Erik Agard (born 1993) is a crossword solver, constructor, and editor. He is the winner of the 2016 Lollapuzzoola Express Division, the 2018 American Crossword Puzzle Tournament (ACPT), a frequent contributor to the New York Times crossword puzzle, a crossword constructor for The New Yorker, the former USA Today crossword editor, and a former Jeopardy!contestant. He is currently a crossword editor at Apple News+.This was a very Agardian puzzle as Erik pulled a lot of rabbits out of his cluing hat. I acquired a very hard earned "got 'er done"!
Across:
1. Coagulate: CLOT.
5. Batter's boxful?: CAT TOYS - That's taking a lot of latitude with the noun batter!
12. Not giving anything away: MUM.
15. Rather blue: RACY - The old blue laws banned controversial items such as RACY ones.
16. Puzzle out: UNRAVEL - A skill all of us solvers need
18. Say too much?: OVERESTIMATE
20. Actor Beatty: NED.
21. "They had our number": WE LOST.
22. Mani-pedi option: GEL.
23. April option: E-FILE - I E-FILED my tax returns and got my refunds a month ago
25. Mile High horses?: BRONCOS.
27. Jerk components: SPICES. ๐
28. Up-front stake: ANTE.
29. In descending order: MOST TO LEAST.
33. Hi-__: RES - We who have been around computers a long time remember the early Lo-RES games
34. Targets of biannual battery replacements: SMOKE ALARMS - It's recommended they be changed when we change from and to daylight savings.
35. Flash the Dolphin or Splash the Whale: BEANIE BABY.
36. High-flying Iรฑupiat tradition: BLANKET TOSS - Originally, this practice was used to boost scouts high enough to spot whale migrations or other game over sea ice.
38. Significant figure: VIP.
41. Jab in a one-two combo?: BOOSTER SHOT ๐ - Ya got me at first Erik, but I had a DOH! moment when I saw this had nothing to do with boxing.
42. Bona __: FIDE - Latin for "in good faith"
43. Releases, in a way: UNTIES ๐
44. Reduced: SMALLER - I enjoyed the 1966 movie Fantastic Voyage where a four-person vessel was reduced to travel through the human body.
47. Basis of some protein powders: PEA ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ This is bona fide Saturday cluing for PEA
51. Scooby-__: DOO.
52. Structure that's built to scale: CLIMBING WALL - Gotta love this use of the word scale.
55. Head up: RUN - If you head up an organization, you can be said to RUN it
56. Box on a table: ELEMENT - The table of ELEMENTS
57. Mahjong piece: TILE.
58. Timeline divs.: YRS.
59. Starting point: SCRATCH ๐
60. Translucent chalcedony: ONYX - This is the stone I chose for my high school ring.
Down:
1. Source of leverage: CROWBAR.
2. Actress Cox: LAVERNE - Yeah, I thought of Courtney first
3. Animals with spots: OCELOTS.
4. Erykah Badu's signature song: TYRONE ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
5. Builds specially: CUSTOM MAKES.
6. Insect in the family Formicidae: ANT - Formica is the Latin word for ANT
7. Calc prerequisite: TRIG.
8. Get under control: TAME.
10. "However ... ": YET.
11. Places where days of rest are observed?: SLEEP LABS.
13. No help: USELESS.
14. "Don't be so __": MODEST - What we all say to C.C.!
19. Letters above a tilde: ESC.
24. Passionate: FIERY.
26. Later alternative: SOONER.
27. A few weeks out?: SO LAST MONTH ๐ Things can fall out of fashion in a hurry
30. Interludes on some hip-hop albums: SKITS - ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ SKITS are short, often humorous or narrative-driven interludes on hip-hop albums that enhance thematic atmosphere, deepen storytelling and provide brief, conversational respites between songs. You're welcome.
31. Enforceability metaphor: TEETH - Talk's cheap, there needs to be some TEETH in the enforcement
32. Social prohibitions: TABOOS.
34. "No." and others: SENTENCES - Wow!
35. Nevada's Great __ National Park: BASIN.
36. Cannes opener: BONJOUR ๐ I really liked this when it hit me!
37. Ash removers: LOTIONS ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ I had to look this one up after it filled. The ash is an ingredient in the LOTION used to remove blemishes not the substance being removed. ๐ณ
38. Heavy: VILLAIN - Claude Akins came to my mind
39. If all goes well: IDEALLY.
40. Throw: PERPLEX - Erik has a real talent trying to throw solvers
41. "Why ask why?" beer: BUD DRY - ¯\_(ใ)_/¯ Only in production from 1990 to 2010 when it was losing money. It was brewed using a special fermentation method designed to let the yeast consume more sugars for a "drier" profile, rather than just watering it down. You're welcome.
42. Reached by air: FLEW TO - The Earth is not flat and the shortest distance between two points might take you in what seems to be an odd route on a flat map.
45. "Lust, Caution" director Lee: ANG ¯\_(ใ)_/¯
47. Docking station: PIER ๐
48. 1815 novel set in Highbury: EMMA - A first-edition of this novel that shares my granddaughter's name would run me about $1,700.
49. Support: ABET.
53. Business letters: LLC and 54. Business letters: INC.
14 comments:
It all made sense,
eventually . Though it took me over an hour, I finally solved this knotty puzzle.
