MountainGoose
Wilm
@Mr Dave It was a pretty tarty comment from Patty in response to a totally benign not to mention correct statement
Big fan of words within words. Answers within clues within answers is quite a feat indeed. Very neat puzzle.
@DB The clue here does explicitly state that the product in question is defunct. Not quite grasping the crux of your gripe.
@Bob Only been doing this a couple months but it seems fairly common for late week puzzles to not explicitly indicate all abbreviations/acronyms.
If this one were any chewier I’d’ve broken my teeth on it. Great Friday diversion!
@Steven Very interesting point you raise. I’d suggest taking a gander at the official emblem of the Apollo 7 mission.
After almost a year of crosswording finally got my first sub-5 minute solve this morning. A big thank you to all the columnists, commenters, and most of all the setters who made this day possible. Folks like you all with a passion for language and the written word are an invaluable asset to humanity. On to sub-4!
Most annoying puzzle I’ve faced yet. Too clever by half. And ultimately a most rewarding solve. With Tuesday’s mockery of a “themed” puzzle still fresh in my mind I was getting preemptively peeved by a seeming lack of meaning BEHIND the omitted letters in this one but finally saw it once the south border filled out. Always appreciate a completion animation as well. Great stuff Dan, brilliant construction!
@Shawn The big twist was that ALL FOUR were solvable using the commonly known phrases. Fun challenge but definitely a tad underhanded.
@Heidi Are we sharing a brain cell? Shrimp is most definitely the standard for a po’ boy. AIR still makes zero sense to me as a correct response for that clue. The less said about SERA the better.
@Will Berry Was the 39A entry missing from your puzzle?
Western block was atrocious. Any explanation on 43 across?
@Michael Weiland Oh of course. SOL, a needle pulling thread
Some of the fill here felt a bit clunky, namely GENUSANDSPECIES and GOODSPELLERS. Sappho and RETIRETHESIDE were definite high points though. We’ll call it a very well balanced solving experience.
@Jim Likewise started with CIRRa. Also had cOPs before working out POPO so that little section was the last to fall into place for me.
@Beth Retracting statement on Tuesday puzzle, got it mixed up with one from the archive
Theme was cute albeit hamfisted wordplay. Unfortunately lots of utterly banal or exceedingly contrived cluing with little middle ground. Props for “forces offshore” though.
HEP seems questionable
1D summed it up quite succinctly
@Darren Hard agree. Cue the chorus of New World Order sycophants to tell us that possessing the knowledge of a fabric connoisseur should in fact be prerequisite for enjoying a nationally published crossword.
Theme was cute, but… 1) YENTAS !?!!? I figured the clue was a play on words with tea=gossip but wow. Thank goodness for Condé NAST in the cross 2) “Gimlet base” -_- Who even drinks these days??? Let alone possesses such archaic cocktail knowledge Anyway, hope all the Yiddish-speaking bartenders had a good time with this one.
@Marlene “Everyday speech”? A non-English word in a crossword from an English language publication? Doesn’t quite add up
@NYC Traveler Ah okay then. I was looking for excuses to be kind to the constructors but that really is just a middle-finger of a crossing
@Steve L Respectfully, I doubt it
LAME crossing README was the natick to end all naticks
@Barry Ancona Thank you Barry, likewise
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