This was really unsatisfying for me. Like a joke that you get but it doesn't seem like it quite works and so it doesn't end up being funny. That and a bunch of esoteric trivia. Saturdays are really hit-or-miss for me, so I assume that some satisfied saturday lovers out there are glad for this puzzle.
@Charlie for me, it felt like the challenge wasn't on the page. Personally, I like Saturdays when I can pick apart clues and the puzzle reveals itself slowly. The challenge today seemed artificially enhanced by obscure trivia and rare alternate spellings. Mostly attainable from crosses, but that just meant that I had fewer clues to actually solve. I never had an 'aha' moment solving RIATA, for instance, I just brute forced it. Not an interesting, picking Chloe, just straightforward trivia check. In addition there was some standard crosswordese fill to diminish my enjoyment, like ETNA. I know puzzles used to always be this way, but we've seen they don't have to be anymore. If we're getting more submissions than ever, why do we have to settle for unsatisfying or easy? Especially when the editors have shown us puzzles that can be both challenging and don't waste clues.
@Charlie et al I am gratified to be ratified.... I hated to come out with my MEH review, but the puzzle was just disappointing and dull...
I love when crosses imply an impossible word (like the last three letters being SST). It's a thrill when the impossible reveals itself. This was such a good puzzle, fun, fair, and challenging.
If you have ever made spanakopita, that clue was a gimme before you finished reading it—one of the more challenging spinach dishes. I can't believe how often I used to launch into complicated recipes (dolmas were a lot of fun, washing the grape leaves and stuffing them, one after a dammed endless other, ratatouille that I made by the cast iron cauldronful, moussaka—you name it, I knew it could be done if you could read (creative flourishes came later), and now I find goosing up a frozen pizza to make it worth eating to be a staggeringly arduous task. People used to love parties, and if you invited people to a party, they always came, showing up with wine and desserts and all sorts of wonderful things. Online friends are lovely, but where's the food?
@dutchiris I used to be a gourmet cook, too. I started to lose my mojo when I tried moussaka, which took all day, rugelach, which took two days, and a host of other things. Then I moved to Vegas and found out it was cheaper to eat out. Sadly, not anymore.
@dutchiris "Online friends are lovely, but where's the food?" I think that's that's the best sentence I've read this year.
@dutchiris I learned to make spanakopita from years of cooking holiday dinners with my half-Greek sister-in-law. Using store bought frozen phyllo simplifies the process and gives excellent results. We prefer spanakopita triangles so it takes longer than making a single dish, but it's worth it for the higher phyllo to filling ratio. Cut the phyllo into long strips, brush each strip with butter to get a crispy, crunchy result, add a generous spoonful of spinach mixture, and fold. Make sure to cover the stack of yet-to-be used phyllo with a damp towel so it doesn't dry out. Yum!
Sleeves off to Caitlin for finding that column photo. What did the stevedore say after a particularly satisfying potato chip? That was a HELLUVA LAY MAN
@Puzzlemucker A rare sighting of the elusive Puzzlemucker. Sending a virtual DAP.
I found this puzzle extremely hard but ultimately doable. I enjoyed the challenge. Initially I was put off by how many entries I simply didn't know. However, I persisted, liberally using the app's pencil feature to tentatively type in some answers. With time I seemed to have tuned into the constructor's wavelength, which helped me deal with the smart ambiguity and misdirection of the clues. I also had several epiphanies: to my surprise I realized I knew ERIC CARLE from previous puzzles (even though the caterpillar thing is unknown to me and I had no idea the guy had anything to do with it: the name I spontaneously remembered just fit with the crosses; before you find this strange, consider if you know Kornel Makuszyński and his "Koziołek Matołek") and I recalled the term EN PASSANT, even though I don't know what it means. I owe knowing SPANAKOPITA to "Bojack Horseman" - it was the name of one of the characters. As I watched the show I though: hey, that's that Greek spinach pastry! And I've remembered it since. RIATA was new to me. Too bad I'll probably forget it by tomorrow. Ditto HEM AND HAW. How is a SLEEVELESS T a T? Isn't it an I? Seriously though, wouldn't that be a tank top rather than a tee? (I'm off on holiday tomorrow so this is probably my last post in August. See you in September)
A T-shirt (occasionally spelled phonetically in Polish as tiszert) is alternatively known in Polish as "koszulka z krótkim rękawem", "short sleeved shirt", so by definition it can't be sleeveless. Apparently it's different in English?
