Edward Rice

A camera on a dolly, or tripod/bipod, pans from side to side. The motion of getting closer to the object being imaged is zoom, not pan.

Mr. Moser made me work. Hard. I really enjoyed doing this puzzle! I do question the Wordplay explanation that "arias" forced "soli." We use a lot of words, including "arias," that have a foreign basis but are part of English now. That one didn't cause me any problem, I just don't agree with Deb's reasoning that Italian -> Italian.

Sam Corbin: "62A. This [Competitive poker?] is an object that pokes, not a card game. The answer is ÉPÉE, which is a lance used in fencing." When I fenced in high school and college, we never referred to an epee (nor foil nor saber) as a "lance." To cite Google's AI, which I think is correct in this specific case: "No, an epee is not a lance; an epee is a fencing sword with a large guard, used for thrusting attacks in the sport of fencing, while a lance is a long, pointed spear typically used by cavalry on horseback in warfare, making them very different weapons with distinct purposes and designs." Further: "The word "epee" comes from the French word épée, which means "sword". The word "lance" comes from the Roman word lancea, which means "javelin"."

Not sure about "misdirected clues," but I did find the puzzle delightfully (!!) challenging to finish. I loved it, worked hard at it, was happy with solving it, and thought I had really gotten my money's worth when it was finished. And solving it required a lot of crosses and back-ups, so I suppose "misdirected" was a piece of my delight. It felt very fair to me, just tough.

The cluing was excellent, perfect for a Friday. "Paperless pup" had me lost for quite a while.

Very witty and cleverly misleading puzzle. A nice one!

An hour of head-scratching challenges, an hour of great fun. I enjoyed the misdirecting clues. For some reason, most of the spanners came easily to me (plus or minus parts of a couple) but the small tokens seemed hard -- and especially happy to figure out. "David and Bathsheba" is sitting on the TiVo and I will watch it tonight, I think. FIRST NYT acceptance -- gee whiz. I look forward to more.

I think the scoring software should have allowed "LINE" in lieu of "----" in the solution. Once again, it's not a crossword issue, it's an emu problem. Games.

"G.I." wasn't a term for soldiers when the song, "Over There," was written, or for quite a few years afterward. The song was WW-I era, but "G.I." meaning a soldier only came along in the run-up to the Second World War, in the mid to late 1930's. So, George M. Cohan was not referring to "G.I.s" in his song.

Loved this puzzle. Multiple missteps and re-thinks were great fun. No lookups, no checking comments or notes, just a delightful group of smart clues and answers.

The Crossword ain't easy, but it is a zinger of a puzzle. Fun, hard, and VERY smart. I enjoyed it very much. It would be wonderful to see more, perhaps a bit harder.

Woman in dire need made my head hurt. Got it, but on the cross.

Pretty easy, but a delightful set of clues. My other car isn't a Zamboni but I wish it was.

I also thought this was a little easy for Saturday EXCEPT the easy parts fell after some reasonably hard ones. By accident, I figured out "second-most portrayed literary character in film" just by reading the clue, and it was the first entry I filled in. An awful lot of the puzzle gave way, with that. And the same was true with several other long answers. I liked the puzzle; now I'll wait for someone to announce "likers gotta like" and dismiss my reaction.

T/Gel shampoo from Neutrogena gone bye-bye. It's not just resting, it's DEAD. Neutrogena T/Gel was withdrawn from production and distribution starting a year ago, and is now officially discontinued. Unless you want to pay $40 to $70 a bottle for remainder stocks, sold by third-parties through Amazon. Thank California's Prop 65 warning label law, which insisted on a label warning (without any proof) of it maybe being carcinogenic. Other manufacturers produce salicylic acid shampoos without the coal tar extract. It is okay, but it lacks the anti-pruritic effect of the original. Walgreen's produces a salicylic acid shampoo WITH coal tar, which is terrific. Maybe they don't market it in California. Check the ingredients label. There is /no/ evidence that coal tar is carcinogenic, I have been assured by a real, live dermatologist.

This made me WORK. Each of three times that I set it aside and came back to it, I jumped forward. I liked it very much, misdirection included. And the results were awesome fill. Speaking of equations, Happy Pi Day, all.

NYT: "Part of your body that smells the most?" -- the answer in the puzzle doesn't actually smell at all. If surgically removed, a person would smell just as well [or as good] as before.

I really hate these gimmicky puzzles. I like reasoning to a solution, not guessing.

I enjoyed the twists in the cluing. VERY amusing in places. But it fell rather quickly after a few entries were filled in, and I wish it had been Sunday-hard. Very fun.

Lovely little puzzle! North, south, east, west, wherever I go home's the best. Simeon's cute directions had my gyro spining a LOT.

Puzzle: "Bring back to life, as an auto battery" Grumbling at the clue for this answer. "Jump-starting" a car meant to get it moving forward, typically down a hill, and then as it gets up some speed to jump in and engage the clutch so that the moving vehicle turns then engine over and the car will, if you're lucky, start. A booster start, or a boost, is to connect cables from an external power source to temporarily supplant the vehicle's dead battery. But there's not "jumping" into the car, so not technically a jump-start.

I've had a DVR since they first came out, but I have never, ever heard or read someone refer to a verb that would satisfy "Save for later viewing, for short." On the other hand, I still call it "taping."

A nice little puzzle. Enjoyed the wit, was on the same wavelength, and thus it seemed very easy (and quick) to me.

I've had a DVR since they first came out, but I have never, ever heard or read someone refer to a verb that would satisfy "Save for later viewing, for short." On the other hand, I still call it "taping."

I thought this was easy. "Too" easy is personal opinion. The theme was cute, but it seemed inescapable to me: it would be hard to get into the solve very far without figuring it out and then having it emphasized over and over. For me, it was a PB. I don't keep records but I'd guess my previous best for a Thursday was about twice what this one took me. So, I'd prefer to have harder Thursdays. Don't forget to watch the moon landing, late this afternoon (ET)!

The Mini begs to question: "Word that, in German, translates directly to 'hand shoe'." Spoiler: the answer is GLOVE. This is baloney. "Glove" is not a German word. What the constructor(s) seemed to be trying to get at is the idea that there is a German word that means "hand-shoe" when translated to English. Here's the word... Handschuh Definition. The word “Handschuh” literally translates into English as “hand-shoe” and means “glove”. “Handschuh” can refer to any type of glove worn on the hands, from ordinary winter gloves to surfing gloves to surgical gloves. The clue is way, way off base to get the answer desired. Who's doing the Mini clues these days? There were one or two yesterday that were other than accurate.