Kevin D

Forty-five years ago we lived in a smallish house in Croton-on-Hudson. My wife chaired the Girl Scout Cookie Sale for two years. On “cookie day” a very large truck backed up to our house and disgorged hundreds of cases of cookies. There were enough to fill up our small living room from floor to ceiling. With no room to spare, the cases needed to be broken down to match the orders from each of the girls - and then double checked. I was sweetly reminded by today’s spanner of all the volunteer work Girl Scout Troop Leaders and Cub Scout Den Mothers (my wife was both) perform in our communities. Here’s a toast to you all!

Sooo, we had a Wednesday on a Tuesday. And now a Thursday on a Wednesday?

Loved it. I’m the guy who never gets the trick on Thursday. I tirelessly solve from the crosses and then read the column to learn what I have missed. Not today! Charming puzzle where it was fun to sort out the theme answers. What? Wait? This had something to do with Valentine’s Day? Sigh. Maybe next week.

We have been mailing cookies this week to friends and relatives using Priority Mail. Their slogan is, “If it fits, it ships.” I’ll borrow that slogan for my solve. It was a delightful puzzle and, unusually, I can’t recall putting a wrong foot forward while solving. It all fit. Favorite entry was BLENDED FAMILIES. Mine was, ultimately ending up with six boys. For those birth order dinosaurs out there, I was Mom and Dad’s fourth child, Dad’s third child, Mom’s second child and their first child. Even today, when I’m asked my place on the roster, well, I do run on. And speaking of family… Our recently formed multigenerational family, including my wife of fifty five years, our youngest son, his new bride and our two grandsons wish you all the happiest of holiday seasons. It’s our second holiday go around and it’s so nice to have children in the house again.

It finally happened! Got the trick while solving the puzzle and used that new found knowledge to complete the solve. I may quit Thursday puzzles while I am ahead.

I frequently mention that I work on the crossword with my extended family. I rarely mention my wife because she is simultaneously solving the Spelling Bee and does not like to be interrupted. Me. “Sweetie, I need a four letter word for a cookie. First three letters are ORE…” Her. “Dunno.” But, tonight I am doing the puzzle and she is half asleep. Seventeen years of nursing experience kicked in and she mumbled “STETHO” just as she fell asleep.

We’ve been saying OEUVRE around the house lately, just to sound fancy. I had no idea how to spell it.

Re: Jodhpurs. My daughter in law and I were discussing the puzzle. My ten year old grandson joined in with the observation that if his friend Jon had a pair of pants with dozens of pockets for kittens, they’d be jonpurrs. Ta-dum-tum.

I ran into trouble in several places. I felt like I was putting out little fires in every quadrant. Eventually, it came down to correctly parsing AMFM to get the job done. Many will likely say it could have been harder, but, it was hard enough for me.

I had trouble finding a way in. But once I did, it was really enjoyable peeling back the long entries. Each one was a treat. Nice Friday!

This took me about an hour. Forty-five minutes of that was in the Northwest. I lost track of how many times I put in and then took out UHAULVAN. Yikes, I’m glad to be done. It was a very satisfying effort.

Many, many answers got on the cross. Whew. Or, as my son cheerfully reminds me, “Crossword puzzles are easy. You only need to know half the answers.”

I hold an MBA and for many years was a partner in a small business. I was invited back to the University of San Francisco, my Alma Mater, as a guest lecturer on small business by the business school. In the course of a wide ranging discussion, I was asked to name the most important class I had taken for my degree. I immediately answered ETHICS. The hosting professor quickly validated my response and the class spent the rest of the time discussing the topic.

1:49:03 and proud of it! Great puzzle. Maybe some of these words should be added to Spelling Bee?

WORKLIFEBALANCE was, for me, the answer of the year. From watching my parents, then working alongside my wife while raising three children, to now living with a son who is working two jobs to raise his children, it captures the challenges that affect almost every decision of our day to day lives.

No foothold in the Northwest. Moved on clockwise and did okay until I found myself back where I hadn’t started. I asked my grandson to please put down his game controller and answer the Nintendo clue, which he did. At which point, the crossings started to fill in and I was done. It takes a village.

The only reason I was not undone by rototiller was that is was right on the tip of my tongue, for ages. While I was drawing a blank on that wheeled thingy, the puzzle gradually filled and out popped COMPOST BIN. Not the first time my slow wits have kept me from straying.

As has been said, might have run on a Wednesday. But, I enjoy the ups and downs of perceived puzzle perplexity. What day is it? Will it be in my wheelhouse? How much help will I need from my daughter- in - law? Will she need help from me? And so on. The puzzle is all the more fun for these variables. Also, laugh out loud for “Lab report?” and “It might cause some unsurprised looks.”

Thursday shenanigans! I’m pretty literal and rarely unpack tricky revealers. Today was different. I solved the revealers riddle and then actually applied the results to complete the puzzle without going down a rebus rabbit hole. This puzzle was a delight and everything I could hope for on a Thursday.

