This was the most fun I've had with a puzzle. Don't know what some of these negatives meant, especially that the phrases didn't make sense. They were all coherent phrases. Oh well, can't please everyone. I'm a fan.
A real TTOOUUGGHHee for a newbie. Many of the entries felt forced and computer generated. Oh well, just part of my learning curve.
Puzzle is fine, but the app leaves me searching (still) for that “one errant
square” .. a real eye test :-| Is there a way to highlight those incorrect answers?
It’s not a wrong answer, it’s a typo at this point, yet much poring thru answer key vs. puzzle, list or grid format, leaves me
incomplete. ( cry of dismay? ) Arrrghh!
@fred buehrer Turn on autocorrect for a second.
Very cool puzzle. Kudos to the constructor for a clever theme.
Surprised to see so many negative comments. I thought this one was great fun, my favorite clue being “Hay there”, which was also delightful because BRAN and BARN were side by side. Great puzzle 😊
Are matriculated students enrollees? I think that clue stands out as inaccurate.
@Jennifer
Yes; it doesn't mean graduated, only accepted and enrolled. Some schools have a ceremony about it, a sort of portentous welcome, I guess going back to when entering a college was like entering a sort of academic citizenship.
Wasn’t a huge fan of this one. Mainly because of the theme clue and answer at 23A. Unlike its theme counterparts, it’s just a smattering of words that don’t form a coherent phrase. It felt forced and out of place. Quite honestly, I’m very surprised Mr. Shortz let that slide.
1
@Jeremy
The phrase at 23A is actually a coherent sentence. DOODLE is a verb. BASSI are more than one BASSO singer, thus the noun. IN NEED is an adjective meaning they’re poor guys,
3
I’ll tell you what....
If you’ve already done today’s Sunday Puzzle already, and Monday’s puzzle doesn’t offer enough challenge, how about trying the Thursday, December 4, 2014 puzzle by Kacey Walker & Dennis Qualfoot, now being featured in the Archives.
And a big tip of the chapeau ⛑ to Deb Amlen, for her fine write-up.
Looking forward to playing along with you guys @NYTimesWordplay this Thursday on Twitter, 1:00 p.m.! Don’t be late👋😎!
3
Really liked this puzzle and had a good thing going ... right up until 72-across.
True, OYVEY has no “A” and that made HOLBA, COLBA, DOLBA, KOLFA and COLFA all seem foolish but ROLFE reminds me of the Muppets and not a problematic Disney princess.
Liked the rest of it though, very clever.
1
I would have been disappointed if BOOKKEEPING had not not been included.
5
Loved it. Thanks, Mr. Gordon, for a fun, challenging puzzle that left me smiling more than once. Of course, I stayed with RAINBOW for too long and the Mughal emperor wasn’t going to help, which left a very empty SW corner. And I tried TRIMS, awkwardly, instead of DRUMS. But to focus on the bright spots: Enjoyed the yummy SHRIMP, and remembered RICCI, HEIDEN and ELKE from wherever. I filled in the ISAAC and QUEENNOOR lines pretty quickly, and seriously, what’s not to like about DOESSAABBOOKKEEPING? A lovely Sunday.
5
A lot of fun, until I got down to nine empty squares in the very SW corner that I probably spent 15 or 20 minutes researching until I got the idea of fixing raiNBOW and replaced the ADO that I had been forced to erase earlier.
2
Sometimes I congratulate myself after solving a puzzle, and sometimes I congratulate the creator.
This was more of the latter, since once you get the theme, (and most veteran solvers who start at the upper left corner would after BASSIINEED. . ) you pretty much are given half of the theme letters.
Clever in the creation, fairly easy in the solving, imho.
2
This was a great fun puzzle for us, with lots of laughter, until we got SNARLed up with SEANxTATxUTExHEIDEN.
Somehow with Sunday Puzzles, 95% of the effort goes to the last 5% of the puzzle and that is rarely the fun part. If we didn't have a self-impressing streak to maintain, we'd throw in the towel at the last 2 or 3 words.
3
I can only try to imagine how deliriously oovveerr tthhee ttoopp @@LLeewwiiss mmiigghhtt bbee ttooddaayy!! Aside from the thematic "6 by 6"s, I count 21 other doppelapfell-thingummies ranging from Ms RICCI to Brother Junipero SERRA to ADD to the list, I KIDD you not. Whomsoever may wish to break what has to be an all-time record had better "FESTOONa lente", if you catch my drift.
