HILARITY ENSUES may be one of my all-time favorite crossword answers. Droll.
Note to constructors and x-word editors: please consider deep-sixing the "silent [letter]" and spelling-out-a-letter answers.
1
Terms of Endearment by Caitlin Lovinger 11/22/19 states that the honeybees gathering nectar and pollen in the pic are "busy filling their pollen sacs". Flowers have pollen sacs. Honeybees have *pollen baskets* on the tibia. These are depressed areas surrounded by hairs that hold the pollen. A single hair acts as a spindle. Pollen is collected from a bee's hairy body (by wetting the feet with its tongue), and then placed on the INSIDE of the hind legs, where it's combed into the "pollen press" between the segments of that bent leg. When the leg is straightened, the pollen is extruded thru the press onto the outside of the leg, into the pollen basket - all neat and tidy. There you go - more information than you ever wanted to know!
1
Triumph at last. Well, maybe three times my typical Saturday time isn't really triumph, but at least it got finished. Southeast was deceptively fast, but then southwest, northeast, and northwest were increasingly harder to fill in. Truly a matter of fingerholds and toeholds. Whew! (But ultimately satisfying!)
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Who's first is SILENT W? Where, pray tell, is the SILENT W? The W I get but how is it SILENT? What am I missing here? I think this is kind of stretching it.
@Lin Kaatz Chary I wasn't sure until I tried pronouncing it. Woo?
@Lin Kaatz Chary because Who is pronounced "hoo"..... So the W is SILENT.
Liked the AQUINAS/AQUAMAN cross of foundational heroes.
2
Excellent puzzle. If I'd been able to solve the NE without Caitlin's column, I'd have considered myself to have arrived as a competent solver. Unfortunately, it looks like I have a few more years to go. (NE is fair, tho I don't like losing to a "weak superhero / rap (or hip-hop?) group / silent-initial-letter" stack, but none of those clues is individually outrageous.)
2
Testing. . . testing . . .
I've written a longish comment and tried to post it several times today, but I keep getting that pesky error message. Just checking to see if this will go through. . . .
@Liz B
When that happened to me repeatedly a few days ago, I broke it up into chunks, posting the first chunk as a comment and the other two into replies to my own comment.
Mine was also "longish," but had not exceeded the limit. And none of the chunks flagged any problem with any of my harmless, benign words
@Deadline
Yeah, that describes my post perfectly. It wasn't anywhere near the length limit. I'm not going to bother with it at this point!
Well below my Saturday average of 38 hours. ;-)
Very few gimmes on the first pass. Sloane was one of them. My son was at the Art Institute this week and sent me a picture of Sunday on La Grande Jatte. Another generation of Seurat enthusiasts credited to John Hughes.
9
@Hildy Johnson
LOL
ASSUAGE: comment as I turn and look in the mirror stepping out of the shower.
6
@Laszlo
That was cheeky.
2
@Etaoin Shrdlu
Scramble a few letters and it will give you SAUSAGE. Oh wait, that works too...
2
Once I changed 51a from BECAUSE to ISAIDSO the southwest corner fell into place. I really struggled with 1d as I wrote ASSAM which led nowhere. I liked the long clues- HILARITYENSUES. So satisfying.
1
BECAUSE and LABRATS were two of my first entries - and both were wrong!
3
Maybe not the hardest, but for me one of the most enjoyable Saturday puzzles . I loved the clever cluing. I'm sure lots of us
entered "lab rats" before we realized it was their rodent cousins.
6
I almost always like the same clue being used more than one, and I hadn't PASSED ON this one for sure. or the TERMs of ENDEARMENT. I fell for the SILENT treatment again. . . woohoo! RATS before MICE. I was pleased to recall the Princess Bride reference from POE, that dweem within a dweem.
Speaking of FAD DIETS I was sent a picture of someone's yearbook quote: I am not a vegan because I love animals; I am a vegan because I hate plants!
Good Saturday!!
Going to try to find some local Japanese or Thai to celebrate the Pope's current trips.
2
Wonderful puzzle. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the grid was so segmented that it seemed almost as if I was solving four smaller puzzles.
That caused a bit of a problem when I got to SE. Having only the EN part of 41A showing, I quickly filled in the last part as ENDING. This really made a mess. But when I finally gave up trying to come up with the name of a day or month that started with TI, I took it out and finished that quadrant. As soon as I saw ENSUES, I was delighted to enter HILARITY. That is a favorite phrase of mine, which I have probably overused.
