This was one of the most challenging puzzles I have ever done and it felt good to complete it. For me "spring report" was the toughest. All I could think of at first was "taxes". There were several clues I had never seen such as "trice" for fleeting moment and "teebox" as a place to practice driving and "senary" for base 6. Nevertheless I really enjoyed this one.
As I usually expect for a Saturday, this one was “completed” not “solved”. (Too much reliance on help from Caitlin - but no “research”.)
I found this one to be a real challenge. (But I’m not complaining!)
Had MEDEA, TARAS, REEDY, and MALALA on my own but there were a few others not in my storage banks.
TILNW (“new word/s”) TIDEWATER ACCENT and LOAN TRANSLATION - and that SAPPHIRES are for 45 year anniversaries (and has two “P’s”).
The JAINS were mentioned in a book I read recently - - but did not leap out of my short-term memory.
BLUE TAIL FLY leaped out for 23D - - but it was two letters short without “fly” and one letter long if it was included. BLUE TAIL FLY came to be from remembering the song “Jimmy Crack Corn” as sung by the Johnny Mann Singers on a 1960’s LP Record - which I still have somewhere. It was a “desensitized” version of an old (1840’s) song. (See Wikipedia if you’re interested.)
This same album included an a cappella (mostly) version of “Black is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” - beautiful! Can’t find a free track in order to provide the link.
We’ll see Othello performed at The Stratford Festival in two weeks. Looking forward to it - - but, afterward, it will be filed in the “we don’t need to see that one again” folder. It always comes out the same way. (Funny how that works.)
Ugh this was the end of my 82-puzzle streak!
NW absolutely killed me. BOUNCE didn’t fit, I kept trying for PAYOFF or PAYOUT which is way off from ENCORE. I had HUMANMALES for the longest time and never abandoned it.
Should have remembered the repeat ONEIDA.
I will henceforth never forget TRICE.
Touche! A fine puzzle. I don't often attempt Saturday. Nice to have it (slightly) easier than a considerably grueling Friday yesterday.
Boing? 😖😂
1
Wow what a slog this was for me, but very educational. TIL a lot of things worth knowing. Thank you for a good Saturday challenge.
One clue I found funny (haha funny) was 1 Across - Spring Report - BOING!
No one has questioned TRICE?!
2
Following up on Fact Boy's temporary inthanity yesterday, I had to wonder whether Macbeth might have found the heath with the three weird sisters to be a GROWTH AREA.
3
Exactly and absolutely what a Saturday should be! I am delilghted.
TIL that there's such a thing as a TEE BOX, that base 6 is SENARY, that JAINS practice ahimsa (and what that is), and that OTTAWA is near something called the Rideau Canal.
Like others MAFIA before CRIME BOSS, after MOB didn't cut it. Only disappointing entry was FARM PLOW, but well worth it (and gettable).
Loved it all the way through. Bless you, Byron. And bring 'em on.
5
SPOILERS!
I am not understanding NATL as the answer to clue "NBA starter; Abbr). Correct me if I'm wrong but the NATIONALS are Washington DC's baseball team and the WIZARDS are its basketball team. And I thought I knew both sports pretty well but, please, somebody, enlighten me as to the meaning of NATL as an abbreviation related to basketball (the N.B.A. does refer to the National Basketball Association -- doesn't it?)
@Jennene Colky NBA stands for National Basketball Association. So the "start(er)" of NBA is "National" which can be abbreviated to "NATL." Hope that helps!
3
@Franzel Thank you! Of course, after hitting send I figured it out -- as Homer would say D'OH!
2
I thought [Canal sight] would be gator.
@Stephanie
Understandable.
3
We have a betta fish named Clark the Shark. He's pretty cool... he comes over to you when you visit his tank and does all these silly swim moves - dives and twists. It's very obvious that he loves attention, which I find really amusing and biologically baffling in a 2 inch fish.
He has a tank mate, a big zebra snail that my littlest kid named Zeeb. They have coexisted for a long time but lately Clark has realized that Zeeb is actually alive. Now when Clark remembers to get his dander up he threatens Zeeb by puffing out his gills, swimming in a very wiggly manner, and ramming Zeeb's shell with his face. The snail does not care at all.
4
Siamese fighting fish - no doubt an hommage to Eugene T. Maleska.
I am familiar with the Burmese fighting fish, the Ceylonese fighting fish and the Upper Volta fighting fish, but I must've skipped class when the Siamese fighting fish was taught.
The swordfish is also a fighting fish, better known as a fencing fish. Does it hold the sword under its finpit during a duel?
1
@Laszlo
My mother had Siamese fighting fish. Two of them. They had to be kept separated except for mating purposes.
They were gorgeous.
2
A TIDEWATER lady once reprimanded me, “One should speak and act humbly among one’s BETTAS.”
5
i started to read the comments and saw that people were saying it was a challenge ~ i don't want to read the comments thoroughly prior to working the puzzle bc of the hints, so i just skim ~ when i started i thought i would not be able to solve without help, but aside from looking up the tribes at 2D, i finished in 38 minutes ~ feeling pretty proud of myself today!
