When again you see mr. Smith of Smithsonian Magazine please inform him that the decade ends on December 31st 2020
I am well late to the party but wanted to thank the constructor for his submission. This was my fastest ever Friday by a significant margin, and possibly my first without hints, thanks to material that just happened to land right in my wheelhouse, with only a couple of brief snags. Honestly kind of invigorating. Is this how it feels to be good at crosswords regularly?
Lovely Puzzle ... had a lot of fun with all the open grid space. Congrats!
1
Going full curmudgeon today.
Deb says--"15A. TIL that Lt. SULU of “Star Trek” was named after the SULU Sea."
You THOUGHT you learned that today, but soon someone will let you know that the original name of the Sulu Sea in Etruscan was a fish emoji and (through a complex string of evolutions and usages) the proper transliteration in to standard English should be "Sulo". And it is the editors' fault for not knowing that and they should be pantsed and sacked immediately.
And Mr. Constructor, it was a nice, challenging puzzle that I enjoyed solving immensely. You could have changed this sentence in your notes "I had a number of puzzles published in The Stanford Daily during my time on The Farm..." to "I had many puzzles published in my college newspaper" and we all would have gotten the basic information you perhaps meant to convey.
But then how would I know that you are a former Indian--errr, Cardinal? Why is it that alumni of certain colleges have to make sure I am made aware of the institution name on their college diploma? We all know it is a social dominance move. What kills me is that so many are still taken in by it, which is of course why it persists.
I don't care where anyone went to college, and I sure don't need to know it within seconds of meeting you. I have beaten this drum before and Mr. Connell and Deb slapped back but when you say it, especially in places where it adds no value, like here, you want me to be impressed and cowed--pure and simple. Quit it.
2
@Michael Brothers Didn't realize I was committing a Cardinal sin there, apologies. Hopefully the puzzle itself proved more uplifting than my bio, haha
18
@Michael Brothers
Well, why do you need to know anything biographical at all then? If Mr. Smith is writing elsewhere, should he refrain from saying that he has had crosswords published in the New York Times? Perhaps "several local newspapers" would be more suitable?
All I can discern from your post is that you have a problem with higher education. Normally when one introduces oneself to a public, one gives a few facts about one's career/experience. The choice of whether to be impressed or unimpressed lies solely with the listener.
14
Psmith: I’ve noted your calming use of “haha” in a couple of your posts, and think I may steal that idea!
7
Any other IT folks out there thrown briefly off by 52D? I got it quickly enough, but ACER doesn't make servers!
@theragu40 I read it as a tennis clue - a good server serves aces.
4
@Sylvia Oh! Duh!! You're absolutely right, thanks for the insight!
Congrats on your debut, Ryan! Glad your perseverance paid off. I enjoyed your puzzle! Nice variety of subject matter.
2
Don't forget that in addition to working as a bouncer and a snowboard instructor, Mr. Trudeau, or Shiny Pony as he is also known amongst followers of Canadian politics, once made a living as a substitute drama teacher.
All essential skills of course for a Prime Minister.
4
A terrific crossword. 25D was almost my downfall, because I was convinced that a Bud's place is at a BAR, meaning that Caesar must have led an army of APBS (All Points Bulletins). While I did enjoy pondering that image, I also appreciated Mr. Smith's less surreal answer.
9
@Michael Rogers
That's so funny!
It really was an excellent puzzle. I didn't have a chance to look at it until after work, and thought I'd be too mentally drained to answer anything but it just keep filling and filling so satisfactorily.
Most humorous error today: 37d World leader who once worked as a bouncer and a snowboarding instructor - MANDELA fit just fine with the D from BUILDUP and the E from ELECTRONICA. It seemed improbable but stranger things have happened. Finally had to fix it. I also tripped on APB/BAR answers. Nice puzzle.
5
@Sylvia
Up here Justin TRUDEAU tends to be ridiculed for having been a drama teacher. TIL he was actually much more versatile than that.
4
@Andrew To be correct, he was a 'substitute' drama teacher. It shows when he speaks.
1
Congratulations on your New York Times debut, Ryan! Your grandmother would be very proud. I know I am.
3
P.S. Just looked at "50 Greatest Prog Rock Albums of All Time" in Rolling Stone and recognized virtually *none* of the bands! 😳
2
@Ron I can't recommend King Crimson enough. I'm 34 so they are well beyond my time, but they are still a somewhat active band and I got the chance to see the play a three hour long show at Radio City this past fall. The talent of the musicians in this band is unrivaled, and I've never heard anything like their music ever since I feel in love with them back in high school. I am a musician myself (though of the heavy metal variety) and a LOT of the albums on the Rolling Stone 50 Best Prog Albums are (in my opinion) crucial listening for every member of my band, especially RUSH's "2112" (RIP to the recently deceased NEIL PEART, drummer extraordinaire!)
6
Ron,
Perhaps you started looking at 50 thru 46? Try again with 1 thru 5. If you don't recognize most of them, let us know where you were during those decades.
https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/50-greatest-prog-rock-albums-of-all-time-78793/pink-floyd-the-dark-side-of-the-moon-1973-38362/
Number 16, Gentle Giant's "Octopus", is one of my favorite albums by a great group. I own three different CD mixes, a Blu-ray remix with surround, and three different LPs. I guess you could say I like the group.
I got the MA of the Camus question quickly, and I was trying to think of a French feminine noun that could go in there. It's 55 years since I read L'Etranger. Ma mer est morte? No: mere has another 'e' unless he was being soulful and complaining that his ocean was dead. Ma son est morte? No I'm pretty sure 'son' (sound) is masculine but not 100%. I got there in the end but I'll confess to BAR being the appropriate place for a Bud.
2
@Andrew, I took a shot with M'AMIE
@Andrew
By some strange twist of fate I remember reading this book in a French Literature class roughly 45 years ago. So it was a gimme!
2
@Andrew
Never read the book, or any real literature in French except Le Petit Prince, but I had no trouble with it, having taken about 24 credits of it in college.
But I can understand how someone who doesn’t know any French at all might have trouble understanding the sentence—i.e. understanding that someone has died.
Congrats on a fun debut.
David Lynchian made me smile.
5
Very nice Friday afternoon for a puzzle such as this. Outside my window is a dreary, cold day. I’m warm and happy to have completed this one. It was quicker than yesterday’s puzzle, and quite enjoyable. Come back soon Mr. Smith!
