Tom

As a solver from the UK I found this extremely hard to complete without any lookups. I thought I’d learned the lingo after a couple of years completing NYT xwords daily, but this one got me good! Not to complain of course, enjoyed getting there in the end.

As a non-US based solver I found this completely impenetrable at first pass, but enjoyed the full after looking up and filling in the trivia clues. I did know about the Old Man and the Sea, required reading at school during my English Lit days.

I was expecting to see lots of comments referring to this as more of a Tuesday puzzle. Breezed through this one, must have been on same wavelength today. Record Wednesday time and less than half my average time!

In UK we say ‘popped’ when you go out for a bit, I.e ‘popped to the shops’, which got me stuck on 25 Across. Especially when you think pAIL is an Americanism and misremember oPPA as the father figure!

Got completely stuck on bottom right as I had the phrase as down TO THE WIRE, which is the common parlance for me. Otherwise got the trick fairly quickly and a fun full.