Bready Bunch

Disagree with the cheat suggestion. Alternatively, put the puzzle down, make some coffee or tea, take a shower and pick it up again. Sometimes a fresh perspective brings those pesky clues in line. "Cheating" is a slippery slope and diminishes persistence in problem solving --- but do not listen to me I am only a Cognitive Psychologist who researches decision making :).

Today's example for me was 29D. I was focused on pitch as a sales pitch. Got up, fetched a "donut muffin" (instrument of terror baked by a local restaurant), thought about putting another coat of varnish on my boat (aptly named Sourpuss), came back to the puzzle and RESIN was revealed and I easily guessed NATE.

In the olden days one had to wait until Monday to check your Saturday results and, to me, that took all the pressure off the solve. Only option was to call your smarter sibs or friends and suffer their BANTER. Imagine asking your speed solving sister about 29D and the resulting "you moron....." Myself, I would wait til Monday and suffer in silence.

Off to varnish (Epifanes) the seats.

TTFN and thank you Mr. Berry

Deb,
Thank you for making me laugh. Your column rocks. #NowYouKnow.

A love a Saturday Berry puzzle that FLOES like a river. This one was very smooth and finished pretty quickly. LALANNE (again) helped make quick work of the bottom stack (I was always a vinyl guy before CDs, but was a master of the CASSETTE mix TAPE, if I do say so myself). I also had "This is CNN" at first, and NYMPH before SYLPH. My first inclination for 23A was jugged EELS, which somehow sounds even worse. Remembered ALYDAR. Best clue loaned itself to Deb's column today.

Lucky for me one of my favorite songs from the 80s is "Solid Rock" by an Aussie group called GOANNA. It's a rocking history lesson about the mistreatment of the Aboriginal people of Australia. One of few Hot 100 hits to feature a didgeridoo as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbASq3FMf70

Very nice puzzle as always from Mr. Berry. Not as much of a challenge as many Saturdays, alas, but that tends to be the case with this constructor (who has been my favorite of all constructors for many years). Had not heard of the TITANS or a GOANNA, forgot ROSEANNE's last name, and ALYDAR was only the least trace in my consciousness. CULT before SECT (but then the other one had to be CULT), CRIB (though that didn't seem like a form of learning) before CRAM, QUE TAL before BUENOS, SMACK before SMASH, and MOOS before MOAN for "Low lament". Last letters were the A of COAST/GOANNA and the B of CARBS/BARBS. Favorite clue: "Land line" for COAST, whose meaning took a while to dawn.

Nice work, PB.

Weirdly, this was a far more accessible puzzle than the utterly vicious "ghost" puzzle of Thursday, from which I'm still recovering. And yes, the Molotov Cocktail was inspired.

I'm not as bright as most of the solvers that post and am only able to finish a typical Saturday (without assistance) about 1x per month. I completed today's in under 17 minutes, evening not knowing SYLPH. I guess some days the cluing just connects with your personal experiences and knowledge.

My two cents, submitted several hours ago, seem to have been lost in cyberspace. Here they are again.

I found this puzzle easier than yesterday’s. I solved it more quickly (on my lenient time scale), needed fewer lookups – nearly all of them confirmatory, and – again – did not invoke “check” or reveal.

The fill is wide ranging and the cluing unexceptionable, as is expected of Patrick Berry.

One bad guess that I refused to abandon for a long time was GRAVE for 34A. In fits the clue so much better than the non-commital LARGO.

Am I the only one who has been finding Saturday easier than Thursday lately? I'm still proud to have finished under a half hour. Enjoy your weekend, all!

Solid and smooth (the PB norm), as yesterday's was; in fact, three very good days in a row. My three favorite clues: RAMRODS, NIT, ENTREE. I had "CNN" before NPR. I like that the neighbors MOLOTOV and TRIPLE SEC are both cocktail related, as Deb has noted. I thought FROSH was only plural; learned that it can be singular, as well as what a GOANNA is, and jugged HARE (which is quite an ENTREE -- Google it). Didn't know whether to put COVE or CaVE because I didn't know CONNOR.

There are some cooks who, whatever they put on the table, will produce food that is luscious, memorable, and makes you feel good all over. Every time. In crossworld, there are an elite few who produce puzzles with the same qualities. Every time. Today's ENTREE, for one.

Thrilled to have finished my first Saturday after months of either not even trying or getting only a handful of words. For "land line" I had FAULT for the longest time before finally figuring it out. Was thinking about various 80s bands before finally getting CASSETTE TAPE. Great puzzle.

That was fun! For awhile I thought it might be jugged kale. Somehow that seemed like a good thing to do with kale. And I tried dirge before LARGO. Last month we spent a wknd in Key LARGO; nothing funereal about that place. FWIW in academic discourse, a SECT is a subgroup within a larger religion, while a CULT is an independent new group. Lately we've begun to use the term "new religious movement" (NRM for short) instead of CULT.

