Love this, thanks for sharing! I thought the line about the weighted vest from http://besthealthgear.com was interesting..
@Ben Breda, that guy wearing the weighted vest... Did you happen to notice the brachial venous situation on the man? If the weighted vest isn't implicated, I'm thinking to rule out bigtime pulmonary hypertension, for starters.
I’m gonna SULK a TAD because of that heartless SW corner. The top half of the grid was a fun, fair challenge. But GLENS and ALTERANT crossed with those dad-blamed DOTTED IS (double, is what I had) put me a full hour over my usual Saturday time. Even knowing MUDD and NAST was not much help. And yes, in the end, I elected to cheat. Not proud of it.
2
Happy to see former Liverpool great Luis Suarez make the puzzle, also loved a nice hard Saturday that made me put it down and come back to it later. Ended up nearly two minutes over my Saturday average.
Comments seem to be working. Maybe a flurry in a few? This seemed tougher than the last few days.
Doubleis before DOTTEDIS really screwed me up in the SW. Had to take breaks. I knew ____ Falls, N.Y. was what I needed and should have been a gimme. I just lived 90 minutes from there a year ago! Been to Lake George many times. Sister-in-law owns rental cabins there. Big sigh when I filled in GLENS.
3
Caitlin: FYI — this comment was submitted about 18 hours ago.
DADDYISSUES ❤️
Even if you've never been to Glens Falls, if you listen to American folk music, you may recall it from the last verse of this song:
https://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/story/23894/20140128/pete-s...
Yay! I guessed right on 14D/29A and figured rap singers today would never use ordinary names like Wil. So, Z was also a natural fit for soccer star, another subject I know next to zilch about.
A way easier puzzle than last week's Saturday which I struggled with. Loved the 33D dottedis.
Fun puzzzle thanks to McCarthy/Shortz.
Forgot to mention in my CiC:
I don't think I understand what the issue is with DADDY ISSUES. What am I missing?
Yesterday was tough. This was tough-squared. Spent way too much time in the NE. Lucked out early with SUAREZ (just from the R and E) and SITAR, and even had PLAIN for a while, but unable to come up with POLS and LIEU for the longest. Had "situ" for the latter, cowTOWNS, and usuALID at various times. (WIZ at 29A actually sounded familiar! No idea why ...)
Spare you my usual blow-by-blow. Finished the puzzle, but no happy music. Was sure the problem was with ALTERANT (later discovered from the OED that the word was "rare"), but went over the rest of the puzzle. The problem turned out to be with lAG instead of SAG at 28A. (After the fact, I did an "Of course!" since I've heard of "geodesic.")
Random comments: Like Liz B., figured that 33D was "orthographic," I guess from enough solving experience. Had to look up the spelling of MAASAI (new to me). Lots of tricky clues for: LOCALCOLOR, SEMINOLE, FAUXDIAMOND, ENDAT, OXYGENBARS, GET, ERE, CAMERASHOP, and GISTS! Remembered AREOLA from a previous puzzle. Total unknowns: BICORN, NILES, SUAREZ, SID, GLENS, TIMON, and GERI. DADDYISSUES??
Although a slog, "enjoyed" it. Hopefully, tomorrow's will be full of trickery!
2
Ron,
"cowTOWNS"
I could understand it for Dallas, but for Houston?
(We have a problem)
I had cowTOWNS at first too. Makes sense for Ft. Worth more than Dallas even and no sense go Houston. Oh well.
@Barry Ancona and David Meyers
Both of you have good points. I'm embarrassed, being a native Texan ... :)
Pols for stumpers is a little stretchy. Abbreviation not even mentioned.
@MP
Not an abbreviation.
Slang, especially when they're stumping!
I mean pols for politicians. But then abrev is usually not mentioned for the clues themselves, hence stretchy.
MP,
One more time (after Deadline, as it were):
POLS is slang, not an abbreviation, for politicians.
