I really wanted the Emerson quote to be "Our best thought came from OTtERS". They always look like they're having so much fun. It was disappointing when the crossing entry made me change it.
@Nancy J. Tell that to the woman who got bitten by a river otter in Lake Tahoe the other day. She needed 38 stitches and a rabies shot! I'll bet she wasn't having fun.
@Nancy J. The best thing on BlueSky is @in-otter-news.bsky.social
@Nancy J. 😂 A friend of mine once asked the table gathering what kind of animal they'd want to come back as. I *immediately* answer "river otter", which she though was hilarious because I was so certain and so fast. We've never forgotten that exchange, and it still comes up for laughs, decades later. But I really had thought about that question prior to her asking--and I really think river otters seem to enjoy life more than most other animals. Sea otters have to contend with sharks.
I am recovering from a minor surgery, which already has relieved my month-long pain. And now I've just finished a wonderful Saturday puzzle. So I'm feeling good!
While I was still in law school, I worked at the Warsaw office of a major, international law firm with headquarters in the US, and offices all over the world. My computer had this super unintuitive e-mail program with countless options as to who to forward messages to. Once, inevitably, while sending out some memo intended for the Warsaw office, I addressed it to every company employee all over the world... On a positive note, some of the replies I got where humorous and supportive 😃 As for the puzzle itself, I found it much easier than yesterday's - I solved it in Wednesday time. Aren't I special? 🤣 I had no idea TEAL was a bird. I only knew the word as denoting a color. Apparently the green-winged teal is called "cyraneczka karolińska" (cyraneczka of Carolina) in Polish, a name I'm not familiar with, either. TEAL the color has been special to me for decades. When I was a pre-teen in 1990, my mom went to Stockholm on a scholarship and she brought me back some items unavailable or at least very hard to get in Poland at the time - second-hand designer jeans, a leather jacket, and a set of 30 color markers, including teal, which I've never seen before. I loved to draw with it. I was very sad when it finally ran out some time later. Growing out of that kiIIer jacket was a bummer, too. I don't think I've ever heard of CHLOE the fashion house. I wonder if it's because it's too luxurious for a person like me to know about it 🤣. Or maybe it's just not that famous?
@Andrzej TEAL the color is one of my favorites. If you looked at the birds' pics, some have the color on parts of their bodies. CHLOÉ is famous among fashion houses. Maybe just not your thing. Has your wife heard of them? They've had some head designers who went on to lead their own houses. Karl Lagerfeld and Stella McCartney, who is Paul's daughter, come to mind. There's also a perfume. TMI, I'm sure. I worked for a law firm for thirty-something years and lived in fear of reply all. But the only ones who were guilty of it were older partners who had trouble adapting. And a few of them would just have their emails sent by their secretaries.
@Andrzej Chloé's been around since 1952, but its appeal is to women, so that probably explains it.
@Andrzej I love teal, whether it's on a duck, a sweater or a wall. My last house was decorated mostly in SW style, so there was a lot of teal.
@Andrzej I kinda love that you didn't know the name of the cute little duck in either English or Polish. Sometimes a puzzle features our wheelhouses, as this one did for me, sometimes not.
@Andrzej FWIW TEAL the color is named for the freshwater duck
I was working at Wells Fargo during the infamous “Happy Birthday, Holly” mass email incident in which a well-meaning private birthday wish ended up being distributed to nearly the entire corporation. It was quite something to watch hundreds upon hundreds of reply-all emails flood everyone’s inbox with indignant demands to be removed from the distribution list. Which of course led to endless rounds of people using a reply-all email to admonish others to stop using reply-all. Frustrating. It spiraled out of control for several hours before someone found a way to shut the whole thing down. The experience was eventually turned into a media story and a t-shirt – so ultimately an amusing rather than regretful mass email memory. What a perfect Saturday puzzle you’ve gifted us today, Mr. Juhnke, with just the right amount of bite and mischief. It pushed my current streak to 1,750 so I’m pretty chuffed about that.