:-)
5
@Just Carol
I’m sure that “cold” is quite relative!
2
LIVE MAS was a gimme, deduced OLIVIA (what other name has a "V" in the fourth position?) and the rest of the puzzle seemed to fill itself in. Nice stretching exercise before a Saturday workout.
Favorite clue was for EAR buds, which some apparently don't know are wireless headphones. True story: you can now buy retention straps for your ear buds to keep them from falling into the garbage disposal while you're doing the dishes.
One more thing; I hadn't seen REBECCA, and the only de Winter I could think of was from the Three Musketeers. I would say I'm going to look it up tonight on my SMART TV, but Deb spoiled the plot. (Just kidding, I'll watch it anyway. Love Hitchcock!)
2
I had ADCLUB across and DALE down for a long time. Bothe seemed reasonable, but alas... I finally figured out INSET which I thought was great cluing. For such a short answer, I also loved the clue “Made a fast stop” /ATE. At first I thought this had to do with “fast food”, but then I realized it had to do with ending a period of fasting such as Ramadan or Lent. I love this clue. Thanks for a good challenge.
4
@Robert Kern I also see it as in rollerblading when you stopped too fast and you ate it. My mind saw it like that first since I've eaten the pavement countless times.
1
@Robert Kern
Likewise had AdCLUB (dALE) before AVCLUB (VALE).
psmith, great to see it's you, back again -- a true Smith son of the Smithsonian. Doubles the pleasure, it does!
Hey, I also noted the top-heavy dose of estrogen that psmith of the Smithsonian mentions, with only HAN as the solo balance, and possibly the MARINE... though nowadays a MARINE can have two Xs, Y not?
Scrabbly enough for a Friday: solved a trickly STREAM down the East coast, and a gradual BUILDUP along the West. EERIE reaction to the PREDATor with REDEYES.
Clever clue to 23A which would've been BIKE, had I not filled in the SouthEast already. The Romeo&Juliet TITULAR combo has to make it to Lewis' weekly Best List.
@Deb, have to say that your REBECCA riff (pronounced Manderley) outdid even your Upper VOLTA, with a side order of No Running With Cheese. I roared.
Signing off for the present, still slightly laboured and lame.
psmith, wishing you many happy returns!
For the Jourman Marks, I seriously wanted DUMKOPFS
A great puzzle for the PROG NASCENTi
8
[00ps]
Sorry, it looks asif I wound up a little out of order.
1
I would have gotten this done 5 min faster if I hadn't put EMT instead of EMS and then missed the resulting INTET while trying to find my error.
Overall I really liked the weird grid shape though, nice mix of answer lengths. And I loved the cluing, particularly the ones for Neruda and music genres.
1
Weird solve. Had the right hand side done very quickly with the left nearly empty. Then did the top left very quickly with the bottom left nearly empty. Seemed like that section took a long time, but when I was done, the puzzle was solved in 14 minutes, way faster than Friday average (though still way above Friday best).
Seemed like there was an unusual amount of “u”s in this puzzle.
2
@Mr. Mark But at least the usual number of "u"s in this unusual puzzle.
2
I had a solid “puzzling solving experience” with this one, plenty of modest epiphanies as each vague corner became an uncertain pathway that led to a possible conclusion.
The entire Eastern portion was filled first, with only INLET instead of INSET holding me back, MAMAN and HAN cleared that up nicely.
The very SouthWest, MUFTI, OFT and TIS were a little tougher to parse out, with UBOMB and its variants (NBOMB, HBOMB, ABOMB) leading the way.
The NorthWest quadrant was empty but for CRIB and VALE; MOON, ROAM, AVCLUB and LIVEMAS gave me the crossings to complete the grid, a hair below my average.
Kudos
1
Very enjoyable! I knocked out the right half of the puzzle in record time, but the left half took about twice as long for me to finish.
4
Same!
1
I had no idea why Caesar's army would be APbS, and couldn't think of a way to check it, but surely a bAR was the place for a Bud! (I'm not sure just what an ear bud is, although I realize, to late to build my streak to 5, that I have heard of them. And now I see I should have consulted Deb.)
5
@kilaueabart
same here!
@rpsmith,
Gotta ask: is the P in your handle silent, as in ptarmigan and pshrimp?
2
@Adina Technically it's for the Patrick in my byline, but an old friend from Wordplay always called me Psmith in reference to Mr. Wodehouse, so if you'd like to follow suit that's fine by me :)
6
@rpsmith
and do you find that you grow thinnah and thinnah?
@rpsmith
An old friend called to say that you sure know how to make an old friend glow.
[For some reason, she thought Wodehouse wrote it a lower case psmith; she was wrong]
1
Fun puzzle. Liked the MUFTI considering the military used that term when wearing CIVVIES instead of CAMMIES in the Middle East. Got APES right away since I am a big sci if fan and grew up with watching the planet of the apes series. Stumped at ARIADNE, don’t know my mythology very well, nor was I familiar with ISSARAE. Really, really fun puzzle though and still completes it better than average.
3
@Paul Glad it tickled your fancy! Be proud of that APES write-in; it seems my misdirection there tripped many solvers up :)
1
intelligent clueing. good work :)
5
@lioncitysolver Appreciate it! Glad you found the puzzle stimulating
1
Impressive puzzle debut --- I was tempted to use references to complete the tough NW corner and I nearly managed to do this by being a GUESSER. However, I guessed dALE instead of VALE which gave me aD CLUB instead of AV CLUB --- puzzles I almost complete seem to satisfy me more than those I breeze through without error. How can I learn anything if I always know everything?
3
@Tony S An admirably level-headed outlook :)
2
“Last night I dreamed I went to Manderley again.” As a young woman (many years ago), Rebecca was one of my favorite books. Movie was ok. Book much better. Loved anything by Daphne deMaurier. That helped a lot with the puzzle. Good Friday.
9
Parul Sehgal on du Maurier: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/06/books/daphne-du-maurier-enthusiast.html
1
Thanks so much. I hadn’t seen this. Now, I’m going to reread some of her books.
I enjoyed being reminded of the book too. And I also read it as a teenager, having found it in my mother’s bookshelves. I loved it and felt very grown-up reading it as I recall. Maybe it’s time for rereading?
