"You got me a keyboard for our anniversary? You're just my type!" (Yeah, I need a new keyboard too - just put it on my tab.)
@Mike There no Escape from your puns, they are out of Control!
@Mike Here’s a tip for those who want flowing prose (but they really have to faucet): attach a garden hose to your typewriter, and you’ll soon find your writing’s qwerty 🤪
@Mike Despite our options, we return to your puns and the shifting trail of replies all day long. Thank you for sharing your space.
Once again, early returns are that this was a breeze. I'm quite disappointed because it took me over an hour, which is about what Friday/Saturday used to take me before all the talk about the Great Dumbing Down. I don't know, I may be going back to the side of those who don't mind the new puzzles. It almost seems like the trend now is to declare all puzzles unfit by NYT standards. For example: 5A. Is that ORC or ELF or ENT? And 21A is SIS? Really? Doesn't seem to me to fit very well. QBERT is a new one for me, as almost all gaming terms are. Same with OXFAM--I'd heard of them, barely, but I had no idea they had a relationship to Nairobi. I see now how ROD is a [Line Holder], but that seem to me to be a Saturday worthy clue. Same with GEM for [Brilliant Example]. I also had no idea the SITAR was held at a 45 degree angle to the body. For me it was a matter of coming up with any instrument that is held and has five letters. I'm not saying this puzzle was extraordinarily difficult, but I really didn't think this was a walk in the park. JOJOBA OIL? That was entirely unsolvable for me without every single cross in the first six letters. I guess my question is this: if you are smart enough to think this puzzle is easy, then why don't we have an answer to why only odd numbers of socks come out of a dryer.
@Francis Yes today we were on the same page in terms of difficulty (although though sounds like I enjoyed it more)
@Francis QBERT was actually a gaming character back in the 80s. And remember the "early returns" are always going to be the fast solvers.
@Francis I did find today the e word, except for the one crossing that did me in... The Nairobi NGOs crossing Latin, but yesterday, meaning Friday, I found it was rather difficult for me and yet the great majority thought it was very easy. 🤷♀️ I started with VIOLA for the 45° instrument, but fortunately I eventually remembered the author's name and have read some of her books. Maybe I'm not into LOTR enough, or maybe it's because I think that Orlando Bloom made an awfully a rather fine looking elf that I only thought of ELF. SIS came completely on the crossings and I didn't really notice it. I dunno, obviously you have to know some things, learn the language of crossword, and be reasonably well-informed about our world, but I guess I'm trying to say I just don't always think it's about being smart or the opposite. I do think I learned a lot more about solving from the ones that were still considered harder than I do from the Great Easening (royalties to B in NY) I think unless you're a really experienced solver, it comes down to a lot of wheelhouse and you know whether or not you think Orlando Bloom is a super hot elf...
@Francis I guess you weren’t hanging out at the local mall arcade pumping quarters or tokens into the machines to play QBERT or donkey Kong or dig dug or Pac-Man/ Ms Pac-Man. Etc. Securing your place in line by putting your quarter on the screen bezel. Good times
@Francis I think the Great Easening is the preferred PC term...
@Francis Even the smartest scientist will say that smarts do not succeed without experience. My experience has been that sometimes a sock works its way into a trouser leg and resides there until one is walking down the hall at the office or walking up to give a presentation. I have more than once found a missing sock of mine on the floor in the middle of a hallway. So, unless one sock has completely become lint, it probably left the dryer in trou .
@Francis Socks don’t vanish into thin air, and neither is there a secret compartment in the dryer where they go to hide. The missing sock is either: —still in the hamper, —behind or under the hamper (particularly difficult of the hamper is part of a cabinet), —still in the washer, —still in the dryer, —somewhere on the bedroom floor or on the dresser, never having been put into the hamper, —somewhere on the floor en route to being put away, —inside an article of clean laundry. Still in the washer is the worst, because now you have to run the dryer for one sock, so another load, or hang the one wet sock over the shower for the next 24 hours. Ask me how I know.
@Francis We had a dog who would eat any unattended sock, which can be fatal if untreated. To avoid panic-driven searches for odd socks, I washed them together in a laundry bag. The dog is gone now, and so is the laundry bag. Our socks have reverted to their old ways.
@Francis It's because the dryer is a portal to a warp in the fabric of space time. (Sorry but I don't remember who came up with this idea and I refuse to ask AI.)
