Is it just me or lots of teeheehee-ing recently?
@Emma not just you, and it feels like they’re laughing at me :(
@Emma Makes me wonder if it’s the construction program they are all using.
From the two people divided by a common language department: Pudding here usually means dessert. What most of you call pudding we call custard. Pudding here can also mean something savoury like Yorkshire pudding, black pudding (essential for a “full English” breakfast), white pudding and haggis, which some of us find quite tasty especially with a wee dram. The word pudding originally meant offal and Pudding Lane in London was where carts carrying offal traveled to the Thames to dump their bloody loads. It’s also where the Great Fire of London started in 1666 and one of the world’s first one-way streets.
@John Right? That confused me greatly. I thought it was a smart clue indicating a dessert, which delayed my entiring the gimme of HAGGIS for a long time.
@John I (from the US) also thought “pudding” was “dessert,” which haggis definitely is not. However, the haggis I have had couldn’t really be described as an American-style pudding, either, which is (at least to my understanding) a smooth custard.
@John mmm, blood pudding, for dessert, with frangipane!
@John And there we were good, mouths watering for that crusty fried black pudding, nestled next to those luscious eggs and rashers. If this was an all day pub, you might ask, "What's for afters?"
Said the Bartlett to the Bosc, "We make a good pear!" (This pun appeals to a core audience.)
@Mike It would ap-pear so. Anjou gonna ask me why?
@Mike That deserves a nice round of applesauce.
@Mike Sounds like they have a pear-a-social relationship!
@Mike Oddly, they also make a good pare.
WAVE HI... That was a stain on an otherwise very well clued and challenging puzzle. It took me something like 20 minutes to let go of my conviction that it absolutely had to be WAVE at or WAVE to. It took extra long time, but I was able to solve the puzzle on my own, pretty much. I just checked online if my guess of the QB move was correct: crosses and memories of the brief period when my wife watched American football some years ago had given me TEBOWI__, and I thought the entry might be TEBOWING, but it looked so strange I felt I needed to confirm if it was right (btw, while Polish athletes often cross themselves before competing, the sort of religious spectacle Tebow used to make of himself looked positively medieval to me). I'm hopeless with bird names in English but somehow I remembered a kite was a bird, which made the SW corner solveable for me - I found it the hardest section of the puzzle, nearly impossible to deal with, and every little bit helped. As someone who prefers actual words as crossword entries, I wasn't particularly happy with TEEHEEHEE crossing HAHAS, but over the years I have accepted it's the sort of thing that NYT puzzles will occasionally feature (the Polish giggle is different, btw; we say "hi hi", or "hee hee" to you. No "tee" in sight). What's a CATTY-corner? Of course it's mentioned but not explained in the column... (Again: why have a tricky clues section if you're not gonna, you know, actually elaborate on tricky clues and answers there?)
@Andrzej Oh my gosh, WAVEHI was almost the end of me!! That was my hardest little section and I just was flummoxed... I was certain of the V, but could not get past at or to.... Oi!
@Andrzej I had to look it up, because I have always heard and said kitty-corner, probably a Texas variant. It means diagonally opposite. The internet says (so it *must be true) that it comes from the French "quatre," which makes sense, I guess. A quarter turn.
@Andrzej SW corner took me as long as the rest of the grid. Not knowing what Survivor is really hurt me. Wave to before Wave at, which also worked with "called" instead of PHONED. See my reply regarding catty-corner above.
@Andrzej I don’t know anything about Survivor so at least I was not led astray by 37d (eventually filled in from crosses). I had the HI at the end of 35d before any other letters so the idea of greeting someone by “saying ‘hi’“ led easily (for me) to a silent greeting being “wave hi”. Luck of the draw I guess.
@Andrzej I never heard kitty-corner until college, probably from some rural folks, and have heard it maybe once since. It always struck me as a strange and mostly useless expression. I guess some people have trouble with the word diagonal? Wave hi emerged late for me too but I didn't find it awkward. More of a head slap moment.