3
Whew! It took me forever to break into today's puzzle. But it's always satisfying to crack a long, tricky clue and get a string of cross clues filled!
1
@E.W. Swan Yes. The bottom half came together relatively quick. The top right less so, but the top left took absolutely forever.
Wow, what a crossword!! I had to fight for every word, and I think I had to *change* about 50% of them along the way. I had MAFIABOSH before CRIMEBOSS (the H coming from HEXARY, aka, base 6, and I will gleefully argue with anyone who has a problem with this); PROFITAREA before GROWTHAREA (which definitely gummed up the works in the Northwest corner); and TETRAS before BETTAS (because in my household the springs go "TOING", and my East Virginian friends all speak with a RIDEWATERACCENT :-).
I was 100% certain that this was going to be a streak-killer, but I HADFAITH (sort of: half my brain was saying chuck it in, half was saying keep going, and the third half was trying to get the other two halves to shut up so it could solve the bloody puzzle :-).
Thank you, Mr. Walden, for making my month as far as crossword solving is concerned! That was absolutely fabulous.
5
Thanks Byron. You work so hard to make it seem easy.
4
Woo hoo! Broke the two hour barrier! Oh wait, we score these more like golf than bowling, right?! Oh well. Beer me, I guess... #humbledbygreatgrid
10
Given a recent bout of bad luck setting up a fish tank for my eight-year-old, I should have known BETTAS.
3
After a pretty fruitless first pass, I started throwing up Hail-Marys, which proved mostly right (NOBEL PRIZE, BARGE, and BOING) except for, ironically, JUST DO IT (8A).
Between that and my one Google indulgence for "kumu," things started falling into place.
I'm loving what I'm going to assume is a bit of a wink to the fact that DON can be simultaneously a CRIME BOSS and a particular Individual (1?) who holds that title.
5
@Roger Make that *8D*
I had a had time with this one. Lots of my first thoughts turned out to be wrong. Including one I really though I had right!— FelixUnger as 22D. 😂
2
Got home from vacation in the evening, did some cleanup and chores, and finally got to the puzzle late. BETTAS was the first to fall, followed by ICED UP and then HIRES and RAZED. EXAMINED dropped and then things stalled for a while (I was tired). Did have a couple lookups, but then things perked up and I managed to finish in about ⅔ my Saturday average.
LETTER BOXED THREAD
C-E (10) E-T (5) is the best.
No fun phrase today like yesterday, the given solution.
1
@Liane
I'll follow up with
M-C(8), C-E(8)
I had C - T (8) and T - T (8), but I’m not happy using T 4 times to get there.
@Liane
I went way long with C-L(12), L-T(5).
Bravo, Mr. Walden, for delivering an excellent, challenging Saturday at last!
2
I can't believe after a lifetime as a linguist (20 years retired) I couldn't fill in L_A_TRANSLATION until I read the column this morning! Only thereafter was I able to fill in A_F (no idea what AMF is), RE__VES (I remember considering REMOVES last night but didn't carry through), and _ATL (NATL doesn't ring a bell either). Well, at least the east was fairly easy.
2
@kilaueabart - AMF was a manufacturing company that got in to bowling after WWII. They owned many bowling centers and made bowling equipment including automatic pin setters. NATL is short for National as in National Basketball Association.
3
@kilaueabart
NATL is an abbreviation for National - the "start" of National Basketball Association (NBA)
@kilaueabart - perhaps you had the linguist's response "calque" in mind? It took me a while to move past that one.
1
Very nice! I loved the clue for NOBELPRIZE because it was so thinly veiled and quite obvious but felt smart. I knew that Pluto was too easy, and CERES was only by crosses for me.
Everything made sense!
3
Week after week I fall into the time pattern: fastest on Monday, then slower each day after. Today I was actually faster than on either Thursday or Friday. Go figure.
Kept entering and erasing CRIME; my brain held off on JAINS though I had been talking about them a few days ago. the NW was blank for a long time. Debated ROBIN for spring report but eventually remembered my Slinky and the BOING BOING sound it made when going downstairs.
I finished with no look-ups, unusual for a Saturday. So, never give up folks; I've been at this for a long long time and it's one of my greatest pleasures.
6
@Meg H.
This felt like a hard puzzle to me - with hardly a toehold (let alone foothold) to be found on my first couple of passes. Ultimately, though, when I finally filled in a few clues, the long phrases began to fall quickly and I ended up at well under my average Saturday - as well as a hair under this week's Thursday and Friday.
I think with the low entry count - if you can get going, what starts out as impossible can end up as quick. That, at least has been my recent experience.
I'm a faithful solver for about 2 1/2 years now, and there's no question that this is a learned skill - and I keep learning and enjoying. I heartily second your last sentence.
