Saturday, February 18, 2023

Valley where David fought Goliath / SAT 2-18-23 / Octave follower in a Petrarchan sonnet / Home to Sicily's Castello di Lombardia / Popular pubs for college grads / Ones spreading the gospel through rap music or graffiti / Alternative to Lunesta or Quviviq

Constructor: Kameron Austin Collins

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: Shirley EATON (45D: Shirley of "Goldfinger") —

 

Shirley Jean Eaton (born 12 January 1937) is an English actress, author and singer. Eaton appeared regularly in British films throughout the 1950s and 1960s, and gained her highest profile for her iconic appearance as Bond Girl Jill Masterson in the James Bond film Goldfinger (1964), which gained her bombshell status. Eaton also had roles in the early Carry On films.

Preferring to devote herself to bringing up a family, she retired from acting in 1969. Eaton came out of retirement in 1999 to release her autobiography titled Golden Girl, which was a bestseller, and has released three more books throughout the 2000s. (wikipedia)

• • •

This began with a great coup on my part and then ended with a great faceplant—seriously, I just tripped over my laces two squares from the end, and then just stared at the finish line wondering how I was going to get there. But let's start with the coup. Couldn't make much sense of the first few Downs and Acrosses in the NW, but eventually I worked my way down to TV-G and SEES, which went in very easily. From there, I got OLIVE (2D: Fruit popular in salads, but not fruit salads), and it was at that point that I looked (re-looked?) at 13A: Popular pubs for college grads and, with only the "L" in place, wrote in ALUMNI MAGS. Now, I did so very tentatively, because I was sure it was wrong. Felt like a great work of imagination on my part—a nice guess, but probably a failed one. But as soon as I made TMI work in the cross (4D: "Just stop talking!"), I decided it was right, and I felt, well, prematurely exultant! I expect very tough puzzles from KAC, and any time I can just slap a long answer down like that, I feel happy/lucky. 


After that, the puzzle was just what I expected it to be—no whoosh whoosh around the grid, but a slow and steady grind with occasional bursts of aha! A proper Saturday, that is. The kind where you proceed tentatively because you expect to fall into a pit, or that some explosion will go off, or some other dangerous metaphor to occur. A DEATH TRAP is what you expect. You don't often get it these days, but if you're wise, you expect it. The main danger on Saturdays, aside from simply not knowing things (a constant danger), is getting tempted into wrong answers. I managed to avoid this, but there were times. Like "RIGHT ON ..." (6D: "Ni-i-ice!"). Hmmm. RIGHT ON ... SCHEDULE? No. THE DOT? THE MONEY? No. Luckily nothing wrong actually fit. This "how does it end?" streak continued with STREET... (14D: Ones spreading the gospel through rap music or graffiti) and DEATH... (48A: Fatal attraction?) and even "HAVE A..." (44A: "Until next time!"). None of these longer answers came quickly, all of them felt like they were tempting me to step off a cliff. But I worked my way through and around them, breezed through the SE corner, and finally zeroed in on the finish line, which for me was the NE. And it was here that ... well, whatever the opposite of that ALUMNI MAGS moment is, that's what happened. Started off by nailing an answer with only one letter in place ... ended up by failing an answer with only two squares to go:

[“cards” = comedians, “cutting” = scathing, critical]

Me, looking at [Art of cutting cards?]: "Ha, it's just like Kam to put some fancy French word for 'vicious banter' into the grid. What is it ... BARBEDAGE? BARBEDRIE? Wait, if that's AWE ... (34A: State that many are in when they visit a national park) ... yes, and that's APHASIA ... (37A: Condition treated in speech therapy) ... right? ... then ... what is BARBEDWIE!?!? That ... looks wrong." At least my instincts were correct there—BARBEDWIE was most certainly wrong. I kept looking for a word similar to BADINAGE to make that longer answer work, until I did a much simpler thing, which is just ignore everything after BARBED and think of *any* three-letter word that could follow it. Sadly, that didn't work, so I did the next most simple thing, which was remove the terminal "E" (which I'd picked up from ROUSES at 43A: Gives a rude awakening) and put in the "W" and "I," which really truly had to be right. And then bam. Or, I should probably say, thud—in went the "T" ... because it was never ROUSES at 43A: Gives a rude awakening—it was ROUSTS. A rude awakening, indeed. A spectacular two-square train wreck that was actually a three-square train wreck—it's always the square you're *not* looking at. Oof. Snagged by the barbed wire of BARBED WIT. Anyway, I'm probably exaggerating slightly how long those last few squares took, but that was the only moment of real stuckness I encountered, and I encountered it right on the brink of victory, so it stands out. Painfully.

["RIGHT ON, RIGHT ON!"]

I found the puzzle smooth and pleasantly surprising overall. The BLUEGRASS / BARBED WIRE pairing is colorful and sharp (and alliterative!), and GALVESTON DECADENCE suggests an undiscovered Tennessee Williams play. KAC is a film critic for Rolling Stone and often works film answers into the grid, which I love, but today there's not much of that. The great IRENE Dunne is here. But then there's just Shirley EATON, who baffled me. The only Goldfinger Shirley I know is Bassey. Oh, I guess there's Disney's Springtime With ROO as well, where movies are concerned, but that was direct-to-video, so I'm not counting it. 