I thought this was a throwback tough Saturday for me. First time since in along while I actually had to step away from the puzzle for a few minutes to clear my head. And it first to show it’s not just the grid that makes the difficulty, it’s the cluing, I found them soon and ambiguous (in a good way). SW fell first for me, the NE, then SE, and finally the NW which is where I had to clear my head. Ever had a simple entry that just keep evading your neurons? That was SCORE for me. I had REI thanks to my daughter, who works for them; but I was stuck with INRE before ASTO and PAPIST before PURIST, which made perfect sense since ___PRIORI seemed to be likely candidate for the legal term. But nothing was falling into place. Was trying to find another nickname for a building superintendent. Nothing too flashy, but I thought a solidly clued Saturday with a mix of some entires just onthe edge of my knowledge base (JOJOBAOIL, DIEGOLUNA,THEKISS) some fun entries (IJUSTWORKHERE, EMOJIKEYBOARD) some misdirectionsclues like HOARDED
@SP Oops sent too soon… Misdirections like HOARDED and STENT, and plain old workhorse clues that weren’t giveaways like “Hot” and “grabber”. No complaints from me today.
@SP Sorry for all the typos, I usually proofread before sending but it sent accidentally
@SP I am so glad to hear this from you. It took me a long time to get sustained momentum with this puzzle.
@SP It was a weird puzzle for me. I found it quite challenging but ultimately I solved it in typical Saturday time (just needing to check one square against the column). Beating a Saturday usually feels nice but today it just didn't - for a reason I can't quite place I did not find the solve particularly enjoyable. It was a decent grid and I have nothing critical to say about it, really (other than the fact I found the clue for TOMB a stretch, as explained elsewhere on the board today), but I just did not get any sort of kick out of it...
Oh, it’s that sweet Saturday combination – a box awash in lovely answers that you have to conquer barriers to get to. It makes the brain happy; it makes the aesthetic sensibilities happy. A GEM of an answer set infused with SLY cluing. Some of those lovely answers: • Top tier – PURIST, WIDE BERTH, LETS FLY, I JUST WORK HERE. • Not far behind – STUDY DATE, HEFT, BONGO, TO SPARE, THE KISS. Many answers that required crosses to make the clue click, i.e., [Left] for TO SPARE and [Line holders] for RODS. But when the clue clicked, it was very sweet, and what ensued was a staccato of happy-pings that lit up the box like a Christmas tree. More pings came from word-playing riddle clues – such as [Dead center?] for TOMB, and [Overtook?] for HOARDED. My kind of Saturday – work and the FRUIT of work. I left the puzzle with a lit-up serene brain, and that’s a gift. High respect for what you did here, Ryan, and much gratitude. More please!
Lewis, Lovely answers indeed. Too few SLY clues (IMO).
I started reading the comments from newest to oldest today, not what I normally do. I wanted to get a sense of what people who solve later in the day thought about this one. For me, this was a return to the days of yore. After my first pass I had maybe three answers filled in. Finally, a real Saturday puzzle that’s not going to feel like a walk in the park! Mr. Judge is going to make me work for it. Great! Even the second and third passes did not yield a great deal. The answers came one by one, very slowly. I really liked all of them, even the shorter “fill”. Not answers that I see in a puzzle very often. But what really made the difference for me here were the clues. Many were very short and ambiguous. Is that a verb or a noun? And which meaning of the word? That’s what made it a Saturday puzzle for me. A real challenge to get to the end, and enough for me to have a little bit of doubt whether I could. I hope a lot of you got the same sense of accomplishment that I did from this one. Thank you, Ryan Judge.
I managed to tease out all the maddening entries—JOJOBA, WIDEBERTH, GRUBS—you know the ones I'm talking about, and was feeling pretty cocky. Then I went back to the NW corner, which I'd had to skip, and I was still totally stymied. Latin legal terms are not on my boat, let alone in my wheelhouse, and I had to come to the column for help. It was a worthy Saturday workout, and I'm not complaining about the difficulty, but c'mon, AFORTIORI? It's even underlined in red here—they never heard of it either. Thanks, Ryan. I really enjoyed the part I enjoyed, and I don't mean to be judgmental, but my agéd brow just got agéd-er. See you next time. I'll be ready for you.
@dutchiris Right there with you. I was gasping until IJUSTWORKHERE finally dawned on me. And it still wasn't until I realized the 30A phone feature was for the year 2011, not currently, that I finally felt (mostly) comfortable. Even then, I think if I hadn't lucked out and didn't need to flyspec, I probably would have given up.
@dutchiris AFORTIORI is my standard example of how my parochial school education prepared me for law school. I had all the legal concepts; I just had to remember to sub in the Latin for the Hebrew or Aramaic.
