A perfectly fine puzzle. But not Saturday difficulty by any means.
@Dan Agree completely. My completion time was closer to a Wednesday.
@Dan Yes, it was a lovely puzzle, but a Saturday NYT puzzle should not be solvable in the time it took me to solve this one.
@Dan Agreed. After struggling with yesterday's puzzle (many look-ups, including use of the answer key), I was quite leery about today. Instead, I think this was my fastest Saturday ever.
@Dan It was an odd one. It felt intimidating at first, and I didn’t have much filled out after the first pass, but then everything fell together for a solve in about half my average Saturday time. Probably too easy after all, but there were some fun clues, at least.
After plotting out my crossword times for this week, and noting a distinctly exponential look to the curve, I'd extrapolated that today's was going to take me until Tuesday. It did not, and I am *not* going to complain about it, not one bit! Thank you, Logan, for a fun, non-soul-crushing puzzle!
this is a puzzle that should give Heart to aspiring solvers - it's not as easy as seasoned players make it out to be - you get better at the crossword the more you do it and learn the ropes. much like any other learning curve once you become an adept it's easier - that doesn't mean it's Easy - you just get better at it Fine puzzle Mr. Logan - and a beautiful grid to boot - well done!
Very lovely puzzle. A joy to solve, though I must point out (not in any negative way) that it was solved in about half my usual Saturday time. Very fun nonetheless!
Well, I had a grand time racing around the outer track and filling in the donut hole. That was fun. Afterward, I took a closer look and found much to praise. • The grid design (a NYT debut), just lovely, like all of Robert’s Times grids. Want to see a gallery of grid beauty? Look here: <a href="https://www.xwordinfo.com/Author/Robert_Logan" target="_blank">https://www.xwordinfo.com/Author/Robert_Logan</a> . • An uber-low 62-word box so cleanly filled, with few arcane answers. Try making one of those sometime. • Freshness. Of the 12 longs framing the grid – eight of them, I repeat, eight, are NYT debut answers. Wow! • Speaking of which, those debuts add distinction to the Times oeuvre. I especially like LOSES LUSTER, ROYAL PAIN, SLEEP DEPRIVED, and SOFT HEARTED, and can’t believe that they have never appeared before. Not to mention the smile I broke into at [Ubiquitous head coverings] for SCALP. A fun romp through a high-quality grid. Thank you for making this and all you put into it, Robert!
P.S. -- Kinda cool, given how PESO is clued -- [Tip of Baja?] -- to see PITA in the box, and reading it backwards.
"... a high-quality grid." Lewis, Indeed, but with mostly Monday/Tuesday clues. ALAS.
Major error. 23D. YEAST is NOT used in a sourdough starter. Sourdough starter consists of flour and water. Thats it. One of the reasons I have and use sourdough starter is to avoid the use of yeast. When I do have the time, I will use yeast as my leavener. Shame on editors for letting this get through.
@nash.mark I had a similar reaction. In reality there is yeast - the yeast in the air. But there is no commercial yeast, for sure. I'm surprised it passed the editors as well.
@nash.mark I think we've been down this road before. As I recall, it depends on how one defines an "ingredient". It is true that yeast is often not added, but there's enough floating around in the air that it gets included in the flour and water just through our septic environment, along with other bacteria.
@nash.mark Are you under the impression there is no yeast in a sourdough starter? What exactly do you think you are feeding?
@nash.mark There’s definitely yeast. Otherwise it’s just paste! You don’t add it- you wait for it to settle and grow, but there’s no sourdough without it .
@nash.mark yeast exists in the flour that's why it ferments and becomes sour.. you're mistaken have a nice day
@nash.mark The constructor was careful to describe the yeast as a “component”. Starter is a system of which the components are flour and water added by you and wild yeast and bacteria provided by the environment.
@nash.mark I'll PILEON. Flour and water that's it doesn't grow or burp.
@nash.mark Maybe the clue could have been better? "An ingredient in some baked goods" or suchlike.