I had DEATH TRIP (?) before DEATH TRAP (48A: Fatal attraction?). I handled the kealoa* at E--E IN like a pro, I must say (30A: Enter gradually). First instinct was EASE, but immediately saw that it could also be EDGE and just left it to get worked out by crosses (settled on EDGE after I worked GALVESTON from the bottom up). I had to root around in my Big Bag of Crossword Place Names to get a couple of short answers (ELAH, ENNA), but overwhelmingly the puzzle felt fresh. Exactly the kind of Saturday workout I enjoy. See you tomorrow.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld 

P.S. Mares are *lunar* SEAS (though I think “Maria” may be the more standard plural). And “Def” = TOTES because both are slang for “absolutely, yes!” (from “definitely” and “totally”)

P.P.S. loved the clue on SAO, how often can you say that?? (8D: "Saint" elsewhere)

*kealoa = a pair of words (normally short, common answers) that can be clued identically and that share at least one letter in common (in the same position). These are answers you can't just fill in quickly because two or more answers are viable, Even With One or More Letters In Place. From the classic [Mauna ___] KEA/LOA conundrum. See also, e.g. [Heaps] ATON/ALOT, ["Git!"] "SHOO"/"SCAT," etc.


[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

94 comments:

  1. Same experience as Rex but with additional "duhs" - I quickly entered Basse for Shirley of Golfinger (I obviously don't know the movie or how to spell Bassey). Dropped in STREETPREACHER before STREETPROPHETS.

    As a sci-fi fan, I read about all kinds of guns - RAY guns, STUN guns, RAIL guns, but I had to get ION from the downs.

    BARBED WIT crossing TENDER AGE made me a little sad for those innocent times.

    Solid Saturday

    ReplyDelete
  2. When I saw this was a KAC, my brain donned its work clothes. It also smiled with anticipation, knowing that some make-my-day world-class clues were in store. What a lovely state to begin a puzzle with.

    Now, afterward, I remembered another thing that marks a KAC – freshness from NYT-debut answers. Today, for instance: ALUMNI MAGS / HAVE A GOOD ONE / NO ENTRANCE / PHONE RECORDS / RIDING BOOT / RIGHT ON RIGHT ON / STREET PROPHETS. These not only add freshness, but they force my brain to think creatively, as I can’t rely on remembering clues I’ve seen before.

    As for those world-class clues, my three favorites were [Directive for the board], [Popular pubs for college grads], and [“Saint elsewhere]. I liked these because I immediately inwardly LOLed when I cracked them – so entertaining.

    Anyway, KAC, you came through for me again. Your puzzles’ tone and wit, their ability to give me a proper-yet-fair workout, and their skilled construction are Crosslandia highlights for me, today’s gem included. You are a marvelous one-of-a-kind. More please, and thank you!

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  3. Diego6:55 AM

    I’m holiday-ing in Barcelona (afternoon here) and after an enormous Catalan breakfast/brunch, I’m definitely having a good one, KAC. . . in spite of your very challenging one. Always a pleasure trying to solve his work. Love all the long ones, esp BEESKNEES and STREETPROPHETS. Don’t get BARBEDWIT? Will somebody please explain? Muchas gracias!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:16 AM

      A card can be a person. A rapscallion or a jester. So a cruel joke that could be made by a bounder or a cad would be barbed wit.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:25 AM

      Simpler than that. A cutting card is a comic who likes to insult people (like Don Rickles). Synonymous word by word with barbed wit.

      Delete

  4. Harder than Medium for me. Sergey, Larry and I solved together.

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  5. Dylan7:43 AM

    When I looked at _I_NG BOOT, the answer seemed obvious: HIKING BOOT. I stuck with that answer far too long because the crosses were giving me fits and I just couldn’t see DONT ERASE. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard of a RIDING BOOT. Long story short, that NW corner killed me.

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  6. Wanderlust7:55 AM

    Tough and fun, the best kind of Saturday. Except for the SE, I had at least one wrong guess in each section that slowed me down. My experience in the NE was exactly the same as Rex’s, with ROUSeS instead of ROUSTS and the confusion over what came after BARBED. And in the SW, I stuck too long with EasEIN - I didn’t see the EDGE at all. That led me to a Texas city beginning with SA, and San Antonio didn’t fit so it had to be San Angelo. Took a while to work out that knot. (By the way, not sure about the clue for UNTO - Does TO rhyme with two? I wouldn’t think so)

    But the hardest section for me was the NW, where I had EtNA and SAn (surely almost everyone was with me on the latter). After seeing SAO, I got to hIkING BOOT. The downs got me to see ALUMNI and give up on EtNA. (I’ve never heard of ENNA.)

    So many clever clues that it’s almost easier to
    list the ones that didn’t sparkle than those that did.

    If you love crime podcasts as I do, you know that cell PHONE RECORDS have revolutionized crime solving. If you are going to murder someone, you need to just toss the mobile into a swamp well before you do the deed and far away from where you do it. Do NOT call your wife from where you dumped the body to see if she needs you to pick up anything on the way home.





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  7. Anonymous7:57 AM

    Super fun puzzle with barbed wit/rousts the very late last to go in

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  8. Really nice test this morning - took me some time to get in the clueing groove but persevered in the end. Love when you can argue that 1a is the top entry in the puzzle. Stack it with ALUMNI MAGS and cross it with RIGHT ON RIGHT ON and STREET PROPHETS and we’re off. The effort continues all the way to BEES KNEES.

    TENDER AGE in bloom

    Like Rex - BARBED WIT was tough to parse - didn’t know APHASIA. Liked the minimal trivia - whiffed on AMBIEN and EATON but crosses were fair.

    SWAY

    Fantastic Saturday solve. I think I’ll have to change my vibe for Steve Mossberg’s Stumper.

    I am so afraid of dying

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  9. Anonymous8:15 AM

    Another hand up for finishing with BARBEDWIe and ROUSe. Unlike Rex’s, my start was slo-o-ow, roaming around the grid in search of something I felt sure of. Finally EasED IN, with lots of bad guesses and overwrites. A tough but fun Saturday for sure. Keep ‘‘em coming, KAC!

