This one started hard but finished easy. Lots of fresh answers, and a newish clue for old standby ORALB. LOWPH and STPAT provided some strange letter combinations. Lots to like.
I thought this was actually a decent challenge for me, I’m surprised the early returns were on the easier side. Not that the grid was so imposing (although I also thought it solved like four separate corners, which is its own challenge); but I did think there were a tremendous lot of great clues here. First among them was the brilliant “Why wait?”—which proves my point that even the most mundane fill can have a top-notch clue that can’t be solved easily without crosses. I thought there were a lot of sterling clues in this puzzle which had me going for a long while. Curious to see how this shakes out with later comments. Call out to MOIRA and the late Catherine O’Hara who has given us so many laughs, rest in peace. Happy New Year to all who celebrate!
@SP Shana Tova to you and the other MOTs here!
One may almost feel nostalgic for the grueling PROBLEM SET in, say, group theory. Now we have problem sets like {climate crisis, forever wars, voter suppression, measles} Your problems, er, mileage, may vary.
@Cat Lady Margaret let’s hope that your contribution gave at least one person pause to question their blind obsession with the mango Mussolini. Either that or take off a few. Either way.
Y’all realise if you’re in the first 20 commentators you’ll almost certainly have found the puzzle easy by definition, right? Tremendous fun.
@spurious I gather you mean that if you're in the first 20, you've done the puzzle fast. And perhaps because of your dedication, you're more likely to tackle the puzzle as soon as it comes out, which also increases the probability that you're an experienced solver. All true. But remember, that even though experienced solvers can solve faster than newbies overall, and do better for the most part, we are also equipped to notice that a puzzle is easier or harder than average for its day of the week. And we have xwstats.com, which today calls this puzzle Easy: 🌎 Global Stats Difficulty Easy Median Solve Time 9:24 Median Solver 26% faster ⚡98% of users solved faster than their Saturday average. 61% solved much faster (>20%) than their Saturday average. 🐢2% of users solved slower than their Saturday average. 0% solved much slower (>20%) than their Saturday average. The 26% faster tracks with my own 23.4% faster, compared to Saturday medians. When a puzzle is harder than usual (e.g. last Friday), we can tell. That doesn't mean we can't solve it, just that it will take us longer. Hope this all makes sense.
@spurious I finished today’s puzzle 38% faster than *personal* average from recent (last 60 days) Saturdays. As things currently stand, the median solver on xwstats has finished today’s 28% faster than *their own* Saturday average (again, computed over the last 60 days). People will say the darndest things to convince themselves that puzzles they find satisfyingly challenging are not, in fact, **a ton** easier (on average) than the puzzles from 10+ years ago...
@spurious Or you could just be an insomniac. Asking for a friend.
@spurious Comment of the Week, at least
I am a new puzzler, and I was really proud that I figured out TEAKETTLES immediately, only to be later disappointed that the answer was actually HANDDRYERS :( Still had a super time though!
A friendly reminder that the following two things can be both true and peacefully coexist: (1) a commenter can opine that the puzzle was easy or perhaps not befitting of the day it was scheduled (2) the creativity, the shine, the sparkle of the puzzle and the incipient joy a first-time solver can feel after completing a later-week crossword is no less diminished This comment section thrives off of respectful debate and I wouldn’t want either party to be subdued in their reaction ;-)
@Mishlev good point!! As an experienced solver whose comments are often in the "pfft too easy" vein I try to remain positive. But sometimes I forget there are new solvers enjoying the struggle. I sometimes like to add my feedback in the hopes that the editors are using some kind of AI aggregator on the comments section... but this hope is probably in vain. For those of use who enjoy truly hard Saturdays, it's hard to get over the disappointment of whipping through the puzzle in record time but I'm always glad when others enjoy a puzzle more than I did.
There’s another OTT ?!!!!??!!???
