Saturday, November 2, 2024

Noted name in lithographs / SAT 11-2-24 / Hanes brand once sold in ovoid packaging / P, B, D, T, K and G / English folk singer Billy / Temple Square letters / Galley command / Ward off bad luck, in a Greek tradition / Word on many "No Trespassing" signs / Sub's reference / Media-based learning sites, informally / What always ends well? / Home to England's Jurassic Coast

Constructor: Blake Slonecker

Relative difficulty: Medium


THEME: none 

Word of the Day: INA May Gaskin (21A: ___ May Gaskin, author of Spiritual Midwifery") —
Ina May Gaskin
 (née Middleton; born March 8, 1940) is an American midwife who has been described as "the mother of authentic midwifery." She helped found the self-sustaining community, The Farm, with her husband Stephen Gaskin in 1971 where she markedly launched her career in midwifery. She is known for the Gaskin Maneuver, has written several books on midwifery and childbirth, and continues to educate society through lectures and conferences and spread her message of natural, old-age inspired, fearless childbirth. According to Carol Lorente (1995), the work of Gaskin and the midwives might not have had the impact it did, if it hadn't been for the publication of her book Spiritual Midwifery (1977): "Considered a seminal work, it presented pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding from a fresh, natural and spiritual perspective, rather than the standard clinical viewpoint. In homebirth and midwifery circles, it made her a household name, and a widely respected teacher and writer."  By the early 1990s, after multiple reprints, Spiritual Midwifery was acknowledged as a "classical text on midwifery" with a "lasting impact". // The Gaskin Maneuver, also called all fours, is a technique to reduce shoulder dystocia, a specific type of obstructed labour which may lead to fetal death. Gaskin introduced it in the U.S. in 1976 after learning it from a Belizean woman who had, in turn, learned the maneuver in Guatemala, where it originated. In this maneuver, the mother supports herself on her hands and knees to resolve shoulder dystocia. Switching to a hands and knees position causes the shape of the pelvis to change, thereby allowing the trapped shoulder to free itself and the baby to be born. Since this maneuver requires a significant movement from the standard lithotomy position, it can be substantially more difficult to perform while under epidural anesthesia, but still possible, and can be performed by an experienced delivery room team. (wikipedia)
• • •

A proper Saturday. In terms of difficulty, just about where I want it to be. In terms of excitement, less so, but I'm OK with Saturday being more about the grind and less about the sizzle. The spanners today just didn't do anything for me. Hard to get excited about CLASSROOM ROSTER—dull and old-fashioned-sounding, somehow (17A: Sub's reference). Over and over, I'd get part of a longer and still have no idea about the rest of it, so the phrases just weren't ... clicking, for me. Got CLASSROOM and ... no idea. Got CLASSICAL and ... no idea. I knew I knew who Andrés Segovia was, but I just couldn't retrieve it in the moment. I had him as a singer (Andrea Bocelli?) or a classical pianist (Alfred Brendel? Claudio Arrau?) at various points before that blessed "ovoid packaging" took me back to the drug stores and grocery stores of the '70s, where I found the L'EGGS (37A: Hanes brand once sold in ovoid packaging), which gave me the "G," which immediately gave me GUITAR (and a "d'oh, of course"). But back to partial answers being no help. I had ROTATE and ... no idea. I had -DETAILS and ... no idea (JUICY? GORY? Gah!). The problem was that once I got the full answers in all these cases, I didn't have that fulfilled "click" or "aha" feeling. Just a shruggy kind of "yeah, I guess that is a thing." The term SLOTTED SPOON clicks. The term SLOTTED SPATULAS ... not really (8D: Kitchen flippers). I mean, we have one of those in our kitchen, so they're real enough, but ... I dunno, there's just something kind of flat—"yes, that exists" as opposed to "wow, nice"—about the marquee stuff today. Still, I liked that I had to fight for it today. I love a Saturday that makes me work.

[Spin right round?]

Even my successes today started out as failures. Here, check out my screenshot from early on, when I finally (and proudly) got traction in that NW corner:


I was excited to get SPIT (well, about as excited as you can be about a disgusting word like "SPIT") (26A: Ward off bad luck, in a Greek tradition), and even more excited to "confirm" it with the colloquially perfect PULL UP (2D: Arrive curbside). So I struggled in the NW a little bit more wondering why PULL UP didn't work. I will say that ROLL UP was an answer I was happy to see, one that didn't end up kind of flat or disappointing once it finally showed. ROLL UP and PULL UP both work great, both right-on-the-money and in-the-language ... but only ROLL UP works with the crosses. But at just a two-letter difference, PULL UP is a rough mistake. But as I say, the mistake *did* help, a bit, with the 4/6 (so ... 2/3) of the letters that were correct. I also botched 30D: Mass apparel, but botched my way into one important and correct letter—I had ROBE, the answer was ALBS, but that "B" came through for me anyway, helping me get the LABS part of AV LABS (35A: Media-based learning sites, informally). I also threw an "S" down at the end of 1D: What passwords unlock, figuring "passwords" might indicate a plural answer. I was wrong, but the "S" there was what got me to see SPIT in the first place. So it was a good day for accidental success.


