Middle-of-the-road is a thing. Middle-of-the-roader just isn’t.
1
You might be wondering how the pyramids were made. It shows not only the technology they had in the past but also the architecture. pyramids is a very fascinating topic for all of us to read. Many people think that Egypt is the only country where the pyramids are located. But that is not always true. There are pyramids around the world, and Sudan is the country with the highest number of pyramids.
@zayntrav.com Mexican Pyramids
You say 'slobber', I think bulldogs and boxers (NB, _not_ Bulldogs IN boxers, as I believe Yalies go for tighty-whities). So SALIVA dropped right in, with the LIVING will/wage close behind. An excellent framework to see ROLLOVER (another canine clue!) and BOLIVIA. Step by step, NW filled in [fairly] short order.
Old YELLER, another beloved canine [sob]
The canine DECAY in the center somehow gave me the most trouble, and entire lower half was more resistant to blandishments.
One after another = Great clue. 0 shuns ELEVEN
If you get cot in the pub, you'll have to sleep in a BAR BED
Maw! Someone stole my stove!! I've been DERANGED...
Even the NEast's STICKS finds the canines fetching, so maybe there's grounds for the SEast to be a little DOGTIRED, and if some want to draw the fee line, they can be relieved to find a SNOCAT in the SWest
AD ASTRA per ASPIRE, eh? Nicely, nicely done, KevinA!!!
(and an extra kudo to anyone who recognizes the Damon Runyonesue dibbet there)
Off now to investigate how much SERENe I need to squeeze if I want a 6 oz glass of SERENADE.
Happy Easter/Passover et alia to All of Ya
Isn't it time we stopped using words like DERANGED and "nuts" to describe mental illness? About 15% of the people in America are experiencing a mental illness right now. This is disturbing and is not the kind of thing I would expect to see in the NYT.
1
btw, the REALER the doctor, the more likely to know that a DISC doesn't 'slip'. Au contraire, it herniates. Of course, this isn't A PATHologY puzzle, is it?
Her knee ate it, and that's all she rote.
You say 'slobber', I think bulldogs and boxers (NB, _not_ Bulldogs IN boxers, as I believe Yalies go for tighty-whities). So SALIVA dropped right in, with the LIVING will/wage close behind. An excellent framework in which to see ROLLOVER (another canine clue!) and BOLIVIA. Step by step, NW filled in [fairly] short order. Old YELLER, another beloved canine [weep] The canine DECAY in the center somehow gave me the most trouble, and entire lower half was more resistant to blandishments.
One after another = Great clue. 0 shuns ELEVEN
If you get cot in the pub, you'll have to sleep in a BAR BED Maw! Someone stole my stove!! I've been DERANGED...
Even the NEast's STICKS finds the canines fetching, so maybe there's grounds for the SEast to be a little DOGTIRED, and if some want to draw the fee line, they can be relieved to find a SNOCAT in the SWest
AD ASTRA per ASPIRE, eh? Nicely, nicely done, KevinA!!! (and an extra kudo to anyone who recognizes the Damon Runyonesue dibbet there)
Off now to investigate how much SERENe I need to squeeze if I want a 6 oz glass of SERENADE.
Take note, Grasshopper noobs!!
When the original version of the above wouldn't post for longtimes, but my question below went right through, I reviewed with a closer eye. After my Old YELLER phrase, I had a 3-letter parenthetical more common than 'weep' to denote tears.
So that 3-letter misinterpretation sidelined the comment, even though Old YELLER was one.
Is there some particular time of day when comments are less likely to post?
I really liked this puzzle. I almost always like Friday and and Saturday puzzles but I love grid designs like this. And low word count. And themelesses.
3
What an awesome puzzle from Kevin Adamick. So tricky and clever. Quite a few times I had to look up from the puzzle to appreciate and marvel at the playful cleverness of the clues. The only thing that would have made solving this puzzle better would be if I was solving it from a terrace at Villa d'Este.
5
This was a tough one for me too, mostly because it took forever to get traction in the SE corner. Some of the clues were great (CROCS, DECAY, CATERERS, ORDERS, ONPAROLE) but a couple should have been quietly smothered before seeing the light of day.
REALER. I expect this from a 4-year-old but not the NYT. I doubt any staff writer would be allowed to use this word in an article; should the Crossword's standards be lower?
KARINA. Did anyone know this without looking it up? I know Googling is an accepted tool for solving puzzles--embarrassingly, I had to use it for OTOOLE--but I also know most of us prefer to get answers from our heads rather than the screen. So a clue that no one can get without Googling is not much fun for anyone.
1
@Doug
I thought it was crossed completely fairly. I got it entirely from the downs.
5
@Frances
Yeah, but then why bother with a “clue”. Just say “6 random letters”.
1
@Doug, yup. Mis-spelt Anna Karenina.
Probably my most unusual solve ever. Started with all of the acrosses and didn't find one answer, except ROADER but didn't think it was right, so didn't fill in. The first answer I knew when I started on the downs was BERN. The B lead me to CLUB and then all started to fall in place, such that I had one of my shorter Saturday times
3
For me this was a toughie. I thought I'd never get it. Misdirection everywhere. But loved the challenge.
5
"Villa d'Este" rang a bell, perhaps from my honeymoon almost 22 years ago (we did *not* stay there), but none of the cities we visited would fit. I got TIVOLI solely from the crosses. I Googled the hotel, and was reminded that it is located in Cernobbio. ?? (Memories then returned -- we stayed at a hotel at the top of the hills behind the Vd'E.)
REALER?? 🤨
Like four difficult minis. Barely under an hour -- an acceptable result for a Saturday puzzle.
2
I really liked all the misdirection. I got the entire right side pretty quickly. Then struggled and struggled. Peruvian before BOLIVIAN. I resisted the temptation to look things up four times. I even had Google open once, but talked myself into trying on my own a little longer. I'm glad I did. It was much more satisfying.
9
Tough Saturday with lots of aha moments. Yes the grid was intimidating. Oh no, four tough puzzles ahead. The NE fell first. Got TRICOLOR and figured the Target clue had to be some kind of STORE. TERSE and HECKLERS fell and then the rest of the corner. In the NW, BRANDO before OTOOLE. MENSCLUB before BOYSCLUB. TALKER before YELLER. Elsewhere: SLEIGH before SNOCAT. REEFS before CROCS. Best clue IMHO: Salon.