Took me a bit longer than Saturdays of late, so I appreciated the challenge. Was it the puzzle or the pain meds I’m on from a wee procedure yesterday—I’ll never know. My husband says CATTY corner, I say kitty corner, yet we were born not quite 500 miles apart. Which, as I tell my current European colleagues, is just a pleasant weekend drive.
Wow. I haven’t prepared anything, but I’d like to thank the Academy of Stubborness, the NE corner, the SE corner, the SW corner, and most of all- the NE corner for getting me to where I am, and for believing in me as I stared blankly at the center abyss. You never gave up on me and, well, I owe it all to you. Dad, this one’s for you. Thank you all so much.
Deadheading refers to airline crew that are not working the flight but are traveling to the destination to work a different flight. Flying for free as an airline employee is known as nonrevving (no revenue) or going standby. All airline employees can non-rev, but only flight crew are allowed to deadhead.
@Betsy H Yes! We call it standby here too.
And it has been [railroad lingo] since before anyone was flying.
@Betsy H yeah, saw that too. Yet another example of editors not caring about accuracy.
Hmmm …. A three-stack crossing a five-stack. Try making one of those, or better yet, try making one of those and keeping the grid sans junk. I saw a video a few days ago of a six-year-old who solved a Rubik’s cube five times in a row, averaging 4.52 seconds per solve, for a female world record. Creating a grid like today’s is maybe not that, but it’s not far away. So high props to Brian for coming up with this answer set. And high props as well for the cluing. My five favorite clues, it turns out, are all original. [A bit corrupt, perhaps?] for DATA ROT – Hah! And what a way to class up RETINA with [It’s in the eye of the beholder]! Add seven NYT answer debuts for freshness, including the terrific WE’RE GOOD, and much brain-loving resistance, and this was rich with happy-pings for me, Brian. Thank you, sir!
That took a few minutes and a bit of thought. Not a Saturday of old, but a fine Friday. A few too many expressions for my taste, but not too many proper nouns and a decent mix of interesting clues and surprising answers. Thank you, Brian.
I enjoyed this puzzle, which I solved clockwise from the NE, finishing in the middle where I struggled for a bit. I liked most of the fill, except for TEEHEEHEE. I liked the clue for RETINA, especially because the knee jerk answer, beauty, has the same number of letters. WAVEHI slowed me down a little bit, as I tried wave to and wave at first. I was surprised, and pleased, to see John HIATT, an old favorite of mine, especially his recordings with The Goners, who feature the great Louisiana guitarist, Sonny Landreth. HIATT has written some great songs, including Feels Like Rain, Slow Turning, and Memphis In The Meantime. I also got a kick out HAGGIS, the bogeyman of all Scottish food jokes, making it into the puzzle. Having spent a bit of time in Edinburgh over the past 12 months, the culinary scene there is both vibrant and sophisticated, and the days of deep fried everything are history. HAGGIS, though, is still part of the culture, and I actually rather like it. But then again, I like scrapple too.
@Marshall Walthew also loved RETINA. Pristine cluing!
It's a good thing that I knew "This side up container" (or a frag-ee-lee container) had to be CRATE.... Otherwise, I'm certain I would have clung to kiTTY for dear life. I guess it's also good thing I do know that other parts of the country use CATTY, so I accepted it and moved on. I believe I've only heard it in the wild once, from a person I met from the deep south. Though I have also seen it on those little online quizzes you can do that try to predict where you're from based on how you answer your questions. Somehow they always think I'm either from Wisconsin, which I am, or Rhode island, which I'm definitely not. It's quite puzzling. Good thing I like puzzles! Still, I'll forever be team kiTTY. 😏 Fun puzzle! I liked the clue for RETINA and was very happy that it wasn't beauty. Was surprised to see TEEHEEHEE again so soon, but I liked that it was crossed by HAHAS. Also really liked 14D's YOULIEDTOME for the work of fiction. Several others too! And nice not having to think at all about one down, and I do recommend, if you ever get around these parts, a trip to Duluth and North! Love that big old Lake Superior!! Tonight my friend and I had dinner out and it was going to be between sushi and Chinese, so 1A and 2A really spoke to me. Ultimately, it was decided because, though not shumai, and though I love wasabi, we'd go with Szechuan because I wanted soup dumplings. To sum up, they WEREGOOD! Har!