I usually solve in the mornings, but decided to wind down for bed with this instead. It was going pretty well, until about halfway through, when an ENORMOUS SPIDER ran into the middle of the room and stopped a few feet from me. I bravely covered it with a glass, then covered that glass with my largest pot so the cats can't knock the glass over. I then put a sticky note on it that says what's underneath. There are others in this house who will handle the rest better than I in the morning. My heart is beating like a jackhammer even after finishing the puzzle. Let this be a warning to everyone - doing a Saturday puzzle may not be as relaxing as you think it will! Fingers crossed I get any sleep tonight at all.
@Wyra I used to be very uneasy around spiders but then a really huge one spun his or her web in our bedroom window. I quickly realized it was the perfect protection against mosquitos and other bugs. My wife and I named the spider Bernard (or Bernardyna) and considered him/her part of the household. But then one day a bird snatched Bernard... I didn't have it in me to remove the ever more tatty web from the window for weeks! Anyway, I've actually liked spiders since then.
@Wyra That’s funny you say that, as I’m doing the puzzle I’m watching a spider that’s built its web across the window above our hvac return. When the unit turns on the web gets shaken like a rollercoaster…I think this thing might be having fun?
That was a nice little workout. Just enough to make it interesting. Still not the level of the Saturday puzzle that feels like having an Osterizer inside my skull. Fun, though. Thanks.
Jake G, Not sure if you do the Mini, but I’m wondering: does an Osterizer in your skull turn the brain into oysters, or ostriches? :)
For anyone not aware of Moss HART—maybe not a household name (although he did win a Pulitzer Prize)—but a great time to see about viewing his masterpiece “You Can’t Take It With You”, an American theater classic which has a great film adaptation which won a best picture/best director Oscar.
It was a challenge, but in a good way. Just keep plugging and you can get it.
I found the puzzle challenging in parts, but enough of the names were gimmes for me, e.g. HART, ALY, ALITO (gulp). And many of the ? clues led me right to the answers, such as ORAL B, SCAB and SODS. Despite Issa Rae being almost as common as Oreo in these parts, I got that answer only from the crosses, and didn't get the pun until I read the column. It helped to get DELAYED REACTION right away, and it also got me to change HAIR DRYER to HAND. On another note, I've stated a couple of times that I have developed severe vision problems. I always proofread anything before I send it, but despite that, I have been missing typos. Someone who is a regular commenter here made what I thought was a snarky comment on one of my errors last night. Excusable for someone who's not here all the time, but not in this case. I hope that things don't get so bad that I have to stop posting here or, heaven forfend, have to give up doing the puzzle. I hope the rest of you will be kind.
@Times Rita I'm sorry you feel that someone was snarky about your typo. I didn't see it, so I can't judge whether it was mean or in jest, but it obviously bothered you. I find that people who like to jump on others for typos or grammatical errors have issues. It's a small minded way to feel superior and is really kind of pathetic. Luckily, people like that are in the minority. Most of us make enough of own own mistakes to worry about what others do.
@Times Rita Sorry about your vision problems. Even though I'm here everyday, I was not aware. I have vision problems, too, and make typos and proofing errors all too often. I even made one yesterday in a response to the Agra part of your comment. Please don't stop commenting because of what happened yesterday.
@Times Rita I just read your comment yesterday, and I think I know the post you mean—honestly I think they were just amused and while perhaps the response wasn’t in the best of taste if they know your vision problem, I don’t think it was meant to be snarky, and they would probably be horrified that you took it that way. Despite their handle I don’t think they have a mean bone in their body. If it was another post that I missed and they were really trying to be snarky, well, that’s a shame but you shouldn’t let it spoil your fun here, you are a valued member of this community. And Lord knows I have about of my own typos without vision problems and with my due diligence, we all should be aware of it—but sometimes autocorrect still pops in funny ones and it’s hard not to have a laugh at it. Wishing you joy and better health in the New Year and many enlightening comment exchanges to come.
