.png)
Relative difficulty: Medium-Challenging
 |
| [37D: Title for some fictional lords = DARTH] |
Word of the Day: Theodor FONTANE (32D: 19th-century German novelist Theodor) —
Theodor Fontane (German pronunciation: [ˈtʰeːodoɐ̯ fɔnˈtaːnə] ⓘ; 30 December 1819 – 20 September 1898) was a German novelist and poet, regarded by many as the most important 19th-century German-language realist author. He published the first of his novels, for which he is best known today, only at age 58 after a career as a journalist. Many of his novels delve into topics that were more or less taboo for discussion in the polite society of Fontane's day, including marital infidelity, class differences, urban vs. rural differences, abandonment of children, and suicide. His novels sold well during his lifetime and several have been adapted for film or audio works.Fontane's novels are known for their complex, often sceptical view of society in the German empire. He shows different social and political parts of society meeting and sometimes clashing, his main characters range from lower-middle class to Prussian nobility. Fontane is known as a writer of realism, not only because he was conscientious about the factual accuracy of details in fictional scenes, but also because he depicted his characters in terms of what they said or did and refrained from overtly imputing motives to them. Other trademarks of Fontane's work are their strongly drawn female characters (such as Effi Briest and Frau Jenny Treibel), tender irony and vivid conversations between characters. (wikipedia)
• • •
["... a chi-HUA-HUA ..."]
Lots and lots of things I just didn't know today. We've covered FONTANE and RIG VEDA and CON (i.e. Contract … nope, I’m being told Constitutional) LAW. There's also PANDA CARS (which I have heard of before, maybe from crosswords (?) ... but I wanted PROWL CARS) (27A: Old black-and-white police autos, to Brits), and MUDLARK (10D: Magpie lookalike with black-and-white plumage) and SOAP STARS (lol I only *just* got that the clue is talking about stars on TV, not stars in the sky) (24A: Daytime regulars), and SAND SNAKE (it's a snake *and* a lizard?) (24D: Lizard predator of Africa) (oh, the snakes prey on lizards! Got it), MARLSTONE (heard of MARL, which is how I ended up completing the answer, but not MARLSTONE). I think that's it for wtfs. I had real trouble, though, with the LOUD in LOUD SHIRT (really wanted a *kind* of shirt, like a style: Hawaiian, polo, something like that). Had TOUR SHIRT in there for a few seconds. Like ... the kind you buy at a concert with the band's tour dates on it ... and maybe "Look at Me!" was supposed to denote that the band was on tour and you should/could go look ... at them? (Yeah I see it makes no sense now). Never seen a singular HEADPHONE before, so that was weird (17D: Canal blocker?). Really wanted something to do with earwax there. Got very thrown by the twin epithets, since one of them was using the term more neutrally, to mean simply "name" (def. 1a) (40A: Epithet lead-in = AKA) and the other was using it to mean a disparaging word (def. 1b) (37A: Many an epithet)—the DIRTY part of DIRTY NAME definitely took some hacking to get. I *think* that covers all my trouble spots, but ... we'll see in the Bullets below. Maybe there are more. Despite / because of all the trouble I had, I enjoyed this puzzle. I liked that it wasn't just tough, but had some genuinely delightful answers in it. DOG BREATH, ECTOPLASM, and HOTLANTA were my top three (HOTLANTA because of its clue, which made me sincerely laugh out loud) (47A: Tourist nickname for a Southern mecca, to the chagrin of many locals).
Bullets:
- 1A: They might be settled atop stools (BAR BETS) — first answer: BOTTOMS. So that's how things started for me.
- 20A: Old auto company based in Lansing, Mich. (REO) — had the O and though I know REO well from decades of doing crosswords, for some reason the only answer I could think of was GTO (which is not a "company"—it's a model of Pontiac)
- 22A: Jazz drummer DeRosa (CLEM) — yeah here we go, found another one I didn't know at all. Don't see many CLEMs in the wild. Weird that two of them are drummers! (CLEM Burke was the drummer for Blondie):
- 2D: Sales job that Forbes magazine once dubbed "the original side hustle," informally (AVON REP) — Just stared at "sales job" wondering what it could possibly mean. "Informally" is weird. It's clearly signifying the abbreviation (REP), but the only term I ever heard for this "sales job" was AVON LADY. The catchphrase was "Avon calling!" but the salespeople were definitely known as Avon Ladies.
- 27D: Swedish American model Porizkova (PAULINA) — being an '80s kid really, really helped here. PAULINA Porizkova was a supermodel married to Ric Ocasek, frontman for The Cars. She's featured in the video for "Drive"
- 45D: Little squirt (TOT) — had the "T" and wanted TOT but because I've done so many damn crosswords in my life, I also knew that TAD fit the clue (def. 2), so I had to leave those last two letters blank.
That's all for today. See you next time.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook and Letterboxd]
=============================
❤️ Support this blog ❤️:
✏️ Upcoming Crossword Tournaments ✏️
- Westwords (Berkeley, CA, Jun. 14, 2026)
📘 My other blog 📘:
- Pop Sensation (vintage paperbacks)
ReplyDeleteMedium-Challenging. A proper Saturday puzzle. Liked it. My experience was very similar to OFL's except I had sloth before GREED for the one-of-Se7en at 23A.
* * * * _
Overwrites (besides the aforementioned):
My tac preceder was tic before it was SEA (7D).
I had ShAvE before SCARE for the 25D close call.
MATE IN two before ONE for the 35A chess challenge.
Sugar daddy before MAPLE at 38D.
WOEs:
Magpie lookalike MUDLARK at 10D.
Never heard of the African predator SAND SNAKE (24D)
The 3D Hindu hymnal RIG VEDA.
Jazz drummer CLEM DeRosa at 22A.
27D model PAULINA Porzkova.
Cement ingredient MARLSTONE at 31A.
The 32D German novelist Thodor FONTANE.
When I saw the Clem DeRosa clue, I thought maybe I was the only one who will know this. When I taught English many years ago I had a student who was in a rock band with Clem DeRosa’s son, and I had a Charlie Mingus album that Clem played on as a last minute substitute. So I had it signed by Clem, and I still have it. The DeRosa’s lived in Suffolk County on Long Island. He is obscure even among afficiandos so I found this clue incredibly obscure, yet I was happy it was my “gimme” because I struggled with this.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing this story. I go pretty deep with jazz but had never heard of him.
DeleteIf you are interested, the first iteration was a 10" album and I forget the title; was rereleased by Bethlehem in 1957 as The Jazz Experiments of Charlie Mingus, then again in the 1970's by Everest Records Jazz and Folk Series simply as Charlie Mingus. Songs include "Thrice Upon a Theme" and "Four Hands". Some really great music, largely forgotten today.
