"Now That's a Gift!" - December 24, 2021

[GTIJohnny]

DrTom confirmed to me that I had two thirds of the mechanism correct.

However I could not run it to the finish line and didn't ask for another nudge.

Muggles who missed this one...you're not alone!

[JeanneC]

Noticed the verbs at the beginning but lacked the connection to the present.

Thumbs up to all who managed to get this one!

Right there with you! Glad I saw some of the construction, though. Congrats to the solvers.

[Relic]

Got it despite one incorrect map. I mapped "were" to aCres instead of Care. Thankfully not fatal. I'm glad to know it should have been mapped to Care because the problem with mapping to aCres is that pesky "s" at the end. Oh well, it all worked out.

Thanks for the holiday fun Mike!

[hoover]

I never made it to shore. Got too distracted by NOTNEW/WENTON and the other semiordnilaps: MOOD (doom), SAWPIT (tip was), SPOT (tops), WETS (stew), LEE (eel), EVIAN (naive), SAG (gas). Those made me go looking for reversed words in the starred key entries, and I never climbed back out of that rabbit hole.

[Bird Lives]

[martimeryard]

NOOOOO!
Instead of using the S in SLAY, I used the RE in RELAY. I submitted CAROLER. My fault for not being more diligent!

[mntlblok]

NOOOOO!
Instead of using the S in SLAY, I used the RE in RELAY. I submitted CAROLER. My fault for not being more diligent!

Works for me.

[DianeA]

My first guess for the answer was "PRESENT", thinking it truly was the "gift" from 37A. Could it be that simple (and holiday friendly?)
But those pesky asterisks. When i first converted the verb, was it just to the present tense, or the infinitive? WERE = (to) BE since i had BEBOPS staring me in the face crossed with WEREWOLVES. The final hurdle was LAID and LIE/LAY; i never got those right, but luckily did not get distracted by RELAY. Grammar, gotta love it.

[mntlblok]

I'm jealous of Joe's spreadsheet abilities.

[Ergcat]

My first guess for the answer was "PRESENT", thinking it truly was the "gift" from 37A. Could it be that simple (and holiday friendly?)
But those pesky asterisks. When i first converted the verb, was it just to the present tense, or the infinitive? WERE = (to) BE since i had BEBOPS staring me in the face crossed with WEREWOLVES. The final hurdle was LAID and LIE/LAY; i never got those right, but luckily did not get distracted by RELAY. Grammar, gotta love it.

I, too, was tormented briefly by “laid and lie/lay”… which is correct?? Luckily, it didn’t matter because both yielded the final letter “s” ( from LieS or Slay) for CAROLS.

[Colin]

Kids and granddaughters for the Christmas weekend. Got the grid before they arrived and played with it on and off with no result. Firmly in the excellent care of Isaac all weekend with lots of new games and toys to play with! My wonderful wife dished up a perfect prime rib roast and we were blessed with two bottles of 2005 Margaux (the only ‘100’-scoring Medoc vintage in Wine Spectator’s chart) that were given to us by a good friend years ago!
Belatedly, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and in case I am late again next weekend… have a safe, healthy and happy 2022!

[Jeanrosz]

Anyone else having problems with fleeting image and getting the Monday crossword? Doesn’t want to download ….? Any other way to get across lite?

[Mister Squawk]

Did anyone else find the use of asterisks to identify the theme answers superfluous? In ordinary times, it would have been up to the solver to identify the theme answers (which wouldn't have been difficult, he says glibly).

Do you suppose the asterisks were the gift in the title?

[drbockel2]

Man, I was on to something but couldn't quite flush it out. So close...yet so far!

[Flying_Burrito]

Did anyone else find the use of asterisks to identify the theme answers superfluous? In ordinary times, it would have been up to the solver to identify the theme answers (which wouldn't have been difficult, he says glibly).

Do you suppose the asterisks were the gift in the title?

I suspect that w/out the asterisks 18A (Alit) could have technically been in play as the past tense of Alight.

[MatthewL]

Welp, I saw some of the mechanism, but couldn't put it all together. I saw "present" and figured it had to do with timing, but then I got focused on all the words related to "new" (like neo, nuevo, etc.) and just couldn't get past that. Oh well -- one more attempt left for 2021.

[RussHiggins]

Ok, new rule of thumb: If your mechanism takes up more than 264 cells in your worksheet, you've got the wrong mechanism.

[BrianMac]

Did anyone else find the use of asterisks to identify the theme answers superfluous? In ordinary times, it would have been up to the solver to identify the theme answers (which wouldn't have been difficult, he says glibly).

Do you suppose the asterisks were the gift in the title?

I suspect that w/out the asterisks 18A (Alit) could have technically been in play as the past tense of Alight.

Asterisks are often used when the theme entries are not the longest answers in the grid. In this case, two of the theme entries are only six letters long and there are two other six-letter across entries that are not theme entries, so identifying SAWPIT and WENTON as theme answers would have been difficult without the asterisks.

[BarbaraK]

Anyone else having problems with fleeting image and getting the Monday crossword? Doesn’t want to download ….? Any other way to get across lite?

There was a comment on fiend about a website outage and temporary replacement

https://crosswordfiend.com/2021/12/26/m ... /#comments

[Richard]

My first guess for the answer was "PRESENT", thinking it truly was the "gift" from 37A. Could it be that simple (and holiday friendly?)
But those pesky asterisks.

I too first thought "Present" but then why the asterisks. Without the asterisks I might have submitted "Present."

I thought this was an excellent meta. For me a nice aha moments when I saw the present past tense deal and then the missing letters. And not so difficult that it affected my holiday.