I particularly like BERT crossing BERT at 9 down and 26 across. And THEKISS crossing EROTIC. This one went very fast for me... except for a different crossing, which was a major STRIKEOUT for me. The crossing in 3 down and 13 across. I just did not know either of these. And it's okay! I'm not going to get all BLUEY about it. I don't know everything yet! Plus, there's a good chance I'll remember OXFAM if it comes up again, probably not the legalese. Cheers to the weekend!
Oof, that SE corner. My own fault, of course, for somehow being stuck on frozen eggs and not having EMBRYOS come to mind (duh), then knowing nothing about either TV show. Both really slowed me down. Oh, and being stuck on CREam EGG. I had to close the puzzle, do Connections and Wordle, and wait for the prefrontal cortex to do its thing in the meantime. 6:18am. Still haven’t had my coffee as I’m trying to ignore the persistent meow-meooOOWW from next to the bed. God forbid I be allowed to sleep in on a Saturday. Señor Gato does not observe weekends. I so envy my husband’s selective deafness and the ability to withstand The Unblinking Stare which follows the vocal demands.
@Sam Lyons One of the many convenient things about Lucek the Poodle is how he lets us lie in. I usually wake up before my wife. Jorge the Lab was always at my bedside as soon as I stirred. Actually, even a bit before that - he had a sixth sense when it came to identifying the exact moment my body decided it was no longer going to let me sleep. He pawed at me and poked me with his nose: c'mon, get up, let's walk, let's eat, let's do stuff!!! And I could never say "no" to him. Lucek though, he will wait patiently until I decide to get up. It's so weird!
Sam Lyons — it was the same SE region that took me about as long as the rest of the puzzle had already taken.
For me the puzzle was not too hard, not too easy, just right!
That one was so far out of reach I just gave up at a certain point and started revealing things. My worst Saturday showing in some time. Different wavelengths and all that. I took a hard bike ride in extreme heat today so maybe I just melted down my neurons or something.
@Aaron Teasdale I had heard that on a hot day in Montana people took off their sweaters. I know that was not even remotely true for half the state, ever. And if it was true 30 years ago, it isn't any longer.
@Aaron Teasdale I've got to the point where I can usually get most of a Saturday puzzle without help. But from time to time I just can't get going and reveal a bunch of stuff. At my age I don't let pastimes like this bother me if I'm not perfect – life's too short.
I thought this one was tough and had many fun clues. My favorite was [What might add a bit of flavor to salsa?] for BONGO. That misdirection took me some time to suss out. Thanks again to my grandson (who is coming from Glasgow for a visit next week) for being responsible for me knowing BLUEY and MARIO. Engaging with his interests has helped me with the puzzle on numerous occasions. No thanks to my legal training, which caused me to enter inre rather than ASTO for regarding. That misstep caused me some delay in sniffing out another legal clue: AFORTIORI.
I will never be even close to one of the best at these. There have been times where I thought and had accumulated evidence that I was getting pretty good. This was very difficult for me. Almost an hour and that’s fine with me. I loved it. And, I guess there’s times where I’m not on my game. I’ll go with that. Thanks to whoever put this one together. I got it with absolutely zero assistance.
I gave up last night with over ¾ of the puzzle done. This morning it all came togather in about 5 minutes. I started working these puzzles around 1990 and I'm still amazed at how that happens.
@R.J. Smith, I often find that if I walk away and return later, answers begin to jump out at me! It's like walking away from a paper or report before editing; the errors and nuances are easier to find with fresh brain and eyes!
Yesterday we had people reporting their fastest Friday time. Now I expect we will have people reporting their fastest Saturday time. I hope the record-setters are pleased, but I'd really like a TERM LIMIT for easy themeless puzzles. (If you don't like this WRITE UP, EXCUSE ME.)
@Barry Ancona Gotta disagree this time, this was a bear for me. Let’s see what how it shakes out!
@Barry Ancona My kingdom for more TERMLIMITS all around!
@Barry Ancona not quite a record but close to it. Helps that I’m a lawyer so I knew A FORTIORI from just reading the clue.
@Barry Ancona I think I’m getting good times lately because I really try hard to be fast so I can finish before my iPad gets uncomfortably hot or needs a recharge. I really wish they would fix this. It was fine a few weeks ago.
@Barry Ancona Just under half my Saturday average time, so definitely on the easier side for me today.
@Barry Ancona I guess we’ll hear from the masses. But I’d be surprised if there was a bunch of “too easy” on this one. I wouldn’t call today ‘hard’. But it doesn’t seem like a personal best kinda of puzzle, at least to me. But again we’ll see. Maybe everyone is familiar with Latin legal terms and Latino film?/Tv? stars. Latin / Latino in the symmetry entries, no less.