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  10. This was really hard for me. Some trivia I didn't know, and some early mistakes (STREET PREACHERS for STREET PROPHETS, STUTTER for APHASIA, TEEN YEARS for TENDER AGE, COMBAT BOOT for RIDING BOOT... I really screwed up my whole grid).

    I liked the clue for GALVESTON. I remember reading somewhere that GALVESTON was a much bigger and more important city in the late 1800s/early 1900s, and the Galveston Hurricane was one of the first major natural disasters that got national attention and changed the way we thought about the government and disaster response.

    I refuse to believe ALUMNI MAGS are popular with college grads. Mine always went straight in the recycling. Maybe they are popular for the 1% who go to an ivy or one of those tiny liberal arts schools. For most folks, we know this is just a fundraising appeal from a place that already saddled us with insurmountable debt.



    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Wanderlust9:20 AM

      You’re right about GALVESTON. I highly recommend “Isaac’s Storm” by Erik Larson, about that hurricane and how it changed everything about weather forecasting and storm preparedness. One fascinating tidbit was about how Cuba predicted the storm and prepared well for it, while the US (especially the titular Isaac Cline, meteorologist for the city) downplayed it. And Galveston never recovered, leading to the rise of Houston.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous6:17 PM

      We read ours from Rose Hulman faithfully.

      Delete
  11. I had a tough time with SAO - as is the case for pretty much all of the non-English clues and answers. Eventually the light bulb went off (please don’t spoil it for me by telling me that São Paulo does not mean Saint Paul).

    Enjoyed some of the good clues that others have mentioned - I liked the one for BLUEGRASS as well.

    An example of esoterica done well (using it as glue out of necessity to hold your grid together without becoming an obstruction) would be ELAH in my opinion - many will draw a blank on the valley where Goliath took the ambient temperature challenge, but at least all for crosses are legit and fair.

    A great example to the contrary would be DREA and AUEL crossing APHASIA - that’s just a compound trivia entry, which inches us a little to close to slogfest territory for my taste. You can tell this constructor knows his craft though.

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  12. Anonymous8:43 AM

    Appreciate the fill being "edge in" rather than "Ed Gein."

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  13. This one beat me like a drum. But it was fun - for too long a time.

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  14. An entertaining Friday night - two episodes of the highly recommended Poker Face (unfortunately I unknowingly started with Episode 6 then back to #1) and enjoyed show’s BARBEDWIT.

    Then another KAC classic. Knew EATON - seeing a gold painted nude beauty on the big screen leaves a lasting impression on a 10 year old. And enjoyed the doubling of the ubiquitous phrase RIGHTON. Thought BLUEGRASS had to end with a bASS and swung and missed at San Marcos instead of GALVESTON.

    But a challenging, fun Saturday done on Friday just before my AMBIEN - thanks Kameron!

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  15. Excellent tough puzzle. Really had to work for this one. Slow going. Satisfying.

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  16. Another KAC classic. With the exception of the SE there was Saturday level resistance throughout. BARBEDWIT was probably the single hardest answer. I needed my wife's help to parse the meaning of that clue after I'd solved. The crosses said it was WIT so WIT it was but I didn't know why the word "cards"was in the clue. It's because person who's a real "card" has a BARBEDWIT. That's their "Art". A very convoluted clue to top off a great solve.

    yd pg-1, Sat-Thu -0

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  17. Totes disagree with REx on this one. TV-Y is suitable for all ages, in my experience people say Do not erase, not Don’t erase, there are so many capitals for The Republic of Texas it’s next to ridiculous, Right on, Right on seems like a very silly repetitive, long answer, Never heard of Enna in all my years of Xword puzzles, nor Alumni Mags. Whatever that is. I was really slogging on this one, hated it. And Drea, so many weird ones.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:24 AM

      Agree (right on!) - glad I’m not alone on this one

      Delete
  18. Hard hard hard. I didn’t really enjoy myself, not sure why. I don’t usually mind a hard hard hard puzzle but this made me just keep banging my head against the wall — couldn’t get on the constructor’s wavelength. Not a bad puzzle by any means but it just didn’t suit me.

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  19. Anonymous9:21 AM

    Experience very closely parallel to @RP’s today. A good solid Saturday.

    If I may turn back to yesterday for a moment: I wanted to pursue the link OFL referenced as a source for the straight dope about J. K. Rowling, but didn’t find it, or at least didn’t recognize it. Can someone in the commentariat help with this?

    I’m not a particular fan of HP or JKR (and would be happy never again to see references to Potterworld in xwords), but I couldn’t help noticing that comments from the anti camp (most apparently not themselves trans), including Rex, seemed almost uniformly to be highly venomous, in contrast to statements from both Rowling herself and the op-ed writer who defended her.

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  20. Tom T9:30 AM

    What a glorious struggle! Like others, I wanted EasE IN, Shirley bAsse, and the hardest one to correct ROUSeS.

    But I also was married to DEATH wish for way too long (never watched enough Scooby Doo, so DAPHNE took a long time to bail me out).

    Also decided that the "damning legal evidence had to begin with PHOto, which led to another slow down.

    Last square entered was the first T in SESTET. Cue the Happy Music! (at just over an hour!)

    I'm sure the "Monster" will enjoy his ROO (there's also a "Hidden Diagonal ROO (see the R in 35A, LEADERS for the beginning) a two or three other "Boggle" ROOs.

    UNICLUE: Don Rickle's superpower:

    BARBEDWITFORCE.

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  21. Bob Mills9:33 AM

    Finally finished it after cheating. I had to look up SESTET, AUEL, and APHASIA. I also was stuck on the evidence clue, because I had PHOTO---- from the beginning.