Hello Wordplay community! Thank you for bringing the answer key issue to our attention. We are working on getting that corrected as soon as possible.
I was released from the hospital yesterday & slept much of the afternoon. I had no idea it was nearly impossible to get a good night's rest in a hospital room -- and I even had a single -- no roomie to faht and snore and otherwise keep me awake. Can you tell this is the first time I've ever spent a night in a hospital? A few nights, as it turns out. For one day there was someone in the next room screaming for pain meds all the time, including through the night. And the nurses repeatedly explaining to her that they could give them only once every 4 hours. I empathize with the patient, but I did ask if there was any way I could be moved, so they moved me to another ward for my last night there. Sleep, at last! My pup did well with the person who took her in for a few days. That's a relief. And I think the procedures have helped. My friends tell me I look better than I have in ages. They ignored all the bruises on my arms from the frequent bloodlettings. I'm not sure why they need to stab me multiple times per day when there's an IV installed. All they ever did with that, since it was unused after the first morning, was flush it and make sure it was open. Anyway, I hope this fixes what ailed me. My heart is beating normally and my blood pressure (which I take twice per day) is better than it's been in years, which is interesting since I didn't go in to have my blood pressure fixed. So, I survived, things are going well and I might be here more now! Streak maintained!
Captain Q, Glad to hear you're out ... and looking better!
@Captain Quahog Glad you're feeling better and back in the column. Was wondering how you were doing. I haven't had to stay in the hospital overnight, myself, but my mom has several times in the last few years and complains alot about how you can't get any sleep there. Seems socounterintuitive to trying to heal...
@Captain Quahog sounds good, best wishes!
@Captain Quahog -- Thank you for the report, and happy to hear you are feeling so much better. Happy to see you back here!
@Captain Quahog Glad to hear it. Was thinking about you yesterday. The Times posted an article 36 Hours in Midcoast Maine. The pictures were so beautiful that I wanted to go there immediately. (I would have said ON Midcoast, but whatever. )
@Captain Quahog Welcome back! Good news that (except for sleeping) everything went well and you're feeling and looking better. Ten years ago I was in the hospital for three months, in five different rooms, not counting the OR and the ICU, and sleeping was a very mixed bag (npi). The worst was on a floor where the nurses were yelling to each other across the station, sharing jokes, and generally making so much noise that I asked them to shut the door to my room, which they said they couldn't do. I had fantasies about strangling the major perp, until the night my roommate was having a crisis, and when I pressed the call bell, he came running. He literally saved her life, then held her and encouraged her ("Stay with me. I'm here, I won't leave you.") and comforted her until the doctor arrived. All was forgiven.
@Captain Quahog Welcome back, sir. It's great to hear from you!
I wanted "Cracker alternative to Ritz" to be "motel"
Cute, but you'd need a motel brand; Super8 doesn't fit.
The answer key I get is from March 7, 2026.
@Kathleen Adams Me too - and my puzzle looks OK to me but it says no LOL
@Kathleen Adams Go to xwordinfo.com for the correct grid.
@Kathleen Adams We get the answer key we deserve.
Oops! Somebody swapped yesterday's puzzle with today's. Both were perfectly wonderful, just misplaced.
@Pezhead Came here to say the same thing.
@Pezhead I'm glad they were swapped. Yesterday destroyed my weak self-confidence. Today restored it a bit (with no help from Google).
@Pezhead, strangely, I found the Friday one easier, and it was one of my faster Fridays. Saturday was closer to average time.