DeleteI pulled out my Mingus CDs and have one from 1954 called Jazzical Moods that has Clem DeRosa on it.
Delete@Barry, my husband and I were full time musicians before having a daughter made us decide to be non-nomadic people living in the same house with J.O.Bs with health insurance. Larry was a percussionist and drummer (he liked to distinguish between the teo depending on what the gig was), and he was always in demand when touring groups of all types came through and needed someone with experience in all things percussion.
DeleteWe both loved jazz and he was well known for being able to sit in with anyone. During a week long percussion symposium, Larry got to meet and perform for and with CLEM while we were in college at Illinois (Champaign-Urbana). He said that his short experience with CLEM taught him some of the educational ideas that he used most often in his own teaching - both music and math.
That’s it.
DeleteI agree with OFL's assessment. My stumble was to invent the "Maui Shirt" which seemed correct but is wholly fictional!
ReplyDeleteMy solve was sort of the opposite of Rex’s today. The corners were fairly challenging, but that center—hoo boy! A sea of white for quite a while. Being an anytime-but-the-eighties kid, I had a tough time with the Swedish model’s name. That L at the cross of PAULINA and MARLSTONE was the last letter in.
ReplyDeleteAn appropriately hard Saturday. Thanks, KAC!
CON LAW usually refers to Constitutional law, not contract law (that class is usually just "Contracts"). I had a very similar experience to @Rex; nothing in the NW until DOG BREATH, finished the middle from NE to SW without getting into either corner, HOTLANTA and ECTOPLASM saving me in the SE and DOG BREATH and GREED in the NW. A suitably difficult Saturday.
ReplyDelete@Anon6:31, when we read your clarification about CONstitutional LAW, my wife remarked "guess this is a class that most of the justices on the Supreme Court didn't take".
DeleteRight out the gate I saw the clue for 1A and, knowing Saturday puzzles are trying to trick me, confidently wrote PIGEONS and thought myself clever. Because, y’know, stool pigeons…are a thing. My brain didn’t see the need the need to make that make sense. And that was indeed the perfect indicator of how this puzzle went for me.
ReplyDeleteGlad that you experienced solvers got your Saturday workout. This one beat me up, and when succumbing to looking up the answers I had no way of getting without crosses (Rex covered most of them), I enjoyed imagining what it might be like to be able to fight through a challenge like this one one day. I missed all the zippy Friday answers from yesterday to keep me delighted in the meantime.
Lizard predators eat lizards
ReplyDeleteWanted to be first. In Rome airport. Easy.
ReplyDeleteI'm willing to bet that you were the first. In Rome airport.
DeletePeople sure love to share that they're traveling. Enjoy your trip, Anon.
Delete
DeleteThey sure do.
But there’s evidence 6:01 was travelling. He or she could be workong, scrubbing toilets in the Rome airport.
Wow, that was definitely tough. 28 minutes. Got stuck at the bottom (had faTLANTA for a while.... STOMACH finally corrected that. Also had BEERtAp before MAT and that took me forever to fix. Like others, never thought I could be so thankful for a little DOGBREATH. GREED was also a help, cuz no other deadly sin would fit there. Funny that ENVIES is sitting right on top of GREED. SAND, PAUL, and GOREY all took a lot of tries. Thank goodness for HASTA, RONAN and the TSARS to give me a foothold in the SW.... Wanted some type of PLANing like hydroPLANing before I finally near the end figured out it was some kind of LARK and so it was GANGPLANK... that finally helped me see GOREY and the other mysteries of the SW part of the central grid. Had orthO before NEURO. CLEM was a WOE. Only 62 words, very clean, impressive puzzle. Enjoyed PANDACARS and ECTOPLASM. Thank you for a real work of art, Kameron!
ReplyDeleteBADEGGS was conclusive for 23A; before plopping that in, running the list of the deadlies, it was odd that four of the seven were five-letter words
DeleteI have never finished a KAC work of art without at least one look-up, and I really don’t mind that
DeleteBall buster of a grid - wide open but not overly friendly between regions. Started slow in the NW but once I got into that center things cleared up quickly. Loaded with trivia - felt like some of his New Yorker offerings - knowing things like CLEM and RIG VEDA help.
ReplyDeleteThe MAPLE Trees Remember
MARL and MARL STONE are different - typically MARL is used in cement mixes but I’m sure a dictionary description allows both. The entire center block is outstanding. Similar to Rex - I know PAULINA as Mrs. Ocasek.
Swimsuit Issue
Didn’t know FONTANE but the crosses were fair. STRONG STOMACH dead center is fantastic. @Z would enjoy MARINAS. DARTH gives a nice misdirect. Learned MUD LARK and am intrigued.
Going To THE WEST
Pretty much what I expect from KAC - somewhat offbeat cluing that relies more on knowing things than straight wordplay. I tend to fall in line with his data sets. This was an enjoyable Saturday morning solve. Kate Chin Park’s Stumper is a different beast today - highly segmented grid with a testing spanner - another sweet puzzle.
HOT ‘LANTA
Paulina is also in the Cars video You Might Think
ReplyDeleteDifferent woman : Susan Gallagher
DeleteAlso she was born in Czechoslovakia, to dissident parents who defected to Sweden during the Prague Spring. Her mother snuck back in to try to retrieve her a few years later and was imprisoned. Eventually they were allowed to emigrate after a movement led by Olof Palme.
DeleteShe was “discovered” by a modeling agent (whose son became the lead singer of the Strokes) and eventually found her way into a Cars video where she met Ric Ocasek.
Now, that’s a life.
Ric Ocasek rewrote his will two weeks before his death to leave her and his two oldest sons out of it. She was able to appeal and somehow got some inheritance. But it really left me never ever wanting to listen to The Cars again.
DeleteGoodness. Never heard of PAULINA or a bunch of other names, but this back story is interesting, thanks
DeleteFinally a proper Saturday puzzle! My wife and I, normally a force unstoppable, just couldn’t get anywhere in the NW until like Rex “dogbreath” finally fell. Loved the challenge.
ReplyDeleteWell, I solved it, so I feel good about that. And I did enjoy it along the way. But I have to admit I cheated a bit--I couldn't remember what the 7 deadly sins were, so I looked them up to get GREED. But I got other unknowns, like PAULINA, entirely from crosses and plausibility. She helped, btw, as I had YOU... as my epithet lead-in.
ReplyDeleteI got all tangled up in the central corridor. I thought the police might drive zebrA CARS (to match the pedestrian crossings) before I remembered PANDAs -- and I thought the lizard eater might be a secretary, as in secretary bird. So I had to just grind away, letter by letter, to get it all to come right.The Southern corners were easier. I've always heard them called pub MATs. but pub was in the clue, so BEER seemed the next best thing. Got FONTANE from the crosses, knew RIG VEDA, and had to remember that DARTH was a title, not a name.
