Oh, did I mention that this grid has nine NYT debut answers? All this is a wow, even if it weren’t a first-time NYT debut puzzle.īut more importantly, how was the solve? For me, Friday prime time. That’s 16 tens, most of them with pizzazz – skill and art rolled into one. Not only triple-10-stacks in every corner, but each one had another 10-letter word going through it. Weird how some " A " phrases feel stand-alone perfect and others. well, that's closer to "EAT A SAMMICH" category of answer. ![]() See, ROLL A JOINT, that's a good answer, whereas ROLL A CIGAR. I mean that answer *really* wanted to be ROLL A JOINT. Oh, and I definitely had ROLL A JOINT at 29D: Prepare some leaves for burning? ( ROLL A CIGAR). I had TEASETS before TEAWARE but fixed it quick by way of WAVE (38A: It can mean hello or goodbye). Not knowing that answer made seeing the Downs in the NE tough. Looks like TECHY *is* an obsolete form of TETCHY, which would very much have fit the clue (it means "touchy irritable peevish"). Only other thing I struggled with was TESTY (31A: Easily put out), which I had as TENSE, and later TECHY (not "tecky" but with the "ch" pronounced like in "touchy"). Took me a minute to get English LIT, a subject I ostensibly teach. But then even the stuff I know well I was a bit slow with today. So lots of stuff today that was just outside my familiarity. I thought HARDPAN was something related to the earth (it is) no idea it had make-up relevance (it apparently just means any kind of "hardened, impervious layer") ( 41D: Dense buildup in makeup powder containers). No idea what a PHARAOH ANT is (had PHARAOH CAT there for a bit, before I read the clue more closely) ( 15A: Pest so named because it was originally found in royal tombs). ![]() Turns out there aren't *that* many of them (six), but *five* of them come on long answers, so it somehow felt like there were a lot, possibly because I had to spend more time with them.
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