@Andrzej A sleeveless tee would generally have a higher neckline, a crew neck, and tighter armholes than a tank top.
@Andrzej enjoy your holiday. Hope it’s somewhere cool.
What does an author do with an epipen? Writes an epitome! Lively puzzle, love the mini French theme, what a hoot! I have learned now that the French say "Oh la la," and that in English, people say "ooh la la" 93% of the time, and "oo la la" as it is here, only 7% of the time (as of 2019, according to google ngram). But it is said. I'm surprised, given all the French, given we have rear end and ar$es that we didn't get derriere -- and I don't know how I remembered serviettes but managed to pull the word out of my own derriere. (Excuse the French).
@john ezra Wake up, Little Susie. What are we going to tell our friends?
Crossing STEEVE with SERIESE felt a bit mean. Also, the clue for SLEEVELESST should have indicated that it’s an abbreviation.
@pmom Maybe SLEEVELESST isn't an abbreviation. Maybe it's a colloquialism, IMO.
@pmom I don't think the T is an abbreviation; it comes from the shape of the (original) shirt. I think that "tee" is an elongation.
@pmom Both entirely fair game for a Saturday (or a Friday tbh).
Personality, humor, fresh and zingy answers, deft cluing, paucity of junkness – hallmarks of Kameron’s puzzles. They are not just fill-ins, they are rich experiences. What a gift to have this sublime and talented artist / technician / entertainer cross our paths, and to have another opus today. Fresh answers? Today, a third of the answers – that’s right, one out of three – have appeared in the Times 80+ years of crosswords four times or less. Wow! I love the brain that wasn’t satisfied to come up with a direct clue for LENS CAPS – what is almost always offered – but rather made that ordinary answer shine with [They’re taken off for boudoir photos]. Or even just this: STENTS and “stent” have been clued more than 200 times in the major crossword outlets, but never using the misdirecting word “channel” as in today’s clue. Part of my fill-in was “Whee!”, and part was crunch, and all was rich, Kameron – as usual. Thank you for your gift and for another splendid outing!
After slogging through this one on autocheck, I decided to cheer myself up by scheduling a root canal. That was rough. Mimosa time!
Would somebody please tell Sam Ezersky that RIATA is a perfectly reasonable Spelling Bee word? He keeps okaying the yogurt and cucumber sauce that is close to it, but ignoring this fine word. (Actually, I think we’ve all been telling him this for years.)
@Dave S Amen to riata, a common term in the Southwest. Speaking of which, ocotillo is a common plant in the Southwest.
@Dave S Well now they have a tab in Spelling Bee for people who want to suggest new words. And then they ask if you have another! I think it is below Community.
@Dave S About two months ago, Steve did Q&A in the forum. I suspect someone asked him about RIATA. User peregrine has a website that probably addresses it. I'm still campaigning for ATLATL.
This was the EPITOME of a solid Saturday puzzle. I was fortunate enough to have enough gimmes to be able to solve it in a reasonable time. Seeing SLEEVELESST two rows above STEEVE had me a bit peeved.
What's it all about, ALFrE? I was so sure that the actress was ALFIE Woodard that I didn't change the I to an R -- not even when I had STIEETTEAM at 4D. Don't ask. I didn't know the shoe. Having LEN?CAPS at "they're taken off for boudoir photos", I had no idea. But Jay LENO is on late at night when you're in the boudoir and LENO is funny, so I guessed his CAPS would be funny too -- and totally inappropriate for a boudoir photo. So I wrote in LENO CAPS-- though not with great confidence. DANOKO seemed as good a name for a shoe as any other. Don't ask. After running the alphabet for BA?LERS for the ostentatious spenders, I decided not to write anything in at all. Should have picked the L for something that was at least a real word, though I never heard BALLERS used that way? Don't ask. An ostentatious belly flop for me today. A huge amount of dumbness displayed. Happily I didn't miss out on the cash prize for solving this thing because there isn't one.