Identifying those fliers was the hardest part, and where I finished. Doorsteps? Lounges? Aha, AVIARIES!
After solving, I looked up MARLSTONE in Dictionary.com. Here's the whole answer: "An indurated marl."
Wonderful Saturday challenge, keep 'em coming!
Was so sure it was going to be BARFLYS settled on the stools it messed me up for a little while.
ReplyDeleteAlso had “OPALITE” making it hard to see that the cement word was going to end it “stone” — not that I know what Marlstone is
Same
DeleteI had trouble in the LOUD SHIRT/ MARLSTONE area for a while, but wrote in BAR BETS at 1A as my first entry and the NW fell easily. ECTOPLASM/HOTLANTA took some time to come into view.
ReplyDeleteHappy Saturday!
Ah yes, a Saturday puzzle that apparently confused “difficulty” with “withholding basic information from the solver until Stockholm syndrome sets in.” The grid greets you with approximately three gettable entries and then spends the next twenty minutes staring silently while you try to remember whether you have ever, in fact, known a single noun in your entire life.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those Saturdays where every clue arrives carrying the smug confidence of a waiter describing a wine you absolutely cannot afford. “Oh, you don’t know this obscure literary figure, oddly specific geological term, niche bit of cultural trivia, or antique British expression? Fascinating.” The puzzle’s central aesthetic appears to be Googling forbidden. MARLSTONE? PANDA CARS? Sure. Why not. Crossword as hostage negotiation.
And yet—and this is the infuriating part—it kind of works.
Because underneath the aggressive obscurity is a very competent machine. The thing is tightly made. The clueing keeps pulling the classic Saturday trick where nothing makes sense until suddenly, humiliatingly, it makes perfect sense and you realize the constructor had you in a full nelson the whole time. DOG BREATH gets a laugh. DARTH clued obliquely enough to make you briefly feel like you’d forgotten how language functions. A few clues have that magical late-week quality where the answer materializes and your immediate reaction is annoyance at how fair it actually was.
Still, there is an unmistakable “crossword person crossword” energy here. A puzzle built by and for people who enjoy remembering that some German novelist existed or that a jazz drummer had a first name, as if this constitutes ordinary human knowledge. Every section contains at least one answer whose job is simply to stand there radiating superiority until enough crosses force capitulation.
The solve experience: first pass, despair. Midpoint, bargaining. Final stretch, reluctant admiration. By the end you feel less like you solved a crossword and more like you survived an oral exam administered by a particularly literate owl. Solved? Yes. Enjoyed? Against my better judgment.
Favorite comment by far! Witty AND real!
DeleteDo we know you? Your writing seems familiar ( lucid and entertaining). This matched my solving experience exactly!
Delete—Susan in Maine
Great comment!
DeleteYou need to be the one who fills in for OFL when he goes on vacation or is otherwise indisposed.
DeleteEnjoyed this, @Anon7:50. Thought you (or anyone yet) might question why DARTH did not count as a Star Wars reference, but presumably because it wasn't clued thusly.
DeleteDOG BREATH didn't fall until after a bunch of incorrect attempts. When it finally seemed to appear, and it nicely (and humorously) fit with the clue, I uttered "oh, my" before typing in the final letters. Like Rex and others, that answer was a springboard.
Had BAR tabS before BETS; "settled" in the clue was key.
Lots of appropriate Saturday-level difficulty and, ultimately, satisfaction. Not sure why Rex held back from a full fourth star; it seemed that good to me.
Anonymous 7:50, a big chef’s kiss for this eloquent post. It captures so much of what I love about crosswords.
DeleteHello, LMS?…
Delete@DAVinHOP…Rex DID count DARTH as a Star Wars reference. Easy to miss sometimes, but it’s there with a reference to 0 days.
DeleteThanks for the great comment!
DeleteHey All !
ReplyDeleteProper tough SatPuz that I missed by a one-letter DNF. Argh! Had MAlLSTONE/GOlEY, the L for the R. Dang it. Haven't heard of either one.
NW corner, had BARflyS in first, thinking I was very clever. Had badBREATH in also. Wanted Ski for SPA. The sin could've been GREED, sloth, pride or wrath.
SW first section to fall. Believe I got most of the middle done, then NE, SW, NW. Tough, but figureoutable. Except that darn L. MARLSTONE, wanted maybe MAILSTONE, MALLSTONE, MAULSTONE. Went with incorrect L.
A pretty FAB puz, KAC. I BETS it was tough for many here.
HASTA mañana.
Hope y'all have a great Saturday!
One F
RooMonster
DarrinV
OK, now I want to see a puzzle with the clue "Can be done" solved as FIGUREOUTABLE. Thanks for giving me a morning smile!
DeleteWon't count PAULINA, unless you're feeling inordinately generous.
DeleteAnd I had BAR TABS also feeling smug.
DeleteRoo One letter dnf on a really tough puzzle I think not because you didn’t know marl stone Really because you didn’t know GOREY clued by a much less well known work not the famous Addams Family cartoon
DeleteGorey had nothing to do w the Addams Family. That’s Chas Addams
DeleteFontane is great! You should read Effi Briest - it will bring you to tears!
ReplyDeleteAnd/or see Fassbinder’s gorgeous 1974 film
DeleteWell, hello KAC.
ReplyDeleteHello to no-knows, misdirects, wit, humor, a slew of answers never seen in the box before, and a junk-free grid despite seas of white.
To be more specific:
• Delightful and interesting answers – DOG BREATH, PANDA CARS, GANG PLANK, LOUD SHIRT, DIRTY NAME, HOTLANTA, STRONG STOMACH.
• That astounding stagger-stack of seven answers that not only includes five NYT answer debuts, but two vertical answers that cross the entire stack – that are debuts as well! What? Huh?
And the thing you can’t quantify – that unmistakable KAC personality that inhabits the air around you as you uncover squares.
My brain got to “Whee!” in one splat-fill area, and, in another, got to gloriously grind at an impervious block of diamond until (cue angelic chorus) the tiniest sliver of light emerged.
Kameron, you are an original with remarkable talent. Your puzzles astound, entertain, and wow me every time. Thank you so much for this one!
Did Paulina become a Swedish citizen? I always thought she was born in (then) Czechoslovakia.
ReplyDeleteMy first encounter with the “Avon Lady” was Edward Scissorshands. Love that movie.
ReplyDeleteThis was ridiculously hard, because there were so many things I didn't know at all. Like CLEM. And MARLSTONE?! I feel like it is a miracle that I finished it at all. Very satisfying.
ReplyDeleteShouldn't 18 across have said: "when tripled, substitute for etc.," but though? Nobody says "Yadda," and then stops.