4
My first Saturday ever completed with no help - hurray! Had OPENTRANSLATION until I remembered MALALA's name. Had LOWCOUNTRY until I had enough crosses for TIDEWATERA-C--NT. So very satisfying. 🙂
3
At age 71 I am embarrassed to admit that I almost immediately came up with "aviarist" when I read "tweets". Must be all those Tweety and Sylvester cartoons I watched as a kid. Strangely, now I have a black and white cat.
11
Fabulous! Tough. It succumbed to two trusted approaches: go away, don’t think about it, then return and keep circling using lots of IFTHENELSE (or was that from yesterday’s puzzle, which was also excellent.)
Any Dutch speakers in the house?
There is (or was) a child’s poem that starts “Nooitgedacht” which translates as “I never thought about it.” I cannot provide the Dutch (or Zeeuws words and would be terribly grateful for help) but the idea is “I never thought about it, but it remained, I waited a long time, and then I got it!” The poem paints a child’s fulfilled wish for a toy. Completing a puzzle like this fulfills my wishes.
3
@ADeNA - wellicht hier?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0c_mEP1vtXk
Er is er veele Nooitgedachte als plaatsnamen:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nooitgedacht
Utopia
2
@David Connell
How sweet of you to bother looking this up! The song on YouTube by Koos du Plessis was delightful for me, even though it wasn't the poem I had learned as a child.
Also, I guess there are many things the Dutch "nooitgedacht" -- don't think about!
I dug out some old material. Here it is, ungracefully translated.
Lang gewacht
Stil gezwegen
Nooit gedacht
Toch gekregen
Long awaited
Silently waited
Never thought
Yet I got it!
David, thank you for that gentle push of encouragement.
3
@ADeNA - niets te danke
1
Given how many found this puzzle challenging, I feel pretty good about only being a few minutes above my Sat average. Tough indeed. SENARY? AVIARIST? LOAN TRANSLATION? Lots of new stuff here!
2
IIRC, Byron Walden is the constructioneer who frizzled Deb Amlen's brain with his entry of ZOLAESQUE, so I'm always a little tremulous when his colours show on the horizon. After the initial frisson on seeing his name, it was a full 32 seconds till I stopped gaping at the grid design and read the first clue
TETRAS: Aquaria aren't my forte
ONEIDA: Wild guess based on yesterday's appearance
TARAS Bulba: Bec Yul Brynner still in my mind
NorthEast: ROO and DARTS, half-right
SouthEast: Canal LOCKS, George ?SANDS?, MAFIABOSS crossing SUFIS nicely at the F, COUNTERweight-BANTAMweight-WELTERweight made an unholy mess. Praise be for the Rideau Canal, OTTAWA!!
Unabaited, I tried to fit some kind of UTTERANCE to finish 17A; sheer inEBBtitude, as NC has its own HOI TOIDERS.
Most pleased to learn the new phrase LOAN TRANSLATION. In following through with Caitlin's link, I'm confirmed in suspected that every so often, we will find CASQUE shows.
Super Saturday that Walden pawned off on us. Seventy minutes, and I had to Check-cheat to get there.
7
I mean no offense whatsoever, but to anyone who found this easy: you lie like a president!
What a great puzzle!
18
What a gorgeous looking grid! This design has never been used in the NYT before, and props to Byron for that. As usual with him, the cluing was tough. He never fails to throw in a priceless clue or two, and the pair for me today was [Spring report] for BOING and [Performance bonus] for ENCORE.
This was a motivated totally-involved gripping solve; it's never a trudge with the Walden-meister. Thank you, sir!
3
Right at my average time (okay, 10 seconds over), but a puzzle I had to put down twice and come back to in order to finish. I guess I had to let my subconscious provide the assist. TIL: JAINS, CERES, SENARY, LOANTRANSLATION. Favorite clues: ENCORE, CURSIVE, ROO.
2
My favorite movie opening (and movie!) from uncle duty: watching Lilo and Stitch with my niece and nephew! Here is the linked opening to hula class:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIwUjrvaXjM
3
One of my favorite lines comes late in that movie, with the CIA agent looking familiar from Roswell NM
I hope uncle duty includes Ice Age, Monsters Inc, and Happy Feet
Nothing like having yourself a second childhood while you can enjoy it
Tough, extremely tough, headed for failure, until slight cracks appeared and began to wedge gradually open. Exactly like a Saturday crossword should be. Kudos!
I was happy to see TIDEWATER ACCENT, if for no other reason than to remind folks (actors in particular) that there are many Southern accents, and it is incumbent upon actors to research the manner of speech pertaining to their characters' place of origin, and then decide to what extent he/she retains or modifies that accent in favor of standard speech heard in mass media. There are at least four varieties of accent (or dialect) across North Carolina alone (probably more).
I looked for a clip to demonstrate TIDEWATER ACCENT spoken by a native of the region, but didn't find any worth linking. Along the way, I did run across an actor teaching other actors how to speak in a "Southern accent." His lesson makes two false assumptions:
1. There is only one Southern accent (wrong!), or at least, if you learn one you can use it for any Sourthern character regardless of that character's place of origin.