@Times Rita I am sorry that you felt hurt by that. It's so hard when you're struggling with something so difficult and you feel that someone is poking at you about it. For what it's worth, assuming it's a comment that's still there and hasn't been removed, I truly think she was poking fun at herself for not realizing it was just a typo. I don't think she was being snarky to you. I think it's that it finally dawned on her that it was a typo and she said duh about herself. Sometimes it's just so hard to tell out here, meaning any kind of online comment board, especially one like this where you can't even edit. Wishing you well and hoping there are some good resolutions for your vision issues.
I really enjoyed a lot of the clues and found it clever. I also enjoyed the personality of the constructors that showed through. However, I agree with others that it was easy for a Saturday. The fun did last a little longer than the Sunday rut we were in for awhile, of Across, Down, Mop-up Across, done. This one was Across, Down, Across, Mop-up Down, done. Took about half the time of my recent Saturdays. On the other hand, that gives extra time to read these comments. And to think of responses to anyone who personally denigrates the efforts of constructors or editors. The editors are trying to make us all happy. As they continue to fine-tune the weekly progression from beginner to expert level, I want to place my vote for having the climb to Saturdays a bit steeper--to make the die-hards happy one day a week.
Bravo for [Labor pain?] being SCAB. It finally clicked. But I think it's bait for people like me, who for a long time thought "But...except in the case of Caesarian, there is no scar with labor, right?"? Trying to get us to post something that will make me look stupid? Well, you've gone to a lot of trouble for nothing. I do that all by myself all the time.
@Francis It's not unheard-of for an OB to make a cut (episiotomy) to make the fetus's exit speedier/easier, but I don't know about resulting scarring. And labor can be quite painful, (and unforgettable) so I guess it depends on whether those scars count...
@Francis IMO, you're thinking of the wrong type of labor. When a union is on strike, the non-members hired to take their place are called scabs.
Festy, I think you missed "It finally clicked" in Francis's post.
I knew STAMPbook at 30D was an anachronism, but it was fun to remember collecting S&H green stamps with my mother and pasting them into the little booklet. When the pages were full we traded it in for an Osterizer blender, which we used to make frothy glasses of orange juice from frozen concentrate every morning for the rest of my childhood.
@Marc A. Leaf That sounds yummy. I'll have to try it. I use the blender to mix powdered milk and water and it is frothy just like at Starbucks!
Now that was a fine Friday puzzle. I'd be curious to know how many other clues were changed from Adam and Michael's original submission (see Constructor Notes). I would have thought they had a Saturday in them.
"Late great" is a fantastic clue for 8D. Sorry the editors vetoed it. I discerned the answer fairly quickly after first trying DELAYED LAUGHTER. This wasn't particularly chewy for a Saturday.
@JMW I tried DELAYED RESPONSE first.
@JMW Strongly disagree about the rejected clue. It's bad. Even if the rest of the puzzle were filled with two word cryptics it would still be awkward and shoehorned.
This was OK-ish. I enjoyed the fact there actually was some misdirection, which sadly is not a given on Saturdays anymore. Still, my solve time of 25 minutes seems to indicate the difficulty was Friday-ish. PWN may be gamer slang for "own" but it's also short for Polskie Wydawnictwo Naukowe, Polish Scientific Publisher. It was a state-owned publishing house under "communism", one that published all encyclopedias, dictionaries, academic books and textbooks. It was privatized in 1991 and is still around. Their dictionary of the Polish language is still one of the two most authoritative in the country, along the online dictionary of Polska Akademia Nauk, Polish Academy of Sciences, a major state-owned research institution. Is the supposed pun in the name of the production company simply about HOORAE sounding like hooray? Is neologistic homophony punny of itself? Or am I missing something? Hopefully one day I will remember if Raisman the gymnast is spelled ALY or ALi 😃
@Andrzej The other piece is that the production company belongs to Issa Rae of frequent crossword fame. While I hadn’t heard of it, I was able to get RAE once I had the AE and then the rest from crosses and guess the pun.
@Andrzej For me, the answer to how Ms Raisman spells her name is not the way you think. 🙂Though I must admit the placement of her Y in the crossing clue looked pretty suspect until I figured that out.
@Andrzej and Vaer Just remember Aly Baba.