One of those stellar moments when the music plays and you realize some of those placeholders were the real thing. I was so convinced I was in for a flyspeck odyssey that I almost jumped out of my chair. A perfect Saturday puzzle for a night when I had lots of time and could wait for the fills to emerge from the shadows. I wracked my brain trying to figure out what that noise was at the end of the Faulkner novel, left it for another part of the puzzle a dozen times, came back, and finally, Oh, right. Sneaky! I couldn't remember what Bubkes meant, and kept coming up with NADA, until the Lama jogged my brain. About those COOTIES, I recognized them right away. I brought a batch of them home when I was in 4th grade and my mother nearly fainted. She didn't know what to do, but a neighbor did and said,"Oil of sassafras 'll get em." The rude boy next door sat in a tree, watching my humiliation through the window as she combed the smelly stuff through my hair. Thank God we moved before long. I wish the puzzle had lasted longer, Fritz, but you would have needed a bigger grid. Thank you so much for this one!
@dutchiris Ah, real cooties. I think the word more usually means the imaginary ones you can allegedly get (a) from being touched by a girl;(b) from being touched by a boy; (c) from being touched by the kid who's been designated a pariah. First two are just fun; third can get mean. We also used to fold little doo- hickies we called cootie-catchers but I've forgotten how.
A reply all story: In my time at college, there was one of those innocuous emails that goes out to the whole school (faculty, staff, students) announcing that so and so has been hired as the new assistant dean of such and such. It didn’t mean anything to the students but clearly it came as a surprise to someone on staff who accidentally replied all “Did not see that coming!” This became sort of a meme for our class, and someone made stickers that said “did not see that coming” and you’d see them on laptops around campus. We were the class of 2020 so there were always a lot of vision puns being made, but this really took the cake when the way that our time at college ended was truly something nobody saw coming.
Fritz got on my good side in his debut Times puzzle (today is his third) with a priceless clue – [When squirrels thermoregulate by splooting]. He certainly remains there after today’s puzzle, starting with that gorgeous grid design that made me feel peaceful even before filling in the first square. Then the drama. Three quarters of my first pass stubbornly yielded very little, making me wonder if this was going to beat me. But I refused to buckle, went on faith that things would break. They did in the remaining quarter, and answers leached out from there. Overcoming adversity brings such reward. I remember thinking, after filling in the last square, “That was one of my best solving experiences ever!” Icing on the cake was the serendipitous confluence of nine double-L’s. It turns out that after A and E, the letter L today is the most populous one in the box. Huh! Oh yes, I loved this one, Fritz. Please, sir, let there be more. You do Crosslandia proud. Thank you!
Answer key for March 2026 not of any use for me.
Tough one with I good few words or terms I've never heard of. The U.S trivia, along with those answers, got the best of me. Definitely didn't hate it like yesterday's grid, but it's always a bit disappointing to miss a solve. The problem for foreign solvers is that the 'gimme' U.S answers are quite the opposite for us, and when they cross words or terms that are close to guesswork without them, the solve is tedious and intractable.
Look around. We do have some "foreign solvers" here who have learned many of "the 'gimme' U.S. answers."
@Hitch Hope you can ignore any churlish replies, I give you credit for diving in!
@Hitch Sorry you and the puzzle didn't hit it off. I'm curious which answers you considered gimmes for those in the US; like many I found it easier than Friday's, but I didn't think it especially US-centric. For instance, while ANAHEIM is a city in California, I wouldn't call it a gimme to anyone unfamiliar with the California highway system. And with PAK, ETNA, CHLOE, OSLO, DALAI, CONGA and POM I'd say there were many clues taking us away from North America.
This one started hard, but opened up quickly when I spotted GENERALELECTION. The other spanners required some crosses. I loved the clue for COOTIES. Do kids still use that term, or is just a memory for old codgers?
@Marshall Walthew COOTIES features as a song in HAIRSPRAY, so at least some of the later generations are familiar with it.
@Marshall Walthew Phew! It wasn't your heart. (See delightful comments below.)