Agree. Also didn't care for loud shirts, which seems to be s made up term
DeleteLike GPO didn't think "yada" (preferred spelling) was ever singular so answered "yadas". Stuck with "logo shirt" for a long time (a better answer I think). Really tough puzzle.
DeleteMike Duchek
DeleteMaybe the term is not used by younger people but LOUD referring to clothes is very much not made up. I have heard it often. On line sites say it’s been around since the early 19th Century.
Well, not so tough if BAR BETS goes in right away. I did run into difficulty in the MARLSTONE/DIRTY NAME (green paint!) area. Surprised at Rex's rating today as a lot of fill felt like desperation (CLEM, RONAN, FONTANE) and other than DOG BREATH, none of the long answers particularly sparkle. I mean, REACTANT, LOUD SHIRT, SOAP STARS?
ReplyDeleteOn the plus side, love to see Edward GOREY.
I was coincidentally sitting about four feet away from a copy of The Gashlycrumb Tinies while solving. It was a birthday gift from a coworker who was shocked I had never heard of him. (She was right to be so; books about creepy Victorian children are definitely in my wheelhouse.) I blanked on his name. Knew the G, then just *crickets* in the ol' noggin. I could have ever so slightly craned my neck, but valiantly resisted. Was delighted when a few minutes later the crickets were silenced by a sudden and triumphant "GOREY!" Lovely author, and lovely aha moment of the day.
Delete@Em Possible… should get Amphigorey. Even more strange Victorian things, including The Doubtful Guest.
DeleteCouldn't finish it, even after multiple cheats.
ReplyDeleteToo tough for me! But like Rex, when I finally got it all filled in, it looked like it should have been easier. Started out on much the wrong foot with BARflys (bad plural?) and BADguyS, and never really recovered due to the tough PPP and tricky cluing. I think if I had done better with the other clues I might have succeeded in guessing the CLEMs, PAULINAs, RIGVEDA’s, FONTANE’s and others.
ReplyDeleteAlthough the ladies have dominated the AVON landscape, while in school I played basketball in a local rec league and our team organizer/coach was an AVON rep. He could sell you anything even if you didn’t want it. Last I was able to track him on the internet years later he was in Hollywood doing well as a performers rep.
I’m feeling pretty good that I held my own with a grid that even gave Rex issues in some spots. Fortunately, BAR BETS was the first thing that came to mind when I read that clue. I confirmed that via RIGVEDA, which I will confess to looking up when I read the clue because, well, I had no clue. I find Saturdays much more enjoyable that way rather than staring at empty white space.
ReplyDeleteI think there was also a wheelhouse / wavelength situation going on as answers like MATE IN ONE, SOAP STARS, ECTOPLASM helped keep things moving when I bumped into the dicier stuff like FONTANE, CONLAW, MARLSTONE, MUDLARK, and even YADDA.
Aren't BARBETS just tiny barbs? Like "Sometimes you're not as cool as you usually are."
ReplyDeleteI seem to remember Sesame Street having. a "letter of the day" feature where homage was paid to a particular letter. Like on the day that "B" starred I remember them doing "Letter B", sung to the tune of Let it Be. Anyway, you've got 26 shows to get through. I think they were in order, SOAPSTARS the day before a Q.
With [Many an epithet] being DIRTYNAME, and with [Epithet lead-in] being a three letter word that starts with "A", you can guess what I put.
What a harsh critic does after the auto show: PANDACARS
At the talkies last night I thought I saw RONAN MIA in the far row.
1D [BADEGGS] is kind of a theme in our household.
I think the giant taxpayer-funded slush fund for criminals sounds like CONLAW.
I loved my struggle through this one. Thanks, Kameron Austin Collins.
Cheap thrill of getting BARBETS right off the bat.
ReplyDeleteWow. Really had to put my nose to the MARLSTONE to solve that one. Thanks, KAC!
ReplyDeleteFarrow won his Pulitzer despite all the RONAN sentences in his writing.
I know a girl who kept transferring from college to college hoping to find a MATEINONE.
MLB's decision to BARBETS got Pete Rose in big trouble.
SOAPSTARS: What you see when you drop your bar of Dial in the shower and slam your head into the wall bending over to retrieve it.
From late yesterday: Thanks to the Anony Mouse who corrected me on my O'Neill/Wilde error. D'oh!
I, too, was saved by dog breath. Not a sentence I ever thought I would write. Tough but fun puzzle.
ReplyDeleteTGFG
ReplyDeleteThank God For Google.
ReplyDeleteYep, it was tough. My own journey got going at the bottom and I had to work my way up, which seems fitting.
ReplyDeleteMy son just finished 2L and I've only ever heard CONstitutional LAW from him. I'll ask when he gets up. [Ah, he's up, and he confirms, and even says he usually just says "CON" with his fellow students.] Never heard of HOT'LANTA either, and Rex didn't explain it in his notes. Given all this chagrin they speak of, I figured maybe it was a red light district or something, but no, it's (a) just a reference to hot humid summers in Atlanta, so what else is new in the south, or (b) a song by the Allman Brothers. I guess all the chagrin is just that it's kind of dumb and hackneyed and annoying to the locals? Let me see your Allman Brothers and raise you with Little Feat's Oh Atlanta.
Objection raised to MATE IN ONE. That's not really a type of chess puzzle you'll find in any compilation. MATE IN two, certainly, and MATE IN three I believe rather more. The only plausible context I can think of for MATE IN ONE is where you are coaching a complete beginner who has recently learned how the pieces move and you see whether they can spot the mate. Otherwise it would be completely pointless, as one can easily enumerate all the moves available in a given position, and there is no consideration of how the other side might reply as in an ordinary chess puzzle (which ramps up the number of possibilities of play sequences dramatically), you just mate them on the spot and that's that. Thus I'm calling BS on the cluing: this is not a subgenre of chess puzzle.
STRONG STOMACH... I was expecting something more... figurative like the clue says, you know, something along the lines of iron STOMACH. I played with SecONd STOMACH -- no, I never heard of that either, but then there are many things I haven't heard of. Anyhow the entry comes as a slight letdown. STRONG STOMACH, that's it? 'Kay.
DIRTY NAME. I suppose this is dirty not in a sexual or "naughty" way, but more like a nasty, mean way: think Trump and all the dumb epithets he comes up with. My god what an embarrassing idiot. I still can hardly believe he's President.
The best section of the puzzle was my last section, up in the NW. DOG BREATH got me good. I am not swooning with the same delight as Rex evinces (I mean, it's not a pleasant thing to think about), but the clue is primo. AVIARIES also got me good. RIG VEDA was easy by comparison.
When I saw KAC's name and the expanse of white, I thought it's gird up your loins time. Overall, a good stiff puzzle. Respect.
