34D: Hands up if you automatically put in TO BE - as in “TO BE or not to be …” - for the “Start of a Hamlet monologue.” Not today! Today, the monologue is “ALAS,.8D: This is a fairly common trick in crossword cluing: “This and this, but not that.” When you see letters in a clue like “F and G, but not H,” think musical scales, or NOTES.You know the answer couldn’t be as easy as “Santa CLAUS.” Today, it’s “Santa MARIA.” On a glass microscope slide, and that could be AMOEBAS. Today, we’re supposed to think about something present “Slide presentations?” suggests something you might see in a meeting, but there are other kinds of slides. 39A: I am a life-long dog companion, and I only just learned from this puzzle that the name FIDO is derived from the Latin for “faithful.” Makes perfect sense to me, and Now I Know.Maybe that was the point, given that it’s Saturday.) Tricky Clues Sitting on a throne, but the wording of the clue made me believe it could have been almost any god or goddess. There were a couple of entries that seemed a bit random to my ears, like NEW IDEA for “Basis of a patent” and HERA for “One sitting on a celestial throne” (HERA is sometimes portrayed as

Have been PESSIMIST, not that I’m bitter). Other entries that caught my eye were RIGHT ANGLE, AEROSOL CAN, PAPER-THIN and DEFEATIST (which also could MEETING, “A HUNGER ARTIST” and PLATELET COUNT are lively and make their own debuts today. I really liked the central staggered stack: All three entries, CHANCE One thing I really like to see in a new constructor’s grid is clean fill, and for the most part, that’s what we’ve got here. Silverstein makes her debut with a very accessible, fun Saturday grid, and it’s alwaysĪ delight to see a female constructor join the themeless, late-week ranks.

SATURDAY PUZZLE - Today we get to welcome Lily Silverstein as a new constructor.

Celestial theme for word 2016