@Barry Ancona I had a much slower time than usual personally. Did not know AFORTIORI/OXFAM in the NW and DIEGOLUNA/BLUEY/CREMEEGG in the SE, so both of those areas were a real struggle.
This was the hardest Saturday puzzle I've ever solved. It took nearly 2 hours (I had to look up the last name of the Andor actor). In the SE corner I was stuck on TONGS for "Grabber" and it took me a while to untangle. The NW corner was almost impossible. I had a lot of incorrect words initially: INRE instead of ASTO and KANJI instead of EMOJI. That took a half-hour to figure out. A real challenge but satisfying to finish.
That was a nice workout. Very chewy in places; looking at you A FORTIORI. Definitely had to go with a look up on that one. The rest fell slowly, helped by the fact that youngest son was in the room to give me the actor’s name and between us EMOJI BOARD. He introduced me to Andor, which I absolutely loved, but would never have remembered DIEGO’S name on my own. I stuck with net for FIT for too long, which held that area up til the end. What supernatural race begins with N? Doh. It seems OXFAM isn’t so well known out of the UK then. They do fabulous dedicated second hand book stores. I can spend hours in there and come out with armfuls of tomes. OT. Still not crazy about the new comments set up. It’s a tiny page within a page on my pad that’s not easy to read or comment on. Plus I have to upload the ‘cheat’ grid at the bottom of Wordplay if I want to refer back to the puzzle, rather than my completed grid. All in all it’s a clunky faff of an app. There was nothing wrong with the old system. Stop messing about chaps, ‘if it’s not broke, don’t fix it’.
@Helen Wright I was surprised that people didn't know OXFAM. But then again, I spent a lot of time in London in 1978 and ran across them there. And then once you contribute to one charity here you get mail from all the others. I didn't know they were Nairobi-based, but, as another poster said, once you see that X from the cross, the lightbulb goes on.
Hey Ryan Judge - You really got me! Was planning to sing your praises at the interval, when I saw these lines cascading from the podium as the conductor rushed off the stage . . . Dirty eraser, must you keep rubbing Plowing into my time? Tivos so bluey, make me feel dizzy Erotic light shines so bright But I don't need no friends As long as I bail with Emoji keyboard I am in paradise Every day, I stare at the time on my crossword But silly, silly is the forum tomb Emoji keyboard time (🧑⌨️🕒 ) Lola meets Mario Emoji keyboard Is it 💋💋 tonight? But a fortiori, don't want to strike out So I 📺🍿🛋️ tonight But I don't feel afraid As long as I write up Emoji keyboard I am in paradise (excuse me, just working out the kinks)
@Whoa Nellie nicely done 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼
In ancient Greece, I believe there was a really long race of supernatural spirits: the ultrafae. It’s Saturday: let’s fly.
Like everyone else here, I know DIEGO LUNA from "Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights", universally recognized as being superior to "Dirty Dancing". Who can honestly say they didn't tear up when his character says, "Nobody puts Baby in cryopreservation"?
@ad absurdum I never heard of him, but somehow got it via the crosses. Somehow. I had the Nairobi-based NGOs crossing the Latin legal term (!!!) and figured that would be the natick that stopped me...but some tiny cluster of neurons was cupping its little hsnds around its tiny little mouth and shouting "OXFAM!!!" at me from a great distance, like some tiny dot st the back of the mass of humanity at Woodstock shouting at the stage. And somehow I heard it above all the usual high-volume mental noise. I fully expected maybe twenty minutes of flyspecking, after which I'd give up and start looking things up. But no...I filled in the "F" in OXFAM and got the music. And even though I was slouched back in my couch, in my mind I was dancing to the San Jose Shuffle.
Beautiful puzzle. The kind where you don’t get anything until you do. The kind that makes you believe in the sanctity of Xword again. So tremendous.
For some reason I got confused in the SE corner a d needed to consult the column to resolve the crossing of TAL_N and B_NGO - probably because I'm only very vaguely aware of bongo drums and their connection to salsa. Other than that I solved the puzzle on my own. So this was the day when being a lawyer finally paid off! Polish and American legal lingos are different, but A FORTIORI was (almost) a gimme: I got it with a minimum of crosses. Seriously though, that's not a fair entry, even on Saturday! There was pretty much no advertising in Poland before 1989. When commercials began appearing after the introduction of a market economy, especially on TV, they were a sensation. For a year or two everybody watched them as if they were a show. We quoted the lines and slogans at one another, and some of them I remember 35 years later. That's how I knew JOJOBA OIL - it was mentioned in a shampoo commercial. These days I can't stand advertising of any sort - it's so cool there's none of it on streaming platforms! Commercial breaks are the main reason I haven't watched linear TV for a decade or more. I didn't like the clue for TOMB, even though I got it without much troubke: to me, a graveyard might be described as a dead center, but a tomb? There is misdirection, and then there are stretches such as this 🤷🏽 Some clues I don't get: "Digs up by the roots": GRUBS. Maybe I'm just not familiar with some meanings of the word "grub"? And how are RODS "line holders"?