"Stumpers" is slang for campaigners.
At election time, POLS are "Stumpers."
Nice Saturdayish Saturday.
Like others, loved the HOT DOG STAND clue. Also that for LOCAL COLOR. And, a little less but still a lot, FAUX DIAMOND and SNORKELED.
Just spitballing here, but I'm guessing (and guessing correctly judging by others' comments) that a BABY SLING is one of those things that looks like a papoose but worn in the front. I think a regular papoose would be more comfortable, but I've never tried either so what do I know.
Apparently I've been even more successful than I thought I was at avoiding all contact with "The Solund of Music"; "ADIEU, ADIEU" rings no memory bells, even when I listened to it (well, to part of it).
Gimmes: NILES (!), EUDORA, TIMON (because of a really odd production in Central Park some years back), MUDD, NAST. No-knows: WIZ and SUAREZ, GERI.
Thought of OXYGEN tents and masks before BARS, trying to make the "go out" in the clue refer to becomjing unconscious, but it still didn't work. With the air quality this summer, I'd think we could all use one.
Thanks for the fun, Ryan, and to all others concerned.
Thanks to all who allowed access to the comments too, however temporarily.
I don’t really get the clue for LOCAL COLOR.
@David Meyers
Local TV coverage of "colorful" events.
HELLUVA puzzle with devious, satisfying clues. Thank you McCarty!
NYT seems to have an affinity for “areola” ;-). And ‘enya’. I have seem those more than once or twice.
3
For three days now, I have to Log In to NYT to access what was formerly just my "fully automatically paid" subscription account. Today I had to identify MOTORCYCLES in an anti-robot checkin page, even after entering my login information. WHAT THE HAY, NYT?
I'm sick of the tech problems with this website. Sick of it.
Get your act together, folks.
1
@David Connell
Similar experience. It keeps forgetting that I am already logged in:
a) I was logged in and worked the puzzle,
b) I then clicked on wordplay
c) when I tried to recommend someone, it told me I had to be logged in to do that!
3
The Times' comments section is a site-wide function which has been a prime hacking target, particularly the political stories. The Times has done a good job fending off trolls and bots that try to load up comments sections with coordinated messaging. The log-in challenges may be an imperfect patch but it's better than the alternative.
4
Not sure what SIGMUND (nice cross with DADDY ISSUES, btw) would have to say about the SE corner, which was a HELLUVA slog for me.... AREOLA finally got me going, as it were, and, dare I say, led to PROJECTILE. With PROJECTILE firmly in place, I had to abandon *TITUS for TIMON. With a RACY fill, Mr. Happy Pencil played his song!
5
Slightly over 50% of my time on this entire puzzle was spent just on the little SW corner. Never heard of NAST, MUDD or GLENS Falls.
Thankfully they didn't cross each other to form a dreaded Natick. I deserved a challenge after an easy week anyway with Wednesday being the easiest NY Times crossword puzzle ever; at least for someone more into science than pop culture.
Managed to perservere and keep the streak intact!
1
How nice to hear from Alberta! Several of my earliest climbing buddies were from Edmonton. And Red Deer.
Keep streaking with us!
@Stuart Moore I live about an hour and a half from Glens Falls and it took me forever to think of it. The whole SW corner was the last to fall, for me.
1
KathyM,
So that would not be Berne, Switzerland. I had seen your posts before and wondered.
A tought and satisyfing Saturday. Like the Wednesday puzzle, constructed so skillfully that even though I didn't know a few of the answers (and on Wednesday I didn't know at least one name in most of those pairs and both names in one) it was solvable sans cheating by the crosses. I'm commenting about Wednesday today because the commentarium was unpeopled on that fateful day.
2
Pols was good, but oxygen bars?? Really?
@david g sutliff They have one in the airport in Las Vegas. Not sure what that implies.
1
@Michele Topol
That you're gambling with your life if you take a plane from there?