My first thought for 25A was PARKING LOTS, which didn't fit, so GARAGES popped into my mind. Not that that helped a lot with the NE quadrant though. A comic-book hero (or villain?) and a rapper (or hipper-hopper?) were daunting. But the AS ending for 9D reminded me that in high school I lived down the street from a church named after Thomas AQUINAS, so I took a chance.
Terrific entries, challenging cluing -- all the stuff that make for good wordplay, thus good puzzles. Thanks for the fun.
1
I'm so frustrated. For the second time in about a month, my puzzle didn't pause for some reason* when I thought it did, adding over eight hours to my time. I have one square left to fill, and now I'm debating whether I'd rather break my streak or trash my average time. Last time I didn't notice until after I finished, and my Wednesday average is now probably half again as high as it had been. I don't typically worry too much about stats, but it has been gratifying to watch my gradual improvement since I started doing the puzzles regularly about a year ago, which I mostly judged against my average. :(
*Thinking about it, I suspect that the problem might be because I had opened an old puzzle to review something in a different window. Since it was complete, it didn't automatically pause when I switched away from it, and the timer must have counted that window's time on top of the time I spent on today's puzzle. Maybe? Otherwise I have no idea what happened.
Solve the puzzle then email the support team. They can manually change times on puzzles. One time I solved on a plane without Wi-Fi (opened the tab in the airport), and when I reconnected, it registered it as a 1-second solve. I happened to remember my time (I think it was a PR) and they just changed it for me.
2
@Tyler D. Thanks, I'll try that.l
@M
I would recommend focusing on (and enjoying) the puzzles more, and being less concerned with average times and streaks. YMMV.
Streaks and average times are really secondary, IMHO.
1
Just about average, though the scoreboard shows it exactly 5 minutes faster than the actual crossword page. Felt like it might not be doable for a while there.
1
Well, my average time for a Saturday’s shot — I blame it on trying to solve while flying the friendly skies — but my streak is intact :-) The northwest was just (wonderfully) cruel — largely self-inflicted because I thought UPI might’ve been the descendant of American Messenger, and, fittingly enough, I was at my WITSEND when I finally realized my error, got WITSEND, the flourish of happy music, and a feeling of pure bliss that I will carry about me for the rest of the day.
1
OutKast is not a rap group. They're a hip hop group. I'm a 60+ white woman and even I know this. So whoever clued that must be the whitest person on the planet.
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@Glinda B
"So whoever clued that must be the whitest person on the planet."
Along with the Grammy presenters themselves, apparently.
https://www.grammy.com/grammys/artists/outkast
8
Had a rough time in the old SouthWest, as TEMPURA 'Appeared' = SEEMED to be right. Scrapped that in favour of going with BECAUSE/ I SAID SO since I was pure positive one half or the other would be it, and McGuffy's READER settled that issue. Remembered CLIPART and took a chance with Omar SHARIF.
HILARITY ENSUES is such a great bit o' language, it segued nicely into the FADDIEST corner in the SouthEast. Not sure how I wasn't scathed by the SEEP SIN and the Battle of the ALTO SEXES.
Don't know how I MANAGED to fill in the NorthEast, but down-sizing Robert/Elke's LABRATS to LABMICE helped. I promise that, if not for the N----L combo, I would never have inkled onto NEPALI being tops in Darjeeling. [And gee, wasn't PRECIOUS just Darling?] Just when I was at my WITS END, I saw that UPI should be UPS and found the puzzle's end.
Enjoyed the trip, Mr Trenton, No Joke, and I'll bet that's the first and last time I ever see GOODY and POI together.
2
Question from 2016: What happens when the Donald loses?
HILARY ENSUES.
Let the lamenting begin.
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@Andrew
Too soon.
6
ARISEN is in the perfect spot-- above the Madonna
3
INSOLES, for me, was a misdirection hiding in plain view. We're "arch supports" holding up architectural features? Or were our partisans toying with us?
Before today, I hadn't thought much about how versatile the word "temper" is. Used as a clue for ASSUAGES, it could equally have clued WITSEND, STEELS, and FIRMEST. Not only Janus-faced, but multiply so
5
@Thomas Downing
Shall I compare thee to a summer's day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer's lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature's changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow'st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander'st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow'st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
[Sonnet 18, Shakespeare]
3
I liked the puzzle very much for lots of reasons. But I beg you, please, please, please stop with the question marks. Especially on a Saturday when I know the clues will be tricky and may send me down a path that's anything but obvious. I don't need the help of your question mark. The one for usual suspect didn't even make sense. Please.