    Typical hard Saturday, but fair. One criticism...the long answers tended to be slanted toward the hip-hop generation, specifically RIGHTONRIGHTON and STREETPROPHETS. I also thought the clue for BARBEDWIT was very vague, bordering on misleading.

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  22. Just a note that I didn't get the Saturday or Sunday paper and therefore won't be commenting on the blog for the next two days. What's going on with NYT delivery to my building is a joke.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:22 PM

      Nancy, since you have a subscription to the print edition, when the paper doesn’t come you can go online to what they call the “replica edition” (under “subscription benefits”), find the puzzle in the arts section, and print it out. You can even do that when you are traveling and have suspended your subscription.

      Delete
    2. @Nancy 9:35 AM
      I am thinking we need to work out an arrangement with seven of your neighbors. Each one is on-call one day a week in case the newspaper doesn't arrive. This blog is depending on you. And we need some solutions.

      Delete
  23. Haha - ED GEIN, the Dancing Machine.

    (Well, it’s a marvelous night for a Moondance!)

    https://youtu.be/5pW0nUlltyE

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  24. ROUSTed indeed! Great Saturday wake-up puzzle 👏

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  25. When @Lewis saw KAC on the byline he smiled. Whereas when I saw it, I sharpened my pencil and pulled up Google, knowing I was going to need it. SAFETY SHOE then HIKING BOOT before RIDING. ALUMNI BARS before MAGS. THE TWEENS before TENDER AGE FINGERPRINTS before PHONE RECORDS, etc. etc. etc. Just one ERASER after another. But I finally got there. With help.

    It was nice to be reminded of the old TVG show SAO Elsewhere. I had TOTES forgotten that Denzel Washington was in that.

    I’ll be off tomorrow so HAVE A GOOD ONE!

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  26. Challenging and rewarding. My one moment of triumph was writing in ALUMNI MAGS with no crosses. But then I followed that with combat BOOT, a harbinger of the many "nope, wrong" or "no idea"s to come. Like others, I enjoy rolling up my solving sleeves for KAC's puzzles and like @Rex appreciated this one as an old-school tough Saturday. Super answers, lots of fun to get them figured out.

    Do-overs: combat before hIkING before RIDING, malapop rAceS before DARTS, EasE before EDGE, misspelled GALVaSTON. Help from previous puzzles: ION, ENNA. Help from childhood enforced Bible reading ELAH. No idea: DREA, EATON.

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  27. When I saw who the constructor was, I steeled myself for a DNF. But instead, I finished it off rather briskly.

    This wasn't one of Mr. Collins's best. Low sparkle for a Saturday, too many Terrible Threes (22). Maybe The New Yorker rejected it.

    Happy to see DREA de Mateo here. I can still hear her in The Sopranos calling Chris-ta-fah! Wonderful actress.

    Hadn't seen STREETPROPHETS before. Like it.

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  28. Anonymous10:02 AM

    Could someone explain how “totes” is the answer to “Yea, def.” 52 down.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:05 AM

      Totes is slang for totally. So it makes sense for yea, (def)inetly

      Delete
  29. It's a "little" thing, but I hand a singular/plural issue with BBs. The hint is singular, the answer is plural.

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  30. Anonymous10:18 AM

    Can someone explain why “seas” is the answer to mares e.g.?

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:06 PM

      Rex explained in writ up. I finished my ever KAC without cheats. My day is made!

      Delete
  31. Anonymous10:19 AM

    Amy: Saturday satisfaction! Ditto having wie instead of WIT. Love BEES' KNEES. 14D caused my brain to start hearing "And the sign said the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls and tenement halls." That's fine as I'm a S&G fan. Well, have a good one!

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  32. DNF because of my error with ROUSeS. I had no idea what BARBED WIe (11D) was supposed to be. Even now, after reading Rex’s write up, I still don’t really get the clue for 11D. I suppose it refers to a "card", meaning "an odd or amusing person (DATED)" and "cutting" refers to some other dated synonym, like "being a wise ass". In any case, despite my advanced age, I find the clue very "dated"; Yuck!

    On the other hand, the clue for 13A was wickedly clever! Every month, when I receive my ALUMNI MAG in the mail, I immediately flip to the back pages to see who in my class achieved greatness or, of greater interest, died. Over the years (decades), the ratio of the latter to the former has predictably risen. And so it goes.

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  33. Mom: Eat some more.
    Teen: Had enough. If I eat more, I won’t be able to get my GAL VEST ON.
    Mom: EATON
    Teen: ATE. And besides, my hair is a limp mess.
    Mom: Have the hairdresser put some goo in it.
    Teen: No way.
    Mom: Come on, HAVE A GOO DONE
    Teen: RIGHTONRIGHTON.

    My wife and I take our love-making seriously, so we’ve had to BAR BED WIT.

    Tough as nails, but worked out from the SE corner and got ‘er done. Thanks, KAC, for a wonderful Saturday.

    I’d like to point out that the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls, making SubwayPROPHETS a pretty nifty answer until nothing works out.





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  34. I usually look to see who the constructor is, but this time I didn't -- which was a big help, as it left me assuming that I could solve this puzzle eventually. Seriously, I love his work, but there are always a lot of unknowns.

    It was tough, but not as tough as it might have been had I not resisted putting in the obvious Doc Martens at 16-A. I wasn't so lucky with stutter at 37-A, and even though I had the correct EDGE IN, I was sure it was wrong because it didn't seem to work with hEADs up at35-A.

    @wanderlust, the way I say "unto" the to does rhyme with two, but the un certainly does not rhyme with one. I needed the crosses for that one.