Made what were likely the popular errors:
Hay BALE before BARN
MIX before ADO
RAINBOW before MOONBOW
and my 'skins' were DERMA/I before DRUMS
No question that the theme was the star of the show. Didn't check the title till way late, so the numbers of doubles dawned on me gradually. The array was truly spiffy, what with QUEEN NOOR very likely having had ROOMMATES at some time, to the highly unlikely likelihood of ISAAC Mizrahi YEEHAWing COOLLY, warmly, or any temperature in between. A MASS of good fun.
Would note that
A. the ENS LERking in the grid helped to find ALA'n' KING HEIDEN in plain view;
B. it's as true as ever that as INDIGOS, so goes the Nation;
C. the sign a runner at Churchill Downs just doesn't care is
.....WHINNY the Pooh
I know I don't have it in me to come up with 6 pairs of twins, but I could try for the Attention! of overeating Manhattan comicharacters with
GLUTTOONNYYOOHOOs
Thanks for the Good Day, Peter Gordon. Don't none of it SEEM MEEK to me.
3
@Leapfinger
Junipero prefers 'Fra' instead of 'Brother,' especially if you want to use his freeway...
@Mean Old Lady pretty sure they've pulled down his statute and the rest stop is closed. Genocide and all that.
1
@MOL, *of course* that should have been 'Fra'!
I think the 'Brother Juniper' derived from either the artisanal bread or (more likely) from the comic strip
https://images.app.goo.gl/LbMpeKyiU7ip1rRTA
That was a delight from start to finish. I caught on with the SAAB BOOKEEPER. I was very impressed with the phrases Peter came up with and loved working them out.
I was also pleased because I thought a lot of people would not like the puzzle and wouldn't express their thoughts as politely as Deadline.
All in all a perfect Sunday puzzle.
7
I finished it, but not a fan.
Clever construction, true that, but using made up phrases one is never going to hear in use makes for verbal gymnastics with no point as far as I’m concerned. This is not supposed to be Scrabble plus.
Least fun I’ve had doing a NYT x- word. Oh well.
3
@Mitchell Ross Yes, more slog than fun
1
Why does the link to the answers show the Saturday puzzle?
5
Naomi,
1. Because somebody made a mistake.
2. If you're looking for the answers, I hope you've scrolled down in these comments; links to an answer key have been posted by several people.
@Naomi
Apologies, all! One errant digit! This should be fixed.
Delightful. Had to look up 11D and 12D because -- much to my chagrin -- 12A was not obvious ... even though I had been a traps-banger in high school.
The letter doubling made it easier than otherwise!!
This made me wonder if tripling is possible -- if not just as easy. For starters, consider a sports icon also against raising service prices:
MELOTTTOOOFFFEEELEVATION
2
@Dr W
WOW!!
1
Caught on quickly with BOOKKEEPING. Few SNARLS after that. DANDY puzzle!
1
If my eye doctor used this puzzle in place of her normal eye chart, I'd think I was in serious trouble: "Doctor, I'm seeing double!"
What a daunting task Peter undertook ... and he suCCEEded! It's amazing to me that he was able create phrases that made any sort of sense, or more appropriately, nonsense.
Thank you, Peter Gordon, for doubling my pleasure and doubling my fun today!
3
Some dermatological advice for y’all:
Flaky yahoos soon need deep peel loofah sponges.
19
@John Ranta
Yikes! Even the number of duples is a duple. Having 11 pairs in a row makes this brief rant Astonishing
2
I was dismayed to not be able to confirm that “looffah” is a legitimate variant of “loofah”...
@John Ranta
It cpuld well be. Consider the informaition in this link:
https://www.goodhousekeeping.com/home/gardening/a20706975/how-to-grow-your-own-loofah-sponge/
Let me guess: Peter Gordon likes the LetterBox puzzles, where each successive word must begin with the last letter of the previous entry.
I caught on at once, and kind of munched my way through the puzzle, but that SW corner was a real stopper-upper. I don't 'do' snack food, don't know the Mogul/Mughal emperors, wanted a RAINBOW, LIE/LAY, fretted over SUN/SKY...but eventually worked it out. The crosses mostly helped me, but I ended up with one wrong letter. Aiiieeee!