@Nancy Ha! I went to school with an Alfie Woodard so I have always mixed up the actress name for his. Fun to see it's not just me! I love the self depreciation in your post.
Well below average time, yet felt difficult the whole way. A proper Saturday test.
Wow I had a bunch of negative thoughts on this puzzle. But now I see it is KAC. One of my favorites. I’m conflicted. This was a very quick solve for me. and super quick for a KAC. Okay. My complaints. Which may or may not be valid. I’ll presume the latter. SLEVELESS T. I don’t know why. But I find just the letter T to be an abomination. I know T-shirt. But still… OOLALA. where is the H? I ain’t never heard of TRAGICOMIC. but one C? I did appreciate the new? Clue for ETNA. I know 97% of you sang “don’t cry for me Argentina” when filling out 26Down. A pretty easy late week, relatively speaking.
@Weak I got SLEEVELESS and tried several rebuses where the T is, finally got it on the cross. So I was looking for more rebuses despite knowing this is usually not a rebus day. Otherwise a nice puzzle.
@Weak: I know 97% of you sang “don’t cry for me Argentina” when filling out 26Down. I'm in the 3% but I did think of Madonna.
Finally, what the people have been asking for: a puzzle with apparent typos for answers, with OO LA LA and SLEEVELESS T
Kudos on finding a photo of someone about to STEEVE while wearing DANSKOs and a SLEEVELESST.
Woo Davis! (That's where I am.)
@Isabeau My cat’s favorite clue/answer as his vet has a degree from Davis.
@Isabeau Speaking of Woo, if one is a Giant bird of Chinese mythology and has caught a cold, does one have WooPENG cough?
(Emu-proofed version) KAC is back! 'Tis a SOFTEr, gentler KAC, but according to his notes this was a temporary THAW and we should expect more clue-bullying in the future. And here I was, thinking I had gotten smarter or more skilled... Very nice to see O. Henry's "The Gift of the MAGI" in the grid. I read it as a 13-year-old and thought it was the most romantic and most poignant tale I had ever read. Also loved the presence of EPITOME. It's such a great word, even more so since the day I learned to pronounce it correctly! Up until then, I only knew it from reading and would say epi-TOME, thinking myself oh so grown-up. I'd love to say that, after that, I became more careful about voicing words I only knew from reading, but no, I continued to embarrass myself. (These days I do check online for pronunciations.) I had a very good time with this solve. Thank you, KAC, for one H3LLUV@ puzzle!
@sotto voce How absurd is it that we have to emu-proof words and phrases that are perfectly acceptable in the grid? A sign of the end times, fo sho.
@sotto voce Same for me with the names PeneLOPE and Hermi-ONE. No-one where I grew up had such names!
@sotto voce EPITOME takes me back to high school and English with Miss Paris. A standing assignment was a list of 20 words from the Barron's _How to Prepare for the SAT_ (a required item from 8th grade on.) Friday we had a test, and the first 10 words (usually the more obscure, difficult, new-to-us) had to be used in a sentence that illustrated our knowledge of the meaning. One really had to do the homework! One Friday Miss Paris read out "Epitome" (pronounced correctly.) The bewildered looks across the classroom told it all. So I spoke up: "You know--epiTOME!" Got a Tsk from Miss Paris, but she let it pass. I had her again in 10th grade--a joy.
I am so impressed by people who are able to solve Friday and Saturday puzzles unaided. I hope to get there someday. In the meantime, I will continue to solve easy mode on Fridays and use autocorrect on Saturday puzzles.
@_chs_ you haven't missed much with this one
@_chs_ If it makes you feel any better, I got a gold star with no hints or lookups yesterday, and today I turned on autocheck with about 6 correct answers and it still took me another 30min to finish. Today was brutal.
@_chs_ Good luck! Love the spirit. You’ll get there for sure.