    Because I didn't know the valley, and wasn't seeing GALVESTON for some reason, I ended up trying to get 44-A from the back end, viz., DONE. I played around with things like "guess we're DONE," but none of them seemed right.

    As for those meds -- the only one I'd heard of was the answer, AMBIEN, so the clue was no help whatsoever. I actually thought I was looking for a sugar substitute.

    OTOH, I put in AUEL right away -- only to catch myself short thinking, "but maybe it's Rhys!"

    It's probably obvious to everyone, but just to spell it out -- the great thing about the ALUMNI MAGS clue is that pubs clues MAGS, but you don't see it because you're looking for bars.

    But as for you BARBED WIe folks, I don't see anything necessarily rude about rousing someone; to ROUST them, though, fits the clue perfectly.

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  35. Big embarrassing moment when I had to, like some others, change PHOTO to PHONO, as I had just this morning finished reading a crime novel where all the bad guys were brought to justice due to an examination of their PHONERECORDS. I mean, really.

    Hand up for the ROUSES/ROUSTS and EDGES/EASES confusion. Haven't see Ms. AUEL in some time and never spell her name right on the first try. And ENNA is always ETNA, so a foul there. Also wanted some kind of BASS before BLUEGRASS was obvious. And had never met DREA before, so how do you do?

    Didn't see ALUMNIMAGS until the very end. Since we went to the same school, my wife and I flip to the end pages of ours to check out the obituaries and that's about it.

    I guess "graffiti" does include messages seen on subway walls, which is where the prophets' words are seen. See also, '"tenement halls".

    Great Saturday, KAC. Tough but fair. Killed Another Crossword, you did, and thanks for all the fun.

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  36. TTrimble10:49 AM

    This looked formidable at first, with lots of TRAPs as Rex said. And I fell into a few of them. "Shaggy" before DAPHNE. (DAPHNE? C'mon. Who's the one who gives Scooby his snacks?) "Hand" before LIFT. EtNA before ENNA which I hadn't heard of. And then there was some luck: I put in AMBIEN as my first answer and then let it stay even though I wondered for a while what on this green earth could be a beef substitute that is three letters long ending in I.

    Medium-ish or slightly more than medium time.

    Great puzzle though. HAVE A GOOD ONE? I'm well on my way! I'm in AWE of STREET PROPHETS, maybe because I'm certain I could never come up with that if I were a constructor. (I'm planning on doing a deep dive into graffiti after I sign off here. Who are those anonymous artists who decorate rail cars and bridges when no one is around? What underground meanings are alive and throbbing there?)

    Some of the puzzle had a yesteryear feel to it. HIE and ROUSTS I don't hear much of in today's speech. BEE'S KNEES which makes me think of BEEhive hairdos and sock hops and whatever else you crazy kids were into back then. Shirley EATON as the one who died of skin suffocation from being spray-painted gold -- that idea fascinated me when I was of a TENDER AGE (btw -- it doesn't work). (Thanks Rex for the theme song -- the clips from the movie look so hokey now, but it was just so cool and swank back then: high-stakes gambling, white tie, hats decapitating statues, laser beams as slowly advancing threats to testicles, ...) IRENE Dunne who I think played Granny on The Beverly Hillbillies, right? The use of the word "card" for a real joker ("whattaya, some kind of wise guy?"). The quaintness teems and abounds from every pore.

    Thank you @Son Volt for the link to GALVESTON. Yet more memories from my boyhood. I can't explain why I like Glen Campbell so much. Or is it Jimmie Webb? It's both. Wichita Lineman seems like such an unlikely premise for a love song, and yet it's strangely affecting, as I guess everyone knows.

    I say to my old NOB now: DON'T ERASE these memories. I need them more than want them, and I want them for all time.

    Is the repetition RIGHT ON RIGHT ON enough in the language to be a thing?

    SB: I'll keep the tab open from yd on a little longer, but -4 right now. All those -able words, did I get them all? I think yes.

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  37. Started and ended just like Rex: SEES TVG OLIVE. Then I went down SPED HIE LEADERS ACL DECADENCE EDGEIN GALVESTON. Then worked east. Had to cheat on the NW: ENNA AMBIEN. Then had ROUSeS AWE and was too worn out to use my WIT and surrendered.

    Good Saturday puzzle. Nice clues for little stuff. ATE CLAW. Ashamed too have had cheated. I get use to looking up some PPP on Friday Saturday. This one I feel I surrendered too soon. Looking back it seems doable to me yet still a genuine Saturday puzzle. Entertaining solve the whole way through. No doubt ROUSTS is the superior answer. The NW was opaque at first and obvious when done. Hats off.

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  38. Anonymous10:52 AM

    @GRANDE

    Shot is a collective term for small spheres or pellets, often made of lead. These were the original projectiles for shotguns and are still fired primarily from shotguns and less commonly from riot guns ... Wikipedia

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  39. Ride the Reading10:53 AM

    Found this one difficult. About double my average Saturday time. Just didn't see pubs as other than places to eat and drink and socialize. Had Hasta la vista instead of HAVE A GOOD ONE, which made crosses there tough. Northwest was the last to fall.

    @whatsername - Denzel Washington, television's original Dr. Phil (Philip Chandler).

    Wouldn't want this level of difficulty every week, but fair, and relieved to finish without a cheat.

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  40. Yike. Saturday that sat, big time. Been awhile since I needed to Go-ogle this much. Tough puzzle, but fun. Maybe a bit short on glistening gems, but STREET PROPHETS is a stand out moment.

    Thank you to those who shared stories of family members who've transitioned. What a journey. I learned a lot yesterday.