So thrilled I did this one with no checks or answers from the app cheats! I did google a bunch of answers, but apparently that's ok! I got my gold star for the first time on a Saturday! Slowly working my way up on these end of the week puzzles. This one had too many names I didn't know. Disappointed I didn't go with my gut on sylph, I knew it but looked it up to check. Even though I consider the 80s my decade, I never watched Roseanne , had Arnold at first;and it took me way too long to get cassette tape.

About an hour early, but I'm going to be out for a while, so....

Hi Viv.

Would usually just make this a reply to my CiC, but I fear it might end up hidden at this point.

Nobody's better than Berry. The end.

As usual with a Berry, I started out thinking this would be the one I totally wouldn't get (pickup trucks and Australian monitor lizards?) and ended up finishing, but UNusually, only after having looked something up.

The problem was, I had ICON for IDOL. And while I expected to recognize Affirmed's rival once s/he showed up, I didn't. Also, I thought I had no idea of Parker's first name (which did in the end pop into my head.) I almost Googled NYMPH vs. SYLPH but stuck with _Y_PH for a long while.

When I did give up, I Googled TRIPnESEC...argh! If I'd been more patient and walked away from the puzzle for a while I might have got it, but then again maybe not. It's not like I've never heard of TRIPLE SEC, just that I never needed it before, in life or in puzzle-solving.

Elsewhere, I had loads of fun. Got ELOISE by instinct and talked myself out of Stalin being buddies with a ROMANOV...good choice, right?

Etc. As usual, can't wait for the next Berry!

ONCE UPON A TIME, I started a Patrick Berry Saturday puzzle and finished it with no HALTS and no opportunity to EASE UP. No PANGS of guilt here. No look ups, just a few (educated) guesses that turned out right, namely SYLPH which just sounds poetic. Like the cross of TRIPS and TRIPLE SEC. ELOISE (at the Plaza) was a favorite of mine.

Thanks to Crocodile Dundee, the GOANNA led the way, not to mention thousands of Monopoly games (had to visualize the board and Pop! there were the pale blue properties,) this puzzle fell into place like a row of dominoes. And who says watching figure skating is a waste of time?

There was one horrible moment when I thought I was being forced to complete, "This is HER." Whew. KUAR --89.1 on your FM dial--to the rescue.

Fave clue: Metallic stickers for BARBS. (Please note, everyone who thinks it is a BOB wire fence, or even a BARB wire fence: BARBed wire. You know, like the iceD tea.)

Not sure I had known ROSEANNE's last name.

And what am I supposed to do with information such as 1A? That is taking up valuable memory space in my brain now--space that I may need for something like my medication list! Thanks a LOT, Patrick and Will. (Actually, I mean that, but you know how it is.)

Re: The Jack LALANNE Show: Interesting how LALANNE has 5 out of 7 letters in common with PALANCE. Of course, that Jack didn't have a TV show for over a quarter century--not sure if he ever had one at all, self-named, anyway, but if the clue is JACK and you have -ALAN-E...

Corrected that, and also corrected VENTNOR to VERMONT.

JUGGED HARE had me shaking my head. Sounds disgusting.

I did it! Well SORTA. I didn't trust my answers, 50% with good reason, until I caved at read Deb's blog early. I learned it's not cheating to read it - or even helpful comments - because it's great to #LearnSomethingNew. Only crossings helped me with FLOES, BARBS and TARTAR. I'd spelled Jack as Le instead of LA and (sorry Irish ancestors) put Celts. Still, I was shocked to hear that ditty at the end telling me I finished! Have a great Saturday, all.

As usual, it seems that I'm bringing up the rear. I thought I had a good shot at this one. I worked out the northern area bit by bit and then down the diagonal to a certain point. Some very satisfying moments as various answers dawned on me. Then I got stuck and moved to the south. That took me a lot longer but I got most of it with a couple of failed checks.

Went back to the mid-west area but I was doomed. I guessed MOLOTOV, but had no idea on TRIPLESEC as clued, couldn't remember ALYDAR and RESIN never dawned on me. So I never got any of the across answers from RAMRODS down to NATE in that section.

Also got hung up and needed a reveal in the mid-west section, though in retrospect I can't understand why I didn't get that. Interesting misleading clue for me was 36a. If that had been 'metal' instead of 'metallic,' I feel certain I would have gotten it. But 'metallic' had me thinking of an entirely different kind of sticker, and I never recovered from that line of thought.

Very nice puzzle. Were I a bit more imaginative and knowledgeable I think I might have been able to get it. There's always next time.

One of our constant regulars was a NOSHOW yesterday; I hope she's all right.

