I had “cheat day” as “dream day” at first.. well, it kinda is! Had no idea who Zoe whoever was, so learned that. And I’m a Grey’s Anatomy fan so knew Shonda... and some people of a certain age may remember andie McDowell in “St. Elmo’s Fire.” :)
I liked this one! (I’m a New York Times puzzle newbie so still acclimating). I enjoyed learning that Katy Perry has the most twitter followers - who knew? I did not know the Corelli, and it took a while to “get” tea taster. But I had more fun with this one than the one of the other day with all the double vowels.. lol.
@Julia Wilkinson. I still have no idea who Katy Perry is. Fortunately I got enough crossing answers to fill it in.
Yikes!
Twenty-four hours (on & off) and still beset by swathes of white in that unDERdone Northwest corner . I've ascertained that Ms Whosshe KAZAN ENCASES SEETHE ( not SooTHE), and that there are NONOS AT SEA. Beyond that, it seems I'll need some help from Rudolph the REDOSE Reindeer.
I do love me a Saturday challenge, but right now I SO PO'D!!
TIL Katy Perry and Kanye West share the first two letters and seventh letters of their names.
. . . and 4th, not 7th.
Caitlin,
If you're up and about, please turn on the Comments for the Sunday puzzle. Thanks!
@Barry Ancona - Please take the time to read my reply to you on the earlier thread. I respectfully ask that you rethink the way you police this site.
6
Who is Barry Ancona?
Also very late today because I didn't finish til the end of my coffee-house stint. Then had to zip off to the gym, followed by PBS News (half)Hour.
Perhaps the most difficult puzzle I've encountered in my 1-year, 1-month history of doing this. The left half of the puzzle went reasonably well last night, but spent an hour just staring at the remainder with only EGAN (thanks to my wife), ANDIE, WAH (originally WAa), BLEWAPART, and SEXTET filled in. Gave up and went to bed.
Stared for another half-hour this afternoon until giving up and Googling "Nissan." There I found MURANO, which fit with BLEWAPART. That was the seed that allowed a gradual solve from the SE to the NE. Thanks to my wife for SUPE (probably a gimme for you NY residents).
Delayed because of PecoS then PuMAS before PIMAS, epEe before ARES, "dame" or "lady" before AUNT, kEATS before YEATS, and Esau then ENid before ENOS.
Never heard the phrases "Cheat day," "Crawl in," "Went to it," "Yes and," or "Play test." Obscure clues (IMHO) for AMENDS, DUD, ATSEA, CPAS (as Deadline, also don't get it), and SEETHE. No-knows were too plentiful to list here.
Was sure that 30D must be the Prez. TIL that it is an entertainer!
Grokked the misdirection of 11D, but took a while to get the type of leaves. Ditto 26A, but unsure about the spelling ("pipettes" is more common).
Again, a toughie, but my streak continues! On to Sunday ...
Very tough Saturday with lots of things I didn’t know. But perseverance and guesswork finally paid off. Guessed TURANO and PITAS and stared at it for a while before it dawned on me that it might be M and not T. And voila, ALLATONCE the board lit up.
Very late today, so maybe no one is out there anymore. But I'll say my say anyway.
There were a whole lotta no-knows today: CHEAT DAY, "ROGUE ONE," ALI Krieger, ZOE KAZAN (and "The Big Sick"), CORELLI, Jennifer EGAN, CPAS as clued (which I still don't get), FOREX.
Plus: beta before PLAY TEST, stomp before CLOMP.
Most frustrating: For 50D I of course thought of the chief twit. Got the ending, PERRY, and I knew that there is a female singer with that surname, but I couldn't remember her first name and had no clue of any connection with Twitter. Good thing I remembered YES AND and wondered if there was a new addition to the KAZAN dynasty.
This was really tough!
2
"...CPAS as clued (which I still don't get)..."
Deadline,
There used to be eight very big U.S. accounting firms, but after mergers over the years there are now four:
Ernst & Young
Deloitte & Touche
KPMG
PricewaterhouseCoopers
1
I was lucky on this one, I guess. I saw SHONDA Rimes on some talk show and remembered her—brilliant woman in charge of some major programming. I test drove a MURANO before buying my Acadia. Knew CORELLI, ALAN ALDA, ZOE KAZAN and KATY PERRY. HOME ALONE and ROGUE ONE jumped out at me for some reason. Downs were the most important part of the rest of the puzzle. Never heard of KESTREL falcons or KNESSET diet. Sort of a natick on the K there.
