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Colorful knit top with Scottish origins / SAT 6-7-25 / Gown go-with / Phisher's collection, for short / Corruption below deck, perhaps / Board game variant used as a last-resort tiebreaker / Triangular bones that fuse in adulthood / Likely lobby locale in D.C. / One side in ancient Greece's Battle of the 300 Champions / Spanish city that's home to the Alhambra / Beef cut in Santa Maria-style barbecue
Saturday, June 7, 2025
Constructor: Blake Slonecker
Relative difficulty: Easy
Word of the Day: FAIR ISLE SWEATER (52A: Colorful knit top with Scottish origins) —
Fair Isle (/fɛəraɪ̯l/) is a traditional knitting style used to create patterns with multiple colours. It is named after Fair Isle, one of the Shetland Islands. Fair Isle knitting gained considerable popularity when the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) wore Fair Isle jumpers in public in 1921. Traditional Fair Isle patterns have a limited palette of five or so colours, use only two colours per row, are worked in the round, and limit the length of a run of any particular colour.Some people use the term "Fair Isle" to refer to any colourwork knitting where stitches are knitted alternately in various colours, with the unused colours stranded across the back of the work, but this is inaccurate. The term "stranded colourwork" is applicable for the generic technique, and the term "Fair Isle" is reserved for the characteristic patterns of Shetland.
• • •
We've already set a record for Most ARO Appearances in a Calendar Year ... and it's only June! In fact, there have been three (3) appearances in June alone, and as you can see, June is only seven days old! I'm slapping a "Crosswordese" tag on ARO right now, in the vain hope that constructors will start using it more sparingly. Think of it as a NEO-crosswordese. Its extreme prevalence is fresh, yes, but at this point it's not really any different from SSNS or OTT to me (though ARO has actually appeared as much as SSNS and OTT combined so far in 2025).
So this is one of those all-over symmetry puzzles. Mirror symmetry across every axis, rotational symmetry every 90 degrees. I don't know that it makes for the most interesting solving experience—when you can shoot pairs of 15s in all directions like this, the puzzle tends to play pretty easy, and the 15s, being interlocked and limited by that interdependence, can tend toward the bland, tepid, or forced. Today's hold up OK, but only "I KNEW IT ALL ALONG" and MAKE A FRESH START really did anything for me. The rest of the grid is mostly forgettable filler, though I really liked SET MENU—original, very in-the-language, kinda tricky to parse (esp. with that terminal "U"). Not really "digging" (in the 38-Down sense) the sneering attitude toward AGING in this puzzle. On the one hand, it wants to be broad-minded and philosophical about it (1D: Natural process we all go through). On the other hand, SENILE!? THE OLDS!? Do people still say "THE OLDS?" I feel like whoever coined "THE OLDS" is now one of "THE OLDS" themselves, but desperately trying to pretend otherwise. Like the clue for AGING implies, we're all headed for Medicare PART D, buddy, and that's if we're lucky.
Oh, I also, ironically, liked WOOD ROT (49A: Corruption below deck, perhaps). That one was a BEAUT. I also kinda like SOURS ON, though I will confess to staring at -OURSON for a non-zero number of seconds wondering what the hell it could possibly be (38D: Stops digging). TOURS ON? No ... that's more [Keeps gigging] than [Stops digging]. Obviously the meaning of "digging" was completely eluding me. I was thinking either of literal digging (like, in the earth with a shovel or something like that), or metaphorical digging, like "investigating, prying." But no: "digging" as in "liking, enjoying, finding very groovy." The only other place in the entire puzzle that gave me any trouble whatsoever was the back end of 2D: Leave everything behind (MAKE A FRESH START). I wanted MAKE A CLEAN BREAK, which fit (the space). And fit (the clue). But even that didn't really slow me down, since Mel OTT got rid of my wrong guess in pretty short order. This puzzle felt more like a Friday than yesterday's puzzle did. Better flow today, and just breezier overall.
[thought of this sketch as soon as I saw the constructor's first name today ... and then the puzzle gave me "GLEE" so I had to post it—it's a twofer! (16D: "Euphoria" synonym that, like "Euphoria," is also the name of a hit TV show) ... oh, and there's CHESS content too. Threefer!]
Some more things:
- 1A: Collect (AMASS) — a gimme right off the bat. Always nice. Weird / interesting that AMASS sits right on top of an answer that means "amasses" (14A: Assembles = GATHERS TOGETHER)
- 9A: Triangular bones that fuse in adulthood (SACRA) — take yoga classes for any length of time, and this bone (sacrum) will become very familiar to you. You could also just take an Anatomy class, I suppose.