On a trip to Florence in 1888 Victoria was struck in particular by a russet colored foxy-faced Volpino Italiano, a breed of spitz thought to be from Pomerania, that area of northern Poland (with its principal town Gdansk on the Baltic) and parts of Eastern Germany. She brought the dog back to England, a 12 lb. male, very playful, glowing red sable fur, naming him Marco after the Italian explorer. He was the first of many Pomeranians she owned (at one time she had over 30 of them); the last, Turi, was called in to keep her company on her death bed. Indeed, as Mr. Juhnke confirms, Victoria started a trend in England and the red sable pom was an extremely popular pet in the late 19th century. Andrzej, I bet you'll have something to say about this -- or I hope you will, anyway! Fine workout, this puzzle, liked INLET and LET IN, annular reefs -- as a phrase -- and, speaking of phrases, AREN'T YOU SPECIAL (I can just hear Dana Carvey, aka, Church Lady, sneering that line out on an old SNL or two). I liked MAGMA above the goat's BLEAT, since I was already thinking of goats going MAA rather than BAA, and then I considered whether a goat of the MAGA persuasion would bleat MAAG-MAA. Answer? Probably. Also liked the rhymey ANAHEIM and AT THE TIME
@john ezra I have something to say about it. Last year my son and his wife adopted a stray dog from Albania, of all places. They had her genetically tested and she is about half Volpino Italiano and a third or so Pomeranian. I’m a little confused about your post, John; I read the same article you did, which suggests that the Pomeranian is a type of Volpino, but other articles I read say that’s wrong; they are distinct breeds though both related to Spitz’s, and the confusion may stem from the fact that the so called “Italian Pomeranian” is actually the Volpino but is distinct from the common Pomeranian we are more familiar with. This would be supported by the fact that she was found to be a genetic mix so they must be two separate breeds. No matter, whatever the breed their little Noona is a delight and a great joy to them after losing their beloved Sharpei, Margo at too young an age. Are you amused?
@john ezra I have nothing to say about poms the dogs. Pomerania (Pomorze, meaning roughly "the area by the sea", "morze" being "the sea") is now fully within Polish borders. Historically Poland was often at war over it with the Germanic Teutonic order of warrior monks, which had it's own state in what is now NE Poland. The order was secularized in the 16th century, and their state transformed into Prussia. Poles had them by the cojones then. Two centuries later, after a series of disastrous wars and questionable policy decisions (ring a bell, does it?), Poland became one of Europe's weakest kingdoms, while Prussia's power increased. By the end of the 18th century, Prussia, Austria and Russia divided Poland between themselves, in an event we call "Rozbiory" (The Partitions), and our country disappeared from the world map for 123 years, to reemerge in 1918.
52D [The sound that concludes "The Sound and the Fury"] Well, LONGE is a clever answer. I believe there was a question on "Jeopardy" this week about where the title of this classic book came from. Here is the answer, from the internet: [Shakespeare's Macbeth: The phrase comes from a famous speech in Act 5, Scene 5, where a weary and defeated Macbeth describes life as "a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing."] Yes? No? Agree?
@lucky13 Yes, but ah, you need the whole line for maximum impact: “Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”
@lucky13 Thanks for explaining that. I was still scratching my head as to what a ‘Longe’ might be.
I am taking the stand that AHA is a perfectly normal, everyday word, but OHO is not. Who's with me?
@Francis aHa is what you say when you're playing hide-and-seek and find someone. OHO is what you say when you find your partner in bed with the neighbor. The clue was cleverly worded so as not to give away the circumstance.
Francis, Not I. <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oho" target="_blank">https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/oho</a>
@Francis OHO! is what the evil disciplinarian said when spotting a kid passing a note in class. (Ask me how I know.)
@Francis I had that in for the longest time! So I strongly second your assertion.