Deadline,
More likely to make sure that what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas.
I still don’t get Dotted I’s. All I’s are dotted. Double I’s would have made more sense.
7
@RP
Capital I's are not dotted. . . but as written the clue would be in my wording "true but not helpful".
@RP Since there is no i in Alaska, the clue made sense to me.
1
Two i's you have
Two i's you see
I see you have
Two i's for Mimi
I was thinking maybe Alaska for something else. And Ohio or Oregon for an O2 BAR, if that's OK.
BRAINSTORM before PROJECTILE
ABBERANT before ALTERANT
DOUBLEIS before DOTTEDIS
NIGEL before NILES
First assisted completion (using “check puzzle” in the app) in a long time. Figured that after the relatively easy week, Saturday would be a (streak) killer. It was. :(
5
Tightest, crispest cluing I have ever seen.
Very hard-fought victory here.
Only quibble is with MAASAI being too arcane.
Adding: I had BRAINSTORM for Spitball on just the T of GISTS, but I knew the "e.g" meant I could PROJECT(ILE) I was probably wrong.
It was just too hard overall. I loved it!
3
The SE corner killed me, and I confess I had to cheat my way out. Had OSSOFFICER crossing with TITUS (having been ignorant of
TIMON other than a Disney warthog) and struggling to find a synonym for speaking extemporaneously for spitball.
The rest was really enjoyable, challenging but not frustrating. The gimmes of WIZ, NILES and EUDORA were most welcome.
1
The SE had me running low on OXYGEN also. My 5-letter Shakespearean titular head was HENRY, had CORES --> GISTS as well as PRET-->DEJA, and started 51A with GUN--. Slow/gradual correction via RACY TECHIES was what ultimately PREVented stress-induced PROJECTILE vomiting on my part.
Tough corner, till remembering those great NAVY SEALS came to my rescue.
Did notice that adjusting to available space forces decisions. \Booya\
3
A tough but interesting puzzle.
As I read the column afterwards and watched the video on the coastline paradox, my attention was caught by the word ‘fractals’, used by my 6 and 7 year old granddaughters because Elsa uses it in her big number in Frozen.
So... I’d like to see FRACTAL/S as an answer in a puzzle, but how to clue it would be the thing.
Thanks to the NYTimes puzzle people for helping us all hang on to a piece of civilization. Really.
2
FRACTAL has appeared five times, and FRACTALS once, as a NYT crossword entry.
@Barry Ancona
Thanks. What were the clues, do you know?
Dkhatt,
You can find them here:
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Finder
Very tough Saturday - took me ever so long to get the Blarney Stone due to my lack of awareness of the correct way to spell Maasai.
Happy to see the most recent famous alum of my high school alma mater, Taylor Allderdice, make an appearance.
If you’re not familiar, the eponymous album can be heard here:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-OcGVqnCSxY
Quick and easy Spelling Bee today. Made it to QB with just 27 words and 126 points. I’m starting to miss the Clotbur!
My parents both attended Taylor Allderdice, so amusing to see that name pop up.
1
@David Meyers
I went to Peabody in Pittsburgh.
I don’t know Pittsburgh schools other than Taylor Allderdice, which I know only because my parents went there. My family is from Pittsburgh but we moved away when I was a preschooler.
My only look up was to confirm my "Z" at SUAREZ. Man, oh, man, get that man a muzzle!
Loved learning GEODESISTS. Oh, look, GEO DESISTS: "refrains from driving one-time Chevrolet division cars." Or, "refrains from earth-related activities." Hmm, that would be tough to do. Maybe an astronaut.
I though this was a very entertaining Saturday challenge and like many of us here, loved the clue for HOT DOG STAND. Brilliant!
Thank you, Ryan McCarty, I look forward to your next!
5
I didn't know about the -ISTS, but I probly have an easy dozed GEODES in the house. Love rocks, and these are full of FAUX DIAMONDS.
https://www.google.com/search?q=geodes&client=firefox-b-1-ab&sou...
