Exaggerate

As an avid crossword puzzler, I would like to point out that the value of crosswords lies not only in their mere solutions but also in their entertainment value. The best crosswords are distinguished by their wit. They bring a smile to the face or maybe even a chuckle to the throat.

The "L" square in POLA/AMAHL seemed awfully unfair, even for a Saturday. Basically two foreign names/terms from the early 20th century.

Not easy at all ... 59A is a real STRETCH. 14A could easily have been Hera. I knew SXSW and 41A though I can never remember how to spell EKES. But everything else? Bah! I was an English major and had never heard of Alexander's Feast. Just sayin'.

Well, I hope I'm of the blacklist or whatever. I posted a CiC yesterday, plus several replies and a test. Several hours after the first posts, and maybe two after the last, I got notification emails, but there were many more of those than there had been of posts, and mostly they led to empty comment boxes with my name and avatar. So I'm trying again today. I didn't realize there was a theme until I got to the revealer, and by then I'd already entered all the themers. I went back and looked for the STRETCHed TRUTHs, and yes, they were there. Mostly easy solve for the top two-thirds, although I needed the crossing letters for the unknown AHMAD TEA and MAOTAI. SE and central were more difficult. I had trouble getting the reveal because I had SEW instead of SET, giving me STREW something. It wasn't until I dredged up LOUCH and guessed at MOHAWK that I got the entry and fixed my error. The central portion was still difficult though, as I had to correct some stuff--GREEN and TRIG, for example. I had to come back for SHEBA. Altogether a satisfying, if Wednesday-ish, Saturday, and despite the fact that the themer went nowhere for me. Thanks to all. For yesterday's puzzle too, since I don't think much of what I said ever posted.

At least in this case, a themed Saturday made for a relatively easy Saturday. Not that the reveal helped, since I had all the themers in place already, but the grid filled in smoothly off a couple of early gimmes. Add me to those who never heard of MAOTAI and AHMADTEA before; hurray for helpful crosses. Wordplay trivia: "Mr. MOJO Risin'" is an anagram of Jim Morrison. I'm at a loss to explain how Kenny Rogers' easy-listening country-pop sound and hoarse vocal delivery made him one of the biggest music stars of the late 70s and early 80s; it just did. "THROUGH THE YEARS" from 1982 was one of a long string of Top 20 singles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9z1A1R8RQZs P.S. BASS SOLO! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRMXQA3GL4o

I never twigged to the "tower = one who tows," even when I was sure of what the correct fill had to be; thank heavens for this column, because not making sense of that clue was bugging me. But the puzzle's level of difficulty was just right: Look over the whole, find next-to-nothing to fill in, ponder ineffectually a while with feelings of defeat, leap at one good response--and watch a large chunk of the puzzle fall into place. Then it's just mopping up the rest. I love when that happens!

I went looking for the version of the song where mojo working is pronounced mojo "woiking". I didn't find that but found instead the wikipedia entry for copyright infringement. As such it was found that "MOJO is a commonplace part of the rhetoric of the culture of a substantial portion of the American people. As a figure of speech, the concept of having, or not having, one's MOJO working is not something in which any one person could assert originality, or establish a proprietary right." I like that almost as much as the 'even a moron in a hurry' legal distinction.

Loved the long fills and especially the bonus of a theme. Thanks, Michael.

Look homeward Angel now and melt with ruth.

Wouldn't a "garden fruit that tastes pumpkin-y" be . . . pumpkin? I don't know, something about that clue bothers me. As a previous poster said, BUTTERNUTSQUASH doesn't taste particularly like pumpkin. They are both squashes with orange flesh, but that applies to many varieties.

Yes, a little easy for a Saturday, but that clue for 23A is crazy good: laughed out loud when I finally got it.

So, for [Compassion for the misery of others], I of course filled in PITY at first. After finishing the puzzle, being the etymology junkie I am, I decided to look up the word RUTH. Apparently it is an old Germanic word that originally meant "regret", and it's basically the noun form of "rue". It's common in English to see nouns formed by adding -TH to adjectives. Thus TRUTH from TRUE, FILTH from FOUL, and -- crossword lovers, take note -- HEALTH from HALE.

