I completed the puzzle at 12:30 pm PDT and got blue rather than gold ending g my streak. What time does the puzzle need to be completed?
Lots of lookups, but what can you expect on a Saturday, eh? Favorite clues prbly 36A Reading and 46A James. Appreciate the explanations below of many answers that I didn't understand. Though still having difficulty parsing 24A baby buggy as an adjective LARVAL instead of LARVA, explanation notwithstanding.
1
Would someone kindly explain for me 56A ? This is the first time I’ve been stumped by the meaning of an answer.
@Kym Bracken 56A COARSENING from COARSEN to make rough. Did you perhaps mean 55A AD IN? There's a good explanation somewhere below of tennis scoring, Deuce => Advantage In or AD IN for short. I was stumped by this too.
Great workout for my brain today, as befits a Saturday puzzle. Unlike Caitlin, I’m old enough to remember seeing LeVar Burton in the original Roots, so that was one of my few gimmes. Having lived in the U.K. for several years in the 80s, I was thinking Reading might refer to the city of Reading which is pronounced “Redding”. Of course I was on the wrong track, and loved the real answer when it came from the crosses. Great job, Joon and Erik.
1
"Of course I was on the wrong track..."
Shari,
Sly reference to the Reading Railroad?
6
@Barry Ancona
Or, Reading Rainbow (hello LaVar Burton!)
2
Another terrible crossword. Some of the definitions & clues were bizarre, or just ridiculously obscure.
10
Robert,
I'm sorry for your loss.
14
@Barry Ancona
Note that his, (or should I say their?), post also comes from outside of the USA.
1
@Al in Pittsburgh
Well, this is one Canadian who thought it was a brilliant puzzle!
4
"We originally had 'man-made' in the phrasing for the 8-down clue, and are grateful to the NYT team for the thoughtful edit there..."
Very good puzzle. But man, I sure do hate PC.
4
@Chris Maybe because you’re probably in the population(s) non-PC comments already include. How nice when the rest of us get to be overtly included for a change...
What some call “PC” others call “manners” and “respect”.
22
["But man" was quite the tell.]
6
Asthough i aprove of using man made for man made disasters...
9
Never thought I would say this, but thank god for REMORAS.
An AL DENTE Saturday. Oodles of good clues — “Biblical mount”/ ASS my favorite. Fill was world class — oddly enough, JABBING was my favorite, mainly because getting that J broke my brainjam for MAJORING IN and got me off The SIMPSONS and on to The SOPRANOS.
Love him or hate him (I do a little of both) but there’s no denying Andy Warhol’s outsize influence on ARTE over the last 60 years. Here is his “Self-Portrait in Drag,” which hangs at the (GEORGES) Pompidou Centre in Paris (Andy was “nonbinary” before nonbinary was “nonbinary”):
https://www.wikiart.org/en/andy-warhol/self-portrait-in-drag-1982
1
@Puzzlemucker, thanks for this, your latest contribution.
I believe that Andy Warhol and I (strangely enough) do have one thing in common. To all appearances, each one of us seems to have absolutely no REMORAS.
Have a wunnerful Sunday!
I never thought I’d say this, but thank god for REMORAS.
So many great clues, both for long and short fill, but my favorite was “Biblical mount” for the lowly A$$. The fill was first class. Weirdly enough, JABBING tops my list (such an unpleasant feeling to be JABBed), mainly because it broke my brainjam for “Reading, to Brits”/MAJORING IN and got me off of The SIMPSONS and on to The SOPRANOS.
Love him or hate him, but there is no denying the outsize influence that Andy Warhol has had on ARTE over the last 60 years. Here is his “Self-Portrait in Drag”, which hangs at the GEORGES Pompidou Centre in Paris (Andy was “nonbinary” before nonbinary was “nonbinary”):
https://www.wikiart.org/en/andy-warhol/self-portrait-in-drag-1982
1
@Puzzlemucker
Only delayed by the emus 15 hours give or take.
2
vaer,
Both the S and the $ variant. Emus look for naughty words and their masked versions.
2
@Barry Ancona
When in doubt, go with "biblical mount."
2
Interesting to see the great CARUSO (tenor) on top of SOPRANOS, especially in light of all the attention now being paid to tenor Placido Domingo.
4
In our home we play a lot of cards, Spades, Hearts, Rook, Cribbage, Scopa, etc. We always play to win but never for blood. In fact if one person or team just seems to be having a bad time of it we generally switch games. The most satisfying games are not blow outs rather they are the ones fought back and forth and the final score reflects a narrow margin.