Love LIMEADES in hot weather.
I still problems with ADEPTS, which we saw along with OKRAS last week. Some things just shouldn’t be pluralized. A person is ADEPT, but why is ADEPTS people? It reminds me of Soylent Green!!!
;-\
4
@Just Carol
noun
noun: adept; plural noun: adepts
ˈadept,əˈdept/
1.
a person who is skilled or proficient at something.
"they are adepts at kung fu and karate"
synonyms: expert, past master, master, genius, maestro, doyen, virtuoso; More
informalwizard, demon, ace, hotshot, whiz, maven, crackerjack
"figure-skating adepts"
antonyms: amateur
@Deadline,
Thanks for the info. I really didn’t think it was “incorrect,” I just don’t like it. I appreciate your help, though—I need all I can get! ;-)
2
Very tough. I still don’t get the KNESSET as diet. Any help? PB
@pbilsky in political terms, a diet is a legislative assembly. The Knesset is the legislative branch in Israel.
2
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/diet
noun
the legislative body of certain countries, as Japan.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/knesset
noun
the unicameral parliament of Israel.
Clue: Diet in the Mideast
Israel is in the Mideat. Therefore Diet=legislative body of Israel=KNESSET.
1
nonok,
Thank you! I needed that information as well.
Glad to see I was not alone on this one. Thought it was due to jet lag that I couldn’t wrap my head around half the clues. Wikipedia, IMDB and I became very good friends today! Had MAGRITTE right off so thought things would go okay, but to paraphrase him, “this is not a puzzle” it was torture. I hope I retain some of the things I learned today, but the old grey cells, they ain’t what they used to be!
1
Hi BarbJ! Love your paraphrasing of Rene. (He gets my GRITTE also.)
I'd hazard the guess that your old grey cells have just, erm, met a phase of great new potential
1
Location, location, location. My neighbors have a MURANO. We have a local Charter School in Durham called KESTREL Heights. ANDIE McDowell was born in South Carolina and for a while lived in Ashevile, NC and makes the local news on occasion. Sometimes the help is not what you know but where you live!
3
I didn't have a CHEAT DAY. I put my head down and WENT TO IT. But I struggled mightily in the SE -- where I had to guess like crazy. Had WAa before WAH and SEpTET before SEXTET. And those early mistakes made a tough section even tougher, because I didn't know the falcons, the pill bug, the composer (though once he came in, I had heard of him) and the $#@$%$ car.
I was sure that the artist who produced "The Son of Man" was going to be an Old Master. Does that painting sound like a MAGRITTE to you?
Loved YES AND (41A). Nichols and May once explained in an interview why that works so well for improv.
Re: CHEAT DAY (7A) Don't do it! One CHEAT DAY and every pound you've lost over the last 12 days will re-appear ALL AT ONCE. Have no why it works that way, but that's the way it works.
All my discussions of metaphysics (47A) are indeed very DEEP. So deep that I don't understand a word of them.
SHONDA, ZOE KAZAN and KATY PERRY notwithstanding, this was a highly enjoyable puzzle.
3
This was a hard puzzle.
I just started doing crosswords 2 years ago, and started with the NYT crossword puzzle because it's on my iPhone. I never liked the paper crossword puzzle, but I love the one on my iPhone. Go figure.
The first 6 months were tough, but I was determined. I could only finish a puzzle by looking up words, or looking in Deb's column for hints. But I worked diligently, and began to learn.
At first I asked myself, "Self, why are you doing this if you have to look up every word?" I said, "To learn." As I became more proficient, I notice that every time I figured out (solved) a word, I got a little *zing* of pleasure. I decided to go for the zings.
Then 6 months ago that I could mostly do the Monday and Tuesday without look up any words (not always, but enough to notice). Big 'Zing*!
My biggest problem is misspelling words, and they don't look wrong to me. There are lots of answers I don't know, but am able to complete through simple pattern recognition. And, I look up words when I need to. Sometimes I ask the puzzle for help.
I continue to do the puzzle, and continue to enjoy it.
Thanks for your hard work in creating them, explaining them and encouraging us to finish them. I just want you to know that I appreciate you.
Now, time for some *Zings*!
18
Keep working it, there is a lot of repetition. There are 22 answers in this puzzle I would rate as “crosswordese”, although there is usually some wordplay involved in the clues, especially late week.