4
Another tough Friday puzzle. The SE wasn't too bad, and then the NE and SW were just a bit harder, but the NW (as usual) really slowed me down. Last letter was the M in moon and "Live mas!", a slogan I hadn't know. It felt at first as if there was a surfeit of pop culture, but as I look at the filled diagram, it seems that was a misimpression. (Grammarians: Should that be "was" or "were"? I'm not sure, but prefer to support endangered species like the subjunctive whenever possible.) Favorite clue: "German marks."
4
There was one thing in the puzzle I'd rather not see, and that is an advertising slogan in a clue or answer. I wasn't crazy about the introduction of brand names whenever that was, but have come to accept that as part of our daily lives (and it's not as if I have a choice). But I feel that references to advertising slogans is just going too far.
Of course, the more allowable entries, the easier it is for constructors to achieve whatever kind of puzzle they're aiming for. But that's not the only thing that makes a puzzle lovable.
1
Congratulations on a really terrific debut, rp.
I thought I was off to a good start in NW with the gimmes of CRIB and REBECCA, but then I stalled. Had to do the rest of the puzzle and circle back up to finish that quadrant. Fortunately the BEACONS shed some light.
Like others, found a buncha names I didn't know, or knew only from XWPs: OLIVIA WILDE, ISSA RAE, PRATT.
Somehow dredged PROG from a dusty corner of my XWP memory (don't know what it is, just that it is), but never heard of ELECTRONICA.
[Upscale candy brand] -- SEES? Never heard of it. I didn't think it was possible for decent chocolate to hide from me.
TIL that "The Sands of Iwo Jima" was specifically about MARINEs, not just war in general, and that THERESA MAY's was the only U.K. government held in contempt of Parliament. Hmmmm.
Thanks a lot rs and editorial gang.
6
@Deadline
See's is a West Coast institution. Founded in LA and now based in the Bay Area, it's a rare NYT entry that is left-coastal.
3
@Martin - I can attest that "See's" left me in the dust. No point of contact whatsoever, and I've been to California where the air is visible (see the blog photo), though not breathable.
https://www.bridgewaterchocolate.com/
N.B. See's has been owned since 1972 by Berkshire Hathaway. I'm guessing Charlie Munger knew about it before Warren Buffett.
3
What I loved about this puzzle was that I was able to figure out many of the answers I absolutely didn't know. That creates a delightful feeling of satisfaction.
Even though I dnf with dALE and HuN, my feeling of satisfaction didn't diminish.
Thank you, Ryan Patrick Smith, for an entertaining Friday solve ... and congratulations and your NYT debut!
Celebrate!
12
@Johanna I'll be sure to go WILDE! (tho maybe not quite APE)
3
I'm new to this subscription and obsession, the Tuesday puzzle takes me a good 35 mins, Wednesdays are hard for me so I knew this would be tough. On first pass I had PSI and Umlauts (I'm a cyclist and a polyglot). I had little else and I'm not good with world leaders and actors. I was able to complete the right half with no look ups and about 70% of it. I knew once I saw the answer for the pop culture website that it was going to be something I've heard of, and I read TV recaps on Avclub, but I could not get it. I had Adult, which I knew was wrong. I was thrilled when I got Olivia Wilde. (Sorry typing on my phone is difficult) My biggest mistake was taco bell I was sure is "Lovin it" which fit, but I also knew ET was moon! I googled Taco Bell and Lovin it did appear in results so I'm wondering is this a Rebus? I used autocheck tools to get the rest, but I'm generally thrilled with how well I did and kicking myself for some things I couldn't get like Smart TV and Beacons. In Shortz, it was a great challenge and satisfying to realize I did recognize all these words except for Issamae.
11
@ Ethel Mae
Welcome, fellow xword obsessive and congrats for today’s solve! You have been assimilated 😜
Wasn’t “lovin’ it” McDonald’s? I had “viva mas” for a while, so I share your pain.
Good luck on tomorrow’ puzzle!
3
@Ethel Mae Potter Props to you for persistence! I remember how good it felt when I got my first "Congratulations!" on a late-week grid. Sounds like you're nearly there! Glad you enjoyed yourself :)
4
@Ms. Cat yes you are right, ha ha, it is McDonald's! I realize from your comment that my googling results were actually Ronald Mcdonald eating Taco Bell. I also screwed up with Majors in the Iwa Jima clue. As well as Freezers for best buy. At least I came up with Maman from using what I know of French. And Amor from Il Postino.
AVCLUB! Visualize that, vamped Tom vigorously.
I was in AV Club in High School. We had unlimited use of a dark room and developing supplies and in return we photographed and filmed sports events and threaded projectors when movies were shown. Many thought AV Club to be a joke until I got a job photographing rock concerts. First one was The Dave Clark Five who opened for Chubby Checker. Another chapter in the revenge of the nerds, n’est ce pas?
Hard start up for this puz. May be due to the bad Margaritas drunk last night. It is a hoot to be in a Mexican restaurant being served by a twenty something southern bell who knows not a lick of Spanish or how to make a Margarita from scratch. She had a sense of humor and so did we. Biggest laugh was when I ordered my drink neat and she began by polishing my glass.
Thanks Ryan
6
@dk
I lived in Mississippi for two years, but the state at that time was just clawing its way out of prohjbition. I can't imagine ordering a margarita there, or what I would get if I had.
Glad to hear you have the great good sense to avoid the "frozen" variety though.
1
@dk
Great story! Hard to believe that the Dave Clark Five were considered serious rivals of the Beatles and the Rolling Stones back in the day!
Here's an example of of one of their "top 10" hits.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoRLIJJSG4o
2
Actually after reading your take on Rebecca, sure that’s fine let it stand. Not a huge favourite of mine anyway.
1
Nice puzzle if you happen to know the several interlocking and adjacent proper nouns. If not, you’re [what I thought 59a was going to be].
3
I predict a lot of “OliviaWilde” answers. She is multi-talented with an interesting backstory (for intriguing clues) and she has a delicious number of vowels in her name. Keep an eye out for her.
2
@Cooofnj
With a surname like that, I expect she will be Oscar material.
5
Deb, possibly somebody has already pointed out: not Joan Sutherland, but Joan Fontaine. It would have made for a really different movie with Sutherland belting out the Jewel Song like Bianca Castafiore. She probably would have made Mrs. Danvers quail.
2
Good enjoyable Friday puzzle, but am not happy about vale, having never heard of ad club or av club.
@Jim
AV CLUB new to me, too. I went for a long time thinking TV something, maybe CLUB. I wouldn't have (almost) finished the puzzle without looking up "Booksmart" which gave AMOR away.