Frankly, my original entry was venDOr STAND. Not the worst, but not exactly a weiner either, eh?
2
Oh hey! That's 'an easy dozeN geodes', you know. Rarely caught napping.
Wickedly good. Misremembered Frasier's brother as NIgEl and went absolutely nowhere for a good while. Same thing again when I thought "trash talk" was LIP. Hesitated over ALTERANT because it just didn't look like a real word. Then all at once it was done. Serious fun!
3
Hand up for NIGEL... I think I saw the show once...
1
Me, too, maybe once.
@archaeoprof
Never saw the show, but amazed myself by knowing NIGEL. Sometimes you can learn enough from promos without having to watch the actual thing.
OFF TOPiC
@David Connell
Thanks for the wonderful clip on the Aaron Number yesterday.You may recall our discussion of Erdös numbers some time ago.
I forwarded the clip to my erstwhile collaborator – ¬¬no baseball fan – who has Erdös Number 3, and was given the sad news that I am not on Mathematical Reviews’ official list of Erdös Number holders and am therefore not officially entitled to Erdös Number 4. Presumably, the journals that they review do not include Theoretica Chimica Acta, in which our joint paper was published.
Sic transit gloria mundi!
5
@Amitai Halevi - Thanks for posting, Amitai. It's good to see you around here again.
@Amitai Halevi
"Gloria Mundi got sick on the bus" was our alternative translation.
2
Amitai, a New Yorker in his youth, may remember it as I do:
"Gloria threw up on the subway last Monday."
1
This may have been the toughest Saturday puzzle of the year! My wife and I work the NYT puzzle first thing every morning (for nearly two years) and this one nearly had us crying. “ALTERANT”...really!? Loved HOTDOGSTAND, frankly.
A very clever Saturday puzzle!
2
To me this felt like four very difficult mini-puzzles with not much to pull them together. Each corner took extreme effort to fill, and after each one I felt like I had to start all over again. I won't begin to mention my final time today.
I had one resort to Google, but only because I had guessed OXYGEN BARS based on the clue, and wanted to confirm that this was actually a thing. (This led me to questions of legitimacy or illegitimacy. I decided that for confirmation of one's educated guess in certain instances, Google is legitimate. Especially if it looks like your day will be eaten up by the puzzle otherwise.)
My final holdup was the whole GEODESISTS, MAASAI, SEMINOLE area, and as I had LAG instead of SAG and had quite confidently entered BABY SWINGS, it was quite a mess really.
Would have preferred 50A to be clued as "Harcourt Fenton", but Roger was quite an eminent personality as well.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FGgHEKko3E
2
@Andrew I agree that using Google to confirm that a correct guess is a thing, is legitimate mostly. You’ll know when you do it whether so. One does run the risk of Google showing a different spelling which in my universe makes the solve illegitimate.
@Andrew Everyone gets to decide for themselves what constitutes "cheating" - for myself I allow no googling so the only confirmation is the finish line jingle. However, I am a social solver, so posing a clue to the room is fair in my book, and generally excites good conversation.
My $0.02: As a pen and paper solver for 50 years (apologies to Kwame Anthony Appiah), the commonly accepted rule used to be that any information appearing in that day's paper was fair game. (The weather page was always a good resource since it listed 50 or so international cities.) No other reference works or other look-ups were permitted. (By whom? For me the crossword police consisted of an aunt in the Bronx.) Of course, back then, search engines, let alone the internet, or this forum, didn't exist. Moreover, nowadays, "that day's paper" is increasingly not a thing. And obviously folks can decide for themselves how to enjoy a crossword puzzle. But in the spirit of the old rule, I would say that checking the Times' search function for archived content is ok (sort of; I don't do it), but googling stuff outright seems to defeat the point of the challenge, especially if one is an online solver tracking streaks and solve times.
