David Wilcoxen
Austin Texas
@Chris It's standard for a Thursday. I'd skip this day of the week if you don't like them, because they're almost always like this.
Solved SYN on the crosses but couldn't understand it until I read the explanation. Fiendish but fun!
@ad absurdum Is it your half-sister?
One of those Saturdays when I make two passes through the puzzle and have just three answers filled in, that I'm still not sure of. But perseverance paid off. Saturdays aren't supposed to be easy. Very good puzzle.
Solved it fairly quickly even without the underlines (iOS). But I was certainly mystified about the theme clues before reading the notes.
Well, I had to read the column today because I would never have come up with "Cinderella's calling card" on my own.
I thought this one was murder! Over an hour to solve. But we don't do the Saturday puzzles because they're easy. The clue "Hill-adjacent field" took me a while to understand even after I'd solved it on the crosses. Finally, I got it.
My favorite clue of the week: "Non-metric unit ... or a metric unit."
@Jacob A friend of mine said a better answer for "Knob on electric guitar" would have been TED NUGENT.
It's not often I really laugh out loud at jokes in the puzzle, but this one made me do it more than once. WHYOMING indeed. Thanks for a very clever puzzle.
That was fun! Love those Thursday "a-ha!" moments when the trick becomes clear. Thanks.
Well, my study of prosody 45 years ago finally paid off, and I remembered the stress pattern of ANAPEST. Felt smart for a minute, then spent 40 minutes on the rest of the puzzle. :)
@Ann Young Yes, I agree. But “plum” is probably common enough to be considered an alternative spelling now. Like “woah” which bugs me to no end but has appeared in the puzzle.
I won't reveal how long I puzzled how "ether" could be a number, until I read these notes! D'oh!
Brutal. This Friday puzzle was harder than most Saturdays.
@Alex Kent The central vowel in "black" is a short "A." I hate these kinds of clues but they're not unusual.
@Jeff I can sometimes find my error by switching to the list view in the mobile app. Then I can scroll down my list of answers and it seems easier to spot the wrong one.
Great one! Very enjoyable. Never heard of a camp shirt before.
It took me 30 minutes to finally realize the gimmick, but it's a good one and it was a fun puzzle. Thanks!
I hate to admit how long I stared at "Early number?" even after solving it on the crosses, trying to figure out how the answer made any sense. Then, that "d'oh!" moment we all enjoy.
Fun, took me almost an hour but that's what I like about Sundays. Thanks for a great puzzle.
Pretty tough for me, but fun. Just what I like in a Saturday puzzle! Thanks.
@ad absurdum It was a real PITA.
I hate to admit how long it took me to catch on to "Fed." I probably spent more time on that clue than any other! Nice puzzle; thanks.
48 years after freshman college biology, I could finally refer to my murky memory of adenosine triphosphate! Not that I remember more about it than what the clue says. Worth the price of admission.
I knew those courses in logic would come in handy some day! Just kidding -- they were some of the best and most fun classes I took, and inform my thinking to this day. A fun puzzle!
I finished it in 50 tough minutes, well over my average. Oh well, I'll just be happy it was under an hour. Perfectly challenging Saturday puzzle, thanks.
So what if it's a little easier than the usual Thursday? Maybe that's a helpful way to ease in, for some people new to the Thursday puzzles. I once found them mystifying, too.
Fun puzzle, once you figure out the theme. Very nice. My only quibble would be that space flights don't reenter Earth; they reenter the Earth's atmosphere. (I said it was a quibble.)
@Jay Me too; my immediate thought was Schroeder spinning head over heels when Lucy yells THAT'S IT! when he plays Jingle Bells the way she wants.
Nice one. Fairly easy theme. I hadn't seen a bidirectional rebus in a while.
Tough one, took me an hour. Great clues, a nice challenge. Thanks.
@Barry Ancona Metered mail is usually used for large mail operations that send hundreds or thousands of pieces, often presorted or otherwise grouped for a reduced rate.
Tough one that I had to tough out. Took me a half hour before I understood the trick. Nicely done; thanks.
Not too easy. Daunting when my first pass through left me with only a few maybes and nothing else. But you gotta plug away and it starts falling into place. Such is Saturday! Much fun.
@CCNY Days of the week and certain numbers do have colors. You're not alone. :)
@dk There are still a few downtown. I think perhaps five or six are still in place, and the one in Zilker Park becomes the trunk of our giant Christmas tree this month.
@cg You might want to stick to Mondays, Tuesday, and Wednesdays. Definitely avoid Thursdays; you'll hate them.
Excellent, fun puzzle. Tough enough to occupy me for 51 pleasant minutes on a Sunday morning.
Very good puzzle! Perfect for a Tuesday. Thanks.
@Henrik My local Thai restaurant menu says "Larb Gai." Maybe the spelling more common in America; I don't know.
Very clever puzzle. Bravo. I like to do the puzzles on my phone at night before going to sleep, and couldn't figure out the pattern because I didn't see the circles; however, this morning on the computer, all was clear to me.
Cute one today, Thanks for an enjoyable puzzle.
@Nancy Well, I had no trouble with this one, but I'm not so confident about the Cryptic puzzles. I've only tried a few and did poorly, but maybe with your encouragement I'll give it another go. Thanks!
@Katie I made some two nights ago, almost exactly to your recipe (I see you really like garlic) but I haven't thought of cumin before. I'm sure that's a good addition.
Took me thirty minutes to realize how the clues worked. Fun! Thanks.
Fun! It threw me for a while before remembering that yes, there is at least one word starting with S and followed by V.
Clever, well done. Personally, as someone who grew up in ranch country in Texas I would never think of chain link fencing as a cattle barrier. It's barbed wire and nothing but barbed wire around here. I don't like the stuff but Texas must be crisscrossed by a million miles of it.
@Amy From the French play “Waiting for Godot” in which the title character never appears (spoiler).
Nice to have an easier Saturday puzzle now and then. Still, I thought I was pretty familiar with '80s TV, but I've never heard of Samantha Who!