I had everything right except I had rebuses in place for "hole," "ditch," "gap," and "pit." I really don't understand why the rebus weren't counted as correct. Otherwise you would have misspelled words in a crossword puzzle, no?
I was really enjoying this puzzle, and was quite intrigued by the theme. Then came the upper left of the centre portion. Easily the sloppiest construction I've seen in 50 years of solving puzzles. Che, Aceh, Skyy, and Ulta, with the tiresome Eos and roos thrown in. If you can't put a little more imagination in a puzzle, Tracy Grey, please stop making them. And again we see that Will Shortz, the antichrist of the crossword puzzle, permitted this mediocre puzzle to see the light of day.
Terrible. Don’t misspell words.
I had fun even though I just finished BESTIR. I read through comments and nobody mentioned. Aarrgghh!! One of those words I couldn’t separate to find the meaning . . .
Well, I loved 46 Down: Syosset, my childhood home. And it relates to 25 across (Hassles). Back in the day, Billy Joel (raised in Hicksville, right next door to Syosset) was in a band called the Hassles. My neighbor was the guitar player in the band, so the first time I heard Billy Joel play live was in Syosset, in my neighbor's yard. And his song Italian Restaurant is about a place that was in Syosset named Christianos.
It was a theme we had before, within the last year os so, as the constructor points out. This fact certainly reduces or negates the need for highlighted squares. But "there's a new one born every day" would seem to trump this "fact" (esp. in the aforementioned era of ignorance); or to paraphrase Ms. Muffet and avoid the censors" "When there's no Curds there's no Way". God bless America.
Loved this puzzle despite that it seemed to be a rebus but wasn’t. Nice twist. Missed the comments last night and couldn’t get to them until now. Ah well, stuff happens...
:-)
1
Hi from the third-world capital of Silicon Valley, where the power is out with no estimate of when it will be back. No hot water is bad, but when our co-op water company's tanks run dry in a couple of days (no power to the pumps) it will be joined by no cold water.
Happily, my car has a 115V socket and wifi, so I can be online as long as I can stand sitting in a car.
This is all so PG&E can make a point: California wants to hold us responsible for fires we cause? We can't cause any fires if our power lines are off. Never mind the economic losses or health of the many Californians reliant on medical devices.
Syosset is like Mecca to nerds of a certain age. It was the home of Lafayette Radio Electronics, whose catalogs we read from cover to cover memorizing all the wonderful arcana about tubes, resistors, capacitors, inductors, transmitters, receivers, amplifiers, etc., etc. The name Syosset evokes wonderful memories.
7
This was tough! But fun! As a print doer, I wished the clues surrounding the four "dangers" had been a little easier.
I imagine the online shading was a perfect touch.
3
Fun puzzle with a clever Thursday trick! I liked the highlights that showed up when I clicked on the revealer. Actually, I wouldn't have minded if they stayed highlighted.
Mind the GAP lest you plunge from a Sheere HITE.
1
This was a really fun puzzle, and a definite improvement over yesterday's disappointing entry.
3
Clever, clever, clever! Loved it! Especially after yesterday's terrible puzzle!
4
Never saw a puzzle with so many lacunae in it ...
As Thursdays go this wasn't bad at all. Pretty clever.
Found an amusing coincidence probably overlooked by the constructor, to wit: if you read 18A "straight", it is in German and means "still sterol". That's a really interesting remark to come up with for margarine.
Good one though I couldn't come up with PDFS.
1
Oh, man, somebody BEERBONGME; that was something. And just when I was feeling good about rebuses!
Even when I replaced RITZ with OMNI, I thought that NW corner was never going to fall.
PDFS elicited an actual forehead slap followed in short order by happy music.
2
Today this senior became even more cool because I learned about beer bongs. (Thought my generation invented the bong.)
Can’t wait to throw out my newly acquired knowledge to my college freshman nephew.
A good day to everyone! Watch out for the holes/pits/ditches!
1
@L.A. Sunshine
TIL about BEER BONGS. After reading about them, my take is it a device designed to take away the pleasure of having a beer with friends
1
@ColoradoZ Agreed! That does not look enjoyable at all. I'd rather enjoy a beverage at a normal pace than choke it down through a funnel and tube.
I guess it makes TEEN SENSE at a TOGA PARTY.