@HeathieJ Here, it’s pronounced “diagonally across from.”
In Manhattan, kitty-corner. In Missouri, catty-wampus.
@HeathieJ Team KITTY for me too but then we both grew up in Wisconsin.
@HeathieJ In the northeast Twin cities we say kitty also. however, I have a friend from Edina that says catty. So maybe the Mississippi river is a linguistic divide
@HeathieJ Team catty-corner here. But I remember that from childhood because I didn't even know how to spell it.
@HeathieJ I enjoyed TEEHEEHEE crossing HAHAS, too. Also [Scorches] is to SEARS what [Toasts] is to SINGES somehow struck my funny bone. ☺️ But soup dumplings are not Szechuan! 😂 No worries, WE'RE GOOD. 😘
I can live with including both ALI and ALY. I’m not thrilled with having both SEARS and SINGES, but it’s not a big deal. But, in my humble opinion, having both HAHAS and TEEHEEHEE should have been enough for the editors to send the puzzle back for improvement.
The X-Phile, Can't take a joke?
@The X-Phile I can live with all of them in there. Not seeing what rule is being broken here.
I struggled a lot with this one. I was just bedeviled by topics that I have no familiarity with at all, like bike racing, pines with nuts (which made my beat my head repeatedly when I got NUTPINE), pear tarts with their frangipane goop, the culinary arts, gymnasts, webisodes, Madden games with TEBOWING, shopping sprees, , talons on kites ( 😱??? Or is there a raptor called a "kite") Just one nightmare after another. I mean right off the bat [Prepares, as shumai], I assume that's food, but I have no idea what kind. My suspicion is that it's one of the synthetic foods from Cronenberg's, "eXistenZ". Just flat out brutal. Torturous. Like fingernail-pulling. But worst of all...completely fair. Mr. Calahan just threw pitch after pitch that I could not hit. So I finally gave up, put in my best guesses, hit the Reveal Puzzle. I had one typo, and errors in four connected squares, the first two letters of HAUL and CATTY. Worst outing in a long time. That part of the puzzle was especially hard for me. Every single guess I had was equally reasonable, and they all eliminated each other with crosses. Gladium depono.
@Francis I believe that the kite in question is a bird of prey. I think they're similar to falcons. I won't swear by this and I didn't look it up but I used to have a mad crush on a an avid bird lover watcher person. I can't hear about a peregrine falcon without thinking of him. Shumai are dumplings. They aren't my favorite of The dumpling family, but they are tasty. You might find them on a dim sum cart. The lower left was the hardest area for me.
@Francis Oh, and I forgot. I was so exquisitely pleased with myself for having a handle on 36D, the pudding with "neeps and tatties"...I was *sure* it was the pudding from "We Wish You a Merry Christmas", and I was *sure* it was "[f]iggy" or "[f]iggie" or something like that. But I wasn't 100% sure it started with "f". In the end, it does start with "f". Figgy pudding. But it had nothing to do with the puzzle answer. Le lacrime cadono come pioggia.
@Francis Sorry you didn't beat it but glad you enjoyed the fight. I forgot to mention in my earlier post - another sticking point for me was having "stuffs" instead of "steams" for the shumai for a long while. Also nut pine struck me as odd (red painty?) but I allowed it reluctantly.
What a great puzzle! Thanks bunches. Happy Saturday, y’all!
I Loved [HHH] for ETAS. I see that it's been used before, but it was still a surprise. My first thought was veep, but crosses prohibited that. [Real page-turner] for SPEED READER was another favorite. Sports clues used to really stump me. Filling in NINERS with just the N, MIA with no crosses, and TEBOWING with just the TE showed me how far I've come. I still know next to nothing about the games, but I can fake it enough for crosswords. Nice puzzle with some areas of friction. I would have liked a little more of that, but here we are.
@Nancy J. I think we had III (three capital Is) as a clue for Iotas very recently, which made me think about the Hs.
@Nancy J. I had veep too. That was Humphrey, right?