Aside from the very beginning (often the toughest part of a late-week grid, since you have no answers to play off of yet), there was no part of the grid that stood out as more difficult than the others, though the INABRAGG section over there in the NE felt like a real proper noun challenge. I didn't know INA from Adam, so no hope there. On the other hand, I know Billy BRAGG really, really well (28A: English folk singer Billy). I listened to his music a lot in college and through the '90s, and still own a handful of his CDs to this day. But "folk singer"? If you wanna hide Billy BRAGG from me, yes, call him an "English folk singer." Look, it's not wrong. Not wrong wrong. But for us college radio kids of the 80s/90s, he was more of an indie rock singer-songwriter. More electric, more modern than "folk" suggests, although he could be painfully earnest and he's definitely deeply political (big labor / union supporter, lots of protest songs to his credit). He worked with people like Johnny Marr (The Smiths) and Natalie Merchant (10,000 Maniacs). I see that wikipedia has his "genre" as "punk folk." Anyway, huge "d'oh!" when the "English folk singer" I was struggling to come up with turned out to be someone I've been listening to most of my life.

["But I never made the first team / I just made the first team laugh"]

Nots and explainers:
  • 19A: What always ends well? (ELS) — a "letteral" clue. I saw right through this one, but wrote in "ELL," which is how I've been trained to spell the damned letter. For example, November of last year: [Late start?] = ELL. What is this "EL" nonsense? ELS are trains, ELLS are letters (or building annexes, I guess).
  • 27A: Noted name in lithographs (IVES) — had the "I" and thought "how am I supposed to know this?" Then remembered the printing team of Currier & IVES. Why do I know them? I think maybe they were in a song lyric? "Like a ... something from Currier and IVES?" What am I thinking of? Ha! Yes! "Sleigh Ride!" Tis the season!
["It'll nearly be like a picture print by Currier and IVES"]
  • 29A: Inveigled (COAXED) — totally forgot the meaning of "inveigled." I thought it meant "hid" or "cloaked." Must've been thinking of "veiled" (?!).
  • 36A: Word on many "No Trespassing" signs (POSTED) — I think you have to live somewhere fairly rural to see these. Luckily, I do. Or at least live rural-adjacent. If you walk in the woods around here for any length of time, you'll definitely see "POSTED!" signs eventually. 
  • 42A: The case, so to speak (TRUE) — "that's not the case," "that's not TRUE" ... a tough but fair swap-out.
  • 4D: Temple Square letters (LDS) — "Temple Square is a 10-acre (4.0 ha) complex, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah." (wikipedia)
  • 7D: P, B, D, T, K and G (PLOSIVES) — tough one! I was gonna make PLOSIVES my Word of the Day, but turns out I already did that earlier this year (1/28/24). Basically, it's a linguistics term for the letters that require you to stop airflow and then expel a burst of air when you say them.
  • 13D: Outspoken parenting critic, maybe (TEENAGER) — I liked this clue a lot. It's a bit caricature-y, but any well-raised teenager is gonna push back at their parents' authority at some point, so ... fair.
  • 18D: Subject of the 2021 documentary "Once Upon a Time in Queens" (METS) — Citi Field, where the METS play, like SHEA Stadium before it, is in Flushing, Queens.
  • 28D: Certain Thanksgiving dish (BOAT) — anyone out there trying to serve GOAT for Thanksgiving? Anyone? No, just me? Ah well. (I've never seen "BOAT" without "gravy" in front of it, but for the GOAT mistake alone, I approve this clue)
  • 40D: Home to England's Jurassic Coast (DORSET) — got it off the -SET, having never heard of "England's Jurassic Coast" at all.
  • 46D: Galley command (STET) — tough misdirection on this one. I thought "galley" as in "ship" and "galley" as in "kitchen" before I thought "galley" as in "not-yet-final version of a book or article."
See you next time.

Signed, Rex Parker, King of CrossWorld

[Follow Rex Parker on Twitter and Facebook]

117 comments:


  1. Started out very challenging but once I figured out LDS at 4D and DORSET at 40D things started to fall into place. Overall Medium.

    Overwrites:
    2D: @Rex puLL UP before ROLL UP
    4D: Fell into the SLC-before-LDS trap
    10D: each before APOP
    11D: cES before SES (no French scholar I)
    18D: MobS before METS (thinking of the wrong "Once Upon a Time in Queens")
    19A: @Rex again ELl before ELS
    33D: Wanted ETeRnal(somethign) before EVERMORE
    35A: Briefly had Ai LABS before AV

    WOEs:
    PLOSIVES at 7D
    INA May Gaskin at 21A
    Had no idea about SPIT to ward off bad Greek luck. Was considering SPIn
    Billy BRAGG at 28A

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous6:28 AM

    For a moment I wondered if Americans were eating BOAR for Thanksgiving now.

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    Replies
    1. I had BOAr for the longest time! I knew it was wrong but was stuck.

      Delete
    2. Anonymous5:55 PM

      Yams… for me. BTW.,HATED the puzzle. Never could get traction.

      Delete
  3. Anonymous6:43 AM

    Hand up for puLLUP. A struggle, but a fair one. PLOSIVES was my last entry and I was sure it was going to be wrong, but there was the happy music!

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  4. Feeling smart this AM as I sped through this one, many first ideas turning out to be correct--COLDCALL, INTIMATEDETAILS, and CLASSROSTER among them. Knew ANDRESSEGOVIA and am responsible for SETLISTS when my friend and I play out at nursing homes. Also knew PLOSIVES from a phonetics class, although I prefer saying the more elegant and specific "bilabial PLOSIVE", but that limits you to B and M.

    Didn't know ASA or INA, so how do you do? I may have heard "spendy" used to describe something expensive, but I don't think so. "Dear" used this way always makes me smile as it makes me think of a couple of New Zealanders who let us travel with them years ago in Europe.

    Wonderful shout out to OFL, even without the O and the pluralization. Took me excess nanoseconds to see it though.

    Very nice Saturday indeed, BS. Almost went through it like a Blue Streak, but just enough challenge to be rewarding. Thanks for all the fun.