1
I thought Saheb is more common than Sahib - I was proved wrong again - did a search at https://books.google.com/ngrams with Saheb, Sahib - Sahib occurs more often than Saheb! https://preview.tinyurl.com/y5776ob9 (Check it yourself)
1
@msk
I've never seen SAHEB at all--and autocorrect wants to change it to SAHIB.
1
Late to the party. Very nice puzzle, but once again, I'm the dumb guy in the room. A number of unknowns as clued and some mis-directions I wasn't getting (PDFS for example). But my real problem was that the first theme answer I worked out was HOSPITALSTAY and I became convinced that the reveal (and other theme answers) would have something to do with PITfalls. It really shouldn't have been that hard to figure out that there was no reasonable way to fit that into the reveal, but I stuck with the idea for way too long, got confused and just kind of gave up and started revealing things.
I do think PITFALLS would be a decent them, similarly rendered; I see no evidence that it's ever been done.
To highlight, or not to highlight. That is the question... Whether tis... oops.. too far.
This was made simpler for me by highlighting the drop down portions of the theme entries, but I certainly understand wanting to make the later week puzzles more accessible, so it's good with me. And hey, it doesn't hurt the average solve time either! :)
There were definitely some later week entries as well as clueing, so it was still challenging and fun! Loved the 9 letter downs!
Enjoyable solve and a great start to the solving weekend. Thanks Tracy, Will et al!
2
I hope we aren’t going back to old nemeses with NEBS. Usage in Scottish or Northern England sounds a lot like Var, Obsolete, Archaic to me.
2
@Doggydoc - the adjective form "nebby" - "sticking one's nose into things / nosey" - is found in Pittsburghese as well as Geordie (northeastern English). In that usage, in those places, it's just a normal word.
see/hear #2 on the quiz:
http://www.pittsburghese.com/quiz.shtml
1
Thanks, @David Connell, especially for the Pittsburghese update, but i doubt the Grey Lady appreciates having her usage manual updated for such. Since all things British or even northeastern English would be appreciated in many of the snootier quarters, I still think it fits my protest of strange, archaic, variation, obsolete. Besides, who is it that says a bird has a nose? Not me.
1
Just when I thought I had rebuses down, they got dropped out. I didn't understand the theme, or complete the puzzle, until I read the column. Tricky!
1
Glad I wasn’t the only one. I stared blankly at the filled grid before for about 8 minutes before I removed the rebi and then got the happy music.
1
A beer bong is more of an aid in getting high as opposed to drunk. I had beer shots.
Are you arguing semantics? Not sure I understand your point. The medical fact is that alchohol is a depressant, so I don't see how getting "high" applies.
Might have been better clued as "Stupid devices to make one stupider."
2
Not my spot of Earl Grey. When puzzles have to trick us to solve them, they are no longer a joy to complete.
2
@Chris Sleight FYI Thursday puzzles almost always have tricks.
Much better than yesterday's offering. All 4 theme entries are legit things.
4
Excellent Thursday crossword. Whenever 1a and 1d are my last ones in I know I've had a workout. I got NOCHOLESTEROL with its "hole" fairly early so I was expecting "hole" to be repeated. I caught on when the "gap" in TOGAPARTY emerged. By the way, the crossing of TOGAPARTY with BEERBONG was perfect.
3
@Tony S
Toga Party, Beer Bongs, Ale, Skyy, Slo (e gin) make quite the wet bar!
3
This was a hole lot of fun!
(I dug my narrow channel impeccably: it was ditch perfect.)
4
Fun to see MOMBASA. My only previous exposure to it was in WZ’s “Lawyers, Guns and Money.”
8
And THIS song came to mind
https://youtu.be/qy-ivQHf3O8
1
The movie Inception had several scenes there as well.
From wikipedi: BEER BONGS came to national attention in the US after a photograph of Senator John Kerry being offered one at an Iowa University tailgate party made national newspaper front pages."
3
Chuckled when I saw the following comment on Rex's site: Do the Omni hotels have pens?
9
and Elke
O NO-was slow to catch on to theme-blame it on NO CHOLESTEROL (and other nutrients), but I did remember that it's Viv's birthday. So, Happy Birthday,Viv !
5
I have become cautious in my old age, and so held off using rebuses to fill the holes until I was absolutely sure where they were going to fall, and so managed to the rebus trap.
Oddly, it was only when I came here that I realized that the down clues were all things you could fall into of some sort. I blame that on lack of coffee.
Clever puzzle, and fun. Went a bit quick.