1
@AR Here’s the rule: A clue that is literally true does not get a question mark. However, a clue that is *not* literally true, or that stretches language too much, does get a question mark, out of fairness to solvers. —Will Shortz
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@AR Try your hand at a few British cryptics. You won't even notice the question marks in the NYT crosswords.
1
I still don't like it. But I'm tickled to get a response from the boss!
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I am embarrassed to admit I didn't get ALTO SAX, even though that's one of the instruments I play. 😳
It was an enjoyable puzzle, with lots of sparkling entries!
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@Stephanie
What a lovely instrument to have mastered. Very envious (in a good way...)
1
Oh, and for the clue writer and caption writer--the honeybees have pollen BASKETS on their legs. Apiarists do not call them SACS.
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@Mean Old Lady: the clue refers to the sac that produces pollen on the flower’s male part.
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@P
Athked and anthered.
[Hooray for all those undergrad Botany courses]
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@Leapfinger
Hah! Sustained.
Finally finished the main puzzle ("1:08:19"), not without research. The Mini was a totally different story. Ended up at 5:30 with five answers to 14 clues: PAR, ARS, AVENGER (don't know how I got that--I've known Captain America and the Hulk since the 1940s but never thought of them as avengers--but this is what gave me PAVES), and SAVED. Early on I had LOB, but erased it because I couldn't start anything across with those letters.
Looks like my puzzle-solving days are dwindling away.
kilaueabart,
Your solving skills are not necessarily diminishing, but you don't seem to be keeping up with things. The Marvel superheroes you remember from the 1940's have been in dozens of Avengers series films. I haven't *seen* any of them, but I can't imagine reading or watching any commercial medium -- including The New York Times -- without being *aware* of them.
2
@Barry Ancona
Only very minimally aware, as in aware that there are a lot of comic-book movies being made, and I don't even bother reading the reviews of them.
2
Deadline,
Minimally should be more than enough for the puzzle (see also -- actually, not need to see also -- "The Simpsons").
NW through SE corners fell like dominoes with the sure fills of ASWAN and EDDA, then LAOS and AQUINAS excluding Bengal to yield NEPALI, and finally BOA, POE, and SLOANE (yes, I can still quite from that movie at will even though I memorized it while I still pronounced the characters’ names as Ferrith and thLOANE.) I already had SACS, FINESSE, READER, and even HILARITY ENSUES because solving right before bed sometimes loosens the mind just so and things tumble out more easily than when the thinking muscle is flexed and traps them in the steel jaws of analysis paralysis.
Then I looked at the app timer. I was on my way to beating my Saturday best by what — three? maybe even four minutes? — with less than 25 squares to fill. Noradrenaline flooded my brain and... [insert screeching-to-a-grinding-halt sound] that was the end of the smooth fill. I spent the next 10 minutes digging out SHARIFS and RAPHAEL out of a brain so rigid you could use it as a tom-tom even though both should have been gimmes for me.
I could blame the [insert SILENT expletive] app timer, but... Yeah, actually I do blame the timer. Since I can’t turn it off, I’m going to start printing out the weekend puzzles. I have bought a printer precisely so I could indulge in the occasional guilty pleasure of feeling the pen glide over paper. Now I just need to get it out of the box. And myself out of the grip of that [reinsert SILENT expletive from above] app timer. Time to go back to just enjoying a good puzzle.
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@Sam Lyons
Or time to (re?)read The Inner Game of Tennis.
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@Andrew
I’ve never read it but I’m familiar with his work. In this case, however, I really think it’s just time to rethink what is and what isn’t a competition. I’m the give-me-a-tight-deadline, dare-me-I-can’t-do-[insert just about anything] type. I usually thrive on the whole faster, better, more perfect dynamic.
A good puzzle deserves to be treated like good wine, though, not the 400m dash. Speeding through a feat of fine construction and clueing mows down all the trees in the proverbial forest.
4
Joyce?
When this puzzle exited my printer, I gulped. For good reason. Too many long fills and too few short ones to cross. I was so sure that 8A was LABRATS that I rendered the NE corner opaque. 16A and 18A didn’t help one bit. I got LAOS immediately and guessed AQUINAS correctly, but NE remained opaque until I head-slapped into LABMICE. With a little bit of effort I sussed HILARITY ENSUES, and that tickled my funny bone. So, it wasn’t a total downer this morning.