SOMBER before SOBBER (a word nobody would ever use) and GEEKY before DORKY. (Can someone go into detail about which snarky label fits what victim, so we can be sure to get our pejorative name-calling right?)
Ah, well. Time for more household chores and then another assault on the moldy pine-straw mulch (repeated layers added twice a year vs removing the old mulch.) So much for the carefree life in a retirement village. (Maybe at some point I will be too aged to care...)
2
I suspect Peter Gordon had a deliriously wonderful time coming up with these and I didn't have quite that much fun myself. But I had a good-enough time in what was a mildly entertaining puzzle. The phrases are wacky and don't make much sense, but once you pick a theme such as this, you're pretty much assured that the phrases you come up with aren't going to make much sense. It's astounding that Peter was able to come up with any such phrases at all, much less six of them.
Lewis must be beside himself with joy. (Actually, if he's beside himself, he's a candidate for placement in the grid as a themer.)
The themers weren't hard for me. MOONBOW was hard. I had RAINBOW. Bet most of you did too. Only when I had the two "S"s and realized that 97D had to be AMASS, did I correct it. That was the last section in in what for me was a puzzle that was neither very hard nor very easy. Probably just right for a Sunday.
3
Confidently entered “incision” for 2D with no crosses thinking I was very clever indeed.
2
I loved today's puzzle, and went right to the November 21, 1993 puzzle. Was solving along when I was pleasantly surprised by 49A. Check it out!
This was a great puzzle! I was truly sad to get to the bottom and the last theme entry, as I had so much fun with them. A unique twist on a crossword technique well executed. Thank you Mr. Gordon.
Certain neologisms do rub me the wrong way, for which I have no other logical explanation than I just don't like them. 'Google' as a verb, for example, or from today's puzzle (as clued), 'life HACK'. But I simply cringe and move on.
1
Would someone please explain why YALE is “The collegiate school, today”?
If it’s still a “college”, it cannot be the only one.
@PeterW A quick look at the Wikipedia page for Yale University reveals that it was originally chartered as the Collegiate School. Thus the clue and answer.
4
PeterW,
You wrote in your earlier post that "This one was a “solve” (lower case ‘s’)." You used lower case for "collegiate school" in this post. When you looked at the clue for YALE, did you not notice the *upper* case C and S (which would have told you "Collegiate" was part of a name, not just an adjective)?
@Barry Ancona & @Michael
Thank you both.
I did NOT pay appropriate attention to capitalization in the clue. Had I done so, “research” would have been necessary - and too much “research” could drop me from a “solve” to a “completion”. I’m glad I got it on crosses - with help from the theme.
1
This one was a “solve” (lower case ‘s’).
Had to look up ROREM (or ROLFE) because I wasn’t sure about the ‘R’.
The theme “dawned” on me - ever so gradually. I had NO clue (in spite of what was offered) for the theme answers - so I spent NO time on them at first. But, when all those double letters started showing up (which, at first, seemed like errors), I figured I was onto something - and the pattern actually helped with some crosses. For example, the need for a ‘B’ at square 40 helped me fix my original entry - - SILO.
It’s really “strange” that the book Still Alice was highlighted as an offering by BookBub - just yesterday!!
Once again, I am amazed at the ingenuity of our constructors. It’s difficult to imagine the effort that went into thinking up the theme answers for today. Thanks for that effort Mr. Gordon.
2
@PeterW
ROREM was my undoing. I misremembered ROLFE and entered WOLFE, and I did not know ole Ned at all (nor his music) so I left it. If I used the app vs pen and paper, I guess I'd have caught it.
2
@PeterW - I'd never heard of Ned ROREM before doing the NYT crossword puzzles many years ago. It wasn't until recent years that I managed to remember his name. And unfortunately, I still haven't seen his name outside of the NYT crosswords. I think that speaks more to my culture media diet than anything else. If not for the NYT crossword smorgasbord, his name might still be alien to me.
4
@Wen - Here's a little bit of Rorem in case you might give it a listen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_aYoLluu8NQ
He is as well known among classical musicians as a memoirist & writer as he is as a composer especially for piano and voice.
3
Fetched far, but still fun, and a remarkable creative talent.