1
I thought of CAN for a Bud. So far, my EARs don't adjust well to the buds. (They slip out.)
In Freshman English, I raised my hand to tell the instructor that the double dots were called an UMLAUT; she had never heard of the word. This little bit of memory is taking up space I need for other things...
I had no idea ARIADNE dallied with Theseus. Tsk.
Easy puzzle despite all of the Unknowns, which were considerable: OLIVIA, ISSA, MAMAN, Chris PRATT. Thank goodness I knew Mrs. DeWinter (Thanks, Daphne DuMaurier) but not David Lynch...
I am currently reading the latest AARP magazine, but that one required the crosses. Duh.
This was quite a bit more user-friendly than yesterday's hot mess.
"I had no idea ARIADNE dallied with Theseus."
Dallied is a bit of an understatement; she left Crete with him. But then she met Dionysus on Naxos...
3
@Mean Old Lady
ARIADNE and Theseus were the talk of all the social media of their time. With-it Athenians referred to their coupling as Ariseus.
6
Deadline,
SRSLY!
I may have had the longest redeye flight possible.
I left Boston about 7 PM, and landed about 6 AM, just about dawn, in Sydney two days later, although only about 24 hours had passed.
The day I missed happened to be my birthday, so I figure I'm a year younger than my birth certificate indicates.
(My coworkers did have a small birthday celebration for me when I arrived, so maybe not.)
9
Chief,
At least a couple of us have done a couple of those...
nice bit of time travel there chief !
3
@Chief Quahog "The world can't end today--it's already tomorrow in Australia!" --Charles Schulz
3
I had FSI/FROG instead of PSI PROG. Rock genre and car abbreviation. What did you expect?
I had bAR for "Bud's place". [Hic.] Giving me APbS for Caesar's franchise army. It made no sense, but not much in this trivia-laden, pop culture fest made much sense to me.
And, no, please don't yell at me again today for casting aspersions on youth culture. I'm an equal opportunity hater of pop culture and mindless trivia -- no matter whose era it's from. I don't want to have to produce, for the purpose of solving a puzzle, bands, singers, songs, car models, abbreviations, film franchises, actresses in B movies, etc, etc, yada, yada, yada -- even if they're from my Very Own Era. It's the emphasis on trivia itself -- on thinking that it's just the most important and interesting thing in the world that anyone can possibly know, with constructors insisting that solvers learn it-- that irks me and not whether it happens to be Boomer trivia or Millennial trivia.
3
@Nancy
A qualified endorsement of your comment.
While the youth-oriented pop culture is always a stumbling block for me, I don't mind it any more than I mind stuff from my own era. (And, BTW, I'm still alive and still exposed to much of today's stuff.)
But I do very much prefer XWPs that concentrate on words and wordplay than those that are overefilled with trivia, of whatever era.
Today's outing had both.
1
@Nancy I am given to understand Frog Rock croaked under it's own pompous weight.
1
@Nancy I promise I'm passionate about the vocabulary aspect too. :) Just like to let some of my personal interests shine through, is all.
3
This one went surprisingly quickly for me, until I filled in the last letter and got the nasty blue screen instead of the gold one. After flyspecking and seeing nothing (well, I did see something, but more on that in a sec), I did a check puzzle for an official DNF. The issue was with 33A ("Bud's place?), where I had confidently keyed in bAR, and even though APbS didn't work at all for Caesar's army, I refused to look at that as a possible issue. When I got the red mark there, I was forced to try other letters in my head and when I got to "E" I had a huge *DUH* moment. Such is the life of a crossword freak. :-)
I did enjoy the puzzle a lot though. Fresh entries and nice flow, and a DEBUT to boot! Many kudos to you RPS (I hope you call yourself that, like NPH does...) :-)
Great job by all involved. Let the weekend begin!!
8
My experience exactly. Added a couple of minutes to figure out why bAR was wrong. Still just over half of my Friday average. Haven’t seen any of the new Apes movies though my son says they’re good.
1
@Steve Faiella
Always great to see you, Steve. I owe you for helping me get AV CLUB, as it published one of your [awesome] puzzles last summer, and that was probably the main reason that it came to me once I had some crosses. I got tripped up on bAR/APbS too. Good clue for APES.
2
@ Steve
Forgive my ignorance, but what is a “DNF”?
1
As for Maman,
here's a little Mozart:
https://youtu.be/xyhxeo6zLAM?t=20
7
@David Connell
Thanks for this! Added a little 'twinkle' to my day!
3
Very enjoyable puzzle. It's a nit, but in my view, the clue for VALE is wrong. The word always specifies a small valley, between hills, and never between mountains. No one would ever say that San Fernando lies in a VALE.
Benjamin,
You may wish to review the definition ... and the example ... offered here:
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vale
@Barry Ancona
Barry:
Yes, I saw that definition prior to making my comment, and commented anyway.
The example isn't exactly conclusive, is it? "A small cabin in the shadow of the mountains" doesn't make CABIN a "thing between mountains".
It was easy enough to guess the fill; it just struck a wrong note to me.
Benjamin,
I appreciate that it may have "struck a wrong note," and if you'd said just that I would not have replied. But "the clue for VALE is wrong" is a somewhat different statement.
Was anyone else feeling the need for a KNEE replacement today?
4
@Andrew
I hope I never have to have another one… 😀
1
Quite smooth until the end. Went back and forth between DALE and VALE (both crossing websites seemed equally plausible to me). Neither of these worked because I had assumed that the place for a Bud was a BAR, (MOE's perhaps?), and APBS show up so often in puzzles that I didn't really think too much about that cross clue. Even if I had, I don't think that APES would have jumped to mind.
On reviewing the grid, I came upon an interesting DOOK which led me to a new upside down adage: Where there's a mill, THERE'S A MAY.
11
@Andrew
Ha! I posted my comment before yours appeared, otherwise I would have just piggy backed on this one and said that I did the exact same thing with bAR... LOL
1
@Andrew I did the exact same thing with dALE/VALE.
@Andrew An army of APBs... not crimes themselves, mind you. How deliciously postmodern.
1
Ooooph!! Can’t claim any form of “solve” today. This was a “completion” with Autocheck turned on and I had to peek to find some of the “influential ladies” and PREDATE.
Why did CAPULET have to fit so handily at 38D?? Of course, thinking about it, one of them had to be a MONTAGUE - so that couldn’t have been right.