2
@Deb
POOR Wiley!! I guess he never learned - - or will do so. This clip re-creates the mental image I have of a not-too-distant “Darwin Awards” winner - who supposedly attached a JTO engine to the top of his 1975 car, left the road and crashed into a cliff face some 20 feet off the ground. Accident investigation found no tire tracks to explain what had happened.
As to the puzzle:
Spot on!! A truly solid “SOLVE”. I fell into the trap of thinking a “HOLE” rebus should appear at square 19 - but the “trick” dawned on me as soon as I had entered same. The rest fell like so many dominoes.
A thoroughly enjoyable solving experience today! Something I do not usually expect from a Thursday Puzzle. Thanks Tracy.
Never heard of (a) SLO poke - so I had to “verify” my suspicion that the cross was ULTA. Another case where a single square could have been a stumper. Also didn’t have S?OSSET until TOGA PARTY fell into place.
Hmmmm? I guess it’s safe for me to visit my local Raw Bar again.
I remember my Dad telling me of a shucker “up east” somewhere that had a standing offer for free oysters if a challenger could eat them as fast as he could serve them. (Otherwise, the challenger had to pay for the oysters - and a $10 tip. And this was when $10 was not chump change.) The guy had a LOT of $10 tips!
2
@PeterW
That would be Wile E. Just keeping you in the loop concerning cartoon characters!
@Andrew
As a grand daughter (if I had one) would say - - what—EVER!!
I love Tracy's puzzles because she always constructs with the aim to entertain us, the solvers. Today I got a real kick out of tripping and falling my way way around the grid. So much fun!
Have you ever noticed that when somebody trips they always look down at the ground as if to blame the spot that did it?
Thank you, Tracy, a real pleasure, as always!
10
Ingenious construction and, lacking the aforementioned shading in the print edition, I was able to eventually find the descending pitfalls. NOCHOLESTEROL caused me to first think of a rebus, but HOSPITALSTAY cinched the trick that Tracy used. Interesting week, when the Wed and Thurs are of equal degree of difficulty in my mind. Having taken the LSAT many years ago, I usually recognize the various clues that are used for it.
2
Since it never occurred to me that the Across answers would turn down, what I was reading was an Across rebus square [HOLE] atop a Down answer [HOLE]OLE. Next came the Down answer [PIT]IT. Next, the Down answer [GAP]AP. Which gave me -- because, not knowing either CHE or ACEH, I would never have gotten it on my own -- the Down answer [DITCH]ITCH. Which made the rebus seem really weird to me as I was solving it!
But of course you do go down when you step into a HOLE, GAP or DITCH -- so the conceit works quite well. If I didn't see it, it's because, as I've told you so many times, I'm not at all visual. (Meaning that perhaps more than anyone else here, I need to WATCH MY STEP. Which I always try to do with every single step I take, indoors and out. But, of course, it will be the one time I forget that disaster will strike...)
This would be a superb puzzle were it not for the obscure proper names cropping up in the worst possible places. I can see all the constraints that exist in creating the grid and how hard it would be to get rid of those names, but still. This could have been really great and it comes up a bit short.
2
@Nancy I did exactly the same thing with the nested rebuses that you did! I filled the entire grid and was surprised when the check failed. Finally had to come to the column to see what I did wrong.
The proper names slowed me down a bit as well, but fortunately I had enough of the crosses that I was able to compensate. It was stubbornly hanging onto WYNN as my four-letter luxury hotel that slowed me down the most.
2
Obscure place names - did you mean MIAMI?
2
Always on the lookout for a rebus on Thursday, I got my spreads confused and was trying to enter CHOLESTEROL (without the NO) into 18A with a two-letter rebus. When I spied the HOLE going down, things clicked and I realized that margarine was the spread with *NO* CHOLESTEROL. We've learned in the meantime that that does not mean it is any healthier...
When I was a kid in Montreal, there was a law against yellow margarine. (The dairy industry had a lot of power.) One of the family activities while watching TV was to take a bag of white margarine that contained a pod of food colouring, and knead the bag, breaking the pod, and gradually working the colouring into the margarine. One of the more bizarre memories from those times, (along with powdered "Milk-O").
7
I got to do that when visiting my grandmother (we had the same law in NY then, and my family used butter.) It was fun. But we never called it margerine; only oleo. It was only called margerine in ads and commercials.