- 24A: Takes the field? (MOWS) — like ... takes it ... away. Goodbye, field (of grass)!
- 29A: Spiral-shelled mollusks (TRITONS) — not really sure what these are, but I had a bunch of the middle letters in this answer and my brain just Rolodexed for "something Sea-ish" and bam, TRITONS worked perfectly (Triton is a Greek god of the sea, son of Poseidon).
- 36A: Likely lobby locale in D.C. (K STREET) — not really getting the "Likely" part of this clue. I mean, I understand the tempting pleasures of alliteration, but ... is K STREET a lobby or isn't it? Seems like a question that should have a definitive answer. It's literally a lobbying locale. [Literal lobby locale]!
- 9D: Directive in many a stovetop recipe (SEAR) — first thought: "STIR." Second thought: "SEA- ... SEA- ... SEAL?" (no, dummy: SEAR) "Oh yeah."
- 13D: One side in ancient Greece's Battle of the 300 Champions (ARGOS) — completely spaced on this. The puzzle was so easy that it didn't matter—crosses quickly helped me out—but I'm still mad at myself for not getting it instantly.
- 45D: Gown go-with (TOWN) — theoretically tricky, as the clue seems to be asking for some piece of clothing or an accessory, but here, "Gown" "goes with" TOWN in the expression "TOWN-and-gown" which broadly describes the two sections of any university town: the university-affiliated (gown) and the rest (TOWN). Conventionally, there's supposed to be tension between these two elements, but the whole TOWN-and-gown distinction seems like a slightly dated concept to me. I mean, insofar as students and professors don't go around town in "gowns" any more (as they did in the Middle Ages), it's very dated. I think there used to be implicit class distinctions that aren't *as* operative any more, at least not at the public schools where I have taught.
- 6D: Some concerning forecasts, in weather-speak (T-STORMS) — we canceled our plans to drive up to Ithaca to see The Phoenician Scheme yesterday because the forecast called for severe T-STORMS and I ain't driving in that if I don't have to. But then of course the T-STORMS didn't materialize. Because summer weather is like that. You forget, in the winter, that the summer isn't just warm—it's chaotic (evil).
See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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93 comments:
Easy? You're being cheeky mate.
"Town and gown" is still a thing in the UK, where Oxbridge students still often strut around in their gowns. Also got stuck for a while at 38D, first because i had "BEAST" instead of "BEAUT" at 44A, which was mucking everything up. Even when I corrected that and put in "SET MENU" at 38A, I was not convinced by "SOURS ON". Glad Rex explained it, because my brain couldn't parse "dig" any other way besides literally or meaning to insult someone!
I had BEAST before BEAUT, which held me up momentarily, but otherwise also found it easy.
17 minutes for me this morning, so I think that qualifies as "easy-medium" for a Saturday. Never really got stuck. So Awesome to see my (last) name in the grid today, thanks Blake!!!!! : ) (mine is pronounced with a long a in the first syllable). Loved all the in-the-language interlocking 15s, though "GATHERSTOGETHER" doesn't really scintillate. Waiting for Lewis to let us know how many debuts there are today.... really loved the clue for WOODROT and the answers BEAUT, KSTREET, and SOFAS (as clued). Thanks for a great Saturday puzzle : ). I'm thinking about trying my hand at making a puzzle.... how hard is it? Those of you who've made the transition from just doing puzzles to creating them.... thanks in advance!
This week's difficulty levels have made NO sense. Tuesday took me longer than Wednesday, Thursday took me *WAY* longer than usual, Friday was faster than Thursday, and Saturday was faster than Friday.
StiR before SEAR, BEAsT before BEAUT, which really killed me--I knew something was wrong when I had _OsRSON but if something's a doozy it could be a beast. Then it hit me, and I finished the puzzle there. Agree with @Rex that it was easy and played more like a Friday. But I liked the 15s better than he did, so there's that.
Yeah - not a real killer but I enjoyed it. Loved the interconnected spanning stacks. Another ARMAGEDDON sighting - is WS trying to tell us something?
How’s ERNIE
Most of my trouble was in the west side of the grid. Didn’t love that SENILE, K STREET, HIES stack. Agree with the big guy that there is some depressing fill throughout.
Inn TOWN
Pleasant Saturday morning solve. Warm and sunny all week and it looks like another gloomy weekend. Matt Sewell’s Stumper with its highly segmented grid is altogether different than this one - highly recommended.