2. His Southern accent sounds authentic (wrong!).
So his video should be titled "How to Do a Fake Hollywood Southern Drawl That Will Annoy and Offend Your Southern Audience."
Addendum coming...
12
Addendum:
To my amateur ear, the TIDEWATER ACCENT seems similar to (but distinct from) the High Tider (or "Hoi Toider") Brogue found in parts of the NC coastal region. Both seem to pronounce "house" in the vicnity of "hice" or "hohss." But High Tider adds the "oi" in place of long "i," as in "hoi toid." "Ah'll be back to the hice before hoi toid."
3
Hear. Hear!
1
Well, it was nice to have one gimme at 41A and one correct initial guess with ENCORE. From there it was slowly but surely, and I eventually won the race.
There are parts of Northern Canada where being ICED UP can actually make things more passable. There are places one can only access by car over an “ice road”. In the warmer months when no longer ICED UP these roads are impassable and in fact non-existent. The only access then is by air.
4
Andrew,
This show ran for 11 seasons on U.S. TV:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ice_Road_Truckers
1
@Barry Ancona
Interesting. It's amazing what passes for "history" on The History Channel", just as what passes for "learning" on The Learning Channel. (600 pound people, unusually small people, wedding dress selection, 90-day marriages, and the list goes on...)
1
Again I was left shaking my head. First of all, anyone who is able to get a puzzle accepted by the NYT is awesome in my world. Those who even think of personal restrictions as well, like trying to limit the entries to 58, especially in a Saturday size, is in a dimension I am not able to conceive of, let alone share. Wow.
5
Tough, engaging puzzle. Two literary references made me shudder.
I'm not a fan of Gogol or his books, especially TARAS BULBA. I saw Yul Brynner's interpretation on tv when I was a kid. That awful torture scene is forever"burned" in my brain.
JAINS, to me, evokes Phillip Roth's "American Pastoral". This great American novel is not cheery (maybe Rothy should be a term, like Dickensian). Nearly all the characters are emotionally wrecked, none more so than the daughter who attempts to assuage her guilt by adopting an extreme, potentially deadly, form of Jainism.
6
Byron Walden looks so innocent. Don't be fooled. His puzzles are tough as nails! He must have a mean streak, right?
Today's was no exception. I muddled through. it was happy muddling, though.
I knew we were in for a challenge when I saw the unusual and beautiful grid.
My favorite clue and answer was BOING.
Thank you, Byron! Hard to believe, but I hear you're a super nice guy.
5
This was quite a challenge, not least because of the odd phrases (like FARM PLOW--um, you have a lot of other PLOWs around, used in other applications?) and words (AVAIARIST...wow, new one!) and clues that make me go Hmmm. BINGE EATERS are not exactly OCD...more like addictive personalities, methinks.
We are about to celebrate our 40th; will make sure the DHubby knows about 21A....
12
MOL,
A month or two in Mississippi and you've forgotten about a SNOW PLOW?
14
Gotta say I'm with MOL on the PLOW issue. A PLOW used on a FARM doesn't need a modifier. Besides, if it did, shouldn't it be "dirt" PLOW as analogous to snow PLOW?
2
@vaer
Note: The following is a personal opinion, not a prescriptive statement.
Much like a plant is only a weed if you don’t want it there, soil is only dirt when it gets on you and your clothes.
Thus, it should be, if necessary, a SOIL plow, not a DIRT plow.
Like Caitlin, I solved this one from the southeast up and out. For quite a while I didn't think I was ever going to fill in pretty much the entire west side, other than MALALA and then MEDEA. I finally looked up BETTAS, and with that I was able to finish it off.
I remembered seeing part of the Yul Brynner movie TARAS Bulba on TV decades ago. TIL SENARY and what SAPPHIRES commemorate. There were many other things that I didn't know I knew! In that sense, typical for a Saturday.
6
Greetings to Andrew from 41A!! What sights to you see from your canal?
3
@Robert Michael Panoff
Thanks, Robert. For once a canal that is not Erie! One interesting fact about the Rideau Canal is that in winter it is ICED UP and becomes the world’s longest skating rink!
8
@Andrew/OTTAWA,
I hear that the Rideau Canal is Well and lined with BARGES
@Andrew
The clue and answer reminded me of an old Ian and Sylvia song.
Oops. Online search reveals the song is Royal Canal.
I now have an earworm for the refrain: ". . . all along the banks of the Roy-al Canal."
Another tough one today but made it through. Got ICEDUP with rEalPEOPLE for quite some time - wasn’t that a TV show from the 80s? (perhaps spun off from the magazine?) Well beyond my average time, and I’ll take that as a good thing.
Only two 3-letter answers today - impressive! I see from the constructor notes the 2006 puzzle had none - will have to have a go at that one, maybe while in line for my Mr. Met on the Moon bobble-head later today!
1
A proper clue for little ROO today. Yay!
7
@Margaret
And it was I think my second entry, and a major toehold. (Well, actually, a pinkie toehold.)