3
Lest I forget
Birthday wishes to frequent contributor and letter boxed whiz @Coloradoz.
If their comments are to be believed tomorrow marks 81 razor-sharp years!
Best wishes and good words to you Cz!
7
@Kevin Sparks
Thank you very much. Yes 81. I can always rely on you to come up with a solution I haven't seen
4
@ColoradoZ
Happy returns on the day!
@MJ
Thanks
Interesting to see the posts about which quadrants were easiest and hardest. The first one I filled in was NW and last to fall was SE. when I first saw the grid this morning it seemed very daunting, but in the end it was great fun. Good one.
4
REALER - are there grades of reality? I resisted entering it even after became clear that nothing else fit.
9
Laszlo,
At least it follows the form of the clue; one could just as easily question authentic and more authentic.
3
@Barry Ancona But not authenticer? How would you pronounce that anyway? Recalls our
SYNCHED/SYNCED discussion.
1
@Laszlo
Truer words were never spoken.
4
I generally dislike puzzles that require solving each segment without the usual flow through the grid. But this one was so well constructed and clued that I enjoyed the solve. Bravo KA.
Some earlier commenters wrote that they were not challenged enough by the NYT puzzles. Here are two suggestions:
* try cryptics. Cox and Rathvon have one in the WSJ this weekend. It is a true challenge.
* try metas. Friday WSJ, Pete Muller Monthly, Matt Gaffney Weekly Crossword (subscription, but you can get a months worth of samples for free).
1
Was i the only one dismayed by ROADER? Which bothered me more than REALER.
Like many, I worked this through NE to SW to SE to NW. Fell for random misdirects pretty much everywhere--solving felt almost cryptologic. I'd fool around with ideas until I found the key--two or three intersecting answers in a quad, and then the whole quad would fall in short order.
I didn't understand ACE until about ten seconds ago, when I looked at it once again in puzzlement, and a card appeared before my eyes....
Did anyone else go through both SEASON and SALINE before arriving at SAILOR?
Absolutely wonderful puzzle. The little grey cells are pleased with themselves.
2
@Puzzledog
NE to SE to SW to NW.
Long day for me.
Puzzledog,
I was not dismayed in the least. It's a well documented common expression.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/middle-of-the-roader
1
@Puzzledog - thank you!! I never got it, though it filled in from the down words obviously.
When I started the puzzle I knew I would like it because I had only one sure answer in the NW corner -- Bolivian. From there I went clockwise and found the SE and SW relatively easy. I ended back in the NW which was the last to fall. That quadrant had my favorite clue -- "One after another?"
1
Probably the quickest Saturday solve of my checkered career. I have discovered I do best if I work to a grinding halt on the more difficukt puzzles when they become available on my iPad at night, then attack them again to finish on the day of publication.
The NE filled in like pepper from a shaker, but the SE remained a desert until Saturday morning. Then, because I'm a GEEZER, I remembered when I was forced to work with MS-DOS 40 YEARSAGO, so the DRIVE part of 43D dropped in to start the SE action, cARried along by recall of my high school Latin and Chemistry (when my hair wasn't "Silver").
Kevin's layout looked daunting, but the clues were excellent — except for the awfully ambiguous 34A fill.
2
I think this puzzle gives a good opportunity to demonstrate the differences/similarity in our wheelhouses (which I think vary greatly based on comments here and at Rex). I'm going to post my hardest and easiest quadrant from today's puzzle, and am curious to hear the same from others.
HARDEST -- SW
EASIEST -- SE
1
@Lewis
I don't know if my geographical location has anything to do with this but for me it was:
EASIEST -- NE
HARDEST -- NW
2
@Lewis Good idea. Most common trouble quadrant seems to be NW, which was definitely the case for me, though I got stuck because of my stubborn belief that the greatest performance in film was given by someone other than DE NIRO. Had BRANDO before that, toyed with plonking in PACINO as well. Crossing DE NIRO's 'R' I had DROVES, which worked with SALIVA, and it wasn't til I retraced the entire grid quadrant by hand and reworked it from scratch that I got LIVING, and that brilliant 21A clue for ELEVEN.
1
@Lewis
For me the easiest was the NW and by far the hardest was the SE - probably because I had 'floppy' for 43 down for the longest time.
2
My only across gimme was SNOCAT, and I wasn’t at all sure of it for quite a while. Down was a bit better, with BERN, ARGENT, and GEEZER, and a hesitant ADASTRA. BERN wiped out my first entry, which had been “iris” adjacent, but I’ve been doing this long enough that UVEA was the immediate next step, and then ...CLUB was inevitable. Dithered between men’s and BOYS but guessed right.
Maybe one of these days I’ll stop having my customary sinking feeling upon first seeing such an open grid; before I got serious about solving in these last few years and learned how to navigate, I had accumulated many decades of seeing myself as someone who “couldn’t solve Fridays or Saturdays.“ At least for me, that’s taking a long time to dissipate.
4
One of my favorites in a while. I had maybe 2 or 3 filled in after my first pass through but stuck with it and was able to complete in close to record time. Really enjoyed the clueing this week. Looking forward to his next puzzle.
7
Usually, with a grid like this I end up solving the center and working outward. When done that way, I end up with a few medium sized puzzles, which I find less interesting. This was opposite; the center was the most difficult. I had to solve all four quadrants first in order to get the center. "Mega" and "gene" we're my last fills. Excellent puzzle.
2
Took me awhile to get anywhere in the NW. I completed SW, then NE before I made any headway.
O’Toole was not in my mental check list of 6 letter actors. Brando, Burton, Streep, Welles and Pacino all came to mind first. I should’ve got him quicker - he’s been pretty popular in the crossword lately and I love his films.
I’m embarrassed to say that I never seen Lawrence of Arabia. I’ve been holding out to see it in a theater on the big screen - god knows how long I’ll have to wait.
I did enjoy this puzzle today - some fun and clever clues and I’m a sucker for a grid with a strong graphic to the black squares.
1
@Dan Kocieniewski With a big screen and blu-ray it's pretty good.