2
A good chewy Saturday that looked impossible at the beginning. Like others, I frankly found HOT DOG STAND the absolute best. I had 'green berets' before US NAVY SEALS. To get ADIEU ADIEU, I had to mentally hum to myself awhile before the words revealed themselves. I kept trying to include 'escort' in 'show around the area.' In fact, I had to consult Caitlin several times to make my way through the maze but I finally got there.
2
I will take the Fail on this one. I finished with two wrong letters (actually, just blanks with lists in the margins.). The Rapper Kalifa (not Burj, clearly) and the big-deal soccer star (yawn) created a Natick. I should have gotten the U at 16A, but again, Luis got in the way. I just didn't feel like taxing myself further. Pooh.
Probably I am just worn out from completing 39 years of marriage (plus almost 37 years of motherhood, and 10 years of menopause.). The M's will get you every time!
Wee Bee: I'm at 24 and 110 pts. Of course, CANNA lilies and MAYPOPs (yes, they are a thing--plants) didn't make the list. Was wishing we had had an L so we could spell 'panoply', but oh well. I've thought of another word, but I am doubting QB today...
3
@Mean Old Lady - I really did think of you when MAYPOP was denied!
2
25 and 115. Also stuck with the Saturday Stumper 3/4ths finished.
I think I'll go piece my sashing-and-block rows. Working diagonally because of an on-point setting is enough of a mind-bender.
@Mean Old Lady
In re Wee Bee, there are no words beginning with M today, you may be happy to hear. You seem to be missing 2 5-letter words and 1 6-letter word. All but 3 of the words in the full set begin with C or P.
Great cartoon/caption selection as relates to puzzle
1
Blue Moon,
Re: Caitlin's deserved credits
She *selected* the cartoon;
she *rewrote* the caption.
1
Barry Ancona,
I stand corrected (or sit in a bicorn). It's awesome no matter how you cut it.
1
I had DOubleIS for 33D. That kept me stuck for a while.
3
QB = 27 words/126 points. No bingo today; three singletons. One fairly obscure (to me, anyway) Italian/Spanish-derived word. And, annoyingly, a case where only one of two fairly common variant spellings is accepted (as opposed to the HALVA/HALVAH situation we saw recently, which was accepted).
2
@qatburger.
That Spanish/Italian word was the one that got me to Genius. It took so long because it might have been Spanish and Italian, but I don’t really think it’s English. I see there is a definition online, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen or heard it used as an English word. An odd choice to include considerable how many more common words have been excluded.
Almost all of my 21 words start with p or c, and I have no words that start with m. Possibly no words starting with a vowel either. I guess it must be like that today.
@qatburger
26/121
must be something obvious as I have the obscuro. ..and I have caught the fish many times, even wearing the hat.
No PACA (*many* NYT XWP appearances) or PACMAN,
I thought the puzzle was tough, but what I expect for a Saturday. I do think reading the column and comments gave me a much better appreciation for the puzzle. I really didn’t pay much attention to the frankly in the HOTDOGSTAND clue. Now, I’m loving that clue.
I loved the piece on the coastline paradox.
I had always heard Minnesota (because of lakes) had more coastline than a number of large coastal states combined. I realize now that that is a loaded stat.
My big error, I had BRAINSTORM for spitball. I still think that would be a great clue for BRAINSTORM (without the e.g.)
1
@Isaac Rischall
Hand up for BRAINSTORM before PROJECTILE. That gave me a whole buncha downs that fit their clues perfectly well, but made really strange letter salad for the rest of the stack.
Hotdogstand! "Simple business frankly speaking" 34A is my fave of the year
5
@Skeptical1
To me, that was the only fun clue in this puzzle.
1
There’s at least one of those OXYGEN BARS in Crested Butte, Colorado (elevation: 8909 ft. — a figure that is surely imprecise but not nearly as imprecise as a coastline measurement).