Oo-la-la, a bilingual puzzle! I must say, en passant, that I feared for my streak. I thought about asking my belle amie for a little help, but she told me that would not be solving it à la loyale and I must do it tout seul. Sacré bleu!
@Fabio Juliano Hmmmmm Does "a la loyale" have some slightly risque connotation or just mean "together"? [Too bad I don't know how to get accent marks. Maybe if I could COPY/PASTE?]
Like everybody else I'm gonna call foul on SLEEVELESS T-- it should be either "sleeveless T-shirt" or "sleeveless tee"-- but otherwise I didn't mind this one, and EN PASSANT happened to remind me of the beautiful lilac perfume by Olivia Giacobetti. (It's the NYT crossword, so I get to say things like that.)
CL: you mean PACK a punch, i assume. Pulling a punch means the exact opposite. “Kameron Austin Collins as a sharp, witty constructor whose grids can pull a fearsome punch.” If you’ve heard the expression “don’t pull any punches, you probably know it means “tell me the unvarnished truth — i can take it.” Good pro wrestlers are quite accomplished at making harmless blows look real. I’m sure I could have broken this to you more gently, but the irony would have given me indigestion. Thank you.
I found this to be a reasonably tough Saturday puzzle, with a bunch of toeholds and fingerholds at first. But after a bit it was possible to finish despite a number of letter formations that looked very unlikely. Like the SST at the end of the summer shirt. There were a bunch of cute deceptive clues, too. NIce!
My mother worked at UC Davis during W.W. II.
Solid and mostly enjoyable Saturday save for a couple names I didn’t know (DANSKO, ALFRE). I had MENSCAPS for a while because LAYMAN didn’t come to mind, but that’s a great clue for both 36 across AND down. I don’t like SLEEVELESST, but I’ll get over it.
Agree with Caitlin this is a bit of a Kameron lite—but not a gimme by any means and still fun and fresh. Loved the LENSCAP clue. Can’t wait for the return to form of some good old Kameron bullying though—bring it on! Before we get too many shouts of Naticks, no, I don’t think this was one. I didn’t known what letter to put after SERIES either, and hadn’t heard of SKEEVE—but STREETT_AM could only be an E, and then STEEV_ could only be an E after that, so that seems like fair game for a Saturday especially. DAP was my other no-know and had FILE before PILE but not hard to suss that one out either.
@SP Lite, eh? I found this extremely hard 🤷🏽 I didn't like the cross of the California campus and some brand of shoes, but D really was the only letter that worked there. I guess it could have been an M, too, but that seemed much less likely.
Alfre Woodard has had so many wonderful roles, but Trekkies might remember her for her great role as Zefram Cochrane’s assistant in “Star Trek: First Contact”.
@SP Yessssssss!! I love her in that, so much!! And her telling Picard off, like no one ever could, and if most people tried they better prepare to deal with the likes of me because he's so nearly perfection, but when she did it, dang!! My husband and I love to quote Picard's tirade to her at humorously appropriate times, "the line must be drawn here this far, no further!" And Lily's response, "you broke your little ships.. see you around, ahab!" Perfection!! Simply marvelous!! ✌️
Whew, if Mr Collins eased up on this one, I need to get in better shape before he resumes his bullying ways! This was a fun workout.
KAC is back! 'Tis a SOFTEr, gentler KAC, but according to his notes this was a temporary THAW and we should expect more clue-bullying in the future. And here I was, thinking I had gotten smarter or more skilled... Very nice to see O. Henry's "The Gift of the MAGI" in the grid. I read it as a 13-year-old and thought it was the most romantic and most poignant tale I had ever read. Also loved the presence of EPITOME. It's such a great word, even more so since the day I learned to pronounce it correctly. Up until then, I only knew it from reading and would say epi-TOME, thinking myself oh so grown-up. I'd love to say that, after that, I became more careful about voicing words I only knew from reading, but no, I continued to embarrass myself. (These days I do check online for pronunciations.) I had a very good time with this solve. Thank you, KAC, for one HELLUVA puzzle!
@sotto voce I'll bet you use to say CAL-ee-ope, too, right?
