Carmen W

@Barry Ancona - "He's a man of few words". Never heard the phrase using "woman" or "person", probably because men are stereotypically more likely to be the strong, silent type.

@Joseph C - I agree about it being easy for a Saturday. If I'm awake after the new Saturday puzzle drops, I'll often try to solve and go until it gives a bit of resistance (which is practically always) and then approach it with fresh eyes in the morning. Today, however, the resistance never materially materialized, and I ended up only 2 seconds slower than my PB. Curious to see how others fared.

@Jane Wheelaghan - reminds me of the -boro/-borough situation in North Carolina, with Hillsborough being the sole town to officially regain its -ugh in 1965 after having dropped it.

@L.A. Bruce D - oof

@Barry Ancona - Man/woman is clunky. Conciseness is preferred (imo) when it comes to crosswords, especially the mini.

@Barry Ancona - I get it. Person also sounds off to me, but maybe that’s just something that takes time.

@Jared - I figured because they used Jake's surname in the clue that the answer would likewise be a surname.

@Steve L - You can find Connections archived here -- <a href="https://connections.swellgarfo.com/nyt/371" target="_blank">https://connections.swellgarfo.com/nyt/371</a>

@Patrick J. - I did the same thing you did, realized it didn't work, then instead of squaring 4, I squared the answer in the 4 square (X), which gave me 100, or C.