Suzie Lee
Alameda, CA
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Alameda, CA
@Shawn If this is the one corner of the internet with a positivity bias, count me in.
Agree with Mr. Seigel that “Doo-wop refrain incorporating a Hindu deity, a Buddhist monk and a doorbell” for 33A would have instantly become my favorite clue of all time.
Count me with the positive reviews! Just the right amount of challenge for my taste on a Saturday. In the end I did have to run the alphabet on the BWANA / NEMEA cross, so a possible asterisk to my solve credit, depending on your crossword ethics. But I do love the feeling when something that seemed impossible 5 minutes ago suddenly begins revealing itself when I relax and learn to ADAPT, and this puzzle was full of those magic moments. Bonus — now I know that the enormous shiny disc I saw from the plane last summer was a HELIOSTAT array, and not an inter dimensional portal, as I previously determined.
@DocP Thank you so much for this comment. Just yesterday, my mom couldn’t remember that she’s been drinking coffee for 30 years. She doesn’t have any other signs of dementia and wasn’t exhibiting any other signs of a stroke, so I let it go with intention to monitor. She does, however, have a seizure disorder. I’ve never noticed this particular aura presentation, but her seizures have changed in recent years. It brought us both a lot of relief to understand what might have been happening, so thank you. Sometimes it’s actually a good idea to read the comments!
For my brain and knowledge base, this about as close to the sublime balance of “the right amount of difficult” as a puzzle can get. I nearly doubled my average time but it never felt like a slog. Very satisfying Saturday.
To me this answers the question: what is the crossword version of a dad joke? I enjoyed the creativity. It was just weird enough without being inaccessible. Love that this was a father-daughter team. From their constructor comments I can tell that they enjoy themselves and each other enough that hopefully they’ll be immune to the wet blankets in the comment section.
@Agent86 Confirmation lookups are ok in my book. I can feel I am on shaky moral ground when my guess is wrong and my confirmation lookup accidentally reveals the correct answer. But I can live with that.
Note to self: if I ever get a puzzle published, DO NOT read the comments. As my mom likes to say, 8 billion people in the world and 8 billion opinions… My 1/8billionth contribution is that this was just the right mix of fun + friction, and so rewarding to earn my way to the solve with patience and flexible thinking. [sitting here in my pjs having accomplished nothing today so impressive as constructing a double pangram crossword puzzle]
@Marty INUIT is already plural. It translates to “The People.” The singular of Inuit is Inuk. (Think “French” … you wouldn’t say the makers of croissants are the Frenches.) ACCEDE also means “to yield to,” just as one might “bow” under pressure Note the question mark in the clue for EON. It means shenanigans are afoot. I read the pun as e-ON, like how something on top of something else could be described as “over” that thing. Maybe my brain is just the same kind of weird as the constructor’s brain.
@The X-Phile KONMARI is Marie Kondo’s nickname, and the official name of her tidying method. I find her fascinating. She was a Shinto priestess, so when she says the socks don’t like to be rolled up, she literally means that the socks have a preference. I know westerners have a hard time with animism, but this philosophy has always come naturally to me and the Konmari method has resulted in some lifestyle habits that are very soothing to my nervous system. <a href="https://sojo.net/articles/culture-opinion/respecting-spirituality-behind-marie-kondos-tidying" target="_blank">https://sojo.net/articles/culture-opinion/respecting-spirituality-behind-marie-kondos-tidying</a>
@Don H OVEN is the “setting” (as in location) of a timer. Resume grumpifying.
Loved this! I had at least 6 different “ahaaaaa” moments, which punctuated a quiet morning and made my husband laugh. Had already crowned it one of my favorite puzzles of late and then discovered that this was a debut for a teen constructor! Very impressed. Thank you Mr. Matz!
@Tim I usually say “plum tuckered,” omitting the “out.” Humans gonna language.
Came here looking for fellow tea lovers objecting to the CHAI cluing, and instead found the CHIWETEL EJIOFOR fan club (of which I am a member). I had an uncomfortable visceral reaction when OLE Miss crossed with the actor who played the title character in 12 Years a Slave. If I were the constructor/editor, I would have clued differently.
I’m in the camp that chose to fill in a way that made the vertical entries make sense, which made some of the horizontal clues into gibberish (but it’s a Thursday, so gibberish didn’t faze me). Now that I see it completed, I get that this way is cleaner. But also, as someone who has spent many hours braiding hair, my focus was also on what was happening on the horizontal plane (ie switching off from hand to hand). I wonder if that’s why my brain went there first. It would have been neat if both ways of “braiding” had been accepted, similar to how multiple rebus entries can be considered correct.
Progressed in a very Fridayish manner until getting stuck in NW corner. Finally just started filling in “letters that seem to want to be here” and was pleasantly surprised to get a jazzy reward. Bonus points for entertaining constructor notes.
@Paul Breakfast meat preferences notwithstanding, “banger” is also slang for a catchy song.
@BiancatheChameleon Starting off my day getting emotional over a crossword puzzle comment. Thanks for the window into your lovely morning.
@kilaueabart STLouis Cardinals :)
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