Very tough, thoroughly absorbing, and very gratifying when I finally solved it without a single cheat. Can there be anything more maddening than (I thought) having an answer on the tip of my tongue and not being able to access it? I watched maybe 3 seasons of "The Survivor" until the shtick and sameness drove me away. And I couldn't for the life of me remember the highly prized rewards. They had to begin with a T because of TALON, but what were they??? TORCH? I need a 5-letter plural. Well into the puzzle, I finally remember that the biggest prize conferred IMMUNITY -- but IMMUNITY is much too long. Wasn't it an IDOL? Oh, to have a halfway decent memory. Finally, finally -- and only after I change WAVE TO to WAVE HI and AVER to AVOW -- do I get TARPS. Hey, everyone, IT'S NOT MY FAULT!!!!! I'm pretty sure during the seasons I watched, TARPS had yet to be given out to any of the Survivors. The writers must have come up with the idea later in the run. I'd bet the bank on it! Aha -- it's TEBOWING -- named after the quarterback. I thought there was a TBONE formation in football that was maybe now being spelled TEBONE -- but neither AVER nor AVOW would give me the needed N. Most of my "suffering" was in the SW -- although SENTRIES before SENTINEL caused me some headaches on the East Coast. All the difficulty was in the clues rather than in arcane bits of trivia. Meaning WE'RE GOOD, Brian and I loved this!
90% of this puzzle felt like a standard 2026 Saturday…and then there was WAVEHI. Along with many others, it took me so long to get past my instant conviction that this silent greeting would involve waving “at” or “to” the other person. That blocked me from seeing PHONED or SINGES, which in turn kept me from getting TARPS (having never watched a single episode of Survivor, I didn’t really even try to get that one without the crosses). Great little corner!
Tougher than the average (meaner than the mean)
Flew through the NW, NE, and SE, then really struggled with the remainder. I had TIARA instead of TRAIN and SENTRIES instead of SENTINEL which complicated things. Also kept wanting to put in either WAVETO or WAVEAT in the SW. Had to resort to 3 lookups to get through it all. This was a good puzzle, but still quite frustrating.
@Steve I also had TIARA instead of TRAIN and had WAVETO and WAVEAT before WAVEHI. i had SECURITY instead of SENTINEL. And I had BEAUTY instead of RETINA (a classic trap!). I love me a Saturday that's empty for awhile before it starts to fill. Great job creating and editing this one.
@Steve that SW corner was tough, I had the same errors, plus AVer instead of AVOW
Nice. Give me that little tingle a couple of times that I haven’t gotten to have in a while. Maybe, I wasn’t going to get it. Then… Bing, bang, boom! Thank you to the constructors.
Hmmm…I can’t say this was particularly difficult, but it was certainly the most lopsided solve I ever had. Maybe just because I got my first footholds on the right side, but literally I had the ENTIRE right side of the grid filled out with completely blank space on the left except for TEEH… and the incorrect IDOLS. Sure, fool me on the Survivor clue of all things. I confess I apparently didn’t look at all the downs on the left because EAREXAM at least should have been a gimme. Then I thought at first there was a lot of niche fill here—specifically sports and food—between the HAGGIS and PEARTARTS and WASABI and STEAMS and SINGES and SEARS on the one hand, and the TEBOWING and PELOTON (I only knew that as the name of the company) and NINERS and MIAmi on the other (I am so behind I still thought they were FLA). I felt like I was in the UberEats commercial with Matthew McConaughey suggesting that football was all a conspiracy to sell food. But maybe those just caught my eye, because ultimately there were a lot topics covered in this puzzle, Some interesting associations—TEEHEEHEE and HAHAS (which seemed a little light for a Saturday) and ELEVEN over NINErs. So, pretty daring to have SLOG as an entry in a Saturday, but it certainly wasn’t for me, just a bit different. But ultimately at least an AVERAGE Saturday for these days so I’ll take it. And I learned more than a few things tonight and laughed at a few misdirects which is always my goal.
@SP This was the hardest Saturday I have been able to solve in months - it took nearly an hour...
@SP -- Hand up for right side done and very little on the left.
@SP For me, it was top v. bottom. The top was very easy, but the bottom slowed me down.