    Uniclues:

    1 Direction to new online admin 90s-style.
    2 That gravitational pull of the "Graduate Happenings" pages in the semi-annual mailer from your old school you say you don't care about.
    3 All-hat no-horse vibe for your feet.
    4 My amazement perfume commercials consistently include has-been actresses coming into or getting out of water.
    5 That contraption at Home Depot operated by a teenage employee.
    6 Skull and crossbones above the "KEEP OUT" sign.
    7 Vegan party.
    8 Mess with Texas.
    9 The Rex Parker commentariat.

    1 DON'T ERASE BBS
    2 ALUMNI MAG'S CLAW
    3 RIDING BOOTS AURA
    4 EDGE IN WET AWE
    5 DEATH TRAP LIFT
    6 NO ENTRANCE ICON (~)
    7 OLIVE DECADENCE
    8 NUDGE GALVESTON
    9 BARBED WIT FORCE

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  41. Beezer11:02 AM

    Got back from a nice long vacay and great puzzle! So MANY things to like about it that have already been mentioned, so I will mention my ONE nit…which is “finger-point” being CLAW. I put in “nail” and, ok, ok, I know that some refer to LONG fingernails as “claws” but…Anyway, I’m sure someone will point out that human nails ARE the same as claws but would we put nail for “paw point”?
    Ok. Hope you know this is a bit tongue-in-cheek and prompted by me taking WAY too long to sort out the NE corner. Thanks for the fun KAC!

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  42. Two I did get but I had to google to find out why TOTES SEAS. Also got DAPHNE after I gave up on DuPreE.

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  43. TTrimble11:18 AM

    No, @TTrimble, that was IRENE Ryan. But she and Dunne were of a similar vintage.

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  44. @Anonymous (10:02) TOTES is short/slang for “totally.”

    @Anonymous (10:18) I raised an eyebrow at SEAS myself. The only thing I could come up with was large areas on the surface of the moon, once thought to be oceans and referred to as mares. Perhaps because it’s Latin for seas, but I wouldn’t swear to that part.

    @Ride the Reading (10:53) That’s right! Another thing I had forgotten. But DW is like Tom Hanks - I’d see a movie just because he’s in it and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him in a role I didn’t like.

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  45. Anonymous11:25 AM

    DNF for me. I'm a relative noob, and I get that it's a Saturday puzzle, but with the acres of long answers, especially in the NW, and dearth of short answers that were gettable, this was no fun.

    PHONERECORDS? I mean, yeah, they could be damning evidence. But so could ... literally any other plural noun in the right circumstances. So, I have to work for that one. Fine. But it was crossing with too many other long answers that were similarly unguessable, like STREETPROPHETS, BLUEGRASS, BARBEDWIT and the most egregious of all – RIGHTONRIGHTON.

    I appreciate having to work for an answer. And I like that "aha" feeling when you finally see the cleverness of a clue. But with so few toe holds, I felt like this one was asking me to read the constructors' mind. Which is not fair.

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  46. Medium. Me too for EasE IN before EDGE IN which ate up a crap ton of nanoseconds. I put in and took out ACL at least three times. So it took a while to come up with GALVESTON, which was the name of the Navy cruiser I was on in the mid ‘60s. Also, SheS before SEAS didn’t help. Solid, smooth Saturday with some delightful cluing, liked it.

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  47. Hey All !
    Caught some kind of bug or something (well, the one guy I work with was ill for a bit, showed up wearing a mask, but still...) and felt absolutely horrible yesterday, but today am doing better. Hopefully the upward good feeling continues. I even had to call in sick to work, which I can't even remember the last time I did that. (And not just from a bad memory!)

    Anyway, today's puz took some "Check Puzzle" prompts for me to finish. Ended up with the same conundrum that Rex did. But my last Check crossed out the E, and I was able to see WIT. A cheat every now and then ain't the end of the world!

    Writeovers I can remember EasESIN - EDGESIN, shaggy - DAPHNE, TVe - TVG (thinking Everyone, which now that I think about it, is for video games), flEw-SPED, think that's it.

    Wanted to mention to @pablo in YesterComments that he was finally in a puz, albeit in the clues. Got a chuckle when I saw ROO today.

    Does RIGHT ON RIGHT ON really equal "Ni-i-ice!"? Just seems off to my ears. Maybe if the clue was just "Nice!". Ni-i-ice seems more oomph -ish. Maybe the answer should've been DYNAMITE. I'm babbling.

    Nice SatPuz. Have a good weekend, y'all.

    One F (and it's above ROO, har)
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

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  48. Yes, for BARBED WIe first (and that, even after I thought to myself that ROUSeS hardly seemed all that rude) but it didn't take but a moment to see ROUSTS so no great hold-up.

    That was early in the solve, before EasE IN left me with nowhere to go at 31D and 32D to the point where I temporarily took out LEADERS and ACL. But EDGE IN edged in and GALVESTON became obvious.

    I was ever so grateful to get 33A, look over to its 53D cross-referenced clue and see that T-shirt did not fit.

    Really, for a KAC puzzle, this was a breeze, fun!

    Thanks, Kameron!

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  49. B-money11:45 AM

    COMBAT boots? Nah. HIKING boots? Why yes! er . . . . guess not.
    So that made the NW corner a bit of a mess.

    But yes, this is the fun Saturday we all dream about.
    RIGHTONRIGHTON. Just so much to love here.

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  50. BARBED WIT was expected and delivered by KAC so I knew I’d need to be ON THE ALERT and forgo a Crossworld EGO boost. Took a while to EDGE IN on this themeless Saturday, but only caT SUIT was a DEATH TRAP until the clowns parted and a NEW DREA winked into view. Rex’s rating & response seemed equally worthy of Kameron’s grid. Plus, the range & variety of fill options gave solvers of any era equal footing, and that’s the BEES KNEES or TOTES depending on when one’s TENDER AGE began.