3
Thanks Caitlin for the wonderful picture of those PRECIOUS honeybees. They are truly a GOODY of the insect world.
4
I thought it was a fun sparkly puzzle with a little crunch here and there. I would have loved to have seen it run on a Wednesday.
I accomplished it in less than half my Saturday average. I am used to steeling myself for a nice twenty-five to thirty minute Saturday challenge. Instead, I feel Shortzed yet again.
Three Fridays in a row under 10 minutes. Three Saturdays under 12 minutes. I did not suddenly get that much better at solving after forty years of doing NYT puzzles. I am not attempting to be a speed solver. Please toughen the late week puzzles up to former standards!!!
1
@Liane Yes, solving NYT crosswords quickly is the bane of so many. I feel for you. May I suggest a support group.
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@Dr Bold
I do adore dripping sarcasm! However, please do know that I do view this as a support group. I am far from the only long time solver who feels the NYT is consistently dumbing down the weekly progression. Whether it is related to increasing puzzle subscription sales remains a matter of debate.
1
@Liane Beware what you ask for! :-) — WS
2
“Moves two pieces at once, in a way.” This was my holdout, and not being a chess player, I still don’t understand it. Can someone give me a short explanation? But a
So, the wY the clue is written, it seems like it’s calling for a Vern form rather than a noun.
@Shari Coats castling is the only chess move where you move two of your pieces at once. If you haven’t moved your king and one of your rooks (castles), and there’s no pieces in between them, AND none of the squares through which the pieces would move would put the king in check, then you can basically switch them: out the king where the rook was and vice versus.
It’s a useful move
1
@ethan f.
Close to an accurate description, however the rook moves to the square beside the king, while the king moves around the rook to the next square. The pieces do not exchange places.
3
The emus seem to want more that the usual number of words before letting a link appear. That should be enough to say:
How to castle:
https://www.chess.com/article/view/how-to-castle-in-chess
2
I was worried as this was number 100 on my current streak but it fell quite quickly. Lab Rats seemed right, but castles on the down corrected it on the first go through of the downs. I enjoyed it and glad that I didn't break my streak at 99.
Alan
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@Alan B. Glad to hear you didn't break your streak at 99! That would have been frustrating. This easily could have been a streak-breaking puzzle.
I used to care about my streak, but I've given up in frustration. I had a modest streak going (with plans to continue it) up until November 3, when it mysteriously got reset. I sent a couple of emails about it, but it didn't get resolved. My streak was incorrect on both the app and when I checked it through the browser, but strangely was two different numbers. I was told to re-download the app. I did that, and my streak reset from that day. Ugh! Furthermore, two of the days in October that were previously gold stars turned blue! So I've just decided I don't care about streaks anymore. It's liberating. I have the freedom to use autocheck Whenever. I. Want. To. My flyspecking days are DONE!
3
@Stephanie I experienced the same app issue this summer, when the app turned a yellow star blue and interrupted my record streak! Fortunately the support team helped resolve the issue, and I hope they come through for you, too! While they tinkered with the app (and I awaited my streak to be restored), I felt silly that a simple color and streak was enough to bother me into contacting the support team! Then I decided to shift perspective and, no matter the outcome, not to let technology take away from my feeling of accomplishment. It was liberating!
3
@Stephanie Thanks! I just this year started watching my streak and it's made me stick a little harder to solving before going on to something else and I think that's made me both a quicker and a better solver--although I really don't care about quick. It's more about the pleasure of the solve.
Take care,
Alan
I could not remember AQUINAS for the longest time, even though I had the AS forever, and knew the philosopher was Thomas Something, so the SILENT W snuck up on me as my last answer. Excellent puzzle.
2
Crossing SLOANE with ESSENES was a cruel ending to this mostly fair-but-tough Saturday
In puzzles, ESSENES can often be found on the far right or across the bottom of the puzzle (all those E's and S's). Their ancient home can be found down by the Dead Sea. So they continue to live on the margin...
2
@Ron SLOANE was a gimme for me. Nice to see a clue from my generation for a change! https://www.thewrap.com/5-classic-moments-from-ferris-buellers-day-off-video/
1
A Friday and Saturday with great pushback and great entries. Thank you very much to Emily Carroll, Trenton Charlson, and the editors.
3
Terrifically fun Saturday.
Thanks, Caitlin, for the OUTKAST clip. While I had heard of them, I never listened to their music in the early 00's. Clever song and highly entertaining video!