No. Hotlanta was embraced perhsps even couned by the homosexual community. Every local knows this, and of course cringes when some ignoramus ises it.
DeleteI’m gonna trust the gay Black constructor over the anonymous guy who can’t spell 🤷🏽♀️ that clue is undeniably correct as worded
Delete@Anon 9:34AM: I had looked it up before commenting but all I saw was stuff like this. Do you have a source?
DeleteYou didnt look far.
DeleteTry gaycities.com
Also go to Autostraddle. Search thir site; they have lots of info including a solid case for calling Atlanta the gayest city in Anerica (while apologizing to West Hollywood)
DeleteYou sir, are simply out of your element.
My question was not at all about how well-credentialed Atlanta is for being a "gay city", and I don't know why you need to turn this into an ad hominen (I'm "out of my element", pfft). Listen, it's not as if HOT'LANTA is of burning importance to me, but now at this point you've got me curious. Just let me see you source your suggestion that the local cringe over HOT'LANTA is about the gay community's embracing it and others not knowing this, or your suggestion that the gay community coined the term. See whether you can keep it factual, and not drag it down further into something personal against me -- if you are able.
DeleteAgree 100% that there is no such thing as a Mate in One chess puzzle. As you said, it's usually in two or three. That was the one bad clue.
DeleteMATEINONE puzzle. Puzzle being the ‘Kac clue clue’. Pretty sure it refers to set-up puzzles like you might see on youtube vids where it challenges, can you find white’s mate in (some number). Not from the game beginning.
DeleteAs a proud ATLien who lives in midtown two blocks from Peachtree, can confirm the HOTLANTA chagrin.
ReplyDeleteNobody says HOTLANTA.
Todd Packer calls it that!
DeleteI’m not disputing anyone’s account of HOTLANTA -chagrin v embrace. I just know one of my life-long friends once recommended that I visit her in the spring or fall and said…B, there’s a reason this is called HOTLANTA. Years ago (and maybe today) my city was called “India no place” and is still often called Naptown. Naptown is sometimes used in an odd, fond way by locals but it’s one of those things like “Hey, I can say my brother’s an a-hole, but don’t YOU do it!”
DeleteNAPTOWN was a common useage in the Black Indianapolis community for many years. Not sure, but I think there might have been an element of signifying on the term "nappy" (as in "nappy-headed"), once again taking an insult and turning it inside-out into a coded signifier of ethnic pride.
Delete@jazzmanchgo…I didn’t know that! I just thought it was the “sleepy little podunk ‘city’” reference. But…if I had to guess WHERE exactly you speak of (origination) I’d guess on and around Indiana Ave where the Madam C.J. Walker Theater and the old Crispus Attucks high school building is…which was and is a thriving arts area.
DeleteI know I’m late to the game, I do my puzzles when I can, but I balked at Hotlanta because I know it as a reference to the Gay/Club/Funk Soul Disco scene in the 1970s. Maybe people now just mean that the temperature is warm but you miss some pretty great music and a nice bit of alternative culture.
DeleteHad OFL's "oh oh" experience in the NW, thought both BARTABS and BARBETS but didn't enter anything, moved to the NE where ANY begat YADDA and slow but steady progress from there. MUDLARK is such an unlikely combination that it is memorable. I have known two people named CLEM in my entire life, our family doctor when I was growing up and his son. That's it, that's the list.
ReplyDeleteToday's faith-solve answers included PAULINA, ECTOPLASM, HOTLANTA, and DOGBREATH, wrote them in and hoped they were right. Hello to Herr FONTANE, somehow have never heard of you. By your crosses shall we know ye. Ditto for RIGVEDA. Nice to learn about the SANDSNAKE, which is as unlikely a combination as a MUDLARK. Or PANDACAR, for that matter.
Nice to get all the way to the end and discover that BARBETS was right after all, and helpful in finishing.
Very worthy Saturday indeed, KAC. You Keep Authoring Crosswords that hit the mark, and thanks for all the fun.
thanks for the shout out to clem burke. a fantastic, yet underrated drummer.
ReplyDeleteIf you can’t say anything horrible about a puzzle then I won’t say it either. No🎈for me.
ReplyDeleteThis was about 50% more difficult than the average Saturday. The NW was the easiest section. I cold guessed BARBETS right off the bat.BABIES, ERRED and TIES all dropped right in. I had a BADBREATH/DOGBREATH write over followed by BADDIES/BADEGGS but those were quickly fixed
ReplyDeleteThat big middle was the real challenge. I couldn't quite wrangle the NE to help out so I had to restart in the SW with NSA and HASTA. RONAN started out as DYLAN then became ROWAN as the downs kept changing it. MATEINONE and MARLSTONE are incredibly similar I had no idea on either and the center bogged down again.
The little stuff in the SE corner came to the rescue. BOTH and TOT gave me ECTOPLASM and HOTLANTA. The SE was nearly as easy as the NW.
Now I had STOMACH to complete STRONG. Between that and OPALINE I had the leverage to work through that ascending stair stack and backfill the NE.
When I saw the name of the constructor and the grid shape I knew I was in for a great solving experience and I was not disappointed.
I just assumed opalite was the word (due to the song) until I finally realized the across didn't make sense then. Turns out opalite isn't even a word. Thanks Taylor
ReplyDeleteOpalite is absolutely a word, predating Ms. Switft's use of it. Basically an artificial opal.
DeleteI found that righthAnd and DOGBREATH are both 9 letters, which made the NW that much more difficult. Still not seeing how BARBETS fits the clue?
ReplyDeleteLet’s say you meet a friend at a local bar to watch a basketball game and watch the tv at the bar. You make a bet on the game…(hopefully a beer or small wager)…you settle the bet while still on the bar stool.
DeleteAha, "settle a bet", now i see it. Thanks!
DeleteIf it makes you feel any better, I had right hook for the longest time. Double sheesh here because when I was a kid we had boxers and they had bad breath.
DeleteI found this one more easy-medium than Rex, though a lot of that was probably luck. For once, I was able to throw in the 1A, BAR BETS, immediately, though I actually think Rex’s BOTTOMS is a better answer. I dropped in “right hook” for 16A before 6D (TIES) led me pretty quickly somehow to DOG BREATH, my favorite answer in the grid. I wish more of the long answers had that kind of sparkle, but most of ‘em were a little dry (I’m looking at you, LOUD SHIRT, MARLSTONE). Still, a pretty enjoyable Saturday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteThis was joyless.
ReplyDeleteIs MUDLARK a DIRTYNAME?
ReplyDeletehavethickskin fit for 14D (strong stomach)
I skipped over the NW as not gettable at first, but as soon as the TH at the end of 16A showed up, DOG BREATH got me in there and done. No, the SE, which Rex found easy, was my longest sector to solve even with ECTOPLASM in right away. Thank you, MONTE/MAPLE, or I'd still be staring at the grid.