@Dan
I had the ---OLE, so O'TOOLE came to mind pretty readily. If you _can_ manage to find a big-screen showing of Lawrence, go for it! It's a gorgeous film. It was re-released some time ago (probably 2 or 3 decades, now) and I saw it in a theater that still had a big screen. Definitely worth it.
1
Wow, I really suffered in the southeast. I had ---TIRED, but somehow could not come up with the DOG I needed.
I think this GEEZER needs a nap now.
3
you could find one jn Adopt-a-pet
.... ;-)
1
My first across fill-in was 55a, then 56a. Next time I'll start with the downs. Like so many of you, I found the NW the hardest and the last section to fill in.
But, I did it all on my own. There was a time, not so long ago, when on Saturdays I always had a google page handy. So I am still improving after many many years of solving. Hooray!
10
Not to IDEALIZE, but this puzzle is damn good. YESSIREE, it is.
SW was hardest for me, mainly because I tried "sliced" apples before realizing they had to be PEELED.
8
WHOA!! Another outstanding Saturday puzzle!
Nearly all of the misdirects worked - - on ME that is. And I was my own worst enemy with UNLOAD at 53A, WORN OUT at 49A, PERUVIAN at 19A, and VENICE at 22A. I spent a while trying to figure out how to fit MOTHER BOARD in at 43D - because I used to spend almost as much time *inside* a PC as actually *using* one.
And, Caitlin: The photo of that CROC is wonderful. I can’t tell age or size - but the photo reminds me of seeing what the crocs in Australia’s “tropical northwest” can do. I mean moving on the surface without leaving a ripple and leaping most of their body length out of the water. I stayed WELL away from rivers after that demonstration. They are a “water hazard” of a different type!!
7
And, Caitlin, thanks for posting the adorable Stains!
2
I sure hope we don't have to wait another four years for Kevin's next Saturday puzzle. This was so much fun! I was captivated by each pesky quadrant. Thank heavens the dead center was easy enough to get me into each section.
Thank you, Kevin Adamick!
4
For a few minutes there I was afraid that Kevin would be able to brag that he ATE the MOL ALIVE....I was reluctant to enter the more pedestrian answers (YELLER, NEATER, REALER groan) and Target is hardly a MEGASTORE in my book.... Plus, SRSLY? an obscure actress from 1963??? I was still in high school!
UNLADE?
Oh well. I finished it. Am now stuck with half the Saturday Stumper in my craw.
1
@Mean Old Lady
It’s not quite fair to call Anna KARINA obscure. She was the preeminent actress of the French New Wave.
Minority report: I was very disappointed in this puzzle. There are things I like and things I don't like in XWPs, and probably the thing I most don't like is over-segmentation.
I'm not saying there weren't things here that gave me pleasure. Being a nice person (at least I try), I'll start with what I liked. I was very happy with the clever cluing, and especially liked DECAY, ROLL OVER, ELEVEN, BOYS' CLUB, TRICOLOR, ON PAROLE, CATERERS, and MEGASTORE. Many of those, along with RON REAGAN, DOG-TIRED, and ATE ALIVE, were also my favorite entries.
I also especially liked the Helen Keller quote and the shout-out to Peter O'TOOLE (but agree with RiA about "Lawrence" and "Lion"). Also, I was proud of me for knowing the Kansas motto and RON REAGAN's book.
Only real no-knows werer Anna KARINA (I think it's kinda tacky to choose that for a stage name), SNO-CAT (may have seen that in XWPs before, but started with SLEDGE), and ROSEANNE as clued (not a Barr fan).
I guess most of the fill was in my wheelhouse because I completed each of the segments with barely a pause. Finished the puzzle with a blank in the 34 square. Was ready to do an alphabet run, when I remembered that there was a site called Salon, which I guess qualifies as an E-MAG. Didn't understand ACE until I came to Comments.
So overall I would have liked it, except for the segmentation and the less-than-challenging (though cleverly clued) fill. I just don't think that four mini-Mondays make for a Saturday.
3
@Deadline
I'm not a Barr fan either. In fact, whatever the opposite of fan is, that's what I am...
1
@Deadline
Although I see that Wikipedia says her birth name is Hanne Karin Bayer, so you can see where the stage name came from!
2
@Andrew - There's more than one Barr to be a non-fan of these days...though they seem to be cut from the same cloth.
9
Nice puzzle. I enjoyed it. My only gripe is with EMAG, which exists only in crossword puzzles and is EZINE everywhere else.
4
Wow ! I loved this puzzle and felt totally accomplished as I completed each quadrant - each one was tough and full of surprises . I , like many , had BRANDO before OTOOLE , wanted SEASON instead of SAILOR , initially had MANGE before I realized DERANGED was the answer across . My " ins " were AD ASTRA( I think I learned that from the Wizard of Oz ! ) and Ron Reagan .
I can't imagine the prowess of someone who can create this but BRAVO you made my day :)))
4
ODEA and UVEA added to the vocabulary today.
As a Mac guy, ADRIVE was unfamiliar to me. The floppy disc and the Flash website are two prominent heads stuffed and mounted above Steve Jobs' mantle. Surely few people miss either one.
REALER is a bit of a groaner. It actually came to mind quickly from the clue, but I was very hesitant to fill it in even after it was supported by crosses. YELLER did not seem like common usage to me and I think would have been better clued in the context of a Disney movie about a dog.
On the whole, however, I found this an excellent construction. Daunting at first glance, but fell into place as a challenge without being a frustration.
1
@Brian Drumm
Except you can't view things on an Apple computer if they're still using Flash.
iOS devices (iPad, iPhone) do not support Flash at all. Apple computers will display Flash websites if the needed plug-ins are installed, which I have chosen not to do for many years.
A Mac tech support task I’ve performed more than once for friends and family is to UN-install Flash after it either enabled or accompanied installation of annoying malware. Flash has it’s uses for it’s original intended purpose, creating animations, but in my opinion, the sooner it is eradicated as a website tool, the better.
3
@Brian Drumm & Steve L - I don't understand what Flash is, but I know that I have to use it / have it in order to play KenKen on the NYT website, since at regular intervals it is all messed up and asks me whether I should "trust it". The KenKens are a huge part of my daily wake up routine, and the occasional Flash glitches are a real annoyance.