Nice puzzle! I had a sparse NW corner until going out on a limb with a totally unsupported "SWANK" cracked it. LAME as "Shiny material" baffled me. For whatever reason, I usually have a harder time with Fridays than Saturdays and this week was no exception. My "Reply All" story is from my first big office job (with two monitors and everything!), where I had a stinky coworker who apparently didn't believe in deodorant. I emailed a colleague joking about it. That was not a reply all, that was just a regular email. But later that day, I was on an email thread about a problem on the website my team would need to fix, so I replied all with an attached screenshot of how it looked on my computer. But my screenshot was double-wide. It had my secondary monitor with my sent email about the office stinker. I noticed at the last possible millisecond before releasing the mouse button to click send and avoided certain disaster. Pro tip: Always clear the "To" field empty until you're done writing and editing.
@Ian Lame is material made with metallic threads. Here's a video talking about Cleopatra's iconic gown from the classic film. You can see the difference the metal makes even in black and white. <a href="https://youtu.be/9krld6oJtRQ?si=V6xAsubLltaATHtH" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/9krld6oJtRQ?si=V6xAsubLltaATHtH</a>
@Ian That's a great pro tip and one I plan to implement myself!
@Ian You know, I think you did Stinky a service. That is such an awful situation for everyone, and almost anything to change it would be an improvement.
Great puzzle. Tricky. Smart. However, I am missing something…somewhere…and don’t know what it is cause the answers are for March (<a href="https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/9416a64ee104f8fa/5ff53598-full.pdf" target="_blank">https://static01.nyt.com/newsgraphics/documenttools/9416a64ee104f8fa/5ff53598-full.pdf</a>). The redirect would be an easy fix.
I'm sure the timing is just unfortunate coincidence. But the monarchy referred to by 35D changed just a week ago, with the passing of King Harald V and ascent of King Haakon VIII.
@Michael Weiland Why unfortunate? The clue was about the seat of the monarchy, which didn't change. (The monarch did, the monarchy didn't)
@Michael Weiland I don't consider it unfortunate, just factual. I rather think the editors deliberately made the clue reference current events, as opposed to using the old tired clues of capital in northern Europe or capital of fjords.
I found it very tough but solvable without googling anything. Liked the lack of tedious obscure proper names
I had a jOLLYgOOD MOMENT doing this puzzle, and that was momentarily my answer for 3D too! And a d'oh moment: looking up the word "LONGE" to see what it meant. Fun; cheered me up after my dismal performance with the rest of the week.
@Sal Z I *hate* entries like that LONGE...but in a grudgingly good way.
@Sal Z A LONGE is a lounge without u in it.
@Sal Z I looked it up too. Not having read the Faulkner, I then tried to picture how the book could end with the sound of a horse's rein. d'oh
The "Answer Key" link is for March 7 -- might want to fix that!
I got the same thing… HELP
Scroll down for an answer key....
So, did someone switch yesterday's puzzle with this one? I had to scratch and scramble to get the Friday puzzle, but this one moved along nicely. I am much more attuned to Fritz Juhnke than Julian Xiao, apparently. And INAUGURATE (from Sept. 4th) should come *after* the GENERAL ELECTION, right? 41 Down...ouch. Surely that isn't a done deal...and never will be, I pray.
MOL, On xwstats.com, the current median solve time for today's puzzle is 17:04, and for yesterday's it is 23:57. It seems quite a few people found them to be switched.
@Mean Old Lady 41D, the 18th amendment is the prohibition of liquor, so yes, that is null now.
@Mean Old Lady An inauguration is a beginning, so “kick off” is a fine clue.
@Mean Old Lady I think maybe you’re referring to/thinking of the 19th amendment? And yes, hopefully that’ll never be NULL
@Mean Old Lady yes! Me too! Did this one in 12:30 or so and yesterday took me an ungodly almost 40
Why is the wrong answer key populating for today’s puzzle when you hit the link in the column?
@JoPa when it comes up it is for a March puzzle. Computer gremlins. I have an error I can't find!