Pretty easy for a Saturday, but I had to guess at 1A. I’ve never heard MOJO used that way; always thought it was a hip, made-up expression for momentum.

Bed Peace mystery sort of solved: https://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2011/aug/15/yoko-ono-lennon-...

Having been to China once, I had heard of maotai. Having often been to England, I managed never to hear of Ahmad Tea. But rcpt? Nonce, no?

Not quite sure about the upper mid-west fill of RUTH and AMOUR. I get the biblical reference for RUTH but AMOUR as undercover..... And, I went through a few iterations of STN. We had an OPEL in the early sixties. Fog lights, an AM/FM radio and seat belts... sooo cooool Nice job Michael

hmm The clue for SIEVE seemed strained.

I was totally thrown by several of the clues discussed above. "Spelling aid" didn't become clear until I repeated "spelling" to myself a bunch of times and memory came back of finding MOJO in a puzzle just recently. And then those towering letters. I was thinking that might be FAA, as in aviation administration and air-traffic control towers. But since something ending in FI didn't seem likely for anything Chinese, I plugged an A into that last open space, and voila--completed. Meanwhile, I did figure out AHMAD TEA from the across clues, but I've never heard of it, despite possessing with at least 6 different brands of tea (unsolicited endorsement here of Tea Forte). Should I try it?

The theme clue (54A) refers to "5 nonconsecutive letters in 20A. 36A and 7D". However only 4 letters in the word "truth" are nonconsecutive in each of the above long entries. IThe following ARE consecutive: 20A - TH, 36A - UT, 7D - TH

Learned two new words today--louche and ruth.

When I look at a grid like today's I usually think that there is no way that I will get all of the long answers, but they all came to me with a few crosses. Once I had the reveal, I was able to see the theme, but didn't need it to help with the solve. I resisted CREEL for a long time because I tend to think of a bit of something being quite small - so BAIT or Lure or something like that. Once I filled in CREEL, I guessed RHEA and moved on to finish in the North West. MAOTAI and AHMADTEA were complete unknowns for me and I had AUDI before OPEL.

According to IMDb, "Bed Peace" is from 1969. Is there a remake that I missed? Would be hard to remake the movie with Lennon, dead for some 30 years. In general, not much to praise in this one. If you're going to break the rule of having themeless Saturdays, one would think you'd have a pretty nifty concept planned. This one was very run-of-the-mill, and the letters weren't all non-consecutive. Each of the themers had one pair of consecutive letters. What's more, depending on utter arcana like MAOTAI (sounds like an article of clothing that the Chairman eschewed); AHMAD TEA, which, if a thing at all here in the US, is barely so; RCPT, which no one has ever used as an abbreviation for "receipt"; IN TWO (a hot dog bun split down the middle isn't IN TWO, it's intact). Use one of these if you have to; two even if the theme merits it. But all that dreck for the sake of this theme means it should have been rethought.

The long entries in the grid were so tempting that I did not skip this Saturday puzzle, as I was originally inclined to do. It turned out to be less difficult than yesterday’s puzzle, though it would STRETCH THE TRUTH to claim that it was easy. I am delighted that I didn’t give up in advance. The theme revealed itself after I had all of the ACROSS themers, but it helped me decipher DON’T ARGUE WITH ME, which I originally guessed to begin with DO iT As ____. The need to include a U forced the revision. While I allowed myself to Google-check several of the proper nouns that came out of the crosses, e.g. MAO TAI, AHMAD TEA, BUTTERNUT SQUASH, I made only one a priori Wiki search, botched it and lost a perfect solve:43A was my last unanswered clue. Checking “music festivals established in 1987”, I found “South by Southwest”. Neither SbSW nor SoSW got me the happy music. I am ashamed to say that SXSW and T REX did not enter my mind before I entered “reveal square”. Oh well! While predominant opinion does indeed place Sheba on the Arabian Peninsula, other authorities identify biblical Sheba with Shewa, an autonomous empire in Ethiopia. Accordingly, the Solomonic Dynasty that ruled Ethiopia until the overthrow of Haile Selassie in 1974 claimed descent from Menelik I, son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.