That is what today’s puzzle felt like. A close contest with Joon and Erik on one side and the solver, me, on the other. It was a close but fair contest and I finished feeling thoroughly satisfied with the whole experience.
5
Just so I can fluff my feathers for today’s social vibe like the well adjusted macaw I aim to be: are we not doing groaners today? Just asking because 152 comments in and no one has yet mentioned Mary riding Joseph’s biblical mount all the way to Bethlehem.
8
Just so I can fluff my feathers for today’s social vibe like the well adjusted macaw I aim to be: are we not doing groaners today? Just asking because 152 comments in and no one has yet mentioned Mary riding Joseph’s biblical mount all the way to Bethlehem.
2
Pretty exciting to get a collab by the Dynamic Duo, and it was. All that. And a bag of chips.
I do have a however, however. About those STEPINS, which are not SLIPONS, which are (yes, they are) shoes. STEPINS are (as Caitlin indicated) substitute terminology for what may be thought of as unmentionables, though STEPINS suggests a curiously hands-off approach which I can't support. Still, I reserve STEPINS to the undies arena rather than anything to be SHOD.
MAJORING_IN for Reading was fundamentally cruel to any Britophiles who were wilde to work in a gaol sentence
'James who is more than a little forward': yes, LEBRON definitely is more than a little FITB, but riffling through my folder full of Jameses, I found James Cameron, and if you drop the R, then James CAME_ON seems to make him also 'more than a little forward'. [sigh]
I may not be able to NECK (make out) exactly what made this SatPuzz so IMPRESSIVE, but it was. And I SURE DO think it were a lovely self-referential for the SouthEast to be COARSENING itself with them STEPINS and THEM_ASSES.
Gentlemen, Thanks for making me feel smart as a WHIP when I finished (45 and change). Seems every trip is better if you Pahk Agard.
6
@Leapfinger
I’d say STEPINS became items to be shod in rather than items to shed once everyone was able to afford a pair or three dozen. In the name of social harmony we called that progress, even if true progress might have been everyone being able to afford a lady-in-waiting so that STEPINS didn’t have to become pull-ons.
1
@Leapfinger - you may have been Wildeing out in Reading Gaol, but I've been remembering how many of my friends who attended University in Britain had a MAJOR IN GIN.
5
Aye, verily, @David C! Torn between the Tanqueray and the Pimms Cup No.1, which I only had the once but retain fond memories, although generally I avoid strong drink that tastes as if it ad been swizzled with a toothbrush.
@Sam, you muddy the waters, Milady, what with the introduction of Mary's mount precisely when we need no distracting indecision about whether something known as a Mule is to be worn or ridden. Perhaps all this discussion can be tabled, shelved, or chaired when we're all clear on the differences between a lady-in-waiting and a lady's maid.
'Pologies for pulling Old World distinctions into our brave New World, but sometimes that darn old TEAK, ETTLE do whatever it would.
1
Awesome puzzle. I echo the kudos for the cluing to AD IN, WNBA, and CAMERA CREW. And I liked the clue for TEA KETTLE. My first "forward" was James Worthy, but LEBRON soon emerged. My toughest area was the NW, initially mis-ordering the vowels in BOEUF and KIEFER and entering ALLA before OSSO (add that to the list of Italy references).
4
I’d sum up this puzzle with one expression: “It’s just semantics.”
As in, absolutely brilliant, trivia-free, gimmeless combinations of clues that could mean any number of things which you then had to juggle in your head until possible crosses fell into place. Did I mention brilliant?
The ultimate Saturday puzzle. If I’d been solving on paper, this would have been the closest I’d ever come to reaching for a pencil.
B R I L L I A N T.
[insert a string of gushing emoticons and giffies of bouncy puppies]
6
Amazing puzzle, so hard but so fun. I thought “larval” was a little sketchy but the clue was so great I won’t quibble. Well done!
2
Amazing puzzle, so hard but so fun. I thought “larval” was a little sketchy but the clue was so great I won’t quibble. Well done!
CALORIFIC, indeed! This puzzle was filled with delicious misdirection and delightful food references that made me hungry - happy to see BANH MI make its debut. I was merrily misdirected by the Bourguignon, thinking beef before BOEUF, and appreciated its English sister STEW.
OSSO Buco never disappoints, and a spot of tea from the KETTLE would be just right with my first guess, muffin, but less so with the crumbs from an ERASER. OREOs would go well, too. 9D could have been a food clue but the astronomic misdirect was too bright for NOVA, which was only revealed to me from the crosses.
Thanks for having us EAT OVER, Joon and Erik! This chewy Saturday was perfectly AL DENTE.