1
I just noticed I beat Rex Parker's time today.
Not sure what that counts for, but it never happens...
Steve,
LOL. I comment last night that I found the NW the hardest quadrant, but it wasn't that hard! No wheelhouse, clearly. Perhaps Kevin beaned Rex?
1
@Steve L, Rex's blog today was the WAH heard around the world. Very disappointing. And the reason I don't comment there anymore.
And, hey, good for you!
4
@Steve L
As one who at this point asks "when" rather than "if" I will finish a puzzle, I'm glad for a puzzle that stops me in my tracks a little. (And as I said, this one felt harder than my time would indicate that it was.)
I do take note of my times, but I don't aspire to be a speed solver. How fast I am is just how fast I am. Occasionally, if I'm breezing through the beginning of a puzzle, I don't stop to take a sip of my beverage or a bite of my dessert, so I can see how fast I can finish it (because the entertainment value isn't coming from having to think hard), but I don't speed solve as a general rule.
Actually, I'm a little bummed that most puzzles these days don't provide me with much of a challenge. The public should know that the NYT puzzles are not usually the hardest ones around; the new New Yorker puzzles are consistently hard, as are the late-week Atlantic ones. Brendan Emmett Quigley's twice-weekly puzzles are labeled by difficulty, and the hard ones are truly hard. But I like the challenge because I don't always get it with the NYT anymore.
Some people seem to have the speed solving gene, and Rex is one of them. But I'm sorry for those who pursue speed solving as the raison d'etre of crosswording, because they miss a lot as they plow through puzzles.
11
What a deal! Four puzzles for the price of one. At first, I thought I would never get anywhere. I was unable to get a thing until I moved east to the NE corner and then each quarter fell in clockwise order. When I returned to the NW, all I had was the ED at the end of DERANGED. Starting with 'demented' instead, I wanted 'Deniro' before OTOOLE. I think it was CLUB that gave me a toehold. The clue for ELEVEN is brilliant. Love the ladder of Vs in that corner. Is it okay to have ROLLOVER and SENTOVER in the same grid?
1
Shying away from those big blank blocks, I began at the short words in the middle--no dice. In fact the central C was the very last square to fall. Turning to the NW corner, I found things weren't so bad after all. BERN and BOLIVIAN were enough toehold for a smooth fill.
The three other corners were just as cooperative, making this my fastest Saturday ever. But not trivial: the bold grid was complemented by fine clues. "Big heart" and "canine's woe" made a fitting climax at the final C.
When four V's materialized on a diagonal in the NW, I wondered what similar treats the constructor had baked into the other corners, as if filling those big empty blocks was not enough. It turned out I was asking too much. Still, the V's made a big impression, whether or not they were an accident.
3
Here I was thinking that Mr. Adamick had managed to work in the rest of Kansas’ state motto at 9D with his entry at 38A, but upon further reading I learned that ASPIRE does not equate to “aspera”. Would anyone with more knowledge than I care to weigh in on this? (I’m looking at you, David Connell)
@NYC Traveler - that's a fun one, NYCT!
Asper- is an old root word, meaning "rough, uneven, difficult, challenging, liable to cut" - from an ancient root word like "hesp" - so it has a basic accent on the "asp" - think "to exasperate".
Aspir- shows the prefix ad- accommodated to the root "spir-" meaning "breathing, breath" and, by extension "hope" (which gets modified to "sper-"). Dum spiro, spero (while I breathe, I hope). Think "respiration". So these words from an ancient root word like "speis" have their basic accent on the spi-/spe- (the a- is an unaccented prefix): think "to aSPIRE."
We don't reach the stars by hoping, or by breathing - we reach them despite difficulties. Per ASpera ad AStra. (capitals indicate the Latin stresses)
4
And here I thought per aspera was about eating asparagus...
1
Loved exploring the four peninsulas. This puzzle had it all.
Well, today's 22:34 solve got my daily streak to 125 days with no help or Googling.
It shows on the game page but alas my phone's Crossword app is somehow out of sync and only shows 42 days. Nice none the less, but still not totally satisfying.
Same here. Didn't realize my streak crossed 100 a few days ago because I think mine is sitting at 42 on the app as well..
1
@Ryan
Well, 42 *is* the answer to life, the universe, and everything.
4
I use the iPad app, not the phone one, but FWIW occasionally I have to sign out and back in to shake out the cobwebs. That’s after making sure I have the latest app update installed. Heaven help us all if self-driving cars need this in the middle of the freeway...
5
After filling in the entire right side of the puzzle and looking forlornly at what was left -- the entire NW without a single filled-in square and the SW with NEATER, RON REAGAN and nothing else -- it was no longer a question of Would I Cheat? but only How Much Would I Cheat? It's sort of like Name That Tune: "I can name that tune in three notes." "I can complete this puzzle with three cheats."
But I couldn't. Cheating only on KARINA enabled me to finish the SW, but nothing enabled me to finish the fiendish NW. I wanted IRIS instead of UVEA; I wanted BRANDO instead of (who was it again?); and I wanted DEMENTED instead of DERANGED.
There's only one thing more ignominious than cheating in order to solve a puzzle. And that's cheating and failing to solve the puzzle anyway.
8
@Nancy
My first guess was BOGART.
3
What is the general consensus on “cheating?” I’m in my second major streak (106 days). I intentionally spiked my earlier streak of about 53 days after a disastrous Sunday puzzle where I had to plug in nearly every word revealed in solving hints plus a few more cribbed from the user comments. In my current streak, I’ve mastered figuring out the “Thursday gimmick” and have limited peeking at solve hints to very occasional Fri-Sat-Sun use only.
But I’m a lo-o-o-o-o-o-ong way from ditching Google. And IMDB saves me on some pop culture clues. It seems there are a large number of clues regarding “Game of Thrones” and I know it *only* from browsing IMDB and not at all from viewing HBO.
2
@Brian Drumm
Cheating is what's cheating to you. Will Shortz famously has said, "It's your puzzle, solve it however you like."
I cut my teeth on puzzles in an era where in order to cheat, you had to be in a library. So the only way to cheat besides that was to hold the puzzle until the next day, and then borrow from the printed answers.
