The Fabled Saturday Crossword (New York Times 11/28/2020)

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There's always a sense of apprehension approaching the blank grid of a Saturday NYT crossword puzzle. Much like an excited author about to pen the first words on an empty page, I always feel like I'm ready for whatever the puzzle has to throw at me, only to remember later that I'm dealing with the toughest puzzle of the week. Today, I was either on my A-game, or constructor Nam Jin Yoon threw me a bone by offering up a handful clues that came to mind easily.

 If I'm being honest with myself, it's the latter!

I always start by running through all the clues and only filling in the answers I'm positive (or almost positive) are correct. After a single pass, I had a solid FORTY (27D "Beer purchase in a large bottle, informally) percent filled in. Everyone favorite jolly ol' elf ... SANTA ... made his second appearance of the week at 30D "Air traveler in early winter" while everyone's favorite mutant, 16A "Wolverine, for example" clued me in to ... XMAN. A handful of gimme three-letter answers (SNL at 19A, TOE at 22A, ORC at 32A and OCT at 45A) softened up the vertical clues. The scary half of 23D "One of a pair of investigators" ... BADCOP ...  filled in most of the center of the board, and the south-east corner was an easily fill from 45D "Like some contracts and contraceptives," 46D "Opposite of annex," and 47D "Onetime title of Bulgaria's Simeon II, the last person to use it." ORAL, CEDE, and TSAR respectively.

With the gimme short answers taking me as far as they were going to, I turned my attention to the longer clues. Saturday puzzles have a nasty habit of making their long clues hard at the expense of enjoyment, but this puzzle offered great clueing to go along with satisfying answers across the board. Returning to south-east quadrant, all three long answers were easy to piece together. OVERSHARES at 49A from "Says too much," PINACOLADA at 53A from "Official drink of Puerto Rico," and my favorite clue of the day at 55A "One who passes the bar" which solves to TEETOTALER.

In the middle of the grid, 25A held an unexpected twice-twice, a type of answer I'm used to seeing in early week puzzles but rarely the Saturday. "Them's the rules" solved to FAIRSFAIR. I navigated to the north-west grid last, and I'm glad I did. All three long answers were satisfying to solve, especially with only the scant few letters I had previously solved in that section. The 80's made a comeback at 17A with POWERSUITS. Quotation clues aren't usually my forte in the later puzzles but 15A "Any interest in doing this?" was an easy solve from ?R??????M? to AREYOUGAME. I'm chalking that up to a big-brain moment, but if something told me it was a lucky guess, I couldn't argue! 

The clue that's hitting Instagram today (try to solve it here first before continuing) was the first clue of the puzzle 1A "Move to a later date, say." It was the last answer I filled in after taking a breather to finish the south-east and middle of the puzzle. Solving to TIMETRAVEL, it was both a satisfying answer and a satisfying end to a well constructed puzzle!

Lacking a theme per se, today's puzzle did offer two pairs of clues that went together. Small vertical answers at 49 and 50D, OPT and VIE, were both clued as "Go (for)." And two longer vertical answers both referenced 'fabled beneficiaries' testing the solver's knowledge of fictional characters. 5D "Fabled beneficiary of a nap" solved to TORTOISE referencing his rival the hare's mid-race siesta, and 25D "Fab...ciary of a kiss" solved to FROGPRINCE.

Finally, any puzzle that can squeeze in three sports clues while including three different sports is a good puzzle in my book! Football made the first appearance at 6D "Running backs and defensive ends" which solved to RUSHERS. After a whole day of football on Thanksgiving, I imagine today's solvers were quick to fill it in. 21D tapped the Blue Jays and Raptors, teams from our friends to the north to clue ... TOR ... and 26D went cheeky with "Ones who watch sports for a living?" solving to SCOUTS.

How did today's puzzle treat you? What was your favorite clue or answer? Let me know in the comments and I'll see you tomorrow to cover the Sunday puzzle. Have a great day!

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