The late great Jesse Colin-Young made it popular but I always liked this version
Played quite hard for me, and my last entry, appropriately, was the H of AHA moment (when IN A and ANY didn’t work for that clue, I drew a huge blank). Despite being in the British Isles at the moment, I had no clue on FAIR ISLE SWEATER, though I did at least get TOWN and gown (when “cap” didn’t fit).
Yep, I also had no clue why SOURS ON was the answer until I got on here!
Pretty quick for a Saturday. Complete opposite of yesterday.
Those of us who’ve lived or worked in the DC area know that K Street is the address of *many* lobbying groups. That was a no-brainer for me.
Vastly much easier than yesterday's, althouth I did DNF with my tACRA/tEAR cross. Tear as in 'tear open the package', which tells you something about my cooking skills, and 'tacra' sounded reasonbable for plural bones.
There is quite a lot of abbreviation/initialsm going on today, which is probably inevitable given the pleasing and ambitious grid (TSP, NEO, CEO, MSN, HMO, SSNS, TSTORMS, RTE, ATL).
I’m not what the relationship is between ‘gown’ and ‘town’, other than they rhyme, but crosses were easy enough.
Armageddon chess is normally just called ‘armageddon’. Because draws are so common at the top level of chess, armageddon is used as a tiebreaker. As an aside, one reason I didn’t like Queen’s Gambit is that so few games ended in a draw.
I am a chess player, and in high level tournaments most games end in draws (ties). An armaggedon game guarantees one player will win. A tie is impossible.
My favorite area was the southern spanners, neither of which I’d ever heard of, yet through grit, lateral thinking, and making educated guesses – all things my brain lives for – it came together. Which brought sweet satisfaction.
The quartet of spanning duos is remarkably fresh, giving bubble to the box. Four of those answers are NYT debuts, three are once-befores, and one is a twice-before.
Speaking of bubble, FOAM and MOET.
Blake likes to come up with striking grid designs. My favorite design of his (well worth a trip to the archives, IMO), is Friday, 3/24/23, one I would call dashing.
I like the food-related and food-adjacent entries: TSP, TRITIP, SET MENU, STEWS, SEAR, and RIPE. I also like the PuzzPair© of WOOD ROT and SPOILER, not to mention the contradictory PuzzPair© of I KNEW IT ALL ALONG and SPOILER.
It’s hard to believe this is OTT's first appearance of the year!
Fun, satisfying, and full of goodies. Thank you for making this, Blake!
If looking up FAIRISLESWEATER on line for confirmation after first filling it in is a cheat, then I cheated. But I forgave myself beforehand. I also got SOURSON from the crosses without realizing that "digging" meant liking. I knew KSTREET, which closed out that section for me. It wasn't easy, in my view...more like a normal Saturday with a few nasty misdirects.
On the Easy side of Easy-Medium.
Overwrites:
9D: My stovetop recipes call for me to StiR before I SEAR (Hi, @Adam!)
20A: My top suit was a Cru(?) before it was a CEO
41D: MADE it before MADE DO
54D: in A moment before Any moment before AHA moment (Hi, @Dr. Random!)
WOEs:
I don't know the NEO-Assyrian Empire, but I had NEO before I read the 18A clue
52A is the first I've heard of a FAIR ISLE SWEATER, but happily the crosses were ... uh, FAIR
Never heard of ARMAGEDDON CHESS (55A) either, but again it was easy to infer
No surprise that this puzzle was easy. When the emphasis is on pattern sacrifices have to be made starting with difficulty. I haven't commented lately due to one thing or another. Currently I'm restoring an old deck and dealing with much WOODROT.
This one was very challenging for me. I confidently put BEAST instead of BEAUT and SOY instead of SON, and PET instead of SET. Those two mistakes combined with never having heard of ARMAGEDDON CHESS or FAIR ISLE SWEATERs killed the bottom of the grid for me. I also found the clues on the marquee answers to be so vague that they took tons of crosses for me to answer - crosses that were hard because there weren't a bunch of "gimme" short answers or common proper names. You know, typical Saturday difficulty, but for some reason harder for me than normal this morning.
Like this kind of grid. Agree with Rex on ARO. Saw it at least once earlier in the week in a puzzle. It’s becoming crosswordese - a word that doesn’t appear anywhere in the wild. Found only in XWDs.
Possible dupe (if the first one got lost somehow): Looked up FAIRISLESWEATER on line for confirmation after filling it in (hope that isn't a cheat). Otherwise got it done cleanly, needing only an alphabet run to complete the TRITIP/ABU cross. Didn't think it was easy...more like an average Saturday with a few nasty misdirects (especially the clue for SOURSON).
