Saturday, March 30, 2024

Tackle item hung from floaters / SAT 3-30-24 / Paradoxical line of amazement / Two-character Mamet play / ___ Records, onetime label for the Kinks and Petula Clark / Hanky, slangily

Constructor: Blake Slonecker

Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: GILL NET (1A: Tackle item hung from floaters) —

[The Salmon Fisher, Eilif Peterssen (1889)]

Gillnetting is a fishing method that uses gillnets: vertical panels of netting that hang from a line with regularly spaced floaters that hold the line on the surface of the water. The floats are sometimes called "corks" and the line with corks is generally referred to as a "cork line." The line along the bottom of the panels is generally weighted. Traditionally this line has been weighted with lead and may be referred to as "lead line." A gillnet is normally set in a straight line. Gillnets can be characterized by mesh size, as well as colour and type of filament from which they are made. Fish may be caught by gillnets in three ways:

  1. Wedged – held by the mesh around the body.
  2. Gilled – held by mesh slipping behind the opercula.
  3. Tangled – held by teeth, spines, maxillaries, or other protrusions without the body penetrating the mesh.

Most fish have gills. A fish swims into a net and passes only part way through the mesh. When it struggles to free itself, the twine slips behind the gill cover and prevents escape.

Gillnets are so effective that their use is closely monitored and regulated by fisheries management and enforcement agencies. Mesh size, twine strength, as well as net length and depth are all closely regulated to reduce bycatch of non-target species. (wikipedia)

• • •

Well this was hard, which is what a Saturday should be, but again I cannot say that it was particularly fun. GILL NET was probably the most unfun thing in the puzzle, and it was the first (and last) thing I encountered. There are certain words, like GILL NET, and to a lesser extent CORN PIT, that make me wish constructors curated their wordlists better. I don't know why you would ever want something as ... let's say, niche ... as GILL NET at your 1-Across position. Following that up with CRAPPER, well ... that sets a tone, for sure (see also NOSE RAG, yeesh). There was lots of clever cluing in this puzzle, and some of it worked well, but the grid itself is just OK. As with yesterday's puzzle, not nearly enough marquee answers for my taste. Unlike yesterday's puzzle, though, this one is absolutely choked with proper-noun trivia. I found this puzzle difficult and I knew almost all the trivia stuff. Can't imagine what it would've been like if it was beyond your ken (as GILL NET was beyond mine—the only thing in the grid that was). I wrote in OLEANNA like "oof, do people still know that?" (59A: Two-character Mamet play). And right next to that, TIM REID (great actor, but possibly obscure to younger solvers) (58A: Actor who played DJ Venus Flytrap on "WKRP in Cincinnati"). A thirty-year-old tennis comeback down there too (48D: Tennis star with a famed 1995 comeback), and a bygone record label (53A: ___ Records, onetime label for the Kinks and Petula Clark), and two financial services names (fun!) (sarcasm!). I knew all these names, and maybe you did too, so maybe there's no problem. But it felt like A Lot. 


The joy (as often happens) came from the longer answers, which managed to stay hidden from me for a while. Really tough to bring down. Shot 'em full of crosses and they still wouldn't fall, but when they finally did, they were all satisfying. The hardest one really gave me a "D'oh!" feeling when I finally got it. I was, of course, reading the "Patient" (and thus the "check-ins") in 32A: Patient check-ins all wrong. "Patient" turns out to be an adjective, not a noun, and the medical context is absolutely phantasmic. I had REMINDERS and still no clue. "Appointment REMINDERS? Take-your-pill REMINDERS? What the hell fits in 6 letters!?" Plus, one of the GENTLE crosses, 33D: Stripling, could've been LAD or TAD ("a small child, esp. a boy"—merriam-webster.com), so yeah, GENTLE was tough to come up with (esp. since I was getting no help from the largely empty NW (aka the GILL NET corner). But the clue works. The misdirection works. You got me, and I'm not mad, which is always the goal. Mad at GILL NET and the CRAPPER (worst buddy pic of all time), not mad at GENTLE REMINDERS at all. CHRISTMAS SEASON also had some nice misdirection (it's when "the lights" go outside, not when the lights are extinguished) (8D: When the lights go out?). And while "THERE ARE NO WORDS" didn't have any tricky misdirection in its clue (7D: Paradoxical line of amazement), the clue was still interesting (kind of funny), and hard. So the bones of this puzzle are strong, at least.


Lots of things to explain today so ... let's start explaining (best we can)

Explainers (and gripes and highlights):
  • 16A: Stanley Cup edge (HOME ICE) — "Edge" here means "advantage"; when you play at home, as opposed to away, you (presumably) have the "edge."
  • 20A: With 22-Across, pricey import (FOREIGN / CAR) — this didn't track. What is a FOREIGN CAR, anyway? I always thought Honda and Toyota were "foreign" (i.e. Japanese), but they're not "pricey." Does the actual manufacture have to take place abroad to qualify? Even looking up "FOREIGN CAR" isn't that much help. People can't seem to agree what the term means with any precision.
  • 25A: Kennedy center? (ENS) — the "letteral" clue strikes again! (these are the letters, the "n"s (ENS) at the "center" of "Kennedy")
  • 26A: Verb that becomes a five-letter alphabet run if you change its middle letter (ABIDE) — this is so dumb that I kind of like it. Anyway, it was a gimme (I had the "B" from BAD SPOT and could infer all the other letters from the clue)
  • 35A: Means of excellence? (A AVERAGES) — "Means" = mathematical term, equivalent to ... "averages"
  • 44A: +/- (OR SO) — gotta say it out loud ("plus or minus") for it to really register
  • 60A: Name in 2008 Wall Street news (STEARNS) — Ah, the global recession and subprime mortgage crisis. Who doesn't love remembering that? (this one was a vibe-killer, the GILL NET of the southern half of this grid)
  • 3D: Where the Cedar Revolution took place (LEBANON) — the one answer that I had sitting comfortably in the NW after my first pass. At some point I learned that that's a cedar tree on LEBANON’s flag, and never forgot it.
  • 34D: Grp. concerned with digital learning (NEA) — really really thought there was going to be a "digital" misdirect here (i.e. that the answer would have to do with fingers ... maybe something to do with braille, sign language, I dunno ...), but no. Just ... e-learning in general (NEA stands for National Education Association, the largest labor union in the country). Kinda boring. But NEA is boring fill, so who cares? Moving on.
  • 52D: Big blow (GALE) — saw right through this one, i.e. knew it was going to be wind-related and not impact-related. Had the "G" and wrote in .... GUST :(
  • 5D: Simple souls (NAIFS) — and we're back to GILL NET. Again. I had the answer here as WAIFS, which isn't a particularly good answer for this clue, but unlike NAIFS, it's a word humans actually use. NAIFS, esp. in the plural, looks insane. Almost as insane as seeing PISCINE clued as anything but a French swimming pool (12D: Like some schools = schools of fish; in English, PISCINE just means "of or related to fish").
  • 15A: Instruction to trick-or-treaters (ONE EACH) — the NW corner strikes again. I had "TAKE ONE" here. "ONE EACH" sounds brusque and, when facing excited little children dressed in ridiculous costumes, kind of dickish. Don't be so miserly. Or just put the candy in the kid's bag yourself if you need to be so controlling. 
  • 1D: Wood source (GOLF BAG) — A "wood" is a variety of golf club. Woods and irons (drivers putters and wedges too, or so I'm told, I'm allergic to everything about golf that isn't miniature)
See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