@Very light
Good attitude and good approach.
I hope we'll be seeing you around Wordplay.
What Deadline said.
Well, definitely going to call this one a CHEAT DAY. There were so many new words to me I don't know if I'll even be able to remember them all (KESTRELS, APERCU, KNESSET, PIMAS, etc)
I (and I assume others) typically find puzzles difficult for some of the following reasons
1. Unknown pronouns (e.g., CORELLI, ZOEKAZAN)
2. Difficult cluing (e.g., AUNT, DUDS)
3. Questionable/"new" words (e.g., ISOPOD, APERCU)
This puzzle clearly had all three and a lot of them crossed. Guess that's a Saturday for you. Whew!
The clue for TEA TASTER was amazing but it definitely would have taken a *lot* of crosses before I figured that one out on my own. Like many of the other answers I needed Wordplay to help me out.
3
@Matt Dodge
TEATASTER was definitely a TEAsER. I had the TEA part figured for the 'Leaves' in the clue fairly early , but stuck TEA in at the end, so that took a while longer to correct.
A few years ago, we saw kestrels inside Bank One Ballpark during Dbacks games. The birds, also called sparrow hawks, would swoop down on large moths and other flying insects from the rafters. More excitement from the birds than the Dbacks that year.
2
@Jack Sullivan Doesnt one stadium bring falconers to scare away (or otherwise decrease) the pigeon population? Hmmmm.... It might have been the SFGiants.... but if so it hasnt been repeated that I can think of..... or it hasnt made the papers. Sigh. Dont get old.
1
Having read all the comments, I guess I was the only person who got stuck on 7A for the longest time, conjuring up the old SNL 'Sprockets' skit and reading "Dieter's time of indulgence" as referring to that character's "And now we dance!" line. D'oh! I think I'll have another doughnut.
5
@Julia LaBua
I did spend some time wondering if "Dieter" was a German guy who was celebrating some obscure (to me) German festival. I tried to make CARNIVAL or KARNEVAL fit there for a long time.
1
I'm with the crowd who found this one to be hard. I had to let it sit overnight and come back to it today, and still couldn't finish off the NE corner. Oh well. I did really like the clue for KNESSET.
2
I always struggle with Saturday puzzles and this was even tougher than usual, but still lots to like, especially seeing MAGRITTE again. We were at the exhibition in San Francisco on Thursday with various family members which we all enjoyed. I then found the " Ce ci n'est pas une pipe" puzzle on my iPad which my son was able to show on his TV screen which everyone got a kick out of.
Like others my favorite clue/entry was KNESSET.
1
I finally cracked this when I tried an X in FOREX(?). While I am happy at solving it, I agree with others that there is "Saturday difficult" and then there is "How many obscure proper nouns can I pack into the grid?" Then add PIPETS(?) YESAND(?) ISOPOD(?) to the mix. Another post referenced this designer's March 2018 creation. I looked it up. It's the only one this year I gave up halfway, because there is "challenging", and then there is "this is no fun at all."
1
@Babel64
When I was doing lab work, oh so many years ago, the boxes of those long thin capillary action tubes had “PIPETTES” labeled along the side and at the ends.
But I guess when yur clueng a puzl for the New Yrk Tims yu can spelit howver yu lik. Sure “PIPETS” - fin, wy not?
@Babel64
That pesky X was my last letter too, never having heard of FOREX and wondering about SEPTET.
For those with a deep and abiding interest in PIPET vs. PIPETTE, happy reading:
https://www.artel-usa.com/pipette-vs-pipet/
Yes, I believe I set a new record, for, um, the longest amount of time spent on a crossword :-)
For one brief moment (around the 3h and 15m mark :-0), I thought I was going to be able to solve this unaided, but I was done in by 48D -- PUMAS sounded plausible, and 49A -- I'm just a sucker for the stories where you have to pass through a GATE of some sort to travel somewhere. Also, if I ever meet Kevin G. Der in person I will have some strong words about "DUDS", but these will be exchanged over my treat at some fine restaurant, because Kevin just made my Saturday (and chunk of Friday night :-)
3
I was not making much progress on the upper left side, basically started with YEATS, ACLU and CPAS, and quickly solved the right side, which had some lovely words--DOLOR, KESTRELS and ISOPOD (which made me chuckle). The lower right then resolved itself, and the upper right grudgingly gave way. Another really nice puzzle.