TOWN AND GOWN "slightly dated"? Not out here (John Carroll U)!
The likely on K STREET is that a lobbying group in DC is LIKELY located on K Street.
For those of us who don’t live or work anywhere near DC, the strategy is to fill in _STREET and hope the cross gives you the right letter. Something like answering the Medicare question with PART_. The difference is that with the DC clue there’s a chance of knowing the right answer, but there’s no way of knowing which part of Medicare that clue is indicating. Took me quite a while to get that D.
Pretty bumpy but finished in an OK time, help from the Acrostic on recognizing phrases from parts of words. Hand up for STIR, didn't remember SACRA, no idea on MOET as clued, and I thoroughly dislike answers such as PART____ or ___STREET tha could be any random letter.
Nice enough Saturday, BS. I'll Be Sure to find some others of yours, and thanks for all the fun.
Gotta run, singing at a memorial service this morning.
Oh, dear. AGING. THE OLDS. SENILE. It seems to be ARMAGEDDON for my generation in this puzzle. And speaking of ARMAGEDDON...
I know nothing about most of the newer board games, but I do know that the stakes in them are now Bigger Than Life! Potentially catastrophic! World-altering! Inter-Galactic-altering! So that when I had ARM, I immediately filled in ARMAGEDDON. What else could a "last resort" tiebreaker be. But I wrote in ARMAGEDDON CHaSe before I wrote in ARMAGEDDON CHESS. And to think -- CHESS used to be a brainy, subtle game.
I wanted to MAKE some kind of WILL for "Leave everything behind" -- but what came in instead was MAKE A FRESH START. That's a very fresh start indeed.
This was much easier than yesterday's -- and I'm sure many of you will have already said that. I appreciated the almost complete lack of proper names and the very fair --if not especially Saturdayish -- cluing. After yesterday, I suppose a well-deserved rest was merited. But I am surprised the puzzles weren't reversed.
I really enjoyed my leisurely drive through this one until I got to that traffic jam in the south. No enthusiasm for FAIR ISLE SWEATER, or ARMAGEDDON CHESS (and of course, with an infinite number of ways to clue SON, we get served a Spanish quiz). I didn’t bother looking up ARMAGEDDON CHESS - it’s more fun imagining pressing a button and the opponent’s king blows up, or maybe the pieces start flying off the board like cows in a Monty Python movie.
Similar to yesterday, the rest of it was relatively junk-free, which was a welcome breath of fresh air for a change. I was really surprised that ERNIE beat Kermit to the Hot 100 - I would have laid big bucks on the green frog in that contest. I hope that is not the cause of any internal strife over there at Sesame Street.
No me engañaste.
Typical Saturday. Just fine. Far more in my wheelhouse than yesterday, but not as humorous.
Loved [Change seats].
People: 3
Places: 4
Products: 7
Partials: 8
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 24 of 68 (35%)
Funnyisms: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: [Bare bottom].
Uniclues:
1 Places in the yard Bert can't reach.
2 Nude comic at work.
3 Makes hairy hats for spies or golf course borers.
4 Asking a cry baby what he thinks.
1 GAPS ERNIE MOWS
2 SHE SATIRES RAW
3 SEWS MOLES' WIGS
4 POLLING SOUR SON
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Pastry detritus needing vacuumed up after the exorcism. SATANISM CRUMBS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
I struggled a great deal on the right side and, when I got it, RENEWED INTEREST felt like a disappointment, just flat. The others were pretty lively.
Town vs gown is definitely a thing where I live, though of course as a metaphor. Not so much a class thing, but a tension with enormous financial and social implications.
Hard for me. Needed three cheats. Rex explained "Stops digging" for SOURSON. But his explanation for "Takes the field" and MOWS doesn't click.
Thanks for explaining that.
As in, you’re literally taking the field (grass) away when you mow. Unless you’re like me and don’t bag the clippings.
Easy? Oh maybe, in that it did not have a lot of names, and that always helps. It was not as tough as Saturdays often are, and it’s very rare that I finish one without cheating. But doing so allows me go an entire week of feeling like a real honest-to-goodness crossword solver. So thank you Blake, for that little ego boost and for a puzzle which was a pleasure to solve.
Dastardly finding that SET MENU and PRE FIXE have the same number of letters...
