Too many proper nouns and too much trivia.
Maybe it’s time for a “fresh” editor.
1
SEGNO doesn’t mean “repeat” and it threw this musician off the scent! It means “sign” or “mark” and refers to the symbol, a stylized “S”, from which a repeated section will commence. The four musical indications that mean “repeat” are: a slash with dots resembling a percent sign and meaning “repeat previous bar”; a double bar line with two dots to the left, called a “repeat sign”; and the written or abbreviated words “Da Capo” and “Dal Segno” meaning “from the head” and “from the sign” respectively.
1
As others have commented this was a toughie! As an example, had Lagos at first, then the U put paid to that; then went with Pound - overthinking the capital in the clue! Only with the -BU— was I able to dredge the answer out of some forgotten corner!
Except for AMELIA, none of the other proper nouns was a gimme! Even TOKYO took a really long time to emerge.
@Caitlyn the Taj Mahal is a tomb not a palace! I think the architectural inspiration for the Alladin creators was likely the Agra Fort.
Very good, very hard. Sunday puzzle was long since posted when I solved Saturday.
Difficult Saturday slog for me today. I had to resort to Google for a few entries, something I normally strictly forbid myself to do. Even with lookups, I managed to finish this after the Sunday puzzle came out, so I don't expect many of you to read this post. Cheers.
5
well, you weren't the only one to have to resort to Google nor the last to finish. Not having resorted to looking at the answers is of some small comfort.
2
I used almost my comment time today solving the puzzle. Iust enough left to join the chorus and agree with everyone who said, in one way or another... Great Puzzle! I'm really stoked to have solved it.
1
An excellent Saturday puzzle by the team of Kingsley and Lieb, demanding but quite fair and a pleasure to solve. The especially obscure entries (in my case, HSI, SARG, RAMI MALEK, SEGNO) could be solved through the crosses. The cluing was consistently fine; even the overused TTOP was disguised with a diverting clue. High points for me: POST-TRUTH, ESPERANTO, MOORE's law, SIMONE, MEA). Special thanks for including ABUJA, the capital of the seventh most populous nation.
1
It is true that Emmental is a Swiss cheese with a surfeit of holes. However, there are many other wonderful cheeses from Switzerland which are not HOLIER. They include Gruyere, Raclette, Appenzeller. and.... Fondue for dinner tonight?
Joining all those who found this puzzle to be difficult! I did finish it Friday night, but I had to consult the Google for some things, including most of the TV characters/actors, none of whom I knew. I knew SALINAS but didn't realize it was in/of a valley, and I had KEY for LEG, so didn't fill it in for a long time. SEGNO stopped me--I know what the "musical mark" for repeat looks like but wouldn't have called it a SEGNO--I bow to Alan J's greater musical knowledge. I had inspired guesses in most corners--ESPERANTO, TRILOBITE, THARP--but also fell into the LAGOS trap. OMEGA DOG was my last fill--never heard of it, but it makes sense that somebody has to be in that position. By the time I finished last night, I was too worn out to think about commenting!
4
I did NOT DO too badly on this one. Early gimmes included RATSO, THARP, HOLIER, and AMELIA, and built off from there. Embarrassed at how long it took to work out the spelling of PIXYSTIX. Figured if there's an alpha dog, there's gotta be an OMEGADOG. Like Peter S, I had RAG at first for the piano piece. Final square was DRYLY vs. DRILY. Figured RAMI was more likely.
Carly Simon performing "JESSE" live in Grand Central Station. The song was a hit in 1980.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3W4Y85hx9Y
3
I was waiting for your song link, Jimbo, and I guessed the song.
ALL THERE reminded me of the literal antonym from The Zombies:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it68QbUWVPM
In a very different genre, Mary McCaslin goes back to SALINAS:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDBr2Z7kvG4
3
Good guess, Barry, and some nice selections you posted.
My back-up choice today was "Remember I Was VAPOuR" by synthpop pioneer Gary Numan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD1ODWNWXgY
2
P.S. If anybody watches the entire Gary Numan video, it segues into his unique cover version of the pop classic "On Broadway," a hit for both the Drifters and George Benson.
2
The fact that you anticipated reactions should have been a clue that you were on the wrong track. Don't try so hard to be clever.
1
“don’t try so hard to be clever” reminded me of a difficult time as a teenager: my mum telling me and my sister before we left for parties that we should try to not let the boys find out we were clever! So glad the times have a-changed!