127 comments:


  1. Medium-Challenging.

    1D: pro shop before GOLF BAG
    15A: @Rex takEone before ONE EACH
    28A: fern before ALga before ALOE
    46D: TITre before TITER
    57D: foe before TAT, leading to ...
    ... 56A: Surf AIR(?) before SALT AIR

    GILL NET (1A), CORN PIT (37D), PYE records (53A) and OLEANNA (59A) were WOEs

    As OFL noted about 20/22A, not all "foreign" cars are pricey.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:51 PM

      I had naifs and roeg first thus Faberge egg fit perfectly instead of foreign car and messed me up for a long time

      Delete
  2. Anonymous6:38 AM

    SNOT RAG and FABERGE EGG

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yep - nice and tough like it should be. Elegant looking grid - no black squares to be found. Agree with the big guy - the opening quadrant is rough. After getting CRAPPER - I was looking for “snot” instead of NOSE. Really dislike the ABIDE entry.

    EC

    Liked IRON AGE, THERE ARE NO WORDS and ECUADOR. HOME ICE is temporal - but no idea what a CORN PIT is. Knew GILL NET and TIM REID cold which helped.

    Enjoyable Saturday morning solve. I hope your move is going smoothly @Pablo - I know you’re a Stumper and will warn you Stella has her groove on today.

    I was lifted up again

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous7:09 AM

    Another way LEBANON might be a gimme… Here in Los Angeles some of us may recall that one of the hospitals that formed Cedars-Sinai was Cedars of Lebanon. But that was long ago so maybe not.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'm a big Kinks fan but still started with RCA ('70s) before remembering PYE ('60s).

    Looked like I was going to be stumped in the top left but GENTLE finally clicked, which led to LEBANON, and was then able to get the rest.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Andy Freude7:20 AM

    Truly a Saturday. Challenging, nothing medium about it. Agree that this doesn’t pass the breakfast test. Good long downs, though. As for Ella, THERE ARE NO WORDS to describe the delight I take in her voice. Great Johnny Mercer song, too.

    ReplyDelete
  7. The four grid spanners were all solid. The rest of it looked like an homage to all of the WoE and WtF fans among us, with GILL NET, PISCINE, OLEANNA, TIME REID and the tennis player who made a comeback three decades ago.

    If CRAPPER and NOSE RAG are the best you can do in the juvy humor department, I’d suggest going back to bludgeoning us with ASSES about 5 times a week (or maybe go with SNOT RAG next time).

    The tough/GOON combination felt “off” to me. It seems like “tough” wants to be a noun, which seemed like a stretch to me, but sure enough, Uncle Google reports that tough is indeed used as a noun to describe “a rough and violent person, especially a gangster or criminal” - so advantage constructor on that one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. For me, this was a beast in two senses: Tough to complete, and a stellar accomplishment. On top of that, the grid design is gorgeous – simple, elegant, and calming.

    Thus, a Beauty and the Beast offering today.

    THE BEAST. Hard won fill-ins, to start, much clawing and grappling, fist pumps when something hit me. A proper Saturday. At some point, all the work earned dessert, some exhilarating “Whee!”-producing splat-fills.

    What skill and talent went into the making of this puzzle. Look at all that white! The average Saturday has 69 words and 31 black squares, and this grid has 66 and 24. But where is the junk? Nowhere! Au contraire, there is beauty sparking the answers – just look, for instance, at all four of the spanners.

    And the cluing – this is a nonstop wordplay/misdirect feast! A sampling: [Wood source] for GOLF BAG, [Patient check-ins] for GENTLE REMINDERS, [Rises in anger, maybe] for REARS UP.

    THE BEAUTY. Regarding that gorgeous grid, it is super-symmetrical – symmetric along the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal axes. Rare and wonderful.

    All this together, man oh man, this is a take-a-bow wow Saturday, IMO. High props, thumbs way up from me, Blake, and more please! Thank you for this masterful gem!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you @Lewis. I appreciate your daily optimism and your wordcraft. Couldn’t agree more with today’s opinions.

      Delete
  9. Anonymous7:57 AM

    Too little ARHAT.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Anonymous8:08 AM

    Tough Saturday, but not a slog. Had to get going in S/SE, then SW. Got long downs from the bottom, then NE filled in nicely and finally able to get the NW with a struggle. No music, finally found that was due to CORNLOT with SLATTER and TOMREID crossing. Over 15 minutes for the first time in ANOS

    Liked NAIFS, ENTERTAIN, ROAST with great clues

    Very satisfying puzzle. Thanks, Blake

    ReplyDelete
  11. Anonymous8:12 AM

    There is only one "n" in the center of Kennedy.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Anonymous - Right! Center is Center, not "slightly left of center".

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:23 PM

      Johnk
      About center of Kennedy
      We are not studying math or geometry here We are dealing with a clue, which is a type of hint to help us get the answer. Center is a perfectly fine “letteral” clue.
      Besides, people use center all the time to mean near the center. I live in the center of town
      That’s why “exact center “ is used often. So I think your definition of center is too restrictive.

      Delete
  12. Bob Mills8:25 AM

    Finished a Saturday without cheating for the second week in a row (Yay!). Took almost two hours, but worth the effort because the puzzle was really hard. At first I thought the tennis player was Chris Evert, and I made a lucky guess with LEBANON. The clue for THEREARENOWORDS was excellent.

    Can someone explain how ESPYING relates to "making out"? If you espy someone, you notice them, but do you make them out? That was the only doubtful entry in a fine puzzle, I thought.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:59 AM

      If you espy something, you can make it out with your eyes. It took me a while to scan too.

      Delete
  13. Anonymous8:29 AM

    Why "aloe" for greenery on a rock garden?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Aloe is a green plant sometimes found in a rock garden.

      Delete
  14. Anonymous8:34 AM

    Worst puzzle I've done in a long time. Cheated the whole way through just to keep my nyt streak.

    ReplyDelete
  15. I’d be happy never to see “crapper” again.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous7:50 AM

      Yes, this was way too icky for me.

      Delete
  16. Anonymous8:44 AM

    There is one n at the center. Not two. This held me up for a long time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Anonymous 8:44 AM. Right! As I commented to another Anon, above,

      Delete
  17. “Or just put the candy in the kid's bag yourself if you need to be so controlling.”