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  5. Very tough for me. Good comparison is to Croce Freestyle 958, which I solved today also. Both I had a one-square DNF, but this NYT puzzle took me longer to get there.

    My DNF here was at tMAN/tRADERS. I couldn't figure out how tRADERS worked, but I figured it was some academic lingo in which I was not versed.

    I've never seen a slotted spatula, but I know that what I call a pancake turner some terribly misguided people call a spatula, and I have seen those slotted. And don't get me started on spatula/scraper. My avatar today is what I call a spatula.

    One year for my birthday we went to the Jurassic Coast. I got to visit Mary Anning’s grave, and found ammonite and belemnite fossils on the shore, and took long walks along the Coastal Path.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't quite know how to break this to you, @kitshef, but with Rex's new comments format, I don't think you HAVE an avatar today or any other day for that matter.

      Delete
    2. I see the spatula just fine

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    3. Kitshef & responders
      Odd I don’t see the avatar

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    4. I see the spatula, and got it off the S -- but I left the last letter blank, in case some misguided soul wanted SPATULAe.

      Delete
    5. Anonymous7:34 PM

      @kitshef i also see the avatar just fine. what you have there is an offset spatula. my preferred spatula is a rubber spatula - second to my own hands it's tied with my favorite knife for most used/most versatile kitchen tool in my kitchen. (and the old school ones please, that are very thin and flexible. none of this spoonula bs or those overly thick useless ones.) i also have a rigid plastic slotted spatula for flipping burgers and pancakes...i call that just a spatula, with no modifier. but of course, context always helps.

      -stephanie.

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  6. I bought a pair of silicone spatulas and a pancake flipper this week.

    It’s as if this puzzle was speaking to me.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:46 PM

      ha.. spit take ! im bad luck free today in greece.

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    2. @John X: Welcome back! Looking forward to hearing of your latest adventures

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  7. My grid started off like Rex's, but then 3-down clicked in - it's always a good feeling to get full-length answer with not much cross help! Was jammed up at the end in the SE corner because I wanted 'SET RESTS', even though I knew 52D had to be "WII". That took longer than it should have to sort out! Solid Saturday.

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  8. Great Puzzle!!!!! Thank you to the constructor. 27 minutes. Definitely one where I thought "I'm never going to get this thing" for a while. LEGGS @OFL saved me too. Loved all the debut longs, loved that it has such a low word count. Loved FEARLESSLEADERS, INTIMATE DETAILS, and CLASSICALGUITAR. Hands up for puLLED before ROLLED, thought hard about gOAT before BOAT, thought the "take charge" clue was going to be a misdirect about nEgative -- some kind of ions or something. So lots of iterations required to finally get the music. Nice one, perfect for Saturday

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    Replies
    1. Same! And I agree with RP that this was a "proper Saturday." Loved it for all the reasons you mention, plus the very low number of names. Well done, Mr. Slonecker!

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  9. Tough but rewarding grid. I have to say that, as a philosopher, THE CASE was a gimme — “It is the case that …” and “It is not the case that …” are ubiquitous in the philosophical literature!

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  10. Elision7:54 AM

    Cute use of "noted" in the clue for IVES to allude to the song...

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  11. Wonderful puzzle. Maybe some of the longs were a little flat - but with six crossing spanners I’ll overlook the slightly banal CLASSROOM ROSTER and ROTATE CLOCKWISE.

    Shine like an ARClight

    INTIMATE DETAILS is fantastic. I love FEARLESS LEADERS also but sad that we are not voting for any Tuesday. TEENAGER, DORSET, LOSE LOSE even DERATS are all top notch. Had to reach back for those plastic balls.

    I’m the Pied Piper

    Highly enjoyable chilly Saturday morning solve. Brad Wilber’s Stumper kills today too - super puzzle.

    Totally agree with the big guy on BB - he would would probably rail against anyone classifying him as a folk singer

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  12. Andy Freude8:06 AM

    Rex, you know the words to “Sleigh Ride”???

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  13. Ah, a capital-P Puzzle, with much floundering for me – a good thing, because unraveling the floundering brings moments of triumph. Those moments on Saturday can be thrilling, and for me, there were many.

    A plenty-of-pushback with just-enough-yield Saturday.

    Spectacular grid design. Saturdays have the lowest word and black square count of the week, averaging 69 and 31. Today’s grid is much tougher to make, at 66 and 26 – look at all that white! Yet it is cleanly filled and contains a sky-high 16 longs (answers of eight letters or more), including six spanners, five of which are NYT answer debuts. Wow!

    And today a cluing feast. Lovely misdirects – I held on to STANDS instead of the correct SPEEDS for a long time for [Fan settings], and [Outspoken parenting critic, maybe] for TEENAGER had me trying to come up with a name. Lovely wordplay, i.e. [Fly traps?] for MITTS, [Spin right around?] for ROTATE CLOCKWISE, and [Galley command] for STET.

    For icing, serendipities: A very-rare-in-crosswords six letter semordnilap (DERATS), and the crossing PuzzPair© of CLASSROOM and a backward STEM.

    Bite and beauty in the box today. This was a gem – thank you for making it, Blake!

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous11:04 AM

      It oughta be "emordnilap" since it's singular

      Delete
  14. BTW, Blake has made gorgeous designs before – one of my favorites of the past couple of years is worth a look:
    https://www.nytimes.com/crosswords/game/daily/2023/03/24 .

    How often do you see a grid like that?

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    Replies
    1. Lovely. And I notice he has ELABORATE DETAIL in that one, foreshadowing the INTIMATE DETAILS here.