@sotto voce Similar to when I finally learned to pronounce “synecdoche,” and realized it was sort of an inside-out rhyme with Schenectady. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche,_New_York" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synecdoche,_New_York</a> (and another onomatopoeia for sneezing)
@sotto voce The perils of being a young reader. EPITOME was a late learn for me, too. As was “anemone”. And I remember being stunned when I learned that tangle of letters that my eyes had read as “see-yo” was actually the spelling for the word I had heard in movies as “chow”! What a cata-stroff.
Stared at 28A for far too long. _ _ VIS? COVIS? A rebus: IRVINE? Jeez, only my alma mater: DAVIS!
@Loopy It had never occurred to me that DAVIS was a place name. I assumed it was named for a wealthy benefactor, like Yale. TIL it was formerly Davisville.
I love a difficult puzzle but it's not very fun when the answers are such obscure terms? what are some of these??
@cameron Perhaps if you specified your obstacles, we could help.
This was fun, and more challenging than my time would suggest. (Half my average, close to my best.) It takes more than two to make a theme, right? REAREND + ARSES? TIL that ANTIRUST has the same number of letters as ANodized. I love ERICCARLE's work. In our house we have an Elephant and Piggy poster signed by Mo Willems that my wife got at the ERICCARLE Museum. Yes, we love Elephant and Piggy, too, and so do our granddaughters. I think I get why my comment was emu'ed yesterday, although I don't agree with it. Nevertheless, here's my favorite mondegreen from John Prine. <a href="https://youtu.be/Uvjvrsxsat8?si=fnEGxLq7q4McNMY7" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Uvjvrsxsat8?si=fnEGxLq7q4McNMY7</a>
@Jack McCullough Thanks for that John Prine link — made my morning!
Relieved to see that at least a few others struggled with this one. For me? - just well above my pay grade. Completely stuck in more than a couple of places. No big deal. And... puzzle find. A Sunday from January 26, 2014 by Daniel A. Finan with the title: "It's all relative." Really unusual - all the theme answers were in pairs and the 'clue' was in part related to their positions in the puzzle. A couple of examples. 6-down "73-down relatively" NOWAYJOSE 73-down "See 6-down" MYDEADBODY (so the implication was 'over my dead body' 3-Down "See 51-down" ASPELL 51-down "3-down relatively" BEWITCHED (so the implication was 'under a spell')_ 12-Down "93-down relatively" TALKTOYOULATER 93-Down "See 12-down" ANDOUT (so the implication for that one was 'over and out') And there were more. Think about the other ones. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/26/2014&h=6d" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=1/26/2014&h=6d</a> ....
Yeah, this one wasn't my favorite. Just didn't mesh with the clues, and some were just odd. 4/10
Wow, that was like pulling teeth. I do feel I was clue-bullied. (see constructor's note.) Case in point: Gruyere de COMTE is sometimes marketed as simply COMTE, for reasons I am unable to discern. I've never heard of it either way, and I do like fancy cheese. GABBER was just annoying. I was thinking of that one fraternity brother who always got sloppy drunk and tried to kiss random girls.BALLERS was also annoying, as clued. But SPANAKOPITA just about made up for it.
@Grant Getting your cheeses mixed up. Gruyère is of Swiss origin. Comte is French. Not so rare, Costco used to carry it. The puzzle was a pleasant Saturday but the “misdirect” for LENSCAP bordered on inane. It’s one thing to utilize clever wordplay, but throwing in a French origin term not necessary.
@Ken S Really? I googled "Comte cheese" and the French version of Gruyere is what came up. Sounds delicious, by the way. And I was thinking of pegnoirs (sic) for 36A. That misdirect was quite a stretch.
Grant, Ken Wikipedia says that COMTE is sometimes referred to as Gruyere de COMTE. I've never seen it in the wild with that labeling, which is not to say it doesn't happen. I wanted Peignoirs, too, but EVITA wouldn't allow it, though she wears a mean one in the musical.