And I wanted BATHROOM to fit at 45A.
AARP magazine “circulates” from our mailbox directly to our recycling bin. It’s mostly ads for cheap hearing aids, idiot-proof cell phones and cheap “collector’s” items. I wonder how many issues are actually READ??
TIL I learned a whole bunch of things - and I enjoyed myself in spite of a lackluster performance - but that’s what happens on many a Friday. Thanks Ryan. Keep `em coming.
3
@PeterW
AARP is evil. Their primary purpose is to make money selling insurance, and if it just so happens that any legislation that will make doing this easier or more profitable will be highly supported by their lobbyists, while anything that would hurt the insurance industry (even though it may benefit seniors immensely) is lobbied against. Google this stuff, it's real. So despite the number of mailings they send (since I turned 50, so it's been 12 years now) I have not, nor will I ever, join AARP.
3
@Steve Faiella - I was starting to feel lonely with my early post regarding the evil insurance-industry shills that call themselves AARP. May you never, ever, make the mistake of signing up - because once you have ever done so - it's all over! They have big big claws and they never let go! The insurance industry is all set, while AARP lives. They are the NRA of old people. There's no excuse for that kind of abuse!
3
“Crunchy,” as Deb likes to say. Lots of “I gotta look this up” clues, which probably means a) I’m not a millennial and b) I should get out more often. Most refreshing for all of my fellow solvers and commenters, I’ve nothing to gripe about today!
5
@Barb Prillaman Sorry to hear you had trouble getting a grip on it, but glad to hear you also had trouble getting a gripe on it :)
3
And here I thought VESPERS were the brand preferred by the scootah cognoscenti in this neck of the woods, though not in the season preceded by TIS.
3
Great debut puzzle! Congratulations! It was one of those puzzles where I couldn't solve anything until about my 15th clue, and I thought I would never finish it, but was able to do so. I like that kind of challenge.
Just a comment on Deb's comment about REBECCA. While I appreciate her humor, it's key to the story and the movie that the second Mrs. de Winter is distinctly NOT Rebecca, and,in fact, her first name is NEVER revealed in the story.
She is always only referred to as "the second Mrs. de Winter." This is key because it highlights the fact that the dead first wife, Rebecca, is a more important a presence in the house than the second, living wife.
7
@Francis DeBernardo I appreciate the kind words! Glad it posed a gracefully sloping challenge for you.
2
Twentysomethings here handled most of this (the old man helped with things like AARP), so it was easier than usual. aimed at younger solvers, or both. Observation, not complaint. Good to see the constructor show his head in the comments; that would not have been wise yesterday. Fine debut, Ryan.
5
@Barry Ancona Not sure I aimed it at younger solvers per se, but I am a younger solver/constructor myself (24) so naturally my interests resonate with the younger crowd. :) Not complaining!
1
Well, this middle-aged Gen Xer appreciates a millennial puzzle any day of the week, but especially on a Friday after very challenging Wednesday & Thursday puzzles. On a personal note, the Stanford Tree is my favorite team mascot. Congrats on your NYT debut!
8
@JR I knew one of the trees pretty well. She and I shared a dorm both my freshman and sophomore years, I believe. She earned the sobriquet Treeoncé haha
2
Today's was incredibly agreeable. A really nice cleanser after yesterday's. Lots of satisfying fills. Probably a sign of my age that I'm more readily able to identify TRUDEAU and THERESAMAY than OLIVIAWILDE, but then I also got AVCLUB and ELECTRONICA (really happy that wasn't an EDM fill) so maybe I'm not that old yet. Should probably study my Hitchcock though.
5
@Andrew
are you a new Andrew or Ottawa Andrew on a trip? :)
@Andrew Incredibly agreeable, you say? Golly! I'll aspire to downright preposterous levels of agreeability in the next one. Glad you enjoyed the solve :)
3
@Robert Michael Panoff
I joined the fun while on a business trip to Ottawa last month and it seems like there's a number of Andrews in the chat. But I am definitely a different one and still a bit of a newbie :)
Solved this one on a pre-dawn flight to NYC, so 45A REDEYES was apropos!
7
@archaeoprof Hope you had a pleasant flight!
1
Just a fun puzzle. It was one if those where I very luckily just knew the trivia answers (Rae, Wilde), versus the usual Friday struggle. I spent quite a bit of time trying to think of a Love theme that ended in OR, then aha! Amo este amor!
2
@Mike Hey, nothing wrong with an easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirl solve
1
I somehow groped past my pop-culture blindspots to finish this one. Never heard of AVCLUB. Was only familiar with ELECTRONICA because of the disdain for it by certain music nerds in my orbit. ISSA RAE is becoming ensconced in the recesses of my memory not for any work she's created but because her vowel-rich name is checked in the crossword multiple times a year.
OLIVIA WILDE was in my wheelhouse because my late wife enjoyed "House" and I recently heard her on NPR's "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me." Plus, she's hot.
I knew REBECCA more from the HItchcock movie than from the book, and SULU was a gimme from the old-school pop culture I *am* reasonably well-versed on.
APES dawned very slowly on me even though I have seen that movie. ("Caesar's army" brought to mind swords and shields rather than gorillas and chimpanzees.) The last word to fall was MUFTI, which I was only vaguely familiar with the Islamic context and not for any association with "civvies."
So, I feel like I just stumbled out of a burning building, was given an hit off an oxygen tank by a helpful fireperson, and am now ready to start my Friday.
6
@Brian Drumm Was that a veiled Dawn of the Planet of the APES joke in there? Glad you escaped the puzzle unscathed
2
@rpsmith
Not consciously, but that does sound like a type of “brain dropping” or random association likely to occur in my early morning...
I will remember my well-earned success in three quadrants of this puzzle, where bits became blobs, then the area became anchored by that unlikely rock band, THERESA MAY and the ISRAELITES, then joy after joy as lacunas fell away. Oh, how I loved those three quadrants.
I will also remember the NW, Lacuna City, where I had BEACONS, MOON, and furtively inserted CANTS for [Declines], and then silence. Nothing but echoes and tumbleweeds forever (cue whistling wind). Soon I was cursing my ignorance, and finally I declared "[Cave man?]!" (Okay, "Uncle!"), and accepted alms.
Man, how I loved those three quadrants, and the fourth was a magnificent cheerleader, calling on me to "Bone up! Bone up! Bone up!" on my pop culture and myth. Thank you RPS for all four quadrants, and a fully edifying solve.