ReplyDeleteThe names today were no-knows, PAULINA and FONTANE and the RIG of RIGVEDA. I thought 29D Edward was GOREn for a while. CLEM also though crosses took care of him nicely.
That Roxy Music song that Rex provided the link to - I have that album on CD and cannot confirm that I've ever heard that song. It doesn't have any similarity to any other Roxy Music song I know. Interesting.
Thanks, KAC, for an fun Saturday puzzle!
@Gary. In case you missed it, a late post yesterday called the puzzle psychotically easy.
ReplyDelete@Liveprof 10:15 AM
DeleteWe had three repeaters yesterday and your sterling addition! I think we'll make it through today with this mind-bender.
Paulina Porizkova is CZECH, quite the deflection to question a gimme
ReplyDeleteHow did Rex get greed off the bat when there are four deadly suns that have five letters? (Pride, greed, wrath, sloth)
ReplyDeleteERRED clue was a past tense clue. So probably penned a ‘D’ there.
DeleteHasta mañana.
ReplyDeleteThree puzzles in one. Solid but gunky. Moments of FAB and a whole buncha blech. At least it passed quickly. Nice to see the TOT is still alive after a couple of you demonstrated a rather distressing depth of knowledge on how to cook Hansel and Gretel yesterday.
Any puzzle reminding me of Edward Gorey is a winner in my book.
I learned MUDLARK is also a term for a beach comber and I think that would've been a better clue than the bird.
I gave DOG BREATH an extra funny point. I think that's the first time ever. Most of the time I'm trying to decide if something is at least trying to be humorous, and the boxer today completely punched me in the funny bone.
Not sure why we needed the movie in the GREED clue.
RIGVEDA sent me down a wormhole. I'd never heard of it.
Lots of non-prisoners earn GEDS too. Possibly a little educational elitism oozing off the balcony of our editors' ivory tower?
❤️ PANDA CARS, SOAP STARS, GANG PLANK, ECTOPLASM.
😫 LOUD SHIRT, MARLSTONE.
People: 6
Places: 3
Products: 5
Partials: 6
Foreignisms: 2
--
Gary's Grid Gunk Gauge: 22 of 62 (35%)
Funny Factor: 4 🙂
Tee-Hee: DIRTY NAME. MATE IN ONE.
Uniclues:
1 Where to go to sleep with the fishes that nibble the dead skin cells off your toes.
2 Leader of the dark side who's into the light side.
3 How one gets pretty wasted.
4 Youngsters you can slurp up.
1 GANG PLANK SPA (~)
2 BAD EGGS DARTH
3 AVON REP MIMOSA
4 LATTE ART BABIES (~)
My Fascinating Crossword Uniclue Keepsake from Last Year: Recommendation of an abettor. TRY THIS ALIAS.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
"Not sure why we needed the movie in the GREED clue." Because it's a KAC puzzle, that's why. You should see his New Yorker puzzles, where they don't rein him in. "Sixth chorister in a Nigerian musical about colonialism" would not be considered too esoteric. I've never seen Se7en but I assumed it was about the 7 deadly sins but, as a non-church type, I don't actually know what that septet consists of. The D at the end of ERRED helped me out. So not sloth, then? (What kind of system bars you from a happy afterlife because you like to take your time?) But GREED, yeah, that's bad. Unless you're the president of the US.
DeleteHaha! "Sixth chorister in a Nigerian musical about colonialism!" Oh yeah, you know, that one guy.
DeleteHere's where I am going to struggle getting into heaven:
1. Pride - I'm pretty sure I rock.
2. Envy - Schadenfreude is my middle name.
3. Wrath - I think I'm OK unless bringing all my skills at mockery up against the Anonymoti is considered wrathful, but in my defense, as a group they seem to be bad at reading and logic.
4. Gluttony - I'm betting everyone is doomed on this one.
5. Lust - Seriously, they should take this off the list if they're going to keep making women look so pretty.
6. Sloth - One word ... La-Z-Boy.
7. Greed - Oddly, I think this is the one sin I'm not dealing with as all I need in life is what I've already got, well, except for health insurance. I don't really need more, but I am fine with my enemies having less. {See envy.}
I had the opposite experience to Rex, flew through the NW and thought “this is too easy for a Saturday” and then completely bogged down until the NW.
ReplyDeleteBARTABS for a long time.
ReplyDeleteCan’t believe Rex didn’t post a video of the Allman Brothers’ HOTLANTA.
I always appreciate KAC's puzzles but this one was tough, really tough.
ReplyDeleteRIG VEDA, MARLSTONE, CLEM & a lot more (had to cheat). I did like GANGPLANK 29A. And Mia (Farrow) must be very proud of Ronan :)
I always take a deep breath when I see that KAC is the constructor because I always know that the solve will challenge me AND be fun. Today was no exception! My solve was very similar to @Rex’s. I will say…I DID think of BARBETS first, but due to the possibility of BARtabS, I just filled in BAR (with the S). I spent a little time trying to remember the name Amway as the “original side hustle”, and once I remembered and realized it didn’t fit, went d’oh and AVONREP went in. I hesitated on REP because, like Rex, they were always called “the Avon Lady.”
ReplyDeleteI thank Ghostbusters for knowing ECTOPLASM right away, and the fact that, while I wasn’t a kid in the 80s (20s/early 30s) I knew about The Cars, Ric Ocasek, and PAULINA.
And TIL I learned there is bird called a MUDLARK (poor thing) and something called a BEERMAT. Um…I still need to search THAT because I can only think of those “coaster” things….
Thanks KAC…you did it again!
I finally looked and found out that BEERMATS are what I think of as coasters…and…ya learn something new every day!
DeleteBeezer. Did you happen to find out why we call them coasters? I mean beer mats just sounds so obvious (compressed paper that sits under your beer and soaks up moisture) but why do we use the term coaster?
DeleteHeld onto Bartabs 1across for far too long.
ReplyDeleteStressing about AP tests isn’t just for H.S. seniors. My freshman daughter just took her AP World History exam a few weeks ago, and she had been stressing about it for months.
ReplyDeleteUnlike almost everyone this was on the easy side for me, mostly because unlike most of you I put in BARBETS with no crosses and filled in TIED, SEA, AVONREP, ERRED, DOG BREATH, and GREED pretty quickly. Also unlike @Rex the SE was the toughest section for me but not whoosh killling tough.
ReplyDeleteCostly erasure - nOne before BOTH (see SE tougher comment above).
WOEs - MARLSTONE, CLEM, SAND SNAKE, MUDLARK, RIGVEDA, and FONTANE.