@nash.mark I'm curious about the 40 "likers" of this post, none of whom seem to have replied here. All the replies (except arguably the first one) have pointed out that the post was simply incorrect and its claims and "shaming" way off base. Do you all really think that yeast isn't a component of a sourdough starter? Do you know what a starter is?
I just beat my Tuesday best. Where to start? It was a fine looking grid, but to put it kindly, the clues lacked sparkle. With so many long entries, there was a real opportunity here for clever wordplay. Instead, we got literal definitions. “Barrier to entry at a top secret facility” for RETINA SCANNER? How about something like “A real eye opener”? Or instead of clueing HOLE IN THE WALL as “Dive”, maybe “Sundance Kid’s repair project”. I don’t know. But when the clue to HAVE A NEED FOR is “require”? And “Mail destinations” lead to HOME ADDRESSES? On a Saturday?? I’m actually kind of baffled.
@Heidi Bingo. What a promising grid, very few puzzling clues. 3D was indeed a fun clue for ARIES, but I got it completely from the crosses. The rest were a bunch of dictionary definitions. I don't begrudge newer solvers the occasional easy Saturday, I'm just disappointed. The grid had a lot of potential.
@Heidilike your suggestions… maybe you be constructing yourself!?
@Heidi I thought at 12A, they were trying to mirror the clue from 1A. Doves versus Dive. That works better when the clues are literally next to each other on the list. 6:24 for me. Not quite the fastest I've ever done on a Saturday. But it definitely felt like this whole week was out of order.
The dive bar put in some miniature plants. It was still a little seedy. (But I might go there with my buds.)
@Mike I went there, sat down at the bar, and the barman said “Okay shoot” A while later i went back and said “you wanna hear something corny?” He said “I’m all ears”
@Mike Going there definitely reinforces the bonsai I have with my bros too.
I'm sure everyone has either already said it or is going to say it in the very near future. This puzzle was extremely easy for a Saturday and was certainly much easier than yesterday's puzzle. But I have to admit that I enjoyed it more than yesterday's puzzle -- meaning I may have gone not SOFT HEARTED but soft headed in my old age. Could I have liked it so much because I am SLEEP DEPRIVED this morning, having awakened at 4:45 a.m. and been unable to get back to sleep? An easy puzzle doesn't have to be boring -- and the interesting fill made this reasonably engrossing for me. I enjoyed such phrases as ROYAL PAIN, SAVE PAR, LOSES LUSTER, HOLE IN THE WALL and RETINA SCANNER and such words as HYDROPONICS and NONLINEAR. I really liked the clues for SOFT HEARTED, OVEN, TASTE and LOTTOS. And though I am not normally a grid-design-noticer, I could not fail to notice the handsome grid. So for me, this puzzle was as enjoyable as it was easy. It also played enormously fair, I thought.
Easiest Saturday in a long time, felt more like a Wednesday. 3D "Buttering up?" That one stumped me, good thing the column explained it.
Very grateful to the editors for an easier puzzle after the double gut punch that was Thursday and Friday. Also, my best friend became a new dad today, so I appreciated 11 down :)
Personal best! Let’s go, Brewers!
@Striker I am a decades-long Chicago Cubs fan. It feels so wrong to root for the Brewers, but they are so very, very good and I am National League all the way.
Felt pleased with myself to finish in 34 minutes with no lookups, but now I see all the braggarts talking about how easy it was. Gonna skip the comment section from now on and just do my own thing.
It's rare that I can solve a Saturday puzzle without help from Internet or blog. So I understand the complaints from solvers looking for a stiff challenge and not getting one. Still, I found today's puzzle loaded with wit and debut answers and it was fun to solve. Here's some appreciation from an 86-year-old geezer who's not very good at pop culture or computer terminology.
Interesting grid shape. Some things it could represent: PEACENIKS holding hands in a circle? RETINA SCANNER focusing on your eyeball? A literal HOLE IN THE WALL? A NONLINEAR ROYAL PAIN? Which I just made up, but seems like the mot juste for certain situations.