Favorite cross definitely AQUINAS and AQUAMAN, but was temporarily derailed by IRONMAN first.
Wanted the combo component to be FRIES, but clearly needed the crosses to get to the well-clued ALTOSAX.
So many challenging clues made for a perfect Saturday. Kudos, Mr. Charlson!
3
AQUINAS and AQUAMAN in the same grid! I am impressed.
4
The NE QUadrant is a thing of beauty with AQUAMAN crossing AQUINAS.
While I was solving I was pushed to my WIT'S END. The HILARITY -- or more the enormous endorphin rush -- finally ENSUEd when my final move was changing the C to a K in OUTKAST.
Thank you, Trenton Charlson!
4
It was going so well!...but I ran aground in the NE, where I didn't know rap groups, Justice League members (though I tried IRON MAN and ATOM MAN, not sure they are even right) and LAB RATS or RABBITS (which I felt like one)...I MANAGE most of the time (I got that one) but I finally gave up and asked Google for the philosopher...I had A----AS and just couldn't come up with it. So, one Google and the rest fell, but in my book this is Epic Fail, and it all ended in tears...No HILARITY ENSUED.
That said, ENTWIST is very dubious. One weaves without twisting anything.
We heard a nice jazz combo from Belhaven University yesterday evening, and the SAX was a TENOR. So there.
2
@Mean Old Lady
I really liked the puzzle because I like hard ones, but I agree with you about ENTWIST.
1
@Frances
On the bright side, at least it wasn't TWISTEN.
1
@Andrew
I think that is Twistin'.
https://youtu.be/7yIMt-aZjCo
1
Tried “ATOMMAN” initially to wrap this up but AQUINAS finally led to the finish. HILARITYENSUES was great as it opened up the entire bottom half.
Excellent puzzle for Saturday.
1
"Madonna of the Pinks" sounds so Pop. What fun.
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@catpet
The pinks are carnations which are also known as pinks.
@Frances
I shamefully entered PICASSO before RAPHAEL, thinking it must have been from his Rose period.
1
@Andrew, Pablo might be tickled pink but I’m afraid you made Raphael turn rather blue in his grave.
4
I found this less sparkly, not as superbly clued and -- with the exception of the SW -- easier than yesterday. But I also found it much fairer in the crosses and almost completely lacking in pop culture names.
Knowing that CASTLES had to be the answer to "moves two pieces at once", I avoided the LAB rats trap and confidently put in LAB MICE.
Is our word "sheriff" derived from SHARIF? I didn't know it in any event.
What happens after a zany plot twist? HILARITY ENSUES and GREEN PAINT SPLATTERS.
When I'm at my WITS END, I'm frantic, not boiling mad. Just saying.
A polished puzzle with enough crunch to keep me happy.
***To Andrew from Ottawa from yesterday: That guy (what's-his-name-again?) does a mean Woody Allen impression. Thanks for the link.
@Nancy
Thanks for drawing my attention to the chess term (I wanted EN PASSANT or something about taking the opponent's piece...and the nutty rap group name OUT KATT seemed as likely as anything else, once I gave up WAFFLES. Forgot to check the crossings once I finished that corner. So, one Google AND one wrong letter. shoot.
@Nancy
Our word sheriff derives from shire reeve, I think. D.C. or another linguist will probably let us know.
@Nancy
I will interpret "what's-his-name-again?" to be a rhetorical question, since, no matter what, you are unlikely to remember it until his next puzzle appearance! :-)
The only SHARIF I really know is OMAR, another not uncommon puzzle entry.
1
Fun puzzle - POI opened the door to the bottom right, then the bottom left. Got through all but the top left rather quickly, though that last quadrant took me almost as long as the rest of the puzzle. Finally figured out PRECIOUS after rejecting LUSCIOUS (more a term of creepiness), with SITEMAP the last key (after an early guess of EMANUAL).
2
@Tom
Subtle difference there, between EMANUAL and EMANUEL. Took me in with that, you did. Myself, I 'passed on' 6D till near some WIT'S END it came up GENETICS, in which I earned a degree some time in the last millennium. Never saw it coming.
1
Had a hard time with this one last night, and though I completed it I struggled mightily.
The parts that came easy - LAOS, AQUAMAN, AQUINAS. The rest took a few passes. But I got stuck with ALTOSA_. I know that should've been easy (for some) but that was my last square. Not parsing the words out cost me plenty.