    I don’t know why but this line had me actually laughing out loud (though not quite rolling on the floor laughing).

    Maybe it reminded me of Larry David’s unwritten rules for appropriate Halloween costumes or age cutoffs. Maybe it was envisioning Rex himself - The King of Exactitude - carefully doling out one Fun Size a pop (perhaps dressed as Kip Dynamite, Napoleon’s brother).

    Either way, had more fun with that line than I had with the puzzle itself. Kudos!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous8:56 AM

    I had nne as the middle of Kennedy, because it is. The “ens” as a group are slightly left of center…just like JFK.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:17 PM

      Started that way and changed to Ens later

      Delete
    2. Amusing line, but to those of us who were alive back then, though young and seemingly vigorous, JFK was hardly left of center. Left of Nixon, yes; left of center, not really.

      Delete
  19. Anonymous9:01 AM

    I felt like I needed to pry each letter out of those. Misspelling ROEG as ROIG didn't help when each letter mattered. As tough as it was, I still enjoyed it.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anonymous9:06 AM

    I was thrown for a loop by the two horizontal crossers because they both fit wrong answers. I had ANNUALPHYSICALS and ITSNOTYOURFAULT and I was just sure that at least one of them was right. Great puzzle.

    ReplyDelete
  21. I think FOREIGN CAR was a bit of a sneaky wordplay answer for "Pricey import."

    As noted: not all foreign cars are particularly expensive when compared to domestic cars.

    However, CARS as consumer items are expensive. More expensive than, say, pants (usually). So in terms of ALL IMPORTED ITEMS, cars are up there in price.

    ReplyDelete
  22. For whatever reason I woke up this morning and decided I was British (I'm not), so thought TITRE was a sure spelling until I'd been banging my head against the southwest corner for a good 20 minutes.

    I'd also never heard of a CORNPIT, which sounds like even stranger of a thing for parents to leave their kids in than a ball pit.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Eater of Sole9:30 AM

    I will always like to see NAIF(S) appear, since it reminds me of a long-ago scrabble triumph (I played NAIF, my wife's boss challenged it and lost their turn).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Eater of sole
      I like the word naïf. Rex wasted time with waif so naïf annoyed him! Perfectly fine word. Funny story about the boss

      Delete
  24. I haven't completed a Fri, Sat, sun puzzle without hints since 3/22 and am getting a little annoyed at the puzzles (it's certainly not my fault.)

    ReplyDelete
  25. Ride the Reading9:44 AM

    Enjoyed it a bit more than OFL did. Perhaps because got off to slow start, then suddenly, started moving around quickly. Call it medium, but on the easy side of medium. Could have done without 8A, though.

    Had (or at least thought about) leche before LATTE. Wanted kerosene (but too long) before PROPANE - maybe from kerosene lanterns. Yes, had to get OLEANNA from crosses.

    Embarrassed not to remember Tim Reid's name right away. Love that show, and him in it. For a serious one with Venus, watch the episode "Who is Gordon Sims?" Or for comedy, there's always "Turkeys Away," or "Fish Story."

    Thanks, Blake Slonecker.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous9:44 AM

    Can someone explain “locals go to all of them”?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:10 AM

      Local, as opposed to express, trains make all the stops along the route. Using go in the clue, because stop wouldn’t be allowed, was tortured.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous10:28 AM

      Think trains or subways

      Delete
    3. Anonymous10:38 AM

      A local train stops at every station or platform, as opposed to an express train which skips several stops.

      Delete
  27. I grew up on the Great Lakes in the days before the lamprey wiped out commercial fishing, so I'm very familiar with the GILL NET. It still took me some time to see it, as I had LES and that L was suggesting something like 'troLler.' So for a long time that LES was all I had. I finally looked at the clue for 3-D (in order to choose between fern and moss for the rock garden greenery), put in the gimme LEBANON, and GILL NET swam into view, followed quickly by NAIFS. It was still a struggle, but no longer a hopeless one.

    I left the Midwest before anyone thought of the CORN PIT, but next time I'm there in harvest season I'll look for one. I have been to the Corn Palace in Mitchell SD, though--if you're ever driving through on I-90 it's a quick diversion, and well worth it.

    @Southside, I think your English-only campaign is gaining traction; cf. 47-A where they went to a child golfer instead of cluing it as "___ gehts?"

    ReplyDelete
  28. @annonymous 9:44

    Local train versus express. A local hits all the stations. An express will bypass them.

    ReplyDelete
  29. Ug. Not for me. At least twelve proper nouns. Stop at nine please. Or, write a proper puzzle and make sure GOON is in it.

    I spent a year in my 20s writing for the newspaper in Los Alamos. It's a very weird, very beautiful town. Smartest people in the world in the middle of nowhere. I made $5.35 an hour and had a healthcare policy and no spell check on the "computer system" we used. I lived in Santa Fe and drove my 1971 VW bug up the hill every day. I spent a lot of time fixing it on the side of the road. No cell phones back then so you had to keep a toolbox in the back seat. Somebody stole my taillights off it once.

    Tee-Hee: A marquee CRAPPER stared triumphantly at Slushy. Xi said, "My work here is done. Everyone else gets a rejection letter today."

    Uniclues:

    1 One judging the old folks in the group ahead.
    2 Iron hanky.

    1 GOLF BAG AGEISTS
    2 REPRESS NOSE RAG

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Rubiks stopped rubiking. CUBES GOT CAUGHT.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous10:07 AM

    "Locals" are subways or buses that stop more often than expresses. Loved this puzzle, perfect for a Saturday, though it took me more than 40 minutes to finish. But no lookups, which is always a source of satisfaction.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Definitely a challenging Saturday. ROEG and AMANA got things started. ABIDE was easy to figure out. I'm not familiar with PYE so that went in strictly from the crosses.

    The SW was the 2nd toughest section. I needed to parse 7D to be able to back fill it.

    The star of the show was the NW. I thought I had figured it out when I changed GENTLE to SUBTLE and got wood from FORESTS. However that and FISHNETS just wouldn't close the deal. Luckily that French word had to be LES. GILLNETS and LEBANON put GENTLE back in. GOLFBAG was big head slap doh moment. That clue is the oldest trick in the book and I fell for it for a long time.

    BTW who left their NOSERAG in the CRAPPER? A very entertaining solve.

    yd -0. QB21

    ReplyDelete
  32. Tough but (mostly) fair, I thought. Double A in AAVERAGES threw me for a bit. NW a problem for me too--I wanted LAB to be in 17A (what else are Los Alamos and Oak Ridge known for in common?) but wanted something indicating nukes in there. LABSITE just seems... lame. Unspecific. Like EAT A SANDWICH or RED PAINT lame. Or FOREIGN CAR. I mean, I can remember a time when "he drives a foreign car" actually connoted something like that, but that was generations ago. If I read it today I'd be drawing a blank as to what the writer was even trying to get at. One of those fills where my mind was shouting "No, not really" while I typed it in. Likewise my inner pedant wanting to protest that "mean" is not a synonym for "average" at all, thought it's often misunderstood to be.