Finally stopped my cheating (reading Deb beforehand) for good.
Almost finished "Cruciverbalism". Recommended for, well, us devoted cruciverbalists.
I'm pretty much addicted to xwords, and would like to have recommendations for free or 'affordable' online puzzles. I already do NYT, Guardian Quickie/Speedy and Quigley. Would like to move on to Cryptics, but I'm finding it a struggle, so not fun. But Guardian Quiptics are fun, so I can recommend that.

I've gotta put this one out here. If you want to experience one of the most diabolical crossword puzzles ever, check out today's Penny Dell offering at the Washington Post. It's at http://games.washingtonpost.com/games/penny-dell-crossword/ You have to print it to see what I mean; doing it online blunts its inanity.

Someone misnumbered the clues and they are all sequential from clue one on the across to clue 78 on the down. Apart from one across there is no correspondence at all to the numbering on the grid. Loads of fun.

Grab it before they correct it.

My best Saturday yet. I started with ONCE UPON A TIME, and resisted the urge to check. NIT was my first thought for Carp, not fish, as it is used so often by commenters.

Oddly my last fill was the wine making byproduct, and of course I was thinking wine barrels for what turned out to be guns. BTW, Barry, nice article on barrel making; my wine tasting group did an evening on the subject a while back, helps to explain the cost of some wines.

My big mistake in the south was Ventnor rather than VERMONT AVENUE, and got my first black triangle checking one of the letters.

Again I can say I enjoyed a late week puzzle, thanks Patrick.

PB's puzzles are such a delight. Great cluing and little or no glue. If not for a typo in VERMONT AVENUE, I would have finished in close to record time for a Saturday while still feeling challenged.

Good puzzle! Went pretty quick for me. First time I've ever solved two Saturday puzzles in a row. The ALYDAR corner took the longest.

Out of the gate with SHOCK RESISTANT, followed by NO SHOW and ONCE UPON A TIME. Flowed clockwise all the way around until I had nymph before SYLPH and didn't remember ALYDAR. A brief pause to watch video of Steve Cauthen on AFFIRMED win the Triple Crown and then, slowed at the wire, RAMRODS for the finish. (Oh, that kind of barrel!)

MIJ, I cannot tand Jpoe Buck. He is single-handedly ruining watching the Series on TV.

The avatar tonight is tied by MOLOTOV.

No joy in Mudville.

I confidently entered KEEPS ON TICKING for 15A, but it turns out that a durable wristwatch is SHOCK RESISTANT. Things went better in the north after I'd conceded that one.

That's two Jack LALANNEs lately. Won't someone find it in their heart to give a shoutout to his lovely wife, Elaine LALANNE?

You've got my old email address. To reach me us:
[email protected]

I disagree with your analysis of the "ramrod" clue. It truly is something put into a barrel -- in this case a gun barrel -- and used to drive the bullet and/or gunpowder to the rear or stock end of the barrel.

This was a good tough challenge. I had very little in the far north and various other words scattered around the rest of the puzzle. Eventually it started to come together from the bottom up. I didn't know ELOISE ever went to Moscow, but she was what came to mind first, for some unknown reason. MOLOTOV was easy only once I had all the O's, and I remembered ALYDAR--but I think both of those would be very frustrating to someone younger who didn't know them. I had LIVE before REAL, but figured 34D had to be LALANNE, and BUENOS.

Some time ago, I attempted to commit to memory SALCHOW and TOE LOOP as the skating leaps that have more than 4 letters (and LOOP, FLIP, LUTZ, and AXEL as the ones with 4 letters). Sometimes I succeed in remembering this, and today was one of those days.

I ended up Googling NISSAN TITANS in order to get a foothold in the north (I had figured out the TITANS part by then). I had tried TWICE TOLD TALE for 13A and that wasn't getting me anywhere, so I didn't feel too bad about that. Like I said, it was a challenge!

excellent puzzle by Patrick Berry. Kept wrking at it. Last to fall was the Nissan Titans which i have never heard of. Got from crossings. Liked carbs "bready" things!

In my brief time reading this column/blog, I have come to recognize the names of certain constructors. From Patrick Berry, I expect a very clean grid, virtually no initialisms or other silly fill, clever but not obscure cluing, interesting entries, and an overall enjoyable solve. I was not disappointed today.
I noticed that ELOISE in Moscow crossed MOLOTOV (but his cocktail did not contain TRIPLE SEC). It was good to see a Jack LALANNE rerun. Let's get REAL -- no SHAM -- one person's SECTS are another's CULTS. I did not remember the NISSAN TITANS, but got them from the crosses. I had no NIT to pick with this puzzle. Patrick CRAMS a lot of fun into the grid.

■ 29A: Again, not what it seems. Most people reading the clue “They’re put in barrels” might think about putting things inside the open space in a barrel. Today, we’re thinking more about the construction of the barrel itself, and the answer is RAMRODS.

Deb,
No, a RAMROD is *not* part of the barrel or its construction, it is a rod used for ramming things in the barrel.
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/ramrod

How is a RAMROD NOT something put INTO the barrel of a musket?