      Delete
  15. Anonymous8:16 AM

    Blake is apparently channeling my life with this puzzle. I was a Linguistics major in the '80s, during which time I saw Billy Bragg perform, and have been to The Farm. I guess now I need to take up classical guitar.

    A nice challenge level for me, slightly too easy, meaning I finished it without having to return to it later, but I still had to work for it.

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  16. Are we just all going to ignore “DERATS”?

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  17. Stuart8:28 AM

    42A: TRUE. Huh? I don’t get it. Somebody please ‘splain this to me.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous8:55 AM

      If you actually read the blog you’ll find it’s full of useful information.

      Delete
  18. Anonymous8:41 AM

    no negativity for Classroom crossing Classical??

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  19. Needed Rex’s assist for PLOSIVES. BRAGG, INA and CASITA were not wheelhouse-friendly, so that section was a bear. Loved the clue/answer combination for DERATS. I may borrow that one when I make my constructing debut.

    I agree with Rex that the grid-spanners were less than stellar - FEARLESS LEADERS is a phrase that one at least hears now and then, and CLASSICAL GUITAR is fine if you know the dude, otherwise it’s pretty much parse every square. In an ideal world, ROTATE CLOCKWISE and CLASSROOM ROSTER would have been left on the cutting room floor, but they are close enough to be welcome here in CrossWorld.

    Showing my age here - LEGGS was a gimmie, right underneath AV LABS, about which I had no clue.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:41 AM

      “ ROTATE CLOCKWISE and CLASSROOM ROSTER would have been left on the cutting room floor, but they are close enough to be welcome here in CrossWorld.” QUITE the pronouncement on your part that they belong on the cutting room floor simply because they do not sufficiently amuse OFL.

      Delete
  20. Jethro Tull9:11 AM

    Mistakes that made me smile:
    “Once upon a time in Queens”—METh and,
    BrAT(s) for Thanksgiving dinner!

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  21. Anonymous9:12 AM

    All these comments and not one reference to Boris and Natasha? Their boss was …Fearless Leader!

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    Replies
    1. Good one! Just don’t disparage everyone else for not mentioning it…

      Delete
  22. Anonymous9:13 AM

    I am so dated!

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  23. Anonymous9:14 AM

    Suppose it’s time to commit PLOSIVES to memory, for the singular reason of being able to finish NYT crosswords.

    Nice touch crossing METS with MITTS.

    Overall and EVERMORE, Saturday is my favorite puzzle of the week. Thanks, Blake Slonecker!

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  24. HARD. Saturday struggles are good, though, like Rex, I found grid spanners such as CLASSROOM ROSTER somewhat less than scintillating.

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  25. Fiendishly difficult for me -- and yet without a single clue or answer that I thought was either arcane or unfair. Well done, Blake!

    Don't ask me how, but I finished it with no cheats. Steely determination was the reason. I have had a rather dismal week on the whole -- perhaps the worst week I have had since I began blogging about the puzzle (who can remember anything before that?) -- and I was determined to put up a good fight. And, because of the refreshing lack of proper names, this would have been a hard puzzle to cheat on in any case. All the difficulty was in the cluing: CLASSROOM ROSTER (last answer in); ROTATE CLOCKWISE (lovely!).

    I was pretty sure that gOAT was not a Thanksgiving dish, but until I had filled in ?RAGG, I would never have come up with BOAT. (GRAGG didn't look right.) I guess a BOAT is made with turkey? With sweet potatoes? With cranberry sauce? Whatever it is, I got it.

    Hard as the puzzle was, there were a few answers I got immediately. LOSE-LOSE. REDS (I was watching baseball back when they called themselves the Redlegs). MITTS (I saw the wordplay immediately). IVES. MAR. SUSS. LEGGS. TOATEE. Some sort of LEADERS and some sort of SPATULAS. EVERMORE.

    This was a "keep the faith" puzzle for me -- and it lasted longer than any sermon, that much I can tell you. Engrossing to work on and highly satisfying to solve -- a terrific Saturday.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:43 AM

      The boat is the actual ceramic dish that holds gravy. Didn’t see it even after answering correctly

      Delete
    2. Ride the Reading10:09 AM

      @Nancy,

      I let this go at the time - a year or two maybe - when you suggested I might be a troll, for something I posted about “stet.” Today, the crossword gods have given me an opening to respond (what, me hold a grudge?). STET appears at 48D today - with the clue in the same usage today I was talking about then. No complaints from you about it in the puzzle today.

      Back then, if I recall correctly, my post said something about “stet” (as a proofreader’s mark) meaning to indicate keep something in the copy that had previously marked as “dele.” You wrote that that was impossible, because the material had already been deleted. Well, no - on the proof, or galley, and in the typeset copy, the material is still there - with a thin line through it on the proof (and still legible). The proof had been pulled from the typeset copy. The stet marks (in the margin and under the material) tell the person working on the type to ignore the associated dele marks.

      For those interested - look up the pic of Ben Bradlee in the composing room looking over the front page of the Washington Post about the resignation of President Nixon. Some of the text and photos are in the chase, but it appears that they are still waiting for some of the copy from the Linotypes - there are some blocks of furniture, which will be removed and replaced with the cast copy.

      Delete
  26. Hey All !
    And the Googling starting early! Goodness, had but a smattering of answers far apart, couldn't get any kind of traction/foothold, so off to the Big G in Cyberland. Eventually ended up at 5 Googs to finish with the Happy Music. All PPP - Andres Segovia, LDS, IVES, BRAGG, Inveigled (that one not a PPP, but unfamiliar with what it meant.)

    Still took some time to finish. A proper hard SatPuz over here. I was ASSAILED.