    At some point I noticed a kind of Puzzler's Tic going on with that ERNST/STEARNS doublet and all those sports clues (hockey/tennis/golf) which somehow got me to guess the meaning of "wood" in "Wood source." Not a theme exactly but you kinda pick up on how the constructor's mind is working and it just struck me that one golf clue maybe invited another. That really helped with the NW.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Wouldn’t the “mean” grade of a student population be [C]AVERAGES? Unless we’re accounting for the rampant grade inflation that has caused an entire generation of our youth to believe they are smarter than they really are. Harrumph.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous10:41 AM

      It does say "means of excellence", and getting an A is excellent.

      Delete
  34. Anonymous10:36 AM

    IT’S NOT YOUR FAULT and ACCIDENTS HAPPEN have the exact same number of letters, if you’re wondering what slowed me down.

    I enjoyed it, but had some quibbles. I take issue with the Kennedy clue: one N is in the center, but not the two ENS, there are two letters in front of them and three behind. I tried NNE and thought that was at least a better way to clue that than the usual directional clue. Speaking of refreshing clues for crosswordese, getting TAT from Tweety and Sylvester gets a big thumbs-up from me!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @Anonymous 10:36 AM
      Lots of Anonymous comments agreeing where the center is!

      Delete
    2. Anonymous7:39 PM

      As I said above. Nothing wrong with it. Center is a clue in a puzzle. We are not in a math class !

      Delete
  35. I pretty much agree with everything @Rex said. This was a DNF for me in the area of NOSERAG, which btw, is a term I’ve never heard. And yes, I HAVE heard of snotRAG because I guess I’ve hung with some crude people.

    GILLNETS…Wtf! I DO know about them (similar to @jberg story) because I represented my states’ natural resources agency. They’ve been banned most places now as per an excerpt:

    The use of large drift gillnets as a fishing practice has been proven to be detrimental to a vast array of marine life, indiscriminately capturing seabirds, turtles, sea lions, swordfish, sharks, dolphins, and whales.


    ReplyDelete
  36. Hey All !
    Another "Holy Moly, this is impossible" puz here today. My puzzling acumen ceases around the 45 minute mark for me, unless I'm getting an answer here or there. These past two days, I wasn't getting anything new in, so my puzness waned. Read the RexWriteUp, saw some words I was missing, and that was the only way I finished the puz without an actual cheat. (Opinions vary...)

    The FriPuz and SatPuz have raised my Averages on the Time To Complete thing online. It was over an hour each day. According to the stats, my Streak is still going, but at this point, the asterisk is required! (Maybe two!) So, Streak* at 15.

    I know some of y'all like the tough puzs, hope these last two fit your bill.

    This puz does have Complete Rotational Symmetry, as in, turn puz any way, and all the Blockers/answers/grid are the same. That's neat.

    Thanks for the brain hurt, Blake. Har.

    Happy Saturday.

    Two F's
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

    ReplyDelete
  37. A real "keep the faith" solve for me, as I abandoned the NW corner without a single answer filled in and hoped that when I finally got back there, all would at last be clear.

    It would be -- but not without two small NW nits that I'll get to in a minute. Not that they keep me from thinking that this was a marvelous puzzle: challenging and engrossing -- with fiendish cluing and not a lot of trivia.

    What a deceptive clue for CHRISTMAS SEASON with its alternate meaning for "out". What a wonderful answer in THERE ARE NO WORDS and what a completely fair, but yet curiosity-provoking clue.

    I was relieved that the GENTLE REMINDERS were not from any of my doctors -- another answer clued in a misleading way.

    OK, my nits. There are two of them crossing each other and they're both singular-vs-plural related.

    You don't find one wood in a GOLF BAG (1D). The clue should be "woodS source".

    And in the same way: BONDS (23A) is a plural and should be clued by "unitS in a financial economics course." Yes, I know that in economics you speak of BONDS as a Thing, but this isn't an economics course -- this is a puzzle where the singular/plural agreement rules are much stricter.

    But I did finish it, so it couldn't have been all that unfair. The bottom line: it was lively and colorful and crunchy and everything else I want a Saturday themeless to be.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Actually, one doesn't find any wood or woods in a golf bag thse days unless Tiger has stuffed his son in one. The clue needed a signal for archaic or "former" or something. Much like wooden tennis racquets, wooden golf clubs have gone the way of the dodo.

      Delete
    2. Another singular v. plural nit that tripped me up - the "center" of the word Kennedy is a single "n" - not ENS (plural). By that logic, N-N-E is at the "center."

      Delete
  38. If we "forged ahead" in the IRONAGE, does that imply that the Iron Throne in GOT was just a fancy CRAPPER?

    So, in the Mamet play, I guess OLE ANNA was one character. Who was the other?

    Nothing worse than a PISCENE piss scene.

    Tough but fair puzzle. I liked it a lot. Thanks, Blake Slonecker.

    ReplyDelete
  39. DNF, but not upset about it, always happy to learn new things. FHA, BONDS, ERNST (& Young), (Bear) STEARNS, NESTEGG... why not GO ON and clue ING as the Dutch bank? Felt a bit much, but it was a fine puzzle overall.

    ReplyDelete
  40. THERE ARE NO WORDS. This felt like one long session in the CRAPPER. Mostly empty grid for a long time. I was so proud to lay down “it’s not your fault” but hey, ACCIDENTS HAPPEN. I was hardly ESPYING any correct answers.

    Maybe we could give GENTLE REMINDERS to the powers that be, that some of us are IN A HOLE and fed up with ridiculously obscure answers? Maybe they ARE just REPRESSed AGEISTS playing a CON GAME. Good thing I didn’t bet my NEST EGG on a fast solve today. I think I need a NOSE RAG.

    ReplyDelete
  41. Anonymous11:17 AM

    Nice writeup, Rex, but you had the opportunity to display an Elvis Costello video and blew it. So disappointed!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Medium for me, solved in a very enjoyable, slow-motion clockwise traversal of the grid, from LES around to TIM. Along the way, I felt lucky to know so many of the names: ROEG and AMANA opened up the NE for me, and ERNST, STEARNS, WIE, and OLEANNA were gifts in the lower tier - some of those I'd file under "arcana,", a reach even for a Saturday. I really liked the slanted cluing, especially for CHRISTMAS SEASON and GENTLE REMINDERS No trouble here with FOREIGN CAR - but then I had ROEG's G and AMANA's N for help. I got a kick out of the bracketing rhyming GOLF BAG and NOSE RAG.

    Do-overs: Me, too, for "take one"; IN A bind; kitchen cluTTER; TITre. No idea: TIM.