1
Got lost in the double letters. Had to do the puzzle check to find an errant E.
Gold star loss aside,
Thanks Peter
Now, THAT was a fun puzzle. I figured out the theme fairly quickly so it was a fast complete. Happy to see som thing other than ‘Tiny Bubbles’ for Don Ho.
The streak continues.
2
It looks like the answer key attached to the article is for the wrong date (I opened a file from December of 2018!). I'm a fairly new solver, and Sundays are generally beyond me -- that answer key is how I learn from the spaces that stumped me. Any chance of a fix, NYT?
Michelle,
Here's the answer key from another source. The next time it doesn't show up in the column you'll know where to find it.
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/10/2019
7
@Michelle
As you may already know, Sundays are about at the same level of difficulty as Wednesdays. They’re just a little larger.
So don’t be scared off!
2
Sadly needed the auto correct. I had casuallyYEEHAWS which messed up that whole section. I wasn’t enamoured with the theme.
1
Elke (of New Jersey),
With all due respect, whether you loved it or not, if you had casuallyYEEHAWS you didn't *get* the theme.
2
@Barry Ancona
That’s probably why she used the auto correct...?
Of the gazillion comments you write each day this one feels to me like it should have stayed on your side of the screen. With all due respect.
8
KMBredt,
Quite possibly correct; I wasn't sure.
Loved this puzzle. Surprised myself with the obscure info that resides somewhere in my brain. I read a book about Queen Noor so that helped.
3
This theme (double sixes) reminded me of the green glass doors puzzle https://www.thegamegal.com/the-secret-to-green-glass-doors/ - Having bookkeeping as a part of one of the answers made solving this crossword a bit easier.
1
I really liked this puzzle! The six pairs of double letters in the grid are an amazing feat of construction, but they are also very helpful in solving the grid, as you know to look for them. Peter's "Fireball Crossowrds" are indeed challenging, but very doable and lots of fun! If you like a bit of challenge in your grids check them out! He also has a subscription of puzzles that all use current news items in the solve. If you pay attention to the news, these puzzles are a lot of fun! Thanks Peter, Will and team for a great puzzle, and thanks to Caitlin for her great review.
7
Yes, @DavidConnell, l, your resident alphadoppeltotter, am lying on the couch, patting my forehead with a wet cloth, half swimming in ecstasy and half drowning in overload, what with 36 theme-based double letters, plus 20 additional ones in the puzzle. My description of today's puzzle can be found in yesterday's: SUPER FREAK. I rate the puzzle Super-PG.
Feat puzzles are sometimes not fun to solve, but this one, IMO, was. I loved trying to figure out the theme answers, and counting the double letters I had in my partially revealed theme answers, to figure out how many more there were to go. I also learned and love MOONBOW.
I still wonder how Peter came up with these, but however he did, I'm glad for it, and I'll double down on that.
15
@Lewis
As I was nearing the end of the blog, I thought "Man, Lewis must have had a great time counting the double letters!!", and this comment I'm replying to is the very first one that shows up for me. Cue the Twilight Zone music! LOL
3
Not too Twilight Zone IMO, Steve. You and Lewis got to the comments about the same time today, and you started reading from newest to oldest.
(Eventually, you'll find that David posted early yesterday evening that he was waiting for Lewis to comment on this one.)
4
@Lewis
With you having claimed the high ground as Wordplay's resident alphadoppeltotter years ago, I was especially looking forward to your comment. I'm not disappointed.
I think Peter Gordon must rate as one the all time greats. Surprising that he has published only one NYT Saturday crossword puzzle.
4
LETTER BOXED THREAD
Only one I could find today:
W-P(6), P-E(8)
2
What is this?
Clues to the Letterboxed puzzle that the Times created a while back on the app. As there is no separate section for comments on Letterboxed, @Mari provides us help here.
I was confused about it til I finally got into the puzzle myself. It’s addictive.
1
@Mari
Same here, but at least I found it very quickly. Now it is time to stop my introductory talk. ; )
1
SPELLING BEE
We’re back to a challenging one today. I’m stuck at 40 words 207;points, and I expect that there are 232 points total, as amazing is 116 points.
