I Thee Mack
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Not a fan of today’s puzzle. I was thwarted by the word “ABYSM” as I had “ABYSS” instead and I could not figure out why the puzzle would not solve. Who uses Abysm anyways?
This was the hardest Saturday puzzle I have encountered in a while. It took me over an hour!! Lots of ambiguities e.g. the cub alternative clues or even show Stopper. I could not make headway until I solved some of the proper names. Oh well, I guess that it’s good to get a challenge now and then. 🙂
Not a hard puzzle to solve but I had a hard time translating the answer to the puzzle’s team without looking at the accompanying article. I mean “parasite” mapping to “Paris site” was the furthest thing from my mind. Ultimately, not a satisfying puzzle in the slightest. The best ones should have you satisfied when the theme is revealed.
Howdy. Tricky Saturday puzzle (especially on the left side of the Grid) One thing I do not understand is this. What in the dickens is the name of a rhyming game where one half of the name is ALAI????
@I Thee Mack Never mind. I figured it out after I read the constructor notes. “THATS A NO BRAINER” is what 110 across was trying to make a pun on. With that revelation, I have come to realize that this was a damn clever puzzle! Nicely done. P.S. The use of tour guide in the clue still seems a tad superfluous. “What the pastry chef said to his students at the challa factory” might have made a little more sense maybe.
26 across stumped me. I had COMPANY CARS this seemed to line up with 9 Down as that turned into SKIS. Apparently it should have been COMPANY CARD! Come on people! Come onnnnnnnn!!!!!
28 DOWN nearly drove me insane! “Suspect” was the clue and all the while my brain is treating this as a noun or a verb and not an adjective! I got the first 3 letters “FIS” and I am thinking…what the heck is that? There is no noun or verb that means Suspect and starts with “FIS”… in English anyway. Turns out that it was an adjective and viewed that way “FISHY” was the only choice. That whole lower left corner was brutal. The ambiguities and vagueness abounded!
Upper left 1 down banjo plucking clue had me thinking STRUM for the longest time but then that whole section became unsolvable until… I changed STRUM to THRUM. Who says…”thrum your banjo”? Is that a thing? Gaaaaargghhh, I hate when that happens.slowed down my speed for the solve.
Mostly okay puzzle but 48 across’s answer confused me. “What ‘e’ might mean?” The answer was ONLINE? I don’t get that. I do not typically recall this meaning online. Am I just not hip to the latest trends? Can someone cite examples where this symbol is used to represent being connected to the internet?
@I Thee Mack Never mind. The clue was probably intentionally misleading. It was really asking “give me one part of a game where the parts of its name rhymes” and NOT “give me a part of a RHYMING game where the parts themselves rhyme” I was only able to get the answer by solving the other clues. Sigh.
Regarding 9 down: my knowledge of State Slogans is extremely limited so after solving the puzzle I had to look up what the heck “AESTX” meant with respect to the puzzle’s theme. “Don’t Mess With TEXAS”. Ya gotta be kidding me! Turns out that Texas also has a bunch of state slogans. I am definitely familiar with state mottos but if you google state slogans until actually get a bunch of hits on just state mottos which are different things. It really happy with the 9 across clue. The others were better.
WASHBOARDS as an instrument panel doesn’t quite make as much sense to me as much as DASHBOARDS but I guess that technically it is a panel be it is an “instrument” used to help people wash clothes???
@Patrick J. Well now I know, and knowing is half the battle! Usually I get the agreement stuff but skid is just not something I usually use when speaking about going downhill. I usually associate that with road accidents or maybe slipping on a floor. But sure, I could see that. Also COMPANY CARS is a plural and that should probably have also been a clue. Oh well.
All of the thematic clues had some punny humor to them but I did not get 110 across: “THATS A DOUGH BRAIDER”. I know that challah is braided bread but the answer doesn’t seem to nicely sound like a common saying. Is this some supremely clumsy variation on “That’s a deal breaker”? And what does a tour guide have to do with it? Can anyone explain?
This was a wacky puzzle but the breaks caused by the “wormholes” were hard to put together until the rest of the clues started to take shape and one realized that there was no other way for the answers to make sense than as answers that were scattered over multiple sections of the grid but in the down and across dimensions. Things like INCHworm, BOOKworm and EARworm then seemed a bit cute by half. But hey, keeps your brain from atrophying on a Sunday. 😜
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