@Cat Lady Margaret looks like a carved out pumpkin to me! BOO!
Yesterday was a bit of a wrestling match. Today was barely a thumb war. Still, I laughed at a few of the clues and enjoyed solving it. I had hope when I first saw the grid but wow that was some gentle cluing today.
With the midterms putting my brain through the wringer, this lighter Saturday puzzle was a welcome reprieve. Enough mental gymnastics to earn my vote, with the fun factor winning by a landslide!
Well, we had a nice tough one yesterday from Katie Hoody. This is a nice but not very tough one from Robert Logan. Did Will go SOFTHEARTED, or is he just TEASING by flipping the difficulty levels for this week's themelesses (as he has done before)? IFSO, I hope we have a devilish Sunday.
@Barry Ancona Oddly, 'nottethered' has the same number of letters as SOFTHEARTED. AMHIK!
Woe is the fate of the puzzle that comes the day after Katie Hoody's! JK! Today's was like a fresh breeze after a week full of blustery winds which gave us both fits of frustration and deluges of delight. A nice, smooth ride...
The inclusion of PEACENIK at 1-Across started an interesting chain of thought for me. Although there are Hawks to go along with Doves, there are no "Warniks" (that I'm aware of) in our language. Peacenik, I learned, originated in the early '60s, connected with Beatnik, a term that was coined in the late '50s. The -nik suffix is used in both Yiddish (see nudnik: a bothersome, annoying individual) and Slavic languages (see especially Sputnik). It occurred to me that the label PEACENIK was intentionally meant to have Slavic connotations during the Cold War and the "space race" to imply that those who advocated for peace (during the Vietnam War) were pinkos, Communist sympathizers, Soviet stooges. As for the puzzle itself, I loved the grid (even though it created a Mini in the middle), but there were too many gimmes, IMHO, for a true Saturday puzzle. However, some of the clues were excellent, especially "Dive" and "Butter up?"
@The X-Phile I think PEACENIK was a modification of "beatnik," indicating that 1950s counterculture folk were also likely to be anti-war; given that, "warnick" seems unlikely. The golf clue was about two time zones away from my wheelhouse. Ditto SEN, the obsolete Japanese currency fhat ceased to exist before most of us were born, and the clue for ARIES just stumped me. I still got them all from the crosses, though. Half the battle with puzzles like this is to get over the intimidation if all those spans and wade in.
Herb Caen coined (or at least popularized) "beatnik," and in his first cited use it is clearly along the lines of "nudnik." I think PEACENIK is a logical modification with no other connotation. N.B. I gather the Yiddish actually comes from Russian, even if the usage varies.
Anyone else who, like me, confidently slapped down YEN for [Cent : U.S. :: ___ : Japan]?
@Lewis I figured it had to be a subdivision of yen, but had no idea what it was. SEN stopped being used long ago; it would make no sense today, as 1 JPY ≈ 0.64¢ (no pun intended).
"With me, surprises are rarely unexpected " to quote the esteemed Detective Clouseau. Too hard or too easy I found the puzzle to be delightful. I found the clueing to be playful. I liked when "home addresses" became evident from a few crossings. (I mean there are plenty of places mail can go!). I liked when soft hearted appeared on the bottom. Loved having 'pylons' and 'pile on' on opposite sides of the puzzle. I did have primate/same par before private/save par not being a golfer. And the grid itself was beautiful to look at. Thanks.
One of the best puzzles of the year, with a clever grid, decipherable clues, a minimum of show-biz content, only one of those detestable mouth sounds (AARGH) and no cartoonish audio representations like KAPOW or BOING which are, IMO, weak constructor cop-outs. Congratulations, Robert!
Awesome themeless Wednesday!
i'm glad (and relieved!) that I'm not the only one who found yesterday's really hard compared to todays!
I'd have been happy with that time on a Tuesday.
