Joe

@Andrzej I got the "Big Ben" clue due to my ignorance. I always believed Big Ben was the clock. Once again, stupid wins!

@LJADZ You've never seen one of mine.

@Rupert Davis Aerie, I think

@Eric Hougland As I remember it, two of the kingdoms in BOTR were Tudor and Fordor.

@Dave S And who fired thousands of air traffic controllers.

@Darren I agree this was a thought Tuesaday. I needed help in some areas. But... 1) Opera clues are pretty standard fare for NYT crossword,s and even I (who've never been to an opera) have heard of Tosca 2) Octopus, octet, etc. My objection to the clue is that base-8 is not "like" octal, it IS octal 3) "Stoat" is fairly common in the NYT crosswords.

@MAR1 As in the Sun setting? That was my guess, anyway.

@Mark P I agree. And the first four sources I checked define "nary" as "not one"

@Bruce Thanks for this. Occam's Razor makes more sense to me now.

@Petrol My first attempt was PRENUP

@Spmm Or National Lampoon's "Coito ergo sum"

@Francis That's what I call essential amino acid information.

@Lisa Houlihan Yes, it is. Maybe you're thinking of a tick? <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flea</a>

@Steve L <a href="https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/whole+bag+of+tricks" target="_blank">https://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/whole+bag+of+tricks</a>

@Bill Thanks! I was stuck on the idea it was the name of a family who owned a grocery store chain.

@Ana I see it, too, when I select 4 down.

@Andrea Can't it be a rock? If I find a chunk of mica, isn't that chunk a rock? Rock salt, limestone, quartzite?

@Leontion I guess saying "prescription" is a patience perogative.

@Lily O But did you like it?

@Ms. Billie M. Spaight Great idea. White characters might have helped in the colored squares, too.

@nash.mark When I do the puzzle on my laptop, the Wordplay picture is visible below the puzzle.

@Teresa I had the same (or similar) puzzle as a kid, and I loved it, but I'm still hopeless at geography. When I see a "Direction from Akron to Albuquerque" clue, I skip it and wait for the crosses.

@Cherry "Just about any church that does baptism by immersion..." What part of the clue made you infer "baptism by immersion"?

@Withnail Except in Boston: <a href="https://youtu.be/Oi6KNWsqM-Q" target="_blank">https://youtu.be/Oi6KNWsqM-Q</a>

@Francis Maybe her inner child?

@Katie Thanks for that link!

@John I'm largely ignorant of geography (I originally had Rhine), but your comment made me curious, so: "Ranked according to annual discharge, the ten largest rivers contributing to the Mediterranean Sea are the Rhone, Po, Drin-Bojana, Nile, Neretva, Ebro, Tiber, Adige, Seyhan, and Ceyhan." <a href="https://www.grida.no/resources/5897" target="_blank">https://www.grida.no/resources/5897</a>

@B But if the clue for "sort" had referred to spreadsheets, that would have made the puzzle even easier.

@Barry Ancona If I didn't know either word, I would consider any vowel, or the letter "T", for starters.

@Mr Dave I suspect Patrick's objection has more to do with the fact that Deb's statement, "it decays in approximately 8.2 hours", might lead readers to infer that ALL of the element is gone after 8.1 hours.

@Elijamin That, andr Yogi Berra's bat

@Hanson Yes! The last thing we need are more categories used to separate us.

@Steve L Unless someone somewhere uses drag as an adjective; what do I know?

@Hardroch Indicating that a comment refers to the Mini also makes it easier to avoid reading spoilers.

@Wayne I only know Zasu Pitts as a location in "Bored of the Rings". Somewhere in Fordor, I think....

@Andrzej I LOVE THAT COMMENT!

@Teresa " ...the five random phrases that solved to equally random phrases..." These always frustrate me, and having three of them side-by-side in the NW corner stumped me completely.

@Cat Lady Margaret Well, it needs to be a chain reaction to be safe. But in recent years the speed of that reaction has slowed tremendously, which I always assume is due to people finsihing a text before hitting the gas.

@John How about, "Miners mine them for metals"?

@MC So you're saying cones and pyramids and spheres don't have height?

@Hanson <a href="https://pbswisconsin.org/article/ken-burns-ken-burns-a-playfully-hilarious-parody" target="_blank">https://pbswisconsin.org/article/ken-burns-ken-burns-a-playfully-hilarious-parody</a>/

@JLin And it could have easily been clued differently, e.g., "Mosty common blood type in US"

@Bibliocat I would find an "effortless fill" tedious. Luckily, I haven't encountered one yet!

@Bruce True, but Don Henley's "Sumggler's Blues" made for an iconic appearance on Mioami Vice!

@Sue How does being married to an actor I've heard of make her "known"?

@Jeb Jones And for outdoor gas grills

@Tim As a former science teacher, I agree, but common usage seems to have capitalized the k; I see it that way in the press.