Greek lover makes its return, also an obscure stringed instrument one letter off from a common one similar but smaller than a bass. A natural gum one letter off from a brand, a biology term meaning both, neither, or unknown gender (I thought it was a geological era), an adverb seen in formal writing, a noun meaning beginning usually used in its adjective form, an informal derogatory term, something vital, British coins, and an antibiotic.
17
@Kevin Davis Great and comprehensive set of hints Kevin!
3
SPELLING BEE GRID
Nov 10th 2019
C E H I L N P
WORDS: 42, POINTS: 232, PANAGRAMS: 2, BINGO
C x 18
E x 2
H x 1
I x 4
L x 6
N x 3
P x 8
4L x 10
5L x 12
6L x 10
7L x 2
8L x 3
9L x 2
10L x 2
12L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 12 Tot
C 5 5 6 - 1 1 - - 18
E 1 - - 1 - - - - 2
H - 1 - - - - - - 1
I 1 - 1 1 - - 1 - 4
L 2 1 1 - 2 - - - 6
N 1 2 - - - - - - 3
P - 3 2 - - 1 1 1 8
Tot 10 12 10 2 3 2 2 1 42
43
@Mari Warning: The very controversial, and obscure, word from the Bee a short while ago, meaning 'lover of Greece/ Greek things' is back as a Panagram! The second Panagram also uses the Greek term for 'love' as a suffix. More later...
14
@Mari just missing the 9 letter words for P & C. I’ll keep at it.
@Mari has anyone ever used the save function? I’ll be traveling on the East Coast for a week and might like to save puzzles for future solving.
1
Sometimes you just ride the same mental wave as the constructor. I had yeehawing designers and rent-sharing American-Jordanian royals with only two and one crosses each, respectively. One of those smooth solves that fills in easily and yet with enormous satisfaction (and vigorous self-patting on the back).
Great fun.
6
@Sam Lyons
Same experience here. I enjoyed it but it was over unusually fast for a Sunday.
The Fisher King is a brilliant film, as is Brazil.
5
This is the puzzle I've been looking for all week! So clever!
8
Masterpiece of construction.
8
Started picking up on the theme with 23A, although it didn't come that easily at first—was it going to be BASSES or BASSI?, although the crossings did help with that and on some of the other theme answers. The themers became a bit easier once things got going, and the last two filled in quickly.
And, for a little country celebration: Yee Haw!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpMX1OLlwq0
1
@JayTee It had to be BASSI because BASSES breaks the double letter pattern.
1
I had BASSO before noticing the plural.
2
@Doug
Since I was just starting out at that point (I almost always solve top left to bottom right), the pattern wasn't obvious yet, although it didn't look like the crosses would work with -ES, so I didn't bother filling it in and waited until I was 1) sure of the crosses, and 2) discovered the pattern.
1
Great to see Stefi Graf. She was a monster on the court that seems to have been forgotten.
9
WROONNGGAANNSWER key? I have on error I can’t find!
11
Try cross of YEEHAW and Yale. Had me upside down for a while. Was also stumped on spelling of COOLLY. Thought there was only a single letter L.
4
@Tracy McQueen
Go here (Xwordinfo.com) if you need answer key. Click on “Solution and Notes” next to picture of Peter Gordon and then scroll down:
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/10/2019
4
@Puzzlemucker thank YOU SOOOO much...it is the 2nd or 3rd time I've been referred to answer key for wrong date>>> how does this happen "DEB">>???
Great fun. I thought this was going to be a real slog for me since many of the clues to the themers were unfamiliar. But after getting the first one (53A for me) and discovering the pattern it became much easier since I could fill in double letters even when I get did not have a clue to the clue. The crosses and fill were interesting and fair. Thought I might get stuck in the SW corner at the end but once I got MOONBOW (instead of rainbow), that fell, too. Result was one of my quickest Sunday finishes ever. Thank you, Peter Gordon.
4
Well, this one broke my short streak of personal best times. While it took me quite a bit longer than the last few, I certainly appreciated the skill involved. Senior constructor, indeed. Loved the MOONBOW video. Amazing beauty on this planet.
🙂
8
@Just Carol You might call him a 'bow constructor'.
1
My favorited themed puzzles are the ones in which the theme helps me solve the puzzle.
This was definitely one of those.
Enjoyed the theme, the fill was delightful, and it was overall a great Sunday.