1
Stop being so fractal !! LOL
It was neigh impossible last night. I had the NW and SE filled out but NE and SW nearly blank or filled with wrong letters. It was quite the stumper.
This morning, with fresh eyes and a mind willing to be more flexible, re-tackled the puzzle and finished 2 minutes above my very high average.
nit: TECHIEs aren't necessarily experts on bugs. Bugs - defect in software code, are detected and fixed by programmers. TECHIEs aren't necessarily programmers. They might be good at technology related things, but bugs are very specific.
Had BABY BJORNS (I knew it was wrong) before SLINGS, had SITU before LIEU, PHOTO ID before LEGAL ID (SITU killed it for a long time). Thought it was going to be DOUBLE I'S before DOTTED I'S
Lots of really great entries. Thought LEMONADE STAND at first but obviously didn't fit. But "Frankly" is not just a throwaway word in the clue like it might seem at first. U.S. NAVY SEAL rubbed me the wrong way a bit (why add U.S.?). But then I remembered recent Thai cave rescue and the Thai NAVY SEAL who died. "Oh yeah, other countries have NAVY SEALs too"
Mr. McCarty has done us a solid here. Really impressive and interesting and challenging Saturday.
Caitlin, great video on the Coastline Paradox, thank you.
6
BABYbjornS was a gimme for me. I was very pleased to have a long answer right off the bat. @Wen, why did you know it was wrong? Because it is a brand name?
@David Meyers
Yes, because it was a brand name and there was nothing in the clue that specifically called out a brand name, BABY Bjorns were very popular ~10 years ago when my children were babies, but I don't think it was to the extent that it became the generic name for BABY SLINGS (we called it a BABY harness ourselves).
I had BABY SWINGS for a long while.
It was the SNUGLI in my day (FRONT PACK fit)....and we'd not have made it without the Graco swing a friend loaned me...... Attila the Baby!
1
I learned three things: That MAASAI is more correct than "Masai"; the lovely word GEODESIST; and how to use ALTERANT as an adjective. That Z square was a Natick for me, as I didn't know the two names, but I threw in that zed with confidence, as it easily seemed to outweigh any other letter. I love the word BICORN, and, like @tyler below, especially loved the DIEU DIEU LIEU line (as my brain sees it).
The puzzle right from the start threw me into an all-business mode, where I shut out the rest of the world and become one with the grid. Such puzzles are like doing yoga -- you leave the cocoon with a fresh, clean perspective on the world. Thank you Ryan!
7
@Lewis
Ditto the Z Natick. Once I had SUARE-, though it had to be Z or S. OTOH I had only S—RE- for a long time. The NE was last to fill for me. SE was tough too.
3
No Natick at the Z last night. WIZ and SUAREZ were both gimmes for the teen soccer player working the puzzle with me (I only know Luis).
She chuckled at DADDY ISSUES -- and, appropriately, spotted SIGMUND -- but has no memory of BABY SLINGS.
1
@Barry Ancona
Sounds like the only DADDY ISSUES she has are the latest NYT puzzles!
HOT DOG STAND was a lol entry when I finally got it. Like Liz, I was pretty sure the Hawaii/ Alaska answer was going be a spelling trick, but it still took me a long time to get the DOTTED i's .
I thought of BICORN straight away but wasn't sure so decided to Google check it and nothing gave that definition, including my dictionary, so in fact that was my last entry.
"Do they still have OXYGEN BARS"? Caitlin asks. I've never heard of them.
Good workout for a Saturday morning.
1
@suejean
I had DOUBLE IS before DOTTED IS. That made me evict Roger MUDD, but I was happy to welcome him back later.
On Wednesday Caitlin said regarding the comments failure: "This was a sitewide outage that appears to be solved. When we get a definitive explanation I’ll share it with you."
Has the explanation been shared yet?
2
It has not! I’m not 100% sure the problem has been solved yet either. I’m keeping an ear out for news.