Top quality Saturday
What did you think of Friday?
I'm working my way back through the archives and just did a Saturday from January 2011 that took over 40 minutes and required a couple of lookups (don't judge). This one took me less than 7 minutes. I get it that general difficulty is calibrated down these days, and I support making the puzzle more widely accessible, but this feels like it's not even the same game. A little disappointing. Thank goodness for the archives.
@MikeW same. I’m doing mostly Wednesdays in the archives and rarely solve them without help but can usually do every day of the week nowadays.
@MikeW Instead of working my way back through the archives, I decided a while ago to begin with the oldest available, 1993 if I recall correctly, and work my way forward. Archaic trivia presents real challenges. The rule of increasing difficulty over the course of each week was not strictly followed in those days. So if you go back to early puzzles, you may find yourself with unexpected personal bests on Friday and Saturday. Nevertheless, today was my fastest Saturday ever, although I had fun.
More of a Wednesday level of difficulty, but there is something satisfying about filling in those long answers with confidence. Agree with the column and others that the "butter up" clue was less clever than forced. When I have to figure out an answer from crosses, when I finally get it and it was a clever clue, I smile and think, gosh people are clever, and then share it with my partner, because clever fun should be shared. If, after solving, I still need the column to help me understand it, I'm either learning something new (yay!) or I'm thinking, they tried clever and missed. "Butter up" tried and missed for me.
A quibble about 23 across, as a sourdough starter does not have added YEAST. It’s flour and water, and the yeast is naturally occurring, from the flour. If you add baker’s yeast, it will dominate the levain, and kill the natural yeast, leaving a bland but usable starter. Have seen some odd ideas, like adding apple peels or other fruits the start of the levain, to add more natural yeast. But flour and water have always worked, back to antiquity.
@LeCheffre Also, 2:33 below my Saturday average. Not that easy if you don’t get 1A immediately. But easier than Friday.
As noted in an earlier thread, the clue says nothing about "added" YEAST. It says YEAST is a "component" of the starter, which, of course, it is.
@LeCheffre - I don't understand your quibble. You're supporting the clue and answer, which are perfectly fine as written. Where's the quibble?
@LeCheffre Right, so the yeast is an obvious, live component of the starter, by definition. What's the problem?
It's remarkably free of trivia and proper nouns. I was beginning to think I was slipping after struggling with Wed through Friday this week.
Nice looking grid, decent clues, bright entries, but not Saturday tough. The great number of long answers and the relative lack of trivia made for lots of footholds, and the grid virtually seemed to fill itself. I liked noted surname of punk rock for RAMONE.
@Marshall Walthew Indeed, the stats climbed; 96% solved faster than their average and the median solver did this one 40% faster than usual. <a href="https://xwstats.com/puzzles/tomorrow" target="_blank">https://xwstats.com/puzzles/tomorrow</a> Difficulty Very Easy Median Solve Time 10:38 Median Solver 40% faster ⚡96% of users solved faster than their Saturday average. 80% solved much faster (>20%) than their Saturday average. 🐢4% of users solved slower than their Saturday average. 0% solved much slower (>20%) than their Saturday average.
@Marshall Walthew I thought of you when I saw that clue
I really, really wanted "Tombstone setting" to be freezer at 28A, which initially gave me seepSIN, both of which would totally work if only either were correct. Har! Alas, 'twas not to be. My other big wrong answer was inexperienced before SLEEPDEPRIVED at 11D. Fortunately, I didn't mind giving that one up more quickly, when the crosses persuaded me. I liked PEACENIKS at the top and SOFTHEARTED almost in the same position at the bottom. Also, PITA, ARIES, and EPT/INEPT. Really liked the grid design. I had a hard time getting going on it I suppose because of those initial mistakes, so it initially felt tough, but then I got on a sourdough roll, got rid of all that nonsense, and finished in half my normal time. I enjoyed it though! Thought it was good fun—though not in that claw your way through it full of head slapping aha good times. Whaddya want on yer Tombstone!?
