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Boston
I am once again amazed how many commenters have been demanding harder Saturday puzzles, and when we get one like today, how many nitpick at the constructor’s choices to justify the difficulty they experienced when solving it. I got tripped up in the same spot as most others, unhappy with the answer of TReELEAVES, which felt too simplistic for the clue, but unable to think of CUREL, even though I realized in hindsight that I do know that brand. I loved this puzzle because it both threw me some “gimmes” and because much of it challenged me. A great Saturday experience.
Just noticing a trend: when clues refer to current popular culture, they are “trivia filled” or “only for 20 something’s.” Once upon a time clues some of us all accept as “normal” were part of popular culture. Asta, (Heddy) Lamar, references to M*A*S*H, etc. have all appeared with no complaint about “trivia.” Maybe we all need to keep learning and internalizing Rita Ora instead of Rita Hayworth?
@Crevecoeur I was thinking that the Dancer here is the reindeer attached to Santa’s sleigh.
@Rebecca I was annoyed at first, too. Then I looked it up and not only is litchi a permissible spelling variant, it is also the first part of its scientific name, litchi chinensis, which feels fair given the way it was clued.
I enjoyed this and felt it was appropriately challenging for a Friday. I am always surprised how “easy” Friday puzzles and “hard” or “too obscure” puzzles, like this seemed to be for many, draw seemingly the same number of complaints here. For me, this was “just right,” but I realize that is in part due to studying French for years and to working with teens helping me keep up with pop culture and current slang. In general, I try to take each Friday puzzle for what it has to offer, and I almost always find them enjoyable in some way.
@D I’d recommend skipping Thursday puzzles if you feel this strongly. I do understand your feelings; I stopped doing Thursday puzzles for a while due to some of the “tricks” that I found annoying. In all fairness to the NYT puzzle editors and their clear criteria for which puzzles they publish on Thursdays, I’d never expect the tradition of Thursday puzzles being tricky to “stop” - stopping was up to me.
I came here assuming there would be complaints about the ease of this puzzle, but I now realize that the across clues that seemed “easy” for me just happened to be in my mental storehouse of semi-useless information (often useful for crosswords). For whatever reason, 1A came to me immediately, and the rest moved along fairly smoothly despite a few head scratchers in the mix. The feat accomplished by creating this puzzle deserves kudos, I think, whether one enjoyed it or not. I did enjoy it, but I can completely understand why some other solvers didn’t.
@RandallP Doctors may not use the term “GYNO.” Women do.
@acjones You may want to find out a bit more about Passover before accusing its food of having anything to do with inciting wars. Ignorance of Judaism or any other faith tradition (I’m not Jewish but have been to Seders) is not a valid reason for assigning such extreme views to it.
@Mean Old Lady AP Psychology is one of the most popular classes/courses at the high school where I teach. Very common in general these days.
@Jane Wheelaghan I’m curious about names you don’t know equating with a culture clash. Beau as a name… Beau Bridges, Beau Geste (as in the movie). Then there’s Ty Burrell from Modern Family, and of course baseball legend Ty Cobb - a common crossword clue or answer. Mac - well I guess it’s often a nickname, but it’s one that feels common enough to be odd to me as a “culture clash” issue. I’ll agree that Uma is a rare name, but it’s so well known to Xword puzzle fans that it seems fair in this context. Obviously life experiences vary and one’s concept of “culture”does, too. And I didn’t get the theme until I read the column but had no trouble filling in the theme answers as the clues worked as presented without knowing the theme. So I’m glad we can both agree that on the whole, it was an enjoyable puzzle.
@momonjava - Totally agree. I hadn’t finished Wednesday’s puzzle as of this morning, so I did that first. Much thornier than this easy breezy Saturday.
@Brad I had the exact same thought!
@Elbridge Gerry I don’t often read comments, so I just need to say as a former “Header” (MHS class of 1982, but first went through Gerry Elementary and lived in spitting distance to Gerry’s house), I appreciate your moniker and location!
@Loui I disagree, but that’s what makes themed puzzles so interesting. I didn’t “get” the theme even after accurately writing in the revealer, but I was pleased with its cleverness once I read the column. To each their own.
@Rebecca I’m likewise confused by the Wordplay reference to 5D as TNN since the answer is TBS. Odd.
@Your Fired Great attitude to avoid the annoyance some feel here for not seeing the theme.
@SP Thanks for that - I missed the British element, so I appreciate the clarification. I do think some of the names cross the Atlantic, if only via doing the NYTimes Xword, but I apologize for not understanding the culture reference.
@Grant If you are familiar with the Christian Bible, you may have heard of the epistles - Paul’s letters to various groups of the new faith he was promoting. Epistle is a fancy word for a letter, and an epistolary novel is a novel created by using characters’ letters to one another as the whole text. The recent novel “The Correspondent” was a wonderful example.
@SP Thanks foe the fun trip down memory lane. Such a great movie.
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