2
Easy until it wasn't. And in the SE, it wasn't. I had -----BOSS for "Don" and confidently wrote in MAFIA BOSS instead of CRIME BOSS. That gave me --F-- for the "non-violent to all living creatures believers", which had to be SUFIS or RAFAS, right? Wrong!!! JAINS, which I guess I've heard of somewhere, sometime, wasn't coming to me.
Now, I never Google. But George SANDS at 29D wasn't working. And close to where I was sitting, so close I could reach in and pull it off the shelf without even getting out of my chair, was my extremely tattered paperback 1985 copy of "Movies on TV". "Dark Victory" would be in it and I could get George's last name, which wasn't coming to me, either. Just stick my hand out a little ways. No need to even straighten my arm...
And there was George BRENT!! And CRIME BOSS followed. And BINGE EATER and FARM PLOW and CEASE and JAINS!! And, BOING, the puzzle was "solved"!!! (Except it wasn't of course -- not really.)
11
@Nancy -- Hand up for MAFIA BOSS and SUFIS.
3
Hi, @Lewis --
Yes, after I wrote and posted my comment above, I read your earlier comment and saw that we had made the same error. Great minds and all that.
1
@Nancy
Depends on the “rules” you establish for yourself.
With TIDEWATER ACCENT and JAINS as gimmes this went really fast until the SW corner. Finally saw that it had to be MALALA. I’m going with the fact that I’m not doing this at 5am to explain my thirteen minute time which is good for me. In spite of the fact that it was over too soon, it was a fun puzzle with a heady feel as you careered through those long entries.
4
Nice work! This one took me 13 minutes longer than Friday's. :D
@Frances
I admire your solving skills - - but do not envy them nor covet them.
For my part, I hope I never attain that level of - what? - art? - skill? - magic?
Doing so would take ALL of the challenge out of crosswords for me and spoil a good thing. And a tough puzzle - such a this one - is still a good thing - - BECAUSE it is a challenge.
This took me a bit longer than average, but I am proud to say I solved it. I’m not sure I like “rest on” for the clue “surmount”—that’s what you do AFTER you surmount something. The Bette Davis clue kept me confused, because I kept thinking of George Sanders (which obviously didn’t fit, but still...). He was her REAL co-star, imho.
5
@PK
Surmount, in my book, was bad cluing.
That kind of clue bothers me, but clues like that are prevalent enough that i am more willing to try words that technicalky are not responsive to the clue.
Not really sure why they do that. Maybe as a cheap way to ramp up the challenge.
1
I guess missing TEEN PEOPLE is showing my age, and my attachment to wrong first guesses. Guessing that the magazine title started with THE, I managed to get ThEN PEOPLE and ChASE on the cross. What was I thinking leaving that "h" in there? I don't know. Had to read the column to get the aha (or oy vey) moment.
As often happens on a Saturday, I was daunted by all the white squares with seemingly no way to start. But somehow the grid filled, with neat stuff, except for that pesky "h".
Good one today!
2
@Michael Dover
That was my last square, too...changing that H. I knew CHASE made no sense, but I wasn't seeing the alternative, and I couldn't figure out who the N people were!
Re: BOING
Anyone else remember this?
(I did not see it first run.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNsyQDmEopw
2
@Barry Ancona: Yes! I recall seeing it on TV in the late 1950s. Didn't realize it was a Dr. Seuss creation.
@Robert Nailling
I remember seeing it, but don't remember when except that I was a little older than the target audience.
Gobsmacked by a real gobsmacker. Such a challenge. Persevered only after the inexplicable magic that happens after setting the puzzle aside and coming back with fresh eyes. Kudos to Byron Walden. Thanks for the fun.
9
My thoughts exactly. Took me a bit longer than my average Saturday time but after my first pass I had very little and thought it might be the streak breaker.
5
After Friday's personal debacle, today went so much better. There are a few comments so far indicating it was the reverse for some, which is always interesting to see.
Did not really care for BBGUN being clued as a toy, even with the qualifier dangerous. And FARMPLOW seemed odd.
Liked TIDEWATER ACCENT, JANUS and MEDEA. If you can only think of one Greek tragedy, then MEDEA is the one to keep in mind.
And nice to see another upstate New York reference.
1
@vaer
If you ever get a chance to see the play Not Medea by Allison Gregory, don't miss it. I'm at the Contemporary American Theater Festival right now, where the play premiered a few years ago. It's the kind of work that stays with you.
1
@vaer
I'd like to think that people don't give BBGUNs to kids anymore a la "A Christmas Story", but I've learned never to underestimate my fellow homo sapiens.
As a word, though, I loved seeing an entry that started with BB. It just *looks* cool, somehow... :)
2
@Steve Faiella
Agreed re coolness. I never saw A Christmas Story until I was in my 30s/40s, but now I love it.
2
Zero gimmes. After the first pass, nothing.
Started to get a pinky-hold with OPIATE, RELET then SLOWED and MALALA. Everything was a struggle.