As MAGRITTE might have said about 26A: "Ce n'est pas une pipette?"
11
@Andrew
PIPET n’est pas une PIPETTE, mais oui?
[snort]
Too good!!
I knew it was too foreign language dependent but enjoyed my entry for 8A: MICH ZEIT...
Now THAT was fun!! This was a two session solve. Had a decent amount filled in and took a break for a couple of hours, came back and finished it off. For me, this was a classic example of "The more you puzzle, the better you get". There were several answers that I knew only from crosswords - KESTRELS, MAGRITTE, ATSEA (which, along with it's alternate asea has been clued thousands of ways) and a new one - APERCU. When I got to the happy music, I was flabbergasted that it was a word! I looked it up, and it's now part of my crossword vocabulary. Special thanks to Will for torpedoing ENFILADE! But it's in the brain now...
1
@Steve Faiella
While I understand your feeling about "asea" I am rather surprised that you would only know AT SEA from crosswords. Two very common words and an expression that I would consider rather standard.
@Andrew I guess I didn't express that one properly. I was trying to say that when doing XWPS, It's almost second nature to have ATSEA or ASEA come to mind when it can even remotely satisfy a given clue...
@Steve Faiella
AT SEA meaning lost, confused, etc., is not an expression I hear in the wild. It seems to me to be strictly crosswordese. Don't confuse it with the AT SEA which describes being on a cruise or a naval tour.
Phew, that was hard!
I had maxOUT then changed it to tapOUT. It took forever to see TOPOUT. Loved the clue "Gets a twinkle in one's eye" for STARGAZES. I also highly recommend "The Big Sick." ZOEKAZAN is great in it, as well the entire cast.
Weirdly, KNESSET went right in. betaTEST before PLAYTEST. LIMEADES really helped in that corner.
Caitlin, I think every day is CHEATDAY for that adorable Golden Retriever in your clip.
Finally, I dnf with FOREP/SEpTET. Got to brush up on my volleyball!
Kevin Der this was a really challenging Saturday for me, a true test. What I really enjoyed most was your devilish cluing. Thanks!
4
Johanna,
Hand up for betaTEST before PLAYTEST.
(Shouldn't trying out a game be test play?)
Re dnf: either gym class or econ class.
Reco for your reco of "The Big Sick."
1
@Barry Ancona
"Hand up for betaTEST before PLAYTEST.
(Shouldn't trying out a game be test play?)"
Amen.
WHOA - this was the hardest Saturday in a good long while. I thought my longest-ever streak of 49 days was at a frustrating end right before I could reach my goal of 50. Finally got there by brute-forcing my way across the finish line with the PIMA/MURANO crossing (how I hate the intersection of two proper nouns!).
@Jon
“how I hate the intersection of two proper nouns”
Yes indeed, and now you are ready to learn that gem of crossword jargon, the “Natick”.
1
Broke out a new Sharpie today, and had so many writeovers I feared I might run out of ink before I finally solved this one. Rich mix of high and pop culture, brain-bending clues, misdirections all over the place...all in all, NOTBAD.
2
Since the Wordplay column is undergoing experimental changes these days, how about instead of "Join the Conversation" in the blue bar that it reads, "Join the conversation but please reply only to the last reply in each thread or else replies will be likely to disappear."
We might need a bigger blue bar.
4
Andrew,
That would require Houston to acknowledge that we have a problem.
4
@Barry Ancona
Or Baikonur, these days.
1
Until the reply problem gets a proper fix, I offer again my band-aid:
After it is used once, deactivate the reply button on a post (and, ideally, have it vanish from the post), thus *forcing* people to reply only to the last visible post on a thread.
(And, of course, stop populating the reply box with @, which is counterproductive even now.)
The NW and the SE combined forces to crush me utterly. Scylla and Charybdis have nothing on this Kevin Der creation, I must say.
However, I do cry Foul on a couple of clue/answer combinations: 5D and 17A. 'Hardly smashes' calls for a verb form entry, while DUDS is a plural noun; AMENDS is a verb form, but the clue indicates a plural noun. I could not come up with a usage that justified these.
Add the unknown ZOE KAZAN, and REDOSE (said nobody, ever) and that had me flummoxed.
The Arizona tribe YUMAS! and the currency market had me similarly stumped...though I won't soon forget PIMAS after this.