1
@Chungclan I got stuck on SAPORIFIC for a good long time, and penne ALLA vodka is one of my go to meals. Great puzzle, took me a whole hour.
Personal memory: LeVar Burton was a student in my class at USC in the early 70s. He dropped the class to make some TV show called Roots. Wonder whether that worked out for him?
7
@Alberto Delgado
OT, but why or why whenever I’m in a fetal position after a painful loss, The Other School pops up in the puzzle or WP or the comments section?
USC, thy name is my heartbreak (8 years in a row now, no less).
2
With S_E_INS as the result of some guesses for "Laceless footwear" I thought maybe some kind of slippers is called "step-ins"? So I googled "stepins" and found out they have nothing to do with feet. Phooey, my crosses are probably wrong. But later I needed the T and P after all.
Even after extensive googling, the left-hand side was largely empty and I had to turn to Caitlin. She only had four things I didn't already have but they did the trick: the W, A, and E of MALWARE, the WN of WNBA, the CAR and S of CARUSO, and APPEALS where I had only the E and S. I probably needed only one of the last two. I feel real dumb needing help for TRACKDOWN when I already had the KDO and was sure it must end with DOWN, and REPAIRSHOP when I already had IRSHOP. Not so embarrassed about not being able to guess IMPRESSIVE from my ESSI, and I'm not sure I've ever seen CALORIFIC before. AGENDER also unfamiliar, as with the "nonbinary people" of the clue, but I really should have put the obvious AD in front of my IN for ADIN and guessed the AGENDER and MALWARE without the WNBA help.
Brilliant. AD IN was the best, but so much to like here, and no trivial pursuit either.
2
Getting a Saturday puzzle is rare, and RARER almost ruined my streak. Hope the Sunday can help get me TRACK DOWN my first 7-day streak ever!
MALWARE, APPEALS, and WNBA were some of my favorites. Great mental workout!
3
For the most bizarre mental gyration: ...chewiness. I had no idea but I thought of Dentyne gum. AL DENTE popped into my mind even though I don’t know what it is and I’d imagine the only place I’ve seen it is in crosswords. Without bothering to look it up, probably where the brand name came from. Good puzzle
2
@Steve
AL DENTE is the only way to eat spaghetti. IMHO
4
@Babs
........otoh, AL DENTE may NOT be the only way to eat spaghetti, by gum!!
An AL DENTE puzzle, indeed! Frustrating at first because I knew so little, but gradually I appreciated the cleverness of the puzzle (despite my lack of cleverness).
First time through, KUNTA KINTE was about the only answer I had. Thanks, Lavar!
My first thought for "You can't make one by yourself," was baby, but ALAS, it wasn't correct.
9
@Stephanie. Oops, I mean LeVar
I won't LIE TO you; I think this is one of the finest Saturday puzzles I have ever seen.
NW was slow, until I managed to TRACKDOWN the fact that 5D ("Actor Sutherland") is KIEFER, not "Donald."
11
@archaeoprof
Actor Sutherland IS Donald. Just not in this puzzle.
4
@archaeoprof
Glad I’m not the only one who went to the father before the son. Based on its placement I figured it had to be Donald because, you know, K and F.
2
@Babs
I had the F from BOEUF, so went for the son.
BABY BUGGY? made me literally laugh out loud when it clicked. Wonderful.
5
A primer for anyone who wants to learn on how to write really, really clever, really, really original and really, really crunchy clues. Study this one puzzle and you may never have to look at another to see how it's done. Better yet -- all but a couple of the clues were completely fair, I thought.
Beginning with the ones I thought were both fair and brilliant: DEAL; APPEALS; AD IN (at 55A, it's far and away the best clue for AD IN I've ever seen, and I've seen a lot!); LEBRON; IMAGE; CAMERA CREW and SOCIALIST.
The ones I question: TEA KETTLE (43A) is tortured. Are the Blues (33D) a team that plays in RINKS? Otherwise, I don't get it. An ERASER (22A) leaves debris of a sort, but would you call it "crumbs"? I SURE DOn't. And what on earth are SRGS (60A)?
But small nits aside, a marvelous puzzle and a terrific challenge that I was proud to finish.
5
And what on earth are SRGS (60A)?
Nancy,
Nothing. Try ERGS.
And yes, the NH[ockey]L Blues play on RINKS.
I'll spot you the TEAKETTLE.