At about 40 minutes, I thought I’d never finish. AUDIOBOOKS provided a glimmer of hope. But, then I stalled out. I spent a few minutes adding letters that just looked a good fit for the surroundings. A few of these paid off and I crawled across the finish line with no flyspecking at just over an hour. I was relieved to be finished as there were so many interpolated fills that I could never have found an error. What a great puzzle!

As I was working the puzzle I felt like I was getting nowhere. The occasional short answer would drop and then a lot of “Nope, next, next,next.” But, the little pieces of fill paid off with some quick spanners. Suddenly, I was done, with a time that surprised me.

I could not UNSEE Bside for way too long.

I got stuck on three squares and after trying various combinations of possible fills, I put the puzzle aside. We accompanied the grandsons to Legoland and while admiring the grounds Kathy started musing about the formidable gardening mess left behind in Puyallup. The word HOSTA was part of that conversation, a word I had no recollection of. After returning to our room, I finished the puzzle in a minute or so. Thus proving the frequent advise to put the puzzle aside and come back later.

I filled in most of this puzzle on the smallest available iPhone waiting for my wife to “just finish this chapter” on her Kindle. I was struggling with new technology while wracking my brain to recall struggling with old technology! I really enjoyed the trip down memory lane. It was a terrific puzzle.

Almost everything was hard. But, nothing was impossible. Both the clueing and the fill were fresh and brought many smiles to my hop scotch journey through the grid.

The grownups in the house, ranging from LXXVIII down to XLI have all been struggling with the math homework brought home by the second and fifth grade grandsons. I’m reminded by the puzzle that we haven’t seen hide nor hair of Roman Numerals from either kid. How are they ever going to solve crossword puzzles?

For me, figuring out the theme clues, took more time than figuring out the theme answers. As mentioned elsewhere, the clueing was delightful, adding sparkle along the path to completion.

A note on UVEAS. Every solver brings a unique life experience to the table. One solver’s Natick is another’s gimme. For reasons too long to list, I took a full semester three unit course called Structure and Function of the Eye at the tail end of a Liberal Arts degree. How weird is that?

We arrived back home just in time for this puzzle. We had spent a week in LYON, where any resident will tell you it’s the second largest city in France using some obscure metric. But, the big payoffs were two answers from previously unheard from housemates. Metal head son knew the drummer and #1 grandson chipped in with the chess answer. In our house, it takes a village.

What’s not to like? I got the gold star with zero flyspecking and enjoyed noodling out the theme answers along the way. Also, a rare top to bottom solve. Even so, it was still crunchy enough to be a fun romp and not just putting in my time.

I didn’t get SAPS or PESOS, struggled in the SE generally, looked askance at MKAY and thought I was headed for a DNF. I gave up on variations of masa when the penny dropped, but was still surprised to get the gold star when I made the change. My favorite answer was FAUX NAÏF, among others which made me smile. All in all my favorite Saturday in a long time.

This puzzle was full of clues and answers that made me smile. Truly delightful. How anyone can build long stacked answers, and a lot of them, with such fresh fill is astounding.

We did this in roughly half of our Saturday average. The grandsons called out DINO in unison and the Korean DiL was raised in a CONVENIENCE store and took violin lessons for years. Something for everyone!

Very smooth solve with no flyspecking, which makes this a rare Sunday solve. As a rebus lover, I thought the compound answers were very clever. I mean it’s easy to think of one such pair, but then to keep reeling them out… Well, I’m as amazed as I was amused.

Earth Day is also my mother’s birthday. First held in 1970, when my mom was 60. She once said she was officially older than dirt. I really liked the puzzle. I’m notoriously slow to catch on to themes but today was different. REDUCE had fallen early and I couldn’t stop grinning as I plugged along. Happy birthday! Mom!,

Add me to the confused solvers who beat their average times. I’m terrible at anagrams. But, as my son reminds me, “You only need to know half the words!” So, I just kept working the downs. The gold star caught me by surprise.

The whole alum… thing made me laugh for a completely different reason. My wife and about a dozen fellow high school alumnae are in constant contact in a years long text stream. They always refer to each other as guys.

Rough go. I had very little on the first pass and went back looking for clues that might be gimmes. I mean, is it really a gimme if it only might be? Cashed in the music clue as C major, otherwise it wouldn’t be a gimme. Same for the French sea and the High tea treat. Jazz great Jamal was an actual gimme, but reaches back 65 years to sharing a bedroom with a musically curious older brother. SALT. And so on. I still had more white space than any puzzle in recent memory. But, it’s finally done and I feel pretty good about that.

It took a village to solve this at our house. My almost daughter in law filled in most of the current pop culture, my son corrected the math error where 10x2 violated the single digit rule and I was the not too old old man for the rest of the fill. A good time was had by all.