I have no idea how i solved this without a look up. That said, a mournful anniversary today for all. May the souls who were lost and continue to suffer feel the honor and respect they deserve.
Couldn't quite work my way through this one. No big deal - that's a typical Saturday. And... can't quite explain why, but three 15 letter answers popped into my head this morning and was quite surprised that none of them had ever been in a puzzle. Seems like they would have made for quite a nice theme. Anyway- those answers: DEERAFEMALEDEER DROPOFGOLDENSUN NAMEICALLMYSELF And what to use for the clues for those would be quite obvious. I'm done. See you tomorrow. ....
Well, there was a famous baseball player named OTT, so maybe there's also an NBA coach named OTT. And HOTHRA sounds like it could be a name. So in goes the T -- and I hope I'm right. Forgot to look. Oh, do I feel sorry for you people who never watched "Schitt's Creek". Whatever would you have done with OIRA/STA?OCARD. This is one of the rare times I knew a pop culture TV answer and, boy, did it help me out. I want real decor when the word "decor" has a French accent. Both CHANDELIER and CANDELABRA fit. But none of the crosses worked. So I waited for the more prosaic LAMP SHADES to come in. Oh, c'mon -- everyone has LAMP SHADES. Maybe the LAMP merits a French accent mark, but not just the SHADES. My "free" was ON THE HOUSE before it was ON THE LOOSE. Two clues I loved: TORO (11D) and SHOES (26A) I thought this puzzle was the perfect combo of challenging and whooshy and found it very enjoyable.
"And HOTHRA sounds like it could be a name. So in goes the T -- and I hope I'm right. Forgot to look." Nancy, You were right with the T, but it's MOTHRA, not hOTHRA. Maybe look to see what you have for 43 Across?
@Nancy we were so on the same page today! I am also not a fountain of knowledge when it comes to pop culture but I do love Schitt’s Creek! Very helpful indeed. I also really enjoyed “shoe” and “toro”. Very clever and fun. Like you, I also tried chandelier and candelabra initially. Overall enjoyable puzzle and solve! Happy Saturday!
Predictably, PWN was last to be entered (or rather, the P part.) I have never heard of a STAMP CARD (even ye olde Green STAMPs had a little booklet to fill) but oh well. FIgments of Constructor Imagination must be tolerated. We enjoyed "Schitt's Creek" but of course the names of characters were blowin' in the wind....fiiiiinally got MOIRA. Oh, and Guys? Next time, Pleeeeeeze, can it be Godzilla vs. BAMBI?
@Mean Old Lady, a stamp card is also called a customer loyalty card. It's usually the size of a business card, with marked off spaces to ink stamp each visit. After ten coffee purchases, for example, you might get a free coffee. It's not a figment of anyone's imagination; if you've seen them, you just might not have known that term.
@Mean Old Lady Each time you order a burrito at my favorite place, they STAMP your CARD. When you fill it you get a free burrito.
@Mean Old Lady Back in the day we had hole punch cards, but I don't remember what they called them.
Breezy but nice. Thick AS A Brick had one of the best album covers ever. You couldn't do that with a CD or digital album. "Mongel dog soils actor's foot" They don't make them like that anymore.
@Nancy J. I still have my original LP with the "newspaper" insert. TAAB, however, takes 2nd place to their LP package for "Stand Up". The "pop-up' was pretty unique.