@Barry Ancona -- I don't understand ERGS any better than SRGS, but thanks for letting me know that I have a DNF with MAL WARs instead of MALWARE. MAL WARS -- first cousin to STAR WARS:)
1
Modern indoor rowers are often known as ergometers (colloquially erg or ergo), an ergometer being a device which measures the amount of work performed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indoor_rower
5
Got hung up in the SW cornerHad to get over my crush on MACVIRI as the answer to 36 down before I could reach the solution. Fun puzzle
1
@Bill Prada,
You were more comprehensive than I was, in any case. My 36D was simply VIRUSES until ADIN came along to knock out the 1st S
Wasn't MAJORINGIN Morningstar an early Hermann Wouk work?
1
It felt somewhat like a cryptic which perhaps intentionally or maybe just ironically is the Variety puzzle this week. Loved all the misdirects. Especially MAJORINGIN & TEAKETTLE. Thought I was in Merry Olde England! I got AGEMATE immediately so don’t understand the quibbles. It was a slow start, though. Yet, without trying to beat my time, I finished 5 minutes faster than my average.
1
Did anyone else have "SOUTHWEST" for "Left, and then some?" before getting "SOCIALIST" ?
2
@John M. Sure did! Christina RICCI helped me through.
2
@John M.
One of my first pass bloopers. A confident COMMUNIST.
1
@John M.
It’s interesting what associations the word “left” triggers in one’s mind. I have been studiously avoiding reading or discussing anything related to politics lately, so nothing Emgelsian or even Norwegian popped into my head at first pass. Instead, I immediately mentally filed away possibilities such as, “hotfooted,” “absconded,” “bolted out, “shoved off,” etc.
I've taken to beginning the Friday and Saturday puzzles the evening before. Since I am generally a morning person, my usual evening fill is seldom more than four or five words but I have at least read the clues. Then I close the laptop and go to bed.
Inevitably my first run-through the next morning will bring more words to mind. For this week I needed a fair amount of help from Caitlin and all of you on Friday, but today it was just that pesky combo of WNBA and ADIN that seemed too odd to make AGENDER right.
I was delayed by having filled in communIST for SOCIALIST but I knew the BOEUF STEW and MAJORING IN; I had Yippie before EUREKA. The shift from "Oh, no, this is too hard" to "Wow, this is really a good puzzle" was a distinct pleasure. Thanks to both Joon and Erik.
3
Barely beat my average. The top right corner was the problem. I had to come back for a second sitting. When I realized TOMB (which I then also realized we’ve seen before for these clues), it broke right open. Oddly, i thought of EATOVER early on, but I didn’t put it in because I thought it couldn’t possibly be a real answer. But it was later topped by AGEMATE, which I still don’t think should be an answer. I don’t believe anyone ever actually says that to mean a “contemporary.”
4
Google says AGEMATE is real, so if wasn’t already clear, I am wrong about it!
2
Mr. Mark,
Google says everything is real; what matters (IMO) is that dictionaries say it is real.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/age-mate
2
What I saw in Google that made me say it was real was a list of dictionary entries.
2
With the clue of 32a, I so wanted the answer to be "capitalist" stacking on top of SOCIALIST...but, ALAS, I'm afraid...not.
4
LeVar Burton played the young KUNTA KINTE in the series; the older actor John Amos portrayed KINTE as an adult. That was a helpful entry as it straightened out several of my incorrect entries.
Good puzzle!
3
Sun bloc? Come on!
1
Great Saturday clue, no? Very clever!
1
CRUNCH!
When I saw Joon and Erik's byline, I knew we were in for a wild ride, and wasn't disappointed! This one required a lot of thought and intuition, which is what we all love about weekend grids. I loved the clueing. Rex seemed to think it was artificially difficult, but I thought it was right on the mark for a Saturday. There also weren't a lot of unknowns for me, except for AGE MATE (which was very inferrable) and MAJORING IN. Still not sure about that.. is the phrase "I'm reading in economics" correct, or (more likely) I'm missing something.
Challenging Saturday, just the way I like 'em!
1
@Steve Faiella you would say “He went to XYZ University to read History/Politics” or “I’m reading English at XYZ University”. No “in”.
7
@Hazel,
Exactly right.
1
@Hazel
Thank you! 🙂
I loved the puns and misdirects. Caitlin went through some of the same mental machinations as I. So focused was I on the clues, and a couple of those misfills, that CAMERA CREW and TEA KETTLE were among the last two to fall.
4
Finished the puzzle and I have two answers that I don't get. First, an eraser leaves "crumbs?" Never heard that before. Is it another meaning of "eraser?' Second, how does "whip" break the sound barrier?