In the NE, I had LAB RATS before realizing I had to change the rodent. I had ENTWINE for very long, and that kept me puzzling over fore a long time, and prevented me from getting GARAGES. I knew SILENT W, NEPALI and CASTLES were right. Took too long to get MAKE PAR and IMANA...I kept thinking it was I'M A NA__ or I'M AN A__.
But the part that gave me the hardest time was the NW. It wasn't until I solved the NE and getting PARKING GARAGES and the PRECIOUS that I started to get a foothold. SITE MAP as an online reference...yeah, ok. Had NAB before ACE.
Good challenge. Just needed to be able to get more flexible with the parsing. Went over my average - haven't done that in quite some time. Looking back, the entries were quite fresh and the clues were deviously and appropriately (for Saturday) vague or misleading.
5
This one felt good. A nice steady solve. Sometimes I’m on the constructor’s wavelength and sometimes not. Today I was. And that makes all the difference, don’t you think?
15
TIL that there are *four* Aga Khans, one still living, and that one of the former ones (Aga Khan II, 1830-1885) is buried in Najaf. In other words, i picked the wrong bit of trivia to look up to get a toehold in the northwest, and definitely picked the wrong link on the disambiguation page. With "Najaf" confidently filled in at 1D, I spent a good long while trying to understand how "face it" relates to "your call" and what kind of cap other than an a SKI CAP one might wear. My aha moment came when I thought to return to Wikipedia to see if there was an alternative to Najaf. Aga Khan III (1877-1957) is indeed buried elsewhere: In ASWAN. Damn!
And I have to ask: is it really fair cluing to leave out the iteration? Doesn't "Aga Khan" on its own refer to the first one (1804-1881), whose mausoleum is in a town with too many letters? The Roman numerals and the late-night punchiness as I tried to finish off this puzzle led me to think of an analog. I imagined a clue, "Rocky's opponent," with a nine letter answer. Ivan Drago? Maybe, but the crosses don't work. Tommy Gunn? Same problem. Correct answer "His demons." ;-)
So yeah, this one was really tough. But you know what, Trenton, Charlson? You ain't so bad! You ain't so bad! And now, with the happy music still ringing in my ears and my streak intact (did Wikipedia carry me? Fine, let's call it Mickipedia), I know at last that I weren't just no bum from the neighborhood.
5
@Larry - re: the cluing for leaving out the iteration for Aga Khan - the clue wasn't about the person/title. It was about the Mausoleum. There was only one Mausoleum of Aga Khan and it didn't have the iteration in the name. You focused on the person, and not the place that was in the clue. So yes, I think that was plenty fair.
2
@Wen Fair enough.
But, "[Aga Khan II] died eight days later, after an imamate of four years, and was buried in the family mausoleum in Najaf on the west bank of the Euphrates, near Kufa and the tomb of Imam Ali, one of the holiest places in the world for Shia Muslims. The mausoleum is also the resting place of Aqa Ali Shah's grandfather, Shah Khalil Allah, who was the forty-fifth Imam of the Nizari Ismailis, and for whom the mausoleum was first constructed."
So that is *a* mausoleum with an Aga Khan, but not *the* Aga Khan Mausoleum? Tricky.
And you're absolutely right about my focus. When I use Wikipedia for an assist, I try to do so in a way that's less-than-direct, forcing me to read a bit and learn some unrelated facts. It's how I hold my head high and say "the streak is alive" ;-)
5
Really enjoyed this one. Got stuck in SW because I couldn’t get past insanityENSUES. Frivolity didn’t fit, but somehow HILARITY eventually came to mind. Loved ISAIDSO.
1
Long workout but quite enjoyable. Can't claim complete success as I had to look some things up, but I don't mind - just a lot of fun working this one out. HILARITYENSUES was just great.
Drifting... Of course our constructor could have made the clue for 1d a lot easier, but like 14d, he didn't give a dam. Also worth noting that the body of water formed by that is Lake Nasser. Seems like they missed an opportunity in not naming it ASWAN Lake.
Ok, ok, enough of that. I won't say anything about torpedoes. Full speed ahead.
7
Rich ,
The emus ate my one word quote of Admiral Farragut.
2
Rich,
Damn!
1
@RiA, as usual, you're right on pointe.
Swat that mosquito
1
I started with THROUGHWAYTOLL and then THRUWAY????????? but finally stopped at PARKINGGARAGES. Great fun.