Again (and again)... Anyone needing an answer key can go here: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/5/2026" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=9/5/2026</a>
I was slow to finish this one (and admittedly looked a few things up). Thrown for a loop indeed. A fun and challenging Saturday, thank you. Re: Constructor Notes, it can be hard to know for sure how our words affect others, and harder still to predict it. I would hope anyone accidentally upset by something in a crossword would recognize that it's a risk inherent in publishing anything, and furthermore that it wasn't intentional. Personally, I found this crossword and these notes to be incredibly thoughtful and I am deeply, humbly appreciative of them. Thank you again.
@KMC I got stuck for a while on northwest but I definitely had an easier time than yesterday!
The link to the answers is wrong, fix it!
@Gary Decker Arf, arf indeed. If you want to see the answers any day, go to xwordinfo.com.
@Gary Decker Maybe snap your fingers while demanding. Why mess around?
My favorite thing is when someone accidentally hits “Reply All” to an to some huge email list (like organization-wide), then someone else replies to that to tell them they shouldn’t have done that, but that person also hits “Reply All.” Then another will send an email that says “Please take me off this list,” but they also hit “Reply All.” And so on and so on.
This one ended my 181 day gold star streak, because of the NW corner. OHO? That's a known phrase? I had AHA. I've never heard of Zesta crackers in all my decades. I guess I don't know boutique French fashion houses, because I've never heard of Chloe. How uncouth of me. With OHO and ZESTA next to each other, and CHLOE nearby, I couldn't sort out the long crosses.
@Dave K. Zesta and Ritz crackers are miles apart. Zesta is just a lower priced brand of saltine.
@Dave K. I'd say AHA is more internal ("oh! I get it now") whereas OHO is more outward directed ("OHO! thought you could get away with that, did you!?"). ZESTA is vaguely familiar from supermarket shelves. CHLOE I got entirely from crosses, although knowing it was France-related narrowed the letter options.
Definitely would’ve put this this as Friday and yesterday’s asSaturday but it worked. 15 minutes over my average yesterday, 26 minutes under today.
Curious whether the prevailing sentiment for today’s comments will be ALL THOSE AGAINST or ARENT YOU SPECIAL—or maybe The Sound and The Fury. For me it was more of A Tale of Two Puzzles, or maybe three or four or more. There was the inexplicable gimme of GENERAL ELECTION this time of year, and other inexplicable gimmes for a Saturday like ATOLLS and DALAI and ALIST and COOTIES and lots more. There were the other spanners which were decent entries but oddly very blandly clued. There were a few misdirects for me like MOVE before MORE, KICK before WASH, BAND before ROAD for Journey, ICECAPADE and ICEPARADE before ICEPALACE. There were a few entries I smiled at like SCHMOOZED POM and MASSEMAIL (I had MAILBLAST first, but either way it certainly brings back fond or not so fond memories of your own or someone else’s faux pas.) And there were a few clues that I thought were more stretchy for their own good like LONGE (I don’t mind a good phonetic clue like that, but seems like a long way around for such a long title) and CONGA. But now I’m going to take CONGA back because I just got it and now it’s my favorite clue. I was imagining some Carnival cruise party with CONGA lines but then the Carnival in Rio just popped into my mind. Sam why didn’t you help us out with that one?!? So, all in all a decent Saturday, certainly for me not as interesting as yesterday, I’m going to call it a pleasant diversion but a little all over the place.
@SP That sounds about right to me. For some reason, both yesterday and today went fairly smoothly for me. I didn't even have to fly spec. The puzzle gods are probably saving me from that until Sunday. So I expect to pay for that tomorrow. GENERAL ELECTION was pretty easy for a long spanner. I had some mistakes, which were exposed by gimme crosses, but they were easily sorted out. It's rare for me, on a Friday or Saturday, to have entries that I saw only after I filled them in, that just fell out from the crosses without me considering them at all. Happens for me sometimes early in the week, but not very often otherwise. Yeah, I thought a good solid puzzle, maybe a tad light for a Saturday.