Fun puzzle, if a bit too breezy for a Saturday; like others, I saw the byline and settled in for a challenge, but didn’t quite get one (although I found the clues and fill fresh). Glad to hear that we can look forward to renewed “clue-bullying” from KAC in the future!
@Nat K Yeah, I blasted through it in 18 min (fast for me on a Saturday), but the cluing was fun!
I'll be honest, when I see KAC is the constructor for a puzzle, I groan. His grids are always full of misdirects which I find more irritating than playful. I appreciate learning a new thing or two in a grid, especially on the later days of the week, and I can enjoy a few wordplay tricks, but I find that KAC usually oversaturates for my taste. However, I did remember that the last KAC grid was enjoyable, so I had high hopes for this one. But I think this is the worst of both worlds. Fans of the difficulty which I find obnoxious won't be pleased, as this was (mostly) straightforward, but there were still traces of this via some gnarly words. STEEVE is a word that could be a fun archaic word to learn, except that it's crossed with SERVIETTES and SERIESE, so it's just a meat grinder. RIATA is crossing some of the same downs as well, in case it wasn't tough enough. So there's not enough misdirection to please the hardcore challenge KAC fans, but there are enough difficult words to annoy people like me. I'm not at all looking forward to KAC returning to his trademark difficulty, but at least it should mean that his fans can get enjoyment out of it. This grid, to me, seems like a whiff on all fronts.
@Jackson Ah, and I even forgot to mention one of the worst parts: too much French. Zero French words is the correct number for any crosswords in my book, and I'd rather a constructor miss low on that number than high.
I was never going to finish this because there were too many words I’ve never heard of, but I found the bottom left to be really poorly put together. I’d long started using check puzzle before I got to it, but I thought AAH and RDS are really bad fill and BELLEAMIE and ITHELPS were really poor clues.
I hate all puzzle by this constructor. I thought about skipping today by I didn’t want to lose my streak… I should have went with my first thought as losing a streak is better than losing my mind… It’s not just the “cute” redirects. It’s the boring, plain trivial answers… I think 21A sums up this constructors forte: Summertime Top: SLEEVELESST (tell us you can’t construct a puzzle without slop without telling us). Rating 0/10 Worst puzzle of 2026
@Darren And I chortled when I completed 21A. (Really. Out loud.) As I saw LESS appearing at the end of the fill, I was snookered. I thought, 'Is this one of those puzzles where answers bend around corners, so that the type of shirt runs down?' At that stage, I thought 22D started with an L. But once the crossings forced SLEEVELESS on me, I grasped that a one-letter shirt would have to be T. Voilà!
Looking forward to those KAC puzzles where the clue-bullying is back. Because 30A, 42A, and 9D were Monday level clues. And Mr. Collins is my favorite constructor for a SATURDAY puzzle! Still plenty of brilliance, though. Glad he understands our plight.
Couple of very obscure/archaic entries (STEEVE,RIATA) that I found a bit surprising for NYT, even on a Saturday. That said, the main issue was that I immediately got hurl for 1A, then got heat and reheat for 1D and 3D, then solved the rest of the crossword before coming back and spending ten minutes wondering why I couldn’t get answers for the NW corner. After begrudgingly accepting that SLEEVELESS T must be right, I eventually unpicked and realised I’d just gone badly wrong. Not my favourite, but then Saturdays seldom are.
@Phil RIATA had appeared 276 times, though the last time was in March of 2024. So if you’re new to the puzzles, it may seem obscure to you, but I’ll bet most longtime solvers found it to be a gimme of the first magnitude. STEEVE, on the other hand, has only appeared 30 times, the last being in 2014.
FWIW, found about the photo in today's Wordplay column: Wikipedia "Glen Lyon FPSO (2016): A colossal Floating Production, Storage, and Offloading vessel measuring 270 meters long. It operates west of Shetland in the UK sector of the North Sea at the Schiehallion and Loyal oil fields." "The Glen Lyon is a 100,000-tonne, 880-ft-long floating production, storage and offloading vessel (FPSO). The ship was built in South Korea and is anchored to the seabed at the Schiehallion and Loyal oil fields in the North Sea in waters 1,300ft deep.[1][2] According to BP, it is the largest "harsh-water" FPSO ship in the world." <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Lyon_(ship" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Lyon_(ship</a>)
@lucky13 Interesting, and when I went to look at the picture again, I realized the guy was wearing a SLEEVELESS T!