Better w/lyrics some may some say
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T_tffjrItC4&pp=ygURZ3JhemluZyB0aGUgZ3Jhc3M%3D
Groove on & plz Dig It
What happened to my Saturday??? Way too easy! But fun to feel like a genius
Wood RAT Before wood ROT… But that’s the problem I have below my deck.
My kid who's always in a bad mood wonders if SOURSON crossing SON is a dupe. And speaking of funny intersections how about TSK crossing KST(REET)?
The author of the first published computer program was Ada Lovelace, but to her grandchildren she was just GRANADA.
When I asked my French friend what he thought of my hand-knitted outfit, he replied "Good are les pants and FAIRISLESWEATER."
Mrs. Egs and I drive an Oldsmobile and when my son's car broke down, I heard him whisper to his wife "We'll just borrow THEOLDS from THEOLDS." We didn't care because all we do anymore is sit and watch MSNBC. Even though the kids try to get us to do other things, it's hard to separate THEOLDS from the news.
I guess it was too late for the editors to change the clue for SSNS from [Phisher's collection, for short] to [Doge's collection per SCOTUS, for short].
Definitely easier than yesterday, but very enjoyable. Thanks, Blake Slonecker.
It’s 2025. Can we edit out Yahoo, MSN, and AOL to be relevant and clue them as artifacts of the past? Most of these clues are written in present form; don’t be lazy!
Quite an easy Saturday puzzle for me. I don't think I've ever gotten so many long answers so easily. Had "make a clean break" before MAKE A FRESH START, but got GATHERS TOGETHER, I KNEW IT ALL ALONG, and FAIR ISLE SWEATER with very little help. Even got WOOD ROT on the first guess! Maybe I had just the right amount of coffee this morning!
samsies
Thank you for calling out ARO. How many times will we see that this week? I feel like I’m in Groundhog Day
@Rick Sacra 6:25 AM
I made one puzzle. Unpublished of course. What I learned:
-Babysitting your word list and ranking the words is the most important, and most brain-damaging, part of the process. I wasn't willing to do that kind of work.
-The software does most of the lifting, but getting the crap out is an enormously challenging process and a good reason to work with a partner.
-Finding a theme isn't that hard. Finding a "good" theme is probably a completely subjective happenstance.
-Writing the clues is the only fun part. Having the NYTXW team re-edit the clues doesn't seem fun at all, but I suppose your mileage will vary.
Easy, in terms of solving top to bottom with no skipping around, and medium according to how long it took me to do that. One mistake held me up for a bit: for "Takes the field?" I had "winS," which I thought was pretty good...until it clearly wasn't going to work. Looking back over the grid, I noticed a couple of brief sentence in adjacent columns: SHE SEWS and THE OLDS MADE DO - I guess being SENILE and all, they can't expect more.
@egsforbreakfast 10:30 AM
Ted from the Mormon church stopped by in his white shirt and $7 tie yesterday and we hid inside and made no noise when he knocked, but he left his business card: THEO LDS.
Easy and easier than yesterday’s for me too. The 4 long down 15s and the 2 top 15s were pretty obvious. The SWEATER and CHESS 15s were WOEs and the last to fall.
I also did not know NEO and SACRA.
Costly erasure - StiR before SEAR
Solid and sorta whooshy, liked it.
Hey RP, the video is a 4-for with Buh-lah-Kay also being the constructor’s name!
Many large buildings have lobbies, and I assumed the D.C. could have been a mis-leader until I had the ee.
Is there a master plan at the NYT to put ARMAGEDDON into our conscience recently to make the Saturday more doable?
Don’t think I’ve become THEOLDS, but my son told a friend on the phone that “the ‘rents” are around.
I don’t understand the complaint about likely lobbying locale for KSTREET. Many but not all lobbying firms have their offices there, so they are likely but not guaranteed to have offices on KSTREET. Many, but not all, investment firms are on Wall Street; many, but not all advertising firms, are on Madison.
When you'r 81, you don't need both AGING and SENILE in your puzzle,, but that's my problem, not its. At least I am non-senile enough to get GATHERS TOGETHER off the G; unfortunately, that gave me the confidence to drop in MAKEs a hasty exiT with only a few crosses, not even noticing that the grammar was wrong.
Some of the clues are too far a stretch for me, such as PILE for "leaves aside" when you have to infer 'set' in the middle of the clue. And I thought TRITTONS were Greek demigods who blew through the shells of conches or whelks, not the name of the shells, as in Wordsworth's wish to "hear old Triton blow his wreathed horn." But I'm no shell expert.
All in all, an enjoyable challenge, and now I want to learn more about ARMAGEDDON CHESS.