First time through I had almost nothing and almost quit. And then... the long answers started to fall and with a lot of grinding and guessing, I finished. The theme helped me get THROUGHTHEYEARS. Wanted EMEER before ELDER. Guessed at CREEL, RHEA, PASO and some others. What’s AMAHL anyway?

Nice to have a theme in a late-week puzzle for a change. Too bad that RUTH, as clued, is considered archaic, but it’s absence is as current as ever.

I was thinking this could be a midweek (hi @david!), but AHMAD TEA, LOUCHE, CREEL, and MAOTAI, imo, pumped it up to Saturday level. A new ONO clue! I guessed to glory in the high NE, not knowing CREEL, the tea, and not sure of RHEA, and so I learned CREEL, which now I see I should have known, as it has been used often in NYT puzzles. Okay, that one I'll remember. AHMAD TEA in quotes gets 1.4 million hits on Google, so I guess it is a thing. I was quite impressed with how DON'T ARGUE WITH ME cut through the three horizontal spanners. The theme didn't help with the solve, but often themes don't. (It's great when they do.) The puzzle fired up my synapses, made me work, and I always like that. It wasn't like trudging through the mud, more like stop-and-go, onward to the destination. And I'm glad for having done it. Thank you Michael!

A couple of unknowns-MAOTAI, AMADTEA--but t was a typo that I couldn't find (JEERRT instead of JEERAT) that extended this one. I had very little after the first time through other than OSLO, OPE, and ORPHAN.

Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.

Obscure fill alert in the north! I am a tea drinker. I know my brands — even those sold on the other side of the pond. I have never heard of AHMADTEA. My spouse works with Chinese companies and travels to China for work. He has plenty of banquet experience (toasts!) and regularly receives bottles of Chinese liquor as gifts. He didn’t know MAOTAI. The fills ARES and RHEA could be considered obscure, although perhaps not to avid crossword solvers. But the upshot here is this: the top half of this puzzle was difficult. (Not CARPing, just saying.) The long themers were a snap, though. One of my first fills was BUTTERNUTSQUASH (which IMO does not taste of pumpkin). STRETCHTHETRUTH came soon after, with just three of the letters filled from downs. Then I got the other two long crosses. I worked the rest of the grid from bottom up. PHEW. I did see the “hidden truth” in the themers, so that was nice. And I like the word LOUCHE. A good workout, completed while watching an episode of The Crown.

Excellent Thursday puzzle. Just what the doctor ordered. Go Terps.

Our constructor was quite RUTHless with us on this one, but I managed to finish, sort of. Am I the only one that doesn't know his Chinese liquors and thought that the FAA is up in those towers at the airport? I also learned a new word: LOUCHE. Anyway, all I can say is PHEW.

quite fast for a Saturday. crossings helped with the British tea I never heard of. liked LEFT for it's not right! lol

Well - it really was midweeky for me, but with a lot of smiles along the way. Biggest chuckle was "split down the middle" - because it is half of the Swedish proverb that corresponds to our "de gustibus..." / "there's no winning arguments about taste" : smakken är som bakken, delad i mitten. "Taste is like the rear end, split down the middle." I usually skip over the theme clues on the first pass, but when I got to the revealer clue, I just filled it right in and then used the information to get the other long fills. Don't know why it was so easy with no crosses, but it jumped at me. 0.60 of my average time for Saturday puzzles.

I didn't have much on the first pass, but it helped to get SXSW and OLIN (I used to live next door while they were building it) and a few other things. STRETCH THE TRUTH appeared fairly early on, so I knew what was going on, but that didn't give me much hint what the other them answers were going to be. I figured 1A was going to be a witch-y spell, but didn't get MOJO until almost the very end. Too many 4-letter Greek gods to try to figure out (although having a grandmother at 16A helped narrow it down) and I didn't know the German car slogan, so that NW corner had a lot of juggling going on to see what would fit together. And I hadn't heard of AHMAD TEA either. But PASS RUSH!