Lots of fun. I made several comments in reply to others' comments, and I hope they show up today. Then we can try to figure out a way to lure David Connell back to the fold.
Finished with one error, of a possible two. I couldn't decide between LAG and LOG, but OSTEAL looked better to me than OSTEOL, so I guessed right. But I also couldn't decided between DRILY and DRYLY (never saw "Mr. Robot") and there I guessed wrong. Since I wasn't sure which of my questionable letters was the incorrect one (or maybe both), I had to ask Ms. Check, meaning I had to live with a Black Triangle of Oops.
Never heard of an OMEGA DOG, but if there's an alpha dog there must be one. NICE MOVE, that. Are there gamma, theta, and phi dogs?
The (many) proper nouns were an interesting mix of gimmes and no-knows. AMELIA, THARP, RATSO, SIMONE, all easy. But SARG, JESSE, KELSO, HSI, ABUJA, MOORE'S, RAMI MALEK, all new to me.
Great clues, especially HOLIER.
So, even with that one Black Triangle, this offered enough crunch that finishing gave me an EGO boost.
3
If in iOS app, leave it open, switch to browser (I use Chrome for this), navigate to comments, see 13 (as of now) replies to Fact Boy’s fog post.
I always use browser when there’s more than one reply in app.
Raise your hand if you started with LAGOS.
7
It's when you finally get something from the crosses, and recognize it, that makes crosswording fun. (Hope I just coined a word). This one was no fun. And things like OMEGADOG and SEXYBEAST are things you can intuit, but again, there's no recognition involved. Meh.
1
I think SEXY BEAST may have been a song.
I had a co-worker a few years back who named his new kitten SEXY BEAST, and I think he told me it was a song.
1
I don't know if it’s a song but it is a movie starring Ben Kingsley.
1
Hsi-sus!
3
I have a daughter whose first boyfriend was Hispanic, named Jesus. For several weeks she believed, told me, and wrote to me, that his name was "Hey, Zeus." She was great at Greek mythology, not so good at Spanish.
3
I truly enjoyed this massive fail. I had to resort to half a dozen Google lookups, and then ended up filled in but not successful. It took an Across Lite check to realize that actor spells his first name RAMI and not RAMY. I mean, isn't the adverb spelled DRYLY? (((On a brief pause for breaking news, I consulted with Google and learned that both spellings can be found in various dictionaries, though US usage of English seems to prefer DRYLY. Now back to your program, already in progress.))) On plugging the "I" back into the web app version, my puzzle was complete and my streak lives on.
I would remark that the SEGNO is not so much a musical mark meaning to repeat, as it is a marker of a target spot to be returned to when directed later. The abbreviation D.S. stands for "dal segno," ("from the sign"), and that is the command to repeat, i.e., jump back to the SEGNO and repeat from there. But that may be hyper-technical musicology for the lay person, since it is a musical symbol involved in the process of repeating.
All of this is to say, great workout in true Saturday fashion.
For more on the DRYLY vs. DRILY matter, see this article in Wordpres:
https://jeremybutterfield.wordpress.com/2015/08/29/3166/
For more on SEGNO, see Wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dal_segno
3
Ouch. Lately I had begun to feel some confidence in my solving abilities. Until today I could not have told you whether RAMIMALEK was an actor or a village in Iraq. The crossing of ABUJA/GANJA was a Natick that I happened to guess right, and how have I lived without knowing the last name of a balloon designer who died in 1942? I need to go lie down for awhile.
7
Super Saturday workout. I did despair for a bit, but then decided to just try a few possible answers and it all fell in to place. Liked TENS crossing TENSES. Made a slip of the pencil and filled in TwARP instead of THARP and didn't notice for far too long. DOH! Also, had 'moi' before MEA. DOH again!
I have noticed that clues like "This looks like the end for me" will require an answer with a corresponding pronoun -- in this case "I". At least this is my theory; I plan to see if this pans out.
1
Yes it's my theory too. It's about 90% accurate I would guess.
A sorry measure of how cynical I have become: The NW was too hard to start, so today I punted and started in a different corner, and worked my way back. For 1A, I had 5,6,7 filled with TRU from the crosses, and my brain snapped and I spent way too much time suppressing dozens of nasty 4-letter possibile adjectives that would let me end 1A with MP.
6
I like a challenging Saturday solve, and I enjoyed the challenging cluing here. As far as solving, the *bad* news was that there were six entries that I not only didn't know as clued but wouldn't have known with any clue, for which I needed the crosses for all or almost all of the letters. The *good" news was that all six were Across entries.
