Boaz Moser

@Anita Thank you so much! Glad you enjoyed. I had a fun time trawling through the Wikipedia list of genericised brand name and trying to select two properly tricky ones.

@Lewis Thank you for your kind words! Both of those clues were in fact mine, though kudos for the editing team for smoothing out the wording for the latter. I like to consult clue databases when clueing short fill so I can try to make sure the angle I came up with might be new to solvers. Thrilled to see it worked out!

@tapebouquet Haha it is a bit of a dated clue! You may be interested in learning about skeuomorphs. Things like the floppy disk save icon or record scratch sound effect. Sometimes bits of older technology persist in language and design despite no longer being necessary! Our original was [Do touch that dial!]

@Hope Levav Thank you Hope! I always love seeing people pick up on the origins of my name.

@Nicole Thanks Nicole! Hope to see you featured in Wordplay one day :)

@The X-Phile You'll have to forgive Jacob for the oversights in his wordplay column— by the time we get around to writing them its almost a full year since we initially did the puzzle. It's easy to remember putting in one word only to see it was something else, d'oh!

@Patricia Interesting! I'm not sure! My original clue was [Their coats make great coats] and I didn't notice anything fishy about the "wool" clue in the proof. I do love a good technical distinction, and I'll have to research.

@G.T. Thank you for your kind words! As of now I have another themeless in the queue, this time a collab clueing with a friend. Hopefully you enjoy it just as much!

@Natdegu Thank you so much! I was glad the editors kept the boxers clue, it was one of my favs from the submission.

@Mean Old Lady @kkseattle Yes it's not a common name, though I have met a few people who share it! Actually, I've found a decent number of people who had pets named Boaz... I do love the story of Boaz in the book of Ruth, but actually I'm named after the pillar in Solomon's temple. There were two brass pillars named Boaz and Jachin, and Jachin is my younger brother's middle name.

@Tim P Thank you! This is my third puzzle for the Times, but the other two were Friday themelesses which are a completely different vibe so this is still new ground for me. Glad I've got a themed one in. Maybe one day I'll complete a weekly set... A constructor can dream!

@Ciarán I'm surprised the cluing on this one turned out so easy! I thought with the bonus long answers & a couple tricky clues Tuesday was a good fit, but several have reported it's on the easier side. Better that than a stumper, at least!

@Sam Lyons I'll fess up on this one— my error! I looked up and you're absolutely right, the SETI Institute doesn't do active signal sending. I'll make sure I don't clue that way again! I will quibble that I'm used to hearing "SETI" as shorthand for specifically the "SETI Institue" growing up, but that's probably not the industry standard.

@Grumpy I need to raise my hand for the error with SETI, another commenter pointed it out and you're absolutely right they don't engage in active SETI. As far as DRIP, I did look that up in Wiktionary (my go-to) and they don't have the sound listed as a meaning. I'd quibble that it's still close enough, but point taken.

@Andy G I'm familiar with the place through Revelation 16:16, which in the ESV reads "And they assembled them at the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon." It looks like most English translations use that transliteration, though NASB and some others use "Har Magedon" which is probably more true to the original.

@TTJ Very funny and very fitting comment— I live real close to the Pittsburgh zoo and my roommate says he can sometimes hear the lions roar at night. I however am not a LIGHT SLEEPER and have never noticed them myself.

@dk Thank you! Glad you enjoyed our puzzle!

Yes thank you for your kind words Mark!

@Heidi Thanks for sharing Heidi, excellent finds!

@Parker Thank you! Always thrilled to get praise from another yinzer.

@B Sorry that I wasn't clear: the students *did* solve the published version, and found it very difficult. Point is, even if the Saturday experience is shifting easier overall, there are still amateur solvers out there who have it! In my opinion the editors do make things easier, but it must be said part of that is related to making things *cleaner*. Many of my hard clues that get changed involve stretchy wordplay, convoluted phrasing, or niche references, if I'm being honest. Take the TIED clue I mentioned. I like it, but totally get why it was cut! I also wouldn't say I'm "barely rewarded"— the fact that I get to make money off a dear hobby at all is amazing! Perhaps I wish NYT bumped up its payscale to keep pace with their raising standards and overall inflation, but hey, it's whatever.

@Lynn I would love to see a Saturday "hard mode" to accompany the Friday "easy mode", agreed! But I think that's a bigger lift on the editors for a smaller audience. I've slowly migrated to also solving crosswords in other places in addition to the NYT Saturday to hit that sweet spot of difficulty more often.

@MaryEllen If you want to hear my two cents on this, I agree that "old" is not bad! Even outdated terms keep relevance as a reminder of a specific time or culture. What I meant by "old" is the type of niche fill that was once common but no longer passes muster. Things like variant spellings, niche technical words, or acronyms that aren't inferrable anymore. Personally, I want every entry in my crosswords to be good on their own terms, not just good because decades-long solvers will be familiar with them by now. YE GODS from this puzzle is a good example of "old" fill I like! Nobody really says it anymore, at least not that I've heard, but it's so evocative of a certain period. For me, I instantly picture a grizzled 19th century sea captain staring agape. "Put up your DUKES" is also old Cockney rhyming slang that I think is interesting!

@Brian Way to go Brian! I love to hear the progress!