@SP For me, top right then kitty-corner, then bottom right then cater-corner. Feeling catty!
I'm KITTY-corner though my southern relations are CATTY-corner so I got that, but some of the rest was a SLOG for me. Was entertained by the puzzling obfuscating cluing, though many expressions were foreign to me with few crossings to help. I believe I prefer HAGGIS to Survivor though they both have unappealing components.
I wasn't that keen on this one. Rather a lot of general knowledge I just didn't know, although I liked RETINA. Red KITES were almost extinct, but have been reintroduced to the UK, which now has 15% of the global population.
@Jane Wheelaghan They’ve really established well in Hampshire, where I used to live. Beautiful birds, so lovely to watch soaring on the thermals. They haven’t spread this far West yet, there are more buzzards in Somerset, also magnificent birds. We have a family of four in the woods behind us. I love to hear them calling to each other.
@Jane Wheelaghan & Helen Wright I lived in rural Buckinghamshire before relocating to Peru and they're super-successful there. Many fond memories of long dog walks in the Chilterns with our majestic airborne companions overhead...
@Jane Wheelaghan They’re fairly common in Sweden too.
Weren't kites used during one or both of the world wars to hunt enemy (and sometimes friendly) carrier pigeons along the South Coast?
A tip of the cap to ya! Fair fa' your honest, sleekit grid Great chieftain o' the puddin-clue! Aboon them a' ye tak me starn, Painch, tripe, or oreos: Weel are ye wordy o' a good skin As lang's my arm.
@Whoa Nellie BTW, kept me starn, lads just poetic licence, innit?
Pecans and Pumpkins and PEAR TARTs, Oh My. What is this, pie day? Okay by me. After my initial hands thrown up in the air, this is impossible response, it went rather smoothly, so I am a happy camper. (Unlike for many, my problem wasn't HI, it was WAVE.) I first came across John HIATT, because of a Bonnie Raitt cover decades ago. And here she is With a Thing Called Love. <a href="https://youtu.be/rK1HC8weDlM?si=cggCjmTB9HCColPp" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/rK1HC8weDlM?si=cggCjmTB9HCColPp</a>
This was a very difficult puzzle! My coffee got cold...and then there was all the erasing! (I had a list of alternative entries in the margin, which habit came in very handy.) PhysicsDaughter is here; she and DHubby have a line-up of college football games to monitor--Penn State being the most important; I heard them discussing how to use various devices so they could watch more than one game at a time. Ye gods. I will be sequestered in a room, sewing, until it's time for me to make dinner. DHubby managed to upend a glass of water at the dinner table--claiming it was "just a dribble"--so I'll just note that the D can stand for more than "Dear." But then he made an "emergency" trip to get an ingredient I needed for a recipe, so redemption IS possible. I hope we see more Saturday puzzles of this caliber.
Goodness that was a toughie. But I liked it, the obligatory sports/name refs notwithstanding. Call me team kitty corner, not to be confused with hospital corners; the old fashioned method of tucking in a flat sheet. Woe betide the nurse (often moi) who did a sloppy job on those. Matron would SEAR you with a look. I knew 7A but not 1A, which held up that corner a bit. I had no idea the BBC had a coat of arms, I had to google it. Nation Shall Speak Peace Unto Nation. Hmmm, who could do with adopting that motto? Re DEADHEADING. I saw an earlier comment confirming what I thought (checked with the resident pilot). That does only apply to positioning air crew. It’s Standby for every other employee.
No complaints here! Kind of a perfect Saturday (yes, for me, folks). Chewy, tough, but also not back breaking. (XWStats users voted "Hard".) I had an awful lot of blank space in the middle for a long time. Everything was ultimately fair and solvable. I had Idols for Survivor and FLA for Marlins for too long. You Lied and Side Bangs were unexpectedly hard and I had "free trade" stuck for a while. And of course I had the wrong kite in mind. Really fine construction on this. Bravo. More Saturday Saturdays please!
