N Singh

I thought I was having a lucky break with IPAD and AROMANTIC in the beginning and then it petered out very quickly. I found this way harder than Friday where I had some traction, though I didn't get close to finishing either, as is usual for me right now. Friday's fill had a lot more "ahh I see! I could have got that" vibe, and this Saturday feels very obscure to me in comparison. So many names and trivia. The long answers are great but they are out of reach for me because of the crosses. OSCARSPEECH is a nice fill with a clue that I had no clue about, but I can see it hitting the sweet spot for others. What is PAPABEARS?! Is it a cute nickname for dads? Is it supposed to be the fictional bear-fathers I see on wikipedia? GAMETABLE is felt as in you touch it when playing on it??

I can't finish Saturdays without lookups, given I started doing these crosswords 6 weeks back. But this one felt extra difficult. Often, when I look up some guesses or ideas and find the answer, it feels like a gotcha moment when I appreciate the clueing. This one not so much. I started revealing word by word after a couple hours of fruitlessly pecking at it. There was too much cultural jargon and names that I had no clue about. I got TREECANOPIES though! I didn't know DAWNED could mean began.. I used to see it as something coming upon oneself like "it dawned on me". Cool Kept thinking '7/' must be along the lines of 7/11 or 24/7. Didn't know NIK had a vibe (meaning) about it! SPAM origin story is beautiful. Was not fun to play, but is fun to learn afterwards