TIL: well, what didn't I learn, really? LOAN TRANSLATION (knew of LOAN words from Japanese's prodigious use of it from English), TIDEWATER ACCENT. SAPPHIRES, BLUE BOTTLE, ERIC, BRENT, JAINS, JANUS, CERES, MEDEA, NOBEL PRIZE and OTTAWA as clued. REEDY, SENARY, TARAS.
Thank goodness for the "easy" entries - HIRES, RAZED, RAN AT.
Had ICED IN before ICED UP, TETRAS before BETTAS (I didn't think TETRAS were fighters, but couldn't remember BETTAS until way late), MAFIA BOSS before CRIME BOSS. ASHLEY before remembering some celebs are named ASHLEE.
As many have already said, I HAD FAITH I would eventually solve. My time today is slightly faster than yesterday's, but mainly by luck. But looking back, I still wonder how I managed it.
Really liked the two long across entries. Also the clue for CURSIVE (I keep thinking E- something, oh how low I've fallen).
It's a fantastic Saturday puzzle.
7
@Wen I had digital before CURSIVE.
@Wen
Ditto on the thinking re CURSIVE.
And one of my favorite clues ever.
1
I can't look at the two most SE across answers without thinking of a famous hospital.
7
@Lewis
Might it be in OTTOWA? :)
Steve,
I'm not sure what you're thinking of, but what I think Lewis is thinking of used to be located in northwest DC and is now -- after combining a with a similar facility from another branch -- in Bethesda. I know a surgeon there.
3
[Oops. Left an extra "a" in there when I closed up. Don't sue me for malpractice.]
3
I've decided to let myself look some stuff up on Fridays and Saturdays. That made this doable for me (but still tough) - quite a number of factual answers I never would have known. Like others had MAFIA before CRIME but that didn't last long. Kind of remembered Bette's co-star but ended up typing in BRETT first. Brief moment of furrowed brow before I recognized the problem with that.
Nice challenging puzzle. It seemed like a number of the longer answers basically became two answers in terms of working them out. LOAN and ACCENT, TEEN and PEOPLE, etc.
7
@Rich in Atlanta I look up stuff on Friday and Saturday as well; my usual rule is only proper nouns and only 3. If that doesn't see me through, I use the 'check puzzle' feature to help and so the puzzle doesn't count toward my streak. I wonder how many others have personal rules about what's 'allowed' in solving these!
1
@Megan yep, my rules are, if I’m stuck I can google a word I’ve completed but am unsure of. If I had it right then all’s good but if I was wrong and google suggests the right answer I consider it a fail. And of course running the alphabet to get the happy music is totally allowed!
2
@Megan
I work unaided until my patience runs out or one hour, whichever comes first. Then I log a DNF and go for the Reveal. That's why my current streak stands at 12 and longest ever at 62.
Unaided revisions after KEEP TRYING are perfectly acceptable IMO.
I don't suppose the JAINS will be enjoying the FILLET. Luckily there is some LETTUCE available.
Any puzzle with MALALA in it is OK with me, no matter how difficult.
9
Mafia for CRIME held me up. The sunrise and Loon calls slowed me down.
Thanks Byron
4
Terrific puzzle.
Perhaps I found TIDEWATER an easier solve, having i. read Colin Woodard’s American Nations ii. having no preconceptions (ie. being ignorant) of eastern Virginia. My slumdog millionaire moment!
4
July 27th SPELLING BEE
O A L N R W Y
39 words, 172 points 1 Pangram Bingo
A x 6, L x 9, N x 5, O x 4, R x 7, W x 6, Y x 2
4L x 13, 5L x 14, 6L x 6, 7L x 2, 8L x 4
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
A 1 4 1 6
L 3 5 1 9
N 1 1 1 2 5
O 2 1 1 4
R 3 2 1 1 7
W 2 1 2 1 6
Y 1 1 2
Tot 13 14 6 2 4 39
23
@Mari Words not accepted: ROWAN, WOOLY, LOLLY, AWOL, OWLY
7
@Mari
SPOILER
Why take one dry streambed and not another that isn’t in here.
1
@Mari
Hand up for every one of those! grrr
5
SPELLING BEE
39 words, 172 points, 1 pangram, bingo
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
A 1 4 1 - - 6
L 3 5 - 1 - 9
N 1 1 1 - 2 5
O 2 1 1 - - 4
R 3 2 - 1 1 7
W 2 1 2 - 1 6
Y 1 - 1 - - 2
41
@x, thanks for the grid! It took forever but I finally managed to finish.
@x ~ thanks for today's grid!
i'm wondering about:
WOOLY: i have a sweater and scarf that are
WOOWOO: burn some sage and feel it
OLLA: you can use one to water your garden!
LOLLY: i like grape the best, but cherry is ok too
@artlife, the emus got my first comment. Trying again.
Have you tried an alternate spelling of your first one?
2
I HAD FAITH,( as I always do and am always proven wrong), that I would solve this puzzle in a TRICE and would REST ON my laurels. However, A SEC into the solve, I was SLOWED down by entering Sped Up for adagio to largo, so again a slow solve.
