzzle! And not just because it has my name in it—but it doesn't hurt! ☺️ As for the circles, I agree that once you get it, you really get it and know exactly what to do with the others, but I also liked the visual representation of the molecule. Maybe it would have been better to show them with an animation after the solve. Either way, I thought it was good fun!
@HeathieJ Nice Seinfeld reference, HeathieJ. <a href="https://youtu.be/B8Kh0HmfJTY?si=cQsRMFnRWhSmWGoE" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/B8Kh0HmfJTY?si=cQsRMFnRWhSmWGoE</a>
@HeathieJ Does this mean that your "real" name is ERICA?
@The X-Phile No, s-ill-y! I thought it would be more obvious that my full real name is DRACO PSI RAINWATER. But my closest friends just call me RAINH.
@The X-Phile Goodness me, I thought it would be more obvious that my full real name is DRACO PSI RAINWATER. But my closest friends just call me RAINH.
This puzzle reached the High Water Mark, IMHO. I loved the visual effect of the circles showing off the water molecules! And glad I don't have to wait for the next R month to enjoy fresh raw oysters!!!
I'm on team "no circles." The circles made this too easy for a Thursday. Otherwise it was fun, though! I loved "Strains to hear."
@Katie Agree. I'm not a particularly skilled solver, and even though I sometimes eventually get them, Thursday puzzles are usually quite a challenge for me (even when those more skilled are complaining that they're too easy). This one, though, came together without a lot of trouble. I struggled with Roman Elder and Younger (how could it not be PLINY), and had never heard of RMONTHS (not being an oyster guy), but overall it was fairly straightforward. Removing the circles and arrows (or at least one or the other) would have made it a little tougher to find the Waldos.
@Katie - I am on Team Circles. It took me awhile to have this one click as it is.
@Katie Do you really think you'd notice the water "molecules" if there weren't circles there? There is absolutely no way I'd see the extraneous H on one end, and O in the row above and the right, and the other extraneous H at the start of the next one. I submit that it would be impossible to "see" the water molecules without the circles. One might solve the puzzle, but I don't think anyone would ever see the theme.
Really surprised to see XWStats currently showing this as very hard. I appear not to be the only commenter who found this easy. But maybe that's because I recognized the water shape before even starting the grid? Still took my second pass through the grid to see exactly how they worked. Had not heard of KITHARA, reminded me of the Antikythera Mechanism. That was the subject of maybe my favorite ever National Geographic special, about 15 years ago. Probably no etymological relation but I'll check M-W and these comments for that later today.
@Lynn I saw the water molecules from the start, but nothing after that became easy. I thought it was pretty tough.
Simeon -- it's not always necessary to write the H-O-H structure with the O at the top -- but I think many try to avoid that because it inevitably ends up looking like a drawing of mickey mouse with the H atoms forming the ears. If you label the O atom, then it looks like a very surprised Mickey Mouse.
Perfect weather timing for this puzzle on a rainy Thursday. Once I recognized the challenge, I still had to figure out when and where the implications applied (not down on the O's and H's and not across on the O's). Kiriakou-approved puzzle: no waterboarding. Norwegian commando-approved puzzle: no heavy water. The chemical dimension to this was fun, but we mustn't say it was easy, or someone will construct a puzzle around a steroid molecule.
I owe my success with this puzzle today to my Science teachers in grade school. All the chemistry I ever needed in my life, I learned it there: the periodic table and making molecules out of painted marshmallows. (In high-school, Chemistry was elective. I dropped it after two weeks and took up Shakespeare Class instead.) Though grade school helped me in quickly figuring out the puzzle's trick, the fill was, per Simeon's usual, varied and rich and crunchy, so not an easy puzzle for me. I knew I was in for a challenge when I saw the byline. I also knew I'd be struck with awe and admiration, yet again, for Simeon's puzzle and talent. I smiled when I saw SMITTEN smack dab in the center of the grid. Mr. Seigel, for me this puzzle adds another well-deserved feather to your hat. Thank you for the consistent love and effort you put into entertaining us, sir!