So for ME, cheating is doing anything you wouldn't be allowed to do at a tournament. That is to say, just about anything that doesn't come from your head. And actually, if you rely on that method, you find in the long run that the ability to complete a puzzle is not beyond your grasp.
Stopping for a while and going back to it later can help, and isn't cheating. I still do that with Spelling Bee.
Of course, a wide range of knowledge, including geography, foreign languages, obscure words, opera and rap, movies and other pop culture, and an understanding of how the wordplay clues work all help.
Although some people think anyone at all can do a NYT crossword, I'd amend that somewhat to say that anyone who is well educated and/or well read has a much better chance. But it doesn't happen overnight.
10
Meanwhile, on the IFC cable channel, an episode of Batman (from the 60s TV show) has miss Anna Graham (pronounced Gram) stealing a valuable golden calf statue, and bringing it back to the lair of The Riddler, where all of his toadies are wearing crossword puzzle tee shirts and the walls are adorned with crossword grids. An early influencer for this now old cruciverbalist?
5
1960’s TV is a comfort zone I return to fairly often. I was born in ‘65, and thus grew up on original “Star Trek,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Wild Wild West,” “Batman,” “Man From UNCLE,” etc. in after-school reruns. It’s a very particular era of TV whose like will not be seen again. Perhaps all this was born of need for escapism from Vietnam and social unrest? Or maybe TV writers and producers were influence by the wide array of inhalants and chemicals that rose to prevalence in the era?
1
@Brian Drumm
Perhaps a bit of both? :)
This was a hard one for me to get contiguously from one corner to the next. Living in Kansas for a while helped me get to the stars. I wonder how many of the younger solvers came up with "YEARS AGO"? Had trouble with Anna's last name as I thought I knew it but thought that was a character's name from something I once read not an actress. . . oooooh Kerenina. . .
@Robert Michael Panoff
I had so wanted YEARS AGO to be "In MY Days..." :)
1
Steve,
I guess you're not old enough yet to know how to say it: It's "In my day" (singular).
GEEZER
3
There's a recurring bit on Seth Meyers' late night show, Back in My Day - where the humor (such as it is) is based on the fact that what is nostalgized is about six years ago.
3
APATHY got me started. I didn't know the Helen Keller quote, but it was the first word I thought of, and it immediately gave me most of the NE downs. Anyway, I'm sure none of you really care about that.
Otherwise, wrong guesses were the order of the day for me. I did have BOY'S CLUB which I changed to MEN'S CLUB when things weren't working. I wiped the whole thing out to make room for BRANDO. I spent valuable time searching my brain for a high altitude city, having misunderstood a much simpler clue, and I originally had PLAY DEAD before ROLL OVER (I have not had much luck investing). The focus on dog training completely misled me on "Canine's woe", and I was so DOG TIRED by the SE that I thought that CAT ERERS were feline woes.
I could go on about CLOGS before CROCS (much more common water hazards in these parts), but I thought I would end with a smile. "When I was a kid..." elicited this classic British comedy routine from many YEARS AGO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAdlkunflRs
12
@Andrew,
I tried ELKS CLUB before BOYS CLUB.
2
@Andrew
"APATHY got me started."
That verges on ironic.
15
Andrew,
“ … I thought CAT ERERS were feline woes.”
I love it.
2
I thought it was a challenging Saturday.
I am wondering if i shouldn't stress about my solve times? every time a puzzle takes longer than my average solve I assume it's Alzheimers' beginning. today I was a minute under so I can drive today.
21
@Patrick
This rule, i.e. “Longer than my average”, seems like an excellent measure for determining “hardness”.
I’ve been a devotee for only slightly more than a year and have observed that most of my current solve times ARE usually less than my average - and frequently close to my personal-best times. So - I conclude - the exercise of that thing between my ears must be paying off.
4
@Patrick, you *definitely* shouldn't stress. It's a well-known observation that stress potentiates deterioration.
The second that the puzzle opened, I thought... Oh boy... this is going to be FUN!
I was lucky to intuit a good number of entries right off the bat, and the NE, SE, and SW fell within 20 minutes. Then came the North West. Blank. Zippo. Zilch.
I had to do a GAACBIAFH (Go Away And Come Back In A Few Hours) and OTOOLE, SALIVA, and DERANGED made it fall. 15 minutes on that baby but my initial thought was right... FUN! :)
Only Nit: I hate words that are "created" with suffixes that are valid, but rarely if ever used. REALER made me scrunch up my face and go "ICK", but the rest of the fill was awesome!
5
April 20 is Adolf Hitler's birthday. This year, April 20 is also the first full day of Passover. It's ironic to the highest degree that Jews the world over are celebrating their feast of liberation on the Fuhrer's birthday. A happy Pesach to those who celebrate!
Lest you think this is off-topic, here's the tie-in: I did this puzzle after midnight, after a houseful of guests finally went home. There was a lot of preparing for and then cleaning up from the Seder, for which we shoehorned 19 people into a room designed to hold 8-10, max. So by the time I got to the puzzle, I was physically tired and very achy, and I had to rely on crossword muscle memory to knock this one out.
And in the end, my time was not all that unusual; about 5.5 minutes short of my average. This is typical, since my average goes back quite a while. However, it isn't always the case, since once in a while a tricky puzzle still comes in over average.
The NW was the toughest for me. "Colored part" seemed to be missing "of the eye" to be a valid UVEA clue. But I depended on confident guesses for SAILOR and A DRIVE to get started in the SE, went through the NE and SW, and got into the NW with BOLIVIAN as a confident guess.
At our Seder, the nice rare lamb I smoked came out overdone thanks to Uncle Bob's "help" warming it up for the meal.
And once you can guess confidently, all the answers fall into place, and Bob's your uncle.
10
Interesting. Yesterday I reported a Google ad on the puzzle page. It was for a trivia quiz site, and was promoting a quiz about WWII. The page loaded with a huge photo oh Hitler right in the middle.
Off putting at best, but on the first night of Pesach, frankly, insensitive. As the daughter of two camp survivors I may be more sensitized than some, but I think for that photo on last night, I was justified....
11
@Steve L
I love to think of the crowded table at your Seder. It's a mitzvah to include all you can. And it's a beautiful message to send to the world no matter whose birthday it may be and maybe even especially). When we were driving home last night from the Seder we were honored to attend, I noticed all the homes still lit up with guests which would normally be dark and I felt very glad to see the continuation of tradition. Happy Pesach!