I thought maybe the opponents were mowed down?
I had PREFIXE before SETMENU and was going to argue that there were choices (often, even on price).
…and the actual French spelling is PRIX-FIXE
A much better solving experience than yesterday that's for sure. But let's give ARO a rest, ok? FAIR ISLE SWEATER? WOOD ROT? TRI TIP? Being more of a Backgammon player, I didn't know ARMAGEDDON CHESS (didn't ARMAGEDDON just appear this week?). But I did like TOP SUIT.
Thank you, Blake :)
Drat! My Spanish isn't so good, so I had Ser for SON, saw it didn't work with the crosses, but forgot to come back and fix it. I guess I'm more SENILE than I thought.
@Rex, the 'likely' is because not every lobbyist is on K-Street; as rents have gone up there, some have offices in the suburbs.
A better clue for 12-D: What you get when you refinance a mortgage.
Definite constructioneerin bravery. 4 sets of two parallel puzgrid-spanners, with all the sets intersectin one another.
Impressive.
Played regular SatPuz feisty, at our house.
staff weeject pick: ARO. The score so far for June: ARO:3, ERA:1. A new weeject leader starts to emerge?
fave grid-spanner pair? More like a least fave pair, which was: FAIRISLESWEATER. ARMAGEDDONCHESS. Took many nanoseconds to smoke those puppies out. Pretty fair crossers, tho. TOWN was the toughest helper, due to its unfamiliar (to m&e) clue.
fave other thing: The puzgrid symmetry, not matter how U spin it.
Thanx, Mr. Slonecker dude. Nice job.
Masked & Anonymo3Us
... now, back to standard runtpuz weird ...
"Weird Is Weird QED" - 7x7 12 min. themed runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
of course, the bestest example of Town vs. Gown is "Animal House". High larious movie of all time.
Ah, but it's PRIX fixe, French for "fixed price". It sounds like "pre" but isn't written that way.
To be fair, there is no time reference in the clue, and these are all relevant clues to each other - plus many of THEOLDS still use them, so the ageism of the day continues…
If ARO was common a few decades ago what was the cluing? It clearly wasn't short for a aromatic.
Making a puzzle isn't too difficult, if I can differentiate that from making a sellable puzzle. If you can get a copy of Patrick Berry's Constructor's Handbook, that will give you a) the viewpoing of a master of the trade b) some useful resources.
I think I'd go the opposite of Gary Jugert - writing the clues is the hardest part. Some of that is knowing that a clue you sweat over to make interesting or clever or at least not repetitive, some editor is likely to change anyway. I had one puzzle where 90% of my clues were changed. But a good editor will have a light touch and let your voice come through.
There are normally a dozen or more clues you are excited to write because you have a neat idea. But some of the your are just trying to come up with another way to clue OREO, or a way to make your weakest fill (say, TSP) less glaring.
Also difficult is deciding where to put the black squares. Say you have a theme with two nine-letter themers, one 13, and one 11, plus an 11-letter revealer. There are probably hundreds of grids you can fit those into, but some of those will back you into a corner where you forced to use RSTU or some such garbage. And there is no way to know in advance which ones those will be, so you go through multiple grids until you get one where all your fill is OK.
The fun parts are coming up with themes and filling in the 'flexible' parts of the grid.
Oops, just saw that Blake was part of the original 2fer
Yahoo is the 13th most-visited website in the world, and msn is the 27th. This excludes pornography sites, though.
But both are ahead of netflix, pinterest, paypal, and apple, to name just a few.
On AOL, I agree completely.
I found this tougher than Friday's (maybe because did it after dinner and a couple glasses of wine last night?) At 26 minutes it was a perfect satisfying yet challenging Saturday level.
I liked FAIR ISLE SWEATER because I know the term for some reason; probably from some documentary I watched because I am *not* a clothes person. I kinda liked most of the long answers like RENEWED INTEREST. I had a few typeovers with attempts like GATHERS T[HE CROWD] for 14 across, and ARMAGEDDON CHE[AT]! I also took a while to get SOURS ON from "Stop digging"... I thought something like HITS GOLD? (too long).
I have often chided myself for skipping Spain when I was in Europe. Pictures of Alhambra are stunning!
By far the most common clue for ARO was a native of Nigeria. 2nd place was a tributary of the Orinoco River.
I had the reverse experience between today and yesterday than most here seem to have had. Yesterday was quite easy. Today was easyish until I got to the South. But I finally got over IN A and AHA! I MADE DO because I HAD TO.