    @Anonymous 7:09 - I got LEBANON from pattern recognition at the same instant as I thought, "Of course, Cedars of Lebanon!" Just don't ask me how I, as a Midwesterner, knew the bygone name of an L.A. hospital.

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  43. Holy CRAPPER that was hard!

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  44. Anonymous11:27 AM

    Lived for about a year in Los Alamos installing and testing a supercomputer there years ago, and had DOESITE for 15A for the longest time (Department of Energy). Made the NW that much more difficult.

    Never heard of a CORNPIT, nor a GILLNET.

    Wonder if 8A and 41D would have passed the Will Shortz breakfast test...

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  45. Anonymous11:29 AM

    Non-American here - I threw in the towel and used "check puzzle" once. In the SW I vaguely remembered "titration" being a thing, so... TITRE. I don't think I've ever seen the word TITER. I didn't know TIMREID or STEARNS and so (even though I realllly wanted the answer to be TRA) I convinced myself that the only name that made sense at 60A was STEVENS. Which left me with TIM (...maybe TOM) ORID? O'RID? And I somehow convinced myself that there's some meaning of "refrain" that makes the TOV in Mazel TOV work as an answer.

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  46. Anonymous11:35 AM

    Truly a terrible puzzle. Sorry! Once again, the puzzle overplays proper nouns and what is best described as obscure trivia. Really , someone from WKRP in Cincinnati , and not even the most famous person among a cast that included some what in the past fairly famous actors? I managed to finish it since my OCD will rarely let me leave a puzzle undone but it was not even remotely worth the 30 minutes spent playing with it. I know it is just a crossword puzzle and this is for sure an overreaction but good puzzles and this blog are a nice way to start the day. I also still think that the puzzles are actually no longer as satisfying to as diverse a group as they were just a few weeks ago. I understand by the way that this is ojt for our temporary editor, but it is hard to be charitable with the quality of the puzzles over the last weeks.

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  47. Anonymous11:38 AM

    Many thanks for the Tim Reid as Venus Flytrap reel.

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  48. Very tough. I needed help so I had to cheat. I didn't know GILLNET, CORNPIT & I thought CRAPPER was a new low for NYT "standards" (or was that the old days???).
    I did enjoy 1D WOOD SOURCE & thought this was a very impressive Saturday, Blake even though it was one I couldn't solve :)

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  49. Anonymous11:43 AM

    I just could not do this one! Haven’t had a solving experience like this in a while, where I felt like the constructor and I have entirely different brain structures and separate cultural contexts. Even the ones that were figure-out-able (ACCIDENTS HAPPEN) didn’t bring that spark of amusement or “oh, I get it!” — more of a shrug, ok, I guess.

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  50. Oh CRAPPER. The one time I get my name brilliantly highlighted and all I could think of was FISH. I caught one in the PISCINE with OLEANNA.

    Tough beyond my ken of WORDS. I had exactly one word that I knew instantly: ERNST. I went back up to the agita angst dyspepsia area and worked off the NET. I was right about NAIF ECTO and THE something or other. I bounced al over the place.

    Pat on the back and another sip of my Zin for getting CHRISTMAS SEASON, ENTERTAIN and THERE ARE NO WORDS.

    Cheating became my good friend. I wanted to try and finish with just a few. I looked up PISCINE; I couldn't figure out GENTLE REMINDERS, HOME ICE made no sense and I didn't know AGEISTS were culprits behind some forced retirements. STOPS??? So the locals are busses? Concentration in chemistry is TITER? CORN PIT? Why would you want to play in that? CRAPPER, indeed.

    This was an F AVERAGES. I'm so happy to learn that a wood source is a GOLF BAG. Ay dios mio.

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  51. Tough. This one ventured into Croce territory for me. I started, as usual, in the NW with LES and FHA which happened to be correct but then I also put in “take one” for 15a and “moss” for 28a which got me nowhere. I gave up and solved the rest from the bottom up which finally gave me THERE ARE NO WORDS which led to replacing take one with ONE EACH which gave me a toe hold in the NW. All this took quite a bit of time so…tough!

    snotRAG before NOSERAG…I was encouraged by CRAPPER.

    PYE and CORN PIT were it for WOEs. I only knew TIM REID because I used to confused him with Tim Meadows so sometime in the distant past I looked them both up.

    Solid and reasonably smooth, a fine challenge, liked it.

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  52. notaprude11:54 AM

    re: CRAPPER: any bets on how long until the NYTXW drops the S-bomb?

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  53. Nothing GENTLE about this, but a strong REMINDER that even in my third decade of solving, I can still get my REAR busted and end up feeling like a real GOON (my mother’s favorite word for someone she deemed not too smart). Started out confidently with FISH NET because I never heard of GILL NET which sounds absolutely barbaric. Thanks to @Beezer for letting us know they’re no longer in use. GAME ICE before HOME, BUYOUT before AGEIST and EAGER for ERNST.

    Just a really hard Saturday and I will humbly admit defeat, except for 25A. The “center of Kennedy” is not two ENS. It’s AN N - ONE letter with three letters on EACH side - and I will die on this hill.

    EIGHT across is a new low for the NYT.

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  54. This one was another rewarding challenge, and a beautiful grid when empty - which I don’t usually notice.
    It made me happy when I finally saw REPRESS, GENTLE REMINDERS, ACCIDENTS HAPPEN, IRON AGE and GOLFBAG.

    ERNST and STEARN came back with a few crosses, but the rest of the names were ??

    The puzzle had more than one word that was distasteful. I'll include GILLNET, just because it's depressing. It's familiar to me because of their devastating impact on PISCENE and other oceanic populations. Turtles, dolphins etc. I had no idea before Rex’s WotD that they were used at a small scale. Ocean GILLNETs can be miles long (up to 40), though the largest have been banned since 1991. Another distasteful word choice had me mulling whether I should enter snot-rag. By the time I saw CRAPPER there was no other option.

    Add me to the Never Heard of CORNPIT group. Made me think of the bad guy dying in the silo (wheat, not corn) in the movie WITNESS. Not a place for kids to play…. On the other hand, I could hear a parent reminding their children before they knock on the door “ONE EACH!”

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  55. P.S. ITALIAN CAR fit.

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  56. @Nancy "And in the same way: BONDS (23A) is a plural and should be clued by "unitS in a financial economics course." Yes, I know that in economics you speak of BONDS as a Thing, but this isn't an economics course -- this is a puzzle where the singular/plural agreement rules are much stricter."

    I didn't take "unit" as an economic unit, but rather as a course unit (section) -- "this week's unit is on bonds, next week's unit is on inflation". I think it works that way.

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  57. Niallhost12:28 PM

    This was a huge grind for me but eventually got there in 1:10:04.

    Wanted GILLNET to be something "line" or "hook" so had lots of false starts here.
    Had the same problem with GENTLE REMINDERS. Had REMINDERS and could not figure out what appt. word could fit
    Could go on and on. Had at least one wrong answer in almost every slot before I could eventually piece it all together. Took forever but huge sense of accomplishment when done.