(Not a cross word from me.)
5
My other delayed query to Mickey (D) was about his "good night everyone" signoff, since his post appeared at about 8 am in the time zone of his noted location. I wondered if he worked a night shift, was not in his noted location, or was on a strange sleep schedule. I wonder why it did not initially occur to me that he had submitted the comment last night but that it had not appeared until this morning. How soon we forget....
3
I think I finished about 1 am. It's really strange. I made at least virtually every mistake all the commenters mention and more. But it still solved quickly. So it's not that I knew any more. Quite the contrary. Yet it took no time, relatively. Definitely psychological. I just didn't get blocked by any one word. Just zoomed. So it went fast. I did have trouble with the grand prix. Did they have a BALL for many years? Monte Carlo and all that. Then I couldn't believe anybody would remember their SEAL. Maybe the animal? Maybe the Virginia Slims tennis grand prix, they had a GIRL. Just one? Penultimately settled on a TAIL. Again only one? I remember one car in the 60s or so that had a single tail on the middle of the trunk, but it wasn't a Pontiac. Finally couldn't believe they used the same new word from yesterday. Thanks Mr Ancona for your kind thoughts. No night job. Spent almost the entire evening worrying about how I am ever going to pay for two college educations coming up. Hope your night was more relaxing!
1
Only slightly more relaxing, Mickey. I'm in year five of eight.
(Both went DIII, so no "NCAA billions" to help.)
1
Are the "time stamps" -- which aren't even really time stamps anymore, since the time-before-last when an improvement made things worse -- supposed to be for the commenter's time zone or the NYT's?
Not that it matters, since they're wrong either way.
Barry: What on earth is "year five of eight"? And "DIII"?
Not a fan of clue 45A -- Tony ____ early Macy’s Day Parade balloon designer. It's The Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
3
The transcript of the editors' after-the-fact discussion of the 45A clue as published would probably not be fit to print.
(OK, the word was there when I test-solved...)
2
I think of it as the Thanksgiving Day Parade produced by Macy's.
But the TV people hired by Macy's refer to it as the Macy's Day Parade -- something that has annoyed me enormously since the first time I heard it in the early 1960s.
The holiday is a Thanksgiving observance, not a Macy's tribute.
2
If I recall correctly, David Letterman used to refer to it as the Macy’s Day parade, which I always thought was a funny mistake on his part.
Note to Caitlin - the Taj Mahal is not, absolutely not, a palace. It's a tomb, flanked by one real and one fake mosque (they can't both be oriented towards Mecca). Or were you just playing off the clue?
Had to sleep on this one, too many proper nouns I didn't know.
4
You beat me to this, Kathy, except I was going to say "mausoleum." Sounds so much more impressive than "tomb"!
Didn't know that about the mosques.
Yes, mausoleum would be fitting! Mosques have to face Mecca, since Muslims are required to face Mecca when they pray, so only one of the look-alikes could be a real mosque. (Hotel rooms in Muslim countries usually have an arrow somewhere indicating the direction of Mecca.) Once Christian churches faced Jerusalem, the center of the world at the time, but that seems to have gone out of fashion.
1
Hi Kathy. Looks like the nyt app is still swallowing whole comment threads! I didn’t see anyone point this out and just posted. Only the browser version seems to show all the comments.
A little scary at the start as we took a long time to get our first breaks: AMELIA, ABUJA, AGRA - AAA... what? But slowly the white squares started to fill up , right or wrong, with JESSE, UNO, PORK ( For VEAL...). A few look ups.
Good clues! Liked POSTTRUTH, NOPUNINTENDED, ÉSPERANTO, STONE TOOL, and OMEGADOG.. Of the short ones, my favourite is MEA, as part of a fault line! And GAIN, and the cute LEG/LAG.
DEMOB is a Britishism? You guys do not say demob-happy? From the days of demobilisation after the war. The feeling of elation ( often resulting in careless) in your last days before leaving the war to go home. Or at end of a night shift? Of a childs birthday party?
I find TRILOBITES very interesting. They had amazing crystal eyes! And ruled the earth!
Below a short info/ picture on the BBC website and a longer video from your side of the ocean on TRILOBITES…
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Trilobite
https://youtu.be/Aji2VnQFUCs
Nice challenging diverse puzzle!