2
@Elliot Strom a whip crack is the sound of the tip breaking the sound barrier...this was common knowledge on the playground in 5th grade...is it true? dunno...could be one of those common myths
i guess the little eraser leavings are crumbs but i wouldnt eat them...as far as you know...dont judge me.
8
@Patrick
They're quite tasty with the little pieces of lead that break off when the pencil is too sharp.... or so I'm told...
5
@Patrick It's sort of true. The whip's tip does break the speed of sound, but the sound, which is a sonic boom, is created by a loop travelling through the whip: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/true-cause-of-whips-crack/
3
AGEMATE? AGEMATE!?
[flips table, walks out]
19
Took a bit to get started- my first pass on the acrosses was pretty bleak. Little by little, though, the puzzle cracked.
Very nice!
5
I started with BOEUF, STEW, KIEFER & TOMB, then nothing until KUNTA KINTE, but gradually all that clever cluing worked its magic, so I enjoyed this more than most Saturdays.
Like Ann, I was stuck on thinking geography for Reading at first, laughed when I remembered MAJORED, which I only learned when I moved here. Also "taking" a course means teaching it here, so I misled people at first about my prowess at university.
However, I still have yet to hear anyone say a "spot" of tea, and it too me ages to get TEA KETTLE @43A.
Thanks to you both for a fun Saturday.
7
@suejean
Years ago, a waitress in the south asked me if I'd like a spot of tea. I had no clue, so I shook my head.
I later learned it's like, "would you like a little more tea?"
also shout out for ADIN --an ace on a deuce. I couldn't get it because I was thinking black jack rather than tennis.
7
@Skeptical1
Because I filled it in by crosses, I got it, but until I read your comment, I didn't understand it.
1
@Skeptical1
I still don't get it, and I can't even figure out how to Google it! Is it "A DIN" or "AD IN", or what? LOL
The only things I know about tennis are what I see in XWPs.
1
ADIN - advantage to server(s).
I have an issue with CALORIFIC having no correlation to richness, IMO
3
I am curious if there is a way to tell how “well” you did on the minis. My times are mildly inconsistent. Some puzzles are more challenging than others, and even when I solve the clues quickly, the times can be inconsistent based on more clues or squares. Is an average solve time posted somewhere for the minis?
1
@Culty Jones
There are Mini “Leaderboards”. I don’t partake but others do and hopefully a participant will chime in and tell you how to join. You could then get an idea of average times among the Mini “elite”.
5
I do use the leaderboards and i enjoy seeing how i did against others.
if you click on the "leaderboards" link at the top of the crossword page you can add people using their email address. I'm happy to get you started!
[email protected]
4
@Culty Jones
I know how well I do by whether I enjoy it. Which isn't tracked by the NYT.
11
Just thought I'd mention that I started out with ALLA for OSSO (7D). Who knew that Italian menus had more than one palindrome on them?
Any hands up?
7
@Steve L
(Emoji of a Hand Up here).
1
Steve,
My mother loved OSSO buco, so yes, I knew.
1
@Steve L
Me
Interesting puzzle. I finished it in about my average time and, after reading the column, went back to check out the 8d clue mentioned in the constructors’ comments. But when I re-opened the puzzle it was sitting naked as a jay bird, nothing filled in. So I got to redo it, already knowing the answers (though there was a bit of memory refreshing needed). But I basically got to do a puzzle as fast as I could enter letters on my little iPad. Took over 4 minutes.
So to those of you who talk in the comments here about completing a puzzle (any puzzle) in 3 minutes, congratulations on having both amazing crossword and typing skills!
2
Favorite clue: "Reading, to a Brit." I'm no Anglophyle, but I always found that term to be so deliciously old-world. Of course, I was stuck on the town name for a long spell.
2
@Ann
I knew this term from time spent in England. Sure helped with other clues.
@Ann
I was fixed on Reading as a town name too for a long time before arriving at the correct interpretation.
I also note that MAJORING IN can be read as MAJOR IN GIN, which I'm sure a few have done.
6
@vaer
I had the idea Reading was a prison town, so I filled in GAOL on my first pass, waiting for crosses to finish it. I didn't find out I was wrong for quite a while.
2
Oh, the cluing today, the delicious brain-bending cluing. Playing on "forward" for LEBRON, on "worms" for MALWARE, on "hearing" for APPEALS, on "spot" for TEA KETTLE, on "left" for SOCIALIST. Wit like this in cluing lifts a puzzle from being a science to art. Such cluing wracks and attacks my head, then exacts praise in the highest. Thank you, gentlemen, for a glorious experience, and please, please, do not hesitate to continue to collaborate!