I live near that NH town that has an Ivy League school and it's hard to tell where the gown ends and the town begins.
The key to creating successful, but not-too-hard-to-construct crosswords is the same as the key to winning doubles matches. In the words of Peter Fleming, John McEnroe's most frequent partner: "Get yourself a very good partner."
It had never remotely occurred to me to try and create a crossword puzzle until I started seeing all the collaborations that were being published in the NYTXW. My first thoughr was: "I wonder if one person creates the grid so that the other person doesn't have to?"
Putting words in a wordlist and ranking them, which @Gary describes as painful: Happily I've never had to deal with that.
Deciding where to put the black squares, which @kitshef describes as difficult and tricky: Happily I've never had to deal with that either.
Coming up with the theme -- great fun when a good one pops into your head and not such great fun at those times absolutely nothing is occurring to you -- is still a hugely enjoyable privilege when you have the luxury of saying to your grid-making partner, tasked with embedding those rebus answers you've come up with in a grid...or making three twelve-letter answers suddenly turn and go south mid-word...or accomplishing any other such puzzle trickery: "Over to you now, partner." Whew! Just in the nick of time.
I strongly suggest working with a partner, Rick -- at least when you're starting out.
GOWN and TOWN are not go withs: they are opposites.
And never heard of FAIRISLE SWEATERS - so not easy for me.
What's "pre fixe"?
Is it TYL "prix fixe"?
@Gary and @kitshef--thanks so much for taking the time to reply : ).... we'll see. It's probably a few years away, when I'm more retired than I am now.... I definitely need to find a way to fit REX or at least TREX into my puzzle, since @RP was really the key to getting me interested in puzzles in the first place : )
I like that ARO was clued with Ace (asexual/aromantic) — I guess THEOLDS are keeping up somewhat. The French version of SETMENU is *prix* fixe (fixed price) not pre fixe, so they’re not so easy to mistake for each other.
The lobby reference to K Street is for Lobbyists .... a Lobbyist is likely to have an office on K Street, where there are many high end office buildings.
Played a tad easy for me until I got to the south. I never heard of either FAIRISLESWEATER or ARMAGEDDONCHESS - which is totally fine, I very much enjoy walking away with these cool nuggets. What held me up most was a good deal of the shorter fill. Like others, I had BEAST before BEAUT and was rightfully misdirected on the cluing for SOURSON.
My most glaring error was at 54D: ___Moment - those three letters!! I originally put in INA. When I realized that 52A likely ended with SWEATER I needed the "A", so I put in "ATA" ("at a moment," yeah, I guess that's a thing, maybe??) Anyway, that incorrect "T gave me ARMAGEDDONCTESS (??) My brain just could not make the leap to "AHA" to give me that "H" for CHESS. I figured the answer was some esoteric Dungeons and Dragons thing that I have absolutely no knowledge of. I'm not sure what exactly clicked for me to finally get it but it took forever, I enjoyed the ride, though.
I thought all the long downs were absolutely stunning, putting up just the right amount of fight to make the solving experience sparkle for me.
No complaints at all, thank you Blake for a fun Saturday journey!
Not a particularly difficult journey today. A few detours, some minor pile-ups. So, sorta medium. Easier than yesterday.
24A MOWS, 28A PILE, and 43D SOFAS all had clues that were trying to be soooo clever, and all 3 missed the mark. Too bad. And ARO again? Give it a rest. But I love @Rex’s description of it as “grid kudzu”.
36A KSTREET was tough for me because I know very little about American lobbyists, but I have been to DC and vaguely remembered that the streets are alphabetized. So 26 choices. Thanks, Blake, for the K of TSK at 29D. PARTD 28D and HMO 40A, as clued, were also mysteries to me, but the crosses were fair. I thought the clue for 38D SOURSON was brilliant. Clever without overreaching.
Re: GRANADA 31A. The Alhambra. Fabulous site. We visited it years ago in late December. Rain and sleet could not dampen our enthusiasm. Even our 3 young adult children were impressed.
I love SETMENUs 38A. I hate choosing off the menu. I get confused. When I go out to dine I like to eat what the chef and the kitchen crew do best, and that’s most often what’s on a prix fixe menu. Feed me, and feed me well. I’m not here make choices. The most extreme example of this approach that I can remember was when my wife and I discovered through a local publication, a small, new restaurant on a side street in Hobart, Tasmania. The waiter came with a clipboard and, after the normal pleasantries, including asking if we had any food allergies (no), he told us, “We don’t have a SET MENU. Every day we go out and source our ingredients based on their being organic, local and fresh. Then we improvise. I’m going to read you a list of today’s ingredients. Please tell me if you have any objections to any of them.” He then proceeded to list off about 25 or 30 interesting food stuffs. We vetoed chili peppers and sat back and waited for the mystery food to arrive. There were about 8 or 9 small courses and each one was delicious. A wonderful experience.