I was a little worried at first because the only names I knew off the bat were ALITO and MOIRA. It turned out to not be a problem, so that was good, I guess. It went surprisingly fast for a Saturday, I did enjoy it and thought it had a number of fun and fresh entries. The clue for SHOES, TORO, and even good old ORALB were fun and fresh. 22A for on the LOOSE, instead of house, did get me for a bit until I was pretty sure that there was no such tool called LEVEh. Wish they'd have left the DELAYEDREACTION clue as the constructor had originally suggested. Would have led to more of a fun aha That said I do love a good spanner! Any mention of Moira and the fabulous Catherine O'Hara is a cause for smiles! Fun and fast puzzle! I have been using flat elastic bands to do gentle exercises to try to rebuild the strength I lost in the last couple years when I was experiencing extreme nerve pain and migraines. We found some treatments that help with that stuff, so now I'm trying to rebuild. That said, if I had to do a rowing machine in a gym right now, shoot, I'd probably have to fall onto the thing, roll out of it, roll myself all the way to the car, and hope someone has mercy on me and unceremoniously shoves me into the driver's seat. Instead of ergs, I would call it an ughs or eeks machine. Har! Think I'll be sticking to my elastic bands for a while. ☺️
@HeathieJ Please make sure to warm up before exercise, and to stretch as you wind down. Best consult a physio for details. It made a huge difference for me.
@HeathieJ Make sure you check the bands for any signs of stress before using them each day. I used to check mine every once in a while, but a couple of years ago, I was doing fast side stepping with a band around my ankles and my band snapped. I hit the floor really hard and landed right on my trochanter. Luckily, I didn't injure myself, but I had a giant bruise that lasted for months.
The fills for this one seemed almost too simple, but the clues made up for that. The only way I sailed into some of them was when the crosses blew away the smokes screens, and lovely long entries emerged that were a pleasure to write in. Even then, mistakes were possible. Anyone else try "laughter" first? Adam and Michael, you've given me some smiles and satisfaction that eased this somber day. Thank you.
I'm usually among the loudest easening whiners. Not today. I thought this a solid Fraturday by modern-day reckoning. Mothra and Godzilla were very much off again on again throughout their road-pic ANTICS, for the record.
@Matt You and I are in the same page today, which makes me feel better because I thought it was a decent challenge as well, so I’m not just losing my touch. Shana Tovah to everyone on Spring Hill.
@Matt @SP Ok, have we gone through the bizarro mirror or something? I actually thought it was fairly easy tonight. Sure, there were places when my puzzie sense seemed to hone in on the trick quickly (ORALB for [Toothbrush handle?], REPO for [Acquire by default?], ERASES for [Takes marks off in a classroom?]). I almost think a puzzle that *wasn't* trying to trick me might be trickier for me now. But this is very much a "pride goeth before a fall" situation, so I'd keep my piehole shut if I had any sense.
@Matt Eh, I’d say this was an unusually easy Saturday even by post-Easening standards, and xwstats reflects that (38% faster than average for me vs. 28% for the median solver…and that’s relative to Saturdays *from the last 60 days*).
Excellent excellent puzzle! Brilliant misdirects and cryptic clues, and fun long entries. Bravo!
My confidence in “on the HOUSE” rather than “on the LOOSE” really slowed me down right at the end there. But a fun time all the way through!
One thing I like about themeless crosswords is the conceptual wiggle room for fitting long answers side-by-side; it was a joy to have four sets of 3x10, not to mention a couple of 15s, to boot! Somehow managed to solve this one quicker than usual but I enjoyed every minute of it. 22A got me good, initially guessing HOUSE. I also liked 25A and 35D, and 4D/24D were a funny pair as well. Thank you!
@Anonymous i’m guessing that a significant percentage of folks, besides you and me, had HOUSE first.
Nice to know that both other commenters and XWStats users agree with me that this was yet another easy Saturday, although at least a little cleverer this time. The clues highlighted by the columnist were all simple. I would add that the rejected clue for 8D isn't very good at all in my opinion. Inartful and properly declined. I actually liked the puzzle though. :)
Don't know what to think of this one. It wasn't a hard solve, but it felt like one. I think it's because it wasn't a fun puzzle to solve, but more of a utilitarian slog. I reckon if the creator hadn't tried to trick people with some clues it would have been pretty easy. I had to pencil in some educated guesses and solve acrosses and downs as one. All in all, a bit of a 'meh' puzzle. I'm neither satisfied, nor dissatisfied with it. I just was...