@lucky13 Too bad not also wearing a pair of Dansko clogs! :)
Fun one! I honestly thought I was on the archives until I came to the comments. Lots of tricky misdirects, and I can even forgive ETNA when it teaches me something new.
@Joe Also, very surprising that STEEVE and stevedore are only distantly related. The only reason I answered that one correctly was because I know stevedore from The Wire, and it turns out that was basically just luck.
And... off topic, but 21 letter answer that somehow crept into my head this morning: INTHEEYEOFTHEBEHOLDER And... nope. Never been in a puzzle. And even BEHOLDER has only been an answer 4 times. Sorry for the drift. ....
Rare Saturday puzzle perfectly synched to my brain! PB time, the answers flowed like water, barely a misstep along the way! A real pleasure when everything clicks into place. BALLERS, DAP and STEEVE were the last pieces to fall, and they didn’t put up much of a fight.
HELLUVA puzzle but that's too be expected from KAC
SP already mentioned this but I'm going to include this fantastic link to a clip from Star Trek, First Contact, which unfortunately omits the wonderful ALFRE Woodard's response to Picard after his classic tirade about the Borg, but I can't find a clip that includes it. <a href="https://youtu.be/VLUp5jCLGyA?is=p5fAhkYRY1YYJ9I_" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/VLUp5jCLGyA?is=p5fAhkYRY1YYJ9I_</a> And then she says, "You broke your little ships... See you around, Ahab." That's my first memory of her in a role and she was absolutely fantastic in it! Well, she's pretty much fantastic and everything I've seen her in. And she's the only one that I will allow to tell Picard off! Har!! And though my husband and I often jokingly throw "the line must be drawn here, this far, no further!" around for comedic reasons, it really is such a powerful and fantastic scene!! I could never watch it enough. Struggled just a little bit in the upper left. I started with hurl instead of TOSS, which led to heats instead of warms, and wondered about what I thought was a missing h OOLALA. Thankfully, I remembered ALFRE, it cleared everything up. I just learned about SERVIETTES in Utila (Honduras) earlier this year. Normally, communication isn't really a problem for me, but this time I was asking for a napkin from a waiter, who came from the mainland, and he just did not know what I was saying. So I asked another waiter what the word was for napkin, and today, after removing towelette, with a couple crosses, I realized it must be the answer here. Huzzah! Fun and fast one!
@HeathieJ I made the same mistakes in the upper left as you. Plus, I saw "award" and "Woodward" and plopped in "Joann." Then realized she won Oscars, not Emmys, and of course that's not how to spell her name.
@HeathieJ Guess Joanne W. won Oscar (not Oscars) and did win Emmys (multiple). But ALFRE came quickly to mind--like you, I'm a fan.
@HeathieJ If you have time at some point, search for "Trevor Noah" in the comments and listen to my link. It's kind of long, so you may not want to spend the time, but it may explain what the waiter thought you wanted. Was he giving you a strange look?
@HeathieJ Glad you enjoyed today's puzzle, but I wanted to comment on your response to me the other day about my (apparently multiple) recommendations of the novel "Theo of Golden". I had no idea I had been repeating myself. :( I'm not offended at all. I always enjoy your comments and that hasn't changed. I just got a little obsessed with the novel--finished it yesterday and the spell it cast has broken a bit, but I am still telling people about it. I just sent a copy to my son-in-law for his birthday. He teaches writing at a university in Texas and I'm hoping he might enjoy it and give me his opinion on it.
I thought "sleeveless t, no, it can't be," but yes! Also, I had howl versus hoot, which had me sidetracked or a while.
"Influencer" has the same letter count as STREETTEAM. Just sayin'.
One of those puzzles where I wasn’t sure about many of the answers when filling them in, but somehow I muddled my way through with a half decent time (under half an hour). Fun diversion while waiting for some banana bread to bake :)