Yiannis L.
Athens, GR
Fresh and fun puzzle! Spent quite some time trying to figure out what a ROSEBEL is, until it dawned on me that DYES are also used in tanning, as well as LYES. Loved the long entries!
Too many US trivia for my liking, but the clues for IDES and ELEPHANTS were a delight. Golden rule: obscure 5-letter location somewhere in the US is in IDAHO 90% of the time. Also, sometimes it pays out to be Greek, got POLYMATHS from the HS. Certainly tough for non-Americans.
Probably the hardest puzzle I've seen in a while, took two and a half hours and quite a few breaks to tackle it, but gave me a nice feeling of accomplishment. Biggest aha! moment, when LURES INTO turned into ROPES INTO, and ID turned into Idaho.
You know you've solved too many puzzles when you get WEIRDFLEXBUTOK just from the W and the X. Weird flex, but ok... Nice puzzle altogether. Fit for a Friday.
Well, I haven't enjoyed a puzzle so much since... uh... when was Robyn's last puzzle published again?
@Francis you saved ten minutes of my day by writing *exactly* what I had in mind.
Had to give up an 83-day streak. Still baffled by some answers, quite a few naticks, too much obscure US trivia. Hardest puzzle in quite a while.
I had this weird feeling throughout the solve, like something was wrong in every patch of the grid, but I just couldn't put my finger on it. Too many unknown trivia entries I guess (although the crossings seemed solid). I was shocked when I put the AR in TILTEDARC and the yellow star jumped into my screen. A puzzling puzzle, indeed.
Brilliant! The theme clues really catch the essence of an escape room. I never figured out the first letter clue TBH (the letter was obvious), but the key for me was "UNDER THE SEA", that really unlocked things - an amazing construction feature by itself! As for the crossword itself, it was rather on the easy side, but enjoyable and fresh - no crosswordese. Definitely one of my favorites! Kudos to the constructors!
I can't believe I solved this one. Most challenging Friday in a long time.
Once again, thank you Robyn, it was delightful! <3
Impressive construction, fun to solve. Great debut!
Tough one. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what "Smack" has to do with IHOP and if Americans call dads DEES in junior sport events, until it dawned on me...
If it feels like a Robyn Weintraub, it is a Robyn Weintraub... Thank you once again for a smooth, full of "aha!" moments and thoroughly enjoyable puzzle, Robyn!
@Mean Old Lady Well, it's Saturday... :)
@Andrzej quite a few Greek words in this puzzle (PSIs, TAU, HERMES, XENON, APNEA), but this one was hidden: the Romans called this resin colophonia, which comes from the ancient Greek city of Colophon (Κολοφών) where the resin was being produced.
Fun, but too easy for a Friday, felt more like a clever Tuesday (sans the theme). Almost halved my previous Friday best.
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