20
@Lewis
What makes these clues so good is that they're not playing on the words so much as just misleading you through phrasing. A forward is an actual position in basketball, not a synonym, or worse, a quasi-synonym. Worms is really a word used for a certain type of MALWARE, a hearing is a specific type of court proceeding, a "spot" of tea is a set expression, and SOCIALISTS are said to be on the left of the political spectrum.
Contrast this with yesterday's "Plays with matches" for SPEEDDATES. From what I know of it, this activity involves "matches," i.e., possible romantic partners in a musical chairs type event, where each couple converses for a few minutes before it's time to move on. The verb in the clue, "plays", is barely a quasi-synonym for what goes on here. In other words, it's a stretch to equate the clue with the entry.
On the other hand, all five clues you mentioned match up perfectly (as I explained above) with the entries. All you had to figure out is what kind of "more than a little forward," "Apple worms", "losing one's hearing," etc., the clue was referring to.
That's why these guys are the A team.
9
@Steve L
Good explanation. As for LEBRON (46A), from the Constructor Notes, it looks like cluing credit should go to Will & Co. But most certainly Erik and Joon are an A team (and not the “Biblical mounts” type of A team).
(Glory be to vaer for her Dogberry “I am an A§§” reference).
4
Steve,
I agree that the clueing styles are objectively different. I don't agree that today's style is objectively better; I think it just exercises a different part of the brain. You may prefer to have that part exercised; I enjoy both.
5
Tough puzzle, but a very enjoyable workout. I had a good start in the south with LEBRON, ELBA, RENO, KUNTAKINTE and eventually THEMASSES, and I'd even considered WNBA but didn't fill it in immediately. So most of that filled in with a bit of work (with one dumb exception). Needed a couple of searches (CELIA, e.g.) and a lot more pondering and guessing in other sections, but chipped away and finally had almost everything filled in.
And then one of the most dim-witted moments of all time. I had everything except two letters in 54a - R__ER. Never heard of TRINIS and wasn't really thinking about the footwear at 59d. I'd earlier thought about both RARER and RAWER and was aware that neither of those fit the clue. I think if I'd just paused for 30 seconds and thought it through and considered the crosses it would have dawned on me, but I finally just typed in RAWER and that was that. And then I took that 30 seconds and it finally dawned on me. Duh.
One minor objection with the clue for TRINIS. Had never heard that usage. It's only appeared once before and was clued as "Lopez et. al." The singular TRINI has appeared 50 times and it's also mostly clued to Lopez or some other proper name. Will has clued it as "Certain Caribbean..." twice before but both times the clue added "informally" or "for short." I think just that added bit in the clue would have helped a lot.
1
@Rich in Atlanta Side note; way off topic but perhaps of interest to dedicated solvers.
For no explainable reason, CALORIFIC made me think of SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS and I decided to look at clue histories wondering if that had ever possibly appeared in a puzzle. Yep - partitioned into 11 rebus squares in 2015 and I did that puzzle and commented on it, but had completely forgotten it.
And then in the comments on Xword Info it was mentioned that ANTIDISESTABLISHMENTARIANISM had been similarly embedded (also 11 rebus squares) in a 2011 puzzle.
And... also in those comments was a reference to (clears throat):
PNEUMONOULTRAMICROSCOPICSILICOVOLCANOCONIOSIS
which appeared in a 1970 puzzle divided into three 15 letter chunks.
And I couldn't figure out RIPER.
11
@Rich in Atlanta - Just a little bit re: Trinis. The Trini family that invites me over at whiles for a feast of Trini food with all the Trinis in the family and neighborhood - definitely use Trini and Trinis as nouns and adjectives and there's no feel of it being an abbreviation. As I get it, the term applies to people and food from Trinidad and Tobago regardless of which island is home. And Trini people and food are wonderful!
12
The Taj Mahal and Great Pyramid are not tombs but rather mausoleums containg tombs. Still a good crossword clue.
James,
While mausoleums do contain tombs, mausoleum is also defined as a tomb:
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/mausoleum
1
@James Hamje
You may be technically accurate but TOMB was the first gimme of the game.
5
I thought Friday was a toughie, but this made it look easy. IMPRESSIVE! Great cluing for an early Saturday morning workout; I particularly liked 36D and 43A.
2
LETTER BOXED
Best I can find so far:
F-S (9), S-K(5)
C-S(10), S-K(5)
F-R(7), R-S(9)
2
@Mari
You are more ambitious than me today. I found too many words that didn't result in victory so I stopped with: R-H (8) H-S (8). I got over-enamored with a couple of words that I wanted to make work, as well. R-K (9) and F-E (8) or (9) pluralized, which doesn't match up with your F-S. So it goes. Maybe later.