4
DEMOB is a Britishism? You guys do not say demob-happy?
Canadians will have to weigh in, but Yanks don't say DEMOB.
1
Thanks. And don’t lower your guards until the danger is totally over, not just close to the end! Cause that’s when you make mistakes. :-D
1
I know DEMOB from reading British murder mysteries.
Never heard it here.
5
Can someone explain 12D to me? It’s just not clicking for me. Thx.
Mentally sound. i.e. sane.
e.g. he's a bit cuckoo, he's not ALL THERE.
1
An interesting version of an old song “ I’m not all there”
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt0wNCSt25c
1
Of sound mind: ALL THERE
Three replies posted immediately; the fourth hasn't shown up after two attempts. Was it something I said? I'll break up the comment to see what might get through. I was replying to Mickey (D) and noting that it was just yesterday that he added TTOP to his crossword vocabulary.
(Seems OK to me...)
Wow, this was hard!
Grass before Guana (!) before GANJA. So proud of that "J." But I did not know JESSE so even with JE_SE in place dnf with pGAME_. I was certain it was pGA something on ESPN even though PIpYSTIX make no sense!
I was very proud to get the rest, especially the SE corner.
My friend has an alpha dog but I'd never heard of an OMEGA DOG. Makes sense, though.
Thank you Andrew and John for a true Saturday challenge. You got me!
2
Very hard! I had no idea that dogs went as far as OMEGA, but now I'm very curious to learn what an UPSILON DOG or an OMICRON DOG is.
Like a middle child!
PIXYSTIX!!! That held me up for a while. With O from three-star Michelin star-laden filled in, I tried to think of all the cities ending in O...in the western hemisphere (it's funny how our unconscious bias and relative cultural homogeneity leads many of us to the same incorrect direction). After getting KELSO, I was like "DOH! of course!" and finally arrived at TOKYO, the land of Jiro's sushi. The Anthony Bourdain clip is quite good (Thanks, Caitlin!), and there's a full movie dedicated to Jiro and his sushi which is well worth watching as well: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1772925/
This RARE SEXY BEAST of a puzzle (with its X's, J's and V's, because those are sexy, right?) sported quite the MIX of topics, geography, language, culture. And I thought it was going to shatter my fragile EGO, but once I parsed through the NE corner, the finish line was in sight and I finished well ahead of my average time for Saturday.
I thought it was quite a clever that SIMONE Weil's quote was used, since it can be seen as an oblique reference to crossword solving - all us sinners are filling in voids on a daily basis, after all. And as if to prove the point, 63A there was A VOID to fill.
NICE MOVE, Mr. Lieb and Mr. Kingsley. NO PUN INTENDED? Perhaps, but I'm sure a lot of fun was intended, and that, it was.
p.s. I always knew those Swiss were HOLIER than thou.
5
The Swiss cheese was my first solve, I think. Came right to me with no crosses but I was certain it had to be right. I've been trying to figure out what makes some puzzles hard and vice versa. I think I have part of it. For the same reason I stuck with that first solve, making the rest easier, sometimes the same certainty blocks everything. Very psychological.
1
According to my cheese book there are over 50 varieties of cheese made in Switzerland, quite a few unholy ones. Apparently Swiss cheeses used to be used as currency and trade with Italy for wines.
5
I was so sure 37A was going to be DONTQUITYOURDAYJOB, but sadly it didn't fit. Also had CURTAINS before IMAGONER and (piano) KEY before LEG.
But I did know ABUJA, which apparently puts me in the minority. See, memorizing all the capitals of the world does come in handy! (I'm looking at you, Ulan Bator and Thimpu.)
I agree with everyone who said this was hard, even for a Saturday. So many unknown (to me) pop culture references -- KELSO, THARP, JESSE, RAMIMALEK. Somehow I was able to power through everything except the northeast. Then I googled for Fu-HSI, and that loosened it up enough for me to finish.
The southeast stack with TRILOBITE and SEXYBEAST is a thing of beauty. I'm sure I would appreciate it even more if I knew Mr. MALEK.
3
Puzzles like this make me suspect incipient dementia. Don’t do look-ups, simply could not solve it, and the Reveal showed tons of stuff I’d never heard of.
5
Oh, Nobis if you allow yourself some peeps! Miserere yorself
5
Had "I'm doomed" before "I'm a goner", Lagos before Abuja, and PixiStix before PixyStix.