@Andrzej fishing rod holds the fishing line. Equally confused about grubs though. I was trying to make grips work there.
@Andrzej One at a time: 1. AFORTIORI is a gimme for us philosophy/logic geeks, too. Don't just have to chase after vehicles with sirens to know it. 2. Some TOMBs contain families. So center works. 3. Grub: (ambitransitive) To dig; to dig up by the roots; to root out by digging; often followed by up. to grub up trees, rushes, or sedge It's just an obscurer use of a common word. 4. Fishing RODS hold fishing line(s). I got you, bro.
@Andrzej Aw. Were you misdirected? That mean, mean constructor.
@Andrzej If I had been the constructor or editor, I might have clued GRUBS as "cadge a cigarette." But maybe that's old slang.
@Andrzej Do you mean because you think of TOMB as more for a single person rather than a congregation of dead people? Because it struck me that way just for a second, but then I would think all that time you and I spend in video games raiding a single tomb with hundreds of skeletons whacking at us would have made it seem more appropriate.
Greek version of presumably emued post: Solid post-Easening Saturday. (Yes, I am making lemonade today instead of just sμcκιηg on them. And yes, Andrzej, if the emus allow this formulation, I wrote "just sμcκιηg” on them.") Was initially mad at HOARDED, which I got only on crosses and even then didn't get at all until I got it and grinned. Dang if I haven't sung "back room voice" every time I've belted out LOLA these past 45 years or so. Thanks, Ryan. TOSPARE laconically brilliant as clued.
Diego Luna - also a soccer player in MLS and one of the last cuts from the USMNT World Cup roster. Next time, Ryan? Tricky puzzle, no idea what FAE is, got that and FIT for mesh last.
Sometimes when I'm struggling in a section that the Wordplay column does not have many revelers for (the NW corner for me today), I glance at the comments for extra help ... and I always *dread* looking. It seems like the comments are so often full of solvers bashing the constructors or the editors, complaining how easy the puzzle was for a whatever day, complaining about too many gimmes, not enough gimmes, complaining about the cluing, lamenting the "declining quality" of the Times crossword, and attacking each other. Thankfully today was not like that. Hopefully the amount of complaints and hostility will decrease in the future so people don't dread peeking in here
Add to that all the posts that complain about all of the above.
@Sam FWIW a suggestion - Scan the Comments and click "Recommend" on the ones you agree with, ignore the others. That does wonders for my outlook on the whole matter.
Nice bit of word play here and there. That yoga mislead SITUPS (HA!) had me tied up like a pretzel. Guessing lotza solvers sat up and took notice. Not to mention the opening legal thriller in the top corner. Long live the work ethic and creative drive that keeps constructors going. You never know where you're next great challenge is coming from. As for me, 📺🍿🛋️
One of the best things about Andor — perhaps the very best thing for language lovers — was its Ghorman language, a kind of mock-French that sounded like French but wasn’t French. It’s hilarious and brilliant and outrageously faux, and the icing on the cake for one of the very best things in the entire Star Wars universe. Here’s a taste of Ghorman (no spoilers): <a href="https://share.google/zTtUAytiGTiEMhdkI" target="_blank">https://share.google/zTtUAytiGTiEMhdkI</a>
@Petrol If you like that, some time watch "The Emerald Forest". The fictional language of the indigenous tribe is quite interesting.
@Petrol Check out Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 for another great example of this. If you don't want to play the game, look up the music on YouTube. It's fantastic.
Watching a show I recorded on my TIVO while I solve this puzzle. The reports of its death are greatly exaggerated.
@Classic Hip-Hop Fan Verizon would not support the card to interface with the TiVo. I hate their DVR. I loved my TiVo!
👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 Now that’s a proper Saturday challenge. I started this last night and had to set it down until this morning. That NW corner almost did me in! I had never heard of OXFAM and I thought maybe the legal term might end in PRIORI 🤷🏼♀️ but alas, no. I swapped ‘in re’ and AS TO at least three times before settling on the correct answer. I also had vIola 🎻 before SITAR, but EGAN cleared that up once I went through the across clues again. Arrived in Wisconsin last night. As we were driving, a tick fell on my daughter in our rental car. She felt it on her arm thinking a piece of hair was tickling her. She flicked it off and realized quickly that it wasn’t hair 😱 Luckily we were almost to the house where we are staying. Our host graciously removed said tick from the vehicle 🫣 *shudder* I sent a picture of it to our family chat and everyone freaked out. Nasty looking critter! Both my son and his girlfriend have been bit by ticks. He caught his in time by recognizing the telltale bullseye 🎯, but his girlfriend was less lucky and contracted Lyme disease Horrible disease. Anyhoo, thanks , Ryan, for this challenge. I loved “I JUST WORK HERE” 🤣
Since Barry just posted the link to xwstats for today, I won’t bother, but I’ll point out that it went from Easy last night to Average this morning. That tracks, because most of the early returns are experienced solvers, whose experience comes very much into play today. I won’t complain that this one was too hard, so the naysayers can’t say we always claim the day’s puzzle isn’t like those of old. On the contrary, this one displays many of the traits of the pre-Easening puzzles. Some examples: Let’s start at the beginning. 1A could just as easily been MEET, and 1D was a very vague clue. 3D was an obscure Latin legal term, but could be sussed out because of the root “fort” and similarities to “a priori” and the legal term “certiorari.” 13A was a charity that we sometimes hear of in the US, but not nearly as much as in other places, like the UK, where their shops are the equivalent of our Goodwill shops. Experienced solvers who have never seen “Elio” could confidently guess ETS, based on the “for short” in the clue. LACTIC acid can be assumed with the right few crossing letters, even if one doesn’t know anything about making sourdough bread. Experience also helps you to realize that “salsa” Isn’t necessarily a condiment. It also may lead you to the intended meaning of [Inner tube?]. There are others, but I’m running out of characters. All in all, a decent Sat. challenge, requiring at least some degree of lateral thinking.
@Steve L Wondering how xwstats gets their stats. I'm an experienced solver, but by the time I finish the puzzle by around 4 a.m. Pacific, there are already over 100 comments here.
This went very quickly for a Saturday for me. I thought there were an usually high number of fact-based clues/answers, many of which were in my wheelhouse. Any puzzle with Jennifer EGAN in it is okay by me, and she anchored the east side for me. Every time I wanted to enter something over there, I would look at those 4 letters and think, I absolutely know they are right, what will work with them? Same for THE KISS. I normally give the Kardashians a WIDE BERTH, but I do have a hard time imagining them calling each other SIS. I JUST WORK HERE was fun, and I also liked the J crossings. So, thank you for an enjoyable puzzle, Mr Judge.
@Vaer I believe the Kardashians require a WIDE BERTH.
Solved without assistance, but this one really knocked me around. Every portion of the grid pummeled me. Took over an hour before the last box fell. What a fabulous puzzle! Cleverly clued, full of quirky entries, and loaded with uncommon letters. Only Z failed to appear today. Mr. Judge is fast becoming a favorite constructor of mine. I'm guessing others found this much easier than I did; felt like nothing clicked today, and I had to work for every entry---exactly the Saturday experience I want. Please, more like this one.
This one had a satisfying bit of bite, though I finished it in somewhat less than my average time. Favorite clue was for EXCUSE ME?? I can just hear it, in a very particular tone of voice. Usually by a woman. Maybe more often in the South? I see the incredulous expression, with or without a touch of humor, depending on the situation. It is one of my favorite reactions, suitable for a public scolding of the stranger who trod on your toes on the bus, or a private conversation with a friend who just said something monumentally uh, (fill in the blank with a non-emu-proof word).
More about EXCUSE ME?! Before someone complains that you would not say, "Um...what?!" when someone stepped on your toes, that is true. The clue fits the private conversation version--along with its office variant, the "You may be my co-worker but did you really just make that offensive and unenlightened comment?!" It is an expression that, all by itself, justifies the invention of the interrobang.
First pass through -- "I am doomed." Second pass -- "Hmmm..." Third pass through -- "By jove, I think I've got it!" Thanks, Ryan Judge! P.S. "Left" was one heck of a clue!
Not my cup of tea. Fair for a Saturday but I just couldn’t get on the constructors wavelength (if there even was one). To me, very vague clueing, with obscure, rarely used answers made this puzzle a slog. In addition, there were hardly any gimmes to help you in the crosses. Very chewy. Like a disgusting piece of liver. Where the Hauk Tuah girl when you need her? Rating: 5/10
@Darren Everything you didn't like makes it my cup of tea.
@Darren By the way, I hope your air clears up soon...