    C'mon now, is DERATS a real word? Can we DE- anything now? "The pest guy was able to DEOPPOSUMS my yard."

    CLASSROOMROSTER is close to ROOMONSTER. Har. No points taken, though @pablo.

    There's a story hiding in the East-Center area, with the stack of GMAN BRAGG TOATEE.

    I'm sure it will hit me later, but can someone explain De-centers as CORES? Thanks.

    Have a great Saturday!

    One F
    RooMonster
    DarrinV

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous9:50 AM

      For De-centers, I think it refers to taking the center out. As in, a chef de-CORES apples to make apple pies.

      Delete
    2. Think of apple cores at the center.

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    3. Diane Joan9:56 AM

      To core an apple, for example, is to remove the center region of the fruit. Hope that helps!

      Delete
  27. Anonymous9:52 AM

    I thought this was a lot of fun. Got a fair number of answers doing all crosses, then all downs - I just like to make it a little test. Once solving using crosses, it was a big woosh. No junk (averting my gaze from DERATS) to speak of. CLASS crossing itself doesn’t mean the same thing, but is a lot of consecutive letters to cross.

    I loved the JETES answer that I didn’t see until JEERS forced a J on me.
    Billy BRAGG sounds familiar, but perhaps _RAGG is begging for a B because of the Fort.

    POSTED signs always have me imagining one person with a hunting rifle scaring off other people with hunting rifles. Probably just as much for insurance and lawsuit purposes. Are trip and fall suits as popular in rural areas as they are in urban ones?

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  28. PLO SITES? huh? Oh right, PLOSIVES. And I had ALL for 'It always ends well'. Really good puzzle and harder than it might seem with all the grid spanners, which are usually easy to SUSS out. Medium here too, and very enjoyable solve

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  29. Anonymous10:04 AM

    For “inveigled” cf the genius of Flanders and Swann: “Have Some Madeira My Dear.”
    “He slyly inveigled her up to his flat
    To view his collection of stamps.” It’s the only time I’ve ever heard that word, but unforgettable nonetheless.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Wow, just wow to @Rex and all the usual smarty pants that considered today’s puzzle medium! For me, it was hard and I had to do a couple of cheats to finish. But…as @Nancy said above, the puzzle was fair with some very clever clue/answers so I crack it up to MY wheelhouse/wavelength differences (perhaps coffee intake). Conclusion: great puzzle.

    Oh. Anybody else put in tAR before MAR?

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  31. Got off to a good start in the NE, really impressing myself with mastering Saturdays, and then just ran into one brick wall after another. But it ended up being perfect. Not a lot of zing or sizzle, but lots of "ok, that works". Needed to come here to get BOAT and PLOSIVES - the latter being a complete unknown obtained solely from crosses, the former to finally see the dish in question served something to eat rather than being eaten.

    @kishef, have had two similar visits to Dorset (for winter holidays not birthdays), with beautiful long walks along the Coastal Path (including Durdle Door and Stair Hole). Give Broadchurch a try if you haven't seen it. Loved that show.

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  32. Question on a test in Woodworking 101: What ARCLAMPS?

    IF trump and Putin would go away, then I'd FEARLESSLEADERS than I currently do.

    Spanish speakers upon encountering 34D (LOSELOSE) were likely thinking "I know it, I know it!"

    When I had hemorrhoids, my ASSAILED.

    Did you hear about the dyslexic Mormon hippie who was tripping on LDS?

    Found this to be kinda tough, but fair. I enjoyed it a lot. Thanks, Blake Slonecker.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous1:34 PM

      @egs LOL 😂! Thanks I needed that!

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    2. Quintuple hah!

      Delete
  33. Another interesting week of grids. Loved the 8way rebus on Thursday, liked Friday and today I find the family name, Spanish & CLASSROOM journalism straight outta my wheelhouse; puzzle fit my experience base TO A TEE. A rare day when OFL thinks a solve is harder than this journeyman cruciverbalist.

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  34. Bob Mills10:58 AM

    Finished it with a couple of cheats. A CASITA is really a CACITA. Why is BOAT a Thanksgiving dish? Because Pilgrims used boats to get here in the 1600s? If so, that's a huge stretch. Needed a cheat to get PLOSIVES, which I had never heard of; I kept thinking it was PLO SIDES (Palestinians). Difficult Saturday chore, and not particularly pleasant.

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    Replies
    1. I think the dinnerware piece is pretty outdated but it is a “gravy boat. You might do a Google image search of the term. They were often in extended “fine china” sets.

      Delete
    2. I'm old enough to remember when gravy boats were pretty standard tableware, back in the days when "meat and potatoes" described the basic, everyday American dinner. But I'm not sure that we even still own one. Maybe in the back of a cupboard somewhere.

      Delete
  35. A very enjoyable Saturday! I was having trouble getting traction up top, due to a run of mistakes: that "obvious" pull UP, along with a singular ELL, Son instead of SES, and my parent critic being a "tiger mom." So my way in was through the SW, with GUITAR x DERATS, climbing up through ERASER and then ROTATE CLOCKWISE, which gave me plenty to work with. Absolutely loved FEARLESS LEADERS with its Rocky and Bullwinkle association! Last in: ARCLAMPS x LDS. A treat of a puzzle all around.

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    Replies
    1. Ride the Reading11:25 AM

      Yes, a missed opportunity for OFL to post pix of Fearless Leaders - especially Robert De Niro, knocking off his "Taxi Driver" lines. Found this one a nice Saturday workout - tougher than most recent ones, but not brutal.

      Finished in the NE - CASITA I didn't see for some time; couldn't suss what followed CLASSROOM.