I am astonished (in a respectful way )at the drilling down of the stats/difficulty of any given puzzle. After a puzzle I spend a few moments on this forum and sample posts for a general feel. If I get a gold star yay. If it’s blue yay. Today’s reader’s picks wowed me. Everything you wanted to know (or didn’t) can be found there about today’s puzzle. Dedication to the art form at its finest.
[First full word sung in “The Alphabet Song”] For those of us who care deeply about the fact that we still have to quietly hum the song to ourselves as we flip through the Unabridged OED, the use of “full word” here seems awkward. Some of us have suggested “double” (see earlier post(s)), which appears as W’s given name (and so if we called B ‘half-eight’ I suppose ‘half’ would have been mentioned). But if ‘double’, which is a word that is ‘sung’ as part of the name of one of the letters, could be the answer, then wouldn’t ‘A’ be the first, since surely ‘a’ is a “full word”?? Many letters’ names, or parts thereof, as sung, sound like “full” words. And we crossword puzzle solvers certainly know that letters’ names frequently appear here as crossworthy words. Then, there is the issue of whether you sing the word “AND” before any other non-letter words. So, the accurate clue would have been “First word that is not also the name of a letter, or part of the name of a letter, sung in the version of “The Alphabet Song” most widely familiar in the opinion of the constructor and editors.” Much better! :)
@JohnWM Especially for those of us with toddlers, there are so many versions of this song now that are used to avoid the issue with kids learning “elemeno” as one letter (LMNO) due to pacing of the traditional version. Many of those versions do not have the “and” in between letters or even the last few lines of words at all. E.g. If you sing it to Mary had a little lamb tune, there are NO full words that are not just a letter anywhere in the song.
JohnWM, Solving with a stylus on a stone tablet, I tend to check the crosses before entering anything. That got me to AN_, so I avoided the issue and didn't have to sing the song again.
Nice Natick with stampcard, pwn, Moira.
@David Johnson I had “own” first for 45A (with the common intentionally typoed variation that turned out to be the answer ready as a backup in mind)—probably a bit out of the wheelhouse of many NYT readers but very common in gamer circles and by no means a debut in these puzzles. STAMP CARD is hardly the stuff of Naticks, and I’d forgotten the Schitt’s Creek character’s name, but the clue makes it clear that it’s a feminine name, so that wasn’t too difficult with a few crosses.
@David Johnson Man, is the bar low for what a "Natick" is
In current monsterverse lore, Mothra and Godzilla are allies. Just saying.
Mothra is an ally of Godzilla. She fights with him
@George The why is there a movie Mothra vs Godzilla? Although there’s also a movie Superman vs. Batman and I wouldn’t call them adversaries either. But I do believe in that movie at least Mothra was an adversary of Godzilla.
@George When Mothra made her first appearance circa 1960 I believe she was Godzilla’s foe.
I'm alito worried that someone is going to point out 28A, and then there'll be yet another round of debate about what is and isn't fair game for a puzzle. I sure hope nobody notices it.
@Francis For our international solvers, perhaps old Sam isn't fair game for the puzzle, but well-read Americans should be familiar with the names of the Supremes. Especially these days.
Lovely. And BrokenRecordCC adds, [Toothbrush handle] [Last place] [Phone connector] are all sparkly gems. It’s Saturday. Whyyy the question marks? I leave you with a bit of wisdom from the great Moira Rose, "Worry is but undernourished enthusiasm."
This was an enjoyable solve. A very nice puzzle. But not up to the kind of challenge I like to struggle with on a Saturday puzzle. For example, if you know what "capacious" means (or can guess it from the word "capacity"), then you will enter ROOMY right away. The clues for the long answers were enough to suggest DELAYED REACTION and THAT'S MORE LIKE IT right away, and ditto for OH, NOW I SEE and OVEN TIMER. In my opinion, in a Saturday puzzle this should not be possible: Every clue should be some kind of enigma to be solved. Fortunately, I can go to the puzzle archives and tackle harder puzzles, ones that I just might not be able to solve without lookups. Those are true Saturday puzzles. It is a shame that the editors are fixing something that wasn't broke.