8
@Lewis "Oh, how I loved those three quadrants" is the sort of sentence constructors love to read. So glad you got a kick out of it and learned a few things in the process.
4
A highly solveable Friday,* which my fragile ego sorely needed after yesterday.
*after I determined that UNICORN was not the computing industry standard.
7
@AudreyLM
You know, UNICORN flew off my fingers into the grid, too, for just about one second. After all, having the UNICO-- already, what else could it have been?
3
@AudreyLM 🙋♀️Hand up for unicorn, haha.
1
LETTER BOXED THREAD
M - L (8), L - S (6)
(The Deer will be glad!)
YESTERDAY:
ROMANTICS SUDSY
4
@Mari
I had the longer
UNROMANTIC CYCADS
ROMANTICS STURDY
@Mari New band name alert!
SPELLING BEE GRID
Jan 17th 2020
O G H L N R U
WORDS: 23, POINTS: 87, PANGRAMS: 1, BINGO
Starting Letters-Frequencies:
G x 6
H x 5
L x 6
N x 2
O x 1
R x 2
U x 1
Word Lengths -Frequencies:
4L x 12
5L x 3
6L x 5
7L x 1
8L x 2
Grid:
4 5 6 7 8 Tot
G 3 1 2 - - 6
H 2 1 1 - 1 5
L 4 - - 1 1 6
N 2 - - - - 2
O - - 1 - - 1
R 1 1 - - - 2
U - - 1 - - 1
Tot 12 3 5 1 2 23
(Y-Axis: Starting Letters, X-Axis: Word Lengths, X/Y Co-ordinates: Frequency/Number of Words for that letter and length)
55
@Mari
HINTS for today:
-A scary apparition, common at Halloween
-A very large number
-A snake-haired mythical being
-Adjective for something lasting 60 minutes
-Verb: to exchange favors to gain benefit for all- particularly common in politics (or helping build a woodpile)
-A breed of cattle
-A type of tea
23
@Mari
Starting two letters:
GH - 1, GO - 4, GR - 1
HO - 5
LO - 6
NO - 2
OO - 1
RO - 2
UN - 1
Missing: GLUON(!) HONU
Needed help with the mythical G6, thanks!
15
@Dave I'm a little surprised by the missing GLUON as it seems to be a common crossword answer.
I'm disappointed HONU, which is Hawaiian for sea turtle, doesn't seem to appear in any of the online dictionaries or crossword databases. HULA, ALOHA, MAHALO, POKE, but where is the HONU love?
7
Much easier than yesterday’s mess. Got this done slightly faster than average.
6
@Mark Josephson I'll take this as a compliment I think!
7
For 4D I had to change my answer because BARFMAS didn’t fit with the crosses.
8
Seemed generally too quick and easy for a Friday, with just a few naticks that increased the difficulty, but not in a good way. Issa Rae? Know the name only from millennial crosswords. It's supposed to be APES instead of APBS? Whatever. And some random fill-in-the-blank in French? Crossed with some random proper name? No.
1
@Gary I plead guilty to being a millennial--you've got me there! Borderline Gen Z if it's any consolation ('95), but I suspect it's not ;)
Something interesting re MAMAN is that translators of "L'Etranger" have had a notoriously hard time figuring out how to render it in English. A couple of 'em decided to simply leave the French in place, as "Mother" doesn't quite cut the (Dijon) mustard.
14
@rpsmith
I was hoping you might be Psmith as in P. G. Wodehouse, but I see that those are your initials. Nice puzzle. 45A "tripped" me up because I thought "redeyes" might be some obscure military maneuvers from the Spanish-American War. Finally hit me.
2
Such a nice puzzle, especially after Thursday's one. The clues encompassed variety of topics but the puzzle on the whole felt so tight and crisp - maybe because the clues were so interesting. AS IF reminded me of one of my favorite movies (Clueless) - no one says "as if" like Cher. And best PROG rock band is, of course, Rush (and the late, great Neil Peart). Great debut, Ryan Patrick Smith - you already seem to be an OLD SALT at this.
4
@Chatte Cannelle Kind of you to say! Glad it sparked some positive memories. :) Also glad to hear you say you dug the clues, as I spent a lot of time on 'em and most survived Will's red pen.
7
I have some OLDSALT in my pantry.
(Sorry if you're sodium sick of these puns.)
9
@Mike I meant the "seasoned" in "seasoned sailor" to be something of an oblique salt pun myself ;)
12
@Mike
“I have some OLDSALT in my pantry” sounds like the beginning of a risqué joke, or the plot of “Parasite.”
(Hope I’m not on shaky ground with that reply).
3
Ryan,
Mike doesn't do oblique.
4
Very smooth until the southwest corner. ESPN the Magazine and Asia Minor before AARP and URSA didn't help.
2
@vaer ESPN! Interesting. Sometimes it's tough to predict how my puzzles will misdirect folks... ESPN the Magazine does have the ring of truth to it.
4
Did this pretty quickly, especially for a Friday, but enjoyed the journey. Some things just popped into my head, like ARIADNE, SULU, UMLAUTS, URSA, MAMAN, REBECCA, and others appeared from crosses. My favorite clue was the one for EAR. Laughed out loud when it came to me. Really nice debut.
5
@Shari Coats Happy to hear that it satisfied!
3
I lingered over the bud’s most likely placement, torn between bAR and jAR, even as my own pair softly fed white noise into my EARs. The jAR seemed more romantic, but there was no corresponding explanation for a Caesar of any feather marching APjS into battle. I then looked up to see whether my better half happened to be watching something with a high speed chase, featuring behind one of the wheels a complicated but idealistic Sgt. Caesar, a cop’s cop with a heart of gold and a penchant for issuing so many APB’S that his trusty men in blue counted them in armies.
Yes, I’m too young to have seen the original “Planet of the Apes,” and was too old to care for the genre by the time the second round rolled through.
The clues for TITULAR and UMLAUTS were great — and cause for much self-congratulation on my part as for some reason the answers popped into my head immediately. By the time my counterclockwise solve took me from the SW to the SE corner (I usually start solving in random parts of the grid and leave “not-sure’s” for last), I had welts from further vigorous patting myself on the shoulder after filling in SULU, HAN, and MAMAN without hesitation. And TUSKED broke through what was a NASCENT blister.