1
@Mari
K-S(8), S-E(9).
I could probably pare that down a bit, but it is much too beautiful a Saturday in these parts...
1
@Andrew A stunning Saturday here too - Indian Summer - but I have a bad cold and fever so am confined to the couch and NYT puzzles and a good book... I abandoned the puzzles for the book early and am still only 1/4 way through (C.J. Sansom: Tombland). Just a last check for updates while I have a medicinal whiskey!
SPELLING BEE
T A B I L N P
Words: 47, Points: 209, Pangrams: 1, Bingo: yes
A x 6
B x 3
I x 2
L x 2
N x 2
P x 18
T x 14
4L x 17
5L x 11
6L x 8
7L x 7
8L x 3
9L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 9 Tot
A 2 1 1 1 1 - 6
B 2 - - 1 - - 3
I - 1 - 1 - - 2
L 2 - - - - - 2
N - 1 1 - - - 2
P 4 4 4 3 2 1 18
T 7 4 2 1 - - 14
Tot 17 11 8 7 3 1 47
34
@Mari I’m just missing a T4. I’ll just type in random letters till I get it.
@Mari Notable missing words: PITTA, BALTI (not an 'exotic' food fan?), LATIN, LATINA. Some really awkward 'made-up' words in there, with 'AL' suffixes: two (as is becoming a pattern in the Bee) relating to parts of the body and one relating to leaders of monasteries - none of which are in common use!
4
@Kevin Davis that worked. I just typed T plus vowels and consonants till I got it. I was missing a tree bark that sounds like a Spanish snack.
1
SPELLING BEE
I’m at 46 words 208 points, no Bee yet. Unusual words are an A8 describing a Catholic building or official, an A7 that’s obscure but is a form of a T5, and two P7 birds.
The pangram I found by looking for common words that could be combined and trying them at either end.
1
@Kevin Davis One of the birds is a P5.
4
@Mari yes, I’m sorry, there’s 1 P5 & 1 P7 bird. The other unfamiliar P7 is an onomatopoeic word which I mistook for a bird when looking st my list.
@Kevin Davis --
My heart went P7 when i found it.
1
A bit of a chore today. This puzzle was too clever for its own good.
12
Pablo,
With all due respect, this puzzle was too clever for *your* good. (Others rejoicing at the cleverness.)
18
@Barry Ancona
There’s always one, or four, or whatever the number of recommendations for Pablo’s comment ends up being, in every crowd. Because this type of comment appears after nearly every tough and/or tricky puzzle, I wouldn’t mind getting an explanation sometime of just what it means for a puzzle to be “too clever for its own good”. Was it harmed by its wit? Made ill from its playfulness? Did its genius hold it back from greatness? Just a little duller and this baby really would have sparkled?
18
@Puzzlemucker and Barry
I suspect that Tribeca and Sparks/Reno, even LEBRON and WNBA, might be a bit too much to ask of a Glaswegian. (That's just from memory, there might be additional examples of US provincialism in the clever cluing.)
Thanks to my husband, who reminded me of the recent appearance of REMORAS and who, too frequently, has to take his beloved 2004 Yukon XL to the REPAIRSHOP. My time was just over 1 hour 30 minutes to the final EUREKA.
5
On Friday evenings I find myself thinking "I hope the Saturday puzzle is an Erik Agard puzzle." Seeing his name when I log on at exactly 10pm implies a great puzzle... and today was no different. Loved the puzzle, loved the fill, loved the grid. Bravo, Erik and Joon!
My favorite parts of this puzzle:
- Lebron and WNBA adjacent
- Left and then some = socialist
- Calorific: such a fun word! Early I had CoLORIFIC, as in a weird alternative to the very rich "colorful."
5
I SURE DO like solving on a computer. There are no ERASER crumbs as evidence of my many corrections and thereby give
LIE TO my IMAGE of being an IMPRESSIVE Xword solver ( A legend in my own mind)
11
@ColoradoZ
If you like to snack while you solve, (as I do), there are still plenty of crumbs.
...tonight from beautiful Monterey, California. Together Mr B and I managed to solve this one. Neither one of us could have done it on our own. So many clues were misdirects, and although I thought I caught most of them there were too many that didn’t make sense to me. Mostly I just wanted to check in and say I’m still out here!
13
@Liz B
Green with envy, here, though the trees are starting to don their fall colors. (I'm currently in upstate NY.)