@SP IMO there were way too many gimmes for a Saturday, and not enough misdirection. It would have been a decent Wednesday puzzle - and I'm saying this as a non-native speaker of English. I enjoyed the solve, but the day the grid ran on was off.
@SP Yesterday was a total beast for me, so this one, though it started out tough, turned out to be a rather pleasant surprise. I ended up knowing more than I thought I knew when I started, so it went very smoothly until I finished in the NE. I should have known SCHMOOZED right away, but that wasn't the case.
It looks right but said not yet there, I looked at the finished puzzle but it was the one for March 7, 2026.
@Jean Hunter same here. Can’t figure where I went wrong and it’s driving me nuts
@Jean Hunter You can always find the correct grid at xwordinfo.com.
I haven't read any of the comments yet, but I'm sure many said it was too easy for a Saturday. Well, it's one of the few I've solved without any look-ups, so I LOVED it.
@Marcia Fidler The best puzzles are the ones at your level. That’s precisely why old timers complain when the puzzles are too easy. We got our old-timers’ toughie yesterday; you got one you liked today. Everyone should be happy…to a certain extent.
Marcia Fidler, 1. I'm glad you LOVED it! 2. Since it is one of the few Saturdays you've solved without any look-ups, doesn't that suggest it was on the easy side (if not "too easy for a Saturday")?
Guess I shouldn't be surprised that most everyone else found this one unusually easy. But... not me. Typical tough Saturday workout for me, and had to look up some stuff. No big deal. And... puzzle find: A Sunday from January 12, 1992 by Barbara Springer with the title: "Highly Proper." Some theme answers: RICHARDSHAW JOHNKNIFE PATRICIACAKE ROBERTPIN DONALDBROOK VIRGINIABREAD ALBERTDENTE And there were more. Here's that link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/12/1992&h=53a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/PS?date=1/12/1992&h=53a</a> Hasta manana. ....
A pleasantly whooshy puzzle that I found considerably easier than yesterday's. I did have to change the first T bird of 4 letters that popped into my mind, TERN to TEAL. And I did have to change SELL to CALL for the stock market option. but other than that very smooth sailing. Speaking of sailing, the most surprising answer to me was using TAR to waterproof your sails. Wouldn't it also take the wind out of your sails? And wouldn't it be extremely ugly? I hate seeing that smug, snarky, completely unnecessary phrase AREN'T YOU SPECIAL in puzzles. ALL THOSE AGAINST please raise your hands. Re MASS EMAIL: Anyone who hits the "Reply all" button is being clueless and UNCOUTH. Once, I think I got 40 responses to a question about what day and time worked for our high school class's alumnae Zoom meeting. I didn't do the inviting and I didn't need to know who had a violin lesson that day and who was going to be in Cancun that week and who had a large family dinner, but could do 4:30 EST but not 5:30 EST, etc., etc, etc. As the emails piled up, I wanted to scream out to all the people who really thought everyone cared about all the exquisite details of their social lives: AREN'T YOU SPECIAL? But because I'm not a snarky sort of person, I didn't. Have I ever had my very own HOLLYWOOD MOMENT. I sort of think it would be something I'd remember -- and since I don't, I guess I never had one. A schmoozy, enjoyable puzzle.
@Nancy The mnemonic for stock options is "CALL up, put down" regarding whether you think a security will increase or decrease in value. (I learned that one in MBA school.)
The answer key linked at the end of the article is for a puzzle from March, FYI.
Dear NYT, This is a GLEN: <a href="https://i0.wp.com/oikofuge.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/caenlochan8.jpg" target="_blank">https://i0.wp.com/oikofuge.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/caenlochan8.jpg</a> Behold its gentle slopes. I laughed so hard at that clue that I received strange looks in the coffee shop.
