PDWilliams

To make a short story long....the spirit phone? I was 5 years old in 1959. We had a black wall phone with no dial. One would pick up the receiver and an operator would come on to assist your call. My paternal grandmother lived in the Midwest where my father was from. We lived on the east coast near New York city. My grandmother called one day and happily talked with each & everyone of our 7 family members. We children had never met Minnie so this was a very special occasion! ...The next day, a telephone repairman (they were all men at the time) came to our house to repair the phone. My father told him our phone was working fine last night, my mother called & talked to everyone! The repairman said that's impossible, all the phone lines have been down for the past 3 days. We found out later that Grandma Minnie had passed in the early morning hours, before the phone call. I don't believe there is a "quote" Spirit Phone but our spirits do make the Crossover at times!

Nah! on the Natick. I knew Carr right away

Good one, Rich Norris! I've been playing your grids in the Archives but none as sophisticated as this one. Best in the show!

LOL! The first concert I saw was The Turtles! It was embarrassing how entranced I was by them. We were standing near the stage maybe 4 or 5 rows back(no seats) but my date had to grab hold of me to keep me from getting on the stage!! EL..... GEE . ..... .... .....

My Dad would have loved this, as do I! Congrats on your NYT Crossword debut. Looking forward for more to come!

Enjoyed it immensely! Nice to see/solve with you again Jeff Chen!

Enjoyed the solve! Pretty tough for for an ancient mariner such as I, but I got there. Thoroughly enjoyed it

Yup! Another to unpack! Thanks, Ms Iverson

Thank you Mr Rippe for your vital work & celebration of this incredible Act! And, thank you Jeff Chen for an outstanding collaboration!

Thoroughly entertaining!!

It always looks so easy once you're done, except for 31-Down in this case! Nice to solve you again Peter Gordon!

Quite fun!

Thoroughly enjoyed!!

46 minutes & change, thanks for the challenging solve, Sam! I mean...how vague can you get!?! Lol We miss you, Will Shortz! Sounds like hard work ahead...nothing new for you! We're all looking forward to your return

Yes, Evans. I find it rather humorous that X is always followed by formerly known as Twitter, lol. Enjoyed your puzzle, alot of twists & turns (for me)!

Wow! and PHEW!! Truly entertaining. This may be the longest Saturday solve I've ever done. Loved solving it! Thanks for 50-down, wasn't so sure about it but it was right,after all

Amazing circus video with Piper! And a pretty darn good puzzle too!

Very entertaining solve, enjoyed the "dad" puns!

Thanks, Joe! Love it, it's my birthday today & I not only got a Thursday puzzle...you put in my favorite word 2-down! Thanks bc I am 13-across!

Nice! Congrats on your debut! Sam, I've developed the habit of looking at crossing clues since solving on the app/phone. I want to see every clue just like the pen & paper puzzle. I know it's slower but I can't help my self!

Nice and crunchy. Enjoyed it!!

Gracious! Enjoyable solve, thank you

Like Lotta Sea Lice! Thanks for introducing me to it! Always like your puzzles!

Bravo!!!

Very 21D-ing!

Thank you for a thornly(?) solve Byron! Thoroughly enjoyably challenging. You sank my average solve time by 43 minutes. And after the solve everything looked so simple!

I thought of every definition of 'manuals, I thought until I had solved the puzzle. Then, oh oh doh! Fun solve!

You had me stumped on the 2nd(?) theme answer. Had to peek in on Caitlin. Enjoyed

Yup! I love Joel but will be glad to have Will back!

Clever...I enjoyed your Monday puzzle!

LOL, altho I got the word from crossings I didn't recognize P*******! til I saw it the blog horizontal. O me, my older brother came up with the game(I dint even know it was a game) as he was driving way before me. No arm punches or anything else. He just made it a contest to be the first to yell P******! On the cusp of the '60's/'70's in the shore area in New Jersey there were many! Fond forgotten memory. TX

Hiew! Wild!

How many new answers in this?

Hehe!