16
@MJ
Also like the puzzles in which the theme helps the solve. When I got the Q, I thought of Queen Noor and got that phrase. Had lots of fun, and enjoyed learning about moonbows in the video.
2
Got the gimmick on Mr. Mizrahi's line. I thought I was seeing in STEREO. Looked at the title of the puzzle, counted up the number of double letters in a row, confirmed, then continued on to the others. With enough crossings, I went ahead and solved the rest of the theme entries purposefully. I really looked the QUEEN NOOR one. Then I thought, "WHO? HOW?" It was quite impressive and a lot of fun.
A slightly different way to clue KTEL - I liked it.
We don't see FESTOON enough - it's a fun word to say. Don't see TAUPE enough either.
SURCEASE - I learned the word in eight grade when we learned The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe - the only place I'd ever seen the word - in the second stanza. Maybe it left a much stronger impression on me than on Caitlin.
I had nearly all of the same first incorrect guesses before getting the right answer.
There were lots of doubles outside of the themes too - TRAPDOORS, ADDS, LOOK SEE, PIRATES BOOTY, STOOL, CREE, INNS, DEERE, MUGGY, MILL, RICCI, GRASSY, FESTOON, SOBBER, AMASS and of course, MOONBOW.
Liked some of the juxtapositions - BRAN and BARN, DORKY DVORAK. Also that we had both YUGOS and SLAVS in the same puzzle.
Had to run through all the different crib meanings to end up at the right one.
So yeah, the solve was mostly pretty smooth, not SILKEN smooth, but it was COOLLY YEEHAWS smooth.
14
@Wen
I remember reading a poem that had the phrase "flying festoon" in it. Anybody recall that one?
Dr W,
I had never heard of it, but it took just a few seconds to find it.
https://lyrics.fandom.com/wiki/Shel_Silverstein:The_Flying_Festoon
@Barry Ancona
TY!!
OT: Yet another missing EMU in NC, but this one found safely:
https://abc11.com/pets-animals/emu-missing-for-3-weeks-found-in-durham/5686480/
7
Once I saw the theme this puzzle became much easier to do but also more and more mind-boggling that the constructor could keep it up, and so well! I needed Caitlin's help to get MOONBOW as I was stuck on it being RAINBOW which kinda killed the crosses down there for a while, but otherwise things generally fell into place. Very satisfactory!
3
@Millie
I, too, was clinging to RAINBOW far too long.
After several frustrating minutes, KODAK moments rose up out of the sea of memory, chased the RAIN away, and revealed the MOON.
10
@Millie I too was trapped by the RAINBOW fixation. And even though I thought of MOONBOW, I forgot to try it out. Not knowing the snack food, I thought of PIRATEMINTS, better than PIRATEBITES for two reasons. But the rest of the puzzle was so fun that I will quickly recover from the ignominy of solving failure.
1
Why aren’t they called sunbows?
2
Minority opinion: Got the gimmick at the first themer, and after that found them uninteresting.
I can see the fun of putting these themers together -- I'd probably like to do that myself -- but in a puzzle, it just didn't work for me.
I expect Peter Gordon to challenge me, but all I'm seeing here is that he challenged himself -- successfully to be sure -- but I didn't have a whole lot of fun here.
I don't mean to be nasty. Thanks anyway for the effort. It just wasn't my Sunday.
10
@Deadline
I respect your right to a differing opinion, and the way you stated it. I did not find it nasty in the least.
12
@Deadline
I often come here to Wordplay to see how everyone else liked (or did not like) the puzzles. The majority of the times, I agree with the prevailing sentiment, but some times I think "Were you all solving the same puzzle??" :-)
That's why we all come here though (to see what everyone else thought), and how boring it would be if everyone agreed...
9
@Deadline
I agree with you. It’s a constructor’s puzzle, I think. A real feat, but it created a need for a lot of uninteresting short stuff, though there were a few nice points. But really he should be commended for how clean it is. He’s got an amazing brain.
5
Lots of fun! I really enjoyed this one. Especially QUEEN NOOR ROOMMATES (I always kind of liked Queen Noor) and ISAAC COOLLY YEEHAWS. There were proper names, but it didn't feel like too many as I was doing the puzzle, and interesting words. FESTOON! SURCEASE!