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  58. Anonymous12:41 PM

    Anyone who ever saw the TV series "Alone" knows a GILL NET.

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  59. Had AGEISmS (I know, read the clue, dummie), and couldn't find the mistake. Don't know of TIM REID. Hence, my disappointing dnf on a very tough Saturday solve.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:14 PM

      Same here! And I once knew a Mim (short for Miranda). Disappointing to come up short after hacking my way through the rest of this one

      Delete
  60. Wow, tough slog -- but had to laugh at Rex's comment on Halloween Candy; I resisted that answer because I had the same reaction -- "ONE EACH??? Tell that to our little neighbor kindergartners, you killjoy . . ." :D :D

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  61. We are sooo incredibly honored, to be present in the solvequest booth for the official NYTPuz debut of CRAPPER.

    other faves: ECUADOR. FOREIGN. THEREARENOWORDS. ACCIDENTSHAPPEN. GOLFBAG clue. ABIDE clue. E-W-N-S puzgrid symmetry.

    staff weeject pick: PYE. M&A actually owns a Kinks 45 on the PYE label, entitled "Set M&e Free". Don't have one of them PYEs, for Petula Clark, tho. Got lotsa her on Warner Bros, tho.
    British labels just don't turn up, all that often, in these parts.

    66-worder puz, which usually means it won't be real scrabbly -- and/or, as is the case today, have very many U's. A fun, but albeit extra-challengin rodeo.

    Thanx, Mr. Slonecker dude. Either U had AI help buildin this wide open opus, or U really suffered. Or both. Well done. And congratz on yer epic CRAPPER debut. Opens up a whole new can of words, for us constructioneers. har

    Masked & Anonymo1U
    …s


    **gruntz**

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  62. Anonymous1:19 PM

    Terrible. No idea on Gill net or Corn Pit
    Worst of all was “Lab Sites”. I knew they were labs, and I knew they were involved in the Manhattan Project, but what on earth are “lab sites”? Has that ever been said by anybody ever???

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  63. @notaprude (11:54) I hear what you’re saying. I was just even cringing slightly in the fear that 36 was going to end up being some version of [that] HAPPENS.

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  64. Anonymous1:43 PM

    I initially thought of Nicolas Winding REFN in place of ROEG - thought the awkward FN consonant cluster would be a constructors dream, but nope.

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  65. Anonymous1:48 PM

    This was tough for me. I was stuck for the longest time on 45A "Young partner" which should have been a given... my last name is ERNST. *face palm*

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  66. Yes challenging, just over 30 minutes which is about the time where I start to get frustrated. There were a lot of names but thankfully no rappers or college mascots.

    I was greatly slowed by having FISH NET and SUBTLE REMINDERS, which meant 1 down had to be FORESTS. Speaking of which, I knew LEBANON from "Cedar" because of the flag.

    Hands up for TAKE ONE being hundreds of times more likely to be actually said. And I whole heartedly agree the clue "Kennedy center" is wrong wrong wrong!

    My camping fuel was usually butane, not PROPANE; I know because butane freezes at a much higher temperature so in the mountains I had to keep the fuel canister inside my sleeping bag.

    And yeah, where's our daily ARHAT?

    [Spelling Bee: Fri 0; QB streak 5. Puzzlehoarder, you beat my longest again.]

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  67. Anonymous2:03 PM

    Tim Reid and his lovely wife Daphne Reid starred in one of the best TV shows ever written, Frank’s Place. It was a disgrace that it was cancelled after only one season.

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  68. Had wAIFS instead of NAÏFS for the longest time. LAcTo instead of LATTE. Earth “bulges” out at the equator, so a mountain with a lower summit than Everest can be furthest from the earth’s core. Nice workout!

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  69. Anonymous2:55 PM

    I went with SNOTRAG so.....

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  70. Hard. Not familiar with GILL NETs, FHA, Nicolas ROEG, TED REID, WIE, PYE, OLEANNA. Took me a long time but ultimately solvable. One complaint: there is one N at the center of Kennedy. The Ns are not at the center, strictly speaking.

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  71. Anonymous3:19 PM

    If you don’t know "I Taut I Taw A Puddy-Tat" you are too young.

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  72. Filled the bottom this morning, then came back and sat on the CRAPPER with my GILL NET, replaced TAKE ONE with ONE EACH, and finished without any joy.

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  73. Anonymous3:26 PM

    @nancy, unit as in chapter

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  74. On GENTLE REMINDERS, I have the honor of assisting a friend in the early stages of Alzheimer's with her participation in a drug trial (that is showing very good results: we're hopeful). I accompany her to infusions, MRIs, etc.

    The lovely receptionist from the office administering the program calls us the day before each appointment to remind us of it. I said, "You must have the most frustrating job in the world," and she said, "What do you mean?" I said, "you're in charge of reminders for Alzheimer patients. That's like being Trump's ethics counselor."

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  75. Anonymous3:29 PM

    Laughed out loud

    . I had "TAKE ONE" here. "ONE EACH" sounds brusque and, when facing excited little children dressed in ridiculous costumes, kind of dickish. Don't be so miserly. Or just put the candy in the kid's bag yourself if you need to be so controlling.

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  76. Anonymous3:37 PM

    can someone explain the Tweety clue?

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  77. @Anonymice concerned with literal centers: It's a crossword, not a geometry exam. Since the Kennedys are of Irish heritage (Irish: Ó Cinnéide), just put an O out front and then the ENS will be the 4th and 5th letters out of 8; happy now? Oh wait, then the center is literally the space between the ENS...

    Tough Saturday, I felt a little pressed for time and turned on the autocorrect - Hi, @Andrew. Went more smoothly after that. Some terrific stumper clues, and unknown PPP, as well covered today.

    In general, the well-known foreign cars are still pricier: Porsche, Maclaran, Lamborghini, Land Rover, BMW, Rolls-Royce, etc. Of course, with global supply chains and trade agreements, parts and labor can be anywhere, but do we really need to go into all that to fill in a crossword?

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  78. While GILL NET was tough, it was the (in my opinion based on decades of experience with the annual trip(s) to various fall festivals in several different states ranging from New Hampshire to California), I have only seen CORN mazes, never ever CORN PITS, but OK. I trust that they must exist - a lot - somewhere. This (very wrong) answer was the only thing that really twisted my knickers. Other than that, this was a fantastic Saturday struggle.

    When I solve one like this, where the fill is tough and seemingly impossible, suddenly the constructor lobs a soft one right over the plate and the solver gets the one or two letters and the lights go on (or “out”) as in CHRISTMAS SEASON.