4
@Margaret
In our parts it was always margarine, or more familiarly marge.
@Andrew No margarine in Wisconsin either when I was a kid. My uncle used to go over the state line to Rockford, IL to get a supply.
2
I was so pleased when I figured out the trick on HOS(PIT)ALSTAY. Sadly SAHIB was not in my wheelhouse and I had oNTIME. Lots of fun today.
4
....I didn’t know much about the history of margarine so googled. It was invented in France in 1869 by Hippolyte Mège-Mouriès in response to a challenge by Emperor Napoleon III to create a butter substitute from beef tallow for the armed forces and lower classes. So also animal fat, only cheaper than butter. It was white, but manufacturers added a yellow dye to make it look like butter. Diary manufactures sued and margarine producers had to place the dye in a separate package to be mixed with the white marge at home. In 1857 a process to include vegetable oils was invented, and the product had a variable ratio of animal and vegetables fat until the 1930 depression and the war made animal fat either too expensive or rationed, and margarine became exclusively vegetable fat. NO CHOLESTEROL!
Thank you tech people for fixing the glitch that took comments away!For a moment it felt like when your parents are late to pick you up from nursery and you’re afraid they will never come back....
10
I liked the trick, which followed my rule(!) that the fills involved in the trick must be so obvious they make you recognise the presence of the trick; and once you get it, it helps you with the rest solve. Got the trick in HOSPITAL STAY, guided by the WHACHT YOUR STEP, because what else would get HOSPALSTAY, to mean a requirement after surgery, other than taking down a step in the yellow brick road of PIT! So that was a nice AHA moment.
And enjoyable puzzle, gettable fills in general. I had AROAST before AROUSE, CUPS OF TEA before SPOT OF TEA, and FLY before ANT ( that’s the favourite morsel of my imaginary toad). May I protest ( gently and in a non confrontational way) that IMO FANNYMAE did not as much aided home buyers as misled home buyers and part-caused the financial crisis?
I realised I didn’t know much about the history of margarine so googled. ....
3
Thanks for a fun puzzle. I fell for it!
17
What's BATIN?
1
In baseball, you BAT IN a runner when you get a hit that allows the runner to cross home plate.
3
@David
As in RBI - Runs Batted In.
5
@Peter C I'm a baseball fan and never heard that...
2
Fun! I tripped up on 38D because tea is my blood type (thank you Sips By!), and A POT is much more satisfying to me than a SPOT.
7
Hi everyone,
Thanks for the bug reports about the broken link in the app and on the web. I've reported it and am hoping to get that fixed sometime today.
8
@Deb Amlen Thanks, Deb. The link seems to be working now.
2
Fun puzzle! I did fall into a HOLE, though. After getting the "Almost there..." message, I was relieved that the PSAT does not have 2 logical thinking sections. Seems like Reading, Writing, Language, and Math is sufficient at that age. I assume they have their PHONICS down by then.
3
A fun puzzle and nice difficulty level for Thursday. Am I the only one initially had 'A pot of tea' instead of 'spot of tea'.
3
@M Walsh
And we're sure to get comments from our resident Brits and those who reside in Britain that no one there ever says SPOT OF TEA.
(But you're sure to get a Sprite or a 7Up if you ask for a lemonade.)
2
@Steve L I actually am a native Brit, although I haven't lived there the past 30 years. Tea is certainly drunk by the pot load.
3
@Steve L
To have a SPOT OF TEA is more usually regarded as partaking of a tea meal (afternoon or high) rather than just God’s own hot beverage.
The drink itself may be offered by the cup, mug, pot and in some places up north, dish. The last mentioned will still arrive in some form of cup.
If you ask for lemonade, you should receive a clear, lemon flavoured (probably artificial), sweetened, carbonated drink. You may get Sprite or similar lemon/lime concoctions if the merchant doesn’t carry a wide range of sodas.
If you see old(e) fashioned lemonade, typically in an old fashioned ‘Tea Room’, either the lemon flavour is from real lemons, or you just might receive home made lemonade as you know it.
3
Yay! What a delight! Finally, a theme that helped me solve. I started catching on with 62A HOSPALSTAY after I’d tried to rebus 50A TOGARTY. Then I spied PIT and GAP with the revealer clue popping up. Then WATCHYOURSTEP came and helped me roll along solving except for NONPC and SLIP. That was a tough corner but I’ll take it!