      Delete
  36. Challenging! Took me waaay longer than average Saturday time. But solved!

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  37. Easy-medium. The grid was kinda intimidating but it turned out to be quite doable. It helped that I had none of the missteps that @Rex did.

    Costly erasure: pc before AVLAB

    Stuff i didn’t know: INA, BRAGG
    Stuff I sorta new after a couple of crosses: PLOSIVES, SEOUL, JETES

    Solid and smooth but a tad lackluster (Hi @Rex), liked it.

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  38. Niallhost11:09 AM

    puLLUP before ROLLUP (like many)
    each before APOP
    AVclub before AVLABS (missed the plural)
    osS before ACS (thought it might be a misdirect for Operating Systems on a Windows computer. Too clever for my own good)
    STaRAGE before STORAGE (I know. I linked space with stars and...what can I tell you)
    BOwl before BOAT
    Is DERATS a thing?
    Had never heard of the word PLOSIVES and didn't know IVES so had to run the alphabet to get the happy music. Fun and challenging Saturday. Finished in 34:33.

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  39. Anonymous11:10 AM

    My only comment I'd that AVlabs no longer exist in schools.

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous12:43 PM

      I'm in Texas, which treats the fine arts like something it stepped on, and the high school I teach at has an AV lab, a recording studio, and an animation studio, so God only knows what underfunded hellhole is your point of reference.

      Delete
  40. Anonymous11:14 AM

    I so cleverly entered “short order cooks” for kitchen flippers. Boy, was I wrong!

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  41. Hard for me and I knew Billy BRAGG , INA May, and CLASSICALGUITAR. So that’s pathetic, haha. But I did finish eventually. I loved the answer TEENAGER to outspoken parenting critic, at times. That was the only haha moment in the puzzle for me. BOAT was very irritating. Even after I got it it took me a while to figure out why that was the answer!

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  42. Have no idea what you're going on and on about, @Ride the at 10:09, -- and interestingly, you're the only poster here with no reply option. Please identify the puzzle that I made the comment on because I don't remember this interaction with you at all.

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    Replies
    1. @Nancy 11:21 - you don't remember it because it never happened. The exchange that @Ride the Reading 10:09 talks about happened with JD, not with you.

      Delete
    2. JD VANCE? 🤣

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    3. FWIW, that fort is not Fort Liberty; Bragg was a Confederate general, and it seemed inappropriate to honor him.

      Delete
    4. @Nancy, that missing reply button confused me for a week or two. Here's the story: if you reply to a comment, your reply is posted without a reply button of its own. But if you scroll up and reply again to the comment you replied to before, your second reply will appear (after moderation) at the bottom of the thread. Ride the Reading was originally posting a reply to you, so to reply to that comment you would have had to actually reply to yourself. Man, that sounds confusing even as I write it! But I hope I conveyed the general idea.

      Delete
  43. PLOSIVES? AV LABS? AR CLAMPS? "Stranger" for 13D made much more sense to me than Teenager, but that's just me. Not gonna lie - had to cheat - but I'm glad I did or else I wouldn't have finished & wound up enjoying this "Medium" Saturday. Thank you, Blake :)

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  44. I sailed right down the West Coast, leaving a few blank squares but nothing to interfere with m progress, but came to a screeching halt (mixed metaphor, but you get the meaning) in the SW. Couldn't see the long acrosses, confused EMI with BMI, and confused "media-baes" with "online," so I guessed ed LABS. And by then I'd put in ELl for ELS (which doesn't work grammatically, while my answer does), and that blocked CLASSICAL GUITAR for too long. Fortunately, I didn't go with CAbanA for the modest house, though.

    Seldom see that particular IVES without his pal Currier, so that was tough.

    I finally worked it all out, though, and can admire the grid in retrospect. I'm a little put out at the plural ALBS, but fair enough. My grandson joined a boys choir at a very high-church Episcopal parish, where I occasionally go to hear him sing, and there are certainly a lot of ALBS to be seen.

    Gotta go -- the MFA has a big Moore-O'keeffe show, with timed entry, and our tickets are for 1-1:30.

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  45. M and A12:39 PM

    66-worder, with 6 all-crossin grid spanners [3 of em POC's, tho].
    Appropriately feisty, for a SatPuz.
    fave gridspanner: FEARLESSLEADERS.

    staff weeject pick: SES. French no-know crossin a Modestoese no-know [CASITA]. M&A went with TES/CATITA. Figured CATITA could maybe be a small cathouse, or somesuch.
    honorble mention to no-know INA.

    some hilites, at our house: MITTS clue. TEENAGER clue. BRAGG & LEGGS. TOATEE, with the two T-shaped black square escorts.

    Thanx for the themeless SUSS-quest, Mr. Slonecker dude.

    Masked & Anonymo3Us


    **gruntz**

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous3:35 PM

      If you embed links, there’s a chance your posts will get marked as spam, as happened today ~RP

      Delete
    2. M and A3:54 PM

      Thanx for resurrectin m&e and my spamalot comment, @RP dude.

      gratefully undead, and gruntzin,
      M&A

      Delete
  46. Ride the Reading12:44 PM

    @Nancy @kitshef - I am embarrassed. I apologize to Nancy, and thank kitshef for correcting the record. A timeout for me is in order. Perhaps RP can accomplish that.

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  47. Derat deserved a comment

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  48. Anonymous12:57 PM

    Finally, a good crunchy puz after a week of minute-plus PBs. Proud of getting PLOSIVES off only the P and the final S. Glad someone is getting something out of all the IPA posters I hang up in my classroom, even if that someone is me.