    Actually the one that finally opened up the grid for me was ACCIDENTS HAPPEN. That spanner was the one for which I just could not “see” any collection of letters in place that made any sense at all. GENTLE REMINDERS fell more easily. THERE ARE’nt WORDS well and truly messed me up for quite a while. Why I didn’t parse the ROAST with R_A_T staring at me is weird, but there you are.

    Thank you to my actor/director/writer/teacher kids who really turned me on to David Mamet and to the fact that women’s sports are finally getting decent if no equal time on television for me to be obsessed with Michelle WIE’s game. Just wow.

    Mr. Slonecker, I’ll eagerly look forward to your next Saturday or any other day for that matter. This one balanced artistry with technique and a wonderful understanding of how to craft a tough but solvable puzzle. I am officially a fan girl! If you’re ever near Santa Rosa CA, coffee’s on me!



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  79. I also winced at 1A GILL NET because they indiscriminately entrap lots of aquatic life and, as @Beezer 10:38 notes, have been banned in many places.

    I got 3D LEBANON for the "Cedar Revolution" from hearing while growing up in Tennessee that there are only two places in the world where true cedar trees grow, there and in LEBANON. There's even a LEBANON, TN, not far from Nashville.

    I knew 13D "Home to Mount Chimborazo, whose summit is the farthest point from Earth's center" was ECUADOR from reading a biography of Alexander von Humboldt. He and fellow explorer Aimé Bonpland climbed to around 5,900 meters/19,000 feet in 1802 without any oxygen or specialized gear! They nearly froze to death. It's not the tallest mountain in the world but it's peak is farthest from Earth's center due to Earth's "bulge" at the equator.

    @Southside 7:29, we do get some asses in this one. Without the tilde AÑOS, Spanish for "months", becomes 31A ANOS, Spanish for anuses. If some people in a CRAPPER stick their REARS UP, one is likely to see some ANOS.

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    Replies
    1. Anoa Bob
      About ANOS
      They used a Portuguese word Janeiro (see Rio) so there’s no tilde in their world for years, ANOS. . Maybe they are listening to Spanish speakers’ complaints?
      Nah.

      Delete
  80. Anonymous4:16 PM

    Hated this. Absolutely impossible. Why is the NYT just trying to torture me this year???? The proper nouns and obscure trivia are sucking all the fun out of every puzzle.

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  81. Anonymous4:20 PM

    This puzzle filled me with rage and I gave up after getting about 2 answers in 30 minutes. I get that Saturdays are supposed to be challenging, but good lord. This was just insane, and the vast majority seemed really unfair after I did the reveal. Just stupid.

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  82. Anonymous4:33 PM

    throw this one right in the crapper

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  83. ENS are not at the center of KENNEDY. Either a single EN (not useful for crosswords), or NNE.

    Not that that matters for this puzzle. My only real objection is that CRAPPER wasn't at 1-Across. That is by far the most apt word for this POS puzzle.

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  84. @Anoa 4:06 - thanks for pointing that out. That is some kick-ass juvy humor that they snuck in right there ! Unfortunately, you kind of have to speak the language to pick up on the subtleties (which is pretty much the same story as most of the rest of the foreign garbage that they include daily and allege to be “common usage” in English, which of course is unfortunate and actually dishonest in my opinion). But still, as far as juvy humor goes, that’s an absolute bomb.

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  85. Anonymous5:55 PM

    I’m a younger solver and have to say, I look forward to when puzzles have more up to date references. Not they never have them, but I’ve been frustrated by the frequency of the older, and often, obscure answer as of late.

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  86. Found this hard. Not medium at all. But I finished it and liked it. OLEANNA I happened to know of. Never saw the play. Some have called it sexist and the beginning of Mamet’s drift to the right politically.( He is a vocal right winger now) It was one of his less successful plays. Otherwise a relatively easy corner so no natick.
    Gill net is a thing. Have no objection to it. But it was tough as was that corner.
    Tim Reid. Heard the name but no idea who played the part Had to get every cross.
    My guess is a lot of people won’t like the puzzle. Now to read the comments

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  87. I agree Kevin. I thought the editor wouldn’t allow that.

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  88. I’m framing this one. I think this is the trickiest puzzle I’ve ever finished with no cheats. I had to ask Mr. A for help (wait, is that cheating?) with the ?NET after getting stuck with only the right half of the grid filled. And even he didn’t know GILL NET, but he did know Mr. REID’s first name and that was enough to get me going again. Once it was done it was almost like the CHRISTMAS SEASON. THERE ARE NO WORDS for how much I admire this grid.

    I was in a BAD SPOT with moss before fern before ALOE, which made LEBANON hard to see, even though I traverse a road called Cedars of LEBANON at least once a year going to play wind quintet concerts at an elementary school in town.

    Hand up for nNe and wAIFS.

    PYE was a GENTLE REMINDER of a character in Richard Bach’s ONE. I’ll take it.

    Great work, Blake Slonecker - I’ll be looking forward to the next time you ENTERTAIN us.

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  89. Anonymous10:48 PM

    Although the puzzle doesn't explain it directly, the comeback of tennis player Monica SELES is more dramatic than it sounds. In 1993, Seles was stabbed by an insane fan of her opponent, forcing her to drop out of competition until 1995. Although her comeback was indeed famed, she never reached the heights that she achieved before the stabbing, and it is apparently believed that she could have been the greatest female tennis player of all time if the attack never occurred.

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  90. Thought I had it all but it turned out 2 squares were wrong. Should have had

    CRAPPER/ROEG and instead had CLAPPER/LOEG -- never having heard of Nicolas Roeg (I'm not very interested in film

    and

    TIM REID/TITER instead had TIM RUID/TITUR -- I thought I remember "titurate" from HS chem fifty years ago but I see the word is "titrate" -- I'm glad to relearn this.

    So chemistry and film are weak areas for me.

    Agree with Rex that the long wordss were tough but satisfying to solve. For a while I tried THEREMUSTBEAGOD insted of THEREARENOWORDS and was sure it must be right, though it's true that THEREMUSTBEAGOD is not 'paradoxical', merely illogical.

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  91. Absolutely the hardest and worst puzzle I've ever had to solve. Your ability to enjoy this puzzle is greatly tied to your knowledge of all the trivia and proper nouns. Being on the younger side, I had absolutely no chance. So many of these clues require you to just know what they are. I turned autocheck on about halfway through when I was making no headway, and even then, I still had to reveal several squares and even a couple of words.

    Wasn't getting GILLNET, LABSITE, GENTLEREMINDERS, AAVERAGES, GOON, WIE, TIMREID, OLEANNA, LEBANON, ROEG, ECUADOR, CORNPIT, TITER, or SELES ever. Maybe with crosses, but some of those crosses were not coming to me. Some of the puns or harder clues were also near impossible even with the help of autocheck: in particular, I had to reveal letters in GILLNET, AGEISTS, AND TITER.