7
@Liz B
QUEENNOOR was my first get and ISAACCOOLLYYEEHAWS, was my favorite, though I can't quite imagine him doing anything coolly. He always seems so invested in what he's saying or doing.
3
Caitlin, as always I love your column, but linking to the solution to Peter Gordon's November 21, 1993 puzzle on crosswordinfo without any warning is a huge spoiler if anyone is thinking of going to the archives and trying it for themselves.
Before clicking on that link, my comment was to going recommend that puzzle to any wordplayers looking for another fun puzzle by him. But as most people read the column before the comments, my spoiler alert will not help them.
3
@vaer
If any consolation, it helped me. Didn’t click on Caitlin’s link. Thanks for the warning!
2
@Puzzlemucker
A teensy bit. I was also thinking that there must be solvers here who solved the 1993 puzzle back in 1993, on stone tablet as Barry would say. I may have even done so or at least tried, because I've been doing the puzzles on and off since the mid-1970s. But I certainly don't remember it.
3
@vaer
I’m pretty sure I would have done it back then — I did the Friday-Sunday in paper since late 80s/early 90s. Big caveat: there were many incomplete Saturdays and some Fridays, though I nearly always finished Sundays. But I’m also pretty sure that when I try this one tomorrow, I will not remember it. If it were from 2013, I probably wouldn’t remember it, or at most vaguely.
This puzzle had a lot of six appeal.
(Solve it on the double!)
23
Ronald Reagan broadcast Chicago Cubs baseball games from the WHO studio in Des Moines. He would receive a minimal description by wire such as "ball" and he might say, " that is ball 3,in the dirt" even though it may have been over the head of the batter. It was before my time but my dad said he did a DANDY job and, at the time, most people didn't know he was making up the description.
2
@ColoradoZ - I see he was preparing for his presidency way back then.
22
"The clear channel voice of the middle west."
(WHO, not Dutch)
6
@Barry Ancona
“Dutch.” Nice touch, Barry.
3
Can y'all post the right answer key?
4
Jane,
If it doesn't show up on the Times site, go here:
https://www.xwordinfo.com/Crossword?date=11/10/2019
I was shocked to figure out the trick to the theme before filling in all the blanks. knowing I was looking for doubled letters really helped!
8
I have long been a fan of Peter Gordon's puzzles, and he has outdone himself with this one. Coming up with six phrases, each of which contains six consecutive sets of doubled letters, is a stupendous feat. My favorite was 37A, because I knew it had to contain BOOKKEEPING, a favorite word of mine.
12
A Sunday Sundae! ALL THERE. No CHEATERS. Peter Gordon, a SENIOR constructor, is clearly no HACK to AMASS these RARE themers ... and then he ADDS SILKEN fill. This is solving at ITSBEST. USDA prime. I classify it ONEA.
(Hi, ELKE!)
12
The answer to 73D always reminds me of Frau Blucher in the Mel Brooks movie "Young Frankenstein", the mere mention of whose name causes the horses to whinny in terror. A link to one such scene:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdIID_TGwhM
7
Quite simply, a pleasure
6
Really liked the theme, although it did let you put in letters without yet knowing the answer.
12
@Mr. Mark
One can always put the letters in without knowing the answer. I do it all the time.
1
I just kept picturing Lewis in a swoon, a double double double double double double heaven.
8
@David Connell
TO SWOON NEED DOUBLES / Alphadoppeltotters’ must-haves for delight?
(needs a good editor)
6
Just to be clear, SAAB is an aerospace company that made cars, not a car company that made planes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saab_AB
There is no SAAB car company any longer. SAAB, by the way, because it is an acronym.
9
Just to be clear (in case you were wondering), Steve's comment is about something in Caitlin's column, not something in Peter's puzzle.
4
This puzzle was a slow dazzle for me. My response to the theme went from, “Oh, pretty cool” to “Oh, wow!” once I realized that there were six consecutive pairs of double letters in each themer as opposed to merely double letters at the ends/beginnings of the theme words. A mind boggling feat and visual delight.
On top of that, it was such a smooth solve for a Sunday. Minimal glue, color in the non-theme fill (including some INDIGOS), and some fun cluing to boot (e.g., MAGNET/“It’s more attractive the closer you get to it”; the ALVIN/cALVIN clue). This one was my POW!, if not Jeff Chen’s.
Word of the day: MOONBOW.
17