    DERATS is rancid.

    Bit of an issue with 20A, as "spendy" to me parses more as how much one is inclined to spend rather than how much something costs. Took me the S-T-E to get it as a result. "Pricey" might have been a fairer, albeit less challenging clue.

    In this house, 13D is more a "definitely" than a "maybe."

    The grid-spanners aren't the most inspiring, but I'm always impressed that people can make it work at all.

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  49. Sorry MODS, my comment appeared as an anon. New blog format issue…

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  50. I'm with Rex on the “folk” part of 28A being a misdirection, but with BR in place, it had to be Billy BRAGG. And INTIMATE as part of 12D was hard also, making the NE the hardest for me.

    Yes, a CLASSIC Saturday solve, thanks Blake Slonecker!

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  51. Thank you Rex for the Ella tune. Love that lady. But I didn’t hear “Currier and Ives” anywhere in it. Maybe it’s in another version she did? It would be very apropos.

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  52. Anonymous1:52 PM

    I went to Brush High School, in Lyndhurst, Ohio. Charles F. Brush invented the ARC LAMP. Our teams were the Brush Arcs. So no problem starting off at 1A.

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  53. Oddly this took me about the same time to solve as yesterday, which most people seemed to think was quite easy. Hands up for, like Rex, having CLASSICAL ???, CLASSROOM ???, SLOTTED ???, ??? CLOCKWISE. Kinda banal two word things.

    I had a bit of a laugh at my typeover for the "Subject of.. 'Once upon a time in Queens'": METH.

    Just about the maximum comfortable number of names today, including METS.

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  54. Can someone explain the clue for TRUE

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    Replies
    1. @Flybal: Rex explained it in his list at the end of his writeup: "that's the case" == "that's true".

      Delete
  55. A long, long time ago in the previous century I had the great good fortune to attend two of his concerts so when the 3D clue "Andrés Segovia won a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award for it" popped up, I immediately dropped in CLASSICAL GUITAR. Segovia (1893-1987) is credited with making what was widely thought to be just a pleasant sounding parlor instrument into a serious concert instrument. Here's a 1:45 YouTube of him playing on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956.

    I do admire the low 26 black square grid but gotta say that going from CLASSICAL GUITAR to SLOTTED SPATULA was a big let down. And I did notice that said SPATULA was one letter short of its slot, as were two other grid-spanning wannabes, FEARLESS LEADER and INTIMATE DETAIL. POC (plural of convenience) to the rescue! See also several two for one POCs, where a Down and an Across both get a grid fill, letter count boost by sharing a final S. I count at least five including where a two-fer is most likely to be found, in the lower rightmost square.

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    Replies
    1. TBF, INTIMATE DETAILS is much more in-the-language than its singular counterpart.

      Delete
  56. ¿Detalles íntimos? Cuéntanos.

    Too tuff for me. My first entry was CLASSICAL GUITAR without any crosses and then I basically looked up every other answer. Some days are not my days. Nevertheless, here's some things I learned.

    We had ARC LAMPS in my elementary school gym (I think). You flipped the switch and waited 10 minutes for them to get going. Obviously turning them off in the middle of dodge ball saved many lives.

    If you visit an AirB&B in New Mexico, they might try to lure you into renting a CASITA with cute wide-angle shots of piñon pine furniture, Navajo-made blankets, kachinas, and an adobe fireplace in the corner. When you arrive, you'll find your body doesn't actually fit in the miniature hut, there's no place to put your stuff, it smells like your basement, and it was actually a garage in the beginning. You'll long for the salad days of staying in a Hampton Inn next to a K-mart.

    I've heard of Currier and IVES. I thought they had something to do with Christmas, but it turns out it's printed dishes. But wait, there's two disappointing research projects I undertook: First, I read the Wikipedia page for lithograph and I understood exactly none of it. Second, the company made a mint selling wildly racist posters after the Civil War. Nice work America.

    I really need @egs to handle TOATEE, as it's screaming GOATEE to me.

    I hate ALBS so much I'm thinking of starting a most hated word list of one.

    DE-RATS is such a dumb entry and now it's in everybody's word list. I do love it that the Pied Piper gets credit. I can only imagine modern right-wing wackos trying to survive the Black Plague. "The government is sending in microchipped rodents and hell no I'm not learning to play a tin whistle."

    As a TEENAGER, had I been an outspoken critic of parenting, I would've found myself on the business end of a hamburger, no, pancake, no, SLOTTED SPATULA. And it would've been a specially reinforced spatula made of belt.

    Propers: 5
    Places: 2
    Products: 6
    Partials: 6
    Foreignisms: 1
    --
    Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 20 of 66 (30%)

    Funnyisms: 6 😅

    Tee-Hee: LEGGS.

    Uniclues:

    1 "How ya doin' today, buddy? Listen..."
    2 "Today's the day you're gonna break 90; I feel it in my bones."
    3 When the ballet goes bankrupt.
    4 Nixon criticized.
    5 Cover band chooses not to play Nirvana.
    6 When you took Gandalf's advice on a route into Mordor.
    7 End your Swiftie-ismic ways.

    1 COLDCALL OPENER
    2 COAXED TO A TEE
    3 TRUE JETES STOP
    4 ERASER ASSAILED
    5 DERATS SET LIST
    6 ACCESS FALTERED
    7 ROLL UP EVERMORE

    My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Doing the double helix kaleidoscope dance. DNA BANK LSD TRIP.

    ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    ReplyDelete
  57. Anonymous2:48 PM

    This puzzle was brought to you by the letter T. Don’t you see what Slonecker is doing here!? It’s genius! Look fellow puzzlers at the sets of black squares in nw and se and you will see capital Ts. And yes the south east T is upside down — but here’s the genius part — if you “rotate clockwise [48 across]” and “spin right round [like a record, baby]” you get a beautiful spinning, capital T platter. And to top it off, the title of this gem is hidden in plain sight at 31 across: TO A TEE. Thank you, thank you very much —

    ReplyDelete
  58. Oh do I feel brilliant. Let me count the ways.....: CLASSIC GUITAR. Yes, Andres, you were my first! Onwardchristiansoldier. Off to conquer the rest. Or not.

    Stare at 1A. Move on. CASITA! ...my second . Will this be easy? Can I do this without a cheat? I will SUSS you out even if I have to DE RAT the GMAN.

    DE RAT got my on a few tries I just could NOT get, even though I did some JETES with my mind. Even the old get up and move around didn't help. Dare I cheat......Don't give up...don't give up...I did. PLOSIVES....What the hell are you and why are you ruining my day. I wanted to yell "shucky darns" but something a lot worse spewed from my soft lips. I won't share....

    The longies...I'm getting each of you with some mighty effort and a stiff drink last night. Off to bed and hope my brilliance continues in the morning with my Peet's... It did and it didn't.....

    The top part of my attic was filled in and now I'm stuck at the bottom. My second cheat at AV LABS. Why...Oh why did I do that? I needed to. Thanks to you I got EVER MORE along side my FEARLESS LEADERS. See? I really am brilliant.

    One little droover....I had BOAS at my Thanksgiving dinner. I know some of you brought a BOAR but I preferred eating BOAS. Hah! I changed it of course when I posted POSTED. Smart me.

    I finished with just two cheats on a Saturday. I love when I feel all smugy smart and strut my stuff. Someday I will finish a Saturday without having to call on someone. Maybe next one?

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  59. Anonymous4:00 PM

    21A brought back great memories-I started my career as an RN in high risk OB in the late70’s and “Spiritual Midwifery” was a must read. I may still have my copy in our attic!

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  60. Anonymous4:04 PM

    Stupid, silly, lookzzle up answers... What a f'n farce this is... Taint a xwrd pu..

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  61. In a Greek Orthodox christening the godparents and priest "spit" 3 times to ward off evil. So as not to be gross the actual act is to blow out gently 3 times.

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  62. Anonymous5:23 PM

    Easy-medium, but I knew PLOSIVES. ROTATE CLOCKWISE and SLOTTED SPATULAS are meh.

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  63. To see the Avatars go here</a

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  64. Scroll down.
    They're below @Rex's comments.

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  65. I've never had gOAT for Thanksgiving, but I had it for Christmas once. My ex and I were visiting our son over the holidays, and went with one of his fellow teachers to visit his uncle's home, where he was staying at the time. There was a goat tied up outside the compound. The uncle invited us to come back the next day for Christmas dinner, where we were served the same goat, now roasted. I don't think the custom will catch on here.

    I could explain lithography, sort of, but the Wikipedia article does a much better job.

    And yes, the Henry Moore/Georgia O'Keeffe exhibition was excellent.

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  66. Anonymous7:39 PM

    C’mon, COLDALL is a sales tactic, not a marketing tactic.

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  67. Anonymous7:49 PM

    rough. actually, no. for 98%, a proper saturday. i worked the puzzle, and got rewarded, felt proud. however, like rex, i found the eventual reveals on the boring side. but then one little chunk in the center-ish did me in. never heard of PLOSIVES or IVES and neither are inferable...didn't know METS as clued...never heard of inveigled but again like rex somehow thought of cloaked and so i had COAtED for ages...with left me with datES for "socializes." finally tried COAXED...MIXES...but unfortunately still at sea due to plosives & ives. [how's that for a company name?]

    after an hour and twenty minutes, begrudgingly gave in and googled the METS documentary, which helped me see MITTS. which up until right this very second i thought was about catching and killing a fly [insect] with your bare hands. gross, but plausible, kind of a weird clue/answer combo i thought! now the lightbulb comes on. suffice it to say, baseball is not my strongsuit XD

    i'm 40 but L'EGGS was one of the few gimmes for me! wiki says they stopped using the plastic eggs in 1991. can still see the font clearly too. amazing piece of design and marketing. [genuinely!]

    -stephanie.

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    Replies
    1. A Moderator8:02 PM

      Why not go blue

      Delete
  68. On 40D, we Americans have no idea about English geography. I had _ _ R _ _ _. So I confidently wrote in SURREY. When then didn’t work, switched to DURHAM, before finally putting in DORSET. Still couldn’t find any of them on a map…

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  69. So was there something that was suppose to happen? Guess it's none of my business.

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  70. Not that it's any of my business but did something happen?

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  71. A year in the ground should get me out of dealing with it right.

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  72. Azzurro9:07 PM

    Shouldn’t ELS be clued as a plural? “What always end well” not “ends well”?

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  73. Anonymous1:27 AM

    Damn I’m not gonna lie this easy rating feels like an attack lol

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    Replies
    1. Anonymous5:47 AM

      It’s got a “Medium” rating

      Delete
  74. Anonymous2:21 PM

    DERATS is grounds for cancelling a NYT games subscription. Pitiful.

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  75. Anonymous9:39 PM

    Good Saturday puzzle. Completed it but struggled. Bulk mail before cold call! Ouch. Conned before coaxed. Pull-up before roll up. Plosives by default!

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  76. Anonymous4:15 PM

    Even after giving in and looking up the few clues you could look up this puzzle was very difficult. Even after "finishing" a lot didn't make sense. I'd say it's the worst in years.BOO

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