A shoutout to Pablo Neruda, whose “Captain’s Verses” I have largely memorized, some even in what passes for Sam’s Assault on the Spanish Language in our house. All editions are dogEARed, and one (the organic copy) is even dog-nibbled.
7
@Sam Lyons Nice work on TITULAR and UMLAUTS! There are certainly some rabbit holes to avoid with those ones. Despite the Caesar stumble it sounds like you had a good time with it, as opposed to going APE? Happy to hear it :)
4
This was a pretty delightful puzzle! Easy parts, hard parts, and just right parts. Nicely done.
10
@Ann Glad you enjoyed it! I'll do my best to ensure the full Goldilocks spectrum is represented in future submissions as well
10
and Elke
Interesting puzzle with a goodly number of WILDE animal references--APES, URSA, STEERS , TUSKED
Ryan the constructor in his Notes in Deb's column notes that the top half of the puzzle is packed with the names of influential women from arts, myth etc.
I want to note that the bottom half has Justin TRUDEAU who, upon election announced that his Cabinet would be made up of an equal number of men and women.
Somebody will probably correct me - but are we in the NASCENT MOON phase ?
3
@Robert Huh, wasn't going for a bestiary while I was making it, but I can't argue with your examples. I do enjoy the National Zoo here in D.C., particularly the Small Mammal House
4
@Elke
Someone will correct me if timeanddate.com is wrong, but according to that site the MOON is in the WANing crescent phase. I didn’t notice that MOON crosses with WANES until I read your comment. Next NASCENT MOON will be Jan. 24th.
https://www.timeanddate.com/moon/phases/usa/new-york
1
Elke
Did you happen to think of LEE’S for 32D? For many years my grandmother from Vancouver used to send LEE’S Chocolates to us and they were the absolute best chocolates I’ve ever had!
"Over hill, over DALE,
As we hit the dusty trail,
And the caissons go rolling along."
Not today, they don't. They got bogged down in the STREAMS of commercialism and product placement. Here are the alternatives:
"The pale moon was rising above the green mountain,
The sun was declining beneath the blue sea;
When I strayed with my love to the pure crystal fountain,
That stands in the beautiful VALE of tralee."
We need an Irish tenor. Here's the archetype: John McCormack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=58&v=0UjhVYn_Y9M&feature=emb_logo
Yet another synonym appears in the puzzle. Same singer.
"When the boys began to gather
In the GLEN of a summer night
And the Kerry piper's tuning
Made us long with wild delight!"
https://youtu.be/munzP452Is0
3
@Al in Pittsburgh
I started reading your post and immediately the sound of Hot Lips Houlihan belting out “Over hill, over DALE” with ever so much verve popped into my head. LIVE MASh, I say.
(Puzzlemucker, if you’re reading this — jumpin’ Josephat, you’ve created a monster, sir!)
6
@Sam Lyons Found it a tricky one, did you? We millennials are not to be trusted ;)
5
fine puzzle, but pretty straightforward for a Friday.
2
@Rodzu Fair enough. Glad it was a smooth solve, at any rate :)
4
Ha! My first thoughts for "Evening services" were SHABBAT and then HAVDALAH. Quickly realized I was coming at it from the wrong end of the spectrum and when ERS filled in at the bottom and was quickly able to right my course. Otherwise I would never have thought of VESPERS - just goes to show! (emoji of me laughing)
2
@Lin Kaatz Chary - welcome Shabbat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epKZkUGp6H4
1
@Lin Kaatz Chary
VESPERS is just Goyische for Ma'ariv.
1
Easier than yesterday, but still nowhere close to finish it.
1
@Gulzar Keep revisiting! Don't give up. I find that if I walk away and come back a while later answers sometimes magically appear.
5
The SW side had me stumped. TIL UMLAUTS. I bogged myself down at 35A trying to say AirPods would suffice as a singular because you don’t buy one. Duh to me!
ISSARAE is becoming a NYT crossword regular and I’m here for it! Just learned today the new season of her HBO series, Insecure, comes back in April. It’s terrific.
BTW, NIALONG from yesterday has been working steadily in popular films and movies since 1986. 1986! Yet she’s enough to raise so much ire. There are actors who are very well known, but still not every single person knows them. Why become furious about it?
Ryan Patrick Smith, you made this Friday puzzle very enjoyable. Congrats and good luck in your various endeavors!
8
Oh, and a public thanks for my husband whose love of house and techno music gave me ELECTRONICA. Finally all that boom-boom-boom I hear has paid off — a bit.
4
Well, my dry cleaner has also been doing their job since 1986, but that doesn't make them appropriate crossword puzzle material. Being an actor or athlete does not make a person special.
1
@Gary complaining specifically about two well known, accomplished women of color being featured in a crossword, and then comparing them to an anonymous dry cleaner is pretty condescending, to say the least.
14
Another almost blank first run-through, but then things started filling in, bit by bit, but which also included some incorrect guesses. Punk before PROG rock, bAR before EAR, and I had the Taco Bell slogan all in Spanish before I remembered it correctly; and that was just the top half. Fortunately, the only problem in the bottom half was PREcedE before PREDATE, and that fixed pretty quickly. VESPERS was my key to starting at the bottom, and I had thought about MUFTI, but hesitated until it became obvious.
In summary, it was start down south and BUILD UP from there.
Nice debut, and I look forward to seeing more from RPS.
4
@JayTee Thanks! Sounds like a satisfying incremental solve, which is always the hope on the constructor end :)
4
Nice fill but for a Friday my brain was insufficiently scrambled by insufficiently clever or cryptic clues.
4
@alex Fair enough! Hopefully I can nudge your neurons more next time :)
4
Nice puzzle! Took me a while to find an error again today. This time I had BAR instead of EAR (Bud's place. Says something about me, I guess.)
23
@FrankieHeck Seems like a common hiccup! I'm a teetotaler myself, so the possibility didn't even occur to me there haha
5
@FrankieHeck
Me too.
1
My favorite kind of Friday — where it seems so daunting at the beginning, but falls into place quicker and quicker by the end. A minute and a half off my best, so I’ll take it! Nice debut, RPS!
16
@Irene Thank you kindly! A quick solve is a smooth solve, and smooth solves are what I'm aiming for. :)
5
I really enjoyed this one. Even though I stuck in a few spots (I still don’t get EMS) it was very well balanced leaving plenty of room to puzzle out the tricky bits. Thanks, Ryan!
2
Emergency Medical Service(s), I believe.
