Joe P
Greenville SC
For a long while I had cOPs for “Fuzz”.
SKULKS is one of those words that sounds exactly like it should.
It turns out “isaidso” has the same number of letters as BECAUSE.
OK well this is great. I’ve been doing the NYT crossword for probably 40 years, but never in the app… my daughter signed me up for Christmas, and I already love it so much it might become a problem! I especially like reading the comments after really good puzzle (like this one!)
Don’t ask me how I know, but “wakeup” has the same number of letters as BEREAL, and “breakfast” has the same number of letters as HOTCEREAL.
I love a puzzle like this. You go through it the first time and think “there is no way”… but you chip away and chip away and everything just falls into place. Beautiful!
Well kids, you won’t believe this, but “Disco Duck” was the #1 song in America in October of 1976… ahead of (for example) More Than a Feeling by Boston and The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald by Gordon Lightfoot (neither of which ever reached #1). Strange days indeed!
OK this was a great one. How do I know? Because when I finished it, I was impressed with myself!
Every time I see ERSATZ I think, “I’d like to use that word one day.”. But I never do.
Wow SCHWEPPES sure is a lot of letters for a one syllable word.
Wow. I fell so in love with LATRINE for “Private watering hole” that it messed me up for a long time. Very thankful I learned “nerfing” (the hard way) from a recent puzzle…
Just FYI, INSTANTRAMEN has the same number of letters as ramenNoodles.
@CatDad Life is funny. It seems like one day you’re diving into a mosh pit, and the next you’re commenting on the NYT Saturday crossword!
LAY = “Ballad”? I guess I learned something, but sheesh.
The long-awaited moment of “Oh I see what’s going on here!”. And then, “How did he do that?”. A gem.
@Andrzej You can’t quit now— you’re in too deep. It’s kind of like the mob.
I had INkEd for INPEN for too long.
If someone asked me why I like doing crossword puzzles, I would say it’s because of ones exactly like this. It made me work, and felt like a real accomplishment when finished.
Driving in rural South Carolina one random day I passed a hand-made sign that said FREE DIRT, and it had a phone number. About a quarter mile up the road, I came across another that said DIRT WANTED. And I thought to myself, “Someone really ought to introduce these guys!”. True story
@Hugh Mac Toirdealbhach My idea of a great puzzle is one you hate (wrestle with) right up to the minute you solve it. THEN you want to tell people about it, but find that nobody cares :)
That “Spot likely to smear” was a gem.
Wow. Went through all of the acrosses and only had written in SHARD. So I thought to myself, “Uh-oh, this might be one I just can’t do”. But I persevered, and little by little it came together— just like it’s supposed to! The NE corner was the last to fall (probably because I first put VISITORS for “Company”). A good challenge, thanks!
First, “What is OBVS?”. But then, “Duh!”.
This one made me smile. That they weren’t ALL wrong was a nice— and realistic!— touch.
That was 40 minutes of “OK I’m definitely not gonna get this”, until I did! A bear though.
Good one! I had almost nothing on my first pass, and was thinking “OK looks like it’s payback time for all the ‘these puzzles are too easy’ complainers.” But it turned out to be doable!
You know how when you get a tricky one right away and feel pretty proud of yourself? Today it was UMP for “Make some calls?”… which of course turned out to be wrong.
Wow. What would life be without Mel Blanc?
Well when I started this one I was afraid it was going to be too easy. But then it wasn’t.
@Laura Stratton I’m old (and not Jewish), but got REB as a fan of Fiddler on the Roof— “Reb Tevye”
Well I’m pretty proud of myself for wrestling this one to the ground. WEIRDFLEXBUTOK!
Good one! I liked “What comes before we go?”, and found that “upnext” could also be NEXTUP.
GOHAM crossing ESME was a total guess.
Wow. No way I thought TNIA was gonna fly.
A perfect Saturday knock-down-drag-out!
A tough Tuesday (for me).
I’m pretty new here… Could someone direct me to an example of an (in their opinion) appropriately hard Friday puzzle in the archive? When I get through a puzzle like this one pretty quickly, I’d like to just think I’m getting better at it :)
I loved knowing there were exactly TENANTS.
ARMREST made me smile.
I was too sure of GOgETem for too long.
If only “I wish it were so” had been ifonly. But ALASNO.
“If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.” — Steven Wright
Great puzzle! Completely stuck in the southeast and about to give up, but then got RIGUP which somehow illuminated GOODOLEBOY… and that broke it open. (I really impressed myself; hope the Comments don’t say it was easy!)
Good n knotty! NOMAS brought to mind Roberto Duran, and “Day break” for NAP made me smile.
@Gregg It’s always tough when your (better!) answer turns out to be wrong.
It turns out that elePhaNtS has the same number of letters as AIRPLANES. And TypEa has the same number of letters as TIGER.
If you’re looking for TOMS, you can’t do much better than Hardy and Petty!