Helpful gimme from watching PBS British police shows - PANDA CARS
No much junk, fun clueing, more than a bit of sparkle, liked it.
Medium here. BAR BETS and STONG STOMACH got me off to a good start, and English mystery novels gave me the very helpful PANDA CARS. I enjoyed piecing the rest together from there, both in encountering grid newcomers (to me, at least) like MUDLARK, SAND SNAKE, and MARLSTONE and old stalwarts like TOT, TSAR, and REO. I loved LOUD SHIRT!
ReplyDeleteDo-overs: bad BREATH, nOne before BOTH. Happy to know: FONTANE, PAULINA, RONAN, RIG VEDA. Help from previous puzzles: LATTE ART.
Yes, I learned PANDA CARS from either Elizabeth George's or Elly Griffith's murder mysteries.
DeleteA very enjoyable struggle that ended with a thud (for me) when I had to —incorrectly— guess at the intersection of MARLSTONE and GOREY. DOGBREATH, SOAPSTARS, and BARBETS were all satisfying gets, with two of those falling in the challenging NE corner. A very nice Saturday puzzle.
ReplyDeleteInitially so hard. Thank God!!!!!
ReplyDelete62-worder with sneaky clues and plenty of no-know stuffins. A primo SatPuz, indeed. M&A suffered suitably.
ReplyDeletestaff weeject pick [of only 8 choices]: SEA. The M&A solvequest began with this pup, goin for: {Tac preceder} = TIC. Then I tried 28-A's {___ weekend} = THE. That pretty much slowed my NW solvequest down to an "abandon ship!" and a switch over to eyeballing the NE, which went somewhat smoother. [no thanx to CLEM/MUDLARK, tho.]
Solid no-know-reinforced puz central, with: PANDACARS. MARLSTONE. PAULINA. GOREY. LATTEART. SANDSNAKE. M&A resorted to some scholarly research [aka Google].
fave stuff: Quad Jaws of Themelessness. DOGBREATH & its clue. GANGPLANK and its clue. HOTLANTA. DIRTYNAME. ANY/YADDA [first entries M&A got right]. STRONGSTOMACH [Got the STRONG part pretty quick, but couldn't "STOMACH" its endin, for a while.]
Thanx for the terrif challenge, Mr. Collins dude.
Masked & Anonymo2Us
p.s.
Runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I'm relieved that even Rex used the word challenging, because this was so tough for me! I don't know how long it took because I got tired of the timer ticking away and mocking my non-progress so I paused it. But eventually I got there.
ReplyDeleteHoo boy the typeovers! One of the worst was at 30 across, looking at LO--- something, all I could thing was LOW CUT BRA! LOW CUT TEE! LOUD SHIRT makes sense of the clue but not a common saying to me. Also at 17 down, starting out HEA------, I tried HEARING AID (didn't fit) and got badly stuck. At 1 down BAD GUYS then BADDIES before EGGS.
And so many things I'd never heard of! RIGVEDA, CLEM, OPALINE, SAND SNAKE, MARLSTONE, RONAN Farrow, CON LAW, FONTANE, HOTLANTA, yikes! A good workout, as long as we don't get too many this tough.
BAR TABS for me too
ReplyDeleteHow can Rex give an amazing/for me impossible) puzz a mere 3.5?
ReplyDeleteNeuro in Neurology
ReplyDeleteNeurosurg is Neurosurgery
Natick-city on the MArLSTONE/GOrEY cross. Otherwise similar experience to Rex. Just wish the rest of the week set us up for the last two Saturdays. They go from 0-60 overnight.
ReplyDeleteMarlstone is not a proper noun. That crossing is nowhere near Natick.
DeleteIs proper noun a requirement? Total natick for me.
DeleteThe whole idea of Natick.
DeleteSame.
DeleteNot sure whether this has been asked before, but is anyone keeping track of the highest number of days in a row without a Star Wars reference since Rex started keeping track? Maybe the record could be displayed somewhere.
ReplyDeleteCan't believe I finished this. I was completely stuck until I finally made some headway in the SW only to stall again. Battled my way to getting SNAKE and eventually remembered PAULINA and the middle started to open up. STRONG STOMACH got me the SE. And then finally was able to make some headway when I gave up on BAR tabS as the answer and realized that they were BAD EGGS (not BADdieS) which confirmed GREED (I had sloth for a little while) and realized that it wasn't bad BREATH but DOG BREATH and voila. And then to the NE. Had orthO for the longest time until I couldn't get anything else and realized ORDERS was probably right and red LARK was wrong (is there such a thing?) and was annoyed at YADDA (because I would have guessed that immediately if it was a 4-letter YADA.)
ReplyDeleteFinally fought my way to the end in a little under an hour - my cut off for giving up. Brutal but ultimately very satisfying Saturday. 57:51
Panda cars were never black and white. They were pale blue.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 2:53 pm
DeletePanda cars so called because they were ORIGINALLY black and white. Look it up.
I put BAR TABS for 1-across and I felt so clever I could never make myself abandon it.
ReplyDeleteI often solve in the late evening - usually about 10 pm - but I didn’t get to this one until about 10:45. And then I saw the byline and muttered “Oh sh*t” but, for some unknown reason, decided to try it anyway. I’m pleased to report that my head hit the pillow before midnight, but what a struggle. Lots of tough clueing, obscure answers, lots of stuff that annoyed me (PAULINA is Swedish?), lots of suff that I thought was great.
ReplyDeleteI finished the rest of the puzzle and sat staring at the NW corner - blank except for right hook at 16A. How could I do that? We had boxers in our home when I was growing up. They were nice enough. They were dogs and I like dogs. But they drooled incessantlly and they had, because they were overbred purebreds, digestive issues and they were always involuntarily sh**ting or pukeing and they always had bad breath. Why would I opt for pugilists before dogs? Perhaps because I’d like to forget them?
I have some friends in the UK and I’m sure they just say PANDA without the CAR. Just PANDA. I’ve texted a few but have yet to hear back so, for now, you’ll just have to take my word for it. I know that in the US and here in Canada we say police car, or cop car, or patrol car, but PANDA CAR just sounds weird. Also, nobody says that anymore because I don’t think they exist anymore (the clue does say old). Most (maybe all?) Brit cop cars are now a blue and screaming yellow checkerboard on a white base.
Also, LOUD SHIRT us green paint.
Les…your comment on the boxer dogs made me remember I babysat for a family with a boxer named Sissy. And, when it comes to dog breeds…it’s hard to imagine that ANY boxer is female and if so…named Sissy. And yes. Sissy was a very nice dog but…had issues. :)
DeleteEffi Briest was the name of a pretty good NYC band from the 2000s. You’ve likely heard them on FMU.
ReplyDeleteDo you mean FUV as in WFUV?