4
@CS
Yesterday I commented that the room was really crowded, seemingly more so than usual (although 20-ish for Pesach or Thanksgiving is totally normal for us).
And I said, but who would we not invite?
2
Amazing clueing! Favorites: one after another, shoes&water hazards, out with caveats, and taken while waiting.
Misdirections in which we fell: BETA something instead of PAROLE, gator and snake before CROCS, we considered oreos for ORDER (just for a second, dont judge me), Venice and Napoli before TIVOLI, cooked and Bramley before PEELED. I know, I know Bramley has 7 letters, but we have this secret trick, "Maybe this is the american spelling"?
So lucky son was visiting. Together we can conquer the world! Even an open grid crossword!
Solving was surprisingly smooth. Thank you and well done, Kevin Adamick.
4
Mall store, boxy store then MEGA.... after i got rid of my fleas.
Spent most of my time in the South East. 49a when I finished.
Thanks Kevin
3
Wow, wow, wow. Wow! This was some puzzle. Thank you, Mr Adamick!
Not a drop of glue—this structure holds itself together like a Lincoln Logs house. Amazing.
I know I’m repeating some call-outs of others, but hey, this puzzle deserves a lot of call-outs.
Superb clues for: APATHY, ATTICS (not leading news), ELEVEN (not a stalker—whew!), ACE (easy but still made me smile), DECREE (not dictate a letter).
I struggled getting roots in the SW puzzle even with AERATED... those are such common letters they just didn’t say much to me in the acrosses. Finally I thought of SERENADE and it began to come together.
I fell into the BOLIVIAN/peruVIAN trap & the TIVOLI/napOLI trap. I had a small, one-square scar at 5D (“Split”) when I started to write Cutout, but prudently stopped at Cu.
A happy start to Saturday! Thanks again, KA! One of my favorite puzzles this year!
:-c)€
3
Many leaps of faith here, too. Fortunately most of them turned out to have landed on solid ground. That's the best kind of puzzle, in my opinion.
With a solving time of 33:03 today and 19:16 yesterday, I think I'm getting the hang of this crosswords thing. Now what do I do with the rest of my Saturday?!
1
@Robrecht
1. Go to the Archive and catch up on some of the earlier puzzles.
2. Do some of the other excellent puzzles that are out there:
Wall Street Journal:
https://blogs.wsj.com/puzzle/category/crossword/
LA Times (Flash required):
https://www.us.mensa.org/play/games/games/la-times-crossword/
The Atlantic (Mon.-Fri. only):
https://www.theatlantic.com/free-daily-crossword-puzzle/
Brendan Emmett Quigley (Mon. and Thurs. only):
http://brendanemmettquigley.com/
The New Yorker (Mon. and Fri. only; four free per month but you can do more for free if you use different browsers and/or devices):
https://www.newyorker.com/crossword/puzzles-dept
Erik Agard (posted sporadically about once a month):
http://gluttonforpun.blogspot.com/
All of the above free as noted.
Other constructors have pay sites.
Enjoy the rest of your Saturday, although in Belgium, you have six hours less left than I do. Here in New York, it's not yet 8 a.m.
14
@Steve L
I binge on the NYT Crossword archive all the time, but that list! Thank you very much, so much yet to discover. I just finished the current Brendan Emmett Quigley one, which was a lot of fun (with a clever construction theme). Thanks again!
R.
2
@Robrecht
Ditto Steve L. Can't have too many xword puzzles. I can't wait to try these sources.
2
Enjoyable puzzle. My first thought on finishing was that I got to do 5 Mini puzzles today - all close to the same size: The 7x7 that was the 'actual' mini and the four 8x6's in the main puzzle. Of course, the cheater squares in the actual Mini reduced that - particularly the square in the middle - but I still can't help but wonder if that was entirely coincidental.
Anyway - lots of pondering and considering alternatives and too many good 'aha' moments to count. I finished in the SW, but I think it just worked out that way. Don't know that i could identify any section as notably harder or easier than the others.
Went and looked up the Premiere Magazine list after I finished. Was a bit surprised that O'Toole was selected for his performance in 'Lawrence of Arabia,' which I recall finding almost laughable in certain scenes (the dreamy stare). I would have gone with 'The Lion in Winter.'
3
Rich,
How high did the creek end up rising yesterday?
@Barry Ancona
I'd say it was up about 9 or 10 feet, but still about 4 feet below the road surface, so no problem getting in or out.
@Rich in Atlanta
I hate these top NN lists, and this one was no exception. Is it really possible to rank ONE HUNDRED film performances? And what a surprise! All of the actors were well known celebrities who've been honored over and over again. I could have made this list with a bunch of well-known actors names and a random number generator.
BLECH!
2
A Glue Haiku (for a virtually glueless puzzle)*
EMAG, nah, an ACE
UVEA, almost, a trace
but only a trace.
*Haiku-ish
4
@Puzzlemucker
How about this?
DOGTIRED. Spring rain.
Our APATHY delivered*
RONREAGAN YEARSAGO
*SENTOVER as clued.
2
@Al in Pittsburgh
Not counting well this morning.
Edit: Remove RON from the last line.
@Al in Pittsburgh
I am self-banned from making any political comments. I will note (and hoping that David C will back me up) in some dialects REAGAN is a single syllable.
Yes yes yes. The challenge of the four islands. Sixty word grid with hardly a whiff of junk. Some gorgeous cluing (ELEVEN, ATTICS, DISC). A puzzle that kept me on my toes to the end, until the last island was complete.
So much drama and delights within a square of squares. This was one of the special ones. Thank you very much, Kevin!
4
SPELLING BEE
Ycdiltu
25 words, 125 points, 2 pangrams
C x 3, D x 7, I x 8, L x 4, T x 2, U x 1, Y x 0
4L x 9, 5L x 5, 6L x 4, 7L x 4, 8L x 1, 9L x 2
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
C 1 - 2 - - - 3
D 2 3 1 - - 1 7
I 4 2 - 1 - 1 8
L 1 - - 2 1 - 4
T 1 - 1 - - - 2
U - - - 1 - - 1
Y - - - - - - 0
Tot 9 5 4 4 1 2 25
29
Correction: point count is 126, not 125.