@Darren No offense to your personal opinion but: Vague clues Rare answers Barely any gimmes Sounds like the dictionary definition of what a Saturday crossword is supposed to be. You may not like it, but there it is.
@Darren Or let me put it another way. It feels like saying I hate this Oreo. I hate that it’s round. I hate that it has a creamy center, I hate that it has a chocolate cookie on the outside. 5/10. My answer is, fine that you hate it, but you shouldn’t be eating Oreos since that’s the essence of an Oreo, and if that’s the reason you dislike it, then it’s a 10/10 Oreo by Oreo standards.
Darren, You wrote: "Fair for a Saturday..." I agree. Your "Rating: 5/10" is a self-rating.
BONGO excellent 😀 A fair Saturday. Trepidation at first but with a foothold it all game together quite nicely and in decent time. Didn’t know the trivia but deduction is part of the game.
@Ιασων I tend to associate BONGO drums with hippies, not salsa. I wanted some Latin music at my wedding, so I added a couple of live conga players to the DJ package. But I guess BONGOS are used in salsa, too.
Good Saturday puzzle - just a bit above my pay grade. More than a couple of completely unfamiliar answers (e.g. EMOJIKEYBOARD, JOJOBAOIL, AFORTIORI), but also other things that I couldn't quite work out. No big deal - that's just me. And of course a puzzle find. A Sunday from December 4, 2011 by Kelsey Blakly with the title: "Swapping Partners." Some theme answers in that one: DIARYQUEEN PRISONGRAB INTERNALANGEL MARITALARTS ROUGEELEPHANT DEVILSLIAR TROTREFORM Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/4/2011&h=55d" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=12/4/2011&h=55d</a> See you tomorrow. ....
Well "I'm not the world's most physical guy" and just a regular old puzzler, but I slogged my way through this tough but enjoyable Saturday puzzle with some definitely needed look ups (afortiori and Diego Luna) to help me through. And now I am hearing L-L-L Lola! (Great song worm to have in my head for the weekend!). Thanks.
Thanks, Ryan, for this very, very tough workout that I got without even heading to the gym today.😰😅 I've always found our local Trader Joe's employees to have the best customer service and also to be the most friendly among our area markets. I'm now adding erudite to that description. Well done -- fabulous construction feat!
I loved this! Slow going with lots of erasing and changing, but lots of ahas and smiles along the way. I got the whole thing done with no lookups, which I can't often say about Saturdays, but it made me earn every letter. What a fun puzzle!
Cmon oxfam crossing a fortioi is ridiculous. Rest of puzzle was fine. No idea who is Diego Luna but it can be gotten from crosses.
@RobcoThere are Oxfam charity shops (thrift stores?) on every high street in the UK so that was a gimme once the 'x' was revealed. They have specific outlets just to sell books that tend to be really good. I take it these are less common in the US?
@Robco, you don't need to be a lawyer to get A FORTIORI if all you are missing is the F; you just need a tiny bit of etymology: "force" comes from Latin "fortis", and the clue is about "strong" reasoning, so it makes sense. (I hadn't heard the legal term, but it felt fair enough after a few crosses.)
Being a plodding solver (something like an hour and fifteen minutes for this one) has its advantages. I thoroughly enjoyed this. My gold star was in question from the moment I read the 1-Across clue to the moments when I backspaced over an X and hit R to get EROTIC, after 15 minutes of flyspecking (I think that's an accurate use of the lingo?). In between I appreciated the construction and cluing, got the satisfaction that comes from sticking-to-it, and learned a little. Note the absolute minimum of glue and crosswordese in the grid. ETS, EBB, OPS and that's about it? MES maybe? No OREO's or ERA's or EON's? No "made up words"? In a wide open grid like this? That's an accomplishment. One to savor!
Ahhh. Just a little higher and to the left, please. Looks like the gator in the column photo is enjoying his back rub. Chewy Saturday puzzle, one of those where I had to break and come back a few times. 5A/7D, the LOTR extra and result of labor --- was that orc and child? Nope, ELF and FRUIT. 43D, is the flute considered a brASS instrument? Oh, he's referring to a wine GLASS. 36D, why isn't it a CREam EGG? Okay, CREME, whatever. I almost never got a cream egg at Easter, the good ones were expensive and the cheap ones were just candy-corn-like sugar bombs. 30A, touch, smart, EMOJI keyboard. 34A, tropic, exotic, EROTIC heat. Lotsa SLY cluing here. Thanks, Ryan.
