Søren Thustrup
Copenhagen
SKOAL as a Nordic toast? I mean... Danish - SKÅL Swedish - SKÅL Norwegian - SKÅL Icelandic - SKÁL Finnish - KIPPIS I know why it was SKOAL - and it's a good way to ensure that it's pronounced right - but I guess I have to be a little Scandi-snobbish about it. Cheers!
Very clever puzzle. When I realized the ⬛ was omnidirectional, I got the smile on my face that Deb was talking about.
I SAW instead of Vidi? I guess it’s still Caesar’s boast, but man, did it throw me!
Another member of the international contingent here. I think that with the exception of baseball and American football (oh God, so much sports), there's no telling what the internationals know. But I could certainly do with fewer QBS, team abbreviations and all that. I suppose it's an easy gimme for the core audience, though, and I respect that. And all that aside, I thoroughly enjoy my daily solve.
That was one of the least enjoyable crosswords I've seen for a long time: ANGI? ANAG? LANAI? RAID? And that was just the SE corner. Is TACH really a thing? And UPC? And AARON JUDGE crossed with ROGER. I mean, c'mon. If I hadn't seen ANGI in the column, I wouldn't have made it
Why the definitive L'ORANGE when you clue "un cognac"? That seems to go against some rules (conventions? Norms?).
Difficult, but doable. This was a great puzzle, with some really cool cluing (cooling?)
What a great remembrance, Deb. So sorry for your loss.
@Andrzej you are not wrong! But to you, and all the others who want a more contemplative look at the little mermaid, I urge you to visit the Carlsberg brewery, where you'll find a smaller study - also in bronze - of the statue in a lovely, quiet garden a bit away from the main Visitor's Centre. And calling Worcestershire hard to pronounce and making June 21 the longest day of the year? Peak US-centric puzzle. Not a good thing. Not a bad thing. Not a global thing.
Oof, that was a hard one at first. Great feeling when it cracked. I, too, was an English teacher, and whenever my students complained about inconsistencies, I'd tell them that that was just one more way English messed with them (I used another phrasing, but NYT has standards, apparently)
Not complaining at all, as I was delighted to run through this puzzle. I thought this was how it felt to be on the same wavelength as the creator. It felt great. Turns out it was just an "easy Friday". Great fun, though.
The ALPO/CLYDE crossing was impossible for non-U.S. solvers. Or very hard, at least. The Ecuador/brand crossing was also impossible for me. Other than that, great puzzle!
While technically correct, I wouldn't say a PORTER and a LAGER were alternatives to each other. I know there are dark lagers, but most of the stuff is light and milder than a porter which was anecdotally designed to be a meal in a bottle and even party of the recovery for new mothers
@N. Hornblower it's a pool ball. The 3 is the solid red, the 8 is solid black, and so on.
Brilliant puzzle. After two or three instances I got it before the revealer, making me feel oh so clever. Great start to the week.
@Andrzej I totally get why being associated with vodka can be irksomenas a Pole. To that, I will think of the trip to Krakow I missed this autumn while listening to some Chopin. My friends went, and they said so many good things about it, that I'll be sure to come.
Nice and gentle solve. Had to look up a few things, but good. And the revealer was funny!
@Sam Lyons and when disappearing down a rabbit hole, I discovered that "OK" may have to do with a 19th-century misspelling/abbreviation fad in and around Boston. <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK" target="_blank">https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/OK</a> So yeah. Plus ca chance, plus c'est la meme chose.
@Syd Lire was the plural, and given its value would be the term most commonly encountered. You're right, though. Using the plural seems off.
Great puzzle! I wonder at the difference between smooth and easy. I had to look up the source of Brahmaputra, I simply didn’t know IMPUTE or JIA, so I looked up the latter and got the former from crosses. Wordplay gave me PLETHORA, and then I was home free. Fewer lookups than usual for me at least and a very good time for a Saturday.
@Barry Ancona fair point and well made, but then, so's Kool-Aid
@Lpr that one annoyed me so much that I came here to comment. Along with "and his pals", it is clear we are dealing with the Hannah-Barbera variety of the Nosferatu rather than the Stoker one [/VanHelsing]
YELL TO NEATEN UNMET I don't know, maybe it's because English isn't my first language, but aren't they a bit crosswordese? Never come across either in the wild, and I have lived in the UK and worked professionally with the language over 35 years.
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