I keep thanking Deb for telling readers of Wordplay to try the Friday and Saturday puzzles. I don't always succeed without Google, but this weekend was special and I did both with not lookups. It feels so good. And to make the days evens better, we are having two perfect fall days in Pittsburgh. (I moved here from NY about 9 years ago but haven't bothered to update my location.)
Annoying. I couldn't solve the very tip of the SW corner. I thought WAVEHI was pretty awful. That said, the puzzle was OK but not terribly enjoyable.
@VN Maybe I'm just cranky because I made short work of the entire puzzle and then spent 20 minutes staring at the 4 southwesternmost squares because I couldn't figure out WAVEHI.
Even reading the description of HAGGIS (36D): A savory pudding made from sheep's heart, liver, and lungs minced with oatmeal, onions, suet, and spices makes me more than a bit nauseated. Seems like the sort of dish one would try on a dare.
@RichardZ A gag reflex more serious than a HAHA.
@RichardZ Seems like the sort of dish one would try after a few drams.
@RichardZ I couldn't even read past the first sentence you wrote... I quickly scrolled past to leave this comment! 😂
@RichardZ Or try on a date you ended up with by misake.
@RichardZ, I like haggis, actually. Yes, it’s got organ meat (so does chopped liver), but it’s basically another variety of sausage.
@RichardZ I've had HAGGIS a couple of times. In Scotland, it seems required. But like any of these suspect chopped-up meat things, it really only tastes like a lot of seasoning. Not my favorite, too salty, but not disgusting.
@RichardZ I was in a pub in Scotland, with tables right next to each other. Two lovely women sat right next to us, and one ordered haggis. I said to my then-husband "I can't imagine eating that." When her dish arrived, she asked "Would you like to taste it?" I knew what it was made of, but thinking YOLO, I gulped and said "Yes." And reader, I liked it! Though I don't think I'd ever order it on my own.
@RichardZ A year ago we were in Scotland and most of the restaurants we ate at were offering haggis croquettes. I was very reluctant, but when I tried them they were delicious, and not at all gross.
Having lived in the UK I would argue it's one of the best tasting and original cuisines from the British Isles (along with Cornish pasties) which, no offense to my UK friends, is not necessarily known for its food. Beer, gin and whiskey on the other hand . . . 😙🤌🏻 🥰
This puzzle was not made with me in mind. The middle did me in: PEARTARTS and TEBOWING and PELOTON, WEBISODES, TRADE DEAL AND TEEHEEHEE (again). I knew instantly that kite would be the bird, but couldn't come up with TALON. For some strange reason, DEADHEADING was a gimme, and I should have gotten SPEED READER, but I guess I was too forlorn at that point to give it a little more time. I don't like to give up, but this time I had no choice. Oh, well, you can't win 'em all.
I made this harder on myself than I had to, but in an interesting way. For 35a (Online show pieces) I had WEBIS__ES, but somehow not noticing that “I”, I filled in WEB[I]SitES - thinking I had put in “websites” and that the clue was just not great… This lead to having _EA_HEAtING for 17d (Riding free as an employee in airline lingo). I filled in sEAtHEAtING, which honestly sounded like a great and correct answer (way better than “deadheading” which I got to eventually). Took a while to correct that area. What I learned: Deadheading (in airline lingo) specifically refers to free on-the-clock travel with the airline transporting you to your next assignment. Free personal travel (when there is a seat available) is called non-revenue travel or “non-revving” for short 🤓
Great puzzle!!!! Starting to really love saturdays!
I was feeling good after doing so well on yesterday's puzzle. Not any more.
Thanks, Brian, for the J. HIATT reference. John HIATT’s songbook is extensive and impressive. If you want to check out something recent, his 2021 album with the Jerry Douglas Band, Leftover Feelings, is excellent. A sample: <a href="https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zEBVevAr1cQ" target="_blank">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zEBVevAr1cQ</a>
@Warren I’ve been a fan for decades.