DeletePaulina Porizkova is Czech born not Swedish
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 3:49 pm
DeleteThe clue not mention where she was born
She arrived in Sweden at age 8 after being extricated from Czechoslovakia with the help of Olaf Palme. Her parents being dissidents the family lost their Czech passports and from the clue, I assume they became Swedish nationals. Unless you have contrary information , the clue is fine.
I cant remember the last time I just couldn't get a puzzle started because I had no “ gimmes”. I finally finished when I changed millstone to marl stone. I almost threw in the towel, and I’m glad I didn’t…but what a beast!
ReplyDeleteI had to google the drummer. I had blank blank em and should have been able to guess it. I found the puzzle hard, but not impossible. Just right for a Saturday.
ReplyDeleteI agree with others saying that "mate in one" is not a very good answer. It would be marginally ok for a composition/problem with many pieces on the board in a position very unlikely to occur in a real game. But for a realistic position "mate in two is much more common."
ReplyDeleteOkay I'm no chess master, but isn't the phrase "mate in one" used in a game that's already well underway, to indicate that the next move will be checkmate?
Delete@okanaganer. It's a bit late in the day, but I hope this response will appear by and by and I can refer you back to it later. The clue refers to a "chess puzzle"; this phrase has a well-known meaning in the chess world, as a composed invented position where the instruction to the solver is something like "White to mate in three". A solution will be of the form "White starts by playing X", followed by an exhaustive description of how White can achieve mate by his third move no matter how Black responds. These are the terms of art in such studies: White (or Black) to mate in ___. But what you will never see in such problem compositions is "White to mate in one", because that would be an entirely uninteresting problem, solvable by simple inspection, as I noted in a different comment.
DeleteYou are talking about something else. It's possible (but in fact vanishingly rare in practice) that a player announces "mate in one" during an actual game. It's rare because, for one thing, that would be a thoroughly obnoxious thing to do! Maybe it happens more with beginner level players. Anyway, the phrasing of the clue indicates this is not the scenario in question. You can sort of lawyer your way out of the objection I raised only if you use the phrase "chess puzzle" in a more generalized sense, not referring to composed problems, but: in conjunction with the phrase "mate in ___", there's no way to escape the objection and still have the clue-entry pairing be at all fair for a knowledgeable crossword solver.
Agreed that Mate in Two or even Mate in Ten would have made far more sense. Mate in One is no kind of ‘puzzle’ really.
DeleteBARBETS fell immediately for me (though I think @Rex's answer is way better!) but the whoosh stopped after that. This was a wonderfully proper Saturday. So much new stuff that I learned (RIGVEDA, MUDLARK, etc...) along with plenty of lovely long stacks that took a lot of work to grok. And it was a fun fest at every turn.
ReplyDeleteThe entire NW and SE fell first, the middle was a wonderland of tough stuff that was worth the effort and it was the SW that had me sweating until the end. I had MIMOSA and TSARS and then I hit a wall. It took time for MARINAS to hit me which allowed me to finally nail DIRTYNAME - I was thinking everything but, even if it made no sense, birthNAME??, givenNAME?? Help!!! Not familiar with Farrow, and DARTH, or any other Star Wars reference, would not come to me, so did some alphabet runs there.
All in all, so much to like with this one: LATTEART, DOGBREATH, the cluing for AVIARIES and that great middle stack that gave me a true feeling of accomplishment once completed. More like this, please Kameron! This was a joy!
BARtabS before BARBETS.
ReplyDeleteAirplane before AVIARIES
shell before MONTE, even though shell had already been in a clue
BADguyS and BADdieS before BADEGGS
Was expecting a DNF but in the end I was only 44 seconds off my average time for a Saturday
Put me down in the minority column for what turned out to be a pretty quick solve despite all the things everyone has said. Pretty similar to Rex's sequence, but sometimes you're just on the constructor's wavelength. Went by too quickly for a Saturday fur ne, but I enjoyed it, so thanks for that!
ReplyDeleteI’m thanking the Gods of Crossworld who must have helped Kameron let up on the difficulty pedal in the SE corner. The combination of my most unfavorite grid shape and the nowhere near my wavelength clues almost did me in. Yippee!!! A real Saturday xword. This was tough but fortunately doable.
ReplyDeleteExcept for CLEM, which I fortunately knew because my percussionist husband met Mr. DeRosa while we were in college, I stumbled every place OFL did. Barry 6:20AM thought he might be the only person aware of CLEM and his extensive career as drummer, percussionist and possibly most well known as one of America’s first and best jazz educators. I join him in likely being the second of “not many.”
The rest are of what I have to say would just repeat almost every pitfall Rex identified because I hit them all and then some.
I am getting better at recognizing my Cat, Pip’s glucose issues, and she’s getting better about wearing her annoying 3 month size baby t-shirt to keep her from clawing off her glucose sensor, and we are both getting a little more sleep. With any luck, we will both be on a more regular schedule of eating and sleeping in between medication administrations which makes me hopeful for getting back to daily posting.
Thanks to everyone her for keeping me well informed while I’ve been a tad stressed. Reading Rex or his deputy du jour and all the posts every day has been such a bright spot in some very tough days.
So close. Finished with two wrong squares. After much staring and guessing I ended up in the LOUDSHIRT/PAULINA/LATTEART neighborhood with everything else finished. I had wanted wet-t-SHIRT but saw that wouldn’t work so filled in bOlDSHIRT, which I thought looked perfect. Lawyered bATTEART as the foam being a kind of batting, and Pallina could work as well as PAULINA as a Swedish name. Should’ve run the alphabet on that b of batte. Still enjoyed the challenge and the shout out to the Rye MARINA.
ReplyDeleteThis is why I know Edward Gorey.
CONLAW is a standard 2L course. I slid in CIVPRO here which really gummed things up until I realized my (the puzzle’s?) error.
ReplyDeletePANDA CARS always annoys my dad (born ‘43) when it’s described as black and white cars, because the term is far more commonly used and known among Brits not as ‘black and white cars’ but as a way of referring to small cars for particular police duties. The term may have originated that way, but even the more famous classic ones are blue and white.
ReplyDeleteNaticked at marlstone and gorey (guessed mallstone/goley), but otherwise found this enjoyable and challenging, although not as tough as last Saturday.
ReplyDeleteA bit of the same solve as Rex
ReplyDeleteFirst tries Little squirt imp for TOT
Old wagon destination with imp’s ‘P” gave me PRAIRIE
And sugar MOMMA
1L course TORTSI. Torts 1 hmmm?..no
Settled on top of stools : BARTABS
But quite lost at first like Rex but fun to get it done…almost::
Bit of back and forth was BARTER and the CORLAW seemed like corporate law and fairly reasonable so that N was only error, DNF.