When one gets an entry like APERCU off the U but then has to resort to Google, it's a DOLORous day.
I shall lick my wounds and try the Saturday Stumper.
4
@Mean Old Lady - they are both legit, though super tricksy.
A "smash" is a hit show (noun); a "dud" is a show that bombs. Duds are hardly smashes.
One makes amends = one reconciles with another. Amends might be made to reconcile.
5
@Mean Old Lady
Agreed with most of your comments, except you can make AMENDS (plural noun) while reconciling.
I filled in all I could, and when I saw all the names, I said “That’s it! I’m looking up a few of these just to get moving.” Got APERCU without a lookup, because I looked it up sometime in the past year. Got MAGRITTE, because who could forget that recent puzzle?
Hand up if you look up clues you don’t know so you can learn something and get better at the NYT Crossword over time!
1
@JoHarp [Hand waves in air] Me, me! I deeply admire those here who (rightly) pride themselves on never consulting Mr. Google, but my goals are as yet more modest. I just try to keep the consulting down and leave it as late as I can. Late week puzzles have yet to give me a No-G day, although I've come close a few times. *This* puzzle was a low first, though - I try to look things up only to finish an otherwise impossible (for me) puzzle, but this time I had to go for help just to get started. Sigh. Still enjoyed it.
Well, today took me almost exactly the same time as yesterday which implies that my neural pathways did not get sufficiently cruciverbalized to allow for spontaneous light bulb activation. (Hello Audrey.)
Seeing some of the times, (12 minutes - WAH!) makes me wonder whether those solves are 100% Google-free as mine are (supposed to be). I did contravene my own no Google rule at the end today because I had CRAWLed (must pay closer attention to tense agreement) and I knew that I would never get ZOE's surname.
I loved the clue "Leaves work?" and was proud to come up with KNESSET. I initially had hoped that Diet in the Mideast would produce SHAWARMA so I would be considered prescient, (yesterday's comment), but it was not to be.
I originally had entered AUNT and CHEAT DAY correctly but later decided that a "title" for Princess Anne must be keNT and I tried to make CHoke DAY work for 7A. It felt a bit like taking a wrong turn on a road trip back in the pre-GPS days.
CORELLI was one of a very few gimmes, but for some reason I didn't see it on the first few passes. I also thought that there were seven players on a volleyball team so had to work with SEpTET for a while.
Challenging but doable. Just right for a Saturday.
2
@AndrewSeeing some of the times, (12 minutes - WAH!) makes me wonder whether those solves are 100% Google-free as mine are (supposed to be).
Is there a way to see other people’s times? How do you do that? Thanks. (Not thst I’m competitive or anything). (One hour one minute). (Google free).
@David T
I was referring to a previous post where the poster announced that it had taken him 12 minutes. No. One cannot see others' times as far as I know.
@Andrew
Thanks. David (born Ottawa, 1955j.
Worthy Saturday puzzle, although I I'm not a fan of "Tea Taster", "Forex" or Zoe whoever. Kazan seemed to fit and was a familiar name. I later looked her up, I see she is related to Elia and Molly.
Crosswords are so like that. Yesterday, when "National Velvet" author Enid was a clue, I got it quickly but for the wrong reason. I used to know one Enid -- from the silent movie world. She was one of the first movie "Jane(s)" to Tarzan. Her name I couldn't ever remember, but I used to confuse it with Bagnold! So there it was. Enid Markey to Enid Bagnold. The mind is a strange thing.
1
@Liane - The tea tasters are the professionals who are responsible for grading and pricing tea leaves, as the coffee tasters do for coffee. Here's a sample site describing the role of professional tea tasters in Assam (India):
http://assamteaxchange.com/abouttea/tasting.asp
1
I had the toughest time parsing TEA TASTER. I filled it all in and went out for a walk. It was only when I came back and my eye fell on the grid that I saw what it was. It was a 'brewed' awakening. What I really wanted for "leaves work" was something about raking. DOLOR is such a beautiful word for such sadness.
5
We had the chance to see a kestrel up-close a few years ago while visiting a bird sanctuary on Vancouver Island. The woman holding the bird had a little trouble keeping her gloved arm from moving, but the whole time the bird was able to counter-gyrate and keep its head almost completely locked in one spot. It was amazing, but kind of freaky, too. :)
Here's what I'm talking about: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGArTWOJtXs
4
@Art Kraus
Thanks for posting that terrific video!