7
@Doug
911 operators handle multiple emergency services, and most include police, fire and medical, all of which require various mixes of the mentioned personnel.
1
@Doug Glad you had a good time solving! W.r.t. the 911 clue, I was thinking of fire vs. police vs. EMS
3
I hope I'm not the only one with ADCLUB crossing DALE. It was tricky because Wiktionary lists DALE and VALE as synonyms.
11
Hand up here for ADCLUB. Also, GLEN is a synonym as well. I grew up in a Queens neighborhood called Ridgewood, which abuts a Glendale. Yes, there is a better known Glendale in CA and a better known Ridgewood in NJ.
4
Same here. ADCLUB and DALE cost me many minutes, mostly because 1A was a mystery, and I was dependent on crosses.
4
Changing the D to V was my last step to the solve.
- Tom
2
I'm wondering how the photo in the blog relates to the puzzle...I went back through the whole puzzle and can't think of a reason. I wouldn't have pursued the question except for the news from LAX yesterday, hopefully just an unfortunate coincidence.
I was all set to complain about the mention of AARP magazine, which I discontinued (though they never ever leave you alone once you're on their list) because it is nothing but a front for the life insurance industrial complex (just as AARP itself is) - then I find that the puzzle is connected to Smithsonian Magazine - which I read avidly for decades, from its very first issue, until it became a front for the Republican-industrial complex and I couldn't read another word of it. I don't know if the magazine is still in the clutches of the GOP - but it sure was when I swore off it.
5
@David Connell
Looks a little too light out to be a REDEYE, but perhaps that’s it.
5
@Puzzlemucker - good catch, I think that must be it!
I looked again at the photo and was reminded of a day when I took the hop from San Diego to L.A. on the way home to Philadelphia. The sky in S.D. was bright, brilliant, clear blue; as we landed not twenty minutes away in L.A., you could see the brown air being split by the wings of the plane, and the view from the airport was just as "lovely" as that in the photo...and people live there on purpose!
1
I’m thinking provincially; a transcontinental flight would meet the brief.
1
Congrats on a great debut! Really liked that -RTTV- span in 35A. And SULU next to HAN had me thinking of a different (crewman) on a different Star voyager. I counted at least 9 movie/show references (including 6 of the first 11 across clues!) that could be reviewed by the AVCLUB or watched on a SMARTTV. Loved it.
4
@Calvin Glad to hear it! I'm a big film and video game guy, so you can expect similar pop cultural nuggets if you see my byline again :)
4
Dynamite debut, Ryan, we look forward to many more.
Now about yesterday's puzzle . . .
7
@Wags Your avatar and the word "dynamite" go well together haha. Glad you dug it :)
7
@rpsmith It's a heavy burden keeping Acme Corporation afloat.
I'm honored to hear from the constructor.
4
Hi, Deb, you did mean Fontaine and not Sutherland, right? And I'm just too dense to get the joke. Right?
Anyway, I enjoyed the humerous REBECCA riff. Nontheless, serious-minded Hitchcock fans will know that the second Mrs. De Winter was played by Joan Fontaine, and that the first Mrs. de Winter was the only REBECCA in the entire story. But her shadow loomed large over the whole thing like no other unseen character I can think of (except maybe the real Norma Bates). Which sets up the trick trivia question, "Who played the title role in REBECCA?"
(Oops, spoiled it, didn't I? I mean, who doesn't know the answer by now? Nobody, I guess. Just nobody.)
11
@Alan J That would make quite an opera!
2
@Alan J
I suspect Joan Sutherland is part of Deb's fractured retelling of "Rebecca."
Joan Fontaine and sister Olivia de Havilland lived in my small town in the Bay Area, and their photos are on the wall at the local elementary school, where my son and the sisters all attended (but not at the same time).
I don't want to jinx anything, but Olivia is still alive, and living in France.
3
@Alan J
I'm usually quite in tune with Deb, but I just didn't understand the riff on REBECCA -- and the movie at that, not the novel of the clue. Were there lots of little references that I was missing? Was she trying to say she just didn't like the flick?
FWIW, I think it's a pretty terrific movie, but it fails utterly to capture the atmosphere of the book.
2
Unusual solve — filled in the entire right side and then, more slowly, the left. Some pesky flyspecking at the end. A dazzling grid design and some great fill and, impressively, not enough glue to even make a dent in a GLUE POT. After Thursday, this help smooth the waters for new and OLD SALTS alike.
8
Desmond Dekker & the Aces’ 1968 ska classic “ISRAELITES”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxtfdH3-TQ4
11
@Puzzlemucker
Noice.
2
@Puzzlemucker
Yep, the word "Israelites" takes me to reggae also. Great song.
3
Faster than yesterday for me, but not by a whole lot. It felt like there were a lot of pop culture references in the top half (down to ARIADNE, anyway) and I just noticed HAN and SULU next to each other. I liked the clues for REDEYES and UMLAUTS, and always liked the idea of VESPERS to close out the day. Welcome to the other side of Wordplay, Ryan!
15
@Liz B Many thanks, Liz! Happy to be here.
3
ISSA RAE, THERESA MAY, and OLIVIA WILDE walk into a bar...just to prove that full names can indeed be entries in the puzzle.
(For the benefit of someone who was surprised at NIA LONG's appearance yesterday. She apparently got to the bar a day early.)
26
@Steve L
MOE's?
3
@Steve L I actually prefer full names to partials, provided they're tastefully balanced against other vocab :) Hope you had a fun time solving!
6
(Steve, He didn't remark on them in his initial post; I wonder if he'll get to -- and get -- your comment.)
Cute puzzle, enjoyed the solve. I've had a lot of tough solves the last week or so, it was nice for one to fall with little resistance.
Lots of good things in this puzzle, and the grid's a big plus.
17
Hi @Tyler D.,
Here, you dropped this:
https://instantrimshot.com/
9
@Tyler D.
That plus had me at 'hello'! I kept thinking, "WHAT AM I MISSING?" The + is so big, it has to be like the "T's" were a few days back. But every word fit. Almost seemed too easy as a result, but the tension was palpable. . .
I really liked Caesar's army! Oogha, Boogha, Doogha!
58A is cheating. They send me 3 copies every month which inflates their circulation, I'm sure! :)
6
@Tyler D. Ha, classic. Usually hear that one applied to the Swiss flag. Your take was a little... non-standard ;) Glad you enjoyed the solve!
5