1
The NYS Thruway is converting to a cashless system, which is supposed to be in place by 2020. Although the clue could technically signal Thruway tolls, this will not be the case for much longer.
As has been the case for many years, those with EZPass do not collect tickets when they enter the Thruway; their device records entry and exit points. And the vast majority of users have EZPass.
1
Great workout! I need to get out more, as I didn't know ASWAN. Had Kabul there for a while, then knew it was wrong from the crosses, and then kept seeing MilAN - that couldn't be right! Had IronMAN before AQUAMAN, my kid brother's favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Maybe all those luxurious Saturday mornings with cartoons are what ruined us Boomers. I forgot that I knew the lovely Poe poem and as soon as I read the clue, the lovely lyrics from Lowell George popped into my head and are now playing in a loop that I don't mind a bit. May HILARITY ENSUE! https://g.co/kgs/HyjUSg
5
@Ann
Oh sorry! That song was written by Lowel George's bandmates, Paul Barrere and Bill Payne. Paul Barrere just passed on last month. Bill Payne, top-of-the-line piano player, is still among us. What a tight band that was, when they were all in sync.
3
@Ann
OMG, what a great link! The chorus — “I’ve been down, but not like this before” — literally brought tears to my eyes. How ironic that after the video, an ad for The Epoch Times (which is likely published by Putin) came on spewing lies and deception. I often wake up wondering why I have not been able to wake from a recurrent nightmare I’ve been having for the past three years — a dream within a dream: modern life.
I better balance that grim post with a highly offensive lawyer joke:
Why they’d stop using LAB MICE and rats and start using lawyers for experiments?
They found that with lawyers the lab techs no longer got attached to the subjects.
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@Puzzlemucker
Oh no, how icky! (The trolling ad) Linda Rondstadt does a gorgeous version of the song, hopefully with no fakery at the end.
Things ARE grim, no sugar-coating it.
And I'd rather labs not use sentient critters in their tests, so lawyers are a better option, haha, I kid!
3
Oh man, Trenton, you made me scrape, seemingly for every square with your devilish cluing. You made me commit to staying in my chair until I finished this, because somehow I knew you wouldn't natick me. I knew that if I persisted, I would crack the code that was this puzzle. How did you motivate me thusly? I don't know, but trust me, you did.
There was a major joyous explosion approaching nirvana when PARKING GARAGES appeared, and a simple deeply-felt nod of respect for your skill and art when that last square filled in.
This was a Saturday puzzle to remember, and I salute you for it, Trenton. Great one!
13
Hilarityensues is the best phrase and clue ever!!!
6
I briefly thought I might be saying this was a fairly easy Saturday, as I got the NE corner quite quickly with the crossing of AQUINAS and AQUAMAN opening thing up nicely. ( not that I have any idea of who Aqua man is, but it sounded familiar ) BUTLER was fun and I am getting pretty good at the silent letter clues.
Alas the rest of the puzzle was more of a struggle requiring some research, but that's fine with me, a good way to spend a Saturday morning. At least I got enough letters to get RAPHAEL without looking that up.
7
I had nothing in the NW, but filled in the NE with only one misstep--LAB rats before LAB MICE. I worked my way through the rest of the maze and received positive reinforcement.
8
NW was hardest for me and I gave up and made a BEELINE here to get help. Had SAGA for EDDA and that didn’t help at all. WITS END indeed.
4
NE held me up the longest. As has been mentioned, finally changing RATS to MICE made all the difference. That quadrant became my favourite with AQUINAS crossing AQUAMAN, our favourite SILENT Whatever entry, that ENTWISTy chess move I MANAGE occasionally. And of course the BUTLER, that poor OUTKAST, so frequently accused.
ALTO SAX came quickly as I had just returned from a wind ensemble concert, a combo of sorts. Of course my very first thought for a combo component was FRIES.
I was trying to make a connection to the last election involving HILARY and HILARITY ENSUES, but that would involve even darker humour than I am capable of. In fact it wouldn’t be funny at all.
I really enjoy the recent trend of relating the photo to two separate clue/entries! Keep it up!
8
SPELLING BEE GRID
Nov 23 2019
T C E H I N Y
WORDS: 55, POINTS: 237, PANAGRAMS: 1, BINGO
C x 5
E x 8
H x 3
I x 6
N x 8
T x 23
Y x 2
4L x 20
5L x 15
6L x 14
7L x 1
8L x 2
9L x 2
10L x 1
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Tot
C 4 - 1 - - - - 5
E 1 1 3 1 1 1 - 8
H 1 1 1 - - - - 3
I 2 1 3 - - - - 6
N 1 2 2 - 1 1 1 8
T 10 9 4 - - - - 23
Y 1 1 - - - - - 2
Tot 20 15 14 1 2 2 1 55
44
@Mari, thanks! Your grid revealed the number of numbers I was missing.
