Not as Shy as One Might Think

OK Saturday. Nothing super-clever and the cross at "They click" and "Shepherd's home", that was weak.

Nice debut, enjoyed it. As a Brit ex-pat however I sincerely doubt that Kate is Prince George's Mom. She's almost certainly his Mum.

Congrats Steve Overton on your debut! On a Saturday, no less.

I too started with TVGUIDE (the clue/answer is an oft-repeated trivia question) and made smooth progress in solving. Like SJ, all of my best guesses worked out and I was done fairly quickly for a Saturday. Just on the right wavelength.

I'd bet that this is one of the links Rich was thinking of. How about some Johnny Cash tonight, with "FOLSOM Prison Blues":

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Xyp63MaSBs

Linda and I had a blast filling in this puzzle. As usual, we made a good team where she came up with EARTOEAR and DERRINGDO and GIJANE and others and I discovered OFFSTAGE, naturally, LETUSPRAY and RATEDX - one of my favorite crossings of all time. Don't get me wrong, it did not come easily. My first trip through the across clues netted zero results. My first entry was CLINK which led to ALEVE then KATE. Oddly enough that section was the last to fill in as I had CURRENCY before RENTACAR - another Linda find. Especially liked SIXGUN - the clue and answer. Speaking of the west, was curious to learn on last night's Jeopardy that the ubiquitous tumblin', tumblin' tumbleweed was an import from China! Learned about ONEIDA, ERSE, CURDS and the challenging SANGAREE. Enjoyed the puzzle overall so congratulations to Mr. Overton(E), a man who constructs with DERRINGDO! Best to all!

Hi Viv.

Surprised that I got here before you did.

Really good, tough Saturday puzzle. Enjoyed it a lot.

That's two very hard puzzles in a row. The upper right corner took me forever to get. I had to pause twice and come back with fresh eyes. I had ALEVE and took it out. I had ENTRY and took it out. My general ignorance of English royals hurt me. I immediately put in SARA, but in the back of my mind I knew that was Sara Ferguson, from the last generation. Finally KATE came to me. With ENTRY and ALEVE back in, the right-side down's finally fell into place and SCROD (not BEANS or SYRUP) finished the corner. Done? Nope, still no joy. Finally substituted MICE for DICE, realizing that they are used to click on-screen. MANSE still did not make sense until I realized that shepherd did not refer to a dog or a sheepherder, but one who "herds" his lay flock. Whew!

Delightful Saturday puzzle with lots of cute misdirection, seemingly impossible but as so often happens was actually not a killer. Did fall into two carefully BAITed traps: ME, TOO instead of DITTO; and DICE instead of MICE. Loved seeing the many fresh entries like GI JANE, TV GUIDE, DERRING-DO, FREE DVD, SIXGUN, and DREAM ON, among others. And hooray! for no pop-culture trivia.

Congratulations and kudos, Steve Overton, on your NYT debut and a superb puzzle.

Started off on the wrong foot with X-RATED, but that was easily fixed and I was on my way. The only two other incorrect entries were CLICK and FROST, but these were even more easily corrected.

Didn't know SANGAREE. Sounds rather like a chilled version of mulled wine, and could be quite refreshing or truly ghastly. Maybe nice at some sort of outdoor do on a warm day, or something that made you wish you had skipped the party and stayed in the air conditioning with a more adult drink.

Part of my smooth success was taking a chance on some things with only a single letters showing--RENT-A-CAR, for example, was a guess based on past NYT car stuff.

Loved the clue for EAR TO EAR, likewise for tenor.

DERRING-DO is one of the words that I love and always wish I could find a way to use in conversation.

I remember when "Little Ricky" appeared on that first "TV GUIDE." I remember thinking how odd it was to come out with a magazine devoted entirely to television, when not all that many people had a set. I know now that by then TVs were becoming pretty popular, but I only knew a couple of households that had them and was not yet old enough to look at The Big Picture.

I really liked this puzzle and enjoyed every minute of the solve. Thanks to all.

That was incredibly challenging! Last night I only had the NW filled in, but I progressed through the rest very slowly today. Unfortunately the G in DERRINGDO and SIXGUN was a Natick for me, and I guessed wrong.