@Warren I was sadly oblivious he was on tour this year! Did you get to see him play in Troy this past Spring? It appears the tour wraps up very soon, with performances in Kent, OH next weekend and final dates in Alexandria, VA at the beginning of the following week. ...I came to the comments looking for posts about HIATT. I fell in love with "Bring the Family" back in the day, but my subsequent attention span has been sporadic. I had a feeling you (and perhaps a few others) would have good things to say. And now I have your recommendation, and something to listen to today. Thanks!
no offense Brian and Will - you wave to someone or say hi - you don't 'wave hi' - Aloha! and Namaste for a truly nerdy Saturday puzzle.
@acjones - Or you wave "at" or "to", but "hi"? That's really reaching.
@acjones I saw him at the market, so far away all I could do was wave hi. Works for me. (Of course I had at and to before hi! That corner was sticky for me.)
@acjones Wave at, to, off, in, bye, hi. Why not?
@acjones Disagreed. Waving hello or hi or bye are all fine, even of it took me too a long time to get it...
I must be old. (Silence, Andrzej!) Early conversating about KITTY vs CATTY entirely ignores what I clung to in the face of ever-mounting crossing evidence: the original CATER.
@Matt Don't tell me what to do, greybeard! So, what's a cater-corner? (Not like I know what a kitty or CATTY-corner is, either...)
TEEHEEHEEs in the rear view mirror _feel_ more recent than they appear…
I haven’t even started today’s big puzzle yet bc I was busy finishing Thursday’s. It was the Scrabble themed one, and I just want to tell Jeff Stillman how much fun it was (though he might not see this) It took me quite a while to see the theme and understand how there could be any fill that was only 2 letters. Can’t say it was a FAST solve but it was definitely a fun solve and it brought me a joy-filled challenge on a very difficult day. Thanks Jeff 😊😊
I really thought I'd have to give in and look things up, but I kept coming back to it and making little bits of headway and I got it! This is definitely the hardest puzzle I've ever solved with no lookups. It was a lot of fun! Great wordplay. I do disagree with catty corner, though :)
@Wyra. Exactly, me too. SESTET brought it home.
There's only one true answer to "result of shopping spree": BILL.
@Dave There's a big trend on youtube: showing one's HAUL from a trip to the thrift store. Said HAUL is then sold online for enormous profits, by the cognoscenti. Check it out!
"Deadheading" gave me a vision of a shears wielding gardener dancing in a tie-dyed flight attendants uniform. A vision, not a hallucination.
@Dale M Young harried William Shatner: "There's a gardener on the wing of this plaaaaaaaane!!"
Well, I’m first here, so I guess that means it was another easy one.
I really enjoyed this solve, felt like my hunches were connecting. THEBEEB, forexample. Liked [It's in the eye of the beholder]/RETINA. Lastly two of my favorite words are frangipane (almond cream, cited in one of this puzzle's clues) and frangipani (a type of flowering plant).
MEAN is truly a good title for this puzzle - Tebow himself is part of this operation: Ironic this puzzle came out the day this came out: <a href="https://apnews.com/article/tim-tebow-life-surge-4dbc0ed030c48ab3bf7516b76cb5f14a" target="_blank">https://apnews.com/article/tim-tebow-life-surge-4dbc0ed030c48ab3bf7516b76cb5f14a</a>
Tough one for me and couldn't quite work it all out. More than a couple of completely unfamiliar answers (WEBISODES, DATAROT for example). No big deal. And my usual puzzle find. A Thursday from August 26, 2021 by Ashish Vengsarkar. Don't recall another one like this. Some examples with the crossing letter in parentheses. MAL(I) SUR(I)NAME (those clued as MAL and SURNAME NO(R)WAY (R)WANDA (NOWAY and WANDA) TONG(A) PANAM(A) And there were others. And then, the 'reveal': CROSSCOUNTRY Thought that was pretty clever. Here's the link: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/26/2021&h=57a" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=8/26/2021&h=57a</a> ....
Tough but fair, took me 30% longer than my Saturday average. Today I learned about both TEBOWING and DEADHEADING. Got stuck on SENTRIES for the longest time, a 'party' being either a person or a group. And with no idea what frangipane is, I had TIRAMISUS clogging up the middle of the board. Seems I was thinking of mascarpone, haha teeheehee. Challenging, but in no way a slog. Well done!
@James B Frangipane is made out of almonds. It tastes like marzipan. Yum.