1
I love birds!!
Struggling with ADEPTS as a class of virtuosi. And, who knew about Ms. Perry, although I know nothing about her.
Art history and music theory classes save the day: Again.
Tis the season as I dicker over the price for Barbie Lots in anticipation of the T-Day Barbie Shoot. Have to watch for inclusion of ersatz Barbies into the lots. Similar to cutting cocaine with baby powder: IMHO.
I digress.
Nice challenge for a frosty Saturday morn. Thanks Kevin
1
@dk
Lots?
I thought I'd figured out about the Thanksgiving Day Barbie Shoot, but now I'm not so sure. What are Lots?
A head scratcher indeed. Fun to slog through though. Since I'm both a music and nature lover, CORELLI and KESTRELS were easy fills (only composer I know of named Arcangelo). Then KNESSET (loved that clue). Started with TREATDAY rather than CHEATDAY and UPDOSE rather than REDOSE.
Tough but satisfying.
@jtmcg
Hand up for thinking of UPDOSE.
And never heard of CHEAT DAY.
Before I comment on the puzzle, I will comment that at the bottom of the column this morning I once again find the blue bar comment button, now reporting "read 24 comments."
(PLAY TEST, I guess)
Wee-Bee stats. Another big list!
Words: 63
Score: 316 pts
Pangrams: 4
Perfect: 2
Bingo: yes
A x 6
D x 7
M x 14
N x 5
O x 4
R x 7
T x 20
4L x 22
5L x 7
6L x 15
7L x 14
8L x 3
9L x 1
10L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tot
A 1 2 1 1 - 1 - 6
D 3 - 1 3 - - - 7
M 3 3 4 2 2 - - 14
N - - 2 1 1 - 1 5
O 1 - 1 2 - - - 4
R 3 1 1 2 - - - 7
T 11 1 5 3 - - - 20
Tot 22 7 15 14 3 1 1 63
I find it amusing that two of the pangrams are opposites. (Schrödinger's pangrams?) But then, I'm easily amused.
12
@Bill Shunn Wow. Another brutal bee day. Thanks for your counts. You helped me get over the 300 hump. I may have to call it a day, however. I've already resorted to the dictionary scroll and lost patience with the too common letters. I've slapped "non" and "or" all over the place.
1
@Liane The "or" words (plus my favorite term for dummy-in-chief) put my over Genius, thank you!
@audreylm Let the trumpets blare!!! (Which word meaning that stumped me for the longest time!) So many similar looking words . . . . Seemingly random connections of t-r-a-n were also key to the finish. Thanks again (or curses?) to Bill for helping me isolate on a missing word by letter start and length to reach QB.
1
Today I did something I've never done before. When it became clear that I was never going to solve this thing on my own, I decided to see how I would have done if I had actually been paying attention to popular culture for the last twenty years or so and went and revealed (faster than googling) the very straightforward factual clues of that era.
And... this pretty much turned into a Wednesday (or so). Well, all except for the SE corner where I probably would have bombed anyway with the PIMAS, ISOPOD, FOREX cluster.
I guess YEATS and MAGRITTE were bones for those of us of an age, though I will confess that I needed a couple of crosses to recall the latter.
Oh, I did at least know that 1a rhymed with 'ONDA' (just couldn't quite recall exactly what it was) and got the rest from the crosses. Yay me.
7
Rich,
Here's a little something that rhymes with ONDA.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPnBrK6D26g
RiA:
I hear ya, buddy! A puzzle like this is akin to a visit from the Huns--bodies littering the landscape. I am amazed anyone got this one without help!
And I *know* we played volleyball with more than six members on the team!
MOL,
You also *know* that football teams have more than eleven players and basketball teams have more than five players!
Despite some Good entries, e.g. DOLOR, KESTRELS, APERCU, and clever cluing e.g., OP ED PIECE, PIPET, KNESSET, I end up in agreement with Pablo Neruda:
“Too Many Names”.
https://www.poesi.as/pn58060uk.htm
7
Amitai,
I would have preferred fewer names and more of what the constructor called "difficult words (e.g. ENFILADE)."
3
@Barry Ancona
Barry, I couldn't agree more.
@Amitai Halevi
Me too, Barry and Amitai.
