Kevin Davis

You will be sorely missed, Deb. Thanks for all the hints & explanations. Best of luck in your next endeavor.

I’m stuck on CLAY for “singles material, say.” A single to me is a $1 bill, an unmarried person, or a song (as opposed to an album). I can’t find any connection.

How to solve this puzzle: Either read this Wordplay column & copy the hints verbatim, or Look at the answer key.

Almost 9 min. slower than my Sunday avg. I couldn’t see what square my cursor was on, or whether I was solving across or down in the Games iPad app. Lots of stray letters for me. I eventually realized that I could turn off the overlay, but then I had to turn it back on to get [blue]print, [yellow]pages, etc.

Deb, I will greatly miss your puzzle help, your humor, your advice, & your forum moderation. Remember when you had to approve my clue for “algae” as “pond ___” (rhymes with chum ) that had been blocked by the forum filter? I hope you find a new pursuit that’s just as fulfilling. I’ll have to get by without you somehow.

I enjoy the challenge of Saturday puzzles. Once again, my grid was mostly empty before I came to this column & its comments. Some of my fill was wrong too. Solved with help from here.

ONEA related to the draft should be retired. The US draft ended in December 1972, & it only affected men age 18 or older. Thus, the only people familiar with this term are males at least 70 years old, & people who solved prior NY Times crosswords.

@Caitlin Thanks for filling in some of my blanks in an interesting & informative way. Finished the puzzle a bit faster than average due to your help & some of the comments here.

I got IPAD immediately, without need for a hint. “Demo for many parents of alphas” stumped me though, I read “demo” as demonstration, not demographic. I thought “alphas” were TYPE AS, not an age group.

I’m as bad as everyone else at complaining, but I’m surprised at so many comments on how easy this one is for a Friday. Take the win & move on, IMO. My time was 13:09, 1:39 faster than my Friday average. That was on an iPad in the NY Times Games app, where I’m a 1-fingered typist. I only looked up the bee genus (didn’t know the last letter), the “Toy Story” clue (it’s been too long, & I didn’t know if the crossing answer would use the German or English acronym—that clue was written in English, so English was my 1st pick), the gymnast charm (don’t watch woman’s gymnastics), & the Nobelist name (but I had the 1st letter & knew it was Russian, so I could have gotten it without Google). I left the 1st letter of cellular data plan blank, as DNA & RNA are used interchangeably here & often incorrectly. A fun puzzle today, & I look forward to a challenge tomorrow.

I quickly figured out the gimmick in Thursday’s crossword without needing hints, but I couldn’t type x=y in the iPad or iPhone NY Times Games app. I needed to finish on the website. It’s also showing up as blue, not gold, so it may break my streak.

Clever design & fill. Both @Deb’s & constructor notes were vital for me to solve. Most rebuses in a puzzle? Now my finger is tired & I’m craving pizza!