Holy smokes, I can't believe I got a clean solve on this one. The SE corner was hopeless until it wasn't. I took a big leap of faith and just started filling in the downs with wishful thinking type answers until WHITE NOISE and PROBLEM SETS appeared. I only got SOONER because I used to work with one, who was more than happy to explain the origin of the term. And that luck made HAND DRYERS appear. Majestic! Wonderful Saturday, I loved it.
@Ian You piqued my interest. I got SOONER from the crosses but I had no idea what it was. I thought maybe a kind of cattle, given longhorn. Now I know: Longhorns and SOONERS are sports rivals. And SOONERS were those who jumped the gun on the land grab: I remember it from history class in college. From Widipedia: [Sooners is the name given to settlers who entered the Unassigned Lands illegally in what is now the state of Oklahoma before the official start of the Land Rush of 1889. The Unassigned Lands were a part of Indian Territory that, after a lobbying campaign, were to be opened to American settlement in 1889. President Benjamin Harrison officially proclaimed the Unassigned Lands open to settlement on April 22, 1889. As people lined up around the borders of the Oklahoma District, they waited for the official opening. It was not until noon that it officially was opened to settlement. The name derived from the "sooner clause" of Proclamation 288 — Opening to Settlement Certain Lands in the Indian Territory, which stated that anyone who entered and occupied the land prior to the opening time would be denied the right to claim land.] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooners" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sooners</a>
While fun, it def felt more like a Wednesday puzzle.
16A [Round figure] OVAL? That's like saying, IMO: 1A [Apple?] ORANGE
@lucky13 😂😂😂 Exactly. An oval can't be round because it's OVAL!
@lucky13 "Round" can refer to general shape, and does not necessarily mean perfectly circular. We say that the Earth is round, or that a person has a round face.
Quite crunchy I thought, but in a good way. The unknown names were the biggest holdups, but I got there in the end. Looking at the completed grid I’m not sure why it felt so tough, but that white space seemed to take a while to fill. Misdirect at 22A had me stick with house for too long, but couldn’t work out what 1D could be ending in H. Can someone enlighten me on 25A? I get that TIP links to being a waiter, but ‘why wait?’ ? I’m flummoxed.
@Helen WrightI think the full sentence would be why should one wait for a living and the answer is for the tips. PS I also had house for the longest time before loose.
I love me 4 triple stacks and 2 spanners with multiple clever misdirections. I liked seeing the word lowph turn into Low PH as I filled in the crosses. Am I the first to take a Victory Lap after completing? Someone had to!
Anyone besides me, when they sing the ABC song, sing "NOW I've learned my ABC's ..."?
@Suzanne See my comment about 6 before yours.
@Suzanne Exactly what I had filled too!
@Suzanne I've always heard it as "Now I know." It's probably one of those regional things whereby if you ask someone a dozen or so of them you can pin down what part of the country they grew up in.
@Suzanne that’s the trickiness of the clue. now is the first word you think of, but you gloss over that you say Y AND Z first.
@Suzanne, yes, and I sing "w, x, y, z" without the "and"!
@Suzanne But "x, y AND z" comes before NOW.
@Suzanne I do too; but AND still comes first
@Suzanne I learned it with several ANDs. (In Georgia but not in Atlanta. Bruce, Rich, how many ANDs did you learn?) Q, R, S, and T, U, V, W, X, and Y and Z, Now I know my ABCs
The constructors sound like a law firm and their puzzle cross-examined me to a fare-thee-well. "pwn" was nearly my downfall but "stamp card" (a guess) came to my rescue after nearly an hour of floundering around. Otherwise it was a well-constructed closing argument!
I enjoyed many of the clever clues (the joke, SHOES, the LAP) but for me too much general knowledge was needed, (like ERIK, HART, MOIRA) and I didn't know it. Frustrating, but on we go. MAIMS has appeared a few times recently in various crosswords, having its 15 minutes of fame.
A humdinger! Felt like a bag of saltwater taffy or jelly beans with 50 different flavors.