Hope that your itinerary includes the Point Lobos Nature Reserve. It has been described as “the greatest meeting of land and water in the world”. Otters, sea lions, and a variety of birds add to the eperience.
Toughest Saturday in months for me.
8
Wrecked my Saturday average but LOVED the cluing!
7
This puzzle was AL DENTE. Thanks Joon and Erik.
9
The Jeopardy! twins team up. Great fun.
Buone vacanze, Caitlin.
7
@Wags
Lots of Weird (Al) things rattling round in my head tonight. The last scene is a nod to the song by the Greg Kihn Band (who?) that he's parodying.
https://youtu.be/BvUZijEuNDQ
2
I completed the puzzle and enjoyed it for the most part, but I'm left wondering about the clue, "What results from an ace on a deuce." Someone please explain the meaning of ADIN. Is it simply noise, or something else? It is late, and I am clueless...
:-\
2
Tennis score after you tie at 40-40
1
@Kate J
Thanks. Never heard the term before.
2
@Just Carol
I am not an expert but I think it goes like this: Deuce is a tie score in a tennis game at 40-40. At that point a win by either competitor requires two consecutive volley wins. At deuce, If the server delivers an ace (or unreturned serve), he/she wins the volley and the score is “advantage in” or ad in for short. If the other competitor had won the volley, the score would be “advantage out” or ad out for short.
16
Wow. Very tough getting started for me, But once I got going it fell more easily than I thought it would. Vreat puzzle.
For once, I have few quibbles with an Agard-enabled puzzle.
Liked the clever cluing, especially for LEBRON, CALORIFIC, CAMERACREW, and MAJORINGIN.
2
@Al in Pittsburgh
Perhaps because of “AL” DENTE?
4
Several excellent, clever (and Saturday worthy, for once) clues.
1
Oh, c’mon emus, it was a “Biblical mount” for gosh sakes!
Third rewrite: I never thought I’d say this, but thank god for REMORAS. My favorite of many great clues was “Biblical mount” for [fill in the 3 letter word which in addition to an animal also is slang for buttocks]. The fill was first class. I have a soft spot in my heart for JABBING because it broke my brainjam at “Reading, for Brits” / MAJORING IN and led me away from The Simpsons and toward The SOPRANOS.
Andy Warhol was nonbinary before nonbinary was “nonbinary”. Love him or hate him, there’s no denying that he has had an outsize influence on ARTE over the last 60 years. Here is his “Self-Portrait in Drag”, which hangs at the GEORGES Pompidou Centre in Paris:
https://www.wikiart.org/en/andy-warhol/self-portrait-in-drag-1982
8
I pasted the wrong link of Warhol’s Self-Portrait in Drag. Here’s the one that hangs at The Pompidou, which I like better than the one in the above link (he did several of them):
https://www.centrepompidou.fr/cpv/resource/ck7589/rxK6nA
1
@Puzzlemucker
Thank goodness for the Biblical mount, which confirmed that REMORAS was plural. Second time for "Biblical mount" this week, right?
I keep hearing Dogberry from Much Ado in my head. I am a(n) biblical mount!
3
@vaer
This is for the emus:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=82dYxF3sA8o
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YqOzbhWhMbs
https://mobile.twitter.com/DogberryDrumpf
4
Brutal. My worst Saturday time ever.
4
But you solved it though, which is great!
2
@Tyler D. True. As usual I had to look up names and places. Hooray for The Google.
Despite a number of triumphs, I failed to decipher the clues for 32A and 36A.
Is TRINIS short for Trinidadians? I’ve never seen it before.
And I still don’t understand how a RINK is a blues venue. Even with the question mark.
2
@Alan Young St. Louis Blues, a hockey team, plays on a rink.
7
@Alan Young
Not being a hockey fan, I never would have gotten the blues venues ( RINKS) if they had not won the Stanley Cup this year!
@Alan Young
So no relation to Paris’ team, ‘les Bleus?’
What’s an AGENDER? I don’t get it. Binary?
1
@Alex Kent AGENDER is without gender. Non-binary is neither male nor female.
4
@Alex Kent
In Boston, it's the list of items to be covered at a meeting.
50
To distinguish further, someone could be non-binary while identifying with some sense of gender which is neither male nor female. To be AGENDER would be to experience the entire concept of gender as irrelevant to oneself.
1
Lovely puzzle, not a lot of obscure trivia, fun wordplay, thanks!
4
IMPRESSIVE! Always like to see IAGO -- my favorite villain!
4
For LARVAL, think of “buggy” as an adjective, not a baby bug.
2
@Steve L
Thank you