There were words I find lovely (SEETHE, APERCU, CLOMP, DOLOR) with a side of vernacular (HOLE UP, TOP OUT, WENT TO IT, NOT BAD, DISHED OUT, ALL AT ONCE), which I also like. Tricky clues, vague clues, and names I didn't know resulted in long-in-coming trickles, which led to floods. What helped me was a YES AND approach, just throwing in answers, whatever the consequences, when I'm usually much more guarded before filling squares in. Most of those stabs stuck, and eventually the puzzle's FATE was sealed. All in all, a sweet battle, Der-ess to success. Thank you Kevin G.
6
Katy Perry??? Seriously? Oy. Explains a lot.
This was an incredibly satisfying solve, having overcome a raft of personal naticks. Came back to the puzzle three times (even with a five minute break, light bulbs activate). Felt increasing despair over the SE corner and the pill bug was a lucky guess (although guessing until one gets the happy music seems an unfair advantage for online puzzlers--with an old-school paper puzzle I might not have finished with no lookups!).
Love the Bee, have gotten many satisfying words (two pangrams so far) but am not even Amazing. Clearly, I have work to do. Onward.
1
@audreylm Although considering the first two letters I got for 30D were KA I was relieved the answer wasn't KANYE WEST. Small mercies.
8
IMHO there were far too many proper names. The result? I spent way too much time on Google. Hardly general knowledge. NYT you can (and usually do) do better.
10
I enjoyed this puzzle which solved faster than I expected. I particularly liked the clues for 32D and 40D.
Took me 12 minutes.
1
Chris,
If you're posting to yourself, fine.
If you're trying to communicate something to others, please consider adding how "12 minutes" compares to your usual Saturday time.
Thanks!
Impressive time.
1
NOT BAD. Took me 12 minutes to figure out LOBS were NONOS for 'Hardly smashes'.
Is it fair to say that someone who cavils is a cavileer?
Fun Saturday puzzle; beat my average time by over 10 minutes. No problem here with the"nodding" clue. I've snored while nodding off, and the Zees are what often knock me right back out of said nod. I've heard others do it as well, though they deny it up and down when confronted. Nice mixture of straight-ahead and oblique clues and answers. Looking forward to another Der down the line...
4
Unlike Caitlin, I found this puzzle somewhat easier than my Saturday average even though I had very little after my first Across pass. I never found myself unable to make progress and don’t recall any missteps that slowed me down.
I think the “nodding” clue was a bit off as I think of nodding off as the process of falling asleep while seated. Snoring doesn’t occur until one is fully asleep. In fact I didn’t understand it even after completing the puzzle until reading the blog.
2
@David Meyers
I agree with you about "nodding".
@Peter Jackel
ZZZ in a comic strip might originate from the sound of snoring, but I think it's safe to say that it generally represents sleeping as well.
@Steve L
I think that the question is whether nodding (off) equals "sleeping".
For a minute or two, I reflected on how nice a world we live in, that Mary Berry could be the most popular tweeter.
14
Challenging, yes ... yet solvable.
Mideast Diet was a sneaky good clue, but the Northwest could have had fewer Pop Culture clues.
7
Tough Saturday. I usually find Kevin Der's puzzles harder than other constructors. Lots of unknowns crossing each other meant it took many passes through the puzzle, getting only one or two entries per pass. The SE corner was especially so, what with PIMAS crossed with APERCU and MURANO and ISOPOD.
Never watched West Wing, though I knew ALAN ALDA well. Have heard of FOREX only because for a while years ago, there were many spam in my inbox promising to reveal the secrets of FOREX to make a quick buck. I've never heard of CLOMP, surprisingly. Nor have I heard of CHEAT DAY, but ok.
Had WENT AT IT before WENT TO IT. Kept thinking HAWK instead of ARES. Thank goodness for ANDIE MacDowell to keep me straight. Had NOT OUT before NOT BAD.
Liked the clues for STAR GAZES, AUNT, PIPETS, CROP, KNESSET, AMENDS and CPAS (who also reconcile), and TEA TASTER.
2
MURANO is not a city, but rather part (frazione, in Italian) of a larger city, Venice.
http://italia.indettaglio.it/ita/veneto/venezia_venezia_murano.html
10
Wags,
"...is *no longer* a [separate] city (comune)..." ?
Mideast Diet one of my favourite clues ever... Otherwise a bugger of a Saturday which I could never have done without the Wordplay nudges...