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  51. I was reading my NYT Digest and saw that the puzzle was a KAC so gave it a whirl. This is the third* NYT puzzle I've done since I got fed up. For a KAC this was either very easy or tackling Croce's puzzles have made me a sharper solver. Either way, the only writeover here was DEATH wish before DEATH TRAP. Oh, and ELAm before ELAH. Lots of fun cluing and a fun solve generally. And GALVESTON (subtly anti-war lyrics and a great guitar solo - you know I'd love it if you know me).
    Okay - back to not doing the NYTX.


    *One of the other two puzzles I've done was @Lewis' effort back in October. Excellent puzzle.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:30 PM

      Come back! We missed your posts.

      Delete
  52. Anonymous12:05 PM

    So many answers that worked but were just plain wrong…RushBY, BLUEsRiff, caTSUT, nail instead of CLAW, wadEIN, TEenyeArs. Thank goodness for google.

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  53. To the anon question of seas and mares…even though it supposedly should be maria for plural of moon seas.

    Just glad the answer wasn’t STAG, or anything related to JKR (Just Kidding, Rex!)

    “mare, plural maria, any flat, dark plain of lower elevation on the Moon. The term, which in Latin means “sea,” was erroneously applied to such features by telescopic observers of the 17th century.”

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  54. Anonymous12:09 PM

    Humbling

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  55. I also EDGEd IN to ROUSTS in the end. But my other problem was filling 33A with NET, but I never heard of a NET SUIT. But then NEN? And finally the head slap. An enjoyable Saturday.

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  56. Anonymous12:33 PM

    DNF because I could not get my head around the BARBEDWIE situation. Other than that, a lovely tough Saturday.

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  57. I’m with you @TTrimble - he was never the coolest guy but could sing and play. I was a big fan of the Goodtime Hour in the early 70s.

    Witchita, Phoenix, Galveston - loved all the Jimmy Webb stuff but John Hartford’s Gentle on my Mind remains on my Mt Rushmore of all time great songs.

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  58. Thx, Kameron; RIGHT ON! :)

    Very hard (2x avg).

    Other than a dnf at the DREA / APHASIA cross, a most satisfying result!

    Enjoyed the battle! :)
    ____
    On to Steve Mossberg's Sat. Stumper. 🤞
    ___
    Peace 🕊 🇺🇦 ~ Compassion ~ Tolerance ~ Kindness to all 🙏

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  59. Like so many of you, I'm always challenged by a KAC puzzle. I was really struggling last night, when suddenly my paused PVR ran out of buffer space and unpaused itself, and the hockey game was blaring away. Left the puzzle, and watched the whole 3rd period where the Islanders come back from 4-2 down to win 5-4. Neat! Then returned to the puzzle and made quicker progress after that nice break.

    Hands up for EASE IN, giving me S-LVE-TON for the Texas city... obviously SILVERTON. Wait, that's Colorado, isn't it?

    PHONE RECORDS makes me think of the old Columbo episodes where the murderer successfully fakes phone calls and messages. Just yesterday, Lee Grant told her friend to call her about a tennis game, then pretended it was a ransom demand from her husband's kidnapper. Those were the days!

    Hey Z's back! If only for a day.

    [Spelling Bee: yd 0, my last 2 words looked unfamiliar. QB streak at 8 days now!]

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  60. Anybody else, besides me, who has not heard the expression "RIGHT ON," whether singly or doubled, in a non-ironic way since around the time Isaac Hayes used the term in his lyrics for the theme to "Shaft" in 1971? Just asking.

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  61. I don't think I've heard the expression "RIGHT ON," whether singly or doubled, used in a non-ironic way since around 1971, when Isaac Hayes incorporated it into the call-and-response portion of his lyrics for the "Theme from 'Shaft'" in 1971.

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  62. old timer1:44 PM

    I finished with no errors and no writeovers, but it sure took a while. Take that back. I did write in "Gee" before TV-G, because I watch almost nothing but Jeopardy on television, and am unfamiliar with ratings, and when my kids watched TV I was fine with anything that Comcast was willing to air.

    ROUSTS was way more appropriate than ROUSeS, so no prob there. ALUMNI MAGS was a huge surprise, because I went to Stanford, and their mag is not very good. Then I remembered that most ALUMS do look at the very back, for the class news -- when they are young, to see what their classmates have been doing, when they're my age, to see which of them have died recently.

    All the problems I did have were cleared up when I found APHASIA, which my wife, a now retired speech therapist, would have filled in at once.

    As for BARBED WIT, the absolute master was Sydney Smith, the Church of England minister who was also a zealous Whig, and the life of any party. His writings are still amusing, too, after all these years.

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  63. Oof that was tough. Got three or four gimmes on the first pass, then relied on Google and patience for the rest.

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  64. Anonymous2:05 PM

    Nice to see BLUEGRASS, but a few strings? Not with four fiddle, four bass, five banjo, six guitar, six Dobro, and eight mandolin strings - total: 33 strings.

    I know: picky picky.

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  65. The newspaper arrived at 2 p.m., but it did arrive. It's always a crapshoot on Saturday: you never know if it will or it won't come. And bad enough to be deprived of the puzzle, but to be deprived of all of you? Too much to bear! I couldn't go near the blog because I didn't want to spoil the puzzle for myself.