Here is a fitting homage to the man bun: http://twistedsifter.com/2015/11/if-politicians-had-man-buns/
Great Saturday puzzle!
3
Those were wonderful, Chung.
There were a few I didn't recognize. Wish they had been identified.
2
Very funny and very well done! Thank you
1
Ki-Lieb sounds like Superman's Jewish uncle.
Stared at TOKYO thinking is that spelled correctly and then misspelled AMELIA: 23A.
Much is written these days about Truth Decay as we enter a 1A era.
Yard work today. No STONETOOL but I do have a log splitter.
Thanks Gentlemen
8
Really proud of finishing this one! Got through most of it but the NW corner was blank. Was thisclose to a reveal but persevered. I can't say enough about coming back to the puzzle several times with a fresh outlook.
3
First time commenting. I had to say how much I liked Caitlin’s joke in the caption. I laughed out loud. Was not expecting that much sarcasm in a caption! (Nor at 7 a.m.!) I came across Wordplay only last fall, and I’ve really enjoyed it. Having so many people comparing notes adds a lot to doing the puzzle. And I’ll take all the great video/music links and nuggets of knowledge I can get. Thanks to Deb, Caitlin & everyone!
15
Welcome!
1
Stick around, Jack
1
Welcome.
I'm glad you enjoy our conversations about the puzzle. I hope you'll come back often and join in.
2
The thing about proper names is that if you know them, it's nice to have a for sure entry, i.e. AMELIA today. Then there are the ones when a couple of letters are enough to trigger the memory, i.e. SALINAS and SIMOME. But so often, for me anyway, I could have all but one letter and be none the wiser, i.e. RAMIMALEK.
I really enjoyed the long phrases today, and my favorite tricky clue since I got it quickly was "Part of a fault line".
It's a pity that ESPERANTO wasn't taught world wide when it was first conceived.
Good teamwork Andrew and John.
5
I needed a couple of lookups, as there were nine answers out of my wheelhouse: HSI, ABUJA, MOORES, SIMONE, SARG, REMIMALEK, TRILOBITE, SALINAS, OMEGADOG. Lots of learning came out of this!
Here's what I really liked. First, that "Yes!" feeling after filling in answers in this tough tangle of a puzzle. Second, some lovely answers, namely, PIXY STIX, NO PUN INTENDED, NICE MOVE, and especially POST TRUTH. And third, remembering PIXY STIX, which momentarily brought back what it felt like to be a child.
2
Really enjoyed this puzzle. Had to cheat in the SW. Had SA_INA_ for 40 down and, alas, it's been over 20 years since I've read Of Mice and Men. The music terms are always Greek to me (or Italian) and a piano part could have been a LEG or a PEG or something esoteric and likewise musical.
It was just interesting fill, constructed in the way that I love, where trivia entries are balanced and crossed with sufficient clever wordplay to prevent any one area from becoming unsolvable or highly frustrating.
Thanks for this one!
1
Well, it turns out that LAG, SALINAS, EDD, AMELIA, REBELS and BAB(y) did not provide a sufficient foothold for me to solve this puzzle. That's where I started and pretty much where I ended up.
See you tomorrow.
2
Oh, I had RATSO, too. I guess I did better than I thought.
..
3
I'll leave the light on, RiA.
2
I had LIK-A-MAID, then PIXISTIX before PIXYSTIX which held me up in the NE for a while. I confidently entered Lagos and only got ABUJA from the crosses. I initially had grass before GANJA but had to TOSS that POT.
3
LIK-A-MAID seems to me to be pretty racy for a candy name.
3
Perhaps it should be liquor maid--candy is dandy but liquor is quicker.
1
I believe it is LIK-M-AID, slightly less racy.
I would have bet money they were PIXie STIcks and thought we were in for a rebus day. Fortunately, TOKYO cleared that up right away.
Can someone remind me what those (sugar) sticks that came two to a pack with the other half of the pack a flavored (sugar) dip were called? -- lick the stick, dip in sugar, instant cavities...those were the days.
Fun dip, or lik-m-aid. If you poured the powder into a can of soda you'd get an explosion!
1
Never heard of them. They sound ghastly.
So do those other things.
1
Somebody help!!!
I absolutely do not understand the picture of the trilobite and the comment about the talking pig and how it relates to the puzzle.
2
Could it have something to do with 1 across? :)
3
Naughty Art Krause, I love it!
BABE in a manger.
BABE - movie starting a talking pig.
