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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

Not much to add to the earlier comments, a disadvantage of west coast living, but to say that is remarkable how much wasted time results from an incorrect but otherwise perfect 10 letter answer.

I liked the puzzle because it had really fresh fill within a Tuesday level of difficulty. Made me smile.

ENDASH V emdash…. Did not slow me down. I just thought I had been getting it wrong all these years and moved right along. Wouldn’t be the first time. In London to visit friends. Going to see the virtual ABBA show. I’m just a medium grade ABBA fan. I am really intrigued by the whole hologram thing. This will be either groundbreaking or just a footnote in performance arts. I wanna say I was there. The rolling transit strikes are taking a lot of the fun out of this. The hip kids are using the pay-as-you-go e-bikes. With a combined age of 152 we’re going to stick to busses and black cabs and the Tube – depending on what’s available.

I did this tucked up in bed. Not really a Saturday, more of a warm and comfy sweater of a puzzle that I moved through enjoying the wit and rhythm of the solve. The constructor’s comments were the perfect ending for my day.

Re: 67A RAE, I had no idea. But, the crossings were a really fun collection of snippets from my past. Superman comics from 65 years ago, Windows user for the last 40 years, and finally, a Punk reference to a guy one year older than me. You only need to know half the answers!

Add me to the delighted crowd. The NW was last to fall because I was “sure” I was correct on 1D. So, my two favoritely clued answers, OHPUHLEASE, and LESBIAN BAR were the last to fall

Raise your hand if you set a new Wednesday record. I did. The puzzle flowed ever so smoothly from the NW to the SE with an early aha for the theme. Also, no typos! OREO did hang me up for a cross or two.

I watch a lot of Bluey with my grandchildren. Janet or Rita is frequently OUTRAGEd. Just one of the many answers in this puzzle that made me laugh. Spouse loved the Mini. Confession: I’m getting sucked into seeing how far I can go in a comment using mini Ai, aka autofill, to complete my thoughts. It’s getting a little scary.

Tried and true. Got nowhere. Had breakfast. Finished below my average. It’s happened many times over the years. Every time I am delightfully surprised. I really liked it. Perfect for a Saturday.

Today’s STRANDS was better than the usual word hunt. There’s a theme twist aided by a neat layout. Very cute. I hope it’s repeatable.

I was stuck in the NE corner. Couldn’t get Pop Warner out of my head. After a bit, I took deep breath and asked myself, given P___ F(OO)TBA(LL), where must the other two doubles go? and, I was done. Nice puzzle.

I interrupted my retirement to take a cruise to Mexico. With little else to angst over, I wondered about how well the boat WiFi would work and whether I’d stay on top of my puzzles. Add to that, I usually solve with a posse, left behind in Puyallup. Well, one down and two to go. No KPop. No post 2000 media stars. Just smooth sailing to a solve in just half my usual Saturday time. Whew.

As per my byline, I’m not in Puyallup. It’s a treat to open the comments with only 44 comments to peruse. Even so, I have nothing to add!