    Many other clues were just hard or needed to be solved in order to obtain a key letter for the crosses. I was an economics major, and I could never imagine an entire unit being devoted to just BONDS. None of my classes would ever have separated out BONDS from stocks, treasury notes, and other market implements. INAHOLE, NAIFS, PISCINE, ESPYING, ONEEACH, CRAPPER, HOMEICE, GOON, ERNST AND STOPS were just mean. They could be inferred, but they were very hard to get without autocheck or outside help.

    Personally, I hate-solved this puzzle. If I make 4 or 5 passes through the grid and don't get anywhere, I just know it's time to give up and use autocheck to at least make some headway, but this puzzle was so baffling to me I was cursing at it almost all the way through. The number of times I exclaimed, "What the actual ****?" when I finally solved an answer numbered in the double digits.

    It's puzzles like this that make me not want to reup my subscription. I feel like I'm simultaneously way too young and at the time too old for this ****. I was born in 1989. Unless something is a truly momentous event or just happens to fall in the limited range of music/movies/TV I have seen from before I was born, it's just not in my knowledge base. I was an excellent student and am college-educated, but I know so little about world events or geography that any time I see a reference to a foreign country or city, I almost invariably have to look it up.

    If we're going to have puzzles about esoteric trivia (esoteric at least to me), why can't it at least be about one of my areas of interest for once? Why can't an answer be about one of my favorite prog rock bands from the 2010's, or a video game character, or the actor who played Leland Palmer on Twin Peaks? You know, something I might have a snowball's chance in hell of knowing. Heck, even when we do get the rare video game-themed clue, it's always something safe and boring like "Princess who needs rescuing" or "Name of the avatar for a Nintendo console." How about, "Sometimes friendly, sometimes hostile reptilian species of Mass Effect fame," or, "Town name in a popular psychological horror game series."

    I guess when it comes down to it, my main complaint is that a lot of NYT puzzles, especially Saturday puzzles, feel like they're written, "By septuagenarians, for septuagenarians." You're either old enough to get the reference or you're hoping to get it from crosses. If not, you just have to look it up. Every time I come across a puzzle this hopelessly difficult, it just weakens my resolve to keep going. Solving a puzzle when you have most of the pieces you need but are missing a couple components is one thing. Solving it when you have no earthly hope of finding the answer because it's something you've never heard of is depressing. When it happens over and over, it's infuriating.

    Thanks for coming to my rant/Ted Talk. I just had to get this out or I was going to stew about it all night.

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  92. Johnny Laguna1:36 PM

    The only faint satisfaction I derived from this slog is that I finished it.

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  93. Is it me or have the puzzles become a lot harder since Joel Fagliano started editing them? The fill so obscure (is there such a thing as a corn pit) and the clueing so tenuously related to the answer, that I no longer enjoy the Friday and Saturday puzzles. And I am starting to get DNF’s because I give up out of boredom. And for a Darian Tucker, I am a septuagenarian.

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  94. Anonymous12:12 PM

    Coming here on Monday with mixed feelings of accomplishment and frustration after solving this puzzle without any cheats. I started it Friday night and returned to it over the ensuing days, gradually chipping away until it was done (total time just shy of three hours). The final letter to fall was the second E in SELES, which I originally wrote as an I. What I found frustrating was the combination of proper nouns with unfamiliar phrases. The southwest was especially difficult because I didn't know TIM REID, and while I eventually inferred CORN PIT (I suspected it had to be CORN something), the phrase as a whole didn't ring any bells. Throw in the vaguely familiar, consonant-heavy name of an accounting firm and it creates a lot of difficulty, which seems unfair because none of the answers amounts to much of anything interesting. Oh well, at least I kept my streak alive.

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  95. I didn’t particularly enjoy this puzzle, but I too was hoping for the “digital” misdirect for “digital learning” (34 D). For a while I had “NSA” as I thought that digital could have to do with fingerprints, as biometrics seem like something the NSA would be involved with. Missed opportunity!

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  96. I like the increasing difficulty we are seeing on the weekends under JF.

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  97. I solve on syndicated site so I'm late to the game. I thought some might be interested in the source of the eponymous 8-across: Thomas Crapper (baptised 28 September 1836; died 27 January 1910) was an English plumber and businessman. He founded Thomas Crapper & Co in London, a plumbing equipment company.

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  98. Burma Shave1:23 PM

    BADSPOT - NO LEVER AGE

    CHRISTMASSEASON never STOPS,
    REMINDERS IN EACH wrapper,
    INAHOLE, and then BONDS drop,
    our NESTEGG's IN the CRAPPER.

    --- LES ERNST STEARNS

    ReplyDelete
  99. rondo1:43 PM

    More challenging than medium for me. TIMREID was a gimme on the first across pass-through then ABIDE/AMANA helped in the NE. Had hOOd before GOON and cluTTER before SPATTER for a mini inkfest in the SW. About right for what I like/expect on Saturdays.
    Had a VU meter problem leading to a wordle bogey.

    ReplyDelete
  100. rondo1:56 PM

    But is a GILLNET really 'tackle'? I think of tackle as hooks, lines, sinkers, lures, etc, for use with a rod, therefore a tackle box. If you're ever in Bonita Springs, FL, stop in to buy a shirt or cap at Master Bait and Tackle.

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  101. Anonymous2:58 PM

    Cluing was a bit too deceptive. Finished, but it was a bit of a slog.

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  102. Anonymous5:13 PM

    Stop all the hate on crapper. If it wasn't for Thomas Crapper and others like him, we all might still be using outhouses and bedpans. And by the way, he invented the floating ballcock, an answer coming soon to a sixteen wide crossword puzzle.

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  103. Anonymous5:48 PM

    Bear of a puzzle and that ain't no bullcrap. But with patience and persistence, I gotterdun all by my little lonesome. For those who didn't like the ONE EACH answer, where I live, trick or treating hours end before sunset. So, there are more than a few houses where if nobody is going to be home during those hours, they put out a Halloween themed container filled with candy before they leave for work with a sign saying one each. Of course kids will be kids, and might break that rule. Also, Halloween parties or gatherings are becoming more common, whether they are organized by subdivisions or small towns. The door to door thing appears to be dying out.

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  104. Anonymous7:12 PM

    One last thing, for those unfamiliar with a corn pit. It's kind of like a sandbox, but instead of grains of sand, it's kernels of corn. No cobs involved.

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  105. Several minor gripes, but three main ones:

    -->Kennedy center? Nope. Count 'em, two letters before the ENS, and three after. That's not the "center."

    -->NOSE RAG? Said no one ever. It's a snot rag.

    -->"Tough" clue for GOO_. I put GOOd, as in, he's a tough (good) opponent. Nope, it was GOON, using "tough" as a noun. A bit obscure, but it has been used in that sense, so (barely) OK. Also a DOOK.

    Less than lovely, but triple multidirectional 7-stacks in all corners, plus three gridspanners. Tough to acghieve. Par.

    I turned the wrong valve, turning a Wordle birdie into a par.

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