Why is a loyal subject a LIEGE? I thought a liege was the ruler?

I can't understand EARTOEAR in relation to the clue at all.

Are there lines fed to actors that are not OFFSTAGE?

What sinew with you? A really challenging debut!

Thanks everyone. Glad you enjoyed. OVERTONE was not meant as my signature
plus E (however subtle that might have been.) LOL.

If you could see my face when I got the answer to the excellent clue for EARTOEAR, you would have since a big grin stretching from ... you know! That clue/answer sparkled and made this puzzle for me.

I sensed a huge OVERTONE of OVERTON in this one. Congratulations to you, Steve! Are you grinning from ......?

Extremely difficult. Hardest in weeks. Wow.

When I finished my first thought was, "Wow, what's not to like about this?"

Look at that gorgeous grid design. There were appealing answers (DREAMON, NOCANDO, DEWYEYED) and tricky clues ("Barbershop part" flummoxed me for a while). There was a BORDERED on the border, a RAN down, some lovely crosses (DREAMON/NOCANDO, RATEDX/LETUSPRAY). There were fits and starts and brainwork and smiles. And a junk-free grid.

An impressive ENTRY into the GATED community of Saturday constructors. Bravo, Steve!

Aftr the first 30 minutes or so of working on this on Friday night, it seemed NO CAN DO. But after a good night's sleep, it finally all came together. SANGAREE, though--whoa! Lucky for me that the Down words weren't so incredibly obscure.

So BILLOW is in the Mini and the Main today, Mr. Shortz?

Excellent first effort, Steve, just the right degree of difficulty. Thank you.

By chance I was doing research this week on the making of parmigiano-reggiano cheese so I knew about rennin, which helped out considerably with that part of the puzzle. (A wheel of the stuff, by the way, weighs about 85 pounds and requires around 150 gallons of milk.)

For some reason, this one opened up like a flower! (For the most part, that is: naturally I put in ADAGE before MAXIM and FCC before FBI, and I *wanted* BEANS for the New England staple, but I held off, and sure enough, it was the wee codfish SCROD instead.) For the 'chilling effect,' I confidently entered FROST, which was just close enough to cause a problem.

Another debut! (double checked with Xword Info, because maybe I just didn't recall the name?...but no, right the first time. However, NO photo, NO commentary, so our new constructor will have to remain a mystery for now.)

It could be the sweet potato pancakes with my fig jam, but I'm having quite the morning--only one corner left of the Saturday Stumper!

Speaking of FROST: the temps may be erratic, but out in the yard, everything has declared that Spring is here! Asparagus up, violets blooming along with the bulbs, snakes active, and volunteer lettuces thriving. Goodness!

Once I figured out it was BILLOW, not BALLOON, I was off and running. Just enough pauses to make it interesting. Did not/do not know what transcribing has to do with RNA, but "script" didn't fit! Thought "People of the Standing Stone" must be Druids but something stopped me from filling that in...which would have slowed things down some!

Thanks and congrats on the nice debut, Steve Overton. Especially on getting OVERTONe into the puzzle!

This one seemed quite difficult, but perhaps that is just because my in-laws are here for the weekend. Finished with no write-overs, so I will raise my glass: CLINK!

Also entered with the lovely KATE. Not easy, but flowing until SANG__EE and the excellent, crafty cluing in the SE caught me. It was fun to finally get DERRING DO and the rest, expressing repeated, dohs!

'X rated' before RATED X, 'injured' before SUTURED, OVERture before OVERTONE, and 'adage' before MAXIM. Impressive for a debut!

Grumble. A misspelled NyQuil held up the Eastern Seaboard. The clue for 24D had me thinking of Dino, Desi and Billy not Mr, Babalu and for 1A I kept putting "on" first. Alas the trials and tribulations of a solver in a 57A.

60 degrees here in Western WI today. Could be an early start to mud season -- also a New England staple.