All in all, it was a good puzzle and upon completion I grabbed my BLUE BOTTLE of Bombay SAPPHIRE and fixed a gin and tonic and listened to an audio of TIDEWATER ACCENT until my Narcolepsy set in.
I did stay awake long enough to hear how to pronounce Norfolk
with aTIDEWATER ACCENT. The emus will not let me share that info with you.
12
@ColoradoZ I remember as a kid my father sharing with me a supposed cheer from a high school in that Virginia town (really don't know if he was making it up or not):
We don't drink and we don't smoke,
Norfolk! Norfolk!
5
@Rich in Atlanta
"We dunt drink and we dunt smuck..."
4
@ColoradoZ
Here in CT, our Norfolk is sometimes pronounced "Nor fick".
A quick vowel substitution will turn it into the TIDEWATER ACCENT pronounciation... :)
2
Nice to see a faith from my homeland show up in 27D. Their practice also avoids eating root vegetables, since they are pulled up from the ground.
7
What a great puzzle! I cruised through the western part, but struggled until I got TIDEWATER. 1D was tricky because fish is its own plural, and the Indonesian form is BETTAH. The northeast was the last bit to fall for me. With crosses, I almost filled in ESTERHAZY for NOBEL PRIZE, which was my brain pattern matching even though the dates made no sense in that context.
It took me about a third longer than usual to do this one, and I enjoyed every head-scratching minute.
4
TIDEWATER ACCENT appears on the lower eastern shore of Maryland, too. Unmistakable and fascinating!
This puzzle, though! Soooo tough! Needed a bit of help from my friends. Puts me in mind of...https://youtu.be/KzgaqB2hFio
2
@Ann
Fun clip. Who wouldn't want Celeste Holm as their fairy godmother? And was digging the fur trim on Leslie Ann Warren 's dress. And then it turns out that a young Dr. Alan Quartermaine is the prince? (I watched all the clips.)
1
The accent heard on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland is very different from that of Tidewater Virginia.
1
@Pat
I bow to your greater knowledge, but even Crisfield?
For me this was the first legit hard puzzle in years, took me over an hour to solve. This was really well-constructed and clued. Fun! More hard puzzles please!
16
What's in your wallet? LETTUCE or KALE?
5
@ColoradoZ
Just a little cabbage left for this teacher. Scraping up all my DOUGH till Labor Day.
2
What's in my wallet? Plastic!
3
@ColoradoZ
MOOLAH! Although it is hardly "filled".
1
I've only golfed three times and I don't watch it very much but I was still amazed that the term TEEBOX exists. I've only heard "tee" to denote that area. Is TEEBOX commonly used?
By the way, I got hammered by this puzzle.
6
Yes - a commonly used golf term, referring to the entire area from where one may tee off.
2
Tee box is used but it is not where you receive a lesson. Anyone who’s ever had golf lessons knows you receive your lessons(with all clubs) on the driving range.
1
@David Belz et al.
I've never golfed in my life, nor have I ever heard of a TEE BOX. (We know from a previous puzzle that TEEs are not carried around in a BOX but in the golfer's hand.)
I very much wanted COURSE for that entry. But I was pretty sure of BETTAS, and none of the Iroquois names worked.
Wow. That was a tough one! I had the to 2/3 finished with pretty much nothing in the bottom 1/3 besides REEDY, NATL, and SLOWED. Had CABBAGE before LETTUCE and, like others, MAMABIRD, only on the basis of the A in NATL, so pretty low degree of confidence. Tried PAPABIRD for awhile, too. Glad I didn’t give up, so my streak continues!
4
Just listened to the TIDEWATER ACCENT video (audio?) and loved it! The speaker was brilliant, not ignorant at all. :-)
7
@David Meyers It's a lesson I've learned over many moons--never give up! My first few passes got me nearly nada, but I kept coming back till I finished (cue cloud) This is my kind of a Saturday, deadly but fair. For 45th anniversary I tried to enter PURPLEHEART but it didn't fit. Although sadly there are no sapphires in my future because my hubby and I are (joyfully) married only 10 years so by the time we'd get to 45 he would be over 110 and I'd be a young sprig of 90-something, sigh. But here's hoping!
8
@AudreyLM
"deadly but fair" -- I love it!
1
MALALA Yousafzai was awarded the 2014 NOBEL Peace PRIZE at the age of 17 for her advocacy on behalf of female education in Pakistan. There were lots of connections in today’s puzzle (OPIATE/RELIEVES, “canal” clues for BARGE/OTTAWA, ADULT MALES/TEEN PEOPLE, the linguistically inspired TIDEWATER ACCENT/LOAN TRANSLATION, SAPPHIRES/BLUE BOTTLE, CERES/FARM PLOW) but my favorite was MALALA/NOBEL PRIZE.
https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/peace/2014/yousafzai/facts/
17
This was a workout for me, taking 2.5x yesterday's time. I guessed BOING, and confirmed it with ONEIDA. :) Then it was chip away here, chip away there...
