Anne

I don’t know how to read music and have never played an instrument in my life but I learned the symbols for flat and sharp in elementary music class and again in high school music appreciation class (which was a state requirement to graduate, not something I took voluntarily). It’s much less obscure than a lot of stuff they put in crosswords.

@T I expected selecting 69 down to highlight the clues for it. That’s usually how the themed clues work. I agree, finding the hints for it was a giant pain.

The second sentence of their Wikipedia pages ends with “described as ‘perhaps the biggest supergroup of all time’”

@D Not sure what you mean when you say there was no clue or hint on how to solve the themers—the italics let you know there’s a trick there and the clues were pretty self explanatory. I, and I’m sure many others, were able to figure it out without reading the wordplay column.

@Barry Ancona I thought it was fun. Just phonetic. If you say them aloud they all match!

I’m only 30 and I heard it all the time from my parents and teacher when I was a teenager. Pretty sure my mom still tells her students to cut it with the sass. I hear young people say sassy plenty for sure.

Lil Uzi Vert has been pretty big the past few years and has also been in the news (and on social media) a bit for various things so that one seemed fair game to me. Stranger things was super popular but Dustin’s girlfriend wasn’t a main character so that one was a bit obscure. Belle isle park is somewhat obscure as well (although I did know it for some reason despite never having been to Detroit, and at least it’s a guessable word if you have most of the letters). Adele H I had no idea about. I don’t think I’d call them full on naticks but tricky spots to be sure

@Brian Sinclair I had the same confusion, but in retrospect I think it makes sense. You take the entered word and change the letters in order to make it answer the clue.

@Darren Clues don’t always have to point to one and only one correct answer. They can have multiple correct answers and require crosses to determine which one you need.

@Bill In New York folks tend to just use apartment whether they rent or own. Feels a bit show-offy to go around talking about your condo.

Spidey-sense is Spider-Man’s ability to sense danger. It was originally spider-sense but spidey is a nickname for Spider-Man so it turned into spidey-sense at some point.

Sourdough starters have wild yeast in them, that’s how they make the bread rise.

@Gabe I’m alright with lades, as bill of lading is a pretty common thing and lades is easy enough to figure out from that. Gelim was a totally new one for me, though.

@Bill Also houses for sale at every often labeled with price per square footage. I rarely see it for rentals, but almost always on properties for sale.

@SP Naut and not aren’t homophones as I say them, but I think for most people they are. Fall and foll (as in follicle) sound the same for me, though.

@SP I’ll give you designing women, but I’m barely 30 and the rest of those were gimmes for me! ET is a classic, and labyrinth is a cult classic. Partridge Family is probably more unknown for a lot of people, but I know it from boomer parents and also from That 70s Show.

@George Tuesday feels like I stretch. I was 3 minutes over my Thursday average today, and well over double my Tuesday average.

@Patrick J. Peter Pan buses have been operating under that name since 1933!

“Cue” is a phonetic spelling of the letter Q, which is preceded by P, or “pee”

To add on (because I had to look it up) Christ the Redeemer is that giant statue in Rio and they did indeed put a giant soccer jersey on it

@Thomas Murray I haven’t seen tinsel in years. And heaven help any cat owners who try putting it up…

@Steve L I’m not a doors fan at all, and my parents weren’t even born yet in 1967, and not only do I know Break On Through, it’s the first (and possibly only) song of theirs I would be able to name off hand. Couldn’t tell you why that is but I certainly wouldn’t say it’s obscure.

@David Hancock It was helpful for me! Once I got some of the Os on a die I could suss out where the others would have to go.

@Charles Peterson Not as often as people complain about the puzzles being too easy but yes, I regularly see people complaining that late week puzzles are too hard (or impossible/how could anyone possibly be expected to read the constructor’s mind like that…)

TCBY is a frozen yogurt chain. So a dessert hat is cultured, in the fermentation sense. “Cue” is a phonetic spelling of the letter Q, which is preceded in the alphabet by the letter P, or “pee”

The C in Chet isn’t too natick-y. Once you’ve got the last three letters there’s really only one thing it could be.

@Vaer Hence why the clue said “incorrectly”

Never had the opportunity to test your mettle?

@Margot I was convinced it was going to be someone I’d never heard of. Nope, not at all. Somehow I’d just never noticed.

@Michele Merriam Webster notes panini as the usual singular form with panino as relatively uncommon.

@Andrzej They pretty well are the only option for getting around much of New York State without a car. For a long time they were partnered with Greyhound, which is the major/only nation-wide bus company, so that even if you went to book through Greyhound you’d end up on a Peter Pan bus if you were taking a trip within the northeast.

@Call Me Al On a guitar they are indeed called tuning pegs. I think what you’re thinking of is a pin?

@Andrzej There’s some good stuff in high school math that helps with understanding statistics. Having a basic understanding of statistics goes a long way to not being misled and manipulated vis a vis politics and science and such.

I recall people mostly referring to it as “TiVo-ing” whether you had a TiVo brand DVR or not! That said, in my house we still called it taping. Old habits die hard with my parents.

Not a martini sadly but I got a flat tire and ended up doing this puzzle day drinking at a bar waiting for it to get fixed. Very appropriate

@Allison ‘Cue’ = Q, two letters past Q in the alphabet is S, or ‘ess’

@AABB Mage is commonly used in fantasy books/movies/games, going back at least a few decades

@dutchiris Same. I found this one to be fun and fairly easy. And I rarely finish fridays and probably only get half of Thursday’s. I’m not sure exactly which clues people felt were particularly unfair. I guess this one just played to my strengths somehow

@Emilie Taio Cruz was big in pop music in the mid 2000s. For those of us who listened to pop music in the mid 2000s it’s made easier by his propensity for saying his own name in his songs.

@Jane Wheelaghan It was a really massive hit. Heard it on the radio, heard it at parties, heard it in bars/restaurants/stores/amusement parks, heard it on the street and in the park. And he says his name in the song, so you didn’t even have to go out of your way to know who he was.

@Steve L It would be backwards if the hint was how to enter the clue, but as a hint to answering the clue it’s fine. You take what’s written, change the letters as instructed, and then you have the answer to the clue.

@sotto voce Freddy’s does for sure!

@B Maybe for you, but I was 3 minutes over my average!

@Steven In Italian, not in English

@Maire Merriam Webster has panini as the usual singular form, and says panino is uncommon. So how do you figure it for lack of rigor?

@Teresa I knew stoat, but I initially put sable since it was in thursday’s puzzle and they so often repeat words. Took awhile to sort that one out.

@T Every once in a while they fool you with a ‘foil’

@Times Rita Askant is a perfectly good word, and guessable if you know askance which is commonly used.