I, too, entered inA moment but I had some vague memory of FAIRISLESWEATERs and that led to an AHA moment when CHESS appeared. Didn't know what kind of chess it would be but it was fun working it out. Like you said, it was sparkly.
K Street has long been the home of the most prominent Washington lobbying and law firms, even back when I lobbied in the '80s. Town and gown in the U.S. is particularly common in towns with liberal arts colleges, as opposed to research universities.
K Street (DC's most expensive real estate) has long been the home for lobbying and law firms, as far back as the 1980s when I worked there. Town and gown in the U.S. has been more associated with private and liberal are colleges; the alliteration makes it last despite the outdated use of "town."
Grid kudzu us a ood term for ARO. It's a term I was forced to learn. Please go away.
The above comment was meant to be directed to @Hugh but I'm kind of organizationally challenged.
How does clue "are in Spanish" mean "son"? 57 across
Please explain 43 down—SOFAS “change seats.”
@kitschef - thanks for the enlightenment re: site ranks. But I’ll counter that neither are big enough anymore to rival each other anymore. So maybe it’s like asking for a rival of Nokia and having the fill be Ericsson 🤣 but they’re really both just chasing Apple and Samsung.
@burtonkd - No ageism. I’m GenX but I’m just oddly triggered by time reference not being edited. Today is winced with “Glee” because in my mind it “was” the name of a hit TV show since it’s been long cancelled.
I’m weird. Haha
That is the whole point of the phrase, as in TOWN vs GOWN
I was surprised at how many found this puzzle easy. For me, it was the hardest NYTXW I've done in years. Like David Grenier, this puzzle consistently missed my wheelhouse. I had no clue on the long acrosses on the bottom, among other things. I can't argue with popular consensus, though.
I agree that pre fixe makes no sense other than by sound, but it has become a common anglicization
When D.C. is abbreviated, shouldn’t the answer have an abbreviation also? K Street is its full name.
I liked the puzzle.
It was easier for me than yesterday. It ended up with being mostly easy but certain areas were quite hard
In a moment delayed things more than it should have. Couldn’t see Town for ages
Ditto sours on. The bottom longs were the last I got yet, as with many, the top longs seemed to appear automatically.
Both experiences were fun.
I like clues like change seats for sofa. I see some here didn’t
Thought both Friday and Saturday were good.
Are there no knitters out there? I've done a couple so Fair Isle sweater went in without crosses.
She’s a beaut, Clark! That what this usually brings to mind for me.
I’m suffering with a sinus infection that has been threatening for about a week and finally won the battle late yesterday. My solve suffered too. Honestly, this was a puzzle for which I had almost no wavelength connection with our constructor. When this happens, the solve always has some really slow spots.
I did get one big laugh at myself at 24 down, and I am going to blame it on the fact that I was binging British tv all day, drinking tea for my sore throat and my big, bad sinus headache is killing me. I did not connect to “bare” bottom at all and was pretty stuck through there. Got MOWS. Been to GRANADA, check. I now live in NorCal where TRITIP is the BBQ grill’s favorite cow part so I had the MINI part but not the end of 24 D. Could not figure out MINI-what?? And there’s the problem. When I did get the MUM, all my brain saw was a petite British mother!! What in the name of the holiest XW Deities does a tiny mother have to do with a naked (I did notice the “ marks) tush? Scratched my head and went with it because everything else fit. Oof!!
Finished but no happy music, which I expected. The headache behind my eyes hampered my accuracy. When I was looking for typos and checking all the Down answers, my brain woke up and I read the word as “opposite of maximum” and finally got “bare MINIMUM.” I hear you laughing. Go right ahead and join me.
The human brain, right? While we’re on the brain, I have to say that I have searched my memories several times to recall hearing “the OLDS meaning one’s parents. Never once. Ever. I vividly remember calling them “The Ps” or referring to a “Parental Unit” for quite a long while, but neither my daughter nor her friends ever said “OLDS.” I accept that it’s a thing, but it just doesn’t want to lodge in my brain.
Some clever clues, but nothing exciting. A serviceable Saturday.
Because "son" is the third person plural of soy ("to be") in Spanish.
As in loose change between the cushions.
Sacra blew.
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