8
I was totally misled by the Mideast diet clue and thought myself very clever to have got Kashrut so quickly. Sigh.
3
KNESSET was one of the gimmes--we see that clue often, with various iterations.
“Portmanteau word” was coined by Lewis Carroll, who has his mouthpiece, Humpty Dumpty, define it for him: “Well, ‘slithy’ means ‘lithe and slimy.’…You see, it’s like a portmanteau* — there are two meanings packed up into one word.” “Lithe” and “slimy” are both adjectives, and the compound “slithy” combines the qualities of both. Typically, a portmanteau word is made up of the beginning of one word and the end of another; cf. the NYT puzzle of 10/3/06, in which PORTMANTEAU WORD is the answer to a clue providing a blanket definition of eight other answers: MOTEL, SPANGLISH, STAGFLATION, CHORTLE, TANGELO, GUESSTIMATE, CAMCORDER, and LIGER. An acronym is a word formed from the initial letter *or syllable(s)* of a string of words: “Acronym associated with Oreos” = NA[tional]BIS[cuit]CO[mpany] (NYT puzzle of 3/11/10). Tri[angle]Be[low]Ca[nal Street], Ge[heime]Sta[ats]Po[lizei], sit[uation]com[edy], and For[eign]Ex[change Market] are acronyms. “Frenemy,” “brunch,” “spork,” “gerrymander,” “Brexit,” and “snarcasm” are portmanteau words.
*“Suitcase”
20
Here's a list of 86 portmanteau words. Note that our Deb uses word number one.
https://www.vappingo.com/word-blog/86-great-examples-of-portmanteau/
1
@Barry Ancona
Thank you! I’ve made it a long time not knowing what that word meant, and probably would have somehow muddled thru a few more years in blissful ignorance -but am richer for learning it.
@BA
I loved exhaustipation.
always like Kevin G. Der puzzles. my little nieces love HOME ALONE. Last Thanksgiving they laughed and laughed even after many viewings!
1
@judy d
My kids are not even close to being kids, but HOME ALONE is a Thanksgiving staple in my house. Like Miracle on 34th Street was for me.
I just saw it last week for the very first time, when I was HOME ALONE with all that 'on demand' available.
(I had already seen Pelican Brief and Enemy of the State multiple times.)
The cedille was missing from "aperçu" in the same way that the cedilla was missing from "Barça" in the mini. We never get the complaints about ç that are engendered by ñ.
I don't usually join in the chorus of groans for Star Wars clues - mostly because the first three films had a thing called "expositions", and "characters", and "plot." But I saw "Rogue One" in Imax Surround Sound 3-D and, just as soon as I left that theater, I could not have named a single character, let alone the planets they were on, let alone two years later.
Well - not quite true. BB-8 was at least identifiable. From now on, could you clue "Rogue One" to BB-8? Thanks.
3
BB-8 wasn’t in Rogue One. :)
9
@David Connell
The ñ issue is basically beating a dead horse, of course, of course. But the difference between the ñ and the ç is that the former is a separate letter in Spanish and the latter is not in French.
On the other hand, this is sort of an example of the TAMALE TRAP, which, for the uninitiated, means that like TAMALE, which is actually TAMAL in the singular in the original Spanish, a word can undergo changes as adopted into English. And one can fall into the trap of thinking that just because it's APERÇU in French, it can't just be APERCU in English, in the same way that TAMALE is just fine north of the border.
David,
If there were U.S. fast food restaurants with "cuisine" from French-speaking countries, cedillas would be more of an issue here.
So today using Windows 10 and Edge, at the bottom of the column is a blue bar, about the height of a line of type, with nothing on it.
When I clicked on this bar, I got the comments section, which at this point, was empty.
Switching to Chrome, the same little bar appears.
Who knows what will appear tomorrow?
Oh, yes, the puzzle.
Please someone tell me ZOE KAZAN is a somebody. Looking at her Wikipedia page, I realized her grandfather was a big somebody. I remembered his name.
Other than that, nothing in this puzzle grabbed me. Didn't hate it. It just was.
3
@Steve L
See Ruby Sparks (the movie). I loved the movie and she (ZK) was the best part.
@Steve L
It's a bit condescending to imply a person isn't a "somenody" just because you don't recognize the name.
1
You guys made me wonder if TERRYMALLOY had ever appeared in a puzzle. Nope - not even just MALLOY.
That's too bad. He coulda been somebody.