@HeathieJ Black olives, onions, and mushrooms! Oh - was that a rhetorical question?
@HeathieJ Did you see the story about flamingos sheltering in the ladies room at the Panama City Zoo during Hurricane Isiais a couple of weeks ago? <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/11/us/flamingos-isaias-zoo-bathroom-hurricane-florida.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LFE.kB0b.MrW3MgG77LZF&smid=url-share" target="_blank">https://www.nytimes.com/2026/10/11/us/flamingos-isaias-zoo-bathroom-hurricane-florida.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LFE.kB0b.MrW3MgG77LZF&smid=url-share</a>
@HeathieJ Anything except mushrooms, black olives, or pineapple. I really like anchovies.
What a week! According to xwstats, today is the first puzzle that wasn't "Hard" or "Very Hard" FWIW, I loved Thursday's challenge and definitely do pronounce 'chants' and 'chance' exactly the same. (Frankly, I'm surprised so many took issue with that.) Followed by Katie Hoody cementing her position as my favorite constructor ever... this was probably the best week of puzzles this year!
Flew through that one. I think the only thing that added difficulty was the grid structure itself, otherwise I don't think this would have made a Saturday. I won't beat it down though, because I really enjoyed solving it! It was a good, well-executed puzzle, if slightly misplaced...
A nice change for me: a Saturday puzzle that was pure fun rather than pure frustration!
Just stopping by to check that I'm not the only one who found this puzzle remarkably easy. I was thinking I just may have oddly morphed into a genius.
I look forward to a good long challenging Saturday puzzle, one I can settle into and tackle but by bit. When, as happened today, I solve it in 10 minutes, it doesn't mean I have suddenly become a genius. It means you have let me down.
@Merry Benezra they take submissions and you've got free time!
@Merry Benezra I agree with my fellow Bluenoser. It took me 18 minutes, which is pretty darn fast for me.
Never heard anyone call a New Zealand dollar a kiwi
@Suki And we've never heard a five dollar bill being called an "Abe" and yet there it is in the puzzle every month. Go figure. (I assume any single unit of anything in NZ is called a a "kiwi", so this worked our for me. :) )
@Suki AI says a New Zealand dollar is sometimes called a kiwi. AI is never wrong, is it 🤔
an unusually easy Saturday puzzle. Enjoyed it though.
Only because it landed the day after what was by Barry’s standards “a real Friday” doesn’t make this a weak puzzle. It’s weak because it took most of us commenting here much less time to complete than our normal Saturday. As others have said the same grid could have had tighter cluing.
Definitely the easiest puzzle of the week for me but I’m not complaining, it was like a warm hug, with those delicious long spanners. Nice clueing, with the possible exception of Butter up, but ok. Hunkered down for the second storm in two days. We lost power for most of yesterday, but it’s holding so far today. Apart from a partial collapse of the chicken pen not too much damage so far. Fingers crossed it blows over soon. Where’s our ‘season of mist and mellow fruitfulness’ gone to??
@Helen Wright.... Wishing you well over the storm! 🌈
@Helen Wright You led me to do an answer history search, but... THOUGHTSANDPRAYERS has never been an answer in any puzzle. ...
The grid looked intimidating but the solve came quickly.
Once I replaced ROTTEN with RAMONE I was on my way.
@redweather Johnny would have been my go to choice as well, but as I had the M it was clear.
When I finally got around to doing this one, my first thought was there must have been folks posting at 10:05 PM Eastern complaining about how it was way too easy for a Saturday—or bragging about their times! But gotta say, if a slowpoke like myself can solve in less than… nope, not gonna go there! 😉
Got a new record for a Saturday today!
13:05 on a Saturday? Woah. Extremely satisfying solve, though. The wide-openness of the grid was a little intimidating at first.
@Dell All bark but no bite. 50% under average here.
@Dell The word is 'whoa'. I don't know why this bothers me so much.