Wayne C

Hmmm, many answers required specific knowledge, despite the column insisting they were mostly clever clues.

Isn’t that a mixed aphorism rather than a metaphor? The first part, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going”, is not a metaphor, a construction that likens one thing to another, at all. The second half could be loosely considered a metaphor.

Way too much trivia for me, far from my wheelhouse. Had to consult the column and comments

Not bad, though as a former resident I can attest that Karl abides in San Francisco, and doesn’t generally visit the Bay Area.

Grinded my way through but got stuck on Certain spot crossed with Geometry calculation. Had to go through the letters until it clicked. One nit, FTW isn’t something a victor types, it’s what someone says about something else that could or has been victorious. Like a San Franciscan typing “Niners FTW”.

This one wasn’t an enjoyable solve for me. The only fact answer I knew was The Queen’s Gambit star, and a number of the clues were just off. Kia cancelled the Rio a couple years ago, so the clue should have reflected that. And maybe because I’m from the west coast but street fairs have in tent cooking, not dining. You get your food and eat it while enjoying warm sunny days.

I only have a passing knowledge of musical terms but that was fun, and appropriate for a Wednesday. TIL that IDLI is a rice cake, and that people like TARO flavored boba (yuck!).

There’s certainly ambiguity in the way car bodies are classified, and while a Corvette fits the basic definition of a coupe, I think all fans of that model would consider it a sports car.

Thanks to having watched the hilarious baking show Nailed It, I got FONDANT right away.

Got through 90% of it, but was stymied by the trivia crosses.

Fair but tough one, had to resort to the hints so as not to take up my entire friday morning. My nits, PERUSES seems like a casual read rather than a close read. And I believe Bentley is owned by VW, which also owns AUDI and a million other brands.

Lots of proper nouns required lookups for me, and with Pinocchio I’m more familiar with the book than the Disney version, so didn’t come up with anything for that clue.

Overall enjoyable and the theme actually helped me solve it, but a couple of nits. I wouldn’t consider POSH as Smart; chic is a more apt answer. IMO, posh is associated with wealth or upper classes, and as we know from the madman in the White House, wealth can often be gaudy, not smart. And I don’t get the connection between sensation and SMASH, except in the most general of ways.

Clever and fun, best Friday in a while.

A nit: “completing” and “doing “ is a problematic pair. If you’re doing something it may never be completed. I understand clues don’t have to be equivalent but I feel the action they describe should be more similar.

Got this one pretty quickly for a Friday (for me), but didn't love the overused "oreo" answer. I suspected that might be the answer but resisted because the clue specified "classic", and that the answer was the singular. How is a factory made, pre-packaged cookie classic, and how many people are having a single oreo cookie with their milk?

I don’t know Greek letters so was clueless about the whole io thing, but still figured out the rebus and could see the crisscross and dingdong answers, just didn’t know how to enter the latter. No need however as phi was acceptable and completed the puzzle successfully.

As a car nerd and pedant, I have to point out that a Mustang is a pony car, not a muscle car.

A solid Sunday puzzle, and some of the clues made me guess the constructor is a fellow west coaster. Well, except for TACOBARS, a horrible thought for me when there are so many excellent taquerias around. Also D.S.L.R. Is a more appropriate clue for SDCARD. My SLRs only take film rolls.

My literature professor from many decades ago wouldn’t have agreed that Ophelia’s death was tragic, it was merely sad. A tragic death is brought about when one has a tragic flaw. It’s what makes a tragedy a tragedy in the formal sense of the word. My professor felt we use the word tragic too freely.

This puzzle and yesterday’s put “sea” in front of specific ocean creatures, which seems weird to me. Maybe it’s a west coast thing but in both cases we take “sea” as inferred, like how you wouldn’t refer to “Chinese” food in China.

Things came together pretty quickly, but then I got stumped on Common conjunctions, due to my insistence that a Powerful engine is a Honda VTEC, and not a VTEN (an uncommon engine layout in the automotive world).

Cute theme. But can someone be a conspirator if they only conspire with themself?

Thought I was onto something with tonguetied for French kiss kissers but this puzzle ended up far outside my wheelhouse. Had to pick up answers from the column. Also, would have gotten ARCH but could think of too many examples used in interior architecture.

As a Bordeaux fan, I object to the notion that a varietal is popular. That particular varietal isn’t popular as a “wine” in Bordeaux, only as one ingredient of the many wines from the region.

Started out pretty rough with too many unfilled squares, but then broke through with many partial answers from compound words (though SPICEDALES sounds gross). Ended up under 35 minutes, fast for me on a Saturday. Felt like a fair and challenging puzzle.

Seemed to be more direct knowledge, factual answers than typical, which got me wondering if this was a trivia test rather than a crossword puzzle.