3
Besides the fact that this was a very hard one indeed, I notice not many people commented on the puzzle today. I said to my husband, they all must be ashamed (ha ha!). I know I was to have to look for so much help.
1
Give it time. Most commenters so far have agreed this was a hard one, so the comments will be slow in coming. ;-)
2
There’s no shame attached!!!!! This is just for fun!
2
Boy, this was a very hard puzzle. I had a vast wasteland for quite a long time. (Well, relatively speaking,anyway.) Had KEY before eventually arriving at LEG. Was sure of LAGOS, so that didn’t help. Just now understood OILER as crude craft. Had and removed ELEV a couple of times. Never heard of RAMIMALEK. After I had SA-G, the R popped into my head as a vaguely familiar name. Tried PORK chop. Had ONES before TENS.
About all I had after the first pass were LAG, DOH, EGO, ELEV, LAGOS (oops), KEY (oops), EDD, AVOID, UNO, HIES, AMELIA, and GASKET.
Would have thought HAJI if not for LAGOS. Couldn’t rid myself of the notion that Grand Prix was a race and not a car. Couldn’t think of JESSE until I had some crosses. Thought METE might be right but didn’t put it in at first.
Worst of all, despite spending my entire career in the SW business I couldn’t come up with MOORES law without most of the letters from crosses. MEA culpa.
Very satisfying to finish in below average Saturday time despite all the travails.
3
Couldn't resist commenting about 1A: Is this puzzle timely or not?!
4
And soon will be a relic, and people will find it hard to believe!
2
This was a worthy Saturday puzzle. I finally slogged my way through it without looking anything up, but I had to make numerous appeals to Mlle Check.
My wife, who is from Thailand, uses a heavy stone pestle and an even heavier mortar, brought from her homeland, in preparing ingredients for cooking Thai dishes. (Yes, lucky me.) Are such things common in American kitchens?
We look to NYT XWPs to teach us lots of new things, but the Gray Lady let us down on the Nigerian capital. I was aware that it was no longer Lagos, but ABUJA was a no-know.
At 43A I tried LAMB chop, PORK chop, even JUDO chop (not, I believe, an actual thing), but for the life of me I couldn't come up with VEAL chop without the crosses. D'oh.
Never heard of Fu HSI, PIXYSTIX, RAMI MALEK, or SEGNO, but no complaints. It was a terrific puzzle.
2
"Are such things common in American kitchens?"
Our kitchen has a mortar and a PESTLE. I'll bet Martin's kitchen has them too. Anybody else?
"ABUJA was a no-know."
Likewise a cross-solve. "Brand new capital city" for me is Brasilia.
2
My American kitchen has two mortar/pestles - but admittedly one is a molcajete purchased in Mexico and carried back by my dear hubby in his carry on bag! Makes the best guacamole...
Mortar and pestle here, brought over from the old country by my grandmother.
1
After perusing the clues I thought “I’m a goner.” Very hard.
3
Caitlin:
KEY is not in the puzzle. LEG is in the puzzle.
I understand because I made precisely the same initial slip.
No POSTTRUTH there.
2
O
M
G
Key!
I swapped them in the wrong place. Thank you! Fixing
Don't feel bad, Caitlin. I think many of us went for KEY before LEG. A KEY difference between doing the puzzle and writing a column is that the latter offers no crosses to check the entries.
3
Part of my struggle with today's puzzle was my insistence -- abetted by the lone G -- on RAG as the piano piece.
2
How does this puzzle stack up in terms of fresh fill ? Seems like a lot of new stuff.
1
To check on freshness of entries, you can go to xwordinfo.com. Click on today’s puzzle, and click on Analyze This Puzzle. Look for Freshness Factor. In the FAQs, this stat is explained.
In short, this was a higher-than-average fresh puzzle.
5
very tough puzzle. lots of things I didn't know. Used a combination of good guesses and luck! Liked TRILOBITE and NO PUN INTENDED!
1
Fog consists of water droplets suspended in air, that is, droplets of *liquid* water, not water vapor. Water vapor is invisible, like the other gases that make up the atmosphere. It’s when the water vapor changes state to liquid that fog forms and visibility drops. Fog is not a vapor, but a colloid (a suspension of microscopic particles throughout another substance).
15
Well, despite all that, I managed to get it from the crosses... ;-)
4
Unless It's "ice fog," which was an occasional occurrence on the coldest days when I lived in the Fairbanks area. But even that isn't vapor.
Ditto.