    And it's a terrific one! I found it very tough -- this is the 3rd day in a row where I've struggled -- and it took a lot of will power to "keep the faith" that I would eventually finish it. The cluing was brilliant and the clue that really got me was 13A. What on earth was ALUM tIMAGS? What kinds of pubs are those? Oh wait, it must be ENNA, not EtNA for the place in Sicily. Which would make it ALUMNI MAGS for the "popular pubs for college grads." What a great clue!!!!! Do you have pen in hand, Lewis?

    Other great clues. It's a real board they're talking about, not a co-op board or a corporate board and therefore it's DON'T ERASE. Also loved BARBED WIT and DEATH TRAP. Loved the clue for UNTO, but I bet that one is Will Shortz's.

    Lively, fresh, clever, fiendish -- everything you would want in a Saturday themeless. Thanks heavens my paper finally, finally did arrive.

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  66. Enjoyed this one although some stuff I didn't know or hadn't heard of previously. Was fortunate to go with ROUST instead of ROUSE early on as that definitely could have been tough. Had RAY gun instead of ION gun. EASEIN instead of EDGEIN. Had a tough time in the NW which was last, finally got OLIVE and was able to unlock it from there. Good, fairly tough Saturday.

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  67. Anonymous4:09 PM

    In my Hall of Fame of Crosswords!

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  68. For those who didn’t see Jim Horne’s write up, subbing for Jeff Chen:

    There's often something in each puzzle that reminds me of a Sondheim lyric, and I've learned to keep that annoying habit to myself. Today, though, two different clues point to the same song from "Funny Thing": the "one two" pun at 57-Across and the "Left right left right" clue at 12 -Down. Imperial Rome Captain Miles Gloriosus leads his troops into town singing:

    One, ... Two, ... One, ... Two, ...
    We not only fought but we won, too!
    Left, ... Right, ... Left, ... Right, ...
    There's none of the enemy left, right?

    This was a big LOL for me! I’m sure that @Nancy could have come up with this as well. Glad your paper arrived!

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  69. Glad to hear you’ve been rescued from crossword starvation @Nancy! I also loved this puzzle, as well as Thursday and Friday’s offering. My first instinct was wrong on nearly all clues so the challenge to see things from the constructor’s view was great fun. I think DREA was my only gimme because she was so unforgettable in The Soprano’s.

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  70. yep. Primo KAC SatPuz.

    Must be hard to fill these puzgrids with solid gold entries, like this one almost did.
    Only slight Ow de Speration moments:
    * ALUMNIMAGS. Sounds kinda made up, but certainly inferable. A debut answer, natch.
    * RIGHTONRIGHTON. Does have a nice Matthew McConaughey flavor to it, I reckon. Otherwise, suspiciously repetitious.
    * BARBEDWIT. Not a debut, at least. It appears after a 16-year hiatus, when it debuted.

    staff weeject picks: TVG cuz it looks neat, and BBS cuz it had a neat clue.

    LEADERS also had a nice, sneaky clue. Ditto, for SEAS.
    Kept wantin to put Shirley Bassey in, where EATON went. Lost precious nanoseconds. But overall, a fairly friendly SatPuz solvequest.

    Thanx, Mr. Collins dude. It was all right all right. Keep them themeless gems a-comin.

    Masked & Anonymo4Us


    based on a schlock flick we watched last night:
    **gruntz**

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  71. I don't believe cocoa can be fairly described as a "major" Nigerian export.

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  72. @Colin Bos 5:37. CACAO, not CoCoa. Big, not major.

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  73. Anonymous10:38 PM

    The plural form of the Latin word for “seas” (29 down) is “maria” and not “mares.” A major problem. Yes?

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  74. Anonymous2:39 AM

    this was the most difficult puzzle in a very long time—nothing was on my wavelength

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  75. Great writeup for an engaging puzzle!

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  76. Whew! That was practically an Tim Croce-level puzzle. Well, an easy Croce. Absolutely nothing came easily. And I see you, @Roo.

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  77. Anonymous9:14 AM

    I apologize up front…not related to the crossword. But this crowd is so clever, I figured you could be my last hope .
    Sometime ago, in Saturdays NYT, this brain tickler poem appeared. I can’t come up with answer and neither can the wordsmiths in my life.
    Each missing word is 7 letters long and they are anagrams of each other.
    ____: The world’s in tatters lately.
    So sometimes, ____, Mom grabs her tissues.
    More often she’s incensed and shouts, ____,
    “We need a leader who’ll address these issues!”
    (This appeared during the Trump era)

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  78. Milwaukee Talkie7:40 AM


    Anonymous 9:14:

    Answer below:













    Reality, tearily, irately?

    Spellcheck doesn't like "tearily", so I might be wrong.


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  79. Burma Shave2:44 PM

    NO PROPHETS

    THE STREET has you ON your KNEES, UNTO DECADENCE again.
    ONTHE TV THE police FORCE SEES, so HAVEAGOODONE to TEN.

    --- DAPHNE EATON, PHD

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  80. Diana, LIW3:35 PM

    Fun words. Too bad I didn't get enough of them correctly.

    When you put in "AQUILL" vs. "AMBIEN," you can really mess up a major area of the puzzle. And AHI still works for the cross.

    But that wasn't my only blank area. So - thank you, Saturday, for a tough tussle - you win!

    Diana, Lady-in-Waiting For Crosswords

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  81. rondo4:09 PM

    Too many write-overs to mention them all but ElbA/EtNA/ENNA, hIkINGBOOT/RIDINGBOOT, rIde/LIFT, and DEATHwish/DEATHTRAP crossing SnOw/SOOT will give you an idea. STDS in the corners.
    Wordle birdie.

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  82. DNF, couldn't get NW. Again. Still. Always.

    Wordle par.

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  83. Anonymous7:19 PM

    Toughest Saturday in quite some time.

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