In the "previously useless information" category, I'm glad I knew how to spell ASHLEE Simpson's name. Then I figured, "I may as well guess TRICE there; this seems like that kind of puzzle." In yesterday's puzzle, every guess like that turned out to be correct. Today, not so much.
Advice for newer solvers: I knew ICED UP (or perhaps ICED IN), RAN AT (or perhaps HAD AT), RELET, and HIRES because they've been clued that way before. That's also why I thought of BOING. With practice comes familiarity.
4
@Morgan
I thought Jessica was the sister with the SNL fail. Fortunately for me, there were too many letters.
1
@vaer
My knee-jerk reaction when I see Simpson is to enter either HOMER or BART. Fortunately neither fit.
1
@Andrew Glad that two-letter constructs are off limits.
2
A bit of Taras Bulba, set to music by Janáček:
https://youtu.be/D3zsZ2XG-1w?t=527
I was happy to see Medea turn up in the puzzle; I saw a fabulous adaptation of the play just this past Sunday. Not exactly a comedy, that one.
4
Byron Walden is out to get me with a wicked Saturday after a tough Friday ... and he very nearly did! I had so many cross outs (ie MAMABIRD before AVIARIST) and a lot of entries were new, e.g. BLUE BOTTLE and SENARY. My tired mind read the clue for LOAN TRANSLATION as “linguistic burrowing” so that held me up a while, but all worked out in the end. I’m scared to call for an ENCORE though...
1
@John S.
I'm with you on MAMABIRD and was sure it would survive. Hmmm.
MAFIABOSS, PBA, SIKHS/SUFIS, and a recycled JARTS were others that had to be changed multiple times. Glad to be solving online. Definitely would have been a grungy grid otherwise.
No coomplaints today. 50% over average and I enjoyed it.
Certain obsessive-compulsive?
2
Three cheers for Byron Walden for a great puzzle!
Three cheers for Caitlin for yet another great column!
Three cheers for anyone who solves this puzzle or comes close!
TRICE (AVIARIST) not TRaCE (AVIARAST). I thank @HenrySu for my begrudging willingness to flyspeck for several minutes to finally discover that the “A” was an “I” rather than simply hitting Check Puzzle. So, three cheers for @HenrySu and hope you return soon.
18
it would be nice to hear from Henry Su again.
3
@Puzzledog Was just thinking that this morning. Where is he?????
4
What AudreyLM said.
2
Yow! I've been solving crossword puzzles for more than a half century. This was one of the most difficult ones I ever completed. I was thrilled when I punched in the J at 27 and the music played.
On the subject of encores, several years ago I attended a recital by pianist Evgeny Kissin. Ten encores! By the time he finished, more than half the audience had left. As I did with this puzzle, I stuck it out until the end.
19
@Mitchell - funny you mention that memory of Kissin. "Encores" was the reason I couldn't stand Van Cliburn. He played seven or eight encores whether you clapped for him or not. The encores lasted longer than the recital and were merely a testament to an enormous ego.
5
@David Connell🤣
Solved this puzzle quarter by quarter. I HAD FAITH it would all EVEN OUT!
3
Spectacular puzzle!
8-D
5
Second day in a row with a great puzzle. Bravo Byron.
But . . . never, ever, give or take lessons on the TEE BOX. Do that on the practice range, or you'll have a lot of angry golfers behind you.
11
An elegant offering and thoroughly enjoyed even though it was completed faster than Friday. Once again, the NW passage was ICED UP for me until BOING sprang, and TIDEWATER flowed to join ACCENT. Thanks Mr Walden.
2
@Toby I found that video Caitlin linked about TIDEWATER ACCENT very interesting.
1
Footnote to 37-Across: the expression "loan translation" is itself a loan translation, from the German Lehnübersetzung. A synonym that is frequently used in its stead is "calque," borrowed from French.
15
@Fact Boy
"Calque shows" are really something!
Bien sur...
Slightly sneaky on 2D. The Iroquois Confederacy included three 5 letter tribes, all ending in “a”. I went through Seneca and Cayuga before getting it right. All in all a great puzzle that looked impossible at first glance. But I ultimately beat my average.
4
@LarryF
Um, 4 six letter tribes, 3 ending in A.
From Wiki:
The Iroquois or Haudenosaunee are a historically powerful northeast Native American confederacy in North America. They were known during the colonial years to the French as the Iroquois League, and later as the Iroquois Confederacy, and to the English as the Five Nations, comprising the Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and Seneca. After 1722, they accepted the Tuscarora people from the Southeast into their confederacy, as they were also Iroquoian-speaking, and became known as the Six Nations.
3
My times at Walden Pond must have put me on the constructor's wavelength. Nice to see ONEIDA again. And no ADSALES in sight. Or did I miss some subliminals? I'm glad the Canadian answer was not ICEDUP, and that BBGUN was well clued. May we have an ENCORE?
10
@Barry Ancona
I went for Oneida immediately (not trying any other of the Nations) simply because the Lake had appeared yesterday, and the editors love to recycle.
6