2
Hah! Terrific Thursday trick for gullible me! On the day we're so wary of possible rebi, you tempt us, Tracy, with a scenario in which rebi will work -- but they don't! Brilliant! Is it the first of April?
Another outstanding offering by the Gray lady.
12
LETTER BOXED
B-D(9), D-H(4)
A French avenue and everyday food holder.
2
@Mari
Ditto. I was happy to find this after being shut out yesterday. Benadryl haze after wasp sting did not aid my puzzling any more than Incredible Hulk swollen hand and arm helped my typing.
@Liane Hope you are feeling better! I did not 'click' with yesterday's puzzle either - and I had no excuse of either pain or medication.😏
@Mari
Well, I missed today's 13 even though I knew there had to be one in there. Had V-S(9), S-D(6) instead.
Yesterday, my best shot was HUGEST TRACKPAD. Not a particularly gratifying combo.
SPELLING BEE
C E G L N O Y
Words: 27, Points: 150,Pangrams: 2
C x 19
E x 1
G x 2
L x 1
N x 2
O x 2
4L x 7
5L x 6
6L x 4
7L x 7
8L x 2
10L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 10 Tot
C 5 5 3 6 - - 19
E - - - 1 - - 1
G - - - - 1 1 2
L 1 - - - - - 1
N - 1 1 - - - 2
O 1 - - - 1 - 2
Tot 7 6 4 7 2 1 27
38
@Mari was missing 1 but found it with your grid (the political one). Strange that coney is missing but there’s an infrequent adjective for persuasiveness and a metabolic word only scientists would know.
2
@Kevin Davis I think anyone with an intelligent knowledge of human metabolism, and/or an interest in fitness and how food is transformed into energy (or not) would know that metabolic word.
5
@Mari I only knew it because I studied biology long ago. Maybe it’s more common then I thought.
As for the word relating to persuasiveness, it’s a noun, not an adjective. Sorry for the error.
1
Loved it. Gamey and quippy with a simple theme, a few minutes better than my *very modest* average.
The NW corner took the longest to fill, with several uncertainties spread out equally,(SYOSSET and HITE, for two) to make it interesting.
SAHIB was my last fill.
Cheers
3
@Michael I had a hard time with SAHIB also. Learned something new today... hope it sticks!
2
My Thursday time was nearly half my Wednesday time, definitely a first! My main trouble was in the SE corner as I don't know a thing about Long Island communities so I was second and third guessing some of my crosses for a bit.
3
Mind the GAP!
12
Today's puzzle sparked enough joy to make up for yesterday's dearth! 47A-Shere HITE- brought memories of my teenaged self hiding The Hite Report from my snooping mom.
I spent as much time in the NW corner as the rest of the grid combined. Nothing was working, so I turned to Dear Husband for help with 1A and he gently hinted that acrobat did not necessarily refer to people. PDFS I shouted (scaring my 2 dogs), then the rest of the corner fell swiftly into place!
9
Fairly easy puzzle with some fun tricks, except I found four impossible parts: UL_A, BEER_ONGS, S__SSET, crossing _OGART_ and _O_. I didn't imagine BEERsONGS would help one get drunk, but neither would BEERtONGS. I finally decided to see if Deb's column would help. It did, but just with BEERBONGS (?!), and BO_. Does one BOO an umpire?
I suppose I must have a mistake or two that maybe I will find after a night's sleep. Or I will have to go to one of the crossword answer sites on the net. I've avoided that for a few months, I think.
2
@kilaueabart
"Does one BOO an umpire?"
Hockey refs frequently get BOOed!
4
I had forgotten the GAP hiding in TOGAPARTY, and confused unknown "Animal House" with "Animal Farm" anyway, plus couldn't believe there could be a place called SYOSSET until I googled it.
Still had "at least one error," due to hoping that the last two words in some Brit's song might be "'es one" to go with my BADReP. Changing it to A lighted the day.
O no was a common phrase of horror or shock in silent films. Go watch a few.
2
Headsup: the link from the iOS app didn’t work. I had to get here from the NYT main page.
13
@Alan Young
It does not work on the web page either. Having seen this repeatedly for a couple of years now, one wonders how an organization as preeminent as the NYT cannot get its IT act together for something as simple as a link.
6
One of two four four is a SEMI-final game, one game two teams playing of four remaining.