@Linda Jo AS TO CREME EGGS, I think we can blame the fine folks at Cadbury: <a href="https://www.cadbury.co.uk/products/brands/creme-egg" target="_blank">https://www.cadbury.co.uk/products/brands/creme-egg</a>/
Linda Jo — I think it's because of laws about ingredient labels, which were heavily influenced by the dairy industry. If it wasn't actual milk, cream, or butter, you couldn't label your product to make it appear that it was.
Linda Jo, Re: CREME Also see OREO filling
I am giving up. The NW corner has me on the ropes, and I just do not have extra time today (or indeed for the next 3 weeks, it looks like.) I wanted SCORE for the conductor, KAL EL for "Super" man, REI was correct, I'm sure, but above that...a massive mess. INRE? Or ASTO? I even tried OXFAM for the Kenyan NGO. I don't dare slap my head after I click on the Reveal. Ryan Judge, nail my old white head on your trophy wall and smirk at it often! Ya got me!
@Mean Old Lady "Super" as in superintendent (I didn't get it till I had all but the first letter)
@Mean Old Lady Well... same for me. At least I'm glad to be in good company. ....
Ent before ELF eDS before MDS canOlA before JOJOBA OIL absolutely nothing before DIEGO LUNA and, of course, Médecins Sans Frontières before OXFAM But, thank you, Kinks for your EROTIC LOLA [L-O-L-A] and her "dark brown voice". <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CzrYXcXweI" target="_blank">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CzrYXcXweI</a> Good, tough puzzle. Just what I like on a Saturday! Thanks, Ryan Judge. Keep 'em coming!
When I saw they long down entry in the northwest for a legal term. I figured I was cooked for that section of the grid. But it turned out to be the southeast that gave me the most trouble. note to self. It is crème egg not cream egg that little error took over 15 minutes to decode, not pleased, but on me, I guess. But to make it a full circle soft my fly spec brought me back to the Northwest where the cross of a legal term and an African based NGO made me play the alphabet game. I don’t feel it was hard overall. The Q and the Js in JOJOBA really helped with crosses. but again, when you mistake cream for crème, it’s gonna be a long solve. At least it was for me. I guess clue word of the day was titular. Nice Saturday.
@Weak I was strangely unconcerned about CREME EGG. Later I looked at it and thought "hey, cream", but by then the crosses had locked it into place, and I just forgot about it. I was unusually lucky I didn't have to fly spec tonight, or I might have tried to force "cream".
@Weak You’re too generous with your accent in creme. Pretty sure it’s spelled that way for legal reasons because they don’t contain any dairy.
Couldn't finish this until the morning. The northwest corner was too much. 1D Left as a clue could've been anything. So once that got figured out, it was fine. Agree that oxfam/afortiori cross was nasty. As was Diego Luna/bluey
@David Johnson I had the same experience!
@David Johnson --- northwest corner for me too. Same problem with 1D. xwstats.com says "Average" difficultly probably thanks to my time spent in that corner more than making up for all of you that breezed through the grid. Having inre instead of ASTO at 23A did me no favors --- I felt pretty sure about that one. That led me to be convinced the Latin must be ...prIORI. [Super Man?] I could only think of someone who takes care of an apartment building. Finally the crossword muse gave me EXCUSEME and things fell, albeit still slowly, into place.
Other than the F in OXFAM, this one just flew by so fast I could hardly get a good look at it! So I *did* look back and loved I JUST WORK HERE WIDE BERTH EXCUSE ME THE KISS EMOJI KEYBOARD… May I please, once again, plead to the Deaf Ears Council for a Crunchy Clue option? Even just for Saturdays?
@CCNY Could people stop using disability words to describe other situations?
Interesting, Ms. Spaight. I have some hearing loss, but I've never heard the term "deaf ears" used to refer to a disability.
Yikes. So much of my life includes hearing impaired friends and family, that I learned ASL as a child. My children did the same. I was referring to the expression. If you are hearing impaired, deaf, or feel hurt because the expression is painful to someone you care about, I understand your plea. In any case, please know that not all references are derogatory or imply a lack of sympathy.
3 down; 13 across COME ON! Beyond the beyonds! And for the long one regarding "above my pay grade," I swear, I typed in PETE BUTTIGIEG because of his famous remark that our Creator made him gay but it was above his pay grade to know why. LOL. That expression always makes me think of Secy. Pete.
Ms. Spaight, You replied to a comment nine hours ago, criticizing the poster for their language. Now you comment on the puzzle. Do you routinely solve long after reading the Wordplay column and the comments?
Loved the Moe Berg reference because I read the book "The Catcher Was A Spy" many years ago.
@Jesse S Based on the order of events, it might have been better titled “The Spy Was a Catcher.”