FIR, so I’m happy.
This puzzle really showcases Erik’s talent in CW construction, a very impressive 16X15 grid affording a lot of long fill, the stack of five elevens, and two more in the verticals, a couple of twelves, and by my count, sixteen sevens. I thought the cluing was also masterful, (other than the one for DJINN which warrants a nomination for worst of the month, but it would have been ESP no matter the clue). Other DNKs too numerous to mention. I whittled away at it, some friendly perps and a couple correct WAGs, allowed for a FIR w/out help in 26:54. Thank you Erik for the challenge, outstanding work on this one! Also thanks to HG, always look forward to your take on the puzzle, and I always learn things along the way.
Yooper Phil ⬆️⬆️⬆️. Not sure why I’ve become another anonymous ๐คท♂️
Nope, nope, nope. Saw Agard's byline and decided to skip this one.
Forgot to congratulate Sir Michael Caine on his 93rd birthday. One of my favorite TROuPERS.
Insanely good cluing on this one. And the quintuple stack is surprisingly clean.
Most of the difficulty came from sticking with SO LONG instead of SOONER which seemed way too easy. I finished in the SW where I thought for sure that 36D had something to do with the film festival.
Jinx, don’t regret your decision. I wish that I had done the same.
Took 14:15 today to finish after starting from scratch.
I kind of knew the Actress of the Day (Laverne), despite not having seen her work. I knew the blanket toss technique but wasn't sure what it was called. I've not heard "skits" used in that context either.
I struggled in the lower-left, having no idea about "DJ Inn" (hey, that's how I parsed it), the Cannes opener, and thinking the period after "no" represented an abbreviation.
I'm loving the frequency of seeing our beloved National Parks in puzzle. AZ's Saguaro yesterday; NV's Great Basin today. Great Basin is an amazing "dark sky" spot for observing our galactic light show. The park has a big cave for exploring and a mountain with beautiful vistas and a good hike or two. It's called "basin" because the water that falls in that area does not flow out of it.
When I saw the name Agard, I didn't expect to FIR or even finish. And I was right; it was a DNF, but I did get everything above and including SMOKE ALARMS correct. I had no idea about LAVERNE Cox, who Erykah Badu is, or her song is, but TYRONE fit. ISO is a chemical prefix and it was an unknown perp fill today.
My BIONIC BABY didn't get it for the unknown cetacean BEANIE BABY(s).
No way in hell I would have ever filled unknowns BLANKET TOSS, DJINN, LOTIONS for "Ash removers", or BUD DRY. I'm glad I never tasted it or ever heard of it. Yuck.
My SOY bean should have been a PEA.
My non-existent hip-hop (rap) albums had SKIPS, not SKITS.
At least I managed to fill the SE correctly.
I threw WAGS all over this puzzle, even what I thought was outlandish, but ended up being lucky except for the rOOSTER SHOT which meant I messed up the SW. DRY BUD?
I too loved the clue for BONJOUR, as well as SPICES, VILLAIN, SENTENCES. Impressive CW.
Thank you HG for the terrific review. You had your work cut out for you.
That should have been BUD DRY.
FIR. Really tough Saturday puzzle, but not unexpected given the day of the week.
I was making great progress solving this until I got to the SW corner. Nothing made sense mostly because I didn't know Bud Dry. I don't drink so my chances of knowing some beer is slim to none. Somehow I managed to finally finish the corner.
But overall a so-so puzzle.
I enjoyed Erik’s puzzle despite a fair number of complaints and despite the Natick in the SW corner that compromised my FIR. DJINN was an unknown, but the obscure Budweiser category was the actual frustration. I had HRS instead of YRS at the bottom for too long.
Not only did I not recognize the slogan or recognize the existence of BUD DRY, but also, why does every company try to cater to too many tastes? Worse, BUD DRY existed only from 1990 to 2010. And we were expected to be triggered by the unmemorable slogan?
Other than that corner, the puzzle gradually fell into place. OCELOT put me in a positive frame of mind. The Denver BRONCOS, the Jamaican jerk SPICES, SLEEP LABS and Great BASIN all provided traction, and the Highbury clue didn’t throw me off EMMA. I didn’t need many perps for BLANKET TOSS and SMOKE ALARMS, and for some reason LAVERNE Cox seemed right to me before I could prove it. (By the way, the “Friends” actress spells her first name Courteney.) The TEETH metaphor was pretty good. The Cannes/BON JOUR entry grew on me. I’ve tried to like the BOOSTER SHOTS misdirection, but I’m torn.
The CAT TOYS “batter,” the contorted mani-pedi clue for GEL, the specific BEANIE BABIES, the assumption I know Erikah Badu’s songs because I know who she is, the SO LAST MONTH entry, and the jargon of ISO, were all less charming.
But I did pretty well on an AGARD Saturday puzzle, so there is that.
I’m always sympathetic to constructors who are able to ratchet up the difficulty level with creative cluing without resorting to esoteric trivia or being intentionally deceptive, and that is obviously a skill set that Erik has mastered. This one was particularly brutal (borderline unsolvable for mere mortals like myself). I stuck with it, albeit with a cheat here and there, and was able to enjoy the “aha’s” as things gradually came into focus. Nicely done, and evil in a good way.
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