Hi Oikofuge, I too looked askance at the [gentle slopes], but I see that U.S. and British meanings are slightly different. <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/glen" target="_blank">https://www.dictionary.com/browse/glen</a>
Hi, @Oikofuge! It's so good to see you back in the Uncanny Valley of Wordplay! I hope you stay around awhile!
@Oikofuge Beautiful. But why doesn't Scotland have trees? Did they once, but they were all cut down? Or do they simply not grow there?
@Oikofuge They may have had the Irish glens in mind? <a href="https://corkandabout.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-glen-of-aherlow.html?m=1" target="_blank">https://corkandabout.blogspot.com/2012/09/the-glen-of-aherlow.html?m=1</a>
Thought this was a fun and fast one! I particularly liked 16 across, "What you might here when you get someone's goat." for BLEAT. That one especially made me chuckle. GENERALELECTION was pretty much a gimme and gave a big leg up over on that side of the puzzle. But I always enjoy spanners. Someone asked us last night if we voted in the recent primary. I was surprised at the sharp tone of my answer that came out: Of course we voted, said I! I know a lot of people don't, especially in a primary, but in Minnesota we have excellent voter turnout always and it just sort of surprised me to be questioned... And then it truly surprised me that I was so surprised. Har!! That said, the very same yesterday, we found out about another friend who doesn't ever vote. And that was even more shocking. And sad. And borderline infuriating.... Anyhow, it was a fun puzzle! And I actually laughed out loud at some of the snarky, but not actually unkind, comments out here today. I honestly wish I had even half the confidence of the folks who assert with absolute certainty that clue or answer is undeniably wrong.... when entering three lil words into their search engine of choice would show them that they in fact are wrong, not the puzzle, and they'd have had the chance to learn something. I just can't imagine having that level of confidence. Now that I think about it, I'm actually glad I don't have that level.
@HeathieJ Trivia time: Poland doesn't have primaries. Most countries don't, I think? I kinda like the idea though.
Matt? An apt name for a yoga instructor? People would just walk all over you.
Another great day for constructor notes. Fortunately, I haven't been harmed by a "reply all", at least not yet. But about 20 years ago I was working for a smallish startup, and the CEO sent out an email to everyone. He was apparently having an affair with his secretary, because she made a "reply all" blunder that exposed it. The office was a weird combination of cringe and hilarity. I did feel sorry for his poor secretary. She was young and it probably still stings for her.
@Francis Oh my, that would be so mortifying. So much so that I want to read the email. Wow! This is my less-generous side, absolute delight in something so bad. Exposed workplace affairs are high on the list. I can think of a few.
Was this puzzle easy or hard for me? I am really not sure. Quite a few words I never heard before. Like LULU and TEAL and ENTREE (in the clue’s sense). But the solve was very smooth. I love the seeming randomness of the one cell black squares in the middle. Is a distinctive grid methinks. But it provides many ways to hit all corners, so very accessible. 4 spanners. Nice I almost want to make up a reply all story to make the constructor feel better. It’s actually a pet peeve of mine when a person replies all with a question to the sender that is irrelevant to everyone. Sent to all 50 recipients: the meeting starts at 4pm. Reply to all: I’m gonna be 15 minutes late because I have a dentist appointment. Me (1 of 50 recipients). Thinking to myself: I don’t care. If you are late. I don’t need to know why.
@Weak That's not just a pet peeve of yours. It's pretty much universally annoying.
Copy and paste from last Saturday's comment: Would have at least swapped yesterday's and today's. Found this one less challenging, and generally less interesting too. The grid geometry allows four spanners, two horizontal and two vertical. But it also forces a lot of short fill, and we end up with stuff like OHO, OHME, AHEM, ... Will admit to being caught by "The sound that concludes 'The Sound and the Fury'".
A rare Saturday solve without look-ups for me.
I like that NOLTE and LETON are anagrams at symmetric places on the grid.
@Bay Area Native -- ELTON and LENTO in the box would have made it all the sweeter!