1
Thank you for the grid; it helped. Total points are actually 126.
1
I got QB with 125 points. @Ron O.
I loved this puzzle passionately. Initially daunted by so much whiteness, I persevered and lurched to the finish in a massive cloud of smug (please don't anyone dissipate it by saying it was too easy for a Saturday). The misleading and clever clues were a total delight, ONE AFTER ANOTHER. Actually because it is Saturday, we didn't even need a ? after that clue--it would have been even more deliciously evil without it. Like everyone else, I am in awe of Kevin A. and the constructors in this community. Bravo!
13
@AudreyLM
Audrey, your Cloud of Smug has drifted over to upstate NY and is watering my newly sown grass seed. Thank you.
2
@AudreyLM
My vote for "most deliciously evil clue" today is "Like El Alto, the highest large city (population > 100,000) in the world". I thought the answer was another city, and not that El Alto *is* the highest large city in the world.
EVIL! :)
1
@Puzzlemucker So glad. I was wondering where it went.
I can't remember when I enjoyed a Saturday as much as I did today. I did have to keep coming back to it which worked well as each time an answer that had eluded me all of a sudden came to me.
My favorite quadrant was the NE with a couple of gimmes TIVOLI and TRICOLOR. I especially liked the Helen Keller quote. The last to fall was the NW. In the SW I had to Google ROSEANNE and RON REGAN to make a start.
All the misdirections were fun and my favorite was the popular choice of the clue for ELEVEN.
More Friday and Saturday puzzles from Kevin please.
10
@suejean
Hand up for appreciating the Helen Keller quote.
7
LETTER BOXED THREAD
Nice to have the comments up.
So many vowels today there may be multiple solutions.
Mine is P-R(6),R-S(7).
Satisfying to have a minimal solution. Now I am going back to see if I can find one with a better turn of phrase.
@Kevin Sparks
If your second word is a shape, I have the same. However, in my 80 years and 364 days, I have never used and rarely seen the first word
@Kevin Sparks
I have R-S(7), S-R(7).
I'll see if you have the same R-S and try to locate the more economical solution.
Looks like your P-R is my S-R without the first letter. I learned a new word!
1
I still don’t quite get ACE. Is it a reference to a high valued card?
2
@Doug
I only got it after the puzzle was done. An ace of hearts shows a single, very large heart.
8
@Benjamin Teral
And I only got it from Doug's comment/question. The A was my last letter entered, and only because I was starting an alphabet run and saw E-MAG.
@Benjamin Teral
Isn’t it the ace of spades that is traditionally the oversized symbol?
Lots of missteps to get each quadrant started. Oddly, I got Decay immediately but kept removing it until I had the crossings.
Favorite early entries, nixed by the crosses
23 A PARANOID
3 D EMOTER
9 A IDIOCY
13 D CRICKETS
43 D I was stuck for a while, despite getting one 17 years ago.
Thanks to Kevin for a fun puzzle
2
Hooray for evening comments and hooray for this impressive puzzle! Just about my usual solve time, which was a pleasant surprise after seeing how daunting it appeared.
3
As others have said, this was challenging and enjoyable, with no weak fill. I appreciated the clever cluing when I had to make a leap of faith and put something in for a toehold: ROLLOVER, for example. A light amount of trivia helped, too: I knew that ROSEANNE was set near Chicago, and I was able to guess OTOOLE from the cross with ROLLOVER.
Practice, practice, practice! I was pretty sure that "Salt" would be SAILOR, and I suspected that "Sparkling, maybe" referred to bubbly drinks. ATTICS was another gimme that wouldn't have been a gimme a year ago. Doing a lot of puzzles can help you correctly interpret tricky clues like these. ACE!
9
@Morgan
So true!
A year ago I would have opened the app, looked at the grid, closed the app and waited for Sunday. :)
6
Like various others, I didn’t have much after my first pass, but, in the end, no quadrant gave me all that much trouble. SE was last with RESIZE as a random guess from the R in YEARSAGO. Most of my other guesses just worked out for a solve time between my Wednesday and Thursday averages.
1
This started out looking like a daunting task, as I drew blank after blank as I attempted to find a starting spot. Eventually I got going with ROLL OVER, then SALIVA, LIVING, and TRICOLOR. Had to do a couple of lookups, because I don’t watch sitcoms, and never saw a single episode of ROSEANNE, and also rarely do movies.
Favorite clues were:
Canine woes
It may be slipped to a doctor
One after another
Out but with caveats
3
masterpiece
8
Only awake and commenting at this hour, because I did not work today and had an afternoon nap. Totally agree with all the comments about the cleverness of the clues and solutions. Nothing made me roll my eyes once revealed. I did have to look up Ron Reagan, the Swiss Canton (shame on me, Swiss cantons are Puzzles 101), and Peter OTOOLE. Was a little surprised at the clue referencing Premiere Magazine (RIP). Had demented before DERANGED.
Middle of the ROADER calls to mind this: https://youtu.be/hONtmFgh3IQ
Loved the picture, Caitlin, and the CROCS clue was one of my favorites.
3
@vaer
From “Learning to Crawl”. You rock!!!
Now if “Pretender Chrissie” is a clue in Sunday’s puzzle I will know there truly is a higher power.
1
@Puzzlemucker
Thanks. Would that be synchronicity? Not gonna link to the Police, because I'm fading fast.
3
@vaer
Yes. Al in Pittsburgh will confirm.
2
Devious, but easy for a Saturday — or maybe I’m just getting better at solving. 24 minutes faster than my average. It was definitely like solving 4 individual midis. NE corner came first for me; NW was last. Haven’t thought about A drives since I don’t know when. I had ‘unhinged’ for ‘deranged’ for quite a while, knowing it was unlikely that there is a synonym for ‘cutting’ that ends in the letter u. Fun puzzle! My favorite clue — ‘one after another.’
4
Ah, the dreaded four -- count'em four -- puzzles in one. There is always one tough quadrant and for me it was the NW. I started with BROTHERS and PERUVIAN horizontally which gave me HALVED going down, and since I do paper and pen, the eventual corrected result was a mess. But a fun mess.