6
@Mari
Thanks for the grid. Need a hint for the C6
1
@Tito
It’s what you peel off shrimp
9
LETTER BOXED
U-P(5), P-S(8)
Yesterday:
PODCAST TINKLE (13)
PICKLES SANDLOT (14)
@Andrew
I have the same as you today.
YESTERDAY:
CANDLESTICK KOP (14)
TADPOLES SNICK (13)
@Andrew
I have a different one in addition to the 13, albeit a letter longer. C-S (7) S-N (7).
Yesterday, I also ate PICKLES on the SANDLOT.
1
@Liane
And I'm sure that PODCAST TINKLE exists somewhere out there, but I would rather not know about it.
Had to look up NEPALI and SHARIFs but I loved when ESSENES fell into place. Ok hopefully I can fall back asleep...
1
52a. For combo component, I kept trying to think of a food that would fit. Time for a snack.
1
Is this how athletes feel after a particularly strenuous workout? Challenging grid, cryptic clues, and an ultimately satisfying solve. 42 minutes of sweating, lip-chewing, quickened heart rate. I need a cigarette.
6
@MichelleB Does that mean I can tell my doctor I work out every day?
3
Liked the challenge today... and the fact that 11D was actually golf related, as opposed to 1A yesterday (Slice) that wasn’t!
2
Wow. Two weeks ago, I finish my first Saturday with zero lookups.
Today, I tap out only having filled in six entries, three of which were wrong. Yikes
Where there any black squares at all?
Where the heck was my boy ENO or palindrome girl ANNA? I guess they are waiting, like me, for Monday...
17
@Newbie Don't give up, Newbie! This one took a couple of visits (one, after a workout, steeped in endorphins). Tis often thus with these puzzles--sometimes you just have to walk away and come back later and you will be amazed what suddenly appears. My first few passes netted me very few words but I finished it on my own, even though I thought Justice League was a pop group etc. The tougher the challenge, the greater the smug! OLE.
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@Newbie I kept waiting for Deb's "Hi kids". 13th century book? 1928 movie? Dnf
1
@AudreyLM Justice League would be a great name for a pop group. They could dress up in superhero costumes.
1
This was unmistakably a Saturday puzzle in terms of difficulty. Like Caitlin, I used the three-letter answers to get a toehold, along with 51A (ISAIDSO) and 57A (ESSENES), but then stared blankly at the grid for ten minutes. Seemed a bit like a cliff face without any ledges or crevices (I saw the documentary “Free Solo” a few weeks ago, so pardon the analogy). I had ENTWINE instead of ENTWIST at 14D, and that took a while to part with.
I’ll also add that 29A brought to mind Gollum from "Lord of the Rings." The way the word is used in this brief clip:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz-8CSa9xj8
is hardly a term of endearment ;)
10
I also heard that answer in Gollum's voice. 🙂
3
I was at my WITS END on my first pass thru because I found PRECIOUS few answers. I finally made progress when the rats turned into LAB MICE and my more common reply to my kids "because" became I SAID SO. I was surprised after those stumbles that I ended up with a faster time than my Saturday average
19
@ColoradoZ I swore as I kid I would never say, "Beause I SAID SO," and was horrified as a mom to hear that phrase come out of my mouth.
Winner!! Lots to chew on.
1
Had ySSENES for ESSENES, so there was a bit of flyspecking at the end.
“Boiling point?” / WITS END. Couldn’t be more timely for most of us.
Just hoping that “after a zany plot twist” HILARITY ENSUES.
OUTKAST with a song inspired by a recent puzzle entry, ROSA PARKS: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=drsQLEU0N1Y
7
Rosa Parks sued OutKast over the song because she didn’t approve of some of the vulgar lyrics and viewed it as a rap boast rather than about her or civil rights. There was no ensuing HILARITY but there was sort of a happy ending, as they settled the case and OutKast agreed to help develop educational programs about Ms. Parks’ life and legacy.
14
Made a BEELINE to the finish! GOOD puzzle!
7
And HILARITY ENSUES!
Luckily, the clues were not too PRECIOUS.
4