Thank you Mr. Overton... now where are those cheese CURDS

Quick start in the north half with LETUSPRAY, RATEDX, RENTACAR, TVGUIDE and then most of the rest filling in from the crosses. A little slower in the SW with a couple of wrong guesses (CHAIR before TENOR, e.g.) early on, but finally thinking of OFFSTAGE led to all that being filled in. Then, I just couldn't get going in the SE and had two or three failed checks before I finally got going. Not sure why I never tried the fairly obvious SENTENCE (especially with it's friendly last letter configuration). Oddly enough, it was thinking of something...SUIT at 57a that finally broke that open.

One note on the NW. I remember exactly why 'Last Tango' had that X rating, and when I filled in 14a I had to wonder if the choice of that particular movie for the clue was just coincidental or a bit of sly (but tasteless) humor (let's not think about that).

Didn't really get EARTOEAR even after I had it filled in. It finally dawned on me well after I finished. Congratulations on your debut, Mr. OVERTON; hope to see many more.

I see a couple of potential music links for Jimbo or Bru. I'll wait and see.

Congratulations, Mr. Overton! I enjoyed the puzzle. I had the left side completed and little on the right with the NE corner the last to fall. This went much faster for me than yesterday--typical Saturday time. I might take my RENTACAR to the DIY car wash--LET U SPRAY.

I found this to be my easiest Saturday yet. Virtually all my first guesses turned out to be correct, starting with LET US PRAY, SYNOD and RATED X, which soon gave me most of the NW. I didn't get EAR TO EAR, which I came back to and indeed when I did get it that was my reaction.

I had the most trouble with SANGAREE, (not recognized by spell check) and wondered if it was a weird spelling of sangria, but I guess it's a thing.

I'm so pleased that there wasn't a chorus of easiest Saturday ever and really had fun with the lively answers so of course I would like to see more of our latest newbie, Steve.

I'm not sure it makes much difference in these days of electronic submissions, but I never considered a SASE an "Aid for an ed." but, rather, a requirement if you wanted your ms. returned if it was not accepted.

Nice puzzle I thought. Am a little confused by 48D, though I backed into it.

I had a lot of trouble with the northeast. DEWY EYED was one of the last answers I got.

SANGAREE is, well, not exactly a household word.

(22A, ODDS, was the first answer I was confident about.)

Fun, but challenging.

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Sorry, I missed the constructor's question. I enjoyed it! Friday's grid seemed like a jail SENTENCE in comparison. (Can anyone tell me why the days weren't reversed?) Deb's headline is one of the best clues I've seen in a long time for just a plain old English word. I say, take yourself out to MAXIM's (does it still exist?) for some SANGAREE.

Deb, what network will you be on in a SWEATSUIT doing something you've done 1600 straight days? I don't think I've slept every day for the last 4 years. My daily activities may have something to do with INARREARS and LETUSPRAY (or at least the final 5 letters of those entries) (loose interpretations, OK?).

For those who read the blog first, then do the puzzle: Do the Mini before the Crossword.

Now if anyone can help me with the Wall Street Journal Meta, I'd be grateful. (Finished the grid, know what they all have in common, but there are many ways to describe that characteristic of themers and grid in 10 letters.)

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Deb,

Earlier this week, the Puzzle Editor selected 11 Remarkable Crosswords (or some such thing). And all the familiar names are there: Lynn, Patrick, Johanna ...

I had the entire NW and SE and center filled in while the NE and SW remained largely blank for a bit. But still cracked it in half my Saturday time - just like yesterday's half my Friday time - and no leaderboard, sad face emoji. Just when I'm having a hot streak.

Overtone was my entrance (at last) in that NE corner. Didn't catch the name connection until I got here!

enjoyable puzzle. Also did NE first with TV Guide. let us pray came early. Sangeree came late with the SE corner the last to emerge. TV Guide is no longer the place to go for the listings. We find everything on the net these days, including the NYT puzzle!!

I found it tough & slow to get into this one. The NE corner filled first, down to TV GUIDE and GI JANE (didn't know her name, but with the G and the J it didn't seem that it could be anything else). The rest of it was hit and miss, a little here, a little there. EAR TO EAR was really not intuitive at all! I started in with SANGRIA until I ran out of letters. Had ADAGE and then AXIOM and finally MAXIM. I did like DREAM ON and NO CAN DO. DEWYEYED looks really strange when read vertically!