Katrina S.
Canadian in Malaysia
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Canadian in Malaysia
Guys, gals, and NB pals, I finally did it!! It took me since starting NYT in November but I *finally* solved a crossword with any lookups, not even spelling checks. I didn't want to get distracted by the squares this time so I solved in the clue list mode, mostly, until needing to see crosses better to finish the grid. When I went back to normal view on the app, I could see the lovely theme AS/SO boxes and connected it to the themed clue. Lovely! Thank you to Amanda Winters for a fun puzzle with few enough American-isms that I was able to manage on my own. I owe you some MASONJARS of ASIANPEAR jam, I guess! Hurray! ✨
I'm not even done yet but I'm LOVING this so much I wanted to come shout my joy. I'm feeling very *product*ive so far. Fantastic puzzle!
This was almost 40 minutes faster than my average and no lookups. Pretty good for a beginner! That being said, I understood the theme immediately which helped with crossed I wouldn't have known. Without that I may have struggled a bit more. What a delightful start to my day. Thanks, Kathy!
This was such a fabulous puzzle for me! My grandma was a gardener and would always drag me to work with her when the weather decided it was a good gardening day. As a kid I would grumble, wanting to go play with my friends. As an adult, I cherish those memories. Thankfully I got 1A and 8A immediately so when I came to the revealer, I had an instant ah ha! moment. As a science teacher I don't use very many VIALS but I figured it out quickly when beakers and flasks wouldn't fit and tubes didn't make sense with my crosses. I appreciated the familiar KARMA to help with 32A's starting letter because music pop-culture and history is not my forte. However, the angry comment crew from Sunday helped me with SOL, which would have been lost on me without the music context. This is also one of the few Wednesdays I've been able to solve at all and I think I only had THREE lookups. Practice makes improvement.
I think this is my first Friday without needing lookups!! I must just be on the same page as Carolyn today, so thank you for that. Just under 20 minutes for me compared to over an hour or my normal Friday times. I'm thanking my love for FANTASY NOVELS for this one as I got that right away and it helped with lots of crosses.
@William James, remember that it's Saturday. It's supposed to be hard! Although both of those clues took me finding most of the crosses to solve, I've said OKAY WHAT‽ in response to something baffling before and appreciated figuring out out. Once I had ONEP__ES_ that one clicked too. I love that it's a line you say rather than aine of people like I originally thought, clever! Your struggles can be someone else's gimmes. Enjoy the challenge.
This was one the first few Wednesdays I could solve mostly on my own as a new solver. I often get stuck on many Americana clues and I'm a STEM teacher with very little arts and history background, so I'm learning a lot with crossword solving! Today's puzzle was super fun and I'm delighted to have solved it nearly 20 minutes faster than my average. Practice makes improvement! For Sam: Acids usually have a H in their structure that can be given away as H+ ions. Organic acids all have a -COOH group attached to them. Vinegar (acetic acid aka ethanoic acid), vitamin C (ascorbic acid), and oleic acid all follow this pattern. They donate the H to the solution they are in, making it acidic (pH is a measurement of the concentration of H+ ions). When the H is gone, they become a polyatomic ion made of many atoms (essentially the rest of the molecule minus the acidic H). When they have done this, the suffix changes to -ate instead of -ic acid. This is where OLEATE comes from in today's puzzle. It the same concept as HCl becoming H+ and Cl- but with fancier organic molecules. Bonus fact, I bet that's where the inspiration for the brand name Olay comes from, phonetically.
Today was such a fantastic puzzle! I loved the wordplay and as a science teacher, I was surprised but delighted to see ACTIN make an appearance. I got it instantly but put in in pencil because I doubted it could be true, but hey, Thursdays are tricky. I still needed a couple lookups but I solved it nearly twenty minutes faster than my average. I guess I was on the same page as Kevin was. What a swell puzzle! p.s. for Kevin: STR(I)PED CAT'S GAZE could have worked for your IOFTHETIGER dream.
Loved this puzzle. As a math and science teacher in always happy when STEM makes it into the puzzle. I still needed lookups but I finished a little faster than my normal. Great start to my day.
@Wendy I had the U in from the cross and somehow my first-year computer science course knowledge popped this into my head. That was a over decade ago! I love crosswords for bringing these fun moments!
@dutchiris I'm glad I'm not the only one! That was my first thought but it didn't fit with my crosses.
@pjbodin and @SamCorbin It's not alcohol or glycerol. Glycerol attaches to fatty acids to make fats and oils. The naming comes from the acid though. I left a detailed comment for Sam but didn't tag correctly there, oops. Please check it out!! :)
This was electric! I loved the finish with the lightning bolt on the app. Thank you for such a delight!
@Patrick J. It's also one hundredth of a Malaysian Ringgit!
@Ian I would have loved that too but it would break crossword rules with "slow" in both the clue and the answer. What about this instead? Leisurely dude in a shell Doesn't feel like a Monday clue though.
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