1
@Caitlin
If my experience yesterday, and the fact that there's nothing in the list of columns about it as there was with the earlier outage, I'm going to assume the bug (or family of bugs) has not yet been exterminated by the TECHIEs.
Yesterday's experience was especially strange. After I had done the puzzle and read this column and Jeff's, I clicked on the link offering to let me read 120 comments. The comments portion showed up. I embiggened the type and clicked on the toggle that allowed me to go oldest first. I got "Loading..." but nothing happened. I refreshed and was told the comments section was closed.
Deadline,
That's what happens when it *is* working!
This will probably be rated as a very easy Saturday, though I didn’t find it so. Nevertheless, I solved it more easily and more enjoyably with only minimal assistance from Google (a couple of name confirmations). Nimbus before AREOLA delayed me a TAD in the SE, and AberRANT before ALTERANT kept me floundering in the SW a HELLUVA lot longer.
1
Not easy for me, but did finish a TAD faster than average even with a struggle in the NE and SE.
I have to take issue with HELLUVA. I’m sorry, but there’s no way that word is anything but an adjective. The adverb form is HELLA. (Which I found to be a brilliant example of backformation when I first heard it. To think that there are people who don’t know that is hella sad.)
3
"...there’s no way that word is anything but an adjective."
This dictionary begs to differ:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/helluva
How about “HELLUVA good puzzle” vs. “extremely good puzzle”? Huh? Howzabout that?
5
@otherthings
I don't think HELLA is a word.
It took me until the very end to simply give up and guess DO TTEDIS. I’ve never been there, so fine, who knows, maybe they do.
2
@The Real Dr. Foo
Dotted is
Hawa ii
Alaska
No need for plane fare!
Although either are worth the Visit!
Your eyes won't be dotted but you will need sunglasses.
Glare off the sandy beaches or the snowy mountains. K*
And..... it’s down again. Or is it just me?
Ken,
You're up. (Now, anyway.)
I guess just my comment from two hours ago. <Sigh>
Loved the line of ADIEU ADIEU LIEU.
5
The NE was the last to fall thanks to my writing in SITU for LIEU. We used to drive through GLENS Falls on the way to Lake George when I was a kid, so like Judy, that was a gimmie for me.
Hands up for situ before LIEU... took a while to rescue the NE!
liked it a lot! Especially SEMINOLE as Creek relative and HOT DOG STAND, frankly speaking! I grew up in upstate NY not far from GLENS Falls!
6
We remember. Or at least I do. You're Judy of Troy!
(Four of my first cousins grew up *in* GLENS Falls.)
I should have added above that my cousins' father, my mother's brother, for many years owned a CAMERA SHOP in GLENS Falls.
@Barry Ancona
I had an uncle from GLENS Falls.
Chewy and interesting. The three central entries didn't fall easily for me. I had to kind of wait and see what GEODESISTS turned into--it just seemed to have too many letters. MAASAI, SIGMUND, and EUDORA helped out in the middle.
So many choices in the NE--VALID ID, ID CARDS, LEGAL ID. LIEU and SITU. I figured the Hawaii/Alaska answer would be something orthographic, and it was. And I wanted BICORN to have an E on the end. I'm just glad there were one or two words I knew in each area, so I could get a foothold.
2
@Liz B - don't forget PHOTO ID, which was my first fill, and without which one cannot purchase groceries, after all.
15
I too wanted PHOTO ID, but it conflicted with my equally desired SITAR. I had so few entries early on that I was most frustrated that one of these was clearly incorrect.
<reco> for David
But how would he know, David? Do you think he has *ever* actually purchased groceries?
How’s it looking today?
@Caitlin
I can see it! And comment, apparently!
And so can your readers...so far.
@Caitlin I haven't been able to see the xword on my phone for the past two days. Tried restarting, but no luck. Any idea why? Thanks.