3
@mike and keeping with theme that falls trippingly upon this puzzle, semi-matches is also carefully spelled out in like fashion
1
I really enjoyed the first half of my solving experience, which consisted of working the puzzle diligently, getting the revealer, and filling in every box. The last 10 minutes or so, during which I searched and searched for my error in order to get the happy music I crave like a drug, was less enjoyable, inasmuch as nothing was wrong. But those last five seconds, during which I un-rebused DITCH, GAP, HOLE, and PIT....ahhhhhhhhhhh.
Frustration at having wrongly rebused aside, a cool puzzle. TOG(AP)ARTY crossing BEERBONGS was cute, if NONPC.
3
The opposite of the "step up" puzzle last month. Coming to a puzzle near you soon- step back, step out, step off
2
@ColoradoZ
step right, step left?
Enjoyable puzzle and cute theme gimmick. With all these trip hazards, I'm thankful that I didn't fall flat on face. Only quibble, which I think agrees with Deb, is 6D ONO. Seriously?
@Rajeev
Sonnet CXVI
Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O, no! it is an ever-fixed mark,
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come;
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.
W. Shakespeare
16
@Rajeev and Deb
With the clue for Imagine nearby, I wouldn't have minded ONO clued to Yoko in this puzzle.
12
@Sam Lyons
O yes!
3
When is a rebus not a rebus? When the contents leak out.
Constructors: Be sure your rebus drains are shut tight before submitting your puzzles!
20
@Mike R Did they get the drop on you?
@Puzzledog
Full disclosure: When I received the puzzle I found all the rebi intact, but eventually realized that I would have to pull the plugs myself to get the puzzle to work out. Perhaps others had the same experience?
1
@Mike R
All the rebis are busy elsewhere this week.
Pure pleasure. I loved this puzzle. A great theme elegantly executed, plus some clever cluing (e.g., “Sound system?” / PHONICS), fun geographical juxtaposition (MOMBASA next door to SYOSSET), and few HASSLES. After a tough Wednesday, I enjoyed this relatively smooth ride. Great one, Tracy!
16
Figured out the gimmick on TOGARTY. I knew it was going to be TOGA PARTY. By then, I already had GAP, so it clicked in my head. Then looking back on the revealer, it all made sense. DITCH was the last one only because I couldn't think of the word DITCH. But I did know landlords nowadays perform CREDIT CHECKs on tenants.
Blast it, ULTA again - second time this year, after I swore I'd quickly forget it (I did, but this repetition will make me remember it).
This was a pretty fast one for me. Liked the long entries - DEMO CREWS, FANNIE MAE (crossing CREDIT CHECK no less).
CSI: MIAMI - I had to stop watching because I couldn't stand watching said Lt. Horatio Caine.
Had CRAFTERS before ARTISANS. Really the only correction I had to make.
Looking over the grid afterward, it's a thing of beauty. The gimmick was pretty fun too. I mean, one can get a bit tired of rebuses, you know.
10
SEMI refers to the penultimate round of a tournament. There are four teams, two contests. One of the contests is the singular SEMI, which is one (game) for two (teams) of four (teams).
21
Thanks, @Steve L!
1
@Steve L
I second that thanks.
2
@Steve L Thanks for the explanation. As a nit, though, the clue is "one of two for four". Maybe one (game) of two (games) for four (teams)?
5
I think this would have been much harder without the highlighting that the online version provided, showing where the four dangerous places were. Without it, there would have been a lot of frustration for me in figuring out what the heck was going on with the DITCH, the PIT, the HOLE, and the GAP (nice clues for those, by the way). I did try to rebus the HOLE part of CHOLESTEROL at first, but then trying to do that with DITCH showed me that that was not the way to go. The rest of it came together fairly well, with the things I didn’t know (SYOSSET, CSI MIAMI) easily gettable from the crosses.
18
@Liz B
I started to do the same thing, and had HOLE as rebus, until I noticed that HOLE was the down word. At that point I rethought the possible trickery and started wondering if we'd see hole again or some other depression-describing words. WATCH YOUR STEP confirmed the idea, and finding DITCH in CREDIT CHECK confirmed the word variety. Didn't notice the highlighting until the revealer, but at that point I'd figured out the trick, so didn't worry about it.
1
@Liz B
I agree re the highlighting. I knew it had to be NOCHOLESTEROL, but wasn't sure how it was going to fit. Highly enjoyable puzzle.
1
@Liz B
I did the puzzle online, and there was no shading. What platform had shading?
2