4
Excellent Saturday puzzle, though it took this GEEZER a long time to let go of FLOPPY
15
@Benjamin Teral
My heart sank at seeing two techie/computer-based clues in that quadrant, but then I wound up solving all the acrosses w/o needing the downs.
2
Now this is what I expect in a Saturday puzzle —a wide-open grid and devious clues. I love the challenge of staring at a wide-open grid and wondering “How the heck am I going to solve this?”
Fortunately there were a few gimmies to get started, but most answers took some thought. I solved it NE, SE, SW, and NW to finish.
My guesses were fortunately mostly correct, so not much backtracking to fix errors. Had ELEVATED before BOLIVIAN, but getting LIVING and ROLLOVER helped fix that mistake. Had SLICED before PEELED, but getting NEATER and guessing KARINA led to CRANKSUP and PEELED.
All in all, a great Saturday puzzle, and I was glad to finish under my Saturday average time. Well done, Mr. Adamick!
7
@Ron O.
Hmmm... Deja Vu all over again?
Like Friday's puzzle, this one made me think. Really think. For each quadrant, it was all about getting a toehold somewhere and then the remaining entries started to fall like dominoes.
TRICOLOR and TERSE were what I needed to ACTIVATE the NE. YES SIREE!
In the SE, CATERERS and ARGENT SENT me OVER the wall although I did tussle with OLD TAR before SAILOR.
In the SW, CROCS and PEELED were CRITICAL to my solve. I loved the cluing for ON PAROLE, BTW.
I finished in the NW, where BERN and UVEA gave me the purchase I needed so I wouldn't have to say this puzzle ATE me ALIVE.
Oh, and what about the middle? Tricky cluing all around -- I wanted ANTE before GENE and FLEAS before DECAY. I needed MEGASTORE to come up with E-MAG.
Very impressive feat of construction, Mr. Adamick. I like.
12
Did not think I was going to make it. To an open Comments section, that is. So refreshing that they are up and running tonight. I was also unsure I was going to make it through the puzzle. This was virtually glueless,* and tough.
Of the four distinct sections, the two in the west were the most difficult for me. I know that constructors/cruciverbalists often speak about the desirability of an open grid and this one might be viewed as “closed off”, but for me it was worth it to have so many longish difficult entries with so few easy toeholds. A great Saturday, IMO.
*EMAG was so smartly clued that it should be exempt from being called glue.
5
@Puzzlemucker,
I agree about E-MAG. The cluing was inspired.
For me, the one gluey bit that stuck out is REALER. C'mon, for real?
6
@Henry Su
Yes. Not sure whether made up-like words are glue. But I just read Deb’s column and see that I may not understand the definition of an “open grid”, as she says this one was an “open-grid puzzle.”
@Puzzlemucker,
"Open-grid" refers to the number of "open" squares--squares that don't touch any black squares. I liken these to crossing Antarctica solo, unsupported, and unaided. All you see around you is a broad expanse of white; there are scant landmarks letting you know if you're headed in the right direction. It's so easy to get lost out there.
If you haven't already, I would take a look at Jeff's tips on xwordinfo regarding how best to tackle these open-grid, low-word-count themeless puzzles. He gave this one the POW because it defied the conventions associated with these types of puzzles, like heavy use of RSNTLE.
5
Agree with all so far that this was quick, but I differed on quadrants. NW was not tough for me, but SE was.
First time through the acrosses I thought this might be the Saturday that broke my streak, but in the end, though it wasn’t nearly as quick as last Saturday (which was a new PB for me), it still took under 15 mins.
Now what am I going to do until tomorrow afternoon?
2
Less than half my Saturday average. It's not a Saturday if I don't have a few beads of sweat from fighting the temptation to Google. This week has been ... off, difficulty-wise.
4
Although I did wonder briefly if DA CAT was canine's woes. Had to do an alphabet run on that one.
11
@Hildy Johnson. Yep. I kept thinking that I was about to be stuck but ended up with probably my third or fourth fastest Saturday, ever.
1
@Hildy Johnson - your post so mirrored my thoughts that it sent me back to this week's stats page and some mathematics...the sum total of my solve times since Monday is exactly 2/3 of the sum total of my average solve times for the week. Only Tuesday was anywhere near average time for me this week.
Either the NW (where I normally start, and did start this one) was the toughest quadrant, or it took me that quadrant to get on Kevin Adamick's wavelength. Once it was done, I was off and running through an enjoyable Saturday solve. Only one three-letter entry? This puzzle was held together without glue! Interesting clues, fair entries, very nice job.
10
@Barry Ancona
Same “wavelength” experience, though I’m sure it took me longer than you to get there. I don’t recall exactly where, but about halfway through I actually said to myself, “OK, *now* I’m on his wavelength.” Had to circle back to a mostly empty NW at the end, which I hate to leave empty, as it makes me feel anxious while solving the rest of the puzzle. But beyond DERANGED, LIVING and ___CLUB (I had MENS until I returned), I just couldn’t get any toeholds up there until finishing the other quadrants.
1
@Puzzlemucker I started with BROS CLUB
1
@Puzzlemucker Hand up here for menSCLUB
2
went quickly through three of the four corners. Had more trouble in the NW. LIVING and CLOVEN caused the barricades to fall and it was all over! glad to have the comments back!
1
Same here, but "cloven," "O'Toole" and "uvea" were my entry points to the NW.
1
@Bruvver
Same corners for me; when I got to NW, all I had was the ED at the end of 23A, not exactly helpful. LIVING was the first entry I managed to come up with. On 2D, I was sure it was going to be Pacino or DeNiro for the longest time, until ROLLOVER hit me (great clue!) and I had to abandon that theory. Then the rest of that corner practically filled itself in - excellent puzzle experience!
@judy d
Same approach, different corners. SE opened first, then NE, center, NW, and finally SW, where ASPIRE was the key to knocking out SLEDGE. ROSEANNE's location was a no-know for me.
My comment is that it's great to see a comment box shortly after 10 p.m. Later!
4
First time this week ?
1
@Brian
No, to be fair, it was only two days. And thank you to the emus or whoever for getting it straightened out. (Fingers crossed.)
4
I was wondering what was going on when I kept seeing “Comments are closed”. Very glad to see everyone again!
2